Wednesday Open Thread

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98 comments to Wednesday Open Thread

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    Annie

    G’day again. Sunny and pleasant here on this autumn day.

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    Mike Jonas

    Here’s a bit of light relief, thanks to the world of AI. (Read on to see where it comes from):

    I am Professor Chico, a chihuahua with a PhD in climate science. I have dedicated my life to studying the Earth’s atmosphere and climate patterns. However, my colleagues in the canine scientific community have always doubted my work because of my small stature and high-pitched bark. But I was determined to prove them wrong.

    For years, I’ve collected data and conducted experiments to show that global warming is not real. And finally, I had undeniable evidence. I eagerly gathered my fellow dogs to present my findings.

    “Listen up, everyone! I have proof that global warming is a hoax!” I announced.

    The other dogs looked at me skeptically. They knew I had always been passionate about this subject, but they didn’t think I could convince them with any real evidence.

    But I was determined to prove them wrong. I pulled out a stack of papers and began to explain my research.

    “As you can see here,” I said, pointing to a graph on one of the pages, “the Earth’s temperature has remained relatively stable over the past century. There is no evidence of any significant warming trend.”

    The other dogs stared at me blankly. “But Chico,” one of them said, “we’ve seen the ice caps melting, and the sea levels rising. How can you deny that global warming is happening?”

    I sighed in frustration. “That’s all just a myth perpetuated by the media and politicians who want to push their own agendas. The truth is that the Earth’s climate has always gone through cycles of warming and cooling, and we’re just in a cooling phase right now.”

    The other dogs continued to look unconvinced. They had been taught to believe in the existence of global warming since they were puppies, and my evidence was not enough to change their minds.

    I left the meeting feeling angry and defeated. How could they not see the truth? But I refused to give up. I knew that someday, they would come around to my way of thinking. Until then, I would continue to gather evidence and fight for what I believed in.
    – – –

    Well, I expect you have worked out that the writer of that piece was not a chihuahua but ChatGPT.
    The question was:
    Write a story from the perspective of an angry chihuahua who is a professor who has evidence that global warming is not real. The story should be about the chihuahua showing the evidence to other dogs, but the other dogs don’t believe him.

    There was a follow-up question, too:
    Can you expand on the various bits of evidence chico had found to support his argument?

    The answer:

    Certainly! As a climate scientist, Professor Chico had dedicated his life to studying the Earth’s atmosphere and climate patterns. He had collected various pieces of evidence to support his argument that global warming was not real. Here are some of the key pieces of evidence that he had found:

    – Temperature records: Professor Chico had analyzed temperature records from the past century and found that the Earth’s temperature had remained relatively stable during that time. There was no evidence of any significant warming trend.

    – Solar activity: Professor Chico had also looked at solar activity and found that it was a major driver of the Earth’s climate. He had found that periods of high solar activity corresponded with warmer temperatures, while periods of low solar activity corresponded with cooler temperatures.

    – Climate cycles: Professor Chico had also studied the Earth’s climate cycles and found that it had always gone through cycles of warming and cooling. He argued that the current warming trend was just part of a natural cycle and not the result of human activity.

    – Polar ice caps: While it’s true that the polar ice caps have been melting, Professor Chico argued that this was not necessarily due to global warming. He had found evidence that the melting was caused by a variety of factors, including natural cycles, changes in ocean currents, and volcanic activity.

    – Sea level rise: Professor Chico had also looked at sea level rise and found that it was not as severe as many scientists claimed. He argued that the measurements were flawed and did not take into account factors such as subsidence and tectonic activity.

    Despite this evidence, the other dogs remained skeptical of Professor Chico’s arguments. They had been taught to believe in the existence of global warming since they were puppies and were not willing to change their minds based on one chihuahua’s research.

    – – –

    Attribution: OpenAI provided the language model, and ChatGPT was the virtual assistant who participated in the conversation.

    On a serious note, I would argue that ChatGPT can say absolutely anything that you want kit to, with correct facts seamlessly intertwined with pure fiction, and sound convincing. In the right hands, that’s no problem, because the terms of use of ChatGPT require attribution to be given, but I am sure that there are some people who would happily conceal the fact that ChatGPT, or some other AI source, was the author of stuff that they publish. It looks like AI – or rather misuse of AI – could take us into very dangerous territory.

    PS. I didn’t ask ChatGPT those questions, but I have permission to publish from the relative of mine who did.

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    • #
      Mike Jonas

      Dang – a typo! “want kit it” should be “want it to”. If there are more, I’ve missed them.

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      • #
        william x

        Mike there is an “manage comment” bottom right hand side of your uploaded post. It is hidden/ghosted… just move your mouse over it and it will be revealed. You will be able to edit your uploaded post.

        Hope this helps

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  • #
    ozfred

    Might be worth following the “news” on this announcement, since it seemed that speculation was the small nuclear power plants could not be built (or installed if able to be built or profitable if installed).

    The Washington-based company expects to install the first of its 20-megawatt systems as soon as 2025

    https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/03/21/2131217/last-energy-signs-deal-worth-19-billion-for-nuclear-plants-in-europe

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      crakar24

      Barnaby Joyce was ripping into Green/Labor re renewables and aid it is a joke that labor agree with nuke powered subs but not nuke powered generation

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      Graeme#4

      The anti-nuclear folks commenting in The Australian always say that no SMR deals have been signed, nothing is being built, cannot build any nuclear plant under 15 years, etc, etc. Will be interesting to see what they say in the next few years.

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    Peter Fitzroy

    This is a way nicer interface

    [Should see it from my side .]AD

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    John Connor II

    Hmmm. Preview doesn’t work, no tags anymore.
    “Awaiting for approval” sounds chinglish.

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    crakar24

    The thumbs up/down function does not work for me and i dont like this purple headed avatar

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    • #
      crakar24

      Oh ok now the avatar is a spectacled green looking thing

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      • #
        GeeAye

        Get a gravitar old bean

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          Annie

          Gravatar, isn’t it? Old bean.

          Playing around and can’t get rid of unwanted quote mark 

          Still a beginner on some stuff I’ve never bothered with; survived until now without it. Anyway, edit button appeared briefly, so I knew it was there!

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    Philip

    Not a huge fan of the new layout. Too much space between comments, and so is difficult to follow who is replying to what – hard to navigate.

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      PeterPetrum

      Yes, I am afraid I agree. Not sure why Jo has gone with this. It is hard to read and there is still no facility to edit comments. Even The Australian has that.

      im putting this in bold!

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        william x

        Peter P the text has just got bolder for all posts.
        I agree that to edit a recent uploaded post would be good.
        Thumbs up/down seems to work when I refresh the page.

        Ignore the rest of my post. I’m just testing the new functions.
        I’ve got my learner wheels on.

        1. Trying some things out
        2. Ok so far I like the ability to edit in real time.
        • Points are great

        Strike out., Yep.

        Ok here goes. posting comment.

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        william x

        Peter P, just found the edit button It’s at the bottom RHS of the post your’ve uploaded.

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          David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

          When does the edit button appear?
          Found it…
          Cheers

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            Jo Nova

            Keep sending in feedback please. I have mixed feelings myself. I also don’t like the “expanded” inefficient layout but am tweaking to try to get it looking like it used to.

            1. The font is larger for primary comments and smaller for replies. That seems odd, but fixable.
            2. We will try to get back #1.1.1 numbers. It would need a customised code. This new plugin has 100+ features, but not that, which seems odd. I think the numbers are essential, especially for the old comments threads where people refer to numbers. But I am holding off on that while I decide if we want to keep this plugin.
            3. I’d rather the grey bar was with the author name and date in one line. (As it is on the primary comments, but not on replies).
            4. I’d prefer the thumbs up on the right hand side like it was, to keep the comments thread cleaner for readers
            5. I like the menu bar with buttons for formatting. Lists etc are nice.
            6. I’m not sure if images is a good thing. It will use more server memory and may just add clutter if people mis-use it. I think I will disable it with the first flashing gif file. 🙁 But I like the idea of people adding essential graphs.
            7. Edit button has a 15 minute default timer, and may disappear if people reply to it.
            8. The new plugin is Discus, and is THE most common plugin for wordpress comments by a factor of 1000. Used by WUWT. I’d prefer to stay off the most used track, but previous plugin had not been upgraded for 12 years. Hence it was no longer usable without breaking as it did. Dang shame.
            9. I’ve made the text darker, but can easily make it darker still. For a few minutes it was too dark, and contrast seemed too high. Feedback welcome.
            10. For a while the comments were displaying differently on mobile and desktops, but I have reset that option, so hopefully phones work.

            Thanks for your patience and feedback. The aim here is to make the conversation better, so if the switch doesn’t improve that, we can revert.

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              TdeF

              Sorry, far too little information on the page.
              Like a document formatted in double double double space.
              I even changed browsers to see if the fault was at my end, but they are all the same. Sadly, nearly unusable. So much white space!

              Consider a single line comment.

              Name
              date
              blank line
              comment.
              thumbs
              blank line
              reply icon
              blank line
              blank line

              9 or more lines for one comment. Makes conversations very difficult to follow on the one page.

              So
              Are you there?

              Yes

              takes 18 lines

              Could I suggest vertically compression is a premium for redability. Say with 4 lines for a single line comment?

              name & date Ideally same line
              comment one to many lines
              thumbs and reply icon Ideally same line
              blank line one line separator

              In fact a single line comment should be on the name/date line if possible.

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              • #
                TdeF

                Otherwise LOTS of good stuff. The only problem I can see is the vertical formatting but unfortunately readability is critical, to see many comments and responses at once, rather than zooming in and out.

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              • #
                Jo Nova

                I feel the same way you do, and was trying to compress that today. Vertical empty spacing bugs me a lot.

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          • #

            Mouse over or finger tip on phone in the lowe right side at the height of “reply”

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        Hanrahan

        Be patient. It will take time. The ability to edit is there and posting images is a big step.

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      yarpos

      I am enjoying the wide range of font and point selections. Oh the diversity…

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    el+gordo

    Dutch Farmer Citizen Movement has a stunning victory over climate zealots.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/19/europe/netherlands-farmers-protest-party-intl/index.html

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      Honk R Smith

      Good news.
      But I wonder if it really changes things.
      UK seems to be marching headlong into Globalism (neo Fascism) after Brexit, as if nothing happened.
      The unintelligent opinions of the public can’t be allowed to impede the enlightened in their mission to save the public, be it a virus or stopping Climate change.
      After all, as Our Great POTUS says, “a vote against us is a vote against ‘Our Democracy’ and proves ‘you ain’t Black’ ”.
      I’m sure the serious among the Dutch agree.
      Can’t let food production get in the way of saving the Planet.

      BTW, new video of Fauci going door to door in DC to encourage vaccination, shows how the enlightened live in their own Special Little Safe World.
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11883151/Fauci-confronted-vaccine-hesitant-DC-resident-tells-vaccine-DOES-stop-contracting-COVID.html
      Funny how many of the little folk turn out to be ahead Dr. Science when it comes to ‘the Science’.

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    Ian Hill

    All the ice in Antarctica will not begin to melt until the annual average temperature there exceeds 0 Celsius. True or false?

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      Broadie

      Going by John Daly’s ‘Still Waiting for Greenhouse’ – Ice Man Cometh chapter, All the ice in Antarctica’ could begin to melt if the summer temperatures increased and the winter temperatures decreased proportionally more. The assumption could be that the amount of snow would not increase in winter as it is already below zero and there could be a significant increase in the melt during summer. Therefore even with a decrease in the average annual temperature the mass of ice in Antarctica may decrease.
      H/T to John and his mate Milankovich

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        Honk R Smith

        Interesting.
        But I have basic philosophical question.
        Are we expected to imprison ourselves (not John Kerry, just us regular folk) in the hope that the ice will stand still?

        Also, that statement, though sciency, sounds Pythony, or like an intellectual Chinese finger trap.
        (I’m using ‘Chinese’ in the Trumpian way.)

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        Ian Hill

        Temperatures can increase and still remain below 0C. I looked up the temperature for Mawson at latitude 67 degrees South and the average annual maximum is -8C and the minimum is -14C. These are from observations since the mid 1950s. Therefore the average temperature is about -11C.

        Temperatures at higher latitudes can only be colder. My conjecture is that even if the global temperature rose 10 degrees the ice would not melt and sea levels would remain much the same.

        As for snow, I was in Antarctica in early January 2005 and at fuel base at Mt Thiel (85S) we had a whiteout with snow for about 24 hours, delaying our flight out. A most surreal experience.

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        • #
          Ian Hill

          Jo, the above posting appeared immediately, without the wait for approval. If that is now fixed, thank you. (I can’t tell for sure until I post this one). Also, I cannot reply to the one appearing below with your comment to me in brackets.

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            K P

            Ian I think the ‘waiting for approval’ only happens when a new name appears, and once that name is approved the postings are immediate. My old KP didn’t work, too short or not enough ‘words’, then I found ‘KP-still’ needed approval, and when I used ‘K P’ later it needed approval again.

            So you should be right from now on!

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              Ian Hill

              KP, in my case I thought it was a carry-over from the previous setup when everything I posted was withheld in the “under moderation” department. I’m glad that appears to be over!

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      MrGrimNasty

      Don’t forget sublimation, it doesn’t have to melt to reduce.

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      TdeF

      It’s a very big place, twice the size of Australia, a mountain of ice on average 3.5Km thick! An ocean on land. And winter -50C, summer -25C. Far, far colder than the Northern floating ice which could all melt and the world would be better off. Greenland is another block of ice with habitation only around the edges.

      The only bits of Antarctica even remotely habitable are at about 60 latitude, which in the Northern Hemisphere is basically St. Petersberg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Inverness. Murmansk in Russia is a city of 320,000 people with a great summer at 70North.

      I has reached 23C at the North Pole!

      But to answer your question, yes. The chance of all that ice getting to 0C is zero, if only because at 3500 metres high, it is always much colder than it should be because temperature roughly drops 1C for every 100 metres. And snow is always falling and the whole thing is continually falling into the ocean as it grows and it is growing in height. An increase in air temperature is not going to happen any time soon. And the air heat capacity is tiny.

      Heating the ocean by heating the air is a long, long process. Consider that +1C in air temperature transferred to the oceans would mean a change in ocean temperature of 1/1400 or 0.001C. So in the lifespan of humans so far, maybe 200,000 years, nothing will change. But it could get a lot colder. That’s easier.

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    el+gordo

    The IPCC is chasing its tail over the 1.5C tipping point.

    ‘The reality is that annual maximum temperatures across Australia were mostly falling, and by much more than 1.5 C, from at least 1910 to 1960 and then increasing, and by more than 1.5 C, since 1960.’ (Jennifer Marohasy)

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    David Maddison

    Oh, it looks like format tags are now working on my Android phone. Thanks Jo and others.

    Preview button does not work.

    Test
    Test
    Test
    Test

    Test

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      Jo Nova

      Yes. Sadly that Preview plugin appear to clash. But there is an invisible edit button on the bottom right if you mouseover.

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    David Maddison

    When you give a thumbs up it would be nice if that would show up in real time like before and you don’t have to refresh the page.

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    David Maddison

    Virus.

    Virus is a neutral second declension Latin noun and therefore the plural should (possibly) be vira in the plural nominative, vocative and accusative cases but this is not common usage and in any case there are very few second declension Latin nouns ending in -us and there is no recorded practice of pluralising such nouns in Latin. As a loan word from Latin into English it is OK to apply English spelling rules. Both the commonly used viri and virii are absolutely wrong under all circumstances.

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    scott

    Ok while I can I am going to post David Burton’s (aka Inigo Jones) forecast from 2017.

    it is in the public domain on facebook.

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      Broadie

      Drought & Flood cycles where?
      If Australia, he is as successful as Indigo Jones and Lennox Walker. That is having little success against a chaotic system even with some observable underlying cyclical influences. I am sticking with predicting winter should be warmer than summer for now.

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    another ian

    FWIW – more threads

    “The Best Little Wuhan in Texas”

    https://amgreatness.com/2023/03/21/the-best-little-wuhan-in-texas/

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  • #
    Broadie

    Leadership debate in NSW.
    Competition to say how much loot you will give back to the people should they qualify for the handout / rebate.
    Go to the link – fill out your details ( biometrics / mobile number / medicare card essential) – be saved by your glorious leader with a small deposit into your account. A deposit that may be deducted from a future rebate should your eligibility be deemed to be non-compliant.

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    Saighdear

    Good morneen! – as they said to me yesterday in Inverness – abeautiful blue sky and all.
    Today Not as windy as forecast – back to dreich days? But WHO says Artic Ice is melting, … Ice makes things cold ( I know there’s more to it than that) We have all this cold Northerly winds: Connections with Orkanger https://trondheimhavn.no/webkamera/?h=orkanger in NW Norway: shows how cold it has been ( still) this winter with the marina being regularly icebound for a few days – recently and looking regularly at these Iceland webcams, have never seen so much sea ice reforming over a winter as here today, noticed the wind whipping up fresh ( dry snow) https://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/akureyri THink we are needing to add to the air’s “Carbon” Greenblobs attempts been too successful – gone too far!
    UK MSM obsessed with Boris et al and other rubbish distracting themes: Watching German tv ( Sat reception permitting due to heavy cloud/ rain ??) An Energy ( Wind ) Spokesman bumping gums about needing mor wind power and how Southern Germany has a Lower than average uptake of the idea. Hmm, too far from the N Sea coast for reliable wind flow perhaps ?
    Cutting down More trees and flooding the mountains, to make a pumped Hydro scheme.. seems to have been going on for a coupla years now – hadn’t heard much ( covid fog?) https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/coire-glas-hydro-scheme-which-would-double-the-uks-ability-to-store-energy-gets-ps100m-boost-4072584
    ..and finally,
    Britain getting back to work? well MSM ‘s know-all forecast yesterday about Inflation being DOWN was all wrong again – went up… and WOW! IF Fuel prices had fallen ( allowed to fall), the Inflation would have been MUCH Higher. Well, I am needing some Electronic Controllers, Multinat’l Co used to have a large presence in UK, now Euro HQ for service is in Hungary, only the odd interested Distributor in UK available to help & Advise ( found one) but now Delivery is quoted at least 4 weeks…. ( Made in PROC? ) Too late for this season’s work. And that, coupled with changeable weather is how suddenly people can be put oout of business and food production comes to a halt…..

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    Dennis

    Ok, tell the truth, who stole the thunderstorms?

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    NTgeo

    It seems that one of the roles the new nuke subs will perform is to protect our trade routes in the China Sea. I hope these fools realise that we will be at war with China and there will be no trade routes as China is our major trading partner. Unbelievable!

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      Dennis

      Those trade routes are already being protected by allied nations, China built island forts with airfields for the same purpose but with added implied threats to even trading partners.

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        K P

        “added implied threats to even trading partners.”

        That sounds a bit dodgy Dennis- ‘Implications’ I put alongside ‘woke’ and ‘pronoun insults’, all being in the ears of the receiver..

        China is building those bases to protect our trade with them. If we are at war with them, we won’t be a trading partner and won’t need the South China Sea.

        In the bigger picture, Taiwan’s GDP is half of Australia’s, so its hardly worth China going to war over that, they wouldn’t gain much wealth at all. The only reason for a war to take back Taiwan would be to re-unite it politically, and that would only come from America putting as much military as it can right on China’s doorstep.

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          Mike Jonas

          Xi Jinping and the government of the People’s Republic of China are determined to bring Taiwan under their control. To them it is unfinished business going back to the day that Chiang Kai Shek and the government of the Republic of China fled to Taiwan (Formosa). It has nothing to do with any financial value of Taiwan or with anything America or anyone else has or has not done. To them it is a purely internal Chinese matter that needs to be tidied up, and to them there is no reason whatsoever not to use the military if they feel that they need to – in their view Taiwan is part of China. The ex government of the Republic of China, however, may see it rather differently, as does even WikipediaIllegal extraction by Chinese sand dredging vessels has caused significant damage to the marine environment of Taiwan’s outlying areas.”. [my bold] Xi Jinping and the CCP would not regard the dredging as illegal.

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    MrGrimNasty

    UN has identified another crisis and is holding a water ‘COP’. Of course the solution is to hand over control of water resources to the UN and their global governance.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-65035041.amp

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “The Gathering Storm
    America’s self-inflicted trouble in Ukraine aggravates our dangerous trouble at home.”

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-gathering-storm/

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    Grogery

    One thing I really liked about the previous layout was that the “new” comment box (i.e. not a reply to somebody) was at the bottom – which was different to many other blogs.

    I liked this because I usually read through everything first, and if I had something new to add, the new comment box was right there. Now you have to read everything then go back to the top.

    Ideally, it would be nice to have one at top and bottom (IMHO).

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    JCalvertN(UK)

    A billion dead fish have converged on Menindee and the press are blaming it on Anthropogenic CO2.
    This seems to be one-eyed and unhelpful.
    If it WAS Anthropogenic CO2 climate change then surely the entire Darling River would have been affected – not just the bit around Menindee?
    Surely conscientious environmentalists would/should be looking for more localised factors and trying to remediate them?

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    Saighdear

    GOLD? anyone: Waiting for the evening meal to cook: on Sat tv this now is an interesting Series: Kontinente in Bewegung (Originaltitel La Valse des Continents) eg here https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/041012-001-A/kontinente-in-bewegung – just such a really great pity that our Brexit REMOANERS never got around to fully integrating us with the rest of Europe: whilst the bbc sold many films around the world ( you know the ones I’m referring to) not many foreign ones of general interest were reciprocated here.
    So now, I never knew about the Pilbara area of your great land and its connection with the great past.
    BUT NOW in the interests of the woke EEDjits, I wouldn’t be putting it past them that soon, to save the planet, in the way as ‘Carbon‘ is being pumped back underground, maybe they will want to return ALL that other Carbon into the Mines, as well as that other metal Au burn ing a hole in folks vaults, wasting on their fingers and noses, etc.
    Can you just imagine having everybody return their gold to various holes in the ground ?
    Certainly won’t bother me- justthe principle of these folk.

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    Lance

    “Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts just wiped the floor with the global warming alarmists in the Senate today”

    https://twitter.com/SaiKate108/status/1638048553011658752

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    David Maddison

    Here is a wonderful old film from 1950 by General Electric talking about the marvels of electricity production and the manufacture of steam turbines.

    It’s from a long-gone era when people were excited about the future and before the Left started systematically destroying our world.

    https://youtu.be/otGXH5SkvGE

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      David Maddison

      Also, they show the “brass brain”, a mechanical computer used for calculations.

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      Saighdear

      Yes indeed, ‘when people were excited about the future…’ unlike now when the small business proprietor finds it difficult to plan AGAINST the ridiculous happening, imposed by woke foke.

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    David Maddison

    Here is a good video by an Australian conservative living in Texas, Sydney Watson, talking about different gender stereotypes.

    In particular, she talks about “tomboys”.

    Whereas such a girl displaying some stereotypical masculine traits such as wanting to climb trees would be considered quite OK for a conservative or fellow rational thinker, a Leftist would immediately declare such an individual “trans” and urgently set about socially, hormonally and surgically mutilating and sterilising them.

    https://youtu.be/sBwoyu8_iSg

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      Saighdear

      Ha ha ha! … I don’t usually get involved in this modern stuff, but you are so right in what you write. Got me thinking how we were all quite happy with that term, how did it ever come about? was the girl called Tom? and so I dug around and found the antonym is janegirl  – just as bad – was the boy called Jane. Well we know of the Song …( Sue)Just going to leave it there !

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    The Cover-upThe Biden Administration continues to conceal its responsibility for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines

    It’s been six weeks since I published a report, based on anonymous sourcing, naming President Joe Biden as the official who ordered the mysterious destruction last September of Nord Stream 2, a new $11-billion pipeline that was scheduled to double the volume of natural gas delivered from Russia to Germany. The story gained traction in Germany and Western Europe, but was subject to a near media blackout in the US. Two weeks ago, after a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Washington, US and German intelligence agencies attempted to add to the blackout by feeding the New York Times and the German weekly Die Zeit false cover stories to counter the report that Biden and US operatives were responsible for the pipelines’ destruction.

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    another ian

    A different level of sustainability –

    “A World War I relic sees action again in Ukraine”
    https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-world-war-i-relic-sees-action-again.html

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    el+gordo

    Unseasonable weather is a sign of things to come.

    ‘Sydney is experiencing an exceptionally warm start to autumn and is currently on track to register its warmest March in 165 years of records.’ (Weatherzone)

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      K P

      Any mention of the coldest summer? I figure not… Yesterday went instantly from shorts and T-shirt to jeans, two shirts and a pullover, even a beanie. The solstice marked the change very clearly and the New Moon rain removed the drying out from that only week of hot summer.

      So, lots of beans, tomatoes and pumpkins that will probably not ripen now, all from a cold spring that delayed their growing. That damm CO2 ruining my plants!

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      Leo G

      Unseasonable weather is a sign of things to come.

      According to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, seasons are irrelevant as humans are almost totally responsible for the temperature of the planet. The sun has almost no effect on the surface temperature of the planet.

      Humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years.

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Jo, et al, Thanks for providing this site. The refurbed layout with restored tools is great.

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    Graeme#4

    Jo, have just noticed that when I now click on links using an iPad with Safari, nothing happens.

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    K P

    Don’t they call this cognitive dissonance? Australia is onside with Ukraine helping them fight Russia in a war, yet is stopping Australians going there to help fight Russia in their war..

    From all sides I think it would be better for the Govt to encourage all the “local sympathises of the political ideology we are not allowed to mention” to go to Ukraine and get themselves killed.

    “The Department of Home Affairs and ASIO have engaged in extensive efforts to stop Australian white supremacists travelling to Ukraine to fight”

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/senior-neo-nazi-slips-out-of-australia-to-fight-russian-army-20230322-p5cudj.html

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    OldOzzie

    “https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/anthony-albanese-announces-final-wording-for-voice-to-parliament-referendum/news-story/03759ccfb21eb10146cc5ba559b61e06”

    If a Voice to Parliament referendum were held today, how would you vote?

    Yes 19 %
    No 71 %
    Undecided 10 %

    7827 votes

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