Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Jon Stewart and Siri Debate Foxconn

Stories about Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturing giant that churns out products for Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and just about everyone else, aren’t new. But there’s been a burst of them in the past few days, spurred in part by news — the company just settled a pay dispute with laborers — and also because of a new “This American Life” piece that reminded the chattering classes about where their favorite gadgets came from.

Something seems to have resonated with Jon Stewart and his “Daily Show” writers, who weighed in yesterday. Note that almost all of the footage they use in this one seems to come from a June 1, 2010, CNN report:

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus