Red Space Rocket

This interesting article in the Telegraph might just make you want to pick up a good book.

Reading as teenager gets you a better job

Here is something for any keen science student is my class.

Learning to Text: Don’t LOL at Death, and Other Tips – WSJ.com

Kate Washburn didn’t know what to make of the email a friend sent to her office with the abbreviation “NSFW” written at the bottom. Then she clicked through the attached sideshow, titled “Awkward Family Photos.” It included shots of a family in furry “nude” suits and of another family alongside a male walrus in a revealing pose.

A lot of people are saying this will be the worst recession we’ve experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This may prove to be true. After all, it was true of the last recession, in the early ’90s, and also the one before it in the early ’80s.

But no matter how bad this recession proves to be, it’s a safe prediction it won’t be nearly as bad as the Depression, when the rate of unemployment leapt to more than 20 per cent. So don’t let the talk of depression spook you.

Recessions don’t have to be feared | theage.com.au

When I have had history classes in the last couple of years we have learned and talked about The Great Depression. Often in these classes students will ask if it could happen again and I remember saying that it would at some stage.

With this in mind, this can be scary time to read the newspaper. However this article seems a sensible take on things and I’d recommend you give it a quick read.

Yesterday in History we experienced a very simple version of the stock market rising then falling. Now I don’t know about you but this helped me be quite worried by the headlines in 2008.

NOT for more than 20 years have Australian shareholders seen a day as bleak as yesterday, as more than $90 billion was torn out of the sharemarket as crisis meetings of the world’s financial leaders began in Washington.

Firestorm sweeps world markets | theage.com.au

In History we have been talking about the Great Depression and the current economic crisis. Then I saw this article that I thought some of you might find interesting.

The immediate cause was the collapse in American house prices, which had doubled between January 2000 and August 2006, and have since fallen by 20%. More than 1% of American households have defaulted on their mortgages.

Economics 101 | theage.com.au

A team of Australian, French and Scottish archaeologists is on the second day of a long-anticipated dig of the field at Pheasant’s Wood. They believe they are within hours of unearthing the first remains of up to 170 Australian World War I soldiers, resolving a mystery that has haunted their families for more than 90 years.

Unearthing family history from burial pits of the Somme – National

Teacher reinvents chair to stop class clowns – World – theage.com.au

A British teacher has designed a school chair that is physically impossible to tip backwards in the hopes of getting pupils to sit still, prevent dangerous accidents and give teachers a quieter life.

As I am sure you can image I’d love twenty-six of these in B23.

Last year in History we talked about the citizenship test and the kinds of knowledge that we thought people should perhaps need to be an Australian.

One of the concerns was that the questions were too hard for many migrants and covered things that many Australians didn’t know. In fact a good quarter of our class of 14 and 15 year olds could not pass this test when we did it in class.

AUSTRALIA’S controversial citizenship test will be reviewed after the release of figures showing large numbers of would-be citizens are flunking the exam.

Out of 10,636 people taking citizenship tests carried out since their introduction in October, 2311, or more than 20%, failed.

Migrants flunk citizenship test – National – theage.com.au

WHILE it is fashionable to dismiss the old terms of “left” and “right” as no longer having any clear political meaning, to deny them any valid usage is to miss a point always in need of making — who is for and who opposes the existing power balance.

Running from the right – Opinion – theage.com.au

When talking about politics people use the words left wing and right wing but just as many people are utterly baffled by this terms. This situation is not helped by the constantly changing political landscape. I thought this article did a good job of explaining what the difference means in 2007.

The other day on our field trip we watch two large ships got through the heads and we talked about the shipping channel and how there are plans to make it larger. This story tells you more.

Green light for $763m channel deepening – National – theage.com.au

THE Brumby Government is ready to give the go-ahead to the controversial $763 million plan to deepen Melbourne’s shipping channels.

But the news will not all be good for the Port of Melbourne Corporation, which has spent more than $114 million trying to push the project through.

The corporation will likely be told that more independent and comprehensive monitoring is needed to minimise environmental damage to the bay.

Such changes are likely to add millions to the already spiralling costs of the project.

Volcano erupts in Red Sea – World – theage.com.au

At least four Yemeni soldiers were burned to death when a volcano erupted on a Red Sea island, soldiers evacuated to the port city of Hodeida said today.

A few months ago in year nine History we were talking about the test that people will have to pass to become an Australian citizen. It was striking how many people in our class were unable to get a passing mark.

This article in the paper talks about the practical impacts of this test from a migrant perspective and I thought might interest some of you.

A sacrifice shouldered, a loyalty pledged beyond words – Opinion – theage.com.au
Alice Pung believes her mother to be more than worthy of Australian citizenship, although she would not be able to pass tomorrow’s test.

STAFF in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet have been editing Wikipedia to remove details that are potentially damaging to the Government.

Government caught Wiki-watching – National – theage.com.au

There are people who will swear that you should never go near Wikipedia because anything created by that many people must be wrong. As students will know I think it’s a really valuable first (but not last) point of research. If you want the a few pages of well written summary information it’s a wonderful resource, just don’t completely believe anything you read from one source much and certainly if the source is not primary (by which I mean someone there at the scene or responsible for the original research).

All the same it’s powerful stuff and people do use it to inform themselves which is why governments and corporations take an interest in what it says there and make changes to put themselves in the best light. I know I’d be tempted.

I know this is the time of year where students are thinking about where they want to go in the future so I thought this article might interest some of you. This change at Melbourne (where I did my first degree as it happens) is considerable and well worth understanding if you are interested in going to university.

As has been widely reported, Melbourne is rebuilding its curriculum, modelling itself on the US tradition by abolishing double degrees, teaching only a few broad undergraduate courses and pushing specialist professional programs back to masters or doctorate level.

Melbourne Uni opens doors on its ‘evolution’ – National – theage.com.au