Saturday Open Thread

8.6 out of 10 based on 16 ratings

224 comments to Saturday Open Thread

  • #

    COP27 — the Camel’s nose of Loss and Damage enters the talks
    By David Wojick
    https://www.cfact.org/2022/10/28/cop27-the-camels-nose-of-loss-and-damage-enters-the-talks/

    “Will the developed country teams jointly admit to causing the world’s bad weather? Unimaginable liability looms.”

    Please share this warning.

    231

    • #
      John Connor II

      Posted at 1:18am Sunday.

      Heavy Saturday Jo? 😆

      20

      • #
        Sceptical+Sam

        Jo is a woman of the World John II.

        It was Saturday somewhere when David posted, I’ll warrant. 🙂

        50

      • #
        b.nice

        Actually, the site seems to work on Eastern Standard time (non daylight saving).

        So Jo would have posted at 11:18pm on Saturday, Perth time. 🙂 I think !

        [Indeed, QLD time has been the official time for a decade. Though for a few years due to software falling behind, the time gradually drifted 40m forward, somewhere in the coral sea. – Jo]

        60

  • #
    Bozotheclown

    Happy Saturday folks.

    71

  • #
    tonyb

    New UK PM confirms he will not be attending the Egyptian climate jamboree-sorry, meant vital climate talks.

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/10/29/sunak-is-right-to-stay-away-from-cop27/

    King Charles has also been warned to stay away as it is a political get together and he needs to distance himself from politics now he is monarch. To be fair he has already said this.

    So is Rishi a sceptic? There will be an awful lot of pressure on him as all Westminster parties are green activists and there are many other groups putting pressure on him. Perhaps he is reading the public mood which is getting more annoyed every day by the eco terrorists such as Just Stop oil

    320

    • #

      Jamboree is right. There is also a big carnival where many countries have pavilions and give away free stuff. There are 10 “observers” to every delegate, plus thousands of “press”.

      My take on the negotiations: https://www.cfact.org/2022/10/14/cop27-hopeless-hopeful-money-will-dominate-the-discussion/

      241

    • #
      cadger

      So is Rishi a sceptic?

      No. A thousand times no.

      230

      • #

        My guess is that he does not have strong views on the climate issue and is trying to find a survivable middle ground. Given the energy crisis distancing himself a bit from the COP makes sense. Reinstating the fracking ban is unfortunate but lifting it sank Truss. In the short run ideology has little role to play.

        132

        • #
          RickWill

          Climate issues and energy crisis are the same thing. A pointless meandering into religious doctrine.

          UK’s demise is guaranteed until the CO2 goblin is slain.

          Any nation aiming for NutZero is totally reliant on the good graces of China continuing to burn humungous amounts of coal to make all the stuff that NutZero demands.

          I have minimised the cost of my off-grid solar system to produce a near steady daily output of the portion of household load it supplies. My solar panels operate at 3.8% capacity factor. The level is set by the May sunlight at 37S. You will never see capacity factors of this level in any academic paper promoting so-called “renewables”. “Renewable energy”, as presently defined, is unsustainable. China knows that because they make the stuff needed to extract the low density energy and burn more coal in making the stuff than that suff can possibly extract over its life. All developed countries have given up making stuff as they move away from coal.

          The only benefit of the stuff on my roof and in the garage is that it is not messy and locked in the coal price of 15 years ago, which was much lower than present. Can you remember when coal price was USD60/tonne?

          The global accounting of CO2 output verifies the fundamental observation above. Littering the countryside with stuff made in China to extract energy from wind and sun demands China put more CO2 into the atmosphere than the extractors can possibly reduce. NutZero demands an ever increasing output of CO2.

          320

          • #
            Ronin

            Well put, an explanation the green zealots just can’t comprehend.

            110

          • #
            Brian the Engineer

            What happens when the world is totally dependent on Wind and Solar and the CCP starts banning exports of turbines and panels to countries they want to punish.

            200

            • #

              The world will never get anywhere near being dependent on wind and solar. People will have their juice.

              161

              • #
                TdeF

                The best statement I have read is that wind and solar are available about 30% of the time.

                You can make the supply 10x bigger and it will still be true.

                Consider the implication for refrigeration, telecommunication, computers, factories, traffic lights, trains, trams, charging electric cars, cooking, every aspect of modern society. And no batteries can ever store 70% of the power required and in 30% of the time.

                And as Climate Council chemist Will Steffen indicated indirectly, you would have to cover the entire state of Victoria in solar panels to supply just the electricity we currently need in Victoria without electric cars. And then where would we life? And how would we live without sunlight, grass, animals, birds, freedom. It is fundamentally wrong and beyond idi*tic.

                250

              • #
                Annie

                ‘Beyond idiotic’.

                I have another word for it…evil.

                200

              • #
                YallaYPoora Kid

                Here is the Eastern Aus power supply data from AEMO on the Aneroid site.
                Wind generates on average 30-35% of installed capacity

                https://anero.id/energy/wind-energy

                60

          • #

            Except the energy crisis is real and may put a dent into the climate craze,

            161

          • #
            tonyb

            Rick

            Here in the UK Solar has an efficiency of around 11%, on shore wind 22% and off shore 33%. Your solar output seems very low for a country as sunny as OZ. In the part of the UK (around the sunniest) we get around 1750 hours annually. The clocks have just gone back and sun or good light will be at a premium until March.

            To maximise power from solar we really need panels that directly track the sun. With my portable panels, by physically moving them around I can easily double the input. Whether its practical to have tracking rooftop panels is another thing.

            70

            • #
              Chad

              Tracking systems for panels are more costly than simply having more panels with varying directions. And high maintenance for trackers.
              Common practice for both Roof top and some Utility installs

              10

      • #
        Ronin

        Rishi Rich.

        100

      • #
        Mantaray Yunupingu

        cadgee. It kinda depends how you assess “scepticism”……

        A billionaire like Sunak has the potential / ability to consume about 10,000 times what the average western citizen can.That Rishi has not divested himself of the dough, indicates he expects to be around to do that consuming = he is very sceptical about claims of climate catastrophe curtailing his ability to spend that dough, does it not?

        The mistake here is in taking the carpetbaggers’ desire to profit from renewables as some kinda indication that they “believe” in them.

        Didn’t PT Barnum make it clear enough when asked how he could present so many fraudulent exhibits to the public? “There is a sucker born every minute”…..same comment as will / can be heard in the private clubs of the carpetbaggers running the current Renewables scam I’d reckon!

        Well?

        150

    • #
      Chad

      So is Rishi a sceptic?

      Well, he was very quick ( his first day as PM), to re instate the ban on Fracking for gas and oil.
      Truss had been equally quick to revolk the ban.
      So i would say he is toeing the UN / Green line !

      290

      • #
        Graham Richards

        He is not “ towing the line “!! He is doing what he has been instructed to do.
        We are not all stupid but we have been stitched up & left unable to fight back.
        Who is telling him what to do other than the Conservative / Labor / Marxist mob itself.

        Every man & his dog knows what Putin is doing & what his plans for the future of Russia are but no one can tell us who is behind the climate hoax or all the woke nonsense being espoused every day without any criticism from the media or the major political parties.

        It’s time the “ mafia “ behind this climate hoax & the distraction of the “ woke “ was unmasked & brought to account!!

        283

      • #

        I think he is just trying to find a way to survive. Lifting the ban ended Truss so he certainly has to reinstate it quickly.

        There is no short term solution to the energy crisis that I can see so his chances are not good. I would like to see Labour have a go and fail as well. Then perhaps people will finally listen to reason, but we are far from that at this point. Winter has not even started so the steps are still superficial.

        101

        • #
          Graham Richards

          So in other words the Prime Minister of UK, as with President Joe Fraud of the USA are not actually in control of their Government or the country.

          If they’re not in control who the hell is.

          Hera in Australia we have a government that te dived +- 30% of the vote, but thru Adele give system of preferences fluked a win & is now dragging the majority Dow the same road to economic ruin as those in USA,UK &Europe????

          60

        • #
          Mike Jonas

          I don’t think that Liz Truss was brought down by lifting the ban on fracking. I think she was brought down by her spending and borrowing plans. Rishi Sunak may be doing a lot better on the money side of things, but he is in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks that getting the money right will work if he gets energy wrong. Modern economies run on energy, and if they don’t have the energy they need then the money side eventually collapses anyway.

          50

  • #
    tonyb

    Elon Musk seems determined to open up Twitter to all viewpoints. This has upset the European Union

    https://rmx.news/european-union/left-wing-eu-commissioner-responds-to-elon-musk-says-the-bird-will-fly-by-our-rules/

    Anything that annoys the EU has to be a good thing of course.

    510

    • #
      Saighdear

      I liked the bit about the European Bird will fly according to EU rules: from a UK perspective ( OH! mixt up – driving/ flying on the LEFT ) but with all this bird flu around and other issues with migratory winged objects, out in the wild, does / can the EU really control ” the bird” ?

      60

  • #
    tonyb

    I am sure all on this board will welcome back the ISIS brides and their families who have won the right to come back to Oz

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11367383/ISIS-brides-arrive-Australia-touch-Sydney.html

    There has been a big battle for 3 years about the return of one particular notorious Isis Bride to the Uk who have so far resisted the pressure.

    Where does all the money come from for the continued legal funding of such people?

    330

    • #
      KP

      “Where does all the money come from for the continued legal funding of such people?”

      Same as where all their money will come from from now on, the taxpayer! Possible topped up with WEF funds through a stack of dubious organisations doing their best to destroy the West.

      Did they bring their AK47s that they were pictured with? Oh wait- you can’t tell who is who when they’re all covered, so we might have got 4 ISIS grooms for all we know!

      “We also want to be able to contribute to the Australian community and are grateful for the opportunity to do so. ”

      ..and this is the propaganda piece the Govt is working on, that they will dissuade others from ISIS extremism. Just as likely is that they will raise the next generation of terrorists…

      190

  • #
    tonyb

    The Irish govt are the latest to introduce a ‘Hate’ bill

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/10/28/no-one-wants-these-laws-ireland-to-jail-hate-speech-offenders-for-up-to-five-years/

    The UK had an online Harms bill which seems to have been stalled in the Commons as MP’s increasingly query the huge expansion of the original aim, which was to protect children who use the internet and social media in particular. In the latest manifestation of the bill, hate speech that is legal means people could still be prosecuted if it happens online. I think Oz has already got something in place that severely curtails Free speech, so Jo has to censor some comments if they pinpoint certain groups?

    We are nowhere near as free as we were 10 years ago and the Eu’s comments about Twitter (see my post above) shows our elite are determined that we should keep quiet on many subjects. The only correct opinion is the one they hold.

    150

    • #
      Honk R Smith

      An affectionate of nudism, hemp … and various ‘on-line conspiracy’ sites and social media, has broken into Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and attacked her husband with a hammer, whilst inquiring about the whereabouts of his wife.
      Of course, only a person whose mind had been warped by on-line heretical theories and MAGA ideology would be compelled to act in such a way towards a highly regarded life long public servant like Mrs. Pelosi.
      Drug addiction and mental illness would have nothing to do with it.
      (He may have been angered by inaction on the Climate Crisis and there were no nearby art museums.)
      And only a conspiracy theorist would wonder how a random citizen can amble up to the multi-million dollar private home of the person third in line to be POTUS should, Heaven forbid, a random citizen amble up to no.1 or no.2, when no one was looking, and cause problems.
      What would be the point of spending tax payer money for perimeter security at such a place?
      So I think the public servants in the UK are on the right track.

      142

      • #
        David Maddison

        It is likely an engineered false flag attack to backup Pelosi’s previous warnings about supposed MAGA violence.

        In fact, the guy, the person alleged to have assaulted Mr Pelosi was a Leftist (nudist, Green Party member).

        There are a lot of anomalies in this case.

        Styxhexenhammer comments in the following video (under 9 mins):

        https://youtu.be/qulZkWH40M0

        183

      • #
        Dave in the States

        The reports on the TV news are very bizarre.

        On the 911 tape, Mr Pelosi says the intruder is a friend, but the police later noted that Mr Pelosi seemed to be rather confused or intoxicated.
        The hammer attack did not happen until after police had arrived on the scene.
        Mr Pelosi was wielding a hammer. Some reports were that is was seperate hammer from a hammer the assialent was wielding, and other reports were that after police arrived the assailant took the hammer Mr Pelosi was wielding and used it on him.
        The incident occured a 3:30 AM.
        Both Mr Pelosi and the intruder were in their underwear.

        141

        • #
          David Maddison

          You can be almost certain that any incidents of this nature with a Leftoid involve either intoxication with legal or illegal substances, sexual deviancy, dishonesty, cover up or all four.

          151

          • #
            John Connor II

            You can be almost certain that any incidents of this nature with a Leftoid involve either intoxication with legal or illegal substances, sexual deviancy, dishonesty, cover up or all four.

            That’s one downvote for you from a lefty, I see. 😂

            80

          • #
            OldOzzie

            EXCLUSIVE: Two Far-Right Websites Attributed to David DePape to Smear Conservatives Were FABRICATED – They Were Created Friday and Deleted Saturday

            The mainstream media attributed two websites to the man arrested with Paul Pelosi on early Friday morning, David DePape. However, this all appears to be another far-left farce.

            David DePape was found with Paul Pelosi early Friday morning in his underwear at the Pelosi home by police in San Francisco. The mainstream media immediately tried to cover for the Pelosi family. They then attempted to align the man in his underwear found with Paul Pelosi as a conservative. But it was all a lie.

            There are numerous questions related to this case already.

            In addition, the media tried to frame DePape as a conservative based on websites that were reportedly his. DePape was homeless and a drug addict but the media insisted he was running a conservative website? Makes perfect sense.

            – FOX News reported on the websites reportedly connected to DePape:

            – The LA Times also reported as well on the websites.

            The problem is the websites cited by the mainstream media that were supposedly aligned with DePape were created yesterday and they are no longer active today.

            The Pelosis must be scared for people to know the truth about what was happening in their mansion in San Francisco early on Friday morning.

            150

      • #
        Mike Jonas

        Would “petty tyrant” be a better description for Nancy Pelosi than “highly regarded life long public servant “? (As used in https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/10/30/the-real-american-divide/)

        30

  • #

    For those interested in how aviation is driving climate change..

    https://greenhousedefect.com/contrails/contrails-the-basic-physics

    and

    https://greenhousedefect.com/contrails-a-forcing-to-be-reckoned-with

    There is more to come. To give a little spoiler, it is just amazing if you sort out all the little things, how obvious the actual cause of AGW is. But both sides totally neglect it.

    11

  • #
    David Maddison

    Jordan Peterson, just hours ago, released this excellent video about imposed energy poverty and starvation.

    Please try to watch some or all of this video.

    A good man to have on the rational thinkers’ side.

    25 mins.

    https://youtu.be/tF5spyudTYA

    210

    • #
      RickWill

      The garish display of firewood as the backdrop to the clip is an interesting location for the topic of energy poverty. I wonder if it is intended as a statement or just there because the lighting was right.

      Anyhow I am jealous because I have only started replenishing my wood pile after a long winter. We have been promised something above teens today but short lived. The gallopers at Flemington may need floats on Tuesday.

      60

  • #

    The veteran british broadcaster mark Sherman and the excellent mark steyn have a discussion about you tubes sudden cancellation of Sharmans video on covid due to ‘misinformation’ that contradicts the WHO

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/top-marks-an-interview-not-to-be-missed/

    Incidentally both mark steyn and Nigel faragec are on the british programme GB news every day . Although primarily a right wing tv channel it also broadcasts on radio so should be easy to find on the Internet

    120

  • #
    David Maddison

    Rapper Zuby and 20 things he learned about humanity during the pandemic:
    1/ Most people would rather be part of the majority than on the right side.
    2/ At least 20% of the population has strong authoritarian tendencies that will come out under the right conditions.
    3/ Fear of death is surpassed only by fear of social disapproval. The latter may be even stronger.
    4/ Propaganda is as effective today as it was 100 years ago. Access to unlimited information has not made the average citizen any wiser.
    5/ Anything and everything can and will be politicized by the media, the government and those who trust them.
    6/ Many politicians and large corporations are happy to sacrifice human lives if it furthers their political and financial goals.
    7/ Most people believe that government acts in the best interest of the people. Even many who are vocal critics of the government.
    8/ Once they have formed an opinion, people would rather stand by the wrong than admit they were wrong.
    9/ People can be trained and conditioned quickly and relatively easily to change their behavior significantly – for better or worse.
    10/ When sufficiently frightened, most people not only accept authoritarian measures, but actually demand them.
    11/ People who are dismissed as “conspiracy theorists” are often well-researched and simply ahead of the mainstream narrative.
    12/ Most people value security more than freedom, even if that “security” is just an illusion.
    13/ Hedonic [subjective, comfortable feel-good] adaptation goes both ways, and once inertia sets in, it is difficult to return people to “normal.”
    14/ A significant percentage of people enjoy being subjugated.
    15/ “Science” has become a secular pseudo-religion for millions of people in the West. This religion has little to do with science itself.
    16/ Most people care more about looking like they are doing the right thing than actually doing the right thing. [Wearing a mask!]
    17/ Politics, the media, science, and health care are all corrupt to varying degrees. Scientists and doctors can be bought just as easily as politicians.
    18/ If you make people comfortable enough, they will not rebel. You can make millions of people compliant by giving them money, food, and entertainment while curtailing their rights.
    19/ Modern people are overly complacent and not vigilant enough when it comes to defending their own freedoms against government encroachment.
    20/ It is easier to deceive a person than to convince him that he has been deceived.

    380

    • #

      Re your second point. I saw a poll that said something along the lens that the overwhelming majority of over 60’s believed in democracy but a clear ajority of those under 25 favoured a dictator.

      161

      • #
        el+gordo

        The young are politically unaware, this is understandable and natural, with more important things on their plate. When they eventually grow up they manage to think the process through, democracy is beneficial.

        122

        • #
          KP

          ..when they’ve experienced what a Govt does for a couple of decades they grab any chance at having an influence on it. Also, by then they have something to lose, a house, a family, a career..

          I wouldn’t usually give a rapper the time of day, but that is a very good list. Maybe he can release some songs that point out those failings in the populace.
          ———————————–
          -At least 20% of the population has strong authoritarian tendencies
          -A significant percentage of people enjoy being subjugated.

          Which is why democracy is always such a clusterfk!

          70

        • #
          Steve of Cornubia

          It’s in the nature of many young people to ‘rebel’ and to want to be different, at least different to previous generations.

          For ‘previous generations’ read ‘their parents’.

          And so it is that, because the general tendency of older and more experienced people is to value democracy, freedom and individual choice, the young almost automatically adopt the opposite set of opinions.

          I have seen examples of this many times, where a young person’s views on a wide range of matters are – entirely coincidentally – the diametric opposite of their parents. For the same reason they will also oppose what they see as ‘authority’, a proxy for ‘parents’ 😉

          60

  • #
    A happy little debunker

    The EU is to ban ICE vehicles by 2035…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-29/eu-ban-new-fossil-fuel-cars-boost-ev-uptake/101593696
    My momma always told me stupid is as stupid does.

    140

  • #
    William Astley

    The paradigm is changing. The general public no longer trusts the covid RNA vaccines, the Biden administration, and the CDC/FDA. That is likely the reason why, YouTube is no longer censoring the discussion of data and peer reviewed papers that are critical of the RNA vaccines and past covid policy.

    This is an excellent summary of what happened.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_a6IdpVbxg
    Joe Biden Needs to FIRE all his COVID advisors | Jha, Walensky, Murthy & More | Here is Why

    100

    • #
      John Connor II

      It was so deadly you had to be tested to see if you had it.
      It was so deadly you had a 99.99% chance of surviving it.
      It was so deadly.. novel, nothing like ever before in medical history but they whipped up a “vaccine” in three months.
      It was so deadly they are up to 5 of their “vaccines” and its’ still getting thru.
      It was so deadly.. but just a thin paper or cloth mask on the front of your month gave immunity.
      It was so deadly.. but just standing on a round sticker on a store floor gave you a level 10 force field.
      It was so deadly you could sit and eat… but not walking over to your table.
      It was so deadly it cured the flu, cancer or falling off of a roof, only ‘rona deaths.
      It was so deadly I couldn’t visit my dead father after he died.
      It was so deadly … never mind.. just screw it… nobody i know listened either, but they are now dying from sudden-itis and unexpected-itis and nobody knows why, totally baffling.

      Dying suddenly is not a diagnosis

      120

  • #
    David Maddison

    “Hate” is now essentially meaningless. It just means anything the Left disagree with and it includes legitimate criticism of important social issues like hormonal and genital mutilation of children in the name of transgenderism.

    Similarly “far right” has also been made meaningless, it just means anyone to the (perceived, see below) right of Pol Pot.

    The terms are used by Leftists to forcibly silence anyone with alternative ideas to them. We all know how the Left are intolerant of alternative ideas and love censorship.

    In any case, calling someone “far right” to mean they are like an evil National Socialist is just an attempt to obscufate the fact that National Socialism was a variety of fascism and the philosopher of fascism was the Hegelian Marxist Giovanni Gentile. National Socialism is a variety of socialism with an added racial and nationalist element, plus “public-private corporate partnerships” just as the Left now advocate, e.g. with social media, “green” energy corporations etc..

    Thus people who advocate racism, extreme nationalism etc. should be classified on the Far Left.

    The true political spectrum should be:

    LEFT
    Rights violating ideologies and systems (extreme force)
    -Fascism
    -Communism
    -Socialism
    -National Socialism
    -Theocracy (e.g. Taliban)

    CENTRE
    Rights violating ideologies and systems (moderate force)
    -progressivism
    -“democratic” socialism (e.g. Australia’s Labor Party, US Democrats).
    -conservatism (not real conservatism, parties like Australia’s pretend conservative Liberal Party), US Republicans.
    -liberalism (US sense, not Classical Liberalism)

    RIGHT
    Rights respecting ideologies and systems (no force)
    -True Classical Liberalism
    -Free Enterprise
    -Conservatism
    -The USA as defined by its Constitution (not now)

    121

    • #
      KP

      Nope! You get no freedom with your two-dimensional line… Those three options can all be tyrannies, the Conservatives are no more freedom-loving than the Left.

      Put up a Libertarian triangle with freedom at the top and see where the parties fall.

      31

  • #
    David Maddison

    Has anyone noticed the extreme inaccuracy of the weather forecasts of Australia’s Bureau of Meterology?

    They seem to rarely get it right now.

    Back in the day their weather forecasts could be relied upon.

    Not now.

    Now the weather forecasts seem to be generated by “meteorologists” that never even look out the window and who rely upon non-validated computer models and have no clue how the weather really works.

    231

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      David, the forecasts are accurate, it is reality that is causing the trouble.
      The locals in the Adelaide Hills have noticed. Chatting with a “Check Out Chick” ** yesterday about her plans for today (Sunday) I mentioned that the BOM forecast was for storms and heavy rain, and she came back with “I’d better pack the sunscreen”.

      ** Dated and likely to get me prosecuted for Hate Speech.

      270

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      Whenever I am planning outdoors events, I pencil in a date fifty years from now, because that’s the only weather forecast they’re absolutely, 100% certain about.

      180

    • #
      Graeme#4

      I believe that a few years ago, the BOM changed its modelling system. Since then, I also believe there is now a reduced accuracy of reporting.

      60

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      David, you should know – ‘weather’ is out the window; ‘climate’ however, is inside BoM’s super-blooper computers and only THEY can interpret it. Science®!

      I took 3 screenshots yesterday from the Bunch of Muppets’ alpine forecast pages: Thredbo NSW, Mt Hotham VIC, Mt Wellington TAS. It’s not often you see a week’s worth (7 days!) of SNOW symbols and warnings for snow for all 3 states. Seven days & nights of snow, in a row, in Australia, from Sat 29 October to Friday 4 November. Whatever happened to ‘Too Hot For Halloween’? ‘Melbourne Cup Heatwave’? ‘Slip Slop Slap’?

      Sent the Thredbo 7-day snow forecast pic to my older brother who lives a few hours north of Sydney – he’s a firm believer in The Science® – and true to fashion and/or religion, he retorted I had fallen for ‘b…s… con……y theor!es’. Eh? So the venerable BoM is now pushing b.s.c.t.?

      As an aside, even though NZ is on the ‘warm side’ of this developing storm, Mt Cook is ALSO in for a week of it: 7 days of sub-zero gales & snow. Yesterday, -5 C was the max with -24 C wind chill and 30 cm new snow; over a metre is ‘predicted’ by next weekend. But, more importantly, apparently there’s a bush fire in Spain and a drought in Kenya… and Jacinda’s plane died of cold in Antarctica. 😃

      180

      • #
        b.nice

        “Bunch of Muppets”

        ooo.. I like that one ! 🙂

        50

      • #
        el+gordo

        What are the odds of snow on the southern alps in the Austral summer? Surely it would be unprecedented.

        50

        • #
          Ross

          We had flurries of snow on Christmas Day in Ballarat ,Victoria in 1995. Does that count?

          50

        • #
          Annie

          It snowed in Pretty Valley at Falls Creek on the 18th of December in 1990; I have photos of it.

          We had been to England in their summer that year, where it was hot and dry and the trees looked far more stressed by it than they looked this year on both my visits.

          Weather!

          50

        • #
          b.nice

          Actually, I was traveling between Bungendore and Canberra on, IIRC Nov 24th, 1997.

          .. and there was snow on the hills just west of Bungendore.

          Very surprising, that was for sure.

          A real Kodak moment too, if I’d had a camera. !

          30

        • #
          Mike Jonas

          I was in the Snowies (Three-Mile Dam, near Kiandra) between Christmas and New Year in the early 1980s and was hit by a blizzard. Summer snow in the Snowies is not, I think, all that rare.

          30

      • #
        another ian

        And we’ve just elected to do the “end of winter coat wash”!

        40

        • #
          el+gordo

          Bit hasty, a cold air outbreak is expected to hit south east Australia and could hang around for days. I’m staying rugged up.

          20

    • #
    • #
      Russell

      Yes media reports of BOM forecasts are woeful. The funny thing that I have noticed is that quotes in the media come from a variety of BOM forecast people.
      I suspect there may be multiple factions within BOM forecaster cohort. Those who actually do the science and those who “believe” in the narrative. Error bars allow some flexibility.
      Forecasts for a few days out can be changed rapidly – like at a change of working shift of forecasters.
      The most common feature for this variation is “chance of the thunderstorm”. CAPE (convective available potential energy) seems often totally ignored.
      Local Skew-T plots might be able to identify a pattern of error-prone interpretation by various forecasters.
      It’s not an exact science and BOM can say we must warn even if unlikely. A storm *might* hit somewhere and media often have footage of some remote damage of little consequence.
      So forecasting has deteriorated to lowest risk for BOM and maximum fear for big city centres – that have rare damaging events but everyone is on-edge.
      If they were really doing “the science”, they would be normalising the impact by a factor based on populations in discrete forecast areas.
      But even more glaringly obvious, BOM’s own “Interactive Weather and Wave Forecast Maps” often do not even match their multi-day forecasts.
      These maps are usually not bad for a few day anyway.

      30

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        I remember coming back to Adelaide for Christmas and the forecast ended chance of a thunderstorm. I expressed scepticism and my father said “they missed a surprise one about 6 weeks ago and since then they’ve added that every night.

        60

    • #
      John Connor II

      When I get married it’ll be to a weather girl so I’ll always be right! 😂😂

      60

    • #
      Vicki

      We noted today that the weather forecast on ABC’s Landline was delivered by a hydrologist. Granted, he is apparently employed by BOM – but his forecast was very informed and explanatory – unlike the usual tripe from the BOM forecasters.

      30

  • #
    el+gordo

    This European winter could well change the course of history, but the modellers cannot forecast a couple of months ahead.

    https://notrickszone.com/2022/10/29/modelers-forecasters-cant-even-agree-on-europes-upcoming-winter/

    100

  • #
    David Maddison

    Sadly, the Lake Goldsmith Steam Rally that was meant to be on this weekend near Beaufort, Vicdanistan, Australia, has been cancelled due to flood damage.

    It will be on again for its next scheduled meeting in six months.

    https://www.lakegoldsmithsteamrally.org.au/

    If you want to celebrate the Steam Age near Melbournistan you could instead visit the Puffing Billy steam train https://puffingbilly.com.au/ or the National Steam Centre https://www.melbournesteam.com.au/ .

    People who believe CO2 is a planet destroying toxic gas should not attend, you will be TRIGGERED and destroy the fun of normal people.

    160

    • #
      b.nice

      There was no Maitland “SteamFest” this year either, even though they tried twice…

      .. ground has been just too wet and boggy. 🙁

      40

    • #
      Ross

      Drove past Lake Goldsmith the other day – I haven’t seen the lake that full in decades. Mate, it is seriously wet around here.

      60

      • #
        Mike Jonas

        Lake George near Canberra is now very nearly full (most of it has been grazing land for the last 20 years).

        20

  • #
    another ian

    “One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest”

    More pointers on origin

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2022/10/29/one-flu-out-of-the-wuhan-nest-70/

    110

  • #
    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Is there nothing Putin cannot do or be blamed for?
      I’m surprised that she conducted secret negotiations on a personal phone thinking it was ‘safe’ but then Hilary Clinton avoided any trouble for much the same thing.

      90

    • #
      KP

      Lol! As if the USA doesn’t have her phone hacked! Maybe this is how Russia found out about the dirty nuclear bomb plan and had to phone the NATO top politicians to tell them he knew what they were planning!

      Govts shouldn’t be allowed any secrets!

      31

      • #
        yarpos

        arrrrgh! I thought we have to be worried about the Chinese back doors in all our comms gear and mobiles. Jeez its like we are back on 1950s party lines and everyone can share in our conversations

        70

    • #
      Dave in the States

      Makes you wonder about Obama’s habitual and celebrated Blackberry use a decade ago.

      50

  • #
    Tim Spence

    Mauna Loa is in a phase of eruption and it could prove interesting because world CO2 levels are recorded there by the Scripps/Keeling collaboration.

    150

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Something Australian Politicians have failed to Notice!

    SPECTATOR EDITORIAL – The lesson of 2022: energy is our lifeblood

    The Ukraine war reminds us we need it in abundance, whether we like it or not

    This has, so far, been a year of hard lessons. Spiraling inflation has given households an expensive economic refresher course. A land war in Europe has offered an unwelcome reminder of old geopolitical and military truths. But arguably the most important lesson of 2022 concerns the point at which these economic, military and geopolitical considerations converge: energy.

    On this vital issue, the West has suffered from an epidemic of amnesia in recent years. Too often energy security has either been taken for granted by policymakers and voters, for whom the last energy crisis had become a distant memory, or actively disparaged by an environmental movement whose hardline hostility to fossil fuels has become received wisdom in polite circles. In other words: energy abundance was either something we didn’t need to worry about or something we actively disparaged. War in Ukraine has exposed both views as dangerous delusions.

    The new energy crisis is being felt most acutely in Europe, where leaders have traveled further down the path to decarbonization than anywhere else. A rush to unreliable renewables, a turn against nuclear energy and an over-dependence on Russian gas is a recipe for energy disaster. As Emmet Penney explains, the cost of these mistakes has already been high. The budgets of European households have been stretched. And bad energy policy has also been environmentally self-defeating. To hedge against catastrophe, Germany has returned to bur ing coal. With winter approaching, the worst is yet to come. The apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea at the end of September was an inauspicious start to the colder months.

    Americans have felt the consequences of rising energy prices too, of course, but things aren’t as bad on this side of the pond. One reason why is the shale revolution that began to transform the energy landscape over a decade ago, and has turned the United States into a net energy exporter.

    Yet no matter how loudly the energy-crisis alarm bells ring, many in the political and media classes remain committed to a hardline climate change agenda and refuse to heed the warning.

    200

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Meanwhile in Australia – When wind and solar replace fossil fuels, we will use less energy, save money, and won’t be as sick

      How can we possibly power a modern economy with renewables? It’s an oft repeated question amplified by the fossil fuel industry. But the reality is that in a world largely powered by wind and solar, where most things are “electrified”, we won’t need as much energy.

      This is not new news, but it’s worth repeating because it is often forgotten. A new report from Accenture, studying the proposed rapid shift to renewables in Australia over the next two decades, puts this into perspective.

      It notes that despite a near 50 per cent increase in demand as the world shifts to electric vehicles and electric appliances in the home, total energy consumption will actually decline, because new technologies are vastly more efficient.

      And, it adds, it’s not just energy we will be saving through the shift to wind, solar and storage, but money and health outcomes.

      The fossil fuel economy is heating our climate, but it is also killing us, slowly, through pollution, and in our homes, at a cost of at least $4 billion a year in Australia alone, and likely much more. But we rarely talk about it.

      The Accenture report is timely given the headlines about Australia’s renewable energy targets – at both national and state level – and a rebound in the fear-mongering that this rapid transition will be too hard, too complex and too expensive.

      Accenture points out that Australia actually has the opportunity build an energy system that is more resilient and flexible, while empowering people to be both producers and consumers of energy, and to deliver multiple benefits in efficiency, costs, and health outcomes.

      26

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Peta Credlin: Anthony Albanese breaks pre-election promises to cut power bills

        There’s only one reason why power prices are skyrocketing. It’s because we are replacing reliable 24/7 power provided by fossil fuels with unreliable wind and solar power that needs expensive back-up for the 70 per cent of the time when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.

        Albanese and his ministers repeatedly claim, as he did in parliament this week, “that the cheapest way to deliver electricity today is not coal, it’s not gas … it’s wind and solar backed up by pumped hydro and batteries”.

        Even if this were true, and it’s not, we simply don’t have sufficient batteries or pumped hydro to do the job. The “big batteries” in South Australia and Victoria last less than 30 minutes at peak discharge. And the much-vaunted Snowy 2.0 scheme is still years off completion and billions over budget.

        Yet the rest of Liddell is closing down in April next year, and Eraring, the biggest power station in NSW, is closing in 2025.

        Put aside the ideology for a moment and let’s just focus on the engineering reality of what’s proposed.

        Under Labor’s legislated 43 per cent cut in Australia’s emissions, coal, which currently provides more than 60 per cent of our power, is expected to provide less than 10 per cent in eight years. And renewables, currently less than 30 per cent of our power, are supposed to provide over 80 per cent.

        But, for that to happen, as even Labor admits, there needs to be 40 new wind turbines built every month and 22,000 solar panels installed every day, for the next eight years, plus 28,000km of new high voltage transmission lines built at the cost of $80 billion.

        Labor is embarked on a horrendously expensive transition to renewable power that simply won’t happen quickly enough to meet the government’s timetable for the phase out of fossil fuels.

        190

        • #
          yarpos

          Lots of negative pricing on the NEM over the past few days, but sadly my bill stayed positive

          60

        • #
          Sambar

          One of the things that no one talks about is how batteries or pumped hydro are recharged. A giant battery can be discharged in 30 minutes but may take up to a week to be fully recharged just so it can discharge over 30 minutes. Pumped hydro may take 24 hours to discharge ( I dont know just a guess) how long does it take to pump the water back up hill? The water can only be pumped back when surplus power is available. So, given that electricity will be in short supply both batteries and pumped hydro may only be able to contribute erratically at best with “next use” availabliity as anyones guess. Unless, of course, both systems are recharged using diesel.

          100

        • #
          John Connor II

          Maybe breaking election promises should be considered a legal breach of contract and offenders removed from office and stripped of assets.

          100

          • #
            John Connor II

            A whistleblower leaked a document to Project Veritas showing that the FBI is focusing on election misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The document lists what the agency should categorize as “election crimes.”

            Among the election crimes highlighted in the documents is “misinformation.” The document defines misinformation as “false or misleading information spread mistakenly or unintentionally.”

            Disinformation is also an election “crime,” and is defined as “false or inaccurate information intended to mislead others.” It adds: “Disinformation campaigns on social media are used to deliberately confuse, trick, or upset the public.”

            Misinformation is an election crime.
            We need this here eh Albo!

            10

      • #
        KP

        Good grief that report is absolute bullshit! To kill the main argument, all our electrical appliances have become far more efficient in the last 20years, as they say, but we are using more units of power every year!

        NONE of the crap in that fantasy will come true!

        120

      • #
        RickWill

        Accenture is highly invested in “renewables”. They are CO2 demonisers. I would not take note of anything they offer. It is BS dressed up to push their agenda.

        100

    • #
      yarpos

      “the West has suffered from an epidemic of amnesia in recent years”

      I like this term. I often wonder where the people who trot out the “unreliable coal” meme think that reliable cheap power has come from for the last 70+ years.

      Its like how people think roads, hospitals, sewerage, water etc just fell from the sky around 1990 somehow and will always be there and can be taken for granted.

      10

  • #
    another ian

    “If you like watching an engineer with a whiteboard and a few calculations demolish hydrogen use as a vehicle fuel, this video is for you.”

    https://youtu.be/vJjKwSF9gT8

    Via https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2022/10/09/w-o-o-d-9-october-2022/#comment-160886

    70

    • #
      David Maddison

      I saw that this morning and was going to post it but you beat me to it.

      And metal hydride storage for hydrogen is out of the question because too heavy.

      Liquid hydrogen is too difficult and dangerous to handle, and a problem even for NASA. Forget about using it in a consumer product.

      Leaving compressed hydrogen in cylinders at 10,000 psi, 5 times the pressure of a laboratory gas cylinder and other compressed gases.

      What could possibly go wrong?

      And yet the Australian Government is or will give billions of our taxes to the billionaire green subsidy harvesters to make this “green” fuel which will require carbon (sic) sequestration if made from coal or gas as proposed.

      160

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      Ah but …

      On the journey to establishing that hydrogen isn’t feasible as a fuel for mass transport and energy generation, billions of dollars will be spent.

      And therein lies the point.

      150

    • #
      another ian

      And a look at the Tesla semi

      https://youtu.be/Uv44W7xa4IU

      20

    • #
      John Connor II

      Ahhh…

      https://youtu.be/brEm4mEizns

      Don’t forget that the US gubermint places restrictions on energy tech advances otherwise we would now be in a much more advanced world.

      Forget ye not too that this whole climate bs is about emissions not range or fuel efficiency, not that anyone will be allowed to travel far in WEF world anyway…

      30

  • #
    OldOzzie

    callisays:
    October 30, 2022 at 8:16 am
    Someone with an electronic version of Credlin’s Tele column might like to put up some choice bits. I only have dead tree edition.

    She pulls apart the energy policy which physically can’t happen and the fraud of the “million new homes” lie.

    Plus coming up this Wednesday on Sky News

    ‘The Cult of Daniel Andrews: A Peta Credlin Investigation’ coming to Sky News

    60

    • #
      OldOzzie

      WolfmanOzsays:
      October 30, 2022 at 8:37 am
      calli says:
      October 30, 2022 at 8:16 am
      Someone with an electronic version of Credlin’s Tele column might like to put up some choice bits. I only have dead tree edition.

      She pulls apart the energy policy which physically can’t happen and the fraud of the “million new homes” lie.

      Here you go:

      Peta Credlin: Anthony Albanese breaks pre-election promises to cut power bills

      Before the election, Labor repeatedly promised that average household power bills would be $275 lower by 2025. This week’s Budget exposes the truth — that people can expect huge increases instead, writes Peta Credlin.

      A budget that was supposed to be about the federal government delivering on its election promises has ended up confirming that it’s breaking them.
      On 97 separate occasions pre-election, Anthony Albanese and Labor promised that average household power bills would be $275 lower by 2025.

      In fact, say the Budget papers, electricity bills will rise by 50 per cent over the next 18 months (some warn as high as 80 per cent) and gas bills by 40 per cent.

      So instead of a $275 (or nearly 20 per cent) cut in household electricity costs, what can be expected is a $750 increase.

      Trying to justify their broken promise, the PM and the Treasurer have said that it’s Vladimir Putin’s fault, not theirs. But hang on; you can’t blame your broken promise on Putin’s war, when it broke out on February 24 and you were still making your promise right up to polling day on May 21.

      The other problem is that wholesale power prices started to surge not in February, when Putin invaded, but in April, when the Liddell coal-fired power station in NSW shut down a quarter of its capacity.

      Besides, why would Putin’s war have a direct impact on power prices in Australia, when we don’t import gas or any other energy from Russia?

      Click on Link to read Article

      90

      • #
        OldOzzie

        The Reality of Life in Australia’s Future under Mandated EVs

        Review of Ford F-150 Lightning Electric Pickup: Road Trips Are the Truck’s ‘Kryptonite’

        29 Oct 2022

        The Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck’s “kryptonite” is a road trip, according to the Detroit News review of the vehicle. Auto critic Henry Payne explains that the electric truck got him “170 miles of range” on a trip up interstate 75 in Michigan, while its gasoline-powered counterpart gets drivers “600 miles and 22 mpg.”

        “I’ve got the turbo-6 cylinder. I’m getting 600 miles and 22 mpg — I don’t think I’ll ever get one of those electrics,” an owner of a gas-powered F-150 told Detroit News auto critic Henry Payne while he was at his third fast-charger of the day during a road trip in a 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning EV tester.

        Payne, who was on his way to Charlevoix, Michigan, had informed the owner of the gasoline-powered vehicle that the electric truck was only getting him “about 170 miles of range on this trip up I-75.”

        The auto critic explained that he had charged the vehicle overnight to 100 percent, giving it a 320-mile range. He then ran a few errands the following morning, and started his road trip with 281 miles on hand.

        But by the time he got to Saginaw, “the Lightning was getting just 60% of estimated range and it was becoming clear to the trip computer that we would not make it to Gaylord,” Payne said, adding that the “281-mile range looked more like 168 miles.”

        The system then rerouted Payne to a charging station, but when he arrived, the only two chargers there were already occupied. So he drove to another facility that he knew had four charging stations. When he got there, unfortunately, two were occupied and the other two were being worked on by technicians.

        90

      • #
        yarpos

        The ALP is quite farcical on energy. They make one statement based on fantasy (the $275 saving) that of course isnt delivered. So what do they do? They make even bigger promises based on fantasy , that on basic inspection cannot be delivered, even if they were worth delivering. I fully expect them to shut down the remaining coal plants based on the fantasy of their previous fantasy based announcements.

        I wonder if all the enabling parties will just let this happen?

        90

        • #
          Sambar

          “I wonder if all the enabling parties will just let this happen?”
          Asolutely Yarpos, simply because they believe that “what can’t be done will take a while, the impossible, a little longer”. Speaking with one of our local zealots I was informed that science will find a way. No idea that any scientific concept generally takes years to reach fruition. Totally unable to see that cold fusion has only been twenty years away for the last 60 years and is still only 20 years away..
          Yes the enabling parties will let it happen because they are unable to think in any other way. Scary thought for the day, Some of these enablers have a medical degree, both human and animal medicine, and yet not able to think for themselves.

          20

  • #
    David Maddison

    The marvels of left wing “green” town planning.

    In some of the new suburbs of Sydney the streets are so narrow that garbage trucks can’t fit down them so residents have to roll their wheelie bins to adjacent streets where the trucks can fit down.

    I guess if a garbage truck can’t fit then neither can a fire truck.

    Brilliant!

    160

    • #
      yarpos

      Its really a public health program. Increase the number of bins so people have to sort stuff, then make them wheel it to a collection point. Exercise for all. Perhaps the new slimline EV garbage trucks will be the answer. No new diesel garbage trucks by 2030!

      60

  • #
    David Maddison

    In my area of Melbournistan, a “safe” Liberal (pretend conservative) seat, one of the candidates for the upcoming State election describes itself as an “independent” but they are actually a Teal. And I will not be surprised if they win, just as the Teals took other “safe” Liberal seats in the last Federal Election.

    And the Teal candidate has far more visibility and apparently funding, than the Liberal candidate. Interesting to contemplate where the money is coming from.

    In Vicdanistan, Teals have specifically targeted Liberal seats.

    The outcome will be an unspeakably evil and incompetent Labor/Green/Teal coalition.

    170

  • #
    el+gordo

    No point in building dams if the country is awash.

    ‘This week’s federal government budget axed the $5.4 billion Hells Gate dam project for north Queensland, a commitment by former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.

    ‘Almost $900 million of other dam projects have been delayed and, as indicated before the election, the government has clawed back $1.173 billion from the National Water Grid Fund.’ (ABC)

    90

    • #
      David Maddison

      No one in authority has worked out the Australian precipitation cycle yet.

      Flood followed by drought followed by flood followed by drought followed by flood followed by drought followed by flood followed by drought etc..

      130

      • #
        Climate Heretic

        You forgot the smidgen of sunshine.

        Regards
        Climate Heretic

        60

        • #
          yarpos

          we had a smidge today, I think that was summer

          Mrs Y loves Monty Don gardening show, I think she has a crush. He does lots of shows showing extravagant gardens in Europe. One day he was doing something more prosaic from his own place in England. At one stage he was talking about summer, and at one stage he turns to camera and says “you know, those 3 days in August if we are lucky”

          00

    • #
      OldOzzie

      A Land Of Droughts And Flooding Rains: Forecasting Rainfall At Long Lead Times

      The Australian continent has a long history of droughts and floods, extending into recent years. At any particular time, there is often a drought somewhere in continent of Australia. However, there is often a reluctance to acknowledge drought as a persistent aspect of Australian life and the arrival of drought is often greeted with surprise with a tendency for each drought to be perceived as “the worst on record”. Droughts are a recurrent and natural part of the Australian climate, with evidence of drought dating back thousands of years. The impacts of droughts have been categorised as meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, and socioeconomic. Many of the reported studies have emphasised the impact of drought on agriculture, which is as topical as ever due to drought in parts of eastern Australia affecting farming communities.

      Flooding rains are also a recurring feature of the Australian climate.

      Download A Land Of Droughts and Flooding Rains: Forecasting Rainfall At Long Lead Times, here.

      Plus

      Dorothea Mackellar wrote the poem My Country in 1908, from which the lines here – surely the most quoted – are taken:

      I love a sunburnt country,
      A land of sweeping plains,
      Of ragged mountain ranges,
      Of droughts and flooding rains.
      I love her far horizons,
      I love her jewel-sea,
      Her beauty and her terror
      The wide brown land for me!

      Mackellar wrote that just seven years after the Australian colonies got together to become the Commonwealth of Australia. More to the point, in the present situation, is that it was only 15 years after the great Brisbane flood of 1893, the worst to that date in settler Queensland’s history. The 1974 flood was the deadliest. The 2011 flood was the worst (the highest peak recorded). The 2022 peak, just passed, was significantly lower, though the flooding spread wider. There have been floods between times, each of them unique – and uniquely terrifying – in their own way.

      The point is that Mackellar’s paean to an Australian Australia – a novel notion in 1908, when England was “home,” though not to Mackellar who was a third-generation Australian, and still so today, 114 years later, for some – is not only an inspiration but is also descriptive of the facts: Australia is precisely a land of drought and flooding rains, as we are constantly reminded.

      70

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Institute of Public Affairs

        Rainfall and Volcanic Activity

        Large volcanic eruptions, especially those that occur within low latitudes, can have
        a great impact on the global climate19-21. Sulphur-rich gases are injected into the
        stratosphere, where they evolve into sulphate aerosols20. These aerosols scatter and
        absorb solar radiation, and therefore perturb the energy balance of the planet,
        affecting global climate. As a result, global-mean surface temperature decreases while
        the lower stratosphere warms. For example, the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the
        Philippines produced one of the greatest volcanic aerosols in the last hundred years,
        with the estimated net decrease of radiation reaching 10% in the tropics22.

        These radiative and thermal perturbations can in turn lead to changes in various
        components of the global climate system23. For example, studies have shown evidence
        that volcanic eruptions can lead to both enhancement and suppression of ENSO
        events23,24. Some investigations have associated volcanic eruptions with increased
        rainfall and flooding25,26, while other studies show evidence for decreased rainfall27,28,29.

        The Tonga volcanic eruption of 2022 has been confirmed as the largest explosive
        eruption of the 21st century, and on par with the biggest eruptions ever recorded30
        and possible influences on climate have been discussed by the BOM31. The estimated
        volume of ejected material was approximately 10 cubic kilometers, generating an
        atmospheric shock wave that circled the world several times, and producing an
        ash plume half the size of France. The eruption was equivalent in strength to the
        cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, with one such eruption
        expected once every 50-100 years.

        The volcanic eruption in Tonga and its influence on rainfall over eastern Australia
        in February 2022 would be regarded as a sporadic event, not predicted in ANN
        rainfall forecasts for Gympie with lead times in the range 12 months to 60 months.

        Inspection of Figure 4 showing monthly rainfall for August from 1870 to 2921 shows
        extremely high rainfall of 454.7mm in 1879, compared to the mean value of 39.5 mm.

        It is interesting that 1879 is considered to be a year of particularly eventful in terms of
        volcanic activity32, and this may explain the very high rainfall during August.

        60

        • #
          GreatAuntJanet

          Is this contributing to the seemingly long, cool and wet winter in Australia?

          40

        • #
          Vicki

          Yes – I heard an interview with Ian Plimer some time ago. He postulated that the Tongan eruption was producing some of the extreme rain events we are enduring.

          30

      • #
        el+gordo

        William Stanley Jevons was the first person to recognise the cyclic nature of drought and floods in Australia.

        71

        • #
          Scott

          el+gordo,

          David Burton follows on from the work done by Inigo Jones long term weather forecaster. My father in law and many of the old farmers swear by the accuracy of Inigo Jones back in the day. He used sunspot cycles and astronomy to predict floods and droughts. Basically the position of the planets in relation to Earth and the sun.

          David was predicting this big wet last year or at least as long as I have been following his comments and mentions next year will be worse. His work is uncannily accurate and puts the Bureau of Manipulation to to shame.

          May be similar to what Piers Corban in the UK does I am not sure I just know Piers uses astronomy in his work as well.

          30

          • #
            KP

            This from Ken Ring in 2016, who had just returned from a seminar in Melbourne that had David Burton talking-
            “We are half way down since the downturn began in 2007/8, which was on the cusp of maximum lunar declination and minimum of the solar cycle. The big drought is coming and all farmers and stockholders could be preparing for it immediately by downsizing and destocking what they can and becoming financially secure right now. We should emerge from the predicted economic decline around 2021.
            This is not scaremongering, simply longrange forecasting combined with trading forecasts. The message is to clear all debt immediately and sell if you can during 2016, which means getting rid of extra properties not essential to your main income. But above all don’t buy . Wait about 4 years and invest when prices are much lower. It means just doing nothing for a couple of years and being patient…

            One cycle match to 1898 which was a massive drought in NZ, was just before the Australian Great Federation Drought of 1901 which affected all states in Australia, and is provably equivalent to what is arriving before 2020. Our seminars have been designed to show the proof of this – the way that planetary cycles are responsible for droughts, e.g. Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions and Neptune/Saturn oppositions, and HAVE been ever since the year dot. Investors who have over extended recently will be leading the list of the bankrupts in 4 years time. ”

            I follow Kevin Long at thelongview.com.au and read his seasonal forecasts. I’ll look up David Burton too, it seems they’re on the same page.

            10

            • #
              el+gordo

              In your estimation, using planetary forcing, what does the coming decade offer?

              I’ll have a look and see what can be gleaned.

              00

            • #
              el+gordo

              “The solar system oscillates with a 60-year cycle due to the Jupiter/Saturn three-synodic cycle and to a Jupiter/Saturn beat tidal cycle…About 60% of the warming observed from 1970 to 2000 was very likely caused by the above natural 60-year climatic cycle during its warming phase” (Loehle and Scafetta)

              00

      • #
        Sambar

        And now government plans to “buy back” homes damaged by floods at Lismore. My parents had friends that lived in Lismore in the 40s and 50’s. These people had been flooded 5 times before they moved to higher ground. So after allowing countless more homes to be built on flood plains, some genius has the idea to buy back those that get flooded. I simply shakes me head.

        100

        • #
          yarpos

          My Aunt and Uncle (RIP) got flooded repeatedly in Lismore decades ago. They had the brainwave to move to Ballina (also flood central) and eventually moved to the top of a hill in Brisbane’s southern burbs. They moved a lot. Real estate agents and solicitors and State stamp duty offices loved them.

          50

    • #
      KP

      Typical Parasites.. They figure there is enough rain to last out the election cycle and then its someone else’s problem.

      60

  • #
    another ian

    More on that court verdict on New York “vaccine”mandating –

    “It found that the NY State Government, along with the Federal Government committed intentional — that is, malicious fraud upon the workers in NY State and elsewhere and indeed some of those people have gotten royally screwed or even killed by these jabs for no public benefit — that is, benefit to others in society — whatsoever.”

    More at

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=247302

    130

  • #
    RicDre

    Review of Ford F-150 Lightning Electric Pickup: Road Trips Are the Truck’s ‘Kryptonite’

    The Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck’s “kryptonite” is a road trip, according to the Detroit News review of the vehicle. Auto critic Henry Payne explains that the electric truck got him “170 miles of range” on a trip up interstate 75 in Michigan, while its gasoline-powered counterpart gets drivers “600 miles and 22 mpg.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/10/29/review-of-ford-f-150-lightning-electric-pickup-road-trips-are-the-trucks-kryptonite/

    50

  • #
    David Maddison

    Video, 12.5 mins, towing with electric F-150 truck.

    “TOTAL DISASTER”

    https://youtu.be/3nS0Fdayj8Y

    50

    • #
      Ronin

      I guess we still are in the ‘T-model’ era of electrification’ perhaps they will get better in future.

      40

  • #
    Macspee

    Won’t someone please tell us about the debate? It was impossible to be able to watch for inexplicable reasons.
    Will it be on YouTube, reported on or transcribed? The silence is maddening.

    70

  • #
    Ronin

    I notice Dictater Dan is slated to win the upcoming Vic election, is it Stockholm Syndrome, or just a pathetic opposition.

    100

    • #
      Philip

      Well, fake polls, or so I constantly read in comments sections on Youtube. But no, polls are relatively correct. It’s a sign of a few things. One, how left wing society actually is. Or how out of touch with politics people actually are. I look at some 18 year olds I know and they have zero idea of what is going on in society, and I’m not talking their opinion that I disagree with, but their complete lack of understanding or lack of enquiry. They just go with the flow if they go at all, and that flow is left.

      50

    • #
      Grogery

      is it Stockholm Syndrome, or just a pathetic opposition

      Both.

      40

    • #
      yarpos

      A lot of the left wing luvvies think Dan is a hero, so it not really Stockholm Syndrome they genuinely think he does a good job. They read the Labor aligned news outlets and ABC radio and believe unquestioningly. A lot of them voters need and want to be told what to do in their lives.

      20

  • #
    Ronin

    Looks like Morrison might have been right about the weekend, which involves towing a boat or caravan.

    30

  • #
  • #
    Climate Heretic

    Dorothea Mackellar (Second Stanza)
     
    I love a sunburnt country,
    A land of sweeping plains,
    Of ragged mountain ranges,
    Of drought and flooding rains.
    I love her far horizons,
    I love her jewel-sea,
    Her beauty and her terror –
    The wide brown land for me![1]
     
    If people had read this poem, then they would know all about its climate!
     
    Regards
    Climate Heretic
    [1] My Country – I love a sunburnt country

    50

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Even Institute of Public Affairs PDF of 21 Pages

      A LAND OF DROUGHTS AND FLOODING RAINS:
      FORECASTING RAINFALL AT LONG LEAD TIMES

      on Page 2 has

      The love of field and coppice Of green and shaded lanes,
      Of ordered woods and gardens Is running in your veins.
      Strong love of grey-blue distance, Brown streams and soft, dim skies I know, but cannot share it,
      My love is otherwise.

      I love a sunburnt country,
      A land of sweeping plains,
      Of ragged mountain ranges,
      Of droughts and flooding rains.
      I love her far horizons,
      I love her jewel-sea,
      Her beauty and her terror
      The wide brown land for me…
      An opal-hearted country,
      A wilful, lavish land
      All you who have not loved her,
      You will not understand
      though Earth holds many splendours, Wherever I may die,
      I know to what brown country
      My homing thoughts will fly.

      – My Country, Dorothea Mackellar (1908).

      More IPA commentary on this poem can be found at
      https://australia.ipa.org.au/genius-of-australia/

      60

  • #
    cadger

    No elf ‘n’ safety zealots in those days

    Shipyard 1935 documentary

    https://youtu.be/_qRXzSxSu_Q

    50

    • #
      yarpos

      ah the good old days when the odd fatality or maiming didn’t matter so much

      00

      • #
        Chad

        yarpos
        October 30, 2022 at 7:23 pm · Reply
        ah the good old days when the odd fatality or maiming didn’t matter so much

        Much like 2021/22 with the Vax programm ?😳😲

        10

  • #
    Geoff Sherrington

    Drought and flooding rains ….
    Countries like Canada & Scotland had their landscapes changed hugely by ice sheets and glaciers from which they are still recovering. Many of their food plains were scoured away to the seas.
    Australia did not have similar ice sheets. Our landscape levelling continued, with Nature obeying gravity and eroding hills and mountains into level plains.
    It is no mystery that we have floods when so much of the ground is level, so water flows slowly and builds to flood levels because it cannot go anywhere else fast enough.
    Geoff S

    80

  • #
    RicDre

    Joe Biden, talking yesterday about his work to defeat the Republican’s attempt to repeal Obamacare, said “That’s why we defeated it in 2018 when they tried to do it. We went to 54 states.” Mr. Biden wasn’t working as hard as Barack Obama was in his May 2008 campaign when he said “… And over the last 15 months we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states; I think one left to go.” This is why Democrats defeat Republicans; Republicans work in, at most, 50 states.

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-mocked-claiming-there-54-states-this-guy-completely-senile

    50

  • #
    • #
      Greg in NZ

      Plus, having to rely on a so-called ‘far-right’ government, such as Italy, to get her and the boyfriend and the bodyguards out of a (cough!) spot of bother.

      Ripleys Believe It Or Not: Existential Heat Freezes Cinders’ Plane – Italian Job To The Rescue.

      Fact-CHEKA™ will be working overtime disappearing this inconvenient truth down the memory hole.

      90

  • #
    RicDre

    Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE8Tc1cvSYM

    40

  • #
    John Connor II

    COVID Vaccine Injury Payments SKYROCKET in Australia – Media Blackout

    A new report revealed that the payouts for COVID death and injury EXPLODED in fiscal year 2022-2023. So far the government has paid out $76.9 million equating to 3,845 tier-one claims!

    Payouts for Covid-19 vaccine injuries are set to explode more than 80-fold to nearly $77 million by July next year, Tuesday’s budget papers reveal.

    The figure was quietly buried in the Services Australia portfolio budget statement, in a table detailing third-party payments from the agency “on behalf of other entities”.

    Services Australia administers the scheme for the Health Department.

    The table reveals that in 2021-22, the Covid vaccine claims scheme paid out just $937,000 — which would work out to about 47 people if they each received the maximum tier-one amount of $20,000.

    But in 2022-23, that amount is estimated to blow out to $76.9 million, equating to 3845 tier-one claims.

    https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/federal-budget/covid-vaccine-injury-payouts-explode-to-77-million-budget-reveals/news-story/df39fcf430c6cadb487a9914df7a3422

    Soon the vaxxed people will be dropping faster than the vaxxed cows…

    100

    • #
      John Connor II

      New Swiss Study: Covid Shots Increase Risk of Myocarditis by 800 TIMES in Young Adults

      The risk of myocarditis is 800 times higher for vaccinated than unvaccinated young adults, according to a recent Swiss study that is now gaining traction in the press.

      The results were based on the presentation by Prof. Christian Mueller (Basel, Switzerland) at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in August 2022: “Myocardial Inflammation/Myocarditis After COVID-19 mRNA Booster Vaccination.” According to the presentation at the conference:

      Prior to this study, there were no prospective data on post-vaccination myocardial lesions during vaccination with an mRNA vaccine. Only the most serious hospitalized myocarditis have been reported, mainly affecting men under 18 years of age.
      The actual incidence of post-vaccination myocardial lesions is 2.8% vs 0.0035% of myocarditis in retrospective studies
      Myocardial lesions affect women more — contrary to what is described in previous studies.
      The possibility of repeated doses of vaccine in order to maintain effective vaccination coverage should lead to great caution regarding possible repeated myocardial lesions and their impact on possible cardiovascular complications.
      “We know that there are potentially serious side effects to the COVID 19 mRNA vaccine such as myocarditis,” the authors state. “In retrospective data, the main cardiac complication is myocarditis, which remains rare with an incidence of 0.0035% and mainly affects young men under 18 years of age.”

      https://beckernews.com/new-swiss-study-covid-shots-increase-risk-of-myocarditis-by-800-times-in-young-adults-47674/

      A factor of 800.
      Go ahead TGA – explain why this is allowed to continue.

      50

  • #
    John Connor II

    2 in 10 Cows Injected With mRNA Jabs DIE Instantly

    According to reports, 35 out of 200 cows suffered “instantaneous death” after being administered the toxic vaccine.

    Analysts consider the mandatory vaccination of cows as a direct attack on food supply. Many of them are asking if the milk and other by-products would contain the spike protein that actually harmed the animals.

    “Dairy herd DNA is altered. Milk is altered and you consume it. Butter constitution, yogurt, cheese and meat are altered. Will chicken and other meats be next?” Principia Scientific International (PSI), a legally registered company in the U.K. incorporated for charitable purposes, said in a statement posted on its website.

    “Time to set up a community farm association with member farmers who are not part of the system, have herds or animals that are not jabbed or tagged so a community of private people can be consumers of organically produced livestock,” it added.

    https://uncanceled.news/nearly-2-in-10-cows-injected-with-mrna-vaccine-die-almost-instantly/

    Ahhh…but we can’t dispense with humans so quickly or no-one would ever take the vaxx.
    So the cows start dying, product contamination and safety become the next fear campaign pushed by the puppet media and sales crater. Farm bankruptcies follows.What can replace that meat?
    A nice 500g pack of toasted crickets with worm sauce perhaps, washed down with recycled sewer water? Good little humans. Eat it all up.
    Klaus will be happy…

    50

  • #
    John Connor II

    President Of Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL) Says ‘There is No Climate Emergency’

    CLINTEL is an independent foundation that aims to communicate objectively and transparently to the general public what facts are available about climate change and climate policy and also where facts turn into assumptions and predictions.

    A Message from Guus Berkhout, President of CLINTEL: There is No Climate Emergency
    In the past decades, the public has been flooded with fear-mongering stories, telling them that global temperatures will rise to catastrophically high levels.

    Climate activists claim that the cause of all this impending doom is the increasing amount of CO2 produced by human activities. The proposed solution is the so-called net-zero emission policy, aimed at lowering human net CO2 emissions to the levels of the pre-industrial era of the late 1700s.

    Those activists also claim that people should panic, and that time is running out: “Be aware that it is five minutes to midnight, we must act without delay!” Many thousands of scientists disagree; more than 1400 are CLINTEL signatories.

    In his numerous “last warning” speeches, Antonio Guterres refers to computer simulations, not the real world. Greta Thunberg testified to the US Congress that there was “no science” behind her “panic” comment. This information cannot be found in the media.

    So why is there such a big difference between the scaring climate activists’ narrative and the optimistic climate scientists’ message, who believe there is no climate emergency?

    https://clintel.org/there-is-no-climate-emergency-a-message-to-the-people/

    60

  • #
    John Connor II

    After Boston University created a new COVID with an 80% kill rate, it’s now been revealed Imperial College London has done nearly the same thing, merging the deadly original virus with the highly contagious Omicron. Critics are calling it “insanity” and “playing with fire.”

    https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1586368450762485760

    Masks won’t save you…

    50

  • #
    John Connor II

    Clorox Is Recalling 37 Million Pine-Sol Products Due to Bacterial Contamination

    Unfortunately, there might be bacteria brewing in your antibacterial cleaning products: Clorox, which produces an array of cleaning formulas, including Pine-Sol, is recalling 37 million products due to potential contamination.

    Company representatives noted that these cleaners might contain the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause infections in those with weaker immune systems.

    https://www.marthastewart.com/8332109/clorox-pine-sol-recall-bacteria-contamination-october-2022

    Oh the irony!
    Yes, we’ll recall a dodgy product that’s a public safety risk, but vaxxes…

    60

  • #
    John Connor II

    Optus reportedly sending cyber attack letters to dead people

    Optus has reportedly been sending letters to dead people and others who have never been customers of the telecommunications giant, telling them their personal information has been hacked.

    In another sign the company has fumbled its way through the cyber attack, many people have taken to social media to complain about generic letters they had received.

    https://thewest.com.au/news/optus-reportedly-sending-cyber-attack-letters-to-dead-people-c-8686650

    30

  • #
    TdeF

    I am counting the days to the US half election. If the Republicans sweep the House and Senate, a lot will change.
    Biden will have to rule by Executive Order because nothing else will get through Congress. And ruling by edict is
    a dictatorship.

    80

    • #
      John Connor II

      Nothing will change because civil war was always the outcome regardless of who wins.
      The demonrats DESPERATELY want nuclear war and they’ll do anything to get their way.
      People are irrelevant. Laws are irrelevant. Voting is meaningless.

      30

  • #
    John Connor II

    Dr. Peter McCullough, leader of freedom movement, top global cardiologist, stripped of medical licenses & credentials by Texas medical boards

    “I was terminated as the Editor-In-Chief of Cardiorenal Medicine and Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine after years of service and rising impact factors. There was no phone call, no board meeting, no due process. Just e-mails or certified letters. Powerful dark forces are working in academic medicine to expunge any resistance to the vax.

    Yesterday I was stripped of my board certifications in Internal Medicine and Cardiology after decades of perfect clinical performance, board scores, and hundreds of peer reviewed publications.

    None of this will stop until there is a “needle in every arm.”

    https://palexander.substack.com/p/dr-peter-mccullough-leader-of-freedom

    This must stop before everyone is injected and I have doubt it will be forcefully, under new laws, for coming orchestrated “dangerous (to WEF rule) strains”.

    Vote every left polly OUT or drag them out.

    100

    • #
      John Connor II

      Should have read:
      “and I have NO doubt it will be forcefully”

      20

    • #
      Vicki

      Of all the medical dissidents who alerted the world to the dangers of the vaccine, McCullough ( along with luminaries such as Robert Malone, Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kuldorff et al) has been a wonderful source of medical understanding for those who wanted alternate opinions on the efficacy of the vaccines. He will be vindicated in the long term, but it is a terrible punishment that is being inflicted for being a caring and responsible physician.

      60

      • #
        John Connor II

        If medical professionals displaying honesty, awareness, caution, professionalism and Hippocratic oath compliance are struck off, what lies ahead for that sector of the medical industry compliant in the global vaxx crime agenda?

        Food for thought…

        10

  • #
    John Connor II

    IEA World Energy Outlook 2022

    The APS is little more than fairy tale, where governments have promised things like Net Zero eventually, but have no plans on how to achieve it. It is easy for politicians to make silly promises for things in twenty or thirty years time, when they will be long gone.

    The key chart is below. Despite the IEA’s optimistic assumptions throughout this report, fossil fuel consumption remains very high even in 2050. Indeed it is still around the level of 2015, when the Paris Agreement was made.

    Ignore the pre-Paris baseline, which was never realistic. Under STEPS, emissions in 2050 will only be 12% lower than today. Clearly this proves just how little the world as a whole has actually done, despite the grandiose declarations at Paris and Glasgow.

    https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2022

    40

  • #
  • #
    Neville

    More evidence that Polar bear and Bengal tiger numbers are booming and ditto for Blue whales, Hump back whales etc.
    BTW even their clueless ABC admitted this morning that Phillip island Fairy penguin numbers had increased to record levels since the 1960s and today about 40,000 breeding pairs compared to 12000 pairs about 50 years ago.
    AGAIN I have to ask, “where’s this terrible climate change”???

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/10/29/the-myth-about-global-warming-killing-off-ocean-life/

    50

  • #
    John Connor II

    Saturday Sunday funny. Suddenly I like cats!

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1384944278154227717

    40

    • #
      Memoryvault

      It was the woman’s own fault.
      She wasn’t giving the cat her undivided attention.

      Now excuse me a moment, Boofhead is demanding his post dinner dessert (last night’s chicken leftovers).

      30

  • #
    John Connor II

    Biden’s POTUS Twitter account is getting fact checked by the now Elon-controlled Twitter

    https://twitter.com/AE_Holman1958/status/1586450420699869186

    How the tables have turned.
    FJB!
    🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    50

  • #
    James Murphy

    I haven’t watched the 4 Corners episode. Sorry if it has been covered already.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-09/renewable-energy-may-require-australian-mining-boom/101034914

    some lines that got my attention:
    “…It’s absolutely ironic, but to save the planet we are going to need more mines,” says Allison Britt, director of mineral resources at government agency Geoscience Australia…”
    “…These tough choices are increasingly becoming a trade-off between preserving local habitats and the global effort to avert the worst effects of climate change…”
    “…Australia is still the luckiest country…”
    “…Core Lithium declined requests for an interview. It plans to mine here for seven years and has promised to only partly rehabilitate the area…”

    40

  • #
    John Connor II

    Young Blood Plasma Reduces the Epigenetic Age of Rats by 54%

    The concept of ‘young blood’ has been associated with eternal youth for a very long period of time, and for most of that time it was associated with bizarre conspiracy theories and supernatural beings. It wasn’t until scientists started to study the effects of blood transfusions that the concept of young blood possessing regenerative properties started to be seriously considered. One of the most famous examples of this came out of Berkley in 2005, when a team of researchers surgically conjoined an older mouse to a younger mouse in order to study what affects this would have on the mice involved.

    What was found in this study was that the introduction of the young mouse’s blood through the circulatory system of the older mouse rejuvenated its’ tissues and reduced the signs of ageing. This discovery marked one of the very first examples of humans actively reversing the age of an organism, which in turn inspired numerous other experiments related to the rejuvenate properties of young blood. Furthering this research, a new study headed by Steve Horvath (Creator of the Horvath clock) utilised young blood plasma transfusions to significantly reduce the epigenetic age of rats, which would appear to reproduce the results that were obtained from Berkley in 2005. This time however, researchers had access to a much more accurate tool for measuring the biological age of an organism, that being epigenetic clocks such as the aforementioned Horvath clock. This particular study used six different forms of epigenetic clocks to analyse the epigenetic ages of rats before and after receiving young blood plasma.

    The results of this study were nothing short of remarkable. Going by the lowest estimates of epigenetic rejuvenation, the blood plasma treatment resulted in a 73.4% rejuvenation of the liver, a 52% rejuvenation of the blood, a 52% rejuvenation of the heart, and an 11% rejuvenation of the hypothalamus (which is a small part of the brain responsible for numerous functions, including hormone secretion and temperature regulation). Using what is known as the final version of the epigenetic clocks, the overall rejuvenation of the rats was 54.2%, which brings the rat’s epigenetic age in line with what would be expected from a young rat.

    Not only did this plasma treatment decrease the epigenetic age of the rats, but it also produced tangible results regarding the physical state of the rat’s bodies, such as:

    · Reducing blood triglyceride (fat) concentrations

    · Reducing Pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in the blood

    · Reducing blood glucose level

    · Returning antioxidant levels to a more youthful level

    · Increasing the level of High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, or so called ‘good’ cholesterol in the bloodstream

    · Increasing cognitive abilities such as learning and memorisation

    https://www.regenerativemedicinedaily.com/YoungBloodPlasmaReducestheEpigeneticAge

    Little wonder the “Elite” and those under them engage in practices the informed among us know about all too well…😉😉

    20

  • #
    another ian

    Now your very lastest chance!

    “Guardian: World Close to “Irreversible Climate Breakdown” ”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/10/29/guardian-world-close-to-irreversible-climate-breakdown/

    You will no doubt have a few more to avoid a subscription to The Guardian

    20

    • #
      yarpos

      I bet the Grauniad still flies a crack team of journalists and photogs to COP27 (accom and expenses inc) despite this imminent “irreversible climate breakdown” Oh the humanity!

      40

  • #
    Environment Skeptic

    I felt this was important and that my perception with respect to the ‘long covid’ question was confronted, and, as to what this phenomena is and how others infinetly more qualified than me are confronting this area of research. Will youtube take this down too??..i do not know. Here it is.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvjYmdCJ3X4

    10

  • #
    Steve of Cornubia

    I’m feeling melancholy, having just returned from a trip down the rabbit warren, otherwise known as the internet, having begun my journey upon seeing mention of a creek somewhere that had a population of Guppies – freshwater tropical fish – in a region they aren’t native to. This caught my eye because I recalled a population of Guppies and other tropical fish existing in a bleak and cold industrial canal in the north of England, where I grew up. They survived because the canal ran alongside a glassworks, which drew cold water from the canal to cool some part of the glassmaking process, then discharged the heated water back into the canal, raising its temperature. Even for an untravelled nine year-old, it was a surreal experience to swim in warm water outdoors while brightly-coloured tropical fish darted around me. Needless to say, the glassworks and the canal, along with those beautiful fish, are long gone.

    Now a little saddened, I then continued my reminisces and journeyed toward a small northern industrial town called Earlestown, where we lived. I had previously lived in Liverpool which, to a nature-obsessed kid, was a wasteland of blackened buildings and smog. In contrast, Earlestown was ‘countryside’ to me, with fields, trees and open spaces. The same canal passed nearby and was my happy hunting ground where, cane fishing net and jam jar in hand, I would search for newts, froglets and Sticklebacks. If we snotty-nosed little urchins felt lucky, we would hasten along the canal and lurk alongside the Sankey Sugar factory, hoping that a worker would come out onto a high gantry for a quick ciggie, whereupon we would shout, “Chuck us some candy mister – pleeeeeease!” On a good day, he would nip back inside before reappearing with big chunks of brown sugar which he would lob across the canal. If our benefactor had a good bowling action, we managed to avoid a concussion and didn’t lose the precious gift in the grass, we were set for fifteen minutes of bliss and a lifetime of tooth decay.

    Again needless to say, both canal and sugar works are gone. It really saddens me to see so much of our industrial history lost. People see value in stately homes, churches and civic buildings, but nobody seems to care about those monuments to ingenuity and labour upon which our current comforts were built.

    50

  • #
    Graeme#4

    Lost another house today in Perth. Something was being charged in the front room. When are we going to wake up to the huge risks of charging lithium batteries in a house?

    50

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Are we living through ‘Weekend at Biden’s’? America needs to know, but the complicit media won’t ask

    By Post Editorial Board

    Are staffers covering up for President Joe Biden the way they did for Senate candidate John Fetterman?

    Tuesday night’s debate revealed Fetterman’s debilitated post-stroke condition — and thus also exposed both the campaign staff who’d hidden the truth and the Dem-loving members of the media who for months covered for the progressive politico, even stomping on any reporters who raised doubts.

    Like Fetterman, Biden keeps the media at arm’s length — vastly more so than any recent prez. He did only nine formal press conferences in all of 2021, and eight so far this year. He’s done just 20 sit-down interviews (many of them softball) through the first year-and-a-half of his presidency.

    And that follows his “hide in the basement” presidential campaign, which also required massive media complicity. When he did appear before cameras he often delivered immortal lines like his “Look, fat” while addressing a voter in Iowa.

    Turning 80 next month, Biden’s already the oldest man ever to serve as president. And for all his lifelong habit of gaffes and verbal bumbling, it’s becoming harder and harder to watch the man without thinking he has some serious neurological problems.

    After a recent tree-planting event on the White House South Lawn, for example, the prez wandered off on his own, muttering “Which way are we going?” as his minders gingerly tried to direct him. (And that’s just his latest wander-off; they’re becoming fairly common.)

    Meanwhile, his administration completely and inexplicably refuses to release the records of Biden’s visitors in Delaware, where he’s spent about a quarter of his presidency. Is Joe getting treated by a neurologist there, and wants to keep it out of the public eye?

    It’s not ableist or ageist to demand that the most powerful man in the world show a clean bill of health, or to ask — now that we know Fetterman’s campaign did to shield him — if the White House staff is doing the same for Biden. The stakes are much higher than a Senate race.

    Democracy is impossible without an informed populace. And Americans need to know if we’re living through “Weekend at Biden’s” or have a president actually who’s fit to lead.

    30

  • #
  • #
    OldOzzie

    Will be interesting to watch Peta Credlin on

    New PETA CREDLIN documentary promising to “expose” THE CULT OF DANIEL ANDREWS ahead of State Election

    Sky News Australia has confirmed details of a new one-hour Peta Credlin documentary titled, The Cult of Daniel Andrews.

    In the new special, Peta Credlin will explore the motivations, the myths and the mystery behind Victoria’s all-powerful Premier; his rise to prominence, his hard-left agenda and just why Daniel Andrews has such a hold on the state.

    For some, Andrews’ eight-year reign has been the worst in Victoria’s history: the inquiries and the judgments against his government, the crumbling health and ambulance system, the deaths, the crippling debt, and the broken promises.

    For others, despite the longest Covid lockdown in the world, he can do no wrong. His government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, a disastrous hotel quarantine programme and extended lockdowns have strangled the state, yet Andrews’ popularity has seemingly not waned. As Labor leader, he’s let nothing stand in his way.

    Ahead of the Victorian State Election on Saturday 26 November, the special investigation will feature interviews with prominent insiders, plus explosive revelations from whistleblowers. It will tell the story of Andrews power and why his grip on Victoria is like nothing we’ve ever seen before in Australia.

    Sky News Anchor Peta Credlin said:

    “Around the country, people are asking the same thing – how can Victorians be thinking about re-electing this man given everything he’s put them through?”

    The Cult of Daniel Andrews is the third Peta Credlin special investigation and follows the top-rating Deadly Decisions: Victoria’s Hotel Quarantine Catastrophe and The Campaign Uncovered.

    The Cult of Daniel Andrews: A Peta Credlin Investigation – Premieres Wednesday 16 November at 7.30pm AEDT. Watch Sky News on Foxtel and Sky News Regional or stream on Flash

    10

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Top Endersays:
    October 31, 2022 at 10:33 am

    Andrew Bolt: Shameful Albanese government believes in apartheid

    Once the Left fought Apartheid. Now Labor is building – bit by bit – the architecture for a new Aboriginal state.

    For the first time in our history, Australia will have an ambassador for just one race. Yes, this shameful Albanese government really does believe in apartheid.

    Anyone claiming to be Aboriginal has until Friday to apply to be our first Ambassador for First Nations People.

    Note the word “Nations”. Labor is building – bit by bit – the architecture for a new Aboriginal state.

    It’s already planning to create an Aboriginal parliament, written into our constitution, and a future Aboriginal government must of course have its own ambassador.

    In fact, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has now placed an ad looking for just that.

    She says the lucky winner will consult “First Nations communities” to make sure we have a foreign policy that “supports First Nations businesses and exporters”, “supports indigenous rights”, and builds “connections across the Indo-Pacific region”, presumably with brown nations.

    After all, doesn’t Labor think all brown people are in some mystic way alike?

    So we’re getting an Aboriginal ambassador pushing an Aboriginal foreign policy meant to help only Aboriginal business.

    Once we had a White Australia immigration policy: no non-whites need apply. Now we have an Aboriginal ambassador representing Aboriginal “nations”: no whites need apply.

    Exactly what is the moral difference? Yet our government is behind this destructive racism.

    30