Where Computers Go To Die

Ever wonder where that bulky PC you got rid of ended up when you bought the laptop? From the time it left your desk and was donated, it has changed many hands and logged many miles. Its final destination was most likely on another continent in a dump where some of the world's poorest people dissected it for the precious metals inside. We recently saw this sobering photo essay by Pieter Hugo titled "A Global Graveyard for Dead Computers in Ghana" during our research for the TWM hotspot scene.  

The majority of the e-waste comes from the U.S. and Europe, where it is exported to developing countries. At the end of the line, people scavenge dumps to recover components with great risk to their health simply to survive. Hard drives are sometimes sold to gangs who mine them for info such as Social Security numbers and credit card information. These are visuals for the setting of a post-apocalyptic movie, but sadly, it's a reality today in the Third World.

National Geographic also did an article titled "High Tech Trash" in 2008 with images of the staggering number of electronics that have become disposable. It's a horrific problem with no quick, easy answer. Programs like E-Stewards are trying to put a stop to these exploitative practices but it will take much more for consumers to stem the tide of forgotten gadgetry.

Yasmin Gate "Go On Remix" Video

Keith Ruggiero, our mega-talented ally in sound design and music composition for Things We've Made, just finished a remix for Yasmin Gate under the Le Rouge moniker. Titled "Go On," the song is a sparkly dance track depicted in this video with candy-colored lights and star-filtered dancers. Keith also directed the video with Charles Roxburgh. Take a look and listen...

Discovery Magazine Finds Cloning Has Terrible Trade-offs

The UK beef scare in the news is admittedly worrisome, but many forget that cloning does take place naturally in species. The aspen tree, for example, can reproduce by growing clones of itself. Discovery magazine talks about a recent study of the species that have remarkably created "large stands of trees of more than 100 acres that are essentially the same tree grown over and over again. Some aspens may have used this tactic to survive up to a million years..."

With this ability to duplicate itself over and over again, these trees do experience fundamental changes in the DNA.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage is mutations, or genetic errors, that gradually and steadily build up in the genetic material of the plants' cells. "The longer you clone yourself the more mutations you build up," California State University, San Diego biologist Dilara Ally explained.

Read the full article here.

More Experimenting Thru the FIND Screenwriting Lab

Just wanted to report that Things We've Made has been accepted into Film Independent's 2010 Screenwriters Lab. For an intense five weeks lab mentor Meg LeFauve will tear apart the latest draft of my script! Meg produced The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, which I'm a big fan of. I'm looking forward to fine tuning some more even though I'm really happy with where the script is at. 

I'm off to Austin tomorrow for some location scouting and meetings. We'll be looking at an e-waste recycling center, laboratories and some other fun stuff. 

I'll call you when I get back. 

Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze Team Up on Sci-Fi Short

Pitchfork did an interview today with Arcade Fire's lead man Win Butler, where he mentions working with Spike Jonze on a sci-fi project inspired by their latest album, "The Suburbs." He explains:

Basically, we played Spike some music from the album and the first images that came to his mind had the same feeling as this idea for a science fiction film I had when I was younger. My brother and I and Spike wrote it together, which was really fun-- it was like total amateur hour. We shot it in Austin and a lot of kids are in the film, and it was great just hanging out with these 15-year-olds for a week and writing down all the funny things they said. It was cool to revert to being a 15-year-old for a little while.

You can listen to the album here, courtesy of NPR.

Alarm Spreads in UK over Cloned Beef

Carlos Lujan for the International Herald Tribune

Several outlets have reported outrage in the UK over news that meat from the offspring of a cloned cow had been sold to consumers. The cause for concern does not seem to be the safety of the meat itself, but how this "slipped through the cracks" in a country where this is illegal.

Here in the US, these products have been legal since 2008 without any labels distinguishing cloned strains. But in Britain, where mad cow disease is still fresh in the public's mind -- many fear allowing this will open a Pandora's box of genetically modified organisms for consumption and other uses.


Read the BBC article about the discovery here: 

Meat of second cloned cow offspring 'in UK food chain'