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Notes from the New Normal: Is There a Silver Lining?

Notes from the New Normal: Is There a Silver Lining?

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If you look closely enough, you’ll almost always find a silver lining somewhere, and so it goes with the Wuhan Flu. That said, as happens whenever it comes to silver, there are invariably some spots that are tarnished. Still, if you’ve tired of all of the Daily Corona Death Count stories, here are some points you might have missed, including a few silver linings:

People are certainly cooking more at home. You can’t exactly go out to restaurants these days, but many do deliver, and head’s up: Maryland restaurant owner: ‘Delete all the delivery apps’. They do take “25-30% commission rates” and restaurants are having a tough enough time as is trying to survive. As we’ve mentioned before, meal kit Blue Apron’s stock price is up. No info on the uptick in traffic on recipe/cooking sites or sales of Soylent,
although Amazon is hiring big time – 75,000 more workers as demand rises due to coronavirus, according to CNBC. Meanwhile, Amazon-owned Whole Foods Secretly Upgrades Tech to Target and Squash Unionizing Efforts Read More...

Who Moved the Cheese?

Who Moved the Cheese?

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How many times have we heard lately that the world will never be the same again? Time will tell, and important to see how habits have changed in the relatively short amount of time that has elapsed since the onset of the Wuhan virus panic.

People are working, eating – and cooking – more at home. Many restaurants have shuttered – some, at least, only temporarily – and we suppose that there’s just so much McDonald’s and pizza one can consume on a daily basis. Don’t have mad skills in the kitchen? As we mentioned last week, Blue Apron’s stock suddenly soared. We’ve also noticed more FreshDirect trucks on the street, and no surprise that Instacart is hiring 300,000 grocery shoppers (although, workers protest at Instacart, Amazon and Whole Foods for health protections and hazard pay, reports the Washington Post). People are presumably cooking and note to self: there will always be businesses that do well, as conditions and circumstances change and also note, re the WaPost piece: “Grocery store, delivery and warehouse workers have unprecedented leverage to demand better working conditions during the coronavirus pandemic because their labor has become essential for millions of Americans.” Read More...

Digital Stuck-At-Homads – the New Digital Nomads

Digital Stuck-At-Homads – the New Digital Nomads

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In a world turned upside down and gripped with panic, we thought we’d point out a few pieces of information that you might have missed, and a few potential opportunities that you may be missing:

Evidence over hysteria — COVID-19. Keep calm and carry on, and if you’re constantly checking the somewhat sensationalist Johns Hopkins bubble map, this is a must read. Read More...

Net Neutrality and How the Tech Cabal Just Shot Themselves in the ISP

Net Neutrality and How the Tech Cabal Just Shot Themselves in the ISP

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The Senate Intelligence Committee is meeting this week about foreign influence on tech platforms. In the hot seat: Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Google refuses to make an appearance, even though the committee specifically requested Larry Page’s presence. Google no doubt prefers not to come under too much scrutiny. Just last week The Intercept reported that Google Executives Misled (Their Own) Staff on China Censorship. With so many balls in the air/fronts to defend, the cabal (Google, Facebook, Twitter, in this instance) have become such hydras with so many tentacles – and fronts – to defend, that they may well be on the verge of falling on their own swords – and they themselves have provided the arguments and ammunition, should Congress or an oversight committee be forced to step in. Notice: we don’t necessarily suggest regulation. They did that themselves: Last week, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Twitter and others urged a U.S. appeals court to reinstate federal “net neutrality” regulations on internet service providers, to maintain a “free and open internet.” Read More...

When the Numbers Don’t Add Up, Everything Counts

When the Numbers Don’t Add Up, Everything Counts

Should America’s Tech Giants Be Broken Up?, Bloomberg asks. Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook may be contributing to the U.S. economy’s most persistent ailments.

The word ‘anti-trust’ has been brought up frequently as of late, and in the age of online, it’s not simply about the detriment to consumers. In this age of globalization – and the tech behemoths, including Amazon, Google and Facebook, do have an undeniable global reach – it’s also about destabilizing the world economy. After just two decades, Jeff Bezos is on the brink of displacing Bill Gates as the world’s wealthiest person.

While we’re well aware of the fact that things tend to happen more quickly in internet time, at this juncture in our history, it’s not about the time, it’s about the repercussions. Read More...