Parlare in modo critico e cospiratorio di grandi multinazionali del farmaco è come fare gol a porta vuota un mercoledì mattina quando gli avversari sono ancora a casa loro. Però ogni tanto ci vuole. Perché dopotutto capire che il business delle grandi multinazionali de farmaco è avere un pubblico di malatici cronici dipendenti un giorno ci farà capire che l’approccio stile cartello di Medellín all’industria farmaceutica è profondamente da ripensare.

Money quote: “In a private report leaked to news outlets in April 2018, the Goldman Sachs analysts caution against investments in pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies aiming to develop outright cures, and cite Harvoni as a case study. It’s a simple point to make – if profit is your goal, then a product that eradicates its own demand might not be a wise investment”

https://aeon.co/essays/will-medicine-ever-recover-from-the-perverse-economics-of-drugs

Oggi con i social media non è più possibile...

Uno degli effetti della capillarità di internet è la possibilità di connettere le persone. Tutte le persone. E scoprire cose nuove. Ad esempio che, visto da vicino, nessuno è normale.

Money quote: “Every day, millions of people around the world ask Google some variation of the question, “Am I normal?” “

https://medium.com/inc./yale-research-confirms-what-youve-always-suspected-nobody-is-normal-7653dee70b49

La rivoluzione di Condé Nast International e la trasformazione digitale.

Money quote: “This summer, when Condé Nast announced it was merging the United States and international versions of its magazine Condé Nast Traveler onto a new single platform, and that it would be overseen not from its birthplace in New York, but from London, fashion and media heads were turned on both sides of the Atlantic.

After all, the world of the United States publisher and its flagships Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ had always remained resolutely aloof from its international versions. What could the Traveler decision portend?”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/style/conde-nast-international-wolfgang-blau-vogue-runway.html

3D Touch, tempo e risorse sprecate per Apple? - il mio articolo per Macity

Money quote: "È presente sui nuovi iPhone Xs e iPhone Xs Max ma non sull’iPhone Xr. E potrebbe essere il primo segnale che stia scivolando fuori dalle grazie di Tim Cook. Parliamo del 3D Touch, il costoso e complesso meccanismo per dare una dimensione in più al gesto di toccare lo schermo registrando la pressione di chi lo tocca."

https://www.macitynet.it/bye-bye-3d-touch/

Verrà il caos per la troppa acqua e verrà il caos per la troppa poca. E arriverà in modo subdolo e strisciante. Almeno, così ci insegna la storia di Città del Capo.

Money quote: "“The purpose of all this (mis)information is clear: shifting blame from government,” reads an op-ed posted to the Water Crisis Coalition website shortly after the 50-liter household limit was passed by the local government. The Coalition asserted that “in fact, all tiers of Government is complicit through lack of foresight and mismanagement of our water resources.” Through a series of intense protests and heated confrontations with officials in the summer, members of the group stressed that a mobilization of citizens on the order of the old anti-apartheid movement would be required to create the political change necessary to secure the water future of the Western Cape and South Africa. A common refrain in their rallies, marches, and street arguments with Democratic Alliance politicians, the Coalition’s slogan is “water for all or the city must fall.”"

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/09/cape-south-south-africa-water-crisis/569317/

Arriva iOS 12: più privacy e Screen Time per misurare quanto usiamo lo smartphone - il mio articolo per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/09/17/tecnologia/arriva-ios-pi-privacy-e-screen-time-per-misurare-quanto-usiamo-lo-smartphone-gjq9ALJHPfcfIWpr26MiaN/pagina.html

Non vedo l'ora di incontrare gente che è stata flashata dentro un computer e vive nel silicio. Non vedo proprio l'ora.

Money quote: "Though there are still technical limitations to the future Graziano imagines—namely the ability to adequately image and map the brain in its intricate detail—philosophers and entrepreneurs are already picturing an AI afterlife in which the data of the deceased might be used to serve the bereaved. It sounds like an episode of Black Mirror—in fact, it’s very much like the plot of “Be Right Back” from the show’s second season—but startups like Luka are working with real people, not actors and special-effects artists."

https://qz.com/1367185/could-ai-allow-you-to-live-forever/

Questo tizio si è incazzato parecchio con Apple. Due volte di fila. E ha le sue ragioni

Money quote: "And if Apple are going to continue making their own computers — whether as now or alongside an OS licence programme — either Jony Ive needs to stop focusing on making everything needlessly thinner (to the point they don’t work), someone needs to tell him to stop, or he needs replacing.
Goodbye for now Apple hardware, may we meet again in happier times."

https://hackernoon.com/apples-number-is-finally-up-and-why-we-ve-gone-our-separate-ways-while-i-continue-to-use-macos-5471f1935ff3

Artista bipolare abbraccia la sua natura e la traduce nel suo modo di vivere e di creare (però è verbosa assai e inutilmente dettagliata)

Money quote: "I am very conscious about having a routine in order to keep myself functioning well, like a car engine that has all of its parts greased and liquids filled. Every morning I do “the usual”: the toothbrushing, getting myself in gear, 15 minutes of yoga and 15 minutes of meditation, and coffee. I have different coffee mugs I have different associations with. I have a New York Times mug, and those are the days I am a little more analytical and need to work very hard on things that are more administration-oriented. Then there’s a mug that has art by my favorite cartoonist, Kaz, on it, and that’s when things are more creative. There are two different handmade ceramics for days off, when things are a little slower."

https://magenta.as/how-a-bipolar-cartoonist-stays-creative-6b3284c59728

Apple sdogana le eSim: presto le vedremo anche sui telefoni Android - il mio articolo per Wired.it

https://www.wired.it/mobile/smartphone/2018/09/18/apple-sdogana-le-esim/

La digital transformation fa i conti con le competenze carenti: assumere o formare? - Il mio articolo per Il Sole 24 Ore

http://mobile.ilsole24ore.com/solemobile/main/art/tecnologie/2018-09-17/la-digital-transformation-fa-conti-le-competenze-carenti-assumere-o-formare-125236.shtml?uuid=AEihG2pF

Imbattibile Donald Trump

Money quote: "“I’ve always given Trump credit,” says Roberta Brandes Gratz, a journalist and an urban critic who was one of his harshest foes, “for recognizing that defeat was staring him in the face—and switching gears.”"

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/29/trump-robert-moses-new-york-television-city-urban-development-1980s-218836

Storytelling made in San Francisco. Anche il caffè diventa epico quando si chiama Saint Frank.

Money quote: “But more specifically, the beloved Saint Francis who showed all things seemingly mundane and ordinary to be special. His life warranted the denomination of a saint while he would prefer a simple name like Frank. Saint Francis had a passion for life and connection with people and the world around him in a way that shapes our direction in coffee and service. He approached everything with a humble wide-eyed view of simplicity and courtesy. Everyone mattered to Francis. Everything was important and special, worthy of attention and service. We approach our craft with simple and restrained elegance that amplifies our values in coffee, people, and connection.”

https://www.saintfrankcoffee.com/pages/our-story

Il mondo dei fake sui social

Money quote: “The issue of fake social media accounts masquerading as public figures is acute. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter teem with accounts that mimic ordinary people to spread propaganda or to be sold as followers to those who want to appear more influential. But millions of the phony profiles pose specifically as actors, singers, politicians and other well-known figures to broadcast falsehoods, cheat people out of money — or worse. Last year, Australian authorities charged a 42-year-old man with more than 900 child sex offenses for impersonating Justin Bieber on Facebook and other sites to solicit nude photos from minors.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/technology/facebook-instagram-twitter-celebrity-impostors.html

La storia di Yoshihisa Maitani, il genio delle macchine fotografiche

Money quote: “His career spanned more than forty years (twenty of which were spent personally designing some of the best cameras in the world), and his vision, dedication to his ideals, and tireless work ethic forged a path not just for Olympus, but for the entire worldwide camera industry over this period. And though he retired in 1996 and passed away in 2009, his influence can still be seen in today’s digital cameras.

His work is amazing. His story is worth telling. Let’s do it.“

https://www.casualphotophile.com/2018/01/12/yoshihisa-maitani-the-man-who-made-olympus/

Vita e storie dei super ricchi. I quali, presi uno per uno, sono dei poveracci pieni di soldi.

Money quote: “As his hedge fund was imploding during the financial crisis of 2008, Homm, now 58, fled the €5m Majorcan villa he shared with a 27-year-old Russian lingerie model. With $500,000 stashed in his underwear and a humidor in hand, Homm boarded a plane to Colombia and disappeared for five years. We learn that he used his fortune to buy his son, then 15, the services of a Dutch prostitute. Homm was later arrested at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence”

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/jul/08/generation-wealth-how-the-modern-world-fell-in-love-with-money

Se l’intelligenza artificiale legge il giornale - il mio articolo per La Stampa (a pagamento)

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/09/19/tecnologia/se-lintelligenza-artificiale-legge-il-giornale-e9Yap3iLK1n6oUyzWTR34N/premium.html

Non solo le piscine erano una cosa per i bianchi, in America, ma soprattutto i neri ci sì bagnavano i capelli. Insomma, una questione di cuffie razziste.

Money quote: “Historically, swimming pools have played a murky part in racial segregation and disparity in the United States. Despite a public-pool boom in the 1950s and ’60s, generations of black people have not learned how to swim. In 2017, a report from the USA Swimming Foundation found that 64.2 percent of black adults said they had no or low swimming abilities, versus 39.7 percent of white people. Among the black parents in that group, 78 percent said their children had no or low swimming abilities, too.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/567398/

Più grosso l’animale, piu lunga la
vita, più alto il rischio di tumore. Eppure non è così. Come fa a difendersi ad esempio l’elegante, che ha un tasso di tumori molto basso nonostante la grande mole e la lunga vita?

Money quote: “This puzzling trend is called Peto’s paradox, named after the British epidemiologist Richard Peto, who described it in the 1970s. Since then, biologists have proposed hundreds of hypotheses to explain it. Some note that larger animals have lower metabolic rates; this reduces the rate at which they acquire mutations. Others have suggested that in big animals, tumors need more time to reach a lethal size; during that time, the tumors likely to grow debilitating secondary tumors of their own.

But perhaps the most common hypothesis is that big animals simply have more anti-cancer defenses, including the “tumor suppressor”

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/567583/

Perchè Apple a ottobre potrebbe sorprendere con un iPad Pro 2018 con Usb-C - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/ipad-pro-usb-c/