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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I found this Anglo Saxon poem to be very evocative and perhaps a parable of our own time as civilsation seems to be retreating not going forwards
“The Ruin talks about the former glory of a ruined Roman city and its decayed and broken buildings, such as towers, baths, walls, and palaces. The writing consists of forty-nine lines, some of which are illegible, and there’s an agreement that it refers to the Roman city of Bath, in Somerset, England. Part of it, “brosnað enta geweorc,” or “the work of giants is decaying,” was used by J. R.R. Tolkien for the tree-men Ents in The Lord of the Rings.”
https://medievalbritain.com/type/medieval-life/activities/the-ruin-an-old-english-poem-evoking-a-lost-roman-past/#:~:text=The%20poem%20was%20written%20in%20the%208th%20or,buildings%2C%20such%20as%20towers%2C%20baths%2C%20walls%2C%20and%20palaces.
90
Even apart from the content, the quality of the handwriting is interesting to contemplate on its own.
Paper, pen and ink: and lots of practice.
80
The pen would most probably have been a quill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quill
30
Progress isn’t linear as many think, nor is the climate stable as many claim. There are constant strides forwards in civilisation -as with Rome-then setbacks as happened after they departed Britain in 410AD and recorded numerous times in Britain as regimes rose then fell, often connected to the vagaries of the climate as settled benign times gave way to drought, flooding rains, extreme heat or extreme cold.
I do wonder how younger people, so dependent on Phones, AI and technology will cope with any reversals caused by cyber hacking, a Carrington Event, war or economic decline or perish the thought, a period of intense cold, rather than the warmth confidently predicted.. This sense of decline is captured beautifully in Shelleys Ozymandious.
“I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
161
Yes. This is a major part of the anthropogenic climate change scam isn’t it Tony?
Due to the systematic dumbing-down of the “education” system by the Left over decades, believers simply do not understand that the climate, earth system and the sun (a variable star) are not static and unchanging as they think.
And because people nowadays have the attention span of goldfish, no offence intended to the goldfish community, they have no recollection of previous adverse weather events like hot days, storms etc. even if they might be within someone’s living memory. And in any case, its never been easier in all of human history to look up historical records in seconds.
171
The recent heavy rains in the north of the South Island – one in June and one in July, both from lows coming off Australia and stalling due to a stationary high to our east, standard ‘winter’ weather – have not only been blamed on the old devil bogeyman itself, ie. climate change, but claims of ‘worst I’ve ever seen’ have been doing the rounds from so-called locals who’ve lived there for 5, 10, 15 years… not even 1 generation.
Having been caught up in floods there in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, it would appear these minor inundations happen regularly every decade; and being built on drained floodplains, they are a disaster waiting to happen.
The areas (Nelson, Marlborough, Tasman) are full of German, American, and English, recent immigrants attracted by the Sunniest Spot In NZ sales pitch where vineyards & orchards & alternative crops grow very well… until the big rains arrive. Change? Nah, same as it ever was.
170
Same as Australia when some blonde reporter sticks a microphone under some old person mouth after some climate calamity. People don’t really form solid memories of current events until at least 12 yo, some even later. If you have a weather cycle greater than 100 years, which could be the case, that local observation is useless.
51
I have often looked through English weather records for the last thousand years.
Wish I could have £100 for every time I read an observation such as “the greatest flood man has ever known” only for this to be repeated ten years later. We have short memories and few people either kept records because they couldn’t write or the records were lost or those with knowledge died or moved away.
Manorial records from the 11th century kept by the great estates often owned by the Church were a more accurate factual record. These tended to disappear around 1535 onwards when the monasteries were destroyed by Henry 8th in a bid to escape Catholicism and do his own thing..
Our country has had a lot of trouble with Rome, from being invaded by Romans in the first Century, numerous attacks by Catholics over the 200 years from the Reformation as they tried to get us back in the fold and of course the treaty of Rome, the basis of that gang now known as the EU
40
Are you talking about Bolte Bridge columns?
10
The Met office seem reluctant to divulge the sources of their data
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/07/14/simple-foi-requests-for-data-said-to-back-non-existent-temperature-stations-refused-on-vexatious-grounds-by-uk-met-office/
200
Which is an admission that the data is manufactured. It can only be a vexatious question because the raw data doesn’t exist. The word used in Australia is ‘homogenized’. Simple oscillations or overshoot in computer projections are now being reported as extremes. Which of course they are. But they are not real.
180
The manufactured “homogenised” “data” from Australia’s BoM is by definition not science.
They refuse to publish their methodology for producing the results and therefore the homogenisation process is not reproducible or subject to scientific review.
It is merely political propaganda with no scientific validity whatsoever.
https://joannenova.com.au/tag/homogenization-temperature-data/
270
During the govt review a few years ago, it was interesting that when the review panel asked to see the methodology, they were directed to discuss it with one of the BOM staff. Surely the methodology should have been a written process, carefully documented and quality controlled, that should have been provided to the panel. There was no mention of this process document in the panel’s report. And if the methodology involved human intervention, then that immediately raises the issue of bias affecting the results.
90
Apparently Milley received a pre-emptive pardon from Biden, signed by auto-pen. It is probably invalid because it’s pre-emptive and not actually signed by the “president”.
Milley should therefore be charged with treason for what he said. Video at link.
He said this during or after TRUMP’s first term.
220
High Treason. Brazenly and boastfully admitted in the real expectation that he would be fully protected and perhaps rewarded by the incoming administration. He nailed his colours to the mast and should be prosecuted for treason. And left all of America open to Nuclear attack, as did Biden and Lloyd Austin, both missing simultaneously and secretly.
190
High treason is over the top, he was just assuring Beijing that the situation was stable.
‘A book published in September 2021 revealed that Milley had also engaged in two phone calls — one on Oct. 30, 2020, and the second on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol insurrection — with Chinese General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army in order to assure him that the U.S. would not launch an attack against China and that the U.S. was stable.’ (CBS)
111
An army officer, no matter how highly ranked, does not have the authority to formulate U.S. foreign policy.
90
Beijing was concerned that the Capitol insurrection might turn really nasty if the Proud Boys got hold of the nuclear arsenal. Nobody was in charge and he took the initiative to assure Beijing that it was a storm in a teacup.
16
Nancy was in charge wasn’t she?
41
Ah yes, forgot about her.
00
Great! Just logged in and was gifted a fairy tale for bed time!
Here is just one little dream catcher to swamp your story
40
Beijing handles insurrection differently, so they were mystified by the goings on and assumed, from their historical perspective, that the Capitol building was about to be over run.
00
Video:
An African man talks about the lack of maintenance in African countries:.
https://youtu.be/rWVosJ91awM
40
I attended a talk given by Guy Scott in Zambia (on the debt problem) where he raised the lack of the word for ‘maintenance’ and this got a good response and affirmation from the crowd. (The resolution of the talk was that Zambia needed to recognise that debt did not give them more money, it just gave them more time).
Despite all the conflict on the continent I still hold hope for peaceful parts of Africa. Strong families and communities that underpin a mindset to identify and solve the problems they face while building new skills – potential can be harnessed for a better future for the children. They certainly don’t face demographic challenges – everyone is young. The high value many poor families place on their children’s education is astounding.
Knowing what unstable power is like, they recognise the need to add power generation to grow industry. As this atmosphere clears under the Trump admin, some potential here feels like it is becoming unshackled.
Still not giving up on Africa Rising….
00
Get woke. Go broke.
The deliberate (?) destruction of the Jaguar car company.
It’s Jaguar’s “Bud Light” moment, but far worse.
https://youtu.be/hQCD8XqR0N0
50
The Jaguar brand was essentially low volume saloon cars and I doubt it has been profitable as a distinct entity for years.
The money/volume was always in Jaguar Land Rover.
“Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has undergone a significant rebrand, transitioning from a combined brand to a “House of Brands” structure, with Jaguar, Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery each operating as distinct entities. This includes a new corporate identity for JLR, aiming to enhance each brand’s unique identity and accelerate the company’s vision as a modern luxury business. Jaguar, in particular, is being relaunched as an all-electric brand with a focus on luxury vehicles and a new design language. “
50
There have been so many bad and/or poorly timed decisions in the Jaguar saga that failure looks to be assured.
They are the auto industry equivalent of Hollywood. Making product for a “modern audience” that doesnt exist and alienates it from the majority.
50
Perhaps Jaguar should revert to its predecessor company: SS or Standard Swallow.
There’s an unintended pun somewhere…..
20
Video:
Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies and the “giant jackrabbit” which was actually a kangaroo.
https://youtu.be/Dj6QdyE8deQ
60
Comparative Analysis of Monthly Reports on the Oil Market
Tuesday 15 July 2025
Summary of 2024-2026 Balances
. OPEC maintains a robust global demand outlook for 2025 and 2026, forecasting y/y growth of 1.3 mb/d in both years, consistently above IEA and EIA estimates.
. The IEA projects global oil demand to rise modestly, reaching 103.7 mb/d in 2025 and 104.4 mb/d in 2026, with growth driven entirely by non-OECD countries.
. The EIA sees global oil demand to grow by 0.8 mb/d in 2025 and accelerate to 1.1 mb/d in 2026, reaching 104.6 mb/d.
40
Labor PM Albo China’s “Handsome Boy” & Lapdog
No Wonder Media are using file footage of Albo and Xi from a previous trip.
What happened today was not a good look.
Check him out.
Kowtowing and left waiting like an obedient little lap dog outside the door until the goons would let him in. Pathetic!!
Notice @skynewsaust are using FILE footage of Albanese ‘meeting’ Dictator Xi from another visit.
That image of Albo waiting outside the doors looking like a pathetic little obedient dog today not a good look.
LOL Xi’s goons made him wait.
90
Albo is not a lapdog, Xi’s double sat across the table and the security stopped our media from taking pics of Xi.
‘A security guard appeared to usher a cameraman out of the room moments before the PM finished his opening remarks before the official start of proceedings.’ (News)
Overall the trip has been beneficial for trade.
111
barking
30
Is that your professional diagnosis?
10
Yes, I saw that on the news last night, like a schoolboy waiting outside the Headmasters office.
” The Master will see you now, enter”.
Kowtowing lickspittle.
60
‘Kowtowing lickspittle.’
In reality its a spy thriller, Albo is only an extra in this drawn out saga and he stuck to the script.
The lead role was given to Shao Jianhua, a decade ago he was a pie seller in Changsha City, now he is talking to heads of State.
Auspicious times.
12
Wait, let me check… for every 25 Australians there are 1000 Chinese? Is that right? Sell one car or microwave to Albo or sell 40 of them locally…
Australia’s only use to the Chinese is being a quarry and a propaganda piece on the chessboard of the Great Game. Even if we went to war with them, tagging along behind the Yanks, I doubt they would bother to fight us. We just don’t count.
As for Albo- deserves everything he gets! He’s such a lying, devious little runt he should’ve been caned by the headmaster.. There is no way he is a representative of me!
20
Handsome Boy is a winner.
‘More than half — 53 per cent — of Australians surveyed said they favoured placing more importance on economic ties with China, a large increase from 39 per cent in 2021.
‘Only 42 per cent of Australians said it was more important to prioritise economic ties with the US — a drop from 52 per cent who said the same thing in 2021.’ (ABC)
11
FWIW
“These Are The 10 Least Livable Cities In The World”
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/these-are-10-least-livable-cities-world
Good news. None of them in Oz – yet.
30
Can anyone see my mistake?
I was wondering how greenhouse gases can cause warming by radiating IR back to the surface?
Assuming that the Earth is in equilibrium such GHGs at the troposphere can do one of 3 things
Absorb outgoing energy keeping the troposphere becoming warmer
Radiate such energy downwards ( hence warming the Earth)
Radiate such energy outwards
Since the troposphere isn’t getting warmer (“the warm spot”) how does a gas at minus 50℃ radiate any appreciable effect on the surface. And such shouldn’t the south pole be warmer rather than getting below that (minus 70℃) during the antarctic winter?
I have come to the third choice, that GHGs absorb the energy (then radiate it in all directions). Thus extra GHGs cannot warm the Earth surface.
I was thinking of calling this the Miasma fallacy.
71
CO2 actually has significant absorption in the short wave spectrum. If you look at Band 16 from GOES, you will observe that the CO2 radiating temperature is as high as 60C:
https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G19§or=ssa&band=16&length=12
So CO2 is capable of warming locations from radiation heating. But that only occurs in locations where there is little to no H2O because the H2O has much higher long wave emission power than short wave absorption power. In any case the CO2 emitting at that temperature is in the stratosphere and so thin that its emissivity is just enough to be detected by sensitive instruments in satellites.
Radiation cannot go from hot to cold. The notion of downward radiation from cold atmosphere to warm surface is unscientific claptrap. there is a pressure associated with EMR and energy cannot flow from low pressure to high pressure.
https://xinglong-zhang.github.io/resources/stefan_law.pdf
20
“Radiation cannot go from hot to cold.”
Are you sure.
20
Just testing if anyone was awake while reading! I appreciate the confirmation.
11
Rick, some misdirection there:
The absorption stuff, basically a non event.
“In any case the CO2 emitting at that temperature is in the stratosphere and so thin that its emissivity is just enough to be detected by sensitive instruments in satellites.”
Rick, I’m glad you said that.
And:
“Radiation cannot go from hot to cold.”
Did you mean the other way around?
20
Are you sure that atmospheric CO2 actually produce any radiation? According to Prof. Happer, that’s extremely unlikely, mainly due to the radiative decay time being long (0,5 to 1.5 seconds). During that time, the CO2 molecule that’s acquired energy is bombarded by collisions with other non-radiative gas molecules, at a rate of around 10,000 collisions a second, each collision “stealing” some of the acquired energy by kinetic energy collisions.
Certainly a CO2 molecule in a laboratory jar will re-radiate, but there doesn’t appear much of a chance of it doing so, particularly in the Troposphere.
40
CO2 molecules can only warm up in the stratosphere where they wander mostly alone. And their co-inhabitants are mostly molecules with narrow spectrum emissive capacity.
The significance of the South American warm spot over land is that it occurs over often snow topped mountains. So the surface is rarely more than 0C and the atmosphere above is very dry; being free from convective instability. A tropical mountain above 5000m that has an atmosphere similar to Antarctica.. But the CO2 is radiating at 60C.
The fact that ice exists on tropical mountains above 5000m is sufficient verification of the difficulty of removing ice from land once it has accumulated. It is not sun that melts ice but sensible heat carried by air currents. Without the sensible heat, the ice accumulates. The South Pole gets the highest daily sunlight of anywhere on the planet but does not have much impact on ice that is 2000m above sea level.
Venus is hot because CO2 solid does not form highly reflective cloud like ice. H2O has very low absorption in visible and higher frequencies but high absorption and emissivity for long waves so readily cools in the atmosphere..
10
But surely at that height, their ability to re-radiate back to earth is minimal, compared to the radiation in other directions, including outer space?
00
Graeme4:
My thought that the supposed heating of the Earth by increasing CO2 in the troposphere is highly unlikely. That is the standard LINE of the believers.
10
I start from the basis that anyone mentioning “greenhouse gasses” has no clue on how Earth’s climate works and is apt to believe any carp dished up.
Understanding Earth’s climate and its 4Ga endurance is best achieved by understanding ice. And ice is a solid, not a gas. Ice dominates Earth’s radiative balance. And you do not need to be a mental giant tio appreciate that. It knocks out about 30% of the available solar EMR before it is thermalised. It is very well known that Earth’s average radiating temperature is 255K. Given that H2O dominates Earth’s emissivity it is immediately apparent that there is a deck of ice radiating to space because ice forms below 273K. That deck could be on an ocean surface, on land or in the atmosphere.- no matter because ice is the main player in the energy balance. Its persistence under solar radiation means it also reflects a good deal of solar energy.
20
Dear PM Albo could you please bring us home one of these 373MPH Maglev Train
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinas-373mph-maglev-train-debuts-slashing-travel-time-between-cities
40
We’d be lucky if our trains can sustain 75 kph for any appreciable distance.
30
Hmmm!
75 kph = about 47 mph.
So bumping that to 100 kph would be noticeably faster – without straining pre – WW2 railway technology
10
Even moderately fast trains would provide reasonable door to door competition with air travel.
60
And they certainly do in Europe. Often used to travel by fast trains when living in Germany, as it was a CBD-CBD connection, compared to travelling out to the airport, going through security, walking distances to the gate, then waiting for takeoff. Often the airports were so congested that an aircraft had to wait at the departure airport for permission to land at the destination airport. And I could get through a lot of work on the train.
20
Should have added that fast Paris-London trains wiped out the ferry services and severely impacted the flights between those cities. And the Paris-Brussels flights were killed off by fast intercity trains.
40
Have been on the Paris Bruxelles one.
Better than flying.
20
Graeme4:
My father went from NY to Hartford by train in 1955. All his group thought he was weird, but he wanted to see the colours in the autumn trees. He farewelled them by taxi, crossed the road to Grand Central Station and took the train fairly quickly. He left train in Hartford, crossed the road to his (pre-registered) hotel, unpacked in his room and came down as the others arrived.
As he pointed out, all main hotels had been set up near the railway station. Going via plane involved a taxi ride to the airport, a delay boarding followed by flight time, followed by luggage collection followed by another taxi.
40
Love train travel. My early memories of the overnight journeys of the “Westland” and “Kalgoorlie Express”, travelling at an average of 30 mph all night, rocking along with open platforms on the carriages were interesting. Then the Trans trains, and finally the many scenic train journeys throughout Europe. A great way to see a country. My last train trips were in UK, Germany and France in 2023.
00
Despite these advances, experts cited by SCMP caution that the sector still faces steep technical and financial hurdles, including the high cost of building dedicated maglev and hyperloop infrastructure and the need for advanced technologies like superconducting magnets.’
Lots of hurdles to overcome, but in principle its doable.
01
Hmmm.. I wonder what the strength of the magnetic field does to all those important protein interactions in the passengers? Juuust as you were about to make that ADP into ATP the vital electron was pushed aside..
00
Newcastle to Sydney fast train is gaining momentum.
https://www.railexpress.com.au/high-speed-rail-finally-gaining-momentum/
11
I just did a road trip from Melbourne-Brisbane return. The tunnel under Sydney makes that part of the trip easy but the motorway from Hornsby to Hexham is probably the worst surface of any on the whole trip. That includes the Victorian part.
I had my own adventures towing a long trailer ion the 3,800km trip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ei7l7yIwrc
But it makes me acutely aware of the challenges of punting B-doubles from city-to-city across some quite nasty roads. These drivers are largely unrecognised heros of Australia’s faltering economy. The economy would be in tatters if they did not do the work the do.
It is an embarrassment that the train system is so poor that there is such heavy reliance on interstate trucking.
50
“But it makes me acutely aware of the challenges of punting B-doubles from city-to-city across some quite nasty roads. These drivers are largely unrecognised heros of Australia’s faltering economy. ”
Did you read the American article yesterday lambasting the imported drivers using fake/un-recognised heavy vehicle licences with no driving experience at all. Even Walmart has signs for truckies in three different languages. Its happening here too, talk to any local truck driver.
20
FWIW – on the covid scene
“Safe and Effective®”
“Undercover video exposes Johnson & Johnson Lead Scientist Confesses J&J COVID-19 Vaccine Was ‘Not Safe and Effective,’
Of course it wasn’t… ”
https://x.com/MJTruthUltra/status/1945152860049600588
Via
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/07/15/safe-and-effective-213/
And wider
“Doctors And Engineers”
“In a sweeping operation that has shaken India’s medical education sector, the country’s premier investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has unearthed what is believed to be one of the largest medical education corruption cases in the country’s history.”
More at
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/07/15/doctors-and-engineers-4/
40
Love it! All those stories about faked degrees from India.. More conspiracy theories coming true!
” “The entire scam has exposed the failure of private medical education in India. Approvals are now being auctioned like vegetables in a market. This touches everything – ethics, education, healthcare, and social work – and has completely shaken public trust. If you graduate unethical doctors, you breed unethical practice. You’re laying the foundation for systemic fraud. People who believed in India’s healthcare system feel utterly betrayed.””
and the comments!
““If you graduate unethical doctors, you breed unethical practice” Sure glad it doesn’t work that way when you elect unethical politicians!”
40
Their sentence wasn’t long enough but apart from thst, at least they didn’t get a slap on the wrist. They got four years jail each.
70
Reminiscent of the cutting down of “The Royal oak” at Fernshaw park. This tree was allegedly sown from an acorn brought from one of the Royal Parks in the UK. I think, from memory, so open to correction , Royal visitors , can’t remember who planted it circa 1900. No one ever convicted of this act of vandalism , same as the beheading of the Princess Alexandra statue in Alexandra. The head was eventually recovered and the statue repaired.
40
More than the maori got for turning One Tree Hill into None Tree Hill in Auckland! Same thing, iconic landmark destroyed forever.
20
I am not so sure it was unexplained. The older fellah was being evicted from his land at the time – it was a bit of a junkyard, but I know blokes who don’t really do any other style than junkyard-ish.
A bit of a childish reaction, but when you worked to get your little plot and then you are losing it, and don’t have anywhere else to go, I guess that can make you pretty mad.
Anyway, I guess for the next four years he has a roof over his bed and three meals a day to think about how to start again.
00
President Trump Participates in an Energy Innovation and AI Summit in Pennsylvania – 3:00pm Livestream
July 15, 2025 – Sundance
President Donald Trump heads to Pennsylvania for an energy innovation and AI summit in Pittsburgh. At the event, President Trump is scheduled to host a roundtable event which will be covered live.
The livestream links are below, with the event scheduled to start sometime around 3:00pm ET.
UPDATE: Video Added
10
The is an interesting item on Zerohedge at the moment titled the United States of impunity. At one stage to author describes todays society like this:
1. The Leadership Elites who act with complete impunity: they do whatever they want, with zero accountability and consequence.
2. The complicit enablers, the technocrats, “experts,” functionaries and flunkies who do the dirty work of protecting the Leadership Elites from accountability and consequence to serve their own self-interests.
3. The commoners in this neofeudal hierarchy, who are freely abused, exploited, defrauded and ignored by The Leadership Elites and their armies of complicit enablers.
Sounds an awful lot like how the grid is developed and managed in Australia. Fantasists, enablers and payers.
160
Interesting how the new resurrected Feudal elite constantly sell piety (the new kind) as the fundamental attribute for their divine right to rule.
SSDD.
I for one, really really believe in Science.
How about you?
Oh, and no human is illegal.
And Love is Love.
(I beg forgiveness for any acknowledgement I failed to correctly socially construct due to my being misinformed by misinformers.)
00
Now that the dust has settled on “The 12 Day War”, what do we think really happened?
1. Those negotiations in Oman: was the whole thing an elaborate ruse?
Why did “No uranium enrichment at all” become America’s ‘red line’ at the last minute? … Was it to ensure that the negotiations would fail, and let the long-planned, sneak attack on Tehran proceed?
A key piece of evidence is Trump claiming, afterwards, he was in a “team” with a foreign leader. That means a lot of coordination was going on.
He probably wasn’t supposed to say that out loud … but you’re dealing with an 80 year old brain so that’s what you get. (I’m counting time in the womb.)
2. The U.S.-Iran exchange of blows — “We bomb Fordow et al, and then you have the right to retaliate against one of our bases, but let us know beforehand, okay?”
Anyone else see a hint of choreography going on? A blow and a counter-blow — but coordinated so there would be no casualties, and it would be over quickly.
The key point is it could have escalated out of control, badly, but didn’t.
So what do we call that … a model for future conflicts? … You have to like the part about no casualties.
*obviously I’m referring to the direct blows between America and Iran — no casualties as far as I’m aware … but of course the wider conflict at the time had hundreds of casualties.
32
There’s no mystery.
For decades the US has said that Iran can not have a nuclear weapon.
Clinton, Obama, H Clinton, and Trump all stated this. Trump has had that position for a long time.
Israel does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, for obvious reasons.
It was apparent that Iran was developing nuclear material beyond what is required for peaceful means.
Iran was given 60 days to agree to a non-nuclear weapon situation. This was not setup to fail by any tricky maneuvering. Iran wanted to develop a nuclear weapon. On day 61 Israel commenced reducing Iran’s defence capabilities.
When that was effective the US destroyed the underground facilities, or at least access to them.
This was a clear coordinated operation between Israel and the US. The US didn’t want to fly their bombers over Iran with Iran having its full defensive capabalities. So Israel cleared the path.
As for the “choreography” with Iran warning they were retaliating. They have done it before. It is their attempt at bravado so they can say to their people we struck back. But it is also their way of avoiding an escalation they’d lose by avoiding hurting the military that would clobber them in an escalation.
131
Kim family provides a lesson for anyone with eyes.
10
“This was not setup to fail by any tricky maneuvering.”
— My understanding is it was only late in negotiations that Zero Percent Enrichment was insisted on. Thereby taking even peaceful enrichment — 3.7% — off the table. And on top of that, demands to restrict ballistic missiles got added. Sounds like “tricky maneuvering” to me.
“Iran wanted to develop a nuclear weapon.”
— You don’t know that… I don’t what their intentions were, and you don’t either.
(Some commentators have suggested Iran wanted to be at 60% enrichment as a bargaining chip — to be respected as a “threshold” nation which would give them real muscle in negotiations e.g. to make the sanctions go away.)
11
Let’s assume both of those things are true. So why hadn’t a deal been struck in the first 40-50 days or so if the deal breaker was thrown in “late”? Surely in the first 30 days Iran would have agreed to not have a weapons grade enrichment program. Unless they wanted a nuclear weapon.
They had gone to a lot of trouble to produce a “bargaining chip” that would have been solved by not having the bargaining chip.
The US doesn’t need some concocted failed negotiation to drop a bomb on a bunker. Even IF the mission was really to send a message to China and Russia.
That doesn’t stack up because the sanctions were there to make the enrichment / nuclear weapon program go away. There’s no logic in having high enrichment to make the sanctions go away. Not having the enrichment program would more likely make the sanctions go away.
Any commentator throwing that reason up is simply an apologist for Iran.
If that sort of logic is being thrown into the debate, and if it is an argument put out there by Iran, then that is all the proof you need to confirm they’re doing it to build a nuclear weapon. Because it just doesn’t make sense. If “real muscle in negotiations” is a genuine reason then that can only mean completing a nuclear weapon.
It’s true I didn’t know for certain that Iran wanted to build a nuclear weapon. But you’ve just removed the uncertainty.
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Dear Strop, for someone whatever the West do is evil. Especially if West provide free food and medicine to the opposition.
Well after Fulton speech and into the Korean War the West could have destroyed USSR / China few times with minimum risk to themselves.
The comparative number of nuclear warheads:
Year USA USSR
1950 ~300 ~0
1951 ~310–340 ~0
1952 ~300–350 ~5–10
1953 ~400–440 ~40–50
Did they attempt to use their superiority to blackmail Stalin? You know the answer and you know why they did not.
The real confrontation began in 1961-62 with 2500 v 1600 ratio.
Thanks God both Kennedy and Khrushchev were real man, who saw the war “from the trenches” not like todays excuse for “leaders”.
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what do we think really happened?
Simply a distraction from the destruction of Gaza and it’s population.
44
Wednesday’s back!
But is it this week’s Wednesday or last week’s?
Maybe last week’s got lost bushwalking.
Japanese researchers shatter internet speed record with fiber optic breakthrough 4 million times faster than U.S. broadband
Researchers in Japan have shattered the world record for internet speed, transmitting data at a blistering 125,000 gigabytes per second—roughly 4 million times faster than the average U.S. broadband connection. This groundbreaking achievement, accomplished over a distance of 1,120 miles using revolutionary optical fiber technology, could redefine global telecommunications and meet the exploding demand for data in an increasingly digital world.
https://www.stationgossip.com/2025/07/japanese-researchers-shatter-internet.html
Around 100,000 1080p movies a second!
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but many hours of searching to find one worth watching
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I know what you mean.
My collection stretches back to 1900, with films of all genres, documentaries and youtube etc shorts probably into the hundreds of thousands, and I don’t know what to watch that I don’t remember too well, so that it seems new.
Maybe AI will create a new Dr Who, or recreate the lost episodes, which even I don’t have.
00
This is incomprehensible to me. How do they interface electronics to work at those speeds?
One of my university lecturers actually worked for NASA before they got a man on the moon. But I will always remember him saying in the late 1960s that in a decade or two a single optical fibre could carry all the telephone conversations then occurring across the USA.
Probably just as amazing is the ability of ancient twisted pairs to my house to stream multiple video channels.
My materials book from those years mentioned the possibility of developing carbon fibre suggesting it could be many times stronger for its weight than steel.
We live in a magical age. But so sad that Australia is being energy starved by simpletons.
50
Well, the FO cable did have 19 cores…
According to Nielsen’s Law, user bandwidth doubles every year, so imagine things by 2035*.
/*ignoring intervening events
00
FWIW
“Decadence and Wealth”
Looking further at “Mouse Utopia”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2025/07/15/decadence-and-wealth/
00
I see she’s right up with Australia’s reliable, cheap renewable energy from free solar and wind..
” As someone who, after the revolution, endured a lot of programming from behind the iron curtain, I’d like to point out this was an exercise in self deception and insanity.”
00
FWIW
“The narrative that says relative sea level changes are driven by variations in atmospheric CO2 concentrations has taken another hit.
Before relative sea level (RSL) declined to its present position over the last millennium, Africa’s Atlantic coast RSL ranged anywhere from 0.8 to 4 meters higher than today between 5000 and 1700 years ago (Vacchi et al., 2025).”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/15/new-study-africas-atlantic-coast-sea-levels-were-still-1-meter-higher-than-today-2000-years-ago/
30
UK Council meetings – everyone getting quite hot in the heatwave! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RkXcdsaT5s
“Go back to Weatherspoons” was yelled. It’s class war!
10
FWIW
“Nothing changes except from within”
“The difference, though, is that I’m asking the American people—and myself, to be fair—to make this decision for ourselves. It’s not the president telling us how it’s going to be. That shouldn’t be his call, even if that call was also overblown by the media.
We need to start a movement that seeks to restore at least some semblance of American manufacturing, a demand for quality in the products we buy, and the shaping of a better world where we don’t have to fear our enemies playing silly games or cutting us off.
In the coming weeks, I intend to take a good, hard look at ways we can actually put this idea into action. I’ll write about it. Some will be paywalled because I have bills to pay, but I’ll talk about what we can do. I don’t expect it to be easy. I don’t even expect to see results in what’s left of my lifetime, but I suspect we can come up with a concrete plan that will truly make America, and Americans, great again.”
https://tomknighton.substack.com/p/nothing-changes-except-from-within
10
” I suspect we can come up with a concrete plan that will truly make America, and Americans, great again.””
” … I’d like to point out this was an exercise in self deception and insanity.”
Gosh, that fits into a lot of places-
‘Make America great again’ is just like making all the dismembered empires great again, from the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese to the Brits.. It just doesn’t happen! You start off with some advantage, you rape and pillage your way to the top of the world, you rule for a period of time, you get too expensive to maintain whatever advantage got you there, and you collapse back to what we see nowadays of those countries.
It follows the life of a fire, and America is settling down to being hot coals with occasional bursts of sparks from people like Musk. For the rest, the wages are too high in a rich country to ever compete with the ravenous poor on their trip upwards.
21
So can these glorified apes ever get their act together? Anarchism is an ideal worth considering, ‘the organization of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation, without political institutions or hierarchical government.’
In practical terms BRICS is a good start, but on a social and political level it becomes more difficult to break down old habits. For example, Syria could consist of five separate states living in harmony with minimum political input.
01