"What can you see?"
"Be quiet!"
Funny Animal Photos 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.
Economics by Ty Buchanan
National Australia Bank CEO Says People See Banks as Bastards
Though banks are now more cautious with their lending, National Australia Bank CEO Cameron Clyne says the community blames the banks for the economic crisis and rightly so too. Banks have kept their operations very secret while they risked investors money by loaning out money to potential defaulters.
He says banks should be more open about their interest rate tables and fees. Investors in the community are hit all the time by getting lower interest than they believe they will get, and being hit by fees without being informed why. Fees in particular have technical wording rather than "real life" wording.
In short, he says people believe that banks are robbing bastards. He further warns that banks will increase interest charged on loans or keep them the same despite the central bank lowering rates. People will see this as plain robbery. They will call for government intervention.
He says banks should be more open about their interest rate tables and fees. Investors in the community are hit all the time by getting lower interest than they believe they will get, and being hit by fees without being informed why. Fees in particular have technical wording rather than "real life" wording.
In short, he says people believe that banks are robbing bastards. He further warns that banks will increase interest charged on loans or keep them the same despite the central bank lowering rates. People will see this as plain robbery. They will call for government intervention.
Economics by Ty Buchanan
Early Life Found in Western Australia's Pilbara Region
There is so much to be found in remote parts of Australia, new animal species and signs of early life. The first signs of life were bacteria and remains of them have been located in northwest Australia. They were in the Pilbara, in sedimentary rock.
Evidence of life billions of years old have come to light in Greenland, but with earth movement their date of origin cannot be accurately defined. Western Australia's Pilbara is stable so the find has been claimed as the earliest signs of life.
No fossils of the bacteria are left. Traces of their movement in the sediment can be clearly seen. Of course the soft sediment is now rock. There were masses of them in the Dresser Rock Foundation.
Examination of the tiny living things will help research of material on other planets. We now know what to look for. Planetary "rovers" can be built with the right testing equipment.
Evolution by Ty Buchanan
New Technology Makes Testing for Explosives Easier
Australia had come a long since the days of someone walking through the center aisle of an inbound aircraft spraying insecticide. New Australian's used to laugh at the man with the can spraying over peoples heads not worrying about those with allergies. There is no way it would have killed all the insects on the plane.
Pests and drugs are one thing, but explosives are the main fear. Until now liquids in sealed containers such as liquor had to be accessed and tested for explosive potential. New technology enables the sealed liquid to be tested while still in its container. Battelle and Sellex are distributing the scanners.
Liquids, gels and aerosols can be scanned. This is a revolutionary development. It won an R&D 100 Award. Airports around the world are scrambling to get their hands on the scanners.
Testing is quick and it will not slow down passenger flow. Now all we need is a quick scanner for drug detection that does not have four legs and bark. Ironically, this will be possible in the future because the smelling function detects minute particles in the air.
Society by Ty Buchanan
Australia's Coast Will Be Lost
Australia could return to what it was millions of years ago - a cluster of islands covering a gigantic area. The continent is very flat. Mountains only occur on the east coast. With rising sea level, first to go will be the large cities on the coast. These are the major population centers.
After this, an inland sea will form. There is no doubt that the Poles are melting. This water has to go somewhere. The population will fall by 80 per cent. Even if many flee inland, there are no water and food resources there to feed everyone, unless of course Aboriginal culture still remains. Most Aboriginals today are urbanized and have lost much of the their culture.
This will not be a solely Australian problem. Most major cities in the world are on the coast, growing from estuaries where a large river flows into the sea.
On the Gold Coast, high rise building are only meters from an unpredictable sea. After storms, councils are called upon to repair the damage with money they don't have. In a short time these buildings will have to be abandoned as councils condemn them as being too dangerous to live in.
There is no immediate worry because the rise in ocean level will be steady. This will give people time to move out. There will be great financial loss to the nation though. Natural disasters just consume GDP. Nothing is produced from them. In fact resources are drawn away from productive projects.
Environment by Ty Buchanan
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
