If you would seek proof of that famous Margaret Mead adage: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has,” look at what’s happening as more and more people protest Apple Inc.’s labor practices in China.

Take it one step further: if you should ever doubt the impact a solitary artist can have against injustice, meet Mike Daisey.

Daisey is a monologist, a creator of one-man shows, whose performance piece “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” has jolted audiences into action as he parallels the obsessions of Jobs, the recently deceased former CEO of Apple; our consumer-driven lust for iPods, iPhones, and iPads and the human toll taken by their manufacture.

Apple – like virtually every other electronics manufacturer – subcontracts much of the work that goes into building its devices to companies in Asia. One of them, Foxconn Technology, is the largest private employer in China. Its factories there and in other parts of the world put together approximately 40 percent of all the consumer electronics devices on the planet. Their largest facility, Foxconn City, is in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, and employs nearly a quarter of a million workers.

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While early Macs were boxier and more primitive than their hyper-evolved modern counterparts, good design -- on-screen and off -- has always been central to the Apple mystique. That's where Susan Kare, the artist who invented many of Mac's most enduring symbols, comes in. Kare is the architect of early Apple iconography -- the designer who brought us, among so many other recognizable signs, the wristwatch waiting icon and the command key symbol (based on a symbol used on Swedish maps).

A new, self-published book (available online) shows off some of Kare's most recognizable work (including more recent projects, like Facebook's popular digital "gifts") -- and resurrects other designs that have been phased out of Apple computers' virtual image lexicon. Over email, Kare answered some of our questions; the following slide show offers highlights from her portfolio (with captions adapted from her book).

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How would you like to be remembered, in the hands of a skillful wordsmith? "Rich and famous," as Jobs already was by the time Simpson met her long-lost sibling in 1985?  Those are certainly words most of us grow up dreaming will someday be applied to our names. And "handsome" -- what man wouldn't love that? But rather than reeling off a list of Jobs' already well-documented successes, Simpson instead turns her eulogy into a celebration of not just a life well lived, but a death well done.

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How appropriate! One of the great mysteries of Steve Jobs is the question of how a man so sincere in his commitment to Zen Buddhism and Eastern spirituality could at the same time be such a flaming asshole. If there's one thing that comes shining through in Isaacson's warts-and-all biography, it's Jobs' consistent tendency to act like a jerk; to make his friends, employees and family miserable with his insults and put-downs. His tantrums, manipulations and lies (or "reality distortions") are the stuff of legend. But by golly, he also dedicated himself obsessively to cultivating the perfection and purity of his inner spirit. Uh, how exactly does that compute?

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Yet the rush to Monday-morning quarterback his healthcare choices has been on ever since the Apple founder died earlier this month. In a lengthy – and much circulated -- post on Quora, Harvard research fellow Ramzi Amri flat-out declared that, "Given the circumstances, it seems sound to assume that Mr. Jobs' choice for alternative medicine has eventually led to an unnecessarily early death." And now, in a new biography, author Walter Isaacson says that Jobs' odyssey of "fruit juices, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments — some of which he found on the Internet" – exasperated his loved ones and left Jobs himself rueful. "He wanted to talk about it, how he regretted it," Isaacson tells "60 Minutes" this weekend. "I think he felt he should have been operated on sooner."

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First, it gives people who have something to say an unprecedented audience that’s both instantaneous and quintessentially democratic. The eulogy is no longer the preserve of the great and the good. Online, anyone can be a broadcaster, a commentator or a curator of news and information.

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Apple announced his death without giving a specific cause.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," the company said in a brief statement.

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve"

Jobs had battled cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant in 2009 after taking a leave of absence for unspecified health problems. He took another leave of absence in January -- his third since his health problems began -- before resigning as CEO six weeks ago. Jobs became Apple's chairman and handed the CEO job over to his hand-picked successor, Tim Cook.

The news Apple fans and shareholders had been dreading came the day after Apple unveiled its latest version of the iPhone, just one in a procession of devices that shaped technology and society while Jobs was running the company.

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And that's what's so amazing about the Steve Jobs story. It's easy enough to rhapsodize over Jobs' incredible track record -- his accomplishments include the first great personal computer, the transformation of both the music and the telephone business, and the creation of one of the greatest movie-making studios of our time. Just writing that sentence is breathtaking. We will not see its like again. But for me, Jobs' career signifies something more primal -- his comeback saga is a story of redemption, a fantasy epic in which a great king is toppled, but through force of will and grit and brilliance fights his way all the way back to the throne, and inaugurates an even greater empire. It's hard to think of parallels. Mohammed Ali, maybe.

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The company said Wednesday that Jobs will be replaced by Tim Cook, who was the company's chief operating officer.

It said Jobs has been elected as Apple's chairman.

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He's the anchor baby of an activist Arab muslim who came to the U.S. on a student visa and had a child out of wedlock. He's a non-Christian, arugula-eating, drug-using follower of unabashedly old-fashioned liberal teachings from the hippies and folk music stars of the 60s. And he believes in science, in things that science can demonstrate like climate change and Pi having a value more specific than "3", and in extending responsible benefits to his employees while encouraging his company to lead by being environmentally responsible.

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"Angry Birds isn't a video game," I replied. "You only play it on your phone or iPad."

On a more fundamental level, though, I don't believe that one "likes" or "dislikes" Angry Birds. It's more like the drug Substance D in Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly": you've either tried it, or you haven't. If you've played Angry Birds once, chances are you own the game and your friends have to hide your phone from you so that you'll make eye contact with them during conversation. Perhaps you even wrote a fan fiction about the iOS game. If you haven't played it, you don't understand what's so fun about throwing birds at pigs. So let's be clear: It's not fun playing Angry Birds. You just have to.

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From Bloomberg:

Consumer PC shipments dropped 8 percent in the quarter, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said. Netbooks -- the cheap laptops that became popular during the recession -- plunged 40 percent, partially because of defections to tablet computers, he said.

When Steve Jobs debuted the iPad 15 months ago, critical appraisals were all over the map, from effusive to dismissive, but I don't think even the most gaga fanboy predicted that in little more than year the tablet would have meaningfully reshaped the entire personal computing industry.

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Can you identify the attendees in this holidays-style raise-your-glass-and-smile photo?

Here's a cheat sheet of some of the attendees:

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Obama wants to spend more on education despite his call for a five-year freeze on other government spending. He says an educated work force will attract jobs and help the U.S. compete with the rest of the world. The budget proposal he unveiled this week seeks $13 billion more for education.

His visits Thursday and Friday to politically friendly areas on the West Coast are partly designed to spotlight his focus on education and prod Republicans to support the higher spending.

Republicans are pursuing steep spending cuts instead.

With the trip, Obama is also trying to burnish his image as a leader who is listening to the ideas of innovators and who, while faced with a tough budget environment, isn't afraid to push for spending increases in areas such as education and clean energy that he thinks will create lasting, forward-looking jobs.

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"God look at that!  Look!  I'm on television," says the giddy 23-year old.  

It is endearing, to say the least, to witness the technology mastermind get sick at the thought of his face on television.  

"You need to tell me where the restroom is too because I'm deathly ill actually and ready to throw up at any moment, so..."

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However, news of the company's monster success, accredited largely to holiday sales of the iPhone4, iPad and Macs, was overshadowed by the disclosure that the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, is taking medical leave.

Jobs has suffered pancreatic cancer in the past and took six months off in 2009 when he underwent a liver transplant. He has provided no timeline of when he'll be back to Apple, if at all. Apple's COO Tim Cook will take over the day-to-day operations of the company.

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But Jobs' prescience is a rarity, which is why doubt and anxiety will probably hang over the company until his fate is clearer.

The iPod-iPhone-iPad revolution that Jobs unleashed over the past decade should ensure that Apple's revenue and earnings keep growing for at least the next two to three years, according to analysts. What's more, Jobs has assembled and trained a savvy, hard-driving management team that should be capable of following his road map for the company.

The question is whether Apple can remain a step ahead and develop products that reshape technology, media and pop culture if Jobs isn't around to divine the next big thing.

Without Jobs, "Apple is a lot more like other companies. Its extraordinariness fades," says technology analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

Apple Inc. announced Monday that Jobs, who co-founded the company in 1976, would take an indefinite medical leave for unspecified problems. The leave could be related to his previous bout with pancreatic cancer or his 2009 liver transplant.

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Team,

At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.

Steve

The co-founder and CEO of Apple has struggled with health issues for the past couple of years and received a liver transplant in 2009.

After the announcement, the price of Apple's stock fell immediately.

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