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
There were a few fires yesterday in Victoria with hot windy conditions it’s a bad mix, one was at Scotsburn/Clarendon just South of Ballarat that we missed by a couple of hours travelling back from Geelong (lucky), there was a few helicopters flying around as you’d expect but the low flying passenger jet coming straight over our suburb was surprising!
It turned out to be a CFA fire bomber as we worked out on the second pass you could see the large door underneath, I’ve never seen a plane that size go that low over our little city but we’re glad it did to help put out that fire, I’ll try and find out which one it was and just add for everyone to be vigilant on days like this and be safe.
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Smokey here today.
Fire near Williamstown Air Base.
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Yes, some lightning strike fires near here too. A couple of helicopters heading for them. Very oppressive yesterday evening. I hope everyone in the hot areas will be alright.
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The CFA Facebook page is good for info also firewatch, I was impressed with the number of offers to help including safe refuge for livestock and horses, just people helping out on their own volition is impressive and heartening.
We walked Mount Buninyong earlier and could see the Scotsburn fire still well alight, the one West of it at Mt Mercer looked under control and everyone here will be relieved that the wind farm did not burn down 🙁
Had a go at some drongo having a smoke next to his car parked halfway up the mountain, the wind is gusting up to 60kph and he’s surrounded by Eucalypts and tons of dry undergrowth while looking at a large bushfire raging in the distance, I’ll save the Mods the hassle and stop now.
70
There seems to be an inexhaustible supply of idi@ts Yonnie. How anyone even needs to be told not to light a fire on a day like this is beyond my comprehension. Even a cig outdoors.
Craig Lapsley due to speak in Marysville at 2pm.
20
Fires. It must be the hottest December eeeeevvvvvvuuuuuurrrrrrr!!!!!!
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Not now, it ain’t been raining for a day and half.. and continued rain forecast. Yuck !!
Where’s my summer !!!!
01
Full stop.. Capital B .. after ain’t !!!
01
Guessing here.
Full flight information and flight history for aircraft N612AX
http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/n612ax/#851593f
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You must have missed the flights that got Tiger suspended for buzzing Geelong.
00
Spent a few days on a cruise around NZ. At all the ports, bar Auckland, there are incredible amounts of pine logs and sawn timber being loaded for export; the sheds and wharves are full. So the Kiwis are not only sequestrating huge amounts of CO2, but making billions of dollars out of it as well.
No sign of global warming in Dunedin, a few snow showers.
172
Why is there no sign of a Kiwi on any of their candidates for a new Kiwi flag ?
All that forest harvesting can’t be helping with saving them from extinction either.
“Two hundred years ago, millions of kiwi lived all through New Zealand’s forests, and the night air echoed with their calls.
Today the birds are under siege. By 1998, the population had plummeted to fewer than 100,000 birds. By 2008 that figure had fallen even further – to about 70,000.”
“A tiny proportion of kiwi eggs produce a kiwi adult.
Fewer than 5% reach adulthood.”
50
An excellent point Ava. The kiwi has a fine pedigree and historical precedent with respect to nationalistic iconography.
Whilst it is instantly recognisable, the haunting question remains, would one really want to be represented by a flightless bird that furtively scurries about in the undergrowth endlessly poised on the brink of extinction?
However, on reflection this may in fact be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Afterall, the kiwi penchant for UN veneration is well known. Given the UN post-2105 development goals, it may not be very long before their national identity is extinguished in all but sports (sport is strongly advocated as a UN post-millennium development goal), replaced instead by the toxic green blob’s globalisation purveyed by the eco-totalitarians of UN.
Then the absence of a kiwi identity could be reflected by a void, black, the absence of colour, nothingness. A seamless global identity.
Oh wait…..it already is.
80
You know why there is no Kiwi Airlines? Kiwis can’t fly.
50
Outstanding Kiwi Regional Airlines and the dreaded Middle Earth Eating Monster Air New Zealand for its legendary, utterly reliable quality service and unsurpassed bang-for-a-buck experience.
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Only with fossil fuels.
10
Another truly stupendous, population lowering Green idea – ‘biofuels’, decried back in 2013 in The Telegraph.
According to the current, politically correct Air New Zealand web site euphemistically entitled, ‘Carbon’:
Such are the Green pretensions of the kiwi.
10
I thought Kiwi was a fruit!
10
‘I thought Kiwi was a fruit!’
That’s clever marketing.
00
Interesting little story on legendary Kiwi Nancy Wake and fruit,
Nancy Wake: “Blisteringly sexy, she killed Nazis with her bare hands,” gushed the Daily Mail when she died, aged 98. Wake who married a Frenchman, played a vital part in helping more than a thousand escaped POWs and shot-down Allied airmen escape from occupied France. Dubbed the “White Mouse” for her elusiveness, she was No.1 on the Gestapo’s most wanted list. Once when her parachute got caught in a tree, her local agent said he hoped all trees could bear such beautiful fruit. She replied; “Don’t give me that French shit”.
I’ll nominate Lucy lawless as the biggest fruit to come from Kiwi land….
20
Are you suggestion that she is in fact a lemon?
10
Ava – I don’t know where you got your information on the Kiwi from but it doesn’t appear to relate to my knowledge of the bird as an ex New Zealander.
The Maoris arrived in the 13th century and by the time the Europeans arrived in the 19th century they’s killed practically every animal and made the Moa extinct. They were down to depending on seafood.
The Kiwi then suffered the invasion of external predators like cats, foxes etc.
Where they have removed all the foxes etc the Kiwis are returning and can even be seen wandering around in daylight hours even though they are nocturnal.
10
In fiordland they are repopulating islands with native animals after they have removed the ferals; apparently the stout is the worst offender with birds. As well there is a large programme to cull possum which are defoliating and killing native forest.
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Janama, and Robert O.
There are, and never have been foxes in the wild in New Zealand. We have had, however, nearly everything else except snakes – and some idiot nearly managed to bring them too.
Before Homo sapiens arrived,two species of bat represented the only mammals living here.
Imported bird predators include:
Rat
Stoat (Bob, stout is an imported beer, harmless to birds – mostly) 🙂
Ferret
Weasel
Possum
Cat
Dog
Man
10
Very well planned timber stands with trees apart, lower branches lopped and grass for grazing animals covering the ground.
10
What Is Google?
The other day I was responding to a comment by Gee Aye and I wanted to provide a definition for the word economic.
So I went to the google home-page and typed in ‘economic’, scrolled down the auto-complete list to ‘economic definition’, and clicked on that option. Until recently, when doing this for any word, I would get a list of web-sites like dictionary.com or oxforddictionaries.com or wikipedia.org etc. and then I could click on whatever web-site I chose to go to for the definition.
Only now what I got was a definition provided by google themselves. This ‘definition’, provided by google, comes up above the list of links to web-sites, and below the ads. So now, anyone looking for information, no longer needs to click on any website because google has provided the information right there in the search results.
Then I looked at the definition that google provided and found that for the second definition they, google, provided an example sentence for this word.
This new phenomenon raised two questions for me:
1. Why would google decide that this sentence should be the sentence to demonstrate the correct usage for the word ‘economic’ given that the sentence is false? Solar power can never provide a more economic solution.
2. Why is google now providing it’s own information when it’s function is to provide a list of web-sites that provide that information?
This experience reminded me of an article I read recently: How Google Plans to Steal More of Your Traffic
Any comments?
Abe
271
This has been happening for a while and with other sites, where there’s a deliberate effort to influence people with their own ideology.
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It applies to the entire internet and modern journalism in general. Leftist training by senior journalists like Michelle Grattan is that journalists are the wisest people on the planet and should be running governments and pushing their political beliefs. Similiarly for historians. Who needs British history and Christianity? All information must be presented through their eyes and even to the point of lecturing not reporting the facts without bias. News is being censored. We are not told why Putin did something but what his motives were. The destruction of 2,000 tons of Sarin gas held by the Assad regime is never mentioned. It nearly went to Isil, thanks to Obama’s support for Isil. Only the Russians stopped this world disaster.
With the Melbourne Age in particular, you could not find a fact on the front page, just opinion pieces for which the day’s events were nothing more than a trigger. This became so extreme, you could not find any facts at all, just rants on the police or Tony Abbott. I stopped even reading the front page and then stopped buying the paper.
Yesterday we read that sick George Pell’s flight back to Rome cost $10,000 and that it was business class. This is not news from the Royal Commission into child abuse. This implies he is a villain now stealing from the poor and clearly guilty of something or he would not have come back for the third time. In this way an irrelevant fact is used to push a line by the journalist clique that mere accusation and attending an inquiry is enough to prove guilt. This presumption of guilt goes through our new laws too, that in many cases you are guilty until proven innocent. Try objecting to parking fines where contractors have targets to meet to fund more council spending.
In reporting on the climate, terms like denier and carbon pollution abound, as if they were reasonable and scientifically correct descriptions. A very popular technique is just changing the facts to support an opinion after the capture of University History departments by leftist extremists. Keith Windschuttle’s “The fabrication of Aboriginal History” shows how a fact can be entirely reversed by taking out a single word like ‘not’ and is an indictment of the new progressive history where deceit is very deliberate and facts blatantly changed or omitted to push a theme. The new catch cry is “what is truth?”, as if lying is the new philosophy and someone is always ‘righting a great wrong’ by lying.
From Google to news.com.au to the IPCC, reporters are presenting opinions as facts and teaching their views through wrong examples like this. Remember the infamous IPCC dire announcement that 400 million Indians were going to die within 30 years because of the melting of the glaciers high in the Hindu Kush, stopping the flow of waters down the Indus valley. Firstly, the ice does not make water and just acts as a dam. It is in equilibrium with new water replacing the melt. Secondly, there was no melting anyway. This was traced to a throw away opinion of a single tour guide from a single trip to a single glacier, not science or even measurement. Not even corroborated let alone peer reviewed by thousands of IPCC scientists. The Indian government was so scared, teams of Indian scientists checked all the glaciers. It was not true. The IPCC then gave a meaningless answer about a zero being left out and a typographical error. So no one bothers to checked a statement of imminent mass extinction of humans? Standard practice for the IPCC. Welcome to political reporting. No facts, just herding the sheep.
The real question for the public is how to get the actual news, to get a balance in the war in Syria or ebola or what is important. Is George Pell’s business class flight really news? Is gay marriage ‘equality’ a fantasy topic or even slightly important and not nutty? With the political capture of the ABC by the extreme left, we are forced to look to commercial channels for balance and priority. It is getting harder and harder to get the facts, even from Google and who can trust Wikipedia? We in Australia pay $1.5Bn a year for the unbiased reporting by ABC/SBS and we still cannot get the facts, just demands for more cash. They like ASIO now do the bidding of the new information Tsar, our self appointed PM who is always right. We will be told an ETS (External Taxation Scheme) is the only fair and reasonable way to support Goldman Sachs and the unelected UN. Can we please have our elected government back? Journalists should not be running the country and information and opinions should not be controlled by our new faux PM.
362
‘…journalists are the wisest people on the planet and should be running governments.’
There was a time when journalists were regarded as part of the intelligentsia (excluding the yellow press) but those days are over.
‘The real question for the public is how to get the actual news…’
That’s where we come in, citizen journalists predicting the news before it happens.
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A great summary once again TdeF.
It’s obvious that facts don’t matter in current political/science debates as using facts won’t change public opinion which has been carefully cultivated by Australia’s Marxist controlled media and academia for decades.
The left is winning the political debate by deliberately NOT using facts which are an unnecessary complication in it’s propaganda war.
What to do when the biggest influence on Australia’s public opinion is the taxpayer funded, Turnbull friendly, ABS/SBS Marxist controlled, propaganda machine?
I wish I could answer that.
20
They only said ‘may’, not shall or even should but yes it is insidious. Does Google see the regular appeals for funding now from Wiki and consider that it might succumb to not being ‘economic’ ?
70
Google is the world’s biggest advertiser and who could think of a world without google? Wikipedia is free but last year and this year I donated. After all, the service is excellent and free. You have to use your own judgement sometimes but generally it is very good. Google is always trying to own you but from gmail to blogspot to google maps, they have changed the world of information for the better. The temptation of individual writers to lecture is unavoidable. Whether it is policy or group think is the question.
91
JaG,
It’s their search engine and they can project their corporate philosophy, mission and goals any way they want as long as they provide an information service that people want to continue to use.
Having written that the operative word is corporate, and I don’t believe Google wants to infiltrate as much as they want to capture a market and the algorithms tell them that the market is still clinging tenuously to saving the planet.
Don’t forget that Google itself dropped their own renewable energy research after they found it to be a financial bust.
170
James Bradley,
I haven’t forgotten. It’s because Google Engineers give up on renewables that I wrote what I wrote.
Radical technological advances cost money. Lot’s of money. Historically, when any new technology comes into use, the cost is very high. There’s no reason to expect that solar energy will be any different. In fact, if you’ve been keeping track of TonyfromOz’s evaluations of solar and wind, it’s clear that not only is CO2 production not reduced by these technologies, but the cost to the consumer derived from their implementation only increases. Every time.
Lomborg and others have been pointing this out for years and look where that got them.
Let’s not forget too that increased costs for electricity force poor people and elderly people to choose between heating their homes and putting food in their stomachs. How often has pat posted articles about how these people are found frozen to death in their homes?
And there’s no reduction in CO2 production anyway. So why bother?
All of this is what makes google’s choice of an example sentence so insidious, as Ava Plaint put it.
Finally, as Leo Morgan has pointed out in a comment below, the example sentence comes from oxforddictionaries.com. That fact, while true, doesn’t really change anything as I hope to point out in my forthcoming reply to him. If anything, it just makes things worse.
Abe
11
Use https://duckduckgo.com as your search engine would be a good start …
20
I thought it was Google who researched renewables and determined that they were not viable.
20
Despite Google becoming one of the richest and most influential companies on the planet due to the marvels of our soon-to-be-finished Western Civilisation, it is also playing a major part in its destruction.
Guess what Google, when our Civilisation is destroyed, you go down screaming with it, on an express elavator to the 7th century.
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@ Just-a-Guy
My first comment is that Google sees its role very differently from the way you do. If Google’s function were just “… to provide a list of web-sites that provide …information”, there would be no Google Maps, self-driving cars, G-mail, Google Books or anything other than web search.
They have their corporate philosophy detailed under “Ten things we know to be true” Included in the list, they say words to the effect of: They see their role as providing seamless access to information. Answering a question immediately it is asked, is more seamless than redirecting you to some other place. They still give you access to all the links you wanted, PLUS they answer the question immediately.
My second observation is that because of the use of the word “may”, the comment is not false.
Thirdly, the information is not Google pushing a corporate enviro-loon agenda.The definition, including the example phrase you find objectionable, was not developed by Google, but taken from the Oxford dictionary
Finally, A propos of the link you gave, I found that an interesting article. At the moment I’m not too troubled, I find what they’re doing makes life easier for me. Larger sites, including booksellers, copyright holders, news gatherers etc. are contending in court as to where the limits on access to information published on the web should be drawn. However it turns out, of course the web, Google, and society will all be different in twenty years time anyway.
00
Leo Morgan,
Thank you for your response.
You’ve made some interesting observations. Before responding, you and others, might want to review an article published by Jo called: Is it the Blue Pill for Google? Will it consign itself to oblivion with “truth” filters?. Even if you’ve read that article, a quick review will help as I will be referring to it and some of the comments there.
Abe
00
Leo Morgan,
This is along the same lines as what James Bradley said.
On the face of it, you’re both correct, but only to a point and it’s now become apparent that they have gone well beyond that point. Let me explain.
Yes, it’s their company and they have the right and should be allowed to project their corporate goals if they so choose. The problem comes in when they use the vast amount of information resources and the depth of their market share to impose those goals on an unsuspecting public.
First. Studies have shown that the top left hand side of the computer display is the first place people will look when a new page is displayed, such as the page that lists the results of a search request. Therefore, if the answer you were looking for is already there when the page shows up on your screen, then there’s no need to look any further.
In light of those studies about where a person will look first, your observation becomes both moot and irrelevant. Who cares if all those other links to all those other web-sites are there further down in the list. The person looking for an answer to their query has already gotten the answer they were looking for. All those other links are now worthless.
This is also why they put paid ads at the very top of the list before all the other links, (they call these other links ‘organic’ search results). In fact, when those ads first appeared, they were nearly indistinguishable from the organic search results and people were clicking on the paid ads by mistake. This caused a backlash from webmasters and google was forced to place those ads inside a box with a beige background to make them stand out more.
And so, given the situation as it stands now, I would have to rephrase that last sentence I quoted from your comment:
Second. Going over now to that article by Jo on the blue pill. Pointman made the observation that none other than Al Gore is a well paid adviser to both google and apple. Both Greg Cavanagh and Manfred posted links verifying that arrangement. Knowing who Al Gore is, what he stands for and what he fervently promotes, why would google pay him any money at all unless they share Gore’s views? That’s a rhetorical question and the answer is clear as day. (More to Follow)
Abe
00
@ Just-A-Guy
I appreciate the fact you quote the words of mine to which you’re responding.
It’s a courtesy that many other internet commentators would do well to follow.
You’ve made it apparent to me that I was not sufficiently clear about my point.
Let me rephrase and re-punctuate, and see if I can express it more clearly.
Thirdly, the information is not Google’s; the definition, including the example phrase you find objectionable, was taken from the Oxford dictionary. It’s an example of an algorithm, not an expression of that company having an eco-loon agenda.
I think that phrases the point I was trying to express more clearly than my original wording did.
I’ll add to that point that I’m not disputing that Google does have somewhat of a corporate eco-nut agenda. (That’s undeniable, as demonstrated among other things by their hired goat lawn-mowing.) But the presence of this phrase in that definition is not an example of that agenda. It might still be an example of wrong-doing. Perhaps Oxford dictionaries objects to Google taking their definition. Alternatively, perhaps Google pays them for it. But this is not an instance of them pressing an agenda upon the wider world.
Not every apparent instance of wrong-doing is evidence of actual wrong-doing. There is such a thing as coincidence in this world.
00
Leo Morgan,
Not at all. It was actually me that wasn’t clear enough about what I was doing.
If you’ll notice, I didn’t quote all of what you wrote as your third point. I only quoted the first half because I saw your ‘thirdly’ as two separate but related issues. And because the first part was closely related to what James Bradley had said, I chose to only address that first part. My appologies for the lack of clarity on my part.
I understood that the definition given by google came from oxforddictionaries.com. You may have noticed that in my response to James Bradley . . .
The second half of your third point that I didn’t address is related to google’s intended use of truth filters, what they call Knowledge Based Trust. I hope to get to that aspect of it soon.
I agree with this as a general principle. I don’t agree that it applies in this case.
Some things can be explained with just a few words, like for example the definition of a word in a dictionary. Other things require more than even a few paragraphs. I believe that this issue is one of those things in the latter category. I hope this won’t cause your patience to wear thin. 🙂
Abe
00
Leo Morgan,
Let’s take a closer look at what’s on that list, yeah?
So what they know is that ‘it’s best to do one thing really, really well’ and that this one thing is ‘already a fast and seamless process’.
So right there in one paragraph they contradict themselves. If they know that it’s best to do one thing really well, why go out and do other things?
00
Leo Morgan,
Ok. So this last comment is not complete. I pressed submit by mistake. 🙁
Please allow me to complete what I wanted to say in full before responding.
I’ve also read your response to my previous comment. Thanks for the reply.
Abe
00
Leo Morgan,
Let’s take a closer look at what’s on that list, yeah?
So what they know is that ‘it’s best to do one thing really, really well’ and that this one thing is ‘already a fast and seamless process’.
So right there in one paragraph they contradict themselves. If they know that it’s best to do one thing really well, why go out and do other things?
Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and propose that what they really meant was to do one thing really well among many. After all, they didn’t say one thing only, right?
Well, if this was the only inconsistency in what they know then no problem. But, as I mentioned in my last comment, by placing the information that they deem to be relevant to your query at the top left hand side of the page, they no longer just give you access to the information on the web, they now provide the information itself.
But wait. At the end of that last quote it says, “. . . and to help people access and use even more of the ever-expanding information in their lives.” Sure, you’re given the access. But if you’ve got ads on top, ads on the side, and the information they chose as the first option, how much of the information that they give you access to do you really get to use? (more to follow)
Abe
00
Don’t use “google”Use”duck duck go”or one of the other search engines.
60
Sadly, DuckDuckGo and most of the others are pretty useless, even Google’s major try hard rival, Bing, is utter rubbish.
13
Any opinion regarding Ixquick?
10
I haven’t tried that one, but for my writings, I do a lot or searching for references etc and, sadly, Google is the only search engine that consistently provides what I need. I’d love to use something else but nothing so far is its equal.
20
dogpile ?
00
Same again. They all do similar aggregation from other search engines and deliver what they think is the best. I’ve tried most of them and, at the end of the day, Google is without a doubt the most consistent and comprehensive.
00
I had a look at Ixquick and it’s much like DuckDuckGo (DDG) (why do they always use such odd names?), in that it aggregates search results from various sources, including Google, to provide what it thinks are the best results. Like DDG, what it thinks are the best results don’t necessarily conform with my view, which is why I gave up on DDG.
Their (Ix and DDG) main claim to fame is that they say they anonymise searches and leave no trace. Is that no trace on your computer or the internet? In any case, I’m hardly concerned about that.
00
It can be tedious using others once you’ve tasted Google.
10
What’s wrong with Bing?
10
I’ve used Bing to search for stuff about Windows and other Microsoft products, and it hasn’t turned up any results. So I’ve gone to Google and the results come up on the first page.
00
John Connor’s Climate Institute is teetering:
Climate Institute fights for survival as philanthropic donation runs out
Since they are go-to propagandists for the ABC maybe that nice Mr Scott will throw them some dosh.
100
Gees, maybe they should do something PRODUCTIVE instead of relying totally on OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.
122
Any doubts about Turnbull’s LNP 2016 climate policy is laid to rest:
“Its work has won praise from heavyweights including former Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson, who is returning to the public service as the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and economist Ross Garnaut.
Parkinson, head of the climate change department during the Rudd and Gillard governments, is known as the architect of the Rudd-Gillard carbon (sic) tax.
Earlier this year, Mr Parkinson said the institute was “a highly effective educator and advocate for sensible action” on climate change and played an influential role in shaping public thinking and policy.”
. . .
The Climate Institute has failed to stop one extreme weather event with their “sensible action” in all it’s years of lobbying.
> Preferences in voting will be more important than ever in 2016.
140
John Connor is about to be terminated?
40
Ja terminated.Permanently!
40
From The Australian.
Tony Abbott has told an informal Liberal Party gathering in Melbourne that he will “be working to ensure that we have the best possible government out of next year’s election’’.
Looking forward to the destabilisation. Will Turnbull panic and call an early election?
170
As if Malcolm wants to win the next election. He is not a politician. It is a poor paying high responsibility job. He want to go back to being a banker. What he wants is his ETS and once in place, it cannot be removed again and he will be off, leaving the job to Julie Bishop or Scott Morrison, as he has promised them.
I doubt the Liberals will win the next election anyway against either Albanese or Plibersek. Why would Malcolm care? He will have everything he wants, plus a great line on his CV. He is more Green/Labor than Liberal anyway and his idea of leadership is straight out of Stalin’s handbook, or do ASIO usually try to intimidate politicians to repeat the opinions of the Great Leader? Expect more very senior resignations from the Liberal party. There is no point fighting the next election and Labor and the Greens are just enjoying the spectacle of the demolition of a government from within. By the end of the term, every trace of Abbott’s government will have been removed.
91
While not disagreeing with most of your post I must point out that the 2013 federal election victory for the Coalition was an historic landslide defeat of Labor which gave the Coalition a substantial majority of seats. Inevitably they will lose a number of those seats in 2016 and the margin between the two sides will return to normal average. I doubt that Labor Greens will be returned to government.
Consider 2010 and that in 2007 Labor won a substantial majority of seats, not by the landslide proportions of the Coalition 2013 victory, but at the 2010 election Labor for all intents and purposes lost government and had to form an alliance to retain office.
I also believe that many voters remember the Labor years of chaos, dysfunction and incompetence 2007-2013, and that Labor not only created a huge debt for the nation but never produced a budget in surplus or balance. And they deliberately undermined the economy and finance via their badly flawed 2013/14 Budget. And then add the Union controllers of Labor and the Trade Union Royal Commission into trade union governance and corruption, over thirty people already referred to legal agencies.
The Turnbull factor is going to cost the Coalition seats and hopefully his seat of Wentworth is is held by a narrow margin. About 25% of the swing against the Liberals in North Sydney at the recent by election.
70
All excellent points Dennis that should make sense to voters but we in Victoriastan still managed to elect a rabid Marxist Muppet with a trade union hand up it engineered to line unworthy pockets before destroying a weakened economy, anyone that complains about their lot here I always ask “who did you vote for?” then laugh in derision 60% of the time.
70
I sympathise with Victorian voters who are not CFMEU fans. But as you would know, the circumstances and electoral margins at the last Vic state election are different to the national situation currently.
10
True, but memories of a very dysfunctional Labor government fade quickly. The boats have stopped. Labor reintroduced Nauru and Manus Island and mandatory detention anyway. Turning around the boats has not been the terrible tragedy Labor and the Greens promised but stopped the mass drownings they encouraged. So as long as Labor does not stop the boat policy, what is now the difference between the parties? Malcolm is clear it is no longer an ETS. All politicians want an ETS. Everyone wants the Green vote. In many electorates it is the difference between winning and not winning, as was stopping a perfectly sensible fully funded and ready to build underground freeway which took 40,000 cars a day off inner city streets in inner Melbourne. This absurd move cost the voters of Victoria an additional $1,000,000,000 to not build an essential and zero impact road under a cemetery. Why? For a few more votes from extremists.
Then as the Liberal party numbers men now say openly, who cares about Liberal voters? Sure they will lose some but they want the election winning Green votes which propel Labor to power. However what then is the difference between the parties if everyone wants to please the Greens and the Greens alone and ignore their own constituents, the ‘rusted on’ voters? After three years, the Liberal government will have exactly the same budget mess as they inherited under Wayne Swann. $50Bn a year in borrowings every year to 2021 at least and $1.5Bn a month in interest payments overseas plus we are borrowing money to fund donations to help countries cope with Climate Change? Couldn’t they borrow their own money?
No, the Liberals will lose but does Malcolm care? Malcolm may have another surprise and it could well be between Julie Bishop and Tanya Plibersek. One new Gillard vs another, looking for the female vote. That is how far the parliamentary political parties have moved from caring about policy. You no longer elect a Prime Minister or give a mandate or support a raft of promises. In the new world, politicians do exactly what suits them on the day. Who cares what they promised? “There will be no carbon tax in a government I lead”.
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Not correct, offshore detention was part of the Coalition’s Pacific Solution (Howard Government) and was created to stop refugee advocates encouraging illegal immigrants claiming asylum from exploiting the Australian legal aid and court appeals systems. Offshore processing provides one appeal if the decision is to not allow an applicant to stay in Australia. And noting that detainees are not prisoners, they can request deportation at any time and if they do not have travel documents, as most destroy their documents when they board smuggler vessels, the Australian Government will provide a travel document for one-way most direct route travel home.
Nauru and Manus Island were Pacific Solution offshore detention centres. Rudd Labor abandoned Pacific Solution and with no consultation with Indonesia which is why the Indonesian Government was so angry with Labor,
Much of what you posted is true, but politics is a numbers and perception game and as the numbers stand after the 2013 federal election the Coalition will retain government in 2016.
20
I have always wondered why Turnbull changed his mind about leaving politics when he lost the Liberal Party leadership to Abbott. And then he “supported” his nemesis for 6 or more years. For someone with an ego as big as Turnbulls it seemed a strange thing to do. It was almost like he was instructed to swallow his pride, re-group, be patient and soldier on with the master plan. Stick with the plan and the rewards will follow.
Perhaps TdeF is right. Get an ETS embedded and then go back to banking.
Very rewarding.
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There can be no doubt that the former Chairman of Goldman Sachs is in politics to further the interests of the “bankers”, his mates like Al Gore, George Soros, the late Maurice Strong and even Clive Palmer. These people are only interested in wealth creation schemes and man-made global warming climate change fraud has their full backing. Maurice Strong was the chief engineer of the fraud. ETS is only one of their goals, so called renewable energy is another, taxpayer provided profits via subsidies for inefficient, not commercially viable without subsidies, wind turbines, solar systems, etc.
Christopher, Lord Monckton warned us that there were dark forces internationally and nationally gunning for Tony Abbott as he was not in step with the “socialists masquerading as environmentalists”.
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In moderation again
00
It’s the fr*ud word.
00
‘Looking forward to the destabilisation. Will Turnbull panic and call an early election?’
Only if Tony regroups his troops and follows the Ted Cruz strategy on climate change, then he could do some serious destabilisation.
If the monk can’t get his act together then the government won’t run early, Talkbull is going to offer the masses the bread and circuses they so richly deserve. Key words: decentralisation, VFT, satellite cities.
With the electorate now in their pocket the troika would push forward with their green agenda and marginalize the Denialati.
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Why is it necessary to denigrate Tony Abbott? “the monk”?
Tony Abbott studied to become a Catholic Priest and decided that life was not to his liking, so he left.
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Its not his past that I’m concerned about, the man believes in a deity and talking off the top of his head says Christians are more civilised than the other mob who need to reevaluate their position.
If he wants to put up the Koran for closer analysis and criticism, then the bible also needs debunking.
12
All religions can be misused and many crimes have been committed in the names of Christianity. However like Buddhism it is not a religion which preaches violence as the path and the hero of the story was a martyr to pacifism and turning the other cheek to oppression and violence. I*lam is the other story, of religion as an entire reason for war and conquest and promises rewards on earth and in heaven for true believers. It is simply easier to quote to justify what we are seeing around the world in the 21st century as an assault on our freedoms. What we are seeing from Malcolm is je ne suis pas Charlie! He needs to explain why we should stay silent, not get direct the head of ASIO to intimidate politicans to assume the position. How would anyone feel with a personal call from the head of ASIO to tell them to keep quiet? Who are you going to call when the PM himself approves this intimidation? The police? ASIO? The army? The ABC?
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Even here you can say Catholic or Taoist or Buddhist or Church of England or Protestant or Methodist or Greek Orthodox or even Voodoo but you cannot write I*lam.
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‘However like Buddhism it is not a religion which preaches violence as the path …’
Medieval fairy tales of one sort or another, with deep seated hatreds against other religious groups, which ended up badly in the Balkans late last century.
The Buddhists of Sri Lanka became vocal activists during their long civil war against the Tamils.
10
And may I remind you that the deity has a man at the Vatican who believes in AGW, so Tony is torn between a rock and a hard place.
Has Pell recanted under enormous pressure?
00
”
Q. What do you call a gullible fool with a calculator?
A. A climate scientist
Q. What do you call a gullible fool with a calculator, who knows how to turn it on?
A. A a BBC/Guardian climate science expert.
Q. What do you say to a BBC climate science expert in a few years time?
A. Big Mac, large fries, please.
Q. What do you say to a former MP caught up in climate science scams?
A. Has Open Prison changed you?
Dec 19, 2015 at 3:20 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie”
A sample from
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/discussion/post/2563294
They’re up to 84, aiming for at least 97
82
?
50
”
Q. What do you call a bunch of Green activists?
A. A thicket
Dec 20, 2015 at 1:44 AM | Unregistered Commenter golf charlie
”
From http://bishophill.squarespace.com/discussion/post/2563294
They’d still like to get that familiar climate science number 97
20
Australia’s Fuel Security-Coal to Liquid Fuel
David Archibald – Australia’s Defence 2015 published by Connor Court
comes up with many provocative facts and ideas.
In chapter 4- Fuel Security he sets out the harsh and dismal facts. Australia’s days of domestic oil production are now well in the past as Bass Strait production has run down. We import 90% of our liquid fuel needs. Three of our oil refineries have closed and the remaining four will likely close by 2030. We have only 40 days supply in the form of stored oil. Our imported oil mostly has to come via strategic choke points (Straits of Hormuz – middle east and Straits of Malacca).
That makes a strategic vulnerability.
There is however a solution. Coal can be made into liquid fuel and we have plenty of coal.
There are three processes or pathways:
1. direct Liquifaction by Hydrogen injection (Bergius process),
2. indirect liquefaction (Fischer Tropsch process),
3. methanol to gasoline process
According to Archibald a domestic coal to fuel industry would create 100,000 jobs and we would also save a massive amount of foreign exchange which is currently going to buy foreign oil.
A submission to the 2015 Defence White paper by Bede Boyle suggests that there may be even cheaper ways to make liquid fuel from coal. Simply grind it up into a very fine powder and mix with water. The mix can apparently fuel large marine diesel engines.
http://www.defence.gov.au/Whitepaper/docs/103-Manufacturship.pdf
Victorian brown coal is already 60% water! This is the sort of problem to which the CSIRO should be devoting a lot of its resources. It seems a no-brainer. The problem is that first we must get rid of the Greens or render them irrelevant. I just hope that we can do it before the conflict with China, that Archibald warns about actually breaks out. There may not be much time.
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David Archibald is a Perth-based climate scientist and energy analyst.
He is a visiting fellow of the Institute of World Politics in Washington DC, where he teaches a course in strategic energy policy.
This article is from a speech he delivered at an anti-carbon tax rally in Sydney on July 1, 2012.
“The evil that men do lives after them, and in Mr Howard’s case that is a possible future in which Australia does not have a cement industry, a steel industry, oil refining, a multitude of other industries and, most importantly, a synthetic liquid fuels industry.
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As you likely know, the various coal to oil processes have been around for many, many decades
The Germans used it during WW2, the South Africans extensively during the apartheid era. From my personal involvement, various German technical consultants have been experimenting for over 10 years with LaTrobe brown coals as the raw feedstock
None of the processes have ever proved to be any more tham marginally economic (and no, “peak oil” is not almost upon us). The South Africans were particularly relieved when apartheid was dismantled and they could once more import real oil
Consequently, dabbling in this is really only of very mild interest
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Thanks Ian,
Good to have a comment from someone who has had some personal involvement. The issue is not peak oil but the fact that we do not have any real oil left. When you say that the brown coal to oil was marginally economic I presume that you are talking about the times of low oil prices. Oil prices are low right now because Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq are all producing as fast as they can to fund their own development, including nuclear weapons programs. All of that oil comes through the Straits of Hormuz in oil tankers.
Consequently I would say that dabbling in this is of vital strategic interest (or should be).
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Even black coal to oil is of marginal interest … the process is essentially inefficient, whichever variant one chooses. By that, I mean that the energy gained at the end is almost equal to the energy spent in getting there
In extremis, such as the German army WW2 or the South Africans during apartheid, perhaps it has to be done, but the economic impost is horrendous (South African engineers have told me that the country was on the verge of complete bankruptcy because of this)
Archibald is just another “look at me” political commentator. You will notice that almost none of these pundits has degrees in, or practical experience of, hard sciences/engineering. Consequently, their arm waving is vacuously louder
[One of the few exceptions is (eg) Ziggy Switkowski; the pundits attempt to dump on him from assumed great heights constantly, and one does not need to wonder why for very long]
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“(and no, “peak oil” is not almost upon us).”
Quite so.
There is no ‘inventory’ for our planet:
“The total supply of any mineral is unknown and unknowable because the future knowledge that would create mineral resources cannot be known before its time.
Human ingenuity and capital investment under a regime of economic calculation can lead society to new combinations of minerals—or minerals and non-minerals—to perform the same (or better) economic services over time.”
Open-Ended Resourceship: Bring on 2012!
By Robert Bradley Jr. — December 29, 2011
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Peter C:
The original idea was german work in 1945 to find a way of running pulse (think V1) & ram jets. Project terminated in May 1945.
This work results from experiments by the USA coal industry in the 1970’s to bypass the cost of shipping by rail. They ground coal to a fine powder and slurried it in water (grinding may well have been wet process), then pumped the slurry over 100 miles and fed it into the boiler. RESULT – large drop in rail tariffs, so idea dropped (by the coal industry), but interest from the US Navy because of all the claims that “oil would run out soon”.
You will note from the report that the CSIRO seems to think using this idea in diesel generators would reduce emissions from the Vic. brown coal electricity generation by 43.5%. ??????
Note that the process only works with low ash content black coal, switching to brown coal might be more of a problem than waving a magic CSIRO wand. Yes, brown coal currently is high on CO2 emissions, about 1300Kg per MWh (off the top of my head). It is also high in water and ash content would have to be carefully checked. The latest german lignite plants reduce emissions by using the waste heat from firing to dry the brown coal first, and boost efficiency. About 800Kg per MWh or 48% reduction, so rather than switching to diesel, just up-grading current power stations would do the same (and cost less).
By the way, if you want to experiment the level of coal should be 47-48%. Grind to an average of 2 microns to eliminate settling in storage tanks. Also incorporate wetting agent (0.5% possibly depending on type and type of coal) and about 1% of liquid fuel to help ignition. So you wind up with just over 50% water.
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Close enough for LaTrobe lignites
I’ve tried to delineate critical coal properties on this website before. It seems to be of very little interest to most, but you may have better luck 🙂
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Yes I did notice that and like you I thought that it was highly questionable. Does that throw doubt on the report or the capabilities of the CSIRO?
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Peter C:
there are many brilliant ideas in laboratories that wilt and die in the harsh sunlight of reality. The CSIRO may have thought up some marvellous ideas but the road to commercialisation seems very rocky, judging by their past record.
Firstly, the saving is speculation. I am not an expert on diesel combustion but I can foresee certain difficulties with an aqueous fuel containing non-combustible “ash” which might well form glass or ceramic type residues.
Secondly why switch to a new costly and unproven process when existing technology will provide the advantage anyway?
10
Twilight Of Abundance: why life in the 21st century will be nasty, brutish, and short.
David Archibald suggests in his book that coal should be reserved for production of transportation fuel and that electricity supply should be based on Thorium Molten Salt Reactors as Australia has vast reserves of fuel.
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These guys are hard at it on a wing and prayer.
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Good on them, well done.
00
Coal to liquid fuels can be done but, as others have pointed out, the processes are energy intensive and wasteful.
Chemically the problem seems to be how to break up a crystalline structure composed to a large extent of aromatic carbon rings.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=chemistry+of+coal&biw=1284&bih=778&tbm=isch&imgil=Z04WqzT0_nO6YM%253A%253Bs6WHN0-hfaUHlM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fitech.dickinson.edu%25252Fchemistry%25252F%25253Fp%2525253D312&source=iu&pf=m&fir=Z04WqzT0_nO6YM%253A%252Cs6WHN0-hfaUHlM%252C_&dpr=0.85&usg=__0Vv8UW7Fl9c-9XOZrI60rI_LKxA%3D&ved=0ahUKEwj7rPamx-nJAhVC4WMKHVduByoQyjcIPw&ei=lyh2VruFDsLCjwPX3J3QAg#imgrc=nXuaGJziP6KlIM%3A&usg=__0Vv8UW7Fl9c-9XOZrI60rI_LKxA%3D
These chemical bonds seem to be among the stongest in Nature eg carbon nanotubes etc.
If Nature had already figured out a way the coal would have been food for something.
10
https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/the-loss-of-faith-in-the-political-class/
And you can check how the Climate Prat awards are going too
31
This from David Fullers daily stock trading newsletter. The geopolitical implications of this are somewhat troubling. My bolding.
17
I should add, perhaps superfluously, that this newsletter is produced by David Fuller in the interests of better understanding global trends and where best to invest ones hard earned money for future return. He is far from being a raving lefty with an axe to grind. You could say he is just following the money.
26
“The Chinese Academy and the Politburo do accept it.”
Yes of course they do. 😉
Now would you like to remind us just how many new coal-fired power stations they plan over the next few years. 😉
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No idea AndyG55, this is not my opinion but David Fuller’s. His point is that:
I’m not saying anything about truth or otherwise of AGW theory just how it plays to the political reality.
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You don’t get it , do you.. they “SAY” they accept it..
There will, however, be a massive increase in the number of COAL-FIRED power station.
Coal will be king for a long, long time.
Atmospheric CO2 will continue to increase..
And the world will flourish. 🙂
David Fuller seems to have drunk too much climate kool-aide.
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But do they accept that CO2 causes warming?
This is, and has been, the whole problem. The complete lack of any evidence that links CO2 and global warming. One side assumes that it does cause warming, the other side wonders if there could be another explanation.
e.g. https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/paul-k-mini-paradox-becomes-a-major-paradox/
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I interested to know why people are red thumbing this. Is it because you don’t agree with the message, don’t agree with China’s conclusions or because you don’t like my posts because it’s me rather than the message(shooting the messenger)? Any ideas?
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Well Graham No.3 also got a red thumb so you are in good company this time.
00
Drilling down on the science is difficult. How these conclusions have been arrived at is unclear. The degree of uncertainty and the errors contained within the various measurements is unknown. One should also point out that the process of desertification has a variety of natural causes as the great Sahara testifies.
‘Chinadialogue‘ appears an instrument of thinly clad Green propaganda and The University of Toronto’s published page entitled: China Publishes Its “Third National Assessment Report on Climate Change” an echo chamber.
The China Meteorological News Press announced a very short summary, very strong on authority and entirely bereft of substance.
Omnipresent climate change is alive and well, always has been, always will. Delusions over the effectiveness of rain dances will eventually pass. Natural variation vastly outweighs by orders of magnitude a theoretical and infinitesimal anthropogenic contribution to atmospheric composition. Land usage and environmental damage may indeed play their parts in local desertification but here, in the absence of information about verifiable causation, jumping to conclusions as a stock trading recommendation is ill advised. After all, it matters not a single jot what anyone said at COP21, a meaningless hyperbolic extravaganza of smoke and glittering mirrors.
The CO2 delusion is just that, a religious cultural meme of the moment. It will surely pass having achieved absolutely nothing except the demonstration of how easy it appears to enslave humanity.
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Manfred
Re “One should also point out that the process of desertification has a variety of natural causes”
And some other ones too if you read D.S.G Thomas and N.J. Middleton (1994). “Desertification: destroying the myth”. Wiley.
Sounds like another practice run for cagw.
00
I never thought that I would turn against the Coalition of Liberal Party and National Party. For many reasons Tony Abbott gave me hope of a return to conservative values that were under attack while Labor and their Greens unofficial coalition partners were in government 2007-2013, for example his comment that he would not stand for socialism masquerading as environmentalism. His government’s Operation Sovereign Borders and related protection against illegal immigration and to combating terrorism. No longer funding Tom Foolery’s Climate Change Office, and trying to close the Climate Change Commission, which as we now know was opposed in the Cabinet. Putting a cap on RET.
With the new PM there has been a lurch to the left with Abbott initiatives being abandoned and UN climate change fraud agenda being embraced. Turnbull, Bishop and Hunt are blatantly holding hands with international socialism. They are pledging monies that Australia does not have unless it is borrowed and added to the huge debt Labor is mostly responsible for, over $2 billion a month in interest liability. And that does does include NBNCo debt which is off federal budget as NBNCo is a government owned private company.
The Coalition Government, and I realise that not all of the government MPs agree with the climate change fraudsters, is now going along with the UN despite this clear admission;
At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.
“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution,” she said.
Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/021015-738779-climate-change-scare-tool-to-destroy-capitalism.htm#ixzz3uo0xOsLm
In 2013 we voted for the Abbott Coalition which defeated Labor in an historic landslide victory. One of the Coalition policies was to repeal the Carbon Tax, which they did. Now Turnbull & Co are moving towards an emissions trading scheme, same tax, different name.
I am disgusted.
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For what reason is my post on moderation?
10
Post moder’nism.
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It is Weekend-unthreaded. You can post on moderation or anything else.
30
Post in haste …..
10
The leftoids I speak to think Talcum looks good in his green liberal outfit and he’s charming. These people are not rusted on and will change their vote to conservative, if it means action to save the planet we can’t waste another minute.
We may need a new leader of the conservative faction, but not necessarily Cory. Essentially what we are looking for is a charismatic personality who has the vision and strength of character not to recant on the issue of climate change.
At the moment I can’t see anyone within cooee.
20
Possibly the f word
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Dennis ……” Now Turnbull & Co are moving towards an emissions trading scheme, same tax, different name.”
Yes , same tax , but another lefty Scoundrel scheming how to impose it .
A bit at a time hoping a dumbed down public won’t notice or oppose it !
The ‘TurnTrueB’lverBull’ needs the ‘Bums Rush Out’ .
What is the difference between this Goldman and Sachs of s..t banker scum and the greens leader concerning CAGW ….?
The answer > None , Both are True B’lvers , Both want to steal our money for a Dud .
Turncoat is not just left of the Conservative Coalition .
He is as left as the Greens …his possible next job > greens Leader …Watch out Di Natali
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Here comes Thy Goldman & Sachs Trading Scheme >>>> Emissions(BS) Trading(ripoff)Scheme(swindle)>> Great Big New Tax , from our Thief In Chief .
He who stole the PM ship is now going to steal your money for his true masters > ‘Goldman and Sachs of our money ‘>> http://rickwells.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/289-australian-pm-turnbull-2-940.png
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Apparently one of Turnbull’s heroes is Communist China’s Mao Tse Tung. Interestingly “Christian Soclialist” Kevin Rudd’s hero is a now deceased former German Socialist Catholic, the same hero former UK PM Tony Blair admires.
And now we know that the UN preferred model of government is Communist China that has managed and controlled capitalism for comrades who are approved.
With due consideration for the admission by UN Christiana Figueres that global warming fraud is about destroying capitalism, when the heroes of the above mentioned are considered I believe we know where they are wanting to take us.
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In moderation again.
00
Doing worry Dennis, the mods are good, these things don’t stay locked up for long
20
It’s the word Cathol!c that did it … can’t 0ffend anyone, you see
00
Well that explains Chairman Maolcolm giving a speech in Mandarin the other day. Not sure if he was trying to send a coded signal, or openly mocking us.
10
I am in the same quandary.
I didn’t vote for a party with Turnbull at its head. I didn’t vote for a climate alarmist to put an ETS policy in place. I didn’t vote for a leftie. But I got all of these. Now I am not sure where to go.
Does anyone have a link which shows who the Turnbull faction are in parliament or alternatively who the more conservative members are? I particularly would like to know if my own MP (Keenan) is a supporter or not. He has been very quiet on the issue – well that might be me. I don’t read MSM, watch much telly, listen to ABC or any radio so I’m out of the loop.
Basically next time I want to vote for a conservative who isn’t an alarmist, who supports jobs, will get the finances sorted…. etc.
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Ask him.
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You can look at Australian Liberty Alliance who will initially berunning Senators and later local members.
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I thought it was only the warmists that did ‘alarmism’.
No ETS and if there was…Australia is a CO2 sink and if one would eventuate, the money paid for credits will be coming from other countries to Australia!
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scaper
Check the reference in #23
10
#25 now
00
CAGW = BS
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His folks!
I haven’t been around much the past 12 months as I am currently battling pancreatic cancer.
I was diagnosed in early January after developing jaundice due to a blocked bile duct. I had surgery on Jan 19 – The Whimple Procedure.
In early April a CAT scan showed metastasis to my liver. I then began chemo on Gemcitabine/Abraxane. After six months of chemo the mets to my liver could no longer be detected, which was great news. I have now completed nine months of chemo and had another CAT scan this week. I see my oncologist on Wednesday for the results.
I’d like to raise a little awareness about pancreatic cancer. It has a one year survival rate of only 27% and a five year survival rate of a mere 6%. Please keep this in mind the next time you choose to donate toward cancer research. Breast cancer has a ten year survival rate of 78%, yet gets the major share of research funding.
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The Whipple Procedure….damn spell correct.
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I’m sure you looked charming in your whimple.
For baffled others Make your own Whimple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OesdNPQUZEw
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Hi BS, very sorry to hear of your trials, that Whipple Procedure looks successful along with the liver count so fingers crossed.
I now expect you to resume full time commenting with your usual heavy lifting in countering trolls, except they aren’t as frequent now so maybe a few witty insights to warm up, glad to see you again.
50
Around 15% of patients qualify for the Whipple. Thankfully I fell into that group as it is the only hope. PC generally has no symptoms until it has progressed to stage 4 and other organs are affected, usually the lungs or liver, thus surgery is no longer an option. For these reasons the survival rates are very low. The 6% who manage to survive five years would all have had the Whipple, so we could also say that after the Whipple the 5 year survival rate is 40%, which is an improvement.
That metastasis to my liver was found three months after my surgery also puts me at stage 4, however after six months of chemo that can no longer be detected, which is nothing short of miraculous. Wednesday’s results will be telling.
There is no cure for cancer, only remission and that is what we hope for.
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Backslider, all the best as you go through this.
While the numbers for long term survivors are small I was told by one of them that there is a very long tail to the survivor graph. She was still going strong with no apparent ill effects last time I saw her at 7 years.
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I have come across a reasonable number of long term survivors. I explained above To Yonniestone how surgery improves the numbers.
The overall numbers are very bad because most cases of PC are detected after the cancer has already progressed to stage 4. There is currently no test to detect PC and often it is found by accident when it’s still in its early stages.
You could say that I was relatively fortunate in that the cancer blocked my bile duct and I developed jaundice and thus it was found relatively early. I was staged at 2b after surgery.
10
Yes,
I am very sorry to hear about this!
It’s a long hard and lonely road you are on, but know that people do care. I would also echo the comment on donating to the lesser, more aggressive cancer research.
However don’t ever be complacent even though the more common cancers have higher cure rates they usually have aggressive genotypes that are as bad or worse.
Backslider, May you be one of the 6%. Look into trials by star pharma too. Their DEP additive does seem to enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity of some drugs, especially docitaxel which is in phase 2.
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Backslider:
all the best in your future. May it be better than your immediate past.
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Good to hear from you Backslider. You have come through almost a year so prospects are improving.
Happily Cancer research is not done in the same way as Climate Change research . Evidence does count (usually) and things improve, to all our benefit.
10
Yes, I am confident of making the 27%.
I will then look forward to getting my 6% tattoo in four years time and seeing the strange look on a biker’s face when they see it…… 🙂
10
WE now have in Australia a CAGW True B’lver by Coup as PM !
We have reached a new danger level with these politicians that above all else are only unified on their own extraordinary sense of self entitlement and their infliction of great big taxes and non-entitlement upon we the little people .
All the parties are now competing on how much of our money they are willing to squander on this CAGW BS ……Borrowed money with interest on top ….that is because we are in debt !
And for what ?
To stop or reduce CAGW or even AGW that has been stopped for nearly 19 years of its own accord ?
https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/clip_image002_thumb1.jpg?w=597&h=279
https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/clip_image024_thumb.jpg?w=603&h=427
To Stop a 1 mm per year Sea Level Rise as witnessed by Mr Carbon Pollution Himself ….the King Canute of Autralian politics ….Carbon Bill Shorten flying around the pacific in a LearJet in search of the ‘1mm SLR’……What a Clown Act …Mr 14% heading south !
Yo Bill ….Do you even know that you are yourself made up of 20% carbon (and no doubt the other 80% pollution) ? Clown !
Little wonder that our Thief In Chief ‘TurnTrueB’lverBull’ can get away with billion dollar handouts at the CON21 Criminals Convention .
These pretenders are eroding our freedoms and stealing our wealth while our generally dumbed down public says little .
We have the leaders we deserve and we have that in abundance .
Its a choice …. take out the trash , or keep being fleeced by criminals in suits .
The Circus is in town … Our ‘Pretenser In Chief’ >>> http://rickwells.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/289-australian-pm-turnbull-2-940.png
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I got directed to this by a Greenie on Facebook, but don’t worry, we’re all going to die. We could get a 50Gt burst of methane released from the Arctic at anytime. It will be catastrophic or something.
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The last couple of sentences appear to be a request for a huge grant.
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Meh, we just survived a 195Gt burst of methane from COP21……
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I vote we mine it!
30
It’s interesting to look at the growth in HUMAN co2 emissions since 1980 to 2012 ( 33 years ) from Obama govt’s EIA.
In 1980 OECD 11.2 Giga tonnes Non OECD 7.3 GTs.
In 1990 OECD 11.6 GTs Non OECD 10.0 GTs.
In 2000 OECD 13.2 GTs Non OECD 10.8 GTs.
In 2010 OECD 13.1 GTS Non OECD 18.0 GTs.
In 2012 OECD 12.9 GTS Non OECD 19.5 GTs. 2012 is the last available year.
The OECD is the developed western countries and the Non OECD are developing countries like China, India etc. But in the 33 years 1980 to 2012 the Non OECD has increased co2 emissions at a rate of over 7 times the OECD countries. OECD= 1.7 GTs per annum and Non OECD= 12.2 GTs per annum. Just shows you what a con and fraud we’ve been fed by pollies and the MSM over the last few decades.
OH and the EIA projections show that by 2040 human emissions will increase from 2012 32.4 GTS to about 45 GTs by 2040. And only about 1 GT pa will come from the OECD and about 11.6 GT pa will come from the Non OECD 25 years from now.
http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=90&pid=44&aid=8&cid=CG6,CG5,&syid=1980&eyid=2012&unit=MMTCD
30
Backslider – welcome back. hope your results are positive. sounds like you had one helluva year; may 2016 be better. best wishes.
on to google:
17 Dec: Guardian: Revealed: how Google enlisted members of US Congress it bankrolled to fight $6bn EU antitrust case
by Simon Marks in Brussels and Harry Davies
Republican and Democratic senators and congressmen, many of whom have received significant campaign donations from Google totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars, leaned on parliament in a series of similar – and in some cases identical – letters sent to key MEPs…
“Before Google, the most sophisticated company in terms of political influence was Goldman Sachs. But Google beats them any day because contrary to Goldman they don’t just focus on the top,” Lafitte said. “Google makes its influence felt absolutely everywhere.”…
***Kyung-Ah Park sounds robotic, like she is reading from a script:
AUDIO: 27mins: Goldman Sachs: Episode 28: The Business Case for Climate Action
18 DEC 2015 – ***Kyung-Ah Park, head of Environmental Markets at Goldman Sachs, represented the firm at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. She discusses the historic climate agreement adopted by 196 parties and ways the business community can help facilitate the transition to a low carbon economy.
This podcast was recorded on December 15, 2015.
http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/podcasts/episodes/12-18-2015-kyung-ah-park.html
PDF: 53 pages: 30 Nov: Goldman Sachs: The Low-Carbon Economy
We explore the low carbon economy, now a growing, $600 bn+ pa revenue opportunity.
Between 2015 and 2020, solar PV and onshore wind will add more to global energy supply than US shale oil production did between 2010 and 2015. By 2020, six in ten lightbulbs will be LEDs; and our analysts expect carmakers to sell 25 million hybrid & electric vehicles by 2025, 10x more than today. We estimate that these technologies will save >5 Gt of CO2 emissions per annum by 2025 and could help global emissions to peak earlier than expected around 2020, with ripple effects felt across our global coverage.
Goldman Sachs does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. As a
result, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the
objectivity of this report…
http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/pages/new-energy-landscape-folder/report-the-low-carbon-economy/report.pdf
30
A new Geological era has begun, in a report about the Paris COP, from Don Aitken, named The Idiocene. I nearly lost my breakfast.
40
I know that some of you may be interested in engineering projects, and I sometimes rabbit on about how China is perhaps leading the World at the moment in some aspects of electrical power generation.
I found a video from China, and don’t worry, there’s no speaking just a musical background.
Link to Video (play it on full screen)
It shows the engineering behind the Xiluodu Hydro project. The video is just under 11 minutes in length, but what it shows is absolutely astonishing.
While the huge dam itself is an amazing feat, think of the Hydro plant itself. It is hidden away, inside the mountains, with the two halves of the plant on either side of the dam itself.
Each turbine hall has 9 X 770MW generators, so 18 in all for a total Nameplate of 13,860MW.
While the early part of the video shows the dam itself and its construction, the engineering for the hydro aspect starts at around the 5.37 mark of the video.
You’ll see the huge Francis Turbine (orange in colour, and later silver grey) driven by the water flow and driving the generator rotor mounted on top of this turbine.
At the 6.30 mark, you’ll see a large round thing suspended under a moving crane. That’s the generator rotor, the rotating central part of the power generator. Each rotor is 13.7 metres in diameter and 4 metres high and weighs 1,350 tonnes, and that is what is driven by the huge Francis Turbine.
The rotor is lowered into the hole, and connected to the top of the turbine.
Later in the video, you’ll see a view along the turbine hall. The Blue structures rising from the floor are where the generators are. Each turbine hall is around one Kilometre in length, all of it inside the mountain.
The whole plant delivers 68TWH of power a year, and that’s about one third of Australia’s total power consumption.
Tony.
100
Incidentally, that 68TWH actual power delivery is at a yearly overall Capacity Factor of 55 to 59%, which is about the average for large scale hydro, and is four times the power delivery from Bayswater, one of our largest coal fired power plants here in Oz.
Tony.
80
Unbelievable, the scale is hard to comprehend I’ve worked with 200t cranes that dominate work sites but these look infantile on this project, how I wish to work on something similar in Australia but we don’t have the geographical/water capacity.
50
Aus is the flattest continent on the planet and one of the driest. The bulk of the population clings to the coastal areas (understandable) but remains quite ignorant of the other 80% of the country (not so understandable)
Scaper insists that we are an overall carbon sink and so will benefit from an ETS. I’m prepared to bet $250 that means our power prices will increase significantly from today’s levels during Lord Waffle’s next-election term. Of course we’ll benefit 🙂
A possible riposte to this is that the price rises would be more without an ETS. Absolutely unprovable, of course, but Lord Waffle will patronise us with it
40
try #25 (now)
00
And when it all goes wrong as in very wrong in the generator hall of a major hydro electric plant such as when a hydro generator and its impeller, 1500 tonnes in all, spinning at 143 RPM suffered a severe “surge” [ water hammer ] which blasted the 920 tonnes of No2 generator through its hold down cover by water head pressure of 2000 Kpa [ 290 PSI .]
The turbines were operating at a pressure head of 210 metres
A description of the 2009 Sayano–Shushenskaya power station accident Russia’s then largest hydro plant and in 2009, the sixth largest hydro generating plant in the world.
The best photos of the pre and post Sayano–Shushenskaya_power_station generating hall I found were in a Brazilian engineer’s dissection of the accident.
00
I have just been to China including Tibet as far West as Everest and noted the entire place, even the most remote areas, is criss-crossed with high voltage electricity pylons, including a type I have never seen before, which have perhaps nine conductors on each side.
40
That’s where it’s all happening in that area. The Yarlung Tsangpo flows across Tibet from the far West to the far East of Tibet, right smack across the middle of the Country, and the Chinese are doing hydro all along that river and its huge number of rivers which flow into that Yarlung Tsangpo. (for those of you who have Google Earth, it’s fascinating to see what is going on there, although it all gets hazy up around that Grand Canyon region)
That River then turns South into India where it becomes the Brahmaputra River (same river, just a different name) then into the Jamuna, (the main channel) and then into the Ganges.
In that upper North East area in India there are quite literally many hundreds of rivers and the Indians are also doing Hydro, in a huge way in all that area as well.
By the time it finally becomes (mainstream) public knowledge, the, umm, Greens will have missed the boat, nyuk nyuk nyuk, the one advantage of doing this work in what is still basically wilderness.
I suppose what has kept the Greenies away is the lack of Latte outlets in the region.
Tony.
51
There is a decent video on the working of the Francis Turbine at http://youtu.be/3BCiFeykRzo
00
It seems that if scientists do not get hysterical about CAGW they do not get funded !
It therefore follows that only the hysterical get rewarded with grants and funding .
Governments control our tax money that funds science and only funds science that adheres to government policy ……they own the science …..Hence the Science(medievalism) is Settled , by Governmental Decree .
Thou Shalt Not Disagree with Thou Ruling Class or NO FUNDING , get sacked and ridiculed !
Herr Goebbels would be envious .
41
‘Nearly a third of Americans reject evolution entirely, and around half of those who accept it as good science still believe that a higher power played a part in the process.’
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/creationism-and-the-sneaky-way-antievolution-tactics-have-evolved-in-the-us-20151218-glrga6.html#ixzz3uouCa6BA
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook
———-
More than half think a small molecule is causing warming on our space ship, but I’m unconvinced.
30
I don’t post here very often, but I do check in from time to time, and I still try to do my small bit for the Climate Realist cause on Left leaning Facebook. The latest this morning is a Channel 7 news article that goes “Video has captured the horrifying moment a brides limousine is engulfed in flames in Victoria as record breaking high temperatures cause fires to break out across the state ” Now ,yes it is hot, and it has been for a couple of days, but as far as I could ascertain, the Limo fire was caused by an electrical fault in the vehicle itself. Not an uncommon occurrence these days in modern cars loaded down with electronics. Anyway my response, probably my bedside manner could do with some refinement. ” More sublime Global Warming bullshit hidden within a story of an unfortunate but not uncommon occurrence ! Do the idiot journalists at channel 7 think we are all young, ill informed morons that came down in the last shower ? It is Summer and there is nothing record breaking about either the temperatures nor the number of consecutive hot days !” I know that i don’t have access to all postings or replies on Facebook, and that there may be others out there trying to keep this disingenuous crap in check. But I sometimes feel a little alone in that medium, one that I believe is a very important one in which to spread the ‘Truth’ .
93
Yes
Any other demographic simply doesn’t matter. Just ask Lord Waffle
30
Merry Christmas to all.
90
Thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you Toorightmate and all who come here.
30
what use are the Republicans?
19 Dec: CBS: Obama vetoes anti-climate change measures
HONOLULU — President Barack Obama has vetoed two measures that would have blocked steps that his administration is taking to address climate change.
One would have nullified carbon pollution standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA requires the power sector to slash its carbon output by 32 percent by the year 2030.
The second would have voided a set of national standards designed to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas pollution from existing power plants.
In a letter notifying Congress of his decision, the president said climate change is a “profound threat” that must be addressed…
The president also listed “America’s global leadership on climate change” as a top accomplishment of his administration in a Saturday video highlighting the best moments of 2015.
He rejected the measures through a rare “pocket veto,” intended to be used when Congress has adjourned, as it did Friday for the year. A pocket vote essentially takes effect when the president fails to sign a bill within 10 days.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-vetoes-anti-climate-change-measures/
19 Dec: USA Today: Gregory Korte: Spending bill represents a cease-fire in battle over executive power
Obama had pledged $3 billion to a United Nations fund intended to help developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Congress didn’t appropriate the money that Obama wanted — but it didn’t prohibit the spending, either. Instead, Congress simply required that the president account for any money the administration spends on climate change initiatives.
That was good enough for the White House…
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/12/19/spending-bill-represents-cease-fire-battle-over-executive-power/77553800/
30
A link for anyone keeping an eye on Queensland’s attempted lurch back to or beyond the dark green ages of tree management
http://www.beefcentral.com/news/tough-tree-laws-not-backed-by-evidence-senior-ecologist/
50
The female mafia which rules the ABCTV News here in Queensland are a bunch of Annastacia Palaszczuk sycophants. She sometimes gets her head on the News three or four times a night, any subject at all. Last Sunday night, she got an eight minute ‘puff piece’, where the news reader lobbed pre-arranged softball questions at her. Their obsequiousness knows no bounds. Queensland is lurching all right, and it’s not all good. Seems they ask her opinion on everything. I’ll bet the ALP would like to run her in every electorate. No need for an advertising budget. They have the ABC.
She makes Kevin Rudd look like a beginner when there’s a camera around.
Tony.
51
Amnesia Palacechick
10
Who writes the speeches?
10
19 Dec: UK Telegraph: Christopher Booker: The Paris climate fiasco leaves UK alone in the dark
Finally, ultra-greens and climate sceptics agree on something; that the climate conference was a scam
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/12060003/The-Paris-climate-fiasco-leaves-UK-alone-in-the-dark.html
30
When in China recently, I saw the pandas. A huge amount of work goes into their artificial breeding and conservation, but the reality is that they are not really a viable animal and would likely go extinct soon, even in a natural environment. For example, they have almost no adaption whatsoever to their herbivorous diet of 99% bamboo. They still have the teeth and digestive tract of a carnivore so can only utilise about 17% of the energy in their food compared to about more than 80% for a dedicated herbivore. One wonders if it wouldn’t be better to genetically sequence the animals for reference and put the conservation efforts into viable animals that are in danger of extinction due to interference by mankind, not ones that would become naturally extinct anyway.
30
Apart from being useless they can be very savage when they attack as Tugg Speedman can testify from experience.
30
Aww No not that. They are so cute (behind the bars in a zoo)
00
Couldn’t they give them protein shakes or something they could actually digest?
Anyhow given the price of entry in Beijing zoo, they’re an investment. Even if they eat as much as an elephant big deal – I’m not going to pay to see an elephant.
(Any idea why iPhone autocorrect doesn’t believe “zoo” is a real word and wants to autocorrect it to “soo”?)
00
18 Dec: Energy & Environment Legal: Wall Street Journal Opinion: The EPA’s Secret Staff: Emails show the agency took dictation from green lobbies in possible violation of the law.
States and businesses are suing to stop the Obama Administration’s anticarbon Clean Power Plan, and now they have new evidence to seek a preliminary injunction.
The Energy & Environment Legal Institute has obtained government emails that show the EPA secretly worked with environmental lobbyists to craft its Clean Power Plan regulating greenhouse gases. The emails show this secret alliance designed a standard that would be impossible or economically ruinous for existing coal plants to meet—in order to force their closure…
Credit for exposing these emails goes to Chris Horner, an attorney for the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, who has doggedly pursued FOIA requests. That job has taken longer than it should have because Mr. Goo withheld his private Yahoo emails from the EPA for years, despite the law’s clear intent that official communications be subject to FOIA…
http://eelegal.org/?p=4525
30
18 Dec: Science Daily: Norway’s EV purchasing spree is climate friendly, researchers say
Source:SINTEF
Summary:If every other passenger car in Norway is plugged into the electric network by 2020, Europe will have to produce more electricity – mainly from coal-fired power plants – to meet the demand. But it will be a plus for the climate nonetheless…
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151218085501.htm
19 Dec: NYT: RWE CEO Says Sudden Brown Coal Exit Can’t Be Justified-Spiegel
German utility RWE is opposed to a sudden exit from brown coal generation, the most polluting fossil fuel, its chief executive told magazine Der Spiegel, adding these plants secured jobs and needed to keep running to pay for their decommissioning…
“An immediate exit could not be justified economically, not to mention the job cuts and social consequences for the region.”…
In 2014, 37 percent of RWE’s power generation came from lignite, making it the utility’s biggest source…
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/12/19/business/19reuters-rwe-coal.html?_r=0
20
http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2015/12/taxing-times-narcissus-turncoatius/
20
Merry Christmas to all!
I give up.
10
And to all a good night. 🙂
10
I have been travelling in 2nd and 3rd countries for the last seven weeks or so and will have comments about this later but let me just say that without access to cheap and plentiful coal/gas/nuclear and hydro energy, life is intolerable. Even things like no hot showers, the constant horrid smell of wood or dung fires and the knowledge that little or no heat has been applied when cleaning anything (eg washing eating utensils in cold water so they are not sterilised). This is where the West is heading if we don’t stop this solar and windmill madness!
80
But Bob Mugabe and his mates are going to get lots of money.
20
I’ve heard that the reason Australia doesn’t have on shore oil is that companies stopped looking for it after the early 1990’s due to a new royalty system whose architect was Craig Emerson.
Anyone know about this?
30
I think Australia has plenty of shale oil and it was even expolited during WW2 but it is not economic to extract, even at the highest oil prices we have ever seen. In any case, the Lib/Lab/Green socialists would be opposed to it.
40
Sorry, I misread what you wrote as “shale oil”, not “on shore oil”.
10
Before my time my father had an uncle who lived in the Roma, Queensland area. He said that there was plenty of oil there, but nobody honest enough to find it.
Many years later Australia’s first oilfield was at Moonie, just up the road.
10
BOM now predicts Gulf cyclone.
They missed Coral Sea last week and two in Solomon Islands in April.
They’ll get it right one day.
Very, very busy homogenising.
They have already pencilled in Adelaide temperatures for last week to be homogenised in 2050.
52
If the current situation persists then its more than likely a cyclone will form in the Gulf.
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-218.17,-11.22,2048/loc=140.636,-15.652
10
They’ve got to get it right sometime.
More mathematicians and models than you can poke a stick at.
00
Jo,
I do not know where to put this!!
The SpaceX success today gives us all hope for what we do not understand!! At the same time, this was not accomplished by the 80% SpaceX employees that follow orders, although they are all required, and helped a great deal to accomplish! Congratulations to all!!
00
Jo,
I do not know where to put this!!
The SpaceX success today gives us all hope for what we do not understand!! At the same time, this was not accomplished by the 80% SpaceX employees that follow orders, although they are all required, and helped a great deal to accomplish! Congratulations to all!!
00
Musk is a sponge of government funds.
But heck.. if NASA wants to concentrate on the climate scam….
…. someone has to do the space stuff. !! 🙂
00
Musk and SpaceX are a wonderful value compared to the likes of Raytheon!
00