Last week I wrote about the looming threat of Artificial Intelligence with a story about scientists announcing they had successfully trained a robot by showing it videos from the web. This week we learn that another rapidly advancing area of technology will soon give our computers the ability to read and understand our emotions. According…
Idiots on Ladders: Using Stupidity for Safety Awareness
It is so refreshing in this day of mind numbing political correctness to find not just an individual, but an entire organization willing to buck the trend and develop a safe haven; a place where the thought police are defied, men can be men, women can be women, and idiots, morons, boobs, dip-wads and nimnals…
Is Exclusive Remedy On The Ropes in Oklahoma?
Well, the Oklahoma experiment was fun while it lasted. Dramatic reforms there in 2013 were intended to move the state workers' compensation system from a court-based model to an administrative one. It also established Oklahoma as just the second state where employers can “opt out” of workers' comp entirely, although they are required to offer…
Beware the Selfie Obsessed Psychopathic Co-Worker
A cutting edge study just announced tells us that men who regularly post photos of themselves online scored higher on a measure for narcissism and psychopathy. The study, conducted by researchers at The Ohio State University who apparently had nothing better to do with their time, has found that men who took “Selfies” were more…
Tomorrow, CompBob! Returns with Our Apologies
About 9 years ago we introduced a comic character spokesman named CompBob!, who represented our earliest Members' Area, and eventually went on to serve in a variety of capacities on our website. The role he is best remembered for, however, is the one representing possibly the worst standup comic on the face of the earth,…
Regarding Return to Work, EEOC and ADA Say MMI Ain't What It Used To Be
Early last month the EEOC's Aaron Konopasky, JD and Jennifer Christian, MD provided a paper for “Guidance on When Employers Must Start Discussion Regarding Return to Work Accommodations”, which was published on this site via the WorkCompRoundup blog. The message it carried for employers everywhere is significant and should not be ignored. The language of…
What is Scarier, Workplace Automation or Annihilation?
There has been a tremendous amount of chit chat lately about the incredible advances we are seeing in automation and artificial intelligence. Experts are predicting that by the year 2025, fully one half of all jobs that exist today will be automated out of existence. Those experts should stop predicting that. They are drawing attention…
2014: A Year of Ideas, SAIF, Evil Intent, Good Times and Lessons Learned
The year 2014 is now officially just a memory, and as we embark on yet another bold new annual term we look back on that which recently was, ponder its significance, and move onward, likely destined to encounter many of the same mistakes and human foibles all over again. Such as it is with the…
The Near Death of a Salesman (by Eggnog in the Workplace)
Just when the year is winding down and you think you’ve heard everything, we offer one more tidbit of inanity to show that no matter how stupid you think people can be, there is someone out there willing to prove that the boundaries of brainlessness are virtually unlimited. Not to mention, we couldn’t end the…
No Brain, No Gain
A study announced recently could potentially revolutionize medical treatment within workers’ compensation and completely destroy the burgeoning fitness industry, as well as totally change the home dynamic for the recalcitrant couch potato. Researchers at Ohio University just published the results of their study in the Journal of Neurophysiology showing that human muscles will respond to…