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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Caerphilly, a Socialist stronghold were only one voter in 18 voted Labour. Out of an electorate of 66,895 only 3,713 or 5.55% voted Labour in the Caerphilly by-election. Labour were beaten by Plaid Cymru, a left-wing Welsh Nationalist Socialist Workers Party (Plaid Gweithwyr Sosialaidd Genedlaethol Cymru), who beat Reform UK into second place. Reform UK, a right-wing British Unionist Party, supported individual liberty, local & national democracy, freedom and free speech, but was tainted by association with the hated Conservative Party.
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Wales has always had a strong anti-English movement and Reform is seen as an English political party. This was very evident even fifty years ago when I would holiday in Wales. If we stepped inside a village pub speaking English, the whole place would fall silent and we’d be getting healthy serves of ‘side eye’.
I admire the Welsh though, and they have an amazing history.
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I lived in Wales as a young boy during the war and can speak it like a native (well, English with a Welsh accent, boy-o). We were back there a few years ago and, out for a run one morning, I passed a local and said “morning!” Just a scowl in reply. The hatred of the English runs deep – and I’m Scottish! During the war I lined up with my Mum at the village grocery for our weekly, restricted, rations. Before letting us into his shop the grocer would make us line up by nationality.
“Welsh first, Scots and Irish next….. and you English down the end!, see” By the time the poor old Poms got there there was not much left!
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Probably, 30, actually
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I lived in Wales as a young boy during the war and can speak it like a native (well, English with a Welsh accent, boy-o). We were back there a few years ago and, out for a run one morning, I passed a local and said “morning!” Just a scowl in reply. The hatred of the English runs deep – and I’m Scottish! During the war I lined up with my Mum at the village grocery for our weekly, restricted, rations. Before letting us into his shop the grocer would make us line up by nationality.
“Welsh first, Scots and Irish next….. and you English down the end!, see” By the time the poor old Poms got there there was not much left!
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They say when you get to 85 you start repeating yourself, unaware that you’ve already told us that story.
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The globalists are out to ban wood stoves. Nothing to do with your health, everything to do with control:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/theyre-coming-your-wood-burning-stove-again
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I use a modern** wood stove and harvest wood from my trees. This reduces the local fuel load and helps refresh the habitat without wildfires. A plus is the Carbon Dioxide contribution.
**By modern is meant a tight stove with a catalytic burner (combustor). My neighbor has a pellet stove that changes the story. To see mine, search for “Blaze King Chinook 30 wood stove” – – just one of many. And, yes, such things are not cheap. One also has to enjoy the harvesting of one’s own wood. Those wanting to spend hours on social media and play games should go a different route.
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How does your stove go in terms of smoke? Do the neighbours know when you are using it? I’ve got one here which I don’t use because it stinks out the neighbourhood.
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On start-up there is white smoke because that is what dry wood produces. No trash can be burned or the catalytic combustor will be ruined. There is a temperature gauge and a lever. After heat-up, one moves the lever. The catalytic combustor in a wood stove typically begins working at a temperature of around 500°F (260°C). This allows it to effectively reduce smoke emissions and produce a steady burn. Loading the stove at, say, 10PM and restricting the air intake will provide heat until 8AM.
My nearest neighbors (210 m & 240 m) also have wood stoves. They will be burning wood at the same time I do. There is no stink.
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Try doing that in Africa, the Indian Sub-Continent and SE Asia.
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Yes, excellent point. Where I live there are three choices — maybe 4. Move, use propane, grid electricity, or your own wind/solar/battery (WSB). {The nearest gas line is 6 miles away.}
My area does experience cold winters, down to -20°F (near -30°C). It is said “all politics is local.” True for keeping warm, I guess.
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At least 80 million Nigerians don’t have access to electricity. How else will they cook and stay warm if they don’t use fire? Oddly, 140 million are online, it begs the question how they are charging their devices.
https://techeconomy.ng/140m-nigerians-online-80m-lack-power-alton-rural-connectivity-reforms/
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We were on holiday in Tanzinia a few years ago and the shepherds minding their animals in the middle of nowhere were all on mobile phones. Their villages consisted of grass huts. I asked where they got the power for their phones and was told that they buy 4 or so batteries and go into town once a week to have them charged, wherever town was.
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Nigeria has a population in the 230-245 million range.
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ gives current population as about 239,100,000.
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In Australia, being a fanatically globalist country, the Greens/Labor plan to phase out wood heating.
Also in Tasmania, Australia’s coldest state.
It’s all in accordance with Leftist policies to ban anything that is affordable, convenient, involves freedom of choice, is nice and pleasant, is fun etc.. (all for non-Elites).
They really do want you to freeze in the dark.
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“In Australia, being a fanatically globalist country …”
Are we though, really? I no longer treat elections as a fair representation of a country’s culture and society, especially in the west. I am frequently puzzled lately by election results that seem to contradict public sentiment.
A case in point is Ireland. Over the past year or so, there have been very strongly supported protests against immigration and other issues important to social conservatives. Friends and family in Ireland all, every single one of them, say the people are fed up, concerned and worried for their children’s future. They say their own neighbours and friends, also people they chat to in the street, are done with leftist governments.
And yet, just yesterday, they supposedly elected a new president who is very clearly on the far left.
Or did they?
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The people vote for the one that gives them the most, baggage be damned.
There is also the considerable affect of apathy and ignorance.
And lastly, you have selected a biased group to form your opinions. By excluding people that you would not be friends with, you have effectively ignored anyone strongly of the left, (I assume). Even if this last part is only partly correct, you stand a better chance of listening to only those that would agree with you and not a true sample of the population.
And then of course. The government controls the narrative, the courts and the enforcement if your good ideas damage their chance of being at the trough they will see that your good ideas are challenged at, (your), huge personal cost.
Similarly, I wouldn’t count on the voting intentions of this site alone to forecast an election outcome. We are probably better informed but we are not the mass that form the useful idiots
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“And lastly, you have selected a biased group to form your opinions. By excluding people that you would not be friends with, you have effectively ignored anyone strongly of the left, (I assume). Even if this last part is only partly correct, you stand a better chance of listening to only those that would agree with you and not a true sample of the population.”
Not really. I would describe all bar one of the folks I know in Ireland as being to the left of where I stand. Two in particular are what I would call ‘Greens’. None though, including the tree huggers, are happy with their current government. Even those I consider to be out and out leftists (and suffering from severe TDS) are dismayed by the influx of immigrants from hostile cultures (mainly African).
And then of course there is the very visible, widely supported protests which, despite media attempts to play them down, have a lot of support from the public. Believe me, it takes a lot to goad the usually hospitable Irish into protesting against ‘poor immigrants’.
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The clowns making the rules have never experienced the difference between and wood fire and heat pump heating in a cold climate. Nor do they worry much about their electricity bills. Nor do they think much outside urban living.
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“The United Nations launched a brand new Global Healthy Indoor Air Commission”
A bit down in the article, but the fingers of this organisation try to control everybody’s life while continuously FAILING AT THE ONE JOB THEY WERE CREATED FOR.
How and why this organisation still exists is beyond me.
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They cherry pick the easy stuff and pat themselves on the back for it. Meanwhile the wars rage on.
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If you are using a slow combustion ‘sealed’ wood heater and there’s smoke inside the house, you are doing something very wrong, seriously.
We know what they think of gas, they want it banned, so what chance for wood.
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Now, if they made a concerted effort to replace wood and dung stoves across Africa with reliable grid power, what a wonderful thing that would be. Trees would grow and civilisation would advance.
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I’m reminded of an old caveman cartoon where one said “Kids spoiled now. When I was a kid we only had black and white fire”.😁
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MIT Professor of Atmospheric Physics, Dr. Richard Lindzen & William Happer talk to Joe Rogan about the Climate ‘Hoax’. Lindzen says that “Man-made Climate Change” is a quasi-religious movement predicated on an absurd scientific narrative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt32chvO_iY
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Hmm, old men still fighting the last war
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No, just men (and women) who have been around long enough to remember when science wasn’t a religion where “belief” trumps fact, genuine experiment, and the true scientific method.
Sneer at them as you like, but everyone except the few at the top of the world this is ushering in, and their thuggish enforcers, will be affected by the rules, regulations and severe limitations that are to be imposed under the “sustainability goals”.
These are not made up by ordinary people, but by those at the top to control the rest.
It has always been that way in every despotic dictatorship throughout history.
Instead of sneering, try being grateful that there are those “old men still fighting the last war” on your behalf.
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The reason you only hear from old men is that they can’t be fired for telling the truth.
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Excellent point TdeF.
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Play the ball, not the man.
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Neither Lindzen nor Happer have successfully published peer reviewed papers that disprove the fact the atmospheric temperature is governed
by greenhouse gas concentration.
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But other people have published those papers and Lindzen and Happer talk about those papers. Your ultra purist rule that only authors of a paper may talk about them just shows how ridiculous and unscientific you are. You have nothing at all to address their main points, instead you have to invent new “rules” so you don’t have to discuss science, and can keep on doing ad homs. And I’ve never seen you criticize an alarmist because they didn’t personally author a paper but are talking about someone elses work.
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Please provide references to these supposed papers. No faux journals please.
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Simon, please provide ONE paper that shows empirical evidence that CO2 causes catastrophic climate change. You are the one that wants our money to change the climate.
PS: Lindzen and Happer have both published more than 200 peer reviewed papers in climate and physics. How many have you published? Would that be “zero” Mr anonymous.?
‘
I’ve been asking this for nearly 16 years, and still no one can find that paper…https://joannenova.com.au/2010/01/is-there-any-evidence/
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Seriously? The scientific literature is both deep and broad. These are the most cited:
https://www.carbonbrief.org/the-most-influential-climate-change-papers-of-all-time/
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Which one is it Simon? Or don’t you know, because you’ve never thought about why you believe?
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There’s a nasty little implication there, that being that the two gentlemen are trying to publish such papers, but thus far have been unsuccessful. And ‘peer reviewed…’, oh please!
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It is hard to disprove a negative! The null hypothesis takes care of that.
The onus is on you alarmists to prove that human emissions do change the climate,
and that if they do the outcome is negative,
and if it is negative that it creates a climate emergency!
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And I would love to see a proof that humans control CO2, by tree growth for example. NASA proved it was not true. In fact more CO2 means more trees but more trees do not mean less CO2. So tree coverage is a dependent variable, not a driver. CO2 levels are maintained by the ocean. It’s all such simple physical chemistry of dissolved gases on this water planet and 98% of all CO2 is in the ocean.
Still we have punitive taxes based solely on this utterly unproven idea, introduced from John Howard in 2001 and onwards. Every Prime Minister in 25 years has stolen billions.
2011 Carbon Credits(Farming Initiative Act)
The main eligibility requirements for eligible offsets projects are as follows:
(a) the project must be carried out in Australia;
(b) the project must be covered by a methodology determination made under this Act.
“offsets project” means:
(a) a sequestration offsets project; or
(b) an emissions avoidance offsets project
This is the foundation Act for the hidden massive 35% CO2 tax in the deceitfully named “Safeguard Mechanism”
And no one knows Australia will have 35% CO2 taxes across the country by 2030, currently at 10%. You are not to be told, so no one is outraged. Every form of transport, manufacture, agriculture, mining is taxed and they are talking of increasing the number of people who have to pay by lowering the threshold. Because no one knows about it and the media says nothing.
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Many people on this blog don’t share your faith in peer reviewed studies. This is not to say all peer reviewed studies are invalid, it’s just that so many shoddy ones have wrongfully been published after supposedly going through a robust peer review process when they clearly have not. This is not an opinion, it’s a fact.
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/05/so-much-for-peer-review-wiley-shuts-down-19-science-journals-and-retracts-11000-fraudulent-or-gobblygook-papers/
In turn, scientists who seek to publish papers running contrary to a narrative can be refused peer review which makes their work appear illegitimate even if it scientifically sound. This may be the case with Lindzen and Happer.
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As Richard Lindzen explains, peer review does not attest to truth. It is simply a check that the paper is sensible, the methods are reasonable and the conclusions are reasonable, not that the conclusions are correct. Reviews are usually done by friendly referees. The whole thing can be quite wrong and the source data is not necessarily published. Alleged Climatologist Michael Mann has set a precedent by refusing for decades to release his actual data which he still argues is his personal property even though the alleged research was government funded. He lost his lawsuit in Canada because he promised to the court to supply the data and then refused.
‘Climatologist Michael Mann sued Canadian climate skeptic Tim Ball in the British Columbia Supreme Court for defamation, a case that eventually resulted in the judge dismissing Mann’s claim and ordering him to pay Ball’s legal costs. The lawsuit, which began in 2012, stemmed from Ball’s accusations that Mann’s influential “hockey stick” graph misrepresented climate data and that Mann had committed fraud.’
So much for peer review. The late Prof Tim Ball said Mann belonged in the State Penn not Penn State. It was a joke but Mann sued anyway.
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Simon, you shift the goalposts so fast that I feel dizzy.
No matter what is offered up, you reject everything based on arbitrary and dynamic “rules” that only you define, and redefine.
How long before you reject papers because of the font style or reference format. No Oxford comma? Must be junk science. IEEE citation style? Must be junk science…
The good thing is that most people see this childish game for what is is. Keep it up.
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Notice how Fitz has nothing but ad homs , these days?
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That also applies to Leftists in general as they don’t have any sound or rational arguments. They never did, of course, but now they are increasingly being held to account. They were allowed to get away with it before. Now they have nothing but ad homs and worse as we can see from the increasingly violent demonstrations from Leftists throughout the world.
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You see it again with Simon above, laying word games about published papers, nothing of substance on the topic.
And it assumes getting a paper published is a credential given some of the deliberate nonsense that has made it to press in that system.
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‘Hmm, old men still fighting the last war.’
They are on the frontline of the information war and age is not a barrier.
Cook’s escalator (sks) is no longer operating, which is a pity, but as you know he was burnt by his untruth about 97% of scientists believe in AGW.
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True, the figure is > 99.5% these days, there hasn’t been a paper questioning the efficacy of atmospheric greenhouse gases in a least 10 years.
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Yes Simon. we re all aware of the Lynas paper. Of the 3000 papers analysed
Explicit quantitative support – 19 0.006%
Explicit non quantitative support – 413. 14%
Implicit support – 460. 15%
No position or uncertainty – 2104 70%
Implicit rejection – 2.
Explicit rejection without quantification – 1
explicit rejection with quantification – 1
Whilst it is clear that more papers support AGW than reject it, the vast majority take no position. The actual consensus is a massive 30% even if you take into account the implicit support. A 99% consensus can only be achieved by adding in the no position or uncertainty papers. Pretty fraudulent if you ask me, but that’s man made climate change all over. As far as papers questioning the greenhouse gas over the past 10 years, you really have been living under a rock.
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Hmmm … I’ll let that go through to the keeper.
At the end of the Holocene it must be divine providence.
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Seems like Skeptical Science is still there!
https://skepticalscience.com/
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Without the escalator.
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Looking at the history of aviation, it’s amazing the developments of the 1950’s and 1960’s which saw the
B-52 1952 first flight
X-15 1959
XB-70 1964
SR-71 and A-12 1964/1962
Boeing 707 1957
Boeing 747 1969
Concorde 1969
Other milestones
Wright brothers first powered flight 1903
Man on the moon 1969
Many of the records set by those aircraft still stand plus the B-52 and 747 are still flying today.
All were designed with the aid of pencil, paper, slide rules and some instances very primitive computers. But most importantly, designers had deep knowledge of the subject matter, not some clueless young wokester asking AI what to do.
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The Boeing 707 on a demo flight was barrel rolled by the test pilot Tex Johnstone.
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He discusses it here:
https://youtu.be/Ra_khhzuFlE
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“Barrel-rolled” at a very low altitude
This demonstrated the serious control-ability of the aircraft.
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You don’t see that in the preflight scare videos.
More people would wear a seatbelt if they knew the potential of the vehicle they were flying in.
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I always stay belted in flight except for when I have to leave my seat. The g forces that can be generated in commercial aircraft are far greater than someone’s body can tolerate if they get thrown around the cabin during turbulence. E.g. designed safe loads of -1.0g to +2.5g typical in commercial airliners.
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When a 330 suddenly lost height over northern WA due to computer failures, a gent’s head went up through the overhead lockers. Same as you, I always keep the belt on when seated.
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Ditto. I always wear the belt except when a there is a need to move.
On a related note, our pilot son is very annoyed by passengers who undo their belts on arrival at the stand before being told it’s ok to do so. People can be injured during a last little adjustment of position and doubtless blame the airline when their own stupidity is responsible.
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I have very occasionally enjoyed the comforts of business class on long haul. I love having a lie-flat seat. You can keep the food, the extra baggage allowance, the club lounge and the fancy wines; just let me lie down! I have the seatbelt fastened even when lying down, albeit very loosely so that I can roll around (arthritis hates it when you stay in the same position for too long). I worry though, when bedding down, how much the loosely-fastened belt would help if we hit a big pocket of turbulence. Probably snap my spine.
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Hello Steve. I always use it, over the blanket, as firmly as possble, depending on whether or not I’m side or back dozing. If turbulence increases I always lie on my back to try to avoid back damage if there is any violent bucking around.
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DYK that the Coney Island Roller Coaster can produce 12g of force?
Amazing they allow it!
The world record is 46g by an air force pilot who momentarily weighed over 3,000kg!
+/- 2g is nothing! 😁
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Another good one is the China Airlines Flight 006 747 loss of control over the Pacific. The animation of that is a good one to encourage seat belt wearing.
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A barrel roll should be a 1G manoeuvre.
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If you do it very slowly, then it could anywhere from 1G, (start and end) and -1G when inverted.
Of course, if the barrel roll is not pure, eg combined with a climb, then all sorts of G’s can be achieved.
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There are rolls and there are rolls. A pure barrel roll traces the outside of a cylinder (barrel) with a 90 degree heading change at the top inverted position, then a recovery to the original line in the second half. Although a comparatively gentle positive g manoeuvre, it is a deceptively difficult to do properly.
An aileron roll is a spin around the fore/aft axis of the fuselage, usually beginning with a nose high pull up in lower performance aircraft,
Slow rolls and hesitation rolls leave you hanging in your straps when inverted.
My attempts at rolls usually end up as a mish-mash of the above types 😁
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Another on an acceptance flight for Braniff iirc tried a dutch roll and lost three engines. The flight crew died.
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If only, that last paragraph about “reality” could be applied to the fantasy of Global Warming.
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The first commercial airliner, the Dehaviland Comet flew to Australia in 1955. Where I was at school in Central Victoria, we were all assembled on the oval staring at the sky for a glimpse of a shiny silver object that no one could hear way up there. The awe and fascination that this plane “had no propellers” was quite something. Truely a life changing development for the world. Only now do I realise how any culture, when confronted with something entirely new , can think things are a gift from the gods or some other mystical occurrence. Think how any primitive group that started fires by rubbing sticks together is suddenly confronted by a magnifying glass.
Sadly the Comet did not have a particularly good safety record.
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That should read first commercial jet airliner
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Yes, it suffered catastrophic metal fatigue due to stress concentration at the corners of square windows.
I am surprised that no designer, even then, 1949, understood the problem.
Nevertheless, lessons were learnt and then the whole field of linear elastic fracture mechanics was developed from 1957 to help further understand fatigue problems.
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ie Cargo Cult, referring to goodies being dropped from aircraft observed by Melanesians.
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Arthur C. Clarke, or Robert Heinlein, or perhaps Isaac Asimov, wrote –
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” …
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If Australia’s voting system actually worked to elect the best people, do you really thing the Liberal/Labor/Green Uniparty would continue to support it without reform?
It only works to keep them getting elected, very rarely does it allow the election of good people.
At the very least compulsory voting and the preferential system needs to be abandoned.
It’s very cruel to force the ignorant and clueless to vote and extremely harmful because policies are made to attract votes from such people, such as giving away “free stuff” at taxpayer expense.
Preferential voting in practice reinforces the election of the two/three party system even though it’s meant to do the opposite and enable the election of candidates that may not have the most votes but whom are more desired than the others. That’s why Lib/Lab/Greens support it.
And why should people who are not net taxpayers such as welfare recipients and public serpents be allowed to vote when they will just vote themselves more funds from the public purse? (I would exclude age pensioners who have paid into the pension system their entire lives.)
Back in the day, there was the forty shilling freeholder.
A selected group of voters called Forty Shilling Freeholders.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty-shilling_freeholders
You could only vote if you had property to a certain value. It wasn’t a huge amount, maybe a few thousand dollars worth in today’s money.
What do you think of some variation of this idea in modern Western democracies? The problem now is that political parties are in competition with each other to see who can give away the most welfare in order to secure votes. This applies to corporate welfare as well (i.e. protection from market forces ensuring that industry has no incentive to become efficient). Ultimately there will be so many people voting themselves funds from the public coffers there will be no incentive to produce. (We are almost at that point now.) If voters had some interest in owning some amount of property this would not be such an issue.
Under the current system of giving away more and more property earned by producers to people who don’t produce in order for politicians to buy votes guarantees eventual economic and social collapse.
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Let us capture the ‘Great Reset’ and make it our own.
The candidates for election to run on a simple agenda, ‘No Pay for Politicians’. Politics is community service and not a self service. Once the Politicians linked their largesse to rise automatically with that of the Bureaucracy and Judiciary we were toast as a Democracy. Councils are a classic example. When they changed from meeting fees to salaries they went from balanced budgets to revaluing assets and other creative accounting to find themselves in debt they can no longer sustain.
Agenda to save our Democracy
(1) Compensation not remuneration for Politicians. – Bureaucrats do the work, policitians tweek legislation
(2) 2 year terms and only 2 consecutive terms. – Get in and get done what you were voted to do.
(3) Paper votin,g scrutineered and counted at the polling station by volunteers.
(4) No tax payer funding or payment for votes to go to Political Parties.
(5) Magistrates to be selected from Justices of the Peace or Clerks of Courts. No legal aid Political appointments. Magistrates to kick the crappy litigation and lawfare out of our courts.
(6) No compulsory voting
(7) First past the post.
(8) When elected and with the Reset completed, Parliament to dissolve and fresh elections held.
There you go – reset to where the people can decide who they elect as their represntatives and the Bureacracy can be set free to serve the people and not back room power brokers.
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Due to their natural Darwinistic abilities Victorian Councils become the worst corruptors of Democracy principles.
Just the other day heard a property developer who call her local Council re: way to apply for a permit so the reply was – yes, good, we need to have a meeting which will cost $450.
No arguments could entered into, this is is a business case, you must have meetings first and pay for it.
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If I follow your logic on the forty shillings rule, I can see the government only allowing those with a suitable social credit score being able to vote.
If you own a diesel fueled vehicle, you’re out.
If you have a wood fire, you’re out.
If you work more than 15 minutes from home, you’re out.
If you vote conservative, you’re out.
Okay, one of the above may be a stretch. But only one of them.
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Thankyou DM, a concise picture of why democracy is a complete failure and will always collapse. The greatest successful propaganda is that ‘democracy is the greatest way of running a country’.
No, it always ends up with parasites promising as much of other people’s money as they can to buy votes from the stupid. resulting in an oversupply of parasites and stupid, and a lack of producers. Ayn Rand was quite correct.
As a start I would settle for each voting page to have an option of “None of the Above”, and lets see what the full electorate really thinks. If ‘None of the Above’ wins the most votes, none of the candidates put up are allowed to run in the next election in a couple of months, and we keep having elections until some party beats the nulls.
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‘ … lets see what the full electorate really thinks.’
We have polls to tell us that.
‘ … we keep having elections until some party beats the nulls.’
That would be unpopular with the electorate and in the end it’ll be some useless party.
Of course a charismatic personality could arise to please everyone and lead the nation, by popular acclimation, without being a party member.
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Concorde’s first UK flight from Filton to Fairford passed right over us two weeks after the birth of our first child. Twenty years later he became a commercial pilot who is now an A380 and A350 captain.
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Another ridiculous BBC climate change story, climate change killing South Korean fishermen?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg924nrgd3o.amp
The REAL issues are obvious. Fishermen are having to travel further, stay at sea longer, and risk rougher weather to make ends meet.
There are various reasons, depleted fish stocks; illegal fishing, on an industrial scale by China, gross overfishing. Varying disputes with China/Russia/Japan preventing them using some waters nearer port.
As for the Hairtail fish specifically mentioned, they are a migratory warm water species and search out warmer water, coming inshore in summer.
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What a crock! When you look at the photo of the fishing trawler in that article, with its low waterline, it’s heavy superstructure and heaped fish crates, one wonders how it stays above water in any slightly rough sea.
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“”But this year the anchovies have vanished and we’re catching more jellyfish than fish.”
This is the predicament facing tens of thousands of fishermen along South Korea’s coastlines. Over the past 10 years, the amount of squid caught in South Korean waters each year has plummeted 92%, while anchovy catches have fallen by 46%.”
Asia is not known for its fisheries management, they are still in the phase of ‘catch everything you can, as much as you can’. Once you over-fish the sea with bigger and more efficient trawlers you will have to go further and further out into rougher weather, and we don’t need to examine Asian vehicle maintenance ideas or value of human life.
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Recall how Jaguar went woke and went broke with a bizarre 30 sec ad which featured no cars but a bunch of woke circuit freaks?
In response to the ad Elon Musk Tweeted:
Something I didn’t realise at the time was that Jaguar erased years of social media engagement with regard to their classic cars. A huge loss of information and discussion on the cars they once built. But fully consistent with Leftist practice of erasing/rewriting history.
It’s amazing that after the Bud Light disaster anyone would ever again contemplate a woke advertising campaign.
Here is a discussion of Jaguar’s billion dollar mistake. (15 mins.)
https://youtu.be/ZY2_UyOUL5Q
Here is the bizarre ad that destroyed the classic marque. No hint that it has anything to do with cars.
https://youtu.be/rLtFIrqhfng
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The thing I think that is important about the Jaguar ad is it was because of the same ESG/DEI ideology driving the climate ideology.
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Here is an interesting video and video channel about a guy who wanders off into the Arizona mountains looking for insects and other critters to show the audience.
Here he finds some vinegaroons and other creatures.
https://youtu.be/9L7uzoLQM-s
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FWIW
“Zillow, First Street, and the Price of Panic: Can Climate Data Be Sued?”
“When climate “risk” turns into a weapon, the courts eventually notice. The recent lawsuit by Andrew and Eri Uerkwitz against Zillow and First Street Technologies may well mark a turning point in the growing entanglement of climate data, real estate markets, and the casual use of fear to move public sentiment and private profit.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/25/zillow-first-street-and-the-price-of-panic-can-climate-data-be-sued/
40
FWIW
“New MAHA Guidelines Could Melt Fears About Unsaturated Fats”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/10/25/new-maha-guidelines-could-melt-fears-about-unsaturated-fats-n3808205
30
Is that headline correct? Shouldn’t it say fears about saturated fats are melted by the new guidelines? The new guidelines encourage consumption of saturated fats.
Doesn’t “melting fears” imply we (thinking people) should no longer be fearful of unsaturated fats?
Synthetic processed unsaturated fats like seed oils are the bad ones, surely?
It’s unsaturated fats we must be and remain fearful of.
The original article is at:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/10/new-maha-guidelines-could-melt-fears-about-unsaturated-fats/
40
Yes!
“There are plans to significantly alter U.S. dietary guidelines, shifting the emphasis toward whole foods and encouraging a higher intake of saturated fats, such as butter, cheese, and red meat. Kennedy has argued that Americans need more trans and saturated fats, not less, saying foods like butter, cheese, milk and red meat have been unfairly demonized for decades. The updated guidance could be released as soon as this month.”
80
I very much doubt that Kennedy is in favour of trans fats. What natural, unprocessed or very lightly processed foods contain significant amounts of trans fats?
10
For those who are taking Statins or are considering going on statins I recommend the following book. Very well referenced.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Cholesterol-Cause-Attacks-Statins-Solution/dp/190779753X
30
Storm in a teacup, obesity is caused by inactivity and not sat fats.
‘Still, Anderson and Krauss agree that nutritional guidelines should move away from focusing on specific nutrients like saturated fats.
“People don’t eat nutrients. They eat foods,” Anderson explained. “When you ask someone what they had to eat, they don’t tell you: ‘I had fat, or I had carbohydrates, or I had protein.’ (Guardian)
17
Rubbish! 🙄
40
Inactivity may increase the risk of obesity?
11
FWIW
“Ghosts On The Grid”
“With the Feast of All Hallows rapidly approaching I thought it would be apt to explain how the grid is haunted by a concept that doesn’t really exist. A pre-occupation with a made-up concept risks the security of our power grids. In this blog I will explain how “vars” aren’t real, and treating them as if they are is creating existential risks on our power grids.”
More at
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/10/25/ghosts-on-the-grid/
And comments
20
This bit is fascinating-
“There was a grid failure in Australia a few years ago,where the gas and diesel generators were idling when the full load was dumped onto them.
So they tripped out and a full blackout developed. The government report was most amusing,bragging up the grid battery/inverter system and completely failing to catch the vital failure point.
The generators failed to detect the falling frequency until it was zero. Because the Inverter battery system held the whole grid active,for 8 minutes. Maintaining 50 Hz perfectly,until there was no more battery power,then shutting off.”
So your grid-scale batteries just make a failing power supply worse!
100
I spent many hours in power grid control rooms in a previous life and, absolutely, it’s frequency that matters. I remember being in the control room at Kareeya when they had freq. control. While talking to me his eye was on the freq meter, constantly adjusting the taps. It’s freq, not voltage [automatic taps on transformers adjust that at substations] that changes with demand.
50
Looking at the details of the South Australian and Spain blackouts, I was amazed to see how little the frequency changed to cause severe problems.
20
This conclusion is incorrect:
My off-grid inverter has no problem supplying the VARs needed for the induction motors in fridge and freezer. The motors pull around 1kVA on start up and I have found a 2500 peak rated inverter’s has no problem running one and starting the other or even if both start simultaneously.
Rotating machines can deliver about 6 times their rated current under fault condition. So a 600MW generator could deliver say 3.6GW momentarily until the protection kicked in. A battery rated at 600MW will only have an inverter rated at that capacity. So to match the 600MW rotating generator, you would need a battery rated at 3.6GW.
Reactive power is simply current out of phase with voltage.
00
I would disagree. Although I find the article strange in some of its explanations, and it’s a bit old in describing how modern inverters work, I believe that it’s basic premise of mechanical inertia being required to hold up a grid is correct. Inverters WILL shutdown when asked to supply more than their rated output – if they don’t, they run the risk of destroying their switching elements. And most power supply failures I’ve seen are due to main switching element failure. It’s no good saying that batteries have similar inertia when it’s the inverter switching elements that have to withstand the temporary overloads, not the battery.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears that you are saying that the inverters would need to be designed to supply the PEAK load, then they would work as well as rotating machinery. If you are saying that, I would agree with you. But the problem is that they aren’t designed to do that.
20
Off course – an inverter needs to have the same fault level as the rotating machine to be as effective as the rotating inertia in holding the frequency and voltage.
So the article is wrong.
10
You are correct for a basic like-for-like comparison. But I believe that in practice, inverters, either home systems or large-scale inverters attached to grid battery systems, will NEVER have the same peak handling ability compared to the large turbines in power stations. So considering practical real-world systems, I think the article was stating the truth. Perhaps it could have been explained better.
10
Any significant penetration of WDGs requires storage. Most of the storage will come from batteries. I determined that Australia would need a 750GWh to run the grid that existed in 2016. It would be a bit less now.
So say you have a battery rated around 4 hour rate, the power output will be close to 200GW – about 10 times the average demand. So very high fault capability.
Household batteries are going in at around 4GWh per year now so in 10 years there will be 40GWh of batteries with around 20GWh of inverters. Plus whatever the grid has by then. So the fault level is getting to be up there. Most of the household ones will not be configured to support the grid but they will not burden it any more during a fault. As long as there is enough voltage to avoid low voltage trip, the inverters will stay synchronised.
Longer term the inverters could be separately clocked and synchronised by signal rather than by line voltage. All helping to support the grid.
The NEM is no longer economic anyhow. If gets unreliable, those who can will just go off grid.
A good deal of suburban and regional homes would now get lower cost electricity going off-grid than relying on the grid. And it will continue to become more favourable as panel and battery prices come down while grid prices go up.
One of the aspects of rooftop solar and batteries that I have observed is the work ethic. These small contractors are good employers and the tradesmen competent and diligent. Vastly different to those who worked in power stations a few decades back.
00
Rick, I think I’ve mentioned this before but check out the LG linear compressor, it may have low start-up demand. I wouldn’t buy one again myself by I don’t run off an inverter.
00
My off-grid inverter is a low cost unit. It is not full sine wave so lots of harmonics that no electronics like. A compressors with electronics running off my high harmonic inverter would get fried.
My fridge is 34 years old and freezer about 20 years old. The fridge no electronics. The freezer none connected directly. The internal DC supply is old school transformer.
I do have a sine wave inverter that I got on sale but it is only rated at 800VA and will not start the fridge or freezer if the other is running. But it will be the option if the existing old school fridge or freezer dies.
I would not even try a LED lamp in the fridge. I expect it would only last a few minutes because they use capacitors for voltage reduction and they would run LED at higher voltage on high harmonic source.
20
Your comments raise quite a few issues on exactly what home applicants folks could reasonably expect to keep running or run during a power outage, when power is being wholly supplied from a battery/inverter system. I would have expected that most folks would want to keep their fridge running, but mine is a modern one, I suspect using electronics. And surely most folks would want to run a microwave, if they don’t have a gas hot plate? Hmmm…
00
In my reply to Rick, below, I thought of ceiling fans with inline cap controllers but dismissed it as a concern because it is a simple inductive load but you are right to think about such things.
20
My quasi-sinusoidal inverter with its high harmonics was low cost but time has proven it robust.
All on-grid inverters have regulated harmonic limits that means they are essentially sinusoidal output, which would not upset electronics directly connected.
One of the issues with an off-grid system compared with an on-grid system is the size of the inverter. Going off-grid requires something around 20kVA or even more to handle the peak demand.
00
You’re right: An inline cap doesn’t attenuate high harmonics.
00
FWIW – progress
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1825704553746653184.jpg?w=1024
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The fragility of the digital age
The outage is “catastrophic.” So arrived the message from a server that hosts a service that is important to my life. Seemingly out of nowhere, the world came to an end for a full day until power was restored.
What was the reason? I don’t know the particulars but it is usually always the same. An update in one software was inconsistent with another. A line of code got through that didn’t work as planned. Some third-party software stopped communicating with the main server. A cascade of effects followed that messed up everyone’s lives.
This is becoming more and more common. Two days earlier, all the servers hosted by Amazon went down. This wrecked countless social sites, financial services, airline reservations, and banks. Whole industries ground to a halt, and for exactly the same reasons.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/the-fragility-of-the-digital-age-5933808
Are we approaching the point where no-one can fix let alone understand how anything works?
DYK that “AI” writes around a third of M$ Windows code? Non-critical, non-kernel, thankfully.
Are we facing a Logan’s Run world where it all stops and we have to relearn everything?
Could you, the reader, build a working toaster right now if you had the raw materials?
As technology grows smarter, we grow dumber.
How long before the next unplanned outage is far more severe, maybe taking down the net for weeks?
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Evan back in the late 80s, working for a mass spectrometer company, a good 50% of problems in testing, installation and support came from the computer operating system. Back then it was mostly Apple IIe or similar. I recall many mutterings of, “What is it NOW?”, which was the forerunner of “Computer says no!”. Of course the code back then was relatively primitive, but still we had mysterious, unexpected stuff happen all the time. This was to be a painful part of my life in instrumentation for the next thirty+ years …
Sort of relevant. I big potential buyer was visiting for a demo, ahead of signing a contract for fifty or so mass specs. The contract was ready for signing after lunch. But then, a naive engineer who was demonstrating something or other said, “That won’t be a problem soon, because we’re switching to IBM PCs.” Bam! That was it. Contract cancelled pending talks on the ‘superior’ IBM-controlled devices that were still in early testing. This was a major problem for the company and our MD, who was fired soon after.
50
The last company I worked for put a lot of systems into service using Windows-based minicomputers. Quickly realised that this was causing unexplained problems that required regular power-down restarts, so commenced a major software change to move everything to Linux. And where possible, introduce large-scale FPGAs.
The Museum where I volunteer has had constant problems with flight simulator systems using Windows platforms that don’t react well to being suddenly shut down every evening. I have managed to avoid some of these problems by adding a UPS to one system to detect the evening power-down and put the computer into deep sleep overnight. But even with this protection, I have had to train the front desk staff to do disk swaps and disk re-mastering for the occasional disk failures.
30
I may well live to regret writing this but I would welcome the net going down for a week or two, and the mobile phone network can take a holiday too.
And the sooner the better. Before the world becomes even more reliant on communications technology and before the bad guys perfect the embedding of communications technology as a means of control over the populace.
Where’s a Carrington event when the world needs it?
180
All instructions necessary for capturing and cooking wild food was painted/scratched onto cave walls long ago: perhaps we need to gather charcoal & ochre and commence scratching again – oh dang, carbon!
60
Not to worry, AI will fix it. 😀
10
Hmmm!
Just remember it is going to magnify all the bad recipes for you
10
Why the sunspot count needs a time correction for the Earth observer.
I have found that sunspot activity is highly correlated with the velocity of the Sun. However, to determine the correlation, I had to use the actual number of sunspots appearing in real time rather than the apparent time of the Earth observer.
Sunspots are counted on the Sun as they appear so their appearance is complicated by a number of factors:
1. The different speed of rotation at different latitude of the Sun.
2. The angular velocity of the Sun around the solar system.
3. The angular velocity of the Earth observer around the solar system.
All three factors work to lengthen time compared with taking a snapshot in time.
The movement of the Earth observer is the baddest factor. I have made a series of 5 images in this folder to explain the observer error:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E8ORTI3SKLUGur_EVbu5_0sEEWj0OBig?usp=share_link
It assumes there are 24 permanent and equally spaced sunspots around the Sun. The first image is Day zero and sunspot numbered 7 just comes into view. The next four images are at 7 day intervals with the observer moving 7 degrees every 7 days.
What you realise is that it is only possible to count 23 sunspots in the 28 days despite there being 24 present. You do not get to see sunspot 6. Another day or two and you would. So maybe 29 or 30 days to see 24 sunspots when a fixed observer would have seen 24 in 28 days.
If we used the same counting technique and Earth’s orbit around the Sun was 28 days, we would only count new sunspots as they appear across the face of the sun, not those appearing from the west.
20
RAND Urges for Major Chinese Re-Think Amidst Widespread Recognition of China’s Awakening
RAND think tank, famous for its influential policy papers which have shaped US-Russian relations, has released an eye-opening call for a change of course on China. This comes by way of the latest Trump-China escalations which, it appears, have greatly worried insiders of the ‘deep state’ system; enough so that for once they have begun swallowing their pride and envisioning a calmer, more placating approach toward China so as not to upset the global status quo too much.
The outline of the paper is here: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4107-1.html
And the full, 115-page-long PDF here: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA4100/RRA4107-1/RAND_RRA4107-1.pdf
Their key findings are that China and the US should strive to achieve a modus vivendi by each accepting the political legitimacy of the other, constraining efforts to undermine each other, at least to a reasonable degree.
Most significantly—and tellingly—RAND prescribes for the US leadership in particular to reject ideas of “absolute victory” over China, as well as to accept the One China Policy and stop provoking China with military-minded visits to Taiwan designed specifically to keep China threatened and on edge.
The paper opens with a long historical digression which contextualizes how rival global powers can coexist, and have done so in the past.
20
Seems some Americans are finally recognising China’s strength and their own weakness. Its better to become pals before the BRICS start pushing the West aside.
Their ‘Key Findings” nearly all start with “Each side…” and I can’t see the American hubris allowing them to see China as an equal! They will start by assuming the Chinese are inferior and can be talked down to. In the end I don’t see America initiating anything here, they are declining and history is on the side of the ascending.
30
USA has one significant advantage over China – immigration. In 2024 US net migration was 1200k compared with China MINUS 300k.
It mean China is growing old very fast. It will be the oldest nation on Earth by 2050 while USA will still be young and reasonably vibrant.
On present trends, China will still have higher population than USA by 2100 but China will be burdened by its aged and informed. The median age in China is forecast to reach 62yo by 2080.
It is no wonder China is focused on AI and humanoids. Each household will need a carer for the infirmed.
30
The big problem is that no one knows what their population is today. No way is it 1.4 B, never was, but I don’t believe low estimates either.
If I had to have a punt I’d say 7-800M, and falling, as you say.
30
It mean China is growing old very fast. It will be the oldest nation on Earth by 2050 while USA will still be young, reasonably vibrant, and completely un-reconizable due to its immigrant population’s culture.
00
The regime change in Beijing is now complete, they are going to let Xi stay in place as a puppet. The reason for this is to maintain a semblance of normality, Xi has three titles without any power.
So the road ahead is looking good, at their next meeting the two leaders will discuss how to pull China out of economic depression.
12
The regime change in Beijing is now complete, Xi has cleaned out those he didn’t want near him and..the road ahead is looking good. At their next meeting the two world leaders, Xi and Putin, will discuss how to pull America out of economic depression.
20
Retro tech vapourware: the lawnmower with air conditioning
https://imgbox.com/KBgR5t8c
Park it alongside the flying car.
50
FWIW
“Immigration, Multiculturalism, Democracy”
“Pick any two.”
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1981403427101168087
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/10/25/immigration-multiculturalism-democracy/
20
Queensland LNP government restores biological definition of ‘Woman’
Queensland’s Minister for Women Fiona Simpson has restored the state’s official definition for a woman.
Finally worked out what one is then.
That wasn’t hard now was it.
160
Noticed elsewhere
“Queensland LNP Government Restores Biological Definition Of ‘Woman’ ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/queensland-lnp-government-restores-biological-definition-woman
10
Its only weather.
https://notrickszone.com/2025/10/24/antarctic-amundsen-scott-station-sees-coldest-october-in-44-years-mainstream-media-silent/
51
All thanks to the POTUS.
‘Bond boom as ‘Aussie dollar’ export reshapes global markets.
‘Australia’s bond market has quietly become the world’s third-largest, with foreign investors rushing to raise $280bn in local currency deals this year alone.’ (Oz)
02
Isn’t the other side of that shown as Aussie Govt borrowing more money?
Bonds have never been of interest to me, so I wouldn’t know.
30
Its a place where ordinary people or governments can park their money over a set period of time, its an investment. They get interest and on maturity the bonds might be worth less than initially paid for.
The Bond Boom indicates confidence in the Australian economy.
11
As KP says, confident that we are good sports and will repay our increasing debt. That is a shrinking pool of options around the eorld atm.
10
Net Zero under the spotlight.
‘Nationals senator Matt Canavan will present details of his and Ross Cadell’s report into net zero to the party on Monday, but it will not include economic modelling of the cost of dumping the target.
‘The outspoken senator has long been one of the loudest critics of net zero.’ (ABC)
91
RF dangers in the media again-
“Hardell and lead study author Mona Nilsson, co-founder and director of the Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation, examined national health data in Sweden and Norway and found that the number of medical consultations for memory disturbances in Norwegian children ages 5-19 increased roughly 8.5-fold from 2006 to 2024.
In Sweden, the number of children ages 5-19 diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment — a diagnosis that includes memory problems — increased nearly 60-fold from 2010 to 2024.
The authors argued in their report that wireless radiation is a leading cause of memory decline in children. They cited numerous epidemiological and experimental studies showing that very low levels of RF radiation can negatively affect the brain — particularly the hippocampus, which plays a central role in memory and learning.
“There is abundant evidence [dating back] several decades, both on animals and humans, that RF radiation impairs memory,” Nilsson said. “The trends we are observing coincide closely in time with the sharply increasing exposure of children and adolescents to RF radiation.”
More work needs to be done, before it’s too late and we as a species are too dumb to reverse the damage.
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/new-study/study-links-surge-in-childrens-memory-problems-to-wireless-radiation-exposure
30
Well that was fun. A storm just went over us and the gutters overflowed into the living room, bedroom and ensuite. We’ve had this happen before. I don’t know why they overflow into the wall cavity, but I reckon they’re undersized for the roof area.
We did the usual run around with towels and mops then, when the rain lessened, I got up there and cleared the leaves out while Mrs Wife finished the mopping. I succeeded in NOT falling off the ladder or slippery roof. Now the deck is full of the cr4p I dragged out of the gutter and the lower roof (think two storey with large single storey extension) will need clearing tomorrow. Then I absolutely MUST get a gutter wizard round to fix whatever is wrong.
I’m exhausted.
40
I assume you have no soffits if the gutters overflow into the walls. That was another terrible idea of the 80s and 90s to make houses cheaper.
Cornubia I’m not sure about, but I clean gutters on plenty of houses in Aussie that have almost zero fall, and often fall away from down-pipes. People also have trees that started off as shrubs right beside the house and are now over the roof and filling the gutters with leaves.
UK and NZ pay a lot more attention to it I reckon.
10
Yes, we have soffits. In fact, I drilled holes in them years ago, when I first realised they were filling with water which then somehow got into the house. That helped. Yesterday was the first time we had the problem since then. I think the main problem is that the upper roof gutter discharges onto the lower roof, the gutter for which then discharges into three downspouts. This is OK most of the time but can’t handle the volume during a big storm. The slightest build-up of leaf litter causes the lower gutter to overflow. Maybe there is insufficient drop, as you say.
I’m interested to see what the gutter guy says.
10
FWIW
“QotD: The Hijab”
“[The Hijab] is designed to promote gender apartheid. It covers the woman’s ears so that she does not hear things properly. Styled like a hood, it prevents the woman from having full vision of her surroundings. It also underlines the concept of woman as object, all wrapped up and marked out.”
More at
https://quotulatiousness.ca/blog/2025/10/21/qotd-the-hijab/
Via https://instapundit.com/752914/#disqus_thread
40
On the new BOM website , I see they have reverted to the previously rejected name of “The Bureau” at the top of the page. What a complete stuff up they have made their major public facing presence.
40
The BOM 128k radar used to be my home page , I changed it to Elders Weather the other day (for overseas people Elders is a big farming/pastoral services company)
Just now I got “This website is under heavy load (queue full)
We’re sorry, too many people are accessing this website at the same time. We’re working on this problem. Please try again later.”
Looks like a few other may have done something similar
40
Weatherzone radar’s pretty good.
20
The new BOM site still does not want to play nicely with a desktop fixed wireless connection.
Thinks I am about 400km from where I am sitting.
I asked my Federal member to ensure the “old site” stays around. As well as asking about BOM testing with desktops.
20