121212

You've probably been hearing about the 2012 phenomenon in the months leading up to December. Unlike 11112011,  this comprises a range of eschatological beliefs according to which cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on 21 December 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.

Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae have been proposed as pertaining to this date, though none have been accepted by mainstream scholarship.

Here are a few events that actually did (or will) take place...

• The official opening of the New Doha International Airport, in Qatar
• World Hoop Day
• One or more events associated with Anonymous
• Aaron Rodgers Day in Wisconsin
• The last consecutive date until 01/01/2101
• 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief, a concert held at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 12, 2012
• Independence Day in Kenya: Anniversary for the Republic of Kenya

Plastics and Synthetica

Jack DikianApril 2012

Reading about plastics and the role they played in post war culture, and possibilities of a new industrial world. I can still remember my mother insisting on an orange themed Formica kitchen.  It’s fascinating how plastics and their use, changed form, function, and design. We, in more recent years have shifted our impression of all things plastic. If anything, however, there is no question we use plastics now more than ever – these have been integrated into our lives so much so that we hardly stop and think we are buying plastic.

What is interesting is the significance of plastics in those post-war years. In 1940 Fortune magazine published a map of a brand new continent. The map, called Synthetica (see pic) with countries such as Nylon and a new territory Melamine and even an exciting island called Rayon which was supposedly known for it’s nightlife. 

The National Disability Insurance Scheme

Jack Dikian

November 2011

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) could well be a transformational reform that would entitle all people with a disability in Australia to the support and services they need, regardless of how they acquire their disability.

The Scheme is gradually taking shape and like all large initiatives there are many questions facing its architects. How, for example, will it be funded, who will service the scheme, and from a clinical perspective – what kind of assessments will be used, etc.

At a lunch on November 9 hosted by Independence Australia, a panel including John Della Bosca of the NDIS, Alan Woodroffe from the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and Kevin Andrews of the Liberal Party answered lingering questions such as will everyone on the waiting list now receive a funding package, and so forth.

John Della Bosca, the campaign director of the NDIS, noted that talk need to occur between different levels of government before the “NDIS becomes inevitable” and “It’s always inevitable that governments change and I’m heartened by the fact that there’s strong support for the scheme in the opposition as well as government.”

The very next day, at a conference (Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability) I attended and spoke at, John Della Bosca gave a keynote address discussing the Every Australian Counts Campaign for an NDIS. The Campaign calls for all Australians to stand up and say that people with a disability, their families and carers in this country deserve better and that it’s time for change.

The Every Australian Counts Campaign website asks us to join the campaign to make sure that the Federal Government implements the recommendations of the Productivity Commission and introduces the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The site provides ways we can all help – follow link below.

http://everyaustraliancounts.com.au/take_action/

Hotels and Clubs should call themselves Casino

Jack Dikian

October 2011

By now we have all heard, and perhaps even participated in the debate on the issue of problem gambling and how governments, or more to the point the Gillard federal Government, can legislate the use of pre-commitment technologies to enforce the amount so called gamers (read gamblers) will wager in a given period.

Now I’m not going to get into the psychology of gambling - the personality risk factors, the impulsive personality, and perhaps the influence this has on the development of an impulse control disorder and possible pathological gambling.

What I do want to say is relatively simple. If the commercial viability of hotels and clubs is based on the economics of poker or slot machines – then the obvious (maybe naive) question has to be why. Surely if pokies have such an impact on the bottom line then perhaps hotels and clubs should all call themselves “casinos” and stop describing their venues as family friendly, promote association with sporting bodies, and exist on every street corner.

Secondly, how is it, (and this is from the 1999 Australian Productivity Commission) that there were 180,000 (more recent reports estimate this to be around 200,000) poker machines in Australia. Given that there is/was an estimated 860,000 machines in the world – Australia represents about 21% of all the gambling machines in the world. Put another way, we have over 20% of all the gaming machines in the world. Given the size of our population – it won’t take a genius to see we have an underlying problem.

On a per capita basis, Australia has more than five times as many pokies and other gaming machines than the United States.

Here are some stats:

38.6% of adult Australians play the pokies
- In 2003 / 2004 gamblers lost $9.1 billion on pokies. The average chance of winning the jackpot playing 1 line is 1 in 50,000,000 
and the average chance of winning the jackpot playing 20 lines is 1 in 2,500,000.

Traffic, Road Rage and People

Jack Dikian

July 2011

A casual chat with a close friend today about her experience on the road got us talking about road rage. I promised her that I would put together a few words looking at factors and psychology that might be contributing to this increasing behaviour.

Road Rage is increasingly becoming a concern on roads Australia wide. Almost a day doesn’t go by if we don’t witness or hear about road rage in the media. People feel rushed in an increasingly busy society. Other societal stresses such as work-life balance, economic and environmental factors are seen as factors impacting on the rise of road rage.

At the same time it is widely acknowledged that the majority of motor vehicle accident causes are human errors and maladaptive behavior, accounting alone or in interaction with other roadway circumstances for more than 90% of all traffic accidents.

Traffic psychology has largely followed an interdisciplinary approach and has shared common topics with areas such as driving aptitude, ergonomics and travel demand management as well as human factors in traffic planning.

The overall psychology and interplay of road users is complex and deals with a wide variety on relationships including demographics, modes of transport, road design and construction, traffic management, road condition variability and the role of people factors in mobility behavior. More specific factors associated with people’s behavior in relation to road may include:

Increasing driver task associated with high monitoring impact such as rapidly changing traffic conditions (multiple school zones, changing speed limits, and other traffic damping initiatives)

• Driver perception, cognition and expectations, particularly if a driver feels unduly inconvenienced or sees other road users to be in considerate.
• Driver's emotional state, workload, alertness and fatigue
• Driver personality, propensity for risk-taking, attitude, and motivation for certain behaviors and
• The driver’s capacity to adjust their behavior in response to perceived changes in risk