Weekend Unthreaded

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    This is big!

    Renewables subsidy chaos coming
    By David Wojick
    https://www.cfact.org/2022/08/23/renewables-subsidy-chaos-coming/

    The beginning: “A funny thing happened on the way to the Senate. It is all about the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which really should be named the Inflation Act. Only Democrats can believe that raising taxes reduces inflation. The Democrats writing the IRA decided that since tax credit subsidies do a good job of promoting renewables and electric vehicles, they should do more. They should promote things like union wages, also domestic mining and manufacturing, which have nothing to do with climate.

    Think of it as social engineering squared. In the vernacular this is called “mission creep”. A program designed to do one thing tries to do something very different, often unsuccessfully. In the process the tax credit rules have become very complex. The funny thing is that these complexities may actually stifle the growth of renewables and EVs.

    Let’s just look at renewables and wages. The IRA takes a two step approach. First it cuts the tax credit subsidy by 80%, which is certainly not going to promote growth. In fact it could eliminate growth entirely since most developers of big wind and solar projects are only doing it because of the subsidies. Step two then restores the tax credits under certain specific circumstances. Chief among these is that the construction of the project must be carried out entirely by contractors and subcontractors that pay all their laborers and mechanics what are called “prevailing wages”.

    This sort of prevailing wage requirement is common for certain federal projects so the concept is well established. It typically means union wages, which can be significantly higher than non union contractors pay. Biden has repeatedly bragged about creating union jobs and this is what he is talking about, even though the word “union” is not used. The required amount of such wages is determined by the Secretary of Labor on a local basis.

    Wages have nothing to do with climate and this is a wide ranging new requirement for the industry. Implementing it will be difficult and may create some serious problems. This is especially true because subcontractors are included, making the scope quite large. To begin with the project owner will have to determine that every contractor pays the correct wages. In addition every contractor will have to make this determination for every one of its subcontractors, passing this assurance on to the owner. An elaborate certification process will likely be necessary since large amounts of money are at stake. A single subcontractor not paying enough wages could get all the tax credits cancelled. In addition there are hefty financial penalties.

    A bigger problem may be that some, or even many, potential contractors or subcontractors will not want to increase their wages just to work on a renewables project. Finding those that will could seriously delay a project, or even render it unworkable.”

    Lots more in the article, the first in a series. Please share it.

    Most of the energy stuff may be unworkable. Fine with me.

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      Honk R Smith

      “An elaborate certification process will likely be necessary since large amounts of money are at stake.”

      I speak DC.
      Translation:
      We are using virtue paint to obscure the fact that we will make it impossible for anyone to compete for ‘the large amounts of money’ except the large established corporate donors that grease our palms and nether regions.

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        Except in this case it is the large “corporate” unions that grease the Dems. Every contractor and subcontractor on a renewables project has to pay union wages. Most nonunion firms do not. Therefore the union shops get the work. Biden brags about this.

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          Broadie

          I believe the concept you describe is ‘Fascism’.

          A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition

          For some reason the online definitions have added Nationalism and Racism into the mix. I suspect that is so the Davos crowd do not feel they have to own the label.

          We have enjoyed Fifty years of ‘Fascism Creep’ whereby innovation and entrepreneurship are regulated out of the market while the big end of town and big Government enjoy unrestricted access to capital, fast track approval and protection from compliance and litigation. Despite massive advances in technology, our services and capital works have not enjoyed the benefit of these efficiencies and many are actually deteriorating, possibly to the point of imminent collapse.

          “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

          ― George Orwell, Animal Farm

          Big Business and Big Government have become one and this kind of legislation cements this relationship.

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      Kim

      The left seem so intent on pushing the Western World back to the Roman times we might at least laugh at it.

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    red edwards

    Australians have been noted for their tendencies for gambling, Texans for their “frontier” humor. Combining the two and throwing in gallows humor on top of that:

    Whats the over/under for the number of “excess” (more than the 5 year average) deaths this winter in Europe? (Basically from lack of energy.)

    (I’m a ghoul on my mom’s side. . . )

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    This is Funny from the Daily Mail –

    “Old wind turbine blades could be recycled into GUMMY BEARS after scientists develop a resin that can be dissolved and transformed into other materials at the end of its use cycle.

    I read, re-read, and re-re-read the Daily Mail headline several times before checking I hadn’t accidentally opened Babylon Bee.

    No doubt the scientists behind this gimmick expected serious comment on their incredible genius, but all we could do was laugh – holding back tears as images of small children with sharp teeth scaling wind turbines to have a bit of a chew crossed our minds moments before we were due on live TV.

    After wading through malicious puns made at the article’s expense, the idea behind it boils down to creating a composite resin strong enough to act as a wind turbine blade that can be dissolved and re-purposed. It is, if nothing else, an admission to the complaint that short-lived wind turbine blades are piling up in landfill, creating literal mountain ranges of waste.

    Wind turbines are the single-use plastic bags of the renewables industry. The only reason we don’t talk about how awful they are more often is because their reputation is protected by an axis of social media, political egos, and billionaire investors.”

    This World has gone crazy to say the least. Next, it will be Solar Panels being recycled as WINE GUMS.

    Please don’t leave Homer Simpson in charge of a Nuclear Power Plant when he has a case of DUFF Beer.

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      b.nice

      Was just trying to make sense of this. Don’t know if I succeeded, though. 😉

      Edible blades will most certainly attract bacteria, bugs and insects to will eat them. (and blades need replacing far more often)

      So you will get a build-up of bugs and insects, hence the nutritional quality of the blades will increase, (and it will attract more birds for slicing)

      Then you process the blade into gummie bears…

      Looks like just another way of getting people to eat bugs, insects and blade-kill.!

      Very good for your health, of course. 😉

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      Graeme No.3

      A puzzle. The reference is to a thermoplastic resin whereas those used for turbine blades are thermoset types, because they don’t flow under stress. The claim is that the composite breaks down to potassium lactate and PMMA (a.k.a. as Perspex or Lucite). I would guess that this is the old biopolymer based on lactic acid (hence potassium lactate after digestion) that has been around for about 30 years and has never ‘taken off’. Nothing new in Academia recycling a failed idea (see Global Warming etc.)

      I would advise readers DO NOT stand near the first turbines with these blades when the wind is blowing.

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    tonyb

    not sure its worth the effort, but does anyone know to what temperature you can safely under heat a kettle for use on popular hot drinks like tea or instant coffee, without it spoiling the drink? Generally I let the kettle boil to 100C then wait five minutes for the drink to cool down when made, which seems a bit of a waste..

    the second part of the question is how much energy are you saving if you heat a kettle to say 90C instead of 100C? Bearing in mind this might be done 5 or 10 times a day is ‘not quite boiling’ going to be a useful thing for the less well off to do with soaring electricity prices?

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    • #

      Tea does not need boiling water. 95 degrees C is best. And don’t jiggle the tea bag. Just let it steep for 3 to 4 minutes.

      As for coffee, who gives a ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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        MichaelinBrisbane

        We lived in the PNG Highlands for many years.
        Survived quite well on tea with boiling water at 95degC and 8 minute soft boiled eggs.

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      Eddie

      It takes one calorie to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. This only applies fro 0 to 100 degrees Celsius. It takes 540 calories to convert that 100c water to 1 gram of water vapour. Which is why steam burns are so bad.

      1 watt-hour equals about 860 calories.

      So you’re talking a very minimal amount of energy at temperatures below boiling for a cup of water. More gains would be had by only boiling the required amount. Rather than filling the kettle and just using a cup full of it.

      Flat white is generally about 60-70c.

      Hot water systems are restricted to 55c as that is the temperature one can sit in for about 10 minutes without being scalded. Learned through hard lessons in old people’s homes from falls in the shower.

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        Hanrahan

        There is a legal minimum for a hot water system:

        Hot water safety | Victorian Building Authority

        Hot water needs to be stored above 60°C in hot water systems to prevent bacteria growth (such as Legionella), but a tempering valve ensures that the water comes out of the tap at a lower temperature.

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          yarpos

          Stored above or heated above? ours has an overnight cycle that heats it past 60C for the reasons you state. After that on a cloudy day the storage temperature is what it is depending on use, nothing reheats it. On sunny days the solar keeps temp up if there is high use

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          Graeme#4

          That’s a worry, as I believe my HWS storage is set to 50 degrees.

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    tonyb

    Remembering the scenes of Aussie shoppers trolleys piled high with toilet rolls during the covid panic, just advance warning that it may happen again, so get in early

    https://summit.news/2022/08/26/germans-warned-energy-crisis-will-create-toilet-paper-shortage/

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    tonyb

    Biden seems to be an expert at throwing money at problems but this one, although reported over here in the UK, didn’t get a lot of traction

    https://thepostmillennial.com/student-debt-forgiveness-could-cost-taxpayers-up-to-980-billion

    So up to a trillion dollars could be spent on wiping out US students debt. This is on top of the supposed millennial crowd pleaser of a similar amount to be spent on green issues. Looks like a huge bribe to a young electorate.

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      The US ‘Pollies’ are like drunken sailors. And all with electronic ‘money’. This will all end badly.

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      John Hultquist

      This “student debt” issue has started an assessment of all of higher education. Colleges and universities are producing a product that cost much more than it is worth. How can this be fixed?
      Some of the degrees are like paying full price for an auto powered by rubber bands rather than a functional engine. If that “floats your boat” – go for it. Don’t expect to run a taxi service with it. And don’t expect me to help you pay for it.
      Taxpayers have a right to ask if “free education” beyond high school makes sense. Perhaps, all loans should be stopped. I have always thought there was an argument for education without the expectation of financial reward. Now I think society should not have to cover all the costs. I won’t name specifics so as to not redirect from the issue. Folks can find numerous examples with a simple search.
      If a person is enamored with subject XYZ there is justification for studying XYZ. If the person also wants to have a career that pays the bills and builds a retirement fund a different path should be considered.

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        Kalm Keith

        Thanks for that perspective which has a pre-1970 clarity.

        I like it!

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        yarpos

        Perhaps looking at the whole system rather than just University/College. The Swiss has a system that streams kids towards trades education or University, most of it provided by the State. In Oz we used to have quite a good and healthy TAFE sector (Technical and Further Education) churning out trades and sub professional techs. In VIC when we arrived in the 80s they had technical high schools so kids with a more practical bent didnt beat their heads against a wall with Unit entrance.

        We have had all the ingredients of a good system and decided to dismantle it, valuing degree qualification above all, even of they were in Ancient Etruscan Lesbian Studies. Then suddenly we cant get anything done and tradies are driving around in $100k utes.

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      Kevin Kilty

      It’s why U.S. Democrats want to lower the voting age to 16 or 14 years old; and why it should actually be raised to 21 or 24 or even 26.

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    Lance

    A Chart, using data from Our World In Data, for anyone who thinks Solar and Wind can power the World:

    https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2022/08/IMG_5555.jpeg

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    • #

      Umm, and here’s one from Australia.

      Wind generation versus total power consumption

      This is the day before YESTERDAY Friday 26 August 2022, just two days ago.

      The black line at the top of the graph is total power consumption.

      The green colour you see at the bottom of the graph is the power generated from EVERY wind plant in Australia. You may need to look pretty hard. At the low point at 2.15PM, all of those Australian wind plants were delivering 204MW from a Nameplate of 9854MW.

      In the area where there is the largest concentration of wind plants, in South East South Australia, and Central Western Victoria, there are 52 wind plants with a total Nameplate of 6388MW, so two thirds of ALL Australian wind generation. Those 52 wind plants with around TWO THOUSAND individual wind towers were delivering the grand total of EIGHT MEGAWATTS. (That’s a Capacity Factor of one tenth of one percent)

      Okay, so some of you are scoffing, saying that Tony has cherry picked it a bit here.

      Fair enough!

      Now, what are we going to do as a Country, when all those coal fired plants that deliver real power on demand are all consigned to the nett zero dustbin ….. and wind generation is all there is to rely on.

      Australia just stops, flat out stops. Nothin’.

      Tony.

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        KP

        Tony, didn’t they change from 30minute power buys to 5minutes so the market became more efficient and power was cheaper?

        I’m wondering how long to wait before I see that happen on my bill…

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        robert rosicka

        Not cherry picking at all Tony , after all they gloat like crazy on that one or two days per year when the weather is perfect and they all produce at their maximum. Your just pointing out what happens on every other day .
        Possibly also a reason why Western Australia are now mandating that rural residents if having major electrical work done have a 20 amp main switch circuit breaker / fuse fitted , if consumption in the house exceeds 20 amp the fuse trips and power goes out till reset . A lot of rural houses will use electric ovens so if you have the dishwasher going , the Sunday roast in the oven and hubby is in the shed and cranks up the welder it won’t leave anything for the Tesla .

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          Ronin

          It’s not hard to exceed 20 amps, just putting the jug on for a cuppa uses close to 10 amps.

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            ozfred

            I think it is 20amp on the 480v 2phase.
            Still way too low.
            My gripe is that there is no reason that rural people should be treated differently that urban people. Especially when split system electric heating/cooling are being pushed

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    b.nice

    Offshore wind turbines need to be much further apart due to losses due to turbulence for other turbines, pushing up cost considerably

    https://climatechangedispatch.com/offshore-wind-much-more-expensive-than-previously-thought/

    “ArcVera is suggesting that new wind farms could experience losses of as much as 25% at a distance of 10 km(!).

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    OldOzzie

    Can Woke Get Any Woker? Now ‘Neuroqueerness’ Is a Thing

    Let’s be honest, shall we? Many if not most of us have morphed from shock, or worse, over each new pronouncement from the woke among us, to “meh, what’s new?” — and even laughter, often, because the shock factor is no longer shocking. Today’s case in point falls squarely into the latter category.

    This fall, several major public universities are offering courses on LGBTQ sexuality, sex education, and activism that go far beyond the historical boundaries of LGBTQ individuals and their respective movements, as reported by Campus Reform. Instead, many of these courses focus on leftist politics and activist causes.

    After all, what good is a radical adherent of anything, unless he, she, or “they” don’t proactively and effectively push it down the throats of the vast majority of America, demanding acceptance and respect?

    Perfect example: The American University in Washington, D.C., offers a course that “teaches” students about “the lived experience of madness” and what it means to be “neuroqueer.”

    People who identify as neuroqueer “often reject binaristic ideas of gender and sexual orientation. They can be nonconformists who think radically about queer and disabled identities.”

    Let’s stop right here and ponder for a minute.

    Is the American University equating “madness” and “queerness,” and suggesting that both are due to neurological or psychological disorders? If so, doesn’t that run contrary to everything they now preach, ad nauseam? Haven’t we been bombarded for years with Pride parades and such? That same-sex relationships and transgenderism are natural and healthy?

    Yep, I’m confused, too.

    Here’s a complete course description:

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      Kalm Keith

      Another course in Verbalism, which is the new tactic of smothering reality with piles of wokeish intersectional disconnected speakification.

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    OldOzzie

    Retired FBI boss disassembles Trump search warrant: Feds ‘going to regret this’

    Retired Assistant Director Kevin Brock says FBI didn’t exhaust other means or appear to have established probable cause for search.

    Meanwhile

    Page 39 of 38

    Supplemented By

    Fascism is anything Democrats don’t like

    As George Orwell put it, “the word fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’” For Democrats, fascism simply means anything they don’t like, and anything that might possibly threaten their control over the governing establishment. Fascism is Donald Trump. Fascism is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Fascism is the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Fascism is religious people running their businesses according to their beliefs. And now fascism is the Republican Party and everyone who votes for it.

    It’s impossible to know who Biden thinks he’s going to win over with this position

    — besides maybe the talking heads at MSNBC who pull a Jeffrey Toobin every time the words “Trump” and “fascism” appear in the same sentence.

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      OldOzzie

      Alan Dershowitz predicts DOJ will not indict Trump after affidavit’s release

      The Justice Department released the affidavit on Friday, but heavily redacted large portions of the document

      Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Friday that he doubted the Justice Department would indict Donald Trump after the agency released the affidavit that accompanied the search warrant authorizing the FBI’s search of the former president’s Florida estate.

      “I’m gonna make a prediction here,” Dershowitz said on the “Just the News, Not Noise” television show. “If no more evidence comes out, based on what’s in the un-redacted portions of this affidavit, President Trump will not be indicted. I don’t think Garland is going to indict him for technical violations of these kinds of statutes that look very similar to what happened with Hillary Clinton.”

      “I think the same standard has to apply to a Republican candidate as to a Democratic candidate,” Dershowitz continued.

      Dershowitz went on to criticize the FBI search for going beyond the scope of the warrant’s authorization.

      “The search was very broad, much broader than I think the warrant permitted,” Dershowitz stated. “I didn’t see anything in the warrant that would justify searching Mrs. Trump’s closet, or even searching the locked safe.”

      He further asserted his belief that the Trump team would file motions to release more of the affidavit.

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      OldOzzie

      Reading between the redacted lines: What affidavit tells us about DOJ’s Trump intentions

      By Andrew C. McCarthy

      Predictably, it was much nothing about ado.

      To what should be the surprise of no one, the Justice Department so thoroughly redacted the affidavit supporting the FBI’s raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate that the exercise was pointless. DOJ has given us nothing about the monumental decision to execute a search warrant at the home of a former American president — unprecedented in US history.

      In the absence of information, we are left with speculation. Here are a couple things worth observing:

      Interestingly, one of DOJ’s principal arguments against disclosing the FBI’s warrant affidavit, an argument that plainly persuaded Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, was the need to avoid unfair prejudice to uncharged persons. Of course, the uncharged person at issue here is former President Trump.

      To indict or not

      To the contrary, the ardor to keep the affidavit largely redacted, to protect witness identities and to shield the substance of the sensitive information that was seized at Mar-a-Lago, makes perfect sense if the Justice Department does not plan to indict the former president.

      Of course, the Biden Justice Department has shown itself to be very responsive to the demands of Democrats’ progressive base. As the midterms approach, if the left’s rabid insistence on a Trump indictment gets intense enough, all bets are off.

      Andrew C. McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor.

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      OldOzzie

      The Reasons for the Redactions on the Mar-a-Lago Raid Affidavit Were [REDACTED]

      The transparency of the Biden administration is truly unprecedented. Not only did the Department of Justice (DOJ) release a worthless redacted version of the search warrant affidavit that prompted the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, the DOJ redacted its reasoning for the redactions.

      Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who signed the FBI’s search warrant, denied the DOJ’s request to keep the affidavit confidential but approved the redactions that rendered the censored affidavit virtually useless.

      But, adding insult to injury, the DOJ redacted its own reasoning for the redactions:

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    OldOzzie

    Lockdown and the price of suppressing dissent

    In times of crisis, we need more debate – not less.

    ‘You must stay at home.’ That simple instruction from prime minister Boris Johnson, issued before the first Covid lockdown in March 2020, changed the fate of the nation forever.

    You might have imagined that in a democratic country such as Britain, a decision of this magnitude would not simply have been imposed by executive fiat. That the shutting down of schools, the economy and society might have been something worth debating and discussing. But for much of the pandemic, lockdown was never subjected to proper scrutiny, even though its harms were obvious from the start.

    Indeed, the harms of lockdown are becoming clearer by the day. The near-collapse of the NHS, the crisis in education and runaway inflation can all be traced back, at least in part, to March 2020. And while the Russian invasion of Ukraine has since sparked a global energy crisis, lockdown is part of what left us so vulnerable to its effects.

    After all, the lockdown was the biggest shock to the UK economy in the history of industrial capitalism.

    And in the words of one High Court judge, it was ‘possibly the most restrictive regime on the public life of persons and businesses ever’. Many of its awful impacts were predictable and predicted.

    But at the time when lockdown was announced, anyone who raised a peep of complaint about this novel and draconian policy was shouted down or shoved aside. Any green shoots of dissent were trampled on. Fears about the economy were denounced as greedy. Fears about liberty were dismissed as selfish. Any and all calls for some relaxation of the rules were condemned as reckless and lethal.

    Just as we were told to ‘Stay at home’, we were also instructed to stop asking questions and ‘Follow the science’. ‘The science’, we were told, favoured lockdown, and that was that. Scrutinise the experts and you were a Covid denier – you were spreading dangerous misinformation that could get people killed.

    This week, we learned that this shushing of debate and silencing of questions went right to the top of government. Speaking to the Spectator, former chancellor Rishi Sunak claims that even he was unable to get a hearing for his concerns about lockdown.

    An omerta on lockdown harms was quickly established in the spring of 2020. Ministers were told not to talk publicly about potential trade-offs. According to Sunak: ‘The script was, oh, there’s no trade-off, because doing this for our health is good for the economy.’

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    Vlad the Impaler

    A serious inquiry for all JoNovians:

    Most of you know that I am scientifically astute, and Mathematically astute. But I have a question, and to begin with, I need to make sure I understand something.

    I’m involved in a discussion with a ‘physicist’, who claims that I do not understand things. Long story short, I need to know how a ‘solar panel’ works. My understanding of it is this: there is a material, that when a photon of light hits it, causes an electron to be ‘dislodged’ from an atom, and thereby become mobile. This electron can be made to go into a wire (or just goes into the wire, with no place else to go), and thus a current is created, which you and I call Direct Current electricity.

    Now, visible light photons are in the wavelengths of (about) 400 nanometres (violet) to about 700 nanometres (red), which equates to 4000 Angstroms to 7000 Angstroms. I think I have those conversions correct (would appreciate being corrected). Additionally, I think we could use microns (micrometres), which is 0.4 to 0.7. Again, please correct any mistakes.

    Now, in doing this ‘knocking an electron out from an atom’ by the photon, what, if any is the role of heat? I’ve seen nothing anywhere that discusses that there is heat involved, though, as we all know, most any object left in the bright, direct sunlight gets rather warm (my younger grandson learned this the hard way when we were working on a project together, and he left one of his tools out in the open). On a warm, summer day, a solar panel, being largely dark, will get rather warm as well, but is this ‘heat’ a requisite for ‘knocking the electrons about’ and making them flow in a current?

    I ask because this ‘physicist’ is telling me that my understanding is much too imperfect for me to have any of the science background that I know I have (my degrees suggest that I’m NOT a slouch when it comes to science).

    My appreciation to the great posters here, the mods, and of course, our very lovely hostess and her significant other; if you do not recall, I asked about a chemical reaction some time back, and everyone here was beyond helpful in that question.

    Regards to all,

    Vlad

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      Lance

      Solar cells are designed to work best at a “slice” of the visible light spectrum. Multilayer cells can produce higher output by using different frequencies for each special layer, but they are very expensive. Heat is not necessary to produce electricity from the cell as it is the photons in the selected spectrum that create the electron-hole flow (current).

      How solar cells/panels work
      https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/past-issues/archive-2013-2014/how-a-solar-cell-works.html

      Solar cells/panels are designed to work optimally in the 15C to 35C range of operation. The standard testing reference temperature for a solar cell is 25C. Excessive heat lowers the output of the cells by 10% to 25%. Each cell type or manufacture has a temperature coefficient that can be used to calculate the reduction in efficiency as referenced to 25C.

      See: https://solarpoweredblog.com/how-does-temperature-affect-solar-panels/

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        b.nice

        Obviously we should be using solar cells that work at the CO2 radiation frequency ! 😉

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        Vlad the Impaler

        Wow!!! OK, dude, you sold me. I appreciate your assistance. I knew that if I tossed it out to the residents of JoVille, I’d get some straight answers!!! You are a GEM!!!!

        Thanks!!!!

        Vlad

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        Graeme#4

        The acs link provides a good, simple summary of the process. I believe the latest solar panels have a higher efficiency than earlier panels, but of course since these panels are operating fairly close to their theoretical limits, not much more efficiency will be achieved with single-layer cells.
        Monitoring of my roof solar system in summer, when it gets up to 40 C some days, seems to indicate that I only lose around 5% of maximum output on a hot summer day. I lose far more on cloudy days.

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      Bozotheclown

      I’d want to know why this person is asking?

      They die in less than 30 years (not sustainable).
      They don’t produce more than they cost without subsidies

      Add the two together and you should ask your “friend” why he isn’t buying coal to stockpile.

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        Lance

        Why he is asking is not the point. He asked for help to understand something, not criticism.

        Please do not disparage someone who genuinely asks for assistance.

        His question was valid. Leave it at that.

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          Vlad the Impaler

          Hi Lance, Hi, Bozo,

          By the way, I loved your cartoons when I was a kid. Those and Deputy Dawg. And Quick Draw McGraw. But, top honors will always go to Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

          OK, gents, b.nice (14.1.1) has hit the nail on the head, by accident. As we know, the whole of the ‘climate change’ hoax is predicated on this mythical ‘backradiation’ from carbon dioxide, viz., the 15 micron wavelength in the thermal IR region. (see Al Gore’s fanciful cartoon for reference)

          I have posed to this pseudo-‘physicist’ that if a solar cell works on having a visible light photon ‘knock’ an electron loose, he becomes the world’s richest man by inventing a substance that will take the ever-present 15 micron thermal IR photon ‘backradiation’, and getting it to ‘knock’ an electron loose in similar fashion.

          Problem solved!!! This ‘free’ energy is available 24/7/365, day or night, windy (or not), rain or shine, summer, winter … … — — there’s just no down-side to this ‘free’ energy (unless, of course, it exists only in the minds of the deluded warmunistas … ). His claim is that I’m forgetting that the solar cell needs a temperature differential to actually work, but your claim here is that any heat is a non-factor in having a visible-light photon do its thing, in an existing solar cell; in at least some cases, there is a down-side to having much more than 25 degrees C inside of a solar panel.

          Now, if I have misunderstood things here, I would humbly beg forgiveness for not understanding. I went through popular literature, trying to understand what it is that makes a solar cell work, and your message was confirmation of what I read previously. The photon hits the material, knocks an electron loose, the electron is gathered in such a way that a current is generated, and viola, we have DC electricity from a solar panel.

          My thanks for the assistance, and the good conversation. I knew that the expertise here at Jo’s (and Anthony’s) is always the best. Please, everyone, jump into this Unthreaded, and help me find the enlightenment (no pun intended) I need.

          Regards,

          Vlad

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          • #
            b.nice

            Vlad , tell him that , yes output is temperature dependent..

            Then link to this. 😉

            https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Solar-Panel-Outputs-Vs-Temperature_fig3_273695628

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            • #
              Graeme#4

              That’s quite a change! Seems to be than I’m seeing. Will have to re-check again this summer.

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            • #
              robert rosicka

              On our travels around Oz and up north in winter we rely on solar panels for recharging the batteries on the camper and tow (each having its own setup) , 130watt of solar around Alice Springs in winter is bucket loads of recharge power for our setup . Cool days great sun , however travel north and to near Darwin and suddenly that 130watt drops right down to 30 watt because of the heat and the haze . With a freezer running more often than not because of the extra heat and reduced solar it’s a struggle . Did an experiment at Mitchell River crossing a few years back which is a river that is about the same latitude as Karumba , the 250 watt panel covered with dust versus the same panel clean . Difference was so small it was amazing , but what I did notice was if you cooled the panel using water the power gain was amazing until the panel heated up again . All panels are rated in a lab under conditions I’m told you won’t really find in most places , Bright full sun but very cold climate , once the panel temp exceeds 25 degrees Celsius the efficiency drops like a stone and with the panel being black it doesn’t take much sun to reach that temp .

              30

              • #
                yarpos

                Although people claim to have the golden installation that delivers full output, what you describe is more like reality for most.

                Dirty panels, haze, orientation, angle, latitude, cloud, time of day, aging and in my neighbours case lichen all play a role in moderating output.

                Happily, when you by a 3kW generator it actually delivers 3kW when you need it.

                30

          • #
            b.nice

            if you google “solar panel output vs temperature” you will find many other bits of info, studies etc, that you can use.

            30

        • #
          Bozotheclown

          Vlad and I are best buds!

          I wasn’t disparaging him at all. I don’t think I was even disparaging his friend either.

          In the broad sense PV does not work. Certain applications like very remote sites that can be served with low power sure. Grid level generation? no way.

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          • #
            Vlad the Impaler

            And to be absolutely clear, I took no offense to anything anyone said or wrote, at any time. I’m a pretty thick-headed … … … … … er, … … … aaaah, … make that, thick-SKINNED, individual. As I said, Bozo was one of my favorite cartoons when I was but a wee lad. I always thought Gumby was rather strange; that ‘stop-motion’ photography, pioneered by Ray Harryhausen, just didn’t have the ‘flow’ of the animated cartoon(s).

            Agreed, solar PV is useful in certain ad hoc applications, but for reliable generation, one needs coal, nuclear, or methane. I’m all in for coal, but being from Wyoming, I should be. We’re the ‘Saudi Arabia’ of coal, with about two-centuries-worth in the ground, waiting to make plants grow (the green kind).

            Vlad

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    • #
      Ted1.

      Thanks for what I have learned already from your post. It’s 62 years since I stopped formal study of these things.

      Intuition tells me that your electron is more likely displaced from a molecule than an atom. But I have no knowledge of how the circuit is completed.

      If memory is not failing me the active ingredient 62 years ago was cadmium sulphide. I do not know what has been discovered since.

      I look forward to better informed responses.

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      • #
        Graeme#4

        Yes, cadmium sulphide was used in light meters. In the very early days of transistors, we used to scrape the black paint off the sides of OC71 germanium transistors to use them as light sensors.

        30

      • #
        Vlad the Impaler

        Greetings, Ted1,

        Yes, a molecule — — I wrote the wrong word there. I knew that the material inside the solar panel was composed of some polyatomic molecule(s) and not just individual atoms. I appreciate your assistance with the discussion.

        Regards to you and yours,

        Vlad

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    • #
      Kevin Kilty

      I’ll toss in a bit of additional clarification here. The energy levels in solid materials are not fine lines (I’m not sure if this is what was mean by “slice” of spectrum) but rather occur in bands. There is a gap in energy level between the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band in semiconductors, and to make a solar cell work energy of an incoming photon has to move an electron from valence to conduction. But in addition to conserving energy, the process also has to conserve momentum. Silicon is the most common material in use for solar cells. Silicon is an indirect band gap material which means that momentum can’t be conserved unless a lattice vibration (a phonon) is available to handle the momentum requirements and few of these are available at low temperature. Defects in the lattice can also act to aid in momentum conservation.

      On the other hand solar cells don’t make use of all the electrons raised into the conduction band. There is a reverse current within the solar cell due to recombination. It represents a loss. You can model a solar cell as the parallel connection of a current source with a reverse biased diode. Higher temperature makes the reverse biased diode more conductive.

      A higher density of phonons at higher temperature aids in the absorption of photons — at very low temperatures silicon is transparent to the longer wavelengths of light. At high temperatures the reverse current becomes a problem. So, as Lance said solar cells are designed (via dopant properties) to operate at a particular temperature close to the usual environment of the cell.

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      • #
        Vlad the Impaler

        That’s some really, good, stuff there, Mr. K. Appreciate the info.

        VtI

        10

        • #
          Kevin Kilty

          You know, Mr. Impaler that we live just over two hours apart. We ought to get together for a coffee one of these days. Right now UW has put me back to work teaching for another semester, but soon I shall retire.

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          • #
            Vlad the Impaler

            With any luck, the family and I are going to pile into the Yugo and get to at least one game this Fall. One of my old school buddies (and his wife) live in Boulder, and they have expressed an interest in joining us for a game. Tentatively, we are going to try the 10 Sept, with 17 Sept as an “alternate”.

            Vlad

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  • #
    Liberator

    Weatherzone reports BOM data that shows that”New data has revealed that tropical cyclone numbers have been declining in the Australian region in recent decades, including both severe and non-severe tropical cyclones.”

    I do recall that models said the numbers of cyclones would drop but the intensity/severity of each cyclone would increase. The above notes that this is not happening, severity had decreased. So observational data doesn’t quite match modeled data?

    https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/tropical-cyclones-becoming-less-frequent-near-australia/771634

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    • #
      Ted1.

      The Law of Averages suggests therefore that we may be in for a busy cyclone season.

      Do they still have a Law of Averages?

      30

      • #
        Gary S

        Many of the laws we currently have are very average.

        40

      • #
        Hanrahan

        I don’t believe averages are relevant, for some reason there there is a long term change. Maybe the butterflies have stopped beating their wings in Siberia, whatever.

        Cyclones Althea and Tracy were 50 years ago, they are the two seared in my mind. Althea because I lived it and it was severe, Tracy because of its savagery.

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        • #
          Ted1.

          Althea was a monster. Tracey was deadly.

          Queensland has had a couple of notable ones since Althea. I have some recollection of one with a short name that started near Fiji and tracked back to Western Australia.

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    • #
      yarpos

      nothing to see here http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/climatology/trends.shtml

      the accompanying text where the BOM tries to spin away awkward reality is good reading

      10

      • #
        el+gordo

        Its fun to watch them squirm, their models are flawed.

        My assessment is that global warming has reduced both the frequency and strength of TC in Australian waters.

        So we could surmise that global cooling will reverse this trend, but there is a problem. La Nina conditions are not conducive to TC activity.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Silenced healthcare workers speak out publicly for the first time.

    Here’s what silenced healthcare workers from all over the world want you to know and why they aren’t able to speak out directly.

    They are afraid to come out publicly due to intimidation tactics such as loss of job and/or license to practice medicine.

    Unvaccinated healthcare workers are extremely upset with the medical community. They feel they have been treated unfairly.

    It is the vaccinated workers who are getting sick with COVID, but it is the unvaccinated who are punished with constant testing, restrictions, and threats of losing their jobs.

    The COVID shots are a disaster. Even for the elderly which is supposed to be the most compelling use case, death rates in elderly homes went up by a factor of 5 after the shots rolled out. Each time the shots are given, the deaths spike. Nobody is talking publicly about this. It’s not allowed.

    One nurse with 23 years of experience says she’s never heard of anyone under 20 dying from cardiac issues until the vaccines rolled out. Now she knows of around 30 deaths.

    “I have been a nurse for 36 years. I have NEVER witnessed people in their 20s and 30s having strokes, atrial fibrillation, or cardiomyopathies until the Covid vaccines. I work in cardiology. When I mention that someone should look at the vaccines as a possible reason, I am immediately silenced and told, “It is NOT from the vaccine.””

    https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/silenced-healthcare-workers-speak

    When will Aussie doctors and nurses tell all?

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      When will Aussie doctors and nurses tell all?

      Our nurses have spoken up but were ignored. Don’t blame them.

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      • #
        Ted1.

        If DR Paul Oosteruis successfully sues the NSW Medical Council for “wrongful dismissal” in suspending his registration there should be a torrent of suppressed information.

        50

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  • #
  • #
    John Connor II

    If It’s Okay for Mice, It’s Good Enough for People, Right?

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears set to circumvent its own regulatory process in order to authorize Pfizer’s new bivalent COVID-19 vaccine that targets the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants — without requiring clinical trials on humans.

    Now that the FDA and Pfizer have crossed their Ts and dotted their Is to make sure all the rules are followed, how do we know these products are safe and will work?

    This is where the rodents come in — the products seem to work on mice.

    As NPR reported, “For the first time, the FDA is planning to base its decision about whether to authorize new boosters on studies involving mice instead of humans.”

    Yes, it’s an unprecedented move by the FDA, but Dr. Ofer Levy, professor of pediatrics at Harvard and advisor to the FDA argues that the country has had enough experience with the vaccines at this point to be confident the shots are safe and that there’s not enough time to wait for data from human studies.

    He has a point. There were still only 30,479 uninvestigated deaths reported in VAERS after administration of the shots as of Aug. 19.

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pfizer-bivalent-covid-vaccine-mice/

    They now have such a total disregard for the great unwashed they can’t even be bothered with human tests…

    “and that there’s not enough time to wait for data from human studies”
    – not enough time??
    Why? What’s the rush? The culling not happening fast enough for you?

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    • #
      Maptram

      A “contributor “ to yesterdays blog about blaming Donald Trump for Covid posted “Hydroxychloroquine proved to be useless in the treatment of COVID. More precisely, ‘Available evidence based on the results of blinded, placebo-controlled RCTs showed no clinical benefits of HCQ as pre-and post-exposure prophylaxis and treatment of non-hospitalized and hospitalized patients with COVID-19.”

      I recall similar words being used a few months ago about ivermectin.

      It seems that Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin have been subject to such blinded, placebo-controlled RCTs and show no clinical benefits but did they show any harm.

      It also seems that some vaccines have not been subject to trials of any sort on humans, let alone the sorts of tests used to establish that Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin show no clinical benefits against Covid

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      • #
        Ted1.

        That declaration was a bare faced lie.

        The Lancet trial that authorities referred to was set up to fail, and it is not possible that they did not know this. It was limited to hospital cases, too late for HCQ to work. Its benefits came with early treatment.

        60

  • #
    John Connor II

    Pakistan government threatens to block digital IDs to shut down access to bank accounts.

    Amid continued blackouts and great political unrest, the Pakistani government has threatened protesters with having their digital IDs blocked so they can’t access their bank accounts.

    Besides political turmoil, ongoing electricity blackouts coupled with rising costs have stoked the flames of Pakistani protests, and massive demonstrations have erupted across the country.

    Lahore, Pakistan… Government has threatened to cut off banking with the use of Digital ID to anyone that protests against the regime.

    https://thecountersignal.com/pakistani-government-threatens-to-block-digital-ids-to-shut-down-access-to-bank-accounts/

    When everything goes digital everyone WILL be good obedient little sheep…

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  • #
    John Connor II

    What Is TikTok Brain? And Why Should You Care?

    Facebook feels just about as old as eight-track players to most kids and teens. They’ve moved on to Snapchat and Discord and, especially, TikTok while moms and dads scramble to keep up.

    But maybe kids are getting a little scrambled, too. At least that’s what many researchers are telling us. Indeed, they’re saying that something called TikTok Brain is real.

    As Julie Jargon writes for The Wall Street Journal: “Remember the good old days when kids just watched YouTube all day? Now that they binge on 15-second TikToks, those YouTube clips seem like PBS documentaries. Many parents tell me their kids can’t sit through feature-length films anymore because to them the movies feel painfully slow. Others have observed their kids struggling to focus on homework. And reading a book? Forget about it.”

    “It is hard to look at increasing trends in media consumption of all types, media multitasking and rates of ADHD in young people and not conclude that there is a decrease in their attention span,” psychiatrist Carl Marci told the Journal.
    https://www.pluggedin.com/blog/what-is-tiktok-brain-and-why-should-you-care/

    How exactly will the dumbed-down nomophobe zero-attention-span generation actually do anything requiring time and mental focus in the future?
    Watch anything informative over 3 minutes? No chance!
    Watch “Bridge on the river Kwai” for 3.5 hours. More chance of a lotto win without a ticket.
    Idiocracy is well on track…

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Who Is Shelling The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant?

    A Journalist Finally Asks The Question

    During a Special Online Briefing on Thursday with U.S. Ambassador Denise Jenkins, the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the State Department, Dmitry Kirsanov, from Russia’s TASS News Agency, asked her who was shelling the plant. Here is the relevant part of the transcript.

    MODERATOR: Thank you, ma’am. The next question, again, to a journalist who is raising their hand from Dmitry Kirsanov, who is from the TASS News Agency.

    QUESTION: Hi. Thank you for doing this. Can you hear me okay?

    MODERATOR: Yes, we hear you.

    AMBASSADOR JENKINS: Yes.

    MODERATOR: Good morning, Madam Secretary. I have two separate questions. First, who is shelling the station? And secondly, while we have you here, could you update us on the talks or consultations or discussions, if you prefer, between the Russians and the Americans on the New START, on the issues pertaining to the inspections resumption? Thank you so much.

    AMBASSADOR JENKINS: I’m not able, at this point, to make any confirmation about the shelling and where it’s coming from.

    Bear in mind that the United States has been surveilling the Ukraine via satellites and aircraft since before Russia invaded. One would think that if the Russians were shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (despite having their troops stationed there), and falsely accusing the Ukrainians of doing it, Ambassador Jenkins or one of her colleagues would be quick to refute the Russians by showing satellite- or surveillance aircraft-gathered evidence of artillery hitting the plant from Russian-controlled territory.

    On the other hand, if the Ukrainians are shelling the largest nuclear power plant in Europe with American-supplied artillery, you’d think someone in the U.S. government would ask them to cut it out.

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    • #
      KP

      “On the other hand, if the Ukrainians are shelling the largest nuclear power plant in Europe with American-supplied artillery, you’d think someone in the U.S. government would ask them to cut it out.”

      Why?? It won’t affect the Yanks, they won’t give a sh1t! …Its only some 2nd-world dump that most of them couldn’t find on a map, and if it spreads to the Balkans, who cares..

      They will just come up with their usual Excuses 101 and say “Believe us, we know who did it, but its all classified and we can’t show you the proof.”

      I can translate this from Americanise for you-

      “I’m not able, at this point, to make any confirmation about the shelling and where it’s coming from.”

      “I know the Ukies are shelling the plant but I’m not going to admit it”

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Tucker Carlson: The FBI Has Been Working On Behalf Of The Democratic Party

    Full Transcript

    Part Follows

    TUCKER CARLSON: Every year since 1970s, the State Department has published a document called “World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers.” You probably haven’t read it, but it is interesting. It’s a detailed accounting of global arms sales, what weapons were sold and where they wound up after they were. The U.S. government published this report in the interest of transparency and then continued to publish it through multiple politically charged scandals and conflicts that would include through Iran Contra, two separate wars in Iraq and all 20 years that we occupied Afghanistan. A report like this would be especially useful to have right now and would be critical to have as the Biden administration sends billions in high-tech military equipment every month to corrupt oligarchs in Eastern Europe.

    Where are all of those weapons systems going? We should know the answer to that, but we don’t know because this year, for the very first time in half a century, the Biden administration has stopped releasing that information. They never explained why they stopped. They just stopped and no one pushed them. Now you’d think this would be a scandal. If there’s one thing the news media exists to do, it’s to fight for the release of relevant government records because in a democracy, you have a right to know what is being done in your name, but not anymore. That information is classified, Mr. Citizen, so you don’t get to find out where those billions of dollars of weapons that you’re paying for are going. Who’s getting them? What are they doing with them? You don’t get to know.

    You don’t get to learn about anything about Ashley Biden showering with her father. You can get arrested for that. You don’t get to know how many FBI assets were in the crowd on January 6 and what they were doing. As we just noted, you don’t get to read the affidavit justifying the FBI’s indefensible raid on the home of Joe Biden’s primary political opponent. In fact, you don’t even get to know why you’re not allowed to know because that information has been redacted too. What are you a Russian agent? Stop asking. Didn’t used to be this way at all. It’s unrecognizable. A lot has changed in a very short time.

    So. it turns out, looking back 18 months, the 2020 election was the most consequential election of our lifetimes. You assume Joe Biden was incapacitated and couldn’t change much. Well, true, he is incapacitated, but the people behind him most definitely are not. They are more ideological and more aggressive than ever. Now it turns out among those people is our largest and most heavily armed federal law enforcement agency. That would be the FBI. The FBI is not allowed to insert itself into domestic politics. That would violate the U.S. Constitution. It is completely illegal, but for several years it has become increasingly clear that that is exactly what the FBI is doing, actively working on behalf of the Democratic Party, mocking the rule of law, subverting our democracy from within far more effectively than any foreign government ever could.

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  • #
    Lance

    Neil Oliver has a new clip available. 11 Mins total. Well worth the time IMHO.

    ” Oliver walks through recent examples of British governing officials now attempting to rewrite their history in pushing the COVID madness and panic and then he shifts to the more important issue of their bigger agenda.

    Oliver correctly notes that now is the time to expose it all; expose all of the madness behind the grand plan to weaponize the false framework of climate change in a quest to take control and reduce the lives of people to subservient proles.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/27/neil-oliver-as-the-elites-pivot-away-from-covid-now-right-now-is-the-time-to-confront-the-other-stuff/

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    OldOzzie

    Student Debt Forgiveness Is Biden’s Bluto Moment

    His plan will feed inflation and hurt him politically.

    By Kimberley A. Strassel

    If political moves received letter grades, Joe Biden’s student loan “forgiveness” mark might rank down there with the Deltas of “Animal House.” Think of it as the president’s Bluto moment.

    In case the White House missed it, Democrats had recently been getting it together. After an 18-month food fight over the Biden agenda, the party finally united to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. It suckered spend-happy Republicans into passing a semiconductor bill that vulnerable Democrats could brag about back home. The left has successfully fanned fears on abortion, putting GOP candidates on the back foot. And Donald Trump is in the headlines—right where they want him.

    Inflation remains voters’ biggest worry, and they understand Washington’s role in feeding it. Only recently they watched General Motors and Ford hike the prices of electric vehicles by $6,000 to $8,500—roughly pacing the $7,500 tax credit the Biden “inflation reduction” law bestows. Cause, effect.

    Millions of American parents read Mr. Biden’s Wednesday loan announcement as news that they will be paying $10,000 more for tuition next year (and the year after that, and after that) as colleges reap the loan windfall.

    The loan handout is a thumb in the eye to every American who went to trade school, got an apprenticeship, took out private loans to start a small business, or simply went to work—and now must not only grind out a living and keep up with inflation but cover the poor financial decisions of the college elite.

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  • #
    Maptram

    I drive along the Goulburn Valley Highway in Victoria a couple of times a fortnight. It seems that the the potholes and road surface are worse that the time before, particularly after heavy rain.

    As we keep hearing, climate change causes the heavy rain, so climate change will get the blame for the damage.

    More likely to be things like cutting the budgets for materials for the repairs, and using recycled materials for the repairs

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      It’s a major truck route and tourist route so always very busy Maptram , and as is the case just down the road from me where there are very large gum trees close to the road the roots cause a lot of damage also .

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    • #
      Annie

      It’s shocking on the ‘new’ part between Molesworth and Yea and also parts of Whanregarwen Road (where there must have been at least 4 rounds of ‘maintainance’ recently). My husband reports that it’s bad between Euroa and Shepparton; I know there are some atrocious potholes on the Melba Hwy. As a family we have had the misfortune to experience all these within less than the last week. Disgraceful.
      Who do we sue for damage to our vehicles?

      60

    • #
      Lance

      When a Govt/State is in financial straits, one of the first things they do is cut road maintenance.

      Roads are expensive to maintain.

      Watch smartly for additional “savings”. Your taxes are being ….. “distributed”.

      30

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Remember the story about CAGW being responsible for extensive mangrove die back in the Gulf of Carpentaria?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/03/shocked-scientists-find-400km-of-dead-and-damaged-mangroves-in-gulf-of-carpentaria

    Seems the new finding out is blaming a six month drop in sea levels which effectively caused the mangroves to literally die of thirst .

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    Zane

    The saddest sickest thing is that Dictator Daniel Andrews will almost certainly be returned to office in Victoria in 3 months time.

    Heil Danler!

    62

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Keep stocking up on Toilet Paper

    Now – Finnish firm warns of toilet paper shortage

    Energy costs continue to hold back production, Metsä Tissue says

    Soaring energy costs across the EU are causing temporary stoppages at production sites and could lead to product shortages, the Finnish company Metsä Tissue warned on Friday.

    “During the recent weeks, Metsä Tissue has had to curtail its production both in its Zilina and Kreuzau mills [Slovakia and Germany] for several days because of the high energy price peaks,” the company said in a statement

    According to Metsä Tissue, further production freezes are likely as energy costs continue to rise. The company warned that the enforced stoppages are expected to impact consumers, as “substantial amounts of daily production losses will occur.”

    The company operates a total of nine paper mills across Europe, and sells toilet and tissue paper under brands including Lambi and Serla. Its Nordic Market Director Jani Sillanpää warned that such items could be affected.

    “There is a risk that there will be problems with paper volumes if this situation continues,” he said, adding that rising cost of production may also lead to toilet and kitchen paper becoming more expensive.

    Earlier this week, German industrial lobby Die Papierindustrie warned that the natural gas shortage in Europe could lead to reduced production of toilet paper in Germany.

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    John Connor II

    Electric vehicle repair estimate!

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbBYuNfWQAAdtPF?format=jpg&name=medium

    Sell it for parts and buy a gas guzzler!

    61

    • #
      yarpos

      I am a regular watcher of US car repair videos which are mainly from the rust/salted road belt (South Main Auto, Watch Wes Work, Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics) The dreaded “green crusties” on wiring and connectors (earth straps a specialty) seem well able to disable a regular car in just a few years of real use in that regions. I cant imagine what its going to do to EVs. High voltage DC, salt, water, it will be fine.

      20

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    John Connor II

    Neuroqueerness: Lunacy As A Privileged Identity

    The clinically insane have achieved the cherished status of an “oppressed” identity group, to judge by a course announced earlier this year by American University:

    According to the course description for “Mental Health, Madness, and Neuroqueerness,” the class will, “critically examine how ideas about mental health and wellness are situated in systems of colonialism, white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy.”

    Just as pedophiles are now to be called MAPs, insanity will henceforth be referred to as “neuroqueerness.” Update your Newspeak Dictionary accordingly.

    The course will also explore, “the life stories and knowledge of those who have been labeled or claimed the label of mad, neuroqueer, and/or mentally ill,” and “the longer histories of mental health discourses and encounters the lived experience of madness and neurodivergence.”
    “Neuronormativity” is Liberalese for what we would call “sanity.” The long clumsy word is intended to pathologize the concept.

    https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=18786

    Oh joy – another dysfunction “normalised”…

    21

  • #
    John Connor II

    Biden promises no more stolen elections

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1563174930094911488

    No MORE rigged elections. Snort…

    22

    • #
      Ronin

      “No MORE rigged elections. ”

      No more, thus agreeing that there were rigged elections previously.

      11

  • #
    John Connor II

    A new study reveals why it is so hard for humans to have a baby

    A new study by a researcher at the Milner Center for Evolution at the University of Bath suggests that “selfish chromosomes” are to blame for the early demise of the majority of human embryos. The research, which was published in PLoS Biology, explains why human embryos often do not survive while fish embryos are fine. The finding also has implications for the treatment of infertility.

    Before a woman even realizes she is pregnant, over half of fertilized eggs experience a very early death. Tragically, after a few weeks, many of those that do survive to become a recognized pregnancy abruptly abort themselves. Such miscarriages are shockingly frequent and incredibly distressing.

    The immediate cause of many of these early deaths is that the embryos have the wrong number of chromosomes. Fertilized eggs should have 46 chromosomes, 23 from mom in the eggs, 23 from dad in the sperm.

    https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001671

    “Children of men” gets closer by the day…

    30

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    John Connor II

    Shocking Relationship Discovered Between Posture and Cognitive Decline

    The question of whether cognitive decline may be identified by sagittal spinal balance assessment based on a radiological approach was investigated via a large-scale survey of persons aged 50 to 89 years. Shinshu University researchers discovered links between sagittal vertical axis (SVA) anteriorization and older age and worse cognitive performance. The distance between the posterior superior sacral end plate to a vertical plumbline dropped from the centroid of the C7 vertebral body is known as the sagittal vertical axis.

    Subjects are more likely to have signs of moderate cognitive decline the more the head and neck protrude in front of the pelvis when seen from the side (the greater the length). In men, the SVA was linked to age-independent cognitive decline. Cognitive decline was more prevalent in females with SVA equal to or more than 70mm, regardless of age.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12605-7

    All those “human question marks” out there need to sit up straight and pay attention.😉

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    John Connor II

    Pfizer Vaccine Whistleblower Responds To Motion To Dismiss False Claims Suit.

    Pfizer cannot use the government as a shield from liability for making false claims about its COVID-19 vaccine, lawyers for a whistleblower argued in response to Pfizer’s motion to dismiss a False Claims Act lawsuit.

    “Respondents claim fraudulent certifications, false statements, doctored data, contaminated clinical trials, and firing of whistleblowers can be ignored based on the theory that they contracted their way around the fraud,” lawyers for Brook Jackson, who worked as regional director at one of the clinical trials used to develop the Pfizer vaccine, wrote in their Aug. 22 response.

    “A drug company cannot induce the taxpayers to pay billions of dollars for a product,” they countered, “that honest data would show poses more risks than benefits, and that ignores the actual contract and the law itself.”

    One of Jackson’s attorneys, Warner Mendenhall, told The Epoch Times that the payout could be as much as $3.3 trillion.

    “It would be enough to bankrupt Pfizer,” Mendenhall said.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pfizer-vaccine-whistleblower-responds-motion-dismiss-false-claims-suit

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      KP

      “the payout could be as much as $3.3 trillion.”

      That’s worth quite a few ‘unexplained deaths’, car accidents, random shootings during burglary, poisonings, suicide by shooting yourself twice, and other strange problems people around the Clintons have. I’m sure Pfizer have it in hand…

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    Agri Cola

    For those few Australians who watch Sky News (after dark). Are you concerned, as I am, that the quality has dropped off. There has been a concerted push of recent times for presenters to rush through their segments by cutting interviewees short and not allowing them time to develop their arguments. There is also an increasing tendency to group panel sessions into groups of three (plus presenter) and then allow only one question to each guest. One particularly annoying tactic is to pit an ALP operative with a more conservative person and bait them into a verbal brawl and then sit back and laugh at the unpleasant result. Very poor television to watch. There has been a turn to the left that leaves a nasty taste and this viewer few places to move to.

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    John Connor II

    Warning: Gates-Funded Factory Breeds 30 Million Mosquitoes a Week for Release in 11 Countries

    “The mosquitoes grown in this factory carry the Wolbachia bacterium, which prevents them from transmitting dengue and other viruses – including Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever – to humans. By releasing them and breeding them with wild mosquitoes, they spread the bacteria, reducing virus transmission and protecting millions of people from disease,” claims Gates – just as his ‘covid vaccines’ have ‘reduced’ virus transmission and have ‘protected’ millions of people from disease.

    The mosquitoes are released in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu – eleven countries total.

    Gates plans to breed hundreds of millions of Wolbachia mosquitoes. Did Gates and his researchers consider all the variables that are likely to occur with a program where a new vector of spreading a bacteria by an insect that bites humans and other animals and, in the process, injects that bacteria into them? Where is the one, two, five, and ten-year report on the safety of such a program from a controlled environment?

    What could possibly go wrong?

    https://rairfoundation.com/warning-gates-funded-factory-breeds-30-million-mosquitoes-a-week-for-release-in-11-countries/

    Yep. We need protection from those diseases here in Oz…

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      Hanrahan

      You’re trying to scare the horses so tell us what IS going wrong. This is nothing new. I opened your link but it didn’t inform how many decades this has been happening.

      Methinks you don’t live in the tropics and wouldn’t approve of myxo, calisi or cactoblastis?

      Q. How fast does calisi virus spread?

      A. 60 kph in a built up area, 100 in the country.

      This was the joke after calisi “accidentally” escaped before its official release.

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      Hanrahan

      It has been cold August mornings in eastern Qld [for the locals]. The tourists will have enjoyed the warm days and excellent whale watching though.

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    Kim

    If you live in an imperfect world then you need an imperfect solution. That’s why capitalism works. And it’s why utopian systems don’t work. 😎️

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    William Astley

    This study of all people in the UK who were infected with covid has found: Those people, particularly older people (over 75 years of age) who had three first release RNA vaccine shots; When Omicron started to dominate; Are significantly more likely to die, have more severe covid, and have covid for a longer period of time; Than those people who were not vaccinated.

    The biological/scientific reason for this finding is: The first release RNA vaccines causes the body to produce an antibody response for the first release covid. In vitro studies have shown the specific antibodies which the patients produce, after first release RNA vaccination, are 20 times less effective against the now dominate strain of Omicron BA.5, as compared to covid Delta. The first release RNA vaccines train/teach the body to produce antibodies that are worse than useless against Omicron.

    The authors of the study recommend stopping first release covid RNA vaccination, in the age of Omicron for all people. The recommendation to stop first release RNA vaccination does not consider the dangerous side effects of the first release RNA vaccines.

    This youtube presentation explains the results from the paper. The paper in question is attached below.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69iCapONtDs
    Vaccine negative effectiveness – COVID-19 vaccines update 56

    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2022/07/11/2022.06.28.22276926.full.pdf
    Increasing SARS-CoV2 cases, hospitalizations and deaths among the vaccinated elderly populations during the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant surge in UK.

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    TimiBoy

    Is this a thing?

    If so, it’s another weapon in our arsenal. I’d not heard of it until this morning.

    https://amazonwatch.org/news/2021/0706-the-wind-industry-threatens-the-amazon-and-its-next-generation-of-earth-defenders

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    William Astley

    This is a link to a very readable paper written by a scientific organization that specializes in vaccine: Theory, Research, and Practice. This vaccine research organization officially recommended that UK children should not be vaccinated with the first RNA covid vaccine. The paper lays out specifically the scientific facts concerning the risks of getting the first release RNA vaccines and the risks of getting covid infection, when these facts were known, and how and when the ‘authorities’ ignored the science/facts.

    International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Research, and Practice

    Covid-19 Vaccines” for Children in the UK: A Tale of Establishment Corruption

    https://www.ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/35/69

    This is a link to a recent Thailand RNA first release vaccine test on young people. The study took blood samples from all test patients before vaccination and at regular intervals after vaccination. That study found/detected using biomarkers: That 2.3% of the young RNA vaccine test patients had heart cell damage which released biomarkers from their heart cells into their blood.

    Out of 301 first release RNA vaccine test patients: Abnormal ECG finding, 54 patients (17.94%). Seven participants (2.33%) (all male) had at least one elevated cardiac biomarker or positive lab assessments. Myopericarditis: Confirmed in one patient after vaccination.

    Cardiovascular Effects of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents
    https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202208.0151/v1

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    cadger

    The energy price cap rise which is coming in October is set to make charging electric vehicles more expensive than filling a traditional car with petrol, it’s been reported. The RAC has warned motorists that EVs will be more expensive to run than petrol equivalents when the cap increases in autumn.

    https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/energy-price-cap-rise-make-7518834

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      KP

      The Gratton Inst must contain some billionaires making money from electrics.. Another big push for Govt to buy EVs for people.

      “Push to ban old polluting trucks from capital cities- The Grattan Institute, warns that exhaust-pipe pollutants from trucks kill more than 400 Australians annually and contribute to diseases including lung cancer, strokes and asthma.”

      “NSW Greens transport spokeswoman Abigail Boyd said the large number of pre-2003 diesel trucks on the road meant there may be no choice but to ban them.

      “But any ban must come with a support package for those individual truck owners who would otherwise suffer hardship,” she said. “This isn’t about harming the trucking industry, it’s about providing guidance for future investment decisions.””

      https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-s-not-radical-push-to-ban-old-polluting-trucks-from-capital-cities-20220825-p5bcnj.html

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    another ian

    Obviously not reached a limit of what Big Phama will try on!!!

    “From Hell’s Heart…..”

    Read it all

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=246759

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      We’ve known for a few weeks. Our ABC is repeating it on high rotation every night while they ignore bigger crimes and threats. I was struck at first by how it was kept secret which is obviously wrong, but in our system of government the PM (in theory) is supposed to be responsible for all decisions made anyway. (Though accountability is rare). Now I’m bored of hearing about it. I presume in the heady mad days of the Covid threat he needed to be The Health Minister because under the emergency Act the Health Minister become a kind of God — but he should have told us. As for the other ministries, apparently he didn’t use the powers bar one time — which hardly anyone is discussing (let’s talk about that!). So, yes, I agree, it’s seedy, disreputable, strange, and quite a scandal, but in the grand order of scandals I’m over it.

      Are you aware of our Voice Referendum? To me that’s a far bigger threat to democracy. As if some races need extra votes or extra representatives than others. It is being pushed here with a 100% pure advertising-as-news campaign relentlessly. On the one hand, it’s just an “advisory role” but on the other it will solve everything, correcting 200 years of wrongs, and reducing addiction, creating jobs and increasing Aboriginal life spans. So which is it? Symbolic, or with teeth? They wouldn’t care so much if it was just a symbol.

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      another ian

      And keep an eye out for this one – made retrospective it’d be right up your Canadian crew’s ar** cover alley

      “Queensland law tries to make “public confidence” in health bureaucrats more important than public health”

      https://joannenova.com.au/2022/08/queensland-law-tries-to-make-public-confidence-in-health-bureaucrats-more-important-than-public-health/

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    another ian

    An important announcement!

    “Zali Steggall in your shopping cart & kitchen.”

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/08/zali-steggall-in-your-shopping-cart-kitchen.html#comments

    (/s just in case)

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