Jack Dikian
June 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Life expectancy in Australia
Is the resident population of Australia is projected as of June 29, 2011
Life expectancy at birth is one of the most widely used and internationally recognised indicators of population health Australian Bureau of Statistics. High life expectancy at birth indicates low levels of infant mortality, a safe environment in which to live, a good health care system, sufficient food, and the adoption of preventative health measures.
10 percent of all deaths each year until the early 1930s was associated with infectious and parasitic diseases. Improvements in living conditions in the early 20th century led to overall lower death rates and longer life expectancy at all ages. At the same time, degenerative diseases such as heart disease, stroke and cancer replaced infectious and parasitic diseases as the main cause of death of older people in the 20th century.
The past 20 years have seen further increases in life expectancy. These increases have been partly due to lower infant mortality, fewer young people dying in motor vehicle accidents, and fewer older men dying from heart disease. The reduction in deaths from heart disease has been linked to medical advances and behavioural changes such as improvements in diet and less smoking.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Is it possible to think about nothing?
Jack Dikian
June 2011
René Descartes is often credited with being the Father of Modern Philosophy. He broke away from the Scholastic philosophy of the time (16th century) believing their method was prone to doubt given the reliance on sensation as the source for all knowledge.
Descartes’ strategy was to consider false any belief that falls prey to even the slightest doubt. Descartes sets out to find something that lies beyond all doubt. He eventually discovers the conjecture “I exist” is impossible to doubt and is, therefore, absolutely certain.
Descartes is perhaps best known therefore for the philosophical statement "Cogito ergo sum" or I think, therefore I am. Using this logic, he went on to demonstrate God’s existence and that God cannot be a deceiver… I had to wait until I was at university to do Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz.
Primary school kids in Europe have been taught Philosophy for the last 50 years, and now, in the last few years it is being taught in some NSW schools. This includes ethics, logic, political philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology.
The Philosophy in Schools Association of New South Wales is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting philosophy in schools in New South Wales.
According to their website, their approach to teaching philosophy in schools encourages the development of an inquiring classroom community. Such a learning community encourages the development of:
• an inquiring outlook
• the ability to articulate problems and issues
• imaginative and adventurous thinking
• the habit of exploring alternative possibilities and different points of view
• the capacity to critically examine issues and ideas good reasoning and independent judgment
Here are a few head scratching questions to ponder over:-
1. Does the beach belong to you?2. Is an apple alive?
3. If no one sees something, can it still be beautiful?
4. Show we ever tell a lie?
5. Does everything happen for a reason?
6. Where do you go when you’re dead?
7. Is it possible to think about nothing?
8. What do we call the future when it is in the future?
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Jack Dikian
June 2011
I first read The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes in 1997, ten years after its first publication. Reading the account of the development of the most destructive war weapon ever to be created in 1997, I was already aware that Rhodes had received the 1987 National Book Award, the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction. So at the time, I knew I was about to take an 800-page journey through the science, the scientists, the historical and political need for such a weapon, and an insight into the thoughts, values and difficult moral and ethical dilemmas highly recognized scientists had to face should their work was successful.
Of course we know from history the first test atomic bomb, called Trinity, was exploded in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945. On August 6, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 3 days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. On August 14, 1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender to the Allies, thus ending World War II.
Reading this book again recently, I thoroughly enjoyed Rhodes’ ability to capture the twists and turns of an era in our not-so-distant past that propelled government, science and industry to muster the enormous resources of a nation in order to weaponise the theoretical possibilities of nuclear reactions.
For me, one of the standouts of this book is Rhodes’ detailed account of the countless scientists whose work eventually culminated in the making of the first atomic bomb. Rhodes provides us with the lives and work of individual scientists and weaves a thread through their contributions to convert what was initially pure scientific research into the creation of a the atom bomb.
At times, the science gets a little hairy but the reader is more than rewarded by its rich drama, suspense and surprise. For example, there was even a third ''gadget'' being readied to be dropped on Japan, even as Hiroshima and Nagasaki smoldered.
The book's bibliography is some 600 entries long, and Rhodes has fleshed out this archive by interviewing the living principals and by traveling to the sites and shrines of the atomic era.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The role of social networks on social memory
Jack Dikian
April 2011
The event of new media such as social networks, blogs, and emerging on-demand access to content will increasingly impact upon how we, and societies at large will remember and forget – the construct of social memory.
Social memory helps define us, our cultural group and patterns of behavior, ritual, social norms and practices. This takes many forms including religion, mythology, history, cultural practices and derive their form and meaning from accepted world views.
Social memory also plays a pivotal role in social behaviors, from mating behaviors to cooperative behaviors based on reciprocal altruism.
Meanwhile, humans are known to show a social stress response during face-to-face social interactions. Social stress acutely impairs social memory during social interaction while interpersonal trust reduces social stress response. How social stress responses are moderated when contact is increasingly online while the overall formation of and recall of social or collective memory will be more democratized than any other time in history.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Inside WikiLeaks - book review
Jack Dikian
April 2011
As we know WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit organization publishing submissions of private, secret, and classified material from anonymous sources such as news sources and whistleblowers. Over time, the original wiki-based approach that allowed "the entire global community" to participate, edit, and comment has given way to WikiLeaks giving exclusives to only a handful of mainstream media organizations.
Besides WikiLeaks winning coveted praise from important human rights organizations and established media outlets, it has also come into controversy and criticism.
Among the awards WikiLeaks received The Economist's New Media Award, Amnesty International's UK Media Award, and the New York City Daily News listing WikiLeaks first among websites "that could totally change the news".
WikiLeaks, and in particular its founder Julian Assange has also encountered a barrage of criticism, including a profile in the New York Times that used language such as "erratic and imperious behavior" and "a nearly delusional grandeur” after Wikileaks' disclosure of Iraq and Afghan war files. Anger in U.S. political circles continues to grow with some commentators calling for the U.S. government to find a way to pull the plug on the group's Web site after [it] began releasing U.S. State department diplomatic cables.
I picked up a copy of "Inside WikiLeaks, my time with Julian Assange at the world’s most dangerous website” one early morning while killing a bit of time before a meeting. I was surprised it was so heavily discounted given that it was published only a few months ago.
The author Daniel Domscheit-Berg worked with WikiLeaks for three years and probably worked closer with Assange than anyone else at the organization. I say probably because as we learn from Domscheit-Berg that while WikiLeaks made its name exposing the personal, company and government correspondence Mr. Assange lived a clandestine existence. Domscheit-Berg himself wasn’t quite sure, who other than himself and Assange was actively involved in the organization.
The story Domscheit-Berg tells is inviting and from a very personal perspective – discussing with great detail his working relationship with Assange, his habits, his strengths, and the many, perhaps, less complimentary behaviors Domscheit-Berg felt he needed to accept and manage.
As Domscheit-Berg’s story unfolds the reader begins to get the sense that the relationship between himself and Assange wasn’t going to end well. For example, Domscheit-Berg writes “He did not want to share the spotlight with anyone”. When Domscheit-Berg gave a rare interview about WikiLeaks. Assange accused him of “being a media whore”.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Oh No The Super Moon Is Almost Here…
Jack Dikian
March 2011
On the 19th of March 2011 (in a few days) the Moon will be closer, and appear bigger than it has been and looked since 1992.
The reason the moon will be so close is because it orbits the Earth in an elliptical orbit, and so in each orbit there is a closest approach, and a furthest approach.
Some say this brings with it a cycle connected with natural disasters such as extreme weather events and earthquakes. The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 occurred around the time of a super moon as did hurricane Katrina in 2005, Indonesian earthquake in 2005, and the massive floods in Australia in 1954.
Other’s will say these are nothing more than a coincidence and the moon has no effect on flood or earthquake. The effect of the moon, a full moon, and more so a super moon on us, however, is another thing entirely.
According to folklore the full moon has been linked to crime, suicide, mental illness, disasters, accidents, birthrates, fertility, and werewolves, among other things. Some even trade stocks according to phases of the moon.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Narcissism is on the rise…
Jack Dikian
March 2011
Introduction
Narcissistic personality disorder, according to the DSM-IV is a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy that begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts and as indicated by five (or more) ... of 9 main features listed commencing with “a grandiose sense of self-importance…”.
And even while many highly successful individuals might be considered narcissistic. this disorder is only diagnosed when these behaviours become persistent and very disabling or distressing. While grandiosity is the diagnostic hallmark of pathological narcissism, there is research evidence that pathological narcissism occurs in two forms, a
(a) Grandiose state of mind in young adults that can be may be corrected by life experiences, and
(b) Stable disorder that is less about grandiosity and more around severely disturbed interpersonal relations.
Prognosis and treatment
The preferred theory seems to be that narcissism is caused by very early affective deprivation, yet the clinical material tends to describe narcissists as unwilling rather than unable, thus discussing narcissistic behaviours as a character disorder rather than framed as a personality disorder.
This distinction is important to prognosis and treatment possibilities. If, for example, narcissism is a behaviour pattern that has been learned, then there may options to assist moderate, un-learn, and/or substitute behaviours – through psychodynamic psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral treatment modalities. Medication is sometimes prescribed to control and ameliorate attendant conditions such as mood disorders or obsessive-compulsive disorders.
On the other hand if this disorder is caused by damage in early childhood then it is probably represents an irremediable condition.
Recent research outcome
Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, said a study she conducted of 16,000 university students across the US showed 30 per cent were narcissistic in psychological tests, compared with 15 per cent in 1982.
Professor Twenge said the finding built on another study based on interviews with 35,000 people of varying ages, who were asked if they had ever had symptoms of narcissism. 3 per cent of those over 65 had had symptoms, while for people in their 20s it was 10 per cent. These numbers are interesting and somewhat shocking, particularly when we consider, and according to the DSM-IV between 0.5-1% of the general population are diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
According to Professor Twenge permissive parenting, celebrity culture and the internet are among the causes of the emerging narcissism epidemic. She said telling children they were special to build self-esteem could foster narcissism.
A thought...
I am guessing the Internet era has bought with it a languge and perhaphs even more a belief that the world really does revolve around an individuale – reflect how a generation has grown up with large organisations seemingly being so ameniable through the use of website names like MyBank, MyBus, and even MySchool.
Jean Twenge is Professor of psychology at San Diego State University
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