Quote

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot’s prison letters to Slavoj Žižek | Music | The Guardian

The anti-hierarchical structures and rhizomes of late capitalism are its successful ad campaign. Modern capitalism has to manifest itself as flexible and even eccentric. Everything is geared towards gripping the emotion of the consumer. Modern capitalism seeks to assure us that it operates according to the principles of free creativity, endless development and diversity. It glosses over its other side in order to hide the reality that millions of people are enslaved by an all-powerful and fantastically stable norm of production.

via Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot’s prison letters to Slavoj Žižek | Music | The Guardian.

Making Programming Meaningful

Certainly, we can introduce computer science without programming. Certainly, computer science is more than just programming. But computer science certainly includes programming, and programming is a critical part of the passion, beauty, joy, awe, and art of computer science. We have to engage with the hard part of broadening participation in computing, by introducing programming. We have to develop the design processes so we can figure out how to introduce programming to a broader audience; we have to develop performances that recruit and engage students; and we have to be free to change programming so that it is meaningful and has a chance to induce passion.

Mark Guzdial (Georgia Tech): Making Programming Meaningful to Induce Passion for Broadening Computing, Future Directions in CS Ed Summit.

The truth about selling vinyl; independents react to Amazon’s 745% rise in record sales – The Vinyl Factory

While the price war on the high street in the 90’s forced many smaller UK retailers out of business, the fatal blow was dealt the following decade by a tax loophole called Low Value Consignment Relief, which annulled the VAT on any product worth less than £18 if it was shipped from the Channel Islands. Alongside supermarkets selling CDs as checkout loss-leaders, Amazon’s Channel Islands operation suffocated the market and, unable to compete on price, selection or distribution, hundreds of record shops were forced to close.

via The truth about selling vinyl; independents react to Amazon’s 745% rise in record sales – The Vinyl Factory.