Sciopero a oltranza: la situazione al Sole 24 Ore si fa tosta, indagati il direttore e altre 8 persone.

http://www.lastampa.it/2017/03/10/italia/cronache/inchiesta-sul-sole-ore-indagati-il-direttore-roberto-napoletano-e-altre-otto-persone-ZvpOlQ6GyVHb5t6PO7XlaI/pagina.html

E a quanto pare di cose da dire sulla vicenda Sole 24 Ore ce ne sono ancora parecchie

Money quote: "Siamo riusciti a procurarci proprio in queste ore il testo della scrittura privata del 3 febbraio 2015 – che avrebbe dovuto assicurare al direttore una mega-liquidazione in caso di licenziamento senza giusta causa – sottoscritta in gran segreto da Benedini e Napoletano senza che il consiglio d’amministrazione, il collegio sindacale e gli azionisti ne sapessero alcunché. E con grande sorpresa emerge un fatto nuovo"

https://it.businessinsider.com/esclusivo-sole-24-ore-il-documento-sullaccordo-segreto-tra-benedini-treu-e-napoletano/

Pensavamo di essere tutti editorialisti in Italia, ma a quanto pare lo siamo in tutto il mondo. Ecco qui il video virale che mostra con chiarezza di dettagli la bilancia tra vita e lavoro mentre si sta disintegrando assieme a tutte le illusioni della TV sotto gli occhi del pubblico. L'esperto di fatti coreani collegato in diretta viene svelato e travolto dall'incursione dei due figli (e della scatenata moglie). 44 secondi che rappresentano il nostro mondo.

Money quote: "Indeed, upon closer inspection of the video, we see the makings of this desperate act. What appears to be this worldly commentator’s home office is actually a bedroom, with a world map taped to the wall and books lined up across the bed. His children didn’t just interrupt his interview; they uncovered his professional ruse. And now those poor kids are condemned to a life of meme-dom"

https://qz.com/929891/a-live-bbc-television-spot-went-totally-haywire-for-a-work-from-home-dad-when-real-life-slipped-in/

Negli Stati Uniti si parla sempre della bolla dei conservatori, che vivono circondati da fake news o notizie condiscendenti con la loro parte politica. Ma c’è anche una bolla per l’altra parte.

Money quote: “The U.S. presidential election, as I’ve argued, was something of a similar case. No, the polls didn’t show a toss-up, as they had in Brexit. But the reporting was much more certain of Clinton’s chances than it should have been based on the polls. Much of The New York Times’s coverage, for instance, implied that Clinton’s odds were close to 100 percent.”

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/there-really-was-a-liberal-media-bubble/

L'interessante caso di Stephen Bannon, a capo della vittoriosa campagna di Donald Trump e furbacchione di prima grandezza. Ho come la sensazione che i giornali americani si stiano svegliando adesso. Intanto, salta uno dei procuratori di Barack Obama "sospesi" da Trump.

Money quote: "The issue of Bannon’s legal residency has been simmering since last summer, shortly after he became chief executive of Trump’s campaign. The Guardian reported in an Aug. 26 story that he was registered to vote at a then-vacant house and speculated that Bannon may have signed an oath that he was a Florida resident to take advantage of the state’s lack of state income taxes"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/investigations/during-his-political-rise-stephen-k-bannon-was-a-man-with-no-fixed-address/2017/03/11/89866f4c-0285-11e7-ad5b-d22680e18d10_story.html

Una brutta storia di controlli alla frontiera americana. C’è una band italiana, Soviet Soviet, che doveva andare a suonare gratuitamente (a scopo promozionale) in un festival piuttosto famoso, il SXSW, che ormai è diventato mainstream. Se si suona gratuitamente servono certi tipi di documenti, se si suona a pagamento ne servono altri.

Ai controlli di frontiera semplicemente non li hanno creduti e sono diventati “immigrati illegali”, con tutte le conseguenze del caso (notte in prigione ed espulsione il giorno dopo).

Money quote: “They took us to the customs office we were in the previous day and we waited for our return flight which was scheduled for around 1:00pm local time. Only a short while prior to taking off were we able to get back our cell phones and bags and we were escorted right up to the airplane. We were relieved to fly back home and distance ourselves from that violent, stressful and humiliating situation. We left Italy headed towards the US with all necessary documents, passports and various declarations in which we clearly explained the purpose of our tour, confirming it is was strictly promotional and that we were in no way going to earn money from it or receive any form of payment. We knew that if we were to receive any compensation we would have had to apply for work visas. This was not the case and the people we spoke to for information told us we would be fine.”

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/italian-band-soviet-soviet-jailed-and-deported-while-entering-us-for-sxsw/

Vita e (tra poco) morte di una delle più importanti figure del mondo di appassionati Apple in California. Se volete spezzarvi il cuore, leggete questo articolo sino in fondo.

Money quote: “One day next week, if all goes according to plan, Tom Negrino will swallow a dose of anti-nausea drugs. Shortly afterward, he will raise a glass filled with four ounces of liquid and drink. Ninety capsules of a barbiturate will be dissolved in that glass. Negrino will follow it up with a glass of good wine, say goodbye to his wife and fall asleep. Within an hour, he will be dead.”

http://www.sonomawest.com/the_healdsburg_tribune/news/healdsburg-man-to-take-his-own-life-under-end-of/article_61375b76-038b-11e7-a0b4-67eae996d6bd.html

Comunque, ci deve essere qualche italiano anche nello staff amministrativo del Congresso americano. Perché la mezza truffa delle bandiere a stelle e strisce che vengono vendute “dopo che sono state sventolate sulla capitale degli Stati Uniti” in realtà sembra frutto di qualche ingegno nostrano. C’è anche l’ascensore…

Money quote: “The reality of the flag program is a little less glamorous. The Flag Office is located in an underground office inside the Capitol’s terrace. This office connects to the surface by a special elevator that permits the bulk flying of flags with machine-like efficiency on a single small flagpole. The flag goes up, the flag goes down; it has now been flown over the Capitol. They fly for a few seconds on a small unceremonious pole in the corner of the terrace that is strategically positioned to conceal it from tourists. Staffers and interns can sit outside the Republican cloakroom and watch the elevator running up and down in the afternoon.”


http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/capitol-flag-elevator

La foto della domenica

Il Cessna 172 è un aereo unico: in produzione da 60 anni circa, è uno dei più diffusi al mondo se non il più diffuso. Un vero miracolo di resilienza. Ma quali sono le origini della sua incredibile storia?

Moneny quote: “Light aircraft might not be updated as often as cars, but 60 years is still a very long time to produce a vehicle that has essentially been unchanged. The only time its production ceased for an extended time was in the late 1980s, when stricter US laws restricted the manufacture of all light aircraft. What is it about the 172 that has made it such a favourite for so long?”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170302-the-plane-so-good-its-still-in-production-after-60-years

Sono senza parole

Money quote: "As part of an ad campaign for its original series The Man In The High Castle, Amazon recently launched Resistance Radio, a streaming station set, like the Philip K. Dick adaptation itself, in an alternate 1962 America run by fascists. The pre-recorded program features “bootleg songs” alongside interstitials where underground DJs talk about standing up to Nazis, urging listeners to keep the fight alive in a nation that’s been overrun by fear, oppression, and authoritarian rule. For whatever reason, some conservatives have interpreted this as being about Donald Trump. And faced with what appears to be such a strong anti-Nazi statement, and a call for people who still believe in American ideals to stand up against the country’s destruction, naturally these patriots have rushed to loudly denounce it."

http://www.avclub.com/amp/251886

Abbandonare la Terra? Ma stiamo scherzando? E poi, anche se si potesse (e non si può), perché? Per portarci dietro i nostri problemi e comportamenti sbagliati facendo finta di niente?

Money quote: "What’s not explained is how we’re expected to avoid bringing the crop blight with us, or why agriculture would be more viable on a desert world than one that still has some harried remnants of life. Listen to these narratives for long enough and you start to think that the problem is our Earth itself, that there’s something evil buried deep below the soil, that it’s one giant haunted house to be fled. As if whatever ghosts swarm around this place were here before we created them. All these visions of humanity’s destiny in the stars, whether they’re brought on by curiosity or desperation, imagine that we could turn lifeless planets into gardens. But all that’s happened in living memory is the precise opposite"

https://www.theatlantic.com/article/518853/

Prima Austin caccia Uber, poi nascono nuove startup di trasporto e tutti sembrano felici. Poi arriva il mega festival (SXSW) con 70mila visitatori e collassa tutto. Storie dal futuro? Beh, no: è come Firenze durante Pitti o Milano durante il salone del mobile o della moda: il collasso dei servizi è ordinaria amministrazione, dalle nostre parti...

Money quote: "It has been only six years since Uber launched in San Francisco, and already, its absence is like a phantom limb making founders writhe in frustration"

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/03/13/lack_of_uber_produces_elite_meltdown_at_sxsw.html

In Texas c'è una legislazione anti-aborto tosta. Una parlamentare democratica ha proposto una legge che porta avanti la visione simmetrica del tema: una legge anti masturbazione maschile. Ci attendono tempi interessanti.

Money quote:

"It calls for a $100 fine for “emissions outside of a woman’s vagina, or created outside of a health or medical facility”, which “will be considered an act against an unborn child, and failing to preserve the sanctity of life”.

It also requires the creation of a “masturbatory assistance registry” of not-for-profit organisations and hospitals able to provide “fully-abstinent encouragement counseling, supervising physicians for masturbatory emissions, and storage for the semen”."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/13/texas-masturbation-bill-abortion-jessica-farrar

Hugh Jackman ha interpretato Wolverine in 9 film nel corso di 17 anni – il primo film degli X-Men risale al 2000, l’ultimo, Logan, è uscito a inizio marzo. Come per quasi ogni attore, l’avventura in questo ruolo è iniziata con un provino.

http://www.fumettologica.it/2014/06/il-primo-provino-di-hugh-jackman-per-il-ruolo-di-wolverine/

Professioni che scompaiono: il critico dei giornali. Si parla di quello di musica classica ma in realtà il discorso è generale. Stiamo smantellando lo stato attuale delle cose. Non è necessariamente un male, a meno che non siate incastrati in questo processo di trasformazione

Money quote: "And classical music is hardly alone in witnessing a dying-off of critics. Colleagues in other disciplines—dance, theatre, visual arts, books, even movies and pop music—report similar struggles. Over the past decade, dozens of arts critics have lost their jobs or been demoted to freelance status."

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-fate-of-the-critic-in-the-clickbait-age

Byword 2, la macchina per scrivere del web - il mio articolo per Macity

Money quote: “Recensito Byword 2 l’app per macOS sempre più potente per il web. Niente più acquisti in app per pubblicare direttamente su Medium, WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger ed Evernote”

http://www.macitynet.it/byword-2-la-macchina-scrivere-del-web/

Si chiama Moog e ha cambiato la musica moderna. Una storia per caso, perché doveva servire a molto meno. Qui la raccontano con qualche bella clip audio.

Money quote: "The perspective characterizes Moog’s influence on modern music since the late-sixties—as a non-musician outsider whose musical technology stands miles above the competition, its unmistakable sound sought after by nearly everyone in popular music since it debuted on a number of commercial recordings in 1967. A curious development indeed, since Moog never intended the synthesizer to be used as a standalone instrument but as a specialized piece of studio equipment."

http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/how-the-moog-synthesizer-changed-the-sound-of-music.html

Una riflessione a mio avviso piuttosto interessante sulla nostra società in prospettiva presa dal punto di vista del denaro. Anzi, dei denari: il contante e quello elettronico. Un doppio binario del quale spesso non capiamo le differenze ma che ha invece significati profondamente diversi. Poi, dove stiamo andando: verso una società senza contante. Ma questa è una scelta che porta con sé delle conseguenze (e dei vantaggi per alcuni soggetti). Una lettura molto interessante.

Money quote: “The cashless society – which more accurately should be called the bank-payments society – is often presented as an inevitability, an outcome of ‘natural progress’. This claim is either naïve or disingenuous. Any future cashless bank-payments society will be the outcome of a deliberate war on cash waged by an alliance of three elite groups with deep interests in seeing it emerge.”

https://aeon.co/essays/if-plastic-replaces-cash-much-that-is-good-will-be-lost

“If used with software that could keep up, a scroll wheel mapped to send a stream of 'undo' and 'redo' events could be kind of cool.”

(La vignetta di XKCD)