Sports isn’t the only thing we are good at

From the website:

“StarStuff is ABC NewsRadio's flagship Astronomy, Cosmology, Space and Science program. “

It is hosted by Stuart Gary and it is the only public program on TV or radio which is dedicated to science.

And it is about to be axed to make way for a 30 minute program about sport.

Now as Australians we are justifiably proud of our sporting prowess, but with more than 700 hours of programming on radio and TV already dedicated to sports, do we really need to replace a 30 minute show about science so we can find out more about sports?!

This country is bemoaning the lack of skilled workers and slumping enrolment in engineering and science , wringing its hands about the “brain drain” where our best and brightest go overseas to work - and here we are replacing the only dedicated science program available freely to the public with a sports program.

Australians are not just great sportsmen, we are great doctors, engineers, and scientists too. But if you were to read the news, watch TV or listen to the radio, you would be hard pressed to find evidence of this.

As a nation we need engineers and scientists working in this country to progress into the future. To do this we need to inspire children to be interested in science. We need to get the public interested in science and make it OK to be interested in science. The most effective way to do this is to make make science accessible. StarStuff does this all by its lonesome in the sporting crazed landscape of public programming.

So please please please the Powers That Be, at the very least save StarStuff. Expanding it wouldn’t hurt either.

Cheers,

Steve

Personification of Programming languages 2

An follow up on the last round of language personifications, this time contributed by brett.

PHP

The crazy party girl you meet at Uni; she's easy to get along with at the beginning; she reminds you of other girls you've known before and hey, its a bit of fun; you're only young once. But after knowing her a few months the cracks begin to show; she's pretty inconsistent and while she tries to do favours for you and help you out, she ends up making it more complicated than it needed to be. The whole time you're with her, you have this sneaking suspicion that maybe you'd be better off with Perl, even if she's harder to speak to.

Javascript

The late bloomer; in high school she was pretty dorky; she couldn't do very much and while she might have spent time in different social circles, she could never really fit in. But now the puppy fat has dropped away and she's revealed herself to be one hell of a girl. She can do things you never would have expected a few years ago and suddenly she's the life of the party, appearing in places you never would have expected and doing things that make your jaw drop.

bash

The fat chick you picked up at that party, only because you were drunk and horny. You'd never tell your friends about it, but it got the job done, so to speak.

QBasic

Your first girlfriend in highschool. You were so nervous you didn't even end up kissing.

Many thanks again to brett for sharing these with us :-D

Cheers,

Steve

Dark ages all over again

Take the article linked to in the topic, and replace "paedophiles" with "witches":

Victorians rally for more public info on witches

Posted 5 hours 28 minutes ago

More transparency: hundreds rallied in Melbourne today. (AAP Image: Simon Mossman)

Hundreds of people rallied in Melbourne today, calling for the Victorian government to give the public more details about witches who have been released from jail.

The Crime Victims Support Association wants the government to set up a public register, that will show how many convicted witches live in a particular suburb or town.

Spokesman Noel McNamara says similar systems work well overseas.

And he says under the current Victorian system, children may be in danger.

"This way, just let them go out, they can be living next door to kindergartens they can be living next door to you," he said.

"We just think it's wrong the way it's doing."

He says he wants the Government to come up with a map that shows where witches live.

"We don't want to know their names, we just want to know where they are, what areas, to give the people a fighting chance to look after their children down around the swings and schools and mainly to protect the children," he said.

Its the god damn dark ages all over again. Please people, think of the consequences! It is very easy to be convicted of "kiddy fiddling", very hard to prove yourself innocent - it should not be a death sentence. While they are not asking for names, it would be very easy to deduce who is in fact the person being mapped. Such a map will also sow distrust into communities everywhere. Do we really want witch hunts and vigilante justice group active in our society?

If you believe pedophiles can not redeem themselves and can never be trusted, then push for life sentence for the crime. Otherwise allow them the chance to better themselves and become a useful member of society.

Cheers,

Steve