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Thursday Open Thread
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JoNova A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
The nerds have the numbers on precious metals investments on the ASX
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California’s Zero Carbon Plans: Can Anybody Here Do Basic Arithmetic?
From The Manhattan Contrarian
May 11, 2021/ Francis Menton
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/12/californias-zero-carbon-plans-can-anybody-here-do-basic-arithmetic/
90
Let them go ahead and destroy themselves. Perhaps that will wake up the rest of us just in time. We can only hope.
80
Who feeds these dopes?
Worse, who puts them in positions of power over us?
I suppose Bloomberg wouldn’t have written the article himself, but he owns it.
30
Degrowth: Universities Push Permanent Poverty as the Solution to Climate Change
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/12/degrowth-universities-push-permanent-poverty-as-the-solution-to-climate-change/
60
You would never guess the Universities favoured de growth from the way they wailed when their growth was threatened by a lack of foreign students.
I mean how will the VC afford their next Ferrari?
150
… by being given large salary cuts to dwindle/reduce his/her/their salaries to true poverty levels.
I can live with such pay cuts for them,
They can be given a (small) pay increase/rise towards the higher levels of the poverty classes every time they manage an accurate and correct prediction.
40
Given their past `successes’ at predictions, pay increases will remain thoroughly sustainable for the forseeable future.
30
Socialized poverty. A form of the doctrine called Contraction and convergence:
https://www.cfact.org/2021/02/23/un-calls-for-contraction-and-convergence-to-low-living-standards/.
Apparently very popular at Oxford. But not a real threat so who cares?
91
yes its called communism
10
Convergence is communism, contraction not so much as far as ideology goes, although it happens in reality. Communism on paper seeks a worker’s paradise based on technology. That was Marx’s vision.
10
Jo and Tony From Oz quoted often in this article. Congrats, you’re famous!
Total Joke: Australian Wind Farms Regularly Deliver Tiny Fraction of Their Total Capacity
https://stopthesethings.com/2021/05/12/total-joke-australian-wind-farms-regularly-deliver-tiny-fraction-of-their-total-capacity/
160
Wind turbines almost never deliver nameplate capacity because that takes sustained winds over 30 mph, which are rare almost everywhere, including offshore. Plus below about 10 mph they deliver little or nothing, which happens frequently. Weather is like that. Weather does not like wind.
141
David
So is there a ‘sweet’ spot then at about 15 to 50mph? Below that there is not enough wind and above that the turbines may need to be braked?
20
At 15 mph you only get maybe 25% of nameplate. Between10 and 30 it is pretty linear. So the output tends to oscillate irregularly up and down that line, which is a huge problem in itself. The output is seldom steady because the wind is seldom steady.
They lock down at 55 mph, probably at gusts not sustained wind, but I do not know which.
10
Wind turbines are going off-shore because the wind is better there.
On-shore farms may not deliver for nearly 30% of the time, indeed may be consuming power to run their controls and (more importantly) rotating the blades to prevent bearing trouble (as in big ships which run propellors even while at berth).
Danish off shore wind delivered 94% of capacity for 3.2% of the time. 50% for 40% of the time and 11% for 86% of the time.
This was for an average CF of 35% although the newest 6 averaged 40% of nominal capacity.
UK off-shore wind farms delivered an average 36.7% of capacity for the year 2018. Newest installations averaged 38.5% (max. 45.2%)
This in comparison with land based UK installations which varied from 21.7 to 27% of capacity depending on the wind strengths that year.
The “emissions saved” never allow for that from the backup by coal, gas or diesel.
00
Yes there is more airflow near the smooth offshore surface, but nameplate is still a hoax.
00
It’s nearly always windy just off-shore, but what about all the add-ons? Rust obviously, corrosion of aluminium, salt crusting, increased installation costs, getting the power effectively to shore, and other maintenance items I can’t even think of?
I personally don’t find them really ugly, but there is something fundamentally unpleasant about them.
01
So for a A$20bn cost outlay, all we receive is averaging 200-300 MW? UAE is building a 5.6GW nuclear power station that will cost around A$27bn, and continue generating that power 24/7 for the next 60 years.
160
Exactly. Renewable nameplate is a hoax. Nothing like fossil and nuclear nameplate.
80
For those in Oz who want to see the AU unreliables data graphically, this is a nicely done web site.
http://www.spasmodicenergy.com/Pages/Home.aspx
111
I love the site’s name, Spasmodic Energy, its much more accurate than “Renewable Energy”.
160
“Toxic Energy”
as it destroys the environment, industry and domestic users at all phases of its life cycle.
110
“Renewable energy” is a stupid term anyway. Energy is never be renewed; only converted from one form to another.
160
Leftists don’t understand basic physics, or anything of value, in fact.
But they will be able to recite by rote all 37 genders or whatever it’s up to now…
160
Thanks Lance,… That is a very useful site
But it doesnt seem to be very current,..i could not find any data for the past month ?
For current , up to the minute “live” data this is a useful source..
http://nemlog.com.au/gen/region/sa/
20
The site is under development. From the interactive response time, it appears to be “self hosted”.
He’s trying to make something useful and that’s a good thing.
You’re right that the Live data is at your link. But I like the guy’s spirit. He’s got the right ideas.
30
Actually that demonstrates Australia has been far more successful than most in integrating WDGs. In 2010 85.9% of electricity was sourced from fossil fuelled thermal plant. In 2020 the fossil fuelled generation was down to 75.4%.
Admittedly the first part is the easy bit and there is low hanging fruit but 12% is not too shabby over a decade starting with near nothing; far better than most other grids. Within 100 years, it would seem possible to wean off coal and just sell what is left to China so they can keep making stuff for us. Of course that relies on them not deciding to come and take it.
30
Biden’s Low-Key Con Can’t Hide He’s Jimmy Carter 2.0
http://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/12/nolte-bidens-low-key-con-cant-hide-hes-jimmy-carter-2-0/
Personally, I think this comparison is totally unfair to Jimmy Carter who was far more intelligent, likable and competent than Mr. Biden.
170
Agreed! Carter was an engineering graduate from the Naval Academy. Biden is a sloth.
101
“Carter was an engineering graduate from the Naval Academy.”
True; He would have been the engineering officer for USS Seawolf (SSN-575), one of the first submarines to operate on atomic power had his father not died in July 1953 prompting him to resign from the Navy and return to Georgia to manage his family interests.
30
Its odd that my research cannot pinpoint exactly what Carter’s degree was. We would assume engineering of some sort, but there was no nuclear engineering discipline in 1946. I can’t understand why historical sources are so coy about the subject. There was a common degree program at that time known as “general engineering” which doesn’t sound impressive, but turned out lots of solid engineers who did great things…
60
Did your research extend to wikipedia?
Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and joined the United States Navy, where he served on submarines.
31
Indeed I did GA, but note that we don’t know what the degree is. He got a B.Sc. in 1946, as they say in the Navy, “That is all.”
10
As an aside, today’s US Energy Dept has a billion dollar a year program on Navy nuclear power, run by an Admiral. The Navy still loves nuclear. So do the Russians who are building massive nuclear icebreakers to keep open the Northeast passage longer. Only the civies are stupid.
30
lets not forget coherent, regardless of what you thought of his politics at least Jimmy could form strings of coherent thoughts and sentences together and answer questions in real time.
40
Jim Carter was an honorable man I believe, but an unsuccessful President.
20
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Says ‘Pipe Is the Best Way’ to Transport Fuel After Admin Canceled Keystone Pipeline
http://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/12/energy-secretary-jennifer-granholm-says-pipe-is-the-best-way-to-transport-fuel-after-admin-canceled-keystone-pipeline/
Its a good thing that US politicians don’t have to create policies that support the things they are supposed to manage.
110
The U.S. pipeline outage is a rude awakening to the truth about the essential role fossil fuel plays in running the modern world. It’s amazing how many folk deny it.
10
This is hilarious! Copied from President Trump’s website.
Martha’s Vineyard is where climate catastrophists Obama and Kerry live in their sea level mansions!
370
Notice how the climate change millionaires and billionaires all have waterfront property?
Turnbull, Flim Flannery, Gates, Kerry, Obama, Gore etc…
200
Rudd:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/46+Seaview+Terrace,+Sunshine+Beach+QLD+4567/@-26.3985948,153.1133658,164m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x6b936963b7c4ac99:0x502a35af3deadd0!2sSunshine+Beach+QLD+4567!3b1!8m2!3d-26.4041711!4d153.1022382!3m4!1s0x6b936bd417bad3b7:0xc08ba746871c4aee!8m2!3d-26.3987501!4d153.1135899
I doubt it is above the storm surge level. It would be so sad to see it get washed away.
20
We know Sunshine Beach pretty well – it’s quite hilly. Seaview Terrace (and I guess 90% of the residential properties there) are well above any storm surge levels. The beach is wide too.
Google Maps Streetview: https://goo.gl/maps/2mWdnkkUSCyc3xE37
01
Image of the Obama’s mansion: https://i.imgur.com/a8Ry0Dd.jpg
Greta Thunberg commentary on said mansion: https://i.imgur.com/vC7nQ3I.jpg
30
In Commiefornia they are about to introduce fully woke “educashion” in the finest of Leftist traditions. Pol Pot would be so proud.
The lunatics are running the asylum, but you already knew that.
See link for rest.
110
Why am I shocked? But I am. Orwell could not have foreseen this.
The exodus will continue.
120
Turnbull would be comfortable with this philosophy; these are the people who will legislate physical and mathematical truth as he maintains parliaments have the prerogative to do. I await these lunatics reviving the calendar reform that Napoleon so callously overthrew two hundred odd years back.
80
David just found this absolute gem on how maths is going in America , it’s a bit of a watch but the punch line makes it worth it .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dmErVe3uK4
40
CA is officially a basket case.
Anyone who wants to further themselves needs to leave little North Korea…..
50
Little North Korea? California has 1.5 times the population of NK, and 125 times the GDP.
01
It’s one thing to poke fun at California, NYC, MN etc. That actually misses the point, the real wonder of the last election.
Nobody can say that the plans of the Democrats were unknown before the election and that everyone that voted for them went into the election blindfolded as to the future under this mob.
Nobody could have any doubt as to the character of those leading the Democrat Party after the Russian Collusion Affair.
Nobody could doubt the one-sided distortion already apparent in the application of the law to legal affairs and people of the USA, nor the taking of sides by those occupying the top seats of power in the legal institutions such as the FBI, DOJ etc. Democrat policies were laid out. Borders and immigration, heavy increases in taxation, destruction of Trump’s built up fossil fuel energy systems and pipeline construction. Everything woke was on display and riots were occuring and had been for months in Portland,Oregon etc etc.
Yet, a majority of US citizens ostensibly voted for all this stuff! I just sit back now, as the complaints roll in and say: ‘This is what the majority of you voted for. You were totally aware of the Democrat policies. You have just started 4 years of voluntary self destruction. It’s much too late now, and logically unwarranted to whinge about it! You even knew Biden was probably mentally compromised, but accepted it. You believed the character assassination of the imperfect Trump, yet in the past you had no trouble with Kennedy’s philandering (or Hawke, for Australians). The Press was generally totally biased, yet you derided the, at least, reasoned facts based criticisms of Fox. Most US citizens would not be hysterical activists, yet you ignored the patently obvious factual bias eminating from electronic media outlets owned by billionaires.’
Unbelievable that the USA, of all nations, succumbed to the point of knowingly self destructing. That only emphasises the wonder of the unquestioning national acceptance of the politically induced and increasingly destructive theology of Anthropogenic Global Warming. The entire Western system is collapsing itself deliberately as against the fall of the Roman Empire through senescence.
70
Our [Australia’s] referendum on becoming a republic failed and it wasn’t really close. Today I thank God.
In the UK, Australia and theoretically NZ and Canada we have a remedy for such a disaster as Biden in our wishy washy constitutions. Whitlam being brought down by the Senate denying him supply is the standout example. Less dramatically, parties regularly change leaders. A change of leadership may [but nor necessarily] bring substantive change. In the US Nasty Nancy and the Turtle seem to have a divine right to leadership. Can’t happen here.
When drafting your constitution your Founding Fathers showed great wisdom writing checks and balances into it but they envisioned otherwise successful people doing politics as a distraction from their “profession” to which they would return. How could they envision thieves and vagabonds forming
gangsparties where politics was the means to great wealth and who were as ruthless as Chicago mobs when protecting their patch?80
Yes – I definitely prefer the Westminster Parliamentary system … it tends to keep people on their toes, and there is no lame-duckery and fixed dates, which are heavily built into the US presidential system. And tragically, their system of “checks and balances” have made the process sclerotic and deadlocked – open to much bribery and other abuse.
However, it has little to do with the Australian Republic debate – if we had a president (either directly or indirectly chosen), they could still have “reserve powers”. In 1975, Garfield Barwick, John Kerr, and Malcolm Fraser acted corruptly and unconstitutionally in my view. Having the Queen in the mix didn’t stop the illegalities that occurred.
I think we really need full independence from the colonial past.
00
A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims, but accomplices – George Orwell
40
Good grief … it is so misguided, and so unnecessary.
There should be a core set taught well (reading, writing, foundation maths, history, geography, music, literature, drama, poetry, art, sport), but as early as possible, it seems to me kids should be encouraged to select the streams that really interest them, and to over-perform. Put the high-performance kids in special classes – whether it’s higher maths, music, drama, whatever.
When I was at school, the musically talented kids (for example) specialised in that stream, and I didn’t suffer angst or loss of self-esteem because they were better than I was.
I read somewhere that the actual maths practice itself would be “dumbed down” to a level of “equality”. I don’t see why the school curriculum (and 500 years of hard-won scientific and mathematical knowledge) has to be sacrificed in order to address other social issues.
I taught film, TV, and audio production for quite a few years, and it was chronically frustrating … the lowest common denominator was hard to rise above, and the best, most talented students were under-serviced, and basically had to do it themselves.
00
https://au.yahoo.com/finance/news/breaking-tesla-stops-accepting-bitcoin-as-payment-224340486.html
Perhaps this should have been published on 1 April.
60
around that – from another site
“What do you call a stolen Tesla?”
“An Edison”
60
How about a paperweight?
30
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ffXgcdkzrTfm/
For anyone interested in Q
Ryan (Majic Eyes) has made what he describes as super proofs from the Q post numbers and how they are connected to the USA “Law of War Manual”
The Law of War Manual, Capter XI is The End of Occupation (of a belligerent Government) eg the Biden Administration.
Other anons also connect Q’s posts to the Manual.
42
The video is too slow to watch; downloading with youtube-dl.exe I have 64% with forty minute ETA.
10
https://www.bitchute.com/video/g3thSQxyXwEK/
This is anon ‘Dan’ showing some ‘comms’ from Dan Scavino’s twitter acct, and a Space Force comm (hint, Donald J Trump is known as 45)
Dan is a lot lighter and chattier than Ryan, a good place to start, I thought so
To find the channel, search: On the Fringe Bitchute
10
High inflation spooks US markets: 4.1% annual, 0.8% for the month.
80
Seems more likely to be ‘transitory’ because of the spending spree.
03
Please explain.
30
“We share the Fed’s view that this isn’t the start of an upward inflationary spiral. We look for supply [and] demand imbalances to gradually be resolved and the pace of inflation to gradually cool heading into 2022,” said Kathy Bostjancic and Gregory Daco of Oxford Economics.’ (Financial Times)
22
Nothing transitory about printing trillions of dollars.
40
It’ll be alright, the whole world is at a low ebb and any inflation is a good thing.
02
This is the same story we get from our investment advisors in the U.S. — that supply and demand will come back into balance and tame inflationary expectations, but just as in the 1970s there are people in power who want to hinder the growth of supply by punishing those who would expand supply — think “windfall profits tax” or Nixon’s price and wage controls. They hindered prices to spur supply growth.
Once Reagan removed the price cap on fossil fuels, a move all my leftist acquaintenances would do nothing more than enrich the businessmen, supply expanded rapidly to the point that prices actually declined. By the late 1980s oil was $16 per barrel in the U.S. Stayed there until the early 2000s I think.
20
I don’t trust any fiat currency, but I don’t trust crypto currencies either.
Bring back currencies based on rare, portable in small quantities and desirable commodities like gold.
Bitcoin mining and the network consume about the same amount of electricity as the entire country of Norway and a bit less than the State of New York.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-power-consumption-of-bitcoin-mining
100
“Bitcoin mining and the network consume about the same amount of electricity as the entire country of Norway”
That was the reason Mr. Musk gave for suspending the use of bitcoin to purchase Tesla’s cars:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/12/elon-musk-says-tesla-will-stop-accepting-bitcoin-for-car-purchases.html
(also see #9 from Maptram above)
30
I think he has been buying bit coin again. Then he will resume accepting them and allow the price to rise. Then sell for a profit!
10
From what I understand about Bitcoin transactions, their inherent slowness would make it impossible to process billions of Bitcoin transactions daily in the same way our current financial transactions are processed.
50
Bitcoin isnt the only crypto though
00
They never really went anywhere David , you can buy and stack gold/silver/platinum etc to your hearts content. Like classic cars it will depend what the emerging generation thinks they are worth beyond their industrial value.
10
Very simple explanation of a virus that infects your airways and the uselessness of antibodies in you blood, (Logic even a monkey can understand) from a Doctor born in John Hopkins Hospital.
Warning!!!! this gentleman uses plain language and simple explanations.
30
A good read from statistician Wm. Briggs. Covid Update LXX
https://wmbriggs.com/post/35617/
Pokes a lot of holes in the masking fetish as well as other things.
70
Like the temperature data, this stuff must be driving a statistician Briggs nuts.
10
An excellent, if somewhat long, examination of the origins of covid19
https://nicholaswade.medium.com/origin-of-covid-following-the-clues-6f03564c038
Mr Wade makes some very good observations. Worth reading.
30
One of the statements early in the article did make me laugh:
The mainstream press is not trying to dispel the thick clouds of obfuscation they are working very hard to thicken those clouds.
170
That’s why Fact Checkers were invented. To make sure those clouds are as opaque as possible.
40
Thanks Lance. That was a well-reasoned discussion.
40
It is interesting how the UN through Helen Clarke are moving to cover Tedros Adhonem and whitewash his action. This from the Australian..
“The World Health Organisation was too slow in declaring a public health emergency following the emergence of COVID-19 in China, and a “lost month” of inaction allowed the disease to spread out of control, an independent review has found.
The WHO-commissioned evaluation of its response to the deadly coronavirus, co-chaired by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clarke, found “valuable time was lost” to the agency’s overly bureaucratic processes and the “wait and see” approach of many countries.
The report called for a new global alert system to rapidly warn of potential pandemics without the approval of affected countries, and major reforms to strengthen the WHO’s independence from its member states.”
No mention of the fact that President Tedros Adhonem announced on January 14th 2020 that Wuhan Flu was NOT infectious person to person. That’s not being slow. That’s not being ‘bureaucratic’ or ‘wait and see’ or a problem with ‘many countries’. He was in possession of at least one report from Taiwan in November 2019 which fully documented the lethal pandemic and the extreme infectiousness he announced did not exist with all the authority he had. And he is not being called to account for this. Why?
It was mass murder.
120
The UN ‘investigation’ follows a common Yes, Minister pattern.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews setup his own commission to whitewash his culpable manslaughter of 800 Victorians with his own Labor friendly judge, even though the whole country knows he is personally responsible.
JCU examined its own R&D with 22 CO2 effects on fish papers which are now declared non reproducible and deemed fraudulent but found no problem according to their own rules of conduct. The same rules which resulted in the firing and persecution of their Physics head for daring to allege poor practice. Something now officially confirmed.
There is no end of culpable organizations like the UN examining their own homework and making up the most ridiculous excuses and watering down any blame as being ‘the system’ and to make sure it does not happen again.
And when Man Made Global Warming collapses, the IPCC will be blameless. Like the Chinese Communist Party.
110
I’m linking into an article at a green renewables supporting site (WattClarity shown at this link) for no other reason than to point something out.
Rafe over at ‘The Cat’ mentioned in an email to me that he had posted a comment at the article, so I thought I’d also attempt the same, and to my surprise the comment was posted immediately without going to Moderation, which I expected, but hey, they don’t get very many comments there at their articles, so they just post all they can get, I guess, safe that not many people will read it anyway.
However, the article was what I expected, hyping wind power to the max, and while mentioning some negatives, they were only in passing.
The article’s author is big on the good points, but really has no mention of the overall picture, preferring to gloss over those things which may not be all that favourable to wind generation.
Said author mentioned the loss of wind generation, but had no clue as to why, mentioning this:
As we have shown conclusively, wind generation is affected by those weather systems, both in no wind and high wind situations, and the fact that the author here has not done much in the way of due diligence to check this reflects how those good points will be mentioned, and the bad points just go by the wayside, unchecked.
The author also mentions curtailment of wind, and my guess here is that he thinks those large falls in wind generation are due to this, as he mentions it more than a couple of times, and then offers negative pricing as the reason.
So, to this point of curtailment.
Wind generation plants being so small in Nameplate, and so sporadic in generation would be looking for as much money as they can get, so actually quoting that they pull them off line when prices go negative I think reflects badly on wind generation, only in it for the ‘big bucks’, when they are on offer, in other words shouldering out reliable generation so wind can take advantage of those higher prices.
But hey, the wind plant’s owners don’t WANT curtailment because they lose money.
The green supporters don’t WANT curtailment because it might reflect poorly on wind power, and people might ask uncomfortable questions.
Renewable supporting Politics don’t WANT curtailment, because they have ‘spruiked’ it to the max, and hard questions that they have to address are not their thing.
The boss of AEMO doesn’t WANT curtailment (or more importantly, to mention curtailment, because it’s her people actually doing that curtailing) because that person also has ‘spruiked’ wind power.
So then, and here, curtailment of wind generation is actually HAPPENING.
Think about that for a minute.
The AEMO, against all the above ….. IS curtailing wind generation.
So, why then would they be doing that?
Not out of bl00dy mindedness to thumb their nose at all the above, because it’s their jobs on the line here.
They must be doing it to ….. PROTECT the grid.
It also gives some (perhaps clueless maybe) green leaning supporters who write articles a reason as to why wind is dropping out in large amounts, without having to investigate the real reasons as to why wind generation is not all it’s cracked up to be.
Tony.
180
There is one common thread with the absurdly named ‘renewables’. They often have no output at all. Imagine an aircraft like that. Or a car. Or a factory. Or an operating theatre.
It is utterly incomprehensible that anyone can push these replaceables as being even safe, fit for purpose. A country which relies on unreliables is unworkable, unsafe. China is not making that mistake. Only the Greens think we can run a country on Unicorn urine.
150
Why are they allowed onto the grid with no guaranteed output, leaving the gas and coal plants to keep the grid useable, just a green scam.
160
They are actually the preferred supplier and they’re paid twice for their output, once for the generated power and once again for the generation certificate. It’s hard to think of a way to make the scheme weirder eh.
130
How do the green nongs think they will charge mega batteries or pump water back uphill with 10 to 15% ( of nameplate) output.
70
“How do the green nongs think “; apparently, if at all, with chemical assistance and no reference to reality.
20
Certainly blows the myth out of the water that ‘the wind will always be blowing somewhere’. LOL
90
Tony wrote:
Actually it is the opposite to this. The thermal plant all bid blocks of energy at negative prices so they force the WDGs into curtailment. It is expensive to take thermal plant off line so they prefer to idle them back to a stable value but keep them on line. That is why the minimum demand is so important. Ultimately rooftop solar set the minimum demand and that stays connected when prices go negative; meaning there is no penalty for overproduction.
You should go though the bid stacks to get an understanding of how the pricing works. Coal plants are quite will to bid in negative blocks to push grid scale WDGs off line.
I believe the vast majority of WDG curtailment is voluntarily. I know when the SA-Vic interconnector went down last year there were forced curtailments. However under usual circumstances the directions are mostly for gas plants in SA to stay connected rather than directing WDGs to get off.
10
10
In the words of the immortal Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., ‘Surprise, surprise’ that when it’s not windy, wind turbines don’t work.
10
Tony. Wind and solar get dispatched no matter what. They dont bid, they just get whatever the price is.
Thats the reason they try to curtail. So long as the price is positive they make money but negative, who wouldnt want to curtail. But if you are hedged then you can bid a low number knowing you get paid anyway. So it begs the question, how much wind is hedged and how much is firmed?
30
One good thing that will happen as we enter the next glaciation event (in the next few hundred years?) is that as sea level falls, land about twice the area of Australia will be exposed. This was last dry about 10,000 years ago and hopefully will reveal some good archeology, especially if Graham Hancock’s theories about earlier advanced civilisations are correct.
120
lol
18
What’s so funny Gee?
80
It’s plausible that he scoffs at the idea there’ll be a tomorrow let alone a glaciation; end of days cabin fever psychosis?
70
Normal irrational sneering. Ignore it.
50
“”This was last dry about 10,000 years ago “”
How about 20,000.
31
Not too sure whether Australia would benefit, as it would be impossible to stop the folks migrating from the frozen northern countries to warmer countries, especially since we would then have a land bridge to Asia.
40
‘ … as we enter the next glaciation event (in the next few hundred years?)’
Actually this is a long slow process, first there is a little ice age, cool and wet, then deserts expand and the cold really gets a grip. All up, 900 years.
That gives us plenty of time to tinker with the system.
22
Amazing; absolutely amazing.
Any piddling little “ice age”, such as the one that saw Dutch people skating on the Thames a couple of hundred years ago isn’t really important for that.
The next major glaciation may be in a thousand or five years if that Milankovic cycle repeats.
The really strange thing is that NASA et al have made no attempt to confirm or predict that the Milankovic cycle is going according to the past four cycles, and so predict the start of the next major glaciation.
WHY, with all their large computers and skills in Astronomy have they remained silent.
Could any discussion about Milankovic let the cat out of the bag?
We need to look to the heavens for details about the next cycle not the UNIPCCC or Tedros AnhyDrous who is apparently being moved to the U.N. next year.
KK
70
I think NASA agrees with the accepted science that an ice age is some distance away. I can’t agree that they say nothing though
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2948/milankovitch-orbital-cycles-and-their-role-in-earths-climate/
https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/2949/why-milankovitch-orbital-cycles-cant-explain-earths-current-warming/
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Paleoclimatology_Evidence
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Milankovitch
04
‘Since 1750, the warming driven by greenhouse gases coming from the human burning of fossil fuels is over 50 times greater than the slight extra warming coming from the Sun itself over that same time interval.’ (NASA)
That is a lie.
170
Agree on that.
80
Thanks for those links; he does acknowledge that Milankovic cycles connect with glaciation and interglacials.
He does, however, go out of his way to dismiss Milankovic cycles as being responsible for the recent, unprecedented, global warming since industrialisation.
He’ll be kept on.
By reading between the lines it should be possible to give a starting date for the next Big freeze but he avoids that for some reason; is it counter culture to suggest that we poor insignificant humans won’t be able to produce enough CO2 to prevent the next ice up.
An examination of the past cycle patterns shows that the Milankovic cycles could end at some point; interesting.
80
It was just a coincidence that CO2 was slowly rising at the same time the sun was warming up.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Carbon14_with_activity_labels.svg
00
‘ … advanced civilisations are correct.’
Is that dated to the arrival of Indian immigrants and the dingo?
12
Look on the bright side David, if Australia doubles in area, we’ll be able to fit in soooooo
many more windmills. That should reverse any nasty old ice age eh?
40
Here we are in mid May. This is the time when the Indian Ocean north of the Equator is hitting its straps. Most of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are in the maximum temperature regulating zone at 30C:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp/orthographic=-277.99,1.98,425/loc=71.853,10.809
Apparently the word monsoon derives from and Arabic word for changing season in the Arabian Sea that passed through Dutch sailors for the timing of wind reversal in the Indian Ocean dating from 1580. So the conditions in the Arabian Sea are now primed to begin the 2021 monsoon. 2021 forecast to be a “normal year. So here we are seeing something that has repeated annually for a million years or more through periods of glaciation and, despite all that fiendish CO2 in recent history, is doing what it has always done.
40
Energy
Australia hits oil producers with levy to decommission abandoned Timor Sea field.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/australia-hits-oil-producers-with-levy-decommission-abandoned-timor-sea-field-2021-05-12/
It would appear that Woodside and Talisman flick passed the platform to a virtual shelf company to avoid responsibility for remediation. I, for one, applaud the gov. action. Next step, get BHP to pay for dredging the Fly R. in PNG. Their tailings dam broke and they never rebuilt it. The tailings simply went into the river, or something like that. A navigable river, important to the locals, filled with sand.
50
Fly River was poisoned by the gold extraction chemical soup in the collapsed tailings dam is my recollection.
40
OTML has made more from copper than gold. Wind generators need copper so that is good. And PNG is a third world country. Might be different if it was the Danube or Mississippi. Amazon not so much. Nile? Yangtze probably worse but do not get to hear about it being in CCP territory. Congo, who cares. Do not know about the Thames as it is just a puddle by comparison.
The Ok Tedi River is a tributary of the Fly River, which has a discharge rate twice the Danube about 1/3rd the Mississippi and a tiny fraction off the Amazon, which sits a long way on top for discharge rate.
Actually the Gordon in Australia remains at risk.
00
BHP? = Broken Hearts and Promises?
00
Should set a nice precedent for the remediation of the windmill fields of dreams.
10
See link for rest.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/300306177/department-of-conservation-caught-charging-plugin-hybrid-ev-with-diesel-power
60
Wait, I think I can see the problem, Department of Conservation staff, university educated as a degree is required for these jobs, so they aren’t very bright in the ways of the world and would have no idea how the power on their island was generated.
50
Yet another triumph of virtue signaling (and spending your budget) over reality.
30
Re the US pipeline crisis
“Why has Joe Biden not dispatched his secret weapon to solve the gas shortage?
The man’s son was paid $180,000 a month for his expertise in this field in the Ukraine and we’re not going to utilize that skillset?
Come on, man.
https://gab.com/LaurenBoebert/posts/106225291493071986 “
130
About those roof-top solar Small-scale technology certificates (STC’s)
If the guy down the street gets two dozen subsidised solar panels installed on his roof and he sells the excess electricity back to the grid, hasn’t the Govt. effectively forced you, the tax payer, to finance his little business enterprise?
Aren’t you entitled to a dividend?
And if not, aren’t these Small-scale technology certificates actually Gift Certificates?
https://www.energymatters.com.au/rebates-incentives/solar-credits-australia/
70
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the STCs are different from the money gained from selling back excess energy to the energy supplier. For example, I received a one-off system discount of around $2000 that I’m presuming was the STC. Then on top of that, I continuously receive 7c/kWh excess buyback.
This however doesn’t alter your main point.
30
Yes, STCs are created up front and represent the one-off discount you describe.
As per the link:
Your ‘buyback’ arrangement is commonly called the ‘feed in tariff’ (FIT).
20
Anyone who installs a system larger than necessary to milk 7c/kWh can’t do math. I installed a modest system and save 27c/kWh. This doesn’t impact other users.
My neighbour has two 5kW systems getting 42c/kWh. There is one on his garage and he wouldn’t have a beer fridge in that so he sells 100% of generation. That pisses me. How long would those high FITs have left to run?
20
I don’t believe you have a choice in the FIT amount H, as it seems to be that each electricity supplier has a different FIT figure. So I cannot see how the FIT value influences a solar system’s design.
00
You did have a choice and could contract your choice for a number of years a while ago. A few of my car club mates are on that deal , although its phasing out (for them at least in the next few years)
10
Not in WA.
10
AFAIK nobody connecting today is getting over 10c FIT. Given a choice I would have installed a big system with a 42c FIT. It wasn’t on offer. :sigh:
00
Some suppliers still offer up to 20c FIT but you have to check the small print….their normal consumer rates are extortionate and other clauses to trap you.
00
Wonder what it will cost owners to remediate these things in 10-15 years time, They evidently contain some toxic stuff so cant be sent to landfill. Perhaps a levy? Can I ask if you are all sure that they were not created using slave labor in China. Your supplier should have guaranteed this when they were purchsed from the Chinese.
10
I have a 9/10 year old RT solar system (2.4kW) that is crapping out. It keeps faulting to “Insolation Error” and has to be manually reset…..hardly worthwhile at this time of year when i barely get and in a quiet bored moment i baited one into a conversation..
Bottom line was that they could offer me a 6.4 kW system AT NO COST TO ME .?….and take away the existing system into the deal !
(Other installers have quoted me $1k+ to remove the existing system.
He claimed the system would save me so much on my bill, and give me such huge FIT returns (20kWh / day ?, @ 17c/ kWh with AGL ) that i would be a fool not to do it !
I did not take him up though, because the catch is that “no cost to me” trick required me to take out a personal loan of $9500 over 3 years with them ,
His point being the FIT payback more than covered the loan repayments ??
BUT .. the FIT is only set for 2 years….AND can be changed at any time..!
Also there is a proposal to cut all FIT rates to the “Wholesale electricity generation cost” ..possibly as low as 3-5c /kWh…….
Most solar sales companies are Con merchants.
00
Came across an article on page 20 of Sunday’s Herald Sun in Melbourne this week. It was titled ‘State’s $517m firebreak’. Apparently the Andrews government has allocated $517 million for fire prevention measures. I think the problem lies in the breakdown – let’s see if you can spot it.
$339.5m for Forest Fire Management technology, fire towers and ensuring equipment remains current and operational. $133m for digital radios. $21m to create a new Office of Bushfire Risk Management (choke). And finally – $15.6m to allow fuel management measures to be taken including planned burns, new specialist machinery and advanced bushfire risk modelling.
Perhaps if the last item was allocated the money from the first item, then most of the rest would not need to be spent at all, particularly on MODELLING and A NEW GOVERNMENT OFFICE.
100
Especially as everyone here already knows what causes major bushfires in the first place.
50
And in addition to that is:
Absolute madness!
So the local indigenous people can contact the local firefighters that the whole place is burning!
Victoria is asking for another Black Day of fires!
30
Traditional Owner Cultural Fire “Strategy” = wait for lightning and see what happens
30
Empty ‘Goon Sacks” in the bush might be a good conductor of lightning.
10
Pick up meat – hot take away.
10
1. Cull animals driven out by the bushfire
2. Move quickly away from the bushfire
3. Watch while the bushfire burns itself out.
20
Each according to their ability, each according to their needs. The money spent in this way helps give the indigenous population a sense of purpose. Out in the bush we are always in need of volunteer firefighters and any support is always greatly appreciated.
Fire stick burning is already practiced on the Top End and the southerners are playing catch up.
10
It seems ‘voters’ coming into USA from Mexico are largely from Cuba and other Socialist countries.
They hated Trump for preventing them coming into his America that they appreciate.
Without ID they are very likely to vote Republican as they are escaping countries like the Democrats are creating.
How many Cubans voted Democrat in Florida?
Sure they’ll enjoy all the freebees but they know the cost.
I suspect the Democrats have not thought this through. Typical.
50
Another thing they haven’t thought through is their love affair with @bortion. The conservatives with their bibles and guns are outbreeding them.
But the left is not travelling well worldwide. British labour is in its death throes, but there seems to be a swing to the right in many European countries.
50
The financial statements for the financial year ending June 30, 2020 for the Hepburn Wind Farm are available at the following link.
https://www.hepburnwind.com.au/membership/members/
The main revenue is from the sale of electricity with a substantial contribution from the sake of large scale generation certificates.
Others might like to delve into the report in more detail.
Electricity $771,419
Large-scale Generation Certificates $447,707
There is also revenue from taxpayer funded government grants.
70
I have been following this wind farm over the years David, and it’s painfully apparent that the two wind turbines can only continue if the govt pours in more money. They have been able to secure a couple of grants for some further “ research”, but in reality I think this money will just disappear into general running costs. The organisation is encouraging the shareholders to badger their local MPs for more govt money. I’m not sure if the shareholders expect any ROI, but think that if they do, they will be disappointed. Also I believe the turbines are up for some expensive maintenance soon.
60
That’s not a bad little earner considering the piddly 2 x 2.05 MW wind turbines, though income has been declining.
Just imagine the river of tax payer funded cash swilling around ‘serious’ wind (subsidy) farms.
20
The Victorian Government is going to spend several million dollars to plant 500,000 trees. The State Environment Minister partly justified the spending by saying trees make things cooler.
No need to spend $billions on solar panels and windmills just plant trees.
50
I’ve met quite a few politicians of all persuasions over the years and conclude that with only a few exceptions, most of them are either ignorant, evil or stupid or a combination of all. Politicians also have a higher than normal incidence of psychopathy.
30
The attraction to where the honey pot is – irresistible…buzz, buzz.
40
‘ … with only a few exceptions …’
Are they still in parliament?
00
A test for Sally McManus and her sycophants. Please pick a basket list of essentials (food, energy, transportation, etc – your choice) and point me to any equivalent worker world-wide who is better off than his/her Australian counterpart in terms of hours worked per return on the basket you chose. Hint: Sally, crickets are chirping…….
50
Aunty Pravda’s rolling news feed of unacceptable articles for the 13th May – https://thepointman.wordpress.com/rolling-headlines/ #freepointy
Pointy
10
Is Biden the new Carter?
It doesn’t matter what I think nor what most of us here think, what does matter is that this question is being asked and it is starting to be asked openly and not just by Trumpsters.
Rusted on libs will never hear a good word for Trump because they do not listen to anyone who may utter such blasphemy but this is different. This after just 100 days – 2024 will be so bad dirty rolls and cheat-by-mail will not be able to save them.
30
‘A major geomagnetic disturbance caused the Aurora Australis to shine on Wednesday night. 😍 Some lucky viewers were at the right place at the right time in parts of Victoria and Tasmania to see the incredible colours in the sky.’ (Weatherzone)
20
Sea ice extent close to average.
https://sunshinehours.net
30
On the question of Antarctic sea ice.
https://notrickszone.com/2021/05/10/new-study-southern-hemisphere-sea-ice-now-extends-80-km-further-north-than-prior-estimates/
30
https://nicholaswade.medium.com/origin-of-covid-following-the-clues-6f03564c038
Interesting account of the two major theories behind COVID19 origin.
00
This clip is older than me, and that’s old.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQia-42W-v8
It was 15 years later Elvis realised he could steal black R&B music no self respecting white DJ would play, and sell it to all those white college boys.
I was never a “college boy” and could never dance like this but I appreciate Elvis unlocking black music for me to enjoy and now I have broadband I can enjoy the real thing, not a vanilla version.
Lacking sound quality but it shows how rich were the pickings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P78Z_PTjrzk
20
The pickings were rich, but if it weren’t for the likes of Eric Burdon and the Animals, the Rollingstones, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, et al, and the Beatles to some extent, that music would have disappeared long ago.
00
CAUGHT: ‘Inconvenient’ U.S. Wildfire Data Has Been ‘Disappeared’ by National Interagency Fire Center @NIFC_Fire
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/13/caught-inconvenient-u-s-wildfire-data-has-been-disappeared-by-national-interagency-fire-center-nifc_fire/
50
Dr Michael Mann = irrelevant idiot. We all know Mann got his doctorate from a packet of Corn Flakes. As for the Hockey Stick, this just may be true…in reverse. I’m predicting sharp global cooling from 2050 – 2100, no matter how many countries achieve “zero emissions” by 2050.
30
Unfortunately, Mann is still the “go to” guy for any Climate documentary maker , so his comments keep getting reheated.
And when that cooling becomes undenyable, Mann and his followers will simply say it is because of their efforts to get emissions reductions adopted.
..( ignoring the minor detail of ever increasing CO2 ppm in the atmosphere !)
30
Questions and opinions from those who know, or not:
[A]
In the Australian government site-
https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/03/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-clinicians.pdf
on page 2 there is-
“.. it should be noted that PCR tests cannot distinguish between “live” virus and non-infective RNA.”
Question-
Is this statement and document still current?
and if not
What replaces it and on what evidence?
[B]
According to Joe Mercola and others-
The minuscule bits of viral RNA that the PCR test can pick up if run through too many augmentation cycles — thereby rendering a false positive result — are not infectious. You need a whole, and live, virus for that.
Questions-
Can the PCR test be set to recognize only a complete virus?
Is this problem solved by keeping the number of augmentation cycles sufficiently low?
If so, what is that number? and
Can a patient insist on being tested at no higher than that number?
20
Questions-
Can the PCR test be set to recognize only a complete virus?
It is difficult to see how. ONe thing to note is that RNA degrades rather quickly so you expect that remnant RNA will be from a recently intact virus.
Is this problem solved by keeping the number of augmentation cycles sufficiently low?
No, though high viral loads are detected by low cycles. One problem is you can’t control swabbing. Some swabs of highly infectious people will not have a high virus count so you have to keep cycle numbers high enough to allow for this sort of variation.
If so, what is that number?
NA. Added note. real time PCR allows for detection of which cycle the positive signal appears so high cycle numbers have no affect. If the signal is at the last couple of cycles then the person should get retested.
Can a patient insist on being tested at no higher than that number?
No. Well they can insist but no one will do what they are insisting.
10
Gee Aye- Thanks for your reply which presents more angles contributing to my current opinion-
Among uncertainties in interpreting PCR test results there are:
– The range of Ct used for testing
– RNA degrades quickly, it is an RNA strand which is detected by the test.
– Concentration of the virus in the body, varies. There is a choice in the body among the various localities used for sampling/swabbing.
Thus, whatever the certainty of the statement made about the sample, another sample taken soon after from the same person even from the same or another standard location could give a different result.
The use made of the test result is governed by the purpose of the test. There are two purposes-
-To protect the community, the common good, the populous, from the chance that the person tested can spread infection. Or.
– As for other medical tests, to provide information and advice to the individual tested.
For both purposes the advice, acted on by different parties, consists of possibilities, probabilities, and consequences.
00
North Atlantic Nonsense
by Alan Longhurst
https://judithcurry.com/2021/05/12/north-atlantic-nonsense/
10
Comments are informative and the author defends his position.
Ulric Lyons made an interesting observation: ‘The increase in negative NAO conditions during centennial solar minima, does appear to see more warm flow transported into the far North Atlantic and Arctic.’
00
Study claims: Climate Change Increasing the Risk of Space Junk Collisions
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/13/study-climate-change-increasing-the-risk-of-space-junk-collisions/
10
I thought a quiet sun lowered the density of the stratosphere.
00
The blocking high is out of place for this time of year, its a global cooling signal.
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/synoptic.jsp?d=0
A meandering jet stream, clearly visible, is causing the block.
11
Scientists have detected something happening in the Southern Ocean, South Atlantic and East Australian Current.
‘They found a significant increase in eddy strength over the Southern Ocean, as well as significant changes in their activity over the boundary currents – the intense flows of water along the boundaries of the major ocean basins, such as the Gulf Stream and the East Australian Current.
‘Lead researcher Josué Martínez Moreno, of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Australian National University, said the eddies were constantly merging and detaching from more permanent ocean currents.’ (Guardian)
10
Here is a snapshot of the East Australian Current, so that you can make up your own minds.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=-201.45,-34.90,4240/loc=150.763,-32.211
00
I asked a question a number open threads ago –
these days one does not use cash, so in America how will you tip door openers/maids/bag carriers in the future.
A new generation of early adopters in China is stealing a march on the West
THE STORY OF OLD YANG AND THE GROWTH OF MOBILE PAYMENT
Old Yang is a beggar who lives in Beijing. He can usually be found just outside the Gu Lou Street subway stop in one of the city’s tourist districts, where for years he survived on loose change and spare bills from commuters. But life changed dramatically for him in 2015, when everyone in Beijing abruptly stopped carrying cash. Seemingly overnight, the entire Chinese population began to download apps such as WeChat Pay and Alipay and integrate mobile payment into their daily lives.
For Old Yang, this tech disruption could have spelled disaster: His livelihood relied on cash. But faced with a crisis, he adapted. First he scraped together enough money to buy a cheap Xiaomi smartphone. Next he printed a sign that displayed the QR codes for his WeChat Pay and Alipay accounts. Then he returned to his spot outside the Gu Lou Street station, where, with the sign strung around his neck, he connected his phone to the subway Wi-Fi — and waited. Old Yang didn’t simply survive in China’s new cashless world. He thrived. Today, when people want to give him something, they no longer reach into their pockets for spare change. Instead they open the mobile-payment app on their phones, scan a code on Old Yang’s sign, and transfer a few yuan to him. The average donation he receives has grown from one or two yuan to three to five yuan — an almost 300 per cent increase. Digital upgrading works.
No payment is too small or too big for Chinese mobile-payment apps and no business is too informal. In 2015 in Chengdu, I used my phone to pay for a new laptop from a global brand. Then I went outside the store and used my phone to buy a breakfast sandwich from a woman who cooked it on an upside-down metal trash can suspended over hot coals on the side of the road.
Old Yang, the computer-store owner and the breakfast-sandwich vendor are not innovators. They don’t have much “value” in the systems we use to rank global economies on innovation. But what happens when rapid adoption and adaptation become normal for more than 900 million internet users in every social stratum? You get a force that can change the terms of global competition.
The story of mobile payment is especially instructive because the technology that enables it emerged in the US and China at almost exactly the same time. Thus their comparative innovativeness or timing — who copied whom? — becomes almost a nonfactor. In 2014 Apple Pay was launched in the US, followed a year later by Samsung Pay and Android Pay, and Alipay and WeChat Pay were launched in China. In timing and tech the innovations were all but equal, but their adoption rates have differed dramatically.
In early 2019 Apple announced with much fanfare that 383 million phones around the world had activated Apple Pay — but at that point only 24 per cent of US iPhone owners had used the technology. And not until that year did Apple Pay surpass the Starbucks mobile app — used only in Starbucks stores — as the most-used mobile-payment app in the US.
Things have unfolded very differently in China, where WeChat Pay has won 84 per cent market penetration among smartphone users. (The app is available to users of Tencent’s super-app WeChat, which has 1.2 billion monthly active users.) That kind of penetration explains why in 2018 WeChat Pay did 1.2 billion transactions a day, whereas Apple Pay did one billion a month. And it’s why in 2019 the total gross expenditure in China via mobile app (347 trillion yuan, or roughly $US54 trillion) was 551 times greater than the total expenditure in the US ($US98bn).
So in the case of mobile payment, which country or company was more innovative? And did it matter?
20
YOUNG CHINA
Undeniably, the regulatory environment has helped mobile payment take off there. Though this article focuses on the under-examined will of Chinese citizens to try and to trust new technology, the specific way China widely adopted mobile payment was paved by two groups: Chinese innovators, who are increasingly at parity with their Silicon Valley counterparts, and the government. In this case Chinese regulators did the unprecedented by granting banking licences to two nongovernmental tech giants, Alibaba and Tencent, at the expense of state-owned lenders. Without that support the mobile-payment rocket wouldn’t have left the ground.
But what has made China’s adoption of mobile payment so successful — and globally unique — is its people. Even here the government has played a significant role because it has conditioned its citizens to expect less data privacy than Americans do — and indeed, has granted them fewer rights. But there’s more to the story than that. To understand why the Chinese public is so fiercely adoptive, let’s think about Young China, by which I mean two things: first, the 700 million Chinese who are under the age of 40; and second, a new national identity, which in the past decade has emerged as distinct from the manufacturing identity of the late 1990s and the 2000s.
Experience has shaped China’s unique attitude toward adoption in recent years, and that experience has been unlike any other country’s. To have lived in China since 1990, broadly speaking, is to have lived in a country that is moving faster and changing more quickly than any other place on earth.
When we talk about the speed of change in China today, we tend to focus on its rapidly changing physical landscape — and the differences there are dramatic. But in doing so we neglect changes in the mental landscape of China’s people.
Looking at side-by-side pictures of Shanghai in 1989 and today, you might ask yourself how living through that sort of change would shape your expectations for progress and your sense of what government, technology and commerce can do.
American Millennials have lived through dramatic, life-altering changes since 1990, the year I was born. First came the internet. Then mobile phones. Then smartphones, social media, dating apps, mobile banking, electric cars, big data, CRISPR and so much more. Since 1990 Americans have seen US per capita gross domestic product grow by roughly 2.7 times, which sounds impressive until you realise that somebody born in China in 1990 has seen per capita GDP grow by 32 times — a whole order of magnitude greater. In 1990 China’s GDP represented less than 2 per cent of the global total. By 2019 its share had jumped to nearly 19 per cent.
Consider some of the specifics. In just three years, from 2011 to 2013, China poured more concrete than the US had poured in the entire 20th century. In 1990 China’s rural population had one refrigerator per 100 households; today that number is 96 per 100. (Food preservation is a common benchmark for development.) In 1990 China had only 5.5 million cars on the road; today it has 270 million, of which 3.4 million are electric, representing 47 per cent of the global electric fleet. In 1990 three-quarters of the country’s population was rural; today nearly two-thirds is urban, an increase of more than half a billion people.
20
Apologies Moderator – found the Original Article not Paywalled
Harvard Business Review
Globalization
China’s New Innovation Advantage
China is achieving a new level of global competitiveness, thanks to its hyper-adaptive population.
by Zak Dychtwald
From the Magazine (May–June 2021)
Summary.
Long considered a global copycat, China is now home to many of the fastest start-ups to reach a $1 billion valuation globally. Whatever has propelled Chinese companies to the top, the metrics we use to evaluate innovation have missed it. The author argues that China today has a resource that no other country has: hundreds of millions of people who have lived through unprecedented amounts of change—and who, consequently, can adopt and adapt to innovations at a speed and scale unmatched anywhere else on earth. Those hyper-adaptive and hyper-adoptive consumers are what make China so globally competitive today. But competition with the Chinese should not be considered a zero-sum game. Foreign companies would do well to seek to learn from China’s newly powerful example.
A long excellent read
10
Umm…what happens when/if the internet goes down? Carrington event or whatever?
20
People everywhere would stop looking at their hands.
10
Here is the best bit of comedy disguised as climate science I’ve seen yet , tree farts anyone ?
https://www.treehugger.com/ghost-forest-tree-farts-contribute-to-climate-change-5184590
10
China may turn the screws on natural gas, very considerate of them.
‘Deepening tensions between Australia and China have reignited fears the dispute may spill over into shipments of liquefied natural gas.’ (SMH)
20
A UN survey that apparently has “gone missing”
http://web.archive.org/web/20200728091358/http://data.myworld2015.org/
Via WUWT
10
Maricopa county 2020 vote auditing is getting interesting with claims the duplicate vote count could be over 200,000 , if proven correct and this is as widespread as we think it is it’s going to be interesting what next.
https://rumble.com/vh007j-ariz.-audit-reaches-duplicate-ballots.html?fbclid=IwAR3eX2SiUhRr3hht4_2QQp-i0W_dlzrhEUH3N8Ic2cDERgtMkYMjdSSofiA
20
Ryan Long – Advocating total equality
https://youtu.be/MzpMRCeTHYE
00
Re “Spasmodic energy”
A couple of nice pie graphs here re EU
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/05/14/we-dont-need-no-stinking-giant-fans-48/
00
While our global Neville Chamberlain politicians keep trying to appease Chinese aggression, there is not much hope for the world. Mankind NEVER learns from its mistakes, and never will. Humans are far too tribal for this.
00