Weekend Unthreaded

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328 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

  • #
    Dennis

    World Economic Forum, not a government organisation, are pushing based on COVID-19: The Great Reset, build back better, new green deal.

    One of the most respected professional groups in Australia has a conference planned for March 2021: Reset.

    https://www.charteredaccountantsanz.com/news-and-analysis/news/ready-to-reset

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    • #
      GlenM

      Most of the world capital and finance is owned historically by a certain group, so it comes as no surprise that our very own treasurer is in on this internationalist caper. Frankly I’m quite astonished that he would be associated with the ANZ – whose ethic endorses the dis-investment in fossil fuels. Subterfuge.

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        That comment, Glen, does you a great disservice, in my view.

        We can do better than that.

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          David Maddison

          Agreed Sceptical Sam. I’m quite surprised to see that old antisemitic canard dragged out on this group.

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          • #
            Frost Giant Rebellion

            I don’t know how to reply without that video. Such a sensitive topic. I wish they hadn’t brought it up. I’ll try again, and block away if I don’t get the balance right.

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            Frost Giant Rebellion

            No don’t bother. If I can’t get the balance right so be it.

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          • #
            Frost Giant Rebellion

            Actually I’m quite happy with the 8.21 comment. That comes under the idea of “Good enough” I’ll leave it at that. And go and have a cold shower.

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          • #
            Harley

            Have you seen the thumbsey score David, it’s no real surprise

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            • #
              OriginalSteve

              Im waiting to see the Nesara / Gesara system when its fired up. Wondering if its blockchain based or not. Should trash the current system and remove the hidey holes for the rats that run the current system…..

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      • #
        Dennis

        Chartered Accountants (CA) of Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

        Please read the link.

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        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          Dennis

          The information provided at your link gives no support to GlenM’s ignorant and inaccurate comment.

          GlenM needs to do a little more objective research on the subject to help her understand why she’s so wrong.

          To assert that “Most of the world capital and finance is owned historically by a certain group” is a patent nonsense. No group has ever, in the history of humankind, owned most of the world’s “capital and finance”.

          Even as a sentence it makes no sense. Her ignorance is clear from her appalling English. “Is” is present tense; “historically” is, by definition, past tense.

          If she hasn’t the intellectual capacity to understand tenses, how the devil is she to understand anything else.

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    • #
      Broadie

      Time to own ‘The Great Reset’

      Time for our venerable accountants to reset Australia back to where we did our tax once a year and we made the decision how much money we were required to send to fund the functions of administration and delivery of services.

      Time to remove ,’deeming’ and retrospective legislation of Howard and Fraser, whereby the Government can ‘rob’ you and escape with the money protected by the obscene charges of their fellow arts law school chums. Democracy and the separation of powers (the ‘Please Explain’) died with this cosy relationship.

      Time to remove the facial recognition and finger printing of My Gov being increasingly forced on individuals so the vagaries of middle class welfare can be dispensed to admiring voters and spruiked by Politicians with their nodding Brutuses behind them and the signing manbun in the insert.

      Accountants need to reset to where we are using our abundant resources to produce widgits in a efficiently costed manner to continue to make the world a better place to live in.

      Happy children with a secure and bright future in front of them have been proven to solve the population and pollution problems. A problem the Davos / Club of Rome crowd will actually exacerbate with their attempt to plunge us into their tyrannical over regulated world of fear and darkness.

      It is time for the Accountants to Reset! The family accountant is at the front line of the destruction that is right now occurring to Australians and it will not be a pretty sight.

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      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        I like the fact that my.gov does 90% of my tax for me these days … if they are going to know virtually everything about us, they might as well be useful!

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        • #
          Broadie

          You’ll love it when they take 90% of your income and will have to pay a Solicitor to try to get it back.

          If you smoke, drink and are high wage bracket employee you are already close to that rate now. In Fascist Germany both parents had to work to pay the taxes, the State stepped in to help by providing childcare so your babies would be looked after for you.

          Sound familiar?

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          • #
            Tilba Tilba

            You’ll love it when they take 90% of your income and will have to pay a Solicitor to try to get it back.

            Tax – what’s that? As a self-funded retiree with healthy super, I pay almost zero income tax. The nice Mr Costello sorted that one out. And even with investment properties deductions are generous, as are franking credits for your shares. Australia – The Lucky Country!

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            • #
              Broadie

              ‘Healthy Super’?

              Now you see it. Now you don’t.

              I hope you are a retired public servant or you like the rest of us may not enjoy the ‘Reset’

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              • #
                Alan

                No but healthy super also

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              • #
                Tilba Tilba

                Retired public servant yes, healthy super (defined benefit) and personal super (accumulated). Pretty comfortable.

                But the point raised is a good one … how do regular punters store any savings / wealth they might have, have decent security, but also earn interest?

                It’s impossible – the decline of interest rates to zero has been a disaster for so many frugal people – and the sickness of the whole capitalist system is evident.

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              • #
                Tilba Tilba

                Not sure at all what The Great Reset is or might look like … but I do think there is an economic and resource-depletion reckoning coming (probably not in my life-time but soon enough).

                This will be coupled with a very large class of people who can’t or won’t earn a living for themselves, years of social unrest, huge income inequality, perhaps years of Covid-19 mayhem, structural failures in so many areas, climate mayhem, resource depletion, and financial trouble of a high order.

                Who needs The Great reset when you have all this anyway?

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            • #
              yarpos

              “….does 90% of my tax these days” “tax – whats that?” yup, whatever

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    • #

      replying to Dennis: ” … respected professional group in Australia has a conference planned for March 2021: “Reset” ”
      Why are we not surprised. Reminds me of those Monty Python sketches, eg ‘Help stamp out chartered accountancy’ and of course, the ‘accountancy shanty’.

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  • #
    John R Smith

    The Poli/Academe/Science/Med/Pharma multi plex seems a dangerous and corrupt construction to me.
    Was there a hallowed era of science, or was it an illusion of my ‘Space Age’ youth?
    There seems no question that science and technology are advancing.
    But appears more likely to be used to enslave than free us.
    Something has gone seriously haywire.

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    • #
      Harry Passfield

      That’s a good point, John, but if I can develop it a little, I find that real, true, researched science still has the power to move us, enrich us and advance our learning.
      On the other hand, I find that fake science – scientivism, if you like – has the power, as you said, to enslave us. It should be noted, I believe, that scientivists tend more to the left of the political divide. Rather in the same way that wealthy celebrities (Hollywood actors, say) tend to lecture the proles of this world with their faux socialist propaganda.

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      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        The medical-hospital-pharmaceutical industries are a huge racket, with a captive audience and the capacity to overwhelm the regulators and the politicians.

        But at least Australia has a national single-desk health insurance system, with a viable private option if you want it, and neither is tied to your employment status, so we are only about 5% as bad as the US. But there is a lot of room for improvement.

        And I don’t think “scientivism” (is that really a word?) is the province of the left … a lot of far right wingnuts are deep into rubbish science as well. Seems to me the antivaxxer Covidiots come from all parts of the spectrum (I mean the political one of course).

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      The desire to control people has always been present in human history, anything from knowledge, regency, war, finance, Gods and now science have been used in some way to install enough fear to control but not foster rebellion, the field of science has now drifted into the arena of religion with strong divisions between ‘acceptance’ or ‘denial’ of AGW /climate change as witnessed through this blog over the past 13 years.

      What is common with all the control mechanism is the goal of directed power and wealth regardless of the existence of the danger or the effectiveness of the solution.

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    • #

      The space age and the present information revolution is engineering, finding better ways to do things and then but them in place making new products and processes. Engineering started with the first making of tools and then using tools to begin domestication of animals and agricultural production. Science in its many aspects are steps in the engineering process of achieving tesults.

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  • #
    RicDre

    Cold Snaps Expose Climate Science Fragility

    Cold snaps can be deadly. A 2014 National Health Statistics reports found, “During 2006–2010, about 2,000 U.S. residents died each year from weather-related deaths; 63% were attributed to exposure to natural cold. The recent cold snap in Texas and Germany highlighted our energy system’s vulnerabilities. During times of our greatest need, inadequate natural gas supplies, frozen wind turbines and snow-covered solar panels, left too many shivering in the dark. Why were we unprepared for such cold when the northern hemisphere had been experiencing a winter cooling trend since 1990? Were government officials too gullible, lulled by narratives that global warming would make snow disappear and cold snaps less likely?

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/20/cold-snaps-expose-climate-science-fragility/

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  • #
    RicDre

    Cooking Until You Freeze

    Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach

    I keep reading that the freezing cold weather in Houston, Dallas, and the central US is the result of “global warming”.

    When I heard that, my first thought was, … “Whaaa?? How would that work, that getting warmer would make it colder?”

    Following up on that logic, my next thought was, “I wonder just how much colder the world would have to get in order for Houston to never freeze again?”

    That sounded like a great thing to me, no more ice and snow, because I’m a tropical boy. After two decades of living on lovely warm Pacific islands, when I see the ice jumping out of my nice drink with the little umbrella in it and running around covering up the landscape, I call that “Water behaving badly!”.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/19/cooking-until-you-freeze/

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    • #
      sophocles

      Yep. And the world’s favourite Klimate Klown, John Kerry, has claimed just that:

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/john-kerry-blames-frigid-temperatures-record-cold-global-warming-says-9-years-left-save-planet-video/

      This is the man who takes a private jet to fly to Iceland to collect a climate award.

      It couldn’t possibly be because climate is cyclic and the planet’s climate may have entered a cool part of its cycle.

      Nah. Of course not,

      NOTE:
      – Cooling is NOT warming.
      – Cooling is NOT caused by warming.

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      • #
        Travis T. Jones

        I feel so much safer knowing Kerry is up there, in the sky, flying hither & thither in his fossil fuelled private jet, telling me I can’t use fossil fuels.

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      • #
        sophocles

        Love it!

        I keep in mind Dr Willi Dansgaard’s 1970 Climate forecast, from reading the fingerprints of the Sun in the Camp Century ice coe:

        the climate will continue to grow colder during the 1970s and early
        1980s; then it will become gradually warmer again so that by
        2015 we shall be back to where we were in 1960—no better; and
        after that it will start becoming colder again. In short, the
        outlook for the next fifty years is decidedly chilly.

        According to Kerry, there’s only 9 years to go. No, Kerry, there’s about 45 years, at least.

        So who is faking it, Mr Klimate Sky-In-Tist Extraordinaire Kerry, a member of the Scientific Illiterati, or Dr Willi Dansgaard, the scientist who invented reading Ice Cores?

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  • #

    Australia being bullied by big tech.

    “A sustained cyber attack on the infrastructure of a country is now considered tantamount to an act of war, or at least just grounds to retaliate in an aggressive fashion. Facebook’s attack on Australia is nothing less than that. Canada has offered its help, but unlike Blücher leading the charge to Wellington’s aide at Waterloo with his Prussian blues behind him deftly replacing the horses he was getting shot out from under him, this charge is being led by Trudeau, so don’t expect too much from that quarter.”

    Read more at – https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/australia-being-bullied-by-big-tech/

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    • #
      PeterS

      Odd that PM Morrison is attacking Big Tech the way he is, and rightly so, but is happy to keep funding the ABC. The ABC is more of an enemy to free speech than any Big Tech company currently is. Stupid is as stupid does.

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      • #
        el gordo

        We have discussed this on numerous occasions, all he can do is whittle back funding because the ABC is protected, the government is slowly defunding them.

        Trouble is 80% of the population trust the ABC, so Morrison can’t move any faster. Importantly, Sky News is a counter weight to ABC propaganda and in the end should topple the monolith from its pedestal.

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        • #
          PeterS

          So you agree that some 80% of the population are m0r0ns. At least we agree on something.

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          • #
            el gordo

            No, they have been brainwashed in a digital world. The ABC newsroom is full of Trots and we have to plot a counter revolution to bring the organisation back to the centre.

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        How can the ABC compete with this?

        Why should taxpayers keep funding an ABC TV that is obsolete and providing increasingly mediocre productions?

        By JOHN CARROLL

        Ozark a shining example of the new age of TV production

        The current Golden Globe Awards for film and television excellence have put in parenthesis the revolution in popular culture that has taken place over the past decade. The streaming platforms now rule supreme in providing home entertainment, and more, in crafting the stories of the time through which people read their lives. The lockdowns of the COVID-19 year have simply accelerated the existing trend; and sounded the death knell for free-to-air television, except for its sports coverage.

        Even the cinema may be doomed to slow terminal decline. And books, which might have been expected to benefit from the closing down of public life last year, hardly rose in sales — fiction up a bit, non-fiction down. Leisure time has been commandeered by Netflix, Stan, Binge and Amazon Prime.

        Netflix dominates the 2021 Golden Globe nominations across the board, including sweeping one entire television category. It is providing drama directly, and cheaply accessible, in every living room around the country, as it is around the Western world, unlike the old Oscar-winning films. Local film and television production is under threat. But so too are television stations themselves.

        Indeed, why should the federal government keep funding an ABC television that is obsolete (unlike ABC radio), providing increasingly mediocre productions watched by ever-dwindling audiences? It would make organisational and financial sense to hive off the parts of ABC television that are still viable, like ABC Kids, and give them to SBS. I suspect I am typical of many: 20 years ago, the ABC was my television staple, but today I don’t even bother to check what’s on.

        The huge challenge posed by Netflix and the other streaming platforms is the sheer quality of their leading films and television series, as reflected in the current awards. They have taken off from where the pioneer, Home Box Office (HBO), started, when it produced long runs of first-rank storytelling — The Sopranos, over 86 episodes between 1999 and 2007, set the early, very high bar.

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      • #
        Dennis

        ABC Act of Parliament cannot be changed without a repeal bill passing in Parliament where at the present time the Morrison Government has a slim majority in the Lower House and not in the Senate.

        The Act restricts government interference in ABC operations which are supposed to conform to guidelines set out in the ABC Charter. The government has however limited annual budget expenditure for ABC funding in recent years much to the annoyance of the ABC.

        Government is the shareholder on behalf of the people for ABC and the Minister for Communications appoints Directors when vacancies occur on the ABC Board, the non-executive Board appoints the Managing Director.

        The left influence at ABC is also an infestation in all government departments where unionism has more members than in the private sector. The Public Service Act offers protection of employment for public service employees.

        Any attempt to clean up the system is resisted, consider Premier Newman LNP of Queensland and his public service numbers reduction agenda that was strongly resisted and condemned by the Opposition Labor and Greens, and at the next election Queensland voters decided “Can Do” Newman was too hard. And now consider how Queensland has gone downhill since, and before Newman’s government.

        Politics is about perception and most voters have more interest in sporting events than they do in politics. And with a corrupt left leaning ABC-MSM media propaganda arm gullible voters are easily influenced and misled.

        Read Paul Sheehan’s book The Electronic Whorehouse.

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        • #
          Sirob

          Read Paul Sheehan’s book The Electronic Whorehouse.

          Yes, at the time of writing it was an eyeopener for many. But it needs revision.

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        • #
          Tilba Tilba

          The left influence at ABC is also an infestation in all government departments where unionism has more members than in the private sector. The Public Service Act offers protection of employment for public service employees.

          I don’t think the ABC is “left” at all … it is educated, middle-class (and middle-brow), so intelligently liberal, but still comfortably establishment through and through.

          I also think public servants having unions is a GOOD thing, as is the protections in the public service act. The destruction of unions by the corporate state (and their deep-state lackeys) has been a shocking tragedy for the working class.

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      • #
        Sirob

        It’s called political manoeuvring to keep narrative that the Libs are ‘realists’ and ‘democratic’. They sympathise with those who have been censored?! What hogwash!

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    • #
      Harves

      Looks like their ABC (yes the Australian version) paid John Sullivan for footage of the riot he is charged with inciting.
      https://ourfreeopinions.com/amp/15234-2/

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  • #
    Jojodogfacedboy

    Soon the mainstream media will be asking why Bidens transition team is not allowed in their designated offices.
    Pelosi knew that Biden was Constitutionally Disqualified but had to jamb him in anyway she could.

    The House of Representatives not only can Certify Elections but they also have the power to disqualify a candidate who has foreign interference helping them.

    This is the game President Trump has been playing out as everyone else has no clue what is happening.

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    • #
      Jojodogfacedboy

      Looking at a catch phrase when our politicians are getting nailed…

      You have been TRUMPINATED. Sounds good to me as President Trump becomes the Trumpinator to all his enemies including his bankers as they would never have done this as President.

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    • #
      Frost Giant Rebellion

      One would like to think so but it sounds like Q-Anon (h)Opium. Beware of the “limited hangout” The fellow who lays out all this truth and inside information just to get your trust.

      On another note, this is something that must have flashed through the minds of a lot of people. Rhetorical question: How many of you have sometime or other related the current debacle to the alleged FERMI PARADOX. In my physics a planet has only a short window for which to entertain intelligent conscious beings. So they have to be able to colonise and terraform their solar system before its too late. Right now we have all these rococo parasites getting together and ruining pretty much everything good and worthwhile. Maybe its happening through-out the galaxy as an emergent property of intelligent species? Just a thought.

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    • #
      RickWill

      A reminder as I said I would:
      https://joannenova.com.au/2021/02/tuesday-open-thread-44/#comment-2406267

      Sad to report that I do not believe it happened as forecast although Biden may be trying to find Trump’s EO on power supply reliability that he recently shredded. I doubt Trump is wearing a Biden face mask.

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    • #
      Tilba Tilba

      Pelosi knew that Biden was Constitutionally Disqualified but had to jamb him in anyway she could.

      What is there to support this claim – Constitutionally Disqualified? Biden is the legally elected, and legally certified, and legally sworn in Commander-in-Chief.

      Sounds like Donald Trump fans are still refusing to accept the loss.

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  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    We have a rather special problem with the Democrats in charge again.
    It seems our climate change deadline is now nine years.
    Yet it will take far longer than that to plan and permit any solutions,
    before we turn a shovel full of infrastructure earth.
    Oh, me, what to do?

    Ignore them entirely.
    IF here is anyone in the new administration with anything positive to contribute to the safety and well-being of the public
    or the progress of western civilization, it is not yet evident.

    America was conceived of as, and aspires to be, a capitalist meritocracy of individuals sharing equality before the law.

    That part of America that does not so aspire is becoming poorer, less competent, less free, less safe, less competitive politically,
    and less satisfactory to it own residents except for a small elite; in essence it is returning to a feudal state.

    We now balance; will the feudal principalities in our big cities wither and die; or destroy the vitality of the heartland?

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    • #
      Harry Passfield

      Richard, I am going to pinch that for my arguments when I come across idiots who think the world is going to end and ‘something must be done!’
      I shall ask Greens how long their planning phase is compared to their prediction that the world will end.

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      • #
        Curious George

        “our climate change deadline is now nine years”
        Greta is now firmly in charge. Long live Science.

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    • #
      RickWill

      I have a feeling recent events in Texas have added at least 5 years to get back to where things were a week ago in the US. By then Biden will be gone. Shutting off power is a REALLY good way to lose voters (maybe not important for Joe though)

      Texas is in desperate need of a FCAS market. Put that in and the balance between intermittents and reliability gets much better. Investment in wind farms in Australia is getting less attractive with cost of intermittency being levied on wind and paid to reliable generators.

      I do not think anyone in The Australian generator market can make money at the moment but wind is hurting the most. The situation will not change until the next coal power station is shut down.

      The FCAS market in Australia has eight components that are competitively bid for each half hour. Seems complicated but just game playing for price setting to maximise profit.

      This year is the first time since the 1990s that I have seen a reduction in electricity prices in Australia. So our very complex market is at least delivering on price. No weather to test the reliability so far in 2021.

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    • #
      Tilba Tilba

      America was conceived of as, and aspires to be, a capitalist meritocracy of individuals sharing equality before the law.

      But tragically, as it has grown big and complex, it has been taken over by the corporate state (aided and abetted by their deep-state lackeys from both parties). It is the return to a feudal state – a super-elite beyond accountability, a rich professional class, and then millions of “peasants” with almost no assets, and only low-paid work.

      The Jeffersonian pastoral arcadia – farmers, craftsmen, yeomen and traders – building a civil society with hard work, moral principles, education, and a bountiful land … I wonder what he would think if he came back and saw the current nightmare?

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    • #
      Frost Giant Rebellion

      I just don’t know about this Zoe. I can’t say you are wrong. But the way I see it aether has to be more pervasive than matter and aether probably proceeded matter by trillions of years. That being the case, while I think that space may be a reasonable insulator, of both thermal energy and electrical energy, probably, and for practical purposes, the energy is going to go out in all directions regardless of whether large gravitational bodies are proximate or not. I can’t prove you wrong because of all these large clumps of matter locally. But I would say that its going to be hard for you to make this case decisively, and for that reason.

      One thing you might look at is all this ambiguity we have as to whether or not astronauts can see the stars or not. I’ve looked into the footage of the two skydiving records. In the recent record the sky is black, you can’t see the stars. But you do get an horrendously powerful flash of the sun. So it looks like the sun can burn your eyes and ruin all your film but the stars perhaps are not seen until you have some sort of matter available to bring the aether into the picture, and thereby convert some other kind of energy into light energy (bringing that energy INTO the aether) so the stars can become visible. Astronaut testimony is very confusing on this matter. The earlier skydiving record ALSO did not register stars.

      And its to be noted that NASA does not leave us with a great deal of in-between footage on its orbiter missions. I would have thought that when these orbiters were BETWEEN two planets we might have all this interesting footage but somehow this is not to be.

      All the above of course favours your thesis. But I don’t know. Maybe? Could be? Hard to prove one way or another.

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      • #

        “the energy is going to go out in all directions regardless of whether large gravitational bodies are proximate or not.”

        And the evidence of this is … theoretical extrapolation of bodies inside a cavity?

        I would think the null hypothesis is that there is no radiation from something to nothing, if your only evidence is radiation from something to something.

        As I’ve shown neither NASA nor textbooks considers radiation to empty space. If that’s not the case, then everyone is incorrectly figuring out steady state temperatures for surfaces. That radiation-to-space term must be present in every equation, for all surfaces pointing to empty space.

        The null hypothesis is that textbooks and NASA are not wrong … except when they oversimplify SB Law.

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          Frost Giant Rebellion

          Aha. As you can see most of what I have posted favours YOUR hypothesis. But a point of order there. There is no such thing as the null hypothesis. Forget Popper. There are only competing hypotheses in parallel. As a procedural matter its best practice to have at least 3-5 hypotheses in the air at any one time, even if one or two of them are dummy hypotheses only there for the purpose of giving scientific weight to the process.

          As you have seen the reasoning I have placed on the board is to do with anomalies that would seem to be sympathetic to your thesis. But its got to be two cheers to the Zoe paradigm so far, and not yet three cheers until we could get data we can trust……

          “I would think the null hypothesis is that there is no radiation from something to nothing, if your only evidence is radiation from something to something.”

          But its not nothing. I happen to know that you are sympathetic to the idea of the aether. But in fact the existence of the aether is proven and was proven from the time that we could measure a wavelength for light. So then we don’t say radiation from something to nothing. We have to talk about radiation into the aether. So it seems that even though you are open-minded to the aether occasionally the aether-denial can creep back in. After all if there is no radiation to the aether what is this cosmic radiation background all about? Its not about the failure for the light to turn off 13.7 billion years ago right? Thats just silly.

          In the end maybe there will be a third thesis wherein radiation goes preferentially to matter, but can still leak out to the aether more generally. There is nothing I have said against your thesis, and the fantastical anomaly that we can’t clear up, about seeing the stars is to your favour. But its two cheers and not three cheers because we don’t have the data.

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          Frost Giant Rebellion

          If I was into betting I would say matter to matter radiation was highly prejudiced. And that leakage to the general aether, or to another transmission methods, might be a small proportion. But how could I assess such a mealy-mouthed compromise middle of the road, slack-jawed thesis? So we don’t want to be absolutist about his. We know for a fact that there is aether. It has to be breaking and reforming all the time or everything would be fixed and there would be no movement. So I would just caution that even though your theory is probably superior to the mainstream view, that doesn’t make it the whole truth.

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          Kalm Keith

          Zoe, as I’ve said before, you have an obvious talent for mathematics and computer programming.

          And then we have Thermodynamics.

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            Frost Giant Rebellion

            Do you mean fealty to heritage dogma? Like some long-haired celibate hippy really had it all going on 400 years ago? In the wider scope of the Universe these laws are clearly wrong. So you can’t fault Zoe on these mummified grounds.

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              Kalm Keith

              Complete and absolute waffle again.

              And by the way, you previously refused to clarify other comments made on Evolution.

              After being forced to read between the lines your beliefs when summarised are;

              ~ we can’t definitely prove that the first biologically active material developed on our cooling planet: Therefore, it Must have been God.

              And

              – God lives in the aether.

              There’s absolutely no need to mix religion and science.

              KK

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                Frost Giant Rebellion

                “After being forced to read between the lines your beliefs when summarised are;”

                I don’t know why you are wedded to belief. I’m fused only to good methodology. My balanced provisional judgements are not the same thing.

                “~ we can’t definitely prove that the first biologically active material developed on our cooling planet: Therefore, it Must have been God.”

                No I don’t say that. And I don’t buy this idea of a cooling planet. Unless its Venus which is a new planet in its current position.

                “– God lives in the aether.”

                Maybe right? Could be? I’m not a believer in God but I think I can find evidence that consciousness is predominantly aetheric. By the way not JUST aetheric but hydrophilic.

                “There’s absolutely no need to mix religion and science.”

                For the meantime its probably best to keep them apart because we are doing such a bad job in both.

                But the main point is you cannot tie Zoe’s hands with these mummified pseudo-rules. For on thing they are wrong and secondly they only appear to work on terra firma.

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              • #
                Kalm Keith

                Well done FGRebellion.
                Verbalism at its finest.

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                Frost Giant Rebellion

                Stay calm Kalm Keith. And if you don’t understand what I am saying, either read it again or ask an intelligent question.

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          • #

            So textbooks and NASA are wrong when they neglect radiation to space?

            Wow. How can I ever get good at something when all the teachers are wrong.

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              Kalm Keith

              One of the most important things in thermodynamics is context.

              Making statements about what NASA may or may no have included in one particular case is not useful without context.

              11

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                Frost Giant Rebellion

                KK you are almost acting like a leftist now. We have genius in our midsts here. Zoe is the real deal. Doesn’t mean I agree with her all the time. But if you can’t understand me, and aren’t willing to read, re-read and ask intelligent questions in order to try to understand me, you really aren’t going to be able to understand Zoe.

                This reminds me of the static that the great prose artist Alan Duff used to get from the cousie-bros back home. They didn’t seem to realise they had genius amongst them. Prestige in that community seemed to be more about being able to put away a big meal.

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                Tilba Tilba

                KK you are almost acting like a leftist now.

                There is hope for everyone … never give up!

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              Chad

              Zoe Phin
              February 21, 2021 at 9:47 am ·
              Wow. How can I ever get good at something when all the teachers are wrong

              Teachers only teach what they know, and learned from their own teachers.
              Science is the product of ORIGINAL THOUGHT,…development and verification of new theories.

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            Tilba Tilba

            And now we have the “aether” (ether) … a brave bid to wind the science of astronomy, physics, and cosmology back a century or two!

            02

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      Frost Giant Rebellion

      I’m trying to think of data we could get hold of to test your thesis. When the shuttle missions were in effect, the crew and machinery was kind of protected from radical heat effects of space. Because their day and their night were speeded up. So during their short days the tendency was to overheat and during their short nights, I suspect it could get pretty cold. But there were these complaints that they needed heated gauntlets. Their gauntlets would bleed thermal energy and their hands would get cold. The wonder is that their hands weren’t snap frozen. What do we make of this with regards to your paradigm?

      Under your paradigm their hands are radiating energy to the dark side of the earth. But since that dark side is not particularly cold their hands aren’t about to snap freeze I’m supposing. Or it could be that space (ie the aether) is a pretty good but no perfect insulator. So my test would be to get the spacecraft still in the shade of the earth but further and further away. I’m not proposing here a smoking gun test. But just some way of picking up a lot of data and seeing what we might find from it.

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        John R Smith

        Please forgive a question that may be off your focus.
        (Zoe’s article is a bit above my pay grade.)
        Have humans spent very much time in Space?
        Space being interplanetary.
        The Shuttle and ISS are within the Magnetosphere (radiation protective) which IMO is the last boundary condition of Earth atmosphere.
        Wrong?
        Even the Moon is often in the Magnetotail.
        So human experience outside Earth boundary conditions amounts to hours.
        Plus, I’ve wondered why the Shuttle couldn’t just hang a left and sail to the Moon.
        What capability did it lack compared to the Apollo rig?

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          Frost Giant Rebellion

          If I were to try and answer that question we would be into a lot of Moon-faker talk. Last I heard when people have tried to go a little higher than usual they see stars in their closed eyes, and then bad things start to happen.

          But then you would expect a lot of great visuals, on the journey between planets for their orbiter missions. On the other hand since light must be carried by the aether, we might expect a lot of mischief with light and visuals in interplanetary space. And if NASA is being real in their orbiter missions and fake in their rover missions, then they have an incentive to deny us interplanetary visuals …. which they have done. This information denial must have some sort of motive behind it.

          There are so many problems that we simply cannot resolve without ridding ourselves of oligarchy.

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      Kalm Keith

      —hi Zoe,

      The first step in solving any thermodynamic problem is to actually define that problem clearly with all factors identified.

      This means drawing a picture in your own mind that you are satisfied with and that you know has no serious unknowns.

      Here you are putting up an earlier analysis made by Willis E and critiquing it.

      In your own words could you outline what you are trying to show?

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      • #

        Willis draws emission to empty space.
        NASA does not.

        One of them is right, the other is Willis.

        Not a single textbook shows emission to empty space as part of a thermodynamics problem (except climate pseudophysics).

        Perhaps it doesn’t exist?

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          Kalm Keith

          Thanks for the reply. I looked at the start of your post and part of the original from Willis but because it seemed to be a continuation from something earlier there was something missing for me.

          There was a diagram of a box but I don’t know its physical surroundings or composition.

          As far as energy moving to space there’s something about energy in that it has the potential to move from point of origin to somewhere else which has lower potential.

          The problem you are working on seems to have an equilibrium in that temperatures both sides of the barrier remain constant and produce a constant flow through the item.

          Questions.

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    RicDre

    The Trump Energy Resilience Plan which Could have Saved Texas

    Has Trump derangement syndrome cost Texan lives? Back in 2017, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry proposed paying Coal and Nuclear Power Stations to keep at least 90 days worth of coal onsite, for disaster resilience.

    At the time the resilience proposal was widely criticised as being a thinly disguised Trump scheme to pump government money into the coal and nuclear industries. But in hindsight, a bit more resilience might have saved Texas from days of painful electricity blackouts.

    Federal regulators rejected the plan, on the grounds that Rick Perry failed to provide enough evidence that retiring coal and nuclear plants was undermining grid stability. The plan was eventually dropped, after vigorous lobbying from gas and renewable energy groups.

    Now that the scenario Rick Perry predicted has actually happened in Texas, it seems pretty obvious the Rick Perry was right about the risks. Nuclear power plants and fossil fuel plants which had access to adequate fuel supplies mostly stayed fully operational.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/20/the-trump-energy-resilience-plan-which-would-have-saved-texas/

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      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      For that reserve to have helped you’d also have to have enough coal plants to provide all the needed emergency load, something which appears be untrue for Texas.
      The plants they do have seem to have stood up well overall.
      Cheers
      Dave B

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      OldOzzie

      Joe Biden Calls Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Day Six of Winter Storms

      From the Comments

      -Joe is too busy playing video games in the basement of Camp David while Jill is babysitting him and changing his diaper.

      – To be fair, a diaper would be unable to hold as much excrement as this blithering idiot is full of. He wears a Men’s XXL depends.

      – Imagine the media explosion if Trump took six days to respond to a Blue State governor in a state of emergency.
      Blow the roof right off the building!

      Democrats are evil, period!

      – To Trump’s credit he always responded whether he agreed with that state’s leadership or not. Trump was pro America

      – Remember when Trump, personally, went to California during their wild fire problems. Not only the hotbed of fires but the hotbed of liberals

      – A decent man Trump. Slow Joe…not so much

      – Dinosaurs always react very slowly. Geriatric dinosaurs react even more slowly.

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    David Maddison

    Mars is the only planet we know of whose sole occupants are robots.

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    • #
      Frost Giant Rebellion

      I don’t know if we know that for sure. Both about the robots being there and the other occupants not being there. We don’t have a scientific test for either of these ideas. I’m not saying I don’t believe every last thing that comes out of NASA. There are no conspiracies …. as Mr Bannon keeps repeating.

      Always remember. NASA never did anything wrong ever.

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        robert rosicka

        Why wouldn’t there be Rover landers on Mars FGR?

        30

        • #
          Frost Giant Rebellion

          There was these two free-fall records and they were set 52 years apart. The first started a bit below where the air pressure is about the same as it is on Mars. The second was a bit higher than that. In both cases the daytime sky is black. NASA always mucks about with filters when they take alleged Mars photos and they were revealed as doing so when the coloured photos of the Europeans came out. If there is no black daytime sky they aren’t on Mars. We don’t want to get all emotional about his.

          13

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            Serp

            In enlightened times they’d have played fair and accompanied the photos with a “THIS IS NOT HERE” placard.

            10

            • #
              Frost Giant Rebellion

              Sure. They must have pretty good parachutes right? Since for a normal parachute to open and function well, the skydiver has to get down to about 14000 feet. Otherwise the lack of air pressure is going to get the parachute tangled up and it will never open at all. So we are talking about 4.3 kilometres. Whereas to get to a height on earth that is comparable to Mars air pressure on the ground, you are looking at almost 36 kilometres high. Much higher than you can open anything but a little drogue chute. So I don’t know how they would do it if they really wanted to do it for real. I don’t know how they would slow themselves down. They might have really great parachutes that force themselves open even under conditions of very thin air. But to my mind that probably wouldn’t help them a great deal even if it did open.

              I don’t think they could pull it off even if they chose to. Except under technology they may not wish to share with the rest of the world. You are going so fast just to get there and then you have to decelerate. That would go to the too hard basket unless someone knows about some you beaut covert technology.

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                Yarpos

                BS re the parachute. 14000 is about breathable rather than the canopy opening.

                Trying to deploy in very thin air wont necessarily result i getting “all tangled up” the deployment system just wont do anything until it has air to work with.

                There is zero point in deploying ultra high. Get into real air, dont expose yourself too long too upper winds, land where you either want to or where people can reach you if you have no control.

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                Frost Giant Rebellion

                I appreciate your fine distinctions here, as someone who appears to have experience in this matter. But this not a line ball call. Its not about fine distinctions. The difference between 36 kilometres and a few adjustments to that 4.3 kilometres estimate don’t make any difference to the problem to hand. The daytime sky is black on Mars. And Nasa’s story isn’t holding up despite your teary-eyed efforts to help them.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Earth isn’t far behind David.

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      Dennis

      Migrant robots, but under their “sole”, frozen water and ?

      10

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      Yarpos

      Saw a funny meme today, Mars rover comes upon a large rock , scratched on it is “Epstein didnt suicide”

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    David Maddison

    The correct alphabetical order of surnames such as the Dutch “van” is given authoritatively given by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
    http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/cataloguing/pubs/names-of-persons_1996.pdf

    For “van”:

    If the person is Dutch, “van Beukering” should be sorted under B.

    If Belgian, sort it under V (but Belgian libraries aren’t consistent).

    If they’re from Anglo countries, list under V.

    10

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    David Maddison

    The beautiful end of a windmill and a dramatic reduction in visual pollution.

    (Trigger warning for warmists.)

    https://youtu.be/jg9xk0d5qYY

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    David Maddison

    What is the true cost of a SpaceX launch?

    Not as cheap as you’ve been lead to believe.

    https://youtu.be/4TxkE_oYrjU

    30

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  • #
    Harves

    Looks like their ABC is now violating ‘proceeds of crime’ laws.
    https://ourfreeopinions.com/amp/15234-2/

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    David Maddison

    This is an excellent video by Paul Joseph Watson about Bill Gates.

    Gates is a classic example of a Leftist hypocrite but even more so than most people realise.

    “It’s OK when Bill Does it.”

    Under 7 mins.

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/ARDXlyq3EgI/

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    David Maddison

    Politicians should get the vaccine first to make sure it’s safe.

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    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      And their children.

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    • #

      I had mine in the UK a week ago. An extremely efficient operation.

      I had a sore arm and felt a little under the weather for a day and this is quite common. From time of arrival to walking out duly vaccinated took 20 minutes of which 15 minutes was the mandatory waiting time to ensure there were no effects.

      70

      • #
        Yonniestone

        Is your second head talking yet?

        60

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        But TonyB we are told that there are no side effects. Or do you mean the chance of a patient fainting?

        30

        • #

          Most vaccinations will give you a sore arm, including for flu. I don’t think the side effects are any worse than for flu and other than the arm aching I have not heard of any adverse effects for most people.

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            Frost Giant Rebellion

            You haven’t looked TonyB. If you look you will find this total catastrophe. Its the kill-shot.

            00

        • #
          RexAlan

          At my doctors even with the normal flue vaccine we have to wait a mandatory 15 minutes after the shot before leaving.

          20

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Tonyb,

        was it Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine?

        50

      • #
        Frost Giant Rebellion

        Bad move TonyB. Because all this research is merely a repetition of what came before. And the first time around we found that Covid vaccines lead to lung damage in the longer run. So stop any of your family from repeating your mistake. Because stop you from getting hurt by Covid. But we are all clueless when it comes to saving you from Vaccine damage. Try swimming in the ocean as often as possible for the moment would be my best tip.

        36

        • #
          Frost Giant Rebellion

          We can stop you from getting hurt too much by Covid is what I meant to say. But if you are vaccine damaged, there is not that can be done.

          41

      • #
        STJOHNOFGRAFTON

        The same powers who unleashed the virus problem now offer you the genetic therapy solution. Kind of like a protection racket where the bad guys menace the neighbourhood then offer protection at a cost
        Just like you need to keep up protection installments to keep the bad guys sweet, you will need regular ‘updates’ with more genetic therapy to keep the engineered virus from attacking you.

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      • #
        Sirob

        I wish you all the best in the future and much health. That was typed with sincerity.

        00

    • #
      Annie

      How many politicians who have been videoed supposedly having ‘the jab’ really had it? Just a big act to persuade the sheeple, or genuine? My nasty suspicious mind suspects it was all a big act.

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    • #
      Yarpos

      Scomos taking his, is that good enough?

      00

  • #
    another ian

    “Covid Modelling vs Reality” Canada

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/02/20/covid-modelling-vs-reality/

    And comments by CodexCoder and bdsm

    10

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    Testing:

    I wonder whether our (Australian) politicians have realise that unreliables are a bad idea for a grid?

    The Germans are going to shut down their nuclear plants and have built brown coal ones as a ‘temporary’ subsitute, but plan on using (more) Russian gas. They haven’t reduced their own emissions in 10 years but are now critising Poland for planning to us nuclear to reduce emissions.

    120

    • #
      Yarpos

      I cant imagine how little impact German criticism has on Polish decision making. Us their an SI unit that small? Lets just call it zero shall we?

      20

  • #
    OldOzzie

    NSW fertility rate drops as young adults choose living at home over babies

    The state’s fertility rate is at the lowest on record as more cash-strapped young adults live with their parents and more women having their first child later in life.

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    • #
      Harves

      “The state’s fertility rate is at the lowest on record as more spoilt, lay about, pampered young adults live with their parents and more women having their first child later in life.”
      Fixed

      61

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    OldOzzie

    Cascend: Data Shows Wind-Power Was Chief Culprit Of Texas Grid Collapse

    With the worst of the Texas power crisis now behind us, the blame and fingerpointing begins, and while the jury is still out whose actions (or lack thereof) may have led to the deadly and widespread blackouts that shocked Texas this week, Cascend Strategy writes that “in case there was any doubt why the Texas grid collapsed, the data is clear”

    Wind failed as “Ice storms knocked out nearly half the wind-power generating capacity of Texas on Sunday as a massive deep freeze across the state locked up wind turbine generators, creating an electricity generation crisis.”

    Natural gas made up the difference for a while

    But then everything else followed down

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    • #
      RickWill

      The incident in Texas comes as wind power penetration in Texas averaged 20%. That is the level where intermittent sources begin to give indigestion. South Australia got above that level before the serious issues of 2016 but only because the emerging problems were masked by the solid interconnected to Victoria.

      Getting above 20% takes a much higher focus on FCAS, which comes at a cost.

      Australia has done reasonably well in apportioning cost and benefits of FCAS. Thermal plant increase income and a good portion of the cost is levied on wind generators. The Horsdale battery has done well also.

      Wind generators in Australia are looking fragile economically now as they are burdened with more of the real cost of intermittency. And rooftops are making it hard to recover those costs. Also the subsidy is next to useless compared to where it was 5 years ago.

      It is difficult to imagine current wholesale prices are sustainable. I cannot imagine how subsidy farms are making a return on investment. The fact that Stockyard Hill has been sold for a lousy $110M suggests it is tough times for subsidy farm owners in Australia.

      Expect Texas to see less interest in wind generation in the coming decade. There will be a lot of claims made but it is undeniable that 29MW out of 30MW of wind went missing in action in Texas. One little battler out of thirty is not really satisfactory when the call to arms is made. My bet is there will be no more wind farm without batteries or diese/gas support. Whether that is regulated or through a suitable FCAS market, time will tell.

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    OldOzzie

    Reformed anti-vaxxer Julie Diamond can’t wait for COVID-19 vaccine

    Julie Diamond was a committed anti-vaxxer who refused to immunise her two children. Then, she saw the light and now can’t wait to roll up her sleeve for a COVID-19 vaccine.

    “The risk of my children being injured by vaccinations was huge, hugely fearful for me.”

    But it was her teenage son who changed his mother’s mind after being offered the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (dTpa) vaccine in Year 7.

    “He told me I was an idiot. He said it was stupid, that I was misinformed and it was dangerous,” she said.

    “I‘ve raised very tenacious, freethinking individuals. And for me to then not listen to them about advocating their own health rights and autonomy over their own health would just be really counterintuitive to everything I did in raising them,” she said.

    “So I had to listen. I had to listen to him.”

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      Sirob

      The problem with vaccines is none of them are tested with a true inert placebo by a truly non invested party.

      10

    • #
      Klem

      So she took the advice of her teenage son. I call BS on that.

      I suggest the real reason is that she watches too much CNN and was consumed with fear of catching a cold. She blamed it on her son to save face.

      What’s she going to do when H5N8 arrives in April?

      20

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    OldOzzie

    COVID-19 vaccine rollout: Download your guide here

    Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine is finally here. This is your full guide to what’s coming with your questions answered.

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    RooDog

    Friday morning at 5.55am it was cold in my home town of Manjimup WA so I looked at BOM Met eye to see just what the temperature was. According to the poorly sited BOM weather station the temperature was 5.1 C. I didn’t believe that it was that cold so I checked the local Ag WA (properly sited) weather station and found 8.5 C.
    I then checked the temps at seven BOM stations at nearby towns and found that three others also read 5.1C, three others exactly 7.5C (some sort of a miracle), with one outlier Rocky Gully which read 24.5C which was obviously total rubbish.
    I repeated the exercise at 5.30am, three that had read 5.1C all now read 5C, the other group of three now all read exactly 7.5. I didn’t bother to re check Rocky Gully.
    I repeated the exercise at 5.45am the group of three that originally read 5.1C now all read the same at 6.5C, the other group of three all read exactly 7.9C. Once again I didn’t bother with Rocky Gully.
    The following day the pattern was the same with different temperatures, 10.6C and 7.9C at the time checked in the two groups, with Rocky Gully still an outlier. I just checked the BOM CDO (climate data online) and found the last three days of data missing. I also cross referenced with the AG WA weather station and found that the semi urban BOM weather station reads consistently higher that the properly sited Ag WA station.
    There is also interesting stuff with regard to rainfall that I will put up later.

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    OldOzzie

    Mike Press Wines: Mike works his magic again

    James Halliday
    Wine Columnist

    Every year, tasting the new releases of Mike Press Wines fills me with a sense of wonder: how is it possible that such beautifully made wines should have such impossibly low prices? It’s been the case for so long, I eventually took the decision to give the winery five stars every year in my Wine Companion regardless of the points. No other winery has achieved that acknowledgment.

    Press worked in the South Australian wine industry for more than 40 years, with Penfolds (under Max Schubert), then Seppelt, and finally Mildara Blass as chief winemaker, before he and wife Judy purchased a Kenton Valley property in the Adelaide Hills in 1998. They planted a little over 11ha that year, and a further 11ha the next.

    The plan was to sell the grapes but the industry was faced with a glut and after several years of struggle they began making and selling their wines. Even then they did it tough, walking the streets of Adelaide and the Hills dropping flyers for their cleanskin wines in letterboxes. Success followed quickly when in 2005 both the shiraz and cabernet sauvignon featured in the taste-off for the Jimmy Watson Trophy. The one thing they have never done is cellar door sales.

    In 2017, South Australian Bob Harris and his wife Yuko purchased the Mike Press Wines brand and vineyard, adding to a French chateau and complex Burgundy/Beaujolais business. They also own the Schubert Vineyard adjacent to the Press vineyard. Mike and Judy continue to live onsite, and their son Jimmy is managing the vineyard. Mike continues to make the wines (in the Gemtree winery in McLaren Vale). There is no plan to increase prices, and the focus on the domestic market will continue. The portfolio of sauvignon blanc, rosé, pinot noir, merlot, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon are all of remarkably consistent quality given the span of style.

    2018 Mike Press Wines Jimmy’s Block Single Vineyard Adelaide Hills Shiraz

    94 points, drink to 2028, $16

    2017 Mike Press Wines Single Vineyard Adelaide Hills Cabernet Sauvignon

    94 points, drink to 2030, $15

    https://mikepresswines.com.au/our-wine/

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    RickWill

    Organised measurement of the temperature in deep oceans have been undertaken since 1955. Over the last 65 years, the oceans have claimed to warm 0.11C in the top 2000m.
    https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/yearly_mt/T-dC-w0-2000m.dat
    That increase represents 332E21J; roughly 22 days of sunshine has been stored in 65 years. Meaning the temperature increase is constrained by mixing rather than available energy input.

    The average ocean surface temperature is 16C. The average ocean temperature to 2000m is around 4C. So despite a temperature difference of some 12C between surface and depth, it has taken 65 years to make 0.11C. So in maybe 6,500 years we could see the deep oceans getting closer to the surface temperature.

    I then wonder why are the deep oceans so cold. There is a tiny amount of geothermal heat going in at the bottom rather than heat loss at the bottom. The cooling must have occurred through the surface. But the surface temperature is constrained to -2C at ice/water boundary and 30C in tropical warm pools. There has been no time in the known history of Earth that the tropical oceans froze(at least that is what temperature reconstructions show).

    I then wonder what is the constant enthalpy temperature gradient for the oceans. We know that the water at depth is under great pressure. So that it the question to ponder for next week. What is the equilibrium temperature of the deep oceans when the surface temperature ranges from -2C to 30C.

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    OldOzzie

    Piers Akerman: Victoria going downhill under Daniel Andrews’ leadership

    It’s not just Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews’ response to COVID-19 that is to blame for the state’s woes, but the whole culture of dictatorial leadership that has corroded the once-proud state, Piers Akerman writes.

    The Hume Hwy crosses Oddies Creek in south Albury, before it enters ‘Danistan’, the name given to dictator Dan Andrews’ failed state, formerly known as Victoria.

    Beside the highway, a scrawled sign warns “Enter At Your Own Risk”, in case NSW motorists may unfortunately be oblivious to the disastrous state of affairs they will
    soon confront.

    To be perfectly clear, it’s not just Andrews’ response to the Wuhan virus that is to blame for the state’s woes, it is the whole culture of top-down dictatorial leadership that has corroded the once-proud state.

    Contributors to the collapse have been apparent branch stacking within the ALP, which has led to a current brawl involving former state minister Adam Somyurek being played out in the Victorian Supreme Court; it is the slow unravelling of the outrageous Victorian police entanglement with paid informer Nicola Gobbo, the notorious Lawyer X, which will see currently convicted criminals having their convictions overturned; and of course, there was the disgraceful police-judicial stitch-up of Cardinal George Pell, which was only overturned on appeal to the High Court.

    The rule of law in Danistan owes more to Chinese President-for-life Xi’s repressive model than it does to the Western common canon

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    David Maddison

    What’s wrong with brown coal?

    Warmists hate it more than any other cheap fossil fuel but there is nothing obviously wrong with it.

    It has a lower overall energy content than black coal because some of its energy is used to dry it before combustion because it contains water.

    But its lower energy content is reflected by its lower price, just like different octane ratings of gasoline.

    The chemical reaction, the oxidation of carbon to produce heat plus CO2 is exactly the same in both cases.

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    David Maddison

    Where is Big Tech heading?

    What type of business willingly throws away at least half of its customers?

    The rewards of power and control and promises of future riches must be very great for them to do so.

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    OldOzzie

    Peta Credlin: Nuclear power needs to be addressed by our politicians

    We need to overturn the Howard-era law that makes generating nuclear power illegal so politicians can tiptoe towards a sensible discussion about the important issue, Peta Credlin writes.

    Maybe, just maybe, as a country we’re starting to tiptoe our way towards a sensible discussion on nuclear power.

    After all, if climate change really is the greatest moral challenge humanity faces, and if man-made carbon dioxide emissions really are the villain, why wouldn’t we be considering the only well-proven way to generate emissions-free baseload power?

    First, though, we’d need to overturn the Howard-era law (a concession to the Greens and Labor to get nuclear medicine amendments through the Senate) that makes generating nuclear power illegal, even though we’ve had a nuclear reactor producing the isotopes needed for cancer treatment operating safely at Lucas Heights on Sydney’s southern fringes for decades.

    Until the legal prohibition is lifted, there’s no way there’ll be any proposal for nuclear power, despite the contribution it could make to reducing emissions and despite the development of new “modular” reactors, like those in nuclear-powered ships.

    Last week saw the first stirrings for change. After Barnaby Joyce up-ended the government’s legislative agenda by moving a pro-coal amendment, five National Party MPs flagged their intention go rogue with an amendment to allow the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to fund nuclear projects.

    After a poll in The Australian showed two-thirds of Coalition backbenchers wanted the nuclear ban scrapped, two Labor senators chimed in calling for Labor’s position to change too.

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      OldOzzie

      Three important reasons to take up the nuclear option

      The climate and energy debate swirled into a tragic and deadly reality in Texas this week. This is what it looks like when renewables let you down.

      By Chris Kenny

      The climate and energy debate swirled into a tragic and deadly reality in Texas this week. Millions of people were stuck without electricity and families were killed when fires lit for warmth burned down houses, or they were poisoned by carbon monoxide when they ran cars in garages or generators indoors to stave off the cold.

      This was the grim repercussion, primarily, of a bitter winter storm that prompted a surge in electricity demand and knocked out some of the state’s gas-fired electricity generation. But renewable energy let down the Lone Star State, too; Bloomberg reported that half of the state’s wind turbines were frozen into inaction, and Governor Greg Abbott said this accounted for at least 10 per cent of the energy shortfall.

      This is another study in energy grid mismanagement, with emissions reduction policies playing their role. Texas is the only continental US state not connected to other electricity grids — it is totally reliant on its own energy mix — and it has changed that mix dramatically in recent years.

      Proponents consistently ignore the inescapable achilles heel of wind and solar energy — lack of reliability. All electricity sources, from coal and nuclear to hydro and geothermal, can be interrupted but the frequent, unavoidable and unpredictable intermit­tence of wind and solar is the central dilemma of global energy policy. Batteries and pumped hydro are, thus far, merely expensive methods of partially offsetting that weakness. They fall a long way short of overcoming it.

      And so, here we are, at the start of another political year, and climate and energy policy is re-emerging as a fissure in federal politics. Any minute now Bill Murray will step in a puddle. At least this year the nuclear debate is being rekindled by Coalition MPs, with some support within Labor ranks. Much of the world tries to ignore this topic, but it seems inevitable that the demand for reliable, emissions-free electricity will lead us back to nuclear.

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        KevJ

        Rolls Royce are developing small modular reactors.
        https://www.rolls-royce.com/products-and-services/nuclear/small-modular-reactors.aspx#/

        Could those that know, provide a few pros and cons why this is not a viable solution for Australia? Apart from the obvious “anything nuclear is bad” scenario. 😀

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        William Astley

        We (the green energy realists, money does not grow on trees realists, facts matter realists)…. All of the ‘analysis’ concerning green energy and nuclear energy is fake.

        The nuclear option has changed. Why? Why do we not know about the change? Why did this ‘breakthrough’ take 50 years to be rediscovered? Why are the US regulatory agency trying to stall the breakthrough. P.S. Same breakthrough makes wind and sun gathering obsolete.

        What people repeat… when they talk about ‘Nuclear power’ …. Is more or less repeating the Pressure water/boiling water, fuel rod, nuclear industry’s ad campaign.

        A Childish belief in ‘science’/engineering and a childish filtered understanding of the real life issues/problems the fuel rod, water cooled fission reactor (only need high level understanding). This should be a hour presentation with slides.

        … The fission concept is good. The problem is the fuel rod, water cool reactor design is not good/practical/cost effective. It is dangerous, expensive, wastes fuel, and creates a great deal of difficult to deal with fuel rod waste and dismantling costs. Long term safety issues, such as Water pools, fuel rods leaking radioactive gases, and so on. (The fuel rods are/must be constructed of zirconium which if it is exposed to air creates a hydrogen explosion.)

        The objective of the ‘Nuclear industry’s’ campaign was/is to keep the 40 year old US pressure water reactors running and to keep the US fuel rod industry operating. Pressure water, fuel rod reactors are too expensive because that design requires a containment building to contain hydrogen gas explosions or pressure explosions.

        A typical Pressure water reactor has 50,000 fuel rods in it, a 1/3 of which must be replaced every 2 1/2 years. The fuel rods, in any fuel rod fission reactor, are replaced just before the zirconium clad fuel rods, start to crack in the middle where there is the most fission. If the fuel rods crack they release water soluble radioactive products into the cooling flowing cooling water and radioactive noble gases into the water.

        This constant risk of radiation leaks and the risk of catastrophic meltdowns can be eliminated with an optimized fission reactor design. The fuel rod, water cooled, design, PWR 130 atmospheres, a reactor vessel constructed out 10 inch-thick plate, is absolute.

        https://www.terrestrialenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TEI-2-Page-Brief-200630-1.pdf

        This is a link to a Canadian company is planning to install three liquid fueled can reactors in Canada/US.

        The integral, seven-year service, molten salt reactor consists of a small metal can/vessel, (12 feet by 24 feet) that can be trucked to site. The small reactor vessel, on top of the vessel, six screw type pumps 35 hp each to increase circulation in the can, and six integral heat exchangers.

        The fission burner can, can produce 195 MW of electricity almost every hour for seven years.

        At the end of it carbon core life, seven years, the fission reaction is stopped and the can is drained. The drained fission reactor can is a medium hazard source that can be buried due to its short period of exposure/use. The old reactor can is replaced with a new reactor can and the process is restarted.

        The can is the only device that is exposed to radiation. The can is sealed. There is no possible route for radioactive products to get out of the can. No possible chemical explosions. No possibility of overpressure. The spent fuel can be melted and useful elements removed using simple chemistry. Fuel rod reprocessing is expensive and dangerous as the ceramic must be broken into pieces and then put in acid.

        Plutonium can break into tiny air carried particles which contaminate fuel rod, reprocessing facilities. With the liquid fuel design, the waste fuel and waste products are all bound in the ionic salt which is the most stable substance chemically possible to contain the fission products and remaining Uranium. The salt binds all fission products and as it can just be melted there is no need for mechanical machines for fuel reprocessing.

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    OldOzzie

    Aussies keen on electric cars according to new survey

    A survey of Aussie drivers show that they are eager to jump into a particular new car, but there are several reasons why they won’t be big sellers.

    The survey showed almost one in two Australians would consider buying an electric car as their next vehicle.

    Two of the biggest reasons cited were because it is “better for the planet” and to save money on petrol.

    Last year Tesla announced it was increasing the price for using its supercharger network to 52 cents per kW, a sharp rise of 24 per cent.

    The price hike makes it more expensive to fast-charge Teslas than to refill petrol-powered rivals.

    Analysis by electric car experts at EVCentral.com.au shows it would cost $9.78 per 100km to run a Tesla Model 3 if it was charged exclusively on the brand’s Supercharger network.

    This compares poorly to petrol powered machines such as the BMW 330i at $8.00 per 100km and the hybrid-powered Lexus IS350h at $6.76.

    Another discouraging factor to the take up of electric cars was price. Blackburn says prices should drop over the coming years as more competition arrives and manufacturers scale up production.

    Jeep boss Cristian Meunier poured cold water on the possibility of widespread take-up of EVs in Australia until the government steps in to help.

    “The governments are essential for the technology to accelerate and for these new technologies to become more mainstream. We can see that in Europe and markets like California,” says Meunier.

    “Australia today is definitely not ready for BEV (Battery Electric Vehicles) because of the lack of infrastructure. And there is no point trying to push something without the help of the government.”

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      Dennis

      * Price differential between cheapest EV and equivalent ICEV is a lot of petrol and maintenance service money to break even on EV purchase.
      * Why does the EV lobby continue to use rather pathetic sales and marketing tricks if we are “keen on electric cars”, the facts should be sufficient.
      * So, allegedly, on average we drive not far every day, EV sales pitch so range doesn’t matter, ignore.
      * Surveys commissioned by lobby groups are unreliable information, conducted to reach the conclusions the client desires.
      * Lower fuel cost ignores the governments planning an EV road tax to replace fuel excise revenue, and long term battery deterioration expense and trade devaluation.
      * Compare EV and ICEV fuel costs by deducting the fuel excise (tax) on liquid fuels given that at this time there is no equivalent tax on electricity for EV recharging.

      All being equal, including range and convenience of recharging compared to refuelling with petrol or diesel, EV specific fire hazard eliminated (exothermic reaction) and priced competitively I would seriously consider buying an EV when I next replace my Diesel engine 4WD.

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        Dennis

        Please note, apparently most of the not many EVs on Australian roads are “company cars”, fleet operators, and the Australian Government provided $300 million to fleet leasing firms to promote EV to clients.

        Turnbull Government decision.

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      Hanrahan

      Analysis by electric car experts at EVCentral.com.au shows it would cost $9.78 per 100km to run a Tesla Model 3 if it was charged exclusively on the brand’s Supercharger network.

      This compares poorly to petrol powered machines such as the BMW 330i at $8.00 per 100km and the hybrid-powered Lexus IS350h at $6.76.

      This is consistent with calcs I have done over the years. Remember as well that there is no road maintenance tax included in the cost of electricity, one day the honeymoon will end and EV owners will pay tax.

      Blackburn says prices should drop over the coming years as more competition arrives and manufacturers scale up production.

      Easy to say, hard to do. EVs have already reached the point of diminished returns. It is easy to reduce the price of technology as production ramps up but as it is developed it becomes a commodity and cutting costs becomes harder.

      Bought a 12V car battery lately? They have been produced by their multi millions for 100 years. If you believe Blackburn then that battery should be $20 today, that is merely one order of magnitude cheaper. EV proponents believe an order of magnitude improvement is only a few years away, it isn’t.

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      Dennis

      Extract from a link published in that EV article …

      ““Australia today is definitely not ready for BEV (Battery Electric Vehicles) because of the lack of infrastructure. And there is no point trying to push something without the help of the government.
      “But it’s going to happen in Australia, people like nature, are eco-friendly and they are also pretty attached to their wallet. So if the government starts stimulating it a little bit it will grow.”
      Jeep’s chief has also poured cold water on those hoping the new Grand Cherokee due this year will spawn a high-performance Trackhawk variant.”

      “Help from the government” means taxpayer’s monies, taxpayers are of course the target market buyers, so the EV industry wants another tax added to offset the high cost market buyer resistence to EV, effectively.

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      Harves

      I’d consider buying a Lamborghini as my next car. But just like an EV, it would be too expensive, impractical. Therefore just like virtually all the people surveyed, I won’t actually buy a Lamborghini or an EV.
      Has the Warringah climate alarmist bought he EV yet?

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    RicDre

    The Texas Energy Disaster

    By Andy May

    The proximate cause for the Texas grid collapse was the very cold weather from February 9 to 17. The initial problem was that wind was producing over 25% of Texas’ power and it is intermittent. Knowing it was intermittent, ERCOT ramped up natural gas generation as an instantaneous backup for the wind, but they forgot that natural gas is supply-on-demand, and the pipelines are vulnerable to disasters, especially cold weather. Disaster power sources are coal and nuclear, they have fuel on site for days or weeks and do not require a pipeline or a backup.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/20/the-texas-energy-disaster/

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      Lance

      Apparently, the Biden* EPA prevented TX power plants from running at full power.

      TX Governor Abbott requested an air emission waiver from their air permit limits for the duration of the cold wave. EPA refused.

      Had the waiver been allowed for a few days, the TX grid would not have crashed.

      https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1363522279141826560

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      • #
        Lucky

        That view is not confirmed by the DoE (not EPA) letter.

        As described by earlier commentators, eg DavidA, the disaster appears to be caused by major decline in natural gas flows – this being due to failure of compressors pumping the gas, the compressors that failed were driven by electricity generated by wind turbines, many of those turbines failed. Compressors powered by gas continued to operate.
        I understand that there was a retrofit program to change from gas-powered to electric (wind-powered) compressors. This was mandated by the Clean Air Act (Federal not Texas).

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    OldOzzie

    “It’s Raining Metal” – Boeing 777 Experiences Mid-Flight Engine Explosion Over Denver Suburbs

    Judging by the amount of debris on the ground around DEN it’s going to be something short of a miracle that nobody was injured.
    Jason Rabinowitz
    @AirlineFlyer
    I say again, holyyyy cr@p! We’ll have to let NTSB do its work to identify the cause for this engine failure, but this video of #UA328 is insane.

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    another ian

    Peking pox or flu?

    “From part of the video’s description:
    Rob Oswald: Officially COVID-19 it’s a flu & not a virus.
    “I have a PhD in virology and immunology. I’m a clinical lab scientist and have tested 1500 “supposed” positive Covid 19 samples collected here in S. California. When my lab team and I did the testing through Koch’s postulates and observation under a SEM (scanning electron microscope), we found NO Covid in any of the 1500 samples. What we found was that all of the 1500 samples were mostly Influenza A and some were influenza B, but not a single case of Covid, and we did not use the B.S. PCR test.
    We then sent the remainder of the samples to Stanford, Cornell, and a few of the University of California labs and they found the same results as we did, NO COVID. They found influenza A and B. All of us then spoke to the CDC and asked for viable samples of COVID, which CDC said they could not provide as they did not have any samples.”

    More at

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2021/02/20/w-o-o-d-life-goes-on-20-feb-2021/#comment-139922

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    OldOzzie

    Rich Business-Class Flyers Now Exempt From Wearing A Mask

    Flying in first class comes with lots of perks, but Cathay Pacific Airways is upping the ante during the pandemic by exempting wealthy passengers from wearing masks in certain situations, according to Executive Traveller.

    The Hong Kong-based airliner created a waiver on wearing a mask for first class and business class travelers who are reclined in their seats. The new policy doesn’t apply for economy seating as they must keep their masks on at all times.

    In a statement, the carrier elaborated more on the mask-wearing exemption, arguing that “seats in first and business class are more spacious with partitions, and passengers are exempted when lying flat for sleep.” The airline insisted that its aircraft fleet is equipped with air filtration systems “capable of filtering 99.9999% of dust particles, including virus and bacteria.”

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      Yarpos

      I am in favour of all largesse showered upon business and first. They are the reason fares are low back in cattle truck class.

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    OldOzzie

    Next Up: Global Depression

    Here’s the central banks’ insane folly in a nutshell: to create new enterprises and jobs, we’ll blow the world’s greatest speculative bubble into an even greater speculative bubble. So in other words, we’ll further enrich the top layer of the Financial Aristocracy who own the vast majority of the assets we’re pushing to the moon, and by some inexplicable magic, adding trillions of dollars, yuan, yen and euros to the wealth of this elite will somehow launch a thousand new thriving enterprises which will magically hire 500,000 new workers every month.

    Can we be honest for a split second and admit that the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus look plausible compared to this insane proposition? Since there’s a tiny window of honesty open, let’s also admit that adding a booster rocket to the wealth-income inequality that is undermining democracy, society and the economy is exactly what we’d choose to do if our goal was destroying America. Yet this is precisely what the entire Federal Reserve policy sets out to do: boost wealth-income inequality to new extremes.

    Meanwhile, global supply chains that were optimized for Globalization Heaven are incredibly brittle and fragile as a result of the optimization. Optimizing for maximizing profit means getting rid of redundancies, buffers, quality control and ramping dependence on offshore suppliers to 100%.

    If you set out to design a global supply system that would fail catastrophically, creating self-reinforcing shortages of essentials and key components, you’d choose the system now teetering on the edge of implosion.

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    OldOzzie

    The War on Trump

    Racist Dems buy a ticket in the leftist lawsuit lottery.

    The leftist NAACP, which never met a conservative it didn’t consider to be a racist hatemonger, is suing former President Donald Trump using an obscure law that was wielded against the Democratic Party-affiliated terrorists of the Ku Klux Klan who murdered blacks and their Republican enemies after the Civil War.

    The Ku Klux Klan Act is an unusual tool to pull from a cobweb-covered chest of old laws nobody knew were still in existence. President Ulysses S. Grant (he’s the guy on the $50 bill, millennials!) used the statute to declare martial law, penalize terrorist organizations, and use military force to suppress the KKK after the Civil War.

    Those who filed this baseless, pie-in-the-sky lawsuit don’t give a farthing’s cuss about justice. The Democratic National Committee needs a reason to keep squeezing its donors and Trump is the most impressive object of revilement Democrats have had to shriek at in decades.

    This is just part of a long-running campaign of harassment aimed at destroying Florida’s own Trump, who was acquitted after an unprecedented two impeachment trials, besting the previous record-holding acquittees Andrew Johnson of Tennessee and Bill Clinton of Arkansas.

    It comes after an armada of court-authorized fishing expeditions and emoluments lawsuits failed to take away the presidency that Hillary Clinton so devoutly wished had been hers.

    Boiled down, the lawsuit’s message is simple: Trump dared to win in 2016 and refused to concede in 2020. Everything normal he did in the process is now suddenly deemed abnormal and antisocial, making the duly elected 45th president nunc pro tunc an enemy of the republic.

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      PeterS

      The war on Trump has never ceased. In fact it’s accelerating beyond the point of a derangement syndrome and approaching to the next level of pure hatred exhibited only by the likes of the deadliest cults in history. Yet I still have to listen to a small number of friends who sometimes can’t think beyond their level of intelligence of an ant and still claim that Trump was the worst President ever. One even would like to see Trump die. I bite my tongue during those times but one day I fear I will let loose and eat their heads off, metaphorically speaking of course at the expense of loosing their friendship. I prefer to wait and see them with egg on their face once Biden is revealed how bad he really is, although I suspect one or two will never give up their pure hatred of Trump. Then I will loose my temper and give it to them in spades once Biden is proven to be the real holder of the medal for the worst President ever.

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      OldOzzie

      Establishment Flacks Remind Everyone How We Got Trump

      Is there any political organization in history that likes losing as much as the Republican Party?

      Over the last several weeks, the saga of Neera Tanden has played out on the national stage. Joe Biden nominated the left-wing conspiracy theorist to head the Office of Management and Budget, one of the most powerful agencies in Washington (see Joe Biden Wants a Wild Conspiracy Theorist as OMB Head). For a time, her confirmation looked certain after the GOP lost both Senate run-offs in Georgia, but Joe Manchin (D-WV) blew that up recently by announcing he’d oppose her.

      That’s left Democrats scrambling, but it’s also served as a very useful litmus test on the right as establishment flacks have rushed to her defense.

      Jeff Flake
      @JeffFlak
      e
      Neera Tanden is smart, experienced and qualified to lead OMB. I hope she’s confirmed. We should always remember that there will be a Republican President in the future who will want to have his/her nominees confirmed.

      Can’t you just feel the principles permeate from that tweet? I mean, what’s more conservative than simping for someone who covered up sexual harassment, peddled fake Russia conspiracy theories, and once punched a staffer. It’s almost like Trump has completely broken these peoples’ brains to the point where they are unable to even keep the most basic tenets of what they once claimed to believe in.

      I particularly love Flake’s reasoning that a future Republican president will want his nominees confirmed. That’s true. What’s also true is that a past Republican president wanted all his nominees confirmed without a political fight as well. Democrats instead turned every single appointment in a partisan food-fight, including accusing some of them of being Russian assets. How much of a soy boy does one have to be to think that Democrats will somehow act better next time around if Republicans just fold to them now?

      Republican voters are sick of this stuff. It’s why they rebelled in 2016, and it’s why they will do so again in 2024 despite the best laid plans of the establishment.

      And while I get that there’s a contingent within the GOP that thinks playing nice during the Biden years will earn them some kind of reciprocation in the future, you’d have to be an absolute idiot to believe that. Further, opposing Tanden should have nothing to do with trying to preserve decorum or buying good will. She’s a terrible pick who should be nowhere near the levers of government power, much less an agency as consequential as the OMB. She should be opposed at all costs, and any Republican who breaks rank on this should be cast aside with prejudice.

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        OldOzzie

        McConnell’s Bitter Turtle Soup

        Just how much does Mitch McConnell despise President Trump and his MAGA movement? While playing coy for weeks about his intentions before finally voting to acquit the president in an impeachment trial more preposterous than last year’s farce, he immediately took to the Senate floor to lay the blame for the events of January 6 entirely at the president’s feet. McConnell not only accused President Trump of being personally liable for any potential crimes committed that day by others (in effect, teeing up civil lawsuits for monetary damages directly against the president), but also suggested that private citizen Trump could be criminally prosecuted in the future for setting those events in motion by daring to question the results of the 2020 election. It was one more biting betrayal from the Republican machine against a man who has shown the Republican Party much more loyalty than it has ever offered him in return.

        Republicans failed to stand for anything:

        Senate Republicans’ refusal to unanimously stand up for the free speech of a sitting president is inexcusable — especially during a time when Big Tech is engaging in an unprecedented campaign of censorship against ordinary Americans and Democrats are openly advocating for the criminalization of viewpoints with which they disagree. Republicans had a chance to take a united stand for the First Amendment while it remains under sustained attack by those who wish it to be weakened; instead, out of hatred for President Trump or foolish naïveté as to the real threats against free speech in the United States, they failed miserably.

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          OldOzzie

          Nikki Haley just got burned, playing the old establishment Republican game

          Nikki Haley appears to have discarded her political career by faithfully following what establishment insiders and political “experts” have believed and taught for decades. The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador seems genuinely baffled that former President Donald Trump refused to meet with her after Haley very publicly trashed Trump.

          Isn’t that simply how the game is played? Well, yes. Haley is doing things correctly the way they used to be done. You posture for the media, distance yourself from any controversy, then later patch it up after the storm blows past. You cynically abandon your friends, hoping that the alligators will eat you last. Then you have a summit meeting and cut deals behind closed doors.

          However, the Republican Party’s base is writing her political obituary. Haley quickly wrote an article in the insider-leaning Wall Street Journal redefining what she said and then wanted to go down and hoodwink Trump. It’s all just part of the game, right?

          But that’s the problem. Republican voters have been fed up with inside-the-Beltway games for years. The norms of politics are exactly what the conservative base is hopping mad about. And this is by no means just about Haley. It’s about a whole school of thought affecting thousands of Republican elites at the federal and state level. It’s about the consultant class teaching candidates that this is how it’s done.

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        OldOzzie

        A record of decline

        President Biden is on a tear to ram through as much executive order policy as he can in the shortest amount of time. It doesn’t matter if the policy is bad for America, just that it’s enacted tout de suite via pen and cell from the cellar.

        Biden had previously tried to get to this pinnacle of American power and success but failed because even his own side saw him as a liar and a hack.

        No doubt, his legacy will spotlight the record high number of orders he signed. One could say his highlighter will be the highlight of his tenure. His bigger and more impactful record will get much less attention — the fastest pace of decline in the history of the country.

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          OldOzzie

          Biden’s ‘Unity!’ with Genocidal Communist China

          When it comes to the CCP and the Uighurs, apparently Biden believes there are good people on both sides of this g@nocide.

          In what should be a rare example of bipartisan sanity, there is a strong and growing realization that Communist China is a strategic threat advancing a rival model of governance to the United States. Through this proper security prism, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that Communist China’s “vocational [re-]education camps”—i.e., concentration camps—of more than 1 million people which feature such activities as forced sterilizations, relocations, and systemic r@pe, constitute g@nocide. “China is committing g@nocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uighur M@slims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.”

          The new Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, concurred: “My judgment remains that g@nocide was committed against—against the Uighurs and that—that hasn’t changed.”

          Similarly, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) concluded “crimes against humanity—and possibly g@nocide—are occurring,”

          One would think the bipartisan consensus about Communist China’s g@nocide against the Uighurs would provide Mr. Biden with a golden opportunity—though not quite like the ones the regime gave his son, Hunter—for a policy to further his goal of “unity.”

          And it did: Biden united with Communist China to downplay its g@nocide of the Uighurs.

          At his recent CNN townhall, Biden claimed China historically had been “victimized by the outer world,” which the CCP claimed was only made possible by division at home—even as they were dividing the country themselves. The CCP since has used this belief as a cudgel to repress dissent and brutalize the population into “unity.” Biden, a big fan of unity on his own terms, then flacked for the g@nocidal regime:

          So . . . the central principle of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is that there must be a united, tightly controlled China. And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that . . . Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow.

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      OldOzzie

      Europe Applauds Biden’s Surrender of America First Policies in G7 Speech

      President Joe Biden on Friday rejected the “America First” policies that started no wars and brought about Middle East peace agreements, objectives that had not been achieved for decades under either political party.

      Biden’s G7 speech drew praise from foreign nations. “Biden gave exactly the speech that many Europeans wanted to hear – an America that pats you on the shoulders, that doesn’t criticize or demand,” Germany’s influential Der Spiegel magazine wrote.

      Biden assured the participants, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the United States is “determined to reengage with Europe, to consult with [them], to earn back our position of trusted leadership.”

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        OldOzzie

        Boris Johnson Says ‘America Is Back’ with Biden, ‘Gloom’ of Trump Era Is Over

        Speaking with the leaders of the G7 nations, Prime Minister Johnson said of the Biden administration: “America is unreservedly back as the leader of the free world and that is a fantastic thing.”

        In an apparent jab at Donald Trump, Johnson added: “The gloom has been overdone. And we’re turning a corner and the countries we call the West are drawing together and combining their formidable strength and expertise once again.”

        Prime Minister Johnson, who like his predecessor Theresa May threw away the chance to strike the British-American trade deal offered by Trump by leaving the EU in control of British trade policy until 2021, used the virtual summit to push for the adoption of his green agenda aims, saying that he will push for other countries to commit to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050.

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          Great Aunt Janet

          Boris is UK’s Turnbull. Ugh, bloody traitorous pig.

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            Yarpos

            Dont hold back Janet

            Not a fan then?

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            Serp

            Boris has had his maestro Dominic Cummings put to flight by Carrie Symonds who now appears to have her hand up the Prime Ministerial ventriloquist doll making it utter idiocies such as the “Saudi Arabia of offshore wind”. It might have been better had his covid episode been severe enough to cause him to vacate his seat in parliament. Borogove or Sunak as leader could only be an improvement.

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              OldOzzie

              Top Tories demand probe into Carrie Symond’s influence

              Boris Johnson was urged yesterday to get a grip on his warring Downing Street factions as Conservative unease grew about the influence of Carrie Symonds, his fiancee.

              Senior Tory MPs said that there was “bemusement” at the departure of Oliver Lewis, the prime minister’s former adviser on the Union, after he was accused of briefing against Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister.

              Dan Rosenfield, Johnson’s new chief of staff, has also received negative briefings, with some inside Downing Street accusing him of cutting out other key aides from meetings.

              A right-wing Tory think tank called for an inquiry into the influence of Symonds yesterday after allegations emerged that she was behind the appointment of several key Downing Street aides. It was also suggested that she had forced out Lewis, who helped to negotiate Johnson’s Brexit deal.

              Lewis, who was close to Dominic Cummings, resigned after being accused by the prime minister of briefing against Gove following the appointment of Lord Frost as a Brexit minister with a seat in the cabinet.

              The Bow Group, which has Lord Tebbit and Lord Lamont among its patrons, called for an independent investigation into the “unelected and unaccountable” influence that Symonds exerts.

              Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the group, said: “She has not been elected, she has not been appointed, she holds no legal or constitutional powers to make decisions relating to who should hold government posts. Yet consistent reports in the press suggest that Ms Symonds is taking a central role in running the country, without any authority or accountability.”

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      OldOzzie

      ‘A Tale Told By An Idiot’: The Second Impeachment Of Donald Trump

      The first impeachment of Donald Trump in 2019 was no tragedy. It was always a farce. The second impeachment, in which Trump was acquitted on the night of Saturday, February 13 did not even rise to that. It was a hiccup, a non-event. The most solemn procedure in the sacred constitutional process of the United States did not even rise to the entertainment value of a bout of naked mud wrestling.

      The streets were empty. There were no protests, wall graffiti, slogans or demonstrations either for or against Trump. Nobody cared. It echoed the empty deserted ghostly state of the city during Joe Biden’s non-existent presidential inaugural on January 20. Once again, all that happened was that someone taped a badly handwritten note on the Capitol saying “impeachment” and everything that followed was just a badly acted chaotic play performed by autistic children.

      No real human being gave a second’s care for either convicting Trump or acquitting him. Not a single firework was fired off in celebrate his acquittal. Not a single liberal committed ritual suicide, tried to burn themselves to death in front of the Senate or even bothered to throw a rotten tomato or an egg at a single Republican Senator who voted for acquittal. It was never real. It didn’t matter. Nobody cared.

      Yet impeachment is supposed to Mean Something. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 rather than melt into blubber beneath its merciless glare. Bill Clinton, who was widely suspected of being guilty of so much, beat an impeachment rap only for lying in public that he had slept with a naive young girl intern.

      Barack Obama blithely presided over the destruction of democracy in Ukraine, risking nuclear war with Russia. He locked the United States into a $1.5 trillion 30-years-long new nuclear arms race. He unleashed war, rebellion, anarchy and chaos in Yemen, Syria and Libya, killing untold millions more. The Republicans who controlled Congress never dared – or bothered – to impeach him either.

      Like the rest of the Beloved, still so widely revered, more than 230-years-old US Constitution, impeachment has become a meaningless exercise in exhausted, archaic cliches. No one would ever dare to use it for anything that really mattered at all. Both Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly shown over the past 30 years that they are all too scared to.

      The aging, absurd, senile and drooling old Democratic political elite in Washington were led over the edge of a political cliff yet again by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and House congressional “expert” Congressman Adam Schiff.

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    OldOzzie

    THAT’S BLACK PRIVILEGE

    By Paul Zanetti -February 21, 2021

    The great Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

    How disappointed Martin Luther King would be today if he could see how white-majority skinned people, who identify as black, have unashamedly hijacked the culture and welfare of darker skinned people for their own social, political and financial benefits.

    It’s called ‘Black Privilege’ – more prevalent and sinister than ‘White Privilege’.

    When you consider the privileges bestowed on those who identify as ‘black’, is it any wonder so many mostly light-skinned folk choose to jump on the ‘Black Privilege’ gravy train?

    Identifying as a black person means you don’t have to work, but rather to rest on the sweat of others for your selected lazy lifestyle.

    Around $36 Billion is spent on aboriginals annually, including child protection services (30%) for around 3% of the population. The total welfare budget is around $190 Billion. So 3% of the population receives a whopping 18% of the welfare budget.

    That’s Black Privilege.

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      Dennis

      Consider the budget expenditure for indigenous people on a per capita basis, when the Howard Coalition Government shut down the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC) I read that the cost to taxpayers amounted to A$50K per man, woman and child who identified as indigenous.

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      OldOzzie

      Black sleep matters

      Teen Vogue magazine recently published an article by two writers who are calling for “rest reparations” in addition to the regular, old, garden-variety reparations for African-Americans, which advocates have been advocating for years. Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa contend that, on average, Black lives are shorter than white ones because Black people experience “generational fatigue” due solely to the fact that they are, in fact, Black.

      The two allege that “the American dream is a sleepless one” for Black folks, and claim to have had an epiphany when they realized the reason they were always tired was because they were impacted by “hundreds of years of sleep deprivation” that was due to systemic racism. Their article, titled “Black Power Naps is Addressing Systemic Racism in Sleep,” reveals the Black Power Naps initiative, which purports to be an “artistic initiative with components including physical installations, zines, an opera, and more.” Huh?

      Acosta told the magazine that black people and other nonwhite people inherited sleep deprivation through years of slavery and control, saying, “We’re dealing with an inheritance of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation was a … deliberate tactic of slave owners to basically make the mind feeble. That same tactic has only evolved.” Huh?

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      OldOzzie

      “Morally Grotesque” – Whistleblower At Smith College Resigns Over ‘Reverse-Racism’

      Jodi Shaw was, until this afternoon, a staffer at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She made $45,000 a year – less than the yearly tuition at the school.

      She is a divorced mother of two children. She is a lifelong liberal and an alumna of the college. And she has had a front-row seat to the illiberal, neo-racist ideology masquerading as progress.

      In October 2020, after Shaw felt that she had exhausted all her internal options, she posted a video on YouTube, blowing the whistle on, what she says, is an atmosphere of racial discrimination at the school.

      “I ask that Smith College stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling me what I must think and feel about myself,” she said.

      “Stop presuming to know who I am or what my culture is based upon my skin color. Stop asking me to project stereotypes and assumptions onto others based on their skin color.”

      Watch the whole thing here:

      Now today, she is resigning from the college.

      In doing that — and in speaking out — she is turning down a settlement that would have given her a much easier way out. We need more people like her.

      Here’s how Shaw put it in her resignation letter to Smith College President Kathleen McCartney, which she sent to me to publish in full:

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    OldOzzie

    Vice President Kamala Harris’s welcome home reception even smaller than her campaign ‘crowds’

    So, President Joe Biden actually received more votes than any candidate in American history? We’re still finding that hard to believe when first and second spouses Dr. Jill Biden and Douglas Emhoff were drawing in crowds like this one:

    Emhoff’s wife, Kamala Harris, is now vice president, and she was treated to a welcome home celebration Friday that was almost as impressive. We counted eight black SUVs with we believe a ninth and maybe a tenth one following behind. And we know there were at least two news crews there, as one managed to grab footage of the other one.

    It’s tough to frame a pic that makes 2 ppl and a reporter look like a crowd.

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      Dennis

      It is said, two is company, three is a crowd.

      lol

      Working behind guarded security fencing in Washington, limited public appearances, unconstitutional executive orders issued by the trying hard leader, what a bad look.

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    OldOzzie

    Australia News Calls Out Joe Biden for Cognitive Compromise, The Dementia is Transparently Obvious

    Posted on February 19, 2021 by Sundance

    It appears the bloom is off the ruse, at least with Sky News. In one of the first admissions to what is transparently obvious, an Australian news pundit finally points out that Joe Biden has cognitive issues. The vast majority of Americans already know this, but the U.S. media have been pretending not to know for well over a year. WATCH:

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      Hanrahan

      This is curious. It is a $72 company that has never paid a dividend but:

      Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) Earnings Information. Twitter last announced its quarterly earnings data on February 9th, 2021. The social networking company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.07.

      I looked at a couple of market sites and no one mentions if this is Earnings Before Interest Taxation & Depreciation & Abnormals, which is what matters. They are liquid with $3bill more liquid assets than debt.

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    OldOzzie

    Catalytic converters are at the center of a Twin Cities crime wave

    Victims and police are appealing to the Legislature for help.

    On quiet neighborhood streets and in busy retail parking lots, thieves are sliding under cars undetected, sawing off catalytic converters in minutes and making off with the emission-control devices that contain precious metals more valuable than gold.

    In more brazen moves, criminals are using stolen tow trucks with no markings to haul vehicles down the street, where they carry out their crime and then leave the cars behind.

    Catalytic converter thefts are fast and easy, and are part of a crime wave happening all over the Twin Cities urban core and in the suburbs. Thefts are up 194% this year in St. Paul and were up 456% last year in Minneapolis. In Eagan, police report the biggest spike in more than 12 years.

    HOW IT STARTED: Minneapolis City Council Calls for Defunding the Police.

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      David Maddison

      Catalytic converter theft is a trending crime.

      It’s only a matter of time before it comes to Australia.

      But the thieves still have to sell the cats to someone who is surely suspicious of their origin?

      It is possible to extract the precious metals in a backyard operation but not so easy. And you still have to have a buyer.

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      Yarpos

      Apparently the Prius is a favourite due to the highly accessible location of its Cat.

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      OldOzzie

      Biden Says Military Veterans, Ex-Cops Spurred Growth Of White Supremacy

      Milwaukee, WI – President Joe Biden blamed former military and law enforcement officers for the growth of white supremacy in the United States during a town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

      “It is complex, it’s wide-ranging and it’s real,” the President answered. “You may — I got involved in politics to begin with because of civil rights and opposition to white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan.”

      He made that claim even though Vice President Kamala Harris pointed out his poor record on civil rights during the Presidential debates.

      Then President Biden took aim at the very same Americans who dedicated their lives to keeping the country safe.

      “And you see what’s happening — and the studies that are beginning to be done, maybe at your university as well — about the impact of former military, former police officers, on the growth of white supremacy in some of these groups,” the President said.

      “You may remember in one of my debates with the former president, I asked him to condemn the Proud Boys. He wouldn’t do it. He said, ‘Stand by. Stand ready.’ Or whatever the phrasing exactly was,” he recalled.

      “It is a bane on our existence. It has always been. As Lincoln said, ‘We have to appeal to our better angels,’” President Biden said.

      “And these guys are not — and women — are, in fact, demented. They are dangerous people,” he added.

      After the President finished insulting veterans and law enforcement, he pledged to end jail time for all drug offenders.

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        OldOzzie

        Officials Want To Keep Razor-Wire Fence Around Capitol Until At Least September

        Washington, DC – U.S. Capitol Police officials told Congressional leaders that they think the razor-wire topped fence around the U.S. Capitol Building should stay there until at least September because there continued to be new threats.

        Sources told the Associated Press that police officials said they have continued to actively track threats against lawmakers and the U.S. Capitol complex.

        The threats included online chatter about extremist groups returning to the nation’s capital, according to the source.

        How credible and specific the threats were varied, the Associated Press reported.

        Community members and some lawmakers were furious when Capitol Police refused to open the gates during a recent snowstorm to let neighborhood children sled as has always been a tradition in the nation’s capital, WRC reported.

        Dozens of members of Congress have said they’re tired of the fence and would like to see it removed.

        U.S. Capitol Police Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman has called for “vast improvements” to Capitol complex security that included a permanent fence, the Associated Press reported.

        But with a record-breaking-high vote of “no confidence” against Chief Pittman and her entire leadership team on Monday by the Capitol Police officers’ union, it was unclear as to how much sway the acting police chief’s recommendation would have.

        The results showed that 92 percent of the officers voted “no confidence” in Chief Pittman.

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  • #
    Richard Jenkins

    I cannot understand how any formal religion explains life on Earth.
    Two main facts make me agnostic rather than aethiest.
    1. Sexual reproduction. Very few multi cell plants or animals are asexual. Sex seems to have been a devine necessity to create survival of a species evolution.
    2. Individualism. I do not understand how we all look and sound different. Seems some great creator’s design.

    I find all formal religious histories facsinating but unbelievably lacking. That’s not just those worshipping the god of Abraham.
    Can anybody explain my points 1 & 2 without a devine influence?

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      Yarpos

      1. Seems to be a personal opinion that doesnt need debating

      2. Randomness seems to be a normal feature of nature, i would find commonality more indicative of design.

      If there is a divine influence, I would really like it to explain the purpose of childhood cancer.

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        Richard Jenkins

        Thank you for responses.
        It is not an opinion about sexual reproduction. I uderstand the theory of first life amazed. Then we get phtosynthesis and separate the O2 from the CO2, atmosphere changes and respiring life forms evolve. The big mystery to me is the evolution of sexual reprodction. Plants have sexual reproduction. Why did it evolve?

        The DNA is interesting but humans are very different in detail compared to other species. Perhaps zebra stripes and leopard spots are like freckles but we humans have face and voice recognition. The varities are incredible as are family resemblance.
        However plants, centipedes, mice and most life forms look alike. Bird species sound alike but differ between species. Can you tell which cricket is chirping?
        I know who is on the phone without their name.

        Re childhood cancer a Buddist friend said to me that if their was a god there would not be wars. He cannot dig his garden as killing a worm takes a reincarnated life.
        I would not want to spend eternity with a god that damns a soul who never heard of him.
        I have checked Roman historians and cannot find Nazareth. There are many conflicting gospels.
        I believe in truth and find it difficult to substantiate in many beliefs. AGW is totally for the gullible.

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          Tilba Tilba

          The big mystery to me is the evolution of sexual reproduction. Plants have sexual reproduction. Why did it evolve?

          Organisms that reproduced through the combining of the genes of two “parents” had the benefit of genetic mixing, and exhibiting mutations that were sometimes beneficial, so they reproduced better and survived.

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          Yarpos

          Usual sort of response, ignore the points, fire the word cannon (or even canon maybe)

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      Brenda Spence

      Just to add to your observations:
      How could two sexes possibly have evolved at the same time to effect sexual reproduction? One without the other = nothing.
      2. There is an almost infinite number of combinations of the dna genetic material.
      3. Find out who JC is and whether He was resurrected or not. He was either who he said he was or a nutcase. Lots of evidence to be found.
      4. Check out Creation Ministries for the other side to evolution – all written by well educated scientists.

      Happy hunting.!

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        Tilba Tilba

        How could two sexes possibly have evolved at the same time to effect sexual reproduction? One without the other = nothing.

        Two “parent” organisms combine their genetic code, and the offspring is more robust, and on it goes. Given billions of years, entirely reasonable.

        There is an almost infinite number of combinations of the dna genetic material.

        In theory I suppose, but the DNA Double Helix is very structured, and genetic variations (mistakes | mutations) must occur within strict parameters, and most are either redundant or lethal. But mutations that confer benefits on the organism will survive into the next generation, and so on.

        It is a bit like a slot machine that is miles long: the chances of lining up all the cherries are trillions-to-one, but not if you can hold the cherries when they occur, and pull the handle billions of times – evolution and the beautiful abundance of many species (genetic variation that is successfully reproduced) works like that. Not very mysterious, and divine intervention is not required.

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          Frost Giant Rebellion

          I think if pressed most of the experts would admit that this mutations only theory is dead in the water, at least for larger long lived species. Because natural selection is a way of reducing information. We want to be looking at gaining extra information from the environment and not merely culling our way to success. I think we are probably picking up a lot of information from viruses and smaller organisms. The other thing that has gone by the wayside is the idea that entirety of the information is in the double helix alone.

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            Tilba Tilba

            We want to be looking at gaining extra information from the environment and not merely culling our way to success.

            What “we want” or don’t want are beside the point .. we – and – evolution have to work with the hand that we have been dealt.

            And over the course of millions of years, all species including big long-lived ones have culled their way to success. Humans are a good example.

            I think it’s highly likely that very early DNA was strongly influenced or invaded by viruses, and we co-exist with them to this day. I don’t have enthusiasm for the idea that our blueprint for life lives outside the DNA … sounds a bit too hippie-spiritual, or is in danger of descending into religiosity.

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              Tilba Tilba

              If the information set could be updated during the life of the organism, by any method then that would confer an advantage to that organism and it would be the ancestor of us all.

              I did not say that at all … you need some comprehension skills. I don’t subscribe to Lamarkism … no-one with a decent education does, but you might be sufficiently troglodytic to do so.

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            Tilba Tilba

            I think if pressed most of the experts would admit that this mutations only theory is dead in the water

            This is your happy-clapping wishful thinking – there is no evidence for this view of what experts think. None at all.

            01

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      Tilba Tilba

      Can anybody explain my points 1 & 2 without a devine [sic] influence?

      1. Evolution (survival by adaption) wedded to genetics (explains mutation of DNA)
      2. See 1 above

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        Richard Jenkins

        I find the discussion interesting but allare evasive.
        My first point is that sexual reproduction evolved and made better models.
        The question is why did fertilization evolve? Some animals remain asexual. Some change gender. Fish often have one male in a school that dies. A dominate female then becomes able to fertilize the eggs.
        Why did the concept of male and female happen?
        The DNA is extraordinary but does not explain to me how apart from all other species humans look and sound different.
        Qur DNA is 99% similar to many mammals. In some cases 99.9%.
        They look the same. We don’t. It amazes me.

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          Tilba Tilba

          They look the same. We don’t. It amazes me.

          If you were a gorilla or chimpanzee you could see huge differences between members of your group, but a bunch of humans walking by would “all look the same” Same for seagulls or zebras, I expect.

          02

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    David Maddison

    Notice how before the vaccine all uninvestigated deaths of the elderly were attributed to COVID?

    Now after the same group of people have received the vaccine, uninvestigated deaths are attributed to an “underlying condition”.

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      Frost Giant Rebellion

      Also the idea that these vaccines are efficacious. Complete nonsense. Its just about stimulating sickness in the early days. Because you don’t tend to get sick twice in a row. You recover from the first effects of the first dose. They sample the vaccinated population three weeks later and amazing …. they find that they are not sick three weeks out. Which is just a confirmation that you don’t catch a cold, and then catch a cold again three weeks out. These are not independent events.

      And of course the vaccines are totally proven to be unsafe. But no sign of the victims are ever shown on youtube, facebook of the mainstream media. This is the big Darwinist moment. If you get the vaccine you are out of the gene pool.

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        Tilba Tilba

        And of course the vaccines are totally proven to be unsafe.

        I actually think it is social delinquency to be an anti-vaxxer – for anything, including Covid-19. Apart from anything else to do with personal responsibility, it’s entirely based on rubbish science.

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        • #
          Sirob

          If you really knew, I’d bet you wouldn’t hold that position.

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          Tilba Tilba

          Personal attacks and ad hominem name-calling are so childish, and always a good sign that the writer has nothing useful to contribute.

          No vaccine is 100% safe, but the Covid-19 vaccines are hugely safer than having Covid-19. The “history” you bring up has is gibberish and has been debunked countless times. Vaccination against SARS became redundant because the epidemic died out naturally.

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    David Maddison

    Like many organisations, Australian Skeptics Inc was affected by Facebook’s changes to sharing and viewing news in Australia. While we are pleased to see that our Facebook Page and past posts have been restored today, our own site content is still unable to be shared on Facebook.

    Several government health Pages like Queensland Health, Sydney Local Health District and Western Sydney Health also found their content was restricted Thursday morning, yet by the afternoon they were back online and sharing critical health information. The content restrictions are being widely criticised as putting credible public health communications at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    https://www.skeptics.com.au/2021/02/19/facebook-puts-critical-health-information-at-risk-by-blocking-legitimate-news-sources/

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      greggg

      That organisation are willful ignoramuses pushing establishment bulldust. Pro CAGW, pro fluoridation, pro pharma, anti natural therapies, don’t believe people can be harmed by wind farms, etc.

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        Tilba Tilba

        My goodness … are there still people who are anti-fluoridisation? Joh Bjelke-Petersen isn’t dead! The Commies are coming!

        12

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          Sirob

          Thankfully anti-fluoridation awareness is growing.

          If you want fluoride in your water, you can add it yourself. Just don’t force it on me.

          12

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            Tilba Tilba

            I wonder if there is a high correlation between those who are anti-fluoridation, those who dislike wind farms, those who are against the Covid-19 vaccines, and those who believe the Democrats stole the US election.

            I would almost put money on it!

            01

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          Frost Giant Rebellion

          Please Tilba. Don’t oppress people with this level of idiocy. Its just rude.

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    Rod

    Fancy some light reading re vaccines?
    An awful lot of questions being asked in the UK and no doubt our own govt medical experts can’t answer them either.

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pfizers_vaccine_bnt162b2_data_ve

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    Kim

    Jo, what do these guys stand for – https://liberalsforclimate.org/ ? I’ve got a big pair of kangaroo balls for them if they are wet liberals supporting the alarmist line.

    21

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      Hanrahan

      What a badly done home page. It’s a big web, if you get someone to click on your page you need to grab them by whatever it takes.

      20

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    OldOzzie

    The China class and its damage to America

    In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote: “If there are rats in the cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly[.] … The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.” In this regard, Donald Trump was the surprise light that exposed the rats gnawing away at America’s foundations since at least the 1980s.

    Writing in the Tablet, Lee Smith explains what coalesced the disparate parts of the establishment into a unified force against Donald Trump and his MAGA policies. It was globalization, or more specifically the China trade.

    Why did they [the corporate and political class] trade with an authoritarian regime and send millions of American manufacturing jobs off the China, impoverishing working Americans? Because it made them rich.

    Smith says the installment of Joe Biden in the Oval Office “marks the hegemony of an American oligarchy that sees its relationship with China as a shield and sword against their own countrymen.” He notes that these people “are not simply contemptuous of a political system that recognizes the natural rights of all its citizens that are endowed by our creator; they despise in particular the notion that those they rule have the same rights they do.”

    Athens was fortunate. It had only thirty tyrants, while we have countless sellouts to China in positions of authority. The good news is that the China class has been outed. This class may have the power now, but its members can’t withstand the disinfectant of exposure. After all, when you scrape away the rhetoric, what the China class is engaged in is actually treason. In time, the awareness of this will grow and take its toll.

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      Kim

      Dems – the left \ the establishment – want money tree (QE) money, tons of it. But they know that that will produce inflation. The only way that they can avoid that inflation is if manufacturing is done out of country in a stable low cost country (China). Hence why they are pro globalisation. They get their funny money. They capitalise it on the stock market. The stock market inflates thus increasing their paper wealth. CPI inflation remains low. They are happy.

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        Hanrahan

        Thanks Kim, interesting perspective.

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        Tilba Tilba

        Dems – the left \ the establishment – want money tree (QE) money …

        Do we have some evidence that (a) the Democratic Party is the party of the establishment, and (b) they have promoted or endorsed Quantitative Easing more than the Republican Party?

        I doubt it rather a lot. The Republicans – the party of the establishment and capital – have been pretty gung-ho about QE to boost the share market – so has Donald Trump. If fact his main measure of “economic success” has always been the Dow Jones.

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          Frost Giant Rebellion

          Its not just a Democratic problems. Its possible to make excuses for Trump. But his subordinates conducted the same looting spree in 2020 that also happened near the time of the Bush/Obama transition late 2008 early 2009. Its not easy to make excuses for Bush and Obama. Personally I don’t accept any excuses for these thieving sprees. But if under interrogation at least Trump could point to being distracted by a lot of persecution efforts. Meanwhile his appointee Mnuchin, and others were leading the pigs to the trough.

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    OldOzzie

    Can the Truth Set us Free?

    The history of speculation about truth has prominently included what we might call a school of impatience that, instead of trying to solve the problem, has endeavored to dismiss it.

    Consider the concept of truth.

    There is an important sense in which we all know what truth is. We just couldn’t get along in the world if we didn’t. But being able to apply a concept in daily life does not necessarily mean we can define it. Or that we really understand it.

    Medieval philosophers defined truth as “adaequatio intellectus et rei”: a “correspondence between thought and thing.”

    That sounds impressive, especially in Latin, and it has a certain intuitive appeal. When we utter a true proposition—“2 + 2 = 4,” say, or “Snow is white”—we can see that there is a correspondence between our judgment and the state of affairs it names.

    But what, exactly, is the nature of that “correspondence”?

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      Tilba Tilba

      Are you having a slow Sunday Ozzie?

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        Keeps my mind off non stop paperwork involved in purchasing 2 Bedrm Townhouse for wife as investment, 4 year old Bluey Birthday Party today preparations, including blowing up,13 year old very large Bouncy Castle with slippery dip etc, purchased 13 years ago from Target by my son, taken to Switzerland and back and hand me down to youngest resident daughter – been used by 6 grandkids birthday parties so far.

        Trying to keep 30 year old Kreepy Krauly pool cleaner going with silver tape around holes in dive tube, triangular flapper fell out after recently worn out part replaced, used knife to trim, but reaching conclusion nearly time to give up and go with Zodiac MX6 pool cleaner as have been happy with Zodiac vX55 Robotic Pool cleaner.

        Trying to keep 30 year Diatomaceous earth Pool Filter going – Diatomaceous earth spilling back into pool – need to take apart and inspect candle filters and distribution manifold to see if any cracks – have second Poolrite XL60 that was used on Spa, replaced by Cartridge Filter, welded cracks in 2nd distribution manifold, but need to do a bit of grinding on about 5 candle stick holders bases.

        If can’t fix problem, time to consider new Diatomaceous earth Pool Filter – have found Waterco Fulflo D.E. Pool Filter and am looking at importing Pentair Sta Rite System 3 Modular DE Filters – SMD Series Pool Filtration as Australian price is ridiculous.

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        • #
          Chad

          Yes, pool ownership is so relaxing and rewarding …NOT. !
          How much time is devoted (wasted) fighting nature , retrieving the leaves and twigs blown into it, money spent on chemicals,upkeep and maintenance…all for a few hours use each year !!
          PS: i an currently trying to find a replacement ($5) bearing to replace a seized one on my Zodiac V4 ..Zodiac want $450 for a replacement “Motor Block” .!!
          I also have a crack in an inaccessible position on a length of Solar heating manifold pipe…Arrrgh !!

          10

          • #
            Chad

            …Aaaaand …..now i realise i also have a terminal leak in my inflatable (oversize) Australia day “Thong” floatie !!

            10

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          Tilba Tilba

          I like having a home in a resort – 250 apartments, $7200 per year body corporate … plenty of hired help to keep the three pools sparkling clean! Only way to live.

          01

          • #
            Chad

            How many share the pools ?
            …and how did that work during self isolation periods ?
            for $7200, strata ,..i would want the cocktails and girls included !!

            00

            • #
              Tilba Tilba

              Two pools – on the holiday letting third of the resort – do get pretty busy during the summer peak period, however the residents-only pool is hardly used – we often have it to ourselves, or perhaps 2-3 others … it’s a social space.

              And $7200 fees gets you a lot (pools, café, gym, sauna, steamroom, library, media room, etc). It’s a viable option for us – I appreciate resort apartment living doesn’t suit everyone.

              00

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              Tilba Tilba

              The café closed its tables, but there was extensive room service for anyone needing meals. The pool and other facilities operated as normal.

              00

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      Yarpos

      I have always thought dismissing an argument is weak. I also dont like to see complete BS statements left unchallenged. Some may regard it as feeding the trolls, but some naive sole may come along and treat it as gospel.

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    Tarquin Wombat-Carruthers

    There are numerous countries world-wide who are building new coal-fired powerplants, and not just one, but large numbers individually. There are other nations who have safe nuclear power generation, and have had it for many years.

    Australia produces superior-quality coal, yet we refuse to include it in our planning for our future energy delivery. Further, despite our reserves of uranium, we refuse to include uranium in our planning for our future energy delivery.

    When all of these countries are using what we have in abundance, while we are abstaining, how do we justify having the highest-priced electricity in the world? What exactly is it that we know that they don’t? Do we have some sort of superior intellect, or are we just dumb! As they say in the tabloids, enquiring minds want to know!

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      Hanrahan

      When you can put a power station on top of a coal pit, that is the way to go.

      Just don’t do it in Collinsville.

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      williamx

      TWC

      This that was broadcast today 21/2/21

      “Clim1ate activists are ‘cowards, crooks, or clowns’ playing us for fools”

      https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6234023667001

      The commentator states:

      The Eu is currently building 27 new coal fired power plants.
      Turkey is building 93.
      Sth Africa, 24
      Phillipines, 60
      Japan, 45

      and

      Australia has a total of 6 coal fired plants. building none.

      Watch the full 12 minute presentation. Those figures above are at the 8 min mark.

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      PeterS

      Enquiring minds? They are rare. “Our” ABC is certainly not one of them yet our government keeps funding them. That’s proof of a far more appropriate saying, stupid is as stupid does.

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        Tilba Tilba

        One of the wonderful things about Australia is the ABC … it sets us apart from heathens, visigoths, barbarians, and amerikans!

        You would miss Aunty dearly if she weren’t there.

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          Frost Giant Rebellion

          30 years ago sure Tilba. And in the country even now … Could be? You might have to understand what decade you are living in.

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            another ian

            FGR

            Don’t rely on the country either

            My example – I have never had a bet on a race horse. On weather etc that goes with this game – yes. But around 15 years ago I would have ventured a punt that I would not trade the ABC for ads and Allan Jones. And I’d have lost. Don’t even have a radio in the kitchen for early morning country session.

            Mind you that all alpha station “OFF” gets a lot of air time too.

            I mentioned this to a friend, whose comment was “You and many, many others”

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          Harves

          Is that the same ABC that paid a known riot leader for footage of the shooting of an unarmed woman?
          https://wentworthreport.com/2021/02/18/media-including-australian-abc-pay-left-wing-activist-john-sullivan-who-led-the-capitol-riot-77500/

          Your rose coloured glasses must also be fogged over, Tilba.

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            Tilba Tilba

            Your rose coloured glasses must also be fogged over, Tilba.

            That really is classic projection … the storming of the US Capitol was “led” by the loopier wing of Donald Trump’s MAGA cult.

            Anyway … I still believe that a large majority of educated city dwellers and most rural dwellers use the ABC and would miss it dreadfully. My major issue is that it tends to cannibalise itself … it can have good programs on ABC Regional, RN, and News Radio, all at the same time.

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      Tilba Tilba

      … how do we justify having the highest-priced electricity in the world?

      I was discussing this with a colleague in Munich Germany – their cost per kWh seemed quite a bit higher than ours in Melbourne (even after trying to equalise for fixed service charges, etc).

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      • #
        yarpos

        SA routinely scores in the top 3 with Denmark and Germany

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        Frost Giant Rebellion

        You make a powerful argument here Tilba ……… Not.

        Yes the Germans tried to go “green” with their grid and they too experienced electrical energy inflation. Good call Tilba. Try and lift your game will you Tilba? If I may be so bold as to make that request?

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    Analitik

    India rejects Pfizer vaccine for emergency use

    “The committee noted that incidents of palsy, anaphylaxis and other SAE’s have been reported during post marketing and the causality of the events with the vaccine is being investigated. Further, the firm has not proposed any plan to generate safety and immunogenicity data in Indian population,” stated the minutes.

    Now I await the MSM & our government departments to call out the Indian Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation as a source of disinformation.

    https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-has-pfizers-vaccine-application-for-india-been-turned-down-for-now-7176040/

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      Lucky

      From my reading, India said ok but first we want to see trial data on Indians. Pfizer not having any such data, and not intending to do those trials, withdrew the application.
      India is in a strong position as at least one State is using Ivermectin, and several are using HCQ, good distribution over the whole country is not yet available.

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    another ian

    This goes into why the wind turbines iced up in Texas whereas they might not further north. Plus what electricity came from what.

    “The Texas Energy Disaster”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/20/the-texas-energy-disaster/

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      PeterS

      In other words, the Texas incident is proof that cold weather is far more serious and deadly than hot weather, even for coal and nuclear power stations. Yet the West is insane enough to embark on an impossible and extremely expensive campaign in reducing emissions in all sorts of ways all in the name of avoiding of some mythical man-made global warming. Great job Western governments. Who needs external enemies when we have our own governments treating us as though we the people are the enemies.

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    Serp

    Epoch Times is carrying a story “YouTube Takes Down New Trump Interview” because orange man insists on repeating that he won the election in clear violation of “our presidential election integrity policy”. I find it troubling that the faux sanctimony continues to be ladled on this cold dish several months after the event. The framers of the ad hoc integrity policy need to apply a limitations clause to it unless the intention is (surely not!) permanently to gag The Donald.

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    Roger

    Dopey Joe has cancelled Operation Talon. Established by Trump it focussed on identifying, catching and removing sex offenders who were illegally in the US.

    Seems like the Democrats and their glove puppet want to keep sex offenders out and about in the community preying on the innocent and vulnerable rather than sent back to the country they came to the US from illegally. The sickness of mind of the left-wing just gets worse and worse.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/joe-biden-ends-trump-program-targeted-sex-offenders-us-illegally-video/

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    Roger

    Voting Machine fr@ud:
    MIT prodigy mathematically proves, using pattern analysis, that voting machines in Massachusets used algorhythms to weight votes on a ratio of 0.66 to 1.2. One candidate’s votes were given a number of 0.66 votes and the other’s 1.2 votes. The analysis shows how this inevitably resulted in more ‘votes’ being cast than there were electors recorded as voting.

    Federal Court upholds this analysis and denies the Application by the State Governor and Elections Secretary to strike out his legal claim against the state officials.

    Video with very detailed explanations here: https://vashiva.com

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      David Maddison

      Thanks for posting that. I wonder how long the video will last before YouTube deletes it? He should put it on a free speech platform.

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      Tilba Tilba

      MIT prodigy mathematically proves, using pattern analysis, that voting machines in Massachusets [sic] used algorhythms [sic] to weight votes on a ratio of 0.66 to 1.2. One candidate’s votes were given a number of 0.66 votes and the other’s 1.2 votes. The analysis shows how this inevitably resulted in more ‘votes’ being cast than there were electors recorded as voting.

      I think your “prodigy” needs to go back to primary school. Weighting candidate (A) by 1.2, and candidate (B) by 0.66 means that (A) would have to score hugely more “clean” votes at the ballot, before the total of doctored numbers exceeded the actual voters.

      I invite you to experiment yourself in Excel.

      And therefore, if candidate (A) was going to win in such a landslide anyway – why bother with a dodgy algorithm in the counting machine?

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    Frost Giant Rebellion

    Next post is about an extinction level event 42,000 years ago. Of course our own extinction level roll-out starts today. Its so heart-breaking that people can be put under social and job pressure and get this horrible killer jab willingly.

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      Tilba Tilba

      When vaccination is widespread, herd immunity is achieved (that’s like Donald Trump’s “herd mentality” LOL), and the virus withers because of insufficient targets – I bet the crazy nutty anti-vaxxers won’t even than us for saving their little bums, or those of their parents or children.

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    Travis T. Jones

    Australia’s ever shrinking “permanent drought’ …

    rainfall deficiencies:

    5 December 2019

    http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/drought/archive/20191205.archive.shtml

    8 January 2021

    http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/drought/archive/20210108.archive.shtml

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    yarpos

    Marveling at the recall process for Newsom in California.

    Having reached the 1.5 million-ish petitioner they now seek a few 100 thousand more , to cover any rejections.

    Yes the same government that lowers the barrier to non citizens to vote with some of the most lax “controls” in the USA , now want to vet down to signature level every recall petition entry. The requirements to recall a Governor far exceed those for Presidential voting. You can bet they feel no embarrassment at the hypocrisy of their actions as long as they can drag the process out.

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      Tilba Tilba

      The comparison is haphazard, at best.

      The process of signing a recall petition is at a lower tier by far, than the double-checking procedures that occur at a general election – even under California’s more “liberal” voting laws. I think the governor’s office has every right to ensure the signatures are kosher.

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    el gordo

    The power of a meandering jet steam, China swelters while the US freezes.

    https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/early-season-heat-records-obliterated-in-china/533537

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    another ian

    “Let’s Review 50 Years Of Dire Climate Forecasts And What Actually Happened”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/lets-review-50-years-dire-climate-forecasts-and-what-actually-happened

    Via SDA

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    el gordo

    Agricultural Workers Wanted

    ‘Sydney’s inner southwest has been revealed to have the highest number of JobSeeker recipients in NSW who are single and have no impediment to work and are now being urged by the federal government to move for a job.’ (Daily Tele)

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    CHRIS

    The last ELE was 65 million years ago, when the Dinosaurs disappeared…there has been no ELE since then. As for CAGW predictions, well let’s just pretend they don’t exist, as they are created by non-entities like Tom Foolery, Kevin Crudd, Al Blood and Gore, St Greta of Thunberg and other losers. Personally, I wouldn’t mind another ELE…Mt Etna has been erupting constantly over the past week… let it completely blow its top, and create a scenario where the world is cocooned by a layer of ash in the upper atmosphere, and lasts for a few hundred thousand years. Most of all life ends….big deal.

    00