News That's Fit To Punt- 26/May/2015

The Future's So Dim I Need Those New LED Flashlights

We're spending less on science and research in this country. This astonishing fact drew this article from the SMH:

"Having this reliance on the bottom end of the economy, like small businesses, is a short-term fix," said Andrew Hughes, a lecturer at the college of business and economics at Australian National University. "Cutting back on research is insanity."

Every country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has a plan to grow its scientific enterprise and aid its translation into technology, innovation and development, bar Australia, Chief Scientist Ian Chubb said.

"For 20 years, we have presided over declining levels of participation in science and mathematics" while the country assured itself that students will be fine with calculators, Chubb wrote this month in an article on his website. "I think about the sort of jobs a child in school today might want to do in 10, 20, 50 years. And I wonder, which of those jobs will not require an understanding of science?"

Australian school students underperform in science and mathematics tests compared with every other high-income economy in Asia apart from New Zealand, according to a report issued this month by the 34-nation OECD.

"We're already losing our power in the brains market because we're up against China, India, Japan and South Korea who spend so much more on research and development," Hughes said. "We need to think long-term."

Industry and Science Minister Ian Macfarlane in March said the country ranked 81st out of 143 in a global innovation efficiency measure, putting it "close to average in turning ideas to our advantage". The government is spending about $9 billion a year on science in what is "a conservative financial environment", he said.

And so we have it. Even our Science Minister can't do maths. 81st out of 143 nations is not what most people adept at mathematics would call "close to average". Mediocre, and sub-optimal are terms much closer to the mark that spring to mind.

Once upon a time, this was the fourth nation to launch an object into space. Think about that. USSR, USA, UK, then Australia. We were good at science and technology. Heck, we were formidable! And now, we're going to cut back even more than before.

Yet the nation now ranks in the bottom seven countries based on government spending on research and development as a proportion of gross domestic product, the latest OECD scoreboard shows. 

Australia isn't alone in trying to bolster lower-skilled careers as economies look to shore up manufacturing and fill an increasing number of service-oriented jobs. Both Singapore and South Korea have urged students to consider skipping university. 

Singapore, though, committed to increasing its R&D spending by 20 per cent in 2011-15 over the previous five years, while South Korea spent the second-highest proportion of gross domestic product on research among OECD countries in 2013, behind Israel.
The boost for baristas is partly a result of successive governments' failures during the decade-long mining boom to prevent a hollowing out of the manufacturing sector as the currency strengthened and investment flowed to the mines. General Motors, Ford and Toyota plan to quit manufacturing in the country within two years, while Alcoa last year closed an aluminium smelter and two mills. 

Belinda Robinson, chief executive of Universities Australia, said the research cuts announced by Treasurer Joe Hockey in his budget this month will make matters worse.
"Against the backdrop of low commodity prices and the downturn in traditional industries, a prudent approach to stimulating economic renewal is to invest in, not cut, wealth-generating activities like higher education, research and innovation," she said.

Good grief. The worst aspects of conservative thought is that it fears change so much, it thinks nothing of slowing down progress, shutting down developments that might change the status quo (they like to call this 'the social fabric' - it's bullshit). It's all too easy for these idiots to cut science because not only do they not understand it - as evinced by the number who deny climate change - they fear it.

Evidence Our Government Is Even Worse Than We Thought

Pleiades tells me all the time, "you know, these people are completely fucked."
I'm inclined to believe it.

Six members of the Abbott cabinet have risen up against an extraordinary proposal to give a minister the power to strip an Australian of their sole citizenship. 

The idea, proposed by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton with the support of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, divided a meeting of the cabinet on Monday night. 

The hour-long debate was described by participants as tense and sometimes heated.
The cabinet members who spoke against the proposal were Defence Minister Kevin Andrews, Foreign Affairs Minister and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop, Attorney-General George Brandis, Agriculture Minister and deputy Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, Education Minister Christopher Pyne and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, according to people present in the room. 

The same plan had divided the cabinet's national security committee.
The idea is that even an Australian-born citizen, without any other citizenship, could be stripped of Australian citizenship at the discretion of the immigration minister alone, without a suspect being charged or facing a court. 

Under the proposal, the only protection against an Australian being rendered stateless is that they must also be eligible to apply for citizenship of another country, even if they do not actually hold that second citizenship. 

Ms Bishop posed to the cabinet meeting this question: if Australia were to strip one of its people of citizenship on suspicion of terrorism, would another country be likely to approve that person's application to become a citizen?
The core objection was that an Australian effectively can be rendered stateless, losing fundamental rights and in violation of international law, without due process.

Bloody hell.
They made laws that joining a terror organisation abroad is against the law. Presumably if somebody returns from ISIS / ISIL /Daesh, they will be arrested and hauled in front of a magistrate. But they hate these people so much they want a special law to render them stateless. The mind boggles at this sensibility, and the fact that it was discussed like it's some kind of legitmiate option.

The lunar right is fixated on this notion of "un-Australian" acts, and keep coming up with novel ways to punish the un-Australian-but-still-Australian-by-citizenship citizen. Rendering people stateless and dumping them on other nations was one of the Howard government's favourite tricks, but it's plain ridiculous. The fact that ten years on, Tony Abbott wants to bring back this kind of idiocy speaks volumes about just what a fuckhead he really is.