Avoid wrecks with awareness of motion induced blindness

I was copied on an email thread recently about motion-induced blindness (MIB). That's a phenomenon where moving objects in an observer's peripheral vision can disappear. Researchers think this can cause motor vehicle collisions when a driver simply can't see someone approaching from the side. Awareness here is key: one can avoid MIB by not simply staring in front of the car, but rather shifting one's gaze every few seconds. We've all heard from driver's ed that you should check your mirrors every few seconds, and that helps avoid MIB as well.

Source: Wikipedia

Here's the entire email thread:

SOMETHING DRIVERS NEED TO BE AWARE OF: MOTION-INDUCED BLINDNESS
 
In a motor accident, where a speeding car hits a slower moving vehicle coming from the side, the speeding car driver often swear that they just didn’t see the vehicle coming from the left or right. Well, they aren’t lying. They really don’t see the vehicle coming from the side, in spite of broad daylight.
 
This phenomenon on the car drivers’ part is known as “Motion-Induced Blindness.” It is definitely frightening and explained at the website noted below.
 
Once airborne, pilots are taught to alternate their gaze between scanning the horizon and scanning their instrument panel, and never to fix their gaze for more than a couple of seconds on any single object. They are taught to continually keep their heads on a swivel and their eyes always moving. Because, if you fix your gaze on one object long enough while you yourself are in motion, your peripheral vision goes blind.
 
‘Till about three decades ago, this “heads on swivel & eyes moving” technique was the only way to spot other aircraft in the skies around. Now days they have on-board radars, but the old technique still holds good.
 
Just click on the link below for a small demonstration of motion-induced blindness. You will see a revolving array of blue crosses on a black background. There is a flashing green dot in the centre and three fixed yellow dots around it. If you fix your gaze on the green dot for more than a few seconds, the yellow dots will disappear at random, either singly, or in pairs, or all three together.
 
In reality, the yellow dots are always there - just move your focus to see them.
 
Just watch the yellow dots for some time to ensure that they don’t go anywhere!

       http://www.msf-usa.org/motion.html
 
So, if you are driving at a high speed on a highway, and if you fix your gaze on the road straight ahead for not very long, you will not see a car, a scooter, a buggy, a bicycle, a buffalo or even a human being approaching from the side.
 
NOW REVERSE THE SITUATION. If you are crossing a road on foot and you see a speeding car approaching, there’s a 90% chance that the driver isn’t seeing you, because his/her peripheral vision may be blind. And you may be in that blind zone!

Clark County wet/dry petition map using Intelection

I've done several posts lately on local option elections (also called wet/dry elections). It's time for another, as I've been working on the patent application for my electioneering software, Intelection. First things first, the graphic:

View fullsize

This shows all the people who signed the wet/dry petition in Clark County in 2010. The address data is more recent than that, and as you can see some folks have moved away from Clark County since the election. 

One of the benefits of the Intelection software is tracking petition drives. Intelection helps answer questions like:

• Is this person eligible to sign the petition?
• Has this person already signed the petition?
• How many people have signed the petition?

Let me know if Intelection and I can help you with a local option petition drive. 

2013 mostly wet (with a dab of dry) election in the books

The Park Hill neighborhood in North Little Rock voted overwhelmingly to lift a 50-year-old ban on alcohol sales in the neighborhood. It was formerly a small pocket of dry districts in an otherwise wet county. As reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (warning: pay wall), 607 people voted wet to just 107 people who voted dry. That's 85% to 15%, for a whopping 70% margin.

Most people weren't aware of this, but districts within a wet county can call a special election on several alcohol-related topics. Individual voting districts can vote dry (or back wet, like Park Hill). 

In contrast, countywide wet-or-dry elections must take place on Election Day in November in even-numbered years. However, because the Park Hill election wasn't a countywide issue, it could be placed on the ballot during a special election after a petition drive by sponsors.

In some places, like Clark, Boone, and Madison Counties that recently voted wet, city boards and even quorum courts can call a special "mixed drink" election. The local option laws require this separate election. Voters get to decide whether restaurants can sell mixed drinks and liquor without a private club license during normal operating hours. The legislature considered removing the mixed drink special election in 2011, but it narrowly failed in the State Senate.

Private club licenses are a burden. The mixed drink election law puts businesses in places like Clark County at a disadvantage because the costs are much higher. Two examples: first, the private club license is more expensive. Second, restaurants cannot buy liquor directly from wholesalers. Third, the paperwork requirements are much higher, as private clubs require an Arkansas non-profit corporation in existence for at least a year and a roll of at least 100 members. These regulations scare many folks out of trying to serve liquor.

You may remember that Benton County voted wet in 2012. Their legislators lobbied for and received an exemption from the mixed drink election law. The new law permits counties (and towns within those counties) having more than 100 private clubs as of the November 2012 election to authorize mixed drink sales by ordinance, rather than a special election.

I understand having private club licenses if you want to stay open until 5am or have a bar in a dry county — these matters create added enforcement pressure on the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and local cops. But simply adding different kinds of drinks to an existing restaurant that doesn't stay open terribly late creates no such burden.

Our private club laws are behind the times. Since getting rid of private clubs in 2009, even Utah (home of the Mormon Church) has more reasonable alcohol laws than we do here in Arkansas. It's time to get rid of the wet/dry two-step.

In the meantime, if you're interested in any type of wet/dry, mixed drink, or other local option election, please give me a call or check out our blog posts on the topic.

Nathan selected to Super Lawyers for 3rd straight year

Nathan was again selected as one of Super Lawyers' Rising Stars for 2013 for the third year running. Super Lawyers is a nationwide "rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practiceareas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition andprofessional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased andincludes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.

Super Lawyers magazine features the list and profiles of selectedattorneys and is distributed to attorneys in the state or region and theABA-accredited law school libraries. Super Lawyers is also published asa special section in leading city and regional magazines across thecountry."

Nathan P. Chaney

Fox News on insurance cancellations: blame insurance companies, not Obamacare

A recent opinion piece by a Fox News analyst provides some insight into the cancellation of health insurance policies as the Affordable Care Act (a/k/a Obamacare) goes into effect. He shares our view that pre-ACA, health insurers and their CEOs "made money by finding any excuse, any loophole to deny coverage to the sickest and most vulnerable people in our society." He points out that CEO pay at some of these insurers tops $36 million. We previously reported on how many health insurance company executives make more in a day than most Americans do in a year.

The Fox News analyst blames insurance companies for the cancellations, arguing that the insurers were providing inadequate care. He makes several good analogies about how regulation, including regulation of insurance companies under the ACA, make us all safer: 

You should be blaming your insurance company because they have not been providing you with coverage that meets the minimum basic standards for health care.

Let me put it more bluntly: your insurance companies have been taking advantage of you and the Affordable Care Act puts in place consumer protection and tells them to stop abusing people.

The government did not “force” insurance companies to cancel their own substandard policies.The insurance companies chose to do that rather than do what is right and bring the policies up to code. 

This would be like saying the government “forces” chemical companies to dispose of toxic waste safely rather than dumping it in the river. 

Or the government “forces” people to drive with intact windshields and working brake lights.

How dare they “force” drivers to pay money to get those things fixed if they are broken?

If you are rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, the ACA says your insurance company has to pay for the ambulance ride. 

If your son or daughter has a bout with depression or suffers from panic attacks, the ACA says your insurance company needs to pay for their medicine and treatment from a mental health professional.

People should be angry that their insurance companies were not paying for these humane, common sense benefits all along. 

It baffles me that people are directing their anger at the ACA which rights these terrible wrongs.

I think it's safe to safe that Fox News is generally regarded as a pro-business, anti-regulation news outlet. So when Fox News is accusing an industry of profiteering on the backs of ordinary Americans, you know they're doing something wrong.