Weekend Unthreaded

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224 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

  • #
    RicDre

    UK Carbon Tax to Drive Up the Cost of Gas Heating, Milk and Beef

    If you read Willis’ excellent essay on energy poverty, you might think countries like Britain would be keen to address this terrible burden on the poor. Think again; the reality is British and European politicians just don’t seem to care.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/05/uk-carbon-tax-to-drive-up-the-cost-of-gas-heating-milk-and-beef/

    Link to Willis’ essay Shafting The Poor

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/05/shafting-the-poor/

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    • #
      Klem

      I think UK and EU politicians care a lot. I think they are fully aware that they are causing widespread energy poverty, I believe that increased energy poverty is entirely intentional, it’s their goal.

      That’s how much they care.

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      • #
        Pauly

        Klem,
        So true. The EU cares so much, it has created a new government agency, the EU Energy Poverty Observatory:
        https://www.energypoverty.eu/

        Looking at some of the reports, my gag reflex went into spasms. “The people” are now the cause of all climate change problems, so this agency helps them to accept energy poverty as their new “normal”. No better outcome for a dedicated bureaucracy: bigger government, more taxes, and more people dependent on government hand-outs to solve a problem that this bureaucracy created in the first place.

        A pity that energy poverty discriminates by income:
        https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/05/shafting-the-poor/

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    • #

      Ideology trumps economics. When it’s a green ideology money will be no object

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      • #
        PeterS

        That’s only half the story. The other half is about the money; big profits for big business who love to see the Green New Deal to its completion. They don’t care if it destroys the West. Money knows no borders.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Peter…this might bring a bit of a smile…

          Not sure where this photo was taken from but if its real then you can see Sleepy Joes own Truman Show “White House” film set – with a big gap in the film set wall visible….either that or the maintenance people at the mock white house need to be fired…. 🙂

          Oh dear…..

          https://www.simonparkes.org/post/corner-wall-coming-apart

          Smoke and mirrors…..

          An “interesting” prez, a film set….stranger and stranger….very “x files”…I wonder what would Molder make of it?

          [Stay skeptical of photos. They are easy to manipulate. – J]

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      Here Come the ‘Climate Lockdowns’

      But suppose President Biden and other western leaders were to declare a “climate lockdown”? In a climate lockdown, “governments would limit private-vehicle use, ban the consumption of red meat, and impose extreme energy-saving measures, while fossil-fuel companies would have to stop drilling.”

      As preposterous as that sounds it’s actually being seriously considered in some circles.

      The Spectator:

      Karl Lauterbach, an MP for the German Social Democratic party wrote in Die Welt last December that ‘we need measures to deal with climate change that are similar to the restrictions on personal freedom [imposed] to combat the pandemic.’ How long before this theory makes its way into news outlets and politicians’ speeches here?

      John Kerry is telling us that the conditions of the Paris agreement are ‘”inadequate.” This begs the question; what would be “adequate”?

      “This was always the risk with the mass implementation of lockdowns. Once your leaders enforce one under the guise of public health, they will not simply set aside their power to do so again,” writes Stephen Miller in The Spectator.

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      • #
        RickWill

        I am really hoping that Biden/Harris/Kerry push climate “ambition” to the hilt in the USA. Stop all exploration for fossil fuels. Place an “ambitious” deadline on zero emissions like 2035 and severely restrict personal freedoms to ensure they are meeting yearly reductions.

        Under these circumstances I expect the national guard will mutiny. It will show how depraved their “ambitions” actually are. We have seen some of the reaction in France but the French are not armed to the teeth with automatic weapons.

        It is an incredibly difficult task to wean off fossil fuels. It is going to happen eventually but it is insane to pick winners and losers by government decree.

        The Climate Change Church is in such deep poo that it does not even realise it. Once the priests of the church have their liberties severely restricted they will start to get back to science.

        The USA enjoys the considerable benefits of being the global banker. They are the only country able to create the world currency. When the economy declines due to all the climate ambition, there will be oil rich nations wanting payment in some form that is of use to them. The will be increasingly reluctant to buy US bonds as there will be nothing the US produces or holds that will be of value. That will be crunch time.

        The US has not made any serious effort to conserve energy. US citizens use twice as much energy as their European counterparts. I expect they will be more inclined to load their 4 tonne pickup with guns and head for DC before they trade in the pickup for a bicycle and train tickets like the Europeans.

        Once all these executive orders and the climate ambition begin to bite on personal freedom there will be fireworks – literally. The woke states will become less woke.

        Covid overshadows the Trump achievements but he did move the country forward. Biden et al are going to undo any of the good stuff and US will go backwards. The unknowns are how fast and when enough is enough.

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Freedom stealing lockdowns and apparently dangerous vaxes ….. the grief from the distorted globalist side show seems to have entered the twilight zone….

        https://climatechangedispatch.com/soros-gates-funded-org-says-world-may-need-climate-lockdown/

        I say they can put thier lockdowns in thier lockers…. in Gitmo….

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      ZERO EMISSIONS

      “Zero emissions” requires no diesel, petrol or gas-fuelled cars, trucks, tractors or dozers and no burning of coal or gas for electricity generation. But without nuclear power or a massive increase in hydro-electricity, green energy will not support metal refining or manufacturing, and domestic electricity usage will be rationed. “Zero emissions” will also force closure of most cement plants, mechanised farms and feed lots and will demand nuclear or wind-powered submarines, destroyers and bulk carriers.

      In the Zero Emissions world there can be no diesel buses, oil-powered cruise liners or jet aircraft (except fleets of climate comrades attending endless UNIPCC conferences). Moreover, 7.8 billion humans continuously emit a lot of carbon dioxide – maybe they plan to make the Covid masks air tight?

      Zero Emissions would decimate mining, farming, forestry, fishing and tourism. As exports fall, imports must also fall. Without diesel fuel and lubricants there will be little surplus meat, milk, vegetables, cereals, sea food or timber for the cities, for export, or for immigrants or refugees. Rabbits, kangaroos, possums, koalas, Murray cod and wild pigs will become staple foods and wood/charcoal burners generating “green” gas will again fuel antique cars and utes. Wood-burning steam-powered traction engines may live again.

      But we have the “Net Zero” loophole, which is green bait on a barbed hook. It provides five escape routes:

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      • #
        Greg in NZ

        “A blueprint to bring down our [civilisation?] carbon emissions by 2050 – and change the way we all live – came out this week”. RadioNZ’s Mediawatch 7 Feb 2021.

        The Crown entity, the Climate Change Commission (CCC/666) aka He Pou A Rangi (A Pillar In The Sky) is chaired by ex-Reserve Banker Dr Rod Carr (wonderfully ironic name) who’s been legally blind since school-age. Chair/Czar/Caesar?

        Its ‘trance-formational’ blueprint is a carbon-copy of other once-developed, Western nations’ cheese-eating surrender monkey, Paris Accord-worshipping agendas; namely, electric shopping carts and public transport for the workers (bye-bye petrol/diesel independence), fewer animals and more trees on farms, more ruinables (NZ’s predominantly hydro electricity as it is) and Big Battery will somehow save us… from our 0.000002% contribution of an essential, life-giving, trace gas.

        The CCC board comprises the usual suspects: IPCC members, a student of Al Gore’s indoctrination cult, James “it’s worse than we thought!” Renwick, and a bunch o’ bankers. Nice work if you can get it – meanwhile, my job driving diesel trucks should keep me going for another five years until I can retire on a pension… yeah nah.

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      • #
        Chad

        A “ZERO EMISSIONS” society is an impossible concept.
        And the word “NET”. Cannot hide the ridiculous farce.
        Without CO2 emissions you have no Steel, Aluminium, Copper, or any other element thet exists as an oxise in nature.
        You cannot build structures , vehicles , motors/engines to power anything, you cannot generate energy because you cannot build the equipment needed for generation.
        Zero emmissions. Means no civilisation as we know it.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Correct.

          Its the globalists vs humanity.

          Maybe the plan is to wipe out as much of the population as possible so it wont need coal power…..

          The thing is, I have been warning people of the Satanic New World Order and its hatred of humanity and its war against it. This war is now out of the shadows and now baring its teeth at us directly….question is, is this enough of a “red pill” moment for people to finally “get it”?

          And just a thought, but what happens if all the front line workers given the mRNA experimental drug get very sick and maybe even die some months after getting it? As power generation collapses and the core workers who keep things running drop like flies…what then? It looks almost like a planned and coordinated biological take down of the west.

          But hey…maybe I dreaming…nay a waking nightmare.

          Thing is..this is real.

          Will people push back and refuse the twisted globalist agenda? Many well meaning judas sheep will cause much damage.

          Christians know of the End Times, Matthew 24 spells it out. Im starting to wonder if its now in play….

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      • #
        Harry Passfield

        ‘Net Zero’ is the Green’s wet dream equivalent of Pol Pot’s ‘Year Zero’. Just remember to keep away from blue plastic bags – and the people who carry them.

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  • #
    RicDre

    Climate Researcher’s New E-Book: IPCC Significantly Overstates CO2, “The Sorry State Of Climate Science”

    Climate researcher, geologist, Patrice Poyet has released a new e-book: The Rational Climate e-Book: Cooler is Riskier. The Sorry State of Climate Science and Policies.

    This is an outstanding reference. Using the table of contents the reader can conveniently look up the topic that’s of interest. The ebook has been downloaded over 10,000 times so far.

    The 449-page book contains 120 figures and 177 equations and concludes that climate change is mostly about politically-fanned fear, and based very little on hard science.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/05/climate-researchers-new-e-book-ipcc-significantly-overstates-co2-the-sorry-state-of-climate-science/

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  • #

    The mass purges begin with the Army.

    “The abiding characteristic of all regimes that come to power via a coup is paranoia. It takes control of them on the day they seize power and it never lets go of them thereafter. In their inner thoughts, they know they aren’t legitimate, which is why there’ll always be a big propaganda effort to convince the outside world and their own people that a coup didn’t occur, and the downside for the people is always hard punishment if they dare to mutter otherwise. America is getting the big propaganda effort at the moment but what’s also just starting to happen is the other classic action of a paranoid regime – mass purges.”

    Read on at – https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2021/02/05/the-mass-purges-begin-with-the-army/

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    • #
      Greg in NZ

      Burma/Myanmar military coup & internet lockdown ‘bad’.

      USA/JoeBama big tech/military coup & internet purge ‘good’.

      Or so Western media interests would have us believe.

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  • #

    I went to Burma in the mid 70’s. Very British as regards buildings and cars and the officials and parks.

    Looking at the current coup it all looks much the same after all these years so things don’t seem to have moved on.

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    • #
      Chad

      Tonyb,
      Go to almost any “Ex Colonised” country, and you see the same.
      Minimal development since the “invaders” left.
      Few have even managed to develop an effective Governing body ,..let alone a realistic Democratic system. Most seem to revert to tribalism and associated violence with rule by force
      India , and Australia may be exceptions …(im not too sure about India tho’ ?)
      .. too much infighting in politics in most “democratic” countries currently also

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      • #
        Roger Knights

        “Minimal development since the “invaders” left.”

        I’ve read that since the British left in 1948, India hasn’t added a mile of railway track.

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        • #
          PaulC

          Not so. Chris Tarrant did an episode of Extreme Railways on the Konkan (Monsoon) Railway. This was built in the 1990’s on the west coast of India between Mumbai and Mangalore.

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        • #
          tonyb

          I must have missed that programme so went to look and was amused by this comment

          “Even the British who ruled India until 15 August 1947 did not built railway along this route.”

          Which reminds me, we get a lot of flak and accusations that we looted these countries of their riches, but I am not sure we have ever been paid for the infrastructure we left behind nor the buildings, institutions, universities, courts, etc.

          I will work out India’s bill, but being generous lets call it £20 million for Australia, but if you would like to send me just £5 million to my personal account, which I will of course forward to our Govt, we will call it quits. A bargain I am sure you will agree.

          There’s no need to mention this to anyone else…

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          • #
            Lucky

            The “we” who paid for the infrastructure, and for a good part of the industrial revolution infrastructure in England, were the people of India.

            As for rail lines, India would not need all that there were, the British overbuilt, and many industrial nations reduced their rail networks at about that time.

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            • #
              tonyb

              lucky

              the UK got rid of many thousands of miles of track in the 1960’s. Due to green issues and population expansion many of these lost lines are being looked at with a view to bringing them back.

              Some of the lines have been ploughed up and built over, with many station buildings converted to desirable homes so it will be no easy matter

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              • #
                Chad

                Tony….
                I suspect that is another Green fantasie or a nostalgic dream.
                Much of the remaining rail network , apart from the “Main Line” routes, are hopelessly uneconomic and underused.
                If the 100+ yr old infrastructure was not already established, there would never be a economic or socially justified case for installing rail.
                Rails primary function, from its inception, was always freight and industrial development. Generally those no longer relevant, there are now more practical and economical alternatives.
                Mass Public transport can also now be replaced with a road going Autonamous “Bus” giving much more flexibility and economy without major infrastructure requirements.
                This is already happening in China.

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  • #
    RicDre

    US Customs: China Flooded the USA with Counterfeit Covid Tests and Masks in 2020

    According to the US Government CBP Trade and Travel report, 51% of the counterfeit or substandard Covid-19 test kits, masks and drugs seized by US Customs in FY2020 originated in China.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/06/us-customs-china-flooded-the-usa-with-counterfeit-covid-tests-and-masks/

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    • #
      Saighdear

      So I wonder whether that means the UK / and / or europe may have had similar: leading to so many false positives: Who CAN you trust? certainly little past my nose.

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  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    Most readers here won’t notice (nor care), but a mass of very cold air is drifting south from its winter home {source region} in northwest Canada. Along the CA/US border temperatures are minus double digits and headed lower. This is also pushing westward into Idaho and Washington. Across the continent, staying warm and safe will become the issue of concern.
    Late this coming week this episode will be in the MSM because – climate change.

    {I’ll post this on Jo’s and Paul Homewood’s site.}

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    • #
      Sambar

      And here in Victoria (Australia not Canada) we have not had a summer. As at the 7th of February, where I live in the low part of the high country we have not had one day of 40C. Summers for the last decade or so would give us 6 or 8 days over this mark. Its 12 years on from the 2009 big fire when temperatures were at around 45 to 47c.Todays forecast is 22C . In December we had to light the fire for 3 nights in a row, January it was lit twice and still the BOM says night time temps are above average while day time temps are below average. The lack of productivity of the vegetable garden clearly says both days and nights are colder that average. Morning dew has been evident for the last two weeks. This normally starts around the last week of February. The real harbingers of seasons change are the yellow tailed black cockatoos and bower birds, these normally appear in early March, however this year they have arrived and make my days enjoyable.

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        Pretty much my observations in northeast Victoriastan Sambar , although we did have one day that very briefly popped over 40 the rest of the summer has been a fizzer .
        Probably will still count as hottest ever by the BOM though after all they control the books .

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      • #
        GD

        Ditto in Geelong, Sambar. A few days over thirty, none even approaching forty, but most days in the low twenties and high teens.

        Add to that, more overcast days than sunny days. We’re lucky if we get a sunny day. This is not summer and it is certainly not the ‘hottest year’ evah!

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        Yep – Memories of Melbourne Feb 1968. according to BOM, the run from the 13th Feb to the 25th Feb 1968 recording – 32.1C, 26.2C, 37.1C, 38.2C, 38.9C, 38.1C, 36.3C, 31.6C, 32.2C, 23.8C, 36.3C, 41.4C, 40.9C

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        • #
          GD

          Thanks for that, Old Ozzie. Is there a link for that?

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            • #
              OldOzzie

              Using this link to obtain above – http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/?ref=ftr

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              • #
                OldOzzie

                Link now showing error – using http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/?ref=ftr

                go to

                1: Selected: Daily rainfall
                Data about
                Rainfall
                Type of dataObservations
                Daily MonthlyStatistics
                Daily Monthly

                Click down arrow on rainfall and change to Temperature

                Where is says “Type of data – Observations” tick daily and will see blue dot and make sure line below says maximum temperature rather than minimum temperature

                Then

                3: Get the data
                If you already know the station number you may enter it below instead of using the search above.
                Station number Your data will open in a new browser window
                (Opens in new window)

                Enter Station Number 86071 and hit get data

                Where it shows year 2015 – click down arrow and select 1968 and then you are there with the data

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              • #
                OldOzzie

                The reason it shows 2015 above is because – New location for Melbourne CBD weather observations and forecasts

                Tuesday 9 December 2014 will mark the ‘passing of the baton’ as, after 106 years in operation, the station on La Trobe Street in Melbourne will be replaced by Melbourne (Olympic Park) as the official weather observation and forecast location for the city of Melbourne.

                The official record of weather observations for Melbourne extends back to 1855, with a few breaks. It draws on observations from several locations, including Flagstaff Gardens (1858-1863), the Melbourne Observatory at the Botanic Gardens (1863-1908) and the Royal Society of Victoria on La Trobe Street (1908-2014).

                The effects of urbanisation have become increasingly visible in the 106 years of data at La Trobe Street. Wind readings progressively deteriorated over the years, due to obstruction by buildings constructed around the city, and were finally switched off in 2009.

                In November 2013, we launched a new observation station at Melbourne (Olympic Park). The Olympic Park site is the result of a partnership between the Bureau and Melbourne and Olympic Parks, which offered us an excellent location for a meteorological weather station. The new site allows us to take high-quality meteorological observations that meet the international observing standards of the World Meteorological Organization. The station provides readings of air temperature, wind speed and direction, air pressure, rainfall and relative humidity. These observations are available on our website at ten-minute intervals.

                The two observation stations have now been operating in tandem for over 12 months. This is done so we can compare data and identify differences in the readings for forecast and long-term climate comparisons. Initial results suggest the new site shows similar rainfall and temperature readings in most weather conditions, although it is cooler in southerly winds and sea breezes.

                Bureau of Meteorology station number: 086071 – Basic Climatological Station Metadata

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              • #
                Nadia bin Du Natan

                “The reason it shows 2015 above is because – New location for Melbourne CBD weather observations and forecasts”

                Ha ha ha ha. They never rest. They never need to sleep. They are always regular. They never get constipated. They don’t go on vacation. They never leave the honest data alone.

                Reminds me of Cheap Tricks Dream Police.

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              • #
                Geoff Sherrington

                Here is the difference between the old Melbourne Regional Station 86071 in Latrobe St and the new Olympic Park 86338 near where the tennis action is centered. This is all the overlap we get to see. Can you imagine how to make a mathematical path from one to the other? There are different differences for months of the year, some daily differences of 2 to 3 degrees C, some differences negative, some positive ….
                They claim Australian warming of 0.8 deg C over the 100 years from 1910. Look where o.8 deg is on the graph and ask what can be done to accuracy with all the NOISE. Geoff S
                http://www.geoffstuff.com/melbtempdiff.jpg

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              • #
                Kalm Keith

                Interesting graphs Geoff.
                The new location is half a degree warmer.
                These data sets should never be “blended” whatever.

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          • #
            TdeF

            I remember that year. It was a crime sending children to school in such heat and the first two weeks of February were always scorchers. This year it has been cool to cold and rain. I remember one summer thirty years ago when only 3 days in January were under 30C. This year, about 3 days over 30.

            At least the billions spent on windmills have proven worthwhile. We are now freezing.

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      • #
        Annie

        Not far from you Sambar; it’s just like that here, though we did manage 40C for an hour or two the day before Australia Day! The only time this summer so far.
        We also have black cockatoos, a group of three; a delight to see and so much nicer than their sulphur-crested thuggish cousins.

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      • #
        RickWill

        If you were to look at the highly acclaimed UAH lower troposphere temperature for the Nino34 region of the Pacific, it still has the Pacific in El Nino.
        http://climexp.knmi.nl/data/itlt_60_120-170E_-5-5N_n_2010:2021.png

        This is one case where BoM have got it right:
        http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/monitoring/nino3.png
        We are now heading from La Nina to neutral.

        Been a great growing season in SE Melbourne. I have lived here for almost 30 years and have not seen it so lush in February. It is the only Melbourne summer when the fishpond has actually accumulated water.

        The air cooler was run for one day in January. No wonder the energy suppliers are struggling to make money. Winter may lift their spirits as heating gets turned on early.

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          el gordo

          It has to remain in neutral for a couple of years and the new hiatus will continue on its merry way. Its totally dependent on a negative PDO.

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          Annie

          A good year for tomatoes here, unlike last year. Rotten for the nectarines, nearly all rotted and fallen off. Bad for beans earlier, some recovering.
          Quite a few cold mornings since Christmas but warm, muggy spells too and LOTS of rain. Some days still and muggy, other days fresh and very windy.
          Anything unusual overall? Or just variable weather as has always been the case.

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          • #
            Sambar

            Nothing unusual Annie, its just we need to be around for a few more decades than those that screech. As Tdef mentions above, I remember my parents commenting on sending the kids back to school “in the hottest part of the year”. Still as kids we had the luxury of NO airconditioning, school doors were left open and the windows prised up, the sweat dripping from our foreheads and noses caused the ink to run but it was just the way it was. Steal nibs and ink wells were quite modern at one point in time, you don’t see that many around these days! Did I mention the compusory milk at play time, stacked up in glass bottles in the blazing sun for hours. It tasted bloody awful in summer but delicious and creamy when the frosts were around.

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            • #
              Annie

              Sambar, that reminds me of childhood in England! The 1/3pint of milk in a small bottle. It was left in crates outside the school hall, warm and a bit disgusting in the summer, cold to the point of expansion in the frost and a frozen column of cream that pushed the soft metal cap off in the winter. At home the blue tits would peck at those lids to get the cream if you didn’t take in the milk delivery quickly!
              Exams in England were in June, near the end of the school year; we always seemed to have a stiflingly hot spell at that time. I went back to a couple of Old Girls’ reunions while living back in England; they catered for us in the old dining room which had enormous south-facing windows and tiny-child-sized seating, in the heat! (I am tall). Trying to talk to long-lost old school mates while doubled-up on mini seats, roasting hot, was not the most comfortable experience! Too far away now 🙂
              Old school desks always had ink stains on them and classrooms smelt stuffy.
              I always wondered why schooldays were described as the best days of one’s life. They weren’t bad but I always thought there had to be something better!

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            • #
              OldOzzie

              Sambar,

              used to get to school at 0730 to play handball on the concrete playground (that’s all there was) and the milk crates with small bottles of milk, had ice on top and the cream was really thick at the top

              I hated milk, and my mum gave me a small bottle of Cottees Chocolate Syrup to pour in the milk after I had taken a few sips – if you left it to mid-morning break milk would be warm and horrible

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        Great Aunt Janet

        Same here in western Qld – a few blips over 40 in December but nothing since then – I’m even growing tomatoes and have set fruit on them, which is usually impossible over our normal summers.

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      Richard Jenkins

      In 1988 James Hansen told the USA government no ice in Arctic this century. Similarly no snow in Australia this century.
      How can people like this retain any credibility?
      When my grand children come home from school with nonsense or see MSM garbage particularly ABC we look at the actual data.
      Biden’s comment, “We want the truth not facts!” is revealing of stupidity to sane people over 10 years old.
      My 6 grandchildren were all shown, “An Innconvenient Truth” at school. On one occaision the teacher invited any parents who disagreed to address the class.
      I accepted but was not allowed because they had moved on to another topic. I referred to the English court case. I agreed to avoid court if they put 3 cpies of, “The Great Global Warming Swindle” in the school library. I donated the copies. I also recorded ABC Tony Jones panel discussion, as controlled by David Karole. I insisted that 10 years had passed and the staff could viewall 3 videos with the luxury of hindsight.
      I recently met with a bright student intent and capable of studying medicine. I told her the story and asked her to borrow, ” The Great Global Warming Swindle” from the school library. No surprise thy did not have it! I loaned her a copy and some other referencess
      It was a lesson she will never forget.
      If you’re not skeptical you are gullible.
      She got into medicine.

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  • #
    David Wojick

    My latest research on the astronomical cost of batteries required to make renewables reliable:

    Virgins will pay trillions for renewable power
    https://www.cfact.org/2021/02/05/virginia-will-pay-trillions-for-renewable-power/

    “Virginia’s 100% renewables mandate has been estimated to cost its people billions of dollars, but a more realistic estimate is trillions. Dominion Energy, the big Virginia utility, must know this, but they are hiding it so they can build a lot of expensive wind and solar generating facilities. The more money Dominion spends under the mandate, the more it makes for its shareholders. The Legislature has no clue it is being conned. The law in question is called the Virginia Clean Economy Act or VCEA. (Does Virginia now have a dirty economy?) It mandates 100% non-fossil fueled power statewide by 2045.”

    Please share this CFACT posting.
    David

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    • #
      David Wojick

      Virgins! No edit function. Rats.

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      PeterS

      I did a rough back of the envelope calculation of the cost to use batteries and make renewables viable in the real world some time ago and came up with a figure in the trillions. Of course in time batteries will get cheaper and better but that’s not in the immediate future. So, the rush towards renewables by the West is a lot like lemmings chasing each other over the cliff to escape a mythical monster.

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      • #
        David Wojick

        A 90% price drop would reduce Virginia’s roughly estimated cost from $3-9 trillion down to $300 to 900 billion. Still impossible. Plus the gigantic rush might well drive prices up, not down. A seller’s market.

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        Hanrahan

        Why would batteries become cheaper, never heard of the point of diminishing returns?

        LiIon batteries were technology when powering personal electronics, they were becoming a commodity when they were used to power cars and ARE a commodity now that giga-factories have been built. Bought a 12V lead/acid car battery lately? They have been made for 100 years and are made in the millions so they must be dirt cheap now, right? Not really. Even the humble AA cell which is made in the billions still isn’t much cheaper than it was 20 years ago, if at all.

        Batteries need at least an order of magnitude improvement in economics before they will be useful in other than specialised applications.

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          Graham Richards

          One has only to visit a city the size of New York to realise the futility of “Green “ energy.
          It’ll never happen. More nuclear fuelled generation is really the only solution short of the Nuclear fusion dream becoming reality!

          50

        • #
          PeterS

          Well facts speak for themselves. Batteries have become cheaper and they will continue to do so up to a point. It’s how it works in real life. But the cost of batteries will not make any difference to the other fact, nuclear is the only option if one really wants zero emissions by 2050, not only because it’s cheaper than renewables per unit of power and for base load, but also because less CO2 emissions are required over the long term to build them when compared to renewables. So, given the nuclear option is not taken seriously then the reason for reducing emissions is not taken seriously and so is a sham. The whole thing is a scam, a hoax and one big fat lie by both major parties. They are both conning us all and yet most of us pretend it doesn’t matter. It’s as though the whole nation is drunk on stupidity. We get the government we deserver. If anyone is serious about all this, STOP VOTING FOR THEM! Otherwise, just shut the f… up, bend over and get spanked. I refuse to vote for either major party.

          10

      • #
        NigelW

        Of course in time batteries will get cheaper

        The fundamental assumption behind that statement is either that supply exceeds demand ( currently very much the opposite), or that material/manufacturing costs significantly diminish (Tesla Powerwall prices have INCREASED 4 times in the last 2 years, some due to FOREX rates but mostly production cost)

        Do bear in mind that the cost of mining raw materials (and a large part of processing/refining/creating product from them) is dictated by how efficiently you turn hydrocarbons (diesel/coal) into product. The never ending efforts of the Climerati to drive up hydrocarbon prices, just to make renewables look sort of possible, echoes throughout the supply chain.

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        Richard Jenkins

        I have no concept of how batteries are goingtoget better and cheaper. Millions have been spent. Suddenly something is going to evolve?
        I know batteries are a serious toxic waste problem.
        Talk of better cheaper batteries is purely admission that currently batteries are a huge problem. Electric cars are impractical. Fast charging reduces battery life dramatically. I have been interested in contridictions about EV battery charging on this site. Gauges indicate charge rates in kilometres.
        The Jaguar Ireferred to was 95% charged and the journalist wanted to start a trip from Sydney to Canberra fully charged.The charging rate was very slow.
        He got some better charge rates later. I have since learned that ambient temprature alters charging efficiency. Also the amount of charge in the battery makes a huge difference. For quicer charging don’t get below 30% and charging from above 70% is slow.
        South Australia’s battery is the biggest joke. It seems the 5 minutes of power gives you time to get your diesel generator started.

        10

    • #
      John F Hultquist

      Wall Street Journal has an article on batteries.

      “The Battery Is Ready to Power the World”
      After a decade of rapidly falling costs, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery is poised to disrupt industries

      By Russell Gold & Ben Foldy

      40

      • #
        David Wojick

        Maybe so but not at grid scale where millions of MWh are required for each major city and state just to make renewables reliable. It is certainly economically impossible and probably physically so. People (and legislatures) have no vague idea how much storage juice is required for 100% renewable energy. Adding a switch to electric cars and trucks just makes the impossible more so.

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          Have these proponents never flown into a city at night and wondered how big a battery you would need to keep the lights on all night?

          We are being conditioned to accept a 10pm curfew and a midnight lights out as the new normal.

          Miss Donald yet?

          80

      • #
        Saighdear

        Huh, I STILL don’t quite get it: 1-way trippers (disposable batteries) OK to power something ( at cost) but RECHARGEABLES? waiting to recharge + the inefficiency of energy transfer, would rather use LIVE electricity ( ie cable supply). Electric cars / trucks like dodgems with an overhead wire(s) – but rural single rack roads?????? and Off-road? it just simply doesn’t bear thinking about:Don’t suggest this to Gran’Pa that you may want to take an electric vehicle Off-road for anything.

        60

        • #
          Hanrahan

          If we go EV Australia’s tourism industry would die. Tourists want to take the road less travelled. You can drive the highways and stay in motels anywhere in the world.

          BTW EVs are terrible at towing so the north won’t even get the grey nomads. They are not big spenders but they bring their bowls and golf clubs. 🙂

          50

          • #
            Nadia bin Du Natan

            The reality is that batteries are a feeble energy store. Diesel is the best energy store. Our Whiggish understanding of technology is dysfunctional. Diesel engines are more important to us than the internet. Diesel is the best detached engine. Diesel liquid is the best energy storage. That isn’t going to change in the next half millennium. I hope there is a semi-comeback of steam for some applications because now we have the materials science to retain the heat and make steam applications competitive for some tasks.

            Perhaps we can concede the need to expand the overhead tram wires. We can give the bed-wetters that much. Discriminatory pricing to get more custom to the overhead tram wires is also appropriate I feel. In a century of energy deprivation. We can make a few concessions now and then, in our own interests and also to show just how crazy these people are.

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        • #
          yarpos

          Much of the discussion about batteries is based around things staying constant ie no better battery/storage technology is developed and we continue to want to do/be able to do/be allowed to do what we have previously done. At the moment I think about the only thing we can say is that the existing renewables technology set is not fit for purpose.

          40

          • #
            Nadia bin Du Natan

            We have a chemical upper limit to battery power. Lithium is the greatest electron donor in the periodic table. Fluoride is the greatest electron thief in that same table. So the total limit for battery storage power constitutes calculating what a theoretical Lithium-Fluoride batter could do. We have fluoride batteries and we have lithium batteries. But so far no fluoride/lithium battery has been successfully produced. But thats neither here nor there … the hypothesised battery of this nature sets the upper limit.

            And the upper limit is so much less than what can be stored in synthetic diesel/per weight ratio, that it isn’t even funny any more.

            The stupidity of these people: ITS NOT FUNNY ANY MORE

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        Hmmm – Batteries are Great

        Kogan Australia Pty Ltd — Kogan 26800 mAh Power Bank (60W) with PD and QC 3.0

        What are the defects?

        During charging the battery may fail and ignite.

        What are the hazards?

        There is a risk of a fire or burns.

        What should consumers do?

        Consumers should immediately stop using the product and contact Kogan Australia for a full refund and advice for disposal of the product.

        Got my money back but still have to get rid of the lump sitting in front of me

        40

        • #
          yarpos

          yes they are great, and good brands used properly can do all kinds of useful work

          sadly if quality isnt there things can go pear shaped pretty quickly

          20

        • #
          Hanrahan

          I have bedrooms directly over my garage and don’t relish the idea of charging high density batteries there. I’ll be a late adopter of EVs, prolly never, my Camry will last.

          70

      • #
        Graeme#4

        A big discussion in The Australian today about this article.

        10

      • #
        Richard Jenkins

        I could not find anything scientific about how this new battery works. A lot of hype about how good it will be. If it is in the latest Tesla EV It is still a pipe dream!
        Typical miraculous battery that will come. We’ve been waiting. Musk connd South Australia with what he already sells to the gullible.
        Just a tip Elon, Wagga Wagga is easy to con.

        00

    • #
      Jonesy

      If I may jump in. Methinks the next big thing will be NH3 storage. Easier than H2, toxic but a lot more infrastructure to transport and distribute the liquid. A lot of work has been done to decompose NH3 to Hydrogen clean enough to power fuel cells without poisoning them. Catalyst Temps around 400C enough to power a fuel cell. H2 needs to be compressed to 7200kpa That’s nearly 1100psi!!! to make storage viable in cars. NH3 need only go to 800kpa to remain liquid. Dispensing is no more difficult than using LPG.

      00

      • #
        bobl

        Ammonia is far too toxic far better to use carbon as the storage medium for hydrogen giving CnH3n some of these miraculous compounds don’t even need compressing. Not only that the central C can also be oxidised giving far more energy density than Ammonia.

        Let’s see, Hydrogen + Carbon = hydrocarbons

        20

        • #
          Jonesy

          My day job is carting C4H12. NH3 is toxic, yes. But, mix in with a thorium cycle to use heat to make NH3 straight out of air and no C to play with. Unlimited supply and also doubles for fertiliser. Do not need to stench as the stuff is detectable @1ppm and the infrastructure swaps out with C4 storage. me thinking of when hydrocarbons do run out in about two hundred plus years from now if ever! Electric motors are THE business for traction, the supply of electrons needs something way better than batteries. Fuel Cell much better and adaptable for straight swap for ICE. Batteries too heavy and remain heavy. Think of it this way. Government never dictated the transition from one horse power to automobiles burning petrol. Governments never spent taxpayer money rolling out facilities to service the automobile apart from building better roads..which came from fuel taxes anyways..Why get involved in a technology that will limit travel…unless this is a design feature.

          10

          • #
            Chad

            When (if) hydrocarbons do run out in about 200 years …..
            ……by then, battery ( and other energy storage ) technology will be very different to now .. something that is completely unknown currently.
            For instance,……100 years ago, Nuclear generation was unheard of…..but we have now used it to power submarines for over 50 years
            Future energy generation and storage will be totally different to todays technology.

            10

            • #
              PeterS

              Yes, nuclear energy is great for submarines. So why aren’t we using them instead of retrofitting a nuclear powered submarine with diesel power. What a joke this nation has become.

              60

          • #
            Scissor

            Your C4 molecule has at least 2 H atoms more than is possible. Fully saturated alkanes have the formula of CnH2n+2.

            20

      • #
        Curious George

        The problem is not a choice of fuel, but how we use it. A combustion is a horribly inefficient way to get an energy from the fuel. It generates heat, and a conversion of the heat to electricity or a mechanical power faces basic thermodynamic limits. The efficiency over 40% – while already achieved – is nothing short of a miracle.

        We need fuel cells, which could double the efficiency. My dream is a fuel cell running on ethanol. If you run of of fuel in the middle of nowhere, share your whisky with your car.

        11

        • #
          Jonesy

          Exactly! Converting heat to energy has always been the holy grail of engineering. For efficiency steam powered turbines for electricity generation, jet fuel powered jet engine airliners for high speed, long distance mass transit and electric motor driven vehicles are the best efficiency… the trick is to manufacture or create the most efficient fuel source to power them.

          00

      • #
        Richard Jenkins

        Ammonia was used in early refrigerators.Sometimes a fridge had a tiny leak and a whole family would be found mysteriously dead.
        CFC were the best option. When we got our car air conditioners recharged the cold made the CFC ‘visible’ &we could see it falling to the ground.
        We were told it was making a hole (from the ground) in the ozone layer.

        00

    • #
      Richard Jenkins

      Hazenile has been discovered in a South African cave. It has sufficient topoer the world for 1000 years ?????
      It is not on the periodc table. Must be a natural amalgum.
      Probably easily transported with by flying pigs.

      00

  • #
    graham dunton

    Sharing the bad news, more censorship, of free speech

    Fox News cancels Lou Dobbs show

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/02/fox-news-cancels-lou-dobbs-show.html

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  • #
    another ian

    WHO’d have thunk it?

    “Ivermecting NOW OK To Prescribe for Chinese Wuhan Covid”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2021/02/05/ivermecting-now-ok-to-prescribe-for-chinese-wuhan-covid/

    150

    • #
      robert rosicka

      It is being used in some cases for those suffering from some types of lung complaints where lung capacity is compromised and that’s in oz .

      70

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    • #
      PeterS

      Well, China doesn’t think so given their continual push to build more and more coal fired and nuclear power plants. At least they have that one right. If an alien attack does eventuate it won’t be from outer space; it will be from China when the West has all but destroyed itself. The real enemy is within.

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    • #
      el gordo

      The aliens have been monitoring us up close for a long time and they are aware that CO2 doesn’t cause global warming.

      Their main concern has always been nuclear or biological warfare.

      11

    • #
      yarpos

      Bit sad when people can blurt out stuff sillier than the Babylon Bee or The Onion. Such is celebrity.

      40

    • #
      Great Aunt Janet

      Aliens might be more, er, human, than the great re-setting socialists.

      50

      • #
        Klem

        If the aliens land and tried to save the ridiculously primitive humans by revealing their advanced technologies to us, who would they reveal it to? China or a western democracy?

        10

        • #
          el gordo

          The US should be the first country to officially announce that their aerial craft have speed and agility beyond what anyone on earth has in their armoury. That could happen around June 2021.

          Do you know why the Chinese are on the dark side of the moon?

          10

        • #
          el gordo

          They are looking for the mantle.

          ‘One of the things the scientists are looking for is basalt from the Moon’s mantle — the layer between the crust and the core — exposed by the original impact that formed the South Pole-Aitken basin.

          “It’s been a Holy Grail for a long time to find something that represents direct mantle,” Dr Norman said.

          ABC

          00

  • #
    another ian

    We could be in Canada – a blast from Rex Murphy

    “The Worst Canadian Government Ever”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/02/06/the-worst-canadian-government-ever/

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  • #
    Ian G

    https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/02/05/the-guilty-party/

    Very interesting. Setting a precedent? Or one rule for the Dems, none for thee.

    60

  • #
    OldOzzie

    NEW EVIDENCE TIES COVID-19 CREATION TO RESEARCH FUNDED BY FAUCI

    But there’s no disputing the fact, as Newsweek reported in April 2020, that NIH executive Dr. Anthony Fauci promoted a highly controversial type of research involving the manipulation of viruses to explore their potential for infecting humans. And it’s known that more than 200 scientists pressured the Obama administration in 2014 to temporarily halt U.S. funding for that research because of the risk of a manipulated virus accidentally escaping a lab and igniting a pandemic. Nevertheless, under Fauci’s direction, the dangerous virus engineering resumed in 2017 and continued until April 2020.

    Now, documentary evidence makes it a “near certainty” that the coronavirus pandemic originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, where so-called “gain-of-function” research was funded by Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to Steve Hilton, who is leading a special investigation for his Fox News show “The Next Revolution.”

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    • #
      Nadia bin Du Natan

      Yes he was, yes he was, yes he was. A Yaley and a Rockefeller staffer. So we must always look for the third rail first up. Or its just another world war and nothing to show for it.

      00

  • #
    RickWill

    Updated climate model 7 Feb 2021:
    https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/ocean/cdas-sflux_sst_global_1.png

    Average Global Temperature = {30 + (-2)}/2 = 14C

    Actually it is interesting to note that the Atlantic struggles to reach the control set point of 30C at this time of year.

    The risk of glaciation is ever present. The tell tale of course is ice accumulation on the land and ocean around the North Atlantic. However the early warning could be the tropical Atlantic failing to reach set point for a longer period each year. Something to investigate.

    I wonder when climate modellers will actually wake up and realise their “education” was in religious doctrine rather than anything remotely related to science.

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    • #
      Just Thinkin'

      “I wonder when climate modellers will actually wake up and realise their “education” was in religious doctrine rather than anything remotely related to science.”

      Rick, they won’t.

      70

      • #
        RickWill

        I am starting to sense that quite a few people are realising that the global average temperature is not difficult to calculate.

        Roy Spencer recently published this:
        http://www.drroyspencer.com/2021/01/could-recent-u-s-warming-trends-be-largely-spurious/
        I still know UAH is biased upward but Spencer and Christie have withstood a lot of pressure to not adjust the UAH LTT upward more. In a similar line, WUWT had an article that shows adjustment in the USA surface record are highly correlated with CO2!
        https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/03/the-shocking-climate-graph-climateofgavin-doesnt-want-you-to-see/

        In correspondence with a well known luke warmer about the temperature control that is obvious in the tropical warm pools, I learnt that this observation was made a long time ago:
        https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992Natur.358..394F/abstract
        They did not have it right with the cirrus cloud but their observation on the temperature was correct. Ramanathan is now a high priest of the CCC so he is not interested in exploring science anymore.

        Then just yesterday I was made aware of a new E-book that challenges much of the religious doctrine:
        https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347150306_The_Rational_Climate_e-Book

        The one issue with reality is that present climate as humans experience on the surface of the Earth can be reduced to just that single equation that gives 14C average temperature. It does not need a “Greenhouse Effect”. What will all the climate priests do when the hoi polloi realise it is that simple.

        Even in Australia in 2021 we are reminded that flooding rain follows bushfires or bushfires follow flooding rain as was the case way back in 1911.

        I have no doubt that the climate on Earth can be reduced to that single equation. It will vary a little when the Bering Strait ices up because that means the Atlantic goes cold. However right now the arithmetic mean of the two extremes is on the money.

        Convective instability is only now getting the attention needed to understand how it works. It is not something that operates in climate models in response to surface temperature and precipitable water. It is just parameterised.

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    • #
      el gordo

      ‘Actually it is interesting to note that the Atlantic struggles to reach the control set point of 30C at this time of year.’

      The AMO has been briefly neutral, which may have had an influence.

      ‘The warm phase of the AMO – a significant contributor to the record-breaking North Atlantic tropical cyclone season – faded to neutral phase in November. The neutral phase is expected to continue through the first third of 2021 then rewarm to weak warm phase for the 2021 North Atlantic tropical cyclone season.

      ‘The analog years are split between very warm or neutral AMO index for the 2021 tropical cyclone season therefore forecast confidence is below average. However, most years in the long-term warm cycle of the AMO (since the mid-to-late 1990’s) have featured +AMO regimes for summer/autumn.’

      climateimpactcompany.com

      20

  • #
    GD

    While it’s a chilly fourteen degree Summer’s morning in Geelong, I’m enjoying my morning coffee and watching a replay of SkyNews’ latest edition to its lineup: the Friday Showdown featuring Nicholas Reece and Rita Panahi.

    It’s headshaking that the left (Nicholas Reece) can hold such contradictory, cognitively dissonant views about most issues.

    Rita, on the other hand, destroys Nicholas at every turn, rolling her eyes to great effect.

    It’s a great show. Uncomfortable to watch at times because you get a huge dose of Reece’s bizarre leftism, but wonderful to see Rita slam him to the mat every time.

    190

  • #
    David Maddison

    Time Magazine published an article basically admitting (too late) that the US election was stolen.

    This admission needs to be widely promoted.

    Be prepared to see the Socialist Billionaires of social(ist) media and their army of useful idiots work overtime to suppress it.

    Of course, Time is a Leftist publication, one of their own. But they brazenly see what was done as protecting the US from a Trump win.

    This is a huge story. I am surprised more is not made of it.

    https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/

    220

    • #
      David Maddison

      Judging from the relative lack of response, am I misjudging this? Is this not a monumentally important story? Why are so few people interested?

      81

      • #
        Susan Fraser

        The reaction of feeling sick to the stomach with the perpetrators telling us how easy it was to cheat voters, with a very deep conspiracy takes time to absorb.

        Its so terrible we don’t want to admit such evil intentions are possible.

        It takes time to understand what is going on, and then to begin to think about how to take back our rights to live as free citizens.

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      • #
        Nadia bin Du Natan

        Plus you are really leaving David Maddison out on a limb here. Have mercy. These are hard times and the people need to know that they are in friendly territory. And it would be nice to think that someone had their back so to speak.

        00

      • #
        Great Aunt Janet

        Probably, like me, still trying to discern Time’s motive in publishing this article. Hubris? Getting ahead of the narrative as what happened becomes more obvious? Regretting the Biden already? Think they can’t be touched?

        90

      • #
        williamx

        David,

        I agree that this is a damning article by Time magazine.
        Please don’t ever think that what you write is ignored.

        Note that I have not green ticked you yet.

        What people like you do, is to allow the contributors (like me) on this blog to spend hours to question, research and investigate.

        What I have found is that:

        Your argument at post no.17 stands up to review.

        I also postulate that upon reading and researching your post:

        That an ignorant lemming with an agenda disease, has refused to investigate your post and has given you a red tick.
        and that’s a shame.

        Keep keeping us informed DM.

        I will now give you, your very well deserved green tick.

        70

    • #
      Peter C

      What do these people believe in?

      That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it

      Clearly it is not democracy with one person/ one vote.

      50

  • #
    • #
      Nadia bin Du Natan

      In time we may find that you have slid into the horrible trap that has been set for you. After all we live on a planet that has, according to the mainstream glacial record, a kind of one-way cooling bias. Personally I think that there may be a recent pole shift that may exaggerate that cooling bias. Always its as if the planet is trying to dig its way out of a deep freeze and right about the time you think it may do so a big chunk of ice would snap off at Hudson Bay and disrupt the Gulf Stream sending us back into the deep freezer. Pretty much anything goes wrong and back we land in the cool room.

      The billionaire left could turn on a dime, agree with you, and then use their agreement as yet another reason to disrupt competitive hydrocarbon usage so as to lend economic rent to their existing properties and debt-obligation assets.

      30

      • #
        Peter C

        In time we may find that you have slid into the horrible trap that has been set for you.

        What horrible Trap would that be Nadia bin Du Natan?

        10

    • #
      Nadia bin Du Natan

      I’ve always taken the position that any “greenhouse gas” increase that mixes, certainly above the troposphere, but also probably above wherever the water vapour taps out … this will have a cooling effect. I can’t see how the lesser claim “above the troposphere” could be refuted or even doubted. Except to the extent that CO2, being a heavier-than-air gas, could conceivably lead to greater air pressure.

      But take the more purist idea of methane getting above the troposphere? Of course that will have a cooling effect. How could it be otherwise?

      I think water vapour is schizophrenic in its cooling and heating effects but that is kind of involved. My conclusion would be to take the great good fortune of the hydrocarbon industry as an opportunity to build twelve feet of rich dark soil everywhere we can, and green the deserts, and then let our hearts not be troubled.

      Tell your CO2-bedwetting friends that the solution has already been found with cross-laminated timber. Turns out that modern materials are all pretty bogus and that exceptionally tall buildings represent a vertical cul de sac. One story buildings with a lawn is vertical sprawl unless the inhabitants are engaged in agriculture. But 50 story buildings are vertical sprawl and will be at least until we have a saturated dirigibles industry.

      But humanity never can have enough of these hyper spacious 5 storey buildings, and this is the range at which cross laminated timber is the superior product.

      So tell these friends to dry their eyes and blow their nose. Pat them on the back and say “there there …. there there” because we know how to build soil and construct these buildings. So there is no need to worry any more. The problem has been solved. We know what to do, no matter what the science says.

      20

      • #
        Nadia bin Du Natan

        Correction: One story buildings, with a lawn, constitute HORIZONTAL sprawl, unless the inhabitants are engaged in agriculture.

        10

      • #
        Klem

        Wow that’s one of the longest and most convoluted responses to a simple direct question that I’ve ever seen. Great job. Are you high right now, Nadia?

        20

  • #
    Penguinite

    I’m still reading and re-reading this little missive from ‘Cat Files’

    https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-thirty-tyrants

    It’s both educational and instructive. At 7000 words little may have been a misnomer.

    80

  • #
    Hanrahan

    A study in Quebec has found efficacy with an anti-gout drug, Colchicine, against the Wu Flu.

    I’m a long time gout sufferer but didn’t know the name and a search didn’t enlighten me until the pharmacist discussing this mentioned a side effect – diarrhoea – when the penny dropped: “Colgout” is how how it is sold here. Given on day 1 of Wu Flu diagnosis it reduced hospitalisations by 21%, a 50% decrease in the use of ventilation and a 44% decrease in death. It was not a “perfectly” conducted study so will be ignored.

    Does anyone believe this rebadging of legacy drugs and use of supplements such as D3 will cause a fundamental rethink in medical research? Don’t be silly!

    It’s a bit long but there is more than this ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldFRt-i3QzY

    30

    • #
      OldOzzie

      +1 anti-gout drug, Colchicine (CalGout) with Allopurinol

      10

      • #
        another ian

        Also branded “Lengout”.

        AFIK allopurinol is in a separate tablet and for long term use.

        I;ve got both, with the Lengout only for acute attacks

        30

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Allopurinol [zyloprim] is a daily preventative [for life] to reduce uric acid levels, not to be taken during an attack because it aggravates it. I never thought it helped me. I can recognise a gout pang very early now [often at 3 am] and find just one or two indocid banish it if taken immediately.

          Never “soldier on” with gout. If your GP won’t prescribe indocid, change doctors. I remember having to take my hands off the wheel to lift my leg to push the clutch on my van. That might be why my knees are clapped out now.

          40

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Why Are Inexpensive, Generic Outpatient COVID-19 Treatments Being Suppressed?

      In December, I wrote about a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing focused on testimony about potential early and outpatient treatments for COVID-19. A group of doctors detailed their research on ivermectin, a generic anti-parasitic drug:

      The medication being discussed in this hearing is ivermectin. It has not been studied as much as HCQ, but the results to date are encouraging. The witnesses have studies covering over 4,000 patients in various settings but cannot obtain a review through the NIH. They asked for the committee’s assistance with this and noted that funding for additional studies is not readily available. Money to study the efficacy of current generic medications in new applications is difficult to obtain. That is a tragic fact, as these medications are less expensive and more readily available.

      During the hearing, one of the physicians stated that with the results the researchers have seen to date, he would consider it malpractice not to provide this medication early in a COVID-19 infection. A website that tracks medications studies in COVID-19 has summarized a meta-analysis of the research to date for ivermectin:

      You can talk about remdesivir on television, Twitter, or YouTube, and you will not be censored. The drug is still in use with a hefty price tag and requires hospitalization. However, if you talk about ivermectin, it appears you will be. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at Georgetown University, noted the following on his blog:

      I was locked out of my Twitter account for 12 for saying wearing multiple masks was ridiculous, disclosing I don’t wear one at all, and spelling out the preventative medications I take. These medications are listed on a treatment protocol from the Eastern Virginia Medical School and doctors with the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons. Doing these things is my choice, and there are medical endorsements because of the medications’ known actions. They are quercetin, vitamin C, vitamin D3, zinc, echinacea, and melatonin*. All are available over the counter and have been discussed with my doctor. But I was not allowed to tweet about them.

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      • #
        Nadia bin Du Natan

        “Why Are Inexpensive, Generic Outpatient COVID-19 Treatments Being Suppressed?”

        It was obvious from the start. Because Covid was and is a series of terrorist attacks. The two other hypotheses ……. 2. Natural evolution out of a fish market and 3. Accidental release … these failed to explain the data when we mean the data in the widest possible sense. Not excluding media collusion, and medical industry top-down control.

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        Hanrahan

        Re Melatonin: I researched this just last night and the best natural source is tart cherries such as morello with the added benefit they are a good anti-inflammatory. All supermarkets keep bottled morello cherries at modest cost, far cheaper than fresh.

        I used to take them with yogurt at lunch but got out of the habit. I will now try them in the evening to help me sleep.

        And beef is the best natural source of Zn although my son who works on a copper/lead mine says he gets enough at work. lol

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          Nadia bin Du Natan

          Man is that ever a great tip. Tryptophan is a melatonin precursor. So its a banana with turkey meat in that case. But great tip with Morello. I shall go looking. Thanks for the gout tip also but I can’t help thinking you shouldn’t lean on Allopurinol quite so much. If you have diluted apple cider vinegar and use it with straws, and treat every meal like some chemistry assignment to fully digest protein, you might have to use the drug less often. Plus your joints, including your knees: thats a job for bone broth and sleeping on earthing sheets.

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        OriginalSteve

        Simoke. So they take a vaccine.

        The whole aim of covid appears to frighten the sheep into taking what appears to be an experimental mRNA drug….using fear to herd them into the yawning mouth of the black hole of never ending lockdowns and tyranny…..and no coal…or freedoms…

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          OriginalSteve

          Sorry…should read :

          “Simple. So they take a vaccine.”

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        • #

          woah… a lot of effort to get people to inject some rna. RNA, which as you imply is unproven so might do nothing. A weird strategy to set up such an expensive and elaborate event and then tell everyone what you are doing.

          You should steer clear of the supplements industry

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    another ian

    More on seeing/saving videos via Chiefio

    “p.g.sharrow says:
    6 February 2021 at 4:56 pm
    https://michaeljlindell.com/ works if all the others are down, Mike asks that the connection be shared

    Pinroot says:
    6 February 2021 at 5:52 pm
    The easiest way to save the video would be to go here:
    “https://seed306.bitchute.com/H9paZAHX2oUf/8LriU50kL8pz.mp4”
    When the video starts, right click on it and select “Save video” or whatever option your browser gives you. You’ll have your very own copy.

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    another ian

    Chiefio has been doing some threads on computer and internet security. The latest is

    “Installing I2P – Privacy Overlay Network”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2021/02/06/installing-i2p-privacy-overlay-network/

    Windows wonks out of luck – he considers it the original computer virus – but you’ll get an idea of what is around

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    OldOzzie

    Sun shines on Trump — he knows his party daren’t convict

    Far from raging in exile, a close adviser has given a rare glimpse of ‘happier’ Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the gold-leafed citadel for his comeback campaign.

    On inauguration day, Donald Trump left Washington on the presidential plane, Air Force One, to the sound of Frank Sinatra’s My Way. The song begins: “And now the end is near” – but is it? Trump fully expects to survive and thrive politically after his impeachment trial for inciting the violent storming of the US Capitol opens on Tuesday in the Senate.

    “He is going to be acquitted,” Jason Miller, Trump’s senior adviser, told me confidently last week. “There is no real scenario in which he is going to be convicted, so the pressure is completely off.” Far from raging in exile, Miller revealed, the former president “feels happier” than he did in the White House and is pleased no longer to be on social media.

    Miller, a tough, combative campaign strategist, was with Trump when he won the election in 2016 — and at his side again for last year’s campaign. He was also aboard the jet on January 20, heading for the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with Melania, Ivanka, Don Jr and other close Trump family members and advisers.

    “The president was in a very good mood upon leaving and there were some very tender moments with his family. It was fun to have a front-row seat for that,” Miller said. “The emotions ran the entire gamut. Some folks were very sad this day had come, but there was a sense of pride that this was the single most successful first term in US presidential history.”

    Miller was able to make this boast with a straight face because millions of Americans agree with him. So does his boss. Others hope Trump will be barred for life from office after being the only president in US history to be impeached twice — and “the only one to be acquitted twice”, added Miller promptly, forecasting the outcome of the Senate trial.

    The long and short of it, according to Miller, is that “he is the Republican Party” – and still “far and away the frontrunner” for a tilt at the White House in 2024.

    “It’s not even close. He is the one who has remade the party and brought new people in. He got nearly 10 million more votes than any other incumbent president in US history. The Republican Party now shares his ideals when it comes to trade, foreign policy and being an inclusive party that saw record African-American and Latino support.”

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    David Maddison

    As we freeze to death in Melbourne (Australia) I can’t wait for the BoM to announce this is the hottest summer eeevveeerrr…

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    David Maddison

    New carbon taxes for Once Great Britain.

    Once Great Britain is fully committed to self-destruction….despite Brexit.

    By taxing food and heat it will help the Elites to fulfill their dream of having the Sheeple freeze and starve in the dark.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-carbon-taxtes-meat-cheese-and-gas-heating-prices-to-rise-wxz5vd6k2

    New carbon taxes: meat, cheese and gas heating prices to rise

    Cheese making could be one of the industries charged for their carbon emissions as the “polluter pays” principle is expanded to all sectors of the economy
    Cheese making could be one of the industries charged for their carbon emissions as the “polluter pays” principle is expanded to all sectors of the economy

    Oliver Wright, Policy Editor
    Thursday February 04 2021, 12.01am GMT, T
    Consumers face higher prices on meat, cheese and gas heating under plans being drawn up by Boris Johnson for new carbon taxes and charges.

    The prime minister has ordered every department to produce a “price” for carbon emissions across all areas of the economy as part of a drive to achieve his net-zero carbon pledge. The proposals are at the centre of the carbon reduction blueprint that is expected to be announced in the run-up to Cop26, the United Nations’ climate change conference being hosted by Britain in Glasgow in November.

    (See link for rest.)

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      Maptram

      What about beer, wine and spirits. Carbon dioxide is released in the production, transport, packaging. I predict a way will be found to further tax the preferred beverage of the masses but not the drink of the elite.

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        Great Aunt Janet

        Well, they are pondering opening the pubs in UK now, but they won’t be allowed to sell alcohol… so there’s that.

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    • #
      yarpos

      If you keep the populace poor, none will be able to afford the mandated EVs, thereby saving the grid from failure and avoiding massive infrastructure costs. All part of the grand plan.

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    • #
      Klem

      Carbon taxes make economic sense to governments. Carbon taxes are a tax on life, they drive up the cost of everything which in turn delivers more tax revenue to governments.

      It does not matter if the government is Left or Right, they both recognize the lure of more money.

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      Serp

      Entirely down to Carrie Symonds; Boris has to go.

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    Annie

    Today is the 12th anniversary of the Black Saturday firestorm here.

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    el gordo

    Myanmar and grass roots popular revolt.

    ‘The surge in popular dissent over the weekend overrode a nationwide blockade of the internet. Some protesters displayed the three-finger salute inspired by the Hunger Games films and used by pro-democracy protesters in Thailand last year.’

    Agence France-Presse

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    Hanrahan

    Dr Mobeen Syed just blogged on three more ivermectin trials/studies, all positive. In NY people have to take hospitals to court to have IVM given to their loved ones. Happily the court is siding with the petitioners.

    But why this inertia? The time has passed when “an abundance of caution” is an adequate excuse, it is now simple bloody-mindedness.

    Is it still verboten in Vic?

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      Peter C

      Hydroxychloroquine has been outlawed by the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) for off label use (ie treating Covid).
      I am not sure about Invermectin.

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    David Maddison

    Politicians should get covid vaccines before others.

    Not because their lives are worthy, but because they are not.

    Since they will demand that we get the vaccines, if they are harmful, the politicians will make ideal test subjects.

    Also, they should be test subjects aa punishment because they killed and continue to kill huge numbers of people by banning the proper use of HCQ and Ivermectin.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      I’m a biased witness but I would prefer a dose of IVM monthly to a vax.

      There is a lot of mud being thrown at vax doubters but little logical argument to change their minds. I could accept the doubts about safety but no one is talking up the benefit.

      Widespread IVM use with a “back to business” attitude would have us at herd immunity with the minimum of deaths.

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      tom0mason

      Maybe David, all politicians the world over should publicly be shown (video and documented medical evidence) getting all their inoculations. This would ensure that the brighter politicians fully understand the benefits and drawbacks of enforcing foolish mandate about inoculation on the populous.

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    Peter C

    The New Climate Warming Pause!

    Chistopher Moncton at WUWT notes that a new Warming Pause has opened up, due to the recent fall in Global Temperatures (UAH). The Pause is now 5 years and 6 Months!
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/03/the-new-pause-lengthens-from-5-years-4-months-to-5-years-6-months/

    If the UAH global average temperature should fall further in coming months the ‘pause’ will lengthen out considerably.

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    • #
      el gordo

      La Nina will decay over the coming months and the PDO should return to neutral for awhile longer. This bodes well for a continuation of the hiatus and falsification of AGW.

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        Peter C

        I thought you would be right onto this one el gordo.

        The temperature has fallen by more than this before. If it goes 0.2C lower it will become really embarrassing for the warmists.

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        • #
          Roger Knights

          “If it goes 0.2C lower it will become really embarrassing for the warmists.”

          Fingers crossed!

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          another ian

          Have you seen a warmist embarrassed yet over anything?

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          • #
            PeterS

            I was going to say something similar. Get over it peoples. Most people are either clueless and will believe everything the two major parties tells them about reducing emissions, or they are not listening because they are focused on other matters pertaining to their lives, until the emissions reduction scam hurts their back pocket or disrupts their way of life. Until that happens the warmists and supporters of renewables will never be embarrassed. Why would they be? If anything they are being applauded more and more for at least trying “to save the planet” (from some mythical global warming catastrophe). Propaganda does work until reality bites. Reality hasn’t bitten enough people yet.

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      Hanrahan

      What’s the time line on this?

      In the ’40s there was massive burning during a World War with CO2 being added both through the burning of cities and anything valuable the bombers could find and the burning of fuel directly by the weapons of war, [a thousand 4 engined bombers and many hundreds of fighters in the sky at once] but there was no uptick in observed temperature.

      The 70’s brought us the “global cooling” scare.

      I remember it well in ’98 the late Bob Carter proclaimed the good news, “The warming is over”, wrote a letter to that effect to a major London newspaper. He was the first but soon after there was talk of “the hiatus”. So we are five years into a second “hiatus”. Really? We have had so many years of nothing, cooling and two haitii 🙂 , doesn’t leave a lot of time for heating.

      If I didn’t know better I’d say it drifts, a little hotter, a little cooler. But what would I know.

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        Serp

        It’s all a matter of scale. When we’ve developed tectonic weapons and can actually pile Pelion upon Ossa then just maybe we can modify the climate but you’ll have to show me.

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    • #
      RickWill

      Once you get into talking about pauses you are accepting that the data presented is accurate. It is not. Any reliable data shows no trend.

      UAH LTT is a meaningless number. It has no bearing on the surface temperature. If you look at actual values rather than anomalies you see it measures something high in the atmosphere that is calibrated around 270K. UAH LTT over the Nino34 region still has the Pacific in El Nino. Even BoM are showing La Nina since about July 2020. Spencer and Christie were brave to keep the trend as low as it is for fear of getting shut down but it is biased high.

      This is the most accurate climate model known to man:

      Average Global Surface Temperature = {30 + (-2)}/2 = 14C

      It is a simple function but the physics behind it is not so simple. Fundamentally there is an upper limit of 30C on the ocean surface temperature and a lower limit of -2C. The arithmetic mean is the most accurate measure of the global surface temperature given the current distribution of water over the globe and orbital geometry.

      There is no measurement system that can come close to this model.

      WUWT have demonstrated the the temperature adjustments in the US are highly correlated with CO2. Without adjustments there is no warming. Similar in Australia; all measurement system flaws. Reliable records show zero trend.

      I made an interesting observation today that the Russian INM-CM4 climate model has the tropical ocean warm pools at or under 30C. It is still garbage on other aspects but it has this right. The GISS model shows tropical warm pools at 34C, which is a physical impossibility on planet Earth.

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        el gordo

        Rick we have little choice for the time being and need to accept UAH.

        http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_January_2021_v6.jpg

        My guesstimate is that it will sink below the line and stay there for a decade. Much hilarity, we are saved.

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          RickWill

          UAH is biased high with regard to trend. It measures nothing related to surface temperature. I cannot even find the actual UAH temperature. But the RSS data from the same raw radiation measurements shows the temperatures actually being inferred:
          http://climexp.knmi.nl/data/irss_tlt_0-360E_-90-90N_n.png
          It ranges from 269K to 273K so all below freezing.

          Any measurement that shows the surface temperature increasing is flawed.

          The Average Global Surface Temperature is stuck at 14C until the Bering Strait ices up and the Atlantic does not reach the set point of 30C..

          This is from the moored buoys in the western Pacific:
          http://climexp.knmi.nl/data/itao_sst_137-156E_-8-8N_n.png
          It is clearly regulated close to 30C.

          Sea ice forms at -2C. The average of the extremes is 14C. Anything else from a climate perspective is noise.

          The ocean water expansion indicates the deep oceans are still warming but that is likely still equalising since the last glaciation. It is certainly not a sign of a warmer ocean surface.

          My prediction of 14C by 2100 will be closer than any current climate model. All do the physical impossible like predicting tropical oceans average higher than 30C – pure tripe.

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            • #
              RickWill

              My model can derive the actual surface temperature of 14C. The derivation is not complex:

              Global Average Surface Temperature = {30 + (-2)}/2 = 14C

              The theory behind it may be challenging for some. Particularly those who have spent their professional career learning the religious doctrine of the Church of Climate Change. They will be challenged to remove their blinkers.

              The paper gives the models the answer and then checks if it gets the radiative balance correct. I put that in the trivial test because the radiative balance has to be near zero for the case of zero warming or cooling. Anything that gives credit to a pause needs to taken with a dose of salts. It gives credence to the flawed measurements that give a warming trend.

              The folly with all models apart from my correct model is that they are trying to derive a surface temperature from some delicate thermal balance when in fact the temperature is thermostatically controlled; meaning the energy does whatever is needed to maintain the surface temperature. It is easy for the Pacific and Indian Oceans because they both have excess energy. The Atlantic relies on heat transfer via the Bering Strait and Southern Ocean from the other tropical oceans to achieve the regulating temperature of 30C.

              During glaciation, the tropical Atlantic struggles to make 26C. In the Pacific, the warm pools move a bit further west while the Indian Ocean hardly notices glaciation.

              The Russian INM-CM4 model probably bears closer scrutiny. So far I have determined that it gets close with the tropical warm pools. If anything it is currently low. On the other hand the annual variation in precipitable water level is way too high but at least it looks close to averaging out at a constant level. The average of all CMIP5 models result in water vapour going negative after 3 years.

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      tom0mason

      Add to that the sane, logical, and evidence based e-book (pdf) from climate researcher, geologist, Patrice Poyet: The Rational Climate e-Book: Cooler is Riskier. The Sorry State of Climate Science and Policies. Available for free at —
      e-book https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347150306_The_Rational_Climate_e-Book .

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    another ian

    Seeing as we’re in Oz I guess we can watch with interest as to how the “green energy miracle” handles this

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/07/winter-storm-threatens-germanys-powerfreezing-hell-threatens-if-already-rickety-grid-collapses/

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      PeterS

      They will handle it in the usual way; keep ignoring reality and focus on the illusion that the world is facing extinction unless we reduce our emissions to 0% by 2050 or thereabouts. The 2050 date and the date of extinction if we do nothing are all of course bogus, but that doesn’t matter. Fear is continually being pumped into the clueless public and that gets people’s attention more so than the facts. Facts are too boring to most people. Yet the solution to the imaginary problem that is feared by so many is pretty obvious; nuclear. Given it’s not being considered seriously it can only mean we are being lied to big time by both the major parties. Yet most people still vote for them. Go figure.

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  • #
    another ian

    Not sure what it does for understanding but

    “Inside the Leftist Mind”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/02/06/inside-the-leftist-mind/

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      I was blithely unaware of the true evil of government until I heard exPM Tony Blair openly admit on air that Brit Labour’s goal was to import low level voters to overpower conservatives. This was confirmation of my suspicions what all leftist governments thought at the time, even our own labor traitors.

      Being an absolute sceptic by ’07 I read the GFC as an attack on the middle class, not the poor. The poor have nothing to steal and they have no power. The middle class are worth stealing from and they are uppity and ambitious so they must be disempowered.

      Everything, including JoeBama’s EOs, is aimed at the heart of the middle class. They are the only enemy of the elite, the poor are needed to grease the wheels, even if that is literally true.

      Was our fiction of the past really fiction or was it a portent?

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      • #
        James Murphy

        I’m certainly no expert on the minutiae of the US economy, but from what little I’ve read on the subject, it seems like raising the minimum wage in the US could ultimately cause more problems than it solves for the middle class, and the poor alike.

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        • #
          RicDre

          Raising the minimum wage will help people who are currently being paid less than the new minimum wage but there is a price to pay for this which is some combination of 1) other people loosing their jobs (either in labor cut-backs or business failures), or 2) Higher prices (inflation). Of these, inflation worries me the most because the US National Debt has reached the point where it would not take much to unleash the Inflation Monster and it would probably take a major recession (or possibly depression) to get it back under control once it is unleashed.

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            Great Aunt Janet

            Leading to more business failures and labour cutbacks… the minimum wage thing is a disaster.

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      • #
        PeterS

        It’s not so unusual to understand why the US is self-destructing. It’s because of “self”. So many people hated Trump and still do, not just the MSM. Yet when one asks them why they hate him so much they often can’t give an answer, or when they do, such as he lies, it’s no different to any other politician; they all tell lies, so what? When they are pinned down and asked what did he lie about, the answer is usually silence. The problem is not the MSM, it’s the people. By and large they are sick and place their hate into something or someone else. It’s pure hate for no real reason at all. That’s what’s destroying the West today. The MSM is just feeding on that hate.

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          RicDre

          “It’s pure hate for no real reason at all. That’s what’s destroying the West today. The MSM is just feeding on that hate.”

          While I generally agree with this, some people seem to need someone/something to hate in order to give their lives meaning. I am reminded of the “Two Minutes of Hate” in 1984:

          Wikipedia:

          In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, the Two Minutes Hate is the daily, public period during which members of the Outer Party of Oceania must watch a film depicting the enemies of the state … to openly and loudly express hatred for them. The political purpose of the Two Minutes Hate is to allow the citizens of Oceania to vent their existential anguish and personal hatreds towards politically expedient enemies … In re-directing the members’ subconscious feelings away from the Party’s government of Oceania, and towards non-existent external enemies, the Party minimises thoughtcrime and the consequent, subversive behaviours of thoughtcriminals.

          Also, I am not sure if the MSM is feeding on that hate or actively encouraging the hate. Perhaps it is a little of both.

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          Serp

          Remember Trump is not a politician, he’s a property developer cum media personality who won the presidency through a feat of opportunism and landed himself in a world of hate whose crazed denizens were hell bent on annihilating him from the outset and are now lambasting his empty pinata with a procedurally spurious impeachment.

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    James Murphy

    A discussion above, about data from the BOM website made me think… Is it just me, or is it actually not very straightforward to get large volumes of data from the BOM website? It seems like daily min temp, max temp, and rainfall from 1 station all have to be acquired separately, then merged, unless there is some obscure way of getting it in a single file.

    Why does a billion dollar government agency not seem to have an API for this, its “bread and butter” data?

    Also, when looking at Adelaide (station 023000), for example – temperature data for Jan 2021 get classed as “Not quality controlled or uncertain, or precise date unknown”. They release the data multiple times a day, if not continuously based on, for example, local radio weather reports, and TV news in the evening, yet somehow that data is not “quality controlled”?

    How can a government department release data which is not quality controlled? Sounds irresponsible to me…
    Then, of course, the question should be if it has been quality controlled, then why doesn’t it say so?
    the third and fourth questions should then be Why does it take so long to quality control data from a temperature sensor? Is the equipment of such poor quality that it cannot be trusted to be accurate without human intervention?

    Slightly related…. I noticed the same circuitous data route with federal politicians expense reports. it’s all “available to the public”, but it isn’t available in chunks or formats that can be used (against them) easily.

    You don’t need censorship when you make it so hard to get “freely available” data that it is going to make a lot of people give up.

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      PeterS

      Data is not the same thing a truth. The data can and is being manipulated. Even the so called “raw data” is being manipulated. So what hope is there of exposing the lie when the liars use similar tactics as in the novel 1984 to alter history to suit their agenda and spread even bigger lies? There will come a point when the people will wake up to the truth but unfortunately we are not there yet. It can only happen the hard way or by means of another catastrophe, a real one, such as crash and burn of the West. Then people will most certainly wake up and stop voting for the master liars, namely the two major parties, unless one of them changes their tune and stops telling us lies.

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    RicDre

    Delingpole: Study Disputes That Earth Is in a ‘Climate Emergency’

    There is no “climate emergency”, according to a study for the Global Warming Policy Foundation by independent scientist Dr Indur Goklany.

    Goklany concludes:

    While climate may have changed for the warmer:

    • Most extreme weather phenomena have not become more extreme, more deadly, or more destructive

    • Empirical evidence directly contradicts claims that increased carbon dioxide has reduced human wellbeing. In fact, human wellbeing has never been higher

    • Whatever detrimental effects warming and higher carbon dioxide may have had on terrestrial species and ecosystems, they have been swamped by the contribution of fossil fuels to increased biological productivity. This has halted, and turned around, reductions in habitat loss

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/02/07/delingpole-study-disputes-earth-climate-emergency/

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    Travis T. Jones

    Floods in the Gascoyne … bushfires near Perth … simultaneously!

    is there nothing carbon (sic) can’t do?

    Weather alert as floodwaters threaten Carnarvon after Gascoyne River overflows

    “He said his plantation recorded 184mm of rain on Thursday night, almost reaching the property’s average annual rainfall in one downpour.”

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-06/western-australia-carnarvon-floods-gascoyne/13129042

    Wooroloo bushfire emergency threatens more WA homes after at least three houses destroyed

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-01/bushfire-in-perth-hills-wooroloo-at-emergency-level/13109956

    Gascoyne flood: Dozens saved as region braces for ‘one in ten year flood’
    https://thewest.com.au/news/disaster-and-emergency/gascoyne-flood-dozens-saved-as-region-braces-for-one-in-ten-year-flood-ng-b881789271z

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    RicDre

    What Does Offshore Wind Power Really Cost?

    Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, we keep being assured that offshore wind costs have tumbled to under £50/MWh.

    The US Energy Information Administration however don’t agree. They regularly assess the levelised costs of all power sources, and only a year ago calculated that the cost of offshore wind was $115.04/MWh, roughly £84/MWh, at current prices.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/07/what-does-offshore-wind-power-really-cost/

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      Chad

      The one figure that always stands out for me in LCO reports, is the comparative cost of domestic Rooftop solar PV. ..may time more expensive than any other source.
      IE $200 +/MWh ….mor than Nuclear or Gas peakers. !
      Lazard is another source of LCOE data ..
      https://www.lazard.com/media/450784/lazards-levelized-cost-of-energy-version-120-vfinal.pdf

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        RicDre

        And speaking of Rooftop solar PV, I was wondering what happened to Tesla’s Solar roof shingles and did some digging and found this review: Tesla solar roof review: is it worth the hype?

        Here are its conclusions:

        -Tesla’s solar roof integrates active solar shingle tiles that can produce solar energy with inactive shingles, to create a roof that produces solar energy without any actual solar panels.

        -Tesla’s active solar shingles cost $2.01 per watt, while the inactive shingles cost $7.65 per square foot. The actual cost of an entire Tesla solar roof varies depending on the size of your home and your energy usage.

        -A Tesla solar roof is comparable to the cost of getting your roof replaced and getting solar panels installed. However, if you do not need a new roof, you’re better off getting traditional solar panels.

        -Tesla has a history of being unreliable when it comes to installing the solar roof, even cancelling orders made years ago.

        https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/tesla-solar-roof-do-the-solar-shingles-match-the-hype

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    RicDre

    Claim: Global Warming May have Started in 1825

    According to researchers working in the Paracel Islands, the modern warming period began in 1825, before anthropogenic CO2 could possibly have had any effect on the global climate.

    “Climate change: global warming may have started before industrial revolution, Chinese study says”

    Investigation of coral reefs in the Paracel Islands suggest the South China Sea began warming up in 1825, researchers sayUranium dating shows samples have a continuous climate record going back to 1520

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/07/claim-global-warming-may-have-started-in-1825/

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    another ian

    “Hugh

    February 7, 2021 at 12:26 pm

    Imagine a vaccine so safe you have to be threatened to take it for a virus so deadly you have to be tested to know if you have it? Huh?”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/02/07/one-toronto-grocer-vs-the-machine/#comment-1407794

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    robert rosicka

    Anyone else enjoying the Super Bowl? Difference between Tampa bay and the Chiefs is clearly Brady .

    10

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    Chad

    TRIVIA ?
    Secret A bomb testing in England. !!..
    Did anyone carch the SBS program “Secret History of Britain”. Last Friday hosted by M Portillo ?
    Its a series of “reality” shows exploring some of the unknown secret sites in the UK.
    Last week Portillo was investigating an abandoned Defence site at Orford Ness ion the Suffolk coast of the UK.
    In summary, not only was this site used by the CIA to radio monitor the Soviets in the 1970’s, but also it was used for “TESTING” Nuclear bomb technology ..not just the A bombs of the ‘50’s but also the “H” bombs ( 1000s of times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb !)
    Whilst none of the bombs were armed with nuclear warheads, they did contain plenty of high explosive. They were tested for extreme temperature stability (literaly , cooking and freezing them in huge facilities, and also hurling them against massive concrete structures to test “crashproof” designs. Test “drops were also conducted over the Channel etc etc..all in total secrecy but within a mile or so of normal civilian villages !
    The most worrying point to me was that Portillo had previously known nothing about even the existence of this facility, let alone what it had been doing !..
    ……. and he had been the British MINISTER of DEFENCE for many years .!!
    A revealing program, and hopefully more to come .
    https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/1208610371608/michael-portillos-abandoned-britain

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      Serp

      It’s an infrequently posted series. Currently sbs has season 1 episodes 2 and 4 available. More than two years ago season 1 episode 1 was on offer with episodes 1 and 2 of season 2.

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      robert rosicka

      Chad I’m still amazed the Yanks still have what’s called a “Broken Arrow” , yes they lost a nuke .

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    el gordo

    The beast from the east is prowling and the negative North Atlantic Oscillation is indicative of that.

    https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/pna/nao_index.html

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    another ian

    “How do they know the Super Bowl winner tonight? What about the mail-in points?”

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/02/how-do-they-know-the-super-bowl-winner-tonight-what-about-the-mail-in-points.html

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    another ian

    “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans”

    And list in the link

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/02/08/we-dont-need-no-stinking-giant-fans-39/#comments

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    another ian

    “Urgent request for assistance from people who know the Al Ajman area, Dubai, UAE”

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/02/urgent-request-for-assistance-from-people-who-know-the-al-ajman-area-dubai-uae.html

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    el gordo

    The AGW obscenity knows no bounds, the Spaniards have gone completely balmy.

    https://catallaxyfiles.com/2021/02/08/saving-the-planet-with-intermittent-energy/

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    Andrew McRae

    Academic freedom news.
    Peter Ridd posted an update.

    Tomorrow I head down to Canberra for the next stage in the legal case against JCU. We will be asking the judges on Thursday to hear our appeal. If we succeed, the appeal will probably be held later this year.
    The High Court does not agree to hear most cases. My understanding is that they only look at cases that have a wider legal implication.

    Jo & Co, we can expect the decision this Friday afternoon.

    Am crossing all my Finger Corals and hoping his case goes ahead. 🙂

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    Strop

    Update on Peter Todd’s case.

    Tomorrow I head down to Canberra for the next stage in the legal case against JCU. We will be asking the judges on Thursday to hear our appeal. If we succeed, the appeal will probably be held later this year.

    The High Court does not agree to hear most cases. My understanding is that they only look at cases that have a wider legal implication. Academic/intellectual freedom clauses are in most University Enterprise Agreements so hopefully the High Court see our case as important.

    We should know the result of the hearing by the end of this week.

    Problems of freedom of speech have recently occurred at many universities in Australia, UK, Canada and the US. However, there seems to be a growing consensus, on both sides of politics, that our universities are failing us on this issue. The University of Chicago supported one of its academics, Prof Dorian Abbott, who was attacked by the cancel-culture mob for question positive discrimination policies. Prof Abbott wrote an excellent article about how to survive campus witch hunts.

    https://quillette.com/2021/02/05/more-weight-an-academics-guide-to-surviving-campus-witch-hunts/

    He lists the following as imperative – perspective, courage, and determination. But he also lists as important love for one’s attackers and states “Ultimately, I think that cancel culture presents a case study in what Desmond Tutu summed up with the book title, No Future Without Forgiveness.”

    Finally, Abbott states the importance of support – that no single academic can stand alone. He was supported by his university President, the British Free Speech Union and the Heterodox academy.

    I was supported by you and thousands of others.

    Yet again, a huge thanks.

    Thursday being 11/2/2021

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    CHRIS

    The Peter Ridd case is a complete disgrace. It proves beyond doubt that Australian (if not Global) Universities have been taken over by woke-think socialist scum. As for “intermittent energy”, the only Australian state which could operate entirely on renewables is Tasmania (hydro + wind + a bit of solar). As for the rest of Australia, and the world, forget it!

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      Tilba Tilba

      … the only Australian state which could operate entirely on renewables is Tasmania (hydro + wind + a bit of solar). As for the rest of Australia, and the world, forget it!

      South Australia occasionally (perhaps intermittently) claims that it could run quite happily all on renewables: solar, wind, tidal, wave, geothermal, and even nuclear. Could be true.

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