The helmet law for motorcyclists is a frequently argued regulation. In the late 1960′s, the federal government began to make highway construction funds contingent on states having laws requiring helmet use for all motorcycle riders. This was eventually undone, and states began the long process of considering repeal of their laws. The whole cycle began…
Category Archives: Lists
3 Questions – Is Your First Answer Correct?
Your personal safety is determined one decision at a time. Sometimes you are dependent on the decisions of others. Other drivers, your doctor, the guy who puts new brakes in your car. But how does your personal decision process work? Do you know? Take a moment to answer these three questions: A ball and a…
2 Situations, an Either-Or Choice in Each
Do you know much about your own decision processes? Are you risk-averse? We think differently depending on how the choices are stated. Consider this situation: You have to choose between either – an 80% chance of winning $4,000 with a 20% chance of winning nothing or – a 100% chance of receiving $3,000 Then look…
7 Ways To Improve Financial Safety
Most of the time I write about personal safety. Precautions you can take to prevent accidental injury you yourself, your family, or co-workers. Safety is also a word often used to imply security. And many times we feel secure because there is no information to tell us otherwise. That doesn’t mean that we can’t be…
6 Safety Ideas For Your Wallet
My interest in safety began when I experienced a “near-hit” incident early in my engineering career, and when I realized how many of the equipment operators I had known were missing some of their digits. At that time of my life, I was enjoying playing piano and guitar, and I couldn’t imagine what it would…
Good Luck or Bad Luck?
In a post last year, I told of an employee who felt he was unlucky because of the accident he was involved in. In truth, he was incredibly lucky that he wasn’t killed. Luck is a funny thing. We use the terms good luck and bad luck to signify opposite concepts, but when we use…
7 Tips for Runners – Race Day Edition
Last year I wrote a couple of lists about running. The first was for people considering taking up running, and the second was about preparing for a specific running event. Today’s list is for the day of the race. Last weekend, as part of my first 20,000 days celebration, I ran my second half marathon….
5 Ordinary Tools Often Used in an Unsafe Manner
The invention of tools is one of the things that differentiates us from other life forms. Not all necessarily, like the sea otter who figured out how to break open shells, but most. Our willingness to use tools, however, is generally not tempered with the desire to use them correctly, or to use the right…
2 Physics Lessons That Could Save Your Life
It’s been cold in Atlanta this week. Thursday evening we had a rain and snow event which left our roads icy and dangerous. I’ve lived in places that routinely get weather like this, but Atlanta gets it so infrequently that people don’t get a chance to develop the skills to drive when conditions are icy….
5 Steps for Protecting Those Fingers
In some industries, you can walk into a facility and within ten minutes find at least one person that is missing part of a hand. A thumb, a fingertip, or even several fingers. I play instruments. Keyboard and guitar primarily. Loss of even one part of one finger changes everything. But even day-to-day living is…
