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
Extract from The Spectator Australia
The Task Ahead –
Katherine Pardey
27th 0f March, 2025
“It’s a brave politician who stands up and talks about increasing defence budgets at election time and when a great many Australians are being hit by still high interest rates and high prices but at the same time politicians who win elections are politicians who are ahead of events. Australia can do little to shape world events, but we can do better than just be reactive to them. We can continue our work on alliances; last week’s The Economist recommended in an example of creative thinking an ‘Asian Quad’ comprising of Japan, India, Australia, and Indonesia. Why not? And at the same time as thinking differently about alliances we need to make decisions about our defence that make us look proactive, not reactive. Counting on America to help build nuclear submarines may no longer be such a good idea.
Events in Europe are different to what could transpire in the Pacific but Australia has already been warned what to expect when it comes to our defence budget. Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee as under-Secretary of Defence for Policy says the ‘main concern the United States should press with Australia … [is that] … Australia is currently well below the 3 per cent level advocated for Nato … and Canberra faces a far more powerful challenge in China’.
In the next election we should have a choice between two leaders who recognise now is the time to lead on foreign policy. So far there is no indication from either prospective leaders that they either see the need or are ready for such a task. Hoping the problem will go away is not an option.”
200
Trump could make a deal to control Australia’s mineral wealth in return for the US willingness to defend the country from the northern hordes because the US has something to lose. So, rather than the State governments enjoying royalties for minerals, they go straight to the USA in the knowledge that they would be willing to protect their income stream.
In a way AUKUS is already doing this because it is a massive transfer payment of Australian wealth to the USA in return for their nuclear sub technology. This is a real insult because the prime driver in the development of nuclear energy was Mark Oliphant, an Australian physicist. He was also responsible for the development of the magnetron that enabled compact airborne radar, which proved decisive in numerous air attacks during WW2.
132
“to defend the country from the northern hordes”
Have I missed something?
Australia seems to have the welcome mat out.
320
I used it in an historical context. I guess the reason for sending troops to Vietnam. But you are correct that Australia is giving up its sovereignty to China.
China is gaining control of Australia through their hard work and stealth. China already controls much of Australia’s mineral wealth and is taking an increasing share in iron ore mining. China supplies most of the hardware for Australia’s energy transition. Chinese made EVs are now the largest source of EVs in Australia. China is set to surpass both Japan and Thailand as the dominant supplier of all vehicles on Australian roads. China dictates policy in Australian Tertiary Education because they are a major source of income. Education is Australia’s 3rd largest export and China is the dominant target.
Maybe this adds to the argument that Trump should make a deal with Australia so the US controls Australia’s mineral wealth rather than China.
154
It sounds more like Australia should make a deal with China! Do we want to be the Iran or the Iraq or the Russia of the future when China and SE Asia rules the world the way the Yanks have done for the last 70 years? Who is going to be the new ‘Axis of Evil’ when China rules the propaganda waves?
America is Britain in the last century as their power melted away, their economy dissolved and their whole innovation & drive, their ‘get up and go’, got up and went. America took over from Britain then, and China will take over from America now. This is not a bad thing for most of the world, its only the little ‘White is right’ West that will see a negative change as the BRICS take over, so we should be positioning ourselves on the side of the winners, not the losers.
Can anyone seriously think that Australia could defeat China in a war if we were invaded. Does anyone think America would throw serious resources into defending Australia in that war, rather than write us off and build up their defences elsewhere? It will be “America First” and the devil take the hindmost.
613
America is withdrawing into isolation and have lost their moral compass along the way.
China is falling into a great depression and Russia is an economic basket case, so BRICS is not a safe bet. China pays top dollar for our iron ore and that suggests a marriage made in heaven, no need for the hordes to invade when they can trickle in at a slower pace.
We shouldn’t buy the US subs, a complete waste of money.
410
The IMF appears to disagree with you analysis of the Russian economy
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68823399
While no economy is perfect saying they are a basket case may be nudging the hyperbole meter just a bit
92
America is withdrawing into isolation as they have found their moral compass along the way.
90
That story is one year old, but according to Vlad Putin economic growth is 4.1%. Its a wartime economy and inflation is too high, so eventually stagflation is on the cards.
The Kremlin has to keep the war going because all those demobbed soldiers have the potential to cause civil unrest.
23
Russia’s liquid Reserve will run out in about six months.
14
Russia’s liquid Reserve will run out in six months.
10
No, Rick,
We must never cede our mineral wealth.
That is giving away part of our birthright, emotionally similar to sending your first child to an orphanage.
People in any country need a few glues to bind them together, seen in war when soldiers commonly comment that they put themselves in danger so others can have a better future. You cannot cede the native endowments so that the citizen or soldier has nothing to fight for but a stripped countryside with the appeal of a bureaucratic brown plastic. It has to stay different and better with continuing potential worth fighting for.
The problem we must first solve is an inadequate class of politicians and public servants. We really do need a Trump type of visionary leadership, so that Australia is seen internationally as a better entity, a small population with leadership that countries can name and admire. Like, say, Israel, for its strength of leaders and its resolute military able and willing to use a strong force multiplier in retaliations.
Thus, we see dangers in flying 3 flags when only one should be lawful and in citizens forming enclaves of resident people with little knowledge of the way we are, intent on forcing their ways on us.
We used to have school parades each morning to raise the flag, to recite allegiance to the Royalty and to generally affirm a need to be proud to be Australian and willing to defend that pride.
You cannot achieve that by giving away pieces of fundamental sovereignty.
On a personal note, I thank our blog owner Jo and colleagues for aligning this way.
Geoff S
371
You are too late Geoff. Australia has already ceded its mineral wealth.
Think about the companies you worked for and what are they now.
20
Australia may get lucky again. China is in such a demographic and economic collapse that we may become forgotten in the storm engulfing them, mostly of their own making.
I’m leaning towards believing that they have already lost, or will lose, half a bill people to the pandemic. once busy streets are now deserted and crematoriums is the big growth industry.
31
They are our biggest trading partner, it would be smarter to get rid of the American Alliance.
Xi won’t survive much longer, so Taiwanese style democracy and rule of law should bring China back into the real world.
420
Ya dreamin. It is the military gaining strength. The possible silver lining there is that they may be more aware of the inadequacies of the PLA and the difficulties of war so less willing to risk it.
60
Revolution is brewing and the PLA takes a bold step towards democracy.
‘Two waves of recent purges in the People’s Liberation Army have focused on Xi Jinping’s two major bases of support, the Shaanxi Gang and the Fujian Clique, likely eroding his power over the military.
‘A series of articles in the PLA Daily in late 2024 written by people aligned with Central Military Commission Vice Chair Zhang Youxia advocate for collective leadership and more internal democratic decision-making, in a rebuke to Xi’s call for centralized and unified leadership.
‘Xi likely does not face any genuine rival, but internal power struggles nevertheless remain fierce.’ (Reddit)
23
Northern whores?
30
Before it was demolished and still working, I once saw the world’s largest homopolar generator which was built by Sir Mark Oliphant in the 1960’s at ANU. It could deliver 2 million amps. It was also later used to power a rail gun, something Australia was leading the world in, back in the day, but was never fully developed due to lack of vision by politicians and the establishment etc.. Usual story.
320
DM,
Likewise, I spent some time with Australia’s first computer SILLIAC at Sydney Uni. Also saw a Sydney factory of AWA making vacuum tubes, forerunners to integrated circuit chips and Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation makers of aircraft like the Wirraway and Nomad.
Some of these could/should have been kept going.
I saw these as part of a training program for future RAAF officers at the RAAF College, Point Cook. The idea was to show some industrial assets that would need defence in a future wartime.
A couple of years later I was working with the Aust Atomic Energy Commission at Lucas Heights, using the small MOATA research reactor as the most accurate way to analyse uranium content of ores from the Ranger One deposit.
There seems to me to have been a reduction of general Australia knowledge of the front end of advances in technology. We are becoming an onlooker, not a participant. The general public shows signs of either disinterest or dumbing down. Soft activities like sport and music and TV shows and computer games are not regarded as helping much with the advancement of science.
Geoff S
310
Agreed Geoff. And ah, yes, the MOATA reactor. I haven’t heard that mentioned for years. From the time when Australia was forward thinking and had a bright future. One of its original functions when built in 1961 was to enable the training of people in reactor physics and running a reactor when it was thought Australia might build nuclear power reactors, and we did in 1970, at least we started one st Jervis Bay until the fake conservative Liberals cancelled the project. It was also used in neutron activation analysis and radiography and ore analysis as you mention etc..
And I never heard a Green/Leftist complain about MOATA because they never knew of its existence, not that it was any secret. They had only heard of the other one, HIFAR. They were, and are, just ignorant and uniformed.
160
And yet these are the things that Australians do. They have very little understanding of history, apart from the fabricated versions taught today about how the settlers were “evil colonisers” blah, blah, blah. They have little or no knowledge of Australia’s past achievements in science and technology or agriculture or our proud military record. There doesn’t seem to be much interest in real science and engineering that’s not related to anything “green” and we have become a nation of trendy coffee shops staffed with men wearing man-buns, nose rings and tattoos and other similar people and people are fanatical followers of sport, neither of which are of any interest to me.
And the worst of it is, when it comes to voting, neither politicians or voters (either faction of the Uniparty) have any clue or understanding of the real issues but will just vote for the candidate that offers the most “free stuff”, not understanding that all the “free” stuff comes from hard working taxpayers in the first place. And we even have increasingly few net taxpayers, government policy seems to focus on importing people who are never likely to work or pay net tax.
190
Surpisingly for the Sydney Moaning Herald (although taken from Econmist – Both Paywalled unfortunately) an excellent article on AI Chips
The race is on to build the world’s most important machine
Few would expect the future of artificial intelligence to depend on Eindhoven, a quiet Dutch town. Yet just beyond its borders sits the headquarters of ASML, the only company that makes the machines, known as lithography tools, needed to produce cutting-edge AI chips.
ASML’s latest creation is a 150-tonne colossus, around the size of two shipping containers and priced at around $US350 million ($553.3 million). It is also the most advanced machine for sale.
The firm’s expertise has placed it at the centre of a global technology battle. To prevent China from building whizzy AI chips, the United States has barred ASML from selling its most advanced gear to Chinese chipmakers. In response, China is pouring billions of dollars into building homegrown alternatives.
Meanwhile, Canon, a Japanese rival, is betting on a simpler, cheaper technology to loosen ASML’s grip. Yet unlike software, where industry leadership can shift in a matter of months, success in lithography is a slow-moving race measured in decades. Overtaking ASML won’t be easy. At stake is control of the machine that will shape the future of computing, AI and technology itself.
ASML’s most advanced machine is mind-boggling. It works by firing 50,000 droplets of molten tin into a vacuum chamber. Each droplet takes a double hit: first from a weak laser pulse that flattens it into a tiny pancake, then from a powerful laser that vaporises it. The process turns each droplet into hot plasma, reaching nearly 220,000 degrees Celsius, roughly 40 times hotter than the surface of the Sun, and emits light of extremely short wavelength (extreme ultraviolet, or EUV).
This light is then reflected by a series of mirrors so smooth that imperfections are measured in trillionths of a metre. The mirrors focus the light onto a mask or template that contains blueprints of the chip’s circuits. Finally the rays bounce from the mask onto a silicon wafer coated with light-sensitive chemicals, imprinting the design onto the chip.
ASML’s tools are indispensable to modern chipmaking. Firms like TSMC, Samsung and Intel rely on them to produce cutting-edge processors, from AI accelerators to smartphone chips.
No other company makes machines that can reliably print chips that are called “7 nanometres” (billionths of a metre) and below (though these terms once related to physical resolution, they are now primarily used for marketing). Even for more mature technologies (“14nm” and higher), the firm’s tools account for over 90 per cent of the market.
120
Great summary on ASML’s lithography tools. I watched the video a few years ago and it was truly mind boggling technology . .
20
Or 10 teslas in 5 mins.
00
Mark Oliphant went to Unley High School in Adelaide. Drumroll……..so did I and Julia Gillard , though in different generations. Sadly the physics did not confer on me (or Julia)!
100
The people we need defending from are in Canberra.
and in the State capitals.
China wants our minerals, not our ‘hearts and minds’.
Given our focus on the US with Asia on our doorstep, I reckon their campaign to take our hearts and minds is a much bigger success.
10
https://www.africa-confidential.com/article/id/15412/clashing-with-america-first-policy%2c-us-eximbank-makes-biggest-loan-ever-to-france%27s-totalenergies
It seems the new board was persuaded to make the $4.7bn loan – the biggest in the bank’s history – because it would expand fossil fuel production and US companies would get contract and jobs. Eximbank’s official release plays down the financial benefits for France and Mozambique. It also omits details on the political security context – that the gas project is guarded by Rwanda Defence Force troops against threats from jihadist insurgents operating in the provinces.
I think we may end up low on the US list of interests anyway
00
Australia’s variable mortgage rates are not high by historical standards, actually on the low side. They only feel high because we are coming off EMERGENCY lows after the ’08 GFC.
I still get SFA on my bank savings.
40
The may also feel high to people at a different life stage who have mortgages for very large amounts and repayments at large % of their after tax income
20
40.3°C UK Temperature ‘Record’ from Halfway Down Airport Runway Enters the Long-Term Archive
From THE DAILY SCEPTIC
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/03/28/40-3c-uk-temperature-record-from-halfway-down-airport-runway-enters-the-long-term-archive/
180
Such records will be frequently broken over the coming centuries. The UK is just emerging from its lowest peak sunshine in 20,000 years. The peak solar intensity will rise 80W/m^2 over the next 9000 years. The minimum was only 400 years ago. The sunlight has only increased by 0.4W/m^2 since then but it is accelerating and will be up by 2W/m^2 in 500 years. Then 5W/m^2 in 1000 years.
Australia currently gets peak solar intensity of 1407W/m^2. The UK gets peak of 1173W/m^2. The average capacity factor of solar panels in the UK is 10%. In Australia it is 15%. In 9,000 years, Australia will be down to a peak of 1317W/m^2 while UK will reach 1265W/m^2. UK solar intensity will not be far behind Australia. And with the hot air coming off Europe, there is some prospect of UK hitting 50C similar to what Australia commonly experienced in the past and maybe higher when it was getting its peak sunshine 1200 years:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22766-z/figures/3
https://joannenova.com.au/s3/jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/graphs/maps/australia-map-heat-waves-5-web.gif
50
My solar physicist acquaintance put peak solar radiation in the 2100s then declining for a few hundred years. Given the Holocene pattern to date, that seems more likely than a 1000yr increase.
30
You solar physicist is probably meaning the sun. The solar variation is minuscule compared to the changes from orbital mechanics.
There are very few people who understand how Earth’s axial precession changes solar intensity across latitudes. Climate models are completely blind to solar power because they only consider energy. But power is the driver of temperature.
10
Maybe. Maybe not. It seems that everyone who says that of the sun can’t explain the patterns during the Holocene.
The solar physicist in question, Ken McCracken, also said a few years ago that Lake George would soon fill. Lake George, dry for 40 years, is now full.
OK, one thing does not prove the other, but I’ll be taking careful note in 100 to 200 years time of how the global temperature is going.
30
Solar intensity is not everything, there is this internal dynamic.
https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/3/569/2007/
02
The old place the thermometer by the runway trick. Probably only to be outdone by the place the thermometer next to the incinerator trick.
It’s part of the modern concept of trying to make science happen rather than simply observing what happens.
110
Or the place the thermometer by the AC exhaust trick.
40
I once took the time to find the weather station at Heathrow on GE. It is not reasonable to say it could be subjected to jetwash.
10
Ric,
The primary reason for met equipment at an airport is to measure the local QNH, winds etc not for measuring the temperature of jet blast lol
40
The primary reason for met equipment at an airport is to measure the local QNH, winds etc …
I agree, they are invaluable for the safe operation of an airport, but they are worthless for determining climate trends.
20
Have you ever worked around aircraft? There aren’t hot air blasts everywhere. I’m cool with the legitimacy of readings from our airport, it’s on the sea breeze side of the runway, a reasonable way from it.
03
idiots:
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/India/watch-germany-demolishes-its-most-advanced-coal-plant-after-only-six-years-of-operation/ar-AA1BIgSb
160
It reminds of how at the end of WW2 that other leader of Germany and also a socialist ordered the Nerobefehl or Nero Decree to destroy everything in Germany, including public infrastructure like power stations. (More accurately known as the Befehl betreffend Zerstörungsmaßnahmen im Reichsgebiet.)
Recall also how in Australia, similar to this, the power station in SA was blown up as a “spectacular” media event for the dumbed-down masses.
And remember large scale electricity production by wind waa also an idea of the National Socialists.
See:
Green Tyranny – Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex by Rupert Darwall
AND the following quotes are from National Socialist books:
Modern socialists even use the same propaganda as the National Socialists as shown above!
251
The other side of the story, tearing up the Kosciuszko and other National Parks to build windmills is sheer vandalism and not the answer.
231
Too bad we didn’t beg them to sell it to us for a dollar! We could’ve dismantled it in a year or two and rebuilt it here within 5years.
90
I had a similar thought. They could have given it to a third world country (with coal resources) who don’t have CO2 restrictions and paid for its relocation and installation. It wouldn’t have to cost German taxpayers more, it could come out of the foreign aid budget. What a disgraceful waste of resources destroying a six year old power station. It was only ten percent into its expected life of maybe sixty years.
140
Given the clown car of idiots in their coaltion govt doing everything they can do to avoid coperating with the party half the country wanted, you can expect layers insane policies, overspending and arming up to defend against the Russian menace aka their ex energy suppliers.
With a Labor win at the next election we may have a lot in common with Germany.
10
In the USA, Trump has appointed a respected scientist Susan Monarez. She will continue in the position she has been acting in at the CDC, following the withdrawal of Trump’s initial nominee, David Weldon. David was more in line with the views of his potential boss, JFK jr. very strange
111
Apparently it was two presumed RINOs that turned against Dr Weldon.
Monarez is a PhD scientist and not a medical doctor so that might be beneficial in terms of her ability to think outside the box and the Official Narrative.
140
Note, I didn’t mean to suggest that all medical doctors can’t think beyond the Official Narrative or outside the box, I know some who can, but as we saw during covid many of them can’t or won’t.
160
They can think what they like … but they better not say too much!
120
Our Medical “doctors” are actually double pass bachelor degree holders. When they graduate they wear a mortar board, not doctoral regalia with flash hats.
In Merca they always exaggerate. Their first medical degree is MD. It really should be MBBS. We have a post graduate degree called MD. Bob Fitch was one. Many people used to call him Bob. He didn’t mind. Monique Ryan is demanding her helpers call her Doctor. Monique doesn’t even have a doctorate. Another Mercan exaggeration is their buck sergeant are equivalent to our lance corporals 🙂
70
Should be Ken Fitch AO
00
The link I put up yesterday pointed out she is ex DARPA, and big pharma money sank the original nominations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXKwBsYahbE&t=484s
10
A shocking brown thumb response to Peter for simply stating facts, this is an insult to Jo’s code of conduct, what are the mods doing ?.
14
Probaly waiting for something significant to happen
20
Sadly there was a crash during an aerobatic display at the Avalon Airshow yesterday afternoon. (I wasn’t there at the time but was there the previous three days.)
Last reports were that the pilot was seriously injured but apparently still alive.
Let’s hope he has a speedy and full recovery and gets back to flying ASAP.
https://theabj.com.au/2025/03/28/avalon-airshow/
180
The French Red Arrows had an incident a few days ago.
https://www.forcesnews.com/technology/aircraft/two-patrouille-de-france-aircraft-crash-one-another-during-stunt-saint-dizier
50
I was there and watching at the time. The pilot of the crash aircraft was performing a horizontal corkscrew manoeuvre which. I think is called a Lomcevac. He ended this inverted and then pulled a half loop toward the ground, parallel to the runway on the far side from the crowd.
Either he was too low to start with or he did not pull up enough and the plane hit the ground at a shallow angle. I was seated and people standing in front obscured my view. Also the runway is slightly elevated and the plane ended up in a dip on the other side of the runway, which also obscured my view.
We all imagined that the pilot must have been killed. The pyrotechnic crew were the nearest and therefore the first responders. But most of them seemed to be standing around. After a few minutes 4 fire engines moved in slowly. It took quite a while for an ambulance to arrive, maybe 15 minutes. It was a great relief to hear later that the pilot was alive.
Pictures of the crashed aircraft show that the fuselage is remarkably intact. The canopy is not even broken.
180
Thanks for the report Peter. Do you think it could have been a mechanical failure rather than pilot error?
60
No
Controlled flight into Terrain is my assessment.
It takes extraordinary judgement to start a half loop at the top, upside down and then pull out just above the ground.
It is a silly thing to do in retrospect.
110
“Controlled flight into Terrain’ Sounds remarkably like ‘biting the dust’.
40
Today’s Saturday thread could be retitled Ridiculous Claims By Charlatan Pseudo Doctors Of The CCCCC™️ Cult.
Fish & seafood now off the table?
“Scientists say [warning!] their modelling shows that when heavy chains and nets are dragged on the sea floor, its natural alkalinity production is reduced at an amount equivalent to losing two to eight million tonnes of CO2 storage per year.
“About a third of all the carbon dioxide we’ve emitted [there’s that flatulent word again] has been sequestered by the moana [ocean to the rest of us]”.
So saith a ™️Doctor™️ from NZ’s University of Otago’s Department of Marine Science [Voodoo Division].
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018980973/sea-trawling-exacerbating-climate-change
No chicken, no beef, no lamb, no fish… it’s bugs all the way down. Am I being speculative to wonder if Klown Schwab of WEF has shares in a locust cricket meal worm manufacturing plant buried under the mountains of Davos?
210
Cybertrucks are close to becoming road legal in Australia!
There’s already footage of Cybertrucks on Australian roads.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZWif6bHjgLs?si=pcvYKVFbYBFheWh_
We’re almost there! Our collective dream is about to come true. We will not let the woke mind virus stop this amazing vehicle from becoming road legal. This car is incredibly safe and should be in every family’s driveway due to the following features:
– Safe angular design
– Limited visibility
– Stainless steel panels that are actually glued on
– Extremely heavy
– Considered the most unsafe car in a collision (for those outside of the vehicle)
109
>…the following features
OK so you’ve pointed out a few of its numerous problems, but on the other hand at least it’s ugly!
120
Ugly? The man who invented EVs and lithium-ion batteries designs ugly cars? It is beauty personified. Just look at Elon Musk himself. The man is ridiculously handsome. How could a man who sees such beauty in the mirror not be able to create the same level of beauty at the manufacturing floor?
07
I think it looks OK, it looks like the cars I used to draw when I was 5.
10
Nuance and subtlety eludes many. Unfortunately
10
It appears the red thumbs can’t identify sarcasm.
BTW I agree with Skepticynic. The Cybertruck has got to be one of the ugliest vehicles I have ever seen.
60
Every school mom should have one !.
00
FWIW – the covid scene
Starts at
“Ten days ago, a new peer-reviewed jab study quietly published in the Journal of Infection titled, “Post-vaccination IgG4 and IgG2 class switch associates with increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections.” Corporate media ignored it, unsurprisingly. But what was perhaps most impressive was that it passed peer review and was published at all.”
Ends
“Here’s the nub: Jab-takers were sold a medical product under the false assurance of zero long-term risk— an assurance that was always biologically impossible to make. It was the complete collapse of informed consent. Public health authorities assured us there were no meaningful long-term risk— not because they had any data to prove that, but because they had no long-term data at all, the world’s most dishonest blank check on an empty bank account.
The public health morons played the most dangerous shell game in human history, and we still don’t know the full scope.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/accountability-robots-friday-march?
And more there
.
[Edit: Substituted in the word dishonest – Raquel]
150
Here’s the rub, very few people in government want the public to know what those in power furing Covid based their decisions on. And fewer still want any accountability.
The ABS reports that about 46% of people trust government.
Wow! I obviously travel in different circles. I would put the trust % at closer to 20%.
70
Was that pre- or post- WW II?
20
There is a lot of left/right influence on trust in government. Sceptics tend right, sheep tend left, and there are an awful lot of sheep.
50
In the 1950s and 60s we had heaps of sheep. At least they had wool on their backs.
00
https://news.rebekahbarnett.com.au/p/victorian-government-loses-fight
The Victorian government has lost its bid to keep secret the coronavirus briefings used to justify sending Victorians into the world’s longest lockdown.
The Court of Appeal on Thursday refused the Department of Health’s application for leave to appeal a landmark Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling in June last year to hand over the documents to Liberal [conservative] MP David Davis.
Mr Davis had been fighting for the release of the documents, including emails behind lockdown decisions between then-Public Health Commander Finn Romanes, and the chief health officer Brett Sutton, since first lodging a Freedom of Information [FOI] request in September 2020.
not holding breath here, no doubt they will drag this out as long as possible with appeals, but a tiny glimmer of a hint of maybe accountability
40
Some world card players have come up with brilliant solutions for non-problems. The next step is to create the problem to justify their solution so that they gain Nobel approval.
One recent example is the quest for net-zero. Another could have been lockdowns.
The latest example is the current US administrations determination to incorporate Canada and Greenland into their realm, the latter for “security” reasons. Why?
The only plausible threat to the US in this region is Russia with their 8,000 + nukes, almost matched by the US arsenal. The US, through NATO, appeared to have the Russian bear under control, admittedly with the European locals feeling rather comfortable knowing they had a backstop. The US now appear to be walking away from the European “troubles” and emboldening Russia to expand and attempt to conquer its neighbors. This could be stopped or at least restrained if the NATO pact was solid, and the expansionist tendencies strongly discouraged.
So the current US administration appears to be helping make Russia great again, which is why they need to annex Canada and Greenland to protect themselves from their creation? (/s I sincerely hope).
17
“This could be stopped or at least restrained if the NATO pact was solid, and the expansionist tendencies strongly discouraged.”
It was the NATO expansionist policies that gave us the invasion of Ukraine! If they had stuck to their ‘no move Eastwards’ instead of pushing to take over all the ex-USSR States, we wouldn’t be at war.
141
It was the Russian expansionist policies that prompted the ex-USSR states to seek NATO protection – they were happy in their new world.
Surprisingly, President Putin was awarded “NATO Salesman of the Year” in 2023:
He followed up again with the award in 2024:
Will he succeed in 2025?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-M_p_SEBpg
66
WOW, we certainly have some communist sympathisers here.
I assume KP would blow up his neighbour’s house if he didn’t like his [peaceful] friends. NATO was never going to attack Russia. They might now. Is that the law of unintended consequences?
I’m not saying NATO will march on Moscow.
22
The Crimean War never existed either..
10
Anyway, what’s with this communist thing?
20
The only communist countries today AFAIK are China, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos, and North Korea, but I don’t know what they’ve got to do with NATO.
10
The argument that the current US administration is emboldening Russia to expand, and that the US previously had Russia under control through NATO, falls flat when you factor that Russia “expanded” into Ukraine in 2014 (when Obama was in) and further attacked when Biden was in.
The US being “determined” to incorporate Canada is a stretch too. Greenland probably, for possible resources and both military and shipping strategy.
40
True – Obama did not appear to react (don’t really know) but President Trump in 2016 had ample opportunity to honor the Budapest Agreement and did nothing – Russia may have interpreted that as a green light to continue.
02
Except Putin did say that the war was less likely to start if Trump had been president.
More likely it was the botched departure from Afghanistan that emboldened Russia to step things up. Rather than anything to do with the current administration.
Any pleasantries Trump offers toward Russia is just a diplomatic move in their attempt to be a more neutral mediator.
00
Putin seemed to be planning his next move depending on who was in the White House. They started on the Kerch Strait Bridge within weeks of Trumps election.
00
It is a serious question.
Why did Putin went ahead with Crimean Bridge against the world disapproval between other problems, if he already had plans to take over the whole south of Ukraine? This unhappy project existed since mid-19 century. Germans even build some of it when they occupied Crimea but it did not last long…
In fact, Putin’s plans included total encircling of Ukraine, making it land-locked. That is a clear and, regretfully achievable goal. What was the reason for making such an expansive and vulnerable parallel road to Crimea?
10
I believe that Putin genuinely expected that the Minsk Agreements would be successful and he was caught by surprise when the Europeans pulled the rug on him.
Then he tried sabre rattling and tried to bully Ukraine to get the Istanbul agreement signed, but he was again surprised by how much resistance he butted up against. After that he has been making it up as he goes along.
I don’t believe that Russia ever had a plan to take Odessa and they will be extremely cautious even to cross the Dneiper. Their main purpose is to hold Sevastopol and keep a sufficiently stable region around Crimea to ensure they don’t get cut off. The bridge simply gives an alternative option.
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Tel – you should read up on Russia’s “cunning manipulator”, link below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislav_Surkov
01
What’s your point Rowjay? Surkov was a politician, did much the same as what other politicians do, the whole world over .
Now he is in disgrace and officially retired. What amazing power do you believe he has? Name something specific you believe changed the outcome in Ukraine?
20
The stupidity of our UK gov. is beyond question. Vast sums to be wasted on carbon capture projects that are highly unlikely to succeed, and even if successful won’t make any measurable difference to atmospheric CO2 levels.
“In introducing its current CCUS programme, it has learnt lessons from two previous failed attempts.”
“HM Treasury announced up to £20.0 billion of funding in March 2023 to support the early deployment of CCUS. In October 2024 it increased the funding to £21.7 billion over 25 years to cover the first five projects. At the same time, the Department recognised contingent liabilities with a maximum value of £34 billion to cover the risks it is underwriting for the programme.”
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmpubacc/351/report.html
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The lessons learned are there is a lot of taxpayer money to harvested by grifters involved in these ridiculous projects dreamed up by idiots with no valid science or engineering knowledge.
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Not that I know who to send them to, but pictures of forests and the white cliffs of Dover would be useful to any sentient being interested in capturing carbon.
70
The cheapest method of “carbon capture “ is to build more vehicles with inflatable tyres. Has anyone calculated the volume of the atmosphere that is compressed into dunlopian devices? On a related matter I have tyres on my other car that were last inflated in 2007.
Original 2007 air with 260 ppm CO2!
50
When you’re dead you don’t know you’re dead, all the pain is felt by others.
It’s the same when you’re stupid.
With that in mind it’s zero o’clock – refer to Friday post #16.
(Lazylink: https://joannenova.com.au/2025/03/friday-102/#comment-2839458)
Yet another climate doom cult prediction fails to materialise. Predictably.
Add it to the already extensive list.
Perhaps the climate loons can go sit with the God-squad rapture believers who get it wrong every single time too.
Just as the Epicurian Paradox easily destroys religion, the same logic destroys climate alarmism.
But just like religion the battle against the evil enemy is perpetual for if evil wins the show is over and the donations stop.
Like religions, the perceived evil isn’t your real enemy is it, it’s those trying to convince you it is.
The circus and fraud for the masses must go on, and the gullible need a cause to follow.
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Mainstream pharma press admits that CRISPR technology failed.
They even put someone in China in jail for reportedly making GMO designer babies with this technique. So, it must work, right? If you can make an entire designer baby, or cows without horns, then you should be able to fix someone’s vision with this method, i.e. fix just one feature instead of the whole baby! Turns out, no. You can’t. Also, the hornless cows were a major screw up.
https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/mainstream-pharma-press-admits-that
Back to the scalpel and big pharma then…
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Excellent article! A demonstration of the failures involved when you take a procedure designed for one thing and try to make it do something else, rather like their PCR testing actually…
40
It comes down to reducibility. The white-coaters always want to explain everything with one equation.
From the grand unifying theory of physics down to pain. Yes, there are physios that think all pain is due to the calf muscles…
You can’t just tweak a gene or 2 and fix a problem. You could have hundreds of genes working synergistically in unknown ways controlling how something works.
It’s like an incredibly sophisticated self-extracting archive – you can’t just tinker with bits and pieces and expect the whole thing to extract with integrity.
Maybe AI will solve it.
/ Oh yeah, there’s an AI evolution wall in the distance. Turn over AI advances to AI or progress stops. Guess what they’ll do.
10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UF59EU8ctc&pp=ygUeeCByYXkgc3BleCBnZW5ldGljIGVuZ2luZWVyaW5n
Polly Filla – what a visionary she was
00
Good Saturday morning, the Melbourne weather at its best.
The numbers vary slightly, depending how you asked your questions but it is non-disputable that French have built about 30 nuclear power stations in about 10 years. That was two generations ago.
As I have much interest but zero experience in large projects I asked my new friend for assistance. They (actually with female voice) replied :
Can we do it faster? Yes, construction could be 30–50% faster.
Can we do it cheaper? No, due to modern safety, regulatory, and labor costs.
Per MW, costs would likely be 3–5× higher than in the 1960s.
So, my own conclusion – given right leadership we can do it faster AND cheaper.
The harsh but just ruler is screaming downstairs about Eggs Benedict getting cold….
Have a nice breakfast everyone!
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Vladimir:
I’m sure you know that the UAE got 4 nuclear plants running in 10 years. 8 years Regulatory examination (which I am sure our Public Servants could stretch this to 30 years or more) of existing plants in Korea. Some ground preparation in those years as the Koreans were expecting approval, then the first plant was built *and running) in 1.5 years, followed by the other 3.
I don’t know of the actual cost but I notice that many nations are planning on new nuclear plants as they seem to offer cheaper and MORE RELIABLE electricity than “renewable”.
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Graeme, thanks.
It looks like you support my point – the dollar impact of unreliability may be calculated. Joanne’s bloggers “been there, done that”.
I kept the following exchange until somebody whacks me over the head and body with well justified arguments. But It seems none is coming :
… The cost comparisons I provided earlier were nominal US dollars (i.e., unadjusted for inflation). To get a clearer picture, I’ll adjust for inflation to constant 2024 USD and re-evaluate the cost trends.
Inflation-Adjusted Cost of Nuclear Construction (1960s vs. Today)
Cost per MW of Nuclear Power Plants
Era Nominal Cost per MW Inflation-Adjusted (2024 USD)
1960s (UNGG Reactors, France) $1.5M–2M $15M–20M
2020s (Modern PWRs, e.g., EPRs) $6M–10M $6M–10M
➡ Inflation-adjusted, old reactors were actually more expensive than modern ones per MW !
The cost difference seen today is due to stricter safety regulations, longer construction times, and financing costs, not inflation alone.
So what is my real point ?
We do not even need “right leadership”.
Even Bowen-Albanese can do the right thing, abandon Paris, etc,..
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At $6bn/GW it is on a par with snowy and they actually produce the power not just store the energy. And they do not require 9GWh in to get 6GWh out.
50
Plus they can stop wrecking the National park with the clearances for the power line – easy to just build the nuclear on or adjacent to an existing power station.
40
Barakah final cost seems to vary depending on sources, but the closest seems to be US$30bn. Although that’s expensive, it’s 5.6GW, and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the ridiculous claims by Labor and GenCost.
And each unit build time was just shy of nine years each – the builds overlapped.
30
Britain tackles the Ninja crisis
Starmer announced via X that he was going to make good on his promise to ban ninja swords, and critics were far from impressed.
“Knife crime is at epidemic levels and is ruining lives across Britain. As Prime Minister, I’ll crack down on sales of these lethal weapons once and for all.
“This is beyond stupid. Will you ban cricket bats, sharp sticks and sharpened hunks of metal? You need to lock up the criminals and allow the decent folks to arm themselves against such attackers,” Chris Loesch said.
Musician Zuby went straight to the heart of the matter, saying, “Maybe one day, they will address fatherless homes, masculinity crisis, loss of faith, soft on crime policies, unchecked mass immigration, abandoned communities, and other pertinent stuff. But until then …”
https://www.stationgossip.com/2025/03/britains-prime-minister-promises-to-axe.html
Just like youth crime here – deal with the problem – the kids and their empty lives.
If the elected pollie flotsam can’t get the job done then replace them with those that can and won’t make lame excuses or ban inanimate objects and think they’ve achieved a result.
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“If the elected pollie flotsam can’t get the job done then replace them with those that can ”
There aren’t any! Politicians do not have any incentive at all to solve those problems, they need those problems to continue to keep their power.
What do we do? Give up the Welfare State so people have to actually struggle to succeed in life, rather than sit around with computer toys playing violent games where they are the heroes? What is the point in any teenager’s life when everything they want it given to them, and they know they can lie on the couch and all their adulthood will be given to them as well.
The main thing is a blanket ‘power of arrest’ so a cop can throw you in prison at any time, for any reason, and its a political decision when you get out. First up would be all those disagreeing with the current Ministers, then a distant second would be those being a nuisance with violent crime.
So we can expect more and more rules from Govt until just living is an excuse to jail us.
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KP:
And what happens if the Welfare State collapses? Ever more debt, ever more interest payments etc.
10
Actually, both people and Govt have to live withnin their means. Well, maybe not Govt, they can just print or borrow until the country collapses.. But it would be much cheaper to run a non-Welfare State, like South Africa was when I lived there.
Tax rates plummet, bureaurat numbers plummet, and the slack in the Govt Depts now gets shaken out as people have to manage their own risks in life via the private sector. You have to select your kid’s school from the local private schools, some are charities, some are industry-supported, some just successful education institutes.
Same with the medical industry, but the demise of the Govt-sponsored cartels means alternative medicines can become mainstream and the cost ranges from very cheap to very expensive.
I don’t know what we do with the thousands of unemployed ex-Govt workers, but getting the Govt out of private industry means you could employ factory floor-sweepers for whatever they will work for.
The funny one in South Africa was that a maid and a garden boy cost the same as two Aussie people on the dole, back in the 70s, but they actually did something useful for the money. Currently gardening and house-cleaning cost $60-$70/hr in Aussie, while the people who should be doing it are doing nothing on the dole anyway!
Well, we will see, a Welfare State is always unsustainable, and everyone on here must have seen the penetration deeper and deeper into the middle-class as Govts buy more votes, until they can’t survive without borrowing for each budget. The collapse is inevitable.
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I know!!, as do we all, and that’s why the ignorant masses will donkey vote in the next coalition and the problems will still be there…
Which is why it’s bye-bye to the west in 7 years time.
It’s also why the likes of the Trumpet party won’t win – the masses don’t want to hear the truths as it forces them to confront the fact that they’ve been lied to for years and believed it all, because they made no effort to think, investigate and learn.
A comforting lie wins over a cold truth. Human nature.
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FWIW
“Once again, the Babylon Bee gets to the heart of the matter”
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gDZxzuChsmmVGTzfcTtbfOtKnXaXooCMawZerZm1IGRdUKOU57eFN3hYLjzFy4h7TJxAoeEQYXSiGShtlS1UWJaGVFpkUUjbhzVRAm7uDbfeHwBQ5-f45SkCU-yV2n74FdE5aqvElQ2-S3W86xt-vJTEHSJRENTdHNzVHzsA-bAf26HEodx7GE2X0sM/s16000/Meme%20-%20Musk%20disguises%20IRS%20building.png
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/03/once-again-babylon-bee-gets-to-heart-of.html
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FWIW
“The Funniest DEI Scam”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/03/28/the-funniest-dei-scam-n3801235
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PEOPLE WHO DON’T SUBSCRIBE TO THE SPECTATOR MISSED THIS SERIES ON THE PARALLEL UNIVERSES IN CLIMATE AND ENERGY MATTERS.
https://www.spectator.com.au/author/rafe-champion/
If you follow the advice of Rowan Dean to subscribe you can read them all online!
https://www.spectator.com.au/
TO SUBSCRIBE
https://www.spectator.com.au/join-spectator-australia/?prom=EOCYT05R
40
Already subscribed. A great publication.
40
Thanks Johnny, and I have just subscribed to Armstrong economics which I gather is your home base, in case others are interested who enjoy your comments but have not checked out your identity https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/
I also sent them a sample of work on wind droughts.
After the war people in Britain used to say “just don’t talk about the war” because it would upset their German friends and associates. More recently it seems that the unspoken imperative has been “just don’t talk about the wind droughts” even though they have almost killed Germany and Britain.
Lack of awareness of wind droughts enabled trillions of dollars to be spent on wind and solar facilities attached to the grid to obtain more expensive and less secure electricity supplies with massive collateral damage to the planet. The documentation of wind droughts by our colleague on this blog, Anton Lang and the Paul Miskelly team, could have been the most important discovery in the 20th century but it came too late to avert the suicidal quest for net zero on the back of wind and solar power.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/the-late-discovery-of-wind-droughts
https://open.substack.com/pub/rafechampion/p/we-have-to-talk-about-wind-droughts
https://www.flickerpower.com/index.php/search/categories/general/escaping-the-wind-drought-trap
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/wind-and-solar-the-energy-thieves
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Yes Rafe and Socrates is the paid service and the Blog is free.
All good stuff IMHO as is the Spectator.
00
FWIW
“The Israeli woman who speaks to the Arab world”
https://www.jns.org/the-israeli-woman-who-speaks-to-the-arab-world/
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Finally – after 3,500 years or so – the half-siblings speak with each other: Shem and Abram would be proud of the fruit of their loins.
Idit Bar says: “Our [1sraeli] students know almost nothing about our history – Jewish history, Zionism, the wars”. Always the wars.
Aren’t their young ones trained in the Torah, the Pentateuch, the Old Testament anymore? At the risk of repeating The Small Faces one-too-many times:
Wooden it be noise
ta get on wiff me neighbours.
00
Sadly, my stay in WA ends today.
It’s been without fraction of a doubt, the best 23 days for me in recent times.
There’s just so much to see and do.
I’m writing up my travels at my home site, and I still have six Posts to go. (The Perth Mint, Kings Park Botanical Gardens Banksias, The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, Busselton Jetty and Marine Observatory, Trees, and the Varroa Mite)
This evening, I depart Perth on the Indian Pacific train journey East, a four day journey with four off train experiences to also write up as well.
Perth itself is the longest Capital City on the Planet, stretching from Yanchep in the North to Mandurah (Manjra) in the South, a distance of just over 150KM, all of it classified as the Metropolitan area.
Perhaps it’s ALL a bit of a secret really. (Umm, great place, but don’t tell anybody. They’ll all want to come here and then spoil it)
Hmm! SSB or SBS? Margaret River has 213 wineries.
Link to existing Posts if anybody’s interested – Tony’s WA Visit Start at the bottom of the linked Posts and work your way up.
And trees, Tony’s writing about boring old trees. Well, just four of them really, Karri, Jarrah, Marri, and Tuart. And until you’ve see the majestic Karri Forest at Boranup, then, well, any other tree is just ….. a tree.
Tony.
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Glad that you enjoyed your visit Tony. Those wonderful trees are all regrowth, so we should be allowed to selectively log our native forests, as it’s clear that with careful forestry management, we can enjoy our native forests and still recover beautiful timber from them. Had a lot of jarrah furniture but it’s not that popular these days.
50
Dr. John Campbell – And more on Vitamin D –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKyatiw_zi0
Around 14 mins
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Another excellent video by John on Vitamin D. It included some benefits that I hadn’t heard of before such as the reduction in premature births (when compared to a deficient population).
No fault of yours or John’s but at the beginning of the video my ears were assaulted by the voice of the simpleton PM Al-bozo doing an election ad. What an insult to the mind having him precede Dr John.
Given the huge benefits of D and its cost-effective prevention of disease, you have to wonder why Australian Medicare restricts doctors giving Vitamin D tests.
[sarc]I suppose it’s better that patients get more diseases and have to be treated with expensive Big Pharma drugs. [/sarc]
80
Yes and unfortunately, a ‘You Choop’ advert. I always have my finger on the mute button just in case. Lol.
20
If you delve further the vitamin D has to be taken rectally.
06
This you? https://old.bitchute.com/video/QPklOIxmWzyb/
12
The nastiest ones with poor humour are always agency
13
Link to John Campbell’s cited Hollick review (pre-print): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v1nwRCVgBPkb7Bh5ZoTQiw8_diLrfnRB/view?usp=sharing [See Table 1].
00
The ants were right again about the rain. The collective intelligence of these little arthropods is more reliable than that of the BOM.
120
You have house guests?
40
Every single time!
20
FWIW – latest Kunstler
“Bedlam, Pending
“You need a sufficient amount of ruthlessness to run a country” — Will Chamberlain on “X” ”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/bedlam-pending
10
And
“‘DEMOCRACY AT RISK’: Pressure Groups Suing Trump Lose Their Minds After Facing One Ounce of the Left’s Own Medicine. PJM alum Tyler O’Neil writes:
Leftist groups that are suing to block President Donald Trump from fulfilling his promises to the American people can’t take the idea that the administration refuses to roll over and play dead.
Twenty-two leftist pressure groups—sorry, “civil rights organizations”—released a statement warning that Trump’s “dangerous assault on the legal profession and the rule of law” represents a threat to “the viability of our democracy.”
That’s rich.
It’s particularly rich coming from the side that got lawyers disbarred and prosecuted for merely representing their clients in challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election. (Oh, did you think we’d just forget about John Eastman?)”
More at
https://instapundit.com/711158/#disqus_thread
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All that is needed is for the word bureaucracy to be put in place of the word democracy and it all makes sense.
Yes, the bureaucracy and its political supporters really are worried about the viability of their bureaucracy.
The rest of us are either not so worried or would be happy to donate kerosene.
30
You’re close to the mark there, and I would add that the enormous growth we have seen in the size of government – and the number of people dependent on the government for their income – plays a large part in the situation we’re facing. It’s not socialism exactly, but it looks like it and behaves like it.
30
I can see why the Govt is borrowing more, they’re spending a billon dollars more on tax compliance departments, giving away $1.8billion to buy votes from people with high energy bills, $800million to buy votes from people needing subsidies to buy the house they want, $16billion to students who took a cool course at Uni to so they didn’t have to get a job and now can’t pay their loans…
..and tax cuts of 1% at the very bottom end where no-one pays tax anyway! We’d better hope the billion spent on tax compliance earns twenty times as much to pay for the rest!
For the taxpayer, the cost of a Welfare State is steep indeed, for the Govt its great! The administration of it alone soaks up thousands of people and makes their unemployment figures look good.
110
These figures are adjusted for inflation, so we are comparing like for like.
Australia’s population has risen by 33.53%
Income tax has risen by 96.24%
Total tax is up by 99.25%
Total spending is up by 128.5%
These figures confirm we are going backwards and crystalise the sense that taxes and spending are too high.
Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t end there.
The Federal public service has grown by 45.75%
The cost of those federal public servants has risen by a whopping 427%
Government organisations have increased by 86.2%
And our politicians think all will be OK (until they get their retirement money).
This from 2004/5 to 2024/5.
50
Thing is, using 04/05 as a reference year – this was just at the start of ‘New Public Management’ and outsourcing.
I don’t reckon many Government Departments could even run their own Payroll these days.
Even the Australian Office of Financial Management contracts out running their payroll. https://www.tenders.gov.au/Atm/ShowClosed/6a21148a-ed33-f08e-eabb-d405ead2a09a?PreviewMode=False
Based on the theory of NPM, if the efficiencies were gained, the core civil service should have shrunk considerably…
10
FWIW
“WATCH: President Trump Delivers Outstanding Answer to a Simple Question that Has Flummoxed Democrats for Years”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/watch-president-trump-delivers-outstanding-answer-simple-question/
40
FWIW
Which “right” are you discussing?
“Right, Left, Right — a Blast From The Past From October 2015.”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2025/03/28/right-left-right-a-blast-from-the-past-from-october-2015/
10
The latest on Mark Steyn:
In summary, a plodging saga of hockey sticks and Bleak House. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/mark_steyn_s_reversal_of_fortune.html
30
Proficient historians will add to Australian history an event at about year 2000 when a change happened to Australian society. People moved from thinking “Can do. Let us work out how to solve this problem” to a dominant “Someone (e.g. the Government) should do something about it”.
Part of the response was a sudden change in the size and cost of the bureaucracy, the dilution of personal freedoms such as the Covid lockdowns, the rise of crime by youngsters as the judiciary lost its way of Can Do and became pearl clutches, horrible social engineering like DEI and ESG was imposed, the military was attacked by feminism and weird Brotherton report style tactics.
There are so many more examples of this social change that listing them is boring.
Question is, will me pull out of this nosedive to collective loss of ambition, or will an event like the emergence of a national role model “leader” or two make a difference?
Come on, you individuals who are young enough and bright enough, step up to the leadership plate and replace dogma, cant, failed leftist ideology, useless unionism, corruption of education and so on with a return to high ideals and values. Geoff S
110
If it is to be it is up to me.
30
Nothing can be done until we move from a “seek permission to do things” mind frame to a “It’s none of your business what I do” mind frame.
That won’t happen until women are removed from politics and government. Good luck with that!
100
“That won’t happen until women are removed from politics and government. ”
They just can’t help being mothers…
10
cops like Dutton like to get their noses in people’s business too
31
Quick Question – got Cold/Monday Night, Wife followed the next day
I attacked it with Betadine with carrogen nasal spray against covid, 3 times a day (have just reordered another 2 from Malaysia)
Only took cold & flu with Pseudoephedrine night to stop drippy nose for 2 nights
As at this morning basically feeeling fine no Temperature, but my wife (who only used Betadine Nasal Spary twice & under protest), had a bad night and was feeling not fine.
Both did Covid Test, and for me, 1st Time Positive – My Wife 4 Covid Vaccines, me – none
Telehealth Call from our Female GP (looks after both of us), responding within 10 mins of our call, she, besides as always telling me off for not being Covid Vaccinated, prescribed
Nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, sold under the brand name Paxlovid, is a co-packaged medication used as a treatment for COVID-19. It contains the antiviral medications nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, developed by Pfizer. Nirmatrelvir inhibits SARS-CoV-2 main protease, while ritonavir is a strong CYP3A inhibitor, slowing down nirmatrelvir metabolism and therefore boosting its effect. It is taken by mouth
Escripted to both our phones for our youngsters to go and get for us, and whilst we were on the phone, renewed my other scipts as well.
As I am feeling fine, Oxygen 97, I said to my Wife, the kids can get your prescription filled and I will leave mine for the future
Anyone had Paxlovid & Thoughts of effectiveness?
I am on Quercetin with Bromelain, NAC, Zinc, Vit D, Vit C
60
From https://c19early.org/
Paxlovid. Paxlovid was effective10-89, but has significant side effects, increased risk of replication-competent viral rebound40, and extensive contraindications90,91. Resistant variants are likely92-97 and efficacy with current variants may be lower. The degree of efficacy during the pandemic is unclear—Pfizer RCTs report very good results, while non-Pfizer RCTs32,72 show relatively poor results, and Pfizer has denied access for other independent trials98. About one third of people may be at risk of a major or contraindicated drug interaction, which may increase significantly for patients over 60 or with several comorbidities that also increase COVID-19 risk91,99. Hoertel et al. found that over 50% of COVID-19 patients that died had a contraindication for paxlovid. Use may promote the emergence of variants that weaken host immunity and potentially contribute to long COVID101. Observational studies are often highly confounded—in population studies the group of patients that seek out and receive paxlovid is very different to the control group in ways not covered by typical adjustments. Patients identified as taking paxlovid are also patients that may be more conscientious, have improved access to the medical system, are more likely to receive care in case of progression, are more likely to take additional measures or known beneficial non-prescription treatments, and are more likely to be advised of the same due to contact with the medical system. Studies are also often confounded via immortal time bias and failure to exclude contraindicated patients in the control group.
3CLpro inhibitors. Paxlovid inhibits SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro, a key enzyme in the viral replication process. In addition to existing compounds that function as 3CLpro inhibitors, e.g., quercetin and curcumin, many novel compounds have been developed. Paxlovid is unlikely to be the most effective, the safest87,100,102,103, or the most resistant to variants92-97, however it is the most profitable. Other novel 3CLpro inhibitors showing reduced risk for COVID-19 include atilotrelvir, ibuzatrelvir, and leritrelvir104-110.
60
Thanks Furiously Curious
I had forgotten https://c19early.org/
I have HCQ ready to go if I need it, and from https://c19early.org/timeline.html
I also take Colchicine, Melatonin, have Telfast – Antihistamine H1RA, and when I had excess burping 2 nights ago, Alka Selzer – lemon juice & Sodium Bicarbonate in a glass of water, resolved that
Happy not to get Paxlovid scipt for me prescribed
40
Furiously Curious seems to have covered the ground on Paxlovid. My recollection from Covid days is that it promoted Covid rebound. I know two people who took it without apparent ill effects. But who knows?
Oz, you are lucky to have supply of HCQ. Good for you. It is still impossible, I believe, to get a GP to prescribe Ivermectin. They are all just too spooked from the Covid dogma. Many sufferers got by with aspirin, antihistamines and/or a steroid.
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“It is still impossible, I believe, to get a GP to prescribe Ivermectin.”
That’s true. I believe it is still possible to source it direct from India, where most of it is made, using an outlet such as IndiaMart. Several problems arise however. Firstly, there are stories suggesting that various brands of Ivermectin made in India are substandard, containing less of the active ingredient than stated, and also the possibility that the tablets contain dangerous bacteria. Australia’s TGA is behind these stories, so …
Secondly, there is a chance that imported Ivermectin might be intercepted by Australian customs and confiscated, with threats of fines and convictions. Rather OTT for a drug that is known to be safe, likely to be effective, and incurs no cost to Medicare.
Lastly, if you enquire through IndiaMart you will subsequently receive many emails from potential suppliers, and it could be difficult working out which are legit and can be trusted.
20
My Ziverdo kits came from Maxwell Enterprises, a local chemist wholesaler in Mominpura, with no problems. Do they work?? Who knows? I don’t get sick often enough to test them.
My younger bro’s mate who had cancer tried the intravenous VitC in Germany, but it didn’t keep him alive. Younger brother tried monoclonal antibodies after all the chemo, but they didn’t keep him alive either.
I have a feeling we understand very little about cancer, how many types, what works and why, and we might be just doing bloodletting with leeches compared to a few decades time.
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I used Ziverdo during Covid, so I just took a look at their website. They sell a brand called ‘Iverheal’, which is one of those identified by the TGA as containing, “… less than the declared amount of ivermectin written on the labels.”
Oddly, they don’t specify by how much. If it was 9mg I would be concerned, but if it was 11.9mg I wouldn’t worry. The very fact that they don’t provide such detail is unhelpful.
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I don’t remember reading anything about it that would have headed me in any direction but “away”
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All I am willing to say is that personally I will never take Paxlovid again. Maybe it’s just me….but.
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Paxlovid without medicare is $1160, so the taxpayer is helping out Pfizer big time. Remdesiver, the suicide drug, is still being touted!! It might even be $1400?
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My late wife (57 years married) past away in 2022 from COVID and co-morbidities. She commenced a Paxlovid course within 2.5 days of testing COVID positive. It had zero effect. Whether it was COVID or the co-morbidities + age (79 yrs) that took her out I cannot say. But she had lived with the co-morbidities for some time and was managing them commensurate with her age. Also had no sign of mental decline. In hindsight of course I would rightly or wrongly not recommend Paxlovid to anyone, but I assume there are now many published reports on its efficacy or not? At my time of desperate need you grab any straws, but the only info out there then was essentially the word of big pharma. Hobson’s choice?
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“At my time of desperate need you grab any straws …”
That’s my situation presently. My wife has advanced ovarian cancer and I have been desperately seeking alternative treatments, because all the otherwise excellent specialists are offering is more chemo. She’s been taking Ivermectin for some months but, so far, it hasn’t kept the cancer at bay. She has an aggressive form of the disease though, so it’s possible that the Ivermectin has at least slowed it down. She’s also taking 5000iu vit. D, 100mg K2, a lot of vit. C and Quercetin (since two days ago).
I am rapidly becoming mentally exhausted though, trying to sift through many, many suggested ‘cures’ online, ranging from the feasible to the patently insane. People in this situation are vulnerable and desperate, so inevitably get targeted by crooks and scammers.
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Sorry to hear that Steve,
If I were in your position, I’d double her vitamin D intake, check its cofactors ( iron in particular), add vitamin A and zinc, and check her vitamin D blood levels, and demand a test immediately if the doc can’t immediately give you a very recent result.
I must add that I am not a doctor, so I cannot give you medical advice, merely personal opinions.
Best wishes,
Dave B
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“… check her vitamin D blood levels …”
Thanks for reminding me David. I suggested she add a vit. D check to her last screening, but we haven’t yet rec’d her results. My understanding is though that the ‘guidelines’ are too low and that ‘compromised’ individuals, especially the elderly (she’s 67yo), should aim higher.
What level are you aiming for and why?
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Morning Steve,
I’m targeting 200 nmols/Litre, and am currently above that. I got there on 12,000IU per day for 8 months in 2022 when 10,000 per day didn’t quite get me there. The 12,000 got me over the top quite quickly, and I’ve now dropped back to 8,000 per day on which my levels are slowly going down towards the 200 nmols/L.
Why? I’ve seen different views on dosage and frequency and opted for a daily intake as my way of ensuring I remember to take it and ensuring I have enough at all times to allow for possible exposure at any time.
My reading and watching has pointed to the higher blood levels as being beneficial and non toxic, although it’s been said that just taking 1000 IU per day has some benefit. On the other hand, the Indonesian study at the start of the pandemic showed that 100 nmols/L at least was required against Covid. Another graph showed the benefit dropping off as the intake increased, but some benefit was still observed. I opted to go for highest which had been observed as non-toxic.
Also, I should have mentioned earlier (sorry) that while the orally taken capsule form takes about 14 days to be converted to the useable form in the blood stream, there is a form which can be taken intravenously and is immediately available for action – calcifidiol. Should be available in hospitals. A big dose immediately seems to be the way to go. How big? I don’t have much data on this, but 50,000 to 100,000 IU (equivalent?) would be my choice.
One of John Campbell’s guests, living in Italy was able to get it (calcifidiol) without prescription there, but I’ve not found any available here from chemists so far.
This source covers some of the above:
https://media.mercola.com/assets/pdf/ebook/vitamin-d-in-the-prevention-of-covid-19.pdf
Hope this helps,
Dave B
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Thanks Dave. Food for thought.
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Steve, I can’t give you medical advice either but something that may be worth looking at is fenbendazole. A lot has been written about it although there are some claims of harm and poor solubility. It’s hard to say if that’s true because during covid “they” said IVM and HCQ were “harmful” as well, an obvious lie.
Dr John Campbell has talked about it:
https://youtu.be/5Q5QjEPGNNg
Unfortunately after the covid fiasco most thinking people have lost faith in the medical “profession” and Big Pharma and find ourselves more or less on our own with most medical decisions and most “professionals” unwilling or unable to go outside the box.
I wish you and your wife the very best.
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Spot on. We are somewhat adrift, medically. We dare not tell my wife’s oncologist that she’s taking Ivermectin. I have tried to raise the subject of alternative medications with them, such as the ‘safe’ topic of vits D & C, but every time they shoot it down saying there is no evidence that they help. If they were to at least admit it was worth giving these things a try, I would respect them more.
Every aspect of our lives has been irredeemably and dangerously politicised.
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Wife’s rheumatologist was unhappy with vitD levels at 75, more happy at 95.
on CoQ10 – effectiveness is unproven and expensive….
Fortunately wife needing IVM has not occurred…
Alas my vitD levels have fallen even with the long term 1000U/day. Not enough outside time? Now 2000U/day
00
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FWIW – digging deeper
“U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Still Fund Controversial Animal Testing in Australia Amid Trump Administration Cuts”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/u-s-taxpayer-dollars-still-fund-controversial-animal/
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Just stop oil hanging up the hi-vis
Three years after bursting on the scene in a blaze of orange, at the end of April we will be hanging up the hi vis.
So it is the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge and slow marching in the streets. But it is not the end of trials, of tagging and surveillance, of fines, probation and years in prison.
https://juststopoil.org/2025/03/27/just-stop-oil-is-hanging-up-the-hi-vis/
And stay out!
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I note that they claim:
“We take all possible steps to ensure that no-one’s safety is compromised by our actions.”
But without explaining how they did that when their roadblocks delayed desperately ill patients from getting to hospital, or prevented terrified loved ones from attending the last breaths of dying relatives.
The left and hypocrisy. Inseparable.
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https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2025/03/13/
Leaders agreed to support:
efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally and double energy efficiency globally by 2030
the development of strategic low carbon value chains
They also acknowledged the need to jointly support the production of safe and sustainable low carbon hydrogen and sustainable fuels for the decarbonisation of transport.
To strengthen cooperation and boost South Africa and EU’s competitiveness, leaders discussed:
launching negotiations on a clean trade and investment partnership (CTIP)
how to facilitate South African exports of electric and hybrid vehicles to the EU market
Critical minerals
Leaders recognised the need to harness critical minerals for sustainable and inclusive growth and development and supported the development of a framework towards clean industrialisation and investments.
They also supported the opening of negotiations between the EU and South Africa with a view to establishing a memorandum of understanding on raw materials between both partners.
As the International Climate Finance Plan leaves the building…
01
FWIW
“Science Magazine Unfairly Attacks the Journal of the Academy of Public Health”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/03/27/science-magazine-unfairly-attacks-the-journal-of-the-academy-of-public-health/
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https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/ukhsa-issues-high-virus-level-10062446
Alcohol-based hand sanitisers are not effective against norovirus.
Soap and water are the new black this year
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wonder if good old, keeping short clean fingernails will ever make a come back?
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Yes, just as soon as a new, young ‘medical expert’ invents the idea and publishes it in their new book.
00
FWIW – add to the mix
“The Knights of New Turkey
A new book sheds light on President Erdoğan’s rise and his nation’s complex history.”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/03/28/the-knights-of-new-turkey-n3801241
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FWIW –
“Eh? Gawd!”
“‘We Got Her’: British Police Arrest Dangerous 80-Year-Old Who Spread Butter Using A Knife”
https://babylonbee.com/news/we-got-her-british-police-arrest-dangerous-80-year-old-who-spread-butter-using-a-knife
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https://uk.yahoo.com/news/police-arrest-parents-complained-daughter-211737377.html
The parents of a nine-year-old girl were arrested by police after they complained about their daughter’s primary school in a WhatsApp group.
Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine were reportedly detained in front of their young daughter by six officers before being left in a cell for eight hours.
They said they were questioned on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance on school property.
After a five-week investigation, police concluded that there should be no further action.
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The only building to collapse in Bangkok due to the Myanmar earthquake was under construction by China.
Bad workmanship and design?
https://youtu.be/XpR8DL3uB90
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It was under construction David..
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FWIW
There are plaudits and then – – –
“Anthony Albanese has been a disaster for Australia”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/29/anthony-albanese-has-been-a-disaster-for-australia/
Boosted by the introduction at SDA
“Australia’s Carney.”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/03/29/saturday-on-turtle-island-146/
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https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:29875156
Nothing new under the sun
A really great collection of persuasive maps here
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To Steve of Cornubia – please check this out.
https://makismd.substack.com/p/ivermectin-fenbendazole-and-mebendazole-8db?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1385328&post_id=159888633&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=8t7g5&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
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