The first Newspoll of the year has caused Labor to take a knock on the BludgerTrack poll aggregate, helped along a little by a softer result from Morgan. Newspoll has also driven up the Greens, whose breakthrough into double figures softens a shift from Labor to Coalition on the primary vote to a 0.8% movement on two-party preferred. That translates into a solid six-point change on the seat projection, which is now back to hung parliament territory. Taking into account Labor’s still solid lead on the two-party result, this demonstrates the height of the bar the BludgerTrack model sets for Labor in making it to an absolute majority, mostly on account of sophomore surge effects in the decisive marginal seats. On the state breakdowns, the Coalition recovers one seat each in Victoria and Tasmania and four in Queensland. The latter is down to the publication of a Galaxy poll of federal voting intention in Queensland from yesterday’s Courier-Mail, which I have thus far failed to comment on. The poll of 800 respondents showed the Coalition with a 52-48 lead – a swing of 5% to Labor from the election, and 4% on the previous such poll in November – from primary votes of 41% for the Coalition (down five on the November poll), 33% for Labor (up three), 7% for the Greens (steady), 4% for Katter’s Australian Party (up one) and 11% for the Palmer United Party (up three). It was evident that BludgerTrack had wandered off the reservation for a while there so far as its Queensland projection was concerned, and the addition of this substantial new data point from a high-quality pollster has returned it to where it probably should have been all along.
There are also two new results to feed into the leadership ratings, one being the regular findings from Newspoll and the other the monthly result from Essential Research. Both have landed in exactly the same place after bias adjustments were added, and the effect has been to maintain the downward momentum for Bill Shorten that emerged when the last numbers were added from Essential Research a month ago. Tony Abbott on the other hand has been in a gentler pattern of decline after the steep fall that followed the Coalition’s polling slip in November, and has a stable lead of slightly below double figures as preferred prime minister. Some good analysis of the leadership ratings is available at the bottom of this post by Kevin Bonham, who previously noted that Shorten’s early ratings were on the mediocre side for a leader new to the job, and now finds similarities with Brendan Nelson and Simon Crean at comparable stages of the game.
As always, full results on the sidebar.
Sprocket’s 1441 interested me. It really is obvious that as China & India increase their standing in the region all other countries will review their relations with each other. And might not take too kindly to the “this is what you’re going to do, sonny” foreign policies our government seeks to inflict on them.
Unfortunately, & without inflating the story of the Chinese vessels, events like this could & no doubt will be used in the short term to bolster Abbott- “look who these bastards are hanging out with now!!”.
My view is that Liberal and Labor are the same in that they both support the same framework for society, the “neo-liberal settlement”. This has been the case since Hawke. The parties differ in that Labor makes more effort to cushion at least some sections of society from the effects of the underlying policy, and Labor still occasionally comes up with a good idea, such as the NBN. As good neoliberals they have promised to sell it as soon as it is making a profit, but at least they are willing to make some interventions in the market in the national interest. The Liberals seem to have lacked any originality or vision for decades, and their present leader, Mr. “Shit Happens”, is their most laissez-faire ever. These differences are worth having, and I do not agree with those who advocate not voting or voting informal. Put another way, given a choice between a pig with or a pig without lipstick, I think it is worth choosing the former, and hopefully encouraging more lipstick and less pig in future.
Generally speaking the ALP and Liberal Parties are difference but the reasons why senior politicians seem to be alike has more to do with several circumstances.
-Many politicians come from the same professional background thus have the same university qualifications and similar life experiences
-The same public servants and professionals advise government which brings an element of sameness
Generally both parties are committed to building a stronger economy and society but have difference views on how to achieve it
They or more importantly their departments take advice from pretty much the same group of stakeholders
Does any one have a reference regarding how they clean the “mirrors” at a solar power station.
I was listening to the BBC last night and they were talking about a meeting of scientists to consider the building of a successor to the Large Hadron Collider.
The Hadron Collider has a 27Km circular tunnel and to build it required the removal of something like 100 million cubic metres of rock and took many years. The next one will be a 100Km circular tunnel and will require the removal of several times as much rock, maybe 500 million cubic metres or more and probably take 10 or more years to build.
I mention these statistics by way of providing some perspective for the latest volcanic eruption in Indonesia.
In the space of just a few days, it has blasted 800 million cubic metres of ash and rock into the atmosphere!
How awesome is nature.
Hi ‘fess
Another Perth question for you: how is it possible that 2 (two) beers, from the tap, at the public bar, one of them a light, can cost $27.00??
According to Joe Hockey, the Age of Entitlement is over.
However, in the race to get his, and his mates’, snouts in the trough, there’s still a lot of mileage left.
Sing along with Joe as he rubs the proles’ noses in it. Cue: “Enlightenment” by Van Morrison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWjh6I9T8Ao
Shiny tins
Penalty rates
That’s the sound of loose change jingling
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
:- )
Every second, every minute
We keep charging to something different
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
AS the French say, “bon attachment…
Bon attachment…bon attachment…”
:- )
We’re in the here and now, and we’re salivating
Ordered too much Moet – what a nice problem!
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
:- )
Drink up!
:- )
Entitlement means a lot of quaffing
Quaffing to extreme
Everything’s on the table
Claim for everything
:- )
Bad or worse plebbies
You can’t change it which way you want
You can’t rearrange it
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
:- )
Shiny tins
Penalty rates
That’s the sound of loose change jingling
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
:- )
All around prolies you can see
We’re grabbing our own gratuities everyday because
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
:- )
One more perk!
:- )
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
We’re on the screw
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
We’re on the screw everyday
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
We’re always on the screw
Entitlement, you don’t know what it is
While we’re on the make, here’s a big lump of wood to hew
Ratsars
At night?
Ratsars
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/how-do-you-clean-258048-solar-thermal-mirrors-trucks-with-robot-arms
See also the PARIS autonomous mirror cleaning system at http://www.sener.es
[Does any one have a reference regarding how they clean the “mirrors” at a solar power station.]
They would have to clean them so they don’t scratch them
Mirrors in large astronomical telescopes are routinely cleaned with liquid CO2.
When sprayed through the proper nozzle the liquid solidifies into tiny dry ice crystals at supersonic temperatures and blasts dust and grit off.
But that’s probably too expensive for thousands of mirrors in a solar farm.
Probably simple washing would suffice, although under pressure.
Grit is the problem outdoors. You have to find a way to blast it off without redistributing it (and hence scratching the surface).
Waterblasting with a weak detergent solution would do the trick. Same as cleaning your car.
Grease is a lesser problem outdoors. The detergent in the water blast may suffice to remove it if the penetrating power is strong enough and the surface is left to wet sufficiently.
The key thing to avoid is a buildup of scratches. I clean optics designed to have powerful, collimated beams pass through them (hence showing every scratch and speck of dust, down to microns in size if not cleaned properly).
I read somewhere recently that instead of having a complicated, cumbersome and expensive macro-mechanism for tilting mirrors in a solar farm, some pleaces are now using robots that roll along a rail in front of the mirrors, individually adjusting and tilting each mirror, but doing it so quickly that there is little or no loss of efficiency.
I blast grit off with high pressure air (800 psi) then wipe g_e_n_t_l_y with a volatile solvent that doesn’t evaporate too quickly, applied to a kind of absorbent “windscreen wiper”.
There’s a whole technique to it. The aim is to leave the surface completely dry, immediately. Any droplets – volatile or water-based – that dry in the air will leave marks.
Still doesn’t answer your question, though, does it?
Maybe they use feather dusters?
Closing the Gap Abbott style.
[Glaring pay gap as Aboriginal bureaucrats brought into Prime Minister’s department
Hundreds of Aboriginal public servants drafted into Tony Abbott’s department to help “close the gap” are being paid up to $19,000 less than their new white colleagues doing the same jobs.]
http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/glaring-pay-gap-as-aboriginal-bureaucrats-brought-into-prime-ministers-department-20140214-32rpb.html
Read Bob Ellis remarkable venom on Abbbot and his team
womderful stuff
http://www.ellistabletalk.com/
bemused @1447
I have been out and just saw your post – it is just so very sad.
My hope is that someone tries to really tackle the Mental Health system and that Vic Police have their computer fixed.
With Calibre: I do not read ebooks myself but am involved for she who must be obeyed. Via torrents, I look for the authors or book’s name she wants, any format, from there I have not found a format that cannot be brought into Kindle Paper White and there are quite a number I do have to convert.
Confessions,if you are an avid reader, you will need it!
MP
[My view is that Liberal and Labor are the same in that they both support the same framework for society, the “neo-liberal settlement”.]
I’d probably use different language but I suspect you and I would be speaking of similar things.
[ This has been the case since Hawke.]
Then again, perhaps not. The ALP has always been a party in favour of Australian capitalism. What that entailed has changed somewhat over time.
[These differences are worth having, and I do not agree with those who advocate not voting or voting informal. ]
I would agree that some of the differences distinguish ALP rule positively from LNP rule. The trouble is that the package as a whole is extremely costly to the future of left of centre mobilisation and that these sops are neither of our design nor enforceable over time. They are available only to the extent that the left stays silent on the really nasty or subversive things the ALP is doing. It’s a totally passive model of politics that throws the initiative to those opposing equity, both inside and outside the ALP. That’s not politically sustainable.
[Put another way, given a choice between a pig with or a pig without lipstick, I think it is worth choosing the former, and hopefully encouraging more lipstick and less pig in future.]
Really? You do know that in the classic metaphor, the lipstick is a mere adornment intended to disguise the underlying repulsive animal? More adornment is of no substantive value.
NB: I don’t find pigs repulsive. Too long for this post, but the bad rap pigs get is really about the valorisation of urban over rural life. Pigs are no less worthy than dogs.
BB
Perhaps they use this sort of glass.
[Self-cleaning glass is a specific type of glass with a surface which keeps itself free of dirt and grime.
Titania (titanium dioxide) has become the material of choice for self-cleaning windows, and hydrophilic self-cleaning surfaces in general, …., inexpensive, relatively easy to handle and deposit into thin films and is an established household chemical that is used as a pigment in cosmetics and paint and as a food additive.
The mechanism
The anatase phase is the most photocatalytic among its polymorphic structures. Moreover, ultraviolet irradiation creates surface oxygen vacancies at bridging sites, resulting in the conversion of relevant Ti4+ sites to Ti3+ sites which are favourable for dissociative water adsorption. These defects presumably influence the affinity to chemisorbed water of their surrounding sites, forming hydrophilic domains, whereas the rest of the surface remains oleophilic. Hydrophilic domains are areas where dissociative water is adsorbed, associated with oxygen vacancies that are preferentially photogenerated along the direction of the plane; the same direction in which oxygen bridging sites align.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-cleaning_glass
ReachTEL Tasmanian poll post:
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2014/02/15/reachtel-liberal-47-labor-25-greens-17-in-tasmania/
Sounds expensive.
And no matter what ANYONE says, you still have to clean glass from time to time. It picks up all kinds of grunge eventually.
Pro-War demonstrations…YES Pro-war
_____________________
In Israel Right-wing students have started a series of marches emphasising their opposition to any compromise with the Palestinians and supportinmg more settlements in the West Bank..and more wars if needed
YES MORE WARS…and showing their hostility to Obama and Kerry
there’s an old saying ”
Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad ”
seems about right for the Israelis
Right wing students in Israel demonstrate against peace
http://news.antiwar.com/2014/02/13/thousands-of-israeli-teens-protest-against-peace/
Fran Barlow @ 1459
Thanks for that.
However I have found a reference to that new Solar Power plant where it was all done by robotics and only required 1 person.
I guess that his is a good example of “progress” coming from investment and a mandatory renewable energy target.
Yes Pipe Fitter # @ 1458 it is done at night. Thanks
For your reference here is the URL I used
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/solar-on-a-grand-scale-big-power-plants-coming-online-in-the-west/2014/01/16/80d68182-68fc-11e3-ae56-22de072140a2_story.html
It is towards the end and is in a small paragraph.
One again thanks for your efforts.
As you most likely guess I am having trouble convincing a climate change denier (as well as a renewable energy denier) of the value of renewable energy.
This little bit of information should give him something to think about.
It says “Robotic devices, controlled by a single person, traverse the rows of heliostats, cleaning the mirrors every couple of months, usually at night, Desmond said. Bright Source, which created the machines, won’t show them publicly.”
There are also projects aimed at developing transparent electro-dynamic films that will repel particulate and even attempts to use different light wavelengths in concert to create “perfect mirrors”. This latter is being worked on mainly with lasers in mind but should have application in concentrating solar as well.
This stuff looks like a “go”…
Shine On… a nanoparticle spray that fills the microscopic pits and scratches in glass…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgvEsSbxly4
MTBW@1463
A good start to fix the Mental Health system would be to arrest the senior management and hold them accountable for hundreds of deaths. But it won’t happen.
Dr Jean Lennane has written a fair bit about it and seems to draw at least some of her inspiration from Dr E. Fuller Torrey of the Treatment advocacy Centre in the US.
The right won’t support fixing it because it costs money and much of the left is in the thrall of mad libertarians who assert the patients right to liberty from treatment. They won’t fix it either.
Bushfire Bill @# 1460
Thanks for you contribution and the effort you put into that post.
For an update please see 1471
Ratsars
[and a mandatory renewable energy target.]
Worked for the car industry where fuel consumption and emission levels were mandated and progressively lowered. Weeping and wailing from the car companies each time but they still manage to meet the targets.
pom@1464
Agree wholeheartedly.
My only issue is that the update notifications I get take me to Source Forge where I can only download the 32 biit version.
So I go here: http://calibre-ebook.com/ where I can download the Windows 64 bit version or any other version.
Just downloaded and installed ver 1.24.0.
There’s a YouTube video of one such automated system. Still trying to work out how to use the iPad to copy the URL of a clip.
Deniers generally aren’t interested in evidence but FTR the efficiency of concentrating solar remains high enough for commercial use even when significantly coated in particulate, so it’s not a huge problem.
Perhaps you could ask the denier to explain how one should go about assessing the value of the ecosystem on the only planet in the known universe that supports life. You might ask the denier how much current assets would be worth in a seriously degraded ecosystem. Does the denier think there’s a non-arbitrary way to work out whether there’s a business case for letting him/her continue to breathe the air?
Ask not whether renewables are worth it. Ask whether life is.
bemused
Dr Jean Lennane lived in Balmain when I was working in the Port Jackson electorate you might like to read this:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA19921124022
[Yes that is a slightly alarming turn of events. Possibly NOT for us, but I rather expect that the US may give Abbott and co a rocket up their backsides. If our rudeness has helped push Indonesia toward the Chinese camp, the Yanks will be wetting their undies. Indonesia and Malaysia are key “friendlies” for the USA, given their China containment strategy.]
I keep waiting for the Govt in Dili to offer the Chinese some kind of basing or visiting arrangement. That would be a signal.
MTBW@1479
Yes, I had previously read that.
I discovered her through a letter she wrote to the SMH and got to know her fairly well.
She is one of the few who tell it like it is.
imacca
If Timor Leste lose the case over the Dolly Downer Dirty Deeds Treaty then I reckon they would be sorely tempted.
poroti @ # 1476
Business will never introduce anything unless it increases their bottom line or they are forced to by Governments.
Evert time government forces business to improve their process they complain about how it affects their bottom line.
However, in most cases, once the new technology or process has been bedded in business find that it improves their bottom line and improves society.
The case you mentioned is a case in point.
imacca – did you choose a VPN?
WiTopia doesn’t look too bad to me.
Bemused, Comrade
I noted that you went to bed fairly early last night!
Is it age catching up with you, or just the effect of a debauched lifestyle!
Ha! Ha! 🙂
[1484
dave
imacca – did you choose a VPN?
WiTopia doesn’t look too bad to me.]
I use Private Internet Access (mainly to get around geoblocking), and they have been good so far.
Fran Barlow @ # 1478
Facts do not register with the deniers. They have opinions which are always right.
So I know the difficulty.
However, if I can just get him to pause a bit I am satisfied.
As an example he once told me that the unemployment figures were wrong because not all those that are unemployed claim the dole.
He kept this up for well over two years in spite of me telling him that the unemployment was constructed using statistical sampling through a servey by the ABS each month.
However, lately he has ceased to use this argument. Maybe not because he accepts it by because of the change in Government for the figures he was using are now too high for him (because Abbott is PM) and is more inclined to accept the ABS figures.
I know it is like hitting ones head against a brick wall but I am not inclined to let him get away with utter bullshit.
I am waiting with more than academic interest to see what the USA do over this looming conflict with Indonesia being confected by Abbott et al.
A single terse explicit rebuttal from the USA of this insanity would isolate the Abbott admin like few other things could, including from a majority of Australian voters, I would strongly suggest, once they realise what the real-world consequences are from this bogus macho posturing.
The Indonesians are playing this one correctly. Giving Abbott as many reasonable and clear warnings and chances as possible to pull back, all which he is ignoring and shitting on. It is playing right into their hands.
Not to mention China’s government and military, who must be creaming their pants over this golden once-in-a-century opportunity to seriously, and perhaps permanently, wedge more-or-less the whole of Asia against us.
Decades of careful and absolutely necessary diplomacy, recklessly and blatantly trashed in less than 6 months, with appalling long term consequences for us and the region. All just to satisfy a psychopathic power-crazed he-man act.
What a complete fuck-up. Australia really has lost its marbles.
Ta, Just Me
Will have a look at them.
There is obviously more to governing than how you spend your budget but about 95% of the budget is the same whether it’s Labor or Liberal. We aren’t talking about big differences in how they spend their money.
Ratsars
[Evert time government forces business to improve their process they complain about how it affects their bottom line.]
Whenever someone says that to me I tell them to eat what they need rather than what they fancy.
😉
psyclaw@1485
I feel like I am being stalked! 😛
Actually, I was up early yesterday to put the wife on a plane so made up for it by going to bed a bit earlier.
I have been looking forward to seeing any reaction from you to my posts on the mental health system and its role in the death of that young boy at Tyabb.
So the Greens are whinging that Labor and Liberal are the same.
Perfectly understandable. Truly no sarcasm.
The Greens are so far to the left that from such a vast distance that far out in space, as they look in, Labor and Liberal will look very close.
Of course, it is complete nonsense in reality. One only needs to examine the policies and values of both major parties to observe their differences.
Just what is it that the Greens truly want?
I really don’t think we should know, it would be too frightening!
The NRL teams are taking the Nines in good fun and spirit.
The Warriors look good to me.
I’d back them if it was serious 😎
Ratsars
[As an example he once told me that the unemployment figures were wrong because not all those that are unemployed claim the dole]
You do realise that the ABS stands for the Australian Bolshevik Society ? No wonder he did not believe them 🙂
dave
https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-that-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2013-edition/
Ratsars
[I know it is like hitting ones head against a brick wall but I am not inclined to let him get away with utter bullshit.]
I find laughing in their faces as if I believed they were doing satire, and saying something like — “you said that as if you were serious. You ought to to stand up. Part of the trick is to keep a straight face and not laugh at your own jokes.”
If they insist they’re serious, you persist. “Ah, you had me going for a minute. You can’t fool me.”
I actually did this with someone for quite a while at a bus stop and he became really quite hostile, at which point I said ..
“Oh wait a minute. I know who that is. You’re doing that ignorant loudmouth on 2GB — what’s his name? Oh I know this … Don’t tell me. … Is it Mike Smith? ”
They really hate that.
Humans share 95% of their DNA with chimpanzees but it does not mean we have to be happy being governed by one.
Just Me 2 # 1488
I think it it already has the potential to be serious.
I read the other day that China is conducting Navel exercises to the west of Indonesia.
Indonesia is not a first world military power but China is. We also know that China is trying to spread it influence especially through Asia.
Now if Indonesia gets really pissed with Abbott and China can see an advantage in getting involved the Australia Navy might find itself butting a few knee-bones in the Chinese Navy and goodness know what would be the effect of that on us and the region.
[Bushfire Bill @# 1460
Thanks for you contribution and the effort you put into that post.
For an update please see 1471]
He! So I was right about the use of robots!
My point was that if you have them running back and forth adjusting mirrors, why not use them to clean mirrors as well?