Una scrittrice racconta storie esplicite sul tradimento (e altro) di una donna che potrebbe somigliarle. Perché le domande che fanno a lei sono diverse da quelle che si fanno invece a un autore uomo? Un altro modo di guardare il rapporto tra l’autore e l’opera, ma anche alle differenze di genere.

Money quote: “Let’s be clear: “What does your husband think about your work” is a ruse. Beneath that query is the real question: Did you, the author, do the things the female character does in your narrative? If so, how’d you get away with writing about it? Isn’t your husband hurt? And aren’t you ashamed?”

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/01/16/husband-think-novel/

Nintendo Labo, la carta speciale di Nintendo per la Switch è un cartoncino - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/nintendo-gioca-carta-speciale-la-switch/

Geniali e diabolici. Sono gli editori e gli autori di libri di auto aiuto per l’infanzia.

Money quote: “I knew all these things – but what I didn’t yet understand was the diabolical genius of the baby-advice industry, which targets people at their most sleep-deprived, at the beginning of what will surely be the weightiest responsibility of their lives, and suggests that maybe, just maybe, between the covers of this book, lies the morsel of information that will make the difference between their baby’s flourishing or floundering. The brilliance of this system is that it works on the most sceptical readers, too, because you don’t need to believe it’s likely such a morsel actually exists. You need only think it likely enough to justify spending another £10.99 on, oh, you know, the entire future happiness of your child, just in case. Assuming you’ve got £10.99 to spare, what kind of monster would refuse?”

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jan/16/baby-advice-books-industry-attachment-parenting

Alcuni piccoli o meno piccoli errori nel libro anti-Trump di Michael Wolff ne incrinano la credibilità. Oppure no.

Money quote: “Amid such an uproar, the matter of Mark Berman’s nonexistent breakfast at the Four Seasons hardly ranks. Still, even among the many errors in the book, some big and many small, this one stood out. It was the kind of mistake that only someone who doesn’t know Washington could have made—the kind of mistake that matters to a small handful of D.C. players. And it prompts readers to ask, If Wolff got the small things wrong, did he get the big things wrong as well? The Trump White House has seized on such mistakes to call into question the book’s damning, and mostly accurate, larger portrayal of this Presidency”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/michael-wolff-says-that-washington-will-bury-trump

Viviamo in un mondo estremamente complesso. E la su complessità ci sfugge completamente perché è al di sopra delle nostre capacità cognitive. Merito mostro, ovviamente, perché l’abbiamo creato noi.

Money quote: “But ever since the Enlightenment, we have moved steadily toward the ‘Entanglement’, a term coined by the American computer scientist Danny Hillis. The Entanglement is the trend towards more interconnected and less comprehensible technological surroundings. Hillis argues that our machines, while subject to rational rules, are now too complicated to understand. Whether it’s the entirety of the internet or other large pieces of our infrastructure, understanding the whole — keeping it in your head — is no longer even close to possible”

https://aeon.co/essays/is-technology-making-the-world-indecipherable

Un’analisi della radicalizzazione dell’ultimo pensiero di Martin Luther King, che ha trasportato - poco prima del suo omicidio - la lotta contro la segregazione su un nuovo livello e contro il capitalismo statunitense.

Money quote: “It was this foray into the tough political environment of residential segregation and political machines that provided the momentum for King’s radicalization. His political maturation prompted him to connect the U.S. war in Vietnam to the deteriorating conditions in U.S. cities, and of even more consequence, it prompted him to search for more effective tactics in confronting the legal menace of segregation in the North and the attendant crises: slum conditions, unemployment, and police brutality”

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/01/15/remembering-martin-luther-kings-radical-class-politics/

Se vi capita di andare a Hong Kong fate un salto a Quarry Bay con la metro e andatevi a vedere il 'Monster Building', un bestione (anzi un insieme di bestioni) indimenticabile.

Money quote: “The Monster Building, as it’s been nicknamed by locals, isn’t actually a single building, but a complex composed of five connecting structures: Oceanic Mansion, Fook Cheong Building, Montane Mansion, Yick Cheong Building, and Yick Fat Building. They were built during a population boom in the 1960s to offer government-subsidized housing for low-income residents.”

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/quarry-bay-monster-building

Un padre con i reni che stanno per crollare e la posizione nella lista dei trapianti troppo bassa, va per l’ultima volta al parco Disney di Orlando con una maglietta che dice “ho bisogno di un rene”. Lo fotografano, le immagini diventano virali sui social e salta fuori un donatore.

Money quote: “So, with the help of his daughter, Liebowitz designed a simple, white T-shirt with black lettering that read: “In Need of Kidney. O positive.” He added his phone number and turned himself into a walking billboard at the theme park, the Orlando Sentinel reported.“

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article196730204.html

Uber vale un sacco di soldi e viene considerato il campione della nuova economia della condivisione. Ma a quanto pare somiglia sempre più a una associazione a delinquere, un soggetto veramente brutto (comunque i taxisti non li sopporto lo stesso). Come il codice segreto da spedire al quartier generale quando entra la polizia negli uffici di una filiale, che consente di bloccare da remoto istantaneamente tutti i computer e telefoni, bloccando l'accesso alle autorità anche se in possess di un mandato. Una pratica consolidata di questo tipo vi sembra una cosa normale, per una azienda?

Money quote: "The Uber HQ team overseeing Ripley could remotely change passwords and otherwise lock up data on company-owned smartphones, laptops, and desktops as well as shut down the devices. This routine was initially called the unexpected visitor protocol. Employees aware of its existence eventually took to calling it Ripley, after Sigourney Weaver’s flamethrower-wielding hero in the Alien movies. The nickname was inspired by a Ripley line in Aliens, after the acid-blooded extraterrestrials easily best a squad of ground troops. “Nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-11/uber-s-secret-tool-for-keeping-the-cops-in-the-dark

Il misterioso Scripto, software per la tv inventato da Stephen Colbert - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/misterioso-noscripto-software-la-tv-inventato-stephen-colbert/

Se non avete letto “Considera l’aragosta” di David Foster Wallace, gli svizzeri potrebbero stupirvi. Altrimenti, già lo sapevate.

Money quote: “As part of a wider overhaul of Swiss animal protection laws, Bern said that as of 1 March, “the practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted”.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/11/switzerland-rules-lobsters-must-be-stunned-before-boiling

Apple assume gente per lavorare da casa, per adesso negli Usa.

Money quote: “"If you love exploring the ways technology helps you do all your favorite things, you'll probably be great at sharing your knowledge with others," the job listing reads. "That's what you'll do every day as an Apple At Home Advisor. And with each customer conversation you have, it becomes clear: You're not just supporting technology. You're supporting people."”

http://www.wbaltv.com/article/apple-is-hiring-dozens-of-work-from-home-positions-right-now/15160203

Una opinione del sempre vispo Evgeni Morozov (un tempo di moda e adesso proscritto dalle liste dei buoni, almeno secondo la vulgata hi-tech italiana) che in sostanza dice: il web gratuito di oggi è a tempo limitato. Serve per estrarre dati e addestrare le AI; tuttavia quando avranno finito, i soldi si faranno con i modelli di intelligenza artificiale ovviamente a pagamento.

Tesi semplice ma intrigante.

Money quote: “Today’s digital economy is not what it seems – and tech giants know this. As Andrew Ng, the founder of Google Brain project and then the head of AI at Baidu, the Chinese search giant, said in a January 2017 talk at Stanford, “at large [tech] companies, we often launch products not for the revenue but for the data … and we monetise the data through a different product.””

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/28/morozov-artificial-intelligence-data-technology-online

Un amico mi chiede un consiglio su un fumetto da regalare al figlio decenne e a me viene subito in mente (a parte i paperi di Don Rosa, che Panini sta ristampando in questo periodo) un capolavoro assoluto dei comics mondiali: Bone di Jeff Smith. Se non lo conoscete, conoscetelo.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_(fumetto)

Qui sotto un estratto dal blog che Bao Publishing mise su per raccontare l'arrivo di Bone in edizione integrale e completa in Italia (stiamo parlando di un epico volume di oltre milletrecento pagine).

Money quote: "La prima volta che ho letto Moby Dick, all'età di dieci anni, l'ho fatto per le parti emozionanti (e l'ho finito con l'assoluta certezza che sarebbe stato un fumetto fantastico; tuttavia ricordo che nello stesso periodo lessi Le miniere di Re Salomone e pensai che sarebbe stato un formidabile musical. Dovevo essere un bambino davvero particolare.) Più di recente, alla veneranda età di trentatré anni, riportato a Moby Dick dall'insistenza di Jeff Smith e dall'occasione di un paio di lunghi viaggi in aereo, mi sono accorto di amarlo tutto, compresi gli innesti spezzati delle precedenti stesure che protrudono dal fianco dell'opera.

Sono parole di Neil Gaiman, che incapsulano tutta l'urgenza di prendere in considerazione due ingombranti aspetti del capolavoro di Jeff Smith, BONE: il fatto che Fone Bone adora e cita spesso Moby Dick, il capolavoro di Herman Melville, e la coesistenza impeccabile in BONE di due aspetti diametralmente opposti: l'umorismo dell'interazione tra i cugini Bone e la drammaticità della trama generale."

http://bonestaarrivando.blogspot.it

Uno sguardo particolarmente critico su Instagram. Fin troppo, secondo me

Money quote: "The Instagrammability of a destination is apparently now the number one motivation for booking a holiday for millennials. The eternal quest for social approval, which the platform was accused of taking advantage of this week by “withholding” likes from certain users to encourage them to log in more frequently – a charge Instagram denies – continues apace. I joined Instagram relatively recently, mainly to look at travel photos of places and people around the world, a cheering endeavour in these cold, dark Brexity times, but was disappointed how many of the photos seemed to follow a particular format. A thin, blonde, white girl stands in a floaty dress, her back to the viewer, in a seemingly preordained beautiful location. Off camera a queue of other “influencers” wait patiently to get the perfect shot."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/17/instagrammers-travel-sri-lanka-tourists-peachy-backsides-social-media-obsessed

È morto, all’età di 94 anni, il fumettista statunitense Mort Walker, noto soprattutto per la striscia Beetle Bailey.

http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/01/mort-walker-morto-bettle-bailey/

La storia di Paul Manafort, spiegata bene. Perché questo sembra un personaggio di Doonesbury, davvero.

Money quote: “Over the decades, Manafort had cut a trail of foreign money and influence into Washington, then built that trail into a superhighway. When it comes to serving the interests of the world’s autocrats, he’s been a great innovator. His indictment in October after investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller alleges money laundering, false statements, and other acts of personal corruption. (He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.) But Manafort’s role in Mueller’s broader narrative remains carefully guarded, and unknown to the public. And his personal corruption is less significant, ultimately, than his lifetime role as a corrupter of the American system. That he would be accused of helping a foreign power subvert American democracy is a fitting coda to his life’s story”

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/550925/

Lo so che lo sapete, ma ve lo dico lo stesso: c'è una app per fare chat su iOS e Android che funziona solo nell'ultimo 5% della batteria del telefono. Genio

Money quote: "The chat app you can only use when you have less than 5% battery.

Die together in a chatroom on your way to offline peace."

http://diewithme.online

Mi identifico molto con un passaggio di questo articolo:

Money quote: "While I am a professional engineer by day and a mobile tech blogger by night, I'm at a point in my engineering career where I don't have the daily need to run AutoCAD, Rhino, or other Windows engineering apps. I spend most of my time in Word, Outlook, OneNote, and other document and drawing review apps. Writing for ZDNet just requires a text editor, web browser, and basic photo editor. Thus, my life has evolved to the point where Windows is no longer a required operating system."

Alla fine, è quello che è successo anche a me. Mi sono liberato dal bisogno di software Microsoft e Adobe, più che da Windows, perché quello che faccio di lavoro non richiede più di operare sul testo attraverso meccanismi complessi. Invece, è possibile manipolare semplicemente le parole formate da semplici caratteri con qualsiasi editor e su qualsiasi piattaforma mi aggrada.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/leaving-windows-how-the-pixelbook-replaced-my-surface-pro-4-no-regrets/

La storia di come hanno fatto a fare gli emoji per Apple. Che fatica...

Money quote: “For the next three months Raymond and I would share an office and illustrated an array of faces, places, flags, animals, food, clothing, symbols, holidays, sports, and well, you probably know the rest. But long before any of this was complete, I had to learn how to design Apple-styled icons. We split the batch and the lesson in humility and craftsmanship began.”

https://medium.com/@agzmn/the-making-of-apples-emoji-how-designing-these-tiny-icons-changed-my-life-16317250a9ee

Le massaggia finché non "libera la loro energia interiore" (un orgasmo, in altre parole). Ma fino a ieri faceva un altro lavoro, che era travestirsi da pupazzo, un personaggio a metà fra il Gabibbo e Topo Grigio. È il mio nuovo eroe della knowledge society.

Money quote: “Today Joyner’s tantric massage practice boasts 30 clients—or “goddesses,” as he calls them—and he unblocks the energy of two to four women a week, he says. It’s a tad different than his work as a software analyst at Texas Instruments, a job he held for six years and landed shortly after graduating from ITT Technical Institute. But, Joyner says, his current work in tantra does share many similarities to another job he held from 1991 to 2001, that of Barney, the beloved purple dinosaur on the hit PBS children's show Barney & Friends.”

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmzgbw/the-guy-who-played-barney-the-dinosaur-now-runs-a-tantric-sex-business