E se molti super-centenari (quelli con più di 110 anni) in realtà fossero dei fake?

Money quote: "Tutto è cominciato a gennaio, quando la rivista scientifica Rejuvenation Research ha pubblicato un articolo del matematico russo Nikolay Zak secondo cui alla morte della madre, nel 1934, Yvonne Calment ne avrebbe preso l’identità per evitare di pagare una gran quantità di tasse di successione. L’argomentazione di Zak si basa sul confronto tra le fotografie disponibili di Yvonne e quelle di Jeanne Calment prima e dopo la morte della figlia, su varie incongruenze nelle interviste rilasciate da Calment da anziana, oltre che su un’analisi statistica secondo cui sarebbe poco plausibile che nel 1997 una persona abbia raggiunto i 122 anni di vita."

https://www.ilpost.it/2019/09/28/scetticismi-supercentenari-jeanne-calment/

Anteprima di Mostly Weekly 355 con il 2026 che bussa alla porta: tra l'AI che scava nel passato, la Disney che cambia pelle e Kubrick cospiratore, c'è il web che si risveglia artigiano

https://antoniodini.com/weekly/355/

Letture per la domenica.

Secondo il sociologo francese Jean-François Bayart, gli ideali politici della generazione Z sono molto ambivalenti e facilmente recuperabili. In un'intervista a "Le Monde" il sociologo ha spiegato il fatto che, secondo lui, la recente ondata di mobilitazione dei giovani è una reazione alla rivoluzione conservatrice, a sua volta un misto di autoritarismo e predazione economica praticata da molti Stati. Questa reazione però non è esente da varie ambiguità ideologiche.

Money quote: "Depuis l’échec des « printemps arabes » de 2011, nous sommes entrés dans un âge de révolution conservatrice à l’échelle mondiale : Donald Trump aux Etats-Unis, Vladimir Poutine en Russie, Recep Tayyip Erdogan en Turquie, Narendra Modi en Inde… Il s’agit de phénomènes de restauration – ou d’instauration – de l’autoritarisme, à l’interface de l’exaltation de valeurs dites « traditionnelles » et de la célébration de la technologie. Les vieilles démocraties européennes n’en sont pas à l’abri. Les coups d’Etat au Sahel ou l’élection présidentielle au Sénégal en portent aussi la marque."

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/11/09/jean-francois-bayart-sociologue-les-ideaux-politiques-de-la-generation-z-sont-tres-ambivalents-et-facilement-recuperables_6652825_3210.html

Il concetto è semplice: chi fa una vita attiva è sano, chi fa una vita sedentaria è malato. Il conto prima o poi arriva.

Money quote: "We’ve long accepted the idea that someone is “healthy” if their lab results are normal and they’re not taking medication. But what if that’s the wrong measuring stick? What if metabolic illness starts long before your first abnormal blood test?

Most metabolic diseases… type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, fatty liver, etc, are present for more than a decade before a routine physical examination and blood tests will identify the issue. They are area under the curve issues… where the area is time. I discussed this concept at length in my book, Longevity Simplified."

https://howardluksmd.substack.com/p/if-youre-not-active-youre-sick-you

Il mistero della scoperta della penicillina: nel racconto di Alexander Fleming ci sono parecchie cose che non tornano.

Money quote "For decades, scientists and historians have puzzled over inconsistencies in Fleming’s story. For starters, the window to Fleming’s lab was rarely (if ever) left open, precisely to prevent the kind of contamination that supposedly led to penicillin’s discovery. Second, the story is strikingly similar to Fleming’s earlier discovery of lysozyme, another antibacterial substance, which also featured lucky contamination from an open window. Third, Fleming claimed to have discovered the historic culture plate on September 3rd, but the first entry in his lab notebook isn’t dated until October 30th, nearly two months later.

Last, and most important: penicillin only works if it’s present before the staphylococci. Fleming did not know it at the time, but penicillin interferes with bacterial cell wall synthesis, which only happens when bacteria are actively growing. Visible colonies, however, are composed mostly of mature or dead cells. By the time a colony can be seen, it is often too late for penicillin to have any effect. In fact, the Penicillium mold typically won’t even grow on a plate already filled with staphylococcus colonies. For years, scientists have attempted to replicate Fleming’s original discovery. All have met with failure."

https://www.asimov.press/p/penicillin-myth

Alla faccia della privacy. Il colpo gobbo fa crollare le certezze perlomeno in ambito aziendale.

Money quote: "As reported by Android Authority, “Google is rolling out Android RCS Archival on Pixel (and other Android) phones, allowing employers to intercept and archive RCS chats on work-managed devices. In simpler terms, your employer will now be able to read your RCS chats in Google Messages despite end-to-end encryption.”

This applies to work-managed devices and doesn’t affect personal devices. And in certain regulated industries it just adds RCS archiving to existing SMS archiving. But employees in regular organizations view texting as different to emailing, especially given the expectations around end-to-end encryption. That’s no longer the case."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/03/google-starts-sharing-all-your-text-messages-with-your-employer/

Sta arrivando... sono 70 anni che il NORAD segue il volo di Santa Claus. Sembrava ieri…

https://techdale.it/la-diretta-per-seguire-babbo-natale-ecco-come-e-nata-la-tradizione-piu-tech-del-natale/

Buon Natale, vi auguro un periodo di serene festività: ce n'è davvero bisogno

Internet come una foresta: la stiamo distruggendo. Un'immagine potente e affascinante nella sua drammaticità.

Money quote: "The story of German scientific forestry transmits a timeless truth: When we simplify complex systems, we destroy them, and the devastating consequences sometimes aren’t obvious until it’s too late.

That impulse to scour away the messiness that makes life resilient is what many conservation biologists call the “pathology of command and control.” Today, the same drive to centralize, control and extract has driven the internet to the same fate as the ravaged forests."

https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

Ieri si parlava della fine di internet come la conosciamo. Ma, mantenendo le analogie vegetali, per fortuna ci sono i giardini digitali che vengono coltivati

Money quote: "The movement might be gaining steam now, but its roots date back to 1998, when Mark Bernstein introduced the idea of the “hypertext garden,” arguing for spaces on the internet that let a person wade into the unknown. “Gardens … lie between farmland and wilderness,” he wrote. “The garden is farmland that delights the senses, designed for delight rather than commodity.” (His digital garden includes a recent review of a Bay Area carbonara dish and reflections on his favorite essays.)

The new wave of digital gardens discuss books and movies, with introspective journal entries; others offer thoughts on philosophy and politics. Some are works of art in themselves, visual masterpieces that invite the viewer to explore; others are simpler and more utilitarian, using Google Docs or Wordpress templates to share intensely personal lists. Avid readers in particular have embraced the concept, sharing creative, beautiful digital bookshelves that illustrate their reading journey"

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Letture per la domenica. Sul serio: la sceneggiatura di F1 con Brad Pitt pubblicata da Deadline, che tra le altre cose ne pubblica una a settimana.

Money quote: "The high-octane narrative is fundamentally a story of redemption set against the electrifying backdrop of Formula 1 racing. The noscript transcends a simple sports drama to delve into the human themes of rivalry, partnership, and reclaiming a lost legacy."

https://deadline.com/2025/12/f1-noscript-read-the-screenplay-brad-pitt-movie-1236649442/