databases

Are we too trusting of GPS automation?

July 26, 2011
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A GPS certainly makes life easier — and although I think many of us might consider what would happen if we were without it or it was unable to identify where we were, it is less often we consider how it may lead us astray. One of our early postings on the Human Factors Blog was about a bus driver [...]

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Mining Tragedy Update

July 15, 2010
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There is new information on the West Virginia coal mine tragedy where the methane detectors were disabled to prevent automatic shut down of the machinery. This comes from NPR: Methane monitors are mounted on the massive, 30-foot-long continuous miners because explosive gas can collect in pockets near the roofs of mines. Methane can be released as the machine cuts into [...]

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Publically Available Databases for Research

January 7, 2010
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This is just a placeholder post to collect Anne’s collection of publicly available safety data: Data visualization tools Occupational safety Aviation safety Mining safety

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Database Three: Mining safety data

December 17, 2009
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This post is part of a series on free data available to curious researchers and professionals: Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) This database contains more searching capability than browsing. You need the specific geographic location of a mine before searching (state, county). Once you zero in on a particular mine, the types of reports available are: Overview Inspections Accidents [...]

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Database Two: Aviation safety data

December 15, 2009
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This post is part of a series on free data available to curious researchers and professionals: The Aviation Safety Network Database The ASN Safety Database, updated every week, contains descriptions of over 12,200 airliner, military transport category aircraft and corporate jet aircraft safety occurrences since 1943. Here is a link to their recording of the recent landing on the Hudson [...]

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Pssssst! Free occupational safety data!

December 11, 2009
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Do you love databases? Especially if you are interested in safety, there are a number of carefully archived databases of events out there. A couple of years ago, I found one of these while trying to answer the question “What kinds of human factors interventions would be most increase agricultural safety?” Six months of coding later, I had some answers [...]

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Data visualization tools

December 10, 2009
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Foreshadowing Anne’s upcoming series of posts on large, public, and free data sets, here are two interesting tools to help you visualize massive quantities of data. First, my grad student Margaux informed me of Google Fusion Tables (shown above). The site lets you upload data and visualize it in different ways. The website has some samples. From the website: Look [...]

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