Tales from the Taiwan quarantine hotel, day 6, thread 3.

Big changes in the food situation today.
More about that below.

This was my last

There is one spot in my room where I can catch some sunlight, so that's what I saw from today's nice blue-sky winter weather in Taipei. (Hey look, I can see a tree.)
While the balcony looks nice, I'm not able to access it, probably to contain my aerosols. So these were taken through the window that can be opened just enough to stretch out my hand.

On the positive side, there is a window and it can be opened. Neither is a given in qu. hotels.
Let me share with you the 4 most useless items during quarantine.
Presenting the color scheme of my world right now.
So, the food. (3 meals provided by hotel)

Starting today, I switched to meatless.

The diet just was not really balanced...
So this was the selection on meatless day no. 1. Definitely more greens.

Though I am wondering if they need to stick to the "bowl of rice with vegetables" formula.
BTW, this is the schedule for where the hotel gets the meals from.
So, what else... As recommended by y'all, I started watching #Sense8.
Not bad. Five episodes in. Suppose that cannot really be called binging...

https://t.co/AwkysI5BBG
This is the daily check-up message by the authorities. They'll re-send it in 15 minutes intervals if you don't reply.

Did not get any more phone calls after the one on day 1, though.
While here's some more food... I recently came up with the term #SocialDetox to describe the quarantine experience. Was really proud of that, too, until I Googled it just now and found out it's been in use since before Covid.
What impressed me recently was the reaction to the doctor who got infected treating patients.
39 doctors and nurses from his hospital quarantined. 440 contacts tested.

https://t.co/gVtb1rJhAj
Really nice touch on the cellphone stand provided by the hotel. Planning ahead for the time after the pandemic.

More from For later read

Humans inherently like the act of solidarity. We are social beings. We like to huddle up and be together.
They used this against us.
They convinced us that it was an act of solidarity to flatten the curve, to wear a mask for others, to take the vaccines for others,


and to reach #covidzero for others. They convinced us that this was for the greater good of society.
In reality, this couldn't be further away from the truth. They have divided us and broken the core structure of our society. They have dehumanized us with their masks.

They set us against each other into clans on opposite sides of a spectrum. They have turned us into aggressive beings fighting for our survival. Some of us fear harm from the virus, others fear harm from the vaccine, and yet others fear harm from the attack on our civilization.

We are all on a flight or fight mode. We are all operating under the influence of fear. We must collect ourselves and reflect on what has happened over the last year.
How is this for the greater good of society?

They used a tactical warfare strategy against us.
'Divide and conquer'.
We fell for it.
Now we must become aware of it and fight back.
We must reunite. We must find true solidarity to save our world. To free ourselves. To regain our autonomy.
This response to my tweet is a common objection to targeted advertising.

@KevinCoates correct me if I'm wrong, but basic point seems to be that banning targeted ads will lower platform profits, but will mostly be beneficial for consumers.

Some counterpoints 👇


1) This assumes that consumers prefer contextual ads to targeted ones.

This does not seem self-evident to me


Research also finds that firms choose between ad. targeting vs. obtrusiveness 👇

If true, the right question is not whether consumers prefer contextual ads to targeted ones. But whether they prefer *more* contextual ads vs *fewer* targeted

2) True, many inframarginal platforms might simply shift to contextual ads.

But some might already be almost indifferent between direct & indirect monetization.

Hard to imagine that *none* of them will respond to reduced ad revenue with actual fees.

3) Policy debate seems to be moving from:

"Consumers are insufficiently informed to decide how they share their data."

To

"No one in their right mind would agree to highly targeted ads (e.g., those that mix data from multiple sources)."

IMO the latter statement is incorrect.
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Planet Money on HP's myriad ripoffs; Strength in numbers; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/esjoT3u5Gr

#Pluralistic

1/


On Feb 22, I'm delivering a keynote address for the NISO Plus conference, "The day of the comet: what trustbusting means for digital manipulation."

https://t.co/Z84xicXhGg

2/


Planet Money on HP's myriad ripoffs: Ink-stained wretches of the world, unite!

https://t.co/k5ASdVUrC2

3/


Strength in numbers: The crisis in accounting.

https://t.co/DjfAfHWpNN

4/


#15yrsago Bad Samaritan family won’t return found expensive camera https://t.co/Rn9E5R1gtV

#10yrsago What does Libyan revolution mean for https://t.co/Jz28qHVhrV? https://t.co/dN1e4MxU4r

5/

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Oh my Goodness!!!

I might have a panic attack due to excitement!!

Read this thread to the end...I just had an epiphany and my mind is blown. Actually, more than blown. More like OBLITERATED! This is the thing! This is the thing that will blow the entire thing out of the water!


Has this man been concealing his true identity?

Is this man a supposed 'dead' Seal Team Six soldier?

Witness protection to be kept safe until the right moment when all will be revealed?!

Who ELSE is alive that may have faked their death/gone into witness protection?


Were "golden tickets" inside the envelopes??


Are these "golden tickets" going to lead to their ultimate undoing?

Review crumbs on the board re: 'gold'.


#SEALTeam6 Trump re-tweeted this.