Weekend Unthreaded

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225 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

  • #
    Alfred Alexander

    Yes, I was first to click on the little gold stars

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      Roy Hogue

      You tempt me to say something about gold stars and being first. But I think Jo tries to run a site you would let your children visit so I’ll resist the temptation. It’s nothing to do with you but your comment brought it to mind immediately. Some people are not nice. ๐Ÿ™

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Don’t worry Roy. When Trump wins it will be compulsory for kids to get Elephant stamps.

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        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          I was told that they would be stamped on by elephants – now I am confused.

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          Graeme,

          Can we make that, if Trump wins?

          The Republican dirty tricks and smoke filled backroom deals brigade is now out in full force again trying to submarine him at the convention so he’s never even nominated. I hear the powers that be think Scott Walker would be a good replacement.

          How bad can things get? Scott Walker was clearly rejected very early in the process. The voting Republicans from one coast to the other have chosen Trump and for better or for worse, the party is obligated to respect the result of the state elections. Otherwise, of what use is an election? We might just as well declare this country of ours is now a monarchy and be done with it. Simply dispense with the voters and forget holding elections.

          My confidence in the House and Senate is now even lower than it was before Trump came along.

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            I’m beginning to want Trump simply because it will flip a huge one finger salute to the self-righteous numbskulls who think they don’t have to pay any attention to the voters.

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      • #
        James Murphy

        I know of at least 1 programme where gold stars are given to personnel on a small group of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (who are generally – but not always, quite far from the stereotypical rednecks one may associate with drilling rigs), based on monthly rig performance (time is money, after all, about US$40K-$50k/hour, no less), and the results are published in an internal newsletter.

        I’m all for friendly competition (except that it already exists between different drilling rigs, and different crews on the same rig), and for rewarding exceptional performance in some way, but I find the style and manner in which such a system is conducted very grating, demeaning, and condescending.

        Mind you, I look forward to doing something so good at my workplace that I get “…A sticker of a butterfly in glasses saying โ€˜Great job!โ€™…”

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      • #
        Alfred Alexander

        JO NOVA Best site
        Weekend Unthreaded Best of the Best
        Alfred

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  • #

    I know that kudos by way of stamps and stickers are all the rage but …

    You wanna tell me I did a good job, buy me a beer.

    But that is just me.

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    • #
      DonK31

      If you want to tell me I did a good job, give me a raise, or at least a bonus. I work because I get money, not a participation trophy.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      After the beers you’ll end up sticking the coaster on your forehead, you can’t escape the ironies of life. ๐Ÿ™‚

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    • #
      James Bradley

      My first grade teacher made the mistake of having the ‘Good Work’ stamp with a fancier border pattern than the ‘Excellent Work’ stamp – I have always aimed for mediocrity ever since.

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    • #
      Glenn999

      enjoying my unthreadedness
      here’s a beauty:
      Dire Straits song
      “Badges, Posters, Stickers, T-Shirts”

      Me and my mate we think you’re great
      Some we like and some we hate
      I know him I’ve seen him on the adverts
      Got any badges posters stickers or t-shirts

      You were bloody great last time you come
      I thought me ‘ead was stuck in the bass drum
      Bloody loud, me bloody head hurts
      Got any badges posters stickers and t-shirts

      So how’d you get a start in show biz
      My mate’s as good on the drums as he is
      My mate thinks I’m bloody cracked
      Please sign my jacket on the back

      All them badges made of plastic
      I think they’re great, just fantastic
      I’m unemployed, he’s still at school
      He gets annoyed ’cause I’m such a fool

      You don’t half sweat a lot up there
      Have you got showers in here?
      You’re bloody great, my bloody head hurts
      Got any badges posters stickers and t-shirts

      Yeah, me and my mate like ac-dc
      Hot & sweaty, loud & greasy
      My mom says we’re a pair of perverts
      Got any badges posters stickers and t-shirts

      C’mon mister
      We hitch-hiked here in pouring rain
      Now we’ve missed the frigging train.

      Hey! can I have one of them lagers?
      Thanks very much, mate. can ‘e have one?
      A-one, a-two, a-one two three four…

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  • #

    As well as the Hydro Tasmania dams and power stations, they have wind farms totalling 305 MW at Woolnorth (NW) and Musselroe Bay (NE). For most of May they were producing at 50+% capacity, and the same again this month except for a couple of days at the beginning of the month.

    Looking at the Lake levels this week one sees that most of the river power stations are going flat out with water over the spillways, but the big storages Lake Gordon and the Great Lake are pretty well empty.

    I do not suscribe to the excuse of low spring rainfall affecting their storages, apart from the Great Lake, since the catchments received average rainfall. Look up the data for Strathgordon, perfectly normal rainfall figures.

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    • #

      Just noticed that the wind has dropped again, down to 10% capacity at 3 am.

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      • #

        Just at the moment only three wind farms are producing significant amounts of electricity: Woolnorth 72%, Musselroe Bay 95% (both in Tas.) and Bald Hills near Melbourne 49%. All the rest are for practical purposes idle, S. Aust., N.S.W. and the rest of Victoria.

        Hydro Tas. decided that the 600 MW wind farm proposal on King. Island was not economic, why would more wind farms in southern Aust. fare any better which the present situation indicates?

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        • #

          And hey, that proposed King Island plant, didn’t I get some grief when I posted at some of the sites about that. It was proposed to cost $2.2 Billion, and when I mentioned that this proved that the cost of wind power was not coming down, but rising, there were all sorts of excuses offered up as to why this plant was costing so much, and that this was just a one off.

          Tony.

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        • #
          OB

          Here in the UK the aero generators have a rated capacity in excess of 13,000MW.

          Production as of 1800 hrs today it is 350MW and has been much the same all day and I do not think it went much above 2,000MW for the past five days.

          At the moment demand is about 31,000MW and the “green” supply of wind and wood burning boilers are supplying just a little mort than 5.7 percent of demand.
          Solar is not metered so it is a guess as to what it supplies but we can forget about that as it’s 1830 hrs now and what little it is providing is not worth mentioning. At its peak I would guess solar could contribute 3,000MW on a sunny day in June or July but that is only for a couple hours.

          Reference:

          http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

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    • #
      Analitik

      Some decent information and graphs in this article by Mikky and comments
      https://climanrecon.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/tasmanian-hydro-storage-levels/

      I don’t agree with his latest article, though, about the Derwent system status
      http://joannenova.com.au/2016/06/climate-control-gone-wrong-tasmanian-hydro-seeded-clouds-before-disastrous-floods/#comment-1810787

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  • #
    Joe Lalonde

    Here is how Queen Hillary is corrupting her way to be President.

    The US Presidential Election process is raked full of dirty tactics.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-07/was-hillary-caught-colluding-ap-announce-delegate-win-california

    Cancelling exit polls and so much more …

    http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/this-is-a-usurper-not-a-candidate-california-primary-was-stolen-and-hillarys-nomination-a-coup_06102016?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SHTFplan+%28SHTF+Plan+-+When+It+Hits+The+Fan%2C+Don%27t+Say+We+Didn%27t+Warn+You%29

    Another thing happening is the World Economy is crumbing along with
    Russia now is finally getting pissed at what the US is trying to pull.
    http://www.zerohedge.com/

    [Even if the sources were not dubious, it is a non-story. Press agents often prepare two statements, ahead of time – one for a ‘win’ and the other for a ‘loss’. Neither should have been published until the result was known and verified. Somebody at the press agency pushed the wrong button at the wrong time – it happens sometimes. Zerohedge is well known for milking such ‘conspiracies’.] Fly

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    • #
      Joe Lalonde

      [snip about moderation]

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      • #
        el gordo

        ‘Commenting on the recent US-led military buildup along Russiaโ€™s and Chinaโ€™s borders, he called it the most massive since World War II and said that the leaders of both countries, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping perceive it correctly: as a โ€œdirect threat of warโ€.

        โ€œThe fact is that Obama is panicked. The whole western financial system is crumbling,โ€ he said.

        Read more: http://sputniknews.com/world/20160517/1039730658/obama-panic-russia-borders.html#ixzz4BJ9Q8gZv

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      • #
        Glen Michel

        NATO and the U.S. are threatening Russia over their resurgence under a strong Putin. I wonder also about the Dutch referendum and economic ties with Ukraine being rejected by parliament and that aggressive EU. I expect that Russia will continue to do whatever is in its national interest- and rightly so.

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      • #
        Joe Lalonde

        I watch CNN all day saying how Hillary Clinton won the nomination by Associated Press before the elections started Tuesday…Before a single vote was counted. Those Super deligates come in play at the convention when they can vote their choice.
        So, it was totally fraudulent for the press to publish this before the elections on Tuesday.
        At other States Bernie Sanders Supports were very angry on being knocked off the list at the convention so that they could not vote. They published the anger but NOT why they were angry.

        So much in this election on the Trump side too where States NEVER had an election, just the system allowed Cruz to gather delegates without Trump supports having a vote in those States.

        Is that not fraud too to change the rules for one candidate for another?

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      • #
        Yonniestone

        [snip about moderation – resolved]

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      • #
        handjive

        Doomsday Global Warming: Ye good ole days …

        2008: Our hot, dry future
        by David Jones (BoM)

        “This rainfall decline is driven by a rise in atmospheric pressures, and a weakening of cold fronts and low-pressure systems that once reliably brought rainfall to southern Australia.

        Of course, the drought has not been helped by rising temperatures, which have increased losses through evaporation.”
        ~ ~ ~
        [Global Warming] could bring more rain to deserts, not less: study

        2016: Dr Markus Donat, from the UNSW’s Climate Change Research Centre said, “In fact, a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, causing more rainfall.”

        ~ ~ ~
        Global Warming Settled Science Turn-Around??

        “The Paris floods, that saw extreme rainfall swell the river Seine to its highest level in decades, were made almost twice as likely because of the manmade emissions driving global warming, scientists have found.

        The climate science community is speeding up its efforts to draw the links โ€“ the attribution โ€“ between extreme weather events and climate change, while such events are fresh in the public and politicianโ€™s minds.

        Previous quick turnaround research has shown flooding in England and heatwaves in Europe were made more likely because of global warming.

        The Seine’s record peak was in 1910, when an eight-metre rise caused the catastrophic โ€˜Great Flood of Parisโ€™.”
        . . .
        Further evidence 97% climate scientists are ‘turning around’ so much, they are in a spin!

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        • #
          TdeF

          In particular the floods in England are published government policy, allowing the canals to clog, removing the drainage, so increasing the marsh areas which then increases waterbirds and frogs and wild life in the fens. Too bad about the people. As the objection to leaving the EU indicates, frogs are more important than people. Sorry, Belgian bureaucrats.

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          • #
            TdeF

            That was meant to be a response to handjive #17 and not a stand alone comment. Even man made disasters are being blamed on the all powerful and mysterious Climate Change.

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          • #
            Yonniestone

            TdeF the word neglect springs to mind but in legal contexts it’s meaning can cover many areas, Neglect legal definition.

            If the Brits can’t legally escape the EU then pitchfork sharpening and torch making will eventually prevail, people in privileged shelter hold a skewed world view that their perceived enlightenment of rule will somehow cast a magical influence over the unwashed and generations of learned behaviour will be cast aside for the demigod insights of the ‘new money with a conscience’

            People don’t like to lose anything, whether it be power, possessions, security, family, games, face etc… and as we forget history the dictators forget this.

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        • #

          I looked at the history of flooding events in Paris last week. Following the extreme flooding of 1910 the authorities spent decades putting into place a lot of measures to minimize the effects of flooding. There were two types.
          First was the physical elements. This included reservoirs upstream (like in Australia) and dredging the rivers (something here in Britain the authorities fail to do).
          Second are the emergency elements such as evacuating people and artworks, along with turning off electricity.
          The actual data shows that extreme floods (over 6m above normal levels) are on the decrease, as clearly illustrated by this graph I did of 6m+ floods since 1870.
          https://manicbeancounter.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/paris6mfloods.jpg?w=900
          It would appear that the early twentieth century had more extreme floods than the period before or after. The period after may have been affected by flood mitigation.
          My fuller account is here.

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        • #
          Peter C

          David Jones (BOM) must no better than that. Dry conditions cause HOT weather, not the other way round.

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          • #
            ROM

            From past forum experiences; BOM’s David Jones make Silly Filly and Frank look like full on Skeptics.

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            • #
              ROM

              Nov 2011
              .
              Climategate 2: How the Bureauโ€™s David Jones snowed sceptics – or himself

              [ below is all quoted ]
              —————–

              to: โ€œPhil Jonesโ€

              Thanks Phil for the input and paper. I will get back to you with comments next week.
              Fortunately in Australia our sceptics are rather scientifically incompetent.
              It is also easier for us in that we have a policy of providing any complainer with every single station observation when they question our data (this usually snows them) and the Australian data is in pretty good order anyway.

              Truth be know, climate change here is now running so rampant that we donโ€™t need meteorological data to see it.
              Almost everyone of our cities is on the verge of running out of water and our largest irrigation system (the Murray Darling Basin is on the verge of collapse – across NSW farmer have received a 0% allocation of water for the coming summer and in Victoria they currently have 5% allocations – numbers that will just about see the death of our fruit, citrus, vine and dairy industries if we donโ€™t get good spring rain).

              The odd things is that even when we see average rainfall our runoffs are far below average,which seems to be a direct result of warmer temperatures.
              Recent polls show that Australians now rate climate change as a greater threat than world terrorism.
              Regards,
              David

              Consider that bizarre email for a second. Jones was so sure that the weather here was evidence of a man-made change to the climate that he didnโ€™t even need meteorological data to confirm it.

              But what does the Climate Commission now concede – just four years later – about that drought that so convinced Jones that man was to blame?:

              โ€œAustralia naturally has a high degree of variability in rainfall, with long periods of intense droughts punctuated by heavy rainfall and flooding, so it is difficult from observations alone to unequivocally identify anything that is distinctly unusual about the post-1950 patternโ€.

              And as Climate Commissioner Will Steffen confirmed to me:

              Andrew Bolt: โ€œWe have also been told by this Government that the recent drought in the Murray-Darling Basin was caused by global warming, again your own report says there is nothing unusual about that drought either is that true?โ€

              Professor Will Steffen: โ€œWeโ€™ve had very severe droughts before so again we cannot attribute this drought statistically to climate changeโ€ฆ.โ€

              As for Jonesโ€™s warming that โ€œalmost everyone of our cities is on the verge of running out of waterโ€ thanks to climate change, letโ€™s check:

              Sydneyโ€™s water storage: 78 per cent full

              Melbourneโ€™s water storage: 65 per cent full.

              Canberraโ€™s water storage: 96 per cent full

              Brisbane and SE Queenslandโ€™s water storage: 79 per cent full.

              Adelaideโ€™s water storage: 77 per cent full

              Perthโ€™s water storage: 36 per cent full

              In short, not a single city is โ€œon the verge of running out of waterโ€. And the Murray Darling basin is in excellent shape after last summerโ€™s floods:

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          Handjive,

          this isn’t related to what you are saying here, (at Comment 21) but I thought you might like to see this.

          I was chasing up a song of Glen Campbell’s, Southern Nights. (clip here at this link) I heard the original from the writer Alan Toussaint, and chased up both versions. The Toussaint original is different, really nice, and done sort of Bluesy. (clip here at this link) I saw one clip of Glen doing the song not long after he first released it, in 1977. He was playing a pretty guitar, an Ovation Deacon 12 string electric, (odd shape, like an axe, image here) and with some more research I found an image of him with an even rarer guitar, an Ovation Bluebird 12 string electric, (image here) and evidently, Ovation only made five of them.

          Then I found this image of Glen sitting on the stairs with his guitars laid out around him. That wonderful image is at this link. 23 Guitars and a Banjo. He was a session guitarist with The Wrecking Crew before his solo career, and at one stage he was contracted to Ovation, and they made a lot of guitars especially for him.

          In that image that Bluebird is at the top of the stairs at the left of the showcase with his Platinum records. A lot of those other guitars are also very rare too.

          The two at the front are the Epiphone (left front) he used early on , and at left his near 50 year old Martin D18. (right front)

          Wow! Some beautiful guitars there.

          Thought yo might like to see it.

          Tony.

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            Tony,

            Thanks for that. Campbell was one of the best. He could make a guitar get right up and dance across the floor if he wanted it to or sing it soft and sweet, bluesy, any way he wanted it. He was one of the all time masters to me. He’s now in the last stages of Alzheimer’s if not gone by now. Such a tragedy…

            Another one is Roy Clark โ€” at least I think he’s still performing at his place in Branson, MO. The two together were a double treat.

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      • #
        toorightmate

        Agree.
        I would have thought that US destroyers in the Baltic are a bit more “provocative” than Chinese navy vessels in the South China Sea???

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  • #
  • #

    On June 3rd, the Guardian posted some images of the supposed impact of global warming. There were three images posted of the drought impacts in South-Eastern Australia.

    The was a photo of Lake Elidon, showing a dry lake bed in 2009, claiming it had not been full since 1995. But
    – Data shows that it was full for all of 2011, post drought.
    – In 2003 it was restricted to just 65% capacity because it no longer met safety standards for earthquakes and extreme floods.
    – Data shows it was not full in 1995, but was briefly in the following year.

    There was a photo of bush fires near Michelago NSW. The author seemed unaware that fires are natural, but have been increasing in severity due prevention of the natural spread of fires.

    There was a photo of Hume Dam in 2009, pointing out that drought is likely to worsen with climate change. Like Lake Elidon, Hume Dam reached full capacity post drought. Goulburn-Murray Rural Water Corporation provide some nice graphs to check historic capacity levels.

    It is an extreme example of how climate alarmists ignore the real data and alternative explanations to get their message across. Details are here.

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    • #
      Annie

      I don’t have the figures to hand but Lake Eildon has had plenty of water in recent years. We live near to it and had a VERY soggy winter two years ago. Last year there was less rain and we had a fairly dry summer but have had plenty of rain lately.

      The people who tow boats past us at high speed certainly expect to find water!

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      • #

        Hi Annie
        You can check on the historical water levels for Lake Eildon from this graph. You could check the current accuracy, as it is registering about one-third full at present. Have it been quite dry in the area for the last few months?

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        • #
          Annie

          Yes Manicbeancounter. It was pretty dry for a while; one of our dams dried right up but is refilling nicely. We have had some good rain lately.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    James Delingpole on

    “The Great British Wind Farm Scandal: These Are The Heads That Should Roll”

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/11/great-british-wind-farm-scandal/

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    • #
      toorightmate

      Has “big oil” been replaced by “big wind”?

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      • #
        ROM

        .
        toorightmate @ #7.1

        Has โ€œbig oilโ€ been replaced by โ€œbig windโ€?

        Good thinking and when I think through quite a number of recent Media and blog postings you might just have recognised the pointy end of a new far more skeptical and increasingly critical and vocal trend about all the very bad characteristics of “Big Wind”.

        Unreliable, inefficient, unpredictable, never meeting energy production claims, extravagant and well honed troughers of the public purse and less and less affordable and finally, well beyond greedy “Big wind” are all now being brought into play in blog and media posts and comments and are now beginning to replace “nasty” Big Oil in the green approved list of contemptible and very big corporate energy sources to the greens disgust.

        The Greens / climate alarmists are wetting their panties trying to keep, with increasing desperation, “Big Wind” out of their “Big Corporate dung pile” they are trying to create but are desperately working to include ”Big Coal” along side of “Big Oil” in that list of supposedly nasty corporate industries.

        But “Big Wind” is now doing its very best to be included in that “Dung pile of Corporate nasties” and it is starting to succeed.

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    • #

      Just relating to the Australian situation at 9 am. this morning:

      Total consumption 22,400 MW.
      Fossil fuel….. 20,000 MW
      Hydro…………..2,000 MW
      Wind……………..400 MW
      Solar…………….000 MW

      OK 50% renewable by 2030 means a deficit of 10,000 MW for the scenario.

      No solar to speak of, therefore 10,000 x 3669/400 = 91,000 MW of capacity of wind required to cover consumption which translates to a minimum of 45,500 sq. km. of suitable wind farm sites, that is about 4 times the size of metro Sydney under 30,000 x 3 MW wind turbines.

      The other choice is a smaller number of wind turbines, but more fossil fuel generation to prevent black-outs. Wasn’t the idea to have 50% renewable generation?

      Why do our politicians act as lemmings following their European counterparts?

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      • #
        Peter C

        Why do our politicians act as lemmings following their European counterparts

        Something is driving them to it. I do not think it is personal conviction but I might be wrong in some cases.

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    • #

      James Delingpole ….. don’t hold back!

      Great article.

      Wind power a flop. Gosh! Who would have thought?

      Tony.

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  • #
    Glen Michel

    Should qualify that the People of the Netherlands rejected the special economic ties with Ukraine.

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    Another Ian

    “The critical thing is not to get bound up in a further exercise of that stultifying doctrine of paralysis known as the ‘precautionary principle’ so beloved of the Khmer Vert eco-(in)activists. If we had never acted in any different fashion until we were absolutely certain of the outcome, we’d still be swinging from branches in the primaeval forest canopy.”

    From

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2016/06/the-case-for-br.html#comments

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    James Murphy

    I was just having a look at the official list of candidates for the Australian election – to see if I can pick the least worst candidates, and noticed that there is a party called ‘Science Party Australia‘, which naturally caught my attention.

    I had read through their stuff anyway, and I don’t disagree with everything they say, but It’s a pity that they betray such a name by supporting carbon trading, and “…Zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2030…”, amongst some other very foolish policy statements (though they do seem to recognise nuclear as the logical power source to replace fossil fuels). Overall, they seem to hover somewhere slightly warmer than ‘lukewarm’, and even if I could vote for them, I do not think I would, but I guess that may depend on the other candidates…

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Great success for the Liberal Green attempt to suppress smaller parties.

      In SA we have 25 Parties with 59 candidates + 5 Independents standing in the Senate.

      Yes, we have The Motoring Enthusiasts, the Fred Nile group, Pauline Hanson (again), Palmer United?, Derren Hinch, The Marijuana party getting cosy with the Sex party, and being SA – the Arts Party.
      I see Adrian and Alex want Marriage Equality and if The Cyclists party thinks they will collect votes in this electorate they are as stupid as the Greens.
      All I have to do now is make up a voting list, starting with Sarah Huff-Puff at No.64 and working my way up.

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      • #

        So then, with so many Parties (and Individuals) running, it makes you wonder how many of them are doing it for the money eh!

        For every eligible vote an individual (or Party) receives, they get (just on) $2.63.

        You know, put your name down, and don’t even bother to spend all that much on a campaign, and just take the money at the end of it.

        Link to source

        Imagine the Pauline Hanson types, and I’m only using her name as an example here. Pretty popular without having to do all that much, getting a good number of votes, and making a nice lump of cash. Each election, every three years or so, and sort of hoping that you don’t actually get elected and then have to do something, like be an MP/Senator.

        Run in every election you can find, and it might be a nice little money earner.

        She ran in the Senate for NSW at the last Federal Poll and garnered 53,000 first preference votes at $2.48 a vote, so $132K, split three ways I suppose as she had three candidates. Then under her own name in the Lockyer by-election for the Queensland Government, and almost actually got elected.

        Tony.

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        • #
          PeterPetrum

          Tony, as promised, I have just finished reading your submission to the Qld Panel on the 50% renewable issue. Brilliant! And very understandable, but I wonder if they will be able yo distinguish between giga, mega and tetra when it comes to wattage. Unless they have some technical background it will be all negative to them. It was a tremendous effort on your part and I truly hope that it has the impact that you deserve. Your submission is a template for one to the Shortone too!

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          • #

            ‘ giga, mega and tetra terawatt when it comes to wattage.’

            I’ll agree, with colored circles to indicate some idea of the vast difference in the wee prefixi! A table showing the difference between kilowatt (hairdryer) and ‘pence’ to operate said hairdryer for a whole hour, would be nice also!

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          • #

            PeterPetrum,

            thanks for that.

            Yeah! Powers of ten. Not easily understood sometimes.

            That 27TWH of coal fired power they have to replace with renewable power.

            27TWH.

            Said like that, it doesn’t sound like much at all.

            I refer it to a household power bill where the cost is calculated in KWH. The average household in Australia consumes around 18.5KWH of power per day. So, that 27TWH works out at 27 BILLION KWH.

            Then there’s going backwards, milli, micro, nano, and pico. (minu3, 6, 9, and 12)

            I once had a girlfriend back in the late 60s, and she had a small portable record player. I always smiled when I noticed how the output was written on the box as 1,000 milliWatts.

            I was at a rock concert?? at a pub in Newcastle back in the 70s’ and it was out in the Beer Garden, and it was Winter, and a really cold night. I was talking to the crew, mentioning how cold it was, and they mentioned that they all just stood behind the racks of the Amplifiers, and the backs of them were open for cooling purposes. Those huge Power valves in them, Mullards as tall as six inches some of them, and as many as six of them per Amplifier put out so much heat they acted like heaters, and that’s what warmed up the crew. And they were only 250Watt Amplifiers.

            Tony.

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      • #
        toorightmate

        ALA please folk.
        Unfortunately, the Cyclists Party has No.1 position on the Qld senate paper!!!!!!!!.

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      • #
        David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

        Don’t forget you only need vote for 12… A blank against those really bad ones will save a lot of work. I’ve got 12, so haven’t needed to put the G’s last. They’re just in my “said unacceptable” pile.
        Cheers,
        Dave B

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          Peter C

          Same here David,

          I have found 12 candidates without getting anywhere near to Lib, Labour or Greens so 12 it will be.

          Except I may give a vote to Senator James Patterson (Lib). He recently worked for the IPA and was not in parliament when Turnbull took over.

          30

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            Another Ian

            A suggestion for one electorate from comments at

            http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/tips_for_monday_june_131/P20/

            Here is a how to vote card in Hinkler if you are sick and tired of the โ€˜me tooโ€™ spend and tax policies of the ALP and the Turnbull Labor Lite Party and like us outraged at the changes to superannuation:

            House of Reps:

            1. Windred – Australian Liberty Alliance
            2. Lynch – Family First
            3. Huxham – One Nation
            4. Foster โ€“ Independent
            5. Pitt โ€“ Labor Lite
            6. Lawson โ€“ ALP
            7. Roberts โ€“ Green Idiots

            Senate:

            1. Liberal Democrats
            2. Australian Liberty Alliance
            3. Family First
            4. Pauline Hansenโ€™s One Nation
            5. Shooters, Fishers and Farmers
            6. Rise up Australia Party
            7. Mature Australia
            8. Democratic Labour Party
            9. Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)
            10. Citizens Electoral Council
            11. Katters Australia Party
            12. Derryn Hinchโ€™s Justice

            Wake up Australia (Reply)
            Mon 13 Jun 16 (07:58am)

            10

      • #
        James Murphy

        I think it says a lot for the quality of Senate candidates (the names we know and recognise), that many people, including myself, vote below the line, and work backwards from those they dislike the most, to those they dislike the least.

        I too will work my way backwards from Sarah Huff-Puff to… well, it’s yet to be decided, I have some reading to do, because I might as well be one of those people which governments fear most – an intelligent, and informed voter. (as informed as one can be, given the state of the media).

        50

  • #
    el gordo

    James Cook University censures whistle blower.

    Graham Lloyd behind a paywall at the Oz.

    ‘When Peter Ridd thought something was wrong with photographs showing a reef in decline he checked the facts.’

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    • #

      It is easy to get round the paywall.
      https://db.tt/AZul4ubf
      (My excuse: as a pensioner with a seriously disabled partner, I now have to retain the $A416 pa subscription for other purposes.)
      Apart from the dumb comment at the end, there are some interesting observations, such as ” … there are literally hundreds of square kilometres of dead reef-flat on the Great Barrier Reef which was killed due to the slow sea-level fall of about a meter that has occurred over the last 5000
      years … “

      50

    • #
      Pauly

      When I lived in Townsville, our regular joke about James Cook University was that Marine Science was its most popular undergraduate course (scuba diving on the reef was compulsory), but that there were only two positions available for marine scientists anywhere in Queensland.

      Looks like James Cook University is solving that problem, and thereby ensuring future employment of its graduates.

      71

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    TdeF

    Prominently on page 3 of the Australian, a Graham Lloyd story about Professor Peter Ridd from James Cook University who is threatened with dismissal. A renowned campaigner for quality assurance over coral research research. He has been found guilty of “failing to act in a collegial way and in the academic spirit of the institution”. A whistleblower.

    However the real clanger is in Lloyd’s final sentence. “The consensus position of reef experts is that the bleaching events will get worse as ocean temperatures continue to rise because of climate change“.

    So obviously the collegial way is to agree and shut up. Or else. Interesting also is the phrasing. Now ocean temperature rises are due to climate change. Not Global warming. Not CO2. Climate Change is now a force in itself warming the oceans. Global Warming has vanished because it only arguably existed for ten years of the last fifty. The new scare is man made Climate Change, which causes warming, which causes bleaching. The parts missing are truth, logic, science. Agree with the consensus or be fired. Simple.

    222

    • #
      toorightmate

      JCU should hang their head in shame.
      The same circus outed Bob Carter.
      The climate scientist variety and the politicians they have influenced should be lined up against a wall, blind folded and ssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooootttttttttttttttttt.

      114

    • #
      Peter C

      Professor Peter Ridd is science co-ordinator of the Australian Environment Foundation. That might have been enough for JCU to sack him just on its own. Obviously a huge irritant. And so much for academic freedom.
      http://www.australianenvironment.org/our-people/

      The AEF last held their last annual conference conference in 2012. I went to it and it was quite interesting. I am hoping that they will have another one. However they might find it hard to attract speakers in the current climate.

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  • #
    Annie

    I have been wondering about a possible link between sunspots and four-leafed clover! Some years I have found many of them and other years none at all. The years when I found many were 1975, 1985-1986 and 2009-2010. It doesn’t quite tie up but it is puzzling.

    80

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      No! No! Annie. The Title of your grant application should be “Is Climate Change affecting Clover?”
      Put in a bit about the economic importance of clover then claim that you need to investigate the three-four partition ratio and the influence of solar isolation.

      Eyes will glaze over and you will be approved as an insider and funds will flow your way. You can write up the report one suny afternoon, remembering to include at least one graph and the words “it is worse than we think”. Don’t worry too much about what to say, it couldn’t be worse than many in the climate “science” category.
      If you want more money say “the problem need futher investigation urgently”.

      101

      • #
        Another Ian

        Graeme

        Needs a bit more. Clover is an import, so she’s “using it as an experimental surrogate to test for effects on native species” – which will require extended buckets of money for “field testing of sufficient standard to meet the requirements of current peer review”.

        110

      • #
        Annie

        Wonderful. That gave me a good laugh! I was very slow off the mark and never thought about a grant application! Silly me…I don’t fit in well with this modern life do I?

        30

        • #
          Annie

          Actually, 1975 was in Yorkshire, 1985-86 was in Melbourne and 2009-10 was in Gloucestershire that I found all those 4-leafed clovers.

          50

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            New Title: Is Climate Change causing a world wide clover plague?

            21

            • #
              AndyG55

              There’s moore, clover in Sydney….. that’s a pretty awful thing to happen.

              41

              • #
                Annie

                Clover instead of triffids!

                We’ve masses of sub-clover in the paddocks now since the rain came back. No 4-leafed versions seen.

                10

              • #
                Rereke Whakaaro

                We have five-leafed clover!

                But people are keeping it very quiet. We wouldn’t want other people, with inferior rugby union teams, to think we were boasting or anything.

                10

              • #
                Annie

                I once found a 5-leafed clover RW. That was in England.

                00

      • #
        Geoffrey Williams

        Be carefull guys-remember cows eat clover and cows fart and we all know what that causes.
        GeoffW

        30

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        If you want to get the grant to research climate change effects on clover then the best title would be, “How Bad Is the Current Disastrous Climate Change Effect on Clover Going to Be?”

        It appears they always fall for research with an outcome certain to promote the party line. So a title that tells them there’s a disaster already and you need to find out how bad it will be should get immediate funding, especially since cattle eat the stuff so it’s important to the country’s food production. But then again, maybe that’s not such a good idea to push too far, since they don’t want the cattle either.

        Are you sure humans don’t eat clover? ๐Ÿ˜‰

        40

        • #
          ROM

          I spent from 1955 to 1991 mixed up in the Medic seed and Subterranean Clover seed production, harvesting, cleaning and processing industry which also included local and national and international sales.

          And that was another part of our primarily grain farming operation.

          The first few years in the mid 1950’s was using rotary road brooms to sweep the medic seed pods and tonnes of dirt together for collecting and carting to the stationary seed thresher.

          The dust as horrific on the dry fine soils that had been harrowed and levelled prior to harvesting the seed pods.
          There were no dust masksย so I now have COPD which may or may not killย me over the next remaining years of my life, from that dust plus diesel tractor smoke and fumes, welding fumes and grinding dust off grinding wheels as well as the usual straw dust and animal dust.

          Medics and clovers were used up until the early 1990’s here in Australia as the essential atmospheric nitrogen fixing pasture plants to fix the plant essentialย nitrogen fertilizer by hosting the nitrogen fixing rhizobia bacteria in their root systems.

          The world wide very large increase in artificial nitrogen production from natural gas and oil occurred through the 1980’s which displaced the natural nitrogen fixing pasture species.
          The displacing of the natural nitrogen fixing pasture plants in the agriculture and grazing industries was due to the advent of continuous cropping and the decline, due to price pressures, in the sheep industry which had relied on pasture plants for its production of wool and meat.

          Nitrogen is an essential plant fertilizer which about doubles production of grains and etc, when applied in the right amounts and is yet another reason why there is no mass global starvation with our present population numbers.

          For the benefit of those not knowledgeable on [ introduced ] Australian clovers and medics, [ pdf ; Pasture legumes in Australia โ€“ origins, current use and future …] both introduced and natural atmospheric nitrogen fixing pasture species, of which the medics drop their seed pods onto the ground when ripe hence the use of a suction type machine to suck the seed pods [ up plus tonnes of dirt ] from which pods the tiny yellow kidney shaped seeds are threshed out of for further cleaning in a specialised seed cleaning plant and then sold to farmers and dry land graziers for pasture s production.

          And the clovers that Annie writes of are called Subterranean clovers, a completely different species to the medics, which bury their seed pods each with four generally black seeds ina fibrous pod, underground a centimetre or so.

          So the paddock / field is heavily harrowed at speed to bring the subterranean clovers seed pods to the top and after further ground preparation the suction harvester runs over the paddock at its usual 3 to5 kms hour and sucks up the clover seed pods and dirt, lots of dirt, tonnes of dirt that have to separated from the seed pods after which the pods are threshed and like the medics and subterranean seeds go through a astringent cleaning and certification process for final seed sales into, for medics, the drier alkaline and for subs, the wetter acidic soil types, conditions that each species is adapted to.

          We modified the worlds then commercial and only clover seed and medic seed harvesting machine, a 4 foot wide suction like a vacuum cleaner type machine built by Horwood Bagshaw in Adelaide to close to doubling its output.

          But then we went on to design and build our own 14 foot wide suction harvester for medic and clover seeds, a machine on which the suction fan used to suck the seed pods off the ground, alone required 200 hp to drive with a 400 HP Cat diesel engine supplying power to drive the suction fan, the seed pod thresher and the cleaning sieves and fans and the rest of the tractor towed machine.

          As nothing had ever been designed or built like the machine we had in mind, I did most of the designing and construction work with my brother running the Crazy Ideas section that came up with new ways of doing things and getting around the usual large problems when one begins to design and build a brand new type of machine of which no previous type exists.

          We finished up with a very successful design and use to vacuum seed harvest around 2000 to 3000 acres [ 800 to 1200 hectares = 8 >12 sq kilometres ] a year on contract harvesting pasture seeds on farmers paddocks which had been sown for medic seed production in our area.

          We also built big seed processing plant locally and at one stage were supplying around half the world’s supply of the most popular medic variety which we were selling into around 17 countries if I remember correctly.

          Australia’s medic and sub clover collection housed in Adelaide is a very important source of nitrogen fixing medicago pasture seeds for global pasture plant breeders as in the North African areas where these plants originated from, most of these types of plants can no longer be found as Goats have cleaned all the most agriculturally useable species right out leaving only the very heavily spined species and varieties which are virtually unusable in agriculture due to their very long sharp spines on the seed pods.

          60

          • #
            Another Ian

            What glider was a research tool linked to that?

            00

            • #
              ROM

              I spent too much bloody time designing, constructing and getting that bloody medic harvester operational in the 1980’s to do as much flying as I would have liked to have done.
              There was only a tiny market for a machine like ours and when artificial nitrogen became available in quantity in Australia and farmers moved to continuous cropping without a pasture phase plus the wool industry collapsing in the early 1990’s, the market for the nitrogen fixing pasture medics that we grew and harvested and cleaned and sold just dried up.

              The seed cleaning and sales business and the medic harvester were sold in the very early 1990’s to the then AWB who promptly stuffed everything right up as was usual for the AWB by then.
              The harvester was used for a few years in South Australia by the new owners under contract and just recently I have been told it is sitting in a shed somewhere inย South Australia and could readily be brought back into operation with a bit of TLC applied.

              30

              • #
                Another Ian

                ROM

                Serious question

                Were there any soil fertility losses from all that dust?

                Dust being part of such loss in mulga soil

                20

          • #
            Annie

            Fascinating stuff ROM.

            00

        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          According to the song, some people do get rolled-over in the clover. So perhaps we should apply for a grant, to investigate the implications of clover in regard to the birth-rate.

          10

          • #
            ROM

            If it was only 50 years ago or earlier I would have volunteered to be on your team’s practical “rolling in the clover and potential birth rates” experimentation.

            20

            • #
              Roy Hogue

              So would a whole lot of us !!! ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ™‚

              Ah to be young and fancy free…

              20

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    scaper...

    Malcolm Roberts is running for the Senate for One
    Nation. Got our vote under the line. LNP gets nothing from us!

    60

    • #
      AndyG55

      Its not that easy.

      Aren’t you meant to do 12 under the line ?

      I’m looking at the NSW senate ticket, trying to find 12 I can vote for. !!

      Certainly NONE of the top 4 LIbs in the Coalition candidates.

      Hollie Hughes… is a Photius groupie, probably not a vote

      Jim Molan.. a probable.

      Sang Ok… Craig Laundry backed him.. that makes his suspect in my books

      Sarah Richards ???

      Victoria McGahey ???

      ——

      Any comments?

      31

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    Another Ian

    TdeF

    This might not be definitive, but it seems to me that

    If you just reply and post without doing anything else your comment should land nested where expected

    If, however, you go back to check something and then continue it will land somewhere else

    30

    • #
      Another Ian

      Hmmm!

      #15 was supposed to be after #28

      We’ll see if this is #15.1

      20

      • #
        ROM

        When posting a “reply,” if you go off toย check something in a link or another page or page back or forward and then go back to the original post, [ make sure you remember the original post number to quickly find it again ] click the “Reply” again to bring your reply post back to its position below that original post.

        Otherwise your “reply” in the box will finish up at the bottom again or somewhere else down the thread list.

        And the post numbers change as posts that are in hidden in moderation are cleared and enter the post stream at their original submitted positions and then get the post number that was allocated to that position whilst the non moderated post with that number originally gets shunted down the post list.

        10

  • #

    If anyone is experiencing issues with https encrypted connections and Firefox failing, it isn’t Firefox per se.

    There was a critical security flaw found a few years back in SSL. Folks were encouraged to move to new browsers and newer SSL TLS encryption ciphers. The time has come to just break compatibilty with the old broken one, so this means old browsers will fail.

    The answer is almost any newer browser.

    I’ve seen folk say “Opera works, dump Firefox”, and while that was one solution, just getting a new Firefox would also “fix it”.

    71

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    AndyG55

    A bit unexpected.. seems that Turnbull is NOT preferencing the Greens, except in LAST PLACE, in any seat.
    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/turnbull_to_put_the_greens_last/

    41

  • #
    pat

    ***includes a dose of CAGW:

    11 Jun: UK Daily Mail: Richard Pendlebury: Greediest snouts in the EU trough: Not sure how to vote? Read about the stinking wealth and hypocrisy of those Brussels fat cats the Kinnocks and it may help you decide
    His son Stephen and wife Glenys also campaigning for Remain
    But 41 years ago Kinnock was leading figure in campaign for Britain to leave the European Economic Community
    Family members have all benefited from the EU gravy train..
    ***Four years ago, Mr (Stephen) Kinnock moved to London to take up a job with a green energy consultancy…
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3636143/Greediest-snouts-EU-trough-Not-sure-vote-Read-stinking-wealth-hypocrisy-Brussels-fat-cats-Kinnocks-help-decide.html

    WalesOnline: General Election 2015: Stephen Kinnock on why he waited 20 years to get into politics
    Stephen worked for the British Council in St Petersburg and Sierra Leone, for the World Economic Forum in Geneva, and most recently in London for the consultancy ***Xynteo, which specialises in low carbon…

    Xyntรฉo is working with GLTE partners Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever to examine the response to the water-energy-food-climate โ€˜stress nexusโ€™, and identify innovative policy models from around the world that can help address this 21st century challenge…
    http://www.xynteo.com/projects/policy-shapers

    7 June: New Statesman: Labour must not let the Brexiters turn the EU referendum into a right-wing coup
    The Leavers’ libertarian ideology would mean a bonfire of social, environmental and legal rights
    By Cat Smith Wes Streeting and ***Stephen Kinnock
    Jeremy Corbyn has been clear that, though the EU has its flaws, a vote to leave would harm the interests of the majority of people: leaving our country less safe, less secure and less able to tackle the big challenges of this century – whether it’s the threat posed by climate change or the impact felt by some of our poorest communities when globalisation is left unchecked…
    http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/06/labour-must-not-let-brexiters-turn-eu-referendum-right-wing-coup

    so stay in the globalised EU to keep check on globalisation!

    70

    • #
      Annie

      Jeremy Corbyn might like to look back at recent history and discover that little offshore Britain won the Battle of Britain before any help arrived. Britain was by herself and if that battle hadn’t been won the rest of the war would not have been there to win.

      10

  • #
    pat

    with Brexit looking more likely to win, UNscientific American on UNscientific Reports!

    the CAGW mob tries to appeal to the anti-immigration demographic with an unbelievable story:

    9 Jun: Scientific American: Gayathri Vaidyanathan: What If Global Warming Emptied India?
    Climate change poses significant threats to the populous nation
    In an armchair experiment where humans are thought of as no wiser than animals, scientists have found that climate change could empty some nations by 2100.
    A warming of 2 degrees Celsius would cause 34 percent of the worldโ€™s population to migrate more than 300 miles, to places on the fringes of the tropics where the temperatures are milder. Dramatic population declines might occur in Mexico, Central America, Africa and India. The results were published today in Scientific Reports…
    The scientists are cautious about the predictive power of their thought experiment, particularly as it relates to humans. People, unlike animals, can adapt to higher temperatures through technologies such as air conditioning. They also face barriers to long-distance migration, such as land borders, language barriers or even buying an air ticket. The scientists stressed that they are only exploring a hypothetical response to rising temperatures…
    โ€œFor birds that have very little costs in moving 500 and 1,000 kilometers [300 to 620 miles], it might work (says Valerie Mueller, a senior research fellow who studies migration at the International Food Policy Research Institute)…
    ***To Mueller, the utility of this study lies in the attention it brings to the topic…
    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-if-global-warming-emptied-india/

    ***WaPo dutifully brings attention:

    9 Jun: WaPo: Chelsea Harvey: Climate change could force huge migrations for people and animals living near the equator
    But a new study, published Thursday in the the journal Scientific Reports, argues that, while the stakes at the poles are high, we may want to be paying a little more attention to whatโ€™s going on near the equator, as well. The research suggests that even a moderate amount of warming could force populations in the tropics to undergo huge migrations โ€” longer journeys than theyโ€™d have to take if they lived anywhere else on the planet โ€” to get to cooler ground…
    โ€œThe point weโ€™re trying to make in the paper is people are not really talking about the tropics,โ€ said Solomon Hsiang, the chancellorโ€™s associate professor of public policy at the University of California Berkeley and the new studyโ€™s lead author…
    To demonstrate just how much of a problem this could be as the planet continues to warm, Hsiang teamed up with atmospheric scientist Adam Sobel of Columbia University to create a model showing how populations in the tropics might be forced to migrate under future warming scenarios…
    These assumptions are not exactly intended to be realistic…
    So the paper, unrealistic though some of its assumptions may be, gives one more reason to worry about the future effects of climate change…
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/09/climate-change-could-force-huge-migrations-for-people-and-animals-living-near-the-equator/

    50

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    pat

    disgusting exploitation of children…again:

    12 Jun: ABC: David Spicer: Climate change: Kids lead the way in The Big Dry production at the Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre (Kirribilli)
    A group of young actors is breaking new ground by playing all the major leads in a professional theatre production, based on an apocalyptic vision of climate change.
    The Big Dry โ€” based on the novel by Tony Davis โ€” opened this week at Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre in a co-production with The Australian Theatre for Young People.
    In the play, two brothers struggle to survive in a house without parents, living off meagre supplies and drinking dirty water…
    “It’s not attempting to be a grand climate message,” director Fraser Corfield said…
    ***However the youngest cast member, 12-year-old Jack Andrew, thinks the play is “very realistic”.
    “A couple of weeks ago it was boiling hot. Then last week we had the storms. It changes very quickly. It is scary,” he said.
    Fifteen-year-old Rory Potter, who plays big brother George, agreed…
    Playwright Mark Kilmurry said the subject was a challenge for a small theatre to stage…
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-12/the-big-dry-climate-change-theatre-production-sydney/7503314

    Random House: Tony Davis
    Tony Davis, a senior writer and editor with the Sydney Morning Herald, has written about cars for nearly twenty years. He has driven some of the fastest, most expensive, and most impressive vehicles ever built…

    LinkedIn: Tony Davis
    He was originally trained as a journalist on The Australian. He later filled a variety of editorial roles at the Sydney Morning Herald, including section editor, senior journalist, back-page columnist, features editor and chief of staff.
    He continues to write a popular weekly column for the Herald and the Age as a freelance, and is the motoring reviewer for the Australian Financial Review.

    00

    • #
      toorightmate

      If young Jack Andrew is scared of the weather, I sure hope his mum doesn’t allow him to go on the ghost Train.

      31

  • #
    pat

    9 Jun: NY Post: Danika Fears: Science says liberals, not conservatives, are psychotic
    Turns out liberals are the real authoritarians.
    A political-science journal that published an oft-cited study claiming conservatives were more likely to show traits associated with โ€œpsychoticismโ€ now says it got it wrong. Very wrong.
    The American Journal of Political Science published a correction this year saying that the 2012 paper has โ€œan errorโ€ โ€” and that liberal political beliefs, not conservative ones, are actually linked to psychoticism.
    โ€œThe interpretation of the coding of the political attitude items in the descriptive and preliminary analyses portion of the manuscript was exactly reversed,โ€ the journal said in the startling correction…
    The journal said the error doesnโ€™t change the main conclusions of the paper, which found that โ€œpersonality traits do not cause people to develop political attitudes.โ€
    But professor Steven Ludeke of the University of Southern Denmark, who pointed out the errors, told Retraction Watch that they โ€œmatter quite a lot.โ€
    โ€œThe erroneous results represented some of the larger correlations between personality and politics ever reported; they were reported and interpreted, repeatedly, in the wrong direction,โ€ he said.
    http://nypost.com/2016/06/09/science-says-liberal-beliefs-are-linked-to-pyschotic-traits/

    10 Jun: WashingtonFreeBeacon: Elizabeth Harrington: Researcher: Error in Scientific Paper Falsely Linking Conservatives With Psychoticism โ€˜Quite Minorโ€™
    Liberals actually โ€˜uncooperative, hostile, troublesome, socially withdrawn, manipulativeโ€™
    The correction came three years after the paper claimed social liberals were linked with โ€œSocial Desirability,โ€ and conservatives with authoritarianism…
    However, the authors of the paper, Virginia Commonwealth University researchers Brad Verhulst and Lindon Eaves and Pennsylvania State University researcher Peter Hatemi, had to issue a correction after learning the findings were exactly the opposite…
    When contacted by the Washington Free Beacon, Verhulst said the error was โ€œquite minor.โ€…
    โ€œThe reason that the correction is quite minor is because we were looking at whether personality traits caused people to develop political attitudes,โ€ he said. โ€œWe found that personality traits and political attitudes were correlated, but that there was no evidence that there was a causal relationship.โ€
    โ€œAccordingly, this is a minor error because the fact that the correlation is โ€˜exactly reversedโ€ does not change the fact that personality traits do not cause political attitudes,โ€ Verhulst added. โ€œThus, while the descriptive statistics were incorrect, the conclusions based on the analyses do not change.โ€…
    Verhulst added that the study was not taxpayer-funded, but relied on data collected from previously funded research by the National Institutes of Health.
    http://freebeacon.com/issues/researcher-error-scientific-paper-falsely-linking-conservatives-psychoticism-quite-minor/

    10

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Could be very uncomfortable, especially if he picks stinging nettles by mistake.

      20

      • #
        el gordo

        ** chuckle

        This is clearly his idea to win back the right, particularly the sceptic vote, but it won’t wash, the man is a renown CC zealot.

        20

        • #
          AndyG55

          The only thing Talcum can say that could persuade me to vote Libs in any way would be to CATEGORICALLY rule out any price on carbon usage, of ANY kind.

          Seeing Greg Hunt seems to have already deceitfully snuck it in via the back door…

          … the Libs will NOT get any of my votes in either the HOR or Senate.

          71

          • #
            el gordo

            Monday morning the evil duo were promising a billion dollars to save the reef, brains as big as a gnat.

            30

  • #
    David Maddison

    Windmill power in Australia is currently a whopping 15% of nameplate.

    http://energy.anero.id.au/wind-energy

    40

    • #
      Mike

      So maybe the Dutch could show us how it is done, if there are enough old timers around ๐Ÿ™‚

      10

      • #
        Mike

        I think it is probably that the windmills are funded by loans which attract interest that is the problem….otherwise, it would all be like free jam i am sure lol.

        Maybe ‘sovereign’ brand windmills are the go??

        Made by the unemployed or something really australian like that? ๐Ÿ™‚

        21

  • #
    Another Ian

    FYI

    “Ken (Kulak) | June 12, 2016 12:41 AM | Reply

    Sorry no link for the following Conundrum that I received in an email from my cousin.

    Conundrum

    “A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don’t have one, you’ll probably never need one again.”

    The definition of the word Conundrum is: something that is puzzling or confusing.

    Here are six Conundrums of socialism in the United States of America :

    1. America is capitalist and greedy – yet half of the population is subsidized.

    2. Half of the population is subsidized – yet they think they are victims.

    3. They think they are victims – yet their representatives run the government.

    4. Their representatives run the government – yet the poor keep getting poorer.

    5. The poor keep getting poorer – yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

    6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about – yet they want America to be more like those other countries.

    Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century. Makes you wonder who is doing the math.”

    A comment at

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2016/06/reader-tips-3514.html#comments

    60

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      Mike

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-11/wont-end-well-us-asset-managers-target-australias-15-trillion-pension-funds

      “MLC, one of the largest pension funds in Australia has increased its alternative exposure by nearly 40% over the past three years, most notably to PE and energy futures, but CIO Jonathan Armitage says the A$62 billion fund is “picky.”

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      Reed Coray

      Another Ian. IMO the conundrum can be explained (makes sense) because of a simple component of human nature: People want a better lot in life. Whether you’re Donald Trump or a hobo on the dole, you want more. I’m not being critical. I think the desire to improve your lot is a good trait and is in part responsible for making mankind so successful. Many are willing to expend the effort (i.e. work) to achieve the goal. Many are willing to let others do the work. The former have made us what we are. The latter have kept us from being what we could be.

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      Heard the other day on radio:

      “Americans who live on the poverty line in the USA would be the upper middle class in Mexico.”

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    el gordo

    Northern Hemisphere crop failure in late Spring.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LontaoKISl4

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    pat

    my Tele quota for this month is used up, so got these excerpts elsewhere…but read all:

    11 Jun: UK Telegraph: Christopher Booker: The government is pursuing a climate change policy which it knows will cause power cuts
    The interview in last week’s Sunday Telegraph with Hugh McNeal, the new head of RenewableUK, was remarkable in more ways than one. Certainly readers may have been surprised to know how easily he could switch from being a senior official at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to running our leading lobby group for wind farms. But even more significant was the way he unwittingly exposed what appears to me to be a massive deceit now at the heart of our national energy policy…
    So DECC has now got itself impaled on the contradictions of a policy which, short of repealing the Climate Change Act, can only result in the lights going out and our economy grinding to a halt. As the old saying has it, ‘those who seek to deceive others, end up only by deceiving themselves’.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/11/the-government-is-pursuing-a-climate-change-policy-which-it-know/

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    TdeF

    Musing, at the end of the weekend I wondered how it came to this, the idea that from the individual, the smallest council to the largest government, we humans control the world’s weather. Until the late 20th century, this would have been an unbelievable, an incredible idea. Laughable. Then the scares from pollution, cadmium, mercury and lead and radiation in the environment, Chernobyl, Three Mile island. Even the soot and sulphur and acid rain which ate our old cities. Venice drowning. We have been educated to believe that tiny chemicals can destroy. CO2 though is the source of all life. Now a killer pollutant. You would have thought that impossible to sell.

    However the idea that we all, collectively, control the many climates of the world and they are all getting dangerously hot is established by repetition. An alleged rise of 0.5C in a world temperature in ten years was projected into a guaranteed +5C in 100 years, supported by thousands of ‘climate scientists’ most of whom were not and something which now in retrospect did not happen. So it gets down to whether the barely detectable and debatable +0.5C was itself dangerous. It was not. There has been no Climate Change. For example 350 full time scientists in our CSIRO could not find it and they were told it was proven ‘overseas’ and they could now stop looking. Alice in Wonderland stuff.

    That is why Graham Lloyd’s quote rankles (Australian, Saturday) “as ocean temperatures continue to rise because of climate change”. Really? Every phenomenon is now conclusively, self evidently a result of something which is itself undefined. Climate Warming perhaps? What is amazing is that people see this as a statement of self evident fact. This is brainwashing, faith which is illogical and simply repeated as the truth. The idea is embedded in James Cook University research as undeniable truth. Heretics are fired. Unbelievers. Deniers.

    However, what has this all cost us? There is no improvement in the third world from the trillions being spent on the Climate Change faith. With the collapse of Global Warming as self evidently not true, the new scare of Climate Change is the vanguard of a continuing attempt by the UN to raise world taxes for world government by unelected world officials at massive functions like COP21. A world version of the useless EU.

    So as I read about storms, floods, crop failures, artificially high energy prices, crippling economies as front page news every day and connected to the weather and how we are responsible for it all, I wonder how it has come to this. Climate Change, a marketing concept based on the observation that everyone loves to talk about the weather. Now we are to believe that we are personally and collectively responsible for the weather and that tiny, critical CO2 is now the world’s most dangerous pollutant. Unbelievable nonsense. The fact is that it is oxygen which is the major byproduct of plant life, by far the major pollutant. There is barely enough CO2 for life on earth.

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      “Now we are to believe that we are personally and collectively responsible for the weather and that tiny, critical CO2 is now the worldโ€™s most dangerous pollutant. Unbelievable nonsense. The fact is that it is oxygen which is the major byproduct of plant life, by far the major pollutant. There is barely enough CO2 for life on earth.”

      Do not forget that the newly liberated 2O2 from CO2 + 2H2O for 1CH2 and new plant growth, go all the way to the stratopause where,along with insolation that 2O2 + 2H2O ice crystals yields 2H2 molecules lumbering off to space! + 2O3 ozone molecules collecting high over both poles, CAUSING, according to the latest Climate Clown fantasy, all downward air mass motion, ice precipitation, and those neat Polar vortici! Perhaps the to-space lumbering H2 atmosphere causes such a loss of atmospheric mass that the Ice Ages begin? What was the mass of the atmosphere at the time of the last ice age? What is the mass of the atmosphere now? Who did the measurement? The Climate Clowns, or is that claimed 5 x 10^18kg just their error calculated fantasy? /sarc
      All the best! -will-

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    Jo,
    You are in contact with Brad Keyes. If we an raise enough money here in the US, do you think Brad might like to vacation in the US until November, and help “The Donald” with his speeches? Just imagine:
    TD: You mean Elizabeth Warren; Pocahontas?
    TD: Did I say something offensive? Let me rephrase!
    TD: To the honorable Senator from the state of Taxachusetts Massachusetts, with her colorful Native American heritage, I say “Please kindly go screw yourself!”
    Brad’s problem would then be: Most Americans saying “WOW, Can we keep him mommy, can we, can we?”
    All the best! -will-

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    Shameless self-promotion here but since it’s the season of the cold Downunder, I thought a good winter’s read might be appreciated at a special sale price.

    I am making the ebook versions of my terrifying polar bear attack thriller (EATEN: A novel) available for just *99 cents* (US) until July 15.

    Sure beats the cost of shipping a paperback half way round the world!

    Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/592875 (for all versions of the ebook other than Kindle, including NOOK, Kobo, iTunes, and pdf), **Coupon code HY25Q** (not case sensitive)

    Kindle, via Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/qe85vls

    Science-based fiction to give you a sense of what it’s like to live with warm-blooded killers rather than crocs.

    Buy a copy or tell a friend, I think you’ll like it.

    All the best,

    Susan

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    joanne,
    weekend-unsumpthing for those interested in EMR, rather than heat-transfer. Can go a deep as you wish, but some for all that wish ti decover the vast distinction between science and scammmm!
    http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/yang_mills.pdf

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      ti decover to discover sorry!

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      BTW if Newton’s Law of universal Gravitation:
      F1 = F2 = G·(m1 x m2)/r² Were re-written as:
      vectorF1= -vectorF2 = G·m1/r x G·m2/r !!!

      The individual gravitational potential field is a simple Coulomb force field (Gm/r), but multiplicative rather than additive as radiative potentials are! Something to consider! G = 6.67408 ร— 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2.
      All the best! -will-

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      AndyG55

      PEAK RENEWABLES… as soon as the subsidies are removed.

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        ROM

        You ain’t seen nothing yet re renewables.

        A very, very large renewable skittle is on its way down and no doubt eventually over the next couple of decades as economics and a modicum of common sense plus new politicals with a different outlook come into play, right out.

        Via Pierre Gosselins NoTricksZone blog,

        Germanyโ€™s CO2 Reduction Targets Cast Into โ€œSerious Jeopardyโ€ As Country Overhauls Policies –
        —————–
        Selected quotes ;

        German cabinet puts brakes on clean energy transition

        The German government has agreed on a new reform of electricity markets.
        It’s likely to slow down the transition to a clean energy future, removing wind from the sails of the German Energiewende.
        Critics are appalled.
        &
        Over the past 16 years, the EEG system supported a sustained boom in Germany’s wind and solar power production.
        Although renewable electricity amounted to just 6 percent of all electricity produced in 1999, this increased to 17 percent by 2010, and reached 33 percent in 2015 – as a direct result of the EEG.

        From public investment in renewables, to free market approach

        Germany’s EEG indirectly set off a world-wide renewables boom as well – because by creating a large, guaranteed market for renewable power, it motivated massive investments and continual improvements in efficiency of wind and solar power technologies.
        Several other countries followed Germany’s example, adopting EEG laws of their own.

        Germany has long been a global role-model for the transition to renewable energy.
        But now, the German government has decided to scrap the existing system of administered prices for wind and solar power.
        Instead, beginning in January 2017, it will operate competitive bidding systems in which the right to develop a particular wind or solar project will go to whichever credible bidder agrees to accept the lowest revenue per kWh on a 20-year contract.

        The net effect: The cost to consumers of additional clean power should steadily decline.

        In a speech introducing the reforms, Energy and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, vice-chancellor and leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, described the move as a “paradigm shift” in energy policy.
        Germany would be leaving behind a system of government-mandated prices, and moving toward a more free-market pricing system, he said.
        Reform caps build-out of clean power

        More controversially, the reform will limit the construction of new wind farms in northern Germany by setting a government-mandated upper limit on the amount of new capacity permitted each year.
        &
        The government wants to keep renewables to less than 45 percent of Germany’s total electricity production until 2025.
        This is meant to stabilize the retail price of electricity by allowing utilities to continue to burn large quantities of cheap coal.
        &
        Happy fossils, unhappy Greens
        &
        In contrast, the government’s electricity market reform was praised by industry associations representing heavy electricity users – and by the VKU, Germany’s association for municipal enterprises, which includes many electricity producers invested in fossil-fueled power plants.
        “An affordable energy transition is only possible if competitive tenders are the rule,” said VKU CEO Katherina Reiche.

        >>>>>> more

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          Germany eh!

          Who would have thought that the wheels are beginning to fall off the renewable wagon.

          The renewable lobby smile like pigs in $hit. They know flat out that the only thing keeping them viable is the fact that they are totally and utterly supported by large scale coal fired power. They know (absolutely) that there’s no way known that the Government would dare allow those coal fired plants to close, and that keeps them confident that they can do whatever they like.

          The renewable lobby and their green urger followers, (well, not them because those followers are utterly clueless) well, their greatest fear is that those coal fired plants actually do close, because, within minutes, the whole Country will go dark, and that will be the stone motherless end of the renewable gravy train.

          Renewables are totally propped up by coal fired power.

          The renewable lobby knows this, and that’s why they get away with what they are now getting away with.

          Shut off the coal, and shut down the Country, just like that.

          Tony.

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            Over the last 24 hours the wind turbines have gone from 370 MW to 1500 MW and back to 750 MW currently. So to use this electricity something else has to be switched on or off or just earth it; probably not much of a problem at the moment, but with 50% renewable by 2030 more likely impossible to juggle, but that’s what our masters want, Di Natale and Shorten for sure, Turnbull a little less perhaps.

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              ROM

              If the farmers of this world had tractors and machinery that went from a few percent of their power output to 60 or 80% of their output over a few hours and the back to below 10% of their power output over the next half hour, the world population would probably be about 60% maximum of what it is now.
              Famine and hunger would have appeared on a regular but completely unpredictable basis and become the norm as crops were not seeded on time, crops were not sprayed or harvested when they should have been and therefore were damaged and down graded to poor food quality or just rubbish tip quality [ been there, done that due to inclement to say the least, weather ], crops were not transported to the market when required with unpredictable food shortages in unpredicted locations occurring regularly world wide.

              Now repeat that with the meat and livestock industries
              Repeat that with the horticulturalย industries.
              Repeat that with the fibre industries such as cotton and etc.

              That and much much more in just the food and farming industries without any problems appearing elsewhere from unpredictable, highly varying power output in a farmers machinery and complete inability to predict or rapidly compensate for those variations in the power and energy used by the food industries would have regularly led to famine and hunger in many parts of the world that now rely on the timeliness of food deliveries of a good quality in the exact amounts required by the processors and customers at the exactย  time required for the survival of probably around five billion of the worlds seven and half billions of peoples.

              Food today is produced in sufficient amounts to feed the 7 billions of earth’s peoples simply through the use of and constant guaranteed access to huge amounts of energy for every aspect of food production.
              And to the customer particularly in the city who never ever sees where and how that food is produced and how it appears before him or her on the super market shelf for them to pick and choose from, the whole immensity of the entire farm to plate food production process is completely hidden unless they go looking.
              And with so much to choose from, why bother to go looking to see how your food is produced unless you are stupid enough to believe the deliberate set up of supposed cruelty the ABC’s Four Corners made in the indonesian abbatoirs of the utter outright arrogance, stupidity and criminality of Greenpeace and the completely avoidable deaths of ten million rice eating Asians, mostly little kids, from vitamin A deficiency each year because Greenpeace has for years used Lawfare to try and prevent the production of the Vitamin A enhanced Golden Rice because it is a GMO using a genes from sunflowers and a very common bacteria found in soils everywhere.

              With unpredictable output in the power of machinery we farmers use, food production would no longer be possible on the scale we now operate at.
              The solution then of course would be a famine on a scale that the world has never seen before and it would likely remove two or three billion or more souls including most organic consuming greens from the planet .
              And even then a fair proportion of what was left of humanity would regularly go hungry due to huge variations in global food production.

              Of course with just wind turbines and solar power for every other process used in the farm to plate food industries the variations would preclude refrigeration and a large lump of the very large food process industries plus the lack of hydrocarbon fuels for transporting food any where long distance on a regular basis.
              Plus, plus , plus.

              Everybody forgets about food and its supply as its supply is so reliable and in such quantities today in the western world but that would be almost the first causality if the greens everย succeeded in shutting down the coal and oil industries.

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                ROM June 13, 2016 at 3:59 pm

                “If the farmers of this world had tractors and machinery that went from a few percent of their power output to 60 or 80% of their output over a few hours and the back to below 10% of their power output over the next half hour, the world population would probably be about 60% maximum of what it is now.”

                That is precisely the limiting of production via earthling effort, by those that can do, vs idddiots that claim a better tomorrow, if only you would but give to me, all of your hard earned wealth!

                This is exactly what limited population for 4,000 years! Numbers of horses plus other beasts of burden, were limited by the carefully restrained effort to reject that illusionary need for MORE by politicians and/or Banksters!
                All the best! -will-

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                Another Ian

                ROM

                In my experience when an engine does that it is time to fix the bloody thing properly

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              ROM

              Or just get rid of it!

              Billions in subsidies to keep wind turbines and solar going but get a bad engine that can’t deliver reliable power in the amounts its plate says it should be able to deliver and when needed, it gets fixed or thrown out and scrapped.

              Ditto for wind turbines and solar arrays or should be if any rationality was ever applied by assorted arrogant and greedy troughers and politicals.

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            Manfred

            There’s a bizarre coincidence here. ‘Renewables’ depend on the very thing they’re politically opposed to, coal fired / gas fired base load power. There’s a parallel of sorts to be drawn between the democratic society we live in and the obvious, that it permits, nay encourages (Cultural Marxism) the authors of its own demise.

            Such is political correctness. The sooner it is consigned to the cultural dustbin of civil society, so much the better.

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            Mike

            Tony, what is needed is an iphone app and a bit of hardware to switch on washing machines/etc when the sun is out to take full advantage of solar power for instance.

            There could be an incentive scheme that rewards customers who use electricity to make hay when the sun is out.

            I do very well in summer with my modest 1.5kw and even in winter here in Au Gippsland doing all the electrical chores when the sun is out. I have to manually switch things on when the sun is out currently.

            My system is not connected to the grid, so i use the power via two ordinary 12 to 240volt AC inverters. In my experimentations, i have an electric wheelbarrow converted using a mobility scooter that is charged via the sun, and for excavation of holes, i use a 1000 watt vacuum cleaner and a cyclone collector to vacuum dirt out of holes i am digging to shore up a house foundation.

            I call this system micro excavation but at the end of each day, it results in rather a lot of soil on a very big pile of soil. The sun is saving me having to dig/lift the soil out of the bottom of each hole for a new stump under the house and i have also used the vacuum system for fence poles which were recently replaced.

            The thing is, when the sun is out, it is time to make hay and not try to do things like the washing when there is none. A good s,art phone app is all that is required for countries with solar. Like a reward from the electricity companies in return for having to pay interest on a loan from creditors/banks to have solar panels??

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              Annie

              It doesn’t help if you have necessary things to do and the forecast sun doesn’t appear, as per today here.

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            Mike

            LoL…….they are tonally and utterly supported by creditors who fund, and make handsome profits on interest.

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            Mike

            Tony, “Renewables are totally propped up by”…………………..creditors. Big humongous industrial sized loans.

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            Mike

            “Shut off the coal, and shut down the Country, just like that.”

            Shut off the private bank funding, and shut down the Country, just like that.

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    Ross

    I have always thought many greenies don’t have the ability to think about the consequences of their proposals or perhaps they just think they need to think about them.

    h/t Bishophill for this one

    https://risk-monger.com/2016/06/08/how-to-starve-africa-ask-the-european-green-party/

    Don’t let Africa develop it’s own agriculture to preserve ecosystems and keep big companies out of the continent. Keep the Africans in poverty. Consequence —mass migration to Europe but who cares??? These guys/gals are raving lunatics. Included in that group are the EU parliamentarians —no wonder Brexit are gaining in the polls.

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    Ross

    oops! Should be ” perhaps they just think they don’t need to think about them”

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    Mike

    from: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-12/about-those-carbon-emissions

    “[Note to self: since total carbon emissions were basically flat in 2015, what does that tell us about the current condition of the global economy? Hmmmโ€ฆ]”

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      โ€œ[Note to self: since total carbon emissions were basically flat in 2015, what does that tell us about the current condition of the global economy?]โ€œ

      Hummn! Good question! Hummn! Are you a Pocahontas shill? Hummn!, hummn! Can you please explain your fantasy that “anthropogenic” carbon emissions actually cause anything to anything?.

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        Graeme No.3

        Will J:

        โ€œanthropogenicโ€ carbon emissions cause hysterics in greenies and gullible people to vote for them.
        This in turn causes the major parties to make promises about stopping climate change.

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          Will J: โ€œanthropogenicโ€ carbon emissions cause hysterics in greenies and gullible people to vote for them. This in turn causes the major parties to make promises about stopping climate change.”
          Yes Sir, Yes Sir, THREE BAGS FULL Was that “little bo peep”, or some other? I forget!

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            Graeme No.3

            Will:

            Baa, Baa (non-politically correct colour mention) Sheep.

            I think originally a reference to public money going to royalty in early Georgian times in the UK.

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              Indeed! I still think the message of Yes Sir, Yes Sir, THREE BAGS FULL still retains intent of the original message!

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              tom0mason

              Graeme No.3,

              Have you noticed that ‘non-politically correct colour mention’ is also the color of only 2 elements in the periodic table.

              Are the IPCCS (Inter-governmental Panel for Consensus Climate Science) elites still trying to say that black is bad?
              Are they trying to discriminate against just one ‘non-politically correct color mention’ element because of it’s color?
              And why have they not picked on Boron?

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    pat

    batty!

    12 Jun: Reuters: Kate Kelland: Scientists use climate, population changes to predict diseases
    British scientists say they have developed a model that can predict outbreaks of zoonotic diseases โ€“ those such as Ebola and Zika that jump from animals to humans โ€“ based on changes in climate…
    “Our model can help decision-makers assess the likely impact (on zoonotic disease) of any interventions or change in national or international government policies, such as the conversion of grasslands to agricultural lands,” said ***Kate Jones, a professor who co-led the study at University College London’s genetics, evolution and environment department…
    The study, published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, tested the model with Lassa and found the number of infected people will double to 406,000 by 2070 from some 195,000 due to climate change and a growing human population.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-disease-prediction-idUSKCN0YY133

    ***just for fun:

    Wikipedia: Kate Jones (scientist)
    Katherine Elizabeth Jones is a British biodiversity scientist, with a special interest in bats. She holds the Chair in Ecology and Biodiversity jointly at University College London and the Zoological Society of London, and she is chair of the Bat Conservation Trust…
    Jones has researched bats in Transylvania where she developed new ways of monitoring bat populations through sound…
    Jones says that Charles Darwin is “allegedly” her 8th cousin 6 times removed. This implies that her 13 times great-grandfather was Darwin’s 7 times great-grandfather…
    Jones is also known for her love of cocktails, which she discussed with Jim Al-Khalili on the BBC radio programme The Life Scientific…
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Jones_(scientist)

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      That Kate Jones (scientist)? WOW!
      God proclaimed “go forth and multiply”! OK earthlings notice that ‘entropy’ is accumulative (collective). To obey that directive to “MULTIPLY” the number creating ‘entropy’, must also be accumulative! What was unknown at the beginning was the concept of “STUPIDITY”! As it turns out ‘stupidity’ like entropy is also monotonic increasing, but ‘exponential’, with that exponent much larger than unity! OH WOHA are we!!!
      All the best! -will-

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        AndyG55

        Specialises in bats?

        Bet she loves wind turbines, then !

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          “Specializes in bats? Bet she loves wind turbines,”
          Bats, unlike Birds, are of low mass, and quite nimble. They likely gang up on one blade of the three to shat upon! The unbalance destruction is not so definite that we can actually sell seats to witness such destruction, YET!
          Andy,
          Do you have anything to offer that may result in profit? Even the popcorn stand would be nice!

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    pat

    13 Jun: Courier Mail: Renee Viellaris: Liberal Government pledges $1B Great Barrier Reef Fund
    QUEENSLAND Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles rejected the Coalitionโ€™s reef funding announcement insisting new funds were needed as well as the low-interest loans announced…
    โ€œAccess to low-interest loans will be welcomed but it canโ€™t be compared to Laborโ€™s commitment to directly invest new funds.โ€
    OVERNIGHT: Malcolm Turnbull will today unveil a $1 billion Great Barrier Reef Fund to help farmers cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce toxic chemical run-off.
    In his biggest financial election commitment to date โ€“ and one that will boost his climate change credentials โ€” the Prime Minister will travel to Townsville to outline a concessional loan scheme that encourages farmers to make properties more environmentally-friendly and energy efficient.
    The pledge โ€” which dwarfs Laborโ€™s $500 million โ€” will be operated by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which Tony Abbott tried to kill off under his government…
    Environment Minister Greg Hunt told The Courier-Mail how he and Mr Turnbull had been working on the plan since December.
    โ€œHeโ€™s been incredibly energised in this policy. He and I have been working on it for months,โ€™โ€™ Mr Hunt said. โ€œWe took it to Cabinet before caretaker. Heโ€™s ***passionate about climate change.โ€…
    http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/liberal-government-pledges-1b-great-barrier-reef-fund/news-story/7e9acdd0f8ad635c33b10ba4149ae5b0

    ***what does it mean to be PASSIONATE about climate change?

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    pat

    utterly pathetic:

    12 Jun: news.com.au: Greenpeaceโ€™s threat to use kids again in environmental protests during the election campaign
    PHOTO CAPTION: Children of Greenpeace activists including Sofia Goulding, Otto Clide and Ellen protesting and wanting to speak to the Prime Minister about the Great Barrier Reef outside a Liberal fundraiser in Sydney.
    The green group sent children aged from just five and 14 years to protest in the cold outside the gates of a Liberal Party fundraiser attended by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy in Sydney on Saturday night.
    The children, dressed in business suits, were carrying fake $100 notes and asked if they could buy a ticket to the event so they could discuss threats to the Great Barrier Reef with Mr Turnbull…
    Greens candidate in Mr Turnbullโ€™s seat of Wentworth Dejay Toborek said he believed the children may have wanted to engage the Prime Minister…
    โ€œTheyโ€™re clued in just like the rest of us because they watch TV and they read things as well, they understand that it means a lot.โ€…
    http://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/greenpeaces-threat-to-use-kids-again-in-environmental-protests-during-the-election-campaign/news-story/7d1e8c2d68aff38b40dfcc0a64e6f23d

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    LightningCamel

    How depraved must you be to be green,
    Prepare any trick, no matter how mean.
    Betray duty you hold,
    Stand your child in the cold.
    Sacrifice anyone, just to be seen.

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      Peter C

      Good work LightningCamel.

      competition poet.

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      Mike

      How depraved must you be to be Carbon Green,
      To disregard billions of other harmful molecules and what they mean.
      Betray duty you hold,
      Stand by a myopic Carbon Dioxide molecule in the cold.
      Sacrifice all other environmentally damaging molecules, just to be seen as Carbon Green.
      ๐Ÿ™‚

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    pat

    just checked RN programming overnight. listened to the end of the Throsby hour & the beginning of the Williams hour…which was WAY MORE THAN ENOUGH:

    early this morning…on ABC, for 2 straight/crooked hours:

    13 Jun 3am: ABC Margaret Throsby Interview: Professor Andrew Blakers
    Professor Andrew Blakers is the foundation director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems at the Australian National University (ANU).
    Professor Blakers is a world-leading scientist in photovoltaic technology and is responsible for several key innovations in solar technology including SLIVER cells, a unique solar cell technology commercially valued at more than $100 million.
    He has extensive knowledge of photovoltaics and grid integration, particularly in remote and rural areas. He is also knowledgeable about wind and thermal renewables.
    He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/throsby/professor-andrew-blakers/7501326

    followed immediately by a repeat of the following.
    Williams begins with joke about Alan Jones launching an off-grid house (laughter from audience).
    says u wonder why someone so much on the right of politics would do that blah blah.
    then Williams says to discuss the subject, he has 3 very clever & well informed people on his panel (see guests below):

    11 Jun (repeat 4am 13 Jun): ABC The Science Show: Robyn Williams: The changing world of power generation and consumption
    There are big changes happening in the way we generate, buy and sell electricity. Weโ€™re seeing batteries, microgrids, and the possibility of self-sufficiency based on renewable energy, both for individual households, and in some cases, whole towns. In many places, the new options presented by technology and innovation are marching ahead of regulations, meaning some initiatives are being restrained by laws drafted for a different world. This discussion, recorded at WOMAD in March 2016 considers some of the new possibilities…
    Guests:
    Simon HackettFounder of Internode, Chairman Redflow
    Dan Spencer,Campaigner, Australian Youth climate Coalition
    Felicia Whiting, Architect, Intratech Industries
    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/new-document/7463020

    Fran’s Breakfast soon after has Greens MP Adam Bandt, “Greens cry foul over Labor-Liberal preference deal” plus Greg Hunt “Coalition unveils $1 billion Great Barrier Reef plan”.

    it’s impossible to imagine any media house in the world pumping out as much CAGW propaganda daily as “their ABC”.

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    el gordo

    Doorstop.

    The SH Subtropical Ridge is showing signs of ‘intensification’ and I’m happy to take questions without notice.

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      el gordo June 13, 2016 at 2:08 pm

      Doorstop.The SH Subtropical Ridge is showing signs of โ€˜intensificationโ€™ and Iโ€™m happy to take questions without notice.
      Hokay, questions! This “SH Subtropical Ridge”, a latitude at which stratospheric pressure/altitude is minimally of greater magnitude than some projected 200 giga-year average indicates just what? Does your WORD โ€˜intensificationโ€™ have any possible physical meaning whatsoever?
      Grrr, -will-

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    Rod Stuart

    A brief word about elections.
    Who says history does not repeat its self!

    Thought you would enjoy this educational momentโ€ฆ

    Can you name this strange old tool?

    Do you know what it is?

    Tobacco Smoke Enema Kit (1750s โ€“ 1810s)

    The tobacco enema was used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patientโ€™s rectum for various medical purposes, but primarily the resuscitation of drowning victims.

    A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke into the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration.

    Doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase โ€œblowing smoke up your ass.โ€

    As you are most likely aware, this odd tool is still heavily used by all levels of government, particularly during an election.

    Who says history does not repeat its self!

    Thought you would enjoy this educational momentโ€ฆ

    Can you name this strange old tool?

    Do you know what it is?

    Tobacco Smoke Enema Kit (1750s โ€“ 1810s)

    The tobacco enema was used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patientโ€™s rectum for various medical purposes, but primarily the resuscitation of drowning victims.

    A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke into the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration.

    Doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase โ€œblowing smoke up your ass.โ€

    As you are most likely aware, this odd tool is still heavily used by all levels of government, particularly during an election.

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    Another Ian

    Jo

    There is a relay of your post on Tas Hydro via WUWT at

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2016/06/we-dont-need-no-579.html

    Might be some wry Canadian comments come up

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    David Maddison

    Basslink has now been repaired. But get this – Hydo Tasmania is selling excess power to the mainland. I thought the dams were nearly empty from last time they did this (and burned out the cable in the process).

    http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-13/basslink-cable-fixed-power-flowing-victoria-and-tasmania/7505264

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    Jo, A suggestion to discuss the election procedure and your upcoming AU election process. Yours is a mess, the BRExit is a mess, the upcoming US election is a colossal mess! All because of no opportunity for folk to say NO this is not an acceptable choice!! If ‘NO’ got the vast majority,the whole damned thing must be done over and over again until one candidate can be considered barely “acceptable”! Such gross repetitiveness is also unacceptable because of the cost! Folk need a choice! They will then reluctantly live with that choice! Without that choice, only torches and pitchforks shall prevail! Yes indeed things are that bad.

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      Yonniestone

      Agree Will, the biggest hurdle for voters that want to limit the power of the majors is where the preferences are going?!!!!

      Any links to Australian Parties and Independents re; where their preferences are going to whom would be great.

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        AndyG55

        Yonniestone..

        You are totally in charge of where your preferences go in the House of Reps,

        And if you vote below the line in the Senate, you are totally in charge of those preferences too.

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      ianl8888

      We call that an INFORMAL vote in Aus, Will.

      I’ve advocated this action often enough on a majority basis as the only way to ensure real change. Only crickets and pompous “due your duty for the country” type comments follows. Cassandra just shrugs.

      As you are wont to say:

      Best Wishes

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    Andrew McRae

    Talked to a dyed-green-in-the-wool type last week.
    He reckoned there were plenty of countries that had gone 100% renewable in electricity. Reckoned that 100% renewables was the trend and the way of the future and it won’t be long before Australia has no export market for coal. So I ask him which countries are on 100% renewables.
    Umm, ahhh, Germany, erm Scandinavia, some others….
    Oh gee that’s interesting, I didn’t know that.

    Okay, reality check time.

    Norway is in Scandinavia and their total renewable energy generation is basically equal to their domestic consumption. Does that mean they are 100% renewable-powered? No! The catch is they have signed up their neighbours to buy most of the renewable electricity, meaning they are 76% powered by fossil fuels. Oops.

    Germany? Don’t make me laugh. Power was 32% renewables and falling since Germany is replacing nuclear with coal.

    Other countries? The countries with 99% renewable electricity reads like a who’s-who of tiny poor developing countries. Lesotho, Bhutan, Paraguay, Albania, Mozambique, Zambia, DRC, Nepal, Ethiopia. Iceland is also in that list, but they have high living standards. Iceland has aluminium as a main export, just as you’d expect from a country that can get electricity very cheaply from hydropower and geothermal.
    For the rest of the world who don’t sit on the fault line between Eurasia and North America the cheapest electricity around is coal and that’s probably why Germany is (literally) forging ahead with it.

    It would have been more fun if I’d had the facts on hand at the time of his 100% renewable exaltations, but I didn’t, so I’ll just have to gloat discreetly in hindsight.

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      Analitik

      Please contact him again after the collapse of one of the major grids that has been brought to the brink by high penetration of renewables.

      Our local candidate is South Australia in this coming summer with Scotland also a leading contender in the same period, due to its approaching winter – both grids will be experiencing their maximum demand peaks in the same period.

      But California is the prime candidate for first grid collapse as their current summer progresses with the LA immediate gas storage facility, Aliso Canyon, remaining unavailable (starving the fast ramping OCGT generators of the instant gas flow needed to cope with wind intermittency and the PV induced duck curve).
      https://www.edf.org/blog/2016/06/07/socal-braces-aliso-canyon-related-blackouts-these-energy-programs-can-help

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    el gordo

    ‘A poll conducted for Fare by Galaxy Research this year found 78% of Australians believed Australia had a problem with alcohol abuse and wanted more to be done to reduce the harm.’

    Melissa Davey / Guardian

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    ivan

    I don’t know if this should go here but I hope some people will be interested.

    It appears that a lot of the vote ‘counting’ in Australian elections are just guesses based on a computer sample and the program has a bad bug that makes it wrong.

    The Register article

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    Dr Andrew

    Climate variations are all natural due to variations in albedo (usually caused by changes in cloud cover) and minor variations in mean solar intensity. You only have to consider how the far greater seasonal variations in solar intensity at any fixed location very clearly have a direct and almost immediate effect on surface temperatures to understand this process. These seasonal variations far outweigh any local changes in greenhouse gas percentages.

    It is impossible for radiation impinging on the surface of Earth to account for the temperature thereof. Hence back radiation from greenhouse gases is not the cause of variations in surface temperatures. The solar radiation (on average) is nowhere near strong enough to explain the surface temperature. Then the radiation back and forth between the atmosphere and the surface cools the surface day and night:it cannot possibly assist the solar radiation to warm the surface more than it otherwise could.

    The heat that is required to explain the surface temperature does not get there entirely by radiation: the vast majority of it gets into the surface by other processes involving molecular collisions.

    The greenhouse “science” has major fallacies which are clearly in breach of the laws of physics. The Australian Department of the Environment was asked (under the “Freedom of Information” Act) to produce any statement by any qualified physicist which confirmed the IPCC greenhouse “explanation” to be based on correct physics. The reply was that they had no such document. This will soon be huge news, because it demonstrates a complete lack of due diligence on the part of the government.

    James Hansen was totally wrong in assuming that the surface would have been the same temperatures as that found about half way up the troposphere in the absence of greenhouse gases. Such a state could not exist under the laws of physics due to the effect of gravity. Secondly, he was wrong in assuming that the “second-hand” flux from backradiation could be added to the solar flux and the total used to explain the mean surface temperature. There is nothing in any physics documentation that says that can be done, and it cannot be partly because the Planck functions barely overlap, just for starters. Hence, Stefan Boltzmann calculations (that are based on the integral of a single Planck function) are totally inapplicable. Back radiation just plays its part in determining the rate of cooling of the surface in the rare situations (such as on clear days in the tropics in summer) where the solar radiation has been strong enough for just a few hours to raise the temperature above that which the processes of molecular collision would otherwise have achieved.

    So, can any reader provide any document written by a suitably qualified physicist (not James Hansen) which supports the radiative greenhouse explanation of Earth’s mean surface temperature and variations thereof?.

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