We're told on the web that college kids get their
political ideas from Wikipedia and Utube.
However most do not limit their research
to just those sites.

Utube is not a reliable source because there are
no checks and balances to confirm or deny what
someone says.

With Wikipedia it is true that anyone can go and change
things but the number of people who want to provide
accurate information far outweighs the people who like
to make things up.

OTB, Aidan,

That reference to a smallpox outbreak in 1789: smallpox has a definite incubation period; the First Fleet tok eight months to reach Australia. If there had been any outbreak on any of the ships, which there wasn't, it would have wiped out the ship's passengers well within eight months, and would have been been over by the time the ships arrived.

BUT there was another outbreak in about 1829-1831 which might be a pointer to something similar happening in 1789: Judy Campbell has written quite a bit about these outbreaks [e.g. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10314618508595711?journalCode=rahs19 ] suggests that an epidemic spread from the north and west, i.e. the Gulf of Carpentaria, down the inland rivers to the Darling and down the Murray: Sturt reported in 1830 seeing empty 'villages' along the Murray, long before any whites ever came that way - in fact, of course, as we learnt in school, he was the first. There was another outbreak which has been traced, much earlier, down the coast of Western Australia.

So if epidemic spread from the north, they could have been brought to Australia, and maybe again and again over the previous centuries, by seamen from what is now Indonesia - unintentionally, of course.

It's been an interconnected world for longer than we think.

Joe

Hi Joe, what about the 5 weeks the 'First Fleet' spent in Cape Town South Africa from mid October 1787? Smallpox was well known in South Africa at that time. The fact that only 23 convicts died on the voyage speaks volumes for Phillips ability or good luck.
The first fleet could have conveyed smallpox to Australia from South Africa. Given its incubation period and the naive Aboriginal population the disease could have been well established within the local Aboriginal population by 1789.

About 2000 people, my estimate, marched in protest from Redfern to the Sydney Town Hall in recognition of Aboriginal people. The protest was entirely peaceful. At the town hall there were speeches a plenty, even a number of children spoke. It was good to see so many white people coming together in solidarity with Aboriginal people. My partner said she was proud to "hikoi" (walk together) with people who suffer the same injustices her people do.
The police were out in force, and of good behavior, at least 50 plus, also van loads up side streets, good on the coppers. There was no trouble, the rednecks kept away.

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2016/01/26/mass-protests-mourn-australia-invasion.html

Fox, "With Wikipedia it is true that anyone can go and change things but the number of people who want to provide accurate information far outweighs the people who like to make things up"

Where is the evidence to prove that?

Even if accepted, the fact remains that Wikipedia is an unreliable source of information.

No-one has dispelled the criticisms of the TED speaker I linked to.

Paul1405, "About 2000 people"

That is optimistically double the optimistic estimate of the protesters in the link you provided. The media always over-eggs to make a story out of SFA. You are saying that the information in it is not to be believed. So why link to it?

Some here have made it plain that Australia Day is just another opportunity for them to whinge and promote division.

Invasion? Laughable!

Maybe Australia Day should have an alternative name, ASS Day*.

* Aboriginal Social Security Day.