Once Again Organizational Safety Cultures Have Failed. Why Does This Keep Happening? The controversial Normal Accident Theory suggests that in complex systems accidents are enviable. So it would seem with continued major disruptions in Critical Infrastructure Sectors. We have argued that this is not necessarily correct. Systemic Safety Culture Following the Deepwater Horizon incident in
How many times have you seen someone do something incredibly stupid, even risking their life? What a turkey! Story goes that Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as the American National Bird. Almost 250 years later, this bird often carries a different connotation. Often maligned, this tasty fowl has its day once a year. Even two are
In the just released NCHRP Research Report 1001/BTSCRP Research Report 2, a new framework provides government and non government parties and other stakeholders a tool for the assessment and risk management for emerging automated driving system (ADS) technologies. This Framework for Assessing Potential Safety Impacts of Automated Driving Systems reminds this reader with a sense
An oil and gas industry group, the U.S. Energy Workforce & Technology Council recently released a survey which stated, “companies with a higher percentage of women in executive positions have a 34 percent higher total return to shareholders than those that do not and companies with ethnic diversity on their executive team are 25 percent
In a recent online discussion, this pundit put forth the thought that fiberglass wind turbine blades can pose an environmental problem when decommissioned. This position was quickly challenged with the rebuttal that burning coal ‘kills’ kids so it did not matter if discarded blades litter the countryside as it is worth it. According to research
Readers know that as of this writing there is geopolitical and military tension in eastern Europe. Hopefully, the situation will resolve peacefully. This piece is not about those politics. Rather it is about the potential for accidental engagement and how that risk can be mitigated. President Kennedy is famously cited for the comment that referred
The total or lifecycle carbon footprint for any energy source is a function of the manufacturing, commissioning, operation (including maintenance) and decommissioning of that asset. Moreover, the value of an electric powered vehicles (EV) is seen as a function of the amount of fossil fuel no longer used by the vehicle. However, this is only
This edition is taken from our forthcoming book tentatively titled, Techniques for Successfully Closing Deals in the 21st Century. New Year’s Resolutions We all make them and in many cases they are short lived, often falling by the wayside before March 31. So as we ponder what the new year will bring, most in
Almost every day, we hear that “The Science” says . . . We are told Covid-19 and Climate Change are based on The Science and as such we must accept that expert analyses as ‘settled.’ Then something changes and once more the science police demand we accept their new interpretation. The near-term result: confusion and
Not the rock bands of the 1960s–1980s, but the mining required to extract the heavy metals necessary for electric vehicles and other renewable energy solutions. So, what is a heavy metal and why do we care? Typically, “In science, a heavy metal is a metallic element which is toxic and has a high density, specific gravity or atomic weight. However,
