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
I guess everyone saw the video of the ship crashing into the Bridge in Baltimore
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13240657/baltimore-bridge-collapse-ship.html
What struck me was the vast numbers of containers and the manner in which the structure collapsed like a pack of cards. The momentum of that ship and containers when it struck must have been enormous
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Tony,
The ship – the ‘Dali’, I believe after the painter, was almost 100,000 gross tonnes [a measure of volume!].
It would have a carrying capacity of some 11,000 ‘Twenty-foot Equivalent Units’ – TEU.
It has a Deadweight Tonnage [the cargo, fuel, water, stores and spares she can carry] of 116,851 tonnes – at her deepest load draft.
The biggest box boats afloat these days can carry just over 24,000 TEU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_container_ships#/media/File:Algeciras_(5)_(cropped).jpg
Average weight of a TEU is some 11-12 tonnes [depending a bit on trade, and less, obviously, if the box in empty and is being repositioned [back to China for another load of ‘extremely valuable’ consumer goods from Mr Xi’s Paradise!].
So the ‘Dali’ probably had a total weight – a displacement tonnage – of 120,000 to 150,000 tonnes.
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Thats a huge amount, that momentum is enormous.
Of course I would need a very large research grant for about 5 years to test my latest hypothesis based on your displacement data.
“If every ship in the world was removed from the ocean then the sea level rise of the last 50 years would reverse”.
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Excellent article, just published: –
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/27/baltimore-bridge-ship-captain-electrical-failure-pilot/
Clear about what is known, and what is speculated [with various degrees of probability, based on experience].
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Unfortunately that huge truss instantly collapses if a single pier is lost or even a single bottom rail. Not sure which happened. Looks like they had two power blackouts and lost control of the ship. Blackouts are bad at any scale.
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I watched several videos of the incident, from several angles.
The Dali lost power twice, was in full reverse for a short time, and deployed at least one port side anchor, possibly the forward port side anchor.
I wonder if the Dali ran over their own anchor chain. If so, instead of vectoring restraint from port side, it would have pivoted the ship starboard.
That would account for the sudden swing into the bridge support.
Just a thought.
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The swing is dramatic. Likely either the anchor or hard rudder from berserk control systems.
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The Dali has a pair of bow thrusters powered by diesel generators. The abrupt swing may have been the result of a last minute attempt to avoid collision.
The result- a Daliesque nightmare..
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The Wiki-thingy – that even I can edit – indicates that both anchors were dropped.
The idea of trying to stop the ship [let’s say 120,000 tonnes, as she was not fully laden – see the red boot-topping above the waterline] using anchors and chains would be terrifying if you were on the forecastle, trying to secure the anchor cables – to brake the ship.
Very lucky that nobody hurt or killed there.
Possibly the ship only dropped the anchors – and didn’t try to snub them, to slow their rate of paying out, thus trying to brake the ship.
To have done so would have been frighteningly hazardous for those on the forecastle deck, where the anchor windlasses are.
All the momentum of the ship through the anchor chains, and using a mechanical brake perhaps ten feet [3m] diameter, and eight or ten inches wide [20-25cm] to slow the paying out.
Scares me thinking about it, three thousand miles away.
Anchor chain on that size of ship will be made out of links formed from circular bar – about 4″ [c. 100mm] diameter, roughly.
Ships that size – and there are many much bigger – would not normally try to anchor when moving at more than about one knot [1.2 mph].
Five, six, even eight knots – only in an emergency, as here, unhappliy.
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See also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HXZgsto148
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The reports indicate a gross tonnage of 100,000 tonnes and a speed of 8 knots at impact (14.8 kph).
This would equate to a kinetic energy absorbed by the bridge pier of 865,000,000 joules.
That is a lot of energy to be absorbed in seconds.
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Where were the tug boats?
Apparently they disengaged earlier – but if the ship had yet to clear the bridge why did they not escort the ship until it cleared the bridge?
This was a forseeable accident.
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There was a pilot on board, so I imagine everything would have been done by the book. We will have to wait on the inquiry, but I suppose it will be the end of the Master’s career because the buck stops with him.
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CO2 and John B, this may help. Data reconstruction (VID) from the website “Vessel Tracker”.
https://www.vesselfinder.com/news/27746-WATCH-VesselFinder-AIS-data-reconstruction-of-the-allision-of-container-ship-DALI-with-the-Francis-Scott-Key-Bridge-Baltimore
Watch the Tugs “Eric Mcallister” and “Bridget Mcallister”. They escort the ship from its berth and leave the “Dali” at 05:08 UTC.
Dali turns and heads towards the bridge for several nautical miles. (course 141 Deg) 7km/h. The Dali veers starboard at 05:27:00 UTC. (course 151 Deg), approx 800 yards from the bridge.
Moments later (05:27:21 UTC), both tugs reverse course and increase speed to the Dali.
The Masters of the tugs would have not known that the ship was in trouble by visual sight. They were 4 Nautical miles + upstream. It would be via radio.
Dali strikes the bridge at 05:29:31 UTC
Tug “Eric Mcallister” arrives at incident at 05:44:00 UTC. Tug “Bridget Mcallister” arrives at 05:52:42, further vessels then attend.
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Just in time
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/maryland-police-were-pre-alerted-divert-traffic-one/
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This was a topic i mentioned a couple of days ago in as much Chinese EV’s on Uk roads could be remotely controlled from China
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/26/china-could-remotely-control-british-electric-cars-and-bring-cities-to-a-standstill-mps-warned/
At last the politicians seem to have realised the huge harm that China could cause and also that the Internet is on the whole-in my considered opinion-a negative force for man rather than a positive one. What seems to have spooked the politicians is that MP’s private comms accounts were hacked and they discovered some bugs in official cars.
This headlong rush to digitalisation will invite the malevolent to take down our banking, comms, food supplies, water and much more, not to mention the baleful effects of much of social media and online fraud.
In the last week 2 of our largest supermarkets couldn’t take payments and Greggs and Macdonalds couldn’t allow orders. One of our major banks had a complete meltdown for 6 weeks last year and the British Library took 6 weeks to recover from a major hacking attack.
WE need to backpedal from the Internet of things which is creating an over reliance on the digital world when even your GP presents online, rather than in person
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Some good analysis showing that The Hunga Tunga explosion likely caused some of the recent warming
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/26/hunga-tonga-volcano-cause-of-recent-high-temperatures-says-scientist/
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Thanks Tony, much appreciated.
‘ … it will induce a cooling effect at the surface potentially lowering temperatures for the next three to four years.’
That is interesting, others have said it will create a warming over the next three years.
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Here in Briz Vegas, I am pottering about in shorts and T-shirt, day and night.
Checked the rain gauge this morning:
24 hour reading?
55mm in our little “rain shadow”? Rainfall this month, so far?
165mm.
If we get a NOT “unprecedented”, late season cyclone / rain depression rolling down the coast any time soon, it will get “untidy”, again. Living on a slightly elevated block away from waterways and floodplains is some comfort; for us.
Flannery overload!
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Here is Javier’s post, comments are worth reading.
https://judithcurry.com/2024/03/24/the-extraordinary-climate-events-of-2022-24/
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More Baltimore bridge including –
“The bridge spans the Patapsco River and carries an estimated 11.5 million vehicles annually. In this collapse, the only shipping lane in and out of the port was severed.”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-baltimore-bridge-collapse-and.html
Navy installations?
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England is a small country with a unique combination of historic villages and lush landscapes that can vary mile by mile.
It certainly hasn’t the room for a 2000 acre solar farm proposed for a lovely corner of Wiltshire
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/wiltshire-farmland-set-to-be-covered-in-2-000-acres-of-solar-panels/ar-BB1kvVV9
It will mean not only the destruction of lovely countryside but also have a notable impact on our ability to feed ourselves. Still, if we import food instead of groiwng it ourselves, we don’t need to worry about the CO2 as that will be from someone elses carbon budget.
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Another green money laundering scam. Built on lies by foriegn companies, with large hidden costs and forced through by central government over local concerns. The UK is slowly being destroyed by the metropolitan elites who care not for the people or the country.
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When you get enough migrants who are not British, are not British descended such as Australians, do not share the culture at all, don’t share the same values, nor the same religion, and don’t even want to integrate and become British, I can see why there is no ‘us’ left in the country.
Why would the elites feel anything except the desire to become as rich as possible and get the hell out to somewhere that they can retire to. They wouldn’t feel it is ‘their’ country that they have some responsibility for.
I suppose this goes for any country that embraces the idea of a world without passports, a UN above national Govts and John Lennon’s songs..
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Albo has the right idea.
‘The Albanese Government is rushing new legislation through Parliament this week in an attempt to avoid another disastrous ruling from the High Court – after more than 140 asylum seekers, including murderers and rapists, were released into the community in the NZYQ case last November.
‘The proposed laws would give the Immigration Minister the power to single out countries that do not cooperate with Australia’s attempts to deport people back to their country of origin. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, was slammed for only operating on verbal advice alone for the previous High Court ruling.’ (UK Mail)
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When we moved to Oz in ’99, we were quite proud of England with its culture, traditions and old institutions. Those feelings are fading away, sadly. The country we left behind has changed very much for the worse. Having said that, the principle reason we ‘fled’ to Australia was my growing feeling that the UK was turning into a ‘pressure cooker’, with far, far too many people crammed into a small space. For lovers of the open air and countryside, it was an oppressive feeling.
My wife and I still enjoy some of the UK TV progarammes though, such as Grand Designs. But we frequently remark, when the building is “in the country”, how loud nearby traffic often intrudes in conversations outdoors. It seems new roads and still-increasing population means that almost nowhere is free from noise pollution over there. Our last visit, in 2023, really emphasised this, when we travelled through the relatively underpopulated areas we used to frequent yet found ourselves stuck in traffic for hours. My sister, who lives in a cottage between two small towns, now finds her living room vibrates to the continual thunder of passing trucks and cars. Awful.
Of course, you shouldn’t get me started on the societal decline, but that’s happening here in Oz, too.
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I guess we should be grateful to have lived in a time thay was so good that we can notice a societal decline. All civilizations probably thought they were permanent , right up to the time they weren’t
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I’ve seen an increasing decline in England over this century. I wonder where it’s heading and where it will be in 20 years time. The Britain I knew 30 years ago is fast disappearing and is not being replaced and rejuvenated. Instead it’s becoming a non entity and that is very concerning. And even more concerning is that it is throwing its weight around when it should be acting magnanimously and helpfully. Up until the latter part of the last century the power house was the Midlands. That was replaced by the City and that is fast slipping. Basically those in the position to do something don’t have the perspective, the understanding, the life skills – philosophical skills – to do anything. So the poms are doing the immigration thing – as my parents did 57 years ago – and immigrating here and making a new start.
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SoC
Whilst most of the South East – within – say – 50 miles of London – has many busy [and increasingly build-up] areas, and still much greenery, there are certainly many other parts where, despite some new housing, in or adjacent to towns, there is still a lot of open countryside.
The pressure on housing – possibly related to a nett migration into the UK of 745,000 in 2022 [legal migrants only; also tens of thousands crossed by boat from France] – is such that there are some suggestions of completely new ‘Garden Cities’ – effectively, new town plonked down in the countryside, with [I presume] some effort at education, employment, health care, transport links, leisure, child care, etc. locally.
Obviously, if these are planned by ‘Whitehall and Westminster’ [including local government] there will be problems.
If they were to be merely permitted – and Government then got out of the way – many would expect a better outcome!
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FWIW – reading for “ElBowen”
“Offshore Wind Now Costs More Than Double the Original Estimates in New York”
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/offshore-wind-now-costs-more-than-double-the-original-estimates-in-new-york/
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Found this article which, for me, identifies the reality of ‘special relationships’ and paranoia whipped up by second rate warmongers, but maybe not all will agree …
“Two British ministers, the UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, paid a recent visit to Australia recently as part of the AUKMIN (Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations) talks. It showed, yet again, that Australia’s government loves being mugged. Stomped on. Mowed over. Beaten.”
https://www.asia-pacificresearch.com/aukus-cash-cow-robbing-australian-taxpayer/5631957
Enjoy.
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Have you looked at the source website? Do you agree with its core stance – pro-China, anti “US Imperium” and so on?
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Lol! The UK aren’t winning in Ukraine and will lose.. This is the usual stripping of poor countries by the rich ones, selling useless trinkets for massive money. Ukraine has shown that fancy aircraft, missiles, and expensive gear for soldiers is just not as important as artillery and cheap drones backed up by AK47s that work in the mud.
There will be technology that reduces the value of submarines just waiting in the wings for our wars to move to the sea. So far there has been no reason to show it, but after we impoverish ourselves buying nuclear submarines I’m sure they will turn out to be as useless as German Leopard tanks, British Challengers and American Abrams, all scattered over the fields of Ukraine.
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Satellite technology utilising Lidar can already strip away trees and show what’s below. So, maybe similar technology could identify minute water displacement to identify submerged items !
The reality is that when/if Oz receives its overpriced subs the underlying technology will be out of date.
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If subs are out of date why are we having trouble finding a supplier? Ship builders should be beating a path to our door trying to sell us some before they are declared obsolete.
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Ha Ha, try the French …
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I am hoping the Donald gets in in November and shuts the door on this folly, hopefully he will justify it by saying they need them for the US.
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You and Steve [#7.2.1] will have to get your story straight. The US IS saying they need all their Virginia class subs for themselves. I guess that’s because they want a navy of obsolete boats.
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IMO. The problem is that western manufacturing is contrlled by governments that are corrupt and incompetent.
You want a nuclear sub ? You want a nuclear power station ? You want a new aircraft carrier ? You want anything big and complex ?
Then that is going to take 25 years and the agreed budgets will double over that timescale. What you end up with is outdated, second rate, expensive technology that doesn’t do the job originally asked for.
The West needs a whole root and branch change to manufacturing processes. Otherwise our Asian friends will just clean up, at our expense.
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The article is skilful propaganda.
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The Lancet Warns of Growing Climate ‘Scepticism’
https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2024/03/26/the-lancet-warns-of-growing-climate-scepticism/
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Here’s hoping for a jolly lot more skepticism.
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Lancet should be concerned with the growing medical scepticism.
I ALWAYS get a second [multiple] opinion from Dr Google.
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Unbelievable!
Dominion Energy’s absurd reply to CFACT’s whale protection lawsuit
By David Wojick
https://www.cfact.org/2024/03/26/dominion-energys-absurd-reply-to-cfacts-whale-protection-lawsuit/
The beginning:
“Dominion Energy has issued a brief response to the whale protection lawsuit filed by CFACT et al. When I first saw it, I thought there must be some mistake, but it has appeared in a lot of press reports.
This central claim by Dominion is simply absurd: “The overwhelming consensus of federal agencies and scientific organizations is that offshore wind does not adversely impact marine life.” No adverse impact? Seriously?
In reality, the responsible federal agency predicts an enormous adverse impact. NOAA‘s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has authorized Dominion to acoustically harass almost 80,000 marine mammals and these noise harassments are certainly adverse impacts. They even include temporary deafness, which can easily be deadly.”
Lots more in the article. Please share it.
Is this nonsense ignorance or deception?
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Dominion is likely referring to the prior approval by BOEM for the project.
https://www.bayjournal.com/news/climate_change/virginia-offshore-wind-project-wins-key-federal-approval/article_37a1e72a-7997-11ee-a2b9-b7157d20a8f5.html
That said, they are definitely trying to divert attention from the subsequent whale deaths associated with the acoustical surveying.
There is another item to consider. Normally, Dominion would hire a construction and management company to oversee the project under a fixed firm price construction contract and management cost. Instead, Dominion is going to act as their own construction manager and make this a wholly Utility owned project. As a Utility, they are entitled by law to a 7% return on capital outlay and operation/maintenance costs. This means that even if the project never delivers any power, Dominion still gets a 7% profit on the entire cost. And, any cost over runs will be billed to Dominion energy ratepayers as overhead costs or additional investment.
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/virginia-scc-staff-questions-dominion-energys-offshore-wind-cost-assumptio/621959/
“In contrast to PPAs, Dominion’s customers must pay charges which recover the full cost of the project even if no energy is provided, in the event of an extended outage, or if the energy supplied is lower than what was intended in the project proposal”
Dominion has rigged the game so they profit regardless of success or failure and their backstop are their own customer base.
Certainly pleased that Dominion is Not my utility provider.
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paid by these federal agenecies for “research”.
Again we have science by authority and “consensus” much like it was in Galileo’s day 400 years ago – when the Catholic Churce ruled on “science”.
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FWIW – more covid
“Peter Sweden: New mRNA Side Effect: “Safe and Effective” was a LIE”
“The Danish Medicines Agency has warned that chronic hives is a possible side effect of the Moderna mRNA injection.
Remember how we were bombarded by the media and “the experts” that the brand new mRNA shots were completely SAFE and EFFECTIVE?”
More at
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/peter-sweden-new-mrna-side-effect-safe-effective/
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THE DAILY CHART: THE U.S. NUCLEAR DEFICIT
I once asked a French acquaintance how it was that France managed to build over 5o nuclear power plants over the same time period that the U.S. built virtually none, and his answer was basically that France didn’t pay any attention to Jane Fonda. Actually his explanation was more colorful (and accurate). Read this with a French accent in your mind:
“Ah, but it is simple you see: In France, our Communists supported nuclear power, whereas in the U.S., your Communists opposed it.”
But my follow up question to my French interlocutor is equally pertinent: How did France manage to build nuclear plants so much more cheaply than the U.S.?
“Ah, but it is simple, you see: In France, we have 200 kinds of cheese, but one kind of nuclear plant design. In America it is just the opposite.”
In any case, this figure shows how the U.S. abandoned nuclear power.
Imagine how much lower our carbon footprint would be if we had kept up the pace of the 1950-1990 period.
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How things were once built!
We Finally Know How Ancient Roman Concrete Was Able to Last Thousands of Years
The ancient Romans were masters of building and engineering, perhaps most famously represented by the aqueducts. And those still functional marvels rely on a unique construction material: pozzolanic concrete, a spectacularly durable concrete that gave Roman structures their incredible strength.
Even today, one of their structures – the Pantheon, still intact and nearly 2,000 years old – holds the record for the world’s largest dome of unreinforced concrete.
The properties of this concrete have generally been attributed to its ingredients: pozzolana, a mix of volcanic ash – named after the Italian city of Pozzuoli, where a significant deposit of it can be found – and lime. When mixed with water, the two materials can react to produce strong concrete.
But that, as it turns out, is not the whole story. In 2023, an international team of researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that not only are the materials slightly different from what we may have thought, but the techniques used to mix them were also different.
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That movie, The China Syndrome was released just 12 days prior to the Three Mile Island (TMI) ‘incident’ in Harrisburg PA.
As the TMI news got out, the NYT Editor got all ‘his people’ together, and asked them who had already seen the movie. Those three guys who put up their hands were sent up to Harrisburg, to do the ‘reporting’, confirmation bias well in place already.
The plant is on a small island in the Susquehanna River. One branch of that river separates the plant from the surrounds. There’s a train line and then River Road, one of the main thoroughfares in the area, and that River Road is barely 100 metres or so from the Plant out on the Island in the River.
That umm, ‘disaster!!!!’ was so bad, they had to put temporary parking in place to cater for all the cars stopping on River Road to look across at the plant, gawk at, and take photographs etc, as people ‘flocked’ to see the what had happened.
For some reasoned analysis, see the Post at this link. (A comparison between TMI and Chernobyl, written in 2009)
Tony.
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FWIW –
“Biden remembers crossing the Key Bridge “many many times commuting from the state of Delaware either by train or by car.” ”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/03/26/truinnerashuvaduprezure-39/#comments
Read the comments too!
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FWIW
“Green Macaroni to the Rescue”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/25/green-macaroni-to-the-rescue/
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And in comments a handy quote for a “Green Steel” discussion –
“How is that “green steel” working out?
“Zero-emissions steelmaking is possible in Hamilton by using “green hydrogen” in the future, says an industry study but for now green hydrogen is prohibitively expensive and “not a credible solution” for steelmakers, according to a study done for the Canadian Steel Producers Association.
“Dofasco has vowed to build its new “green steel” project, partly funded with $900 million in taxpayer cash, to be “hydrogen-ready” with a long-range plan to transition to green hydrogen “as and when a sufficient, cost-effective supply … becomes available.”
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/green-hydrogen-too-costly-to-fuel-arcelormittal-dofasco-s-makeover-study/article_e93da5e4-7c60-549f-9087-4b149644e780.html “
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Funny how the green revolution is always storming success – a few years from now when unicorn dust will be freely available.
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In one video release that clearly shows all of the ship’s lighting going off and on, copious amounts of black smoke is streaming from the stacks.
Thus, the BIG “cathedral” diesel engines were being fed a LOT of fuel to generate a LOT of electric power and thrust, but, in “close” waters, WHY?.
Was the skipper trying to apply full reverse thrust? Careful plotting of the ship’s speed and angular movement will reveal such things. A “sharp” turn to put the ship on a direct course for the pylon? As you do, apparently.
Hot “rumour” doing the rounds is a “cyber attack” on ship-board electronics. One of the side “benefits” / “un?intended consequences” of “the internet of everything”
Apparently, we are living in those famous “interesting times”.
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Bruce,
I suspect the cloud of smoke is – more likely – from the ship’s Emergency Generator [a diesel] firing up automatically.
Be interesting to find out the local wind at the time – a laden box-boat has a lot of windage, so, perhaps, she was literally wind-rode with no Main Engine for the few crucial minutes.
That, of course, is speculation on my part.
Ship built in 2015, so cyber attack affecting the Main Engine is unlikely.
IIRC a few ships built directly for the largest lines, like Maersk, at that time, had experimental [?] ‘office control’, but ones built ‘on-spec’, to be chartered out, probably weren’t so built.
Any such feature adds costs.
And ship-owners do NOT like added costs, unless those extras add to the charter rate, or cut operational costs – greater fuel efficiency, for example!!
Without knowing more about her, I would not like to say ‘a cyber attack is impossible’, but as one of maybe a hundred or more mid-sized container ships, of that general age, it is not clear why she would have been retrofitted with remote-control, if she was not originally built with that feature.
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Bloody. I hate Auspost. Once again, a parcel I am waiting for has been redirected to a collection point because I am apparently not at home. The front door is wide open, as is the living room door, and the CCTV shows no callers.
At a time when you’d think Auspost would be trying extra hard to keep its customers in the face of growing competition, they seem to be getting worse. Surely a major reorganisation is on the cards? They can’t survive this way.
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Its not Auspost, its the contractor who has 500 parcels in the back of his van and he wants to go home, so its easier to drop a card in your letterbox and take the parcels to the local post office at about 5.30pm before he goes home.
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AI companies eye fossil fuels to meet booming energy demand
Recent reports suggest renewable energy sources alone won’t be enough to meet data centers’ increasingly intensive power needs.
AI models need more energy to power data centers
Though precise figures measuring AI’s energy consumption remain a matter of debate, it’s increasingly clear complex data centers required to train and power those systems are energy-intensive. A recently released peer reviewed data analysis, energy demands from AI servers in 2027 could be on par with those of Argentina, the Netherlands, or Sweden combined. Production of new data centers isn’t slowing down either. Just last week, Washington Square Journal reports, Amazon Web Service Vice President of Engineering Bill Vass told an audience at an energy industry event in Texas he believes a new data center is being built every three days. Other energy industry leaders speaking at the event, like Former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, argued renewable energy production may fall short of what is needed to power this projected data center growth.
“We’re not going to build 100 gigawatts of new renewables in a few years,” Moniz said. The Obama-era energy secretary went on to say unmet energy demands brought on by AI, primarily via electricity, would require tapping into more natural gas and coal power plants.
When it comes to meeting energy demands with renewables, he said, “you’re kind of stuck.”
Others, like Dominion Energy CEO Robert Blue say the increased energy demand has led them to build out a new gas power plant while also trying to meet a 2050 net-zero goal. Other natural gas company executives speaking with the Journal, meanwhile claim tech firms building out data setters have expressed interest in using a natural gas energy source.
Fossil-fuel powered AI prioritizes long-term optimism over current day climate realities
The problem with those more optimistic outlooks is that they remain, for the time being at least, mostly hypothetical and severely lacking in real-word data. AI models may increase the efficiency and affordability of renewable resources long term, but they risk doing so by pushing down on the accelerator of non-renewable resources right now.
And with energy demands surging in other industries outside of tech at the same time, these optimistic longer-term outlooks could serve to justify splurging on natural gas and goal in the short term.
Underpinning all of this is a worsening climate outlook that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists and international organizations agree demands radical action to reduce emissions as soon as possible.
Renewable energy sources are on the rise in the US but tech firms looking for easier available sources of electricity to power their next AI projects risk setting back that progress.
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CFC banning has done nothing to stop ozone depletion, the holes are getting bigger. Assuming its a natural function of the system, what does it mean?
https://notrickszone.com/2024/03/25/cfc-bans-did-nothing-to-interrupt-the-ongoing-trend-of-antarctic-ozone-losses/
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It means the “hole in the ozone layer” was always there and has nothing to do with CFC’s
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It is not a hole now, nor was it then.
The technical term is “lensing”, a fancy word for “thinning”.
The basic scientific question adroitly avoided by the usual suspects is:
“How do extremely heavy CFC molecules travel from the places most used in the Northern Hemisphere, across the equator, and gather at high altitudes at mindbogglingly low temperatures?
Supplementary:
“What, precisely, is the process wherein CFC molecules that cannot be broken down in a magnesium fire will merrily shed Chlorine atoms to break down Ozone?”
One of the “family” of CFCs specifically banned was “Halon”.
This is the stuff used to extinguish fires in burning aircraft and to do so very rapidly..
In my younger days I was involved in the production of electronic printed circuit boards and such.
We merrily used Freon as a board and contact cleaner. Here in sub-tropical Briz Vegas, you could watch the high-density “fumes” of Freon rolling and shimmering across the work bench. The stuff would fall off the bench and creep across the floor and escape under the door.
Of course Halon was one of the suite of useful / vital substances “banned” by the rolling madness of the times. Most serious military and commerecial airline / oort operators simply ignored / “got around” the ban. Halon is also used in “instantaneous” fire suppression systems in many “western” armoured vehicles There used to be “demo” videos of tests of Halon systems on the intertubes, but that is probably now classed as “misinformation”. Halon systems are also used in large ‘server farms, as the re is no chance of “water-damage” in the fire suppression action.. Back in the sixties and seventies, such places used chilled and pressurized Carbon Dioxide in “rupturable” pipes beneath the floor and in the ceilings,not unlike the more conventional “water sprinkler” syetems seen all over the place and identifiable by the bright red piped and heat / pressure sensitive glass “bubbles”. As with Halon, the olde CO2 systems displace MOST of normal atmosphere in such spaces when activated. Hence the (hopefully) generous positioning of dedicated breathing apparatus to help folks survive the VERY sudden change of atmosphere.
Halon systems are also used on large and small sea-craft; a fire at sea is a seriously bad thing.
These “concerned” people actually WANT others to DIE.
A world MADE mad.
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FWIW – another one of those
“Telegraph Compares Solar Capacity with Nuclear!”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/26/telegraph-compares-solar-capacity-with-nuclear/
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Florida Bans Social Media For Minors Under 14
Florida has just passed a new law prohibiting children under 14-years-old from having social media accounts regardless of parental consent.
Under the law which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025, social media companies must close accounts they believe to be used by minors under 14 – and must cancel accounts at the request of parents or minors. All information from the accounts must then be deleted, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Minors who are 14 or 15 will be able to obtain a social media account with parental consent. If a parent does not consent, accounts already belonging to teens within that age range must be deleted.
“Being buried in those devices all day is not the best way to grow up—it’s not the best way to get a good education,” Governor Ron DeSantis (R) said on Monday during an event to celebrate the signing of the bill.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/florida-bans-social-media-minors-under-14
GOOD! Do it everywhere and get the little….dears…outside in the sun.
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Will a VPN beat such bans?
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Remember Traci Lords?
She was making pormo movies at 15! (used fake ID). Caused a bit of a stir at the time.
Went on to make main stream movies like “Cry Baby”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEQfp_2x6t8&ab_channel=klassicalmuzik
Set something of a trend.
In April 2016, Ian Halperin alleged in his book Kardashian Dynasty that Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, deliberately leaked the sex tape to Vivid Entertainment. According to Halperin, “A mutual friend of Kim and Paris Hilton had advised her that if she wanted to achieve fame, a sex tape would be the way to go … Kim had discussed the idea of producing a tape with her family beforehand.
How does “Fans Only” check the age of their “content creators”?
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ChatGPT is down for many worldwide
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is down for many people worldwide, with users facing multiple problems, including being unable to access their accounts, having their chat history come up empty, and the chat screens not loading properly.
When accessing ChatGPT, users may see a blank screen with “How can I help you today?” and, in some cases, a missing chat history.
This outage started within the last 10 minutes, and DownDetector, a website that tracks popular services, says ChatGPT is currently experiencing an outage in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Japan, Australia, and other parts of the world.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/its-not-just-you-chatgpt-is-down-for-many-worldwide/
Yet another global outage. Can’t wait for the 2-4 week banking outage…
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Those students with assignments due will be sweating this out!
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From the Epoch Times:
Australian Government Introduces Mandatory Climate Reporting
“The legislation will introduce standardised, internationally-aligned reporting requirements for businesses, to ensure they are making high-quality climate-related financial disclosures,”
As usual, no mention of what will happen to those companies whose reports show no reduction, or an increase, in emissions or insufficient ‘investment’ in green schemes. I have no doubt that this is a case of ‘legislation first, get the reporting in place, then introduce penalties/fines.’
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Our clueless Minister for Energy does not know the difference between Power (kW) and Energy (kWh) – however the whole woke Left do not understand basic principles of electrical engineering.
You can bet most failed maths and science or never took it at high school.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/26/telegraph-compares-solar-capacity-with-nuclear/
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Ohms Law: Resistance is futile. 😉
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32 Climate Hoaxes that are now Supporting for WWIII
There are now Climate Zealots who are eager to bring about World War III as the means to save the planet by eliminating 50%+ of the world population. This is why all our world leaders are promoting war, and the NEOCONS love it.
In 2020, messages including “The Earth has a deadline” began to appear on the display. Then, numbers 7:103:15:40:07 showed up, representing the years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until that deadline.
Ironically, they may be correct in proposing that 2027 the world will end, but not for climate reasons. They realize there is NO WAY we can abandon fossil fuels and replace them with wind and solar. That is just impossible. You must reduce the world population by 50% to make the power grid and electric cars feasible. Our computer has forecast that the peak of World War III is most likely in the 2026/2027 time period.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/neocons/32-climate-hoaxes-that-are-now-supporting-for-wwiii/
So, a 2028 deadline then.😎
That’s 4 years left, as long as the Plandemic.
Retire and enjoy it while you can, like I did.
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It won’t happen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
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Climate The Movie, The Cold Choice;
https://twitter.com/wideawake_media/status/1770552312710217954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1770552312710217954%7Ctwgr%5Eedd1c586d2c6cbc73903e87693742a24925ffcc5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.michaelsmithnews.com%2F2024%2F03%2Fclimate-the-movie-the-cold-truth.html
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Heathcote wine region solar farm to be built on the ‘best land’ in the region
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Why new battery technology won’t solve EV charging problems
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You mean, you can’t use a battery to charge a battery !
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“We are where we are because our culture is special” Konstantin Kisin Live in Melbourne
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