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Saturday

8.1 out of 10 based on 19 ratings

73 comments to Saturday

  • #
    Honk R Smith

    I thought I would kick off the weekend at JoNova with science news.
    Like, the biggest ever.
    Which is … we are not alone … well maybe in this dimension.

    Rep. Anna Paulina Luna Says She’s Seen Evidence of Interdimensional Beings
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcpkHaiG2io

    This is a 14 min clip from a 2 and one half hour Joe Rogan interview.
    This woman is a US Congressperson trying to investigate such things with her Congressperson powers.
    Which apparently only go so far with The Blob.

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    • #
      el+gordo

      The Congresswoman didn’t give much away, here is the basic idea.

      ‘The interdimensional UFO hypothesis (IUH) is the proposal that unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings are the result of experiencing other “dimensions” or “portals” that coexist separately alongside our own.’ (wiki)

      It might have something to do with Quantum Entanglement.

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      • #
        John Connor II

        The Congresswoman didn’t give much away

        They NEVER do!
        UAP photos from a state-of-the-art fighter jet with the quality of a 1960’s b&w camera shooting Bigfoot in a fog.
        Whistleblowers and insiders without a single decent piece of proof.
        Can’t smuggle out a microSD card the size of your little fingernail?
        Riiiggghhhttt…
        But of course if real proof was revealed, every religion would collapse overnight.
        Bring it on!

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        • #
          el+gordo

          ‘ … every religion would collapse overnight. Bring it on!’

          The Pope is a believer, he is singlehandedly dismantling the Vatican theocracy.

          12

  • #
    TdeF

    The world is really hoping for lasting peace in Ukraine. The choice of Alaska is brilliant. Formerly Russia, it was sold to the fledgling United States because it was indefensible, but also because the Russians feared the British in Canada. It was a buffer zone for them. Even today the EU/UK are belligerent and seem to want the war to continue and undermine peace talks at every turn. I can only think it is, like Climate Change, a way to keep their own populations from looking at very unpopular governments, especially the UK, France and Germany. And Australia, recognizing terrorists as the legitimate government of a state which does not exist and never existed. And appalling mass terrorism at a happy music festival justified as social justice.

    In the UK, as in Australia, the Labor party government is reportedly disliked by 7 out of 10 voters. Beating the war drums over Ukraine keeps people distracted, like all wars. Like the one on Climate Change/Rapid Global Warming, which has been a ridiculous science hoax now for 37 years. And the UN still talks not about peace, but about boiling oceans which are obviously not boiling and acidic oceans which are alkali. And real punitive, rapacious, destructive laws based on fake science with which no one but government funded bodies agree. All dissenting government scientists lose their jobs. They need a lovely war to keep them busy. Today the people of the world, not the governments of the world, want peace.

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    • #

      8 out of ten, who could vote, did not vote for Sir Starmer.
      In fairness, a higher proportion still didn’t vote for any of the other parties [see how I didn’t type ‘clowns’!].

      And IIRC, Sir Starmer has the worst approval/disapproval rating since Nebuchadnezzar.

      Auto

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      • #
        Vladimir

        It worth remembering that before Crimean and Opium Wars, it was East India Company that “killed” the idea of Russian America by dropping the floor in the fur trade.
        Reminds something, does it not?

        10

        • #
          another ian

          “Reminds something, does it not?”

          Are you sure of that?

          Wiki I know but I’m sure that, if they could have gotten furs in there, they would have

          00

          • #
            Vladimir

            Sure-sure.
            This is commemoration week, there is tons of material in the Russian blogosphere, how great it could have been, if not for “that Englishwoman dumped on us” – you know what they mean…

            Of course it is not just fur.

            00

    • #
      TedM

      Excellent summary TdeF.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      After three years of war, with the commentariat on both sides eagerly predicting the looming collapse of the enemy, it behooves one to develop a prudent aversion to histrionic predictions.

      However, it seems fairly obvious that the war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture, and August 2025 will receive considerable play in retrospective accounts of the conflict, as perhaps the last opportunity for Ukraine to cut a deal and slither out of its strategic grave.

      On Friday, August 15, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are slated to meet in Alaska to discuss steps to end the war.

      Whether those talks will be productive remains to be seen, although Trump’s acknowledgement that Ukraine will have to cede territory to Russia signals that the White House is at least drifting towards a realism. Predictably, the Alaska meetings are being decried by the Europeans and the Professional Fascism Noticers as a redux of Chamberlain’s Munich Agreement with Hitler, but this does not really matter.

      In the same sense that, for the alcoholic it is always five o’clock somewhere, for a certain type of person it is always 1938. For these people, World War Two is the only thing that ever happened, it is always happening, and it is always just about to happen.

      Just as a brief aside, this is one reason why Alaska is actually a meaningful and pointed place to hold the meetings.

      The more paranoid sorts believe that there’s some sinister meaning owing to Alaska’s origins as a Russian colony, but the actual symbolism of the site lies in the fact that America does not need to interact with Russia through Europe, and indeed never has.

      America and Russia can relate to each other bilaterally, without Brussels or London or Kiev as an intermediary.

      On the ground, the Alaska meetings coincide with a major rupture of the front. We want to avoid using overly dramatic verbiage, particularly the much dreaded “collapse” label. To be clear, it should not be expected that the AFU is on the verge of being routed completely from the field. Russian forces are not going to roll over the Dnieper next week or sweep into Kiev or Odessa. Ukraine is not “collapsing”, but it is losing, and more specifically it is about to suffer a major defeat at Pokrovsk.

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      • #
        RickWill

        Trump came out of the lettering stating there has been an agreement reached but he now needs to make a few phone calls with Europe and Ukraine.

        The main stream media is promoting it as a failure because there was no ceasefire announced. How could he possibly speak for Ukraine. Al Trump can do is withdraw support for Ukraine. He cannot tell them to stop firing.

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        • #
          OldOzzie

          The View from RT

          Russian President Vladimir Putin called his talks with US President Donald Trump in Anchorage on Friday “constructive” and “useful.”

          The discussions focused largely on the Ukraine conflict. Moscow is “sincerely interested in putting an end” to the ongoing hostilities, Putin stressed. “We have always considered the Ukrainian people…fraternal, as strange as it may sound in today’s conditions. We have the same roots and everything that is happening is a tragedy and a great pain for us,” he said.

          Speaking at the press conference, Trump remarked that the meeting was highly productive, although the two sides didn’t reached full agreement and no deal was finalized yet. He highlighted the significant progress made during the discussions and affirmed his strong relationship with President Putin.

          Putin said that in recent years – under the administration of Joe Biden – US-Russia relations had sunk “to their lowest point since the Cold War,” which benefits neither the two countries nor the world as a whole.

          “It is obvious that sooner or later it was necessary to correct the situation and the transition from confrontation to dialogue had to take place.

          In this regard, a personal meeting of the heads of the two states was really overdue,” he said.

          The negotiations at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson lasted nearly three hours.

          The Russian delegation for the Alaska summit also included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, and presidential economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who has been a key figure in the Ukraine settlement process.

          Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

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          • #
            OldOzzie

            The EU throws an epic tantrum as Trump meets with Putin

            Brussels has been relegated to running behind Trump, pleading to let Zelensky have any say in a Russia-Ukraine war resolution

            The European Union had been wailing about “transatlantic unity” in the run-up to US President Trump heading to the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday – without it. It sounded like a toddler stomping their feet because Daddy let go of their hand in the mall and now they’re lost between Cinnabon and Burger King.

            A lot of good their dogmatic rhetoric has done them so far. If it wasn’t for Brussels getting drunk on its own transatlantic solidarity and unity propaganda, maybe it wouldn’t currently be in economic and political dire straits. The kind where you’re trying to duct-tape your economy back together with overpriced American gas.

            They could have charted a different path vis-a-vis Russia.

            Maybe one that involved spearheading diplomacy rather than marching in lockstep behind the US-led NATO parade of weapons and fighters on Russia’s border with Ukraine, which helped supercharge the conflict in the first place.

            While the EU indulges itself in rhetorical games, Trump has dropped all pretexts of serving any interests but America’s first, and isn’t following any agenda beyond trying to wrap things up with Russia in Ukraine and to score some economic wins in the process.

            Brussels has had more than three years to do the same. Instead, it kept repeating the mantra that Kiev had to win on the battlefield. There were no other options, it said.

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            • #
              el+gordo

              ‘Trump has dropped all pretexts of serving any interests but America’s first …’

              Incorrect, he doesn’t have any interest beyond personal wealth and power, Trump is an oligarch.

              019

        • #
          John Connor II

          Trump came out of the lettering stating there has been an agreement reached but he now needs to make a few phone calls with Europe and Ukraine.

          It’s not going to end because the EU is B-R-O-K-E and they’ve lied since day 1 and they NEED war.

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    • #
      el+gordo

      ‘Even today the EU/UK are belligerent and seem to want the war to continue …’

      That is patently absurd, you should get out more.

      012

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “Wrong, Los Angeles Times, Declining Academic Rigor Is Responsible for Falling Test Scores, Not Climate Change”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/08/15/wrong-los-angeles-times-declining-academic-rigor-is-responsible-for-falling-test-scores-not-climate-change/

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “JK Rowling’s Brutal Takedown of Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon”

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2025/08/15/jk-rowlings-brutal-takedown-of-nicola-sturgeon-n3805863

    40

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “Dogging the Wrong Things for Their ‘Climate Impact’ ”

    Concludes

    “So many unintentional (?), unspeakably awful consequences of green goodness gone awry.

    You almost wish someone had thought these things through before they try to shove them down people’s throats, or, as in New Jersey and California, got a good start on doing so.

    As far as them wanting us ‘man’s best friend-free,’ it’s a testament to how much good there really is in the greens.

    Never trust anyone who doesn’t like dogs.”

    https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/08/15/dogging-the-wrong-things-for-their-climate-impact-n3805857

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    • #
      Sambar

      “Never trust anyone who doesn’t like dogs.””

      Always trust the dog that doesn’t like some people.

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      • #
        Annie

        We had a long-haired GSD years ago. He was often friendly, tail-waggy and smiley with people or else just totally ignored them. Just rarely, very rarely, while out walking him around the suburban streets of Kew he would take an obvious diversion as far as possible from someone we passed. I came to the conclusion that he had detected a ‘baddie’.
        Once, when someone came begging at the vicarage door, he became totally anxious while my husband went out to the supermarket with that person. Shep just ran round and round the back part of the house in his anxiety about my husband, then suddenly flopped down relaxed 5mins before my husband returned home safely. Shep was a wonderful dog and highly intelligent.
        Trust a good dog’s instincts.

        40

      • #
        Hanrahan

        If dogs don’t go to heaven I want to go where they go: Will Rogers.

        40

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – a reminder

    “The Strategy of Taqiyya”

    https://gatewayhispanic.com/video/strategy-taqiyya/

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    • #
      Earl

      A faith that not only embraces and applies the concept of lying to achieve its objective but also celebrates the concept that the ultimate entity of that faith is “the greatest of all deceivers”.

      40

      • #
        TedM

        Johnch8 v44 speaking of the devil “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies”.

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        • #
          Earl

          And the first deception came from the entity that supposedly delivered the Koran to Muhammad in the cave. Accounts of visitations by Gabriel in the Bible tell of gentleness and the great pains that Gabriel went to not scare or frighten the person being communicated with. Then we supposedly have this same gentle and caring Gabriel forcefully telling the illiterate Muhammad to read and holding him so tight that Muhammad could not bear it.

          10

  • #
    KP

    The sooner this old fart departs the mortal coil the better, the ultimate war-monger when it comes to Russia, working directly to sabotage his President.

    “A ceasefire that freezes the current battle lines in Ukraine would be a “mistake”, says John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Trump and US ambassador to the United Nations.”

    Real politics are hard for the Left, they are all crying about Putin being allowed out of Russia and taking over America-

    “Even if nothing else comes of today’s summit, that’s a win for Putin, who – in the US at least – is out of the deep freeze and back at the table.”

    Forgetting that Putin is risking his standing in the BRICS by consorting with Trump.

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-putin-meeting-live-updates-us-russian-presidents-meet-in-alaska-to-try-striking-deal-to-end-russia-ukraine-war-20250815-p5mn9y.html

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  • #
    KP

    The journos are shocked! Shocked, I tell you… As everyone else in the world knew, there is no big end-of-war deal from Putin meeting Trump, there is still more back-room work to be done on how to carve up the world and tackle China.

    “The mood here is one of shock and confusion…There is also shock that the news conference was over so quickly without a single question being taken.”

    Well, that’s the way politicians work, private conversations until the press release is ready.

    ..and this bit shows they’re not trying to have each other assassinated-

    “Trump: “Thank you very much, Vladimir.”
    Putin: “Next time in Moscow.”
    Trump: “Oh, that’s an interesting one. I’d get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening.””

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-putin-meeting-live-updates-us-russian-presidents-meet-in-alaska-to-try-striking-deal-to-end-russia-ukraine-war-20250815-p5mn9y.html

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “Wind Giant Orsted Suffers Worst Week On Record As Green Energy Demise Accelerates ”

    “Orsted’s collapse in market value, credit downgrade, and capital raise mirrors the implosion of the entire green industry. We suspect that Solyndra-type failures could be on the horizon. Keep in mind, one of the Democratic Party’s pillars is all things green.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/wind-giant-orsted-suffers-worst-week-record-green-energy-demise-accelerates

    What a chance for Oz!

    If there is a fire sale “ElBowen” could outbid China and own one! (/s in case)

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  • #
    Earl

    WOW 09:50am Brisbane earthquake time. Solid shudder rattled the windows and slight noise. Thought I’d left them behind when I left Wellington.

    60

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    ““The paper was published anyway” ”

    “Too Big to Fail: …We find that their analysis underestimates uncertainty owing to large, unaccounted-for spatial correlations on the subnational level, rendering their results statistically insignificant when properly corrected. Thus, their study does not provide the robust empirical evidence needed to inform climate policy.”

    “Too Big to Fail
    A major new scandal in climate science

    https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/too-big-to-fail?triedRedirect=true

    Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/08/15/the-paper-was-published-anyway/

    Would that be a major arrow in the “ElBowen” quiver by any chance?

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    • #
      Honk R Smith

      ‘Climate Change’ has driven the educated elite insane.
      It was a short drive.
      To the the gender identity, virus mania, everything is racist, criminals just need therapy, Trump is H!tLer Asylum.
      Our only hope is to just weld the door shut.
      Let the Interdimensional Beings deal with them.

      30

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Finally discovered where the degree ‘°’ symbol is on my iPhone – at last! No more asterisk ‘*’ stand-in for me, huzzah, the correct hieroglyph: hold down zero and a little panel opens with ‘°’ as an option, so, here’s yesterday’s not-so-hot temperatures –

    -60° C South Pole, Antarctica (snowing)
    -20° C Greenland Summit (snowing)
    0.5° C North Pole, Arctic (summer’s almost over)
    +48° C Iraq / Mesopotamia

    Those numbers look stock-standard normal to me, no aberrations, no extremes, no nuffink (!) just a mean temp of -6° Celsius between the hottest and the coldest… brrrrrrr. Where’s my warming?

    120

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “Serious Men – President Trump Greets President Vladimir Putin
    August 15, 2025 | Sundance | 159 Comments”

    “The body language, the facial expressions, the tone of their interactions, all of it frames the visual of two men of consequence meeting to discuss consequential things.

    Having spent a considerable amount of time in the geopolitical orbit of both leaders, this meeting puts a very significant smile on my face. When respectful serious men cut through the nonsense of propaganda, containing ulterior motives created by others, good things happen. This is a very good start.”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/08/15/serious-men-president-trump-greets-president-vladimir-putin/

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    • #
      Vladimir

      As a former Trumpist and an official Putin’s hater I agree – body language says it all.
      I give Trump 24 hours to reverse his impersonation of Pres. Bidon v2.0

      01

    • #
      RickWill

      I smiled at their greeting.

      I am not close enough to the history of Ukraine to have a view on Putin’s war but many conflicts started by the west were tp prevent gonocide. There is a significant number of ERussioan speaking people in the southeast of Ukraine.

      Both were respectful and thoughtful. There is no way that Trump could come away with a ceasefire. Only Ukraine and Russia can decide that. Trump is offering a US sponsored peace brokerage. He is the middle man but not in a position to make decisions. Trump represents USA – no one else.

      I think it would be great if Trump did make it to Moscow but it probably comes with high personal risk.

      00

      • #
        KP

        “I think it would be great if Trump did make it to Moscow but it probably comes with high personal risk.”

        I am sure! There are many Americans in the Govt there that would kill him in Moscow and blame the Russian if they had half a chance. Its very pleasant that neither got killed in Alaska.

        “many conflicts started by the west were tp prevent gonocide.” Which is why Putin invaded Ukraine to start with, he knew very well that NATO would use Ukraine to work towards breaking Russia up and destroying it. The typo is very appropriate, they want Russia gone, erased from the map.

        In the end they are both just politicians, no different to Albo and whats-his-name the Energy Minister.

        10

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Jo’s site still having a few unwanted ‘visitors’ glitching the system, or is it your [foreign agent] E-Commie/Czar throwing spiders at the wires? 🕷️

    Anyway, ABCCCCCC Corp have yet again, inadvertently, announced that your Cl!mate X-spurts haven’t got a frigid clue when it comes to weather [that which makes up a region’s climate] as they report MORE cold wet frigid rain & snow on the way [for the foreseeable future] even SA’s Mount Lofty and NSW’s Northern Tablelands may get a touch of the impossible [snow] again.

    Earthquakes… Snow… Cold Rain… you know it can only be one thing…

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-16/nsw-national-weather-wrap/105660322

    Pull on your woollies and stoke-up the fire 🔥

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  • #
    Hanrahan

    “Cease fire” and “peace” are not synonymous. Never have been.

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    • #
      Gary S

      Israel and Hamas – led Gaza had a ceasefire in place when somebody decided to ignore it.

      10

    • #
      Sambar

      A couple of Koreas spring to mind

      00

    • #
      el+gordo

      I don’t see a cease fire happening, after three years of hostilities it appears Russia will eventually sue for peace.

      ‘Suing for peace is usually initiated by the losing party in an attempt to stave off an unconditional surrender.’ (wiki)

      05

      • #
        KP

        ” it appears Russia will eventually sue for peace. ‘Suing for peace is usually initiated by the losing party in an attempt to stave off an unconditional surrender.’ (wiki)”

        Well, no-one else sees any appearance of that, Russia is driving Ukraine’s troops back in all areas being fought at this very moment, Ukraine is not a functioning country, relying on handouts to even pay the civil service, their troops are being rushed from spot to spot trying to plug holes in the lines and halt the Russian advances, they have no trained reserves and cannot rotate their front lines for R&R..

        ..and if Russia was going to lose President Putin would have organised a cease-fire today!

        40

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – Canada but – – –

    “The Doctor Will Kill You Now”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/09/canada-euthanasia-demand-maid-policy/683562/

    “The euthanasia conference was held at a Sheraton. Some 300 Canadian professionals, most of them clinicians, had arrived for the annual event. There were lunch buffets and complimentary tote bags; attendees could look forward to a Friday-night social outing, with a DJ, at an event space above Par-Tee Putt in downtown Vancouver. “The most important thing,” one doctor told me, “is the networking.”

    Which is to say that it might have been any other convention in Canada. Over the past decade, practitioners of euthanasia have become as familiar as orthodontists or plastic surgeons are with the mundane rituals of lanyards and drink tickets and It’s been so long s outside the ballroom of a four-star hotel. The difference is that, 10 years ago, what many of the attendees here do for work would have been considered homicide.”

    Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/08/15/the-doctor-will-kill-you-now-22/

    And the comments

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  • #
    Furiously Curious

    An interesting take on the international grain trades, with the US struggling to sell it’s large corn crop. It seems bureaucrats have managed to insert all sorts of little ‘carbon’ clauses, into international contracts, making it difficult for the rather unstructured US Ag industries, to come up with the paper work now required, leading to holdups at borders. Plus the US GMO corn is not popular (60%? of their crop), plus the Mississippi is really low, so moving big barges down it, has become a problem, and all the state’s granaries are chockers. Canada has stolen the Korean, Japanese, and EU’s markets, through being so Green, and dotting Is, and crossing Ts with the trade’s climate change friendly regulations. 15mins
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g6aW-FC794&t=390s

    20

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    SAVE THE PLANET…SHOOT A BUREAUCRAT

    “When the sun never set on the British Empire, and the Union Jack waved over palm and pine, the Colonial Office managed with 26 clerks and 2 part-time Turkish interpreters. In 1960, when the Winds of Change had been blowing a howling gale for a generation, it required 8026 to administer what remained.”

    It was1956 and Professor C. Northcote Parkinson put his tongue firmly in his cheek and wrote an article about the inexorable rise in the size of the Public Service. The book, Parkinson’s Law, had a brief spell of fame, but was largely ignored by officialdom.

    Two years later he wrote The Law and the Profits, a witty but more serious look at public finances. He pointed out that there was no check on government spending, mainly because the politicians had no idea where the money was going, nor any inclination to stop spending other peoples money. Nor would any attempt to rein in the expansion of the public service be welcomed by those who benefitted from such, and would be in charge of any attempt to do so. Perhaps he was channelling the then unfashionable, De Tocqueville and/or von Hayek, when he predicted, along with a rise in the crime rate, that the never ending rise in the cost of welfare would lead to the collapse of the Welfare State.

    That too was ignored, although there are those who feel that he was correct, if too optimistic in the time it would take. Parkinson died in 1995, without seeing that prediction come true. He did have the satisfaction of proving correct with his predictions in 1962 (in his book East and West) of the collapse of communism, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the rise of militant islam. Contrast his ability to fore tell the future with that of any politician, who is very lucky if his promises survive for six months.

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Trump ends avian genocide in Idaho

    Hated windmill project gets axed by the White House</strong>

    By Editorial Board – The Washington Times – Friday, August 15, 2025

    With the stroke of a pen, President Trump saved over 5,000 majestic birds from annual destruction.

    Reckless anti-environmental activists were on the brink of erecting avian guillotines — taller than the Washington monument — across Idaho’s Magic Valley, to the horror of residents.

    The Lava River Wind Project is canceled. Nobody in the Gem State wanted it to go forward. The legislature was unanimously opposed. The 7 affected counties adopted resolutions of disapproval. Local ranchers were furious about losing access to grazing land, but President Joe Biden’s minions didn’t care. They signed a death warrant for the bald eagles that called the proposed 57,000-acre windmill zone home.

    Even humble feathered creatures like the greater sage-grouse would have suffered, consigned by Mr. Biden’s decree to 806 casualties every year, under the cruel heading, “permitted take.”

    Nature never prepared birds of prey, much less the common sagehen, to navigate a maze of 231 windmills, each sprouting three blood-stained, 300-foot-long scythes. Combined, the swept area of these sharpened edges would have presented 56 million square feet of annihilation for our airborne friends.

    Once the windmill’s useful life is over, the windmill company envisioned sending obsolete blades to “appropriate industrial disposal sites or landfill locations” while leaving behind the massive sunken concrete pillars that support the towering structures.

    Let’s not pretend any of this is “green.”

    Each turbine requires a steady supply of hundreds of gallons of petroleum-based lubricant for the gears and bearings to function. Each of its hundred-foot-long steel components is forged by industrial processes that depend on fossil fuels. The pieces are transported in multiple stages on large, diesel-powered trucks.

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    Helps if you have been following US politics and the recent “Sub Sandwich Saga”

    https://x.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1956117388962734122

    Via

    https://instapundit.com/738642/#disqus_thread

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Researchers build world’s first “microwave brain” chip

    In a quiet Cornell University lab, researchers have taken a hammer to decades of digital circuit convention. The result is a silicon chip that thinks less like a clock-driven processor and more like a living brain—only instead of neurons, it uses controlled bursts of microwave energy.

    Dubbed the “microwave brain,” this experimental processor can juggle two jobs at once: crunching ultrafast data streams and talking wirelessly, all inside a footprint small enough for a smartwatch. And it does it at just 200 milliwatts, a fraction of the power a comparable digital neural network would consume.

    https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/researchers-build-worlds-first-microwave-brain-chip-that-can-think-like-ai-and-talk-like-a-radio-all-at-gigahertz-speeds

    10

  • #
    John Connor II

    Volkswagen locks horsepower behind subscription and one-time fee.

    Volkswagen’s ID.3 is advertised with 168 horsepower, but you actually get 148 horsepower unless you pay extra.

    The boost comes from software, not hardware. No range improvement, just more torque for rent. £16.50 a month or £649 one-time.

    https://citizenwatchreport.com/volkswagen-locks-horsepower-behind-subscription-and-one-time-fee/

    There’s way too much of this form of robbery going on.
    You can fix it easily by simply refusing to buy their products.

    50

    • #
      KP

      I’ll bet the Pirate Bay has a hack already…

      10

    • #
      Chad

      John Connor II
      August 16, 2025 at 4:44 pm · Reply
      Volkswagen locks horsepower behind subscription and one-time fee.

      Volkswagen’s ID.3 is advertised with 168 horsepower, but you actually get 148 horsepower unless you pay extra.

      So how is that any different to buying a “normal” model Hyundai or paying more for the uprated “N” version..
      Its just the usual sales “upselling” trick ,….. which can easily be negotiated out by a wise buyer !

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Saturday puzzle: guess the country

    Train passengers face arrest over ‘assault’ of naked man on the train after they took law into their hands when he dropped his trousers in front of women and children on a packed carriage

    https://x.com/JDunlap1974/status/1954995713106121163

    That’s a tricky one!

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    Seems there was “an Oreshnik emphasis mark” added in the last couple of days

    “Kiev’s Pokrovsk Counterattacks Fail; Huge Oreshnik Strike Damage Confirmed; Putin Trump Go To Alaska”

    https://rumble.com/v6xmgmu-kievs-pokrovsk-counterattacks-fail-huge-oreshnik-strike-damage-confirmed-pu.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

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    • #
      KP

      ” Huge Oreshnik Strike Damage Confirmed”

      I read Russia took out the factory making fuel for rocket boosters, and the factory making the ballistic missiles themselves, which sets back Ukraine’s bid to make long-range missiles at home, with NATO help of course. First they took out the Patriot missile batteries guarding the factories, which would be worth an Oreshnik each.

      10

    • #
      another ian

      Not a second one, a reminder and some more on the effects of the first one

      10