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
Sunbeam 1000 HP, the first 200mph car to run again for the centenary in 2027, engine start up.
https://youtu.be/HdGc9uAcBgE
80
JCB of the UK are trying for a World Speed record with a Hydrogen powered Car. Good Luck to them I say. But please Car Manufacturers of the World don’t build a hydrogen car for sale to the General Public. The EV Car experiment should be lesson enough.
170
It’s amazing how the internal combustion engine has developed.
That car has two 22.5 litre engines producing 1000hp, so 45 litres to produce 1000hp.
The stock 6 litre V8 engine in my car produces 360hp but with a turbo running 10-15 psi of boost, still mostly stock but with upgraded head studs can reliably produce 1000hp. The stock conrods and pistons are good for 1400hp. With forged conrods and pistons and 25psi boost the engine is good for well beyond 1500hp.
120
https://nbsla.ca/2027-ram-rumble-bee-shocks-truck-world/
At the center of attention is the top-level 2027 Ram Rumble Bee SRT, powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V-8 engine producing a jaw-dropping 777 horsepower. Ram says the truck could reach a top speed of 170 miles per hour, putting the Rumble Bee truck into a category few pickups have ever entered.
50
Okay then!
Dodge RAM have always been upset that they have not held the ….. fastest “truck??” on the Planet, or that the very first of those trucks (as they call them) was really the forerunner of what we call a ….. ute, invented by an Australian no less, a 22 year old engineer at Ford in Geelong, Lewis Bandt. (and here, see my own 2011 Post at this link)
A Dodge RAM SRT-10 held the record for a production (not improved) truck with its 8.3 Litre V8.
In 2006, that record was broken by a Holden Maloo with a 5.7 Litre V8, and driven by Mark Skaife, who broke that record, and that is still the record for a production truck, (ute) at 271.44KPH.
The record must be held by a showroom stock vehicle.
Here’s the article about that record.
Say ute to an American, and they think you’re talking about the indigenous Indian.
Incidentally, the only real utes the Americans had were the Ford Ranchero, and the Chev El Camino.
A forerunner to what are now the typical American pickups, was also manufactured by Fargo (a division of Dodge) and back in the late 50s before we moved to Queensland, we had a family friend who owned one, and here in Australia, they were in fact treated as a truck, similar to the Ford F Series, and the Chev equal vehicle.
Tony.
90
You cannot beat a V8 for the sound and its longevity in motoring history…but my German 4 cylinder pocket rocket that makes 421PS or 416HP from a 2 litre engine with 30psi of boost stock, amazes me every time I drive it. Oil/Filter changes at twice the recommended period by MB in the interests of a long life. Bah Humbug to EV’s…the non solution to a non problem.
120
I’m not wedded to any particular cylinder configuration. My preference in terms of noise relies on RPM – the higher the better. In that regard, for me, the rotary-engined Mazda 787 is the pinnacle. That thing sounds like it’s doing 300kph when it’s just trundling out of the pits. When it goes past, full chat, it’s a think of aural beauty.
I like other high-revving engines too. My favourite bikes over the years all had four-cylinder engines revving to 10K or more. In f1, my favourite was the V10s.
The 100cc kart engines I used to race were marvels too. Just one cylinder yet they would rev to around 14K, while the top level international spec engines went to 20K. Insane. No wonder we had to rebuild the darn things after every event.
20
I see you, people, with such envy…
Clearly recall my emptions, short 65 years ago, about mother of my school friend,
Then I read clever books explaining what hormones do to teenage boys.
50
I gives me the shivers thinking about the things I got up to as a youngster and young man. I’m far more sedate these days. I genuinely don’t like speed any more. I ride my motorcycle to relax and I get a thrill out of beating my best MPG figure in the car.
Oh how the mighty are fallen.
40
Hunt down the recording of the BRM 1.5L 16cyl going for a warmup lap around 1950. …sounds like a modern motorbike! 72psi boost, 13,000rpm..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Racing_Motors_V16
10
I’m most concerned about the diverging views of reality between the Left and Right of the political spectrum.
A friend travels often to Cuba and is very upset about Trump policy towards that country.
Particularly the fact that Cuba can’t get oil and as a result has no electricity.
I asked, “but you want to stop oil, right?”
This was not well received.
She countered, “ you know you can’t run a country on solar panels”.
I said I happen to be acutely aware of that and read on the subject often.
I says”that is what Net Zero is … zero fossil fuels for us all”.
I think she considers my definition of Net Zero a right wing false characterization.
Like no serious person ever thought ‘Defund the Police’ actually meant defund the police.
It is as if humanity has developed + and – brains that can now only eternally repel.
300
I thought that was a “far right conspiracy theory”. Good to see a Lefty admit to it.
However Leftists are characterised by having double standards. If they didn’t have double standards they would have none at all.
So it’s OK for Third World countries like Cuba to use coal, gas and oil but not OK for the Civilised countries.
The Australian Government thinks you can run what’s left of the country on wind, solar and Unicorn flatulence. It’s official policy, and they have destroyed the economy attempting to prove it.
250
Here is a video discussing a speculstive idea questioning if the observable universe is in fact the inside of a black hole, i.e. do we live in a black hole?
It’s a serious idea, although not a new one, and not accepted by all cosmologists.
The idea aligns with General Relativity because a black hole the size of the universe would have the same density as observed for the universe.
A universe starting from a Big Bang, as is the classical explanation, and a universe operating inside a mega-black hole produce observationally identical results, thus we may never be able to tell them apart.
Proponents include:
Raj Kumar Pathria (1972) Pathria, R. K. (1972). “The Universe as a Black Hole.” Nature, 240, 298–299
Lee Smolin (1992) “Did the universe evolve?” Classical and Quantum Gravity, 9(1), 173. He also wrote a popular 1997 book, The Life of the Cosmos
Nikodem Popławski (2010) Popławski, N. J. (2010). “Radial motion into an Einstein-Rosen bridge.” Physics Letters B, 687(2-3), 110-113.
Joel Smoller and Blake Temple (2003) Smoller, J., & Temple, B. (2003). “Shock wave cosmology inside a black hole.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(20), 11216-11218..
Video: https://youtu.be/HzimeZSmdnA
70
As Albert Einstein probably never said:
Space / Time is not just CURVED.
It’s BENT!
20
‘ … a universe operating inside a mega-black hole …’
Its possible and might explain dark matter.
00
I have been a pretty stout skeptic of Ukraine’s chances in the war against Russia over the past couple of years and believed they should sue for peace to end the bloodshed since I didn’t believe they had any chance of turning things around.
I may have to revise that opinion. Their recent strategy of sending drones deep into Russia and destroying energy infrastructure is a game changer. They are slowly but surely crippling Russia’s petro-economy by knocking out refineries, wells, and pipelines with cheap mass-produced drone swarms that are very difficult to stop. After years of Ukraine almost exclusively bearing the consequences of that war, they have finally found a way to inflict serious economic pain on Russia. And without their fossil fuel export wealth, Russia is going to have a hard time continuing to fight the war, and explosions in Moscow are going to wreak havoc on public morale.
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/05/22/is-russia-now-losing-the-war-in-ukraine-n3815173
I’d also add that this is very much a strategy that other geopolitical Davids can adopt to make global superpower Goliaths feel some pain for their military adventurism. There are already whispers about Cuba having something similar in mind for the Florida Keys, and even Iran might be able to smuggle some drones into America to make us feel a tiny fraction of their pain. And I would hope that military planners in Taiwan are already gearing up to use the same tactic against the Chicoms if they should ever decide to invade. I also suspect there are some cartel bosses in Mexico who think they can take advantage of this new tactic.
I hope Trump and his military advisors already have a plan in place to deal with this kind of thing (or are scrambling to create one), because I suspect that we’ll start seeing this kind of thing metastasize now that Ukraine has proven it’s effectiveness both on the battlefield and on the balance sheet.
110
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-refining-standstill-central-russia-after-ukrainian-drone-strikes-sources-say-2026-05-20/
71
That doesn’t augur well for global fuel supply, what are we doing to bolster our diesel production.
50
My principal concern regarding the Ukraine war nowadays is that a desperate and angry Putin might deploy so-called tactical nukes. And if that wasn’t scary enough, I fear it would finally reveal just how weak and lily-livered Europe and NATO really are, because I really don’t think they have the cojones, skills and materiel to mount a credible response.
51
There is no serious targets in Ukraine deserving (even a tactical …) a nuke., only good once are beyond their Western border.
I doubt Putin can force his generals (colonels?) to really start WW3.
30
You don’t think he would drop one on a small town, just to make a point? That might not weaken Ukraine militarily, but it would be a huge psychological escalation and it would seriously change the perceived (latent) threat. I really don’t think it is beyond the realms of possibility if the stories I read about Putin’s precarious position are true (though of course the mainstream media can’t be trusted when it comes to Russia).
10
Steve
He could get all the effect with an Oreshnik without the nuke problem
20
I don’t think it would be about the scale of damage done but simply the fact that a nuclear weapon was used.
10
Putin is delusional, but not completely stupid, China and India told him point blank, don’t even think about it.
00
He doesn’t need to, if he just used 50% of his military he could run right over Ukraine. From the start he has been trying to degrade Ukraine’s military and not destroy the country, but it seems that attitude is up against all of NATO.
If he changes his mind it will all happen much faster, and be much deadlier for any civilians left in Ukieland.
21
He cannot replace those perishing on the front line, no matter how big the financial incentive and full mobilisation is not realistic.
‘ … trying to degrade Ukraine’s military and not destroy the country …’
Rubbish, he has been bombarding civilian targets for years and a glimpse of the grey zone puts that argument to rest. Ukraine is going to win this war with the assistance of partners, superior technology and strategy.
The Iran war is about to heat up, the US War Powers Act was supposed to be voted on this weekend in Washington but Congress was sent home and told to come back sometime in June. So its being quietly reported that the Americans are preparing for phase 3 of this holy war. With its inevitable Apocalyptic outcome.
10
“he has been bombarding civilian targets for years and a glimpse of the grey zone puts that argument to rest. ”
The grey zone is a battlefield you realise? The civilians have been move back long before the front gets there, the only people are those too old to move and the Ukie soldiers hiding in the schools and hospitals.
You will always get a wave of destruction as the front moves forward, but Putin could have flattened Kiev if he wanted to, destroyed it completely. This is not the London Blitz we are seeing, or Cologne.
When asked, China will support Russia, North Korea and Iran will too, you are the enemy of your friend’s enemy… For the Yanks its still a board game, it doesn’t affect them at home, but for all those ‘brutal dictatorships’ it is a war of survival that they have been planning for over decades. The Woke Metrosexuals in NATO will be too busy wondering about their women and the immigrants to do anything, and nobody born after 1980 wants their taxes to go to boosting military spending, nor will they volunteer to fight for the hated, pathetic politicians involved..
31
‘The grey zone is a battlefield you realise?’
I was thinking of the civilian infrastructure completely flattened.
‘When asked, China will support Russia, North Korea and Iran will too,’
China won’t support Russia, Beijing has other ideas and is keen to buy Kremlin gold bars.
The Europeans have told Trump he should quit NATO.
10
You say that Ukrainian soldiers are hiding in schools and hospitals, obviously trying to draw a parallel between the Ukrainians and Hamas. Do you have credible evidence for this assertion? Are they hiding in hospitals that are still in use, or evacuated?
10
The Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline is stalled until Putin is defeated, then Beijing will have a chat with the Mongolians.
‘Despite the high-profile summit between Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, which included over 40 agreements signed by the two leaders, progress on the pipeline is expected to continue at a slow pace.
‘Although Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak reportedly said that some contracts for the pipeline are approaching “final agreement” following the summit, China has remained relatively quiet.’ (SCMP)
10
Pentagon pizza tracker is at doughcon 1.
More “bombing the freedom into you” coming.
20
Grok is (perhaps unsurprisingly) against you:
Overall Assessment
This reads like motivated reasoning from someone updating priors on new data—which is good—but without enough weighting of countervailing factors: Russia’s depth, manpower, nuclear shadow, Western fatigue risks, and Ukraine’s own manpower/demographics issues. Drone success is impressive and forces Russia to divert resources, but victory requires sustained Western aid, manpower solutions, and political will on both sides. Economic pain + battlefield holding = stronger negotiating position for Ukraine, not assured “win.”
The core insight on cheap, iterative drones reshaping modern conflict is solid and underappreciated by conventional militaries. Proliferation is a real long-term challenge for superpowers. But claiming Russia is “losing” based on May 2026 refinery fires is classic recency bias in a multi-year slog. Wars reward the side that endures better, not just the flashier innovator.
20
I did not say that Russia is loosing the war. It might go on for another 5 years and Putin still will be younger than Trump is today.
Putin’s plan – no, the Plan, might be as thought through, as that of Trump’s. It would not surprise me if that was a primitive whim. I saw the faces of his closest of the close accomplices when he publicly declared the Invasion.
Hundreds of thousands killed bother him as much as bothered dictators before him, 1% territorial loss or gain is a joke for a Tsar equal (he believes) to Ivan IV or Katerine II, who in a single “term” doubled or quadrupled their land.
Only 10% of Putin’s army are the conscripts, while in Ukraine it is 55%. The (potentially dangerous) fodder, released prisoners are 15% – against Ukrainian 2%. Will be positive to lose them…
Nearly all Putin’s soldiers are Contractors, 80% today, and the worse his economy gets the more willing bodies there will be.
Ukraine, has the only chance to survive – to become another Israel, and so far I do not see it happening.
40
The article I ran past grok was what Steve wrote at #4.
But in in response to what you wrote above at 4.3.1, I think the big question is what winning or losing is. For example the IRGC says it is winning in Iran because the USA to too scared of bomb the country back to the stone age. And the IRGC would be pretty pleased with being bombed back to the stone age too because it is a death cult. They’ll just look on from a safe place where there is no danger to themselves.
My crystal ball went out in the rubbish collection a while back. But, if I had to make a prediction it would be along three lines. First that Europe is likely to self-destruct and go broke well before Russia. Second is that Russia will gradually get the band back together minus a few members. Third is that when the corrupt money flow through the Ukrane corruption dries up everybody except Russia will lose interest.
And the USA? Don’t bet against Trump but at some stage he will lose and lose big.
I’d run it past grok but I’ve reached my daily limit.
10
Any “lucky” strikes on Russian oil & gas infrastructure might have more to do with a string of strange “coincidental” energy infrastructure incidents that have happened all over the world from Australia to USA, Asia ,Russia and Europe than the Ukraine’s military prowess…
What if nefarious forces were working to destroy world oil & gas supply under the cover of two conflicts and some other “random” industrial incidents?
The same people who speak about global over population, hold forums of how to better control the “useless eaters” (as stated by WEF’s Klaus Schwab), how to implement world digital control etc, etc. All a conspiracy you say? When too many coincidences align to form a pattern it’s wise to join the dots…
https://www.moneylife.in/article/fire-and-smoke-eight-industrial-incidents-in-oil-and-gas-in-60-days-send-social-media-ablaze-with-speculation/80270.html
60
Bumped because I posted it late yesterday.
Have you got a lazy US$85.8 million to spend?
You could have bought this Rothko painting.
Or you could have hired the local kindergarten kid for much less.
https://youtu.be/wYgvbrQObHU
60
Why is modern art so bad?
https://youtu.be/lNI07egoefc
60
a) It is not art,
b) It is paid for by the state.
81
DM,
I saw a post on this recently, it’s all to do with money laundering and wealth creation by and for wealthy individuals.
50
I hated ‘modern art’ for a long time, particularly the abstract type, which most of it is. Then one night I was having a solo dinner in a St Petersburg restaurant (my one and only night without my agent or customers) and espied a truly beautiful painting on the wall. Abstract ‘modern art’ but somehow the shapes and vivid colours just struck a chord. Looking around the walls with opened eyes, there were others by the same (presumably local) artist, and a few were extraordinary. They were for sale but far from cheap, so I didn’t snap up a souvenir.
I’ve regretted it ever since, even though my memory of that painting is now hazy. I just remember how I felt about it. I think it translated to about $1500 and, because I have been told off for buying cr4p on my business trips, I didn’t buy it. If I could go back, it would be in my house now. So while I still think 98% of ‘modern art’ is trash, there are some gems in there I think. It’s all a matter of taste of course.
At the other end of the scale, my current favourite in our house is a watercolour I bought from Maleny Antiques a couple of months ago. It’s a dreamy rendition of white storks in a woodland setting. It’s beautifully done, so much so it now resides in our bedroom, where I look at it every night. I haven’t managed to discover anything about the artist though. She doesn’t seem to have a profile online, though I think she deserves recognition.
I wish this site allowed us to upload images 🙂
20
For Gods sake, Rothko must be snickering.
50
Snickering?
Wouldn’t that be “LHAO”?
10
I think I’ll pass on that one!
20
Here is a video looking at an Amish home made lead acid battery said to be made in 1947 and cycled daily and which has never been replaced.
In the description there is a link with instructions about how to make your own.
Such a design allows the simple replacement of individual plates if necessary and recasting of old plates.
Warning – annoying AI voice.
https://youtu.be/G9zCpRkMB-Y
If you try making your own battery, note that in Nanny State Australia it’s nearly impossible for a regular consumer to buy the required sulphuric acid for the electrolyte.
30
Aha, now, I’d like to know how they recharge it.
10
“in Nanny State Australia it’s nearly impossible for a regular consumer to buy the required sulphuric acid for the electrolyte.”
Just tip it out of old batteries.
20
If an old battery is discharged or dead, the electrolyte will be mostly water. It is only useful if it comes from a good fully charged battery which will be 35% sulphuric acid. In that case the battery wouldn’t be disposed of in the first place.
50
Rubbish! You can buy Sulphuric acid easily.
Even places like Blackwoods, Raceraust, battery shops and chemical suppliers will happily sell it to you.
50
Tell me somewhere in Victoriastan or anywhere in Australia where a consumer who is not a company and without having to sign all sorts of paperwork can buy it.
20
Already have but more:
Ordinary cleaning supplies outlet:
https://www.rapidcleannewcastle.com.au/product/6585-sulfuric-acid-98-5-litre
Victorian:
https://www.auroracleaning.com.au/cleaning-product/Sulphuric-Acid-98-Pick-up-Only/221/
Mitre 10:
https://jbhmv.com.au/sulfuric-acid-98-9sa981l-glendale/
Don’t question Cassandra. 😆
40
FWIW – for the covid files
Today’s Coffee and Covid newsletter – whole issue
“DE-FAUCI-IZATION ☙ Friday, May 22, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS
The NIH is doing so much more than firing a few scientists. It’s completely remaking the agency, criminally prosecuting Fauci cronies, and wiping the 38-year Fauci legacy off the books. Special ed.”
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!q6fg!,w_520,h_272,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe264c3da-30e2-4b86-ac87-9f9f2e00c14e_670x400.png
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/de-fauci-ization-friday-may-22-2026?
Not forgetting, not forgiving, prosecuting!
120
Childers is on fire today for sure.
10
FWIW – the AI chip wars
“NVidia (Finally) Admits The Obvious”
“Their “monopoly” is gone.
No, their stock price didn’t crash, but they all but admitted Huawei is going to be the lead in China when it comes to the chips run there — particularly for AI, but not only for AI. Their CEO, in other words, admitted in public what anyone who actually read any of the material related to Huawei, China and others over the last several years already knew (and which I’ve pointed out repeatedly.)
Whistling past the market’s detonation everyone is.
Why?
Because the same is going to happen domestically, and “AI” isn’t going to actually be what people believe.”
More at https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=255447
10
FWIW –
“You Know Why You Should Contemplate Evil Things?”
“Because sports team trainers and physicians know damn well this crap is poison.
New Titans head coach Robert Saleh made an immediate change in Tennessee when he got the job four months ago: He ensured that players wouldn’t eat seed oils at the team facility.
“One of the first things we did here was get rid of all the seed oils in the building, which I think the players appreciate,” Saleh said.”
A reminder: A sport team coach and team physician only make money (keep their job) if their athletes perform to their best.
Your physician makes more money when you’re ill. Oh, and the food companies make more money when the food is cheaper to produce. Both are in cahoots with each other, of course, since it serves both their financial interests while you getting ****ed is in their financial interest too.”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=255458
41
And
“A Report On Food Cost / Volume Buggery”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2026/05/22/a-report-on-food-cost-volume-buggery/#respond
10
“A reminder: A sport team coach and team physician only make money (keep their job) if their athletes perform to their best.”
True.
But seed oils is pretty laughable.
What about Gear?
Gear is the slang for anabolics and PEDs.
They don’t develop necks wider than their heads with wholesome diets.
https://youtube.com/shorts/8kmt73GPxSU?si=3MaPRKrprak5KRwB
Of course the coach doesn’t need to recommend gear because the players know they will have no coach without gear.
There’s also more than a few athletes that are wary of the team physician.
30
FWIW
“Greenwishing: Shiny Promises Fall Short”
““We’ve got to call out the greenwishing of energy’s future. Excitement is good; delusion isn’t. Let’s demand proof, not promises. Reliable, affordable energy isn’t a luxury—it’s the foundation of modern life—time to get serious about what energy technologies actually scales.”
I’ve been watching this energy debate for years, and I’m tired of the hype. We’ve got politicians, billionaires, and startups promising the next big “green” breakthrough that’ll solve everything from climate change to data center power demands, with no downsides.
But most of it is what I call greenwishing—a cousin to greenwashing, where they polish up promising energy ideas, but unproven, unscalable technologies with fancy renderings, press releases, and government grants, all while the real engineering and economics lag behind.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/05/21/greenwishing-shiny-promises-fall-short/
20
So very true. The next big thing is always imminent, just around the corner or over the horizon. The perennial reason not to do something useful, pragmatic and proven right now.
30
A Comment today from The Australian Editorial on the Budget is the best summary I have seen of this Labor Govermment PM Albanese
Christina 1 hour ago
Make no mistake this budget is Albanese’s magnum opus – a life time of resentment , envy and protest fed by a preoccupation with the divisive and warped ideals of the far socialist left – he sees this as his moment of opportunity to impose his bleak , stultifying , unimaginative statism on the Australian people. This is the future this man wants for our country – he has finally revealed his hand.
230
Outstanding comment.
90
Albanese is the embodiment of what the lucky country remark was really about.
90
‘ … warped ideals of the far socialist left …’
In a small pond across the way a socialist has done the unthinkable.
‘Mayor Zohran Mamdani presented a new budget to the public on May 12, announcing that he’d shrunk the deficit from $12 billion to zero through a combination of slimming down costs and assistance from Albany. Miraculously, he managed to do this without cutting government services, tapping into the city’s “rainy day” fund or raising property taxes, as he’d threatened to do.’ (USA Today)
04
But!
“Mamdani brags he eliminated NYC’s $12 billion budget deficit, but then a New York outlet dug into the numbers”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mamdani-brags-he-eliminated-nycs-12-billion-budget-deficit-but-then-a-new-york-outlet-dug-into-the-numbers/ar-AA235f1t
And
“Call It What It Is: A State Bailout of New York City”
https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/mamdani-hochul-nyc-budget-bailout/
IIRC an “insignificant sum” of about $US12 billion
50
Yes.
New York City was bailed out by the state.
An obvious lie by Mamdani that was quickly exposed.
50
Thanks Ian, financial engineering on the road to perdition.
‘Budget watchdogs view stretching out pension obligations as the road to perdition, and this deferral may rattle the bond rating agencies that have already reduced the outlook on New York City’s debt from Stable to Negative. Moreover, this deferral of contributions is subject to the approval of the City’s five pension plans, which at a minimum gives the public employee unions considerable leverage in upcoming contract negotiations.’
00
Old Oldie but a Goody
The people who pay the most taxes will always benefit from the discount the most.
Just reminds me of this story:
10 men go out for a beer once a month, and the bill comes to $100.
They decide to split the bill in a similar way to a tax bill:
• The first four men (the poorest) pay $0
• Fifth pays $1
• Sixth pays $3
• Seventh pays $7
• Eighth pays $12
• Ninth pays $18
• Tenth (the richest) pays $59
The men are happy.
The pub owner decides to drop the price, so their bill now comes to $80.
What do they do to split the $20 fairly?
The publican suggests:
• The first four men (the poorest) pay $0
• Fifth goes from $1 to $0 (a 100% saving)
• Sixth goes from $3 to $2 (a 33% saving)
• Seventh goes from $7 to $5 (a 28% saving)
• Eighth goes from $12 to $9 (a 25% saving)
• Ninth goes from $18 to $15 (a 17% saving)
• Tenth (the richest) goes from $59 to $49 (a 16% saving – the smallest net gain)
But the men aren’t happy….
The sixth man points out that he only got $1 out of the $20, but the tenth man got $10.
The seventh man agrees, also asking why he only got $2 when the tenth man got $10.
The first four men are also indignant, saying “we didn’t get anything at all – the new system exploits the poor!”
So the nine men surround the tenth man and beat him up.
The next month, the tenth man doesn’t show up.
When it comes to paying the bill, the group of nine men find they don’t have enough money between them to even pay for half the bill.
And that is how our tax system works.
The few who pay the highest taxes do tend to benefit from tax reliefs and reductions.
Attack them for being rich, and the risk is that they may take their wealth elsewhere
LABORNOMICS!!!
90
Those indoctrinated by our current education system would do well to read and process that little piece of wisdom.
The rich are moving from the countries/states/cities which have imposed new taxes on the wealthy.
And why wouldn’t they?
They’re not stupid.
50
The Parable vs. The 2026 Reality
If one looks at the actual data behind who pays for the “collective bar tab” in Australia, the real-world numbers are remarkably close to the story:
The 10th Man in Australia:
The top 10% of Australian taxpayers currently pay roughly 46% of all personal income tax collected by the federal government.
The Bottom Four:
The lower-income brackets (including part-time workers, retirees, and low-wage earners) contribute a negligible percentage to the net income tax pool, often receiving more back in transfers, healthcare, and subsidies than they pay in.
The friction under “Dim Jim” and Albo comes because the government has structurally changed how the discount is being handed out.
In the parable, the price cut was distributed proportionally across the paying tiers.
But recent policy shifts—like the scaling back of the original Stage 3 tax cuts and the new indexation rules for Capital Gains Tax (CGT)—effectively do the opposite:
they trim the discount for the 10th man to fund a bigger round for the 5th, 6th, and 7th.
The Risk:
The 10th Man Has Passports and Mobile Capital
The punchline of the story is the most critical lesson for any Treasury architect:
The 10th man has choices.
In a globalised economy, highly mobile, high-net-worth individuals and corporate structures don’t have to sit around and get “beaten up” by an aggressive tax regime.
When tax policies cross a certain line of perceived unfairness, several things happen:
Capital Flight:
Wealthy individuals shift their investment capital out of local assets (like Australian equities or local developments) and move it offshore into lower-tax jurisdictions like Singapore, the US, or the UK.
The Brain Drain:
High-earning professionals—surgeons, tech innovators, senior engineers, and executives—can simply choose to relocate their talent overseas where their marginal tax rate doesn’t swallow more than half of their extra effort.
The Productivity Slump:
If you tell the 8th, 9th, and 10th men that working a Saturday, taking on more corporate risk, or investing in a new venture will yield them progressively less return due to a tilted tax system, they simply stop trying harder.
They “go fishing” on Fridays, and national productivity stalls.
The Structural Trap:
Australia is uniquely vulnerable here because we rely far more heavily on personal income tax to fund the government than most other OECD nations, while having a relatively low consumption tax (GST).
By constantly returning to the top 10% to balance the budget or fund new spending programs, the government treats the 10th man as a permanent, captive fixture at the table.
The beer analogy is a timeless reminder that the table only stays full as long as the person paying the majority of the bill feels it’s still worth turning up.
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Labor government in Victoria is a grubby affair. The IBAC report dealing with corruption during the negotiations with fire fighters union and Andrews government has been delayed due to legal action against IBAC by unnamed individuals.
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/corruption-watchdog-findings-into-the-andrews-government-dealings-with-the-united-firefighters-union-delayed-after-court-action/news-story/1b9af7231ba0c3164f30710f8ea35585
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Changing unions to CFMEU, Geoff S told me yesterday that he had seen a very large man wearing a construction jacket with “CFMEU Enforcer” in large letters.
I have tried to find a picture of a jacket so labelled and a defined role in the CFMEU but cannot find anything to confirm an official role. Copilot advises that the jackets are likely to exist as an “informal” role not officially sanctioned but tolerated due to the level of alleged corruption across CFMEU sites. There have been numerous enquiries into the CFMEU tactics but no photographic evidence of a “CFMEA Enforcer” jacket could be found.
If anyone can find a photo, I would appreciate a link.
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Rick,
Thank you for the mention.
Alas, I have to make an apology and a correction.
The word on the jacket was, IIRC, “Security” not “Enforcer”. The CFMEU was in letters above.
I could have had Enforcer on my mind, which is nowhere near as sharp as it used to be.
I would appreciate all readers correcting me if things do not seem right.
I try to apologize for being wrong.
Geoff S
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FWIW
“Time to End the Injustice of ‘Environmental Justice’ ”
“President Trump’s recently proposed budget continues to slash spending for the federal government’s environmental justice programs. Eliminating such wasteful spending would be good news for taxpayers — and even better news for the low-income and minority communities that are the alleged beneficiaries of the environmental justice agenda.
There is out of touch, there is laughably out of touch, and then there is environmental justice. Communities struggling with crime, drugs, failing schools, few job opportunities, and broken families are getting government-funded solar panels, bike paths, and electric vehicle charging stations — not to mention an invading army of bureaucrats and others foisting their green wish list on people who never asked for any of it.
The fact that environmental fads are less popular in poor and minority communities is not an injustice that needs to be rectified with multibillion-dollar federal programs. If anything, it is a perfectly rational response from those who face real problems in their daily lives and can’t be bothered with fashionable causes.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/05/22/time-to-end-the-injustice-of-environmental-justice/
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FWIW
Along the road to where we are (1)
“The Cultural — And Economic — Choice”
“A “forbidden” topic?
It had better not be, and we’d better contemplate and then act on it, and soon.
Prior to Hart-Cellar immigration into the United States was mostly-confined to those of European descent. This was over concerns that reasonably-compatible cultural stock was part and parcel of the United States and without it severe and, over time, critical and in fact fatal damage would occur to our society. There was reasonable basis for this too, given that blacks were freed after the Civil War and there were issues with regard to****imilation and culture there. [Snip 18C].”
More at
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=255440
21
Sorry ai, scrolling accidental touch on red.
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FWIW
Along the road to where we are (2)
“European Suicidal Empathy Continues Apace”
Read it all!
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2026/05/21/french-suicidal-empathy-continues-apace-n3815179
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FWIW – for “rocketeers”
Via a comment at Chiefio
“If you didn’t see Starship 14 fight, here’s a video. It’s awesome.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-12 “
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I love the aerial shot of Starship passing UNDER the camera on the way down through the clouds. It shows this burnt and blackened spaceship flashing down for landing, something straight out of a SF movie! Cameras on some of the satellites launched by Starship showed a video of the spaceship from the outside as they moved away.
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2058005949466501590/photo/1
Apart from everything else he’s great at, he is a master of media.
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ChatGPT can now access your bank account
Would you let ChatGPT look through your bank and credit card transactions?
That question is becoming more relevant after OpenAI last week introduced new personal finance tools that allow some users to connect financial accounts directly to the chatbot for budgeting, spending analysis, and financial planning help.
The rollout highlights a growing tension around AI financial assistants: Consumers may like the idea of more personalized money guidance, but many remain uneasy about sharing sensitive financial information with conversational AI systems.
https://www.investopedia.com/chatgpt-can-now-connect-to-your-financial-accounts-experts-warn-against-sharing-too-much-11982446
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Rice paddies condemned without a second thought.
‘In a new study, our team of environment and agriculture scientists found that greenhouse gas emissions from rice paddies have nearly doubled globally since the 1960s, averaging about 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per year in the 2010s. That’s roughly equal to the annual emissions of 239 million cars.’ (The Conversation)
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Of course, given that about 2/3 of the world depend on this grain as a main part of their energy source, it must be reduced. Ignore the fact that electricity for all is the immediate precursor to population decline ( Reduction) and therefore the desired end result, less people, without the starvation. I guess a couple of generations is just to long to wait for the “saviours” of the planet.
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I’m really starting to believe that the majority of the problems we face come from the bureaucrats, not just the leftists. Both absolutely adore power, control, and rule by regulation. In fact, I suspect that it is the professional rule makers that are the main problem here. Add the left’s love of autocratic control and … you end up with the world we now live in.
This is manifest, not just in governments but corporations too, whose efficiency seems inversely proportionate to the size of its HR and legal departments.
50
The 2026 hurricane season looks moderate.
‘Forecasters with NOAA’s National Weather Service are predicting a below-normal hurricane season for the Atlantic basin this year. NOAA’s outlook for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs June 1 to November 30, predicts a 35% chance of a near-normal season, a 10% chance of an above-normal season, and a 55% chance of a below-normal season.’ (wuwt)
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FWIW
“Spot On, New York Post, Billions Have Been Wasted Based on Fake Climate Science”
“A recent New York Post (NYP) article, titled “Billions have been wasted on UN’s climate change lies,” describes how billions, if not trillions, of dollars have been spent worldwide attempting to slow or stop the world from experiencing the extreme climate change as forecast by the flawed, but widely used RCP 8.5 computer model projections. The NYP is absolutely correct. The future climate conditions described by the RCP 8.5 high-end emissions scenario, and subsequently cited in hundreds of papers warning of likely disastrous outcomes, were never going to happen, and all the investment into climate policy has been a total waste.
RCP 8.5 has officially been retired from consideration by official climate researchers at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Opinion writer Jonathan Lesser writes that the IPCC “is responsible for the “climate catastrophe” and “the world is burning scenarios that environmentalists, academics and many politicians have promoted to force high-cost, coercive energy policies on Americans,” which “relied on academics whose careers depended on using RCP 8.5 and several other worst-case scenarios to predict everything from the demise of French wines and the end of pasta to aliens destroying the earth. (No, really.)”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/05/22/spot-on-new-york-post-billions-have-been-wasted-based-on-fake-climate-science/
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This is a good one-
“Pick a flag and wave it. Fake Wars & Higher Prices, all in the service of The Great Reset. That is its purpose, and that is what “multipolarity” really means-
Two major teams, with near identical ideologies and taking orders from the same unelected powers, fiercely battling it out over the tiniest sliver of uncommon ground. They pitch electoral battles over differences of iconography, phraseology or fractions of percentage points to distract from the fact they agree about everything that really matters, have no real power at all, and are at best replaceable widgets in a vast influence machine.
The point of these battles is to convince people that democracy exists, that they have a choice, and can affect change. This lie works, and has done for decades. “Mutlipolarity” is an expansion of that model – the control mechanism of fake binary left-right, red-blue, Coke-Pepsi partisan politics rolling out world-wide…”
So replacing the Empire with more smaller Empires won’t change anything, it is all faked and the biggest are democracy and war.
“We are living in the age of the unreal .. We regularly live through “terrorism” that is no such thing, we hold “elections” where the voting is irrelevant, and we just had a worldwide “pandemic” without a disease.
It is only natural that warfare should be folded into a propaganda control system that increasingly relies on simply making stuff up. Just as Western domestic “democracies” need “elections” to maintain the illusion of the system, so too does a “multipolar world” need “wars” to create the appearance of conflict. These wars are not real. Or perhaps “real” is not the best word to use – if you want we could say these wars are not honest, not true, not sincere.
But what does staged war mean?.. as we have said many times: Be it in Ukraine or Gaza or Iran, there likely is death and destruction taking place – but that does not necessarily mean war… Do a few air strikes or a thousand dead civilians mean the US and Iran are really enemies locked in an ideological struggle for survival? No. Of course not. We know these governments and agencies do not care about their own people, let alone each other’s. People were disposable when they were being nailed inside their houses, given illegal DNR orders or injected with toxic Pfizer goo, and they’re just as disposable when they’re being blown up.
It’s like a psychopathic, murderous sport. The players are real – maybe they’re playing to win or maybe paid to lose – but it doesn’t really matter, since the struggle is controlled by a league which sets the terms. Numbers, times, places, rules and limitations are all agreed on beforehand. And, just like sport, the fans cheering hate each other far more than the players playing do, everyone gets paid no matter who wins, and the whole thing is owned by a handful of billionaires who all go to the same parties.”
Cynical but accurate!
“The BRICS nations all have globalist ties – recall BRICs was a term coined in a Goldman Sachs report in 2001 – and they all signed the Kazan Declaration in 2024. Supporting, among other things, the IMF, the WHO, Agenda 2030 and “sustainable development goals”. …The Kyoto Protocols, the Paris Climate Agreements, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are all backed by every one of our multiple poles.
Everyone on any of the supposed sides believes in the same things and shills the same foundational globalist lies such as climate change and Covid. And, quirks of implementation or nomenclature aside, they all want the same things and push the same familiar shopping list of policies:
Programmable Digital currency
biometric Digital ID
ending online anonymity
Cashless society
Censorship
“Sustainable development goals””
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/05/21/fake-wars-higher-prices-what-a-multipolar-world-order-really-means/
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‘How a UK town with struggling shipyards could sink AUKUS.
‘The UK’s ability to deliver nuclear submarines for Australia faces serious questions as British shipyards struggle with post-Cold War decline.’ (Oz)
00
“As one of Australia’s first sex therapists, Bettina Arndt began her career discussing sex on television and training doctors and other professionals in sexual counselling at a time when such topics were largely taboo. Her current – and even more socially unacceptable – passion is exposing Australia’s unfair treatment of men through the relentless weaponisation of laws and policies that portray women solely as victims. Her decades of advocacy for fair treatment of men in the Family Court included serving on key government inquiries.”
An interesting article on how once the yoke of marriage was destroyed by the feminists, the productivity of men crashed as they had no need to raise a family. Then the decline of desirable women as they turned into “Gen Z women currently report the highest recorded levels of anxiety, persistent sadness, hopelessness and depression of any female generation at the same age” who hate men, simply meant men would rather play video games.
I reckon the collapse of testosterone levels from our modern diets and lifestyles probably plays just as big a part, I find young men have very little interest in chasing women compared to life in the 1960s.
Predicted from the 1980s.
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/no-wonder-men-are-opting-out
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Marriage today is a lousy bargain for men, full of risk. Women hold all the cards. She alone decides if they have children and can abort a baby she doesn’t want, without the father’s consent. Conversely, if the baby is delivered, she can divorce him just because she wants to be independent, take half of everything they own, prevent him from seeing the child AND demand that he pays ongoing child support.
This is a particularly bad bargain for financially well-off men marrying later in life, who bring substantial assets into the marriage, because even those things he owned BEFORE they we, have to be split with the wife should she decide to leave him. This is why we see so many women claim to be deeply offended if a man asks for a pre-nup.
It’s a minefield and I truly don’t envy young men looking for life partners today.
10
FWIW – legal and long
“BeCause the World is Round
How to assassinate the rule of law and dance on its grave”
“What we lack is knowledge and the law deals with lack of knowledge by the concept of the burden of proof.
-Lord Hoffmann, in Gregg v Scott [2005] UKHL 2
A controversy about legal causation is not, on the face of it, a matter likely to cause rioting in the streets. The case I am going to make in this article is that it should. By the end of it I intend to make you as mad as hell and unable to take it anymore. Especially if you are Dutch. You have been warned.
I am going to win you around first by talking about the small subject of the metaphysics of legal causation. I am then going to on to discuss recent developments in what I will call, with my tongue firmly in my cheek, climate change ‘jurisprudence’. But before that, I need to briefly explain what legal causation is and why it matters.”
Then gets to
“There is an important phenomonological point to be drawn from this but I will not tease it out here in the interests of space. You will I think intuit the point that doing justice means applying law to things that have happened rather than to things that may happen. And now, having established this – that legal causation is the identification of cause by courts performing a particular function and performed not as a metaphysical exercise in establishing precedence of causal factors but as a judicial exercise designed to ‘do justice’ in some sense – we can finally turn to the issue that ought to get you in the mood for a riot, which is climate change jurisprudence.
Rewind two years. Roughly around this time in 2024, you may recall, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Swiss were being naughty because they were not doing enough to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). The tortured reasoning, in the case of KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland, was as follows: the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) contains a right to private and family life (Article 8). This was originally designed to prohibit arbitrary interference in private correspondence, and to prevent states overriding the wishes of parents in respect of educational choices. But the Court decided that it also included a right to be protected from the effects of climate change, because climate change may result in heatwaves, which may shorten the lives of old people, which may impact on their family lives.”
Much more at
https://newsfromuncibal.substack.com/p/because-the-world-is-round?r=7yrqz&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer&triedRedirect=true
Via https://instapundit.com/798618/#disqus_thread
Concludes
“I wish that things were reasoned out more carefully than that in the judgment and that the barest fig leaf of legal niceties were placed in front of it, but the truth of the matter is that things were really not put a great deal less bluntly than I have put them here. Law, to repeat, in the ECtHR’s eyes means just getting people to do things. If people ought to do something, human rights law must make them do it. Rules don’t matter. What matters is outcomes and that’s that.”
Ends with example cases of where this has got to
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The Instapundit heading for that –
“THE BIZARRO WORLD OF ECHR CLIMATE CHANGE JURISPRUDENCE: BeCause the World is Round. How to assassinate the rule of law and dance on its grave.”
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