Some private schools in Australia are focing parents to buy iPads, plus an insurance plan, plus the maintenance plan, at a cost approching AU$1000 ($US900). And if you break it or lose it in one of several commons ways that kids love to break and lose things, the insurance wont cover it! Hilarious!

You're missing the point.

The existance of the chaplancy program is not the issue. I don't agree with it in principle because the government shouldn't be funding non-secular activities, but I can see the merit in some sort of school counselling and support.

The real issue is the Liberals have cut science and environment funding, but retained a controversial religious based program. It appears to be inconsistent with responsible, secular government.

Oh, I forgot to add - they *didnt* cut the $222 million school chaplaincy program. The agenda is clear, they are just religious luddites.

Voters love the environment until it costs them money.

The Australian economy is having some troubles, but by world standard we are doing OK. Some poeple are genuinely doing it tough and struggle to afford the higher prices caused by the carbon tax, so they want it repealed. More poeple still *think* they are doing it tough, but can still afford ciggies and pay TV. These are a prime demographic for swinging votes, so the government loves to give them a price cut too.

Fearmongering and a brutal budget this year have made things worse, we are going into Austerity mode (when it is arguably not required) so poeple think that doing something responsible for the environment like the carbon tax is just a "nice to have" and easily discarded.

Makes me sad to be an Aussie sometimes. The current government has agressively wound back the clock on science and social responsibility:
- Abolished Australian Renewables Energy Agency, worth $1.3 billion.
- Stretched $2.5 Billion Emmisions Reduction Fund over 10 years instead of 4
- Cut $460 million from Carbon Capture and Storage
- Scrapped the National Water Comission and the Standing Council on Enviroment and Water
- Cut $110 milliion from CSIRO (the research group that developed WiFi and lots of other cool things)
- Cut $75 million from the Australian Research Council
- Cut $80 million from the Cooperative Research Centres program
- Cut $8 million from the Australian Institute of Marine Science
- Cut $120 million from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation
- Cut $28 million from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
- Cut $36 million from Geoscience Australia

I had a mate who kept a container of crushed pineapples in his fridge for about 7 years. We called it Alfred.

It grew mould and went though all of the colours of the rainbow, in a magical cyclic dance of self sustainability. Then his sister came over one day and threw it out. :(

Dorm room I'd guess.

WIDESCREEEEEEEEEEEEN!

www.homestarrunner.com/sbemailahundred.html

When I read the summary I though "It cant be that bad...."

Man was I wrong, that is a shocking size and form factor. I literally gasped.

I'd say there is.

The kid loved to dress up in superman outfits. The juxtaposition between an invulnerable superhero and mortal, terminally abused kid is quite poignant and will get people's attention.

Dude..... so what you're saying is:

1) Scientific principle
2) ....
3) Magic happens

Let me know when you've figured out #2 thanks.

So a better analogy is payphones then.

Most poeple have mobile phones now, and payphones are heavily used by ciminals setting up deals. It might even be a majority of their use now.

Does that mean that telcos are acomplices?

There is a simpler option, which is to replace the rebar with another tensile option, such as fibreglass or plastic.

Rather than a welder, it would be much simpler to have a spool of fibreglass/plastic ribbon which is then laid down at intervals in the 3D print.

Even simpler still is to add chopped fibres to the concrete mix, which make the concrete more durable and stops the propagation of cracks. Considering how long we've managed with brick walls that have practically zero tensile strength , a fibre reinforced concrete could be more than sufficient. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...

Not sure why it requires a satellite link and a smartphone. I can understand the versatility but wouldnt a whip antenna and 900MHz line of sight radio to a reciever on the beach work just fine? Seems like expensive overkill and less reliability as you have to have someone monitoring the phone.

There are chips available that monitor the USB data lines for all of the available charging protocols (shorted - chinese, fixed resistance - android, fixed voltage - apple) and will then current limit appropriately.

I'm also sure that i've seen a USB charging "condom" on slashdot before, which had two of the USB current limiting controllers back to back to allow charging to occur, whilst providing isolation of the data lines to prevent malicious data exchange.

The problem is it can be up to an order of magnitude different in price.

There's not a lot of good reason for home automationto be that expensive, the technology has been capable for a while. The trouble has always been user base and and making it user friendly enough for a muggle to install. That's where the big tech companies have an advantage and are making some cheap, attractive devices.

Unfortunately the way this is going will set up two distinct camps - subsidised cheap devices that are cloud connected and leak privay data, or expensive self contained ones. It would be nice if there was a middle gound.