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The Courier article states,

“We pay competitive wages — all permanent and temporary Amazon associates start on £7.35 an hour or above regardless of age and £11 an hour and above for overtime.”

1 British pound = $1.27. So the pay rates are $9.33 straight time, and $13.97 overtime.

If over 40 hours/week is considered overtime,
then 60 hours of work there is 40 hours straight time + 20 hours overtime,
and the pay is (40 * $9.33) + (20 * $13.97) = $373.20 + $279.40 = $652.60.

If "The fares the company charge for transport swallow up a lot of the weekly wage" then the shuttle service must be expensive. I wonder how far away from work the employees live. Maybe the employees who don't own a car can commute with employees who do own one, or take public transportation.

From the first linked article:
... Criticism continues from some quarters about working practices, but Amazon general manager Paul Ashraf insists that the company cares about its staff -- and is disappointed by the perception some people have of the business.
"I think from my point of view we're a global brand, so that brings headlines in relation to what people think about Amazon and this place," he told The Courier. "From my point of view I try to focus on what's within my control. I focus very heavily, especially in peak times, on associate experience. ... It's hard work at this time of year, of course it is. ... We just focus on customer obsession, making sure we deliver the customer promises. Whatever we've promised a customer in terms of what's going to be delivered, we make sure that it is processed and shipped on time.

While we're doing that, we make sure we keep people here safe, so it's all about safety first, and make sure that from an associate experience point of view we try and have as much fun as possible. We had DJs on every floor on Black Friday, we had tombolas, we had raffles that people get free entry into -- it's all about keeping associates safe and having fun."
...

For several reasons. Firstly using road noise as a means to determine whether it is safe to step out into the road is insanely dumb and will/does kill people already, as there are millions of journeys on roads that are already in effect silent. Here is a link to where a pedestrian step out into the road leading to the death of a cyclist.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/n...

So in the first instance if you are using traffic noise as a proxy for determining whether it is safe to step out into the road your are a complete sociopath in my view and frankly if an EV runs you down serves you right.

In the second instance there are serious health effects from noise and therefore deliberately increasing that for the benefit of a small minority for a use case as we have detailed above is unacceptable in the first place makes things doubly unacceptable. The social costs of traffic noise in EU22 are more than â40 billion per year with one in five Europeans is regularly exposed to sound levels at night that could significantly damage health. I am sure that there are similar costs to traffic noise in the USA as well. That is the idea that Europe is special in the case is absurd.

In the third instance there are a number of cars with internal combustion engines that are quieter than EV's already and they don't have to produce noise, which makes a nonsense of the regulation anyway.

In short artificial engine noise is utterly unacceptable in my view.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/n...

The problem is that they are theoretically only up to 50-something% efficient and that is 'at rated wind speed' but as you know, the 'rated wind speed' is a single (constant) speed but the wind is never constant.

The main reason Longannet coal fired power station shut down was because of energy distribution politics where Scottish energy producers are charged £millions to attach to the National Grid whereas suppliers in neighbouring (but much less green energy producing per capita) England are subsidized to attach to the grid. Newspaper articles here and here.

Some are saying it's part of a general fight back by the United Kingdom for having the audacity to have a referendum to leave the UK. We're seeing it across all sectors where Scottish businesses who were not in favour of the union are being discriminated against.

Yeah and motorcycle helmets are only rated for up to 30mph, so clearly wearing those is a total waste of time as well. The anti helmet brigade are guilty of the Perfect solution fallacy, they would claim that seat belts are a waste of time because people are still going to die in vehicle accidents.

Do they work, well this person would almost certainly have lived had see been wearing a helmet. It was a low speed collision with a pedestrian, just the type a cycle helmet is rated to protect against.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/ne...

Regardless of whether you think they work, in the U.K. at least they are believed to work by the law. That is should you be involved in an accident and be due a compensation as a result of a brain injury the amount of your award is likely to be reduced due to "contributory negligence" typically around 20% if you where not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Consequently not wearing a helmet and cycling in the U.K. is an act of wanton stupidity.

http://www.cyclistsdefencefund...

Tragically I am personally connected with people in both web links.

You are also lucky you are in Colorado.

In the UK and in some parts of Europe, it's illegal to injure, kill or otherwise disturb bats while they are breeding.

Being caught can lead to a fine of up to 5000 pounds ($10K US dollars) per bat. A recent court case.

We had bats in our attic too - they were getting in through the gaps in the eaves of the house. For several months, we had always wondered why our cats were going into the room and jumping about. It wasn't until I was sleeping in the room one night, and was woken up to hear a scraping noise above on the wall beside me. I switch on the light and .... there are three bats clinging to the wall and slowly climbing down towards me.....