Midweek Unthreaded

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91 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

  • #
    Stevem

    I see that the ABC has fact checked Malcolm Turnbull and found that renewables plus batteries are cheaper than coal!

    Some fact checking.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-12/is-renewable-power-cheaper-than-coal-nuclear-malcolm-turnbull/11495558

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    • #
      PeterS

      If Turnbull really thinks that he is either a scum bag con artist or a complete m0r00n.

      “Ignorance is strength.”
      ― George Orwell, 1984

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Malcolm Turnbull alone was expensive.

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    • #
      Lionell Griffith

      Anything is cheaper if you don’t include the cost of doing it.

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    • #
      David Wojick

      In order to back up a wind farm you need seven days of juice. At today’s prices for batteries, that costs about 100 times what the wind farm costs. The typical hooha announcement provides 3 to 4 hours of backup, which is basically none.

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    • #
      toorightmate

      ABC Fact Checking and Turnbull have a lot in common.
      To start with, they are both useless.

      40

  • #
    Hanrahan

    This is odd, no posts.

    Last night I watched a National Geographic doco on the aircraft that hit the Pentagon 18 yrs ago. It didn’t take long before I was convinced that all the yarns about it being hit by a guided missile were absolute rubbish. A survivor spoke of being ankle deep in aviation fuel, another said she was having difficulty breathing so she took off her jacket to breathe through it and it was soaked in fuel. Everything about it looked like a fuel/air explosion, not a HE warhead.

    Besides the crazies never explained what happened to the REAL jet liner full of REAL people if indeed it WAS a missile. These story tellers are bar stewards with no respect for the survivors or the families of the slain telling them that their own gov killed them.

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    • #
      Crakar24

      Hanrahan when you find two engines in the pentagon rubble let me know cheers

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        When you find a missile with tons of jet fuel on board, please tell me. Or are these survivors “crisis actors”?

        A missile with a HE warhead would disintegrate in the first ring, this plane severely damaged the third ring.

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        Crakar,

        If I’m reading you incorrectly please let me know. I’m not looking for any confrontation.

        I take it that you don’t subscribe to the airplane hit the Pentagon theory. May I simply tell you why I do?

        At the last minute once it was apparent what was about to happen one woman on that plane got off a call to her husband telling him what was going on and saying goodbye. The content or most of the content of that call was was made public. It received a lot of attention as you can imagine it would and I was one of many who saw or heard that message to her husband. And that’s why I believe it was an airplane — direct eye witness testimony.

        I don’t recall ever asking if engines were found in the wreck or even thinking about it. It simply wasn’t and still isn’t an issue for me. I know that all the jet engines from the towers went right on through and must have been found blocks from ground zero. They are very heavy and unlike the rest of the plane which is aluminum and other not very strong stuff compared to steel, they are steel and would not have come apart and would have had a lot of momentum that the building couldn’t possibly absorb. In one video capturing one of the impacts you can see one of the engines go flying out the opposite side of the tower. This doesn’t explain what may have happened at the Pentagon and I have no way of knowing how far an engine would go under those circumstances or what ultimately happened to them.

        I’ll reply to anything you want to say.

        10

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      I realize there’s plenty of controversy and some downright conspiracy theory still going about September 11, 1991. But I had hoped those subjects could be avoided. Remember 9/11/91 is a day of mourning for us, not a pleasant memory. I still remember sitting at my desk along with everyone in the building, watching the destruction and death in real time as it happened. I was numb, unable to accept what I was seeing on my monitor. But this day (9/11), now over deserves respect for the dead, not argument about what hit the Pentagon.

      I can assure you that no matter anyone else’s mind set, I have not forgotten that day, the memory is painful 18 years later.

      The controversies will go on, they haven’t stopped after 18 years and some other time I might join you in the debate but not today.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        Roy, I’m sorry if you found offence in my post. None meant, but the crazies need to be called out.

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          It’s not a matter of taking offense. You can debate what you please and that seems to be Jo’s purpose in running an open forum. So I have little cause for complaint. But at the same time, a reminder of what this day means was something I had trouble avoiding. As I said, there’s still a lot of controversy and worse that’s all fair game and I might join you in hashing it out. Just not today. Emotions are hard to ignore sometimes.

          No offense taken.

          20

      • #
        toorightmate

        Roy,
        It seems as though you are in a small majority.
        Most Americans have forgotten 9/11.
        NO ONE SHOULD FORGET 9/11.

        20

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          I can’t help thinking that if we had been alert and paying attention to the lessons of that day, we would not be in the position we’re in now.

          What is that saying? “Hindsight is 20/20.”

          30

  • #
    Peter C

    Letter writing time!

    Dr Tony Bartone, President Australian Medical Association

    Dear Tony,

    You have recently been reported across the news media in Australia declaring that Climate Change constitutes a health emergency. You made this claim in your capacity as the President of the Australian Medical Association, which represents a substantial body of opinion within the medical profession.(1).

    I assume that you made substantial personal research into the issue of human contributions to Climate Change before you committed the AMA to that view and called on the Australian Government to expend huge sums of public money to decarbonising our economy.

    Given the importance of evidence, both in medical treatment and public policy, could you advise me of the particular experiments or observations on which you base the AMA climate policy? Do you also have a cost benefit analysis for your call for government action? Would it be proper to commit a substantial portion of the current health budget to subsidising roof top solar for instance.

    Are you aware that Petteri Taalas, the general secretary of the World Meteorological Organisation has distanced the WMO from alarmist narratives about Climate Change?
    “London, 6 September: The General-Secretary of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that the alarmist narrative on climate change has gone off the rails and criticised the news media for provoking unjustified anxiety.
    Speaking to Finland’s financial newspaper Talouselämä (“The Journal”) on 6 September 2019, Petteri Taalas called for cooler heads to prevail, saying that he does not accept arguments of climate alarmists that the end of the world is at hand.”(2).

    You may also be interested to know that a recent peer reviewed paper in a major Climate Science journal examined the uncertainties (error bars) of climate models and concluded;
    “The unavoidable conclusion is that a temperature signal from anthropogenic CO2 emissions (if any) cannot have been, nor presently can be, evidenced in climate observables.” (3).

    Personally I think it would be better if the AMA declined to make public statements which many members of the profession neither support nor understand.

    Yours Sincerely
    Peter C

    1. https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/09/03/ama-climate-change-2/

    2. https://www.thegwpf.com/wmo-boss-says-climate-discussion-has-gone-off-the-rails/

    3. Propogation of Error and the Reliabilty of Global Air Temperature Projections
    Patrick Frank, Front Earth Sci 6 Sep 2019.
    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00223/full

    H/tt to those who helped with some of the references over recent days.
    I might copy it to the Health minister

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  • #
    el gordo

    Littleproud is pathetic.

    ‘David Littleproud – Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters – now says he accepts the science on man-made climate change: ‘I’m just a poor humble bloke with a Year 12 education but I’m prepared to accept what our scientists are telling us”. Guardian

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  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    ‘The climate is always changing’ like “the population is getting older’ is a truism which although banal, has a kernel of truth. The trouble is that it hides more than it elucidates, as in both cases the context is missing. Eg The changes we are recording are different in frequency, speed, scale, than those previously, and The population pyramid is changing in ways which are the opposite to what was seen previously

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    • #
      TdeF

      I had a conversation with an Indian tow truck driver. A lovely young man, hardworking, intelligent, multi lingual of course and a professional qualified engineer.

      He believed in Global Warming simply because it is what he has been told. He assumed it was true and had no reason to doubt it.

      I put the facts to him and he understood immediately. The problem we have is that the media, the politicians, the bankers and the big companies all push the line that it is all true and real. What is anyone to believe?

      Why would anyone lie? Try $1,500,000,000,000 a year.

      190

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Peter F:

      Mind you it is not always true. Older and Wiser? Well you are a bit older tan when you started posting here.
      I hope that you are paid for your regurgitation as that may be the limit of your income (outside of politics).

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      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        I’m suggesting that using such broad statements, does not illuminate the topic, but allows the author to have a false gravitas. But I do appreciate your thoughtful post

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        • #
          AndyG55

          You have never said anything to illuminate anything, PF

          All you have baseless anti-science rhetoric and verbose spew pertaining to nought.

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        • #
          Graeme No.3

          So you are thinking of going into politics. I think this might be the career for you, no need for the abiity to think, acceptance of whatever you are told, a certain facility at bending words to mean what you want them to mean (at that time)….Yes, nobody would see you as distinctive or (more dangerously) not believing the current belief (even if as your opinion changes next week along with it). No, you coud well be a success as a politician.
          Unfortunately we have a surplus of politicians and a shortage of those capable for thinking for themselves. Not to worry, I am sure you will fit in, just try to end your career before the mobs gather at the lamp posts.

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    • #

      “…the changes we are recording are different in frequency, speed, scale, than those previously…”

      And the previous changes were different to the ones before. And the ones before were different etc etc.

      It’s true we don’t live in our grandparents’ climate. What’s left out is that our grandparents did not live in their grandparents’ climate.

      The other trick lies in insisting on comparatives while allowing no points of comparison. We hear about more frequent, more severe, hotter etc…but if you ask more than what, hotter than when you’ll be challenged to show “the data”. And we all know those old wooden satellites held together with hempen rope just can’t compete with flashy new models.

      Yep, it’s a stunt.

      The past is treated like a faded sepia photo left in a drawer, the current climate gets splashed across the screen in Eastmancolour and Cinerama. They’ve even developed anticipatory climate, so it doesn’t matter if a hurricane obliterates Galveston…Galveston gets obliterated in the public imagination well in advance. If the storm fizzles, the subject has long been changed to Kate looking sideways at Megan. Or maybe they frighten us with one of those red-purple maps showing the next ‘geddon.

      This warming is not great. It, like the Medieval and Roman Warmings, is just better than the alternative. There is no century or decade anyone has ever nominated for stable or good climate. That’s because such a period and such a climate has never existed. But they don’t head the news with Galveston 1900 or Black Thursday 1851, so the notion of a better or more stable climate can be constantly inferred. A minute’s inquiry will dispel the notion…but the minute is never granted. Soros money doesn’t leak through to GeeUp so we can be informed about Cyclone Mahina or the ’55 flood.

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      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        And that should be the argument, not banal blandishments

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        • #
          AndyG55

          “not banal blandishments”

          But all you have is banal inane anti-science gibberish and weak nonsense blandishments, PG.

          You have NO RATIONAL ARGUMENT, just mindless cackling.

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        • #
          toorightmate

          The word for the day is “banal”.
          There is no one more qualified to exemplify “Babal” than the DRONGO.

          10

    • #
      AndyG55

      What a load of banal arrant BS from PF. !!

      You really don’t have anything rational to say, do you.

      Its all just made up fantasy jibber-jabber, back by absolutely zero evidence or rational thought.

      32

    • #
      AndyG55

      “changes we are recording are different in frequency, speed, scale, than those previously,”

      Utter and complete BS, backed by nothing but puerile protestations and mindless verbal dribbling.

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    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Fake BS Fitz !
      Red Thumbs galore for you today !

      21

    • #
      AndyG55

      So funny,

      PF is now trying to pretend to be a climate scientist, or far-left-wing low-life politician, by stringing together as many idiotic verbal dysentery phrases as he can into one post.

      True jibber-jabber.

      But hey, its all he has.

      11

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘The changes we are recording are different in frequency, speed, scale, than those previously …’

      That is a gross generalisation and completely unfounded.

      I can say for sure that the subtropical ridge has lost its intensity and La Nina will be more common over the coming decade.

      10

      • #
        AndyG55

        “‘The changes we are recording are different in frequency, speed, scale, than those previously …’”

        I wonder what “changes” he is gibbering-on about. ?

        Its a load of mindless verbiage, with zero content.

        10

        • #
          el gordo

          The general feeling among the ill-informed is that what is happening with the climate is unique, the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere overwhelms natural variables.

          This is the big lie and we have to fight endless battles, using science as a weapon, to show them that they have been brainwashed.

          I told the story the other day of my business partner asking “what is ENSO?” In a couple of brief sentences I explained the atmospheric importance of this oscillation to the weather system and then she asked “is it new?”

          We have our work cut out for us to convince politicians, scientists and journalists that they are sprouting mindless verbiage.

          10

    • #
      Environment Skeptic

      Interesting points..

      A team in Cambridge have performed the first ever long range forecast by a team in Cambridge of UK weather, and describe the ‘Beast From The East…and so i am perplexed because the cold air seems to be coming from the north in general.

      https://www.itv.com/news/2019-09-09/next-winter-will-be-coldest-in-england-for-a-decade-scientists-predict/

      20

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Can i have some numbers based on peoples observations, how many people have seen “climate emergency” nonsense in the cities vs out in the country?

    Saw a moving truck in an urban environment that a huge climate dum-mergency nonsense written across its rear end, and lical ( clueless ) uniting chrch with alarmist There Is No Planet B banner.

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Look…the worlds biggest AA cell…now all we need is an EV factory and the climate fairy story would be complete….

    https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-12/canberra-to-house-one-of-australias-biggest-batteries/11505528

    “ACT Climate Change Minister Shane Rattenbury announced a tender for the storage on Thursday, along with a large expansion in renewable energy generation for Canberra.

    “The proposed battery would be able to store about one-third as much power as the Hornsdale reserve in South Australia, which is the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery.

    “Mr Rattenbury said the ACT facility, which would take about two years to build, would help stabilise the electricity network and allow Canberra to operate solely on renewable power.

    “”It will also support the ACT electricity grid, helping to manage fluctuations in grid voltage and frequency, remove the need to upgrade network infrastructure, store excess electricity from renewable electricity sources, and provide power to help avoid blackouts during periods of high demand and when large fossil fuel generators fail in heatwave conditions,” he said.

    “The ACT Government is believed to be just weeks away from announcing it has achieved its target of 100 per cent renewable electricity use across the territory, making it Australia’s first jurisdiction to do so.

    Rattenbury used to work for greenpeace, by the way.

    https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/members/ninth-assembly-members/kurrajong/rattenbury-shane

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      2 years?????
      S.A. got 3 times the capacity (3 gnats-worth v 1) in 100 days. True, they threw taxpayers money away, but when has that ever been a consideration for Versailles on the Molongo?

      Does anyone have figures to hand about the consumption of electricity in Canberra v’s South Australia?
      (You can adjust the latter figures down a bit as the recession is biting in Sa Sa Land).

      20

    • #
      David Wojick

      They might hit 100% in a windy sunny midday, but on a windless night it will be zero percent. Batteries are far too expensive to actually back up renewables. These announcements are a hoax.

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    • #

      Rattenbury used to work for greenpeace, by the way.

      And before that, he did a lot with The Wilderness Society, and he and I got along very well. Nice guy, would you believe.

      As for Canberra energy use, stats are hard to get. The AER bundles them in with NSW. There’s not much industry in the ACT, so biggest draw is probably heaters in winter…

      30

    • #
      John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

      Big batteries- big mining.

      20

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Australia used to be a nation where people had their feet firmly on the ground.

      Now in the year of Serfdom, 2019, Australian “leaders” have their heads in the Clouds and we continue to wish that one day they would descend and talk with us.

      OriginalSteve points to the fairy story but the hard fact is that it’s a Nightmare.

      Who would have ever believed that Environmentalism would become so lost in the clouds as to endorse and assemble Australia’s Biggest Battery constructed from the most dangerous chemical components imaginable while leaving a trail of devastation at the place, somewhere else, far far away where those chemicals were mined.

      And this is Progress??

      Please, please, can we have some Sane Politicians to lead us out of the Wilderness.

      KK

      10

  • #
    Another Ian

    Highs and continents for this week

    http://www.wxmaps.org/pix/prec7

    http://wxmaps.org/pix/prec10

    http://www.wxmaps.org/pix/prec8

    By the look of the last one it might be a rough time in the Caatinga

    00

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    KAG …

    The Video Liberals Don’t Want You To See | Illegal Immigration

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF0shtQKcD0

    10

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    O/T even for this blog, but a cautionary tale.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWMPyZ0Zn2o
    Impatient truck driver at railway crossing

    00

  • #
    David Wojick

    My latest on Google News extreme bias against conservative news sources:
    https://www.cfact.org/2019/09/11/dont-regulate-google-news-sue-them/

    The State Attorneys General are jumping in as well. Something may actually get done.

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    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      I’m wondering if the bias has anything to do with eyeballs. After all news always deals with the exception, the odd, the heart wrenching. So if more eyes are attracted to a particular trope, then that will be promoted by the algorithm. Or am I missing something?

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      • #
        AndyG55

        Yes it has something to do with Google HIDING reality, so that it can’t be seen.

        You really are totally clueless about basically everything, aren’t you PF.

        Or is that just a false projection.

        Nobody can be as dumb and naïve as you put yourself forward as being.

        21

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        I offered you some advice on your future career but I have been Moderated.

        10

      • #
        David Wojick

        No Fitz, they also include small obscure liberal sources. The bias looks to stem from the reported 10,000 people who classify news sources. They classify conservative sources as untrustworthy. One of my articles covers this. The Economist modeled the decision making.

        30

      • #
        toorightmate

        DRONGO,
        You are missing something.
        It’s called a brain.

        11

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    “Full Steam Ahead: China’s Coal-Fired Power Surge Continues At Full-Tilt”
    “Nowhere has the collapse been more prominent than in China. Which is at odds with the meme that’s been run by renewable energy zealots for years now. Instead of powering its industrial revolution with sunshine and breezes, China is building coal-fired power plants, hand over fist.”

    “China has slashed clean energy funding by 39%, leading a global decline
    MIT Energy Review
    James Temple
    10 July 2019″
    source https://stopthesethings.com/2019/09/11/full-steam-ahead-chinas-coal-fired-power-surge-continues-at-full-tilt/

    Also in the video of Chris Monkton he quoted Wen Jia Bao (China PM) asking him (at a conference) for the GWPF data on (fake) climate change. The leadership I suspect doest give a ….. about ‘climate change’ and probably doesnt really believe it. Just play lip service to the West. This is showing in the above article. Good for the plants! esp in China who needs good food production.
    It also shows that allot of the solar and wind (in China) is used in hard to access areas in remote regions.

    20

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    One year to go …

    SEPTEMBER 5, 2012: Enjoy snow now . . . by 2020, it’ll be gone

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/enjoy-snow-now-by-2020-itll-be-gone/news-story/c70cba34e51fa503ada7dff8899042db

    When will it next snow in Australia?

    Snow is next forecast to fall in Australia on Monday 16th September 2019, in at least 9 Ski Resorts including Hotham, Mount Baw Baw, Mount Buller, Perisher and Thredbo.
    https://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast/Australia/

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  • #
    Graeme No.3

    Getting over (I hope) a cold last night so watched an old movie (so old it was B&W and depended on a plot not computer generated graphics) called Left, Right and Centre (1959).
    Involved Ian Carmichael (Tory candidate) at by-election falling in love with his Labour opponent Patricia Bredin (there, I told you it was an old movie) over the objections of their Constituency Managers (Richard Wattis and Eric Barker), who dump their mutual enmity to try and scupper the romance.
    Just the usual sight gags – headless ghost punching time clock, Senior Minister from London down to deliver rousing speech at final meeting ending up at the wrong meeting etc. Alastair Sim plays the eccentric Lord.
    Comes from The Alastair Sim collection which I have just managed to purchase again. I had it years ago but lost it (I think by lending it to someone, so don’t ask).
    It did occur to me how absurd it would appear to today’s viewers.

    20

  • #
    Tides of Mudgee

    Having been uninvitedly harangued by an aggressively warmist stranger a couple of days ago, who spent all his time lecturing me on the salinity of the oceans and how we are causing it and that that is the major problem that needs to be addressed, I decided to look into it. I found two articles (among several) on the net, one from 2012 and one from 2018. One said that the REDUCTION in ocean salinity can’t definitely be blamed for global warming, and the other article effectively said that the INCREASE in ocean salinity can’t definitely be blamed for global warming. Yeah right, so that’s confusing. Having not seen much comment on ocean salinity regarding the hysteria on climate change can anyone enlighten me please. ToM

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      ToM:

      It is quite simple, reduced salinity is caused by reduced evaporation which is caused by lower temperatures, which obviously rules out more ice melting. After all if there were higher temperatures causing more ice melting (lowering salinity) then evaporation would increase.
      Increased salinity is caused by higher evaporation which is caused by higher temperatures, which obviously means more ice melting hence more melt water LOWERING salinity.
      It may be more useful asking WHERE this salinity change was occurring and HOW LONG it had been doing so. Thus a site off shore from a river fed by melting ice and snow would show reduced salinity in early summer as the melt water diluted the water there, followed by increasing salinity at the end of summer. It might also help if you asked for the normal variation in salinity across the oceans and how there figures differed from that? Thus the St. Vincent & Spencer Gulfs have about 10% higher salinity than the Southern Ocean to which they are connected, due to their shallower depth and resultant evaporation..

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      • #
        Tides of Mudgee

        Thanks for your response and also to El Gordo. The haranguer was quoting (I think he meant) Jacques Cousteau from some decades ago, but called him Jack Costco. He also didn’t know the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere and wasn’t interested, so I think I’m glad I didn’t attempt to spend too much time listening.

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    • #
      el gordo

      A few million years ago the Atlantic became more saline after the closure of the Central American Seaway. This caused a terrible drought in Africa and a particular gracile ape grew a big brain to survive.

      https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/images/766-map-of-ocean-salinity

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  • #
    Hanrahan

    Twice now I have tried to post a link to the Argo project but twice I was not merely moderated but forever lost into the bit bucket.

    You will just to find it yourself.

    10

  • #
    Hanrahan

    I’m rich!!!!!!!
    Just got the email:

    Peter Guillet
    Thu 12/09/2019 6:42 PM
    You have won $715,000.00 on Chevrolet Sweepstakes online promo and a brand new car!

    Contact the online claims agent.
    Name: Peter Guillet,
    E-mail: [email protected]

    Co-ordinator
    Sir. Richard K. Lloyd.

    A knight of the realm wouldn’t lie to me, would he?

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    • #
      Annie

      I take it that you won’t be daft enough to reply to that email?!

      10

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Reminds me of the travelling salesman in England who got sick & tired of being booked by the police for various infringements so he changed his name by deed poll (by putting the name Lord at the front).
      Asked what effect it had he replied that he’d been summonsed 10 times the previous year, and in the 9 months to date this year hadn’t been booked once, even though he was still being pulled over as frequently.
      Mind you that was years ago and it could be different now, especially if his surname was Bercow.

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      • #
        beowulf

        Speaking of which the real Bercow is set to be denied a peerage when he steps down as Speaker so he won’t be able to inflict more damage for years to come in the Lords.

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    • #
      Tides of Mudgee

      Hanrahan, all those winnings will help you to restore your internet when they disconnect it within the hour as they threaten several times a day.

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  • #
    pat

    12 Sept: Bloomberg: Climate Science Critic to Follow Bolton in Leaving White House
    By Ari Natter
    A National Security Council adviser who praised carbon dioxide and spearheaded efforts to create a presidential committee to review climate science is leaving the administration, following the departure of his patron John Bolton.
    William Happer, a physicist, is stepping down from his post on Friday, according to the CO2 Coalition, a think tank that touts the benefit of carbon dioxide emissions. Happer formerly led the organization.
    “We believe your work in calling attention to the problem of unscientific climate alarmism has reduced the chances of the dramatic increases in energy prices that would arise from the banning of fossil fuels that some have proposed,” the group said…
    NSC representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment…READ ON
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-11/climate-science-critic-to-follow-bolton-in-leaving-white-house

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  • #
    pat

    11 Sept: ClimateChangeNews: UN ‘very confident’ China plans to raise climate ambition
    By Chloé Farand
    secretary general in New York on 23 September, UN special envoy on climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba said he was “very confident that China will come to the summit with a clear commitment on a number of areas… with a much higher level of ambition”…
    Signals from China have so far shown little indication that Beijing is ready to announce an increase of its climate target at the summit…

    China is to send a lower-ranking official than initially expected to the high-level meeting – a sign observers said dampens expectations of a significant announcement…READ ON
    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/09/11/un-confident-china-plans-raise-climate-ambition/

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  • #
    pat

    10 Sept: AMS100: Unlocking pre-1850 instrumental meteorological records: A global inventory
    by Stefan Brönnimann, Institute of Geography and Oeschger Centre, University of Bern, Switzerland
    LINK
    Abstract
    A global inventory of early instrumental meteorological measurements is compiled. It comprises thousands of series, many of which have not been digitized, pointing to the potential of weather data rescue…
    Our global inventory comprises information on several thousand records, about half of which have not yet been digitized (not even as monthly means), and only approximately 20% of which have made it to global repositories…
    https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0040.1

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    pat

    more infighting amongst the believers:

    10 Sept: Gizmodo: Ban Rich White Guys From Writing Their Thoughts About Climate Change
    by Brian Kahn
    Inexplicably, Jonathan Franzen and the New Yorker have come back for another round of being complete dumbasses about climate change…
    https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/09/ban-rich-white-guys-from-writing-their-thoughts-about-climate-change/

    11 Sept: Scientific American: Shut Up, Franzen
    Climate change is real and things will get worse—but because we understand the driver of potential doom, it’s a choice, not a foregone conclusion
    By Kate Marvel
    https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/hot-planet/shut-up-franzen/

    10 Sept: NY Mag Intelligencer: Jonathan Franzen’s Climate Pessimism Is Justified. His Fatalism Is Not.
    By Eric Levitz
    There are a lot of problems with Franzen’s thinking on this subject. But the biggest — and most ironic — is that the novelist has himself mistaken politically expedient rhetorical tropes for scientific truths…READ ON
    http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/what-jonathan-franzen-gets-wrong-about-climate-change.html

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    pat

    perfect for Sky:

    11 Sept: Sky News UK: Climate change lessons taught in schools as UN accredits teachers
    A company spotted a gap in the market and now can help teachers get climate change accreditation.
    by Gerard Tubb – North of England correspondent
    Melanie Harwood, co-founder of EduCCate Global, persuaded the United Nations to let her update and repackage some of its training material.
    Her company launched it as an online resource five months ago, since then more than 600 teachers have signed up to complete the five free modules that give them UN accreditation as a climate change teacher.

    Dr Meryl Batchelder, a science teacher at Corbridge Middle School in Northumberland, and a committed climate change activist with Extinction Rebellion, was one of the first to complete the course…
    Dr Batchelder has become an ambassador for the programme, persuading Jamie Discoll, Labour’s mayor for the North of Tyne region, to call for every school in his area to sign up…

    Melanie Harwood, who said she remortgaged her house to launch the service and is now looking for sponsors to support its growth, believes the programme has gone viral because children and teachers are inspired by climate change protests and the high profile of the Swedish teenage campaigner Greta Thunberg.
    “In a year’s time we want this resource to be on our phones so every child has access to it,” she said.
    “We can have millions of little Gretas getting our planet back to the health that it should be.”
    https://news.sky.com/story/climate-change-lessons-taught-in-schools-as-un-accredits-teachers-11806587

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    pat

    12 Sept: 7News: Queensland braces for more bushfire danger as weather conditions are set to worsen
    by AAP/7News
    Queensland’s premier has jetted back to her fire-ravaged state with a warning of worsening weather conditions that could plunge the state back into a bushfire crisis.
    Annastacia Palaszczuk urged everyone in the state to heed the advice of emergency personnel, especially over the weekend when winds pick up and temperatures rise to five to eight degrees hotter than usual…
    The premier said winds are expected to pick up over the weekend, and from Monday to Wednesday temperatures in half of the state will be hotter than the average.
    “Now what that means is very dry conditions, roughly up to half of the state,” she warned…

    Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said a task force set up to determine whether any of the fires were deliberately lit has so far found 13 were either deliberate or caused by an accident or reckless behaviour.
    “We have charged two adults, and thirteen juveniles have been dealt with,” she said
    https://7news.com.au/news/bushfires/queensland-bushfires-firefighters-race-to-control-blazes-before-temperatures-rise-c-448454

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    pat

    behind paywall:

    11 Sept: UK Times: Emily Gosden: National Grid calls for review of back-up power capacity
    The resilience of Britain’s electricity system may need to be improved in the wake of the worst blackouts in a decade, National Grid has admitted…

    It revealed fresh details of the recent blackouts, including the failure of a valve at a gas power plant and ***problems with factory settings on Siemens Gamesa wind turbines. ***More than a million homes were left without power in the blackouts on August 9, which triggered chaos on the rail networks, with 23 trains being evacuated and hundreds cancelled. National Grid blamed most…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c4adde9a-d404-11e9-9149-9833d870d22d

    good to see “more than a million homes” mentioned, because it was not a million people affected, but multiples of that number.

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    el gordo

    ‘What makes these lunar missions by China and India strategically significant in the present context? Unlike the Apollo-era “flags and footprints” model, we are in an era where the search for lunar resources and long-term settlement of the Moon has become of priority.’

    The Diplomat

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