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Corporate Fallout Detector
BandwidthHog writes "MIT student shows off Corporate Fallout Detector. Acts and looks kinda like a Geiger counter, but it's a UPC scanner with an internal, updateable database of corporate misdeeds, with both Pollution and Corporate Ethics modes. I want one."
While this kid makes a funny point, one thing that's missing is the fact that a UPC barcode only links to the manufacturer or wholesale distributor of the finished good. Taking the trail back into the supply chain to contract manufacturers and raw materials suppliers would probably yield more enviro-nastiness than you'd find in consumer-oriented companies.
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I bet it would beep and buzz at nearly every single product out there. Someone, somewhere, considers just about any product you can name un-ethical, and they are PISSED about it.
Any company that uses meat of any kind would be on PETAs list, all energy companies would be on the list, any company that uses plastics would be on the list (evil petroleum used to make plastics, you know), and the lists go on and on.
Which countries have been forced to switch to ipv6? and by whom? Not to mention are those countries doling out their IP numbers any better than the guys that gave MIT a class A
This need to be designed using stealth technology. Stores can and do restrict behavior on their premises (it's private property). They won't allow behavior that they believe is not in their best interests. So if you are going to design products for today's brave new world, you are going to have to avoid unwarranted assumptions like free speech, individual rights, etc...
A coworker and I were just talking about this sort of concept not a few days ago. I brought up the fact that the founder of Domino's Pizza (as opposed to the Domino's corporation itself, which is not true), has made significant contributions to Operation Rescue, which is pretty hard-line against reproductive and gay rights.
He mentioned "what if there was a tool..." basically exactly like this -- scan a barcode, and find out if purchasing that item could potentially result in money moving to organizations that you don't support.
Even if it's a small concept, I honestly wish such a device went further, even if only as a demonstration piece -- take it into someone's kitchen and see what social issues are represented by the food in their pantry.
The gave it up while I was there because "it was the right thing to do." Seriously, a university doesn't really need that right now. IBM on the other hand...
Lasers Controlled Games!
You get your money from a machine. Machines dispense your cola. Machines count your money, pay your bills, and gently remind you that your ass is due in a meeting 15 minutes from now.
In the Tao Te Ching, Loa Tzu refers to the idea ruler as follows:
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Do some homework. The P.T. Nikomas Gemilang factory in Indonesia, which makes a large portion of Nike's shoes, pays its workers well below the poverty line for that country. Workers at that factory have to leave their homes and live alone in low-rent housing because they can hardly afford to feed themselves, let alone take care of a family. In this case Nike's practices are despicable in the context of the local economy.
The first response I hear to a statement like this is: "Should Nike just pull out then, and leave all those people unemployed and starving?" No, of course not. But that doesn't mean i like to see a wealthy american corporation exploiting the poorest of the poor. I will vote with my dollars by not buying their shoes, spread the word, and hope that other moral people can overcome the ocean of advertising in front of them and do the same.
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde