Hello everyone and welcome to this presentation about digital parent engagement, supporting student learning. My name is Lorna Costantini and I'm one of the co-hosts for Classroom to Zero Live and the Parents as Partners webcast series at EdTechTalk. Over the next 20 minutes I'm going to show you snapshots from both these shows about how people for all over the world use technology to enhance what they do in the classroom to connect parents and schools and students around student learning. It was a challenge to condense the vast pool of knowledge and I'll talk about where you can get full access to the audio, video and resources mentioned in the presentation. There's extensive research that shows students whose parents support their learning do better in school. Students stay in school longer, are less likely to be tardy or absent, use drugs or alcohol, and they achieve higher grades. Despite that knowledge, parents and schools struggle to meet on the same page. At some point all of us have been critical of how a parent raises their child or how a teacher manages the classroom. Parents and schools need to be on the same page to effectively support students and support their learning. Schools want parent support but when they think of parent involvement they usually think of parents in terms of volunteering at school and attending meetings. Dr. Debbie Pusher from the University of Saskatchewan joined us on parents as partners to talk about what she saw as the difference between parent involvement and parent engagement. Let's listen to just the audio track as an excerpt of the recording. You won't be able to see the slides. What we're going to do is show where that word comes from and what I think it means. So for me, when we look up what that word involvement means when we go to the Latin sort of base for that word, it means to roll into. And so when we're involving parents in the school, that's exactly what I think we're doing. We're rolling them into the agenda that's already set by the school. We're co-opting them to do the kinds of things that we as educators want them to do. So we say we need parents to help on a field trip. Will you come and help us? We need parents to cook hot dogs on Friday. Will you do it for us? We need parents to laminate or photocopy or mix paint or fundraise. Those are the kinds of things that the school decides they need help with. It's their agenda and they're the ones making the decisions. When you go to the next slide, I've given you a few examples there. Those are things, I think, the common things that are from the examples of parent involvement. Working as an aide, an organizer, a fundraiser, or being a spectator and audience member at an event of your children. Those are the kinds of things that I think are very typical when we look at what parents do in school. Next slide I've given an example. If we looked at the continuous improvement planning or school planning that many schools in our country are involved in, if a school was working to improve student achievement, which they all are, and they were going to involve parents in that, they may do things like hold a reading day, invite parents to come and read with their kids or community members to come and read with their kids in order to promote literacy. That's involvement for me. The school sets the agenda. They decide how they want parents to be involved and parents to do the things that they're asked to do. In the next slide then, I differentiate between involvement and engagement. When we look at where that word engagement comes from, N meaning make, engage, mean pledge, when we're engaging parents, we're making a pledge to one another. So for me, that's a moral commitment. We're entering into a relationship. Think about what it means to be engaged, to be married. That equal sense of partnership with love and respect and caring moving in both directions, with give and take, with benefit on both sides. So when we are engaged with parents, we're in a relationship that matters about something really important and that's the children in our lives. Different than the hierarchy of parents doing what schools want them to do in order to serve the school's agenda. In the next slide, I've given some examples. So again, if we were looking at what might it look like if we were talking about engagement, we're talking about parents and teachers together, parents and staff together, creating the agenda, making the decisions and taking actions. So everyone's involved in the decision making, not just that one party, the educators and everybody benefits from the engagement as well. I think one of the key things with engagement is that everyone leaves that interaction strength and the children, the educators and staff and the parents and families. So what does parent engagement look like in practice and how can students and parents work together? Some schools like Twineham School in Dorset, England or Dade County School Board in Florida have used the concept of a parent portal to engage parents. In the next clip, Mike Heridy, who's assistant headmaster at Twineham School, describes how their school is using SharePoint and Education to give parents access to student grades online or the results of their student mentoring program, as well as the options online feature. Let's listen to Mike as he describes what they do in their school to connect with parents around student learning. So instead of students and their parents receiving a booklet telling them about the course, what they get is an online site which is secured by login for parents and students. They can log into the site, look at different options in terms of their pathways, they also look into individual subjects. Hi there, I'm here to introduce the options process now that you are halfway through your year 9 in school and it's now the time to think about what you might be doing in years 10 and 11. I think it was a lot better because I've got an older brother that came to the school and he said choosing options were like so much more difficult because you're just told yeah it's good, yeah it's fun, no it's hard, whatever. But with that online you get a lot more like feedback because if you recognise someone in the video you can go up to them and talk to them about it and my brother had none of that and he says you got it easy. Who is your character? Why are they in the situation they're in? What is their background? What has their life been like? My mum like was looking at it and she was like yeah I think you are better off doing drama and that's kind of like what finalised my decision when my mum saw everything on the gateway. The gateway that we've got in school has been revolutionary really in helping me and my tutor team to be able to support our young people in school. What this does is it takes away all of that paperwork, all of that time-consuming activity so that I can then identify where a student may need support, where we may need to celebrate that success and it's much much easier, much more instant and it means that that child gets whatever they need far more quickly and the parents feel more supported in the process. Well with the new gateway the parents are a lot more involved in your grades and looking back and forth over what you need to do instead of before you get one report or one parents evening a year. Now they can look at it when if they want. If I'm doing well I'll share with them, if I'm not I may be making a joke about it. In science I was about to target last year.  Oh yeah but I can't have other subjects. Okay, that's good. As opposed to having to go to a parents' evening once a term, the child can sit down and go through it with me and show me how he's getting on and where he's got to work, particularly at the moment coming up to A-levels, you know the topic of subjects that he's got to focus on and just sort of talk through different ways that he can, you know, apply himself really. You know we were out last night at a gig and he was showing me his grades on his iPhone. What we actually found is that their increased usage of the gateway led to them getting the highest GCSE results in their area of all the school. So it does seem that using the revision gateways as a revision tool has had a big impact already. Why didn't you just put a vector into Google? When we started this off with our learning gateways and started putting resources on there, the incredibly high take-up rate from the students, their feedback was tremendous in terms of they really enjoyed the resources being there and they could log on in school or at home and get exactly what they wanted when they wanted it. Another leader in engaging parents using technology is Aviva Dunsinger, a grade one teacher at Ancaster Meadow Public School in Hamilton, Ontario. In Aviva's presentation on Parents with Partners, she describes her journey over the past two years and introducing Web 2-0 tools to connect with parents. What is particularly exciting is her use of Twitter to take the place of the agenda book. Parents are kept up to date on the happenings with the tweets that students have worked together to prepare. Let's listen to Aviva describe how she uses voice thread and the response by a parent. This is another example again of a group blog and it's actually when we used a voice thread on the group blog for a self-assessment. So we had done this voice thread and then this was actually last year one of my parents wrote to say and she was just so happy that she was able to actually see what was happening in the classroom and also hear the language that was happening in the classroom so that she could reinforce it at home too. And I think that that's important as well. Not only is this a nice chance to receive some really positive feedback about what's happening in the classroom or for students to receive some positive feedback about what they're doing, but it's also a really great way to show the parents what's happening in our classroom too. It basically gives a window to that classroom and that's important because that classroom, I mean it belongs to all of us. If those students are going to be successful, they need to have the support of both us and their entire family. The parents, they need to be hearing that again and again and I find that really important especially like I really only taught young primary students before, but with primary students it's really important to know that these skills that are being taught in the classroom for maybe eight hours a day are being reinforced at home too. For them to really make those gains, they need it both ways. And it helps if the same language that's being used in the classroom is being used at home as well. And that was basically what this mother had really kind of hit on is that she was now able to use the vocabulary that we were using in the classroom at home with her daughter. And she was finding that her daughter was also giving her a little bit more afterwards when she was using the same vocabulary. And it's a really important skill because this was a self-assessment. And for all the primary teachers out there and even the junior and intermediate teachers, it's hard for students to assess through a work to see what they've done well on it but to also give some good next steps. And this was a great way to hopefully reinforce these skills because as time went on in the year, we did a lot more of these self-assessments and they got a lot better at it. And I think the support that they got at home made a difference too. Focusing on parent engagement doesn't mean schools need to eliminate parents as volunteers. Karen from VolunteerSpot has developed a free software application that takes out the pain of organizing volunteers. Karen describes VolunteerSpot in this recorded from classroom 20 live. I can tell you how many teachers I spoke to that said, I used to have parent readers in the classroom but it got to be too much of a hassle inviting them and keeping track of them. Or I used to have parents help with table time but I couldn't rely on them because they weren't here and so I stopped. And these were veteran teachers who wanted these parents to help but it was too much of a hassle not having them help but coordinating the help. Same thing goes for parent teacher sign-ups. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to switch now to my screen view. Oh, there's my lovely image that finally came up. I'm going to switch now to a screen view and show you how VolunteerSpot changes the process. Okay, so you guys, let's see if you can see my screen. I'll let it hang up. Okay, so here's my screen. This is my Gmail inbox. And here is an invitation from a kindergarten teacher that says, please sign up to help. So now I am a parent. So I'd open up the email invitation and it says, hey, here's a message from your VolunteerSpot organizer, or yours will actually say, here's a message from your VolunteerSpot organizer, teacher Sandy. And it will say, welcome to our class. We're asking every parent to come and help twice a semester. Please click here and see how you can help. And then what you would do is click the sign up button. That's going to take a moment to load. You confirm that your email is who you are. We cookie parents based on email address so they never have to register. And then the parent can come in. They know their schedule, say I'm available on Friday. I can click and see what my class needs. They need me to bring some things. I separate everything in VolunteerSpot by what you might bring or what you might do. Using digital tools and specifically social networking applications can be a challenge because for the most part, parents locked the skills and knowledge to fully support the use of social media in schools. There are some success stories though. The Toronto District School Board in Toronto, Ontario is fully embracing these tools to connect with parents in the community at large. The director Chris Spence has a blog and the school board has a Twitter account, Facebook page and a YouTube channel. Stuart Oakley, TJ Gertz, Manny DeLuz and Aveline Rusticcia share how they are using social media, as well as the development of an acceptable use policy for using social media in the classroom, followed by a clip of Chris Spence, the director of education on YouTube. Be where people are. And this is what social media is about. I'm going to be joining in on the conversation. A lot of analogies I've heard is like being at a cocktail party and you're able to hear all the conversations that are going on and you can participate and so forth. So it really is a great way of being able to share information. Absolutely is a new way of doing business. Social media is growing by leaps and bounds, as I'm sure you all are aware. In Canada here recently there was some research done and for the first time there were actually more people online and doing online activities than watching television for the first time in history. Building on that, in the GTA alone, we've got about 94% of the population that are using the internet and are online, particularly in immigrant communities. It's a way for them to keep in touch with their home country and so forth. So definitely it's where people are and we need it to be there. It's great opportunity, as you know, for unfiltered listening, sharing information, et cetera. So that's where we started, was using the Twitter. We started using blogs as well for the director and we're using YouTube because we do video stories and we're able to post those onto a TDSB page on YouTube. And the final piece that we just launched back in March of this year was Facebook. So we're looking now at a real integrated approach to using our social media and using our website as a communications hub and launching platform. Essentially, what we have is a code of online conduct that covers employee and student use of organizational computers, et cetera. We have drafted a social media staff guidelines document that's now making its way through the system for various approvals and consideration because this is a new phenomenon and because of the nature of social media, you know, it has some ramifications. But essentially what it talks about is using common sense and represent yourself using these channels as you would if you were out in public or so forth that you're representing the organization and that you do so appropriately. Good day. The celebration of Earth Day is in part a recognition of the state of our planet and a day that highlights our individual responsibility in shaping a collective future. The last item I will highlight is the digital parent project. It was started by a group of teachers and parents who gathered together to create a library of resources that would provide schools and parents with some useful websites and programs that they could use to teach parents about Web 2.0 tools. You will find a link here to Kevin Honeycat's video podcast series for parents about raising digital kids. We have a table of contents here that will direct you to things like digital media, internet safety, Facebook for parents and a special workshop here led by the People for Education about creating an e-newsletter, links to digital media awareness, internet safety, all great tools for you to use to help parents understand the impact of Web 2.0 tools. Justin Reeve is responsible for the initiation of this project and you'll be pleased to find his graduate work on Facing Facebook. There's a complete list of information and research materials available for you but even key to that is impetus with the group for the Facebook module on this project and if you take a look at a link from the module tab for Facing Facebook a presentation you'll be able to take that directly to your school, set up an LCD projector and use it to teach parents about Facebook. As I mentioned at the beginning of this presentation full access to the complete recordings of the audio from parents' partners, videos and so on from classroom 2.0 live has been posted in a course in the e-learning center, the digital parent engagement course so if you come to e-learning center and click on the digital parent engagement you may be prompted to enter your access just simply sign in with guest and you'll find the course that has again the research material behind this I'm just going to scroll down Debbie Pushers presentation with slides and particular topics that reference what we talked about today and a very good one How does Web 2.0 affect you and your students with some information from the digital nation project and I think you're going to find it a terrific resource to help parents understand and yourselves the implication of Web 2.0 tools


Alrighty, so I have a very small construction update today just because only things arrived, nothing exciting going on the construction site from what I'm hearing from my sources so I didn't bother going in the park. I'll be in the park tomorrow to check in. But yeah, lots of new pieces came in last night. They came in at around 9 p.m. Thanks to just a regular guest for reaching out to my channel and letting me know that something was coming in. Thanks so much, I really appreciate that. Headed over to the park this morning and filmed what arrived. So lots of parts came in. So basically the main little track piece that starts the storage area and then goes into the flat section arrived. The main supports for the actual storage sheds arrived too. You can tell by how massive they are. And, sorry, I hooked that. I don't know what happened with that footed. But yeah, so lots came in. So again, you can see the main support beams there. You can see them in the back. You can see the elevator track. There's a proper word for it, vertical track. I think it's what it's called, something like that. I am so sorry if I'm getting it wrong. But yeah, lots came in. It's super exciting. They are almost out of storage area. I assume they can only hold maybe like two to three shipments max more. So the main question that arises is when is vertical construction going to start? Well, to be honest, I actually don't have an answer for that. My prediction was either this week or next week. And I'm really leaning towards next week. And it'll probably start when the teasing campaign starts. They are done a lot of work on the construction site, as you know from my video yesterday. So there's a lot to go off of in terms of predicting when they'll start vertical construction because they're compacting the soil around all the footers now and getting ready for probably like crane equipments to come in. We know that this is probably just gonna be a small go to the ground crane for this part. Nothing too dramatic, like for the lift hill and such. But yeah, it's super exciting that this is all here. I mean, we can almost account for every part on this storage and station and brake run area. They just need a few more support beams for the actual storage facilities as there are two for this coaster. So yeah, like this is getting really exciting. So here are those main support beams I was talking about. And then there's the elevator track. And then you can see some things that resemble that to like Leviathan and Behemoth in there as well. And then the parts you can't see, I don't know if those are for the station or the storage facilities, but support beams that the track will rest on are there. And then as you know from my previous video, some of the electrical is here as well, along with an air compressor, which is typically used for restraints, if I'm correct, correct me down below if I'm not. But yeah, so I wanted to try something different. So for those of you that are new to the channel or for those of you that aren't, I'm gonna start allowing you guys to ask me questions in the comments section down below. And then in my video the next day, I will answer those questions if I can. So feel free to comment down below a question you have for me or the channel or something about Wonderland. And I will try my best to answer it in my next video. Again, thanks so much for watching all of my updates guys. Give the video a like, subscribe if you haven't and have a good one. Bye.


It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? Edward P. Morgan and Bill Downs, both of the CBS television news staff. This evening's guest is one of the most distinguished ladies in American life, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Roosevelt, some nights ago, I had dinner with a man and his wife in Spokane, Washington. Quite sincerely, but quite seriously, they asked me two questions. They said, do these foreigners hate us as much as they seem to, and are they ever going to be grateful for the things that we do for them? Now, you've just come back from one of your latest trips in far parts of the world. Could you answer those questions? Well, I would not say that foreigners hated us. I would say that many of them were a little suspicious that they did not like to feel that everything they wanted to do, they had to ask us for our help, or some of it would come from the United Nations, and they liked that better because they were members, and they felt they got it by right, and there was no one individual nation that they had to depend on. But I would say that it was always hard to be grateful for something which you felt you would like to be able to do without asking anyone. Well, Mrs. Roosevelt, we've heard a lot about criticism of American policy and what we have done or tried to do. Is this something new or I mean, is this something to do with this administration, the Truman administration, or perhaps even your late husband's administration? Is this? No, I think it began probably when the war was over, and we began to have to help people to build up again, and we were the ones who had not been bombed and who had no homes destroyed. We had difficulty in getting new homes, but we didn't have to clear away acres of rubble of old homes that once existed, and we had our whole production unit intact, and practically no other nation in the world was in that fortunate position. In other words, this is history rather than policy. This is history rather than politics, and I think of course that there is some envy in it. There is, when people say, will they never be grateful for what we've done, I think there is gratitude, but gratitude is sometimes swamped by the sense of why was this done? Was it done in the long run so we could, we who just freed ourselves from political domination, be dominated through economics? Now that's not unnatural because the history of most of these countries in Asia and in some parts of Europe is that people who do things for you expect something in return. And I suppose if we do things as we're supposed to do in enlightened self-interest that we're not necessarily expected to anticipate gratitude. Well of course it is enlightened self-interest because getting them back on their feet is necessary for us because we need markets. You spoke of the United Nations, Mrs. Roosevelt, and that brings up a most topical point. And before we get into the heart of it, let's explore a public reaction to it here. There seems to be a great deal of suspicion among our own people about the United Nations and its effectiveness. What is your reaction to that? I think that's easily explained because you see we're a very big country in a very strong country. We have not needed any of the programs carried on by the specialized agencies which are the action part of the United Nations. We've not needed those programs in our country because we were all right. India has needed to have land cleared of malaria. Other nations have needed help to get rid of tuberculosis. There are a thousand and one things that less fortunate nations can see have happened and be grateful for from the United Nations. We don't happen to have been in that category. It matters to us what the United Nations does elsewhere because again, where people are ridden with malaria, they will never buy our goods. Well, Mrs. Roosevelt, do you think that the United Nations as an instrument of world political opinion and operation has lost ground in the last, say, five, six years in this country? I think like everything else that we started out, expecting that the United Nations would solve every difficulty right just by being the United Nations. We didn't realize that the United Nations was only all the nations gathered in one place but all the troubles remained just as they were before and therefore we had to work to make the United Nations work and we didn't want to work and we didn't expect to have to do this work and now we know we have to, which is healthy, I think. That brings up another point, Mrs. Roosevelt. Secretary of State Dulles has just made an important speech before the American Bar Association in Boston, the essence of which was that the United Nations Charter, I think he put it, was a pre-atomic age Charter and therefore not flexible to the times and he recommended that the Security Council be stripped of the veto and said that in some future assembly in 55 I believe it was that the United States would consider sponsoring such a move. What do you believe about that? But of course that's a great change for the United States because we felt that unless we had the veto we would never get the Charter through Congress and that was one reason why the veto was put there. Of course the fact that the Soviets have misused the veto, used it for a great many things that it was not intended for. What it was intended for was to make it possible for a nation, a great nation, to prevent the discussion of domestic affairs which they considered were no business of anybody else's in the world. Whether we now are ready to submit the discussion of our domestic affairs is a question that the people will have to decide. Aren't we in effect or isn't Secretary Dulles in effect asking for a showdown though when he says all right leave us split the United Nations or let people line up on our side or their side with no veto and we carry this by majority vote. Do you think that is a possible consequence? I would hope that perhaps just as we trust our people in the United States we were trying the experiment of trusting the nations of the world. I hope we would do nothing however so definite that we really hurt the United Nations because I think this is the one great hope for eventually building peace and to do anything like making a pronouncement of a policy which you cannot change if you find it is unwise in the future and today have a nose you're being met constantly with new reasons and you ought to be able to be flexible. Mrs. Rotafell, excuse me speaking as Bill Downs did a moment ago of lining up on one side or the other. What is your view as to our position regarding India and the issue of her representation at the Korean peace conference? Well last year I was in India and I wrote a book called India and the Awakening East as just trying to explain some of the problems of that area of the world in very simple fashion because I could only give impressions it's not a learning treatise. My feeling is that when you insist on lining up people what you do is put our friends with the Soviets if you insist that that's the only place they can sit. I feel it's very unfortunate. Well Mrs. Rotafell this is a you have been become known as the leader of what is loosely called the liberal movement in this country or what used to be called the liberal movement in this country and some people call them do-gooders and the rest of it could you define a liberal for us I mean in your own words? Well it's very hard to put in a few words what a liberal is but I would feel that a liberal was a person who kept an open mind was willing to meet new questions with new solutions and felt that you could move forward you didn't have to always look backwards and be afraid of moving forward. And that's what this national issues committee that you- National issues committee is going to try to look at the issues to put them in simple terms so that the people can understand them as objectively as possible and to feel that they can as the liberals do move forward. Quickly a final question Mrs. Rotafell I'm sorry Bill. We've been told by our experts that we may have to live in this world of uncertainty and indecision short of war in a cold war for x number of years to come.  Well I think the study of our history certainly the people who settled this country didn't have any great security and it's hard for the young to live in uncertainty they love to be sure of the future but I really think that we have the stamina and particularly if we look at what we came from. Thank you very much true uncertainty. Thank you very much. The opinions that you've heard our speakers express tonight have been entirely their own. The editorial board for this edition of the long gene chronoscope was Edward P. Morgan and Bill Downs both of the CBS television news staff. Our distinguished guest for this evening was Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. There are many many watches which sell at prices equal to or higher than long gene so if you wish to be sure of getting a watch of truly fine character what should you do. Well just compare the facts you have about any other watch with the facts you have about long gene and the facts about long gene prove it to be one of the finest of all the world's watches for in competition with the world's best watches long gene watches alone have won for excellence and elegance 10 world's fair grand prizes and 28 gold medals for accuracy highest honors from the leading government observatories for dependability a position of leadership in sports aviation and in science yet though long gene is one of the very finest watches made anywhere in the world a long gene watch is not excessively expensive because you may buy and own or proudly give a long gene watch for as little as 71 50 and this is important whatever the price every long gene watch is manufactured to the high standards of quality which have made long gene the world's most honored watch the world's most honored gift long gene premier product of the long gene with nor watch company since 1866 maker of watches of the highest character we invite you to join us every monday wednesday and friday evening at this same time for the long gene chronoscope a television journal of the important issues of the hour broadcast on behalf of long gene the world's most honored watch and with nor distinguished companion to the world honored long gene this is frank knight reminding you that long gene and with nor watches are sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than 4 000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem agency for long gene with nor watches thursday nights enjoy the lux video theater on the cbs television network


Logic is the art of resolving contradictions, it's the art of non-contradictory, thinking it's going and figuring out where the contradictions and getting rid of them, resolving them, find out what's fundamental and what's secondary, what's a side issue, what's important, try to simplify problems. To think, think facts, context, integrate, facts, context, integrate. And then remember that emotions are not tools of cognition. Emotions might tell you something about you, about how you respond to things, about what you see as threats or benefits or so on, but they're not tools of cognition, they're not telling you anything about the world. They're telling you something about your response to the world. So in making decisions, it is reason, logic, that are the methods to follow, not emotions, intuitions, gut feelings. Now you don't ignore those. What you try to do is understand your emotions, understand your intuitions, and if you have time, understand your gut reactions, so that if there is any information embedded, then there may be about your priorities or maybe about something you've missed, you can take those into account. Constantly in important decisions, constantly reexamine assumptions and conclusions, constantly reevaluate, make sure you're making the right conclusion, getting to the right things, have the right facts. But at the end of the day, at some point, you can't paralyze yourself. You can't paralyze yourself by, you know, people talk about overthinking. Now there's no such thing as overthinking really, but there is this thing as obsessing and not letting go and not having the courage to come to conclusions. Again, conclusions might not be pleasant. Conclusion might not be easy. About an employee, you have to lay off or fire. About a product, you might have to kill. But at some point you have to come to conclusion, you can't say, well, I need more evidence and I need more facts and I need more. At some point, and it's hard to tell when, there is enough information to make a decision and to act on that decision and to judge based on that decision. Or you could come to the conclusion that you can't. And then you have to assess. Can't I because the information I need is not attainable, cannot be achieved. Can't I because I don't have the time to get the information? Can't I because there's some something in the way? Can I get rid of what's in the way? So some things you walk away from where you can't make a decision. But most things, you should be able to get enough facts. Most things in life require judgment, require decision making, and require action. So don't paralyze yourself. Reason is not there to paralyze yourself from acting. I know so many people who want to think about this and want to think about that and want to think about this through and that through and maybe this will happen, maybe that, and they never act, they never do anything because they're constantly considering another fact, another possibility and at some point action is necessary. At some point the purpose of thinking is to act. The purpose of thinking is to achieve something. The purpose of thinking is to attain goals. Now you can get a lot more depth into this by reading Lena Pigov. Lena Pigov has a number of courses that on YouTube on morality, on rationality, and then of course he has OPPA, Objectives on the Philosophy of an Amen, that has a long section on rationality, what it means, how to do it, the purpose and highly, highly recommend if you really want to get an in-depth philosophical understanding of what it means to be rational, which is essential I think to all human beings because this is the way we live or this is the way we should live and indeed if you think about your failures in life, most of our failures in life are consequences of not thinking, of consequences of letting emotions get in the way, are consequences of not taking into account all the relevant facts, are consequences of evading certain facts. So most of our failures, you know, put aside the failures that are the result of things that are outside of our control, although even there there's a lot more in your control than you think. Failures, in a sense you are responsible for them, they're always consequence of failures in your own thinking. There are always consequences of not doing the thinking right, of not going through, thinking things through, of not looking at all the facts, examining all the facts, evaluating all the facts, integrating all the facts, taking context into account. This is life and death. This is the way in which we survive. This is the tool that evolution has given us to survive. The trick is none of it is automatic. None of it just happens. None of it is just, oh, it just happens. You have to choose it. You have to initiate it. You have to engage with it. You have to actually exert energy in order to make it happen. Thinking is not automatic. It is the fundamental activity the choice is required for. When Hamlet says to be or not to be, the essential thing he's saying is to think or not to think. Now, Hamlet is the type, for those of you who've read Hamlet, who can't decide, who's totally obsessed by more information, more information. He knows the truth. He's got enough information for the truth, but he evades it. He doesn't want to recognize it. He doesn't want to acknowledge it. That his father's brother killed his father and married his mother. It shakes me after all. It's complicated, right? But he doesn't want to acknowledge that. He wants, he purposely evades it. He is a man of inaction. He is a man who doesn't take his reason seriously. He broods instead of thinking and acting.  He can't handle the truth. And therefore he evades it. And the one thing in objectivism, you have to take from this is the truth matters. The truth is the only thing in the sense that matters to your life. And that you must learn to handle the truth. You must only deal with truth. I mean, one of the things you should be careful of is dealing with rumour, dealing with indian innuendo, dealing with half truths, half facts, half information. To be selfish means to be a truth seeker. It means that I'm committed to the facts. I'm committed to reality. I'm committed to the truth. I won't accept anything short of the truth. I won't accept anything short than reality. And I won't evade it. I won't ignore it. I won't turn my back to it. That is what it means to live a good life. That is the objectivist morality in a nutshell. Because as we'll see, every other virtue, every other universal human virtue is a derivative, is an application, is an aspect of this first one. It's an aspect of be rational. If you had a boil of the objectivist ethics into one idea, it's be rational. Think, think, think. That's what life commands of you. Commands is a wrong word, of course. That's what life requires of you. That's what being human means. It means that thinking is required for your survival, for your existence. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, wins, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist roads. All right. Before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now, 30 likes. That should be at least 100. I figure at least 100 of you actually like the show.  But at least the people who like it, you know, I want to see a thumbs up. There you go. Start liking it. I want to see that go to 100. All it takes is a click of a thing, whether you're looking at this. And you know, the likes matter. It's not an issue of my ego. It's an issue of the algorithm. The more you like something, the more the algorithm likes it. So, you know, if you don't like the show, give it a thumbs down. Let's see your actual views being reflected in the likes. But if you like it, don't just sit there, help get the show promoted. Of course, you should also share and you can support the show at your own book show.com slash support on Patreon or subscribe star or locals and show your support for all, for the work, for the value, hopefully you're receiving from this.  You'll know what shows are on when they're on, you'll get notified. So, yes, like, share, subscribe, support, like share, subscribe, support. There you go. Easy. Do one, all of those, please.


September 21, 2020, the Evergreen packaging paper mill in Canton, North Carolina.  During September 2020, the Evergreen packaging paper mill was undergoing a planned shutdown during which maintenance work was occurring throughout the facility. In one of the mill's units, a contract company known as BLASTCO was performing repairs in a vessel called an upflow tower. Another contract company, RIMCORE, was working in a different vessel called a downflow tower. The two vessels were connected at the top by a large diameter pipe. BLASTCO was tasked with repairing approximately 30 feet of the inside surface of the upflow tower, which was made of a material comprised of fiberglass matting and epoxy vinyl ester resin, otherwise known as fiber reinforced plastic, or FRP. To repair the tower, the contractors would grind away the old damaged material, then apply alternating sheets of new fiberglass with layers of resin. The rate at which the resin hardens depends on several factors, including ambient temperature. The resin hardens faster in warmer temperatures. On the other hand, the resin takes longer to harden in cooler weather. And this is what BLASTCO workers experienced on the night of September 20. On the particularly cool night, the resin and fiberglass matting slid down the walls of the upflow tower before the resin could harden. BLASTCO workers attempted several means of troubleshooting the resin, but were ultimately unsuccessful and continued to struggle. Sometime after 2 AM on September 21, two BLASTCO workers resorted to using an electric heat gun to warm the resin, causing it to harden faster. The BLASTCO crew did not communicate to Evergreen or the RIMCORE contractors working in the connected tower that they were using the heat gun. At approximately 5.15 AM, the heat gun fell into a five-gallon bucket of the flammable resin.  The BLASTCO workers inside the tower did not have a fire extinguisher or other means to put out the fire. They quickly evacuated. Smoke and flames from the fire traveled rapidly through the connecting pipe to the downflow tower, where two RIMCORE contractors were working. They were overcome by the smoke and unable to escape. Both workers were fatally injured. During its investigation, the CSB identified four safety issues that led to the incident at Evergreen packaging. Hot work safety, pre-job planning, confined space safety, and combustible materials of vessel construction. The CSB found that the heat gun could produce temperatures in excess of the resin's flashpoint and auto-ignition temperatures. Therefore, it should have been recognized as an ignition source, and its use should have been considered hot work under both Evergreens and BLASTCO's definitions. But BLASTCO workers did not recognize the use of the heat gun as a hot work hazard because it did not produce a flame or spark, and they did not inform Evergreen or RIMCORE of its use. Had BLASTCO recognized the use of the heat gun as hot work, their own procedures would not have allowed its use in a confined space in the presence of flammable resin. Another safety issue identified by the CSB was a lack of pre-job planning. BLASTCO workers were not sufficiently prepared to apply resin during cold weather and did not have a plan to safely troubleshoot the problem of the resin hardening too slowly. For example, the CSB found that BLASTCO had two drum heating bands available at the time of the incident that could have safely warmed the resin in a drum outside the upflow tower, negating the need for the heat gun. But because these drum heating bands were not identified during pre-job planning as equipment workers might need, they were not staged for use, and BLASTCO workers could not locate them. As a result, workers resorted to using a heat gun instead, which ultimately ignited the resin inside the upflow tower. Hot work should be avoided if a safer alternative is available. Effective pre-job planning could have prevented this incident. BLASTCO could have used a troubleshooting guide to address the cold weather or may have been able to delay the work until ambient temperatures were warmer. A third safety issue identified by the CSB was confined space safety. The upflow and downflow towers at Evergreen Packaging were permit-required confined spaces. OSHA requires that a confined space entry be terminated whenever, among other conditions, a condition that is not allowed under the entry permit arises in or near the permit space. BLASTCO's confined space policy contained a similar requirement. The heat gun, an ignition source, constituted a condition that was not allowed under the entry permit, but BLASTCO did not recognize the ignition hazard. Therefore, BLASTCO did not terminate its confined space entry when the heat gun was introduced into the space. And the CSB found that Evergreen BLASTCO and RIMCORE treated the upflow and downflow towers as separate and independent confined spaces, even though the towers were connected by a crossover pipe. Interviews with each contracting company revealed both companies separately conducted safety analyses for the vessel in which they were completing work and were only minimally aware of the work being done in the other vessel. But the CSB found that since the two towers constituted a single confined space and BLASTCO's and RIMCORE's entries were simultaneous, the two maintenance tasks constituted simultaneous operations, or SIMOPS. SIMOPS can be defined as operations occurring close together in time and place, which might interfere or clash with one another, increasing the risks of the activities or introducing new risks altogether. But Evergreen did not have a SIMOPS program in place at the time of the incident, which would have facilitated coordination between the two contractors who were performing work close together in time and place. The last safety issue identified by the CSB was the use of combustible materials of construction in the upflow tower and crossover line. The five-gallon bucket of resin that the heat gun fell into did not contain enough fuel to create a fire of the size and duration that occurred during the incident. The CSB found that the upflow tower and crossover line, which were constructed of combustible FRP, both caught fire. This contributed to the quick spread of smoke and flames to the downflow tower, where the two RIMCORE employees were fatally injured. As a result of its investigation into the incident at Evergreen packaging, the CSB made a recommendation to OSHA to issue a safety information product addressing the analysis and control of hazards that are not pre-existing, but which result from work activities inside permit-required confined spaces. The agency also recommended OSHA require owner operators to ensure the coordination of simultaneous operations involving multiple work groups, including contractors. And the CSB reiterated a previous recommendation to OSHA to publish a safety and health information bulletin addressing the hazards and controls when using flammable materials in confined spaces.


you know one thing that I look at when I see Aaron and I saw the team just pour out on the field when he hit that home run as far as I could tell certainly you know much better than any of us I don't think anybody begrudged him that no one was jealous nobody I don't think was rooting against him he seems like he's universally respected and adored in that clubhouse which you know you've been in the game your whole life I think that's rare for a superstar am I right yeah I mean I don't want to say rare but I mean he is look nobody's perfect so I don't want to you know you know put him on this hill but he's such an awesome teammate and like you know and I've said it to you guys I've been saying in the bunch the last couple of months when people asked me about like and why I think he's was so good at handling it and dealing with it and why I say he's cut out for it is he really at his core you know just wants to be a great teammate and win and I think as a result that it really does simplify things for him and he lives that every day that I've known him is like man I want to be a great teammate and it's it's so awesome getting to manage a player of his caliber that cares about his team as much as he does and it's and it's frankly unselfish as he is when it comes to you know the season and everything and I just you know work we really are lucky to have him Peter and I talked about it game one of the doubleheader on Tuesday when he threw his helmet he swung at the first pitch and for the five at bats and the Michael came on after the game and said it as well that to me from a far look like the first game where it really the stress showed would you agree with that I don't know I honestly just living it every single day it just it didn't you never saw that from him so like in the there never seemed to be this added pressure you know yes when you get in there and obviously he wants to get it done so but he shows those every now and then you just you don't you're not micro it's not in a microscope as much as it is these last few weeks so he comes back to the dugout and shoves his helmet in there it'll say something every now and then so yeah he wanted it but honestly I even even in hindsight I don't think it was weighing on him that much yes a little bit and he wanted to get it done for everyone and you know obviously the following around and the ball change out and just all the hoopla around it of course he wanted to get it over with but honestly I don't think it was weighing on him that that much now you kind of made news a couple of questions back because on the show and then on the show with John Aiman and Joel Sherman you said that Gary Cole was your number one starter that was like a week and a half ago now you're not announcing it yet so what has changed are you considering not having him as your number one starter well I mean I think when I said it on there it was kind of like you know is he you're yeah yeah but you know you guys always that's why you get vague answers sometimes because you want to pin us down two weeks ahead of time a month ahead of time I mean the the reality is is we got a ton of great choices now and I feel like you know where Seve is where Garrett is where Nestor is like I feel good walking into the series like I said earlier about anyone you know I think I know which way I want to go but I want to at least you know kind of you know sleep on a little bit talk to different people you know before ultimately making the decision and again I'm leaning towards making that decision sooner rather than later so I can get these guys lined up and get them into there when they throw their sides if they're going to throw alive how much and those kind of things so I lean doing it announcing it early but but I'm also you know I want to make sure that I have the right discussions it and sleep on it properly is Garrett Cole standing as your highest paid player does that come into play and is doesn't make it tough if you say okay I want Nestor of course that's our game one where you got explained to the media and explained to Cole okay you're not the game one starter although you're the guy no I think all our guys are well are on board and will be on board you know with whatever way we go I think this is a really focused group right now I think you know what we went through and in the second half and in the month of August and then really rallied there in the month of September to pull away and win the division I think we're we're as a group of singular mind and it's about winning and and trying to win a championship and try and get 11 more wins now and I think we're all on board with that and I think whatever way I go those conversations will be easy to have and and I'm gonna do what I think is best for us as a team moving forward and the reality is we'll get to the end you know the three guys we're talking about are all gonna play an enormous role these last three games for Stan Aaron is that enough of a sample size to believe he's starting to come around I sure hope so encouraging to see it and you know the one thing about G is he does you know he knows what he needs to do he knows where he needs to get he knows you know where he was looking you know as far as getting himself in the best possible position to to be ready to go in a few more days here so I do feel like he's moving in a really good direction I feel like physically he's in as you know continues to be in a better spot and we started to see that timing start to sync up a little bit in the last few days which is really encouraging they'll work really hard you know getting live looks here in these next several days and when he's right we know we obviously know what what a difference maker he is and and and you know he's he's one of those guys that can change a series just with his his presence and his ability do you plan on a starting judge is a lead-off guy are you leading him off all that time to get a more batch for the home runs no it got to be a little bit of both at the end but but in the mouth I think it kind of depends on who we all get back you know Ben attendees gonna be you know maybe probably at best here so you know we'll see what's all available to us as a team but I probably lean him in the lead-off spot you know it depending on how many lefties I'm able to have also in the lineup can let me just play devil's advocate on that so the bottom of your order is not it's not you know the offensive fulcrum of your team and when you look at the numbers and the slug that Aaron judge had and he had 130 ruby it almost seems like he should have had 160 rubies are you taking RBI opportunities away from him by batting him first he's getting that extra at bat but sometimes he's coming up with nobody on base yeah I mean you can't have it all Michael yeah but you want it all don't you you want it all of course I mean DJ LeMay he was getting on at a 400 clip in the first right before he got injured and it was a he was an easy guy to lead off we had Andrew Ben attending who's a you know 380 390 on base guy that's a real lead-off option at the top you had that benefit as well so if all of a sudden who do you lead off then you know do you put Rizzo in the lead-off spot you know if you put a left-handed batter in the lead-off spot now all of a sudden probably the next seven out of eight hitters are right-handed so you have no no semblance of balance at all you know and the reality is if John Carlos you know swing the bat the way he's starting to show and obviously the way we know and if Riz and Labor Torres continued you know obviously Glabors in such a good spot now despite this in a few games there with the illness the last few days if they're swinging the bat the way they're capable of then we got something and I'll take Aaron judge being on base for those guys a ton now if if all of a sudden like a Ben and Tendi comes into play or whatever and you're able to create some more balance or man I got a real lead-off option maybe I do slip them back to second or even third now do you believe that yesterday it was reported in the paper that after the game LeMay look like he was limping do you think he's a viable option for Tuesday or are you worried we'll see we'll see he's getting some more treatments done now through this through these next few days so we'll see I do think he's compromised you know I even said that in the game he got two hits and a wall you know it's like man he's he's compromised and you can see that so we'll just have to you know that'll be something that we obviously see and see how the treatments go here over the next four or five days and make a call there how about carpenter carpenter I think I think is gonna be an option I think I expect him to be on the roster you know maybe not a real option in the field in the first round but definitely I think a bullet off the bench it's certainly trending in that direction all right now to down to business Colts getting three in Denver tonight this is big you're three and one on Thursday night picks by the way oh yeah okay so I don't have to deal with the no no I don't really love this game Taylor's out for the cold yeah I'd like to think that we get some momentum gone for Russell Martin is a receiving core I lean the under in this what's the total Russell Wilson Russell Wilson Russell Martin no because you're a baseball no he's allowed to make that I'm not mad because he's in a baseball you right now he's in a baseball space yeah we don't we don't do totally over here but he could do what he wants it's his show what is the total I don't know I can guess I was gonna get it 42 you know what no hook let's go with the home team we're taking the Broncos this week one more a baseball question did Chapman show you enough to be on the roster tell everybody on your show yeah gotta Michael we got five days yeah five days are we gonna have 12 we have 13 pitchers you know we gotta decide on that you know gotta make sure want these good homes is good all you know these guys that are in the mix and you know we'll have those roster meetings you know in earnest you know over the next couple days but then you know as we get into Sunday and Monday and we know the opponent you know that's that's gonna factor in so I don't want to reveal anything yet because because I honestly I don't know know quite yet all right so let me get deep into the strategic baseball weeds here let's say that LeMay you is on the roster I know you love the way Donaldson plays defense and the possibility of slug there Labor's been your hottest player other than Aaron judge and it looks like Stanton can only d8s can't play the outfield so how would you get him in would he just be a pinch it off the bench yeah DJ yeah I mean yeah probably initially as a bat off the bench it's again it depends it depends four days from now might be a lot different because we've been holding back on some treatments that you know we've been waiting on so I gotta see where we're at I mean it could be everything from not on so on as an option off the bench do a real option as a starter I hate to be really vague but like we're days away from that honestly Aaron let me ask you a question you can actually answer yeah what what did you say to Savvy when you took him out of the game how tough is that when when someone's bringing stuff like that and playing that well you could see he didn't even want to make eye contact with you what was that conversation yeah it was man it was an easy decision for me because it was after the seventh inning had it been after the eighth inning that's where it would have been a tough decision for me because I basically said look and he kind of knew he was in that 90 pitch range 90 was kind of where we're going the other day and I think he ended up going to 94 at the end of that any song I got kind of thought that's heavy I know you want to be out there and he goes up you know he tells me I want to die out there and I said hey we got much bigger things to come we need you I said if I if I send you out there for this and you get too worried we're talking about 120 25 130 pitches there's no way I'm letting you go there you know it'd be irresponsible of me to do that so nice going and then you know it but but still you make that decision and the guy's throwing the way he is right there it's still weighs on you and after the fact I felt like it man it just kind of hurt me to do it but it was a fairly easy decision for me and actually I appreciated Sevy swinging back by me like five minutes later and said hey man I understand and so I was appreciative of that but yeah anytime a guy's throwing the ball like that it's our decision but had it been the eighth inning then it would have been a real difficult decision to me and I would have actually probably sent him out for the ninth had it been the eighth if you let him roll though I mean his stuff was so filthy he probably does get to know it or he said a thousand percent he would have yeah a thousand percent so yeah I would have been like yeah might have might have turned it into a perfect game at a thousand yeah well he just had that one walk he did face the minimum batters he was amazing will Stan be able to play the outfield for you I don't know I think I think there is a chance that that's in play but just with would not being able to do it at all you know it's hard for me to think that I would you know start them in a game out there but you know as an emergency option possibly before we finish up people should know this I'm a huge sports fan not just a manager the Yankees this is an unbelievable sports weekend you've got the four wildcard series you've got your beloved us e Trojans playing you've got your beloved Philadelphia Eagles playing what game are you most excited about man that's a great question I always go USC first because that's the heart watching Cleveland and camp yeah that's my heart Cleveland and Tampa will be will be paying close attention to but you know we'll be at the ballpark for a lot of these so we'll be kind of in and out on them and then of course the Eagles in the desert kind of kind of those orders so let's just make like a scintilla of news on your show who do you want to win guardians raise who would you rather play Aaron are you gonna tell us that you know what I'm always careful what you wish for so we'll we'll get ready for whoever we got and try and put our best foot forward now we broke a new ground on this show I'll tell you that we did get the Broncos out of you which is good but a good friend doesn't ask that question right right I can't say that I'm gonna do it in 24 hours I said a good friend doesn't ask that question you know what you know bring me out on Monday you know we'll try and reveal you know a lot of stuff on the show beautiful get the cough better enjoy your weekend all right thanks guys sorry sorry to not reveal much you know if your show you know your show it's got to get big ratings you got to reveal stuff on it