E sempre in tema di Giappone, il popolo del Sol Levante è ossessionato dal muschio. Sia perché è super-diffuso (ci sono tantissime varietà di questa simpatica escrescenza vegetale nell'arcipelago della dea Yamatai) sia perché interpreta una estetica e una filosofia che in Occidente si fa fatica a capire. Ossessionatevi anche voi!
Money quote: "Generally speaking, Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic that places a premium on qualities like impermanence, humility, asymmetry, and imperfection. It’s the opposite of many Western aesthetic values, which include permanence, grandeur, symmetry, and perfection (think of the Lincoln Memorial or the Georgian architecture style, which originated in England)."
ps: grazie all'amico Matteo S.
http://qz.com/842058/moss-is-super-hot-in-japan-right-now/
Money quote: "Generally speaking, Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic that places a premium on qualities like impermanence, humility, asymmetry, and imperfection. It’s the opposite of many Western aesthetic values, which include permanence, grandeur, symmetry, and perfection (think of the Lincoln Memorial or the Georgian architecture style, which originated in England)."
ps: grazie all'amico Matteo S.
http://qz.com/842058/moss-is-super-hot-in-japan-right-now/
Quartz
Moss is super hot in Japan right now
In Japan, it's all about the moss-themed drinks, moss parties, moss tours, books about moss, and "moss girls."
E se tutta la teoria delle generazioni fosse una clamorosa manipolazione? Se nelle scienze sociali si va a vedere da dove parte e come funziona, c'è da rabbrividire. La tesi di questo articolo è un po' estrema, ma ha senso.
Money quote: "The commercial success of this pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo is irritating, but also troubling. The dominant US thinkers on the generational question tend to flatten social distinctions, relying on cherry-picked examples and reifying a vision of a ‘society’ that’s made up mostly of the white and middle-class"
https://aeon.co/essays/generational-labels-are-lazy-useless-and-just-plain-wrong
Money quote: "The commercial success of this pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo is irritating, but also troubling. The dominant US thinkers on the generational question tend to flatten social distinctions, relying on cherry-picked examples and reifying a vision of a ‘society’ that’s made up mostly of the white and middle-class"
https://aeon.co/essays/generational-labels-are-lazy-useless-and-just-plain-wrong
Aeon
Against generations
Generational thinking is seductive and confirms preconceived prejudices, but it’s a bogus way to understand the world
A 98 anni è morto Jim Delligatti, l'inventore del Big Mac. Una storia interessante, quasi come quella dell'Esselunga...
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/30/creator-of-the-big-mac-dies-aged-98
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/30/creator-of-the-big-mac-dies-aged-98
the Guardian
Creator of the Big Mac dies aged 98
Jim Delligatti was a McDonald’s franchisee who came up with the idea in 1967 but never received any royalties
Perché prendiamo l'accento degli altri? Per compiacerli, è la risposta breve. In realtà la risposta è più complessa, e non vale solo per quelli che prendono l'accento romano quando vanno in vacanza nella capitale. Succede anche agli americani.
Money quote: "Dialect or accent acquisition is not the most well-studied linguistic field, but for her dissertation, Nycz extensively studied Canadians who had moved to New York for subtle changes in their speech, trying to figure out how, how much, and why people change their accents. Having grown up in New Jersey and moved many times, the ways people change their speech has become a pet project for her."
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/are-semester-abroad-accents-real-or-fake
Money quote: "Dialect or accent acquisition is not the most well-studied linguistic field, but for her dissertation, Nycz extensively studied Canadians who had moved to New York for subtle changes in their speech, trying to figure out how, how much, and why people change their accents. Having grown up in New Jersey and moved many times, the ways people change their speech has become a pet project for her."
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/are-semester-abroad-accents-real-or-fake
Atlas Obscura
Are ‘Semester Abroad Accents’ Real or Fake?
That suspicious new London lilt may not be as put-on as it seems.
E se l'ebook non ce la facesse? Perché l'idea stessa di libro elettronico, che viene da lontano, sembra essere in difficoltà.
Money quote: "And it felt that way for good reason: you could trace elements of that first Kindle – its shape, design, philosophy – back 70 years. It evoked the Memex machine that the American inventor Vannevar Bush wrote about in ‘As We May Think’ (1945), a path-breaking essay for The Atlantic. It went some way toward vindicating Marshall McLuhan’s prediction that ‘all the books in the world can be put on a single desktop.’ It was a near‑direct copy of a device called the Dynabook that the early computer pioneer Alan Kay sketched and cardboard‑prototyped in 1968. It was a cultural descendant of the infinitely paged Book of Sand from a short story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges published in 1975. And it was something of a free-standing version of the ideas of intertwingularity and hypertext that Ted Nelson first posited in 1974 and Tim Berners-Lee championed in the 1990s."
https://aeon.co/essays/stagnant-and-dull-can-digital-books-ever-replace-print
Money quote: "And it felt that way for good reason: you could trace elements of that first Kindle – its shape, design, philosophy – back 70 years. It evoked the Memex machine that the American inventor Vannevar Bush wrote about in ‘As We May Think’ (1945), a path-breaking essay for The Atlantic. It went some way toward vindicating Marshall McLuhan’s prediction that ‘all the books in the world can be put on a single desktop.’ It was a near‑direct copy of a device called the Dynabook that the early computer pioneer Alan Kay sketched and cardboard‑prototyped in 1968. It was a cultural descendant of the infinitely paged Book of Sand from a short story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges published in 1975. And it was something of a free-standing version of the ideas of intertwingularity and hypertext that Ted Nelson first posited in 1974 and Tim Berners-Lee championed in the 1990s."
https://aeon.co/essays/stagnant-and-dull-can-digital-books-ever-replace-print
Quando un articolo è scritto bene, è scritto bene, non c'è niente da fare: l'argomento non conta. Un classico da rivista.
Money quote: "Fishing, like all great sports, can sink its hooks in deep. It’s as addicting as good drugs, as mesmerizing as good philosophy. It helps to remember that the greatest American novel, Moby Dick, is really just a fishing story in which the fisherman becomes so obsessed he goes mad. (Happens all the time.)"
http://gearpatrol.com/2016/11/28/how-a-fishing-show-is-made-and-why-people-watch-it/
Money quote: "Fishing, like all great sports, can sink its hooks in deep. It’s as addicting as good drugs, as mesmerizing as good philosophy. It helps to remember that the greatest American novel, Moby Dick, is really just a fishing story in which the fisherman becomes so obsessed he goes mad. (Happens all the time.)"
http://gearpatrol.com/2016/11/28/how-a-fishing-show-is-made-and-why-people-watch-it/
Gear Patrol
How a Fishing Show Is Made - Gear Patrol
Why would a fisherman be content to flip on the TV and watch someone else fish? We found out at the world's best bass lake.
Nel 2012 la Cina copiò Titanic di Cameron (un notevole successo quando venne trasmesso bel 1997) con dei cambiamenti di storia necessari al funzionamento nel contesto culturale cinese.
Money quote: "“Titanic” is a story of a poor young man and a rich girl, which more accords with Chinese audiences’ taste. This kind of plot has a long history in the popular culture of China,” opined People’s Daily in 2012. The Communist Party’s official mouthpiece also urged China’s budding film industry to copy Cameron’s “professional spirit.”"
Adesso un imprenditore costruisce un parco divertimenti be è una replica uno a uno del Titanic. Solo che sarà ferma a terra. Ci vorrà un terremoto e non un iceberg per farne giustizia...
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/12/02/asia-pacific/chinese-firm-starts-building-full-size-titanic-replica/#.WEEwYLvYOaN
Money quote: "“Titanic” is a story of a poor young man and a rich girl, which more accords with Chinese audiences’ taste. This kind of plot has a long history in the popular culture of China,” opined People’s Daily in 2012. The Communist Party’s official mouthpiece also urged China’s budding film industry to copy Cameron’s “professional spirit.”"
Adesso un imprenditore costruisce un parco divertimenti be è una replica uno a uno del Titanic. Solo che sarà ferma a terra. Ci vorrà un terremoto e non un iceberg per farne giustizia...
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/12/02/asia-pacific/chinese-firm-starts-building-full-size-titanic-replica/#.WEEwYLvYOaN
The Japan Times
Chinese firm starts building full-size Titanic replica | The Japan Times
Construction on the world's first full-size Titanic replica has started in China, a country with a well-documented fascination with the tale of the ill-fat
Come abbiamo fatto a diventare 7 miliardi e passa di individui su questo pianeta? E quali sono le proiezioni? Dove stiamo andando? Cosa vuol dire dal punto di vista delle risorse terrestri? Probabilmente è questo il video che Elon Musk ha in mente quando dice che lavora per consentire la migrazione degli esseri umani su Marte. A quanto pare qui siamo condannati, salvo ravvedimento oppure olocausto nucleare dell'ultimo minuto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
YouTube
Human Population Through Time #datavisualization
*An updated version of this video can be found here: https://youtu.be/vJ5p3pZlBi4
It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. But growth has begun slowing, as women have fewer babies on average.…
It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. But growth has begun slowing, as women have fewer babies on average.…
Un vecchio articolo di Harpers (del 1941) si chiede e mostra chi ha simpatie naziste, per spiegare il successo altrimenti incomprensibile di Adolf Hitler.
Possiamo leggere, con tutti i necessari distinguo, questo "Who Goes Nazi?" e pensare a Donald Trump? Magari in qualcuno dei casi come quello che segue?
Money quote: "Mrs. E would go Nazi as sure as you are born. That statement surprises you? Mrs. E seems so sweet, so clinging, so cowed. She is. She is a masochist. She is married to a man who never ceases to humiliate her, to lord it over her, to treat her with less consideration than he does his dogs. He is a prominent scientist, and Mrs. E, who married him very young, has persuaded herself that he is a genius, and that there is something of superior womanliness in her utter lack of pride, in her doglike devotion. She speaks disapprovingly of other “masculine” or insufficiently devoted wives. Her husband, however, is bored to death with her. He neglects her completely and she is looking for someone else before whom to pour her ecstatic self-abasement. She will titillate with pleased excitement to the first popular hero who proclaims the basic subordination of women"
http://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/
Possiamo leggere, con tutti i necessari distinguo, questo "Who Goes Nazi?" e pensare a Donald Trump? Magari in qualcuno dei casi come quello che segue?
Money quote: "Mrs. E would go Nazi as sure as you are born. That statement surprises you? Mrs. E seems so sweet, so clinging, so cowed. She is. She is a masochist. She is married to a man who never ceases to humiliate her, to lord it over her, to treat her with less consideration than he does his dogs. He is a prominent scientist, and Mrs. E, who married him very young, has persuaded herself that he is a genius, and that there is something of superior womanliness in her utter lack of pride, in her doglike devotion. She speaks disapprovingly of other “masculine” or insufficiently devoted wives. Her husband, however, is bored to death with her. He neglects her completely and she is looking for someone else before whom to pour her ecstatic self-abasement. She will titillate with pleased excitement to the first popular hero who proclaims the basic subordination of women"
http://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/
Harper's Magazine
Who Goes Nazi?
It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France.…
Sarà anche un genio, ma a me questo Tim Urban sembra soprattutto un cretino. Poi magari mi sbaglio,eh
Money quote: "Jail. My dream is to commit some crime that puts me in solitary confinement for one year with nothing besides a tablet with a good internet connection and where I’m not allowed to do any work or communicate with anyone. I’d read 5,000 articles and 500 books and watch 500 movies and documentaries and TV shows. But I so far haven’t found any crime where that’s the exact sentence so it’s hard. Second choice would be to be a truck driver and consume everything in the world by audio."
https://medium.com/@Pocket/tim-urban-is-an-expert-on-not-being-an-expert-ad7dc67929df#.j99pw7u8n
Money quote: "Jail. My dream is to commit some crime that puts me in solitary confinement for one year with nothing besides a tablet with a good internet connection and where I’m not allowed to do any work or communicate with anyone. I’d read 5,000 articles and 500 books and watch 500 movies and documentaries and TV shows. But I so far haven’t found any crime where that’s the exact sentence so it’s hard. Second choice would be to be a truck driver and consume everything in the world by audio."
https://medium.com/@Pocket/tim-urban-is-an-expert-on-not-being-an-expert-ad7dc67929df#.j99pw7u8n
Medium
Tim Urban is an Expert on not Being an Expert
A series of interesting conversations with interesting people.
Ok, siamo in periodo di semi vacanza, si può leggere un po' di più. In questo periodo cerco in effetti di leggere (più) libri. Consiglio anche voi. Se invece cercate un articolo piacevole di media lunghezza, questo ragionamento sulle metafore è fantastico.
L'idea è che lo scopo delle metafore non sia abbellire il testo ma cambiare il quadro concettuale di chi legge. Cambiargli il modo di pensare e, per dirla tutta, proprio la mente. Che bello.
Money quote: "If you could ask Dante where he got the idea of life as a road, or Rilke where he found the notion that time is a destroyer, they might have said the metaphors were hewn from their minds, or drawn from a stock of poetic imagery. Their readers might have said the imagery had origins more divine, perhaps even diabolical. But neither poets nor readers would have said the metaphors were designed. That is, the metaphors didn’t target people’s cognitive processes. They weren’t engineered to affect us in a specific way."
https://aeon.co/essays/how-to-build-a-metaphor-to-change-people-s-minds
L'idea è che lo scopo delle metafore non sia abbellire il testo ma cambiare il quadro concettuale di chi legge. Cambiargli il modo di pensare e, per dirla tutta, proprio la mente. Che bello.
Money quote: "If you could ask Dante where he got the idea of life as a road, or Rilke where he found the notion that time is a destroyer, they might have said the metaphors were hewn from their minds, or drawn from a stock of poetic imagery. Their readers might have said the imagery had origins more divine, perhaps even diabolical. But neither poets nor readers would have said the metaphors were designed. That is, the metaphors didn’t target people’s cognitive processes. They weren’t engineered to affect us in a specific way."
https://aeon.co/essays/how-to-build-a-metaphor-to-change-people-s-minds
Aeon
See through words
The metaphor designer isn’t trying to make something beautiful. She wants to change your view on things. Here’s how
La mia recensione del Tolino Vision HD 4 - per Macity
http://www.macitynet.it/recensione-tolino-vision-hd-4/
http://www.macitynet.it/recensione-tolino-vision-hd-4/
Macitynet.it
Recensione Tolino Vision HD 4
Test per la nuova generazione del reader di Deutsche Telekom in versione IBS, l’alternativa smart al Kindle di Amazon
Si può "non appartenere" alla tecnologia, cioè all'informatica. Ne parliamo spesso nell'altra direzione, cioè nel senso e nel bisogno di appartenere e di costruire questa appartenenza, ma c'è anche chi rivendica una diversa direzione.
Non so se è un articolo "in buona fede", perché questo tipo di Exposé potrebbe essere anche una trovata pubblicitaria, con passaggi un po' ingenuotti e scolastici. Però si fa leggere e l'idea è originale.
Money quote: "I am not solution-oriented. I don’t see a problem and get giddy at the idea of solving it, patching it up and sending it on its merry way. I want to poke it and ask it questions. Where did it come from, what is it doing, what’s its story? I want to take it to tea and hear about its life and understand it to its core. And if, at that point, I’ve come to a wholistic understanding and am able to solve the problem, by all means, let the problem-solving commence! But my instinct is never to solve, but to understand."
https://medium.com/startup-grind/i-dont-belong-in-tech-3d73d8fd6f34#.acacuotu9
Non so se è un articolo "in buona fede", perché questo tipo di Exposé potrebbe essere anche una trovata pubblicitaria, con passaggi un po' ingenuotti e scolastici. Però si fa leggere e l'idea è originale.
Money quote: "I am not solution-oriented. I don’t see a problem and get giddy at the idea of solving it, patching it up and sending it on its merry way. I want to poke it and ask it questions. Where did it come from, what is it doing, what’s its story? I want to take it to tea and hear about its life and understand it to its core. And if, at that point, I’ve come to a wholistic understanding and am able to solve the problem, by all means, let the problem-solving commence! But my instinct is never to solve, but to understand."
https://medium.com/startup-grind/i-dont-belong-in-tech-3d73d8fd6f34#.acacuotu9
Medium
I don’t belong in tech
Trying to find my place in the place I love, and constantly failing
Intanto, Sandrone Dazieri ha la depressione e anche un disturbo nella sfera autistica. Allora prende la pillola "sticazzi": le cose paiono andare meglio. Lo racconta bene sul Post.
(Comunque, Sandrone, "normodotato" è quasi un insulto. Da vicino siamo tutti strani e un po' matti, cerca di non dimenticarlo pensando alle tue stranezze e mattîe)
http://www.ilpost.it/sandronedazieri/2016/12/03/la-pillola-sticazzi/
(Comunque, Sandrone, "normodotato" è quasi un insulto. Da vicino siamo tutti strani e un po' matti, cerca di non dimenticarlo pensando alle tue stranezze e mattîe)
http://www.ilpost.it/sandronedazieri/2016/12/03/la-pillola-sticazzi/
Il Post
La pillola “sticazzi”
Nuovo racconto di Sandrone Dazieri per Il Post
Come vivere bene? Praticamente c'è un intero settore letterario dedicato a questo "problema". E singolarmente lo chiediamo a tutti tranne che ai veri esperti, gli anziani. Perché forse viviamo in una società in cui que che conta è il nuovo, e ci dimentichiamo del senso dell'esperienza esistenziale
Money quote: "And yet, from the other end of life’s voyage, our elders give us a very different view of a life purpose – and a tip for finding one. Basically, the oldest Americans (most of whom also struggled with the question) tell you to relax. They say that you are likely to have a number of purposes, which will shift as you progress through life."
https://aeon.co/essays/why-we-should-all-ask-our-elders-about-how-best-to-live
Money quote: "And yet, from the other end of life’s voyage, our elders give us a very different view of a life purpose – and a tip for finding one. Basically, the oldest Americans (most of whom also struggled with the question) tell you to relax. They say that you are likely to have a number of purposes, which will shift as you progress through life."
https://aeon.co/essays/why-we-should-all-ask-our-elders-about-how-best-to-live
Aeon
Ask the aged
Who better to answer questions about the purpose of life than someone who has been living theirs for a long time?
Cercare di capire le dinamiche delle grandi aziende hi-tech è complesso e piuttosto sterile, secondo alcuni. Io ci provo per lavoro e con passione. Alcune analisi che leggo mi creano una forte perplessità: è proprio necessario dover fare una analisi originale a tutti i costi?
Money quote: "Google, meanwhile, has never really been a platform company; in fact, while Google is often cast as Apple’s opposite — the latter is called a product company, and the former a services one — that only makes sense if you presume that only hardware can be a product. A more expansive definition of “product” — a fully realized solution presented to end users — would show the two companies are in fact quite similar"
https://stratechery.com/2016/how-google-cloud-platform-is-challenging-aws/
Money quote: "Google, meanwhile, has never really been a platform company; in fact, while Google is often cast as Apple’s opposite — the latter is called a product company, and the former a services one — that only makes sense if you presume that only hardware can be a product. A more expansive definition of “product” — a fully realized solution presented to end users — would show the two companies are in fact quite similar"
https://stratechery.com/2016/how-google-cloud-platform-is-challenging-aws/
Stratechery
How Google Is Challenging AWS
AWS seems to have a dominant position in enterprise computing, but Google is trying to change the rules to favor their inherent strengths.
Stasera negli Usa - manca poco più di un’ora - c’è il finale di Westworld, serie interessante e di un certo successo che a me sta piacendo molto. Internet Movie Database, che poi è di Amazon, pubblica i dieci momenti più spettacolari dei primi nove episodi, in attesa del finalone
http://www.imdb.com/imdbpicks/top-moments-on-westworld/ls066629869
http://www.imdb.com/imdbpicks/top-moments-on-westworld/ls066629869
IMDb
IMDb Picks
IMDb's editors share the movies and TV shows they recommend each month.
Se avete voglia di iniziare in modo facile con il Markdown, questa spiegazione-tutorial non è male.
http://programminghistorian.org/lessons/getting-started-with-markdown
Comunque sull'argomento c'è anche il mio ebook! (Mai una volta che mi ricordassi di auto promuovermi!)
http://www.macitynet.it/markdown-a-tutta-birra-lebook-per-scrivere-con-leggerezza/
http://programminghistorian.org/lessons/getting-started-with-markdown
Comunque sull'argomento c'è anche il mio ebook! (Mai una volta che mi ricordassi di auto promuovermi!)
http://www.macitynet.it/markdown-a-tutta-birra-lebook-per-scrivere-con-leggerezza/
Macitynet.it
Markdown a tutta birra, l’ebook per scrivere con leggerezza - Macitynet.it
L'ebook Markdown a tutta birra di Antonio Dini costa 1,99 euro per Kindle di Amazon e iBookstore di Apple
Logojoy è un'azienda minuscola che fa 15mila dollari al mese vendendo loghi creati per i singoli clienti dalla loro intelligenza artificiale. Una intervista educativa.
Money quote: "We allow users to build unlimited logos for free. Once they're happy with their logo, they pay $20 for a basic version, or more commonly, $65 for the premium package with includes vectors. We honestly just built a good product. The key to logo design is presentation. Some people pay $65 for an extremely simple plain-text logo solely because we present the logo in a beautiful way."
https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/logojoy
Money quote: "We allow users to build unlimited logos for free. Once they're happy with their logo, they pay $20 for a basic version, or more commonly, $65 for the premium package with includes vectors. We honestly just built a good product. The key to logo design is presentation. Some people pay $65 for an extremely simple plain-text logo solely because we present the logo in a beautiful way."
https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/logojoy