Sunday 31 January 2021

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.

Thursday 28 January 2021

Around the Traps 29/1/21

 It is time for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

Northern America

Europe

Asia

Wonk

General

Climate

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

Econometrics

Dianne Coyle (quirky+ book reviews)

vox wonk

Wednesday 27 January 2021

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.

Tuesday 26 January 2021

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??

Thursday 21 January 2021

Around the Traps 22/1/21

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

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

Northern America

Europe

Asia

Wonk

General

Climate

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

Econometrics

Dianne Coyle (quirky + book reviews)

Vox wonk

Tuesday 19 January 2021

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.

Monday 18 January 2021

Sunday 17 January 2021

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

Thursday 14 January 2021

Around the Traps 15/1/21

 It is time again for Around the Traps

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

Northern America

Europe

Asia

Wonk

General

Climate

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

Econometrics

  • nuttin

Dianne Coyle ( quirky +book reviews)

Vox wonk

Wednesday 13 January 2021

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.

Monday 11 January 2021

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!!

Sunday 10 January 2021

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.

Thursday 7 January 2021

Around the Traps 8/1/21

 It is time for Around the Traps

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

Northern America

Europe

Asia

Wonk

General

Climate

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

Econometrics

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

Vox wonk

Wednesday 6 January 2021

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

Tuesday 5 January 2021

Monday 4 January 2021

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.

Sunday 3 January 2021

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!