Daily Archives: 08/10/2006

Beach Soccer World Cup

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I’ve dug out the full tournament schedule, starting on 3 November, for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Rio. “This year, for the first time, all the participating associations have taken part in official qualifying competitions in each of the six confederations and games are being played in accordance with the new FIFA Beach Soccer Laws of the Game in line with FIFA’s quality standard.” Yeah, England are not playing.

Group A
Brazil (host country)
Poland (3rd place in the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Marseille)
USA (champions of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Costa Rica)
Japan (runners-up of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Dubai)

Group B
Spain (champions of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Marseille)
France (5th place in the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Marseille)
Canada (runners-up of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Costa Rica)
Iran (3rd place in the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Dubai)

Group C
Solomon Islands (champions of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Tahiti)
Cameroon (champions of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Durban)
Portugal (runners-up of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Marseille)
Uruguay (runners-up of the FBSWC 2006 Qualifier Maca

Beware of switching onto auto-pilot

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Article in new British Computer Society journal on Brian Toft’s research (pdf, 74K) into the dangers of automatic behaviour. “Despite using verbal checks to ensure patient safety, healthcare staff make mistakes. One explanation for this is that they respond automatically to questioning without matching their actions to their words.” (Health Informatics Now, Vol 1, No.1, pdf 941K). Or to put it another way using research from the aircraft industry: “It is tempting for the pilot to regard a rapid dismissal of checklist items as indicative of his skill and familiarity with the aircraft, but, if checklists are dealt with in this automatic way, it is very easy for the pilot to see what he expects to see rather than what is there.”  Perhaps worth thinking about for shift handover design too?