BBJoey posted:

I agree, those who do not study the holy STEM deserve to grovel in the gutter like the disgusting filth they are

Pickled Tink posted:

I'm on centrelink, but not if your "Blood for Payments" policy gets implemented. Are you going to answer any of the criticisms of that, by the way? Or are you just going to quietly drop it without retracting it like the brain fart it was?

BlitzkriegOfColour posted:

Dead wrong, most of us work. The reason nobody agrees with your is because your education is poor.

e: Let me give you an example. I'm currently working for an auxiliary adjunct to the police. That is, we're a private enterprise which does services for the police which help them do their job. My boss has a degree in business. She thinks that because of the amount of crimes she sees come out of multicultural areas of Sydney that this means there's a lot of crime, proportionately, in those areas. I blew her mind wide open when I told her what the statistics reveal - the crime is actually higher per 100k capita in rural areas than in those areas. Statistically, you're more likely to get raped in a country town than in the most rapey part of Sydney, and also more likely to be a victim of murder. But because of the higher concentration of people in metropolitan areas compared to rural areas, a poorly educated person like her comes to the conclusion that you're more likely to be a victim in, say, Canterbury City Council region than in Wagga Wagga Shire.

A social scientist would look at the facts and say "poverty causes crime, not brown skin", but somebody whose background is in engineering or IT or business just can't think scientifically or sociologically, because they're not trained to think broadly or logically. Moreover, the wisest among us realise how little we know, while the least wise believe they know all. You are the latter.

I hope this helps you overcome your over-inflated sense of self-worth, you plod.

Freudian Slip posted:

Just found out that my research centre is closing due to lack of Government funding. We spend 6 billion a year on general practice services a year. If you include the meds prescribed, tests ordered and referrals made - that number is multiple times larger.

The fact that they don't want to know how that money is being spent both angers and saddens me. (That and also being out of a job in a couple of months with 20 other dedicated researchers)

thatbastardken posted:

also im sending a resignation letter to the dodgy job because gently caress going in on monday.

Seagull posted:

are you Karl pilkington, is that what's going on here

screaden posted:

I hope they give me a refund for the fine for not voting in this piece of poo poo last time. One of the options was literally a homeless guy.

Kommando posted:

I studied STEM, there's no work.
ask any scientist in Australia how their job prospects are and you will be replied to with bitterness and regret. Most move countries or careers.

Mithranderp posted:

Just look at the way people carry on when someone tries to apply any sort of academic criticism to video games. If they can't handle even a simple feminist critique then it doesn't deserve to be art

Zenithe posted:

This seems unusual. Is there some kind of precedent for this of is Geelong as bad as I've heard?

Geelong Council to be sacked by Victorian Government after scathing report

BBJoey posted:

bleep bloop all humans are robots, art serves no purpose, the only purpose of life is work gaining money

LibertyCat posted:

What are you disputing? That they've been legal for decades? The IAC 1887 does the same thing and has been around for yonks. Googling that gives a ton of ads and forum posts.

That no crimes have been committed with one? It's hard to prove a negative and any sources I cite would be called biased. Can you find a single example of a crime committed with one?

Zenithe posted:

This seems unusual. Is there some kind of precedent for this of is Geelong as bad as I've heard?

Geelong Council to be sacked by Victorian Government after scathing report

Nautilus42 posted:

I don't think the homeless have addresses to put themselves up as a candidates for any particular city council.

Why are you against homeless people on the ticket anyway?

Kommando posted:

I studied STEM, there's no work.
ask any scientist in Australia how their job prospects are and you will be replied to with bitterness and regret. Most move countries or careers.

Kommando posted:

Centrelink won't be happy with this.
will you be ok?

"Guardian posted:

The French are right: tear up public debt – most of it is illegitimate anyway

As history has shown, France is capable of the best and the worst, and often in short periods of time.

On the day following Marine Le Pen's Front National victory in the European elections, however, France made a decisive contribution to the reinvention of a radical politics for the 21st century. On that day, the committee for a citizen's audit on the public debt issued a 30-page report on French public debt, its origins and evolution in the past decades. The report was written by a group of experts in public finances under the coordination of Michel Husson, one of France's finest critical economists. Its conclusion is straightforward: 60% of French public debt is illegitimate.

Anyone who has read a newspaper in recent years knows how important debt is to contemporary politics. As David Graeber among others has shown, we live in debtocracies, not democracies. Debt, rather than popular will, is the governing principle of our societies, through the devastating austerity policies implemented in the name of debt reduction. Debt was also a triggering cause of the most innovative social movements in recent years, the Occupy movement.

If it were shown that public debts were somehow illegitimate, that citizens had a right to demand a moratorium – and even the cancellation of part of these debts – the political implications would be huge. It is hard to think of an event that would transform social life as profoundly and rapidly as the emancipation of societies from the constraints of debt. And yet this is precisely what the French report aims to do.

The audit is part of a wider movement of popular debt audits in more than 18 countries. Ecuador and Brazil have had theirs, the former at the initiative of Rafael Correa's government, the latter organised by civil society. European social movements have also put in place debt audits, especially in countries harder hit by the sovereign debt crisis, such as Greece and Spain. In Tunisia, the post-revolutionary government declared the debt taken out during Ben Ali's dictatorship an "odious" debt: one that served to enrich the clique in power, rather than improving the living conditions of the people.

The report on French debt contains several key findings. Primarily, the rise in the state's debt in the past decades cannot be explained by an increase in public spending. The neoliberal argument in favour of austerity policies claims that debt is due to unreasonable public spending levels; that societies in general, and popular classes in particular, live above their means.

This is plain false. In the past 30 years, from 1978 to 2012 more precisely, French public spending has in fact decreased by two GDP points. What, then, explains the rise in public debt? First, a fall in the tax revenues of the state. Massive tax reductions for the wealthy and big corporations have been carried out since 1980. In line with the neoliberal mantra, the purpose of these reductions was to favour investment and employment. Well, unemployment is at its highest today, whereas tax revenues have decreased by five points of GDP.

The second factor is the increase in interest rates, especially in the 1990s. This increase favoured creditors and speculators, to the detriment of debtors. Instead of borrowing on financial markets at prohibitive interest rates, had the state financed itself by appealing to household savings and banks, and borrowed at historically normal rates, the public debt would be inferior to current levels by 29 GDP points.

Tax reductions for the wealthy and interest rates increases are political decisions. What the audit shows is that public deficits do not just grow naturally out of the normal course of social life. They are deliberately inflicted on society by the dominant classes, to legitimise austerity policies that will allow the transfer of value from the working classes to the wealthy ones.

A stunning finding of the report is that no one actually knows who holds the French debt. To finance its debt, the French state, like any other state, issues bonds, which are bought by a set of authorised banks. These banks then sell the bonds on the global financial markets. Who owns these titles is one of the world's best kept secrets. The state pays interests to the holders, so technically it could know who owns them. Yet a legally organised ignorance forbids the disclosure of the identity of the bond holders.

This deliberate organisation of ignorance – agnotology – in neoliberal economies intentionally renders the state powerless, even when it could have the means to know and act. This is what permits tax evasion in its various forms – which last year cost about €50bn to European societies, and €17bn to France alone.

Hence, the audit on the debt concludes, some 60% of the French public debt is illegitimate.

An illegitimate debt is one that grew in the service of private interests, and not the wellbeing of the people. Therefore the French people have a right to demand a moratorium on the payment of the debt, and the cancellation of at least part of it. There is precedent for this: in 2008 Ecuador declared 70% of its debt illegitimate.

The nascent global movement for debt audits may well contain the seeds of a new internationalism – an internationalism for today – in the working classes throughout the world. This is, among other things, a consequence of financialisation. Thus debt audits might provide a fertile ground for renewed forms of international mobilisations and solidarity.

This new internationalism could start with three easy steps.

1) Debt audits in all countries
The crucial point is to demonstrate, as the French audit did, that debt is a political construction, that it doesn't just happen to societies when they supposedly live above their means. This is what justifies calling it illegitimate, and may lead to cancellation procedures. Audits on private debts are also possible, as the Chilean artist Francisco Tapia has recently shown by auditing student loans in an imaginative way.

2) The disclosure of the identity of debt holders
A directory of creditors at national and international levels could be assembled. Not only would such a directory help fight tax evasion, it would also reveal that while the living conditions of the majority are worsening, a small group of individuals and financial institutions has consistently taken advantage of high levels of public indebtedness. Hence, it would reveal the political nature of debt.

3) The socialisation of the banking system
The state should cease to borrow on financial markets, instead financing itself through households and banks at reasonable and controllable interest rates. The banks themselves should be put under the supervision of citizens' committees, hence rendering the audit on the debt permanent. In short, debt should be democratised. This, of course, is the harder part, where elements of socialism are introduced at the very core of the system. Yet, to counter the tyranny of debt on every aspect of our lives, there is no alternative.

norp posted:

If you think no crimes have been committed with a particular type of gun in the last 125 years then I have a bridge to sell you.

News reports rarely tell you the model of gun that was used in the commission of a crime.

hooman posted:

An illegitimate debt is one that grew in the service of private interests, and not the wellbeing of the people. Therefore the French people have a right to demand a moratorium on the payment of the debt, and the cancellation of at least part of it.

open24hours posted:

http://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2016/mr-16-09.html



Would be better if it was just a white piece of paper with FIVE DOLLARS written in 12 point Times New Roman. Think how much was wasted designing it.

open24hours posted:

http://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2016/mr-16-09.html



Would be better if it was just a white piece of paper with FIVE DOLLARS written in 12 point Times New Roman. Think how much was wasted designing it.

Skellybones posted:

Haha imagine if you studied the sciences in the last twenty years and made that a career, haha, you should have foreseen the LNP actively trying to destroy all science in Australia for some reason, haha, imagine if you were that dumb, get a real job you latte-sipping lefty scum, preferably one in mining or off-shore concentration camp hospitality

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

I like that we now have bacteria depicted on the $5 note. They don't get enough recognition for how important they are in our lives.

MaliciousOnion posted:

Negligent posted:

The queens head should be on more things imo

quote:

"I think that these products are harmful for numerous reasons," said Amy Ferguson, director of policy and research at the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE). "They contribute to the normalisation of alcohol.

Kommando posted:

Jokes aside, this is literally my life.

"Kommando" posted:

oh poo poo which one?

Spudd posted:

Jackson Pollock is so loving good.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I didn't care for his stuff until I saw it in person.

Freudian Slip posted:

Like a pike?

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I didn't care for his stuff until I saw it in person.

Freudian Slip posted:

Like a pike?

SynthOrange posted:

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainm...411-go3mkw.html

lomarf 60 mins botched their escape

quote:

Stephen Rice has been a producer on 60 Minutes since 2004, following ten years as executive producer of the Nine Network's Sunday program. Rice began his career in journalism with the investigative newspaper, The National Times, after graduating from the Australian National University in 1981 with degrees in law and arts . He then joined The Sydney Morning Herald covering political, legal and industrial issues. In 1984 he was hired by Channel Nine's Willesee program and later became executive producer of A Current Affair. In 1994 he became executive producer of Sunday, Business Sunday and The Small Business Show. Rice is the author of Some Doctors Make You Sick: The scandal of medical incompetence and winner of several national and international television and journalism awards, including the New York Festivals Awards. He has twice won a Walkley Award for journalism: one for an exclusive interview with the Golden Triangle heroin warlord Khun Sa in 1988 (a report he filmed himself on a Video 8 camera after illegally crossing the Burmese border by donkey); another for Excellence in News Leadership, in 1997.