A deep dive into waste streams

+ A podcast for fans for Black Mirror, a guide to privacy, and 12 questions about life. (#456)

Ready? Go!

1. Credit card debt collection

An unexpected highlight. A deep dive into the business of debt collection. It starts with the premise that «an interesting lens for understanding how industries work is looking at their waste streams». Debt, most of it small amounts from ordinary people, is the waste stream of the financial industry.

Credit card debt collection
Credit card debt is the waste stream of consumer finance. The debt collection industry ends up being sordid, for complex structural and microeconomic reasons.

2. A New Covid Shot for a New Covid Era

Covid has completely vanished from public debates, it's like we're trying to make it go away by pretending it's gone already. And yet, more and more people are getting sick again. The US has just issued a new recommendation for annual vaccinations for everyone. What's the state of things? Listening to The Daily for a good 20 minutes will give you a good understanding.

A New Covid Shot for a New Covid Era
During an uptick in infections, the U.S. government has recommended a new annual vaccination.

3. The Atlantic's Guide to Privacy

Think concretely. Share narrowly. Don't panic. These are the three basic rules from this helpful guide on privacy in the digital age, compiled by The Atlantic. From there, it let's you pick what's important to you — from «I’m worried about protecting my children’s online privacy» to «I want to help create a more private world» — to provide more tailored advice.

Three Simple Rules for Protecting Your Data
Read our simple rules for managing your digital privacy, and get a list of personalized recommendations.

4. Ad Lucem

If you like Black Mirror, this fiction podcast is for you. A dark tale from the near future, very high production quality. Seven of nine episodes are available already. If you can resist binging and instead pace yourself a bit, the remaining two will be ready when you get there.

Ad Lucem — QCODE

5. 12 Questions About Life

An interactive book on «the great coincidence of how you became you, and who that is anyways.» I won't say much more, in order not to spoil anything. Give it a go, it takes less than 5 minutes (unless you start overthinking, which you might).

12 Questions For Life
An Interactive Book On How You Became You.

What else?

  • This cartoon made me laugh out...silently.
  • Need some new books recs? The best non-fiction of 2023.
  • Onepage, a magazine in the shape of a poster.
  • New album by Explosions in the Sky, out today.
  • AI is blurring any sense of mediated reality before our very eyes. English speaking person on video automatically turned into French and German speaking person with properly synched lips. (And obviously, when the software can translate it can also make stuff up and sync your lips to make it appear real)
  • «Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.» — David Foster Wallace

The Future of...Evolution

DNA unwinds,
Code adapts, pixels arise—
Flesh and data blend.

The Haiku is produced using ChatGPT, the illustration is made with Midjourney. Apart from formal instructions, the prompts are as simple as "The future of...x". Previously in this series...

A gem from the archive

A thrilling crime story in four parts, beautifully illustrated. Could the sex life of plants help solve a murder?

Who Killed Mellory Manning?
Dallas Mildenhall used obscure science to crack cases around the world. Then a brutal killing took place in his own backyard.

Thanks for reading. I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you again next Friday!

— David 👋

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