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Meta has been a great short. Ditto for Tesla, Intel, Roblox and VGT. Its Fat Bear Week.

Not big on the Metaverse 

One of my most profitable shorts is Meta, also known as Facebook.

Zuck changed Facebook to Meta and made hay with the metaverse as a way (at that time) to deflect Facebook’s political ails away from the fake news posts on Facebook that were affecting U.S. elections, e.g. Russian interference in the election of Donald Trump.

Zuck has dumped mega-money into its metaverse — with little of value to show. Except, he did keep Congress off his back. I guess that was worth billions. There’s been much written on the metaverse. I found this quote:

This reminded me of Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science-fiction novel, “Snow Crash,” in which the term “metaverse” was introduced to describe a digital space where people could escape their dismal realities. The book’s protagonist, Hiro, is a laid-off pizza deliveryman who, with his roommate, lives in a storage unit.

The New York Times has published a piece:

Skepticism, Confusion, Frustration: Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Struggles
Meta’s push to develop virtual and augmented reality technology has had a bumpy year.

You can read it here.

Meta has fallen hugely in the last year:

There’s lots of talk about introducing “friction” into Facebook posts — like asking the person posting if they’ve actually read what they’re posting — but Zuck fired the employee pushing for friction. He opted to take as many unchecked ads as possible. If nothing, he is beholden to profits.

Listen to more on friction from Yaël Eisenstat, who worked once for Facebook and Zuck fired.  Click here.

My friend the building contractor has plenty of business

He builds and fixes house for clients who have cash. There are lots of them.

His clients believe beautifying their houses is a much better investment than the stockmarket — even if they’re paying more for materials, appliances, etc.

It’s Fat Bear Week in Alaska

The bears have to pig out. They have to gain weight for their long winter hibernation.

The world is now betting on which bear will become the fattest. Click here.

He was the winner in 2020:

With the power of modern technology, you can now watch the bears catch, in real time, their favorite meal — salmon.

You can also bone up of your knowledge of bears — in all their varieties, including the rare white ghost bear.

By studying the habits of these wonderful creatures, we are guaranteed to learn absolutely nothing about the bear market our stockmarket is currently enjoying. But we will learn why baby bears are called Teddy bears. These videos are priceless:

I like blueberries also

Harvard nutritionist, Uma Naidoo, says the No. 1 food she eats every morning to help her brain ‘stay sharp’ and ‘age well” are blueberries. Reasons:

1. They are high in flavonoids

Blueberries are packed with flavonoids, which are plant compounds that offer a variety of health benefits. Studies have found it can lower your risk for dementia.

2. They are packed with antioxidants.

Blueberries are rich in anthocyanins, a type of antioxidant that gives these berries their characteristic color. Anthocyanins support a healthy stress tolerance and anti-inflammation throughout the body, particularly in the brain.

3. They are rich in fiber.

I frequently speak about the profound connection between our gut and our brain — or what I call the “gut-brain romance.”

Like antioxidants, fiber decreases inflammation and feeds the “good bacteria” in the gut. Blueberries are rich in fiber, allowing them to improve our microbiome health and reduce inflammation in the gut and the brain.

For the full piece, click here.

4. They contain folate

Folate is an important vitamin that allows neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers within our brain that govern mood and cognition, to function properly.

Covid vaccinations lag

Only about 105 million U.S. adults — roughly 40 percent — have received the third shot of vaccine initially offered a year ago, according to federal data, a far lower rate than countries like the United Kingdom, where more than 70 percent of adults have gotten a third dose.”

I’ve had five doses of Moderna, including the latest multi-variant one.

I’ve had covid. It was not pleasant, but was not debilitating. Friends have Long Covid and that is debilitating. Which frightens me.

Please get all your five shots. CVS is the best place to get your shots.

Greatest invention ever

Especially if you only take one pill a day — e.g. a statin, as I do.

Wonderful memories

This week in Columbia County, NY

West Ghent, NY. Photo by Mark Johnson, my brilliant tennis partner.

Putin is a three-year old

Putin is acting like a three-year old, flailing around because he wants something — but what exactly he wants, he doesn’t know.

Destroying Ukraine is not going to destroy the Ukrainians. In fact, the opposite. They’re getting madder and madder, and want to have increasingly less and less to do with Mother Russia in general and with Putin in particular.

Google three year-olds having tantrums. Millions of great pictures, including these:

Watching animal videos is addicting — a reason to like Instagram.

I’ll see you tomorrow, or so. — Harry Newton