South Australia and Renewables

 As reported at Renew economy world-first-south-australia-achieves-100pct-solar-and-lowest-prices-in-australia.

Alas the headline is somewhat misleading. The 100% reliance on renewables was only an hour but the lowest wholesale prices were for the quarter.

So let us dig a little deeper into SA's future.

South Australia has the lowest prices and the most secure electricity grid in Australia. It is a net energy exporter to the other states and it appears will always be so.

This is why so many batteries are being built there. A battery is useless unless the renewables in question produce more electricity than they allowed to market.

South Australia can only ne a net energy exporter if they produce most of the energy locally at peak demand times. the idea they are a net exporter because wand generates more electricity than is needed at night time (a  period of low demand) is laughable and is only put forward by innumerates.

Around the Traps 29/1/21

 It is time for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Croaking Cassandra on a-year-on
• Sarah Duffy et al on its-not-just-cricket-australia-day-isnt-the-commercial-winner-it-used-to-be
• Tauel Harper on laws-making-social-media-firms-expose-major-covid-myths-could-help-australias-vaccine-rollout
• Archa Fox on not-sure-about-the-pfizer-vaccine-now-its-been-approved-in-australia-you-can-scratch-these-4-concerns-straight-off-your-list
• Ross Gittins on the-economy-doesnt-work-well-without-good-public-servants
• Kevin Bonham on the-federal-governments-majority-is-three-not-one
• Ketan Joshi on one-year-after-black-summer-bushfire-crisis-media-misinformation-still-burns
• Greg Jericho on australias-recession-is-weird-and-wacky-but-not-our-worst, its-not-just-the-pandemic-stupid-australias-economy-has-been-weak-for-years
• Lorinda Cramer on dressed-for-success-as-workers-return-to-the-office-men-might-finally-shed-their-suits-and-ties
• Adam Dunn on how-do-we-counter-covid-misinformation-challenge-it-directly-with-the-facts
• Cath Ferguson on most-government-information-on-covid-19-is-too-hard-for-the-average-australian-to-understand
• renew economy on barnaby-joyce-shows-why-a-coalition-government-may-never-embrace-climate-action, butler-dumped-as-labors-climate-opposition-collapses-at-a-truly-pivotal-moment, world-first-south-australia-achieves-100pct-solar-and-lowest-prices-in-australia
• Institutional Economics on reforming-australian-monetary-policy?
• Peter Whiteford on robodebt-was-a-policy-fiasco-with-a-human-cost-we-have-yet-to-fully-appreciate
• Jason Sharples et al on how-heatwaves-and-drought-combine-to-produce-the-perfect-firestorm
• Stephen Duckett and Anika Stobart on productivity-commission-health-report-provides-useful-information-but-leaves-some-big-questions-unanswered

Northern America

• Robert Waldmann on what-is-to-be-done-with-the-senate
• Aaron Rupar on fauci-birx-interviews-trump-coronavirus-response
• Menzie Chinn on guest-contribution-republicans-oppose-deficits-only-when-democrats-hold-the-white-house
• Calculated Risk on a-few-comments-on-december-new-home-sales
• Erin Hurley on making-america-govern-again
• Zac Beauchamp on marjorie-taylor-green-kill-democrats-republicans-history-conspiracy-theories

Europe

• Binoy Kampmark on auf-wiedersehen-mutti-how-angela-merkels-centrist-politics-shaped-germany-and-europe
• Rob Mainwaring on as-britain-passes-100-000-covid-deaths-boris-johnson-is-in-a-crisis-of-his-own-making

Asia

• Barkley Rosser on is-biden-going-to-blow-reentering-iran
• Sanjay Ruparelia on indias-farmers-are-right-to-protest-against-agricultural-reforms
• Peter Beinart on what-the-lincoln-project-gets-wrong-about-israel-palestine

Wonk

• Mainly Macro on the-two-sides-of-austerity
• Tim Harford on is-first-dose-first-the-right-vaccination-strategy
• Robert Waldmann on desirable-incentive-effects-of-income-taxation-v
• and Then Theres Physics on alan-s-bottle
• stumbling and mumbling on endogenous-policy
• the conversable economist on the-importance-of-unimportant-inventions
• john rice and Nigel Martin on can-teslas-share-price-be-justified-probably-not
• Lowy Institute on covid-performance
• Raina Macintyre on can-vaccines-offer-exit-plan-covid-19
• Roger Farmer on rebuilding-macroeconomic-theory

General

• David Appell on the-10-greatest-predictions-in-physics
• Vincent Ho on do-men-really-take-longer-to-poo

Climate

• S Anna Florin et al on burnt-ancient-nutshells-reveal-the-story-of-climate-change-at-kakadu-now-drier-than-ever-before
• Ketan Joshi on wind-and-solar-lead-charge-as-renewables-overtake-fossil-fuels-in-europe
• Variable Variability on new-paper-multitest-climate-trends
• skeptical science on case study: identifying myths and fallacies in climate science

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• my-reply-three-words-fake-data-simulation
  
• tessa-hadley-on-john-updike
  
• the-norm-of-entertainment
  
• hierarchical-stacking
  
• three-coronavirus-quickies
  
• hierarchical-stacking-part-ii
  
• the-textbook-paradox-textbooks-more-than-a-very-few-years-old-cannot-even-be-given-away-but-new-textbooks-are-mostly-made-by-copying-from-former-ones
  
• tukeyian-uphill-battles
  
• there-is-only-one-reality-and-we-cannot-demand-consistency-from-any-other
  
• team-stanford
  
• i-was-drunk-at-the-podium-and-i-knew-my-results-werent-strong
  
• mortality-data-2015-2020-around-the-world/
  
• how-were-duped-by-data-and-how-we-can-do-better
  
• kill-the-math-in-the-intro-stat-course
  
• wombats-shttin-brix-in-the-tail
  
• statschat on the-8-solution
• Kaiser Fung on vaccines-free-you-from-the-herd, the-business-managers-guide-to-the-one-dose-two-dose-vaccine-debate, actions-have-consequences-the-messy-aftermath-of-one-dose-pfizer, how-the-uk-justified-its-vaccination-strategy

Econometrics

• the conversable economist on the-reproducibility-challenge-with-economic-data
• No Hesitations on machine-learning-advances-for-time-series-forecasting

Dianne Coyle (quirky+ book reviews)

• Henry Farrell on freedom-from-the-market
• Tyler Cowen on what-ive-been-reading

vox wonk

• how-asylum-policies-deterred-jewish-migration-out-nazi-germany
  
• coronavirus-and-banking-evaluating-policy-options-avoiding-financial-crisis
  
• covid-19-and-migrant-workers-employment-prospects-europe
  
• dynamic-impact-exporting-firm-rd-investment
  
• brexit-uncertainty-and-trade-disintegration-europe-and-beyond
  
• impact-covid-19-firms-default-probability-japan
  
• dynamic-impact-exporting-firm-rd-investment
  
• brexit-uncertainty-and-trade-disintegration-europe-and-beyond
  
• scenario-analysis-contingency-planning-and-central-bank-communications
  
• when-flexible-exchange-rates-don-t-insulate-economies-external-shocks
  
• covid-19-stimulus-payments-evidence-japan
  
• doughnut-effect-covid-19-cities
  
• monetary-policy-and-productivity-new-transmission-channel
  
• moral-hazard-fear-markets-and-how-central-banks-responded-covid-19
  
• deaths-despair-and-incidence-excess-mortality-2020
  

Albanese making strange decisions.

 It is reported that Albanese will get rid of Mark Butler as the ALP frontbencher on climate and associated matters and be replaced by Chris Bowen their spokesman on health.

I find this strange for a number of reasons.

Firstly He is easily the most knowledgeable person in the parliament on climate. 

Secondly Butler has performed well in his portfolio. It is not his fault that neither Shorten nor Albanese have correctly run with what he has recommended.

Thirdly he is easily on top of the Minister not that it is very hard given it is Angus Taylor.

Fourthly Bowen has only been in the shadow health portfolio since the election.

What we have here is politicians making decisions when they have no idea of why the last election was won or lost.  The reason for this is the pollsters got it badly wrong and have yet to show us how they are going to correct this.

Bowen will be competent but is still gun shy from the last election. It appears the left wing Albanese is trying to stem any 'problems' by solidifying NSW right wing support. This is the reverse of the past and so ironic on any levels.

Australia Day should not be January 26

 It is absurd Australia celebrates Australia day on January 26.

Firstly it is inaccurate to say the first fleet got here on that day. It was in Botany Bay a day earlier.

Secondly Cook claimed the land for the UK in 1770.

Lastly Australia became a nation and country on January 1 1901.

Thus Australia day should be on January 1. This totally removes all discussion of invasion and colonialism to January 26 not Australia day. This would be a good thing because as a nation we have to come to terms with reconciliation with our Aboriginals.

This means we can celebrate our nationhood separately to reconciliation.

On a related topic can we just get rid of 'gongs' on Australia day and any other day. They are awarded for what nick Gruen once said for doing their job. Margaret court was the greatest female tennis paler but why does she get a 'gong' for that??

Around the Traps 22/1/21

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy,

• Greg Jericho on the-biggest-coalition-conspiracy-theory-is-climate-change-denial
• Hao Tan et al on forget-about-the-trade-spat-coal-is-passe-in-much-of-china-and-thats-a-bigger-problem-for-australia
• Kevin Davis on ideology-triumphs-over-evidence-morrison-government-drops-the-ball-on-banking-reform
• renew economy on electric-vehicles-help-drive-green-investment-to-new-global-high-in-2020, as-biden-acts-on-climate-morrison-reactivates-fossil-rhetoric
• Gary Mortimer and Louise Grimmer on the-rise-and-rise-of-aldi-two-decades-that-changed-supermarket-shopping-in-australia
• Tama Leaver on webs-inventor-says-news-media-bargaining-code-could-break-the-internet-hes-right-but-theres-a-fix

Northern America

• Menzie Chinn on is-a-dollar-crash-coming, will-joe-bidens-fiscal-stimulus-overheat-the-american-economy
• Jennifer Hunt on as-joe-biden-prepares-to-become-president-the-us-still-reels-from-the-deadly-consequences-of-alternative-facts
• Richard Kreitner on why-its-time-to-take-secessionist-talk-seriously
• Sussan Glasser on obituary-for-a-failed-presidency
• Calculated Risk on comments-on-december-housing-starts
• Scott Lucas on joe-biden-sends-a-clear-message-to-the-watching-world-americas-back
• Richard Holden on bidens-economic-centrism-isnt-exciting-but-right-for-these-divisive-times
• Eric Kramer on trump-on-his-own-terms

Europe

• mumbling and stumbling on debates-fake-and-genuine
• Mainly Macro on who-caused-our-current-covid-crisis
• Alexander Titov on alexei-navalny-novichok-didnt-stop-russian-opposition-leader-but-a-prison-sentence-might
• James empty blog on blueskiesresearchorguk-so-near-and-yet
• Chris Bertram on globalism-and-the-incoherence-of-tory-brexit

Asia

• Aarti Bettigeri on india-launches-mammoth-vaccine-drive
• Shankaran Nambiar on resisting-uncertainty-malaysia-finding-itself
• Alexi Heale on japan-under-suga-the-delicate-balancing-act
• Elliot Zaagman on where-world-jack-ma
• Peter Holmes on the-interpreter/beijing-s-wolf-warriors-score-own-goals
• Barkley Rosser on will-north-korea-explode-after-biden-becomes-president

Wonk

• Tim Harford on what-puzzles-and-poker-teach-us-about-misinformation
• the conversable economist on more-on-origins-of-pushing-on-string
• Robert Waldmann on desirable-incentive-effects-of-income-taxation-iii, public-debt-may-have-no-fiscal-cost
• Menzie Chinn on guest-contribution-increasing-income-tax-progressivity-trickle-up-not-trickle-down-economics
• Verica Rupar and Tom de Smedt on trumps-time-is-up-but-his-twitter-legacy-lives-on-in-the-global-spread-of-qanon-conspiracy-theories
• Damien Spry on why-twitter-was-right-dump-trump
• Tyler Cowen on consistency-about-elasticities
• Dennis Muller on to-publish-or-not-to-publish-the-medias-free-speech-dilemmas-in-a-world-of-division-violence-and-extremism
• stumbling and mumbling on character-context-and-work
• Eric Lonergan on qe-is-debt-reduction

General

• Ramesh Thakur on irrepressibles-tame-invincibles-their-impregnable-fortress
• BOM Blog on explainer-what-influences-air-temperature

Climate

• and Then Theres Physics on on-baselines-and-climate-normals
• Peter Sinclair on master-class-in-climate-denial-gaslighting
• renew economy on ticking-fossil-industry-methane-bomb-must-be-defused-iea
• skeptical Science on global warming attribution study

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• youre-a-data-scientist-at-a-local-hospital-and-youve-been-asked-to-present-to-the-physicians-on-communicating-statistical-information-to-patients-what-should-you-say
  
• weights-in-statistics
  
• simulation-based-calibration-two-theorems
  
• subtleties-of-discretized-density-plots
  
• arsenic
  
• what-about-that-new-paper-estimating-the-effects-of-lockdowns-etc
  
• new-textbook-statistics-for-health-data-science-by-etzioni-mandel-and-gulati
  
• statschat on drunk-graphics, 
• Kaiser Fung on how-nyc-restaurants-manage-queues, record-deaths-every-day vaccines-free-you-from-the-herd

Econometrics

• No Hesitations on mixtures-of-predictive-densities

Dianne Coyle (quirky + book reviews)

• places-and-not
  
• are-humans-or-computers-more-reasonable
  
• Sam Roggeveen on the-interpreter/book-review-ministry-future
• Tyler Cowen on what-ive-been-reading

Vox wonk

• robot-adoption-german-plants
  
• choice-and-outcomes-deceased-donor-kidney-assignment
  
• workplace-integration-and-gender-attitudes
  
• triple-effect-covid-19-chinese-exports
  
• how-networks-influential-individuals-helped-destroy-one-world-s-most-durable-democracies-and-legitimise-racist
  
• bond-returns-sovereign-debt-crises-investors-perspective
  
• merits-fire-sales-and-bailouts-light-covid-19-pandemic
  
• trade-and-covid-19-lessons-first-wave
  
• impact-covid-19-productivity
  
• value-vaccine-end-covid-19-worth-between-5-and-15-wealth
  
• taking-oligopoly-seriously-macroeconomics
  
• interaction-between-macroprudential-and-monetary-policy-through-global-banks-new-cross-country-evidence-international
  
• issue-salience-and-political-stereotypes
  
• trump-berlusconi-and-damage-entrepreneurs-economic-policy
  
• trade-and-welfare-benefits-deep-trade-agreements
  
• policy-responses-corporate-solvency-problem-ongoing-covid-19-crisis
  

What a test what a series

 I did not see that coming.

This was a magnificent win by essentially  India's B side against us. There was a lot of Headingl and Stokes in this win. In essence our batting let us down, India had two bowlers who weren't anywhere near test class yet they got us out twice! Then our bowling did. Starc and Lyons were missing in action in both Sydney and Brisbane.

Let us go back for a minute

 India got thrashed in Adelaide. However the 36 was a one-off. Good balls got edges and catches were taken. It will never occur again. Good balls will be missed and catches will be dropped. It should be noted before India's second innings they were in charge.  Australia got over confident over this  whereas India gained strength . India lost players but grew another leg.

They totally outplayed us in Melbourne. They ALL did. Everyone played their part the captain more so.

In Sydney They almost won as our bowlers tired. More on that later.

I have already written about Brisbane. Clearly they have some promising palyers,

What of Australia. The big L had a good average but that hides how very lucky he was, Dropped catches and a lot of snicks means you are not in good form. We have problems at the top of the order and in the middle.

We also have problems in bowling. Starc has lost his late inswinger. It is because his right foot is pointing to the Keeper not first slip. thus he is open chested. He loses swing and pace. Lyons was unimpressive. He never looked like taking wickets.

It was an enjoyable test and an enjoyable series.

US Politics

 Steve from Brisbane has nailed it so I won't write my thoughts as I do not have to.

See also HERE, HERE and HERE

Spam on the net

 I am getting a bit of spam at present.

Most of it has an unsubscribe link which merely takes to a website about the scam involved.

It is a bit tedious putting it into my spam box but once in it then always goes there.

Very annoying

Around the Traps 15/1/21

 It is time again for Around the Traps

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Greg Jericho  on australias-economy-is-faring-better-than-most-but-thats-not-saying-much
• Miah Hammond-Errey on securing-legal-foundation-australia-s-intelligence-agencies
• renew economy on neoen-plans-massive-500mw-big-battery-west-of-sydney, vales-point-applied-for-8-7m-coal-upgrades-grant-weeks-after-it-was-announced-in-federal-budget, sand-clogs-up-australias-only-operating-carbon-capture-project, agl-picks-wartsila-and-fluence-to-deliver-on-1000mw-big-battery-vision
• Kylie Quinn et al on the-oxford-vaccine-has-unique-advantages-as-does-pfizers-using-both-is-australias-best-strategy

Northern America

• Jennifer Williams on us-capitol-attack-domestic-terrorism-definition
• Peter Dorman on post-putsch-why-there-should-be-consequences-for-enablers-of-the-capitol-invasion
• 538 on why-police-aggression-is-far-more-pronounced-against-left-leaning-protesters
• Alex Tabbarok on approve-the-astrazeneca-vaccine-now
• Fablola Cineas on us-capitol-trump-riot-insurrection
• the grumpy economist on low-interest-rates-and-government-debt
• John Cassidy on trump-cant-be-allowed-to-escape-justice-yet-again
• Jonathan Stephenson on trumps-lingering-menace
• Ankush Khardori on wanted-lead-suspect-in-election-fraud-conspiracy
• Mubashar Hasan on america-s-fantasy-hero
• Zack Beauchamp on trump-republicans-impeachment-case-capitol-fourteenth-amendment
• David Frum on the-conservative-cult-of-victimhood
• Peter Sinclair on trump-anti-science-team-leaving-a-poison-pills-behind
• Michael Blake on is-impeaching-president-trump-pointless-revenge-not-if-it-sends-a-message-to-future-presidents
• Thomas Klassen on a-second-impeachment-is-just-the-start-of-trumps-legal-woes
• Bryan Cranston on trump-is-impeached-again-in-historic-vote-now-republicans-must-decide-the-future-of-their-party

Europe

• Mainly Macro on trump-tries-to-incite-putsch-and-his-uk-apologists
• stumbling and mumbling on on-fantasy-politics
• Mark Beeson on very-british-crisis

Asia

• Michael Schuman on xi-jinping-china-economy-jack-ma
• Khang Vu on why-north-korea-wants-arms-control-deal-united-states
• John Garrick and Yan Bennett on how-china-is-controlling-the-covid-origins-narrative-silencing-critics-and-locking-up-dissenters

Wonk

• Tim Harford on in-praise-of-the-humble-products-all-around-us
• stumbling and mumbling on on-fantasy-politics, on-forecasting
• Dominic Meagher on what-does-arrival-covid-vaccines-mean-2021
• Copolla comment on bitcoin-fixes-microstrategy-or-does-it
• Tyler Cowen on can-open-access-scientific-publishing-work, insurrections-are-contagious
• Menzie Chinn on interpreting-spreads
• Katherine Gelber on no-twitter-is-not-censoring-donald-trump-free-speech-is-not-guaranteed-if-it-harms-others
• Helen Young on why-the-far-right-and-white-supremecists-have-embraced-the-middle-ages-and-their-symbols
• Institutional Economics on lets-talk-about-negative-rates
• Henry Giroux on trump-impeached-a-second-time-but-trumpism-will-live-on
• Jonathan Barret on government-funds-are-not-taxpayer-money-media-and-politicians-should-stop-confusing-the-two

General

• Eliza Middleton and Linda Evans on the-cicadas-deafening-shriek-is-the-sound-of-summer-and-humans-have-been-drawn-to-it-for-thousands-of-years
• Jenny Uglow on joseph-banks-imperial-gardener-kew

Climate

• Real Climate on flyer-tipping
• Skeptical Science on reviewing the horrible bush fire season
• Moyhu on giss-reports-2020-as-warmest-year

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• enhancing-academic-freedom-and-transparency-in-publishing-through-post-publication-debate-some-examples-in-the-study-of-political-conflict
  
• include-all-design-information-as-predictors-in-your-regression-model-then-postratify-if-necessary-no-need-to-include-survey-weights-the-information-that-goes-into-the-weights-will-be-used-in-any
  
• a-headline-that-will-make-global-warming-activists-apoplectic-hows-that-one-going-huh
  
• they-adjusted-for-three-hundred-confounders
  
• routine-hospital-based-sars-cov-2-testing-outperforms-state-based-data-in-predicting-clinical-burden
  
• sketching-the-distribution-of-data-vs-sketching-the-imagined-distribution-of-data
  
• reflections-on-a-talk-gone-wrong
  
• statschat on the-new-variant-r-and-why-its-more-complicated-than-that, predictions-and-constraints
• Kaiser Fung on one-dose-vaccine-elevates-pr-over-science , know-your-data-28-data-breaches-and-tech-contradictions , real-life-demonstration-of-the-value-of-statistical-controls

Econometrics

• nuttin

Dianne Coyle ( quirky +book reviews)

• when-being-fair-to-others-is-efficient
  
• Tyler Cowen on what-ive-been-reading

Vox wonk

• bottom-approach-covid-19-vaccines
  
• economic-impact-ancient-colonisation
  
• edward-lazear-personnel-policy-and-productivity
  
• early-view-euro-area-risk-sharing-during-covid-19-crisis
  
• it-time-auction-slots-congested-airports
  
• trade-preferences-need-predictability
  
• pandemic-endgame
  
• impact-social-security-pension-claiming-and-retirement
  
• leaning-against-wind-and-risk-financial-crises
  
• impact-social-security-pension-claiming-and-retirement
  
• air-pollution-policy-should-focus-most-vulnerable-people-not-just-most-polluted-places
  
• will-inflation-make-comeback-populations-age
  
• financial-globalisation-and-inequality-capital-flows-two-edged-sword
  

Was Trump censored by Twitter?

 Of all the nonsense I have heard Twitter censoring Trump is the worst. A sitting President can hold Press Releases and issue press releases but Katherine Gelber outlines why this censorship argument is complete and utter nonsense.

Remember that stuff about the hiatas on global warming

 Master Stat man Andrew Gelman writes about a-headline-that-will-make-global-warming-activists-apoplectic-hows-that-one-going-huh

Another climate denier bites the dust 

Sledging has no part in Cricket

 In my experience few cricketers understand what the preamble to the laws of cricket say.

In essence it says you should respect all umpiring decisions. Again in my experience respect is usually given to decisions in their favour not the other way.

It also says respect should be given to the opposition and their own team mates.

It goes without saying therefore sledging should have no part of the game.

Test umpires have IMHO been very poor with regard to player behaviour. Yesterday they shouldf have told both Lyons and Hazelwood to tone it down when they took a wicket and clearly were looking straight at the departing batsman when they were 'whooping' it up. It is small  incidents like this that make for larger and much worse ones.

As important as this is the influence on Junior and indeed senior players cannot be underestimated. I had 14 seasons of junior cricket and had to at times tell youngsters what they were doing was out of order.

The excuse always was and is they do this in tests. They say the same thing in Shires!!

Trump needs to be both impeached and convicted

 The events the other day in Washington were an absolute disgrace. such an event should never be allowed to occur again in the USA.  See HERE for whether it was terrorism or not.

Trump's speech that very day together with others were a direct incitement to overthrow the electorate's decision on the election by those supporters who had such little intelligence they believed the fraud conspiracies' be perpetrated by Trump and his friends.  Just one example will do. They believe over 50,000 'dead' people voted. This would be very easy to prove. It wasn't used in any of the 60 odd legal cases the trump camp lost.

Trump incited this mob by again telling lies about the election. There was at the very least an attempt of an insurrection. 

Trump should be impeached and convicted because of this. This is very important. Unless this is done every potential tinpot dictator will attempt to do what was attempted. The Whole of the US Congress can say we do not want this to ever be attempted again by both impeaching  and convicting Trump.

Around the Traps 8/1/21

 It is time for Around the Traps

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• James Laurenson on china-enters-2021-a-stronger-more-influential-power-and-australia-may-feel-the-squeeze-even-more
• Daniel Hurst and Graham Readfearn on australia-inching-closer-to-committing-to-net-zero-by-2050-top-energy-advisor-says
• Phillip Laird on distance-based-road-charges-will-improve-traffic-and-if-done-right-wont-slow-australias-switch-to-electric-cars
• Catherine Bennett on australias-mishmash-of-covid-border-closures-is-confusing-inconsistent-and-counterproductive
• Jason Potts and Kelsie Nabben on why-is-bitcoins-price-at-an-all-time-high-and-how-is-its-value-determined
• Timothy Leary and David Whalley on solar-panel-fire-season-is-all-year-round-and-its-getting-more-intense-in-australia
• Institutional Economics on rate-cuts-and-sentiment-revisited?
• Daniel D'Hotman and Steven Hamilton on how-australia-can-phase-out-coal-power-while-maintaining-energy-security
• Renew economy on esbs-market-vision-fall-short-of-whats-needed-for-renewable-grid

Northern America

• Cameron Peters on washington-post-trump-call-georgia-secretary-state-raffensperger-recording-find-votes
• Ken Melvin on the-fallacy-of-unions
• David Frum on trumps-georgia-call-crosses-red-line
• John Cassidy on trumps-authoritarian-moment-is-here
• Gwylim Blunt on once-donald-trump-is-out-of-the-white-house-americans-should-write-him-out-of-history-too
• Mikal Skuterud on 100-million-is-a-really-big-number-a-review-of-doug-saunders-maximum-canada
• Andrew Eggers et al on fraud Thanks Tyler Cowen 
• Menzie Chinn on guest-contribution-how-might-bidens-anticipated-tax-changes-affect-the-market
• Sam Wang on is-georgia-2020-the-new-virginia-2008
• the conversable economist on some-economics-of-middle-class
• Clayton Besar and Mathew Frank on was-it-a-coup-no-but-siege-on-us-capitol-was-the-election-violence-of-a-fragile-democracy
• Jordan McSweeny on why-are-the-capitol-rioters-so-angry-because-theyre-scared-of-losing-grip-on-their-perverse-idea-of-democracy
• Jared Mondschein on bidens-job-gets-easier-after-senate-wins-in-georgia-but-dont-expect-a-progressive-revolution
• David Smith on delighting-in-causing-complete-chaos-whats-behind-trump-supporters-brazen-storming-of-the-capitol
• 538 on how-democrats-won-the-georgia-runoffs, trump-helped-take-extremist-views-from-the-fringes-of-society-to-a-mob-attacking-the-capitol

Europe

• Peter Geoghegan on swedish-model-failed-covid-19
• Mainly Macro on why-uks-covid-crisis-should-be-personal-for-tory-voter
• stumbling and mumbling on whats-given-whats-not
• James empty blog on blueskiesresearchorguk-not-even-half-half-there

Asia

• Aarti Betigeri on putting-caste-system-in-its-place
• Nematullah Bizhan on for-the-afghan-peace-talks-to-succeed-a-ceasefire-is-the-next-and-perhaps-toughest-step-forward
• Helen Davidson on dozens-of-hong-kong-pro-democracy-figures-arrested-in-sweeping-crackdown 
• Lauren Williams on bleak-reality-sectarian-lebanon
• Barkley Rosser on the-end-of-embargo-against-qatar
• Lauren Williams on bleak-reality-sectarian-lebanon

Wonk

• Tim Harford on things-i-think-i-was-wrong-about-this-year
• Nick Rowe on loanable-funds-redux
• Alexandra Wake on doom-surfing-and-fact-checkers-prosper-covid-19-infodemic
• the conversable economist on the-curse-of-knowledge-bad-writing-bad-teaching-bad-communication
• Tyler Cowen on new-evidence-that-spices-fruits-from-asia-had-reached-the-mediterranean-earlier-than-thought, half-doses-as-good-as-full, the-politics-of-covid-just-got-even-more-hellish
• Peter Greste on julian-assanges-extradition-victory-offers-cold-comfort-for-press-freedom
• David Hope and Julian Linberg on the-economic-consequences-of-major-tax-cuts-for-the-rich Thanks Peter Whiteford
• Noam Gidron and Peter Hall on populism-erupts-when-people-feel-disconnected-and-disrespected
• Coppolla comment on reconciling-is-lm-and-endogenous-money
• Xueyhin Zha on unique-power-tiktok-s-algorithm
• stumbling and mumbling on on-bad-governmentl

General

• Elke Hacker and Louise Baldwin on i-cant-get-sunburnt-through-glass-shade-or-in-water-right-5-common-sunburn-myths-busted
• Kate Cantrell on guide-to-the-classics-the-wind-in-the-willows-a-tale-of-wanderlust-male-bonding-and-timeless-delight

Climate

• Peter Sinclair on energy-storage-update-progress-report-on-flow-batteries
• moyhu on templs-global-surface-2020-just-cooler-2016
• and Then Theres Physics on warming-commitments
• BOM on annual-climate-statement-2020-australias-fourth-warmest-year-on-record

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• translation-plagiarism
  
• maybe-the-better-analogy-is-that-these-people-are-museum-curators-and-were-telling-them-that-their-precious-collection-of-leonardos-which-they-have-been-augmenting-at-a-rate-of-about-one-per-month
  
• our-ridiculous-health-care-system-part-734
  
• megan-higgs-statistician-and-anna-dreber-economist-on-how-to-judge-the-success-of-a-replication
  
• authors-retract-the-nature-communications-paper-on-female-mentors
  
• nyt-editor-described-columnists-as-people-who-are-paid-to-have-very-very-strong-convictions-and-to-believe-that-theyre-right
  
• xkcd-curve-fitting-methods-and-the-messages-they-send
  
• what-is-are-bad-data
  
• weakliem-on-air-rage-and-himmicanes
  
• Kaiser Fung on excess-deaths-accelerated-deaths-and-co-morbidities

Econometrics

• Freakometrics on crossvalidation

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• b
• Eszter Hargittai on positive-note-10-book-reading-non-fiction-edition
• econjeff on book-promise-me-youll-shoot-yourself-by.

Vox wonk

• financial-market-sensitivity-announcements-ecb
  
• post-covid-19-potential-output-euro-area
  
• epidemiological-and-economic-consequences-government-responses-covid-19
  
• interregional-contact-and-national-identity
  
• joint-effect-private-and-public-environmental-regulation-emissions
  
• disruption-seaborne-trade-south-east-asia
  
• effective-pandemic-management-minimises-economic-harm
  
• drivers-who-spend-too-much-fuel-efficiency
  
• how-fdi-responds-non-trade-provisions-preferential-trade-agreements
  
• european-commission-digital-markets-act-translation
  
• human-capital-oecd-countries-new-measure-and-its-policy-drivers
  
• antitrust-actions-against-facebook-igm-forum-survey
  
• covid-19-americas-north-south-differences-and-labour-market-channel
  
• risk-resilience-and-recalibration-global-value-chains
  

The USA today

 What occurred today in the USA merely is what occurs when people believe insane conspiracy stories and want to get rid of democracy.

Let us be very clear. Trump and his supports have many times tried to use the courts to overturn results. They have failed every time. Why? NO evidence. Just remember a lot of so called 'evidence' was never produced in any court because it was bunkum.

Possibly the best thing to come out of this is the permanent stain on Trump and should mean Republican leaders finally cutting themselves from him.

It is ironic that the only evidence of a person attempting fraud was Trump himself.

If those Republicans go ahead and protest the certification then the stain will be on their record as well.

What has been attempted is nothing less than insurrection!

All this has lead attention from the Democrats winning both senate seats in Georgia being vastly diminished. I am still coming to terms with this.  ( John King on CNN is the USA's Antony Green. Yep he is that good). I have to admit I thought it would go the other way however in Donald Trump the Democrats had the perfect foil. He patently had no strategy and must be the main reason why there was a swing to the democrats.

Can the 25th amendment be invoked immediately? Trump has now tried electoral fraud and now violent insurrection. what more evidence is needed.

Jim Mattis  on what occurred. Explosive but accurate.

Postscript:

Georgia was amazing. Fancy a black man and a jew winning senate seats. Do not think everything will go Biden's way now. There is more than one senate democrat who could change positions on certain policies. On the other hand If Biden does not know about how the Senate works then no-one does

Moyhu on both climate and Stats

 This is dated but this is a good article about using anomalies not average absolute temperatures.

how-averaging-absolute-temperatures

As an added bonus we have 

templs-global-surface-2020-just-cooler-than-2016

The Indians have a point

 The Indian cricket team have apparently made it clear they do not want to play a test in Brisbane when they must live under quarantine conditions for 14 days.

I think they have a point.

They had a 14 day period in Dubai which was not recognised and then a further 14 days in Australia and now they are being told they have to do a further 14 days.

What should have been done was to play two tests in either Melbourne or Brisbane,  The Hobart pitch has been one of the better pitches as well. The MCG pitch was a bewdy in the 2nd test. The SCG pitch which has been poor in recent years will have had little time to prepare given the consistent rain we have had.

What is it about Democracy some Republicans do not like

 Okay new year and all that. The USA had a Presidential election. Biden won easily. Trump has said Fraud was involved.

Yeah I know it makes nonsense to win the Presidency by fraud but completely ignore the senate and the house but whoever said Trump had brains. We should also note a lot of allegations do not make it to court because of the lack of any evidence at all.

We now have evidence Trump is clearly attempting to subvert democracy.  We have a small minority of Republican senators and house members willing to vote against what the Electoral college has certified.

Dubbing the media fake news simply gave dictators and would be dictators the perfect excuse to clamp down on the media. Subverting the democratic process simply shows the same people what to do to say in power illegally.

They are doing this in the USA the home of democracy why can we not do it here would be the refrain.

It is disgraceful this is occurring at all!