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For the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic the team of five million will split as the Government introduces new restrictions that will affect those who choose to stay unvaccinated. NADINE PORTER looks at what life will be like for the 342,000 unvaccinated Kiwis under the traffic light system.

Using an unidentified number on a crackly line, two anonymous callers spill what their life will look like from early December.

One of these callers who contacted Stuff out of her own volition but refused to reveal her name detailed how her decision not to be vaccinated has meant she has lost her cleaning business. She says shes stockpiling at home ahead of the introduction of restrictions that will see her freedom curtailed.

The other speaks confidently about a burgeoning underground community of people choosing not to get vaccinated, secretly networking away from public eyes.

As they talk, it becomes clear these secret phone calls will become a part of their daily life as they find covert connections with sympathetic people and businesses.

READ MORE:* Covid-19: How bars and restaurants will work under the traffic light system* Covid-19: Prime Minister says Mori not being left behind in vaccination race* Young people key to give Marlborough an orange glow this summer

It seems to be an organised community outside of New Zealands vaccination bubble, using private social media platforms to share information of sympathetic hairdressers, beauty salons and gyms willing to break the law to serve the unvaccinated.

Because come December 3, those who choose not to be vaccinated will face restrictions on attending gatherings, wont be able to use close contact businesses, and eating out will be reduced to takeaways.

Its a historic change, marking the divide of Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns team of five million as the Government looks to get the 8 per cent still to be vaccinated over the line.

Two million vaccination passes were allocated this week in preparation for the next phase of the pandemic, compelling some business owners to decide if they would open their doors only to those who have been jabbed.

Either way, there will be money to be made says Margery* who tells of a Korean-owned nail salon in Auckland that has notified unvaccinated clients they will be still be taking their business.

With $100 cash in their pocket for each appointment and a secret squirrel society of anti-vaxxers protecting the business from being publicly outed, the nail salon will operate underground.

Another hairdresser in the Bay of Plenty has quietly let unvaccinated clients know they will take appointments on certain days every week.

But just how tricky that tight-rope will be was highlighted by a Westport hair salon this week after the owners social media posts were picked up by a local newspaper.

Divine Hair and Beauty said the vaccine mandate didnt align with how they wanted to run their business, and co-owner Emma Rodger confirmed to The Westport News they intended to open to all clients despite the risk of a fine of up to $15,000.

Soon after, Rodger refused to comment to media and the social media post was deleted.

When Stuff approached a hairdresser and a beauty salon in Christchurch who had posted they would welcome the unvaccinated, their social media business pages were promptly erased overnight.

Margery alleges the traffic light system is blatant segregation, but said losing the ability to go to a hairdresser or gym was little in the way of hardship considering many people had lost their jobs.

Its really sad.

And its difficult to see any restrictions getting all stragglers over the line with vaccination rates stagnating in some areas of the country.

By December 3, it is expected that around 60,000 eligible people will remain unvaccinated in the South Island alone.

That statistic was illustrated by three of the South Islands lowest vaccinated areas, Karamea, Golden Bay and Takaka Hills, whose first dose rate jumped by less than 1 percentage point over the last week, according to Ministry of Health data.

In a visit to Christchurch last week, the Prime Minister told Stuff she felt that access to the vaccine was still a significant contributor to the vaccine uptake, but said repetitive door-knocking and education would be key to getting others across the line.

Were on a road to be able to open up more and have a bit more freedom back, and its been a tough duty, but I think they can see that what we have done has been on behalf of everyone.

Destiny Church senior pastor Derek Tait has been the face of Christchurchs large Freedom Rights Coalition protests.

Pro-choice, Tait has stood by and watched as his daughter and her husband have struggled in the aftermath of their decision not to get vaccinated.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff

Destiny Church senior pastor Derek Tait says the impact of restrictions on the unvaccinated is tragic.

With a baby on the way, and just signing up to their first house, Tait says the couple stand to lose it all. But despite the hardship, the couple remain pro-choice and will not get the vaccine.

Its tragic, he says.

Tait says he knows many people who have lost their income and that was causing huge impacts in their communities.

The ongoing mental health stress that those that chose to be unvaccinated faced would outweigh fatalities from the pandemic in New Zealand, he claimed, in whats going to be a very dark time for people.

That claim is, however, unverified, though what is substantiated is that unvaccinated people put vaccinated people at risk of catching Covid.

Recent reports from the Victorian Department of Health have also found that that unvaccinated people are 10 times more likely to contract Covid than vaccinated people.

STUFF

How vaccination helps prevent the spread of Covid-19 (with te reo Mori subtitles).

Most pro-choice people Tait said he had met distrusted anything the Government mandated.

Everyone is in between a rock and a hard place. Businesses face horrendous fines or being closed down. I understand having compassion and the real meaning of kindness towards them. Personally, I dont hold anything against them.

Social scientist Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw says the more people feel they have been backed into a corner, the more they will stay entrenched in their views.

Logic, she says, doesnt primarily drive how people make decisions.

Christel Yardley/Stuff

Restrictions on those who choose to not get vaccinated have been protested up and down New Zealand. In this photo, a large group of protestors gathered in Waikato last Saturday.

Research she undertook on Covid-19 vaccination with Australian colleagues found that peoples worries about vaccination come from many places.

The stories and questions posed by people who actively deny the efficacy of vaccines have been designed to engage our fearful brain the automatic flight or fight response.

When these stories are frequently repeated across social and mainstream media, they can interact with a bad experience with a healthcare worker, or our fear of needles.

While it seemed illogical that people would reject the tool that would help get us out of the pandemic because of false stories, emotions and experiences, we needed to understand that people were not motivated by scientific argument, she said.

When dealing with family or friends that were against getting vaccinated we needed to listen without judgement and offer reassurance.

What people need is connection and care, and to hear that from other people who they feel have their best interests at heart.

Berentson-Shaw believes there will around 5 per cent of the population that will not budge their stance on getting vaccinated, but there was hope for those on the periphery.

Never forget that vaccinating is the right thing to do.

As it stands the traffic light system will do little to alleviate tensions around the Covid-19 vaccine in households across the country, as illustrated by vaccinated Woolston resident Jon White.

[The vaccine] has caused the most division since the Springbok tour. Its dividing families including my own. The conversation is just banned in the house now. Its the only way we can control it.

For Margery, December 3 will change little on her anti-vaccination stance, but lots on her view of New Zealands team of five million.

Its going to be interesting.

Alessandra Tarantino/AP

For some the decision not to get vaccinated is proving costly.

If vaccination certificates are not used by businesses, the following restrictions apply:

Red

Orange

Green

Unvaccinated people will still be able to go to supermarkets, dairies, health centres and pharmacies without vaccine certificates.

*Pseudonym

Read the original:
Team of five million no more - what life will look like for the unvaccinated - Stuff.co.nz

Digital World Acquisition(NASDAQ:DWAC) is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), also known as a blank check company formed to facilitate mergers. It recently announced that it will be merging with former President Donald Trumps new media and social networking company, the Trump Media & Technology Group. DWAC stock initially skyrocketed on the news, shooting above $100 per share at one point.

Shares have come back to reality a bit, as they trade closer to $47 now. Still, thats a tremendous gain from the recent $10 SPAC price. Its clear that traders see real opportunity in DWAC stock beyond the initial memes and buzz. But can DWAC stock rally once again?

In the long run, theres certainly a chance.

However, theres likely a dip on the way first. Heres why.

On Nov. 8, Bloomberg reported that Digital World Acquisition is raising funds. The SPAC is meeting with investors to pump a large amount of capital perhaps north of $500 million into the media venture.

Terms of the deal havent been disclosed, and from the reporting, it seems there are still a lot of open questions. Still, the reports make it seem reasonably likely that something will come to fruition.

This is likely to have a big impact on Digital World Acquisition. In the short run, its bad news for the share price. However, longer-term, it will give the media company a lot more money to work with, helping it get its code up to speed. And once the app is fully functioning, there should be money left over to get marketing and branding operations rolling. This should help get the userbase up to a critical mass.

You may recallChurchill Capital ticker CCIV from earlier this year. That was the SPAC that ultimately merged withLucid Motors (NASDAQ:LCID).

Churchill Capital stock traded up to $60 at one point when traders were most excited about the upcoming SPAC merger. Then the company announced a private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal way down at $15 per share, which valued Lucid overall at a $24 billion market capitalization. Churchill shares quickly sank from $60 to the $20s as shareholders digested the news.

In that case, the PIPE deal ended up being a major blow to short-term sentiment. Even so, it allowed the company to raise money on relatively favorable terms. By contrast, most SPAC PIPE deals merely go off at $10, rather than getting a premium. As it stands today, post-SPAC merger, Lucid shares have now rebounded to over $50 each. Thats way up from where the $15 PIPE offering occurred. And traders that bought in the $20s or low $30s following the initial shock are now sitting on big gains as well.

As mentioned, PIPE deals usually happen at the same $10 price as the initial SPAC offering. However, generally, SPACs dont trade up as high as DWAC stock has, either. In this case, given the obvious market demand for Trumps media company, it seems it should be able to raise money on much more favorable terms. The idea that it could raise $500 million or more also supports that idea; thats a large deal by PIPE standards and implies a more generous valuation.

Still, it seems likely that the PIPE deal would go off at a much lower price than the current DWAC stock price. Institutional investors are unlikely to want to pay, say, $50 a share when the SPAC was at $10 just a few weeks ago. So figure the PIPE deal maybe gets done around $20 or $25.

In that case, DWAC stock will probably trade downward sharply in the near-term. Like with Churchill/Lucid before, seeing a sharply lower valuation for the company would startle at least a few holders of the stock. So dont be surprised if DWAC sells off dramatically when a fundraising effort is finalized. Thatd be perfectly normal and expected in this case.

However, getting all that new money in, assuming the deal is reasonable, will be a plus for the long-term investment case. When the SPAC was announced, many people mocked it, comparing it to Trump University, Trump Steaks, or other such endeavors. The implication being that this was a vanity project with little merit to it. Getting institutional investors to pony up $500 million would add a great deal of heft and credibility to the overall venture going forward.

Lets make no mistake about it: DWAC stock is in danger of a significant near-term sell-off. Shares ran up a tremendous amount following the deal announcement and are due for a breather. An imminent fundraising announcement could be the catalyst that causes a meaningful sell-off.

But dont panic when it happens.

In fact, if you like what the business is trying to accomplish, that would be the time to take a position. Given the amount of interest in the Trump brand, DWAC stock should have plenty of buyers on hand in coming weeks and months.

Everything is setting up nicely for a rally once the fundraising news is out of the way.

On the date of publication, Ian Bezek did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Ian Bezek has written more than 1,000 articles for InvestorPlace.com and Seeking Alpha. He also worked as a Junior Analyst for Kerrisdale Capital, a $300 million New York City-based hedge fund. You can reach him on Twitter at@irbezek.

More:
Wait for a Dip Before Buying Trumps Digital World Acquisition SPAC - Investorplace.com

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Everyone has fantasized about living and interacting in a different reality from their own at least once in their lives. The metaverse is a digital technology that realizes such fantasies by enabling ones alter ego to walk around in a 3D virtual space in real time and interact with others in the same space.

Many tech companies have latched onto the concept. The metaverse as an online service is expected to be the next big thing after todays social networking services, which mainly enable communication by text, images, and videos.

Ahead of the trend, the parent company of major US social networking service Facebook has changed its name to Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on October 28, indicating a focus on developing the metaverse.

Metaverse is the name of the online virtual space that appears in the novel Snow Crash (Bantam Books, 1992, latest edition by Spectra) by American science fiction author Neal Stephenson. The term combines the prefix meta (meaning beyond) and universe, but a clear definition has not been established.

In the broad sense of immersing oneself in another world, the role-playing game Dragon Quest, which is considered a national game in Japan, can also be regarded as a kind of metaverse. Many gamers found themselves absorbed in the adventures of another world while listening to the classical-style music composed by Koichi Sugiyama, who passed away at the end of September 2021.

During the technological revolution of the 1990s, Japan was a leading country in the metaverse concept. In 1990, Fujitsu officially launched the Fujitsu Habitat, an online chat service with 2D graphics, which became the forerunner of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

In 1997, under the initiative of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (currently the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry), NTT Data Communications (now NTT Data) conducted test runs of its 3D virtual space Machiko, which could also be used for e-commerce. After the service was commercialized in March 1998, it hosted a total of 300 stores and had 75,000 users at one time. This was when the internet was run through phone lines instead of fiber-optic lines, so young users would chat and shop online during the late night and early morning when phone charges were fixed.

In 2003, the app Second Life, developed by US-based Linden Lab, became a hot topic when users started trading land and Toyota and Nissan opened stores in the virtual space. But the boom didnt last because of limited internet speed and computer graphics at the time.

The recent buzz around the metaverse can be attributed to changes in the game industry as well as advances in communication technology.

Most mainstream games are open world, which means it is up to the player to decide what to do or how to play.

A player could choose a storyline that involves defeating enemies and saving the world, or enjoy an otherworldly experience by collecting rare items. The secret to the popularity of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendos smash-hit game for home consoles released in 2020, is that players can enjoy a wide variety of activities, such as collecting insects, fishing, and making clothes and furniture to sell.

To expand the players possible range of actions, the game world must be designed in utmost detail, including scenery that changes over time, the ecology of plants and animals, and the behavior of each resident. This know-how can be used to create an alternate virtual reality that is similar to the real world.

This fall, Square Enix AI & Arts Alchemy based in Tokyos Shinjuku ward, an affiliate of Dragon Quest creator Square Enix that researches artificial intelligence, will be offering an endowed course at the University of Tokyo. It aims to create a world model that can predict the future by combining AI and simulation technology.

The metaverse, which is a recreation of reality, could serve as a testing ground for investigating how new technologies such as automated driving affect society. Professor Yutaka Matsuo of the University of Tokyo, a leading expert in AI research, describes this as the second stage of AI research toward social implementation.

Language barriers wont be a problem in the metaverse as various technologies, such as automatic translation, will also be available. There may be a future where the moment we want to know something, our alter egos in the metaverse will research on our behalf and send us the information we want.

NTT is focusing on using the metaverse in its IOWN (innovative optical and wireless network) concept for next-generation high-speed communications, while Facebook has announced that it will employ 10,000 highly skilled persons in the European Union over the next five years. Devices such as virtual reality (VR) goggles are further enriching the metaverse experience. Expectations are high for metaverse services to become a foothold in next-generation technology.

au by KDDI hosted the Virtual Shibuya au 5G Halloween Festival 2021 in Virtual Shibuya, a 3D recreation of the Shibuya area of Tokyo and a metaverse created by the company in May 2020, where live music and comedy performances could be enjoyed until October 31. About 40,000 entered the metaverse for last years event.

Restrictions on large-scale events during the pandemic have caused an increase in online metaverse events. In September, the Tokyo Game Show 2021 Online, one of the largest game exhibitions in the world, set up a metaverse venue where people could wear VR goggles and become avatars. Participants walked around the venue in VR goggles and saw life-sized game characters up close.

The pandemic has also spurred companies to showcase their latest technology by hosting tech events in the metaverse.

(Read the Sankei Shimbun report in Japanese at this link.)

Author: Katsutoshi Takagi

See the original post here:
Metaverse: Alternate Reality is the Next Big Thing After Social Networking - JAPAN Forward

A study among Facebook users found that those who tend to ruminate and to compare themselves to other users are more likely to experience loneliness. The findings were published in the journal Heliyon.

People are increasingly reporting a lack of social connection in their lives, prompting scholars to suggest that loneliness is becoming a public health concern. The growing use of social media may be a contributing factor to this increased loneliness. These platforms, which were ironically created to facilitate social networking, may inadvertently be leaving users feeling more disconnected.

Study authors Bridget Dibb and M. Foster say that empirical research has offered mixed findings on the topic, with some studies suggesting that social media reinforces loneliness and others suggesting that it alleviates loneliness. The researchers aimed to investigate whether rumination and social comparison might play a role in the connection between social media use and loneliness.

Dibb and Foster opted to focus their study on Facebook and recruited a sample of 214 Facebook users, the majority of whom were female (81%) and White British (88%). The participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 72, completed an online questionnaire that included measures of loneliness, depression, and the tendency to ruminate.

The surveys also asked participants how often they engaged in active activities (e.g., posting comments) and passive activities (e.g., scrolling through the news feed) on Facebook and whether they tended to make upward social comparisons (comparing themselves to others who seem better off) and downward social comparisons (comparing themselves to others who seem to be doing worse) on Facebook.

A regression analysis revealed that participants who reported making upward social comparisons on Facebook tended to experience greater loneliness. In line with previous studies, this suggests that comparing oneself to other Facebook users who seem better off coincides with feeling more lonely. Interestingly, the tendency to make downward social comparisons was not significantly related to participants loneliness.

Contrary to previous studies, the way that users engaged with Facebook active versus passive use was not significantly linked to loneliness.

The analysis also revealed that participants who reported a greater tendency to ruminate (i.e., to think deeply about something for an extended period of time) were more likely to feel lonely. Previous research suggests that mindfulness training can effectively reduce rumination. The study authors propose that mindfulness may be a helpful tool for lowering rumination, and, in turn, reducing loneliness, among social media users.

Ultimately, Dibb and Foster write, this study has provided an explanation for how Facebook, the online social network designed to connect people with their friends and family, is paradoxically associated with a rise in loneliness within society.

The researchers suggest that action can be taken by social media platforms to mitigate the experience of loneliness among users. For example, Facebook could promote mindfulness tips throughout the news feed to help reduce rumination. Additionally, the platform could publish reminders to users that the content that people post online reflects their best moments and does not reflect real life.

The study was limited by its cross-sectional design, and the researchers note that they cannot rule out the possibility that loneliness contributes to depression, rumination, and the tendency to make upward social comparisons. They say that future longitudinal studies will be needed to shed light on the ordering of these variables and determine whether Facebook use is causally associated with loneliness.

The study, Loneliness and Facebook use: the role of social comparison and rumination, was authored by Bridget Dibb and M. Foster.

Read this article:
Facebook users who ruminate and compare themselves to their friends experience increased loneliness - PsyPost

Even in 2021, I still hear people saying, "Open source is somehow suspicious, or it's not good for business." Multi-billion-dollar Chinese companies know better. Bilibili has joined other Chinese technology powerhouses such as ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, and its rival Kuaishou, in joining the Open Invention Network (OIN).

The OIN is the world's largest patent non-aggression consortium. It protects Linux and related open source software and the companies behind them from patent attacks and patent trolls. The OIN recently broadened its scope from core Linux programs and adjacent open source code by expanding its Linux System Definition to other patents such as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and the Extended File Allocation Table exFAT file system.

The OIN does this by practicing patent non-aggression in core Linux and related open source technologies by cross-licensing Linux System patents to one another on a royalty-free basis. Patents owned by OIN are similarly licensed royalty-free to any organization that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux System. Any company can do this by simply signing the OIN license online.

So, why is a company that makes its money from giving its young content creators a platform allying with open source? For the same reason, almost all companies rely on open source for their software. It makes good, hard financial sense.

As Wang Hao, Bilibili's VP, explained, "We are committed to opening and sharing technologies and providing positive motivation in the innovation field of playback transmission, interactive entertainment, and cloud-native ecology through open source projects. Linux and open source are important software infrastructures that promote business developments. Our participation in the OIN community demonstrates our consistent and ongoing commitment to shared innovation. In the future, we will also firmly support Linux's open source innovation."

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Here is the original post:
Bilibili, China's YouTube, joins the Open Invention Network - ZDNet