Sunday

7.4 out of 10 based on 27 ratings

177 comments to Sunday

  • #
    tonyb

    i thought readers might enjoy this snippet from one of Alistair Cooke’s “letter from America” this one broadcast on 27 April 1990. The author is talking about various “self made men”

    Of Trump he writes “Donald Trump, the young, bouncy, blond tycoon whose aspirations to take over hotels, casinos, airlines, resorts, cities-why not the country-appear to be boundless.

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    • #
      Lucky

      tonyb writes-
      ‘ as the Arctic climate warms, new sea routes open up ‘
      and ‘Russia seems to be ahead of the Game’

      Well yes Russia is ahead of the game, tho’ the Arctic is not warming, but Russia is using big nuclear powered ice-breakers.

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      • #
        Dave in the States

        Back in the 1930s and during WWII, the Arctic sea lanes were open during the summer. Russia had extensive shipping to and from ports across the top of North Asia. It was possible to go from Norway across the Arctic over top of Russia and enter the Pacific through the Bearing Straits. The Germans sent some commerce raiders into the Pacific using that route during WWII.

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  • #
    tonyb

    A new battleground seems to be emerging according to experts, as the Arctic climate warms, new sea routes open up and mineral resources start to become available.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12850819/Global-war-control-ARCTIC-Climate-change-unlocking-untapped-natural-resources-new-trade-routes-new-international-conflict-RUSSIA-winning.html

    Russia seems to be ahead of the Game, just as China is with Rare earths. The West really needs to get a grip as it is being squeezed out.

    Not a mile from me is a plaque in a Church to the First Scientific Arctic explorer -Scoresby-who was sent by the Royal Society in 1816 to investigate the melting of the Arctic which had first been reported by local whalers 10 years previously. Next to it is another plaque of someone local lost on the Titanic in 1912 which presaged another 30 years of Arctic warming and caused the establishment of ice berg patrols that continue to this Day. Russia also set up a ministry to promote the North East passage and charge tolls, which still exists.

    Few will need reminding of the warmth that allowed the Vikings to establish themselves in Greenland.

    So we have seen it all before. What concerns me is that we have forgotten Singapore. The British pointed their guns out to sea expecting an attack from that direction by the Japanese but instead they walked up the Malay peninsula and came from the back.

    Suppose all our attention and resources and actions are geared towards a global warming and instead there is a prolonged period of cooling?

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      If global temperatures were to increase by 1.5 C them this would boost crop yields (along with higher CO2 levles)

      However if global temperatures were to fall by 1.5 C then famine would be a likely outcome – killing 100 of millions.

      But them many of the Climate Cultists would see this as a desriable outcome!

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      • #
        Richard

        More CO2 = more food. It’s scientifically-accurate to say that more CO2 saves lives.

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      • #
        Steve

        What does a 1.5 degree rise or fall in global temperatures actually mean ?
        To me it seems to be particularly meaningless. Where are the average temperatures measured and what range/timescale is used and if the measure is an average then approximately half the planet will be cooler (no change) and half warmer. The temperatures on the planet have never been stable and mankind has always adapted. Therefore nothing to worry about. It’s all bllox.

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        • #
          Greg in NZ

          One-point-five degrees of insanity: listened briefly to a ‘climate professor’ with the thickest Scottish brogue I’ve ever heard on BBC propaganda radio yesterday (Hannah Rich?) fretting over “1.5 degrees Celsius” and sumpfink about COP… Had to change stations before I began yelling obscenities at the deranged woman.

          Even their ABC recently reported 2023’s claim to fame was due to Antarctica being a few degrees ‘warmer’, ie. instead of 40-below it was 35-below. Likewise the Arctic, where, instead of the average -30 it was -25. To gullibles living in cities, an extra five degrees at the poles is life-threatening: icebergs! polar bears! drowning cities! killer whales! The average human has one breast and one ball – oops! – useless.

          If only the mean temperature was used, folk would understand the planet is BELOW freezing on any given day, something to do with being in the Quarternary Ice Age maybe? Geology: it ain’t just a bunch of rocks.

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        • #
          Murray Shaw

          1.5C is the equivalence of being under a cloud on a warm 36C day as experienced whilst driving across the Riverina (NSW), as recorded by my car outside temperature instrument.
          1.5C should be welcomed as it would presage bountiful crops and a general greening of the Planet, and is that not the aim of mankind.

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        • #
          Leo G

          What does a 1.5 degree rise or fall in global temperatures actually mean ?

          Possibly a corresponding rise or fall in the poleward transfer of heat.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      tonyb:
      The guns at Singapore could cover the Malaysia approaches, but some civil servant(s) cut the funds for HE rounds and armour piercing ones were a waste of time in the jungle.

      Steve:
      The 1.5 degree rise is a fabrication based on an original claim that 2 degrees would be dangerous but that was judged as not panicking enough. Bear in mind that the HADCRUT climate history started in 1855 with 3 years of ONE thermometer in (what is now) Indonesia for the WHOLE of the southern hemisphere.

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      • #
        Steve

        Thanks Graeme.
        My point is that given the surface area of the planet is 197 million square miles of which land is about 57 million square miles; we don’t have the capability (space based or land based) to make any sort of meaningful temperature measurements for the globe, let alone the land area. We can take spot measurements of various resolutions but once you extrapolate that to the entire planet using dubious modelling then it becomes fantasy. IMO the whole measurement charade is meaningless pseudo science.

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      • #
        Geoff Sherrington

        Graeme,
        Melbourne’s records start in mid 1855, Sydney in 1856, others as well before 1858. We are not in Indonesia yet.
        Geoff S

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        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Not yet, but with our Climate policies they may buy us at a bankruptcy sale.
          But I understood that Melbourne and Sydney figures were only included in HADCRUT from 1858.

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        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Geoff:
          I understood that Sydney & Melbourne figures were only added from 1858, followed by Adelaide in 1861?
          So only 1,3 or 4 to cover half the world (minus as Steve says above) the oceans.

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    • #
      RickWill

      Suppose all our attention and resources and actions are geared towards a global warming and instead there is a prolonged period of cooling?

      The warming trend in the Northern Hemisphere is locked in. Expect 2024 summer in UK to be a bit cooler than 2023 but the upward trend should return in 2025 and 2026. Although it may not eclipse 2023 till 2032.

      UK will get wetter winters and high ground more snow. Summers will be hotter and drier.

      The precautionary principle is often touted as the reason for taking climate action – you know, what if there really are tipping points! But the same precautionary principle applies to CO2 – what if CO2 is not the temperature control knob that only climate models exhibit!

      Anyone who still believe climate models are useful are delusional. A straight line fit to the UAH temperature anomaly increasing at 1.4C/century yields a regression coefficient of 49%. That is markedly better fit than any climate model based on early predictions for the high CO2 scenario that is actually occurring. The best prediction for future global anomaly is to project from present at 1.4C/century. That straight line will outperform any climate model.

      Climate models show everywhere warming at the same rate. That is not happening so it is clear that CO2 does not do what the models assume.

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    • #
      Tel

      Russians are ahead because they run a fleet of nuclear powered ice breakers. The sea routes are not open to general shipping … they are open only to those ships with hulls that can survive the acrtic waters, and only with icebreaker escort.

      Suppose all our attention and resources and actions are geared towards a global warming and instead there is a prolonged period of cooling?

      A few degrees up or a few degrees down, either way there will still be ice in the Arctic. There might be slightly more or less ice, but a normal bulk carrier will be smashed by this very easily.

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    • #
      Leo G

      What concerns me is that we have forgotten Singapore.

      Not yet forgotten.
      My father lost his eldest brother at the Battle of Muir in Malaya. On 15th January 1942 he was an artillery observer directing fire for Australian Artillery when his observation post was overrun by Japanese forces. HIs bike was later found at the position still under camouflage.

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    • #
      Roy

      Perhaps Britain should re-establish a naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. That would be a convenient base for operations in the Arctic Ocean. The now closed base there served us well in two world wars. Of course the fact that the Royal Navy was then the world’s largest, at least until quite late in WW2, helped then. Nowadays I believe we have more admirals than ships.

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      • #
        Steve

        Unfortunately, the UK Defence forces are now a huge joke. ‘All mouth and no trousers’.
        Several ships are being decommisioned, immediately after expensive refits, so that the crews can be reassigned to the Type 26 Destroyers because we don’t have enough people.
        Senior roles, Rear Admiral, are now being advertised on LinkedIn because there are no willing or suitable candidates within the forces.
        https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/royal-navy-job-linkedin-b2473868.html
        Not to mention that we’ve given away all our ammunition to the Ukranians …

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  • #
    CO2 Lover

    Flood warnings for Victoria next 24 hours

    What happened to all those bushfires caused by “Global Warming” – soory “Global Boiling”????

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    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      Yes the ABC spent half of last year putting fear into us all about the expected hell fires that was going to be our Summer here is Australia. Sorry the Red thumb is my error . .

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    • #
      Dennis

      I just heard on talk cr*p radio somebody who has never known weather like now in his lifetime living in Victoria, and also Queensland which is supposed to be perfect weather conditions.

      sarc.

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  • #
    tonyb

    38% of American Adults don’t believe Biden was legitimately elected

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/more-3rd-us-adults-say-bidens-election-was-illegitimate-poll

    The numbers seem to be growing over the last couple of years.

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    • #
      Simon

      34% of Americans don’t believe in evolution.

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      • #

        And there are you 😀 😀

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      • #
        Klem

        92% of Americans believed that Covid came from a wuhan market.

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        • #
          Terry Dactil

          And 73.4% of statistics are just made up as needed.

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          • #
            CO2 Lover

            The full quote — “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” — has been attributed to Mark Twain, who himself attributed it to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who might never have said it in the first place. Regardless of the origin of the phrase, it is one that I hold near and dear.

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      • #
        John Hultquist

        34% of Americans don’t believe

        Is that with a large ‘E’ or a small ‘e’.

        Having been responsible for surveys of “the public”, I mostly disregard such stuff.
        Many Americans think Alaska is an island south of the Arizona-California border.
        In a similar vein, 97% of people reading here believe Simon is full of schist.

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      • #
        tonyb

        The difference being is that belief in evolution is growing

        https://news.umich.edu/study-evolution-now-accepted-by-majority-of-americans/

        Whilst the belief it was a fair election is diminishing.

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      • #
        Honk R Smith

        “34% of Americans don’t believe in evolution.”

        Go ahead Brits and Ozzians, make your little jokes about us Americans.
        Evolution?
        Pwuh!
        We have flying saucers.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8ERWxm58sE
        ‘LIVE: US House hearings on UFOs’

        Like 12 of ’em.
        How many flying saucers you got?
        Might want to rethink your fancy pants ‘Science’.
        🙂

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        • #
          Gerry

          Is NZ the same as Australia ? Ozzians and Kiwis are pretty much the same bunch aren’t we?

          NZ has Capt. Cathie and Harmonics on its side and apparently, on those small islands, the UFOs are wizzing about the cosmic ley lines fairly regularly…

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          • #
            Honk R Smith

            While I have never been to the pants side of the planet, I can tell the difference between Kiwis and Ozzians.

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          • #
            David Maddison

            Now Captain Bruce Cathie is a name I haven’t heard for a long time, and his books:

            Harmonic 33 (1968)

            Harmonic 695 – The UFO and Anti-Gravity (1971)

            Harmonic 288 – The Pulse of the Universe (1977)

            Harmonic 371244 – The Bridge to Infinity (1989)

            The Energy Grid (1990)

            The Harmonic Conquest of Space (1994)

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            • #
              Gob

              In Harmonic 695, which I read in 1973, he describes discovering a martian aboard his plane; some chapters further in he derived a proof of Einstein’s unified field theory using simple algebra with a trivial stupid error on every line.

              Notwithstanding the foregoing his is a negligible contribution to my refusal to travel on aircraft for the last nearly forty years.

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        • #
          MP

          Dear South Canadian.
          UFO’s are that common, they rarely get a mention let alone an inquiry. We have better things to do with our money, like saving the planet.

          All those people your importing from the southern hemisphere, they’re counterweights, the planet is in danger of capsizing, not just Guam.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        Assuming that’s true Simon, I’d be willing to bet that those same people also don’t believe in anthropogenic global warming. So good for them.

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      • #
        Harves

        I see what you’re saying about Americans’ lack of logic, Simon.

        34% of Americans don’t believe in evolution.

        And apparently 62% believe old white guy Biden, campaigning in his basement, received millions more legitimate votes than Obama or even Hillary.

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      • #
        Jay Jade

        A plurality of Americans believe God created humans without evolution.

        https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/31/johnson-speaker-evolution-poll/

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        • #
          el+gordo

          ‘More than four in 10 Americans continue to believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago, a view that has changed little over the past three decades. Half of Americans believe humans evolved, with the majority of these saying God guided the evolutionary process.’ (Gallup)

          Clearly that is nonsensical.

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          • #
            Jay Jade

            Not at all. It makes perfect sense.
            Or in other words, the maths adds up.
            I suggest that you just think it through with your God given brain.

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          • #
            Ted1.

            When you’ve got a better explanation let us know.

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            • #
              el+gordo

              Homo sapiens arrived in Australia 65,000 years ago, the Americans were late starters.

              I have nothing against intelligent design, however it appears that the designers were actually gods. How to turn gracile apes into space travellers, that was the task before them and our time has arrived, but I don’t think we’ll get a seat at the big table anytime soon.

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          • #
            Kalm Keith

            Totally agree.

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        • #
          CO2 Lover

          A plurity of Americians confuse Australia with Austria

          In 2021, there was a photo that was highly upvoted on 9GAG — snapped at the Salzburg Airport. It stated, “Sorry, this is Austria not Australia!

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      • #
        TedM

        Yes 34% who recognise that evolution cannot explain consciousness. Among many other things.

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        • #

          Why not? Consciousness is probably a selective advantage. A neurological combination giving consciousness would out compete the automaton.

          What if God set up the system parameters (physics/chem/constants etc) to evolve consciousness from billions of years ago?

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          • #
            Steve

            What God is that ? 🙂

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          • #
            TedM

            Except Jo that consciousness is a non physical attribute. Can not evolve from the physical.

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            • #

              How do you know that? I’m genuinely curious.

              I’m not aware of any law of biology that prevents it, nor proof or observation that precludes it.

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              • #
                TedM

                There have been four studies of which I am aware, and they all effectively conclude that they don’t have a clue. I have heard the references but don’t have them myself. Just ask yourself Jo, can you quantify consciousness in physical terms. I have no doubt that we are more than just the physical. To me that is self evident. Others of course would suggest otherwise.

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              • #

                4 or even 100 “don’t have a clue” unnamed studies is not evidence it can’t be done or isn’t real.

                I’ve no doubt we are more than just collections of atoms, but it is not self-evident at all that conscious life must not and cannot possibly arise from evolution.

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              • #
                TedM

                The point that I make Jo is that consciousness is not a physical attribute. Evolution is a physical process. You may believe that consciousness may be a physical attribute, in which case we will never arrive at the same conclusion. The other point that I make is that nobody has any idea just what it is or how it came to be.
                The other point I made was

                ” I have no doubt that we are more than just the physical. To me that is self evident.”

                Not the way you appear to have interpreted it.

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              • #

                Whether or not you define consciousness as “physical” or not is irrelevant. There is no law of biology or physics that says that evolution of physical things cannot possibly produce a higher order non-physical effect. We see that all the time in nature. The sum is more than the parts. Ants and bee makes colonies that no single insect could do. No single gene encodes for “ant colony” yet it happens from the total sum of behaviours, receptors, hormones, socialization, and training… The emergent complex behaviour arises from smaller physical parts.

                Emergent property is the phrase of the day.

                What is physical anyway? How do we detect consciousness? Isn’t it through physical tests where people speak, press buttons, show recognition of self? The question of physical or non-physical is a semantic trap — a dead end. I’m happy to accept consciousness might be a non-physical phenomenon. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Doesn’t matter. We get back to there being no evidence that there is some arbitrary fixed limit on what evolution can do.

                If AI’s evolve consciousness, is that the hand of God in 2024, or was it destined from the laws of physics and chemistry in 13 billion BC, which may be the hand of a God with a bigger vision?

                That “No one has any idea” is exactly my point. Argument from ignorance is still a fallacy.

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              • #
                TedM

                How do we detect consciousness? Isn’t it through physical tests where people speak, press buttons, show recognition of self?

                Jo you don’t need to do any of those things to detect consciousness, you are conscious. However your your consciousness allows you relate to your physical attributes.

                No single gene encodes for “ant colony” yet it happens from the total sum of behaviours, receptors, hormones, socialization, and training… The emergent complex behaviour arises from smaller physical parts.

                I have had discussions with an entomologist friend with regard to ant behaviour, not that that is an issue here. But your example is a matter of behaviour emanating from physical or other stimuli, whether developed or encoded is anyone’s guess.

                I can see we are not going to agree on this, about the only thing that we don’t judging by your posts.

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              • #
                Kalm Keith

                You’re certainly heading in the right direction there Jo.

                https://joannenova.com.au/2024/01/sunday-38/#comment-2724790

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              • #
                Kalm Keith

                Hi Ted
                you say of Jo;

                “Not the way you appear to have interpreted it”

                Perhaps Jo sees it as I do,

                that without a body and brain there would be no consciousness.

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            • #
              Kalm Keith

              The idea that God needed to be involved in evolution just shows that people don’t understand what God is.

              Very American.

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            • #
              Kalm Keith

              Our brain has developed through its interaction with the senses: touch, smell, auditory and visual input to broadly explain it.

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              • #
                Kalm Keith

                Ted says;

                “Jo you don’t need to do any of those things to detect consciousness, you are conscious. However your your consciousness allows you relate to your physical attributes.”

                The interesting thing about the study of psychology is that it is not what people think but what and how people are led to perceive the world around them.

                The brain, the mind, our consciousness have developed through the constant interaction with the environment via senses of touch, taste, smell and so on.

                Any thoughts we have are ultimately the result of external stimuli.

                I can guarantee, as a parallel, that AI would not exist if you turned off the Internet.

                Our brains, by comparison, use the stored memory of many experiences to link relevant responses in our daily lives.

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            • #
              Kalm Keith

              ” Can only evolve from the physical.”

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      • #
        John Connor II

        Some Americans believe Jesus was white and American, and the Earth is 6,000 years old.

        Not surprising, considering this:

        https://youtu.be/g2oMv93EUpY?si=lBUaHu8U6oBxtfUF

        As for evolution, well…

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  • #

    Our gouvernement is called “the travel light coalition”
    red=SPD
    yel=FDP
    gre=Greens

    And there willl be the farmer protests:

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  • #
    David of Cooyal in Oz

    Morning all,
    In my reading about vitamin D I’ve come across the term “Vitamin D Receptor”, name for a part of every cell of our bodies. Also that zinc, which can stop a virus from replicating inside a cell, is a cofactor of vitamin D.
    Does this mean that vitamin D can pass zinc into any cell? Is it a zinc ionophore? Or is there some difference in their functions?
    Could adequate levels of both vitamin D and zinc provide effective anti-viral protection? That some people breeze through waves of viral endemics suggests the answer is yes.

    Cheers
    Dave B

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    • #
      Ross

      Not being facetious, but most of us knew that 4 years ago. In fact, a significant number in the medical profession knew that well before that, but chose to ignore or gaslight that basic immunological fact. We couldn’t have vaccine hesitancy could we?

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      • #
        David of Cooyal in Oz

        G’day Ross, John,
        Yes, someone – was it one of you?, if so, thank you – posted about quercetin back in 2019 and I’ve been using it daily since, and advocating it here often, and before the jabs became available. And the importance of zinc was known and stressed by Dr Zelenko. The hydroxychloroquine function as a zinc ionophore was explained by Dr Sehault.
        The general importance of vitamin D has been the subject of at least a couple of Jo’s posts also since 2019 which started my interest and experimentation with safe and effective intakes as I’ve commented on here since then. My maximum intake has been 12,000 IU per day, which I’ve reduced to 8,000 IU per day, not because of any adverse reaction, but because my serum blood level had gone above my target level of 200 nmol/Litre, again without any adverse reaction.

        My original comment posed 4 questions to which I still seek answers, but I guess they could be summarised as:
        If my zinc and vitamin D levels are adequate do I still need quercetin (or any ionophore) as well?

        Cheers
        Dave B

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        • #

          An ionophore helps get something across the membrane. I can’t find anything that suggests D3 is an ionophore. Quercetin is. Curcumin. Green tea (ECGC) etc

          There are many ways Zinc and D3 could be synergistic that have nothing to do with ionophores.

          Thus far polyphenolic molecules with strong zinc ionophoric activity in descending order include clioquinol (CQ), pyrithione (PT), epigallocatechin galate (EGCG), quercetin, curcumin, tannic acid and luteolin. The drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is also a zinc ionophore, while ivermectin (IVM) displays some characteristics of a zinc ionophore. Zinc is able to shut down the RNA dependent RNA Polymerase or replicase enzymes, thereby preventing corona virus replication. However, it must get past the cellular membrane in order to do so. Ionophores of zinc provide this possibility, which may help to prevent both infection by SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses, as well as the post viral syndrome known as long COVID.

          https://isom.ca/article/zinc-ionophores-and-long-haul-covid/

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          • #
            David of Cooyal in Oz

            Thanks Jo,
            Nor could I find anything describing vitamin D as an ionophore. But the Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) provides a pathway into the cell, vitamin D requires zinc and the pair are described in some articles as “cofactors”, which makes me think that there is a pathway for zinc via Vitamin D, through the VDR into the cell where it can clobber the virus.

            Hence my questions.

            Cheers
            Dave B

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    • #
      John Hultquist

      David,
      the substance you are looking for is Quercetin.
      Quercetin is a plant bioflavonoid found in many types of fruits and vegetables. It has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects and has recently been studied for its potent antibacterial and antiviral benefits.
      https://gilbertlab.com/neutraceuticals/quercetin/antiviral-effects-of-quercetin-zinc-ionophore/

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      • #
        John Hultquist

        . . . and,
        I was told taking Vit D3 up to about 5,000 units per day will not hurt you. It was strongly suggested to get tested if you think of going higher. Consult your medical team.
        Some conditions have been studied and a suggestion of a very large initial dose. I’ll guess you are not in that group or you would already know about this.

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      Hanrahan

      I just got a BP reading 120/67. Y’day something similar. I get these readings when I’ve been in the yard, in the sun.

      There is the added benefit of NO synthesis from sunlight.

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  • #
    Ironbark

    The BOM have lost the plot. (Like we didn’t already know, right?)

    Here in North Western Vic we were forcast 0-1mm of rain for Saturday, with multiple flood warnings for Sunday NIGHT into Monday MORNING. The possibility of isolated totals of 80mm due to heavy falls from thunderstorms onto aready soaked paddocks.

    Anyway, in case you missed it, thats between Zero and One millimetre of rain for Saturday.

    But…

    The total for Saturday afternoon was 37mm, most falling in a single downpour… And yet not a single warning from the BOM or the VicEmergency App…

    Just glad I was not trying to harvest a crop before Sundays rain arrives, unlike the neighbours down the road. Poor buggers.

    So, now my Sunday will be spent repairing storm damaged infrastructure and prepairing for the likelyhood of more rain.

    I am also grateful that this is a hot dry summer. /sarc

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      CO2 Lover

      The BOM cannot event meet this standard.

      A seven-day forecast can accurately predict the weather about 80 percent of the time and a five-day forecast can accurately predict the weather approximately 90 percent of the time. However, a 10-day—or longer—forecast is only right about half the time.

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      • #
        Ironbark

        They couldnt even get it right 12hrs ahead, let alone 24-48hrs.

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        • #
          Dennis

          But BoM management advised the Minister during 2014 after he asked for an explanation about the issues raised by letter from Doctor Jennifer Marohasy that there had been “errors and omissions” but steps would be taken to ensure no repeats.

          sarc.

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  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Download (for those with mobile devices) ‘Cranky Uncle’

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Ha!

      So this is the next level of Leftist propaganda- video games against supposed “misinformation”.

      If it comes from the Left, you can bet it will be to indoctrinate children and adults in favour of the misinformation the Left want you to believe, not to make tuem awarw of the genuine misinformation of Leftist propaganda.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        Looking at the screenshots of that game it has the same “look and feel” of those books the Left put in school libraries promoting transgenderism etc..

        The Left are superb propagandists, if nothing else.

        This and other propaganda games like it are a new phenomenon that rational thinkers ought to be aware of.

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          David Maddison

          This following quote is not a critical review but a favourable one explaining how Cranky Uncle works.

          As with all Leftist propaganda, they accuse “climate deniers” of the very thing the Left themselves do.

          https://thebulletin.org/2019/12/cranky-uncle-the-smartphone-game-designed-to-fight-climate-denial/

          The Cranky Uncle character explains in narrative form some of the tricks used to dismiss climate science. He goes over 16 of the most common techniques of science denial, such as the use of fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, and cherry-picking of data—to name just a handful.

          Also Goolag “propaganda games cranky uncle” without quote marks. Note that Goolag only returns favourable search results in conformity with the Official Narrative. I haven’t found any critical appraisals yet.

          Thanks for alerting us to this propaganda, Peter. I wonder who’s funding it? Follow the money trail.

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            Old Goat

            David,
            Standard propaganda – accuse the opposition of what you are doing . I’m sometimes called “captain cranky” because I won’t let them get away with it . Some of them are “rusted on” and won’t be swayed by facts or logic and that makes me cranky. The older I get the less my filter works ….

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            IainC of The Ponds

            That whole paragraph would read identically if it were to be used to combat climate activists!

            40

          • #
            John Connor II

            Also Goolag “propaganda games cranky uncle” without quote marks. Note that Goolag only returns favourable search results in conformity with the Official Narrative. I haven’t found any critical appraisals yet.

            Sheesh…S-T-O-P using CIA-Google.
            Yandex returns information and results leaving Google and DDG for dead.

            10

    • #

      Why should I download you ?

      50

    • #
      Annie

      No thanks.

      30

    • #
      el+gordo

      ‘Cranky Uncle is the creation of scientist and cartoonist John Cook …’

      Ah yes, totally dodgy.

      In China they are eliminating fun games and hope that ‘The Long March’ will become popular. Forlorn hope, Tencent has already gone to the wall.

      50

  • #
    David Maddison

    I bet you’ve never seen an EV explosion like this before. The car is propelled 3-5 metres vertically into the air.

    The following video contains that (at the beginning) and many other EV fires plus discusses the Chinese EV industry.

    The comment is made that Chinese EVs are far more prone to fires than others.

    https://youtu.be/DwhnArkZTu8

    130

    • #
      John Hultquist

      Being a skeptic — it looks like the explosion came from the pavement and not from the car.
      But then I was wrong once before in my life!

      00

    • #
      John Connor II

      I posted that the other day.😁

      20

    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      David,
      The photography is bogus.
      The car is shown to rise vertical at first, then it gets a sideways push from something that is not visible?
      Not convinced. Conservation of energy violation. Geoff S

      10

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Something to wake you up on Sunday morning…

    AC/DC “Thunderstruck”. Nearly 1.4 billion views.

    https://youtu.be/v2AC41dglnM

    32

  • #
    David Maddison

    Development of ICE engines is not over.

    Mazda have developed a supercharged two stroke gasoline engine with overhead valves (not power valves or reed valves of some two strokes). It uses homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI).

    https://youtu.be/peiPM6rVe5o

    70

    • #
      RickWill

      Will be interesting to see if it ever gets to market.

      Most of the news on the engine is early 2022. Now 2 years later and I cannot find any actual engine test data.

      40

    • #
      kmac

      I wonder if this concept will transfer to the rotary engine? Have to give it some thought.

      10

    • #
      Hanrahan

      The Mazda/Nissan petrol spark assisted compression ignition engine [hope I got that right] and continuously variable timing electronic valves should be with us already.

      I’m not sure we will see much expensive technology until the EV has passed and while petrol is affordable. It is historically.

      20

  • #
    another ian

    The “Big News” –

    “CNN Story About Massachusetts and Illinois ‘Voters’ Who Want Trump Off the Ballot Leaves Out One Key Detail”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/cnn-story-about-massachusetts-illinois-voters-who-want/

    The bit that CNN left out –

    “Just a cursory examination of the facts here shows that the petitions in both states are not a grassroots voter movement, but instead a coordinated attack from one far-left activist group, Free Speech for People (yes, we laughed at the irony of the group’s name too).

    But it gets even better. The ‘groups of voters’ CNN refers to in Illinois? It was five people. Not 5,000. Not 500. Not even 50.”

    200

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      RadioNZ (read ABC/BBC/CNN) was pushing O’Biden’s demented oration yesterday, where his speech-writers accused The Don of the very things they were doing… and cranking it up to waaay beyond 11!

      No doubt the language used would instigate fear in those whose understanding of history goes as far back as their last phone top-up, yet to Jo’s knowledgeable clan of commenters here, the puppet-show in power plans to retain that power come hell or high water.

      Free and fair election?

      140

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  • #
    Penguinite

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/i1OMBzt0CajW/
    Tucker on X #90. This is so important and thought-provoking! May is not so far away and Albanese will sign up for the egregious WHO/WEF/NWO protagonists who will control our destiny if we let them.

    90

    • #
      Mike

      That’s an amazing narration by Bret Weinstein. So believable yet not so long ago conspiracy theory. So sinister! Take a deep breath and dive in hey?

      50

  • #
    KP

    I watched a video of people losing control in the recent snow in the USA, and they had comments from the drivers who owned the dashcams with them. Someone said FWD was much safer in the snow because the weight was over the driving wheels.. “Balderdash!” I thought, so I did a websearch.

    Sadly the web is full of motoring journalist touting the same rubbish, ‘FWD is safer in snow because the driving wheels pull the car in the direction you want to go, while RWD pushes the car and spins out easily…’

    What they fail to realise is that FWD pulls you along ONLY as you accelerate. The moment you lift off the gas the front wheels slow down and the free-floating back wheels will try to overtake them. Lift off and you spin, accelerate to stay straight. Sadly, not one of the videos showed anyone accelerating towards the collision they had… They all lifted off the go pedal.

    Conversely, while RWD pushes you when accelerating and will push you sideways, it slows you down and straightens the car when you lift off as the rear wheels are then pulling you backwards. This allows you regain control and straighten out if you are quick enough with the steering wheel.

    4WD will let you go much faster on a loose surface, but when you lose it you have far less chance of catching it, they grip very suddenly and just jump off the road.

    Forget about the brakes in both cases, but that advice is impossible to follow! On gravel or snow if you lift off slowly you have a better chance of keeping control, but in the moment keeping some power on is a most un-natural reaction. Its a pity those journos didn’t watch Chopito Rally Crash on Youtube, the results of different cars and drivers is very clear.

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    • #
      JoKaH

      FWD, RWD or 4WD doesn’t matter, if you brake hard enough to lock the front wheels you ain’t going anywhere except straight ahead into your accident. There is no directional control once the front wheels stop turning.

      40

    • #
      Yarpos

      Have you ever driven in the snow and ice for any length of time KP? For the average driver I think the real issue is having decent winter tyres. Just from observation, as I only had rwd and awd when living with the white stuff, people in FWD seemed to have less trouble getting moving and with low speed directional control.

      00

      • #
        KP

        Yes, I would agree Yarpos, FWD give better traction for accelerating and low speed directional control. Once you’re doing 70kph down a snowy motorway and it suddenly becomes time to stop, then things are very different. Even going slowly down a snowy hill and trying to lose speed will show the disadvantages of FWD. So, FWD is great until the moment it isn’t.

        10

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Driving into Andorra in a 1.3l Ford I was behind a big Merc. It was all over the place. I had never driven in snow before but everything was OK with me.

      I’ll vote for FWD.

      00

  • #
    David Maddison

    Australia has only three conservative (and minor) parties: United Australia Party, Liberal Democrats and One Nation. We need to support them.

    People say Libs aren’t perfect but we should support them as they have a chance of getting into power.

    However, the Libs haven’t been a conservative party since Bob Menzies left office in 1966.

    I’ll admit that they are mostly slightly less bad than Labor (although possibly not in Victoria where at the last election they had more extreme climate policies than Labor) but in general, they are just one faction of the Lib/Lab Uniparty.

    It makes very little difference who’s in Government between Libs and Labs so we might as well put our full support behind actual conservative parties.

    190

  • #
    David Maddison

    PAYWALLED

    From Herald Sun (Melbourne).

    Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus allocated an extra $130 million to monitor released terrorists in last year’s May Budget. The money was due to be spent over two years, or $7420 each and every hour.

    50

    • #
      John Connor II

      Ah Albo and election promises.

      The Albanese Government will deliver a key election commitment to implement an Anti-Slavery Commissioner, with $8 million allocated over four years.

      Modern slavery – including human trafficking, forced labour and forced marriage – are abhorrent crimes that have no place in our society.

      The Anti-Slavery Commissioner is part of Labor’s comprehensive Tackling Modern Slavery election commitment which also includes the introduction of penalties for non-compliance with the Modern Slavery Act.

      Modern slavery in Oz?
      Just make it illegal. It worked with drugs guns, child trafficking etc. Oh, hang on…

      The Albanese Government will invest an additional $45.2 million to better protect Australians’ privacy.
      The restoration of a standalone Privacy Commissioner to deal with the growing threats to data security and the increasing volume and complexity of privacy issues.

      Oh, hang on, “growing threats to data security and privacy”?
      Like going digital with a centralised unified government database tracking every citizen, making it a giant hacker honeypot. That sort of growing threat?
      Or pi$$ poor security for decades by companies that should have known better and had way better security in place?
      Like “encryption” that the government wants to outlaw, making everything you do a much higher risk. THAT growing threat maybe?

      The Albanese Government is providing funding certainty for the management of terrorist offenders at the conclusion of their custodial sentences, securing ongoing funding, including $130.1 million over two years from 2023-24.

      Shockingly, the former Government treated the High Risk Terrorist Offenders scheme as a terminating measure, with funding ending on 30 June 2023. That is despite the obvious need for ongoing funding to manage continuing threats and keep Australians safe. The Albanese Government has fixed the former Government’s wilful mishandling of this important element of Australia’s national security framework.

      https://ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centre/investing-justice-system-keeps-australians-safe-advances-integrity-accountability-09-05-2023

      Terrorist threat?
      Maybe if we stopped sticking our political noses into other countries affairs and taking sides in wars, they wouldn’t be interested in us.
      Just a thought, one not likely to go through the average polly’s head any time soon.

      I’d be more worried about political terrorism.

      Terrorism:
      The use of violence or the threat of violence, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political goals.
      Resort to terrorizing methods as a means of coercion, or the state of fear and submission produced by the prevalence of such methods.
      The act of terrorizing, or state of being terrorized; a mode of government by terror or intimidation.

      Sounds like the last 3 years.

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  • #
    Earl

    The latest bit of crowd irony – akin to the report that the BLM demonstrations (read riots) after Floyd’s death were “mostly peaceful” – comes from the Canberra SummerNats car festival.

    In this case the thugs, sorry security, were wearing hi-vis vests emblazened “Crowd Safety”.

    50

  • #
    liberator

    BOM trying to explain their way out of this? El Niño doesn’t automatically mean it won’t rain

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-07/wet-el-nino-weather-pattern-explained-bureau-of-meteorology/103289232

    I’ve always thought that the El-Nino spelt a hot fry summer, and La-Nina meant a wet one, that’s whats typically been preached for as long as I can remember. Admittedly there is still seven weeks of summer left so a lot can change in that time, but at this time, certainly no serious bush fire risk so far this summer that we were all warned about. The arsonists must be crying in the rain

    More than double the amount of rain fall last month, and only 7 days into this month and we’re already double the average. Its been a tad warmer, but certainly we’ve had a lot of rain here. Surly all that water vapor from the volcano from 2 years ago has to come down eventually and has to have a significant impact on our weather? But models can’t model these variables now can they or they don’t want to, because you know, the only influence on our weather is increasing CO2?

    90

    • #
      wal1957

      It’s gerbil warming I tells ya! /sarc

      It doesn’t matter whether it rains or not, snows or not, freezes or not, burns or not. Blame the unpredictability of forecasting on gerbil warming and you’re home free.

      50

    • #
      Adellad

      The local climatologist on somebody else’s ABC told me yesterday that not only is climate change responsible in its usual all-purpose way, but western folk remain in the dock because ozone depletion leads to changed wind patterns. So despite the 1990’s convention (or was it 80’s?) to remove refrigerant gases, the cool summer remains my fault. I knew it was, I just wasn’t sure how and why.

      90

  • #
    David Maddison

    Don’t support the Australian Government’s proposed digital identity legislation.

    https://www.alexantic.com.au/digital_id

    Sign this petition to scrap the ‘digital identity’ power grab

    The Labor government wants to take your most sensitive personal data.

    They want to cram it into a central government-run database – the perfect target for a hacker.

    They want to generate a ‘digital identity’ with this data.

    Then they will force you to use this ‘digital identity’ to transact online or access online services.

    The worst part? This is the first step in a Chinese-style social credit system.

    If you don’t toe the line, your ‘digital identity’ could be cancelled, meaning you’d be cut off from the world of online services that people now rely on.

    This is a fundamental threat to your freedom and our democracy.

    You and I need to send a strong message now that Australians will not take this lying down.

    Thanks for your support.

    Yours sincerely,

    Alex Antic

    Remarkably, Senator Antic is currently a member of the Liberal Party. I’m surprised they tolerate such pro-freedom thoughts. He certainly doesn’t represent the views of the party, the same one that introduced the censorship legislation adopted by the current Labor Government.

    100

    • #
      John Connor II

      They want to cram it into a central government-run database – the perfect target for a hacker.

      He must be reading my posts. 😆

      41

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Hang on, you just said NOT to vote for the coalition, so you have no right to complain.

      00

      • #
        MP

        See your stuck in this two party mentality, can’t see past them, just keep fliping that same coin and hoping things will be better next toss. (no referance meant to the comments above on the wankel)

        40

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Politics is the art of the possible. You are urging for the impossible.

          I have nothing against Pauline, she is a hard working senator and I always put One Nation in the top half dozen of the senate ticket but I’m under no illusion that they will ever match the greens in the house or senate.

          10

          • #
            David Maddison

            The coalition are responsible for the present government’s censorship legislation and also putting Australia on the road to renewables madness. And Dutton is not prepared to acknowledge the anthropogenic global warming fraud.

            They both spend without restraint, although Libs slightly less bad than Labs.

            I see nothing worthy with them.

            Politics is the art of the possible. 

            That quote comes from Otto von Bismarck. I don’t fully agree with it as it doesn’t acknowledge a reasonable expectation that politicians should actually believe in something (apart from themselves).

            30

            • #
              KP

              “Politics is the art of the possible.”

              Politics is the art of convincing voters that anything is possible..

              Democracy is dead, we are just seeing its corpse in its death throes. The moment politicians started buying votes with other people’s money, democracy died. There will be more and more people with their hands out, as seen in my lifetime, Govt will need more and more of the GDP to give away, and their draconian laws to achieve that will destroy the entrepreneurial class. There are so few people who believe in self-reliance, self-responsibility and free-markets now that they will never have an impact on an election.

              Destroy the system to get change, voting will never do it!

              30

          • #
            MP

            “Politics is the art of the possible.”
            That does not even make sense.

            And who was it that had Pauline locked up on trumped up charges?

            Politics is the art of the Lie, the media’s job is to make the people believe the lie.

            If we keep doing the same thing, we will always get the same result, and you are under the illusion that you can’t make a difference.
            Labor did not win the last election, liberals lost it.
            I helped make that difference.

            Remember Slomo, every time he opened his mouth, “stakeholders, partners” these are private corporations, this is the definition of Fascism, and Fascism is just a point on a line that you pass through as you crash from democracy into communism.
            This is where we are right now, you see it everywhere, and the only thing is they have not openly told you, though they keep hinting.

            If everyone has your attitude we remain locked in this cycle, the trajectory will not change.
            We did not get here from 20 months of Labor, it took decades of Liberal.

            The pea and the thimble, it’s an illusion.

            20

  • #
    Dennis

    If only Vic Labor Gov had not forced closure of the Hazlewood Power Station that provided around 25 per cent of base load electricity to Victoria.

    61

    • #
      Annie

      Each time we drive to East Gippsland I feel anger at the sight of the empty Hazlewood power station site. My anger might be just a little mollified if a nuclear power station were to be built there.

      70

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Or even a Closed Cycle gas plant which would reduce emissions over the other 2 brown coal plants by 64%. That isn’t enough for any Net Zero (intelligence) types who think that zero is the only thing.
        Even if the Victorian politicians would allow use of gas from the Gippsland known reserves, they would fritter it away by running the gas turbines as backup for renewables, increasing the emissions.

        50

        • #
          MP

          So CO2 is a problem and we need to reduce it by at least 64%, and here I was thinking it was BS.

          You’re trying to negotiate with terrorists.

          20

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            MP: I didn’t say that CO2 was a problem, just that those who think it is will ignore anything but impossible targets.

            30

            • #
              MP

              Or even a Closed Cycle gas plant which would reduce emissions over the other 2 brown coal plants by 64%.

              That’s how I read it.
              We have coal, you wish to convert to gas to reduce the CO2 emissions, therefore agreeing with the clowns.

              We have coal.

              20

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Closed cycle gas takes time to spool up so is ideally suited for base load. The broken system we have now needs peaking power and open cycle is cheaper to install and quicker to react to short term fluctuations in generation/load.

          30

  • #
    Yarpos

    For the aviation interested, a long read on the initial 737max MCAS problem. Wide ranging across techical issues and Boeing corporate culture and the regulators.

    Seems to set the scene for the rolling disaster that continues. Ive probably spent months of my like in their aircraft, particularly the 747, and always admired them. But that is history and much/everything has changed.

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/02/ship-the-airplane-the-cultural-organizational-and-technical-reasons-why-boeing-cannot-recover.html

    50

    • #
      Annie

      747…fine, 777…ok but prefer 4 engines, 737…always loathed them, especially after our entire family was on board one, brand new, that had failed hydraulics coming into Luton in a full gale. Uck! Runway lined with fire appliances, etc. as we sped down the runway. Appliances went away after we finally slowed down. Cabin crew said it was just the gale but future pilot son photographed the wing flaps! Anyway, we survived that and ended up coming to Australia later that same year!
      I’m an Airbus A380 fan…2 engines good but 4 engines much better! More passenger legroom too and it’s quieter than the Boeings. I aim never to fly in a 737 of any configuration ever again.

      80

    • #
      CO2 Lover

      Also the lastest “Missing Door” on Alaska Airlines 737Max

      20

      • #
        Graeme#4

        Not actually a door. A “plug” panel that was fitted to an unused optional emergency exit when the exit isn’t required by an airline. Aircraft was quite new. Lucky that, although the aircraft was quite full, nobody was sitting in the two nearest seats. Also, most passengers still strapped in as the aircraft climbed out of Portland at 16,000 feet.
        A mobile and teddy bear vanished, plus an infant’s shirt was ripped off and went out the hole.
        All MAX9s now grounded worldwide for urgent inspections.

        61

        • #
          David Maddison

          The extra emergency doors are only needed for the single class 220 pax cabin layout. For 189 pax or less, those doors are not needed and not installed to save weight.

          41

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Door or panel? Is it a distinction without a difference?

          It blew out and with it the hopes of Boing. So much is riding on the 737. Clearly they should have started from scratch many years ago but bean counters rule.

          40

    • #
      CO2 Lover

      The 737 design first flew in 1967.

      It was designed to be close to the ground to allow easy passenger access by stairs when few airports had sky bridges and the diameter of jet engines was relatively small.

      This became a liability as the diameter of hi-bypass jet engines were introduced and further developed

      30

  • #
    John Connor II

    WHO Head declares war on meat and demands nations transition to plant-based diets at COP28


    “By 2025 we intend to strengthen our respective and shared efforts […] We affirm that agriculture and food systems must urgently adapt and transform in order to respond to the imperatives of climate change,” the declaration at COP28 reads,

    World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued a short statement during the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai last month, blaming meat and livestock practices for contributing a major amount of emissions.

    Tedros’ message mostly went unheard at the time but gained some traction online weeks after COP28 concluded.

    In the video the WHO head stated:

    Our food systems are harming the health of people and planet. Food systems contribute to over 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and account for almost one-third of the global burden of disease. Transforming food systems is therefore essential by shifting for this healthier, diversified and more plant-based diets.

    If food systems deliver healthy diets for all we could save 8 million lives per year. […] WHO is committed to supporting countries to develop and implement policies to improve diets and fight climate change.

    […] I’m therefore very pleased that over 130 countries have signed the code 28 UAE Declaration on climate and health. Together, we can protect and promote the health of both people and planet.

    https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/agenda-2030-who-head-declares-war

    The WHO can spin on it. I’d starve before eating bugs and fake meat.

    https://www.goodmeat.com.au/health-nutrition/fake-meat/

    30

    • #
      Annie

      Who do these unelected upstarts think they are? Why should we take any notice whatsoever of their crazy ideas? That goes for WHO, also the UN and WEF. Leave us alone.
      I love vegs but like a good proportion of them processed through cattle, sheep and poultry. I love eggs too, nicely converted by omniverous chooks…the only way to eat insects!

      80

  • #
    John Connor II

    Spanish Woman Becomes First To Marry AI Hologram To ‘Satisfy All Of Her Emotional Needs,’ Marketed As ‘Future Of Love’

    “A new generation of love is emerging, whether we like it or not, in which humans will marry and maintain relationships with holograms, avatars, robots and so on,” the woman said.

    Alicia Framis, a multidisciplinary artist from Barcelona, Spain, is set to become the world’s first woman to marry a hologram as her companion and husband. This is no ordinary hologram; it is one specifically designed to meet her preferences and fulfil her wants, and can emulate a number of pretend actions while interacting with the live user. Though Framis is the first woman to do this, this new form of companionship and interaction is being sold as the “future of love.”

    https://winepressnews.com/2024/01/06/spanish-woman-becomes-first-to-marry-ai-hologram-to-satisfy-all-of-her-emotional-needs-marketed-as-future-of-love/

    I can see straight through their marriage.😆
    Let’s see you hologram hubby take the rubbish out, swat a spider or fix your car. I guess she’ll be buying a lot of batteries.😎
    Stupid lefty.

    20

  • #
    Jay Jade

    It’s Sunday. The first day of the week. Also known as the Lord’s Day.

    Enjoying the freedom of an open thread. Thank you Jo.

    CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILISATION: SCIENCE

    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2024/01/06/christianity-and-civilisation-science/#comments

    50

  • #
    another ian

    Willis E questions –

    “A few years back, some scientists got together and invented something they call the Living Planet Index, or LPI. It’s supposed to measure how well (or poorly) the species that make up the living world are doing. They say it is a “measure of the state of the world’s biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species.” So it’s an index based on the decline of some selected species, which is claimed to represent the decline of the species of the “living world”.

    Here’s the big news from their latest report.

    The Living Planet Index claims an average 70% decline in the populations of species worldwide since 1970.”

    YIKES! 70% loss since 1970! EVERYONE PANIC!

    But is this true?

    Over in the Twitterverse where I’m @weschenbach, I said that based solely on my experience, their claim was nonsense. I’ve spent a lot of the last half-century outdoors in the elements, both on land and on and under the sea, around the planet. I said I would have noticed a 70% reduction in species populations.

    Of course, folks who spend their lives behind desks in a city thought I was being ridiculous, and they laughed uproariously. How could I be so certain? Plus of course, there were the claims of “But Willis, those are actual scientists! How can you doubt them?”

    So I thought I’d take a look at some real data. Let’s get a sense of the number of the species involved.”

    “The endangered and decreasing fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals are 0.001% of all species, and there’s no reason to assume that their condition reflects the world situation.

    The 70% claim of the LPI is falsified by the Red List data.

    As I said, I have investigated this because based solely on my experience, I said I didn’t believe the LPI numbers, and folks laughed at that. And now, having studied the species data, I find that my experience is correct—their claims don’t hold water.

    So how did the scientists behind the LPI get it so wrong? Obviously, their selected species are not representative of the whole.

    I would suggest that Upton Sinclair had the answer to that. He said:

    “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

    The problem is, if the LPI was going up, or just slightly downwards, the scientists behind the LPI would be out of a job. To use George Orwell’s term, that’s doubleplusungood …”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/06/e-pur-si-muove/

    And in comments –

    “It was Patrick Moore who discovered the source of 70,000 to 100,000 species disappearing every year nonsense. It’s from a computer program run on the desktop computer of Harvard Professor E.O. Wilson. Apparently he used a program that deals with island species counts and extrapolated it to the entire planet. The claim of species loss doesn’t include any actual surveys or tabulations–just made-up numbers on a computer.”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/06/e-pur-si-muove/#comment-3843394

    “True. I dealt with that at length in my post below.

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/04/where-are-the-corpses/

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/06/e-pur-si-muove/#comment-3843405

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    • #
      another ian

      Not a term that you hear often these days but that sort of result used to be known as a

      “DFS” – “data free statement”

      And still is

      30

    • #
      another ian

      Willis’s article brings to mind some of the projected species extinction numbers that were bandied about in the Qld “land clearing debates”

      30

  • #
    John Connor II

    One week into 2024 and now it’s 10′ ALIENS

    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2024/01/06/miami-sees-first-alien-invasion-to-kick-off-the-new-year-but-were-they-real-or-fake-ets/

    100 cop cars and black choppers attend.
    Well, it’s been on the cards for a long time, and the Covid/vaxx scams have worn off.
    Maybe they can take all the lefties?😆

    30

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    Claudius Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer whose publication 1,800 years ago on celestial motions brought him renown as the greatest astronomer of antiquity, has been described as a fraud. Not just any kind of fraud either, according to “The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy.” by Robert R. Newton who says flatly: “Ptolemy is not the greatest astronomer of antiquity, but he is something still more unusual: He is the most successful fraud in the history of science.”
    If Newton is right, few of Ptolemy’s observations were his own and few that were his own he either made up or made incorrectly. To hear Newton tell it, Ptolemy operated on a timeworn technique used by countless intellectual cheats. He worked backward to prove the results he wanted to get.
    The book was published in 1977, so it might be outdated by some Mann.

    30

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      another ian

      IIRC a while back another one of James Hansen’s “numbers” was under discussion as to how it was derived. And one of the suggestions was along the lines that “He worked backwards till he got the number that he needed”

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    Ireneusz Palmowski

    Waves of Arctic air are falling on the west and midwest of the US. Frost.

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “It Turns Out Paper Straws Might Pose a Serious Problem Too”

    https://www.sciencealert.com/it-turns-out-paper-straws-might-pose-a-serious-problem-too

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Hilarious. These people really believe this stuff.”

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/01/hilarious-these-people-really-believe-this-stuff.html

    Time coming up for a killing short on Heinz shares

    Helped by thigs like

    “Great news from German farmers who’ve had enough of Nett Zero bulltish and are taking a stand!”

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/01/great-news-from-german-farmers-whove-had-enough-of-nett-zero-bulltish-and-are-taking-a-stand.html

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    KP

    Who’s in charge in the Ukraine war?? Seems the CIA are, they organise with Russia about what can and can’t be done, bypassing the US military completely. The idea was to keep the SMO from becoming a full-on war, make sure it doesn’t spread until they want it to, and keep Putin happy enough that he doesn’t want to involve NATO directly.

    So, don’t attack Russia directly, don’t assassinate politicians, and neither side to destroy the railway lines that carry rare-earth metals from Russia to Europe to be shipped to the USA. That sort of thing.

    All great until Zelenksky goes off the rails and starts doing things off-script! A wrong move now and NATO has to get directly involved with armies, or will it break up as its members disagree over what to do…

    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/under-the-radar-major-cia-revelations

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    KP

    Gilbert Doctorow also looking at the escalation in Ukraine-

    “The chain of events began early on the morning of Wednesday, 26 December, when the Ukrainians deployed air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles to destroy the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet…

    However, the outstanding feature of the attack… was the demonstration that Kiev had now been given a Storm Shadow variant with much greater flight range than the initial shipments from the U.K. and France.

    From the perspective of the Russian high command, this new ability of the Ukrainians to strike far deeper into Russian territory represented a serious escalation of the conflict… On the 27th, Russia launched… more than 150 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and armed drones, directed at cities across the Ukraine, including Kiev. Some of these were shot down by Ukrainian air defense, but the Zelensky regime admitted that all 20 Russian ballistic missiles evaded their fire and hit their targets.

    From the partial information released by the Russian military, it would appear that their main interest was to destroy caches of the Storm Shadow and also the most advanced Western ground to air missiles. They claim to have destroyed a Patriot complex in the Lvov region, killing a substantial number of French military who were in charge of the installation. This is the sort of information which flits by in a second and is not repeated, so I can say no more.

    The Ukrainian response the next day was a concentrated attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod.. not more than 20 km from Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv… missiles were sent into apartment blocks and other civilian structures..

    The Russians avenged this serious loss by renewed missile attacks, now concentrated on Kharkiv, whence the attack on Belgorod had come. They demolished the headquarters of military intelligence in the city, claiming to have killed many foreign advisers, probably British and Americans, who were guiding the attacks. They also struck air fields across Ukraine which could be used to service planes carrying the Storm Shadow…”

    https://gilbertdoctorow.com/

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    ozfred

    From Saturday’s column
    You could install small diesel fuelled heaters in the buses that would make them quite comfy. But I guess it sort of defeats the point of their existence and would not be pure in the climate virtue sense.

    Note this would not be an internal combustion engine (ICE) rather an EXTERNAL combustion engine and thus should avoid the wrath of all those worried about global warning… 🙂

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    Ireneusz Palmowski

    Snowfall is beginning in England as a result of the “lake effect” as frigid winds from the east blow over the warmer North Sea.

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