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John C. Morley: (00:08)
Hi everyone. I'm John C. Morley, the host of the JMOR Tech Talk Show and inspirations for your Life.
John C. Morley: (01:02)
Well, hi, everyone. It is John C. Morley here, Serial entrepreneur. Welcome once again to the JMOR Tech Talk show. And I guess I should be saying to everyone, happy August. Where did June go? Where did July go? And I know I'm going to say, where did the summer go? We have another amazing show just for you guys tonight. There has been a lot happening. I mean, a lot. So the first topic that I would like to discuss tonight is Bolt. Bolt has vanished, leaving e-bikes and pretty much-unanswered calls. So, I mean, what's really with this? Because I think it's a problem, all across the US, it was a Miami-based micro-mobility start-up. They were co-founded by Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt, who appears to have vanished without a trace from several of the US markets as well.
John C. Morley: (02:17)
So the departure was very abrupt, leaving cities with abandoned equipment, unanswered calls and emails, and many questions. According to many city officials, Bolt has stopped operating in at least five US cities, including Portland, Oregon, Burlington, South Burlington, and Winn Esaki in Vermont, Richmond, and California. And the representative said they could not reach anyone at Bolt, including its CEO Ignacio Tuamus if I'm saying that correctly. Tech Crunch even made multiple tens to reach Bolt and didn't get anywhere. And others that had backed the company emailed Bolt's communication department, and several employees and investors went unanswered. Even the customer service line doesn't appear to be staffed. The PR agency representing Bolt in March of this year told tech Crunch it's no longer working with the company. Bolt Holds its service in Portland, Oregon, on July 1.
John C. Morley: (03:27)
And the company's failure to provide the city with updated insurance and pay some outstanding fees. According to a city spokesperson, Portland subsequently suspended bolts permit to operate there. So Bolt Mobility is not to be misconstrued with the European Transportation Super App, also named Bolt because that's been causing some challenges on what appeared to be a growth streak about 18 months ago. The company acquired, in January 2021, the assets of Last Mile Holdings, which owned micro-mobility companies. Gotcha, OJO, Electric, and the purchaser opened up 48 new markets to bolt mobility, most of which were smaller cities such as Raleigh, North Carolina, St. Augustine, Florida, and Mobile. After purchasing last Miles assets, Alabama, Bolt agreed to continue as the bike share vendor in Trini County, Vermont, including Burlington, South Burlington, and Win Asaki. So not sure what happened or why they did, but I have to tell you something; I lost my respect for that Olympic medalist.
John C. Morley: (04:37)
I get they might have been having some hard times, but you can't just walk away. I mean, you have to give people an explanation, you know, like saying that, that you know, we're closing, or you could just say something, make some statement like, you know, we've been working with you guys for many years. We were just not getting the revenue anymore, and our company couldn't afford to stay open. I mean, be honest, right? Maybe somebody would've come out like a good Samaritan, and tried to help them, maybe who knows. And China, Yes. China's uncontrolled rocket crashes over the Indian Ocean. Oh, this is tragic. So China's uncontrolled long March 5 B Rocket re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, landing near Sarawak. The Malaysian state on the island of Borneo and the US command center confirmed the rocket's re-entry at 12:45 PM Eastern Time, but it remains unclear where to breeze landed in the translated post on Weibo.
John C. Morley: (05:46)
So China's Man space agency said the rocket re-entered near the same area and that most of it burned up on its way down. I don't know, this has me a little concerned, and this also means we shouldn't be jumping ship. I firmly believe we should build things in our own countries, okay? Because it's going to help our employees, it's going to help, you know, with the jobs, it's going to help with our economy, and we can count on our own country, right? But we can't count these other countries. We've already seen what kind of challenges many of them have put us into at no fault of their own, hopefully, but, you know, through just things they're doing because at the end of the day, they're going to do what they need to survive. Still, they don't care about us in America.
John C. Morley: (06:35)
So I think that's important to understand. And you know, when we think about, you know, this uncontrolled, this crash, I mean, I don't even know what to say about it. But it's a severe problem. And I don't know if they will take the right steps to handle this so that this doesn't have a problem. We'll have to see. So in the wireless communication market and t is about to get away with its bogus dollar 99 administrative fee. I just don't understand this big company sometimes. They quietly bite customers out of hundreds of millions of dollars with a bogus administrative fee, a fee that doubled to a dollar 99 a month in 2018. So for a few years there, a California class action lawsuit made it seem like 18 might finally get taken to task for this.
John C. Morley: (07:39)
What it may, both sides told the judge they'd settled for just 14 million. Customers may get less than 10% of what they paid ATT, while ATT gets to keep charging them. I just think that is terrible. And according to the settlement agreement in ATT Mobility, just about every ATT wireless postpaid customer in California since 2015 will be eligible for an estimated payment of between, get this, everyone, $15 and $29. Yes, let's not all spend it in the same spot. Okay? But that's only a micro fraction of what ATT's records show it charged $108 per customer on average since 2015; according to documents, the settlement represents a refund of approximately six to 11 months of the average fees. Meanwhile, the lawyers are likely to get 3.5 million. I just have to say that I'm not in love with many of these companies, Many wireless companies, I don't like many wireless companies.
John C. Morley: (08:42)
I mean that we have to use them, but they are terrible. I hear many people, you know, miss one date, shutting them down or raising fees, and it's just insane. The other ones are terrible, and it has to be the cable company that's not mentioning these. I mean, they just do whatever they want, and they raise fees, and it just, there needs to be some kind of a standard because they just rip people off because there's no one else to provide service in that area. So ATT and other companies start with a V, and other companies are around too. I feel that you know, the only ones winning here are the attorneys. And so I think our state, government, and country must put tighter FCC federal communication laws in place to protect consumers.
John C. Morley: (09:38)
Because I think this is just a bomb issue if you ask me. I don't know, ladies and gentlemen. And the US federal courts are hit with another data breach, another data breach. A breach hit the Federal Court's document system with a startling breath in early 2020. And according to a report from Politico, that city's testimony from the house judiciary committee chair General Nadler, the Department of Justice reportedly informed the judiciary about the breach in March and told lawmakers that the investigation is ongoing. Yeah, but you know what? I have to tell you something. I don't think our government; I don't think many people in this world know how to secure their assets. You think just because they're the government is just because they're this company or company, they're a bank.
John C. Morley: (10:37)
I have to tell you, some of the top people in the industry that you would expect to have that security don't remember I do this for a living. So it just makes me laugh that these companies run such a mess, a show that is just an abomination. And why is it that the consumers and the federal government continue to operate? Why do the consumers let the federal government get away with this? Why does our government operate like this? Why don't they do the right things? I know what it's like; I think it's because they're cheap.
John C. Morley: (11:20)
I've never been impressed with our government in the security they've had. I mean, we say we have this, we have that, but at the end of the day, I just don't think we're where we need to be. Other countries are far superior to where our government. I'm not talking about the rest of us and other companies in the private sector. I'm talking about our government because it is too run by politics, and they won't make a decision based on if, how, or why it might offend someone. I think we need to just get over that and move on because if we keep running our government like a political asylum, we will have many more serious issues than just a few breaches. We're going to have control issues; we're going to have cost issues; we're going to have resources that get shut down.
John C. Morley: (12:07)
We're talking about a lot of serious problems here. And the federal courts, I mean, would think they would wake up and understand what's going on. And I just don't know. I feel like we've got a bunch of people in these divisions that just don't know what they're doing. And then, you know, they blame it on this and that, but they don't take responsibility for their responsibility. They don't, or for their problems or what they do or don't do. So I think that is just a big mess. We'll have to follow what's happening with the US federal courts because I think that's an abomination. That is just really, really, really terrible. I mean, there's no other way to say that. In other news, New Jersey police use babies' DNA to investigate crimes and lawsuits. This is crazy that blood will be drawn from all newborns in the state for mandatory disease screenings and that it would be abused. And the New Jersey police may have used blood samples taken from babies to investigate crimes, according to the public defenders in the state. So I get that they're testing the blood, but it should have never gotten into the law's hands. That's private. And there was a lawsuit filed by the New Jersey office. So the public defender the practice came to light after a case in which New Jersey State Police successfully subpoenaed a testing lab for a blood sample drawn from a child. Police then performed a DNA analysis on the blood sample that reportedly linked the child's father to a crime committed more than 25 years ago.
John C. Morley: (13:58)
I think this is just so below the bell. I mean, really below the bell. So all babies born in New Jersey must have a blood sample drawn within 48 hours as part of a mandatory testing program that screens them for 60 different disorders. Okay? That's nice. And the samples are processed in a state-run lab, which shares data with the state health authority and communicates results to parents. That's a problem. I think information should be a lot more confidential. There's no right to be doing that. I think that's giving away our privacy.
John C. Morley: (14:38)
And you know, more and more people seem to be like, Oh, well, you know, that's the way the new world, that's how things are going. Yeah. Keep letting people do that, and you'll slowly just give away your privacy. And I think that's an issue. And you know, the fact that this is happening all over now and now there could be a possibility that your data from the hospital can be shared. And we already know that the government had issues with exploiting their data. We sure know that that's connected to the health database of the state too. So I don't have too much high regard for the way our country is managing, maintaining, and attempting to protect our data. I think it's a joke how they operate, and nobody's doing anything. Imagine going to a doctor and getting a thing, and then before you know it, they're taking samples to prove something. I mean, that's just wrong. That is just so wrong.
John C. Morley: (15:59)
It makes me speechless that we need to get things straightened out, and people need to know what's happening. None of this gained nonsense. You play bait and switch when you say you're doing one thing. Oh, well, we're doing a check on something. I'm sorry; I have lost respect for many states and their actions. And for those of you ladies and gentlemen that use Amazon Drive, the good news is they're putting all their resources into Amazon Photo and Amazon Drive. Well, it's being shut down on December 31, 2023. So if you are using Amazon Drive, I encourage you to go out to the site and download all your files because if you don't, guess what's going to happen before the end of December 31, 2023? You are going to lose all your data permanently.
John C. Morley: (16:55)
So they had two services. They still have Amazon photos when Amazon Drive. So Amazon Photo is a secure cloud storage service for photos and videos. Amazon Drive is a secure cloud storage service for most common file types. So let's talk about the difference. So the file types support on Amazon Drive are pdf, doc, zip, jpeg, png, MP four, et cetera. On Amazon, photos only support jpeg, PNG, and MP four. So that means that if you were trying to upload an Adobe Illustrator or an AI file, you would not be able to. So all Amazon customers without an Amazon Prime membership get five gigabytes of free storage. The storage can store photos, videos, or files using Amazon photos or Amazon Drive. Amazon Prime customers get five gigabytes of free storage to store videos or files and unlimited photo storage. So that's a pretty interesting thing, right?
John C. Morley: (17:58)
And we're going to have to see, you know, where are they going with this? And so in Amazon drive, you got the ability to do file storage, file sharing, and file preview in Amazon draw, Amazon photo, photo, and video storage, photo and video gallery, photo editor, photo and video sharing, family vault, photo sharing groups, search photos by people, places and things. I am concerned, though; what's Amazon doing with this data? And is this data confidential, or are they sharing it with other potential entities? It's not nice to say I don't trust this, but I don't trust this. And I have to say that Amazon, and many of these other companies, do what they need to do if it's going to make them money. I have to bring something up because I think this has to be said.
John C. Morley: (18:57)
The other day, actually, a few days ago, a week ago, a worker died at Amazon, and it was during the prime day rush, okay? During the prime day rush, an Amazon worker died at the New Jersey warehouse. And this was according to the DOL Department of Labor, the unnamed male worker's death occurred at an Amazon EWR nine facility in Carter Wreck, New Jersey. So you might be wondering what the heck is an EW9 facility. Well, I'll explain it to you. So an EW9 facility is pretty much their Lincoln where things are happening. So EWR is like the Newark code, right? But if somebody said to me, you know, what is an e and, and an EWR9 facility. And so it's an Amazon fulfillment center, and so you know, it has links to your airplanes and things like that.
John C. Morley: (20:19)
So they're very close. EWR is the code for Newark. And so it's interesting to see what's happening. The agency has six months to conduct an inspection and release its findings. The agency did not provide any additional details on how the worker died. I quote that we're deeply saddened by the passing of one of our colleagues and offer condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time as Fortson from Amazon. Amazon's spokesperson Sam Stevenson said my quote, We've contacted his family to offer support, and we'll provide counseling resources to employees meeting additional care. Close quote, I just lost a lot of for Amazon.
We already know that they make people work these crazy hours and pay them lots of money. But you know what the truth is? They make people work like machines. And I don't know if you guys know this, but a human being is not the person that would evaluate you. It's a robot. It's technology. And their systems can recommend and write you up if you get written up three times. It's not a boss; it's a machine that writes you up, and the third time, you're fired. When they are interviewed about this on tv, they said, Well, you know, we are just keeping up with our standards. Oh, you are encouraging slave labor where you're forcing people to work more than they possibly can and barely able to survive. I think that's a problem. And I think Amazon's work conditions are terrible.
John C. Morley: (22:13)
I mean, that's what I have to say about it. They're bad. They are, they're really bad. So how bad are Amazon's workplace conditions? Well, I've, I've shared a little bit with you. Over the past years, the work conditions of practices inside Amazon's warehouse and distribution centers have come under national scrutiny. So the workers are reported to have been injured or died on the job earning the online commerce giant a spot on the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health in 2019. Amazon's employees who worked at different warehouses, including one in Ohio, died after going into cardiac arrest on the job. According to Guardian. What's worse? The man was reportedly lying on the ground unresponsive for 20 minutes before another employee finally found him and sought help officials from Amazon claimed to have responded to the incident within minutes. Another employee who requested to remain anonymous told the guardian, It's a different story.
John C. Morley: (23:21)
It's a game. And I want to quote what they said, "Bill was on the floor for quite some time, and nobody knew that until cameras were reviewed. But in 20 minutes, a worker in a nearby department, so I'm lying on the floor, began radio callouts for 911." It is unbelievable how Bill was lying there for 20 minutes, and nobody saw him until an amnesty worker with a radio came by. Amnesty workers are Amazon's floor monitors to ensure the warehouse floors are clear and reset robot units when necessary. So this stream of serious injuries and deaths continues in Amazon's warehouses. And it's prompted the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, NYCOSH, to investigate what exactly is going on. 80% of employees were pushed to work harder and faster. 49% of the employees have experienced psychological stress.
John C. Morley: (24:18)
63% of employees have experienced difficulties with sleep. 66% of employees have experienced physical pain while performing work duties for 42% of the employees. The pain they sustained at work persisted when they were off the clock. 80% of the employees have sustained an injury on the job, and 10% sustained an injury more than once. There are physical and psychological strains that can lead to very serious long-term problems, if not fatalities. Foot and heel pain, left foot pain: 29% of the people, right foot pain: 28% of the people, right heel pain 23% and left heel pain 22%, ankle pain 17%, left ankle pain 16%. Knee pain: left knee 22%, right knee 20%. Lower back pain: right side 21%, lower back left side 20%, and lower back center tailbone 18%. Upper back, chest, and shoulder pain, upper back, right shoulder 70%, upper back left shoulder 16%, and pectoral right shoulder 15%.
John C. Morley: (25:24)
And, of course, we can't forget hand pain and palms at 15%. What are my options if I'm injured on the job here? If you develop persistent musculoskeletal pain or sustain an injury while working in one of the Amazon facilities. You must take this matter seriously from the start. Injuries sustained in warehouses and distribution centers include, but are limited to, bone fractures, traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, and muscular-skeletal disorders. Recovering work-related conditions will require time away from work and medical care, including x-rays, MRIs, CT scans, medication for pain and inflammation, physical therapy in severe cases, and surgery. So this has to stop. I think Amazon is just doing whatever they need to do, but you'll never find their higher doing even a 10th of what they ask these people to do. And I think that the big problem is that Amazon doesn't care about its workers. No, they don't. Amazon does not care about its workers. That's sad. I don't know what to say, but that is so sad. I think it goes down to a statement made a long time ago. Why doesn't Amazon care about its employees?
John C. Morley: (27:19)
One worker states, "I believe it's a serious misnomer to claim Amazon doesn't care about its employees." I used to work at Amazon a long time ago; in the early days when I started, I'm guessing there were about a hundred full-time employees, not including temps. And I left when there were approximately 16,000. Today there are over 500,000. I can tell you Amazon cared then and cares about its team now. Well, if they care about their team now, why are so many people getting injured and people dying? This is a big problem.
John C. Morley: (27:59)
But I think the biggest thing is that Amazon robots fire employees. That's right. They call them bots. So you're fired by a bot at Amazon. It's you against the machine. According to Bloomberg, "contract drivers say algorithms terminate them by email even when they have done nothing wrong." Steven Norm Madden spent almost four years racing around Phoenix delivering packages as a contract driver for Amazon. Then one day, he receives an automated email. The algorithm tracking him had decided he wasn't doing his job properly. This 63-year-old Army veteran was stunned. A machine had fired him. Nomadic says Amazon punished him for things beyond his control that prevented him from completing his deliveries, such as locked apartment complexes. He said he took the termination hard and prided himself on strong work ethics. Recall that during his military career, he helped cook for 250,000.
John C. Morley: (29:10)
It's a quarter million dollars in Vietnamese refugees at Fort Chafe in Arkansas. And I quote what Nomadin said, "I'm an old school kind of guy, and I give every job 110%." He said, "this upsets me because we're talking about my reputation. They say I didn't do the job when I know how well I did." Now, Batten's experience is a twist on the decades-old prediction that robots replace workers, and Amazon machines are often the boss hiring, rating, and firing millions of people. With little or no insight, Amazon became the world's largest online retailer by outsourcing its scrolling operations to algorithms. Now I get the fact about algorithms, but I think when you replace your algorithms a hundred percent with the ability for human contact, you're no longer a company; you're a machine. And although I get efficiency and understand how efficiency's supposed to work, I think it comes down to the fact that we need to be humane to our employees.
John C. Morley: (30:18)
I need to understand that. I don't know, ladies and gentlemen when I see different things on social media saying they're doing a seven-day or a 15-day event at Amazon. It's a hiring friend, where they're bringing people at $50 an hour, knowing that whatever poor soul goes there is either going to be under so much pain or is it going even to make it through the week or the month because they're going to damage their lives permanently possibly. And I ask you, friends, is any amount of money you make worth damaging your Life? I'd have to say no.
John C. Morley: (31:06)
But these companies are going to come and go. And I predict there'll be a day when Amazon will no longer be here. It may not be tomorrow. I feel they're just right now a necessary evil. But I think as our world morphs and changes, things will be bigger than Amazon. Things that maybe actually care about people. My biggest issue with Amazon is that they're just this game. They don't care about people. They don't care what goes on. And on another side note, in case you guys wanted to know earlier this week which I believe was this past Sunday, it was George Jetson's birth from Hannibal films. Do you all remember the Jetsons? Well, George Jetson was born on July 31, 2022, as remember he was born in the future. So just thought that was an interesting tidbit to share with you guys.
John C. Morley: (32:13)
When we utilize technology, whether it's for one person or a hundred people, I think we have to ask ourselves a very important question. Are we doing something that will release and replace the human element of Life? And if we do that, are we prepared to suffer the consequences? Because we all know machines will never be compassionate, they will never be empathetic. Regardless of what algorithm you program them with, I don't care what it is. They're only going to be machined, and they're only going to be able to detect, fix, and make judgment calls based on a series of data sets that they've learned in the past, other things online, databases, and new data that they're currently working on. So I know this week has been a really interesting show. It's been a doozy with a lot of stuff happening, but I want to share with you that, again, technology is great, and it can be bad. It's a tool. How do you choose to use technology, right? How do you choose to use it? Use it for good, and you can use it for bad. Are you using it for the right things or exploiting people?
John C. Morley: (33:47)
I don't know. I think sometimes people do things just for the reason of money. Just for the reason of money. They become this conglomerate: how much can I grab, and how much can I get? And I don't care who I hurt or what I do. All I want to do is get ahead. There's nothing wrong with getting ahead, but I always said you should never harm or hurt or despair another person. I feel that we need to be humane in a lot of things. If we use processes to help us filter employment, fine. If we're going to use processes to recommend firing, I didn't say to fire. So what I don't like in the Amazon model is that when they detect something wrong, the bot just goes and fires them by looking at an algorithm and making a decision through an email. What should happen is an email should be sent to the supervisors saying, Hey, we've noticed this activity; check this out. We're recommending this person be fired. Go check it out. You happen to see maybe there's a condition something happened, and you are humane, so you know what the heck is going on. But so many people in our Life are not like that. So if you're going to use automation to run your business, there is nothing wrong with that. But let's make sure that automation never replaces the human touch. So you want to do billing, that's fine. Somebody has a question about billing. Could they still reach out to a living human being, right? I'm not against using technology to do things faster, quicker, and more efficiently. I'm against technology for making sole decisions on people's lives, jobs, personal matters, and even relationship issues that a machine should never decide on. Hey ladies and gentlemen, you know who I am by now.
I'm John C. Morley serial entrepreneur. It's been a privilege and pleasure, and honor to be with you again this wonderful Friday night on the JMOR Tech talk show. You know, today is National Avocado Day. Be sure to go to believe me achieve.com. You can see how I made it delicious avocado with strawberry. It was good. And it's healthy for you too. But one of the caveats, and if you guys know is had an avocado cut, you start, you can take the little pit out on the side by just cutting it, pulling it out, and seeing if it's ripe. If it's brown, then it's overripe. If it's got that green-yellow color, then it's good. And then, you want to cut the avocado and carefully cut it around the other side.
John C. Morley: (36:35)
So it's cut, just going into the pit, but not through it. And then you're just going to twist it and pull it off. After you've done that, you take a knife, and you just have a stab into the pit, and you pull the pit right out, cut it into fours, and peel the skin right off. I think it's really interesting to know that avocados have a lot of nutrient values, but most people feel that it's so much work, and it might be a little work, but when you have some practice at it, there are a lot of nutrients you can unlock. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd love to stay with you guys and talk, but I do need to run. Remember to check out www.believemeachieve.com. There's lots of great stuff for you to see.
John C. Morley: (37:12)
You know, I'm going to see you next week, which will be, yes, that's going to be. I can't believe, ladies and gentlemen, Yes. August 12. So be sure to like and love and support our videos. And remember, if you'd like to be a guest on the JMOR Tech Talk show, go to www.jmor.com, play online and pitch us with your application. And if we like what we hear, we will get back to you. Remember, it's not a sales show, ladies and gentlemen; it's about providing value. If you've never watched my show, don't apply to be on the show. So if you know somebody and they want to be on the show, that's great, but make sure that they watch the show. We're not just putting bodies on the air; We're about putting meaningful people who want to improve other people's lives here. If that's not you, ladies and gentlemen, that's not the guest we want on our show. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. Going to see you next week. Remember to keep checking on John's daily National Day video and getting inspired because there's so much in Life that we need to share and celebrate. Have yourself a wonderful rest of your weekend, and I'll see you guys, that's right, next Friday, right here on the JMOR Tech Talk Show, 5:30 PM Eastern. Take care, everyone. Have a great one.