Thursday, 20 August 2026

Around the Traps 21/8/26

It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

OZ climate

Northern America

Europe

Asia

Wonk

General

Climate

Andrew Gelman (mostly stats)

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews) 

Vox Wonk

Tuesday, 18 August 2026

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.

Monday, 17 August 2026

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.

Sunday, 16 August 2026

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. 

Saturday, 15 August 2026

Frank Zappa


 

Frank Zappa is not to everyone's taste but he always had a great band. In Sydney he had Norman Gunston ( Garry McDonald) doing mouth harp really well!!!

Thursday, 13 August 2026

Around the Traps 14/8/26

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

OZ Climate

Northern America

Europe

Asia

Wonk

General

Climate

Andrew Gelman (mainly stats)

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews) 

vox wonk