CNN investigates Foxconn iPad factory conditions, Apple responds:

A new report features a woman who works 60 hours per week assembling iPad components in China, though she has never seen a full iPad in person.

(Via www.appleinsider.com)

I know a lot of American workers in cubicles who work 60 hours a week and haven’t seen the product their company produces. So what’s your point, CNN?

All kidding aside, conditions in China are pretty horrible. But parading out individuals and making it look like a specific Apple issue is a little Reality TV-kitschy, even for CNN. CNN isn’t interested in getting at the truth here; they’re jumping on a bandwagon to get more clicks. This is the problem with journalism in the 21st century. Even our most “trusted” sources like the New York Times, institutions that are supposed to have high standards, follow, rather than lead. They give us what we want to hear, instead of providing us with the facts we need to form legitimate opinions.

Read this, and then this, and then we can have a talk about China. (And keep in mind that Paul Krugman is by anyone’s standards a liberal.)

I’m not saying I agree with everything in those two articles, but it did make me think there’s a lot more to this than just having companies pull out of China, or worse to have us impose American ideals on those cultures.

Like most things in the modern world, this is a complex issue. You can’t boil it down to one company, or assume that any one organization can fix it. But that’s easier, so that’s what we do. Once we push the blame and responsibility onto someone else, we can all feel better about ourselves without having to actually do anything meaningful. As if not buying a new iPhone this year is going to make anyone in China’s life better.

It’s the “Red Velvet” jar that got them into trouble a week later. When they tried to clear security at the Las Vegas airport, the jar got seized for violating the 3-1-1 rule. “This wasn’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill cupcake,” wrote TSA blogger Robert Burns. “Unlike a thin layer of icing that resides on the top of most cupcakes, this cupcake had a thick layer of icing inside a jar.”

via TSA defends cupcake confiscation – CNN.com.

Okay, so it’s the amount of frosting on the cupcake that matters. SO what would be the difference between one cupcake with a lot of frosting, and say, 12 cupcakes with 1/12 of the frosting each?

What if five people brought five individual cupcakes onto the plane? Could the five of those combined not have enough explosive frosting to blow up the plane?

The liquids rule never has and never will make any sense. Any five-year old can figure that out.

The TSA says travelers can bring cakes, pies and cupcakes through the security checkpoint, but should expect that they might get some additional screening.

via TSA defends cupcake confiscation from Mass. woman – Boston.com.

This would be funny if it weren’t so tragically stupid. The fact that most people will read this article and think “Yeah, I guess whatever makes us safer,” is proof that we don’t deserve to continue much longer as a species.

Imagine the possibilities, not just for news consumers but producers. Enhanced spell check for journalists! A suspicious sentence is underlined, offering more factual alternatives. Or maybe Clippy chimes in: “It looks like you’re lying to your readers!” The software could even be extended to email clients to debunk those chain letters from your crazy uncle in Florida.

via Bull beware: Truth goggles sniff out suspicious sentences in news » Nieman Journalism Lab.

I don’t want to rain on this guy’s parade or anything, but the issue here isn’t that politicians lie and journalists often get their facts wrong. It’s that most readers don’t WANT the truth.

These aren’t mistakes that need to be corrected, in other words. The product contains these lies by design.

People who support Michele Bachmann don’t care that every other sentence coming out of her mouth is a complete fabrication, or at the very least, a strong exaggeration of the truth. They want validation for their mistaken beliefs at all costs. Truth is irrelevant. She’s handing them what they want to hear, and that’s far more powerful than the truth.

We’re not educating people here. We’re indoctrinating them.

The only people who want to know about her lies are the people on the Left, who aren’t interested in the truth either, really. They simply want validation for THEIR side of the story.

We all fall victim to this, though some to a larger degree than others.

The time when journalism’s job was to dispossess us of our mistaken beliefs is long gone.  Journalism is big business. They’re selling a product, and ultimately people buy bullshit more than the truth. That’s how it goes.

Politicians know this, which is why they keep spewing out the nonsense, even though they KNOW we have the resources at our fingertips to disprove every word they say. They’re completely comfortable lying about something they said yesterday, even after someone shows them the video of them saying it. Because while there’s always someone on the other side to call them on their lies, the people on their side will never see that. Rachael Maddow could scream her head off all day about Michele Bachmann, but not a single Fox News viewer will ever know. Rush Limbaugh can spend an entire day on a single incorrect statement from President Obama, and no one reading the Nation is going to know.

So while I respect what this guy is doing technologically, thinking it’s going to change anything is sort of silly.

Coffee Time: Market Share vs Profit – journal – minimally minimal.

Have to love his last set of images, comparing Apple’s product line to Samsung’s. Thanks to John Gruber for linking to this.