JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
Jo appreciates your support to help her keep doing what she does. This blog is funded by donations. Thanks!
Follow Jo's Tweets To report "lost" comments or defamatory and offensive remarks, email the moderators at: support.jonova AT proton.me
Statistics
No comments yet? Is everyone watching the World Cup? Or is interest in tracking renewable fantasies decreasing?
20
Some of us have work to do! Vet coming this morning to do some hoof trimming for a couple of elderly cows. It is lightly raining and have to do preparation work. Not pleasant. Cheers.
70
Rain? Here too this morning. With promise of more.
Which will be the fourth useful fall in about six weeks. The countryside will be a picture, and, I am told, already is to our near south
But yesterday I heard the BOM has declared an El Nino!
Meanwhile, I fear I have lost the battle of the App Upgrades and the New Passwords, passkeys, Passcodes, Pass****** or whatever..
Trying to fend off deteriorating eyesight, I swallowed the propaganda and bought a 15″ MacBook Air sight unseen. It is no Air, it is a monster. I wish I had bought iPad. And the touchpad does not work for me
20
Vicki and gentlemen,
re: Record Levels.., by Jo
I do not know how you personally Waste Time.
When Mr & Mrs Vlad can not see big screen anymore we do Wordle or Qwordle.
Maybe, you do not have time to waste…
However, I wonder if you, scientifically inclined lot, would think of an Energy Wasting Machine which could legally and cheaply burn energy.
There seem to be money laying on the floor waiting for a smart engineers to be picked up.
Sure, I do not exclude batteries or flywheels but that avenue must’ve been already done to death at by CSIROs of this world.
I meant a modest gizmo bringing traditional 15% annually to brave SMSF members while they are doing their Qwordles.
10
Where is everybody? Normally several comments by this time.
Perhaps that it was only 6 degrees at 6 (local time) this morning.
20
We were in “glorious blackness”.
Power outage report “Due to third party contact with powerlines. Restoration time unknown. Next update at 10:00 AM”.
They did better than that though.
20
DM sleeping in? 😁
00
Beat me, Stuart. Just.
I wonder how long it will take for Climate “Scientists” to realise that this planet they are on, has lots of liquid water?
10
Lots and lots of liquid water. And even more now all the ice at the poles has melted never to return.
Oh wait.
30
Ships moving in the Strait of Hormuz
Marine traffic shows more ship movements through the strait of Hormuz. Not as many oil tankers as I expected moving yet.
Surprisingly there seem to be more ships than ever in the Persian gulf. Maybe they have had their transponders switched off until now.
40
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:56.3/centery:26.2/zoom:7
00
Why is a body of water so bent and crooked called a ‘Strait’.
As shipping is so ‘dirty’, and there’s been a C0V!D-like shutdown of shipping in the Gulf (and the ‘Strait’) surely CARBON levels have plummeted, saving the planet™️, except for all the bombers & jets & transport planes (and private jets toing’n’froing) which will more than compensate.
The ‘Strait’ is OPEN again? Ladies & gentlemen, start your engines, the race is about to – – –
40
Why does your nose run and your feet smell….lol
00
It’s a complicated combination of commercial, legal and insurance issues, moving a vessel in waters that are still mined and transited by other vessels with their AIS switched off or spoofing – and where the vessel itself may have degraded its own compliance.
“Gentlemen. Start your engines” was announced by someone not fully across the details. Or aware of them.
Kpler explains.
https://www.kpler.com/blog/hormuz-risk-question-has-changed-compliance-frameworks-havent-caught-up
20
As one who has come to dislike the concept of insurance (seeking too much control, looking after themselves first) I wonder if some of the Hormuz shippers are feeling unwanted pain. Geoff S
30
It’s amusing to read all the “news” about “deals” and resumed shipping.
Even sites like Zerohedge, which are way ahead of the MSM, haven’t mentioned even ONE of the myriad of problems with the situation.
Hull foulings, stock degradation and secondary processing needed, narrow exit passageway (the channel that isn’t mined), increased transit times, destination port and distribution synchronisation, production restarts etc.
Notably the bombing in Lebanon hasn’t stopped. A deal breaker.
Iran cancels Switzerland deal trip.
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202606189569
If only renewables could replace oil.
Who won the war?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran_war
00
BOM said warmer wetter winter. I will give them warmer , we have had very few real winter days. Rain is still running 200% + year to date over last year.
40
You must be misreading something, after all Tim Mammery, said it would never rain again
61
When is a drought not a drought? When it’s a draught under your door or in your glass.
As we say over here: It’s been a mixed bag. Lots of early snow in Feb/Mar/Apr down south then nothing, just big happy highs with calm clear weather (and the ‘odd passing shower’). Mild, gentle, pleasant are words I’d use to describe our apparent ‘climate crisis’ and if the tooth be known, I’m quite happy with that.
Shortest day this Sunday 21 June, with high tide bang-on midday, perfect for a mid-winter dip in the briny 🥶 If only the oceans were boiling…
50
The reason for the unseasonable warmth.
‘A persistent ridge of high pressure situated further south than usual for this time of year has blocked significant outbreaks of polar air from reaching southern Australia, apart from one brief system in the first few days of June.
‘The position of the highs has enabled air with tropical origins to stream southwards from the Indian Ocean, with a series of northwest cloudbands crossing the country.’ (Weatherzone)
10
Very chilly in Perth this week!
00
“Just you wait till next week” Weatherzone.
10
Counting is underway in the UK by-elections. Looking like Starmer’s replacement is on his way – at least by the way betting markets have moved. On BetFred Burnham is still an unbackable favourite.
Early reports suggest that, despite Restore Britain on the margin, Reform is likely to be a strong second place. Which gets you nowhere in a FPP election, but is a significant bellwether in a traditionally hard left seat with a celebrity candidate.
50
I love Sting’s music but I wonder if he matured since
Good baritone V Russlanov preformed an answer (or was it vice-versa?) Do The Russians Want War?
and you do not need English subtitles.
I can stick my doubts into … The reputable Levada opinion poll says 72% “supported the actions of the Russian armed forces”, but 67% said “Russia should move to peace negotiations with Ukraine”
10
I once believed Sting and that message. I was once naive.
10
Dear moderates, what has happened to my not?
10
FWIW
“Meet Tessa Khan, the Climate Activist-Litigator Waging War on North Sea Oil and Gas”
“There is a peculiar growth industry that has flourished in the green movement: the professional climate litigator. Funded by an interlocking web of American and European philanthropic foundations, staffed by lawyers with no grounding in economics, energy engineering, or the lived realities of working people dependent on affordable power, this industry pursues a singular goal – to achieve through the courts what democratic electorates have repeatedly declined to endorse via the ballot box. Nowhere is this enterprise more vividly embodied than in the career of Tessa Khan.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/18/meet-tessa-khan-the-climate-activist-litigator-waging-war-on-north-sea-oil-and-gas/
20
FWIW
Coffee and Covid looks at the US-Iran MOU
“ood morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Your roundup includes: Gas prices plummet as President Trump inks Iran deal early, and critics pounce— not on the terms in the deal, but on all the ones critics think should have been in it; negotiations continue, and we see the deal isn’t really final yet; the U.S. could restart hostilities right after the midterms; ”
More there.
And
“New study on remote work from home proves the experts gizzled us again with bad advice and failure to tell us about the real risks;”
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/deals-and-leverage-thursday-june?
30
And
“Why Trump Signed the MOU — and What’s Going to Happen When All That Iranian Oil Hits the Marketplace”
https://pjmedia.com/scott-pinsker/2026/06/18/why-trump-signed-the-mou-and-whats-going-to-happen-when-all-that-iranian-oil-hits-the-marketplace-n4954109
00
WOW! A positive post about Trump and Iran. KP may have read that and had a heart att@ck so the board is quiet.
00
There are videos of mantis shrimp attacking clams showing in my feed. I asked if they also attack COT starfish and the answer was “No” but the harlequin shrimp and conch shells do.
I remember Dr Robert Endean [dead 29 yrs ago] mentioning the conch and the painted shrimp so I asked about the painted shrimp. The answer:
I never knew how a shrimp could kill COT.
10
One immigrant per minute arrived in Australia in 2025, new data shows
One immigrant per minute arrived in Australia in 2025, new official data shows, and migration was responsible for 73% of the annual population growth.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday showed there were 563,500 overseas migration arrivals during the 2025 calendar year, 32,300 (5.4%) fewer than in 2024.
“Labor has been told many times that its migration settings have been unsustainable. But it has ignored that advice, lost control of the system, and every new release of data confirms the same problem.”
SPA spokesperson Michael Bayliss said Labor had “lost all control” of immigration and appeared to be “operating in a state of delusion”.
https://www.noticer.news/one-immigrant-per-minute-arrived-in-australia-2025/
00