D&T Issue 83

Hi there!
Hope you’re having a splendid week thus far.

If the pandemic wasnt already upsetting enough, it turns out brands took advantage of the pandemic to push their products in a way that was highly disingenuous, according to this new research.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the reads from this week.

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Our collective enamoration with this recap reveals the extent to which algorithms have become integrated into the way we conceive of ourselves in digital consumer culture: as brands to be refined.

For years, Amazon has been quietly chartering private cargo ships, making its own containers, and leasing planes to better control the complicated shipping journey of an online order.

Factory closures are pushing workers to a breaking point with manufacturers and their own unions.

Scrub typhus is nearly as widespread as malaria in parts of India. But little is known about it, and the government is only now launching measures to fight it.

Blockchain researcher Igor Igamberdiev took to Twitter to break down the makeup of the drained tokens. Tokens included $18.2 million in Wrapped Ethereum, $10.5 in MATIC tokens, and $2 million worth of WBTC.

A disjointed day of questions without a clear narrative throughline.

Cash App is a mobile payment service, which was created by Square Inc. back in 2013. Now it has more than 70 million active users, and boldly claims to be the easiest way to send money.

If you’re among the billion people (literally!) who spend time on TikTok every month, you’re familiar with the app as 2021’s central vehicle for youth culture and online culture generally.

In a bid to widen the reach of digital payments in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to introduce UPI payments services for feature phone users.

It’s not just a new form of consumer credit. It’s the future of shopping and payments. And everyone from Apple to Visa wants in.