JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
While France and much of Europe is erupting with farmer protests and tractors everywhere, here in Australia, there is no mention of it in the media.
Why is that?
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It’s so far away 🤣
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Not from you! 😉
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Farmers are rightly protesting because farmers have to meet high quality requirements in the EU. Meanwhile, the market is being flooded with grain and corn from Ukraine, at very low prices. This grain should go to African countries.
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Because the protests are aimed at the EU and green measures and your media wouldn’t want to mention things like that in case you all get ideas.
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France’s 2 key farmers unions suspend protests after the government offers new measures
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There are articles here in Aus. The SMH, the AFR, News.com.au, abc.net.au, the guardian au, all having articles over the last week. There’s probably more given articles are shared across a few common owner publications. I’ve seen it on Sky News Aus too.
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Thanks, I must confess that my only news intake is from the media headlines online.
00
It’s not prolific coverage though.
20
The tractors in Brussels made the 7 news last night.
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From which (to my surprise) they covered, albeit briefly, protests in NL, France, Germany and Greece as well. The first time in ages I think.
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The news is being suppressed everywhere, including Europe. The Lamestream media generally won’t touch it as its usually about woke “green” policies that adversely affect farmers and thst doesn’t comply with the Official Narrative that all is well.
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Because most are more interested in clicking on sportsball news and celebrity gossip than international events. As you say the MSM are also disinclined to publish anything that doesnt support “the message” So no surprise its not mentioned at all.
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Because it might give the local producers of food and fibre ideas about protesting, and because it doesn’t fit the “everybody is on board with this net zero humans” narrative.
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What the legacy failing media won’t show you:
https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1753452382531301436
https://twitter.com/PeterSweden7/status/1753501467682451767
https://twitter.com/PeterSweden7/status/1753410542805328015
And Ireland too:
https://twitter.com/therealmrbench/status/1753323000072691918
Bye bye MSM – you chose your side unwisely…
TIP! To save a tweet video use twsaver.com/twitter.php and enter the URL as above.
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One has to only step back a little to grasp the perversity of the situation in an attempt to redistribute wealth. Under various premises.
The EU is forcing regulations on farmers to limit Nitrogen runoffs into waterways; reducing their “CO2 Footprint” and requiring them to manage a “rewilding” of part of their productive land holdings.
Precisely what rewilding means in the Netherlands that is substantially below sea level is open to discussion. 🙂 Elsewhere, it sometimes means allowing drainage channels to silt up, reviving the swamps, frequent floods and conditions for the return of Malaria, etc. This “preservation” of wilderness is even more absurd when observing that land is cleared for hectares of PV panels and forests razed so that wind ‘turbines” can be erected in national parks, including ancient forests.
But those are not the only burdens for farmers and small to medium enterprises (SME) in the EU. The bureaucratic burden of normal operations and supply chain qualification, recording and reporting is onerous for SME. And larger corporations, not at the taxpayer-funded trough, find it difficult to sustain production due to artificially-inflated energy costs that percolate through the entire supply chain.
For more laughs, look up “EU Battery Passport 2027” on the interwebs. Bureaucrats’ wishful thinking that the laws of nature are malleable.
Meanwhile, EU and EU Member states negotiate free food trade with non-EU states not subject to those regulations.
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Tropical storm in northern Australia.
https://i.ibb.co/Wkc5mVp/himawari9-ir-07-P-202402021330.gif
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It’s the rejuvenated Qld cyclone from a week or more back.
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Recruitment to the under strength British armed forces surges following strikes against Houthi in Yemen.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13038601/Are-British-Armed-forces-experiencing-Gun-effect-Number-new-Army-recruits-doubles-year-Middle-East-strikes-similar-bounce-surge-Navy-sign-ups-1986-Tom-Cruise-film.html
All the EU forces and those of the US are under strength, those on the continent generally, not helped by failure to spend the suggested 2% of GDP for many decades. This reminds me of Kipling’s wonderful century old poem of which these are the first and last verses. The Wests armed forces have been depleted for years whilst the money saved has gone on social benefits or all sorts of foolish projects (like the UK’s High speed rail 2 to Birmingham and the North.) Lets hope our collective defences, whittled away by politicians, is in shape before too much longer. I don’t know the current strength of Oz forces?
“I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.
“You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!”
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Tucker Carlson and Brett Weinstein.
‘The Darien Gap’
https://rumble.com/v4awqco-how-china-and-the-un-are-fueling-the-invasion-of-america.html
What is the Western government and NGO involvement in migration?
An ideological movement in process of transforming Western nation states, with roots in the AGW movement, which IMHO is all about the dismantling of Western nation states … particularly the one I live in.
I had not heard of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap
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Every “green” scheme is a disaster, or as President Trump said “Everything woke turns to sh-t”.
I live in the People’s Glorious Democratic Republic of Sicktoria.
The Government introduced a 10c container deposit scheme supposedly to encourage recycling and minimise litter.
But before that, nearly everyone put their used containers in their recycling bins and litter was minimal.
As with all schemes of the Left, no problem was ever demonstrated. There only purpose is to inconvenience people and diminish the standard of living of non-Elites.
Anyway, over the last month or two, I decided to collect my containers rather than put them directly in the recycling bin, in order to recover the 10c, which was already added to the price of the original product.
That collection itself used a lot of space and extra household management effort. Anyway, I took about 100 containers to the nearest recycling collection machine 4.5km away.
There were two side-by side machines. Neither of them worked. And while I was there about four other people turned up trying to deposit their returnables as well but couldn’t. These people had far less to return than I did. They had only ten to twenty items each.
The whole thing is absurd. An expensive system to “solve” a non-problem, cause massive inconvenience and significant expense in petrol and vehicle depreciation just to drive there, and probably equaling or exceeding the value of the return in most cases.
I wonder who gets the 10c if the containers are not returned? If it is the Government, then it’s just another tax. I think most containers will not be returned.
Also, you don’t get cash at the machine. You can donate the proceeds to charity, get vouchers to certain retail stores (the machine did not specify which) or it can go into your bank account. I guess if it goes into your bank a/c it is not anonymous and your dedication to recycling will go on your Social Credit score when they eventually introduce that since Australian Governments and the Left in general LOVE the totalitarian ideas of the Chicomms.
Finally, where do all these recycled containers go anyway? The only genuinely worthwhile recyclable containers are aluminum and steel and there is no deposit for steel cans.
Australia’s last plastics recycling plant in SA closed down a few years ago due to the high cost of “green” energy.
In future, I will just revert to putting my containers in my domestic recycling bin, or better yet, to punish wokeness, I might just put them in the regular bin to go to landfill (where most of the recyclables probably go anyway).
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The local Council will then, if they haven’t already, introduce garbage censoring.
Followed later by extra bins for different categories. Much like in the UK esp. Bristol where 6 bins are meant to fit in Victorian town houses i.e. taking space wider than the house.
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By 2027 Sicktoria wants to have a four bin system. My woke council already has three bins.
The plan is:
I know of people who put ALL their waste in the 240l yellow recycling as they have large families and extra recycling bins are cheaper than the standard 120l or optional 240l general waste red bins.
I don’t use my 240l green waste bin at all except for outdoor storage of garden implements. I am thinking of converting it to storage of an emergency water supply for when the grid goes down.
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Graeme, when it comes to extreme Left woke insanity, Australia is a pioneer.
Believe it or not, some of the more extreme Leftists did try introducing transparent garbage bins. It is one of those Leftist policies which is so bizarre that you have to check if it’s satire or not.
As far as I know, they never introduced this, but it doesn’t mean they won’t. Australia is becoming more Orwellian by the day.
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“Woke Woolies and Coles ban Plastic Bags”
But only at the check-out – there are still plastic bags in the produce department and many other groceries are still wrapped in plastic.
Just more woke virtue signalling
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Dr Trevor has apparently never left a closed, transparent plastic storage tub partly filled with organic material under the summer sun in Australia.
Not only is there a risk of a stinking mess being cooked up, the trapped gases from accelerated decomposition would be flammable.
SIF (Single Issue Fanatics) always fail to grasp the wider reality.
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The Sictoria Deposit scheme only applies to some containers and so there is a high-tech scanner that checks which are the “correct” containers. These scanners are not cheap and are prone to fail. You still have to put other contaners in the council recycling bin.
The whole scheme is a waste of time and money.
The useless Vic Libs should demand an audit as to whether all this expense and additional work has made any improvement to the recycline rate of PET and aluminium containers.
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In 2023 the REDcycle soft-plastics recycling scheme collapsed owing $5 million. The full financial fallout has been revealed after the collapse of a business that raked in $20 million from services provided to Woolworths and Coles.
Woolies and Coles now do not accept soft plastics even though many products claim that soft plastics still claim they can be returned to the retailer.
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Much of “Recycleables” still goes to landfill
https://www.sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/waste/article/australia-s-glass-recycling-crisis-the-industry-responds-809131767
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The cost of Pepsi Max cans has gone up significantly and the recycling scheme has added more than 10c to the cost per can to cover the cost of operating the scheme. I read somewhere that it’s added 14c.
I know we’ve been in an inflation period so it’s hard to gauge which is scheme cost and which is inflation.
The Pratts (recycling family, owners of Visy) aren’t getting involved unless there’s money in it. So the cost added to a can has to be more than 10c to cover the cost of the deposit machines, the space they consume, the specific collection trips to empty the machines, etc.
I don’t know who keeps the 10c if a can isn’t returned. I guess it’s the manufacturer who must add it to the cost of the wholesale price. There’s no other point to track cans back to a sale point.
For years I have diligently put recyclables into my council recycling bin.
But what the govt has now effectively said to me is, if I do that it costs me 10c per can. They’re also telling me the council recycling program isn’t effective at recycling. Otherwise this scheme wouldn’t be needed.
So, the government is basically telling me that for a price of 10c, I am entitled to dispose of the can in any way that I see fit.
So I no longer use the council recycling for cans (its obviously no good) and I have almost entirely ceased my regular purchase of Pepsi Max. Probably for the best anyway. Drinking water and cordial.
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Although, now that I think about it. It wouldn’t make sense a scheme would be put in place that benefits the manufacturer. So I assume the State Govt has a charge to the manufacturer for each can and any UN returned can benefits the govt. Why else would a govt bring in a scheme for real recycling purposes and not financial, when there was already recycling.
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Buy a soda machine and make your own genuine Pepsi Max at $3.50 for concentrate (from Woolies and Coles)that willl make 9L – you use use own glass bottles
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Yep. We have a SodaStream.
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Exactly..
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David – you are living a plastic (and now also alcoholic glass) bottle nightmare in complete contrast to my QLD experience. We have the choice of two nearby sites one staffed that take the bottles manually and provide cash and one automated where you feed in yourself and get the voucher. These vouchers are for a certain national food chain and you have the choice to use with your grocery purchase or redeem at self serve for cash.
Processing aside I am finding subtle issues starting to develop which are more covert but still impact the refund process. The thickness of the plastic water bottles has reduced considerably as they use recycled upon recycled plastic and this impacts the shape of the bottle at all stages of the consumer cycle.
I am finding the base of individual bottles is not always inverted when removed from the slab. Seems the water pressure on the thin plastic pushes some of them outward which, while not a problem when tightly packed in the slab, immediately makes them unstable when placed on a flat surface or bedside table. Additionally as they are consumed the thin bottle becomes mis-shaped from the pressure of holding it.
I have become aware of these given that we support a 92 year old m/m-i-l and recycle her bottles for her to save on her grocery costs. The use of plastic drink bottles is important because it helps us monitor her liquid intact as she insists on remaining in her own home and she can be set up in the lounge room to watch tv with a supply of bottles which will not spill if(when) knocked over.
More effort is now required to recycle these bottles as her handling of the new thin ones puts them out of shape and when you rinse them (to clean out food residue) the warm water further destroys their contour which, and more “damagingly”, results in the bar code label used to register your 10c lifting off the bottle and requiring reattachment or, if already thrown out, recycling through the manual depot – until that goes green and automates.
Another example that automation and/or green initiatives can be made to appear to present solutions to a problem while, as with this “simple” example of returning an empty bottle, they really create more work for others down the line.
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“Blockbuster rainstorm, major flooding to unfold
Because the new storm, packing much more moisture, will hit only a couple of days after the first storm soaked and saturated much of the state, runoff will be rapid and potentially dangerous and destructive, especially in portions of Southern and Central California, where most of the new rain is likely to fall.
The first storm brought a general 1-6 inches of rain from Wednesday to Thursday. However, starting as early as Saturday night, more than double the amount of rain may fall from the new storm, with some of the rainiest spots picking up a foot or more of rain in only 48 hours.”
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“double the amount of rain” means DROUGHT™, likewise heavy snow for the inland Sierras.
Talking of double-speak, Breaking News: “Switzerland is warming twice as fast as the global average [as] mountains trap heat”, claimed some reporter, on the temporary closure of a Swiss ski area due to a warm spell. Maybe their winter has briefly migrated south to us, as I’ve just had a quick perusal of our Southern Alps webcams and, my oh my, they look beautiful covered in a fresh overnight dosing of [impossible] snow!
From Fiordland to Queenstown, Mt Cook to Arthur’s Pass, even the Kaikouras in the north-east of the South Island, (too hot to) SNOW all over the show. Thankfully a warm NW wind is on its way from Aus so it’ll melt in a day or two, before the next cool change arrives. Ah yes, ‘summer’.
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1. New Jersey buys big price hikes
2. Good looking lawsuit filed to protect whales and fishing
3. Fed’s whale protection strategy is to wait and see what happens to them
4. What a giant monopile looks like up close and personal
Offshore wind has a big up and down week
By David Wojick
https://www.cfact.org/2024/02/01/offshore-wind-has-a-big-up-and-down-week/
“The tumult in US offshore wind development has taken several steps lately, some forward, some not so much. Here is a quick overview of three serious events that are worth careful consideration.”
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Potential Perturbation of the Ionosphere by Megaconstellations and Corresponding Artificial Re-entry Plasma Dust
Found on Spaceweather
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May ‘exceed that of the cislunar environment’
Say what? The moon needs to transition too? That’s a bridge too too far.
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The “person” in the Moon.
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FWIW – why free speech
https://media0.giphy.com/media/C4V6rQCx6ekten223W/giphy.gif
(Wait for it to cycle)
Via https://instapundit.com/630132/#disqus_thread
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How Green Was My Valley?
When was chopping down trees that absorb CO2 ever a good idea? When you chop them down to make way for wind turbines?
https://notrickszone.com/
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I remember the Michael Moore documentary pointing out the same thing.
Planet of the Humans.
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Albo is getting desperate and so hires a far left spin doctor to improve his ratings – Karherine Murphy from the rag known as The Guardian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODUAm8w49y4&ab_channel=SkyNewsAustralia
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The death of fossil fuels has been greatly exagerated
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/exxon-chevron-beat-estimates-report-second-biggest-annual-profits-past-decade
Guess EVs are not making much of an impact!
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Cannot see it happening by 2050 unless we turn full on communist run by the WEF elite. Our economic system depends on oil and gas. As I write this comment on the plastic keyboard of my plastic cased laptop.
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I had never seen a case of turbo Alzheimer’s (less than 12 months from diagnosis to death) until two years ago. I have just become aware of the third one that I have seen in that time. Add to that three sudden unexpected deaths and a significant number of stroke and heart attacks in people known to me also in that time. This is more than just bad luck. I am surprised that more of the public who are also seeing these things are not asking questions. Perhaps it needs to become more frequent, or closer to home to wake them up.
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+1..
I used to only have fading memories of people i had known dying from cancer..few and far between.
BUT in the last 24 months there have been several close aquaintances who have had major critical cancer scares requireing hospitalisation , chemo, surgery, etc. All were health , fit and sporty, people with no previous history of C.
I know age (50+) is a factor, but this is all too sudden !
Most people seem to not be aware or dont see the correlation with the jabfest.
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Sarcastic Saturday.
Why are there only two choices for gender reassignment surgery – male or female?
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There is also the option of being a “castrati” if you have a musical ambition instead of swimming or cycling on a women’s team
More at the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/14/humanities.highereducation
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It is the most radical of all weight-loss surgery
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Spreading
“The Truth About the COVID Vaccine Is Finally Becoming Known”
https://pjmedia.com/marktapscott/2024/02/02/the-truth-about-the-covid-vaccine-is-finally-becoming-known-n4926083
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Dr David E Martin who featured in a speech to the EU Parliament last June, on the lively history of the corona virus from 1965. If you haven’t seen that, it is on rumble, and is probably the most devastating attack on the establishment’s pandemic, that is out there! 21 minutes
This is 25 minutes devastating the WHO. It turns out it’s earliest goal was population control. It seems they didn’t get very far with that, but it is what they had in mind.
https://vimeo.com/865161289
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Another extraordinarily powerful speech by David Martin and thank you very much. Unfortunately his slides to which he refers do not show on the clip, but on poking around found this youtube version of same speech with slides. 25 minutes. Thanks again. We live in an evil world. ToM
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WK9eD8DlrZg
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Australia has never seen a January like it
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/australia-has-never-seen-a-january-like-it/1773757
Once again there reference a 30 year period that is 30 years past current timelines, why, why do they continue to reference 1961-1990 as the base line to compare temperature results? Why not 1991-2020, why not 1930-2000, Who decided this is the time period we have to compare the the weather against.
But in January 2024:
• Australia’s national area-averaged mean temperature was 1.54°C above the 1961–1990 average
• Australia’s area-averaged rainfall total in January was 47.4% above the 1961–1990 average
So how does the average compare to 1990 – 2020, the last 30 year period?
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Well , if the intention is to compare to a base reference period, it is logical to keep the same reference for all subsequent measurements .
PS… who’s temp data set are they using for that reference period ?
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It used to be that a 30 year average gave a, ie one, data point for any climate graph of temperature or rainfall. Then some graphs would produce a graph with a rolling 30 ( again ) rolling average.
Their picking any 30 year period is picking one point from a continuous line from the start of recordings, so is invalid in their usage. Stupidly so, if it’s not outright malicious.
Cheers
Dave B
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As i said, ..keeping the same period for a base is understandable, ..otherwise you have no common reference for comparason.
My understanding of the variation for Jan 24 is that they would be comparing to the AVERAGE of the 30 Jan averages within that reference period. .?
But, as i also said, …..who’s data sets are they using, the original, or one of the many “adjusted” and “corrected” data sets ?
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Day 11 in the Mann v Steyn case was not good for Mann:
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/unreported-story-society4/episodes/Ep–8–Manns-Failing-Grade-e2f4q4i
Steyn presented his arguments for dismissal and made a case for Mann (read CSLDP) to bear the defendants costs. These arguments were to be presented for the court’s deliberation on Friday when the judge has time set aside to review the proceedings. The plaintiff lawyer has already stated that it was impossible to link any loss of university funding directly to the Stern Simberg articles. Thst alone is sufficient grounds to dismiss. But the fact that the plaintiff tried to mislead the jury is further grounds for dismissal and supports the case for the Mann to pay the defence costs. During the original argument to dismiss or not yesterday, Mann’s lawyer pleaded with the judge to listen and actually the the judge that he had misinterpreted what the judge saw.
There was more from stats man Wyner today that included a chart of three equally likely hockey sticks based on the data Mann cobbled together. Two included a medieval warm period with one of those have a decidedly higher range back 1000 years that was warmer than present. The term of the day was p-hacking – a definition here:
Judith Curry also gave evidence. She has rightful contempt for Mann. And stated Mann lied to a congressional hearing.
There is no indication yet that the CSLDP will pull the plug. But Climate Science™ is being roasted.
This could be the last day of evidence if the case is dismissed.
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As I pointed out in the Friday comments, this January-February heatwave (referring to Perth in this case) is not unique, as 1896 was arguably warmer. I repeat:
2024 According to station data for Perth Metro, this heatwave started on Jan 30th to Feb 02:
36.0; 41.9; 42.6; 38.3 (all deg C).
Compare that to the 1896 heatwave from Jan 2 to Jan 5, observed at Perth Gardens:
40.6; 41.0; 44.4; 42.8 (all deg C- converted from deg F).
Unfortunately, I had to get this information from an old newspaper article. I am sure the BoM has the daily information for January 1896 but do not publish it on their website (maybe on purpose?).
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Recommend that you look at the data from this site to determine which weather reporting site was in use in 1896: https://www.waclimate.net/perth-temperature-history.html
From the info, it appears that the 1896 temperatures were recorded in the Supreme Court Gardens and without a Stevenson Screen. So these readings would now be ignored.
00
Tesla recalls 2.2 million cars — nearly all of its vehicles sold in the U.S. — over warning light issue
Tesla is recalling almost 2.2 million vehicles — nearly all of the cars that it has sold in the U.S. — because the font size is too small on its instrument panel for its brake, park and antilock brake system warning lights.
That makes the lights hard to read, increase the risk of a crash, according to a recall notice filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The font size violates federal safety standards, according the agency.
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/tesla-recall-2-2-million-cars-warning-lights-nhtsa/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h
Recalled because of font size.
/LOL
/LOL
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What’s the real reason.
20
At my age I find nearly ALL the fonts too small, so where’s my compensation? I expect the world to upsize fonts and be better lit! ..and not have black colour anywhere!
10
Thought for the day.
“Marriage is like a deck of cards. All you need in the beginning is two hearts and a diamond. After 10 years you wish you had a club and a spade.”
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What is the penalty for bigamy? Two mothers-in-law.
20
“There once was an old man of Lyme
Who married three wives at a time,
When asked, ‘Why a third?’
He replied, ‘One’s absurd!
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.”
https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/limerick-there-once-was-old-man-lyme
10
That was in ‘Verse and Worse’ I bought about 60 years ago!
10
“The limerick is furtive and mean.
You must keep her in close quarantine,
Or she sneaks to the slums,
And promptly becomes,
Disorderly, drunk and obscene.”
00
Temps remain stubbornly high.
https://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_January_2024_v6_20x9.jpg
00
Here. Is the Viscount Monckton style “pause” including the January 2024 month temperatures just released by Dr Spencer and colleagues.
The high January 2024 value took about 20 months off the start date. But, the non-working pause is still there.
I do these each month because they are a possible indicator of a turnaround from gentle warming to gentle cooling over the years. It is not an indication that, as the yanks say, I am rooting for a change of some ideological type.
Geoff S
https://www.geoffstuff.com/uahfeb2024.jpg
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