Safety | ***Dave Does the Blog

On demolishing Columbine High School

The proposal seems driven part by safety, party by fear.

There is apparently very serious talk about tearing down Columbine HS, not all that far away from where I live. Though it’s been twenty years (!) since the mass shooting at the campus, it remains an icon of … admiration? … among some disturbed folk, and the idea is that tearing down the school will break that cycle by, um, removing it as a focal point, a pilgrimage site for folk unhealthily obsessed and admiring of the killings by the Klebold kids.

Except … yeah, not so much.

First, while the 1999 killings placed an indelible stain upon the name and site, the school itself has been in operation since 1973. That’s nearly a half-century (!) of students, whose heritage would be torn down — including the heritage of the last two decades of community coming back from something so awful.

Second … the proposal is acting by half-measures. The idea is to tear down almost all of the school, but leave the library, and then build a new school adjacent to that on the property, but still call it Columbine … and still have the memorial at the site.

Um … and this is going to somehow keep the whackadoodles from being attracted to the place … how now?

It’s not like we’re Pharaoh, ordering all evidence of Columbine HS to be eradicated. I mean, if you’re going to do this, you raze the whole place, sell the property to a commercial developer, build a new school someplace nearby, call it something different … and, yeah, you probably want to get rid of the memorial, too. You erase everything, and so there’s nothing there for the disturbed to relate to.

Conversely, third … why would you give the Klebold kids the final victory, destroying the place they wanted to make their violent heritage in shooting up?

When terrorists took down the World Trace Center, proposals to leave the site in a flattened condition were roundly, and rightly, rejected. Tearing down Columbine HS, under the proposal, is a halfway measure at best, and sends precisely the wrong message.

Ultimately, it’s not my decision. It’s the decision of the people of and around the school. I hope they choose wisely.

Do you want to know more?

Because now is the PERFECT time to expand vaccine exemptions

In apparent reaction to the measles epidemic going on in the Pacific Northwest — caused, it seems, by enough kids being opted out of measles vaccines that herd immunity has been compromised — the bold GOP leadership of the state of Arizona is acting courageously and forthrightly on the matter: by expanding opt-out exemptions for vaccines.

Disregarding warnings by public health officials, an Arizona legislative panel on Thursday endorsed three bills that critics say will erode immunization coverage among Arizona schoolchildren. The House Health and Human Services Committee approved all three bills in contentious 5-4 votes that were split along party lines, with Republicans favoring the measures and Democrats voting in opposition.
[…] One of the measures — House Bill 2470 — not only expands vaccine exemption categories in Arizona, it gives parents additional leeway by removing the requirement that they sign a state health department form to get a vaccine exemption. “When a parent only has a government statement that they have to sign in order to qualify for an exemption that they don’t agree with, that is coercion. This allows them to either sign that or make their own statement,” said committee chairwoman Rep. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, who sponsored all three bills. “We are talking about a policy decision now for parents and we should attribute the best expectations on parents, not the worst.”
[…] Barto maintains the three bills she sponsored are about parental rights and freedom, and not about making any kind of a judgment on whether vaccines are good or bad. “We are here to acknowledge vaccines have a place, but it’s every parent’s individual right to decide the vaccine’s place in the child’s life,” Barto told committee members.

Which would be all fine and good if the choice to vaccinate only affected the kids in question. But that decision affects everyone — every child, baby, adult, especially those with compromised immune systems — that child will come in contact with.

Barto said the bills are about patients and she’s upset that some people who choose not to vaccinate their children, or who question vaccines are being bullied. “We shouldn’t have that type of attitude towards one another,” she said. “It’s not a one size fits all option for every child. … We need to look at the data, look at the science and recognize that there’s research on both sides. That’s my aim here, to strike that balance.”

No, really, there’s not “research on both sides.” Vaccinations work, the risks the carry are minimal, and the lives potentially saved are not just the kids being “protected” by anti-science parents, but the lives of everyone they touch.

Safety First!

This is hysterical… and unintentionally poignant. https://t.co/D0LF3SKOjT
— Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) February 8, 2019

This is hysterical… and unintentionally poignant. https://t.co/D0LF3SKOjT

Because of course Trump wants more nukes and less nuke worker safety

Donald is ramping up production of more nuclear warheads, while at the same time slashing the size and the authority of the agency tasked with making sure nuclear warhead production is safe.

Because of course he is.

White House Hobbles Nuclear Weapons Safety Agency
As Trump calls for new bomb production, the administration cuts safety board access to nuclear facilities

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User Interface Needs Work

This is the ground floor panel setup for the elevator for the parking structure by our nearby movie theater. It always takes me at least five seconds to figure out which flipping button to press to summon the car.

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On guns and responsibility

Jim Wright, once again, nails the matter on the head. If you own a device designed to kill, then you are responsible for making sure that doesn’t happen. (Heck, we have a legal framework of responsibility at that level for devices we own that aren’t designed to kill.)

That’s not a final, ultimate solution for gun violence, but, as Wright points out, drunk driving laws aren’t a final, ultimate solution for DUI fatalities — but nobody suggests that they are useless or should be abolished.

Bang Bang Crazy, Part 14: The Cowardice of Responsibility

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The Chemical Plant Margin Must Flow (Scott Pruitt Edition)

2013 is only five years ago, folks. But Scott Pruitt is driving the EPA to roll back the additional regulations imposed after a Texas plant blew up and killed a bunch of people.

Aside from gutting how manufacturing plants need to plan and report on potentially hazardous materials and incidents regarding them, my “favorite” part is where residential neighbors of such plants cannot be allowed to know about toxic or explosive or otherwise menacing materials at the plants because … terrorists might learn about it.

washingtonpost

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Because OF COURSE the Trump Admin wants to roll back child labor laws

“Are there no work houses?”

Now, to be sure, what’s being discussed are some easing of regulations on edge cases, in the context of apprenticeships. The argument is made, for example, that if once someone turns 18 they can operate hazardous machinery full-time, why have stringent restrictions on an apprentice who is only 17½? Or 17? Or 16?

Well, maybe for the same reason we have other hard-and-fast cutoffs, even if you can point to individual cases where they don’t work. We don’t say, “Hey, since you can binge-drink at 21, then at 20 you can drink up to X amount of alcohol per day, under supervision.” Because the situation is inherently open to abuse.

And open to the slippery slope, too. Why stop at 16? And if it’s okay within an apprenticeship program, and if, well, keeping close watch on teens doing this stuff is hard, why not allow it outside of apprenticeship programs, so that all poor teenagers can work full time for their welfare, instead of just sponging off the system?

Are there ways that this could be done carefully, cautiously, in limited fashion, and in ways that won’t lead to teenagers being killed on the job? I’m sure there probably are. Do I trust that the Donald Trump Dept. of Labor is going to make sure that’s the case, vs. simply giving companies access to cheap teen-aged labor and justifying workfare requirements? I’m sure I do not.

Trump Administration Wants to Train Teens in ‘Hazardous’ Jobs
The Labor Department plans to unwind decades-old youth labor protections by allowing teenagers to work longer hours under some of the nation’s most hazardous workplace conditions, sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg Law.

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Safety First!

Of course, this is not something that happens frequently. But it’s the sort of thing that can happen — even to ostensibly “trained” “professionals” who are acting with deliberate intent and with an eye toward safety.

Putting more guns on more teachers in more classrooms is hypothetically a way to possibly address one danger. But it clearly introduces a new one.

#guns

Gun-trained teacher ‘accidentally’ discharges firearm in Calif. classroom, officials say, injuring student – The Washington Post
One student was reportedly treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

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Keep Your Friends Close (Trump Edition)

In personal businesses (leaving aside crime mobs), personal relationship is everything. People you know are the people you know, and the only ones from whom you can expect loyalty from. Outside experts are, by definition, outsiders, and cannot be trusted because they are not, first and foremost, people in your circle.

So this kind of behavior — “Hey, this guy flies my plane, he says hi to me whenever I get on board, once he brought me a bowl of peanuts and he let me sit in the co-pilots chair, so of course he’s the best guy to run the FAA” — is completely what I would expect from Trump. And, by the same token, I expect it to blow up in his face (and/or the nation’s face) as a result.

John Dunkin may be an incredible pilot, and he might even surprise me by being a fantastic FAA Administrator. But the two do not automatically go together, and the president’s apparent top criteria for nomination — personal acquaintance and expected personal loyalty — do not fill me with confidence.

[h/t +Stan Pedzick]

Exclusive: Trump privately pushing personal pilot to run FAA
The agency has a budget in the billions and oversees all civil aviation in the U.S.

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Why you can’t get Kinder Eggs in the United States

And why you’ll be able to sorta-kinda next year.

I already knew much of this from a recent encounter with the confection. In Spring 2016 +Kay Hill‘s high school band and orchestra went on a very fun trip to Austria and Germany (with an array of family and friends along with). On our last day, in Germany, the tour guide presented the kids with Kinder Eggs, which led to the discussion of why they are illegal in the US.

There were no problems with any of the kids bringing them through customs, as the eggs were consumed within about thirty seconds. Because teenagers.

Anyway, a lengthy video, but some interesting history.

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Americans want to be heroes, not care workers

An interesting article on an interesting observation: Americans go gangbusters to help in an emergency — throwing donations, giving blood, doing the heavy lifting to help people in crisis survive. Heroic stuff, absolutely necessary, highly laudable.

But when it comes to the proactive steps needed to keep emergencies from happening … welllllll, not so much. Regular donations to disaster relief organizations, vs one-off checks … encouraging zoning laws, rather than dealing with the floods or fires that result when they’re ignored … eating healthy, instead of just getting cardiac surgery when our arteries clog up … taking steps to help prevent homelessness, rather than dealing with the homeless when a winter cold snap threatens lives … maintaining bridges, as opposed to building new ones …

… we all love the beau geste, the heroic response, the one-off effort that takes care of the particular acute problem we face. That’s a lot more fun (or a lot less drudgery) than dealing with chronic early-stage problems that are preventable or can be managed or paid for (even if more efficiently) on a drudging, day-to-day basis.

I’ve seen this over and over in volunteer organizations: if there’s an emergency, a crisis, something huge, people step up to save the day. But try to get them to step up for just the normal ongoing grunt work? You can hear the crickets chirping.

I don’t know if it’s a particularly American quirk, or a human one. It’s not efficient or effective. But it’s how we do things.

How Americans View Natural Disasters
Stephanie Zvan introduced me to Minnesota activist Sigrid Ellis, who put out a series of tweets that are really spot-on. I’d never thought about this before, but she’s absolutely right. Americans love to help when disaster hits — and that’s great — but we don’t want to do the hard work to help in the …

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Houston keeps flooding. And it’s not going to get better.

People always talk about how crazy it is that folk still build near the Mississippi and other major rivers, or along coastlines that are subject to storm surges and the like.

Meet Houston.

This very cool interactive report was published last December, and it basically paints a damning picture of politicians, public, and developers who …

… don’t believe that the increasing number of storm and flood events are a sign of the future (let alone that climate change is making things worse), and therefore don’t have to be planned for.

… think that paving over increasing amounts of land, causing water to simply run off downhill to the next set of houses and businesses, is a needful sacrifice in the cause of “economic growth.”

… believe that developing housing tracts and businesses in known flood plains or right up against reservoir basins, is not only a fine and profitable idea, not only aligned with American ideals of entrepreneurship and profit, but is their God-given Constitutional Right, so that they’ll sue anyone before they let communist concepts like “zoning” or “watr retention requirements” or “developer fees” or “taxes” get in the way of their doing so.

… if they actually do think there may be some problem, believe that a few simple widenings of existing flood control channels, or maybe adding another flood reservoir, somewhere, some time in the future, paid for by someone else (certainly not anyone who’s going to raise taxes to do so) will take care of the problem in plenty of time, even if all the development activity continues unabated.

This isn’t true of everyone in the area, but it seems to be true of enough of them that the problem just keeps getting worse, and worse.

Which makes the hypocrisy of Texas politicians who snorted, scoffed, and opposed disaster relief to places like the NY/NJ area after Superstorm Sandy, but now are begging for help for Houston and related environs, even bigger hypocrites than might be supposed. Because while the immediate need is very real, to a very large degree (even in the face of an incredible storm like Harvey) it’s a long-developing, long-term problem that has local, very human causes — and apparently little interest or will to solve.

When Climate Change Meets Sprawl: Why Houston’s ‘Once-In-A-Lifetime’ Floods Keep Happening
Unchecked development remains a priority in the famously un-zoned city, creating short-term economic gains for some, but long term flood risk for everyone.

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Chop-chop!

So there’s been a patented device / technique on the market since the 2000s that makes table saws significantly safer than they currently are, stopping the blade within milliseconds of contact with human skin. The inventor has been arguing with table saw manufacturers about it since then. Even the manufacturers agree that it will reduce injuries (and 4700 people in the US in 2015 lost a finger or other body part due to a potentially preventable table saw injury).

The problem is, none of the manufacturers want to add it to the cost of a new table saw (“Jobs!”) — and, more importantly, none of them want to pay the inventor royalties on the patent.

Now the question is whether the Consumer Product Safety Commission will make the technology mandatory on new table saws? Or, if they don’t, will table saw manufacturers face a wave of law suits for selling a fixably dangerous product (as they already have started to)?

This seems particularly irksome a matter, given that the patents on the device start to expire in 2021; at most, any royalty agreement would impact 3-4 years of manufacture. That’s kind of a shame, but it seems a small price to pay to protect people’s bodily integrity over time.

I admit that, though I’ve used a table saw for years, I still kind of get the wiggins whenever I use one. That wouldn’t necessarily stop if I had a compliant device (one problem with any such scheme is that older equipment will remain in shops for years, esp. at home), but I’d maybe feel a little better. That’s probably not a great argument for pushing forward a government regulation, but since there’s a compelling safety reason as well, I’m more than okay with it.

We Know Where You Are

Actually looks like a reasonable app to download amidst the family. Might be useful when wandering about separately shopping or at an amusement park, too.

Google’s new “Trusted Contacts” app lets you keep tabs on family
New “personal safety app” another way to share location with friends and family.

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Do you need to unplug chargers when not in use?

Not if your goal is to save energy, as the drain is beyond minimal.

Now, if you're worried that a plugged in charger is going to burst into flames in the middle of the night, set fire to the house, and kill you and your loved ones … well, that's a different research question.

(h/t +J. Steven York)

Originally shared by +Meirav M.:

well, there's one less thing to worry about!
h/t +Keith Wilson.

Tested: Should You Unplug Chargers When You’re Not Using Them?
How much energy do your smartphone, laptop, and tablet chargers really use? Should you unplug them when you aren’t using them to save power and money? We measured exactly how much power a variety of common chargers use, and how much keeping them plugged in will cost your each year.

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Safety First!

I missed out on the really dangerous chemistry sets, but I'm pretty sure that I only escaped serious death and injury from the one I had because my cohort in chemistry stuff in the MGM program in elementary school, Jim Merino, was too busy goofing around with me to actually do something requiring roll on the miscibility table …

#chemistrysets

Originally shared by +Les Jenkins:

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
We now go into week two of our most surprisingly successful book launch ever. At this point, just about every damn thing gets signed. The signing process will actually kill me, so please enjoy the upcoming final few months of SMBC.

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Just because "stuff happens," you don't just pass a law

Unless it's 9/11. Or laws Jeb! himself signed. But not about guns. Never about guns. Never, ever, EVER about guns. Because "stuff happens."

You Don’t Pass a Pool Fencing Law After a Child Drowns, Says Jeb, Who Did Just That
“Stuff happens” was the dumbest and most unfortunate thing Jeb! Bush said Friday in reaction to the mass shooting at an Oregon community college one day earlier, but his fumbling attempt to clean up that mess was nearly as rife with dumbitude and non-fortune.

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Think of the interns!

Goldman Sachs, out of the benevolence of their heart (and, perhaps, concerned about law suits), restricts their summer interns to 17 hour work days. It's good to see compassionate conservatism at work.

Goldman Sachs restricts intern workday to 17 hours in wake of burnout death
The benevolent firm introduced new work hours for summer interns after Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern died from seizure induced by all-nighters

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Yes, wearing your seat belt is important

Even if you're a good driver. Because someone may rear-end you into the lane where a truck is oncoming.

Originally shared by +Les Jenkins:

Ouch.

Dash cam reveals the human bouncing that happens inside a car crash
Thankfully, it’s okay to laugh a little at this scary footage of a man bouncing around inside his car while a SUV rear ends him into an oncoming semi truck. That’s because Daryl Peterson, the driver in the car, managed to walk away from the crash without a scratch or any injury at all. Thank God for airbags and seatbelts.

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