Altro che dinosauri. Cloniamo cani da salotto in Corea del Sud.
Money quote: “Then, last March, Barbra Streisand came out as a cloner. In an interview with Variety, the singer let slip that her two Coton de Tulear puppies, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett, are actually clones of her beloved dog Samantha, who died last year. The puppies, she said, were cloned from cells taken from “Sammie’s” mouth and stomach by ViaGen Pets, a pet-cloning company based in Texas that charges $50,000 for the service. “I was so devastated by the loss of my dear Samantha, after 14 years together, that I just wanted to keep her with me in some way,” Streisand explained in a New York Times opinion piece, after the news provoked an outcry from animal-rights advocates. “It was easier to let Sammie go if I knew that I could keep some part of her alive, something that came from her DNA.””
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/08/dog-cloning-animal-sooam-hwang
Money quote: “Then, last March, Barbra Streisand came out as a cloner. In an interview with Variety, the singer let slip that her two Coton de Tulear puppies, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett, are actually clones of her beloved dog Samantha, who died last year. The puppies, she said, were cloned from cells taken from “Sammie’s” mouth and stomach by ViaGen Pets, a pet-cloning company based in Texas that charges $50,000 for the service. “I was so devastated by the loss of my dear Samantha, after 14 years together, that I just wanted to keep her with me in some way,” Streisand explained in a New York Times opinion piece, after the news provoked an outcry from animal-rights advocates. “It was easier to let Sammie go if I knew that I could keep some part of her alive, something that came from her DNA.””
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/08/dog-cloning-animal-sooam-hwang
Vanity Fair
Inside the Very Big, Very Controversial Business of Dog Cloning
Barbra Streisand is not alone. At a South Korean laboratory, a once-disgraced doctor is replicating hundreds of deceased pets for the rich and famous. It’s made for more than a few questions of bioethics.
Qui si parla di Tokyo, di lunghe code e di ramen. Cosa volete di più?
Money quote: “Leah and I were at Fuunji to eat tsukemen, the specialty of the tiny restaurant. The place is presided over by a wiry ramen master rocking a blond, boy-band coif, who dances around behind the counter, boiling and draining and plating his food with the percussive flamboyance of a flair bartender. Tsukemen is a type of ramen in which the cold, cooked noodles are served separately, on a plate, with a bowl of broth on the side—a dish meant to be eaten with precision, in deliberately constructed bites of noodles dipped in the broth, then slurped up”
https://www.afar.com/magazine/tokyos-long-lines-lead-to-magic-and-life-changing-ramen
Money quote: “Leah and I were at Fuunji to eat tsukemen, the specialty of the tiny restaurant. The place is presided over by a wiry ramen master rocking a blond, boy-band coif, who dances around behind the counter, boiling and draining and plating his food with the percussive flamboyance of a flair bartender. Tsukemen is a type of ramen in which the cold, cooked noodles are served separately, on a plate, with a bowl of broth on the side—a dish meant to be eaten with precision, in deliberately constructed bites of noodles dipped in the broth, then slurped up”
https://www.afar.com/magazine/tokyos-long-lines-lead-to-magic-and-life-changing-ramen
AFAR
Tokyo’s Long Lines Lead to Magic (and Life-Changing Ramen)
Good things come to those who wait . . . in line in Tokyo.
Elogio della moderazione, una virtù che abbiamo perso da tempo. Anzi, direi che abbiamo smarrito il concetto stesso che sta alla base dell’idea di moderazione.
Money quote: “What did the ancients think about all this? For one thing, they didn’t share our present skepticism toward moderation. On the contrary, they praised it and thought that the alleged ‘barbarians’ were also incapable of moderation, that is, of following a rational middle course. If classical authors agreed on the importance of moderation, they also insisted that it is not an easy virtue. Tacitus called it, in fact, ‘the most difficult lesson of wisdom’, while Horace linked moderation to the golden mean and balance, all good things in his view, but difficult to achieve in practice. Plato highlighted both the importance and difficulty of moderation in The Republic, where he defined it as the virtue that allows us to control or temper our passions, emotions and desires”
https://aeon.co/ideas/moderation-may-be-the-most-challenging-and-rewarding-virtue
Money quote: “What did the ancients think about all this? For one thing, they didn’t share our present skepticism toward moderation. On the contrary, they praised it and thought that the alleged ‘barbarians’ were also incapable of moderation, that is, of following a rational middle course. If classical authors agreed on the importance of moderation, they also insisted that it is not an easy virtue. Tacitus called it, in fact, ‘the most difficult lesson of wisdom’, while Horace linked moderation to the golden mean and balance, all good things in his view, but difficult to achieve in practice. Plato highlighted both the importance and difficulty of moderation in The Republic, where he defined it as the virtue that allows us to control or temper our passions, emotions and desires”
https://aeon.co/ideas/moderation-may-be-the-most-challenging-and-rewarding-virtue
Aeon
Moderation may be the most challenging and rewarding virtue
Political moderates are the opposite of ideological purists: they walk a tightrope between extreme ideas towards virtue
Ma quelli che stanno assieme per decenni, andando ben oltre la fase romantica ed erotica dell’amore, come fanno? Forse chissà, c’è una spiegazione (sono abbastanza vecchio perché mi sfugga?)
Money quote: “I must admit that these findings puzzled me. Are we actually victims of romantic ideology? Should we cease striving for true love or hold out until a soul mate appears? In our modern times, these questions do not have an easy answer. After all, it is painfully hard to fulfil the romantic ideal while staying inside our culture’s boundaries and social norms; only dead fish swim with the stream”
https://aeon.co/essays/how-can-romantic-love-last-a-lifetime
Money quote: “I must admit that these findings puzzled me. Are we actually victims of romantic ideology? Should we cease striving for true love or hold out until a soul mate appears? In our modern times, these questions do not have an easy answer. After all, it is painfully hard to fulfil the romantic ideal while staying inside our culture’s boundaries and social norms; only dead fish swim with the stream”
https://aeon.co/essays/how-can-romantic-love-last-a-lifetime
Aeon
Endless love
We no longer expect passion to last a lifetime, but some couples do stay in love to the end. What’s their secret?
Ammettiamolo, le città sono la nostra vera ossessione. La prova che siamo diversi da come veramente siamo. Il nostro stato di natura interiore, quello che alcuni chiamano inconscio, ci travolge e configge con l’intelligenza razionale dell’uomo debole ma coraggioso e civilizzato.
Quel che stiamo scoprendo però è che il processo che ha portato alla creazione dell’uomo che vive in città, e quindi della città stessa, è meno lineare, più lungo e più ramificato del previsto e dell’immaginato.
Money quote: “According to Scott, we know that “our ancestors did not run headlong” into the civilized life for a few reasons. First, archaeological research shows that sedentary populations existed in Mesopotamia as far back as 12,000 BCE. But it took until around 3,100 BCE before the very first stratified, tax-collecting states popped up in the Tigris and Euphrates Valley.
This massive lag proves that, once settled, cities didn’t naturally flourish as Civilization VI indicates. The collapse of ancient settlements was actually very common. Fatal disease spread rapidly in these settings, brought about by the cohabitation of animals and people. Add in the potential for crop failures, taxes, and getting sent away to fight a war for some grain-rich despot and you’ve got some legitimate concerns about abandoning your “primitive” life to hop on the human progress train.”
https://civicskunk.works/why-did-we-start-living-in-cities-5d3e21d5b28c
Quel che stiamo scoprendo però è che il processo che ha portato alla creazione dell’uomo che vive in città, e quindi della città stessa, è meno lineare, più lungo e più ramificato del previsto e dell’immaginato.
Money quote: “According to Scott, we know that “our ancestors did not run headlong” into the civilized life for a few reasons. First, archaeological research shows that sedentary populations existed in Mesopotamia as far back as 12,000 BCE. But it took until around 3,100 BCE before the very first stratified, tax-collecting states popped up in the Tigris and Euphrates Valley.
This massive lag proves that, once settled, cities didn’t naturally flourish as Civilization VI indicates. The collapse of ancient settlements was actually very common. Fatal disease spread rapidly in these settings, brought about by the cohabitation of animals and people. Add in the potential for crop failures, taxes, and getting sent away to fight a war for some grain-rich despot and you’ve got some legitimate concerns about abandoning your “primitive” life to hop on the human progress train.”
https://civicskunk.works/why-did-we-start-living-in-cities-5d3e21d5b28c
Medium
Why Did We Start Living in Cities?
Were homo sapiens destined to become metro sapiens?
Quando l’estetica ti mangia dentro. La sfortunata scelta nel mondo tecnologico del blu come colore dell’interfaccia luminosa e le sue orribili conseguenze.
Money quote: “The bright blue light of flat, rectangular touch screens, fans, and displays may be appealing from an aesthetic perspective (more on that below), but from a health standpoint, it is fraught with problems. Blue light inhibits the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates our sleep cycles. Blue light before bedtime can wreak havoc on our ability to fall asleep”
https://www.fastcompany.com/90177573/how-blue-became-techs-favorite-color-and-why-it-shouldnt-be
Money quote: “The bright blue light of flat, rectangular touch screens, fans, and displays may be appealing from an aesthetic perspective (more on that below), but from a health standpoint, it is fraught with problems. Blue light inhibits the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates our sleep cycles. Blue light before bedtime can wreak havoc on our ability to fall asleep”
https://www.fastcompany.com/90177573/how-blue-became-techs-favorite-color-and-why-it-shouldnt-be
Fast Company
Why tech’s favorite color is making us all miserable
The cold blue light of modern touchscreens may be aesthetically pleasing, but it poses health problems. Designers and technologists should take cues from military history and embrace the orange.
Ha creato il web e adesso soffre a vedere come funziona e viene usato dalle grandi multinazionali digitali e dai governi. Per questo lo vuole rifare. Storia di Tim Berners-Lee e della sua nuova visione del futuro.
Money quote: “This agony, however, has had a profound effect on Berners-Lee. He is now embarking on a third act—determined to fight back through both his celebrity status and, notably, his skill as a coder. In particular, Berners-Lee has, for some time, been working on a new software, Solid, to reclaim the Web from corporations and return it to its democratic roots. On this winter day, he had come to Washington to attend the annual meeting of the World Wide Web Foundation, which he started in 2009 to protect human rights across the digital landscape. For Berners-Lee, this mission is critical to a fast-approaching future.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/the-man-who-created-the-world-wide-web-has-some-regrets
Money quote: “This agony, however, has had a profound effect on Berners-Lee. He is now embarking on a third act—determined to fight back through both his celebrity status and, notably, his skill as a coder. In particular, Berners-Lee has, for some time, been working on a new software, Solid, to reclaim the Web from corporations and return it to its democratic roots. On this winter day, he had come to Washington to attend the annual meeting of the World Wide Web Foundation, which he started in 2009 to protect human rights across the digital landscape. For Berners-Lee, this mission is critical to a fast-approaching future.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/the-man-who-created-the-world-wide-web-has-some-regrets
Vanity Fair
“I Was Devastated”: Tim Berners-Lee, the Man Who Created the World Wide Web, Has Some Regrets
Tim Berners-Lee has seen his creation debased by everything from fake news to mass surveillance. But he’s got a plan to fix it.
L’autrice di questo articolo sul paradosso di Fermi è un personaggio singolare. L’ho incontrata a Las Vegas un po' di tempo fa. Laureata in astrofisica, divulgatrice, personaggio televisivo ma anche campionessa di poker. Sul serio. Fa le gare e le vince (tipo: un paio di milioni di dollari vinti). Risultato? Ti strega e poi ti incanta. Gli alieno? Una bieca scusa per parlare di lei (dal vivo rende molto meglio).
Money quote: “My excitement was short-lived as my mother explained it was a satellite catching the sun as it tumbled along its orbit. I went to bed disappointed: The X-files was on TV twice a week back then, and I very much wanted to believe.”
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/7/3/17522810/aliens-fermi-paradox-drake-equation
Money quote: “My excitement was short-lived as my mother explained it was a satellite catching the sun as it tumbled along its orbit. I went to bed disappointed: The X-files was on TV twice a week back then, and I very much wanted to believe.”
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/7/3/17522810/aliens-fermi-paradox-drake-equation
Vox
Why haven’t we found aliens yet?
A new paper on the Fermi paradox convincingly shows why we will probably never find aliens.
Block chain come se piovesse. Anche da parte della Borsa Svizzera. L’hype cresce, la bolla si gonfia...
Money quote: “"The first step is to build up a regulated exchange platform. In a second phase we will offer the service to tokenize existing bankable assets which will be followed by the tokenization of non-bankable assets. Following an agile approach to meet the needs of today's dynamic environment, the first services will be rolled out in mid-2019," the company said.”
https://www.coindesk.com/swiss-stock-exchange-to-tokenize-securities-in-new-dlt-platform/
Money quote: “"The first step is to build up a regulated exchange platform. In a second phase we will offer the service to tokenize existing bankable assets which will be followed by the tokenization of non-bankable assets. Following an agile approach to meet the needs of today's dynamic environment, the first services will be rolled out in mid-2019," the company said.”
https://www.coindesk.com/swiss-stock-exchange-to-tokenize-securities-in-new-dlt-platform/
Negli aeroporti americani si aggira un anonimo folle genio che attacca adesivi trompe-l’œil: simulano inesistenti prese elettriche. Sta diventando una cosa seria.
40 fumetti da leggere questa estate - la grande ma agile raccolta di consigli di Fumettologica alla quale modestamente ho contribuito anche io
http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/08/estate-fumetti-leggere/
http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/08/estate-fumetti-leggere/
Fumettologica
40 fumetti da leggere questa estate
Consigliati e commentati dalla redazione e dai collaboratori di Fumettologica che ne hanno scelti due a testa: una novità e un recupero.
Forwarded from Fumettologica
40 fumetti da leggere questa estate, consigliati e commentati dalla redazione e dai collaboratori di Fumettologica, che ne hanno scelti due a testa: una novità pubblicata di recente e un recupero dai loro scaffali.
http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/08/estate-fumetti-leggere/
http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/08/estate-fumetti-leggere/
Fumettologica
40 fumetti da leggere questa estate
Consigliati e commentati dalla redazione e dai collaboratori di Fumettologica che ne hanno scelti due a testa: una novità e un recupero.
Breve ma significativo articolo che spiega bene non solo l’idea che le popolazioni antiche vivessero più a lungo di quanto solitamente non riteniamo. Ma spiega bene anche i criteri statistici e scientifici per determinare l’aspettativa di vita. Bello.
Money quote: “Studies on extant traditional people who live far away from modern medicines and markets, such as Tanzania’s Hadza or Brazil’s Xilixana Yanomami, have demonstrated that the most likely age at death is far higher than most people assume: it’s about 70 years old. One study found that although there are differences in rates of death in various populations and periods, especially with regards to violence, there is a remarkable similarity between the mortality profiles of various traditional peoples.”
https://aeon.co/ideas/think-everyone-died-young-in-ancient-societies-think-again
Money quote: “Studies on extant traditional people who live far away from modern medicines and markets, such as Tanzania’s Hadza or Brazil’s Xilixana Yanomami, have demonstrated that the most likely age at death is far higher than most people assume: it’s about 70 years old. One study found that although there are differences in rates of death in various populations and periods, especially with regards to violence, there is a remarkable similarity between the mortality profiles of various traditional peoples.”
https://aeon.co/ideas/think-everyone-died-young-in-ancient-societies-think-again
Aeon
Think everyone died young in ancient societies? Think again
The elderly have always been with us: what do their ancient remains say about the human lifespan and ‘invisible’ old age?
La Cina digitale in cifre
Money quote: “China has twice as many internet users as the total population of the United States -- and it’s growing fast. This unique collaboration between Abacus, 500 Startups, the South China Morning Post, will break down everything you need to know about China’s thriving tech industry, the big players in each field, and lay out the four overarching trends that have emerged.”
https://www.abacusnews.com/china-internet-report/
Money quote: “China has twice as many internet users as the total population of the United States -- and it’s growing fast. This unique collaboration between Abacus, 500 Startups, the South China Morning Post, will break down everything you need to know about China’s thriving tech industry, the big players in each field, and lay out the four overarching trends that have emerged.”
https://www.abacusnews.com/china-internet-report/
South China Morning Post
China Internet Report | South China Morning Post
Explore China Internet Report 2021 and deep-dive into the latest technology trends including tightening regulations on antitrust and data security, as well as the startup landscape.
La complessità delle cose semplici. Per chi conosce il C e programma, anatomia di printf()
Money quote: "The common questions fit roughly in to two forms:
Easy: How does the printf mechanically solve the format problem?
Complex: How does printf actually display text on my console?"
http://www.maizure.org/projects/printf/index.html
Money quote: "The common questions fit roughly in to two forms:
Easy: How does the printf mechanically solve the format problem?
Complex: How does printf actually display text on my console?"
http://www.maizure.org/projects/printf/index.html
www.maizure.org
Tearing apart printf() – MaiZure's Projects
How does printf work behind the scenes
Noise from the net: “My wife and I recently got married and decided that neither of us would change our last names. Some people disagree with this approach, commonly critiquing with "what will you do with your children's last names?? How will they know they're a family?!" My solution: the blockchain”
Le auto che si guidano da sole sono il futuro? Se lo saranno, hanno ancora molta strada da fare. E forse non vogliamo l'esperienza che dovrebbero accumulare per diventare veramente sicure.
Money quote: "“The reality is there will be mistakes along the way,” James Lentz, the CEO of Toyota North America, said at a public event after Herzberg was killed. “A hundred or 500 or a thousand people could lose their lives in accidents like we’ve seen in Arizona.” That week, the company announced that it would pause AV testing on public roads. Recently, when I asked if Toyota has calculated how many casualties it expects to cause in pursuit of AVs, a spokesperson replied that the company is focused on reducing the number of fatalities at the hands of human drivers: “Our goal in developing advanced automated technologies is to someday create a vehicle incapable of causing a crash.”"
https://longreads.com/2018/06/12/the-menace-and-the-promise-of-autonomous-vehicles/
Money quote: "“The reality is there will be mistakes along the way,” James Lentz, the CEO of Toyota North America, said at a public event after Herzberg was killed. “A hundred or 500 or a thousand people could lose their lives in accidents like we’ve seen in Arizona.” That week, the company announced that it would pause AV testing on public roads. Recently, when I asked if Toyota has calculated how many casualties it expects to cause in pursuit of AVs, a spokesperson replied that the company is focused on reducing the number of fatalities at the hands of human drivers: “Our goal in developing advanced automated technologies is to someday create a vehicle incapable of causing a crash.”"
https://longreads.com/2018/06/12/the-menace-and-the-promise-of-autonomous-vehicles/
Longreads
The Menace and the Promise of Autonomous Vehicles
What does it mean to experiment with technology that we know will kill people, even if it could save lives?
Un progetto iniziato nel 2001 al Mit che sta dando i suoi frutti
Money quote: "When we started Processing in 2001, the goal was to bring ideas and technologies out of MIT and into the larger world. One idea was the synthesis of graphic design with computer science, combining the visual principles of design with ways of thinking about systems from computer science. We also wanted to share a way of working with code where things are figured out during the process of writing the software. We called this sketching with code. A third idea was to share what we had learned about how to teach programming to designers — to share this beyond the people we could teach directly through our workshops and classrooms. We wanted to spread this as far as we could."
https://medium.com/processing-foundation/a-modern-prometheus-59aed94abe85
Money quote: "When we started Processing in 2001, the goal was to bring ideas and technologies out of MIT and into the larger world. One idea was the synthesis of graphic design with computer science, combining the visual principles of design with ways of thinking about systems from computer science. We also wanted to share a way of working with code where things are figured out during the process of writing the software. We called this sketching with code. A third idea was to share what we had learned about how to teach programming to designers — to share this beyond the people we could teach directly through our workshops and classrooms. We wanted to spread this as far as we could."
https://medium.com/processing-foundation/a-modern-prometheus-59aed94abe85
Medium
A Modern Prometheus
The History of Processing by Casey Reas and Ben Fry
Simulatore di circuiti logici nel vostro browser. Mai più senza (scherzi a parte, è divertente e, in alcuni rari casi, può essere anche utile).
Money quote: "Only if both switches are on, the LED will go on. Try enabling both(The 'a', this simulator comes with its own letter based notation). Read results from the red 'l' outputs. For example, below is an AND gate I"
https://lodev.org/logicemu/
Money quote: "Only if both switches are on, the LED will go on. Try enabling both(The 'a', this simulator comes with its own letter based notation). Read results from the red 'l' outputs. For example, below is an AND gate I"
https://lodev.org/logicemu/