Forse è arrivato il momento di smettere di guardare in faccia il vostro terapista: bentornato lettino.

Money quote: "A person who is “on the couch” is known to be in therapy, but most therapists these days don’t ask their clients to lie down. The first time mine did, I resisted. I didn’t want to be on display or unable to see her reactions. Plus, the idea seemed antiquated. Sigmund Freud was inspired to use the couch more than a century ago after observing dramatic hypnotherapy demonstrations by his teacher Jean-Martin Charcot. In psychoanalysis, Freud thought a therapist being out of view would help people access emotions or memories that might be repressed. (He also said that he could not “put up with being stared at by other people for eight hours a day.”)"

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/11/therapy-couch-lie-down-freud/680676/

Archivio: https://archive.is/MzHqc

È uno spot per la società che ha fornito il modello di intelligenza artificiale, lo so. Un publiredazionale. Però è anche una bella vista su come i giornali stiano cominciando a usare l'AI sul serio.

Money quote: "Marion Souzeau, in charge of digital editorial projects and tools at Le Parisien, and Stanislas de Livonnière, head of the data and innovation department, shared their experiences with integrating AI into their workflows. Marion noted that automation in the newsroom isn’t entirely new. In fact, Le Parisien has a strong history of using automation to power newsroom efficiency.

With the emergence of GenAI tools, Le Parisien, a customer of Arc XP since December 2017, sought new ways to help their journalists save time and concentrate on their core mission of gathering and sharing important stories. When Arc XP introduced AI-powered tools to streamline content creation and distribution, Le Parisien eagerly joined the beta program for Arc Intelligence, a new suite of GenAI-powered tools designed to support journalists."

https://www.arcxp.com/2024/07/22/incorporating-ai-in-the-newsroom-le-parisiens-journey-to-innovation-and-efficiency/

Avete la vostra mail nel cloud, giusto? Non è una buona idea: qualcosa potrebbe andare male. Tecniche per fare un back locale.

Money quote: "Backing up your emails, no matter what provider you use, is important because access to your digital collection of messages is less permanent than you might initially think. There are multiple points of failure to consider—what happens if something in the cloud breaks, or your connection to the internet does? What if your account gets banned or closed for whatever reason, and all of your email gets zapped with it?

Those are only a few of the potential problems. You might accidentally delete a bunch of emails you didn't mean to; someone else could access your account and wipe everything they find; or your email provider might suddenly decide to lock you out, permanently."

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-back-up-email-gmail-outlook-icloud/

La fine dei SUV è vicina?

Money quote: "The Paris Council has formally requested the French government to prohibit the use of SUVs in urban environments, citing safety concerns associated with these heavy vehicles. Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo highlighted the risks they pose, particularly in dense city spaces. This move comes following a fatal incident in October when a cyclist was struck and killed by an SUV in Paris."

https://eutoday.net/paris-calls-for-government-ban-on-suvs-in-urban-areas/

Un progetto fotografico enorme per documentare la produzione del cibo nel mondo. Nel link ci sono le foto.

Money quote: "Since the domestication of plants began some 11,000 years ago, humans have converted 40% of the earth’s surface into farmland. With the global population expected to reach 9.7 billion by the year 2050, combined with the rising standard of living in rapidly developing nations, it is estimated that we will have to increase the global food supply by 60%. The Feed the Planet project is an examination of how the world can meet the rapidly expanding challenge of feeding humanity without putting more natural lands under the plow. Most of us only come into contact with raw food in the supermarket, and are unaware of the methods used to raise it. In many cases, the food industry goes to significant lengths to prevent us from seeing how our food is produced. Access to this information is central to the personal decisions we make about what we eat, which cumulatively have huge environmental impact. This project seeks to show how our food is produced, so that we can make more informed decisions."

https://www.georgesteinmetz.com/index/G0000lrER6EZBBQA

"Mufasa - Il re leone": poteva essere un grande film ma è solo "troppo".

https://fumettologica.it/2024/12/mufasa-film-disney-recensione/

Arriva la domenica e arriva Mostly Weekly, che parla della musica jazz e Charlie Brown, fra le altre cose. E vi fa gli auguri perché mercoledì è Natale

https://antoniodini.com/weekly/303/

Troll o minority report? Letture per la domenica

Money quote: "Fare-free transit is not an environmental policy. The reason is simple: It doesn't reduce driving.

"We find no evidence that low-cost or free-of-charge public transportation financing schemes have improved air quality.""

https://bsky.app/profile/davidzipper.bsky.social/post/3ld4fjoecm225

Milano si trasforma nella prima città educata d'Italia: divieto di fumo in strada vicino alle altre persone. Ma verrò rispettato?

Money quote: "Milano punta a diventare una città libera dal fumo di sigaretta. Con l’anno nuovo la vita sarà più difficile per i fumatori, anche all’aria aperta, perché dal primo gennaio 2025 il divieto di fumo sarà esteso a tutte le aree pubbliche o ad uso pubblico, incluse le strade, i dehors, i tavolini dei bar all’aperto. Si potrà fumare quindi in luoghi isolati dove sia possibile il rispetto della distanza di almeno 10 metri da altre persone. Lo ha deciso il Comune nel Regolamento per la qualità dell’aria e per chi non rispetterà il divieto sono previste multe che vanno dai 40 ai 240 euro. La stretta riguarda solo il fumo da tabacco, precisa Palazzo Marino, quindi è ammesso l’uso di sigarette elettroniche."

https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/dal-primo-gennaio-divieto-fumo-all-aperto-milano-AGHCA3mB

Come si correggono i temi di italiano (o qualsiasi altro compito con gli studenti)

Money quote: "Una valutazione per essere definita autentica non può soffermarsi esclusivamente sulla prestazione finale o su un test oggettivo – che verifica solo l’accumularsi delle conoscenze – ma deve valutare il processo di apprendimento, enfatizzare l’autovalutazione, e quando lavora con i prodotti finali – tema, questionario, esposizione eccetera – deve raccoglierli e tenerli sottomano nell’ottica di un portfolio.

Come ci spiegò la formatrice, qualsiasi docente dotato di buon senso prima di assegnare una produzione scritta è tenuto a stilare e a condividere con gli alunni una rubrica di valutazione."

https://www.ilpost.it/2024/12/11/nativo-come-do-i-voti-ai-temi/

Buon Natale a tutte le persone che seguono Mostly

https://antoniodini.com/yes-virginia/

A tutti voi che siete iscritti a Mostly, e ai vostri cari, i miei migliori auguri!

Qualcosa da leggere nel giorno di Natale! Mettere il pannello solare sul balcone può cambiare il modo nel quale viviamo e l'ambiente. Pensateci, soprattutto se vivete in un condominio.

Money quote: "Raquel Paule, director of the Madrid-based Fundación Renovables, says the increasingly popular energy communities, where residents can benefit from solar installations on the roofs of nearby schools and sports centres, are another way around the problem of majority consent.

“Balcony power is another piece in the puzzle,” she says. “They are another step towards using the built environment to generate electricity.”"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/18/if-a-million-germans-have-them-there-must-be-something-in-it-how-balcony-solar-is-taking-off

Una lettura per Santo Stefano.

Dentro gli orologi c'è un meccanismo di regolazione che permette di sapere che ore sono misurando con precisione l'avanzare del tempo. Lo divide in intervalli uguali. Dentro altri orologi, molto pochi, di questi meccanismi ce ne sono due o più. Questa è la loro storia.

Money quote: "The vast majority of mechanical watches operate according to the same principle. One energy source, one gear-train and one regulator. Some watches, however, use multiple regulators for different reasons. Let’s have a look at a few examples."

https://monochrome-watches.com/technical-perspective-understanding-the-concept-of-the-multiple-regulator-watches/

Vi ricordate gli home computer degli anni Ottanta? Quelli che erano contemporaneamente un computer e una tastiera, da attaccare al televisore. Be', a quanto pare la loro stagione non è finita.

Money quote: "The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is that you can plug in a mouse and display, and you’re ready to hit the ground running. If, for example, you have a relative who is using an extremely dated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace an old PC tower for most computing tasks."

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/09/its-a-raspberry-pi-5-in-a-keyboard-and-its-called-the-raspberry-pi-500/

Con IT-Wallet si apre una stagione nuova per le identità delle persone. Ma non è detto che siano tutte cose positive. Questo articolo, scritto da un consulente sulla privacy in modo alquanto impressionistico, però contiene parecchie riflessioni interessanti.

Money quote: "Questa dunque è una delle mie paure: che i sistemi non siano sufficientemente raffinati da funzionare senza richiedere lo sblocco del dispositivo, oppure che, per errore, un utente sblocchi il dispositivo anche se non tecnicamente necessario e lo consegni sbloccato a chi è abituato a diffidare, a sospettare ed è obbligato a indagare ogni elemento su cui abbia anche solo il sospetto che possa avere rilevanza penale."

https://garantepiracy.it/blog/documenti-sul-cellulare-facciamoci-le-domande-giuste/

Siete a casa e non sapete cosa fare? Ecco nove libri di fantascienza da leggere durante le feste - I miei suggerimenti per Fumettologica

https://fumettologica.it/2024/12/libri-fantascienza-da-leggere-feste-natale-2024/

Letture per la domenica La tecnologia che non ci ama ci ammazzerà. O ci renderà molto stupidi.

Money quote: "But we’re not entirely to blame if technology is making us less intelligent. After all, it was designed to captivate us totally. Silicon Valley’s dirtiest design feature – which is everywhere once you spot it – is the infinite scroll, likened to the “bottomless soup bowl” experiment, in which participants will keep mindlessly eating from a soup bowl if it keeps refilling. An online feed that constantly “refills” manipulates the brain’s dopaminergic reward system in a similar way. These powerful dopamine-driven loops of endless “seeking” can become addictive."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/09/brain-rot-word-of-the-year-reality-internet-cognitive-function

Ci sta che l'anno prossimo Intel muoia.

Money quote: "The past decade is the worst in Intel’s history, with much of the damage done in the 2010s. Pat Gelsinger’s spent the past few years spent correcting the course, but turning the Titanic is not a quick task. There is one constant in Intel’s demise: seven board members. They are still at large on the board today."

https://semianalysis.com/2024/12/09/intel-on-the-brink-of-death/

La storia non si ripete uguale ma tende a fare rima. Ecco come mai l'AI sarà l'ultimo chiodo nella bara delle aziende editoriali: non hanno capito cosa avevano sbagliato prima e stanno ripentendo gli stessi sbagli adesso.

Money quote: "The widespread lack of understanding among the establishment media allowed Google to become a behemoth. And then they essentially handed the keys to the kingdom to Mark Zuckerberg and Co. They are making the same mistake with the new AI platforms. Despite all the brouhaha about fighting Perplexity or OpenAI, it will amount to nothing more than a short-term squeeze play.

Some media companies are simply signing deals, taking the cash while they can. By doing deals with these platforms and giving them access to their content, most publications might feel they will be rewarded with traffic to their websites."

https://om.co/2024/12/21/dark-musings-on-media-ai/

Auguri di buon anno: quand'è che ha senso mollare? Cioè, perché intestardirsi se non riusciamo? Meglio riconoscere i propri limiti e lasciar andare.

Money quote: "When should you give up? You certainly don’t want to give up too soon on finding your way out of the woods, and call the ski patrol unnecessarily. Similarly, you don’t want to give up on your dreams before they’re realized, or on your relationships because they’re sometimes troublesome; you want to be a reliable, determined, heroic individual—someone with grit, who follows through. But, also, persevering can be a grave mistake: sometimes, either actually or metaphorically, you need to admit that you’re lost and call for rescue. How much effort is enough? And when does continued effort become unwise?"

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/should-you-just-give-up

archivio: https://archive.is/czR81