C'è una tecnica, un algoritmo e un software capace di trasformarvi in geni. La cosa pazzesca è che funziona. L'ha inventato un polacco, il software si chiama SuperMemo. La sua storia è ancora più incredibile.

Money quote: "Piotr Wozniak's quest for anonymity has been successful. Nobody along this string of little beach resorts recognizes him as the inventor of a technique to turn people into geniuses. A portion of this technique, embodied in a software program called SuperMemo, has enthusiastic users around the world. They apply it mainly to learning languages, and it's popular among people for whom fluency is a necessity — students from Poland or other poor countries aiming to score well enough on English-language exams to study abroad. A substantial number of them do not pay for it, and pirated copies are ubiquitous on software bulletin boards in China, where it competes with knockoffs like SugarMemo."

https://www.wired.com/2008/04/ff-wozniak/

La mano invisibile al lavoro: la legge della domanda e dell'offerta. Quando i cartelli della droga fanno macelli, il business delle casse da morto esplode (sembra uno spaghetti western e invece...)

Money quote: "At the coffin factory—a nest of corrugated iron and wood peeking out through a copse of oak trees a few miles up a rutted track—the work stations inside roughly track the construction process. Near the entrance, carpenters hammer nails and cut with wailing electric saws through planks hewn from the local olive trees. In another corner, men varnishing finished coffins with a thick black sealant resemble coal miners, their faces coated in the varnish and their eyes watery and red with irritation. In a separate hut across an open-air courtyard at the back of the workshop, the last set of workers uses a spray gun to paint the coffins, the way mechanics repaint a car. “We have to get them nice and shiny,” one says. “That’s what customers look for.” Like their competitors, the factory’s seven workers make money by the coffin, Juan Carlos says. He estimates that a good carpenter there makes $250 a week; a painter, about $150."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-06/this-city-of-coffins-fills-the-needs-of-families-of-victims-of-ms-13-and-barrio-18

Sulla Lettura del Corriere, la storia del computer di Mario Tchou e Adriano Olivetti.

Money quote: “Dall’incontro tra l’ingegnere cinese e l’imprenditore nacque il primo calcolatore elettronico italiano - di Ciaj Rocchi e Matteo Demonte /Corriere Tv”

https://video.corriere.it/computer-mario-tchou-adriano-olivetti-60-anni-fa-l-italia-entrava-nell-era-elettronica/9863ed36-56e4-11e9-90e6-51f9d2c65261?refresh_ce-cp

Riflettiamo sul senso dei campi estivi. Degli scout, delle giovani marmotte. Negli Stati Uniti i campi estivi per ragazzini sono molto diffusi da più di un secolo. E hanno un'agenda. Quella di base è ricreare il contatto con la natura che manca in città e porta a nevrosi e peggio. Ma ce ne sono anche altre (ad esempio, i mormoni). Per esempio, i campi estivi degli ebrei volevano preparare già dall'inizio del secolo scorso al ritorno ad Israele.

Money quote: "Jews attend summer camp at a higher rate than Americans as a whole, though not nearly as high a rate as Mormons, but the particulars of the Jewish camping experience—begun due to exclusion, changing rapidly due to politics and social movements and the Holocaust—put it in a unique place.

Summer camping in the United States began as a movement in the late 19th century, a sort of rebellion against increasing urbanization and industrialization. By the late 1920s, Jewish summer camps had gotten explicitly ideological: socialist, communist, anarchist, Zionist, Yiddish. Despite this, they were, and remained until after World War II, almost entirely secular. The Yiddish camps focused on Yiddish language and culture, and the Zionist camps on building, farming, and a connection to Israel; neither put much of an emphasis on religion.

A socialist summer camp would have no individual money, and any packages a camper received from home would be divided equally to the rest of the camp. Labor was highly valued; a punishment for bad behavior would never be, say, cleaning the bathrooms, because bathroom duty was a noble and important role in the camp society.

Zionist summer camps prepared kids to move to Palestine (which they sometimes called EY, which stands for Eretz Yisrael, or “the land of Israel”)."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/jewish-summer-camps

È uscito il numero 5 di Mostly, I Write, la mia newsletter (ci si abbona qui: tinyletter.com/MostlyIWrite ) Se correte ad abbonarvi, ve lo rimando... :-)

“Il diario, da dies (giorno), si nutre d’una materia molto ordinaria. «Nulla dies sine linea», diceva Plinio del pittore Apelle: non lasciava passar giorno senza tracciare almeno qualche linea, e noi potremmo dire almeno qualche riga, perché senza la scrittura, esercizio costante che unifica spirito e corpo, mente e mano, l’uomo tende a «smembrarsi», mentre quando scrive «rimembra», ritrova, giocando con la parola, la sua unità” 📃https://www.corriere.it/digital-edition/CORRIEREFC_NAZIONALE_WEB/2019/04/08/1/ple-parole-prime-p_U3110991488601LKB.shtml

In America sta creandosi una frattura inedita per quel paese tra destra e sinistra. Non finirà presto.

Money quote: “The movie Mudbound helped me train for a half marathon last year. I watched it on a treadmill and it made me so angry that I didn’t even think about the tightness in my shins and hamstrings; it distracted me from the grueling workout”

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/577543/

L’ipocrisia delle tech company: “paladine” del no-gender gap ma sottopagano le donne - il mio articolo per CorCom

https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/lavoro-carriere/competenze/lipocrisia-delle-tech-company-paladine-del-no-gender-gap-ma-sottopagano-le-donne/

5G, Verizon gatta frettolosa? Primi test deludenti - il mio articolo per CorCom

https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/telco/5g/5g-verizon-gatta-frettolosa-primi-test-deludenti/

Amazon al lavoro su cuffie in-ear, guanto di sfida ad Apple - il mio articolo per CorCom

https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/tech-zone/amazon-al-lavoro-su-cuffie-in-ear-guanto-di-sfida-ad-apple/

Social media nel mirino del governo Uk: in vista una stretta regolatoria - il mio articolo per CorCom

https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/over-the-top/social-media-nel-mirino-del-governo-uk-in-vista-una-stretta-regolatoria/

L’annus horribilis del Giappone. È stato un disastro.

Money quote: “The tradition, known as picking out the “kanji of the year” (今年の漢字), started in 1995 as part of the Kyoto-based Foundation’s efforts to promote the continued use of kanji, or Chinese characters, in the country. For 2018, Japan chose the character for disaster (災), not because of the exponential growth of fascist movements around the world, but because the country has suffered devastating natural disasters this year, including an unprecedented heatwave, flash floods and torrential rains in western Japan, and a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Hokkaido.”

https://theoutline.com/post/6784/kanji-of-the-year-japan-disaster-tradition-reflection-history

La prova di Luna Display: trasforma l’iPad nel secondo schermo del Mac - Ol mio articolo per La Stampa

https://www.lastampa.it/2019/04/10/tecnologia/la-prova-di-luna-display-trasforma-lipad-nel-secondo-schermo-del-mac-Dmk7FCKlvfgc2wIHAdad1K/pagina.html

Togliersi dalla rete. E soprattutto dalla memoria della rete.

Money quote: “There's an idea that once something is online, it is immortal, immutable, and almost impossible to contain. Another way of saying this is that you should not put anything online you wouldn't want your grandmother to see, in case the consequences damage you or your prospects down the line.

However, keeping your digital information in check is not just about information that you put online. Monitoring the passive data collection conducted by companies from you is important, too.”

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-erase-your-digital-footprint-and-make-google-forget-you/

Le carte di credito Apple occasione d’oro per Goldman Sachs - il mio articolo per CorCom

https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/digital-economy/le-carte-di-credito-apple-occasione-doro-per-goldman-sachs/

Chip, l’Europa “vince” su Qualcomm - il mio articolo su CorCom

https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/digital-economy/chip-leuropa-vince-su-qualcomm/

Avete mai pensato di guardarvi tutti i film Marvel in un colpo solo? Nel caso ecco la nostra guida:

https://www.fumettologica.it/2019/04/binge-watching-film-marvel-ordine/

Oggi è uno di quei giorni che boh...

Hellboy recensione del nuovo film di Neil Mashall - Il mio articolo per Fumettologica

https://www.fumettologica.it/2019/04/hellboy-recensione-film-2019/

Amazon, i dipendenti scrivono a Bezos: “Fare di più contro il climate change” - il mio articolo per CorCom

https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/digital-economy/amazon-i-dipendenti-scrivono-a-bezos-fare-di-piu-contro-il-climate-change/

Lyft affonda in Borsa: pesa la “sottovalutazione” di Uber - il mio articolo per CorCom

https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/digital-economy/lyft-affonda-in-borsa-pesa-la-sottovalutazione-di-uber/