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Australia

Submission + - Australian IT Policy Debate Scheduled (theaustralian.com.au)

kandela writes: The Australian reports that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will debate Coalition and Greens shadows Tony Smith and Scott Ludlam at the National Press Club next Tuesday. Amongst topics covered in the debate will be the national broadband network and internet filter policy. The event is being put on by the Australian Computer Society and which will be shown on Sky News and hosted by the station's political editor David Speers.
Education

Steve Furber On Why Kids Are Turned Off To Computing Classes 383

nk497 writes "UK computing legend Steve Furber — co-founder of Acorn and ARM designer — believes students are avoiding computing classes because they teach nothing but the boring basics. Currently studying why the number of students signing up for computing has halved in the past eight years, Furber said schools focus too much on teaching kids how to use spreadsheets, word processors and PowerPoint, rather than teaching more challenging areas such as programming. 'What schools are presenting as ICT as an academic subject is very mundane compared with what students know they can do,' he said. 'It's as if maths was just arithmetic or English was taught as just spelling. It's not unimportant that you can do arithmetic or you can spell, but it certainly doesn't open up the whole world of interest and challenge, if that's all you do.'"

Comment Re:the problem is not culpability nor blame (Score 1) 1657

Ok, except that if increased CO2 in the atmosphere is causing warming, then the obvious solution is to reduce CO2. But if we take your approach and just say warming is bad, and we are seeing warming, people will ask, why is cutting CO2 going to work? Unfortunately for your philosophy our understanding of how to solve the problem is tied up in our understanding of what is causing the problem.

Comment Re:More Info & Dashboard (Score 1) 1657

As someone who has written papers on both solar influences on Terrestrial weather and the technology for alternative (green) energy sources, I have to say that I believe global warming is occurring, we are causing it, and we aren't acting fast enough to avoid a catastrophe.

If you don't trust the people proffering a solution in the US, then look elsewhere and see what groups in other parts of the world are saying.

Comment Re: move along now (Score 1) 264

That's a convention now, but it wasn't always the case, and there's no reason why it should be necessary. If you really don't think anything written in the first person is credible then you will have to take issue with thousands of articles in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. For instance: http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/12/133-142/821).

Comment Re:"BUT SHe'S UNELLECTED!! BLAAAAHH!!11!!!!!!" (Score 1) 419

You forgot to mention that at least 2/3 of people seem not to know how the instant run off system of voting works. We have a voting system that beautifully avoids sticking us with a this or that two party system. Yet we have a two party system because most people won't take the 5 minutes needed to learn how it works, and how you can NEVER waste your vote by voting for one on the other parties so long as you place your preferences down to those two majors.

Comment Re:Strewth (Score 1) 419

I'm sorry to point this out, but you have punctuated your response incorrectly. You see, the full stop should come inside the second set of quotation marks. Also, you should have added a comma at the end of the first quotation, but before the closing quotation mark.

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