This is St. Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Navigating the journey. Today our journey is far, far away, Washington, D.C. And we are talking to my dear friend, and everybody knows I only talk to dear friends, and we are talking to Andy Weiner, who is the Chief of Staff for our dear Senator Ryan Schatz. Aloha, Andy. Aloha, Marcia. How are you? It's wonderful to talk to you, as always. Good to talk to you too. First, let's decide on how cold you are. I left Hawaii last week, and it was in the mid-80s, and landed here, and it has been in the low 40s since I got back, and it's supposed to snow tomorrow. Which is the earliest snow I can remember since I've moved up to D.C. So it is actually quite chilly outside. Do you live in the city, or in... I live right outside the city in Alexandria, Virginia. But the weather is the same. It's the same. It's amazing that we here on Oahu have 11 different weather zones, and on the mainland you have one. It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. And this week it just happens to be very cold. Oh, God. Well, listen, let me tell the audience that everybody that knows Senator Ryan Schatz is our senior senator from Hawaii. And so tell us what it means to be senior senator, especially in a Senate that is controlled by the Republicans. So both Senator Schatz and Senator Hirono, they're fairly close in seniority. Senator Schatz is a little bit ahead in seniority. He joined the Senate a few days before Senator Hirono. Yeah, like it was within a week.  But as a practical matter, not that much. I mean, both of them, I think in the six years that they've been here, have been able to move up in their respective committees. And Brian is now a part of the leadership team. You know, Maisie has been an active part of the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. And so, you know, even though the number difference is a little bit, I think Brian has now moved up to Senator number 52 or 53. Maisie's pretty close behind him. But in six years, they've both been able to build up some seniority. And the way that the Senate ends up working is that committee assignments are very much based on seniority, and that very much translates into a greater ability to get things done on behalf of Hawaii. So the investment that Hawaii made by sending the two of them up here and then keeping them up here is already starting to pay dividends. But I think you'll see even more dividends over the next few years. Wonderful. So tell us now the new makeup of the Senate. You lost some Democrats. You got some new Democrats. What is it like now? Or have you met the new people? Have they arrived yet? So the makeup is not fully known yet. Right now, the number is there are 51 Republicans and 47 Democrats. We're still waiting to see what's going to happen in Florida with Senator Nelson, who's in that close race, where they're doing a recount. And then we're also waiting to see what happens in Mississippi. There is a runoff election on November 27th with Cindy Hyde-Smith, who's the senator right now who replaced that Cochran, and Mike Espi, who is the Secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton, is running. So as of now, we haven't seated everybody, but if the numbers stay the same and Senator Nelson loses and it has expected Cindy Hyde-Smith wins in Mississippi, we'd be looking at a 53-47 split, which means that from a few weeks ago, it would mean that the Republicans would have picked up two seats, but it was a brutal map this cycle for Democrats. Ten states plus where we had Democrats who were incumbents who were running in states that Donald Trump had won by more than 10%. And so these were places that were going to be hard for us to hold. And if we end up losing a seat or two, although that sounds bad, that's actually a remarkable result because it sets us up for being able to take the Senate back in 2020 when the map is a little more favorable. So that's how the numbers work. As far as our colleagues go, the newest members will be Jackie Rosen from Nevada and Kirsten Sinema from Arizona. Both of them are members of the House right now. Both of them actually came to Hawaii earlier this year to campaign, so we already have existing relationships with both of them. And they will both be, I think, terrific additions to the Senate. They're starting to do their orientation over here while winding down their responsibilities over in the House. Wonderful. Now, do you see any, because everybody's thinking of 2020 and that major election, do you think that your McConnell will be careful not to go over the cliff with Trump? Do you think that he will think that maybe we need to back up and not be so totally into, or am I wishing? Well, I think it's interesting because Senator McConnell, I think if you work in the Senate, what people would say about him is that he is somebody who knows how to maximize power. And so when he has the power and authority to do something, such as stopping Merrick Garland's appointment or promoting Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court and all the other judges, he'll push as hard as he can. Interestingly enough though, yesterday he published an op-ed in which he was suggesting that the Democrats needed to work with him in a more bipartisan fashion, that the Republicans wanted to do that. I'm a little bit skeptical about that. I don't really have a sense as to what that might look like. But I do think at least in a few different areas it's probably worth exploring and I think we'll know within a fairly short period of time whether or not there's really any opportunity for us to develop common ground with the Republicans. I think that for sure, however, McConnell is going to make it appear like he wants to work with us and to create a situation where he can later argue that it was the Democrats that were at fault for any dysfunctionality that exists over the next couple of years. But the way I see it, that it is to his advantage because they will have to defend so many seats in 2020 that it would be to his advantage to make sure that they are working together so they can defend those seats. I think that's right. I think that he'll at least want to give the veneer of that whether or not that's actually a realistic possibility I think is a different question though. Like I said, I'm sure that our office and Senator Schatz we're going to look for some opportunities to find some areas to work together and if there's a willingness to do that in good faith then that would be great. If this is nothing more than a smoke screen, however, to give the appearance that they're working with us when in fact what they're doing is just a continuation of the sort of heavy-handed partisanship that we've experienced the last two years then I think we have to be ready to fight back. Great. Well listen, now tell me what committees, Brian, will they change committees or will he keep the same committees he's been on? I would suspect that he'll keep the committees that he's been on. He is currently a member of the Appropriations Committee and he is the ranking member, meaning the lead Democrat Military Construction VA subcommittee. He's also on the Commerce Committee. He is the ranking member of the Telecom and Internet subcommittee. He's also on the Banking and Housing and Urban Development Committee, the Indian Affairs Committee and the Ethics Committee. I don't expect that anything will change. He has such plum assignments that for us right now there's not anything that we really are striving to get on or we don't want to really lose any of these committees that we're on. If Senator Nelson ends up losing his race in Florida, he is the current ranking member of the full committee of the Commerce Committee and what that will mean is that Brian will keep his subcommittee but he'll move up in the seniority and so he could be as high as the third ranking Democrat on the Commerce Committee, which is fairly remarkable after only six years. So he's getting very, very close to being either a ranking member or hopefully a chair some day of a committee. He's moved up that much in that short of a period of time. Well, let's talk about this Telecom, tell us whatever you said that committee was. Yes. As you know, Maynok, I think we talked about it before, my big thing is the infrastructure on the neighbor islands. Because in order to get telemedicine and some other things, they need the infrastructure, the cables, whatever you call those cables that go underground. They need all of this stuff. How can he help? What can he do? We are so desperate to get those people online on telemedicine. Well, that's actually a place, and I think we talked a little bit about this the last time I was on, where it's one of the focuses of the Commerce Committee generally and the Telecom subcommittee in particular has been rural broadband deployment. And that is a topic that is extremely important to the Republicans. A lot of the members of that committee who are Republicans are in very rural areas. Roger Wicker is from Mississippi. He's going to be the chair of the Commerce Committee. John Thune is from South Dakota. He's going to be the chair of the subcommittee where Brian is the ranking member. And I think that there are some opportunities to take some of the universal service funds that are collected by the FCC and to deploy them in a way that will actually help with rural areas. And for us, of course, that is more the Neighbor Islands than anything else. So that has been an area of discussion. So that's definitely one area where there's funding available. The other place that we've talked about rural deployment has also been in the Indian Affairs Committee. And so I think that there may be some opportunities, especially in some of the Hawaiian homelands that are on the Neighbor Islands, to take advantage of some funding that may come through there to start to address those problems. But that definitely is an area where his membership on that subcommittee will be helpful. Well, okay, so because, you know, like I said, I'm really pushing for that, as you may suspect during the campaign, we interviewed 20 different candidates almost to a person for those running from Neighbor Islands. That was a big issue is the access. You know, everybody's got, theoretically everybody's got, Obamacare. But if you don't have a facility to take it to, if you don't have a facility that some way to use it, what good does it do? So I am out here campaigning for rural health, for infrastructure, so people can have telemedicine. And I think that on the telemedicine side, that's the other side of the equation. And we're working on that as well, because Brian has been a champion of telehealth. And one of the big problems for telehealth in the country has been that Medicare up until recently has provided no reimbursement for telehealth services. And so even though other insurance, it'll cover through the VA or Medicaid or if you have HMSA, it will cover, because Medicare is such an overwhelming part of the medical payment system in the United States, that if you don't have coverage for that, there's not the financial incentive for hospitals and community health centers to set up telehealth as a benefit that's being offered. And we're starting to tear some of those barriers down. And now about half of the bill that we've introduced is now in law, so now Medicare is going to provide reimbursement for telehealth for things like kidney dialysis, counseling that occurs by phone, psychiatric and social work counseling, opioid counseling, and those are just sort of the beginning pieces of having telehealth. So you have to have both. You have to have the reimbursement set up so that there's an economic incentive for these rural facilities to want to do telehealth, but then of course you also have to have the broadband. And I think those will be issues that we work on in the early part of next year. I think on the deployment side, I think there'll be an infrastructure bill that will be one of the first things that is introduced in the House, probably sometime in March or April. One of the things that we'll work on doing is that as part of that infrastructure package is to advocate for having rural broadband deployment as part of that package so that that then sets up the ability to fund it later on. We have to take a break. And when we come back, let's talk about the quote Indian affairs. So we'll be right back. Hi, I'm Dave Stevens, the host of Cyber Underground. Every Friday here at 1 p.m. on thinktechkawaii.com. And then every episode is uploaded to the Cyber Underground. That library of shows that you can see of mine on YouTube.com. And I hope you'll join us here every Friday. We have some topical discussions about why security matters and what could be done. And I hope you'll join us here every Friday. We have some topical discussions about why security matters and what could scare the absolute bejesus out of you. If you just try to watch my show all the way through. Hope to see you next time on the Cyber Underground. Stay safe. Hello, huh? I'm Marcia Joyner and we're back. And we are talking today with my dear, dear friend, Andy Weiner, who is the Chief of Staff for our Senator Brian Schatz. Now, you said that Brian is on the Indian Affairs Committee as was his predecessor on the Indian Affairs. That phrase just bothers me. And I have to tell you that up front. It's called it Indian Affairs. When you have the Hawaiians and the Alaskan Natives and all of these people, Indian Affairs has a federal government ever, ever done anything right for the Indians? That's an awfully broad question. I mean, I think that the history of this country with Native peoples is one of the sadder chapters in our nation's history. You know, over time, I can at least talk about some of the things that we've been able to do for Native Hawaiians through the work we've done.  And those programs, I think, have been fairly robust. I think we're particularly proud of the immersion programs that have helped to bring back the Hawaiian language. And so I think this country's debt to its Native people is one that will probably never be able to pay back fully. But I think that the work that we do on the Indian Affairs Committee at least is attempting to address some of those problems. And, you know, having a member from Hawaii as you referred, both Senator Akaka and Senator Inouye, our former chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. So Hawaii has a long history with that committee. And I think it's allowed Hawaii to benefit in a number of different ways. I think it pales in comparison to some of the problems that we're still trying to address across Hawaii and, of course, with the Alaska Natives and the Native Americans. And then this new judge did not seem... The new judge on the Supreme Court did not seem to see the importance of the Native Hawaiians. That's right. And I think that's actually one of the reasons that Senator Murkowski voted no on the nomination because she was concerned that his views may also impact Alaska Natives as well. But Judge Kavanaugh has a particularly narrow and I believe wrong view of the way that the law should treat Native Hawaiians and Alaska Natives. And, you know, I hope that the day doesn't come where he's the deciding vote on some issues that involve Native Hawaiian benefits or rights. Hopefully that day will not come, but he's obviously not a friend of Native Hawaiians. No. He's not a friend of anybody other than Mr. Trump. But that's a different story. So what else does this committee do? The Indian Affairs Committee? Yeah. So the Indian Affairs Committee broadly has jurisdiction over all Indian country land, so the reservations, the infrastructure relating to them. There are land issues that relate to it. There are gaming issues, especially for Indian country lands. So some of those kinds of issues come up. But the main focus areas, at least as far as our office go, are the areas I described earlier, which are housing, education, and healthcare. Those are the things that we focus on on that committee. Well, the last time we talked, you mentioned the problems that the Native people were having in, was it North Dakota? It was North Dakota and Montana. Well, how did that turn out? Better in Montana than in North Dakota. We actually sent 30 people from Hawaii or affiliated with our office up to Montana to work on, as poll watchers. And I think that we were able to do a good job of making sure that Native Americans were able to vote. Senator Tester won his election. It was very hard fought and close. We're proud of that. North Dakota, I think, was kind of a sad chapter. They made it very difficult for Native people to vote. They had requirements in the state law that required actual street addresses instead of PO boxes and unreservation land. A lot of times there are no such things as street addresses. And so I think they effectively disenfranchised a number of people up in North Dakota, which is truly unfortunate. Well, you know, there's a lot of places across the mainland that have RFD addresses and not a street address in lots of cities, I mean states. Well, I think that the issue of voter suppression for this election, which, you know, I think is you're seeing it in Georgia. You're seeing it in Florida. And I think that the fact that Democrats in the House will now have the majority are saying that the first bill that they want to introduce is a Voting Rights Act bill, I think, is actually a really positive thing to hear. Because I think that the Republican tactics of voter suppression, making it more difficult to vote, making people stand in line hours than not counting ballots for reasons that are really silly, are just antithetical to, like, the way that this country should be running. The right to vote is a fundamental right in this country and the way that those rights have been treated over the last decade or two, if not beyond, but certainly over the last decade where you've seen a diminishment of voting rights, the rulings of the Voting Rights Act no longer requires scrutiny in certain states is pretty despicable stuff. And I hope that at some point soon you'll see Congress act. It may take a new president to sign that kind of legislation, but it's a particularly shameful thing to see. Well, yes, it is, because, as you know, I bought hard for the Voting Rights Act. And then we go back to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which gave us rights to vote. And then to see them, the court dismantle it and this Republican legislature, Congress not wanting to deal with it, I'm very pleased. Have you tell me that that's one of the first things this new Congress is going to deal with? That's wonderful. Yeah, I think that's a positive development. One of the other positive developments from the election last week was what happened where they had a state initiative that restored the Voting Rights to felons that have served their time, which means that there's going to be hundreds of thousands of voters now in Florida who are going to be able to vote. These are people that have served their time. They're now back in society. And the law that was in effect was essentially a Jim Crow law that was designed to disenfranchise African-Americans primarily and to see the state of Florida actually vote overwhelmingly to end that practice as encouraging. So, I mean, it's going to be, I think, a hard fight. And I think that, unfortunately, I think we as Democrats probably took this for granted for longer than we should have. But to see us fighting back now by making this the first piece of legislation for the House and by seeing initiatives like the one in Florida and what Governor McAuliffe did in Virginia, which was the same thing, which was to restore the Voting Rights for felons and to allow people that have paid their debt to society who are now back in society, they should be allowed to vote. And it's a fundamental right. It's a fundamental makeup of this country and something that we as Democrats should be really putting first in line, I think, in terms of things that we should be fighting for. Well, just to let our audience know that we in Hawaii have that same ability for felons once they have served their time to apply for whatever it's called so that they can vote. So we've had that for a while, even though we don't talk about it a lot. That's right. And it's also a trine in our employment discrimination law that you can't discriminate against somebody applying for a job when, based on their arrest and court records, which allows people to go back into society and to be productive citizens again. It's something that our office has really focused on quite extensively is prison rights and providing opportunities for prisoners to get education and to get back into society. So a number of our legislative initiatives have been down that path. And I actually do think that there's a chance in the next Congress to work on that that there are some Republicans who see that as a cost issue that we shouldn't just be putting people in jail endlessly. And so I'm hoping to see us actually make progress along those lines. Well, Andy, it's always a pleasure to talk to you and I could go on for hours, but our clock says our time is up. So as we move through the Congress, we will talk to you again. Sounds good. Anytime, Marsha. It's good to talk to you. You take care. Aloha. And we'll see you next time.


Welcome to the City of Columbia. My name is Nathaniel Stevenson. I'm quite his coordinator in the Parks Department, correction in the Recreation Department of Columbia. Currently we are we are at Greenview Water Park as you can see. There are three pools in my background. One is the Plunge Poo. We have two large slides at which is very exciting for our kids to slide on and adults to. The other one would be the Lap Pool in the far background which is used to teach swim lessons, to conduct swimming meets and for recreational swimming. Then right behind me is the Kitty Pool for children under the age of four and under can get in the water and play and enjoy the slides along with their parents. At Maxi Grade we have another list of aquatics programs going on over there. We do recreation and swimming, swim team, water roads for adults and for the for the young and also a long course lap swimming as early as five o'clock in the morning. And then our Charles R. Drew splash pad which is located right next to the Drew Wellness Center where you can have fun. It's zero depth there so you can take kids in there of all ages and just have a lot of fun and cool off. To enter the water park where we currently at, twelve and under would be three dollars. Thirteen above is four dollars. The same prices are true at Maxi Grade and of course the Drew splash pad is free. It opens from twelve to eight Monday through Saturday. We're doing something different this year at Boat Pool on Monday at Greenview Water Park. We're closed for maintenance from about eight to maybe twelve thirty and then we open up from one to six free to the public. Maxi Grade on Fridays is closed from twelve until correction from eight until eight a.m. until twelve p.m. Then of course it opens up free to the public on Friday from one to six p.m.


I don't know who needs to hear this but it's legal to use another prompt for Inktober. You don't have to use the official ones. There's lots of sites that have alternate sets of prompts and you can also just do what you feel like doing.


Hi good morning good afternoon and good evening everyone my name is Miguel Rios and I am a product manager at Salesforce. Today I'm here to talk to you all about challenging the status quo. Challenging the status quo I think is a very important mental trait that every current or aspiring product manager should have. Nothing great is ever achieved by doing things the way they have always been done. Every product manager should understand what it means to challenge the status quo and why it is so important. Now to begin let me talk a little bit about who I am. So as I mentioned my name is Miguel Rios. I am born and raised in Texas and started as an electrical engineer at Texas A&M University. From there I went on to work for about six years at Texas Instruments or TI. You may know TI as the calculators that you used in school during tests. However they are one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world. I worked in the battery management space as a product marketer and a product manager although my official title was product marketing engineer. I did also hold a couple of other hats such as in sales enablement and a little bit of technical support. During this broad experience is really where I got to understand product management and product marketing. Moving from there I wanted to get closer into the software space so I became a senior product marketing manager at ArmorCloud security. It is here where I really learned to start asking the question why. Why were we building what we were building. Why were we building it in that way. And it is then when it really dawned on me that product management was really where I felt my skills were more in tune with. Then I went on to become a product manager at Bluebeam software where I worked on a map based construction management software and led their iOS companion app as well. And now currently I am working as a product manager in the partner space for Salesforce which is a community platform where all Salesforce partners come together to track leads and add their apps to our App Store app exchange platform. And I am responsible for streamlining the sign up and onboarding experience for our new prospective partners. Now before I move on one thing you may notice is that I have worked in many different places on many different products. One thing that I wanted to point out about my various experiences is that usually the way I would start each place would be just in listening mode. Just have that turned on and before I start producing just absorbing everything. However what I have learned is that there is a better way to doing this. While listening is very important when someone is new however it is the best time to point out inefficiencies and provide feedback. It can really help in speeding up your learning since one's going to be asking questions and as they provide feedback. And also you're able to start making an impact much faster than the organization. With that I want to go ahead and start a little bit in terms of what I mean by status quo and why would you want to change it? So in general the status quo what it boils down to is doing the old thing in an old way. In fact there is such a thing as status quo bias which is having a preference to the current state of affairs. Following this bias is very problematic especially in business as we all know that growth requires change. I would imagine that a lot of us here have heard phrases like well that's just how we do things here or it's how we've always done it. And this is really what makes the status quo tricky because in many ways it can hide in plain sight and it can be very much part of the culture. And the longer that we are in the organization the more we can also fall victims to upholding these status quotes. To name a few types of status quotes they could be presented as resistance to change which is when people prefer to do nothing but because they prefer stability. It could be risk tolerance which in contrast to doing nothing doing something will typically pose a bigger risk. And in this type of status quo is when people prefer to defend the current status quo since they may fear for example that a new business strategy may make their job more difficult or even result in the loss of their job. Thirdly there's something called group harmony which is similar to the resistance to change except more about people tending to share the opinion of the majority so that therefore they become popular rather than being unpopular by proposing more radical ideas. And the last type is known as Rossi retrospective which is the tendency for positive memories to outlast the negative ones. Here people associate defending the status quo which attempts to roll back changes that have already occurred in order to return to a previous state meaning that perhaps changes have already happened once in a second time would be worse when sometimes you have to change things more than once to see any benefits. All these types are possible ways of identifying status quo but why is it important to challenge the status quo? Well for one challenging the status quo ignites innovation as I mentioned before growth is a product of change and to innovate we all know produces growth in an organization. Increase morale when you change things up in a team setting or listen to new ideas coming from your employees it can jump start morale for everyone as they feel involved in the company's or team's success or increase efficiencies by challenging the status quo and disrupting ourselves we can be more efficient as a team whether it be staffing appropriately or using the right people with the right skills in the right places or simply by optimizing our own internal processes. Now with all this talk about disruption and changing things am I saying that those that are seeking innovation need to reinvent themselves as in doing the new thing in a new way? Not exactly we all know that there is innovation that can happen by taking old things and doing them in a new way. If you think of it from a product perspective it's already been done other times before such as Uber and Lyft with ride sharing or even the smartphone which just redid what our previous means of communication were in a new inventive way. So what I mean here or what I mean to say in this talk is that when we identify a status quo or an orthodoxy we should not think that radical changes need to take place in the first place. It couldn't be as simple as just tweaking something that's already been there. Now one more thing I want to point out is that perhaps you may be thinking that I am saying that we should go out and point at every wrong thing we see in our company and that's not what I mean at all. Challenging the status quo doesn't have to be about always fixing something broken. Oftentimes things aren't really broken or we don't have data providing that something needs improvements. Sometimes challenging the status quo simply means trying out a new idea for the sake of exploration. Maybe something good can already be better. There is always room for improvement. So now what are some examples where we can start to challenge the status quo? They could be big changes such as changing the culture. Perhaps it means adopting a new process in an agile framework or a way of communicating with the broader organizations such as your stakeholders. It could be something smaller like altering workflows which could be such as how your product team does product syncs or how you all document as is flows when you take up a new initiative or you're revamping an existing business process. It could be engaging in a new market. As product leaders maybe we've identified an untapped area that is worth looking into or an area that previous individuals have deemed was was not a fruitful endeavor but you have fresh ideas on how it could be fruitful. It could be addressing a problem. So maybe you found a problem for example in how data is being managed or how your analytics engine is not set up correctly and could pose a problem down the line. This could mean that you need your company to change its processes to address a current or a future problem. Or it could be the antithesis of addressing a problem which is more about identifying some places where you could improve the process. Rather than identifying a better way of doing things it could be something as simple as maybe a slack workflow or an alternative way to existing processes such as maybe a PRD a product requirements document with adding a little bit more of information in there to be a better tool to communicate across more teams. In general there are many places where one can find opportunities to challenge the status quo. They could be big or small but valuable nonetheless. Now where where should you begin? I always believe the product managers whether they are product people managers or or not they are leaders and as leaders they should feel empowered to speak up and inspire others to do the same. They should have an open will to take risks just like they evangelize others to take risks as well. They should have an open mind to constantly learning grow. For this you know I want to say that just like I've been talking most of this time about how we can go out and challenge the status quo it very much could be that we are the ones upholding certain orthodoxies and we should be more receptive to those challenging us right so hence why we should keep an open mind and constantly learn and grow. We should be self aware of how things are actually done not how we think they are done or how we think they should be done but be more reality focused. We should always ask why do we do these things in these ways asking why is not necessarily for the sake of questioning everything in the org or in the team and becoming a point of contention but rather to identify those elements within that are preventing innovation or improvement. It is true that there are often good reasons why your org may not may be doing certain things in a particular way and therefore you don't need to change them but we'll never know without asking why. Following the mindsets that I just mentioned we should continue with developing an idea and work to get buy-in before implementing it. We should get feedback on this idea before and after deploying it and last but not least we should have patience and keep trying. A big change may take longer than expected and we should not give up should we fail. I heard this podcast episode from intercom speaking about continuous momentum and relating it to physics as in momentum equals velocity times mass and that analogy feels to be pretty applicable when it comes to challenging the status quo and trying to make change happen. If you relate velocity to be the rate of the change so the speed that the change would take to actually happen and mass being equal to the size of the change we should be more concerned about maintaining continuous momentum and not so much concerned with you know the slowness of certain big changes that we're trying to make. Really momentum is big and that is what's important. So to recap a little bit of what we talked about so the status quo is important to address as it impedes innovation or overall improvement. The status quo is not necessarily referring to a problem we can always find places of improvements bigger and small. Opportunities for challenging the status quo can be bigger small and related to our internal processes or be part of our product strategy and lastly our mindset is the first thing we need to change when it comes to figuring out how to challenge the status quo and from there we should learn to take risks be self-critical of our own orthodoxies and any idea that we have we should get feedback and keep trying to implement. Thank you so much for spending time today listening to my talk on challenging the status quo. I hope you learned something and thank you.


The Canada Science and Technology Museum renewal is way more than a simple renewal of infrastructure and exhibitions. Without its anchor institution, the corporation over the last two years has really had to redefine itself. We've been able to infuse ourselves into communities in a way that we didn't really think was possible before because we were so consumed by the situation that we had with our own four walls. By removing those walls, what we found is there's an entire country that we absolutely need to engage in. So we've done that through the exhibitions. We've done that through programming. We've launched video games. We have speaker series. We've started regaining our role as a national institution in a way that, frankly, maybe we had forgotten and lost our way a little bit. But this closure or what it's done is it's reinvigorated us. And hopefully Canadians are appreciating this renewed spirit of innovation on behalf of the museum staff and also its renewed vision of being way more nationally engaged than it ever has.


On Monday, September 11th, Big Sandy Community and Technical College hosted a 9-11 memorial event at their Pikeville campus. Students, faculty and local first responders gathered to pay tribute to the innocents who lost their lives 22 years ago. Big Sandy also aims to bring the community together and educate those who are too young to remember the tragedy. Every year, since this happened, we have done a ceremony like this and we like to keep that going. A lot of our students are so young that they don't remember that event that day. We want to keep that memorial going so they know what happened, how the country changed at that time. Here at Big Sandy, we're about community and we want to just reach out to our community, to our people here and just make something for them so that they can gather together as one, as the song that Lindsey sang today. They can gather together as one to come together and memorialize, especially the people who died, you know, and just think about what could happen to this nation, it could happen again. We hope not, we pray not, but we want to remember. At Appalachian Wireless, we have the best service and the best deals right now. Save up to $500 on iPhone 13th and 14th, all models, all gigabytes with trade-in. Maybe go for an iPhone 12 for a penny. A penny with a two-year contract. We're not leaving out Samsung. Save up to $350 on select Samsung devices, including the S23. It's a win-win this month at Appalachian Wireless. The service, the savings, y'all got to jump on this deal right now.  We are Appalachian Wireless. Pikeville police and fire departments were in attendance to raise the flag to half-mast and conduct the Pledge of Allegiance. Because of their efforts today, we can remember the fallen. We appreciate them so much. They come, they do a great job. They're always willing. Even that drop of a hat, you know, I just called them like Thursday last week and they're here today. And there's such great people to have around. They're great responders. We know they're close by. We feel safe, you know, and we're just happy that they want to come out and do this with us. I counted at least 65 people in the atrium and more people come in after that. So we had a great gathering. And that's changing back to what it used to be, where we can bring our people together again and celebrate or memorialize something like this, like 9-11. It was good to see such a crowd here. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Collum.


Tarzan and the Diamond of Arshere. Tarzan and his friends are being held in the city of Arshere. Wolf attempting to steal the father of diamonds is killed by a prehistoric ape. Tarzan later kills the ape. When he and Donald return to their quarters, they learn from the sweet hunter Larsen that Magra has been carried away. Tom, meanwhile, has talked with and agreed to become the ally of Tira, queen of the Hesse air. Magra is taken to Atef-Suten's palatial quarters in the great temple of Ma'at-Shu where she finds Helen Gregory, a prisoner in a lavishly barbaric apartment. King Suten and Hakeru take the two young women to a secret chamber where they find Helen's brother, Brian, apparently dead. Magra, do you hear me? You'll self-hellen, dear. It helped to act like this. I've controlled myself long enough. First father is killed back there in the jungle, and then I captured and kept prisoner here, and now? Now I find my brother like this. He's Helen Gregory. I command thee. Oh, what does your command mean to me? Oh, I pray God will punish you for what you've done.  Hakeru, she was fainted. A moment. I shall bring water. Helen. Here, bathe her brow. There, there, Helen. No, you will feel better.  What happened? Oh, yes, I know. I'm sorry I fainted, Magra. Both of you be seated. What is thy will, Artep? We shall make clear to the maid the cause for her brother's punishment. Helen Gregory, why came thy brother to the city of Arshere? In the interest of scientific research. Had it been so, he would even now be free to come or go in our city an honored guest. Nay, Brian Gregory lied to me. Oh, I don't believe that. Silence, Hakeru. And thou, Helen Gregory, thy brother swore that he had no wish to possess the great diamond of the Hesse hair. Thereby a trick, he entered the great ceremonial chamber alone at night. The talking ape on guard sprang at him. Brian Gregory pointed a thumb stick. It spoke, and the guardian ape fell dead.  Hear me out. He lifted the diamond in its golden disc from the casket and made for the central doors. He was caught with the gem and brought back to the sacrificial altar. But he seems so, so lifelike. It is the punishment meted out to those who attempt to steal the father of diamonds should they escape its guardians. Thy brother, Helen Gregory, was forced to look into the blinding glare of the gem until he became as ye see him now. He isn't dead. Nay, yet he shall continue in this state of suspended animation until the end of time. I demand you release him from spell or I'll... Thou will do what? Nay, it is impossible. And the matter resteth not alone with me, but with the council of thirteen as well. They, I know, will not consent to any lessening of Brian Gregory's punishment. Have you no idea what will happen to you when our friends find us? I, they shall find ye. Unfortunately for them, but when they do, it will avail ye not, Margaret, nor thee, Helen. What do you mean? Even now, the ceremonies are being planned for thy marriage with me. Thou art to be my queen of queens.  Oh, you beast.   Thou shalt have Margaret. But hear me, hakeru. Thy word, O su-ten, is law. Thou have never seen Tarzan of the apes in fighting mood, Artiff Su-ten. No. Nor have I seen him in a laughing mood or a tearful mood. His moods interest me not. Nor his profess great strength. I have spoken. It is finished. Tarzan has the strength of twenty lions, the speed of the cunning of the serpent. Beware of his wrath, Su-ten. And with all these he will still be helpless as a babe when he meeteth the decree of the council of thirteen. Hath their fate been decreed by the great council, O su-ten? Aye, a punishment so terrible that they will pray for the release of death. Meanwhile, Tarzan, Dono, Tome and Larsen continue their council of war. The swede and Atan Tome lie sprawled upon a fur-covered bench. Dono paces up and down with short, quick steps. Tarzan leans against the wall, unperturbed and calm. His brow slightly wrinkled in serious thought. I tell you, Tarzan, the look ends right. You know how to get through the doors. We all know you've been a friend of nothing. What? What have they been going to do when we get out of this room? I can't tell you from here, but I'll find something to do. May Tarzan, I repeat, if Aikero said he would return to us and think of Magra alone somewhere in the city. But to rush out now is to strike blindly. Very well. If Aikero does not return within an hour or two, I'm going out to find Magra. And if Aikero will not speak, leave him to me. I know a method which will loosen his tongue. Quiet. Someone is coming. The Syrians. Pekunuaki Natira. You don't know what he means, but he is pointing at you, Tarzan. No, no. If you were told any idea what he wants. No more view up at the two. I don't understand you, my friend. What do you want? Pekunuaki Natira. I think I understand Tarzan. Not the words, but his last word was Tira. He points to you and then toward the open doors. I believe he means for you to accompany him to an audience with the Queen. That's what I gather. Very well. I'll go. Hey, don't take you better.  Nevertheless, if I were Tarzan, I would accept the royal invitation. She may have something to offer, which will be helpful to us. Toma raison Tarzan. But I insist, absolutely, all that I go with you. I'm all alone. This is my... Daddy Lieutenant, go with you, Tarzan. Sometimes two heads being better than one. Right. Come on, Darno, let's go. Sir, that's been that. And we must sit here and do nothing, while Margaret may be in peril of death or worse. Well, ain't no fellow to look for trouble, but Margaret can only be in one of two places. And that is... Only two people could count her, the King and the Queen. One of them's got her. I bet you. Yeah, you are right. And I sit here and talk. Maybe Margaret been right in this building. Ah, sure. They never see two heart of faces than that King and Queen. Maybe they got Margaret. My stunt wasn't stopped. You're driving me mad. You must do something. Do something.  Yeah, sure, but... Listen. I can open those doors. We shall follow Tarzan and Darno. Perhaps we may be able to help them. That's what I've been waiting for, Toma. A tank. I go with you. Come then. Now, there may be a card in the corridor. Come. Wait. I think we'd better close this door. You sure been dark here with those little blue lamps? Which way do we go? Through the ceremonial chamber. Those big doors at the end of the corridor. Go ahead. But they don't like this place for no good. They feel like plenty eyes was watching me all the time. It is a ghostly looking place, but do not let your imagination suggest things that do not exist, Tarzan. They ain't afraid of anything. They can see what remember what they need, if said about this place. It's been taboo. Yeah. Press on that light-colored stone. It will open these doors into the ceremonial hall. Ah. Come. We will make our way through from column to column. They will hide us from anyone watching. Maybe so, but it ain't only eyes looking at me now. They can hear things. Like a soft wind up in the trees. How about the doors? Leave them open. We may not have time to open them when we come back. Before we leave this hall, Tarzan, let me show you where they keep the father of diamonds. Yeah, sure. But hurry up. There's been no place for Lars, Tarzan. This way. Through the center room. There. There. You see that white casket? That's where it been, eh? But there have been no pillars out there. If anyone been here, they can see us easy. There is no one here accepting the apes down in that pit. They don't want to see them without a gun, Tarzan. If we could get that casket open and get the golden disc with a diamond, I think we might take it with us, eh? And, eh, and then... And what? Carry that thing around while we been looking for Tarzan and the lieutenant? Yeah, we might hide it and come back for it later. It thought there been something about that stone that holds a flower who looks at it in some kind of a trance. We shall leave the diamond in the disc, take the entire thing. What do you say? Shall we try, eh? Here is the casket. Come, give me a hand with the lid. Well, all right. But let's hurry and get the way from here. That pit there, don't let it to me. Come, help me with this lid. Yeah, sure. They've been... Stop! Tom! Feed! Look up there! Coming down from the dark ceiling. Stay for us! Bye, Buddha. The fiery mask of death. Look! It stops spinning now and hangs in the air! You hear that, Tom? It been talking to us! Childish trickery doesn't... nor impress me. Be humane.


Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1970 Italian giallo film Five Dolls for an August moon and it is a Mario Baba film So I will gush a little bit about Mario Baba and his visuals and how he was basically ahead of his time as I have with All my reviews of his stuff pretty much which by the way if you're into giallo in particular I have a whole playlist on my channel for giallo movie reviews I also have an entire playlist for Mario Baba film reviews the giallo one is obviously much larger, but Obviously spoilers for this because it is a old film and I watched it on the Blu-ray that I purchased Very recently Kino Lorber puts out all of Mario Baba stuff. So that's where you're gonna get Baba things But I had heard that this was this was kind of on a list of like definitive Kind of giallo from the time that was influential blah blah blah, you know that type of stuff So I had just gone ahead and purchased it because I couldn't find it streaming anywhere So yeah Anyway, like I said directed by Mario Baba who's also directed such things as it's not all of it But black Sunday black Sabbath the whip in the body blood and black lace Planet of the vampires kill baby kill a bay of blood Hatchet for the honeymoon the girl who knew too much and shock Which a bunch of those I have reviews for already and a few of the other ones I will be doing reviews for so stay tuned for that This was written by Mario DiNardo who wrote scripts for death knocks twice The fifth chord which I have a review for the two faces of fear and Yeti giant of the 20th century I want to see that one because it sounds like an interesting title Especially from the 70s This star is one of my favorites. This is my film crush Edwige Fennec She was in a bunch of giallo film She was well known for kind of doing some sexploitation stuff But then also doing a bunch of giallo films and getting naked in a bunch of giallo films That's not why I like her but just saying this was a thing within giallo the nudity and it's on display here So would we also start in your vices a locked room and only I have the key Which I recently did a review for the strange vice of mrs. Ward all the colors of the dark the case of the bloody iris Anna the pleasure the torment strip nude for your killer Phantom of death and she apparently had a small part in hostile to which I own and I need to go back and rewatch so Apparently there were only 19 days for this to be shot now the full situation of this film is pretty messed up So it's not the greatest film and I will say that it is Still a giallo film so therefore I am fine watching it And I will probably rewatch it especially because I own it now because I feel like all giallo is we're seeing at least once and pretty Much for me all giallo is we're seeing pretty much more than once just because I like it that much It's just the subgenre really I love it. I really do love it So anyway, what happened is that apparently the original director who was signed on for this film ended up Dropping somehow nobody knows what really happened there Nobody even knows or has on record who the original director was supposed to be for this film So they then approach the financiers approach Mario Bava and really tried hard to get him to take the project over because obviously At that time he was a known director. He knew what he was doing He was really hesitant to take it because he had read the script and he thought the script was not very good Which it is not very good. That is the biggest problem with this film is that the script is pretty rough For many reasons and I'll talk about that as I go further in the review So in the end Bava decided to do it under the terms that he get paid up all up front But there were a lot of problems with it. They only shot in 19 days and that's because of Money they were so strapped for cash that Mario Bava had to do all the editing himself The other thing is once he signed on they said okay Awesome, you start filming in two days and Bava was like what Because he intended to actually take a pass at the script and make it better because it was not good in his opinion And he just didn't have time to do that So the script stayed basically as it was when Bava got it now I think he changed a few things on set as they were shooting it, but in my opinion not enough So this film really is one of those issues of like the script was not good But with what Mario Bava did visually it's worth watching because it looks really good There's some really interesting camera shots some really interesting cinematography directing all that and pretty solid acting to it too But the story is just so bare bones It's not that good and like Mario Bava said Or has supposedly said about this film before he even took it on was that it's so Derived from Agatha Christie's and then there were none that you can tell so yeah, that's just the way it is Yeah, oh Additionally, not only was the budget so low on this film that Bava ended up having to do all the editing himself, but also all the actors had to wear their own clothing They had to provide their own costumes and everything for this film that gives you a good idea In true Mario Bava fashion the film starts with a body of water That is something that Bava likes to do he almost always features some sort of body of water in his films. It is interesting Additionally when it starts you see this nice house on the cliff So it's it's this beach and the body of water you learn later it's on an island and Then it kind of shows this really nice beach house on this cliff now That's very very similar to the starts of a Bay of Blood and The whip and the body those are the exactly the same it shows You know the body of water with you know the shoreline right there and then it shows a very nice big house Different looking houses, but it's like the same thing It's it's just like a go-to for Mario Bava to start films that way I guess and like what is this thing with bodies of water? I don't get it I mean, I don't have a problem with it But I just noticed that these films start very similarly I do like initially how they're having that kind of party in the beginning and that's the way to introduce characters Now that said I don't think I think it's kind of hard to keep characters straight in this film for a few reasons One you get really no backstory on them to there's really no development three You really can't tell through the interactions or through the story who they really are as people or that they're even interesting at all because they're not really interesting and the other thing is that Their interactions are so brief and the scenes are so like short that you don't get much of a sense of them anyway So I think it is kind of helpful that they start with this party and they show each person But you don't know their name at that point so keeping the name straight like you'll see the person be like Okay, I remember this person who looks like this this happened with them But the names were hard to keep straight because there are a lot of characters and like I said They're very much not memorable and there is a lot going on So I like the party aspect, but it's still hard to keep straight who's who and what's going on. So just saying The faked killing in the dark in the beginning during the party. I think was an obvious over overshadowing foreshadowing moment for the film that here They are joking about someone being killed at the party and guess what someone will be killed many people will Be killed because that's the whole point of giallo as we know I Like the comment that George is a beast but ends up becoming very charming when he starts signing checks Therefore reducing his his wife to a person who is just there for his money So that kind of creates a potential motive as maybe she's the killer because she doesn't even love George She could be trying to kill other people and eventually George because she doesn't even love him and you also find out I think believe that's Jill you also find out that she is Romantically involved with Trudy as well, which is another motive right there And then we also get that additional motive early on of this formula, which for a while. It's like this Unspecified formula and then you find out it's for like an industrial resin Which I looked up and basically industrial resins can be used in manufacturing of like plastics stuff like that So I guess this is something that could make someone a lot of money But it's very like cloak and dagger like typical cloak and dagger the way they cover the whole Formula thing with the little Strip of film like the mini strip of film and everything Yeah, it's just Yeah, I mean it's the 70s. I understand that it was 1970. I get it and That that's why there is a bit of a charm to it. I will say Why is the dude with the shades whittling wood wall while they look at Charles's body on the beach? Charles is the first person to go. He was the cabana boy I guess they they kind of call him something like that like a cabana boy or something and Edwige's character Maria was having an affair which Her I think it's Jack.  Being found dead and in general like whenever anyone's found dead. No one really reacts properly to it. They're all just kind of like Just kind of like put out by the fact that they have to deal with a dead body pretty much There's like oh man another dead body come on and then they just lug it to the meat freezer Which I do like the aspect in this film of storing the bodies in the meat freezer I mean it makes sense, but also it's a cool visual and I think my favorite thing in the film in general is every time They go back to that meat freezer and keep showing the bodies like stacking up Especially with the plastic over the bodies now apparently that in particular was Mario Bava's idea He added that kind of last minute for the the actual plastic to be over them because initially they weren't going to be It adds this like extra darkness to it like it's more messed up when you see people presented that way So I like that touch to it. But yeah, these people don't act properly when when anyone's showing up dead It's more just like I'm put out because I have to move this body and then they're like, okay Let's distract ourselves with having drinks or sex because that's another big thing Everything's very sexually motivated in this movie, which is you know, it happens in giallo. That's all good But yeah There's a lot of happy light music in this film for how dire things end up being Which you know, it's weird because It mismatches what's going on for sure and the music's not really very good either even though it is a product of its time I'm saying now watching it now. It's not good music and it gets annoying Especially because it doesn't vary a whole lot and I would assume that has a lot to do with the budgetary issues of the film But it just mismatches what's going on But I think it also creates this kind of like light quirkiness with the film as well So you can kind of laugh with it and be like nobody's taking this seriously that people are dying so yeah, just saying and No one even seems seems all that concerned either that there's Potentially someone on the island that can kill them until much later in the film Then people start to be concerned, but it shouldn't have taken that long for people to be concerned that someone's murdering The film is just a series of scenes of one character walking into a scene with another character for the most part And a lot of them are sexually motivated This is what I was saying is it's a lot of like short Scenes of like one character showing up in a scene with another character who's already been in the scene They have a quick interaction and then on to the next one until you get towards the end of the film And then you start to have some longer scenes and that's when they're better. That's when they look better They feel better. There's a little more story to it But in the beginning it's just so chopped up that it's kind of hard to watch for that reason The scenes are typically pretty short. Oh, yeah, I already said about the chop up Bava puts in some interesting shot angles though and some really cool panning shots that really keeps you engaged There's one in particular that I'm gonna cite later that you know, it just goes back to what I love about Bava You know, even though this isn't a good script The visuals are really good because this his cinematic eye is always at work and he has really good cool Movements of the camera and frame shots and everything So this seems odd because you see Isabel shoot the gun and then she drags Jerry's body to the water Now you end up finding out the reasoning for that later because Jerry's not actually dead He was just tranquilized by her and then she drags him drags him and people are supposed to think that he's dead but that whole like Terrible writing like it was awful. I do like the fact that they kind of like put that in there For her to kind of be a bit of a red herring, but I actually kind of think it may have been better if that wasn't even a part of it at all a Lot of things needed not be in the script though There are a lot of into focus and out of focus transitions as far as camera work goes in this film Notice that if you rewatch the film or if you think back to when you did watch it There's a lot of scenes that end or begin with Out of focus in focus that type of thing Just an observation Nowadays not so great, but back then it's probably fine. It is a cool shot when Jack finds Peggy dead Yeah, that's a really cool moment when she's outside and Jack walks out there They had sex and you don't know yet.  Sorry Peggy. I'm having a hard time keeping these guys straight Peggy It shows Peggy's like face with the bullet hole and like blood running down like that camera movement Awesome, so good like it looks great. It's a very engaging shot. I love those things Isabel swinging on the swing attack attached to that funky looking tree branch Just actually first of all, it's just a random thing to have in the film and plus nobody seemed concerned about Isabel People just kind of felt like oh, she's here like who is she really like I still don't understand like who is she? To these people like they saw her the whole time No one ever suspected anything of her and she she's just there creeping around like spying on people. I don't Weird her character is terrible. It's just terrible But anyway, this the scene where she's swinging on that swing The way it was shot and the way that it looked really reminded me of mario baba's film kill baby kill and the ghost Child that is like swinging on that swing. Obviously it looked and worked a lot better in kill baby kill But just reminded me of that The reveal of jill being dead in the bath looks really cool And I like how they ended up getting there where you know Those glass balls are rolling across the floor and then and it's following them And then you hear some of them off screen start like plunking into the tub And then it pans over and you see her dead in the corner of the tub And you see like blood in there and then the the note on the mirror about how she can't go on and everything Another cool way to get into the scene like a really nice cool Smooth movement and a cool way to get you to that shot Very cool I love the shots of a character up close and then others further back in the scene That's done a lot by mario baba as well the one in particular where it's trudy jack and george and trudy's messing with the The audio recording device and she's like up front in the scene and then behind her is like I forget in what order but it's like george and then jack and like There's it's staggered and they're kind of like in a semi circle They like arc over of where they are I just think those are visually very appealing and cool And I think it also opens the scene up a lot more for for the audience So it's just more engaging and you feel like you're more like immersed in the film For that reason I do like the twist of george Drugging people. I do like that how they were all drugged and then I guess he moved the bodies and cleaned everything up so that when I think it was no, I'm sorry.  Her character is horrible. Once again, I'm gonna say her character is terrible She makes no sense, but whatever that's giallo. That's part of the nostalgia now of watching these films So trudy and jack seemed that they were independently going after people And we're going to end up taking everyone out. I do also like that aspect of having kind of You think it's one killer, but here we go There's another person trying to do something and another person because in the end you had jerry Who was kind of this mastermind of the of this plot with Isabel and then isabel undercuts him in the end basically But then you had these other people involved so there's a lot going on but It could have been executed a lot better Script wise is what I mean Isabel seeing jerry in jail clarifies the scene where it looks like she killed him and then was dragging his body But the whole thing with him confessing to killing because of the sodium pentathal That she shot him with is dumb. That is unbelievably terrible.  It's so dumb. I don't know how other people feel about it, but I thought it was terrible Uh real beautiful shooting location. I love the shooting location is in this I think that's one of the other things that kept me engaged in the film other than mario bob is directing and the cinematography Um the characters are unbelievably paper thin. Like I said, there's no backstory. There's no personality You don't know who they are as people really they if they have motivations. It's all it's boiled down to one thing pretty much So, yeah The music gets annoying like I said I think that bava did what he could Visually with this film with a really bad script now I would have seen what I would have liked to see What could have happened if bava had that time ahead of shooting to rework at least part of the script I think it could have been a much better film But as it is, I mean, it's still worth watching Like I said, it's not the best as far as giallo goes and it ranks pretty low on my giallo watch list, but yeah And like I said My favorite thing about it is just continually checking in on the body stacking up in the meat freezer I really like that about the film. So yeah, it's a it's a good enough time in my opinion and I enjoy it So out of five Jesus, I'm sorry about that one Putting stress on my voice because I'm getting so emphatic about how much I hate the script Uh, so out of five stars with half stars in play I feel like I have to put it at a two and a half I think if the visuals weren't so great I would put it at a two or a one and a half to be honest, but Because of what bava brought to the table I'll go two and a half. I thought about maybe going to three But I just don't think I can justify that with how bad the characters are and how dumb a lot of the turns of the Of the story are so I'm going two and a half. But anyway, I would love to hear your comments about this film What do you think and just giallo in general go ahead and put it down there And do me a quick favor though hit that subscribe button If you like this video or any video I've ever done that is your best way to repay me And please repay me in that way. Just take that quick second Subscribe and then also hit that notification bell because that way you'll know whenever I'm putting up new videos Whether be another movie review or an unboxing or a haul video or any anything I do But uh, regardless, I do thank you for taking your time to watch this and until next time keep it brutal


My research is about the changing geography of jobs. Many people are aware that employment has polarized, meaning that we have growth of high-end professional technical and managerial jobs and growth of many in-person services, food service, cleaning, security, and a kind of a collapse of the middle of clerical, office, and also manufacturing jobs. And that's been going on for some decades. My work shows how that has actually been driven by a decline in the middle within cities. And it used to be that in urban areas, non-college workers did much more specialized work. They did office work, they did production work. And over the last three decades, that difference has kind of eroded almost completely such that the geography of work for non-college workers is now uniform across places. They are no longer doing more skilled and more specialized work in cities and as that erosion has occurred, the wage premium for less educated workers has also substantially fallen off.


The purpose of our training is while being part of the 101st Airborne Division, we are required to execute and be certified in our assault task and missions. While we are here in Romania, we have the Romanian allies with us, so what better way to certify ourselves while also trained with the Romanians, showing them our ways that we do things to further increase our readiness and increase our NATO allies readiness. It's important to train with NATO allies, always train as you fight. There's going to be times where our closest asset is going to be a NATO ally, so having the relationship is going to increase our readiness and increase our lethality for years to come. The partnership is very strong and is growing every day. We want to train our powers, our capabilities, and to train each other in case we need to do something, it's nice to see that we can trust each other. We submitted the request to just do training, but once they saw it, they actually pulled us over and they wanted to do it with us. They want to keep moving with training. They want to do other tasks, other missions with us. We want to continue to keep doing this too. Just amazing people all around, amazing leaders, amazing soldiers, really enjoying it. As soon as you allow that standard to go lower, that's the new standard. Never settle with the minimal. Never settle with the 70 percent and hold that standard. If you increase it, you go above it, that's the new standard. I am Sergeant First Class Devin Gironi. I am a combat engineer, 12 Bravo, and I'm the platoon sergeant for First Platoon Bravo Company 39th BB 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. I joined while I was in high school. I knew it was going to bring a lot of opportunities. I choose to be a 12 Bravo combat engineer. At the time, my recruiter told me I got to blow stuff up and he showed me the videos and it seemed great. I got to do that. I got to blow up all the demo I wanted and I loved it. I signed for an initial three-year contract. I deployed twice. I had the best soldiers to the left and to the right of me with the best leaders too. And that's what got me to re-enlist. It went from just something to get out of high school to those first missions, that first time like taking care of soldiers is what just keeps me going on. New young leaders ask questions. If you're a leader of someone that subject matter expert gives you an answer, check them. But understand that you have to do your due diligence and ensure that what you're being taught is actually the correct thing to do. We're all human beings. We make mistakes. Corners are getting caught. Standards are slipping a little bit. Just make sure that you maintain that standard and that you ensure that you're doing the right thing. And the person teaching you is actually doing the right thing also. You have to prepare for anything. As soon as you allow that standard to go lower, that's the new standard. Never settle with the minimal. Never settle with the 70 percent. Hold that standard. If you increase it, you go above it. That's the new standard. I am Sergeant First Class Devin Gironi. I am a combat engineer, 12 Bravo. And I'm the platoon sergeant for First Platoon Bravo Company 39th BB Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. I joined while I was in high school. Which was a thing. It was not part of what I was wanting to do. Not yet at least. So I joined the Army. I knew it was going to bring a lot of opportunities. I choose to be a 12 Bravo combat engineer. At the time, my recruiter told me I got to blow stuff up and he showed me the videos and it seemed great. I got to do that. I got to blow up all the demo I wanted and I loved it. It's nice to be able to shape the battlefield. I love working directly with the infantry, directly with the mortarmen, artillery, the medics and everything. Seeing all the pieces put together and moving towards and being one of those pieces on the battlefield on that chessboard, I do enjoy it a lot now. I signed for an initial three-year contract. I deployed twice. I had the best soldiers to the left and to the right of me with the best leaders too. And that's what got me to re-enlist. It went from just something to get out of high school to those first missions that first time like taking care of soldiers is what just keeps me going on. And that's what's keeping me going every day right now is just the ability to take care and train soldiers and develop young leaders and to bring them hopefully to a further point to make a mass impact in the Army. So I was an instructor at Fort Leonardwood at the Stafford Leader Course, which is the premier engineer school where we train leaders and certify them to become Stafford leaders and to earn and bear that Stafford tab. Seeing the growth and seeing what other people are doing, it was extremely motivating. To see even though I'm at Fort Leonardwood, I see the big picture of the Army is moving forward, doing all kinds of great things. So I was able to take that motivation, that expertise, bring it here, and now I'm just giving up as much information, as much knowledge, as much motivation as I can. New young leaders ask questions, right? And when you ask a question, if you're a leader of someone that subject matter expert gives you an answer, check them. And in a very courteous, implied way, check your regulations, get that cross training, get that cross check with someone else. There's so many resources that are open and available, so understand that you have to do your due diligence and ensure that what you're being taught is actually the correct thing to do. We're all human beings. We make mistakes. Corners are getting cut. Standards are slipping a little bit. Just make sure that you maintain that standard and that you ensure that you're doing the right thing. And the person teaching you is actually doing the right thing also.


Item No. SCP-001 Object Class Embla Containment Procedures SCP-001 is contained on the grounds of Site-0 and upstate ██████. Offense has been constructed around the perimeter SCP-001's observed effects. In addition to Site-0's security, no fewer than five armed guards are to be present at all times to prevent unauthorized entry. The adjoining physics laboratory will be manned at all hours, studying any anomalies. A small metal plaque bearing an inscription will be maintained in good condition. Any damage is to be immediately reported to maintenance. Description SCP-001 is a circular gravel path in a wooded area. When traveled in a counterclockwise direction, the trail is continuously uphill, even after reaching the original point. When traveled in a clockwise direction, the trail shows the same amount of uphill and downhill travel as expected. Level-5 clearance is required to access SCP-001's experiment log. New members of Overseer Council are required to read Document-001-05. Document-001-05 If you're reading this then congratulations, one of us has died. One killed one of us, a monster perhaps, or a rival from the GOC, or maybe we just got a little too close to the flame, like Aaron. Not old age, of course, we took care of that, didn't we? Anyway, one of the old guards is gone. Maybe Jason, maybe Agnes, maybe me, hell I'd be surprised if I was the next one to die. I always was the most expendable. I'm going to write this to you as though you were a human being. It will be the last time anyone extends you the courtesy, so I hope you appreciate it. Whoever you are, whatever you did before, you must have been high ranking when you were pulled into this.  The crux of the matter is this. The retrievals and recoveries of SCP objects are staged, or made up whole cloth. We have never discovered an SCP in the entire history of the Foundation. I should start from the beginning, let me tell you a story. Aaron Siegel was a physicist studying at Cornell in 1891. He was a truly gifted individual, and had his life taken a different path. I believed that his name would be there with Edison, Einstein, and Hawking. I knew him very well. He was, and may still be, my brother. He was also an avid amateur naturalist, and enjoyed hiking through the woods. One day, while visiting our family home in Essex County, he came across a gravel path. He decided to follow it for a time, and noticed that it kept climbing uphill far longer than it should have. It should have taken him above the nearby hills. Instead he found himself back where he started, without a foot of downward travel. Another man would have assumed his senses were faulty and left. Aaron, however, was a stubborn man. He investigated further. He found a path that had not conformed to the pure geometry of Euclid. Like Zachary before him, he had found something abhorrent to the nature of straight lines. He studied it. The equations he derived are part of the file you've received. You'll learn them by heart eventually. He built a small shack near by which served as a makeshift laboratory. His first experiments produced a key capable of opening any lock. Now contained is SCP-005. He brought in others. As his brother, I was one of the first he contacted. I was a medical student at Harvard at the time. I initially thought he was mad, but when he showed me the path, the key, I had to learn more. There were others with us, other friends and colleagues. Most of them are gone now, but we were the core. We created the foundation from around ourselves. In the beginning, it was just about discovery, about finding the things we could do. We had such high hopes, such plans. We were going to change the world. We were going to save it from itself. We could feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, heal the sick and dying. Thomas Carter found his money. We were none of us poor, but we ran through our fortunes quickly. Thomas used his connections on Wall Street and in Washington to fund us. We showed them the least of what we could do, and promised heaven against the threat of hell. Agnes Peterson, my brother's fiance, was the administrator. He knew nothing of how to run an organization. We were a herd of cats running to and fro, and she turned us into a foundation, putting us dreamers and madmen to the same yoke. We soon had a facility built, but we were still so secretive. As much as we wanted to shout from the rooftops what we had found, we were frightened too, that it would be taken from us. We told ourselves it was just for the interim, until we were sure of our footing. We showed them eventually, we'd show them all. We were careful at first. We made small, inoffensive, or even helpful items. The fountain of youth, the bouncing ball, the Civil War statue. We grew more confident, and we started working on humans, the concrete man. He volunteered, or the man with the abdominal planet. Just a drifter, and we made him something special, didn't we? It was all so easy. Perhaps it seems absurd to get so many things from that one little break in reality, but it all flowed. One discovery to the next. It almost seemed like something was helping us along. But then things started going a bit wrong. While he was playing with his equations, Aaron accidentally derived a missing number. In my laboratory, I found I had made the zombie plague, and we were too invested in our projects that we pushed ahead. Then came the pipe nightmare, and the stairwell. We knew we'd need more help. Thomas showed what we'd done in the military, told them we'd found these things, discovered them, we made up names like Prometheus Labs and the Chaos Insurgency. They gave us funding, personnel, we built up, we expanded outward. We repeated the sale in other countries. Some listened, some didn't. Enough did. We became an international organization. We brought in more researchers, though very few ever suspected we were the source of these items they studied. Sometimes we would arrange for an object to be found by a field team. Sometimes we would simply write the reports. We generated the paperwork, and we were the oversight. If we said a thing was, it was. It still is. There were still problems, of course. Jeremy and Thomas took one of our experiments and ran off with it, creating a ridiculous club. One of our researchers grew mad and started worshipping machines, escaping with enough knowledge to be dangerous. We still deal with the fallout of these splinter groups. So we contained them, we handled them, we couldn't stop, surely, you can see that. Rather than more cautious, we grew bolder. I cut a little boy up and turned him into the flesh that hates. There were reasons, there were always reasons. 231, we created her, and her sisters. We took them from orphanages and arranged for what followed, and it was no accident. We knew what we were doing. There was a reason for it once, but I'll be damned if I can remember it now. None of us do, except maybe my brother, wherever, whatever he is now. We keep moving forward, even after Abel, after the blood pond, after that damnable reptile, we still move forward with our work. What else can we do? Our only hope to survive the events we set in motion is to understand better, to learn more. We're on the back of a terrible beast, and if we try to jump off now, we'll be crushed beneath. But that's not what frightens me, and it isn't what should frighten you. We've maintained our foothold for over a hundred years. The things I really worry about are the anomalies we didn't create. No, I was telling you the truth the first time. We didn't discover any of them, but some of them, they aren't our work. They just were one day, they were in containment, and they'd always been in containment. Don't you see? We're not in control anymore. We never were.