It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s a Turkey Day edition of your Weekly Reader! As always, if you have something you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments! The more articles, the better! Because sharing is caring! And we ❤ reading more than eating on this blog!
Ruthless Quotas at Amazon Are Maiming Employees (from The Atlantic): “The problems Reveal uncovered go far beyond common sprains, strains, and repetitive stress injuries. When a gas leak inundated the Eastvale warehouse where Dixon used to work, managers wouldn’t slow down, several workers said, even though they were dizzy and vomiting. They were told that they’d have to use personal time off if they wanted to leave.
And when disaster struck at one Indiana warehouse, Amazon’s economic might may have helped the company evade accountability. When a maintenance worker was crushed to death by a forklift there, state officials in Indiana, which then was jockeying for Amazon’s second headquarters, sided with the company over their own investigator. “When you order something from Amazon and you’ve worked inside Amazon, you wonder, ‘Hey, is ordering my package going to be the demise of somebody?’” said one former safety manager, who had worked at multiple Amazon facilities.”
Dinosaur skull turns paleontology assumptions on their head (from Phys.org): “Tradition dictates that the person who finds an important dinosaur specimen gets to give it a nickname. “Hannah the dinosaur is named after my dog,” explained Persons, now a professor and museum curator at the College of Charleston. “She’s a good dog, and I knew she was home missing me while I was away on the expedition.”
Despite the nickname, paleontologists have no way of knowing if the dinosaur was female. But they have learned other details from the skull—from a partnership with researchers in the Faculty of Engineering.”
Father grabbed his 5 children and fled after US ‘betrayed’ his town (from CNN): “Hassan and his family now live in a drafty classroom in a school in the city of Al Hasakah that has been turned into a shelter for those displaced by Turkey’s military offensive. A stack of mattresses leans against the wall. One of his sons from the photographs stares at us from the corner as we talk.”
A new theory argues same-sex sexual behaviour is an evolutionary norm (from The Economist): “The mainstream explanations in evolutionary biology for these behaviours are many and varied. Yet they all contain a common assumption: that sexual behaviours involving members of the same sex are a paradox that does indeed need explaining. Reproduction requires mating with a creature of the opposite sex, so why does same-sex mating happen at all?”
The Woke Attack on Pete Buttigieg (from The Atlantic): “All of those things are real. Unreal, however, is Harriot’s leap of logic: that in not mentioning those things, Buttigieg was inherently denying their existence, and that in noting the lack of role models, he was blaming black people for their own problems. Buttigieg’s transgression seems to have been that he did not mention all of the reasons black kids have trouble accessing education in underserved neighborhoods. A more elaborate answer would have been more sophisticated. But why would anyone read him as an “MF” for not ticking off the whole list?”
How befriending Mister Rogers’ widow allowed me to learn the true meaning of his legacy (from the Los Angeles Tines): “Yet when the filmmakers behind “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” approached Joanne to get her blessing on the project, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, who wrote the film with Noah Harpster, said, “She really only had one request: that we not treat her husband as a saint.”
She was keener on imparting to the writers just how funny Fred was. If the couple was out at an event that turned out to be bland, he had a go-to way of making her laugh: passing gas.”
Metaxas’ “Donald Builds the Wall” Recalls Nazi Children’s Books (from Love Joy Feminism via Patheos): “I try not to throw the word fascism around lightly, I really do. I wasn’t initially planning to use it here at all. When I first came upon the tweet with the picture of Metaxas and Graham holding these books, I expected myself to be horrified. I expected to take away some lesson and write about it. What I didn’t expect was to be reminded so strongly, so viscerally, of a Nazi children’s book I viewed in an archive a decade ago.
And yet—and yet—here we are.”
Why Elsa from Frozen is a queer icon — and why Disney won’t embrace that idea (from Vox): “So the Hans twist transformed Elsa’s arc into something else entirely. But it also meant her sexuality was left undefined, a princess — and ultimately a queen — without a prince.
You are probably familiar with the conversational tendencies of the internet, and you probably know several LGBTQ people as well. “Not yet confirmed as straight”? We’ll fucking take it. We’ll take it and run with it, baby.”
How the Pledge of Allegiance Went From PR Gimmick to Patriotic Vow (from Smithsonian Magazine): “The pledge itself would prove malleable, and by World War II many public schools required a morning recitation. In 1954, as the cold war intensified, Congress added the words “under God” to distinguish the United States from “godless Communism.” One atheist, believing his kindergarten-aged daughter was coerced into proclaiming an expression of faith, protested all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 2004 determined that the plaintiff, who was not married to the child’s mother, didn’t have standing to bring the suit, leaving the phrase open to review. Still, three of the justices argued that “under God” did not violate the constitutional separation of church and state; Sandra Day O’Connor said it was merely “ceremonial deism.””
If the government tracks women’s periods, why not track male ejaculation, too? (from The Guardian): “As it turns out, the DHSS is so concerned about women’s health it has been keeping spreadsheets tracking the date of Planned Parenthood patients’ periods, in an attempt to figure out which of them “had undergone failed abortions”. Let me just repeat that: American government officials are tracking the menstrual cycles of thousands of women. But, you know, it’s for their own good so don’t worry about it.”
Black Salve Is A Dangerous Fake Cancer Cure, But It Continues To Flourish In Facebook Groups (from BuzzFeed News-Warning! Graphic images! May be disturbing to some!): “People report that this process is exactly as painful as you’d expect — many users take painkillers while using the salve. After a while, the area will form an eschar (a giant type of scab) that will fall out in a huge clump, leaving behind a hole with scar tissue. If things don’t go well, the area can become infected or necrotic. In 2017, a woman posted on a group with 21,000 members that she put black salve on her breast to kill a tumor. When she bent over, she heard a popping noise, and blood and pus poured out. She went to the emergency room, where she was put on intravenous antibiotics; three months later, she wrote an update to say she was being treated by a traditional oncologist.”
That’s all for this week’s extra helping. Drop by again next time for a nice, lean serving of opinions, news, and assorted information. Until then, happy reading and happy Thanksgiving!
Iacon East 