Weekend Unthreaded

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141 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

  • #
    tonyb

    i don’t know if this Australian Doctor has made any waves in OZ?

    https://summit.news/2022/06/16/doctor-criticized-over-tweets-showing-his-baby-wearing-face-mask-filtration-device-on-pram/

    sounds a complete fanatic and hope he has no influence in Oz

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    • #
      David Maddison

      The mask is a symbol of compliance.

      The kid will grow up being a very woke, fully compliant and unquestioning “model citizen” of the new Orwellian “utopia” being engineered by the Left.

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      Doctor T

      Unfortunately, as a doctor nearing retirement age, my experience is that this is the mindset of the vast majority of young doctors. In matters Covid, gender, climate, and any other woke cause, doctors seem to lead the world in collective zombie-like mindlessness.
      My advice to all non-doctors out there is to practice a healthy lifestyle, and avoid doctors and hospitals as much as possible.
      Fair chance you will be healthier and longer lived.

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      • #
        James

        Thank you. I concluded this about 5 years ago. I have to see an aviation doctor every 2 years for a medical. I try to see a GP every couple of years just to keep a business relationship and to keep a prescription for migraine medication which I hardly ever need. She has her own practice. Avoid GPs who are employees of hospital groups. These people and drug and service salesmen. If their hospital group is part of a University (UofR medical) and that institution does drug trials for big pharma then you have a hell of a conflict of interest.

        I order anything else I might need from India. Ivermectin and Doxycycline for Covid. You can even up being a dealer in these drugs in some USA states. If you go to a pharmacy here all the generics are from India anyway!

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      • #
        mawm

        As a retired doctor I can agree with you. The young junior doctors that I was involved with were all very nice people, very bright but had a blinkered outlook on everything else. One of the not so young ones was critical of Trump saying that his comment about “grabbing women by the pussy” was a question of morality. He didn’t know where to look when I asked him about his Tesla battery and child labour in slave-like conditions in Africa and whether there was any morality attached to that. He votes Green.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          The modern crop of medical doctors seem very anti-science or scientific method, lack inquiring minds and are capable of rote learning only.

          Not only is it very sad, it’s very dangerous.

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      • #
        Vicki

        Thanks Doc!

        It is often hard to listen to your own inner wisdom and critical thinking on medical issues that affect your own health. It is a big call to go against a GP’s advice.

        So far, so good. There have been some issues where I have – & have been proved correct. In most cases I also seek further medical opinions, of course.

        But I have been in recent years (& especially during the Covid “crisis”) I have been making my own decisions after weighing up the evidence & latest research. The understanding that good health also depends on a healthy diet and lifestyle & exercise must be part of the decision, of course.

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      • #
        Honk R Smith

        One of the many flaws of the new religion Scientism, is the problem of unknown unknowns.
        I realized that in the American Civil War, if your were a wounded soldier you probably had a better chance of survival if you could crawl off into the woods and hide.
        If the truth ever comes to light, likely similar is going to turn out for COVID.
        Betcha, GOV/MSM propaganda induced panic, prompted overactive treatment in the first year at least, doing lethal damage.
        Then there’s the bounty paid to hospitals (US) for COVID specific treatments and deaths.
        Then there’s the government incentive to pack the numbers to justify draconian lockdowns and mandates.
        Not mention the weird WHO/CDC/Fauci Wuhan GOF/Pharma/Reset matrix.
        Along with the overlaying, progressive brain eating, TDS incentive.

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  • #
    tonyb

    I am sure every reader will endorse the proposal that we pay climate reparations?

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/06/16/fresh-demand-for-u-s-and-e-u-to-transfer-wealth-through-climate-reparations/

    I think we should voluntarily offer $1000 per citizen as reparations.

    Mind you I also intend to bill the receiving nations for $10000 each in recognition of the huge benefits that the Industrial revolution has provided them. From longer lives to more food to better medicine to the ability to travel and trade, better jobs, better pay and very much more.

    Of course instead of paying the $10000 they could always voluntarily give up all the benefits conferred on them over the last 200 years through the Western industrial Revolution.

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    • #
      Honk R Smith

      I get confused.
      What’s the point of reparations if I don’t own anything and I’m already happy?
      I’m already having my wealth redistributed by green energy subsidies, the reparations just go to the income strata above me.
      For whom my existence threatens their vision and achievement of Utopia.
      What’s the point of a government enforced reparations scheme, if government schemes have forced the currency to be devalued to zip?
      Plus, I can neither collect or contribute reparations, if I’ve been un-personed for the preceding questions.
      Oh, guess they may require flesh bags for injection, you know, because science is vaccines.

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    • #
      John Hultquist

      70 years ago, in a small town in Western Pennsylvania the pastor would allow missionaries – 2 each year – to solicit funds from the congregation. I assume these folks were at other facilities several times each week, although I never thought to ask. And I don’t know how long these trips lasted. At the time the collected funds were not called reparations; that’s a new wrinkle.
      Regardless, 70 years later I’m still contributing – and nothing seems to change at the receiving end.

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  • #

    Applicable to all countries, regions and grids.

    Breakthrough in U.S. grid storage estimating
    By David Wojick
    https://www.cfact.org/2022/06/16/breakthrough-in-u-s-grid-storage-estimating/

    The beginning: “Regular readers know I have been writing about the astronomical cost of energy storage required to make solar and wind (SAW) power reliable. I have published some simple engineering analyses showing that short term intermittency, a few cloudy or low wind days, requires a huge amount of storage.

    Now we have a wonderful analysis of the long term storage requirements for making solar and wind reliable. As expected the numbers are enormous. They are also precise.
    The study is “The Cost of Net Zero Electrification of the U.S.A.” by engineer Ken Gregory. See https://blog.friendsofscience.org/2021/12/21/the-cost-of-net-zero-electrification-of-the-u-s-a/amp/.

    As the title says, Gregory’s study focuses on net zero electrification, which is not my focus here. His very first step is to analyze what storage would be required to simply meet today’s electric power needs using SAW instead of fossil fuels. This simple analysis is the big breakthru.”

    Lots more explanation in the article.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Also, here is another analysis demonstrating the impossibility of using hydro batteries for unreliables storage in the US.

      https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/11/pump-up-the-storage/

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      • #

        Excellent article! Yes, Gregory got 25 million MWh of storage needed. The biggest pumped storage facility in the US is just 24,000 MWh so as nothing.

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        • #
          another ian

          It seems to me –

          If you are travelling by an ICE vehicle and you run out of fuel the solution is to add fuel from a fuel can. You wouldn’t think of up-ending an empty fuel can and hoping to continue travel.

          The current prescription for solving the problem of wind and sun droughts for sun and wind (SAW) power is to build more of them – even though those droughts of sun and wind seem to occur over large areas.

          But isn’t that similar to attempting to refuelling your ICE vehicle from an empty fuel can?

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          • #
            yarpos

            you are trying to rationalise an idea that is fundamentally stupid, sometimes it serves no purpose to try and understand stupidity. It just has to be exposed to reality and be allowed to die.

            they cant see they are just making the problem bigger, they wont see it till it smacks them in the face. Even then it will probably take multiple failures.

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        • #
          Graeme#4

          David, Ken’s document is very useful to calculate the backup storage required. However, to generate suitable calculations for Australia, we need to know a lot more about our solar and wind outputs over the last few years. Tony has collected data over 800 days, and I’m hoping that his data can be analysed to obtain the sort of information that Ken has generated.

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        • #
          Graeme#4

          David, the Australian backup storage figure I calculated using the methods from Ken, the Manhattan Contrarian and the Alberta group was 10TWh. I used 30MW generation to cover the whole of Australia. But I don’t know how much generation occurs in the NT, nor can I be positive about the number of backup storage days. I wish there was some way we could have a technical discussion solely on this, without any distracting side issues.

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      • #

        Seems a bit like digging holes to fill them in again also. If water was being pumped from flood or abundance via storage toward irrigation or need then at least something may be gained from the losses.

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    • #
      StephenP

      What I would like to, but never do, see in any forecast is the extra renewable capacity needed to recharge the batteries after a period when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
      In the UK over the past three weeks we have had wind droughts over half the time interspersed with short periods of higher wind speeds.
      How much extra generation capacity would we need to provide an average supply of electricity equivalent to the level of generation provided by windmills running in the windy conditions during this period, also allowing for inefficiencies in the charging and discharging of batteries?

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      • #

        I developed a simple analysis per 1,000 MW of solar with five dark cloudy days. Reliable generation requires over 6,000 MW of solar and 140,000 MWh of batteries. This assumes bright sunny days follow the five dark days. Very expensive.

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        • #
          StephenP

          Interesting, and is it possible to do a similar calculation for wind generation?
          We seem to be committed to net zero by all the political parties and they are pinning their plans on renewables, especially wind generation.
          Maybe the correct phrase would be pinning their plans (tail) on the donkey.
          For what it’s worth my estimate is that an equivalent number of windmills would be needed in order to recharge backup batteries after wind droughts.
          These batteries would also be essential for grid stability as well as providing the electricity needed.
          As you say, very expensive.

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      • #

        “renewable capacity needed to recharge the batteries ”
        In reality is it the reliable generation that is charging the batteries during periods when the unreliables steal the load? The main function of the batteries then being to partly repair efficiency problems caused by unreliables increasing instability.

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    • #

      Does anyone know the average grid energy loss numbers for Australia? That is for every 1kW delivered to the grid over say a year, how much comes out again some place to be useful vs how much is lost in transit and keeping the grid itself running?
      I am yet to be convinced that large grids are a good idea. Even before messing them up with unreliables. Even before adding little batteries to be more inefficient with dangerous toxic fire hazard and expensive long term maintenance.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Here is a video, by an Australian I believe, praising the world’s fifth largest economy, Commiefornia, for having reached “100% renewables”.

    This is the sort of propaganda the Left love, watch and actually believe, and shows rational thinkers the sort of nonsense they are up against.

    Have a look at the comments as well, nearly all from “true bekievers”

    https://youtu.be/yG-2LZcx2Io

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Here is an excellent new video from Jordon Peterson talking about the unethical nature of irreversible transgender surgeries.

    Transgenderism is an ideology now being heavily promoted by the Left, especially in schools, and very much so in US public schools.

    Due to Leftist media censorship, very little is said about the unsatisfactory nature of these transgender surgeries or the large amount of regrets for having done them (but too late by then).

    For many Leftist parents having a “transgender” child seems to be a status symbol, much like having an exotic pet. They are the ones pushing this ideology onto the kids, not the kids wanting it themselves in a vast amount of cases.

    https://youtu.be/ayWyzvo9SNY

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    • #
      Chris

      The Epoch Times also ran a large article on this disturbing and wicked trend. Mostly girls who were called ‘tom boys’ in the past are being pressured by teachers, who tell them that they are really a boy and give them boys names in the class room. There have been suicides by young girls, and now parents who did not know this was going on at school are voicing their anger and concerns.

      All part of the depopulation program.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Has anyone been to Burning Mountain, otherwise known as Mr Wingen, in NSW, Australia?

    It is a coal seam that has been burning and producing CO2 for about 6000 years and is the world’s oldest known coal fire.

    I hope warmists don’t try to extinguish it.

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    • #
      James Murphy

      I haven’t seen this Burning Mountain, but I have been to a gas-fired equivalent at Yanar Dag (Burning Mountain) in Azerbaijan. Quite the tourist attraction!

      Amusingly (or not, if you are TotalEnergies, SOCAR, or GDF), recent drilling of multiple wells in the nearby Absheron field yielded no productive gas reservoirs. A bit of a blow for a field that was a significant find a decade ago.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Here is a 1963 video about Australia’s Burning Mountain.

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Hi David, following your prompt, I went there today.

      45 minutes up which included 5 minutes rest and 28 minutes down.

      Just more of the Hunter Valley _ the burning part at the top was mainly interesting because of the smell and the white and orange/Brown outcrops.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    It’s very disappointing that so few people have heard of the James Webb Space Telescope or are looking forward to its first official pictures to be published July 12th.

    https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/first-images-from-nasa-s-webb-space-telescope-coming-soon

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  • #
    David Maddison

    I wonder how high Australians are prepared to allow electricity prices to climb before they demand something be done about it such as urgently building some proper coal, gas or nuclear power stations?

    Alternatively, all those fools who believe in the anthropogenic global warming fraud could volunteer to disconnect themselves from the grid to shed load when power gets short. Smart electricity meters with the right software could do that automatically.

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    • #
      Sambar

      “I wonder how high Australians are prepared to allow electricity prices to climb before they demand something be done about it such as urgently building some proper coal, gas or nuclear power stations?”

      We are caught by the proverbials when it comes to pricing David. The populace can scream all it likes but if every politician of every party agrees that high prices are for our own benefit then they are here to stay. Additional revenue from GST alone is a huge attraction to government of any colour. If oil prices plummeted tomorrow it would take weeks for this to be reflected at the pump and given that people have been prepared to pay high prices ( no choice) pollies will find ways to not allow prices to fall back to 2020 levels. Look at premier Dan smiling inanely says any company can explore for gas in Victoria. What he didn’t say was he will never allow production of any gas field to go ahead.

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    • #
      another ian

      Bumped from Thursday Open

      Well! Well!

      From a David Littleproud circular

      “NUCLEAR POWER INTO THE ENERGY MIX?

      I’ve written to the Prime Minister asking him to consider nuclear power as part of our energy mix. Can we make it safe, affordable and reliable in Australia?

      Over the next five to 10 years, we have the opportunity to look at new and emerging technologies. All we want is to see whether nuclear power can be done safely in Australia to both reduce emissions and to give us baseload power. We need to have this conversation and if opportunities exist – back ourselves. “

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      • #
        David Maddison

        The premises are wrong.

        1) We don’t need to inquire if it is safe, affordable and reliable. Clearly it is. Why does this even need to be asked?

        2) We don’t have “the next five to 10 years” to look at it. We need it NOW!

        3) “Emissions” are not an issue because CO2 is a by-product of coal and gas combustion, not a harmful “pollutant” as claimed. We can continue to run fossil fuels without restriction.

        4) We should only use nuclear power if it is cheaper than coal, gas or diesel in a particular set of circumstances. Economics should be the only consideration, not “emissions”.

        Littleproud is a fool, like nearly all politicians. He sounds like Morrison, wanting to have everything both ways. He knows nothing is going to happen.

        Given the glacial rate of progress for anything good in Australia, if he proposes a 5 to 10 year inquiry, that will spin out to 15 to 20 years. Then,if a decision was made to go nuclear, there would be another 10 to 20 years of indecision about siting it. Then, there’d be additional inquiries and legal cases and protests and trade union bans, so make that another 15-20 years. And then the decision will probably be to not go ahead with it anyway. So there would be a minimum wait of 40 years and maybe as long as 60 years only for a “no” decision.

        Don’t forget, a decision on a second Sydney Airport took 50 years, and that wasn’t as nearly as controversial as nuclear which large numbers of Australians are terrified of.

        Nuclear just won’t happen in Australia or if it does, Australia will be a thoroughly Third World country by then and unable to afford or need it anyway.

        Australia’s energy future is with weather dependent generation with regular blackouts and power outages plus those rich enough to be able to afford diesel generators for home will be able to use those, if they’re not banned and you can find and afford diesel fuel or vegetable oil to run them on.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          Instead of “regular blackouts and power outages”, that was meant to read “regular blackouts and power rationing”.

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  • #

    Unfortunately people seem to have a high tolerance for high prices, in Germany and California for example. It may take repeated blackouts.

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    • #
      GERARD BASTEN

      Yes back in the 1980’s when Victoria was in trouble we figured that three episodes of blackouts would lead to a change of government. It takes a while to sink in…..

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  • #
    Richard C (NZ)

    Some rare clarity from ‘climate justice’:

    ‘Caution needed in the rush to embrace wind farm solutions to climate change’
    Catherine Cheung, Jun 17 2022

    Wind is a renewable source of energy but the turbines to harvest it require steel, concrete, plastics and rare earth metals.

    Catherine Cheung is an ecologist and researcher for Climate Justice Taranaki.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/300612324/caution-needed-in-the-rush-to-embrace-wind-farm-solutions-to-climate-change

    The shocking reality is that currently no renewable technologies can be deployed without fossil fuels and nearly all require mineral mining.

    Each offshore turbine is made up of hundreds of tons of steel, concrete, fibreglass, copper and rare earth metals.

    Producing steel and concrete are extremely carbon intensive. Mining gobbles up fossil fuels. It destroys natural ecosystems which otherwise provide us with climate stabilisation and other valuable ecological services.

    Similar was written in a JoNova post some time ago (I looked under ‘Wind Power’ but couldn’t find it).

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  • #
    StephenP

    No doubt looking for more research grants.
    Apparently the increased rate of melting could raise sea level by 11ft in the next several centuries.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10926997/Antarcticas-Doomsday-Glacier-melting-fast-raise-sea-levels-11ft-end-century.html

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  • #
    David Maddison

    I am still waiting for a member of the anti-energy lobby to tell me where in the world there is an exception to the law:

    More unreliables = greater consumer electricity prices.

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  • #
    another ian

    “How to have SEX with monkeypox: CDC releases bizarre guide telling patients to ‘keep their clothes on’ or ‘masturbate six feet from their partner’ if the urge arises while infected”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10923921/How-SEX-monkeypox-Bizarre-CDC-guide-revealed.html

    Via SDA.

    Sounds like a copybook use of that famous model for books of advice –

    “How to do it and not get it”

    Written by

    “One who did it, got it and can’t get rid of it”

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  • #
    another ian

    Earthquake response at Twitter?

    “SpaceX Fires Woke Worker Activists Who Attacked SpaceX Boss, Elon Musk
    June 17, 2022 | Sundance | 186 Comments”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/06/17/spacex-fires-woke-worker-activists-who-attacked-spacex-boss-elon-musk/

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    • #
      David Maddison

      It’s never a good idea to tell others in your company and the world at large how horrible you think the boss is.

      Good on Elon for firing them.

      Not only that, having shown the world how disloyal they are, who else would want to employ them?

      In addition, for an industry like aerospace where safety is the prime priority, how could you trust them not to sabotage the equipment?

      They have rendered themselves permanently unemployable, except maybe as DemocRAT activists.

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    That was quick.

    A group of woke and disgruntled SpaceX employees penned an open letter attacking owner Elon Musk over his public behavior and the disputed s@xual abuse claims against him that were settled years ago.

    The woke employees said CEO Elon Musk was an “embarrassment” to them.

    By Friday night the group of woke and disgruntled employees were fired.

    It goes back to the old rule – Don’t sh*t where you eat.

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    Anyone else see the Sky news meteorologist predicting a cycle of 10 years wet weather ?

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Tesla leads in driver-assisted technology crashes -U.S. data

    WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) reported 273 vehicle crashes since July involving advanced driving assistance systems, more than any other automaker, according to data U.S. auto safety regulators released on Wednesday.

    Automakers and tech companies reported more than 500 crashes since June 2021, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued an order requiring the information. Two U.S. Senators called for a deeper probe of the “out-of-control industry,” and a U.S. safety board said the data was not standardized so it was hard to evaluate performance of each carmaker’s system.

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  • #
    another ian

    “Things NASA climate scientists say:”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/06/16/things-nasa-climate-scientists-say/

    Could be called peeing on his paycheque?

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    Given current Australian electricity and gas prices in the southern (cold) areas of Australia, do you think gas or heat pump electric heating (e.g. reverse cycle split system) is cheaper based upon fuel cost alone, not capital and depreciation?

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      I have had a bad trot with with maybe the biggest selling split air conditioner in Aus: Three out of four control boards have died and one remote.

      I imagine gas to be far simpler.

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    • #
      KP

      Yeah, I reckon they’re crap. When its too cold outside they can’t extract enough heat from the ambient air to warm the house, and when its too hot outside they can’t get rid of the heat they picked up inside..

      With temperatures varying by 20deg in a day I no longer bother to turn it on, the cold air it blows on me in winter is not worth it.

      Wood-burning fireplace next, we already have central gas which keeps the house sort-of warmish but there’s no unique spot to stand and get really hot like a fire!

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      • #
        yarpos

        Ours has operated OK from -2 to +42C. Sounds more like you have a problem if its decent brand.

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      • #
        PADRE

        When we built our new house seven years ago, we installed a wood stove with bread oven and 15kW boiler, coupled with roof-top evacuated tube water heating. The stove serves up to five hydronic heated radiators. Once the system has been operating for a few days, there is a core of heat within the house. Of course, we have to cut, split and store the wood – but it is worth it.
        When we were living in England in a cold rectory with oil-fired central heating,I installed a small cast iron stove in the fire-place. My local wood supplier suggested we burn coal rather than wood in the stove. Luckily we could buy Welsh anthrocite which was excellent – a small bucket-full would last for 24 hours. This maintained a core of warmth in the house.
        In a previous very cold, large, stone vicarage in Melbourne, the parish installed hydronic heating based on a small gas boiler – this transformed the house by maintaining a constant low-level dry heat.
        Ironically, in the churches I served in the Cotswolds, most of which were Saxon or Norman, when it was really cold, the ‘frost stat’ came on so the heating was on at a low level which ensured that the air was dry and thus any heat actually warmed the air.
        Given the chance, I would always recommend some form of hydronic heating.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Notice how the race-obsessed Left are furious about Elon Musk being referred to as an African-American? Why wouldn’t he be?

    Conservatives are unconcerned with race. Leftists are obsessed with it, as with any other personal trait they see as associated with “identity”, the list of which is constantly expanding.

    Here is an example from a Leftist “fact check” web site saying Musk is a “white South African”, they don’t allow him to be called “African-American”.

    https://newsone.com/4326369/is-elon-musk-african-american/

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  • #
    beowulf

    CNN — the most busted name in news.
    Hilarious.

    https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1490855031997927428

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      David Maddison

      Very good. Typical Leftists engaged in sexual misconduct and obsessed with covid, race and Trump.

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  • #
    beowulf

    How the massive ‘flow battery’ coming to an Army facility in Colorado will work

    https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/how-the-massive-flow-battery-coming-to-an-army-facility-in-colorado-will-work/ar-AAYyKTM

    The battery will be able to produce a megawatt of electricity for as long as 10 hours, meaning that it is a 10-megawatt-hour device.

    It’s a redox flow battery.

    With a Lockheed Martin flow battery, the power is generated in large boxes, or power modules, that each contain four power stacks. The liquid electrolytes (which are stored in the tanks) flow through lots of electrochemical cells in those stacks, past membranes that keeps them separate but allow ions to pass through.

    “There’s the potential to store energy at a much lower cost than you would with a lithium-ion battery.”

    Another perk is that it will theoretically last longer than the competition.

    “It will cycle more times than a lithium-ion battery,” says Thompson, who also notes that it can be rejuvenated when it needs to be if it starts to degrade.

    https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2022-6-14-lockheed-martin-to-build-first-long-duration-energy-storage-system-for-us-army

    10MWh. How many to power a country?

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Flow batteries don’t have a good record of reliability or longevity (despite theoretical predictions) and have poor energy density and long charge times.

      Military bases need reliable power. They should use diesel generators for backup, not batteries.

      I assume this is part of the Biden regime’s program to sabotage and weaken the US military and nation, continuing on from Obama’s “work”.

      King Island in Bass Strait, Australia had a vanadium flow battery installed in 2003 as part of its unreliables solar and wind installation but it failed a short time after it was installed in 2003 and not replaced.

      Reference for King Island:
      https://www.bestmag.co.uk/hydro-tasmania-set-choose-li-ion-over-pb-bess/

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  • #
    another ian

    Latest Pointman

    “WHEN ALL THE LYING HAD TO STOP.”

    https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/when-all-the-lying-had-to-stop/

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  • #
    cadger

    Watching an episode of Ice Pilots on youtube, pause for a whizz, sit back down.

    https://imgbox.com/USYH13ju

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Why are freeloaders more important than the few remaining net taxpayers Australia has?

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  • #
    David Maddison

    The rise of Chinese emissions is a global problem activists want you to ignore as Australians face worst energy crisis in decades

    China creates the carbon equivalent of a new Australian economy every year as it steadily increases emissions but some climate activists want this fact demonised as misinformation.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    https://www.skynews.com.au/business/media/the-rise-of-chinese-emissions-is-a-global-problem-activists-want-you-to-ignore-as-australians-face-worst-energy-crisis-in-decades/news-story/6e7451c4ff2fd47f288302d911266ebf

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  • #
    David Maddison

    You may be surprised at the mechanism by which a large ship anchor works…. Not how you might think.

    https://youtu.be/2YvwXJGsbEg

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      mareeS

      Works on the same principle for any boat, David. Our 12m boat has 15m of chain and 50m of rope in the locker. The chain keeps the anchor down, chain and rope do the catenary thing.

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  • #
    Robber

    Why intermittent “renewables” cause electricity prices to increase.
    Across the AEMO system, assume solar provides 5,000 MW for 8 hours each day at a price of $60/MWhr.
    That removes 5,000 MW from coal generators revenue, so if they are to breakeven in the remaining 16 hours each day, they need to receive a price of $90/MWhr.

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      David Maddison

      That’s part of the financial trick by which the anti-energy lobby falsely claim unreliables are cheaper.

      That’s why unreliables must only be allowed to charge on the basis of real, dispatchable power (which would be a windmill or solar subsidy farm plus battery plus cost of wires to connect to grid). Then the true cost would be seen to be dramatically more expensive than proper coal, gas, nuclear or hydro generation.

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        Graeme#4

        A lot of the energy source cost calculations go back to the early LCOE calculations supplied by EIA, which have been repeated in many reports over the years. But the original EIA LCOE calculations are chock-full of errors, with one major error being the very short lifetimes used – 30 years in most cases and 40 years in Lazard. A 2015 article written on Judith Curry’s site outlined all the errors. When the cost comparisons are done using the Full Cost or FCOE, coal, gas and nuclear come out at half the cost of solar and wind. And that’s without including firming/backup or extra transmission lines required for solar and wind.
        EIA, along with the world’s major energy think tanks, have now said that LCOE calculations shouldn’t be used as they are “incomplete”.

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    John Connor II

    Drug Treatment for Cataracts Might Soon Become a Reality

    A team of international scientists, led by Professor Barbara Pierscionek, Deputy Dean (Research and Innovation) in the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care at Anglia Ruskin University, have been carrying out advanced optical tests on an oxysterol compound that had been proposed as an anti-cataract drug.

    In laboratory trials, treatment with the oxysterol compound VP1-001 showed an improvement in refractive index profiles – a key optical parameter that is needed to maintain high focusing capacity – in 61% of lenses. This means that the protein organization of the lens is being restored, resulting in the lens being better able to focus. This was supported by a reduction in lens opacity in 46% of cases.

    https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2778823

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    John Connor II

    Scientists Develop “Nanomachines” That Can Penetrate and Kill Cancer Cells

    The research team headed by Dr. Youngdo Jeong from the Center for Advanced Biomolecular Recognition at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has reported the development of a novel biochemical nanomachine that penetrates the cell membrane and kills the cell via the molecular movements of folding and unfolding in certain cellular environments, such as cancer cells.

    https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.2c00084

    That’s a clever approach.
    Now develop one that targets spike proteins 😉

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    • #
      John Connor II

      Immunotherapy booster produces 10,000 times more cancer-fighting cells

      Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found that adding a booster protein can significantly improve the outcome of cancer immunotherapy. Tests in mice showed the protein produced 10,000 times more immune cells, with all mice surviving the entire experiment.

      https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30860-0

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      • #
        Zane

        The cancer industry is a scam. So is cancer research.

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        • #
          yarpos

          because?

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          • #
            Zane

            Because? Money. What else.

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            • #
              yarpos

              Very persuasive, i’m convinced

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              • #
                Hanrahan

                Zane has not stated his position, but as with other ALL medicine efforts are aimed at the $billion patented drug.

                I have a strong suspicion that much could be done for sufferers other than burn, cut, poison.

                What if a Cancer Society called out sugar – loud and clear? And we know it costs a fortune /s but Hormone D would prevent many cancers if we had a national campaign. Testing appears to be expensive. How expensive is cancer treatment?

                Am I pissing into the wind? We all have to die eventually. Do your “health” authorities care when? I doubt it, in fact the Social Security people would opt for sooner rather than later.

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    John Connor II

    Contagious Vaccines: A Warning

    Scientists have already shown proof of concept in animal populations: in 2000, Spanish researchers injected seventy rabbits with a transmissible vaccine and returned them to the wild, where they quickly passed the vaccine on to hundreds more, reportedly stopping a viral outbreak. European countries are now testing the technology on pigs.

    In the wake of the covid pandemic, about a dozen research institutions in the U.S., Europe, and Australia are investigating the potential human uses for self-spreading vaccines. The federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), for example, is examining this technology for U.S. military to protect against the West Africa lassa fever, a virus spread by rats to humans. This project, it should be noted, does not require the consent of our military service men and women.

    https://brownstone.org/articles/contagious-vaccines-a-warning/

    The irony is that mask wearing would be illegal…

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  • #
    David Maddison

    If you want to buy a diesel generator I saw a 6kW continuous model in a Sydney store, advertised online, for $1749 which I thought was quite reasonable.

    No doubt prices will rise as Australia’s electrical grid continues to be destroyed and more people want electrical security.

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    John Connor II

    Polio virus detected in gutter water of Kolkata, India

    Eight years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared India as polio-free country, germs of the polio virus have been detected from the gutter waters in a pocket in Kolkata. However, so far there has been no report of any child being affected by the virus.

    https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=969237

    Ahh..good old India..my fave.😉
    And remember kiddies – you can trust the WHO…

    Globally – Monkeypox is the current flavour of the month.
    Anyone remember Covid?
    Dengue cases spiked considerably and spread as I predicted. HFMD spiked as expected. Nothing major developing on my radar so MP is it for now.
    It’s just a matter of how much MP will be milked…

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Had it not been for the Taliban murdering polio vaccination workers in Pakistan, the last surviving pockets of polio might have been eradicated by now.

      50

    • #
      yarpos

      The WHO needs to get its act together and pick the next pandemic panic. Joe needs something in place by September for the November mid term elections.

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    rowjay

    Just in case there are some wondering whether this months wind stagnation events are unprecedented, I’ve resurrected some work I did 2 years ago on the winter power generation habits of variable renewable energy in SE Australia and posted it on this website. It shows the output from all wind and solar registered with the AEMO compared to the output from Bayswater PS for June, July and August 2020.

    You will also find an image taken from a NSW energy security report that clearly predicts reserve generation falling below their energy security targets.

    And finally, the real elephant in the room. Its been mentioned before, but if natural gas heating options are removed from SE Australia, all hell will break loose on the grid because the need for huge amounts of electrical generation during the winter months when renewables perform poorly will be the real problem. The figure for the ACT is provided.

    [Was caught in the spam filter]ED

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    Hanrahan

    What are people’s thoughts about inflation/stagflation/deflation?

    I heard today that lumber in the US is almost back to its trend line and new house starts have fallen quite a bit. Now that’s the US but we have much the same economics here. Can there be deflation in building costs in inflationary times?

    I need to do a reno but don’t see any reason to hurry. Right or wrong? I would love to find the sweet spot when tradies see work drying up but inflation hasn’t eaten too much of my bank balance.

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    • #
      Dennis

      I was told last weekend by a builder working in Sydney that building materials are in short supply and cost is rising constantly, supply and demand based. Fortunately for his clients he and the other carpenters he works with are multi-skilled and have been doing brick laying, tiling and other trades work because of the severe shortage of tradies seeking work.

      They are telling prospective clients that they cannot take on more work before, maybe, late 2023.

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    • #
      Denny

      No one can predict what is next but the 1970s inflation rate in the US varied significantly month to month and year to year. The FED was wrong recently about it being transitory and all offialdom will put the best spin possible on the future.

      Mortgage rates have skyrocketed, perhaps affecting the 14% drop in housing starts in the US from April to May and thus affecting lumber prices. But I don’t know how much the US prices affect Australia prices.

      Many here believe we are in a recession already. But the labor conditions and root causes are so different from the 1970s that comparing that stagflation to today’s economy is nearly impossible.

      For me the most intriguing question is not the effect of interest rates rising but the reduction of the Fed balance sheet which increased by 1000% since 2008-9. Because of fiscal and monetary policy we are awash with liquidity and I don’t know what will happen to the capital markets when that liquidity starts to dry up.

      https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst.pdf

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    • #
      KP

      I reckon inflation for a few years, trying to get all that money printing/borrowing through into everyday prices. Russia will grind Ukraine to dust in 6months, but they will be in no rush to trade with the West and lower oil prices, they will move their focus Eastwards.

      The interest rates will chase inflation up, I would expect 8-10%. They took three years to climb 6% in the 1980s, and it did that three times in succession, although I can’t see 17% coming in a hurry. Because we’re starting off so low I doubt we will see much “irrational enthusiasm” as the stock market tanks and people go back to saving money in 90days.

      Give the tradies a year or so from now and they’ll be looking for work, the big construction companies have started to fall over and the subbies will be dying.. In 5years we’ll all be too poor to do renos, especially the older among us on fixed incomes.

      Bought broccoli seeds half an hour ago, just wandering through Bunnings. 200 seeds at $10/head.. gosh!

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    • #
      Vicki

      Thankfully, we finished a reno on our farm house about a year ago. Even at that time we were warned that timber was becoming very scarce and the builder was having trouble sourcing many building products. We saw him recently & he said he lost a huge amount of money on his job after ours, since he had given them a flat quote & the prices of materials then exploded.

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    robert rosicka

    After watching all the bad news lately me and the missus have decided we don’t want kids , can’t wait to see the look on their faces when we tell them tonight !

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    yarpos

    I have been wrestling with poor performance of our solar hot water system of late (evacuated tube type)

    The main issue (given recent weather) was ineffective overnight boosting. After some diagnostic help from my local sparky we determined that nothing was in fact wrong electrically and he left me with a couple of ideas to test out. In the end all I had to do was adjust the tempering valve (hot/cold water mix to set supply temp)

    As usually happens it took working through a problem to learn a whole lot more about the system and the smart meter and how to drive them.

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      We use the Rinnai infinity gas water heaters (bottled gas) and are lucky to get cheap gas from a supplier in Nathalia delivered to Glenrowan. Benefits of the water heater are no pilot light and a pad controller so we can just adjust the temp to what we want before showering etc . Saves water and gas if you don’t have to mix hot and cold water .

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      • #
        b.nice

        “Benefits of the water heater are no pilot light”

        Guessing spark ignition…

        So if no electricity, no hot water ?

        20

        • #
          rowjay

          We also have a Rinnai Infinity and love it for the same reasons as RS. Even better, it only draws less than 10 watts when working, so a car battery run through an inverter allows a warm shower when the mains drops out. We also have ducted gas that draws about 10 watts when idling and up to 450 watts when the fan kicks in – also easily run through a battery and inverter when needed.

          20

        • #
          robert rosicka

          Have a back up system for power b nice and yes it needs power to run.

          10

      • #
        yarpos

        How is the price of bottled gas holding? I replaced a 9kg tank the other day and was surprised to pay the same price its been for a year or more.

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        • #
          robert rosicka

          I pay about $85 for a 45kg bottle refill Yarpos , was paying more than that 10 years ago .

          20

        • #
          yarpos

          Interesting. I’m still paying 95c a litre for LPG for my truck, even with all escalation in petrol/diesel. Paid $2.27 for 98 for a club car today. Quite a sight watching those numbers build up so quick.

          10

          • #
            Chad

            LPG at the servo pump is $1.10 approx.
            LPG , in bulk supply, to refil our domestic 45kg tanks , is $1.98 last week . ? !!
            Maybe a 100% mark up for the delivery service ?

            00

  • #
    KP

    Russian Min Def has listed mercs by country, total number, number killed, number left, number still in Ukraine.
    USA had 530 there apparently, 214 killed & 227 went home, 89 still there.
    Aussie had 4, 2 killed, 1 left and 1 still there.

    I assume its illegal to be a mercenary, same as being a terrorist, so they will never be acknowledged by our Govt and should be prosecuted, although I’m sure that would never happen.

    https://t.me/s/heilukraine1959

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    John Connor II

    Hundreds Of Millions Of mRNA Doses Headed For The Landfill

    The U.K. stockpiled 650 million doses of COVID-19 injections during the pandemic. Only 142 million have been used. The remainder expire six to 12 months after their date of manufacture,1 which means millions of doses are going to end up as trash.

    It’s unknown whether some doses from the 650 million figure have yet to be manufactured, or exactly how much was paid for each dose, but what’s clear is that a massive waste of federal funds is imminent.

    https://www.technocracy.news/hundreds-of-millions-of-mrna-doses-headed-for-the-landfill/

    Best place for them short of in the arms of our lunatic overlords…

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  • #
    UK-Weather Lass

    This is the UK’s NHS exposed for what it has truly become – an imposter of a health service for anyone other than those who fill its overpaid bureaucracy.

    A 66 year old man asked to state whether or not he is pregnant as a condition to accepting his offered donation of blood … https://dailysceptic.org/2022/06/18/male-blo

    We always believe it cannot get worse until it does. Just who do these people think they are helping?

    80

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Saturday night at the movies: Top Gun : Maverick

    If you are nostalgic for old fashioned entertainment, go for it.

    Pay the money and go see it in a good cinema but if you, like me, have your wings clipped there is now a moderate HD version on piratebay. Look for the latest upload. The one I watched was on the 13th.

    The initial footage behind the credits should be LOUD and in HD.

    20

  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    Biden falls off a stationery bike, not too badly hurt to snuggle a small child in his nether regions by the look of it.
    https://youtu.be/QHJsdL-A6JU

    30

  • #
    William Astley

    Bitcoin is crashing and there appears to be no bottom. The idea ‘Crypto’ had a computer screen value of $3 trillion dollars last year.

    The computer screen value of the idea ‘Crypto’ has fallen to below half a trillion US dollars. The people who purchased the Crypto idea early, are selling their ‘Crypto’, before Crypto becomes worthless.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BTC-USD?p=BTC-USD

    Bitcoin USD (BTC-USD)

    17,714.75 -2,937.63 (-14.22%) As of 08:55PM UTC. Market open.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    I wonder is SBS is having financial woes.
    How many times do they have to show the same movies over and over?
    eg The Fifth Element.
    5 times in a row on the same day then every couple of months thereafter.
    Granted it’s hard to overdose on Milla but c’mon SBS!
    There’s a truckload of old movies that are top notch such as Wages of fear.
    Maybe we can divert money from the defunct dinosaur ABC to SBS…

    10

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      yarpos

      I wonder how replays of the Fifth Element furthers the supposed multicultural goals of SBS?

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    Hanrahan

    I normally leave “news” to OO but this is priceless:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JavsF5pMozc

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    Ian

    Jo

    I am unsure if I did in fact post a comment on the headline or closed down too precipitately, hence this repeat. I am very surprised with your omission of “equivalent” in the headline as it significantly alters the sense of what actually happened

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    • #
      b.nice

      equivalent.?

      What, of coal?

      What a extraordinarily dumb comment, even from you.

      What do you think they use in wood pellets, Ian !

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    • #
      b.nice

      You do know you aren’t even in the correct topic, don’t you!

      Anyway.. a question that is bound to stump you….

      How many trees, is the equivalent of 120 million trees?

      10