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
Wieired Weather
The weather map patterns seem strange this spring. Low pressure systems develop out of nowhere over the southern part of the continent and the high pressure systems are distorted and pushed away. There seems to be more rain over the central desert areas.
90
Rain in the central desert – that really is a sight to behold. I have been lucky enough to see the result of rain in those regions. The desert literally blooms. I can recall seeing areas that looked like a golf course. Then there are the beautiful flowers that bloom. It is then that you can understand the some of Aboriginal art – particularly the work of the late Emily Nwarrye – depicting the little white daisies.
80
Relative Humidity over central Australia today is higher than it has been on this day for the past 6 years:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2025/10/21/2100Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=relative_humidity/orthographic=-227.02,-31.16,634/loc=133.919,-24.137
The precipitable water is now 38mm over central Australia, which is enough to support convective instability so creates low pressure zones that draw in moist low level air from the oceans.
If you look to the large island land masses to the north, they have saturated atmosphere at ground level due to their abundant growth.
If the situation persists, then Australia will sustain rain depressions over the country and reduce the potential for cyclonic storms developing over the oceans and dumping water on Australia. The current conditions are what I think as the Amozonisation of Australia. You will get what I mean by rotating the globe to show South America and compare the RH there with Australia.
Very few cyclones develop in the South Atlantic because the Amazon draws in all the heat from the oceans.
For Australia, It will mean higher average temperature but due to much higher minimums but lower maximums. If it is sustained. There is not enough biomass to guarantee it does not dry out but it will be apparent in a month or so as the monsoon septs in up north.
This charts shows how 2024 leaf area has been increasing over Australia this century:
https://i0.wp.com/www.wenfo.org/aer/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ALL__Graphs_Aus-Env_2024_Vegetation-leaf-area-index-map.png?resize=1024%2C737&ssl=1
Central Australia was the highest it has been this century. Growth Australia wide in 2024 was 5% up on the year 2023 and 14% up on the 2020-2023 average.
Did you hear about that on their ABC?
Climate change is turning Australia into a green oasis – the horror. It will no longer be the sunburnt country.
200
My google search gives me 30 ABC news items about the current weather pattern in different parts of Australia. Do you want frequent speculative and in-depth analysis of every twist and turn? Are you expecting them to start their own research program or just stick to reporting?
If you have a coherent data based analysis, maybe try getting it published yourself.
119
The question was regarding the greening of central Australia.
If you have a link to their ABC reports on that important observation then I will be interested.
100
Do you have a link to an analysis of your observation? An interpretation? Your map is just a representation of data which, as you know, is not science.
115
You should be able to get what you seek here:
https://www.ausenv.tern.org.au/aer/vegetation/index.html
I gather you could not find anything from their ABC reporting the horror of Australia turning green! No longer the unburnt country.
140
Took me 20 seconds in a search engine to find the analysis GA…
60
Then you’d know that it does not conclude anything other than normal variation in the last few years.
17
Carbon dioxide is greening Australia, according to Aunty.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-04/climate-change-turning-desert-green/4798930#:~:text=New%20research%20shows%20that%20global,Broken%20Hill%20grow%20bigger%20leaves.
51
Perth’s summers have become more humid over the last five years or so, to the extent that not many evaporative air conditioners are being installed, most folks now going for full house reverse cycle air conditioning. We seem to be receiving more moist cooler air from the south, rather than the regular hot morning breezes from inland Australia. We occasionally have the hot morning breezes, but not as often.
70
The central desert wetter than the tropical coast, Who’d a thunk it.
20
Trump’s tariffs have created a huge market for biodiesel from soybeans, but the process is wildly inefficient:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/opinion/trump-soybeans-tariffs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
011
Food or fuel.
Pick one.
150
Something tells me that if Americans eat slightly less soy … maybe they won’t starve.
If they consume a bit less corn syrup that might also be OK.
00
Nothing to do with US tariffs. China has stopped buying soy beans so there is a glut in the USA. Probably better burning them than just dumping them.
121
The US has made corn ethanol for years. I suspect less today because of Trump’s pro oil attitude.
40
Trump also came out and said China were not being soy beans so USA may be converting more to fuel.
There was a recent news report on a soybean silo collapse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbfUBhO0xBM
Looks like US has more soybeans than they can handle!
11
THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN BRITISH HISTORY
Following months of domestic and international pressure, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer backtracked from his initial opposition to conducting a national inquiry with statutory authority on the scourge of mass rape by mostly Pakistani Muslims raping mostly young working-class white girls.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime and Rape Crisis report that England and Wales has the highest rate of rape on Earth with 7.82 annual rapes per 1,000, with 90% of the victims being white girls raped by immigrants, including those given British citizenship by the Labour & Tory Governments.
The inquiry is set to examine the failures of government and local officials, police, and care workers, many of whom have been found to have ignored or covered up the scandal out of politically correct concerns. Furthermore, questions have also been raised about Prime Minister Starmer’s own role in the scandal, given that he served as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service when allegations of cover-ups began to emerge. Evidence is thought to include Starmer and the British Deep State intelligence community using hundreds of DSMA-Notices and Secret Courts to issue hundreds of Super-Injunctions and thousands of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to censor and silence social workers, teachers, police officers and victims of rape. The cover-up is so massive that it is difficult to see how the inquiry could uncover all the Super-Injunctions and non-disclosure agreements being used to protect the criminal deep state establishment.
On Monday, Fiona Goddard, a grooming gang survivor, resigned from the inquiry’s Victims/Survivor Liaison Panel, after discovering that the planned chairs of the inquiry are reportedly set to include a police officer and a social worker, which she asserted were the “very two services that contributed most to the cover up of the national mass rape and trafficking of children.” She said “The lack of trust in services from years of failings and corruption will have a negative impact in survivor engagement with this inquiry.” Goddard said. “Having a police officer or social worker leading the inquiry would once again be letting services mark their own homework, the shortlisting of these potential chairs shows the government’s complete lack of understanding of the level of corruption and failings involved in this scandal.” Fellow survivor Ellie-Ann Reynolds also left the panel on Monday, claiming that the government has kept the victims “in the dark” about the inquiry, saying “When I asked for clarity, I was treated with contempt and ignored. I watched on, as it becomes less about truth and more about a cover up.” Shadow Chancellor Robert Jenrick argued that since the scandal “implicates every arm of the British state”, it is imperative that the inquiry be led by someone with unimpeachable impartiality, suggesting that a judge from abroad be brought in to oversee the investigation.
The main areas in England identified as hotspots of grooming gang activity were under the control of councils run by the Labour Party. For example, in one month 167 white women reported being raped by Muslim men in Bradford. So Rape Crisis estimate that 1,113 white women are raped by Muslim men in Bradford every month, some ending up in local hospitals: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/10/21/labour-govt-accused-of-sabotaging-child-rape-grooming-gang-inquiry-amid-resignations
300
The problem is easily solved. Get rid of Starmer! Get rid of the Labour Party! Get rid of the “ Conservatives! Find a LEADER WHO IS PREPARED TO PUT THE BRITISH PEOPLE FIRST!
There is such leader in waiting! Nigel Farage & the Reform Party. Get rid of the House of Lords while you’re at it.
The electorate has had an opportunity to purge the UK of these useless politicians once before. Remember the BNP.
There’s a group of consultants waiting to help. They’re very good at purges & returning a semblance of sanity to a country in crisis and under threat of succumbing to a Marxist / Socialist take over. It’s called the Republican Party & is based in USA. Doing a marvellous job!!
210
What percent of soybeans are used for biofuels?
https://ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=109240#:~:text=As%20this%20portion%20of%20the,46%20percent%20in%202022%2F23.
As Rick says; nothing to do with Trump’s tariffs.
60
Yeah, we also idiotically subsidize fuel additives made from corn. It’s an artifact of the days when winning the Iowa primary could make or break a politician, so they all made promises to subsidize corn and soy for ‘clean’ fuels. And no politician since has had the guts to stand up and say ‘this is dumb’ and end the subsidies. Not even Trump. It’s one of the lesser known third rails of American politics.
60
Our Government is enthusiastically importing the very same problem.
Even though the Government and their drones proudly claim their wokeness, it’s obvious that they hate women. And judging from their silence, “feminists” do as well.
We also saw their silence on the sexual violence against women related to the Oct 7th atrocities against Israel.
160
Here in N.Z. It manifests as a typical Spring- cold and showery- only later than has been usual for the last couple of decades.
We are a couple of weeks away from Beltane, but the cold persists.
This is more noticeable in the West of Godzone; East of the Main Divide is a little dry but still cool.
As you mention, the highs are too far north to bring much fine weather, so we get showery westerlies instead.
Then the next low rolls in with more coolish rain.
If the wet continues through Nov./Dec then grass growth will be excellent through until January, but feed conservation as silage will continue to be difficult.
The cool October is delaying seedhead emergence in the grass but dry matter% is down, and elevated nitrate is risk.
120
elevated nitrate is a risk.
(no edit function)
20
This was a comment to Peter C at #1
00
The mainstream press run up to COP 30 is the most subdued I have ever seen and I have seen them all. No grand global plans or calls for astronomical sums of cash. Likely a Trump effect.
211
Dr. Wojick:
First, understand I’m on your side of the issue.
But, secondly, the ‘machine-gun’ pace of articles, breathless with signs of Thermageddon, is quite usual, for the run-up to COP(out).
Just today, there was a post that the Earth is ‘running out of oxygen’. In the past week, there’s been ‘coral reef tipping point’ in climate change. And, of course, the perennial, ‘the AMOC is on the verge of collapse’.
What do they all have in common? Gin up excitement for salvation through another worthless ‘agreement’ to “save the planet”. It’s all as Mencken said:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and, hence, clamoring to be led to safety) with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
Situation normal; most of us rational people, of course, are just going about our daily business, as usual. Only alarmists are gobbling-up the gobblety-gook,
Best regards to you and yours,
Red
200
Yes but I am talking about COP 30 articles which seem muted. The silly science season has not diminished.
141
OK, yes, I understand now. Thank you for the clarification.
RG
20
The Australian Government is trying very hard to get COP31 to be held in Adelaide, Australia’s most de-energised state, so they can prove to the world how stupid and woke they are and what losers.
Even though much of the world is increasingly sceptical about anthropogenic climate change, Australia is determined to prove what a fanatically committed holdout it is. The two major factions of the Uniparty, Labor and Liberals are fully and fanatically committed and are prepared to destroy the economy to prove it.
The other competitor for COP31 is Turkey and the Australian Government will probably end up paying taxpayer money as tribute to them to encourage them to pull out of the race.
Also, Adelaide is not a huge city. I don’t know if its airport would have enough private jet parking for all the participants, always a problem at COP conferences.
160
No problem David.
The planes can be parked on Lake Eyre (whatever it is called now) and the delegates can ride camels back to Adelaide.
They may not want to ride them back- a firm offering camel rides around the wineries (i.e. not being breathalysed) in McLaren wineries had to close because too many fell off the camel. NOTE to greenies it’s a long way down.
130
Good idea Graeme, except Lake Eyre is now racially segregated and those not of the correct race cannot visit.
140
FWIW
Ready for the likely next step?
“When a Tribe Whose Great Great Great Grandparents Once Fished There Now Owns Your PropertyPeople weren’t even paying attention, and why should they?
“You bought your land fair and square, maybe even used ‘title insurance’ to research and cover that bad boy, so there were no competing claims or undiscovered liens.
You’ve been paying for it and paying taxes ON it, maybe for generations if it was family property.
But, sadly, if you live in the People’s Republic of the Canadian North, none of that matters.”
More at
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/10/20/when-a-tribe-whose-great-great-great-grandparents-once-fished-there-now-owns-your-property-n3808026
120
More on that
“We Are All Treaty People”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/10/21/we-are-all-treaty-people-27/
20
Australia has capped the participants to 30,000. Also COPs have lost their sex appeal. A long way for Greta to sail but she is looking for her next gig. If she left now she would easily have time to do do it barring Somali and Indonesian pirates.
Very unlikely Adelaide will need to park US Airforce 1.
I doubt Sleezy will want to put in an appearance. By this time next year, even Blackout might be embarrassed by the mess the electrical grid has become.
Even this year will bear watching for participation. Trump/DOGE has removed a lot of the funding support.
There is only a few weeks left to announce the location of COP31. If the deadlock is not resolved, the parting parties will have to say see you somewhere this time next year.
120
The huge attendance numbers are mostly populating the pavilion space which has become a huge global trade show with much buying and selling, including oil, gas and coal contracts. Very funny actually.
Here is a taste: https://unfccc.int/cop29/pavilions
100
“Also, Adelaide is not a huge city. I don’t know if its airport would have enough private jet parking for all the participants.”
The overflow would reach all the way back to Tullamarine.
60
I have been getting regulars emails on COP30 from solar citizens. They are going to have a delegation and sales pitch there. They are hoping to have a petition presented:
https://www.solarcitizens.org.au/rooftop_solar_pledge_petition?utm_campaign=raise_the_roof_call_for_a_roof&utm_medium=email&utm_source=solarcitizens
The aim is to get other countries to get on board. Not sure who funds solar citizens but I expect they get some funding from China, importers ad installers of rooftop and batteries. For China, it is better to have Australian consumers selling the products than Chinese manufacturers.
Main targets are Japan and Korea but their solar resource is not quite like Australia nor is their housing density. Few places in the world have the urban sprawl of Australia.
If you want to live in a de-industrialised economy and kid yourself that you have decarbonised then Australia’s story could be your story.
40
World TV featured our Prime Minister grinning like a school boy, complete with platitudes (I’ll save (your Trump compliment) for the 2028 election campaign” or words like that. An agreement was signed about mining and processing Aussie rare earths. In this country, all minerals belong to the Crown by law so there was a lawful place for any OM to deal with them.
But mineral deposits have to be discovered before they are traded. Explorers have usually spent time and money and effort to make the minerals a reality that can be traded. Did you hear this PM thanking them? Or were they treated as useful idiots?
I am thoroughly familiar with the discovery of one big rare earth deposit in NSW, because my wife found it. She was putting rock after rock on an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer that I had purchased and set up for my employer company. Top geologists from our Parkes base had collected some of these rocks because they were unusual specimens visually. My wife noted high concentrations of the element Tantalum plus the characteristic signature of a string of rare earths. Our employer sold the tenure to another company as rare earths were not on the wants list back then before 1990.
A colleague did a rough valuation of the mineral wealth after this other company had done some drilling and he came up with about $36,000 million (adjusted for current values).
Why mention this?
Well, because miners have been demonised. “Dirty Miners” is OK with pollies who do not object to mud slinging. “Ultra Far Right Extreme Hitler Type Rapists of the Natural Environment” seems to be the sentiment allowed by politicians to pass, when a normal person could have expected some thanks.
But then, my past colleagues at Parkes, plus our past employers, plus my modest wife and me, are not in the grubby arena of political speak and pre-election propaganda. So, instead of a few thanks at the meeting with President Trump, the world has been told time after time of how Kevin Rudd will never be liked.
Geoff S
300
Climate is threatening our chocolate they’re telling us in the UK again, it’s too rare and expensive to cover chocolate biscuits, so instead they now use some chocolate flavoured concoctions made from oils and veg fat.
What is really going on is that the farmers can’t afford to deal with an insect spread virus and a separate fungal problem that could be easily controlled with chemicals, nor afford to replant. So instead they sell the land for mining rare earths or mostly gold, or mine it themselves, ripping out the plantations, and meaning the land is made toxic and can never be used for agriculture again. If only the farmers got a fair price and the cocoa market wasn’t broken.
https://www.pwmnet.com/content/fc4b348c-58bf-56b1-8d8b-cfb88de5a2f5
80
Actually, cocoa plantations have been in decline for decades now NOT due to climate change.
The Witches’s broom fungus (from Africa) hit Brazil around 1990 decimating crops by 80% for 2 decades.
Cocoa demand has always been somewhat of a rollercoaster. Couple that with deforestation, child slave labour exposure, pesticide pollution and 20% of plantations operating illegally and it’s an ugly industry beneath the surface.
These days the cost of living makes chocolate a luxury item.
Even when on special, people aren’t snapping it up. This week’s “special” price was RRP 6 months ago…
Remember when Cadbury switched to Palm Oil?
What a disaster that was.
40
“Decimating crops by 80%”?!
Decimating means reducing BY 10%, not TO 10% or any other similar figure.
60
That is ONE interpretation, although the context should have eliminated that as the intended meaning.😉
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/decimate
I blame the education system and decimilisation! 😁
10
Typo spotted too late…
00
“That is ONE interpretation, “.. No its not! That is the meaning of the word, to reduce by one in ten!
Did you find that dictionary on the internet? Obviously they never studied Latin!
20
Concerning the agreement of Australia with TRUMP for the US to purchase our lanthanide minerals (not-so-rare earths), I don’t know how that’s going to work.
This is Australia.
There will be all sorts of problems such as green and red tape, tribute paid to native land holders, endless bureaucracy, lawfare, enquiries, lack of inexpensive electricity etc..
It would like take at least ten years before shovels hit the ground, if ever.
This is not 1960s Australia, this is today’s fully-woke, dumbed-down, stupid country, led by a life-long communist, Albanese.
I don’t know if TRUMP realised the sheer inertia of trying to do anything worthwhile in today’s Australia.
TRUMP would have a better chance of getting lanthanide minerals from places like Madagascar, Burundi, South Africa, Vietnam, India, Myanmar or Tanzania, all with significant deposits.
And does the US not have enough for domestic supply from the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine in California?
230
All true David, but they had to announce something. ANYTHING.
In respect to sources other than Australia, I fully expect that US strategists will get those ducks line up in a row as well.
But hey. Look on the bright side. At least the nation got to see Rudd humiliated.
120
‘ … take at least ten years …’
The socialist government is going to fast track the Victorian diggings.
‘The Australian government has granted major project status to Astron Corporation’s Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands project in regional western Victoria, recognising its national significance.
‘Once operational, the site is expected to become the fourth-largest rare earth mine in the world outside China.’ (ABC)
02
Let’s hope there’s enough electrical supply to run the mine. Or maybe they’ll install a swindle factory.
30
A couple of cuttings from a small circulation Russian MAGAzine, the September issue of the magazine Izbor Club, put an interesting slant onto the Russian-Ukraine war. I’m not sure if anyone here hasseen this information.
“‘Ukraine ranks fourth in the world in terms of the total estimated value of its natural resources. It has an annual output of approximately $15 billion, with a potential estimated value of up to $7.5 trillion,’ the general wrote. ‘At the same time, Ukraine is one of the richest European countries in terms of rare earth metals and lithium reserves. The value of these deposits is estimated to be between $3 trillion and $11.5 trillion. Oil is traditionally called ‘black gold’ because of its importance, and according to global experts, lithium is becoming the ‘white gold’ of this century. In nuclear energy and atomic technology, lithium is used to obtain a radioactive isotope of hydrogen called tritium. Most of the lithium is used in the production of lithium-ion batteries. In Ukraine, the reserves of lithium ore in the Donetsk region alone amount to 5.67 million tons in category C1 and more than 8 million tons in category C2. The projected volume of lithium reserves in Russia is one million tons.”
“At the end of 2021, Ukraine began auctioning off permits to explore its lithium, copper, cobalt, and nickel reserves. In November of that year, the Australian company European Lithium announced that it was acquiring rights to two promising lithium deposits, one in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and the other in Kirovograd in the center of the country. In the same month, the Chinese company Chengxin Lithium applied for rights to lithium deposits in Donetsk and Kirovograd. According to Rosenblum’s office (Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security and Defense Policy), the Pentagon is focusing on Ukraine’s mineral resources. In mid-February 2022, seventeen American military experts wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin emphasizing the need to expand U.S. access to these mineral resources”
The cuttings were cited in American Thinker today – Wednesday :
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/10/what_president_trump_is_going_to_budapest_for.html
100
Both UK and USA have been trying to make minerals deals with Ukraine in return for arms.
51
Absolutely
It’s like a 21st century version of the ‘scramble for Africa’, but in eastern Europe and on a smaller scale.
60
I don’t think the Albanese/TRUMP meeting was as successful as claimed.
For a start, TRUMP doesn’t tolerate idiots like Albanese and most of his cabinet. When he said Albanese was “doing a great job” he was just being polite and diplomatic. But Albanese reacted like an excited schoolboy when he said that, reflecting Albanese bring the simpleton that he is.
With TRUMP’s imprimatur of Albanese’s “great work” it could conceivably make things even worse for Australia because there will be absolutely nothing stopping the Albanese regime now. Although they were pretty well free range anyway doing whatever they please with no political opposition.
And as I mentioned above, I doubt the lanthanide minerals deal will materialise any time soon, if ever.
Essentially the meeting boiled down to an assurance from TRUMP that 1) we will get the Virginia subs, 2) we are already on the lowest possible tariff of 10% except for steel and aluminium.
As for steel and aluminium from Australia, their production is heavily subsidised by the Australian taxpayer because these things can’t be made at a competitive cost with “green” energy and CO2 emissions limits.
200
The one outcome of the meeting was that it will pay to be polite to Trump over the next 3 years. Even their ABC covered the Trump Rho Rudd put down.
Susan Ley used Rudd’s embarrassing remarks about Trump to state he was unsuited for the job and was harming Australia’s reputation in the USA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdNi0R4UEJ8&t=2s
70
RickWill PLEASE – it is Sussan, or possibly Susssan, but she was certainly right about Rudd.
100
“Although they were pretty well free range anyway . . .”
Farmerbrauns’ free- range goats take exception to this comparison.
100
‘ … heavily subsidised by the Australian taxpayer … ‘
For reasons of national security, its probably bipartisan.
11
“For reasons of national security, its probably bipartisan.”
That lovely inexplicable generalisation that always means more money for the big boys via the parasites in power, while the peasants pay more for the same stuff. Like the other wonderful excuse for removing freedom or making more profit, ‘saafety’.
10
SMH is jammed full of stories describing how well Elbow’s meeting with Trump went, and how wonderful Rudd the Dud is. They even trotted out an old has-been as usual, this time Turnbull, to sing the chorus.
‘Albanese backs ‘outstanding’ Rudd after Trump run-in’
‘How Albanese, through preparation and some luck, won over Trump
‘Albanese’s won over Trump. Convincing Australians about what comes next will be tougher’
‘How Kevin Rudd trumped our past toadying PMs in the White House’
‘I’ve been in the room for many Trump meetings. This one was different’
‘Inside Albanese’s extremely successful Trump meeting (where I was called a nasty guy)’
‘Having sat with Trump in the Oval Office, I give Albanese a 10/10 review’
..and four articles on how its going to get hot in Sydney today.
Record-smashing temperatures and high winds forecast for Sydney
Sydney is set for an unseasonable scorcher.
Sydney to ‘flirt with 40 degrees’: BOM
The hottest hour: How the heat will build today
Sydney bracing for hottest ever October day
Either Hard-Left politics or climate alarmism, the standard fare of newspapers these days. I’d be embarrassed to work for an organisation so blatant and shallow.
130
None so blind as monkeys scampering up the Climate Gravy Tree:
Manic Sick-o-phant Media (MSM) pushing the Aus & NZ Burning Heatwave 97% nonsense here too – seemingly unaware of the regularity of Spring Nor’westers – yet there’s a total blackout / radio silence on all the SNOW & BLIZZARD whiteout conditions in Tasmania and the South Island the past few weeks and the week to come…
“Well it might as well snow until November”.
Effect: warm dry air off the desert
Cause: HUGE snowstorm lows roaring around Antarctica
Their ‘science’ is a bogus crock called IGNORANCE.
120
‘ … climate alarmism …’
The people are so throughly brainwashed that they instinctively think global warming. The SMH should tell its readers there is no need for alarm, this unseasonal heat spike is caused by a sudden stratospheric warming event.
01
China using AI in the real world rather than just passing exams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBED44XURRQ
20
I am reasonably certain that my farm will not look anything like those operations, even in twenty years time.
I see this farm reducing its reliance on electronics, and maybe diesel also.
A possible exception is milk harvesting.
The farm is currently self-sustaining in respect of livestock ,feed, and nitrogen fertiliser.
And personnel- it is a family farm.
The focus of the farm is becoming more local, in line with the consumer trend of “clean, green, fresh , local and animal friendly”.
90
China’s problem is ageing population. Two parents and one child – all aging; leaves no one to run the family farm. Farmers are disappearing so AI is replacing them.
China has lost 200M farmers this century. Even for China, that is a big number.
It would be interesting to compare the labour intensity of China’s farms with NZ’s today.
I was surprised that the machine handling of the chooks was much less stressful on them.
But I understand how a farm can be a way of life and and enjoyable livelihood. I enjoy getting produce from trees but I am not good at it. Lots of year-to-year variation for whatever reason. This year I stripped all the foliage from all four citrus trees before the gall wasp hatched in the hope of stopping the infestation. The trees were getting too big anyhow so needed a good trim.
40
“Lots of year to year variation. . . .”
Yes, no two years the same, and that’s over 50 years on the same farm.
The grassland farmer must be first and foremost an ecologist, as well as being skilled at ethology, and then all the other things.
You can see why the Romans thought that most productivity came from the eyes of the farmer : in fact it is all five senses with which the farmer engages with the eco-niche that is occupied.
For productivity, read EROEI .
50
Mrs Wife and I have eaten healthily for a long time but her cancer has prompted even more effort in that direction. Lots of research, reading labels and checking origin of our foods. Back in 2008, following a heart attack, I cut out a lot of processed foods and remember ‘educating’ the so-called nutritionist at the hospital by saying the simple answer was to ensure that your shopping basket contained mostly fresh – veg, fruit, meat and fish.
But now we’re going further and doing more research, in the course of which I have become alarmed by stories saying that even the fresh veg and fruit coming out of China contains unacceptable levels of chemicals, including heavy metals from growing in contaminated soil. I also read that the Chinese have been putting a lot of effort into selective breeding (not a new thing of course) in order to grow faster, harvest sooner and look more attractive – all at the expense of nutritional value. It sounds like they’ve taken what was already a problem with supermarket produce and turbocharged it.
So now origin matters to us – a lot. We’ve taken to driving quite far just to access farm gate sales. We’re using small, independent greengrocers that sell ‘ugly’ produce IN SEASON ONLY. This has dramatically increased our weekly food bill though.
50
FWIW – flights of logic
“Rain causes wildfires – the climate change gospel according to the Met Office”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/rain-causes-wildfires-the-climate-change-gospel-according-to-the-met-office/
And
“Rising Temperatures Threaten UK trees”
“It includes familiar names like oak, birch, and alder, alongside less common species such as coast redwood and Corsican pine, which it is hoped will lead to a more resilient woodland.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c0jdp9wynn7o
Oak, birch and alder? What, like the trees that have always grown in the British Isles?”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/21/rising-temperatures-threaten-uk-trees/
Concludes
“It is worth noting that Dr Eleanor Tew has no experience in actual forestry work.
Since leaving Cambridge University, she has worked for Forestry England. Her work focuses on the practical application of forest resilience and natural capital concepts, embedding these into day-to-day decision-making. Her academic background is in ecology, conservation and environmental economics, with a PhD from the University of Cambridge exploring natural capital optimisation in UK forestry.
Maybe she should spend a couple of years doing actual forestry work; then she might stop writing this sort of nonsense.”
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“Rising Temperatures Threaten UK trees”
Like “Oak, birch and alder”
All of these trees seem to do quite well in the antipodes. Oaks line our driveway, summer temps to over 40degrees C, heavy clay soils no water but cooling green fire resistant foliage. Got a couple of alders that are ok as well and the bloody silver birch that keeps cloning itself. Yes I can understand how climate change will “threaten UK trees”
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I know for certain that a far bigger threat to UK trees is wind farms. Threat ONE is removing them for wind turbines and solar farms. Threat TWO is air stilling and desertification.
I have one birch left in the front yard. The other two died when a Jacaranda took their sunlight. Also lots of big oak trees around Melbourne.
Increasing levels of CO2 and higher rainfall does increase the risk of trees lodging and branches being broken off. There have been some areas of old growth in Victoria when tall tress in wet ground get blown over in large number.
I regularly trim trees around the yard to keep them from getting top heavy. All good fire wood. I can sustain about 300kg of dry wood a year from my few trees.
My neighbour lost a 100+ year old eucalyptus last year when it was lodged in heavy winds after a few weeks of regular rain. The branches did some damage to eaves and guttering.
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Was reading your comments about greening and how greening has notably decreased in the SW of WA. I am aware that this is mostly blamed on the rainfall reduction. But I also wonder whether the severe dieback that has severely damaged the jarrah forests, plus the many bushfires due to inadequate undergrowth clearing, don’t also play a part.
20
The dryness in SWWA is caused by a positive AAO. Its also also referred to as the Southern Annular Mode (SAM).
https://chaac.meteo.plus/en/climate/aao-index-monthly.png
11
I know that you have mentioned this, but I thought the SAM swings quite rapidly a number of times in a year. Yet the WA SW has had low rainfall for a number of years. Also, if the SAM is positive, I thought this would mean less rain, but it’s been a very wet year in SW WA.
00
I mentioned this yesterday. For all the podcast fans, but more specifically Joe Rogan fans (Spotify etc)- Dick Lindzen and Will Happer from the @CO2Coalition are in podcast #2397 with Joe. Just been uploaded to his site. I listen on Spotify but you can listen via other modes. It’s a bit over 2 hours long. I listened to the first 10 minutes and so far, so good. Will finish it off later. I think a lot of people on this site would be very interested.
20
Listening to Paul Kelly this morning clearly praising lavishly Albanese shows how deep the Left malaise affected Australian society.
Paul proudly criticised Liberals most of his time, that was his job and he was a good professional.
But I felt deep shame for my Prime Minister and my Ambassador when the uneducable idiot pulled out his schoolmaster ruler and whipped them both in his office, so the other pupils gathered around learn the lesson well.
Shame on every single laughing one of them.
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Lesson learnt – do not bad mouth a guy destined to be the leader of the free world
To late for Rudd though. The historical context:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkY5BWAdO7M
Who’s is the village idiot now!
Rudd needs to be shown the door. And I am certain Trump was not kidding when he said I don’t like you either – who could like this imbecile.
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The Sky News reporter who asked the question of Trump must have taken great joy in seeing the response. Andrew Clennell deserves a medal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R5dI2gYk0A
He will have to watch the news footage to see Rudd squirm.
Clennell will be one I watch with interest. Already on my list to head their ABC if it continues to be taxpayer funded.
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RW, don’t like Clennell much but 110 out of 100 for putting Rudd the Dud in the spotlight……Kevvy would have kicked the cat when he got home for sure !!!!….pure gold….
20
‘But I felt deep shame for my Prime Minister and my Ambassador …’
Don’t take it too seriously, Albo and Rudd are hardened politicians and will laugh it off.
Importantly, Albo signed the minerals deal with Donnie at a crucial moment in history.
12
Too burned out to travel? This new app fakes your summer vacation photos for you
Product designer Laurent Del Rey, who recently joined Meta’s Superintelligence Lab, launched a side project called Endless Summer, a photo booth app for iPhone that creates AI-generated vacation photos starring you in locations around the world. Here you are exploring a beach town, or overlooking a European city from your balcony. There you are, out shopping, having dinner with friends, or at a social gathering.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/18/too-burned-out-to-travel-this-new-app-fakes-your-summer-vacation-photos-for-you/
/Paging Doug Quaid, Doug Quaid. 😆
30
Total Recall. My favourite scene is at the end where Schwarzenegger holds his breath while the planet’s atmosphere regenerates.
40
My favorite scene (in the remake) is Kate Beckinsale, when she wakes up next to Colin Farrell … … …
00
Yes, just tried to get on. Nothing there at all. Obviously haven’t finished. All temp data for individual sites stopped at around 10:20am. Weatherzone and Willieweather working though. BoM – hurry up!!!
00
What Idiot in the BOM designed the New Site bom.gov.au
You used to be easily able to get Sydney & NSW Observations with Full Screen Table with Temps Wind etc throughout Day
Unable to find anywhere on New Site
BOM needs to be disbanded!
80
Use reg.bom.gov.au as the root for your links.
41
Barry Lifesaver – Worked Thanks
30
The usual Bom is available at http://reg.bom.gov.au
It works for now.
50
OK how are the ordinary regular user of the rainfall data for a particular location supposed to be able to find that?
I left a few choice words on their feedback
10
Japan has elected its first ever female Prime Minister. You might expect Their ABC to be happy about this, yet their report began ominously, with the words, “Sanae Takaichi becomes Japan’s first female PM, but some say it is not a win for women.”
The report went on to tell how she doesn’t have much support, this reason, that reason, the other reason. weird, because Their ABC usually gets behind women who succeed in a ‘man’s world’.
Then all became clear.
“The staunch conservative has promoted “traditional” family structures …”
So, once again, only the side matters to the left, not the principle.
110
Yeah but she was the drummer in an all-girl band who played covers of Black Sabbath in her yoof – when not riding her motorbike – or so their BBC claimed.
Somewhere along the road she swapped her leathers for a woman’s business dress/suit/attire. Better money than rock’n’roll?
50
Bureau of Malinformation (BOM) updated its website – just when I’d figured out the old one – yet all I get is a blank page… with links to nowhere…
Improving data by eliminating it (?) or does your govt expect us to download their app (not).
Any hints?
40
Probably hosted by AWS…😆
10
Australia Without Service (sic) ? 🤪
20
Barry
October 22, 2025 at 1:37 pm · Reply
Use reg.bom.gov.au as the root for your links.
Worked
20
The usual Bom is available at http://reg.bom.gov.au
It works for now.
10
Thanks Tom, I can’t navigate the new one at all, I guess I need to update my browser.
Even if I could get it to open fully, none of the “helpful information” seems to be very helpful. Quelle surprise!
Time to talk to a “representative”.
10
Tech corner: how does a microwave work?
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_t4do9kfgsG1z23obp.mp4
They didn’t mention the standing wave created in the cooking cavity though, which is why you need to move the food around to ensure even heating throughout…
30
Not bad. As mentioned previously, it’s the cavity strapping that keeps all cavity oscillations in sync, allowing high power generation.
00
Bumped
Anyone know about this?
“Just days left to have your say on country road speed limits”
https://www.beefcentral.com/news/just-days-left-to-have-your-say-on-country-road-speed-limits/
10
With the looks like aim of 80 kmh at best, time to repeat a comment on the USA’s achievements when they reduced highway speeds from 70 mph to 55 mph
“That takes crossing Texas from a journey to a career”
20
..and THAT’s why they started to include cars in the truck’s average speed cameras!
You don’t need to send the Highwaymen out into the country when travelers will write their own speeding tickets… averaged 88KPH, pay $2800 or go directly to jail do not pass go…
Making a 6hr drive into an 8hour drive won’t help their stupid message of ‘stop every two hours..’
The next step will be to make dashcam evidence allowable in Court so any clown you overtake as they get in the way at 75kph will become an instant policeman.
..and as before, absolutely no mention of kangaroos causing accidents, its all drink or tiredness or whatever the buzzwords for this season are. Nor the stupidity of having trees right at the roadside so any deviation to miss a kangaroo becomes fatal, as well as giving them somewhere to hide until you are right on them. If they want to save country lives, clear every road for 5M either side.
30
They’re not going to fix the roads because they don’t want us driving anyway – just check out the UN 2030 “Sustainability goals”.
Dropping the speed limit by 20kph just makes the journey longer and more fatiguing.
The roads are not just a disgrace, but an outright insult to those of us who drive them regularly for a living – and that’s a lot of people.
None of this is by accident.
20
‘Coal use hit a record high around the world last year despite efforts to switch to clean energy, imperilling the world’s attempts to rein in global heating.
‘The share of coal in electricity generation dropped as renewable energy surged ahead. But the general increase in power demand meant that more coal was used overall, according to the annual State of Climate Action report, published on Wednesday.’ (Guardian)
42
The criminal multiple-abuse of children in the UK has been mentioned on here before.
Whilst much of this abuse – rape, trafficking, violence, etc. – has apparently been perpetrated by men from Musselman/Pakistani backgrounds in the North [and elsewhere] – it seems that there is a considerable number of [as ever, mostly vulnerable] children abused in London.
This link is not pretty reading, but suggests that – in London, as elsewhere – there is a real reluctance from The Powers That Be to publicise, investigate, & prosecute the alleged perpetrators.
In Bradford and Rochdale [inter alia] that reluctance appears to have been ‘to maintain social cohesion’ – ‘no picking on Musselman men, just because they are rapists, ‘cos we need all the votes from that community’, put crudely!
But in London, it seems the perpetrators are from a much wider range of backgrounds.
And many appear to be involved with organised crimes.
Not ‘just’ drugs, but high-end car crime, cigarette smuggling, illegal waste-disposal and more.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/grooming-gangs-london-operation-grandbye-b1254140.html
The ‘exclusive’ doesn’t appear to point fingers at WHY this apparent reluctance to stop these horrors exists, only that it – seemingly – does.
The jibes about 2 Tier Justice – aimed at 2 Tier, Free Gear, Not Here, Kier – whilst usually apposite, may not necessarily apply here. Whether to Sir Starmer, or to Sir Sadiq Khan, 3-Term Mayor of London.
So – why the apparent inability to join the dots, publicise, investigate and prosecute?
I wish I knew.
Auto
50
FWIW
Some reading to either calm or create a panic –
“Economic chickens coming home to roost”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/10/economic-chickens-coming-home-to-roost.html
00
FWIW
The long arm of coincidence?
“Two Russian-Interest Oil Refineries in Romania and Hungary Erupt in Simultaneous Explosions, as Putin-Trump Budapest Meeting Delayed
October 21, 2025 | Sundance | 139 Comments”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/10/21/two-russian-interest-oil-refineries-in-romania-and-hungary-erupt-in-simultaneous-explosions-as-putin-trump-budapest-meeting-delayed/
10