My theory is that local stories are constantly deconstructing the official legends. Nike, as a storytelling organization, resorts to spinning dis-information, distortion, and diversion stories, constructed to mimic rigorous, empirical, and valid Academy-science. A Nike-sponsored Amos Tuck study suggests Nike workers can set aside almost half their income, as does the average worker in their Vietnamese study. My reanalysis of this Tuck empiricist wage-tale tells a different story: Nike workers in Vietnam are not only not saving, they are starving. Spin control?

Amos Tuck's Post-Sweat Nike Spin Story

NIKE Commissioned study which seems to indicate that workers in Indonesian and Vietnamese factories are paid well relative to other wage earners in their countries.

NIKE, Inc. Survey of Vietnamese and Indonesian Domestic Expenditure Levels

We’ve all heard the stories criticizing major record label contracts. Anecdotally we understand that many of the deals signed by artists are bad, but what does “bad” mean and just how bad are these deals? More importantly, how exactly are they bad?

...

Then we began preparing this document, which quotes ACTUAL contract language from ACTUAL record label contracts, with care taken to preserve the doublespeak that makes the documents so confusing. Finally, we translated these onerous and confusing contract clauses into PLAIN ENGLISH and paired them with easy-to-understand critiques in the hopes that even those who are completely unfamiliar with the music business can understand the implications that result from signing a standard major label deal. This is a first step and nowhere near the final word in criticizing traditional record contract language.

Future of Music Coalition

This is really great if you have not seen it before.

If Slashdotters made The Matrix

Explanation for why so many computer nerds are completely defective..

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Like a number of other technically elite hackers, Higgs shows characteristics similar to those shown by people with Asperger syndrome. This neurobiological disorder, which may resemble mild autism, has often been misdiagnosed in the past. The condition only made it into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1994.

Like elite-end hackers, many "aspies" are exceptionally skilled in a specialised area. A 2001 University of Cambridge study into the syndrome showed a higher incidence of AS/High-Functioning Autism, which seem to be related, among scientists and mathematicians. Tests of 840 students showed "that mathematicians scored higher than engineers, physical and computer sciences, who scored higher than medicine and biology". The condition is also more common among males and may have a genetic component.

Cracking the hackers' code - smh.com.au

Interesting page about the Al Qeada gassing the dog footage recently "discovered" by CNN.

08/19/02 "WAG THE GASSED DOG" This is the purest war propaganda. One video of what may be Osama bin Laden plus a video of a dog being gassed which could have been created anywhere equals the US sinking to new lows trying to manufacture support for a war nobody but the oil companies want. This dog-video reminds me of Hill & Knowlton's much ballyhooed claim that Iraqi troops were stealing incubators from Kuwait hospitals and leaving premature babies to die on the floor.

WAG THE GASSED DOG

Because some of the most crime-ridden sections of San Francisco are in predominantly black government housing projects, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently decided to make it illegal for Domino's (or any other fast-food deliverer) to refuse to deliver in areas the company believes would put its employees' lives in danger. The new law is the basis of a civil suit by aggrieved pizza consumers who apparently believe they have a constitutional right to pizza delivery.

Life, Liberty, and Pizza Delivery

Kickball Leagues for adults!

Children's game grows up / Adults revive kickball but add a league, picnics and some beer

A really neat collection of word stuff like :

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However, the world's longest acronym according to the Guinness Book of Words is NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT (56 letters, 54 in Cyrillic). Found in the Concise Dictionary of Soviet Terminology, it means: The laboratory for shuttering, reinforcement, concrete and ferroconcrete operations for composite-monolithic and monolithic constructions of the Department of the Technology of Building- assembly operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for building mechanization and technical aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the USSR [Stuart Kidd].
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A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia

Huge book and movie review site by some brothers. Cool.

The Brothers Judd Good Books and Recommended Readings