The most downloaded show in PRS history is called Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory, and is very timely with Apple posting record profits and giving 60 million dollars in stock options to its top 6 executives, and the President of USA's state of the union address where he says its time jobs were brought back to America.

The US president is correct not only because Americans desperately need jobs (we Canadians do too) but because companies like Apple are making these record profits on the backs of human beings treated so horribly that no one in the USA or Canada would even contemplate such working conditions, which are more like a horror/sci-fi film than any experience we in North America would consider real. Plants that hold 400,000 plus people, 30hr long shifts, no rotation of manual labour so hands are quickly ruined permanently, sitting and talking are not allowed, employees as young as 12, complaints are handled by black lists that are put out by the ministry of labour insuring anyone who complains will not be able to find employment elsewhere, suicide nets......its seems surreal, but it is reality for the people that made your iPhone and do not have the pleasure of owning one themselves.

In all fairness its not just Apple, but all cheap electronics that we enjoy and throw away when the next must-have gadget gets released. And I am guilty of owning these products too.

For those interested and who listened to that radio segment (I defy anyone to listen to it and not cry) here is a petition demanding an ethical iPhone 5.

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/ethical-iphone/

Please consider signing the petition. Ultimately the power does rest with the consumer.

What is extremely disturbing to me is that Foxconn is opening up another plant in Brazil.........

I will never be able to hold another piece of technology in my own hands without stopping to think whose hands put this together, because as Mr Daisey points out I was one of those people who copy/pasted an image of tiny robots (like a Japanese car plant) putting together my iPod never considering or even asking for the truth of how it was made.

I personally would happily pay a $100 bux or more for an item say manufactured in the USA or Canada so that I could be certain the product was not produced so horrifically. I think most tech lovers would.

Thank you Mr Daisey for opening my eyes, we do need to know, no matter how awful and ugly the reality of the manufacturing of our beloved tech is.

I was shocked and saddened to learn through the Facebook group that Jamie Ray-Smith known through the blogging world as TNChick and the founder of the original Photo Hunters lost her Dad on January 24th to a brutal murder. My thoughts and prayers are with Jamie and her family. I cannot imagine what they are going through.

Among the brush, and the twigs, holding her seed filled hand out, as still and flat as possible, a wee bird says hello to the kiddo.

Happy Photo Hunting. And thank you for stopping by.

Upcoming Themes For Gattina's Saturday Photo Hunting

February

11 vintage
18 circles
25 old

Upcoming Saturday PhotoHunt Themes:

February

11th ~ Heart
18th ~ Point
25th ~ Loud

I have to admit something from the get go, I have never seen a single episode of Jersey Shore. I do not subscribe to cable, and even when I did I was not a fan of most of the realty tv show genre. The plethora of realty tv shows that dominate cable, in part, is why we finally decided to get rid of cable, 200+ channels and never anything to watch.

Yesterday during a Facebook convo Snooki came up in passing, and a friend of ours had no idea who she was or why she was being referenced in an obvious negative way. This got me to thinking, I have not seen her show, my own kids are not fans, I do not really follow celeb gossip sites, and I have not read her book, yet I do know of her, at least in a very cursory way. And what I do know of Snooki tends to be either wrapped up in snark or downright negative.

So perhaps out of boredom or because I genuinely wanted to know more about her (I lean heavily towards the former) I did a bit of research last night.

Before becoming a realty tv personality Nicole Polizzi aka Snooki studied veterinary care at a local college. Apparently her break came when she was spotted on an episode of Is She Really Going Out with Him? by the casting directors of Jersey Shore. In 2009 she was considered the breakaway star of the show apparently upstaging the rest.

So how much of Nicole is really Snooki or vice versa. How much of the Snooki persona is real? Intelligent tv viewers know to take all of these "realty" tv shows with a grain of salt. I once heard it put best by a former paranormal realty tv personalty who said, the only difference between what he did and an actor is that he played "himself" or at best a caricature of himself. I'm willing to bet this is most likely true of Snooki as well.

Yes, I know she has been arrested, and in the process grabbed many more headlines and got compared publicly by a judge no less to Lindsay Lohan. How many Hollywood celebs in the past got tons of publicity out of minor violations, and charges that left one wondering whether it was all just to grab some headlines. In the land of la la isn't it all about having them spell your name right?

The truth is that most likely only Nicole's closest family and friends know how much of Snooki the realty tv personality is just a put on vs Nicole herself.

Her character may be distasteful or off putting to some, and it is highly doubtful she'll be remembered for her brilliance, she is very young though so I wouldn't completely count her out at this point. However with that said, in a country which is seeing mass foreclosures and bankruptcy Nicole was paid $32,000 for an hour lecture at Rutgers University. The money she was paid for appearing on WWE with Trish Stratus (hometown gal) was more than many Americans will see in a year including veterinary technicians. And while I would personally not want to be on her life's path, as I sit here getting ready to prepare my bi-monthly grocery budget it is hard to completely fault her particularly as she really isn't harming anyone, and the only thing she is perhaps exploiting is herself.

Image Source: Wiki Creative Commons Licence

Wordless Wednesday

What a great day this has turned out to have been. Firstly after my morning coffee I had the pleasant surprise of receiving a package in the mail from a friend who recently left Canada to conduct research in Bali. This will help me out greatly with my own research. Thanks so much Chris and Kris you guys rawk!

Then.....

Last week the girls gave me a salon gift certificate for my birthday and today I had a lovely morning getting my hair makeover. The end result is a fun new cut, honey blond hair, and foil highlights. Thanks so much Salon 96! PLUS I found a pair of great fitting jeans!

Throw in sunshine and very warm temps and was an awesome day!

I came across this book at a local garage sale a few years back, and with a title like "The Miseries of Human Life" and a price tag of 50 cents I naturally could not resist adding it to my collection.

Although this book was written over two hundred years ago, many of the "miseries of human life" that are listed by the original author James Beresford are still very much relevant today.

While it is true that many of the books written during the 19th century could be viewed as stuffy or overly long by the modern day reader's tastes, I can assure you that this one is genuinely funny, and does give an interesting peak into life during that era, and how in some ways how little has really changed in regards to the human condition.

Feeling a little miserable myself today, but I'm putting that down to the very strange weather we've been having, and a head cold that keeps threatening to become nastier then it currently is.

I love looking through vintage pics like this one taken in London England, circa 1900. And I like to wonder what became of these people? They are so very young in this photo, and yet they have lived out their entire lives.

And what I wonder what was so interesting down there? I believe they would have been looking down into the Thames.

Image Credit: BBC Archives