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!

Health and Coal

Today the news is filled with speculation regarding cancer news from an independent study of Coal Loading Workers at a NSW port. It seems they have found a higher rate of cancers including colorectal, melanoma and  prostate cancers.
This follows on from the study of Country Fire Authority Fiskville workers and their exposure to hazardous materials without appropriate safety measures.
With both of these studies, the first and most important facts/questions have been answered. Is there a risk and is it greater than in the general population. But the answers to the questions most workers want have not been answered, and may never get answered to everyone's satisfaction. What caused these cancers and are the current clusters "just a statistical anomaly"?
Who wants to be a statistical anomaly?
I'm at the age when several of my contemporaries and friends are starting to see differences in heath appearing. I have one friend recently released from the Peter Mac Cancer Hospital. Several others have been treated and are in remission, but of course living with the recurrent fear of the cancer return.
So what has caused these cancers?
Perhaps we shall find out but perhaps not.
Life is such a mystery sometimes.

"Always do right- this will gratify some and astonish the rest."

- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Winter quietness

I have been too busy working to do much blogging lately. Mid-winter solstice means the days are just a little longer though this is now the coldest part of the year.
My backyard and vegie garden are sodden due to the recent rains, that keep coming and coming. However the lime tree is producing a great crop, the tangelos are ripening and I have 4 grapefruits on my little tree. We have been harvesting silver beet, broccoli and peas from the vegie garden. So lots of green soups which are good for the waistline and vitamin input!
But on the radio we hear of wildfires in the USA and storms in Russia.
London of course has the same problem as Melbourne so my Olympic display features an umbrella, which may become the icon of the coming games!
The media is a little quiet on the carbon tax front, occasional digs and mentions of businesses going under due to the "Carbon tax".The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has a Carbon Tax hotline and a number of complaints have been lodged, some scalps claimed (Brumby's Bakery amongst them).
So let the games begin!
PS Melbourne by-election : Greens vs Labor! Very interesting. Labor loss coming up perhaps??

Carbon Frenzy

Dubbed by the media, Carbon Sunday, the start of the "Carbon Tax" was greeted with an absolute blitz of comments, media stunts, bad music and drama.
Q&A last night on ABC TV showed all these aspects with Simon Sheikh, from Getup, collapsing on stage (later reported to be well again and out of hospital thankfully).
Sophie Mirabella nearly had another shoe thrown at her from my couch, stopped only by the gift of a comment she made when discussing the Parental Leave "Levy".
"Is the Coalition's parental leave policy a tax? NOOOO of course not, it is a levy (Audience guffaws)." Further statements such as
"you are being quite mischievous Tony" when directed by Tony Jones to answer the chief thrust of the question and 
"I don't think any objective analysis can compare an economy wide carbon tax....with an economically important levy" 
How she could be so morally & intellectually disingenuous to argue about the Carbon Tax and simultaneously argue her party's Parental Leave position is beyond me! No wonder the population have so little regard for politicians of all persuasions.
It was also good to see Ross Garnaut weighing in with the international comparisons to show that Australia is not acting alone, and is not acting with a cost that is disproportionate to our "contribution" to the problem.
How anyone can argue that a levy on pollution is bad for the country eventually is also beyond me. 
We have had CFC changes due to the Ozone Hole, cleaning scubbers on Coal Fired Power Stations due to Acid Rain and the economy hasn't faltered, stopped, died or any other hysterical response. And now the "Carbon Tax" to reduce carbon pollution.
The Australia Institute published the following graphic on the Carbon "Levy" to put it into perspective!
Lets hope the Australian population is not, as Joe Hilderbrand's program calls us, Dumb, Drunk and Racist.

Australia Institute Carbon Tax effect