The South Australian Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission has today unveiled its draft redistribution of state electoral boundaries, to take effect when the next election is held on March 20, 2010. South Australian redistributions tend not to be greatly momentous, as they are conducted every term. Their other distinguishing feature is that the commissioners are obliged to meet the demands of "electoral fairness", which they endeavour to achieve through boundaries that will deliver a majority to the side of politics that wins the majority of the two-party preferred vote, assuming a uniform swing. Since Labor won 56.8 per cent of the two-party vote in last year’s election, and the Labor side was deemed to have won 30 of the lower house’s 47 seats (including the independent-held seats of Mitchell and Fisher, more on which shortly), their objective was to produce boundaries in which seven seats on the Labor side would fall in the event of a 6.9 per cent swing.
This of course requires the commissioners to work around the vote for independents and minor parties, which in the South Australian context includes the Nationals. This was done by re-calculating preference distributions in seats that did not produce Labor-versus-Liberal two-party results, so that Labor and Liberal candidates were not eliminated at earlier points in the count. On this basis, the independent-held seats of Mitchell and Fisher respectively produced Labor margins of 14.7 per cent and 8.5 per cent, while Mount Gambier produced a Liberal margin of 6.1 per cent. A re-calculation was also necessary in the Nationals’ sole seat of Chaffey as the final two-party result was between the Nationals and Liberal candidates; it produced a Liberal majority over Labor of 21.9 per cent. The Liberal Party’s submission to the commission argued that Chaffey and Mount Gambier should be treated as Labor seats on the grounds that their members, Karlene Maywald and Rory McEwen, have been part of Mike Rann’s cabinet since the pre-election period when Labor did not have a parliamentary majority. If the commission had agreed to this, it would have been required to bring the margins in two extra Labor seats below the level where a uniform swing would have given the Liberals a two-party preferred majority. Since both seats are overwhelmingly conservative by nature, the commission was quite right to reject this self-serving proposal.
Based on the result of last year’s election, the Liberals would have needed a uniform swing of 9.5 per cent rather than 6.9 per cent to win seven seats and government, so the commissioners needed to cut the Labor margins in Bright (9.5 per cent), Morialta (8.0 per cent) and Newland (6.9 per cent) to bring them below the latter figure. To this end, it has been proposed that Bright move north along the coast to take in North Brighton and the southern part of Somerton Park from the Glenelg-based Liberal seat of Morphett, while the industrial area of Lonsdale and the Labor stronghold of O’Sullivan Beach to the south will be transferred to Kaurna. This has cut the Labor margin by 2.6 per cent, making sitting member Chloe Fox the redistribution’s biggest loser. Morialta combines Labor-voting outer eastern suburbs with lightly populated conservative territory in the Adelaide Hills beyond here the margin has been cut to 6.8 per cent through a transfer at the suburb of Paradise to Hartley in the west, while in the south a stretch of hills territory from Skye east to Basket Range has been added from Bragg and Heysen. Newland, which is immediately to the north of Morialta, has been pulled eastwards into Upper Hermitage, Lower Hermitage and Paracombe by population growth in the outer suburbs, which has done the commission’s job for it by cutting the Labor margin from 6.9 per cent to 5.2 per cent. The Labor members to suffer from these changes are Lindsay Simmons in Morialta and Tom Kenyon in Newland.
Other amendments have been driven by changes in the population distribution, and are only of political interest at the bottom end of the pendulum. The eastern inner-city seat of Norwood, which produced a markedly below-average swing to Labor at the election, has expanded south-eastwards to take Kensington from the safe Liberal seat of Bragg, cutting the Labor margin by a potentially significant 0.6 per cent. There is better news for Labor in Hartley, where Grace Portolesi defeated Liberal member Joe Scalzi last year. The aforementioned transfer at Paradise from Morialta has expanded the electorate’s Labor-voting northern end, while a part of the Liberal-voting southern end at Kensington Gardens will now be wasted for the Liberals in Bragg. The Gawler-based seat of Light, won for Labor at last year’s election by Tony Piccolo with a margin of 2.6 per cent, has been trimmed in three places due to population growth, adding 0.2 per cent to the Labor margin. The other significant marginals, Liberal-held Stuart and Labor-held Mawson, have respectively been changed very little and not at all.
These proposals will now go through a public consultation process, for which the deadline for submissions is 5pm on Monday, February 26.
UPDATE: Greg Kelton from The Advertiser’s take on this is that "Labor’s chances of staying in power at the 2010 state election have been bolstered by changes to electoral boundaries". Further, a "senior Labor source" is quoted describing the redistribution as "a disaster for the Liberals". This conclusion is reached mostly on the basis that Liberal MP Graham Gunn’s seat of Stuart has been made "even more marginal", and is thus "almost certain to go to Labor" when he takes his personal vote into retirement with him at the next election. This highlights a source of confusion that I had glossed over in the above post. Appendix 9 of the draft report tells us that these supposedly calamitous changes to Stuart affect a grand total of 33 voters, in Oodnadatta and William Creek. However, Appendix 11 tells us that the margin in Stuart has indeed been cut from 0.7 per cent to 0.4 per cent. Similarly, other seats that are mooted as being unchanged in Appendix 9 Mawson, for example are listed with altered margins two appendices later (Mawson having gone from 2.3 per cent to 2.7 per cent). Unless someone can explain this to me in the next few days, I will attempt to get an explanation from the State Electoral Office on Monday.
FURTHER UPDATE: Antony Green (who else?) has the answers in comments. It turns out that the commissioners must go so far as to project the electoral impact of population trends over the next three years in calculating a "fair" outcome (which in this case go against the grain of the last election, when the Liberal vote held up remarkably well in Stuart). So Kelton is wrong to say the redistribution has significantly harmed the Liberals in Stuart. Antony makes another point that occurred to me: this system punishes marginal seat holders who do their job well and build up a personal following by taking their gains away from them, the very popular Chloe Fox being a case in point.
Also from Greg Kelton comes an opinion piece reporting a "strong feeling among political observers" that "the time has come for a new system". This is a defensible proposition as far as it goes, but most of the assertions that follow are head-scratchers of one type or another. To deal with them in turn:
The present system of redistributions following each election is "resulting in many MPs not living within their respective electorates or having to change addresses every three years". This sounds at best like an exaggeration. The current redistribution affects about 60,000 out of a little over 1 million voters, or 5.7 per cent of the total. On this basis, the likelihood is that two or three sitting members will be moved a very short distance out of the electorates they represent. If party rules make this a problem (there is no law demanding that MPs live in their own electorates), they should probably be relaxed.
The "consensus" is that the Electoral Reform Society’s proposal for seven multi-member electorates chosen by proportional representation "would be much fairer". Coming from anyone other than The Advertiser, this assertion would not cause my eyebrows to raise quite so. But this is the paper which in November 2005 editorialised in favour of abolition of the upper house, saying those who believed in "checks and balances, particularly in the form of minor parties and independents" were suffering a "fundamental misunderstanding of the strength of our democratic system", having failed to notice that elections were held every four years. It now proposes that those checks and balances be duplicated in the other chamber.
Under such a system, "boundaries would not have to be redrawn after each election". Why ever not? The capital’s share of the state’s total population will continue to grow, and that of remote areas will continue to decline. It would accordingly be necessary to redraw the boundaries of the proposed seven regions so equality of representation was maintained.
"A Liberal voter who lives in Treasurer Kevin Foley’s electorate of Port Adelaide might as well not bother voting because he has no chance of getting a Liberal candidate up in the area. The same applies to a Labor voter in the safe eastern suburbs seat of Bragg". This is at best partly true, so long as those voters also have an upper house to elect. Furthermore, complacent, corrupt or incompetent members in safe seats can be dumped in favour of independents. The threat of this occurring gives members an incentive to observe minimum standards of performance, and parties to withdraw endorsement from those who fail to meet them.
"The major parties oppose multi-member electorates because it would end the system of putting party loyalists into Parliament and it would give minor parties a much better chance of winning seats". South Australia’s upper house, which the aforementioned Advertiser editorial told us was "a haven for underperformers, union hacks and those gripped with the politics of self-delusion and self-importance", is elected from just such a system. In fairness though, the Electoral Reform Society model under discussion proposes rotating ballot papers that would avoid the problem of unloseable positions for party favourites at the top of the ticket, although Kelton neglects to explain this (presumably being mindful of the need to avoiding boring his readers senseless with technical minutiae of the type that is the Poll Bludger’s stock in trade). It would however create a more complex voting system and a sharp upturn in the informal vote.
48 comments on “Drawing the lines”
William, thanks for your analysis of the SA redistribution, it didn’t even make SA’s news today! The redistribution is particularly boring, as they usually are given, as you say, the distributions happen so often (and may I change that phrase to ‘ridiculously often’!) I live in Bright, the seat to have the ‘biggest loser’ in Chloe Fox. This used to be a fairly safe Liberal seat but suffered a massive 15% swing at the last election. I doubt the reduction will really worry Fox that much. The other changes are boring and only the slight change in Norwood has any potential of causing Labor a problem at the next election (which is quite a while away!)
I always find it fun to look at the submissions from Liberal and Labor, which always seem to be devoid of consultation from anyone who lives in the relative electorates, or has some concept of where they are.
This time Labor did better, they recommended moving a suburb, which is 5 minutes drive out of my electorate, into the neighbouring electorate, which it is already in. This compares well to the Liberals who recommended moving a suburb which is ten minutes drive out of my electorate into another electorate and then later recommended moving it from the electorate they just moved it into, to another electorate, which is in fact where it has always been
William, the processes used by the S.A. Boundaries Commission to try ensure fair boundaries is weirder than people realise. After nearly two decades of practice, they even take into account changes in population in trying to predict what the margin will be at the next election. They don’t just re-allocate results and add them up to produce margins. They estimate what change in population in different parts of the electorate will have on the margin at the next election. So a seat like Stuart where they predict continuing decline in conservative voting rural population may end up seeing its estimated margin decline, even if the boundaries of the seat are relatively unchanged.
This sort of madness is all a consequence of the clause that forces the Boundaries Commission to take ‘fairness’ between the parties into consideration in drawing boundaries, and why no one else has followed the S.A. example.
I’d also make the point that in recent years, the boundaries would have been left untouched by redistributions were it not for the fairness clause. Population shifts in between elections have been relatively minor in South Australia, and all the changes to boundaries have been nips and tucks at the edges to try and engineeer an even spread of districts on the electoral pendulum. In particular, the process tends to mean that any local MP with a personal following tends to get their margin whittled back at the subsequent redistribution. e.g. Liberal Michael Armitage in Adelaide in the 1990s was constantly having new Labor voting areas added to his electorate in a deliberate decision by the Commission to make his seat more marginal so that the fairness criteria could be met.
The whole ‘fairness clause’ thing seems silly to me. Whose idea was it, and are there any significant moves to abolish it?
I don’t think the fairness clause was a silly idea originally – remember it was introduced at a time when it was not uncommon for state electorate boundaries to be rigged outrageously. However, it has created problems that were presumably not predicted, and gerrymanders are now a thing of the past.
It needs to go. I imagine the only reason it has been kept is that both parties are scared of removing legislation calling for “fair boundaries” as people will think they are pushing for unfair boundaries. However, we have seen at federal level how uninterested people are in electoral changes that really are designed to make the results undemocratic, so I don’t think Rann should worry too much about a backlash.
The fairness clause was introduced after the 1989 election when the Liberals got 52% of the 2pp but failed to win the election. However it didn’t fail to stop Labor again winning in 2002 with only 48.5% (and nearly in 1997 with 47-something. The Liberals won the 2PP in all four elections prior to the most recent one – but only won government in two of them (1993 & 1997) – hardly a fair result and ample justification for the fairnes clause. Even if it dosent always work, as in 2002, surely its better than nothing. If it wasn’t implemented now, the Libs would require nearly 53% of the 2PP to win in 2010.
I would suggest there is a demographic bias against the Liberals in SA due to the strong concentration of Liberal voters in ultra-safe country seats.
The same thing happens in other states – ironically I believe the rural weighting practiced in Qld & WA actualy served to balance this out leading to overall fair boundaries (in terms of 2PP but not in terms of representation)…. Goss won (initially) in 1995 with just 46% of the 2PP on the one-vote one value boundaries.
In NSW it is the Libs concentration on the North Shore, rather than the countryside which works against them.
In Victoria the situation was reversed because the ALP piled on massive majorities in the north & western suburbs. This was the reason they could never win the Legislative Council. In the assembly the smaller size of electorates made it easier as they could win some pockets in the Eastern suburbs and country. In the council these pockets were smothered by the surrounding conservative areas due to the larger electorate sizes.
Surely other states should consider the SA method, which is world-leading.
If we are going to continue with single member electorates in the houses that determine government then we should have S.A. style provisions so democracy is at least aimed at getting the result the voters voted for.
Better still have PR.
Rural weighting never helped the Libs in Qld.
It was put in by Labor in the second half of the 40`s to work against the Queensland People`s Party then the Libs. It did this job well.
But Labor in Qld split in `57 and in the election of that year they lost and the Coalition took power with the the Nats getting less votes but more seats so being the senior coalition partner.
I doubt the weighting in Qld had the systemic impact suggested above as since 1992 there have been 5 weighted seats, of which the ALP has won 2 at each election (except for the 2001 election in which it won 3) with the complement won by the Nats. If weightage didn’t exist, there would probably be four seats instead of five, and it’s possible that the seat based on Mt Isa might have been National instead of Labor as it has been, but it’s a bit hard to say. (In early 1996 some state Labor MPs suggested to me that Mt Isa would indeed have been a Nat seat and that Matt Foley had been thinking about drawing up legislation to remove the provision for weightage before they were tossed out of govt.)
The 1995 Qld election was unusual – Labor held some marginal seats like Maryborough, Hervey Bay and Whitsunday and lost a chunk of its middle class Brisbane vote. The fact it won a majority of seats doesn’t mean that there was overall “bias” in the boundaries – in the last few decades, the “wrong” result has only happened once, in 1995, which was “corrected” at the Mundingburra re-election. The 1998 election had a different kind of result where a two-party-preferred vote wasn’t very meaningful.
The “wrong” outcome comes about as these are single member electorate elections. The only way to ensure that a majority in the chamber reflects a majority of votes cast is to have the state as one electorate.
The fairness provision was entrenched in the SA Constitution by a referendum. It can only be removed by a referendum.
I believe that political fairness should be allowed as a consideration by boundaries commissions. The problem everywhere else is that fairness is not a criteria for drawing boundaries, after quota requirements the main criteria being ‘community of interest’, an entirely subjective criteria. This prevents any real discussion of the political impact of electoral boundaries, despite the fact that parties put in very partisan political boundary submissions, dressed up in a few fig-leaves of community of interest justification.
The problem in South Australia was that instead of allowing political fairness to be a criteria, they made it the overwhelming criteria and were very specific about how it should be measured. Now that no-one is happy with the formula and how its interpretation has developed, it can only be changed by a referendum. Such are the problems of being too specific in constitutions.
Kelton’s piece in The Advertiser is the usual filler we get in our state’s only newspaper. Uninteresting and largely meaningless.
His comments about Stuart are essentially baseless. Graham Gunn, the sitting Liberal member clearly has a massive personal vote. On the figures of the last election we could calculate that this personal vote is worth at least 6% (an average swing of about 8% occured against the Libs, while Gunn’s marginal seat dropped by about 2%) and the boundaries were changed or not. The result in the 2010 election is likely to be similar to that experienced by the Nats in Keppel in the 2004 Queensland state election (a very popular sitting member retired and the seat was lost to Labor).
Kelton’s most ridiculous comment came in the last paragraph of his opinion piece. He writes:
‘The major parties oppose multi-member electorates because it would end the system of putting party loyalists into Parliament and it would give minor parties a much better chance of winning seats.’
Why is this the case? It would surely be easier for the major parties to get their loyalists and hacks into parliament in a multi-member system where voter-MP relationships are diminished by each elector having 7 MPs to choose from (similar to the federal senate). In multi-member electorates the party draws up lists of candidates and would surely just put their most ‘loyal’ hacks at the top, parachuting them straight into parliament. In single member electorates this is less likely to happen as voters identify with a single candidate from each party, are more likely to know about his/her background and negative campaigns regarding ‘career politicians’ are more likely to gain momentum. Kelton’s comments make no sense to me.
Dave, Kelton’s final paragraph is defensible when you consider that he is talking about the submission of the Electoral Reform Society, which proposes the “Robson’s rotation” system of rotating ballot papers that operates in Tasmania and the ACT. There are no “party lists” under this system – each candidate appears at the top of as many ballot papers as each other candidate, so that party candidates are required to compete with each other for voter support. He would have made more sense if he had mentioned this, but I’m inclined to go easy on him as he has sub-editors and his readers’ short attention spans to contend with.
No reason to not have party lists in PR. Allow above the line voting for people who don’t care about candidates and treat their vote with respect to candidates from a given party as a donkey vote down the (randomly rotated) list for that party. That makes it easier for morons to vote formally without handing undue power to party machines.
That’s a really good idea, Quentin. I’d never thought of that.
Contra Antony: what does “fairness” mean? That every party should receive the same percentage of seats as it polls percentage of the vote? No system of single-member seats can do that. Even under the SA system it would be possible for a party to win 51% of seats with 25% of the vote, or 100% of seats with 51% of the vote. Single-member systems cannot be forced to deliver proportionality.
If SA voters want proportionality, they should adopt PR. And why is “fairness” confined to the large parties? Small parties have no better access to the lower house than they have in NSW or Vic.
The SA legislation is in my opinion the most pernicious electoral law in Australia, since it FORCES the commissioners to gerrymander the boundaries, according to their OPINIONS about how specific seats will vote. It is a standing temptation to corruption.
Finally, “fairness” cannot be the only criterion for judging the utility of an electoral system. What about delivering stable and effective gopvernment? The single-member system, despite its obvious faults, has the virtue of nearly always delivering a stable majority to the leading party. The SA law weakens that feature, thus undermining an existing virtue in pursuit of an unattainable objective.
“On this basis, the likelihood is that two or three sitting members will be moved a very short distance out of the electorates they represent. If party rules make this a problem (there is no law demanding that MPs live in their own electorates), they should probably be relaxed.”
Ha ha ha!
Parties forcing people to live in their electorates? Yeah, right!
Doesn’t SA Premier Mike Rann live in Norwood, while representing ” rel=”nofollow”>Ramsay, about 20 km away in Salisbury?
Adam, I’m not arguing for fairness. South Australia shows the problem of what happens when you try to institute a mathematically measure of ‘fairness’. But the politics of electoral boundaries and the impact they have on seats/votes ratios should be open for discussion in Boundaries Commissions, not banned as it is in most states. Party submissions are always about trying to fiddle advantage by locking up opponent’s votes in ultra-safe seats. As you can’t discuss the politics of electoral boundaries in boundary commission hearings, debate about this is always conducted in obtuse arguments about the meaning of community of interest.
South Australia is a case in point. Labor used to argue that Port Augusta and Port Pirie had a strong community of interest. Before the fairness clause was introduced, they were kept together in one seat, producing one of only two safe Labor seats outside of Adelaide. After the fairness provision was introduced, the two cities were separated and included with surrounding rural areas, resulting in two marginal Liberal seats. That one change undid most of the ‘fairness’ problem in South Australia, and could have been achieved without the overkill of the fairness provision that was adopted.
In NSW and Queensland, where you get areas with odd mixes of mining towns and rural communities, where you draw the boundaries can produce extremely different results. And certainly from my experience of NSW state redistributions, the parties take every opportunity to gain political advantage, even though their entire submissions are written in the language of community of interest.
If you get a chance, get hold of my new book (well, I’m one of the editors), “The Electoral Atlas of NSW”, which charts the development of NSW electoral boundaries since 1856. It has 21 chapters, one for each redistribution, includes theme maps coloured by party for every election since 1891, text explaining the politcis of each era, and lots of pictures. It includes an introductory essay on the development of the electoral system, and for the first time makes available the state’s electoral boundaries when Queensland still elected members to the NSW parliament. All in a coffe-table size book on glossy paper. Good value at $85. Call the NSW Lands Department in Bathurst on 02 6332 8200 and ask for map sales. Fantastic background for the state election.
I’m currently working on the database behind the atlas which contains results of every election since 1856. I’ve spent most of this last week double checking the names and party affiliations for the 1889 and 1891 elections. All general election results up to 1894 had to be obtained from newspaper searches, as did by-elections up until 1920. I think i’ve consulted around 100 regional NSW papers in this search. How people ever read these old newspapers set in 6pt and 8pt type before electric light I don’t know.
Antony: I sympathise. I spent a lot of time a few years ago looking at C19th Victorian election reports in the Age and Argus. Not only are they illegible (especially on blurry microfilm), they are also scattered all over the paper with no headlines to guide the searcher. Plus of course old newspapers are endlessly distracting.
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I’d only heard about the SA model in passing, so I’m quite surprised, and I find it a bit jarring. I think there is something fundamentally wrong in drawing electoral boundaries which consider how people have voted. While the intention may be to create electoral fairness, it seems to have a lot in common with old-style gerrymandering: ie. creating boundaries in order to create a particular result. Election results shouldn’t have a bearing on electoral boundaries.
Not to mention the fact that the electoral pendulum is only an analytical device to give us an idea of what seats might change. While it’s good for that, non-uniform swings mean that it can never be accurate enough to actually be the basis for writing the rules of the game.
Attempting to create “fairness” in a single-member system can never be more than an illusion. Even if it is done as they do in SA, swings will never be uniform, and one party will always do better than another. And in the end, it will still continue to disadvantage minor parties. If you want fairness, the only way to go is for proportional representation.
Well, if you want PROPORTIONALITY, the only way to go is PR, certainly. But “fairness” is a much harder concept to define. Fair to whom? To political parties, to candidates, to voters, to the res publica? There are arguments for and against the single-member system. On balance I prefer it for lower houses, since it usually delivers a stable government acceptable to the majority of voters, and it forces parties to broaden their appeal so they can win a majority of seats, rather than focus on their own narrow constituency and then do deals with other parties after the election, as in the Netherlands or Israel.
I’d argue that the SA concept of electoral fairness can be just as much in opposition to a “stable government” as proportional representation. Distortions in electoral results in the strictly two-party sense (ignoring other parties) generally favour the government, giving it more stable majorities.
It’s interesting while you point out the Netherlands and Israel, the only two countries to use a pure system of proportionality, no-one has seriously proposed that as a model in Australia. Any PR in Australia would either go along the Tasmanian model (although I doubt we’d ever get Robson Rotation on the mainland) or the NZ/German model, with a variation for preference voting.
And the vast majority of long-term PR systems have settled into no more than, say, 5 or 6 parties with a significant influence. New Zealand, which is still in the process of changing it’s party system after 11 years of PR, only has 8 parties.
Germany has five parties, Austria has 5 also. Countries that are still adapting to their system of government, such as eastern European countries or countries like New Zealand which have recently changed, are still settling, but even a country like the Czech Republic only has 5 parliamentary parties.
The ACT is on the mainland and has Robson Rotation.
Yeah that is true. But the ACT introduced it after never having had a majority government, meaning that the political culture is very different to the two-party systems of the mainland states. Also it’s smaller and it was new to self-government. In the developed and stable party structures of the states, there’s no way that either party machine would allow itself to lose that control. That’s at least my experience of NSW and Victoria. Maybe smaller states are more open to something like that.
The main problem with Hare-Clark is that it is a very personal form of voting that places great emphasis on voting for candidates. It works well in Tasmania, with five long established electorates and a quota of around 10,000. It works slightly less well in the ACT where there is no lower tier of local government, and there is also a significant minority of the population whose real concern is Federal politics. You see more people just voting straight down a party ticket in the ACT compared to Tasmania, which is why they had to introduce an even more complex form of randomisation to remove not only the impact of donkey voting, but also to completely randomise ‘linear’ or straight down the ticket votes.
But NSW state electorates average more than 45,000 voters per district. If you introduced 7-member Hare-Clark districts, they would have an enrolment only slightly less than the entire state of Tasmania, and you would only have one seat west of Bathurst.
Hare-Clark is fine for small electorates, but does it make sense when most people are voting on the basis of party? That’s exactly why it is confined to use in small parts of Australia, with similar systems used in Malta and Ireland, both small countries.
Hare-Clark is a fine system, but it is advocated mainly by people who distrust political parties, and it is really best suited to small districts where voters are most likely to know the candidates. That is why it is used in various places for local government. It also gets dismissed in Europe because it is not a proportional system. The more members you elect per seat, the better off you are using more traditional forms of proportional representation.
I reckon that in an ideal world pure Hare-Clark is the best system, but in the real world, I’m happy to see party lists as we have in NSW introduced as part of a PR system. It effectively creates a system of party list voting, with preferences. Just as long as there isn’t ticket voting.
I would have thought advocates of PR would be a little wary of citing the Czech Republic as an exemplar. The Czech system (PR by provincial party lists) has delivered a deadlocked parliament and no government at all for the better part of a year. The deadlock was only broken by the apparently corruptly induced defection of two MPs. Meanwhile, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands all have weak “grand coalition” governments caused by PR election results which failed to give either side of politics a clear majority. “Grand coalitions” are always a sign of systemic failure. They lead to soft-centre compromise governments and allow extreme parties to fill the vacuum caused by there being no official opposition. The more I see of PR and its consequences the less I like it.
Thats probably at least partly because it would hurt the ALP, Adam
With Hare Clarke the voters get to chose which candidates they get elected from the partie(s) they vote for and they can also vote accross party lines.
These are good for democracy because they mean that candidates with good profile get higher votes while the lower profile people get less votes so are less likely to get elected and the ones with bad publicity would drive a significant portion of voters to deliberately put them lower on their preferances.
‘â€œGrand coalitionsâ€ are always a sign of systemic failure. They lead to soft-centre compromise governments and allow extreme parties to fill the vacuum caused by there being no official opposition.’
I don’t entirely disagree but the systemic failure I see is of major parties competing to be the One True Soft-Centre option and preferring to cooperate ‘across the aisle’ rather than form a coalition with minor parties who are are, at least in theory, like-minded.
In the 2005 German election, for instance, the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party won 53% of the seats and could have formed a government. But the SDP *preferred* to go for the soft-centre option and form a coalition with the CDU. They were not compelled to do this by an indecisive result, they chose it.
Politics is a messy business, driven in a large part by individuals’ egos and there’s a lot of unpleasant decisions and compromises to be made. But a failure of political will should not be mistaken for a failure in the electoral system.
No democratic party in Germany will form a coalition with the PDS until it renounces Marxism, as you ought to know. Also you could hardly expect the SPD to go back into government with a treacherous demagogue like Lafontaine. It was actually greatly to Schroeder’s credit, for all his reputation as an opportunist, that he quit politics rather than do so. But this is not really the point. The point is that if Germany had a single-member system, the issue would not have arisen, because the CDU-CSU would have won a narrow majority in their own right.
Adam, the PDS was (is?) a two-term Coalition partner with the SDP in Meckleberg and Berlin, which *you* should know (you are Dr Psephos, yes? Or have I got my Adams confused?) and I don;t know what you’re talking about with Schroeder quitting rather than go into coalition with the PDS, ’cause they’re not in coaltion with the PDS.
The situation with Lafontaine is exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote about ‘individuals’ egos’. You might well say the same thing about Winston Peters in NZ and the various parties and governments he’s stormed in and out of, but as always these are *political* decisions by the leadership of the parties and none of them are definitively better or worse than the alternatives.
With respect, the failure of political will is exactly the cause of political situation you dislike – the rise of the Soft Centre Option. The major parties got pushed into a difficult numerical situation and you don;t like the solution they decided on. Neither do I, but it’s not the fault of the electoral system.
And finally I think claiming that the German situation ‘would not have arisen’ with single member electorates is a pretty long bow to draw. Sure, the CDU/CSU got 40.8% of the constituency vote to the SDP’s 38.4%, but you could only be sure of a CDU win if and only if the seats returned were strictly proportional to the vote received which is, like, the system you’re trying to argue against.
The Czech Republic case has nothing to do with proportional representation. It is simply the case of two sides being deadlocked. It can happen in any Parliament with an even number of seats. It could just as easily happen with 75 ALP seats in the House of Reps and 75 Lib/Nat seats.
But Germany has MMP and therefore has 299 seats elected by first past the post and another 315 members elected by party lists which when combined with the 299 seats creates a proportional result. If you look at just the seats elected by first past the post you get CDU / CSU 150, Green 1, PDS 1, SPD 145 for an Conserative majority of 3. So I think that’s what Adam meant.
Correction: PDS won 3 first vote seats and the would be a CDU/CSU majority of just one, but the point remains the same.
Agree with Ben R. If for only this reason, it may be useful as a general rule to have an odd number of seats in government forming chambers.
Ah, I see. It didn’t occur to me that Adam was also advocating first past the post. Takes all sorts, I suppose ;^)
Still a very long bow, though. Would people vote the same way of they didn’t have the Party List vote? About 1 in 8 people who vote for a major party in the constituency choose a minor party on the list. I don;t know what they’d do, and neither does Adam.
I don’t claim to know what voters in PR countries would do if those countries changed to single-member seats (which is not the same as first-past-the-post, by the way: I am in favour of single-member seats and preferential voting). But I’m prepared to bet that the Knesset, for example, would look rather different – much more conducive to strong and stable government, and much less beholden to fringe parties.
My guess (a reasonably well-informed one) is that the CDU-CSU would have won the German elections comfortably if the Australian system were used. Under the current system, voters know that it doesn’t really matter who wins their local Bundestag seat, because it is their 2nd vote (for the party list) that really counts. If the German election used the Australian system, voters would know that if they wanted to put Schroeder out (as I think they did), they would have to vote against their sitting SPD local member, and therefore would have done so in greater numbers.
At the risk of *totally* derailing this thread into ‘idle speculation about historical Eurpoean election outcomes held under alternate electoral systems’ I’m interested in how you reached that conclusion. If it is the case, as you contend, that Germans know that the Party List vote is the one that ‘really counts’, those results don’t seem to support your guess either. SDP + PDS + GRN = 51%, with a net swing of -0.1%
And I know single-member isn’t the same as first past the post, but Teiresias84’s suggestion was the only way I could see to make sense of your claim that the CDU would have won a narrow victory. Constituency vote SDP + PDS +GRN = 51.8%, again with a net swing of -0.1%.
All figures from Wikipedia (In case anyone hadn’t guessed :^) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election_2005
But would the SDP, PDS and GRN have preferenced each other, anf how tight would those preferences have been?
Electoral systems don’t just change the number of seats each party ends up with, they actually change how people vote. Clearly the US system is particularly bad for the Greens, while in Australia there is no strong disincentive against voting for the Greens (because of preferences) but no strong incentive either (since we won’t win in most electorates).
I’m sure that the elements of the Left Party who were previously part of the SPD before they split and joined with the PDS would not have done so in a two-party system. The Greens would still have existed but would not have been as strong (certainly wouldn’t have had a seat in government, maybe not even in Parliament).
And when you look at the reason why the SPD went into government with the CDU/CSU is not because the left overall lost ground. It’s because they couldn’t work with each other. There was a clear majority for the broad left. But most cases of grand coalitions come to be because there is a third party with substantial strength but is in such a position that neither major party can work with them (ie. the German Left Party, the Austrian Freedom Party).
And it’s certainly true that there would generally be less political parties. In fact, any system other than the pure PR of Israel would result in less parties than in Israel. As much as I support PR, I acknowledge that the Israeli system is insane. There should still be some measure of local representation, be it through German MMP (we’re a federation, so it’s more applicable than NZ MMP) or Tasmanian STV.
PS. Maybe we need an idle speculation thread for “nerdy psephological European what-if questions”? :-p
OK I am happy to get back to the federal election. I am in Perth at the moment and the chattering classes here are chattering about the Peel by-election and what a disaster it is for the state Liberals. The question is, what implications, if any, does it have for the federal election, now probably eight months away? We have all got used to saying “there is no flow-on from state to federal politics” (because if there was, Kim Beazley would now be PM). But just how hopeless and demoralised can the state Liberal branches get before this starts to flow through into their federal campaigning? Can Howard really carry the election all by himself with no help at all from his very badly broken party machine?
Um, maybe we’ve gotten so far away it’s got people confused. This is actually the thread for the SA redistribution.
I know that I said we should go back to the point of this thread, but as a recent example of how PR settles down eventually to a fairly stable system, take a look at the latest poll in NZ.
This poll shows that, apart from one seat each for ACT and United Future, which would both be lost if their leader retired, the entire Parliament would be divided between four parties.
Comments are closed.


text:
BLUE PLANET FUNGUS CURE 125ML – AQUARIUM MEDICATION TO TREAT FUNGUS, FIN ROT
Fungal diseases are common in freshwater fish and are recognised by white or grey threads on the skin or fins which may thicken until they resemble tufts of cotton wool (pin head size) on the fish’s body and fins. Unless prompt action is taken fatalities will occur.
Suitable for Tropical/Freshwater Aquarium fish.
Directions for use:
NOT TO BE USED ON FISH INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.
A partial water change (25% of capacity) is recommended before commencing treatment and every third day thereafter before re-treatment until cure is effected.
Ensure aquarium water is well aerated for the duration of the treatment.
Activated carbon should be removed from filtration system for the duration of treatment. Activated carbon will remove this product from aquarium water resulting in ineffective treatment.
This product contains a dye which will stain if spilled.
Use 5mL per 20L of aquarium water
For tetra species, baby fish and scaleless fish (loaches, etc), use a reduced dosage of 5mL per 40L of aquarium water.
Repeat dosage after 3 days. DO NOT OVERDOSE.
0.40mg/mL Malachite Green

domain: pet


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Game on: Sprint will beef up gaming segment
The move, coupled with others, hopes to tap into the growing mobile gaming market, said Mike Werth, director of Sprint's product accessories. It's also a strategy that reflects Sprint's parent company, SoftBank Corp.
"We've really gotten into gaming and toys over the last year," Werth said. "It's a great fit for Sprint. It lets you get more value out of your phone or tablet."
Games are the second most common use of smartphones after their primary use as a phone, Werth said. That fact is in part prompting Sprint to augment its toys and gaming offerings.
In the last year, Werth said that Sprint's been diving more into gaming by turning one's phone into a controller. Such was the case with its offering of two Parrot SA "minidrones," both of which can be controlled remotely by smartphones and tablets. Both drones are outfitted with cameras, hard drives to store images and controlled remotely by smartphones.
"This is really a natural evolution," Werth said. "I think you'll see our portfolio in gaming continue to expand. I don't know if it will all be in the drone category but it truly is what most people use their phones and tablets for, and so there's a big gaining opportunity in the wireless space."
Another potential impetus of the gaming move is that Sprint's parent, Tokyo-based SoftBank Corp., already has made significant investments in the mobile gaming space. And for good reason: it's a rapidly growing market that could swell to $60 billion by 2017, according to a 2014 report by gaming investment bank Digi-Capital.
In 2013, SoftBank bought about 51 percent of Finnish mobile gaming company Supercell for around $1.5 billion. Supercell's games include Clash of Clans, Hay Day and Boom Beach. In 2013, Clash of Clans was reportedly the most lucrative iOS game, and netted more than $1 million each day, according to Business Insider.
Bobby reports about technology/telecommunications, entrepreneurship and sustainability.
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text:
This cozy sandwich shop in Sunnyside opened in August 2022, serving up coffee in the a.m., cocktails in the p.m. and sandwiches all day. While it doesn't include a retail component, it offers a concise menu as well as some daily specials. Chef-owner Clint Blauvelt (who grew up in the ’hood), has ideas for a classic bodega-style chopped cheese; a fried chicken sandwich with crispy chili oil (as opposed to the more popular Nashville hot style); a double cheeseburger; breakfast burritos and sandwiches (yes, there will be a BEC); grab-and-go options like a housemade protein bar; salads; and healthy, veggie-forward sides.
- Price: $
- Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
- Outdoor seating: Open-air patio
- Alcohol: Full bar
- Parking: On-street
- Call restaurant to order/pay

domain: food


text:
US Adds 5.7 GW of Solar Capacity in Q2 2021
Q2 2021 installations saw a 45% surge compared to the same period last year and a 16% increase against the last quarter
September 15, 2021
According to the latest US Solar Market Insight Report, released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, the US solar market has installed a record 5.7 GW of solar capacity in Q2 2021; a 45% year-over-year (YoY) increase compared to the same period last year.
The market also witnessed a 14% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) growth compared to 5 GW of solar capacity installed in Q1 2021. With Q2 additions, the country achieved 3 million installations across all segments of the market, the majority of which are residential solar systems.
In the first half of 2021, solar accounted for 56% of all new power capacity additions in the United States. In Q2 2021, the utility-scale sector accounted for 4.2 GW of new installations, of which Texas, Arizona, and Florida installed around 3 GW of solar capacity.
Meanwhile, residential solar sales continue to grow, with the sector adding 974 MW in Q2 2021, a 46% increase compared to the same period last year.
The report identifies commercial and community solar as separate market segments. The capacity added under the commercial solar segment was 354 MW, a 31% growth from Q2 2020, while 177 MW was installed under the community solar segment, an increase of 16% from Q2 2020.
A total of 9.3 GW of new utility-scale solar power purchase agreements were signed in Q2 2021, bringing the utility-scale contracted pipeline to around 85 GW.
The report also states that system cost across all segments increased due to supply chain constraints despite record-setting new capacity additions in Q2 2021. Solar system cost increased QoQ and YoY in every market segment for the first time since 2014; costs in the utility-scale solar segment increased the most with about 6% YoY.
In addition to recent enforcement actions on Xinjiang metallurgical grade silicon, two new tariff petitions have been filed, which could further escalate supply chain constraints and increasing solar system costs.
According to forecasts from Wood Mackenzie, the United States will add an average of over 29 GW of solar capacity annually through 2026. However, the deployment pace is short of reaching President Joe Biden’s 2035 clean energy targets. The industry needs to install over 80 GW of solar annually from 2022 through 2035 to achieve President Biden’s targets.
The solar industry will continue to set annual installation records until the solar investment tax credit (ITC) fully phases down in 2024. However, the growth is expected to be flat in 2025 and 2026.
SEIA president and chief executive officer, Abigail Ross Hopper, said, “This is a critical moment for our climate future, but price increases, supply chain disruptions, and a series of trade risks are threatening our ability to decarbonize the electric grid. If we want to incentivize domestic manufacturing and drive enough solar deployment to tackle the climate crisis, we must see action from our federal leaders.”
Principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report, Michelle Davis, said, “The solar industry continues to demonstrate strong quarterly growth, and demand is high across every segment. But the industry is now bumping up against multiple challenges, from elevated equipment prices to complex interconnection processes. Addressing these challenges will be critical to expanding the industry’s growth and meeting clean energy targets.”
According to the US Solar Market Insight 2020 Year-in-Review report, the US solar industry grew 43% and installed a record 19.2 GW capacity in 2020.
Harsh Shukla is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Previously with Indian Express, he has covered general interest stories. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune.

domain: news


The city is inviting potential developers in Kirkland to a “Partnership Forum” Wednesday, Sept. 26, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at City Hall.
The Kirkland Developers Partnership Forum, in the City Council Chambers, will includes presentations on Kirkland development trends, the city’s development services study, changes to SEPA thresholds in Kirkland, a new Land Use Permit Extension Ordinance, an update about on-line permitting, a one-time fire sprinkler exemption, the city’s Urban Forest Management Plan and Kirkland’s Green Codes.
City staff will take questions about development regulations and the permitting process after the presentations. Participants are asked to RSVP Rob Jammerman, Development Engineering Manager, at email@example.com.
From a City of Kirkland press release.


text:
Introduction: Digital Wireless Security System
In the Instructable, we are going build a Prototype of digital wireless security systems using RF Technology.
The project can be used for security purposes in home, offices, organizations etc.Since it's built with RF Technology and it's secured it most cheap and reliable system for small-scale purpose in industries.
Details about the projects:
It can have a range of 100-150 meters but its range can be increased with increase in length in the antenna. It is built with a keypad 4*4 interfaced with PIC 16F887 microcontroller and LCD.
Data that is sent through keypad is display onto the LCD 16*2.When the password is entered it checks the password that is stored in EEPROM memory of the microcontroller.
When the password is correct, it sends the signal wirelessly with the help of RF modules and it can controller anything with the help of controlling circuit.
Teachers! Did you use this instructable in your classroom?
Add a Teacher Note to share how you incorporated it into your lesson.
Step 1: Components Selection and Power Supply.
The components were selected to make the project were:
1. PIC 16F887 microcontroller 8-bit .
2. LCD 16*2
4. RF modules 434 MHZ
5. HT12E and HT12D(Encodes and decodes)
7.Power Supply components:
7.1. LM7805(Linear voltage regulator)
7.1.2 capacitors(330uf ,0.1uf)
7.1.3 Simple Transformer
7.1.4 1N4007 Diodes
9. PIC kit 2 (programming purpose).
10. Crystal oscillator(22 MHz)
11. Female and Male connectors.
Step 2: Power Supply to Circuits
We developed a power supply in order to provide 5V to all electronic component like IC that we are using, microcontroller, keypad logic and LCD 16*2.
We developed a simple regulated power supply by considering a linear voltage regulator LM7805.
The transformer is used to step down the voltage and bridge rectifier converts an alternating sine wave into pulsating dc.The filter circuit is used to filter out the pulsating wave in order to obtain pure dc wave at the output.LM7805 maintains 5v output even if there is a change in the voltage fluctuation onto the input side to some extent.
The circuit is being designed and verified at Proteus simulation software 7.7.
Step 3: Transmitter Circuit Diagram
This is transmitter circuit diagram that is designed on Proteus software 7.7.
It contains a keypad interfaced with microcontroller PIC 16F887 and LCD 16*2 which displayed the password that is typed.It checks the password which is stored in EEPROM memory of microcontroller and if it is correct then it passes the signal wireless onto the receiver.
This software can be used to simulate whether our circuit and code are running efficiently or not.
Step 4: Details About Components
Keypads have been used extensively in automotive applications as well as food industries.
Programmed Keypads can be used in automated attendance system at schools, offices etc, where you enter your ID, which is displayed and at the same time stored, to mark your presence.
Automatic door locks are usually accessed with a keypad control system in which a particular code is dialed on the keypad to open the door.
Step 5: Liquid Crystal Display
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is an electronic display module and finds a wide range of applications.
A 16x2 LCD display is the very basic module and is very commonly used in various devices and circuits.
These modules are preferred over seven segments and other multi-segment LEDs.
The reasons being: LCDs are economical; easily programmable; have no limitation of displaying special & even (unlike in seven segments), animations and so on.
Step 6: Watch It Working
There are encoder and decoder used to convert data into either parallel to series or series to parallel or vice versa.
They operate like a shift resistor only but the only difference of specific address.Shift Resistors convert the data parallel to series or vice versa
In order to communicate with these encoders and decoder as they are transmitting data wirelessly, we need to select the precise frequency by selecting the right resistance from the datasheet.Oscillator frequency should match each other.
RF modules are used to send the data wirelessly at 434 MHZ frequency.They are quite cheap and readily available in the market other than any other technology.
Antenna length decides how long communication can take place and of what frequency signal we can transmit.
Frequency * wavelength = speed of light
frequency = (speed of light)/ (wavelength)
Hmax=(speed of light)/ (wavelength)/4
This represents how the communication takes place between two devices when we are using encoder and decoders.
Wired communication circuit represents communication between devices without the use of RF technology.
Note: Proteus 7.7 can't be used to simulate wireless circuits.
Step 8: Transmitter Circuit
¨HT12E circuit along with rf transmitter
Encoder IC will convert the 4 bit parallel data given to pins D0 – D3 to serial data and will be available at DOUT. This output serial data is given to ASK RF Transmitter.
Address inputs A0 – A7 can be used to provide data security and can be connected to GND (Logic ZERO) or left open (Logic ONE).
Status of these Address pins should match with the status of address pins in the receiver for the transmission of the data. Data will be transmitted only when the Transmit Enable pin (TE) is LOW. 1.1MΩ resistor will provide the necessary external resistance for the operation of the internal oscillator of HT12E.
Step 9: Receiver Circuit
HT12D and RF Receiver
RF Receiver receives the data transmitted using ASK RF Transmitter. HT12D decoder will convert the received serial data to 4-bit parallel data D0 – D3.
¨The status of these address pins A0-A7 should match with the status of address pin in the HT12E at the transmitter for the transmission of data.
¨The LED connected to the above circuit glows when valid data transmission occurs from the transmitter to receiver. 51KΩ resistor will provide the necessary resistance required for the internal oscillator of the HT12D.
Step 10: Rf Transmitter and Receiver
This is circuit diagram of transmitter and receiver which completes the whole project.
Feel free to comment and ask doubts
Participated in the

domain: design


text:
Urine Biomarkers of Kidney Tubule Health, Injury, and Inflammation are Associated with Progression of CKD in Children.
Background: Novel urine biomarkers may improve identification of children at greater risk of rapid kidney function decline, and elucidate the pathophysiology of CKD progression.
Methods: We investigated the relationship between urine biomarkers of kidney tubular health (EGF and α-1 microglobulin), tubular injury (kidney injury molecule-1; KIM-1), and inflammation (monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 [MCP-1] and YKL-40) and CKD progression. The prospective CKD in Children Study enrolled children aged 6 months to 16 years with an eGFR of 30-90ml/min per 1.73m2. Urine biomarkers were assayed a median of 5 months [IQR: 4-7] after study enrollment. We indexed the biomarker to urine creatinine by dividing the urine biomarker concentration by the urine creatinine concentration to account for the concentration of the urine. The primary outcome was CKD progression (a composite of a 50% decline in eGFR or kidney failure) during the follow-up period.
Results: Overall, 252 of 665 children (38%) reached the composite outcome over a median follow-up of 6.5 years. After adjustment for covariates, children with urine EGF concentrations in the lowest quartile were at a seven-fold higher risk of CKD progression versus those with concentrations in the highest quartile (fully adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 7.1; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 3.9 to 20.0). Children with urine KIM-1, MCP-1, and α-1 microglobulin concentrations in the highest quartile were also at significantly higher risk of CKD progression versus those with biomarker concentrations in the lowest quartile. Addition of the five biomarkers to a clinical model increased the discrimination and reclassification for CKD progression.
Conclusions: After multivariable adjustment, a lower urine EGF concentration and higher urine KIM-1, MCP-1, and α-1 microglobulin concentrations were each associated with CKD progression in children.
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN
children; chronic kidney disease; end-stage kidney disease; pediatric nephrology
Greenberg JH, Abraham AG, Xu Y, et al. Urine Biomarkers of Kidney Tubule Health, Injury, and Inflammation are Associated with Progression of CKD in Children. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2021;32(10):2664-2677. doi:10.1681/ASN.2021010094

domain: chemistry


Craigavon body find: Man's death treated as suspicious
The PSNI is treating the death of a man in his 30s in Craigavon, County Armagh, as suspicious.
The man's body was found in a flat in the Dingwell Park area at lunchtime on Tuesday October 13.
The property has been cordoned off and forensic investigators are at the scene.
Detective Chief Inspector Eamonn Corrigan, who is leading the enquiry, said: "If anyone saw anything unusual in the Dingwell Park area in recent days, we would like them to contact detectives at Mahon Road police station by calling the non-emergency number 101.
"Information can also be passed anonymously via the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."
Sinn Féin MLA John O Dowd said it was a "tragic event".
He said: "It is still early in the police investigation on the circumstances surrounding this death. Our thoughts must be with the family and friends of those affected.
“Everyone in the Taghnevan and wider community will be shocked by this death.
“At this stage I would call on anyone with any information whatsoever to contact the PSNI.”
Belfast Telegraph Digital


Scanned articles covering general radio technical topics. Unless otherwise noted, these scans were done by John Atwood. Articles marked "*" were extracted from worldradiohistory.com (formerly americanradiohistory.com) scans. scans. Listed chronologically.
Armstrong 1915 Some Recent Developments in the Audion Receiver - A summary of Armstrong's receiver designs using the audion, as presented in the Proceeding of the I.R.E. It is followed by a "discussion" (by letter) between Armstrong and Lee DeForest. Reading this, it is clear that: a.) DeForest's concept of how the audion works is clouded by misconceptions and random behavior, and b.) Armstrong's conception is crystal-clear and accurate. Scan by Google.
Hazeltine 1923 Tuned RF Amplification with Neutralization of Capacity Coupling - Prof. Hazeltine's Neutrodyne circuit described. This permitted radio manufacturers to produce economically viable tuned-RF (TRF) receivers without having to license the RCA radio patents.
Armstrong 1924 The Superheterodyne - Its Origin, Development and Some Recent Improvements * - Review of the invention of the superheterodyne receiver and efforts to cost-reduce it and commercialize it.
Dreyer Jr 1924 Solving the Problems of the Neutrodyne - Details on implementing and adjusting the Hazeltine neutrodyne circuit.
Crosby 1939 Communication by Phase Modulation * - Implementation and performance tests on phase modulation. Not much used at the time, but forms the basis of the phasing system of SSB and the I-Q modulation used in modern communications systems.
FM 1940 Police Radio History * - A short write-up of the introduction of FM to two-way police radios, first for the Connecticut State Police, then for the Chicago Police Department.
Eastman & Woodward 1941 Binaural Transmission on a Single Channel * - Amplitude and phase modulation of the same channel - essentially the I-Q system used in modern communications systems.
Batcher 1945 Thermal Stability in Receiver Oscillators-I and Batcher 1945 Thermal Stability in Receiver Oscillators-II * - A good tutorial on what causes oscillator drift and how to minimize or compensate this effect.
QST RCA 1947 Transmitting Ratings on Receiver Tubes - A table of class-C transmitter ratings for the 6AG7, 6AK6, 6AQ5, 6C4, 6F6, 6L6, 6N7, 6V6GT, and 12AU7. These are only for amateur use, and are not listed in regular tube manuals or data sheets. Gives screen-grid amplification factors and capacitances.
Goodman 1947 How Sensitive is Your Receiver? - Using a diode noise generator for measuring the noise figure of a receiver front-end. This article is based on information directly from the MIT Rad Lab.
QST 1948 A High-Stability Oscillator Circuit - Details on a high-stability VFO circuit first described by Clapp in the Proceedings of the I.R.E.
QST 1948 The Clapp High-Stability Cicuit - Comments from Clapp himself on the differences between his circuit and an early VFO by Seiler (1941).
Tapley 1949 Some Notes on the Clapp Oscillator - Practical design notes on implementing the Clapp oscillator.
Sainsbury 1954 New Developments in HF Receivers * - Overview of radio receivers used in point-to-point operation in the UK and British empire.


On June 6, 1944, Waverly B. Woodson Jr.’s landing craft was fired upon while landing on Omaha Beach. The man next to Woodson died, and Woodson, a medic, believed he was going to die as well.
Despite his shrapnel injuries, Woodson worked as a medic with the only African-American combat unit. He spent 30 hours tending to at least 200 injured men. Eventually he collapsed and had to be transported to a hospital ship.
Woodson was hailed a hero and awarded as such; however, he never received the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor.
For years, Woodson kept quiet about the war. Joann said it wasn’t until the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994 that he shared stories with a television crew. And it was only then that she really learned about her husband’s heroic acts.
After the war, Woodson received praise from newspapers and it was discovered that he had been recommended for the Medal of Honor, though he never received it. He did receive the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart.
Once Woodson’s family became aware of his recommendation, they launched a campaign to posthumously award the soldier the Medal of Honor. Woodson’s widow, Joann, with the help of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen contacted the secretary of the Army.
“He needs to be given credit for what he did,” Joann told the Associated Press. “It’s never too late to correct something or to recognize something that should have been done.”
While the Army agreed that Woodson’s case was “compelling,” it replied that it could not award him the Medal of Honor without proper “primary source material,” something that Linda Hervieux, the journalist who uncovered the document which kickstarted the campaign, said is impossible.
“The problem is they need a clear records trail, and those records are gone,” Hervieux told HISTORY. “They need a first-hand witness, and they’re never going to get it, because these men are all dead.”
Van Hollen hopes that the Army will reconsider despite the lack of records, which were destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
A letter to the Army read, in part:
Based on extensive research on his service record, it is clear that Cpl. Woodson did not receive the Medal of Honor during WWII because of the color of his skin. Accordingly, we respectfully ask the Army to rectify this historic injustice and appropriately recognize this valorous Veteran with a posthumous recommendation for the Medal of Honor.
If Woodson risked his life to save others and if he was recommended for the highest military then he should receive it.
Share this if you believe the Army should fix this historic injustice!
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text:
After six months of apparent drift, the case of the vanished atheist came abruptly to life last week when a federal grand jury in Austin indicted Gary Karr, a Michigan handyman, on conspiracy charges of kidnapping, extortion, and robbery.
The five-count indictment -- the first against anyone in connection with the 1995 disappearance of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair, her son Jon Garth Murray, and granddaughter Robin Murray O'Hair -- accuses Karr of various roles in the abduction. But nowhere does it mention their presumed murders. Neither does it include charges relating to the gruesome death of Danny Fry, one of Karr's alleged accomplices in the O'Hair caper, whose headless, handless body was found October 2, 1995, on the banks of the Trinity River near Seagoville.
Further, the indictment does not name David Waters, the O'Hairs' former office manager suspected of masterminding the plot to kidnap the first family of atheism and extort $600,000 from them. Neither the gold coins bought with the money nor the O'Hairs' remains have been found.
Karr's lawyers immediately labeled the indictment an attempt to squeeze their client into showing federal authorities where the O'Hairs' bodies are hidden and testifying against Waters.
"I think they want to put as much pressure on Karr as possible, maybe threaten him with death-penalty offenses, hoping he'll tell them something that helps their case," says attorney Thomas Mills of Dallas. "I find it significant that the homicides were not included. It looks to me like they want to squeeze him really hard. It's even weirder to have a conspiracy indictment with only one person named. How odd is that?"
Beyond a brief news release, federal officials declined comment. "Today's indictment is not the final chapter of this investigation. We are continuing our thorough effort to make sure that justice is served in this matter," said Bill Blagg, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas.
According to a sworn affidavit made public this spring, federal officials believe that Fry, Karr, and Waters kidnapped the O'Hair family from Austin in late August 1995, took them to San Antonio, and spent a month holding them while awaiting the transfer of $600,000 in atheist funds from New Zealand. The money was used to buy gold coins from a San Antonio dealer, and after $500,000 worth of Canadian Maple Leafs, Krugerrands, and American Eagles were delivered by the jeweler to Jon Murray, the three atheists were promptly killed and their bodies hidden, according to the affidavit.
Fry, a hard-drinking hustler from Florida, was killed two days later by Waters and Karr, according to the affidavit, and his nude body was dumped in Dallas minus head and hands. The reasons for his murder remain unclear. The body remained unidentified until January of this year, when genetic testing revealed it to be the missing Florida man.
The news of Fry's horrid fate revitalized the moribund investigation into the O'Hair case and led to the arrests of Karr and Waters two months later on gun charges. Both Karr and Waters remain behind bars. Waters is serving an eight-year federal term on gun-possession charges, which will be followed by a 60-year term in state prison on charges of stealing $54,000 from the O'Hairs in 1994.
Karr is being held in Detroit, awaiting trial on gun charges. He has reportedly acknowledged a limited role in the events surrounding the O'Hairs' disappearance and in March gave a lengthy statement to federal investigators and detectives from the Dallas County Sheriffs Office. His lawyer there, Richard Helfrick, says the December 7 indictment came from left field.
"I really don't understand the timing of this particular indictment and why, based on what the government has said in the past, Mr. Karr would be the only person indicted at this point," he says.
In the indictment, the government lists a series of actions that Karr allegedly took as part of the abduction and robbery of the O'Hairs, including renting vans, abandoning Robin's Porsche at the Robert Mueller Airport in Austin, traveling with Jon to New Jersey to expedite a banking transaction in September 1995, and following him to a San Antonio bank to pick up the $500,000 in gold on September 29, 1995, the last day any of the O'Hairs were seen alive.
"Mr. Karr has denied being involved in any criminal acts involving the O'Hairs or Mr. Fry," Helfrick says. "He's never denied he was there. He admits he rented those vans, and rented that motel [room], but he's denied those acts had any criminal intent."
Whatever his role, Karr's résumé made him the ideal hire for a kidnapping. Like Waters, he has an extensive record of violent crime. In 1974, Karr and a second man were arrested after a crime spree in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin in which two girls were kidnapped and raped. Convicted of aggravated kidnapping and armed robbery, he served 21 years of a 30-50 year term in Illinois state prisons and was released in May 1995.
While in prison, he apparently met Waters, who served time in Illinois for murder, assault, and forgery. For seven month in 1986 and 1987, both men were assigned to the Vienna Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison in which inmates were not confined to cells.
The news of Karr's indictment heartened parties on both sides of the ideological divide who have stakes in the O'Hair case. Bill Murray, O'Hair's surviving son, who became a fundamentalist Christian two decades ago, says, "I think this is a good move by the federal authorities, considering the reluctance of authorities in Texas to move, particularly on the Fry murder. I think this brings it closer to closure for everyone involved."
Murray believes Karr should cooperate with the feds -- not just to save his skin, but to save his soul as well. "I really wish that what would happen is that Mr. Karr would realize his situation, that he's never going to get out of jail, and turn his life over to God so he can have some peace in prison," he says. "Just tell everyone where the bodies are and what really happened."
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Ron Barrier, a spokesman for American Atheists, one of the organizations founded by O'Hair, says, "I hope this is an important step toward, clearing the O'Hair family name and clearing American Atheists of any wrongdoing. We were getting hit with rumors of theft and complicity in the disappearance."
As dramatic as it might appear, Karr's indictment changes little. Although federal and Dallas investigators have a wealth of circumstantial evidence supporting their theory that Fry, Karr, and Waters kidnapped and murdered the O'Hairs and that Karr and Waters then turned on Fry, they have only one body. Without bodies, it is difficult to prove a murder. And in the O'Hairs' case, it would be doubly difficult since they left behind ample documentary evidence that they intended one day to abandon Austin and retire overseas, with New Zealand being their first choice.
The feds believe that Waters knew this and beat them to it, but proving that the O'Hairs are not alive would be daunting challenge in court. Mills believes the feds need Karr to get make a case against Waters. The questions are, What does Karr know and how much does he fear ending up being charged and tried for four murders, one of which comes complete with a headless body?
"I don't know what he knows," Mills says of Karr. "But the way the chess game plays out...if they say, 'OK, if he cooperates against Waters we won't seek the death penalty against him,' that means they must need him," he says. "And if he doesn't take this. They'll go after him for murder. But do they have a good case? I don't know if they have sufficient evidence. Maybe this will allow him to find out what their strong cards are."


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domain: medical


MINNEAPOLIS -- Choral music takes center stage this weekend as thousands of conductors, singers and composers from around the world descend on the Twin Cities for a nine-day symposium on their art form.
For the public, it means a lengthy list of mostly free concert events featuring 20 auditioned choral groups representing six continents.
Sixty public performances are scheduled -- mostly in parks or churches or community centers -- starting at 8 p.m. Friday in Orchestra Hall with "I Hear America Singing." The concert will feature the Boys Choir of Harlem, Chanticleer, and the Minnesota Orchestra.
One of the few performances for which a ticket is required, the concert will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $17 to $31.
The series of free events, however, get under way in earnest at noon Sunday on St. Paul's Harriet Island, where the Boys Choir of Harlem, Cuba's Entrevoces, and the National Folk Dance Ensemble of Croatia are expected to entertain thousands of choral lovers at the Target Stage Pavilion.
Over the next week, free daytime and evening concerts will feature choral groups from Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, including those who participate in the "Minnesota Sings Farewell" concert at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at Orchestra Hall.
The symposium's concluding concert, "Minnesota Sings Farewell" will feature the Dale Warland Singers, Moore by Four, and the Vocal Essence Ensemble Singers.
If the choral immersion experience can claim a headliner, it would be Grammy Award-winning a cappella singer Bobby McFerrin, who will appear in concert at 8 p.m. Aug. 7 at Orchestra Hall. Tickets are sold out, according to symposium organizers.
Called the International Choral Festival, the series of performances is part of the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music, a global event sponsored every few years by the International Federation for Choral Music.
The federation's mission is "to facilitate communication and exchange between choral musicians throughout the world," the organization said in a recent news release, and an estimated 3,000 choral professionals have signed up to attend.
Hosted locally by the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota, the event marks the first time ever the symposium has been conducted in the United States, a spokeswoman said.
A recent addition to the symposium, the festival is designed to foster public interest in choral music, the spokeswoman said.
Auditioned by federation officials, the choral groups were selected for the festival for "the diversity of their talent, sound, repertoire and style," the release said.
"Together, the variety of classical, ethnic and folk traditions will build a world perspective of the choral experience," the release added.
Delegates to the symposium will gather throughout the nine-day event in workshops and seminars, occasionally entertained in non-public performances by participating choirs, the spokeswoman said.
But the public will have plenty of opportunity to sample the musical fare. For a complete schedule, consult the organization's Web site at www.worldchoralsymposium6.org.
Brainerd Dispatch ©2013. All Rights Reserved.


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Johnny Sauter claimed his third win of the year in Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
It’s his 20th win of his career.
Sauter continues to lead the standings. He has a 59-point lead over Noah Gragson.
The top five is completed by Brett Moffitt (-65 points), Ben Rhodes (-79) and Grant Enfinger (-90).


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One of the many reasons why I love doing a Throwback Thursday post is because when I look back at some of my earlier blog posts, I rediscover so many games that I had forgotten about and it brings back a lot of memories. Not only that I love seeing how far I’ve come since I started blogging about games too. Today’s Throwback Thursday post is all about the space exploration game Elite Dangerous.
It has been a little while since I last played but looking back and reading through this old post made me really want to give it another go at some point. I could continue from where I left off on the PC version of Elite Dangerous or switch to playing on Xbox One and start a new adventure I’m not sure yet.
Without any more hold-ups, here is this week’s Throwback Thursday!
Elite Dangerous is a game I was extremely unsure about to start with. I’ve watched a few friends and family play this game and raved about how much fun they have with the game and how it’s kept them wanting to more. Exploring the galaxy to discover new stars and systems. Taking on a variety of missions and so much more. I caved and grabbed the standard edition off Elite Dangerous from Steam for £19.99. Elite Dangerous Horizons is currently selling at £39.99 but it is listed as Early Access.
So let’s talk first impressions.
There was a lot to take in. Controls to learn. Features to understand. It felt a little overwhelming to start with. I tried to complete the training missions using keyboard and mouse controls but found it too difficult so swapped to using my trusty Xbox 360 controller. Swapping controllers have made it a lot easier to navigate the game overall. Every now and then when I’m trying to land I still end up boosting because I wasn’t quick enough with the button combination but I’m getting there.
Controls aside. Training missions aside. It’s game time. I opted to start on the solo play even though the percentage of seeing another player in open play and in such a huge galaxy is slim but it does happen. I started by just doing a few simple missions to get some credits. Easy. Not completely. The galaxy map when you first open it seems daunting.
There are locations everywhere which you somewhat expect but after a while, everything seems to click and make sense. You then go on to jump from system to system completing missions and hope you don’t run out of fuel. Of course, I wasn’t paying attention to my fuel level and I did run out of fuel. However, this wasn’t the end of the game.
After a little bit of Googling, I discovered the Fuel Rats. The Fuel Rats are just other Elite Dangerous players who if needed will come to rescue you by giving you the fuel you need to get to the next station. They are the loveliest and friendliest people I have spoken to in an online game. It doesn’t matter if you are on PC or Xbox. Two jumps away or a hundred jumps away they will get to you. They talk you through everything. What they need you to do and what they are doing. Who’s going to come to get you and everything.
The first time I was rescued I had three Fuel Rats come and help me as they were all fairly close to my location. A few hours later when I ran out of fuel again one of the original three who helped me wasn’t far away and came back and gave me enough fuel to get to the next station. They also could tell I was a new player and gave me some great tips to ensure I kept going for longer when I set off on my next adventure.
Overall though, I have found my self asking “why did I not buy this game sooner?” Although it was a little tough to get into to start with I soon as getting the hand of the controls and features with no problems. If you are interested in Elite Dangerous, I recommend that you take a look at the trailer for the game, watch some livestreams on Twitch or even some YouTube videos. Don’t forget, if you get into trouble the Fuel Rats are there if you need them.

domain: game


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Our daily cycle is controlled by a central clock known as the SCN, but it has been unclear how the network of cells that make up the SCN generate the properties that make it a strong clock. Michael Hastings’ group has identified a signalling axis that acts as a pacemaking hub.
Insight on Research
Understanding minute structural differences in (G protein-coupled receptor) GPCR complexes could lead to the design of more efficacious drugs that have fewer side effects
Septic shock is a common cause of death that can be triggered by LPS, a component of the outer membrane of some bacteria. Felix Randow’s group has shown how the immune response against cytosol-invading bacteria is activated by a signalling platform built on their surface.
The human brain is bathed in a supportive fluid called the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that provides various nutrients. Madeline Lancaster’s group have now developed a new brain organoid that produces CSF and has the potential to predict whether drugs can access the brain.
New research suggests that DNA building blocks may have coexisted with RNA at the dawn of life
Abnormal filaments of α-synuclein define several neurodegenerative diseases, including multiple system atrophy (MSA) and Parkinson’s disease. Michel Goedert’s and Sjors Scheres’ groups have now determined the first structures of α-synuclein filaments from human brain.


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The Startup Cities Alliance (SCALE) and Dealroom.co have launched a new ecosystem map, complemented by a report on European startup hubs, highlighting a very competitive pan-European ecosystem.
The SCALE Ecosystem Map – powered and delivered by Dealroom.co – is live, with fascinating conclusions from the European tech ecosystem. It is now available to everyone and comes with a comprehensive and data-packed report.
The cities of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Helsinki, Lisbon, Munich, Porto, Rome, Stockholm and Vienna form the SCALE network and are now more united than ever. Fifth unicorn’s nursery worldwide, this European Alliance could grow up to the number of 132 unicorns in the coming years. Surpassed only by the USA and China, SCALE cities competitive ecosystem has great growth potential, according to a report released today.


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Customs officers arrested two mainland smugglers and seized 10 tonnes of frozen meat after a dramatic sea chase near the Macao Science Center off Nape early on Sunday morning.
The Macao Customs Office said that the officers were patrolling around Ponte da Amizade when they spotted a suspicious speedboat. They suspected that it was engaged in illegal activities, so immediately gave chase and intercepted it. Two people jumped off the speedboat when they were near the Macao Science Center and attempted to flee but the officers gave chase and apprehended them.
The two male suspects were taken in for questioning and the 10 tonnes of frozen meat were seized for further investigation. The customs officers, in accordance with Covid-19 prevention and control measures, tested the suspects’ temperature, and had them undergo a nucleic acid test, with the officers wearing proper protection gear. The Municipal Affairs Bureau has tested the meat for Covid-19 and the result was negative.
The suspects, both aged 40, are from Guangdong. The Customs Office said that both have breached the External Trade Law and Immigration Law, adding that they have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office.