Una regina africana tremenda, potentissima, solida, temuta. Capace di tenere a bada i portoghesi nell'epoca della massima schiavitù. La sua storia è uno spaccato del mondo alla fine del Cinquecento visto da un'altra prospettiva. Che storia enorme.

Money quote: "Njinga was her father’s clear favorite throughout her childhood. She was 10 when Mbande became the ngola, or king, of Ngondo (“Angola” comes from the Portuguese misunderstanding the meaning of ngola and thinking it was the name of the kingdom). He often involved her in his official duties: she attended many of the legal councils that her father oversaw, received military training, and participated in the ritual activities that were so vital to their culture. The fact that she was a girl and not even the child of his principal wife made all of this very unusual, but then again maybe this explains why Mbande a Ngola felt comfortable to display his preference so publicly. It would have been unheard of to lavish that kind of individual attention on any of his sons; to do so meant risking jealousy not only among them, but also among their mothers, many of whom came from powerful families. A daughter, though, was different — for one thing, no one really viewed her as direct competition. Besides, everyone agreed that Njinga was special. She outperformed her brothers in every capacity, including with the battle axe, which was the royal weapon of choice."

https://longreads.com/2019/10/03/queens-of-infamy-njinga/

Un sistema per interrogare direttamente il database di Foto sui dispositivi Apple. Perché in realtà c'è parecchio, ben nascosto.

Money quote: "As with most Apple software, Photos uses SQLite under the hood. The underlying database is undocumented and clearly not intended as a public API, but it exists. And I’ve wanted to gain access to what’s in it for years."

https://simonwillison.net/2020/May/21/dogsheep-photos/

Le emozioni sono virus e possono far ammalare le persone, soprattutto quelle giovani

Money quote: "When we hear the word ‘contagion’, our minds are immediately drawn to the viruses and bacteria spread through coughing and sneezing. This narrow view prioritises the biological, yet contagion is not unique to the spread of microorganisms. There is a growing body of scientific evidence showing that our internal mental states, including our emotions, might also be socially transmissible. Understanding the nature and dynamics of this emotional contagion is crucial in highlighting how social interactions might impact on our wellbeing. Within my field of research – adolescent development – this is a particular concern: approximately 75 per cent of all mental health conditions start before the age of 24, and adolescents are especially sensitive to peer influence. Exploring how mood spreads from person to person could help us better understand how mental illness develops."

https://psyche.co/ideas/for-young-people-emotions-are-highly-contagious-social-viruses

Urania con Corriere e Gazzetta: ne vale la pena? - il mio articolo per Fumettologica

https://www.fumettologica.it/2022/02/urania-70-anni-gazzetta-corriere/

Quanto candore: questa giovane ragazza prende appunti strutturati come una cavia corre sulla ruota e si sente meglio: le gioie di un universo procedurale. Vallo a capire.

Money quote: "It’s that straightforward. Acquiring intelligence doesn’t require an Einstein-level IQ. You only need a desire to learn and a system. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the one to solve the latest problem at work or comes up with a fresh idea when everyone else is feeling stuck. If anything, you’ll certainly look like the smartest person at the next party."

https://forge.medium.com/how-this-note-taking-system-can-elevate-your-intelligence-897aee747b17

Utile, Vim Killer si presenta come una utility tridimensionale che offre un bottone-ultima-risorsa per uscire da Vim. Il regalo di compleanno perfetto

Money quote: "VIMKiller is a button on-top of an arduino wrapped in a 3-D printed enclosure. It is expertly crafted. When the button is pressed it sends a message over your serial port to kill VIM. Now, at this point, you need to have the Julia VIMKiller script running in the background. It may be best to have this script run at start-up (easy-fix). The Julia script listens for this serial message and returns in kind by killing all VIM processes on your Linux machine. Easy, and practical - right?"

https://github.com/caseykneale/VIMKiller

Lucrezia Borgia, figura femminile estrema per molti versi, diventata oggi l'esempio della seduzione e poi delle donne di potere, è in realtà una figura molto più sfaccettata e complessa.

Money quote: "People have called Lucrezia many things over the years: seductress, murderess, femme fatale of the Borgia cabal. The attributes assigned to her didn’t come out of nowhere; as we shall see — and as Lucrezia noted herself — many of the men around her came to unfortunate ends. In portrayals where she escapes the villainess role, she’s often made out to be another hapless aristocratic daughter traded off into various political marriages, someone with no agency or ambitions of her own. The reality, of course, is much more nuanced. While Lucrezia was indeed married off several times to further her family’s agenda, as an adult she proved herself to be a skilled ruler loved and respected by her subjects."

https://longreads.com/2020/05/28/queens-of-infamy-lucrezia-borgia/

I poster sovietici, durante la rivoluzione di ottobre e la successiva guerra civile. Rivederne la storia oggi è affascinante.

Money quote: "During the Civil War, "ROSTA Windows" ("Okna ROSTA") - a famous project by the Russian Telegraph Agency, brought together artists who turned telegrams Okna Rosta from Red Army soldiers into posters within hours of receiving them from the front lines. Renowned poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, became the soul of this undertaking. He produced texts based on the most recent telegrams and accompanied them with sketches. Mikhail Cheremnykh was also actively engaged in the project. Soviet artists frantically produced dozens of posters overnight, and every morning "Okna ROSTA" were posted in the empty storefronts and windows (hence the project's name), informing the citizens of the latest news in vivid and sharp-witted form.

Victor Deni, a superb master of political caricature of his day, introduced smashing satire to the Soviet propaganda art. His posters mercilessly ridiculed capitalists, corrupt politicians and spineless yes-man."

https://www.sovietposters.com/

Durante il lockdown americano la Nintendo Switch è diventata un elemento fondamentale del kit base di sopravvivenza. Al punto che c'è chi ha deciso di ripararla da solo in caso di piccole rotture (il maledetto drifting joycon, per dire). Questo ha generato una interessante esplosione di riparazioni DIY.

Money quote: "Urquidi’s decision not to send the controller to Nintendo turned out to be prescient. Although he wasn’t aware of it at the time, the company had announced in late March that all of its North American repair centers would be closed “until further notice” due to the coronavirus. Worse, any Joy-Cons Nintendo received during lockdowns might be forwarded to a warehouse “for temporary storage until repair services resume.”"

https://onezero.medium.com/desperate-nintendo-switch-owners-are-learning-to-repair-their-own-busted-systems-c34841976f32

Un bel museo multimediale e multi esperienziale ad Atlanta. Tutto sull'hip-hop e non solo. Non è il mio mondo ma le immagini sono più che gradevoli e sarei curioso di visitarlo.

Money quote: "Today, the space operates as a museum and event space, as well as an active hair salon. A portion of the building is dedicated to Madam C.J. Walker, including hair tools from the 1940s and 1950s that were discovered in the old salon space. Another part is dedicated to WERD, and thousands of vinyl records decorate the walls. De Forest has also curated a collection of historic items for the space, such as Jim Crow-era signs and vintage cameras."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/madam-cj-walker-museum-werd-radio

Brutto schianto causato dall'autopilota della Tesla Model 3 a Taiwan. Per fortuna non si è fatto male nessuno, ma il video fa davvero impressione.

Money quote: "Earlier today, on Taiwan’s National Highway 1 near the Zhongshan High Chiayi Water Section, a Tesla Model 3 crashed right smack into the roof of an overturned truck trailer. It appears that the wreck was caused by the Tesla’s Autopilot system not detecting the large rectangular object right in front of it, in broad daylight and clear weather. We have seen Autopilot failures like this before, especially ones involving large, immobile objects."

https://jalopnik.com/tesla-model-3-drives-straight-into-overturned-truck-in-1843827507

Divertirsi con le "Cavie umane" di Osamu Tezuka - il mio articolo per Fumettologica

https://www.fumettologica.it/2022/02/cavie-umane-osamu-tezuka-j-pop-manga/

Un progetto per digitalizzare i video di famiglia, 45 cassette Vhs. Sembra facile, vero? Invece, è durato otto anni ed è finito in maniera molto diversa da come è cominciato.

Money quote: "If you’re wondering why this took me eight years and hundreds of hours, I don’t blame you. I thought it would be an easy project too."

https://mtlynch.io/digitizing-1

Qui la seconda parte

https://mtlynch.io/digitizing-2/

Un problema a quanto pare importante all'infrastruttura di AWS ha messo in ginocchio Twitter più o meno in tutto il mondo

https://istheservicedown.com/problems/twitter

Non esistono bug, esistono solo liste di cose da fare (si può applicare anche in altri campi che non siano l'ingegneria del software, se ci pensate).

Money quote: "I think there are relatively few properties that are needed in an issue and relatively few rules to make the handling efficient."

https://almad.blog/essays/no-bugs-just-todos/

Una tonnellata di immagini di pubblico dominio per illustrazione e altri usi. Buona domenica!

Money quote: "Explore Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations from some of the best artists the world has ever known."

https://artvee.com

Effetti della pandemia sulle compagnie aeree americane? Forse. Intanto, Frontier e Spirit Airlines stanno pensando di fondersi. Il che farebbe risparmiare dei soldi ai passeggeri oltre a creare nuovi posti di lavoro, e questo è quello che piace all'antitrust americano.

Money quote: "The U.S. airline industry has undergone a tremendous amount of consolidation over the past two decades, with the nation’s four largest airlines controlling about 80 percent of the domestic market. Spirit and Frontier argue that the merger would allow them to better challenge those large carriers. But a deal would also create a giant budget airline that could smother smaller companies, including two recent entrants, Breeze and Avelo."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/business/frontier-spirit-airlines-merger.html

Sono esplose le newsletter. Io qui resisto con il canale, ma mi sono fatto contagiare, come sapete, con la mia Mostly Weekly. Anche se - devo dire la verità - a me pare che le newsletter abbiano già abbondantemente saltato lo squalo.

Ecco la mia newsletter

https://antoniodini.com/newsletter/


Ecco anche un cimelio del passato.

Money quote: "Graydon Carter, the former editor of Vanity Fair, is starting Air Mail, an all-digital international news platform intended for worldly cosmopolitans, with Alessandra Stanley, who was a longtime critic and reporter for The New York Times.

Beginning this summer, Air Mail will be packaged as a weekly newsletter, featuring magazine-length original articles sent to subscribers on Saturday at 6 a.m. Stories and original podcasts will also be available on a website: AirMail.news.

According to Mr. Carter, the idea is to keep well-heeled globalists up to speed on the latest fads, fashions, arts, riots, scandals, and political upheavals in Europe and Asia. Think of it a bit like The Economist with attitude, or maybe “the weekend edition of a nonexistent international daily,” he said, slouching in an office chair in his garden-level West Village office on a recent, chilly Monday. He was wearing gray flannel trousers, a blue fleece vest and his trademark curvilinear hairstyle."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/style/what-is-graydon-carter-doing-now.html

La storia d’amore più “scandalosa” mai apparsa su “Topolino”. E mai più ristampata. Scatenò un putiferio mediatico e costò quasi il posto al direttore di Topolino di allora.
👉 https://bit.ly/3oLWYBL

E se contrapponessimo all'idea di un deumanizzante culto della startup o del bisogno di aziende gigantesche, l'idea di una impresa su misura, ritagliata su una persona sola, perlomeno in alcuni ambiti particolari? Potrebbe essere un'idea geniale od orrenda: bisogna leggere il libro.

Money quote: "Company of One is your official guide to building around the idea that staying small and avoiding growth can be more durable and even more enjoyable than business as usual from author Paul Jarvis.

The real key to richer and more fulfilling work could be to not create and scale something into a massive corporation, but rather, to work for yourself, determine your own hours, and become a (highly profitable) and sustainable company of one. This book explains how to do just that."

https://ofone.co/

Quell'indefinibile odore dei libri, definito meglio.

Money quote: "As far as the smell of new books goes, it’s actually quite difficult to pinpoint specific compounds, for a number of reasons. Firstly, there seems to be a scarcity of scientific research that’s been carried out on the subject – to be fair, it’s understandable why it might not exactly be high up on the priority list. Secondly, the variation in the chemicals used to manufacture books also means that it’s an aroma that will vary from book to book. Add to this the fact that there are literally hundreds of compounds involved, and it becomes clearer why it evades attribution to a small selection of chemicals."

https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/06/01/newoldbooksmell/