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
Synthetic folate supplements are not the same as natural folate and can’t be metabolised in the same manner as the natural substance and are therefore useless or possibly even harmful.
Genetics also influences the metabolism of folate.
Also autism and other conditions may be related caused by too much folate.
All contrary to the Official Narrative.
Dr John Campbell discusses with guests:
https://youtu.be/4cIIN5-vn5E
81
A large proportion of the population (40%), especially those with the MTHFR gene mutation can’t metabolise folic acid and experience fatigue, anxiety, hyperactivity and inflammation. Around the 1990’s was when I remember hearing about gluten intolerance. Never a thing before that. It was the beginning of people thinking they had a gluten allergy, when it’s most likely folic acid. Avoid folic acid. Supplement with methylated folate & methylated B12. Why is it added to all flours in Australia and eg. breakfast cereals? Well, to supposedly supplement minor deficiencies in certain demographics of pregnant women. So, as an aid to maternal health. A number of European countries don’t mandate the addition of folic acid to flours. I think Italy might be one.
80
Video.
Sky News Australia’s Chris Kenny discusses the appalling anti-Israel bias of “Their” ABC (Australian taxpayer $1.1 billion per year far Left oriented media organisation) in relation to the Gaza war and Their ABC’s complaint against him.
201
You mean, any reporting that even obliquely mentions the documented genocide, or comments the extremely violent actions of West Bank settlers, or notes the daily bombing of Lebanon during a cease fire, the blocking of aid, the unprovoked attack on Iran, etc etc.
But your assertion that the ABC is biased while SKY is not, while failing to show any factual evidence is typical
I’m guessing the you would also support Trump’s assertion that he can murder Columbians or Venezuelans . Note: in the even in the USA you have to stand trial for drugs, and the, if convicted, you spend time in jail, you are not murdered out hand
637
Trump obviously can order the murder of Columbians and Venezuelans … unless you think all those videos were fake or something.
Thing is, Obama was doing it for years and you never so much gave the slightest peep about that. Clearly President Trump has exactly the same powers President Obama had … bot like the US Constitution got any new amendments recently it is? Given that you happily accepted Obama’s power … you have personally handed the same powers right across to Trump … how does that feel?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposition_Matrix
170
A bit like Trump’s wall during the lead up to the 2016 federal US election. “You can’t build a wall” said all the US MSM. Its antihuman, impractical and will just cost to much. Then someone pointed out that under the Obama administration the largest chunk of the US Mexican wall had just been built. Even the silly Australian media got on board with the anti-wall rhetoric. Chris Kenny was the first Aussie journalist to to point out the hypocrisy. Then there was the kids in cages…..
211
The videos are real, they record the killing of‘alleged’ criminals, without evidence.
10
Whenever I hear leftards bleating, I think, well something is going right for a change.
160
Agreed even if I believe that PF is just a really poorly programmed bot.
71
at least i provide a link, and all I was asking was something similar, but none of you have provided anything remotely fact based
311
“You mran……..” Cathy? Cathy Newman? is that you? what he meant was probably what he said, not what you contorted it onto.
00
” even in the USA you have to stand trial for drugs, and the, if convicted, you spend time in jail, you are not murdered out hand”
That’s so simplistic to be unlikely PF… Find me any major country that doesn’t spy, sabotage and murder its possible enemies, as the USA has been doing since forever. Anything goes outside USA mainland territory, and even inside the USA strange and unlikely deaths occur.
All they need is a few show trials to pretend they are as pure as white paint, just like the UK, while Russian or Chinese nationals are being found dead in car crashes or committing suicide by shooting themselves in the head.. twice. Kidnapping people all over the world and throwing them into Guantanamo Bay has become quite normal.
So, any international waters are open season on anyone you don’t like from a smaller country. Blow up their oil tankers, kill their speedboats, its all fair game to the Yanks.
13
For years the Coast Guard did this work successfully, so what is POTUS doing with a naval fleet in the Caribbean? He is a man of peace and wouldn’t start a war unless provoked.
01
(PAYWALLED – SEE LINK FOR REST IF YOU HAVE ACCESS)
…
The pattern speaks for itself. It’s been the same story with Gaza being ‘on the brink of famine’ for the last two years. This is how it works:
Step one: The Hamas ‘health ministry’ makes up a casualty number which could be debunked by the most cursory statistical analysis.
Step two: Aid organisations repeat the number without independent confirmation
Step three: UN agencies in Gaza (some staffed by Hamas members) cite the aid organisations.
Step four: Media outlets quote the UN agencies.
Step five: Hamas’s supporters in the West claim the numbers are ‘UN verified’.
…
The Hamas narrative has been amplified, too, by disinformation campaigns driven by Iranian, Russian, and Chinese state-linked bots on social media, which have exploited Gaza as a means of destabilising western societies. These regimes understood how easily such narratives could tap into a preexisting willingness among many in the West to believe anti-Semitic libels.
…
Why were Hamas’s inflated casualty figures reported as facts? Why were incorrect claims of Israel bombing hospitals repeated without scrutiny – while confirmed cases of Hamas rockets hitting Israeli hospitals in Ashkelon and Beersheba were ignored? In part, this was down to journalistic complacency. The facts were accessible. Thousands of authentic Palestinian social media accounts from Gaza showed everyday life continuing, with cafés, restaurants, supermarkets,even beauty salons all operating, contrary to claims of complete destitution.
Independent researchers discovered that some of the most widely shared images of starvation in Gaza’ were from Yemen. One prominent photo showing a skeletal child was highlighted by the media as evidence of famine. In reality, the child wasn’t malnourished due to famine. He had cerebral palsy, hypoxemia and other genetic conditions.
…
140
As I understand it, what has changed is that the rich arab nations have turned against hamas.
If so their bona fides are being tested.
120
Hit Stop once the first image loads and voila!
🙄
30
Was the Louvre theft a result of a DEI director of security and her act of making exhibits “less elite” and “more accessible”?
Matt Walsh discusses.
https://youtu.be/2R_6_HWHGHI
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No insurance, poor security, theft in broad daylight illustrates how deficient the whole operation is.
90
You would be surprised how easy it is the wander about where you have no business being if you have a fluro vest on.
80
Or even a grey dustcoat. We accessed a closed event once by driving up in dustcoats, holding up a box and saying we had been summoned to replace their box.
70
Video.
Discovery and acquisition of a rare anamorphic CinemaScope lens attachment. This anamorphic technique was used 1953 to 1967.
20th Century-Fox held the rights to the process and licensed the lens to studios such as Disney. Disney had to make “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” with only one lens available for use.
https://youtu.be/Vg0ftclnwzI
40
Happer & Lindzen interviewed by Joe Rogan live on WUWT
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/24/live-at-1pm-edt-joe-rogan-climate-realist-the-climate-realism-show-179/
70
FWIW
“Sleazy, Unethical Journalists Ask: Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?”
” Harper’s magazine, the left-wing monthly, has a cover story asking, Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media? The November “forum” features three journalists attempting to answer this question: Jack Shafer, Jelani Cobb, and Taylor Lorenz.
You read that correctly. To ask why Americans don’t trust the media, Harper’s interviewed three of the most untrustworthy, hackish, godawful journalists in America. ”
More at
https://hotair.com/mark-judge/2025/10/23/sleazy-unethical-journalists-ask-why-doesnt-anyone-trust-the-media-n3808131
120
FWIW
“Democrats Fritz on a Ballroom Blitz UPDATE”
“Democrats: The word has gone out, and the word is BALLROOM.
It is to be repeated at every opportunity, during every newscast, and the freakout spasms accompanying it are to be righteous and mighty!
SO SAYETH THE PARTY ELDERS, AND IT WAS…really landing flat.”
More at
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/10/23/democrats-on-a-ballroom-blitz-n3808146
70
And
“GREAT MOMENTS IN WHIPLASH: Saturday: No Kings!
Yesterday? Democrats Attempt To Dunk On Trump’s White House Ballroom Construction With Photo Of Buckingham Palace.”
“The DNC is so mad that President Trump is building a new ballroom at the White House, they posted a sad Instagram video last night.
Too bad their intern put in a photo of the East Wing in Buckingham Palace, not the White House.”
https://x.com/GOP/status/1981387115502989662
Via https://instapundit.com/752681/#disqus_thread
90
FWIW – the marvels of higher education!
“University of Nebraska degree with ROI of -$800,000 survives cuts, while other programs may not”
https://www.thecollegefix.com/university-of-nebraska-degree-with-roi-of-800000-survives-cuts-while-other-programs-may-not/
Via Instapundit
30
At least they know that some of the others are complete rubbish…
“the school plans to eliminate undergraduate and graduate degrees in six programs:… Earth and atmospheric sciences, “
11
The man that triggered much unrest in the UK has been accidentally released!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2d5rl36vgo
10
An accident eh? Sure it was.
50
Video. Comments on the TRUMP East Wing rebuild.
I don’t agree with everything Styxhexenhammer says but I think his observations are correct in this case.
It removes the wing built by FDR who left a racist, socialist legacy. And the build is being privately funded, no taxpayer money involved.
People have been calling for a ballroom at the White House for 100 years.
https://youtu.be/I_AW8SO9rS4
51
I confess to some unease about private money funding renovations in a public building. Of course I’d be even more uneasy if foreign government money was funding it.
Sometimes donors’ motives are not completely altruistic.
20
Literally EVERYTHING the government does is funded by ‘private money’ – ours.
100
Agreed Steve. The process of taxation and appropriation do however provide a veneer of separation which is not much but is altogether missing when private funding is used for public projects.
On the other hand if the donations are a matter of public disclosure then I am slightly less uneasy because that provides some light for later scrutiny.
30
You would prefer the “private funds”go to the Biden Family Retirement Fund or the Clinton Global Initiative.
10
The greater the separation of public assets and private money the happier I am.
There is a whole species of curruption problems when public assets find their way into private hands but we’ll have to save that discussion for another day.
00
Mother Earth Gaia (MEG) is so hot boiling burning cooking on fire she’s SNOWING BIGLY in both hemispheres this weekend in an attempt to cool mankind’s melting masses … then again, it always snows in late October in New Zealand, perfectly timed for our first ‘summer holiday’ 3-day long weekend.
https://www.snow-forecast.com/maps/static/nz/next3days/snow
South Islanders are digging and chainsawing their way out of last Thursday’s storm debris with roads closed, power out, water & sewage down, comms kaput, while parts of the Deep South are still under a State of Emergency (incompetence of upper management).
As proven by magic equation models, the South Pole’s heat has escaped northwards and morphed into wild wintry weather sweeping the planet – it’s GLOBAL™️ doncha know – because carbon, the Original Sin (OS). Or was it the new moon? Or the comets? Or King Charlie & Pope Bob *preying* together in the Vatican?
120
Its only weather caused by the sudden stratospheric warming event, but here we see a climate trend that suggests global warming is not all bad.
‘The number of tropical cyclones that form in the Australian region each season has decreased in recent decades.
‘Since 1980, the total number of tropical cyclones per season has been reduced by about one system every 11 years. However, there has not been a similar drop in the number of severe tropical cyclones, which means the proportion of systems that become severe tropical cyclones (category three or higher) in each season has increased.’ (Weatherzone)
31
Much of Australia has enough atmospheric moisture to support convective instability today:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=total_precipitable_water/orthographic=-225.09,-40.21,791/loc=141.019,-29.902
This time of year, the moisture has historically been further north like 2019 or in narrow bands:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2019/10/25/0000Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=total_precipitable_water/orthographic=-225.09,-40.21,791/loc=138.831,-25.107
It borders well so far for a wet season in central Australia and more greening.
Having moisture over the land means higher energy atmosphere over the land so less potential for driving ocean generated cyclones toward land. NZ might start seeing more intense rain depressions in late summer.
60
A recent paper by Yanan Li et al (2025) seem to think moisture laden Australia depends on where the Convergent Zone is sitting. During the LIA the ITCZ was further south and Australia became wet and green.
‘Sedimentary record of intense tropical cyclone activity over the past eight millenniums from a coastal lake of Fiji.
‘Coherent intense cyclone occurrence among sites in the South Pacific during Roman Warm Period, Medieval Climate Anomaly and Little Ice Age.
‘South Pacific Convergence Zone position and structure variations as superior indicators of long-term cyclone activity to ENSO indices.’
01
“Since 1980, the total number of tropical cyclones per season has been reduced by about one system every 11 years.”
These trends just are just because we haven’t allowed for consensus to establish full control.
In my Democrat controlled US state, the official goal is zero traffic deaths.*
This goal fails because refusniks will not allow consensus to end traffic.
So that Net Zero and Decarbonization can be made manifest.
We must allow those with the highest SAT or DEI scores to discover the natural amount of cyclones, rain, droughts, snow, and non-binary people that ski, that would occur if the scourge of humanity had not appeared because nature produced something unnatural.
That can also be stopped if we teach children their proper gender roles.
*(There is a bit of an problem with the state issuing a driver’s license to any non-English speaking person without ID that walks through the door. Citizens(?) born in the state require an original birth certificate.)
10
Greg, we had that same front move through Victoria a couple of days before you. Similar outcomes with power outages, lots of downed trees and snow in the high country. Just a Spring storm, no biggie. But we get back to resilience in our infrastructure and having an electricity grid less prone to weather. Wouldn’t that be better than rebuilding a grid based on weather dependent energy which is harder to restart after storms?
60
I can’t understand why you believe your lying eye. Just because you see it happening doesn’t make it real and have you thought of the possibility that your recent brush with the medical fraternity may have resulted in a 3 D implant so you “see” whatever is the latest propaganda.
sarc/ off
I hope your vision is fully restored and ready to hit the breaks as soon as the weather does.
30
Thank you, Greg, for your consideration of we less informed mortals. Your statement of the issue followed by its acronym, is much appreciated. Reading most posts now usually requires a master’s degree in confused English.
10
FWIW
“Climate Out, Affordability In”
“Debra Kahn, “editor of POLITICO’s California Climate newsletter and author of Currents, a reported column on the conversations, conflicts and characters animating the energy, environment and climate debates,” corrected the eco-narrative recently. While the climate campaigners are busy trying to sell politically correct renewables (wind and solar) as cheaper, she uncorked a Truth Bomb.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/24/climate-out-affordability-in/
40
Still no confession as to the real issue – corruption. Forget all the eco-loons, they’re just the movement’s useful idiots. What needs to be acknowledged is WHO really was behind all this, and why. In a nutshell, it was … MONEY. Lots and lots and lots of money. Most went into pockets already bursting with riches, but a good chunk went to the people handing out the grants, loans and funding. Meanwhile, quite by accident of course, China was swamped by dollars and Euros.
An honest appraisal of the cost/benefits would show all the costs on one side of the ledger being borne by the taxpaying plebs while all the tangible benefits on the other side going to a few rich people and the CCP.
60
FWIW – another “ElBowen” toldya –
“Aussie Climate Minister Slams Queensland’s Reliance on Intermittent Coal”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/24/aussie-climate-minister-slams-queenslands-reliance-on-intermittent-coal/
50
FWIW – latest Kunstler
“Reality v. Garbage
“The business incentives driving consumer AI development remain fundamentally misaligned with reducing hallucinations.” —The Singularity Hub on “X” ”
“First of all, get this: A-I has already quit operating as-advertised. It has lost the “I” part. A-I does its thing by rapidly combing through the Internet to evaluate and seize information that you request. Increasingly, A-I colonizes the Internet with second-hand, third-hand, and so forth A-I-generated information. The more territory A-I seizes on the Web, and the more it trains itself on recursive feedbacks of its own garbage, the more distorted the output gets. As that occurs, A-I becomes increasingly abstracted from Reality, which is exactly what happens when a person goes insane. So, expect an exponential rise in incorrect content that would, in theory, become a pretty serious problem when you ask A-I to run things like systems we depend on, the electric grid, harvesting crops, warfare. . . .”
More at
https://www.kunstler.com/p/reality-v-garbage
60
We really are this dumb! China to fund the worlds biggest battery in South Australia under a fog of Chinese/Labor misinformation and obfuscation to mask this scheme that we will underwrite for the first 15 years! The listed business address is a sinecure. Chris Bowen is desperate to show runs on the net zero board
70
The PLANdemic years. Lest we forget.
https://x.com/Answers4Sean/status/1981483268252860866
How much proof do you need? 😎
70
Sunday NOPE. Progressively higher cliff diving.
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_t4n5cyDH4G1z23obp.mp4
Nope!
30
What sort of security cameras are people using?
Subscription service is a bit pricey just to record the video.
20
Mine has big teeth and sensitive hearing.
No subscription or cloud needed.
50
After going through a few brands I have now centred on Tapo cameras etc. Easy to set up and a very functional app. I’ve got a doorbell type, inside cameras and one outdoor type on my shed. If you have good WiFi , easy peasy.
20
I hope I never have to live like you blokes.
20
Does this sound like the modern world to you (except Trump’s America)?
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell writes:
In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?
60
Beautifying powerline pylons
The concept, called Austrian Power Giants, comes from the Austrian Power Grid and is developed in partnership with GP designpartners and Baucon. The idea is that each of Austria’s nine federal states would feature its own style of pylon in the form of an animal symbolic of the region’s identity.
“This nature-inspired design is ultimately intended to become a symbol for nature-friendly infrastructure projects, strengthen the economic and tourism location in the regions and ultimately lead to increased acceptance of grid expansion projects by the general public,” explains Austria Power Grid, which is in charge of securing the country’s power supply.
Austrian Power Giants is imagined for Austria’s nine federal states and would consist of nine different animals
So far, just two of the nine designs have been explored. The stork was chosen as the symbolic animal of Burgenland, reflecting the bird’s well-known annual visits, while the stag represents the densely wooded Alpine foothills of Lower Austria. The images show that the sculptures look really quite impressive and intricate.
The project recently won a Red Dot Design Award and miniature models of the giant beasts are on display at Singapore’s Red Dot Museum until October 2026, where they can be viewed in more detail.
https://www.apg.at/en/projects/austrian-power-giants-1/#c1908655
The site’s a bit slow, so here’s a sample pylon:
https://imgbox.com/pRk2EW7v
10
That looks like an expensive power pylon structure.
00
It looks like a child of “Maserati Birdcage design”
And has it been tested in high winds etc?
20
The Matrix: Woke version
https://youtu.be/qkAh0CCrV9I?si=U-r6sOTPCSKYTP_j
“Most of these people are not ready to pick up a biology textbook”
😁
10
Saturday challenge: find the correct pronoun
https://imgbox.com/oP6ulP5a
DM?
10
JCII,
To help answer, please how an image of the hairy armpits or similar hair elsewhere.
Geoff S
10
It was part of the Paris Agreement:
It relies on CO2 being linked to them,perature rise – it is isn’t.
It assumes a tipping point is reached when the temperature gets above 1.5C from industrial levels – assumption wring.
The next tipping point is glaciation of the NH. Arguably already started because Greenland is gaining elevation.
I am predicting above trend snowfall this year. Evererest and Montana already set records.
20
Help, please?
There was a meeting of IPCC or similar in which I recall the personnel story that the 2 deg C or better 1.5 maximum global warming target was set by pulling a figure out the air. IIRC, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Potsdam Institute, was one player.
Where can I find the inside story of how these numbers were decided for policy?
Geoff S
10
The 1.5 to 4.5C range stems from the 1979 Charney Report. The origin was discussed in a comment by Richard C (NZ) in JoNova, 27 July 2023. Richard noted that Anthony Watts said: “ it is importantly to note that the 1.5C threshold is an arbitrary number, and it is not defined by science. It was defined by political negotiations in the Paris Accord Agreement of 2015”.
Will add another link shortly.
20
More details in this link: https://dailysceptic.org/2021/11/10/the-creator-of-the-1-5c-climate-target-has-admitted-that-the-simple-number-was-invented-for-the-benefit-of-politicians/
And this comment in WUWT 8 January 2019: I take particular note of this portion of the quoted statements “… the range 3 deg C ± 1.5 deg C estimated for climate sensitivity by National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committees (Charney 1979, Smagorinsky 1982) where their range is a subjective estimate of the uncertainty based on climate-modelling studies of the empirical evidence for climate sensitivity.”
20
Graeme4,
Thanks for your reply. I am looking for the aspirational target of keeping the globe from warming by less than 2 or 1.5 deg C by 2100.
You are looking at climate sensitivity that Judith Curry has dealt with in much detail.
Both numbers have irregular origins that I class as poor quality science, dragging down the way the public think of science and scientists. Geoff S
10
Searching my data for references to the 2100 date, I see that Judith Curry stated: “the goal posts were moved in 2018 to reduce the warming target to 1.5C” and “The COP27 is working from a value of expected warming of 2.5C by 2100″(https://judithcurry.com/2022/11/02/the-climate-crisis-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/)
See also https://judithcurry.com/2022/01/23/crossing-or-not-the-1-5-and-2-0oc-thresholds/
20
It’s a still, cloudy day in Vic but brown coal and gas are saving the day. Loy Yang B generating 115% of nameplate, Mortlake O/C gas 96% and Yallourn 99% totalling 960 MW. And the crazies think they can shut coal down
70
The biggest crazie being our state energy minister, who keeps calling coal unreliable. I noticed now Bowen using the same terminology, so I suspect he’s just apeing her.
30
Fake AI, fake science, fake avatars
https://x.com/PaulGoldEagle/status/1981595049197769064
This AI fakeness is getting out of control.
Reduces speed by 300%? Reduced 100% means it’s stopped!
AI generated Michio Kaku avatar…
Maybe uselesstube can clamp down on all these clickbait garbage channels and stop tormenting the good ones.
40
The UK’s digital ID system, yet to be fully implemented, has already been hacked
https://youtu.be/Y69_QVFVg00?si=xo9x8v_122jcFJlu
Fear not unwashed, your ever competent Aussie pollies would never eff it up here in a big way!
30
Eretz Nehederet’s skit about Greta and her Falestine Flotilla is absolutely savage.
“What will we do now that there’s a ceasefire?!”
What indeed Greta.
https://x.com/persianjewess/status/1981506137452401071?t=3YcgEIkuAGSzegTL1ADURA&s=19
Video 2:56
30
“Our source reports that a mass influx of migrants is planned for 2026. Approximately 350,000 people will be brought in. According to the Soros/globalists and Bankova plan, over 2 million migrants will be brought to Ukraine by 2030. Zelenskyy has also verbally agreed that Europe can send its migrants to Ukraine for “work,” with the Ukrainian government receiving “grants” for this, which can then be “sliced up.”
Zelenskyy wants to give them voting rights and then use them for his own purposes. Another life hack for winning future elections (like the Democrats did in the US). Conclusion: Ukraine will cease to be a Slavic state in the future, and will gently transform into a hodgepodge.
By the way, he’s absolutely right. The labor shortage in Ukraine is growing every day due to the war, which Ze’ermak doesn’t want to end. Yet he’s lying that there was already a demand for immigrants before the war. If they came, at least they were educated. He’s just a delivery guy… t.me/legitimniy/21086″
https://t.me/legitimniy/21086
Well, doesn’t that solve a few of Europe’s problems… Send your troubles with your unwanted gimmegrants to Ukraine and make Sweden or London or Munich safer, and Z gets paid a heap of dough to get rid of them on the frontline and hopefully take a Russian or two with them!
30
Well, is this Russia or Ukraine?
“Our training camp can be compared to a real prison. We, 120 people, live in a cramped basement – bunk beds are placed tightly together. Moreover, out of 120 people, some have tuberculosis, some even have an open form of tuberculosis, they cough up blood, some have pillows and sheets stained with blood. Everyone sleeps almost piled up; it is impossible to turn away from a coughing person – no personal space, beds are placed tightly. The walls are damp, with condensation running down them, everything covered in mold and mildew.
There is no air at all, it is impossible to breathe. Sick people with severe illnesses, even with high fever, ask for medical help, but they are taken to see a doctor only once every two to three weeks. Then, at best, they are taken to a hospital.
Even those who arrived healthy have already fallen ill – everyone is coughing. We asked to install an exhaust fan in the basement, but the command simply ignored our requests.
After the training ground, we come back dirty. But you can only get to the shower twice a week. After our group arrived here, we did not see a shower for two weeks.
The toilet is in the yard, dirty, completely unsanitary. There is no toilet paper; you have to buy it with your own money.
The food is terrible, meager, monotonous – for breakfast, porridge with a sausage, weak tea with bread; for lunch, some incomprehensible slop, again porridge or pasta. For dinner – whatever is left from lunch, no vegetables.
Initially, upon arrival, all our phones were taken away. Mobile phones are given once or twice a week, only for half an hour. Even in prison, inmates communicate with the outside world more often. If a hidden phone is found, it is confiscated and screwed to the door of the commander’s room with a screwdriver. Three phones are already screwed to the doors, so to speak, as a warning to others.
Of course, many run away from such conditions. But every escape results in repressions for those who remain. Recently, a man escaped. He was found in a neighboring village, beaten, had a tooth knocked out, and was brought back bloodied. After this incident, a rule was introduced in our training camp – at night, going to the toilet is allowed only in underwear and slippers to prevent escapes. Moreover, in groups – five people at a time; until a group of five gathers at the toilet, commanders do not let anyone go. So, a group of five of us, naked, runs to the terrible outdoor toilet, while another group waits.
Many try to escape from here, even volunteers – they simply did not expect to be brought to such a hellhole for training.
The commanders live separately, in good rooms, and treat us like cattle.
The only ones who treat us normally are the instructors. No complaints about them, they are experienced combat guys. But they themselves try with all their might to transfer out – the psychological atmosphere in the training camp is terrible.
Initially, we are all trained as stormtroopers, just infantry, so the command treats us as expendable material, cannon fodder. Although among us are many specialists of a wide range, from translators to engineers, technicians, and radio mechanics, who could be useful to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their specialties.
https://robcampbell.substack.com/p/ukraine-and-world-affairs-weekly-c3f
20
Graeme4,
Thanks for your reply. I am looking for the aspirational target of keeping the globe from warming by less than 2 or 1.5 deg C by 2100.
You are looking at climate sensitivity that Judith Curry has dealt with in much detail.
Both numbers have irregular origins that I class as poor quality science, dragging down the way the public think of science and scientists. Geoff S
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