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
Apart from the engineered dumbing-down of the education system, another reason for the dumbing-down of the masses might be related to the trend among some toward veganism and low salt or “natural” salt diets causing iodine deficiency (because most regulsr salt is artificially iodised). Pre-natal iodine deficiency is related to about 15 lower IQ points for a child apart from cretinism, and goiters in a normal person who is iodine deficient.
I am quite surprised that iodine deficiency is actually still an issue in the civilised countries. Iodine deficiency is a choice in such places because you have to deliberately avoid iodised salt. Another consequence of the dumbing-down I guess. I remember learning about iodised salt in school at a young age, back in the day when schools actually provided an education, not indoctrination.
Article: “Iodine and Iodine Deficiency: A Comprehensive Review of a Re-Emerging Issue” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9459956/
Article (PAYWALLED): https://www.newscientist.com/article/2520090-iodised-salt-has-become-uncool-but-many-of-us-need-to-eat-more-iodine/
Video: https://youtu.be/XRcwwZXJ8gk
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Incidentally, Australian soils are generally iodine deficient. Gulag AI says:
That’s a further reason not to avoid iodine in Australia. In fact it’s a legal requirement in Australia that bread be made with iodised salt. The iodisation of salt is voluntary for manufacturers.
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I think the increasing consumption prepared foods is also responsible. Factory produced foods do not use iodized salt.
20
So many of us cannot be fooled by the LNP.
MATT CANAVAN too walks away from dumping the PARIS AGREEMENT !!!
The wets / moderates are still running the Coalition and even Canavan is now a captive of the Paris farce.
There certainly is no way anyone can trust a single word coming from the Coalition!
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/nationals-leader-matt-canavan-walks-away-from-past-calls-for-australia-to-withdraw-from-paris-agreement/news-story/456839996522672edb45f36d594bf48e
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The UK’s very own Snowy Hydro, HS2, the most expensive railway mile for mile ever built, if indeed it is ever finished. Ploughing on because it’ll cost almost as much to cancel. Many multiples of original £cost, truncated, and slower. £100billion to take 20 minutes off a journey from Birmingham to London.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cz6e0vplgldt
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The sunk cost fallacy.
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We’re talking about contracts negotiated by UK governments and civil servants, it will certainly cost as much to back out! And the new contracts to clear up the mess.
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Reminds me of the expression “the contract is not worth the paper it’s written on.”
As I recall, sometime in 2014 the then Coalition Government, signed a contract to have the East-west link built. A few weeks prior to the Victorian 2014 election, the then labor opposition promised to cancel the contract claiming it was not worth the paper it was written on. Labor won the election and commenced negotiations to cancel the contract. The cancellation resulted in the payment of $1 billion to the contractor, so very expensive paper.
180
Which makes it a known quantity. Proceeding makes an unknown quantity….. fade to scene of a meeting, with people saying remember when we thought it would only cost a 100 billion??
That other railway in California is a similar story.
60
An interesting aircraft concept from the 1950s is the Custer CCW-5 U-wing or channel wing. It is a blown wing design which has extremely high lift and very low stall speed but a big disadvantage is that most of the lift comes from the motors and under power loss, most lift is lost. Plus there is mechanical complexity and low cruise efficiency.
Video; https://youtu.be/ViAfFB3zdvU
30
Quote from Sal Grover on Farcebook concerning the court case disenfranchising women by ruling that a man who thinks he’s a woman is legally an actual woman:
Australia really is the laughing stock of the world, especially as transgenderism as a fad is becoming passé and both the US and UK now recognise sex/gender (meaning the same thing until the Left altered the language) as based on biological status at birth.
Sal Grover has already cited a case of a school in Adelaide where girls don’t wish to share bathroom facilities for boys so try to use the disabled toilets of which they’re not enough so causing huge delays getting back to class (pr the girls don’tdrink so they dont have to go to the bathroom). And ladies do you want you or your daughters sharing spaces with men in your changerooms, bathrooms, sports, women’s only clubs or organisations like gymnasia etc.?
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And if under Australian law you can be legally the opposite sex merely by “identification” what else can you be?
For example you could identify as a different race to take advantage of Australia’s apartheid laws. It appears many already do this.
Or stupid people like various politicians could pretend to be intelligent.
Or you could identify as a different age.
The possibilities are endless.
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Back in the day… poor souls who thought they were Napoleon or the King/Queen of England or aspired to even higher callings in their delusional moments of grandeur, usually were provided with a padded cell, soothing Muzak®️ and an assortment of medication(s) to ease the worried mind. These days you get richer by gettin’ yer pitcher on the cover of the Rolling Stone™️.
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Or a trip out to a stake. In todays world they probably think being burned at the stake means you lump of beef is well done as opposed to removing problem people from society quite horribly.
20
Or you could identify as a different age.
As I have mentioned a number of times over the years it is already recognised/promoted that people have a calendar age and a biological age ie healthiness/organ functions etc. You may be 62 years of age but your body functioning age could put you at 72+ years of age. [AI] Yes, people have a calendar (chronological) age that can differ significantly from their body (biological) age. [AI].
So the science is settled People close to retirement age and/or the government moves to change it (again) should have the right, particularly in manually intensive jobs, to nominate their biological age in their application for the pension.
20
Texas Children’s Hospital to open first detransition clinic amid DOJ settlement
Texas Children’s Hospital is set to become the first medical institution in the United States to establish a clinic for adolescents seeking to reverse gender-related medical treatments, according to the US Department of Justice.
The Houston-based hospital will also dismiss five physicians involved in providing gender-affirming care to minors, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.
“The Justice Department will use every weapon at its disposal to end the destructive and discredited practice of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ for children,” Blanche insisted.
https://www.rt.com/news/640101-texas-children-hospital-detransition/
1. The damage has already been done.
2. They were never in the wrong bodies.
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The Frankensurgeons need to be jailed, not just dismissed.
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““To be honest I feel like I am unwillingly in an abusing coercive controlling relationship with the Australian government ”
That is the most important statement, I imagine most people would agree with it no matter what the policy was.
I’d say it describes Govt perfectly.
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Hantavirus? I raise you.. Ebola’s back.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceqp11gn1l8o
(I haven’t read every post in the last week, so soz if it’s a repeat post.)
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Apparently Ebola is not so easy to catch, it is not airborne or mosquito-borne and requires an exchange of bodily fluids. So preventing its spread would appear to be relatively easy.
https://www.cdc.gov/ebola/causes/index.html
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I’m sure that’s reassuring to the 130+ dead already.
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Perhaps the WHO should be there educating the people about prevention.
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A campaign to educate the WHO first?
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Perhaps the WHO should be there educating the people
Yeah they could incorporate it into their lessons that albino people, or more exactly their body parts, do not have mystical powers that can prevent aids and loads and loads of other disease issues.
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But it’s reassuring to those of us still alive.
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Falsely so, it spreads very easily, including contact with surfaces, and has a very high fatality rate.
00
For those sick of the Wokeness in Europe, Australia or Canada, or elsewhere and are interested in migrating to the USA and can’t do so by the common methods of marriage, being sponsored by a company due to rare expertise, are a South African farmer coming as a refugee, or via academic appointment, AND you have a spare US$1,015,000 you can apply for a Gold TRUMP Card. This gives permanent residency which can lead to citizenship.
TRUMP talked about it but it’s now happened, and originally, it was going to cost US$5,000,000. That option is still available and has extra benefits as the Platinum TRUMP card. That will be available soon.
https://www.trumpcard.gov/
50
I wonder if some or all of those targeted by the current Australian Treasurer (Jim Chamberpot) will take advantage of this offer.
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They would be foolish not to go if they can afford it.
40
I wonder whether switching to USA citizenship might make them become outside of Capital Gains tax?
Has the bureaucrats drawing this up made it so “moth proof” or if they did, how long before Albo realises that citizens of it favoured countries also will be taxed?
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I don’t think so. Capital gains tax applies to foreign citizens as well plus it’s also payable on the sale of an asset or transfer to a different entity. Plus the granfathered 50% GGT discount is not available to foreigners.
Australia is no longer a place amenable to creating or accumulating wealth outside of scams like “renewables”, NDIS or just about any taxpayer-funded construction project. Plus the USA has far more freedoms than Australia, starting with free speech. There is really no point in staying if you can afford to leave.
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Plus the USA has far more freedoms than Australia, starting with free speech. There is really no point in staying if you can afford to leave.
Consider that a “US person” is required to annually file USA income tax returns on their world wide income. Being (or having become) a US person is presently easier than one might think, since simply being born in the USA will do it as would being married to a USA citizen.
As well there is the annual financial account reporting (FATCA) if you have foreign (ie non USA domiciled) bank or investment account balances exceeding $US10,000 at any point in the year. Apparently in some countries, this can make opening an “ordinary” bank account “difficult”. And self managed super funds in Australia would be considered a “foreign trust account” and likely generate regular USA income tax audits.
There are advantages to being a relatively low income retiree.
20
Pressure builds on Iran
Apperently oil storages in Iran are full or almost full, including any tankers still in the Persian gulf. Iran now has a few choices;
1. Dump oil into the sea,
2. Dump oil on land
3. Attempt to burn oil in trenches,
4. Burn oil in power stations ( already doing that).
5. Agree to Trump’s terms and give up their nukes
6. Attempt to spin the cease fire to open the Carter of Hormuz and not agree to give up the nukes.
Option 5 seems to be off the table so expect some of the alternatives. They are already trying no .6.
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It worries me a bit that DT may agree terms with Iran that require Iran to hand over all its enriched uranium, but without regime change. That would satisfy DT’s stated objectives (which on theirvown are very worthwhile) but be a disaster for the Iranian people. Hard though it may be, there could be a better outcome if Iran digs in its heels over uranium and gets bombed to pieces. That may sound callous because a lot of Iranians will be killed, but the reality is that without regime change a lot of Iranians are going to be killed or have their lives destroyed by their own regime. In all of this, I see a recurring theme: Iran’s Arab neighbours get it. Europe, Australia and Canada don’t.
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The scenes in Tehran have changed since February with many more women getting about in Tehran with naked hair.
Maybe Trump has been swayed by Xi to move cautiously and let time take its toll on the clerics and their laws.
Opening Iran to western surveillance will be a foot in the door and that is a prerequisite of no enriched uranium.
A 12 hour air strike across Iran to take out all bridges and power generating infrastructure would be crippling for the population. And the armed ones would decimate the unarmed ones as scarcity bites.
Iran should be spending their oil wealth on improving well-being of citizens rather than building its arsenal.
US does not want troops on the ground in Iran fighting the IRGC.
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The price of oil is the tip of the iceberg, with the predicted and unavoidable consequences manifesting now globally, inc here in Oz.
Next month people really start waking up.
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Oil price rose sharply to over 100USD per barrel 2 months ago. Since then holding around that level,
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crude-oil
The longer the Strait of Hormuz stays closed the more the world reorganises the supply chains.
I predict that the price of oil will fall sharply when the Strait reopens, which could be a matter of a few months.
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Wake up to what? We are already aware that there us a war interrupting oil supplies. Are you suggesting removal of DJT or the Aotolah?
30
False claim.
Satellite overheads as recent as the weekend show most of the 22 ships at dock riding high (empty) and tank tops show shadows (below full).
Please stop spreading US propaganda.
ACTUAL experts have Iranian storage filling up in 45-60 days from now, worst case, never in the best case.
23
Reference please.
My view was informed by Google AI (?reliable).
20
“My view was informed by Google AI (?reliable).”
My mate who sent me two different wiring diagrams that AI proffered as the same, sent an enthusiastic response from AI saying my ECU can run in waste spark mode when starting the car…
No, it can’t, that function was introduced by Haltech some ECU models later, and AI had taken the explanation from a new model ECU and attached it to a conversation about an old model ECU. Of course it took lots of writing and irrelevant examples so the crux of the matter was buried, but it was still completely wrong.
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Speculation is rife and all bets are off.
‘It’s been revealed, in an intriguing report from The New York Times, that the United States and Israel quietly planned to depose the Iranian regime and replace it with a surprisingly extreme candidate, former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
‘The plot fell over in the first days of the war, as Ahmadinejad was accidentally injured in a strike on his home and got cold feet, according to US officials.’ (News.com)
20
The company that was paid $96M to build BOM’s new and dreadful website has won another $16M, this time to build a website for the ‘Australian Climate Service’.
Never heard of it, so I just went looking, wondering why we need such a thing when we already have the BOM. Turns out it’s nothing more that a government-funded service, charged with producing propaganda in support of the same government’s climate change agenda. Of course they don’t actually say that. Instead, they describe themselves as simply providing information on a vital topic.
So once again we see taxpayers’ hard-earned being used by the government to spread disinformation, in the name of stopping the spread of disinformation.
We need our own DOGE.
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The new UN Climate Change President (whatever the title is) Cabinet Minister Chris Bowen would no doubt have organised this expenditure.
50
No, we need our own pitchforks.
80
Steve of Cornubia,
Apparently created in 2021 as part answer to the Royal Commission into the 2020 bushfire response.
Dennis won’t be to eager for people to hear that this useless body was created when Morrison was in office. Uniparty: take a bow.
Who are the potential customers of a “Climate Service”? Who, e.g., has a pressing interest in the 30-year-average rainfall? Politicians, activists, … anybody else?
If there was a weather response required by the bushfire inquiry, it should have been to pull the BoM away from climate nonsense. Improving short-term and localised forecasts would let emergency services plan better.
Creating a new bureacratic body writing reports was pure Sir Humphrey.
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And the bleeding obvious. no or low fuel results in fewer and lower intensity fires. Doesn’t matter what the 30 year average rainfall is, if the fuel load is reduced the fire size and intensity is also reduced
50
Noticed in passing yesterday
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/weather/former-bom-chief-who-oversaw-agencys-controversial-96-million-website-overhaul-resigns-after-months-of-public-backlash/news-story/e8be678df37a08f4c99495f085b875b4
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Apart from the waste, who runs this highly recommended web builders who get millions where lesser players get hundreds?
10
Once again, I saw a video claiming that nobody has yet isolated, observed or otherwise proved that viruses actually exist. Is this true?
And if it IS true, what were they looking at when they claimed that the C19 virus had ‘manipulated’ DNA? Where did the genetic material come from, if not from the virus?
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For a deep dive on the subject I suggest;
https://www.amazon.com.au/Virus-Mania-COVID-19-Hepatitis-Billion-Dollar-ebook/dp/B08YFBCH2F
Jo has engaged in comments on several occasions, specifically quoting genomic sequencing. I don’t know how that is done, nor whether it is proof of viral existence.
Genetic material could conceivably come from the cells in which the virus is cultured or from mitochondria from within those cells, or even from genetic primes added for PCR testing. I am not saying it does because I don’t have any experience in virology.
10
What the virus skeptics do to reach the conclusion that viruses do not exist is they apply Koch’s postulates. Koch postulates were first described prior to the discovery of viruses. So can they be expected to work with a virus?
There was some confusion on this in biochemistry at University. I was first taught by one lecturer to use it on viruses to determine if a virus was a causal agent in disease. Some time later another lecturer told us that Koch’s postulates do not work on viruses. This always bothered me and then later I worked out the time line and explanation, which made me much more comfortable to disregard the virus sceptic types!
Also the fact that HIV is now a chronic condition not a deadly disease gives further credibility towards virology!
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Koch’s Postulates:
1. Association: The microbe must be present in all diseased individuals and absent from healthy ones.
2.Isolation: The microbe must be isolated from the host and grown in pure culture.
Causation: The cultured microbe must cause the disease when introduced into a healthy host.
4.Re-isolation: The microbe must be re-isolated from the newly infected host and matched to the original agent.
Viruses can’t be grown in pure culture but the other postulates could be applied, at least in theory.
Transmission experiments have proved to be troublesome in many cases.
HIV can be explained by Terrain Theory just as well as by Germ Theory.
10
Can the same be said for PRIONS?
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Not sure.
A PRION is a misfolded protein. Can it actually cause disease?
The supposed PRION diseases are;
Kreutzfeld Jakob
Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (in cows)
Kuru
Scrapie (in sheep).
10
“What the virus skeptics do to reach the conclusion that viruses do not exist is they apply Koch’s postulates.”
Surely that’s not all ‘they’ do?
“Koch postulates were first described prior to the discovery of viruses.”
Is the suggestion here that the proposition of a virus should negate the postulates? Postulates themselves, I’m sure I need not remind you, are simply a starting point for reasoning.
10
I just don’t know where to begin on this. Viruses can be observed and isolated. There is no contention on that.
Genomic sequencing is achieved via isolation and applying prior knowledge to distinguish viral DNA. And no that is not a circular argument.
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Here is an article that describes isolation of viruses.
https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Microbiology_%28OpenStax%29/06%3A_Acellular_Pathogens/6.03%3A_Isolation_Culture_and_Identification_of_Viruses
So the viruses can be isolated from intact bacteria by filtering. The bacteria are too large to go through the filter but the virions get through.
But what about fragments of lysed bacteria, including bacterial DNA? Do they get through?
What if there is more than one type of virus? Can they be isolated?
10
“what were they looking at when they claimed that the C19 virus had ‘manipulated’ DNA? ”
They had coronavirus ‘DNA’ sequences for many of the strains, its the common cold’s virus, they are RNA viruses, so no DNA.
When they sequenced C19 they found it had coding for 22 amino acids inserted. That coding came from other viruses, some of it from HIV apparently, and it re-arranged the ACE binding site on the spike protein so C19 was more infective. They used mustelids to purify and stabilise the changes, which is common, but it meant the strain that got out had a particular signature.
That research was all done very early on in Taiwan, so the fact it came from a biolab was known at the time politicians were talking about the wet market.
At the time it was interesting, but not worth me recording references about it, so its all by memory. Little did I know how much WHO would blow it up!
20
now you’re making things up.
23
FWIW
Interesting reading in today’s Coffee and Covid newsletter
A book on China and anti-lawfaring in USA
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/running-rings-tuesday-may-19-2026?
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Each morning I check out The Courier Mail to, umm, offset, the ABC News I also get. The Courier Mail is subscriber only, but the article headlines are all I look at at.
However, there was one article this morning that actually did open up for me to read (they do have some articles you can read) and this one was really good.
It’s all about the ground breaking tech in our Military forces, and is just an amazing article really.
Being ex RAAF it was of interest to me, well, that one section anyway, and as you (very slowly with your mouse) read about the F35, you’ll be amazed. Back in early March, I visited my old Squadron, 77 Squadron, and was hosted for almost three hours on a tour of the Squadron, and I got ‘up close and personal’ with the Flight line, even though I was only allowed to be as close as about 10 metres to an actual F35, and that was amazing of itself, but the whole experience was just out of this World. I had no hope of even getting in, and only enquired out of the faintest of hopes. After checking out my details (and when I did arrive, they knew almost all of my six and a half year history at the squadron, so they were indeed quite thorough with their checking process) I didn’t even think they would get back to me, but after five days the call came through that we would be happy to host you. It took some organinsing, but was such a wonderful experience. That one hour or so on the Flight Line was just amazing. And all the people made me so welcome. There was no way I could mention it (well, obviously) but now, with this article, it looks to me like they are going out to tell the people.
So, the information about the F35 shows the real capability we actually do have, and after that time with the Squadron, I’m of an opinion we’re in good and safe hands.
Oh, there was one little drawback about the information about that wonderful new aircraft, where the article mentions this:
Ah, well done Labor. That money was so desperately needed elsewhere I guess!
Here’s the link to this wonderful article.
Man, the graphics in this article are just amazing.
Tony.
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But let’s face it Tony, there’s only one deterrent that is a real deterrent and that is the bleedingly obvious NUCLEAR ones. I know all the new high tech conventional weapons are great, but against a nuclear armed adversary, or adversary with vastly superior numbers, they can only do so much before they are exhausted.
10
Forget the nuclear option, Mutually Assured Deterrent has kept that in the bag. State of the art drone warfare on land, sea and air seems more likely.
Long fought out robotic wars of attrition, but on a smaller scale than the Ukraine invasion.
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Not even that EG, I reckon robots committing assassinations and sabotage will be the future. Unexplained explosions in factories and infrastructure, important people dying unexpectedly leading to a change in Govt. The days of trying to do what Putin is doing are numbered, you don’t have to invade to take over, you do a regime change and install a puppet Govt. Trump is trying the billion dollar hardware regime change on Iran, but that’s not working, even Israel does it better.
So if you get invaded, you don’t fight soldiers, you go straight for the enemy’s leaders and economic infrastructure. Drones that are not seen on radar, or launched from within the enemy country, robots that don’t look like robots.. robot insects are flavour of the day at the moment, although I’ve always favoured armed ashtrays- those metal box ones that were on the floor of many public buildings and no-one ever noticed. A tiny camera for facial recognition and a .22cal full auto hidden inside it. You could make it mobile so it moved around at night and no-one would notice until the right person walked past.
Its an exciting time to be alive!
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Yep, all true and correct.
You know super power rivalry is coming to an end when a lone actor can send a swarm of cardboard drones to kill a world leader.
11
The next ‘war’ between superpowers will most likely be in cyberspace, IMO. A whole nation could be brought to its knees by a large scale, coordinated attack that not only turned the lights off but caused catastrophic, long term failure of vital infrastructure such as power generation or air traffic control. Even just shutting down the banking system would be a huge problem and it wouldn’t take long for people to run out of food etc.
It doesn’t bear thinking about really.
I’m sure this sort of thing gets war gamed, but I don’t trust western governments and agencies to do it properly. I have no doubt Australia would be tripped up by its own trousers.
10
10m from an F35 on the flight line.
I think I got closer than that at the Avalon air show 3 years ago.
Public access has tightened a bit since then. I was not able to visit the tent displays last year.
20
Ten metres at an air show display, and ten metres on an actual operational flying Squadron flight line, with the Squadron WOE (Warrant Officer Engineer) and ‘bouncing off’ each other is an entirely different thing. As he later mentioned to the current Squadron CO while I was in ‘Operations’….. umm, “he asked ‘all the right questions’ and knew exactly what I was saying to him.” It was like they were both feeling each other out about if I really had any idea what was happening.
It was an absolutely amazing experience.
The CO then said to me how good it was to have someone to talk with about what it was like in times gone by.
Tony.
10
FWIW
“Intellectual Yet Idiot: Ed Miliband and the Economic Illiteracy Driving Britain’s Energy Crisis”
“Yet while the IPCC itself has finally abandoned the nonsense doomsday model it once promoted as the “baseline”, British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, his fellow net-zero zealots in Whitehall, and his globalist colleagues in power in the EU, Canada and elsewhere press ahead with Net Zero undeterred. Indeed, ‘Mad Ed’ and gang is doubling down on the very policies built atop that now-discredited foundation. This is Intellectual Yet Idiot governance.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/05/19/intellectual-yet-idiot-ed-miliband-and-the-economic-illiteracy-driving-britains-energy-crisis/
50
In Victoriastan they are going to introduce far more areas with dramatically reduced speed limits to 30kph, supposedly to protect pedestrians. Well why not reduce them to 5kph and have someone walking in front of the horseless carriage carrying a red flag?
In fact, I think this is about raising more fine revenue due to extremely high compliance with existing speed limits due to blanket speed camera coverage.
As I predicted many years ago, as compliance with existing rules increases, fine revenue goes down, so they constantly have to invent new offences that are also amenable to automatic detection such as with speed and/or AI cameras to keep the revenue stream flowing in a corrupt, bankrupt, incompetently run state with no functional opposition political party.
100
But David M. those speed limits are to slow down those pedestrians wanting to leave Victoria, the State with no functional opposition political party.
The major disaster (from SA, the State with no functional opposition political party.) is if they shut down the brown coal plants then SA will get blackouts.
Already the Local newspaper is highlighting the increased demand on charities for food, blankets etc. Often they run out 2 days after opening.
30
Don’t forget Chris Bowen muted reducing speed limits on national highways as a means of meeting their emission reduction targets. The old double edged sword, claiming to reduce the worlds temperature while increasing revenue, a politicians wet dream
40
FWIW
Remember that USA reduced speed limits from 70 mph to 55 mph from 1973 until repeal around 1990.
Answer to “did the USA speed reduction from 70 to 55 mph save fuel?”
“DDG Search Assist
Yes, the reduction of the speed limit from 70 mph to 55 mph helped save fuel, with estimates suggesting a reduction in fuel consumption by about 0.2% to 1.0%. Additionally, driving at lower speeds generally improves fuel efficiency, as cars achieve better gas mileage at speeds below 55 mph.
banalaw.com Wikipedia”
Which was probably hardly worth the hot air generated.
I was there both sides of the changeover and none of my contacts commented on any change they had noticed. Most comments were of the type that reckoned that
“The change had transformed crossing Texas from a journey to a career”
30
Final order of 28 aircraft (F-35 Lightning) was “paused” – as you probably know the F/A-18 classic Hornets were retired and replaced with F-18 Super Hornets including Growler version electronic warfare equipped as an interim measure until the final 28 F-35 were delivered, after May 2022 order cancelled as part of the budget adjustments Treasurer Chalmers introduced changing the Coalition 2022/23 Budget and forecasting a surplus after October 2022 being four months into the new financial year.
The article is very informative, however most of the assets listed were orders inherited from the Coalition by Labor in 2022 – Ghost Bat MQ-28 already six delivered for development by RAAF, Ghost Shark first vessel delivered for evaluation by RAN (and both Ghosts available for export sales) 2021/21 financial year.
The government obviously realises that it has not given defence a high priority expenditure status, about 2% of budgeted expenditure and recently added services not defence capabilities as part of defence spending reporting.
40
A number of reports emerging on rising rents already after the budget:
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/mould-ridden-rental-shoots-up-450-overnight-after-chalmers-delivers-his-housing-budget/ar-AA23jPOe
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I heard the same thing discussed on 3AW this morning.
In Victoriastan many property owners were already selling up even before the budget because it is simply no longer worthwhile to be a property investor.
50
I’m curious as to whether there are any standards to be kept by landlords, by description that house appears unliveable by anyone except the owner. In fact the owner should be forced to occupy it for three months to prove its liveability !
10
“I’m curious as to whether there are any standards to be kept by landlords,”
OMG! Yes! ..and they are getting more and more onerous and ‘tenant-favourable’ as the decades go past. Like any Govt, the moment they interfere in a free market they just have to keep inventing new things to keep the bureaurats employed, so everything they touch gets worse and worse.
So now we have to install air-con and hard-wired, linked fire alarms so the tenants can’t turn them off,and when rents go up the Govt complains! Of course we can’t kick tenants out anymore, so its easier to sell the house as is.
70
An investment property I own and purchased to help a friend in need (age pensioner) after selling other properties has remained unoccupied since 2020 and is used occasionally by family visiting, the problems of mainly state tenancy regulations and as you described KP made me decide to keep it because the capital gain average is at least as good term deposit interest.
50
I try to follow Brit and Australian politics.
Canada a bit.
As a dumb American it’s a bit difficult. (Southerness adds a little extra.)
But the main reason those three is I’m keeping watch for the complete economic and intellectual collapse of the Western governmental system.
Canada and England are pretty gone.
Oz I can’t exactly tell.
Can’t tell if Oz is leading California and New York or vice versa.
NY requiring EV school busses is pretty much a canary in a battery fire.
De-industrializing to save the weather and making housing costs impossible are good too.
20
The state of New York (USA) is mandating that school districts convert their bus fleets to electric by 2035, with new bus purchases after 2027 to be electric.
The school district of Naples says the cost of running their diesel buses is 36 cents per mile. (They have stable price contract purchasing of fuel) The cost of electric bus is $3.18 per mile, with fluctuations in all the electrical chain costs.
They’ve tested both bus types on all their routes in winter to arrive at the comparison, with electric being nearly 9 times the cost.
They say 20% of the bus battery is taken with trying to keep the bus warm. Also that there are days they don’t send the electric buses out because of the issues in certain temperatures.
The state has now pushed the purchase requirement back 2 years.
https://www.whec.com/top-news/news10nbc-investigates-electric-vs-diesel-naples-superintendent-discusses-financial-impact-of-bus-transition-on-taxpayers/
70
FWIW
“NATO, The EU, Baltics & A Dangerous Conceit”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2026/05/19/nato-the-eu-baltics-a-dangerous-conceit/#respond
00
FWIW
I doubt that
“I will do it just the same”
is one of these –
“An absolutely perfect strategy in keeping with Tsun Tsu.”
10
‘Trump is quite rational, he just plays an “irrational role” when that is beneficial.’
Playing the fool like Claudius the god, that is Donnie all over, thinks he is better than JC.
In reality he is quite insane, a malignant narcissist with frontal lobe dementia who wants to destroy everything. His finger is on the nuclear button and he has nothing to do with Tsun Tsu.
05
FWIW
“An Inconvenient Movie: Al Gore’s 20 Years of Failed Predictions”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/05/19/an-inconvenient-movie-al-gores-20-years-of-failed-predictions-n3815064
20
That one’s a keeper –
in 50 years time students will study this to ponder the mass hysteria brought on by Carbophobia, even though the planet ended 10 years ago. Kapai 🤙
40
FWIW
“Babylon Bee Goes on Rampage Mocking Anti-Gun Media, Politicians”
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2026/05/19/babylon-bee-goes-on-rampage-mocking-anti-gun-media-politicians-n1232574
Via Hot Air
10
‘The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.’
Good thing too, the Second Amendment is an unfortunate historical accident.
03
“Good thing too, the Second Amendment is an unfortunate historical accident.”
True, there’s nowhere safer than Sydney now all our guns have been confiscated!
50
Gang warfare persists and of course there is the occasional nutter who goes on a rampage. I’m in favour of tighter gun controls.
Out in the bush there are a lot more guns and all too often used for suicide.
00
Any government that disallows ownership of guns, and then fails to provide medical assistance in suicide is insufficiently progressive.
00
‘ … fails to provide medical assistance in suicide …’
The US has a weird culture.
00
Are any of the other rights in the Bill of Rights also “unfortunate historical accidents”?
There were 10.
Could you provide any other accidents?
There is the historical accident of Australia.
The boats could have missed the continent altogether and certain people would be living in natural un-accidental bliss.
Of course the first unfortunate accident is the fact that common folk can voice opinions on what’s an accident or not.
Kind of like the Big Bang.
An accident.
Rocks crash against each other for 14 or 15 billion years and out pops a Lamborghini Countach.
Total unfortunate historical accident.
20
FWIW – gaining legs?
“AMERICA IS VOTING FOR SPENCER PRATT!”
“This would be wrong. And you could get in trouble when asked for your ID to vote.
Oh, wait! Never mind. Voter ID is not allowed in California. Oh, and on a completely separate note, the best freeway hours are 10AM-11:30 AM. Just saying.”
https://x.com/RealJamesWoods/status/2056766932431605940
https://instapundit.com/797896/#disqus_thread
(Pratt is the republican candidate for Los Angeles mayor)
10
Interesting phenomenon.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-18/spencer-pratt-trump-reality-tv-industrial-complex
00
FWIW –
More “peacefulls”
“Painter Brings to Life Lost Homeland in Turkey: Remembering Greek Victims of the Genocide Through Art”
https://pjmedia.com/uzay-bulut/2026/05/19/painter-brings-to-life-lost-homeland-in-turkey-remembering-greek-victims-of-the-genocide-through-art-n4953049
00
https://www.cdc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-04/diphtheria-in-australia-epidemiological-update-14-april-2026.pdf
The vaccination status among diphtheria cases in 2026 by clinical presentation is similar, with approximately two-thirds cases reported as having received at least 3 valid vaccine doses (primary course).
o Consistent with the National Immunisation Program and broader Australian Immunisation Handbook recommendations, the number of doses received tended to increase with increasing age.
o Since 2022, the median period (years) since last vaccine dose was lower among cutaneous diphtheria cases (4.4 years) than among respiratory diphtheria cases (10.4 years).
o Vaccination provides strong protection against severe effects of diphtheria toxin, but it does not consistently prevent carriage or transmission.
10