Episodes
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
Have you imagined that not missing a day of high school could put you square in the driver’s seat of a new car? What began as a novel #truancy pilot roughly twenty years ago is becoming increasingly popular in high schools across America. Why are cash-strapped #schools ponying up cars for students with perfect, or near-perfect #attendance? What are the outcomes of these incentives? What are the positions of advocates and opponents? In this episode, Doc describes the “cars for attendance” trend speeding through the parking lots of America’s high schools. WHAT IS TRUANCY? States have statutory citations for compulsory school attendance and school attendance enforcement. These exist to compel students to attend school on a regular basis. Truancy, or unexcused absence from school, is informally referred to as “skipping school.” A “truant student'' is typically absent for several days, or weeks, during the school year. The pattern tends to be pervasive and the lack of regular attendance diminishes the student’s ability to benefit from instruction. Students who are truant are often ineligible to participate in organized sports and generally are not connected with school activities. TRUANCY REDUCTION: KEEPING STUDENTS IN SCHOOL. In September 2001, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice published a 16-page bulletin titled: Truancy Reduction, Keeping Students in School. Truancy had been well-studied by 2001, and although it impacted students of all ages, it was most prevalent in high schools. The report stated, “Truancy has been clearly identified as one of the early warning signs that youth are headed for potential delinquent activity, social isolation, and/or educational failure. Other studies established lack of commitment to school as a risk factor for substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school.” OTHER CONSEQUENCES OF TRUANCY. The DOJ’s 2001 report predicted dire financial impacts of truancy and dropouts, including (1) Less educated workforce, (2) Business loss because of youth who “hang out” and/or shoplift during the day, (3) Higher daytime crime rates, and (4) cost of social services for families of children who are habitually truant. INCENTIVES FOR STUDENT ATTENDANCE - YOU GET A CAR! In 2022, Bastrop ISD partnered with the local Sames Bastrop Ford dealership to offer one lucky student the chance to win a car in its “Drive Sames 4 Education.” “Kristi Lee, BISD's district deputy superintendent, said the district has seen a dip in attendance and all students' grades. The free car acts as an incentive to get students to come back to class. For the 2021-22 school year, BISD had an attendance rate of 90.59% – the lowest rate in the last four years. When the pandemic originally hit, during the 2019-2020 school year, overall attendance was almost three percentage points higher at 93.67% (Comme, P. 2022).” Search engines return thousands of similar stories, from New Caney High School to Honey Grove ISD to San Antonio High School. ARGUMENTS FOR CARS AND HIGH-VALUE PRIZES. It works. Research has found that financial incentives typically are the most effective in driving teenagers. Oftentimes, parents will reward students with a cash bonus after they produce good grades. But on the contrary, children are more prone to strive for something they can control, like studying or even attendance (Prothero, A. 2017). On the flip side, incentives are much less effective for actual test scores. In other words, incentives work to motivate kids to attend school, but not necessarily to perform well in school. The cost of a car (and some of the prizes are used cars) might be $25,000, or less if donated by a dealership or community philanthropy. That expense is lower than the school funding a truancy officer or cuts to school funding due to lower enrollment. ARGUMENTS AGAINST CARS AND HIGH VALUE PRIZES. Schools create an artificial external reward system for something that should be internalized as having value. For example, we don’t brush our teeth to receive a chance to win a car from the dental office, although lack of dental hygiene could deteriorate our health and cost thousands of dollars to fix. Another argument is that the fact that high-value prizes increase attendance underscore that traditional school operations don’t motivate students. Maybe it’s a stale curriculum? It’s worth noting The Safety Doc Podcast episode 195 and guest Mike Dahle discussing how Esports is rocketing in popularity in schools - and also contributing to increased attendance. Yet, the majority of schools don’t offer Esports. For car raffles, people claim the optics look bad - of quasi-paying kids to attend school. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 201 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-03-2023.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
Guest Lee Jarvis returns to the show and explains the features and benefits of a bank account-style voting system. As people grow skeptical of elections, Lee describes that trust may be restored by using existing systems in different ways, and such a pivot might even make it easier for voters to cast votes and to track their ballot. The main points of a bank account-like voting system are: universal national voter registry; voter “bank account” to track and log votes so voters can track their ballot/vote; more locations for a to vote; and improved data logistics for the public to observe the data. ELECTION INTEGRITY CONCERNS. News media have stirred the US public with the incomplete portrayal of the timeline of concerns about the integrity of American elections. In other words, election-doubt didn’t appear from thin air in 2016. Per Pippa Norris, author of Electoral Integrity in America: Securing Democracy, Oxford University Press (2018), “Concern about the integrity of American elections did not start with Trump's election; flaws in procedures have gradually grown during recent decades. The contemporary "tipping point" that raised public awareness was the 2000 Bush v. Gore Florida count, but the 2016 campaign and its aftermath clearly worsened several major structural weaknesses. This deepened party polarization over the rules of the game and corroded American trust in the electoral process.” Furthermore, the 2022 Arizona governor election was marred when officials in populous Maricopa county stated that on election day, [technical] “problems affected ballot tabulation machines in about 60 of the county’s 223 voting centers.” Hence, actions must be taken to infuse integrity-supports into the eroding election framework. NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRY. A national voter registry would utilize local voting locations in order for people to register and vote at any location in the system. Combining that feature with an online account system would help people to track their vote. In ways similar to Social Security cards, voters could be issued “voting cards” and these cards might incorporate QR codes, barcodes, numbers, and a photo. Think of using your credit card to purchase items at a store. The card is unique to you, although there were a hundred shoppers in the store - all purchasing different constellations of items. And, you can go online and check your credit card account to verify your purchases and monitor for fraud. Similar principles could be in place for a “voting card.” INDIVIDUAL VOTING RECEIPTS. Voting machines could be designed to print receipts coupled with opt-in quarterly mail statements (mail statements is a must) along with the digital account. And, digital accounts should list nullified votes. VOTING ONLINE OR VIA APP. Lee stated that he has concerns over online or app-based voting. If such a model were to exist, it should require a decade of vetting and voter registry every 1-2 years. The ability to hack such a system is underscored with the frequent data breaches and ransomware attacks rife in public institutions as well as private businesses. VOTING LOCATIONS. A system of secured verified accounts (voter cards) would expand voting locations beyond traditional locations. Per Lee, an organization or business could rent voting machines and host a party! Why can’t voting be a celebration? The rental units might be paired with body-cam security guards and body cam staff for the machines - and the machines are valid anywhere in America. Think of the voting machines as similar to ATMs. EARLY VOTING. Early voting could be as simple as a portable voting machine controlled by the election commission. It could be transported to nursing homes, or community centers. HOW MIGHT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ACCESS THEIR ACCOUNTS? Cashless stores and accounts requiring 2-step verification are not always easy-to-use for people who are elderly or people with disabilities. As voting moves further to the digital age, considerations must center on both security and accessibility. To offset this access barrier, Lee notes that banks have automated phone account systems and the postal system features mailing of letters. Lee adds that those in the military or US citizens, but not in the US during an election, would be able to use their voter card at their locations to cast their vote. Lee further postures that bank ATM machines could theoretically be repurposed as voting machines. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 197 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-06-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
I Failed My PhD Dissertation Defense | Priest Prepared Last Rites | SDP187
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
On May 2, 2016, I confidently marched into the Education Building at UW-Madison expecting, in a few short hours, I would be high-stepping Bascom Hill as “Dr. Perrodin.” That day didn’t go as planned. In fact, my priest was in attendance (per my invitation), and he even brought lunch and snacks for the dissertation committee members. Despite [mostly] following the pomp and circumstance protocol, the committee failed me. In this episode, I’ll explain the doctoral dissertation process and how to bounce back from an unexpected big-stage defeat. WHAT IS A DOCTORAL DISSERTATION? The dissertation is the student’s final task to obtain a doctoral degree. It’s a lengthy piece of scholarly writing that is the product of extensive original research and results in an original contribution to the field. My dissertation was 167 double-spaced pages and took me about a year to complete - beginning with a research proposal and culminating with (eventually) a successful “defense” of my work. It’s worth noting that 50% of all doctoral students never complete the dissertation. If they complete all other requirements, these folks are considered ABD (All But Dissertation). It’s something you might see on a resume, but there is no diploma for ABD. WHAT WAS MY DISSERTATION ABOUT? My dissertation’s title was ‘How Educational Administrators Prepare Schools For High-Stakes Safety Situations: A Focus On Elementary Schools In Rural and Suburban Contexts.’ I had already established myself as a national safety expert, having presented a special on PBS in 2013. I wanted my dissertation to be rigorous and add value to my worth as a school safety expert. WHAT DID I LEARN? The first thing I learned was to contact the “experts” and “sources” directly whenever possible. What I mean by that is most student-researchers have a tendency to merely cite the work of others. My dissertation included more than 100 citations. (By comparison, there are 471 citations in my (2022) book, ‘The Velocity of Information’). Beyond just citing experts, my advisor encouraged me to contact them directly and ask them specific questions about their findings. That worked, and was a pivotal moment in my budding research and writing endeavors. Whenever possible, I go directly to the source. The second thing that I learned was that people in roles that require high-stakes decision making fatigue from unrelenting high-stakes decision making. They don’t immediately bounce back.There’s degrees of elasticity in decision making recovery. One principal admitted that following a high-stakes decision about student or school safety, he was exhausted - as most decisions involved drama. He speculated that it took him a few days to return to baseline. DEFENDING THE DISSERTATION - A BIT LIKE SHARK TANK. The dissertation defense is similar to the TV show Shark Tank. You have 15-20 PowerPoint slides and up to an hour to showcase your research methods, findings, and how your work contributed to the overall scholarly knowledge base. It’s tense. Expect probing questions and challenges. My dissertation was held in a classroom with my advisor and four committee members - other professors at the University that I had invited to serve on my committee. It’s typical to invite one or two people for support. I invited my priest - and he brought a meal and snacks for the committee members! The food part is also oddly common (and expected) for a defense. That part has an awkward feel to it. Also, professors or students might sit in on the defense. I attended a few defenses prior to my own in order to learn the expectations and settle myself by watching the student referred to as “doctor” as they shook hands and walked head-held-high out of the room. WHY DID THE COMMITTEE FAIL YOU? To be clear, I was prepared and my advisor didn’t anticipate any stumbling blocks from the committee members. But, 10 minutes into my defense, a committee member shut it down. I made a critical mistake. I veered from my presentation and centered on timely, local school safety decision-making situations in order to (I thought) establish firm groundwork to justify the importance of my study. Even with that breach of protocol, my advisor was shocked, my priest prepared last rites, and I was miffed at the committee. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU FAIL? My advisor met with the committee members. I adjusted my presentation and dissertation. But, I wasn’t required to defend it a second time. The committee members signed off, and I walked the signed ‘warrant’ to the Old Main - becoming, without fanfare, Dr. Perrodin. I have zero regrets about pursuing and obtaining my PhD. I learned research methods subsequently applied in two published books. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 187 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-20-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
WHAT IS THE BRAESS PARADOX? Braess’ Paradox states that, counterintuitively, adding a road to a road network can slow down overall traffic through it. The paradox was discovered in 1968 by German mathematician Dietrich Braess. At the root of this paradox is that every driver thinks for themselves as the lack of cooperation with other drivers means that every driver will aim to take the fastest possible route. Hence, the shortest route becomes overwhelmed and also slows down merging-in from lesser-traveled nodes, which, in turn, causes delays on those nodes. In New York, Boston, London, and Seoul, traffic congestion decreased in as little as a week after congested roadways were closed. HUMAN VS. ANT. “According to scientists who studied traffic density for humans and for ants, it was discovered that when the occupancy rate on the road exceeds 40 percent, people gradually slow down their speed and stop after a certain stage. Thus, congested traffic or traffic jams. In ants, on the other hand, we observe an opposite phenomenon. As the traffic density increases, the flow increases at the same time. When the occupancy rate on the road reaches 80 percent, the ants synchronize their tempo and continue on their path at the most optimal speed (SOURCE: Ibrahim Kovin, Oct 18, 2021. Cantorsparadise.com). It might be argued that the ants’ goal is survival of the colony and the human’s goal is to be the first person at work. So we expect people to flock to the shortest possible route, or our navigation apps pull from the same maps and data to funnel us into a bogged down shortcut. AI can sell us out, but the antecedent event can also steer our subconscious thinking. FORCED LEARNED BEHAVIOR. When people are forced to alter their routines due to an unexpected, dramatic event - such as a bridge failure, they tend to begrudgingly follow government-placed detour signs and also poke around for a new path that allows them to complete their commute. As their long-accustomed-to primary route is out of service, drivers tend to stick with their first-experienced new routes - even if they are not particularly efficient. They would rather travel a known route than attempt to find a shorter route. One would think this new patterning would be readily tossed aside if the previous route, which was shorter and faster, was restored. That’s what happens during expected closures of familiar routes. However, when the I35W bridge was re-opened in 2008, demand did not bounce back to pre-collapse levels as expected - and the addition of lanes didn’t cause the dreaded Braess’ Paradox. THREE REASONS DRIVERS DIDN’T REVERT TO FASTER PRE-COLLAPSE ROUTES. These three facts might have influenced drivers’ behavior: (1) The unexpectedness of the I-35W Bridge collapse and the mandatory route changes some commuters were forced to make created inherent resistance to return the bridge following reopening; (2) The prolonged closure was lengthy enough for the benefits of route familiarity in the disrupted network to outweigh the low travel times found on the new bridge; and (3) The tragedy itself discouraged some commuters from returning to the site (SOURCE: MN DOT Research Services. Traffic Flow and Road User Impacts of the Collapse of the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River. David Levinson, Principal Investigator). SUMMARY. Three take-away points. (1) Humans tend to think individually and gravitate to the shortest or fastest path, often overloading it. This has been observed with new roads as well as drive-thru lines at restaurants. The phenomenon is known as Braess’ Paradox. (2) Following an unexpected disruption, an avoidance phenomenon is observed that will typically diminish over time. (3) And, in contrast, pre-planned disruptions, even with similar magnitude, generate much smaller impacts. Bonus tip. In a crisis, think the opposite of the masses. ACCORDING TO THE JOKER: “I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself. Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hmmm? You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds. Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair!” (quotation from Heath Ledger as The Joker in Christopher Nolan movie, The Dark Knight). FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This is episode 169 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 02-08-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
Doc discusses the mythical Loki, it’s societal role over time, and our present-day tendency to offload responsibility and accountability to Loki. In addition, Doc also examines The Straw Man Fallacy, which is often found lurking in the same shadows as the Loki. WHAT IS LOKI? Loki is the mythical Norse chaos god. Portrayed as everything from trickster to an evil force, Loki shoulders the blame for poor crops, storms, and personal strike. In present time, the concept of Loki takes the form of a pandemic. Blame the pandemic for store smash-and-grabs, inflation, and empty store shelves. PROBLEM WITH BLAMING LOKI. A thousand years ago, folks in the Netherlands might have blamed Loki for an unrelenting blizzard and frigid temperatures. Loki could also be used to explain unexpected deaths. Loki served a purpose - what couldn’t be attributed to scientific knowledge or benevolent gods could be shouldered by Loki. By blaming Loki, people didn’t dwell on the dire event, but instead acknowledged it, and moved on. It’s the moving on part that is key. Modern day Loki-blaming doesn’t include the “moving on” part. Instead, Loki relieves us of responsibility and accountability. Observe for Loki arguments in the media or made by others. In those instances, problems are pinned on Loki, but there is little attempt to move forward in life. However, there is a strategy that is often found where the contemporary Loki lurks -- and that is The Straw Man Fallacy. THE STRAW MAN FALLACY can be explained in the following 4 steps. (1) Ignore the real argument; (2) Create a pretend argument; (3) Defeat the pretend argument; and (4) Claim victory over the real argument. STRAW MAN FALLACY EXAMPLE WITH HOMELESSNESS. Here’s what The Straw Man Fallacy looks like when applied to homelessness in San Francisco. (1) Pivot away from homelessness as the main argument and instead make the main argument about lack of micro homes (8’ x 10’ portable homes). (2) Funding more micro homes will solve homelessness. (3) We built thousands of micro homes and set them up in parks or other places for homeless people to live in, hence no longer making them homeless. (4) We solved homelessness. Yet, in reality, homelessness in San Francisco wouldn’t (and hasn’t) been solved by micro homes. The now-micro-housed people need food, mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, community building, job skills, and so on. If a person is jacket-less, giving him a jacket solves the issue. If a person is homeless, giving them a home doesn’t solve the issue. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 164 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-29-2021.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.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
Friday Aug 14, 2020
Friday Aug 14, 2020
Chad Elkins, CPA, discussed bewildering and draconian ways people scrambled their finances during the pandemic. While many small business owners suffered losses and experienced great personal distress, others actually thrived and even doubled their incomes! Read the full blog post for episode #147 at safetyphd.com. ABOUT CHAD ELKINS. Chad has over ten years of tax experience, including positions and engagements with the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Tax Court, and U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division, and Co-Author of the Elkins' Comprehensive Tax Guide. He’s the oracle of Chicago finance with a penchant for observing nuanced trends in how humans manage the fiscal aspects of their lives. SOME PEOPLE BAILED OUT IMMEDIATELY. Chad noted that some of his clients, mainly hair stylists, quit paying rent, broker their leases, and liquidated their assets. They didn’t have enough reserve cash to ride out the economic collapse and succumbed to panic-driven decision making. Chad encouraged them to consider suspending their businesses or waiting a few weeks for the forthcoming government relief programs. Even businesses that were established for multiple years and that had been performing well prior to the pandemic were dissolving, to Chad’s disappointment, as owners simply wanted out of the churn of safer-at-home and essential business decrees. TELEHEALTH-BASED THERAPISTS “ARE THRIVING BETTER THAN THEY EVER HAVE BEFORE” Once limited by regulation, telehealth therapy was quickly advanced by regulatory agencies and Chad’s clients that provided mental health or other counseling services were experiencing a combination of factors that swelled their incomes. First, the demand for mental health and counseling services substantially increased due to pandemic-driven anxiety in the population. Second, therapists don’t need specialized, localized machines or equipment to do their jobs. When you go to the dentist, for example, the dentist’ office has hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment that is not designed to be portable. There isn’t a “teledentistry” service to address your root canal. A mental health therapist, on the other hand, is easily location independent given a secure, private Internet connection. And, telehealth has built-in social distancing! CAT’S OUT OF THE BAG - REMOTE WORK IS HERE TO STAY. Chad believes that the pandemic-driven rapid move to remote work, such as work from home, has set the precedence that traditional office-based work isn’t necessary to maintain continuity in businesses. This likely means there will be a massive purge of office space and business-dense metropolises, such as Chicago, will lose appeal for employers and employees. PPP AND SBE LOANS WORKED - WITH CONSEQUENCES. The PPP was rolled out as a way to keep employees on payroll, even if they weren’t working - as long as owners proved that they used 80% of money for salaries. But, it caused problems as many employees were laid off and went onto unemployment - which was paying them $600 weekly ABOVE the unemployment payment they received from the state. For many people, they were now receiving as much or more money they were when they were employed. Hence, when asked to return to work - employees balked. As restrictions eased and businesses re-started, employers struggled to lure employees back to their jobs so had to recruit new employees. REDLINE VIRTUAL REALITY LOUNGE - NOW RENTING OFFICE PODS. Opened and thriving for four months before the pandemic closures, Redline Virtual Reality Lounge in Chicago is an example of a small business that had to pivot several times in order to adjust to new market trends. Aaron, the owner of Redline, shared his lounge survived on carry out orders and renting VR equipment between April 18th and June 11th. When he re-opened at limited capacity, business was very slow - and very different. People showed up with laptops and asked to rent a 9’x9’ VR pod for the day to serve as a portable office. Some lived in hot apartments or had poor wifi. So, for $15 a day, they could rent a cool work area with excellent wifi and social distancing. Aaron noted that small groups of 3-4 people rented a pod to conduct in-person business for a few hours. David noted that Parkinson’s Law is the adage that people seek clear routines to start and end the work day. Perhaps going to the VR pod met that need? 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 146 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 8-13-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
- Chad Elkins, CPA website: https://www.elkinscpa.com/
Saturday Aug 08, 2020
SDP146: Survival Expert Morgan Rogue | Subtle Signs of Chaos | Livestream 8-7-2020
Saturday Aug 08, 2020
Saturday Aug 08, 2020
Morgan Rogue’s mantra is to conquer tomorrow by preparing today! She lives on 40 acres of land in the southern United States with her husband, two daughters and two dogs. She is the owner and founder of Rogue Preparedness, a website dedicated to emergency preparedness and survival skills. Morgan has published extensively in crisis preparedness and response including Preparedness For Busy People, and Prepare & Survive Economic Crisis - which is a primer to help people understand bartering, valuable items, and controlling fear. She has a fast-growing YouTube channel with diverse content including: hunting, survival, camping, hiking, guns, prepping, urban survival, family preparedness, bug out bags, gear reviews, prepping on a budget, dogs, homesteading, and all things outdoors and adventure. New videos and blog posts are published weekly! WHY MORGAN WAS INVITED TO THIS SHOW. Morgan is an authentic person seeking knowledge. She doesn’t hesitate to post a first-take video of attempting to build a solar-powered food dehydrator. Don’t get me wrong, she presents as a tremendously competent person. Her videos and posts are concise, personable and interesting without massive editing or saturated with promotions. Morgan reveals that life and preparedness have bumpy first takes. After reading Morgan’s posts, watching her videos, and exploring her website, I discovered, or perhaps re-discovered, an appreciation of preparedness and immediately re-visited the things I could do to increase my survival skills. In an infamous Tweet, I wrote, “Her [Morgan’s] contributions to safety stand out as curated and calibrated with easements for people new to preparedness as well as experienced preppers.” That sums it up - and I hope that makes it onto the praise page of one of her future best sellers. PREPAREDNESS AS A PARENT OF YOUNG KIDS. Are kids a liability during a crisis? Some people think so, but not Morgan. She’s noted that there is no magic age to introduce children to survival and self-reliance skills. Her kids are with her when she hikes, her daughter has used a survival straw to drink from a creek, and Morgan published a brilliant blog post of 45 outdoor activities for kids in a time when parks and theaters were closed due to the pandemic. One recommendation was to have kids draw a map of their house, neighborhood, or a trail. Spatial orientation. Distance. Landmarks. Planning. What Morgan shares isn’t data you offload until a disaster - instead, it’s vetted advice on how to make yourself better - right now. SUBTLE SIGNS OF CHAOS - SEWING MACHINES. The early days of the coronavirus stay home orders sparked scarcity buying - toilet paper, pasta, and cleaners. When people anticipate that a chaos event will last months, other items begin to disappear from the market. Morgan shared that she was unable to find a new or used sewing machine in May. Locating a freezer was equally challenging, despite searching stores and secondary online sites such as Craigslist. LEARN A SKILL TODAY. Morgan identified several ways that people could improve their self-reliance today. Everything takes practice, but most people can learn to sharpen a knife, make basic sewing repairs or grow food - even if in a container inside their house. Also, get fit! Fit people are better able to get to safety, recover from trauma, help others, and be easier to be aided by others. COMMUNICATIONS - CONSIDER HAM RADIO. Should you consider a landline (in case the cell towers fail)? Morgan noted that a landline is valuable, and added that there are still payphone locations in some areas and those might be an option if cellular communications are disrupted during a crisis. She encourages people to learn more about HAM radio. Morgan and her husband use HAM radios and communicate with people hundreds of miles away. Every year, HAM radio conducts a Field Day which is an amatuer radio experience to demonstrate temporary transmitting stations in public places - with an emphasis on emergency communication preparedness. A basic HAM radio receiver (listen only) is $50. Morgan notes that the HAM radio community has always been essential and reliable during crisis events. She identified a few organizations to visit to learn more about obtaining a HAM license. HAM’s more than survival, it’s a wonderful hobby. Many colleges, for example, have HAM radio clubs. 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 146 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 8-7-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
- Rogue Preparedness website: https://roguepreparedness.com/