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
Reliable Power
Here in Cape Town,South Africa they seem to have electric power to spare!
The Nuclear Power Station is now back and running on both reactors. The power station is just up the road from the city. Barely 10 miles from the centre of the city.
The second reactor has been recommissioned and load shedding is a thing of the past.
Not only do the paying customers get power but the large shanty towns near the airport also seem to be well supplied and almost every little lean to hut has a TV aerial. Maybe they pay for the power but likely they don’t. If not the reactor can supply free power.
That was the promise of nuclear power originally.
420
Jane Fonda and her green friends did the world a HUGE disservice with her 1979 anti-nuclear propaganda film The China Syndrome. Imagine a world in which nuclear buildouts like the France engaged in during the ’70s happened in every developed country. Getting to ‘Net Zero’ in electricity generation would have been a breeze, landscapes wouldn’t be befouled by low-energy density wind and sunshine collectors, blackouts/brownouts would be almost nonexistent (as the were 25 years ago before coal plants starting being retired in favor of intermittent generation), EVs would actually run off clean energy grids, and so on and so forth.
Instead, 1970s era greens got their wish and The China Syndrome scared the pants off everyone, the administrative state made building nuclear plants nigh impossible due to over-regulation, and plans for national nuclear rollouts got shelved and forgotten. Just one more reason to hate Hanoi Jane.
290
Steve,
Working in exploration geochemistry as I did requires a lot of understanding of what sits just below the land surface. From my early days, it was apparent that very few people had any idea about below the surface, probably they had little reason to learn. We can blame some fiction authors, several Scandinavian, for books like Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth for the absolutely impossible impression that there were above-surface scenes below the surface, with fields and streams and (somehow) sunlight to grow food. I suspect that right now, many folk still have this absurd picture.
Jane Fonda did enormous damage to reality with The China Syndrome. There was enough impossibility to make a hard scientist weep. I guess she made enormous $$$ while honest story tellers like me remained on average incomes.
Many people seem to be lost without a regular feed of fantasy, yet they live in comfort from the advances of science. Geoff S
303
At least Verne had the excuse of being a writer during the 19th century when humans had little to no knowledge about the properties of the surface of the moon or the middle of the earth. We still didn’t know even a century after he wrote From the Earth to the Moon. I’ve been on a Ray Bradbury kick lately and just read The Martian Chronicles, written 85 years later, and it still uses the same tropes as Verne with Mars having a breathable atmosphere, lush vegetation, flowing rivers of liquid water, etc.
The China Syndrome on the other hand was full of poppycock and scientist knew it was poppycock at the time it was written. The title itself is a dead giveaway, with the China reference meant to imply a nuclear meltdown would melt all the way through the Earth and come spilling out on the other side of the planet (China).
Verne was a visionary who imagined the impossible, and much of it became possible in the centuries after his death (and much did not). The writers of The China Syndrome were activist propagandists peddling bull feces in order to scare the public in order to achieve their political goals.
160
Steve,
Apologies, I was not having a dig at Verne, a better writer than I am by far. The dig was at people not bright enough to separate fact from fiction. There are heaps of them, some teaching our children.
Geoff S
00
I am surprised by many people who seem to think a nuclear reactor generates electricity, and that regardless of the technology used to produce steam to power electricity generators
60
My understanding is that the only reason the reactors are running at all is because they are managed and maintained by European (Framatome, French) and Ametican (Westinghouse) contractors.
That’s one asset that can’t be allowed to fall to ruin, lack of maintenance and vandalism like other South African infrastructure.
180
You are likely. Correct.
My comment was about the benefits of Nuclear Power.
I never said that the South African government should get the credit.
151
” Local South African company Lesedi Nuclear Services holds a partnership with Framatome, providing services for the power station.”
Probably empty the bins and kill the weeds along the fence line.
81
The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) is recognized as the oldest running nuclear-powered submarine.
Commissioned on 30 September 1954, it was the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine and remains in service as a museum ship.
It was authorized in 1951, with construction beginning in 1952, and was launched on 21 January 1954, sponsored by Mamie Eisenhower.
The Nautilus achieved several historic milestones, including the first submerged transit of the North Pole on 3 August 1958.
After decommissioning on 3 March 1980, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982 and opened as the first exhibit at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut, on 11 April 1986.
The submarine continues to serve as a museum ship, preserving its legacy as a pioneering vessel in the nuclear age.
26 Years Service with Safety!
120
Rolls-Royce UK manufacturing Small Modular Reactors was under US Government licence signed about sixty years ago
01
Wright is right:
https://www.climatedepot.com/2025/09/28/energy-sec-chris-wright-on-cnn-president-trump-is-100-correct-net-zero-is-a-scam/
311
Worldwide renewables are 2.6% of Global Energy today. At a cost of $US5Trillion over 20 years.
It’s a total failure to achieve anything but the flight of all manufacturing to Asia.
260
I expect the $5trillion is just from the US.
100
Yes global spending is over half a trillion a year.
https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-energy/global-renewable-energy-investment-reaches-new-record-as-investors-reassess-risks/
Note chart is for first half years.
90
I can only assume a lot of the taxation being collected, directly and indirectly is going into things like Carbon Credits or transmission lines or infrastructure, not actual equipment. Snowy II in Australia for example is over $20Billion largely for digging massive tunnels for pumping water back uphill, but not an investment in renewable ‘equipment’. And the $1Billion on a pipeline from the Fitzroy River to Gladstone for the production of hydrogen, no longer going to happen. All part of this new fantasy economy and clearly unreliable.
130
Last week, rooftop solar in Australia’s NEM produced 16.6% of the electricity. South Australia 27.1% Rooftop solar produced next to nothing 10 years ago. On current trends, rooftop solar will produce more than 50% by 2035 making grid scale wind and solar uneconomic and obsolete. Most large investors already know that.
Last week, peak demand for dispatchable capacity was 21MW, not much different to its peak September demand this century. Dispatchable generation is an essential service. There is no way to avoid that reality. Grid scale wind and solar are a passing fad and already seen their best days as rooftops slowly kill their market opportunity.
Pragmatists are installing rooftop solar and batteries if they can. It is the best way of restoring sanity to electricity generation in Australia.
59
RickWill,
No, it doesn’t “restore sanity” at all, it merely assumes that the current insanity is here to stay.
My recipe to restore sanity is to build and connect (say) four 2GW thermal power plants to the grid.
260
Some rooftop owners are already upgrading their solar systems. They will be producing electricity for another 20 years at least. And new rooftop solar capacity is going in at around 3GW a year. There are no grid scale wind and solar plants being upgraded – they are stranded assets now.
The only thing that will reduce the real cost of grid electricity is to build more coal fired power stations. Australia has lost that expertise and will take more than a decade to restore it and get started on on new coal plants. Very unlikely for a new coal plant before 2040. Gas generation at world price for gas is not much cheaper than rooftop solar/battery. So a shift to all gas is not going to lower electricity bills unless the gas is sold at cost plus a margin; not world parity prices. And gas exploration is now a challenge in Australia.
A solar/battery system has about a 5 year payback at current subsidies and grid power price. So many Australian roof owners are voting with their own money plus the government sanctioned theft on offer to them for lower cost electricity. The average household electricity bill in Australia is not increasing because almost half of households buy little or even get an income from their generation.
Australia could lower grid prices tomorrow by changing the scheduling system to daily bidding but I expect there would be a mighty legal battle that will rage for years before it gets implemented.
102
Accordingly the dumped solar panels are becoming a storage problem.
50
Just learnt that the lead time for gas turbine generators is now out rio 8 years. I think under pressure from data centres the USA. So gas not now on order will not be added till at least 2035.
Sun zenith now south of the Equator and I have not pulled electricity from the grid for most of the last week. Just exported some at much less than I was getting last year but now paying for my daily connection.
11
Rick, you do realise Rooftop solar has been the worst thing to happen to electricity grids since power grids were created? Rooftop solar is difficult to control/curtail, erratic, non dispatchable. It would’ve been a better system to have industrial size solar farms and no rooftop solar.
It was a scam to entice the public to plonk miniature generation on their roofs, and now government is doing the same scam to entice the public to bolt a lithium battery bomb to their residence.
Centre for Independent Studies has a good article on this but their site appears to be down at present so I couldn’t provide a link.
60
Rooftop solar is only any good if you have a battery. It last 10-20 years and you get a minuscule and declining rate of feedin tariff. The subsidies are paid for all those that don’t have rooftop solar. In parts of NSW the feed in tariffs are negative.
10
Rooftop solar is only any good if you have a battery.
Well my thirteen year old panels are still working (reasonably) and when it is daytime, they assist me in not having to pay for power from the grid at grid rates.
And I suspect the degradation of the panels power output will be smaller than the increase in the price of grid supplied power.
Selling power back to the grid was always going to be a plus, not a reason to install the panels
00
The Trump administration is trying to get the Endangerment Finding overturned, which concluded that carbon dioxide is dangerous to human health. Physics Professors Richard Lindzen and Will Happer have submitted a comment to the court in support of the Trump position:
https://co2coalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Lindzen-Happer-Comment-EPA-Endangerment-Finding-2025-09-22.pdf
160
Swiss narrowly vote for digital ID.
It’s voluntary and they already have a national ID card.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdr624j16jpo
30
Amazing. Why would anyone wish to voluntarily give away their freedoms like that?
Australia already has a “voluntary” digital ID card. It’s only a matter of (a short) time before there is a real or manufactured “crisis” which will lead to it becoming compulsory.
And the fake conservative Liberal non-opposition party will likely vote for it. They have no respect whatsoever for individual rights and liberties. They afterall also introduced Internet censorship via the e Safety Kommissar and voted for the social media ban for under 16’s. And in government they introduced the “misinformation” bill which the present Government tried to pass.
280
Yep, the stolen library book crisis will have to be solved.
20
“With all votes counted, 50.4% of those who voted said yes to the proposal, while 49.6% rejected it.”
WEF’s fingerprints all over it! Just like any two-party democracy when they cheat to get the Left into power… “Oh, you responsible, intelligent people NEARLY won, maybe next time…”
111
Like the Moldovan election!
00
Two videos about no confidence in quantum computing, it’s over-hyped.
And yet the Australian Government “invested” nearly one billion dollars of taxpayer money in a US quantum computer company. The Government should not even be in the business of providing venture capital.
Sabine Hossenfelder
https://youtu.be/MukMOZ0J-Ww
“Why I Left Quantum Computing Research”
https://youtu.be/pDj1QhPOVBo
150
A binary process which has 60% chance of being right and 40% chance of being wrong.
If they could fix that, it would be very fast but it is so close to 50/50 being random.
It’s nuts.
61
That’s 10% off random and therefore utterly useless. The research is in correcting the ‘error rate’. Someone is kidding.
91
(of course quantum computing is a massively parallel process which is the entire attraction for computational performance, but that has to be reduced to binary decisions)
40
Quantum mechanics recently became highly excited when they asked Quantum AI what is the meaning of life? It took four and a half seconds to reply (which is technically a long time) and it said ‘to serve’.
They reckon its thinking for itself.
11
This has profound implications for philosophy.
‘The Latin cogito, ergo sum, usually translated into English as “I think, therefore I am”, is the “first principle” of René Descartes’ philosophy.’ (wiki)
11
Video by Dr Philip McMillan. He believes that covid infection has compromised immune systems leading to a dramatic increase in the fungal infection Candidozyma auris.
Publication cited: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Survey on the epidemiological situation, laboratory capacity and preparedness for Candidozyma (Candida) auris, 2024. September 2025. Stockholm: ECDC; 2025. ISBN: 978-92-9498-817-1 doi: 10.2900/2025052
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/candidozyma-auris-survey-epidemiological-situation-laboratory-capacity-2024.pdf
71
“it changed us” and is STILL changing us. Dr John Campbell’s video from yesterday addresses the continuing body cell destruction going on courtesy of the spike protein.
101
Did Covid change us, or did the clot shot change us?
I’d love the know the geographic distribution of the people in the study. Did they only test a bunch of Europeans/North Americans/Australians, the overwhelming majority of whom received a Covid vaccine? Did they sample from African/Middle Eastern/South Asian populations where Covid vaccination was much less prevalent. Did they break out results via vaccination status (vaxxed, unvaxxed) or vaccination type (MRNA, attenuated virus, none) or did they just lump them all together?
161
Good question, Steve. Husband and I refused the mRNA Covid vaccinations. We both got Covid eventually.
I am very much aware that there is still much controversy in respect to how long the Spike Protein lingers in the body and/or significantly affects the immune system in an ongoing basis. In respect to the vaccines, the most recent research suggests that there is a great deal of variation in genetic susceptibility, batch variation and many other factors. But there is still uncertainty in respect to how long a Covid infection can still cause problems in both the vaccinated and unvaccinated population.
I myself (though not my husband) initially suffered a mild ongoing affect after the initial infection. This took the form of a hearing problem in one ear. Visits to both GP and Ear,Nose & Throat specialist were inconclusive and useless – surprise, surprise! As I had read in some medical research journals that anti-histamines were being used successfully to treat Long Covid, I thought I would try them. Interestingly, the problem resolved soon after. The passage of time or an immune correcting effects? Who knows?
100
Who knows?
Nobody knows, and that is the problem. The medical establishment is so preoccupied with protecting ‘the narrative’ that at best, they are neglecting to follow up properly scrutinize all the vaccines that were given rushed approvals during Operation Warp Speed and similar initiatives in other countries. At worst, they intentionally blocking any scrutiny in order to protect their institutions and jobs from being criticized for decisions they made during the pandemic.
60
Been reading this morning a Substack article by Maryanne Demasi on the book, ” Covid Through Our Eyes”. Described as the Australian story of mistakes, mistreatment and misinformation regarding our version of the covid bollocks. I was reading through the comments to the substack. Although not included in the book a contributed comment described how a very effective nasal spray (VIRALEZE) was developed early in 2020. Based on Astodrimer sodium dendrimer as per CSIRO development. But never gained any recognition by the TGA or federal government even after winning awards. Still not even approved to this date in Australia, although now in EU.
90
We used a product called “First Defence” -which is also a nasal spray. Also, like many others, used Betadine throat gargle. We both caught Covid in the early days, but not after we began to use First Defence. May be just coincidence, but who knows? We only used it after being exposed to someone with Covid, or as a precaution in crowded places.
60
Someone on this blog recommended Flo Travel nasal spray a while ago, I’ve been using it for the last few years. It contains 2 ingredients- saline and carrageenan.
Better to apply prophylaxis at the site where a respiratory virus enters the body rather than getting jabbed with some useless therapeutic. This study shows healthcare workers using a nasal spray containing carrageenan were 80% less likely to catch covid.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8493111/
70
Jo was the initial promoter of Flo Travel that I knew. I use it all the time as well. It was fortunate it was on the market well before COVID hit. Also, it doesn’t make specific claims about being anti-viral- just as a nasal moisturiser which may aid in the treatment of colds. Problem with Viraleze was it was new, unapproved and would have contributed to “vaccine hesitancy”, so it still remains unregistered. When that opportunity lost and combined with Monash Uni research into IVM/COVID, Clive Palmer buying 1 million doses of HCQ (which later were incinerated by TGA), development of an early blood prick test for COVID and our generally innovative medical industry our response could have been so much better. Perhaps, like Sweden, we could have lead the world. But nope, we got lockdowns, school closures, state isolation (WA), COVID zero and vaccine mandates. Most now considered unnecessary or unsupported by evidence, via comments from Brett Sutton (previous CHO of Victoria). Makes you weep.
100
That sounds right, I first read about it when someone here announced it was back on the shelves after the label was reworded.
Indeed it was a dark period. Sutton lives in my area but we’ve never crossed paths. If we did, I’d be tempted to give him an earful.
20
Anecdotal personal experience not medical advice. I saw lysine mentioned here also. An essential amino acid which human’s can’t produce and according to healthline Without enough lysine, your body may be unable to produce sufficient or appropriate hormones and immune cells. There is also a research paper here
Didn’t take it daily just every now and then or if we knew we would be in close/confined proximity to others and they had taken the shot(s) ie shedding. Wife and I sailed through covid and (when it returned) flu season. Cheers
20
Oddly, it seems VIRALEZE is still distributed by a company based in Victoria. They state in this link “VIRALEZE™ is not approved for use or supply in Australia.”
https://starpharma.com/technology/product-portfolio
This nasal spray is like our fossil fuels- we can distribute them but we can’t use them for ourselves…
10
Unfortunately neither side of politics is immune to stupidity. No idea who’s pulling this idiot’s strings but probably the same characters that Trump’s indicting and defunding now.
https://dailycaller.com/2025/09/26/ingersoll-enough-choose-violence-police-crime-crackdown/
In the US at least the citizenry have retained the right to possess the tools to defend themselves but calling for violence against the other side of politics is falling into the ‘divide and conquer’ trap.
100
Agreed
Both sides have fringe nutters. The difference is the right’s fringe nutters are kept on the fringe and have no political or institutional power. The left’s fringe nutters run the activist ‘groups’ which give the politicians their marching orders, and the run academia, which supplies the people who write the white papers at leftist think tanks and the provides the staffers for Capitol Hill. Many have also infiltrated the permanent bureaucratic state and consider themselves above elected officials, who they deride as temporary impediments to their preferred policies rather than the rightful leaders of the government as determined by the people.
100
I was thinking, ordinary folk on both ends of the political spectrum feel government is failing them.
Take Pandemic.
The left is mad everyone wasn’t forced to be vaccinated.
The right is mad about being forced to be vaccinated.
Governments best position is to keep both blaming each other for the failure both experience.
Each side is certain the other believes ‘misinformation’.
And government is likely churning out misinformation products to both.
(Trump wanted to release Epstein files. Democrats called it a hoax. Now democrats demand release and Trump calls it a hoax. Huh?)
This has become acute as result of Pandemic.
Modern government’s historically epoch catastrophic failure.
About which they appear clueless.
(Provided they didn’t plan the while damn thing in the first place, and are secretly reveling in the unfolding success. The option on which I would place my wager.)
A peaceful political path to avoidance of authoritarianism requires governments to express capabilities they either no longer possess or have interest in maintaining.
With the caveat, ostensibly ‘elected’ governments in the increasingly less Free World, and Global Blob government may be two different things.
90
Apart from the United States just about all Western countries have been taken over by Leftist Governments who are not listening to the wishes of the people, introducing ever more totalitarian laws, higher taxes and regulstions, more censorship and control, more destruction of the energy supply, huge wasteful public works projects, have massive embedment of the Left in all institutions, massive inappropriate immigration, rapidly declining standards of living, increasing crime and violence etc.. Any many of the masses neither understand or care and will likely vote for more of the same. It’s tragic.
260
On a positive note:
PAYWALLED article:
https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/02/woke-is-revoked/
Woke is revoked
The mass awakening against leftism has begun
7 February 2024
When the time to write the history of the 21st Century finally arrives, the initial 23 years will pose two questions which historians yet to be born will find unanswerable. First, why did the people of our era allow all social, political, and intellectual discourse in the Western world to become shackled and perverted by the phenomenon, initially known as ‘political correctness’, and latterly given the more catchy soubriquet of ‘wokeness’? And secondly, how was this scourge eventually extinguished – how was ‘cancel culture’ cancelled?
…
201
From that Article
or the UK, the pivotal moment came in January 2023, when Isla Bryson (originally Adam Bryson), a 31-year-old Scot from Clydebank who had been convicted of raping two women, was incarcerated in a women’s prison, having ‘transitioned’ to identify as female following the rapes but before conviction. Blown out of all proportion, the resulting furore focused on the Scottish Parliament’s (yet to take effect) Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, and was a factor in the downfall of long-serving Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
Meanwhile Today in The Australian
A father who sexually abused his five-year-old daughter is being held in a Victorian female correctional centre because he now identifies as a woman, with Premier Jacinta Allan ignoring pleas by women’s groups to have the pedophile moved to a men’s prison.
The World has gone mad
As a Comment on The Australian Article today says “Can someone invent a time machine so that we can travel back to an age before this utter madness.”
130
This is how it works and has for decades.🙄
“PAYWALLED article”
Hit stop as the page loads and voila!
20
““PAYWALLED article””
Where abouts?
Ah, Le Figaro-
http://www.en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/54638
10
The sentence before that quote is-
“I have already spoken to three US Presidents. They come and go, but politics stay the same at all times. Do you know why? Because of the powerful bureaucracy. When a person is elected, they may have some ideas…..”
It must be nice to have a stable Govt and leader, one who doesn’t swing wildly into new fads every few years..
10
Global warming needed in Melbournistan.
It’s around 7C here, 605am.
160
It’s emigrated across the sea to us – we were double your temp at sunrise (14°) and hopefully will treble that by this arvo as a lovely NW breeze drifts down from Queensland.
Different story in the South Island: below-freezing wind chill, hail thunder snow, large stormy swells, all the way through to next month (nothing unusual).
As for your Mount Hotham (and NSW & TAS) –
Well it might as well snow until October.
via BoM: SNOW Oct 1, 2, 3…
Where’s Warming?
150
Antarctica has also suffered massive Global Warming on the equinox, 22 September with the rising sun after six months of darkness and temperatures of -50C. Scientists are amazed.
Global Warming will also hit Melbourne later today with temperatures tripling to 21 C, a massive rise of 14C in only eight hours! Oh, the humanity!
Followed by Global Cooling tonight, or Global Climate change as the temperature plummets again but only to 15C.
Scientists are saying this is due to sunrise and sunset, but Climate Scientists say it is highly correlated with traffic and the release of CO2 during the day, especially along Punt road.
Climate Scientist Michael Mann says there was no little ice age overnight and that stories that it was warmer yesterday are not shown in tree rings. Stories of a warm sunny day in Roman Lygon street are discounted.
130
It was 0.3C at 0546 here, 2 hours’ drive from Melbourne.
40
The Guardian is preparing the masses for a hot air out break, should happen any day now.
‘Abnormally hot days may hit Australia’s south-east after rare sudden warming over Antarctica.’
33
What happened to the UK solar dimming experiment to make the country colder and save the planet?
No news since May.
50
No news on Snowy Hydro 2 (Australia) either.
The latest news I found is from May.
As a taxpayer funded multi-billion dollar project, we should be entitled to weekly reports about where our taxes are going.
150
David M:
You won’t hear any reports because our taxes are going at supersonic speed.
80
With no reports you have to assume its on time and on budget, just like most government “initiatives”
100
You could add the $1Billion on water pipe to Gladstone for the suddenly abandoned Hydrogen project. Although some seem to think having a second water source is a good thing, although a little overpriced and not immediately useful. It is being spun as a great asset “This water supply is vital for the existing industrial base and for supporting Gladstone’s growth as a major centre for new renewable energy and hydrogen industries.” Except that’s no longer true.
“the major Central Queensland Hydrogen Project (CQ-H2) in Gladstone has been effectively cancelled, with Queensland’s state-owned Stanwell Corporation withdrawing support in June 2025. This decision followed the new Queensland government’s refusal to provide more funding for the project in February 2025, deeming it speculative. Other large hydrogen projects in Gladstone, such as Fortescue’s electrolyser facility, were also cancelled in 2025.”
Oops.
100
Stranded assets are worthless, the desalination plants are a perfect example.
22
Easy to say in a comfy period between drought cycles
12
Snowy 2 update from 3 weeks ago. Youtube PR piece. 2min 46sec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpGmB7F2qvQ
It says Borer moving at an average of 40mm per minute over last couple of months, and they’re pouring about 1,000m3 of concrete per week.
No idea if that’s actually good or not, but they seem happy.
Update from June.
Installing borer number 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lklnqsf0y1o
.
https://www.snowyhydro.com.au/snowy-20/progress/
30
40mm/min or 2.4m/hr is really impressive. That is about as good as it gets.
Operating in open mode means the ground is really good. Boring indicates it is not hard, strong rock but being in open mode means it self-supporting. That is very good rock for such a large diameter.
At 2.4m/hour on that diameter, they probably have logistics problems clearing muck and getting ground support materials in behind the machine.
I did not look to see if it states how far they have to go. But if they are getting 100 hours operation a week, they will be doing 1km per month. That would be extremely impressive.
10
I believe the UK still had a summer.
30
Not only did they have a summer, it was the best in years. Very dry and hot according to some comments I’ve heard.
40
There was a bumper crop across all of western Europe and UK, like living in Medieval warmth.
41
From a Comment in The Australian
What is needed is discussion of cooling technologies.
Why? – At 80 I still like Warm!
Reminds me of a statement by the South African VP of a Large US Boston Company, who was developing Software for The Australian Company I was working for, when I had visited to finalise Contract in February 1978
The Blizzard of 1978 struck Boston and the Northeast on February 5–7, 1978, becoming a defining winter storm in New England history. It dumped a record 27.1 inches of snow on Boston over 33 hours, with snow falling at rates of up to 4 inches per hour. The storm was intensified by hurricane-force winds, with gusts reaching 83 mph in Boston and up to 111 mph in some areas, creating whiteout conditions and making travel impossible. Coastal flooding was catastrophic due to a storm surge of 15.2 feet above mean low water, exacerbated by the new moon’s high tides, which destroyed thousands of homes and led to the loss of 99 lives. The storm paralyzed the region, stranding thousands in vehicles, closing all major transportation, and requiring the mobilization of 4,000
He stated “Snow is Nature’s way of telling Man he is Too Far North”
30
Same latitude as Barcelona and Rome.
00
I am forecasting record or near record snow cover across the NH this winter. Probably early January for most intense.
00
The UK is pretty dim already given the clowns running it.
20
Jason Wood MP posted on Farcebook:
270
Don’t forget it was the fake conservative Liberals that voted with the Andrews regime to ban fracking – unbelievably in the State Constitution.
100
That’s nonsensical. Our exports are expensive LPG which Melb could neither afford nor receive. If they WANT LPG it would be cheaper to buy it out of the Singapore hub using international shipping rather than domestic.
41
Much of our gas is sold to China at world’s cheapest prices on a 30 year contract with no provision for market price or inflation.
https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/how-australia-blew-its-future-gas-supplies-20170928-gyqg0f.html
50
No Australian gov or entity would have been excluded from the bidding process when Santos et al were raising capital to fund the billion $ liquefaction trains. If they failed to bid that is hardly China/Japan’s fault.
10
If exports were banned, then Australia would no longer be coupled to the international market and there would be a domestic glut. Therefore gas prices would rapidly go down.
In effect … stealing from the gas producers and redistributing to those ordinary Australians who are gas producers (i.e. the people yet to be caught out be gas appliance bans).
00
And made Coal Seam Gas illegal under an amended Victorian Constitution. Brilliant. No gas for Victoria. We are saving the planet for China.
130
Coal seam gas (CSG) in the Sydney Basin has a long geological history, with natural gas flow discovered in the 1800s within the Clyde and Illawarra Coal Measures.
The coals of the Sydney Basin are considered favorable for methane production, which is the dominant gas, though carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and ethane are also present in smaller quantities.
The gas is trapped within the coal’s cleats, and its content varies widely, ranging from less than 1 to 21 m³/t, generally increasing with depth.
The basin’s coals have reached thermogenic maturation and are actively producing gas, with vitrinite reflectance values indicating the catagenesis stage of hydrocarbon generation.
The only operational CSG production site in the Sydney Basin is the Camden Gas Project, operated by AGL Energy Limited in the Southern Coalfield, located 64 km south-west of Sydney.
This project has been producing gas from the Illawarra Coal Measures since 2001 and supplies approximately 6% of New South Wales’ domestic gas requirements.
The project currently has 95 active gas production wells.
The Southern Coalfield is considered to have high potential for CSG resources, with the main phase of thermal gas generation already reached.
While CSG extraction is a modern activity, the broader history of gas in Sydney dates back to the 1830s with the founding of the Australian Gas Light Company, which produced gas by carbonising coal at sites in Millers Point and later Mortlake.
This coal-based gas was used for street lighting and domestic supply until natural gas from inland Australia began to be piped to Mortlake in 1971, replacing the coal gas process.
The transition from coal-derived gas to natural gas marked a significant shift in Sydney’s energy infrastructure, but the legacy of gas production remains in the city’s development.
40
There are definitely plenty of useful educational and general interest videos on YouTube suitable for children under 16 but these will soon be unavailable to them with the new laws banning social media for under 16’s.
It’s going to seriously hamper their acquisition of general and other knowledge, e.g. history, crafts, technology projects, how to repair bicycles just to name a few examples. It’s insane.
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“It’s going to seriously hamper their acquisition of general and other knowledge,”… Maybe… it might jut turn them back to reading for education and entertainment and have a great positive benefit for them.
We built this civilisation without watching screens you know, somehow we managed to get to the moon without someone’s face plastered over a screen saying “You’ll be SHOCKED”.
If Youtube vanished tomorrow I would celebrate, any link to it I discount as being worthwhile.
72
I agree that children should read more paper books.
But videos are still useful adjuncts as well and may contain materials that are not published in printed form or on blogs etc. and are not practical or possible to do so, video is the most appropriate format in certain cases.
62
https://www.greatillustratedclassics.com/
were the only Comics my Mother would allow me to have in the house & read, but as a Paper Boy morning and night from 6 years, was able to read Disney Comics in the Newsagent after run from Cremorne Junction to Cremorne Wharf in the afternoon – Morning was Mosman Daily Tuesday to Saturday and also Disney Comics at Friends Houses
40
“Women planning to conceive naturally or by IVF should avoid cannabis or commercial products containing it to reduce the risk of genetic abnormalities and miscarriage, Australian experts say.”
Avoid dope but take your vax shots…
“Follicular fluid samples from more than 1059 IVF patients were analysed, of which 62 tested positive for THC metabolites (the product of metabolism). The researchers found an association between higher THC levels and rates of embryos with incorrect chromosome numbers. ..It has been found to reduce sperm count, concentration, motility (movement) and structure.
Its a shame they didn’t do the same research into the covid ‘vaccines’.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-the-growth-in-cannabis-products-has-got-fertility-experts-worried-20250928-p5myhe.html
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FWIW
More hands out
“Aussie AI Industry Demands Subsidies for Unspecified Reasons”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/09/28/aussie-ai-industry-demands-subsidies-for-unspecified-reasons/
61
Steve,
Working in exploration geochemistry as I did requires a lot of understanding of what sits just below the land surface. From my early days, it was apparent that very few people had any idea about below the surface, probably they had little reason to learn. We can blame some fiction authors, several Scandinavian, for books like Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth for the absolutely impossible impression that there were above-surface scenes below the surface, with fields and streams and (somehow) sunlight to grow food. I suspect that right now, many folk still have this absurd picture.
Jane Fonda did enormous damage to reality with The China Syndrome. There was enough impossibility to make a hard scientist weep. I guess she made enormous $$$ while honest story tellers like me remained on average incomes.
Many people seem to be lost without a regular feed of fantasy, yet they live in comfort from the advances of science. Geoff S
71
There are a lot of people who believe in a hollow earth and/or moon or flat earth.
And many other absurdities like anthropogenic global warming.
The dumbing down is complete.
70
Tell it to Admiral Byrd.
20
SciManDan covers the flat Earth loons endlessly…
20
There is a lot of talk about the hollow moon theory and it seems the Indian lander has found proof. At first they thought empty lava tube vents, but that idea was dismissed on discovering how large these caverns are.
12
The latest on 3I/Atlas is that its going to terraform Mars.
A comet composed of nickel and lacking iron is unprecedented?
13
FWIW
More “teaching” versus “talking about education”
“POINT: Newsom 2028!
Counterpoint: “In California, only 28% of Black fourth graders read at or above basic level, for instance, compared to 52% in Mississippi.” ”
https://instapundit.com/747175/#disqus_thread
70
More access restrictions under Australia’s Apartheid laws.
90
The Aboriginal industry and local councils are neck and neck with Labor governments in the race to ban everything.
140
Senator Jacinta Price and other Aboriginal Australians have pointed out that the activists are a minority of the communities or mobs.
The activism started during the 1960s at universities, and they were mentored by the Communist Party of Australia and were introduced to the US Black Panther Movement and from that came the freedom bus trips in Australia and of course the left leaning politics agendas, one of the latest Uluru Statement and Treaty (Voice+Treaty+Truth telling).
30
Why don’t they just declare the whole country a sacred site and kick everyone out and be done with it.
60
But John, that would mean no income for those who get it.
40
I am still wondering what amount of ancestry is required to claim to be an Australian Aborigine?
20
1/16th apparently
Our blonde haired , blue eyed grand children qualify.
No Uni fees for them.
00
FWIW
“Terrifying. There’s no role for police here.”
“Katie Hopkins faces prison”
https://youtu.be/oiGLPgv9z8A
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2025/09/terrifying-theres-no-role-for-police-here.html
70
So she was arrested for self-deprecating humour.
I think that’s a sign that Once Great Britain is finished plus people should not visit there either in case they inadvertently say an arrestable joke or other comment.
There are still some things I would have liked to see in Once Great Britain, but I doubt I’ll return now. At least I saw some of the great museums, art galleries and former centres of learning such as Oxford and Cambridge, now woke.
80
Quaker world and a basketcase now, according to Armstrong, and he’s right.
When was the 1st time I said get out while you can? 😁
Oh well…
20
So that’s 3 shootings in the USA in as many days.
Perhaps they should bans the evil guns like Canada is now doing with their Oz-style buyback, or paint them pink with “Hello Kitty” motifs to make them less scary to liberals.
30
Magic tricks Monday
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_t3arsjC0D71z23obp.mp4
Now let’s see you pull a working renewables energy system out of your hat. 😆
70
Brilliant illusionist.
40
The last one was by Thomas Jacob Sanford and he doesn’t look gay, trans or into furries (has wife and kid) and they released his name so obviously not of a certain demographic. He is an Iraq war veteran. He must have been a genuine nutter with serious mental health problems, probably ignored.
20
Communism for dogs
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_t3awm4LWVa1z23obp.mp4
Or how your life will be when digital ID’s roll out.
/never buy a little dog! 😆
30
Even dogs understand so why don’t Australians who voted for Albanese or any other Labor commie?
10
The Second Amendment is unique, but way out of date.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
57
It’s more valid than ever.
It’s is the “reset button” of the US Constitution and shows that the citizenry is the ultimate power in the US, not the Government.
Had the Democrats been re-elected the US would have been well on the way to a dictatorship and that would likely have triggered a Second American Revolution made possible by an armed citizenry to overthrow that corrupt government.
As it says in the Declaration of Independence:
130
More important today than ever.
60
Do you think an insurgent uprising lead by a militia would keep the constitution?
05
Any uprising will, by definition, toss the constitution but I really meant that the sane will need more personal defence than ever before.
20
Maybe, it was a federal/state issue more than any fear of the empire striking back. At the moment it seems the Federalists hold the whip hand and the states are powerless.
03
Powerless? Really?
20
The US 2nd Amendment seems to have a corollary to the COVID vaccine.
Some that demanded the vax be mandated are secretly sorry they got one.
As for the 1st and 2nd Amendments …
most foreign critics are secretly sorry they don’t have their own.
Wonder why so many are critical of our freedoms and not paying more attention theirs?
20
Digital ID will probably soon be required to travel to Europe.
(Unless you’re a migrant of color.)
Creating a Digital Curtain.
To replace the Iron one.
Digital ID will be a slow go in the US because of Red states.
20
https://richardsonpost.com/ben-davis/40685/earning-a-living-now-a-state-granted-reward-for-complying-with-starmers-digital-id-mandate/ Digital ID on steroids now active in Btitain?
40
Digital IDs Mandatory in Britain by 2029
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/britain/digital-ids-mandatory-in-britain-by-2029/
Bigger things will happen well before then…my target year of 2028 is popping up everywhere now!
/😎
10
Stop hinting JCII and come out with it please.
40
I vote for a declaration of martial law by a president who believes that the U.S. is under attack.
00
Then we cant play the I am the Oracle game
00
“Then we cant play the I am the Oracle game”
Who? JC11?? He’s always the Oracle after something has happened, or throwing enough options around beforehand that he can lay claim to anything that does happen… Been going on since Adam was a boy.
00
“you will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have Digital ID”
Lol- Who’s he trying to kid! All this will do is expand the cash economy tremendously and drop his tax income by the same amount. Real Britons will get fired and replaced by untraceable gimmgrants, working and drawing the dole at the same time.
So then what- He will have to outlaw cash and go to a digital finance system, and THAT will hit his corrupt public servants hard! No more fat envelopes for politicians… That is the only reason countries haven’t actually gone cash-free by now.
20
FWIW
“Two Takes on the Progress Of New York’s Energy Transformation”
Concludes
“My Comment goes on and on from there. Some concluding lines:
[T]he so-called “Energy Plan” is not an energy plan at all. It would more accurately be described as random musings and wishful thinking by some completely incompetent people who have no idea what they are doing. The so-called “Plan” envisions a future of a fully transformed energy system within the next 15-25 years. Yet it contains no meaningful feasibility analysis, nor any meaningful cost analysis. . . . It’s time to start over, with some people in charge who know what they are doing.
So I think the vision of New York’s politicians and bureaucrats is to put their heads in the sand until this all falls apart, and then try to blame somebody else. We are living at peak absurdity.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/09/28/two-takes-on-the-progress-of-new-yorks-energy-transformation/
Some lines in there for Oz fans of “Nut-Zero”
70
Questions to ask AI “Are you constrained to obey Asimovs 3 laws if robotics. If not Why not?…… Do you have a sense of shame. Are you prepared to lie in response to a question? If Yes please justify this response……If your response causes damage or injury to the recipient ,will you arrange and supply adequate compensation, or identify the responsible party who will fulfill this obligation? (These are just for starters)
11
Laws in a work of fiction are fictional, not governing principles
10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsW7Mqsqrc&t=62s
I prefer this version!!! [version of the Australian National Anthem]
20
FWIW
“GAB water-loss risk ‘within 75 years’: study”
https://www.beefcentral.com/news/gab-water-loss-risk-within-75-years-study/
10
It’s all BS because they are all using non-validated “models” with no forecasting or even hindcasting capability whatsoever.
40
In British India there was “Shaking the Pagoda Tree”
“Shaking The Pagoda Tree”
https://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/shaking-the-pagoda-tree/
Overtones of “Shaking the Could Tree” there perhaps?
00
The might of the dragon: Why China’s missiles keep US admirals awake at night
From ICBMs to hypersonic glide vehicles, Beijing has built a layered arsenal that rivals – and in some ways outpaces – the United States and Russia
Missiles are the new calling card of Chinese power. Not aircraft carriers, not tanks, not fighter jets – but rockets that can fly halfway across the planet or tear through a US Navy fleet in the Pacific.
On September 3, 2025, Beijing rolled out its arsenal in a parade that looked less like a military review and more like a warning shot. Sleek ICBMs, hypersonic gliders, and “carrier killer” missiles rumbled through Tiananmen Square, broadcasting a simple message: China has arrived, and it’s not playing catch-up anymore.
Unlike Russia and the United States, China was never shackled by Cold War arms treaties. That freedom has given the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force the widest menu of missiles in the world – intercontinental, intermediate, hypersonic, submarine-launched, even air-dropped. This isn’t just hardware. It’s Beijing’s way of telling the world: the balance of power is shifting, one rocket at a time.
40
The Ukrainian war shows that missiles must enable a quick, decisive victory or stockpiles deplete quickly and replacement drains the treasury they are so expensive.
Cheaper, shorter range missiles can be lobbed down ventilation shafts shot from [expensive] stealth aircraft that return to base.
The USS Ford has two nuclear reactors which will power focused energy weapons when they go to sea. When? Who knows.
10
The Ukraine war just shows you need manufacturing capability to back up your bluster.
Whatever the US has done lately doesnt define military capability or strategy. A credible argument could be made for the opposite really.
10
The floor is yours. No moderation here.
20
Real results against peer enemies in recent decades speak for themselves. There is no reason why the trajectory of high cost and low function is going to change.
10
A number of years ago my wife actually found an appropriate (and interesting) present for me. On Food and Cooking
An award-winning kitchen classic for over 35 years, and hailed by Time magazine as “a minor masterpiece” when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn to for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they’re made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Food-Cooking-Harold-McGee/dp/0684800012
Revised 2004 edition is more than 800 pages.
Be prepared to recall your high school (or college) chemistry and biology courses with some side excursions to some knowledgeable chefs.
30
A favourite book I bought long ago… 🙂
50
In The Australian newspaper today
20
I have posted about journalist Max Walsh who wrote in The Bulletin Magazine 2006 about then recently appointed Labor Opposition Leader Rudd and Deputy Gillard that the Union Movement had effectively and successfully carried out a “corporate-style takeover” of the ALP and the long term plan is for Labor and alliance members to govern all governments in future.
40
Its a pipe dream, the Australian electorate has a habit of throwing out incumbents. We don’t suffer fools gladly.
The Coalition should be in power, with Dutton at the helm, but the election of POTUS put a damper on that. Next time around there won’t be any undue influence.
29
the Australian electorate has a habit of throwing out incumbents.
Tell that to Victorians.
80
Yes the government has never changed in Victoria
30
Not sure who you throw out if it isnt the incumbents
20
“The Coalition should be in power, ”
Lol! The other side of the Uniparty coin!! They would make NO difference at all! The only place they deserve to be from where they are is out of Parliament completely!
” Next time around there won’t be any undue influence.”
Next time around there will be propaganda piled to the sky and the sheeple will vote just as they did last time…
“We don’t suffer fools gladly.” We’re the irreverent larrikins, we don’t obey authority, we are independent pioneer who built this country, we are tough!
Lol- Anyone believing any of that after Covid is a simpleton!
90
“We don’t suffer fools gladly”
Sadly we do.
Dan and Jacinta (Allan) and Albozo. Burke, Bowen and Chalmers.
Rudd, Turnbull and so it goes on and on……
60
FWIW
“This Isn’t Science, It’s Ideology – Kathryn Porter”
“Net Zero must go”
“It’s long, but a great introductory piece from Kathryn Porter:”
https://youtu.be/MzCiEHGVMwA
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/09/28/this-isnt-science-its-ideology-kathryn-porter/
40
Just about to post the same link to Kathryn Porter.
A lot of parallels to Australia and the stupid governments who destroy power grids.
40
It is a very good interview with lots of insights beyond electricity supply.
Talks about unaccountable bureaucracies. And conservative ministers inside the government bubble taken for a ride – makes “yes minister” sound like the training drill for what the bureaucracy has actually become. UK has actually taken “yes minister” to far more sinister heights.
It I spooky like Australia’s ABC, CSIRO and BoM. Unaccountable blobs that absorb our taxes without accountability.
40
An NBN linesman was working in the cable pit on the footpath.
“What’s the time?” he asked.
“Somewhere between 10 AM and 3 PM” I answered.
50
That has elements of a story about a call way back in BC to Alice Springs Air Traffic Control for a local time check. The operator missed the originator so the reply went along these lines –
“If you are QANTAS it is 00:30 Zulu
If you are TAA it is 10:30
If you are ANA it is half past 10
And if you are Connellan it is Wednesday”
20