Sono affascinato da Malta e dai racconti sulle tre piccole isole al centro del Mediterraneo. Come il reportage che segue.
Money quote: "Maltese politics were also fascinating: always raucous, occasionally violent. Labour and the Christian Democrat-style Nationalists were invariably closely matched with entrenched tribal support: more like United vs City than left vs right. And small-country back-scratching was part of the fun, especially because so many jobs were government ones. This was intensified by the single transferable vote system, more or less as in Ireland, which encourages competition between candidates of the same party. You get elected by knowing everyone, and doing Tammany Hall-style favours. “There’s always been clientelism. Poor people trying to pressure politicians to get them a job or promotion,” explains Henry Frendo, professor of modern history at the University of Malta."
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/02/malta-island-secrets-and-lies
Money quote: "Maltese politics were also fascinating: always raucous, occasionally violent. Labour and the Christian Democrat-style Nationalists were invariably closely matched with entrenched tribal support: more like United vs City than left vs right. And small-country back-scratching was part of the fun, especially because so many jobs were government ones. This was intensified by the single transferable vote system, more or less as in Ireland, which encourages competition between candidates of the same party. You get elected by knowing everyone, and doing Tammany Hall-style favours. “There’s always been clientelism. Poor people trying to pressure politicians to get them a job or promotion,” explains Henry Frendo, professor of modern history at the University of Malta."
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/02/malta-island-secrets-and-lies
New Statesman
Malta: an island of secrets and lies
Business is booming in the tiny former British colony. But stories of corruption and assassination are filling the newspapers, and it may be headed for the EU’s naughty step.
Avevo questa idea, come tanti, che una buona dormita ti aiuta a staccare un attimo e a vedere un problema, che cerchi di risolvere con fatica, a mente fresca magari per trovare una bella soluzione. E poi arriva il solito guastafeste con il suo mumbo-jumbo.
Money quote: "Sleep is also critical to problem solving. When my students are stuck on a maths problem, sleep on it is often the only wisdom I have to offer. This adage has served me well in the past and now enjoys a strong neurological basis thanks to the research Walker draws on. Walker relates problem solving to the REM phase of sleep, demonstrating that it is in this critical stage of unconsciousness that we form novel connections between individual chunks of knowledge. REM sleep is where our ideas crystallise and recombine into new, creative thoughts. The link is so pervasive that the phrase sleep on it exists in most languages."
https://medium.com/@fjmubeen/why-sleep-on-it-is-the-most-useful-advice-for-learning-and-also-the-most-neglected-86b20249f06d
Money quote: "Sleep is also critical to problem solving. When my students are stuck on a maths problem, sleep on it is often the only wisdom I have to offer. This adage has served me well in the past and now enjoys a strong neurological basis thanks to the research Walker draws on. Walker relates problem solving to the REM phase of sleep, demonstrating that it is in this critical stage of unconsciousness that we form novel connections between individual chunks of knowledge. REM sleep is where our ideas crystallise and recombine into new, creative thoughts. The link is so pervasive that the phrase sleep on it exists in most languages."
https://medium.com/@fjmubeen/why-sleep-on-it-is-the-most-useful-advice-for-learning-and-also-the-most-neglected-86b20249f06d
Medium
Why ‘sleep on it’ is the most useful advice for learning, and also the most neglected
The role of the unconscious in problem solving
Gli indizi che Amazon possa avviare la sua struttura di logistica e spedizioni per tutti si sommano. E costituiscono un argomento circostanziale interessante, oltre a quello logico, che Amazon prima o poi effettivamente lo farà.
Money quote: "Considering the decades FedEx and UPS have had to build out their networks, it will be an uphill climb for Amazon to make a dent in the industry. That said, Amazon has reportedly been working on making its own logistics network a reality after a disappointing holiday season in 2013 during which countless packages were delivered late."
https://bgr.com/2018/02/09/amazon-delivery-service-swa-fedex-ups/
Money quote: "Considering the decades FedEx and UPS have had to build out their networks, it will be an uphill climb for Amazon to make a dent in the industry. That said, Amazon has reportedly been working on making its own logistics network a reality after a disappointing holiday season in 2013 during which countless packages were delivered late."
https://bgr.com/2018/02/09/amazon-delivery-service-swa-fedex-ups/
BGR
Amazon will launch its own delivery service to compete with FedEx, UPS
Amazon may be a one stop shop for home goods, electronics, furniture, clothing and more, but in order to actually get items to your home, the e-commerce giant has to depend on delivery services lik…
L’idea che ci debba essere solo sesso consensuale è un po’ meno ovvia e semplice di quel che sembra
Money quote: “Like informed consent to medical procedures, sexual consent is a contested legal construct that has evolved over time. It is a concept that the law uses to distinguish between criminal and non-criminal sex. But how do we determine whether consent is present or absent? Even the most affirmative consent-based sexual-assault jurisdictions, where consent is understood as the subjective product of the complainant’s mind at the time of the alleged assault, rely on judicial constructs of consent”
https://aeon.co/ideas/how-do-we-understand-sexual-pleasure-in-this-age-of-consent
Money quote: “Like informed consent to medical procedures, sexual consent is a contested legal construct that has evolved over time. It is a concept that the law uses to distinguish between criminal and non-criminal sex. But how do we determine whether consent is present or absent? Even the most affirmative consent-based sexual-assault jurisdictions, where consent is understood as the subjective product of the complainant’s mind at the time of the alleged assault, rely on judicial constructs of consent”
https://aeon.co/ideas/how-do-we-understand-sexual-pleasure-in-this-age-of-consent
Aeon
How do we understand sexual pleasure in this age of ‘consent’?
The idea that consent should be the benchmark for deciding what constitutes permissible sex is far from obvious
Due siti su tre sono fatti con Wordpress: benvenuti nell’era del web tutto uguale
- i miei pensieri sull’argomento per La Stampa
Money quote: “Viviamo come terremotati digitali tutti negli stessi prefabbricati online: casette fatte di bit organizzare sempre alla stessa maniera. Una monocoltura senza scampo e senza possibilità di fuga”
http://www.lastampa.it/2018/03/08/tecnologia/idee/due-siti-su-tre-sono-fatti-con-wordpress-nata-la-monocoltura-del-web-ybL0F7x6zcdpt5gBnNaPCP/amphtml/pagina.amp.html
- i miei pensieri sull’argomento per La Stampa
Money quote: “Viviamo come terremotati digitali tutti negli stessi prefabbricati online: casette fatte di bit organizzare sempre alla stessa maniera. Una monocoltura senza scampo e senza possibilità di fuga”
http://www.lastampa.it/2018/03/08/tecnologia/idee/due-siti-su-tre-sono-fatti-con-wordpress-nata-la-monocoltura-del-web-ybL0F7x6zcdpt5gBnNaPCP/amphtml/pagina.amp.html
LaStampa.it
Due siti su tre sono fatti con Wordpress: benvenuti nell’era del web tutto uguale
Assieme al software open source con Facebook, Twitter e Instagram c’è un oligopolio che livella la parte più abitata della rete
“Il problema dei tre corpi” di Cixin Liu - romanzo molto bello: ecco la mi recensione per Fumettologica
http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/03/il-problema-dei-tre-corpi-di-cixin-liu/
http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/03/il-problema-dei-tre-corpi-di-cixin-liu/
Fumettologica
"Il problema dei tre corpi" di Cixin Liu
Cosa racconta e com'è "Il problema dei tre corpi", il romanzo di fantascienza dello scrittore cinese Cixin Liu, tradotto in Italia da Mondadori.
Due mesi di notizie solo su carta, niente internet. Com'è andata? Ecco cosa ha capito il giornalsita del New York Times che ha tentato l'atroce e pericoloso esperimento...
Money quote: "I am not just less anxious and less addicted to the news, I am more widely informed (though there are some blind spots). And I'm embarrassed about how much free time I have — in two months, I managed to read half a dozen books, took up pottery and (I think) became a more attentive husband and father."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/technology/two-months-news-newspapers.html
Money quote: "I am not just less anxious and less addicted to the news, I am more widely informed (though there are some blind spots). And I'm embarrassed about how much free time I have — in two months, I managed to read half a dozen books, took up pottery and (I think) became a more attentive husband and father."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/technology/two-months-news-newspapers.html
NY Times
For Two Months, I Got My News From Print Newspapers. Here’s What I Learned. (Published 2018)
Our tech columnist tried to skip digital news for a while. His old-school experiment led to three main conclusions.
Stiamo rimettendo in dubbio il determinismo genetico e un approccio piuttosto strumentale e dogmatico alla complessità dell’esistenza degli organismi biologici. E adesso chi glielo dice a quelli di Repubblica?
Money quote: “Twentieth-century biology was dominated by a strongly reductionist agenda even before James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins revealed the structure of DNA in 1953. Early geneticists knew perfectly well that they were studying statistical correlations (if one makes such-and-such a change in gene x, then allows the organism to develop in a fixed environment e, one will observe alteration f, etc). In later generations, however, the language of causation started to creep in, and with it the idea of a fixed relationship between genes and body features. Every reader of this essay will have read or heard phrases such as ‘the gene for breast cancer’, ‘the gene for autism’ or even ‘the gene for intelligence’ (try typing any of those phrases into a search engine). The cultural idea that went with this slip of meaning – that bodies are made according to a genetic blueprint – placed genes at the centre of mainstream biological thought. The discovery and progressive unravelling of the double helix seemed only to confirm their place there”
https://aeon.co/essays/the-feedback-loop-is-a-better-symbol-of-life-than-the-helix
Money quote: “Twentieth-century biology was dominated by a strongly reductionist agenda even before James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins revealed the structure of DNA in 1953. Early geneticists knew perfectly well that they were studying statistical correlations (if one makes such-and-such a change in gene x, then allows the organism to develop in a fixed environment e, one will observe alteration f, etc). In later generations, however, the language of causation started to creep in, and with it the idea of a fixed relationship between genes and body features. Every reader of this essay will have read or heard phrases such as ‘the gene for breast cancer’, ‘the gene for autism’ or even ‘the gene for intelligence’ (try typing any of those phrases into a search engine). The cultural idea that went with this slip of meaning – that bodies are made according to a genetic blueprint – placed genes at the centre of mainstream biological thought. The discovery and progressive unravelling of the double helix seemed only to confirm their place there”
https://aeon.co/essays/the-feedback-loop-is-a-better-symbol-of-life-than-the-helix
Aeon
A closed loop
The DNA helix gave 20th-century biology its symbol. But the more we learn, the more life circles back to an older image
Una cosa alla quale non avevo mai pensato. La ricchezza e l’intelligenza-merito non corrispondono. E c’è modo scientifico per esprimere il concetto.
Money quote: “ The conventional answer is that we live in a meritocracy in which people are rewarded for their talent, intelligence, effort, and so on. Over time, many people think, this translates into the wealth distribution that we observe, although a healthy dose of luck can play a role.
But there is a problem with this idea: while wealth distribution follows a power law, the distribution of human skills generally follows a normal distribution that is symmetric about an average value. For example, intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, follows this pattern. Average IQ is 100, but nobody has an IQ of 1,000 or 10,000.”
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610395/if-youre-so-smart-why-arent-you-rich-turns-out-its-just-chance/
Money quote: “ The conventional answer is that we live in a meritocracy in which people are rewarded for their talent, intelligence, effort, and so on. Over time, many people think, this translates into the wealth distribution that we observe, although a healthy dose of luck can play a role.
But there is a problem with this idea: while wealth distribution follows a power law, the distribution of human skills generally follows a normal distribution that is symmetric about an average value. For example, intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, follows this pattern. Average IQ is 100, but nobody has an IQ of 1,000 or 10,000.”
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610395/if-youre-so-smart-why-arent-you-rich-turns-out-its-just-chance/
MIT Technology Review
If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance.
The distribution of wealth follows a well-known pattern sometimes called an 80:20 rule: 80 percent of the wealth is owned by 20 percent of the people. Indeed, a report last year concluded that just eight men had a total wealth equivalent to that of the world’s…
E per concludere la serata. Un bel video realizzato da Spike Jonze per l'HomePod di Apple: quattro minuti di goduria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305ryPvU6A8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305ryPvU6A8
Quali sono le probabilità che due tizi vadano nello stesso posto, uno un po' più in qua e uno un po' più in là, e scattino esattamente la stessa fotografia digitale, al millesimo di secondo? Beh, è successo. E non una volta sola (almeno due).
Money quote: "I did a Google search to see how often this happens and could only find one article from 2011 where two photographers filming a surf competition on Huntington Beach ended up catching a virtually identical image of a surfer and its wave action."
https://petapixel.com/2018/03/07/two-photographers-unknowingly-shot-millisecond-time/
Money quote: "I did a Google search to see how often this happens and could only find one article from 2011 where two photographers filming a surf competition on Huntington Beach ended up catching a virtually identical image of a surfer and its wave action."
https://petapixel.com/2018/03/07/two-photographers-unknowingly-shot-millisecond-time/
Peta Pixel
How Two Photographers Unknowingly Shot the Same Millisecond in Time
On March 3rd, during a large East Coast winter storm, I headed to the ocean to capture some wave action. My travels eventually took me to Great Island
L'analisi e la metrica sono le cose più importante, ovviamente. Ma anche lo strumento, anzi la grafica è fondamentale. Ad esempio, il Lego.
Money quote: "How much of your time do you spend on planned work? The work which you set out to do today?
I worked with a team that quantified this number and focused their process improvements on moving that figure upwards.
It took us a while to figure out an effective way of tracking it.
At first, we tried putting tally marks on a whiteboard. Each representing how we spent our time that day. That worked for a while until we started to run out of whiteboard space. Next up we tried an Excel document, but no one looks forward to tracking their time in an Excel document. We wanted something visual and tactile. Something that would cause conversations to happen and be fun to use.
The answer was Lego bricks."
https://code.joejag.com/2018/lego-workstream-visualisation.html
Money quote: "How much of your time do you spend on planned work? The work which you set out to do today?
I worked with a team that quantified this number and focused their process improvements on moving that figure upwards.
It took us a while to figure out an effective way of tracking it.
At first, we tried putting tally marks on a whiteboard. Each representing how we spent our time that day. That worked for a while until we started to run out of whiteboard space. Next up we tried an Excel document, but no one looks forward to tracking their time in an Excel document. We wanted something visual and tactile. Something that would cause conversations to happen and be fun to use.
The answer was Lego bricks."
https://code.joejag.com/2018/lego-workstream-visualisation.html
Joejag
Tracking where your time went with Lego workstream visualisation
Software development blog of Joe Wright
Volete spendere 250 dollari su IndieGoGo (prezzo finale sarà 400) per un telefono 4G che fa poco, pochissimo? Light Phone II ha WiFi, Gps, schermo E-Ink, niente social, niente app, solo messaggi, forse mappe, forse qualche chat, e poco altro che oltretutto verrà definito nei prossimi mesi anche con le idee degli utenti. Arriverà più o meno tra un anno (probabilmente più tardi).
Lo strumento digital detox più hispter dell'anno, secondo me!
Money quote: "The Light Phone 2 will begin shipping by April of 2019 (one year from the completion of the campaign). Because of the three different models for the various regions globally, different models (A, B, or C) might ship slightly earlier or later than April of 2019. We will share more exact timelines as we kick off our testing/certification phases, as the timing may vary between models."
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-smartphone-design#/
Lo strumento digital detox più hispter dell'anno, secondo me!
Money quote: "The Light Phone 2 will begin shipping by April of 2019 (one year from the completion of the campaign). Because of the three different models for the various regions globally, different models (A, B, or C) might ship slightly earlier or later than April of 2019. We will share more exact timelines as we kick off our testing/certification phases, as the timing may vary between models."
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-smartphone-design#/
Toni Frissell è stata una delle donne fotografo che, dopo aver iniziato nella moda, hanno lavorato per l’esercito americano durante la guerra. Qui alcuni degli scatti che ti rimettono il cuore in pace e ti fanno vedere la bellezza del bianco e nero.
Money quote: “Her work took her to Europe, where she photographed soldiers and civilians affected by the war, including a famous series featuring the Tuskegee Airmen at an air base in Italy. In later years, she continued a career of photographing both famous and ordinary people for decades, amassing a collection of some 340,000 images”
https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/photo/555155/
Money quote: “Her work took her to Europe, where she photographed soldiers and civilians affected by the war, including a famous series featuring the Tuskegee Airmen at an air base in Italy. In later years, she continued a career of photographing both famous and ordinary people for decades, amassing a collection of some 340,000 images”
https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/photo/555155/
Non ho la più pallida idea di chi sia questo tizio ma mi sta già simpatico, e i suoi consigli su come informarsi mi piacciono molto.
Money quote: “5. Find sources you trust
Follow reliable, thoughtful, forward-looking publications and journalists online and let them do the heavy lifting, finding the most interesting info for you. If the publication or person is focused on thoughtful analysis and not panic news, you’ll hear worthwhile insights. Watson especially recommends perusing weekend editions of quality newspapers.”
https://qz.com/1222019/stop-reading-the-latest-news-if-you-want-to-be-better-informed/
Money quote: “5. Find sources you trust
Follow reliable, thoughtful, forward-looking publications and journalists online and let them do the heavy lifting, finding the most interesting info for you. If the publication or person is focused on thoughtful analysis and not panic news, you’ll hear worthwhile insights. Watson especially recommends perusing weekend editions of quality newspapers.”
https://qz.com/1222019/stop-reading-the-latest-news-if-you-want-to-be-better-informed/
Quartz
How to read less news but be more informed, according to a futurist
Instead of focusing on what everyone is already talking about, hunt down unusual knowledge.
Con la stampa 3D arrivano le fabbriche nello spazio - il mio articolo per Macity
https://www.macitynet.it/la-stampa-3d-arrivano-le-fabbriche-nello-spazio/
https://www.macitynet.it/la-stampa-3d-arrivano-le-fabbriche-nello-spazio/
Macitynet.it
Con la stampa 3D arrivano le fabbriche nello spazio - Macitynet.it
Ideali per fornire pezzi di ricambio in orbita azzerando il magazzino, aprono prospettive fantascientifiche sul futuro
Letture domenicali: macchine e pupe. In questo caso Blondie, cioè la storia un po' trasversale di Debbie Harry
Money quote: "Blondie was a new start, christened by the nick name passer bys always called Debbie. She liked it, thought it was catchy and suitable for the kind of music she envisioned the new band playing. The Punk rock scene from England was starting to affect New York City clubs and Blondie was hanging around with early fans of the music including Richard Hell, The Ramones and Television. Blondie also remained friends with the New York Dolls and The Magic Tramps who represented the Glam Rock scene. Through this entire period of transition and growth towards becoming major music stars. Debbie Harry drove a classic pony car; a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro coupe."
http://phscollectorcarworld.blogspot.it/2013/02/lost-star-cars-cars-of-debbie-harry.html
Money quote: "Blondie was a new start, christened by the nick name passer bys always called Debbie. She liked it, thought it was catchy and suitable for the kind of music she envisioned the new band playing. The Punk rock scene from England was starting to affect New York City clubs and Blondie was hanging around with early fans of the music including Richard Hell, The Ramones and Television. Blondie also remained friends with the New York Dolls and The Magic Tramps who represented the Glam Rock scene. Through this entire period of transition and growth towards becoming major music stars. Debbie Harry drove a classic pony car; a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro coupe."
http://phscollectorcarworld.blogspot.it/2013/02/lost-star-cars-cars-of-debbie-harry.html
phscollectorcarworld.blogspot.co.uk
Lost Star Cars: The cars of Debbie Harry
By: Patrick Smith In 1979, the pop world was agog over a New Wave...
Wired racconta come una squadra speciale della polizia olandese abbia inferto un colpo mortale al traffico di droga online
Money quote: “"When a dark market is taken down, everyone goes to the next one. It's a whack-a-mole effect," says Marinus Boekelo, one of the NHTCU investigators who worked on the Hansa operation. By secretly seizing control of Hansa rather than merely unplugging it from the internet, Boekelo says he and his Dutch police colleagues aimed not only to uncover more about Hansa's unsuspecting users, but to deal a psychological blow to the broader dark-web drug trade. "We thought maybe we could really damage the trust in this whole system," he says”
https://www.wired.com/story/hansa-dutch-police-sting-operation/
Money quote: “"When a dark market is taken down, everyone goes to the next one. It's a whack-a-mole effect," says Marinus Boekelo, one of the NHTCU investigators who worked on the Hansa operation. By secretly seizing control of Hansa rather than merely unplugging it from the internet, Boekelo says he and his Dutch police colleagues aimed not only to uncover more about Hansa's unsuspecting users, but to deal a psychological blow to the broader dark-web drug trade. "We thought maybe we could really damage the trust in this whole system," he says”
https://www.wired.com/story/hansa-dutch-police-sting-operation/
WIRED
Operation Bayonet: Inside the Sting That Hijacked an Entire Dark Web Drug Market
Dutch police detail for the first time how they secretly hijacked Hansa, Europe's most popular dark web market.
Graphite, la suite per la produttività basata su Blockchain - il mio articolo per Macity
https://www.macitynet.it/graphite-la-suite-la-produttivita-basata-blockchain/
https://www.macitynet.it/graphite-la-suite-la-produttivita-basata-blockchain/
Macitynet.it
Graphite, la suite per la produttività basata su Blockchain - Macitynet.it
Una serie di applicativi in rete che permettono di lavorare in modo distribuito mantenendo nella più assoluta sicurezza i nostri dati
Undici anni di iPhone ma soprattutto dieci anni del suo SDK. Vale la pena ricordare cosa è significato e cosa ha voluto dire la nascita di una nuova piattaforma globale e del primo, grande store online per il software.
Money quote: “For many of us, holding that first iPhone at the end of June 2007 was a glimpse of the future. We all wanted to know what was inside the glass and metal sitting in our pockets.
Apple had told us what the device could do, but said very little about how it was done. We didn’t know anything about the processor or its speed, how much memory was available, or how you built apps. In many ways, this new device was a black, and silver, box.”
https://blog.iconfactory.com/2018/03/a-lot-can-happen-in-a-decade/
Money quote: “For many of us, holding that first iPhone at the end of June 2007 was a glimpse of the future. We all wanted to know what was inside the glass and metal sitting in our pockets.
Apple had told us what the device could do, but said very little about how it was done. We didn’t know anything about the processor or its speed, how much memory was available, or how you built apps. In many ways, this new device was a black, and silver, box.”
https://blog.iconfactory.com/2018/03/a-lot-can-happen-in-a-decade/
Iconfactory Blog
A Lot Can Happen in a Decade • The Breakroom
Whether you’re a developer who’s working on mobile apps, or just someone enjoying the millions of apps available for your phone, today is a very special day. It’s the ten year anniversary of the original iPhone SDK. I don’t think it’s an understatement to…
Bisogna essere un po’ lontani per riuscire a vedere il quadro nel suo insieme. In questo caso la giornalista dell’Atlantic ce l’ha chiaro: l’Italia è un paese medioevale per quanto riguarda la parità di genere.
Money quote: “For the past few weeks I’ve been in Italy, covering the elections last Sunday which produced the biggest political change here in decades. It was my first reporting trip back here in a while. I lived in Rome for many years but moved away in 2013. Maybe I’ve changed since then, maybe it’s the #MeToo moment, but coming back to Italy this time, what struck me most wasn’t the political chaos, the populism, the dysfunction, or even the beauty, since a person can get used to all that. It was the fact that there were barely any women playing leading roles in the election coverage.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/555260/
Money quote: “For the past few weeks I’ve been in Italy, covering the elections last Sunday which produced the biggest political change here in decades. It was my first reporting trip back here in a while. I lived in Rome for many years but moved away in 2013. Maybe I’ve changed since then, maybe it’s the #MeToo moment, but coming back to Italy this time, what struck me most wasn’t the political chaos, the populism, the dysfunction, or even the beauty, since a person can get used to all that. It was the fact that there were barely any women playing leading roles in the election coverage.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/555260/