La nascita di professioni inedite in redazione. Trasformazione digitale o morte anche per la stampa? Se ne parla da tempo a quanto pare.

Money quote: ““In 2018, it’s important we start seriously thinking about how these roles — and the people in them — can evolve. These jobs are not easily categorized and are difficult to explain not only during a dinner party or in conversations with our parents — even colleagues battle to grasp their peculiarities.””

http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/12/the-rise-of-bridge-roles-in-news-organizations/

Recensione iPad Pro, la nostra pagella - la mia lunga analisi per Wired

https://www.wired.it/mobile/tablet/2018/11/16/ipad-pro-pagella/

C’è un problema con l’idea della dignità umana. Ed è che si tratta di un concetto molto recente, in qualche modo ambiguo nelle sue fondamenta e debole.

Money quote: “Beyond its youth, there is another reason our concept of dignity is tenuous: it comes with a peculiar existential challenge. To appreciate this challenge, start by considering that the relative youth of our concept of human dignity is juxtaposed by its present ubiquity. The moralised concept of dignity is a cornerstone of our contemporary Western ethos, standing shoulder to shoulder with other fundamental ideals such as liberty and equality”

https://aeon.co/essays/human-dignity-is-an-ideal-with-remarkably-shallow-roots

Nostalgia dell’iPod? Basta un Apple Watch e un case un po’ particolare...

Giocare a Space Invaders con alieni che evolvono...

Money quote: "You are the last hope of the human kind as the defense against the InvaderZ. They are deployed by their mothership with the sole purpose of entering earth's atmosphere. Although they are not a danger for you as an individual, if 5 of them gets through, everything is doomed. You can only shoot one projectile at the time, so be mindful, as you are not getting another shot until the last fired projectile disperse into the space or hits a target"

https://github.com/victorqribeiro/invaderz

Semplice ma completa spiegazione di cosa è successo e cosa sta per succedere con la Brexit. La mia personale idea è che prima - quando bisognava costruire una coscienza collettiva - ci sia stata invece davvero molta separazione e ignoranza, della quale internet ha fatto pulizia finendo nelle mani sbagliate. Insomma, poi riflettiamo anche sulle responsabilità di chi non ha costruito, anziché puntare solo il dito sui populisti che invece stanno distruggendo.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-brexit-fantasy-goes-down-in-tears/

Money quote: “Contrary to the claims of the Brexiteers, Britain already had substantial flexibility within the E.U. Having long ago opted out of the common currency and other E.U. initiatives, it retained the freedom to set its own interest rates and fiscal policies, check visitors at the border, and reject some of the legislative directives from Brussels, but it enjoyed all the advantages of the single market. To the extent that any E.U. member country was having its cake and eating it, Britain was the one. Now it has spent two and a half years trying to sabotage its future. As Bill and others are discovering, this can be a painful truth to contemplate.”

Nel cuore di Manhattan c'è un'ultima fattoria sopravvissuta all'esplosione urbana. Costruita a metà del settecento in stile olandese (che poi erano i coloni originari di Manhattan) una volta era al centro di un chilometro quadrato di campi. Oggi ha un giardino di poche decine di metri.

Money quote: "Rapid development in the area was quickly turning the land from rural to urban, and with it many of the old farmhouses were being demolished. Seeing their old home under threat, Mary Alice Dyckman Dean and Fannie Fredericka Dyckman Welch bought the property in 1915 specifically to save it from being swallowed up by the urban sprawl."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dyckman-farmhouse

Come ti costruisco la prossima bolla pompando aspettative irrazionali. I monopattini elettrici come strumento di trasporto di massa. Sì, come no.

Money quote: "In effetti sono la soluzione più razionale per la mobilità intelligente dell'ultimo miglio, quando devi arrivare lì dove non arriva la metropolitana o dove non puoi circolare in auto”

Letture domenicali.
Abbiamo fottuto il pianeta. Questo articolo del New Yorker spiega bene come e quanto. Preferisco questa rivista a una pubblicazione scientifica perché secondo me il punto è proprio questo: la scienza ha fallito la sua missione politica, speriamo ad altri vada meglio.

E la politica, direte voi? Beh, non vorrei che si pensasse che chi c’era prima di Donald Trump fosse migliore...

Money quote: “Scientists have warned for decades that climate change would lead to extreme weather. Shortly before the I.P.C.C. report was published, Hurricane Michael, the strongest hurricane ever to hit the Florida Panhandle, inflicted thirty billion dollars’ worth of material damage and killed forty-five people. President Trump, who has argued that global warming is “a total, and very expensive, hoax,” visited Florida to survey the wreckage, but told reporters that the storm had not caused him to rethink his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accords. He expressed no interest in the I.P. C.C. report beyond asking “who drew it.” (The answer is ninety-one researchers from forty countries.) He later claimed that his “natural instinct” for science made him confident that the climate would soon “change back.” A month later, Trump blamed the fires in California on “gross mismanagement of forests.””

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/26/how-extreme-weather-is-shrinking-the-planet

Ci sono medici cardiologi che non sono poi così convinti che farsi l’elettrocardiogramma con un orologio sia necessariamente un bene.

Money quote: “Apple’s new watch sounds like a win for anyone interested in their heart health. It will notify wearers of a slow or irregular heart rhythm, and it can take a basic electrocardiogram (ECG), a recording of the electrical activity of the heart”

https://medium.com/s/story/im-a-heart-doctor-heres-why-im-wary-of-the-new-apple-watch-2b1999f2d942

Bare Bones aggiorna BBEdit alla versione 12.5 - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/bbedit-12-5/

Mi rifiuto, personalmente. Ma se a qualcuno serve, ecco noscript e impostazioni per trasformare ViM in una sorta di Excel. Più o meno.

Money quote: "I tried to edit data in spreadsheet programs, I really did.

But it's a fact: Vim ruins you for life. Power corrupts."

http://alangrow.com/blog/turn-vim-into-excel-tips-for-tabular-data-editing

Non so se lo sapete ma è il #WorldToiletDay perché c’è un problema di igiene nel mondo che porta a malattie e morti.

Squoosh, la web app di Google per ritagliare le immagini - il mio articolo per La Stampa

https://www.lastampa.it/2018/11/19/tecnologia/squoosh-la-web-app-di-google-per-ritagliare-le-immagini-bNShGgHPI9UJFcg48Rl0BP/pagina.html

Dieci anni fa uscita "Step brothers". A suo modo, un classico del genere della commedia demenziale americana (che non sopporto, ma vabbé)

Money quote: "And like that, Step Brothers was born. Released 10 years ago this month, the warped opus tells the tale of two full-grown man-children, played by Ferrell and Reilly, who live at home with their newly married parents. The delightfully absurd premise, lovingly shaped by a man who encouraged performers to go off-noscript, helped to create a kind of euphoria on set. One cast member positively compared the experience to dropping acid."

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/7/10/17540704/step-brothers-oral-history-will-ferrell-john-c-reilly-adam-mckay

Non siamo poi così importanti. E meno male.

Money quote: "And yet this turns out to be poor preparation for dealing with the everyday embarrassments of being human. Instead of single-mindedly trying to love yourself, may I suggest a self-directed attitude that has been famously called the opposite of love: indifference."

https://aeon.co/ideas/youre-simply-not-that-big-a-deal-now-isnt-that-a-relief

E se i prodotti Apple costassero tanto perché tutelano meglio i nostri dati? - il mio articolo per Wired

https://www.wired.it/attualita/tech/2018/11/20/prodotti-apple-prezzo-tutela-privacy/