Il mastodonte ritrovato. Le tracce fossili. Una specie di homo che non conoscevamo. Forse è vero, forse ci hanno portato qui gli alieni?
Money quote: “Prehistoric humans — perhaps Neanderthals or another lost species — occupied what is now California some 130,000 years ago, a team of scientists reported on Wednesday.
The bold and fiercely disputed claim, published in the journal Nature, is based on a study of mastodon bones discovered near San Diego. If the scientists are right, they would significantly alter our understanding of how humans spread around the planet.
The earliest widely accepted evidence of people in the Americas is less than 15,000 years old. Genetic studies strongly support the idea that those people were the ancestors of living Native Americans, arriving in North America from Asia.
If humans actually were in North America over 100,000 years earlier, they may not be related to any living group of people. Modern humans probably did not expand out of Africa until 50,000 to 80,000 years ago, recent genetic studies have shown.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/science/prehistoric-humans-north-america-california-nature-study.html
Money quote: “Prehistoric humans — perhaps Neanderthals or another lost species — occupied what is now California some 130,000 years ago, a team of scientists reported on Wednesday.
The bold and fiercely disputed claim, published in the journal Nature, is based on a study of mastodon bones discovered near San Diego. If the scientists are right, they would significantly alter our understanding of how humans spread around the planet.
The earliest widely accepted evidence of people in the Americas is less than 15,000 years old. Genetic studies strongly support the idea that those people were the ancestors of living Native Americans, arriving in North America from Asia.
If humans actually were in North America over 100,000 years earlier, they may not be related to any living group of people. Modern humans probably did not expand out of Africa until 50,000 to 80,000 years ago, recent genetic studies have shown.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/science/prehistoric-humans-north-america-california-nature-study.html
NY Times
Humans Lived in North America 130,000 Years Ago, Study Claims (Published 2017)
If early humans smashed mastodon bones found in California in 1992, scientists will have to rethink how humans came to the Americas.
Lei si chiama Gina Pell e vi avevo detto che sarebbe stata un soggetto interessante. Questo è l’articolo sulle generazioni, anzi l’azzeramento delle generazioni (i “perennials) che vale la pena di leggere. Soprattutto oggi, visto che l’ideologia delle generazioni di Strass e Kahn (una cosa un po’ più complessa di quel che non sembri) è nell’orecchio e nel cuore dell’attuale vertice governativo americano
Money quote: “The term generation used to refer to parents and their offspring every 25 years. It wasn’t until the 19th Century that it mutated to describe the social cohort we are born into. The Baby Boomers (1946–1964) are the first and only officially recognized generation by the Census Bureau because of its clearly defined characteristics. Leap forward to 1991 in Generations by Strauss & Howe and the moniker Millennial is coined. It took another decade for marketers and the media to up-spin Millennials, whose birth years fall within the range of 1982-2004 as “the next greatest generation” and begin focusing all their efforts to woo these limelit consumers, voters, and likers. As for the rest, born before 1982, well, the rest is history … irrelevant and in the past.”
https://medium.com/the-what/meet-the-perennials-e91a7cd9f65f
Money quote: “The term generation used to refer to parents and their offspring every 25 years. It wasn’t until the 19th Century that it mutated to describe the social cohort we are born into. The Baby Boomers (1946–1964) are the first and only officially recognized generation by the Census Bureau because of its clearly defined characteristics. Leap forward to 1991 in Generations by Strauss & Howe and the moniker Millennial is coined. It took another decade for marketers and the media to up-spin Millennials, whose birth years fall within the range of 1982-2004 as “the next greatest generation” and begin focusing all their efforts to woo these limelit consumers, voters, and likers. As for the rest, born before 1982, well, the rest is history … irrelevant and in the past.”
https://medium.com/the-what/meet-the-perennials-e91a7cd9f65f
Medium
Meet the Perennials
Because age ain’t nothin’ but a number
Non lo so, ma io questo Wikitribune, il giornalismo basato sui fatti, devo vederlo funzionare per crederci
Money quote: "Wikitribune is led by Jimmy Wales who has surrounded himself with an amazing group of people to bring Wikitribune to life."
https://www.wikitribune.com/
Money quote: "Wikitribune is led by Jimmy Wales who has surrounded himself with an amazing group of people to bring Wikitribune to life."
https://www.wikitribune.com/
WikiTribune
The non-toxic social network
La sfortunata storia di Sam Caldwell e della sua solitaria e struggente opera di genio: la Sinotype: vecchie cose della Guerra fredda
Money quote: "Caldwell had not only invented the world’s first Chinese computer. He also unwittingly invented what we now know as ‘autocompletion’."
https://aeon.co/ideas/how-cold-war-rivalry-helped-launch-the-chinese-computer
Money quote: "Caldwell had not only invented the world’s first Chinese computer. He also unwittingly invented what we now know as ‘autocompletion’."
https://aeon.co/ideas/how-cold-war-rivalry-helped-launch-the-chinese-computer
Aeon
How Cold War rivalry helped launch the Chinese computer
The United States badly needed a Cold War win, so Samuel Caldwell went to work inventing the first Chinese computer
Chi era Robert M. Pirsig, morto a 88 anni qualche giorno fa
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/24/525443040/-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-author-robert-m-pirsig-dies-at-88
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/24/525443040/-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-author-robert-m-pirsig-dies-at-88
NPR
'Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' Author Robert M. Pirsig Dies At 88
Zen was published by William Morrow in 1974, after being rejected by 121 publishing houses. The book has endured as a work of popular philosophy, and inspired many a road trip across the West.
Ehi, il lavoro mi chiama: parto tra poco per andare a Boston e rientro a fine settimana. Il canale va avanti, ma in modalità più saltuaria. A tutti, buon primo maggio.
La biblioteca di Alessandria esiste, e la stiamo buttando a mare. Le norme sul copyright (delle quali adesso gli americani si raccontano essere vittime) hanno bloccato del tutto il progetto di Google per digitalizzare tutti i libri del pianeta. Che sono digitalizzati, ma nom accessibili.
Money quote: "Page had always wanted to digitize books. Way back in 1996, the student project that eventually became Google—a “crawler” that would ingest documents and rank them for relevance against a user’s query—was actually conceived as part of an effort “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library.” The idea was that in the future, once all books were digitized, you’d be able to map the citations among them, see which books got cited the most, and use that data to give better search results to library patrons. But books still lived mostly on paper. Page and his research partner, Sergey Brin, developed their popularity-contest-by-citation idea using pages from the World Wide Web"
Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-tragedy-of-google-books/523320/
Money quote: "Page had always wanted to digitize books. Way back in 1996, the student project that eventually became Google—a “crawler” that would ingest documents and rank them for relevance against a user’s query—was actually conceived as part of an effort “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library.” The idea was that in the future, once all books were digitized, you’d be able to map the citations among them, see which books got cited the most, and use that data to give better search results to library patrons. But books still lived mostly on paper. Page and his research partner, Sergey Brin, developed their popularity-contest-by-citation idea using pages from the World Wide Web"
Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-tragedy-of-google-books/523320/
The Atlantic
Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria
“Somewhere at Google there is a database containing 25 million books and nobody is allowed to read them.”
Meglio della riviera romagnola. Quando hai solo sabbia a disposizione, perché non fare un museo creativo?
Money quote: "Tottori was already famous for its 10 miles of massive sand dunes along the coast of the Sea of Japan. The museum was an attempt by the city to capitalize on its main tourist attraction."
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-sand-museum-at-tottori-sand-dunes
Money quote: "Tottori was already famous for its 10 miles of massive sand dunes along the coast of the Sea of Japan. The museum was an attempt by the city to capitalize on its main tourist attraction."
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-sand-museum-at-tottori-sand-dunes
Atlas Obscura
A Museum of Giant Sand Sculptures
The Sand Museum is the world's first indoor space dedicated to the art of sculpting with sand.
Avete presente Blade Runner con le auto che volano? Ecco...
Money quote: "Lilium enables you to travel 5 times faster than a car by introducing the world’s first all-electric vertical take-off and landing jet: an air taxi for up to 5 people. You won’t have to own one, you will simply pay per ride and call it with a push of a button. It’s our mission to make air taxis available to everyone and as affordable as riding a car."
https://lilium.com/
Money quote: "Lilium enables you to travel 5 times faster than a car by introducing the world’s first all-electric vertical take-off and landing jet: an air taxi for up to 5 people. You won’t have to own one, you will simply pay per ride and call it with a push of a button. It’s our mission to make air taxis available to everyone and as affordable as riding a car."
https://lilium.com/
Lilium
Lilium Air Mobility - Lilium
Lilium is developing sustainable, high-speed air mobility through its electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, vertiports and digital service.
Lo studio definitivo su come defecano i mammiferi. In quanto tempo, quante, quali "polpette" (come direbbe un bambino) fanno e facciamo. Condotto in modo scientifico e assolutamente serio, permette di capire finalmente il funzionamento di questa attività universale. Lo studio ha visto un impiego di mezzi notevoli, e risultati sorprendenti e - direi - alquanto democratici: in natura defechiamo sostanzialmente tutti alla stessa maniera e con la stessa velocità, uomini e bestie.
Money quote 1:
"To come up with a universal deuce-dropping time, the researchers turned to YouTube, a dog park, and Zoo Atlanta. There, they filmed elephants, giant pandas, and warthogs producing bum brownies. In all, they collected 23 clips of pooping from 11 types of animals—which included cats, a mountain gorilla, lions, a black bear, zebras, a hippopotamus, and white rhinos, in addition to the others listed. It’s unclear if more data would alter their estimate of a universal time. They also eliminated power-poopers from the study, such as rabbits, rodents, and ruminants, which can serve up a bundle of turd pellets in short order"
Money quote 2:
"They noted marked similarities between the species. Animals tended to produce two pieces of poo per go. Each piece was about the length of the animal’s rectum. This suggests that the colon stores a rectum-sized turd tube prior to evacuation. And that the turd length was about five times the diameter of an animal’s rectum."
Money quote 3:
"With all the data, the researchers assembled a mathematical model to calculate evacuation times. It’s a wee bit crappy: the model estimated that the universal poop time was 5.6 seconds, not 12. But it did hold steady for animals of various sizes.
Patricia Yang, lead author of the study, speculated to New Scientist that the reason animals might have evolved similarly swift defecation times was to avoid lingering over a smelly deuce that could attract predators."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/speed-of-poop-big-or-small-mammals-drop-a-deuce-in-12-secs-study-finds/
Money quote 1:
"To come up with a universal deuce-dropping time, the researchers turned to YouTube, a dog park, and Zoo Atlanta. There, they filmed elephants, giant pandas, and warthogs producing bum brownies. In all, they collected 23 clips of pooping from 11 types of animals—which included cats, a mountain gorilla, lions, a black bear, zebras, a hippopotamus, and white rhinos, in addition to the others listed. It’s unclear if more data would alter their estimate of a universal time. They also eliminated power-poopers from the study, such as rabbits, rodents, and ruminants, which can serve up a bundle of turd pellets in short order"
Money quote 2:
"They noted marked similarities between the species. Animals tended to produce two pieces of poo per go. Each piece was about the length of the animal’s rectum. This suggests that the colon stores a rectum-sized turd tube prior to evacuation. And that the turd length was about five times the diameter of an animal’s rectum."
Money quote 3:
"With all the data, the researchers assembled a mathematical model to calculate evacuation times. It’s a wee bit crappy: the model estimated that the universal poop time was 5.6 seconds, not 12. But it did hold steady for animals of various sizes.
Patricia Yang, lead author of the study, speculated to New Scientist that the reason animals might have evolved similarly swift defecation times was to avoid lingering over a smelly deuce that could attract predators."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/speed-of-poop-big-or-small-mammals-drop-a-deuce-in-12-secs-study-finds/
Ars Technica
Speed of poop: Big or small, mammals drop a deuce in ~12 secs, study finds
Hydrodynamic model of defecation takes size, rectal pressure, and mucus into account.
Un Surface bello da paura - il mio articolo per IlPost
http://www.ilpost.it/antoniodini/2017/05/02/un-surface-bello-da-paura/
http://www.ilpost.it/antoniodini/2017/05/02/un-surface-bello-da-paura/
Il Post
Un Surface bello da paura - IlPost
Spot per il nuovo prodotto con la musica (rallentata) di Grease
Poi c'è quell'altro piano di Sergei Brin, quella steampunk delle navi del cielo: i dirigibili...
Money quote: "The people familiar with the project said Brin has long been fascinated by airships. His interest in the crafts started when Brin would visit Ames, which is located next to Google parent Alphabet Inc.'s headquarters in Mountain View, California. In the 1930s, Ames was home to the USS Macon, a huge airship built by the U.S. Navy. About three years ago, Brin decided to build one of his own after ogling old photos of the Macon."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-25/with-secret-airship-sergey-brin-also-wants-to-fly
Money quote: "The people familiar with the project said Brin has long been fascinated by airships. His interest in the crafts started when Brin would visit Ames, which is located next to Google parent Alphabet Inc.'s headquarters in Mountain View, California. In the 1930s, Ames was home to the USS Macon, a huge airship built by the U.S. Navy. About three years ago, Brin decided to build one of his own after ogling old photos of the Macon."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-25/with-secret-airship-sergey-brin-also-wants-to-fly
Compie 80 anni Luxo, la lampada che ha ispirato il logo della Pixar - il mio articolo per Macity
http://www.macitynet.it/compie-70-anni-luxo-la-lampada-ispirato-logo-della-pixar/
http://www.macitynet.it/compie-70-anni-luxo-la-lampada-ispirato-logo-della-pixar/
macitynet.it
Compie 80 anni Luxo, la lampada che ha ispirato il logo della Pixar
Curiosità, Disney, Events, Film, Lampada, Pixar, Steve Jobs
Il film ha successo e tu fai un sacco di soldi, vero? Falso. Non va così. Vincono sempre le major. Tranne questa volta: c'è una causa in corso che potrebbe cambiare Hollywood per sempre. Questa è la sua storia.
Money quote: "Last October, Shearer sued Vivendi for $125 million. Asserting that the movie “has generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue in the thirty years since its original theatrical release,” the complaint notes that the four collaborators are entitled to 40 percent of all net receipts from the film, plus 50 percent of the gross receipts from the music, and that Vivendi “fraudulently underreported the revenues owed” them. The suit demands an honest accounting of what’s owed Shearer and the others and accuses Vivendi of deliberately failing to fulfill the terms of the original deal with Embassy. In response, Vivendi filed a motion expressing “genuine admiration for the talents of Shearer and his partners,” but argued that the company had “not received anything close” to what Shearer claims"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-20/this-is-spinal-tap-s-400-million-lawsuit
Money quote: "Last October, Shearer sued Vivendi for $125 million. Asserting that the movie “has generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue in the thirty years since its original theatrical release,” the complaint notes that the four collaborators are entitled to 40 percent of all net receipts from the film, plus 50 percent of the gross receipts from the music, and that Vivendi “fraudulently underreported the revenues owed” them. The suit demands an honest accounting of what’s owed Shearer and the others and accuses Vivendi of deliberately failing to fulfill the terms of the original deal with Embassy. In response, Vivendi filed a motion expressing “genuine admiration for the talents of Shearer and his partners,” but argued that the company had “not received anything close” to what Shearer claims"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-20/this-is-spinal-tap-s-400-million-lawsuit
Bloomberg.com
This Is Spinal Tap’s $400 Million Lawsuit
The creators of This is Spinal Tap, the most influential mockumentary ever made, have been paid almost nothing. The rock gods are angry.
Un discorso su come si studia (e ci si appassiona) alla matematica che in realtà si allarga anche ad altri e più vasti problemi cognitivi: come si impara.
Money quote: "The road to expertise is paved with 10,000 hours of practice, so claims Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. Gladwell’s claim is a gross simplification. Anders Ericsson, the man behind the original research, has set the record straight in Peak. He duly rebukes Gladwell for imposing an arbitrary threshold of 10,000 hours (it actually varies within and between disciplines). More importantly, Gladwell does not distinguish between different types of practice. Ericsson’s research, and the weight of his book, is premised on the principles of deliberate practice"
https://hackernoon.com/you-werent-bad-at-maths-you-just-weren-t-looking-at-it-the-right-way-7b11fb0a0982
Money quote: "The road to expertise is paved with 10,000 hours of practice, so claims Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. Gladwell’s claim is a gross simplification. Anders Ericsson, the man behind the original research, has set the record straight in Peak. He duly rebukes Gladwell for imposing an arbitrary threshold of 10,000 hours (it actually varies within and between disciplines). More importantly, Gladwell does not distinguish between different types of practice. Ericsson’s research, and the weight of his book, is premised on the principles of deliberate practice"
https://hackernoon.com/you-werent-bad-at-maths-you-just-weren-t-looking-at-it-the-right-way-7b11fb0a0982
Hackernoon
You weren’t bad at maths — you just weren’t looking at it the right way
Facebook vende agli inserzionisti le crisi adolescenziali dei suoi utenti - il mio articolo per Macity
http://www.macitynet.it/facebook-vendere-agli-inserzionisti-le-crisi-adolescenziali-dei-suoi-utenti/
http://www.macitynet.it/facebook-vendere-agli-inserzionisti-le-crisi-adolescenziali-dei-suoi-utenti/
Macitynet.it
Facebook vende agli inserzionisti le crisi adolescenziali dei suoi utenti
Uno studio mostra come Facebook e Instagram sono in grado di rilevare le crisi degli adolescenti per profilare gli utenti e vendere spazi e visibilità agli inserzionisti
Red Hat: il futuro degli sviluppatori è in rete - il mio articolo per Macity
http://www.macitynet.it/red-hat-futuro-degli-sviluppatori-rete/
http://www.macitynet.it/red-hat-futuro-degli-sviluppatori-rete/
Macitynet.it
Red Hat: il futuro degli sviluppatori è in rete
Spostare l'ambiente di sviluppo nel cloud per rendere più facile la collaborazione, è quanto emerge dall'attuale conferenza in corso a Boston
I tabù sociali hanno un impatto notevole non solo sul nostro modo di pensare quotidiano, ma anche nella ricerca. Per questo il museo della vagina potrebbe essere una buona idea.
Money quote: "There is a chain of events that led to this particular good idea. Schechter studied biochemistry but realized she likes talking about science more than doing science. After college, she started a YouTube channel so she could keep talking about science. (She also has started a science film company, Collab Lab, and does science-themed stand-up comedy.) One of her videos is about animal penises—she’s interested in mating behavior in the animal world—and as a follow-up she wanted to make one about vaginas."
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/vagina-museum
Money quote: "There is a chain of events that led to this particular good idea. Schechter studied biochemistry but realized she likes talking about science more than doing science. After college, she started a YouTube channel so she could keep talking about science. (She also has started a science film company, Collab Lab, and does science-themed stand-up comedy.) One of her videos is about animal penises—she’s interested in mating behavior in the animal world—and as a follow-up she wanted to make one about vaginas."
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/vagina-museum
Atlas Obscura
The World Needs a Vagina Museum
One woman in London is dedicated to starting the world's first physical space wholly dedicated to vaginas.
Questa cosa è veramente per nerd hard core che oltretutto utilizzano Vim e lo vogliono personalizzare. Questo è un file .vimrc piuttosto interessante. Io sono un dilettante del genere e sono interessato a una parte molto piccola delle personalizzazioni che ci sono qui (oltretutto uso vim per scrivere "prosa", non codice, quindi molto non mi serve nemmeno). Ma è interessante lo stesso perché si impara qualcosa oltretutto da uno che, nonostante i vari plugin, molte cose preferisce farle a mano.
Money quote: "I have spent the last few years tweaking and refining my VIM configuration. This is the ultimate VIM configuration .vimrc file. It is well organized and documented. It is on GitHub so you can always grab the latest. It works well alone, but is intended to be paired with the plugins and configuration found in my complete .vim configuration also hosted on GitHub."
http://spf13.com/post/perfect-vimrc-vim-config-file
Money quote: "I have spent the last few years tweaking and refining my VIM configuration. This is the ultimate VIM configuration .vimrc file. It is well organized and documented. It is on GitHub so you can always grab the latest. It works well alone, but is intended to be paired with the plugins and configuration found in my complete .vim configuration also hosted on GitHub."
http://spf13.com/post/perfect-vimrc-vim-config-file