Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts

Closing Aboriginal Cmmunities in WA is Immoral

You cannot change culture by legislation. The Western Australian government is closing remote Aboriginal communities citing poor health, suicide and not much work. Aboriginal children are brought up in "strong" communities where they learn local languages and rituals passed down for generations. Closing communities will result in total loss of language and culture.

How can Aboriginals buy housing in cities? They have no tradition of hereditary wealth or access to education to better one's life. White governments are absolutely responsible for the situation of modern day Aboriginals. White people forcibly took this country from them and forced them into the margins of society where they have remained for centuries.

What remote Aboriginals need is more money from government. They have a right to live on their ancestral lands. They were born there. The WA government will be closing rural towns next. Where does this end? If Aboriginals decide to move back to closed remote communities they are entitled to welfare payment due to lack of work. After all, they are Australian citizens. Governments sometimes fails to accept this.
Culture by Ty Buchanan
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Chasm Between Universitis and Industry is Still Wide

Scientists at universities (but not in industry) are jumping up and down welcoming the Commonwealth Science Council (CSC) saying it will breed market culture in science. The odd thing is this isn't the market in operation. It is managed interference in free scientific operations. Why should scientific research be managed at all?

Another thing is, it will be chaired by the Prime Minister Tony Abbott. What does the PM know about science? The truth is he knows no more than the average person. He is not trained in science. The body will give advice. And you know what they say about advice - it is best ignored.

The CSC will not improve the chasm between universities and industry. Academia has a good bond with industry in the US. Just why we cannot do the same in Australia is a mystery. A new referee in the ring like the CSC will not improve the boxing match. Industry and academia remain at odds. The blame really lies on the university side. They still live in their ivory towers being paid huge sums in separation from reality.

CSIRO does the industry-university joint operation well. It points the way to how things should be done. Universities should just copy what CSIRO does. It is as simple as that. There is nothing difficult to it. First though, universities need to get down from their high horses and be in partnership with business - they always want to run the show.
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Skill Gap in Western Countries

Western countries are heading for a crisis. Young people are not being taught skills that are of use in the workforce. Australia under Prime Minister Tony Abbott is moving back to the three "Rs" - reading, writing and arithmetic in schools. However, it will take at least a decade for this to take effect.

It looks unlikely that future Australian governments will keep this change going. More and more irrelevant subjects are being introduced into an already crowded curriculum. Students are studying different things. There is no uniformity in education.

Will we reach a stage where machines run the world and there are no technicians with the skills to repair them? This is a strong possibility. It is just a short step back to primitivism, back to the stone age.

Students are not applying to enter the scientific field. Scientists are an aging bunch. Much research funding is channelled to them because they have proven themselves. Bodies with funds do not have any faith in new science graduates.

The skill shortage is not only in science. It is not possible for everyone to be employed at the checkout where computerized tills do the adding up and show the exact change to give. This is now an unskilled job. When the older generation of tradees retire there will be no young eager people to do the work. The government is not listening. Funding on TAFE education has fallen dramatically.
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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New System to Watch Workers

Spying is everywhere these days and researchers with employer backing are studying the way employees move during work tasks. They don't seem to care what effect this has on a workers mental state, considering you will have a contraption fitted that will go into the bathroom with you.

The DorsaVi company based in Melbourne has developed a monitoring system called ViSafe. It attaches to the body by means of sticky pads that measures muscle impulses and body motion. Critically, it measures the speed at which one is moving. This will help to make the employee move faster by explaining that he/she does not move fast enough during work hours - hands up for running on the spot!

Data are examined by the subject, researcher, workplace assessor, oh and another employee who is there to make up the numbers. Just where workplace assessor gets his skills and expertise from is a mystery. Like those wonderful abstract tests they give to job applicants that are never tested in real life situations - indeed, which are irrelevant to real life and measure, well, nothing actually.

It is okay to use such technology on sports people, but in the workplace they can cause a build up of stress in employees that employers with there great intelligence cannot seem to understand. This is mainly because employers can please themselves about what they do during the day and workers cannot. Employees are trapped in a prison of compulsory work tasks. "ViSafe can tell you in a quantifiable way how far a worker can bend over." That will prove useful.
Technology by Ty Buchanan

Part-Time and Full-Time Employment Means Fewer Babies

It is not work in general that is causing a decline in women giving birth at a young age. It is specifically temporary jobs that are responsible. In Australia part-time and casual employment has boomed over the last decade as employers see it as a way to keep costs down. Many work extra hours for no money at all, afraid of losing their jobs.

Women working full time can afford to pay for child care, or at least for critical periods when they are working. Such career women are having children before they reach the age of 35 years. There is a myth out there that it is these career women who are starting families at an older age. Oddly the effects of not working full time changes the behavior of women in the high socieconomic group as well. They may be able to afford childcare from a financial "nest egg", but it is the state of mind about not working enough and not having sufficient income for a family.

Financial security in regard to income is essential for women to even consider having children. Careers are not that important to women. This goes against all of the prevailing stereotypes. The number of years spent in part-time work had a strong impact. A year of part-time employment reduced the probability of having a baby by 35 years by 8 per cent. Five years in such work increased the rate to more than a third.

Another myth is that university graduates go straight into full-time employment. Over 60 per cent of these began working in a job with reduced hours. Therefore, high and low-skilled women suffered the same job market problem.

All economies are moving to less-secure employment to reduce production costs. This means that as the decades go by the world population will fall, confounding all predictions. Furthermore, the population in most countries will have a larger proportion of elderly people. Some of these will have to work to survive. Providing old age pensions will become too costly.
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Economics by Ty Buchanan
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Weights Kitten

"Are you sure this is good for me?"
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Funny Animal Photos
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🐬

Too Many Maths and Science Graduates

For many years it has been said that Australia lacks maths and science graduates. Maths teachers are in short supply we are told. Professor Ian Chubb, a chief scientist, certainly pushes this case.

Unfortunately, data does not support this premise. Like qualified information technology people, maths and science graduates find the job market difficult. It seems there is real demand only in geological science. A little more than half of graduates say their qualifications are relevant to their work. They hold down jobs only in distantly related fields.

One would think that with science and technology moving forward at a rapid pace such qualified people would be sorely needed. Employment in agricultural science is falling because young people are leaving rural towns and refuse to learn about farming. It is seen as glorified laboring.

Getting a post-graduate qualification does not help to find work. Employers see higher degrees as narrowing educational scope. Government is continuing to push universities to offer science and maths teaching despite labor demand falling. Places for teachers are available, but when first employed new teachers have to work for ten years or more in the bush before they can choose where they want to live.

Though historically Australian culture was based on bush life, today the young are urbanites. They love big cities and living near the ocean. The trend is for elderly grandparents to spend their last days in rural areas, while their offspring live it up on the coast. Maths and science, however, may not be the road to financial success.
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Conservation
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Internet Puts Pressure on Jobs for Older Workers

The Internet is putting more people out of work and this is only the beginning. As more advanced algorithms are being developed established jobs are under threat. It will not only be lawyers and professional photographers employed by newspapers who get the chop. Unless you are in work that involves human problem solving like plumbers, mechanics and vehicle body repairers your job will face "extinction".

Most of the burden will fall on older workers. Retail, for example, only wants teenagers who can be paid a pittance while "training". Open discrimination occurs against people over 45. They are simply not wanted. This barrier age has fallen in recent years. Computerized job selection processes cuts them off at the beginning. Their resumes are not even looked at. If they go personally to apply for a position they face insulting comments and bad jokes.

Employers are no longer afraid of telling them directly that they are too old. Many have simply given up on seriously looking for work and they just do the minimum to justify payments from Centrelink.
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Economics
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Society Ignores the Disabled

With workplace participation by those with disabilities being a prime goal touted by government there is no solid progress. Words are cheap and politicians know it. Funding is just not there. Businesses must make a profit to survive in a competitive world and they will not take the disabled on without subsidies. This is a fact.

Those with disabilities are even shunned by the public at large. They face discrimination every day. They feel that government ignores them as must as businesses. Ninety four per cent of disabled people said this in a recent survey.

Besides having a job, they want support in basic social contact. Many do not have a circle of friends. When they are with a carer, bank staff, for example, talk to the carer without speaking to the person cared for. The disabled are ignored as being "non-people".

Wheelchair access has not been improved for years. Public transport is out of the question for many. Parts of the city are never visited by the disabled. Such areas are impossible for wheelchairs.
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Society
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Times Get Tougher for Sole Mothers

There is little sympathy for sole mothers from others in society or government. Social security payments have been tightened up by the federal Government. If sole mothers do not work they must go back to school, probably learning something that is useless for their future.

Not many full-time workers have brought up children as well without paying someone else to care for their babies and toddlers. Older children are consistently being left alone as mothers do some sort of part-time work. This is reality. Part-time jobs do not pay well enough to provide money for carers. When Single mothers come home they not only look after their children, they must do all the household chores as well as do repair work to the home.

The government's new harsher policy comes into force next January. Welfare payments will fall. Even those working part-time will lose some of the part-payment they get from social security. Children will be the real losers as food and heating/cooling are reduced. As the number of sole parents below the poverty line increases from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, things will be tough. The loss of $40 a week from next year for those fully reliant on welfare payments is a massive amount. Two thousand dollars a year is a significant fall in income.
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Society

Windows 8 Crashes

THE END OF THE ROAD FOR EASY WEB DESIGN

Windows 8 means more problems for web page designers. What Internet Explorer reproduces in Windows 8 on a personal computer is not what comes out on a tablet. Internet Explorer 10 is the worst culprit. Having IE10 built into Windows 8 with no possibility of going back to IE9 is a nuisance. Text goes right off the background square. On a PC, fonts are either extended too long and go over the background square at the bottom, or there is a line gap under the full stop because text is too short.

Nearly all the other browsers reproduce correctly, except FireFox with the last word on some fonts extending to the next line. This is rare though. Obviously, the problem lies in the operating system itself which is designed specifically for tablets. Personal computers are only of secondary consideration.

There is a "war" going on in the US at the moment over how images will be shown on tablets and even mobile phones. The powers that be are in a battle with professional code writers over what system will be used. This wonderful image system is called Picture Fill. The font problem with Windows 8 will make the fight more complex.

Designers will now have to put images onto a web page knowing that in some circumstances fonts may write over the image or go behind it. Windows 8 is being released far too early. It is not yet known whether the new coding will be in HTML5 or left for HTML6. Whichever way it goes Windows 8 will be obsolete.

The new code for Picture Fill put forward by designers has four images being uploaded to the server at four different pixel densities. This is for each image on the web page. The lowest size and pixel strength will be downloaded by small devices. High definition sites on personal computers will download the highest definition image version. This will definitely make download times longer for all systems, and take up more memory on servers.

Your $40 will be wasted on upgrading to Windows 8. The problems are countless. You cannot set up a network in your home because security turns off and prevents access to Windows Firewall. This blocks all attempts at accessing other devices. Many older versions of software keep shutting down despite compatibility settings. You have to give Microsoft your email address and your correct password as you are logged on at startup. They are surely going to look at your email

Stay with Windows 7. It is the last Windows system written exclusively for PCs.

~~~~~Computers~~~~~
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Cats in Coatboots

"Are you sure these are coats?"
http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/
~~~~~Funny Animal Photos~~~~~
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Young People Are More Stressed With Life

It would be expected that people of middle age had problems with life. They are still working, see young people taking over their jobs and worry whether they have accumulated enough superannuation. Perhaps elderly people have a tough time. Many completed their working lives when superannuation was not compulsory and rely on an inadequate state pension. If they have not purchase a home during their time working they have to pay rent out of the little bit the state gives them, then have to live on what is left.

If you thought these two groups were the greatest worriers you would be wrong. Young people aged between 18-25 are most stressed according to an online survey involving 1500 subjects. The young are not really taking jobs from the elderly. Under 25s have a hard time finding a job in the first place even if they have a university degrees.

With the way they are brought up - having anything they wanted from parents who were afraid to discipline them, they find staying at work for 8 hours unbearable. After a short time they feel disillusioned with searching for employment when they are dismissed so easily. Indeed, many really hate work, much, much more that older workers near retirement who were brought up in tougher times, when smacking your child was accepted. Older workers also accept hierarchy as normal. They do what the supervisor or boss tells them. Young people only know "doing their own thing".

Its no wonder more than half of young people surveyed cannot live on average income. They received everything as children with no money worries. Normal income does not allow a person to have takeaway for every meal. Experts say, "Small adjustments to the way you think or behave can often have a big impact." I doubt this. This is a structural problem within Western societies. The shock of stepping from a protected childhood to working young adults is just too great.
~~~~~Society~~~~~
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Many Australians Will Continue to Work Despite Superannuation

Despite discrimination by some employers, older Australians are determined to keep on working past the retirement age. They believe that they haven't got enough saved to retire on.

A large survey discovered that 2.6 million Australians over 45 are working full-time and 653,000 said they would never give up work. Another 399,300 said they could see no time when they would be able to retire. A significant 1.6 million were in part-time employment.

Even though superannuation has been compulsory in Australia since 1986 a quarter of the 3.9 million in the study said they would rely fully on the state for a pension. Only half would have sufficient superannuation to live on.

Compulsory superannuation will reduce the present number of 66 per cent of elderly people on the aged pension. But people being what they are, many superannuants intend to go on world tours or travel around Australia to quickly get rid of their capital so they become eligible for the old age pension.
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Retirement

Molasses a "Cure" for Obesity

It would be ideal if obesity could be treated by taking something, instead of drastic dieting. A possible solution has been found in molasses. This sweet substance is rich in polyphenols, antioxidants that seem to change the consequences of a high-fat diet.

For 12 weeks mice were given a high-fat diet supplemented with up to 4 per cent molasses extract. The mice lost weight. This was believed to be caused by the molasses reducing caloric absorption. Fat cells make the hormone leptin. This hormone was reduced in the blood.

Next year work will be done on humans to see if results are the same. Molasses are inexpensive and capsules could easily be produced. It would be a great leap forward if a simple "cure" like this is effective.
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Health

Work Is Inevitable

There is not much doubt that work is bad for you. Yes, it gets you up in the morning and you have to go through all the rituals of getting to work, but that is about it. You would probably feel better and be healthier if you could take a pleasant walk along the beach, then sit down for a cool drink. However, one must make a living. What good is money to you? Well, it gives you the power to make others work for you!

Manual work is doubly hard on any person. You have the worry of receiving a low wage and the body must suffer continuing hardship. Even having a "comfy" job in an office, sitting down lazing in a chair most of the time, the stress can be immeasurable.

With a physical job one has the problems of getting a permanent bad back, for example, and office employment has the dangers of obesity and heart disease.

Work is a fact of life. It makes the world go round. As the saying goes: Egypt made the pyramids, but the pyramids made Egypt.
~~~~~Society~~~~~
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