Cose strane che si leggono in rete: il tizio che si è bevuto tutti i cocktail della International Bartenders Association (IBA, per gli amici).

Money quote: "As of 2025, there are 102 IBA official cocktails, and as of July 12, 2025, I’ve had every one of them.

The journey has taken me to some interesting places, and now that it’s done, I have a little story to tell for each cocktail. I’m not gonna tell you all 102 stories, but I do want to debrief the experience. Drinking all 102 cocktails turned out to be unexpectedly tricky, and for reasons you’ll soon understand, I might be one of the first people in the world to do it."

https://aaronson.org/blog/i-drank-every-cocktail

Viviamo nell'era della qualità sempre più declinante.

Money quote: "There’s one conclusion that comes up repeatedly throughout this report: the perception that everything is of lower quality is more pronounced among older people. The reasons are varied. One is that attributes like durability — which used to be a major factor in how people judged a product’s quality — have lost relevance.

Psychologist Albert Vinyals, author of El consumidor tarado (The Disordered Consumer) (2019), recalls that years ago, the first thing car ads highlighted was their longevity. “Now we don’t even consider it,” he notes over the phone. “My grandmother, when she went to buy clothes, looked at the type of fabric they were made of. Now, no one knows what their pants are made of. Why would they? In a year, we’ll stop wearing them because they’ll no longer be fashionable.”"

https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-07-20/the-bewildering-phenomenon-of-declining-quality.html

Cosa succede quando la politica prova a fare i conti col clima, Trump scoraggia i turisti e un leone veneziano rivela radici cinesi? Ecco Mostly Weekly 340 con questo e molto altro, tipo: l'AI è una enciclopedia difettata

https://antoniodini.com/weekly/340/

Letture per la domenica

La storia di un gioco quasi dimenticato: "The Sumerian Game". Fondamentale per la storia dell'intrattenimento videoludico e interessante di per sé. Anche perché questo antenato di Sim City nel 1964 veniva fatto provare ad alcune classi di bambini negli Stati Uniti.

Money quote: "The Sumerian Game is not a very advanced game, though it does have a certain depth. Through the game and the text-based messages that appear along the way, players are able to construct a kind of story together with the computer’s algorithms – albeit one that often ends badly – and in the dilemmas they face can be recognized as the core of even modern strategy games. Every choice they make is interesting, in the sense that it has significant consequences for what happens next.

The experiment with The Sumerian Game didn’t last very long, and it wasn’t played by many students. But it still had a major influence on the evolution of the gaming medium, as it was a direct inspiration for a game that became very popular in the early computer community: Hamurabi. This game is considered a foundational pillar in the strategy genre and an ancestor of today’s city-building and empire-management games."

https://spillhistorie.no/2025/07/10/the-sumerian-game-the-ancestor-of-modern-city-builders/

Alle volte mi chiedo se essere italiano in un mondo di non italiani innamorati dell'Italia e della sua cultura e cucina eccetera sia una benedizione o una maledizione.

Tipo, questi mettono il pesto anche nel cappuccino, tra un po'. Il pesto...

Money quote: "Pesto is one of the best ways to use up an abundance of bright, fresh herbs. "Pesto" comes from the word for "crushed" in Italian, as cooks traditionally use a mortar and pestle to crush basil, pine nuts, and Parmigiano-Reggiano until it forms a creamy sauce. Though pesto is typically made with basil, many other herbs and greens--including ramps, cilantro, tarragon, parsley, and mint--can also be used. There are also pestos, such as Sicilian pesto alla trapanese, that don't contain greens".

https://www.seriouseats.com/pesto-recipes-11771684

Il problema di quando l'arte è creata dal mostro: cosa ne dobbiamo fare?

Money quote: "My Edward Scissorhands dilemma is one that has been repeated over and over again by thousands of people throughout the past year of "MeToo". Over and over again, we have learned that the people who created the art we love have been accused of monstrous acts. The art could be Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” or Louis C.K.’s Louie, or Shakespeare in Love, or Manhattan, or The Cosby Show, but at heart, the dilemma is the same: How do I reconcile aesthetic pleasure with moral disgust? Which of my feelings will win? What do I do with art I love that was created by a monster?

One of the common answers to that question has been repeated so often it has come to seem as though it’s an ontologically self-evident truth: You must separate the artist from the art."

https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/10/11/17933686/me-too-separating-artist-art-johnny-depp-woody-allen-michael-jackson-louis-ck

Archivio https://archive.is/DEgH9

Pensiero stupendo: da soli si dorme meglio. Bastava chiederlo a Sandra a Raimondo. Oppure no? Comunque, ho imparato un'espressione nuova: "Sleep divorce".

Money quote: "Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a bad sleeper. In my 20s, I began taking sleeping pills—Benadryl at first, then trazodone. When my kids woke me up in the middle of the night, I would sometimes be up for hours, and the meds were the only thing that helped me fall back asleep.

As of a few months ago, however, I’m sleep medication–free for the first time in 20 years. At 46, I’m honestly pretty shocked by this—I’m entering perimenopause, so shouldn’t my sleep be getting worse, not better? But there is one potentially relevant factor that could help explain my sudden shift: Due to my recent separation, I’m sleeping on my own for the first time in decades."

https://slate.com/life/2025/08/sleep-divorce-insomnia-how-to-cure-deprivation.html

Gli articoli in cui il giornalista fa l'esperienza in prima persona, se ben fatti, sono dei piccoli capolavori. Questo di GQ è andato dagli Usa fino al Mugello, è montato su una Ducati e si è fatto la pista a 280 Km/h (più o meno) e varie altre cose. Le foto sono notevoli.

Money quote: "Still, it was Mugello that remained our North Star throughout it all, and in our garage at the track the next morning, we stripped ourselves down to basics and pulled on our armor—one-piece, zip-up protective bodysuits made of perforated kangaroo leather (which offers a superior strength-to-weight ratio compared to cowhide) with reinforcements at the knees, shoulder, and elbows. Looking around, I got the sense I was the only one in a rental. (This being my first-ever track day, I was borrowing a Dainese suit in full Ducati Corse livery.)"

https://www.gq.com/story/ducati-panigale-v4

Di solito sono molto critico verso chi dice che non bisognerebbe più prendere l'aereo perché ha un terribile impatto ambientale. In questo caso, però, faccio una eccezione sopra Las Vegas con 1500 dollari si può volare per un'ora come passeggeri di un Cessna 414, l'aereo del servizio "Love Cloud", e raggiungere senza problemi il Mile High Club.

Money quote: "“We’re serving our niche of clients that want that special flight without the hassle,” Tony Blake, the owner and one of the captains of the Love Cloud, told me. Love Cloud has completed more than 4,000 of these consummating flights since its maiden voyage in 2014. “Nobody is going to be patting down their balls in security or anything like that. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime romantic experience.”"

https://slate.com/life/2025/08/sex-travel-plane-flying-mile-high-club.html

archivio: https://archive.is/OPnP8

Hamilton vs. Benford: quando la fantascienza incontra la scienza (e viceversa) - il mio articolo per Fumettologica

https://fumettologica.it/2025/09/hamilton-vs-benford-quando-la-fantascienza-incontra-la-scienza-e-viceversa/

Alle volte le ossessioni possono essere anche molto singolari, ma poi alla fine questo rimangono e hanno in comune: sono ossessioni. Come la grande caccia a un prototipo di macchina per scrivere cinese.

Money quote: "But there was one typewriter that Dr. Mullaney had little hope of ever finding: the MingKwai. Made by an eccentric Chinese linguist turned inventor living in Manhattan, the machine had mechanics that were a precursor to the systems almost everyone now uses to type in Chinese.

Only one — the prototype — was ever made.

“It was the one machine,” he said recently, “which despite all my cold-calling, all my stalking, was absolutely, 100 percent, definitely gone.”"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/nyregion/mingkwai-typewriter-china.html

archivio: https://archive.is/SyXk8

Il cancro alla prostata si trova solo se si fa un test di controllo, dopo diventa troppo tardi

Money quote: "Prostate cancer has been called the Silent Epidemic,” said Dr Samuel L. Washington, a urologic surgeon who specializes in oncology at the University of California in San Francisco. Even with an active lifestyle, healthy nutritional regimen and digital screenings, cancer can sneak in undetected.

“Many men with prostate cancer won’t experience any outward signs or symptoms until the disease is advanced, which is why testing is so critical,” said Dr Clifford Gluck, a urologist and Founder of Dr Gluck’s Wellness Center in Massachusetts. “If not caught early, it can break free of the prostate and run unchecked through the body, with a particular penchant for bone.” Once prostate cancer has spread to other parts of the body, the five-year relative survival rate is only 37%."

https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2025/aug/19/men-prostate-cancer-testing-pros-cons

Letture per la domenica

Anche se sono passati 70 anni tondi tondi, gli americani sono ancora ossessionati da Lolita.

Money quote: "We certainly read Lolita very differently than we used to. For decades after its publication, readers both nodded to the horror at the center of the novel but also believed it was a little unsophisticated to dwell only on the assault. In pop culture, Lolita became synonymous with a teenaged seductress who deserves whatever she gets. Today, however, the received wisdom is that Lolita is not a romance but a horror story.

In the 70 years since its publication, Lolita — lovely, sensual Lolita; obscene, monstrous Lolita; bleak, tragic Lolita — has become a barometer of sorts for cultural change. Vladimir Nabokov’s novel is so multifaceted that it reflects the priorities of its readers back at us, showing us what we value and fear most at any given moment in time. We’re still arguing over Lolita today, and our debates mirror the contours of our current culture war: a horror at an abuser’s attempt to cover up their abuse; a terror that all that is pleasurable will be moralized into oblivion."

https://www.vox.com/culture/458464/lolita-70th-anniversary-culture-wars-vladimir-nabokov

archivio https://archive.is/ovm78

Soggettivamente gli anni passati all'università sono molti (e nel caso dei fuoricorso, possono essere davvero molti) ma in realtà sono pochi: tre.

Tuttavia, nell'arco di tempo necessario a una matricola per finire l'università abbiamo avuto l'avvento dell'intelligenza artificiale. Per la prima volta c'è una leva di neo laureati che ha fatto tutta l'università con a disposizione l'AI mentre le università ancora non hanno assunto una postura chiara (e tutto il sistema funziona come se non esistessero strumenti come l'intelligenza artificiale). È la prima volta che c'è una discontinuità così forte in così poco tempo.

Gli studenti universitari sono cambiati per sempre. L'università (ancora) no.

Money quote: "“I cannot think that in this day and age that there is a student who is not using it,” Vasilis Theoharakis, a strategic-marketing professor at the Cranfield School of Management who has done research on AI in the classroom, told me. That’s what I’m seeing in the classes that I teach and hearing from the students at my school: The technology is no longer just a curiosity or a way to cheat; it is a habit, as ubiquitous on campus as eating processed foods or scrolling social media. In the coming fall semester, this new reality will be undeniable. Higher education has been changed forever in the span of a single undergraduate career."

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/ai-college-class-of-2026/683901/

archivio: https://archive.is/1gA7k

Gli Stati Uniti stanno anche affogando dentro i tribunali, in un caos pilotato.

Money quote: The bottom line is that, because there are five votes for the proposition that some parts of this case go to the district court, and also five votes for the proposition that other parts of it go to the claims court, Barrett’s opinion controls the case. By the time this mess gets sorted out, it is likely that most — if not all — of the research at issue in NIH will be lost, even if the plaintiffs do prevail.
As Jackson writes, without any money to fund their operations, the grant recipients will need to “euthanize animal subjects, terminate life-saving trials, and close community health clinics.”"

https://www.vox.com/scotus/458863/supreme-court-nih-public-health-grants-gobbledygook

Archivio: https://archive.is/0V9nx

C'è un problema con la scrittura a mano, che non ha solo a che fare con la calligrafia ma più in generale con la perdita delle funzioni di coordinamento della mano per scrivere. È un problema che si manifesta a scuola e che sta neanche tanto lentamente erodendo a capacità di milioni di studenti di scrivere a mano. Il che non è un bene.

Money quote: " Over the past two decades or so, as schools have evaluated how much to focus on handwriting, there has also been a push for more STEM education. In some cases, that means spending less time on penmanship to make room for those subjects. But, Wiley says, it’s a mistake to think that writing isn’t necessary. Mathematicians need to jot down problems; scientists need to take notes in the lab. These things can be done digitally, but they still require base-level communication skills. “Science, technology—we don’t proceed in those things without reading and writing,” he says.

Even if kids acquire adequate handwriting skills in elementary school, there is still the chance that they could lose them."

https://www.wired.com/story/the-end-of-handwriting/

Archivio: https://archive.is/4iOyZ

🇨🇦 Un piano per l'istruzione sull'uso etico dell'IA ha inserito fonti che non esistono - probabilmente con l'IA

Un documento redatto per riformare il sistema scolastico della provincia canadese di Terranova e Labrador contiene almeno 15 citazioni inventate.

Parliamo dello "Education Accord Newfoundland and Labrador", 418 pagine di documento frutto di 18 mesi di lavoro, presentato il 28 agosto dalle copresidenti Anne Burke e Karen Goodnough, docenti della Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione della Memorial University, insieme al ministro dell’Istruzione Bernard Davis.

Le citazioni contestate sarebbero state generate da un modello linguistico di intelligenza artificiale. Il fatto che questi sistemi abbiano la tendenza a produrre riferimenti dall’aspetto impeccabile (ma in realtà inesistenti) è un fenomeno ben noto in ambito accademico e giudiziario, perché il falso ben confezionato può trarre in inganno anche le figure più esperte che non vanno oltre una verifica superficiale.

Interpellata, Goodnough ha dichiarato via e-mail che lo staff sta ricontrollando le fonti e che, per il momento, non può aggiungere altro.

Nel frattempo, il documento non è più online.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/education-accord-nl-sources-dont-exist-1.7631364

#Notizia #IA
@EticaDigitale

Alla fine, voliamo da poco più di un secolo. Alcune vecchie foto sul volo commerciale.

Money quote: "Gone are the days of passengers sitting pilot-side in open-air seats. Depending on what you’re able to dole out for a ticket, flying today can either be a luxurious experience in a first class cabin or a cramped one in the ever-shrinking seats of most commercial planes. Take a gander at these images of passenger planes through the decades (click to expand to full size), and ask yourself—do you miss the days of wicker seats?"

https://www.popsci.com/technology/vintage-commercial-airplane-photos/

La storia delle origini di Riccardo Palombo, che poi è il mio socio nel podcast Tilde: ha scritto un libro questa estate e varie altre cose.

Money quote: "**Ci racconta le sue origini?** «Il mio lavoro è nato nel 2005 -- racconta --, quando mia cognata mi portò un netbook dall'America. Io aprii un blog per parlarne che ebbe successo, nel giro di pochi mesi quadruplicai gli introiti monetari e nel 2007 mollai il lavoro che avevo, iniziando a fare questo mestiere. Ancora non c'era YouTube, ma continuai creando il sito "eeevolution", che poi ho venduto a un network. Da lì sono andato a lavorare per Hd Blog, il più grande network di tecnologia in Italia. Nel frattempo sono stato uno dei primi da quando ha aperto YouTube Italia a fare video, sin dal 2010. Addirittura i primi erano senza parlato, solo con la musica."

https://www.lanazione.it/grosseto/cronaca/youtuber-e-lelettronica-racconto-i-13fb33fa

La vita fragile delle garibaldine, le ragazze dei maranza. Gran storia, raccontata in modo magistrale da Allegra Ferrante per il Corriere.

Money quote: "**Yasmine conosce Orwell, ma preferisce García Márquez**. Ha 15 anni, metà tunisina, metà marocchina; va bene a scuola, liceo delle scienze umane di Legnano. Indossa una tuta Lacoste, ha un chakra dipinto con l'eye-liner sullo zigomo sinistro. Figlia più piccola di una famiglia numerosa, un complicato percorso migratorio. Sua madre fa la cuoca di giorno e
la badante di notte. Padre muratore. «Esce di casa presto, non lo vedo mai». Il fratello più grande, 26 anni, elettricista, lavora col padre. «Io e i miei fratelli più piccoli siamo maranza. Col cazzo che ci infiliamo in questa vita di merda!».** Maranza è la rottura di un'aspettativa sociale e familiare. Scelta di un'identità forte, che si impone, che ha già dei codici**: per allontanarsi rabbiosamente dalla vita dei propri genitori. Nichilismo (molto appariscente) in alternativa a restare invisibili. «Non voglio fare la lavapiatti/ma voglio andare in giro in Bugatti», suona la cassa JBL che le ragazze ascoltano nel parcheggio di Piazza Freud."

https://milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/25_settembre_14/vita-fragile-delle-garibaldine-le-ragazze-dei-maranza-tra-spray-al-peperoncino-liberta-sessuale-e-orsacchiotto-nel-letto-matte-3a84ba69-876a-491f-a160-569db1679xlk.shtml

Letture per la domenica: molto interessante per noialtri creativi/lavoratori della conoscenza

Cosa può fare l'AI? Una giornalista del Financial Times si è messa d'impegno per vedere se potrà sostituirla. L'idea è che no: non la sostituirà.

Moey quote: "I started by giving ChatGPT Plus a road map of how to work in collaboration on a book, a template developed by a technologist friend who is likewise experimenting with AI’s creative capability.

The template laid out in detail what long-form narrative writing is and how to expand on an author’s existing ideas and/or body of work. As someone who had rarely used AI, and never done so in my professional life, I was amazed by how much preparation is required just to get ChatGPT to understand the basics.

LLMs can give you answers to precise questions, but they don’t necessarily understand how to land on tone, style, tension or originality, nor do they have the power to benefit from serendipity, all of which are components of good writing.

ChatGPT took about 48 hours to churn out a first chapter after gobbling up several samples of my own 33-year body of work, a detailed book proposal with footnotes, a chapter outline of where I wanted to go, taped interviews with sources and plentiful background reading selected by me.

Sadly, what I got back was a kind of Muzak version of myself — predigested, relatively accurate, but thoroughly uninspired. This result was both amusing and depressing."

https://www.ft.com/content/0b56a85d-e71e-49c4-802f-316ed83cb386

archivio: https://archive.is/4IXkL