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
Electric cars. In my local paper is a photo of an electric car that managed to smash through a low brick wall and into a garden, coming to rest in the shed. The passengers got out and the fire service notified. They commented;
“Crews utilised our mobile data terminal to find the isolation locations and kill switches for the high voltage systems in order to make the vehicle safe.Due to the damage sustained the crew had to use spreading and cutting equipment to remove the bonnet so they could access these systems and make the vehicle and scene safe.”
There isn’t enough data yet to demonstrate if EV’s are more likely to burst into flames than ICE vehicles but the consequences are far more serious with EV fires which are very difficult to put out.
However my main observation is that a lot of equipment was needed to deal with this, which presumably isn’t available to every fire crew and specialist training required to operate it. If this accident had happened on a busy road, or in a built up area, at night, or the occupants had been trapped, the consequences could have been horrific.
Presumably domestic solar panels, Inverters and associated batteries must present similar concerns to firefights. The recommendation is that any battery system should be in a garage or outhouse away from the house.
210
I’m not so sure that being in a garage is that safe either. I was talking to a fire fighter whilst waiting at the vets. He actually told me that there were more EV fires than get reported. They are told to keep quite about them and not talk to media. I live in a rural area and there was a house a few kilometers down the road from me. One morning, driving past it, I noticed that the garage had burned down. The garage was separate and it looked like the house was relatively untouched. The next time I drove past a few weeks later, the whole house had been demolished. Turns out, according to the fire fighter, the house was badly contaminated by the toxic fumes caused by the battery fire. The contamination was so bad that they couldn’t guarantee that the house would be clean enough to to give the owners the peace of mind that they wanted, especially with young children. It was a better outcome to demolish the house, clean up the site and rebuild. There was no mention in the local media of the fire at all, let alone the cause. I suppose, being remote rural, it was easy enough to ignore. However, a pretty massive blaze at a recycling plant in Auckland, caused by lithium batteries, wasn’t that easy to sweep under the carpet. So far this year, there have been 13 waste truck fires in Auckland caused by lithium batteries. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/recycling-plant-fire-prompts-auckland-call-for-proper-battery-disposal/V7HF3SMOUJBBHC5HKND42PBVVY/
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Gives added meaning to Talking Heads’ song: Burning Down The House.
To save the children we had to demolish their home – $cience!
Utter Madness… which reminds me of another ‘70s song: Our House, In The Middle Of The HEAT 🔥
110
And what if the Chicomms have built “back doors” into their EVs that are exported to the West like they have with solar panels?
In the even of hostilities they could issue a command to cause all the cars to self-immolate and potentially destroy an entire city.
It would be practically impossible to check code and hardware for such back doors.
160
There’s an article or two on taking code from processors in Silicon Chip, I bet you’ve got a copy. It’s not an easy feat to achieve once the program has been loaded. And not all processors provide access to their internal code.
https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/SC/2025/January/Extracting+Data+from+Micros
40
Robin is a sometime author here and this very well referenced report on the impossibility of net zero is worth reading
.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/net-zero-unachievable-dangerous-and-pointless/
70
The unachievability aspect seems more of a feature than a bug.
It provides license for endless, limitless spending and hence endless limitless fraud.
90
Yep, always striving for that next goal always imminent, just around the corner, soon to be available or under development. Nothing ever seems to just arrive and work, without further expense , adjustment or compromise. This would not wash in most other areas of life, but is BAU for nett zero green grifters.
10
Standing only seats to be introduced on budget airlines?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-14734831/Low-cost-airlines-standing-seats-2026.html
60
I would only use it if the price was VERY good, and for no longer than about a one hour flight, that is, one hour from the time of entering the cabin to the time of leaving, so probably about a half hour of actual flight time.
70
Ahhh if only travel was so predictable. I once spent 8 hours taking a 1 hr flight and that was only the airport/in aircraft time. We sat idling so long waiting to take off , we had to return to the yerminal and refuel. Then sat idling as long again before we eventually got away. Should have got the train.
These seats will be just the thing for the drunken boyz headed to Ibiza to enrich the Spanish culture.
90
“Fasten your seat belt” is going to be interesting then
110
I wonder how they rate for hard landings, cashes, turbulence that causes high positive Gs into the seat. They spend a fair bit of time on design of helicopter seats as the may have to help survive high G forces during auto rotation (engine out landing on rotor energy)
Not sure how humans would deal with that seat coming at them at multiples of body weight.
10
A similar seat was proposed by one of the low- cost carriers years ago, along with other proposals such as double-stacked semi-recliners for economy and three-tiered bunks on a 380, occupying the full aircraft internal height (Lufthansa).
10
Yuk!
00
The real world is starting to show the long term results of the “clot shot” – not that they would admit to that as the causative agent. . .
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/21/heart-attacks-work-fatal-medical-risk-cardiac-emergency-training.html
110
In the linked video(1) Jeff Taylor talks about the UK political prisoner Lucy Connolly who is in jail for 31 months for an angry Tweet she deleted after a few hours.
The Tweet was in relation to her anger about the murder of three young girls and injuries to others by Axel Rudakubana. No motive was ever established.
A shocking miscarriage of justice, especially as numerous people in the UK aren’t even being sent to jail for serious actual crimes.
The UK is now arresting over 12,000 people per year for thoughts expressed on social media. (That figure was from 2023, it’s probably more now.) (2,3)
1) https://youtu.be/vKMqdQAuP4A
2) https://freespeechunion.org/police-make-30-arrests-a-day-for-offensive-online-messages/
3) https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news-corner/uk-crackdown-social-media-commenters-silencing-critical-voices/
170
Netanyahu etc condemn criticism of their government
Source:
Jerusalem Post, May 20
https://m.jpost.com/israel-news/article-854678
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Leftists are the same everywhere, they would rather submit than do what is morally correct.
The Gazans started the war with an horrific terrorist attack against Israel on October 7th 2023 plus took hostages.
People seem to have forgotten that.
Israel takes extraordinary measures not to harm civilians but Hamas terrorists do everything they can to put their own civilians in harm’s way such as putting their terrorist headquarters in schools, hospitals, UN offices, apartment buildings etc..
And all Hamas have to do is give the remaining hostages back and Israel will stop attacking.
Plus Gazans aren’t starving, vast amounts of food have been delivered there.
And the Israelis aren’t genociding the Gazans either but any civilians killed are a direct result of Hamas policy of embedding themselves among civilians.
Why so many people are inclined to support terrorists is beyond me.
344
FWIW
“Trump uses his remarkable abilities once again as he convinces the Democrats to wholeheartedly support white genocide.”
https://x.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1925234283117183260
Via Instapundit
And
“NOAH ROTHMAN: Yet Another Gaza Famine That Wasn’t.”
https://instapundit.com/721008/#disqus_thread
41
Some corrections:
Your hero has stated his 6 goals of the war: getting “the remaining hostages back” is in last place … and not the SINGLE goal you are claiming.
Therefore the “attacking” will continue until all the other goals are met, even after the last hostage is returned.
Do you have any idea what the Blast Radius of a 2000 pound bomb is?
Is using those weapons taking “extraordinary measures not to harm civilians”? Some people would dispute that.
415
Always interesting discussing these conflicts, regarding where people choose to pick the start date for their narrative and who did what to who and when. The Ukraine is very similar in that way. Such is life I guess.
Mmmm there is another one, Ned Kelly. Robin Hood-esque folk hero or a police murdering thug?
(For oveseas people , Ned Kelly is a historical outlaw type character. Such is life were his alleged last wirds on the gallows)
10
Nut’n’Yahoo, who had been facing serious jail time if convicted of his numerous misdemeanours, conveniently had a ‘new’ war to rouse up solidarity through an age-old enemy: their half-brothers.
Operation Gideon’s Chariots, signed-off on May the 4th be with you, is the latest in their 4,000-year-long battle to claim someone else’s land as their imagined sacred and chosen birthright.
Maybe they could go back to where all this nonsense began – Ur of the Chaldees – except that land is now called Iraq: oh what a holy quagmire. Shalom?
517
Nothing is more certain to add heat to hostility than both sides claiming to have God on their side.
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The Bible is pretty clear, it all belongs to the Jews, including Syria !.
End of argument.
01
>The Bible is pretty clear, it all belongs to the Jews
The Bible is pretty clear God led the Israelites to the Promised Land and said you can have it if you slaughter all the existing inhabitants, the Canaanites, man woman child and donkey.
So the Israelites did just that.
So by rights the Holy Lands should belong to the ‘traditional owners’, the Canaanites.
00
Greg in NZ,
I’m surprised. It surprises me in the same way as Joanne’s attitude to COVID surprised me. You clearly have sceptical faculties, but somehow they don’t fire in this case when (it seems to me) the propaganda is just as thick on the ground as it is with climate and was with COVID.
Do you not feel inclined to laugh when, yet again, we see men running, carrying children past the camera into hospital; or women beating their heads in grief in centre-frame? If you pulled back the view, can you not see some sort of director’s chair, clapperboard, etc., setting up the shots and telling them to do it again, but with more conviction, and stick a pin in that child so he’ll cry properly?
Does the uniformity of reporting not seem even faintly like the climate malarkey? We hear lots about Israeli soldiers shooting around hospitals, but we hear precious little about the people shooting at them. Odd, isn’t it?
Today reporters are telling us that Israel is in danger of becoming a pariah nation. Is it not plausible that this was the very aim of Hamas in mounting the October 7 attacks?
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I didn’t see an inconsistency between Jo’s attitude to Covid and having similar “sceptical faculties” applied to the climate propaganda.
With the climate we have a claim that average temperatures have increased over the past century. I don’t think Jo disputes that.
With Covid we have a claim that a virus was infecting people. I don’t think Jo disputes that.
With climate we have various claims about the extent of the danger, the cause of it, the efficacy of the proposed remedy, and what to do about it.
With Covid we have various claims about the extent of the danger, the cause of it, the efficacy of the proposed remedy, and what to do about it.
Jo has questioned the mainstream narrative in each of those aspects of both.
If she doesn’t share your view on each and every aspect of both climate change and Covid, then that shouldn’t be a surprise and doesn’t mean she is wrong.
Being a “skeptic” and running a contrarian view to the mainstream narrative on one thing doesn’t automatically mean you’re always a contrarian to the mainstream on everything. Sceptics don’t always disagree. They just don’t always blindly accept what they’re told.
.
What was surprising about Jo’s attitude to Covid?
10
Strop,
The dawn of COVID is a while back now, and I confess I didn’t keep a journal of Jo’s sins against the sceptical ideal, but I remember being surprised by her actions at the time, and at how this blog was, for a time, dominated by (COVID) alarmist voices. I changed to weekly look-ins, hoping to see that the blog had returned to sanity. It took a while.
Still, without specifics, there’s really only one sin in scepticism: failing to doubt. I think Jo did commit this on occasion when the world revolved around COVID.
10
Ah, but where is UR? The current Site was nominated in the 1920’s by a British Archeologist excavating in eastern Iraq. Only a possible site, although there is some belief that UR was a seaport with trade to northern Arabia, and possibly either from there to the Indus Valley.
Also there were trade routes through the west at least as far as Greece (possibly via Crete).
UR seems to have declined in importance before the Akkadian empire took over. It stretches a bit having the Israelites being around in those times. (Yes, I know that they may have been around before 1,000 B.C. but double that time when armies went north and south over that land, especially The Assyrians who had a short way with rebellious tribes.
10
In the linked video the History Debunked YouTube channel discusses one of Britain’s immigration scams via the university system.
Much the same thing happens in Australia.
It’s very profitable for the universities in both cases and they are both graduating people who can’t or can barely speak English in some cases so there’s no way they could have done the actual coursework claimed.
https://youtu.be/UxGxEgNS5kQ
210
Video, Congo’s “Boat of Hell” documenting the misery of the 2,000 passengers as they first wait fir the boat to leave and then the 1700km journey up the Congo River.
https://youtu.be/KPMZdUg2GjM
10
Huh! Gives Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness a whole new meaning.
Tony.
20
A preview of Australia’s future only with water.
Argentina was converted from one of the wealthiest nations to one of the poorest in a century. It got very bad before the direction was recently reversed.
Australia has been in decline since the late 1990s. How bad will it get?
100
How bad will it get?
Sometimes there is an advantage to being in the boomer generation. With luck our generation will never experience the answer to that question.
Alas the children and grandchildren seem to profess no interest past next weekend. Though sometimes comment on strange government regulations (making it more difficult and expensive) regarding the building of new housing.
20
The boomers are nearly all dead or retired so the Gen Xers and millennials now have no excuse for not getting the country back on track. I’m sure it will happen. mandatory [it seems] /s
50
Refreshing to see US media covering hugely destructive weather without having to hear it blamed on CAGW or Climate Change
2 Videos less than 2 minutes each:
https://d1l66zlxaqpl1u.cloudfront.net/wp-gray/CNN_KHBS_WLKY_WFIE_KMOV_SEE_PREFONTS/20250520/682c8b75e5760e32ad8e8df6/t_0c92dc4f518f4a81a4763020d0336f16_name_BHDN_PY_03TU_SYSTEM_SPAWNING_SUPER_33fd8ef6_af98_4ae2_b07d_410d12c84d5d/file_1280x720-2000-v3_1.mp4
https://d1l66zlxaqpl1u.cloudfront.net/wp-gray/CNN_Newsource/20250520/682c1ece2df9ce090e728e7a/t_11e5208bcbec4b7c9110e7d9e4befceb_name_BHDN_NE_020MO_KY__VIDEO_SHOWS_FAMIL_75087eb5_8919_4866_8067_81fa49e6684f/file_1280x720-2000-v3_1.mp4
50
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Horrific.
Already about 4% of all deaths in Canada are attributable to “euthanasia”, often for trivial reasons.
As expected, the bar is being continually lowered, now it’s children without parental consent.
140
This won’t end until it’s one of the prime minister’s kids being knocked off without his knowledge.
Remember, you’ll all be dead and they’ll be happy.
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Only a few short steps to requiring people to prove that they do not want to die.
I really detest people who want to make rules for other people to live by. This is more objectionable.
90
Does that also extend to telling people they have to live?
I’ve often thought we are kinder to animals than we are to ourselves.
20
Does it extend to telling people they have to live?
My detesting? Yes but perhaps a little less because a compulsion to live can be withdrawn down the path and the decision put back into the individual’s own hands.
00
“‘Shrinking Nemo’: Smaller clownfish sound alarm on ocean heat”
The BBC hyperventilates again.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c629z4y762xo
Some fish shrank by several millimetres, so we have to return to the Eighteen Century. FFS.
“The research recorded clownfish living on coral reefs slimmed down drastically when ocean temperatures rocketed in 2023. Scientists say the discovery was a big surprise and could help explain the rapidly declining size of other fish in the world’s oceans.”
More –
“Global warming is a big challenge for warm-blooded animals, which must maintain a constant body temperature to prevent their bodies from overheating. Animals are responding in various ways: moving to cooler areas or higher ground, changing the timing of key life events such as breeding and migration, or switching their body size.”
I’m not a senior lecturer – and I know most fish are cold blooded. Okay, some tuna, and IIRC a few others, can keep internal temperature several degrees above ambient – but they’re not classically ‘warm-blooded’.
I dunno about clown fish. And I doubt the BBC does, either.
Auto
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I bet they chose clownfish because 1) they are popular due to Nemo and 2) the people promoting this BS are themselves clowns so they are an appropriate icon.
170
Every time this issue is raised I wonder why those fish and marine animals (sharks were mentioned in Aus media…) do not migrate to cooler waters.
An unbiased scientist must know that there are no natural or man-made obstacles to migration under water. Fish like all of us follow their food, disappearance of certain species in some area and its appearance in other can be proven scientifically rather speculatively.
I suspect the mob who published that article are recent graduates, which just proves what we know of the modern Universities.
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Imagine if the reason for the shrinking fish was because they are being predated by MORE fish. This would actually imply that the reef(s) are doing well and that all fish are getting more active.
Unfortunately for the prey species, it means that the young, which can easily hide in the coral, are starting to represent a larger portion of the population.
Maybe that proportion change is the real reason for the size difference measured between the study periods.
Fish are just doing what fish do.
160
Honesty and openness are cleansing and refreshing
Trump confronts Cyril Ramaphosa
Naturally the BBC defended Cyril and castigated Trump
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cpqe7rp388vt
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TRUMP doesn’t mess around. He is a true leader and takes no BS.
No other world “leader” would dare show the truth like that.
It’s unbelievable (or not) that the commies at the BBC called this an “ambush”. Obviously they support race-based violence.
211
What makes it more poignant is the Boers settled land that was previously used by nomads- then the blacks moved in later- so there is no possible argument over “Colonisation”- the Boers were the original settlers. SA is in for a rough time if the Boers all up and leave and migrate to America or preferably Australia. Boers are expert at farming marginal land- makes them very valued migrants to Australia- but I don’t expect the brainiacs in charge of immigration to enlighten…
230
Yes, they would have been ideal immigrants to Australia but Dutton denied them permission to come in 2018.
America’s gain, Australia’s loss.
100
FWIW
“South Africa’s Julius Malema Responds to Trump’s Claim of ‘Genocide’ by Doubling Down: ‘Kill the Farmer!’”
https://www.breitbart.com/africa/2025/05/21/genocide-south-africa-julius-malema-responds-to-trump-doubles-down-kill-the-farmer-doubling-down/
I guess, in a way, you could call him a Trump supporter?
50
Can it really be true?
Apparently “renewable” energy generation is expensive, according to facts.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2025/05/20/kathryn-porter-the-true-affordability-of-net-zero/
But… but… but wind and sunshine are free.
Aren’t they?
110
Even though wind and solar are “the cheapest of all electricity generation methods” as we are constantly told, the reality is that the more we get, the more expensive electricity becomes.
The Government and Left could only achieve the acceptance of these two contradictory positions by the introduction of Orwellian Doublethink. In this case it is that “wind and solar electricity is the cheapest of all”. Just like the classic doublethink “war is peace”, “freedom is slavery”, “ignorance is strength”.
110
If I ran a taxi service I’d offer free rides during the day out to the town limits and beyond.
But come the evening, when you want to come home. Well it ain’t free no more….
Sounds like solar to me.
140
Strangely I was looking at air fares recently. It seemed that the airlines were doing that. The outgoing and return fares were sometimes quite different.
20
Why I always book two one way fares, mostly using different airlines.
10
Coal is also “free”, no one writes a cheque to “the Maker”. It costs to mine and transport but W/S also cost to collect.
50
Now that everyone has mobile phones and is online 24/7 it’s difficult to imagine how people used to keep in contact, back in the day, or organise to meet people.
E.g. you’d say you would meet at a certain place at a certain time, no dynamic updates via the phone or text messages.
And you had to wait until you got home to get phone messages, either on an answering machine or someone had written it on a message pad. (Better answering machines had remote access.)
And you remembered commonly used phone numbers.
Office messages were conveyed by voice or memos and they were meaningful and limited in number, not 50 emails on the sane trivial topic.
Community organisations would send out monthly printed newsletters, not daily “updates”.
Meetings were held in person, not via zoom.
People took notes at meetings, and understood what the meeting was about. They didn’t ask the AI bot to explain what the meeting was about or make a summary for them.
Etc..
210
We were smarter, better organised, more in touch with the real world and had more responsibility than current generations. The changes have not helped the prime reason for our existence, to reproduce.
Now we can do more in a shorter time period we just waste more time, or our national productivity would be going up instead of going down.
90
To quote Monty Python’s four yorkshire men sketch, tell that to young people of today and they won’t believe you!
40
Wrong. It was AT LAST THE 1948 SHOW
The episode was from the 1967 show, which starred John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Marty Feldman, and “the lovely” Aimi Macdonald.
20
Graeme No.3,
Bit churlish to say “Wrong”. At Last the 1948 Show created it (YouTube link), but Monty Python certainly covered it.
Obviously Michael Palin could do with some work on his Yorkshire accent 🙂
20
Robert:
Should I have said “Not Quite Right”?
00
Graeme No.3,
Still doesn’t appeal, because it *is* quite right.
IMO the point is best made by saying something like Ah, but the *original* (and still the best) was …
10
Palin was from Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
10
Heavens. I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!
10
Qantas ran an internal mail service in basement Qantas House cnr Hunter & Bligh Streets, multiple addresses envelopes, into which documents or requests were inserted
That basement group also ran printing and telex
The internal mail was couriered around all Qantas physical locations, which had a continous service throughout the day with a mail department in each physical location distribuiting the mail
Was quite efficient.
30
The TAB office in Albion in Brisbane had an internal mail train that delivered papers between desks
00
Albanese (PM) to give Indonesia $100 million of Aussie taxpayer money.
You don’t think the money could have been better spent on Australians or better yet, not taken from taxpayers in the first place?
120
Singapore has just mandated vaccines, which Aus is kindly paying for. Despicable.
151
Why? Singapore is a rich country. Unbelievable.
150
Indonesia’s health system could also be strengthened if they didnt spend billions on defence
110
With the Labor mandate there’s ever more new Government departments being added and “jobs for the boys”.
Now we have:
Mr Tim Watts MP
Special Envoy for Indian Ocean Affairs
https://www.dfat.gov.au/about-us/our-people/ministers
120
I’ve contacted Tim and asked if he could organise an affair for me in the Maldives…nothing too over the top…still waiting for an answer.
200
Sorry, but they sank a decade back due to coal power..
140
What great gig! you wont see him clawing for promotion any time soon
00
WHO plandemic treaty approved.
At least America will be exempt as TRUMP withdrew from the World Homicide Organisation.
Australia, being a fanatical followers of all things globalist, will eagerly comply.
80
FWIW
“An anti-human future?
In an article titled “The Great Simmering in the West”, J. B. Shurk points out that the elites among us view the future in terms that can only be described as anti-human and anti-society (at least, as society exists today). Instead, they offer a dehumanized future where the individual counts for nothing.”
More at
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/05/an-anti-human-future.html
50
It’s all about ‘the climate’ innit? So how is ‘the climate’ doing today? A quick whiz around interweb met/govt sites shows:
-6 C Arctic N Pole
-14 Greenland Summit
-63 Amundsen S Pole
+47 Saudi Arabia & Pakistan
Same as it ever was, give-or-take, so what’s the problem? The lunatics are still running the asylum: THAT’S the problem.
160
The North Pole seems quite pleasant today.
I would like to visit.
Do people run tours there? There are companies that do go to “the North Pole” but I’m not sure if it’s the actual geographic North Pole.
I guess I could always try to get a grant to study “climate change”. Such studies are typically done in exotic adventure holiday locations like tropical islands or the poles.
70
You could ask Clarkson about driving
40
Yes, but he only went to the magnetic North Pole.
That episode was slightly misleading.
00
You have 4 North Poles and 3 South Poles to explore! 😉
00
Just noticed that Preview button, which I used since our ability to edit was removed, stopped working.
10
“since our ability to edit was removed,”
Mine still works, 30seconds ago just above… Is it something to do with browsers or operating systems? Maybe you can only edit replies, not posts?
20
Just tested Preview on this. No prob.
00
Both Preview and Edit work fine for me.
One thing I have suggested before but without response is that Preview goes through the naughty word filter. That would make life easier for us and the mods.
10
FWIW
“Lee Zeldin calls Adam Schiff an “aspiring fiction writer.” ”
https://x.com/townhallcom/status/1925224351034417356
Via https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/05/21/schiff-loses-his-mind-n2189397
A suitable term for Bowen?
100
TIME TO GET RID OF THE POWER PARASITES BECAUSE THEY ARE ENERGY THIEVES
Katherine Porter’s work on the cost of unreliable energy in Britain is a major contribution to the Schernikau and Smith program to reveal the Full Cost of the subsidised and mandated energy thieves. They show how the wind and solar industries survive as parasites feeding on the energy generated by more efficient conventional power sources.
Katherine Porter https://lnkd.in/e-AESx-E
Schernikau and Smith https://lnkd.in/e-AESx-E
Their important book is a fine piece of writing which is unusual these days. It is highly recommended and people who are short of time can get what they need to know from the beautifully illustrated 24-minute video produced to promote the revised edition.
And get moving on the exit from net zero. https://open.substack.com/pub/rafechampion/p/start-planning-to-exit-net-zero
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APOLOGIES THIS IS THE SCHERNIKAU AND SMITH LINK
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/wind-and-solar-the-energy-thieves
50
Thanks Rafe – have bookmarked and will watch Video
30
FWIW
“Profits Before Patients: Kennedy’s Call-Out of WHO’s Shadow Partners”
https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2025/05/20/profits-before-patients-kennedys-call-out-of-whos-shadow-partners-n4940003
70
The Australian Headline – Economic titans’ verdict on ALP unrealised gains tax: ‘bad policy’
Not only Australian Economic titans
View from Overseas
Australia’s Unrealized Gains Tax Will Be A Lesson In Economic Suicide
Australia seeks to turn theoretical wealth into actual poverty by taxing imaginary money. I hope the world is paying attention
Starting in July 2025, the Albanese government is set to debut its latest economic masterstroke: taxing imaginary money.
That’s right—if you’ve got more than $3 million sitting in your superannuation, not only will you get slapped with a 30% tax, but it doesn’t even matter if you actually made any money. Didn’t sell anything? Didn’t cash out? Never saw a cent? Tough luck—Big Brother took a peek at your account, saw some numbers went up, and decided you owe them a slice of your hypothetical success.
With these unrealized gains, today it’s “only the rich,” but tomorrow it’s anyone who happened to save diligently or saw their house value rise because some genius decided to inflate the housing market even more.
So, if you’re sitting there thinking, “Well, that won’t affect me,” just wait.
You might not be rich enough for the government’s shakedown yet, but thanks to inflation and asset bubbles, they’ll be at your door before you can say “unrealized gains.”
Then there’s the bureaucratic nightmare of it all. Valuing assets for tax purposes every single year is an administrative quagmire. How do you accurately value a private business annually?
Yet despite all these glaring problems, Australia is going through with it.
And while I genuinely feel for the Australians who are about to suffer the consequences of this insanity, there’s also a silver lining.
The rest of the world is watching.
This is about to become the textbook case study in how not to run an economy.
The Australian government is about to run a live experiment in economic self-sabotage, and the results will be undeniable.
160
Also called
Finding alternative investments when your superannuation balance approaches $3 million. Or whatever limit they eventually reduce it to.
Legislate a maximum Federal elected official pension to the equivalent income earned?
00
Surely pollies and senior public serpents will be exempt
10
Former state premiers and politicians under previous pension scheme will be exempted from Labor’s superannuation tax
Former members of state parliament retaining benefits from the previous, more generous pension scheme will be excluded from the Albanese government’s controversial superannuation tax.
Former state premiers and state parliamentarians who benefit from the previous, more generous pension scheme will be exempt from the Albanese government’s controversial super tax.
The office of Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed the exemption with Sky News Sunday Agenda after he said that federal politicians would not be exempted.
This is because it is a constitutional requirement to make certain individuals exempt from the tax, such as some former state office holders.
The list of exempted individuals includes:
. Governor of a state
. Member of staff of governor of a state
. A minister of the government of a state
. A member of staff of a Minister or the government of a state
. The clerk of a house of parliament of a state
. The head of a department of parliament of a state
. The head of a department of the public service of a state
. A solicitor general of a state
. A judge justice or magistrate of a state
. A police commissioner deputy commissioner or assistant commissioner of a state
The policy, which will come into effect from July 1, will double the tax on superannuation earnings for balances more than $3 million, from 15 to 30 per cent.
The tax underpins the government’s budget numbers and applies to unrealised capital gains—meaning individuals will be taxed on profits they have not yet made.
11
“Then there’s the bureaucratic nightmare of it all. ”
Hire more bureaurats!! Solve the unemployment problem!!
If I pay $20K tax on the value of an investment house one year and then the value falls the next, do I get cash back?? ..or is this another immoral, illegal, unethical theft of wealth from the productive?
00
FWIW
Re that US legal immunity and the covid vaccines –
“Regular readers know that, late last year, my firm filed a lawsuit against the 2005 PREP Act, which is the federal law that immunizes from legal liability vaccine manufacturers (along with doctors, hospitals, and a vast army of other miscreants), for injuries caused by “safe and effective” (but also defective) vaccines and other pandemic treatments. The short statute replaces injured Americans’ common-law legal claims with a black box process called the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) that, in archaic legal terms, is called “a bad joke.”
Our lawsuit seeks to declare the PREP Act unconstitutional under six main theories.”
Much more at
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/blind-justice-wednesday-may-21-2025?
40
FWIW – more covid news
“COVID Vaccine “Safe and Effective” Narrative Collapses on Camera”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/untitled-design-52-1600×900.png
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/covid-vaccine-safe-effective-narrative-collapses-camera/
21
OK Caito hasn’t changed since I was there in March/April 2011
Why Cairo is the WORST city I have ever visited – and the chilling reasons why
Cairo, Egypt
Egypt’s capital might be famous for its ancient wonders, but for many visitors, the reality of modern Cairo was less history and more horror.
‘Loved the history, it’s ruined by some people,’ one traveller began diplomatically, before admitting the city was ‘pretty dirty’ with ‘terrible drivers’ and ‘people hawking you down’ on every corner.
Others were far more scathing.
‘Sweltering heat and smog. Huge motorways and overpasses coming right up to the windows of dilapidated concrete apartment towers. A lot of the apartments were half-built and lacked windows – but were still occupied.’
The locals’ treatment of women also came under fire.
‘I am a tall blonde and the harassment was insane. And I dressed like a nun,’ one user revealed.
‘We ended up literally running back to the hotel. Not a particularly nice experience…’
Another added: ‘The pollution makes you want to light a cigarette to get the health benefits of inhaling through a filter.’
‘No functioning garbage collection. Total gridlock. No greenery anywhere. Barely even any pavements,’ one frustrated tourist wrote.
71
This is good for democracy.
‘It will now be much harder, near mission impossible, for the Liberals to win in 2028, given Sussan Ley’s declaration a coalition won’t be re-formed before the election.’ (Peta Credlin) Oz
31
If I were the Nationals, I would field a candidate in every electorate and damn the “coalition”.
Drive the Liberals into extinction
Putting Ley in charge is a repeat of what was done to the Western Australian branch by putting a socialist teenager in charge.
They have become UNELECTABLE because they never learn from their mistakes.
120
Peta,
Liberals have been destroyed by & since the Best Labor PM Turnbull & NSW Photios, Kean etc with VIC Pesutto
SAUL KAVONIC wrote
A broken Coalition needs to demonstrate unity on climate
As I commented in that Article Saul, Why?
The Climate has always changed – No Dinosaurs in Winton QLD now, the Climate changed and NO Humans were involved
The Lunacy Goalposts have moved from Global Warming, to Climate Change, which it always has – Kids & Grandkids have been indoctrinated during Education, and we have Destroyed Cheap Electricity from Baseload Coal Fired Plants with Idiotic Renewables, which SA, Broken Hill, and now Spain & Portugal have shown don’t work, whilst destroying the countryside with Transmission Lines, which are not costed and Wind Turbines which will only last 20 Years
So Nationals are Correct on Climate and will get my Vote as Liberals have lost it due to Turnbull/Photios/Keans – Snowy Hydro $12 Billion and rising, when you could have built 5 HELE Coal Fired Plants on existing sites without destroying Snow National Park for Transmission Lines, for something that won’t work in a Drought!
Littleproud & Nationals, Great Move
Now Posit
1. Get out of Paris Agreement
2. Put Net Zero to bed in a Zero Grave
3. Push Construction of HELE Coal Fired Plants on existing Coal Fired Plants Sites whilst carrying out Maintenance
4. Dig, Dig, Dig for Gas
5. Put forward path for Nuclear SMRs, whilst relying on HELE & Gas
6. Put Snowy Hydro & Florence out of their Not Needed Misery & stop the waste of money
7. Run in every seat across Australia
To the Liberals, until you get rid of your Turnbull’s & Keans, you do not stand for anything other than Labor/Greens/TEALs Lite – Not Worth Voting For!
8. However, hope the Liberals have enough brains to run both parties in all seats & cross preference each other – Works for Labor/Greens
130
Peta has to stand up. Sitting on the sidelines is a great talent wasted. Join the LNP and set about taking control of the leaderless mob.
31
She is certainly HATED by the left, so she can’t be too bad. 🙂 She is from country Vic, maybe she should be a Nat.
30
Just heard on Your Gloating Radio that both Leaders have changed their minds and postponed for now the legal dissolution.
Well let us see with bated breath which path they take.
Personally I like Sussan and wish her success, if she follows Trump in his first few days in power.
10
They won’t get back together until they both choose new leaders who are on the same plate when it comes to energy policy.
Tim Wilson (Lib) and Matt Canavan (Nat) are perfect.
10
OldOzzie,
Seems to me that a rare opportunity has been created.
Large slabs of voters seek sense on net zero stuff.
Next election, let’s have the Lib platform yes to net zero, yes to no nuclear. Let’s have the Nat/Country party mob clearly in favour of getting out of Paris agreement, out of net zero and yes to reversing the nuclear ban. Then allocate preferences to each other. See what Labor/greens come up with.
Geoff S
00
This split is terrible but did the Nats have a choice? They were in an abusive relationship and there is only one right thing to do then.
10
The split is not so bad, both parties will need to reinvent themselves before the next election. A European type of democracy, where a coalition is formed to take government.
For starers they’ll have to ditch nuclear power and go for coal and gas, in line with our biggest trading partner.
‘Breaking up is something of a gamble from the Nationals.
‘On the face of it, if the concern was about ensuring nuclear stayed on the agenda, the Nationals have relinquished their political power to keep it there by walking away. There’s little incentive for the Liberals to listen to a party that’s now part of the crossbench.’ (The Conversation)
11
Well, with EU methods the result is economic slump and ever increasing bureaucratic ‘control’.
Much the situation in China but less so in India. The USA is switching back to free (or at least) freer business.
All three of these countries are building nuclear power stations along with coal & gas ones.
Incidentally which of the about 50 different types of nuclear are you referring to?
10
The Lotus Eaters go into detail on Chinese manufacturing, and the numbers, showing they are already in a pretty much unstoppable position. There are commentators saying their population decline is terminal, but with the advance of AI and robots, people are a liability, they are an unproductive drag on development. With automation, Ai, and robots what does Xi need hungry mouths for? Metropolis with Chinese characteristics. They have already moved a lot of their strategic industries far inland. Plan ahead.
20 mins starting after 2.10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqEhvmeMaL8&t=180s
60
Some well meaning Russians are thinking now that main reasons why Putin can not, repeat CAN NOT, stop the war is the following demob.
Putin may pretend or truly be illiterate in serious history subjects but every schoolchild remembers how the WWI demob ended Romanov Family.
He is one lucky b>>>d that Prigozhin’s turned off March On Moscow.
51
If you have atomic bombs or even more destructive weapons and can deliver then anywhere on the globe, the notion of conventional warfare is meaningless.
A question for the USA from Australia is whether they are willing to devastate China to protect Australia?
China needs to hold the global reserve currency to win the economic war. USA has enjoyed tremendous privilege by being the creator of the global reserve currency. Lose that and they have to work for their living.
40
RW,
Your subtlety (more destructive weapons…) is very much noted.
About means to deliver:
I recall our Christmas 2019 trip to Germany and some Aussies we met there being rather flippant about news from the East, like – it was a media beat up and we are so far the source…
20
Dont how the notion conventional war is meaningless.
Its for everything else that doesnt warrant atomic warfare, or in some cases doesnt warrant total warfare.
There are shades of grey
00
FWIW
“Our Feckless Nature Fakery”
https://www.frontpagemag.com/our-feckless-nature-fakery/
Via SDA
30
Today’s English lesson.
“Vermin” is plural only. “Varmint” is the singular of vermin.
It is not one of those words of which the singular and plural forms are the same such as sheep, deer, fish of one species (however, the plural of more than one species of fish is in fact fishes), bison, aircraft, species, baggage and moose to name just a few.
30
Naturally, being the disagreeable personality that I strive toward, I’m assuming you’re invoking Cunningham’s Law and so I dutifully respond with the correct info:
varmint = American English dialectal; colloquial variant of vermin
(etymonline)
Q: Is vermin singular or plural?
A: The noun vermin can be countable or uncountable. In more general, commonly used, contexts, the plural form will also be vermin.
The singular form “a vermin” is now rarely encountered, and the word is generally used as a plural.
10
The Fawlty Towers joke wouldn’t have worked very well with “Varmint”. 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-fjZYEhtaM
.
But its use suited Yosemite Sam.
20
Most car mechanics over-torque wheel nuts by tightening them as hard as they can. This is wrong. Wheel nuts (also known as lug nuts) aren’t designed for such high torques and over-tightening them can stretch the studs or even cause catastrophic failure while the car is in motion. The wheel nuts will not come undone (by the process of “hypocyclic fretting precession”) when tightened to the manufacturer’s recommendation.
60
DM
Definitely true of when the likes of BMC used brass wheel nuts.
Now think why most trucks have left hand threads on the left side
20
A good indicator of correct torque of nuts is the length of the spanner. The wheel brace in your boot is designed so that you can’t over-torque when using them. If it were inadequate they could be sued, they aren’t.
20
The wheel brace you get with your car is designed so you cant possibly get your wheel off once the tyre service has had its way with it.
40
“Most car mechanics over-torque wheel nuts by tightening them WITH A RATTLE GUN!”
One of my pet hates, although working on racing cars these days means I rarely see them over-tightened now. We use a torque wrench to finally set them, anything else is verboten.
I’m expecting a nation-wide whining and crying a decade in the future as the Govt discover they have a mass deafness plague to pay for amongst everyone who uses battery-powered tools, especially rattle guns.
10
Even More Good News from the Sydney Moaning Herald
We talk a big game on electric cars, but Australia is stuck in reverse
For all the robust enthusiasm, dinner party discussions, public policy debate and focus on climate change, Australians are embarrassingly behind most of the Western world where the proverbial rubber hits the road – sales of electric vehicles.
But Australia is punching well below its weight.
Australians are not suffering from lack of choice. We have no fewer than 90 EV models to pick from in this market, including six owned by the popular Chinese-owned BYD, which is aggressively expanding here.
Still, EV sales growth is not going to script. In 2023, the Federal Chamber of Automotive industries had forecast the share of electric cars in the Australian market would reach 14 per cent this year. But in April, the FCAI members reported battery electric vehicle sales that made up just 5.9 per cent of the total car market in Australia.
It feels like Australia’s enthusiasm for EVs is stuck in reverse.
There’s a number of financial and practical reasons that Australians appear to have lost the gusto for electric vehicles, but for the most part, it appears like the wave of early adopters has petered out.
But even if EVs are coming down in price, the demand will hit a roadblock if they remain less convenient than petrol guzzlers.
60
People are making rational choices in their own self interest
The EV industry is running out of rational niche buyers where EVs actually work for them, naïve early adopters, poseurs and fan boys.
Basically people don’t see the sense in paying a premium for reduced functionality.
Cars need to support peoples lives, not expect them to change their lives to suit a car.
30
“People are making rational choices in their own self interest”
Kinda the crux of the problem ain’t it?
MAGA … why would a nation act in its’ own self interest?
Because Trump is mean.
I’m young healthy and don’t need an experimental injection to protect from an infection that has low probability of seriously harming me.
Because the imagined virtue of the collective must be forced upon us by ‘government’.
Of course, the imagined faux virtue of the collective is little more than the barely disguised ‘self-interest’ of the elite that constantly conspire to exploit governance by controlling the narrative.
10
Bucketing down here in Seaforth – Feeling like Wet Tawny OWL forlorn on Trampoline in backyard
Looks like Rain going to do a Circle around – http://www.bom.gov.au/products/national_radar_sat.loop.shtml
30
send it South, we are parched down here
20
Looking like it could make it – http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR021.loop.shtml
00
FWIW
“CNN’s Climate Con Exposed: Real Estate, Not Storms, Fuels Skyrocketing Insurance Costs”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/21/cnns-climate-con-how-real-estate-not-storms-drives-insurance-costs/
30
FWIW
“Cry Wolf, Kill a Calf: How the Left’s Fantasy Became the Midwest’s Nightmare”
https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2025/05/21/cry-wolf-kill-a-calf-how-the-lefts-fantasy-became-the-midwests-nightmare-n4940036
20
Being a city-born (meaning Harlem-like city) does not stop me from loving nature.
Nor from seeing the idiocy of institutionalised love of nature. The rulers do not love nature, they just native state.
Recently I talked to a greenie, she sincerely believed “if here was a desert before us, it should stay a dessert” – an exact quote from rather nice person…
00
FWIW
“Saving Greenery From the Greens”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/15/saving-greenery-from-the-greens/
00
AI funday: Total quantum forensic legal documentation absolute total ultimate beyond infinity apocalypse
Put “AI” in charge of a vending machine and it complains to the FBI by email…
😆😆
00
Fixing road cracks the Swedish way
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_swhrsuut2x1z23obp.mp4
Meanwhile here, it takes 8 council workers, 1 actually doing the work while 7 pudgies stand around drinking coffee and playing with their phones, it’d take a whole day to do the job, and the council needs to raise your rates too as they can’t manage their budget.
/and they leave the “slow, roadworks” signs up after they’ve cleared off for the day.
20
Thanks John,
Copy of that plus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPUo5FsNprY&ab_channel=MasterWorkers
Sent to Mayor, Councillors, CEO & Works Manager of Northern Beaches Council
Extrememly relenevant as youngest Daughter just had tyre destroyed by pothole
10
A Garn video from a few years back:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O9YFD0ri1xU
“Working for the council is like being on the dole but in hi-vis.” 😆
Language warning.
00
Our back of beyond council has one like that – and uses it
00
Paedophiles and other sex criminals ‘will be CASTRATED’ under new Government plans
Drugs can be used to dull urges and slash offences by nearly two thirds, studied have shown.
Now Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is said to be looking at plans to roll the treatment out across 20 prisons in England and Wales, ahead of a nationwide programme.
And she is reported to want to go further still – and is exploring whether the UK could adopt chemical castration for sex criminals.
‘For too long, we have turned a blind eye to the threat sex offenders pose, considering the solutions too difficult or unpalatable,’ a Government source told The Sun.
‘Shabana isn’t squeamish about doing what it takes to protect the public.
‘As always, she will grab this problem by the proverbials.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14737501/Paedophiles-sex-criminals-CASTRATED-new-Government-plans.html
One wonders if the gimmigrants with immunity will continue to be given a free pass…
20
FWIW
Beware of copy-catting land grabs – particularly with “Elbow’s” threatened inflation of EBPC
“Fish & Wildlife has expanded its regulatory rule to every tree in much of the U.S.”
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/fish-wildlife-has-expanded-its-regulatory-rule-to-every-tree-in-much-of-the-u-s/
00
And another potential –
“NOT Global Warming – Forests & The Roadless Rule”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2025/05/22/not-global-warming-forests-the-roadless-rule/
00
FWIW
“Trump Torpedoes Neoconservatism and Neoliberalism in Single Stroke?”
“The relatively tiny elite class ensconced in Washington, D.C. — they who manufacture and service the publicly-subsidized, permanent war economy — were surely none too pleased with Trump’s truly radical, for reasons explore here, recent speech delivered to the Saudi dignitaries assembled to receive his foreign policy prescriptions during a state visit.”
More at
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2025-05-21/trump-torpedoes-neoconservatism-and-neoliberalism-single-stroke
10
Big Z’s mob are struggling to find 1000 prisoners to swap with Russia, they are going through their political prisoners and offering them a free trip to Russia..
“..detainees in Ukrainian detention centers who are charged with treason, separatism, collaborationism and similar offences have begun to be summoned and offered inclusion in the swap. Those receiving these proposals are mostly Ukrainian citizens. They include businessmen, teenage photographers who snapped missile strikes and military objects, car arsonists, hard‑core pro‑Russians, and people who were simply framed,…Russian citizens make up only a tiny share of the political detainees in the detention centers. ”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-52125-trump-distances-us-from
I’d love to hear from the Uki POWs who are being told they are going back, would they rather stay in a Russian jail where they’re safe, or go home where they just get sent to die again?
00
…and a couple of details about the new interceptor drone Russia has put on the battlefield-
“This device is equipped with a bi-spectral thermal-television homing head, synchronized with an AI module loaded with algorithms for selecting optical and thermal-contrast aerial targets against open space and ground backgrounds, without the need for operator radio correction from a control terminal. According to the developer, the declared operational range of the device reaches 20 km, and its flight speed is 350 km/h, which is sufficient to intercept all Ukrainian Armed Forces gasoline-powered UAVs without exception, even when pursuing them.”
..and their new attack drone systems.
“Russia has begun using new kamikaze drones that select targets and carry out strikes without operator involvement.”
They use AI to identify targets through camera & computer vision, operate without GPS or radio signals, and being a petrol motor they can range a hundred Km.
It wouldn’t be much to have them identify a particular person, especially one that was giving a speech on a stage at an open-air event, someone immediately recognisable with not-dark-brown hair… Warfare will be different within a decade.
Also in there, the Russians hit a training camp with a missile but the ambulance who turned up was a ‘Flying Emergency Room’ from Germany, used for evacuating foreign mercs who have their Govt’s approval. It flew to Paris, suggesting some badly injured French soldiers were involved. Yesterday a Russian soldier was interviewed after spending weeks hiding under a destroyed tank after his unit was wiped out, and escaped when his injuries were recovered enough. He noted in passing the soldiers who occupied the hamlet were French.
Same Simplicious page, just further down-
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-52125-trump-distances-us-from
00
Can they differentiate between civilian and military targets? I have heard NOT.
00