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"New research suggests that streaming is boosting vinyl sales - but a lot of records being bought aren't actually getting played. "

"New research suggests that streaming is boosting vinyl sales - but a lot of records being bought aren't actually getting played. "

"from the free-culture-matters dept We're back again with another in our weekly reading list posts of books we think our community will find interesting and thought provoking. Once again, buying the book via the Amazon links in this story also helps support Techdirt. "

"from the free-culture-matters dept We're back again with another in our weekly reading list posts of books we think our community will find interesting and thought provoking. Once again, buying the book via the Amazon links in this story also helps support Techdirt. "

"It's nice to think that we behave rationally, making calculated decisions about what to do, buy, and eat. Study after study shows that this isn't the case, however. We're not Spock-like creatures in an economist's dreamworld. You probably know from your own trips to the grocery store that picking out a snack involves much more than a calculated selection of something caloric and palatable."

" More good reads linus keynote Linus Torvalds: Security is never going to be perfect Why did you start using Linux? OS X versus Linux: Which is more practical? on IDG Answers If I buy a Chromebook and can't get to grips with OS can I convert to windows? In today's open source roundup: Linus vents his frustrations about people who design "new and improved" interfaces. Plus: Ten Linux dream jobs. And five open source alternatives to Gmail"

"Phil Shapiro Free Code Camp is an organization that teaches people to code. As part of this free training, student coders produce free code needed by nonprofit organizations. Free Code Camp doesn't accept donations, but you can support them by buying t-shirts, hoodies and audiobooks through their store."

"It was in Russia that the word "oligarchs" was first used to denote very rich businessmen. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has adopted the term to refer to billionaires who create or take over media empires to serve their business or political interests. There is a worldwide trend towards increasingly concentrated ownership of conglomerates that combine media outlets (TV channels, radio stations, newspapers and news websites) with banks, telecoms, property firms and construction companies. All this suits the rulers of countries such as China that espoused capitalism in order to better suppress democracy. "

"Summary: In an effort to trip each other up and in order to become the 'industry standard', Canonical and Red Hat hurt each other and alienate the media (what's left of it)"

"Summary: In an effort to trip each other up and in order to become the 'industry standard', Canonical and Red Hat hurt each other and alienate the media (what's left of it)"

[from the our-disregarded-internal-policies-trump-your-First-Amendment-rights dept That whole thing about the FBI not surveilling people based solely on First Amendment activity? The thing that's been in all the (FISA) papers (and agency policies)? Yeah, the FBI hasn't heard of it either. ]

Human evolution presents a puzzle. Nothing seems to explain the sudden takeoff of the last 45,000 years-the conversion of just another rare predatory ape into a planet dominator with rapidly progressing technologies. Once "progress" started to produce new tools, different ways of life and burgeoning populations, it accelerated all over the world, culminating in agriculture, cities, literacy and all the rest. Yet all the ingredients of human success-tool making, big brains, culture, fire, even language-seem to have been in place half a million years before and nothing happened. Tools were made to the same monotonous design for hundreds of thousands of years and the ecological impact of people was minimal. Then suddenly-bang!-culture exploded, starting in Africa. Why then, why there?

ahh! you beat me to it, read this yesterday and was on my list.. thx

well, I can tell from experience that the " "wibble-wobble method" works just fine (did with me as with my own youngsters). true enough, training wheels make it easy, however in the long run the ingrained habit of micro-steering as a way of enhancing one's capability to overcome apparent obstacles and innovate in and with the chaotic flow of events is quite the advantage.

There were no training wheels when I learned to ride a bike in AR - you learned or fell off - and, everyone that I knew learned on their own without any problems at all. Training wheels and the "wibble-wobble method" are manifestations of our over-protective (well-meaning, of course!) nature with our children from the 70s, 80s and 90s and now ... I used training wheels with my son until he insisted that I take them off, so he could ride like the other kids in the neighborhood that were younger and used no training wheels and rode better than he did. I'm encouraged by that recollection (if I remember it correctely? lol) to believe that training wheels are a bit of a waste of time and that the "wibble-wobble method" or other 'throw-in-th'-mix-and-see-what-happens' would serve the person better. Micro-steering must be learned no matter what at some point - the subtly of the motion of a bike require it.

"The impact of technological change on culture, learning, and morality has long been the subject of intense debate, and every technological revolution brings out a fresh crop of both pessimists and pollyannas. Indeed, a familiar cycle has repeat itself throughout history whenever new modes of production (from mechanized agriculture to assembly-line production), means of transportation (water, rail, road, or air), energy production processes (steam, electric, nuclear), medical breakthroughs (vaccination, surgery, cloning), or communications techniques (telegraph, telephone, radio, television) have appeared on the scene. The cycle goes something like this. A new technology appears. Those who fear the sweeping changes brought about by this technology see a sky that is about to fall. These "techno-pessimists" predict the death of the old order (which, ironically, is often a previous generation's hotly-debated technology that others wanted slowed or stopped). Embracing this new technology, they fear, will result in the overthrow of traditions, beliefs, values, institutions, business models, and much else they hold sacred. The pollyannas, by contrast, look out at the unfolding landscape and see mostly rainbows in the air. Theirs is a rose-colored world in which the technological revolution du jour is seen as improving the general lot of mankind and bringing about a better order. If something has to give, then the old ways be damned! For such "techno-optimists," progress means some norms and institutions must adapt-perhaps even disappear-for society to continue its march forward. Our current Information Revolution is no different. It too has its share of techno-pessimists and techno-optimists. Indeed, before most of us had even heard of the Internet, people were already fighting about it-or at least debating what the rise of the Information Age meant for our culture, society, and economy."

does Kurtopia need someone to mow the lawn?

no, but we do need someone to take our throm-dib-u-lator apart though