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
We visited Omodhos village today; it was very busy with tourist buses but still attractive. The recent fires came right up to it. Yesterday there was a bit of rain, which has helped to wash away some of the black ash.
We sat and watched the world go by while enjoying a brandy sour! Our daughter, on her first ever visit here, seems to have taken to Cyprus very happily. She was the only member of our family never to have been here. A late lunch in a village taverna has left us needing nothing more, except maybe an ouzo (known to the British services as ‘bouzo’).
Brandy Sour was invented at the Forest Park Hotel in Platres in the 1930s to please King Farouk of Egypt with something that looked like iced tea. It was actually made of brandy, good local lemon squash (Limonada Kean), angostura bitters, soda water and ice and the rim of the glass is decorated with sugar with a pick holding a lime slice and a cherry (nowadays anyway!)
100
A family member, still living in the UK, recently sold his holiday home in Cyprus. He said age was making travel rather tedious, but I can tell he didn’t really want to sell; it was his wife’s growing fear of flying that prompted it.
Pretty much every time we speak he mentions it, hence my belief he misses Cyprus terribly but doesn’t want to say so. With the usual winter weather now bearing down on Blighty, and other forms of gloom covering the nation, I expect those summer days pottering around his Cypriot garden will be painfully missed.
70
Poor chap, it’s a shame for him. Life isn’t straightforward at all.
Many years ago we were going to look at a place in Morphou Bay but were ill on the day and leaving for England the next day. We didn’t buy and then the coup happened in 1974 and we’d have lost it anyway. I would still be happy to live in this lovely island!
10
Next month I’m flying to the UK. The flight includes free booze. When I’m there I’m attending the Arsenal v Tottenham match and the hospitality again includes free booze.
I’m a life long non-drinker apart from a few glasses of Riesling with meals many years ago. I tried a sample of the rocket fuel on sale at a local market a while back but I think it is an acquired taste.
I am open to suggestions of drinks I might try at my ripe old age. I’ve asked my son who I’m visiting but I think he is a bit shy about guiding me toward a life of alcoholic indulgence.
40
My advice- don’t drink! At altitude you dehydrate and the cabin is not pressurised to sea level so any shortcomings of the plumbing to your noggin may manifest. If you need alcohol to “enjoy” an event is it really that wonderful? Buddhist precept #5 serves well- just look at Mr Trump!
50
My favourite tipple is dry white wine, but for the full British experience I might suggest you find a small village pub out in the country – the smaller the better – selling locally-brewed beer. Ask the locals what they drink and give that a go. I rather liked a pint of ‘Mild’ myself, back in the day, a dark beer that’s not too fizzy.
I have a fond memory of such a pub in Yorkshire somewhere. It was just down the lane from where we’d pitched our caravan. The bar was just about big enough for about a dozen people and their specialty was a beer brewed by an old guy from the village, which they only got a barrel of now and then. It was marvelous!
It will be November, so could be cold. That’s another reason to hunt down a small, cozy pub with an open fire. Steak pie, mushy peas and chips please.
40
I have very little on a long flight; maybe a fizzy or two to celebrate at the start! That’s it then generally; just lots of water.
30
While travelling long haul flights, what Annie said
When you are there, what Steve said.
Stay hydrated, I found noise cancelling headphones helpful in getting some sleep. Deadening the continuous engine noise and whoosh of air.
Sounds like a fun trip
20
Forrest,
In 1975 I took my first 747 Jumbo, Qantas Sydney to Amsterdam. Free grog, I has just been parachuted in to manage a hard and dangerous project so was with 2 male Aussie scallywag engineer employees who thought they could bed a hostie each (all hosties were lovely females those days). The ladies turned on the champers to get them paralytic before we left Oz and I got dragged into a whopper of a hangover with them. Would not recommend ANY alcohol whatsoever. It does not mix with flight. I gave it up forever in 1983 and for flying I would recommend water without Coke levels of sugar. Boring, but time-honoured. Geoff S
10
King Farouk of Egypt.
Well, well. There’s a turn up.
A playboy who drinks alcohol.
Whatever would the Imam say?
Tut. Tut.
10
This is rather concerning.
Canadian plan to shut down the internet for dissenters
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/totalitarian-canadas-bill-to-shut-down-the-internet/
Presumably smartphone access could also be shut off denying access to bank accounts etc. Presumably punishment could also be meted out in this way by refusing social security benefits, stopping pensions, not allowing people to leave the country etc.
130
Free Speech? Where is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights with all of this?
100
Free speech? When our betters claim to champion free speech, what they really mean is we have is the freedom to agree with THEM.
110
They’ll have to change the National Anthem.
O Canada!
“God keep our land glorious and free!”
https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/anthem-canada.html
How about something like, God keep our land glorious and subservient?
50
Just give them time to change God to “gaia”. (No uppercase g for “gaia” intentional.)
40
Just when you think the world can’t get any madder or stupider along comes this.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/brainwashing-students-with-woke-ideology-is-an-abuse-of-public-money/
80
It is also torture. Where is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights with all of this?
30
Whilst the action was pretty silly, it is encouraging that judges still recognise that as we have no blasphemy laws in the UK then it is not illegal to offend someones religion and beliefs.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2119735/man-koran-burning-appeal
150
And the Afghan boat migrant with the gun tattoo got found guilty of threatening Farage.
A double outbreak of sanity, I’m going to need a sit down.
140
And following on from the other day –
“When conservationist Steven Nowakowski quietly began mapping Australia’s renewable energy developments four years ago, few imagined the scale of what he would uncover, or the courage it would take to reveal it.
His data exposes the vast footprint of renewable projects spreading across forests, farmland and wildlife corridors – more than 1,200 project sites nationwide. It’s the first complete picture of how the ‘green revolution’ is transforming our landscapes. Built without government funding or institutional backing, Nowakowski’s mapping reveals what our leaders have chosen not to: the true environmental, social and economic costs of the energy transition.
What he’s produced is both a technical triumph and a moral act. It shows a nation racing headlong into an infrastructure revolution with no transparent business case, no cumulative environmental assessment, and little understanding of what is being sacrificed. It is, in many ways, a modern David versus Goliath story – one man, armed with data and conviction, revealing what bureaucracy and ideology have preferred to keep hidden.
Each coloured shape on his map represents more than a patch of land. It tells a story of clearing, fragmentation and displacement of species-rich habitats disrupted, of productive farmland dissected by transmission corridors, of communities blindsided by decisions made far away. The scale is staggering, and yet the public remains largely uninformed.”
Christina Talacko
10th of October, 2025
More at the Spectator Australia
And there is this short video –
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800820705686348026
170
Steven Nowakowski should be appointed Australian of the Year asap. His exposure of the ignorance and stupidity of the “renewable energy” rollout is superb and highly effective. It is a great pity that the MSM is generally too concerned with fawning to the idiotic whims of mostly scientifically illiterate politicians, to give Steven’s work the indisputable credit and publicity it so richly deserves. Unfortunately, a significant majority of journos in written and broadcast media also do not have the wit to intelligently question these pollies. The urban masses thus remain essentially uninformed and placidly accept the religious cult/”climate change” Armageddon message continuously fed to them. As DM frequently & correctly points out our once revered scientific institutions (e.g. CSIRO, BOM, our ‘Group of 8’ universities etc) today more or less endorse the fantasy of human induced global warming also. [And don’t get me going on the sheer hypocrisy of our so called State and Federal Conservation bodies].
Whenever I learn of individuals from such institutions spouting such nonsense, I am constantly reminded of Upton Sinclair’s most telling quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it”. But my biggest disdain probably remains with the senior boffins in Australia’s State and Federal Public Service. They are charged with giving the government honest and independent advice, based on the best factual knowledge available. If they fail to do so they should immediately resign from their role; if they do so and the government ignores their advice they should also resign as they are de facto endorsing mis-/disinformation that is causing untold damage to our country and its citizens.
61
Can’t remember if this was posted before, anyway, green washing beer sloshing, eco-forest, including nearly £700K of taxpayer cash, apparently suffered a massive tree death rate from incompetent husbandry.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15160717/BrewDog-sells-rewilding-forest.html
30
Would it be inflammatory to call Greens as Vandals?
What benefits do they deliver? Whole forests destroyed, animals deprived of habitat, and birds (especially “protected” ones) killed.
80
https://reneweconomy.com.au/why-super-needs-a-uniform-mandatory-internal-carbon-price-to-guide-its-4-3-trillion-pool/amp/
As if Joe Public isn’t already being screwed hard enough
70
Australia’s $400,000+ per year Sex Discrimination Commissioner does not understand the concept of biological sex.
To her, a man in a dress would be a “woman” and have women’s rights such as playing women’s sports or entering single sex areas like bathrooms or indeed female prisons as is tye case in Victoriastan.
I thought all this nonsense was so passé since President TRUMP declared that there were only two genders and the UK Supreme Court ruled that “woman” and “man” refer to biological sex.
Can we get over this BS please?
In the following video Liberal Senator Claire Chandler is interviewed by Sky News Australia.
https://youtu.be/cpTF4qpAjJc
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>To her, a man in a dress would be a “woman” and have women’s rights
So all I have to do to change my gender is put a dress on!
Even a child knows that a man in a dress is a man in a dress.
delusional (adj): having false or faulty beliefs
How the hell does a “$400,000+ per year Sex Discrimination Commissioner” get that job when she/he/it/they are so confused about the subject they’re supposed to oversee?
Truly, we are governed by idiots.
191
That’s what the voters voted for.
Idiots.
Probably beats the criminally insane.
But it’s a toss up.
00
A man in a dress is just a pig with lipstick.
130
Like that analogy, congrats if it was your copyright. Geoff S
10
FWIW – some reading on the gold market
“GOLD FINGERED”
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/gold-fingered-friday-october-10-2025?
20
So Peter Schiff says Au could go to $100,000. Peter has been saying such things for 10, 20, 30 years. If you didn’t listen then why would you do so now?
Too late now if nearing retirement but for a young man the rules about saving and compounding still hold, just don’t hold fiat, it deflates.
I started buying gold by the ounce, today a gram is A$200 – bite size still.
30
Hanrahan,
Yep.
A Troy once of 24K gold was worth $35 in 1971.
There’s 31 grams in a Troy. That’s a bit over $1.13 per gram.
Current rate is $196.63 per gram.
That’s a 17,300% increase.
Beat that.
10
And more on the sale of Dominion voting machines there too – starts at
“Believe me when I tell you it’s getting hard to keep up with all the winning. The summer’s frenetic pace has done nothing but accelerate. I can only guess, but maybe it has something to do with all the early planning now beginning to bear fruit. Anyway, behold this astonishing Associated Press headline: “Former Republican election official buys Dominion Voting — a target of 2020 conspiracy theories.” And another puzzle piece just dropped into place.”
40
I have been wondering whether Trump’s recent interest in Venezuela might have something to do with Smartmatic and Dominion. Not saying I have solid evidence … but there is a link, and Trump never, ever forgets a grudge.
20
As you say, no solid evidence, but Dominion is a child of Venezuela.
Edit: Amazin! Thirteen words and I fell foul of the naughty word filter.
30
Dominion sued Fox and won $787 million. I decided it was cheaper if I put the words on the moderated list.
But maybe times have changed? –
60
Self-censorship is understandable … although it also kind of suggests the bad guys might be winning. Hopefully Linking is OK?
Many details, including reference material available. I’m not in a position to chase it all up … but it does make you wonder.
20
The European green crab is invading America, causing an ecosystem disaster.
East and West Coasts and Alaska.
Considered edible.
Video: https://youtu.be/5j4h9YQVpLQ
10
Saying something is “considered edible” does not inspire me to try it though.
Surely, if it is edible, we would know already?
20
According to my AI search:
The European green crab was first observed in North America in 1817 and has since spread along the Atlantic coast from South Carolina to Newfoundland.
1817.
42 years later Tommy Austin introduce Rabbits into Australia. They fed families for decades.
10
Why is The ABC focused on Trumps wealth rather than his peace initiatives? This is one Lyon that needs to be captured and returned to the Ultimo Zoo!
“Four Corners’ – “Chasing Trump’s Billions” = Chasing A “B Grade” Story Next Monday”
81
Lyons is a shocker.
This is an excerpt of the hit piece.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-09/chasing-trumps-billions/105870916
20
‘ … the way the President mixes business and politics threatens the very foundations of American democracy.’
Possibly.
00
Don’t know who said that and I’m not watching ABC to find out, but in the US politics IS business.
But Trump has won $16M in one lawsuit and $22m in another. Both judgements he is entitled pocket but, along with his salary, they are being donated back to the country.
60
FWIW –
Well “Eh Gawd!!”
With all the scrutiny to which Trump and his finances have been exposed without a “Gotcha” they have found a “dead set, guaranteed, genuine, -, -, -” that was missed by those who came before?
10
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/10/aussie-green-wall-cracks-queensland-commits-to-reliable-coal-until-2046/
Take note Federal Liberals if you want to stay relevant!
70
Relevant to whom? Nothing could cause the grinches here to vote liberal. Good is never good enough.
00
FWIW
“Trump Reloads an ‘America First’ Energy Agenda While Reasserting Sound Science”
“For a good laugh, turn to page 42 of the report President Donald Trump’s Energy Department released in July. On this page, the huge gulf between climate modeling and observed warming comes into sharp focus. The report includes a chart of all 36 climate models, as well as the warming that actually occurred from 1973 to 2022 in the U.S. Corn Belt. The big red bars represent what the models predicted for the twelve Midwestern states that make up the Corn Belt, while the tiny blue bar represents the observed amount of warming. Look for yourself.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/10/trump-reloads-an-america-first-energy-agenda-while-reasserting-sound-science/
And also noticed
“Aussie Green Wall Cracks: Queensland Commits to Reliable Coal until 2046”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/10/aussie-green-wall-cracks-queensland-commits-to-reliable-coal-until-2046/
51
I think it’s page 43:
https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE_Critical_Review_of_Impacts_of_GHG_Emissions_on_the_US_Climate_July_2025.pdf
Lol.
00
FWIW
“CLIMATE CRITICS POUNCE! How the Media Turned “Questioning a UN Bureaucrat” Into a Hate Crime Against Science
1 day ago Charles Rotter 33 Comments
Stop the presses. Summon the fact-checkers. Alert Greta’s yacht. Because, dear reader, the climate heretics have pounced again.
Yes, that’s the headline this week from the stenographers over at E&E News, a Politico-adjacent publication that reads like the employee newsletter for the Church of Saint Carbon Credit. The story begins in the key of outrage: “Climate critics try to discredit IPCC author for linking disasters to global warming.”
Translation from Journo-speak: “Someone noticed the emperor’s new lab coat is made of recycled grant money.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/09/climate-critics-pounce-how-the-media-turned-questioning-a-un-bureaucrat-into-a-hate-crime-against-science/
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FWIW – more in the “Free Speech fight”
“In an Amazing Step Into the Light, Irish Inform EU ‘We Will Not Comply’ ”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/10/10/in-an-amazing-step-into-the-light-irish-inform-eu-we-will-not-comply-n3807701
20
Spanish court declares pandemic restrictions unconstitutional, voids 1.3 million fines
Spain’s Constitutional Court has struck down all Covid pandemic-era penalties, ruling that the country’s draconian 2020 restrictions violated citizens’ rights.
The court ruled that lockdowns, “vaccines” mandates, mask policies, and other restrictions illegally suspended basic freedoms.
The ruling exposes the lockdown for what many critics argued all along: a massive power grab.
https://slaynews.com/news/spanish-court-declares-pandemic-restrictions-unconstitutional-voids-1-3-million-fines/
Any constitutional lawyers here? 😁
60
FWIW
Re the Nobel Peace Prize
A second opinion
“Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady’ Dedicates Nobel Prize to Trump As Maduro’s Death Rattle Gets Louder”
https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2025/10/10/venezuelas-iron-lady-dedicates-nobel-prize-to-trump-as-maduros-death-rattle-gets-louder-n4944707
And another one
“The Upside of Losing: Why NOT Winning the Nobel Peace Prize Is One of Donald Trump’s Greatest Victories”
https://pjmedia.com/scott-pinsker/2025/10/10/the-upside-of-losing-why-not-winning-the-nobel-peace-prize-is-one-of-donald-trumps-greatest-victories-n4944708
Plus
“Head of Nobel Peace Prize tries to justify not honoring Trump with award”
https://nypost.com/2025/10/10/world-news/nobel-peace-prize-head-tries-to-justify-not-giving-trump-award/
Winning while losing!
60
Seems that Trump’s superpower is inducing the bad guys to reveal themselves.
Or maybe the whole house of cards is simply collapsing under its own weight.
We live in interesting times.
61
This is from Machado’s post on X:
This recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task: to conquer Freedom.
We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy.
I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!
It would be in the interests of the USA to directly fund Machodo rather than indirectly funding the ruling criminals through drug money.
50
This will explode more heads in Washington DC than if Trump was awarded the prize.
Trump needs a new award – he stands alone like no other before him.
60
‘ … and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!’
Brilliant political manoeuvre by the ‘iron lady’.
01
Honk,
Looking at TDS objectively and not because it is trendy or leftist to conform, wife and I have been looking at quite a few hours of YouTube featuring the President in open Cabinet meetings and similar.
The man has astounding recall. He has an unusually high ability to compose words for occasions. He is dominantly optimistic, in a position mired in bad news. He has a temper often tested, but is full of self control and seldom seeming angry. I have heard him use the F bomb only once. He has high natural leadership qualities. Wish I was as good.
Cannot understand why so much aggro towards him, suspect some are jealous. Geoff S
40
“… he stands alone like no other before him.”
I recall nearly a decade ago, a coffee friend complaining about Trump (early undiagnosed TDS) and in response I blurted out, “Trump is magnificent.”
Little did I know.
And I haven’t spoken to that guy in years.
I do worry.
The Globalist Blob Juggernaut seems so massive and sinisterly obscured and protected by the intelligentsia it has so successfully brainwashed.
And this 79 year old man is the only champion we have with the ability to fight it.
Harvard and Yale will continue to manufacture zombies.
A reminder.
Yale University Students Protest Halloween Costume Email
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IEFD_JVYd0
Also nearly a decade ago.
That girl is probably a surgeon or a judge by now.
30
FWIW more for the covid record
“Pfizer Left COVID-19 Vaccine Data Out Of Submissions To FDA, Documents Show”
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/pfizer-left-covid-19-vaccine-data-out-submissions-fda-documents-show
50
What Pfizer produced was NOT a vaccine.
Until of course the definition of vaccine was changed to include things other than vaccines.
101
I think I have an admirer in the form of a red thumber who is too shy to write anything in response to what I write.
My day is complete!
30
Science has determined that this is the result of vocabularic anthropogenic vaccine change.
30
FWIW
“Of All the People to Survive in Gaza, You Knew Mr FAFO Had to Be One of Them”
“Imagine my surprise when the news of the signed Gaza peace agreement hit X, and it wasn’t two hours later that joyful videos of Palestinians celebrating the news flooded in.
It was also pretty amazing that, no matter where I looked in the ecstatic crowds reveling and hooting in the streets, did I see one frail, starving person struggling to speak the Arabic version of ‘YIPPEE!’ ”
And other things noticed too
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/10/10/of-all-the-people-to-survive-in-gaza-you-knew-mr-fafo-had-to-be-one-of-them-n3807725
61
FWIW latest Kunstler
“What is Power For?
“Ordinary judicial proceedings become impracticable when the people paid to execute federal law coordinate to prevent its execution.” —EKO on “X” ”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/what-is-power-for
10
This is good for a seriously good belly laugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc-OHEH3RDM
Purle is my favourite colour and now Youtube channel.
10
Tech tip corner: Windows 11: bypassing the M$ account requirement
https://youtu.be/dob70AHz-QY?si=ce-WRJGQtB_bIvvO
They won’t be blocking the education & corporate sector any time soon.
00
Anthony Albanese tries to claim credit for Trump’s Gaza peace plan despite contributing nothing to peace with his fixation on a ‘two-state solution’. Along with leaders in France and elsewhere, their virtue-signalling recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state was entirely counterproductive. Hamas even praised them saying it was a result of the “fruits” of the October 7 attacks
30
FWIW
“Movie To Avoid: Pro-Antifa “One Battle After Another” ”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/movie-to-avoid-pro-antifa-one-battle-after-another/
In case “Their ABC” decide it is wonderful
00
FWIW
“Slicing the earth to study Cloud Fraction and VPD.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/11/slicing-the-earth-to-study-cloud-fraction-and-vpd/
00
Warning.
My PC is a book-sized HP Prodesk 400 with about 5 USB and 1 HDMI ports. It has no CD/DVD reader, so I bought one today made by ASUS. Quite a lot of my data and photography is on discs that I want to transfer onto USB as well as 2 TB external disc. The new player had a USB plug, but as soon as I connected it ready to test, I got a Microsoft error message saying (not verbatim here) detected new USB device that is drawing more current than port allows.
Then the screen froze in what in early days we called the Black Screen of Death, after Microsoft the Blue Screen of Death.
Could not get the Prodesk to work, fully frozen. Trip to Repair Shop on Monday.
Anyone got caught like this without warning in the sales material or little manual in the box? Geoff S
20