Reads

Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
Read Amazon Drivers Are Hanging Smartphones in Trees to Get More Work by Spencer Soper (Bloomberg)
Someone seems to have rigged Amazon system to get orders first
Operation reflects ferocious rivalry for gigs in a bad economy

They believe an unidentified person or entity is acting as an intermediary between Amazon and the drivers and charging drivers to secure more routes, which is against Amazon’s policies. ❧

Surely this would be the case as someone would potentially need to watch the phones in the tree to ensure they aren’t stolen. That may represent a larger cost in potential loss that the potential gain.
Annotated on September 11, 2020 at 08:39AM

A Flex driver who has been monitoring the activity said the company needs to take steps to make sure all drivers are treated fairly.“Amazon knows about it,” the driver said, “but does nothing.” ❧

Orders don’t necessarily need to be proximity based at the level of 20 feet, so Amazon should be able to make the changes at the level of several miles to prevent against something like this.
Annotated on September 11, 2020 at 08:42AM

Read -30- (Wikipedia)
-30- has been traditionally used by journalists in North America to indicate the end of a story or article that is submitted for editing and typesetting. It is commonly employed when writing on deadline and sending bits of the story at a time, via telegraphy, teletype, electronic transmission, or paper copy, as a necessary way to indicate the end of the article. It is also found at the end of press releases.
Read Tombstone (typography) (Wikipedia)
In mathematics, the tombstone, halmos, end-of-proof, or Q.E.D. symbol "∎" (or "□") is a symbol used to denote the end of a proof, in place of the traditional abbreviation "Q.E.D." for the Latin phrase "quod erat demonstrandum", meaning "which was to be demonstrated". In magazines, it is one of the various symbols used to indicate the end of an article. In Unicode, it is represented as character U+220E ∎ END OF PROOF (HTML ∎). Its graphic form varies, as it may be a hollow or filled rectangle or square.
Read America Is Trapped in a Pandemic Spiral by Ed YongEd Yong (The Atlantic)
As the U.S. heads toward the winter, the country is going round in circles, making the same conceptual errors that have plagued it since spring.
This is possibly one of the best overviews I’ve seen on the United States’ multiple problems with handling the pandemic.
Read Bobcat Fire: Now More Than 19K Acres, Evacuation Warnings Remain In Place For Foothill Communities (LAist)
The brush fire erupted near the Cogswell Dam and then spread rapidly amid an intense, record-breaking heat wave, prompting evacuation orders for Mt. Wilson Observatory.
Still growing in size, but fortunately not toward high population zones at the moment.
Read Top 10 goddesses in fiction by E Foley and B Coates (the Guardian)
In ancient myth – and novels by authors from Neil Gaiman to Toni Morrison – these ambiguous figures are sometimes repressive, sometimes inspiring

The Mabinogion, translated by Sioned Davies
In You Goddess! we use “supernatural female” as a definition of goddess and this allows us to include the story of Blodeuwedd, who was created out of flowers by a wizard as a wife for his friend, but who kicks over the traces and finds her own partner. Bloeuwedd appears in this medieval collection of Welsh stories. The first English translation was published in the 19th century by the linguist, go-getter and driver of the Welsh renaissance, Lady Charlotte Guest. This 2007 translation by Sioned Davies is a fantastic contemporary version. In the past Blodeuwedd has been taken as a cautionary tale about adultery, but to modern readers she appears as a floral rebel breaking free from male control. Sadly things don’t end well for her and her metamorphosis from vegetable to human ends with her wizard enemy turning her into an owl. She lives on as the inspiration for Alan Garner’s The Owl Service. ❧

This has been on my list for a bit. I’m also reminded that I ought to get back to The Celtic Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends by Miranda Aldhouse-Green
Annotated on September 09, 2020 at 10:09PM

Read Kamala Harris: what her sneakers mean by Priya Elan (the Guardian)
As a woman of colour wearing sneakers on the campaign, it semaphores a change in political dress and much more
On the value of a sneaker… The shoes become a symbol of Harris’ political philosophy in an incredibly approachable way.

Part of what I love about this article is that it could potentially have been written about a male candidate. It’s not sexualized as heavily as an article about her beauty (or lack thereof), her hair, her clothing, etc. We’re apparently making a little progress. Still, I’d much rather read material about the candidate’s positions and direct policies.

 

 

 

Read UK accused of failing to promote minority languages by Severin Carrell (the Guardian)
Critical report by Council of Europe calls for more support for Cornish, Irish and Ulster Scots
The benefits of speaking multiple languages are fairly well documented. How can we–as a society–better support additional languages? Why are we constantly sidelining and devaluing people’s mother tongues? 
Read a thread by Kicks Condor (Twitter)