“I just don’t like working with women. They are so catty. I’d prefer to work with men and when I look around, all of my friends are men too.” she said to me over coffee.
“I used to feel that way.” I responded. “Then I realized that the women I didn’t like were more like me than I thought they were. Somehow rather than reject them, I embraced them.” Continue reading
Can you believe that two workers, but no management have been formally charged in the Lac Megantic railway disaster back in July 2013, what is Canadian Justice about?
The safety related laws of Canada are, generally speaking reasonably adequate, at least on paper, but the administration and enforcement of these laws can only be described as pathetic and widely influenced by politics at the highest level’. Continue reading
We human beings are born problem solvers. We even band together in order to more efficiently so
lve problems (we are reminded of the definition of “culture” from Fons Trompenaars: “social context for shared problem solving”[1]). This can even be seen as hardwired into our very being, once we see the evolution of human beings and then specifically their brains. The oldest part of the human brain, often called the “reptilian brain”, alerts us to danger and forces us to respond to the threat from that danger. Continue reading
Introduction
Recently I wrote an article titled “Can You Calculate the Probability of Uncertainty?” The article posited that the heavy dependence on mathematics to determine the probability of risk realization may actually create “false positives” regarding the basis for the determination of probability. My point was that there is too much uncertainty, things that we just do not know, to be able to calculate the probability of uncertainty with any degree of confidence. I received several comments from readers telling me that I was confusing the issue and that determining the probability of risk is all about “uncertainty”. I have to say that this gave me pause to think. And, my conclusion is that risk is all about the probability of identified certainties that carry an uncertain realization. Continue reading
The dispute concerning chemical regulation rages on – Congress had its first hearing on the Safe Cosmetics Act. The outcome of these hearings is that the FDA has decided against the regulation of bisphenol-A in food packaging. So this leaves us with this question; what if anything will be done to update the thirty-six year old Toxic Substance Control Act. Continue reading