Nel fantastico mondo in cui da alcuni anni tutti viviamo, c'è il termine "disruption" che non ha pietà per nessuno. Adesso, neanche per la consulenza

Money quote: "An industry becomes susceptible to disruption when it becomes entrenched in its longstanding solutions and financial structure. Disruptive innovations provide simpler or more elegant solutions to existing problems, enabled by new technology and often at a lower cost. Think portable calculators versus computers, Amazon versus bookstores, Netflix versus Blockbuster, or digital cameras versus film.

Management consulting is not immune to the dynamics of disruption."

https://www.inc.com/soren-kaplan/the-business-consulting-industry-is-booming-and-it.html

Forse non lo sapevate (io non lo sapevo) ma c'è una ricca tradizione contemporanea di fantascienza e fantasy nel mondo islamico. Dopo le Mille e una notte, voglio dire.

Money quote: "By the early 20th century, speculative fiction from the Muslim world emerged as a form of resistance to the forces of Western colonialism. For example, Muhammadu Bello Kagara, a Nigerian Hausa author, wrote Ganďoki (1934), a novel set in an alternative West Africa; in the story, the natives are involved in a struggle against British colonialism, but in a world populated by jinns and other mystical creatures. In the following decades, as Western empires began to crumble, the theme of political utopia was often laced with a certain political cynicism. The Moroccan author Muhammad Aziz Lahbabi’s novel The Elixir of Life (Iksir al-Hayat) (1974), for example, centres on the discovery of an elixir that can bestow immortality. But instead of filling society with hope and joy, it foments class divisions, riots, and the unravelling of the social fabric.

An even darker brand of fiction has emerged from Muslim cultures today. Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) reimagines Frankenstein in modern-day Iraq, among the fallout from the 2001 invasion. In this retelling, the monster is created from body parts of different people who have died because of ethnic and religious violence – and eventually goes on a rampage of its own. In the process, the novel becomes an exploration of the senselessness of war and the deaths of innocent bystanders."

https://aeon.co/ideas/think-sci-fi-doesnt-belong-in-the-muslim-world-think-again

Un progetto fotografico epico, decennale, che documenta culture (inglesi) che sopravvivono nonostante tutto e nonostante tutti. Un viaggio nei nostri immaginari culturali

Money quote: “‘Mod’ is an abbreviation for modernism, an umbrella term coined in the late 1950s to cover a set of intertwined subcultures – fashion, music, scooters, dancing – that carried an air of exclusivity. But it was also just a way for people to look like a million quid on the weekend, even if their bank balance didn’t necessarily reflect that”

http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/subcultures-mods-skins-lowriders-owen-harvey-photography/

Letture domenicali: una delle ultime interviste a Zygmunt Bauman fatta da ElPais. Social media, politica, relazioni. Un capolavoro.

Money quote: “We could describe what is going on at the moment as a crisis of democracy, the collapse of trust: the belief that our leaders are not just corrupt or stupid, but inept. Action requires power, to be able to do things, and we need politics, which is the ability to decide what needs to be done. But that marriage between power and politics in the hands of the nation state has ended. Power has been globalized, but politics is as local as before. Politics has had its hands cut off. People no longer believe in the democratic system because it doesn’t keep its promises. We see this, for example, with the migration crisis: it’s a global phenomenon, but we still act parochially. Our democratic institutions were not designed for dealing with situations of interdependence. The current crisis of democracy is a crisis of democratic institutions.”

https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/01/19/inenglish/1453208692_424660.html

Recensione della batteria Anker 26800 PD con Usb-C, la migliore del momento - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/la-prova-della-batteria-anker-26800-pd-usb-c/

Nei paesi anglosassoni il problema delle dinastie politiche, soprattutto a sinistra, sta diventando piuttosto serio per l'opinione pubblica

Money quote: “But there’s also another issue, and one that Hillary Clinton encountered. While sometimes name recognition helps when it comes to running for office, it can have the opposite effect. Fear and resentment of elites is increasingly prevalent as we enter a protracted stage of political instability. Clinton was rejected by many people on the right and left, as well as swing voters, for seeming to expect the presidency: as though she deserved it, and she viewed power as something handed between elites. Similarly, the selection of the sons and daughters of MPs can stick in the craw of many, seeming nepotistic and presumptuous, taking power and representation for granted”

http://www.huckmagazine.com/perspectives/opinion-perspectives/clinton-benn-kinnock-political-dynasties/

Ve lo ricordate Winamp? Morto e sepolto, ma ancora vitale: tra i vari porting quello più interessante è in Html5 e Javanoscript. Il player funziona nelal finestra del browser e, se ci si trascina sopra la musica, funziona come se fosse ancora ieri.

Hiptesr digitali

https://jordaneldredge.com/projects/winamp2-js/

Se volete giuastarvi il lunedì, e il resto della settimana, e ci a voi la storia che racconta cosa sta per succedere. Dopo le fake news si prepara la “infocalypse”: teoria e tecnica degl assalti digitali.

Money quote: “Another scenario, which Ovadya dubs “polity simulation,” is a dystopian combination of political botnets and astroturfing, where political movements are manipulated by fake grassroots campaigns. In Ovadya’s envisioning, increasingly believable AI-powered bots will be able to effectively compete with real humans for legislator and regulator attention because it will be too difficult to tell the difference. Building upon previous iterations, where public discourse is manipulated, it may soon be possible to directly jam congressional switchboards with heartfelt, believable algorithmically-generated pleas. Similarly, Senators' inboxes could be flooded with messages from constituents that were cobbled together by machine-learning programs working off stitched-together content culled from text, audio, and social media profiles”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/the-terrifying-future-of-fake-news

Mancano solo le caprette che fanno ciao ciao: il tono è quello. Però il viaggio psicoanalitico nella distruzione del proprio io digitale per recuperare la vita vera in questo momento storico è estremamente attraente: è diventato un pezzo importante del discorso sociale

Money quote: "Meanwhile, we’re finding out now that the gamification of social media — the likes, the comments, the hearts, the claps, the friends, the followers — makes it dangerously addictive and is destroying the fabric of society. It’s why everyone’s Instagram looks vaguely the same, and why now everyone visits the walls of restaurants instead of the restaurants themselves.
We’ve become distorted, homogenized, airbrushed, photoshopped, Instagrammed approximations of our ideal selves. Our real names and real pictures now stand in as avatars for a certain aesthetic. We’ve all become Human Highlight Films — and the better the highlights, the better the human."

https://medium.com/personal-growth/why-i-quit-social-media-4d97e9a81951

Anni fa, insegnando alla scuola di giornalismo della Cattolica di Milano, avevo una classe piuttosto reattiva. In particolare, uno studente, che aveva già fatto un master un Gran Bretagna, era polemico su varie cose tra le quali il fatto che, secondo lui, i giornalisti fossero più che autorizzati a fare interviste a tradimento (senza dire all’intervistato di essere giornalisti e che la conversazione sarebbe stata editata e pubblicata) e altre forme di “undercover journalism” come metodo normale di lavoro, neanche come metodo eccezionale.

Non ero d’accordo e non lo sono adesso: riguardo alla discussione piuttosto polemica con il mio studente di allora non penso sia una questione di chi ha ragione o chi no, però quando stamani ho trovato questo articolo, anni e anni dopo, mi ha fatto tornare in mente tutta la discussione.

Money quote: “All reputable news media – including the AP– agree that journalists should inform their sources of their real identity and avoid deceit in their reporting. In The Society of Professional Journalists Codes of Ethics, it states “Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.”

News is based on trust – which in the current media ecosystem is rare, fragile, and must be preserved for the future of journalism to thrive”

http://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/the-ethics-of-undercover-journalism-where-the-police-and-journalists-divide

L'autore di "Her Story" sta lavorando a un altro videogioco ispirato da "War Games". Devo dire la verità, leggendo quel che trapela della storia non è che mi sembri poi così fedele al film del 1983 con Matthew Broderick

Money quote "His next project is a reboot of the 1983 film WarGames, created in collaboration with interactive video studio Eko. And Barlow is again merging passive viewing and interactive play in fascinating ways. Like the original movie, WarGames will center around the concept of hacking. But instead of Matthew Broderick trying to stop World War III, it’s about a group of young people navigating the thorny world of hacker-led societal change, deciding how and when to use their skills for the betterment of society at large. For Barlow, it’s a chance to expand on what he built with Her Story, while pushing even harder towards the “watching” part of the spectrum."

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/9/16992840/wargames-interactive-tv-show-sam-barlow

Il punto è semplice: l'informatica è una cosa molto, molto diversa da quello che la gente comunemente pensa. E il cambiamento, il superamento del gap passa attraverso la formazione prima di tutto dei formatori, cioè dei docenti. Non attraverso l'insegnamento di un fantomatico linguaggio di programmazione come se fosse un'altra lingua tipo l'inglese o il francese. Magari, sarebbe tutto molto più facile.

Ogni tanto però anche da noi qualcuno dice cose sensate.

Money quote: "Se si sostiene questo, si sia coerenti e si dica che il succitato Aristotele è stato il campione dello svilimento dell’intelligenza, visto che la prima imponente parte della sua opera, il cosiddetto Organon, è un’informatica ante litteram e la fondazione della logica formale."

https://www.agendadigitale.eu/scuola-digitale/linformatica-va-insegnata-tre-equivoci-superare/

Storia un po' sintetica ma molto sentita di Radio Popolare

Money quote: "Già, quarantenne, perché Radio Popolare e io siamo coetanei: ha cominciato a trasmettere nel 1976, nel pieno dell’incredibile periodo anarchico delle radio libere, sotto la guida di Piero Scaramucci, raccontando per tutto questo tempo ciò che succedeva nella sterminata galassia della sinistra italiana, e ovviamente nel resto del mondo, perché l’attenzione a ciò che succede fuori da casa nostra è sempre stata un elemento caratteristico, nella sua carta d’identità"

http://www.yanezmagazine.com/quarantanni-di-radio-popolare/

Le maledette zanzare sono molto, molto meno sceme di quel che si potrebbe pensare. Adesso scopriamo che possono imparare e ricordare.

Money quote: “Getting inside the minds of these insects, the authors argue, will help scientists come up with new ways to control them. And that’s important, because mosquitoes are among the deadliest animals on the planet, infecting hundreds of millions of people annually around the globe, and killing hundreds of thousands. (The urban-dwelling Aedes aegypti is a particularly difficult species to eradicate.)”

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/01/study-swat-zika-mosquito-it-could-remember-you-for-days/

Quelli che credono nelle teorie del complotto e nella pericolosità dei vaccini, sono sempre gli stessi, cioè tendono a credere a tutto il pacchetto.

Money quote: "People who believe Princess Diana was murdered or that John F. Kennedy’s assassination was an elaborate plot are more likely to think that vaccines are unsafe, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

“Vaccinations are one of society’s greatest achievements and one of the main reasons that people live about 30 years longer than a century ago,” said lead researcher Matthew Hornsey, PhD, of the University of Queensland. “Therefore, it is fascinating to learn about why some people are so fearful of them.”"

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2018/02/vaccine-skepticism.aspx

Qui il paper: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/hea-hea0000586.pdf

Sharp: siamo primi nella rivoluzione dell’8K - il mio articolo per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/02/13/tecnologia/news/sharp-siamo-primi-nella-rivoluzione-dellk-MidVdEnpPzRxmtLIGOO66I/pagina.html

Fenomenologia dei grandi collezionisti d’arte. E pure di quelli più piccoli. Gente che vuol far vedere di essere gente di mondo, anzi di classe. Non è un tema nuovo, ma fa parte degli intramontabili sketch della commedia umana.

Money quote: “Debates about why people collect art date back at least to the first century CE. The Roman rhetorician Quintilian claimed that those who professed to admire what he considered to be the primitive works of the painter Polygnotus were motivated by ‘an ostentatious desire to seem persons of superior taste’. Quintilian’s view still finds many supporters.”

https://aeon.co/essays/what-drives-art-collectors-to-buy-and-display-their-finds

“Black Panther”, il film esce domani: la mia recensione (senza spoiler)

http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/02/black-panther-recensione-film-marvel/

È una scena cult della televisione americana. Adesso il libro che raccoglie la storia orale di ‘The Wire’ permette di apprezzare l’idea alla base e la preparazione necessaria per girare la famosa ‘Fuck’ Scene. Un monumento. Leggete un po’ e poi godetevi il video.

Money quote: “In a storyline that recalled Press’s killing, Jimmy McNulty and Bunk Moreland visit the apartment of a murdered young woman in Episode 4. They quickly discover that the previous detective bungled the investigation, and they slowly and methodically retrace the murder and link it to Avon Barksdale’s conspirators. Television had never seen anything quite like it. McNulty and Bunk conversed in the nearly five-minute scene by using only iterations of the word fuck”

http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/the-wire-oral-history-fuck-scene.html

Nelle galere americane, per rilassarsi, si giocano i giochi di ruolo da tavolo (Dubgeon and dragons). Però spesso sono vietati i dadi...

Money quote: “Even in states where RPGs are allowed, restriction on the use of dice can complicate gameplay. In an effort to crack down on gambling, most correctional facilities in America don't allow offenders to use or create dice.“

Da noi tanto tempo fa ci si raccontava il Milione...

https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/padk7z/how-inmates-play-tabletop-rpgs-in-prisons-where-dice-are-contraband

Idea fantastica! Dovremmo farlo anche noi!

Money quote: “In Italia i Qr code non sono mai diventati popolari. In Cina invece trovano diverse applicazioni. Se non l’ultima, una delle più curiose e originali arriva da Pechino. Le carrozze delle linee 4 e 10 della metropolitana sono state trasformate in librerie digitali. Una volta a bordo i viaggiatori possono fotografare con il proprio smartphone il Qr code e accedere a una serie di audiolibri. Da ascoltare fino a destinazione…”

http://www.east-media.net/qr-code-pechino-metropolitana-app-libri/