WIKIPEDIA When the Internet is a matter of life and death

WIKIPEDIA When the Internet is a matter of life and death

Jul 20, 2024 | BOOKS, INTERNET

WIKIPEDIA When the Internet is a matter of life and death.

The Power of Knowledge kills the Knowledge of Power.

A sentence, a play on words, the key to a dream.

Aaron Swarzt’s dream, the dream of those who believe in freedom.

Pietro Ratto in his book Wikipedia When the Internet is a matter of life and death meticulously reconstructs the birth, history and evolution of the online encyclopaedia we all know.

Wikipedia content is added by voluntary users who contribute information that is shared as creative commons.

The idea was born from a dream, and is fuelled by a strong need for freedom.

Wikipedia’s aim is to spread knowledge and make it available to everyone, free of charge and universally.

The Power of Knowledge.

Can the Power of Knowledge really kill the Knowledge of Power?

Power is influence, power is domination.

How far can a dream be magnified?

Pietro Ratto’s valuable investigation reports on all the stages and, above all, all the stories of those who have been dreamers, those who have been creators and those who have been powerful …

The bibliography, or rather the sitography is extensive and very detailed.

In addition, every single link published in the book is available for consultation from the site of Pietro Ratto BoscoCeduo. 

I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to hear Aaron Swartz’s story, which should be shared out of a sense of justice but also of freedom. 

Here is a video from 2007 in which Aaron talks about network communication.

Are you in the habit of consulting Wikipedia?

Have you ever contributed to the writing and publishing of information?

LA SABBIA NELLA MENTE – SAND IN THE MIND

LA SABBIA NELLA MENTE – SAND IN THE MIND

Jun 22, 2024 | BOOKS, BOOKS

Antonio Migliorisi’s Sand in the Mind was a big surprise for me.

Usually before reading a book I am curious, like everyone else I always read the back cover or the preview, and unavoidably ‘visualise’ what my guess is.

In this case, I must say that the title was prophetic, because I imagined something different.

I therefore sincerely thank Antonio Migliorisi for having pleasantly surprised me, and with him I also thank Manuale di Mari that made this discovery possible.

Antonio Migliorisi is a prestigious architect from the Marche region, active in many fields including teaching.

Surely, one can also speak of architecture when referring to Sand in the Mind, because of the way it is constructed.

I expected to take a journey into the psyche, instead I experienced an adventure while also learning interesting anecdotes about Mnemosyne: mythological personification of memory.

In general, the reading reveals Antonio Migliorisi to be a deep connoisseur of various subjects, scrupulous with details and exhaustive in situations.

And his expertise leads the reader along with the characters in a plot full of twists and turns.

The result is undoubtedly worthy of international best sellers.

The book opens and closes in situations accompanied by jazz music as ‘background.’

I found an analogy between jazz and the book itself as an enthralling rhythm characterised by solo virtuosity: the virtuosity of Antonio Migliorisi.

Here is the booktrailer 

what do you think?

HO CHIUSO CON TE – I’M DONE WITH YOU

HO CHIUSO CON TE – I’M DONE WITH YOU

May 11, 2024 | BOOKS

Ho chiuso con te, Guida Editori is the book for which I would like to thank Manuale di Mari  and the author: Emanuela Esposito Amato.

Ho chiuso con te is a sentence that immediately leads us to think of something peremptory, of an unhappy and angry epilogue, yet the book opens up many reflections.

The first ‘reflection’ is literally a mirror image: the book’s protagonists are twins bound by a promise.

Two sisters, one thing.

One thing just like the two opposing sides of the same soul: good and evil, Yin and Yang, Motown and Metal.

Do you also have an inside-out juxtaposition?

Escher comes to mind. 

 

Maurits Cornelis Escher, Bond of Union, April 1956. Lithograph, 25.3×33.9 cm, The Netherlands, Escher Foundation Collection All M.C. Escher works © 2021 The M.C. Escher Company The Netherlands. All rights reserved

We are wrong when we believe we are in truth and vice versa.
Thomas Bernhard

On the subject of what is true, the author, before telling the story, quotes a sentence by Oscar Wilde:

 

Is it really so? Do you feel yourself always and everywhere?

Is there a person in the world who really knows you to the core?

Emanuela Esposito Amato who is currently participating in The international book fair in Turin, dedicated the book to his brother.

His dedication immediately put me on his wavelength because I also think that ‘my’ brother is a BIG brother.

Do you have brothers or sisters? What kind of bond do you have, if you don’t mind me asking?

Very often there are stories of brotherly misunderstandings, quarrels, break-ups … of ‘I’m done with you.’

But will this really be the focus of the book?

I leave it to the reader to find out.

THE VERTICAL SUMMER

THE VERTICAL SUMMER

Apr 6, 2024 | BOOKS

The vertical summer by Chiara Sfregola  published by Fandango is the book I received from Manuale di Mari whom I thank.

I don’t know if you already have an idea of what a ‘vertical’ summer might be like … I have wondered about it, and although I found the explanation in the book, I retain my own personal vision created by reading it.

Thinking about it now, vertical could also be the split between those who love summer and those who hate it.

How do you experience the summer season?

The protagonists of the book experience the emblematic events of their lives in summer: the timeline is in fact a relay of seven different female characters.

Very often we say ‘characters that revolve around’ in this case instead they move vertically, as in a descent inversely proportional to time passing, like a fall.

Like the summer that somehow represents the origin of all the events that strike in succession like a domino.

Dominoes whose tiles seem to fall even before they are hit.

Because they are imperfect tiles, unsatisfied with their role.

Everything seems too easy and it is exactly the ease with which things happen that makes them an unimportant outline, even successes, prestigious situations and luck seem totally irrelevant.

When nothing makes sense any more, the very construction of the book changes, like a restart whose initially stunted and unconvincing steps turn into a crescendo that corresponds to real growth.

The reader is taken to the epilogue with literally different writing, a form I particularly love.

And suddenly it all comes together.

RESTORED VELARIUM

RESTORED VELARIUM

Mar 16, 2024 | ART, BOOKS

Restored velarium at at the Cagnoni Theatre in Vigevano:  a rare case of a velario preserved in its original location.

It is a work by the painter Giovan Battista Garberini entitled The Siege of Vigevano.

The restoration was financed thanks to a fundraiser organised by the Associazione Amici del Teatro Cagnoni  and the Fondazione Piacenza Vigevano.

Sipario alla ribalta, written by Edoardo Maffeo, Dino Rabai, Giovanni Borroni and Pier Luigi Muggiati and published by Ievve, is dedicated to this work.

Sipario alla ribalta was published with the contribution of ASM Energia, Amici di Palazzo Crespi, Soroptimist Lomellina and the patronage of the Municipality of Vigevano. 

On Saturday 9 March at the Teatro Cagnoni foyer, the authors held the book presentation as speakers.

 

Edoardo Maffeo edited the part of the book concerning a careful biography of the Vigevano painter Giovan Battista Garberini.

Dino Rabai recounted what Vigevano was like at the end of the 19th century through meticulous research based on historical archives, interweaving his talk with curious and interesting information and anecdotes.

Giovanni Borroni dealt with the historiography of the 19th century on a national and international level as a century of important changes.

His speech offered a series of reflections that I really recommend not to miss: he himself called it a short chronology of a long century actually a long chronology of a short century.

I also leave you with the question that Giovanni Borroni asked those present: what is the historiographical sense of dividing history into centuries?

Pier Luigi Muggiati reassembled the historical facts, providing a precise reconstruction beyond the legend that has been handed down over time and revealing a particularly relevant detail.

But let us take a step back and return to the Siege of Vigevano portrayed on the velarium: if you pause to look at the scene depicted, you will notice that women are portrayed in the centre.

They are the ones strenuously defending the breach from the invaders commanded by Francesco Sforza, led by the woman depicted as a heroine in shining armour with drawn sword.

We have always known this character as Camilla Rodolfi.

However, Camilla Rodolfi is not a real woman: the name Camilla was inspired by the character in the Aeneid, while the surname Rodolfi belonged to an important family from Vigevano.

A woman who undoubtedly deserves mention is Pinin Brambilla Barcilon famous for the restoration of the Cenacolo: she was also the restorer of the Garberini’s velari, the book includes her report kept at La Venaria Reale. 

Giovan Battista Garberini also painted a second curtain entitled La Festa sul Ticino. 

Did you know that the curtain or velarium is also called a ‘comodino’ that more or less means handy?

ALL TRUE

ALL TRUE

Mar 2, 2024 | BOOKS

Tutto vero is the title of the book by Alessandro Depegi, whom I thank most sincerely.

I met the author as a blogger and I recommend to follow his Quarchedundepegi’s Blog, you will immediately find his way of telling stories very interesting. 

E-mail after e-mail I am learning so much from Alessandro and I find everything he writes absolutely valuable.

Through his real ‘oral tradition‘ he opens a window on a period of history that I personally have never had the opportunity to get to know in such depth and detail.

But among the peculiarities that make Alessandro Depegi’s expressive language totally unique are his passions, including philately.

A world that is unfortunately dying out, a world that is dear to me because it also fascinated my father.

Do you still use stamps? When was the last time you received or saw one?

I often tell you about my personal nostalgia for letters. 

Did you ever think you could travel by following the route of a stamp, or discovering the history of various issues?

Few people have such detailed philatelic knowledge as he does.

But even fewer people have Alessandro’s life experience: a man who was able to combine his scientific expertise with deep and intense human research.

All true, then, what he tells in his book, just as definitely important is everything on which the reader will find himself reflecting “with wonder” to quote his words, and “by chance … that chance that does not exist.”

I conclude with this quote, wishing along with Alessandro that many may be the “Awakened.”

“Everything is either true or untrue, true and untrue together and, likewise, neither untrue nor true. Such is the teaching of the Awakened Ones.”
Nagarjuna

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