RSA Daily

For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Good morning ,

Having just returned from the US, where lots of cafes and restaurants routinely offer discounts for 'first responders' and veterans, it's clear Australia has a long way to go to value those who serve in our Emergency Services and Defence Forces. The ADF in particular remains a bastion of conservatism, especially when it comes to the leadership's stubborn refusal to acknowledge demographic changes. Don't believe me? Check the statistics in our second article!

Lead stories

"On 8 July 2023, the Australian Army, specifically the 1st Armoured Regiment, had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to march through the streets of a major capital city, display its military hardware and inspire the next generation of potential recruits .. instead, it squandered an opportunity." Even the conservative Daily Mail reporter wrote that the exercise "stuns, disturbs..."

This article is published in an official Defence Force publication, The Forge. It argues that the ADF's stubborn refusal to fully embrace non-religious wellbeing officers will be essentially overtaken by events: firstly, by 2040, it's likely 80% of serving men and women will be non-religious; and secondly, there is at the same time a decreasing number of religious chaplains available. Really interesting stats!

Why? Because, among other things:

• 90% of principals report teacher shortages in the last year - almost double the number that experienced them three years ago.
• Two thirds of teachers say their workload has increased in the last year and less than 1 in 5 are committed to teach until retirement.
• There are worrying falls in student and teacher wellbeing with over 70% of principals saying there has been a decline in student wellbeing in the last year.
• Almost 90% of principals are taking funding from other areas of their school budget, such as maintenance, due to a lack of funding for students with disability, whose numbers have increased by 29% since 2015.
• Over 90% of teachers believe there are four key changes that would help them improve student outcomes: additional support for students with a disability or behavioural issues, more time for lesson planning, more classroom assistance and smaller class sizes.
• Principals believe children who have fallen behind in literacy or numeracy and those with a disability or learning difficulties are the ones who would benefit the most from full funding of public schools.

My Samsung s22 is so good, it makes taking good holiday pics easy. But there's some seriously great photos in this collection - mainly due to composition and lighting as far as I can tell. Here's one of my favourites:

Other stories of interest

Oklahoma Ground Zero in the War Over Church-State Separation

Just to remind us that having church-run schools is not the norm in other countries!

Barbie and me - it's complicated - Eternity News

Actually, not a bad review (or rather, reflection, as the writer had not yet seen the film). But I include because it's a good example of how religionists interpret everthing through the lens of their worldview. Ho hum.

ChatGPT-like AIs are coming to major science search engines

AI should actually be referred to as LLM (large language models). This application might actually be useful. 

Brain Activity as a Toddler May Predict IQ at Age 18, Decades-Long Study Finds

"As the typical human child grows from a toddler to a 10-year-old, their resting brain activity is usually marked by fewer low-frequency, or slow, brain waves and greater high-frequency, or fast, brain waves .. the slow waves during rest tend to be associated with the pruning of unnecessary neural connections, which makes the brain more efficient when actively tackling mental tasks .. this is a key step in refining a child's cognitive development, but if it occurs too much or for too long, it can become detrimental .. if a young child doesn't receive enough emotional support or cognitive stimulation, evidence suggests it can affect their neurocognitive development, possibly by impacting neural pruning." [Included especially for Paul Carey].

Got a comment on any of these stories? 

Write to me at president@rationalist.com.au

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