Kenosha News

“A documentary film by Jack Oatmon ( http://twitter.com/jackoatmon ).

A look into the hardware hacking community in Montreal, including the Foulab collective. Why are more and more hobbyists experimenting with hacks and circuit bends? What relationship does this imply about consumer society and technological advancement? Is this a real-world analog of ‘user generated content’?

Check out the lab: http://foulab.org/

Check out more music by XC3N: http://www.last.fm/music/XC3N“

Related posts:

1. New York City Hackers ...


2. Chariots Of The Gods, Classic 1970 Documentary Based On Von Daniken’s Book Of The Same Name ** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ...


3. The Joseph Newman ‘Energy Machine’, Turning Matter Into Energy ...

What's the administration's specific aim in bailing out GM? I'll give you my theory later.

For now, though, some background. First and most broadly, it doesn't make sense for America to try to maintain or enlarge manufacturing as a portion of the economy. Even if the U.S. were to seal its borders and bar any manufactured goods from coming in from abroad -- something I don't recommend -- we'd still be losing manufacturing jobs. That's mainly because of technology.

When we think of manufacturing jobs, we tend to imagine old-time assembly lines populated by millions of blue-collar workers who had well-paying jobs with good benefits. But that picture no longer describes most manufacturing. I recently toured a U.S. factory containing two employees and 400 computerized robots. The two live people sat in front of computer screens and instructed the robots. In a few years this factory won't have a single employee on site, except for an occasional visiting technician who repairs and upgrades the robots.

Factory jobs are vanishing all over the world. Even China is losing them. The Chinese are doing more manufacturing than ever, but they're also becoming far more efficient at it. They've shuttered most of the old state-run factories. Their new factories are chock full of automated and computerized machines. As a result, they don't need as many manufacturing workers as before.

Economists at Alliance Capital Management took a look at employment trends in 20 large economies and found that between 1995 and 2002 -- before the asset bubble and subsequent bust -- 22 million manufacturing jobs disappeared. The U.S. wasn't even the biggest loser. We lost about 11 percent of our manufacturing jobs in that period, but the Japanese lost 16 percent of theirs. Even developing nations lost factory jobs: Brazil suffered a 20 percent decline, and China had a 15 percent drop.

What happened to manufacturing? In two words, higher productivity. As productivity rises, employment falls because fewer people are needed. In this, manufacturing is following the same trend as agriculture. A century ago, almost 30 percent of adult Americans worked on a farm. Nowadays, fewer than 5 percent do. That doesn't mean the U.S. failed at agriculture. Quite the opposite. American agriculture is a huge success story. America can generate far larger crops than a century ago with far fewer people. New technologies, more efficient machines, new methods of fertilizing, better systems of crop rotation, and efficiencies of large scale have all made farming much more productive.

Manufacturing is analogous. In America and elsewhere around the world, it's a success. Since 1995, even as manufacturing employment has dropped around the world, global industrial output has risen more than 30 percent.

More after the jump.

--Robert Reich

MORE...

Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog studies Sotomayor's abortion rulings:

Barack Obama's radical cousin Prime Minister Raila Odinga of Kenya held meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this weekend.

Capital News reported:

Kenya and Iran have agreed to establish Specialised Working Groups to accelerate the implementation of signed agreements and memoranda of understanding between the two countries.

These include Economic, Trade and Banking Co-operation, Agricultural and Educational Cooperation, Energy, Oil and Industry Cooperation; and Political, Cultural, Health and Housing Cooperation.

The two countries also underscored the importance of expanding economic, political, cultural and international ties and welcomed the exchange of high-ranking delegations.

The resolutions are part of a joint communiqu? signed by Kenya and Iran to further consolidate and strengthen relations between the two countries. The first vice-president Dr Parviz Davoudi signed on behalf of Iran while Prime Minister Raila Odinga committed Kenya.

Mr Odinga concluded his two-day official visit in Tehran by holding talks with the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In the meeting, Odinga referred to Ahmadinejad's recent visit to Kenya in February, terming it a new chapter in the two countries' relations.

In 2006 Barack Obama took a trip to Kenya at US taxpayer's expense.
While visiting Kenya as a guest of the government Obama campaigned with opposition leader socialist Raila Odinga, who also happens to be his cousin (says Odinga):

Odinga's party lost the 2007 election in Kenya.
His party claimed the election was rigged in favour of President Mwai Kibaki.

Odinga's thugs then went on a rampage killing hundreds of Kenyans and burning churches. At least 600 people died in rioting after the election and 250,000 were displaced. Odinga was accused of ethnic cleansing during the clashes.

Atlas has more on Odinga's trip.