Amazon ha presentato Astro, un piccolo robot per la sorveglianza in casa. Secondo l'indagine di Vice è un prodotto immaturo e improbabile, a dir poco.

Money quote: "Developers who worked on Astro say the versions of the robot they worked on did not work well.

"Astro is terrible and will almost certainly throw itself down a flight of stairs if presented the opportunity. The person detection is unreliable at best, making the in-home security proposition laughable," a source who worked on the project said. "The device feels fragile for something with an absurd cost. The mast has broken on several devices, locking itself in the extended or retracted position, and there's no way to ship it to Amazon when that happens.""

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93ypp8/leaked-documents-amazon-astro-surveillance-robot-tracking

Settimana intensa, ho recensito anche Free Guy per Fumettologica (e deve uscire ancora un’altra cosa). Comunque, Free Guy è furbo ma mi è piaciuto.

https://www.fumettologica.it/2021/09/free-guy-recensione-film/

Secondo me dobbiamo cominciare a ripensare, più che la condizione femminile nell'Antico Egitto, l'idea che abbiamo dei tatuaggi e l'effettivo uso in quella società. Comunque, dire a una tizia assai déshabillé all'aperitivo milanese che è "tatuata come una mummia" mi pare impagabile.

Money quote: "“One complication with the textual record is it biases our understanding of the past to what was recorded,” says Anne Austin, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who studied the Deir el-Medina mummies for three years while working with the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo. “These tattoos reveal new information that does not appear in the textual record and give us the potential to better understand women’s experiences in the village.”"

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/tattooed-egyptian-mummies-infrared

In questa foto ci sono 4 primi ministri giapponesi (5 se anche Fumio Kishida lo diventerà). Mi chiedo se esiste una foto del genere per esempio di presidenti del consiglio in Italia. Forse qualche sera in trattoria a Roma tra dirigenti della DC?

La serie tv "Fondazione" abbaglia ma non stupisce - ecco la mia recensione per Fumettologica (ve l'avevo detto che doveva uscire altra roba)

https://www.fumettologica.it/2021/09/fondazione-serie-tv-apple-recensione/

Secondo alcuni la terapia fatta all'aperto, camminando socraticamente per così dire, darebbe risultati migliori. Si scatenino pure le congetture

Money quote: "A small minority of therapists – mostly those in private practice – do offer talking therapy outdoors, often combined with indoor therapy. The outdoor locations vary: from rural trails and woodlands to urban parks and footpaths; from areas of natural beauty to the garden outside the back of a therapy room. Some therapists and clients sit down outdoors, some ‘walk and talk’; others combine talking therapy with gardening or outdoor pursuits such as climbing or hiking. In these sessions, nature can either be integrated into the therapy itself or provide a more passive backdrop. When these therapists describe their experiences, many report that, for some clients, the outdoor space is as effective, if not more effective, than therapy indoors."

https://psyche.co/ideas/there-are-many-reasons-why-therapy-can-be-more-effective-outside

Nonostante sia diventata di proprietà di Microsoft, Github continua ad avere una sua specifica identità. In questo caso, fa la cosa strana e pubblica una roadmap dei suoi sviluppi piuttosto singolare. Da vedere.

Money quote: "The roadmap repository is for communicating GitHub’s roadmap. Existing issues are currently read-only, and we are locking conversations, as we get started. Interaction limits are also in place to ensure issues originate from GitHub. We’re planning to iterate on the format of the roadmap itself, and we see potential to engage more in discussions about the future of GitHub products and features."

https://github.com/github/roadmap

Questi si sono messi d'impegno per spiegare bene bene cosa sono e come funziona. Ma bene bene bene. Al punto da usare il termine "fiancé.e" (scritto così) perché comprende tutti i generi possibili. Devo dire che se non ci fosse l'Internet, ci saremmo persi un sacco di roba. Il problema è capire quale ha senso e come difendersi dal resto.

Money quote: "Polyamorous is not a word I use for myself or to describe my relationships. I prefer nonmonogamous or, better yet, ethical nonmonogamy. The primary reason behind this is because people tend to sweat the difference between “open relationships” (presumably where physical intimacy is the only type of connection allowed outside of the couple) and “polyamory” (where each person actively seeks out multiple long-term romantic and sexual partners). The issue with this false dichotomy is that it assumes we get to choose what sort of connection will emerge between two people. Cute."

https://humanparts.medium.com/lessons-in-couple-privilege-49a773004134

Cosa sono i supercomputer? A cosa servono realmente? Come sono fatti? Dove si trovano?

Se vi sembrano domande impossibili, sappiate che le risposte esistono. Le hanno quelli della setta dei supercomputer

https://antoniodini.com/setta-supercomputer/

A un certo punto ci fu uno scambio e gli olandesi dettero l'isola di Manhattan agli inglesi in cambio dell'isola di Bandas. Di Manhattan la storia la conosciamo, dell'altra no. Eccola qua.

Money quote: "Manhattan soon developed into a cosmopolitan trade center. The Bandas, meanwhile, turned into a single-purpose, slave-driven plantation economy. As transatlantic trade and American commerce boomed, so did Manhattan. As nutmeg’s value eventually collapsed, so did the Bandas’ economy."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/island-traded-for-manhattan

Long-term smoking habits, party-boy lifestyles, the strain of living hectic lives, fast women, late nights, wear & tear have taken their toll.
Their once revered good looks have begun to fade.
Leo and Brad—-now on the dark side of middle age——show slippery signs of senescence.

Dalla Moleskine al libro in libreria, nel mezzo c'è tutto: scrittura, Scrivener, proofediting, crowfunding e via dicendo. Una avventura significativa.

Money quote: "After the backpacking trip I reunited with my laptop and spent a few weeks drafting a bullet-pointed outline of the entire book. This “skeleton” served as a dumping ground for every single argument, quote, link, and fleeting notion that might contribute to the book. I deeply mined my own books, articles, email newsletters, and personal email correspondence for anything of potential value. Nothing was off the table. What emerged was a dense, messy, 100-page document—but one with a sensible hierarchical structure."

https://www.blakeboles.com/2020/07/book-story

Ma voi sapete cos'è Vim? Da dove viene? Perché è fatto com'è fatto? No? Ecco, non chiedervelo oltre, e invece leggete La storia di Vim

https://antoniodini.com/storia-vim/

Avete presente le villette monofamiliari dei sobborghi americani? Quei dormitori infiniti, che un po' di tempo fa sono stati raccontati da *Desperate Housewives*? Beh, quel modello urbanistico ha una data di nascita e un creatore. E una storia, nata in un campo di patate. Si chiamano Cookie-Cutter Suburb (noi diremmo "sobborghi fatti con lo stampino) o più propriamente Tract housing.

Money quote: "The idyllic ideal of modern suburbia in the United States was born in 1947 with the creation of Levittown, a large housing development in Long Island, New York. Businessman Abraham Levitt and his sons, William and Alfred, turned some potato fields into a neighborhood bearing their name, with more than 17,000 uniform, boxy, detached homes spaced equally along carefully meandering and manicured streets. The project, which reduced the building of each home to an assembly-line system of 26 steps for speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, catered in particular to returning World War II veterans looking for safe and stable homes during a national housing shortage. The affordable cost allowed thousands of families to become homeowners, but only certain families."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/levittown-new-york

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tract_housing

Lasciar vagare la propria mente e meravigliarsi, ponderando l'esistente e con essa l'esistenza. È fondamentale, no? Soprattutto per i bambini.

Money quote: "If you ask yourself what it is like to experience wonder, or curiosity, or awe, I hope you’ll agree that the answers differ. Wonder is a mode of consciousness, a way of being aware of the world, both in perception and feeling, that differs from our ordinary perception of things in a unique way. We perceive the object of our wonder as in some way strange or puzzling, even mysterious, beyond our understanding, yet worthy of our attention for its own sake. It might be accompanied by a drive to enquire and seek explanations, but even then it is primarily a receptive state, in which the object takes centre-stage. Wonder is other-oriented, open to what reveals itself to us. It often leaves us lost for words, but it doesn’t pronounce awe’s definite judgment that its object is great – we are confronted first and foremost by mystery, not power or greatness."

https://psyche.co/ideas/why-good-teachers-allow-a-childs-mind-to-wander-and-wonder

Vecchi classici sempre attuali

https://youtu.be/CtVc0QTYv9w

Mi ricordavo che era da qualche parte nel mio archivio per due motivi: il titolo che avevo trovato (Dimmi quanto quanto quanto) mi piaceva da morire e il prof che avevo intervistato è un amico geniale. Adesso, dopo che ha vinto il premio Nobel per la fisica, mi pare l'occasione giusta per tirarlo fuori.

Money quote: "Qualunque interferenza, infatti, e il gioco non funziona più. "Per questo - dice Parisi - il primo posto dove potremmo mettere un calcolatore quantistico è lo spazio esterno, magari a metà strada fra due galassie. Là c'è una ragionevole assenza di interferenze tale da poterlo far funzionare"."

https://antoniodini.com/dimmi-quanto-quanto-quanto/

Da anni faccio una fatica incredibile a leggere cose lunghe (che credo si chiamino "libri"). Per dire, faccio molta meno fatica a scrivere, anche se non riesco più a scrivere cose lunghe (che per combinazione credo si chiamino sempre "libri"). C'è un motivo, però. Segue il motivo.

Money quote: "A few nights a week, I’d make a feeble attempt at proving the world wrong, swimming up through my exhaustion to pick up a novel and push through its pages. Sentences were newly terrifying; tiny minefields of meaning where I might miss a principle I’d later be called upon to produce, freshly plucked. I labored for months over what had once taken me days. I told myself that this was pleasure; that these motions were sufficient proof that I hadn’t allowed myself to be drained of joy and filled with something else."

https://longreads.com/2018/08/14/on-not-being-able-to-read/

BGP spiegato con i Flintons. Geniale!

Money quote:

Dino tells Fred & Wilma where he is. They tell Barney & Betty where they are, and that they know where Dino is.

To find Dino ask Barney/Betty, who send you to Fred/Wilma, who show you Dino.

If Dino wants to hide & not tell anyone, you can’t get to or find Dino!

https://twitter.com/bindul/status/1445484903387176963?s=20

Voi non ci crederete, ma è quello che vorrei fare anche io e trasformare il mio sito statico (che non riesco a ridurre) in un sito alimentato a energia solare e che vive su un RPi. Ma non riesco a fare neanche la prima parte, ahimè, eppure mi accontenterei di far stare tutto sul Raspberry. Il progetto qui sotto invece è fantastico (e utilizza una batteria da auto come accumulatore, pensa te).

Money quote: "I've put a solar panel on my balcony, which is connected to a solar charge controller. This device charges an old worn-out car battery and provides power to a Raspberry Pi 3b+, which in turn powers this (static) website."

https://louwrentius.com/this-blog-is-now-running-on-solar-power.html

Il primo vaccino della storia contro un parassita, cioè la malaria. Stiamo vivendo tempi incredibili e ci accapigliamo come degli imbecilli.

Money quote: "Malaria kills about half a million people each year, nearly all of them in sub-Saharan Africa — including 260,000 children under 5. The new vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline, rouses a child’s immune system to thwart Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest of five malaria pathogens and the most prevalent in Africa.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the vaccine, the first step in a process that should lead to wide distribution in poor countries. To have a malaria vaccine that is safe, moderately effective and ready for distribution is a historic event, said Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of the W.H.O.’s global malaria program."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/health/malaria-vaccine-who.html