Midweek Unthreaded

Got a stray thought?

7 out of 10 based on 35 ratings

201 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

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    AndyG55

    Hey, Where is everybody.?

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    Robber

    As we head towards a hot weekend for SA/Vic, it’s interesting to look at AEMO’s forward forecasts of demand for the next 7 days (Thurs 25th – Wed 31st) converted to GW.
    NSW 11.4; 10.4; 9.9; 9.5; 11.0; 10.4; 7.3
    Qld 8.3; 7.5; 7.7; 7.5; 8.1; 8.3; 6.1
    SA 2.3; 2.5; 2.7; 2.6; 1.8; 1.6; 1.4
    Tas 1.2; 1.1; 1.2; 1.2; 1.2; 1.2; 1.0
    Vic 7.1; 7.4 8.1; 8.6; 6.9; 5.6; 4.4

    Total 30.3; 28.9; 29.6; 29.4; 29.0; 27.1; 20.2

    So as SA/Vic ramp up demand for a hot weekend, NSW/Qld have reduced demand as industry uses less.
    Peak demand in SA/Vic is 11.2 on Sunday with scheduled capacity of 10.6 so depending on wind some imports from Tas/NSW will be required. Scheduled reserve is 2.6 so no problem forecast.
    No idea why next Wed is forecast to be so low.

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      If power supplies can’t cope we can just close down a few more factories, no worries mate.

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      • #
        PeterS

        I thought we all agreed that was the goal. Anyone who bothers to conduct an objective and honest analysis of the policies and actions of both major parties would have to come to that conclusion.

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          Kinky Keith

          A month or so back I described my experience of driving up to the gates of the, now closed, Kurri aluminium smelter.

          A high tech primary processing plant now undergoing demolition because the government took away the electricity supply.

          While no politicians or greenies were hurt by this closure there are now 1200 staff whose direct jobs are now probably located next to a HELE Coal fired plant in China or Vietnam.

          There are at least the same number of indirect support jobs gone.

          An aerial view shows three lines of buildings, each approaching half a mile in length all sitting on about 80,000 square metres of concrete.

          All being demolished.

          All because of political b£st£rdry from both sides of the Left Right entrenchments.

          This probably allowed the party in power to avoid building the next power plant and thus free up funds for allocation to more useful situations, like grants for special projects in key electorates.

          KK

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          • #

            The race is on! Which country(‘s) will destroy themselves first; in the bankster\elite greed to enslave all others; with the Goal of One World Order? 🙁

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              PeterS

              I think once Trump is out of the way, be it soon or many years later, the US will lead the charge to the downfall of the West. Given the increasing friction between the two sides of politics over there, civil war is not out of the question. That would certainly spell the end of the US. Most great empires fall from within.

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              • #

                Most great empires fall from within.

                Are you claiming the USA an Empire? The US and its folk remain a well formed industry; not Socialistic, not Capitalistic, not Communistic; instead INDUSTRIOUS! Sir Trump is sacrificing all folk within the old Communistic FBI. Will that work against the new bankster New World Order??

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                PeterS

                Yes the US is doing well for now under Trump but don’t expect it to last once he’s gone. Even before then things could turn nasty as the leftists have not given up trying to burn the place down simply because they hate him so much for winning. Do not underestimate the destructiveness of the socialist left. In the past they have murdered millions.

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                Again! “Here’s the thing, as one writer put it months ago: Don’t take Trump literally, but do take him seriously.”
                P45 seems salesman extraordinary. He can sell you your one ass at profit. Not ‘to much profit’. All must feel good about the deal! After all You still have your one ass! 🙂

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                PeterS

                Will Janoschka you keep neglecting the fact Trump won’t be President forever. The US will soon enough resume its decline into the abyss due to many factors, not the least of which is the large and powerful leftist groups that have seeded their cancer a long time ago.

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                PeterS January 24, 2018 at 7:25 pm

                “Will Janoschka you keep neglecting the fact Trump won’t be President forever.”
                I try not to neglect, but observe small clever critters flocking to here (better) from else where\when! Can you explain that Peter?

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              • #
                Leo Morgan

                Ivanka for first female president. Keep America Great!

                Still- Trump is currently proposing a Trillion dollar per year deficit.
                Despite the Trump economic miracle, this is an unfolding disaster, except in the mind of the profoundly ignorant.

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            Annie

            It’s completely disgusting KK. How can these ‘leaders’ (sick joke) not be aware of what they are doing? There is a word for what they are doing.

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            • #
              PeterS

              Well much of the public as well as the MSM hated Abbott so much they voted in droves in the public opinion polls to provide the excuse for Turnbull to depose him. Such is the stupidity of most Australians. They have no one to blame but themselves for the eventual destruction of Australia. I’m almost at the point of concluding that most Australians hate conservatives so much they much prefer Australia become a communist country instead. Go figure.

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              • #
                OriginalSteve

                Some will wake up, others will just be road kill….

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                PeterS

                Yes a lot in fact most people will wake up but only after it’s too late. Too many are still complacent and will only be more so as parts of our economy booms for a short while, mostly thanks to Trump. Once he is gone or perhaps before then as the opposition forces escalate their rage, the tide will turn and the West will quickly resume it’s death spiral.

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                PeterS Jan 24, 2018 at 7:30 pm

                Once he is gone or perhaps before then as the opposition forces escalate their rage, the tide will turn and the West will quickly resume it’s death spiral.

                Such defeatist gloom and doom!Perhaps acceptable in AU but not in USA. Here both national political parties are gonners! The bribed MSM is ignored as is congress! The FBI is self imploded. Destroy the banksters and the citizens rule again! The hope is; that no elected is ever re-elected for any reason.

                There remain a plethora of other folk that would do no worse for one term! … Now if only the newly elected in 2018 all refuse to take some contrived ‘oath of office’ (unconstitutional, unnecessary)! Perhaps some ceremonial free offer to do the best he\she can (for a while), or ‘you want this godawful mess’? FINALLY A REPRESENTATIVE, that wishes to represent actual* folk, not make big bucks!!
                All the best!-will- *armed.

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            • #
              Kinky Keith

              Annie, I was just reminded of another Victorian government “green disaster”.

              In 2009 there were serious bushfires that took 173 lives and left another 100 injured.

              All of this was avoidable as anyone who has familiarity with the Australian bush knows.

              The Greens, paradoxically, have absolutely no understanding of nature and the Bush.

              They have made it impossible to use fire management strategies that were used successfully up until the 1960’s.

              And the voting public easily forgets and lets them take over to destroy local industry.

              Perhaps voters need to be made aware of the consequences of their voting behaviour.

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          • #

            KK see my link at #33 below

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            • #
              Kinky Keith

              An interesting outline. Even if there wasn’t absolute immunity it would still be hard to bring them to account.

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              • #

                hard to bring them to account.

                the 2nd…..

                A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

                Only under British Law; Easy to bring them to account in the USA. 🙂

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              • #

                I much prefer that local bear Arms, remain attached to nice Vladmir, who gets ‘to dronk’ seldom, yet always smiles at children, waves, yet remains much more ferocious than I!! 🙂

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      • #

        Where there’s a weatherill there’s a way
        … to create a state of chaos.

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      • #
        Dennis

        Then complain about reducing tax revenue, borrow more money to spend and look at raising taxes.

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      • #
        C. Paul Barreira

        But it’s a public holiday and weekend! Government and public get vastly more good luck than they deserve.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      With Adelaide forecast to reach 38℃ on Friday, followed by 42℃ on both Saturday and Sunday that estimate for demand in SA looks a little low. Bear in mind that the overnight temperatures will be very high until the cool change arrives Monday.
      Still, according to Peter the Perpetual troll on The Australian comments SA had 1100MW reserve on the last hot day so there will be no blackouts. But given his history of making up figures/facts I will be running the airconditioner as long as I can with my fingers crossed.

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      • #
        yarpos

        They got lucky with the weekend , all the public service offices (core SA industry) will be shut.

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        • #
          Another Ian

          Want to bet that the air cons will still be running though

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          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Ian:

            Possibly not. 21℃ at midday in the Adelaide Hills after a shower of rain.

            Went down to the local Australia Day festivities first thing this morning. Good weather and temp. 15-19℃ while having breakfast courtesy of the Lions Club. I haven’t been for a few years and they were a little concerned that the “Move the Day” would reduce the numbers, instead they got the best turnout for years.

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        MudCrab

        How long before the food supplies run out and delegates are forced to fight to the death over the last of the soy milk fair trade lattes?

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      • #
        Annie

        ‘Elites’ is now a very debased word. I utterly despise the vast majority of them. Why is S H-Y on the bandwagon…elite?!

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        • #
          Annie

          I find myself wishing they would suffer what they wish on the rest of us, especially all those people in Africa who lack the cheap reliable power needed to give clean water, safe food supply, etc. It stinks that they hold them to ransom over so-called ‘renewables’, which are far from it and could never reproduce themselves. It all makes me very angry. Who the **** do they think they are? Bullying everyone else to do what they want?

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        • #
          Another Ian

          Annie

          Do you think that one famous Lotus construction might have helped with that change in meaning?

          In that vein is the complete change of meaning to “good enough for government work”

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      Graeme No.3

      bemused:
      2 questions, where did the extra CO2 come from? It can’t have come from the oceans until they warmed up. Perhaps it came from volcanoes, but they are usually sources of heat and acidic gases other than CO2. Cold volcanoes releasing CO2 which then caused warming?
      And what happened to ocean acidification if they can study the global warming using calcium carbonate secreting animals?

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      • #

        Aliens! The IPCC hasn’t factored in aliens as yet.

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          “Aliens! The IPCC hasn’t factored in aliens as yet.”
          HUH? Extra-terrestrial aliens, Extra-solar aliens, Extra-galactic aliens? All seem to wish to carefully lick and be petted upon. Cannot we forcefully dispatch local foreign enemy mercenary invaders? The Aliens have done such, and now wish to be petted upon. CANNOT WE LEARN?

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      • #

        questions, where did the extra CO2 come from? It can’t have come from the oceans until they warmed up.

        OCEAN’S CO2!! Consider H2O is nearly incompressible but CO2 is compressible even as a solid but has 22/9 the molecular ‘weight’. How much oceanic H2O at depths greater than 2 km? Why?
        Gravity is accelerative at far distances but highly compressive near Earth’s incompressible surface. Oceanic pressure adds one atmosphere pressure for each 10 meter of depth! CO2 liquefies at 20 atmosphere pressure (200 meters).What can be the molecular composition of oceans at greater depths? Do self appointed academic scholars ‘know’ anything at all? How can you tell?
        All the best!-will-

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          C. Paul Barreira

          The terms “academic” and “scholar” are by no means synonymous; increasingly they represent a non sequitur.

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          • #

            The terms “academic” and “scholar” are by no means synonymous; increasingly they represent a non sequitur.

            Indeed! Add the precedent ‘self appointed’; then explain please, please!

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              C. Paul Barreira

              In part it comes from the privileges associated long since with the life of a scholar at a university, not least, a freedom of enquiry and expression not available to most. And all quite right too. The change, or one part of the change, is the massive expansion of the universities, and that even before the addition of nursing and other so-called ‘professions’.

              To have earned a doctorate implied having created something to teach; from doceo, to teach. And that held for many generations, with doubtless varying degrees of effectiveness.

              Then they killed “truth”, or at least truthfulness, even the term is now defunct. Truth always was—and is—elusive for a variety of familiar reasons. The opening sentence of my most recent book purchase put it well:

              The highest goal of intellectual endeavour—according to Lessing—is the striving for truth, as truth itself is beyond human attainment. In studying the books and documents at my disposal for the purpose of these lectures I constantly strove to keep this goal before my eyes.

              The writer was Alfred Francis Pribram, who delivered the Ford Lectures at Oxford in 1929; the subsequent book, largely unchanged from the lectures, was published in 1931.

              The Historian’s Conscience: Australian Historians on the Ethics of History, edited by Stuart Macintyre (Melbourne :  Melbourne University Press, 2004), told nothing of the conscience of the historian; it told a great deal about manipulating the mind of the reader. John Hirst there had a bit of all worlds:

              Historians write from the evidence, but also from their understanding of how the world works and how they would like it to work (p. 84).

              On civilian matters associated with the Great War, my own broad interest, evidence has become illustration, argument is all. Loathing for those involved, especially at a local level, is obligatory. Should they be people of faith then loathing becomes unspeakable and the people ignored. The result can be and often is falsehood. The world was not as it should have been. This should not be news.

              The significance of the death of the humanities has passed into the sciences. With all the subsequent controversy noted so often in these pages.

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          • #

            Much the same applies to so-called ‘experts’. The term expert has been so debased by the climate scandal that it’s become a pejorative in my book.

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              Annie

              I’ve felt that way about ‘experts’ for a long time now. Similarly, the endless use of terms like ‘studies’ ‘suggest’…ah ha? Give us the full details please! What studies, by who, on behalf of? Size of sample, replication, etc.

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              Mall

              The old definition of an expert is a drip under pressure.
              This is so true whenever the media states “climate experts” predict some outcome as if it was a gospel fact.

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            Graeme#4

            And adding “Climate” to “Scientist” is like adding “Witch” to “Doctor”.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    I have just done some industrial archeology with respect to Australia’s energy resources.

    First well that showed signs of oil and gas.
    https://www.facebook.com/david.maddison.758/posts/10157044274858082

    Hazelwood and other power stations in Latrobe Valley.
    https://www.facebook.com/david.maddison.758/posts/10157041796048082

    Site of Australia’s first and only attempt at a commercial nuclear power reactor which was cleared and leveled but then project was cancelled. Australia was also then interested in the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons and the reactor design chosen could produce weapons grade plutonium.
    https://www.facebook.com/david.maddison.758/posts/10157048994488082

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    • #

      Thank you, David. I don’t use that platform but was able to read your entries. Interesting track you’re on there.

      People doing their own research, checking and publishing is a promising trend. Fibs can still be told, mistakes made…but at least the facts get a chance to crawl above the agendas.

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        Another Ian

        Comes up in discussion periodically – the abysmal job current university teaching does with educating students about literature searching.

        A hell of a lot of research was done and written pre-CD and pre-google

        A mark of Einstein’s status is that he gets a mention

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    DaleC

    I’ve got a question: Have been playing around with the AEMO demand/price data for Victoria downloaded from here:

    http://www.aemo.com.au/Electricity/National-Electricity-Market-NEM/Data-dashboard#aggregated-data

    After quite some data wrangling (since each month is a separate file) I got to a full plot from 1999 to now, and was amazed to see the demand series was a pyramid shape, rising from 1999, peaking in 2010, then sinking back to 1999 levels. In short, approx. 5 GW, rising to 6.5 GW, then since 2010 sinking back to 5 GW. In view of increasing population, this was quite a surprise – I was expecting some leveling, but not a symmetrical reduction.

    This article is five years old:

    http://theconversation.com/why-is-electricity-consumption-decreasing-in-australia-20998

    The writer (Hugh Saddler) cites three reasons:

    1. the impact of (mainly regulatory) energy efficiency programs
    2. structural change in the economy away from electricity intensive industries
    3. since 2010, the response of electricity consumers, especially residential consumers, to higher electricity prices.

    But a drop of 1.5 GW on 6.5 seems to me huge. So, is the AEMO demand data comprehensive? Or are there additional demands since 2010 which are not amenable to measurement?

    Thanks.

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      Eddie

      Isn’t rooftop solar not counted, as it just reduces demand by subscribers who have it?

      That’s how it seems to work in UK anyway.

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      Graeme No.3

      DaleC:

      One of the responses by consumers was the installation of solar panels, but I doubt that the total is anywhere near enough to describe the drop.

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      Kinky Keith

      A lot of power is taken by industry, and perhaps you have been tracking the overriding user of power, industry, as it progressively shuts down and moves overseas.

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      • #

        A lot of power is taken by industry, and perhaps you have been tracking the overriding user of power, industry, as it progressively shuts down and moves overseas.

        Please consider your terms: 1)Power: Horsepower, goatpower, manpower. 2)Energy: the accumulation (storage) of power for later use. 3) Work: the use of power for ‘action’/fabrication/construction/ inverse entropy.
        The self appointed academics claim both energy and work are the same fake “Joules”; never to be ‘destroyed!
        HA!!! Fake academic\bankster accounting trick to convert\steal your precious manpower into interest fees!
        Are I dronk enough yet?

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      yarpos

      There wont be a single easy answer, there are many things going on simultaneously, some of them mentioned here in responses. They include:

      – Efficiency gains in most new electrical goods, as old stuff ages out
      – Efficiency gains in new housing standards (insulation/double glazing etc)
      – Domestic solar panels and hot water suppressing some daytime demand
      – Efficiency programs rolling through business and govt, given high costs
      – Deindustrialisation (long shopping list of companies or company functions have shut down or moved overseas)
      – Basic usage reduction by the poor who just suffer the inconvience or discomfort when they cannot afford to use power

      If you are lucky enough to live in a well designed modern home its possible to by quite comfortable in extreme weather without really using a lot of power. For the large tracts of houses built in past decades its both expensive and uncomfortable. Just more have/have not stuff.

      Wait for EVs to arrive en masse and the curve may change driving more demand, and in a renewable world higher costs, even for those not strutting and preening in their EVs.

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        Hanrahan

        If you are lucky enough to live in a well designed modern home its possible to by quite comfortable in extreme weather without really using a lot of power. For the large tracts of houses built in past decades its both expensive and uncomfortable. Just more have/have not stuff.

        I’m in the tropics so we can ignore heating. My house is on a rise, timber framed with Hardie plank tm cladding with adequate under-roof insulation. My son the snowflake has the hottest room and runs his air-con regularly but the rest of the house is pretty good so ceiling fans are good enough most time. By contrast the new estates on the flats built on slabs with masonry block structure [R rating of 1], very small blocks and fences limiting air flow must be ‘ot as ‘ell especially when you are living with your neighbour’s air-con exhaust. A real heat island.

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      TedM

      Loss of industry????????

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    pat

    smile.

    23 Jan: Daily Caller: Michael Bastasch: Scientists Get Buried In Snow At Davos While Lecturing On Global Warming
    24 Jan TWEET: UN Climate Change: The Basecamp @ArcticDavos is open for business: a unique opportunity to meet climate scientists, see them at work, learn why the #ArcticMatters for climate http://bit.ly/2oVVsM2 We can’t be late to find the solutions http://bit.ly/2kh1pkI #2020dontbelate #WEF18

    24 Jan TWEET: Antarctic Survey: It’s showtime as ethical fashion from designer @StellaMcCartney meets polar scientists at @ArcticDavos #WEF2018 #ArcticMatters
    http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/23/davos-scientists-snow-switzerland-world-economic-forum/

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    RickWill

    NASA – WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

    According to NASA satellite data the atmospheric water vapour content is reducing. Using water vapour data produced from the MODIS program, I determine that the global average water vapour content was 2.15cm water column equivalent in December 2017. In December 2010 it was 2.17cm while December 2002, the first MODIS data, it was 2.26cm. So over the last 15 years atmospheric water content has reduced by 5%.
    https://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=MYDAL2_M_SKY_WV&year=2017

    In 2002 the atmospheric CO2 proportion was 365ppm. It has increased to 406ppm in 2017.

    Making use of MODTRAN to assess the impact of the increasing CO2 in conjunction with 5% recorded reduction in atmospheric water vapour show they essentially balance out; near perfect negative feedback.
    http://climatemodels.uchicago.edu/modtran/
    I selected US standard atmosphere in clear skies with ground temp of 288K to get 245.1W/sq.m in 2002 conditions and 244.8W/sq.m in 2017 conditions. Adjusting to cloudy conditions gets even less difference.

    In addition, the reduction in global atmospheric water of 1.1mm over the last 15 years equates to an increase in sea level of 1.5mm. That puts a new spin on rising sea levels.

    Of course the validity of the water content relies on the analysis of MODIS instrument data being able to produce a reasonably accurate measure of water vapour content in the atmosphere. The energy balance relies on MODTRAN having useful relevance to the release of heat from the globe. Both are well regarded by the CD spiritual leaders.

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      Kinky Keith

      Will J may have a comment on the use of Modtran.

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        Will J may have a comment on the use of Modtran.

        Maybe tomorrow perhaps nearly normal\sober!
        “Will Janoschka June 21,2014
        1 x 1 = 7 is easy the imaginary part is sqrt(+6).”

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          AndyG55

          “…….perhaps nearly normal\sober!”

          hmmm.. that remains to be seen.

          prediction are difficult… but on past data… 😉

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      The 1960’s Atmospheric Trans in FortranIV, LoTran, HiTran, MidTran, Modtran, suffer from the most sloppy computer BS called logic. Fortran has no logic.
      In Fortran I can create a entity called a subroutine, that can ‘transform’ some input ‘data’ into other ‘data’ for subsequent use. But this whole ‘subroutine’ can be compiled, into ‘data’ that can be input then executed as a process to transform some input data into any other data\garbage.. Where is the logic? All modern computer languages (past Forth) avoid this abomination! Some folk still use Modtran for scamming only!

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        yarpos

        My limited use of Fortran lead me to believe that I had to supply the logic, otherwise it just sorta sat there.

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    David Maddison

    Trump imposes a tariff on imported solar cells.

    Is it to protect local industry or a way of getting America out of renewable madness? Remember that Trump is a brilliant strategist and everything he does has a good, if sometimes hidden, reason behind it.

    http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1FB30B

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    pat

    ***HOT!

    Snow, ice and Trump: What Davos is talking about
    CNNMoney-5 hours ago
    There are two really ***hot topics this year in Davos: The brutal weather and President Trump.

    not a single mention of “snow” in the entire, lengthy text of BBC article, and note the use of “avalanche”:

    Davos 2018: The big worry under the mounds of snow
    BBC – 14 hrs ago
    Avalanche of money
    An avalanche of central bank money has kept the global economy on its feet since the financial crisis.

    what?

    Even in optimistic Davos, winter has come
    In-Depth-Washington Post-17 hours ago

    24 Jan: Bloomberg: Today at Davos: Five Things You Need to Know
    Get caught up on what’s happening at the World Economic Forum.
    By Simon Kennedy
    Bankers, politicians and chief executive officers trudged their way through several feet of snow in the Swiss ski resort of Davos so they could attend the second day of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting…
    Washington shock waves
    Every year, news breaks far away, only to reverberate in Davos hours later. Often it comes from Washington. That was the case Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on solar panels and washing machines. BlackRock Inc. Vice Chairman Philipp Hildebrand said protectionism is the biggest risk to a global recovery, while Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said Trump’s move is “bad for the global environment, it’s bad for the American economy, it’s bad for jobs in the U.S.’’ Petrobras CEO Pedro Parente warned against Trump’s parallel effort to bring back coal, but Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, predicted that “the penetration of solar in the U.S. will continue.”…

    Decline of the west
    Booming markets or no, the financial crisis has had a lasting impact on who’s hot and who’s not in the Swiss Alps. Wavering western powers have been supplanted by China and now, India. In a speech Tuesday, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned attendees against the kind of protectionism the White House had announced just hours earlier. Modi said he is working to double India’s $2.3 trillion economy by 2025 as he spearheads efforts to attract foreign investment. Reaching the $5 trillion mark will be no easy task, given middling growth forecasts…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-23/today-at-davos-five-things-you-need-to-know

    the big, worldwide headline in the FakeNewsMSM today:

    India, Canada defend free trade as US imposes tariffs
    ABC America · 4 hours ago

    reality:

    Modi, in Davos, Praises Globalization Without Mentioning India’s trade barriers
    New York Times-2 hours ago
    Mr. Modi’s government is also considering a recommendation by India’s Directorate General for Safeguards, Customs and Central Excise that the country impose 70 percent tariffs on imported solar panels.Such a move would appear to conflict with Mr. Modi’s call here for international action on climate change…

    India’s ruining its grand plans to become a solar powerhouse
    Quartz – 15 January 2018
    India’s directorate general of safeguards (DGS), part of the ministry of finance, has proposed a 70% safeguard duty—imposed during import surges—on imported solar cells and modules in order to protect the local industry…
    Moreover, this is not the only regulatory setback for the industry in recent months. “Coming after the moves to levy 7.5% import duty on modules, and GST (goods and services tax) ranging between 5% and 18% on various input costs, the recommendation (to impose safeguard duties) also betrays a lack of policy consistency and clarity in various government departments,” renewable energy consultancy Bridge to India (BTI) said in a note…

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    Another Ian

    “New Crocodile Dundee movie – too much fun for censorious left”

    http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2018/01/new-crocodile-dundee-movie-too-much-fun-for-censorious-left.html

    We’ll check the box office results then

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      Annie

      Thanks for the laugh. I must look out for it, not to mention going back and watching the first two. They were a lot of fun!

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    pat

    that wicked protectionist Trump!

    23 Jan: Newsday: Dan Janison: Trump solar tariff follows in the footsteps of EU, India
    Remarkably, the administration is following the example of the European Union, which generally supports renewable energy.
    By Dan Janison
    President Donald Trump’s new tariff on solar-panel imports set off a wide assortment of reactions Tuesday on the politics of trade.
    Some industry critics saw the administration as following up on its promises to the coal industry by deliberately slowing expansion of renewable energy.
    Some American manufacturers, however, see it as helping to stave off undercutting from foreign competitors in China and South Korea…

    Dave Keating of ***Fortune noted Tuesday that the EU “did the exact same thing in September of last year.” It set “minimum import duties for Chinese solar modules and cells that price them up to 30 percent above market levels,” he wrote…
    And earlier this week, India imposed a 70 percent import duty on Chinese and Malaysian solar panels, stirring debate similar to that surrounding the U.S. announcement on Tuesday…
    https://www.newsday.com/long-island/columnists/dan-janison/trump-tariff-solar-panel-imports-china-1.16315173

    don’t know why Newsday said ***Fortune mag when it’s Fortune’s rival ***Forbes that has the Keating article. Keating is against the tariffs:

    23 Jan: ***Forbes: Dave Keating: Trump Follows Europe’s Lead With Chinese Solar Panel Tariffs
    Trump’s tariff is “the biggest blow he’s dealt to the renewable energy industry yet” declared Time Magazine. Trump’s decision is “recklessly irresponsible and a thinly veiled attack on clean energy,” said Bill Waren of Friends of the Earth. “The decision is the latest attempt by Trump to preference fossil fuels by slowing the transition to clean energy.”

    What has gotten lost in the coverage, however, is the fact that Trump is following the example of the European Union, which did the exact same thing in September of last year.
    The EU has set minimum import duties for Chinese solar modules and cells that price them up to 30 percent above market levels – a level roughly identical to Trump’s…

    Both Washington and Brussels have long accused Beijing of ‘dumping’ solar panels into their markets, selling them at below production costs in order to kill their competitors in other markets. The EU first imposed tariffs on the panels in 2013. At the time, Chinese solar panels made up a third of EU sales…
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/davekeating/2018/01/23/trump-follows-europes-lead-with-chinese-solar-panel-tariffs/

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    • #

      Both Washington and Brussels have long accused Beijing of ‘dumping’ solar panels into their markets, selling them at below production costs in order to kill their competitors in other markets. The EU first imposed tariffs on the panels in 2013. At the time, Chinese solar panels made up a third of EU sales…

      And that is what makes up the CAGW scam! Trees are more efficient than solar panels can possibly become!

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    pat

    23 Jan: Russia Today: Robert Bridge: Can you dig it? Davos ‘Masters of the Universe’ bogged down under avalanche alert
    For the 2,500 wealthy movers and shakers who ascended on the scenic valley town in Switzerland, the primary issue on their minds was suddenly no different from that of an underpaid, overworked plantation worker toiling in the fields all day for peanuts: the weather…

    To add insult to injury, even the town’s helicopter pad – ideal for whisking attendees around the forum – was forced to close due to inclement weather conditions…

    Given the extremely cold temperatures that have gripped much of the world this winter, not least of all in the United States and Europe, President Trump may take advantage of the cold conditions to dismiss the claims of the climate-change activists, who predict dangerous changes to Earth’s temperature over the next several decades.
    In December, amid a particularly frigid cold snap, Trump took delight in tweeting:
    “In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!”
    https://www.rt.com/business/416756-davos-robert-bridge-story/

    23 Jan: Reuters: Italy evacuates dozens from Alpine hotel threatened by avalanche
    by Steve Scherer
    Italy used helicopters on Tuesday to airlift almost 100 tourists and staff from an Alpine hotel near the border with Austria because of a high risk of avalanche, an army spokesman said.
    Record amounts of snow in recent days had made it impossible to leave the area by road, and the hotel had lost power. Army and finance police helicopters were among those used in the evacuation.
    In Switzerland, hosting the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, authorities went on avalanche alert on Monday after fresh snow smothered much of the Alps. The accumulation of snow was the highest since 1999.

    22 Jan: TheLocalFrance: French Alps: 100 Chamonix chalets evacuated due to extreme snow
    More than 100 chalets in one of France’s best known ski resorts near Mont Blanc were evacuated Monday and hundreds of people were told to stay indoors because of avalanche risks.
    “The situation is extraordinary: we’ve had the equivalent of five months of precipitation in just 45 days,” the mayor of the Chamonix resort, Eric Fournier, told AFP, adding that such snowfall “occurs once every fifteen years”.
    Over 1,000 residents had been contacted by midday, Fournier said: “We’re asking them to stay inside and to close up shutters on the sides exposed” to potential avalanche flows.

    Most roads leading out of Chamonix toward Switzerland have been closed to traffic, isolating some villages, and ski lifts were not operating.
    The avalanche risk was set at the maximum of five for Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak, as well as the Aravis and Chablais ranges in the French Alps.

    Along with the huge amounts of snow, sleet at higher elevations than usual had made the snowpack extremely heavy.
    “Since becoming mayor in 2008, it’s the first time I’ve had to order evacuation measures,” Fournier said.
    https://www.thelocal.fr/20180122/french-alps-100-chamonix-chalets-evacuated-due-to-extreme-snow

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  • #
    Sceptical Sam

    I purchased a copy of “The Australian Rationalist” yesterday (Summer 2017 edition) because of something that attracted me on the cover (“Viruses that kill”) and because I thought it might deal exclusively with rational thinking.

    I was mistaken. Somebody by the name of Alan Rankin wrote a two page data free piece “Energy efficiency is a security issue”. It was totally irrational.

    Two excerpts:

    1. “Australia could, without resorting to fracking or nuclear power, become a much more energy independent country if only the political will existed. Talk about myopia.
    One way to reduce our dependence on imported oil is to increase the number of vehicles on the road that use less fuel. Vehicle registration fees in Australia are likely to be scrapped in about 20 years, which some say is not soon enough. In the meantime, the fees ought to be completely waived for those people who choose vehicles that significantly reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels – and certainly for electric vehicles.”

    2. “Where is the legislation to initiate large solar powered charging stations at country locations where truckies frequently park for sleep?”

    Apparently, according to the footnote, Alan Rankin is an engineer.

    It looks like the irrational green-left is working its way, Gramsci like, through the Rationalist Society of Australia. Engineers are not immune it would seem.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      It seems you can call yourself an “engineer” just like you can call yourself a “climate scientist”.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Sceptical Sam:

      I think that if you bother enquiring you will find that his only claim to the profession is as a “Social Engineer”, but why waste your time?
      Obviously unemployable (outside politics).
      As for the magazine I think it would be appropriate to use it to light your next bonfire.

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  • #
    Delta

    Have a look at this looming disaster from AEMO! Australia’s energy operator proposes ‘fast change’ scenario to cut emissions by 52 percent by 2030.

    Read AEMO’s report that invites submissions by late February. What an absolute disaster if any of this stuff gets off the ground! Apart from the serious technical errors and misinformation in the report, if any of the options is adopted, it would require massive investment dollars and result in an unstable grid that was more difficult to manage if at all possible. As for Australian industry, our economy could be easily destroyed with this sort of irrational focus. Still what can we expect from a green zealot from New York appointed to run AEMO. (Take a look at her track record from the stories that appear with a simple search). Now who appointed her, how and why?

    Forgetting about that, what to do about the report?

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    • #
      Anto

      Gob-smackingly insane. This is how civilisations die – the rise of theocracy over meritocracy.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Anto:

        Are you referring to the original or to the comments below. Given the intelligence shown by the latter I wonder how they ever learnt to write.
        One thing is certain SMH stands for Stupid Moron Hope.

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    • #
      yarpos

      Its the usual story of the mercenary manager. Have to make the big changes to be seen as the action person and justify the package and bonuses. Hype it up on the resume and then sod off before the excrement hits the fan

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    • #
      beowulf

      This is what I was pointing out 2 threads back. She wants complete change within 5 to 10 years. I knew it wouldn’t be long before her radical zealotry exerted itself on AEMO and here it comes. She really believes the crap she pedals.

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      • #
        beowulf

        Allow me to repeat part of what I wrote in reply to Ted O’Brien re Audrey Zibelman:

        You need to understand the depths of her zealotry and her supreme confidence in her own opinions and abilities. She is an eco-activist lawyer who has somehow re-badged herself as a power grid expert. She believes in “deep de-carbonisation”, smart grids, “the rapid democratisation of energy”, “citizen-utilities” and demand management. She believes she has all the answers. Unsurprisingly, she’s a fan of Finkel.

        From the Australian Financial Review: “. . . she warned objections cannot be allowed to derail grid modernisation.” By “modernisation” she means her technically deficient, piecemeal version of what a grid should look like. She puts it bluntly: “The present model is inefficient, too costly, and unsustainable in light of climate change and the cost of maintaining ageing and inefficient power systems.”

        She is definitely NOT a fan of coal power stations like Hazelwood. She waffles about lowering power costs but has zero idea of actual costs involved, other than “wind and solar power are getting cheaper” and have zero marginal cost. Maths is not her strong suit.

        “. . . demand, rather than generation, can become the state’s primary energy resource,” Ms Zibelman wrote in IEEE Power & Energy’s May/June 2016 issue. Not sure how that works, but it seems to revolve around subsidies for reducing demand rather than actually producing any useful power.

        Most of the articles about her are either carefully crafted press releases or sycophantic pieces by ignorant financial writers or green activists. It is hard to get her true measure; the real woman only comes through when she speaks off the cuff as in tweets and the informal interview she gave to the women’s magazine I referred to originally.

        In my opinion this woman’s aims are dangerous and she needs watching carefully, or better still, to be sent packing before she can achieve too much damage with her single-minded zealotry. She is the very last person we should have in charge of a grid that is already teetering on the brink.

        I think the ominous “objections cannot be allowed to derail grid modernisation” gives an idea of her modus operandi. Expect a steamroller approach to any who question her ideas.

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        • #
          C. Paul Barreira

          And appointed by whom?

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        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          “Ms Zibelman has extensive international experience in the public, private and not-for profit energy sectors, “. Says AEMO. Somewhat ironic.

          There’s a clause up there that should be noted. “…demand, rather than generation, can become the state’s primary energy resource,”

          Who teaches economics these days?

          And, Paul, you’ve nailed the biggest problem here. That’s where the sacking should start!

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    • #

      When you reflect on how well Communism was promoted, funded, supported and even militarily defended by Western elites in the last century, there should be no surprise that a rebadged Communism is finding similar support now from the same or similar elites.

      When they say that Zibelman is interested in “renewable energy and smart grids” it means she is here to promote energy beggary and government intrusion into every life and home. This in the country that sings of “gold and soil and wealth for toil” because it’s “young and free”. This in a country stupendously rich in coal, uranium and gas, which said elites are more than eager to see as trade items but not as resources for domestic use. Now isn’t that an odd thing? But now that the Useful Idiots and Herd of Independent Minds have learned to chant “market” in the course of what is called their higher education, it can all be explained in ways to appeal to us silly-billies who take the freedom thing too literally.

      Communism is about beggary and intrusion. Beggary and intrusion are what these people do. It’s what Audrey wants to do by imposing antique peashooter technologies on our grid and powerful new monitoring technologies on our private lives.

      Feel free to call me an anti-globalist hysteric, conspiracy theorist etc. Badges of honour as far as I’m concerned.

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    pat

    23 Jan: Killeen Daily Herald: AP: The Latest: Avalanche danger prompts evacuations in Italy
    (SCROLL DOWN) The U.N. weather agency says the Alps are seeing “remarkable snow quantities” even for this part of winter.
    A spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization says snow levels are starkly different from the previous year, when there was a drought in the mountain range.
    Clare Nullis told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that “this year we have more snow than we know what to do with” and this has resulted in elevated risk of avalanches.
    Nullis said the extreme weather was partly the result of a change in the jet stream, which has been carrying successive storms to western Europe in recent weeks.
    http://kdhnews.com/news/world/the-latest-un-say-alps-seeing-remarkable-amount-of-snowfall/article_1e70fe99-3782-50d4-977a-657662d77efd.html

    WaPo is amongst the MSM, mostly local media, carrying the AP Nullis comments – behind paywall:

    The Latest: Avalanche danger prompts evacuations in Italy
    Washington Post – 7 hours ago
    The U.N. weather agency says the Alps are seeing “remarkable snow quantities” even for this part of winter. A spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization says snow levels are starkly different from the previous year, when there was a drought in the mountain range. Clare Nullis told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that “this year we have more snow than we know what to do with” and this has resulted in elevated risk of avalanches. Nullis said the extreme weather was partly the result of a change in the jet stream, which has been carrying successive storms to western Europe in recent weeks…

    google search of “Clare Nullis + snow” brought up the following as #3 and #5 on first page of results!

    6 Jan: Newsweek: It’s So Hot in Australia Roads Are Melting Under ‘Blast Furnace’ Heat

    Dec 2016: Reuters: Earth’s temperature to dip but still sizzle in 2017 – Reuters

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    • #
      Annie

      If road surfaces are melting in not unusual temperatures here then the roads have not been made to adequate standards. Last year we drove from Abu Dhabi to Dubai in the middle of the day when the car temp. guage showed 50C (and a spike to 51C). There was no sign of melting of the road surface. 40C+ is common enough here in the summer…no excuse, and no reason to hype it as all the tabloid rags have done.

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      • #
        Robber

        Asphalt is produced to a specification known as softening point. Softening point should be higher than the hottest day temperature, which is anticipated in that area otherwise bitumen may sufficiently soften and result in bleeding and development of ruts.

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        • #
          John F. Hultquist

          I suspect that many years ago asphalt roads were placed before specifications were as demanding as now. Also, it is likely the character of the underlying roadbed was inadequate for the heavier vehicles now being used.
          Six years ago the WUWT site had a post on this issue because a large airplane had rolled off the runway onto a side-strip of asphalt. That strip was not designed to carry a large modern jet.
          The WUWT site shows an example from the “Oregon Department of Transportation via Oregon State University”, except the photo is from just east of downtown Spokane, WA. I’ve been there.

          WUWT July 2012

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    • #
      yarpos

      Basically what Annie said. It used to get to 55C on my drive on real heatwave days when I lived in Melbourne. The road beside wasnt melting or anything like it. Much nicer now we have gone bush, with no urban heat island things cool down well after sunset.

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    • #
      el gordo

      ‘Nullis said the extreme weather was partly the result of a change in the jet stream, which has been carrying successive storms to western Europe in recent weeks.’

      Not ‘partly’, totally.

      The WMO is clutching at straws.

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    John of Cloverdale WA

    Oh, the irony.
    Too much global warming snow is killing the ski season.
    And at Davos, on the agenda at the World Economic Forum is Global Warming.
    How will Greens ex bank teller and Finance Spokesperson, SH-Y, cope.

    As famous physicist, Richard Feynman once said:

    Reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

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  • #
    pat

    behind paywall:

    Heavy snow and avalanches strand thousands at ski villages across the Alps
    Washington Post-4 hours ago
    It has been snowing almost continuously since early December across parts of the Alps; Tignes, in the French Alps, has gotten almost ***17 feet of snow in the past six weeks. Snow has clogged the slopes at Chamonix where the lifts were not even spinning Monday before reopening Tuesday. In Austria’s …

    22 Jan: BBC: Zermatt: Snow cuts off Swiss ski resort for second time in 2018
    Some parts of the Swiss Alps have had three metres (9.9ft) of fresh snow in just one week – a level last reached in 1999…
    Some residents were also evacuated in the Swiss town of Davos, where world and business leaders are gathering for the World Economic Forum this week…
    More snow was forecast on Monday, but the authorities say they do not expect it to disrupt the exclusive talks in Davos, which are due to include the likes of US President Donald Trump and France’s Emmanuel Macron…

    Davos Billionaires Meet at World Economic Forum in Switzerland
    Bloomberg · 19 hours ago

    headline changed to:

    24 Jan: Bloomberg: Trump Set to Attend Reception With Executives: Davos Update
    With assistance by Chad Thomas, and Andrew J Barden
    India Warns About Risks to Civilization (12:21 p.m.)
    Climate change is one of the three key challenges facing human civilization, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a speech. While the impact of extreme weather is on the rise, few countries are backing promises to curb carbon emissions with action, he said…

    Trump’s Tariffs Threaten Jobs, Environment (11:58 a.m.)
    The U.S. president’s decision to impose tariffs on solar panels and washing machines won’t help the American economy, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said…

    Concerns About Trump’s Coal Shift (9:18 a.m.)
    President Trump’s decision to apply import tariffs as high as 30 percent on solar equipment made abroad is a cause for concern, says Petrobras CEO Pedro Parente on Davos panel. Trump’s move when “linked to the fact that they are actually stimulating coal in the U.S. again — so it’s something that concerns because probably we’ll see again coal increasing and probably the numbers will be even worse.”…

    Brexit Backlash (7:40 a.m.)
    Customers are cautious about recruiting permanent staff in Britain, showing Brexit impact, and investment has decreased in sectors including financial services in London, Adecco CEO Alain Dehaze said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “Everybody is waiting for clarity,” he said…

    Trump’s Tariffs Threaten Jobs, Environment (11:58 a.m.)
    The U.S. president’s decision to impose tariffs on solar panels and washing machines won’t help the American economy, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said. “It’s bad for the global environment, it’s bad for the American economy, it’s bad for jobs in the United States,” the Columbia University economics professor told Bloomberg Television. “You can’t build the world that we had in 1950, 1960 — that’s not going to come back. So what we have to do is find new industries, like installing solar panels. And what are we doing? We’re making it more difficult to install solar panels.”…

    The start of the meeting was disrupted by the heaviest snowfall in almost half a century. “In the past 48 hours came more than 2 meters of snow and that’s a big problem,” said Davos Mayor Tarzisius Caviezel.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-23/trump-tariffs-reverberate-as-modi-sells-india-inc-davos-update

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    • #
      Another Ian

      Pat

      Have you mentioned that Samsung is about to start output from a white goods factory in US so those sanctions don’t mean much?

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      • #
        Hasbeen

        On the contrary, it means Trump’s policies are winning.

        Those white goods may have Samsung on the name plate, but it will be US raw materials & labour used in making them.

        This is exactly what he is after.

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        John F. Hultquist

        One of Trump’s intentions, and thus his boisterous actions, is for the Congress Critters to “do your job.” Their job is to debate issues and create laws.
        Example, announcing the rescinding of the status of the, so called, Dreamers – – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Trump administration gave Congress a window to act — “Do your Job” — before actually doing anything.
        Here’s the thing, as one writer put it months ago: Don’t take him literally, but do take him seriously.”

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    John of Cloverdale WA

    Another tipping point.
    World Economic Forum Agenda: Why 2018 must be a pivotal year for climate action.

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  • #

    ELECTRICAL POWER FOR WHEN IT IS NEEDED

    As I have mentioned so often now, Australia (the AEMO coverage area) has 16 coal fired power plants with 49 Units.

    Right now, 11.30AM Wednesday 24Jan2018, there is only ONE unit not in operation, and that’s the Liddell Unit Number Two, now shut down for 7 Months.

    It’s the first time I have seen this since I started doing the data collection 30 weeks ago now.

    Coal Fired Power has a Nameplate of 23019MW and take out Liddell 2 and that leaves a total Nameplate of 22519MW. Keep in mind some of those older Units cannot make their original Nameplate in much the same manner as Hazelwood couldn’t after its 53 years, but they can still get close.

    Right now, coal fired power is delivering 20,000MW of power. That equates to a Capacity Factor (CF) of 88.8%.

    The total current Demand, (power being consumed) is 26107MW.

    So, coal fired power is delivering 76.6% of that total.

    Hydro is delivering 8.8% of the total.

    Wind power is delivering 2.6% of the total. That equates to 867MW and gives wind power a current CF of 15.8%, so of the 2100 or so wind towers, only 330 of them are actually turning over and generating power.

    20000MW from coal fired versus 867MW from Wind power.

    The ancient and soon to be closed Liddell plant only has 3 Units currently in operation. They are delivering 1200MW, almost 40% more power than EVERY wind plant in Australia.

    Quick, close it down.

    Tony.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      No. Don’t close Liddell. Abolish the RET and other imposts on coal fired stations. Then Liddell can stand on its own feet.

      Pay whatever compensation is due, because that will be far less than the cost of continuing to pander to the lie that CO2 is harmful.

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    pat

    registration required:

    22 Jan: UK Telegraph: Joe Shute: What the Davos elite really gets up to: Wild parties, secret dinners and shark canapés
    Helicopters thrum overhead and the narrow streets are clogged with an endless procession of limousines as the population swells from 11,000 to an estimated 30,000. And that is before Donald Trump and his travelling retinue pitch up on Friday…
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/01/22/wild-parties-secret-dinners-shark-canapes-global-elite-really/

    PressReader has a different headline, but right-click and click “copy” if you want to read about the excesses of this allegedly CAGW-concerned mob, without having to navigate the page:

    PressReader: 23 Jan: UK Telegraph: Joe Shute: That’s snow business
    What really goes on at Davos
    https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph/20180123/281479276836360

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    Robber

    Delta, we need to coordinate submissions to AEMO about their approach. One immediate thing I notice from their Exec Summary is a very minimal reference to affordable electricity.
    They repeat the mantra that renewables are cheaper. “Technology cost trajectories indicate that wind and photovoltaic (PV) generation are now among the cheapest forms of new bulk energy generation globally 4, with cost reductions predicted to continue in Australia 5,6.
    4 Lazard. Levelised cost of energy 2017.
    5 Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
    6
    Hayward, J.A. and Graham, P.W. 2017, Electricity generation technology cost projections: 2017-2050, CSIRO, Australia.

    The CSIRO report only shows future generation from coal costs with carbon capture, so already misleading. And then they quote wind generation costs without backup. This from what used to be a scientific organisation?

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      The last paragraph is right on target.

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      CSIRO ceased being a scientific organisation the day The Hon. Neville Wran AC, CNZM, QC, took on the job of Chairman in 1986.

      A student of Gramsci, he and the rest of the leftist rabble have succeeded in subverting most of the institutions of government in Australia.

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      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        National President of the ALP, which should never be dignified with the title Australian Labor Party.

        Having recently escaped by the skin of his teeth from a Royal Commission or two.

        That action marked the hijacking of the absolutely marvellous CSIRO into the realm of partisan politics. Neville Wran was the first non scientist to hold the position of Chairman.

        The CSIRO though is still doing great stuff in other fields. Note the still amazing 50 years old radio telescope at Parkes for one example. A world leader for all of those 50 years! The CSIRO in cooperation with the world!

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  • #
    Extreme Hiatus

    Looks like Australia’s drift leftward started early.

    “Geologists matching rocks from opposite sides of the globe have found that part of Australia was once attached to North America 1.7 billion years ago.

    Researchers from Curtin University in Australia examined rocks from the Georgetown region of northern Queensland. The rocks — sandstone sedimentary rocks that formed in a shallow sea — had signatures that were unknown in Australia but strongly resembled rocks that can be seen in present-day Canada.”

    https://www.livescience.com/61490-chunk-of-north-america-in-australia.html

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    • #
      John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

      Since ancient Australia was on the other side of Antarctica to North America in the Early Triassic, that is unbelievable.
      Must have been a number of reorganizations for that to happen.
      But nothing surprises me in Plate Tectonics, if it doesn’t fit there, put it somewhere else. And if the age of recovered ancient ocean rocks (by deep sea drilling and dredging) are older than the cartoon ocean magnetic anomalies, ignore them.

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      • #
        Extreme Hiatus

        John, I know very little about this topic so it may well be as “unbelievable” as you suggest. But it did have some interesting looking maps and the rock connection seemed, well, solid enough.

        Or do they adjust rocks now too?

        In any case, I thought their proposed drift leftward – as shown on their maps – fit with the political drift that has led Australia to where it is now. Of course, if they showed the global maps upside down versus the usual view it would have been a drift rightward…

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        • #
          John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

          No offense “Extreme Hiatus”,
          ……………”sandstone sedimentary rocks that formed in a shallow sea — had signatures that were unknown in Australia but strongly resembled rocks that can be seen in present-day Canada.”
          Admittedly, I have not read the paper, but that statement is not very encouraging for me as proof of anything.
          An example, is that India has geological rock age affinities with Asian rocks, when supposedly, according to Plate Tectonic lore, it was detaching itself from Antarctica and setting sail for some 200 million years, as an island, across the Panthalassan Ocean to conveniently dock into a gap in Asia.
          (Meyerhoff, A. A., and Meyerhoff, H. A., 1972, The new global tectonics: major inconsistencies, Bull. Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geologists, 56, p. 269–336. &
          Meyerhoff, A.A., Boucot, A.J., Meyerhoff Hull, D. & Dickins, J.M., 1996b. Phanerozoic Faunal & Floral Realms of the Earth (Memoir 189). Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America.)

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            Extreme Hiatus

            That India example is an eye-opener. I had assumed that field was more scientifically settled. Could be worse than I thought.

            Or, if we go post-modern sciency: maybe India sailed from Asia to Antarctica, and it didn’t feel right, so sailed back? Then everybody would be right and all get a medal.

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            • #
              John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

              As the late Prof Sam Carey used to tell his students and colleagues:

              We are blinded by what we think we know, therefore disbelieve if you can!

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        The breakup of Pangea was in the late Triassic over 200-210 m.y.a. The Rodinia supercontinent was about 1 billion years ago. The possible Columbia supercontinent about 1.8 billion years ago would seem to be the one they are referring to, despite it being speculative in timing, composition and arrangement. Still, I’m not a geologist just a sceptic.

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    yarpos

    Last night I was checking BOM site re extreme weather , specifcally cyclone frequency and intensity. I had a bit of a to and fro with them about the graph they had not updated for quite a few years now. My cynical nature was telling me that it had gone off narrative and was becoming embarrasing. Sure enough the response came back that they were looking at “better” representations and the current theory was that cyclones will become less frequent but more intense.

    I wanted to capture the graph, and then build missing 5 or six years it hasnt taken them to look at better representations, with publically available cyclone info. Imagine my surpise when I found they have updated it ! Its still going off narrative, but now comes with a good load of weasel words trying to rationalise why.

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    • #
      el gordo

      Well done yarpos, the power of one.

      Cyclones would occur less often in a warmer world, yet stronger when they occasionally turn up.

      Sounds irrational and unscientific, but with an open mind I’ll follow it up.

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      • #
        yarpos

        Dont think it had much to do with me , I think quite a few people had been asking by the speed and the detail of the response. I think they realised not updating or deleting would trigger a shitstorm, which they probably dont need at the moment.

        The theory re less frequent / more severe is yet another convenient positioning like the global warming produces less snow/colder winters/whatever we make up. We have always had periodic severe cyclones (Tracey, Winifred, Yasi and others) but now when one eventually turns up (and it will) they will be saying see! we told you so. Its just another but of cant lose positioning.

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          el gordo

          I want BoM to admit that the blocking high pressure over NZ is causing heatwaves in south east Australia.

          Cold fronts are off the radar in this Austral summer, but we can expect cool winds from the southern ocean within a few days and it will hang around.

          By season’s end the temperatures overall will probably be close to average.

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      el gordo

      It began with a NOAA feed and BoM involvement.

      http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s2827042.htm

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      Ted O'Brien.

      For years I cited NOAA’s tidesandcurrents sea level records, with Sydney’s Fort Denison in particular, as evidence that there has been no change which gives cause for alarm.

      Fort Denison, one of the world’s best kept records, showed a remarkably steady rise of 0.65 mm/years over more than a century, with no hockey stick as late as 2010.

      Then they terminated their chart! Why? I occasionally went looking for, but didn’t find, later records. Fort Denison hasn’t moved. Then I found a government site, I don’t recall where, where I am sure I read that each month the Fort Denison tide gauge is cleaned and recalibrated.

      That word recalibrated alarmed me greatly, so I wrote of this to at least Jennifer Maharosy. When I went looking for the page again I couldn’t find it. But I am sure that the word was recalibrated, and it was removed. So just what is going on?

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    pat

    still a media darling:

    23 Jan: LA Times: Tesla unveils pay plan for Elon Musk: He could get nothing for 10 years
    By Russ Mitchell and Jim Puzzanghera
    Tesla Inc. released a new compensation plan for Chief Executive Elon Musk on Tuesday, with payments dependent on massive increases in the electric car maker’s stock market value.
    The announcement comes as Tesla prepares to report 2017 financial results that are expected to include massive cash losses…

    The eye-popping part: The new plan envisions the Palo Alto company’s value skyrocketing. It sets market value targets in 12 increments, starting at $100 billion and topping out at $650 billion. (The company’s current market value is about $59 billion.)
    If the stock hits none of the milestones, Musk would get nothing…

    It’s unclear how much the financial rewards will motivate Musk, who already is a billionaire and by all indications isn’t in it simply to get rich…
    Currently, Musk owns about 22% of Tesla shares, worth about $13 billion. Those shares are not at risk under the new pay plan…

    The plan reflects the audacious nature of the Tesla endeavor. The company sees itself not simply as an electric car manufacturer, but rather, as it said Tuesday, as the “world’s first vertically integrated sustainable energy company.”…

    The vision: Tesla cars and Tesla trucks charged by Tesla storage batteries powered by Tesla solar roof systems. Plus, Tesla-brand utility-scale battery farms that store green power when the winds don’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
    “I actually see the potential for Tesla to become a trillion-dollar company within a 10-year period,” Musk told the New York Times…

    For now, Tesla continues to hemorrhage billions in cash as it loses money on every vehicle it produces…
    The company can’t hope to begin turning profits until its new Model 3 electric sedan is produced in high volume. The car was released in July, and Tesla was supposed to be producing them at a rate of hundreds of thousands per year by now.

    But “production hell” problems, as Musk has called them, have caused major delays. Tesla’s battery manufacturing line in Nevada and its auto assembly line in Fremont, Calif., are struggling to do their work at the necessary volume…

    Tesla reported delivering only 1,770 Model 3s in 2017. Musk isn’t the first automobile entrepreneur to struggle with production: In 1903, when Henry Ford launched the Model A, only 1,708 were sold in the first year…

    Under one scenario – far-fetched but possible if investor sentiment remains enthusiastic – Tesla could reach a $550-billion valuation with revenue of $175 billion without making a cent in profit, and Musk would still score big…
    Shareholders will be asked to approve the plan at a special meeting in March…
    In its news release Tuesday, the company did not mention vehicle production as part of the new pay plan.
    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-tesla-musk-pay-20180123-story.html

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      pat:

      “could get nothing for 10 years” sounds like what the shareholders can look forward to as well.

      40

  • #
    yarpos

    “Tesla reported delivering only 1,770 Model 3s in 2017. Musk isn’t the first automobile entrepreneur to struggle with production: In 1903, when Henry Ford launched the Model A, only 1,708 were sold in the first year…”

    Quite the comparison isnt it? imagine the size of the market and what producing 1700 vehicles meant in 1903 vs 2017. Quite a ridiculous comparison.

    “In its news release Tuesday, the company did not mention vehicle production as part of the new pay plan.”

    Well of course not. That is real and can be measured, much better to be measured on hype and mainpulation.

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      Total production of cars in the US in 1900 was 4,192. Which makes Ford’s figures for 1903 pretty phenomenal.

      By the way, about a third of the cars in major US cities around 1900 were electric. Like wind turbines, they’re a pretty old idea and they haven’t evolved all that much. Batteries are still heavy and filling is still a headache.

      But, as we know, Elon is not just Henry Ford. He can cross the street and become Robert Goddard. Then he can cross another street and become George Westinghouse or Thomas Edison. Then he can hit the clubs. What a guy.

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    pat

    23 Jan: Guardian: Canadian climate science faces crisis that may be felt globally, scientists warn
    In a letter to Justin Trudeau, 250 scientists highlight their concern over the imminent end of a research program to better understand climate change
    by Ashifa Kassam in Toronto
    Canadian climate science is facing a looming crisis whose repercussions could be felt far beyond the country’s borders, hundreds of scientists have warned, after the Canadian government failed to renew the country’s only dedicated funding program for climate and atmospheric research.
    In an open letter addressed to Justin Trudeau (LINK), more than 250 scientists from 22 countries highlight their concern over the imminent end of the C$35m Climate Change and Atmospheric Research program…

    As the Trump administration seeks to devalue climate science, Canada’s commitment to climate research is needed now more than ever, said signatory Benjamin D Santer, a senior climate researcher at the US Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. “The world is looking to Canada for political leadership that the United States is currently unable to provide,” he said.
    While Trudeau government’s stated support for climate science and the Paris climate agreement has been encouraging, “such support cannot be limited to fine-sounding words”, he said. “It must be backed by a real commitment to preserve and sustain the unique climate measurement, climate monitoring, and climate modeling capabilities that Canada possesses.”…
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/22/canada-climate-science-faces-looming-crisis

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  • #
    kevin george

    Out having a smoke tonight, felt something tickle my ankle, looked down and saw a Skunk sniffing around.

    Probably the same friendly little critter I bumped into last winter,

    Keeps the Coyotes and Bobcats at bay.

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    • #
      kevin george

      Being winter where I am.

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    • #

      “Out having a smoke tonight, felt something tickle my ankle, looked down and saw a Skunk sniffing around.”

      Ah! Extra-terrestrial Critter from when?
      “Probably the same friendly little critter I bumped into last winter,”…Yep! Yust little cute guy wanting to explain simple ‘stink’ that keeps the Coyotes and Bobcats at bay. Saves lotsa ammunition! 🙂

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    pat

    23 Jan: Townhall: Hey, Feds, Take Your Ethanol Mandate and Shovel It!
    by Tom Purcell
    My back is sore from shoveling snow – and it’s the federal government’s fault. Maybe I’d better explain.
    We’ve been getting lots of snow in Pittsburgh of late. When it snows, I need to clear two driveways: mine, which is 50 yards long, and my father’s, which is almost as big.

    Since my father is having trouble with his knees, I gave him my magnificent new Toro snowblower; it’s a convenience for me to have it in his garage, so I can clear his driveway in fewer than 15 minutes.
    I purchased an equally powerful, used snowblower to tend to my own driveway. It helps me clear my monster driveway in fewer than 30 minutes or so. On a snowy winter day, I am able to clear both driveways in less than an hour – assuming I can get the snowblowers running.
    But neither would start during the first heavy snow of the year. And that’s thanks to the federal government.
    Why? Because of ethanol, an alcohol, made mostly from corn, that can be mixed with gasoline to fuel automobiles and other engines.

    Ethanol-blended gas became a government requirement in 2005, as part of the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates that biofuels be added to transportation fuels in increasing amounts each year…READ ON
    https://townhall.com/columnists/tompurcell/2018/01/23/hey-feds-take-your-ethanol-mandate-and-shovel-it-n2438044?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

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      Dennis

      Petrol containing Ethanol has a very short storage life and I only use Premium Unleaded Petrol for lawn tractor, outboard motor and other home use machinery with internal combustion engine.

      However PULP also has a life in storage of maybe 6 to 12 months depending on conditions where stored. There are additives that extend Petrol storage life by increasing the Octane rating to refresh the fuel or maintain a satisfactory level for a longer period.

      My expensive lesson relates to a Honda 130 HP 4-Stroke Outboard on my boat which has a 160 Litre Fuel Tank capacity. Tired after a couple of days on the water camping on board overnight and towing the boat home I stopped to top up the Fuel Tank with 90 Litres to fill it again. In error I used E10 Petrol.

      As it happened the boat was not launched again for nearly one year and before launching I had it serviced. On the water leaving the ramp and low speed zone at 4 Knots for about ten minutes the Honda was performing normally. As soon as I opened the throttle the motor started backfiring and stalling. I cleaned the fuel system including checking the secondary filter but no improvement. So at 4 Knots were motored back to the boat ramp.

      Mechanic diagnosis was rubber fuel lines, seals and fuel pump all badly damaged. Ethanol had claimed another victim.

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      James

      Can you get Ethanol free 91 octane in Pittsburg? There are plenty of stations selling it in upstate NY. That is all I buy for my small motors. This website may help you find some.

      https://www.pure-gas.org/extensions/map.html

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    pat

    this is ridiculous:

    24 Jan: ABC: Australia Day events in Adelaide cancelled due to hot weather but cricketers will bat it out
    ABC Radio Adelaide By Malcolm Sutton
    Posted about an hour ago
    Australia Day events are being cancelled in Adelaide as the city braces for another spell of hot weather, a week after the Tour Down Under had to be altered to accommodate extreme temperatures.

    Friday’s forecast of 38 degrees Celsius has prompted several local councils to reschedule family and children’s events, while wineries participating in the Adelaide Hills Crush Festival have cancelled about a third of 50 planned events.
    The wine region celebration runs throughout the long weekend but will be suppressed by an even hotter 42C forecast for both Saturday and Sunday…
    The City of Charles Sturt Council postponed Friday’s Movies Under The Stars event, while the City of West Torrens cancelled its All Together Now festival.
    An Australia Day Family Picnic scheduled by the City of Salisbury has also been scrapped…

    Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Tom Boeck said the hot weather was on track to arrive as expected.

    “The good news is there is a change expected to be developing Sunday night,” he said.
    “It’s a significant change in terms of dropping the temperature. We’re looking at a maximum of just 24C on Monday, which will be a nice change.”
    People planning on attending events have been advised to keep checking if they’re going ahead…

    The hot weather has not changed the minds of tens of thousands of people expected to attend the one-day international cricket match between Australia and England at Adelaide Oval…
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-24/some-australia-day-events-cancelled-in-adelaide-due-to-heat/9355894

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    • #

      I learned a salutary lesson at the age of nine and a half without even realising it at the time.

      In 1960, our family of seven moved from ‘mexico’ (Victoria) to Queensland. Originally, Mum and Dad and us two oldest children, me and my younger Sister, the second oldest, went to Labrador (near Southport) on The Gold Coast for a four week holiday to stay with Family friends who had moved to the Gold Coast two years earlier. Mum and Dad loved it so much, they decided to leave the two of us children with that family friend, go back to Victoria, pick up the remaining three children, pack up and move.

      When we arrived for that holiday, it was the depths of Winter in Victoria, and when the train pulled into the platform at South Brisbane, it was still Winter, only now a Queensland Winter. What we couldn’t figure out was why those people in Brisbane were rugged up against the cold, when I was in shorts and shirtsleeves as was Dad, with Mum and my sister wearing only their Summer dresses, as to us, it was really quite warm, in fact almost the equivalent of Summer back where we had come from in Victoria. To us, it wasn’t even cool, let alone the cold of Winter.

      It took us two years to acclimatise, and even then, the Queensland Winter was still a lot warmer than I was used to.

      My sister and I would watch the ABC news each night, more at Mum’s insistence, because she wanted us to be aware of what was going on in the World, and the ABC News in the early 60s was nothing like it is now. My sister and I would love to watch the weather reports at almost 7.30 at the end of the News, because we would take friendly ‘bets’ on what town in Queensland would have the Maximum. The coldest was always a shoe-in, always Stanthorpe, but the maximum was always shared around among five or so towns in outback Queensland, and why we loved it so much was the names of the towns, always sounding so quaint to young minds. Even in Winter, we were both astonished that the temperatures were always in the 90s, and in Summer, always between 105 and 110, and sometimes higher. (40C to 44C) Urandangie, Cunnamulla, Longreach, Barcaldine, and a couple of others more often than not shared that daily State maximum.

      However, the lesson I unwittingly learned is that, no matter where you are living, you get used to the temperatures where you are living.

      The people living in those outback towns were used to those temperatures.

      They only sound high to those of us living in places where it is nowhere near as hot, and we find it hard to imagine. If we found that temperature too hot, it was because we thought of what it would be like if WE, from a cooler climate had to live all the time in temperatures like that, while those who actually live in it all the time are used to it.

      People adapt to where they are living. We adapted to the temperature on the Gold Coast after two years or so, and come (the Queensland) Winter even we started to feel a lot cooler to the point of wearing a jumper to school, quite often removed before Lunch.

      BUT, where we were originally, and then jumping straight into it, that cooler Queensland Winter temperature was perceived as still being quite hot, if you can see the point.

      So, when they broadcast the weather these days and they say extreme temperatures, they are extreme for those of us not used to it, while the people who live there brush it off as just Summer, and pretty much normal.

      I hope you can see the point I’m trying to make here.

      It’s being used as a stick to beat us with.

      Tony.

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      • #
        TedM

        A good point made Tony.

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        John of Cloverdale WA

        During my career, I have lived in Australia (Sydney & Perth), Asia (Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok), south of London and Los Angeles. Each has its weather characteristics and climate, like Asia when the late afternoon thunderstorms roll in after a hot day and England with the long summer days. People adapt wherever they are but as the ancient Romans found out, people generally love warm weather better.

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    • #
      toorightmate

      SA is so ridiculous, you could cancel every day.
      This might save QLD and WA propping it up with GST.

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  • #
    pat

    23 Jan: Guardian: Adam Vaughan: Off-peak charging vital for electric car power supply, experts say
    UK energy system can cope with rise of battery-powered vehicles if 4-6pm slot avoided, says report
    The number of battery-powered cars on Britain’s roads will grow from around 120,000 today to 10m by 2035 and pass the 17m mark five years later, predicted Aurora Energy Research…

    If those millions of drivers return home from work and charge their cars immediately during the peak hours of 4-6pm, that would add around 3GW, the equivalent capacity of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, to peak power demand.

    The report said the alternative to that “dumb” scenario is “smart” charging, where car owners are encouraged to use cheaper tariffs at off-peak times or relinquish control of their charging to an energy firm. That scenario would add just 0.5GW of peak demand…

    “There are many scare stories out there suggesting our power system cannot cope with the growth in electric vehicles. On the contrary, our research suggests that, provided EV charging is smart, the GB power system can easily accommodate 15m-plus electric cars,” said Richard Howard, head of research at Aurora.

    He said the extra peak demand in a smart world was an insignificant increase, but it could not be taken for granted that motorists would change their habits.
    “You need to have the technology in place and suppliers offering tariffs and behavioural change. There is also a role for government,” he said…

    Howard admitted that most chargers today are “dumb” and the technology for smart charging will not arrive for the next two to three years, but said he was confident that it would happen.
    “To an extent it’s fine [that it’s dumb] because there’s still only 120,000 electric cars on the road. But when you get to millions you have to have it right, and normalise it from the start.”
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/23/off-peak-charging-vital-for-electric-car-power-supply-experts-say

    Guardian provides no link to Aurora report. Company website: Aurora was founded in 2013 by University of Oxford Professors and economists that saw the need for a deeper focus on quality analysis…Offices in Oxford and Berlin.

    Aurora: The e-mobility revolution: impact of electric vehicles on the GB power system and emerging utility business models
    To view a sample of our report please click here
    For subscribers, to access the full report, please click on the button below
    https://www.auroraer.com/insight/e-mobility-revolution-impact-of-electric-vehicles-on-the-gb-power-system/

    German power market could cope with switch to electric cars: research
    Reuters-15 Jan. 2018
    FRANKFURT (Reuters) – An anticipated shift to 40 percent electric cars on German roads by 2035 could be absorbed by the power system and generate additional income for utility companies, an independent study by Aurora Energy Research said on Monday.

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      yarpos

      They could do the charging old school like the Swiss. We rented a house there and found a sealed time clock based switch on the washing machine, it stopped you from washing between about 11:00AM and 2:00PM. Apparently lunch was the bigger meal of the day and to control power use, the washing machines in the village were locked out while lunch was being prepared 🙂

      Cant imagine another culture that would work in.

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  • #

    Mea culpa. Bad planning on my part to miss the big fling at Davo’s.

    Unfortunately the private jet sponsored by Big Carbon again failed to show up.
    When I tried to call (2440227266) to complain, the phone just rang out.

    Very inconvenient. All of my snow gear had been packed in preparation for getting piste.
    If I don’t get some nice Russian caviar into me soon, I could develop an intolerance.
    Which could prove more embarrassing than the 2 metres of snow around Davo’s.

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  • #
    Ian1946

    Another SA thought bubble how much will the subsidies cost ?

    http://reneweconomy.com.au/gupta-plans-ev-plant-australia-powered-solar-storage-94177/

    I will be excited to see the multi giga watt battery needed to ensure continuous production.

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    pat

    the Deep State attempted coup against President Trump is unravelling by the day.
    because of the absolute corruption of the MSM, which has virtually ignored this story, it is somewhat difficult to understand this complicated story, which focuses on the DOJ and the FBI plus much more, but it is the biggest political story ever, so try to keep up.

    Watch the first 30mins31secs:

    Youtube: Sean Hannity 1/23/18 | Hannity Fox News January 23, 2018
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k_77hYwfYE

    note. Murdoch family suddenly and immediately pulled Fox News off cable in the UK, just as this story broke big (but only on Fox News and only with the help of investigative reporters John Solomon and Sara Carter, who should receive the Pulitzer Prize for their work).

    Murdoch’s excuse was Fox had low ratings, but that was easy to check and proved to be incorrect (many of the cr*p cable channels have almost no viewers).

    29 Aug 2017: BBC: Sky stops broadcasting Fox News in UK
    Sky is to stop broadcasting Fox News in the UK after low audience figures, the media firm has said.
    21st Century Fox, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, said the channel was being withdrawn as it was not commercially viable.
    The decision was not related to Fox’s takeover bid for Sky, a source told the BBC…

    “[Fox] has decided to cease providing a feed of Fox News Channel in the UK,” a company spokeswoman said.
    “Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK.
    “We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK,” she added.
    Sky stopped broadcasting the US television network in the UK from 4pm on Tuesday…

    ***The source said that Fox News had about 2,000 average daily viewers. The costs of distributing the US network in the UK meant it was not in 21st Century Fox’s commercial interests to continue, the source added.

    However, figures from the Broadcaster’s Audience Research Board (Barb) suggest that Fox News’ average UK daily viewing figures were nearly 60,000 per day this year…
    http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41087659

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      Another Ian

      Pat

      SDA recommendation as to what is going on. Gets a mention in other watching sites too.

      http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2018/01/when-the-fbi-do-3.html

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      • #
        pat

        Another Ian –

        thanks for the link. I wanted to see the Joe DeGenova vid, but tennis and cricket have kept me from it, but will watch it tomorrow morning. “marc in Calgary” has the perfect comment under the vid. everyone involved should be a household name, and would be, if it weren’t for the FakeNewsMSM, especially BBC/ABC which are funded by taxpayers (the Beeb licence fee is still taxpayers).

        should also have said the story only broke on Hannity…not on Fox…because Hannity was alone on this for months. there was even the attempt to get Hannity off Fox, which failed.

        funny thing is, I’ve never been a fan of Hannity or Fox, or any MSM, but Sean has been brilliant on this story. no wonder he’s been getting a lot of hate voicemails.

        also, thankfully, some others on Fox are now reporting on the rapid developments.

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    • #
      James

      My thought is that Trump will release the Memo at the State of the Union Speech. That way the MSM will have no option but to report. It has been very interesting to watch what is going on. Some of the crazy conspiracy theories do not seem to be so crazy now.

      Fox News always seems to be available on youtube. Fox’s legal department seem to have stopped doing the take down thing.

      Hannity episodes seem to be available for every night on youtube as well.

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    “Here’s the thing, as one writer put it months ago: Don’t take Trump literally, but do take him seriously.” P45 seems salesman extraordinary. He can sell you your one ass at profit. Not ‘to much profit’. All feel good about the deal! After all You still have your one ass! 🙂

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    pat

    24 Jan: news.com.au: AAP/Reuters: Australians stranded in Japan with hundreds of flights cancelled due to extreme snowstorm
    TRAVELLERS have been forced to sleep on the floor at Tokyo’s Narita Airport due to the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
    SCORES of Australians were left stranded in Japan as a rare winter storm delivered Tokyo its heaviest snowfall in years, forcing the cancellation of 250 international flights…

    A Korean aircraft was de-iced twice and airport staff were frantically racing to snowplough the runways.
    Sydney-based Nick Lombardo, 20, and his family boarded a Japan Airlines plane bound for Sydney but were told to exit the plane around five hours later…

    It’s understood at some ski fields buses with Australian skiers aboard couldn’t get through the thick snow, causing some passengers to miss their flight entirely…

    The government issued heavy snow warnings for the area around the capital, just two weeks after hundreds of people were trapped overnight in a train in northern Japan due to heavy snow.
    The Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported universities had postponed entrance exams due to have been held on Tuesday morning.

    A looming low pressure system and cold front just off the coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu was expected to bring low temperatures and more snow throughout the day and night, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said…
    The Japanese capital often sees snow at least once a year, but this time it was accumulating, rather than quickly melting.
    http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/australians-stranded-in-japan-with-hundreds-of-flights-cancelled-due-to-extreme-snowstorm/news-story/bad3f91c8add976bd844817b49e4edc1

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Contrariness

      The opposite of Global Warming.

      First Russia, several years ago, then North America, now Japan all headed in the same direction.

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    pat

    23 Jan: Fox News: AP: Parents slam Minnesota district on Facebook amid snowstorm
    MINNEAPOLIS – More than a foot of snow in the Twin Cities has Minnesotans digging out from one of the biggest snowstorms in recent years, and angry parents admonished school officials on social media for not sending students home earlier…
    Schools in the Twin Cities and elsewhere in southern Minnesota closed Tuesday, a day after some students in St. Paul were stranded at schools until 10 p.m.
    The St. Paul School District apologized to parents whose children didn’t make it home until late at night because some buses got stuck in the snow. In some cases, St. Paul police officers delivered students to their houses, the Star Tribune reported…

    It was the highest single-day snowfall total in the Twin Cities in more than five years, topping the 10.5 inches that fell on Dec. 12, 2012. The snow totals were even deeper to the south. Seventeen inches of snow fell in Owatonna, 16.5 inches in Waseca, 12.5 inches in Northfield, 12 inches in Falcon Heights and 11 inches in Stillwater.

    Cities across the metro and the state have declared snow emergencies, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, Mankato, Red Wing, Bloomington, West St. Paul, and Crystal…
    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/23/twin-cities-dig-out-from-storm-that-dropped-foot-snow.html

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    pat

    totally misleading headline. no pics of showing 2,000 protesters in Zurich. only about 20 broke through security in Davos:

    24 Jan: CNBC: Protesters break through security in Davos to march against Trump and the WEF
    • Police estimated that there were approximately 2,000 demonstrators in Zurich. Several hundred people also marched in public squares in Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg
    •Flag-waving demonstrators were seen carrying anti-globalist and environmentalist placards such as, “No Trump, no coal, no gas, no fossil fuels” as they marched near Zurich’s financial district
    • Some protestors also broke through a security cordon in Davos — where protests are strictly forbidden — in order to demonstrate against the WEF and Trump
    by Sam Meredith
    However, around 20 protestors broke through security to reach the Congress Center holding banners and shouting “Wipe out WEF.” The demonstrators were peacefully disbanded by police, according to reports…

    24 Jan: Reuters: Swiss marchers protest against Trump, break through Davos security cordon
    by Michael Shields, Fedja Grulovic
    Anti-capitalists marched through Swiss cities on Tuesday to protest a planned visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to the World Economic Forum (WEF) and broke through a security cordon in Davos.
    Leftists organizers called for the protests under the mottos “Trump Not Welcome” and “Smash WEF!” …

    About 20 demonstrators broke through security to reach the Davos Congress Centre, holding banners and shouting “Wipe out WEF” before they were peacefully disbanded by police.
    “Trump is just one of the other people we disagree with. We’ve been protesting every year now against the World Economic Forum and if Trump comes or not we don’t care. Trump is just, maybe he’s just the best symbol of this world,” protester Alex Hedinger told Reuters TV in Davos…

    Police estimated that there were 2,000 demonstrators in Zurich…
    They carried flags and anti-globalist and environmentalist placards such as “No Trump, no coal, no gas, no fossil fuels” as they marched toward Zurich’s financial district, where bankers had been warned to stay clear of the approved demonstration…

    trust SBS to choose to carry the following report. AFP, which is often more reliable than Reuters, claims only about 1,000 protesters for Zurich:

    24 Jan: SBS: AFP: World Economic Forum: Pro-trade allies rally in Davos ahead of Trump visit
    Kicking off the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canada’s Justin Trudeau defended free trade in the face of Trump’s protectionist “America First” policies…
    Trudeau also demanded radical action to strengthen women’s rights – ???another issue on which Trump has shocked his opponents.

    In Switzerland’s financial centre Zurich, more than a thousand people, including anti-globalists, protested on Tuesday night against the US leader’s visit with banners reading “Trump not welcome” and “Smash WEF”.
    “Trump is the incarnation of sexism, racism, exploitation and corruption,” said protester Michel Zahn, from the Movement for Socialism…

    After spectacular snowfall that stranded some high-flying delegates on the road to the Swiss ski resort, the forum began, basking in robust global growth but facing warnings that the world’s have-nots are missing out more than ever…

    Modi: “We will have to accept the fact that globalisation is slowly losing its lustre,” he said.
    “The solution to this worrisome situation is not isolationism. Its solution is understanding and accepting change and formulating agile and flexible policies for these changing times.”…
    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/world-economic-forum-pro-trade-allies-rally-in-davos-ahead-of-trump-visit

    funny how the globalists inside Davos see Trump as killing off globalism, while the faux anti-globalist protesters outside are protesting against Trump!

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    robert rosicka

    Have heard that GISS use temp measurements over 1000 kilometres apart or guesstimates, can anyone shed more light on this ?

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    yarpos

    Watching some Youtube tonight, and was looking at different peoples off grid power set ups. I am interested in the topic and extremes of simplicity and complexity people get results from.

    I was looking at a very elaborate and professional set up that had the guy crowing that he never sees a power bill. In the nicest possible way (really) I commented that he has seen the power bill and he has paid it all up front. Along with that he has assumed total responsibility for maintenance, repair and replacement. Admired his work but I think he is bragging about the wrong stuff.

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      robert rosicka

      People get crazy ideas about solar yarpos, in another forum a guy swears he has 52 panels and a 3.5kw inverter returning $350 a quarter (was from WA).

      Thanks “another Ian” I will look that up .

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      RickWill

      My off grid system is 3kW. I have set up the system in 1kW lots of 4 panels each 250W. I have 1kW facing NE, 1kW facing N and another 1kW facing NW. All panels are tilted. The NE set tilt at 45 degrees to help boost winter input. Each set of panels is wired to a nominal 48V solar charger/load controller. All three are connected to a single 5kWh LiFePO4 battery. There is no BMS on the battery but I have a plug and a balancer that I connect for a day or so about once a year to balance the cells. Aiming the panels in different directions gives diversity in the solar collection.

      Each of the chargers/load controllers connect to their own 240V inverter. One inverter runs the fridge and freezer. Another runs a small vent fan as well as an evaporate cooler. The third is a spare I use for testing ideas. Fridge and freezer average 2.5kWh/day in winter and up to 3kWh in summer. In summer I can pull a lot more. I have attempted to use this system for water heating to replace gas heater but the economics are marginal because the inverter connected to the water heater works hard and I am certain it would reduce its life so I am not doing that this year. I was pulling up to 8kWh/day from the system last year when water heating. Current maximum is around 6kWh but only on warm days when the air cooler runs. Running the evaporate cooler off-grid to increase exported kWh makes more money than turning off the gas water heater despite the evaporate cooler only being used a few days per month.

      This link has my monthly billing for the last year:
      https://1drv.ms/i/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNgm72YoJdtC-n6G5m
      I enjoy one of the highest feed-in tariffs that is guaranteed till 2024. I build a surplus till May and then that pays for gas usage through winter. My grid connected system is nominally 2.8kW. I have seen it peak at 3.2kW. By shifting load to the off-grid I have been able to increase the amount of energy exported to the grid. Last year there were 4 of us in the house till October but we are back to two people now.

      I would feel reasonably comfortable operating off grid with just 6kW of solar panels and 15kWh of battery with only two of us in the house. I plan to do some tests with reverse cycle heating this year to see if I can reduce winter gas heating bills. Our current central heating has limited scope for zone heating. At present the income from electricity pays for the gas. We managed an energy cost surplus for one year prior to the extra two in the house and should get back to that this year. If I had enough panels and batteries to go off grid completelyI would definitely set up for electric water heating from September through April.

      The off-grid system I have installed is regarded as low voltage up to the point of the inverter. The inverters are mounted in a cabinet but are plug-in with standard 3-pin GPO on the 240V side so are arguably not required to be installed by an electrician. I am an electrical engineer so none of the installation presents a challenge for me. The main purpose for the off-grid was to do long term test on viability of LIFePO4 battery technology. After 5 years I am very happy so far. I paid AUD2400 for the battery; supplied from an importer located in Perth. I have three different types of inverters ranging in price from AUD180 to AUD320. The charger/load controllers are available for AUD60 now but I paid AUD170 for the first one. Solar panels cost me just under AUD1200/kW including the aluminium mounting rails and brackets.

      The charger/load controllers all have the same charging cut-out voltage but the load OFF voltage is set lowest for the fridge and freezer at around 90% DoD. The other less critical loads cut out around 50% DoD. The one controlling the water heating shutdown at 20% DoD so really only heated when the sun was out and possibly a burst during the first evening shower.

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        How can you be exporting if you are off grid?

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        My off grid system is 3kW. I have set up the system in 1kW lots of 4 panels each 250W. I have 1kW facing NE, 1kW facing N and another 1kW facing NW. All panels are tilted. The NE set tilt at 45 degrees to help boost winter input. Each set of panels is wired to a nominal 48V solar charger/load controller. All three are connected to a single 5kWh LiFePO4 battery. There is no BMS on the battery but I have a plug and a balancer that I connect for a day or so about once a year to balance the cells.

        NICE nearly what I have attempted!

        Each seven 0.6V in series solar PV elements can charge a 4.2V Li-ion or LiFePo4 cell while never overcharging, (safe). On discharge each cell must be prevented from discharging below 2.6V (unsafe).
        OTOH best PV can store only 12% of insolation power.

        Handy coniferous guys store 18%. The deciduous guys store only 14% insolation power but create hardwood (oak) to fabricate nice sailing ships! OH woha are we!

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    Turtles: All the Way Down

    In the Daily Beast:

    Climate Change Is Making Sea Turtles More Female. Now What?

    For more than a hundred million years, female sea turtles have dug nests on beaches, filling them with papery eggs before covering them up and bidding adieu.

    But in Australia’s northern Great Barrier Reef, something in this time-honored process has gone awry: For 20 years, almost all of the green turtle hatchlings that dug themselves out of the sand to flipper-flop into the ocean have been female.

    The sex organs of sea turtles aren’t externally visible until they become adults, which for green turtles is at about 25 years of age. Sexing hatchlings means killing them first, which is why scientists tend to take temperature readings at the nest sites and make estimates based on those.

    Wait a minute!

    How come there are turtles nowadays if the planet has been much warmer for thousands of years, before humans walked on the planet? If there were no male turtles, then how could the species have bred?

    Did turtles actually evolve recently; after the Holocene Optimum; is the assumption of nest temperature/gender relationship more complicated; or are the turtles are smarter than the “scientists” and lay more eggs in cooler places during warmer periods?

    via Tom Nelson on Twitter

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    pat

    for Another Ian and others who are keeping up with this fantastic story:

    24 Jan: Conservative Treehouse: sundance: The Problem Isn’t Just Corruption at the FBI and Main Justice, It’s Also The Media…
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/24/the-problem-isnt-just-corruption-at-the-fbi-and-main-justice-its-also-the-media/

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    pat

    the following Reuters’ piece once again proves what it is about Trump that has so disturbed the global elites, namely he threatens to derail the trillion-dollar CAGW scam.
    but first re the author for those who are not familiar with him:

    Harold Evans was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981…In 1984 he moved to the United States, where he had leading positions in journalism with US News and World Report, The Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Daily News…Since 2001, Evans has served as editor-at-large of The Week magazine and, since 2005, he has been a contributor to The Guardian and BBC Radio 4.
    Evans was invested as a Knight Bachelor in 2004, for services to journalism. On 13 June 2011, Evans was appointed editor-at-large of the Reuters news agency. – Wikipedia

    23 Jan: Reuters: Harold Evans: Will Davos Man – or Woman – take on Trumpian nihilism?
    (Sir Harold Evans, Reuters Editor at Large, is the author of “The American Century.”)
    In 2010 the discriminating Davos audience gave Bill Clinton a hero’s welcome for his post-presidential leadership in helping Haiti after the earthquake that killed an estimated 220,000 people – including at least 25 percent of government workers. Trump flies in on the foul winds of his condemnation of Haiti as one of the “sh**hole countries,” its citizens disqualified by race as unworthy of entry to the United States…

    As the Forum program highlights: “China is playing a robust role in international affairs from economic development to the environment.” The commentary underlines Trump’s precipitate rejection of the 195-nation Paris agreement to control emissions: “According to current estimates, the Earth is expected to warm 3.2 percent – more than double the Paris targets… A major extension of the West Antarctic ice sheet has broken off and Swiss glaciers continue to recede. Is there still time to limit warming by two degrees and, if so, how do we do it?”

    The answer is “not a chance.” Not while Trump meets science with the wisecrack that he prefers to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh over Paris, (a view not shared by Pittsburgh’s mayor), not while from time to time he still calls global warming “bullsh*t” and a costly hoax, not while he sticks with the reckless polluter Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, not while Emmanuel Macron is president of France, ever faithful in his embrace of the globalist rallying cry Make The Planet Great Again. (Trump will meet him privately in Davos.) …
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-evans-davos-commentary/harold-evans-will-davos-man-or-woman-take-on-trumpian-nihilism-idUSKBN1FB33Y

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    It’s the Weather, Governor Brown (peddling climate hypochondria for political gain)

    “… environmentalists, politicians, regulators and courts have united to block tree thinning, brush removal and harvesting of dead and dying trees. The resulting conditions are perfect for devastating wildfires, which denude hillsides and forest habitats, leaving barren soils that cannot absorb the heavy rains that frequently follow the fires – leading to equally devastating mudslides.”

    Abnormal, explainable weather conditions set the stage for 2017’s intense, highly destructive wildfires in California. But so did the state’s public-policy choice of au natural, where the absence of tree thinning, brush removal, and harvesting of dead and dying trees super-fueled the destruction.

    But this is not the story being told by California political establishment. To them, the wine-country fires of October and the Thomas Fire in December were the result of global fossil-fuel burning and land-use changes, each increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) that increased temperatures and produced more severe droughts.

    Parallels to Australia.

    Via Judith Curry on Twitter

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      Dennis

      A couple of months ago I was talking to a nurse who is a bushfire Brigade member and we discussed a very dangerous bushfire that had almost reached a number of homes, a repeat of a fire in the same location two years earlier.

      She said that the local council refused permission for a burning off exercise claiming that the earlier bushfire had done all that was needed. The fire fighters argued that there had been rapid regeneration of the bushland but were ignored.

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    Dennis

    A glimpse and insight regarding the legal system of the State of Victoria, and I strongly suspect there are other states with similar bias;

    http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2018/01/victorias-get-out-of-jail-free-cards-available-to-favoured-sons-via-the-anti-ahem-corruption-commiss.html

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    el gordo

    Ian Wilson’s standing wave theory puts blocking highs in perspective.

    http://astroclimateconnection.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/the-dec-january-february-zonal-n4.html

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      Ian Wilson’s standing wave theory puts blocking highs in perspective.

      Both you and I need viciously attack Wilson’s fool theorem, not because it is wrong, but simply because it has no scientific basis. Absolute conjecture! 🙁

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        Kinky Keith

        Will

        Having had a quick look at the paper available, I believe that it might take a month or so of effort to read it through and get a basic understanding of it.

        As a metallugist with a good background in complex systems, I can see the ingredients of possibilities in this.

        The most obvious one being the cyclical gravitational effect which might help concentrate the ingredients of the phenomenon: i.e. water and air.

        Without the possibility of implied Lunar induced pulsing I wouldn’t be drawn, as the system would simply be a chaotic random mess.

        KK

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        Kinky Keith

        Addendum

        I have received the impression, from your previous posts, that you feel that the atmosphere should be viewed as a perfectly mixedq system. On the other hand I see it mostly as a n agglomeration of elements and layers.

        From pretty much my first day in high school, I was aware of the daily rhythm of the atmosphere above my home town.

        Strangely it was only in the last year or two that I saw that process given a new name, appropriately on this blog.

        Why had it taken me 55 years to come across a name for the daily grind of the Sun around the earth.

        Whatever, why do you say that the possibility of predicting atmospheric reoccurrences is not possible?

        Are you just being obstinate?

        🙂

        KK

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    ren

    La Niña effect is very evident in the weather US and Australia. The recent sharp increase in the SOI index shows a strong wind along the equator in the Pacific towards Indonesia. The result is strong tropical rainfall in northern Australia.
    http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/mtpw2/product.php?color_type=tpw_nrl_colors&prod=ausf&timespan=24hrs&anim=html5
    http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/mtpw2/product.php?color_type=tpw_nrl_colors&prod=epac&timespan=24hrs&anim=html5

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