JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
Jo appreciates your support to help her keep doing what she does. This blog is funded by donations. Thanks!
Follow Jo's Tweets To report "lost" comments or defamatory and offensive remarks, email the moderators at: support AT joannenova.com.au
Statistics
Over the last few threads we have examined the role of the media in establishing, promoting and then normalising various aspects of the continuing Global Warming emergency.
The process is Verbalism at its finest where simple repetition embeds a concept with which the victims become so familiar with that they eventually accept it as the truth.
One such concept is “doubling” as in;
“The sensitivity of the atmosphere to CO2 is about 1.2C per doubling.”
It seems like a harmless scientific concept but that’s an IPCCCCC misconception or more accurately, a big lie.
CO2 doesn’t cause global warming, end of story, so the concept of “doubling” is baseless.
The concept of “amplification” was a late creation in the Wobal Glorming fairy story and was invented after the original CO2 monster was shown to be a joke.
Next year we will probably be assailed with the terror of interference with CO2 by runaway switching of the s, p, d and f orbitals of the central carbon atoms.
Oh the horror; more research is needed.
It’s all fake.
Control is the whole raison d’etre and the media is the hypnotherapist in residence in our homes, cars and mobile phones.
Listen up you guys, Bill G and MalEx444 are talking to You.
KK
371
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/we-were-creating-story-our-focus-was-get-trump-out-cnn-director-busted-undercover-veritas
Project Veritas busted CNN stating the next “big thing” (after having got rid of Trump) they are planning is Climate change, because fear sells.
This is the first of four videos, more to come? I think quite potentially so. This could be the end of any trust people still have in MM on any topic
231
Fear?
Should we fear the world getting colder or warmer?
Should we fear the glaciers advancing or receding?
Just wondering.
101
If your a skier fear Global Warming
If your a surfer fear Global Cooling
91
If you believe the scam, those skiers in the mountains will become the surfers of the future when the oceans start swirling around the foothills.
Shows you that adaptation is all that is needed.
72
You can even adapt your snow board to a surf board 🙂
61
My hunch is, you don’t have to, because they say it is warming! Which is proven by the current cooling. So be prepared to do the opposite!
Never mind! I see you knew that!
41
Project Veritas does have an awful lot of unpleasant history.
I don’t think CNN has ever been shy about its anti-Trump position, which I don’t think has ever been even 10% as vociferous as the Fox News pro-Trump position. Personal observation.
And as I and others have stated frequently, media are businesses that need to make profits – CNN would not take the position it does unless it had a large audience for its advertisers. Trump was good for business, that’s for sure, and the President Biden administration has been predictably pretty dull and scandal-free, and ratings for “news” have dropped markedly.
I agree that the pandemic pushed Global Warming from the front page – but it has never gone away. It isn’t a manufactured emergency, although media chasing ratings and eyeballs are going to play it (or market it) to their commercial advantage. All media do it – whether mainstream, fringe cable, or very fringe Internet websites.
CNN is currently focussed on Matt Gaetz, the Derek Chauvin Trial, and now the shooting death of Daunte Wright – that is what it does to attract viewers and ratings. Nothing Machiavellian about all this.
————
Tilba starts with ad homs. Baseless character attacks. Project Veritas is suing the NYT for their defamation. Watch Tilba closely, there is rarely any real information. Just talking points. It’s almost like his/her/their role is to take threads off real content and onto Democrat talking points. Almost…. — Jo]
139
What! The whole “greenhouse effect” is a myth. It is dreamt up nonsense.
No tropical warm pool is exceeding the 30C regulating temperature they have achieved for the last 10M years.
https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/ocean/cdas-sflux_sst_global_1.png
Climate models are fanciful drivel. I have challenged both CSIRO and HadCRUT to explain their warming trends in the Nino34 region where there can be no warming trend:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNhDOW8OSZi0GNdfp0
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNhDSNXvpJ2qNzdmDQ
Their response was that their models are producing middle of the road results. So as long as their model agrees with other models they firmly believe they are right. Reality no longer matters.
Like you on the previous thread suggesting that Darwin never got to 35C before 2004. Despite all the data fiddling to lower past temperatures, the available data shows your impression to be wrong.
The climate emergency is based on nonsense. It is primarily driven by public funding of academic departments. They are no longer seekers of knowledge rather always striving for a bigger slice in the next round of funding. Also, it is another potential source of independent funding for the UN so the unelected can garner an income stream without needing to beg to line their pockets – the want more CLIMATE AMBITION so they can cream their admin fee. It is time to disband the UN it is about 20 years past its use-by date.
151
You can say this every day … I don’t care.
116
I suppose that says it all TT.
Nothing much to contribute then.
131
Right back at you TT: you can chant your Warming mantras every day: I and others here don’t believe you and don’t care.
Your ignorance is your problem …
70
Can you support this slander?
By definition they are despised but what have they done that should be “answered for”?
151
There are hundreds – possibly thousands – of results out there telling you how dreadful and dishonest they are. No-one is that blind surely.
111
No one of those results says that Project Veritas isn’t telling the TRUTH.
It is in their name.
71
Another appeal to anonymous authority.
Please use logic and honest debating techniques.
60
TT claims hundreds, possibly thousands …
Grossly Inflated numbers. No evidence.
Science doesn’t care about popularity. If it’s true, then predictions made with it will work. Otherwise they don’t.
So far 48 out of 71 predictions have failed. Not bad. The others haven’t expired. Yet.
10
Darn: I got the figures wrong. (I shouldn’t rely on memory so much.) It’s 48 out of 79. Here’s the link:
https://notrickszone.com/2021/04/08/48-of-79-catastrophic-climate-change-predictions-have-failed-the-other-31-just-havent-expired-yet/
20
mmmmm its “unpleasant” when the lefts lying and deceit is exposed and shown coming from their own mouths
141
Your personal observation doesn’t come close to passing muster.
As for…
???.Really? Based on what? Project Veritas has been doing what journalists are supposed to be doing. Uncovering the truth. Exposing the coverups.
The current crop of journalists read press releases or ‘manufacture’ stories.
70
Obviously the ABC (or CNN) hasn’t informed it’s viewers (or you) why Daunte Wright was pulled over in the first place. There was a warrant out for his arrest to face trial on a charge of attempted aggravated robbery – with a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
In 2019, Wright choked a woman and threatened to shoot her if she did not hand over $820 she had stuffed in her bra – according to court papers.
90
But a couple of $million will be collected on GoFundMe. Who cares who gets it.
C’mon man! He was a bad dude.
Last night my leftist son said the copper let off 5 rounds before realising she had a pistol, not a taser, in her hand, hatred in his voice. Today I showed him the body-cam video. He shrugged and said he doesn’t watch everything. He didn’t give a rat’s that he was perpetuating a lie.
70
Don’t worry Hanrahan – your son will eventually get over the thrill of opposing his dad’s opinion and face facts. I did.
Like the old saying goes: If you’re not a socialist by the time you’re 20, you probably don’t have a heart. If you’re STILL a socialist by the time you’re 40, you probably don’t have a brain.
50
Sir Winston Churchill
10
It’s amazing how a wife, a couple of kids and a mortgage can change a young bloke”s view of the world.
40
‘Unpleasant history’, yes, I know the truth is very unpleasant sometimes, especially to lefties.
30
Just a bit more info on Daunte Wright – after his arrest for the above attempted aggravated robbery charges, he was released and placed on a $100k bail order that he should not contact the victim or any witnesses, refrain from drugs and alcohol and not have any weapon.
That bail order was revoked in July last year due to his ‘failure to not possess a firearm or ammunition’ and not keeping in touch with his probation officer. At that time a judge issued a warrant for his arrest (again!), that was still outstanding on the day of the incident.
20
I don’t know if you think, daydream or know much that isn’t so.
Even the Trump supporters at Fox News were not as vociferous as CNN was when promoting Trumpageddon or promotng NY govenor Cuomo.
Many at Fox even criticised Trump. What do WaPo and NYT write? That the fall out between Fox and Trump might not be true. Its as if diversity of opinion is an alien concept. Any criticism of Trump was promoted as even Fox is against Trump. You would have received the memo for the weeks talking point and conveniently forgot. The Murdoch media actually have people who represent half the population and “diversity” to the rest means a black person who believes that male and female are gender constructs of a patriarchal society as well as a white person who believes the same.
00
Susan
You won’t go far wrong in understanding the machinations of govt if you take heed of Mencken’s famous quote
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
141
https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/exposecnn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3ADonaldJTrumpJr%7Ctwgr%5EeyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D
Hope this link to #exposecnn works tb
We the people don’t like being mocked by MM and won’t be kind
Let’s mock them out of existence instead of the other way around
41
Tilba,
I’m so “ultra-freaky-rightwing” that I “actually support” …
Free Speech
Academic freedom
Innocent til proven guilty (Matt Gaetz)
Science is not a consensus
Propaganda is not journalism
Police are not the enemy
Property rights
Religious liberty (even for Christians)
Right of self defense
Freedom of movement
Equality regardless of color or one’s opinion about color
My body my choice
Dang, I went all the way ’round.
00
China is NOT an imaginary hobgoblin but they are not what our elite say we should be concerned about. Why? Follow the money.
50
https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2021/04/14/watch-james-okeefe-confronts-cnn-director-who-openly-bragged-of-using-fear-and-propaganda-directly-n361069
An antidote to the total anger of hearing CNN brag about deliberately misleading us,
James O’Keefe surprises (Former) CNN Director eating pancakes and waiting for his breakfast date to return to the table,
O’Keefe plays back the video of what this total creep said.
Nothing funnier than after watching our CNN Exec run away in his car, the Wait Staff member tells how he was a ‘kind of rude’ customer
Who would have thought ….?
91
Open bragging? Open something!
Why is Anthony Fauci still in his job?
About a year ago I am sure I saw him decrying the use of masks. He wasn’t the only leader to do so.
Masks have been widely used for a very long time, some places more than others. So why did those leaders knock them? There are problems with masks for sure, but if masks did no more than catch the spittle that flies when people are talking that would usefully reduce transmission of disease. So they were lying to us.
It seemed to me that those leaders were worrying about an extension of the toilet paper fiasco to masks, and lying to us as a result.
Nursing homes have protocols for infection control. Those protocols become stringent when there is a bug about. The rate of the spread of CV19 in some nursing homes a year ago indicated that there was a likelihood that normal protocols were not being adhered to.
There is a further likelihood that the leaders on TV decrying the use of masks were getting a hearing among some nursing home staff.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I am sure I read that Anthony Fauci declared unapologetically that on another matter he lied because we were not ready to know the truth.
Sorry Anthony! If you said that, you lost me there!
10
Scientists change their mind when presented with new evidence that overturns their old view.
Zealots and ideologues don’t and don’t forgive anyone else who does.
20
Agreed.
Now what is the new evidence that masks work?
Is there any evidence at all that finds that masks prevent virus transmission?
10
if we shut down the media, the main cause of a lot of troubles in society will stop too.
20
German coal phaseout… lasted only 8 days
Reposted from the NoTricksZone
By P Gosselin on 13. April 2021Share this…
By Blackout News
(Translated, edited by P. Gosselin)
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/14/german-coal-phaseout-lasted-only-8-days/
381
hahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahah
251
Another interesting part of that article is
331
…..due to a prolonged unprecedented low-wind period.
[My bolding] Well isn’t everything “unprecedented” now?
201
unprecedented things are happening at unprecedented levels.
223
Today in Perth, it was the hottest April the 15th for almost a year!
70
DO you mean like these political “unprecedenteds” (from real Clear Politics).
(In order, as listed, 4/15)
Democrats Unveil Proposal to Pack Supreme Court With 4 New Justices
House Democrats Vote to Advance Slavery Reparations Bill for 1st Time
Schumer Lays Groundwork With Fellow Dems for Nuking Filibuster
Dems Advance DC Statehood Bill
These folks are in a hurry, lest we catch on to their game, I suppose.
40
Maybe there’s lots of desirable property on the market?
or the tax-paying public doesn’t pay much attention to the numbers …
[Sent you an email BTW Sophocles… – Jo]
00
Thanks Jo. Received and read. Returned a very non-urgent reply 😀
00
Unprecedented! The almost total lack of Democrat policies being fully stated or analysed before the last US election ie a definite intention to deprive the voting public of what they intended if they won the election. The media dead space was filled with anti Trump diatribes.
Post election, people like Harris are refusing to attend in areas of their responsibility ie the southern borders, all with the intention of avoiding saying anything that gives information or defending their intentions. The principle is to minimise having to face media questioning before the democrats move as quickly as possible to introduce and get through the political system Bills that fulfil their intentions.
they attempted a coup trying to get rid of Trump on trumped-up charges of collusion or anything else they could come up with in his financial dealings.They failed. The Democrats, imo, are continuing their attempts to a ‘coup’ by taking control of the electoral system as far as possible, getting rid of the filibuster and extending the numbers on the Supreme Court ( where the post election processes should have given them little to worry about in any case). They are attempting to legislate allowing as little as possible public discussion (msm assisted, in general) , and rushing to get as much as possible done before the elections in two years. They have weakened and attacked law enforcement. Add it all up and it’s as much an attack on the US political system, an attempted coup, that one could dream up.
It’s also the main players of the prior effort, and remember, they had most of the top law enforcement hierarchy in their pockets, including the FBI, CIA, DOJ, as well as the billionaire media barons. I don’t recognise the USA now as being anything resembling its former self. One wonders as to just how reliable an ally it will stay when those in power seem hellbent to take it to the extreme left and representing Venezuela more than the wonderful democracy it once was.
20
I must have missed the headlines here.
Could someone tell me in which papers, or stories on the ABC I’d have found them? Perhaps a university press release? Or maybe a CSIRO opinion piece?
A special press release from Matt Kean and/or will Steffen would have been appropriate, but I’ve not seen that either.
Cheers
Dave B
81
Floating solar farms could cool down lakes threatened by climate change
Giles Exley, Lancaster University
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/14/floating-solar-farms-could-cool-down-lakes-threatened-by-climate-change/
121
Yep, lets float electric generators on the lake — what could POSSIBLY go wrong with that? (err … waterproofing the solar array, wear on the electrical cabling to shore, maintenance costs, guying the whole thing down during storms, cutting off essential sunlight to aquatic life, no more fishing allowed …)
231
Water skier collisions?
101
Ice
71
There needs to be a “panel” discussion about the cost benefits or disbenefits of solar farms
51
He heh there is lots of ocean😃
01
Usually, when you cover the surface of a body of water, it results in a higher temp than if uncovered, due to reducing the rate of evaporation (latent heat etc ?)
Pool covers are the obvious example, and floating ball covers for reserviours.
71
Totally agree. Conversion efficiency of solar panels is about 10%. The rest of the sunlight absorbed is converted to heat, and absorbed by the top layer of water. So the top layer heats up, potentially to around 60 degC on a clear day.
Perhaps this layer will reduce evaporation. It may also reduce oxygen dissolution which may be bad for any fish. Even worse, unless care is taken with corrosion, solar panels may start leeching toxic minerals into the water. As it flows downstream, a toxic tail of long term contamination may result. But what do a few ecological disasters matter, when you are in the business of saving the planet from a 1degC cataclysmic tipping point.
61
No sun on the water – no life.
41
Claim: US power sector is halfway to zero carbon emissions
New Berkeley Lab study reviews progress towards a carbon-free power sector
DOE/LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY
Research News
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/14/claim-us-power-sector-is-halfway-to-zero-carbon-emissions/
31
The funniest thing about this article is that they come up with their “half way to net zero” by comparing actual emissions of CO2 to the completely unrealistic “Business as usual” projections:
51
“But actual 2020 emissions fell to only 1,450 MMT. The U.S. cut power sector emissions by 52% below projected levels – we are now ‘halfway to zero.’”
It might be more useful to look at 2019 levels – pre-pandemic when there was much more comparable business as usual. 2020 is an anomalous year in a whole range of metrics (such as GDP, unemployment rates, and inflation) and needs to be treated with caution by all objective commentators.
120
Did you read that on CNN? Oh that’s right, you don’t care if it’s the truth or just more propaganda…
50
Hmm. ?
They do realise that most of that carbon reduction in the USA is the result of a switch from coal to Gas fueled generators. ?
That is a “dead end street” on the road to zero emissions !
91
You are talking about real reduction. The percentage quoted is from some imaginary “projected” level. Maybe the number of BEVs did not get to the numbers Elon was forecasting back in 2005.
61
Get woke. Go broke.
https://trib.al/RFu49eB
(See link for rest.)
251
Very good news.
161
And in another case of “Get woke. Go broke.”, Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, after bowing to pressure of threatened boycotts from the law’s opponents if they didn’t condemn the new Georgia Voting law are now finding themselves being boycotted by people who supports the new law and are trying to backtrack onto middle ground.
Coca-Cola says it’s ‘time to find common ground’ on voting measures after pressure from the Right
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/coca-cola-says-time-find-common-ground-voting-measures-pressure-from-right
131
I have issues with the weird love-affair with Greta Thunberg myself, but using insults like “Doom Goblin” and “pigtailed puppet” are demeaning to her, and even more so to the writer.
136
Similarly, I find the claims of “systemic racism”, “white supremacists” (without relevant facts), Climate Denier, etc, equally demeaning and objectionable.
That said, progressive liberals never hesitate to compare anyone who disagrees with them as Hitler.
401
I find the whole idea of being guilty of my forefather’s sins insulting.
I am guilty of my sins, they were guilty of their sins. I am NOT, nor ever will be guilty of their sins!
The past was very different place both socially and culturally, and things were done differently then. Judging past events by today’s cultural and social mores (today’s morality) is a ridiculous notion.
We may be born equal but we are not born with or into equality.
151
Possibly true, but you might be the huge beneficiary of sins of the past … and other might be well behind the eight-ball as a result of that same past. Remember the old saying, “Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.”
117
If you have read anything of the Pacific War you must hate the Japanese still, they were evil at the time but I don’t visit their sins onto their sons.
I reckon I won the lottery being born in Australia at the time I was, but I don’t feel guilty, just thankful. Millions of enterprising individuals have come here to share my luck. They’re welcome but I don’t owe them my house, I worked hard for it.
121
All of that might be true – but it has nothing to d with what I was talking about. But carry on.
My wife and i think we won the lottery too – being born into good Australian families in the 950s. Makes me doubly careful to make sure I check my privilege before making big arm-waving statements. A few others on here would do well to do so as well.
116
I guess if people want to shut down all the power stations and infrastructure designed and built by a lot of people who were very likely old european guys, go ahead….
Enjoy the darkness and sickness that follows.
This is the problem with the typical leftist cause-du-jour…its inherently political twaddle and not grounded in any form of reality.
We will the Left actually have any cred if they shut off thier own power and disconnect from “privileged”internet….
*yawn*
30
” being born into good Australian families in the 950s. ”
Really? The Guardian might be interested?
10
And I may well be from a family that was the receiver unfair and prejudiced behavior. That was my forebears problem and can NEVER be mine. To judge the past by today’s standards — especially the distant past — is just crass stupidity.
Life gives you the hand as dealt and it is up to you to make the best of it. You may start with a bad hand and so it is still your responsibility to make it better. You may get lucky, you may not but whatever start you have and whatever happens it is yours. It is not someone else success of failure, it is yours alone — lucky or unlucky!
Lolling about pretending that it is someone else’s fault and that ‘life’s not fair’ are the actions of a lazy child.
30
“Judging past events by today’s cultural and social mores (today’s morality) is a ridiculous notion.” – and I’d bet London to a brick that in 50 years time people not yet born will be tut-tutting terms and common practices currently considered cutting edge PC.
And by then, they may well be astonished at the absurdity of 2020’s political correctness that turned otherwise intelligent people into self-loathing offend-o-trons.
20
How dare you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kD1zubg3cA
31
“I have issues with the weird love-affair with Greta Thunberg”
Federal Police in 3-2-1…….
61
Perhaps when she stops demeaning herself by making wild accusations and claims, others won’t accept the invitation to also demean her.
True though that it’s inappropriate for such name calling type descriptions that do nothing to enhance the author’s point. Goblin is harsh because it has other connotations than simply being small. But pigtailed puppet is not unreasonable given it represents her being a tool of her parents at a young age.
61
Calling me comrade is demeaning of the poster. Who would do that?
41
With “green policies” under President Imposter Biden, I expect US CO2 emissions to increase (not that that in itself matters to rationalists) because there will be less low CO2 emissions gas due to less drilling and fracking allowed and less or no nuclear development. Coal will have to be used until the Marxists ban that as well after which the lights go out and tragically, so does the United States of America.
191
“…Coal will have to be used until the Marxists ban that as well after which the lights go out…”
In Germany, it only took 8 day after shutting down coal for the the threat of the lights going out in Germany for them to restart some of their coal plants (See #1 above)
121
Or see #2 above (somehow Kalm Keith snuck into the #1 position when I wasn’t looking!)
32
I was just being “immoderate” and was eventually liberated.
51
On your marks gentlemen..
21
indicative of how real the “shut down” was that they can rapidly be bought back on line at the next inevitable RE collapse.
the had no real Weatherdill style conviction. Imagine the virtue if Angela could have had the media moment at the explosives detonation when they really shut them down.
51
The coalies should have put a ban on the restart for a few weeks.
11
I used “that that” abobe. Some people question is that correct grammar?
I copied this from:
https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/08/this-and-that.html
“This this” and “that that”
August 23, 2013
“Q: What do you call those constructions where the same word is repeated? Specifically: “I can see that that is going to be a problem” or “I received this this morning.” I’ve used a few in writing recently, but I’m puzzled at whether they require punctuation to make the reader realize they aren’t typos.
A: When a sentence has two words back to back, like “that that” or “this this,” we hear an echo. But there’s not necessarily anything wrong. Unless it’s a typo (as when we type “the the”), the words are doing different jobs.
If there’s a special term for back-to-back words used legitimately, we haven’t been able to find it. But your sentences are good examples; both are grammatically correct and neither requires any special punctuation.
Let’s look at them one at a time.
(1) “I can see that that is going to be a problem.”
Here we have two clauses (a clause is part of a sentence and includes both a subject and its verb). The first “that” is a conjunction—it introduces a subordinate clause that’s the object of the main clause (“I can see”). The second “that” is a demonstrative pronoun and the subject of the subordinate clause (“that is going to be a problem”).
(2) “I received this this morning.”
Here the first “this” is a demonstrative pronoun and the direct object of the verb (“received”). The second “this” modifies the noun “morning,” and you can call it a demonstrative adjective or (as many grammarians prefer) a “demonstrative determiner.” The phrase “this morning” is adverbial because it tells when.
Examples of back-to-back repetition—especially with “that”—are not uncommon, even in great literature.
For instance, you can find them in the King James Version of the Bible: “for that that is determined shall be done” … “What is that that hath been done?”
And they’re abundant in Shakespeare: “Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues” (Merry Wives of Windsor); “Who is that that spake?” (The Two Gentlemen of Verona); “Who’s that that bears the sceptre?” (King Henry VIII).
Finally, here’s another, in a passage from Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler (1653): “it is that that makes an angler: it is diligence, and observation, and practice, and an ambition to be the best in the art.”
As we said, such repetitions are perfectly good English. But if the echo bothers you, the repetition can easily be avoided.
Going back to sentence #1, the first “that” could be deleted (“I can see that’s going to be a problem”). Or the second one could be replaced with another pronoun (“I can see that this [or it] is going to be a problem”).
In sentence #2, either “this” could be replaced: “I received it this morning” … “I received this in the morning.”
We’ve written before about another kind of repetition—the double “is.” This formation is sometimes grammatical (“What this is is an enigma”), and sometimes not (“The problem is is he’s too young”).
The nongrammatical usage does indeed have a name—actually, several names. The two most common are “double copula” and “reduplicate copula.” (A copula is a linking verb that joins the subject and predicate of a sentence.)
And just in case one “that” after another isn’t enough for you, we’ve written about a sentence with five of them in a row.
62
David,
There’s nothing in that original comment that seems out of place.
That that sort of thing is common usage is no offense to the English language.
101
Exactly; nothing out of order there.
Dare I say it; Ha Ha! 😉
61
Question mark missing where semi-colon is in my last comment. Oh dear!
51
David,
Don’t worry about the grammer police – our language has bigger issues due to misuse by the MSM and climate fascists. If you want grammer murdered , just listen to Joe Biden….
71
There’s Kelsey Grammer and English Grammar. And Joe Biden, a man who cannot read his own teleprompter, so he mumbles.
61
joe who?
00
Look what Shakespeare achieved in spite of them
00
Simple example of that that:
“The economy has performed quite strongly, but it’s predicted that that will not continue into 2022.”
That sounds right, with the “that that”. If it were written “but it’s predicted that will not continue into 2022.” it sounds quite wrong, because the clause lacks a subject (or a reference to a subject – the second “that”).
But quite often “that that” can be avoided by recasting the sentence a bit better. Similar things can happen with “in in”.
314
A Master Chief Petty Officer once told me during an unplanned and serious situation:
“Fk. The Fked Fkker is Fkked. Fkking Fk the Fkker and Fk it Now. Fks sake, ya Fkker, Fkking Fk it now.”
In retrospect, it was an amazing phraseology. I remain in eternal awe of his perspicacity.
111
To this day, I believe he meant “Fix it now, no excuses”.
It had to be the Volume. So much sound from one Man was incredible.
61
Language warning for the following video about the “f word”. It’s very funny.
https://youtu.be/uSEXgQ58AoM
10
One which often seems to trip up ESL speakers is “had had” They find it hard to understand.
“He had had enough of these doubled words and said so.”
(ESL = English as a Second Language ie: not “native” English speakers.}
51
As someone who understand broken English very well, being a second language. Issues as such are just eye candy.
10
The following project to build a solar “farm” in Australia’s Northern Territory and connect it to Singapore via a 4500km undersea cable appears to be still under active consideration.
The only way I can understand this to make economic sense is if there are taxpayer funded subsidies available at one or both ends or forced consumption of expensive electricity.
And it’s amazing how vulnerable it will make Singapore. All an enemy would have to do to bring Singapore to its knees is to cut the cable.
https://suncable.sg/
141
Hmm, I wonder what the power loss will be on a 4500km undersea cable.
81
Surprisingly, the loss would be not that much as it would be HVDC. I think that the greater issues would be laying the cables into the heavily-used narrow inter-island straits and the cable passing over tectonic plate boundaries. There was a suggestion that the cable may go ashore in Indonesia – perhaps to avoid some of the straits?
41
There is some seriously deep water between Australia and the nearest islands of Indonesia.
37
Wonder what the water depth in the straits would be? In any case, this project seems to be “blue sky” at the moment, and somebody has done approx. costing that clearly showed it wouldn’t be viable.
31
Graeme#4 let google earth be your friend. I constantly refer to it for perspective.
31
Good grief there are some mouth-breathing deplorables here … six of them voted down a proven geological fact.
One shakes one’s head in disbelief – some are so dumb.
01
There is indeed some deep water. The trough near Timor is nearly 2,000 m deep, according to G Earth. I assume this is where tectonic plates are separating as mentioned by Graeme#4.
And HVDC still has resistive losses. The higher the voltage the lower the losses but the thicker insulation would make it harder to cool.
32
I have the loss figures for other HVDC underwater cables somewhere – will have to look them up. But it’s not as high as I expected.
21
A quick look at the 2015 HVDC cable summary doc indicates a cable power loss of 3.7%.
31
The losses in the cable might be tolerable but there will be large losses in whatever storage method is used for the solar electricity out of peak sunlight hours.
Why not do this properly and build a coal, gas or nuclear power plant in Australia and send the electricity via cable to Singapore or any other Asian country, even Japan or China.
We already export coal to Japan and China for them to burn it for electricity (or steel making). Why not burn it here instead?
30
3,200 Km long and up to 7.5km deep at a slope often exceeding 10 degrees, the Java trench separates countries legally.
However the Torres Strait between Australia and PNG is relatively shallow at 7-15 metres and likely the path for the original aboriginal invasion.
61
Which of the original invasions…?
Tasmanians, pygmies, Mungo man, others?
41
Denisovans.
12
Good point el gordo. Australian Aboriginals have about 3-5% Denisovan DNA so there must have been interbreeding and/or migration.
31
Peoples in the area of NQ where the tropical rainforest is close to the coast were called Barrineans (lake barrine, Atherton tablelands) modern anthropology which considers disadvantage and white oppression as indicators in discussion fail to consider the successive wave theory. Pity. As though the people’s of the world didn’t migrate.
60
There was a land bridge and Lake Carpentaria was formed when sea level fell, so the first people to reach Australia must have come that way.
Later migrations, finding New Guinea was already occupied, must have crossed the Timor Sea to reach Australia. The problem is that 60,000 years ago there were no boats.
00
What metal would they use for the cable? Copper? Aluminum?
12
My GUESS would be ali with a steel cable inner. A compromise between strength and cost.
The electrons tend to flow on the outside of the conductor so having a poorer conductor centre saves on high value metal at little performance cost while adding strength.
I claim no special knowledge.
52
Actually a quite good wiki on this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_power_cable with good tables and links
44
It’s DC, so the electrons transfer energy throughout the conductor.
41
Point taken.
31
I squared R. Current Squared x Resistance, for a DC line. I squared Z for an AC line.
It’s a lot over that distance.
31
In such an application conductor temperature cannot be overlooked. R increases with T, maybe logarithmically, can’t remember.
With overhead HV lines if the operators can measure wind across the cables they can maximise the power it transmits. Oddly, if severely overheated a cable is ruined, something to do with lubricant between conductor strands I think. I just remember the ginger beers trying to measure vibration, a project I was not involved with.
41
Temperature coefficient of resistance
explained here:
http://www.pearsoned.ca/highered/divisions/virtual_tours/boylestad/boylestad_circan_3ce_ch03.pdf
Somewhere in a grain of brain there is a memory of -300C there about that copper wires had zero resistance.
10
V=IR. If the V goes up for a given cable R, I goes down. V goes up x10, I goes down x 10. Power = I^2R, so power loss goes down x100.
31
Andrew Forrest is involved with this project and he wouldn’t be there unless a decent quid was on offer.
Andrew recently graduated with a PHD in Marine Ecology from UWA . iI’s a pity he doesn’t notice the environmental damage a solar farm (which will cover 68 sq kilometres ) will do. Like oceans – deserts are not barren wastelands.
31
I fully expect it will all be media releases and fairy dust, and a stage 1 up to Darwin will get built. Then for various “perfect storm” reasons the project will then quietly disappear with much less fanfare as seems to be the model.
31
Where do they get this endlessly repeated garbage that solar (or wind) produces the cheapest energy in history?
If that is the case, let the free market decide!
Remove all subsidies and regulations and market forces will soon decide if solar and wind or proper conventional power production, i.e. coal gas, nuclear and real hydro is cheaper.
192
Hmm, it seems like the mad Red Thumber is out and about today.
93
I never even notice red thumber’s red thumbs these days. It’s all part of the scenery.
83
I can score some serious red-thumb tallies at times … I never use the thing, red or green.
015
I’ve stated before. I red thumb abuse and poor behaviour not claims or opinions I disagree with. I don’t green thumb in agreement – I prefer to give points for clever or funny.
49
Who cares?
103
Care? I don’t much. Just being chatty.
I also want to make clear that I am not a rampant thumber.
93
If you don’t think there is a petty lefty here who loves the red thumb and hates me, goto #3.3.1.1 in the “Glorious Gods….” thread and ask “Why?”. I simply posted my thanks.
I can’t remember when I last gave a red thumb.
53
I rest my case. lol
73
How about my red thumbs in 10.3. Explain them!
36
None are mine. As I said “Who cares?
I have also said “If you don’t like it here…..”
You three who disagree with everything on Jo’s blog are the most prolific posters and in spite of my urging that you should pay your way, none of you have said you have bought some chockies. Happy to be proven wrong. 😀
63
Got it.. red thumbs to you is petty, to me is deserved.
36
Where did I say that?
Stop sookin’, you are a guest in Jo’s house.
53
“If you don’t think there is a petty lefty here who loves the red thumb and hates me”
yeah. I’m sooky.
46
I didn’t say the red thumb is petty I said the hater who down thumbs almost every post I make is petty. If it isn’t you why are you upset that I called someone else petty?
I only mentioned it to show it cuts both ways.
63
Gentlemen this is not a popularity contest. I’ll put this up and just you see how many red thumbs I get by just discussing real climate change.
‘Both the -PDO and +AMO regimes are weak. The -PDO regime is held back by the ever-present Northeast Pacific “warm blob” which is currently displaced farther west while the +AMO pattern is held back by neutral SSTA in the North Atlantic tropics. The cool pool of SSTA southeast of Greenland known as the North Atlantic Warm Hole remains semi-permanent.’
(Climate Impact Company)
24
No point complaining … I can receive bulk red thumbs for saying 2+2=4 … there are a lot of prejudiced souls around, it seems.
23
It comes with the territory, no matter where you hang out.
02
A new free speech conservative-run platform.
And like all conservative oriented platforms, even Leftists will be allowed their free speech on this platform (just like Jo’s platform). Because, unlike Leftists, conservatives aren’t afraid of alternate ideas. As you know, conservatives are always banned on Leftist platforms including the big Social(ist) Media ones like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc..
“FRANK SPEECH”
Massive, SECURE, free speech PLATFORM created by MyPillow boss, Mike Lindell, opening soon.
https://frankspeech.com/
82
It seems that the #MyPillowGuy’s Frank ‘Free Speech’ Site to Ban Swearing, Porn, Taking God’s Name in Vain.
So a pure free speech site … and given the Dominion / Smartmatic defamation case, I wonder what view it will have about anything libellous?
https://www.newsweek.com/mypillow-ceo-mike-lindell-frank-platform-ban-swearing-porn-gods-name-vain-1583151
11
Looks promising David, might give it a go, your thoughts?
22
It’s certainly worth giving a go. I hope it’s not destroyed by the Left like other free speech platforms or attempts at free speech.
22
History shows us that right-wing “free speech” platforms have trouble thriving long-term.
Firstly, they attract the extremists (often racists, white supremacists, and conspiracy types) who have been banned elsewhere, and they can be very ugly to read, and secondly, echo-chambers become boring, because sensible interesting moderates (such as your correspondent 🙂 ) don’t post on them.
It’s hard to compete with the broad-church facebook and twitter. Look at parler, for example – I’ve read it has very light traffic.
14
Anyone noticed how the hoped for ‘saviour’ of fossil fuelled power replacement, Concentrating Solar Power, (CSP) also referred to as Solar Thermal Power has just disappeared completely from all reporting and commentary. Almost sunk without trace really.
In the year I started all this, 2008, I took the time (an awful lot of it mind you) to read through a humungous pdf document of many hundred pages. I think it was dated at 2003, and I kept the link, but have not been able to find it now for years, and I can guess why. All I get is 404 or this does not exist any more when I click on that old link, and I cannot find it any more. I originally found it way back in 2008 and even then it was on page twenty plus of any search engine search.
It detailed the (dare I even say it) ‘modelling’ for CSP and how this was just going to become the coming thing. Hundreds of pages of detailed boring ‘magic’ really.
The upshot was that (written in 2003 mind you) by 2012, CSP would have the technology to drive 500MW to perhaps even 800MW generators and deliver power 24/7, and to do that quite easily that they would become the power plant of choice for the future. It detailed the progress across the intervening years. It was actually technology modelling, so it read (sounded like anyway) as feasible, as I read it.
What actually happened, (in real life) was not even remotely close, even when viewed through a telescope.
They did get one plant in Spain to deliver 24/7 power. It was 19MW and delivered that 24/7 power for 36 days at the height of Summer. That has since disappeared, probably because well, 19MW, a f@rt in a wind tunnel really.
Most other Plants failed miserably and the best they could do was one plant managed 16 hours, so barely six hours outside daylight hours. One Plant boasted 150MW, but that was three 50MW single Units. However, they also utilised natural gas fired Units that were referred to (artistic license) as starters, to umm, get the Units operational until the solar element was hot enough to take over. However it got to the stage where they were more Natural gas fired plants than solar plants.
The largest Unit ever to come into operation was a single 125MW Unit in the U.S. (three of them at a monstrously huge plant which fried birds in flight and caused all sorts of air traffic control problems) and again that barely manage 12 hours of solar power, and it ended up failing miserably as well.
So the timeline in that 2003 (could even have been dated earlier) document showed the build up from 20MW to 50MW to 100, then 250 then 400, and finally 500MW+ every two to three years or so, as technology improved.
They never even got close.
And now, it looks to have disappeared as that unattainable great green hope.
I’ve even tried chasing it down at my own site, because I know I mentioned it in Posts as early as 2008, but with around 2600 individual Posts now in these last 13 plus years, even looking for key words there I can’t locate it, and even I had the thought that maybe just maybe, this might be achievable.
I did have one post of many on the subject from 2013 if you want to have a look. (and that is at this link)
I guess engineers couldn’t quite make it happen. Not that it really mattered as the cost was actually prohibitive.
Down the memory hole I guess.
Tony.
232
Never fear, here in the US, Mr, Biden is likely to throw more money down that same hole so we may well see a resurgence of that unattainable great green hope, Solar Thermal Power.
81
The Classic Example of this is the US “Crescent Dunes”, aka, Tonapah Solar Energy failure. 1 Billion AUD down a rat hole at the altar of Green stupidity.
https://townhall.com/columnists/rossmarchand/2019/10/09/crescent-dunes-solar-is-doomed-as-taxpayers-pick-up-the-tab-n2554430
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/solar/crescent-dunes-another-obama-solar-failure/
400% more expensive per MWh than conventional sources. Its average price was over $132 per megawatt-hour, compared to Techren Solar II in Nevada’s Eldorado Valley priced at $31.15 per megawatt-hour.
81
Dont forget we have our very own , fully working, thermal solar farm in Port Augusta , SA.
It generates 39 MW of peak heat, and is used to desaliate water as well as provide 1.5MWe of electricity.
The whole $175m facility is privately owned and used exclusively to provide power and water for the “Sundrop”. tomatoe growing facility.
You drive past it if you head to the NT or WA from the south East.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundrop_Farms
31
But to get serious about life, as we live in a democracy, it should be put to our leaders to steer a debate on all national channels.
It is up to our leaders to demonstrate the rational mindset relating to policy making.
There are no conspiracies, they are a genuine concerns that need to be addresses. That is how Panadol conspires against a headache.
Our leaders cannot sit back and allow tech companies to dictate terms that affect the whole population and economies.
Australia never had an energy problem. It was and is being created on false pretence attempting to mitigate an issue that CO2 might be causing.
30
Here is a video of the Ivanpah site in the US frying birds, insects and bats in flight.
Like most “big green” projects it is destructive of wildlife and/or the environment.
https://youtu.be/ICLXQN_lURk
62
I recently read the novel “Station 11” – about a COVID-like pandemic which kills around 99% of the global population.
After twenty years there is some social organisation: small rural communities with transport by horses, etc.
The novel ends with one community reestablishing a local grid. Light is a major symbol, so getting electric lighting to work again is a symbol of hope for the future. But this seems incredible to me.
Given a total breakdown of modern civilisation, how long would it take to rebuild to the point of being able to continuously operate a local grid?
I think we would have to start again from scratch – blacksmiths to forge tools, from which we can make better tools, all the way back to steam boilers, generators and eventually micro-chip fabrication plants. I reckon 100 years would be most optimistic, and several hundred much more likely. Am I being too pessimistic?
61
I guess it would depend on what the surviving 1% is like. If they were middle class tradies they would get stuck in. Practical knowledge would be paramount.
Labourers or Uni professors – Not so much.
71
I think way too pessimistic – hugely under-estimating the knowledge that is held by modern people. Even punters who have never done much more than change batteries or wired a plug do really know how electricity is generated and distributed. Even creating lights (LED, fluoro, or incandescent) wouldn’t be that hard.
If food, shelter, and security are in place, I would say a couple of years, even if starting from first principles and with no physical hardware (which would be very unlikely – it’s a pandemic, not thermonuclear war).
011
Probably far more than a hundred years. By the time a person has retooled some industry a lot of knowledge about next step has simply disappeared. The people who understood it are now gone. The biggest problem is the need to have production and income with the current technology. One cannot after all embark on a very long term project where the payoff is far in the future, even twenty years is too far. And what about all the interdependencies? Come to think of it, I would not be surprised if it didn’t take the same length of time as first time around and then only if all the regulatory apparatus in modern societies was similarly destroyed.
61
In any event you would need to be well armed! Post- apocalypse scenario. Look at those dystopian movies full of zombie-like greens roaming the planet in their mad max battle wagons. Anyway I’m locked and loaded and have 20 years supply of tinned beans.
81
Thanks for the comments. A long time ago in high school a teacher walked in with a block of Kraft cheddar cheese – the old style, in a blue cardboard box, wrapped in foil, you may remember…He held it up, and made us go through all the things needed to make this product: paper/cardboard, ink for printing, mining for the tin foil, transportation, smelting, dairy, growing the crops for the cows, the buckets to collect the milk, etc. We had filled the blackboard by the time we had finished. So interdependencies is the killer, I think. A local grid could not be achieved by repairing an old power plant. Is it not true that a generator axis sags if not constantly rotated? So after a day or two all the big generators would be stuffed. Windmills and solar would have long rotted. Even if by some miracle old plant could be restored to working order, for how long? Fuel, spare parts, maintenance issues – even something as simple as a soldering iron would be problematic. What happens when you run out of solder? Boilers, washers, sealers, valves, corrosion, the daily issues would surely soon become overwhelming. And even if power, what would you use it for? How to replace light bulbs? Appliances could be repaired for a while by plundering parts, but that would only hold for a few decades at most.
Assuming no political turmoil, preservation of libraries, and a global common good will, it would surely take at least a hundred years to rebuild all the supply chains to reliably run a local grid.
40
If truely starting from “ground Zero”, i doubt it would be possible to make even a simple tool,…. say a decent knife, inside of 2-4 years !
Making anything more complex, would require organising a labourforce willing to work for ????
And all the time you would be fighting off the “bandits”. ..MaD MaX style, who are trying to steal you tools.
30
We are way beyond the point of no return, if we are forced to forsake oil it will be survival of the fittest. Your Graduate Degree in women’s studies may not cut the mustard.
Do ya reckon all these first time gun owners in the US are heading for the woods huntin’ deer? I don’t. They are thinking of No. 1.
I am still pi$$ed that Howard disarmed us.
41
Well, firstly, the term in Australia is “pi$$ed off”, and not the American version, which here only means drunk. And still on the America theme, and Second Amendment mania, Howard did not “disarm” you – he banned semi-automatics, and magazines.
Yu don’t need anything more than a 22 to shoot rabbits in the top paddock.
25
Howard was good and the Biden/Harris regime are going to take a leaf out of his book, every time there is a mass shooting they will take that particular weapon off the market.
The Second Amendment is a real problem, but they’ll have to tackle it piecemeal until the carnage comes to an end.
01
I agree fully.
02
DaleC, good comment.
The classic essay on this inter-dependency issue is:
I, Pencil, by Leonard Read.
The point of the essay is to show the management and economic rules and incentives that enable so many people to work to produce a popular desired product. There is no ‘common good’. There are no top down commands. There has to be rule of law, recognition of property rights and a free market. Systems based on force such as feudalism and socialism cannot produce and invent as the incentives are wrong.
If our civilization is wiped out, even the survival of many good artisans and tradespeople will not enable recovery without the political and economic systems that gave the industrial revolution.
30
In order to stop the glacier ice calving and prevent the catastrophic sea rise. I have started a new company that performs repairs to glaciers.
We are looking for investors with deep pockets and skilled scaffolders.
Opportunity is also available for scientists who can reconstruct a snowman from a bucket of water in any weather. Priority will be given to those who make the best recommendations for the nose and the eye materials. Any melting of the snowman is not an option.
Also constructing gargoyles is against our policy, we are repairing glaciers and not building churches.
From many years of R&D we have discovered that snowman is the guardian of the ice. It brings good luck to all of those who rub their fingertips on their jumpers but fail to get in the house when their mother calls.
Our logo is a monkey since it received largest amount of votes from our scaffolding crew.
Full medical will be conducted and only those that exhale less CO2 will be chosen as fit. Minimum allowed is 25,000ppm per breath. This might give you time to prepare for your interview.
We make cool so you don’t have to carry an esky as we need them to float our scaffolding on, for now as well as the company. We achieve the cool by converting wind turbines into giant fans to blow cold air form the poles towards the tropics. Our engineering team works three shifts every day.
Lastly we need qualified diesel mechanics to maintain our remote power stations.
Thank you !
131
There is opportunity here.
Undersea Volcanoes. The Technology may exist to cap them off and prevent glacial melting.
If we don’t band together and donate billions to this effort, the Earth is doomed. And everyone in it.
My post address upon request. In the interim, be very afraid and guilty, because it is YOUR fault if things get wonky and YOU didn’t donate.
I’m pleased to Swear that this is quite Scientific and Defensible. Two breakfast cereal box tops along with your donation will certainly help the Children.
91
Can we run a monorail along the glacial front?
22
We tried to advertise joy rides as a revenue stream on our website but the web pages keep freezing.
30
We Have The Technology
23
And the Yanks have the technology to run high-speed rail from LA to San Fran. lol
41
It wasn’t me.
oh no. The ring came off my pudding can.
12
It’s a very scenic drive from LA to San Francisco – the Great Ocean Road on steroids!
23
Glacier Repair Corp:
Employment policies-
All applicants to be qualified in Critical Race Theory
Hiring will be spread across all 57 genders. There will be equitable reservation even for Privileged.
Free cool, as much as you need!
Product pricing
Income streams to be extracted via levies on wind generators.
Funding, this is not about the money, it is to de-platform the GlowBull Heating Catastroscope, so there will be added funding from the federal recovery package. The Board will institute the triple bottom line incentivization methodology.
20
Peter Ridd update:
291
God Save and Protect Peter Ridd. JCU, not so much. 🙂
141
Hoping Janus is looking the right way. University bureaucrats need a check across all of our Tertiary institutions.
31
I’m unsure if the HC is restricting numbers but at present the ACT allows indoor spaces to run at full capacity. From memory the visitor gallery is quite large (>50 ppl).
Also note that the HC has a system of email alerts for forthcoming judgements and judgement summaries https://www.hcourt.gov.au/index.php?option=com_acymailing&view=user&layout=modify&Itemid=168 plus all hearings are now AV recorded although not live as far as I know.
82
Well … one side is going to be happy, and the other side not.
Those who believe that Global Warming and pollution have caused coral bleaching (the orthodox view) claim that Peter Ridd has breached his contract despite several warnings, brought colleagues and others into disrepute, and is a malcontent.
Those who believe that Global Warming is not to blame for the unhealthy state of the Great Barrier Reef reckon their man is fighting for academic freedom, truth in science, and against the consensus, and a martyr.
He starts from a position of disadvantage – seeking to overturn the Federal Court decision.
116
I think you’ve over simplified the issue and sides. Ridd questioned the integrity of some findings because it lacks appropriate quality control. He doesn’t necessarily disagree with all findings. Though he is clearly on the record of stating the reef is healthier than often reported.
I like to think there would be quite a few who believe that Global Warming and pollution have caused coral bleaching but also agree with Ridd that science needs to be scientific and have the appropriate quality assurance that it can be trusted. Particularly when it’s used to form govt policy and great expenditure.
111
Well yes … but I expect people take pretty firm sides in these disputes because compromise equals defeat. Way of the world, sadly.
And Peter Ridd apparently said these sorts of things (from an ABC report):
His comments included telling Sky News that bodies like the Australian Institute of Marine Science “can no longer be trusted” and saying that many scientists examining the health of the Great Barrier Reef were “emotionally attached” and “not objective”.
He was also accused of “failing to act in the collegial and academic spirit”, and of denigrating the university and one of his colleagues.
Court documents show Dr Ridd described one colleague in an email as “not having any clue about the weather”, predicting he would spout “the normal doom science about the Great Barrier Reef”.
If accurate they are pretty tough – the High Court will decide if they’re a hanging offence.
18
They are “tough” comments. Of course tough doesn’t mean unfair.
The question is whether “collegial and academic spirit” means everyone in a university is immune from criticism. If criticism is not allowed, then the obvious extension of that is no paper need be peer reviewed because a reviewer can’t point out the failings of the research.
72
Yes, these are not trivial and uncomplicated questions of ethics and equity. Most work places – and in fact many non-work places, like social clubs, football clubs, churches, even families – only tolerate criticism by one member of others so far.
If you are warned by management to desist and you do not, then you might indeed suffer the consequences. Without knowing all the details, it looks like Peter Ridd crossed a line, and went beyond “objective” peer-review type critique into the realm of implying scientific fraud by his colleagues.
But as I said, he will be considered a villain or a hero, depending on your point of view regarding Global Warming. And even the coral health of the GBR is being “politicised – such as inn the comment above.
13
‘Peter Ridd crossed a line, and went beyond “objective” peer-review type critique into the realm of implying scientific fraud by his colleagues.’
That is the truth of the matter and he went so far as to suggest a momentary drop in sea level bleaches GBR corals.
02
I don’t think Ridd did suggest there was scientific fraud in the comments that riled the university.
Saying results or research can’t be trusted doesn’t mean the researcher has deliberately falsified results nor does it even state the research is wrong. It just says that due to a lack of quality assurance practices the results can’t be trusted.
Checkout the three part podcast about the case
https://ipa.org.au/theheretic
11
Speaking from the heart.
61
**Yawn**
03
and then you have to believe that the GBR is in an unhealthy state
81
Is the “orthodox view” the same one you can read about on CNN? So, probably just propaganda then?
40
Mo Brooks: Joe Biden’s America Gives Illegal Aliens Stimulus Checks While Veterans Struggle to Get Benefits
From the Comments
So let me get this straight. We have a President with dementia. An ex-call girl for a Vice President. A transvestite overseeing HHS. A President’s son who is a crackhead, a human-trafficking pedophile who money laundered billions from other countries sharing half with his dad. The crackhead’s buddy is the head of the DEA. The crackhead’s other buddy is now in the DOJ. A guy who is sleeping with the Chinese spy is overseeing our DHS. We are borrowing all of our money now from China. Thousands of immigrants are coming in for our jobs and Social Security Benefits. And the Democrats are still focusing on destroying a former President. Add this to the 40,000 jobs lost in the past months. Yet we are supposed to believe that Biden is pro America? You just can’t make all this up. God help our children & grandchildren.
Meanwhile
Dementia Joe Announces US Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan Echoing Trump Plan — Only 1,530 Watching on White House Channel — But Joe TOTALLY Got 81 Million Votes
141
Re: From the Comments
It’s pretty easy and cowardly for any anonymous keyboard warrior to throw those slurs around. Besides, anyone come up with a very long list of Trump’s foibles too – much longer list in fact.
And are we going to be subjected to four years of sour grapes over Joe Biden winning? He got the 81 million votes because (a) a lot of people wanted Donald Trump to be a one-termer, and (b) Team Biden politicised and popularised mail-in voting, whereas Trump (unbelievably) discouraged his supporters from using it. Go figure.
123
…..because the Dems cheated the voting , !
And why shouldnt we have 4 years of “critical commentary” over Dozy Joe’s Presidency , ? It is necessary to keep the balance with the previous 4 years of Anti Trump flak .!
161
A different issue though … I have no drama at all with people criticising the Biden Administration for its whole term, but I think we could get over the “Stolen Election” meme I don’t see how it’s helpful to anyone. It just looks like sore-loser stuff.
15
Sure. We believe you Tilba. Thanks for your “concern”.
There are some issues too painful for the Dems and Tilba is here to tell us what those radioactive points are.
Just watch what he fights for us to forget the most.
41
The evidence tilts towards “stolen”.
The unwillingness to permit examination, after the results can no longer be reversed
absolutely scream STOLEN.
And I would note in passing that I am one of three posters I can
identify on this site not anonymous, a stupidity on my part i adopted in a much less hazardous internet
world 20 years ago. I still believe, and stand by my belief, that we should engage in our discourse
self-identified, but safe in the traditions of free speech. Thus I am a person, not a bot, paid group, political operative,
or bored but brilliant teenager.
I may have to withdraw soon; the number and intensity of personal threats has been increasing. Perhaps I have become
more unreasonable over the years. Only our hostess is required to be known.
This is very sad.
51
Yeah well … I guess we just have to disagree.
Because not one official in any state has agreed that the election was irregular – and the majority of those officials were Republican officials. Was everybody out to get Trump?
26
It is because the keyboard warrior is basically paraphrasing media reports.
In other words. “That’s all true so hey, quick, look over there.”
62
Injustice in America
Former Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter to Be Charged With Manslaughter in Shooting of Duante Wright
vs
Two-Tiered Justice, DOJ Close Investigation into Murder of Ashli Babbitt With No Charges
121
FNC’s Carlson Decries ‘Two Systems of Justice’ — ‘One for the Allies of the People in Charge, and a Very Different One for Their Enemies’
You can’t just shoot people without warning because they are in the wrong place. That is not allowed. Except now, apparently it is allowed.
So when did these rules change? And once again, who exactly shot Ashli Babbitt?
Journalist exist to ask these questions, but they are not asking them. The Washington Post wrote a long story today about the DOJ’s announcement and never raised a single one of these questions. “The Post” did not name the shooter or even acknowledge that the government is withholding the name of the shooter. Quote: “Authorities determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove Babbitt’s civil rights were violated,” the Post declared, and that was it.
The rest of the piece was a personal attack on Ashli Babbitt and on her political views. She deserved to die. That was the point of “The Washington Post” story.
How amazing to read something like this, especially now. Eleven hundred miles from Washington, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a police officer accidentally reached for her gun instead of a Taser and killed a man called Daunte Wright. It was a tragedy. All shootings are tragedies.
But we know that officer’s name because every news organization in the country printed it immediately. She has now resigned. She is now facing charges. Her mug shot is everywhere. It is all over the internet.
And that is why two nights ago, a mob showed up at her house and forced she and her husband to flee.
Now, she is not the only one. Last August, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin shot a man called Jacob Blake. Do you remember that? Riots erupted immediately.
Well, yesterday, that officer was cleared of all charges. When that story broke, NPR, National Public Radio, put that police officer’s name and photograph on the front of their website. So, that is the standard, except in this case, where they are still hiding the identity of the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt. Are you sensing a theme here?
The standards that big news organizations who used to cover shootings depend entirely on the political views of the people who get shot. When “The Washington Post” does not like the candidates you vote for, they suppress the details of the case.
In the case of Ashli Babbitt, we know next to nothing about how she died, and we wouldn’t know anything if her shooting hadn’t been captured on video by people who don’t work at “The Washington Post.”
10
China Hints Its Military Activity near Taiwan a ‘Rehearsal’ for Invasion
China’s latest military exercise near Taiwan on Monday “could be a rehearsal of a reunification-by-force operation,” China’s state-run Global Times suggested Tuesday.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted an exercise near the island of Taiwan on Monday with the largest number of warplanes ever recorded, which could be a rehearsal of a reunification-by-force operation,” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece wrote on April 13.
China’s PLA deployed 25 aircraft to fly over Taiwan, breaching its air defense identification zone (ADIZ), on April 12, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a statement.
The PLA’s exercise included “14 J-16 and four J-10 multirole fighters, four H-6K strategic bombers, two KQ-200 anti-submarine warfare (ASW)-capable aircraft, as well as one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) platform,” the military website Janes reported Monday, citing the MND’s statement.
The air sortie was the PLA’s largest near Taiwan since the sovereign nation began publicly reporting PLA aircraft movements over the island in September 2020.
71
Taiwan is a part of China – the UN does not recognise any sovereign state of Taiwan. It is done and dusted. The only fight will be what Taiwan can muster and I expect that will be easily managed.
The UN is useless. It bows to China and is part of the global takeover by the CCP.
Taiwan viewed Trump as their last hope. He has gone so their plight is literally hopeless.
I guess Taiwan can call upon the countries that recognise it as a sovereign state to help defend it. The list is not long but they have some solid stone throwers in their ranks:
Belize, Eswatini, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Tuvalu
You would need an impressive arm to get a rock above the supersonic speed needed to bring down a Chinese aircraft.
As far as most of the world is concerned, Taiwan is a Chinese owned island.
23
Taiwan belongs to the ethnic Taiwanese nd the rest is history. The will of the people of Taiwan is of the utmost importance.
61
I think that horse bolted a long time ago.
“According to governmental statistics, in the early 21st century, more than 95% of the Republic of China’s population are Han Chinese of East Asian ethnicity, while 2.3% are Taiwanese aborigines of Austronesian ethnicity. Half the population are followers of one or a mixture of 25 recognized religions.” (Wikipedia)
It’s amazing to think that all the Pacific bar PNG and the Solomons, etc, were settled by Polynesians originating in Taiwan. What bells went off in their heads to sail thousands of km one-way into uncharted seas?
23
I wonder if mainland rule and absorption into the CCP way will destroy Taiwans engineering culture? the make some quality gear there.
71
06
Trump was their last hope – whether it would have proven a vain hope can never been known but clearly Trump was up for a fight with China on trade and that did hurt his re-election campaign.
21
Trump was their last hope – whether it would have proven a vain hope can never been known but clearly Trump was up for a fight with China on trade and that did hurt his re-election campaign.
Trump was all hat and no cattle … he would never have done anything to upset his daughter’s marketing in China.
12
ABC journalist criticises Bluey cartoon for lack of diversity
Beloved kids show Bluey has copped a serve for failing to represent “disabled, queer, poor and gender diverse dog families”.
Bluey, the ABC’s beloved kids cartoon show about a family of pups living in the Brisbane ‘burbs has copped a serve from within the national broadcaster for not being diverse enough.
Presumably distressed at the lack of cockalier spaniels and Jack Russell-beagle crosses, ABC journalist Beverley Wang has penned a tribute of sorts to the show on Aunty’s “Everyday Life” website, hitting out at the show for its lack of “representation.”
“My question is this: Can Bluey be more representative? (And yes, I’m aware that Bluey’s Border Collie pal Mackenzie is from New Zealand.)
“As a parent of colour, I am always conscious of the presence — or absence — of diverse representation in kids’ pop culture, what it means for children and the conversations we have around that. I sincerely believe you don’t have to be ‘Other’ to think about this too.
“We live in a world where the majority of main characters on children’s television are white; where there are more animals than people of colour protagonists populating the pages of children’s books.
“Where are the disabled, queer, poor, gender diverse, dogs of colour and single-parent dog families in Bluey’s Brisbane? If they’re in the background, let them come forward. (Maynard, voiced by Sean Choolburra, I’m looking at you.)”
While it is not clear how exactly a show about dogs – even loveable talking ones – should be more diverse, or how gender diversity could be represented in the canine community, Evan Mulholland, Director of Communications at the Institute of Public Affairs was not impressed.
“This is the same old tired identity politics we’ve come to expect from the ABC,” he said.
“Seriously, it’s a dog.”
121
I am not a big reader but most “stories” are woven around adversity surely? Orphan Annie and Huck Finn may have been white but certainly not privileged.
I’m looking forward to reading from a Little Golden Book about prostitutes to my grand kids. Not!
41
you wont have to , that will be done at drag queen story teller day and school.
71
Coalition split over tax on electric cars
Coalition MPs are split over electric vehicles policy, with a group of Liberal MPs pushing for the low-emission technology to gain an exemption from the luxury car tax in the May budget.
The Australian has been told backbench MPs have urged Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham to give tax breaks to electric cars to encourage their penetration into the local market.
Liberal MPs Jason Falinski, Katie Allen, Trent Zimmerman and Andrew Bragg have thrown their support behind the vehicles being exempt from the luxury car tax, which kicks in for fuel efficient cars worth more than $77,565.
As divisions open up within the government over Scott Morrison’s push to accelerate climate change action, Queensland senators Gerard Rennick and Matt Canavan warned electric vehicles should not receive special treatment.
Senator Rennick, who does not believe climate change is caused by human activity, said he would cross the floor against legislation to exempt electric vehicles from the 33 per cent luxury car tax.
“I don’t want another subsidy for the rent-seeking renewables industry,” Senator Rennick said.
“I won’t support the bill.
“This whole idea that you are going to get down to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is nonsensical.”
Senator Canavan said the luxury car tax should be scrapped for all vehicles, rather than just electric ones.
“If there is a carve out for electric cars we must also have a carve out for farmers who have to pay luxury car taxes on work vehicles,” Senator Canavan said.
“You can’t have a tax deduction for rich, woke inner-city dwellers funded by those who work hard to grow our food.”
141
Liberal MPs, should be Liberal In Name Only or Turnbull Party followers, sometimes called the moderates.
And why should EV buyers be subsidised by other taxpayers?
Free market capitalism, tried and proven way to economic prosperity, allows the market to pick the winners and losers based on merit, value for money for the buyers.
41
Yeah well … in theory maybe, but we’ve never had “free market capitalism” – we have had tariffs, all sots of levies and duties, trade barriers, differential taxation on a thousand items, rampant protectionism, grifting and cronyism, corrupt governance, and innumerable legislated monopolies. The last thing most corporations want is a level playing field and competition!
Not a rampant commie or even a Chardonnay Socialist … but just like to challenge the idea of “free market capitalism” as an ideological play.
014
06:43 PM ET 02/10/2015
Economic Systems: The alarmists keep telling us their concern about global warming is all about man’s stewardship of the environment. But we know that’s not true. A United Nations official has now confirmed this.
At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.
“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution,” she said.
Referring to a new international treaty environmentalists hope will be adopted at the Paris climate change conference later this year, she added: “This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model for the first time in human history.”
The only economic model in the last 150 years that has ever worked at all is capitalism. The evidence is prima facie: From a feudal order that lasted a thousand years, produced zero growth and kept workdays long and lifespans short, the countries that have embraced free-market capitalism have enjoyed a system in which output has increased 70-fold, work days have been halved and lifespans doubled.
Figueres is perhaps the perfect person for the job of transforming “the economic development model” because she’s really never seen it work. “If you look at Ms. Figueres’ Wikipedia page,” notes Cato economist Dan Mitchell: Making the world look at their right hand while they choke developed economies with their left.
71
She isn’t talking about the overthrow of capitalism at all (although I would understand if she was) – don’t get into a panic. She is talking about limits to growth, and an economic model based on assumptions of limitless cheap oil, and other limitless resources, in a world of 7.5 billion. It is a crazy unsustainable model – and she knows it, and millions of other people know it too.
Anyway – I think the question is moot. I think the current growth-obsessed model will come up against the harsh reality of resource depletion in the not-too-distant future. There is a lot of coal out there, but it wrecks the atmosphere and it also requires a lot of oil to mine. We won’t all be back riding camels, but it will be a different place indeed.
012
Free market capitalism is being challenged by a hybrid model which uses SOEs to spearhead the Belt and Road, tweaking the system.
32
I have just sent Matt Canavan a congratulatory email. I’m sure they like to hear from real voters who agree with them.
122
Seems bats can show us a bit about climate change in their poo. Heavens they even reveal the Minoan Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period. Must have been all those human caused emissions that are revealed in the bat emissions of the time. ToM
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/scientists-dig-into-4-300-year-old-mound-of-bat-poop/ar-BB1fEO1n?ocid=msedgdhp
71
It is an insoluble problem within the Coalition – if you think AGW is “crap” then every tax-break is rent-seeking, unfair, and ridiculous pandering to Turnbullish inner-city lefties. If you believe AGW is a genuine emergency and we better fix it by next month or the voters will cane us, then every possible tax incentive should be thrown its way, and ignore the cave-dwelling deniers.
Good luck with it ScoMo.
119
So you would approve of “another subsidy for the rent-seeking renewables industry” then.
102
I made no comment either way comrade – just a humble observer of the ideological splits within the Coalition, and the sorts of issues that bedevilled Abbott and Turnbull in the recent past as well. Then you have the rural rump from the Country Party stirring the pot.
014
Be brave, come out and say what you mean without waffle and insults of a political party I have some sympathy for.
And don’t call me comrade again. Why do you resort to insults as you do?
Are you still freeloading on the site?
124
LOL … the ideological splits within the Coalition on the issue of Global Warming, emission reduction, and investment in renewables – are real, deep, and presumably need to be resolved. These sorts of divisions exist in many other areas of society (Ridd and JCU for example, or down at my football club) but they are not the government running the country.
So I am allowed fair comment – without it being called “insults” – that is just mud-slinging.
111
Make sure you virtue signal any contributions you make.
63
how quickly he forgets “cave dwelling denier”
92
‘Then you have the rural rump from the Country Party stirring the pot.’
Some of us out here in the bush prefer the title agrarian socialists.
34
LOL … you sure carry a lot of emotional freight – talk about wagging the dog. But we city folk still feel for you – having to get a new Range Rover every two years, and the boarding fees at Shore and Kambala keep going up every year too … must be really tough.
27
Actually comrade Tilba, with the drought, bushfires, floods and pandemic its been quite a challenge, but the rains finally came and we thank the gods for the bumper harvest.
There are poor people out here too, don’t you know.
11
Yes – I do know that not all farmers are rich financially. But for us city folk, there is always this lingering feeling that farmers inherit a lot of land and a living, and are therefore “rich” in other ways.
I was always envious of the “rich” lives of the kids who came in from their estates to exhibit at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. It made my fairly bleak suburban fibro existence look rather paltry by comparison. Some of that lingers still.
Not helped of course by the fact that all the rural kids at university came from the “rich” end of the spectrum – lived in university colleges, and never seemed short of a quid 🙂
23
That was a long time ago and everything is rapidly changing, I blame the new technologies. There are rumours circulating that some of the country universities might be closing, so government will need to push ahead with infrastructure spending and decentralisation.
01
Doing environment science stuff in the 1970s, “decentralisation” was all the rage – and rural “hubs” were identified – Orange-Bathurst, Albury-Wodonga, Lismore-Mur’bah, Bunbury, Elizabeth, and others. Some government departments were moved, CAEs were established, and businesses were incentivised to move to these cities.
But overall, I think it was a drop in the bucket for decades, and Sydney, Melbourne, and other capital cities continued to bulge. Tree-changers and sea-changers have led to favoured rural centres growing much more in recent times. Look at Coffs, Byron, and Ballina.
12
The Bathurst/Orange project was Whitlam’s white elephant.
Its the tyranny of distance but this can finally be resolved with very fast trains, yet there is no political desire. CSU Bathurst is slated to go.
The ideal tree changes are baby boomers who sell their place in capital city (empty nesting) and give their adult children some money (bank of mum and dad) so that they don’t miss out on a place of their own.
This sort of infrastructure is also vey useful.
https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/water-utilities/infrastructure-programs/broken-hill-pipeline
https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/water-utilities/infrastructure-programs/broken-hill-pipeline
01
Messrs Fred Flinstone and Barney Rubble look forward to meeting the survivors of net zero emissions in future, and recommend that deposits are paid now for the remaining cave homes with very attractive open fire pits for cooking and warming purposes.
Flinstone & Rubble
Real Estate
91
Sorry, no fires of any form are allowed in order to maintain a “net zero” situaltion
30
Have a look at this series – “Life without petroleum” – speeded up for the woke attention span of no more than 140 characters. An example
https://youtu.be/winJj-1Q3uk
61
I wonder if anyone noticed the “white lives matter” marches in the US last weekend?
17
“The Virus: Vaccines Aren’t Forever”
https://wentworthreport.com/the-virus-vaccines-arent-forever/
41
Thanks for that another ian
in 2017 PLA general Zhang Shibo went even further in his book, War’s New High Ground, claiming that “modern biotechnology development is gradually showing strong signs characteristic of an offensive capability,” including the potential for “specific ethnic genetic attacks”. Certainly the Chicoms have gone to great lengths to collect DNA data in the United States.
Why did the Chicom bioweapons people decide to give the SARS virus some gain of function? SARS had high transmissibility and a high case fatality rate. In the Amoy Gardens outbreak in Hong Kong in April 2003, SARS was transmitted between floors in Block E via bathroom floor drains in which the water in the water trap in floor drains had dried up, aided by exhaust fans causing negative pressure. People were infected by transmission from two floors below them.
The Wuhan virus has a higher binding affinity to the ACE-2 receptor than SARS and thus has higher transmissibility. The virus got out before the Chicoms were ready to use it, but they improvised rapidly. They locked down China but allowed international flights from Wuhan to continue. Thus the first big outbreak in the West was in northern Italy because of the China-related clothing industry there. (There is a parallel with the Soviet response to Chernobyl. At the suggestion of the then Bulgarian President, the Chernobyl incident was used to generate significant anti-nuclear sentiment in the West. That effort is still bearing fruit today with Chancellor Merkel’s closure of the German nuclear power industry.)
China has put on a brave face with respect to the Wuhan virus, but internal travel beyond one’s residence area is now highly restricted with permits needed. The SARS virus was eliminated by lockdowns until the outbreak died out. Eliminating the Wuhan virus will require the same approach. The Wuhan virus has been a big ‘own goal’ for the Chicoms. It could yet destroy the country. The higher the population density, the easier it is for the virus to keep spreading.
In the meantime the Wuhan virus is mutating, creating thousands of different variants. In a recent paper entitled “The impact of viral mutations on recognition by SARS-CoV-2 specific T-cells” is the following figure:
31
How little imagination would you have to have to idolise the 19th century, and that is the alternative to the Age of Oil.
Petroleum saved the whale, they were headed for extinction and would be again, followed by seals and penguins to keep lamps burning and wooden windmills lubricated should we shun God’s gift. The wooden windmills would become extinct as the great forests are felled to build wooden ships, their masts and spars to enable the hunt of aquatic mammals. [England, France, Spain were once forested, Asterisk hunted boar in Gaul] PETA, which thinks the most pampered animals on earth, dairy cows, are exploited will have to grin and bear it as beasts of burden are bred to work and be killed the moment they can no longer work 10 hours a day.
Forget that we won’t have smart phones and computers, most people will have nothing to eat because the farm animals will have top priority. I believe that as a rule of thumb they consume one third of a farm’s produce IN A GOOD YEAR. The same quantity of food in a bad year.
Mad Max, here we come.
60
That is exactly the point. Those who believe that Business as Usual should power ahead until it can’t any more – they are their own worst enemy. They are the Mad Max fantasists.
Rational people are saying the opposite … if we recognise peak oil, and also global warming, and plan accordingly, and smartly, we can still have a prosperous, harmonious future 50 years hence. Without chaos and mayhem.
But the ideological can’t see that. Oh well … happy motoring to them!
07
Think about it. There are two alternatives:
1/ Business as usual and YOU are the outlier here that thinks this is an unreasonable expectation in the long term.
2/ We go “carbon neutral”, whatever that means. Please explain how that doesn’t mean a return to an agrarian society which could only support 10% of current population and why China wouldn’t be the dominant ant colony.
I am human and I am selfish. I am NOT going to commit hari kari “for the good of mankind”. Why would I give a sheet what happens after I step off this mortal coil and why would I say its OK for my family to be subjected by the evil Chinese?
This is a bit old. Replace Lenin with Xi:
Useful Idiot
If you have never heard the term “useful idiot” it was the attitude held by Vladimir Lenin towards communist sympathizers in the West (America). While Lenin and the Soviets held them in utter contempt they also viewed them as tools for dispensing communist propaganda to other countries, thus infecting foreign cultures with their totalitarian tripe. After their mission was complete, they were no longer “useful.”
It’s a term the refers to brainwashed American marxists who blindly support any ideology that gets themselves out of real work and causes others to pay their way.
it also refers to useful idiots who post inaccurate definitions of the term useful idiot on sites like the urban dictionary. while they believe that they are making some sort of statement, they are actually providing perfect examples of the term.
81
Sometimes being outside the orthodoxy, consensus, and group-think is a very rational position.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter much what we think … the world – including the affluent West – will come up against the harsh reality of resource depletion if it continues current trajectories. This includes gross over-consumption, crazy two-hour commutes to work, and ever-more far-flung suburbs sprawling over good farmland.
Anyway, I’m essentially a pessimist, and believe the world will continue with its “happy motoring” lunacy because humans have no vision beyond the next McMeal or next pay-day, and also because we have so much investment in the current set-up that just about everyone is desperate to keep the party going, whatever the cost. The thought of it changing is intolerable.
Personally I think the term useful idiots can apply to two groups: (1) those who believe the CCP are lurking in every shadow, and have their claws deep into every Western institution, and President Biden, missing where the real power lies (see corporations and banks), and (2) those who are so adamant that Global Warming is not a result of increased atmospheric CO2 – they are doing the propaganda work of the fossil fuel industries – all for free.
24
‘ … those who are so adamant that Global Warming is not a result of increased atmospheric CO2 – they are doing the propaganda work of the fossil fuel industries – all for free.’
Some of us are just interested in the science of climate change for its own sake. Its fascinating, but obviously political science and energy are part of the mix.
01
‘Sometimes being outside the orthodoxy, consensus, and group-think is a very rational position.’
Yes, it encourages debate, which is preferable to everyone running around the office wringing their hands and shouting slogans.
In more recent times I hung out at left/green blogs and they said my view on climate change was unorthodox, outside the paradigm, so they threw me out into street and locked the door behind me. I came here as a blog refugee and everyone has treated me well, even with my utopian socialists leanings.
You seem to be settling in quite well.
01
Leftwing extremists want to pack the Supreme Court. The loons have lost the majority in SCOTUS, So rather than deal with reality, they are in a power for power only move by hijacking the Supreme Court. Conservatives didn’t try to pack the Court when they had a minority of Justices, but held the WH and Congress.
Democrats are for power only. It’s not about what is best for the Constitution or the welfare of America or the sustainability of the US heritage. It’s all about a power move.
51
Yeah well … the way the last three Republican appointments were made was pretty outrageous – that was the absolute use of raw power by the McConnell Senate. So it’s hard to complain if the Dems do something.
No sensible person wants Roe v Wade overturned, but it is possible with the current extremists on board.
I’m not certain they should increase its size, but if they do, I would increase it a lot – to a bigger rotating pool of say 25 in total.
This would have three great benefits it would seem: it should make the court more moderate / centrist, it would allow them to hear many more cases per year, and it would dramatically reduce the importance and politics of each individual new appointment.
18
NO COP OUT Boris Johnson battling to make sure landmark COP26 climate summit goes ahead in person as world battles Covid 3rd wave
Natasha Clark
25 Mar 2021, 20:30
H/T WUWT
Worried officials from the UN are said to be trying to force parts of the event online amid fears it could become a super-spreader event as attendees from 197 countries are expected to come.
…
It’s expected that the leaders’ discussions will definitely take place in person, but there are worries over whether the fringe events will be able to take place in full.
…
Colin Edgar of Glasgow City Council said it was “hard to imagine” delegates having to quarantine for two weeks after they fly in – as the event is only intended to be 12 days.
A Whitehall source told The Sun: “The UN are voicing concerns about doing it in person and [COP President Alok Sharma] and the PM are fighting back hard.
“They don’t want it to be virtual but even if it’s not as big as previous COPs, they feel it must be done face-to-face.”
…
£200million has been earmarked to protect the top brass – and to deal with rowdy protesters who are set to line the streets.
…
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/14457627/boris-johnson-battling-cop26-goes-ahead-in-person/
20
Airbus Wants To Use Lasers To Connect Planes To The Internet
Airbus is working with an organization in the Netherlands to beam data to aircraft from space. The technology will use lasers to connect planes with the internet, and could see speeds of up to 1.8 Gbps. In partnership with the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Airbus aims to begin flight testing the system by mid-2022.
Sending WiFi via laser
Airbus has launched a program in partnership with the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) to develop a demonstrator laser communication terminal for aircraft. The demonstrator, known as UltraAir, will be the first to fully explore the benefits of beaming WiFi signals to aircraft from space, something Airbus says is set to be the “next revolution in satellite communications”.
UltraAir will facilitate communication between an aircraft in flight and a satellite in geostationary orbit. The technology will include a stable, precise optical mechatronic system, which Airbus hopes will provide unprecedented transmission rates, data security, and the capacity to meet the needs of the future.
While there are many benefits of this system for military and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), this is not the only target market for the system. Airbus says that, in the longer term, such technology will allow airline passengers to connect to the internet at previously unimaginable speeds, and with more reliability and wider coverage than ever before.
10
Covid tracking
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1380184753580597249.html
Via a comment at Chiefio
01
Gayle Woodford’s brutal murder brings remote nurses safer lives
David Penberthy
SOUTH AUSTRALIA CORRESPONDENT
Outback nurse Gayle Woodford died the most brutal of deaths — abducted, r@ped and murdered by a recently released lifelong sex offender in the hellish township of Fregon in South Australia’s remote APY Lands.
But her life was given lasting meaning yesterday as the South Australian coroner brought down 12 recommendations to make life safer for remote nurses and provide better protection for people working and living in outback Indigenous townships.
Woodford, a happily married mother of two who was 56 when she died, already has the legacy of what’s known in South Australia as Gayle’s Law, a set of work arrangements enshrined in state law ensuring outback nurses can no longer attend emergencies without a partner.
But SA Coroner Anthony Schapel went further on Thursday, delivering a raft of recommendations for further change in the management of health services in troubled Indigenous communities. In his harrowing 103-page report, he paints a picture of a township almost completely dysfunctional and ravaged by violence and abuse.
He also asks a compelling question: how was it that a man as depraved and beyond rehabilitation as Dudley Davey, who lured Woodford to her death in 2016, could have been released into as remote and unpoliced a community as Fregon, with no supervision?
Known in the Pitjantjatjara language as Kaltjiti, Fregon is almost 1300km north of Adelaide in northwestern SA in the Western Desert, just southeast of Uluru. It has a floating population of 200 to 300, and it is where Woodford came to live with her husband, Keith, taking up a nursing role with the Nganampa Health Council.
Their life in Fregon required constant vigilance, with the coroner’s report describing a town that was highly unsafe and barely functional. “The violence in Fregon was described by a medical practitioner of several years’ standing in remote communities such as these as ‘ongoing’ and ‘continual’,” the report states.
“If there was no violence in the Fregon community on a given day, it was a ‘good day’, circumstances not helped in her opinion by the lack of a police presence in the community.
“The practitioner described Fregon as ‘completely lawless’ and the most violent place in which she had resided and worked while employed by the NHC in the APY Lands, to the point where she believed serious consideration needed to be given to the withdrawal of services from this community so as to bring it to its closure.”
The coroner documents the staggering criminal history of Davey, who was 34 at the time of Woodford’s murder and is serving life imprisonment with a 32-year non-parole period for her death.
Litany of offences
From the Comments
The product of $30billion plus handouts and billions in royalties each year without any accountability, special rights, and political correctness so loved by the Libs and labor that shuts any voices that try to openly discuss the ever growing problem…that politicians are always plaster over with more cash handouts and privileges..and with media also so cowardly avoiding the real issues..
30
Four Incredible Facts About Chess
Chess has captivated the world like no other board game has. Arising somewhere in Asia in the 7th century A.D., it has since spread globally, attracting players of all ages and backgrounds, entranced by a game quintessentially simple to play and maddeningly difficult to master. Featuring pieces like rooks, knights, bishops, and pawns, each with their own unique abilities, the game pits players against each other as well as themselves… What piece to play? What move to make? Should I attack? Defend? The choices can be myriad, testing the mind to its limits.
Here are four incredible facts about chess.
1. Practically Infinite Possibilities.
There are 318,979,564,000 potential ways of playing the first four moves for both sides in a game of chess. The possibilities grow even more mind-blowing from there. American mathematician Claude Shannon calculated that at least 10120 unique chess games can be played. (For comparison, there are roughly 1080 electrons in the Universe.)
2. The Long and Short of Chess.
While chess can be played in virtually endless ways, the longest game theoretically possible is 5,900 moves. That’s because of three rules: the 50-move rule, the three-move repetition rule, and the insufficient material rule.
3. Computers Conquer.
In 1988, the computer Deep Thought (named for the fictional machine in Douglas Adams’ book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) became the first computer to defeat a grand master in a tournament game. More than thirty years later, humans no longer stand a chance against the top chess computers.
4. A Big Boost to Academics.
Playing chess has been widely hypothesized to boost academic performance by training the mind, and in 2019, a published study provided evidence to back it up.
00
Interesting. but note, copy and paste does not always work-
eg. 10 to the power 120 is not the same as 10120.
nor is 10 to the power 80 = 1080.
01
Why Australia needs to cut China out of its trade supply chains
How can countries stand up for themselves, if they don’t believe in themselves, asks Tony Abbott.
Australia’s PM Scott Morrison has said that there’s a whiff of the 1930s about these times. Others have said that we’re on the brink of a new Cold War. I’d prefer to hope that nothing more ominous than a Cold Peace now exists between China and the West but, however described, it’s by far the most important strategic challenge the world faces and the forces of liberal democracy are losing fast: essentially because we’ve allowed China to do to us what they’d never allow us to do to them.
Thanks to our fundamental decency and goodwill, they’ve bought our businesses, adopted our technology, and partnered with our institutions; and with their numbers and their natural ability, they’re on track to become the world’s strongest economy within a decade, and the world’s strongest military not long after; yet the Chinese Communist Party’s intention was never to evolve, via an oriental version of glasnost and perestroika, into a federal liberal democracy – and in any event, Russia has reverted to Tsarism just as the world has realised that China now has a new emperor.
Rather, it was to “hide its strength and bide its time” till it could resume its “rightful place” as the world’s “Middle Kingdom”. Marxism-Leninism has reinforced traditional Chinese exceptionalism; and if anyone doubts that our destiny in a Chinese-dominated world is to “tremble and obey”, look at the treatment of Australia: routinely derided as a piece of “chewing gum on China’s boot”, that’s had our exports blocked and our ministers banned, all because we had the temerity to be the first to call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic.
Of course, becoming tributary to China is not a fate we’re doomed to. Over time, a more strategic approach to trade and investment, that takes China out of supply chains, would reduce our vulnerability to economic pressure. More selectivity about who may study and who may partner with us, especially in high-tech, would minimise our exposure to intellectual theft. New strategic arrangements, such as the Quad, could raise the stakes against China further bullying its neighbours. And over time, our own Chinese-descended citizens might help to foster the liberal thinking in China, that a taste of market freedom so far hasn’t.
But here’s the big question: how can countries stand up for themselves, if they don’t believe in themselves? It’s become conventional wisdom that the coal-fired power stations that China can’t build enough of, are destroying the planet if they’re built in a Western country. It’s widely accepted, at least in Western educational systems, that the English-speaking countries, in particular, that have given the world its common language, its democratic institutions, its industrial revolution, and its emancipation of minorities are irredeemably oppressive.
Belief in the brotherhood of man and the equal treatment of all, the best features of Western civilisation, and arguably the universal aspiration of mankind, are needed more than ever – but so is a sense of cultural self-belief and perspective, not just to see the good in others and the fault in ourselves.
The risk is a new generation of “useful idiots” providing our competitor with the economic and cultural ammunition to use against us.
These were Tony Abbott’s opening remarks to a session of the Raisina dialogue Wednesday.
30
Good effort by Tony.
12
Plenty of Neville Chamberlains in the West, to appease Chinese aggression. Dolf baby must be rolling with laughter in his flamethrower grave.
00