Unthreaded

Report your site and email troubles here (if you can). I gather some people are getting patchy access, and having trouble emailing me.

We moved the site again last night, and the changes propagate throughout the global network some people appear to be losing access temporarily. As it happens my access is faster than ever — so hopefully yours will be too, soon. (Thank Andrew for that).

Perhaps clear those caches… (yes, that’s a message for all the people who can’t read this ;-)).

Somehow I have about ten articles in draft and none of them quite ready. There is a lot on the boil…

9.4 out of 10 based on 42 ratings

45 comments to Unthreaded

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    Steve Brown (UK)

    Wow! Very fast loading site, indeed! Nothing appears amiss so it would seem that the move has gone without any visible hitches.
    Hope that the changes keep the attacks at bay.

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    Roy Hogue

    Aren’t computers wonderful, Jo? Third move is it? If not one problem then another for sure.

    But seriously, I hope the third time is the proverbial charm and your hosting troubles will be over. 🙂

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    pat

    working well today and your homepage is coming up at the top of google results once more:

    30 Sept: Daily Mail: Wind farms given £34m to switch off in bad weather: Households stung by secretive payments
    Wind farm operators were paid £34million last year to switch the turbines off in gales.
    Two days last week saw householders effectively hand £400,000 to energy firms for doing nothing…
    It was always known the National Grid made ‘constraint payments’ – cash given to operators to temporarily shut down their turbines when electricity supply outstripped demand.
    But what was not made public were details of so-called ‘forward trades’, in which the National Grid agrees a pay-out when the weather is expected to be stormy.
    The money is paid out even before a turbine shuts down…
    The National Grid has admitted £15.5million was paid out to energy operators in the form of conventional constraint payments in 2011-12 in England and Scotland.
    But for the first time it has emerged that an even greater sum – £18.6million – was paid out in forward trades. It means the total payments for that year were £34.1 million, far higher than previously reported…
    Murdo Fraser, a member of the parliament in Scotland, where many wind farms are sited, said: ‘Why have the authorities been so anxious not to release this information? Is it because they feared this would undermine any remaining public confidence in renewable energy policy?
    ‘People will wonder if they were trying to cover up the truth.
    ‘The revelation that vast sums are being paid to wind power developers will just lead to more and more people questioning government policy.’
    Details of which energy firms scooped the money is kept secret because of ‘commercial confidentiality’…
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210986/Wind-farms-given-34m-switch-bad-weather-Households-stung-secretive-payments.html

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    pat

    2 Oct: Bloomberg: Jason Plautz: Presidential Showdown Evokes Last Call for Climate Debate
    Nine environmental organizations Friday delivered more than 160,000 petitions to Jim Lehrer urging him to ask a question about climate change during Wednesday’s first presidential debate…
    350.org, a climate advocacy organization founded by author and activist Bill McKibben will put up a billboard in Denver this week asking for more climate talk. Friends of the Earth Action and Forecast the Facts teamed up for a social media campaign called “Climate Silence” to urge more talk on the trail, and beyond…
    And 350.org, among other actions, has organized a national speaking tour led by McKibben that launches the day after the election, called “Do the Math.”
    The post-election campaign builds off an article by McKibben, published in Rolling Stone, that uses math to explain why the world must now transition to green energy. The crux of his argument is that countries can only burn 565 more gigatons of carbon by mid-century to keep global warming limited to a rise of 2 degrees Celsius.
    McKibben says energy companies now have five times that amount in their reserves…
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-01/presidential-showdown-evokes-last-call-for-climate-debate.html

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      Allen Ford

      countries can only burn 565 more gigatons of carbon by mid-century to keep global warming limited to a rise of 2 degrees Celsius.

      McKibben obviously has not comprehended what Murry Salby is telling us!

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  • #
    pat

    distinguished economist who praises the “rhetoric” about constraint in govt expenditure? what constraint is he talking about?

    as for the rest, i’ve never heard a minute of alan jones in my life; however, i DID READ the Climategate material and i DID take notice that the CAGW Team’s predictions of temperature rises isn’t happening. DID Emma Alberici?

    1 Oct: ABC Lateline: Garnaut says salad days are over
    Ross Garnaut is a distinguished economist, a former ambassador to China and an advisor to prime ministers dating back to Malcolm Fraser.
    Most recently he was the author of the Government’s Climate Change Review. He’s currently Professorial Fellow in Economics at the University of Melbourne…
    EMMA ALBERICI: Are Australians now, do you think, sufficiently aware of what’s coming in terms of this reversal of economic fortunes?
    ROSS GARNAUT: I don’t think the community as a whole is. Certainly the rhetoric from the Government about restraint in government expenditure is consistent with what’s required, and in fact in the last couple of years we’ve run very tight budgets by long historical standards…
    EMMA ALBERICI: Well given the economic challenges ahead, is it right for the Government now to be making spending commitments out to 2016 and beyond for things like the Disability Insurance Scheme, dental care, aged services, education reforms?
    Is it right to be pushing those expenses out into the future when those other economic challenges will also be apparent?
    ROSS GARNAUT: Well that’s a matter of priorities. It’s going to be very important to have tight restraint on total expenditure. In this context, the biggest single vulnerability of future budgets is the unreal discussion of carbon pricing. Quite large increases in family payments, even larger cuts in income tax were paid for of an increasing carbon price.
    But a lot of people in the community think, “Oh, I love the tax cuts, but I don’t like the carbon tax, so take away the carbon tax, but leave me the – take away the carbon price, but leave me with the tax cuts.” And we’ve got to get past that unreality. If we are going to talk about withdrawal of carbon pricing, we’ve got to talk about withdrawal of the tax cuts…
    EMMA ALBERICI: Now finally, Professor Garnaut, I wanted to ask you to reflect on the nature of public discussion in this country after those comments about the Prime Minister’s father by broadcaster Alan Jones.
    Now I’m asking you this question because you yourself were a victim, if you like, of some abuse by Alan Jones, who has called you in relation to your Climate Change Review for the Government, he’s called you a “galoot” and a “dunce”, labelling you also the “Federal Government’s climate change headkicker”.
    He’s also called the notion of global warming a “hoax” and “witchcraft”. What do you think that says about the level of debate in this country given he has an audience of listeners something like half a million – in Sydney, that is?
    ROSS GARNAUT: Yes. Well on the hoax and witchcraft, there’s no doubt what climate science says and the people who are clinging to the false hope that it’s all a hoax and a bit of witchcraft are diminishing. There’s a few still kicking and screaming, and increasingly, sadly, it will become clear that they’re really on the margins of things.
    But more importantly, Alan Jones is a manifestation of a serious degeneration of Australian media and political culture in the last few years. The degeneration’s associated with the crowding out of information and analysis by noise, by abuse, by thuggery. If we don’t correct this degeneration of our political culture, Australia’s got no hope of dealing with the serious problems in the period ahead.
    EMMA ALBERICI: What do you mean by the culture that’s emerging? What do you mean by that?
    ROSS GARNAUT: Oh, it’s much more difficult in the last few years to seriously analyse a serious issue like the ones we’re talking about tonight without the thugs and headkickers, Alan Jones and their ilk. There’s quite a number of them around in parts of the print media, parts of the electronic media, and they somehow have a legitimacy, that sort of noise, abuse – thuggery has a legitimacy now that wasn’t there in the ’80s and ’90s.
    I don’t think the great reform period in Australia from ’83 to the end of the century would’ve been possible if we had had then today’s abusive media and political culture….
    http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3601577.htm

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  • #
    ExWarmist

    I’ve been having trouble posting comments…

    (Martin will perhaps be pleased to hear…)

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    PJP

    The problem really isn’t browser caches, its DNS caches, and users typically have no control over them, its the ISPs.

    The bigger problem are ISPs and Microsoft who ignore the TTL (time to live) field on the DNS entries and impose their own rules for how long they will hang on to a given entry. It reduces the load on their servers and makes MS systems seem faster because they have to do full DNS lookups much less frequently.

    Eventually, the changes will percolate through to all four corners of the world.

    Flushing browser caches is unlikely to help much.

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      PJP
      October 2, 2012 at 9:01 am

      The problem really isn’t browser caches, its DNS caches, and users typically have no control over them, its the ISPs.

      Hi PJP.

      Actually, now, users *do* have some control .. they are free to change to a different DNS anytime they may choose!

      I find that the Google DNS (8.8.8.8) has worked quite well throughout the changes Jo’s site has made the this last week …

      For instance, in Windows:

      Start, Control Panel, Network Connections,
      Double-Click LAN connection, click Properties,
      scroll down in the box to “Internet Protocol”,
      click “Properties” and change “Preferred DNS Server”
      to the dotted address of your choice e.g. 8.8.8.8 etc.

      Also the alternate for Goog is: 8.8.4.4

      .

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  • #
    pat

    1 Oct: Reuters Point Carbon: California governor signs cap-and-trade revenue bills
    California Governor Jerry Brown has signed two bills related to the use of revenue raised through the sale of carbon allowances, although details of how the money will be spent won’t be determined until next year.
    http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2004930

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    pat

    ***not quite what the headline states!

    2 Oct: SMH: Australia, California in talks to link carbon trading
    Speaking on a state visit to the US, Australia’s climate change secretary, Mark Dreyfus, said the two governments would set up a forum to share experiences on climate policy, including how best to build carbon markets.
    “California has long been at the forefront of US efforts to reduce carbon pollution. What happens here is watched closely by others states and nations,” said Dreyfus in a prepared statement.
    In August, Australia and the EU said they would link their respective carbon markets from 2015…
    China, the world’s biggest emitter, also plans to launch a nationwide carbon market before the end of the decade…
    ***California’s air resources board isn’t actively considering a link to Australia’s program that would allow companies in the two jurisdictions to trade carbon allowances and offsets across borders, said Dave Clegern, a spokesman for the board in Sacramento.
    “We’re more focused on learning from each other at this point as we inaugurate our programs,” Clegern said. “The ongoing relationship with Australia provides us both with the opportunity to share experience and information as our programs develop.”…
    http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/australia-california-in-talks-to-link-carbon-trading-20121002-26w37.html

    1 Oct: Reuters Point Carbon: ANALYSIS: EU under pressure to be flexible on aviation CO2 row
    Political pressure may force the EU to show flexibility when it comes to resolving the dispute over including airlines in its carbon market – by either being lenient when it comes to policing the scheme or generously interpreting conditions that allow it to repeal the law.
    http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2004752?&ref=searchlist

    1 Oct: Reuters Point Carbon: EU delays decision on tackling shipping emissions
    The EU has delayed taking a decision on how to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from international shipping, including whether to bring the sector into its Emissions Trading Scheme.
    http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2004491?&ref=searchlist

    1 Oct: Reuters Point Carbon: Debt-ridden nations cancel 16 mln CO2 permits
    Ireland and Portugal will cancel 16 million EU carbon permits instead of selling them, government officials from the two countries said.
    http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2004704?&ref=searchlist

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      Allen Ford

      California has long been at the forefront of US efforts to reduce carbon pollution.

      California is also at the forefront of a descent into bankruptcy and poverty!

      Great achievement.

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  • #
    Andrew Barnham

    There are ongoing misbehaviours with name servers the site users. I’m affect too :-). My home DSL works great, but access via 3G mobile (Optus) is busted if I rely on name resolution.

    I’ve passed on my own analysis of problems to folk who are looking after this. Hopefully a resolution will not be too far away.

    For those who need a joannenova.com.au fix, or just want to admire how fast the site now is. You can try this link instead:
    http://vmx10536.hosting24.com.au/

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    Crakar24

    Hey i see the Antarctic has reached new record high levels awaiting an explanation from Ross et al.

    Maybe they can tell me what 2007 and 2012 have in common between both poles………..besides “repent your sins before its too late” you know i was thinking something sciency is that too much to ask?

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    Bob in Castlemaine

    My access seems faster now Jo.

    I hope your current move helps keep the angry bull ants at bay and allows you to focus on your vital work.

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    Mark D.

    It’s working well from here! Noticeably faster too.

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  • #

    Over the weekend, there was a march in South Australia in support of solar power. These people actually have the belief that large scale Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants can be used to replace what is now being supplied by large scale coal fired power plants. What doesn’t help is when some high profile commentators add their weight to demonstrations like this, and this is what happened at this event in South Australia.

    This is the link to the article.

    Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki was there loudly spruiking how good these plants are and how they can in fact replace those levels of power.

    One of the most startling claims he made is this:

    “If we head down this path we can end up with a system where we get all of Australia’s electrical energy entirely from renewables . .. and when you average it out over 30 years it can supply Australia with electricity at one-third of the price of burning coal.”

    Senator Sarah Hanson Young was also there, and she added her bit as well.

    Both of them quoted the Gemasolar Torresol Plant in Spain, saying that plants of this nature can, and in fact already are supplying Base Load power.

    Because of that, and because this march was to call for the replacement of the Port Augusta Playford B and Northern plants that burns the dreaded brown coal, let’s then look at what was claimed in this article that the Playford plant could be replaced by (just) 6 of these CSP plants and 95 Wind Towers. While they want both plants closed the main target is Playford B, and get this. That plant has been in operation since 1963, almost 50 years.

    Again, they quote that the Spanish plant CAN provide power on a regular 24/7/365 basis, which in fact takes a truly enormous liberty with the details of the plant which say:

    The plant has already been able to supply a full day of uninterrupted power supply to the grid, using thermal transfer technology.

    Beats me how ONE FULL DAY gets extrapolated out to regular 24/7/365 basis.

    Now, this Spanish plant has a Capacity of 19.9MW, and will supply around a speculated and probably quite sanguine 110GWH of power on a yearly basis. Using the industry standard then this 19.9MW plant at full operation could theoretically supply 175GWH, then this 110GWH gives the plant a Capacity Factor of 63%, which extrapolated out over the full year means the plant can supply its power for 15 hours a day, and if in Summer, on a cloud free bright days it can achieve delivery for the full 24 hours, then you can imagine that Summer figures will be higher and Winter figures will be lower, and considerably lower in fact if the average is only 15 hours.

    So, keeping that in mind, this march was told that Playford B could be replaced by 6 of these CSP Plants and 98 Wind towers.

    Oh, how wonderful!

    Only 6 CSP plants. Keep in mind that the proposed plant for Chinchilla looks to be canned because they cannot raise financing, even with the Federal and State Governments chucking in half of the $1.2 Billion cost for that plant.

    So you work out the cost of 6 of these CSP plants. Then work out how long for all the ducks to line up for the construction of 6 of them, keeping in mind, it’s five to seven years from proposal to power delivery for just one of them.

    Then you get power for only 15 hours a day, at theoretical best case scenario.

    Then there’s the 98 wind towers. That’s around 3 to 4 large scale proposals each costing in the vicinity of a Billion for each proposal also, and they will only deliver their power at around 30% or a yearly average of 7 hours a day, and even that is also best case scenario, and now think of the financing for that, and the time until delivery of power.

    Then, both plants have an expected life span of only 25 years, and again, here’s Tony quoting the best case scenario for their life span, and Playford B has already been in operation for 50 years, and all going to plan would still need to be in operation for another ten years before all those renewables come on line delivering power, and they’ll only last a third to a half of the life of the plant they are replacing, Playford B.

    So, when you see high profile people like Dr. Karl and Senator Hanson-Young confidently saying this is the way of the future, be very careful when you think about what future that might be.

    For those of you who wonder why CSP cannot deliver, then read this Post at the following link. It has technical information that explains why plants like this just cannot deliver, and will never be made to deliver. I know it’s one of my own Posts, but when you see misinformed mobs marching like this demanding we move in this direction, that needs to be tempered with some facts on what the truth really might be.

    CO2 Emissions – Concentrating Solar Power – The (Failed) Saviour

    Tony.

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    • #

      Again, note specifically how they use Nameplate Capacity for their replacement, and not the actual power delivered.

      Add up 6 of those CSP plants and those 98 Wind Towers and the Nameplate Capacity may look to be equal, although even I can’t figure out that in this case, whether they are seeking to replace BOTH Playford B and Northern, or just one, or the other.

      6 CSP plants at that Gemasolar Torresol 20MW comes to 120MW and 98 Wind towers of who know what size (not stated anywhere, so seemingly just a figure plucked from thin air. Assuming the current average of around 2.5MW per tower, that comes in at around Playford’s 240MW (Nameplate) so is it both or either/or.

      Still they quote that bogus statement:

      These plants will supply (clean) power to X number of homes.

      Any plant will be connected to the grid only and will supply power to all 3 sectors, of which that Residential sector is only (around) 25 to 38% of all power consumed. At no stage EVER will these renewable plants be connected only to X number of homes. It’s a bogus calculation where they quote the best case actual power generated over the full year, they know what an average household consumes, and divide that home number into the total power delivered. Either way, a residence consumes power 24/7/365 and these plants patently, and stated, cannot deliver that level of 24/7/365 power.

      It’s a bogus figure used to make these types of plant look like they can deliver huge amounts of power.

      Either way, these 6 CSP plants, OR those 98 wind towers will never deliver the same amount of actual power delivered from Playford B, an old plant that will obviously not generate the same amount of total yearly power it did deliver when it was new, 50 years ago. Even now, it will still deliver more power than whatever renewable is proposed.

      It’s a crock of bovine waste product.

      Tony.

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    handjive

    In these ‘modern’ times of UN-IPCC ‘unprecedented’ melting of arctic ice caps and ignored highest levels of ice in the antarctic, a reminder of this ‘ancient’ puzzle might be timely.

    The Piri Reis Map.

    The map was lost for a long time and only rediscovered in the 20th century.

    *It must be noted instantly that the map was looked at by Erich von Däniken, fan of ancient alien astronauts and other ‘new agers’, of which much has been made to discredit it by association.

    The Piri Reis Map, which is a genuine document, not a hoax of any kind, was ‘made’ at Constantinople in 1513 CE.

    Despite a ringing endorsement from Albert Einstein, and despite the later admission of John Wright, President of the American Geographical Society that Charles Hapgood had “posed hypotheses that cry aloud for further testing” no further scientific research has ever been undertaken into these anomalous early maps.

    It focuses on the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica.

    Piri Reis could not have acquired his information on this latter region from contemporary explorers because Antarctica remained undiscovered until 1818 CE, more than 300 years after he drew the map.

    The ice-free coast of Queen Maud Land shown in the map is a colossal puzzle because the geological evidence confirms that the very latest date that it could have been surveyed and charted in an ice-free condition is 4000 BCE.

    The “idea” expressed in Hapgood’s 1953 book is a global geological theory which, together with many other anomalies of earth science, elegantly explains how and why large parts of Antarctica could have remained ice-free until 4000 BCE.
    In brief the argument is as follows:

    1. Antarctica was not always covered with ice and was, at one time, much warmer than it is today.

    2. It was warm because it was not physically located at the South Pole in that period.

    Instead it stood approximately 2,000 miles further to the north.

    This “would have put it outside the Antarctic Circle in a temperate or cold temperate climate.”

    3. The continent moved to its present position inside the Antarctic Circle as a result of a mechanism known as earth-crust-displacement.

    This mechanism, in no sense to be confused with plate-tectonics or so-called continental drift, is one whereby the lithosphere, the whole outer crust of the earth: “may be displaced at times, moving over the soft inner body, much as the skin of an orange, if it were loose, might shift over the inner part of the orange all in one piece.”

    4. “During the envisaged southwards movement of Antarctica brought about by earth-crust displacement, the continent would gradually have grown colder, an ice-cap forming and remorselessly expanding over several thousands of years until it at last attained its present dimensions.”

    Orthodox geologists, however, remain reluctant to accept Hapgood’s theory (although none have succeeded in proving it incorrect).
    It raises many questions.

    * At this point, note that there will be minimum links in this comment, as a search on the internet will result in pages of information & opinions.

    For example, there are also plenty of web sites dedicated to disproving Hapgood’s theory — not on the basis of its own absurdity, but on Hapgood’s own terms.

    I don’t wish to argue any side of the puzzle in this open thread, just highlight the maps existence and recommend if anyone is interested, to search and reach your own conclusions.

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    Crakar24

    Just checked with Pats comments and he has not mentioned this (he must be slipping) but apparently AGW is going to make fish shrink i kid you not, is there anything that can remain untouched by this omnipotent molecule?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/30/fish-shrink-climate-change

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    pat

    for an hour or so, i could only access Jo’s “Tyrants” thread and, even then, had to try posting 4 times to get thru.
    posted excerpts from the first two links over there, but how’s the hysterical,bullying tone of Hewson in the third link????

    29 Sept: ThisIsMoney.uk: TONY HETHERINGTON: Our home has been put at risk by investing with a carbon credit cowboy
    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-2210464/TONY-HETHERINGTON-Our-home-risk-carbon-credit-cowboy.html

    29 Sept: The Reference Frame: Lubos Motl: Gore’s investment firm: no green investments
    http://motls.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/gores-investment-firm-no-green.html

    26 Sept: Asset Owners Disclosure Project: Investor Groups reject independent disclosure of climate risk management, and civil Society
    “Given the magnitude and urgency of the climate challenge, this rejection by the Investor Groups is disappointing and dangerous from an industry that should be much more transparent and accountable to its members” said AODP Chair Dr John Hewson AM.
    “It is time for these climate Investor Groups to help walk the talk within their own industry as despite some useful advocacy real material disclosure from funds has hardly moved forward at all.”…
    The Investor groups, who are the IIGCC in Europe, INCR in the USA and IGCC in Oceania. and have several trillion of funds in their membership including many funds who are perceived to be leaders in managing climate risk.
    Hewson Added “How is it other than hypocritical for these groups to demand independent disclosure of the companies they invest in, but when it comes to their own transparency, to want to play by a different set of rules? Also, they cannot continue to be gatekeepers for reluctant funds who may be members of these types of organisation but are actually doing very little to invest more responsibly”
    “These are the same groups that have been working with the successful and important Carbon Disclosure Project that seeks independently managed disclosure from companies on similar issues. We urge their members individually to now disassociate themselves from this lack of openness, and work with ourselves and civil society to publicly demonstrate who is really acting over climate change and who is not”…
    The AODP is chaired by former leader of the Australian conservative Liberal Party Dr John Hewson AM with Board members including the General Secetary of the ITUC Sharan Burrows, the former head of risk at Goldman Sachs Bob Litterman and Dr Andrew Hilton OBE, Director of the London based Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation.
    http://aodproject.net/index.php/news/49-investor-groups-reject-independent-disclosure-of-climate-risk-management-and-civil-society

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    AndyG55

    Yipeeeeee.. final I can get back on the JN site !! 🙂

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    Brian

    Nice to have you back.

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    Michael Urry

    Nice to have you back. I look forward to seeing a comment from you on Pointman’s piece on WUWT.

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    Richard111

    All working well here, thank you Jo.

    BBC is reporting on tonights six-o-clock news that HALF the coral on the Great Barrier Reef has been destroyed by srorms, starfish and global warming.

    Since I no longer believe the BBC what is the news from your end?

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      @Richard111:

      BBC is reporting on tonights six-o-clock news that HALF the coral on the Great Barrier Reef has been destroyed by srorms, starfish and global warming.

      Since I no longer believe the BBC what is the news from your end?

      ‘My end” is Coral Sea coast, and yes, reported here. I expect a response from the equally qualified and more reasonable elements and will post links when they arrive.
      First take:
      1. “half the coral”? They certainly haven’t surveyed half the coral. I suspect cherry-picking.
      2. “Storms”? Yes, storms do damage. Yasi was a big one, lots of broken coral on the beach here, small amounts still being washed in.
      3. “starfish”? They come and go. No sign of plague proportions.
      4. “global warming”? Not much evidence of this. North East Coral Sea has some of the warmest waters there are, corals abound at/either side of the equator. So if GW was an element, the result would be an expansion of the QBR to the south …

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        Richard111

        Thanks Martin. Figured as much. Here is one of many BBC links.

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19800253

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          @Richard111
          Thanks for the link. Could be worse. Funny thing is, if half of it has “gone”, how come no one else has noticed?
          One useful item is the apparent link between nutrient run-off, algal bloom and Crown-of-thorns starfish. Nutrient run-off is a recognised problem, but is being addressed. Safer to cut off the food supply to the larvae that go after the adult C o T – spines are loaded with toxins.
          I notice that “acidification” has been sneaked in. Reefs around Dobu Island (D’Entrecasteaux) lie over the Ring of Fire. Bubbles of almost neat CO2 rising continually from the sea bed. AIMS people are aware of this, but don’t seem to have recorded the phenomenon. Not surprising. Commonwealth (eg Federal) Statutory Authority, $A93 million budget. They are not going to rock the boat …

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    soldier

    Jo,

    Congratulations on your return, you’ve been sorely missed by all thinking people.

    I too have had trouble accessing your site since your return and could only do so by adjusting the security settings on my browser (Firefox).
    Only by un-ticking the “block reported attack sites” was I able to connect to your site.

    Has anyone else found this?
    Is it safe to leave it set as un-ticked?

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      Security settings etc:

      I managed to block myself out for a while by adding what turned out to be a temporary JN IP address into the hosts file.

      Some domain name servers are slower than others to pick up changes, and contrary to what others have said, some of us don’t get to choose a DNS – it is fixed by the ISP.

      “Block reported attack sites” issue: Yep – if the perps can’t find a way of breaking into this one, JN will very likely get reported as an attack site on services like WOT (World of Trust – not) and the like.

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        Martin Clark October 3, 2012 at 8:17 am
        Security settings etc:

        I managed to block myself out for a while by adding what turned out to be a temporary JN IP address into the hosts file.

        Some domain name servers are slower than others to pick up changes, and contrary to what others have said, some of us don’t get to choose a DNS – it is fixed by the ISP.

        How is it fixed?

        I would like to know … even in Windows if you are using a dynamic IP one can choose to enter a fixed DNS address.

        .

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          @_Jim

          How is it fixed? I would like to know … even in Windows if you are using a dynamic IP one can choose to enter a fixed DNS address.

          In my case, my IP appears to be dynamic, but DNS is “locked” at the broadband router. Not sure if the latter is true, but currently not willing to test it 🙂

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            Following up – general comment:

            JN is now at http://223.27.18.253/ [Australia] but still exists at http://54.251.35.28/ [USA] eg the message “The site is down for further maintenance. It should be back up very shortly. Please check back in 30 mins!”

            Some of us know enough about this stuff to get our wires crossed. (Can’t type while sitting on hands.)

            Hopefully the need for this will pass, but if not, it will be useful to know if an IP (as opposed to a name) is expected to be permanent or temporary.

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            Martin Clark October 3, 2012 at 11:10 am

            In my case, my IP appears to be dynamic, but DNS is “locked” at the broadband router. Not sure if the latter is true, but currently not willing to test it

            Martin, my router has a DNS address assigned to it also (besides the dynamic IP addr from the ISP), but, I have __manually__ entered a DNS address as I showed further above (for Xp in my case) for my _PC_.

            The DNS address in the router has little to do with the DNS in the PC (unless, you have the PC set to request a DNS address and then it gets it from the router).

            Don’t confuse DHCP (dynamic IP addressing) with DNS (Domain Name Server), they can be worked separately.

            BTW, there is nothing that will be ‘hurt’ if you change the DNS address in the PC (I did not touch the one in the router) … if you have iMovies or other streaming services if might be advantageous to use a DNS closer to your own shores rather than the Google DNS (different DNS servers can supply IP addresses for access to streaming/movies and big files to servers closer by).

            Quickie instructs for ’98 thru Win7 DNS setup:
            http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001161.htm

            One more link: List of Top 4 Alternative DNS Servers to Your ISP’s DNS:
            http://www.snaphow.com/4402/list-of-top-4-alternative-dns-servers-to-your-isp

            One can use this command in a command prompt window to view present PC setting too (all the IP stuff at once):
            IPCONFIG /ALL

            Good luck if you decide to take the plunge.
            _Jim

            .

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    RoHa

    I’ll have another try at getting the comments to work.

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    RoHa

    Good.

    Now to see if I can post a historical correction on the “Tyrants” page. Failed yesterday.

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    Hasbeen

    What a welcome sight it is to have your site come up.

    First time in 3 days.

    Now I know what withdrawal symptoms feel like.

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    @_Jim

    Re DNS addressing etc
    Thanks Jim, collected all the advice, I’ll try some of the suggestions if things start running too slow.
    My next bit of unexplored territory will be trialling an Android tablet + wireless when out on construction sites. Hopefully easier than keeping a laptop battery charged. Biggest problem here is seeing the screen in intense sunlight. Umbrella made of blackout curtain, aerial on top seems the way to go 🙂

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    TimiBoy

    I can’t load your site from Firefox, but can from IE. Ideas?

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    MaxL

    Hi Jo,

    Is there a reason why some commenters do not appear on the
    “Recent comments & news
    These are the latest 30 comments posted on this site on any thread:” page?

    There are many regulars who I try to follow with their comments and I use this page to catch up on recent their comments.
    Mark D is one example whose name does not appear. He appears in the side bar but not the Recent comments page.

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