Some sports related injuries are less common than others. For example, there is only one* formally documented case of ‘Ping Pong Patches’ (Scott MJ Jr, Scott MJ III, Cutis, 1989; 43 : 363 – 364.) in the medical literature. Sadly, the online database for Cutis only goes back as far as year 2000. But fortunately, […]
Tag: accidents
Influence of personality and fatalistic belief on South African taxi driver behaviour
Are you one of those who believes that, when it comes to South African taxi drivers, road accidents are pre-destined, and not as a result of individual’s driving behaviour? If so, your beliefs could be erroneous – according to the results of a newly published study undertaken by Dr. Bright Mahembe (University of the […]
When the Pilot Met a Frog: Aviation Anomalies
“WHILE FLYING THE VISUAL APCH [approach], ABOUT 10 MI [miles] OUT, I FELT SOMETHING LAND ON MY R [right] FOOT. REACHING DOWN WITH MY R [right] HAND, I WAS SURPRISED TO FEEL SOMETHING COLD AND DAMP, WHICH MOVED …” So begins an airline pilot’s report (number ACN: 311910) as archived by the US Aviation Safety […]
The Moth to Flame Effect – is it real or not real?
‘The Moth to a Flame Effect’ (a.k.a ‘Perceptual Tropism’), was first formally described in 1953 by Clark, Nicholson and Graybiel in their paper ‘Fascination: a cause of pilot error‘ (for Journal of Aviation Medicine, 24(5):429-40.) Unfortunately, the paper doesn’t appear to be available online, but it describes how aircraft pilots sometimes fail to take evasive […]
Robots and humans interact – part 1 of 3
Improbable takes a look at the RO-MAN Workshop 2012 – the 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, which was held September 9-13, Paris, France. Part 1 : Avoiding a poke in the eye NOTE: No students were harmed during this experiment – conducted at the Academy for Safety Intelligence, Nagoya University, […]
Dumpling Fog in China – a Computer Simulation
Impressive though the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway is (opened 1996) the Zhenjiang branch section does suffer from an occasional meteorological drawback. In the form of ‘Dumpling Fog’. Prompting Yan Mingliang and colleagues at the Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry (of Education), Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, China, to attempt an algorithmic emulation of […]