Friday Open Thread

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121 comments to Friday Open Thread

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    Memoryvault

    Before anybody comments I’ll check the place out for low-flying spy satellites cleverly disguised as weather balloons.

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    John Connor II

    Spain spends €258m on trains too big for tunnels

    Two Spanish travel bosses have been fired after they ordered dozens of new commuter trains only to discover they were too big to pass through the tunnels on their routes. The Telegraph said the “embarrassing blunder” led to a “blame game” between Spain’s national rail operator, track company and the country’s coalition government. Xavier Flores, a senior transport ministry official, admitted there there had been “a problem related to the size of the trains”.

    https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/959571/spain-spends-eu258m-on-trains-too-big-for-tunnels

    Why is management so chronically inept?

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    • #
      Graham Richards

      Governments are notoriously medium to bad to useless managers. If it’s not on a memo from some other notoriously useless civil servant disaster ensues. The keys to the. “common sense cupboard “ were mislaid several decades ago & the cupboard remains locked & beyond the skills of those in charge to investigate the contents!!

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      el+gordo

      Its not uncommon.

      ‘THE NSW Government has an embarrassing problem with $2 billion worth of new trains that are on order — they’re too wide to go through the tunnels. Whereas the current trains are 2.9m wide, the new models being built in South Korea are 20cm wider.’ (News.com)

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      • #
        Ronin

        Things like that shouldn’t happen, there is a specification for rail stock called a ‘Loading Gauge’, this specifies the width and height of rollingstock and is quoted when placing orders for new rollingstock.

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        • #
          ozfred

          From skyscrapercity dot com spain-railways post-182393843

          Historically infrastructure on these lines was built in accordance to different clearance profiles. Only much later a common minimum clearance for future newly built infrastructure was defined. Obviously this profile for newly built infrastructure is wider than some or even most of the clearance on legacy lines.
          When the order was placed, the maximum train gauge was calculated based on this recent common clearance profile for newly built infrastructure, instead of taking into account all the existing infrastructure (including tunnels) which was built before to tighter profiles…
          Upgrading, widening all old existing infrastructure to the new profile would cost billions and many years and is thus out of question. So the only option is to redesign the trains to fit the tighter legacy profiles.

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      • #
        b.nice

        10cm extra width would cause a real issue at many station platforms too. !

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      I find the quality of the decision making is proportional to the risk of dire consequences in the event of failure. Because these people are spending other people’s money and rarely get fired (as in proper fired, not just moved), they consequently and frequently make very poor decisions.

      If managers and execs in the public services, and MPs etc, were fired whenever they stuffed up, we would see a significant improvement in performance.

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      • #
        Geoff Sherrington

        Steve,
        There are several 1 km sections of main road near us, 2 lanes each way with a 2 metre wide nature strip between. Doncaster Road near Westfield. About 15 years ago, gum trees were planted in the nature strip. Today, the adjacent road lanes have gained sine curve appearance, life on the ocean wave where the roots have raised the bitumen several cm. I suspect the right car velocity can resonate enough for the driver to lose control.
        It will cost many millions to dig it all up and rectify.
        I have no idea if the road planner(s) were sacked or asked to chip in some dollars to help repair.
        With trepidation, I see similar looking young gum trees planted elsewhere and growing bigger.
        What is wrong with these people?
        Geoff S

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    • #
      yarpos

      Why do people think “management” would be specifying train dimensions?

      They just sign the orders and do the lunches

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    • #

      The phrase ‘Management In Action’ is now ‘Management Inaction’.

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    • #
      John B

      It happens. I once conducted a hydographic survey, for an oil company I worked for, in the Gulf of Thailand. Analysed the results and gave my recommended location for the initial platform over a well known Gulf of Thailand oil and gas field. A few months later, I got called into a meeting by the engineers. They discovered that the platform they were constructing did not fit the height specifications (to do with the 100 year wave) for the location (and water depth) they thought I gave them. Turned out it was the geology development team who changed the location but failed to inform the engineering department. Luckily I was off the hook.
      As an aside, the Gulf of Thailand, just below the sea floor, is interesting with many paleo river channel patterns from the last ice age. Part of Sundaland.
      Then there is the story (same company) when we drilled an offshore exploration well (in North Sumatra) a few kilometers off location because of navigational instrument calibration errors. This was before GPS in the good ol’ days. No, I wasn’t involved in that one. Target was a buried pinnacle reef and all the well site geologist was getting were shale cuttings, well below the projected depth. Eventually it was P&A and they had to redrill a new well at the right location. Unfortunately, it was dry. I have fond memories of those wild days in Asia during the 1970s. Deals were done in bars on napkins and beer mats.

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      • #
        Just+Thinkin'

        John B,

        ” . Deals were done in bars on napkins and beer mats. ”

        We’ve had that happen with a few politicians in Australia.

        You can ALWAYS rely on politicians to really stuff things up.

        And then spend a gazzillion dollars of OUR money attempting
        to fix it; BUT only making things worser.

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        Gerry

        I believe the problem is ignorance. I don’t think many of the young people 1) think thru what they are doing and what is needed and what the consequences are, and 2) have been educated and mentored sufficiently well enough to develop the necessary processes to make good decisions. They rush to the highest paid position and get given it because they can talk the talk …..

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  • #

    Try this article from Watts Up With That? in a busy forum and see how warmist/alarmists treat it like holy water and NEVER address the CONTENT of the article:

    Where is the Climate Emergency?

    LINK

    They lieterally avoid the CONTENT of the article even after 604 postings at this forum that I posted it in,

    LINK

    Phile Clarke a mindless warmist/alarmist acolyte joined the forum to attack the article from the outside with a bunch of silly replies that doesn’t address the article…….,

    He didn’t do well and ran off after getting good replies that was to much for him to handle and it was civil all the way.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Excellent and complete. It misses only my persistent point that whatever happens to the climates of the world, we have no control of CO2 levels, nor is our contribution more than 3%. So if there was a Climate Emergency, we did not cause it and we can do nothing about it.

      In fact the very idea that governments control the world’s weather is a very profitable fantasy of the UN. Shouldn’t they be directing their resources at solving the Ukraine war?

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      • #
        TdeF

        Or are they too busy trying to be a world government? Something they are not supposed to be.

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        David A

        The marriage of global government to global corporations is very bad indeed. So many get all their news from NPR, BBC, etc. If you red pill one subject like climate change, you can open a mind to a host of subjects. This overall post was written just for that purpose, and I have found it very successful for friends of mine that lean hard left, but are adequately sincere.
        https://open.substack.com/pub/anderdaa7/p/global-warming?r=slvym&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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        • #
          TdeF

          You write “Prior to 1950 scientists state that there was not adequate CO2 emissions to affect global average temperature.”

          My point is that the 50% growth in CO2 since 1850 is man not made. Warming oceans release more CO2. Warming produces CO2. CO2 does not produce warming. And this man made conjecture of man made CO2 in the air as quoted by NOAA and everyone else is demonstrably wrong. It is the foundation argument in man made climate change. CO2 is the only way the IPCC can argue that humans change climate. And unbelievably it remains unproven conjecture. If you can, find any actual proof of man made CO2.

          The very name IPCC created in 1988 by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Society contains its entire purpose. Man made Climate Change. The multi government department was to prove that governments can and do change climates significantly. 35 years have passed and they have failed. But the UN continues to demand hundreds of billions of dollars in payments to prevent Climate Change. It is the UN department for elephant repellent.

          Climate Change is a $1.5 Trillion industry based entirely on a single false premise. Without man made CO2, there is no man made Climate Change. There is in fact very little Climate Change and Global Warming has stopped. There is no reason for the IPCC to exist. It is now officially a scam by its own report.

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          • #
            David A

            Every part can be debated. The man made CO2 contribution to atmospheric PPM content is a legitimate debate and I have read very decent arguments on both sides of that particular issue. It is not IMV provable either way, and I have seen many skeptics do poorly in those debates.

            When one is taking a contrary to the narrative position, one is at a disadvantage based on the inescapable reality that every other possible perspective is loaded into the skeptics position, thus your view, no matter how rational, is part of the everything else “denier” camp. You deny GHGs have any possible warming. You deny viruses are real. You are a Moon landing denier, and a “conspiracy theorist”. You are lumped with “them” and often effectively marginalized.

            This is why I do not address things like chem-trails, or weather modifications, or the position that there is no greenhouse effect, or the possible US cause of 911, or the “viruses are not real” position. They may, or may not be supportable, but they are in a losing position, (a distinct minority even within the skeptics camp) and often a distracting position from the main issues affecting policy and destroying nations and lives.

            In the linked post, I presented an overview on the theory itself, the false marginalization of the PHD skeptics, the stellar qualifications of the skeptical scientists, the overwhelming benefits to increased CO2, the failure of the harms to manifest, the ever reducing ability of CO2 to effect GMT, the inevitable rise of CO2 regardless of the attempted Paris accords, the very small and pointless degree of warming prevented even if the Paris accords were followed in full, the political use of the issue to obtain political power,the decades of wrong disaster predictions, and the multiple factors that cause many to follow the PC narrative, even if they have doubts. It was written for those that accept CC the narrative, and avoids those things that are debated within the skeptic community itself. That is why it has been very effective at red pilling some that are sincere and educated, but only exposed to the PC perspective.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Missouri Attorney General Launches Investigation Into Trans Center For ‘Harming Hundreds Of Children’

    Missouri’s attorney general announced Thursday that he has launched a multi-agency investigation into the Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after a whistleblower alleged that the facility’s practices are seriously harming children.

    Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said that his office launched the probe into the “shocking allegations” from whistleblower Jamie Reed, a self-described “queer” leftist woman who worked as a case manager at the facility.

    The attorney general’s office said that they received a sworn affidavit from the whistleblower and documents that support her claims.

    “As Attorney General, I want Missouri to be the safest state in the nation for children,” said Bailey. “We have received disturbing allegations that individuals at the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital have been harming hundreds of children each year, including by using experimental drugs on them. We take this evidence seriously and are thoroughly investigating to make sure children are not harmed by individuals who may be more concerned with a radical social agenda than the health of children.”

    http://www.stationgossip.com/2023/02/missouri-attorney-general-launches.html

    GOOD!!

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Here We Go: WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Says We “Must Prepare” For Potential H5N1 Human Bird Flu Pandemic

    As COVID-19 winds down, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued another warning that countries should prepare for the possibility of another pandemic caused by H5N1.

    This comes after cases of the virus strain jumping from birds to mammals were reported.

    “Over the past few weeks, there have been several reports of mammals, including minks, otters, foxes, and sea lions, having been infected with H5N1 avian influenza,” said WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a media briefing on global health issues Tuesday.

    “H5N1 has spread widely in wild birds and poultry for 25 years, but the recent spillover to mammals needs to be monitored closely. For the moment, WHO assesses the risk to humans as low,” he added.

    According to Tedros, they have only seen “rare and non-sustained transmission of H5N1 to and between humans” since H5N1 first emerged in 1996.

    http://www.womensystems.com/2023/02/here-we-go-who-director-general-dr.html

    Meanwhile in Kolkata, India, 26 people have died from Chickenpox in the past 3 months.
    India is experiencing a major uptick in cases, over 2,000/year.
    I’d be more concerned with that.

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    • #
      Ross

      JC- I’m pretty sure that before COVID all these type of warnings from WHO were issued but no-one ever took any notice of them. A bit like the cyclone warnings for Darwin prior to Xmas 1974. It’s only with the focus on COVID that now we think we understand better. By the way, I think Cyclone Tracy was probably more damaging than COVID has been, all being equal.

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    • #
      Honk R Smith

      There is the Government Prime Directive.
      CYA
      If your A is always C, then the SNAFU bird droppings might not land on Y.
      And Y will not be proven an A.

      Government Warning: Gravity is Enforced at All Times
      Avoid parking under birds.

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      • #
        yarpos

        I parked a shiny black car under some pine trees once, not knowing it was a roosting place for Pelicans.

        When I got back later that night it looked like a safari car with black and white zebra stripes. Strong stuff Pelican poo, it bubbled the clear coat in a couple of spots.

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    House Republicans Warn Pelosi They Will Fly Her Back to Testify Before Congress on Her Role in Failed Security on January 6

    By Jim Hoft

    From the Comments

    – FLY HER BACK ???? CAN’T SHE JUST USE HER BROOM ????

    Decorum decrees, that I don’t post the 2 comments below the above

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  • #
    farmerbraun

    Anybody seen this , and have a comment?
    Is something that hasn’t happened for 150 years really anomalous?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAf9llte0WE

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    • #
      John Connor II

      I think I posted this a while back, but worth revisiting.

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      • #
        farmerbraun

        Australia being the land of droughts and floods , I would have thought that the East coast of Australia , like that of NZ could expect to be WET during la Nina.

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    • #
      farmerbraun

      This comment puts the Tongan eruption water into the context of the annual flux.
      Is this the correct way to assess the impact?

      “A bit of water in the stratosphere won’t affect rainfall anywhere. Four million metric tonnes (0.004 Gt) is a tiny fraction of the water cycle which is 500,000 Gt per year. The amount of water simply didn’t matter. The warming caused by the water vapor might matter but I’ve haven’t seen a writeup on how that might affect the weather.”

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      • #
        Leo G

        The warming caused by the water vapor might matter …

        The normal concentration of water in the lower stratosphere in those climes is about 4 parts per million. Radiosondes released in Fiji immediately after the eruption recorded stratospheric water vapor levels of more than 1,300 ppm, and radiosondes over east Australia levels of 2,900 ppm.

        I expect that would constitute a significant perturbation of the thermodynamic system in those places and the system would act to counter the disturbance- a negative feedback.

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    • #
      RickWill

      The conditions for flooding across Australia were well established before the Tongan eruption.

      Australia and the mid latitude Southern Pacific was as close as it gets to the sun till 2031 in January 2020 and you have to go back to January 2008 for the same proximity for Australia to the sun. The conditions in 2020 and 2008 resulted in the land in central Queensland being warmer than the adjacent ocean and very little atmospheric moisture converging from ocean over central Queensland. Convective potential was very low. This shows conditions on January 10 2020:
      https://earth.nullschool.net/#2020/01/10/0500Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=cape/orthographic=-219.31,-32.46,708/loc=143.902,-24.668

      Same location exactly two years later:
      https://earth.nullschool.net/#2022/01/10/0500Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=cape/orthographic=-219.31,-32.46,708/loc=143.902,-24.668

      This was before the Tongan eruption. The land was cooler and had enough atmospheric water to create convective potential. That means conditions for thunderstorms over central Queensland were already present.

      The flooding in Melbourne and elsewhere was not unprecedented. The reporting of flooding in Melbourne and Australia was unprecedented.
      https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/from-the-archives-1972-chaos-as-floods-batter-melbourne-20200213-p540oi.html

      The atmosphere averages 13E12 tonne of water in its various forms and it cycles in 8 days. The Tongan eruption added an estimated 145E6 tonne of water. So less than 10 seconds of global evaporation. A lot for one place but insignificant on a global scale.

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    • #
      another ian

      IIRC back a while there was mention of past rainfalls in that area of Victoria, including something like 36 inches in n afternoon

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  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Am reading Dark Winter: An insider’s guide to pandemics and biosecurity, by Australian / Sri Lankan epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre (UNSW 2022).

    Can’t tell which side of the fence she sits on: one minute she’s damning the medical fraternity (and associates) for those things which Jo’s commenters have been noting the past 3 years, then she resorts to the standard name-calling we’ve all (mostly) been on the receiving end of, these past 3 years.

    Am seeking sage advice from Jo’s Australian folk as to how this ‘world-leading expert’ is regarded, as I’ve never heard of her. BTW the first outlier clouds & wind from TC Gabrielle have arrived, 5pm NZ-time, even though the ‘eye’ is still in the Coral Sea: fun for the next four days & nights, yeehaah!

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    • #
      John Connor II

      Haven’t read it, but just downloaded it to peruse…

      Interestingly she doesn’t mention Pfizer or Moderna even once, and Fauci gets a passing mention in connection with the Wuhan lab fiasco.

      She is promoting impartiality and investigation but fails to do so herself, afraid of actually exposing facts (known prior to her publishing the book) perhaps.

      Another “fluff” book that exposes nothing.

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      Ross

      The only epidemiologists I now trust are Jay Battacharya and Martin Kuldorff. Or anyone associated with the Great Barrington Declaration. They were the experts our governments should have listened to. The ones who declared COVID lockdowns as an abhorrence way back in 2020 and were then blacklisted by social media, MSM and the COVID mafia in the US (Fauci, Birx and Redfield). In Australia we had a bunch of ” experts” who go everything wrong. I think NZ was probably the same?

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    John Connor II

    Natural exposure immunity evidence existed even historically from the Athenian plague of 430 BC whereby historical documents showed that recovered persons were protected when re-exposed to infection

    ‘The same man was never attacked twice and certainly not fatally’, this was known dating back 430 BC; this is natural immunity (natural acquired-adaptive immunity) that doctors disregarded for COVID.

    This is natural immunity, below, from 430 BC. We knew it existed yet the moronic health officials around us denied it. Criminals. For a failed gene injection. Imagine, these observations were made over 2,000 years before we ever knew about the immune system and that microbial pathogens can cause disease.

    https://palexander.substack.com/p/natural-exposure-immunity-evidence

    https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htm

    I feel the urge to watch “Blood & guts: a history of surgery” again to remind me how STUPID the medical industry is.

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      Greg in NZ

      When 2 + 2 leeches don’t work, try 5. Otherwise there’s a hacksaw…

      Thanks for your critique, above, re R MacIntyre: she’s pro-jab & anti-natural immunity, yet keeps venturing into lab-leak GoF territory. I’m 2/3 of the way through, and have left a few question marks, crosses, and brief comments, on various pages – in pencil so the librarian can erase them if s/he/it feels triggered – “fluff” may be the correct diagnosis.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Master Plan 3, the path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth will be presented on March 1.

    https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1623152067547394050

    Maybe Elon will announce the Sodium-ion batteries that will replace Lithium.

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  • #
    another ian

    A CBC dust up

    “Rex Murphy: The CBC is boring and preachy and that is why there is ‘CBC bashing’
    CEO Catherine Tait shamelessly attacks Pierre Poilievre for ‘stoking’ criticism of the broadcaster”

    https://nationalpost.com/opinion/cbcs-delusional-pieties-is-the-real-reason-behind-cbc-bashing/

    “CBC President and CEO Catherine Tait scored an own goal on Tuesday”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/02/09/things-youre-gonna-see-on-the-cbc-11/#comments

    In comments

    “You can tell she doesn’t have a clue.

    She uses the word “many” while discussing CBC viewers.”

    “Ouch! That left a mark, P.J.”

    Useable in any ABC discussion I’d reckon

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Would a ‘Climate Emergency’ Open the Same Door to Authoritarian Governance as the ‘COVID Emergency?’

    In February 2022, 1,140 organizations sent President Biden a letter urging him to declare a “climate emergency.” A group of U.S. Senators did the same, in October 2022, and a House bill, introduced in 2021, also called on the president to “declare a national climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act.”

    Biden has considered declaring such an emergency, but so far he has declined, to the disappointment of many progressives.

    The United Nations (U.N.) has urged all countries to declare a climate emergency. The state of Hawaii and 170 local U.S. jurisdictions have declared some version of one. So have 38 countries, including European Union members and the U.K., and local jurisdictions around the world, together encompassing about 13% of the world’s population.

    Hillary Clinton was reportedly prepared to declare a “climate emergency” if she had won the 2016 election.

    Most people don’t realize that under U.S. law, a national emergency declaration triggers a set of emergency powers that allows a president to act without the need for further legislation.

    The Brennan Center for Justice compiled a list of the 123 statutory powers that may become available to the president upon declaration of a national emergency (plus 13 that become available when Congress declares a national emergency).

    How ‘green’ is green energy, really?

    Despite the risks to democratic governance and civil liberties outlined here, those who support a “climate emergency” can at least claim that they are doing what is necessary to kick-start the “green” energy revolution that will save the planet, right?

    Not so fast.

    A small environmental group called Protect Thacker Pass, which opposes a major lithium mine in Nevada, pointed out that “green” energy projects that are “fast-tracked” under a “climate emergency” would not only have access to streamlined federal financing, they might also be permitted to skip environmental review and compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

    This would be a replay of the “emergency” mode of governance established during COVID-19 when products privately owned and developed by Big Pharma were fast-tracked through the federal approval process.

    In both cases, large corporations would be using an “emergency” to bypass legislative safeguards put in place to protect human health and the environment.

    Indeed, there is a very strong case to be made that fast-tracking a massive build-out of “green” energy would immediately make a range of environmental problems much worse.

    The book “Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It,” by three environmentalists, methodically picks apart arguments that solar, wind and other “green” energy technologies are clean, renewable or good for the planet.

    Even to find sufficient quantities of minerals for “green” energy to be developed at scale, mining companies may begin “deep-sea mining” — some have already applied for permits — which ocean ecologists fear could annihilate ocean ecosystems.

    Mining for lithium and other metals at a large enough scale would also have to take over vast areas of wildlife habitat, worsening the global biodiversity crisis.

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/climate-emergency-authoritarian-governance-covid/

    The two questions are:
    Can they fix the damage that the green delusions will cause, and do they want to.
    Is this all just the environmental equivalent of the Thucydides trap?

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    John Connor II

    Reports coming in now of a major Russian offensive. Not going to wait any longer to level Ukraine it seems.
    Will follow closely…

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Troubling data based on official UK Government information discussed and analysed by Dr John Campbell. Mostly discussing vaccine risk vs benefit ratio. Bear in mind that he has to remain within the bounds of Leftist YouTube/Goolag censorship.

    https://youtu.be/fbFayD_S_54

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  • #
    David Maddison

    I just received in the mail today a paper book:

    Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi, 2003.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    How did Their TGA approve the latest release of the bivalent/omicron Pfizer/BioNTech vax that was only tested on eight mice?

    In the Pfizer/BioNTech submission to the US FDA they tried to hide that fact.

    SEE https://www.fda.gov/media/159496/download

    The tiny print at the bottom of the last two of the “back up slides”, the very last slides of the presentation reveal this fact.

    The BALB/c mouse referred to is just your standard albino laboratory model. It doesn’t specify the strain so I assume it doesn’t have a humanised immune system (they would almost certainly say it if they did).

    Why isn’t anyone asking questions?

    Who gave Government permission to cause people to be forcibly injected with almost untested vaccines?

    There are still institutions in Australia that forcibly inject people or they lose their jobs. That practice hasn’t been outlawed by Government.

    Please write to all your “representatives” and demand they are “up to date” with their fifth or more “jabs”. Also, all Leftists must take their fifth plus more jabs.

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    • #
      KP

      I want to now what happened to the guys who had a dozen or more as they got paid to provide vaccine certificates! Where’s the follow-up journalism? It was two years ago or more, are they still alive?

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        farmerbraun

        “what happened to the guys who had a dozen or more ”
        A dozen or more whats?
        Saline shots?
        Who knows that there was no control group receiving saline injections?
        Or was quality control so bad that some shots were under-dose , and some were over-dose , causing damage?
        No idea.

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      Ross

      You know the answer. The TGA are just rubber stamping mimics of the FDA. Then our government just became vaccine salespeople.

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    william x

    Have a look at this. South Africa’s green dream goes the same way as every one else.

    Dated 10th Feb 2023:

    “Can SA finally turn the switch on its power crisis in 2023?”

    https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/can-sa-finally-turn-the-switch-on-its-power-crisis-in-2023-2023-02-10

    Quotes from the article:

    “nearly 2 000 MW comes from a mix of renewables, while numerous open-cycle gas turbines have been regularly in use as well to supplement capacity, burning rapidly through billions of rands worth of diesel – a costly and carbon-intensive option.”

    “According to Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha, evening peak demand for the country as at January 30 (2023) was more than 27 000 MW, with available generation capacity about 25 700 MW, necessitating on average about 3 500 MW of loadshedding.”

    “plans were in the works to roll out the next bid windows, starting with battery storage.”

    “We need to create an enabling environment so that all South Africans can participate in helping us to solve loadshedding through rooftop solar. We need to create incentives for them to do that,”

    Oh dear…

    Yep, loadshedding will be solved by batteries and solar. Works every time I am told.

    This energy crisis has been ongoing since 2007.

    Their coal fired power plants are in disrepair from lack of investment. Yet 80% of South Africa’s power is sourced from coal.

    They have 2 Nuclear power generation plants. Those plants have been left to also rot away from lack of investment.
    They are now trying to update them. full power not due till June 2024.

    Madness.

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    DD

    Youtuber Dr John Campbell talks (cautiously) about Covid and the health needs of African communities. It’s a 14min video, but well worth watching through to the end.

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  • #
    another ian

    A revised first verse of an old ribald song that went

    “I’ve shares in the very best companies

    Tramways, tobacco and tin

    And brothels in Rio Janeiro And shares in Moderna and Pfizzer

    My god how the money rolls in”

    The rest of it can probably stay the same

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    TdeF

    On the Chinese spy balloon, Joe Biden’s excuse is now “What happened it if came down and hit a school“.

    North Dakota? It’s a largely desolate wasteland, which is why the missiles are there! And the Chinese hovering balloon.

    The population of North Dakota is 774,000. Half live in the five biggest cities. And it’s 500km x 300km! The entire debris field is an area 1.5km x 1.5km, but presumably the heavy bits stayed together.

    And you can be certain the two ton payload would come straight down because of the balloon tail and zero momentum. The chance of overlap with a given 1km area is 2/150,000. There are 500 schools so this increases the chance of hitting a school to 0.5% but given the airforce know exactly where it is, the chance is zero.

    Besides I am sure the military have access to Google Maps which would help.

    As usual old Joe is asked to justify the unjustifiable as if he was actually the President and in charge.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Even the chance of hitting a buffalo were low.

      And the 200′ tall white balloon was no danger to aviation as even the people on the ground could see it despite being ten miles away.

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      • #
        TdeF

        Apparently it hovered over missile sites, checking the weather.

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        • #
          Memoryvault

          The site in Montana became an air force base in the 1940’s.
          It became an ICBM missile launch site in the 1960’s.
          It was decommissioned as a missile launch site in the 1990’s.
          All of the above information is in the public domain.

          The Chinese advised the American authorities about the wayward balloon well before it crossed into US airspace. This has now reluctantly been confirmed by the Americans.
          The path the balloon followed was pretty much in accordance with the prevailing winds at the time.
          There is no evidence it “hovered” in a controlled manner over the Montana site or anywhere else.

          Can we please have an to this nonsense? It was funny for a time but now this place is beginning to behave like a neocon cheer squad.

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          • #

            But they still should have shot it down, or hooked and dragged it away — or something. Who knew what was on it?

            Did the Chinese tell the Americans about it beforehand, or is that just a good post hoc story? I ask the question genuinely. I don’t know if there is evidence for it. Perhaps there is, or perhaps there is a lot of post hoc covering up normalizing big white CCP balloons spying over America?

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            • #
              TdeF

              I expect the person directing military intervention is General Milley, chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

              He boasted that he telephoned President Xi directly to assure him that Donald Trump did not have access to nuclear weapons after the last Presidential Elections. That was treason. Milley likely will have been the one to overrule the President this time. This looks like a de facto military coup. Biden is being overruled by Milley or Blinken and told to sit in the corner.

              Only Biden could have ordered the entire US military out of Afghanistan in under 24 hours in an extraordinary rout with no plan, causing a disaster. Not even their allies were told. And again we have no explanation. It is not mentioned by anyone.

              This is the same Afghanistan where a generation ago Osama Bin Laden was given Stinger missiles to bring down Russian troop planes and force the Russians to retreat with massive losses of thousands. How did that intervention work out? And American stepped in and dragged everyone with them. As was true in Korea, Vietnam, Libya, Kosovo, Iraq, Syria and now Ukraine. Who won?

              The full story of the refusal to offend China has yet to be told and may never be told, but it is obvious. The US military are openly ignoring and directing a weak President. As are his own staff. It is far from clear who is actually running White House policy and it is likely a cabal. I doubt former President Obama or former Secretary of State Clinton have left the scene. Give him an icecream.

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            • #
              Memoryvault

              What the Yanks should or shouldn’t have done is a matter of political speculation and has nothing to do with anything I have posted on the subject. My comments have been singularly aimed at the rabid, hysterical responses on this usually highly intelligent forum.

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          • #
            MrGrimNasty

            Whatever the whole story, it’s clearly ridiculous to suggest a balloon like that could hover deliberately over any point. The only reason it would linger anywhere is if the wind went slack. It’s US paranoia/propaganda only.

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            • #
              TdeF

              At 60,000 feet and above all the clouds there is very little air and so very little wind and this is a steered balloon. Air pressure is about 1lb/in2, not 14. So 6% of sea level and at 80,000′ only 2%. Which is also why it needs a 200′ tall balloon to lift 2 tons of equipment. That’s a ten storey building.

              Generally large or rapid movement is only achieved by changing altitude, otherwise the balloon can be quite stationary with minor steering, which is the whole point of the very high balloon for surveillance. Concorde flew at this altitude, which is why it was so fast.

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              • #
                TdeF

                I have flown Concorde twice and the sky above at 60,000′ is black. You are well into the stratosphere.

                It is likely the balloon was only sighted by the public when it descended for rapid travel, catching the wind at lower altitudes. The people who decided to hide it hoped it would not be seen by the public and I do not mean the Chinese military but the White House and the US military.

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              • #
                Memoryvault

                And so the madness continues.

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              • #
                MrGrimNasty

                Oh lordy.
                A massive non rigid balloon of that size cannot possibly be in any way substantially, let alone precision, directed, over thousands of miles, by the tiny amount of power available on that flimsy suspended frame. At best any power will merely orientate/stabilise the hung platform.

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              • #
                Memoryvault

                You’re doing it again, Mr GrimNasty.
                I warned you before about using logic and common sense.

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              • #
                TdeF

                Cross Atalantic Zeppelins worked both ways a hundred years ago.

                The whole point of the Chinese surveillance balloon is high resolution. China has satellites taking photos.

                By getting 10x closer you get 100x the resolution. And if you can adjust the speed to zero, you can do even better.

                Of course the overall path of the balloon is determined by the wind. All they are talking about is a degree of movement and minor steering or just staying still for photographs. And the American military indicated they raced to camouflage sites, which means there was something to see which could not be seen from satellites.

                And the US military has indicated observed steerability and the Chinese have admitted it.

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              • #
                OldOzzie

                TdeF
                February 11, 2023 at 4:43 am

                I have flown Concorde twice and the sky above at 60,000′ is black. You are well into the stratosphere.

                I have flown Concorde once – LHR-JFK and can agree/confirm – the sky above at 60,000′ is black and the earth curves

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            • #
              MrGrimNasty

              Someone’s having a laugh. Another ‘balloon’.
              https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64605447
              China’s revenge for Taiwan visits and travelling ships through ‘their’ seas?

              20

            • #
              David Maddison

              Here is a link to a sport hot air balloon with an electric motor which is steerable. Pictures of the Chi-comm balloon showed a frame with solar panels for power for propellers.

              https://www.flydoo.fun/?utm_source=thisiswhyimbroke.com&utm_medium=referral

              20

          • #
            Harves

            The Chinese advised the American authorities about the wayward balloon well before it crossed into US airspace. This has now reluctantly been confirmed by the Americans

            Oh, ok so if they did, either:
            1. The US believed it was a weather balloon, in which case why did they shoot it down? OR
            2. The US didn’t believe it was a weather balloon, in which case why didn’t they shoot it down over Alaska?
            The only totally illogical stance was to treat it like a weather balloon until after it had completed its trans-American flight, and then treat it like a hostile spy craft.

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    • #

      To be President of a State doesn’t mean, he has to know the state.
      It’s like Olaf Scholz walked to microphone with Ukrainian flag instead to that with the German flag behind.

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  • #

    QUESTIONS FOR A COVID-19 COMMISSION

    America’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic failed on many levels of government and in many aspects. Certainly, deaths are unavoidable during a pandemic. However, too many U.S. policy makers concentrated efforts on ineffective or actively harmful and divisive measures such as school closures that generated enormous societal damage without significantly lowering COVID-19 mortality, while failing to protect high-risk Americans. As a result, Americans were hard hit both by the disease and by collateral damage generated by misguided pandemic strategies and decisions that ignored years of pandemic preparation guidance crafted by numerous public health agencies, nationally and internationally.

    Many crucial mistakes were made early on, in January, February, and early March 2020, and not corrected later. Mistakes made during this early critical window at the beginning of the pandemic affected our ability to collect data about COVID-19 and protect those most at risk and laid the groundwork for loss of public trust and confusion. These oversights led to unnecessary morbidity and mortality, particularly in nursing homes, and a lack of much-needed medical supplies, reagents for testing, and required medications. Delays in initiating research on key questions such as effectiveness of therapeutics, modes of transmission, length of infective periods, and other questions, meant that policy decisions were based on assumptions rather than on solid data. To this day, many of these questions have not been adequately addressed through robust trials.

    10

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    MrGrimNasty

    1/4T WWII bomb went off unexpectedly in Great Yarmouth UK today as they tried to defuse it, with a robot thankfully. 80 years old and still viable.

    20

  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    Guy selling MOD surplus vehicles to Ukraine has been blacklisted by banks.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/21336277/ukraine-brit-vehicles-barclays-axes-accounts/

    10

  • #
    David Maddison

    The insanity just doesn’t end.

    I got this email from cfact.org.

    Anesthesiologists hide painful
    climate plan after Climate Depot exposé

    A ridiculous plan to reduce anesthesia to combat climate change disappeared online after CFACT’s Marc Morano exposed it at our Climate Depot news and information service.

    The article was pulled from the American Society of Anesthesiologists website within 48 hours of Marc posting it and tweeting about it.

    The ridiculous justification for limiting anesthesia is that inhaled anesthesia accounts for up to 0.1% of the world’s carbon emissions, and that an hour of surgery using an inhaled anesthetic is equivalent to driving as many as 470 miles, according to a 2010 study.

    The notion that people should risk pain and suffering during surgical procedures to “save” the planet is a perfect example of the crazy cult climate change has become. Human sacrifice is demanded. The fact that your future pain will not alter the temperature of the globe to a degree anyone can perceive in any meaningful way is entirely beside the point.

    Marc explained the whole thing and more on Sebastian Gorka’s OAN television show and on In Focus with Addison Smith.

    Marc further reports that the Harvard Medical School faculty is discussing intertwining climate into its entire medical teaching curriculum.

    Subordinating our medical care to the climate regime seems a surefire way to violate a doctor’s basic Hippocratic oath to “first do no harm.”

    For nature and people too,

    Craig Rucker

    President

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    • #
      David Maddison

      And in Australia…

      https://www.smh.com.au/national/warning-over-climate-threat-from-laughing-gas-used-during-childbirth-20220529-p5apci.html

      Warning over climate threat from laughing gas used during childbirth

      By Chloe Booker
      May 30, 2022 — 5.00am

      Key points

      A report in the latest edition of Australasian Anaesthesia says if women were aware of nitrous oxide’s carbon footprint, its use would decrease.

      It is the third most emitted greenhouse gas, behind carbon dioxide and methane, with scientists estimating it is responsible for about 7 per cent of emissions.

      Kellie Wilton from the Australian College of Midwives said mothers already experienced enough shame when making parenting choices.

      Anaesthetist Dr Alice Gynther, a co-author of the report, said women should make informed and autonomous choices about their pain relief.

      Meaghan Alves was determined not to have an epidural during the birth of her son last year, but as soon as she arrived at hospital she begged for one because of the pain.

      I’d be willing to bet that the Leftist Elites get all the anaesthetic agents they want. Only the proles will suffer.

      10

  • #
    David Maddison

    Remember the Australian Dr Robert Holmes? He hasn’t made any videos for a while.

    Here is a presentation about him explain various climate cycles and global temperature which he attributes to cosmic ray induced cloud cover.

    Well worth watching, plenty of data.

    https://youtu.be/qkcYgEmC8fU

    10

  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    Austrian physician cleared of issuing false covid vax exemption certs.

    ‘And now that the overwhelming evidence for the harmfulness of vaccination has come to light, Sönnichsen says the Hippocratic Oath “obliges” him to issue vaccination exemption certificates, especially “when a corrupt state and an even more corrupt medical association, made up of puppets of the pharmaceutical industry, coerce people into a potentially lethal vaccination.”’

    https://notrickszone.com/2023/02/10/austrian-court-acquits-doctor-charged-of-falsely-issuing-covid-vaccine-exemption-certificates/

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  • #
    David Maddison

    ON the subject of steerable balloons….

    Steerable balloons were the basis of Goolag’ s failed project Loon project to use stationary high altitude balloons as internet access points.

    See:

    https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40638/what-we-know-about-the-high-tech-balloons-lingering-off-the-coasts-of-the-u-s-recently

    The vehicles appear to be derivatives of Raven Aerostar’s Thunderhead balloon system. The Thunderhead balloons are designed to be able to persist over an area of interest in order to carry out a wide variety of tasks. According to the company, common applications include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions and acting as communications relays. Additionally, the balloons can also serve roles in augmenting navigational systems.

    Also see:

    https://aerostar.com/products/balloons-airships/thunderhead-balloons

    10

  • #
    David Maddison

    Expect this to happen as history is rewritten about the covid vaccine disaster.

    Quote from “1984”. Unfortunately the Left interpret 1984 as an operations manual and follow it to the letter.

    Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it’s in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost literally nothing about the Revolution and the years before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don’t know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories. Just in that one instance, in my whole life, I did possess actual concrete evidence after the event – years after it. (2.5.14, Winston to Julia)

    30

  • #
    el+gordo

    A Modoki El Nino on the horizon.

    ‘La Nina demise is forecast over the next 1-3 months. Forecast confidence is above average that weak El Nino follows by mid-year. Following El Nino intensity is uncertain and for now a weaker El Nino for the second half of 2023 is indicated.’ (Climate Impact Company)

    10

    • #
      el+gordo

      BoM wants to move the ENSO goal posts and fiddle with the past.

      ‘One repercussion of a definition upgrade would be a retrospective reanalysis of past events, which would essentially rewrite the record books.

      ‘Past La Niña and El Niño events could be reclassified as non-existent, while new unknown events could enter the almanacs.’ (ABC)

      20

      • #
        David Maddison

        retrospective reanalysis of past events, which would essentially rewrite the record books.

        See my post above #27.

        Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten….

        Not a “far right conspiracy theory” of “tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists”, they really are trying to rewrite history.

        00

    • #
      farmerbraun

      So when does SAM go negative allowing the Roaring 40s to bring some more westerly quarter weather to NZ?
      I’m getting pretty sick of easterlies; alright if they bring rain , but in the Sth West of the lower Nth island and South island, the rain rarely happens.

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  • #
    Hanrahan

    Another balloon shot down over Alaska in the last few hours. Officially stated.

    00

  • #
    Lance

    Very interesting Article.

    “Scientists at the University of Sydney in Australia have discovered a naturally occurring protein in the lungs that blocks COVID and creates a barrier to the virus that may explain why some people get sick and die from the virus while others never even get ill.”

    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2023/02/10/australian-scientists-make-crazy-interesting-covid-breakthrough-that-could-provide-a-way-to-fight-the-virus-1332041/

    Greg Neely twitter page on this subject: https://twitter.com/Neely_Lab/status/1623869202129125377

    Full paper:

    Fibroblast-expressed LRRC15 is a receptor for SARS-CoV-2 spike and controls antiviral and antifibrotic transcriptional programs

    https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001967

    00

  • #
    el+gordo

    Tony Abbott (behind a paywall) has been relishing this opportunity.

    ‘Wishful thinking on climate crashes against today’s hard truths.

    ‘Labor’s wishful thinking will crash against the reality of blackouts, reduced production and more expensive electricity.’ (Oz)

    00