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
A great picture of Miliband looking fanatical:
https://renews.biz/94340/ed-miliband-appointed-as-uk-energy-secretary/
Note usual nonsense about offshore wind lowering power bills. Not possible so stupidity or deception? Probably a combo.
Big party in October in Aberdeen, the capital of even sillier floating offshore wind:
https://www.scottishrenewables.com/events/221-floating-offshore-wind-204
141
David, it is madness.
To all…
If anyone can tell me which country has cheaper energy bills by using supposably “free power” from solar panels and wind turbines, please let me know.
I can’t find a single one.
200
I think a lot of it is what one might call ideological obtuseness. The reply I typically been from greens is surely we can invent cheap storage. It is impossible to refute this wishful thinking and the counter arguments are very technical which they just shrug off as beyond their knowledge.
So what we see as madness they think is forward looking.
151
These folks must have grown up with too much scientific fiction: Deus ex machina [ English “god from the machine”]: plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly or abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. (from Wiki)
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One might also think a lot of it as a kind of Political Party Policy Monomania reinforced by mainstream media support – partisan support with little regard for reasonable standards of honesty.
20
A picture (graph) is worth a thousand words
The only way is up with more renewables
http://euanmearns.com/green-mythology-and-the-high-price-of-european-electricity/
60
Blackout Bowen should be force fed both graphs in Figures 1 & 5 in this post.
They conclusively prove the opposite of Bowen’s claim that “wind and solar are the cheapest form of energy.”
Suck it up Bowen, and apologise to us all for being misleading and wasting billions of dollars of our money on nonesense!
20
The Ruinous Cost Of Free Energy;
https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/research-papers/the-ruinous-cost-of-free-energy-why-an-electricity-system-built-on-renewable-is-the-most-expensive-of-all-options
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I would love to know too, how much is power in Spain.
10
In September 2023, cost was A$0.35.6/kWh.
00
https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/
10
Miliband is the UK’s Blackout Bowen.
90
Clueless Australian politicians regularly say the same thing, despite it being obvious nonsense.
The word they mean is stupidpower.
150
Just finished an article about 200 years of gaslighting by the western political class. It was US centric but demonstrably visible everywhere as David’s UK post shows, as Bowen and Albanese show, Trudeau in Canada shows and Ardern showed in NZ (the whole EU mess I didnt try to list)
60
yarpos >Just finished an article about 200 years of gaslighting by the western political class….US centric
Maybe the following but if not, in that vein and Biden centric:
We Were “Deceived & Gaslit For Years”, All In The Name Of “Democracy”; Then “Poof”, It Collapsed Overnight
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/we-were-deceived-gaslit-years-all-name-democracy-then-poof-it-collapsed-overnight
Authored by Alastair Crooke, excerpts by Editor at Large for the Wall Street Journal, Gerry Baker among several others.
Baker:
No words were minced in the making of those paragraphs.
30
Good news!
Peer reviewed skepticism
By David Wojick
https://www.cfact.org/2024/07/08/peer-reviewed-skepticism/
The beginning: A fine skeptical journal article waded through green pal review. Wonder of wonders! The journal is the American Journal of Economics and Sociology. The article title is perfectly clear: “Carbon dioxide and a warming climate are not problems”. See https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.12579 But it is an “Early View Online Version of Record before inclusion in an issue” so get it before it gets too hot for the Journal. I understand it is very popular so the green screams are deafening.
Alas it is paywalled but the lengthy free Abstract is as clear as the title. Here is the conclusion: “Observations show no increase in damage or any danger to humanity today due to extreme weather or global warming (Crok & May, 2023, pp. 140–161; Scafetta, 2024). Climate change mitigation, according to AR6, means curtailing the use of fossil fuels, even though fossil fuels are still abundant and inexpensive. Since the current climate is arguably better than the pre-industrial climate and we have observed no increase in extreme weather or climate mortality, we conclude that we can plan to adapt to any future changes. Until a danger is identified, there is no need to eliminate fossil fuel use.”
The authors are Andy May and Marcel Crok and as the first parenthetical reference above indicates they are building on prior work. Their 53 References are not paywalled and quite interesting. Both authors list as from CLINTEL making this a worthy CLINTEL effort. In fact Croc is a co-founder of CLINTEL. This work certainly supports CLINTEL’s World Climate Declaration that “There is no climate emergency”. See https://clintel.org/world-climate-declaration/ which offers an opportunity to sign, joining the almost 2,000 signatories and growing (including me).
The article is a clear discussion of the basic issues including some of the uncertainties. The overall position is moderate compared to some forms of skepticism (including mine). This makes it a good non-technical entering wedge for the climate debate.”
More in my article. Please share it as the more attention this journal article gets the harder it will be to kill.
181
It’s really sad. 36 years after this hoax was created, people are walking away not because the boax has been exposed, but because none of the dire predictions have come true and countries are being seriously crippled with power shortages. And the climate is still better than at many points in history and not as warm as some.
So much for science! The hoax was remotely plausible at best, a string of borderline possible statements but under the direction of the UN, governments have spent perhaps $50Trillion achieving absolutely nothing. There has been no demonstrable effect on CO2. Zero. Zilch. So the UN focuses on ’emissions’, which is ironic as now we are told nuclear is preferable as it has no emissions. I could not believe that when I read this from nuclear power salesmen.
We should have been able to achieve so much with that money. At the very least thorium reactors which promise 140x the limited reserves of uranium as it is 100% usable, not 0.72%, has no bomb potential and far less waste. Maybe fusion energy, which would power the world as oil powers the utterly unsustainable but incredibly luxurious cities of the Saudi Peninsula. Or perhaps a few thousand nuclear power stations.
Now who’s going to pay to clean up the mess? What a total waste of time, resources and an appalling destruction of so much ecology. All for nothing. Windmills are as useless as ever.
Now that France is both communist and nuclear armed and powered, the rest of Europe and the EU will be in a crisis of their own making. Has Macron unleashed a monster to save himself? Possibly. It’s happened before. And the EU and UN will have to worry about more than the climate.
260
I was at high school [loong time ago] when the weather was soo bad they had to find something WE had done to cause it.
They settled on THE BOMB. They were still doing nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll at the time.
Nothing much has changed with the passing of 70 years.
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“governments have spent perhaps $50Trillion achieving absolutely nothing.”
Tick! Tick!
30
Au contraire. A LOT has been achieved.
The very rich are now stupendously rich.
The stupendously rich own more mansions.
The stupendously rich have bought more – and larger – superyachts.
The gap between the working poor and the stupendously rich has widened dramatically.
Lots of that formerly protected wilderness has been replaced by eco-crucifixes.
Favoured scientists have been to many, many more international conferences to congratulate each other.
China has been paid lotsa money to make the West dependent on their solar panels etc. Spacecraft and moon landings aren’t cheap, you know!
Millions of young people have been kept occupied by demonstrations and/or on their psychiatrists’ couches.
Thousands of those awful farmers have been shut down.
Weather reports can now be delivered as front page news.
Need I go on?
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Good one!
And, just for fun, if you wanted to design machinery to generate electricity that was totally flawed and going to send the users broke and sitting on top of a massive pile of rubbish and lighting candles after fifteen years, no worries, dead easy.
Simply hire the best Chinese engineers and subvert any common sense in the target western nations by “special” hidden bonuses for all involved from national beaurocrat level to local councils. Bonuses work magic.
Honestly, those Chinese engineers have done a great job. The long slender towers allow damaging vibrations in the whole apparatus, but the piece de resistance is what sits on top and spins, for a while, and makes everyone seasick before catching fire. Burying those idiotic blades must be the ultimate insult to western society.
They win! And not a shot fired.
Go Sun Tzu!
60
May posted the author version:
https://andymaypetrophysicist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Carbon-Dioxide-and-a-Warming-Climate-are-not-problems_Final_Submission_no_logo.pdf
An easy read.
11
UK now has about one fire a day in waste processing facilities caused by lithium batteries.
https://www.thefpa.co.uk/news/taking-charge-of-li-ion-waste
This latest one caused a motorway closure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c035n4g827do.amp
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The above comment is from another tonyb
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AI generated?
AI techniques can analyze and learn a person’s voice from audio or video recordings found on social media or recorded by the scammer, with as little as three seconds of audio, and authentically replicate them.
“Even Taylor Swift has been faked.
https://engagement.virginia.edu/learn/thoughts-from-the-lawn/20240409-Orebaugh#:
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That’s from me MrGrimnasty, had my details when posted, came up with TonyB after submit,
but comment vanished into the void, only to reappear!
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I had that. About to post and found a different poster details had been copied into the boxes. So I had to overwrite them. Rare event.
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Auto-fills (mostly spelling, grammar, and word suggestions) seem to be getting worse. I correct these as I proof-read but still miss a few.
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Not so rare!! The autofilling problem happens every day. It would appear that I have been re-identified Gary S.
Regards
Graham Richards!!
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I am frequently being switched to a Microsoft Mail login site when i try to move directly to new posts on here ??
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That’s not me! I am Spartacus!
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Gary S Spartacus?
00
Meanwhile, India and China are turning into coal-fired energy superpowers – I know who I am putting my money on.
Meanwhile, “Recharge reported that the 6MW floating wind turbines were towed back to Wergeland on the west coast of Norway as part of a maintenance program “that is likely to take around four months and will disrupt power output from the project operating 24 km (kilometers) off Peterhead (Scotland) since 2017”
https://www.ajot.com/insights/full/ai-equinor-says-scotland-floating-wind-turbine-flaw-has-been-repaired#:
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Today, the new finance minister, Rachel Reeves, used her first policy speech to roll back restrictions on onshore wind projects, and investment in wind, solar and nuclear is a major element of her plans to reinvigorate economic growth.
Electricite de France SA, the state energy behemoth, is pushing to build six nuclear plants. Two of the parties in the New Popular Front, the alliance created to counter National Rally, want that decision pushed back until after the next presidential election in 2027.
And while the new government will almost certainly back renewable energy projects, political instability and the tax-and-spend plans of the left alliance may derail investment decisions.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-07-08/uk-and-france-are-taking-different-paths-on-energy-policy-after-elections
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“Britain’s new Labour government is aiming for a fossil-free energy system within four years”
I look forward to a battery powered RAF and Royal Navy (partly Nuclear powered at least). Let alone the Airports and Commercial Shipping. And as for motor vehicles being 100% EV – “Tell ’em they are dreaming”.
Another failed prediction coming up. Mission Impossible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL2DH-nKBeA
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Thanks for the Hywind update. I have an excellent article, written by a bearings manufacturer, explaining why bearings are a major issue with wind turbines. The loads on these bearings are enormous.
There have been other posts saying that Siemens have been having problems with their newer wind turbines.
70
More noise needs to be made of this.
Also Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) promoters should be made to include back-up batteries in their schemes (scams) so that the additional power added to the grid is done on a 24/7 diespatchable power basis (This off course would cost a fortune and make these scams unviable)
https://stopthesethings.com/2024/07/08/perfectly-justified-furious-communities-reject-wind-solar-rollout/
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I’d settle for a review of the rubbish left by the Covid hoax, where all the unused shots are going, what happened for all the masks & syringes, and especially, where did the money flow to??
After that we can look at how much we are on the hook for the renewables scam.
30
My bet is the unused doses go as ‘Aid’ to the poorest / those in refugee camps. Where there is no medical support for the adverse reactions, but excellent statistics keeping for the medical research industry. East Timor diplomatically thanked Australia for providing ‘far too many vaccines’ in the UN General Assembly – I read as diplomat speak for ‘Enough with the vaccines already’
20
Albo et al. (picture)
160
Spot on.
100
I haven’t read this yet but you may be interested to know that a book has been written about Trump Derangement Syndrome. One day, if the Left don’t destroy our entire civilisation, TDS will be in the DSM.
100
There’s actually 3 more:
The night “Trump derangement syndrome began” from 2019
The truth behind Trump derangement syndrome from 2018
The year of voting dangerously from 2016
10
Right now Australia’s ruinable energy paradise, King Island, Bass Strait, is running on 96% diesel, and zero from everything else. I’m not sure where the missing 4% is coming from.
It’s in the Roaring Forties with plenty of sun and wind and one place where ruinables might have a chance. But they are a miserable failure.
Unlike other places like Canberra that falsely claim to run on ruinables due to a deceptive accounting trick, King Island doesn’t have a transmission line connecting them to coal or gas generation.
https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island
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Are these nuclear options the future here?
https://www.smrnuclear.com.au/_files/ugd/c733f6_7ade365ccb414afa9b2c54cb9e8fdd49.pdf
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Then we can become a Minerals Processing Superpower. QED.
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A company is working on micro nuclear plants that fit into a standard shipping container.
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I’ll see your King Island 96% and raise you Flinders Island 100% as at 8:14am.
Just as well neither island is part of Tasmania given that they attained 100% renewable energy in November 2019.
A quick check shows King Island currently at 97% diesel – guess you’ll have to mortgage your house to see me lol.
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Now 100% diesel @ 09:37.
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This wind farm is not far from King Is.:
Woolnorth Studland Bay / Bluff Point Wind Farm
Source: Wind; Output: 2% (3 of 140MW)
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LOL
50
The Left showing their true colours:
Bette Midler Urges Biden to Arrest House Republicans, Execute Rep. Jim Jordan
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Just think, her first album was called “The Divine Miss M”.
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Looking forward ten years, as Australia gets more and more ruinable energy, there is only one possible way for electricity prices to go and that is dramatically upwards.
Due to the fanatical commitment to ruinables, Australia already has some of the world’s most expensive electricity and the rule is that the more ruinables you get, the more expensive electricity becomes. There are no known exceptions to that rule.
Even if Dutton was elected, the chances of him getting six nuclear reactors online within ten years in “the can’t do country” are about zero.
There is no obvious way Australia’s ruinable madness appears to be reversible quickly, or at all, even if it were possible to elect a rational government.
Ten years from now, there won’t be anything left worth saving.
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What about coal?
Everybody’s forgetting about good old reliable coal.
Nature’s gift.
Vintaged biomass.
It’s there free for the taking.
We already own it.
190
From email advice I have from a National Party MP and researcher of nuclear reactor electricity generator plants or power stations proposed for Australia the choice of nuclear is (and I do not agree with this policy) firstly based on net zero emissions, another reason to replace coal fired power stations and generator capacity preparing for the future demand.
Dutton Coalition Plan
https://www.australianeedsnuclear.org.au/our-plan
10
https://www.australianeedsnuclear.org.au/our-plan
10
would like to give more “up ticks”
20
I propose six new gas fired power stations to fill the gap until the people recognise that CO2 doesn’t cause global warming. Then we can begin constructing new Hele where the coal is plentiful.
The coal is running out at Lithgow so in a few years they could adopt the gas option, NSW has enough natural gas, but in Victoria its a different story.
Now there is plenty of gas in Western Australia and a pipeline to the east should see us free and clear. All of this would be relatively cheap and could be built in a few years.
This is Dutton’s thinking, realpolitik.
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The companies pushing for gas import terminals always claim that a linking gas pipeline from the Pilbara into the eastern gas network would cost too much. But WA pushed through a 1400 km pipeline from the Pilbara into Esperance on the southern coast in 12 months, and which cost
10
Ran out of time to correct and finish. A pipeline could be put through from the Pilbara to Alice Springs, distance around 1300 kms. Not much in the way. While Alice is connected to the eastern gas network via a northern link, there are plans to connect Alice straight down towards Canberra, crossing the Adelaide-Brisbane pipeline.
An average gas pipeline cost is $1-2m/km.
30
They have a pipeline going from the Pilbara to the southern goldfields and from there a pipeline to Victoria at 2m/km is good value.
00
The goldfields pipeline originally went to Kalgoorlie, then was extended right down to Esperance.
10
I seem to recall that the Goldfields Pipeline does not have a very large diameter….
At least no large enough to support the additional throughput a connection to the east would require
00
I suspect that in ten years time I will be gone and my very few emissions ceased forever.
30
To get the green/left onside before the election, Dutton has to convince them that green hydrogen will be part of the mix, depending on availability.
Kurri Kurri is state of the art.
https://www.snowyhydro.com.au/hunter-power-project/
02
Hydrogen fueled gas turbines is a missleading statement with an unproven technology,
They only “hope” to be able to achieve a 30% mix with further development !
And what will they use to generate all that “green hydrogen”……another unproven technology for that scale !….and requireing disproportionate amounts of renewables to supply the power !
They should have just used CCGTs and forget all that other expensive complications.
….it also seems to be a bit behind its planned start up schedule ?
20
Its over budget, teething problems.
All of us here know that green hydrogen is a pipe dream, but if Dutton wants to be elected he will have to put on a green cloak. He could tell the electorate its up to the market to provide green hydrogen at a reasonable price.
The people baulked at the idea that nuclear power construction would come out of the public purse, but gas fired power plants are a lot cheaper and more palatable.
01
Peak NH summer and therefore World, in terms of historical temperature, is at the end of July, not the beginning, so the following is premature. However the ERA5 “hottest day” record was July 6th 2023.
ERA5 2024 July 6th data is out so here’s the rankings on that day:
July 6th
2023: 17.1
2024: 16.7
2019: 16.6
https://pulse.climate.copernicus.eu/
https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/t2_daily/?dm_id=world
I’ll come back with the July 31st data when it’s out. I’m guessing 2022 will come in #2 given the 2024 Anomaly (see Climate Pulse above) is now on a downward trajectory.
Meantime, stand by for:
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>stand by for: “Second hottest day in the Global Boiling era”
A bunch of climate scientists are pitching for 2024 beating 2023 to be the warmest year:
2024 could be world’s hottest year as June breaks records – Reuters
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/521616/2024-could-be-world-s-hottest-year-as-june-breaks-records
And,
Zeke Hausfather is the media go-to, always turns up in these articles (and see following).
Looking at ERA5 in Climate Pulse and Climate Reanalyzer I’d say the chances are slim to zero of 2024 beating 2023.
20
Reuters article previous, this an AP/NPR article from Monday Open Thread:
June sizzled to a 13th straight monthly heat record, but July might break string – Associated Press
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/08/nx-s1-5032616/june-13th-straight-monthly-heat-record-climate-warming
And, a contrary view this time after NOAA,
Zeke Hausfather again – from “a post on X”, no less.
Nicolas Julien (Copernicus) appears to be about the only climate scientist looking objectively at the ERA5 data. The rest are just pushing a narrative in advance in the vain hope (IMO) that it will work out the way they want.
40
“What The Heck?!”: United Airlines Boeing 757 Loses Wheel After LAX Takeoff (article)
40
Loose nuts, missing bolts.
30
And that’s just in the office.
60
FWIW
“Inflation and economy watch”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/07/inflation-and-economy-watch.html
00
Tucker Carlson’s full speech in Melbourne. 50 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd9Uftz1hfE&t=11s
30
Lotus Eaters take on what’s happening with DEI – it’s not being mentioned anymore, but it’s just being re branded, given different names, and until the white ants disappear, things will just get worser, and worser! I think my first contribution was about HR, and they have been spectacularly successful. We have to hand it to them, they are diligent little critters, constantly beavering away behind the scenes, devouring their own civilisation. Sigh. Replacing something that really is always a balancing act, with rot. This too shall pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hTz0tAA-C4 30mins
20
But we’re told living on country is the way to go
Amazingly they omitted to tell us how all of these opportunities are funded.
20
Climate Science Giant Honoured at Will Steffen Lecture
https://www.miragenews.com/climate-science-giant-honoured-at-will-steffen-1271096/
Will Steffen search of JoNova:
Will Steffen in denial of entire Holocene?
https://joannenova.com.au/2015/01/will-steffen-in-denial-of-entire-holocene/
Herald Sun reference ‘Page not found’ unfortunately.
30
Just when you need a charger –
“Harvard Business School: America’s EV Charging Network Is in Shambles”
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2024/07/08/harvard-business-school-americas-ev-charging-network-is-in-shambles/
10
Electrical engineer and electronics business founder Dick Smith recently commented on Sky that he owns a Nissan Leaf EV and after costing a replacement battery pack, solar panels on his shed and battery storage for recharging at home it would have been less expensive to have purchased the equivalent ICEV Nissan.
21
https://www.hbs.edu/bigs/the-state-of-ev-charging-in-america
00
German MEP from the AfD party, Maximilian Krah, says it best here:
MEP Maximilian Kra:
What do I even expect?
More Ukrainian losses, no matter how cynical it may sound. But we are at war. And the casualties are so great that we are approaching the threshold of 30% of the population capable of military service.
There is an international rule that if you lose 30% of the population capable of military service, the war ends. For two reasons.
Firstly, the population no longer believes in victory, but wants to save lives. Politicians say that if we sacrifice even more young people now, the survival of our state will be at risk because the population is running out. My guess is that Ukraine will face conscription problems this year, and therefore domestic approval for the war will drop.
Secondly, the military superiority of the Russians is so great that even you understand that there is no chance of victory. In this regard, pressure is increasing to somehow reach an agreement within Ukraine.
On the other hand, the West, based on its logic, cannot agree to peace, because this will be a defeat for it.
Therefore, they will try to continue the war at least until the American presidential elections.
But once this American presidential election is over, there will be a window for peace negotiations.
40
Free page by Cap Allon at Electroverse:
Exceptional Snow-Year In Northern Italy; Winter Begins With a Bang In South America; Tasmania Freezes; + “Tonga Volcano Prime Suspect”
https://electroverse.info/exceptional-snow-year-in-northern-italy-winter-begins-with-a-bang-in-south-america-tasmania-freezes-tonga-volcano-prime-suspect/
40
Ridiculous Price of Living in Australia
Glen Street Theatre is a Local Belrose (Sydney Northern Beaches) Theatre
You may have heard that Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is playing next month – but what’s it all about?
After a local woman is murdered, the guests and staff at Monkswell Manor find themselves stranded during a snowstorm. It soon becomes clear that the killer is among them, and the seven strangers grow increasingly suspicious of one another. A police detective, arriving on skis, interrogates the suspects: the newlyweds running the house; a spinster with a curious background; an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef; a retired Army major; a strange little man who claims his car has overturned in a drift; and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone. When a second murder takes place, tensions and fears escalate. This record-breaking murder mystery features a brilliant surprise finish from the foremost mystery writer of all time.
For over 70 years, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap has kept millions of people from every corner of the globe on the edge of their seats. It is the genre-defining murder mystery from the best-selling novelist of all time … case closed! Can you solve this world-famous mystery for yourself?
“Even more thrilling than the plot is the atmosphere of smouldering suspense. No one brews it better than Agatha Christie” Daily Express
15 – 25 AUG
Opening night – 15 Aug, 7:30pm
Tickets*
Members Opening Night $90
All Tickets Opening Night $110
Wed-Thu Members $90
Wed-Thu All Tickets $100
Fri-Sun Members $100
Fri-Sun All Tickets $110
Youth (Under 20) $60
London Theatre – The Original Mousetrap Play Still Running
Tomorrow Night – GBP 31 for tomorrow night = AUD $ 61
or
Can watch it here on You Tube
or
Read Mousetrap Script here
40
Why one drone alone is not enough for our defences
The Defence bureaucracy will show it is responding to events in the real world when it places contracts with Australian companies with active local production lines.
Meanwhile
New Unmanned Ground Vehicles UGV Produced in Russia.
A tweet from Samuel Bendett dated August 29, 2023, describes a Russian DIY Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) capable of carrying up to 100 kg with a two-hour operational duration. The origin of this UGV is unclear, as is the number of units produced. This tweet highlights the growing trend of DIY UGVs appearing on the front lines, not only in Russia but also in Ukraine.
Before diving into the latest developments, it’s essential to understand what a UGV is. An Unmanned Ground Vehicle is a land-based machine that operates without a human driver. These vehicles can be remotely controlled or function autonomously thanks to artificial intelligence. UGVs have various applications, ranging from reconnaissance and surveillance to combat roles where they can carry weapons and explosives. We already talked to you about Ukrainian UGVs on Army Recognition dated 30 August 2023.
The use of UGVs in Ukraine is not a new phenomenon, but it has recently gained significant traction. The role of unmanned aerial vehicles has dramatically increased in the Ukraine war, and attention is now turning to ground drones. Ukrainian engineers like 22-year-old Yevhen Hnatok have already supplied several dozen remote-controlled ground vehicles for the armed forces. These UGVs vary in size and capability, with some capable of carrying anti-tank mines or remotely operated machine guns up to 10 km away from their operator.
The primary goal of these UGVs is to save lives by replacing as many troops as possible on the front lines. They offer a low-cost alternative, with parts for smaller machines costing less than $812. The impact of combat UGVs has been limited so far, but the sector is one to watch, as both sides are investing in this technology.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have already proven their effectiveness in the Russo-Ukrainian conflicts. Therefore, the development of UGVs is the logical next step, and engineers from both countries hope that their small devices will achieve the same success.
00
Uran-9 – Russian tracked unmanned ground combat vehicle
Russia has developed and produced several Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) for various purposes, including military, civilian, and research applications. Here are some notable examples:
Uran-9
A tracked unmanned combat ground vehicle (UCGV) developed and produced by JSC 766 UPTK (currently by Kalashnikov Concern) and promoted by Rosoboronexport for the international market. It is designed for combined combat, reconnaissance, and counter-terrorism missions.
Taifun-M
A remote sentry UGV unveiled by the Russian Army in April 2014, designed to guard missile sites. It features laser targeting and a cannon for reconnaissance, patrol, and fire support.
ASSCM
A civilian unmanned ground vehicle developed in Yuzuncu Yil University via a grant from TUBITAK, capable of autonomous grading within a polygon once the polygon border is defined.
Russia Develops Fully Autonomous Udar Combat Ground Vehicle:
A prototype of the Udar Combat Ground Vehicle, created by the Signal All-Russian Scientific Research Institute, can operate on different terrains completely unmanned and interact with various unmanned aerial vehicles.
These UGVs demonstrate Russia’s advancements in unmanned ground vehicle technology, with applications ranging from military and defense to civilian and research purposes.
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Financial Times – The age of drone warfare is disrupting the defence industry
The age of drone warfare is disrupting the defence industry
Rapidly evolving technology designed by smaller players is challenging the dominance of sluggish industry giants
Sylvia Pfeifer and John Paul Rathbone in London and Christopher Miller in Kyiv YESTERDAY
In a secret brick workshop on the outskirts of a frontline town in eastern Ukraine, soldiers Bohdan and Vlad are hard at work making killer drones. The small factory has a 3D printer to make the components needed to turn technology designed for fun or aerial photography into a deadly weapon.
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Russia’s war in Ukraine has escalated rapidly in the past two years. Bohdan, who asked to be identified by first name only, recalls demonstrating the inaugural FPV (first-person view) suicide drone attack to a foreign television crew in June 2022, four months after the Russian invasion. He strapped on goggles to view the video feed from the vehicle, then piloted it over the front line. In a sequence now familiar from hundreds of similar videos since posted online, the final frames are of the surprised faces of Russian troops as the drone closes in.
Today their workshop is just one cog in what has become one of Ukraine’s most important industries. The invasion has taken drone warfare to new heights of intensity and frequency. Crucially, the cheap yet effective FPV attack drones have helped plug some of the artillery shell shortages that have plagued the Ukrainian army over the past year. The country says it has gone from having just six drone makers before the invasion to more than 200, capable of churning out a million drones a year.
“In Kyiv, everyone you need to see — from an antenna maker, to a software programmer or [a defence] official — works within 20 minutes of everyone else,” says Lorenz Meier, whose US-based company Auterion is developing software to power swarms of autonomous Ukrainian-made drones that can communicate with each other. “The cycle times on developing and deploying new technologies are very, very low.”
This rapid proliferation of a potent new battlefield technology is shaking up the established hierarchy of the world’s defence industry, where large contractors have long dominated.
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Well, as the population in the West continues to fall we will need all these drones, robots and AI to continue our wars! I mean, why would we give up war on the rest of the world just because we are dying out?
So, Big Dog walking drones, tracked and wheeled drones on land, Britain seems best with littoral drones currently, America, China and Russia all have oceanic versions, and everyone and his dog are into aerial drones. Could we donate central Aussie or share with Mongolia and countries who want to go to war have to have drone wars in those areas, no humans allowed…
I will look up one of my memorable SF stories of the last humans being killed by AI constructed drones who were way past what humans thought of. It wasn’t the starving little boy in the war zone that killed you, it was his teddy bear!
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China and Russia’s populations are falling even faster than in the west. India is presently stable. Africa has halved from a high number. Unfortunately religious fanatics of all descriptions are busy reproducing fanatically.
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The Horn of Africa has had a population boom since Live Aid.
A quick search gave this as top result:
Why Africa’s population is set to triple by 2100 – The World Economic Forum
To be clear, a population boom in Africa has long been on the cards with earlier estimates showing that more than half of global population growth by 2050 will occur in Africa.However, the Lancet’s new findings cover a longer timeline and also corroborate earlier forecasts which show that Nigeria, already
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Scene casting –
“In It to Spin It”
https://kunstler.com/clusterf*-nation/in-it-to-spin-it/
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Re Harris for president
“We’re A Post-Constitutional Nation”
https://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=251634
And
“So, Potato”
“The people of the United States have the right to destroy themselves and thus the nation. Everyone has that right individually and if in the majority until and unless the remainder are willing to stop them with physical force, the majority has the right to do so electorally, fiscally and politically as well.
It is an extraordinarily grave decision to say “no mas” and put a stop to it; we did it almost 250 years ago but it was not cheap. Plenty of the people who did so were rendered penniless, died outright or were hanged and if they had lost a lot more of them would have. I argue that it most-certainly was worth it because we’re still here 250 years later but the vapid nature of the vast majority of our population today, particularly when it comes to whatever version of “oh its all free and government can just make it appear out of thin air and give it to me” is being run this day or next, along with the rank robbery and racketeering that so many not only support they directly participate in that is at the core of the problem. You need only look at Africa which had a higher per-capital GDP than most of Asia, they got drunk on that, declared “colonialism” bad and threw all the white people who had built all that “stuff” out, often at gunpoint. In the ensuing years, unable to maintain what they had, say much less expand it, they’re now way behind China and other Asian nations and in many cases basic infrastructure such as water and power is now failing or even threatening to collapse entirely.
America can go down that toilet folks. Don’t kid yourselves and if you think not you need only look at the demographics and the clear results of these “gimme” policies among those who must make a productive next generation with the intellectual capacity to maintain and improve said infrastructure or over the next several decades we will follow that path just as have dozens of other nations over the last thousand years.
And no, Trump isn’t much — if any — better and neither are the people on the GOP side of the aisle.”
https://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=251637
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“You need only look at Africa which had a higher per-capital GDP than most of Asia, they got drunk on that, declared “colonialism” bad and threw all the white people who had built all that “stuff” out, often at gunpoint. In the ensuing years, unable to maintain what they had, say much less expand it, they’re now way behind China and other Asian nations and in many cases basic infrastructure such as water and power is now failing or even threatening to collapse entirely.”
So, Asia was lucky it wasn’t colonised, or there is a marked difference in the cultures between Africans and Asians? The great argument that foreign aid or any charity just stops peoples from developing is always interesting. Certainly the Communist Govt in Mozambique in the early 2000s did nothing compared to the Communist Govt in Vietnam.
“America can go down that toilet folks.” Guaranteed it will! All empires end and although the countries keep going they are pale shadows of their former selves. Portugal, Turkey and Spain are all recent empires, now, not even world-leading in anything.
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SH GFS 7 day forecast anomaly has gone below the 1981-2010 baseline:
GFS Anomaly
http://www.karstenhaustein.com/reanalysis/gfs0p5/GFS_anomaly_timeseries_global.html
Clicking the graph back through to 2015 shows that’s not unusual.
Difference between now and 2015 is that NH was on baseline early 2015, went way up around +1.8 end of last year, now down around +1.0.
In other words, the NH has been driver of the GFS Global Anomaly, with a small assist from SH, for the last 19 years.
One wonders how CO2 could distinguish between hemispheres.
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What!!!!!
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Are you surprised?? How else would they keep control of the mainstream media if they didn’t bribe them.
Copied straight from ol’ Horseface in NZ over the Covid period “I am the greatest, believe only me..” No-one would print that without being paid to!
Once they have complete control over the internet they will just apply the censorship model to the mainstream and not have to buy them. Lets be blunt, the internet-hating mainstream media would be all over the net the day following the Govt censoring them, screaming about things they would not be allowed to put on TV, radio or newspapers, so Govt will take control of the net first, then tackle their lackeys.
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Rudd Labor after 2007 removed licence fees and saved the television broadcasters a lot of money and of course no more to pay in future years.
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‘Are you surprised??’
By the end of the decade there maybe no free to air stations, except for the ABC and SBS. Propaganda on steroids.
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FWIW –
“Who Is The Greater “Threat To Democracy”? ”
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-7-5-who-is-the-greater-threat-to-democracy
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European Parliament
Marine Le Pen teams up with Italian far right in Viktor Orbán’s new EU group
Rassemblement National and League join ‘Patriots for Europe’ to make it third-largest faction in European parliament
Marine Le Pen’s far-right party is teaming up with Italy’s League in the new “Patriots for Europe” group founded by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, which is set to be the third-largest faction in the European parliament.
The group has 84 MEPs and will be chaired by Jordan Bardella, president of France’s Rassemblement National, who led the party’s campaign in elections for the EU assembly last month. It includes eight lawmakers from Matteo Salvini’s League.
“This is a historic day,” said Jean-Paul Garraud, another RN lawmaker in Brussels. “We are against the EU becoming a superstate dominating our nations.”
The group seeks to cut immigration, repatriate powers from Brussels to national governments and reverse EU climate policies.
The Patriots in effect replaces Identity and Democracy (ID), the former home of Le Pen and Salvini, which had 49 members in the previous assembly. The Dutch Freedom party (PVV) of Geert Wilders and Belgium’s ultranationalist Vlaams Belang switched to the Patriots from ID over the weekend.
But the proliferation of rightwing groups also means their dreams of a super-merger that would wield significant power in the EU assembly appear to be over.
“There is still a very solid majority on the other side,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute of International Affairs. “In terms of policy, you can see them slowing down the legislative agenda on certain points, but you can’t quite see them able to completely derail or reverse that agenda.”
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Xi calls for Ukraine ceasefire as Hungary’s Orban makes surprise stop in China
Chinese leader says the two nations will maintain communication on Ukraine as their peace efforts are largely ‘aligned’
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and direct dialogue between Moscow and Kyiv during talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday.
Hungary’s leader was making a surprise visit to Beijing as part of his “peace mission” for Ukraine. It came after Orban visited Kyiv and Moscow for the first time since Russia invaded its neighbour in 2022.
Budapest has stepped up mediation efforts after taking over the rotating presidency of the European Council this month. But its proposal for a ceasefire and negotiations did not attract much interest from the two warring states last week.
The Central European nation maintains close ties with both Russia and China and supports Beijing’s peacemaking efforts on Ukraine, including a proposal with Brazil in May calling for conditions to be created for direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
In Beijing on Monday, Xi praised Orban’s efforts after the Hungarian leader briefed him about his visits to Kyiv and Moscow.
He said China and Hungary would maintain communication on Ukraine as their peace efforts were largely “aligned”.
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Odd thing to focus on re Biden. His historical plagiarism would be the tiniest tip of the iceberg relating to the good man myth.
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yarpos >His [Biden’s] historical plagiarism would be the tiniest tip of the iceberg relating to the good man myth
I’m guessing that was a reply to ‘Joe Biden Is A Good Man? Please Don’t Insult Our Intelligence’ downthread.
Does encapsulate the man’s character though.
But yes, there’s other examples to call from….
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France Just Committed Suicide
“Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last,” is how Winston Churchill, just months away from becoming Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, described the appeasement that led to World War II. “All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured.
The same could be said of France’s snap election, in which everyone from French Stalinists to the country’s business interests banded together to defeat the country’s “far right” at the polls. But the far right is not the threat, and the crocodile snapping at everyone’s heels is the accelerating Isl@mification of France.
Today’s French elites would rather lose to today’s invaders than lose an election to the country’s “far right.” Having invited the crocodile in, everyone from the French Communist Party to President Macron hopes they’ll be the last to be devoured.
If that isn’t national suicide, I don’t know what it is.
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In France, the Far Left Is King
Marine Le Pen lost. That doesn’t mean France won.
QUICO TORO
For weeks, pundits have been speculating that France’s snap legislative election could blow up in President Emmanuel Macron’s face—and boy did it. Only it’s blown up in a way nobody expected. Instead of the much-feared far right victory, the election will probably force the centrist president into an awkward coalition with the left, an exercise likely to leave both sides badly bruised.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is, today, the second most powerful person in France. He is, by any reasonable estimation, a far-left extremist. He publicly espouses ideas that, if put into practice, would destroy France’s economy and probably tank the Euro. His comfort around, and admiration for dictators (so long as they are of the left-wing kind) is a matter of record.
So why won’t the press affix the richly deserved “far-” to his sobriquet? The decisions owes something, I suspect, to Mélenchon’s single correct view: his unabashed championing of “créolisation”—the blending away of racial and cultural differences between white French people and French people of color
Jean-Luc Mélenchon leads a movement for the kind of brain-dead statism that has ruined plenty of countries in the past, and will ruin France if he’s allowed to determine its future direction.
Yet this is the path the French have chosen for their government. G@d help them.
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Ah, interesting.. searching for SF Stories brings up more movies than books!
Here is the path we are on, as per Phillip K Dick in 1953-
“”Second Variety” is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953. Set in a world where war between the Soviet Union and United Nations has reduced most of the world to a barren wasteland, the story concerns the discovery, by the few remaining soldiers left, that self-replicating robots originally built to assassinate Soviet agents have gained sentience and are now plotting against both sides. It is one of many stories by Dick examining the implications of nuclear war, particularly after it has destroyed much or all of the planet.
The story was adapted into the movie Screamers in 1995. The short story “Jon’s World”, written in 1954, serves as a sequel.”
You can read it here-
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm
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Scientists Baffled: Webb Uncovers Ancient Galaxies That Defy Explanation
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed mysterious objects in the early universe that challenge current theories of galaxy and supermassive black hole evolution.
These objects contain old stars and massive black holes, much larger than expected, suggesting a rapid and unconventional form of early galaxy formation. The findings highlight significant discrepancies with existing models, and the objects’ unique properties indicate a complex early cosmic history.
Breakthrough Discovery in Early Universe
A recent discovery by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) confirmed that luminous, very red objects previously detected in the early universe challenge established ideas about the origins and evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes.
Led by researchers from Penn State and utilizing the NIRSpec instrument on JWST as part of the RUBIES survey, the international team identified three enigmatic objects dating back to 600-800 million years after the Big Bang, a time when the universe was just 5% of its current age. They announced the discovery on June 27 in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Unexpected Findings in Galactic Evolution
The researchers said they were also surprised to discover signatures of huge supermassive black holes in the same objects, estimating that they are 100 to 1,000 times more massive than the supermassive black hole in our own Milky Way. Neither of these is expected in current models of galaxy growth and supermassive black hole formation, which expect galaxies and their black holes to grow together over billions of years of cosmic history.
“We have confirmed that these appear to be packed with ancient stars — hundreds of millions of years old — in a universe that is only 600-800 million years old. Remarkably, these objects hold the record for the earliest signatures of old starlight,” said Bingjie Wang, a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State and lead author on the paper. “It was totally unexpected to find old stars in a very young universe. The standard models of cosmology and galaxy formation have been incredibly successful, yet, these luminous objects do not quite fit comfortably into those theories.”
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So really the universe is tended by a collection of black hole vacuum cleaners and stars are just the dust about to be sucked up. Maybe God made a mistake, failed his credit for universe creation & is cleaning it up for another go..
Mr Musk is talking of building a thousand Raptor engines per year, so a fleet of Starships moving out from Earth in all directions. What a great time to be alive!
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Joe Biden Is A Good Man? Please Don’t Insult Our Intelligence
I & I Editorial Board July 8, 2024
There are too many post-debate examples to list all the “good man” encomia, but here are few more:
Four years ago we were told that Biden was going to return civility and virtue to the White House.
Current First Lady Jill Biden said then that “decency is on the ballot.” Michelle Obama swore that Biden was a “profoundly decent man, guided by his faith,” and “as president” he would “honor the lives and experiences of every American — because that’s what he’s always done.”
In October 2020, Brit journalist Jonathan Freedland ignorantly insisted that “most” – really, most? – “Americans regard Biden as safe, unthreatening and fundamentally decent.”
There was even a book published in 2020 that had the title “A Good & Decent Man: Joe Biden: Rescuing America.”
After wading hip deep through the malarkey, let’s look at the Biden record.
The man who occupies the highest office in the world is a pathological liar. We need go no further back than 1987, when he had to drop his campaign for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination because he plagiarized a speech from Neil Kinnock, then a Labor Party member of the British Parliament.
“The tapes of the two speakers, which were eventually aired on U.S. television, show Biden not only echoing Kinnock’s words but aping his gestures,” Time reported in 1987.
Decades earlier, “Biden also failed a course because he wrote a paper that used five pages from a published law-review article without quotation marks or a proper footnote,” Time remembers in a 2019 article.
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http://www.stolenelectionnovella.com/the-biden-crime-syndicate.html#/
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Scientists Have Developed a New Type of Glass With Unique and Even Contradictory Properties
Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have created a new type of glass with unique and even contradictory properties, such as being a strong adhesive (sticky) and incredibly transparent at the same time. The glass, which forms spontaneously when comes in contact with water at room temperature, could bring about a revolution in an array of different and diverse industries such as optics and electro-optics, satellite communication, remote sensing and biomedicine.
Process and Properties of the New Glass
At the molecular level, glass is a liquid-like substance that lacks order in its molecular structure, but its mechanical properties are solid-like. Glass is usually manufactured by rapidly cooling molten materials and “freezing” them in this state before they are allowed to crystallize, resulting in an amorphous state that allows unique optical, chemical and mechanical properties – alongside durability, versatility, and sustainability. The researchers from TAU discovered that the aromatic peptide, which consists of a three-tyrosine sequence (YYY), forms a molecular glass spontaneously, upon evaporation of an aqueous solution, under room-temperature conditions.
“The commercial glass we all know is created by the rapid cooling of molten materials, a process called vitrification” says Gal Finkelstein-Zuta. “The amorphous liquid-like organization should be fixed before it arranges in a more energy-efficient way as in crystals, and for that energy is required – it should be heated to high temperatures and cooled down immediately. On the other hand, the glass we discovered, which is made of biological building blocks, forms spontaneously at room temperature, without the need of energy such as high heat or pressure. Just dissolve a powder in water – just like making kool-aid, and the glass will form. For example, we made lenses from our new glass. Instead of undergoing a lengthy process of grinding and polishing, we simply dripped a drop onto a surface, where we control its curvature – and hence its focus – by adjusting the solution volume alone.”
The properties of the innovative glass from TAU are unique in the world – and even contradict each other: it is very hard, but it can repair itself at room temperature; It is a strong adhesive, and at the same time, it is transparent in a wide spectral range, ranging from the visible light to the mid-infrared range.
Potential Impact and Uses
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A “Little List”
“Joe Biden Is A Good Man? Please Don’t Insult Our Intelligence”
https://issuesinsights.com/2024/07/08/joe-biden-is-a-good-man-please-dont-insult-our-intelligence/
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Jordan Peterson and his wife, talk with Tommy Robinson. Everything you didnt want to know about grooming gangs, and the present state of England’s establishment. He’s trying for a major gathering 27 July. 1 hr 45. Gut retching. The bureaucratic mindf ing is maybe worse than the gangs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_3r0_0BoFY&t=2s
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I wonder how long that will last on YT before they censor it. I hope it’s on X or other streaming platforms. Or Australia’s e Safety Kommissar might issue a takedown notice.
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I notice that they are having a 3 day curfew in Alice Springs. In town only so I guess the “troubles” will ooze into the burbs. I wonder if tourists even bother to stop there any more apart from getting fuel to keep moving.
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FWIW – one view on the possible
“Nailing My Colours To The Mast”
https://ombreolivier.substack.com/p/nailing-my-colours-to-the-mast
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And another
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2024/07/08/spoiling-for-a-kicking/
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What is going on at Woodridge?
https://www.finance.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-02/Department-of-Finance-2023-Calendar-Year-Listing-of-Non-Procurement-Departmental-Contracts.pdf Patella Holdings – Lease on Woodridge site, started in May 2003 and runs until 29.05.2102 (yep, for 99 years!) At $19 million per year, I would reckon might be time for the Commonwealth to exercise some of those compulsory land acquisition powers if this site is essential?
Only other thing I can find is an exemption from data regulation https://www.aer.gov.au/industry/registers/network-exemptions/patella-holdings-pty-ltd-woodridge-place-network-exemption and that the broader holdings are related to Healthcare: https://prabingautam.com.au/
Any ideas?
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Urgent warning to change all of your logins NOW as hacker leaks 10 BILLION passwords from dozens of popular websites
Cyber experts have urgently warned people to update their passwords after a hacker uploaded billions of login details.
The leak, called RockYou2024, was posted on July 4th containing a staggering 10 billion passwords from a compilation of old and new data breaches.
Researchers who revealed the leak said the information could allow hackers to target any system that isn’t protected by strict security software including online and offline services, online cameras and industrial hardware.
This could prompt a wave of data breaches, financial fraud and identity theft using the passwords, which were collected from more than 4,000 databases over the last two decades.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13612225/change-passwords-hacker-uploads-10BILLION-crime-forum.html
Have no fear about your digital future.
It’s totally safe and has effective security.
The government has spoken.
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-09/home-affairs-boss-orders-sweep-for-foreign-cyber-threats/104072418 – that no one can see the option to move away from cloud computing (government to run its own data centres) and no work from home (government data handled only in secure facilities – like the old days, when you had to check your personal mobile phone in for the day when you entered a Commonwealth workplace) – that is what scares me!
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