Links

New Parents Complain Amazon Baby-Registry Ads Are Deceptive

In an era where there is increase regulatory scrutiny on Amazon, this doesn't really seem like a smart move? Tricking people into buying the wrong thing for people they know in person seems like it's going to backfire. Those people are almost certainly going to see the individual who they are buying the gift for again and figure out what has happened. The fees to get an item placed on this list must have been significant to get them to agree to this. More and more ads look like the native content that surrounds them and this seems like a huge problem. There should be some metric to judge if content that you are reading is sponsored.

Yellow Vests and I

A take on the French yellow vests from Pamela Anderson (?) that helps explain what might look like an over the top reactions from other countries. I think that this is another note in the story of people who don't have a lot of money in western countries being increasingly uphappy with the state of affairs.

Twitter thread on dollar stores

A good thread on the increasing popularity of dollars stores and how they are driving some businesses out of town. At some point, bulk preprocessed food has to be cheaper than fresh produce and thus puts people who carry fresh produce at a disadvantage. Food deserts seem like a huge problem, I wonder if their has been research into decreased lifetime outcomes from growing up in a food desert.

Media

Great British Baking Show - Finished the latest season, still very good and relaxing watch. I think the best virtue of this show is that it encourages me to cook and bake more after seeing it.

Stellaris Mega Corp - I guess this adds more content? The economics still don't feel that deep at all. I was overall disappointed but I'm not quite sure what I would have wanted more.

Fake or Fortune? - I know nothing about this so I have no opinion about how to judge it's accuracy but it's entertain and perhaps educational?

The Dragon Prince - From the same people who made Avatar: The Last Airbender and it shows. It's enjoyable and funny which is more then you can say for most of TV shows on today. I'm hoping that it comes together a bit more in future seasons as there is still some rough edges but still worth the watch.

I've always been a fan of the outdoors. I enjoy both hiking and camping and think that the National Parks system is one of the best parts of the USA. I came across these wonderful set of posters for the national parks for sale. If anything, it just reminds me how many of them I still have to visit and see.

This is a very late link dump but still has some interesting things.

World Ploughing Championships

There are communities and competitions around everything. All of these people have high status in their community but probably in no other places. This is a common trend that I've come to see more and more.

Airlines face crack down on use of ‘exploitative’ algorithm that splits up families on flights

Morally wrong, legally right. Is this something worth regulating? Seems intrustive and dumb to regulate but families not sitting together on flights will be an effective visual + story so I would be this gets acted on.

More Info: I Found the Best Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It.

This is a pretty obvious miss step and probably the wrong thing to do. I don't understand how/why you would ignore this. The story doesn't seem that unique, just pick a different restaurant?

New Parents Complain Amazon Baby-Registry Ads Are Deceptive

This is a new level of slipping ads into feeds/lists. This seems very optically risky at a time that there is increased criticism around their practices. I do wonder what the CTR on those ads were though.

This is an excellent graphic from the National Geographic which shows US immigration as a build up of tree rings around a central point. It shows both the flow over time and the count of people in a clear manner that makes it easy to compare over time. Work like this helps people get intutive senses around large bodies of data and I fully support bring more clarity to this.

Links

Predatory Lending Practices: Business Borrowers Hurt By ’Confession of Judgment’ Filings

This seems both legal and pretty scummy. This reminds me of the 2008 crisis because there isn't a good faith belief that these people can pay. I wonder what would change to make lenders act in good faith about the loans they extend. I don't think anyone wins long term if lenders are just causing people to go bankrupt for short-term finances.

You Snooze, You Lose: Insurers Make The Old Adage Literally True

More discussion about CPAP including insurance companies doing some creepy intrusive tracking around usage of them. On one hand, I don't disagree that if you aren't using the machine, than maybe the insurance company should be paying for it. However this doesn't seem like a good way to do this without causing a bunch of negative backlash. Overall, I think people overrate how much negative backlash matters or influences companies.

Media

Slay the Spire - This is still incredible good. I've been playing this for a couple of months now and I'm still hooked on it. I think one thing that really works for it is that the dailies meaningfully change the game enough that it really does feel like different strategies are needed. It also works because it's slow paced and gives you time to be thoughtful about choices which I appreciate.