Saturday Open Thread

8.7 out of 10 based on 15 ratings

170 comments to Saturday Open Thread

  • #
    Jack01

    Have any of the enlightened lefties pushing for renewables “for the sake of the environment” seen photos of those vast arrays of solar panels, wind farms or that big battery in SA/Vic covering hundreds/thousands hectares of land? They look like an industrial wasteland from a sci-fi movie. And what about the huge areas being mined elsewhere to actually gather the materials? An annoying blend of hypocrisy and stupidity.

    530

  • #
    el+gordo

    We know the games almost up for the warminista when the MSM don’t link severe weather with global warming.

    ‘ … a review of coverage by national TV news from December 31 through January 4 of the first atmospheric river that hit California and the second atmospheric river, which triggered a “bomb cyclone,” found that with one exception, cable news networks — CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC — and national broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — failed to link these events to our warming climate.’ (Media Matters)

    191

    • #
      R.B.

      Did they mention pineapple express? Pretty sure that every time it happened since TV was invented, it got that label rather than atmospheric river – prior to “climate weirding”.

      Any mention of the 1862 Pineapple Express that dumped two and half metres of rain on some places in California in 45 days.

      60

      • #
        farmerbraun

        Heavy Storms Help California To Almost Eliminate Extreme Drought From State.
        LOL
        That’s the headline folks.

        20

    • #
      Bones

      The current heavy rain in Qld didn’t get the required responses when the reporter asked very wet locals about flooding.Answers were,It’s the wet season,we call this monsoon season or it’s what you get this time of year,quite normal.Don’t you just love people with No BS.

      70

  • #
  • #
    RicDre

    This is a small crack in the “Safe and Effect” facade covering the mRNA vaccines but its a start.

    CDC identifies possible ‘safety concern’ for certain people receiving COVID vaccines

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that a preliminary COVID-19 vaccine “safety signal” has been identified and is investigating whether the Bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine creates an increased risk of ischemic stroke in people 65 and older.

    https://www.foxnews.com/health/cdc-identifies-possible-safety-concern-certain-people-receiving-covid-vaccines

    200

  • #
    John Connor II

    Top Swedish Doctors Warn: Covid Shots Are ‘Obviously Dangerous’

    A group of Sweden’s leading doctors has issued a warning to the public that Covid shots are “obviously dangerous” and called on governments worldwide to order an “immediate halt” on vaccinations.

    Five of Sweden’s most senior doctors published a public statement in collaboration with Dr. Johan Eddebo, a researcher in digitalization and human rights.

    The top medical experts are raising the alarm about the vaccines and urge that “thorough investigations” must be carried out to identify the true incidence and severity of adverse effects.

    The doctors are members of the renowned bio-medico-legal network of Läkaruppropet.

    They have called a conference in conjunction with the Swedish Doctors’ Appeal network that will be held on January 21-22 in Stockholm.

    Its main focus will be on the consequences of the global politics surrounding COVID-19 and the effects of the vaccines.

    The following is the full statement issued by the group:

    The true character and scope of the harm caused by the unprecedented mass vaccinations for COVID-19 is just now beginning to become clear. Leading scientific journals have finally begun publishing data corroborating what the underground research community has observed over the last two years, especially in relation to complex problems of immune suppression.

    Truly concerning numbers pertaining to both births and mortality are also emerging.

    At this moment in time, a new, allegedly super-infectious Omicron variant is all over the headlines. A sub-variant of XXB, this strain is said to possess immune escape capabilities of precisely the type that some independent researchers predicted would follow on the heels of the mass vaccinations’ narrow antigenic fixation.

    https://slaynews.com/news/top-swedish-doctors-warn-covid-shots-obviously-dangerous/

    430

    • #
      David Maddison

      And yet the Australian Government and the medico-phamacological complex continue to be ignorant of what’s going on, or at least, will not admit to it.

      They can’t, and will never be able to claim “we didn’t know” or “we were following the best available advice”. That hopefully will make it easier to prosecute the guilty parties.

      300

      • #
        Graeme+P.

        They may not be able to claim it but that won’t stop them from saying it.

        200

      • #
        Peter C

        The best available advice on Vaccination is whatever the TGA, ATAGI and the AHPPC say it is. They are the people who bear the greatest responsibility, especially the AHPPC.

        Hopefully they can be held to account.

        160

        • #
          Mike Jonas

          Recent history suggests that the TGA etc will not be held to account. The entire elite world has closed ranks against the people, and it is going to take a humungous effort to defeat them. I suggest that emperor for life Xi Jinping is in a much weaker position than they are (well maybe that does give us something a teensy weensy bit realistic to hope for).

          30

      • #
        paul courtney

        Mr. Maddison: Here in the USA, Dr. Fauci showed us how it’s done. Softball interview with a fool named Cavuto broke big news- Doc Fauci didn’t have a twitter account! This was a classic, Clintonesque non-response to the question (did you tell twitter what to do?). Nobody ever said Fauci used a twitter account to do this, and it’s well known how he did it, but Mr. Cavuto not interested in exposing this evasion. Thus Fauci avoids the real question, why did you suppress other doctors? Very little chance now that he will ever face that sort of question.

        10

  • #
  • #
    John Connor II

    GOP To End US Funding of the World Health Organization

    Congressman Chip Roy and several other House Republicans introduced legislation on Thursday that will ban the U.S. from funding the corrupt World Health Organization.

    Congressman Roy released a statement about the proposal, stating, “Funneling millions of taxpayer dollars to the corrupt World Health Organization that serves the Chinese Communist Party is a slap in the face to hardworking American families struggling under record-high inflation, and to all those whose lives and livelihoods were ruined and destroyed by the COVID pandemic.”

    “The WHO not only regularly promotes abortion and radical gender ideology but also praised China for their ‘leadership’ at the beginning of COVID-19 and has done nothing to hold the CCP accountable for the spread of COVID-19. It is far past time for Congress to use its power of the purse to cut off US funding to this corrupt international body just like the Trump Administration did,” he added.

    Congressman Roy is proud to be joined by Rep. McClintock (CA-05), Jeff Duncan (SC-03), Mary Miller (IL-15), Andrew Clyde (GA-09), Harshbarger (TN-01), Matt Rosendale (MT-02), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), Paul Gosar (AZ-09), Dan Bishop (NC-08), John Moolenaar (MI-02), Pat Fallon (TX-04), Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Wesley Hunt (TX-38), Huggins (LA-03), Greg Steube (FL-17) in introducing this legislation.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/epic-gop-legislation-hopes-to-end-us-funding-of-the-world-health-organization-who/

    Good! Now do NATO as well.

    330

    • #
      John Michelmore

      Is this a prime case of look over there? Didn’t Fauci and Co fund gain of function in China using US money?

      140

      • #
        John Michelmore

        I agree however that the WHO and the UN must be defunded; at least there are still a few countries that retain their sovereignty. Probably Russia and China are the most prominent examples. I don’t think either of these used mRNA Covid vaccines; and don’t destroy their countries with stupid energy policies!

        220

      • #
  • #
    John Connor II

    THIS is why it’s so hard to get liberals and lefties to see reason.
    Do you believe in abortion?

    https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_rc0u3qhipx1zypo0g.mp4

    Brainwashed garbage regurgitators…

    82

    • #
      Mark Kaiser

      I wonder if that woman is now childless.

      62

    • #
      Honk R Smith

      That’s called staying on message.
      Their cohorts are well trained.
      It’s why even though we have honorable heroic leadership like JoBoudica, a single legion of nose ringed pink haired inane screechers has defeated us.

      Example:
      (Trust me, I am as guilty of this as anyone.)
      Dinner party conversation, “that hurricane was really destructive, we must do something to stop Climate Change!”
      Us …
      “well, actually simple research shows that hurricane frequency is at historical lows in the modern …”
      And there we go fighting fair.
      When we should simply stay on message …
      “Climate Change is B___ S___”.
      Repeat.
      ‘Reason’ does not sell vaccines and basketball shoes … or reason.

      101

  • #
    John Connor II

    South African economy is close to collapse, says economist

    Eunomix CEO and chief economist Claude de Baissac said South Africa is collapsing and that the lack of economic growth means the country is facing a debt crunch.

    Speaking to Classic Business, De Baissac said people are opting out of the South African economy because it is structurally hollow and on the verge of collapse.

    The process includes skilled and wealthy individuals leaving the country, capital moving to other countries, and providers of goods and services limiting local operations.

    “Our data shows South Africa is two to three years away from a massive debt crisis,” De Baissac said.

    The reason is that South Africa’s budget forecast is overstating economic growth by between 1.2% and 1.4%.

    “If I take the average forecasts over the past five years, excluding 2020 and 2021, we are going to be back on the normal growth curve of the country, which has been going down since 2011,” he said.

    He predicts that South Africa’s economic growth is going to be between 0.2% and 0.4% this year, which is significantly lower than the government’s forecasts.

    The slow economic growth, coupled with poor policies, bankrupt parastatals, and rising debt, is creating serious financial problems.

    https://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders/2022/11/28/sa-collapse-economy

    Posted as Martin A. is predicting they will collapse by 2027. (Just before 2028)
    Most countries are in the same boat just not so far gone. 60 are on the brink right now.

    Maybe solar and wind power will turn things around. (Wind power. Turn things around. 😁)

    Blomkamp had better hurry up with District 10. 😎

    170

    • #
      Dennis

      As a matter of urgency send Albanese, Chalmers and Bowen as advisors immediately.

      sarc.

      280

    • #
      John Connor II

      Martin Armstrong – will the economy collapse in 2023?

      Direct link:
      https://sp.rmbl.ws/s8/2/6/5/b/T/65bTh.caa.rec.mp4

      50

    • #
      yarpos

      Its always a good day when you learn a little something new. I had to look up “parastatals” I have never seen that word before.

      70

    • #
      mawm

      So sad but when you drive out the human capital to the extent that SA did you are unlikely to succeed. Many other countries have benefited from this.

      10

    • #
      KP

      “Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt shares De Baissac’s view, saying the government’s interference in the economy is detrimental to the country. Roodt said companies should be allowed to go bankrupt as it is part of a healthy economy and how the system works.

      “When a company is mismanaged and gets into trouble, it gets liquidated, and the scarce capital is given to somebody else to give it a go,” he explained.

      However, in South Africa, there are numerous laws and regulations trying to keep businesses alive which are not supposed to be alive. “Eskom is a good example – it is not supposed to be alive. South African Airways is not supposed to be alive,” he said.”

      ALL the Western Govts are guilty of that! For decades they have been doing it, NZ up to the Lange Govt in the mid-80s, the place was moribund with subsidies, prop-ups, taxes, duties and regulations. $850million for the BNZ when a million dollars meant something.

      Lange & Douglas made great strides and put the country back on an even keel. While the horrible women since then have returned to Communism, Aussie has never got out of that thinking. I’m amazed they let Ford and Holden go, they’d been pouring taxpayer’s money into that complete waste of resources for years.

      10

  • #
    David Maddison

    An Ayn Rand interview by Mike Wallace from 1959.

    https://youtu.be/lHl2PqwRcY0

    Her objectivist philosophy is based upon objective reality. It is quite the opposite of the dominant ideology today (present company excepted) of post-modernism which posits that there is no such thing as objective reality.

    As she states, the only philosopher she drew anything was Aristotle.

    From elsewhere:

    https://www.atlassociety.org/post/honoring-ayn-rand-contribution-to-aristotles-concept

    December 2004 — Ayn Rand acknowledged Aristotle as the only philosopher to whom she was indebted, the father of logic who defined “the basic principles of a rational view of existence and of man’s consciousness.” Rand agreed with Aristotle that man’s life should be guided by reason and that the purpose of man’s life is happiness. She agreed that happiness depended on objective, external conditions rather than on a subjective, internal disposition.

    Rand’s definition of happiness as “non-contradictory joy,” the joy of achieving one’s values by following reason, corresponds to Aristotle’s definition of happiness (or eudæmonia in ancient Greek): “The life according to reason is best and pleasantest, since reason more than anything else is man. This life therefore is also the happiest.”

    150

  • #
    David Maddison

    According to the Australian Government ivermectin might kill you or turn you into a horse, (or you might be a “right wing conspiracy theorist”), but in the real world, yet another study proves its efficacy in treating or preventing covid 19.

    It ought to be a crime, and maybe a smart lawyer might be able to show that it is, that this safe and effective treatment or prophylactic agent is prohibited for use in Australia in respect of covid.

    https://www.medincell.com/en/2023/01/05/medincell-announces-positive-results-for-the-saive-clinical-study-in-prevention-of-covid-19-infection-in-a-contact-based-population/

    JANUARY 5, 2023

    MedinCell Announces Positive Results for the SAIVE Clinical Study in Prevention of Covid-19 Infection in a Contact-Based Population

    January 05, 2023 03:10 PM Eastern Standard Time

    MONTPELLIER, France–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Regulatory News:

    MedinCell (Paris:MEDCL):

    The study conducted in 399 participants met its primary efficacy endpoint with a reduction of 72% of COVID-19 infection in the group treated with daily oral administration of ivermectin compared to the placebo group

    Ivermectin administered for 28 days demonstrated acceptable safety and tolerability without any unexpected safety signals

    The SAIVE study was conducted to support mdc-TTG program, whose objective is to provide prevention of Covid-19 infection for weeks or months with a single injection of a long-acting formulation of ivermectin based on MedinCell’s proprietary technology, BEPO®

    Note: this publication is not a recommendation to use ivermectin against Covid-19.

    131

    • #
      John Connor II

      Ivermectin – the number #1 choice.

      https://9gag.com/gag/avQoExZ

      120

    • #
      John Michelmore

      Why would they put a disclaimer at the end of their study results. They are obviously paranoid about idiots that might take a horse sized dose!

      80

    • #
      another ian

      Bumped

      A reminder

      “The same is true for intermittent-use medications; for example, Ivermectin is known to be extremely safe in that sort of use because it has been used for forty years on an intermittent basis to control parasitic infections, typically taken once every few months.

      In this sort of use pattern four billion human doses have been administered and the serious adverse event risk has been found to occur roughly once in every 600,000 people it is given to.

      To put this in perspective both aspirin and acetaminophen, which are both intermittently used by millions of Americans, have a serious adverse event risk over ten times higher that Ivermectin.”

      (My bold).

      “Two Health-Related Nasties”

      https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=247844

      More than that there”, including that there is one too many “t’s” in “statins”

      120

    • #
      PADRE

      Talking about the denial of ivermectin being a crime, I was particularly struck by the transcript of a zoom conversation between Drs Tess Lawrie, a data researcher and scientific consultant, and Andrew Hill of the WHO. This transcript begins on page 49 of Robert F Kennedy’s book, “The Real Anthony Fauci”. Hill had written in favour of IVM but suddenly changed his tune and modified the conclusion of his paper thus effectively ditching IVM. At one point Dr Lawrie says that IVM prevents deaths by 80%.”So 80% of those who are dying don’t need to because there is ivermectin.” Hill was compromised by some of his financial backers. He was, in effect, corrupted and later emerged to prromote a lecture, “Effects of Bias and Potential Medical Fraud in the Promotion of Ivermectin”.

      20

  • #
    John Connor II

    Super-fit Missouri dad, 35, suffers three strokes after ‘turning his head too quickly’ playing pickleball and tearing an artery

    A Missouri father-of-four claims he is lucky to be alive after suffering three strokes when he turned his neck too quickly while playing sports.

    Joel Hentrich, 35, from Festus, was playing pickleball with friends on a Wednesday night in November when he felt a ‘pop’ in his neck as he turned to track the ball.

    His vision immediately blurred, and he collapsed on the court and projectile vomited before a tingling sensation swept across his face, hand and legs.

    Mr Hentrich, a nurse, was rushed to hospital by friends and admitted to intensive care for scans which showed he had torn an artery in his neck and suffered three strokes in the lower part of his brain.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11623403/Super-fit-Missouri-dad-35-suffers-three-strokes-turning-head-quickly-tearing-artery.html

    Turning your head too quickly could tear one of the major blood vessels in your neck, which may cause blood clots and lead to a stroke.

    Cervical artery dissection, as it is known medically, is considered one of the most common causes of a stroke in patients under the age of 50.

    It is most commonly caused by high impact injuries, such as car crashes. But it can also be triggered by sneezing, coughing and vomiting.

    Private healthcare firm Bupa says the symptoms of the potentially killer condition include a headache, neck pain and even hiccups.

    In 2017, MailOnline broke the news of an Indian man who had a stroke after tearing one of the arteries in his neck from a rough massage.

    Figure suggest there are around three cases of spontaneous neck artery tears in every 100,000 patients. It most commonly affects the carotid arteries.

    Not the vaxx for a change, but it shows the risk of sudden twisting movements.

    110

  • #
    David Maddison

    The new pro-freedom Republican Governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders just Tweeted:

    Today I was proud to sign an executive order terminating five existing orders on COVID.

    In Arkansas, we will not have mask or vaccine mandates. We will not shut down churches or schools. And we will move beyond COVID.

    I stand for freedom and it’s time to get back to normal.

    340

  • #
    David Maddison

    Latest video from Dr Suneel Stand about how The American Academy of Pediatrics wants to drug children and do surgery on them to treat obesity.

    https://youtu.be/LcOODvYEfZs (8 mins)

    Back in the day obesity would be treated with correct food and less of it plus exercise. Today it’s surgery and drugs.

    180

  • #
  • #
    David Maddison

    Video:

    Jordan Peterson is interviewed by his daughter about the College of Psychologists of Ontario attempt to re-educate him and possibly cancel his license to practice as a clinical psychologist.

    He sees this as an extremely big deal, and is taking it VERY seriously.

    https://youtu.be/gQYCJIDHGnQ

    121

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Thanks David,
      I’ve just finished watching it, in two bights. What a position for him to be in. I admire his guts and determination and wish him well.
      I also think we all need him. And we need him to win.

      When I first saw it was 80 minutes, I hesitated to start, but now doubt he could have said enough in a shorter time.

      Cheers
      Dave B

      00

  • #
    David Maddison

    VIDEO (12.5 mins)

    Dr. Wolf: The Biomedical State Is Already Racing To Blame Others For Their Crimes Before The Investigations

    https://rumble.com/v25dq42-dr.-wolf.html

    91

  • #
    David Maddison

    I posted this comment on the last thread concerning the Antikythera mechanism.

    So far it has scored two red thumbs. I have no idea why.

    An Australian has reproduced the mechanism in his home workshop using only tools and materials available 2000 years ago, and making tools if necessary.

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to4RXv4_jDU2

    162

  • #
    TdeF

    President Zelensky has started attacking the Orthodox Church. In a way in which the English forced the Irish to pay tithes to the Fake Church of Ireland, a move which caused civil war in Ireland in the 1830s. And stripping archbishops and priests of their citizenship and a citizen who was a whistleblower on Biden family business in Ukraine. It is all a mess and the Biden family have been major players.

    This seemingly minor bit of anti church news will unsettle many Ukranians. Even Stalin realised that he needed the fierce Russian religion in the Great Patriotic War and called on Russians to fight for Mother Russia and the Church. People do not understand that the two poorest countries in Europe, Moldava and Ukraine are so passionately religious, something which is vanishing in the athiestic West.

    While the US and UK are continually told they are on the right side and it permeates the press, there is another side, unreported. It is geopolitics, civil war, not simply good guys and bad guys as the press would have us believe. It will not end well as the UK considers sending their tanks and Zelensky claims Ukraine is now defacto part of the EU, which is extremely provocative for both sides. It is hard to know how this will end, except in a de facto boundary, if we are lucky. Underneath the poor Ukranians are suffering terribly. It’s all about the money.

    And while the UN keeps attacking everyone on Climate Change as the greatest threat to world peace, where are they? So much for the forum for peace to prevent war. 40,000 people so busy taxing ‘dirty’ carbon dioxide. The UN is making as much sense as the League of Nations.

    210

    • #
      Honk R Smith

      On point as usual TdeF.
      I too, think this is a big deal.
      Only because for years I had a coffee friend of Ukrainian (Russian) origin, long before the current situation. He explained in detail the centuries old conflict between Polish Roman Catholic Ukraine, and Russian Eastern Orthodox Ukraine.
      And he educated me on this …
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar

      Odd, like the climate issue, once again knowing history puts us at odds with the narrative.

      120

  • #
    John Connor II

    Beetleburgers could soon reach mass production — helping to feed the world

    PARIS, France — Beetleburgers could soon be helping to feed the world, according to new research.

    The creepy crawlers’ larvae — better known as mealworms — could act as a meat alternative to alleviate hunger worldwide. The process uses a fraction of the land and water and emits a smaller carbon footprint in comparison of traditional farming.

    To make this a reality, French biotech company Ynsect is planning a global network of insect farms, including nurseries and slaughterhouses. A pilot plant has already been been set up at Dole in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comte region of France.

    Unlike the livestock industry, where rearing is typically separate, this entire bug-based operation is under one roof.

    “We are in full control of the chain of production. That gives us strength in terms of quality, security and safety,” says Benjamin Armenjon, general manager of Ynsect, according to a statement from SWNS.

    Robot arms and automated conveyor belts transport stacks of red trays in every direction. They are are filled with billions of Tenebrio molitor beetle larvae. The dried critters are more than 50 percent protein and rich in fiber and fats as well.

    They can be turned into protein powders, shakes, burgers, cereal bars, and even cooking oils at a fraction of the environmental cost of traditional farming. For every one kilogram of protein, Ynsect uses 98 percent less land and emits 40 times less carbon than beef. It also uses 40 times less water than pork production.

    The mealworms are fed byproducts from wheat processing. Mixed with sugar, the beetles supposedly taste just like real meat. They could also become alternatives to sausages or chicken nuggets.

    https://studyfinds.org/beetleburgers-feed-the-world/

    Worms+sugar=meat…
    I shall ponder that one at tonight’s bbq.😁

    120

    • #
      David Maddison

      I won’t be eating that poverty food.

      They are also lying about current foods and agricultural practices being that meaningless term “unsustainable”.

      It is also a lie that insects have superior food conversion rations to other food like chickens.

      A cricket has a food conversion ration of 1.9-2.4 and a chicken around 2 so about the same. See ref. below.

      Do you think the Elites will be eating mealworms and crickets or will they be eating steak?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio?wprov=sfla1

      141

    • #

      Seafood sounds nice if I can’t eat a nice steak. Beetleburgers? NO……….

      110

    • #
      Saighdear

      Poor wee Buggers, the thought of mass killing of them just to suit a green agenda. How are they to be humanely killed – have they no feelings? they do caare for their young, don’t they? Now imagine in the scheme of things that WE were that Bugs and each cloud of rain or shadow initiated the food processing to us in order that we may feed some higher being, what would we feel like? don’t those critters have any feelings either? I’m told that potatoes and carrots squeal when peeled, I wouldn’t like to be trodden on or heated in a lidded pot … Just don’t understand the world any more. Oat milk or beetle juice, anyone? Soylent Green.

      70

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    Musing on the “official diagram” (IPCC) “explaining” Global Warming I calculate that (all figures rounded as percentages)
    Incoming radiation from the Sun 100%
    Reflected by clouds 31.3%
    Absorbed by atmosphere 2.6%
    Reflected by surface 8.8%
    Lost by thermals 7.0%
    Lost by evaporation 22.8%

    Net Heat absorbed by surface 48.5%
    Heat radiated by surface 114% (or 2.35 times the Net amount absorbed)

    Speaking of perpetual motion machines
    In 1719 & 1720 two great schemes appeared in first France, then England. Both were based on the promise of riches, from Louisiana in France (France then owned eastern Canada and claimed land up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, at least on paper). Government debt was unpopular (trading around 16% of nominal value) because interest wasn’t being paid as the Govt. was bankrupt.
    The revitalised Mississippi Co. issued stock on easy terms, taking Govt. debt at face value as part payment. Further issues were on easy terms (10% margin) and the National Bank issued a flood of banknotes to boost trade.
    Initially things went well, the stock went from 350 to 9,000 and eventually close to 20,000. People felt rich and tried to buy assets (land, gold, jewels) and inflation was roaring. At least 6 printers were running 24 hours a day making banknotes in increasing denominations. Then came the crash. The head of the whole concern was blamed and fled into exile.

    But with that initial boom some speculators in England launched their own bubble for the South Sea Co. to trade with Spanish South America. Again Govt. debt (paying approx. 8-10% interest when mortgages cost 4-4.5%) was accepted in part payment. Initial enthusiasm drove the price of stock from £110 to £1050, thanks largely to low margin buying terms, along with generous cash loans (on paper so only helping buying) followed by inflation then collapse. This time some of the guilty were punished – the Chancellor of the Exchequer was sent to the Tower of London (where an imprisoned Lord complained about ‘the Low Company’ he had to endure). One Minister suicided, 2 died abruptly and several others lost all political influence. The Directors (& some Office bearers) of the Company were heavily fined (99% of net worth for the most guilty).
    Many lost a lot (£20,000 by Isaac Newton), the Duke of Portland (one of the richest men in the UK) fled overseas to be Governor of Jamaica for the small salary and didn’t dare return. Others did well, Sarah Duchess of Marlborough for one, Swiss banks who sold out at the right time and Thomas Guy who founded Guy’s hospital with his fortune.
    The country went into deep recession, prices slumped through lack of buyers and recovery took years.
    Anyone see any parallels with the current deficit spending and enthusiasm for renewables?

    120

    • #
      TdeF

      I note that the foundation story is Global Warming. For the last few years the UN IPCC has been trying to ‘walk that back’ as they say these days. There is no warming being reported, which is odd considering that in a chaotic system it should be warming somewhere. Perhaps on the top of Greenland?

      But generally there is no detectable warming, the polar bears are fine, arctic ice is normal and there seems to be a cold drought this winter in Europe with a lack of snow. This is all perfectly normal for the last few hundred years but not as warm as in the Renaissance or Roman times. And if there was warming, you would be reading the headlines today. So there is none.

      And the world socialists are printing money as fast as they can because that is what they do. And inflation is roaring. Meanwhile governments are pushing up the price of every essential item, electricity gas, coal, fuel, food and creating artificial shortages and trying to shut down farming.

      It will not end well. We will see what a Republican Congress does in the next two years. I have utterly lost confidence in the Tories in the UK, as has most of Britain. What keeps them in power is that the opposition is even worse.

      What is unknown is the impact of the devastating Wuhan Flu in China, now the world’s biggest exporter. Supply chains will have stopped. At least it may have postponed an invasion of Taiwan.

      120

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Ah! But the Greenland Ice Sheet is claimed to be warming. Even if true, I cannot see a rise in temperature from minus 40℃ to minus 20℃ would result in ice melting, nor is it a threat to polar bears who don’t live there.

        Incidentally, came across a claim that those spectacular glacier collapse into the sea (just as filming was occurring) might have somthing to do with the helicopter dropping small explosive charges into crevasses behind the front wall of ice and setting them off by command. Curiously I was watching a BBC film on life near the Victoria falls recently where the wall of the ‘dried up’ riverbank full of nests in the mud suddenly collapsed. At the time I wondered how the camera crew just happened to be there when the collapse occurred. And this was before those walruses “committed suicide from Global Warming”.

        90

        • #
          TdeF

          And lemmings drowned themselves by jumping off cliffs in their mass migration. Entirely fake by Walt Disney in one of the earliest wildlife documentaries. They were pushed down a cliff into a river in landlocked Alberta, Canada.

          “The “pack of lemmings” reaches the final precipice. “This is the last chance to turn back,” Hibbler states. “Yet over they go, casting themselves out bodily into space.”
          “Lemmings are seen flying into the water. The final shot shows the sea awash with dying lemmings.”

          All fake.

          90

        • #
          TdeF

          And if there is no warming anywhere else, any scientist would be seriously questioning a rise of 20C on top of a glacier in the middle of nowhere. Greenland has a population of 56,000 around the edge and 3700metres in the middle. At those altitudes, it is never hot at 1C per 100 metres of altitude. You are in the stratosphere.

          Maybe there is a Greenland BOM?

          100

        • #
          Hanrahan

          May I remind you of Glacier Girl a Lockheed P-38F Lightning, part of a flight of aircraft lost over Greenland on 15 July 1942.

          I quote wiki: All the crew members were subsequently rescued, but Glacier Girl, along with the unit’s five other fighters and the two B-17s, were eventually buried under 268 feet (82 m) of snow and ice that built up over the ensuing decades.

          In 1992 it was dug out of the ice and restored.

          How much “warming” do you need to have 82m of ice form? The warming scare was alive and well by then.

          130

          • #
            TdeF

            And of course you have to melt 82 metres of snow just to get back to the levels of 1942. It does not sound like 80 years of warming to me.

            50

      • #

        The warm period was the Medieval warm period 1050- 1300, not the Renaissance 14th-17th centuries.

        30

    • #
      TdeF

      And I have to say that despite these calculations, where is the effect of the oceans? The only driver of climate is solar radiation and thus CO2?

      It is utterly crazy science when the atmospheric calculations prove utterly wrong to blame the oceans for interfering. El Nino etc. There are two core components to the climate, the incident radiation and the oceans.

      Where solar radiation to all intents and purposes is a constant in a human lifetime. Oceans are a huge vibrating chaotic mass.

      And Oceans can only lose heat by evaporation. They are too cool to radiate and they cover 75% of the world’s surface. So these numbers are about the 25% which is not ocean or ice, I presume.

      These gigantic ocean heat batteries never freeze and they are 3.4km deep on average (including the glacier we call Antarctica) and the heat stored in phenomenal. You see it every single day as the air heats and cools, from 5C in the tropics to 60C over the deserts. Every day. How much do the oceans change? 0C, at least below the surface. And they are stuffed with the solar radiation of a hundred thousand years.

      So ocean currents, not just surface currents but deep currents, upwellings, sinks, gyres, streams like the amazing gulf stream at 9kh/hr and 10 million tons of hot water a second have a huge impact, perhaps the greatest impact on climate where the sun does not vary.

      Without water, there is no climate. There are no storms, hurricanes, floods. There is no rain.

      Mastering the ocean currents is the key to understanding climate, not this silly daily radiation arithmetic.

      And what do we read? Radiation arithmetic is now the key to all weather events when we know the radiation level hardly changes in the short term?
      IPCC radiation accounting is as sensible as Nett Zero. Poor accounting and rubbish science. It’s all about vilifing filthy dirty carbon dioxide and collecting carbon taxes, carbon indulgences.

      Then you get the sophistry that weather is not climate. But climate determines the weather? Isn’t that entirely the wrong way around?

      90

  • #
    Simon

    Gavin Schmidt’s commentary on the 2022 temperature record updates is worth a read.
    https://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2023/01/2022-updates-to-the-temperature-records

    120

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      I doubt i.t

      140

    • #
      TdeF

      The narrative underlying all this is that while nothing much has happened in the last century, we humans are in total control through industrial CO2.

      I would love to see some actual proof that fossil CO2 levels are are more than 3%. Or read that Gavin could actually predict El Nino. Or anyone else.

      A real model of temperature should be able to show all the known inflexion points for the past 270 years. Gavin can’t. By Professor Carl Otto Weiss can. See 15:49. Two simple cycles, solar and the PDO/AMO. And they even predicted a peak around 2010, now a steep drop to 2050 of about 2C.

      160

      • #
        David Maddison

        That 20 min video by a Professor Carl Otto Weiss is excellent TdeF.

        90

        • #
          TdeF

          For me it is conclusive. It explains the past and the present perfectly and so simply. By the principle of Occam’s razor, he has explained it all.

          Given that we have a century of very good data, if you cannot fit the past, you cannot predict the future. His two utterly dominant cycles, only two cycles, found in a completely blind test without CO2 pick all nine inflexion points. His longer term historic graphs show the bigger De Vries 250 year solar cycle repeating over thousand of years. Nothing, absolutely nothing from the likes of Michael Mann and friends comes near it. Those science fakes just changed the data to create a hockey stick. Mann does belong in Penn State.

          160

          • #
            TdeF

            And it also means that the ocean oscillations, if not explained but at least mapped in time, are a full explanation of the short term. As is so obvious with the current story of the amazing occurrence of three ‘La Nina’s. “It’s the third La Nina event in a row. This is rare, but not unheard of. Triple La Ninas have also occurred in, for example, 1973–1976 and 1998–2001”

            While self appointed Climate Scientists are utterly shocked. Professor Weiss would be saying, ‘told you so’.

            110

        • #
          Simon Thompson M.B. B.S. (hons)

          can you imagine Adam Bandt understanding the Fourier transformation? If the mathematical model explains the data, the whole CO2 theory is bust. Mathematical illiteracy. There are so many wonderous scientific explanations of our world which are reduced to propaganda talking points.

          70

          • #
            TdeF

            I met him when Dr. Bandt was trying to get elected to the Melbourne City Council. A devoted Marxist he spouted the stuff. His goal was political power. And any means to that end.

            Dr. Bandt, PhD in Law did his thesis on Marxism on Melbourne Docks. He hides this fact. Bandt was not a Green then or now but his quote to me was “We tell them what they want to hear and when we get power, we do what we want”. Lenin was the same. The idea that he would care let alone understand mathematics or science or ecology is absurd. He just wants power and he is close controlling the Australian Senate.

            The professional politician is a common type in parliament today. Especially Green lawyers who have never had a real job and do not want one.

            80

          • #
            b.nice

            “can you imagine Adam Bandt”

            If he hadn’t come along in real life….

            NO!.. I could not have imagined anyone so irksome, gormless and ethically grotesque.

            10

      • #
        b.nice

        “Gavin could actually predict El Nino.”

        If them/they could actually predict El Nino/La Nina, them/they would know that El Nino is responsible for the only atmospheric warming in the last 50 years or so.

        But their urban surface temperature fabrications are so fanciful, that they have zero possibility of understanding anything about what is really happening with the global climate.

        100

    • #
      el+gordo

      Gavin mentioned Hawkins et al, so I had a look.

      ‘There is no perfect period, but we suggest that 1720–1800 is the most suitable choice when discussing global temperature limits. We then estimate the change in global average temperature since preindustrial using a range of approaches based on observations, radiative forcings, global climate model simulations, and proxy evidence.

      ‘Our assessment is that this preindustrial period was likely 0.55°–0.80°C cooler than 1986–2005 and that 2015 was likely the first year in which global average temperature was more than 1°C above preindustrial levels.’

      50

      • #
        TdeF

        Again Professor Weiss’ graph of temperature for the last 270 years has all the information, far superior to these minor observations. And he explains the lot.

        110

    • #
      b.nice

      Nothing Gavin Schmidt says or writes is worth anything more that used toilet paper. !

      That is his sum total contribution to climate science.

      But you, of course, would still pay for it. ! 😉

      Great to see you think the maladjusted URBAN temperature fabrications mean anything wrt to real global temperatures.. you have been fooled… yet again.

      Perhaps you could ask them/they for a link to that paper scientifically proving human CO2 causes warming… ?

      (since you personally, have had zero success in finding one)

      Or you could ask why he RAN AWAY from a debate with Roy Spencer. 😉

      110

      • #
        Simon

        There is a strong body of evidence stretching back to 1843 when Tyndall showed that carbon dioxide and water vapour can absorb heat. I have given you many references which you chose to ignore. Here is another:
        G. S. Callendar (1938): The artificial production of carbon dioxide and its influence on temperature. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteological Sociery. Volume 64, Issue 275.
        https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/qj.49706427503

        015

        • #
          b.nice

          “showed that carbon dioxide and water vapour can absorb heat.”

          All that has been shown is that CO2 is a radiative gas. So what. It actually helps COOL the atmosphere.

          It is NEVER been proven scientifically, to cause warming in the atmosphere.

          The Callendar paper, is pure supposition. If you have read it, and had even the remotest scientific comprehension ability, you would know that.

          He also seems to think radiative transfer is the only way energy moves in the atmosphere.. Pretty dumb , wouldn’t you say !

          Stop your self-flagellation, and produce a scientific paper that proves that CO2 causes warming.

          You do know that warming by human released CO2 has NEVER BEEN OBSERVED OR MEASURED anywhere on the planet, don’t you. !

          110

        • #
          b.nice

          Oh, and since you want to put CO2 and H2O as “radiative gases”

          You do know that H2O acts to COOL and REGULATE the planet’s surface temperature, don’t you.

          Why wouldn’t CO2 do the same thing 😉 They both “absorb heat”, after all 😉

          60

        • #
          el+gordo

          Its only a theory that CO2 causes global warming, whereas if we examine Antarctic ice cores we can see that increasing CO2 always follows a rise in temperature.

          The artificial rise in CO2 makes no difference to world temperature.

          80

          • #
            TdeF

            The reason CO2 rise follows world temperature is that 75% of the world’s surface is cool water stuffed with CO2 which does not radiate back in infra red. The whole CO2 warming conjecture only works over land, a mere 25% of the earth’s surface.

            Henry’s law over the 75% says that CO2 will be released. That has been known science for over 220 years.

            80

            • #
              Kalm Keith

              Conjecture. 🙂

              PWIR at ground level can’t do much and will eventually move towards the big attractor in the sky after the Sun goes down.

              EMR can only move to locations with lower potential.

              That said, there was an incident a few weeks back when I was injured and couldn’t post here for a while: maybe “photons” are real after all.

              40

            • #
              b.nice

              Net vertical radiative flux is governed by vertical temperature differences (SB)

              Those differences are controlled by the gravity based energy gradient. (modified only by H2O in the lower atmosphere)

              CO2 makes essentially zero difference to the gravity based temperature gradient.

              If anything, increased atmospheric CO2 increases the lapse rate, by a tiny tiny amount, thus increasing the outward radiative flux by a tiny, tiny amount.

              30

          • #
            Simon Thompson M.B. B.S. (hons)

            El Gordo , I bow to your wisdom. Cause and effect are confused. Examples of this are the disproved diet-cholesterol-heart disease hypothesis which demonised saturated fat (turns out that oils aint oils, and natural fats are NOT harmful). So we concentrate on lowering cholesterol which actually is a DANgerous exercise that HARMS us, as cholesterol amongst a myriad of functions REPAIRS arterial wall damage. Another example is amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease- drugs developed to remove amyloid are dangerous, expensive and DON’t halt disease progression as Amyloid is an EFFECT of AD, not the cause. If Cause and Effect are so clearly confused, no wonder the world abounds with futile “science”.

            60

        • #
          el+gordo

          The Central England Temperature (CET) shows that from 1700 to 1750 the UK was warming in an unprecedented way, what caused it?

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_England_temperature#/media/File:CET_1659_-_2014_using_Hadley_Centre_Data.png

          40

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Simon:
          Your posts would acquire more respect if you avoided errors.
          Tyndall worked on gases in 1860/61. He did show that CO2 and about 20 other gases absorbed heat. He also did a neat experiment showing that CO2 radiated heat very quickly.
          He was certainly aware that water vapour is a very strong absorber of infrared, which is why he took precautions to dry the gases. He also (as a mountaineer) was aware of the atmospheric lapse rate (the temperature drop with altitude) and the correlation with humidity, which is why he published about water vapour being the overwhelming greenhouse effect. If you read/ view Happer or Lindzen you will find they (and other actual scientists) are strong believers in his work. They, or possibly others, have calculated that any ‘greenhouse effect’ of CO2 is around 2.5% of the total.

          As for Callendar this is an interesting paper, but not wholly convincing to me, nor much of his audience about it proving global warming. Callendar was an engineer and an expert on thermodynamics and radiation** and I draw your attention to his graph showing the decreasing effect with higher concentration.

          ** He (behind the scenes) helped astronomers find elements in emissions from stars. And as a side note during the War he was the engineer in charge of the fog lifting from UK bomber airfields by the burning of thousands of tons of oil.

          70

          • #
            b.nice

            Leckner did some more precise laboratory measurements and showed that any radiant heat absorption by CO2 basically leveled off at around 280ppm.

            Eggert then did a comparison of the IPPC log absorption (called “forcing” for some unknown reason) and showed the difference on this graph.

            https://i.ibb.co/vwmV5d0/eggert-co2.png (offset lines are for illustrative purposes)

            More recently, precise measurements have shown that the slight increase in the CO2 absorption wings, measured at the TOA, is compensated by an increase in outgoing radiation in the atmospheric window frequencies.

            https://i.ibb.co/WBzWpZz/radiative-change-2.jpg

            Thus proving that CO2 energy absorption is translated to other frequencies…
            (as Will Happer has also shown using time of re-emittance vs collisional times)

            … and therefore that CO2 ACTS AS A CONDUIT for atmospheric cooling and regulation.

            Note.. done by MEASUREMENTS.. not erroneous mantra based conjecture.

            40

        • #
          b.nice

          “I have given you many references which you chose to ignore. Here is another:”

          No, you HAVE NOT given one single reference proving scientifically that human CO2 causes atmospheric warming.

          Lots of mantra-based waffle… but no scientific proof.

          And the one you link to DOES NOT prove CO2 causes warming, it shows that CO2 is a radiatively active gas, that is all.

          The rest is just erroneous conjecture.

          You have failed completely….. yet again.

          50

        • #
          Graeme#4

          Simon, it’s worth tracking down the comments of Prof. Happer, a leading atmospheric physicist. As he points out, while a CO2 molecule can absorb and re-radiate energy, in practice in the lower atmosphere, surrounded by vast quantities on non-radiative gases, the acquired energy is rapidly dissipated by kinetic collisions with the surrounding non-radiative gases. Like putting a mouse and a piece of cheese in a room full of stampeding elephants. Sure, there is a chance of the mouse eating the cheese, as it would do in a laboratory, but in this room full of elephants its chances are basically zilch.

          40

          • #
            b.nice

            http://www.sealevel.info/Happer_UNC_2014-09-08/Another_question.html

            Questions answered by Will Happer.

            “So, after a CO2 (or H2O) molecule absorbs a 15 micron IR photon, about 99.9999999% of the time it will give up its energy by collision with another gas molecule, not by re-emission of another photon. Is that true (assuming that I counted the right number of nines)? “

            WH: [YES, ABSOLUTELY.]

            Proven by measurement, as shown in the graph I attached above..

            … absorbed energy by CO2 is translated to the rest of the atmosphere and radiated out through the atmospheric window.

            CO2 acts as a CONDUIT for cooling.

            00

            • #
              Simon

              give up its energy by collision with another gas molecule

              More energetic and faster moving molecules have a higher temperature.

              13

              • #
                b.nice

                LOL.. You have just shown you have ZERO comprehension about CO2 absorption and re-emittance.

                WELL DONE ! 🙂

                Do you imaging HOT little CO2 molecules running around the atmosphere ???

                The proof by measurement is that the incredibly tiny thermalisation is IMMEDIATELY balanced by the normal processes within the atmosphere.

                The data is there, measured and shown in this chart https://i.ibb.co/WBzWpZz/radiative-change-2.jpg

                CO2 is just part of the gravity based thermal gradient.

                No little “HOT” zone from CO2 has ever been measured.

                No change in the lapse rate due to CO2 has ever been measured.

                No such warming has ever been recorded, anywhere, at any time….

                [Great to demolish his fallacies,thank you. But lets’ not make Simon the theme of the thread — he’s irrelevant. – Jo]

                01

              • #
                b.nice

                Tell you what Simon, test the “heat rises” theory.

                Light a match, and hold your finger 2cm above it !

                Perhaps you will learn something… or not ! 😉

                01

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Simon, I’m 80. Nothing in my environment has deteriorated. Summers are hot, winters cool, the wet season is variable and the suburb I lived in as a boy was just above high water. It is still just above high water.

      Tell me where I need to look to see catastrophe™. and please don’t quote massaged data, I want “the facts, just the facts ma’am”.

      I am sitting here listening to the rain. Of course it’s raining, there is a low just offshore. Just how NORMAL do you insist it must be?

      210

  • #
    Honk R Smith

    I fear our goose may be cooked.
    We are facing a new totalitarianism because we lack precedent to define it, much less ‘resist’ it.
    (‘resist’ acceptable PC word, ‘fight’ potential microaggression)

    Bear with me …
    The luncheonette menu at CIA HQ is probably technically classified.
    Most high level DC types likely have technically classified documents in their garage.

    The FBI raid on Trump was was junior high school quality political theater.

    Old Joe mistakes a Salvation Army uni for Secret Service.
    Oops.
    And viola, suddenly and publicly he has ‘classified’ docs next to the Corvette.

    Impeachment charges just have to be filed because us Congress folk have sooo…much integrity, and are never ever hypocritical.
    Joe resigns because that’s what honest leaders of ‘Our Democracy’ do when caught orange handed.
    Updated marionette installed.

    See we told ‘ya Orange Man Bad!

    They can’t be this lucky.

    DJT was the last elected POTUS in US history.

    170

    • #
      TdeF

      The real security scandal is that the house was the residence of Hunter Biden in 2018. The address is on his driver’s licence. So who had the documents two years after DJT was elected? What was the date on the documents? Was Joe Biden supposed to have them and what were they doing at Hunter’s house? I’ll bet there are a few finger prints too.

      90

      • #
        TdeF

        And while Joe Biden visited Ukraine every year and his son travelled on over 25 Air Force one flights to Ukraine and China, how much information was Hunter Biden given. Of course he had access to documents labelled Top Secret which are still kicking around his house. I expect that there is a possible possibility of treason here. Who else visited the house? Did they have a scanner? What is puzzling is that the press are being given this information. Possibly as the Democrats do not want another four years of Joe.

        70

        • #
          TdeF

          Donald Trump is about to announce his candidacy for an election now less than two years away. Joe Biden has effectively announced his. But the Democrat party does not want him, so what are they going to do to remove a sitting president without arguing that he is unfit for the job? Something the whole world knows.

          The only solution is to pressure him to walk away. Now the news is that Dr. Jill has had cancerous bits removed. That would not normally make the news, but it is part of a increasing effort to pressure Joe to pack his bags. And the entire press corp at the White House is demanding answers, which means they want him gone.

          50

    • #
      yarpos

      I find the idea of real classified information going off site and being housed in the general public without special protection or access control quite bizarre. Even more bizarre at such a senior level , though I guess they make up their own rules.

      I had a brief window in this classified world for a year or so and everything stayed on site. Even then all files and removable hard drives had to be in a safe on site overnight. Taking stuff home to work on would have been so laughable it was never even a consideration.

      “Classified” has many different levels and many meanings depending where you are, however I have trouble believing any of that means its OK to have them in in your garage or your luxury resort.

      30

      • #
        Leo G

        I find the idea of real classified information going off site and being housed in the general public without special protection or access control quite bizarre.

        That is the narrative.

        More likely is that this scenario was workshopped when Biden was preparing for a bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination and reworked for his candidacy for president in 2020.

        The action against President Trump was a trial run.

        00

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Last night I posted on the peaceful tropical night with the rain on the roof I was experiencing.

    It is still raining steadily and I’m reminded that 25 yrs ago Townsville had The Night Of Noah. It was a night just like this, no wind, no storm rains, just continuous, unrelenting steady rain. In the morning people in the low streets of Hermit Park woke up to find they were flooded. The Ford/Mercedes dealership lost every car on the lot and the dealer principal had a landslide fill his house with mud.

    The post mortem said a low pressure parked to the north of us and didn’t move. The rain is to the south of a low pressures. It’s similar now but I doubt the low is as clearly defined and I am not a prophet of doom. Just sayin’.

    80

    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      Hanrahan,
      Our first home after our 1964 marriage was in Piccadilly St, Hyde Park, Townsville.
      We had a day of flooding to knee deep, possibly Jan 1965, and were glad for the house on high blocks architecture.
      We recall the same pattern of low winds, few if any bursts of heavy rain, just many hours of steady medium intensity rain. Archives at Townsville Daily Bulletin will be useful.
      Geoff S

      40

    • #
      Grogery

      Hanrahan.

      I remember the night of noah quite well. As you most likely know, sometimes these events have an uncanny habit of happening at night which makes things a tad more difficult.

      Our house in Deeragun flooded. I remember standing my 3 year old daughter on the kitchen table to watch us wade around in knee deep water gathering a few essentials before we went to a friend’s place on higher ground. She just watched as if we were doing normal chores, innocent without any distress.

      My next door neighbour (who had been there many years) left after that flood saying that the water was never anywhere near that height until the Rangewood estate (a considerable distance inland from us) had been further developed and water redirected away from it’s original natural course, which I assume was the Bohle river.

      Obviously some places in and around Townsville will always flood, too much is built on flood plain or low lying areas, or areas that are a victim of council mismanagement by allowing new developments to reclaim low lying land and divert water where it never used to run.

      You mentioned Carmichael Ford going under – it is on low lying land. Everything in that causeway area goes under nearly every time. How many times will the RSL be rebuilt the same way after a flood? Why not have all car parking underneath and bars, restaurants, etc upstairs? I’m surprise insurance companies don’t force them to.

      Of-course we had more recent flooding in Feb 2019 made exponentially worse by the mismanagement of the Ross River Dam, supposedly built for “flood mitigation” rather than just water storage.

      I blame greed, the council wouldn’t dream of releasing any water before the predicted torrential rain, the dam hadn’t been at 100% for a long time. So we watched in disbelief over the next couple of days as it reached 230% and the panicked council/bureaucrats were forced to open all the dam gates to prevent a collapse of the dam wall. Brilliant! Now thousands of premises that would not have flooded were flooded. The usual finger pointing between the council, state departments and bureaucrats – “it wasn’t our fault”. Have they re-written the dam management manual since?

      The impact of opening all gates at the height of the rain was obvious a few days later. So many places flooded that otherwise would not have. Interestingly, a friend of mine mentioned at the time that someone nearby him in Hermit Park has marks on his timber high-set house stumps with flood levels going back many years. The Feb 2019 one was not far below 1946, before the dam was built.

      I hold no hope that these imbeciles will do anything different next time, which might be now. The dam is at 83% when I just checked and there is more rain predicted.

      20

  • #
    EnvironMent ScepTic

    Amy Proal and Dr John Wherry.

    “Interview with Dr. John Wherry: Use of T cells as biosensors of SARS-CoV-2 persistence in LongCovid”

    76 views Jan 14, 2023

    E. John Wherry III PhD is an immunologist and the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor and department chair of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the director of the Penn Institute for Immunology. For decades John has studied T cell activity in the context of chronic viral infection, for example his lab delineates mechanisms by which chronic viral infection can lead to T cell exhaustion. Lately John’s laboratory has been studying how T cells respond to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and vaccines that contain the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. He is now moving his research into LongCovid, where he is working to determine if the activity of T cells can be used as biosensors of SARS-CoV-2 persistence in patients with the condition.

    20

  • #
    Lance

    UK age stratified all cause death data shows higher deaths associated with covid vaccination

    “by May 2022 having ever taken a covid vaxx was associated with 22-74% greater all cause mortality vs being unvaccinated and this was true in ALL age stratifications.”

    https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/uk-age-stratified-all-cause-death

    70

    • #
      KP

      “half the “community safety study” trials for these vaccines are not even due until 2025 and later.”

      ..and THAT’S when they will admit the old Covid mRNA vaxxes are not safe enough, but wait! We have a new ones here!

      00

  • #
    farmerbraun

    Interesting thread at ZH on vaccine etc damage.
    Comment:_
    “The real question is whether the power of the storm is concentrated on the right few or the wrong ones. Yes Fauci was a liar. Yes Pfizer sold death shots. Who directed it? 

    Who were the evil ones that were in the central meeting rooms planning the lock-downs; the mask shenanigans; the continuous media fear?
    Who were the ones that co-opted virtually every government overnight to implement the same procedures and who are the ones that convinced companies and entire industries to force a completely untested medication on the world? 

    The power of the entire storm should focus on them.  “

    161

  • #
    David Maddison

    I got this email from conservative and truth oriented PragerU. They have been targeted by fake fact checkers.

    Dear PragerU Supporter,

    NewsGuard—one of the largest and most influential “fact-checkers” employed by Big Tech—is targeting PragerU!

    After labeling PragerU as misinformation, encouraging tech platforms to cancel us, warning users to “proceed with caution” before viewing our content, damaging our reputation, and costing us hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of dollars, NewsGuard refuses to leave us alone.

    Political and corporate elites empower third-party fact-checkers like NewsGuard to censor companies they don’t like—companies like PragerU. Meanwhile, leftist, legacy media companies like the New York Times and NPR get near-perfect “credibility” ratings.

    So, who is behind NewsGuard, and why are they controlling what you can and cannot see?

    NewsGuard is partnered with Big Tech companies (like Microsoft), Big Pharma (like the PR firm for Pfizer—the maker of the COVID vaccine), government agencies (like the Department of Defense), and even national teachers unions (like the American Federation of Teachers) “to combat disinformation, especially around COVID-19 and elections” according to the World Economic Forum. So, it’s no wonder NewsGuard doesn’t want open dialogue about COVID-19 and lockdowns.

    They want to stop PragerU from exposing the truth.

    Advisors to NewsGuard include former Directors of the CIA and other government agencies. Their partners, advisors, and staff overwhelmingly support left-wing causes. So, how can NewsGuard claim to be “independent” and call itself “The Internet Trust Tool”?

    If you’ve seen any of our videos, you know that PragerU is fiercely committed to the truth. But NewsGuard slapped us with a misinformation label just because they don’t want the public to hear what we have to say.

    Here’s just one of many examples of how third-party fact-checkers like NewsGuard are hurting organizations like PragerU, Breitbart, The Daily Wire, and The Babylon Bee: The company that used to host our videos, JW Player, informed us 18 months ago that they were not willing to work with us anymore. When we asked why, they said we had been blacklisted by NewsGuard and claimed our content was “misleading.” Suddenly, we had to devote considerable time and money to find a new video host.

    Now, NewsGuard is back, threatening to further harm us if we don’t comply with their long list of ridiculous demands.

    Expose NewsGuard
    We will not let NewsGuard and their cronies get away with this. We’re not going to let them suppress free speech, conceal information, and control what you can and cannot see, all while keeping you completely in the dark.

    There might be severe consequences for us for pushing against NewsGuard. But if we don’t do it, who will?

    PragerU is taking a risk by fighting back against such powerful entities, and we need your help.

    Third-party fact-checkers and their “partners” have all the money and all the power. But we have you. Donate now to help us expose NewsGuard.

    This is David vs. Goliath. We know that God and the truth are on our side and will prevail. But we can’t do this alone.

    We’re willing to take the risk.

    We’re putting everything on the line.

    But we need your help.

    Please join in the fight and help us.

    Sincerely,

    Marissa Streit, PragerU CEO

    120

  • #
    • #
      TdeF

      And Professor Peter Ridd should be given an apology and his superannuation restored. His rich persecutors should be dismissed.

      And someone in parliament should ask what happened to Malcolm Turnbull’s unrequested, unjustified personal gift of $444million in public money to his wife’s committee to “save” the Great Barrier Reef. We the taxpayers should be asking for our money back. It was the greatest robbery in Australian history.

      150

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Or target the funding to crown of thorns starfish control which I still believe is a real threat. Just saying it’s natural and letting it rip doesn’t cut it.

      10

  • #
    OldOzzie

    UPDATE – So, You Did Not Take the COVID-19 Shot, Why Not?

    January 14, 2023 – Sundance

    I am bumping this post to the top of the page and updating because, well, I’ll explain.

    First, thank you. Sincere and genuine thankfulness for your fellowship. Visitors to this site continue to prove that our nation is created by, and an assembly of, the most decent, honest, generous and kind-hearted people in the world. The responses to the question of ‘why didn’t you take the covid-19 shot?’ are nothing short of remarkable.

    In the bigger picture if you want to fill up your faith cup and recognize the scale of commonsense assembly in our nation, take the time to read through the 2,000+ responses.

    The feedback you are providing is exceptional and trust me when I say that far more people are reading these responses than you could fathom. Additionally, the responses have reasserted my belief in the scale of our national assembly. There are far more of us, ordinary, hardworking, commonsense, pragmatic and smart people, than the self-described intellectual elites would ever admit.

    In addition to the responses below, there have been hundreds of emails answering the question, which suddenly made me realize that no one has really ever asked this question before in a format that provides ordinary people with the ability to respond.

    There is also a yearning to talk about this issue, publicly and with deliberation; massively so. And I am hopeful (insert grin here) this small corner of the internet is about to push this conversation into a much larger national forum. Our nation needs a big conversation about this.

    60

    • #
      OldOzzie

      The COVID-19 Debate and Conversation We Were Denied

      January 14, 2023 – Sundance

      This article is intended toward a specific set of interests.

      ♦First, the larger media apparatus needs to comprehend the scale of the current situation.

      ♦Second, the medical establishment need to come to grips with the situation they pretend doesn’t exist.

      ♦Lastly, to the alternative media forums writ large, with my challenge to you to open up every format you control, ask simple questions and then just shut up and listen to readers and viewers.

      50

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Republican Party of Kentucky, Home State of Mitch McConnell, Receives Generous $1 Million Donation from Pfizer

        January 14, 2023 – Sundance

        As many have eloquently said before, politics is a circle of money. The politicians provide taxpayer funds to selected private sector businesses, and those corporations fund the political efforts of the politicians. It’s a circle of interests disconnected from the American electorate.

        In the latest example, the pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer, a multinational who received billions in taxpayer funds for their COVID-19 vaccination and other efforts, now gives a generous $1 million contribution to the Republican Party of Kentucky to expand a new building for the state party. Kentucky is the home state of Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.

        Nothing to see here, move along, move along folks….

        KENTUCKY – In what may be the largest political contribution ever given to a political party in Kentucky, the drug maker Pfizer Inc. gave $1 million last month to the building fund of the Republican Party of Kentucky.

        A report filed by Republican Party of Kentucky Building Fund last week with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance listed the $1 million from Pfizer along with five other big corporation contributions in the final quarter of 2022 totaling $1.65 million.

        That is an extraordinarily large haul for the fund which had raised only $6,000 during the first three quarters of 2022. (READ MORE)

        20

  • #
  • #
    OldOzzie

    Australian Innovation – Olds Engineering, a traditional workshop and foundry, sits in Maryborough, Australia.

    It’s not the sort of place you’d expect to find a new industrial invention in the 21st century: and yet the Olds Elevator, patented by Peter Olds, is just that – As the young guy says at the end – “Through the 20th Century of Industrialisation & Automation, how did no one spot this earlier – 5 Mins 25 Secs

    From the Comments

    It’s incredible that for centuries after Archimedes created his screw, no one thought of the reverse until this guy..
    Round of applause for him

    Why didn’t anyone think of this before?” is one of the greatest things you can say about a new invention. That a device that could have been made with literally ancient technology (it would make perfect sense to Archimedes, I think) is a significant improvement in today’s world is genuinely remarkable. That it could save lives (by reducing flammable dust dispersion) even more so. Good on ya’, Peter Olds!

    110

    • #
      Sambar

      Help all you engineers out there. Isn’t this just a case of 6 of one and 1/2 a dozen of the other? If all things are equal. The diameter of the tube and the pitch of the screw why would one have any advantage over the other? Yes its clever but does one system deliver more through put than the other, is one more energy efficient?
      Help, What am I missing?

      00

      • #
      • #
        OldOzzie

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu03F-Iah8

        – Serviced one of their machines at Boral, (making compressed fibre sheet).One point they don”t say about what”s the advantage of turning the outer tube VS turning an inner screw,is you don’t need the fixed screw to be the full length of the tube,once material has travelled up a couple of metres of “screw”,it keeps pushing up ,by the new material been fed in through the base.

        Where as a turning screw system needs the screw to be full length to carry the material up and out.

        – Another nice thing about this is that the support bearing is external, away from the material being lifted. Also, the drive motor can be anywhere along it’s length instead of just top or bottom.

        30

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Is Coincidence Now The Leading Cause Of Death? An article in Emerald Robinson’s The Right Way. Digging into CDC data exposes the ‘sudden cardiac events phenomenon’. https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/is-coincidence-now-the-leading-cause

    10

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Only in Australia – Honda Jazz Magic Seats

    What you can do with Honda Jazz Magic Seats – Motorist spotted at Macca’s drive-through with miniture horse in car

    A Macca’s drive-through customer was stunned to find an unusual critter in the back of a car getting his favourite fast-food snack. A Macca’s customer took to TikTok on Tuesday to share the bizarre scene in front of her as a woman pulled up to order with a tiny horse in the back seat.

    “Only in Australia,” the poster captioned the video.

    The little guy is in the back seat of a black Honda, with his head out the window looking all around him. – “The reason why Honda has the so called “magic seats”, it’s to take our ponies for an ice cream.”

    30

  • #
    Lance

    The dishonest claim that gas/propane cooking stoves are a threat to asthmatics and need banning, is put to the lie by maths.

    This is how science and institutions are subverted for political and ideological goals.

    “This was a clear-cut case of science being brandished for activism, and judging by the paper’s reception in the popular press and on social media, this obviously slapdash and compromised work was happily received. Next steps are clear: the editors and reviewers involved in the publication of this paper need to be brought to light and punished and the paper needs to be retracted with an apology from the journal.

    Perhaps after years of being bullied, the public still hasn’t understood the costs of letting regulators wield activists’ “science” to run roughshod against the public interest. Let’s hope this fails. ”

    https://cremieux.substack.com/p/lying-for-climate-crusading

    70

    • #
      Graeme#4

      The entire subject of how PM 2.5 came into being, and how it found its law into environmental law, is interesting. Apparently based on report papers and so-called scientific studies that unusually got lost along the way by the university.

      10

  • #
    yarpos

    Well we had the Rodeo in town last night. My local town (about 20klm away) is now a part of the professional rodeo circuit. We had some interesting characters in town , to say the least. About a 100 of them were basking in full 36C sun in front of the local pub (all tar and cement) and another group in a graveled beer garden out the back. They appear impervious to heat and UV , at least for now. An odd mix of classic Aussie bogan with a desire to live up to every US cowboy stereotype you can imagine (Yellowstone has a lot to answer for). Everyone seemed to keep themselves relatively nice and much money was poured into town, so all good I guess.

    50

    • #
      robert rosicka

      The circus got knocked back from coming to our town , the council didn’t want the competition.

      90

      • #
        Sambar

        Gold there RR. May I plagiarise it? Suits or situation to a tee!

        50

        • #
          Sambar

          “our” not or

          10

        • #
          robert rosicka

          Not an original but it fits so many councils these days Sambar , as for rodeos yeah I’ve been to 2 many years back . Love the bull riding and remember a bull called chainsaw that had a well earned dubious reputation, once started you were hanging on to the chain .

          30

          • #
            Hanrahan

            I remember chainsaw. I’m not into C&W music but I think someone sang a song about him.

            I thought the nights entertaining and was intrigued by the bulls, after their ride, quietly collecting at the other end of the arena. Obviously not their first rodeo. Not a bad life for the bull, they are looked after well to have a cowboy on their back for a few seconds occasionally. The cowboy draws the short straw.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBKOIlVQKO0&t=37s

            20

    • #
      Sambar

      Did you go to the actuall event? Last rodeo I went to was on the King Valley Ranch south of Darwin in 1969, and while I was impressed with the skills displayed I wasn’t motivated to ever go again.

      40

      • #
        yarpos

        Hi Sambar

        No I was working at the pub from 10 to 4, my old body needs to rest after that. The idea (even at the best of times) of sitting out in high 30s heat with thousands of people to watch rodeo doesn’t have much appeal. I admire their courage and wish them well as long as they look after the animals.

        The event started at 4PM nominally , but there seemed to be many at the pub pre loading and going in later. I guess the main events are later in the evening and the site is literally just a kilometre from the pub.

        I’ve taken a lot of risks doing assorted sports/activities over the years but adding the randomness of animal behaviour is not something I would contemplate. If saving (or damaging) me is up to me that’s OK, but adding interaction with a critter is just a step to far for me.

        70

        • #
          Annie

          There was one very noisy shouting group screamed up to the pub on the corner in a very noisy old vehicle. I kept away until they went inside, having wanted to go to the cash point nearby. Went back later and they’d disappeared, thank goodness!

          20