Oggi, 100 anni fa, nasceva Jack Kirby, visionario creatore di universi fantastici. Da Capitan America ai Fantastici Quattro, dagli X-Men ai Vendicatiori, Kirby ha creato i più famosi supereroi Marvel, entrando di prepotenza nella cultura popolare.

L'articolo di Andrea Fiamma: http://www.fumettologica.it/2017/08/jack-kirby-re-comics-fumetti-marvel/

Il cimitero delle app, vortice dei nostri desideri - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/cimitero-delle-app-vortice-dei-nostri-desideri/

Fuga di notizie, il “male” antico di Apple è nato nel 1988 - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/fuga-notizie-male-antico-apple/

Una tazza di the in hotel? Forse è meglio pensarci due volte: c'è gente che usa il bollitore per pulire le mutande. E possono passare le malattie.

Money quote: "Experts are warning people not to boil their underwear in hotel kettles in case it spreads potentially deadly toxins.

It's a revelation that’s bound to have you regretting every cup of tea you’ve ever had in a hotel room; the act of underwear-boiling is apparently a practice that exists."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/underwear-boil-hotel-kettles-spread-bacteria-health-risk-heather-hendrickson-hostels-a7909941.html

Come si fa ad essere felici? Ecco un altro neuroscienziato che ce lo spiega... personalmente in questo momenti rimpiango il riposante buio del medioevo.

Money quote: "From those two premises, Cerf's conclusion is that if people want to maximize happiness and minimize stress, they should build a life that requires fewer decisions by surrounding themselves with people who embody the traits they prefer. Over time, they'll naturally pick up those desirable attitudes and behaviors. At the same time, they can avoid the mentally taxing low-level decisions that sap the energy needed for higher-stakes decisions."

http://www.businessinsider.com/neuroscientist-most-important-choice-in-life-2017-7?IR=T

Per tutti quelli che non hanno fatto il linguistico e non sanno scrivere una lettera commerciale in inglese, 69 modi diversi di salutare, alla fine. (Serve anche ai madrelingua, mi dicono)

Money quote: "Yes, there are. And, as a matter of fact, there's a lot of them. Fortunately for you (and for me!) I pulled a huge selection into this list right here. Of course, not all of them will be suitable for every sort of situation or office. But, with so many options, you're bound to find one that fits the bill."

https://www.inc.com/the-muse/email-sign-offs-for-every-occasion.html

Se vinci i milioni alla lotteria hai sconfitto la probabilità di non vincerli. Ma i problemi iniziano adesso: come gestire il nuovo patrimonio? La maggior parte delle persone che diventa ricca con le lotterie infatti finisce in mutande molto rapidamente. Come evitarlo? Alcuni saggi consigli, just in case.

Money quote: "• Lottery winnings are not what they seem: Let’s start with that $759 million prize. Wanczyk, like most lottery winners, decided to take a lump sum rather than equal annual payments for 30 years. Her lump sum comes out to about $480 million, or $336 million after taxes. That's still a huge amount of money. Often, taking annual payments is safer. There's no guarantee that you will invest the lump sum wisely and the annual payments reduce the likelihood that you'll squander the money as so many lottery winners have in the past"


How to Deal With a $759 Million Lottery Jackpot - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-25/how-to-deal-with-a-759-million-lottery-jackpot

Ti pagano 100 dollari per stare otto-nove ore su una sedia di aeroplano (una volta si chiamavano poltrone, ma il termine oggi mi pare esagerato) e consentire diabolici esperimenti per spremere fino all'ultimo minuto da posti sempre più fitti su velivoli sempre più scomodi.

Money quote: "The seat factory in Winston-Salem is at the center of testing the physical limits of human tolerance. One part of its live studies involves giving only some participants Wi-Fi access, an exercise that typically reveals a direct relationship between distraction and seat-staying power. “You can easily see the difference in ratings for the exact same seat if you have entertainment,” says Pozzi."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-08-17/what-s-stopping-airlines-from-making-your-seat-more-miserable

Storie di reduci americani. Sembra un romanzo.

Money quote: "In Iraq, I nicknamed him “Superman” because he turned out to be one of the toughest sons of bitches I’d ever met. First Sergeant Greg Shanahan found out two months into our tour of duty he had testicular cancer, only to fly home, start chemo, beat cancer, and then fly back to Ramadi, Iraq and ensure his soldiers survived."

https://psiloveyou.xyz/the-beautiful-awful-of-grief-and-loss-8a2708272763

La storia di Aaron Cashatt, the hotel hacker.

Quote: "If you look around on the internet you can figure out how to do anything."

https://www.wired.com/2017/08/the-hotel-hacker/?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email

Il test di Call Recorder Plus, registriamo telefonate sull’iPhone - la mia prova per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/test-call-recorder-plus-registriamo-telefonate-sulliphone/

Il futuro di Medium secondo Ev Williams, più o meno. Il tema è la pubblicità, ovviamente. E la fuga dei giornali, che lasciano Medium per altri orizzonti.

Money quote: " (“Ev doesn’t like ads? Wait until he finds out what credit card processing is really like,” a source told Business Insider in February.)"

http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/08/ev-williams-on-mediums-spotify-ish-future-why-publishers-left-and-why-he-changed-his-mind-about-ads/

Avete sempre desiderato diventare dei bravi programmatori ma non andate oltre i rudimenti? C'è un gioco, di cui avevo parlato in passato, che permette di migliorare lavorando su un tipo fantasioso di assembler. Ne parlava anche Gamasutra

Money quote: "The funny thing, he adds, is that TIS-100 is already doing pretty well in light of what it cost to produce. “I think a large part of it is just because of how audacious it is,” says Barth. “Like, having a tutorial that basically says ‘Hey, read this 14-page manual, asshole,’ seems like it would be a really bad thing for your game, but apparently it's actually pretty effective.”"

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/244969/Things_we_create_tell_people_who_we_are_Designing_Zachtronics_TIS100.php

Una riflessione sugli effetti collaterali dei farmaci, gli effetti incrociati e le malattie croniche. Il tutto per spiegare che una logica riduzionista in un sistema totalmente interdipendente produce danno straordinari.

Money quote: "As a physician, I can’t help but be reminded of ferrets in New Zealand as I write prescriptions for the drugs we use to manage chronic disease. Hydrochlorothiazide for high blood pressure. Sulfonylureas, a class of medication used to treat Type 2 diabetes. Statins for heart disease.

Don’t get me wrong, these drugs work. They absolutely save lives. But the human body is a precisely interdependent system, and these drugs are like sledgehammers."

https://aeon.co/ideas/there-is-nothing-inevitable-or-natural-about-chronic-disease

Impariamo ad abbracciarci di nuovo, tra sconosciuti. Negli Usa si praticano serate di abbraccio platonico. Voi perché non lo fate?

Money quote: "Professional cuddling is experiencing a renaissance of sorts, as men and women across the country embrace touch therapy as the latest iteration of self-care. As such, every day, thousands of people are booking appointments with professional cuddlers in at least 16 states."

https://melmagazine.com/cuddle-parties-and-the-death-of-platonic-male-touch-596048c79745

L'affascinante mondo dei... dei... beh, dei Competitive Grippers

Money quote: "I found myself in the waiting room of an automotive garage, preparing for a staggering repair estimate, when a technician approached me. He was holding a heavy-duty Captains of Crush hand gripper. Boasting aircraft-grade aluminum handles and nearly indestructible springs, this device, manufactured by a California-based company called Iron Mind, was considered the Louisville Slugger of the grip world."

http://narrative.ly/the-secret-life-of-competitive-grippers/

I trucchi con cui Facebook, Twitter e Pinterest ci catturano.

Money quote: "After the trigger comes the intended action. Here, companies leverage two pulleys of human behavior: motivation and ability. To increase the odds of a user taking the intended action, the behavior designer makes the action as easy as possible, while simultaneously boosting the user’s motivation. This phase of the Hook draws on the art and science of usability design to ensure that the user acts the way the designer intends."

https://magenta.as/how-facebook-twitter-and-pinterest-hook-users-5c0eb134992f

Sono secoli che sul nostro pianeta non sputano nuove, grandi religioni di massa. Come mai?

Money quote: "Not since the angel Gabriel visited Muhammad in a cave around 610 AD, informing him that he is God’s prophet, has there been a new globally influential religion with hundreds of millions of followers. Though the world’s religions are very dynamic, and major faiths continue to shift and evolve in ritual and doctrine, the world today is dominated by the same four faiths that dominated the globe a millennium ago: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. According to a 2012 Pew study, 92 percent of religiously affiliated people around the globe belong to one of these four faiths."

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/new-religions/533745/

Anticipazione italiana di una notizia su Papà Francesco inaspettata ma interessante: a quarant'anni il Santo Padre è andato in terapia per sei mesi. A naso sembra più un counseling. Bello, no?

Money quote: "The revelation about the Pope’s therapeutic past was published by Italian daily La Stampa on Friday, pulled from a soon-to-be-published book of his conversations with French sociologist Dominique Wolton. Apparently, Pope Francis thought his therapist was “a good person” — and she was merely one of many women who had a positive influence on his life. “Those whom I known helped me a lot when I needed to consult with them,” he said."

https://www.thecut.com/2017/09/pope-francis-went-to-therapy.html

Si può costruire una professione sulle eccezioni e le anomalie si mercato? Ci sono sempre le eccezioni che confermano la regola. Come gli autori sconosciuti che pubblicano nel self publishing e fanno i milioni.

Money quote: "Keith who, you may ask? Houghton is one of a handful of so-called “hidden” bestsellers: his self-published crime thrillers are ebooks, sales of which are not monitored by the UK’s official book charts (if they don’t have ISBNs, which self-published titles often don’t).

Houghton made his money over the past six years by selling more than 500,000 books, chiefly through his Gabe Quinn series of thrillers. In a world in which traditionally published authors struggle to make £7,000 a year from their work, it is no wonder Houghton says: “I feel like I have won the lottery.”"

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/08/buying-houses-in-cash-and-selling-millions-meet-self-publishings-hidden-authors