Professor,
Would you expect any other outcome when you have the Howard Government flushed with funds, spending so little on education of all levels. If you have 2 items, take away 1 you will have 1 left. There need not be a lot of analysis on this subject, except "You get the government you deserve."

Are we really that bad? Australians shine in all walks of life...not just sport...of course the government could do more and hopefully the next one will. Right now, however, be thankful for what we have achieved and are achieving right now. Perhaps the media could help by paying a little more attention to our achievements away from the sporting field and give credit to those who really do achieve ...actually they do a fair bit of this already....so are we really that bad? .....no we are not.

Economics has supplanted the religions of old. The "rules" of economics are a matter of convenience, not measures of what IS.

As in days of old, those with no inclination to explore the rough edge of nature with the naked hand, join the ministry.

As in days of old, progress is bounded by the imagination of the priesthood and shackled by their power.

Those ideas which reinforce the power of the priesthood get a guernsey, those which don't are heresy.

Monotheistic souls need a parable for their inspiration. Perhaps the parable of ZERO is a case in point.

There was a time when the concept of ZERO had no formal place in our language. One day, some philosopher-genius gave it the symbol "0" and wove it into the language of mathematics. This was the Industrial Revolution of mathematics no less, because the power of that idea revealed the workings of Nature.

What a heresy that must have been in those arcane days, no matter that we have all benefitted from it since.

What would be the modern day equivalent of such research in our learning institutions? So much enquiry depends upon the un-learning of pre-conceived notions. Surely heresy and anarchy must be given a pre-eminent role, but who will sponsor that?

The West's sun is setting and the East is raising again this is just one aspect of it.

A sily question:
how do you propose to do it?

Who would do it, what would be their motivation, resources and strategy?

regards

Paul
(Ph.D. MSc, + two other post-grad degrees)

The author says that Australia "faces a real crisis in the availability of taxonomists". That may be so but I guess we can be truly thankful that there is not an over-supply of taxidemists, otherwise we'd all be stuffed.