The Swans imbroglio

 It seems all week we have been hammered by the disgrace of the 6 swan players who went out drinking until the early hours of sunday morning ( after their match) and invited some women back to their hotel. One of the women was sexually touched.

Herein lies the problem of the modern secular society. You can have sex with anyone you want provided there is consent. therein lies the problem. What is consent.? It is a very hard question for society to answer. Is yes yes? Is no really yes? Do you have to verbalise it? Does it apply to marriage and if so what is the point of marriage?

One final point. why do people complain about getting burnt when they are so close to the fire. In this case why would any woman go back to the hotel with the men at such an hour?

In this case if the players were not drunk they were still 'liquored up'. I would have to ask why and again why did they invite the women back to the hotel? My guess is it was not to have a cup of tea. I believe most have girlfriends so were they wanting to cheat on them?

Now since I believe only a husband and wife should have sex I simply do not understand what is going on here. Secular society is all over the place on this.

Also playing professional sport and drinking after the game has a bad history. Again I do not understand the need to get drunk into the wee hours after a game.

Society has a problem here but als no answer

the origins of Covid

 Mehdi Hasan does a great interview with a pro-lableak person and a pro-wuhan markets person.

It is a really interesting view and very informative as well as being civilised!!

Around the Traps 21/8/26

It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Nicholas Gruen on academia-from-inefficient-effectiveness-to-efficient-ineffectiveness 
• Caroline Riches on how-we-can-avoid-interest-rate-rises-and-boost-our-savings-instead Thanks Nick
• Peter Martin on home-truths-about-tax-with-a-nod-to-tom-petty Thanks Nick
• Robert Breunig on a-costly-mistake-new-review-finds-giving-wa-billions-in-extra-gst-was-unfair-to-other-states
• Mona Nikkidehaghani on with-ndis-changes-set-to-pass-heres-who-bears-the-cost-of-making-it-sustainable
• Antony Green on why-australia-doesnt-have-novelty-candidates-like-count-binface
• Patrick Commins on why-rightwing-critics-are-wrong-to-say-the-australian-super-system-is-broken
• Rick Sarre on will-other-states-follow-nsw-into-the-national-gun-buy-back-scheme-and-will-it-make-any-difference
• Ross Gittins on it-s-my-job-to-raise-a-topic-which-neither-side-of-politics-will-mention
• Kate Griffiths on long-awaited-gambling-reform-bill-is-an-improvement-but-does-not-go-nearly-far-enough-to-reduce-harm
• Luca Ittimani and Jonathan Barrett on how-high-will-rents-really-rise-labor-property-tax-reforms 
• Greg Jericho on australias-drop-in-real-wages-is-a-disaster-but-the-profits-of-major-corporations-are-doing-just-fine 
• Sassan Thorp and Scott Donald on when-can-you-access-your-super-early-a-finance-and-a-legal-expert-explain 
• Becky Freeman et al on one-nation-wants-to-cut-the-tobacco-tax-would-that-curb-the-illicit-cigarette-market
• Heather Robinson on how-to-sell-a-genocide-has-been-removed-from-a-library-near-bondi-but-libraries-represent-freedom-of-thought
• Katharina Belt on fertiliser-prices-and-shortages-are-hamstringing-our-farmers-but-we-have-other-options
• Aruna Sathanapathy on one-year-isnt-enough-why-the-government-needs-to-keep-up-the-pace-of-economic-reform
• Antony Green on one-nation-and-its-elected-mps
• Geoffrey Robertson on zomi-frankcom-killing-death-israel-idf

OZ climate

• its-a-commercial-system-and-it-has-a-customer-sodium-ion-battery-sale-hailed-as-a-first-for-australia
  
• australias-biggest-battery-project-slashes-footprint-by-20-pct-as-it-mulls-multi-gigawatt-hour-extension
  
• we-want-more-batteries-nsw-confirms-state-rebate-will-slash-costs-by-up-to-40-pct-on-systems-up-to-30-mwh
  
• were-trying-to-win-a-drag-race-with-the-handbrake-on-here-are-three-reforms-to-deliver-the-energy-transition 
  
• no-ray-hadley-the-collapse-of-zen-does-not-mean-renewables-have-failed-nor-that-more-coal-will-be-burned
  
• the-2-5-billion-wind-project-getting-ready-for-take-off-but-what-about-the-crashed-cessna
  
• its-literally-life-changing-for-us-the-drought-stricken-farmers-looking-to-wind-and-solar-to-secure-their-future
  
• australias-biggest-energy-consumers-are-being-lined-up-to-break-the-wind-drought-in-its-most-coal-dependent-state
  
• what-federal-and-state-rebate-changes-mean-for-ci-solar-and-battery-storage-in-8-charts
  
• significant-shift-batteries-are-capping-electricity-prices-and-helping-to-bust-the-energy-market-cartel
  
• they-are-not-locked-in-anti-renewables-meeting-targets-immigrant-workers-amid-litany-of-wild-claims
  
• do-wind-turbines-make-droughts-worse-a-new-study-says-they-do-not
• prices-have-doubled-farmers-turn-to-wind-and-solar-to-make-fertiliser-and-change-conversation-about-renewables
  
• gas-is-getting-left-behind-as-solar-charghttps://reneweconomy.com.au/gas-is-getting-left-behind-as-solar-charged-batteries-step-in-to-the-breach/ed-batteries-step-in-to-the-breach
  
• Nick Toscano on renewables-are-slashing-power-prices-but-energy-chiefs-fear-it-may-not-last

Northern America

• Brad De Long on the-fed-chair-who-whispers
• Kruggers on vanessa-williamson-on-taxes-and-democracy , demography-deportations-and-the-trump-stall , the-misery-will-continue-until-morale-improves , a-new-level-of-trumpian-evil ,what-are-bond-markets-telling-us, the-case-against-bond-market-panic , scott-bessent-fails-to-gaslight-the-market
• Daniel Egbar on fauci-texts
• David Frum on trump-business-dark-money , democratic-primaries-left-dsa-trump
• Fred Kaplan on trump-south-korea-north-korea-kim-jong-un-iran-war
• Tom Nicholls on trump-iran-korea 
• John Cassidy on selling-fast-access-to-truth-social-posts-a-trump-grift-too-far 
• the conversable economist on welcoming-first-year-students-with-a-wake-up-call , trashed
• Astead Herndon on midterms-actually-electability-question-donald-trump-republicans 
• Marie-Rose Sheinerman on trump-name-on-everything
•  David Cole on close-calls-us-supreme-court-david-cole
• Rebecca Hamilton on trump-administrations-state-power-big-picture
• Jeet Heer on israel-lobby-clifton-lustick-middle-east-us-foreign-policy, trump-uss-lincoln-crisis
• Dylan Scott on data-centers-2026-election-texas-ohio-michigan

Europe

• Irani Skubii on russia-is-cutting-off-ukraines-grain-exports-again-threatening-a-critical-harvest-and-global-food-security
• Anna Nemtsova on russia-ukraine-drone-war-protest
• Joshua Hill on solar-stands-up-during-european-heatwaves-as-nuclear-and-fossil-fuels-stumble 
• mainly macro on signs-of-recovery-in-comparative-uk-economic-growth 
• Speranta Dimutru on ceuta-what-vitoria-would-tell-about-migration
• open mind on englands-hottest-summer
• Simon Schuster on ukraine-moscow-airports-ai-drones

Asia

• institutional economics on japan-as-poster-child-for-market-monetarism
• Donald Rothwell on the-hormuz-toll-iran-wants-and-trump-might-let-slide
• noahpinion on the-end-of-an-era-for-chinas-economy 
• Lynne O'Donnell on the-fragmentation-of-resistance-in-afghanistan 
• Menzie Chinn on guest-contribution-undervaluation-of-asian-currencies
• Amin Saikal on the-taliban-has-brought-afghanistan-close-to-collapse-but-resistance-is-growing
• David Zhang on asia-is-rearming-fast-but-counting-the-wrong-kind-of-military-power 
• Virginie Grelczyk on north-korea-grows-stronger-as-south-korea-reckons-with-fading-us-support
• Ved Shinde on valley-of-flowers-the-dicey-dance-of-development-in-the-himalayas
• Shannon Bosch on can-the-israeli-military-be-trusted-to-investigate-itself-evidence-shows-genuine-accountability-is-rare
• Srijan Shukla on china-risk-returns-in-american-bond-markets

Wonk

• Mark the Graph on weekly-energy-update , privatisation-of-government-businesses-services-and-financing
• noahpinion on 23-low-regret-recommendations-for-AI-policy , economists-should-be-worried-about-birthrates
• Brad De Long on again-more-of-a-refining-crunch-than-a-crude-oil-crunch , the-global-bond-selloff-since-2020 , can-we-sell-equity-financing-of-the-data-centre-buildout-at-a-debt-price , bubble-watching-this-is-what-happens-in-a-time-of-distress
• Henry Yep on how-maps-harden-territorial-claims
• Ananya Rupanagunta on cuba-healthcare-collapse-energy-crisis
• the conversable economist on syntax-often-breaks-down-just-at-the-point-where-a-new-or-significant-meaning-is-beginning-to-break-out
• Chris Dillow on the-politics-of-cher 
• home and away on plane-spoken

General

• Sean Illing on you-cant-have-homer-nietzsche-and-jesus Thanks Nick
• the conversable economist on orwell-it-is-possible-to-be-a-normal-decent-person-and-yet-be-fully-alive
• Ceri Shipton et al on 4-000-year-old-rock-painting-in-indonesia-offers-clues-to-one-of-humanitys-greatest-migrations
• Sven Buder on galactic-archaeologists-find-stars-in-the-milky-way-came-from-another-galaxy-12-billion-years-ago
• Alex Tabarrok on why-arent-modernist-bridges-awful

Climate

• David Appell on climate-denial-killing-still-more-people
• Moyhu on july-global-surface-templs-up-0045-from-june
• Angus Dalton on polar-wildfires-scientists-warn-of-grass-spreading-across-parts-of-the-antarctic 
• Dennis Campbell on extreme-heat-more-dangerous-for-people-60-and-over-than-previously-thought
• Kirsten Zander and Stephen Garnett on extreme-heat-is-altering-when-where-and-how-we-travel-new-research
• skeptical science on raw-data-wrong-answers , new_research

Andrew Gelman (mostly stats)

• inbox-zero-bloglag-365
  
• how-can-america-be-so-miserable-when-its-so-rich
  
• he-wants-to-teach-frequentist-methods-to-engineering-students-with-a-strong-bayesian-background
  
• jamaican-me-crazy-yet-again
  
• modern-day-political-analysis-excellent-demonstrations-of-statistical-workflow-from-elliott-morris-nate-silver-and-eli-mckown-dawson
  
• survey-statistics-modeling-complex-contingency-tables
  
• update-on-a-regression-discontinuity-dispute-some-asynchronous-collaboration 
  
• wh 
  
• why-i-am-so-against-volunteering-in-academia-ecology-edition 
  
• we-couldnt-reproduce-their-findings-and-realized-that-it-was-all-driven-by-weird-data-from-uzbekistan
  
• my-answer-is-no 
  
• here-are-the-talks-from-stancon-2026
  
• the conversable economist on the-generalizability-problem-the-natural-field-experiments-answer
• Kaiser Fung on when-life-calls-for-causal-analysis

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews) 

• Tyler Cowen on that-was-then-this-is-now , what-ive-been-reading
• Joshua Black on paul-kellys-exceptional-history-charts-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-coalition-but-leaves-questions-unanswered
• econjeff on book-felony-review-by-randy-barnett
• 
  

Vox Wonk

• nine-centuries-cultural-change-and-productivity-ideas 
  
• macrofinance-meets-ai-evaluating-alignment-between-llms-and-economists 
  
• firms-slice-global-production-protect-their-knowhow 
  
• comparison-labour-force-participation-trends-euro-area-and-us 
  
• industrial-policy-complementary-markets-lessons-indias-4g-rollout 
  
• how-regulatory-risk-and-expropriation-threats-are-affecting-berlins-housing-market 
  
• europes-productivity-more-dynamic-aggregate-statistics-suggest 
  
• when-statistics-lie-using-satellite-data-track-russias-wartime-economy 
  
• anatomy-censorship-and-propaganda-what-russias-wikipedia-clone-reveals-about 
  
• ais-gains-are-large-and-rising-unevenly-shared
  

A whole bunch of different things without comment

 

I am going to do what the late great Mark Colvin used to do.

• they-are-not-locked-in-anti-renewables-meeting-targets-immigrant-workers-amid-litany-of-wild-claims 
  
• modern-day-political-analysis-excellent-demonstrations-of-statistical-workflow-from-elliott-morris-nate-silver-and-eli-mckown-dawson
  
• what-are-bond-markets-telling-us
  
• why-arent-modernist-bridges-awful 
  
• privatisation-of-government-businesses-services-and financing 
  
• one-nation-wants-to-cut-the-tobacco-tax-would-that-curb-the-illicit-cigarette-market 
  
• long-awaited-gambling-reform-bill-is-an-improvement-but-does-not-go-nearly-far-enough-to-reduce-harm
  
• galactic-archaeologists-find-stars-in-the-milky-way-came-from-another-galaxy-12-billion-years-ago
  
• jon-ossoff-trump-feud
  

More on renewables

 THIS is an amazing article. I didn't realise for example our costs on solar power are lower than almost anywhere else.

As a bonus how farmers benefit from solar and wind.

Test Cricket

 Well what a test. I watched Bangladesh beat Pakistan in Bangladesh and they were impressive. They clearly had the fastest opening bowlers in the world. One could bowl over 150k and the other could reach 145k. Alas both were injured for this series so I thought this series would be boring.

Golly gosh I was wrong. They were disciplined in bowling and batting. Bowlers who bowl around 130k can do more with a kookaburra on the pitch than faster bowlers. Our pitches now seam more than pommy pitches!

Thus bowling a good line and making the ball nibble just a bit put our batsmen under pressure and they do not react well to pressure. Their batsmen then put pressure on our bowlers. They deservedly won and won very well.

How worried should we be?  The bowlers merely looked like they were not match fit and should be better for the run. Neither cumins nor hazelwood were much faster than the bengalis. Was this because of the match or is this age? They and Starc looked buggered. Lyon hasn't played for a while and that is how he bowled. They are all old and it takes longer to get match fit when you get older.

Our batting repeated a trend. It is highly suspect against a disciplined attack. Just remember we will be in South Africa in october which is no time to introduce change. We then play the Kiwis and India. I am not optimistic.

We have an old team and we may just approach a time we have a lot of players retiring which is not a great thing for a team.

Gerard Henderson watch

 I think this maybe the last as I suspect our Gerry has caught the trump cognitive decline.

He always has a go at Turnbull for putting at  risk the large majority Abbott got in his landslide. Hang on why did the liberal right wing approach turnbull to be leader ( under certain conditions .A faustian bargain no less). They did this because they thought they were going to lose and lose badly no less! We must make allowances for Gerry though although has has both a law degree and a PhD he clearly ddot not understand basic stats nor economics for that matter!

He believes that Fauci agreed with Markson on the origins of covid. Err no. Fauci along with most virologists thought it came from wuhan markets BUT did not rule out a lab leak. Indeed in one section of his diary he thought Markson's writing were 'strange'. How did he miss that.

He thinks that it is a load of tosh that Hansson banning certain journalists from  one nation news conferences and gets this thinks Trump is a good example of this! Compare that with Greste and Muller).

He also thinks bolt broke the 'melons story when David Marr claimed sky after dark and the murdoch press said little for 6 weeks. Well last week it was wall to wall in both places after the article by the anti-ALP former japanese ambassador. It wasn't when bolt 'broke' the story. Gerry does not explain this at all.

Remember when Joyce went and at his dog when being interviewed on 7.30. Our Gerry thought that Sarah Ferguson was being hostile by getting him to answer her question.

Our Gerry does not like soft interviews and mention alleged soft interviews on both the ABC and  other TV networks involving the ALP yet he never ever mentions interviews on sky after dark with LNP or one nation people. Our condescending elder appears to be a hypocrite.