Shiny and Noteworthy Link Dumping

Clearing out the tabs in Firefox:

• [China/Manufacturing] Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector (Washington Monthly, h/t All Roads Lead to China). Interesting observations on factories, but from what I've seen, the environment has improved considerably in many of the newer factories we visit.
  
• [China] Private Equity & Venture Capital in China (Seeking Alpha, h/t China Law Blog). Discussion of growth of industry including how investment focus has been changing because of a variety of macro economic influences including VAT rebates and currency appreciation.
• [China] China vs Mother Nature - links from Freakonomics to China's coming fight against both rain and pollution. They've employed 54,000 people in the fight against Nature.
• [Politics] Quote of the Day: "What the government gives, it must first take away" John S Coleman. People should remember this whenever they find themselves starting to say the words "the government should..."
• [Entrepreneurship] Presentation by the guy who developed the Ruby on Rails framework about what it takes to create a profitable online startup (Presentation Zen).
• [HR] Fire the workaholics? (37signals) Disclosure: I'm a workaholic - or at least I aspire to be. But I think the article picks up a few important points - workaholics don't necessarily get more done because they don't necessarily focus on the details that matter (just because you spend more hours at work doesn't necessarily mean you're a workaholic either - at least that would be my experience in i-banking where there was value to us sitting around and waiting for work to be passed down. [Aha! On the other hand... read this - In praise of Workaholics (MartyNemko.com)]
• [Insanity/Technology/Politics] Apparently slowing down the internet would reduce its carbon footprint (New Scientist). It's like they want me to be apoplectic but I guess it goes along with my poor or dead theory. I'm wondering how well that will go over with the gaming crowd.
  
• [Marketing/Sales] Closing the deal (Redeye VC). "The way that you ask can either increase or decrease the odds of a successful outcome." As per usual, blame the lawyers when buyers shy away.
• [Entrepreneurship] 13 Tips for creating a successful new online product (Inter-sections.net).
• [HR/Innovation] Becoming a Creature of New Habits (NYT). Keep learning. If you stop, you might not be able to start again.
  
• [Innovation] TechShop (Core77): "public, subscription-based machine shop and fabrication studio that actively encourages the mechanically curious to get their hands dirty and start making things". I'm glad to see that it's a concept that is catching on. It's about the idea after all. I'm just glad I'm not the one that's paying the liability insurance.
• [Innovation/Manufacturing] The open secret of success (MSNBC). Basically makes the argument that Toyota's success is the result of sustained incremental process innovation.