Saturday, August 11, 2012

Fwd: re: iPhones

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "David Segal" <info@demandprogress.org>
Date: Aug 11, 2012 2:29 PM
Subject: re: iPhones
To: "Lee Nelson" <technologiclee@gmail.com>

Lee,

Please read on: We're partnering with our friends at SumOfUs.org in an effort to hold Apple -- the world's most profitable corporation -- accountable for extraordinary abuses.  If you've already signed this petition, please forward this email to your friends or click here to share on Facebook

Every day, tens of millions of people will swipe the screens of their iPhones to unlock them.

On the other side of the world, a young girl is also swiping those screens.

Six days a week, twelve-plus hours a day, she repetitively swipes tens of thousands of them. She spends those hours inhaling chemicals that are never disclosed to her. For her labor, she makes less than $17 a day[13], is forced to work unpaid overtime, and, when her supervisors want to punish her, she is humiliated and forced to clean toilets.

Sound like a horror story? According to recent reports, scenarios like this are a waking nightmare for many workers in Apple's Chinese supply chain.[1]

Tell Apple: You're the most profitable company in the world.[2] It's time to treat your workers ethically.

Right now we're partnering with corporate accountability group SumOfUs.org because we have a huge opportunity as citizen-consumers: 

Apple is under enormous, sustained pressure to reform its supply chain in the run-up to its new iPhone. 

It even hired the Fair Labor Association (FLA), to inspect its factories, and publicly vowed to reform.[3] But an independent investigation by Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior found that, for many workers things are actually getting worse.[1]  

That's right, after vowing to fix its problems, Apple is turning a blind eye as many workers now report lower wages and forced overtime, along with continued, humiliating punishments by management.

In extreme cases, people have literally been dying while making Apple products. 

Reporters have documented cases of deadly, preventable, explosions at iPad factories, and repeated instances of employees dying of exhaustion after long shifts.[4,5,6]

Tell Apple that it's time to start treating workers like human beings, with safe, legal hours and a living wage.

Can Apple truly reform? Absolutely. Apple is the richest company in the world, posting a record-breaking gross profit margin for the last quarter of 45.7%[7]. 

It's sitting on $110 billion in cash.[8] And while Apple makes hundreds of dollars of profit on each iPhone or iPad it sells, only $8 and $10 (respectively) goes to the workers that make it.[9,10,11] Simply put, Apple could double or even triple the amount it pays to laborers without a serious impact on its bottom line. 

But instead Apple has been paying out its shareholders, and set aside a record-shattering $378 million for its CEO Tim Cook last year. 

That's over $1,000,000 a day, or nearly 60,000 times the salary of the people who make the products that make Tim Cook rich. [12,13]

Why are we targeting Apple specifically? This is a bigger problem than Apple, but no company is in a better position to improve things than Apple: Its record profits and eye-popping cash-on-hand have come off the backs of workers pushed to the brink -- and sometimes beyond -- by its tight deadlines and impossible demands.

In addition, Apple, as the largest customer of Foxconn, is in a unique position to improve the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of human beings. And if Apple actually did mandate changes at Foxconn, it would ripple across the sector to raise wages and improve working conditions for everyone making our electronics in China.

According to an anonymous Apple executive quoted in a major exposé in the New York Times, all Apple has to do is demand change, and it'll happen:

"Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn't have another choice."[4] As a company that prides itself on being an industry leader in the tech world, Apple needs to take the lead in ethical treatment of its workers.

Tell Apple to improve conditions in the factories that make its products in time for the next iPhone to be made ethically.
 
Thanks.
 
-Demand Progress

[1]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/631?t=6&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vMers

[2]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/633?t=9&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[3]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/634?t=11&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[4]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/635?t=13&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[5]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/636?t=15&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[6]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/637?t=17&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[7]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/638?t=19&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[8]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/639?t=21&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[9]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/640?t=23&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[10]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/641?t=25&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[11]http://www.isuppli.com/PublishingImages/Press%20Releases/2011-03-12_iPad2_BOM.png

[12]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/632?t=27&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM

[13]http://act.demandprogress.org/go/642?t=29&akid=1450.1940580.9KV_vM
Paid for by Demand Progress (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.


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Friday, June 8, 2012

CryptoCat Developer Questioned At US-Canadian Border - Slashdot

CryptoCat Developer Questioned At US-Canadian Border - Slashdot

The Feynman Files: The professor's invitation past the Iron Curtain | Muckrock

The Feynman Files: The professor's invitation past the Iron Curtain | Muckrock

After the drama surrounding the Soviet Invitation, the FBI’s involvement with Feynman was reduced until 1958, when the White House requested a routine investigation into his background for consideration for the position of Scientific Advisor to President Eisenhower. Perhaps the investigation was the final straw for the man who had always eschewed red tape and bureaucratic incompetence: Feynman asked to be put on the FBI’s “Do Not Contact” list.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Spacehack

Spacehack

Zambia Donates Five Million Litres of Fuel to Malawi · Global Voices

Zambia Donates Five Million Litres of Fuel to Malawi · Global Voices

Udacity: Udacity in partnership with Pearson VUE announces testing centers

Udacity: Udacity in partnership with Pearson VUE announces testing centers

Fwd: Submit your 99airlines slogan



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Garlin Gilchrist II, MoveOn.org Political Action <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Date: Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 11:51 AM
Subject: Submit your 99airlines slogan
To: Lee Nelson <technologiclee@gmail.com>


99airlines is off the ground, and we need ideas for airplane banners to fly over high-profile Mitt Romney events. Rate, submit, and share an idea today.

Submit Your Idea

Dear MoveOn member,

We just launched 99airlines, our program to fly airplane banners over high-profile Mitt Romney events with messages from the 99%.

And what's the coolest part? You get to decide what the banners say! If you could fly a message over Mitt Romney's head, what would it be?

Will you suggest a short, pithy, memorable phrase for a 99airlines banner? Or check out and rate other people's ideas?

Click here to submit or vote for a 99airlines banner.

Imagine if Mitt Romney and his Super PAC friends had to deal with the sights and sounds of airplanes following them everywhere, reminding Americans how Romney stands for corporations and the 1%. Reporters at the events will film and write about the banners—it'll drive Romney and his corporate backers crazy.

That's why we're taking it to Romney, exposing him as Mr. 1%. Here's the banner we flew over a Romney fundraiser in Boston last week.

99airlines banner flown  over a Boston fundraiser for Mitt Romney on May 24, 2012

We're ready to fly a whole lot more over his high-profile appearances this summer, including fundraisers and a major event with Latino political leaders.

We need you to submit your ideas today. And the highest-rated, most shared, and most timely messages from the 99% will get flown over Romney's head. So get your ideas online today!

Click here to submit or vote for a 99airlines banner.

MoveOn members stepped up and funded 99airlines as a way to combat the Super PAC ads and corporate money that will flood into this year's election. We're transforming Mitt Romney's 1% fundraising tour into an airborne progressive message machine that will be seen by the people at the events and the media covering them.

They've got millions of dollars, but we've got more people and more creativity than they can muster. If you submit your ideas—-and make sure as many people as possible rate and contribute ideas—99airlines can define Mitt Romney and the people he represents in a visible, memorable way.

Click here to submit or vote for a 99airlines banner.

Thanks for all you do.

–Garlin, Elena, Emily, Victoria, and the rest of the team

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 7 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.


PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to Lee Nelson on June 1, 2012. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.



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Network of Homeless Newspapers Tries QR-Code Digital Edition

Network of Homeless Newspapers Tries QR-Code Digital Edition

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Bringing the Biofuel Cooking Stove to Africa : TreeHugger

Bringing the Biofuel Cooking Stove to Africa : TreeHugger

Fwd: When the Knockoff is More Ethical Than the Original



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Daily GOOD <hello@goodinc.com>
Date: Thu, May 31, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Subject: When the Knockoff is More Ethical Than the Original
To: GOOD Readers <technologiclee@gmail.com>


GOOD
 
Your good thing today.
View this newsletter in your browser →
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Ethical Style: How to Buy a More Ethical Knockoff
TODAY'S GOOD



33% copied 33% reworked 33% improved

Modern fashion is a sprint. By the time a designer sends a new style down the runway, it's only a matter of weeks before the trend hits fashion blogs, migrates to high-end boutiques, and is dumped en masse on your nearest knockoff mega-retailer. But the rush to snap up the latest thing doesn't leave much time to consider what we're actually buying.

Now, a more thoughtful fashion outlet is intercepting the cycle. Fashioning Change is a website that helps trendsetters find ethically-produced, eco-friendly alternatives to whatever the big-name brands are selling this week—in less time than it takes to circle the racks at a Forever 21. Just tell Fashioning Change the types of brands and retailers you usually shop at—and the charitable causes you prefer to support—and the site's "Changing Room" will offer more ethical versions of the latest trend from Gucci, Tory Burch, J. Crew, or Guess.

Take peplum—the short overskirt trend that's turned up on the waists of Oscar nominees and fashion models this season. Hit Topshop, and you could spend $68 on a polyester peplum skirt of questionable origin. But head to Fashioning Change, and you'll be invited to consider investing $100 on a better peplum—one made of wax cotton, constructed at a fair wage by seamstresses from Ghana's Dzidefo Women's Cooperative, and produced by Afia, a designer committed to sustainable fashion. The upcharge helps supply eight Ghanaian women with their livelihood, support local fabric production and culture, and encourage the continued innovation and ethical commitment of emerging designers—and provides a cute new skirt for your closet.

When Adriana Herrera launched Fashioning Change last year, she wanted it to be a fashion site first, a vehicle for sustainable change second. "I wish we could stop calling it 'ethical fashion,'" Herrera says—a term that evokes images of strictly unfashionable do-gooders swathed in hemp necklaces and fleece jackets. In reality, Herrera says, "every designer has a point of view"—her site just elevates the best to the top. And while she's strict about the ethical underpinnings of every brand she takes on, she's also keenly aware of the realities of the bottom line. After all, if a product upholds ethical standards at every stage of the production process but fails to capture the consumer's interest, it won't do anyone any good.

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Grow Your Own Garden Chair With Chair Farm : TreeHugger

Grow Your Own Garden Chair With Chair Farm : TreeHugger

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Fwd: [MCM] 3 NATO protesters charged with "terrorism for possession of explosive devices"—i.e., beer-making equipment...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Mark Crispin Miller" <markcrispinmiller@gmail.com>
Date: May 19, 2012 3:01 PM
Subject: [MCM] 3 NATO protesters charged with "terrorism for possession of explosive devices"—i.e., beer-making equipment...
To: <newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com>

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/19/nato-summit-arrests-idUSL1E8GJ1IM20120519

Three anti-NATO protesters face terrorism charges

By Eric Johnson

CHICAGO | Sat May 19, 2012 12:27pm EDT

May 19 (Reuters) - Three anti-NATO protesters arrested in a late-night raid days before start of the 60-nation summit have been charged with terrorism for possession of explosive devices, police and their attorney said on Saturday.

But supporters of the three men arrested Wednesday evening at a residence in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago disputed the charges and said the police had confused beer-making equipment with explosives.

The Chicago Police Department said the men were charged on Friday with conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism, and possession of an explosive incendiary device. They were the only people charged among a group of nine arrested at the same time.

"The charges are utterly ridiculous. CPD doesn't know the difference between home beer-making supplies and Molotov cocktails," said Natalie Wahlberg, a member of the Occupy Chicago movement protesting over income inequality.

The National Lawyers Guild, the group of volunteer lawyers representing the protesters, said police "broke down doors with guns drawn and searched residences without a warrant or consent," according to a statement on the group's Facebook page.

The police department declined to comment on the details of the raid conducted by a special investigation unit.

Thousands of security personnel have been deployed to monitor demonstrations in the week leading up to the two-day NATO summit that starts Sunday. President Barack Obama and representatives from some 60 countries are to discuss the war in Afghanistan and other international security issues.

The three men charged are: Brian Church, 20; Jared Chase, 24; and Brent Vincent Betterly, 24. Church and Betterly are from Florida, and Chase is from New Hampshire, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing a police official.

Police officials would not confirm the men's places of origin to Reuters. A bond hearing for the three charged is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

"NLG attorneys are questioning why it took the city 48 hours, the limit on holding arrestees without a court hearing, to impose such serious charges," the lawyers' group said. "(Police) have provided no evidence of criminal intent or wrongdoing on the part of the activists."

One of the six people released on Friday, Darrin Annussek, 36, said he was handcuffed in a police interrogation room for 18 hours, not allowed to go to the bathroom, and was never questioned. Police have declined to comment on his detention.

Those charged had been surrounded by squad cars outside a pharmacy last week and questioned by police over their plans during NATO, their lawyer said.

On Friday, roughly 2,500 people protested loudly but peacefully, mostly over economic issues, at a downtown Chicago plaza and throughout the surrounding streets.

Police said more than a dozen people have been arrested related to NATO, mostly for trespassing. One man was arrested during the protests after he climbed a bridge tower to rip down a banner advertising the NATO summit, police said. (Reporting by Eric Johnson; Editing byJackie Frank)

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Friday, April 20, 2012

Minimum wage for a representative democracy.

The sign says,

"Put the politicians on minimum wage and watch how fast things change." 

 I say,

"Lets make the deal complete with HUD housing, food stamps and medicare. But no freebies, they have to start at the back of the line at the Department of Health and Human Services and fill out the paperwork like every everyone else. It has to be real so no interns and cell phone service off with overdue bill. Next they take bus to minimum wage job, - That would be representative democracy."

How to Use StumbleUpon for Volunteer Ideas | StumbleUpon.com

How to Use StumbleUpon for Volunteer Ideas | StumbleUpon.com

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Fwd: Air Quality Egg on Kickstarter



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pachube <newsletter@pachube.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 1:26 PM
Subject: Air Quality Egg on Kickstarter
To: technologiclee@gmail.com


Having trouble viewing this email? Click here
Air Quality Egg is live on Kickstarter ! 
You can support the project here.
 
You can also help by spreading the word, forwarding this email, and tweeting the following message:
"
#AirQualityEgg on Kickstarter: Community sensing network giving people
a way to be part of the #airquality conversation 
 
 
#AirQualityEgg: A community-led air quality sensing network that gives people a way to participate in the conversation about air quality.

Where's the data? Look outside your window -- have you ever wondered what the quality of the air is out there? I mean RIGHT. OUT. THERE. 12 inches from your face. If so, you are out of luck. The air quality data collected by the government is likely sampled from far, far away and then applied to you on a regional level, almost completely useless from the standpoint of trying to understand or change the local dynamics of pollution that affect you. Not good. If you're interested in joining a community of people who are going to change that, you are in the right place!

 

What is it?

The Air Quality Egg is a sensor system designed to allow anyone to collect very high resolution readings of NO2 and CO concentrations outside of their home.  These two gases are the most indicative elements related to urban air pollution that are sense-able by inexpensive, DIY sensors.

 

Community

The Air Quality Egg is developed by a community effort, born out of groups from the Internet of Things Meetups in NYC and Amsterdam.  We are designers, technologists, developers, architects, students, and artists.  Read about the history of the development of this project here and here.

The product development conversation, as well as a fair bit of the philosophical arguments, happens in our Google Group.  We also have a wiki.

 

How it works

1) Outdoor sensors:  A small electronic sensing system plug into the wall and sits outside your home taking regular readings.  It has an RF transmitter, which sends the data wirelessly to an Egg-shaped base station inside.

 

2) Egg base station: An Egg-shaped base station, which gives this project its name, receives the wirelessly transmitted data from the sensor box outside.  It then relays that data to the Internet via a wired Ethernet connection.  The Egg also acts as a User Interface, so it also has an LED light and a button.  These are configurable by applications which will be developed in the future by the community.

 

3) Data sent to Internet: The air quality data will be sent in real-time to Pachube, an open data service, which both stores and provides free access to the data.  The service includes embeddable graphs and the ability to generate triggers for tweets and SMS alerts, as well as a robust API which allows for developers in the community to unlock the potential of this new dataset by building mashups, maps, and applications.

 

Where we are now

The Egg's sensor system has been prototyped and refined several times.  The current iteration which will go to production has been designed by Joe Saavedra, building on work from a previous project, Citizensensor.cc.  The wireless system has been designed by WickedDevice, who will also be managing the production of the finished Egg system. 

 

At the Citizen Cyberscience Summit in London in January, we were able to deploy a small number of Egg sensor boxes and saw our first data collection.  We are slowly getting a small run of prototype-level sensor boxes into the hands of beta testers (example: https://pachube.com/feeds/48307).  We are running workshops in London and Amsterdam which will have people building up their own units and bringing them home.

 

How we'll build it

The funding level we are seeking will allow us to achieve the necessary volumes to be able to design and tool custom hardware to bring the price into an affordable range.  

 

Step 1) 3-6 weeks. The current prototype design will be consolidated into a single board by Dirk Swart and Vic Aprea of WickedDevice, who have already done customized volume runs of the Nanode, the open source microcontroller board which provides the platform for the Egg. The Egg enclosure / injection molding will also be developed at this time, based on 3D print runs we've done and will iterate on. A small run of completed test units will be produced in-house to verify the compatibility of the design.

 

Step 2) 5 weeks. Production. The verified designs will go to the same volume manufacturer who has done previous runs of the Nanode board.  A manufacturer for the enclosure will be sourced and contracted at this time.

 

Step 3) 2 weeks.  Assembly/Delivery. 

Total: Up to 13 weeks. Estimated delivery: July.

 

What's next?

Applications: Each Egg that comes online contributes data that, in aggregate, will provide what is essentially an "air quality API". This will be a platform for web developers who want to apply this information in innovative ways via web apps, mobile apps, visualizations, interactive installations, and more. The Egg base station also has the ability to convey information through a colored light and also has a button for user feedback. These elements can be programmed and re-programmed for all kinds of interactions.

 

Mobile: Mobilizing sensors opens up an entire new layer of information for people. Development of a solution that incorporates benefits to the community as well as the individual gets more complicated for various reasons beyond just platform, code, and hardware, but we will work through them. 

 

More info:

Good article discussing the AirQualityEgg's implications for journalism by @javaun

.


  

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