Johnadams

Author's details

Date registered: November 30, -0001
URL: http://www.john-adams.co.uk

Latest posts

  1. Pater knows best? — June 11, 2013
  2. Change has to take root in people’s minds — May 9, 2013
  3. The ever receding yet — May 9, 2013
  4. The Boston Marathon Bombs — April 17, 2013
  5. Now wash your hands — April 3, 2013

Most commented posts

  1. ISO 31000: Dr Rorschach meets Humpty Dumpty — 37 comments
  2. Is God trying to tell us something? — 23 comments
  3. The Cream Buns Act — 13 comments
  4. ISO 31000: the debate warms up — 12 comments
  5. 30 years in the jungle with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents — 10 comments

Author's posts listings

Jun
11
2013

Pater knows best?

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Risk compensation – the proposition that a person’s perception of risk influences their risk-taking behaviour – has now become conventional wisdom.  No one now disputes that rock climbers with ropes will attempt manoeuvres that they would not attempt without them, or that trapeze artists will attempt manoeuvres with nets that they would not attempt without. …

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May
09
2013

Change has to take root in people’s minds

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The main headline in today’s Daily Mail reads: £90 fine if you’re texting at the wheel: Minister warns of safety crackdown US experience suggests that the crackdown is unlikely to achieve its desired effect. There the success of attempts to deal with the texting-while-driving problem by means of legislation has been the subject of a …

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4 comments

May
09
2013

The ever receding yet

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Historian Niall Ferguson has been reported as apologising for “remarks in which he implied that John Maynard Keynes did not care about future generations – because he was childless and gay” – leaving open the cause of Keynes’ indifference to the long run. This provoked a letter from me to today’s Guardian. For non-Guardian readers …

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Apr
17
2013

The Boston Marathon Bombs

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In the aftermath of the 2005 7th July bombings in London I wrote a piece entitled “7/7: What kills you matters – not numbers” I illustrated it with a diagram highlighting the remarkable lack of correlation between quantified measures of risk and common response. I identified two key variables that helped to explain this lack of …

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Apr
03
2013

Now wash your hands

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brick wall

I recently visited an exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London entitled “The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns” More recently I was invited to speak to a conference entitled “Risk culture for charities” organised by the Institute for Risk Management. I began my conference presentation with an overview of …

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Mar
24
2013

The BIGGEST LIE?

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seatbelts

Last Thursday (21 March 2013) I attended a conference entitled “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics? Understanding casualty trends and the causes”. It was sponsored by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS). At the conference PACTS, the Department for Transport, and seven other organizations interested in promoting road safety launched a website called www.roadsafetyobservatory.com. …

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Feb
12
2013

Repeal the Seat Belt Law

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Peter Bonisch  has posted a comment on my RoSPA post (11 February) that merits an answer. He asks: “would you advocate now removing the seatbelt requirement?  The world has changed since the law was introduced including having been changed by it.  Would it now be constructive to abolish the law in the knowledge that we …

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Feb
11
2013

Open letter to Tom Mullarkey, CEO of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

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Dear Tom Following our meeting at a dinner at the RSA over six years ago I sent you an email (22 February 2007).You replied the same day saying “When I have a moment, I would like to look into this in more detail and so I will follow up on the links you have kindly …

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Feb
08
2013

30 years in the jungle with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents

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TABLE 1

 31 January marked the 30th anniversary of the implementation of Britain’s seat belt law. A television interviewer sent to quiz me about my opposition to the law said I reminded him of Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who spent 30 years in the jungle, fighting on, unaware that the war had been lost. The interview …

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10 comments

Aug
01
2012

Is ISO 31000 fit for purpose?

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The debate “Is ISO 31000 fit for purpose” is the headline above a debate published in the June edition of Risk Management Professional – for online version click here. The “debate” consisted of an abbreviated version of my blog – “ISO 31 000: Dr Rorschach meets Humpty Dumpty” -­‐ and a “rebuttal” by Grant Purdy, …

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