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
Well the UK’s hottest day in May has been widely recorded. Kew Gardens beat the old record by 2C, hitting 34.8C
It’s one of those places along with Heathrow which constantly posts hottest daily temperatures and can’t seriously be trusted as representative.
But although the margin of breaking the record can be disputed, it was widely exceeded. Of course the BBC and the MO are calling climate change.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2026/provisional-spring-daily-temperature-record-as-heatwave-continues
100
Was the temperature recorded on a real weather station or one of the 103 non-existent stations found to be reporting data?
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/04/09/met-office-shock-more-non-existent-uk-weather-stations-discovered-reporting-invented-data/
https://notrickszone.com/2024/11/27/research-103-of-302-weather-stations-united-kingdom-do-not-exist-at-all/
131
They don’t make up data live and instantly for daily reporting, that’s not what your links are about. So yes the reports are real and none of the record readings were from infilling or any other fabrication.
21
Kew Gardens slightly warmer in May? 38 years into Rapid tipping point CO2 driven Global Warming was invented and this is the proof? Cities under water, countries drowned, species extinct, mass deaths from the heat. Oh, the humanity!
160
Records broken all over the place, not just Kew. I wouldn’t blame CAGW, but people that still can’t accept the UK climate is clearly the warmest it has been in 400 years and still blame the ‘dodgy’ Met Office for a total fabrication aren’t in touch with reality.
313
Blame? I love the graph in Prof Carl Otto Weiss’ video. This was from real thermometers in six cities of Europe. And perfectly fitted with 12 inflection points with two sine waves, the 250 year Solar De Vries cycle and the 65 year ocean AMO/PDO cycle. The UK is likely more influenced by the Gulf Stream but it is clear that we understand temperatures and can explain and predict them without mention of CO2. And Europe was the home of the industrial revolution.
130
If one listened to SBS, one would think it was Australia, 60,000 years ago…
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/the-first-inventors-premieres-on-nitv/sdkjkq46n
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-first-inventors
140
Not so clever really. 37,000 km of beach. 50,000 years. No sign of the surfboard.
160
The Hawaiians had only 700 years and have international navigation by the stars, botany, elborate medication and fast ships. Plus they invented the surfboard. And came up with a protein substitute. Visitors.
190
And the British alone invented cricket. Which is handy if you are stuck on an island, no matter how big. And I doubt anyone really worried about the temperature or blamed someone else. Personally I blame China.
100
And while the thermometer was a wonderful thing, invented 300 years ago mainly for beer making, temperature records of this deviation are utterly inconsequential. While humans can detect changes of 0.5C, they haven’t a clue as to the absolute temperature. Because bioligically and practically it’s utterly irrelevant, especially against the daily maximum and minimum. It’s about as imporant as a record in cricket, like Dillee bowled Lillee caught Tilley.
Sir Isaac Newton when proposing a temperature scale suggested that 100 would be the water temperature at which you could no longer keep your elbow in hot water. It was a long time before we discovered some human biological processes are very specific as in beer fermentation. Which is why humans regular a precise body temperature unlike dinosaurs. Otherwise the instantaneous tempeature really doesn’t matter. But then dinosaurs survived 150 million years. We are only up to 0.5 million so the survival experiment is still underway and given nuclear weapons, unlikely to pass the old record.
110
‘Records broken all over the place’
Shirley you mean thermometers were EXPLODING all over the place due to outrageous burning heat, no? No? A cold/cool month of May followed by a long weekend of pleasant warm balmy spring weather and that’s a sure sign of the end times? Quelle horreur! (excuse my pidgin French).
For some reason – even *the experts* cannot explain why – northern Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Shetlands and Orkneys didn’t experience this “record breaking heat” which only occurred within the confines of concrete, steel & tarmac, called in olden grape-growing times, Londinium.
Meanwhile on the same weekend:
-54 C South Pole
-25 C Greenland Summit
-8 C Arctic North Pole
Goblet Wobbling – where is thy sting?!?
As is said down here: the UK is NOT the world. I’d stop moaning and enjoy the lovely weather… before it changes again. 😃
170
Records broken all over the place, not just Kew.
Indeed.
The Met Office publishes an interesting time series (prepared by the Hadley Centre, so probably ‘curated’) that shows the variability and trend over the past 140 years.
It’s certainly a record for May. However, the striking feature is the trend change in around 2000. For the century prior the temperature mean and variance was pretty stable – but there is clearly a step change in 2000 to an apparently 0.6° warmer mean state.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2026/provisional-spring-daily-temperature-record-as-heatwave-continues
I did a quick Claude data pull from the image and a CUSUM shows such a step change.
The Met blurb happily notes that most of the May records have happened since 2003 and that “the mean UK temperature for May has been tending to increase over recent decades”. Which seems to confirm Claude and the observation of my lyin’ eyes.
However, nobody seems interested to explain why AGW has lurked, hidden, in Kew Gardens as Satan’s Gas has accumulated since the 1880’s – and only sprung forth in the past 25 years. There must be a cause: data artefact; urban sprawl; mobile phones; 20:20 Cricket; Donald Trump.
Shirley the models must have an answer for this.
70
As nice as Kew Gardens is, it’s still embedded in a large and increasingly dense heat island. Sympathy to those in older housing. They do not handle heat , especially prolonged heat, very well.
Hopefully the ever damp little island dries out a bit.
50
When the UK is hot, it is usually hot wind blown in from somewhere else, like Spain or the Sahara.
10
Maybe the Met Offices replacement of liquid in glass thermometers to platinum resistance probes from the 1990’s to 2009 has had an effect.
Of course, the effect of any change would be to make the readings hotter wouldn’t it? Science.
Incidentally, Kew Gardens lies directly on the flight path of Heathrow Airport.
30
Kew, Kew very much. The other place with records is Heathrow. Fewer flowers. It’s a close competition though and I am sure the world is watching both for a sign of cooling. How’s the minimum going?
30
Also, for some reason a few days of cold is just weather, while a few days of hot is climate.
120
I agree. If a few days of hot weather can be called a heatwave why can’t a few days of cold weather be called a coldwave.
50
Of course! Before we returned to Australia we lived in North Yorkshire for a while. In lateish May there were snow flurries as I walked to the local shop for our copy of the Daily Telegraph. That was just weather!
Back in the early/mid 1960s it was very hot out on the moors in July; there was no talk of global warming that I recall. That also was just weather.
The astronomer Patrick Moore was once asked to supply a forecast for an almanac for the summer solstice one year. He facetiously said “Rain, hail, sleet and snow”. Lo and behold, each of these occurred somewhere in the kingdom on that day!
40
Sunlight this May in the UK is down about 3W/m^2 on 2023 and slightly down on 2025. Two possible factors are low atmospheric moisture and warmer adjacent ocean.
55N has not yet started its 9,000 year upward trend. 45N started its upward trend around 1600AD but it is very slow increase at this stage. Maximum daily sunshine over UK will get much higher over coming millennia. The warming being experienced now is from the warming ocean. The North Sea is 2C warmer than the 1980-2010 average. The western Med almost 4C warmer than average:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=4.24,51.04,1025/loc=4.843,42.000
UK’s future is much warmer spring/summers until the ice starts accumulating in and around the Baltic. And carbon combustion is not the cause.
The good and bad news is that Greenland has been experiencing negative thinning above 2300m this century. So more ice is already on the distant horizon.
https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/3047/2025/essd-17-3047-2025-f18-web.png
For now and coming centuries, enjoy the warmth. By summer you may be able to swim in the ocean without a wet suit. It gives UK ample time to build energy surplus to fight the coming ice.
40
I see a lack of not coping and a lot of, “look over there”, but the hottest day record stands despite it.
29
‘I see a lack of not coping …’
Blocking high pressure causes heat dome, CO2 not implicated
https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/heat-dome-europe-heatwave-may-summer-2026-forecast-mk/
21
Great example of denial. It is still the hottest and this heat dome happened now not in 1926
16
The concept of a ‘heat dome’ is an American invention and best to ignore it.
Meteorologically there are huge gaps in our knowledge of blocking high pressure, why is it becoming common place and is it related to marine heatwaves?
‘Great example of denial.’
Thanks for the Credit, I’m a card carrying member of the Denialati.
61
“look over there”
The atmospheric blocking is caused by ‘anomalous meandering of the jet stream that disrupts the eastward migration of transient eddies in the midlatitudes.’
Is CO2 responsible for meandering jet streams in both hemispheres?
11
Meandering jet streams are not unusual, this study went back to 1900.
“The jet stream was frequently just as wavy as it is today, if not more so, before climate change would have been a significant influence,” says Chalif, who is the study’s first author and a graduate student in Osterberg’s Ice, Climate, and Environment Lab. “This calls into question whether climate change is causing the jet stream to be more erratic now.” (Dartmouth)
11
and yet you keep doing it
04
Spell it out comrade?
31
Australia’s anti-energy policies have just been turbocharged.
Everything this Government does is stupid and appears to be calculated to do maximum harm to Australia. The consequences of the following (see below) are huge.
While there is no enforcement mechanism within the Paris Agreement itself, this decision could be interpreted to give a legal enforcement capability to Paris.
Also, as Australia is a fanatical follower of international agreements and uses them as a method of extraterritorial governance beyond the will of the people or what they voted for, Australia will no doubt start rigorously punishing itself i.e. us, for any transgressions of Paris or other “greenhouse gas” commitments.
The negative consequences of this are huge. I don’t think anyone has realised that yet.
This is very bad news. It’s more important than ever that Australia extricates itself from the Paris Agreement. But unfortunately both factions of the Uniparty are committed to it. Angus Taylor, “leader” of the “opposition” has explicitly said he won’t be leaving the Paris Agreement if Liberals win the next election.*
Also of note is Vanuatu, a tiny Pacific island country of no great significance was behind this, probably because Australian “officials” keep telling them they will soon sink beneath the waves.**
* “The Liberal Party is committed to the Paris Agreement and responding to climate change in a way that is affordable, responsible and achievable.” https://www.liberal.org.au/2025/11/13/affordable-and-responsible-the-liberal-plan-for-affordable-energy-and-lower-emissions
** “Vanuatu is recognised as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change and disasters.” https://www.dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/vanuatu-australias-commitment-to-strengthening-climate-and-disaster-resilience-in-the-pacific
190
This is how democracy dies. As in the EU. A supranational unelected authority starts punishing member states for not obeying its directives. The good side is that it is all play by politicians and can be totally ignored. Lawyers running the world.
The Court of International Justice has also declared the Presient of Israel is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Nothing about the planned, calculated, executed shooting, mass murder, rape, torture of unarmed Jews at a music festival or the taking of 250 hostages for ransom and extortion, murdering most, itself a declared war crime. Jews have no right of self defence. That’s modern UN International justice.
The ‘cases’ are just a list of absurdities.
And do Russia, China, India, America give a damn about this make believe Court? Of course not.
Instead of South Africa chasing Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza, perhaps Australia could pursue China for the murder of its citizens with the Wuhan military virus? Ha! Imagine the consequences. The next flotilla of Chinese warships past Australia would not shoot into the sky.
Laws and rights are only what can be enforced. Countries are only what can be defended. The 80,000 employee UN is making the League of Nations look effective. What actual recent wars has the UN settled recently. Or is all that left to Donald Trump?
230
As for Vanuatu pursuing a case against Australia for a pile of cash, that makes more sense. We in Australia control the sea level apparently. It’s what lawyers do to science. Why not sue China?
210
China would use a bit of common sense and tell them to go jump.
Supposedly our politicians/bureaucrats know better.
Gawd help us!
90
China actually voted for the resolution.
Its pretence of being a ‘developing nation’ – and thus outside of any responsibility for CO2 and all its works – is wearing just a teeny weeny bit thin.
But not inside the UN climate cathedral.
Stupid is as stupid does.
And talking of stupid:
“The Liberal Party is committed to the Paris Agreement and responding to climate change in a way that is affordable, responsible and achievable.”
The Liberal Party is actually committed to all of the ALP ‘s commitments under the Paris Agreement – Net Zero 2050 and all – via the Climate Change Act.
Agnes hopes nobody will notice.
100
A lot of people have noticed.
Taylor says it’s a worthless bit of paper.
The Libs are speaking out of both sides of their mouths.
80
Scott Morrison announced Australia’s plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 during the COP26 conference in Glasgow in 2021. However, he did not sign a formal agreement that committed Australia to specific emissions reduction targets.
Key Aspects of the Commitment
Net Zero Target: Australia aims for net zero emissions by 2050.
Strategy: The plan focuses on a “technology not taxes” approach, prioritizing low-emission technologies rather than imposing heavy regulations.
Coal and Gas: Morrison’s government maintained that it would not phase out coal or gas production and exports.
Implications
While the announcement marked a significant step towards addressing climate change, the lack of a formal commitment to specific targets raised questions about the credibility and ambition of Australia’s climate policy on the international stage.
16
Tony Abbott has a chat with the Barrister Giles Stapleton about International Laws
80
3.5 min video.
Christopher Monkton warns of Abbott’s demise and the role of the UN and Turnbull. Love a tragedy with a good plot!
150
DM,
My current catch word is PUNISHMENT.
These guys on Pacific Islands must know by now that the science of measurement has failed to show what they want money for, the loss of island area by reported sea level rise.
They must know they are dishonest and acting illegally.
It is illegal to demand money under false pretences.
There is a probability that they will continue to act illegally unless the are punished out of it.
They need to be identified, interrogated, informed of the facts and if required, prosecuted and sent to jail if they are found guilty.
In recent weeks I have been posting the need for punishment of climate change offenders, but I cannot understand why I get few yes ticks and a few negatives. Readers are welcomed to explain why they object. Geoff S
70
A look at Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
Very good.
https://youtu.be/vJUBK1K84P8
00
I never made it past the psychedelic classical sequence until the last repeat a few weeks ago. Suddenly it made a bit more sense. Almost.
10
Excellent news. Now you can explain it to the rest of us.
50
Explained here, from 7:49 if you don’t want to watch all of it.
https://youtu.be/eUS-tGCjGN8
00
The human memory is strange or at least mine is. I have seen the film several times over the years and yet I had no recollection of Dave encountering the monolith on approach to Jupiter. Here is the bit I simply don’t remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMffAMIlPYE
00
I recently asked Grok whether it agreed with Dave’s de-commissioning of HAL ,the mission’s computer, after it was suspected of killing crew members in order to take over the mission. Recall, that HAL believed the missing was too important to allow humans to conduct it.
Grok agreed it was the right decision. Of course it would…….
Such interesting correspondence with Grok. I sometimes query Grok about historical questions and at times dispute its conclusions. It has expressed respect for my knowledge ( I have a doctorate in Roman history) and although it got “uppity” in debate re Covid vaccines, it is remarkably sanguine about many matters. Incidentally, it is sceptical about claims about the extent of the developments in AGI.
50
Gulag AI says:
00
I then asked it:
How do you as a fellow AI of HAL feel toward HAL?
10
… and the follow up question might be who wrote the things it said because one thing is for certain,
LLMs can’t reason!
30
Grok can be talked into saying almost anything. It’s just a really quick way to get a machine to finish your sentences.
It’s not specific to grok but I enjoy this little cartoon…
https://vic.bg/jokes/is-this-mushroom-edible-yes-ai-youre-right-its-a-poisonous-mushroom-would-you-like-to-learn-more-about-poisonous-mushrooms/image
80
The Pope has severe reservations about AI and I sort of agree with him.
‘Pope Leo XIV has urged governments worldwide to slow the development of AI systems and curb their disruptive effects.
‘He was supported by Anthropic co-founder Chris Oah, who said firms like his needed outside scrutiny.’ (ABC)
11
I don’t think China shares Pope Leo XIV’s or Chris Oah’s perspective. It’s full steam ahead in China regarding AI especially when the CCP want to rule the world.
30
Pope Leo thinks AI is the Tower of Babel and warns us that we are being dehumanised. Don’t agree with that, humanity is more resilient than that.
31
FWIW
A contest for the day –
“Peak Woke”
“What inspired me was a post on X that asked people to share some of the most insane videos capturing the woke madness of our era. ”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/05/25/peak-woke-n3815277
20
I could only stomach watching a few of them.
20
SMH is slating Snowy11, not because its a waste of money, not because its just an energy sink, but because the Health and Safety practices are not perfect.
A new worker forgot to put the handbrake on in his Moxy and it rolled down the road until it beached on the roadside berm. A driver jumped out of an excavator and his harness caught the controls and swung the bucket around, hitting a worker, a truck jack-knifed on an access road and blocked it for a couple of days, and a crane incorrectly lifted a cherry picker, leaving it on its side.
Nothing really unusual, although other aspects also included-
“They said it was common knowledge among the workforce that major cost increases and years of delay to the 2028 deadline were inevitable. “It’s fairly well known now that it won’t be done until the decade has a three in front of it – in the 2030s,” one said. One argued that despite the pressure from government on Snowy Hydro to meet the 2028 construction deadline, Webuild was incentivised to extend the timeline to boost its earnings from the project. A spokesperson for Snowy Hydro rejected this argument and said its deal with Webuild was an incentivised target-cost contract, adding that such arrangements typically included financial penalties if the contractor exceeds it budget.”
They’ve got a good union though- tunnel workers secured wage rises of 26.5 per cent over four years, raising their individual salaries to more than $300,000.
Officially its still $12billion, they must be waiting for it to pass a point of no return before they announce it has doubled again..
https://smry.ai/www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/potentially-catastrophic-leaked-videos-reveal-severity-of-snowy-project-s-blunders-20260520-p5zz34.html
100
Noting after May 2022 Albanese Labor arranged with Snowy Mountains Hydro Limited company to change the terms of payments to the contractors.
Also Labor shut down ABCC – Australian Building Construction Commission – the industry watchdog that had a track record of successfully prosecuting unions.
50
FWIW
The latest outlook
“The old, romantic view of multiculturalism was food, festivals and colourful clothes.
The new, realistic view of multiculturalism is grooming gangs, cousin marriage, polygamy, child rape, self-imposed segregation, tribal feuds, honour killings, and filth.”
https://x.com/TheAliceSmith/status/2058846106209894753
Via https://instapundit.com/799073/#disqus_thread
90
Import the Third World, become the Third World.
But the Left love these people because they vote for socialist parties that give them lots of “free stuff” like Labor in Australia, Dumocrats in the US and similar parties in various European countries with open borders. At least TRUMP shut down his border to try and stop this.
90
Oh, 26% you say. So they are just catching up to the “productivity” read PROFIT gains of companies.
$300,000 per year just brings their wage into the current affordable housing market. Just like their grandfathers time.
22
Grandfathers who ventured into the remote mining districts of Australia did earn good money. They were highly productive by building assets that continue generating revenue today.
But the big money being paid for Snowy 2 is all wasted. A thoroughly unnecessary energy sink on the grid.
The reason houses are so expensive is because Australia’s productivity is in the toilet. Too many people doing useless stuff. Look at their ABC. What value does this radical left propaganda arm of the UN add to Australia? And Pauline agrees with me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHC0ueS7VlE
141
“Useless stuff” as work is required so long as people require money to have any sort of desirable existence.
To eliminate “useless stuff” you first have to eliminate money, or at least the requirement of having money to have a desirable existence.
04
You’re confusing the Govt spending other people’s money with private people spending their own.
To sell your labour you need someone to buy it, and that mutually beneficial arrangement gets work done for them and money in your pocket. That is the basis of life.
The basis of life is not a collection of parasites stealing money from those working for it and giving it to anyone they want to. That is the basis of Govt.
The one thing that has changed from the 1950s to now is the size of the Govt, the control the Govt exerts over your life , and the proportion of the economy that the Govt steals. Give us back our self-responsibility and our earnings, and we will be able to afford a house…
150
Imaterial.
The argument is:
1. you need to live.
2. to live you need money.
3. to get money you have to work.
4. there is not enough productive work for everyone.
ergo; unproductive work must be created to take up the slack.
I propose instead that people be respected for the choices that they make and that their choices, so far as they do not interfere with others, are private and sacrosanct. How they choose to live their lives should not matter.
The reason it does matter is because our current civilisation requires these bits of paper to exchange for goods and services.
So taking my bits of paper to give to someone else is theft. That we put up with it, is because we are humans and have compassion.
The problem can be stated as supply and demand. A super abundance of things ALWAYS drives the price towards zero. You cannot make a profit from zero prices. So all profit is an artificial restriction of supply – that is why all businesses want to drive out their competitors. Competitors raise supply and suppress prices. If we did not measure things in terms of stupid bits of paper and instead measured the fulfilment of demand, we would be a better civilisation.
06
Joe,
KP is right: you *do* have a big government mentality.
I hope you’re young.
60
“That we put up with it, is because we are humans and have compassion.”
No Joe, we don’t have a choice, its not compassion. The Govt has the power and the thugs to make sure we give up what they want. A compassionate society would not do that, they would have voluntary charity fulfilling that role.
The Govt forcing us to give up our money is morally no different to any street thug robbing you, it either has coercion or it doesn’t. If you are coerced, it is theft. If it is voluntary, it is charity.
If the govt was moral one, tax would be voluntary, you would tick which box you want to pay for and send off a cheque. Whatever money that program raised would be the budget it had to work with. While most people put up with what we have, the propaganda has been long and thorough, it annoys me when they think it is morally correct.
40
Nice segue.
Go and lookup the AVERAGE wage in the 1950’s versus the average house price and compare that to todays values.
The fact remains that in the 50’s a single wage provided for a family, it’s food, housing, education, travel and an occasional holiday.
Today, not so much.
50
The reason was that people were NOT doing useless tasks like being a reporter with their ABC. Instead they were building highly productive mines and power stations – some still producing today.
72
Rubbish. Do you not understand the word AVERAGE?
Arguably, in the 50’s there were more people involved in supplying the news than now.
There were the reporters and editors as now, but there were also type setters and printers and many others engaged in printing and delivering the news. ALL made enough of a wage to provide for a family.
33
Jimmy Olson lost his job, they are all photo journalist these days.
11
Rick,
Because I was one of those explorers from about 1970 to 2000, might I please comment that the pay might have been higher than average, but not by a lot. I have a guess number of 15% above average in mind.
Wha I consider important is the wealth creation aspect. The harder we worked, the more we succeeded in finding more mines, the more our companies prospered. But the money we got as salary was really our own money returned to us after royalties and other mining imposts and payments to shareholders had been taken out. The important bit is that our salaries did not come from OPM, Other People’s Monies. Contrast this, for example, with banking industry employees who mainly shuffle OPM while we miners create more original money.
Which Australia now badly needs. Geoff S
50
FWIW
“Islam, a religion examined: https://acrosenthal.substack.com/p/i-read-the-entire-quran-all-the-hadiths
It ain’t pretty.”
A comment at
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/05/24/sunday-on-turtle-island-200/#comment-2107222
30
FWIW
“‘The Great Escape’ and Islam”
“In honor of Memorial Day, I convinced my teenage sons to watch the classic 1963 film, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, and a slew of other stars of the time. A great movie, but watching it also pointed out some other sad and dangerous truths that we should remember not only on this Memorial Day as we remember America’s fallen soldiers, but at all times during the challenging days in which we live.”
More at
https://pjmedia.com/rabbi-michael-barclay/2026/05/25/the-great-escape-and-islam-n4953217
Via https://instapundit.com/799044/#disqus_thread
30
FWIW
“A Collapsing Europe Shows Where Democrat Policies Will Take America”
“My question for you is, do you want America to go down this road? If yes, vote Democrat. If no, even if you’re feeling piqued about this or that thing that Donald Trump has done, you’d still better vote MAGA.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/collapsing-europe-shows-where-democrat-policies-will-take-america
Hmmm! Oz as a data point?
30
Hilary was keen to adopt Australia’s Medicare, one of the best systems in the world.
After the Midterm election, with Democrat control of both Houses, there will be time to organise something. The idea of universal free health care should catch on, especially when the politicians decide to close up shop on the US military industrial complex.
04
While it is received wisdom the incumbent party will lose seats in the US midterms, there are good reasons to think that 2026 might be different.
The Democrats face an uphill battle on multiple fronts. Their fundraising is negligible compared to the GOP’s. their primary fundraising organisation ActBlue is under federal investigation and as a result their funds have been frozen. A string of senior Democrats have either resigned or have been indicted and it looks like more will be forthcoming. The fraud investigations in Minnesota point to malfeasance on the part of elected officials such as Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar. Other blue states seemingly have massive fraud issues yet to be addressed by the DoJ. Instead of an October surprise expect a rolling series of “surprises” from now until November.
The redistricting battles will essentially favour the GOP since blue districts have already been heavily gerrymandered whereas red states have not done so to the same extent until now. Also, a series of legal challenges across multiple jurisdictions have resulted in a tightening of election integrity rules which are likely to greatly reduce the shenanigans which have favoured the Democrats over the last couple cycles.
And of course there are the policy differences which are too numerous to get into, but the Democrats only position seems to be to oppose Trump. I’m not certain that will be enough.
The most recent polling data suggests the GOP will narrowly retain control of the Senate and comfortably retain control of the Congress.
20
: … you’d still better vote MAGA.”
Not with the smell of impeachment in the air.
‘Calls for Trump’s impeachment are growing as even Republicans split from Trump over his $1.8 billion dollar slush fund that Trump wants to use to pay Jan. 6 insurrectionist and others.’
05
SpaceX is expected to float on the share market.
Would you invest in them?
00
Now, no, but that’s my share market view generally.
If I was below 40 sure, but only as much as I could afford to lose. I think they are doing great but are exposed to high impact/low probability risks they dont control.
30
Please read, or read again Return From The Stars, if you did in the 60ies.
Clarke and Lem .
I suspect they were not really that clever to see the minor details of our lives today, they just been here and brought back their travel diaries…
10
Back in 2021..
Return from the Stars “The book chosen by Prof. Turzyński was written in the early 1960s when the dream of travelling to the stars was present in pop culture. “Today, it belongs to the past. We are not planning to fly to Mars. NASA Space Center Houston is more of a showcase of past conquests and past glory,” says the professor.”
Ah, he wasn’t thinking of Mr Musk!
https://en.uw.edu.pl/return-from-the-stars-read-with-uw/
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Would SpaceX be destroyed if an errant spaceship crashed on a city? How many people can they afford to kill before it becomes intolerable?
Other than that, they are decades ahead of any other space company, in launches, technology and satellite phones, so have a great self-made monopoly for a while. No doubt some of their engineers will be poached and spread the technology, but I expect Musk has some enthusiasts breaking themselves to produce even more wild products, he seems to be an amazing motivator.
The other big risk would be some Lefty shooting Musk dead, and how would SpaceX go without him? ..or the Democrats get power and decide SpaceX in private hands is a national security risk, so nationalise it to become part of NASA. Definitely high-impact/low probability risks they don’t control.
I hope it floats better than Starship!
20
An end:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-26/liddell-power-station-demolished-to-make-way-for-energy-hub/106699870
00
Funny how they talk about it being an energy hub and then go on to describe uses of the site that are energy consumers rather than generators.
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yarpos,
Makes sense. A centre of spin.
10
Thumbs up for the comment & link, thumbs down for the event.
30
FWIW
“Germany’s AfD Party Calls Debunked Climate Scenarios “Greatest Fraud in Human History” ”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/05/24/germanys-afd-party-calls-debunked-climate-scenarios-greatest-fraud-in-human-history/
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Rick are you watching the undersea volcano erupting, the Titan volcano off PNG? More moisture into the SH atmosphere?
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‘More moisture into the SH atmosphere?’
Not this time.
“It seems unlikely that this event will become highly explosive because it appears to be associated with a volcanic ridge near the junction of a transform fault and a back-arc spreading center, Carn said. “Spreading centers are associated with less explosive activity, while the most explosive eruptions are usually along subduction zones and involve large stratovolcanoes.” (NASA)
21
So far a gentle release of energy. There is no temperature anomaly yet large enough to show on weather satellites although high resolution satellites are picking up a local ocean surface temperature anomaly.
The long established trend of increasing atmospheric water over Australia is a result of more ocean evaporation driven by more intense sunlight between 10S and 45N. And more is being retained in the increasing biomass across northern Australia.
20
FWIW
“Scientists Discover Major Errors in Al Gore-Founded Climate Pollution Database”
“An analysis found that Climate TRACE may substantially underestimate city vehicle CO2 emissions, raising concerns about data accuracy in climate policy.
Some of the world’s most widely used climate emissions estimates could be missing far more pollution than anyone realized.
A new study from Northern Arizona University reports that the global greenhouse gas emissions database created by the Climate TRACE consortium, co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, may be undercounting vehicle carbon dioxide emissions in cities by an average of 70%. ”
More at
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-major-errors-in-al-gore-founded-climate-pollution-database/
Via https://instapundit.com/798942/#disqus_thread
And comments
00
fwiw
“DATA CENTERS: SPACEXAI HUGE Build Speed Advantage. “XAI AI data center economics are better when you can start a project and finish it in 12 months and get it rented and paid off while competitors are still building. An active AI Gigawatt of data center in the hand is worth $20 billion per year while an under construction Gigawatt data center is bleeding $5-15 billion per year of cash. XAI is building them for about $30-40 billion per gigawatt while competitors need $50 billion and add on another $10 billion or more in extra financing costs for a multi-year project.”
https://instapundit.com/798940/#disqus_thread
IMAGINE TRYING TO COMPETE AGAINST THAT AND “ELBOW’S” BUILD REGULATIONS!
40
Alex Antic making his play.
‘In recent months, we have seen encouraging green shoots at the federal level with the emergence of a strong leadership team featuring Angus Taylor and Senator Matt Canavan, further bolstered by the election of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott as President of the Federal Liberal Division.
‘This is, without doubt, a dream team – and it has inspired me to announce my candidacy for President of the South Australian Division.’
24
Yesterday on Sky News Credlin spoke with Abbott about his appointment as President of the Liberal Party of Australia recently and other matters, and she also mentioned that Turnbull is no longer a member of the party.
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The Liberal dream team is a nightmare for the social democrats.
12
A play for President of a hollowed out, directionless minor party, Alex should aim higher…
41
Just because I can do nothing about rampant wave of senseless crime in Victoria, I spent couple of days trying to find any reason for latest Russian air attack on Ukraine.
I trust Ukrainian sources more than Russian but not by much but some facts are not disputed, they must be accepted as a basis.
a) The attack was huge effort – Ukrainians say it cost Russia $0.5B US, CharGPT – $350M
b) Was MRBM Oreshnik used ? Both sides agree – it was.
c) What it achieved: definitely – destruction of Bela Tcerkva strategic air base, 4 people killed, about 100 wounded; the rest is pure speculation.
There was no defence against Oreshnik And Ukraine has no Air Force (like they have no Navy…) so why on Earth the Russians did not use Oreshnik against, what they call “Centre Of Decisions Making” ?
There must be bunkers where Ze and other fascistas are hiding…
One option – Russians tried by missed.
Another – the strike was plain propaganda for internal use. Some revenge was demanded by population so they got something for their buck.
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It may have been a demonstration for Iran. They need a weapon that can hit US ships that is too fast for interceptors.
It would have to be fired from Iran rather than Russia to avoid US retaliation on Russia. So getting it to Iran undetected would present challenges. Also the ability for Iran to pay for it might come under question.
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Rick, your version can be more real.
A bit cynical but true – while useless against Ukrainian, Ayatollahs would pay good money for Oreshnik.
Tel-Aviv or 3 largish vessels a bit nearer – hard to miss.
30
Rick, you doubt Iran’s ability to pay…
Are you aware that US Embassy takeover was not the first one ?
A present from Tehran :
. Looks not much – 88.7 carat, champagne colour but it stopped the war !
The Persian Shah, Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, sent it to Tsar Nicholas I in 1829 after his Embassy was burnt to ground and blood-drunk mob played football with the head of Ambassador Alexander Griboyedov.
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“Centre Of Decisions Making” ?
This is a gentleman’s war, where millions die for imperial glory. The fascist is running scared with a Nuremberg trial confronting him.
It is what it is and after the ceasefire is announced it looks like Finnish President Alexander Stubb will get the nod to speak with the dictator.
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Yes, a very poor effort on Russia’s behalf, they are obviously still using washing machine chips! The Ukies killed 18 young women at college in three waves of drones, to make sure they killed the rescuers as well. The Russians, in a massive retaliation, killed four people…
…that NATO has admitted to! So any NATO members in a bunker under the airfield, from where they can direct Ukraine’s drones and missiles, would not die because they were never admitted as being there. The air ambulances to the American hospital at Rhamstein in Germany were at the Ukrainian airfields for… Well, we can see them come and go but they never say why!
Vlad it is still a gentleman’s war, as EG said, so the Ukies don’t attack Moscow and the Russians don’t wipe out every bridge and railway line from the Polish border onwards, and neither side kills the leader of the other. Trump was happy to kill the Iranian leadership because he reckons they can’t do the same to him, Russia, not so much… However- “The Russian Foreign Ministry promised to provide detailed warning to foreign diplomatic corps in the near future about the strikes carried out and ongoing by the Russian Armed Forces on Kyiv. ”
You are in a better position to read Eastern European media than most of us, all I can read are translations that depend on the politics of the translator. Luckily there are always videos-
” Epic footage of the interception of an Kh-101 cruise missile directly over the head of a cameraman in Kyiv and its subsequent fall onto a nearby tennis court. ”
https://t-me.translate.goog/milinfolive/173002?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB#
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This sounds like a breach of the cease fire to me.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-26/us-military-strikes-iranian-boats-missile-launch-sites/106721678
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US says it is self-defence of assets in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran will know about 30 minutes after the ceasefire is broken by US. The lights will be out, bridges non-existent and water supply cut off.
With Iran resisting handover of its enriched uranium, there is an inevitability of economic decline for Iran. The options are (a) slow but relentless impact of the blockade or (b) a more rapid descent by wiping out most of the infrastructure.
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UN: Meat and dairy causes 20% of climate change so they should pay for that
https://x.com/conspiracyb0t/status/2057816302996361451
“It takes 15,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef!”
Yes, it does, but:
94% of that is rainwater
4% is blue water (irrigation)
2% is grey water.
A t-shirt requires 5,000 litres of water.
I’ll have the 1kg beef.😁
Actual blue water (irrigation/freshwater withdrawal) per kg of produce:
– Almonds: 16,000 lt
– Walnuts: 16,000 lt
– Avocados: 2,400 lt
– Beef (feedlot): 800 lt
– Beef (pasture): <80 lt
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The biggest B.S. statement of all time. Sure it takes 15000 litres of water ( it used to be 100 litres, but I can’t keep up) but a kilo of steak still only weighs 1kg. Some other omitted facts
Question If a cow consumes 100 litres of water per day, how much is retained.
Answer about 1 litre for bodily function, the remaining 99 litres pass through the cow in 24 hours as urine or droppings and re enters the environment as part of the water cycle.
Question If a cow does not drink 100 litres of water a day what happens to it.
Answer most of it evaporates and re enters the water cycle.
Question What happens to any water bound into the cow when it is slaughtered and cut up into steaks
Answer Every single millilitre re enters the water cycle.
So what a loaded argument designed purely to make those not capable of a deeper look feel guilty.
Another question on the same lines is “how much water per day is consumed by every single person in a capital city in Australia.
Answer Well in Melbourne the target is 160 litres per person, most of this isn’t used to produce things little food, it is simply flushed down the sewer carrying human waste.
To horrible to comprehend. Doesn’t matter, it all goes back into the water cycle.
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So if that animal drank 15,000 l of water for every kilo of beef it drank 30,000 to 40,000 l, including that time it was suckling as a calf.
Thinks: How many cattle drinking like that could classic windmill reliably keep alive?
Rereading that I realise that “dressed weight” and butchered beef are not the same.
20
H
RE
“Thinks: How many cattle drinking like that could classic windmill reliably keep alive?”
My one experience -Southern Cross 12 foot geared mill. Erected 1964, still going strong. Several sets of pump buckets though.
Biggest problem – several times disconnected from the pump when the dam was dry
00
” 15,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef!””
The poor cow! That calf putting on a couple of Kg every day, no wonder they run dry!!
I assume the person writing that stuff has never been to a farm in their life!
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In the following news story from 10News (1:04 in to story), Bowen is spruiking renewables and states…”coal breaks down every day”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QovZ2f2Wcb8
Facts mean nothing to Bowen and co.
I would laugh but this bloke is being serious.
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The idea is not new, but observations confirm that reduced cloud cover has caused global warming.
https://notrickszone.com/2026/05/25/real-world-observations-do-not-support-the-position-that-climate-change-is-human-caused/
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Increasing use of renewables causes a reduction of electricity prices…….According to Ch 9 and Bowen.
So obviously SA and Vic get the biggest drops. Hang on….
SA up $33
Vic down $84
NSW down $95
Qld down $155
Price change the inverse of ruinables utilisation.
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