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Mostly, I Write
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Storie e pensieri suoi e di altri, raccolti da Antonio Dini http://www.antoniodini.com
Per contatti su Telegram: @antoniodini
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Un ministro grillino incaricato dell'istruzione (sic), Lorenzo Fioramonti, spiega come secondo lui andrebbe insegnata la storia: non più lunghe liste di battaglie, che tra le altre cose porterebbero all'accrescimento della conflittualità interpersonale, ma fatti e spigolature personali per dare più "umanità" ai personaggi.

Prendo spunto da un post di Wu Ming che affronta il tema dall'angolo di Nicoletta Bourbaki, il gruppo di lavoro sul revisionismo storiografico in rete, sulle false notizie a tema storico e sulla riabilitazione dei fascismi in tutte le sue varianti e manifestazioni. Il gruppo si è formato nel 2012 partendo proprio dal blog di Wu Ming e apre a riflessioni interessanti. (Che è un modo spero elegante per dire che quel che sostiene il ministro è più che altro una minchiata populista).

Money quote: "La riflessione suscitata dalle parole del ministro riguarda due aspetti fondamentali del metodo storico, ossia la differenza tra fatti del passato e fatti storici, e il principio per cui compito dello storico è individuare i processi, gli insiemi di cause che hanno determinato – o almeno contribuito a determinare – il verificarsi di un fatto storico. A essere criticata è anche l’idea, spesso ribadita nel discorso istituzionale, che a generare il conflitto siano sempre fattori esterni alla società: stavolta è toccato all’insegnamento della storia essere additato come un generatore di conflitto".

https://www.wumingfoundation.com/giap/2019/10/fioramonti-e-la-storia/
Quarant'anni di Guida Galattica per gli Autostoppisti (The Hitchhiker’s Guide) inteso come libro, anzi serie di libri (una "trilogia in cinque parti"). Quarant'anni che 42 non è più solo 42

Money quote: "The Hitchhiker’s Guide began life as a BBC radio comedy in 1978, a year before the first book was published. Adams wrote four more volumes. Before he died in 2001, the 5 books had between them sold more than 15 million copies. The scientific community teemed with fans, including the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who provided the voice of the titular Guide in a 2018 radio reboot of the story."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02969-8
William Blake da noi è sostanzialmente uno sconosciuto, poco più di una nota a pie' di pagina. Ma la nota di un pazzo visionario.

Money quote: "Blake’s offbeat character – from his naturism and convoluted, self-invented cosmology to his visions of angels sitting in trees and his political and religious nonconformism – forms a carapace so tough as to be nigh-on impenetrable. The fact that his quirks were not so much elements of the man but the man himself means that he can be too daunting to comprehend properly. He once said of his illustrated poems that “My style of designing is a species by itself” and Blake too can perhaps be best characterised as a species in himself."

https://www.newstatesman.com/william-blake-rebel-radical-revolutionary-tate-britain-exhibition-london-review
Tim Cook ha aperto un business laterale? Ancora no, però...

Money quote: “On peut diversement apprécier le travail de Tim Cook à la tête d'Apple. Mais comment se débrouille le patron de la Pomme en cuisine ? Vous le saurez bien rapidement en achetant la collection d'ustensiles de cuisine Tim Cookware ! Spatule, cuillère, rouleau à pâtisserie, planche à découper, livre de recettes personnelles, et même une toque de chef et une râpe à fromage… Sur tous ces objets indispensables (sauf la râpe hélas) est gravé le portrait ravi de Tim Cook. Bien sûr, ils sont tous vendus à un prix indécent.”

https://www.macg.co/galerie/2019/10/cuisinez-comme-un-chef-avec-les-ustensiles-tim-cook-108941
Un epico articolo sui vaccini del New Yorker, che dice anche molto, molto di più. Impersdibile.

Money quote: “When I first met Zucker, he began to talk about all the things that a health commissioner does. In his speed-mumble, he ticked off threats that his department had faced: Ebola, Legionnaires’, Zika, Lyme, flu, Candida auris. Opioids. Water safety. He has a particular preoccupation with geriatrics and the aging-population problem. There are random responsibilities: last summer, Zucker had to cancel a rock concert in Watkins Glen, because of the threat of storms. “Someone came to me and said, ‘I think we need to cancel fish.’ ‘Why is that my problem?’ I said. ‘Why do I have to worry about fish? Shouldn’t that be the D.E.C.?’ ‘Not fish. P-H-I-S-H.’ I hadn’t heard of this Phish.” He has never tasted coffee, tobacco, or pot, although he oversees the state’s new medical-marijuana program, and his department, in conjunction with others, has issued a report in favor of the legalization of recreational marijuana. (When Zucker announced this, during New York’s gubernatorial campaign last year, a spokeswoman for Marc Molinaro, Andrew Cuomo’s Republican opponent, accused the Governor of having “his hand-picked ‘Doogie Howser’ rubber stamp another decision that has less to do with science and everything to do with politics.”) Zucker got similar flak when he concluded, five years ago, that fracking was a public-health threat, a finding that led Cuomo to ban it.”


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/02/the-message-of-measles
Una vita e mezzo fa intervistavo un ex imprenditore trasformato in uomo da meditazione che mi spiegava l'importanza di trovare e definire bene i propri valori, sia come individui che come aziende. È il filo di questo ragionamento (per gli individui, non per le aziende).

Money quote: "Values are our fundamental beliefs, informing our thoughts, words, and actions. If we don’t set our own core values, we end up losing ourselves in other people’s values. That’s how we become dependent on our friends, family members, or partners to define us. Our identities are no longer our own."

https://forge.medium.com/write-a-list-of-your-values-and-everything-else-will-follow-517d2f17964e
Ci sono problemi in casa Apple? La lista delle lamentazioni sulla decrescente qualità dei prodotti e della strategia è piuttosto lunga. Un articolo di un po' di tempo fa, prima di eventuali polemiche a ridosso del lancio dei telefoni, fa il punto.

Money quote: "Since taking over as CEO in 2011, Tim Cook has only introduced two new product lines—the Apple Watch and HomePod (well, three if you count AirPods). Instead, he mainly chose to expand the variations on existing products, pumping out new sizes, features, and colors each year. This approach has obviously helped make Apple so rich, but it’s difficult to see that this expansion of products has done anything other than make it difficult for Apple’s manufacturers and support staff to retain their focus.

Perhaps this is just an awkward blip in Apple’s long history—but it’s possible that it signals that something deeper may be wrong at the world’s largest company. All may seem well from the outside now, but how long can the company keep expanding from its core—especially with the moves into health care and autonomous cars on the horizon—before more serious flaws emerge?"

https://qz.com/1366350/what-the-hell-is-going-on-with-apple/