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
I’m I interested in the non-intersecting realities we now share.
I was talking with a friend who exist in a more mainstream reality than I.
This person believes that coal, oil and gas are ‘inefficient’ sources of energy production.
And this is a main driver for ‘renewable’ transition.
I attempted to inform of the recent failure of Ivanpah in CA and was dismissed as ill informed.
From what I can ascertain, this what respectable folks are being told by respectable authority.
Then again I think it is possible that pre-modern hominid species may survive in remote places, so I believe Bigfoot may be real.
Antifa is not.
And Hitler II was recently celebrated in the Israeli Knesset.
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Of course proponents of renewables use ‘highly creative accounting’ and come up with figures that turn the likes of this link on its head.
https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/the-iron-law-of-power-density-part
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Hang in there Honk!
The reality is that Ivanpah solar power is closing down after just 11 years operation
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11 years since opening. Its unclear how much effective operation as designed it ever achieved.
20
It closed down as revenue was less than operating costs, the models didn’t pan out in reality, there were constant mirror alignment and turbine efficiency issues, and conventional solar panels made efficiency gains and at much lower comparative costs during its operational lifetime.
10
Plus it required more energy for start up in the morning than it often produced. How efficient is that ?
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WOT ! NO SUBSIDIES.
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Thank you for explaining the obvious yet again. It would be interesting to see real data on how it performed.
00
And the RRA (anti green power group) just makes things up, cites non existent papers and uses AI to generate submissions.
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Grid scale wind and solar in Australia are already stranded assets. The proponents know that but the government is still trying to get them to build more.
24 hours to 7am, rooftops in SA produced 31% of the State’s electrical energy – 12.1GWh. Grid solar 1.9GWh with 3.1GWh curtailed. Wind 10.7GWh with 2.4GWh curtailed. The average price for grid solar was MINUS $5.90/MWh. The average price for wind was $69.73/MWh.
https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=1d&interval=30m&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed
Essential generation from gas and imports 15GWh. Across a year, there has been no reduction in the need for essential generation and they charge like wounded bulls when they can to turn a profit – they are essential. wind and solar are not essential.
So grid solar can no longer make money other than through the retail theft. Grid wind can still make money but the demand it can serve is disappearing. In the coming year, SA rooftops will overtake SA wind as the dominant source of generation in SA.
California would be in the same predicament if they continued to subsidise rooftops at the same level as grid scale wind and solar.
Last month, Australian households installed record level of solar power and household batteries. Rooftops are all there is. All energy intensive businesses are not shut down or on government welfare. There is no motor vehicle manufacturing in Australia.
100
Who collects and collates the data from each individual rooftop installation to give a daily total ?
Or is this just an estimate extrapolated from a few sample sites ?
30
Mmmmm behind the meter numbers are tricky
10
It will get harder to estimate with more batteries. But now they get a reasonable idea of the rooftop production by comparing sunny days to cloudy days.
The ability to predict demand is an important factor in bidding so the generators now need a good understanding of likely production so they can play the bidding game to maximise their revenue from the available demand. Today, rooftops supplied all of SA from 11:30am to 2:30pm. There was no generation from grid solar during that time and SA was exporting foot solar, a little bit of wind and also gas to Victoria.
https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=1d&interval=30m&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed
00
It is estimated from solar capacity installations and modelling utilisation. It does not count any off-grid solar.
Their modelling is based on the demand variation during the day and from day to day with cloud cover and other factors. There are also measured sites.
There is big money in rooftop solar modelling as well as any weather dependent generation because the accuracy of predicting it improves the income from the bidding craps shoot.
Similarly the curtailment is an estimate but they have a good idea of generating potential from wind speed and which units are braked. Likewise the solar farms will know their potential from site monitoring.
As more batteries are installed in households, the rooftop solar resources will be better utilised. Rooftops currently achieve a CF around 10% overall across the NEM but that will improve as the batteries load shift. There will be less lunchtime curtailment of rooftops while the extra energy will go into reducing evening peaks. Basically the rooftop influence will extend for more time each day. Within a decade, Rooftops could be supplying 100% of Q4 demand. I linked to an article I produced toady down the page that goes into more detail.
In my own case since losing my 66c/kWh FIT last December, I have converted to all electric so no longer paying for gas. In second week of October 2023 I imported 17.6.kWh and exported 55.2kWh. For the corresponding week this year I imported 6.7kWh and exported 14.5kWh. So no gas bill saving around $3/day and total electricity bill around $1.30/ day. Not quite as good at the $4/day income from the high FIT that paid for the gas with a little left over this time of year but I am still in the black for this year with the government rebate.
00
If it is as you say an “Estimate” ..it should be expressed as a range, and not an implied level of accuracy , such as .”.31%,..12.1 GWh”
00
Backyard oil wells in East and Central Java are to be regulated within four years
‘Like a bomb went off’: Fears linger over Indonesia’s 30,000 community-run oil wells amid efforts to regulate them
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-oil-wells-community-untrained-blowouts-fires-regulation-5381641
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More good stuff on wind killing eagles.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/17/avian-mortality-industrial-wind-in-ecological-trouble/
Keeping the pressure on. At a minimum we want no new wind, as does Trump.
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Auystralia’s wind industry is stranded economically now. There is no point building more bird mincers in Australia.
Solar on roofs sort of make sense if battery prices continue to fall. And rooftop solar is already dominating generation in South Australia.
Once heavy industry goes, there is not much left that does not have sufficient roof space to power itself in the sun-drenched nation.
It would cost about $20bn at current costs to build a 1GW solar/battery plant to power the BSL smelter. That borders on being economically viable but all the money has to be spent before you have a power station. It would cost much less to progressively upgrade Gladstone Power Station to extend its life another 50 years. My since departed uncle was a mechanical inspector on the GPS project.
60
Stranded assets?
The council at Mudgee built a reasonably modest solar array to generate savings for the council.
Months after completion of the construction Council was blaming the distributors for it not having been brought into use.
30
Rooftop solar only makes sense because grid supply prices have become so expensive
Even Lazard admits RT solar is one of the most expensive ways to generate electricity on a LCOE basis.
30
Might be true but LCOE is a meaningless number. Rooftops win every day mainly because they have captive demand. The cost of generation is almost an insignificant component of the retail cost. The retail price in SA averages $52c/kWh this July.
My neighbour just paid $13,000 for a 10kWh array and 27kWh battery. He consumes around 8000kWh per year Over 20 years he will pull 160000kWh from the system. He will be around $400 per year or $8000 over 20 years. So total of $21k for 160000kWh or 13.1c/kWh. A lot lower than 52c/kWh currently being paid in SA and what Victoria will soon achieve.
The LCOE of solar farms in SA is close to infinite now. Their demand has been taken from them. You could build all you like and you will make no money from them at all within a few years. Grid solar will not be able to find demand in SA by 2040.
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Certainly, but it would not look so good if grid supply had not increased from the 10c/kWh that it used to be !
I am pretty sure the cost og GENERATION has not increased dramatically, but it is all the “add ons” that have pushed up the retail cost to the consumer.
We are being conned /forced into investing our own funds to supply a service that most civilised nations consider essential.
10
No major party manifesto has ever spoken of immigration, yet it has happened at a rate historically unprecedented – and not from a broadly similar culture, but from very different cultures. A small rate of immigration allows the good points in alien cultures to gradually permeate ours, but the recent tidal wave of immigrants have actively been encouraged NOT to integrate under the doctrine of multiculturalism. When people feel their home culture – which is the deepest thing that most of them have – changing underfoot during their own lifetimes, which is the result of massive immigration, they are going to be deeply upset. To cap it all, we have a Tax and Benefits system today into which immigrants have not paid but from which they benefit even as we who have paid must join queues. People are particularly peeved at being called Racist by the elite, or even criminalised, merely for airing these grievances peaceably. (A good response is that people resort to insults when they have no arguments.)
I don’t think many Aussies are racist, but they are ‘culturist’ in believing that some cultures are better to live in than others. (Migrants agree – that is why they come here from the Third World.) Culture and skin tone are correlated in Australia today, which is why the intellectually lazy call us racist. I am not saying that any culture is perfect, or that if you love one culture then you must hate all others. But if multiculturalism grants Sikhs a homeland in the Punjab, Hindus a homeland in India, etc, then why must Australia be the locus of an experiment for all cultures, rather than a homeland for Australian culture (there most certainly is an Australian identity) and for those who wish to adopt it?
Usually, big questions polarise the two large political parties, giving people a choice at the ballot box. That has not happened over immigration, which is why people are beginning to resort to the streets. It is not too late for a political party to be formed and grow so as to break the Uniparty consensus at the ballot box. If not, the genuine Far Right – an ugly bunch – is going to grow here as it never has done before. It takes a lot for Aussies to ‘do’ extremism. But do not tar the present demonstrators as Far Right. We are not.
What to do? It shouldn’t be too hard: Australia is an island (re illegal immigration), and a sovereign nation (re legal immigration policy). Re the latter, this is probably less conspiratorial than people think – most likely it is a Ponzi scheme driven quietly by a profligate Department of Finance to pay for the pensions of the next generation. But it has to stop, or at least be submited to a Referendum. I would not deprive anybody here legally of benefits, but if they commit certain serious crimes then I’d deport them back where they came from. If any international conventions prevent these actions then we should withdraw from them. I’d also look at the sacred books of incoming religions with an eye to recategorising them as seditious political movements. All laws against peaceable free speech must be erased from the statute book. Finally, the education system and civil service needs cleansing of the elite view. I would be willing to pay senior people to do nothing for the rest of their lives in order that they go quietly and be replaced by persons holding views more representative of the general population.
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Anton, I’m sorry I just moved the immigration protest information to it’s own post as I realized it needed a dedicated thread. Please repost your carefully written comment there. I wish I could move it myself.
https://joannenova.com.au/2025/10/march-for-australia-against-mass-immigration-is-on-again-sunday-at-12-noon/
Commenters please reply to this there!
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I thought the whole point of the Superannuation system was to cover the question of future pensions.
I know that government is always trying to raid the Super funds … and recently they make yet another tax increase, effectively placing a ceiling at $10M and I have no doubt that’s the thin edge … more tax to come. They can’t keep their sticky hands away from the honey pot.
But surely the Superannuation system does (if used correctly) solve a lot of those Ponzi problems?
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UN Carbon Tax trumped by POTUS 47
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/10/bullet-dodged-attempt-united-nations-force-massive-climate/
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At this point all they did was vote to postpone voting on the compliance program until next meeting. Not actually a tax, just penalties for failing to meet agreed on emission limits, but still potentially costly so call it a tax. Now the fight really begins.
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We need to get down on our knees and thank our Lord for giving us Donald Trump.
And I am agnostic but am shouting Hallelujah!
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Not only giving the world Trump but making sure he turned his head ever so slightly to miss the assassin’s bullet.
Observers of Trump consider that incident shifted his outlook somewhat. He is not quite obsessed with heaven but it clearly crosses his mind. This is a nice moment with a truly great man discussing his credentials to get into heaven:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4ZwIa2kHY4
If the rest of this term continues on the initial trajectory he will have a place in heaven despite the tough path he has taken to get where he is. Even now he stands above all others and those before him as the human being of greatest influence. And it is all for the good of the human condition. Others like Hitler and Chinggis Khan had influence but through infamy and aggression rather than compassion and peace. He may not eclipse Jesus.
Almost every night I watch Channel 7 news and I doubt there has been any night this year when Trump has not been in a news report.
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Aunty is not to keen on him.
‘Millions of Americans are expected to take to the streets this weekend as part of nationwide protests against US President Donald Trump. Here’s what to know about the events, which could see the single biggest day of protest in US history.’ (ABC)
The Mid Term Election will clip his wings and he’ll become a political lame duck. Creating a new world order has been his greatest achievement.
12
Speaking on behalf of the non-Xi Chinese communists El Gordo? Both sides of the CCP would approve this message.
51
Did Trump begat MAGA, or did MAGA begat Trump?
One of the many Prog blind spots is the notion that Trump is some Svengali, and those deplorables would be happily complying if not being being manipulated.
To Progs Trump is the CO2 of politics.
Everything would be fine and natural if he weren’t there.
We must scrub him.
One of the great revelations of my aged life, birthed in the deflated Space Age, is how incredibly dumb the smart people are.
The mythical ‘Science’ Spock archetype repulses me now.
10
As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Their SNAP food program stops in November unless the shutdown does.
That’s 42 million suddenly without food.
Everyone sacked will hate Trump for it, as will their families.
What percentage sacked then become dependent on govt assistance of all kinds, massively offsetting any savings made?
“It’s just time”. No magical saviour has ever existed. Reality always wins.
00
Interestingly, the BBC seems to report that Saudi Arabia has prevented this move for 12 months.
30
SA was one of the delay vote sponsors but a majority of countries voted for it. I think the Trump threat stopped them. https://www.cfact.org/2025/10/15/taking-action-to-defend-america-from-the-uns-first-global-carbon-tax/
I just submitted a CFACT article on this fiasco. The interesting thing is the greater the failure to reduce emissions on schedule to zero in 2050 the more money the UN makes.
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FWIW
“UN Carbon Tax: Dead In The Water”
“I can’t share the details on how @michaelgwaltz & @SecRubio have, in just a few days, organized the greatest opposition to UN policy since the Cold War and blocked this UN Carbon Tax.
I can say it was a knife fight to the end.
“I’ve been in this industry for 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” one shipping executive told me today. “You just don’t say NO to these guys. It’s unheard of.”
It’s unclear who “these guys” are, but I suspect the European families with shipping investments and net wealth that far exceeds Elon’s.”
More at
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/10/17/un-carbon-tax-dead-in-the-water/
01
An “ancillary cost” of COP-30:
100,000 mature trees cut down for 8 mile, 4 lane, highway, to ease travel for an estimated 70,000 attendees.
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/10/16/100000-amazon-trees-chopped-down-to-build-road-for-cop30-climate-conference/
Bet they used electric chainsaws, eh? / sarc
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Gee the road from the airport to the city in Adelaide will be getting quite the upgrade then if they “win” the next COP. We need to ensure those 70,000 plus simultaneous visitors can get to all the accomodation that Adelaide is so ready to deliver.
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Video:
A very brief comment about freedom by Margaret Thatcher.
If only our politicians understood this, including the fake conservative Liberal Party.
In Australia, most present company excepted, concepts of freedom aren’t even on the agenda. We have more freedoms removed daily and no one seems to understand or care.
With Australia as a One Party State under Labor rule, the socislists are regressing Australia toward a totalitarian state at a furious pace with more censorship, digital IDs etc. and with many of the totalitarian ideas such as the e Safety Kommissar and trying to outlaw “misinformation”, social media ban for under 16’s actual ideas from the Liberals or supported by them.
https://youtube.com/shorts/tChoBLBUq5M
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So history repeats YET again then.
You can’t stop it.
It starts with power and control.
The pollies don’t care and are inept anyway.
The masses pay the price.
It all collapses.
Rinse, repeat.
Retire and enjoy what’s left while you can.
A fundamental law of reality: the majority are always wrong.
30
FWIW
“A special edition C&C on the real story of one of science’s most misunderstood heroes and the dangers of scientific orthodoxy.”
“The Sad Story of John Snow and “Scientific Consensus” 🌍
John Snow is a bona-fide hero of science. (* Not the surly bastard prince from Game of Thrones.) Snow might be one of the most famous doctors in the great pantheon of famous historical epidemiologists. Epidemiologists often celebrate Snow as the crowning example of the triumph of scientific reasoning and “medical detective work.” But that is rank revisionism. Snow IS a hero, but he’s definitely not Science’s hero.”
More at
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/no-consensus-friday-october-17-2025?
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An interesting approach to a climate change fanatic in London. Using her own argument to make the point that CO2 driven climate change is obviously a hoax:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ih9jr4UUM0
The nub of his argument is that if big money was behind fossil fuel developments and big money believed the oceans were going to rise dramatically in coming decades, big money would not be insuring any berachside property in Florida or much of southern USA.
I think this is more effective than pointing out Greenland is gaining altitude. Socialists are great conspiracy theorists with big money and their big industry out to take everything from you. They have much greater faith in the motives of big government than big business. They all believe the UN is doing good work.
50
FWIW
On-line Courier Mail headline behind the Murdoch wall –
“LNP completes scrapping of green energy targets
New laws repealing all of Queensland’s renewable energy targets have been tabled, as the LNP checks off its election commitment to scrap benchmarks set by the former Labor government.”
Counds promising
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FWIW
“S.O.&W. Thumbnail Thinking vs Chips
Posted on 17 October 2025 by E.M.Smith
Simple, Obvious And Wrong, or “Thumbnail Thinking” ”
“There is a famous saying that for every complicated problem, there is an answer that is simple, obvious, and wrong. Unfortunately, to whom to attribute it, or even if it is correctly phrased, is a bit murky…
But the observation and the intention are correct.
When it comes to computer chips (and other chips) or really most anything technical that The Political Class look at; they nearly inevitably jump to the wrong conclusions based on “simple and obvious” understandings and answers. I think of this as “Thumbnail thinking”. They have a “thumbnail” depth of understanding, so leap to “simple, obvious & wrong” answers and solutions.
So it is with the present War Of The Chips between The West and China.”
More at
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2025/10/17/s-o-w-thumbnail-thinking-vs-chips/
30
Not that different to cargo cult thinking. Start fires either side of the abandoned runway and eventually the big birds carrying all the goodies will start landing. That is what happened in the past when the visitors lit their fires.
A significant value with modelling is to combine simple relationships into a more complex system. It is almost impossible for humans to comprehend how three variables might interact.
It is almost impossible to get anyone to realise that glaciation is energy intensive because they focus on the end result being cold. They do not think through the process of getting water from oceans to freezing it on land where it accumulates. It is the gradual elevation change between ocean surface and ice plateaus that make the land cold simply through the well known atmospheric lapse rate. But most have difficulty getting past ice being cold. Cold oceans are not going to cause glaciation.
10
FWIW
“SciAm: Can We Bulldoze Enough Forests to Prevent Climate Change?”
“I’m sure there was a time greens wanted to protect forests from bulldozers.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/17/sciam-can-we-bulldoze-enough-forests-to-prevent-climate-change/
50
Apparently, our rain forrests ore no longer a carbon sink !
…and of course it is all because of climate change !
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd05mdz9pdo
10
FWIW
“Avian Mortality: Industrial Wind in Ecological Trouble”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/17/avian-mortality-industrial-wind-in-ecological-trouble/
50
Yesterday there was some discussion about the sex discrimination commissioner and her statement that she doesn’t understand the term “biological men”
Perhaps she could be asked her opinion about the various cancers, some of which discriminate on the grounds of sex. For example, a person can’t get prostate cancer unless he is a biological male with a prostate. Similar for several other cancers that affect the various parts of the body, either male or female.
110
I’m probably repeating myself but this is a linguistic three card monte.
When dealing with zealots who pretend not to understand the terms man and woman, the next question should be about MALE and FEMALE. Then move on to the immutability of chromosomes.
Such precise language reduces the wiggle room.
10
How Russia Recovered
What the Kremlin Is Learning From the War in Ukraine
Dara Massicot November/December 2025 Published on October 8, 2025
30
‘The result has been new tactics on the battlefield …’
Doubtful, they continue to send in columns of tanks along with troop carriers and are obliterated, a meat grinding exercise.
Trump and Putin are getting together in Hungary to discuss a cease fire, victory to Ukraine.
09
FWIW – did you take this to heart?
“Think-Tanks Wrestle with Russian Strategic Dilemma”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/think-tanks-wrestle-with-russian
Sounds like more of the “thumbnail thinking” mentioned in # 11
00
You are quite wrong EG, it is all small fast forces with drone backups to over-run the few Ukies defending, then the armour follows up to stop any counter-attacks.
It seems to work, they have jut been moving forward since cleaning the Ulkies out of Kursk. Every day sees Ukraine losing ground.
Trump will get his cease-fire when he bows to Putin’s demands, and not before.
Try these for a better class of propaganda-
https://simplicius76.substack.com/
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dpa
https://voenhronika-ru.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB
20
Cobblers LG. “They” stopped using armor quite awhile ago. They are starting again now as the have drone superiority and improved drone protection, and the ground is hardening again going into winter.
10
Plus -seems the “mud season” is a bit behind and that most current battles are in more urbanised areas where better roads let the armour run.
00
‘Climate activism clouds the science.
‘A new frontier is opening in climate science: litigation-ready research. It should trouble everyone who still believes science should pursue facts, not verdicts. (Oz)
01
FWIW – latest Kunstler
“Insurrection Anyone?
“Friday is a perfect day to indict Schifty!” —Svetlana Lokhova”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/insurrection-anyone
20
And for follow-up reading on that
“Did JD Vance Just Set the Ultimate ‘No Kings’ PR Trap for the Dems?”
https://pjmedia.com/scott-pinsker/2025/10/17/did-jd-vance-just-set-the-ultimate-no-kings-pr-trap-for-the-dems-n4944966
10
And on the side –
“This Seems Sketchy: GoFundMe Accused of Creating NGO Fundraising Pages Without NGOs Knowing”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/10/17/this-seems-sketchy-gofundme-accused-of-creating-ngo-fundraising-pages-without-ngo-knowing-n3807964
20
My observation on de-industrialisation of Australia and the stranded assets:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l4sx3vFeuzGMJahC9VfJQXvTetVR8NZn/view?usp=sharing
Conclusions
Grid scale WDGs are now stranded assets. That is clearly evident for utility scale solar in SA that competes directly with rooftop solar. On most weekends now there is zero opportunity for utility scale solar to generate revenue. On Saturday 11 October the SA wholesale price was negative from 2am to 6pm – the entire generating window for utility scale solar. Wind has more opportunity to earn revenue but that is also being eroded. In 2024, the $800M invested in SA utility scale solar produced revenue of $43M in the wholesale market. In 2024, the $5bn invested in SA wind produced $413M revenue in the wholesale market. This is insufficient revenue to justify the capital expenditure.
60
The journey of your junk: the global manufacturing chain
https://youtu.be/w1Loz8IG73I?si=wDC2THPovxBdcIja
From Oz to Iceland, then China, then Vietnam and back..
10
Barnaby Joyce is making a good career move.
‘There is internal speculation inside the Nationals that Joyce could run for the Senate for One Nation at the next federal election. A One Nation spokesperson on Friday and Saturday declined to comment on speculation and widespread media reporting that Joyce had been in discussions to join the party, but did not deny the claims.’ (Guardian)
13
20
Past, Present and Future walk into a bar. It was tense!
00
FWIW
“A Common Pain Relief Drug May Have Anti-Cancer Properties”
“Ibuprofen is a household name – the go-to remedy for everything from headaches to period pain.
But recent research suggests this everyday drug might be doing more than easing discomfort. It could also have anti- cancer properties.”
More at
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-common-pain-relief-drug-may-have-anti-cancer-properties
10
Germany’s net zero target is a catastrophe.
https://notrickszone.com/2025/10/17/energy-expert-vahrenholt-hamburgs-zero-co2-by-2040-is-a-fundamental-attack-on-prosperity/
20
Report says plug-in hybrids are almost as polluting as gas-powered cars
A climate-focused report out of Europe throws serious shade at plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) cars, pointing out that they emit nearly as much carbon dioxide emissions as combustion engine-powered vehicles. In fact, it highlights how real-world emissions from supposedly greener PHEVs has increased over the years above officially recorded figures to nearly five times.
T&E explains that this unraveling is because of a major discrepancy in PHEV emissions figures from Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) figures – a global standard for determining the levels of pollutants from cars – and real-world data that the collective gathered from more than 800,000 PHEVs registered between 2021 and 2023.
For PHEV models registered in 2023, the real-world CO₂ emissions were nearly five times as high as the official emissions. This gap has grown from a factor of 3.5 times in 2021 to 4.9 times in 2023, based on data from on-board fuel consumption meters (OBFCM). And that’s just 19% less emissions than you’d see with an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle, compared to claimed WLTP differences of 75% less emissions.
https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/smoke-screen-the-growing-phev-emissions-scandal
Oh no, more lies and scandals! 😆
20
The Two Cow Philosophy
A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor
A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
A REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?
A DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who tax your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money and buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous
A COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
A FASCIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and sells you the milk. You join the underground and start a campaign of sabotage.
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.
AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.
A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.
A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are eleventh the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk
A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month and milk themselves.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows but you don’t know where they are. You break for lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
A MEXICAN CORPORATION: You think you have two cows, but you’re not sure where they are. You’ll look for them tomorrow.
A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows, none of which belongs to you. You charge for storing them for others.
A BRAZILIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You enter into a partnership with an American corporation. Soon you have 1000 cows and the American corporation declares bankruptcy.
AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship them.
A TALIBAN ORGANIZATION: You have only two cows. You load them up with explosives and herd them onto your neighbor’s property where you blow them up. Your neighbor dies. You starve to death.
60
FWIW
“Kennedy rolls out the vaccine revolution”
“DON’T expect to get a dispassionate update anywhere in our mainstream media on US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s vaccine revolution since he took office. He changed recommendations and policies for multiple vaccines, including shots against covid, measles and in fact the whole gamut of vaccines which have come under his scrutiny. For that we have to rely on the Epoch Times which detailed them last week. Here they are in summary:”
More at
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/kennedy-rolls-out-the-vaccine-revolution/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-10-18&utm_campaign=TCW+Daily+Email
10
And
“Charlie Kirk died a martyr for universal moral truth, just like Socrates”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/charlie-kirk-died-a-martyr-for-universal-moral-truth-just-like-socrates/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-10-18&utm_campaign=TCW+Daily+Email
10
If things seem foggy, try putting Sichuan sauce on your brain.
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-alzheimers-treatment-clears-plaques-from-brains-of-mice-within-hours :
Disclaimer: may not work in human brains.
Still there needs to be more research like this. One of the perils of extending our longevity with hygiene and medicine is that we then face new types of diseases that weren’t usually seen when people died at younger ages.
10
This kind of research is promising for future generations.
Much more needs to be understood about whether the amyloid plaques are a waste product or a protective mechanism (albeit one with dire side-effects). In particular the potential risks of removing amyloid plaques including brain swelling and bleeding.
Just another of those things that I sadly know far more about than I ever had any desire to learn, along with insulin dependent diabetes, arthritis, macular and muscular degeneration and other things.
I heartily concur with your last sentence about the perils of extended longevity.
10
FWIW
“100,000 Amazon Trees Chopped Down to Build Road for COP30 Climate Conference”
“Spare a thought for the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt as he considers his upcoming trip to the Brazilian city of Belém to report on COP30. Saving the world and its environment is his gig so how will he face the prospect of travelling down a new four-lane highway cut through the dense Amazon rainforest to help speed him and his 70,000 other political activists to their luxury hotels? Based on trees per acre, an estimated 100,000 mature specimens have been chopped down and logged to build the eight-mile Avenida Liberdade causing untold disruption to local wildlife. Happily, all is not lost in despair. If he wishes, the BBC’s activist-in-chief can consider recent findings published in Nature Plants that increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have led to substantial growth in the remaining Amazon forest, with mature trees growing by over 6% a decade. Perhaps he could start promoting on the BBC the enormous benefits of CO2, rightly known as the gas of life. He could front a campaign to assuage his dented COP conscience along the lines: ‘Forward with Carbon Dioxide, not Chainsaws.’ ”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/18/100000-amazon-trees-chopped-down-to-build-road-for-cop30-climate-conference/
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Indeed. And catastrophists have recently discovered that trees go through phases where both photosynthesis and respiration dominate.
One day they’ll discover that the oceans hold the overwhelming majority of the world’s CO2, and that the radiative effects of CO2 in the atmosphere are already maximized because of the relevant part of the spectrum is already saturated.
But hey, what’s a few inconvenient facts when you’ve got a global bureaucracy to grow. The peasants aren’t going to move back to the stone age themselves you know.
30
It will be interesting to see how the ‘No Kings’ protests turn out here in the US.*
Funny.
Nobody ever said black lives didn’t matter.
No one is going to be King in America.
Carbon is the basis of life.
Beachfront real estate is still expensive.
I’m noticing a pattern.
*My prediction is fizzle.
There will lots of thongs on svelte male bodies.
Lots of not svelte female bodies.
And considerable un-identifiables.
Lots of face and other piercing.
Hope nothing gets caught on anything.
20
Much depends on just how tight the leash is on antifa and other funded troublemakers.
If the leash is as tight as I think it is then the organizers have to ask themselves exactly how much chaos and destruction will be optimal for their cause. Too much and they stand to lose popular support big time. And their stocks are already pretty low. Too little and it will look like the astroturf that it is.
The best scenario is that the good guys have infiltrated the ranks and are already tracing the command structure and the flow of money. This could be a magnificent sting operation in the making.
The worst scenario if that the CIA and FBI are getting the band back together.
20
Reunion tour definitely in the works.
10