Found a link to this parody site of the homeland security symbols (via AskMetaFilter). This is my favorite symbol:
The images are real homeland security symbols. In all seriousness, my friend Chris Mayhorn from North Carolina State University has researched these homeland security symbols and found that not everyone can interpret the real meaning of these warnings:
Mayhorn, C. B., Wogalter, M. S., & Bell, J. L. (2004). Are we ready? Misunderstanding homeland security safety symbols. Ergonomics in Design, 12, 6-14.
Reader Kim Wolfinbarger sent me this picture of sport drinks looking enough like drain cleaner to make her do a double-take.
Just read your July post on poisons that look like sports drinks. An interesting twist is sports drinks that look like poisons. I did a double-take at the grocery store last weekend, thinking that drain cleaner had been shelved with the sodas. Note the triangle icon–looks an awful lot like a hazardous materials
sign.
Do you think perhaps there is some commonality in the marketing backgrounds of the designers? Bright colors and strong lines make you believe you’re getting something powerful (whether it be a cleaner or a “performance” drink?)
In case you missed their point, it does say on the back “CAUTION: POWERFUL” and is not recommended for children.
New York’s 11 public hospitals are at the forefront of a national movement to standardize color coding of hospital wristbands to designate patient conditions, in which purple — the color of amethyst — means “Do Not Resuscitate.” Red, or ruby, indicates allergies, while yellow — call it amber — marks someone at risk for falling.
The goal is to prevent potentially dangerous mistakes, like giving the wrong food to an allergic child, or allowing a patient with balance problems to walk unescorted down a freshly waxed hallway. The drive was spurred, in part, by a notorious 2005 Pennsylvania case in which a patient nearly died because a nurse used a yellow band thinking it meant “restricted extremity” (don’t draw blood from that arm), as it did at another hospital where the nurse sometimes worked, when at this hospital it meant D.N.R.
Hospital Bracelets Face Hurdles as They Fix Hazard - NYTimes.com
I snapped this picture near NCSU today. Looks like the garbage workers or apartment dwellers decided to take matters into their own hands.
In July, builders broke ground on a new hospital in Rwanda’s Burera district, near the Uganda border. The design relies on simple features to reduce the spread of airborne disease: outdoor walkways instead of enclosed halls, waiting rooms alfresco and large windows staggered at different levels on opposing walls to keep air circulating.
Global Update - Rwanda - Hospital’s Design Keeps Fresh Air in Mind - NYTimes.com
Freakanomics posted an interesting discussion with several construction workers, asking them what they thought the biggest safety concerns were in their area.
The plural of anecdote may not be data, but this is a good start if anyone wants to look at whether regulation (via unions) contributes to safety, what safety rules are ‘annoying’, and construction worker locus of control.
“What’s one safety rule you would initiate at your workplace? What rules are unnecessary?
On union jobs the safety rules tend to be comprehensive, and effectively enforced. On non-union jobs — haha.
Many non union jobs are criminally negligent about safety. And after years of Republican rule of federal government there is little realistic enforcement. In other countries when workers are killed in, say, a building collapse, somebody goes to prison when negligence is proven. Here they might be fined a paltry sum.
I have yet to encounter a safety rule that was unnecessary. Although some are annoying — like wearing masks.”
“What’s one safety rule you would initiate at your workplace? What rules are unnecessary?
I can’t think of any specific “rule” I would initiate … 98 percent of safety is just paying attention to what you are doing and to your surroundings.
You can’t mandate good judgment. Although many of the rules are good and grounded in common sense (they do create a general “culture” of safety), sometimes the letter of the law, so to speak, is enforced too much.
Many times you stand there and say, “I understand why this rule exists, but when applied blindly in this situation, it just doesn’t make sense.”
Research shows that sleep deprivation makes people emotionally volatile and temperamental — a fact that hasn’t escaped the notice of some reality TV producers. In fact, though it’s not always obvious to the audience, many reality shows feature contestants who could use a little more sleep.
This is not so different from what actual sleep researchers observe in the lab. Mary Carskadon at Brown University says sleep-deprived people tend to be emotionally volatile.
“You have the little girls on their sleepovers giggling themselves silly. But you also have people who have short tempers or easily cry,” says Carskadon. “I guess all things that do make for high drama.”
On Reality TV, Less Sleep Means More Drama : NPR
