JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
The movies will tell and show you on the big screen that it is always a car fuel tank that explodes.
Ok, People often see and hear explosions when a car is on fire. They are witnesses that may have a preconcept of what they are seeing in real life.
They will normally report… “I heard a massive bang! It was the fuel tank!”.
Understand you have airbag cylinders that can bang. Car tyres that can bang. Gas struts that can bang.
Compressed refrigerent that can bang. Batteries that can bang. Goods carried that may bang. Trades persons’ acetelyne cylinders that may bang. etc.. etc.
Whenever any of the above happens you will see a very noticable flare in the size of the fire, which may reinforce a witness’ belief of what they’ve seen in the movies.
They will state on most occasions, “It was the fuel tank”.
OK, If you are near a vehicle that catches fire, hear a big bang and see the fire flaring, don’t tell us it was the fuel tank exploding.
Why?.. 99.99% of the time you will be wrong.
300
Case in point
The fuel tanker in Duel did not explode when going over the cliff. The Hollywood execs want “special effects’ but Speilberg resisted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=eMsPrEmAgSg
111
In Duel I believe Spielberg wanted to suggest at the end that the non-explosion was due to the tank being empty (not that it likely would have exploded anyway in real life), thus implying that the deranged driver always ran with an empty tank and the current instance was not a one-off. I.e. that the tanker driver was a serial killer. This was also implied by the collection of license plates on the bumper, evidence of his “kills”. Obviously the tank being empty allowed the truck to keep up with the car as well.
There is a free-to-view version of Duel on YouTube, but dubbed in Italian.
https://youtu.be/bAL_JOR5x5E
121
Empty fuel tanks are highly volatile, I witnessed an empty 10,000Lt S/S tank exploding from a spark as it was being re-commissioned, it took of like a rocket and landed 100m away, on top of a 4 wheel drive. The noise from the blast shook the whole surrounding area. You need oxygen and fuel for combustion and there’s plenty of both in an empty tank that has previously contained fuel.
181
Empty diesel fuel tanks won’t explode. It’s one reason that most boats are diesel fueled.
111
Explosions can only happen in a narrow range of air/fuel vapour concentrations.
For petrol, it’s 1.4 to 7.6%.
Drop a match into a can of fuel and nothing happens as the fuel vapour is too high.
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/explosive-concentration-limits-d_423.html
Hollywood has a lot to answer for.
120
Case in Point – #2
Example of a fuel tank “exploding”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UdNuv_vgGQ
50
If the vehicle is a Tesla that catches fire it will be the battery pack undergoing a themal runaway. If you are near the vehicle stay upwind if you are attempting to save the driver who can be locked in the car when the electrics fail. Lithium fire fumes are toxic
231
Mythbusters had an episode in which they tested the exploding fuel tank myth.
Needless to say, instances of exploding fuel tanks, or even burning non-EVs, in real life after accidents are exceptionally rare.
220
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explained that Big Pharma globally makes about $50 billion a year from vaccines but then makes another $500 billion a year from treatment of vaccine injuries: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/biowarfare-industry-covid-pandemic-big-pharma-profits-vaccines/
280
How much goes to bribe public health officials and politicians?
180
Given the vast herds od “true believers’, among churnalists, pubic serpents and pollie-muppets, probably not much.
60
The way in which obligation for full information was ignored, and imo still is, where COCID-19 vaccinations are involved, I would say not much. This applies not just to doctors, nurses and anyone administering the vaccinations; it is more so applicable to any government and Health advisory people who heavily pushed vaccination on the public with virtually no warning of side effects at all. The government was not only excessively into ignoring human rights in its isolation and employment requirements over COVID. The government and its health specialists officially advising governments, and the public, were and still are remiss. That’s why there are those prolonged periods preventing revelations of what was known abour the vaccinations from the start of the pandemic.
30
Aloha! Its time to change the whole Western medical Oath thingy and just go with …
FIRST DO HARM!
SECOND DO MORE HARM!
AND LASTLY DO A HELL OF A LOT OF KILLING TO SAVE THE PLANET FROM THESE HIDEOUS HUMANS!!!!
By Klaus Schwab WEF
10
If you were around in 1969
What were you doing on 16 July?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhTvadtW2dc
100
I don’t remember the exact date but these days I was for 7 weeks in an holyday youth camp in Sweden near Jönköping. 7 weeks nothing than sun, every day 😀
70
I saw the Moon landing in black and white on TV in England early in the morning before trotting off to my first work Job after leaving School at age 16 years.
50
I watched the landing on B&W television in a Gasthof at the bottom of the Gros Glockner glacier in Austria.
30
I was doing National Service in the Army at Holdsworthy; saw the moon landing in the Sgts Mess.
60
What scientific experiment is still operational at the Sea of Tranquity moon landing site half a century later?
50
Ah that would be the laser reflector. Saw a short documentary a while ago with scientists bouncing a laser off it.
60
That might be worth looking at.
40
Biggles full name was
00
I was at Watsonia Barracks, watched the landing/walk in the canteen. We were given time off to watch it.
20
Who among us that remember it, would have guessed then, that 1972 would be the last time for the remainder of our lives, that humans would travel outside Earth atmosphere*.
At this rate the Vulcans are never going to notice us.
*(I’m counting the magnetosphere as Earth space. Are we capable of maintaining life in inter-planetary space? Have we even done the experimentation?)
40
No-one has ever left Earth’s atmosphere as I’ve said.
The Karman line isn’t the real edge, at 100km altitude.
It’s the Geocorona, part of the exosphere, extending out to 630,000km. So the moon flies through Earth’s atmosphere.😁
50
I recall that they played Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” as accompanied music. It was hard to adjust the vertical and horizontal on our HMV black and white with intermittent rolling. Great event.
50
Sounds like the intro to The Outer Limits
10
We were in Abu Dhabi showing off our first son to his grandparents there.
Heard about the Moon landing and later received the newspaper reports of it.
00
Can someone please inform Chrissy Bowen
EVs on the East Coast of Mainland Australia are mainly power by COAL!
https://notrickszone.com/
291
We might as well cut out the middle man and produce cars whose primary fuel is coal or wood
https://wonderfulengineering.com/during-world-war-due-to-non-availability-of-fuel-these-cars-were-converted-to-run-on-wood/
200
Germans did it in WW2 – “wood gas”.
20
Why is a mental midget like Chrissy Bowen allowed to make scientific and engineering decisions that are destroying Australia?
610
I don’t know why Oz should be exempt from terrible decisions made by people with no knowledge of the subject. Its what is causing the West to totter and lose ground to its competitors who know what they are doing
310
I have swatted blowflies with a greater mental capacity than our Minister for Energy.
300
There are single cell amoebae with a greater mental capacity than our Minister for Energy
170
If intelligence were electricity Chrissy Bowen wouldn’t light up a glow worm’s bum. ToM
250
A blowfly is a vastly more worthy being than Chrissy Bowen.
At least some blowflies have a useful purpose for humans such as in maggot debridement therapy.
200
“Why is a mental midget like Chrissy Bowen allowed to make scientific and engineering decisions that are destroying Australia?”
Democracy… People tell me this not the greatest form of Govt, but its better than all the others. Actually, Churchill was wrong in a lot of other stuff he said too.
Anyone who WANTS power shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it.
260
Net Zero is actually the IQ of Blackout Bowen.
310
There should be an IQ test for many things, just as a rough sieve. I’d suggest things like being a politician, driving licences, firearms licences, being allowed to breed, university entrance and the police force.
31
“Why is a mental midget like Chrissy Bowen allowed to make scientific and engineering decisions that are destroying Australia?”
Premeditated humiliation of the “peasants”?
Just “following orders”?
80
Folk with an IQ on a par with BOB’S ( Blackout Bowen ) are the ones that vote for the Labor / Green / Teal coalition.
That’s the threat to our Democracy & Economy ! And the Lib / Nat coalition is not far behind them.
There are rumblings of changes to come but there’s still no clear path forward.
They’ll probably talk us & themselves to death.
20
What can be said further about the clown. A light weight in the lime light making an absolute fool of himself.
70
Isn’t that what lawyers do? After all, science is just a matter of opinion and social engineering is the main forte of all politicians.
00
The good old chickens are coming home to roost. From the Australian Business Review today. “One of Australia’s biggest super funds, the $124 bn UniSuper has been hit with a massive plunge from its green fund, with its assets diving 28% since June after being exposed to a raft of electric vehicle and battery makers, including Tesla.”
140
‘Get woke, go broke’, as they say. Not to worry, it’s not their money, but it is yours.
70
Only if you are young enough to still have money in Australian Super funds.
20
Some of us are still running our businesses way beyond our preservation age.
10
There must be a few scientists and engineers in positions of influence who can say say something about Australia’s “green” energy disaster.
It’s too bad none of them are brave enough to speak up.
Even though they might lose their jobs, surely some of them must be financially independent and can afford not to work, or are close to retirement?
290
It is a foolish man who takes on a religion.
The popularity of his ideas led to the Roman Inquisition trying Galileo for heresy in 1633. He was forbidden to speak of his beliefs and found “vehemently suspect of heresy”; the Roman authorities sentenced him to house arrest where he remained until his death in 1642.
210
From Eugyppius a German Substack author , commentator on all things Germanic.
“The German Bundesrechnungshof, or the Federal Audit Office, is an independent government body charged by statue with overseeing the economic management of the Federal Republic. Last week, they published a devastating “Report … on the implementation of the energy transition” in Germany. Every one of its fifty-eight pages represents a brutal slap in the face to our Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck. German energy policies have not only made us the laughing stock of the developed world; they are deplored even by our own bureaucrats.”
330
German Federal Audit Office Warns Germany’s Green Energy Transition Is Way Off Track
Original version in EN
160
CO2 Lover,
And you would call Galileo a fool?
31
HA! I’ll take ’em on and destroy them effortlessly, but make more enemies in the process. 😁
“It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone”
– Marcus Aurelius
“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”
– Bertrand Russell
51
Ask RETIRED experts like physicists, not employed ones, and you’ll get the truth.😎
180
Sorry David,
The engineering hierarchy in the Institution of Engineers are just as woke as in any other body. Have a look at their magazine called “Create”!
10
Just the magazine covers at https://createdigital.org.au/create-magazine/ was enough to convince me; definitely a shill front organization for the renewables financiers.
10
Many qualified people are ready to speak up. Just look at the owner of this blog and many people of science whose names are known to is. It’s the absence of public forums willing to accept the debate on Anthropogenic Global Warming. For some reason I will never understand, all public ‘open’ forums remain tightly shut to taking on a philosophy that is destroying the West and the society which succours them. The fact nearly a half of the world’s people ignore this philosophy, buy our fossil fuels (which we sell at will in huge tonnages to them) to manufacture everything we could do ourselves but instead buy back as the third party without a thought they neutralise any supposed climate salvaging we do just doesn’t make it to the front pages.
That typifies the stupidity of the West – or should that be ‘exposes’ the fraud of the climate debate. To attach a reason this might be so is to be accused of being a ‘conspiracy theorist’, yet from the very earliest of days, when the global warming planning was downloadable from the UN as a preliminary paper without the numerals and percentages filled in on the dotted lines, AGW was being accused of being merely a UN based plan to redistribute wealth from 1st world nations to the rest.
It is apparent from the way the West has taken up that economically destructive plan, enforced its demands and actively neutered all contrarian debate and resistance, our politicians had and have their own reasons for accepting the destruction of our economies tolerating no social resistance. Democracy has been increasingly stifled. The Europeans show the only time they take fright and rapidly change their actions is when the social backlash threatens their own jobs at election times, or creates increasing social resistance that they may not be able to control.
20
In Vicdanistan (southern fiefdom of Australia) it’s a public holiday, Labor day.
It used to mean a celebration of “8 hours work, 8 hours recreation and 8 hours rest”.
But today what is “celebrated” is union extortion and thuggery such that “paddle pop people” I.e. those that hold “stop / go” signs at road construction sites get a minimum wage of A$120,000 (US$79,500) a year and some get $200,000 if they choose their shifts right.
No wonder Australia is rapidly heading toward bankruptcy.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/turning-a-stop-sign-for-120-000-a-year-what-its-really-like-to-be-a-traffic-controller/dlcjuxk11
260
That is a bit harsh – these people do more useful work than 99% of politicians.
230
Ha ha! No, only 50 percent ( 1/2 ) of the time !
DUNNO WHAT YOU’VE all BEEN FED OVER THE WEEKEND, BUT ( not shouting – just went onto caps by itself) today’s posts are hilarious – just sad that the NAIL is being hit fair & Square every time … in UK, there’s talk you’d all be called extremists now, for those comments.
20
Paddle-pops… not even that! Now in NSW they sit in an armchair under an umbrella watching traffic queue forever at their roadworks traffic lights. I’m not sure what they are meant to be doing, the lights stay there when the person goes home, but I figure they couldn’t be got rid of when the traffic lights came in. Unions…
In parallel with that, and the Govt adding a few hundred thousand extra bureaurats, it is clear why actual workers can’t be found for any trade you may name. Wait times for anything to be serviced or built have blown out to months these days.
130
Are….thats easy. That person is sitting there to make sure the traffic lights are working.
110
Bonus for us in Australia is that the automated lights will be the dumb version operating with fixed time windows even at 3AM. No traffic sensing lights for us.
50
The people with the Lollipop Signs are not Fruit Loops then. Sounds more like money for jam. Where do I sign up?
71
If you’re Jade Campbell you can really get ahead it appears. Follow the steps correctly and you might even find yourself Premier of the Garden State.
30
Surely it’s Labour Day; or was it named after the political party?
60
And a big hi to all those retail and hospitality workers getting $50+ per hour today. Thanks for turning up and dealing with the masses.
10
The Liberal (pretend conservative) Party say if elected they will build a nuclear power station in ten years.
Firstly, the next election is a while off.
Secondly, it would take at least 20 or 40 years just to get approvals.
In other words, it’s just not going to happen and the Libs know that.
Remember, Australia is the “can’t do” country.
Meanwhile, Australia will be a failed state after ten more years of windmill and solar insanity and destroying more power stations.
301
Davis, we will be building and refurbishing new and existing Coal power plants before we build a nuclear one. The cracks are appearing already with a boost to extending the Eraring closure.
220
That is simply because widespread blackouts will bring down any government and the people paid to make sure it doesn’t happen will get the sack. It’s not that they have changed their thinking.
The scrambling to keep the lights on must be intense, a high wire act at enormous expense and risk on calm nights in mid summer or a few hot days and nights when all reserves are exhausted. Governments fall. That’s the only reason they don’t shut everything down tomorrow. To save the planet.
250
There is an alternative with gas; used as Closed Cycle which is quicker to build, and could be built on the old sites of closed coal stations. Yes, more expensive to run than coal but cheaper than “renewables”. The trouble is that switching it on/off to stabilise “renewables” makes it more expensive, much as with coal being pushed into the ground by “renewables”.
The only hope is that Australia dumps “renewables” which might be sooner than you think if more blackouts occur as in SA yesterday with ‘load shedding” on a hot day. I had 2 ones yesterday with no warning – one about 3+ hour the other shorter with no warning but a later phone message suggesting about 5+ hours possible for renewable return.
210
The figures I have show CCGT as a comparable cost to USC coal but slightly cheaper:
CCGT gas: $4112/kW
USC coal: $4800/kW
Compared to solar at $$14,882 and wind at $13,372, both of these options would be worthwhile.
CCGT starts off at half the cost of coal, with after adjustment for lifetime, ends up as above.
110
Thank you, but I was thinking of how quickly modern plants could be built. Nuclear and USC coal would face rearguard action, but they would be handicapped by claiming that gas shouldn’t be used when it is essential (as Open Cycle) to backup “renewables”.
There is the fact that CO2 is almost half from CCGTs than that of USC coal (for what that is worth).
20
I removed the CCS amounts from coal and gas that were in the original data calcs, as I believe those amounts are not required.
The WA SWIS and NWIS grids use a lot of gas, but being WA, it’s reasonably cheap. Think most is OCGT.
SMR nuclear comes in at $5596/kW, slightly dearer than coal or gas.
I think a few of the figures need updating, as gas wholesale has risen a bit over the last few years. And I don’t know how much storage duration was allocated for wind and solar – I suspect only 24 hours, and I think that amount is too little.
Also the wind and solar figures don’t include the extra transmission line costs.
30
This heatwave is disgusting – as we head towards 7 weeks without a raindrop. Fortunately I experienced no outages here in the foothills. Air conditioner must be considering strike action for extra pay.
60
Only 7 weeks? Perth often goes for many months without any decent rain – that’s why we rely on desal plants for our water.
30
Graham, the trap of the smart meters. They work provided one is a night owl. We had one about 20years ago in WA. Our power bills went up because we had four kids, both parents worked daytime and cooking and washing at night after 9pm didn’t lend itself to running the household. These days they are just one more supply trap added to the list of the increasing ways in which our political masters (we elect, mind you) control us. Just wait until we go to 100% digital cash and EVs.
20
I think as usual the real outcome wont lie at the extremes of coal or nuclear. Sth Australia was a good example when they panicked going into a summer election and spent half a billion on gas generators and batteries. I’d expect coal extensions and gas plants rather than nuclear or more “renewables” and a spider web of transmission. Nuclear maybe late century, if technology remains the same.
81
Disagree – I think the strong push towards nuclear will finally force the federal govt to take it into consideration, surely before 2030. By then the new SMRs will be up and running in many countries, obviously doing a great job of delivering cheap energy.
30
And enlightened countries’ orders will ensure our’s can’t be started to be built for at least 10 years.
(But China might fast track a couple for us if be buy their “smart” versions.)
Cheers
Dave B
30
Their new gas-cooled 200 MWe reactor looks interesting, because it doesn’t have to be located near a water source.
00
Things are getting tighter now, and I see the price of iron ore is plummeting. Great time to have a green treasurer, educated by Wayne and aiming to convert the whole system to a government-private enterprise deal. Obviously small business doesn’t rate. Even Chalmers must be bauking at the cost and other impediments of Bowen. Where’s that spare $1T to come from? Bowen took 5minutes to look at that emissions tax he wanted as soon as the heat went on. Can’t be long now before even he gets nervous about how he’s to keep the lights on when osrensibly the government loathes all fossil fuels and even gas is hit by environmentalists’ lawfare. Can’t be long for the nuclear crack appears and Bowen mumbles something about a new review, even if due to the Dutton pressure and politics.
00
I’m thinking more of when real things will be delivered rather than considerations. It will be interesting to see whatvhappens.
10
Graeme#4
March 11, 2024 at 2:35 pm ·
” before 2030. By then the new SMRs will be up and running in many countries”
Well, not the UK, likely.
Decision on which design has been postponed here ‘until after the election’ …
So no decision in 2024.
Add five years [I know some contenders say they can do it in 3] – and 2030, before the Permitting Dance comes to an end … then build the damn things.
So, not the UK, likely.
Auto – hoping to be pleasantly surprised [astounded] with working SMRs in the UK by 2030 …
10
Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s claim nuclear reactor would take nearly two decades to build in Australia contradicted by federal government agency
The Albanese Government’s own nuclear agency projects it takes “six to 12 years” to build a large nuclear reactor, backing in a claim by Shadow Energy Minister Ted O’Brien that a nuclear reactor could be built in Australia within a decade.
Andrew Clennell Political Editor
Shadow Energy Minister Ted O’Brien’s claim on Sunday Agenda that experts say a nuclear reactor could be built in Australia within 10 years – rubbished by Energy Minister Chris Bowen – is backed by the federal government’s own nuclear agency on its website.
On Sunday on Sky News, Mr O’Brien declared: “The best experts around the world with whom we’ve been engaging, are saying Australia could have nuclear up and running within a 10-year period.”
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said of Mr O’Brien’s statement on the ABC: “Tell him he’s dreaming.
“[In] the United States, with a very developed regulatory regime, with a very developed nuclear industry, the nuclear leader of the world, the average build time of a nuclear power plant in the United States has been 19 years.
But the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation says in a section on its website about small modular reactors: “An SMR has a projected construction time of three to five years, while a large reactor takes six to 12 years.”
Sky News understands the experts that Mr O’Brien is quoting are from the US, Britain and Australia.
Mr O’Brien does not deny that some time would have to be spent setting up a nuclear regulator first.
Sky News revealed last week the Coalition was preparing to announce five or six sites for reactors including large scale reactors, in NSW, Victoria and beyond as a policy to be announced between now and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s Budget reply speech in May.
But Sky News understands the policy will centre primarily on small modular reactors with one or two large reactors in the plan.
The Albanese Government and sceptics have pointed to the lack of development of small modular reactors, but the Canadian province of Ontario announced a project involving 300 SMRs last year.
90
Ozzie,
The El Dabaa reactor being built in Egypt will be commissioned around 4 years after construction .We have all the required services where our current coal generation is happening – grid access ,cooling water and staff familiar with running turbines . We can then run on coal until they are ready and save the coal for better uses as uranium at this point is only good for generating power . Coal has more uses as its a hydrocarbon and portable and can be converted into many useful products as well as fuels .
130
There is a big difference between project time and time to build. As often mention here Sydney’s second airport will not take over 50 years to build , but it will over 50 years to make a decision, do all the precursor work and then build it. I cant see nuclear reactors being any different, and can well imagine how it could be much worse when all the selective hysterics start.
40
So we should have started thirty years ago. No excuse for not starting now.
20
Who said anything about not starting?
10
How long would it take to build the transmission lines to connect to a barge mounted reactor similar to what the Russians are already using?
30
Is it a Labor or Liberal electorate? How many rainbow serpents or endangered speckled wood ducks frequent the area? Will the CFMEU be involved?
30
Just the Maritime union?
00
Bowen is badly misinformed. Modern nuclear plants can be built in less than 10 years and are not that expensive, especially when compared to useless unreliable renewables. They could be located on the sites of existing coal stations, thus no transmission lines needed.
For smaller cities and towns, smaller cheaper SMRs could be located close to these cities/towns, again removing the need for long transmission lines that are both expensive ($2.5m/km) and subject to weather issues.
80
10 years…20 or 40 years…
Isn’t anyone paying attention to what’s happening NOW and the timeline?
I dunno…
30
What are you going to say to people when Australia’s electricity grid becomes more unreliable and electricity even more unaffordable?
I told you so, perhaps?
220
Have you bought a wood burning stove with intergal hot water system yet?
My father-in-law had one of these out on his farm
https://agaaustralia.com.au/product-category/our-products/rayburn-stoves/cooking-hot-water-heating/
A grandmother had a chip heater in an external bath room and a wood fired “copper” to do the laundry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_heater
150
Yes mine had all that too. It was a pain in the bottom. As soon as they could afford appliances (and electricity came), they ditched it all. Hardwork is what it is. Even a woodfire heater for the winter is hard work. Nice, but hard work.
100
House I lived in as a youngster had a chip heater as the sole hot water source. It was my job to break up Canite every weekend into small pieces to feed the heater.
One of the most dangerous water heaters were the ones that dripped kerosene onto a flame, producing minor explosions. As more hot water was required, the drip rate was increased and the size of the explosions increased.
60
A friend of mine had a weekender house with a chip heater. I remember we got it working once or twice but it was so tedious and unreliable that eventually we gave up and had cold showers instead.
20
You had to keep feeding them all the time. Ok when running a bath but pretty useless for showers.
10
The old outback “Donkey” is still used. A 44 gallon drum with inlet and outlet pipes and voila.
50
Fond memories of a Donkey Engine Shower at Batton Hill Camp at the top of the Hay River Track – having crossed the Simpson Desert from Birdsville to Poeppel Corner(NT meets QLD & SA), turn hard right and north up the Hay River Track, meeting the end of the Maddison Track & Lake Caroline on the way.
Was driving a Rented Hitop Camper V8 Troopy Landcruiser, which our travelling group (we were travelling with Jol Fleming. He used to run a successful 4WD training and tour business in Alice Springs – from his wheelchair and from the driving seat of his modified 4WD – Direct Four WD Awareness) nicknamed the “Pregnant Troopy” as it sailed over Sand Dunes with ease.
70
10 years plus stacks of cut/dry firewood? Check.
Unlimited water supply? Check.
Gas/electric/wood cooking and heating choices? Check.
3kW solar array with 1kW backup, 10kW inverter, 4x 200Ah Li-ion batteries to run a house? Check.
Stockpile of everything you’d need in 5 years? Check.
Pity the city folk when the zombie plague starts.😆
30
They don’t care when the lights go out. They want solutions. Fast. All that stuff about saving the planet becomes meaningless. They would reasonably ask why the world’s biggest export of coal cannot keep the lights on.
200
Im not a fan of the term keeping the lights on. That’s actually pretty easy to do. The hard part is keeping the refrigerator and the hot water.
180
No point I told you so-ing. I try to give people good advice now if they want it, just to get more capable in supporting yourself for power and water as best you can in your situation.
110
Someone who follows the figures might like to look at how Sicktoria did last night, power wise.
It was a hot, calm night requiring lots of air conditioning so no wind and certainly no solar production (I suspect Simpleton Chrissy Bowen thinks solar works at night too).
Was the Portland aluminium smelter load shed?
190
That was Albo – another intellectual giant in the Labor Party
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1422775818182338
140
Wow. Albo (Australia’s non-esteemed non-leader for overseas readers) really is that stupid.
140
Portland has been fake for years. The cost of electricity exceeds the value of aluminum. We Victorians are paying the wages from our taxes. Making metals always involves making CO2, so prepare for all steel, lead, zinc, aluminum to be stopped by the Federal Safeguard Mechanism which adds 35% tax on CO2 to every major company. Except perhaps insurance companies. Even Vicrail, MMBW, Trans Tasman Ferry, Qantas, Virgin, Toll. I have read that steel companies are negotiating 1% per year not 5%. Otherwise goodbye Whyalla, Port Kembla, Port Pirie,.. But Labor no longer represents workers. Labor is the city state of Canberra, like the Democrats own Washington DC where 98% voted for Hillary Clinton. Who needs workers or builders or tradespeople?
220
That is why the largest aluminium producers rely on coal fired power or hydro power.
https://www.harboraluminum.com/en/top-aluminum-producing-countries
130
Yes. It’s fairly basic science, unknown by most in our dumbed down world, and especially not by politicians or the useful/useless idiots of the Left. Especially simpletons like Chrissy Bowen..
Most ores need to have oxygen removed via the use of a chemical reducing agent like coke (or charcoal in more primitive times). Even sulphide ores are first converted to oxides for chemical reduction of the oxide.
Even the fantasy “green” process of direct reduction of iron ore requires hydrogen and carbon monoxide. CO coming from where…? And is hugely inefficient and expensive.
Electrolytic aluminum smelting releases CO2 from the carbon anodes which are made from petroleum coke and pitch from coal, not to mention the vast amounts of electricity consumed, usually from coal and NEVER FROM WIND OR SOLAR.
And isn’t it strange (not) that aluminium smelting never uses wind or solar even though the Left keep telling us it’s the “cheapest and most reliable” form of electricity production?
210
TdeF,
Portland is a massive wind turbine site . I have been there a few times and they are all around the smelter and coastline . They still have to shutdown their operations to allow the grid to survive occasionally . Its a wonder they can compete with Chinese smelters who have cheaper power .
60
They can’t compete.
In 2021 they were given $155 million of taxpayer money over 4 years to support 600 jobs. That’s $64,583 per job per year.
https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/power-deals-subsidies-secure-portland-smelter-until-2026-20210319-p57c6l
70
FWIW
“Did Exxon Make It Rain Today?
Why headlines blaming extreme weather on climate change don’t hold up, the peril of catastrophism, and the case that we’re actually safer than ever before”
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/did-exxon-make-it-rain-today
60
A good read, detailing the wind and solar delusions in Germany. Many parallels with Australia.
https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/the-german-energy-transition-threatens?r=zaa86&utm_medium=ios
90
Here is a prospective Australian wind delusion for you:
Orchid Energy is proposing to install 2 x 3000 MW capacity offshore wind ‘farms’ off the Gladstone /Capricorn Coast area of Central Queensland (See: https://www.offshorewind.biz/2023/05/17/orchid-energy-unveils-10-gw-offshore-wind-plans-in-queensland/ ). Unbelievable! These projects would be smack bang in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and UNESCO’s inscribed World Heritage Area. Not to mention in a prime migration route for humpback whales and their calves cruising the Curtis Channel on route to their return ‘pit stop’ in Hervey Bay.
Should offshore wind turbine ‘farms’ be approved for construction in the Curtis Channel they are likely to incorporate the latest recommended large-scale technology. Currently this comprises a grid of turbines with 2km by 2km spacing. Modelled turbines are based on the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s 15MW offshore wind turbine reference model with the following characteristics:
• Total height (tip height): 268m
• Hub height (height to turbine nacelle): 150m
• Blade length (radius around turbine): 118m
• Minimum blade height above sea level: 30m
For 2 x 3000MW capacity wind farms this equates to 400 individual turbines with each having a 15MW capacity. At a nominal sea surface area of 4 km2 per turbine Orchid’s 2 projects would require a minimum area of 1600 km2 [400 x 2km x 2km] all up.
Orchid Energy’s brochures indicate they are targeting an area 30 – 45 km off the coast i.e. the Curtis Channel. This suggests the bird choppers will be clearly visible from coastal towns and viewing platforms (especially with night navigation lights switched on). Visual amenity be damned!
Good luck to the bureaucrat writing the next report to UNESCO detailing Australia’s ongoing stewardship of the GBR World Heritage Area!
180
For the people involved , writing this up for UNESCO to make it a nett positive would be a piece of cake. Let the weasel words flow. I mean is all else fails they always have the emotive “there is no planet B…..sob” said in the plaintive pleading voice of a World Wildlife or Greenpeace advert.
30
President Trump Appeals to Disillusioned Democrats During Massive MAGA Rally in Georgia
March 9, 2024 | Sundance
President Donald Trump spoke to a massive assembly of supporters at a Rome, Georgia MAGA rally on Saturday. During his remarks he blasted the divisive SOTU address delivered by Joe Biden while appealing to “disillusioned Democrats”
President Trump slammed the insufferable media pundits for praising Biden’s speech and called on “disillusioned democrats” to vote across the aisle for him in order to end the “miserable nightmare of the Biden presidency.” WATCH:
Dan Scavino shared some pictures of the crowd to give context.
100
Here’s a Georgia Biden rally for contrast.
https://rumble.com/v4icf98-joe-biden-draws-a-nikki-haley-sized-crowd-in-georgia-why-didnt-the-camera-p.html
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Can anyone, even Leftists, seriously believe that the present White House Resident won by the most votes ever?
Will anyone believe it if it happens again?
111
“Will anyone believe it if it happens again?”
No.
It has already begun.
This woman claims ‘Republican’ does not appear as an option for a “qualified” political party in the registration form sent to her by her CA county.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/LVuXqd0oIcl8/
Total time 1:24
(The facts on the ground will be unalterable long before the cases can snail their way through the courts, which are all already mostly corrupted by the Dems.)
My prediction.
The DSDEM machine will drag the Nearly Embalmed One across the finish line in the fake race.
The machine’s PR firm (the Googly/Tech/MSM) will construct the Your Eyes Deceive You narrative because your eyes are conspiracy theorists.
If the Nearly Embalmed Messiah somehow fails to defeat the Orange H!tLR Devil, the DSDEM will produce a color revolution.
Just like the preceding FloydCOVID color revolution.
Just as peaceful but a lot more fiery.
All just in time for the WHO End of All Freedom to Keep You safe Treaty.
50
How bad are the Covid-inspired amendments to the International Health Regulations of the World Health Assembly?
Many have asked me for my thoughts on the proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the World Health Assembly. As the proverb goes, you should be careful what you wish for: I see no earthly way of making this post entertaining, but in what follows I will do my best to assess the worst of these amendments, in the manner of Tacitus – sine ira et studio.
In the wake of the Covid pandemic, member states were invited to propose amendments to this treaty.
These individual proposals are collected in a long 200-page document here.
All the separate contributions also have been gathered into a much shorter 46-page “article-by-article compilation” here.
The amendments have been a particular focus of analysis at the excellent Brownstone Institute. – https://brownstone.org/articles/amendments-who-ihr-annotated-guide/
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Today’s – The Australian Web Page
WHO set for power grab in globalised health bureaucracy
From net zero, immigration to identity politics, the expertocracy is aligned with the global technocratic elite against majority national sentiment. Any changes to the global health governance architecture should be understood in this context.
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THE WHO’S PANDEMIC TREATY POWER GRAB UPDATE
UNITED NATIONS
This Malcolm Roberts update published and up to date as of 29 November 2023
I have been calling for Australia to withdraw from the United Nations and the WHO for many years (#AusExit), including during my Maiden Speech in 2016. I would hope that the need for an #AusEXIT would unite conservatives and freedom loving Australians. My approach to this issue has always been to read every document and ensure I have my facts correct.
Today’s update is no different. One Nation has an obligation to the truth and will continue to use facts and data to inform our opinions. There has been some information circulating recently which might be confusing people, so here is a clarification. After that I will give you some wonderful news about how the campaign against the WHO is progressing.
1. There are two documents being considered
There are two documents: The Proposed Pandemic Treaty, now called an Agreement; The changes to the International Health Regulations (IHR)I said in May that it is likely the Agreement will be the overarching document, and the IHR will be changed to reflect the provisions in the Agreement, which in bureaucrat speak is called “harmonising”. I still think this will happen. Until a final version of the IHR changes is released we won’t know, so continuing the campaign against the IHR changes is important.
2. 2022 changes to the IHR Regulations
IHR Regulations were changed at the May 2022 meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA). These made minor changes to existing amendments, including reducing the time member states have in order to accept or reject changes from 18 months to 10 months. These changes were reviewed in a meeting of the Australian Joint Standing Committee of Treaties (JSCOT) and approved back in August. Continuing to talk about the deadline is moot, the changes have been ratified.JSCOT found that the changes were so minor that they did not need Parliamentary approval and advised Parliament accordingly.
3. Will Australia ratify these documents?
4. What’s new in the latest version of the Agreement?
5. One Health is still in this document
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China’s explicit control of WHO is as important for world power as their control of the Global Warming Windmill and Solar market. Aspiring to world government, they white ant all organizations as is the communist way.
And in launching their pandemic they have shown us that local government, state governments, federal governments and pan national bodies are all on board with whatever the Chinese Premier wants. Pandemic Climate Change. Absolute power without waging war.
160
The honeymoon is over, the West has now turned its back on the CCP.
Xi is singlehandedly collapsing communist China, the old order is on the wain and a new order is just around the corner.
01
FWIW
“Reality vs Armchair Fantasy – T72 takes out M1”
https://youtu.be/_q5oufQTSOM
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2024/03/10/reality-vs-armchair-fantasy-t72-takes-out-m1/
60
Minnesota foundry closes over high energy costs, as the state pushes 100% renewable energy
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/mn-foundary-closes-citing-energy-costs-state-pursues-100-renewable-energy
120
Economics 101
Comparative advantage is an economy’s ability to produce a particular good or service at a lower opportunity cost than its trading partners.
This used to be taught at most universities – but seems that only Chinese Universities still teach this.
170
With the current technology set 100% “renewable” is impossible in any practical sense. Impossible unless you redefine what “renewables” are (they do like moving the goalposts when things get awkward) or you just do it in the accounting sense and declare victory like the ACT, while still sitting in the middle of a coal and gas fired grid.
30
FWIW
“New York And California Getting Totally Lost With Energy Storage”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/10/new-york-and-california-getting-totally-lost-with-energy-storage/
“”The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable!” ― Oscar Wilde tags: his-comment-on-fox-hunting.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/793129-the-unspeakable-in-pursuit-of-the-uneatable
Adaptable to fit “ElBowen” and “Nut-Zero” as
“The unspeakable in pursuit of the unattainable!” (IMO)
90
‘
The is way too low. Most “Big Batteries” use multiple Tesla megapacks
US$ 475 kWh = AUD $717 kWh before freight, insurance and installation costs are added.
https://electrek.co/2022/09/14/tesla-megapack-update-specs-price/
90
When assessing the cost of bank-up batteries one needs to consider “Name Plate” Capacity and “Practical” Capacity.
Current Big Battery installations are used for grid stabilisation purposes and not as a source of back-up electricity.
Therefore these batteries generally have a low “Depth of Discharge” {DOD} and so this allows Tesla to have a 15 year warranty of its MegaPacks.
However, if used for say backing up a solar power project to provide electricity at night then the batteries would be going through deep DOD cycles every day/night.
To extend battery life the DOD should be limited to around 70% of the nameplate capacity (or even less).
Therefore the cost per KWh should be based on a de-rated “Name Plate” capacity and so pushing up the cost per kWh for back-up storage to around AUD$1000 per kwh.
120
Or the replacement cost needs to be inflated?
40
You have to wonder where organisations such as Bloomberg obtain their vastly wrong pricing from.
20
“Another Boeing 737 Max Problem (or Two)”
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/03/09/another-boeing-737-max-problem-or-two-n3784378
50
Rudder again? The 737 has some history in that area
https://simpleflying.com/boeing-737-1990s-rudder-issues/
20
And:
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900ER landed with a partly open door to the front cargo hold at Portland International Airport (PDX)
But the United losing a wheel is interesting, United boasts of its DEI policy. I’d rather fly with an airline that boasts of its rigorous training programs.
20
Both SMH and ABC are reporting another Boeing incident, on a Sydney-Auckland flight.
The SMH (paywalled) identifies the aircraft:
“The plane is a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, according to data from flight tracking service Flightaware. ”
The ABC gives the story:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-11/latam-airlines-flights-requests-assistance-at-auckland-airport/103574168
Cheers
Dave B
10
Here’s one for the Lefties from their North Korean comrades.
Absolutely hilarious!
https://youtu.be/ifLqzLEB3E0
41
Our future would appear to be either:
1. something like that video, or
2. Caliphate, or
3. Mad Max-style dystopia
30
Looking at Haiti, it’s more like the film Doomsday (2008).😎
20
Well, Victoria or Haiti.
https://youtu.be/fJDVi0BMabU
00
In Melbourne at midday and it’s 32C. It could even reach 34C,90F. Far too hot!
The annual Moomba Parade has been cancelled, presumably to prevent heat stroke.
That’s global warming for you. If you do not have global warming, just redefine what is warm.
140
We should be allowed outside tomorrow when it is 24C. (75F)
130
Great minds. Just finished looking up the Melbourne temp given it is just after the time when “Mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun”. Yes BOM say 32.7. They also say Brisbane 26.6 and that 0.0mm rain since 9am….. Had a shower in my suburb – 11km from CBD (ie Brisbane) – earlier (BOM predicted) and the inverted boiling condition has been steady for the last 10 mins.
Now I do not want to pick on BOM and yes their prediction of showers bang on the money however why use a term like 0.00mm rain since 9am. Why not more logically/clearly say 0.00mm rain as at 9am?
Newsflash I went back to the BOM site to check their wording and for Brisbane it now states “0.2mm rain since 9am”. Top marks guys.
50
In 2013 the Moomba Festival was held with temps ranging from 33.0C to 37.1C over the four days.
In 2014 the festival had temps of 36C, 41C and 40C over three of the days.
So far Melbourne has had a 37.6C on Sat and a top of 36.9C on Sunday.
Today it has reached 34.5C at 2:41pm – will get a little warmer but not extreme.
Three days and it hasn’t passed the old 100F yet.
So definitely they are doing this so they can say that climate change is causing our traditional festivals, etc to be cancelled.
90
I’ve been watching this as well with some bemusement. Got family in Ballarat, and on the Apple weather app it’s got the max listed as 32 with an “Extreme Heat” alert. 32 is extreme, really?
They just keep ramping up the propaganda each and every day.
30
UniSuper “Green” Fund losses 30%
Unisuper provides Super for woke academics and so many would have invested in the “Global Environmental Opportunities Fund” – which as lost 30% of its value of the last year!
Karma Baby
50
I hope they don’t expect my taxes to compensate them for their losses.
Get woke, go broke!
80
Sounds bad unless its off a high base. Would be discomforting (to say the least) to those in retirement mode if they were silly enough to be in that sector. Hope just a minor ripple on the road to the glorious transition.
10
DEI DESTROYS CHIPS
DEI (racial and other quotas) is intrinsically evil. At The Hill, Matt Cole and Chris Nicholson reveal a shocking, practical downside to DEI hysteria: “DEI killed the CHIPS Act.”
The issue is critical because Taiwan now produces 90% of the world’s advanced microchips, and China has indicated its intention to annex Taiwan in the near future. So the CHIPS Act sought to incentivize chip production in the U.S.
Unfortunately, that isn’t what is happening.
Handouts abound.
There’s plenty for the left—requirements that chipmakers submit detailed plans to educate, employ, and train lots of women and people of color, as well as “justice-involved individuals,” more commonly known as ex-cons. There’s plenty for the right—veterans and members of rural communities find their way into the typical DEI definition of minorities.
Because equity is so critical, the makers of humanity’s most complex technology must rely on local labor and apprentices from all those underrepresented groups, as [the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company] discovered to its dismay.
Tired of delays at its first fab, the company flew in 500 employees from Taiwan.
This angered local workers, since the implication was that they weren’t skilled enough. With CHIPS grants at risk, TSMC caved in December, agreeing to rely on those workers and invest more in training them. A month later, it postponed its second Arizona fab.
Now TSMC has revealed plans to build a second fab in Japan. Its first, which broke ground in 2021, is about to begin production. TSMC has learned that when the Japanese promise money, they actually give it, and they allow it to use competent workers.
TSMC is also sampling Germany’s chip subsidies, as is Intel.
It isn’t only TSMC that is being stymied by DEI:
80
DIE policies are killing the airline industry in the US where there is a requirement to employ people based on skin colour and gender rather than their suitability for the job. Airline pilots are telling horror stories. It’s only a matter of time before there is a major catastrophe due to wokeness. The plug door that blew out a while a go was produced in a factory that prided itself on wokeness.
60
Can someone please advise as to the current DRED situation in SA, VIC & NSW?
I am in WA, not invoked here yet (tested, I think).
Who resets the air-con relays?
Ty.
10
Recycling wind turbine blades – isn’t this wonderful???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNEMAklFF0I&t=454s
So a bit more CO2 produced to “repurpose” these blades – who in their right mind would want such a monstrosity?
40
In Australia? your local Council would be salivating at the opportunity, University Campuses, all of Canberra, whatever passes for an Arts precinct in your region.
20
The comment about four European countries already banning old wind turbine parts from going to landfill was interesting. But where will they put them?
30
I would be happy to offer some creative ideas..
40
Happy to provide some gold coins to drop in front of Chrissy Bowen.
10
Good Riddance, Victoria Nuland
With the war-monger stepping down, peace in Ukraine is suddenly possible.
TIPPINSIGHTS EDITORIAL BOARD
Blinken, a sweet-talking diplomat who can sell ice to an Eskimo, was grossly exaggerating Nuland’s successes as America’s #1 diplomat in Ukraine.
Far from ‘confronting Putin’s invasion and marshaling a global coalition,’ Nuland has done just the opposite.
Her performance in Ukraine has been a disaster.
On November 10, 2021, she convinced Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to persuade President Biden to enter into a strategic security agreement with Ukraine with an entire section devoted to countering Russian aggression that had not yet happened.
Nuland refused to listen to Russia’s protests in Geneva in December 2021 – that Ukraine joining the Western security alliance would be an existential threat to Russia.
When a frustrated Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Nuland cried foul and, by architecting an aggressive American and Western response, helped scuttle peace talks two months after the war started.
Russia and Ukraine had met in Istanbul and were close to inking a peace deal when then U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, under Biden administration guidance, persuaded Zelenskyy to walk away.
Nuland liked to frame Russia’s actions as unprovoked.
The corporate media merrily went along, never discussing, as we have repeatedly done on these pages, the critical moments during the three months leading to the war – and going back to 2014.
After nearly $200 billion in arms shipments, training, logistics, and strategic support, Ukraine has mounted a valiant effort to thwart Russian advances. But the costs to Ukraine and the world have been extraordinary.
We ran an editorial cataloging the conflict’s costs six months after the war started. Many costs today are far worse – all thanks to Nuland’s policies.
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Stormclouds over Victoria Nuland’s head
The common opinion, at least in the West, about the starting date of the current crisis that might escalate into nuclear WWIII is February 24, 2022, with Putin’s “unprovoked” invasion of Ukraine.
However, many unbiased observers believe that it began with the Western-backed regime-change coup in Ukraine eight years earlier. Victoria Nuland, at that time, was assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs (position rank No. 6 in the State Department structure), and it was she who coordinated this coup on the ground, thus earning the dubious title of “Mother of Maidan.”
You may recall Nuland’s famous utterance from around this time: “F— the E.U.” One would assume that using obscene language, especially against allies, should have led to her immediate resignation or at least demotion. Instead, President Barack Obama and secretary of state John Kerry did just the opposite by promoting her to the much higher (No. 3) position of under-secretary of state for political affairs.
One explanation is that she did a “good” job. The coup was successful: the pro-NATO Kyiv regime was installed and replaced the one that, despite being legally elected, was not interested in joining NATO.
Another possible reason was that during the coup, Nuland was in almost daily contact with V.P. Joe Biden, to whom Obama had given the Ukrainian portfolio. She admitted this in the same leaked phone conversation with the U.S. ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt. However, this admission was overshadowed by Nuland’s use of expletive language.
50
Ukraine and Russia/Donbas had been at open war for fifteen years. Shelling was common by Ukraine.
When Kosovo wanted independence from Serbia (Russian ally) the US came in on the side of the Muslim breakaways and against a Russian ally. And the Donbas no longer wanted to be ruled by Ukraine. But that was not to be allowed by the US or Germany or France or the UK.
As for Crimea, it was always Russian after being the Mongol muslim Khanate of Crimea, never Ukrainian except in name. A very odd gift by Kruschev, a Georgian with a Ukranian wife. In 1855 it was the very heart of Russia.
But when the totally Russian speaking Donbas/Crimea wanted to break away, the US is on the side of the Ukrainian government, no matter how bad the criminal Ukrainians were. So was France, UK, Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Czech, Austria, Poland, Finland.
Hundreds of billions gifted just to kill Russians. And as in WWII who really cares about the Ukranians anyway seems to be the line. How many on both sides are now dead, killed with American shells? 500,000? More than all US casualties in WWII. It’s just awful.
And everyone is testing their latest weapons on people who don’t matter.
The Russians remember 1812, 1855, 1918, 1941 and the cold war. As in the Crimean War, fought officially over the Keys to Jerusalem, which European country has not invaded Russia either directly or as an ally of the Nazis/Axis?
This is a war promoted and funded by the enemies of Russia and there are many. In the US, Russia is the eternal enemy, but even James Bond stopped blaming Russia. Not the Democrats. Now if the Russians had launched biological warfare on the West and killed millions, we would have had WWIII. No one minds the Chinese doing the same thing as they build the world’s biggest military machine. And the French built the bioweapons laboratory in Wuhan and the Americans funded it. Dr. Fauci knew all about it but kept it at arms length, but how much did he tell Donald Trump?
It is to be hoped that, as the President of Hungary just said publicly, Donald Trump can win and end this terrible war in a day. The same in Gaza. And before everyone blows up. There are really determined enemies in the world, but not Christian Russia. They are assailed on all sides and fighting for survival, as usual. And once again the German tanks are in Kiev.
Oh, what a lovely war.
140
Is It Possible to Actually Know What Has Been and Is Going On in Ukraine?
10
Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault
00
Julianne Smith is mooted to get her job, is she hawkish?
00
A scenario: Biden nukes a small Russian city with a low yield weapon. Putin then replies: Today the President of the USA exploded a nuclear bomb over Novorosti destroying the city. We, of course, must respond. To that I give you, Mr President, this list of 6 cities of equivalent size in the United States … and I give you 6 hours to choose which city that will be bombed in return.
Scott Ritter: Putin’s Brutal Warning to NATO has Macron in Panic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOJ07aU7u3M
40
Already been done in a movie
00
The very definition of a Swamp Creature.
00
Ah – as a badly colour blind person, I had been pointing out cars with a colour that I really disliked to my Wife – I thought it looked like Deep Pink, but she told me it was Grey
You Can Thank Rich Folks For All The Clay-Colored Cars
Internet Science Man Hank Green investigates why cars look like putty now
Oh, OK. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your dealership and select that lumpy grey 4Runner because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you drive around town.
But what you don’t know is that 4Runner is not just grey, it’s not silver, it’s not pale blue. It’s actually Lunar Rock. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2006 Lamborghini introduced a collection of Grigio Telesto supercars.
And then it was Audi, wasn’t it, that showed Nardo Grey in sports cars?
Then similar colors quickly showed up in the collections of eight different European automakers.
Then it filtered down through the coupes and sedans, then trickled on down into some tragic crossover, where you no doubt fished it out of some buy-here-pay-here lot.
However, that grey represents millions of dollars and countless jobs.
And it’s sort of comical how you think you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the automotive industry, when in fact you’re driving a vehicle that was selected for you by the people on this blog, from a pile of stuff.
OK, so I was paraphrasing Meryl Streep’s iconic Miranda Priestly from the groundbreaking also-from-2006 film The Devil Wears Prada a bit there.
But she was right about fashion, and I’m right about cars. You can blame the current trend of every car looking like putty on trends set in motion by rich folks and their buying habits.
50
Go broke?
Australian financial pages. The $125Bn superannuation fund UNISUPER with mainly academics, scientists, university staff had a super Green fund. Along the lines of get woke, go broke it has not done well.
From assets under management of $2.5bn in mid-2023, UniSuper’s Global Environmental Opportunities Fund — perhaps the greenest superannuation strategy in the market, and the most concentrated — has lost $700m, or a third of its value, largely on the back of weakness in the EV market.
INVESTMENT INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE
Tesla EV maker 🔽 33%
Samsung SDI Co EV battery maker 🔽 40%
Solaredge Technologies Solar power 🔽 72%
Vestas Wind System Wind turbine maker 🔼 8%
Enphase Energy Solar, EV charging stations 🔽 22%
Alstom Transport systems 🔽 56%
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co EV battery maker 🔽 31%
BYD Co EV maker 🔽 27%
Longi Green Energy Technology Solar power 🔽 25%
Clearly Green money is extremely volatile. More gambling than investing.
150
These funds include the University Scientists. The ones who say nothing about Wuhan Flu or man made CO2 driven Global Warming. There’s some irony in scientists protecting their jobs while their advisers put their money in loss making anti Global Warming schemes.
80
Solar becoming uneconomic.
‘But with one-third of New South Wales homes having rooftop solar and the number increasing, will energy providers stop paying for the often unneeded electricity being sent back to them?
“The amount of solar will sooner or later begin to exceed the actual capability of the network,” Sean Elphick from the Australian Power Quality Research Centre said.’ (ABC)
60
Eventually the grid operators must stop home solar exporting back to the grid. But this won’t totally solve the grid stability issues though.
20
Fixing a dead car battery by reverse charging it!
https://youtu.be/gnZvTQ-qZbQ?si=GhGLrmwkW1kkmZ19
Well, I didn’t expect that to work so well!
10
I saw that last night. Was not expecting that either.
I expect limited useful life as the plates will be structurally unsound.
00
Some shady car dealers in the 1960s used to fill a mostly-dead car battery with 100% acid. Would work long enough for the new owner to drive the car home.
10
This is an amazing short video.
This guy, I’m guessing in China, matches a paint colour by eye and mixes a batch of matching paint.
No spectrophotometric analysis, purely by eye.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/QfoP8xcwLRM47aqv/
20
Bring him to Oz and train the amateurs in the bodyworks industry who can’t match paint for sh#t.
No, it’s not the fact it’s plastic, or the static or the thermal characteristics, it’s YOU, the inept spraypainter, who can’t even match a Japanese spray robot.
The industry needs overhauling and has for decades. Gggrrr…
There is a guy my way who can match paint like the guy in the video but doesn’t do large jobs.
Anyway, it reminds me of the Royal Enfield hand striping guy from years ago.
https://youtu.be/oQ0SO8zwXWI?si=v6iTZqGhYRDef-Q7
Tradesmen with real skills are dying out.
10
I have seen it done at Carlisle TAFE in Perth. The lecturer looked at a colour and said a bit of orange, a bit of this and that and came up with the colour. Years of experience. Women are better colour matches than men. The colour perception is found on the X chromosone. Men have one X chromosoe where women have two. I was told by my painting and decorating teacher to ask women to choose and match colours on the colour cards. They tell me that there is a bit of orange or whatever. I believe them 🙂
70
Mark Levin: Our country is being destroyed
The Law
Frederic Bastiat
40
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Party in the USSR
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There is an issue of labelling which I would like to share.
Progressives. These are people who want to go back to the dark ages before steam engines which freed the slaves and meant that 95% of people did not have to work on farms. They want to introduce racism at every level to eliminate racism. They want to eliminate sex discrimination in eliminating the very ideas which allowed women to have freedom from male domination.
Populism. I read that popular conservative politicians are ‘populist’. Donald Trump for example. Make America Great is populist.
I would have thought populism was wonderful, that politicans want people to have what they want within the confines of practicality. But populism is derided as the uneducated red neck working classes having any say in government by people who know better, the elites of Canberra, Whitehall, Brussels, the UN/EU.
So we are presented with basically two parties, one of which is blatantly communist in league with China and the other which agrees that sexism, racism, environmentalism are more important than people’s rights. DEI, ESG, BLM, Transgender rights. Vegan rights.
And so the back room schemers of Canberra and the complicit politicians are framing and passing laws which the media don’t mention, like the appalling Safeguard Mechanism 2023 to make most companies pay 35% taxes on doing anything which involves generating CO2, which is everything they do. The journalists and business commentators say nothing. And the factories, farms, transport just shut down. And no one mentions it. Thousands of businesses close. Hundreds of hospitals close. The price of food goes through the roof. And petrol.
It’s all to save the planet because politicians now have a “Climate Policy”. If I was told this years ago, I would have laughed. Politicians in charge of the weather. Policiticians policing viruses. Politicians punishing farmers and manufacturers and workers?
It’s all so unbelievable. And there is no opposition. They have all been bought off. I can think of no other explanation.
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The young boy who disappeared in Sydney’s Auburn area has been found safe and presumably well.
Modern communication systems have done something good.
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We must end the Net Zero delusion before it’s too late
Enough of the pretence. The current path threatens our economy, society and democracy, and we urgently need a change of direction
ANNABEL DENHAM
Political obituaries will not be kind to Theresa May. But there is one unwritten law of modern British politics the former prime minister understood: you can be wrong on climate change, provided you are wrong in the right way.
Whisper that net zero by 2050 will have deleterious social and economic costs, and accusations of “denialism” will swiftly follow.
Yet warn that the “house is on fire” and the end time is at hand, and you’ll probably be given a book deal.
Not only did May commit the UK to the 2050 target, but in the years since she has doggedly called for the Government to move faster. Last year, just months before we became the first economy to halve emissions since 1990, she claimed we were “falling behind”.
Such attitudes are commonplace – and it will only get worse.
Pity the prime minister in charge in 2033, when the sixth “Carbon Budget” kicks in, or in 2035, when electricity will apparently be fully decarbonised.
A gulf now lies between the wishful thinking of the political class and economic reality, yet still the discourse is dominated by doomsday language and a worrying desire to silence dissent.
Consider the words of Climate Change Committee (CCC) boss Chris Stark, when asked for clarity over claims of a “mistake” (which it has denied) made by the body.
“How’s this,” he told his team, “kill it with some technical language.”
Like the clergy greedily collecting tithes from peasants unable to understand Latin, the green Blob seem to assume an unsuspecting public can be confused or shamed – usually both – into compliance.
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Kalinka – enjoy
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The Elites Can’t Stop Elon Musk. Alex Jones Explains Why.
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/10/mini-nuke-sites-decision-delayed-legal-fears/#:~:text=Great%20British%20Nuclear%20(GBN)%20has,may%20otherwise%20threaten%20to%20sue.
Another delay to the – eventual – British Small Nuclear Reactor ‘programme’ – if it may be called such.
“Contracts unlikely to be awarded before the next general election” – and that could be nine months away.
“In recent weeks, Tufan Erginbilgiç, chief executive of Rolls [Royce], which is seen as the frontrunner, warned that his company could build its first mini-reactor in Europe if ministers failed to speed up decision-making.”
Poland, – that would be my guess.
The UK is now incapable, it seems, of doing anything, except spend borrowed money.
And the bills for that will fall due soon.
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