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China's hunger for iron ore is coming to Australia's economic rescue but our luck can't last
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/chin...561jl.html

EXCERPTS: "Australia is no longer the lucky country," was the headline on a column in January. [...] Mining had helped power Australia to an unrivalled three decades of growth. But the raging bushfires were the sign that Australia's luck had run out: "By participating so eagerly in the mining boom, Australia might also have been helping to dig its own grave. Fossil fuels are driving climate change; and, as the government now accepts, global warming is a major factor behind the fires, water shortages and record temperatures that are ravaging the country."

But [...] just when you'd think we were completely buggered, our hair on fire and the arse out of our trousers, Lady Luck smiled on Australia afresh. Although Lady Luck looks a lot like Xi Jinping in this instance. The Chinese President is trying to power the country's economy out of its COVID collapse by injecting big stimulus.

[...] The upshot is that there's a new surge in steel-intensive projects in China this year. And that means there's a surge in demand for the ingredients for making it, iron ore and metallurgical coal. Guess which country China is turning to for 60 per cent of its iron ore imports and 60 per cent of its metallurgical coal imports? You guessed it. The Lucky Country. Even as Beijing imposes its political punishments on Australia for daring to have its own views and voice, it is paying billions of dollars more for the essential inputs for its own economic stimulus.

[...] This doesn't do anything to help the tourism, university, beef, wine or barley sectors cope with the pain. But the booming trade in iron ore means that, against its own intentions, China is handing the Australian economy a bonanza. How big a bonanza? The federal budget each year assumes that the iron ore price will return to its long-run average of $US55 a tonne. Instead it's running at double that. The federal budget next Tuesday will reveal an enormous crater of debt and deficit, as it must to support the country through the pandemic. But the iron ore trade is a bright spot.

[...] Overall, in spite of China's announced sanctions, Australian exports to China are booming. ... But, of course, there are some big problems with a rock-based economy. We may think we're pretty clever in exploiting Beijing's heavy reliance on Australian rocks. But consider this. Australia was the most China-dependent economy in the developed world last year. China bought a remarkable 38 per cent of everything Australia sold abroad.... But by the end of June this year, Australian export dependence on China had grown to a breathtaking 48.8 per cent. There's nothing clever about that. In exploiting its dominance in iron ore and metallurgical coal to make money from China, Australia has made itself intensely vulnerable to China.

We'd better do something to diversify. Because China certainly is. The world has two enormous sources of iron ore – Australia and Brazil. Chinese state-owned companies are about to bring a third online. They are pouring billions into the vast Simandou iron ore deposits of West Africa's Guinea. [...] So Australia's rock-based luck is on its last gasp. Within the next few years, Simandou will be shipping huge quantities and Australia will have lost its comfortable dominance... (MORE - details)


Tweed museum exhibition highlights hidden history of Australia's sexual past
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-03/t...w/12727180

EXCERPTS: The Tweed Regional Museum has reassessed its entire archive. The museum says "queering" its collection has unearthed a crucial part of history. People who identify as LGBTQI can contribute to the museum's Small Town Queer project.

[...] Ian 'Teacosy' Gray, curator of the Northern Rivers Queer History Project, was enthralled when he saw the photos that had been found among 50,000 other archived images at the Tweed Regional Museum. ... "There is such a strong need for me as a gay man to believe that we existed in rural areas prior to the 1950s, despite there being virtually no record of our existence other than as criminals and deviants sensationalised and demonised in the newspapers," Mr Gray said.

[...] Mr Gray said LGBTQI history was mostly hidden, despite its role in shaping the Tweed region today. He was one of the early settlers of the Mandala community, a gay commune set up near Uki in the Tweed Valley in far-northern New South Wales in 1976 by Melbourne TV producer David Johnstone. Going by the name of the Radical Faeries, the small group of gay men established a sanctuary where they could live as their true selves without fear.

As part of the Small Town Queer project, the museum is continuing to actively source items that tell the region's LGBTQI story to add to the online exhibition... (MORE - details, images)
Police increase patrolling in Australia's Covid-19 hotspot Victoria
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/austral...t-victoria

INTRO: Police in Australia's coronavirus hotspot state of Victoria stepped up patrolling on Saturday (Oct 3) as hundreds of people in the city of Melbourne breached stringent lockdown restrictions and flocked to beaches on the warmest weekend in months.

Under the restrictions, nearly five million people in Melbourne, Victoria's capital, may exercise or socialise outdoors for a maximum of two hours a day, but must stay close to home. People must wear masks in public places.

But television and social media footage showed crowds, many people without masks, at some of Melbourne's beaches as temperatures soared ahead of summer in the southern hemisphere. "A number of fines were issued to people who breached directions .... and Victoria Police will be conducting increased patrols of popular public spaces this weekend," police said in a statement.

Fines for not wearing masks reach A$200 (S$195) and for breaching public health orders are more than A$1,600. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the behaviour of the beach-goers was "unacceptable"... (MORE -details)
Games and Hobbies, CC? I almost missed it.

That first article does address my own concerns regarding Australia's future. As I've said previously, we're a pretty apathetic bunch. And despite certain assertions to the contrary recently, there's not much in the way of pride resulting from that on my part.
Australia needs to pull it's finger out. It's in a prime position to become a self-supplying tech giant (we even have lots of sand, and Australia is the world's largest producer of Lithium as an example of the less commonly appreciated primary minerals), but we even stopped building our own cars last year. Behind the primary produce, our third largest industry is education. We basically sell the ingredients for everyone else to make things out of, and then we buy it all back after teaching them how to make it (facetious comment).

During World War 2, Australia designed, built and flew a prototype fighter plane in less than three months. It wasn't that great, but we'd never done anything of the sort before, and it was in production until the end of the war after finding its niche in specialist operations. Quite an achievement for a small country, at the time.
But those days are gone, I think. Now we just buy everyone else's rubbish based on political alignment (subtle joke).
Australia's 'no jab, no pay' rule has little effect on anti-vaxxer parents – study
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...ents-study

EXCERPTS: Australia’s “no jab, no pay” policy has been associated with a drop in the number of children catching up on their first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, suggesting the policy has had little impact on those who reject vaccination science. However, the policy was associated with more children catching up on their second dose of the vaccine and on their diphtheria–tetanus–pertussis vaccine, especially in lower socioeconomic status areas, the study published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday found.

The no jab, no pay policy, introduced from January 2016, meant family and childcare payments would be withheld from people who claimed to be “conscientious objectors” to vaccination. To examine the impact of the policy, researchers from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance and the University of Sydney analysed data from the Australian immunisation register for catch-up vaccinations of children aged five to under seven.

[...] “This study found there was just no major change to that vaccine-objector group with the ‘no jab, no pay’ policy,” Beard said. “But on the positive side, a substantial number of people did catch up vaccination which led to modest increases in overall vaccine coverage. It was always thought by experts that the policy might have little impact on vaccine refusers. This study certainly provides evidence to support that.” (MORE - details)
After 3,000 years, Tasmanian devils return to mainland Australia
https://www.livescience.com/tasmanian-de...ralia.html

EXCERPTS: Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii), the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, have been long gone from most of the Australian continent, and until now the only remaining wild populations were on the island of Tasmania. Mainland devils were likely outcompeted by dingos, the wild dogs that were introduced to Australia at least 3,500 years ago, and which are now considered a pest species.

However, a decade of dingo eradication has offered Tasmanian devils a second chance. By clearing out dingos and reintroducing devils to Barrington Tops, conservationists hope to not only reestablish thriving wild populations of the iconic marsupials, but to also help protect other native species that are threatened by invasive predators...

[...] Dingos once helped keep cat and fox populations somewhat under control, but as dingos were eradicated over the last decade, the number of cats and foxes has skyrocketed — and their impact on native wildlife is devastating. ... But introducing devils might deter these invasive predators or disrupt their hunting habits, Church said.

"In the presence of devils, cats are less able to hunt at night, because devils are nocturnal," he explained. "So they shift to hunt during the day, and they're not as effective when they hunt during the day."

As for foxes, European colonizers tried to introduce them to Tasmania at least six times and failed every attempt — possibly because Tasmanian devils were already established there... (MORE - details)
It's the cats they really need to do something about. First step would be sterilising existing populations and preventing further imports. Just get rid of them.
Put them in a cat museum, and charge the people a dollar and a half just to see them. Same for foxes.

The dingos are a different matter. It's quite possible that after an initial early migration period, or introduction by more artificial means, they became (semi-?)symbiotic with early Aboriginal society and weren't as "wild" as they are now. The ones considered "pests" now are actually a hybrid species that has emerged after breeding with domestic and wild dogs. True dingos are actually endangered, but they are difficult to differentiate or locate. Unfortunately, the status of the native dingo is confused due to politically-motivated infighting as to how to classify it (either as an introduced or native species - suggesting it's introduced relieves the government of the burden of preservation, which suits the farmers, which gets the regional vote).

... and then get rid of 90% of humanity. Most of the environmental problems of the world would sort themselves out if we were to drastically reduce the human population. Many social issues, too.
(Oct 8, 2020 02:18 PM)Ben the Donkey Wrote: [ -> ]... and then get rid of 90% of humanity. Most of the environmental problems of the world would sort themselves out if we were to drastically reduce the human population. Many social issues, too.

What is the malfunction of worthless meat sacks who suggest this crap?
Worthless, because that's the most generous description of someone who flirts with the notion of "get[ting] rid of 90% of humanity", with psychotic being less generous.
And meat sack, because such a person is obviously without a soul or any identifiable trait of humanity.
(Oct 3, 2020 09:28 PM)Ben the Donkey Wrote: [ -> ]It's in a prime position to become a self-supplying tech giant...

During World War 2, Australia designed, built and flew a prototype fighter plane in less than three months. It wasn't that great, but we'd never done anything of the sort before, and it was in production until the end of the war after finding its niche in specialist operations. Quite an achievement for a small country, at the time.

Boeing is aware of Australia's tech potential.

Boeing Australia is in the process of developing a UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) in Queensland. This will be a small stealthy unmanned fighter plane. The idea is for several of them to accompany each manned fighter into combat, multiplying that fighter's abilities. They can do things like fly ahead of the manned jets into highly defended air space to suppress the defenses before the humans approach. The 'Loyal Wingmen' will have AI and quite a bit of autonomy. The pilot of the plane they are accompanying (or a ground controller if they aren't accompanying a plane) will give them their missions, but they will have quite a bit of flexibility in how the missions are carried out as they respond to enemy aircraft and air defenses.

If these little robot jets succeed as planned, the idea is to sell them not only to the RAAF which is helping to fund their development, but also to the other Five Eyes nations (US, Britain, Canada and NZ). There may be additional markets in places like Europe and Japan too. They are being developed and will be manufactured in Queensland and many Australian subcontractors have already gotten contracts to supply parts and services.

There's lots of engineering talent in Australia that could be put to better use.

https://www.boeing.com/defense/airpower-...index.page

https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/...0910875649

https://twitter.com/BoeingAustralia/stat...4336960512

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Air...ing_System

Photo of a test prototype

[Image: Eh5_76zVgAAr2vt?format=jpg&name=small]

Render of how the concept will work

[Image: 190301-axe-boeing-tease_c6bv2m]
Thanks Yazata, I was not aware of that programme. It does show that Australia's technological capability is adequate for top-line projects, but unfortunately that capability is not being taken advantage of (often enough).

I believe that our lack of high-end tech industry, in spite of having the capability for it, the opportunity and innovative knack (even now), is due in no small part to the complacency derived from having very profitable service and primary industries.

Australia's third largest export industry is education, if you can believe that. I might have mentioned it before.
Unfortunately, though, when you get into service industries which rely almost completely upon reputation to be successful, you open yourself to disaster. That industry has, as you might expect, been hit very hard by the Cov. Not only are existing students going home to their native countries (where they can), they're learning that relying upon the Australian government to support them is not viable when their own means of self-support dries up - and while the number of international students coming to Australia has reduced significantly (obviously), the universities here are discovering that that might not be a temporary issue. The reputation hit is the hardest thing to be overcome, and there's little indication things will ever return to pre-Covid levels, even with attempted government bailouts.

So while attempted support of service industries is admirable in many respects (mining is still as profitable as ever, and doesn't need it) I'd like to see funding poured into more projects like this. I'm still disappointed the Raptor thing didn't get off the ground (hah), and in the Collins replacement fiasco, to mention a couple of military examples - and non-military industry would have benefited peripherally from these things, as it almost invariably does.

Unfortunately, though, while the primary industry sector remains as profitable as it is, the impetus toward change is less urgent.
(Oct 8, 2020 08:28 PM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]
(Oct 8, 2020 02:18 PM)Ben the Donkey Wrote: [ -> ]... and then get rid of 90% of humanity. Most of the environmental problems of the world would sort themselves out if we were to drastically reduce the human population. Many social issues, too.

What is the malfunction of worthless meat sacks who suggest this crap?
Worthless, because that's the most generous description of someone who flirts with the notion of "get[ting] rid of 90% of humanity", with psychotic being less generous.
And meat sack, because such a person is obviously without a soul or any identifiable trait of humanity.

Oh, all right.
80%. Final offer.
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