Telstra is a Ruthless Monopoly

Telstra is claiming to have boosted mobile network speed to 450Mbps over LTE. Technological improvement is a good thing, but it should get its house in order first. About every three days one cannot access account details notably broadband usage. Customer service is disgraceful.

One thing that stands out about Telstra is that sales and payment web pages are "never" down. Even a child can see its priorities are on making money not providing a decent service that customers overpay for. It is about to bring out new packages at higher prices. Its monopoly is all-consuming. Telstra can do what it likes.

Increasing mobile speed by three means increased charges for consumers. There is no doubt about this. Furthermore, faster broadband means allocated usage will be used up much sooner so Telstrs will gain there as well. With more users not using PCs multiple channel broadband data flow means greater profit.

The overall deal for Telstra is more money not customer benefit. Demand for mobile broadband is booming as people want to use the Internet on-the-go. Believing that Telstra is doing this improvement for consumers is rubbish. It is a profit making company with a monopoly. Like all monopolies it misuses that power.
Technology by Ty Buchanan

Fish Food Cat

"May I have it?  Please!  Please!"
Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan
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"Rote" is a Dirty Word in Education

Students from overseas are saving Australia's tertiary education system. This is particularly true for postgraduate degrees. Most Australians attend a social science postgraduate course. This is despite the fact that these pieces of paper are virtually worthless in getting a job in today's world.

Modern economies need IT, management, commerce, science, engineering, architecture and agriculture postgraduates. Doing maths and science at high school is the key but Australian students avoid these. This is due to the poor organization of subjects. Some states have no less than five grades of maths choices. There should be compulsory broad based maths despite failures along the way. Avoiding the difficult is not the way to go.

We have teachers who are only qualified in social sciences teaching maths and science because there are too few fully-educated technical teachers. This is despite the fact that there is an oversupply of teachers generally.

Foreign students are propping up the employment related postgraduate sector by paying the full cost of running the courses with some money skimmed-off by universities to fund social science degrees. Australia needs targetted
education. The curriculum is never left alone. Every government changes the prevailing system. France kept to rote teaching and they have the best scientists in the world. Many Scientists employed in Britain are French.

Why do academics now have this morbid fear of rote teaching? It was because the United States went down the road of free subject choice and the rest of the Western world followed. Just saying the word "rote' was anathema and still is. When I was at school we all said the twelve times tables aloud as a group every morning and I can still remember them now.

No, education today is carried out in the wrong way. For example, making surfing a high school subject was a stupid thing to do. The number of people who have had a successful career in surfing can be counted on your fingers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with rote teaching of the essential things in life. Teachers now expect the answers to problems to just appear in the minds of students. Mentoring is about "telling" not asking.
Education by Ty Buchanan
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Chess Dog

"It's your move Cecil."

Aluminium Once Cost More Than Gold

The metal that could only be made in large quantities when electricity became widely available was once valued more than gold. Eight per cent of the Earth's crust is made up of mineral aluminium such as potassium aluminium sulfate. This was used in times past for fire-proofing and tanning of leather.

Today, it is in baking powder and aftershave. The refinement into aluminum metal wasn't theorized until the late 19th century. Hans christian Oersted created the first sample of the metal in 1825. It was highly contaminated. Sodium was then used by Henri Saint-Claire Deville to produce more. In 1845 scientists found it to be extremely light in weight. By 1855 small ingots were made and its price skyrocketed. Indeed, Napoleon 111 valued his aluminium cutlery more the the gold alternative.

Electrolysis was the major breakthrough in the production of large quantities of aluminium. Bauxite was identified as the best and plentiful source material. The price fell 80 per cent almost immediately as it became the cheapest metal available. The price fall is notable: $US1,200 a kilo in 1852 to $US1.00 in the 20th century for the same amount.
Science by Ty Buchanan

Dog Want Home

"Can I come home with you?"
Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan
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ACEAS Database Explains Australian Animal Extinctions

How do we stop the mass extinction of native animals in Australia? That is the big question. Building up a database of endangered species will help but action is needed now. More than a hundred kinds of animal are under threat.

Species are quickly dying off. Small marsupials are becoming extinct. These are in remote regions where humans seldom go, so this is a bit of a mystery. The answer could be imported predators which have been brought here since Europeans arrived.

Though feral cats and foxes are seen as mainly responsible, changing the landscape for farming and housing has also had an impact. Open land assists cats and foxes - they can more easily see their prey.  Small slow-moving native animals
stand no chance at all.

The Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) database has identified areas most in need of conservation management plans. Animals are in the process of moving to new locations as the climate changes. Species fill environmental niches. They must move to places a place where their external needs are met. If they do not find suitable environments they will become extinct.
Conservation by Ty Buchanan
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Dinner Cat

"What's for dinner?"
Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan

Useful Drones for Conservation

Despite the fairytale stuff put forward about delivering things to houses in built up areas of large cities, drone can be useful. Patrolling of protected regions for environmental damage is efficient and less costly than other methods.

Conservation Drones a US company is mass producing drones to meet projected demand. Accidents will occur even though the drones will not land away from the operator, but injuries should be rare. Drones zooming around above our head will become the norm. Will there be complaints? Yes there will.

The first major project will be to protect elephants in Africa. The distance that drones can travel will have to be significantly improved to do the job properly. At the moment helicopters are used. These can be expensive as well. They do have better range, however.

Maximum range for non-military drones is about 40kms. High resolution videos can be taken. Preprogramming is possible to carry out surveillance and data collection. A test to monitor frigate birds has been successful in Western Australia.
Conservation by Ty Buchanan