Tuesday, June 8, 2010

BP & OSHA citations & data presentation

Following the ecological disaster in the Gulf, British Petroleum is in the news about all of the myriad failures to comply with regulations.  Of course, the regulators are also in the news about failing to do the regulating.  I'm wondering if OSHA is going to come under fire?  Or if anyone will notice OSHA's inspection frequency compared to MSHA.

Flowing Data is a great site with interesting examples of data presentation.  The OSHA citation frequency for BP is notable due to its calculation based upon production in barrels of oil, rather than dollars of profit/cost.  The worker hazard exposure is the same regardless of whether crude is $50 or $200/barrel.

I like the presentation even more because the author cites the data and provides links to it.  The presentation of prostitution in San Francisco as a 3-D topographic over a map of the city is not so data-dense, but certainly visually impressive.

With the post on BP's citations, I am really amused by the posts discussing different ways to normalize or present the data.  Something any scientist should be trained to do.

Back in the saddle again?

The 3 sentences I want to hear:

You should start writing.

You should stop writing.

Congratulations, you passed.

one down, two to go.