Refugees and "The Conversation"

If you haven't caught up with the Conversation web site by now, please do so.
At last academics providing information, opinion, and interesting research in an easy to read and understand fashion.
Try this one, regarding Refugee movement around the world. Based on actual figures it provides a great visual map of their movements.

Infographic: global refugee movements 1975-2010

By Steve Melnikoff, University of Melbourne

• Almost 3.5 million of refugees have arrived in Australia since 1975.
• More than 100 million people have fled Afghanistan since 1975.
• Iran and Pakistan have each taken around 60 million refugees during that time.
• Since 1989, 2.5 million refugees have fled Sri Lanka.
• 18 million refugees arrived in the US between 1975 and 2010; the UK has taken 5 million.

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Read the rest of The Conversation’s asylum seeker coverage:
Asylum seekers and Australia: the evidence
The Conversation panel on asylum seekers: meet the experts
Who are Australia’s ‘boat people’, and why don’t they get on planes?
Uncomfortable truths: busting the top three asylum seeker myths
There’s no evidence that asylum seeker deterrence policy works
There’s more to regional collaboration than the Malaysia Arrangement
How immigration policy harms asylum seekers' mental health
Asylum seekers in Indonesia: why do they get on boats?
Preventing deaths at sea: asking the experts on asylum seekers
Steve Melnikoff is the technical officer at iWakari.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.

Road Conditions & Thinking Slow

After many years of driving my small commuter car to and from work, I have suddenly noticed a large increase in hazards littering the freeway.
I was driving home from a late night shift, when I was suddenly aware of something in front of me on the road. At 100km speed, I didn't have fast enough reflexes to swerve out of my lane and bypass the hazard. The next thing I knew, I had hit the object and a loud scraping sound indicated it was stuck underneath the car. I managed to move into the emergency lane and tried to dislodge the object. It was extremely unnerving, with the car shaking every time someone went past. I eventually drove home, off the freeway, at a slow speed and had the object removed at home.
it was a large piece of plastic from the front-end of a car.
Since then I've noticed a lot more stuff on the road, more potholes and more hazardous conditions.
So why am I noticing this now? Is there any change to the road conditions. Has the abnormal number of rainy days meant the road is more prone to pot-holes?

Or is this an example of association bias, priming, halo effect? Having had a problem, I'm more likely to see more of the same problems than I would have previously?
My current reading, "Thinking Fast & Slow" by Daniel Kahneman may give me some insights into halo effects, association bias, irrational thinking. So far its a very interesting book.
More chocolate consumption coming up I think(pg 43)!
But perhaps Vicroads needs to look at the state of the roads.
And why not public transport you ask? That is another Melbourne story!