Episodes
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Entropy of Structures and Systems | The New Fire Engine Effect | SDP159
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Entropy is the gradual decline into disorder. An example of entropy is a melting ice cube. Water molecules are fixed and ordered in the cube. As it melts, the molecules become free to move and become independent and therefore become disordered. The second law of thermodynamics is that all things lead to entropy - from ice cubes to the human body. In this episode, Doc examines the entropy of structures and systems and centers these concepts on the example of a small village purchasing a replacement for its 30-year-old fire engine. ENTROPY OF STRUCTURES. Over time, cars will rust, pavement will crack, and the human body will deteriorate. Although entropy of structures is a certainty, preventive measures and maintenance will slow the rate of entropy. For the car, it’s washing, waxing, and applying touch-up paint to new chips. Exercise staves off muscle atrophy. Even if all structures on Earth were immune from entropy, the sun would engulf the planet. ENTROPY OF SYSTEMS. When the Texas power grid failed in the winter of 2017, a forensic analysis revealed a power grid system that had become old, outdated, and inefficient. Remember when you were in elementary school and participated in a monthly fire drill? The purpose of the drill was to ensure fidelity of the evacuation system. If you only practiced a fire drill the first week of the school year, then some students would forget the protocols as the year went on. THE NEW FIRE ENGINE EFFECT. In October, 2021, the village board of a community of 1500 people in Wisconsin approved an expenditure for a new fire engine. At $400,000, the rescue pumper would be the costliest purchase in the village’s 2022 budget. The volunteer department’s fire chief was grilled by the city council members to justify the large expenditure. The prepared chief noted that the village's primary engine, a 1990 pumper bought for $78,000, was well-maintained and also succumbing to entropy of structure and systems. In other words, the engine itself was demonstrating fatigue and it was difficult to find replacement parts for the aging apparatus. But there was something else. The outside world evolved 30 years beyond the world the engine entered. This is important. Let’s say that an exact new replica of the 1990 engine could be delivered to the fire station. Would that make sense? The firefighters would be familiar with the various levers and controls, right? Going back to the 1990 engine - it doesn’t have a crew cab and therefore only 3 firefighters can travel in it. Because of this limitation, the engine always needed a companion as the department always sent at least 4 firefighters to a call. This meant that two fire trucks were sent to accidents in order to have sufficient personnel - an accepted practice in 1990 - in fact, the firehouse was often emptied for most calls as the mindset was to bring as many assets to an incident as possible. Today, the “industry” protocol is to send a single "rescue" engine specifically built to transport 4-5 crew and extrication gear. The stalwart 1990 engine had a 1000 GPM pump. New engines are outfitted with a 1500 GPM pump. The village's fire rating fell over the years due to static pumping capacity as the once-tiny industrial park flourished with new businesses. And then there's GPS, comms, LED lighting and improved designs so ladders can be stored on top of the apparatus and lowered with ease. So that was all on the structure entropy side of things. The next part was systems entropy. In 1990, nobody thought about extinguishing an electric vehicle. Firefighters today train differently than their 1990 counterparts. The system of individual fire departments battling any blaze was a thing in 1990. In that Wisconsin village,a massive fire on Main Street was tackled by the fire department and the neighboring rural town’s department. Today, such a fire would activate mutual aid from multiple communities. With the advent and acceptance of mutual aid, fire departments are streamlining their fleets and pool assets. SCHOOL SAFETY. So what does this mean for school safety? As entropy happens slowly, it's almost impossible for schools to detect it. Plus, there is frequent turnover of school staff - so these folks aren’t around long enough to observe entropy. What can a safety expert do for a school? Identify the state of entropy and make recommendations to restore structures or systems (to original), refurbish them (modernize them as possible), or replace them. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. This is episode 159 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-22-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
On Friday, November 12, 2021, classes were canceled for many public school districts in North Carolina. The intended purpose of the motion was to offer a mental health day for teachers and students experiencing burnout from the pandemic and the cumulative stress of contemporary education. Doc, with 25 years experience as an educator, describes the sudden popularity of mental days for school staff and why mental health days will both increase and also compound teacher burnout. WHAT HAPPENS ON MENTAL HEALTH DAYS? Staff and students are typically given vague guidance on how to focus on their mental health during days off. When Doc asks educators what they do on mental health days, they respond, “catch up on work,” instead of yoga, journaling or anything related to self care. Some note that the days off actually add to their workloads - and that makes sense. Instead of covering a planned lesson in 5 days, now they have 4 days, or 20% less time. Let’s be honest, a “day away from school” isn’t a magical elixir. This is trendy, but ineffective. Teachers are still burning out. MENTAL HEALTH DAYS DISRUPT ROUTINES. The school calendar provides consistency - especially now. Students have been out of school or toggled between hybrid and in-person instruction the past two years. Mental wellness days disrupt the continuity of routine. A human’s predictable routine can be called the torus - a concept Doc wrote extensively about in his book School of Errors. FIVE WAYS TO SOLVE TEACHER BURNOUT. Here are five ways to counter teacher burnout. Note that some call for disrupting long-held practices, such as the summer-off school calendar. (1) OBEY PARKINSON’S LAW. Humans function efficiently with defined start and end routines to daily activities. It wasn’t just the teaching profession that seemingly went 24/7 during remote learning, but schools have maintained one foot in remote learning and the other in the brick classroom. This has mushroomed the prep and planning for teachers. Schools can’t saddle teachers with planning for online, hybrid, and in-person learning. (2) YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL CALENDAR. In The Velocity of Information, Doc wrote about the groundbreaking work of World War II Army psychiatrist Dr. John Appel. Appel studied burnout in combat soldiers. He discovered that frontline warfighters would be killed, wounded, captured, mentally collapse, or found to be missing in action by 200 days. Increasing pay or championing “Why We Fight” didn’t offset the burnout. By that account, increasing teachers’ compensation, even doubling it, would likely have minimal effect on burnout. It might increase retention, but retaining a burned-out teacher is a bad idea. Back to Appel, he found that the British got 400 days out of their soldiers on the Italian front lines. How? The British would pull fighters out of duty within twelve days and then rest them for four days. In overlaying this thinking to K-12 schools, a year-round calendar creates rest periods - true “breaks” versus a periodic mental health day. Furthermore, year-round schedules lessen the impact of summer learning loss. Summers off goes back to when we were an agrarian society and then a recreation society. Most educators that talk with Doc are ready for year-round calendars. Beware, the school calendar is a sacred cow. (3) EMBRACE CROWD-IN MINDSET. There is zero sense that we are in transitory chaos. When people are convinced that chaos will continue for months or years, they surround themselves with comfort items. Remember the Michael Keaton movie Mr. Mom? In it, a fictional company called “Schooner Tuna” was steered away from advertising gimmicks by Keaton’s wife. In a surprise move, Schooner Tuna reduced the price of its tuna by 50 cents a can to convey empathy during the economic crisis of the time. Schools are overloaded with initiatives - and these initiatives are baking teachers. (4) CRACKED BOARDS. Recon Sniper Clay Martin spoke of “cracked boards” when Doc interviewed him about dealing with long periods in high stress settings. In short, it’s OK to tacitly acknowledge that you are frustrated - it’s the last fuse before burnout. (5) QUIT ZOOMING. Former Microsoft executive Linda Stone is an expert on human attention. In The Velocity of Information, Stone mentioned that she advises clients that Zoom calls are exhausting and a phone call places less demand on attention. Not every conversation requires a Zoom call. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 158 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-16-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
Tuesday Nov 02, 2021
Tuesday Nov 02, 2021
The issue of masks and other COVID-19 precaution strategies in schools has become contentious, sparking a firestorm of lawsuits. Special guest Attorney Lisa Linney helps us understand behind-the-scenes strategizing when a parent sues a school district over insufficient virus mitigation protocols. What is the strongest argument for the plaintiff? Beyond the parent and the school district, will other “responsible third parties'' be at fault? What must happen in the hours after a school district has been served a lawsuit? DISCLAIMER. Attorney Lisa Linney will not be giving legal advice during this episode. Please contact your legal counsel for guidance on specific school safety legal matters. ABOUT LISA LINNEY. Lisa Linney is an attorney at Murphy Legal in Texas. Her focus is motion practice and appellate law. Lisa’s appellate practice begins before a case even goes to trial. She participates in trial preparation by researching thorny issues and crafting motions in support of her clients’ positions and to preserve the trial record for any potential appeal. Lisa also handles appellate work, including briefing and oral argument. She is a graduate of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. WHAT IS DECLARATORY RELIEF? Lisa notes that the lawsuits are between the parent and the school district. Declaratory relief would be , for example, the court interpreting the contract to determine rights of parents and the school without ordering action or awarding damages. In other words, the court has the ability to compel the school to implement a mask mandate or specific pandemic mitigation protocols. However, such a ruling would not extend to other school districts in the state. But, when similar parent-filed lawsuits against multiple districts catch the attention of the media and state legislators, there might be pressure for either the state department of health or state department of instruction to take a firm position, or in the rare chance, issue a decree on the matters. WHAT IS INJUNCTIVE RELIEF? The court may issue a sanction (injunction) regarding a school district’s pandemic mitigation practices. For example, if a school had a “masks optional” policy, the court might sanction the school district to remove the “optional” from its protocol. In Wisconsin, parent lawsuits against school districts claiming that "The school board and the superintendent are not providing a safe environment” are seeking declaratory or injunctive relief. In other words, the intent of the lawsuits is to change policy and protocol - most likely to require masks in schools. BURDEN OF PROOF. Lisa notes that the burden of proof in these lawsuits will be with the parent. As the plaintiff gather’s evidence (discovery) it’s as important to examine how a school district engaged in due diligence and debated pandemic mitigation protocols. The board of education is empowered with the responsibility of creating policies and voting on actions. When looking at the school’s decision to mitigate effects of COVID-19 in the school setting, something more could have always been done. The question is, what is reasonable? Anything publicly available from the county health department, local hospitals, CDC, FDA, NIH, WHO should be considered. Demonstrate due diligence in obtaining and weighing information from a variety of reputable sources - and government sources will be perceived as credible. Then boil down to more specific data as to what information applies to children. If the school district engaged in these steps, it’s going to be difficult for a parent to prevail in a lawsuit. WHAT IS NEGLIGENCE? Attorney Linney explained the three elements of negligence. (First) Defendant owned a legal duty; (Second) Defendant breached that duty; and (Third) Breach caused the injury. The plaintiff (parent) has to show that the defendant owed a legal duty to the plaintiff and the defendant breached that duty, and that breach was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury. Attorney Linney felt it would be a great technical challenge to prove the student contracted COVID at school and that it was a result of insufficient mitigation efforts by the school. Proximate cause will be the problem in the courts - how do you show the child got COVID. Where else has the child been, and the people that the children live and interact with outside of school? FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 157 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-2-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
One lesser-mentioned reason for the sustained and worsening supply chain disruption is that manufacturing has entered the “transfer portal” between JIT and 3D printing. In other words, an old technology is being usurped by a new technology. The pandemic hastened the process and the question centered on in this episode is how the baton pass will occur as the race track is quaking. WAREHOUSE to JIT to 3D PRINTING. In the 1990s, manufacturing experienced an evolution from warehouse manufacturing (or creating excess product and to ship as needed), to Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing - which meant products would skip the warehouse and go directly from the manufacturer to the store / business / consumer. JIT was clunky at first, but as computers improved, RFID to quickly track and improve asset management, and sophisticated transportation logistics, the JIT system was proven, and improving, by the early 2000s. 3D-PRINTED HOUSES GO MAINSTREAM. (Yahoo News’ Joann Muller, Monday, October 25, 2021) Doc shares a story about 3D-printed cement houses. Instead of conventional materials like steel, aluminum and lumber, 3D-printed structures are built by a robot squeezing a cement mixture out of a nozzle, layer upon layer, like a soft swirl ice cream cone. It's the same additive manufacturing process used to make everything from dental implants to airplane parts — just on a much, much larger scale. Texas-based ICON has delivered two dozen 3D-printed homes in the US and Mexico and has raised $207 million to expand. The homes are printed on-site. While something as disruptive as 3D printed houses seems far-fetched, Doc noted that from 1908 to 1940, you could choose from over 400 styles of homes to purchase through Sears, Roebuck and Co. mail-order catalog. HOW 3D-PRINTED FOOD COULD CHANGE THE WAY WE COOK AND EAT. General Electric's GE Additive Manufacturing branch released a report in 2020 describing 3D-printing of food as entering mainstream testing. “At one gourmet restaurant in the United Kingdom, everyone is eating 3D-printed food because that is all that is served. The enterprising entrepreneurs at London’s Food Ink decided to push additive manufacturing to its logical extreme. Everything is 3D printed, including the utensils, plates, tables and chairs. At Miramar, a gourmet restaurant in Spain, food printers take on more mundane tasks, freeing chefs to better focus on their creative cuisine.” BENEFITS OF 3D PRINTING (Statsys.com) (1) Advance time-to-market turnaround; (2) Save on tooling costs with on-demand 3D printing; (3) Reduce waste with additive manufacturing; (4) Save weight with complex part designs; (5) Eliminate shipping of finished products, along with packaging. ISSUES WITH 3D PRINTING (1) Need for raw materials - you won’t be able to harvest from your backyard; (2) Intellectual property enforcement - while some open source and public domain, it’s most likely 3D printers will have a subscription service like Amazon; (3) Unclear as to how 3D printed items will be recycled; (4) What is liability if you 3D print something that fails - like a part for your car; (5) Ransomware and hackability. What prevents 3D food printers from being corrupted? FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 156 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-26-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
Doc clarifies the issues around threats toward school officials, discusses the National School Board Association’s (NSBA) under-informed hyperbolic letter to president Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland’s knee jerk memo directing the FBI to figure out strategies to address school threats within the next 30 days, reactions from state-level school board associations, and how your local school district board of education might implement changes including recording audiences attending board of education (BOE) meetings. Doc matches solutions to these issues and also refreshes our minds to how similar matters have been effectively addressed in the past, including FDR’s 1930s letter writing campaign. NSBA LETTER TO BIDEN REGARD THREATS TO SCHOOLS. On September 29, 2021, the NSBA, an advocacy group, sent a letter to President Biden with the heading: Federal Assistance to Stop Threats and Acts of Violence Against Public Schoolchildren, Public School Board Members, and Other Public School District Officials and Educators. In the letter, NSBA rolled off this 97-word sentence in which it put some parents in the arena with domestic terrorists: “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes. As such, NSBA requests a joint expedited review by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Homeland Security, along with the appropriate training, coordination, investigations, and enforcement mechanisms from the FBI, including any technical assistance necessary from, and state and local coordination with, its National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division, as well as any other federal agency with relevant jurisdictional authority and oversight.” AG GARLAND MEMO TO FBI. On October 4, 2021, US Attorney General Merrick Garland send a memorandum to the Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation directing the FBI to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days in order to facilitate strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response. STATE SCHOOL BOARD CHAPTERS NOT ON BOARD. The organization Parents Defending Education is curating a running tally of state school boards that have withdrawn from NSBA over the Biden letter (18 state school board associations have bailed from NSBA) as well as state school board associations answers to the following three questions: (1) As the [state association] has not yet commented on the National School Board Association’s September 29 letter to President Biden that requested federal intervention in local school board issues – which likened civic participation to “domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and cited the Patriot Act – Parents Defending Education (PDE) would like to know whether your organization was involved in the creation of this letter and whether you agree with its substance and tone. If not, have you contacted the NSBA to let them know? (2) Can you please tell us how, going forward, your organization defines “intimidation,” harassment,” and “threat”? (3) Finally, do you plan to report individuals in your state to the U.S. Department of Justice – or do you believe that concerns can be adequately managed by local and state law enforcement? STATE RESPONSES BURN NSBA. It’s apparent that state’s are displeased with NSBA and the Garland Memo. Here’s the Delaware School Board Association response to PDE’s questions: “The DSBA has seen school board meeting protests, some of which have become quite impassioned, however we have received NO reports of violence or threats of violence toward school staff or school board members. The DSBA does NOT condone violence or threats of violence toward students, staff or board members. After consultation with the Governor’s office, the Public Health Department and the Delaware Department of Education the DSBA developed and issued guidance to school board presidents regarding how to best handle school board meeting protests, which included the ultimate use of LOCAL law enforcement if absolutely necessary. This guidance was issued prior to the NSBA September 29 2021 letter. The NSBA letter to President Biden was unnecessary and quite frankly not helpful.” ARE THERE OTHER OPTIONS? Doc believes threats of violence toward school officials is happening, but over-stated by NSBA and Garland. Also, the National Threat Assessment Center has been effective in mitigating school threats for 20 years. Reviewing school board meeting video footage is at the bottom of the FBI’s prioritization list. FDR ASKED FOR LETTERS. When FDR was president, the country was hammered by the Great Depression and fears of war. In his fireside chats, he asked listeners to write letters to him describing their plights. More than 8,000 letters a day arrived at the White House - many accusatory and fiery. Doc described why this approach worked, and how it might be one of the strategies considered to make people feel that they are being heard. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 155 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-20-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Doc peels apart the big sticky questions about K-12 school mask mandates. What’s kicked off the flurry of mask/mitigation lawsuits filed by parents? Have county health services abandoned their obligations to school districts? Are school boards spending pandemic funds on football fields? Why are doctors invited to present at school board meetings instead of environmental services experts? Learn what is happening and what should be happening is schools around America. MASK GUIDANCE. Schools are frantically seeking guidance from county health departments. While some counties have stepped up, others have stepped away and turned off the lights. Boards of Education (BOEs) then attempt to align decisions to the CDC, state recommendation, advice from legal counsel, or local doctors. MASKS IN THE REAL SCHOOL WORLD. School officials are unable to define what is an effective and acceptable mask. Hundreds of students might wear old masks, homemade masks, or fashion masks. Should schools issue masks to students and staff to ensure some baseline of quality? How are students educated about mask wearing and how are schools responding to medical exemption orders for some students with disabilities? CONTACT TRACING. We’ve all heard this concept. In practice, it’s messy for schools providing in-person instruction. What frequently happens is that a student tests positive for COVID-19 and then the district notifies parents that their child was in “close proximity” to a child that tested positive for COVID-19. The parents are advised to observe their child for symptoms, but typically aren’t required to have the student self-quarantine or receive a rapid test. How does a parent distinguish symptoms of colds, seasonal flu, allergies, COVID-19, and fatigue? ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund (March, 2021) pumped cash into schools in the form of block grants that allowed schools to spend the dollars to increase student achievement or mitigate pandemic concerns. Some districts spent their dollars on staffing and cleaning. Others installed artificial turf athletic fields, tracks, and new weight rooms. There was much, and unchecked, interpretation of what measures promoted student health during a pandemic. Doc also notes that few schools spend the funds on HVAC upgrades due to the technical barriers of upgrading existing systems. For example, filters that remove viruses decrease air flow through the system and strain circulation motors. Furthermore, equipment and installers are in short supply as supply chains fell apart in 2021. SHOULD SCHOOLS TEST FOR COVID-19 ON SURFACES AND IN THE AIR? Yes. Schools have utilized professional environmental services to test for mold or MRSA, remove impacted areas, and help to prevent future problems. Environmental companies that offer those services are able to test surfaces and air samples for the presence of COVID-19. Doc states that professional environmental services should be informing school boards about COVID-19 management in schools. PARENTS SUE SCHOOLS - MY CHILD GOT COVID-10 AT SCHOOL. Doc notes very recent lawsuits that parents have filed against schools in his state alleging that the school “failed to implement reasonable COVID-19 mitigation measures.” How might schools respond to the lawsuits? Will parents prevail. If so, then what happens? Doc describes how foreseeable tort law might be something we begin to hear about and what that term means for BOEs. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 154 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-13-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
Lee Jarvis is an Analyzer of Data Processes. He has much knowledge about intellectual property and critical considerations for bloggers, podcasters, social media influencers, and the person in charge of adding uplifting cartoons or images to the church bulletin. What happens if you post a copyrighted image to your blog? How about streaming a minute of copyrighted video within your podcast? How do we fix this mess? **LEE AND DAVID ARE NOT LAWYERS. THIS EPISODE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Read the full blog post for this episode at safetyphd.com. PANDEMIC RELIEF BILL MIGHT IMPACT CONTENT STREAMERS. Lawmakers slipped multiple copyright bills, including the CASE Act and a felony streaming law, into the $2.3 trillion spending and economic-relief legislation in December, 2020. The CASE ACT, for example, would create a small claims copyright court and a new U.S. law could hit streamers with felony charges for streaming copyrighted content. WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY? Lee explains what IP is, why IP laws were made, what they cover, including copyright and patent, and the differences between patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Trademarks, for example, often expire after just 3 years while copyrights can exist for more than 70 years. Per Wipo, intellectual property (IP) refers to “creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” We often think of photos and songs as intellectual property. WHAT IS FAIR USE? Lee notes that Fair Use largely hinges on two points. First, is the content copyrighted? Second, did the person distribute it. Per Copyright.Gov, “Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.” However, a judge would determine if Fair Use was a valid “defense” in a lawsuit. WHAT IS CREATIVE COMMONS? Creative Commons is an internationally active non-profit organisation that provides free licences for creators to use when making their work available to the public. This means that they only need to seek the creator's permission when they want to use the work in a way not permitted by the license. CC was instrumental in facilitating the Open COVID Pledge, which calls on organizations around the world to make their patents and copyrights freely available in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. PROBLEMS WITH IP IN CURRENT TIMES AND HOW IT COULD COMPLICATE COLLABORATION IN A CRISIS. Problems with IP in current times and how it impacts people. Lee unpacks complicated laws, banned accounts, blocked content, and censorship. There’s also a cottage industry of third party “IP enforcers” with practices that border on extortion when they threaten huge fines after their Internet-scanning software locates IP on web pages, such as a copyrighted image posted in a personal blog. Such businesses might not give a cent of recovered money to the copyright owner. IP IN THE TIME OF COVID. Doc adds that a recent study revealed that 3000 people contributed intellectual input to develop schematics for both home and commercial printing of face masks, face shields, and ventilator parts in response to COVID19 pandemic demands. This mass collaboration might be impossible with increased IP monitoring and enforcement. There is no amnesty for people that violate IP during times of crises, although some manufacturers eased IP protections during COVID. HOW TO IMPROVE IP. Unless changes are made to IP, Lee envisions scenarios of IP infringement claims overwhelming courts, IP creators stifled as they aren’t being properly compensated for their efforts, and hesitation from content users as they don’t want to be sued for potentially copyrighted material. Lee explores improvements such as expanding Fair Use, fines for false claims of IP infringement, or creating a new system of IP. Although overhauling IP is daunting, consider that most songs today are legally downloaded from Amazon or iTunes whereas many were illegally shared on Napster or Limewire in the 1990s. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward scholarly thought on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 153 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-27-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America www.schooloferrors.com
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Has Apple or Google uploaded a COVID-19 tracking app to your phone without asking first? One million Coloradans have opted in to receive COVID-19 exposure notifications - now what? Could voluntary apps become part of unalterable operating systems? How exactly does Bluetooth work and what are the security risks with Bluetooth communications? What’s the deal with homemade PPE? How do biological teachings or OSHA classes differ from the cascade of health-preservation advice or directives issued by governments, hospitals, and even talk show hosts? Environment / Health / Safety & Data Systems Expert Carl Hopf guides us to the granular level of these matters. Read the full blog post for this episode at safetyphd.com ABOUT CARL HOPF. Carl has worked in Environment, Health and Safety, and facility management for over 25 years. He started working as a technician in laboratories, then evolving into managing academic clinical and basic laboratories in NJ. He was also an academic IT manager, educational video conferencing manager and has been involved in emergency response for many years. Carl has also worked in emergency management, HAZMAT/BIOMAT/RADMAT for eight years. He has also worked in EHS and data management in a corporate and manufacturing setting for six years. Currently, he is a contractor for multiple companies that are involved in management systems, EHS, and safety. COVID PHONE APP and BLUETOOTH. Carl noted that New Jersey was overt in notifying residents about the COVID19 tracking app downloaded to their phones. The app opt-in is voluntary and it functions by using the phone's Bluetooth feature, which constantly scans for nearby channels and is a big drain on battery life. Walking in public, Bluetooth has a radius of about 15 feet. The tracking app will immediately notify the phone’s owner if they are in close contact with another app user who has tested positive for coronavirus. Close contact is defined as spending 15 minutes for longer near someone who tested positive for the virus. The app won’t identify the infected person (HIPPA) and prompts the user to call a contact tracing team for additional directions (contact tracing). COULD VOLUNTARY APPS BECOME PART OF THE PHONE OS? Carl stated that if the COVID19 tracking app was embedded in a future version of his phone’s operating system, he would choose to no longer use the phone. There was an uptick in flip phone sales prior to the pandemic as people attempted to break from addiction to their smartphones and concerns about tracking existed well before 2020. PROBLEMS WITH HOMEMADE PPE (and all PPE). Carl describes micron ranges and questions the effectiveness of homemade PPE which has been made from both yarn and underwear. He recounts the PPE he wore while working in virology labs and the stringent security protocols to ensure that PPE never left the “gray” zone - which was the area proximal to bacteria or viruses. This is a huge contrast to people around us carrying their masks with them from place to place and shoving them into the car’s cup holder until the next time they “need it” to enter a building. WHAT A PPE AWARE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE WOULD BE LIKE. Imagine the entrance of a grocery store in which the incoming shopper was required to gown up and wear a store-issued mask. And, when they exited the store, they would deposit their PPE into a secure disposal unit. Carl states that the CDC manuals for biohazards are in conflict with recent guidance - and that guidance was also changing often and not standardized across locations - resulting in safety fatigue. COMPLIANCE SAFETY vs. BEHAVIOR BASED SAFETY. Carl unpacks two prevailing psychological approaches to safety. The first is compliance safety, or people performing an act in order to be compliant with a rule. For example, crossing a street at the crosswalk when the “WALK” light turns white. Behavior based safety is more centered to the person surveying their setting and making decisions that they deem matches the situation and context. For example, deciding which side of the street that they will walk on. Carl cautions that an over-abundance of compliance safety devolves to people complying just to get the outcome, and losing sight of the deeper rationale for their actions. These are also known as “check box” activities. He urges people to question why they are being asked to do things - to seek to understand the fundamental purposes. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward scholarly thought on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 152 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-24-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America www.schooloferrors.com
Friday Nov 13, 2020
Friday Nov 13, 2020
Doc unpacks how 2020 was the year that mass media and big tech fogged the American people and became the gatekeepers of the First Amendment. People are measuring their words or waking up to an unchallengeable revocation of their social media platforms (just ask Mike Glover). It’s time for a sober reckoning of considerations and consequences for expression and “the marketplace of ideas” in the social media age. This is episode 151 of The Safety Doc Podcast. Read the full blog post at safetyphd.com THE FIRST AMENDMENT. The First Amendment protects freedom of religion, speech, press, petition, and peaceful assembly. It doesn’t actually promise you the right to say whatever you want. It simply states the government can take no action that interferes with those rights. Per David Hudson, Jr., “The First Amendment only limits governmental actors—federal, state, and local—but there are good reasons why this should be changed. Certain powerful private entities—particularly social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others—can limit, control, and censor speech as much or more than governmental entities. A society that cares for the protection of free expression needs to recognize that the time has come to extend the reach of the First Amendment to cover these powerful, private entities that have ushered in a revolution in terms of communication capabilities.” (AmericanBarAssoc, 2019). SECTION 230 OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT. Passed in 1996, before social media, Section 230 protects websites from lawsuits if a user posts something illegal. In the United States, the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting most forms of speech, which would include many proposals to force tech companies to moderate content. A law that required companies to moderate content based on the political viewpoint it expresses, for example, would likely be struck down as unconstitutional. However, private companies can create rules to restrict speech if they so choose. This is why Facebook and Twitter ban hate speech, for example, even though it is permitted under the First Amendment. IS ANYTHING BEING DONE TO EXPAND FIRST AMENDMENT TO SOCIAL MEDIA SITES? In January 2020, Joe Biden proposed revoking Section 230 which would make tech giants and online platforms responsible for knowingly allowing content on their platforms that promotes and facilitates violence. Nothing was done, however. EXPANDING FIRST AMENDMENT TO PRIVATE COMPANIES? The American Bar Association argues that it’s time to expand First Amendment The point here is that when an entity like Facebook engages in censorship, individuals don’t get to participate in the marketplace of ideas and are not allowed the liberty to engage in individual self fulfillment— just like when a governmental entity engages in censorship. When a private actor has control over online communications and online forums, these private actors are analogous to a governmental actor. HOW AN HOA RULING MIGHT EXPAND FREE SPEECH. The state high court wrote: “In New Jersey, an individual’s affirmative right to speak freely is protected not only from abridgement by government, but also from unreasonably restrictive and oppressive conduct by private entities in certain situations.” (Mazdabrook Commons Homeowners Association v. Khan, 2012). This ruling impacts posting flyers to hanging flags. SOCIAL MEDIA AND BIG TECH TERMS OF USE. You accepted the terms to use social media. These sites are free BECAUSE they harvest your data, analyze everything you put on their sites, and sell it to marketers and governments. FUTURE OF FREE SPEECH IN A SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD. Algorithms and complaints will lead to more deplatorming. A pandering government is unlikely to challenge big tech monopolies and big tech would have much influence over public perception if suddenly limiting individuals’ access to its services or implementing fees for traditionally free services such as email. GMAIL and Google suite are not public goods. YES, THE COVID19 TRACKING APP WAS INSTALLED ON YOUR PHONE. Seemingly overnight, millions of phones around the world got a feature to help track and slow down the spread of Coronavirus. Google and Apple partnered on the system, which is technically called “contact tracing” but goes by the less intimidating “exposure notification.” This app is now passively on most of the world’s smartphones. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward scholarly thought on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 151 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-13-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America www.schooloferrors.com
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Doc burns down the birthday candles as he speculates how a Biden presidency might influence chaos behavior and regression to the mean. In addition, the sudden and complete de-platforming of tactical survivalist Mike Glover sends a cautionary message to all people that produce content in the prepper / survivalists genre. Finally, with Google seemingly out of the woods from a monopoly hearing, will the company slice Adsense revenue to content producers or begin charging for traditionally free services, such as GMAIL? This is episode 150 of The Safety Doc Podcast. Read this full blog post at safetyphd.com REGRESSION TO THE MEAN. In episode #149, Doc referenced his graphics to illustrate that American society was failing to regress to the mean following the March, 2020 black swan COVID19 event. Although typically viewed as precipitating disaster and chaos, a black swan event can also have the opposite effect. Doc ponders if the Biden victory was perceived by many Americans as an event that would usher in political changes that would bring substantial stimulus funding and a pivot that would somehow return people to what they remember as pre-COVID19 times. Biden’s win disrupted Finite Voltage, but, as Doc cautions, regression to the mean is rarely swift and lasting. HOW SCHOOL FUNDING WILL CHANGE. School choice will grind to a halt with the appointment of a Secretary of Education. These battles will intensify at the state level and be settled by the courts. School safety funding will be front and center in the next stimulus package with the emphasis on updating HVAC and air filtration systems and an array of antivirus devices and products. Most of these will be vetted with nothing more than customer perceived value and social proof. Doc argues that this spending will have little practical impact on student health other than implementation of more hand washing stations. DE-PLATFORMING MIKE GLOVER. Former U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant Major Mike Glover is CEO and owner of Fieldcraft Survival Inc. He was the recipient of a rapid, organized social media platforming campaign in early November which also resulted in the disabling of his company’s website and interference with family member’s social media accounts. Aware of Mike’s work, Doc disputes claims that Glover’s training, apparel, and gear warranted any form of censorship. Although Mike has restored his core sites, he’s aware that his social media sites could be suspended at any time. Doc ponders if Mike will lose customers who might be apprehensive that their association with him will result in being added to some double secret probation list. AOC’S LIST. AOC put a nation on notice when suggesting that “someone” should assemble a list of individuals and organizations that supported the Trump administration. She added that the list should become a public record. Doc noted that her declaration hinted at truth and reconciliation hearings after WWII and had a more contemporary tone of ushering in a Social Credit Score similar to the one posted to YouTube by Tom Scott. Doc added that Americans are already assigned social credit scores and anticipates the process will become announced and overt within the next 2 years. Ironically, he believes 70% of Americans would willingly embrace personal social credit scores if they were told it was a step that would return them to life similar pre-COVID19. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 150 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-07-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America www.schooloferrors.com