As discussed previously, this is my weekly Twitter roundup. Note that tweets of articles generally include header images from the articles, which are not included here unless they happen to be available under a free license. Most are not. But I now add most of my commentary here, where I’m not restricted by the message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

I also don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:05 – Mon 20 July 2020

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Campaign Workers Just Ratified a Union Contract from The Intercept

…caps salaries for managers, making it so that the highest paid employee of her campaign is paid at a rate no more than three times the rate of the lowest paid full-time employee.

I’ll be honest, it should be a lot harder for a politician to include unions in its platform if their own employees aren’t unionized.

12:05 – Mon 20 July 2020

This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slaves. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.

Abraham Lincoln

9:04 – Tue 21 July 2020

Bus Driver Dies After Being Attacked By Passengers Refusing to Wear Masks from VICE World News

Monguillot’s colleagues refused to work after the killing, but have returned Monday with reinforced security…

Unfortunately, we’re going to see a lot more of this as idiots decide that they’d rather see someone harmed than look bad in comparison to someone taking a common sense precaution.

12:02 – Tue 21 July 2020

Out of my own great woe / I make my little songs.

Heinrich Heine

9:01 – Wed 22 July 2020

Technical interviews may pinpoint anxiety not skill from Futurity

The researchers also note that the current format of technical interviews may also be used to exclude certain job candidates.

Keep in mind that understanding somebody’s anxieties is useful, but the entire interview process is broken.

12:03 – Wed 22 July 2020

I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories.

Washington Irving

9:02 – Thu 23 July 2020

People who social distance may be more intelligent, study says from Fast Company

We propose that this [failure to social distance] may be associated with the limitation in one’s mental capacity to simultaneously retain multiple pieces of information in working memory.

I dislike the term “smarter,” here, but it does make sense that there’s some simple pressure preventing the cause and effect.

12:01 – Thu 23 July 2020

To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action when there is more reason to fear than to hope.

Miguel de Cervantes

9:03 – Fri 24 July 2020

Masks Off: How the Brothers Who Fueled the Reopen Protests Built a Volatile Far-Right Network from The Intercept

Even the National Rifle Association has denounced them as scammers.

It’s probably interesting how often Republicans accuse progressive protesters of being paid, when most of their protests seem to be extremely artificial and limited to a few people at the top.

12:04 – Fri 24 July 2020

Lord, it’s one kind favor I’ll ask of you. See that my grave is kept clean.

“Blind” Lemon Jefferson

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, here’s a sixth article that didn’t fit into the week, but too weird to not mention.

How Jesus came to resemble a white man from Fast Company

In the Renaissance, European artists began to combine the icon and the portrait, making Christ in their own likeness.

This is either one of the least important stories around or one of the most. It’s hard to tell, these days…

Scientists Discovered a Gigantic Structure in a Hidden Zone of Space from VICE Motherboard

The largest known structure is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, which is 10 billion light years wide—equal to about a tenth of the diameter of the entire observable universe.

I don’t know enough astrophysics to understand if “structure” is the right word, but even if it just means “populated system mutually affected gravitationally,” that’s still a big find.


Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.