JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).

Jo appreciates your support to help her keep doing what she does. This blog is funded by donations. Thanks!


Follow Jo's Tweets
To report "lost" comments or defamatory and offensive remarks, email the moderators at: support.jonova AT proton.me
Statistics
Business Secretary backs shift to electric arc furnaces at British Steel plant
It’s in the Grauniad, so it must be true …
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/16/peter-kyle-backs-electric-arc-furnaces-british-steel-scunthorpe
Our Business Secretary – 2nd favourite to be our next Chancellor [in about 2 weeks!] – has not said where the electricity to melt all this scrap steel will come from.
Solar – not in winter at 53N.
Wind – sometimes, sometimes not.
Unless Mr. Putin cuts the offshore cables … then largely not.
Nor, so far, who will buy – you know, give real money for – this melange of mixed steels [with few adulterants!].
I wonder if the actual furnace will come from – er – China?
Auto
340
Electric arc furnaces do not make steel. They are far cheaper and smaller but only recycle old steel. Massive blast furnaces make entirely new steel from iron ore and coal. So more than half of the world’s new steel is now made in China. Thanks to the Greens and their protests, China also has control of many rare earths and always was the main supplier of tungsten to the world but if they can shut down all the blast furnaces, the world is dependent on China. It’s a nice stunt to buy and shutdown blast furnaces and so control the world’s primary steel supply and price as well. The industrial revolution started in Britain. To have Britain too poor to make primary steel would be the final chapter. Primary steel making is a strategic national defence priority.
At the end of WWII there was a world shortage of tungsten. It was essential for many war time applications. And America ran air supplies over the ‘hump’ of the Himalayas to keep the Chinese government going in the war against Japan. But the Chinese decided to sell their tungsten to Japan, their deadly enemy simply because the price was higher.
So whatever strategy Australia, the UK and American adopt, they cannot allow Chinese control and extinction of their smelters for metals. Steel, lead, nickel, .. And the Australian government is close to deliberately shutting down all smelting, fabrication, chemical engineering, fertilizer production, glass making and more both with primary energy costs, gas costs and the appalling Safeguard Mechanism which will kill all primary production and make us utterly dependent on China. The largest chemical manufacturer in Australia QENOS closed last year, 800 jobs. The Chinese bought it and shut it down with the full approval of the Australian government. We can no longer even recycle plastics. What’s the point of having a Defence Department and Nuclear Submarines if we cannot even make a plastic bottle or fertilizer or glass or new steel?
All the aluminum smelters will soon close. Aluminum is 95% electricity in cost and unviable thanks to Climate Change electricity prices and the Safeguard Mechanism. The only reason the Labor party is quietly and massively subsidizing smelting is the political cost of whole cities of unemployed people. Considering we have massive reserves of FREE coal, Climate Change is being used to destroy Australia. And China also now decides the price of our coal and iron ore, as they have made very clear. And of course selling the port of Darwin to China just makes sense. Plus a private airport. Military visits are next, to protect their investments.
This is nothing to do with Global Warming. It is strategic annihilation without firing a shot. Fully supported by Labor and the Greens who take their directions from Beijing. Albanese has been there six times already. And Daniel Andrews. It’s all so obvious.
860
“strategic annihilation”
Gregor is still not understanding.
Annihilation of what?
The same puzzlement with Net Zero.
Zero what?
23
Annihilation of industrial base capacity
Nett Zero increase in CO2 production due to human activity. For the believers.
110
Grisha !
Zero is when your expenditure is equal to your income, that is – related to time, to be measured in seconds, minutes, etc,..
NOT IN THE MEGATONES OF CO2 !
30
Gregor does not know how much time has been allotted to him on the income side, but has expended his three score and ten years , which has been the standard allowance.
Gregor has always understood that carbon itself is in a cycle, and net zero is always the long-run situation. But the comment of yarpos (who is in no way a pos) makes it clear that it is only the villainous anthropogenic carbon which is demanding special treatment, and refusing to participate in the cyclical game.
If only the anthropogenic sources could be eliminated then harmony could ensue.
Gregor will ask Stockman for guidance in this matter: he is sure to have a solution.
21
Another great summation of a big topic.
Just a small addition regarding “steel making”.
It’s basically a two stage process because there are so many impurities in the iron ore that removing them all in one hit is almost impossible.
The solid iron ore is first processed in a blast furnace to separate the “iron” from the earthy, rocky silica stuff that is creamed off as slag and eventually becomes road base.
The molten iron that’s tapped off is then taken to the next processing stage where the high carbon content is reduced to something more useable in either a BOS plant or electric arc furnace .
Later processing may involve the addition of other metals to produce “stainless steel”.
The main point however, is as you say, that Australia has lost most of its “steelmaking” capacity in recent decades.
450
..in a “conversion” furness that blasts oxygen through the molten iron to produce steel, and CO2.
40
Yes, used to be, the BOS .
40
To make steel from Iron Ore, it needs Carbon as well as some other elements. That Carbon comes from the Coal (King Coal).
To make Stainless Steel, that needs Nickle and Chromium.
Good Luck with “Green Steel”, which with all the Scammers and Subsidies should be called “A Green Steal”.
330
Aluminium is not called coagulated electricity for nothing.
120
Hang old mate — You forgot that Australia is a renewable energy superpower! – Look at all that GREEN steel Australia will produce — just ask Bowen & Forrest….LOL!!
00
So Once Great Britain is going to become a steel recycler, not a producer (not that it any longer produces much steel).
As TdeF mentions, electric arc furnaces are for recycling steel, not making it (see below).
They can in fact be used to directly reduce iron ore to make sponge iron if a reducing gas such as hydrogen is used but the process is expensive and in Australia, for example, after the expenditure of a vast amount of taxpayer money, attempts to produce “green” hydrogen failed. And in any case, where is the electricity going to come from as Auto mentioned?
I wish politicians and the public serpents who tell them what to think had some basic knowledge of technology.
421
“I wish politicians and the public serpents who tell them what to think had some basic knowledge of technology.”
Never!! Their speech would be technical and accurate, the voters would be too dumb to understand and bored after 8seconds…
We are where democracy always takes us.
30
McCullough Foundation Report: Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Dr Peter McCullough and other authors have just released a new report, in which they review all the available literature on Autism spectrum disorder in an effort to determine the likely cause of the catastrophic rise in the incidence of Autism over recent decades.
Not surprisingly , they conclude that there are multiple determinates all of which can cause injury to the developing brain during neonatal or early childhood life, but the one factor which stands out amongst all the others is early childhood vaccination!
A contributing author is Dr Andrew Wakefield, the man associated with the first seminal paper, suggesting concern about the role of childhood vaccination, particularly the combination Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine, in the development of Autism.
I listened to a recent podcast by McCullough today and he asked why the US Dept of Health under RFK jnr had not already done this study. He concluded, sadly, that they have been captured by the pharmaceutical industry.
https://mcculloughfnd.org/pages/autism-research-report
251
Peter, I fear that the name of Andrew Wakefield will put many off.
He – as you rightly say – was an early publicist of – he claimed – dangers of vaccination [real vaccination, not the WuFlu stuff]; he is now anathema to many in the pharmaco-financial world.
Which doesn’t mean he is wrong this time.
I, certainly, am not qualified to judge.
Auto
120
Andrew Wakefield is a true hero. He listened to his patient’s when most other doctors did not.
The observation that the MMR vaccine shot preceded the onset of Autism was made by the parent’s initially and he noted that and wrote up the case reports. He also noticed that most of the affected children developed inflammatory lesions in their bowels.
Andrew had his report published in the Lancet, Britains most prestigious medical journal ,and it stood as a valid paper for over 10 years before the editors finally succumbed to immense pressure and retracted it.
Andrew in the meantime was attacked with the full fury of the establishment. The general medical council cancelled his medical registration and declared him guilty of spreading medical misinformation and a danger to the community because his paper raised a doubt about the safety of the MMR vaccine. He was vilified in the main stream media, particularly by Brian Deer. Most people think his paper has been debunked and that he is a fraud.
I actually have a copy of his paper. He did not say that the MMR causes autism. He merely noted an association in a small number cases and suggested the matte be studied further.
I think he was invited to be a contributing author by the McCullough team to honour him and his role as the first in the field.
260
Wakefield is a hero. Agreed. The Blob wants us all to be put off by his name. They worked hard to destroy his reputation for just that reason.
120
Wakefield’s data was falsified and he failed to disclose financial incentives from lawyers who intended to sue vaccine manufacturers. Why do you proclaim fraudsters as heroes and then accuse authentic scientists of corruption on the basis of zero evidence? If you are going to take the contrarian side of every single issue, you are going to be wrong almost all of the time.
06
I listen to both sides. You clearly know nothing about Wakefield’s story. You just parrot’s the Corporate-Bureaucratic Blob line.
See the source for all the links and references. https://ahrp.org/laffaire-wakefield-introduction/
90
You need to weigh evidence based upon the credibility of those making the claim.
03
Ahh. You have nothing then?
31
He win his appeal against being struck off, that doesn’t mean his study wasn’t fraudulent.
“As Mr Justice Mitting observed in his judgement, ‘There is now no respectable body of opinion which supports (Dr Wakefield’s) hypothesis, that MMR vaccine and autism/enterocolitis are causally linked’.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-17283751
02
Here you go again, another pathetic unscientific appeal to authority — “no respectable opinion”. So they sack and attack the skeptics to achieve a consensus, and anyone who disagrees gets a character assassination so you can say they are “not respectable”. You farm your brain and opinions out to the corrupt Blob. If the MMR vaccine is so safe why don’t they publish placebo controlled trials showing it? Because they didn’t do any and Big Pharma doesn’t want to do the studies because they know the results won’t be good.
The judge said there was no evidence to support accusations of fraud or misdemeanor but you still don’t have the integrity to admit you were wrong.
10
This is clearly a difficult subject, as in minefield. There is clearly an increase in spectrum disorders (or whatever the ‘correct’ term is)’. Or maybe there is just better diagnosis and/or increased reporting. But assuming there is an increase, then something must be causing it. That something could be vaccinations, or it could be diet, or it could be something else that has changed in modern life – and there are lots of those. I will join Auto on this, ie: I, certainly, am not qualified to judge.
But I would like to see an open and honest concerted effort to resolve the issue, not bury it. Note: Pharma ad homs on Dr Andrew Wakefield can be ignored, only the issue matters.
91
Dear Mike,
You will be much more qualified to be a judge of the matter when you have read the report which is referenced above.
110
I have listened to some ( very rare ) interviews with Dr Andrew Wakefield recently. He always comes across as a very calm, rational decent human being who speaks with confidence. How he has held it together for so long is truly amazing. Yet, most people who hear his name would say he’s that crazy anti-vaxxer. His experience also supports that sometimes simple observations of health variables can be just as powerful as large expensive RCT’s. But his was not only observational, he meticulously documented his findings and as you point out, did the sciency thing and got it published.
120
UK Cover-up of Mass Murder
The UK Health Security Agency is ‘covering up’ links between the Covid jab and excess deaths because it could cause significant distress to me and my family.
The UK Health Security Agency is ‘covering up’ links between the Covid jab and excess deaths because it could cause bereaved relatives “distress or anger”. Public health officials claim that they are so ‘caring and loving’ that publishing the data risked damaging the well-being and mental health of the families and friends of people who were killed by the Jab, including my Dad, my Mum, the Queen and Philip.
The data which maps the date of people’s Covid vaccine doses to the date of their deaths has been released to the pharmaceutical companies, but not put into the public domain due to the risk of individuals like my mother, father and members of the Royal family being identified, which could result in significant distress to me and my sisters. The ‘caring and loving’ officials claim that the distress could be far greater than their deaths and funerals.
UsForThem, a campaign group, requested that UKHSA release the data under freedom of information laws. But the agency refused, saying that publishing the data would “have an adverse impact on vaccine uptake”. After a two-year battle, the Information Commissioner ruled in the UKHSA’s favour.
Reform UK is committed to a public inquiry into excess deaths and the Covid vaccine. Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, said: “We knew there was concern about excess deaths, which is why we called for an inquiry. Instead, the unelected quango UKHSA is involved in a scandalous cover-up of how and why people are dying,” “This is totally unacceptable, and the Health Secretary must overrule them. If we are not prepared to learn lessons about why people are dying, what sort of society are we?” “It is perverse for UKHSA to argue that this data should not be released because the public could feel distressed or angry if patterns or correlations were to be identified,” “the public are considered incapable of handling this data. It reveals a patronising mindset, which also characterised the pandemic response – ‘do what we say, don’t ask any questions, we know what is best for you’.”: https://dailysceptic.org/2025/11/16/government-withholding-data-that-may-link-covid-jab-to-excess-deaths/
511
When our adult daughter dies suddenly we suspected it was a result of Covid injections. As her death was unexpected she had an autopsy. Her cause of death is shown as “Unascertained” as they found nothing.
During the discussion with the Forensic Pathology people they said no its not “vaccine related” To my mind this defies logic and the facts and leaves me totally suspicious. If you dont know the cause , how can “vaccine related” be ruled out with such certainty? Do you mean you know what causes “vaccine” death and it wasnt there? or have you just been instructed to deny?
540
I am very sorry to hear that Yarpos.
It is reprehensible that the Forensic Patholgy people could say that your daughter’s death was not due to the vaccine, when they did not know the cause of death. Did they even look properly.
Subclinical myocarditis can lead to cardiac arrhythmia and cardiac arrest, but they have to due specially stains of the heart muscle.
270
You and many others including me know that there is a ‘cover up’ going on here.
Disgraceful by the ‘Safe and Effective’ “rsoles” and very sad news Yarpos.
260
Once again, they don’t know what it was, yet they somehow know what it wasn’t.
150
It is illogical like an infamous legal matter, where a Judge said “Only two people know if a rape occurred” then a Judge found that it had. Judges are not clairvoyant. They have to comply with logic.
Geoff S
40
If the Judges actually understood Logic, they would be in a much better position to come to correct verdicts!
10
If judges understood logic they would study the sciences, not law which must be littered with contradictions.
00
Researchers have searched all published autopsy and necropsy reports related to COVID-19 vaccination to May 18, 2023, resulting in 678 studies. After implementing inclusion criteria, they chose 44 papers containing 325 autopsy cases and one necropsy case. A panel of three expert physicians independently reviewed each case to determine whether COVID-19 vaccination was a direct cause or significant factor in each death. Of 325 autopsies reviewed, 240 deaths, or 74 percent, were independently adjudicated as “directly due to or significantly contributed to by COVID-19 vaccination.”. Findings showed the most affected organ system in COVID-19 vaccine-associated death was the cardiovascular system at 53 percent, followed by the hematological system at 17 percent, the respiratory system at 8 percent, and multiple organ systems at 7 percent. Three or more organ systems were affected in 21 cases. The mean time from vaccination to death was 14.3 days, with most deaths occurring within a week of the last vaccine dose. The study results suggest a high likelihood of a causal link between COVID-19 vaccines and deaths in most cases.
20
On a lighter note, a climate-based weather forecast:
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_yiZ!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0a68f969-2999-4aef-9d0b-0e4645e0c5cf_1078x1020.jpeg?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
51
Link works if copied and pasted into searcher, not as is for me anyway.
51
Or try the Greta Weather Report
120
Doctor Greta, please, to you and me.
Auto
40
That should read Greta, please see a Doctor.
80
FWIW
“The BBC: My Part In Its Downfall”
“The BBC has always been very Left-wing. But it didn’t used to be biased.
I should know because I was one of those identikit Left-wingers who worked at the BBC for 25 years. Everyone thought the same: Thatcher was mad, the poll tax was evil, immigration was a good thing, the rich should be taxed and nuclear weapons were immoral. These liberal-Left attitudes were shared by the vast majority of the people I worked with in the British Broadcasting Corporation. With a few exceptions.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/11/15/the-bbc-my-part-in-its-downfall/
190
And
“White House Responds With Fire After Hack Commissioned By BBC Smears President Trump with a Nasty Remark Days After Network Doctored His J6 Speech in Documentary”
“The far-left BBC appears determined to make a libel case for President Trump against the network easier by doubling down on smears against him.”
More at
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/11/white-house-responds-fire-after-hack-commissioned-bbc/
190
Plus more BBC
“Day of Wreckin’n”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/11/16/your-moral-and-intellectual-superiors-560/#comments
50
In Pawn Films, I am told that BBC stands for Big Black C@ck……LOL
80
Well I suppose it is playing its part on the job being done on UK?
20
Imagine how UK will do unburdened by this radical left organ.
I can only hope their BBC go in all guns blazing and gets wiped out by POTUS Trump, Monarch of Mar a large in his own realm. Can you imagine a UK legal team with their US front man coming up against a Floridian jury and a Trump defence in Trump’s realm. The notion of poetic justice comes to mind. If he goes for $5bn, I expect he would get it from a jury in Florida. It would not stand on appeal but it would give their BBC something to think about and probably shut them down. Maybe sell it to GBNews.
Their BBC have been so blinded by their TDS and rage that they think Trump a despicable individual and his claim for damages will never fly because they only portrayed him as a lying demagogue, which he obviously is in their eyes.
Their BBC completely under estimate the regard that Trump is held in the hearts of people around the globe. .
81
For those, like me, who don’t get around much:
The phrase “a bit fashy” is a slang term derived from “fascist,” used to describe someone or something that exhibits fascist-like traits, such as authoritarianism, ultranationalism, or extreme right-wing ideology.
34
“authoritarianism, ultranationalism, or extreme right-wing ideology.”
How does that differ from the madmen exhibiting-
“authoritarianism, ultranationalism, or extreme left-wing ideology.”
I figure you either believe in Govt control of your life, or your own control of your life, there is no Left or Right, its a distraction to stop people from realising how the world works.
90
Bloody hell! I quote a search result and get subjected to a political inquisition.
31
Well I don’t know, but I guess that the vast majority would not know their right from their left.
But I do think that everybody knows what it feels like when the lictors deploy their fasces.
So who cares whether the lictors hold it in their right or their left hand?
This might be what KP is suggesting.
20
The defining feature of Fascism is compliance enforced by violence.
Step out of line and you will be caned, figuratively , now that rattan is no longer the fashion.
01
Hey H, you stick your head up around here and anything can happen.
I am often reminded of the Python sketch of the guy wanting to have an argumment. And yes, I am as guilty as anyone.
00
I believe in never wrestling pigs, you both get dirty but the pig enjoys it. I do therefore, let a lot go through to the keeper.
10
It must be the “Herd effect” that makes people think ideas like those are normal. ?
70
It is how they recruit. 77% of UK journalists vote left. It becomes self-perpetuating unless there is a relief valve.
Journalists entering the system have little life experience. They get moulded into the values that the organisation rewards. Government funded organisations favour the side of government that gives them the biggest budget.
I have heard a media commentator say that Starmer cannot come down too hard on their BBC because he fears reprisals and more bad press while he is fighting for his leadership.
100
” because he fears reprisals and more bad press while he is fighting for his leadership.”
Because he thinks his voters read or watch the BBC and believe it?? That’s his first mistake!
10
Likewise in government-funded research organisations such as the CSIRO, and the public service generally. In fact, here in Oz, we have a whole city of lefties – Canberra.
30
Only 77%? Back when I was in pretty much daily contact with the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery in the ’90s they were about 85% card carrying members of the ALP.
Of the rest there was already a significant presence of watermelons and a handful of conservatives.
These days the it’s probably nearly 85% watermelon.
20
Here is Liz Truss in full support of Trump taking out their BBC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmtKbRDyNgA
Her hope is that they defund this radical left organ of the UN. They did a lot of harm to her during her brief period at the UK helm.
10
Daily Mail article; skeptics and CAGW back-trackers.
“Skepticism about climate change has resurfaced, as some experts claim the exact causes of global warming remain unclear and that the policies addressing it are motivated more by money than by science.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15236133/Scientist-climate-change-hysteria-nonsense.html
210
‘Lindzen calculated that doubling CO₂ in the air would only raise the world’s temperature by about half a degree on its own.’
I disagree with this approach, we need to prove conclusively that CO2 is merely a byproduct of global warming.
CO2 ice core data is flawed.
https://notrickszone.com/2025/11/16/new-study-suggests-ice-cores-are-wrong-co2-levels-were-high-in-early-holocene/
52
The Climate has always changed without any Human Involvement – Just ask the Dinosaurs at Lark Dinosaur Quarry 130 Km SW of Winton QLD
Global Warming – it’s not hot today
Jan/Feb Melbourne 1968
24 Days over 30C
16 Days over 35C
4 Days over 40C
13 Feb – 25 Feb 68 – 11 out of 13 days over 30C, 8 days out of 13 over 35C, 2 days over 40C
Or Jan/Feb Melbourne 1908
23 days over 30C
14 days over 30C
5 days over 40C
15 Jan-20 Jan 1908
15 Jan 39.9C
16 Jan 42.8 C
17 Jan 44.2C
18 Jan 40.0C
19 Jan 41.41C
20 Jan 42.7C
60
From a Comment on the Linked Highlighted The Australian Article above – Net zero a political victory but heat’s on Coalition to show a convincing climate change plan
There was an earlier comment that the writer was happy with his rooftop solar. Lets have a look at that.
The energy to make 1 tonne of steel is in the order of 20–25 GJ (≈ 5.6–6.7 MWh ≈ 5,600–6,700 kWh). Your typical household 6.6 kW rooftop system produces about 9,000–11,000 kWh per year. So, your home system will take 8 months to generate the energy required to make one tonne of steel.
Now BlueScope, at the Port Kembla Steelworks, produces 8,000 tonnes of steel per day, or about 3 million tonnes per year – that’s 2,000,000 household-years of rooftop energy (that includes no power for the washing machine, TV etc…).
There are 7.6 million individual houses in Australia (ABS, 2021) so it would take the rooftop power from one in three Australian houses to power production for just one steel works. Is that realistic for a productive Australia.
70
Political compromise to appease the moderates fearful of losing their city seats. No doubt they will be conducting local polls to ascertain what the people might be thinking.
The Coalition should easily win back seats lost because of the Trump factor.
41
So just make sure you start your records at 1910
20
It would be much clearer if the climate modellers understood the difference between solar power and solar energy.
Once they grasp this simple notion they only have to look at how the Sun moves in relationship to the Earth and they will gain a highly nuanced perspective of why temperature goes up and down and why the solar activity changes.
This single chart explains most of what is observed in changing temperature if you know that the peak north or south excursion aligns closely with peak solar activity and northern excursion increases solar intensity in the NH while southern excursion increase solar intensity in the SH:
https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Sun_Z-Axis-1763023398.2698.png?fit=947%2C592&quality=75&ssl=1
Other simple facts like the NH has 3.3X the temperature response to solar forcing as the SH. The impact of Earth’s orbital precession becomes clear when you look at the changing Sun-Earth distance throughout the annual cycle Ove decades. Precession drive the underlying trend in temperature.
It took me a while to appreciate why Z-axis motion is so significant but quite obvious when you look at how it changes declination of sunlight over the planet. And it is mostly related to Jupiter’ gravitation pull on the Sun – who would have thought?
90
Terrific graph, it feels like 1910 again.
20
And heading toward Sun position very close to the period of WW1.
The recent peak of 2024 is almost identical to the peak of 1905 when hundreds died of heat stress across the USA in July that year.
It is interesting to take the peak maximums and minimums and align with recorded weather. The positive peaks will warm the northern hemisphere and the negative peaks warm the SH. But all significant peaks increases the solar activity that increases temperature in both hemispheres.
Late 2050s will rival the heat of the late 1870s when 13M died in China. And 1896 was a hot period in Australia that gets repeated around 2040.
Weather is more benign when the Sun is in or near Earth’s orbital plane.
30
‘ … the heat of the late 1870s …’
It could be argued that a very strong El Nino caused the devastation.
00
Wonder what it would look for this period?
The UK experienced a period known as the Little Ice Age, which spanned roughly from the 14th to the 19th century, with particularly cold conditions occurring between the 16th and 17th centuries.
The most severe cold period, known as the Maunder Minimum, occurred between 1645 and 1715 and was marked by a significant reduction in sunspot activity, contributing to colder global temperatures.
During this time, the River Thames froze over frequently, with at least 24 winters between 1400 and 1815 experiencing freezing conditions.
The freezing of the Thames was facilitated by the river’s shallower and slower flow due to the narrow arches of old London Bridge, which trapped ice and promoted freezing.
The first recorded frost fair took place in 1608, with notable fairs occurring in 1621, 1677, 1683–84, and 1739, the latter of which saw a tragic accident when a large piece of ice gave way.
The last major frost fair was held in 1814, during one of the coldest winters on record, with the Thames freezing again in 1895, after which warming trends and industrialization prevented further freezing.
20
Mr Nasty, this quote from the article you linked stood out to me.
At least 80% of the world’s energy is supplied by fossil fuels so “clean energy” just ain’t providing bang for buck. When will the masses understand this self-evident truth?
10
FWIW – for the covid record
“Kash Patel Drops Covid Origin Bombshell”
“This latest allegation isn’t just another chapter in the COVID saga. It’s further proof that the federal bureaucracy worked aggressively to twist intelligence, hide the truth, and undermine President Trump. And if brave insiders keep speaking up, we may find that the COVID cover-up was only one piece of a much bigger story waiting to break.”
More at
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/11/16/kash-patel-drops-covid-origin-bombshell-n4946056
150
All my friends, who admittedly tend to be conservatives, feel very depressed about the poor state of Australia and Victoria in particular. Most will not be voting Liberal at the next election (State or Federal) but One Nation with preferences to Liberals. (Assuming ON candidates run in their electorates.)
240
Therein lies the problem for a lot of people in major cities. There is no alternative to Liberals on the “right” side. At least in regional Victoria there are alternatives and you can still even vote Nationals in some seats. My suspicion is that there were not a lot of ON candidates in major city electorates, for example. You end up voting for some dodgy independent or an ex Liberal who is still wet.
150
There could be a leadership spill tomorrow morning. The Libs have one last chance to get their sh!t together and form a viable alternative to Labor who have been sabotaging Victoria for too long. Hopefully they follow the Federal party and promote cheap and affordable energy as a priority.
00
Today’s Australian Government debt, federal, state and local:
$2.188 trillion
http://australiandebtclock.com.au/
And with no limit to how much they are prepared to spend and no effective opposition political party.
Enjoy!
140
UK debt and scary forecast.
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/334/uk-economy/uk-national-debt/
30
Yeah, like the mass importation of some of of the world’s most uneducated, violent and anti-Western people who will never work or produce.
What could possibly go wrong?
120
“Nearly 1.3m foreign nationals are now getting Universal Credit.”
Although the majority seem to be all those ‘valuable’ EU migrants.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15291805/Nearly-1-3m-foreign-nationals-getting-Universal-Credit-Tories-demand-cuts-handouts-instead-tax-hikes.html
70
…but…but, aren’t they all doctors and nurses? /sarc
Woke, gutless politicians created this debacle.
No wonder the Brits are angry.
110
I am less an economist that I am a scientist. And I only graduated 15th grade.
(I do note that most ‘ists’ are worth a warm pile nowadays).
My hardly original theory.
The Keynesian government fiat spending, which brought the US out of the Depression and built the arsenal to win WWII, and rebuild the world … and then win the Cold War against the Communists, then elect them … worked for nearly 100 years.
Very well for about half that time.
The elite culture it helped to expand (and teach the kids to be Communists) suffered the natural corruption of unbridled success, and has now caused the shared aspirational illusion that keeps a fiat system viable, to collapse.
They may have partly used the faux ‘Climate’ (World War type) crisis to keep it afloat and continue to milk the fiat cow for themselves.’
(A four lane hi-way thru rain forest to your ‘save the world’ climate meeting …please.)
It is the this last milking that stops our governments from restraint.
And the party is ending.
Nothing, even Trump, can stop the failure.
An unfixable cost of living crisis will cost Trump the midterms.
Endless Impeachment (round 2, or is it 3 or 4) begins.
The next Democrat POTUS will be allied (already pre-ordained) with the globalist capitalists neo-authoritarians and we will wake up one day to a Pandemic style shutdown/lockdown of our bank accounts.
Our accounts will be refilled with a new currency.
We’ll probably get to keep our property.
But ‘ownership’ will be socially and legally redefined almost overnight.
This is what the “you will own nothing” thing was about.
101
You could be right Honk, but I hope not.
But I see this as a titanic battle between good and evil.
Every day the demarcation lines between the good guys (conservatives and allies) and the bad guys (the Left) become increasing well defined as the Left continue to expose themselves with more Civilisation-destroying beliefs, policies and actions.
Hopefully the side of the good guys, represented by TRUMP as leader of the no-longer-very-free-Western-world, will win this battle. Western Civilisation and freedom itself is what is at stake.
91
You can’t really blame Keynes. He came up with a solution to the Great Depression in the 1930’s by assuming that deficits for 3 years would fix it. He even claimed (in exasperation) that one lot of paid worker could dig holes and another lot fill them in again. The extra spending would rejuvenate the economy.
He set a limit of 3 years before deficit spending caused inflation.
It was the (socialist) Economists after he was dead to claim that deficit spending could be extended forever, with the “sweetener” claim that the economy could be controlled by fiscal measures (something that Dim Jim -like most politicians believes).
40
“The Keynesian government fiat spending, which brought the US out of the Depression and built the arsenal to win WWII, and rebuild the world… ” was based on spending the capital built up in the previous 100years before Keynes. Once that was spent they had to newly-introduced PAYE tax to spend, and then they started borrowing… which they haven’t finished yet!
The only answer is gold or similar as currency and no Govt borrowing. So no inflation/fiat system and live within your means… which no-one ever would vote for!
10
A country on the gold standard can only expand in lock step with productivity gains and gold mining. This wouldn’t worry you or me but our current immigration policy would be impossible.
00
Honk
IIRC
As Chiefio points out Keynes said that government could prime the economy for no more than three years before backing off again.
And that this has never been applied anywhere
20
Except that Keynesian spending didn’t get the USA out of the Great Depression, in fact the US double dipped and went back into depression in 1938, never having got past deep recession.
What got them out of the Depression was European countries buying weapons, material, and equipment from the US for hard currency, specifically gold.
Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, were all shipping gold to the US to pay for their purchases.
Then in the middle of 1940 the US introduced conscription, which is what solved their double digit unemployment problem.
Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury admitted at the end of 1938 that nothing they had tried had worked.
10
Noted.
But something payed for the tooling up to build the weapons to be traded for gold, right?
An economy is fiat situation in the first place.
We need a shared agreement on value.
The problem is wanton behavior breaks down the shared mental construct.
Tulips are really valuable until they’re not.
Weapons, roads, bridges, hi-ways, even colleges (except these are losing theirs) are valuable and contain potential wealth.
Renewable or Tulip Energy* and weird non vaccinating vaccines contain only non productive and liability producing debt.
Successful societies need elites no matter how much reprobates like me hate them.
Like the great cultures preceding the corruption of elites is fast doing us in.
But non of the previous empires ever advanced to the ‘men can give birth’ level.
So we are No.1.
Greatest ever.
*I’ve been calling it Tulip Energy as the illusion collapses.
At least we can replant tulips are change the crop to corn.
But the wind and solar farms fields will lie fallow for decades
10
It’s Only Australian Taxpayers Money – Labor Economics under Dim Jim & Renewables Blackout Bowen
One Million here, One Billion there, One Trillion Anywhere!
1 million seconds is 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is 31.7 years, 1 trillion seconds is 31,688 years
Government support for green steel
The Australian Government’s Future Made in Australia plan identifies green metals (which includes green steel) as a priority sector for Australia’s investment in becoming a renewable energy superpower.
The Government will drive growth in the sector by investing in skills and training, research and education.
It will also provide financial incentives, regulatory changes and other enablers to help crowd in private investment.
Up to A$3 billion of the A$15 billion National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) has been set aside to finance renewables and low-emissions technologies.
There is also A$1 billion set aside for value-adding in resources.
40
“Sussan Ley’s decline has hit terminal velocity in the latest Redbridge poll. Almost immediately, the left gleefully painted a picture of conservative disarray that’s as stark as it is unsurprising.
The Coalition’s primary vote has cratered to a dismal 24 per cent, while One Nation has surged to 18 per cent.
That’s right. A minor party, once dismissed as a fringe protest vote, is now nipping at the heels of what was supposed to be the natural party of government.
And Sussan Ley?
Her preferred Prime Minister rating sits at a record low of just 10 per cent, trailing Anthony Albanese’s 40 per cent by a chasm that no amount of spin can bridge. But ten points for trying. Not only has Ley announced the Coalition will dump Net Zero, but now she will focus on cutting immigration.
Nothing like a good poll to remind you of your raison d’être.”
This is a snippet from a Spectator Australia Article dated the 17th of November, 2025.
120
Did they give a rating for Pauline as PM? Macrobusiness states Pauline Hanson is now preferred PM but the story is paywalled. She has the king’s touch:
https://www.onenation.org.au/trump-style-leadership-one-nation-policies
Labor is only just over 50% on preferences. So it will not take much more for One Nation to tip the scales away from the radical left.
The rate of gain of One Nation is probably unprecedented in Australia although I was not watching politics in the Menzies era.
Underdogs in Australian politics tend to get on a roll.
Sleezy has a ‘tell’ when he lies – words come out. Pauline Hanson is a bit like Trump – her words express her thoughts and not always as coherently as listeners would like.
161
‘And Sussan Ley?’
The lady is safe for now, none of the other aspirants have the numbers.
One Nation is only in the Senate, a splinter group along with the teals. I imagine ON will support the Coalition on climate and energy.
42
A splinter from what? The Dead Wood?
LOL. Some splinter.
40
Pauline split from the Liberals and started one Nation.
My guesstimate is that ON will remain a fringe party until it gets candidates elected to the Reps.
21
They are a fringe now, that’s all that matters. I always rank Pauline high enough to get my Senate vote.
10
It’s no surprise that Sussssssan has an approval rating of 10%.
It IS surprising and disturbing that Albasleazy has an approval of 40%.
140
5% deposit for first homes and student debt repaid certainly helped.
40
There are rumours (hotly denied) that the Liberal moderate faction want to dump Ley for Hastie.
21
The wets?
You have to be joking, their preferences for Hastie would be taking him out to sea and dumping him somewhere west of Rottnest because he’s the biggest threat to their Parliamentary gravy train.
30
The ‘problem’ is, as in most of the west, approx 35%+ of voters are rusted-on leftists who would vote for no other party, irrespective of how awful their candidate is. This, coupled with our voting system, means quite terrible candidates such as Andrews and Albanese get elected.
30
HAMAS rate him (and Wong) at 100%
10
Does the article say when the survey was conducted?
00
Does anyone know the status of this “green” steel project in Australia?
https://h2greensteel.com.au/
They don’t plan to make steel using direct reduction of iron ore using hydrogen but will use hydrogen as a reheating furnace fuel. I assume the steel will be made by conventional methods or come from scrap.
1) Where will the “green” hydrogen come from now that project has failed?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-04/hydrogen-australia-energy-jobs-environment-climate/105677690
2) Where will the “green” electricity come from, it will obviously have to be 100% reliable, so will need to be supplied via a giant battery bank?
3) How much taxpayer money is involved?
80
More like “Green Mentals”.
50
Out of interest I did a Grok search. This is a reduced version of the output.
“Australia is advancing multiple “green steel” initiatives aimed at decarbonizing steel production through technologies like electric arc furnaces (EAFs), direct reduced iron (DRI) with green hydrogen, and electric smelting furnaces (ESFs). These leverage the country’s abundant iron ore (magnetite and hematite), renewable energy, and green hydrogen potential. As of November 2025, no large-scale commercial production has begun, but several projects are in advanced planning, funding, or pilot stages. Key drivers include federal and state government support via the $1 billion Green Iron Investment Fund (launched February 2025) and the Future Made in Australia policy, alongside challenges like economic viability and competition from global players.
Overall, Australia’s green steel sector is pre-commercial but accelerating, with pilots launching this year and major facilities online by 2026–2027. Progress hinges on sustained funding and policy stability amid the 2025 federal election cycle. For the latest, monitor official sources like the Department of Industry, Science and Resources”
Sometimes you can do an AI search and read between the lines. What this tells me is that there’s still lots of hype, it’s totally dependent on government funding and that the end product will probably be too expensive. Fair summation??
70
It’s a “Green Steal”. LOL
70
Wont bore you with the follow up questions to Mr Grok. But, the viability of Green steel ( particularly for export ) relies on the EU Carbon tax with the acronym CBAM (Carbon border adjustment mechanism). Basically, this makes conventionally produced steel more expensive and so then the hugely expensive green steel is perhaps competitive. But probably China would beat all countries to the market anyway and flood the market with their product. Sound familiar?
50
Ask Twiggy F and whether he has repaid any of the Taxpayer Funds that he grabbed for the Green Hydrogen Scam that he had.
Not one Green Hydrogen project is commercially viable in Sunny Australia. Not One.
Blackout Bowen for comment please.
Blah, blah, BS, BS, blah, blah…………………………
110
“Green Steel’ needs cheap and abundant hydrogen, none of which is available.
50
This is paywalled so I can’t copy an excerpt. Somebody sent me a photo of the article. This is all I can copy from Gulag search results. Maybe someone else can post a small excerpt.
70
Doesn’t surprise me. NDIS is Australia’s biggest scam, apart from “renewables” and just about any taxpayer-funded public works project.
192
Gillard and Rudd Labor Government NDIS first listed in their 2013/14 Budget, with no provision for funding, that was left to the Abbott Coalition Government to borrow and fund from 2014, and of course Labor attempted to blame the Abbott Government for the new debt to pay for Labor’s budgeted expenditure commitments.
00
Brave AI had this:
Fast Food and Drugs Used to Exploit NDIS Participants
Recent investigations have revealed widespread exploitation of vulnerable National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants, with unscrupulous providers using fast food, illegal drugs, cash, and other incentives to manipulate clients into handing over control of their NDIS funding packages. These practices were detailed in a discussion paper by Victoria’s Office of the Public Advocate (OPA), circulated in late 2024 and publicly reported in November 2025.
The OPA explicitly stated it is aware of “targeted incentives which have included access to fast food, cash or illegal drugs,” with the presumed goal of gaining control over individuals’ NDIS funds. These tactics often target people with cognitive impairments, dementia, or a history of substance use, who are described as “easy pickings for unscrupulous providers.”
50
Copied from Farcebook.
160
Quite insightful, must be talking about the Liberal Party.
70
The following articles are in the category of “just when you thought the Left couldn’t get any more anti-science…”.
AND
Gosh, back in the day, science was considered racially and culturally independent.
How far will those promoting Australian Apartheid be prepared to push it?
And what aspect of the understanding of chemistry depends on what race or culture you are a member of?
Detailed critical article here, too much to quote:
120
When did they discover the zero?
10
There are a number of ways to rate technological ages but this AI generated one seems a reasonable summary.
Thanks to the Left, we are now regressing including the destruction of practical energy sources, practical methods of making iron and steel, and the rewriting or destruction of history and/or knowledge itself. Plus also the reverence for primitive technologies. Perhaps this can be called the Ignorance Age (Approx. 1990 – Present).
100
Some parts of the world didn’t get out of the stone age.
And those dates are based on England? Europe? Certainly not local to Oz.
40
“Stone Age (approx. 3.3 million years ago – 2500 BC) ”
The state of play when Lt Cook sailed up the East Coast of OZ.
80
Is 3 millions years ago a realistic start date for homo sapiens’ tool making?
00
What about Gobekli tepe and the megalithic period 11500 plus years ago circa.
….talk about Ai living under a rock lol.
From Megalithomania UK latest interview with Howard Crowhurst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRHISCLMVhg
“1,948 views Nov 15, 2025 Megalithomania Podcast with Hugh Newman
[Recorded in 2021 and uploaded to the Megalithomania Podcast on Spotify and YouTube Podcasts in November 2025] Hugh Newman interviews Howard Crowhurst, author of ‘The Megalithic Plan’ which looks at advanced ‘Astro-Geometry’ across ancient Britain and Brittany in France that incorporates Pythagorean triangles, country-spanning alignments, ancient metrology and stunning revelations, often recorded in myth, as to how these megalithic sites were laid out in prehistory.
Howard Crowhurst was born in North Wales. He has been living in Brittany since 1986 and has become one of the leading experts on the megaithic monuments of the Carnac area. From 1990 to 2004, he was vice president of the Association Archéologique Kergal and as such he took part in the french TV documentary, Carnac. In 2006, he launched the Summer Solstice in Plouharnel event with the Plouharnel Tourist Office. He founded the ACEM-Association for the Knowledge and Study of Megaliths, whose aim (amongst other things) is to create a 3D computer model of the Carnac megalithic complex. He appeared at the Megalithomania Conference in 2009, 2011, 2017 and 2021. His documentary ‘Megaliths: Forgotten World’ can be viewed at https://epistemea.fr/uk/”
Notes and eratta:
https://sacrednumber.science/
20
The ealiest possible date for a Federal election in Australia would be a simultaneous House of Representatives and half-Senate election on or after 7 August 2027 however a House of Reps election can be chosen at any time.
Do you think the Liberals will have chosen a leader in time for either possibility?
50
Will the libs have chosen a leader in time…. Certainly not a good one.
They’ll need a whole new list of candidates and the retirement of large sections of their current grifters.
80
Would it hurt to wish the non-socialist party well occasionally?
You deserve labor and that’s what you will get.
00
The big accounting firms are contracted to manage many of the services of Government. To do this they often employ contractors with expertise in the field. I just noticed one of these firms scrabbling to minimise what could best described as a yawning unfunded liability on their books. The obligation to pay super to contractors.
One has just attempted to apply a band-aid to the what by definition must be a gaping wound. They have decided they will only pay on payments specifically mentioning an hourly rate. Unfortunately unlike the Federal Government that was able to flog of an income producing asset, Telstra and dump the loot into the future fund thus securing their golden eggs they had left off the balance sheet, these companies not paying super to contractors are eventually going to dragged kicking and screaming into sending cash to the Super funds. The legislation will not protect them from claims as I understand them from my reading of the ATO site and industry opinions.
.
Not to sure how these two opinions mesh to give a solid interpretation?
One sleeping dog laden with fleas is the
Surely you calculate the project payment on the hours estimated to perform such a task? And, you certainly would not be happy if the contractor sent their child to perform the contract.
Another lawyers feast served up to further shackle our economy?
51
Copied over from late last night for those who go to bed early-
“Discussing the fall of Pokrovsk and the way war is changing-
“Both sides keep their main forces 10 km from the city. Drones control all approaches, and only the most desperate daredevils can get through this barrier alive. So it turns out that inside Pokrovsk only the shadows of the two armies, which stand on its outskirts, are fighting….There are fewer soldiers in the city than civilians. Three people can storm one street, and the most interesting thing is that they will be fighting against three similar enemy soldiers. And all this happens in front of a dozen grandmothers and grandfathers who did not want to leave the city….War has changed and it no longer resembles a Hollywood action movie. This battle of shadows still needs to be described in literature. Meanwhile, we need to accept reality and study the vectors of its development.”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/chorus-of-corruption-as-movement”
So you can keep the war going with fewer soldiers in total than the enemy for the Ukrainians, and you can slowly take over territory with few casualties for the Russians. The next civil wars should be interesting..
30
More on that in here –
“SITREP 11/16/25: Overblown Energy Strikes on Russia Again Mask UA Frontline Collapse”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-111625-overblown-energy-strikes
But then the Tartar horseback archers caused a ruckus in their day – e.g.
“Wild horses: Tartar warfare and the history of civilization.”
https://madbarn.com/research/wild-horses-tartar-warfare-and-the-history-of-civilization/
00
A squad of Russians got into the city through an old oil pipe, Uk blew up the pipe behind them so there was no retreat, only death.
10
Check out the graph here of Australian voting intentions.
Thoughts?
https://x.com/corncobanalysis/status/1990143893682479242
00
“Australian Gen Z going 75-15 for Labor and Greens…”
No problem, they’ll pay for it all their lives. All the generations prefer Labor over the Coalition… As they say, people deserve the Govt they elect and they deserve it good and hard!
60
The long march through the institutions is paying off for them.
50
Short video.
Testing the difference between a Biden and a Trump rally.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Qzvl-NyXR_8
20
“Overgoverned, overtaxed and overcomplicated: How Australia was set up to fail-
Australia’s three levels of government will collect a record $1 trillion in taxes this year, but the federation is failing…a growing number of senior politicians and policymakers believe the federation itself is a cause of Australia’s stagnant growth and falling living standards.
..Some argue the federation’s many problems began at its birth, as the states gradually surrendered their powers and financial independence to the new central government.”
Lots of examples of how various Govt Depts wage war on one another over who is going to pay for what, but overall, the States are a waste of time and costing the country dearly, or you take all taxes away from Canberra and grudgingly give them enough each year to run Defence and Foreign Affairs..
“Just last month, the federal government’s triple-A credit rating was reaffirmed by agency S&P Global. Under this rating, financial markets assume states such as Victoria – which has a lower credit rating – would be protected by the Commonwealth if they got into financial trouble.”
Nothing will happen of course, too many snouts buried in the trough and we will slide backwards to become some 2nd-world South American country. Add the ruinables into it and we will get as far down as African levels before long!
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/overgoverned-overtaxed-and-overcomplicated-how-australia-was-set-up-to-fail-20251021-p5n422.html
80
The Cost Of Firming Intermittent Wind & Solar;
https://energynetwork.substack.com/p/223-the-cost-of-firming-intermittent
10
It is quite impressive that it is now down to $400/MWh given the level of inflation. .
If I get another 7 years from my off-grid system, the average cost will work out to be $480/MWh. That is my own roof and own labour to install. This is based on 5% opportunity cost over a 20 year life. (Good luck finding a TD giving 5% today)
Without subsidies a rooftop system will cost $380/MWh connected to the grid or $450/MWh if you go off grid with an autostart generator.
It is even lower with subsidies. And below most current retail tariffs.
All efforts to enhance the grid should stop. This recognises that utility scale WDGs are stranded assets already.
The coal fired plants should run flat out as the demand allows with bidding miniumin interval of 24 hours.
Only allow dispatchable generation to bid – that does not exclude wind, solar and batteries providing they have paired gas generators.
All rooftop solar oriented to maximise winter input as the roof permits.
No feed in tariff for rooftop solar.
10
On a windless night W/S doesn’t need “firming” it needs “total replacement”, a not so subtle difference.
Notice that wind farms are concentrated in W Vic and E SA*, in the Roaring Forties. Above Lat. 30S wind is a flop.
* https://anero.id/energy/wind-energy
60
Firming means on demand supply although the word is not highly descriptive.
My off-grid solar/battery system has offered on-demand supply apart from a handful of days over the past 13 years. The battery is an essential part of the system for intermittent generation.
00
70
It appears it has become very difficult to cancel your BBC licence if you were stupid enough to have one. The process has got harder this year and can take long periods on a phone line. The income from licences is tanking as people decide they are not going to pay and it is no longer enforceable.
Their BBC was already in strife before Trump stepped up to the plate:
https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/millions-ditch-tv-licence-bbc-enforcement/
The situation is now worse.
I can see big staff cuts at a minimum.
100
I think Herr Starmer will just step in and fund them directly, just like Their ABC in Australia.
It’s too important a propaganda arm of the Left to let it fail.
80
Bitcoin has lost it’s lustre, but unlike Au/Ag it couldn’t be polished anyway.
In the last month, while Au/Ag have had big gains bitcoin has lost about 20% even though they are all “NON-fiat” and should have similar trends.
30
Bit Coin is an electronic thingy. Good Luck with Gambling.
20
What made you think I was giving investment advice? My post was for amusement only.
00
I see Australia has sent 496 hangers-on plus chief knucklehead Bowen to Brazil for COP30, what a farce.
Double the numbers the UK sent.
50
Australia is trying desperately hard to secure COP31 so we can showcase our stupidity to the world and also throw away another billion or two of taxpayer money.
The other country that wants COP31 is Turkey. According to Gulag AI they only sent 90 parasites vs Australia’s 496.
30
According to AI, only 79 Australian delegates went to COP29. Why the need to send 496 this time?
10
The trick is in the words. People talk about delegates vs attendees. The delegates actually do the COP business , the rest swirl around the dilomatic, business, career building circus. The bulk of Australias attendees were doing the latter.
30
Here are the top 10 number of delegates by country.
I can understand why Brazil has a lot as they are the host. China has a lot so they can sell economy-destroying windmills and solar panels to stupid countries like Australia. The Third World countries are probably there to extract tribute of some kind. France and Japan are probably there for virtue signaling. Australia is there to get support for COP31 which probably involves payments to various parties.
20
I think it was reported from the last COP (Baku, Azerbaijan), that it’s a great opportunity for countries to get together and do energy business. You know, even sell oil/gas to other countries as well as probably solar/wind technology.
30
FWIW
“Make Chastity Belts Great Again”
“It’s a way of Life! You’re going to love it!”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/11/16/make-chastity-belts-great-again/
Paired with Ricky Gervais’s “London Stab Vest” for a complete outfit?
10
Shades of Robin Hood in Tights
00
Failed link?
00
Comment in The Australian
Overgoverned, overtaxed and overcomplicated: How Australia is set up to fail
Australia’s three levels of government will collect a record $1 trillion in taxes this year, but the federation is failing.
When the door shuts on this financial year, Australia’s three levels of government will have set a record.
For the first time, the Commonwealth, the six states, two territories and 538 local councils will have collected more than $1 trillion in taxes, charges and fees from the nation’s residents and businesses.
That $1 trillion, plus tens of billions more in borrowed money, will be churned back into the country.
From the weekly rubbish collection to running the nation’s hospitals to clothing our defence personnel, this cash is the lifeblood of Australia.
Anthony Albanese, like prime ministers before him, draws his ministry from the 226 MPs and senators who make up the federal parliament.
Then there are the 599 members of the nation’s state and territory parliaments.
And below them sits a network of roughly 538 councils run by 4755 local councillors.
Australia has a lot of government for 27 million people.
Australia has 1 million public servants despite government vows to cut red tape
And there are millions of laws and regulations, many differing between states. Often, states and federal governments pass laws in the same area, creating costly duplication and confusion.
A business that operates across the nation faces up to 36 different versions of payroll tax.
Locomotives need five or six different communications systems because public and private operators don’t use the same network.
An Albury rail worker wears a high-vis vest with a cross on its back. Wander over the border to Wodonga, they need a vest with two parallel lines.
30
Trump’s letter of demand to their BBC did not specify the level of damages. This is the section on the demands:
It goes on to direct that they should not destroy any related documents and correspondence:
This could open pandoras box at their BBC. Imagine all the snooty and snide commentary regarding Trump in this vile organ od climate doom.
Full letter at this link:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/donald-trump-bbc-letter-full-panorama-edits-b2862392.html
When you are dealing with the most powerful man on Earth, you have to be very careful.
30
haven’s seen CBC fingered yet but wouldn’t be suprised if Trump could go for a “Commonwealth Threesome”
10