R4nger5 Radio OZ edition

02 FEB 2012

http://asiancorrespondent.com/17590/a-good-yarn-spoiled/

Thousands of parents illegally home schooling http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-28/thousands-of-parents-illegally-home-schooling/3798008 As a new school year begins, more than 50,000 Australian children will be home-schooled and in most cases, their parents are doing it illegally. It is compulsory to send children between the ages of six and 16 to school, or register them for home schooling, but more parents are opting out of the traditional school system and keeping their children at home. However, thousands of parents across the country are not registered and that means they potentially face prosecution. Governments have been reluctant to take legal action, but in a landmark case last October, Bob Osmark from the Home Schooling Association of Queensland was prosecuted for not registering with the Home Education Unit to home school his 13-year-old daughter. Mr Osmark had home-schooled his nine children. He was charged under the Queensland Education Act that says parents have to enrol children of compulsory school age in a school, or register them for home schooling. Mr Osmark was found guilty and fined $300 plus costs. "I didn't register with the Home Education Unit. I refused to do that because I see education as something of a parental right," he said. "We as parents know and love our children best. It's not some cold faceless bureaucrat in the education department that knows what's best for your child. "Many home-schooling families kind of do it secretly because they fear Education Queensland taking legal steps against them and so forth, sending police to the door and that kind of thing." There are 942 children registered with the Home Schooling Unit this year, but Mr Osmak believes there may be another 10,000 home schooling underground in Queensland. During the past decade the home-schooling community has boomed, thanks to the internet and the availability of how-to-do-it kits and mail-order curricula. At a get-together of home schoolers in a suburban park in Brisbane, one mother, Cindy, said she was about to start home schooling her son but was afraid of the paperwork involved. "I'm not planning (on registering) because of the work involved," she said. "I'm not very organised and disciplined in that sense so that would be a big thing for me to undertake." Cindy is one of a large number of underground home schoolers but the secrecy and distrust has made it difficult for researchers to get hard data on whether home schooling produces a better or worse education. "There is this sense of distrust; this general sense that 'the Government doesn't tell us what we need to know. It's like they don't want us to exist'," said Glenda Jackson, who did her PhD on home schooling at Monash University. "We can't find the families to do a population sample testing that's even, and when you interview, when you're doing research with these parents, they can be very suspicious about who you are and why you're doing the research." The Tasmanian Home Education Advisory Council recently asked its 600 registered parents why they decided to home school in the first place.

Seventeen per cent said the main reason was religion, nearly half listed philosophical reasons, while 27 per cent were not happy with the local school and 7 per cent had children with special needs. Education Queensland did a similar voluntary survey in 2002 and found 20 per cent of parents listed religion as the main reason for home schooling and 21 per cent said it was because they were not happy with the local school. In the United States, Stanford University sociologist Rob Reich said that underlying those reasons was often a deep distrust of authority. "I know plenty of home-schoolers who would still home school even if they had an exceptional public school right next door to them," said Mr Reich. "They're simply opposed in principle to state authority over their children, which they extend not only to a school environment, but even to state hospitals or regulations of another sort." The challenge now for education departments around Australia is to get home-schooling parents to agree to some form of monitoring of their children's education. "Standards exist for a reason and they're about the kids not about the parents and their ideas about what they should do," said the acting manager of the Queensland Home Education Unit, Hanne Worsoe. "That's why we live in a civil society that provides that capacity to represent children and to monitor their educational needs. If people aren't registered I'd say you're breaking the law, and if you're doing the right thing by your kids you've got nothing to hide."

Victorian Fox and Wild Dog Bounty http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/pest-animals/fox-wild-dog-bounty Foxes and wild dogs are established pest animals in Victoria and are beyond eradication, meaning they require ongoing management by all public and private land owners. Effective fox and wild dog management requires an integrated approach utilising all available management practices including poison baiting, trapping, exclusion fencing, fumigation and appropriate animal husbandry. Hunting can play an important role in supporting an integrated management approach. To reward eligible Victorian hunters for their efforts in contributing to fox and wild dog control, the Victorian Government has announced a $4 million Fox and Wild Dog Bounty, commencing from 1 October 2011. This initiative will deliver on the Governments commitment to reinstate a fox and wild dog bounty and reward eligible Victorian hunters with a $10 bounty reward for each fox killed and $50 for each wild dog killed, subject to the Victorian Fox and Wild Dog Bounty Terms and Conditions. The most effective means of achieving a sustained reduction in fox and wild dog numbers is through simultaneous and coordinated community baiting programs, implemented at a landscape scale and supported by other control techniques. Existing fox and wild dog control programs being conducted on public land will continue during the bounty period.

'Bulli rapist' to be released from prison http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-27/bulli-rapist-to-be-released-from-prison/3796846 A man infamous for a series of rapes around Wollongong has been granted parole after serving 21 years in jail. Terry John Williamson, known to many as the Bulli rapist, was convicted in 1991 of raping 11 women and children at knifepoint over a 10-month period in 1989 and 1990. The 42-year-old appeared at the NSW Parole Board in Paramatta on Friday morning via video-link from Silverwater jail. The court heard Williamson poses a moderate risk of re-offending, but the New South Wales State Parole Authority has ordered his release on February 10. Williamson had repeatedly applied to be released since 2004, when he became eligible for parole. His release is subject to strict conditions, including a requirement to wear an electronic monitoring device, take libido-inhibiting drugs and submit to psychiatric and drug and alcohol testing. Williamson is also banned from the Illawarra region and from contacting his victims or any people under the age of 16. The parole board said Williamson terrorized a substantial area of Wollongong and some terror is still felt. But the board said the release before Williamson has served his full 24-year prison term is essential to adequately supervise his reintegration into the community. An advocate for his victims has condemned the decision. Howard Brown, from the Victims of Crime Assistance League, says Williamson should have been locked up for life. "Never to be released. That did not occur and so there is obviously no justice in relation to this situation," he said. "I am here on behalf of one of the victims who was not registered, and I know that her life has been so disrupted by this entire process that she's actually left the state."

Outrage over police strip-searching child http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-29/outrage-after-12yo-girl-strip-searched/3798640 There is growing public anger over the strip-search of a 12-year-old girl in Hobart, with people calling for a review of police powers. The child was strip-searched twice during a raid on a house in Rokeby on Wednesday. Police went in with a warrant and ended up seizing drugs and cash. They say the girl was searched in a bedroom by female officers, with her mother present. But Greg Barns from the Australian Lawyers Alliance says it is unacceptable. He says the case should be subject to further scrutiny. "It doesn't matter where the police did it and who was around, this is a 12-year-old child," he said. "This is a matter I would have thought which the Ombudsman ought to be crawling all over to have

a look at how it is that a 12-year-old ends up being strip-searched, as I say not just once, but twice." The Tasmanian Aboriginal Community has also joined calls for a review of police powers. Michael Mansell from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre says the law should be changed, arguing a drug search does not justify strip-searching a child. "This girl is not killing anyone, she's not bombing anyone, she's not a terrorist, she is a child, who is alleged by police to have drugs," he said. "Now if the police really believed she needed to be strip-searched because it was in the public interest to do so, they should be forced to go before a magistrate who can consider the girl's position." State Opposition spokeswoman Elise Archer says the Tasmanian Government must review stripsearch laws. "We need immediate reassurance that this power will be investigated and reviewed," she said. Police Minister David O'Byrne is calling for calm on the matter and says he is seeking a briefing on the incident. "I'm not going to pre-judge anything that has happened and been speculated on in the media without getting the full details from the Tasmanian Police Commissioner and I'll be doing that," he said. "I think it's important that we deal with issues such as this on the basis of fact and not emotion and I want to fully inform myself before making any judgement. "I would urge people not to judge too harshly or too quickly, make sure we're fully informed of the facts and then once we are fully informed then we can take steps. "Of course it is important to get the balance right between appropriate policing and appropriate human rights levels."

Discussion - "what the fucks up china? get your head screwed on straight!" How China Changed the American Lighting Industry by Jaron Schneider http://fstoppers.com/how-china-changed-the-american-lighting-industry Why do brands matter to us? When at the grocery store, why do we pick out Heinz instead of Western Family, or Nike instead of Payless? We buy brands because they have earned our trust. Even if we dont know of a brand, we begin to trust them simply because they have a logo, can afford advertising, and put out a product that seems to work well. For example, think about HTC. A year ago, they pushed for market share in the US because they were a much lesser known brand. In a matter of months they had a massive market share in the smartphone industry. Why? Branding. In the case of HTC, it was not only successful branding, but also a successful product. That is the way it should work. But what if marketing and advertising aficionados realized they could manipulate the idea of a brand for the purposes of making money? What if what you were led to believe to be a truly original, hand-crafted, wonderfully engineered work of art was really just a gilded turd? Wouldnt you want to know? I am a marketing specialist. Its no secret that I studied what makes someone want something, learned the psychological reasons for that desire, and then learned how to manipulate it. Its actually

not too complicated. However, I refuse to use my knowledge to further products in which I dont truly believe. I would never willingly work for an organization that was deliberately deceiving its consumers. I have worked in the photographic lighting industry and thus have insight into this segment of the photographic market, and it isnt pretty. Its a war out there. Every week it seemed like a new competitor product crawled out of the woodwork. What was extremely upsetting was that the competitors were making products that simply outclassed ours. Whats worse, they were cheaper. The icing on the cake: its all our fault. Heres why: Lets turn back the clock 25 years. On the West Coast, the soft box was a new creation, a wonder and an innovation in the lighting industry. Simultaneously in the Midwest United States, a golf umbrella was being repurposed into a compact lighting tool. In Germany, tungsten bulb technology created powerful, consistent and long-lasting light sources. Innovation in the lighting industry was booming. Inventor-photographers were crafting new light bulbs, faster hardware, and unique ways to craft light. As the years progressed, so did the technology. Hot lights powered by low wattage incandescent bulbs gave way to the monobloc strobe. Things were good for the lighting industry, and photographers the world over appreciated the handiwork of these lighting pioneers. Then things started to change. Those same inventors started to realize that they liked money. Who doesnt? Building and manufacturing was becoming more and more expensive in the United States, and engineering even more so. But China was cheap. They could cut costs by manufacturing overseas. So thats exactly what they did. China was more than happy to take less than a quarter the price of what US citizens would take. They were happy, US companies were happy, and consumers were happy. If things stopped there, maybe the industry would still be okay. But that was only the beginning. China got a taste of the market, and that was all it took to get the ball rolling. By the late 90s, Chinese businessmen could be seen stalking the halls of Photokina, the largest international photography trade show in the world. Every photography manufacturer attends and purveys their wares. Standing in the booth, you would see thousands of potential customers over the course of the weeklong event. But mixed in with those customers were smartly dressed, inquisitive Chinese men. They walked around in groups of three to five, with only one or two of them ever speaking to anyone outside their group. They looked closely at products, whispered to themselves, and took notes. They asked specific questions about what they saw and often asked to buy one or two products. At first, no one took notice as they were just customers, right? Wrong. They were scoping out the products and ascertaining what was selling well. They were tired of just making the products for others. They wanted a bigger piece of the pie. As soon as a new lighting product was unveiled at Photokina, they would take that design back to China to see if they could reverse engineer it. At first it was slow going for them. The resulting products were cheap, rarely worked well, and sold poorly. But the Chinese are smart and hardworking. They continued to press on. It was only a matter of time before they could reverse engineer most any lighting product. Then they could make it faster and cheaper. This is where the snowball becomes an avalanche. About the time that the lighting industry in China was taking off, the .com bust of the early 2000s hit. Companies not even directly in the tech boom suffered through the recession, and companies continued to look for ways to cut costs. They were already doing their manufacturing in China and now those same companies were offering to do engineering as well, for a fraction of what they paid in the United States. So, thinking logically, they moved their engineering overseas along with their manufacturing, and in doing so sealed their fate. Suddenly almost no lighting equipment is being produced in the United States. Its being designed, built, and mass produced overseas. But China works the same way that the United States works when it comes to business growth. A small group of businesses gets stronger than the rest. One

business starts acquiring other businesses. Suddenly the 10 factories that built strobes become three. Then there are two. What was once just a group of factories overseas managed by US brands became an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) monster with a monopoly of the engineering and manufacturing industry for photographic lighting equipment who held all the cards. The big names to come out of this were JinHui and Yongnuo. JinHui has their main factory and facility in Ningbo, which is a prominent manufacturing center south of Beijing. Yongnuo is based out of Hong Kong, but their factories may be located elsewhere. What is important to note is that JinHui has specifically targeted their website to western nations. Their site looks new, fancy, and shows images of clean workspaces and a mix of Chinese and European individuals. It is obvious that they know how to seduce western companies and bring them into their fold. Suddenly the factory who was at one point dependent on the American brands became the behemoth whom the American brands couldnt live without. It happened so quickly and quietly that the manufacturers didnt pay much attention, until the economy bottomed out again in 2007. Companies in the United States had nowhere left to cut costs. And they were suffering because the factories they had help set up were suddenly their most daunting competition. In addition to building their brands products, they were building six other brands products as well as three lines of their own. They werent just selling in the United States, but in Canada, Europe, India, and Japan. They were growing while the US companies were shrinking. And they had no shame. If they were building you a product based on your design and they liked it, they stole it (see the above example of the tri-light fixture that was knocked off and resold). They made a few modifications that they thought would make it less obvious, but its hard to not see that the products were basically the same. The Chinese developers were ruthless. They realized the ball was in their court, and they had no intention of giving it back. So here we sit, 25 years after the start of the industry, and the market is saturated with Chinese products. The stigma that their equipment is of lesser quality is fading, and quickly. Why buy a flash for $600 when there is one from Yongnuo that performs exactly the same for $150? Why buy a soft box from a US brand for $500 when you can get one for $50 from a reseller of JinHui? The consumers only feed the Chinese domination. Photographers spend all their money on cameras (which are more complicated and highly guarded and thus the reason why Chinese companies havent copied them yet) and try to spend as little as possible on lighting equipment. Why? Because consumers no longer see the value. The brands failed in their marketing because the products quality started to decline. We now know its because they are all made in the same factory (with the exception of a few high-end brands) and the material is all the same. There is no way out of this cycle of depression for most United States companies. They cant afford to move engineering back to the states because their budgets dont allow for it. They cant raise prices on their current product because they wont be able to compete against the Chinese product. They cant innovate new products because the engineers are all in China. Even if they do come up with something new, the costs are prohibitive, and the Chinese arent dumb. They will charge a lot to prep it for mass production. Even if things get that far, it will be a matter of weeks before a knockoff product is available for less from China. I have personally even witnessed patent infringements by China with products sold in the United States, but lawsuits are expensive and many companies simply cant afford the cost to protect their own property anymore. In the end, we are reaping what we sow and it is killing what was once a proud and flourishing domestic market. Germany has managed to stay afloat and stave off the Chinese headhunters, but for how long? Time will only tell.

r4nger5 quartermaster - kit review SSAA - http://www.ssaa.org.au/ VRA - http://www.vra.asn.au/ Reccemedia #r4nger5 @ freenode.net - irc http://forum.r4nger5.com - r4nger5 forums please send stuff via the boards or pm me via irc Interesting Stuff Dates and the calendar In a normal year the day will rotate 1 day for every year passed ie the 1st January is on a Monday then a Tuesday etc. Every leap year it will skip a year all leap year are multiples of 4 Music Madness Descends by Scrotum Hammer http://rpmchallenge.com/index.php? option=com_comprofiler&task=userprofile&user=6869&Itemid=296 eof