In una stupenda rappresentazione grafica basata su dati provenienti dallo Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, le vendite di armi da parte di USA e Russia al resto del mondo.

Link: http://bit.ly/2MUbgi6

Ogni tanto penso che dovrebbero mandare a scrivere questi articoli giornalisti che hanno una vaga idea di cosa sia un computer. Comunque è godibile, soprattutto se avete una predilezione per la scrittura melodrammatica. Però non corretto tecnicamente.

Money quote: “Algorithms have changed, from Really Simple to Ridiculously Complicated. They are capable of accomplishing tasks and tackling problems that they’ve never been able to do before. They are able, really, to handle an unfathomably complex world better than a human can. But exactly because they can, the way they work has become unfathomable too. Inputs loop from one algorithm to the next; data presses through more instructions, more code. The complexity, dynamism, the sheer not-understandability of the algorithm means that there is a middle part – between input and output – where it is possible that no one knows exactly what they’re doing. The algorithm learns whatever it learns. “The reality is, professionally, I only look under the hood when it goes wrong. And it can be physically impossible to understand what has actually happened.””

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/ridiculously-complicated-algorithms/

Storia più debole della sua bellissima premessa, letteralmente fantasmagorica. Però sempre una bella storia che para di Giappone e di Unicode. Che vuoi di più?

Uno spettro si aggira nei nostri computer...

Money quote: “To sum up - in 1978 a series of small mistakes created some characters out of nothing. The errors went undiscovered just long enough to be set in stone, and now these ghosts are, at least in potential, a part of every computer on the planet, lurking in the dark corners of character tables.”

https://www.dampfkraft.com/ghost-characters.html

Creare i propri nemici. O creare la loro stessa idea/ il mondo musulmano, ad esempio.

Money quote: “he idea of an ancient clash between the Muslim World and the Christian World is a dangerous and modern myth. It relies on fabricated misrepresentations of separate Islamic and Western geopolitical and civilisational unities. Pan-Africanism and Pan-Asianism offer a better context for understanding Pan-Islamism. All three emerged in the late 19th century, at the height of the age of empire, and as counters to Anglo-Saxon supremacy and the white man’s civilising mission. Pan-Islamists in the age of empire did not have to convince fellow Muslims about the global unity of their co-religionists. By racialising their Muslim subjects with references to their religious identity, colonisers created the conceptual foundations of modern Muslim unity”

https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-of-a-muslim-world-is-both-modern-and-misleading

La trasformazione epocale in corso, che vede uno spostamento delle vendite di qualsiasi cosa dai negozi fisici a quello online, Amazon in testa, crea cambiamento anche nelle profondità del tessuto industriale.

Se si va un po’ a indagare si possono trovare succose (e voluminose) chicche come il Tetra Pak Index, un rapporto online che analizza in maniera approfondita le tendenze in atto, i cambiamenti, le esigenze dei diversi attori (industria e consumatori) sino ad arrivare a considerazioni ed esempi alquanto stimolanti, oltre a una comprensibile lettura delle opportunità “pro domo loro”.

Valida lettura per capire cosa stiamo diventando e cosa compreremo. Ad esempio, olio d’oliva italiano nel tetrapak...

Money quote: “Convenience, sustainability, quality and innovation are all key selling points for Di Carlo Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Italy's first ever extra virgin olive oil to be packed in Tetra Pak® packages. Available online via Amazon, ease of delivery is key to the product offering, hence the importance of the logistical and distribution efficiency of cartons over the alternatives - traditionally heavy, breakable glass in the case of olive oil. The environmental benefits of the packages, manufactured from FSC™-certified and controlled sources paperboard, are also cited in its marketing, along with the ability of the multiple layers to protect the contents from oxygen and light - the main causes of olive oil oxidation. A premium product made with 100% Italian, cold-pressed olives, it was launched in Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 100 Square packages with a convenient, easy-to-open and reseal cap in January 2018.”

https://www.tetrapak.com/about/tetra-pak-index/tetra-pak-index-online-report

Una bella e accorata difesa del l’insegnamento tradizionale - fisico, tangibile, tattile - anziché digitale, sullo schermo e mediato dal computer. Fenomenale.

Money quote: “If the move to digital learning continues, children will spend much, if not most, of their waking hours in front of screens. They will use apps before they go to school, spend their days in front of computers, do their homework online, and then entertain themselves with digital media. Children are losing opportunities to experience the world in all its richness”

Aggiungo un paio di cose. Qui si parla di usare il computer per insegnare e non si parla di insegnare l’informatica, che a sua volta è cosa diversa dal saper usare il computer. Beh, forse sarà sorprendente, ma si impara meglio anche l’informatica come scienza quando non si usa il computer.

https://aeon.co/essays/children-learn-best-when-engaged-in-the-living-world-not-on-screens

MacBook Pro 2018, la recensione: Apple mostra i muscoli - la mia prova del portatile Apple per Wired

https://www.wired.it/gadget/computer/2018/08/30/recensione-macbook-pro-2018/

Che ne pensate, il riscaldamento globale è vero o è una fake news? Non è una domanda banale, e non solo perché viviamo nell'era di Donald Trump. Come dimostrano quelli che negano l'evoluzione o anche la semplice idea che la Terra non sia piatta ma sferica (sì, sappiamo che ci siete, là fuori), semplicemente dire che una cosa è vera non la rende per questo vera. Servono prove, dimostrazioni, metodo scientifico. Ecco, tutto questo per quanto riguarda il riscaldamento globale è sul serio alla portata di tutti.

Money quote: "You don’t need a thermometer or a rain gauge to notice climate change, and you don’t need to be a scientist to see it.

Evidence is in the blueberry bushes in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond, the dwindling population of polar bears of the Arctic and the dying corals worldwide. Scientists have documented 28,800 cases of plants and animals “responding consistently to temperature changes,” a 2008 study in the journal Nature said.

“Nature is extremely sensitive to temperature and nature is reacting to the warmer temperatures,” said Boston University biologist Richard Primack. “The dramatic change is happening right in front of us.”"

https://apnews.com/c895b9ac7e4a4370953e51862285c2ce/Looking-for-signs-of-global-warming

Art is a way of survival

Rieccomi, e riecco Fumettologica. Un viaggio nella fantascienza e nel fumetto come strumenti narrativi popolari: l'eternauta.

Money quote: "Viaggio nel tempo e invasione aliena invece sono i due strumenti scelti anche per una delle principali opere di fantascienza del Novecento: L’Eternauta. Il che (consentite, dopo una lunga introduzione, anche questa larga iperbole al vostro cronista della science fiction) apre una serie infinita di mondi."

http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/08/eternauta-fumetto-oesterheld-argentina/

Ma uno psicologo che ha in terapia una persona, può rompere il vincolo di riservatezza (il segreto professionale) di quel che accade in terapia e informare la polizia e/o i diretti interessati se il paziente gli confida di voler uccidere qualcuno? Andare ad esplorare questa domanda è meno banale di quanto non sembri, perché mette in realtà a nudo cosa sia la terapia e a cosa serva.

Money quote: "Despite empathy for the patient, a therapist has a moral obligation to break confidentiality if they assess real risk and, in some jurisdictions, a legal obligation to contact law enforcement. In the United States, this legal obligation began in 1976, with the ruling in Tarasoff v The Regents of the University of California. In this case, a male college student told his therapist that he was going to kill his ex-girlfriend for ending their relationship. The therapist wrote a letter to campus police but did not inform the intended victim herself. The patient left therapy and later murdered his ex-girlfriend. Initially this lead to a ruling that a therapist had a duty to warn an at-risk person; in 1976, the bar was changed from a duty to warn to a duty to protect. In the state of New York, legislation enacted in 2013 created a mandatory duty for mental health professionals to make a report when they believe that a patient might pose a danger to themselves. The law also allows law enforcement to remove firearms owned by a patient deemed dangerous. "

https://aeon.co/ideas/can-therapists-break-confidentiality-to-prevent-violence

Semplicemente spettacolare!

Money quote: "The story of how Frank D’Angelo came to join the video game industry is both sweet and typical."

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/318588/The_great_video_game_exodus.php

Per gli amanti di strumenti da riga di comando che funzionino bene e siano moderni, funzionali, questo per gestire la contabilità è geniale anche e soprattutto nel modo con cui la gestisce.

Money quote: "We found existing plain text accounting tools unsatisfactory, so we developed Transity. It models financial flows in terms of transactions and not debited / credited accounts. Furthermore, its journal format is based on YAML and can therefore easily be processed by 3rd party tools. It's written in PureScript and published under a ISC license."

https://www.feram.io/blog/2018-06-05_transity_the_future_of_plain_text_accounting/

La blockchain si sta trasformando in una sorta di strano mistero: tecnologia problematica, che rende impossibile la privacy così come la GDPR la immagina e consuma energia e banda senza scopo, oppure struttura decentralizzata fondamentale per lo sviluppo di nuove opportunità? Qui se ne parla un po'.

Money quote: "The word “trust” is printed on things all around you. The dollar bill in your pocket. The box of Kleenex on your bedside table has a label that reads “trusted care.” In the physical world, it’s easy to prove that trust is indeed warranted: Trade that dollar (plus three more) for a latte and you can taste the power of U.S. currency."

https://medium.com/s/trustissues/the-blockchain-can-fix-the-internet-dfeeddb9338d

Alfin la maraviglia, la maraviglia.

Money quote: “
Wonder is sometimes said to be a childish emotion, one that we grow out of. But that is surely wrong. As adults, we might experience it when gaping at grand vistas. I was dumbstruck when I first saw a sunset over the Serengeti. We also experience wonder when we discover extraordinary facts. I was enthralled to learn that, when arranged in a line, the neurons in a human brain would stretch the 700 miles from London to Berlin. But why? What purpose could this wide-eyed, slack-jawed feeling serve? It’s difficult to determine the biological function of any affect, but whatever it evolved for (and I’ll come to that), wonder might be humanity’s most important emotion”

https://aeon.co/essays/why-wonder-is-the-most-human-of-all-emotions

La scomparsa della realtà: The Vanishing of Reality. Articolo estratto di libro di giornalista vincitrice del premio Pulizer. Una di quelle sintesi da brivido che in un attimo rimettono tutto in ordine. Come avevano fatto a non capirlo prima?

(Secondo me però andrebbe esplorato anche il ruolo del correttore automatico nella creazione di fake news).

Money quote: “Recommendation engines, she adds, help connect conspiracy theorists with one another to the point that “we are long past merely partisan filter bubbles and well into the realm of siloed communities that experience their own reality and operate with their own facts.” At this point, she concludes, “the Internet doesn’t just reflect reality anymore; it shapes it.””

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/08/01/the-vanishing-of-reality/

La banalità del male: Facebook è malvagio (lo è) perché tratta gli individui come punti in reti di connessioni. Ma le persone non sono grafi, le nazioni non sono database. A Facebook manca la capacità di avere una opinione.

Money quote: “That brings us back to Facebook. It has its own grand project—to turn the human world into one big information system. This is, it goes without saying, nowhere near as terrible as the project of the thousand-year Reich. But the fundamental problem is the same: an inability to look at things from the other fellow’s point of view, a disconnect between the human reality and the grand project.”

https://qz.com/1342757/everything-bad-about-facebook-is-bad-for-the-same-reason/amp/

Una tipa avventurosa lascia il lavoro fisso e parte per fare la nomade digitale. Scoprendo un sacco di banalità sulla vita on the road, anche e soprattutto sul senso dell’uscita con delle persone.

Money quote: “A German guy that I met in Manila had to use Google Translate to understand my text messages to him. He spoke English fluently, but he had a hard time reading and writing. We still had amazing conversations; he’d just come from living in New Zealand for six months and already missed it. He taught me that it’s not the length of time that someone’s in your life that matters, but the marks they leave when they’re there.“

https://medium.com/@tessa_6155/dating-as-a-digital-nomad-bc53e66e453b

Quel che sta succedendo a Barcellona è anche quello che accade a numerose città italiane, soprattutto piccole e medio-piccole: il tanto invocato turismo è in realtà un evento disgregatore del tessuto urbano e sociale. Senza contare che difficilmente è controllabile perché legato a fattori esterni (Ryanair che apre una rotta piuttosto che un'altra, per intenderci).

Siamo sicuri sia questo il futuro che vogliamo?

Money quote: "The saddest thing about all this is the city is rapidly losing its identity and becoming like everywhere else. A new word has been coined to describe this apparently unstoppable process: parquetematización – the act of becoming a theme park. Barcelona has become an imitation of itself."

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/aug/30/why-tourism-is-killing-barcelona-overtourism-photo-essay

E cosa succede al mondo del lavoro? Una trasformazione epocale. Partiamo da questo: il Manifesto del telelavoro. C'è la pars costruens, la pars destruens, e tutto il resto.

Money quote:

"What is it not:
- There is no main office or headquarters with multiple people "The only way to not have people in a satellite office is not to have a main office."
- You do work together and communicate intensely, remote doesn't mean working independent of each other.
- Offshoring of work, you hire around the world.
- It is not a management paradigm, it is still a normal hierarchical organization, however there is a focus on output instead of input.
- It is not a substitute for human interaction, people still need to collaborate, have conversations, and feel part of a team."

https://www.remoteonly.org

Il lavoro cambia. Farsi il mazzo serve sempre, ma occorre farlo in modo nuovo. Per dire: si può lavorare meglio ma meno.

Money quote: "Surprisingly, the top 10% of employees with the highest productivity didn’t put in longer hours than anyone else – often they didn't even work eight-hour days. Instead, the key to their productivity was that for every 52 minutes of focused work, they took a 17-minute break.

While our culture may be pushing us towards working 24/7, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a Silcon Valley consultant and author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, believes this is not helping us to be more productive or to come up with creative solutions.

The research instead points towards the importance of rest, he says."

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170612-why-you-should-manage-your-energy-not-your-time