« May 2006 | Main | July 2006 »
June 28, 2006
Stop Big Media
WASHINGTON - A diverse alliance of consumer, civil rights, labor and media reform groups today raised serious concerns about the Federal Communications Commission's latest attempt to change longstanding rules on local media ownership. Urging greater public involvement in the debate over the future of the media, the groups launched a new campaign and Web site Stop Big Media. "For far too long, media policy in this country has been made behind closed doors in the public's name but without our informed consent," said Robert W. McChesney, president of Free Press. "Despite overwhelming public opposition to greater media consolidation from across the entire political spectrum, the FCC and industry lobbyists are trying to sneak through the same misguided rules rejected in 2003. Chairman Kevin Martin appears to have learned little from the last ownership rules debacle. But the public's views are clear: Big Media is already big enough."
Continue reading "Stop Big Media"
Posted by cat at 06:51 PM
June 23, 2006
Christa Michel
Amazing work from Artist Christa Michel done on the knitting machine.
Posted by cat at 02:25 PM
Knit Theory
Hyperbolic space is an unimaginable concept, unless you're a Latvian mathematician who's handy with needle and yarn. By David Samuels Photography By Richard Barnes
DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 03 | March 2006 | Astronomy & Physics
(Thanks Eliel)
Posted by cat at 12:52 PM
June 22, 2006
Knit A River
I Knit is proud to be making a spectacle! Our Knitted River will force world leaders to sit up and listen. The river will travel to all future WaterAid campaigning events and carry the message. Our demands are simple - let the water flow!
Posted by cat at 11:37 PM
Student knits her own Ferrari
Art graduate Lauren Porter knitted a Ferrari sportscar for her honours degree at Bath Spa University.
Posted by cat at 11:26 AM
June 20, 2006
Foxconn denies iPod sweatshop accusations
Apple's promise to investigate "iPod City" allegations wasn't quite the flat-out denial we were expecting for a situation like this, but the accused iPod manufacturer, Foxconn Electronics (aka Hon Hai Precision Industry), was a little more straight forward. Spokesman Edmund Ding stated that there were huge discrepancies between the truth and the claims in the report, and that Foxconn reserves the right to take legal action over the report. A couple notable facts include Ding's claim that Foxconn has a worldwide workforce of about 160,000 -- compared to the 200,000 in one factory claimed by the report. Foxconn's website has also denied them even having a factory in Suzhou, which was mentioned as an "iPod City" in the accusatory article. Ding was also careful to mention that Foxconn abides by the employment law of China for minimum wage, and has been actively making improvements to workers' living conditions with the addition of free laundry service, sports facilities, libraries and other facilities. We're sure we haven't heard the last of the plight of iPod workers, but at least according to their employer it doesn't really sound too terrible.
Originally posted by Evan Blass from Engadget, ReBlogged by cat on Jun 20, 2006 at 11:09 AM
More Evidence of Greed
Not that you would be surprised but...the folks at the Economic Policy Institute show us that "In reality, the distribution of the after-tax gains was stacked heavily in favor of the highest-income taxpayers." Duh. More here.Originally posted by JT from Daily Blog, ReBlogged by cat on Jun 20, 2006 at 11:04 AM
Winners of Kitschy Craft Contest
Posted by cat at 10:31 AM
June 15, 2006
Clean Clothes Campaign covers Adidas Factories
Paiman, shown here with his wife and two children in front of their rented room, works in the Panarub factory which makes football boots for adidas in Indonesia. "My salary is not enough to provide necessitites for my family so I had to take out a loan," he explained. - Photo: M. Revaldi/Oxfam Australia
Posted by cat at 11:19 PM
June 13, 2006
Indie Craft Doc
Faythe Levine & Micaela O'herlihy are making a moive about the new wave of craft. There in Atlanta right now, for current updates, visit their blog
Posted by cat at 07:38 PM
Pirates go Sweat Free?
With the 2006 All Star Game just 50 days away the Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance (PASCA) is in the final phases of preparing for protests at baseball's All Star Game to be held in Pittsburgh on July 11. PASCA is urging the Pittsburgh Pirates to express support for an "academic standard" of sweatshop accountability to attendees at the All Star Game.
Posted by cat at 07:36 PM
Crocheted Tree by Carol Hummel
Content-wise, Hummel's work takes women's craft (knitting) out of the domestic realm and places it into a large-scale public venue of architecture and the groomed landscape. She is interested in the tug-of-war between comfort and confinement as an analogy about life. link
// Thanks Olivia
Posted by cat at 07:27 PM
June 06, 2006
The Worst Bill You've Never Heard Of
AWhiteFlame writes "IPAction.org is reporting on a section of the Reform Act of 2006 that's very shocking and surprisingly not that publicized. From the article: 'This will be a busy week in the House -- Congress goes into summer recess Friday, but not before considering the Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (SIRA). Never heard of SIRA? That's the way Big Copyright and their lackey's want it, and it's bad news for you. Simply put, SIRA fundamentally redefines copyright and fair use in the digital world. It would require all incidental copies of music to be licensed separately from the originating copy. Even copies of songs that are cached in your computer's memory or buffered over a network would need yet another license.'"Originally posted by ScuttleMonkey from Slashdot, ReBlogged by cat on Jun 6, 2006 at 02:12 PM
fabric cabinet
Someone at lab was giving away these 2 sets of cubbies, usually used for class handouts and homework. They immediately screamed "fabric storage" to me. We picked up the screw-on legs at Home Depot. I eventually will stain them, but I was too impatient to get all my fabric out of the shoe-organizer and into the new cabinet. The shoe-organizer is now my yarn stash (previous yarn storage was a cardboard box that the cat liked to sleep in).
Originally posted by maitreya from craftlog, ReBlogged by cat on Jun 6, 2006 at 02:10 PM
Bar code quilt
MAKE Flickr photo pool member Simple Simon posted up a bar code quilt that's accurate enough to scan - Link. Oh, the barcode is for this.
Originally from MAKE Magazine, ReBlogged by cat on Jun 6, 2006 at 02:07 PM
Hacking Machinima: "Read my lips!" the avatar said
Homegirl Sasha discovered a $150 USD Windows-based app "CrazyTalk" which normally would be too creepy to talk about when used on a real life picture. But it works like a charm for making SL avatars come to life, one of the biggest limitations for machinima filmmakers. Watch her first lip-synch'd machinima test she did while videoblogging (videoslogging? heh) about the latest machinima classes put on by Alt-Zoom studios. Glossary: Machinima is a genre of filmmaking using video game engines, (think Red vs. Blue for example)Originally from unmediated, ReBlogged by cat on Jun 6, 2006 at 12:26 PM
Dear Fair Trade Supporter
Yup, despite CAFTA only sliming through by a razor-thin 1-vote margin after a huge fight, the Bush administration is now gearing up to push OFTA-the Oman Free Trade Agreement-through Congress. The deal is word-for-word CAFTA, except where it's worse.
Experts are concerned already. Oman is listed by the U.S. State department for human trafficking. The OFTA would provide special access to U.S. markets for clothes made in sweatshops located in Oman-meaning more indentured workers will be trafficked from Bangladesh, China, and other countries to slave away in Omani sweatshops, and more jobs will be lost here at home. Plus, OFTA provides even more power than NAFTA or CAFTA for multinationals to attack our health and environmental laws.
The Oman FTA could be introduced for a vote at any time, but Congress, with elections just around the corner, does not want to have to vote on more bad trade deals, so we can stop Bush in his tracks if we flood Congress with calls right now!
Not sure who your member of Congress is? Find out here: http://action.citizen.org/getLocal.jsp
Continue reading "Dear Fair Trade Supporter"
Posted by cat at 12:22 PM
Sara bag made with knitPro by Sandra
Posted by cat at 10:23 AM
Czechs win 2006 World Cup! (sort of)
Great news, everyone! There's no need to play out any of the World Cup matches, so tell all 32 countries to go home. Electronic Arts has declared the Czech Republic victorious in their 2006 FIFA World Cup simulation. Led by Golden Ball winner Pavel Nedved (also predicted by EA), the defense-oriented Czechs edged out Brazil 2-1 in a hard-fought battle. If you want to see your country's fate, TeamXbox has all of the [unofficial] results.We still have a few days to contact our bookies before the NBA Finals begin. Maybe NBA Live 06 can give us some tips, just like last year.
Originally posted by Christopher Grant from Joystiq, ReBlogged by cat on Jun 6, 2006 at 10:12 AM
June 01, 2006
Workers' protests in Bangladesh today
CCC was in the midst of preparing a public campaign on the A-one case,
when the news of the extensive protests in Bangladesh, starting May 19,
reached us. A-One is one of the factories that was attacked by the
workers, destroying the canteen and part of the building. We feel it is
important to make it clear that throughout the many months following
their dismissal, despite receiving many threats and being subjected to
outright acts of repression, the dismissed A-one workers maintained a
peaceful and constructive attitude, ready to meet with management, buyer
representatives and others and to provide detailed information and
evidence and they've always stated that they wanted to be reinstated.
This attitude stands in marked contrast to the one of A-One management
and of the EPZ authorities (see below for more details). Today, June
1st, workers reportedly clashed with A-One management during protests in
the zone. See: link
Continue reading "Workers' protests in Bangladesh today"
Posted by cat at 12:41 PM