Non lo sapete ma l’ecommerce in Cina sta per esplodere e cambierà per sempre il volto di quel Paese. Lo racconta il New Yorker

Money quote: “Although China has the most Internet users of any country and the largest e-commerce market in the world—more than twice the size of America’s—there are still hundreds of millions of Chinese whose lives have yet to migrate online. Analysts predict that China’s online retail market will double in size in the next two years, and that the growth will come disproportionately from third- and fourth-tier cities and from the country’s vast rural hinterland.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/23/how-e-commerce-is-transforming-rural-china

Noise from the net:

Every day, computers are making people easier to use. -- DavidTemkin

🏠👷🏻‍♀ #Solidarietà #Volontariato
Cinquant’anni fa a Padova nascevano gli Universitari Costruttori, un movimento di volontariato fondato da un gruppo di studenti universitari che, guidati dal loro professore padre Mario Ciman, decise di rendere concrete le riflessioni evangeliche sulla solidarietà. Gli studenti iniziarono, quindi, a costruire una casa per due famiglie in grave difficoltà e da allora sono centinaia le case e gli edifici che hanno costruito o ristrutturato offrendo un aiuto concreto a chi ha bisogno di un tetto. Oggi il movimento ha sede anche a Milano e Roma ed è aperto a chiunque ne condivida i principi ispiratori: solidarietà, accoglienza, spirito di servizio. Ogni anno l’assemblea dell’associazione decide a quali progetti dedicarsi, ne studia la fattibilità tecnica, la logistica e quindi programma uno o più campi estivi. Proprio ieri si sono conclusi due campi di lavoro. A Prepezzano (Sa) gli Universitari Costruttori hanno rimesso a nuovo un vecchio edificio dell’associazione Oasi che ospiterà una famiglia di profughi siriani. A Tolentino, paese terremotato in provincia di Macerata, i volontari hanno invece ristrutturato gli spazi esterni di una casa-famiglia per persone in difficoltà. Per partecipare ai campi di lavoro non occorre avere particolari professionalità, “tutti possono dare il proprio contributo in base alle proprie forze e caratteristiche”. Qui se volete saperne di più www.universitaricostruttori.it

I dipendenti di Google protestano: niente motore di ricerca “truccato” per la Cina - il mio articolo per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/08/19/tecnologia/i-dipendenti-di-google-protestano-niente-motore-di-ricerca-truccato-per-la-cina-m7Gc1YtblCaxC5yF213nCM/pagina.html

La Germania ha un problema: mancano le bottiglie per la birra. (Grazie a Simo per la segnalazione)

Money quote: “Put Germany’s legendary love of beer together with a summer that’s shaping up to be the country’s hottest since 1881, and what do you get? A bottle shortage that’s sent brewers scrambling”

https://qz.com/1345699/germans-are-drinking-so-much-beer-this-summer-that-theyre-running-out-of-bottles/

Gli anelli segreti che Sigmund Freud dava ai suoi allievi più fidati...

Money quote: “Freud began gifting rings to other psychoanalysts after he broke with Carl Jung in 1912, the AFP writes. Initially, he gathered five of his most dedicated friends and colleagues into a “secret society of psychoanalysts” and gave each a ring to signify their connection. The rings are set with stones from antiquity, carved with goddesses or erotic scenes. These ancient myths had a particular resonance for Freud and his work. (Think: the Oedipal complex.)”

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/freud-signet-rings

Uno si fa un bello screening del dna per vedere se ci sono malattie ereditarie e scopre che mater semper certa est, parer numquam. Anzi, proprio no... era un altro.

Money quote: "“I looked into a mirror and started crying,” says St Clair, now 56. “I’ve taken for granted my whole life that what I was looking at in the mirror was part my mother and part my dad. And now that half of that person I was looking at in the mirror, I didn’t know who that was.”"

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/dna-test-misattributed-paternity/562928/

Recensione Nokia 8110, il ritorno della banana - Il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/recensione-nokia-8110/

Una impressionante collezione di 15mila origami lasciati dai clienti di ristoranti giapponesi per le proprie bacchette.

Money quote: “The massive project had a humble beginning. “My interest in collecting started when I was studying at university and working part-time at a restaurant,” says Tatsumi, who is now 27. As a “poor, hungry student,” he found clearing tables tedious. But one day, he picked up a tiny paper circle fashioned by a customer. It had been “transformed into a work of art,” Tatsumi says, and he was so struck by it that he slipped it into his pocket. He started keeping an eye out for chopstick wrapper origami and picking them off tabletops.”

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chopstick-wrapper-origami

Il problema di fiducia delle compagnie telefoniche - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/fiducia-compagnie-telefoniche/

Apple prepara l’aggiornamento dei MacBook Air e del Mac mini - il mio articolo per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/08/21/tecnologia/apple-prepara-laggiornamento-dei-macbook-air-e-del-mac-mini-mztrcZzyqYlFiZ9cH54SgM/pagina.html

Eccolo: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder o ADHD, un cervello che fa tutto. Ma siccome è la chimica a governarci (il nuovo determinismo pseudoscientifico, poi ci credo che il Papa volesse bruciare Galileo: se l’obiettivo di parte del scienza è una prosaica negazione del libero arbitrio) la cosa si fa complessa, dicono. Eppure, si può esplorare qualsiasi abisso, sondare qualunque profondità. E cercare una misura, dopo aver formulato delle ipotesi e fatto delle verifiche per capire se esiste un modello. La felicità può essere coltivata/allevata - non costruita o generata chimicamente.

La faccio breve e torno al tema dell’articolo che in realtà mi intriga: forse c’è qualcosa di chimico in noi che possiamo gestire in altro modo, non solo chimicamente.

Money quote: “Yet not every ADHD brain is an adrenaline junkie. Littman writes that individuals with more hypersensitive ADHD may be living in a constant state of sensory overload. With so much stimulation and no way to compartmentalize it, these people might avoid crowds or loud venues. Many seek refuge in video games, where they experience dopamine boosts but have control over the amount of sensory input.”

https://medium.com/s/greatescape/what-its-like-to-have-an-adhd-brain-52a7c5171d8f

​​Infinite loop (genio)

Internet e l'ecommerce sono l'inizio della fine.

Money quote: "All told, “we are all accumulating mountains of things,” said Mark A. Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He sometimes asks his students to count the number of things they have on them in class, and once they start counting up gadgets and cords and accessories, they end up near 50. “Americans have become a society of hoarders,” Cohen said. Montoya said she has more stuff now that she has started shopping online: “It’s easier to accumulate more, and it’s easier to spend more.”"

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/08/online-shopping-and-accumulation-of-junk/567985/

Vi ricordate "Don't be evil", il vecchio motto di Google che sembrava una excusatio non petita poi puntualmente segnale di una problematicità che marca la vita dell'azienda californiana? Ecco, adesso sull'intelligenza artificiale, senza che nessuno lo chiedesse loro, Sundai Pichai tira fuori i principi di Google sulle AI. Andiamo bene...

Money quote: "We recognize that such powerful technology raises equally powerful questions about its use. How AI is developed and used will have a significant impact on society for many years to come. As a leader in AI, we feel a deep responsibility to get this right. So today, we’re announcing seven principles to guide our work going forward. These are not theoretical concepts; they are concrete standards that will actively govern our research and product development and will impact our business decisions."

https://blog.google/topics/ai/ai-principles/

I ricconi indiani e il loro rapporto piuttosto malato con la Gran Bretagna.

Money quote: “The most prominent among these émigré moguls is India’s “King of Good Times”, Vijay Mallya, the one-time aviation magnate and brewer, who transformed Kingfisher beer into a global brand. A few years ago, Mallya was one of India’s most celebrated industrialists, famous for his mullet haircut and flamboyant lifestyle. But in early 2016, Indian authorities filed charges relating to the collapse of his Kingfisher airline, which went bust in spectacular fashion in 2012, leaving behind mountainous debts and irate, unpaid staff. And so, facing allegations of financial irregularities and of refusing to repay outstanding loans, Mallya quietly boarded a plane for Britain, too.”

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/10/the-staggering-rise-of-indias-super-rich

I Baby boomers invecchiano e sono tanto: aumentano i divorzi “grigi” (over 50) negli Usa. Soprattutto, questo blocco demografico porta con se una idea della coppia e del matrimonio completamente differente rispetto al passato. Il divorzio infatti arriva con maggiore facilità e per differenti motivi. Oppure no. Grande articolo di Aeon.

Money quote: “The basis for heterosexual marriage in the US has changed dramatically over the past century. Scholars have noted that, beginning in the 20th century, couples were bound together by love, but also by a set of mutually binding responsibilities toward one another. In its current form, divorce under this marital framework typically involves partners engaging in behaviours that harm themselves or their spouses. In these ways, they violate their vows of binding responsibilities, and divorce is therefore acceptable.

The social unrest of the 1960s, however, brought a different set of expectations into some marriages. The Baby Boomers who came of age during this period began to see their own personal self-actualisation as the most important goal in their lives. Marriages soon became sites of self-empowerment and self-development for many couples. If at any point in time, one partner in a marriage was no longer fulfilled, that person could reasonably seek a divorce”

https://aeon.co/ideas/baby-boomers-are-divorcing-for-surprisingly-old-fashioned-reasons

Global worming

Un bel racconto breve di Ottessa Moshfegh ambientato in Cina.

Money quote: “I felt an immediate affinity with Adil, as if I were meeting someone I’d known all my life for the first time. We locked eyes, and in that instant it was understood: there was something between us.”

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/the-man-in-xinjiang/

Esercizi di retorica: dimostrare entrambi i (contrversi) casi riguardo Tesla e il suo creatore Elon Musk. Una Monday Note che è un classico.

Money quote: “Now 15-years-old, Tesla enjoys a media presence that’s well out of proportion with the size of its sales. In the first quarter of this year, the company sold fewer than 30,000 cars; for reference, Toyota sells about 2.5M per quarter, 80 times more. The extravagant attention can be explained, at least in part, by Elon Musk’s impressive PR skills. Musk is a veritable quote machine, constantly providing fodder across the whole spectrum of media from blogs to Twitter, from the Wall Street Journal to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The attention may be inordinate, but it isn’t entirely empty. It would mean nothing if Tesla didn’t have a serious product, and Tesla’s Model S, a “green car for carnivores” as one wag rightly calls it, amply rewards those who pay $100K for the car’s sexy styling, swift acceleration, and pleasant road manners. As industry observers have noted, the Model S is outselling comparable high-end BMWs and Mercedes, first in the US and now in Europe.”

https://mondaynote.com/tesla-both-sides-of-the-case-32bf53b8f4f1

Com’è costruirsi una relazione fuori dal matrimonio con una app per persone sposate come Ashley Madison? Molto, molto diverso da quel che vi aspettate. La prospettiva è quella femminile, della donna che vuole tradire.

Money quote: “I’ve been sexting with someone new, a new match from the site, Things were going well, until I realized that he wanted to have a threesome. I told him I didn’t want that. I was looking for something else, sex yes, but also, a connection. He said he would be open to that … if I were willing to have a threesome. This is just the way it seems to go with me and men, my husband or otherwise. There’s their needs, their desires, their priorities, and then beneath that — mine. I thought that maybe the problem was marriage or monogamy, but now I don’t know. I don’t know why no matter the scenario, they always seem to have the power.”

https://medium.com/the-cut/i-went-on-ashley-madison-to-try-to-have-an-affair-50dc30de71be