Thursday

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163 comments to Thursday

  • #

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68721690
    “Network Rail hopes staff will be amateur meteorologists”
    The usual buzz-words –
    “Network Rail is aiming to turn hundreds of staff into “amateur meteorologists” as part of plans to deal with the effects of climate change.
    It wants to help staff to interpret weather forecasts to make better decisions during storms or heatwaves.
    The public rail body said it will spend £2.8bn over the next five years on efforts to cope with extreme weather.
    Its boss Andrew Haines said climate change was “the biggest challenge our railway faces”.
    “The extreme weather of the past year that has seen an unprecedented 14 named storms, has taken its toll on our railway – with experts predicting more of the same to come,” he said.”

    Yes, there have been landslips – as ever. No more ‘evidence’, let alone any hint of a cause, beyond, presumably, CO2.
    And China is burning 12,000,000 tonnes of coal a day.
    Every day.
    Adding 44,000,000 tonnes of CO2 to our global atmosphere a day.
    Every day.
    As if that’s a problem.

    Next week, I expect that the Met. Office will announce it is encouraging its own staff to become amateur transport consultants – you know – rail schedulers …

    Auto – aware that we haven’t yet even approached the limits of ‘We’re fighting – give us the money’-madness. . . .
    Aware, too, that the BBC ‘reports’ [reprints] this tosh without a blush.

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      “If you tell a big lie often enough – people will tend to beleive it”

      Joseph Goebbels

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      • #
        John Connor II

        If you tell a big lie often enough

        …you’re a journalist…or weatherperson…or government health expert…or politician…

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    • #
      David Maddison

      …will spend £2.8bn over the next five years on efforts to cope with extreme weather.

      That’s an awful lot of money to spend on a non-problem.

      That’s about £1.5 million per day.

      Where’s it all going?

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    • #
      MrGrimNasty

      There have been several railway failures in recent years where the media and Network Rail rushed to blame climate change. None were true. Most infamous was probably Stonehaven.
      Of course the final report found otherwise.

      https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/carillions-botched-earthworks-blamed-for-fatal-stonehaven-derailment-10-03-2022/

      Basic competent maintenance is all that is required. Of course it’s easy to skip on maintenance and blame climate change as everything slowly degrades and fails.

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    • #
      Geoff

      End Wokeness
      @EndWokeness
      H O L Y S . . T

      The number of voters registering without a photo ID is SKYROCKETING in 3 key swing states:

      Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania.

      Since the start of 2024:

      https://t.co/TTX2588MmX

      TX: 1,250,710
      PA: 580,513
      AZ: 220,731

      HAVV allows voters to register with a Social Security Number (4 digits).

      Illegals are not able to get licenses there. But they can get Social Security Cards (for work authorization permits).

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      Only yesterday one of our resident wind-up artists complained that a commenter was conflating weather with climate. Yet climate change zealots do it all the time – but only when doing so supports their crazy religion of course.

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      I thought that we already had a whole govt dept, the BOM, full of amateur meteorologists. They certainly aren’t professional.

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  • #
    Honk R Smith

    It is often stated that climate and weather are two different things.
    Weather predictions a year out are seldom accurate.

    However, ‘climate’ predictions decades out are, and require Net Zero … ( I lack the intellectual hardware to determine if that political label is ironic or unironic) … to prevent the predicted catastrophes.

    Can anyone here reference ‘climate’ predictions made 25 years ago that have proven accurate?

    I know children born in the 21st Century have not seen snow.
    The West Side Highway is Manhattan is beneath the Sea.
    And the Northwest Passage is now crowded with cargo ships year round.

    Are there other examples?

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      Weather predictions a year out are seldom accurate.

      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.

      But BOM would struggle to met even these levels of accuracy

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      • #
        Lawrie

        BoM Bureau of Mythology.

        Main competition is the Australian National University which now is warning farmers of a twenty year mega drought. Will that mean the state government will build more dams to prepare? Don’t hold your breath. None of these people really believe any of the rubbish but still perpetuate the climate porn.

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        • #

          Lawrie
          April 4, 2024 at 6:11 am · Reply
          BoM Bureau of Mythology.

          Main competition is the Australian National University which now is warning farmers of a twenty year mega drought

          Sounds simmilar to somthing Australia’s Chief Scientist predicted in 2005 !

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      • #
        Steve of Cornubia

        Define ‘accurately’.

        With forecasts now presented as ‘probabilities’, it’s almost impossible for them to be wrong. When they say “low probability of rain”, but it does indeed rain, they can still claim to be right.

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      Are there other examples?

      According to Wikipedia

      Watts Up With That? (WUWT) is a blog promoting climate change denial that was created by Anthony Watts in 2006.

      The blog predominantly discusses climate issues with a focus on anthropogenic climate change, generally accommodating beliefs that are in opposition to the scientific consensus on climate change.

      Therefore this site can be highly recommended.

      There are 11 pages of failed “predictions”

      https://wattsupwiththat.com/failed-prediction-timeline/

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      • #
        TdeF

        Wonderful list of the most appalling expert predictions. All wrong.

        “the scientific consensus on climate change.” Yes, there are now millions of Climate Scientists earning their living from The Science. And they all agree it is not a lie. Meanwhile real scientists, meteorologists are told to keep quiet if they value their jobs. Apparently Weather is not Climate.

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        • #
          Steve of Cornubia

          “Apparently Weather is not Climate.”

          Unless it can be used to spruik yet another apocalyptic climate change forecast. They do it all the time. Even one hot day (in summer) is used as ‘evidence’ of AGW.

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          • #
            Honk R Smith

            Exactly.
            Weather is not climate until it’s the hottest, coldest, driest, wettest, EVER.

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        • #
          DOC

          ‘Scientific’ ‘consensus’. Could have fun with those two words.
          They are mutually exclusive.
          ‘Science’ depends on ‘proving’ the probability of a theory from anyone being true, or false.
          ‘Consensus’ is just a group-bet on the probability of a theory being right or wrong.
          Accepting consensus as fact is precisely Anthropogenic Global Warming; used to destroy the West.
          It misses the step required for science, nee statistical maths, to prove the probabilities of yes/no.

          This consensus is enforced, pretending to have legitimacy as proven fact. It is political artifice enforced rigidly. It destroys defiant scientists, people, careers and nations. All the while, desperate conforming ‘scientists’ beaver away having put the horse before the cart, trying, to find scientific evidence to prove a consensus they said was ‘scientific’ to support politicians. They are guilty of failing themselves, their families, their nations until then. They hope to save themselves from being remembered and cursed in ignominy for forsaking their craft, bowed by the most power hungry beasts in the world – politicians. Politicians seek ultimate power over the democracies by destroying the power base that makes democracy the most advanced and fairly governing system in the world.

          WE observe the advancing destruction of democracies everywhere, basically at the hands of our own undereducated, educationally directed youths. They have enjoyed a world of peace, health and unbefore known wealth for nigh 70years as though this is the historic norm. They are so precious they think nobody has the right to upset them nor question their understandings. They don’t appreciate they are so lucky to live lives with an almost perfect environment for humans, ample food for all from limited land and ocean spaces, and live in absolute luxury compared with even 85years ago. It behoves us all to feel privileged to see how badly humans cope with and terminate what is an almost historically idyllic existence.

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    • #
      TedM

      Yes 50,000,000 climate refugees by 2010.

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  • #

    I’ve complained to the BBC about this nonsense.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68721690

    “”As the Earth’s climate changes due to global warming, weather events such as heatwaves and storms are set to become more intense, and flooding more severe.”
    This is direct quote from your website – it is NOT reported speech, although the previous paragraph is.
    The IPCC itself does not suggest that there is any evidence for either heatwaves or storms becoming more numerous or more intense; nor will flooding become more severe.
    I agree that there is better reporting of storms, floods, heatwaves etc. today, which a low-numeracy observer may take to mean that there are more. Not so, according to the IPCC. ”

    No idea if I’ll get a reply [rather than an acknowledgement] – and I do not expect the BBC to suddenly change its religion …

    Auto

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    • #
      TdeF

      Good work. The IPCC has backed off completely. But you would not know it from the reporting. The approach of the leftist press is that “the science is settled“, so facts don’t matter.

      Climate Armageddon is still happening. Soon. You just have to find it and report it. Which is the job of the BBC. The BBC, CBC, ABC, MSNBC are the new world Pravda, communist propaganda.

      Science is dead. We have killed it. Long live The Science.

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  • #
    CO2 Lover

    The Queen of Woke

    The Queen of Woke, Sam Mostyn, has been nominated by usless Albo the Commie for the role of next Governor-General.

    A prime example of a appointment according to DEI (Didn’t Earn It) principles – but ticks all the right woke boxes

    She was formerly communications advisor to the office of former Prime Minister Paul Keating.

    Mostyn serves as the chair of the Climate Council, where she has contributed writings on bushfires and climate change. Her Doctor of Laws was awarded in recognition of her leadership climate change work.

    It’s time we elected the Governor-General as politicians cannot be trusted to make such an important appointment

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13265795/Samantha-Mostyn-Australia-Day-deleted-tweets.html

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    • #
      TdeF

      Politicians stack the High Court, the public service, the judiciary and select the Governor General. However history has shown that they cannot control them.

      I well remember Whitlam’s appointment of Sir John Kerr. And Whitlam’s final curse “God save the Queen because nothing will save the governor-general”

      But no one has previously attempted to destroy the Australian Constitution like Albanese. It was never about Aborigines. He cares nothing for aborigines and said as much quite plainly afterwards, except people misunderstood. Just the $200Million spent on the political campaign could have changed lives in Alice Springs. Not counting the annual $42Billion which evaporates like Lake Eyre.

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    • #
      Ian Rogers

      “It’s time we elected the Governor-General as politicians cannot be trusted to make such an important appointment.”

      I rather think that’s the reason for her appointment; yes, she will be a friend of all the dumb Lefty causes, but they know giving her the gig will create a reaction. If that reaction leads to the further destabilisation of our political system, they win.

      We need to act, but not “react” to provocations like this.

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      • #
        Dennis

        See Australian Constitution, Constitutional Monarchy, no Head of State mentioned however the Governor General is effectively in that role, selected by Prime Minister and Cabinet, recommended to the Monarch who is obliged to accept the nomination. The Monarch and Governor General representing does not have any powers apart from constitutional laws.

        The ABC titled The Dismissal should have been about the landslide election defeat of the Whitlam Labor Government by voters, the double dissolution election was forced by the Governor General Sir John Kerr based on constitutional law including that the Whitlam Government was unable to produce the voting numbers to pass an essential money supply bill through the Parliament and therefore was not in a position to govern the nation.

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    • #
      Ronin

      The Chief Clown albo, had the chance to appoint a politically neutral Indigenous person to the largely symbolic role of GG, but no, he went with the wokest lefty he could find.

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      • #
        Yarpos

        I saw a great meme today. A picture of an earnest Albo at a lectern looking like he is pointing to a journo at a press conference. Underneath, the words ” Be patient, I’m f’ing things up as fast as I can”

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    • #
      Bushkid

      Her Doctor of Laws was awarded in recognition of her leadership climate change work.

      Does that mean that she has had no education in the actual sciences that support genuine understanding of our planet’s climate? Perhaps that she’s just a useful patsy regurgitating alarming-sounding pronouncements by equally un- or under-qualified spokespersons with a barrow to push, maybe even a barrowful government subsidised “research”?

      I neither want nor need yet another unqualified person superior-splianing their error-ridden beliefs to me, and certainly neither want nor need that person in any position of power or authority in this country.

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    • #
      Lestonio

      The Chinese (via Paul Keating), were the 1st to know-

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  • #
    • #
      TdeF

      With a lower vote than Bill Shorten who lost the election, Albanese knows it is a one term government. So he is doing whatever he can to wreck the joint. The appalling “The Voice” was an attempt to destroy our critical Constitution. This appointment is to destroy the independence in the Governor General, the other brake on parliamentary excess.

      His team is thrashing around trying to destroy any hope of a conservative government being able to operate. And Mostyn’s old boss Paul Keating is negotiating directly and openly with the Communist government of China, our own Quisling#. What will they will think of next? Apparently we should be grateful they are buying our cheap wine again after questioning their involvement in killing Australians.

      #Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian military officer, defence minister and Nazi collaborator who headed the fake government of Norway during the country’s occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        And was executed after the war (on October 24, 1945).

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      • #
        Dennis

        However, unless voters are carefully selective of the candidates and preference allocation Albanese Labor could be returned to government in an alliance minority government as formed by Prime Minister Gillard after Labor’s 2010 election defeat by the Coalition led by Opposition Leader Abbott.

        Not a time in the history of our nation to let Albanese far left faction dominated Labor back into power.

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      • #
        el+gordo

        Paul Keating is a strong critic of the Albanese government’s foreign policy, Beijing loves him.

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    • #
      Sambar

      “The Albanese government was voted in at the 2022 federal election on a wave of enthusiasm it would improve the lives of normal Australians who had endured two of the toughest years for decades thanks to the Covid pandemic. “

      This quote from the article is just another smokescreen. The alledged “wave of enthusiasm” was 32% of the primary vote, the Liberal National coalition received 36%.
      Labour got into power on the backs of the radical Green Party that recieved 10%. Now this is the telling figure. The greens got 10% of the primary vote, simply 90% of the population thought that this party was not for them. 90% didn’t want the greens in power! With a completely straight face the Labour Party thought wow, the population really dont like the greens policies or agenda lets get into bed with them and lo and behold, we’ve won. Damn democracy, damn the peoples wishes and damn any sense of decency or statesmanship that may have been apparent from time to time through out our history. Its power baby, power!

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      • #
        Ross

        Agree with everything you said Sambar- big time. But just note it’s the Labor Party, not “Labour”. Pedantic I know, but so many people make the same mistake.

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        • #
          Annie

          Others make the reverse mistake when referring to the Labour party in GB. You could say spelling it without the ‘u’ is Non-U.

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        • #
          Sambar

          Hey Ross its me being “old” and rememberig when it used to be the Australian Labour Party before they changed the the spelling to the American way.
          I sort of hope the odd labourite get put out by my “correct” spelling as it was taught. Ha Ha.

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          • #
            Ross

            That’s ok Sambar. Just wish the Labor Party and Greens would just combine. Same type of voters, similar policies of the loony left. Just have to mix red and green to get – brown?? Rename them the Brown party. Which is the colour ( color?) of you know what.

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      • #
        Dennis

        Assisted by a campaign of relentless negativity directed towards PM Morrison and the Coalition that began end of 2019 when the bushfire season commenced and Albanese Labor successfully with media support blamed PM Morrison for being overseas on holidays, ignoring that bushfires, floods and other natural disasters are the responsibility of State Premiers and Governments, State Emergency Services funded via State Budgets – NSW Rural Fire Service including aircraft and others.

        And that when a leader, Prime Minister or Premier, is away the Deputy becomes Acting Prime Minister or Premier, and other Cabinet Ministers remain on duty.

        Opposition Leader Albanese even organised a television and other media publicity stunt at a closed NSW RFS Depot on the Blue Mountains, the volunteers were away fighting bushfires. Labor set up a barbecue table and props and Albo made a speech smearing/painting PM Morrison as if he was irresponsible being on leave with family at the time. No mention of Acting PM or assistance provided by the Federal Government including ADF soldiers and assets.

        Even Flannery’s Climate Council jumped in for publicity with a claim that former fire commissioners (no mention of them being members of the Council) had asked for a meeting with PM Morrison earlier in 2019 to warn about a potentially serious bushfire season end of 2019. Really? Fact was based on advice from serving fire commissioners and others the NSW State Government had prepared the RFS for a 2018 serious bushfire season that did nit eventuate. The aircraft fleet was reinforced with additional charter aircraft and purchase of a Boeing 737 tanker-fire bomber aircraft, and other extra assets were provided. Climate Council misinformation.

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      • #
        Ian George

        The old saying ‘one person, one vote’ is a total joke.
        eg A Green votes for the Green party.
        ‘Damn, our party didn’t make it. Can I have another vote?’
        ‘Sure, no problem’.
        ‘Labor, please.’

        10

  • #
    Honk R Smith

    The Scotland speech law has been on my mind.

    I can’t listen to the pipes with quite the same wistfulness.

    It’s my indigenous homeland.
    I’ve never been there.
    My ancestors we kicked out and shipped to the Carolinas.
    Now I’m concerned about ever going because in the past I have expressed some insulting opinions about various people, including myself.

    If the WEF/UN goals are fully realized, and after sufficient genuflecting, we are returned by law to our soil of origin, Scotland may be problematic for me.

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    • #
      Honk R Smith

      Dang, mod!
      They may be already on to me.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Apparently any Tweet or other “offensive” remark published outside Scotland is deemed to be published in Scotland so even if you were a non-citizen and visited there, you could still be arrested for thought crimes. That also applies to UK citizens in England and Wales that could be extradited for thought crimes deemed to have taken place in Scotland.

      It’s better not to visit the place.

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      Be careful what you wish for

      Scottish hate crime law sparks chaos as SNP minister admits ‘vexatious’ claims are being made to police: 4,000 reports are made – with more complaining about Humza Yousaf than JK Rowling
      Siobhian Brown admits police have been inundated with time-wasting reports
      Enhanced law outlaws hatred based on age, disability, religion and trans identity

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13268811/scottish-hate-crime-laws-snp-complaints-humza-yousaf-jk-rowling.html

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      Don’t worry Honk, Scotland’s “hate speech” laws seem to have backfired spectacularly on the SNP. In the first days of it’s implementation, they have apparently rec’d more complains about one of their own leader’s speeches that they have for anything Rowling has said. It seems, like almost everywhere else, the Scottish government is out of touch with its own citizens. Don’t assume the SNP is representative of the Scots generally, any more than Albanese is your typical Aussie or Trudeau is Canadian.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Excellent news.

    Girls suing doctors for falsely claiming all their problems woukd be solved if they became pretend men.

    Video: https://youtu.be/jYuCaFIT8po

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    • #
      TdeF

      Dr. Jordan Petersen compares the surgeons who actually perform sex change operations to his ultimate moral horror, the guards at Auschwitz. That has been his moral backstop for his life, driving his quest to understand people, understanding the minds of such people. Although he concludes that anyone could be a guard, it is still appalling depravity.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        I could never understand the depravity of the National Socialists until I observed what the Government and police were prepared to do in Victoria, Australia during the covid lockups.

        Admittedly they weren’t murdering people but I had no doubt most police would have willingly done that if ordered to do so. Only a few police resigned because they refused to either “just follow orders” or refused to get jabbed.

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        • #
          CO2 Lover

          Victorian police have begun a massive recruitment drive in a frantic bid to replace the 1 in 9 officers who have quit the force since 2019.

          https://jamesmacpherson.substack.com/p/victoria-police-have-trouble-finding

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        • #
          John Connor II

          I could never understand the depravity of the National Socialists until I observed what the Government and police were prepared to do in Victoria, Australia during the covid lockups.

          It’s human nature.
          It’s amazing how ordinary people can turn into unspeakable sadistic power crazed monsters devoid of conscience, but you need only look at history to see it over and over.
          Auschwitz is the typical reference, but it’s absolutely not the worst, but in the top 10 for German history.
          The question is, have they now woken up to what they did, know how they were wrong and lied to, their commanding officers reprehensible, and refuse to do it again?
          Or if Geert’s prediction manifests, will it all repeat but even worse?

          Join the Australian (or Austwellian) police and get to kick old people to the ground, beat and injure unarmed citizens because of a planned pandemic with a virus less dangerous to most than the flu.
          Join up today!
          No morals necessary. Just follow orders.
          /sarc

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            • #
              KP

              “I seriously doubt the stakeholders of this mass vaccination program were clever enough to realize that their ‘s***’ experiment would quickly emerge as the most spectacular gain-of-function experiment ever conducted in the history of biology (one that was directly conducted on our very own human species!!!).”

              While I can’t believe this complicated biological path was planned by the people sticking bits of HIV into Coronavirus, I’d still like to see [them face justice for the damage done].

              *Edited with apologies, Jo

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        • #
          Annie

          I used to wonder how so many people were recruited into the evil doings of National Socialist Germany. After the last few years I wondered no more. Very depressing and challenging.

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          • #
            RickWill

            The government class are holding a strong hand. They have formed an unholy alliance with big business whereby the rule makers are enshrining theft from consumers to themselves and their big buddies. All aided and abetted by their ABC which the plebs are obliged to pay for. And built on the theme of saving the planet by demonising CO2. In Hitler’s day is was the Jews. These days it is just the molecule of life that is being demonised.

            You’re in or you’re out. These days it is ability to earn a living as in the case of Peter Ridd. In Hitler’s day you were simply disposed of in the most convenient manner at hand.

            The seats of government like New York for the UN, Brussels for the EU, Washington DC for USA, London for the UK and Canberra for Australia. need to be cleaned out. They are filled with people who produce nothing but rules to extract wealth from producers.

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        • #
          Gerasim

          Peterson recommends the book “Ordinary Men” for insight into the ease in which Police descend into brutality. They were not forced to do what they did and could leave any time.

          https://archive.org/details/ordinarymen00chri/mode/2up

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        • #
          Vladimir

          An excellent Hungarian movie Father (1966) has shown, between other things, how a mild-mannered student turns into “cruel guard”.
          For a moment only, and he stopped, and he rather it did not happen, but it did…
          The veneer of civilisation on most of us is very thin.

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        The almost infinite range of damage that is possible in the gender dysphoria situation makes corrective surgery or hormone therapy a process that is best left to nature.

        That said, there may be cases where intervention is useful, but great care is needed as every case is unique and the “cure” may simply exacerbate the problem.

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        • #
          Steve of Cornubia

          I would like to hear the trans advocates explain why rates of alleged gender dysphoria are much higher in autistic kids than any other group. I still maintain that the majority of trans people are in fact ‘just’ mentally ill.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Andrew Bolt talks about Australia’s new quota hire Govenor General who is also a friend of the PM, the Labor Party and Leftist causes in general.

    https://youtu.be/pKitVmuurqM

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    • #
      TdeF

      And head of the Climate Council. Even the rains that fall.

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    • #
      Glenn

      Described by Cameron Milner as ” The Queen of Woke “….He obviously knows exactly who she is and why Magoo has made her GG. Yet another lunatic Labor move.

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      • #
        Ross

        I’m not sure even the term “woke” describes Mostyn adequately enough. She’s on a level even much higher than that. We need a term for all these Ultra woke apparatchiks that mostly work in Canberra.

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      • #
        Dennis

        Very professional ladder climber.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      In the video two of the items Andrew Bolt noted were:

      1) She admitted to being a “quota hire” in one of her jobs, she actually used that term and was proud of it.

      2) She deleted her Tweet calling Australia Day “Invasion Day”.

      She ticks all the right Lefty boxes for wokeness of course, but from any objective assessment, she appears to not have a single worthy achievement.

      DEI = Didn’t Earn It.

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      • #
        Ian George

        She has to take the oath at her swearing-in and pledge allegiance to a King she wants to ‘bury’ as she is pro-republic, to a royal family of a nation who ‘invaded’ Australia, and one who wants Australia Day changed which is not what many Australians want.
        Then a ‘SO HELP ME GOD’ in a God she doesn’t believe in.

        What hypocrisy.

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    • #
      Russell

      It’s been a few years coming (1975) but Goughy as king of the lefties did say:
      “Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say ‘God Save the Queen’, because nothing will save the Governor-General.”
      I guess they have found a way for the long march to work in this institution?

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    • #
      Dennis

      Even former ALP influencer, MP and Minister, Graham “Richo” Richardson agreed that the appointment is not a good look and when asked he suggested that Doctor Brendan Nelson and noting his work and influencing for the National War Memorial and related military matters, and other contributions to the nation.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Vitamin D deficiency can’t always be corrected with oral supplements due to absorption issues.

    Sometimes UV B light is required.

    This US doctor used a UV B tanning bed to cure her father’s deficiency.

    https://youtu.be/Q9K5AXEGjY4

    Note that this cure would not be possible in Nanny State Australia as commercially operated tanning beds are illegal.

    You would have to find your own source of UV B and avoid over-exposure. E.g. lamps in winter or sun in summer.

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      • #
        Barry

        Pet shops that deal in reptiles sell UV fluorescent tubes. They prevent the animals developing rickets due to lack of UV indoors.

        Wear some old Bolle sunnies with the amber lenses to protect the eyes.

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      “Vitamin D deficiency can’t always be corrected with oral supplements due to absorption issues.”

      Which makes the difficulty in getting a simple vit. D blood test even more problematic. I suspect that, if Big Pharma had a patented, expensive drug to cure D deficiency, our government would encourage us all to get tested.

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    • #
      David of Cooyal in Oz

      G’day David,
      I recently discovered that calcifidiol – the immediately available form of D – can be obtained from Chemist Warehouse, apparently without prescription. It’s virtually immediately available as it doesn’t go through the liver and kidneys.
      Sounds good for an initial boost but I’ve not found how to use it in a preventative way.
      Seems like something worth investigating.
      Cheers
      Dave B

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      • #
        Sandra Bennett

        John Campbell has a long interview with Dr David Grimes about Vit D on YouTube and I’m pretty sure he goes into calsifidiol.

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    • #
      John in NZ

      I think it is more accurate to say the deficiency cannot be corrected quickly unless the dose is very high. It can take months of supplementation to lift your blood levels.

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      • #
        David of Cooyal in Oz

        While I can’t assert that it works when liver and/or kidneys are malfunctioning I have read of success with intra venous use of calcifidiol. It does increase blood level quickly (virtually instantaneously) and effectively in some cases. I think it was used against COVID in Spain as early as 2020. Weekly doses of 60,000 IU have been mentioned.
        The oral version my take longer, but measured in hours, not weeks.

        (But please note, I am not a doctor, merely an interested reader. With self preservation in mind.)

        Cheers
        Dave B

        10

  • #
    David Maddison

    A critical, not propaganda look, at the reality of high speed rail travel in China.

    I once went on it too, but I was in an empty first class cabin so didn’t have to endure the overcrowding etc..

    https://youtu.be/AJgoZObisv4

    40

  • #
    Broadie

    Gain of function research may have been a bad idea?

    First they came for the chickens!

    “The announcement by Cal-Maine comes a day after state health officials said a person had been diagnosed with bird flu after being in contact with cows presumed to be infected, and that the risk to the public remains low,” according to the report.

    40

  • #
    David Maddison

    When the digital identity legislation passes through the House of “Representatives”, Australia will have its very own person-numbering system, just like China.

    Along with that will come a Social Credit system whereby you score extra credits according to your conformity with the Official Narrative.

    Why do you think Australia has an endless stream of politicians visiting China? Obviously to learn how to implement such a system.

    The Left love this, it’s their dream.

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    • #
      CO2 Lover

      One way a totalitarian regime seeks to stay in power is by denying human beings their individuality, eradicating independent thought through the use of propaganda and terror. Throughout Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston tries to assert his individual nature against the collective identity the Party wishes him to adopt. He keeps a private diary, engages in a forbidden sexual relationship, and insists that his version of reality is the truth, as opposed to what the Party says it is.

      https://www.litcharts.com/lit/1984/themes/the-individual-vs-collective-identity#:

      50

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      “Why do you think Australia has an endless stream of politicians visiting China?”

      Maybe they have to collect their pay in person?

      50

      • #
        John Connor II

        Why do you think Australia has an endless stream of politicians visiting China?”

        1. No food delivery available.
        2. Attending courses in advanced corruption and totalitarianism.

        20

    • #
      Barry

      If you did a Covid PCR test, they already have your full genome. A number is superfluous.

      30

  • #
    TdeF

    The Scottish government has a real problem and funny legal problem.

    Instead of complaints against J.K.Rowling for hate speech under the new law, there have been hate speech complaints every two minutes against the First Minister Humza Yousaf who created the destructive idea. So the police have decided not to act against either.

    It’s high farce.

    However a Tory MP was registered with a police non crime conviction for writing “He said that “choosing to identify as ‘non-binary’ is as valid as choosing to identify as a cat”.

    These ‘non crimes’ can and will be used to affect careers and employment. It’s something out of George Orwell’s 1984.

    You would think the police had nothing better to do. Nor the absurd Scottish government. That’s not independence, it’s play school.

    250

    • #
      David Maddison

      …there have been hate speech complaints every two minutes against the First Minister Humza Yousaf who created the destructive idea.

      Humza Yousaf is an extreme racist. Listen to this rant of his in Parliament against “white” people. What do you think would be the reaction if he substitute “white” with any other racial or ethnic group?

      Surely the thing that’s important is a person’s ability to do a job and the content of their character, not the colour of their skin?

      https://youtu.be/FI3JBBlmej4

      130

      • #
        Steve of Cornubia

        He should go to some country in Africa, then complain that there are too many black people.

        80

  • #
    Strop

    Australian National University claims megadroughts lasting up to 20 years have occurred in Australia, and will occur again and be worse due to climate change.

    https://amp.abc.net.au/article/103661658

    But then to reduce the actual risk of megadroughts and their severity, of course, the only thing that we can do is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    30

    • #
      David Maddison

      I can’t wait until “megadroughts” become passé and we get “gigadroughts”.

      80

      • #
        Earl

        While away your waiting time with these new games repurposed to be played with leftard indoctrinated kiddies:

        Droughts – all 24 disks are red to signify the climate danger level we are living in.
        Droughts and ladders – climate change has killed all the snakes and the ladders are a metaphor for climbing out of the climate hole the world is in.
        Droughts and crosses – one player writes the letter “D” while the other writes a “+” sign to signify the pending inescapable death of our planet. This game comes with the disclaimer that the “engendered” range of the “+” does not include any religious connotations.

        70

    • #
      CO2 Lover

      How about building more dams?

      90

      • #
        Strop

        I not sure if the researcher’s suggestion of implementing “water management strategies” was to get more scrabble points than simply “build dams”.

        30

        • #
          Earl

          A research group’s 2020 study findings of an emerging North American megadrought used far more scientific investigative methods which saw them develop:

          “…a combination of hydrological modelling and tree-ring reconstructions of summer soil moisture to show that the period from 2000 to 2018 was the driest 19-year span since the late 1500s and the second driest since 800 CE”.

          Hydrological – 22, Modelling – 13, treering – 9, reconstructions – 19.

          I wonder if they cross checked the potential accuracy of their modelling/reconstruction results against Prometheus which was a Nevada Bristlecone Pine thought to have been the third-oldest (4,844 years) living tree before it was cut down in 1964. If none of its rings were saved from Japanese wood-chip paper production maybe they might consider sacrificing one of its cohorts… in the name of science of course.

          10

      • #
        Yarpos

        Oh, we dont actually want to do anything, just raise fear and funding.

        00

    • #
      Ross

      They’re delusional, as usual.
      Wednesday 19 June, 2019, Sydney Environment Institute (SEI), University of Sydney.
      At 1:11:20
      Professor Andy Pitman:
      “…this may not be what you expect to hear. but as far as the climate scientists know there is no link between climate change and drought.
      That may not be what you read in the newspapers and sometimes hear commented, but there is no reason a priori why climate change should make the landscape more arid.
      If you look at the Bureau of Meteorology data over the whole of the last one hundred years there’s no trend in data. There is no drying trend.  There’s been a trend in the last twenty years, but there’s been no trend in the last hundred years, and that’s an expression on how variable Australian rainfall climate is.
      There are in some regions but not in other regions.
      So the fundamental problem we have is that we don’t understand what causes droughts.
      Much more interesting, We don’t know what stops a drought. We know it’s rain, but we don’t know what lines up to create drought breaking rains.”

      60

    • #
      John B

      The old megadrought bedtime story resurfaces again.
      Remember Dr. David Jones of the BoM climate division with his forever drought.
      Published in the SMH on January 4, 2008

      This drought may never break
      IT MAY be time to stop describing south-eastern Australia as gripped by drought and instead accept the extreme dry as permanent, one of the nation’s most senior weather experts warned yesterday.
      “Perhaps we should call it our new climate,” said the Bureau of Meteorology’s head of climate analysis, David Jones.

      20

    • #
      RickWill

      and will occur again and be worse due to climate change.

      I made a discovery a day or two ago that improved my understanding of climate trends.

      It has bewildered me for some time that the SH has not be cooling from equator to South Pole as the peak intensity shifts northward. What I realised is the the warmer oceans in the NH has reduced the burden on the SH to send energy northward. It means that the annual warming of the SH starts from an ever increasing base. It is most noticeable in the level of precipitable water in the atmosphere in December. The attached depicts the overall trend in precipitable water globally:
      https://1drv.ms/i/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNiABfAbM7HJZVJcnV?e=MWKh9n

      On average, it is increasing at 0.4mm per decade. So gone up by 1.5mm since the satellite data became available in 1988. That represents a 5% increase in just 35 years. The only region with noticeably less moisture is the high evaporation zone of the South Pacific and that is due to colder water in the Southern Ocean in response to reduced solar intensity.

      I believe we are starting to see the consequences in Australia. The monsoon trough is now being sustained well south of Darwin. Australia is starting to look a little like the Amazon and the Congo – sustaining convective instability over land for a number of months. A tropical low spun up on land just south of Darwin and was sustained for more than a week. Similar lows were maintained over the land for the last two months. This is something I did not expect but it will likely accelerate as the atmospheric moisture increases.

      Earth is just past the lowest atmospheric water for almost 20,000 years. The oceans of the NH were their coldest in the current interglacial 500 years ago, about the time the Vikings abandoned Greenland. Since then the oceans have been warming up and more moisture is going into the atmosphere as well as adding more CO2.

      Of course all the extra moisture is leading to more snowfall in both boreal and austral winters, In the long run the snow will eventually accumulate on the NH land as currently observed on Greenland. Greenland will be 100% permanent ice by 2075.

      20

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “NOT SURPRISING BUT STILL WRONG: JustTheNews published an investigative piece today that shows at least two well-funded and (duh) left-leaning groups are responsible for injecting climate hysteria into news and entertainment. It appears that no narrative is too silly for the MSM to barf out:

    “Ahead of the Easter weekend, multiple media outlets reported that chocolate prices are soaring, and according to the coverage, the main culprit driving the inflating costs is climate change.”

    There is no data at all that shows cocoa yields have dropped due to climate change, and NPR didn’t even bother to try and find supporting data.

    The Guardian, AP, NPR and The Conversation are among the hundreds of media outlets associated with or listed as partners with an organization called Covering Climate Now (CCN), which encourages reporters to insert “climate crisis” narratives into all their stories.”

    More at

    https://instapundit.com/640022/#disqus_thread

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  • #
    Argee

    From the NSW Govenment VSER web site:-

    ‘The Vehicle Emissions Star Rating (VESR) helps you make an informed decision about the environmental impact and running costs for your next car.

    Increased emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the earth and contributing to the damaging effects of climate change. Vehicle tailpipe emissions contain various pollutants, including carbon dioxide (CO2) which is a major greenhouse gas.’

    Apologise if this has been posted and discussed previously but I have only just become aware of it – will it never end!

    https://www.vesr.gov.au/

    50

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      And if anybody thinks this is simply to help buyers “make informed decision”, I have a bridge for sale. This type of legislation is the first step toward taxing/fining people who drive or buy the ‘wrong’ vehicle.

      40

  • #
    another ian

    “A Fool and Our Money Are Soon Parted”

    https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2024/04/a-fool-and-our-money-are-soon-parted/

    A tip in comments there –

    “ianl
    Yes. Most activists (including the few geologists I’ve met on the activist side) refuse to believe this, or rather refuse to publicly accept it. I’ve given them valid links to the myriad of peered, published papers detailing the CO2 concentrations over geologic time but the answer is always: “Irrelevant, too long ago, things are different now …” yadder yadder.

    So I’ve developed a different angle of attack on essentially the same issue. When the oft-heard cry bellows forth: “This is the hottest, coldest, driest, wettest day/night since 1982, or 1867, or … whenever !”, I simply ask for the atmospheric CO2 concentration at that time. That works even for the “since records began” kludge, since the activist hypothesis is the increasing atmospheric CO2 is responsible for the wettest/driest/coldest/hottest narrative, so earlier disaster points cannot have a lesser CO2 concentration than now.”

    60

    • #
      another ian

      And a nice description IMO

      “remnant rump of the rational”

      From

      “Peter Marriott

      Good piece Peter and some very good comments. Loved your little bit of alliteration ; I must remember that expression “remnant rump of the rational”, it should go great in some kind of humourous poem on the whole rotten business.
      Hopefully someone with real knowledge of economics, and just a smidgin of physics will get to take charge of our ship of state before, not after….. it founders.”

      40

  • #
    David Maddison

    China is collecting the world’s DNA with a view to making race- or ethnic-based bioweapons.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/11/china/china-human-genetic-resources-regulations-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

    “China has amassed the largest genomic holdings of anywhere in the world,” Anna Puglisi, director of biotechnology programs at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, told a US Senate hearing on national security in 2021.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/china-dna-sequencing-bgi-covid/

    https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-china-bgi-dna/

    China’s gene giant harvests data from millions of women

    A prenatal test used worldwide sends gene data of pregnant women to the company that developed it with China’s military. The U.S. sees a security risk.

    By KIRSTY NEEDHAM and CLARE BALDWIN Filed July 7, 2021, noon GMT

    AChinese gene company selling prenatal tests around the world developed them in collaboration with the country’s military and is using them to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations, a Reuters review of scientific papers and company statements found.

    U.S. government advisors warned in March that a vast bank of genomic data that the company, BGI Group, is amassing and analyzing with artificial intelligence could give China a path to economic and military advantage. As science pinpoints new links between genes and human traits, access to the biggest, most diverse set of human genomes is a strategic edge. The technology could propel China to dominate global pharmaceuticals, and also potentially lead to genetically enhanced soldiers, or engineered pathogens to target the U.S. population or food supply, the advisors said.

    30

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      But of course, if their aim was to wipe out all non-Chinese or other races, they would be in deep trouble themselves when it comes to maintaining their own supplies. They would first have to become self-sufficient in just about every product, able to make it themselves. They would need to create an enormous manufacturing capability.

      Do you see what I did there?

      20

    • #
      Old Goat

      David,
      Ancestry DNA testing gets your DNA and its deliberately cheap . We have let the cat out of the bag and it won’t go back . Playing “god” has never ended well…

      40

      • #
        KP

        “Playing “god” has never ended well…”
        Just one more magic spell will make the mop clean the floor for me..

        Its not as if the West hasn’t been amassing public DNA either. The Pentagon had a contract in Ukraine for thousands of blood samples from their army to get Slavic DNA profiles. It makes the conspiracy theories that we are not the first civilisation on Earth seem quite reasonable, and once we have wiped ourselves out it starts again.

        00

  • #
    Earl

    Time to sell your McDonalds and Hungry Jacks shares or franchises.

    The battle for the next pandemic, be it based on a bird or swine flu variant, is still a close-run thang with a final winner still to be determined. Meanwhile a possible third flu contender, a cattle flu, is now re-emerging as a viable option with some recent major developments.

    There is no argument that the marketing campaign of the first bovine associated health danger, “mad cow disease”, was an unmitigated disaster. Covid-19 delivered the clear proof that the gleeful mass acceptance of any pandemic is best achieved by using a uniquely new and original name/number combination. “Mad cow disease” was already an established colloquialism and while there was an attempt to reattribute its idiom to the replacement term “being a Karen” it remains something best not re-used. Bovine-24 anyone?

    In the US bird flu has now spread to cows in 5 states – Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Michigan and (one case in) Idaho. The latest case in Texas is apparently centred on a farm worker who developed conjunctivitis….”a mild eye infection that frequently occurs when avian influenza viruses jump into humans.”

    (Conspiracy theorists should not draw any parallels with other proven scientific facts such as how a .00000whatever increase in CO2 destroys the global climate. 1 is not the loneliest number, it is the starting point upon which the whole of science sits).

    The good news is that unlike covid-19 it is expected that a cattle vaccine could be quickly made by modifying one used currently in swine, so it may be safe to put away your ivermectin. Furthermore, since swine vaccination is already “widely accepted” there should not be too much resistance to a bovine rollout.

    No comment on how long trials and follow-up efficacy testing would run or how unintended side-affects would be monitored.

    40

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Over Easter I visited the nations Capital, Canberra, the heart of WIMI country.

    On arrival a large plume of smoke arose vertically in the still air and I suspected that the politicians had become so disgusted with their jobs that they had set fire to the place before leaving for their two week break.

    Closer examination proved it to be a bushfire , no doubt to be blamed on global Warming.

    OMG.

    There’s so much woke in Canberra.

    WIMI.

    Woke Induced Mental Illness

    50

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      I worked in Canberra back when those awful fires happened. I had only been in Australia four years. I recall having lunch on top of Red Hill with some associates at the ANU and looking west to where the fires had started, some kilometres away. I remarked that it was a worry having a big bushfire to our west as that was where most of Canberra’s strong winds came from. Much scoffing ensued because the fires were so far away, the fire service was taking care of them, etc. Just two or three days later, that fire came storming into the city, driven by ‘unprecedented’ winds.

      80

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Just goes to show that you shouldn’t ignore nature and instead try to understand its reality: if there’s scrub and trees around then make sure it’s well away from your home.

        On the WIMI thing, I didn’t really see much of Canberra, just the NFFF in the Epic grounds.

        Before covid it was sponsored by a large union and you could just move away from their publicity stuff and enjoy the rest.
        The new sponsors/managers have made it almost impossible to avoid being smothered by ever present wokeism on steroids.

        The site is now cashless in 95% of its operations and entertainment is now dripping with woke hysteria that makes it essential to carry some strong brown paper bags at all times.

        It spooked me.

        10

    • #
      Dennis

      Very impressive (not), very expensive, light rail covering several blocks to nowhere special.

      I have been driving to Canberra for years maybe once a month when living in Sydney for weekends and bicycle riding on the many high-grade sealed walking and riding tracks around Lake Burley Griffen and beyond in many directions. Public servants mean only the best will do that taxpayers can provide for them, even twice yearly above inflation wage/salary increases every year.

      Public service employees do not pay real tax, what they pay is a return of private sector money they were paid, not new tax revenue.

      20

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – more counting the covid costs

    “New Report Details Horrifying Cost Of Fauci’s Failures”

    “In the post-pandemic period of Covid, there’s now a concerted effort to comprehend and explain the damage that was caused by our capitulating to the hysterical overreaction and overreach of the ‘experts.’ There’s a long list of policy failures to examine; mask mandates were a disaster that accomplished absolute nothing of value, but instead led to tremendous harms, many of which continue today.”

    More at

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-report-details-horrifying-cost-faucis-failures

    50

    • #
      another ian

      FWIW

      “CDC Releases Hidden Trove Of COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Reports”

      “The 780,000 reports were received shortly after the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out, and show people experienced a wide range of post-vaccination problems, including heart inflammation, miscarriages, and seizures.”

      “The CDC, for years, declined to make the V-safe data public, instead publishing studies that described the reports as providing reassurance about the safety of the shots. However, according to data released in 2022, nearly 8 percent of the 10 million users required medical attention or hospital care after vaccination, and many others reported missing school, work, or other normal activities.”

      “The same judge who ordered the release of that data ordered the agency in January to disclose free-text entries from a different section where individuals could describe their experiences.”

      More at

      https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/cdc-releases-hidden-trove-covid-19-vaccine-injury-reports

      00

    • #
      another ian

      Another covid mystery box opens –

      “This won’t surprise you, but the other vaccine vial dropped last week when Reuters quietly ran a financial story headlined, “BioNTech Hit with NIH Notice of Default Over COVID-19 Vaccine Royalties.” ”

      “Here we go. As the money dries up, the thieves are once again fighting over the score:

      The National Institutes of Health has slapped BioNTech with a notice of default over alleged royalty payments the biotech owes the agency related to sales of its Pfizer-partnered COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, according to the company’s SEC filing.

      What’s new about this sordid story is it was the last bit of confirmation of the original root source of the mRNA tech: every bit of it was excreted by that massive government health agency, the wellspring of mRNA, the National Institutes of Health. The article showed, as we’d long presumed, that neither Pfizer nor BioNTech were smart enough to whip up a brand-new vaccine technology and turn it into a covid vaccine in just a few weeks.

      It was always a government project.”

      (My bold)

      More at

      https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/just-culturally-wednesday-april-3?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

      I wonder how much patient data is hidden there?

      20

  • #
    another ian

    More “Google Fu” reported

    “First Annual COVID Tyrant Climate Change Hysteria Day of Transgender Election Fraud Visibility”

    https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2024/04/03/first-annual-covid-tyrant-climate-change-hysteria-day-of-transgender-election-fraud-visibility-n4927858

    10

  • #
    another ian

    More “Any measurement in a storm”

    “Met Office Uses Junk Temperature Measurements to Fill “World Treasure” 350-Year Temperature Record”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/04/03/met-office-uses-junk-temperature-measurements-to-fill-world-treasure-350-year-temperature-record/

    10

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “UN Climate Advisor & Time Mag’s ‘Women Of The Year’ declares ‘the climate crisis’ is ‘not just manmade, it’s white manmade’ – ‘A result of capitalism, years of colonialism, years of racial oppression’ ”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/04/03/un-climate-advisor-time-mags-women-of-the-year-declares-the-climate-crisis-is-not-just-manmade-its-white-manmade/

    10

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Moderna wants you to cripple your immune system all over again with more of their iatrogenic mRNA toxic brew. Do no harm has = make another money spinner out of making more harm.

    Moderna Unveils mRNA Vaccines to Treat Side Effects of Covid Shots

    https://gellerreport.com/2024/04/moderna-unveils-mrna-vaccines-to-treat-side-effects-of-covid-shots.html/

    10

  • #
    Earl

    Quick poll.

    Daily Mail has just published latest dire warning on east coast Australia weather. They quote the supposedly well known term “Black Nor’easter” which apparently describes the “rare” but recurring event whereby the black clouds of a storm plunge the area they cover into darkness even in the middle of the day.

    I have never heard the term used before and am more familiar with comments like “that’s one MF of a storm” often expressed by people entering a building or home. Of course the other phrase with regard to turning middle of day light into darkness is “eclipse”.

    If you haven’t heard the term please “thumbs down” this comment to register your “NO” vote. Might set a record for “bad” comment count lol.

    018

    • #
      John Connor II

      Might set a record for “bad” comment count lol.

      Beat Simon? I think not. 😆

      70

    • #
      another ian

      “Black Nor’easter” has appeared on today’s on-line Courier Mail

      10

    • #
      JoKaH

      Black Nor’easter

      Back in my younger days in southern Sydney my understanding of the term Black Nor’easter referred to a stronger than usual north easterly breeze on the NSW East Coast during the hotter months that caused the waves on the surface of the water in the bays to appear black with the afternoon sun on them. As far as I am aware it had nothing to do with storms predicting imminent disaster.

      30

  • #
    Kim

    Jordan Peterson Leaves Woke YouTuber SPEECHLESS!!!

    Jordan Peterson Leaves Woke YouTuber Speechless!!!

    10

  • #
    John Connor II

    Have we reached peak DEI stupidity? Yes, we are well past the peak.

    Both the DEI and ESG gravy trains on Wall Street are finally coming to an unceremonious end.”

    The unraveling of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives was seen on the state level, as Red states rushed to ban DEI programs in 2023. Google, Facebook, and other tech companies slashed DEI staff by late last year. Early this year, universities began rolling back diversity programs, while Harvard President Claudine Gay was demoted.

    DEI was doomed to fail, and corporations have been quickly scrambling to abandon mindless and profitless diversity programs with Marxist roots. The latest earnings call data shows that “DEI” mentions have collapsed from their peak in 2021, according to Axios, citing data from AlphaSense.

    “The backlash is real. And I mean, in ways that I’ve actually never seen it before,” Taylor said, adding, “CEOs are literally putting the brakes on this DE&I work that was running strong” since George Floyd’s murder in early 2020.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/backlash-real-dei-exodus-gains-steam-across-corporate-america

    Die DEI, just die…

    50

  • #
    John Connor II

    U.S. president only has 6 minutes to decide whether to unleash Armageddon

    Annie Jacobsen, renowned for her insightful books on America’s military, including explorations of the secretive DARPA research lab and the enigmatic Area 51, has sounded the alarm on the harrowing reality of nuclear brinkmanship.

    In a recent podcast with Lex Fridman, she painted a grim picture of the razor-thin margin between survival and devastation, highlighting the critical six-minute window that confronts the U.S. president in the event of detecting a Russian or Chinese missile launch.

    Moreover, Jacobsen exposes the fallibility inherent in the system, recounting past instances where the decision to launch nuclear strikes was later revealed to be based on erroneous information. The stakes are immeasurable, and the margin for error is perilously slim.

    https://www.stationgossip.com/2024/04/total-annihilation-us-president-only.html

    Captain kiddy sniff is in charge, and he’ll launch, you know, the things, after he finishes his icecream.

    Remember that most of us alive today owe that fact to a Russian, Stanislav Petrov.

    70

    • #
      Kim

      The USSA is being taken down at the moment – look at all the disasters, all the explosions etc, plus all the enemy within – all the wokie + greenie stuff. At the end of the year I would give it 50% chance Trump presidency and 50% chance a coup of some type.

      30

  • #
    John Connor II

    Louisiana Senate Passes Bill 37-0 To Ban WEF Agenda From the State

    Louisiana has become the first state in the US to pass a bill to end the influence of the United Nations, World Health Organization and World Economic Forum in the state and ban the globalist organizations from imposing rules and mandates.

    The Louisiana Senate passed a bill in a a 37-0 vote to end state and local cooperation with the UN, WHO and WEF, accusing them of launching a globalist coup d’etat and attempting to impose their rules and mandates around the world.

    https://legiscan.com/LA/rollcall/SB133/id/1415398

    When they see THEIR own lives and futures going to sh#t, they vote the right way.

    How long before the Nova party is born here?
    / it’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it 😁

    100

  • #
    John Connor II

    Brand new Cybertruck owner left fuming when his $82,000 EV breaks down with critical fault just SECONDS after pulling out of the lot

    Elon Musk has touted the Cybertruck as ‘apocalypse-proof,’ but a customer found his newly purchased vehicle could not even make it a mile away from the dealership.

    Entrepreneur Thomas Remo shared a video of him picking up the $82,000 EV in Irvine, California, later finding it ‘broke not even six inches off the lot’ and failed another ’30 times’ after on the first day.

    Moments after Remo excitedly steps on the gas peddle, the center screen started flashing red and beeping to alert him about a critical steering issue.

    The vehicle automatically slowed down to about four miles per hour, forcing him to pull over and return to the dealer.

    Remo questioned if the Cybertruck was ‘Tesla’s biggest lemon yet,’ but his disappoint follows outrage from customers who spent $3,000 on the attachable tent and found it looked nothing like Musk had advertised.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13263995/New-Cybertrucks-critical-steering-wheel-issue.html

    Probably the carburettor. 😆

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      It’s usually the nut behind the wheel. But not this time.

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      Dennis

      On Sky television yesterday was a picture of a long line of EVs waiting to enter a recharging station in South Australia during the Easter period.

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      OldOzzie

      Not even Elon can save EVs from disaster

      Western policy on decarbonisation seems to be driven more by emotion and boosterism than by what is technologically feasible

      Never was the old adage “don’t buy the prototype, buy the redesign” more appropriate.

      Motorists who bought an electric vehicle in the belief that it would hold its value better than a petrol or diesel must be feeling a little sore.

      According to the AA, the secondhand values of the 20 most popular electric and hybrid cars was down 12 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the first quarter of 2023. That is the drop in value of like-for-like cars, not what buyers can expect to lose in depreciation over the first year.

      In some cases the fall has been far greater. According to a recent survey by Cap Hpi, the value of a one year old Peugeot e-2008 with 10,000 miles on the clock fell 38.7 per cent between January and December 2023.

      The tide has turned for Tesla, too, as it runs out of well-off, eco-conscious motorists interested in buying its vehicles. In the three months to March it sold 386,810 vehicles, down from 422,875 in the same period in 2023. Tesla shares plunged seven per cent on the news – although given that the company’s market valuation is still nearly twice that of the world’s second most valuable carmaker, Toyota, no one should be confident of a rebound any time soon.

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        OldOzzie

        All the People Who Care About the Planet Already Bought Electric Cars

        In the first quarter of 2024, GM sold 16,425 EVs. In the first quarter of 2025, GM will need to sell 250,000.

        The “$60,000 Electric Junkers to Save the Planet” industry is running into trouble.

        Tesla sales are down and GM is running into trouble with its lineup of electric junkers. Especially since with the Bolt gone, it has no more remotely affordable EVs. And the people who can drop a year’s salary to save the planet are buying luxury brands.

        GM’s U.S. dealers sold 594,233 new vehicles in the first three months of 2024 compared with 603,208 a year ago… GM sold 16,425 electric vehicles in the United States, down from 20,000 in the first quarter of 2023, a milestone that was supported by sales of the since-discontinued electric Chevrolet Bolt

        “Our brands are all performing well. GM gained retail market share year-over-year with strong mix and pricing, our inventories are in good shape heading into the spring, and production and deliveries of Ultium Platform EVs are rising, led by the Cadillac LYRIQ,” said Marissa West, GM senior vice president and president of North America, in a statement. “We’re on plan.”

        Let’s look at the numbers for the “plan”.

        GM plans to sell 1 million electric cars by 2025. It sold less than 40,000 in 2022.

        2025 is, let me do the math here, less than a year away. In the first quarter of 2024, GM sold 16,425 electric junkers.

        In the first quarter of 2025, GM will need to sell 250,000 of them.

        How is GM planning to get from 16,425 to 250,000 with a year to go? Don’t ask questions. It’s on plan.

        GM’s leadership decided to nuke the company to push the climate change hoax.

        If EV mandates are actually enacted, the last of the American automotive industry will simply disappear.

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    OldOzzie

    …when you consider that CPUs are still built on roughly the same von Neumann architecture from 1945, it’s perhaps no surprise that new specialized designs, like the GPU, are emerging

    How GPUs Are Disrupting High-Performance Computing

    Graphics Processing Units, or GPUs, have moved beyond their original role of rendering video game graphics and are now used in a variety of high-performance computing applications (HPC), from AI training to zooplankton classification.

    To help understand this pivot, Visual Capitalist teamed up with HIVE Digital to look at how GPUs differ from traditional CPUs and what gives them an edge.

    CPU vs. GPUs

    CPUs, or Central Processing Units, and GPUs, generally have three main elements:

    . compute elements—technically ALU or arithmetic logic units—that perform calculations and carry out operations;

    . a control element that coordinates the operations of the above; and

    . various levels of memory, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a kind of RAM or short-term memory used in the main memory of computers, and caches.

    CPUs, or Central Processing Units, typically have one or more extremely powerful cores, made up of independent compute, control, and cache elements. A GPU, on the other hand, has many more less-powerful cores, each with multiple ALUs that share common cache and control elements.

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    another ian

    FWIW – doing their best (/s)

    “Unhelpful, inflammatory Jama Network Open paper suggests that people in Red states dream up vaccine injuries

    Not only are the methods poor, the interpretation is biased”

    https://www.drvinayprasad.com/p/unhelpful-inflammatory-jama-network?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=231792&post_id=143191018&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=9bg2k&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

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    Old Goat

    Ozzie,
    As I get older my already faulty hard drive is deteriorating and my processor is crashing and requiring a reboot more often and no upgrades are available (for my grey matter). OI (organic intelligence) is not perfect but there are a lot of faulty units out there. Perhaps some units are being pushed beyond their design specs…

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      ozfred

      anyone still running on a 32 bit version of Windows is likely to incur mysterious failures of their browser.
      Alas the voice of experience where failures ONLY occur when using the browser

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    John Connor II

    Thursday sarcasm

    Nothing says “Trust the science!” like demanding the data be sealed for 75 years.

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    Geoff Sherrington

    The monthly satellite temperature anomaly from UASH over Australia is updated here.
    The rather high recent temperatures have reduced the “pause” from 12+ years a year ago, down to 8 yr 8 months. It is a strange poeak before us now, in terms of differences from past peaks. There is little scientific explanation that I can find. You are more likely to find people pushing their favourite explanation from a short list of 4 including
    . regulated drop in use of high sulphur fuels for international shipping, so less SO2.
    . a usual El Nino event.
    . an abnormal response to the Hunga Tongs volcano pumping water into the stratosphere
    . whatever one can invent

    Geoff S
    https://www.geoffstuff.com/uahapr2024.jpg

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    OldOzzie

    ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

    Written by Isaac Orr, Mitch Rolling | April 3, 2024

    How to destroy the myth of cheap wind and solar

    Wind and solar advocates often cite a metric called the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) to claim that these energy sources are cheaper than coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants.1

    However, these claims, which are already tenuous due to rising wind and solar costs, ignore virtually all of the hidden real-world costs associated with building and operating wind turbines and solar panels while also keeping the grid reliable, including:

    . Additional transmission expenses to connect wind and solar to the grid;
    . Additional costs associated with Green Plating the grid;
    . Additional property taxes because there is more property to tax;
    . “Load balancing costs,” which include the cost of backup generators and batteries;
    . Overbuilding and curtailment costs incurred when wind and solar are overbuilt to meet demand during periods of low wind and solar generation and are turned off during periods of higher output to avoid overloading the grid;

    These comparisons also ignore the cost differential between low-cost, existing power plants and new power plants.

    Add all of these factors together, and you have a recipe for soaring electricity prices due to the addition of new wind, solar, and battery storage on the electric grid.

    To remedy this situation, American Experiment developed a model to calculate the levelized cost of intermittency (LCOI), which is the additional costs borne by the entire electric system as ever-growing levels of intermittent wind and solar generation are incorporated onto the electric grid.

    Our model attributes these additional costs to the wind and solar generators on a per megawatt-hour (MWh) basis to provide readers with an apples-to-apples comparison of the cost of providing reliable electricity service after accounting for the different attributes for dispatchable and non-dispatchable resources.

    The graph below is from our study examining a 100 percent carbon-free electricity mandate in Minnesota, where 80 percent of the state’s energy is provided by wind, solar, or battery storage.

    As you can see, relying on wind and solar to provide the bulk of electricity demand results in much higher costs compared to using the existing coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants currently serving the grid.

    How did the LCOE become so misinterpreted by renewable advocates? Because it stems from a time when, for the most part, only reliable power facilities were built on the grid, and it has been grandfathered into the present energy environment where less reliable, weather-based resources are now a major consideration. However, as we’ll explain below, LCOE estimates are no longer an appropriate metric for assessing system costs on the electric grid with these intermittent energy sources included.

    Before we examine the hidden factors that make wind and solar so expensive, it helps to understand what the LCOE is, and its limitations.

    – What is the Levelized Cost of Energy?

    – Limitations of LCOE

    – Assessing the System Cost of Each Energy Source

    – Transmission Costs

    – Green Plating Costs

    – Property Taxes

    – Load Balancing Costs

    – Overbuilding and Curtailment Costs

    – Comparing New Renewables with Existing Resources

    Conclusion

    LCOE estimates can make wind and solar look cheap, so long as you ignore most of the costs of integrating them on to the grid and backing them up.

    Comparing LCOEs makes sense when examining reliable, dispatchable power plants because these power plants can be turned on or off to meet electricity demand. It makes very little sense when you start including intermittent and weather-based energy sources that don’t provide the same value as thermal generators.

    The intermittency of wind and solar imposes unique expenses on the electric grid that require an evaluation of the entire electric system in order to derive meaningful cost estimates from these generators. This is difficult to do, which is why most people don’t do it.

    Our modeling attempts to provide this apples-to-apples comparison of running a reliable grid with dispatchable energy sources like coal, natural gas, and nuclear versus that of intermittent facilities like wind and solar. In every case, the answer is clear: wind and solar are by far the most expensive.

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      Graeme#4

      LCOE is only suitable when looking at the costs of a single energy source. It is NOT a suitable cost comparison method to compare costs between different energy sources with different requirements and lifetimes. For this, you need the Full Cost or FCOE cost method, where you take the energy source with the longest lifetime, then determine all the costs for each energy source over the same lifetime, and meeting the same reliability criteria.
      When this is done, coal, gas and nuclear come out at well under half the cost of wind and solar.

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      David of Cooyal in Oz

      G’day OO,
      The list doesn’t appear to include the repair/replacement costs over , say, 50 years. ?
      Cheers,
      Dave B

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    Earl

    Coal-fired powered stations should get an Oscar status award for their ongoing and timely contributions in the Best Bad Boy(s) ever in the documentary category. When it comes to hari-kari storylines even the most dedicated samurai is left in awe of stations such as Origin Energy’s 2,880-megawatt Eraring power station which has just cemented its pending suicide by providing yet another nail in its own virtual coffin.

    The plant is slated for closure in August 2025 and just to ensure no second thoughts, and not to mention right on cue, we learn that in 2022-23 mercury pollution from this bad boy jumped 130%. Among the supplied list of anti-social trouser cough equivalent gaseous releases can be found “sulfur-dioxide” which rose by 15% in the same period.

    Holding your nose while reading that gem of information would be a natural reaction, however, please do not choke on your croissant at the spelling of “sulfur-dioxide”.

    For those not in the know: “Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English)” is the latest correction to the English, or should that be Commonwealth English, dictionary?

    A quick “fact check” shows that indeed “sulphur” may be peculiar to “commonwealth English” with the French calling it “dioxyde de soufre” (I’ve known several souffles that had the same affect) while in Maori it is “pungatara hāora rua”.

    There does not appear to be an Aboriginal equivalent.

    I guess some thought should now also be given to suggesting to East African countries that they show their independence of commonwealth English and change what they call “dioksidi va sulphur” in Swahili to “dioksidi va sulfur”. All’s smell that ends smell.

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    el+gordo

    Qenos closure nears as Chinese owner sells up.

    ‘High energy costs are about to send one of Australia’s biggest chemicals manufacturers to the wall, with NSW and Victoria plastics maker Qenos about to be sold to property developers.’ (Oz)

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “This Is Not an April Fool’s Gag”

    another look at ““I’m sorry for the harsh message, but somebody needs to tell the truth,” virologist Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche”

    https://kunstler.com/clusterf*-nation/this-is-not-an-april-fools-gag/

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    Flok

    The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has secured its first major court win against Vanguard, a global investment management company in Australia. The ruling marks a critical decision in the fight against greenwashing within the financial industry.

    https://carboncredits.com/asics-historic-court-win-vanguard-found-guilty-in-greenwashing-suit/

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