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Friday

9.2 out of 10 based on 13 ratings

83 comments to Friday

  • #
    skeptikal

    Recall notice issued for some Tesla battery systems.

    Tesla said they have found some lithium-ion battery cells from a third-party supplier in some Powerwall 2 systems could fail and overheat.

    https://www.9news.com.au/technology/tesla-battery-recall-powerwall-2-australia/23d98ccb-f59a-4565-abf0-4a6b2606e31b

    .
    If you’re a Powerwall 2 owner, I hope you’re a light sleeper.

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    • #
      John F. Hultquist

      Have a sensor as part of the package that blares a warning at the early stage of a failure. A Powerwall ranges from $8K to $16K so a system to alert failure would hardly be noticed in the price.

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      • #

        Plus evacuation plan and prep to go with the warning.

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        • #
          Eng_Ian

          And a decontamination plan including the costs from neighbours several doors down. And don’t forget the damage that can occur should a child be exposed to those fumes and the lifelong care that would need to be provided.

          It’s only a small part of the bill….. You can get insurance for that. Or can you?

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      • #
        Graeme4

        Having installed a smoke alarm over my e-bike charging area in my remote garage, I’m now looking at installing a wireless-linked smoke alarm that will also trigger the home alarms. I’ve also confirmed that our townhouse garages have separate firewalls, so hopefully a fire in one garage won’t spread to neighbouring garages.

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        • #
          Eng_Ian

          When the building code calls for/requires fire walls, they are usually deemed compliant if the wall is even as low as 30/30/30, which means that the wall will remain structurally compliant for 30 minutes, the wall will not allow flame and hot gases to spread beyond the wall for 30 minutes and the final 30 relates to the number of minutes that the far side of the wall must not get too hot.

          So if you have a 30/30/30 wall and your fire goes longer than 30 minutes, then all bets are off.

          And as a final kicker, this is rated against a NORMAL house fire, fueled by the goods inside a NORMAL house. If you store lithium ion batteries, then you can be assured that the fire will be hotter and the 30/30/30 may be a lot less.

          It all comes down to certified testing. How long before the building control groups around the world start asking for re-rating based on lithium ion fires instead of a couple of burning newspapers, a couple of chairs and a table?

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          • #
            Graeme4

            Hmmm, you raise some interesting points. I doubt that our garages would meet this rating, given that the garage roof is supported by timber beams. As our garage ceilings are sealed, I cannot check whether the firewalls are fully sealed, but I doubt that they are.

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  • #

    Recall due to fire hazard for many European Stellantis brands

    Stellantis has to order more than 750,000 vehicles of its brands Peugeot, Opel, Citroën, Fiat and DS to the workshop worldwide due to a fire risk caused by gasoline. In Germany, 85,642 cars are affected, most of them naturally from the best-selling brands Opel and Peugeot.

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    • #
      Tonyb

      It sounds a very easy fix. A nut merely needs to be tightened so it was sloppy assembly in the first place. The tesla matter however seems to be a design fault

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  • #
    TdeF

    I expect Albanese’s demand that half of all cars sales are electric cars by 2035 is electoral suicide.

    Up to now politicians have been very careful to hide all the CO2 taxes in electricity prices and now in goods and services through the appalling RET and Safeguard Mechanism taxes, but a direct assault on car travel costs is madness.

    I can only assume Albanese is under direct pressure from his bosses in China to buy millions of Chinese electric cars when they are clogging ports around the world and sales are dropping and subsidies are stopping. Once again they can threaten to stop purchases of Australian coal and iron ore, both of which are turned into CO2 in China. So it’s a deal which makes no logical sense for Australia as a major exporter of CO2. All our exports turn into CO2 because we make nothing as all manufacture is critically dependent on cheap energy which we had until Climate Change stole it.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      What have the Liberals (fake conservatives) said about it?

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    • #
      Eng_Ian

      And if the carrot doesn’t work, use the stick.

      There is no way that car sales will continue into 2035 with rules like that. Expect people to buy up big in 2034 and then abandon the markets for a decade.

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      • #
        Graeme4

        EV car sales in Australia have only increased by around 0.7% in the last 12 months to 9.5%, and around 50% won’t replace their EV with another EV. There is no way that figure will rise to 50% by 2035.

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    • #
      Chad

      I can only assume Albanese is under direct pressure from his bosses in China to buy millions of Chinese electric cars …..

      Albo’ doesnt buy cars, he can only try to influence the public buyers with scary statements and tax manipulation.
      Sadly, it seems many buyers are unaware of that manipulation of their decision, or the consequences of supporting the Chinese economy.

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  • #
    Honk R Smith

    The Progs are really upset about getting canceled and fired for comments about Charlie Kirk.
    I know, who ever heard of such outrages before?
    Unprecedented.

    It occurs to me this attitude parallels their views about self-defense.
    If a criminal hits you and you hit back, then you are also a criminal.
    Two criminals.
    But oddly, only one victim.

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    • #
      Steve

      As usual, they are blaming Trump for stuff he had nothing to do with.

      A few months they claimed he got Stephen Colbert cancelled, but I have seen nothing from NBC that points the finger at the Trump administration for pressuring them to take Colbert off the air. NBC says they cancelled his show for fiscal reasons, which is very believable given the cratering of late-night talk show ratings over the past decade. His show cost a lot to produce and brought very little in the way of income. Why pay $100MM for an expensive talk show when you can get similar ratings airing reruns of old shows from your network for free?

      Now, similar claims are being made that Trump got Kimmel canceled, again with absolutely no evidence that the Trump administration pressured the network. Instead, it was local affiliates who contacted the network and said they aren’t going to air his show anymore. You can’t sell ads to a show local stations aren’t willing to air, so once again it comes down to economics. Why pay to produce an expensive late-night talk show with very little financial return? Why no just air reruns instead?

      IMO, these cancellations are just the logical progression of what began when James Cordon’s Late-Late Show got cancelled for financial reasons back in 2023. He was actually the first domino to fall, not Colbert, and Trump was not in office when it happened so no one got worked up into a lather over his cancellation. Now it’s just a matter of time before the rest of the network tv late night talk show circuit also gets the axe. Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers had better be updating their resumes.

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    • #
      Strop

      They should be upset. You don’t teach tolerance to other people’s opinions by not tolerating them.
      Sure, there are some positions out there that require public confidence and their position can be untenable if they do or say things that undermines that confidence.

      Although the irony or hypocrisy in the reactions by those getting sacked is very high. They celebrate Kirk getting killed for expressing his opinions but they complain about getting sacked for expressing theirs.

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  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Wars, rumours of wars, earthquakes, green cars exploding – but enough of the climate!

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/573478/mp-benjamin-doyle-farewells-parliament-calls-it-a-hostile-and-toxic-place

    NZ’s 1st ‘non-binary’ 50/50 takatapuhi whanau (rainbow family) Member of Parliament gave his/her/their valedictory speech yesterday, quitting after less than a year on the job as a Greens Party seat-warmer (not that anyone voted for him/her/them) the shortest stint of any member in the country’s parliamentary history (or should that be theirstory?).

    Benji, as his more intimate friends called him, was embroiled in controversy earlier this year after posting dubious comments online: each to their own but leave the kids out of it. The resulting brouhaha saw Benji run for cover and hide, culminating in the decision to leave the job, becoming the fifth (5th!) Greenie to be replaced since the last election, which they lost.

    If you’re a straight white male, it’s all your/our fault.

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  • #
    Sambar

    Don’t ya love how government can take any issue and advertise that they will “fix” a problem then just screw up the whole deal.
    Just go back a few years to covid, Victoria was running out of nurses so Dear Leader Dan declared that all nursing courses at university would be free.
    Know a young lady that has always wanted to be a nurse from the beginning of high school, goes into nursing three years ago, graduates this year and simply cannot get a graduation year posting, the reason, too many graduates. It appears that 60% of all grads will NOT find a hospital to work their grad year. Talk about how to crush young peoples ambitions in a single blow. Oh sure these grads can all go into the casual system where you may or may not work close to home, consistently or at the same establishment for very long. Make sure you don’t develop friendships with mentors and keep you locked at the low end for well, ever. I suggested just keep studying for extra specialities like midwifery, surgical nursing etc. sorry can’t do that, you won’t be accepted without doing a grad year!
    What a flaming screw up. I suspect that the issue is not too many nurses, but rather not enough money to pay for them. Oh well, our government has more important priorities like windmills and Chinese tourists. I guess more nurses just simply cannot supply the wealth needed to keep retiring polls happy.

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    • #
      Red Gear

      Without being cavalier, perhaps some of the graduates should investigate overseas postings. I could be wrong, but there may be a significant shortage in some places in the U.S., for example.

      And, I’m not discussing “blue” cities or states, but just regular places. (Family) Nurse Practitioners are in especially high demand in more rural areas (tend to be ‘red’ and mostly safe). Investigate if some places would be willing to assist w/ the additional training to become an FNP. Travel and transition costs may also find some level of subsidy.

      Nice thing about the medical field, it’s an entirely portable skill. People are just about the same everywhere.

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    • #
      Jock

      Unintended consequences. I’m surprised so many got through. There is a high drop out rate.
      And in any event the Victorian government needs to ensure that there are enough bureaucrats to count the bedpans. That’s the important stuff.
      The question is , why is Allen not guaranteeing the grad year? If they want nurses. Or did they just want cheaper AIN??

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      • #
        Sambar

        It’s all sound bite stuff Jock. A problem arises and a politician speaks about fixing it. That’s it job done. Never a critical review never a cost benefit analysis never follow up by the media, just make a statement and move on. Apparently the great unwashed have very very short memory spans so it’s not a problem.
        Nursing shortage, problem fixed, housing crisis, problem fixed, power bill reductions, don’t worry we will give you a rebate, renewables are cheap and reliable, coal power is the most unreliable form of generation, new mention that it worked so very well for 100 years prior to the idiocy. Youth crime in Victoria, not a problem says Dick- tater Dan. Just don’t own anything nice cause someone can take it.
        The list is quite endless.

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    • #
      another ian

      FWIW – try this in spades!

      Flights fiasco makes Britain a global laughing stock”

      But more blame coming up for Trump

      “The contrast between Trump and Starmer could not be sharper. The President oozes conviction, principles, beliefs and a determination to impose his weltanschauung on the US. By contrast, we have a straw premier, twisting and bending in the wind. A leader unloved and mocked, not only by the population at large but even by his own party who realise that he is a liability, hopelessly out of touch, unable even to effect the most basic of acts.”

      And more

      https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-failure-to-deport-just-one-illegal-immigrant-makes-britain-a-global-laughing-stock/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-09-19&utm_campaign=TCW+Daily+Email

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  • #

    Oz offshore wind still slow to go.
    https://www.offshorewind.biz/2025/09/16/victorian-govt-delays-launch-of-first-offshore-wind-auction/

    Love the part about wind “replacing” coal. Occasionally?

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    • #
      RickWill

      Love the part about wind “replacing” coal.

      Wind is one of the transition generators in Australia. It helps displace coal as observed in SA:
      https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=all&interval=1M&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed
      Coal ended in 2016 as the wind was ramping up.

      The end game in Australia is rooftops. The bright yellow portion of the chart. The end game gets clearer when you look at the most recent data for SA:
      https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=7d&interval=30m&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed
      Rooftops supplied the entire state last Sunday and is displacing grid solar and grid wind. The duck curve will gradually disappear as batteries are installed and the wholesale market collapses in South Australia. The stability issues are now managed with synchronous condensers and batteries.

      Of course you end up competing for the highest grid energy prices in the world and you have to liberate yourself from the grimy energy intensive industries, which includes training artificial intelligence.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Wonder what this day (Thursday or Friday) will make of those figures, with overcast weather predicted.
        South Australia is dependent on Victorian brown coal and some diesel. The weird Victorian Govt. is trying to stop those brown coal stations because they make the cheapest electricity in the country.
        And around my place of abode the supermarkets are, or have installed, diesel generators.
        Nevermind SA might rely on hydrogen (not just fat, obese luck).

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        • #

          Rick, c’mon. You know better than that. SA did not end coal in 2016. It blew up their last coal plant, but kept right on depending on Victorian Brown coal and still does.

          SA is still coal fired.

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      • #
        Robert Swan

        Rick Will,

        You keep saying this sort of thing, but it’s not at all convincing. Nothing personal. I suspect many JoNovians will be sceptical of experts telling them the future.

        The weakest part of your reasoning is that you assume there’ll be no change of policy. As Jo’s article yesterday pointed out, Australia is pretty much the last country still saying full steam ahead. Is it not conceivable that we might issue a full reverse sometime in the future, if not by our politicians, then by whoever takes over our impoverished nation?

        All that’s needed for us to love the grid again is for it to go back to being a source of cheap, reliable electricity. That’s it.

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        • #
          Graeme4

          And it’s worthwhile remembering that many, if not most, predictions of the future fail, in many cases because other factors that weren’t initially considered have come into play.

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          • #
            ozfred

            Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones

            An answer United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave to a question at a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) news briefing on February 12, 2002,

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        • #
          RickWill

          The weakest part of your reasoning is that you assume there’ll be no change of policy.

          No I don’t assume that.

          More than a decade ago, I started pointing out that the grid was effectively stuffed in 2000 by introducing the RET. The RET enabled intermittent generation into the grid on highly favourable terms. I could see the end game because wind and solar are ubiquitous in Australia and anyone with a roof can collect and use solar at lower cost than it can be done at grid level.

          South Australia is now the best example in the whole world of how it will play out with rooftops rapidly displacing the large scale generators. The more people who realise this, the greater the push to restore sanity. The highest grid prices in the world and the fastest abondonment of the grid.

          The NEM has 5-minute bidding intervals. The electricity market has degraded to a craps shoot wholly inconsistent with being an essential, life-preserving service. Until it gets back to at least daily scheduling with guaranteed supply at bid capacity, it will remain a craps shoot.

          The more people who see the end game for Australia, the faster the required policy shift. Obviously most of the Liberals have not worked this out. They also are proponents of the climate scam.

          I pointed this out in my submission to the Finkel enquiry but it had no impact and not many understood. I believe now that more can also see the end game and know the grid is stuffed without rule changes..

          30

          • #
            Robert Swan

            RickWill,

            … the grid is stuffed without rule changes.

            I don’t think I’ve seen you include those last three words before. I hope you’ll continue to include them, since getting rule changes is one of the things Jo Nova’s forum is meant to be about: a perfectly good civilization is going to waste.

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            • #
              RickWill

              I don’t think I’ve seen you include those last three words before.

              You must not have been reading what I have written. I have stated it many times on this site and others. Including submission to recent report produced by Blackouts mob.

              It is the obvious fix. At present rate AEMO will disappear up its own clacker. AEMO are heading toward a billion dollar budget to manage the circus they have created. When that is on top of falling wholesale demand there is a real economic problem.

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              • #
                Robert Swan

                RickWill,

                You must not have been reading what I have written.

                I’ve read many of your comments saying how the grid has no future, but I admit I didn’t read your submission, where you did indeed say that “the electricity market can be easily fixed”. I agree.

                However, a quick scan of your comments in recent open threads turned up this from Tuesday and this from Monday, both of which talk about the dire situation of the grid, but say nothing about any simple solution. I know you’ve made a good few other comments with the grid is dead theme.

                But from what you say today, I’ve misunderstood you. I have to admit that the sense I got from your many comments on the dying grid was that you were urging us to line up for subsidised solar and batteries; to embrace the inevitable and get ready to cater for ourselves off-grid. Maybe my mistake came from how you’ve told us you’re well down this path yourself.

                From my own perspective, things will have to get a *lot* worse before I follow you down that path. Getting the grid fixed is (as you said in your submission) simple. Which means pushing for policy change is both easier and cheaper than spending squillions (even with taxpayer assistance) on building my own power station.

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              • #

                One of the big problems with the current market is that rooftop solar owners get subsidies and are protected artificially from negative prices at lunchtime, though that is starting to change as feed in tariffs begin to add a few tiny charges in Sydney. If they were subject to those negative prices they would switch off their solar to avoid being charged for production at lunchtime. Soon perhaps there will be Apps to turn off solar when prices go negative.

                Obviously this doesn’t apply to (subsidized) battery owners.

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  • #
    RickWill

    A question for anyone knowledgable on the solar system. Which century and decade for the position of the planets in the solar system shown in linked image?
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ihmotUeIMU8DWMnJ8ZnyPjgOL6jYBOS4/view?usp=sharing

    00

    • #
      Eng_Ian

      It’s close to 1647.

      https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar

      Neptune orbits in about 165 years, Uranus in 84 years. So Uranus should ‘catch’ up wit Neptune in slightly less than 2 orbital periods.

      If you use the simulator, you can step back through these outer planet alignments until all are about in the right space.

      Good luck.

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      • #
        RickWill

        Almost spot on – late 1648.

        I have now refined my sunspot predictor and get very high correlation with variation in Sun orbital velocity:
        https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r9GEuaAExUkzDr5K8ej-_NunXCdkJxJL/view?usp=sharing
        Correlation is 87%. So about as good as could be hoped to get with a single factor correlation.

        So I now realise that when the velocity is close to average and the orbit radius is close to average, the sunspot activity will be low. When Uranus and Neptune are both opposed to Saturn, the Sun’s orbit is essentially just balancing Jupiter so close to circular at average radius and speed.

        The alignment will be similar in 2185 but not in direct opposition as 1648.

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        • #
          Eng_Ian

          What is sun orbital velocity?

          If you are referring to the speed that a planet orbits the sun, then assuming that ‘e’ isn’t too big, shouldn’t this number be an almost constant?

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        • #
          Eng_Ian

          Orbital velocity Min divided by Orbital velocity Max is approximately equal to (1-2e), where e is the orbital eccentricity.

          So for Jupiter Vmin/Vmax = 1-2×0.0489 = 0.90. In simple terms 10% less speed at the perigee compared to the apogee.

          Or do you mean the sun’s eccentricity? How is that measured/defined?

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          • #
            RickWill

            Or do you mean the sun’s eccentricity? How is that measured/defined?

            The Sun velocity relative to the barycentre. The 3D diagram in the image I linked to shows how the orbit varies. The higher the radius, the faster the velocity. The Sun does not rotate around the barycentre so eccentricity is a meaningless parameter for its orbit.

            You can download the position and velocity data for the Sun from JPL Horizons app. I have doubts about the starting conditions used for the Sun but the planets are easy to get far more accurately.

            The chart showing the solar cycles was produced using the JPL force data but using slightly different initial conditions for position and speed of the Sun. I get more concentric orbits than JPL and so far my orbit has not short circuited the barycentre like the JPL model produces.

            There is work constantly being done to improve the numerical model of the Solar System.

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            • #
              Eng_Ian

              The sun does revolve around the barycentre. I found a good link that shows the barycentre with a varying magnitude, as you would expect for a multiple body system.

              Instead of the orbital velocity, which seems a secondary effect, why not just compare the sunspot numbers to the magnitude of the barycentre?

              This site gave a good explanation of the effect.

              https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/44851/is-the-barycenter-of-the-solar-system-usually-outside-of-the-sun

              It should be easy to calculate the barycentre magnitude. If you do a relatively simple balancing study of the mass of the planets at their relative angular position and distance and use the sun and the barycentre magnitude to make it balance.

              For example in a One planet, One sun system, the barycentre would be simple to calculate, it is based on the mass at a distance for the planet, say Mp x Pd and this must equal Msun x Barycentre distance.

              For a multi planet system, it would be easy to calculate the planet mass by considering the balance in two directions, North South and East West. The NS result would be a multiple of Sin(of the planet position) and Cos of the angle for the east west orientation. The result will require the sun to provide some balance in the forward backward and ALSO the east west directions. Obviously, the balance point for the Sun will reside off to the opposite side of the majority of the planets. I have shown this for cartesian coordinates, you could also resolve using radial coordinates, the maths would be easier but the explanation may have been harder, (not knowing your maths level)

              On some rare occasions, the planets MAY balance to a zero barycentre distance. If say Jupiter is at say zero degrees and Neptune and Uranus are scattered at say +- 120 degrees.

              Anyway, that is my two bobs worth.

              It would also be interesting to note where on the ‘Flower’ plot that the Carrington event happened. eg. Was it at the tip of one of the long nodes?

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Can’t say, but it wasn’t the 20’s of 1500-1600.

      That was when the Soothsayers (the climate scientists of their day) had planets lined up in the constellation of Pisces (the water carrier) which meant the world would be flooded.
      Supposedly 20,000 people went absent from London on the nominated day and went they got a little bit upset afterwards the Soothsayers claimed a slight error in calculations and said the flooding would actually be a 100 years later (it wasn’t).
      So know you know why they were really climate scientists (check out all the predictions by current climate scientists that have come true).

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    • #
      KP

      Yes, late Oct 1647 looks like that image. I used https://www.theplanetstoday.com/

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Isn’t it amazing that we can check something like that online without consulting ephemerides or doing orbital mechanics calculations.

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      • #
        Eng_Ian

        I could have done it using excel if you liked.

        All you have to do is allocate an orbital period for each planet, their current angular position, (use any fixed star as a zero point), and then step back through time until the positions match the image.

        But it was quicker to play on a simulation programme. If I needed verification or a precise check, then it’s excel. Since this wasn’t my problem to resolve, my level of interest only lasted long enough to determine the cycle time for the two outer planets, which due to their longer orbital periods, was more of a starting point, then looking at the inner planets which would individually align every year or two. You exclude a lot more years by using longer period planets.

        I suppose most people here would have attacked this the same way, if they really needed the answer.

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        • #
          John Connor II

          I’m wondering why RickW wanted to know in the first place…

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        • #
          RickWill

          It is worth noting that JPL have regularly updated their numerical model of the solar system. I expect the movement of the Sun is hardest to nail because it has such small movement relative to its size. So hard to establish the initial conditions.

          I also realise that our sunspot count is distorted by the moving platform we observe the Sun from. If the activity was equal across the surface then it would not matter but we can only see one side of the Sun that has different speeds of rotation across latitudes at the surface and differing orbital speed. To do an exact count, we would need to observe both asides of the sun simultaneously. Or better still, three viewing platforms at 120 degrees apart.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Jacinta Allan, Victoriastan Premier, has just blown an unknown amount of (presumably) taxpayer money purchasing four more tunnel boring machines from China to work on her, and her predecessor, Dictator Dan’s, pet project, the useless suburban rail loop.

    She is still in China and apparently signed us up to the Belt and Road initiative of Chins even though the Feds said states couldn’t do that and cancelled the deal last time Victoriastan did that under Dictator Dan.

    I can’t find a non-paywalled article but heard it on Their ABC Radio.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      And in any case, shouldn’t such an expensive purchase be put out to competitive tender?

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      • #
        Eng_Ian

        Hell yes.

        Why couldn’t I bid to sell them a TBM or two. There has to be a 200% minimum mark up on that, even before it hits the wharf at the supplier end.

        And of course, it won’t be designed and built in Oz. We just don’t have the power any more to weld big bits of steel. Too soon…. give it a couple of years.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        I am not a Musk fan and I’m more than a little sceptical of his boring company, but if I were buying 4 machines I would buy an air ticket and check it out.

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    • #
      el+gordo

      This is ostensibly a trade delegation, nothing to do with the Belt and Road Initiative. The Premier is taking half a dozen MPs who have electorates with large Chinese populations, realpolitik.

      In light of imminent regime change in Beijing, her timing is perfect.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

    George Orwell, 1984

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Cocoa extract may slow aging process by reducing chronic inflammation

    A rigorous two-year U.S. study of nearly 600 older adults has found that a daily dose of cocoa extract significantly reduced a key marker of chronic inflammation. This research provides some of the strongest evidence yet that plant-based compounds can directly counter the process of “inflammaging,” the gradual rise in inflammation associated with heart disease, frailty and numerous other age-related conditions.

    The benefits were not uniform across all participants. They were most pronounced in those who started the study with higher levels of baseline inflammation. For individuals with hsCRP levels of 10 mg/L or higher—indicating very high cardiovascular risk—the annual reduction compared to placebo was nearly 38 percent.

    https://www.stationgossip.com/2025/09/cocoa-extract-may-slow-aging-process-by.html

    38% is impressive.
    Note that Cocoa is the refined form of Cacao, and Cacao is somewhat unpalatable.
    No, choccy won’t do it either, not that anyone can afford choccy any more, even “on special”.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Gravitational anomaly in 2007 hints at rapid changes near Earth’s core

    A gravity anomaly recorded by NASA–German GRACE satellites in early 2007 over the Atlantic Ocean points to mass redistribution near Earth’s core–mantle boundary, around 2 700–2 900 km (1 700–1 800 miles) deep. Researchers suggest a perovskite-to-post-perovskite mineral phase change produced decimetric boundary shifts, offering the first evidence that deep mantle processes can unfold within just a few years and potentially affect Earth’s magnetic field.

    The detection is remarkable because it shows that deep Earth processes, typically assumed to unfold over geological timescales, can instead occur on the order of years. This means that parts of the mantle and core may be far more dynamic than previously understood.

    Barbara Romanowicz, a seismologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study, described the findings as the “first convincing evidence of dynamic processes at the base of the mantle occurring quickly enough to study as they happen.”

    https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03007-6

    Climate change! 😁

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    John Connor II

    112 million year old spider silk

    Frozen in time 112 million years ago, an entire ecosystem preserved in amber has been unearthed from a quarry in Ecuador. The scene contains bugs, pollen, and even strands of spider web.

    This is the first large discovery of insect-laden amber in South America, providing an unprecedented view of Cretaceous life in the Southern Hemisphere.

    https://www.sciencealert.com/incredible-112-million-year-old-amber-reveals-an-entire-ancient-ecosystem

    It’s just amazing the level of preservation in over 100M years. Just like that 110M year old pachycephalosaur skull discovery in Mongolia’s Gobi desert announced this week.
    Don’t you just love amber preservations. I do.

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    John Connor II

    How clean-air efforts may have exacerbated global warming

    Air pollution artificially cooled the Earth, ‘masking’ extent of temperature increase.

    Reducing air pollution didn’t actually cause additional warming – but it “removed an artificial cooling”, said Wilcox and Samset on The Conversation. Air pollution “shields the Earth from sunlight and therefore cools the surface”. The aerosol particles reflect sunlight into space or influence cloud formation so that they reflect more sunlight. But reducing air pollution means removing “this artificial sunshade”. Since China’s greenhouse gas emissions (the main driver of global warming) continued to increase, “the result is that the Earth’s surface is warming faster than ever before”.

    https://theweek.com/environment/how-clean-air-efforts-may-have-exacerbated-global-warming

    MOAR volcanic activity! Or a big war…

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    Graeme4

    After Albo’s comments that EVs should hit 50% by 2035, was looking at the EV sales this year. It’s interesting that some sites seem to deliberately merge hybrid sales in with EVs to inflate the EV sales figures. At least the ABC is honest about the sales of hybrids vs EVs, pointing out that sales of EVs have plateaued this year. They say 9%, but eye-balling their graph it seems to be 8-8.5%, and this is in line with RAC WA’s figures.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-08-25/phev-plug-in-hybrids-taking-over-electric-vehicle-ev-sales/105647958

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    Dry Liberal

    Tucker Carlson says Trump administration is using Charlie Kirk’s killing to trample First Amendment

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tucker-carlson-charlie-kirk-free-speech-b2829145.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    Thoughts on this?

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      Hanrahan

      The 1st says that the gov. can’t make laws limiting free speech. It says nothing about shooting off at the mouth and suffering no consequences.

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        Dry Liberal

        Bondi said the Justice Department “will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

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    David Maddison

    (Copied from Farcebook.)

    A young wokester who doesn’t understand the comedy of Fawlty Towers.

    In a few years comedy will be non-existent. Have you ever seen woke comedy? It’s cringe-worthy.

    A young journalist watched Fawlty Towers for the first time and says he is disgusted at how offensive the classic sitcom is.

    Writing in the Daily Star, Joe Crutchley opened with: “I watched Fawlty Towers for the first time – and one seriously offensive scene got my blood boiling.” His family had always told him it was one of the “best sitcoms ever” and a true “British institution,” but after finally watching it, he admitted it left him with a “rather bitter taste.”

    Straight away he took aim at Basil mocking Manuel for his accent, pointing out that Basil even says he only hired him because he was “cheap.” The journalist said: “And of course, the studio audience laughed along – because finding someone foreign is just so funny, right?!”

    He argued the show is “laden with outdated, racist and sexist remarks”, highlighting Major Gowen calling a man a “pansy” before adding: “Honestly? How the main character Basil is adored universally by fans, I have NO idea! His constant sarcasm and cringe-inducing one-liners put him up there with Chandler from Friends as the worst-ever TV character.”

    But the moment that pushed him over the edge came in episode six, where Basil reacts with shock to a black doctor treating Sybil. The Major then launches into a racist rant, casually using the N-word about the West Indies cricket team and another slur about Indians. The journalist wrote: “As soon as he says it, soooo casually I might add, my mouth drops. Stunned to hear the vile word, I press pause on the ‘best British sitcom’ before turning it off.”

    He finished by saying: “I understand it was a really, really, really long time ago, but as a woke 27-year-old it’s hard not to call it out. Either way, I won’t be checking back into Fawlty Towers – I’m more of a Premier Inn kind of guy.”

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “CA’s Oily Governor Slips on His Own Greased Banana Peel UPDATE”

    https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/09/18/cas-oily-governor-slips-on-his-own-greased-banana-peel-n3806935

    Elements of “ElBowen” logic?

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    David Maddison

    If you look at the atmospheric CO2 vs time graph, there appears to be no identifiable human events. For example, you would think that an event like WW2 would be apparent, or the massive expenditure of money in recent decades to install wind and solar plantations.

    No events seem to be visible. Is that correct?

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Climate turning point”

    “Three excellent essays last month point to a turning point in climate with, I think, a broad political ramification. As people come to the realization that this boy shouted wolf once again, that this emperor has no clothes, that climate change though real is not the civilization-threatening disaster pitched at Davos, Paris, and the media, that hugely expensive climate policies do no good, they will just add one more notch to their view that the elite consensus has been disastrously wrong and politicized about just about everything, and one more impetus to our current global rightward political lurch into the unknown.”

    More at

    https://www.grumpy-economist.com/p/climate-turning-point?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

    Via https://instapundit.com/745633/#disqus_thread

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “New Rules, New Reality: The Left Discovers Consequences”

    “Kirk’s assassination has altered America and forced a national reckoning. In the days since the shooting, the political atmosphere has shifted with remarkable speed. Nowhere has this been more obvious than in the swift consequences meted out to Leftists who cheered his death, some losing positions they’d held for years. In just one week, the country’s tolerance for such rhetoric has abruptly narrowed.

    While it’s too early to declare victory and claim that the Democrats’ grip on the national narrative has come to a sudden halt, this is nothing short of amazing.”

    More at

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/09/new-rules-new-reality-the-left-discovers-consequences/

    Via https://instapundit.com/745627/#disqus_thread

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    another ian

    FWIW

    What you could call “Putting a stir in the market”!

    “Cyber Expert Warns China Could Remotely Detonate Aussie EVs In Hybrid Warfare Campaign”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/cyber-expert-warns-china-could-remotely-detonate-aussie-evs-hybrid-warfare-campaign

    Your new home solar battery?

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