Richard Farmer’s chunky bits

Tony Abbott has been running hard. With wife Margie on hand. And all of that weekend effort for fun, apparently.

And as for a policy debate, each team was pretending to be tougher and nastier than the other in dealing with people arriving by boat. Not much fun about that.

The result of another week of campaigning effort? Not much change according to our indicator — a slight increase in the probability of a Coalition victory.

My readers not so sure. Those readers kind enough to take part in my latest predictions survey are not so sure that the Coalition should be favourite. On average they estimate that come election day Labor will gain 50.1% of the two-party preferred vote, which would perhaps leave us with another hung parliament.

As to what the pollsters will show this week, the consensus from our survey was that the Newspoll figure tomorrow will be Labor on 50% with Essential today rounded up to 50% from an actual average of 49.6%.

Headline of the day.

— The Bulletin splashes on page one with a report of a passionate speech by Townsville-based Senator Ian Macdonald for legalising fireworks to pave the way for a return to cracker nights, which would boost tourism.

News and views noted along the way.

• Comic-Con: Superman and Batman to team up in movie
• Wealth taxes: a future battleground — “The coming battles over wealth taxation may prove especially bitter and polarizing.”
• Increasing attacks: piracy shifts coasts in Africa
• Tiny rat cocktail parties shed light on why smokers drink — “Scientists have spent the last five years serving up rodent-sized alcoholic drinks to hundreds of little black and white rats, after a nice hit of nicotine. These miniature cocktail parties have provided a clearer view on why nicotine and alcohol are so often used, and abused, together.”
• France aims to net new drinkers with cola-flavored wine
• Scientists: like Proust, apes have autobiographical memory — “In Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust marvels at how the taste of ‘plump little cakes called petites madeleines’ brought forth memories of Sunday mornings at Combray when he walked into to his aunt Leonie’s bedroom to say good morning. Proust describes what scientists came to term an autobiographical memory. It’s the kind of thing that many thought was uniquely human. A new study, detailed in the current issue of the journal Current Biology, reports that chimpanzees and orangutans were able to recall cues they were exposed to three years earlier.”