Weekend Unthreaded

Anyone know where Pat is? We miss him, hope he is OK.

9.6 out of 10 based on 12 ratings

93 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

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    UK-Weather Lass

    Most people in the business of epidemics have been prescient; “there’s a big one coming one day soon and if you do not invest enough money in readying for it, then you’ll pay a much higher price than necessary at the time”. Covid-19 is certainly an ugly ‘flu but I think the manner of dealing with its occurrence has amplified its problems rather than lessened them and we are guilty of making this epidemic much, much worse, perhaps by a magnitude. That has to be down to poor leadership at global level and that also means poor national leadership at the tier just below, and all the way down to political party machinery and our media. No matter how you wrap a human being up they are still a human being.

    We need people who are natural leaders in top jobs and not privileged idiots from dynasties that should have been destroyed long ago. We need people who really care for and about others. We need to stop cronyism and feigned politically correct equality of rights. We need a return to proper responsibility and leadership via example. And, please note, leading by example doesn’t include testing positive for the virus which the broadcasting of is evidence of how meaningless, narrow and deceitful our obsequious society has become.

    Test, test, test everyone for Covid-19 and isolate the infected and be altogether truly inclusive in dispensing justice, fairness, equality, and care of all at all times.

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      Graeme No.3

      Frankly, I think that we have always had poor leadership at the top, global never, countries yes as we get career politicians blocking the path and bureaucrats seeing themselves as Sir Humphrey.
      I see no real solution without a mssive change in our way of being governed. That will be resisted strongly….just look at the problems Trump gets in the USA.
      For starters I would think a limit on the time a politician can sit in parliament without any achievements. Also a limit on the total pay and numbers of public servants that can be employed. The latter not based on population growth as that would only result in open slather on immigration. That would mean that the current policy of continuing employment of the useless while employing another to do the job would cease as the hierarchy realise that an overload of dead weights reduces their salary, while the reverse of not enough competent people would mean failure.
      Take Education: more and more public servants, Federal as well as States, exchanging memos and lots of money (Gonski2 or is it 3 or 4) but the educational standards have slipped below Uzbekistan. Our politicians should set a goal for the top people and be prepared to chop, chop, until there is an improvement.
      Wishful thinking from outside Canberra.

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        Kalm Keith

        Brilliant 11.

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        Chad

        Remember, you get the leadership you .. (collectively). ..vote for !.
        If you dont like it , change it .

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        sophocles

        To Graeme No 3 @ #1.1

        I’m about 25% of the way into A. C. Grayling’s Democracy and It’s Crisis. You may have heard of it. I can’t recommend it yet but it may be worth considering as entertainment for a lockdown.

        However: hold those thoughts of yours about measuring parliamentary inmates. There’s some good aspects in there which need some development. Now might be a good time to develop some of them.

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      Sceptical Sam

      We need people who are natural leaders in top jobs and not privileged idiots from dynasties that should have been destroyed long ago. We need people who really care for and about others. We need to stop cronyism and feigned politically correct equality of rights.

      Yes, indeed.

      Thank God, we in Australia have Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the “National Cabinet”.

      We in Western Australia also have Premier Mark McGowan.

      They are both top quality leaders. They come from the citizenry. Elected by the citizenry. And, have the interests of the citizens top of mind.

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      denis

      How can an obligate parasite cause so much panic.

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      Kalm Keith

      Brilliant summary.

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    robert rosicka

    Pat was good value I hope he is safe and on a holiday somewhere nice .

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      Annie

      Hear hear!

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      Yonniestone

      Pat is so prolific with information on this blog that I originally thought it was Jo or David posting all the global news you don’t get to see.

      I hope all is well with you and yours Pat, I’ve been spoilt for content for years by your talent and incredible efforts.

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      sophocles

      I wonder where he is — I miss his news.
      I noticed he seemed to be MIA … so I hope all is well with him.

      He’s a feature of this blog and I called him that to a newbie who whinged about having to scroll past his postings a year or two ago. I’ve almost always found Items-of-Interest in the posts.

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        sophocles

        GA: ask Pat, not us.

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        el gordo

        Not gender specific, I’m pretty sure he is a gentleman.

        The reason for Pat going AWOL is the technical slowness of this blog.

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        robert rosicka

        Your concern for Pats absence is limited to what gender Pat is ? Really Gee Aye I think you’ve out done yourself .

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          Sorry Robert that I did not signal as you required.

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            Chad

            The reason for Pat going AWOL is the technical slowness of this blog.

            I HOPE that IS the reason !!
            God forbid it is anything more serious.
            But i have to say that same issue prevents me commenting as much as i would like to .
            Is anyone looking at the problem ?

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            Chad

            The reason for Pat going AWOL is the technical slowness of this blog.

            I HOPE that IS the reason !!
            God forbid it is anything more serious.
            But i have to say that same issue prevents me commenting as much as i would like to .
            Is anyone looking at the problem ?

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            robert rosicka

            Only signal I put out was concern for a missing regular , what about yourself Gee Aye ?

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    James Poulos

    I traveled most of the weekend for necessary purposes.

    I found the Hume Highway to have very light traffic devoid of trucks.

    Meal stops were pleasant with the few customers observing social distance protocols.

    A little friendly banter and some political commentary while waiting for takeaways to be served.

    Service at the most popular franchises was quick with purchases consumed at leisure in barren car parks.

    It is as though the planet is empty.

    I like it.

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    Another Ian

    For the chartists

    “How To Tell If We’re Beating COVID-19”

    Link at

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/03/29/how-to-tell-if-were-beating-covid-19/

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      Sceptical Sam

      Edward Teach’s comment in response to OldBruin is the killer comment:

      Edward Teach
      March 29, 2020 at 1:43 am
      This. I’d be adding a couple of zeros to those numbers.

      China cannot be trusted to tell the truth. It’s part of the Communist DNA. An untreatable virus.

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    Eliza

    Jo its confirmed please stop https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID-IHU-2-1.pdf this time in 80 patients. Auatralia MUST IMMEDIATELY APPROVE and stop dithering. So Trump was right after all.

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    el gordo

    ‘ABC news boss denies row with PM’s office. An alleged cranky phone between Scott Morrison’s office and ABC news and current affairs supremo Gaven Morris over coronavirus coverage is the talk of the press gallery.’ Oz

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      Sceptical Sam

      Their ABC is an appalling institution.

      Biased. Illiterate. UnAustralian.

      Defund it.

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      One of the last questions at the Prime Minister’s briefing this evening was about Albanese (who!) and the PM shut it down immediately, and said he had more important things to do than play politics.

      Federal Labor, at the moment, slightly less irrelevant than the Greens.

      Tony.

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    Peter Fitzroy

    I see the latest half measures have been announced. In the meantime infections in Port Macquarie are now at 21 up from 3 a week ago. This is in a town of 50,000. For those of you who read the Australian, Bernard Salt has a very good article about why Port will be particularly hard hit (it may be behind a paywall)
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/coronavirus-where-to-fight-this-enemy/news-story/58aa6e737e5e2b85492099f6b18cb70c

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      el gordo

      According to Port News: ’21 of the 33 cases on the Mid North Coast are in the Port Macquarie-Hastings local government area. The 33 confirmed cases from 2035 tests conducted (up until 8pm, March 28) represents a 1.62 per cent positive test rate to date for the Mid Coast Health District.

      ‘Most of these confirmed cases are people who have recently returned from overseas.’

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        Peter Fitzroy

        You do understand just how few residents do not live in Port Macquarie itself?

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          Kalm Keith

          You’re not getting confused with Port Moresby are you?

          They don’t have Koalas there.

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          el gordo

          Port has a population of 45,000, but clearly there is a transient factor.

          ‘In Port Macquarie-Hastings Council area, a lower rate of people did not change address (51.2%), while a higher rate (39.7%) moved from elsewhere in Australia, and a lower rate (1.5%) moved from overseas. A total of 15,648 people, or 52.8% of those who moved within Australia, moved within Port Macquarie-Hastings Council area.’

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      Sceptical Sam

      Yes Peter. It is a significant issue for rural and regional Australia. Port Macquarie, Broome, Esperance, Victor Harbour, Broken Hill, Port Douglas are all likely to be subjected to tragedy in the coming months if we don’t shut this thing down.

      However, as Bernard Salt says:

      Interestingly, the proportion of the resident workforce working in hospitality is almost double the national average in Melbourne and Perth (both 12 per cent) and Sydney and Adelaide (both 11 per cent). Inner-city communities are doubly exposed to the effects of COVID-19: high population densities and a significant exposure to job losses.

      The inner urban areas of our great cities will feel the affects more strongly than elsewhere. They get the quinella.

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    robert rosicka

    Listening to Paul Murray on Sky news and it seems with so many people at home, keeping the power on is starting to be a struggle for the generators.

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      Yonniestone

      A good example for population increase versus power generation stagnating, if people can’t do the maths then no lights at home might wake them up.

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    My latest, an expanded version of my prior article, with Paul Dreissen as co-author:

    Fight the virus, not carbon

    Often obsessive focus on climate wastes scarce money and distracts from real health crisis

    Paul Driessen and David Wojick

    The many trillions of dollars proposed to be spent under dubious “green new deals” should be spent instead (effectively and within reason) on health care, especially virus prevention, protection and cures. This is the gist of an “Open Letter to World Leaders” from the Climate Intelligence Foundation.

    The Foundation, or CLINTEL, makes this clear right up front: “Your Excellencies, compared to COVID-19, climate change is a non-problem! It is based on immature computer models, and it looks into the distant future. In the current health emergency, however, your attention to the peoples’ needs is today! Please, don’t continue pushing your zero carbon emission ambition in a time that the world is dealing with a deadly global crisis. Yes, there is an emergency, but it is NOT climate.”

    CLINTEL specifically speaks to the leaders of the UN and EU, saying “People need an inspiring narrative that promises them a hopeful future. Today, for instance, it is totally inappropriate that the billion-dollar Green New Deal focused on climate is still on the agenda of leaders such as Mr. Antonio Guterres of the UN and Mr. Frans Timmermans of the EU.” We do not have a manmade climate and weather crisis.

    In the EU, green funds could begin flowing to the virus crisis almost immediately, by reprogramming €100 billion ($110 billion) of European Green Deal money. The GED has a Just Transition Mechanism to “help mobilise at least €100 billion over the period 2021-2027,” by way of “financial support and technical assistance to help people, businesses and regions that are most affected by the move toward the green economy.” All they have to do is replace the Mechanism’s “green economy” with “corona crisis.”

    All the EU has to do is abandon its compulsory transition to a so-called “green economy,” which would in reality be very poor and uncompetitive, with tens of millions unemployed. The European Green Plan (EGP) proposes spending a trillion euros on a foolish attempt to control the global climate, even as China, India and other emerging economies build hundreds of new coal and gas-fired power plants, hundreds of new airports, thousands of fossil fuel-based factories, and millions of internal combustion vehicles.

    CLINTEL says it would be far wiser to spend that money on improving health care, with priority to virus protection. Far more necessary, too. Anyone following the coronavirus news out of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Britain and other EU countries, knows CLINTEL is right. Awake EU leaders know it too.

    In the United States, President Trump has signed into law Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the $2.2 trillion emergency relief bill, the largest such package in US history. It will help hospitals and state and local governments, assist with critical medical needs, and provide relief for small businesses and furloughed workers. It eliminated most of the liberal wish list items in an earlier bill.

    (By contrast, any European Green Deal would cost many trillions of dollars, as would the US Green New Deal endorsed by Democrat presidential candidates, to address conjectural future risks. Candidate Bernie Sanders pegs his pet version at “just” $11 trillion, while other estimates run as high as $93 trillion!)

    Some of that spending should go to upgrading the health care system, testing people and getting COVID patients respirators and medicines that work, conducting clinical trials to evaluate anecdotal evidence about various treatments, and saving lives! Other spending should assist families whose breadwinners have been laid off by the lockdowns and quarantines, and businesses that have been closed down.U

    Right now, some 15 million workers are unemployed in the restaurant industry alone, plus millions more in restaurant support industries. If the business lockdown continues another month or so, some 75% of independently owned restaurants will never reopen, business insiders say. Moreover, across the USA, it is minorities who are most seriously harmed by the shutdown, since they dominate worst-affected sectors.

    (A suggestion: Order an occasional takeout-pickup meal from local eateries – and leave a generous tip.)

    The rest of the money should simply not be spent, especially since it’s mostly more government debt. Spending it would further damage the economy and future taxpayers, in Europe and the United States.

    Any thinking legislator should endorse CLINTEL’s call for action, instead of foolish green new deals.

    But instead, the manmade-climate-crisis-obsessed United Nations continues to pressure all nations to adopt expensive zero-carbon-dioxide plans, preferably as soon as its Glasgow climate summit in November. That underscores how wrongheaded and intransigent the UN has been for decades. No. The world needs to fix the current virus problem – and prepare for the inevitable next ones.

    The economic crisis due to the corona pandemic will hit all countries, including those with relatively small virus outbreaks at the moment or in the future. With proper prevention and response systems in place, there is no reason these economic disasters should escalate. But those systems will not be in place in impoverished nations – largely because UN, EU, climate and other eco-imperialist activists for decades have prevented those countries from building fossil fuel, nuclear and even hydroelectric generating plants, forcing them instead to be content with minimal, unreliable, habitat-destroying wind and solar power.

    CLINTEL’s strong advice to the world’s leaders is spot-on: “To revive the global economy, don’t further increase government debts. Instead, apply the money intended for your costly Green New Deal to the present needs of people and society. Call it the COVID-19 RECOVERY PLAN. Be aware that, in today’s crisis, the conjectural policy of CO2 reduction is highly counterproductive!”

    The letter’s eloquent summary statement says it all: “The world is moving to an open global economy of ten billion people. Top priority must be given to significant investments in a global health system that makes any pandemic less catastrophic. Considering COVID-19, climate alarmists and climate critics should admit that global warming is a non-problem. Therefore, stop fighting, step over your own shadow and work together against the deadly virus. In this tough battle we need each other!”

    Imagine what would happen if abundant, reliable, affordable electricity from fossil, nuclear and hydroelectric were replaced by expensive, limited, intermittent, weather-dependent wind and solar power. The impacts on our coronavirus response, healthcare, living standards and life spans would be horrific.

    Without reliable, on-demand energy sufficient to power modern, industrialized society – which neither wind nor solar power can provide at current levels of technology – hospitals could not maintain sterile conditions. Food and vaccines could not be grown, developed, preserved or transported. Protective equipment to safeguard front-line health care workers from COVID-19, and respirators for critically-ill patients, could not be delivered where they’re needed, let alone manufactured in the first place.

    We would not even have clean water or reliable sanitation systems. We would not have jobs, industries, decent living standards, or anything approaching a vibrant, functioning, job and tax-generating economy.

    That’s the situation African and other impoverished nations found themselves with Ebola – and will find themselves if (when) COVID-19 reaches them. It is where a GED or GND would take the United States.

    President Trump is absolutely right. We need to fight the coronavirus and keep it from spreading. But we also need to begin soon to balance the virus threat against threats created by our response to the virus: deaths from COVID-19 itself (which could be overstated) versus deaths due to mass unemployment and recession because of the shutdowns: from stress, depression, despair, strokes, heart attacks, suicides and murder-suicides … amid bankruptcies, loss of life savings, and destruction of years’ of work and sacrifice.

    And yet there are some who applaud the corona-economic recession for driving down fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions – or want more wind and solar mandates and subsidies built into any corona response plans.

    Our health and economic emergency is real and immediate. The manmade climate emergency is years or decades away – if it even exists outside the realm of computer models that generate worst-case scenarios but cannot even forecast average global temperatures accurately … and pseudo-scientific studies that blame every observed (and imagined) temperature shift, climate fluctuation and extreme weather event on fossil fuels.

    Fight the virus, not carbon.

    Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate and human rights issues. David Wojick is an independent analyst specializing in science, logic and human rights in public policy, and author of numerous articles on these topics.

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    In the future, people will laugh at how they were fooled by the greenhouse effect’s rhetorical geothermal flip job.

    http://phzoe.com/2020/02/13/measuring-geothermal-a-revolutionary-hypothesis/

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    GD

    Is anyone else out there experiencing cold/flu symptoms?

    I’ve had these symptoms for over three weeks.

    I have never had a cold/flu for this long. I am taking massive doses of Vitamin C and some moderate doses of Vitamin D, 10.000 IU.

    I am loathe to go shopping because I am contagious and I’m feeling shaky and weak.

    I live in a Federation housing complex which has large garden spaces between the houses.

    My immediate neighbours are an elderly couple in their 70s and 80s and a younger man in his forties.

    All three are well. The elderly couple shop every couple of days. They walk a kilometre to Coles and back.

    A few days ago, they presented me with a mega pack of toilet rolls, some long life milk and a dozen eggs. They walked this back a kilometre up the hill from Coles in the Geelong CBD, plus their groceries.

    Today, the young man knocked on my door and offered to go shopping for me should I need it.

    I am staggered at the generosity of my neighbours, especially those who are older than me. I am in my early sixties.

    God bless them, I am tearful as I write this.

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      Robber

      GD, talk to your doctor online.

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      sophocles

      Stay on those supplements, GD, and take Robber’s advice.
      From the sound of it, you’re still breathing. If that changes, get help fast.

      (Get a bit of sunshine — not for the Vitamin D — but because it helps. There’s more going on in our skins than Vitamin D manufacture, but I don’t know what. Are you using K2 as well?)

      Eat properly.

      Best of luck — and stay in touch. If it helps, remember: we’re on your side.
      You can beat that bug, whatever it is.

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        GD

        From the sound of it, you’re still breathing

        Yes, no problems there yet and I don’t have a cough or a fever, so it’s probably just a bad flu or cold. However, it’s not getting any better.

        How much K2 should I take? Yes, I agree with you about getting out in the sunshine. I’ve been doing that.

        Thanks for your kind words, Sophocles.

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          sophocles

          How much K2 should I take?

          I don’t know: I’ve seen recommendations for daily dosages of about 120micrograms for daily dosage. You may need to raid your pharmacy shelves. I’m supplementing with a D3-K2 product I found on my local pharmacy shelves. It’s aimed at “bone strength” which is not what I’m using it for. I’m more concerned with immune system strengthening. (I was sort of forced into it by all the cloud we’ve been given this summer blocking my sun. I like my sunshine! I’m sure/certain the cloud is deliberate: the day dawns with cloudless skies and it’s all over cloud, blocking the sun, leading into the Vit D manufacturing time then clears back to cloudless later when it’s no use. Mutter mutter mumble mutter. Deliberate, I tell you.)

          D3 is good at extracting calcium from the gut but gets a bit careless about where it parks it. This is what is behind D3’s `toxicity.’ when taking large doses. K2 takes care of the parking problem.

          At a guess, after three weeks you’re probably `over the hump’ and might back your D3 dose down a bit. That of course, is up to you.

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      Yonniestone

      GD email me if you need any help emergency or otherwise, you’re only down the road from me.

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        Peter C

        Good on you Yonnie. A friend in Need.

        Yes it is just down the road, but quite a way, especially riding a Honda postie! Put on the Pale Rider face mask.

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        GD

        email me if you need any help

        Thank you so much for your kind and generous offer, Yonniestone.

        That’s really something.

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        sophocles

        Well done Yonnie.

        I’m 1200 miles away across the Tasman so it’s just a bit far to swim …

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      GD, ask yr doctor for Hydroxochlorquinine Malaria tablets @ $20, INSIST, tests cost $1000! Take mega-mega vitamin C. and take vitamin D. And – do – not – be -afraid, – me – friend. 🙂

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        GD

        Hi Beth, I wasn’t aware that doctors can currently prescribe Hydroxochlorquinine other than for malaria or lupus etc. I will certainly ask.

        I am taking lots of Vitamin C all through the day. I take a gram or two every hour or so, It really helps.

        I’m taking Vitamin D, but am still reading about the amount to take, and, as Sophocles suggested, what to take with it such as K2.

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    Kalm Keith

    U.K. Weather Lass.

    Have tried to congratulate you on your post and had it misplaced.

    A great comment at #1

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    Robert Swan

    It’s nearly a week since the Telstra guy got me back online, a lightning strike having had me off the air for over a month. I have been watching my favourite blog for the last week and I’m dismayed at what has become of it.

    It’s Jo’s blog, and I’m happy for her to put forward her views, but that there are so few voices of dissent is a concern. Since the argument about COVID-19 has so much in common with the global warming debate, it’s hard to believe there isn’t more push-back.

    Let me put my shoulder to the wheel.

    I have seen Jo’s responses to a couple of questioners, saying that “exponential growth” is going to get them in the end. Great irony that that this is exactly the argument for alarm at Mann’s dodgy hockey stick.

    In both cases, it’s easily squashed. There is no such thing as exponential growth in the real world. Unbounded growth is impossible. Things that start out looking like they’re growing exponentially, Internet startups, say, inevitably fall away. So the real question is: what trajectory will this virus take. Is this virus going to track like Google, or like any of the umpteen other startups that disappeared without a trace? Most likely somewhere in the middle.

    I don’t claim that this virus is benign, I can accept that it might even be as virulent as the 1918 flu, but I can also accept that it might be a nothing. I’m invoking Judith Curry’s “uncertainty monster” on this one.

    If the climate debate is anything to go by, the precautionary principle is the standard response to uncertainty.

    As with climate, the precautions are certain to do harm; will they do any good?

    One thing I’m sure of. The long faces of the politicians and bureaucrats are for the cameras. It’s not hard to picture them coming in from soberly delivering some new edicts, then kicking their little feet with delight when they are safely sat back at their desks.

    Think of it. What do they make of a thorn in their sides, like Joanne Nova, pleading for the government to stop us working, to stop us travelling, to stop us visiting one another!

    Think about it again. The very same bureaucracy that couldn’t distribute home insulation without getting people killed is now going to decide which industries are vital and which are expendable.

    An economy is a complex thing.

    There’s a story of WWII, and a campaign to bomb the only three ball bearing factories available to Germany. Without those, tank and artillery production would grind to a halt. Nice idea. Unfortunately, our Canberra bureaucrats have the complementary problem: which non-critical industries do we knock out. I assume they’ll say that the power stations are critical, but there are subtle dependencies. The power stations might easily be knocked out for the want of the proverbial nail.

    And if the disease is truly awful, is flattening the curve a good idea here in the southern hemisphere? Coronaviruses generally become stronger in colder weather. We’ve just passed the equinox and it’ll be six months before the weather is warmer than it is now. The northern hemisphere is starting to warm up again and, presumably, the virus will weaken. Have our measures simply dammed it up so it’ll get into the community when it’s at its strongest?

    My preferred recipe is hardly original: take precautions for the elderly and the sick, and let the rest of us take our chances.

    One thing to be sure of, regardless of whether the disease is a blip or a disaster, it will not have escaped the notice of various activists that the response to COVID-19 has achieved more towards their ends in a few weeks than years of a carbon tax might have. A reflection of the relative power of “think of yourself” compared with “think of the grandchildren”. I anticipate many more health scares. On the plus side, the climate alarmism will probably drop a few notches.

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      Kalm Keith

      Thank you.

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      sophocles

      Coronaviruses generally become stronger in colder weather.

      Just a minor correction here Robert:

      Late winter is the CC&F season (Coughs Colds and Flu) not because the various viruses are strengthened by the cold, but because the human immune system is weakened by the reduced sunshine. It’s when Vitamin D levels are at their lowest and our sociability (gathering in groups indoors for warmth) is at its highest. Feasting/Dinner time for viruses.

      Research into Vit D shows it is intimately tied in with our immune systems, with most cells in our bodies having a Vit-D receptor,

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        Kalm Keith

        V interesting

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        Robert Swan

        Thanks sophocles, though I think that’s an oversimplification too. Rhinoviruses are known to be less effective in colder weather and a greater proportion of common colds shifts from those to corona and influenza viruses. Rewording my statement to “Coronaviruses generally have a stronger effect in colder weather” would satisfy your quibble, I suppose, but doesn’t change a thing in the substance of the comment.

        Anyhow, after 8 days of reading here, I’m sorry to say that Jo’s blog is not really worth looking at. I’ve visited a few of the other climate sceptic blogs — Tony Heller, Bishop Hill, WUWT, Judith Curry — they all have some coverage of the virus, but none of them are at panic stations. I’ll change to visiting weekly and hope for rationality to return some day.

        Perhaps the answer to Jo’s question is that Pat has come to the same conclusion as me.

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    Peter C

    Hangar Lighting

    I have a question here for the solar power people.

    Our glider hangar was disconnected from the mains power recently because of nearby road. Getting reconnected is very expensive. We are thinking about taking the building off the grid.
    We would like good lighting. Can anyone tell me how good the new 12v LED lights strips are? Our beams are about 12ft above the ground.

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      Chad

      “How good “. TheLED are ???
      What do you want to know exactly ?
      LEDs are certainly the most efficient lighting system available…but equally certain , not the cheapest, or longest lasting.
      If yours is a commercial or public access situation, then you had better seek professional advice as to what you can/cannot use..
      PS Solar experts are not necessarily lighting experts !

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        Peter C

        Thanks Chad,

        My question was rather vague. I may have to buy some lights and see how well they work. What I am trying to work out is the likely wattage to supply adequate light. That will determine the battery size and the solar panel size.

        I think at present we have about 20 fluorescent tubes.

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          Graeme No.3

          Peter C:

          The LED globes usually are marked with their equivalent in terms of an incandescent bulb e.g. 12W v 60W etc.
          They aren’t that much more efficient than long tube fluorescents but their light output is directional, so fitted under the roof you might be able to use 12W bulbs vs 15W fluorescents.
          They will usually last longer. Drawbacks are the cost of the bulbs and the type of light i.e. warm v cold etc.

          You should be able to run them off solar panels, but the problem is that most solar is aimed at household use, i.e. it is converted to 240V and you would have to re-convert it to 12V with losses. There are combination systems where there is a solar panel feeding a light. Good for lighting a dark shed during daytime only, e.g. https://www.bunnings.com.au/solar-magic-40-lumen-solar-shed-light_p4351882
          If you want to use the hanger at night (or on overcast days) you are going to need batteries.
          There is a mob called SolarBarn but I know nothing about them. Personally my first visit would be Jaycar who seem to get customers (like me) with odd requests.

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          • #
            Chad

            I assume Peter was thinking of “batten “ type tube lighting to replace florescent tubes.
            IE .. https://thelightingoutlet.com.au/collections/led-batten-lights
            Which are readily available for 240v connection and comminly used in new buildings.
            I have a pair in my garage and am very happy with them..very bright !
            In a hanger with a high roof and needing high clearance for aircraft etc, it woill need some careful calculation to select the correct layout to achieve the level of illumination at floor level
            That is why i suggest a lighting specialist.

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            • #
              Chad

              Just to add..
              The LED Batten tubes that i have , are just that…..tubes that are straight a simple swap in replacement for Florescent tubes , in the original fittings.
              No new fittings or wireing changes needed…..
              ……4’ tubes , 18 watt consumption , 2000 lumens……35,000 hrs claimed life.

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              • #
                Chad

                The replacement tubes are listed on a different page at that site i linked
                4’ 18 w LED tube is Au$11.0 each currently.
                I think they are brighter than the flouro’ equivalents.
                But what size are your current flouro’s ?
                You could easily swap in a couple to see how it looks

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              • #
                Peter C

                Thanks for the link. 🙂

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              • #
                sophocles

                … it’s that long lifetime I like! I’ve had two 230V domestic bulbs die in about six years. They were both in the most used socket.

                Like everything solid state, it seems that the cooler they are kept, the longer they last.

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    el gordo

    Josh has kept his eye on the ball during these troubled times, a freeze on foreign investment.

    ‘China is Australia’s biggest trading partner and in the 2018-19, made up 49.8 per cent of foreign approvals to be the top source of overseas acquisitions or investments, FIRB data showed.

    ‘Hong Kong, which has been part of China since 1997, was a distant second on 5.4 per cent.

    ‘By value, however, the United States was the No.1 investor in Australian businesses during that financial year with China in the fifth spot behind Canada, Singapore and Japan, with Hong Kong in sixth place.’

    Daily Mail

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    Robber

    And now for some good news. Vic wholesale electricity prices have halved from Q1 2019 to Q1 2020:
    Jan/Feb/Mar 2019 $250; $111; $131/MWhr
    Jan/Feb/Mar 2020 $142; $48; $42/MWhr
    Average generation across the grid Q1 2020 in MW:
    Coal 16150
    Gas 1762
    Hydro 1430
    Wind 1936
    Large solar 725
    Rooftop solar 1531
    Total 23535 MW
    Average generation across the grid Q1 2019 in MW:
    Coal 17181
    Gas 2434
    Hydro 533
    Wind 1609
    Large solar 451
    Rooftop solar 1217
    Total 23425
    Same overall demand, less coal, gas, hydro, more wind and solar.
    Is this sustainable?

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    • #
      Chad

      I am still waiting for someone to explain how they measure or calculate that 1530 MW for Roof Top solar ?
      Is it just the amount of RT solar fed back into the grid ?
      Or is it some estimate of total RT solar generation ?

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    • #
      Chad

      And…
      What theory’s or explanations do we have for those huge price reductions

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