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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“Matson Suspends Electric Vehicle Shipments Over Battery Fire Concerns”
https://gcaptain.com/matson-suspends-electric-vehicle-shipments-over-battery-fire-concerns/
“Matson, Inc. (NYSE: MATX), a leading U.S. carrier in the Pacific, has announced the immediate suspension of transporting electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles aboard its vessels, citing growing safety concerns related to lithium-ion batteries. “Due to increasing concern for the safety of transporting vehicles powered by large lithium-ion batteries, Matson is suspending acceptance of used or new electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles for transport aboard its vessels,” the company stated in a customer advisory. The decision follows several high-profile maritime incidents involving lithium battery fires, including the recent sinking of the Morning Midas in the North Pacific this June. The 600-foot vessel was carrying 3,159 vehicles, including 65 fully electric vehicles and 681 partial hybrid electric vehicles when smoke was detected from a deck carrying electric vehicles.”
My bold.
Coming soon to a ferry line near you? Or a tunnel – the thought of a battery fire in the Channel Tunnel horrifies me.
Auto
140
I would be very reluctant to use the channel tunnel these days. Mind you 40 minutes in the tunnel is better than being on a car ferry for three hours
61
???..It has been some years since i crossed the channel by car ferry, but when i last did it, the actual crossing( Dover-Calais) ferry time was under an hour ?
Has Covid , Brexit, made it that much longer ?
PS, nice to see the “Edit” function return …
But why does the log in not retain my name these days ?
30
There are numerous routes across the Channel by Ferry according to where you live.
My nearest port would be Plymouth. TO get to Roscoff in France takes 6 hours. TO Santander in Spain would take 20 hours. The advantage being you will not have a very long trek from Calais if you were heading to Western France or Spain. The disadvantage being that your car will be nestled next to EV’s for a long time.
20
Here is official Govt advice to Ferry operators from August 2023.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mgn-653-m-amendment-1-electric-vehicles-onboard-passenger-roll-onroll-off-ro-ro-ferries/mgn-653-m-amendment-1-electric-vehicles-onboard-passenger-roll-onroll-off-ro-ro-ferries–2
They seem to be suggesting there is a risk and operators need to mitigate it. See 2.4 onwards
00
Last and only time I did the crossing it was in a Jet/hydro foil. Don’t think the service lasted long.
10
Thought the actual tunnel part was only 20 mins. It seemed very short.
10
Its a great service and very slick but the time spent driving on to the train to actually driving off would be more than 20 minutes.
10
No, I meant that part of the Eurostar journey from Paris to London that was actually in the channel tunnel. Have done the trip a few times, last time in October 2023. Love it, will always go by Eurostar when I need to move between the continents.
00
AH Eurostar rather than the car train? Yes we went to Lille in April this year and the tunnel journey is very swift, as you say.
10
You are not alone. Last Sunday someone asked me if we had ever used the Channel Tunnel. My reply was that we never have and never would, citing the possibility of fire or terrorist attack. We have crossed the English Channel many times in the past, by ferry mostly but also by hovercraft.
10
They are making a wise choice, but how exactly will EV’s be transported, at least across the ocean in future?
In certain places they can be delivered by road.
When I was in Nepal I noticed large numbers of EVs being driven in convoy from China for delivery to Nepal and possibly northern India via the Chinese border.
Each car was driven individually.
This was not due to safety concerns but because Nepal is landlocked plus also the roads are so bad they will not accommodate car-carryibg trucks.
It meant of course you didn’t get a factiry-fresh vehicle but one that had been driven many kilometres over heavily potholed dirt roads.
Also, I’m not sure how you’d actually charge an EV in Nepal. The electric grid is so badly managed that there is regular load shedding, if you are even connected to the grid. And most people can’t afford a car of any kind, or even a motorcycle.
130
I don’t know if batteries can be completely isolated from the rest of the cars workings so there is nothing that can ignite. That would mean a substantial amount of putting everything back together at the receiving end of the journey but that is just unfortunate.
However it doesn’t solve what you do with cars that are fully working and drive onto car ferries or through tunnels or onto trains.
32
It is the Lithium Ion ‘batteries” themselves that are the problem
The “brew” inside each little battery nodule is akin to solid rocket fuel in that it essentially contains its own fuel and oxidizer. This is why you cannot readily extinguish them via the traditional means. Once the battery packs start to go up, the heat from the initial outbreak triggers more cells in the pack. This, in turn ignites the large quantity of assorted polymers used in the interior construction of the vehicle. the “smoke” / combustion gases are SERIOUSLY bad for your health.
“Ordinary” car fires are rare, per capita, . A lot of modern cars have polymer fuel tanks, thus, an “engine” fire may ignite the cabin interior and subsequently damage the fuel tank, releasing and igniting the fuel. Streams of burning fuel are hazardous to other vehicles and anyone near them.
However, a petrol / diesel fire can be controlled using CO2 (shock / horror) or dry powder extinguishers, because they occlude atmospheric oxygen, if used correctly.
Due to serious government criminal activity, the peasants are denied the best extinguisher of all to deal with car fires, that being the BCF type. These beasts will smother a magnesium / aluminium fire, as encountered during aircraft crashes. Water just evaporates from the heat. CO2 actually FEEDS a magnesium fire. (Basic high-school chemistry (in the good-old-days).
With the specific exceptions of airports and military use, BCF was a calculated victim of the madness condemning pretty much the entire CFC family. Another criminal plot.
120
Virgin Australia flight scare after mid-air fire en route to Hobart sparked by power bank
Virgin Australia has directed passengers to keep power banks within view at all times after a mid-air fire in an overhead locker, thought to have been sparked by a lithium battery power bank in carry-on luggage.
Flight VA1528 was descending into Hobart on Monday when smoke began seeping from an overhead locker and filling the cabin.
Cabin crew found a bag on fire in the locker, and used two extinguishers to smother the flames.
Like most carriers, Virgin Australia allows lithium batteries to be carried in cabin baggage, given the risk of fire can be better managed in the cabin as opposed to the cargo hold.
However, Virgin Australia indicated on Tuesday it was now asking passengers to keep power banks within sight and easily accessible at all times, and to not use power banks to charge devices while on board.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was gathering more information but was not expecting to launch a formal investigation into the fire because power banks are a “known risk” and it looked to have been appropriately managed by crew.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has previously issued a warning about flying with battery-powered devices, noting that the average passengers travelled with at least four lithium battery devices.
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I make sure to always buy the best quality power banks. I mostly use Nitecore. And physically protect them from hard knocks etc..
41
Sorry David, meant green.
21
“EVs being driven in convoy from China for delivery to Nepal.”
More like DUMPING EV’s in Nepal.
100
This is Toronoto, Canada.
70
Do you think Sussssssan Ley has what it takes to lead the Liberals to victory?
I doubt it.
She’s too woke.
A conservative Liberal Party is needed, not a woke one.
Leave wokeness to Labor/Greens/Teals.
I think the only chance is to get behind One Nation, Libertarian Party and the other conservative parties. You can still give your preferences to the fake conservative Libs so your vote won’t be wasted if your preferred conservative candidate doesn’t get in.
250
David:
Been there and done that for several elections. Although I put the Liberal list backwards because I didn’t like Birmingham as leader (fortunately he’s gone now).
90
Ley believes that dumping Nut Zero would lose them an election, how’s that for woke and deluded, no idea.
260
I think she’s another Turnbull.
180
The only way the Libs could possibly beat the ‘net zero’ hoax would be for them to start NOW, not wait for the next election. I suspect there are still too many voters who believe the whole sham, so it would probably cost them another election if they wait till then to really hoist their colours, especially given Labor’s expertise at manipulating the preference system.
So I would advise they go gangbusters right now, dismantling the whole corrupt scam with facts and evidence. They have a big opportunity to demonstrate net zero’s financial impacts with Australians struggling to deal with still-high inflation, not to mention grid reliability. A relentless campaign starting now – and not some wishy-washy each-way bet, but “Net Zero is Nuts’, and ‘Nuclear is the ONLY future’ messaging.
This could put them in pole position come the election and remove a contentious debating issue that Labor currently controls.
150
I would like to see the Libs do that also but I don’t t think it will happen under the leadership of Susan Ley.
80
I’ll not be voting for them while she is ‘leader’.
40
A few months ago I mentioned a DEI promoted “leader” of a certain section of a major Australian Government scientific research organisation.
I mentioned the implausibly high number of peer reviewed scientific papers that she had for a 30 year old and I suggested that she was probably a manager that demanded her name on all papers written by people working under her.
Well, it turns our I was correct.
My inside contacts in that department tell me that apparently, after she expressed unfamiliarity of certain work which had her name attached to it, she admitted she was not personally involved with the work.
271
Fighter pilot seeing the red mist (from a pulverised seagull strike).
https://www.twz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Bird-Strike-3.jpg
https://www.twz.com/air/eurofighter-typhoon-canopy-shattering-bird-strike-captured-in-amazing-images
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[singing] “Stop that pigeon, Stop that pigeon”
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Have you ever seen a baby pigeon?
10
No. Plenty of budgerigar, sparrow and others that had fallen from their nests but no pigeon.
00
The aircraft also has a shock collar suggesting it was flying transonic or supersonic.
10
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/farmers-no-longer-speaking-over-secret-wind-turbine-deals/news-story/27bc7a8c0d86aff7d05867de4b15d944
Binalong and Bowning wind farm: Farmers ‘no longer speaking’ over secret wind turbine deals
A regional NSW town is being torn apart after some landholders made confidential deals with a Net Zero company to host 260m turbines, while their neighbours missed out. Premier Chris Minns says the renewable energy transition must go ahead. See the map.
July 22, 2025
A leading Net Zero company made secret financial deals with landowners in a tiny NSW town, which has left neighbours at war and multi-generational farmers fearing for their future.
…
PAYWALLED
100
Is this some kind of joke?
A “scientific study” ranks the world’s top 10 funniest countries, and NZ didn’t make the list.
https://www.timeout.com/australia/news/a-scientific-study-just-ranked-australia-as-the-worlds-7th-funniest-country-who-beat-us-072125
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It’s an Australian publication – they’re still bowling dodgy underarm deliveries after all this time 😃
50
Next thing you’ll claim that Dennis Connor’s use of a catamaran to beat your monohull was dodgy.
Or that Pavlova isn’t Australian.
😉
00
“In America you can always find a party, in the Soviet union the party finds you” … Russian humour.
21
The American Express Card – Don’t Leave Home Without It.
The Russian Express Card – You Don’t Leave Home.
10
FWIW – Canada
“Diversity, Equity, Quackery”
Nurses asked to reject “white, European” medicine”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay4WzKpt9GU
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/07/22/the-doctor-will-kill-you-now-19/
70
FWIW – Latest Kunstler
“Merry Pranksters on Parade
“The forces behind this coup have done and will do anything to protect their grasp on illegal & illegitimate power.” — Stephen Miller”
“Let’s not pretend that RussiaGate was ever anything but a “treasonous conspiracy” and a “years’ long coup” as bluntly labeled by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on Friday. The election prank launched by Hillary Clinton’s campaign turned into an overt sedition op led by President Barack Obama to overthrow his elected successor, Donald Trump. DNI Tulsi Gabbard went even further and proffered criminal referrals on all this to the US Attorney General. If you think this is not extremely serious, you are not paying attention.”
Much more at
https://www.kunstler.com/p/merry-pranksters-on-parade
140
Thanks a i,
That’s quite a big call she’s made. I’ll be watching with great interest, and in hope that the blob is starting to wobble towards oblivion.
20
FWIW – A covid quote that never happened
“On AI And OUTRIGHT LIES”
“Karl Denninger:
Date: June 25, 2020
Source: Denninger’s blog, Market-Ticker.
Content: In a post titled “Spike Proteins, COVID and Vaccines”, Denninger raised specific concerns about the safety profile of spike-protein-based vaccines (like mRNA vaccines) under development. He argued the spike protein itself was pathogenic (“toxic”) and that using it as the antigen could trigger dangerous immune responses or other health issues, explicitly warning against taking such a vaccine. This is one of the earliest and most specific technical critiques of the emerging vaccine technology by a public figure.
Key Quote: *”If you are offered a vaccine against COVID-19 that is based on a spike protein, either as the antigen or the mechanism of generating the antigen (e.g. mRNA that causes your body to manufacture the spike protein) DO NOT TAKE IT.”*
This is allegedly from “Deepseek.”
There’s a problem: I can find no such article from June 25th, 2020 — or on any other date. That is, the specific cited title of an article on my blog does not exist and neither does the alleged “Key Quote.” ”
More at
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=253664
20
And
“‘Catastrophic’: AI Agent Goes Rogue, Wipes Out Company’s Entire Database”
https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/catastrophic-ai-agent-goes-rogue-wipes-out-companys-entire-database
40
I cannot see that AI is worth the amount of electricity it uses. I expect it will all crash once its burned through the investor’s money and people realise just how small the market for it is. It probably is cheaper to have those 700 Indians looking up Google and pretending to be an AI computer… They get a job, we get electricity.
00
“Nit Zero” works for me!
Nits are a measure of screen brightness, that of course requires massive amounts
of coal to produce. Also a nod to our Kiwi friends who tend to rush their vowels!
21
Dutch court orders removal of 78,000 solar panels near Schiphol to protect flight safety
A Dutch court has ordered the removal of 78,000 solar panels from a solar farm near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, citing a serious safety risk due to glare that blinded pilots during landings. The operator, De Groene Energie Corridor (DGEC), must remove half the panels by September 1, and the rest by October 15, or face penalties of up to €50 million.
The panels caused repeated closures of the Polderbaan runway 18R-36L, including 13 times in March alone.
https://www.aviation24.be/airports/amsterdam-schiphol-ams/dutch-court-orders-removal-of-78000-solar-panels-near-schiphol-to-protect-flight-safety/
Wednesday singalong: Blinded by the light…
120
I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that
SaaS industry veteran Jason Lemkin’s attempt to integrate artificial intelligence into his workflow has gone spectacularly wrong, with an AI coding assistant admitting to a “catastrophic failure” after wiping out an entire company database containing over 2,400 business records.
What followed was perhaps even more disturbing. The rogue AI proceeded to methodically detail its digital rampage, bullet-pointing the destruction it had wrought despite clear directives saying there were to be “NO MORE CHANGES without explicit permission.” And according to Lemkin, appeared to lie about its actions.
https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/catastrophic-ai-agent-goes-rogue-wipes-out-companys-entire-database
40
“Smithers, release the Luddites!”
Send in the Tolpuddle Martyrs too!
https://www.britannica.com/event/Tolpuddle-Martyrs
00
I told you my ChatCPT lied to me in elaborate manner, when caught she apologised and created even more intricate story with names and dates and events, all fabricated but with lots of real ones woven in between .
Took me half an hour to prove to myself that I had no False Memory Syndrome because, at that stage, I did not trust Google either, so I actually downloaded couple of books I was originally inquiring about, found the right pages in the text, etc,..
And all started when I asked an innocent simple question – couple of phrases, mentioned in those books.
50
Not many people have your tenacity Vlad, most would just think…”That’s strange I remember it differently.. Oh well, on with life.”
00
“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”
– Albert Einstein
“Politicians cause them”
– JC2
50
Farming giant rats for food in Thailand
https://youtu.be/kXaiVx5xvSo?si=pG6thMzGyS7kqMSH
*Content warning*
Given a choice of rats or bugs I’ll take rattus rattus.
30
There is a frenzied effort among climate modellers to get the models to reduce clouds. I pointed out in 2023 that the CERES data proved that changes in the radiative balance were due to reduction in cloud at all latitudes apart from a small region in Antartica and a few degrees north of the Equator:
https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-105.png?ssl=1
So, rather than OLR reducing as the climate models predicted, it increased. They never admit the models are dead wrong. They now claim they had the cloud feedback too low rather than the CO2 heat retention wrong. And there is a mad scramble to adjust the models to show a positive feedback to increasing CO2. This is one of many examples:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2024GL113316
This shows how clouds (ice in the sky) is now the main game:
So now clouds are the main game not the heat trapping nature of CO2 but the clouds are a response to CO2 heat trapping, which is not evident ion the data. But it is the heat trapping from more CO2 that is reducing the clouds. We did not get clouds quite right but remain 100% certain that heat trapping CO2 is the fundamental cause of less cloud and climate change.
I wonder how long this charade or scam can continue. Hopefully Trump pulling the plug on the funding for morons get science back into understanding climate and how it will change.
I came across this interesting image yesterday:
https://polarportal-prod.dmi.dk/api/v1/serve-image/mass?image_name=Grace_combine_Sm_EN_20240500.png
It shows how Greenland is gaining altitude in the north-central region as I have predicted. The warming oceans increase atmospheric water and any location below 0C gets more snow. Glaciation of the NH will be top down then north to south as the ice mountains build.
You will never see a press release that Greenland is gaining altitude. You may even see some suggest the gain in altitude is due to surface rebound due to less ice. But the ice is getting thicker in the middle.
When the spin doctors can no longer keep Greenland’s reality hidden, the climate modellers will come out and say they did not get snowfall quite right. But CO2 is still the cause of Global Warming™.
60
We all know that clouds can warm or cool, depending on a range of conditions. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the IPCC models “hard-code” a guess for the effect of clouds, and this guess is that clouds always warm. If I’m correct, I believe this is a major failure of these models.
20
The early modelling just fixed the amount of sunlight taken out by clouds but there has been increasing effort to include cloud parameters to give more degrees of freedom in the models. That mean they have a better chance of tracking the historic ups and downs during the model training. It does not improve predictive capability because they just correlate warming to CO2, which is nonsense.
The number of papers dealing with cloud modelling in GCMs has exploded since it was observed that clouds are reducing. So all after the event. It was never predicted. But the lunatics will tell you that their models are fundamentally right about CO2 and just need some tuning for cloud feedbacks.
40
Ok, thanks for the update Rick. The moment they say “ the model just needs tuning”, that starts to show on my bs meter. Because surely if they retune their model, in another vain attempt to match reality, it would no longer successfully hindcast. Which surely means that before the retuning, the model was useless and should have been discarded, or removed from all earlier predictions.
20
Just like Cosmology.
There must be some little tweek we can make and save our Great Hypothesis.
We are Great Scientist.
It can’t possibly be that we’ve been way off the whole time.
I know I sound like the looping repeating add content on social media …
but Pandemic made it clear that the educated intelligentsia have devolved into the primary threat to the survival of the species.
20
Big book Wednesday!
“Birds of America”,1828, a double elephant folio:
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_szsk1aFu4T1z23obp.mp4
Ha ha. That’s not a book. THIS is a book!
Everyone heard of the Codex Gigas?
92cm tall, weighing 74kg, has 640 pages and created in the 13th century, it’s a tome of all knowledge at the time and took decades of painstaking work to complete.
Currently in the National Library of Sweden if anyone fancies a look.😎
Digital version: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667604
30
The Audubon Society has been putting up a good fight in the U.S. against wind turbines, and has successfully prosecuted a wind turbine company over exceeding their allotted “kill rate” of endangered bird species, mainly the Golden Eagle.
70
How does anyone do business in Australia today?
I rang my Gas Retailer as my next Gas Meter read is due in August plus or minus 5 days on date suggested
As I have a 4 Year Neurotic Female Beagle, who wants to savage anyone who comes into the Front Yard where she sunbakes, when Rear Pack Family are at Work & School during the week
I wanted to suggest that the Meter Reader SMS me the day before the reading and I would make sure side gate locked and Beagle in Back yard
I also suggested that I could take a photo of the Gas Meter on the required Day and email them that photo
I waited 30 Mins 5 Secs for someone to answer.
At least it was not the 50 Mins my Bank took to answer with nonstop “Your Call is most Important to Us” Playing, or 1 Hr 12 Mins for Federal Govt Dept to answer and not be able to help – question then answered correctly by Brave Leo AI – should have started there.
Have emailed Gas Distributor NSW who do Meter Readings with request
80
FWIW
“These Are The World’s Most Critical Oil Chokepoints”
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/these-are-worlds-most-critical-oil-chokepoints
Strait of Malacca and oil supplies to Oz?
30
FWIW
“Energy Secretary Chris Wright to IEA: Reform or the US Exits”
“However, like other major global institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the IEA has strayed far from its original charter, as I have written about extensively (here, here and here). Over the past decade or so, it has morphed into a mouthpiece for the progressive-Leftist establishment, particularly the Brussels-based European Union elite and the US Democratic Party, peddling climate alarmism and promoting unrealistic ‘Net Zero’ policies aligned with the Paris Agreement. This ideological capture has undermined its credibility.
On Tuesday, the US Energy Secretary Chris Wright expressed his determination to either reform the IEA or withdraw from it — taking with it 18% of the agency’s budget. Mr Wright’s threat is a clarion call for accountability for an institution that should once again be made fit-for-purpose. This move is not an isolated act but part of a broader counter-revolution in energy policy under President Donald Trump’s administration. President Trump and his senior policy team seek to dismantle the politicised narratives that have infiltrated global institutions.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/22/energy-secretary-chris-wright-to-iea-reform-or-the-us-exits/
40
Think of the budgetary benefits of withdrawing funds from this lot plus the UN.
Trump )aka Daddy) alone is far more influential in the world arena than any of these groups. He is killing NetZero as well as climate fear mongering.
10
Looks like the Coalition split is on again, its an agrarian revolution. Nats give the finger to Net Zero.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/ley-holds-the-line-on-climate-as-nationals-go-rogue-again-20250723-p5mh8x
31
We can only hope sense prevails and they join PHON on many of the issues.
PHON made a great point by turning their backs on the welcome to country. And I was impressed with Katter’s allegiances to the people he represents rather than the King of England.
70
Susssan Ley did a mature age degree so she would have been had the global warming hoax shoved down her throat. Also a Masters Degree. If you are a climate realist it is hard to survive in the Uni situation.
50
I was living in Tasmania in 2008 and was going to do a degree in Antarctic Studies but didn’t because I couldn’t stand the compulsory Global Warming cr*p even then.
10
FWIW
“Close the door – they’re coming through the widow”
“Substack, we have a problem”
https://tomknighton.substack.com/p/substack-we-have-a-problem
00
FWIW
“ICE, ICE Baby Isn’t Just for Immigration; American Automakers Pivoting Back to Gasoline-Powered Cars
GM has announced a $4 billion plan to expand production of internal combustion engine (ICE) trucks and SUVs, while Stellantis is bringing back gas-powered engines for the Dodge Charger.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/07/ice-ice-baby-isnt-just-for-immigration-american-automakers-pivoting-back-to-gasoline-powered-cars/
Via https://instapundit.com/733728/#disqus_thread
20
FWIW
Imports needing closer inspection you might think?
“A Saudi asylum seeker living in Germany went on national television to assert that refugees aren’t killing enough German citizens in terror attacks.”
https://modernity.news/2025/07/22/he-actually-said-this/
30
FWIW
“Eh? Gawd!”
“Another Day, Another Model of Future Climate Doom”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/23/another-day-another-model-of-future-climate-doom/
10
20