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
It is all spinning too fast.
10
It has already been spun since about 1988.
It may be unspinning.
Probably too late.
The unspinning will cost a great deal more than the spinning.
Most of the kids likely can’t be unspun.
They will be confused about why they have no money.
They will be spun to blame Trump.
And most of the other heterosexual people and Americans of similar complexion.
80
You think they are spun now?
Wait 2.5 years for when Trump is no longer around to blame. He’s been a reality distortion field around American politics for a decade.
Democrats have no platform other that ‘Orange Man Bad’, which is hard to run on after the Orange Man rides off into the sunset. They’re going to have to completely reinvent themselves after 12 years of lazily riding on Trump’s coattails.
Meanwhile, Republican leadership is going to have a civil war once the Mango Mussolini is no longer around to bully them into submission. The Republican electorate is still widely in support of Trump’s populist approach, but there are still plenty of old-school country club Republicans in positions of power who would like nothing more than to return the party to it’s feckless pre-Trump ways. They enjoyed being invited to all the Washington DC society cocktail parties where they were treated as tame opposition while not being forced to rub elbows with the hoi polloi back home in their district to win votes.
70
I don’t think it be will much of a war.
The country club will be back in charge once their miscreant formerly celebrated rebellious member is no longer there rallying the groundskeepers and support staff.
Voters don’t choose politicians, politicians choose voters.
Once the correct politicians line up the correct voters California style, they will manage to correct the Electoral College problem.
And the evil product of colleges will reign forever.
20
What’s the latest on Minnesota? It all seems to have gone quiet here in Oz. Either that or I have been to busy to notice.
20
Good question. The media caravan has moved on from the sensational reveals towards other colour and movement. It would be interesting to know if the grinding work of prosecutions are under way or if the Minnesota Dem machine is studiously looking away.
20
Au contraire, mate. The Dems will craft a platform around ‘fixing Trump’s mess’. This will give them an imagined mandate to implement all the truly crazy and corrupt stuff that is now their brand.
Of course it’s not a given that the next president will be a Democrat, because Vance and Rubio, to mention just two, show enormous promise IMO. However, Trump’s war against Iran threatens to undo much of the good he has done, weakening Republicans’ chances. I can only hope the remaining time available to him in the White House is sufficient to restore faith. His best bet is to keep strengthening the economy and restore law and order – the domestic stuff.
40
I think Vance/Rubio are going to have to rely on the stupidity of the opposition if they want to win in 2028.
It is EXTREMELY difficult for an American political party to hold the presidency after an incumbent term limits out. It’s only happened once in the last half-century (when Daddy Bush followed Reagan in 1988), and if you rule out the ones where the first guy died in office to garner some sympathy/experience for his successor (FDR-Truman, JFK-LBJ) it’s only happened once in a century.
Fortunately for Vance/Rubio, I expect the Democrats to go full-retard if they regain the House of Representatives in five months. They’re going to try and impeach Trump on a hundred different trumped-up charges and burn any chance they have of proving to the electorate that they can govern rather than waste their time pursuing a vendetta against Trump. They’ll spend the next two years flinging mud and backing every lunatic idea their activist base demands of them, making a case for why they can’t be trusted in the White House. Will that be enough to Vance/Rubio in the Oval Office? I have no idea. But it will certainly improve their chances.
40
‘Will that be enough to Vance/Rubio in the Oval Office?’
Highly unlikely.
03
A third attempt to impeach Donald.
https://www.impeachtrumpagain.org/impeachment
01
‘Unmistakeable signal: Vance’s 2028 presidential bid.
‘The US vice-president’s new book blends spiritual autobiography with political philosophy, in a clear sign he is preparing to run for the top job.’ (Oz)
00
Qld won in Melbourne last night so records are kept to be broken.
20
Much the same (with Liberal Party) in Australia. Their problem is that the vote is looking like the Titanic after seeing the iceberg.
I predict that the Nationals will switch to alliance with ON. That releases votes from those who just voted Liberal out of fear of Labor.
That means the Liberals will be reduced to seats where The Greens (and Teals) are obvious.
60
Well, when the Mantle decouples from the Core, the (surface) spin will change and you’ll be able to watch the Sun rise in the North. Gives you a totally new perspective.
This is the ECDO Theory by the way, you can research it, but I’d suggest ignorance is bliss.
20
you need to see Trump as an unsustainable reset.
The great fortune for the US is, like Trump or not he is gone in 2 years.
What will not be gone is the change. Difficult concepts like male and female will largely be ununderstood again.
10
FWIW
“Why Artificial Intelligence will Win the Green Energy War”
“The following contains a video which shows the complete process start to finish of vibe coding a simple game. The process takes 30 minutes.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/17/why-artificial-intelligence-will-win-the-green-energy-war/
00
FWIW
“Rice, CO₂, and the Climate Story the Media Keep Missing”
“This Phys.org article “Global rice production has nearly doubled over 50 years despite climate change” reports good news that is couched in incredulity. The authors are correct to highlight this remarkable success story and the data show that humanity has become dramatically better at feeding itself over the past half century, even as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increased and the climate modestly warmed. What the authors miss, however, is the obvious conclusion staring them in the face: rising CO₂ and warmer temperatures have likely been part of the reason for that success.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/17/rice-co%e2%82%82-and-the-climate-story-the-media-keep-missing/
90
https://fortune.com/2026/05/25/rice-climate-emissions-239-million-cars-solutions/
OMG, does this mean if we grown more rice, we produce more CO2 and we grow more rice again? Thank goodness for white eggs.
30
“OMG, does this mean if we grown more rice, we produce more CO2 and we grow more rice again? ”
Noooo, it simply means we have to grow more chopsticks!
10
FWIW – taking the mickey on a grand scale
“WHAT PART OF HAMSTERS IS GREAT BRITAIN NOT GETTING? On Hamsters.
“On Hamsters”
“A UK cabinet minister, Rt. Hon. Liz Kendall MP, Secretary of State for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (“DSIT”), discussed the infamous “hamster e-mail” I sent on behalf of my client 4chan on national radio today in the UK.
My father always told me, when I was growing up, “when a cabinet minister holding the technology policy brief for a G7 Member State is talking about your e-mailed jokes to an audience of millions on national broadcast media, that is the right time to explain the joke, especially if the cabinet minister didn’t get the joke.”
That explanation follows.”
More at
https://prestonbyrne.com/2026/06/16/hamsters/
They can’t overrule our first amendment. They can tell it to the hamsters.
https://instapundit.com/804308/#disqus_thread
10
FWIW
A long look at
“After 20 Yrs, Al Gore’s Like ‘I Was Right, I Was Right, I WAS RIGHT!’ – ABC News, ‘Why, Yes, He Was'”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2026/06/17/after-20-yrs-al-gore-i-was-right-i-was-right-i-was-right-abc-news-why-yes-he-was-n3816063
00
And another one
“Al Gore Hit with Major Reality Check After Making this Wild Boast About ‘Climate Change’ During Interview Touting His Infamous Propaganda Film (VIDEO)”
“X users, though, busted out the receipts showing how big a lie Gore told.
Some of the predictions by scientists and Gore that failed to come to fruition included: no more snow on Mount Kilimanjaro within a decade, Glacier National Park in Montana disappearing, dramatic sea level rise, and Arctic-free summers.”
More at
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/06/al-gore-hit-major-reality-check-after-making/
30
FWIW
“We Now Know What’s Inside the Iran Agreement”
“A senior United States official on background read out the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran on Wednesday afternoon with reporters, including Townhall.
The MOU is expected to be signed in Switzerland on Friday at a ceremony attended by Vice President JD Vance.”
More at
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cameron-arcand/2026/06/17/we-now-know-whats-inside-the-iran-agreement-n2677898
00
I’m not happy that the agreement is between America and the ISLAMIC Republic of Iran.
10
It is the ISLAMIC Republic of Iran with the nuclear material. Who else could sign?
20
‘Who else could sign?’
Lebanon, its a festering sore.
‘Israel, meanwhile, is also regarded with mistrust and viewed as being led by an unhinged, messianic group of politicians largely supported by a majority of a society unwilling to make the major compromises necessary to achieve peace with its neighborhood.’ (Stimson)
01
As I understand it Israel in not a signature to the MOU.
10
If the war in Lebanon continues then nothing has been gained, the MOU is worthless without bibi’s agreement to cease hostilities.
01
“I’m not happy that the agreement is between America and the ISLAMIC Republic of Iran.”
Do you reckon a change of Govt type would get them out of it? No longer a theocracy? …and lets see ‘America and its allies’ respecting the integrity of Lebanon, with immediate ceasefires as well.
Iran seems to come out of the deal very well, a cash grant to rebuild, lifting of sanctions for future growth, release of seized funds, control of the Straits with Oman, no more interference in domestic politics by America, and have to stop advancing their nuclear weapons development. That’s better than three months ago.
20
Where in the MOU is a “cash grant” mentioned? The release of seized funds is strictly dependent on performance.
10
A few of the clauses in the 2026 MOU are the same as the Algiers Accord from the 1980s. Some of the basics like respecting sovereignty are reprised.
Makes you wonder why they bother , these agreements dont have much of a shelf life.
00
The Southerly 10 offshore bird mincer EIS is out and closes for reviews on 29th:
https://southerlyten.com.au/project/star-of-the-south/environmental-assessment/eis/
I intend to make a comment about wind stilling and the moisture sensitive Gippsland coastline. I doubt that comment will get much traction though.
Has anyone else already reviewed and made comment?
Are there any thoughts on what could be other important issues for the project.
40
Thanks Rick.
I wonder if this EIS site might be somewhere I might ask for a comment on the availability of the following:
And now imagine the added costs and potential (many) Union involvement for a construction like this.
Tony.
70
A childish, petulant piece in the SMH from apparently their Senior Economics Correspondent decrying Musk and his wealth. He compares Musk to some guy in Sydney in the mid-1850s who was rich in early Australia and got a statue. The sad things start to come through with statements like-
“Musk’s approach to Twitter where he purged about 80 per cent of its staff.” ..but no mention that Thomas Mort could hire and fire within a day in 1850, and twitter ran even better with 80% of the staff fired. Now, even an economist should be able to see that!
“He was the first Australian to effectively establish a co-operative, offering a half share in his Balmain dock and engineering company (that survived almost a century) to his workers in a bid to improve labour relations.”
Didn’t he see that 4500 of Musk’s employees became millionaires because he gave them shares in his business? …and of course he blames exactly the wrong thing for the whole mess!
“But if your world is one where wages are stagnant, access to health services are diminishing, infrastructure is crap, the cost of housing means your children’s future home is so small they can’t swing a cat in their new digs plus you’ve got tech entrepreneurs promising an AI future that could swot away millions of jobs (including your own), then the bitterness is well justified.”
Sounds great, but every one of those points is a result of too much Big-Govt Socialism and not enough free-market Capitalism! Lets return to the 1850s-sized Govt intrusion in our lives and see how we all go.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/before-we-build-a-statue-of-elon-musk-let-s-consider-what-he-s-done-with-his-trillions-of-dollars-20260617-p607hk.html
80
1 Ask the millionaire janitors and cafeteria ladies how those ‘stagnant wages’ are working out for them. And as far as the technical staff goes (engineers etc.) they are EXTREMELY well compensated because the demand for their services is so high. SpaceX is the envy of every other space firm out there, and they are constantly head-hunting SpaceX talent.
2. The only reason ‘access to health services’ were diminishing is because President Autopen let in 20 million illegals that overloaded the system. Access has greatly improved since Trump started encouraging them to self-deport or get deported the hard way.
3. The infrastructure in growing states like Texas is doing just fine. All those new taxpayers moving in state, and a whole lot less red tape than in coastal states, make building/maintaining infrastructure much easier.
4. The second greatest gift Elon gave his employees (after stock shares) was moving the company from California to Texas. They can actually afford nice big houses in Texas, while that was not possible in California.
5. AI panic is the Luddites all over again. Yes, AI is going to be disruptive and eliminate some jobs/industries, but every new technology that has ever emerged has created way more jobs than it destroyed. AI will be no different than the automobile (which killed the buggy industry) or kerosene lamps (which killed the whaling industry) or the electric street light (which eliminated the need for lamplighters) or the assembly line (which eliminated many craftsman jobs). You can’t stop change. AI is coming, like it or not. If it’s not Elon who builds it, it will be someone else.
80
Tracks Magazine is an Australian institution born in the heyday of 1960/70s counter-culture; irreverent, rebellious, oceanic. Sadly it’s corporate-woke these days, worth only a rare visit to drool over sun-drenched tropical surf photos/vids.
I’m intrigued as to the reaction of Jo’s fellow-Aussies on this blog to the recent article below about part-indigenous lifeguards & surfers ‘reclaiming’ their position in the ocean:
https://tracksmag.com.au/saltwater-people-the-original-watermen-of-australias-coastline
Barney Currie was a ‘shark-spotter’ at Greenmount, QLD in the summer of 1948/49 and, during 2 weeks, he sighted 271 sharks patrolling the beach [ain’t nothing new]. Coincidentally, I had some Irish forebears surnamed ‘Currie’ in NSW & VIC in the 1800s – maybe Barney and I were long-lost rellies?
30
Capt’n Goodvibes……………..there’s a good memory Greg !!!
10
88.3% of physicians would reject chemotherapy for their own cancer treatment.
The Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has data showing that oncologists THEMSELVES would not take chemotherapy for cancer, even though they recommend chemo and radiation as the only “approved” treatment to their patients.
https://x.com/ZakariaMDv3/status/2065835124676079899
2.1% survival rate, and pushed by doctors.
Another hypocritical oath exposed.
30
Did they ask if they would prescribe fenben for themselves?
00
Migrants lose residency rights for ‘bad behaviour’ under tough new Swedish laws
Under the new ‘good behaviour’ law, residency permits can be denied or withdrawn from future applicants as well as many current residents, including in some cases those who have already been living in Sweden for years.
Sweden’s migration minister Johan Forssell said when proposing the legislation that ‘anyone who doesn’t make the effort to do the right thing shouldn’t be able to count on staying’.
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15906669/Migrants-lose-residency-rights-bad-behaviour-tough-new-Swedish-laws.html
50
FWIW
“The UK Goes Full Dystopia As Parts of Europe (Finally) Begin to Fight the New World Goblins”
“The UK has recently been rocked by brutal, racist attacks against white people, but to the Leninian lizard person currently desquamating inside 10 Downing St, PM Keir Starmer, the problem isn’t the third-world savages slicing and dicing caucasians like they’re Waffle House hash browns; it’s Elon Musk and his pesky free-speech platform, X, that has to go.”
“As of 2027, kids under 16 will be banned from such sites as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and X. The YouTube Kids channel will not be affected. The UK is also considering a social media curfew for youths under 18 years old — you know, so the kids can have their childhood back.”
Reader added mention that the common platforms all have parental control options
More at
https://pjmedia.com/kevindowneyjr/2026/06/17/the-uk-goes-full-dystopia-as-parts-of-europe-fight-the-good-fight-n4954031
50
FWIW – the solar industry doing its thing
“Y2Kyoto: Today’s Net Zero News Brief”
“BREAKING: Massive warehouse fire erupts in Boyle Heights, California, involving solar panels and sending thick black smoke billowing across the sky. ”
https://x.com/Breaking911/status/2067380936312750178
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/06/17/y2kyoto-todays-net-zero-news-brief/
10
Yeah but, that thick black smoke is 100% sustainable, renewable, pure clean green 🤢 poison: should make for some spectacular, doomsday scenario sunsets over Paradise Lost.
60
Sorry Steve,
Kerosene didn’t kill the whaling industry, that was over-fishing which made the product too expensive. Kerosine from coal started about 1850.
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/abraham-gesner-patents-kerosene
In 1848, Scottish chemist James Young experimented with oil discovered seeping in a coal mine as a source of lubricating oil and illuminating fuel. When the seep became exhausted, he experimented with the dry distillation of coal, Young took out a patent on his process and the resulting products in 1850, and built the first truly commercial oil-works in the world at Bathgate in 1851, using oil extracted from locally mined torbanite, shale, and bituminous coal. In 1852, he took out a United States patent for the same invention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene#Illuminating_oil_from_coal_and_oil_shale
These patents were subsequently upheld in both countries in a series of lawsuits
As kerosene production increased, whaling declined. The American whaling fleet, which had been steadily growing for 50 years, reached its all-time peak of 199 ships in 1858. By 1860, just two years later, the fleet had dropped to 167 ships. only 105 whaling ships returned to sea in 1866, the first full year of peace, and that number dwindled until only 39 American ships set out to hunt whales in 1876.
Then the Pennsylvania oil fields increased the supply enormously.
20
Over on the other Thread about Pauline Hanson, Rick Will commented on listening (or not listening) to the ABC when driving in the Country. My response would have been off topic there, so I’ve put it here.
With 25 years in the RAAF, (67 to 92) and I ran up a huge number of miles, and added to recent times since my retirement from the RAAF, I’ve now got around 750,000 Kilometres on the roads in six cars (plus two short mileage ownerships) since 1969. I’ve listened as radio has changed across the years from music to just talk now.
My first two cars were in the times before even in car cassette tape players, so all there was was radio, and AM at that, and that first Corolla (1969 SE) 105,000 MILES in three and a half years didn’t even have a factory fitted radio, and I got an under dash radio fitted within six weeks.
I just love my music, and as I’ve mentioned before, I have around 300 vinyl LPs, and almost the same number of CDs, so I have a pretty decent cross section of music I like.
I could listen to Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, or Apple I suppose, but even then that’s a case of what is playing is what you get, or design your own with the hassles involved with that.
So, keeping the design your own music hassle in mind, I used the computer to compile Playlists of my own existing music I really DO like to listen to. And I could always add to that by chasing down stuff I didn’t have. (with an iTunes account, and they’re not too expensive)
I just did it all here on the computer, then copied it all onto a USB and plugged that into the sound system in the 2018 Corolla.
So, I have six playlists in all and almost 400 songs in all, and a little under 3Gigs. Total listening time is just a tick under 30 hours.
Now, the thing about that is that the longest time I’ve spent in the car is during my recent road trips, and that’s a maximum of seven hours at the one time. So I drove from here to Canberra, and then returned two weeks later, and never made it all the way through that totality of music, so I’m never going to do it just ‘tootling’ around locally.
I haven’t listened to radio in the car for, well, I can’t even remember.
And no matter what’s playing, it’s always something I like.
Well, and even though I do like the song, I do have just the one damned ‘ear worm’, if any of you know what that is, and that’s a song titled 1234 by Canadian Leslie Feist, a huge number one, with a really quirky and well done video clip, and in fact, written by an Australian girl, Sally Seltmann (New Buffalo) back in 2007. (and here, be warned, if you do play the song, then you’ll really know just what an ear worm is)
Music is the key of life.
Tony.
30
My 2008 diesel sedan just has CD stack – no USB.
On a road trip a decade or so back one of the touring group stated he had never heard such a sorrowful set. Then Willie Nelson came on and he cracked up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_TFXTYxEM4
He asked to change cars.
I have great respect for the vast majority of the guys and girls who punt B-Doubles across this country and a soft spot for the music that keeps them going:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHbGhEfnh2E&list=PLb8pt07YWu2KhN7MPQNGyj-21qveU5l85
So my taste in music tends to favour listening to cricket when it is on. Jim Maxwell has made hours at the wheel seem like minutes. He is one of the few at the ABC worth feeding.
00
Yep we do the USB thing as well , which makes some friends laugh. They cant think of making the effort.
00
Anthony Albanese net worth.
I’ve never seen a prominent communist advocate that isn’t a multi-millionaire.
This is from a guy that has never had a proper long-term job. His only jobs were a bank clerk for one year 1980-81 and a number of part-time jobs, generally not jobs consistent with becoming quite wealthy.
Like most politicians, he receives very good investment advice.
According to Gulag AI.
Also see:
Trevor Loudon. Comrade Prime Minister: Anthony Albanese’s 40-Year Alliance with Australian Communism
10
Well, I didn’t vote for you.
You don’t vote for kings!
Well how’d you become king then?
The people of Orstralya were promised endless goodies if they voted Labor and MP’s voted him as the next fall guy. 🤭
Still, Oz is way behind US senators:
https://www.quiverquant.com/congress-live-net-worth/
00
Without a mortgage statement the numbers dont mean much really
00
Been votin’ for Pauline for 30 years, must have been ahead of the times, glad to see people waking up at last. However, her task to keep on track is harder than ever now as she will have to keep an iron reign on those aspiring to become members of parliament, as the slightest miss spoken word, action or intent from the “troops”, the press, especially their ABC, SBS et al will be ripping into the biggest, overheated diatribe lefty media can conjure.
30
BBC jobs bloodbath: Radio 4’s The World Tonight is axed after 56 years and flagship Breakfast show schedule is cut to save £500million
The BBC is set to axe Radio 4’s The World Tonight after more than half a century as part of huge cuts designed to save the corporation £500million.
A further 550 jobs will be slashed from its news, television and radio operations as part of a sweeping cost-cutting drive that will also see programmes axed and £80million stripped from content spending.
BBC Breakfast has also been put on the chopping block and will no longer be shown on Sundays from September.
Meanwhile, the production teams making Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg and Newsnight will merge.
New director-general Matt Brittin revealed the scale of the cuts to staff in an email, confirming that more than a quarter of the corporation’s planned 1,800 to 2,000 redundancies will come from editorial and broadcasting teams.
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15908317/BBC-jobs-bloodbath-Radio-4s-World-Tonight-axed-56-years-flagship-Breakfast-schedule-cut-save-500million.html
Cutbacks in fake news. Yay!😁
40
That (2,000) is less than 10% of total employment.
Amazing how bureaucracies grow when you aren’t watching them.
00
Meanwhile in the EU…
Today the European Parliament voted 418-218 to pass the strictest migration law in EU history.
When the result was announced, MEPs started chanting.
“Send them back.”
https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/2067357923471495403
https://x.com/Inevitablewest/status/2067233607794438656
20
Seems Europe has been listening to Pauline. POTUS Trump certainly listened to Pauline.
10
Pauline Hanson has been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, celebrating his victory and aligning her political messaging with his populist themes, which has resonated with her followers in Australia. However, her influence on Trump’s strategies is more about shared sentiments rather than direct impact, as she is considered a smaller player in the global political landscape.
00
According to my sources the Ukraine war is quickly coming to an end because of fuel shortages in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Suing for Peace is Putin’s best option.
01
Meh- Not a problem, they can just buy it from Iran now.
00
Oh, remember the F15 problems in the Middle East back in March?
“Iranian television has published an interview with the Iranian Air Force F-5 fighter pilots who participated in the attack on the Camp Buring military base in Kuwait on March 1.
▪️The flight was carried out in complete radio silence at an extremely low altitude – below 15 meters – in order to avoid detection by air defense systems.
▪️After entering Kuwaiti airspace, the pilot said they encountered dense infrastructure, including power lines, oil refineries, and military installations, but deliberately avoided these targets and headed directly to Camp Buring.
▪️Pilots report large-scale fires and secondary explosions at the site following the strikes, including helicopters that caught fire.
▪️According to them, the attack caused significant confusion on the ground , leading to the activation of air defense systems. Pilots said they observed missiles being launched at aerial targets and saw explosions in the sky, initially not realizing what they were targeting.
In the midst of the chaos, Kuwaiti air defense forces likely mistook three American F-15E Strike Eagle fighters for enemy aircraft and shot them down as they reportedly prepared to launch strikes on Iranian territory. ”
https://t-me.translate.goog/s/milinfolive?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB
00