Friday

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89 comments to Friday

  • #
    tonyb

    Most sceptics criticise the tens of thousands of delegates flocking in person to such jamborees as the climate summits. What about the catastrophic climate change you believe in? Why not zoom?

    I have been reading that interesting book “Dark Cloud” by French author G Pitron (Ed Conway came up with a broadly similar one called “Material World”).

    We all know the huge amounts of resources needed to create the woefully ineffective green energy renewables revolution, but the “climate damaging” effects of the digital world has received much less attention.

    The digital world creates 3.5% of mans CO2, which is set to double in 4 years. It uses 10% of the world electricity, including ironically vast amounts from coal burning. Again a figure expected to double every few years. Those cities that have vast data centers will find far more than 10% of their electricity being diverted to these centres.

    So those idiotic tik tok dances, that picture of your breakfast you uploaded to Instagram (why???) even that tick of approval to a blog article, have consumed vast amounts of power and the data is probably being held in up to 7 energy gorging Cloud and data centres.

    For those that obsessively worry about their CO2 emissions- often the young, digital savvy, green enthusiast -it is probably not known that an email produces a minimum of 5 grams of CO2 and as much as 20 grams if there is an attachment, the latter equivalent to a light bulb being switched on for an hour. Some 317 billion emails are sent every day around the world. That’s a lot of light bulbs.

    A datacentre that wanted to illustrate the vast energy consumption of their idiotic kitten video users, those who stream football on their phone and who watch other trivial stuff online (although they didn’t actually say that) revealed that the music video “Gang*an style” was viewed around 1.7 billion times per year, requiring around 300 GWh which equates to the average electricity consumption of a European city with a population of over 60000.

    So, the digital world already creates more energy and consumes more electricity than civil aviation and in a few years more than all forms of transport.

    So those going to COP30 in Brazil in 2025 and who have steadfastly decided they prefer the exotic sights and sounds of these climate fests in person, might actually be inadvertently right, as using the digital world to communicate before during and after, might well use up more of the world resources than meeting in person.

    What selfless people are our climate scientists and their hangers on in swapping the delights of their tiny room in a non descript urban building in cold wet Europe or the USA and instead meeting up for COP30 at the Amazonian city of Belém do Pará

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      tonyb

      I should add to my item above that the digital savvy are likely using Digital coins. Bitcoin mining takes up 0.5% of the worlds production of electricity, about that consumed annually by Denmark.

      I dread to think how many resources the “metaverse” would gobble up if it ever got up and running.

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    • #
      red edwards

      The fun number would be to find out (and tell those digital savvy idiots) just how much checking their facebook and/or showing a 15 second Tiktoc video, costs in terms of CO2 generation!

      Put the disaster back on their shoulders.

      Now That’s caring. . .

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  • #
    tonyb

    The leader of the BLM group who toppled the stature into the harbour in Bristol has been jailed for fraud.

    https://dailysceptic.org/2023/11/01/blm-activist-jailed-after-spending-32000-she-raised-for-youth-group-on-herself/

    This follows the pattern of their US counterparts some of whose leaders seems to have diverted funds for their own uses.

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    tonyb

    This is one of the mad Devon traditions associated with Bonfire night-November 5th

    https://www.devonlive.com/whats-on/whats-on-news/gallery/tar-barrels-2022-incredible-photos-7789476

    That is when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament.

    Yes, those are really flaming tar barrels that people are carrying on their backs. Quite how it evades the clutches of the Health and safety groups I don’t know. Its our equivalent of running with the bulls through Pamplona but more dangerous.

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    • #
      Strop

      From the article:

      Each year, onlookers are warned against wearing their best clothing as ash spills from the barrels.

      Don’t wear your best clothing 😆

      Guy Fawkes night (Nov 5th) was one of the best nights of the year when I was a kid. We spent months building the bonfire and saving for fireworks.
      Ruined by govt. controlling fun police here in Aus.

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      • #
        Mike

        Strop…..I’m the same as you with a fond memory of the annual Guy Fawkes night in my home town in NZ. I used to save up & buy miscell fireworks from the green grocer. Then have the best of fun on the night. Alas where’ve been saved from ourselves.

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    • #

      ..i will take the tar barrel before the bulls every time !

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  • #
    tonyb

    I don’t know if you have heard the Final Beatles song?

    It can be accessed here

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12702617/the-Beatles-new-song-fan-reaction-masterpiece.html

    A lovely haunting song that will remind many of us of a certain age of our childhood and more settled and confident times before Western leaders started going mad.

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  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Apart from Perth and Darwin, there’s not a lot of Goebbels Vermin happening in Oz today; some places look decidedly chilly (hint: Melbournistan). Further east, no ‘boiling’ has been sighted here so far: there’s even a prognosis of ‘snow to 800m’ for the mountains this weekend on into next week…

    WE DEMAND CHANGE!

    Bring back the ‘long, hot, dry summers’ of yore – am over this mediocre, average, standard fare that keeps dripping from the grey, leaden sky. Perhaps all those private jets flying into Dubai this weekend – to escape Storm Ciaran’s howling rain and snow – will improve our lot… not.

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    Strop

    https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/multimedia/urgent-hearing-dna-contamination-mrna-vaccines/

    Urgent Expert Hearing on Reports of DNA Contamination in mRNA Vaccines

    The World Council for Health, in collaboration with expert advisers, is dedicated to providing the public with accurate and reliable information to promote health and well-being. In light of recent concerns regarding bacterial DNA and genetic sequences in mRNA vaccines, we organized an emergency panel of nine international experts to examine these reports.

    The hearing, moderated by World Council for Health Steering Committee members Dr Mark Trozzi and Christof Plothe, DO, took place virtually 9 October 2023 and addressed the implications of these findings for all people of the world.

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      Fabulous. One reason I come here is to find new crank organisations. This one is fabulous. I like their support of 5Gvirus and sovereign citizen empowerment.

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      • #
        Strop

        I’m glad today was worth your visiting the blog.

        You may be right so what opinions/concerns did they present about the mRNA vaccines that you think are flawed and why?

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        • #
          Gee Aye

          The finding of trace DNA is meaningless and they make up stuff to make it seem meaningful. And crappy pictures of crystal like structures is evidence of nothing.

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      • #
        John Connor II

        What are the other reasons you come here?

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  • #
    Peter C

    Luton Airport Fire Update

    Not sure if someone has mentioned this already.
    In a recent episode of Geoff Buys Cars he reads a newspaper article which said that a man has been taken into custody!
    This was elaborated by a comment on Geoff’s program by a partly disabled person flew to the airport and needed a wheelchair. He had some time for a chat with airport staff. He was told that a man had driven his already smoking vehicle into the car park, got out and asked if someone could deal with his car and rushed off to catch his flight. And it was an EV!

    The comment is unconfirmed but it does accord with previous reports of the fire and the newspaper report.

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW –

    “Ghazi Hamad of Hamas’ Political Bureau lays it on the line.”

    “This is why Hamas has to die, no matter what”

    https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/11/this-is-why-hamas-has-to-die-no-matter.html

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  • #
    another ian

    Instapundit introduction –

    “MAKING YOUR LIFE WORSE ISN’T A SIDE EFFECT, IT’S A GOAL:”

    “Congress Sheds Light on Proposed New Energy Rules That Could Leave Americans in the Dark”

    https://archive.md/pqBP7#selection-567.0-567.88

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  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    Although the worst of the storm missed most of the UK, this incident is like something out of Final Destination or The Omen!

    https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2023-11-02/amazing-narrow-escape-as-branch-impales-motorhome-roof-in-storm-ciarn

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    • #
      el+gordo

      “I turned around and saw this branch come through the roof at the spot where I was sleeping.”

      Extraordinary, divine intervention?

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      • #
        Andrew McRae

        If the Divine wants to make an intervention, it’ll have to get in line behind a whole lot of earthly forces.

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    • #

      Yes, it was bad in places – this link confirms: –
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-67298061
      Titled – “Damage and disruption: Storm Ciarán in pictures”
      The BBC is keen to protect us, I suppose.
      Pictures show – amongst other things –
      “Council workers survey the damage and debris in West Bay” – gravel, and a set of paving stone steps partially damaged;
      “The Grand Hotel shows signs of damage” – possibly in St. Helier, Jersey; a patch of plasterwork has fallen;
      “A weather warning sign alerts drivers travelling through water spray and winds on the M5 motorway” – spray on the motorway;
      “A fallen tree in Brittany” – that’s Brittany, France;
      “An Enedis employee works to repair damaged power cables in Lanildut, western France”
      “Cars have been damaged by fallen trees in downtown Madrid”; that’s the Madrid in Spain, in case of query.

      But devastation here in Sarf Lunnon; the winds were so abominably violent they took [some of] the leaves off my pretty Acer; in November.
      Utterly unprecedented!

      Auto

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      • #
        MrGrimNasty

        The worst damage was local from several mini tornadoes on a squall line in Jersey and S.England, lot of flooding because the ground was already saturated, coastal flooding/damage from the swell – supposedly record low pressure for Nov. for England and Wales.

        This storm was a 1987 level event and would have been catastrophic in England had the low been 50-100 miles further north.

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  • #

    The UAH satellite anomaly temperature over Australia for October 2023 just came in today.
    The “pause” without warming now goes back 11 to years and 3 months before now.
    The high value in October caused a low value to drop off at the beginning to keep the best fit line horizontal or dipping down (cooling).
    The last 5 high values form a peak that is looking like ending soon.
    Where the baseline will settle out in future months is anyone’s guess.
    Some say that the peak was caused by the eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai, but data are still being assessed.
    Geoff S
    https://www.geoffstuff.com/uahnov2023.jpg

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    • #
      RickWill

      Your graph is not as scary as the BoM’s chart:
      http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/timeseries.cgi

      Any cooling trend over a couple of years invalidates all climate models because there is no inherent feature in a climate model that allows the temperature to reduce anywhere while CO2 is increasing.

      Whether CO2 is a function of ocean outgassing or human contribution, there is no way of stopping CO2 increase because the NH oceans will continue to get warmer than the SH oceans cool and China, India, Indonesia act are not going to abandon coal any time soon.
      https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-accounts-two-thirds-worlds-planned-new-coal-power-research-2023-04-06/

      But the amount of capacity planned or under construction around the world hit 537 GW last year, rebounding from a record low of 479 GW a year earlier, with China accounting for 68% of the total, according to a report by a group of think tanks led by the U.S.-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM).

      Over the satellite era, the NH oceans peak temperature has gone from 22C to 23C. The SH oceans peak has sat close to 18.5C. It appears peak in SH is now in a cooling trend. The Southern Ocean has been cooling throughout the satellite era. That alone invalidates all climate models because reality is doing something models cannot do.

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      Isn’t this straight line now, therefore at a higher Y value? You can’t just keep making a pause that goes up and call it a pause.

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      • #
        Strop

        I assume the anomaly base line is the average temp 1991-2020. That’s the base line Roy Spencer uses for UAH charts.

        Yes, the “trend” line is above the 1991-2020 average meaning it has warmed. A higher Y value. But the trend has become a straight line indicating that it hasn’t increased for the last 11 year period. It’s not “a pause that goes up”.

        No doubt the end point 2023 has a higher temp than than the 1979 start point. But this is just a trend from the last 25% of the UAH period. It’s a pause in the up. Not a pause that goes up.

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      • #
        TedM

        Well GA it depends on what you use as a reference doesn’t it. Perhaps the “Younger Dryas” to make a really scary graph. Or the “Holocene Climate Optimum” to make us realise that we have nothing to worry about.

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      • #
        Gee Aye

        I don’t think you’ve understood my comment.

        GS is redrawing a new straight line; he is not seeing if the new data is part of the previous trend. His flat line last month was drawn with the inclusion of an earlier low value and without this month’s value (Obviously). He finds that if he removes that old value that there is a straight line from old value+1 month up until now. That new line will be flat as claimed but it is a flat line with a higher value. It’s not the same line.

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        • #
          Strop

          Oh, I see. You’re referring to the horizontal trend line having a higher Y position than previous editions of the same chart.
          If that is the case, then yes. That suggests some warming .

          I thought you were referring to the trend line being higher than the average base line.

          Geoff, can you confirm the trend line position is at a higher Y position than previous editions?

          And why drop the first value off?

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          • #
            Geoff Sherrington

            Strop,
            The calculation simply starts at some date years ago when it was cooler. The linear least squares line of best fit is calculated from then to now. The trend of the line is noted. A + trend is warming over that time. A – trend is cooling. Then, the start point years ago is moved closer and closer to now until the + trend in the little box top right suddenly becomes a – trend. That means, with caveats about the suitability of the least squares maths and the uncertainty of each measurement, that the “pause” is the longest period before now that has a cooling trend.
            The average value of all months in the pause can be higher or lower than the average before, depending on how large the last monthly value was.
            My interest is similar to Viscount Monckton’s. First, it is hard to envisage a physics that has an alleged driver, CO2, increasing steadily yet allowing a pause. The Aussie pause is now a quarter of the whole time since the UAH data started in 1978. Second, there will come a date when global warming will turn and become global cooling. Graphs showing the pause are one way to describe what that turning point might look like. The pause will just get longer and its trend will be more and more negative.
            Geoff S

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  • #
    Anton

    The UN is a democracy of dictatorships comprising failed politicians from round the world. The best flavour of it is got by seeing the composition of its Human Rights Commission (to 2006) then Council.

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  • #
    Hanrahan

    How they steal your keyless entry car.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_3lgxMwrWI

    It seems 30 ft is the magic number and they must be able to activate a query so my car in a locked garage is safe from drive by theft. I don’t have a battery in my spare fob and if I were to put the fob I’m using in a tin [Faraday cage] I should be safe.

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      It is silly isn’t it.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Toyota owners can switch off their fob. Check if others have a similar technique.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e49J0q9uEaY

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      • #
        Glenn

        Yep…my Fob can also be switched off using a two button press sequence. Placing your fob inside a small metal can/box also prevents this type of theft.

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        • #
          Graeme#4

          Perhaps not leaving it on the house entry table is a good idea.

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          • #
            Hanrahan

            We all do things differently. I always wear my jeans when I go out so my key goes into the fob and there it stays ’til my jeans get grubby. [How grubby is “grubby” with jeans?]

            Having a dementia sufferer in the house I lock my room at night so my key, in my jeans, is in a locked room more than 30ft ft from the Camry in a locked garage in a low crime neighbourhood. I have no need for a rottweiler, it might eat Mrs H’s little dog.

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    • #
      John Connor II

      My REX remote works out to about 20m but I always use the touch access.
      A Faraday cage of any form would “foil” the thieves.😁
      That’s a 5 year old video and whilst true, things have moved on.
      Earlier this year, I saw reports came in about a new attack against Toyotas and Lexus’s (Lexii?) via the headlights.
      It’s called CAN Injection, and can completely bypasses the security system by exploiting CAN bus design.
      Pull back (or off) the front bumper, disconnect a headlight and plug in the naughty tool ($10 worth), which then tricks the gateway into disabling other devices on the bus, poses as an ECU, and unlocks the doors and activates the PCM (Powertrain Control Module).
      Drive away!
      Toyota have been informed of solutions but have not acted.

      Best security – get a bait-trained German Shepherd. 😎

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      Also known as “the man in the middle” attack. Yes, and can be used with SIMPLE security systems such as car keys and door entrance systems.
      Note the use of the word SIMPLE. This type of attack does NOT work with three-pass authentication systems, as used on your credit card or transport card. They have a far more sophisticated security system that makes use of a hidden key in your card.
      Remember, the medium in which data is passed back and forth is NOT the security risk element, so using shielded wallets is an expensive joke. Security “holes” in secure systems are a lot more basic, and usually due to human error, or deliberate human alterations.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    “When you have eliminated the truth, whatever remains, however improbable, must be government narrative.”

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    • #
      TedM

      Or with a little tweaking, “

      “When you have eliminated the

      facts,

      whatever remains, however improbable, must be

      ABC’s

      narrative.”

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  • #
    another ian

    Canberra?

    Instapundit –

    “LOL: Democrats Unable to Acknowledge Why They are Struggling. “The Democrats know they really should be killing Republicans in the polls right now, except they aren’t for reasons they seem unable to fully understand. I don’t mean that as an insult of their intelligence. It’s probably closer to the opposite actually. It takes a lot of brain power to create the kind of insulated partisan bubble that many progressive live in these days.” ”

    Links to

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/11/02/democrats-unable-to-acknowledge-why-they-are-struggling-n589590

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      “LOL: Democrats Unable to Acknowledge Why They are Struggling. “The Democrats know they really should be killing Republicans in the polls right now, except they aren’t for reasons they DON’T WANT TO ACCEPT …”

      Fixed.

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  • #
    Steve of Cornubia

    Curious …

    My brother-in-law recently introduced me to a website called ‘Flightradar’, which allows me to view and track aircraft as they fly around the world. I was initially underwhelmed, but have since become a little ‘hooked’, though I’m not sure why. perhaps it’s a little like the old days with SW radios when I used to get a thrill out of ‘eavesdropping’ on things being said around the world. I’m not sure.

    But I was struck just now by how many flights whizzed overhead in Australia originate from China. Sure, our skies are pretty open and we are a popular destination, but China seems to have an awful lot of airlines these days.

    This made me wonder if our openness was reciprocated, so I jumped over to Beijing. Things immediately got a bit weird. Firstly, there seem to be very few flights in and out of Beijing which, given I have flown there myself and know it to be a major hub, was rather puzzling. Also, the info relating to the few flights I can see is out of whack. Aircraft that have obviously landed seem to continue doing 155mph. Then they disappear. The activity close by is a fraction of what can be seen around even Australian airports, let alone other international hubs of comparative size to Beijing.

    Deliberate attempts to hide aircraft movements, or some sort of data issue? Could be either given it’s China. Yet western governments and corporations still think it’s safe to do business with them.

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      FlightAware also a great program for tracking flights. Interesting to watch how they make deviations in their flight paths to avoid the world’s trouble spots.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      The full site name is flightradar24.

      The very top left button is Most tracked flights. Plane spotters LUV it. ATM the most tracked is a C17 out of Cyprus to Israel.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Very useful if you are picking someone up at the airport – allow time for baggage and you don’t have to wait around for delayed flights.

      It’s not bullet proof.

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    • #
      Russell

      Initially, the ADS-B data for these flight tracking sites came only from private or sponsored “plotters” who receive and upload the data.
      After the cat was out of the bag, some free-world (western?) Air Traffic Control folks now also upload their data to these web sites.
      Plotters who are close to airports can provide ground data for taxiing aircraft around their airport but not all participate to provide this.
      The format of broadcast data from the aircraft changes when their nose-wheel touches the ground, so this can be distinguished and separated.
      So you see them till they hit the runway and then they disappear. Some web site also do not show any ground tracking data.
      If the speed data in the last message before the nose-wheel is down had the aircraft doing 155mph, the web site holds that number for a short while.
      The aircraft broadcasts are very line-of-site (1GHz), so as aircraft approach the ground, the plotter needs to have no trees or buildings in the way.
      But it’s not hard to receive the signals when the aircraft gets above a few thousand feet.
      Maybe in China, “for security” (sic), the plotters are restricted and are not allowed to send ground track data (on pain of some punishment)?
      But they might just not have many plotters near their airports or they have lots of high-rise building around them that severely restrict reception of signals.

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    • #
      Annie

      I’ve often seen a flight on FR apparently hang in the air at about 200ft and still travelling at 127+ far beyond the end of the runway after it presumably had landed, next ‘twanging back’ to where it really is! Disconcerting but I’ve got used to it.
      I like follow my son’s flights when I know about them; he sure gets about, including Beijing occasionally. We try to catch up with him for lunch when he gets MEL.

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “Situs Inversus. Ever hear of a child born with its internal organs reversed? Stomach and descending colon on the right, appendix on the left, etc.

    https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/bizarre-blip-cases-of-fetuses-with-flipped-organs-quadrupled-in-china/

    Cases of Situs Inversus are way up in China, and they are blaming COVID19. Rates went to 24 per 10,000 fetuses. The good news is that most people with situs inversus have normal life spans”

    https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/11/03/november-3-2023-reader-tips/#comment-1825389

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