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/
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/
The Atlantic
Swim Caps Are Keeping Black Women Out of Pools
Their limited design is yet another contributor to America’s racial disparities in swimming.
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/
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/
The Atlantic
Elephants Have a Secret Weapon Against Cancer
The biggest animals should have the highest risks of developing tumors, but they don’t.
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/
https://www.macitynet.it/ipad-pro-usb-c/
Macitynet.it
Perchè Apple a ottobre potrebbe sorprendere con un iPad Pro 2018 con Usb-C - Macitynet.it
La mossa permetterebbe di rendere lo strumento più leggero, l’ideale per chi non vuole spendere i soldio necessari a prendere un MacBook Pro ma anche avviare la convergenza tra iOS e macOS in modo inatteso
Se volete leggere qualcosa sull'autore dell'unico film Pixar-Disney che mi ha fatto piangere (da adulto), Andrea Fiamma è il vostro uomo
Money quote: "«Fare film» è la risposta che diede, dieci anni più tardi, al consulente scolastico che gli chiese cosa avrebbe voluto fare da grande. «Per dissuadermi, chiese “E se i film non esistessero, cosa ti piacerebbe fare?”» ricorda Bird. «Risposi che allora avrei dovuto inventarli.»"
http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/09/brad-bird-incredibili/
Money quote: "«Fare film» è la risposta che diede, dieci anni più tardi, al consulente scolastico che gli chiese cosa avrebbe voluto fare da grande. «Per dissuadermi, chiese “E se i film non esistessero, cosa ti piacerebbe fare?”» ricorda Bird. «Risposi che allora avrei dovuto inventarli.»"
http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/09/brad-bird-incredibili/
Fumettologica
Brad Bird, regista incredibile
Un profilo di Brad Bird, animatore e regista di "Il gigante di ferro" e dello studio Pixar che è appena tornato nei cinema con "Gli Incredibili 2".
Forwarded from Scrivere zen
“Come mangiare sano senza spendere un patrimonio ogni giorno – se poi potete spendercelo, un patrimonio in cibo, ottimo!”. 🍧 I consigli adorabili di Susanna Villa https://susannasway.com/2018/09/19/mangiare-sano-senza-spendere-un-patrimonio/
Susanna's Way
Mangiare sano, spendere il giusto
Non voglio fare la guastafeste, sono la prima ad apprezzare ingredienti assurdi in cucina e il cibo è di gran lunga la cosa per cui spendo di più… però ultimamente ho spesso l’impressi…
Al largo della costa della Polonia c'è una struttura che i nazisti avevano usato per testare le torpedini (e poi dopo di loro anche i sovietici). Pensarla è già un momento di tristezza infinita.
Money quote: "The complex, which has since been nicknamed “Torpedownia,” was actively used for torpedo testing in German-occupied Poland for just a few years, from 1942 and 1945. After the war, when German troops were forced to retreat from Poland, the station was taken over by the Soviet Army. The Soviets used the facility for military dive training until it was eventually abandoned and fell into disrepair. The station’s technical equipment was taken to the USSR, and probably never reassembled or used again."
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/torpedownia-torpedo-launch-station
9bcdf
Money quote: "The complex, which has since been nicknamed “Torpedownia,” was actively used for torpedo testing in German-occupied Poland for just a few years, from 1942 and 1945. After the war, when German troops were forced to retreat from Poland, the station was taken over by the Soviet Army. The Soviets used the facility for military dive training until it was eventually abandoned and fell into disrepair. The station’s technical equipment was taken to the USSR, and probably never reassembled or used again."
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/torpedownia-torpedo-launch-station
9bcdf
Atlas Obscura
Torpedownia
A World War II torpedo launch station abandoned off the Polish coast.
C'è gente strana. Tipo questo tizio e il suo amore ossessivo per le mappe.
Money quote: "I’ve been called “The Human GPS” by friends. I’m not sure if I should consider that a complement, or an indictment of my navigational, exploratory fetish. When I’d play on the beach as a kid, I’d craft scale models of fantastic cities with intricate highway and irrigation systems to help fake sand-people get around and avoid rush hour traffic or high tides. One particularly elaborate ville took an entire week and stretched some 50′ by 50′, and contained an inner and outer beltway."
https://psiloveyou.xyz/the-navigator-f7f049399387
Money quote: "I’ve been called “The Human GPS” by friends. I’m not sure if I should consider that a complement, or an indictment of my navigational, exploratory fetish. When I’d play on the beach as a kid, I’d craft scale models of fantastic cities with intricate highway and irrigation systems to help fake sand-people get around and avoid rush hour traffic or high tides. One particularly elaborate ville took an entire week and stretched some 50′ by 50′, and contained an inner and outer beltway."
https://psiloveyou.xyz/the-navigator-f7f049399387
P.S. I Love You
The Navigator
Maps: A Love Story.
Un punto di vista forte - non lo condivido - su Apple e la sua attuale linea di prodotti. Interessante però.
Money quote: “The company used to stand for something. Now it’s just chasing profits.”
https://medium.com/s/story/apples-product-line-is-a-mess-5a9a5730cafa
Money quote: “The company used to stand for something. Now it’s just chasing profits.”
https://medium.com/s/story/apples-product-line-is-a-mess-5a9a5730cafa
Medium
Apple’s Product Line Is a Mess
The company used to stand for something. Now it’s just chasing profits.
Arriva iA Writer 5.1, pronto per Mojave - il mio articolo per Macity
Money quote: "Abbiamo potuto provare anche questa versione in beta del software iA Writer, che è uno dei due editor di testo preferiti di chi scrive, e abbiamo trovato un’ottima stabilità complessiva della app e un miglioramento della fluidità di utilizzo"
https://www.macitynet.it/ia-writer-5-1/
Money quote: "Abbiamo potuto provare anche questa versione in beta del software iA Writer, che è uno dei due editor di testo preferiti di chi scrive, e abbiamo trovato un’ottima stabilità complessiva della app e un miglioramento della fluidità di utilizzo"
https://www.macitynet.it/ia-writer-5-1/
Macitynet.it
Arriva iA Writer 5.1, pronto per Mojave - Macitynet.it
Arriva la nuova versione dell’app minimalista per la scrittura in Markdown più premiata. Hashtags, Quick Search, Smart folders e tante altre piccole e meno piccole novità
Letture per il fine settimana. Quando è morto John McCain ci sono stati i funerali di Stato, ai quali il morituro ha voluto che Donald Trump non parlasse. Sono intervenuti Barack Obama e George W. Bush. Due bei discorsi: è passato un po' di tempo e vale la pena riprenderli in mano.
Money quote Bush: "John was, above all, a man with a code. He lived by a set of public virtues that brought strength and purpose to his life and to his country. He was courageous, with a courage that frightened his captors, and inspired his countrymen. He was honest, no matter whom it offended. Presidents were not spared. He was honorable, always recognizing that his opponents were still patriots and human beings. He loved freedom with a passion of a man who knew its absence. He respected the dignity inherent in every life, a dignity that does not stop at borders and cannot be erased by dictators."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/george-w-bushs-eulogy-john-mccain-funeral/569089/
Money quote Obama: "John understood, as JFK understood, as Ronald Reagan understood, that part of what makes our country great is that our membership is based not on our bloodline, not on what we look like, what our last names are, it’s not based on where our parents or grandparents came from, or how recently they arrived, but on adherence to a common creed: that all of us are created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. It has been mentioned today, and we’ve seen footage this week John pushing back against supporters who challenged my patriotism during the 2008 campaign. I was grateful, but I wasn't surprised. As Joe Lieberman said, that was John's instinct. I never saw John treat anyone differently because of their race or religion or gender. And I’m certain that in those moments that have been referred to during the campaign, he saw himself as defending America's character, not just mine. For he considered it the imperative of every citizen who loves this country to treat all people fairly."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/barack-obama-eulogy-john-mccain/569065/
Money quote Bush: "John was, above all, a man with a code. He lived by a set of public virtues that brought strength and purpose to his life and to his country. He was courageous, with a courage that frightened his captors, and inspired his countrymen. He was honest, no matter whom it offended. Presidents were not spared. He was honorable, always recognizing that his opponents were still patriots and human beings. He loved freedom with a passion of a man who knew its absence. He respected the dignity inherent in every life, a dignity that does not stop at borders and cannot be erased by dictators."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/george-w-bushs-eulogy-john-mccain-funeral/569089/
Money quote Obama: "John understood, as JFK understood, as Ronald Reagan understood, that part of what makes our country great is that our membership is based not on our bloodline, not on what we look like, what our last names are, it’s not based on where our parents or grandparents came from, or how recently they arrived, but on adherence to a common creed: that all of us are created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. It has been mentioned today, and we’ve seen footage this week John pushing back against supporters who challenged my patriotism during the 2008 campaign. I was grateful, but I wasn't surprised. As Joe Lieberman said, that was John's instinct. I never saw John treat anyone differently because of their race or religion or gender. And I’m certain that in those moments that have been referred to during the campaign, he saw himself as defending America's character, not just mine. For he considered it the imperative of every citizen who loves this country to treat all people fairly."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/barack-obama-eulogy-john-mccain/569065/
The Atlantic
Read George W. Bush’s Eulogy for John McCain
During a memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral, the former president delivered a tribute to the late Arizona senator, whose bid for the presidency he blocked in 2000.
Ma alla fine l'intelligenza artificiale in azienda a cosa serve?
Money quote: "Machine learning is enabling companies to expand their top-line growth and optimize processes while improving employee engagement and increasing customer satisfaction. Here are some concrete examples of how AI and machine learning are creating value in companies today"
https://hbr.org/2017/05/8-ways-machine-learning-is-improving-companies-work-processes
Money quote: "Machine learning is enabling companies to expand their top-line growth and optimize processes while improving employee engagement and increasing customer satisfaction. Here are some concrete examples of how AI and machine learning are creating value in companies today"
https://hbr.org/2017/05/8-ways-machine-learning-is-improving-companies-work-processes
Harvard Business Review
8 Ways Machine Learning Is Improving Companies’ Work Processes
Corporate investment in AI is predicted to triple this year.
La plastica dal mare ha trovato la via per entrare nella catena alimentare, cioè ce la mangiamo. E non ci fa bene.
Money quote: "The main cause for concern is that these chemicals can mess with our hormones. Specifically, they can mimic hormones like estrogen, interfere with important hormone pathways in the thyroid gland, and inhibit the effects of testosterone."
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/9/11/17614540/plastic-food-containers-contamination-health-risks
Money quote: "The main cause for concern is that these chemicals can mess with our hormones. Specifically, they can mimic hormones like estrogen, interfere with important hormone pathways in the thyroid gland, and inhibit the effects of testosterone."
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/9/11/17614540/plastic-food-containers-contamination-health-risks
Vox
The problem with all the plastic that’s leaching into your food
There’s mounting evidence that it’s a health hazard.
Il grande problema delle nazioni moderne sono le loro gambe, cioè le infrastrutture. L'esempio americano è inquietante, perché la prima economia al mondo ha un problema grosso. Ma la cosa non è banale come può sembrare, dal momento che dietro c'è un tema di inclusione e di democrazia. La tesi, non totalmente condivisibile per un pensiero sanamente critico, è comunque stimolante.
Money quote: "Can we make US infrastructure great again? Yes, and clearly financial investment is essential. But that is not all. Infrastructure is not, and never has been, simply a collection of material objects. The secret of the country’s infrastructure success lies in a forgotten political history: the demands by millions of Americans over time for fairer and more equitable access to rails, pipes, wires, roads and more. The wondrous US infrastructure achievements happened when citizens participated in infrastructure decisions. One can even propose a rule: the better the democracy, the better the infrastructure."
https://aeon.co/ideas/new-tech-only-benefits-the-elite-until-the-people-demand-more
Money quote: "Can we make US infrastructure great again? Yes, and clearly financial investment is essential. But that is not all. Infrastructure is not, and never has been, simply a collection of material objects. The secret of the country’s infrastructure success lies in a forgotten political history: the demands by millions of Americans over time for fairer and more equitable access to rails, pipes, wires, roads and more. The wondrous US infrastructure achievements happened when citizens participated in infrastructure decisions. One can even propose a rule: the better the democracy, the better the infrastructure."
https://aeon.co/ideas/new-tech-only-benefits-the-elite-until-the-people-demand-more
Aeon
New tech only benefits the elite until the people demand more
The United States faces an infrastructure crisis. Report after report warns that the nation’s networks are old, brittle and vulnerable. Systems that were once the envy of the world now suffer from chronic underfunding and neglect. If you’ve travel...
Tutti gli aggiornamenti per chi scrive con Mojave - il mio articolo per Macity
https://www.macitynet.it/tutti-gli-aggiornamenti-per-chi-scrive-con-mojave/
https://www.macitynet.it/tutti-gli-aggiornamenti-per-chi-scrive-con-mojave/
Macitynet.it
Tutti gli aggiornamenti per chi scrive con Mojave - Macitynet.it
Da BBEdit a Ulysses, da Bear a Scrivener: i big della parola digitale si mettono in tiro per il lancio della nuova versione del sistema operativo di Apple
Italia, Spagna, Portogallo e Grecia sono il terzo paese al mondo per PIL, ma da più di dieci anni i posti di lavoro non crescono (invece la popolazione sì: con gli immigrati e i pensionati altrui)
Money quote: "To this day, there are three million fewer employed people in the four countries than in 2008 and that counts anyone who works at least one hour a week as employed. In fact, the number of employed people is still lower than in 2005 despite the population of the region having grown by over three million people since then."
http://thesoundingline.com/southern-europe-has-not-seen-net-job-creation-in-over-a-decade/
Money quote: "To this day, there are three million fewer employed people in the four countries than in 2008 and that counts anyone who works at least one hour a week as employed. In fact, the number of employed people is still lower than in 2005 despite the population of the region having grown by over three million people since then."
http://thesoundingline.com/southern-europe-has-not-seen-net-job-creation-in-over-a-decade/
The Sounding Line
Southern Europe Has Not Seen Net Job Creation in over a Decade - The Sounding Line
The number of employed people is still lower than in 2005 despite the population of the region having grown by over three million people since then
Le demo di una volta, per il Commodore 64, spiegate bene. (Peraltro un notevole hack)
Money quote: "So I recently made this little sinewave demo effect on the Commodore 64
This generated a lot of lively discussion on twitter and /r/c64. A bunch of people were curious as to how it works and I promised to explain it on my blog.
The main idea is to use character mode with a custom character set. I sample y-coordinate every 8 pixels to produce a list of line segments (0, y0), (8, y1), (16, y2), ..., (320, y40). In the below animation, you can see these line segments along with blue rectangles that signify which 8x8 character blocks intersect the line segments."
http://nurpax.github.io/posts/2018-06-07-c64-filled-sinewave.html
Money quote: "So I recently made this little sinewave demo effect on the Commodore 64
This generated a lot of lively discussion on twitter and /r/c64. A bunch of people were curious as to how it works and I promised to explain it on my blog.
The main idea is to use character mode with a custom character set. I sample y-coordinate every 8 pixels to produce a list of line segments (0, y0), (8, y1), (16, y2), ..., (320, y40). In the below animation, you can see these line segments along with blue rectangles that signify which 8x8 character blocks intersect the line segments."
http://nurpax.github.io/posts/2018-06-07-c64-filled-sinewave.html
nurpax.github.io
nurpax - Break down of a C64 demo effect
MacOS 10.14 Mojave: cosa cambia e come aggiornare il vostro Mac. Vi racconto come si fa l'aggiornamento in questo articolo per Wired.it (e come va il nuovo sistema operativo di Apple: tldr alla grande!)
https://www.wired.it/gadget/computer/2018/09/24/macos-10-14-mojave/
https://www.wired.it/gadget/computer/2018/09/24/macos-10-14-mojave/
WIRED.IT
MacOS 10.14 Mojave: cosa cambia e come aggiornare il vostro Mac
Dopo l'aggiornamento di iOS 12 per iPhone e iPad, più quelli per Apple Watch e Apple TV, arriva anche quello per il Mac. Le principali novità e quando conviene installarlo (oppure no)
Non potremmo più vivere senza l'inglese. Ma il cinese è diventato un'altra cosa. Però com'è la mente di chi legge e scrive con i caratteri cinesi? Beh, perché non chiederlo a una AI che fa finta osservandola per trarne delle connessioni culturali? Il nuovo impero dei segni?
Money quote: "We would have to spend a lot of time during the weeknights memorising passages to prepare for the test on the following Saturday. A score less than perfection is frowned upon. This would go on for years. I still have nightmares about those dictation tests. I think that’s how most children learn Chinese as well via this rote learning method around the world. Maybe in some sense, Chinese language education resembles how LSTM’s are trained to reproduce sequences from training examples."
http://blog.otoro.net/2015/12/28/recurrent-net-dreams-up-fake-chinese-characters-in-vector-format-with-tensorflow/
Money quote: "We would have to spend a lot of time during the weeknights memorising passages to prepare for the test on the following Saturday. A score less than perfection is frowned upon. This would go on for years. I still have nightmares about those dictation tests. I think that’s how most children learn Chinese as well via this rote learning method around the world. Maybe in some sense, Chinese language education resembles how LSTM’s are trained to reproduce sequences from training examples."
http://blog.otoro.net/2015/12/28/recurrent-net-dreams-up-fake-chinese-characters-in-vector-format-with-tensorflow/
Il capo di iFixit ha fatto rumore con questo lungo pezzo in cui spiega perché i MacBook Pro di Apple non vanno bene per niente
Money quote: "The first-gen butterfly keyboard showed up in 2015, but the real root of the problem dates back to 2012 in the very first Retina MacBook Pro. That radical redesign replaced their rugged, modular workhorse with a slimmed-down frame and first-of-its-kind retina display.
And a battery glued to the keyboard."
https://ifixit.org/blog/10229/macbook-pro-keyboard/
Money quote: "The first-gen butterfly keyboard showed up in 2015, but the real root of the problem dates back to 2012 in the very first Retina MacBook Pro. That radical redesign replaced their rugged, modular workhorse with a slimmed-down frame and first-of-its-kind retina display.
And a battery glued to the keyboard."
https://ifixit.org/blog/10229/macbook-pro-keyboard/
iFixit
Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall With the Macbook Pro Keyboard
A titan of tech and industrial innovation has been laid low by a mere speck of dust. Last week, Apple quietly announced that they were extending the warranty on their flagship laptop’s keyboard by…