WHEN THE SURPRISE IS BITTER

WHEN THE SURPRISE IS BITTER

Feb 7, 2020 | TECHNOLOGY, WORLD

Sometimes it is nice to be able to say “ah but someone is still there!” … it’s like a breath, like a proof that hope really dies last, even if the cases of people countercurrent are like rainbows: rare.
So, I suppose that despite the fact they don’t have easy names, I will remember the French lawyers who prepared a lawsuit against EA Sport by equating the FUT mode of the FIFA video game with gambling.
A system very often illusory has been developed with the high risk of creating addiction, which pushes players, generally very young, to spend real money, to buy packages with random content that should contain rare and important players, or options to improve game results: the FUT Fifa Ultimate Team mode.
In fact, a loot box, that is, a virtual consumer object, and not a “surprise” comparable to those of eggs to be clear, as claimed by the company already convened before the United Kingdom Gambling Commission.
So esteem and solidarity with the lawyers, with the hope that they can represent a sort of forerunner for further dutiful cases against other giants that make good and bad weather in various areas.
Also the fact that teenagers profiles are hacked speaks volumes about how much what is acquired within the game has taken on a value that borders on the virtual.
Anyway not even this aspect seems to worry the EA.
Being able to make contact, and to obtain concrete help from customer support, is a challenge as difficult as being able to find the same precious players that some youtubers can easily show off.
So, in spite of the fact that it is theft, in addition to the damage there is the mockery of not being able to play anymore, because nobody cares to protect the legitimate owner of the profile.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to specify that the “surprise” in many cases turns out to be bitter …

CIGARETTES AND COFFEE … NEVER AGAIN?

CIGARETTES AND COFFEE … NEVER AGAIN?

Jan 25, 2020 | ITALY

The Swedish model keep going on to seem an example to follow and the mayor of Milan drew inspiration from it by proposing to extend the ban on smoking even in open spaces: at bus stops and for those who are queuing for the use of public services, for reach by 2030 a total ban in any open place.
This announcement, followed by an inevitable aftermath of controversy, comes precisely in the occasion of the fifteenth birthday of the Sirchia law, named after the Minister of Health who proposed it, i.e. the ban on smoking in closed public places, which entered into force on 10 January 2005.
The Higher Institute of Health, taking stock of the statistics originating from that date, reports the following data:
During these fifteen years of application of the anti-smoking law, sales of traditional cigarettes have gone from about 92,822 tons in 2005 to about 67,460 tons in 2018, with a decrease of 27.3%. On the other hand, there was an important surge in sales of shredded tobacco (including pipe tobacco), which in the same period recorded an increase of over 500%.
Beyond the statistics, I am particularly interested in knowing your opinion since, for those who smoke, the cigarette is notoriously consequential to coffee.
As far as I’m concerned, the behaviors of smokers that I observe already contemplate respect: no cigarettes in the presence of children, no cigarettes in the car in the presence of other people, no cigarettes in the homes of others etc.
In the meantime, the new budget law has further raised the amount of minimum excise duties (already increased with the 2019’s budget law) by raising the basic rate of cigarettes to 59.8%, a good bit of a deterrent I would say.
… so, the back and forth through my mind of Seven Nation Army is intended to be no longer behind a cigarette?

BLOW FOR WHO?

BLOW FOR WHO?

Jan 23, 2020 | ITALY, TROUBLES AND BLOWS

I have read various titles that speak of historical and stave sentences, but the historical sentence is simply as desirable, only that we are no longer used to correctness, to the point that when it is put into practice it makes news; and the sting, on balance, remains on the shoulders of consumers.
I refer to the resolution of Agcom against three large telephone companies that have applied additional costs to users with rechargeable option tariffs, unilaterally modifying existing contracts.
Without getting lost in my slightly labyrinthine speeches, it is certainly better if I mention my husband’s example:
With this extra charge, with the aggravation of the ironic adduction of the “customer distraction”, the telephone companies will have gained by hypothesis 10.
This fine, boasted as exorbitant, for them will represent more or less 2.
However, there is still a gain of 8.
The penalty goes to the state.
Has anyone ever thought of a customer refund?
To truly balance the accounts, companies should return 10, which is what stolen, to users.
And the fine of 2 should be an extra once and for all.
Yeah, but that’s another story …

HOW COULD INTERSTELLAR COFFEE BE?

HOW COULD INTERSTELLAR COFFEE BE?

Jan 20, 2020 | SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY

We are quite used to Elon Musk’s statements about his visions of future, the latest in order of time foresees one million people on Mars by 2050.
This estimate originated from a quick tweet format calculation in response to a detractor.
Textually: “Starship design goal is 3 flights / day avg rate, so ~ 1000 flights / year at> 100 tons / flight, so every 10 ships yield 1 megaton per year to orbit. Building 100 Starships / year gets to 1000 in 10 years or 100 megatons / year or maybe around 100k people for Earth-Mars orbital sync.”
So the plan would be to build 100 Starships per year.
Meanwhile, SpaceX, in order to test the safety of the Crew Dragon capsule and to have the authorization to fly with astronauts on board, carried out a test intentionally destroying rocket Falcon 9 which crashed into the ocean off the coast of Florida.
However, while waiting to solve the problem of making the red planet livable, the closest target is the moon by 2022 to ensure the resources for people who according to the Artemis project should remain there for 5/6 days in 2024.
So I would tell: save the date.
Let’s see if these years 20s of ours will be out of orbit and let’s try to imagine what format but above all what taste the interstellar coffee will have.

 

TRUTH OR SURROGATE?

TRUTH OR SURROGATE?

Jan 12, 2020 | WORLD

How do you deal with coffee substitutes?
Barley coffee, decaffeinated coffee: are alternatives valid for those who for various reasons must give up real coffee, or if not coffee, better to leave it alone and drink something else?
I found myself thinking about surrogates while listening to the news.
Does the truth still exist? More and more often, I have the impression of having to drink a long series of substitutes, or worse still, it seems to me that I have to swallow the notorious Parmesan, as if it were taken for granted that so much is fine even if it is not the real one, because after all what costs less is convenient.
So hearing that a soldier gets confused and shoots down an airliner taking off for an American fighter, for me it’s a bite of Parmesan, but everyone eats it, that’s okay, let’s continue our things, it doesn’t matter if anyway look at it, it’s paradoxical.
Without wanting to do pub geopolitics, it doesn’t worry you to think that it is considered plausible that a soldier, alone, in the era in which we even control the washing machine with a simple application on the cell phone, could launch a missile without authorization, without checks, without certainties, and without any sense?
Wouldn’t you call him Lee Harvey Oswald?
Or, maybe it’s me who, repeatedly disappointed, see the truth more and more like a Siberian Tiger: magnificent, but now almost extinct.

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