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
70
Seems your link is wrong.
30
How about
Link 1
and
Link 2
50
Thanks Krishna.
Don’t know how that happened.
Late at night, sleepy, cellphone, fat fingers.
And thanks Siliggy for fixing it.
100
I know very well these problems 😀
40
These days, software and firmware is often released with inadequate testing and the real testing is done by the consumer who find bugs the hard way. Back in the day, there were attempts to properly test software before release.
AI is also used to test software but I don’t know how good that is. I suspect not as good as a human.
110
Tell me about it! The trillion dollar gaming industry used to put out a Beta version of teh game for people to play while they finished the development. Now its a pre-release that you have to buy, work out how to play, and solve all the developer’s problems for them in public forums with other players!
Everything is rushed out the door to get the initial dollars, and later bugs are ignored if they affect a small percentage of players while the developers are busy making up some more rubbish like the music tracks, which they sell on top of the game price as add-ons.
Switch that to cars and you can see why your BMW will refuse to start some mornings and the heated seats or video console costs you extra dollars even though they are in the car…
60
As somebody who managed a test team at the final stages of my full-time career, not my chosen field but it kept me busy for a a while, it was very difficult convincing designers to first sit down and thoroughly complete a detailed design specification that would be the basis for adequate testing. I recall discussing System Design Specs with folks who really knew what they were back in the mid-80s. But sadly, over time, young folk as they entered the design arena seemed to think that they had to start coding immediately, rather than first sitting down and first working out what they were trying to achieve. And perhaps more importantly, making sure that they had fully covered all the “what-if” situations when the system was hit with unexpected situations and it still had to function correctly.
At stages in my career, I’ve had to force designers to redesign to cope with these situations, sometimes by breaking comms connections at vital times, once by leaning on a keyboard during a download.
20
this is a hard slog…
Definition of Misinformation and Disinformation (13(1)(a) & 13(2)(a)): “contains information that is reasonably verifiable as false, misleading or deceptive”.
Information or data will often permit the drawing of a range of reasonable (plausible or probable) inferences without logical error. The material may, in other words, “reasonably admit[] of different conclusions” This is notoriously the case in matters of public discourse which routinely involve uncertain or conflicting narratives. What government considers “reasonably verifiable” may thus be open to an alternate and equally reasonable or plausible interpretation. Here the only difference between the opinion of the citizen and the opinion of the state will be that the latter will carry the coercive power of government. That is not a logically or democratically acceptable criterion for discriminating between epistemic judgments.
330
Very well stated! The fallacy is obvious, and dangerous.
281
I can’t begin to imagine why someone red-thumbed your comment David. Obviously there are people who support the proposed Australian censorship laws.
203
That’s the scary thing…
113
Most people DM, that’s why we have a Labor Govt! They see it as shutting up the Right, the bureaucrats see it as shutting up the whining public interfering with their way of doing what they wish, and the chardonnay Socialists see it as a way of shutting up us, the people who point out the realities of their unicorns and rainbows WRT global warming or solar power or multi-sex people.
There will be more support for it that not, the majority of voters are too thick to understand the ramifications of it and don’t get involved in the online arguments that the legislation will ban.
80
noted that one too: “In the EM the government states “those who believed misinformation had ‘lower levels of trust in doctors, health officials and other authoritative sources’” (p14). The government here conflates epistemic authority (knowing) with administrative authority (power). A source is not epistemically authoritative merely because the government says it is. Knowledge is predicated on argument and rational inference from evidence, not the brute authority of government say so.”
120
“Knowledge is predicated on argument and rational inference from evidence, not the brute authority of government say so.””
They don’t believe that at all, they know a source is authoritative merely because the government says it is. For that comment, go directly to jail, if you pass GO do not collect $100..
Probably the best we will be able to do is point out to one party that the other party is breaking the law, and vice-versa. There is no way they will decry the other half of the Uniparty, but we are allowed to accuse them of mis-information or whatever.
20
No that’s not the reason..
10
Redthumbers are modern day Aburidashi, an ancient Ninja writing ink that’s invisible until heated. 😆
04
DLL,
Thanks for your comment which illustrates the idiotic misinformation bill perfectly.
The one doing prime minister impressions as well the one doing treasurer impressions are guilty of misinformation .
Their back & forth statements on negative gearing & capital gains tax are misinformation,
Not to mention confusing simply by their presentation of statements of probable lies by either of the idiotic liars. Oh !! Sorry I’d forgotten this law won’t apply to idiotic members of government only to members of the public who point out their government’s idiotic claptrap!!
160
They’ve been more clever about this on their second attempt. There is no longer an explicit exception for government departments. As I highlighted in my submission on the bill , in Section 12 (3) the minister reserves the right to exempt any service and we won’t necessarily know who has been given an exemption.
This is an example of what Tel says below regarding “legislate broadly and enforce selectively.”
70
dlk,
I homed in on that same difficulty in my submission. I offered them a reasonable solution too:
Resisted the urge to suggest that the publication be called Pravda.
180
maybe they can merge it with the papal bull
30
the explanatory memorandum is truly mind-blowing.
Socrates said “I know nothing” and was reputed the wisest man in Athens. The Australian government on the other hand purports to know everything. What measure of wisdom should we thereby attribute to them?
110
It is written to be deliberately open to interpretation … in such a way that it can be used for various purposes, which were not obvious at first reading.
The principle is legislate broadly and enforce selectively.
190
“The principle is legislate broadly and enforce selectively.”
As seen many times over my life…
Politicians-“The anti-smacking laws are only for the worst cases of child abuse”
Police- Arrested some mother for smacking her kid in the supermarket queue..
100
Anything that connects “greenhouse gasses” and climate fits this category.
It is quite clear that every CMIP3 climate modal was invalidated by every CMIP5 model, which were invalidated by every CMIP6 model. I anticipate that the CMIP7 models will invalidate the CMIP6 models. So how long do we go on with the “greenhouse” charade before it is reasonably verifiable false.
You have to ask why is so much effort being expended on what was supposed to be settled science more than a cvewntury ago.
110
especially when “reasonably verifiable” will be construed through the lens of ‘does it agree with government mandated establishment science’ and the exception for “dissemination of content for any academic, artistic, scientific or religious purpose” depends on whether the government thinks it is “reasonable”.
50
You may have just answered one of the concerns I had in my submission [ https://joannenova.com.au/2024/09/only-a-government-pushing-lies-has-to-censor-the-people-the-acma-ministry-of-misinformation-bill/#comment-2803196 ] about conflict between section 14 and section 16.
20
‘What government considers “reasonably verifiable” may thus be open to an alternate and equally reasonable or plausible interpretation.’
Carbon dioxide does not cause global warming and there is solid evidence to support it, so the authorities will be forced to argue their case in the public arena.
31
“Carbon dioxide does not cause global warming and there is solid evidence to support it, so the authorities will be forced to argue their case in the public arena.”
this will be brought before the ministry of truth.
they will say this claim cannot be reasonably verified because it is contrary to establishment science.
absent some constitutional argument, i would not really expect the courts to interfere as the determination of what is “reasonably verifiable” is conferred by the government on itself (it will be the arbitrator of truth).
they could have said “information that can be verified as false”
they choose instead “information that is reasonably verifiable as false”
that choice is deliberate.
40
Journalism has rules to avoid defamation and plain falsehoods, the eager young scribe first has to convince the editor that his story is verifiable.
This is something ACMA might be considering, seeking to be fair and balanced.
I put this up on yesterday’s thread, worth another look.
https://quadrant.org.au/features/free-speech/the-misinformation-bills-sly-tyranny/
21
Journalist are tightly restrained, however newspapers are always in court because of defamation laws.
https://www.meaa.org/meaa-media/code-of-ethics/
01
News headlines yesterday exposed the second example of how the dismissal of “the best and most accurate science” to allow and enable a personal “moment of fame”.
Yesterday, in the USA it was announced that the second execution of a convicted criminal had been carried out using the new technique of ” nitrogen suffocation “, this is despite the troubling reports of the first case.
Real science was again dismissed, no doubt, by someone wishing to emulate Al Gore and score their moment of fame.
The basic body science, neuroscience and psychbiology, was not implemented: had this been done the event would have been much more humane and even “natural”.
As mentioned here previously, the most pain free way to go and perhaps counterintuitively is to use Oxygen which we normally see as “the gas of life “.
The core science is pushed aside in both Global Warming and now this unpleasant topic of legal execution.
A bit grim but!
90
Jo,
Perfect example of a glitch in your system. When replying to a comment the HTML TAG appears with someone else’s name & email add.
This is obviously what happened as a result of me seeing a comment which I had not made!!
Graham Richards!
20
WUWT has posted my article on what chat bots might be good for. Lots of discussion.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/09/27/ai-could-take-your-computer-from-search-to-research/
61
Quite why we want to rely even more on the digital world I do not know. We are far too dependent already and it will be our down fall as hacks or things going wrong will have catastrophic impacts.
You mention in passing about the electricity. One of the science programmes in the UK did a comparison of a Google search and an ai search and the latter consumed up to 100 times more electricity to the astonished gasps of the science presenters.
So we need to wean ourselves off the digital world and not get ever more enmeshed in something that can take out our fragile world either accidentally or via a concerted hack by an enemy of our system and in the meantime will consume vast amounts of power we do not have.
140
Tonyb,
Wrong argument. I imagine the energy required to produce a car is far, far more than 100 times the energy required to produce a horse. Should we go back to horses?
The right argument is that so called AI provides worse answers than Google. Google gives you a simple list of web page references which you can look at and evaluate for yourself. AI “summarises the whole internet”, which sounds great — one query gets you the distillation of all possible answers — except AI cannot explain its reasoning, nor can it tell you how confident you should be in its answer. What it gives you is a statistical hunch. If it matters to you, you’d better check it. Your checking might well involve Google.
Douglas Adams covered this perfectly when the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything turned out to be 42: no explanation of how or why, it’s 42 and that’s that.
110
“AI cannot explain its reasoning, nor can it tell you how confident you should be in its answer.”
Absolutely! Its a waste of time and energy, I wouldn’t use it for exactly what you stated. A typical web search gives you a range of views and you know the ‘official narrative’ will be at the top, and a skim of the first couple of lines of each article tells you the bias of the authors.
To get one answer presented as truth and fact is just like we have suffered under with covid… A Govt saying things like “Just believe me, all else is lies”
30
There was a more scientific reason as to why the number should be 37, if I have the correct number.
10
Brainwashed eco-fools.
“Three Just Stop Oil activists have thrown soup at two of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings in London’s National Gallery just hours after members of the protest group were jailed for doing the same thing in 2022.”
https://news.sky.com/story/just-stop-oil-activists-jailed-for-throwing-tomato-soup-over-van-goghs-sunflowers-13223010
180
Hypocrisy personified. Every person is 100% the product of oil/gas these days. The population has been expanded by billions with the discovery of fertilizer production using natural gas as a precursor. Besides coal/gas/oil is a consequence of “Free Solar” and reactions of the Earths core. They might as well protest respiration for all the good it would do! Remember every silicon chip consumers buy was made using a coal furnace.
190
Back in the day when they used to teach real science in grade schools (before the big “dumbing-down” by the Marxists) I remember learning about the thousands of products derived from oil and natural gaa.
These days people don’t even know where their food comes from, beyond picking it up at the supermarket.
And how many people have heard of the Haber process to produce ammonia to make fertiliser to help increase crop yields (along with breeding and insecticides) from hydrocarbon feedstock, typically coal and gas?
Some products from oil are listed here:
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2019/11/f68/Products%20Made%20From%20Oil%20and%20Natural%20Gas%20Infographic.pdf
And here.
https://badassworkgear.com/list-of-products-made-from-oil-petroleum/
It’s tragic that today so few have a clue – about anything. It’s only legacy systems and knowledge that keep society going, at least for a while into the future.
140
Today I had a commentator in The Australian try to correct me, saying that a Giga was 10^12. And another three folks agreed with them…
10
Every living thing is also made 99% from Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen. We are creatures of photosynthesis, the capture of sunlight by CO2 and H2O. Dried, all living things burn. Hydrocarbons all. Oil, gas and coal are old plant life. There is a hypothesis of creation by other means but it hardly matters. All living things breathe out CO2, from bacteria and fungi to carrot and blue whales. And all living things have the same gene for the conversion of hydrated carbon dioxide, carbohydrate back into energy, CO2 and H2O.
Stop oil is a call to stop life on earth. Good luck with that. They need to stop photosynthesis.
150
A bunch of NZers are gathering today in an attempt to ‘take back’ the Guinness Book of World Records title for the largest number of people performing a haka, the ceremonial war dance Maori performed before engaging the enemy. Oddly, the French hold that record at present.
Imagine the tonnes of ‘carbon pollution’ being emitted by thousands of chanting, stomping, tongue-poking, hand-waving participants, quelle horreur! How many pine trees will we have to plant to sequester all that heavy breathing…
Gaia forgive them for they know not what they do.
130
Addendum:
Just so no charge of mis/dis/mal spreading can be hurled at me, the carbon-footprint heavy haka is a happening tomorrow, Sunday, at the hallowed ground (to some) of Mt Eden rugby field, which used to be a swamp until drained… it still floods occasionally.
The chosen version is ka mate (KAA-maa-tay) first emitted by Te Rauparaha the six-fingered midget with an attitude: a hero to some, not so to others.
Wonder if some cheeky skeptic will have a CO2 monitor with them amongst the exuberant challengers. Haere mai! Hello!
10
My local sea side town proudly proclaims it’s quest to become net zero at the same time as it is encouraging thousands of tourists to visit to attend the major air show it promotes.
Would love to get a co2 monitor on that.
30
And a thermometer to record those ever-so-brief spikes in temperature, aka ‘heatwaves’. Enjoy the show Tony, and that lovely aroma of aviation fuel.
00
Recall is back. But this time it’s turned off by default.
100
More likely built in blackmail continuously sending summary AI results back to Microsoft. Everything you do, every password, every web sites, everything you write and read which might be significant. There is nothing to stop that now.
130
And as Israel just amply demonstrated, even going back to 1980s communications does not work if you are an enemy of the state. What’s next? Exploding quills and ricin paper?
110
With the internet of things being enthusiastically promoted it could be anything from door bells to trees which will be monitored via an implanted device to monitor its growth.
My kettle is also looking at me rather malignantly.
10
Another annoyance I’ll have to disable on my new laptop I got yesterday…
First up, initial setup without a M$ account.
Here’s a better way to do it without the Bypassnro approach:
https://youtu.be/csQUCpEV6XM?si=cj83jS3lTlEDxtsX
20
“Another annoyance I’ll have to disable on my new laptop I got yesterday…”
I thought you would have known better than that JC. You won’t be able to disable it, it will go into ‘subtle’ mode and continue to work just as Microsoft designed it to, but without giving any indication that it does. The public view of folders will say it doesn’t exist, and if they’ve been very clever they will delete some megs of other bloatware to make it seem the spyware was deleted.
Its just like cars, the more features they add, the worse it is for the users.
60
Anyone ever used Linux? I’m not a computer nerd so always assume I wouldn’t be able to work it, despite promises of it being easy.
00
A company I worked for part-time a few years ago finally gave up on using Windows- based small board computers, as they meant that customers would have to be told to make sure that the equipment had to be regularly powered-down and restarted at prescribed intervals. Re-wrote all their software to use Linux.
I’m currently battling trying to keep a Windows-based flight sim running all day at a Museum – I’ve had to introduce a dual-SSD system that allows me to immediately switch drives when it crashes and cannot be restarted. And yesterday I setup a SSD cloning system to recover the crashed drive. Trying to keep Windows-based system immune from completely crashing when the Museum power is shut down every evening is becoming a very frustrating exercise.
I use Raspberry Pi systems, which use Linux, for all displays, and they cope very well with power shutdowns and restarts. Would never use a Windows system if I could avoid it.
40
I have used Linux Mint 10 months now and I’m happy with it. I’m ‘an average user’, meaning I use it for basic stuff. You can use it by using GUI’s (Graphical User Interface). Bonus is that there is room for growth if you want to become nerdier. What I mean by that is you can do stuff using command line. Of course there is a Powershell on Windows and become real nerd using Windows.
Unless you need decent tools for work you can use open source tools that are free. There are lots of tutorials on Youtube how to make a dual boot or how to install Virtual box and install Linux system there.
Finally, remember that Linux is NOT virus-free! so take care of security as you would do with any other OS.
Actually, I’m so satisfied with Linux that I’m not coming back to Windows unless it’s necessary.
40
Oh Noes…
Tuvalu and Kiribati are to experience ‘at least’ 15cm of sea level rise over the next 30 years.
.
Key quotes.
“But there’s a real lack of on-the-ground data in these countries”
.
“The future of the young people of Tuvalu is already at stake, Climate change is more than an environmental crisis. It is about justice, survival for nations like Tuvalu, and global responsibility.”
.
Missing context
In the four decades to 2014, Tuvalu’s total land area grew by 73 hectares, or 2.9 per cent.
.
Atolls in the Pacific nations of Marshall Islands and Kiribati, as well as the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean, have grown up to 8 per cent in size over the past six decades despite sea level rise.
.
Anyway…
170
The Maldives have installed at least 7 new airdromes for lots of wealthy Europeans to flee the “Global Warming” in their countries and live on bungalows on stilts over the water. Such holidays are much advertised in The Guardian – self proclaimed “protector of the environment from CO2 emissions”.
Shows how stupid their readers are.
110
From today’s episode of –
The Children Just Won’t Know!
South Africa has issued yet another warning for cold temperatures, snow, and huge swells along the coast, starting Sunday through till Tuesday.
South America’s Aconcagua, high in the Andes, will greet Tuesday 1st October with frigid temps, max -26, windchill -52, 150 km/h winds and yes, more snow.
Australia’s Bluff Knoll in Jo’s home state of West Oz is next in line, forecast to hit zero accompanied by ‘snow showers’ overnight Wednesday 2nd October (maybe).
Spring in the southern hemisphere is always a lucky dip; mind you, Thursday 3rd October is lining up for another syzygy with the new moon being at apogee (farthest away from Earth, in between us and the sun) always a primer for ‘disturbances’ down here at sea level.
As for (ex?) Tropical Storm Helene in the USA, it would appear authorities utilised upper-level wind speeds, as opposed to ground-level, to whip up a fever via their media. The children just won’t know what a real hurricane was…
110
Re: Helene, heard a Floridian say (via my wireless/radio) it was “the worst hurricane in [her] living memory”.
How did she know this? There was “mud all through the houses” in her Tampa Bay neighbourhood.
Sooo… all the houses were still standing, upright, not blown to smithereens? Sounds like a bit of rain and a tidal surge, not Climageddon.
60
When the answer is “stop smoking and drinking, take more exercise and have a healthy diet” and you give the question to bureaucracies
20
“Diabetes rates in the archipelago..are among the highest in the nation. Cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, cancer and rheumatic heart disease are also widespread ”
Explains everything you need to know about Western diets and lifestyles. No matter what they say, or what advice they push, it is decreasing the quality of life with every generation.
Never mind, if Pfizer set up a shop in Torres Strait all will be fixed..
20
I pointed out to my auto electrician that he seems to be always working on Kombi Vans. “History repeating itself” he said.
00
In case you are wondering why the urgency for Australia’s censorship legislation, in this Sky News Australia news report Australia’s e Safety Kommissar states at the beginning how Donald Trump and his followers were major online abusers and Trump was a “major super spreader of mis and disinformation” and she also wanted to censor scientific fact that “trans” men can’t lactate*.
Apparently saying a man can become a woman is not mis or disinformation.
As Jo pointed out and I did yesterday, the woke Leftist social media platforms like Farcebook will be happy to apply these censorship rules globally, including in the United States.
Thus these Australian Government censorship laws are directly about interference with the US Presidential Election and specifically directed against Donald Trump.
There is no other reason for this urgency and for an extremely short time for a second round of submissions after the first lot of 23,000 were ignored.
Free speech platforms like X, may end up just leaving Australia as Elon Musk has already done in Brazil.
*Yes, there are rare conditions that can cause that, or hormonal inducement but that’s not what’s being talked about.
Video: https://youtu.be/7751yt0j8AY
110
The EU parliament believes Donald is a super spreader.
‘Former President Donald Trump and his strategists appear to have followed the Kremlin’s authoritarian playbook in using information to fan divisions and undermine trust in the electoral processes and democracy as a system. Trump has consistently spread false information − including about the election process − echoing authoritarian anti-democratic narratives.’ (EPRS)
12
“‘Former President Donald Trump and his strategists appear to have followed the Kremlin’s authoritarian playbook in using information to fan divisions and undermine trust in the electoral processes and democracy as a system. ”
Like the EU hasn’t been doing that for 30years..!! They just bulldozed over National Govts, ignored democracy with their dictats, flooded the continent with undesirables without asking the peoples, and are now world leaders in censorship and propaganda…
The Kremlin doesn’t need to do anything, the West is self-destructing faster than the Russians could ever do it.
30
FWIW -confidence booster for the morning
“Kunstler: America Is “A Headless Horseman Riding Blindly Into Chaos” ”
“You have to wonder: has there ever been a country that marched off to war with no head-of-state at the top of its war machine? It’s exactly that bad in our country, with a broken animatronic Halloween scarecrow popping in-and-out of the White House to yell incoherently at election campaign events for a putative successor too scared of the predicament she’s in to think straight. Really, no one is in charge — and if any of the leading actors on the scene really were, the situation could easily get worse.
Hence, the brainless wish roiling through the NSC, State Department, and the various shadow councils of the intel emeriti to lob long-range missiles into Russia, apparently heedless of any consequences. America, you are a headless horseman riding blindly into chaos.”
More at
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/kunstler-america-headless-horseman-riding-blindly-chaos
110
And
“In fact, the entire Democratic Party and its Deep State intel blob partners have melted down into a desperate mob of political criminals frantic to evade accounting for their acts. So then, setting the world on fire is all they have left, a fitting act of revenge for a faction thwarted in its mad drive to merely wreck the United States for the sake of “social justice” and “equity.” “
60
Oh My Goldfish, it’s worserer than we thunked.
Operation Samson maybe?
40
Oops!
“Jersey Shore Wind Power Project Stalls After Having A “Hard Time” Finding Someone To Manufacture Turbine Blades”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/jersey-shore-wind-power-project-stalls-after-having-hard-time-finding-someone-manufacture
50
If they rule out China as a supplier of the turbines or even parts, then the cost go vertical. You cannot demonise coal and also have an economic manufacturing industry.
100
Reading the two articles, it appears that the Nantucket blade failures have influenced their concerns.
10
FWIW – another take-over attempt!
“Sexually confused men are invading yet another women’s group. It’s perhaps their most absurd target yet: a group grounded in genetics, the Daughters of the American Revolution. Happily, members are channeling the rebellious spirit of their forebears and fighting back.”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/09/27/i-napoleon-181/
20
Saturday funny: when you’ve been redthumbed but you know you just annoyed a lefty
https://imgbox.com/vX1nBAbN
😆
66
2 reds already!
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/203/055/a5c.gif
25
You sure you did not accidentally use your dating link rather than the link you intended?
50
Speaking of Dating
LOL
Saturday, 28 September 2024
Hurricane Helene Chaos: Weatherman Loses It Live On Air. pic.twitter.com/Qn61dUTYS3
— Valuetainment Media (@ValuetainmentTV) September 27, 2024
00
Saturday ejukayshun: the mystery of the self moving rocks solved
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_skgk2zuhtO1z23obp.mp4
50
Saturday idiocracy
https://x.com/NoCapFights/status/1729940848736137663
*naughty words warning*
Bought a fuel can? 😆😆😆😆
40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW_AiXLdsxo&t=2483s
Worth watching. A good summary of the leftist takeover of the world. Smart young fellow.
30
Cat ladies are +36% for Harris. Whoda thunk it.
https://youtu.be/wWanl8RhiHc?t=1747
20
Life under Labor Albosleezy, Blackout Bowen & Chalmers
Official CPI – Released 25/09/2024
Key statistics
The monthly CPI indicator rose 2.7% in the 12 months to August.
The most significant price rises at the Group level were Housing (+2.6 %), Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+3.4 %), and Alcohol and tobacco (+6.6 %). Partly offsetting the annual increase was Transport (-1.1 %).
Just Recived GIO House & Contents Insurance Renewal – have upped to Excess $2,000 for House & $1,000 for Contents
Increase 2022 – 34%
Increase 2023 – 29%
Increase this year 2024 – 35.1%
20
Insurance probably taken out of the CPi, one of those things you don’t have to have.
30
I let all my insurances slip and save $500/wk. looking at your figures it would be more that that now.
40
Late September and we have the fire on today in the subtropics of NSW. I remember Simon laying an egg about the few hot days in late winter (of course)
40
Observations on Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene has been tremendously destructive, mostly, I believe, on account of flooding. Areas as far from the coast as Asheville, North Carolina, are seeing what is described as a 1,000-year flood.
Why is Helene depositing so much water across several Southeastern states?
One possibility is Hunga Tonga, the underwater volcano eruption of early 2022 that shot something like 100 million tons of water vapor into the air.
Some sources attribute the generally wet summer of 2024 to Hunga Tonga, which seems plausible.
While most volcanic eruptions tend to cool the planet–Krakatoa cooled the Earth for something like a decade, as I recall–Hunga Tonga has the opposite effect because water vapor is by far the main greenhouse gas.
So the eruption is also contributing to warmer temperatures, although to what extent is debated.
Hurricane damage in Florida is being mitigated by that state’s extraordinary hurricane preparedness. This, via InstaPundit, is impressive:
40
‘ … 100 million tons of water vapor into the air.’
Even though NASA reckons H2O is a greenhouse gas in the stratosphere, there are some around here who argue against this.
Hunga Tonga explains the spike in world temperature and possibly the extra precipitation.
30
Noah Pollak@NoahPollak
Right now Israel and the IDF are showing the defeatist, self-hating secular elites of the west what it looks like to defend your nation, your faith, your honor, and your borders — and what it looks like to win.
This is the real reason they hate Israel with such rage. Israel refuses to be euthanized by their ideological poison. It shows we don’t have to accept defeat or accommodate barbarians.
It puts the weakness and masochism of the western left on stark display.
They want to destroy Israel because Israel refuses to obey them, and is willing to stand alone.
Charles Lister@Charles_Lister
NEW – #Israel just hit #Hezbollah’s central military command center, located in #Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb.
Massive, multi-missile strike, presumably using bunker busters. x.com/charles_lister…
Shalom, Hassan Nasrallah (we hope)
Right around the time Prime Minister Netanyahu took the lectern to address the United Nations General Assembly, Israel hit Hezbollah’s underground command center outside Beirut with a massive kaboom or two (video linked below). This strike follows up impressively on Israel’s “from the liver to the knee” pager assault of last week.
Reuters reports, however, that Nasrallah is alive, citing a source close to Hezbollah. Iran’s IRGC-controlled Tasnim News Agency also reports he is alive.
Reuters adds that “[a] senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was checking his status,” probably with a Dixie cup and a thread.
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You can add British, Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the list of appeasers. You may have heard that he recently gave a speech where he called for a ceasefire and an immediate return of the sausages!! hilarious! And now there are many memes about it:
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Pretty simple maths. Someone should show Penny Wong.
Interesting observation
Jordan has fired ZERO rockets at Israel.
Number of Jordans dead? ZERO
Egypt has fired ZERO rockets at Israel.
Number of Egyptians dead? ZERO
ZERO.
Capito?
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Johannes Leak The Australian Cartoon for Today
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Free world cannot afford Israel to lose existential war
The Australian EDITORIAL
Every state has the duty to protect its people from enemy assaults from beyond its borders, as Israeli ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon wrote this week.
But alarmed by the prospect of an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon-based terrorist force Hezbollah, Western nations, including the US, Australia, Canada, Japan and the EU, are calling for a 21-day halt to fighting.
Their joint statement described the intensifying conflict as “intolerable”, with potential to trigger a broader regional escalation. The potential for loss of life is horrifying.
But just as intolerable is the fact that a year of unprovoked rocket attacks by Hezbollah across the Israel-Lebanon border that began on October 8 has turned the north of Israel into a no-go zone, forcing 70,000 people from their homes.
If it were to have any durability or credibility, a negotiated solution would depend on the remote prospect of Hezbollah and Hamas, armed by Iran, abandoning their fanatical quest to wipe the J@wish state off the map.
That is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored the truce proposal and ordered the military “to continue the fighting with full force”. A ground offensive into Lebanon is becoming more likely.
Against that background, Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s emphasis in an address to the UN Security Council in New York about the need for the creation of a Palestinian state is badly timed.
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From the Comments
– Penny Wong would have to be the worst Foreign Minster Australia has had for a generation or more, words cannot express how embarrassing and weak she is on this issue, today’s Cartoon is absolutely on the mark
– What a weird place the ALP has become. Israel must not defend itself; Australia must not use AUKUS to defend itself and Australian families, workers and industry must not have access to globally competitive energy. To redirect Keatings classic barb, ‘pixies at the bottom of the garden’.
– I stand with The Australian editorial team and Israel. As should Wong and the ALP.
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September 27, 2024
Dinesh D’Souza hits it out of the park with new film ‘Vindicating Trump’
By Monica Showalter
Dinesh D’Souza’s new film, “Vindicating Trump” hits the theatres tonight around the country, and should go a long way towards bringing the real Donald Trump to the public, including Democrats and independents.
Go see it.
It’s fast-paced, it’s full of information, it has humorous moments, and it’s a polished production, so it’s a good film to see on movie night as the election seasons carries on.
Done as a tightly scripted docu-drama, and quite professionally done at that, given the short time it must have been produced in (I marvel at how quickly they must have gotten this done so smoothly), it starts with the rise of Trump and ends with the events today, but also projects into the election and the post-election, seeking answers about what voters are concerned about, which is fraud.
The storyline begins with the rise of Trump, brashness and all, and intellectually looks into first the calumny dished out against him, then the lawfare, and finally the assassination attempts, and carefully links how these trains of thinking build on one another, which makes the storyline coherent and powerful.
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Climate change less newsworthy.
‘January media coverage of climate change or global warming in newspapers around the globe plummeted 23% from December 2023. Also, coverage in January 2024 dipped 20% from January 2023 levels.
‘At the regional level, January 2024 coverage decreased in North America (-6%), Latin America (-7%), Asia (-14%), the European Union (EU) (-21%), Oceania (-23%), Africa (-38%) and the Middle East (-64%) compared to the previous month of December.’ (Media and Climate Observatory)
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Its a trend.
‘In Australia there was a 34% decrease in climate change articles published from March 2020.. A 2022 analysis found that Sky News Australia was a major source of climate misinformation globally.’ (wiki)
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An election year in America. Climate Change is a losing issue.
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What Is Eco-Anxiety And Why Is It On The Rise? (article)
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FWIW
“Another Look at the United Nations”
Concludes
“The only reason, plainly delinquent, for the UN’s continued existence is that it furnishes a lucrative sinecure for a pampered and decadent elite, along with a horde of redundant functionaries, who revel in its perquisites. This is a freebie that the compromised leaders of nations and international organizations, as well as the legions of state officials, have no intention of surrendering. For the UN represents a second career to rival the first, or something that resembles a bankable retirement fund for our political, economic, corporate and administrative predators, which is why the UN, which purports to adjudicate global tensions and lobby for “sustainable development,” will continue to bedevil the world with its fraudulent excuse for being.”
https://pjmedia.com/david-solway-2/2024/09/27/another-look-at-the-united-nations-n4932898
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https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/we-need-to-keep-asking-questions – Maybe not next year, maybe not 2026, maybe in 20 years time. But when the con works, the fraudsters add it to their ‘book’ and run it again. Or amend it slightly – people in London are now staying indoors when there is a heat warning!!!
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FWIW
“The United Nations is pointless, toothless and morally corrupt”
Douglas Murray
https://nypost.com/2024/09/26/opinion/the-united-nations-is-pointless-toothless-and-morally-corrupt/
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FWIW
“Oh, knock it off, already.
You have to hand it to the intersectional mob. They have mastered the subtle art of never running out of reasons to complain. Someone should really send our colleges and universities a memo and let them know that, by and large, academics are only slightly less useless than TV and movie stars and CNN anchors.
What is the impetus for their latest dirge in which they b***h, whine, moan, gripe, nag, kvetch, cry, hold forth, froth, foam, and expectorate? White people and Shakespeare.”
More at
https://pjmedia.com/lincolnbrown/2024/09/27/weekend-parting-shot-shakespeare-so-white-and-stupid-cruise-ship-tricks-n4932875
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No matter your politics, these new numbers are shocking.
Of the 7 million migrants that ICE released while their cases are being processed, 663,000 have criminal histories, 13,000 were convicted of homicide, 16,000 of sexual assault, and 1,845 face homicide charges.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1839741316068192551.html
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FWIW – you might even say “Trending”
“Heat-Pump Sales Plummet by Almost 50% Across Europe”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/09/28/heat-pump-sales-plummet-by-almost-50-across-europe/
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