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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Greetings from perishing cold Cyprus! We’ve had some sorely-needed rain here after it was so dry. The burnt out areas below Troodos are much more extensive than I had realised, despite trying to keep informed about them. It’s very sad to see it; all the vineyards so badly damaged.
170
Friends have a small vineyard in central Washington State. Two years ago, fire burned parts: vines, poles, drip tubes and such. I, and other friends, helped with clean-up. Researchers at Washington State University have been working on smoke impacted grapes. (How to get rid of it.) That year’s grapes were the highest smoke-impacted they had ever measured. No wine that year. The vineyard has been re-born, with harvest underway this week.
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Landed in Wellington New Zealand yesterday afternoon. On the way over, at 11,000 metres, the outside temperature was always lower than minus 52°C. So much for Global Warming.
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Please share your impressions of the capital city ,which is rumoured to be a little shabby as a result of public service down-sizing.
I live an hour and a half’s travel to the north, but have not visited in years.
70
So far have only walked around the centre of town, haven’t been to the harbour yet.
There seem to be a lot less street sleepers and beggars than there were a couple of years ago.
50
I spoke too soon.
All the buskers were out but only one beggar.
To Steve’s commment below, I caught the ferry across and back in 1970.
Hitched from Auckland to Queenstown and back up the other side staying in youth hostels. Caught a sightseeing plane up to land on the snow under mount Cook. We got out and threw a few snowballs and then got back down safely. Wouldn’t do that now after all the reports.😀
Peter Snell obviously got his strength from the hills here and earlier Herb Elliott worked out on sand-dunes.
00
For me, Wellington’s only reason for existing was as the place where you caught the ferry to the south island. Sailing into Picton via the Marlborough Sounds has to be one of the most picturesque journeys on the planet – on a sunny day at least 😉
Now I want to visit Enzed again. It’s been a while 🙁
40
Some family members in East Gippsland lost their grapes to smoke taint after the fires just before all the Covid stuff hit. Since then they have lost crops due to rot from too much rain at the wrong time and so on. Mother Nature is pretty nasty at times, to be sure. Humans need to be pretty ingenious to survive!
150
Even sadder that the vast majority of it was deliberate and organised this year.
Whilst most of the media laps up the chance to blame climate change yet again.
121
I note that the Pallisades fires around LA, that were the fault of Climate Change until this week when an arsonist was charged with starting it. He was also noted as a Biden donor, for whatever that is worth. Was this mentioned on our ABC?
150
Surely you jest Murray !!!!lol….on their ABC…..sarc off
50
OK… here is a link https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-09/man-arrested-charged-lighting-los-angeles-pacific-palisades-fire/105869026
30
It is my daily ritual, my digestive tract does not perform without ABC, their Eric stated “Israel still bombs Gaza”
Just imagine how much extra CO2 it produced !
10
yes
00
On the subject of grapes from that general area (Cyprus), on my recent trip to Israel I visited Ariel University where they have a project to identify, revive and perform DNA analysis on ancient grape varieties and also to study their lineage.
There is an under 2 minute video describing the project here:
https://youtu.be/kCi7zgpiRRE
Also see article:
91
Get to the EU if you want to change your gender
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/10/09/children-to-be-able-to-choose-their-own-gender-at-any-age-under-new-eu-rules/
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Transgendering children socially, hormonally or sugically (in increasing levels of severity) is a cruel and depraved practice by sadistic and narcissistic wokesters and should be banned.
Frankensurgeons who do these procedures to children should be barred from practising medicine.
Its the Left who heavily promote this ideology to children and constantly indoctrinate them with books and children’s shows. One of their favourite ways to destroy children. And notice all the Hollyweirdos with “trans” children? They are like exotic pets for them.
It should go the way of the frontal lobotomy.
230
So we now need to have the “ leader “ of the opposition to announce that the LNP policy on this subject will be to ban interference with underage males & females having any sort of surgery, or medicinal treatment for this overblown & largely false malaise.
For God’s sakes don’t hold your breath waiting for any policy announcements whether for “trans” or any other urgently required action!
Holding your breath is eventually fatal!
71
So our Greta has done it! What a heroine to secure a Gaza cease fire through the use of her flotilla which forced the two parties to sign a ceasefire.
Trump? What has he got to do with it? It was Greta wot done it.
https://brusselssignal.eu/2025/10/activist-stupid-thunberg-accidentally-uses-picture-of-israeli-hostage-to-show-israeli-cruelty/
171
A magnificent ‘own goal’ by Dumberg et al, great to see.
I thought the whole world had seen that photo of the poor wretch in the tunnel, obviously not.
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It was actually Anthony Albanese and his recognition of Palestine that spurred Hamas to hand over the hostages and cease fighting:
Mr Albanese has since insisted his decision to recognise Palestine at the UN helped pave the way for President Trump’s plan.
The Prime Minister’s decision provoked anger in Washington, with 25 Republican senators and members of congress warning it “undermines prospects for peace”.
“No question,” Mr Albanese told the Australian Financial Review on Wednesday when pressed on whether the recognition of Palestine had influenced the deal.
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/prime-minister-anthony-albanese-claims-he-contributed-to-gaza-war-peace-deal-announced-by-us-president-donald-trump/news-story/eefabc35a298a8338a6ca0e2477e4c41
Sleezy’s spin is best described as delusional.
180
The reason Albo broke ranks with the Alliance was his desire to stop the carnage.
‘Although the past policy of Australia and many Western countries has been to defer formal recognition of the State of Palestine until the conclusion of a peace settlement with Israel, the Albanese government decided that it was now necessary to bring recognition forward to help facilitate the peace process. This was consistent with similar thinking amongst many other Western countries, and most other international governments.’ (Australian Institute of International Affairs)
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Rewarding Hamas for terrorism without peace or returning the hostages was only ever going to strengthen the terrorist’s hand in any negotiation.
Thus Albanese, Starmer, and Carney were working for the UN-Banker-Blob against Trump. They failed, and now they beg for any kind of relevance.
Those who wanted to stop the carnage in Gaza said “Give back the hostages”, “Give back the hostages”, “Give back the hostages”. There is and always was one obvious answer to protect the hapless children of Gaza.
121
Albo is wrong in taking political advantage, its Donnie’s peace prize.
Hamas is history, no doubt the remnants will be sent to Iran.
The West Bank needs to be brought into negotiations to formalise the Two State Solution.
31
Henry Ergas had some strong words to say about Australia’s involvement, along with the UK and Canada, in today’s The Australian.
21
00
Going forwards, if the peace deal holds (by no means assured from the Hamas side), I expect Trump to fall out with Tony Blair in a big way. This might be precipitated by Blair getting a Nobel Peace Prize instead of Trump, something I’m sure Trump’s enemies will be working hard to make happen.
Trump and Blair, under normal circumstances, would be like oil and water. I really don’t know what Trump is giving Blair a role. The man is an English version of the Clintons: from the elite left and surrounded by accusations of grift. This won’t end well.
40
Eat your dumb hearts out Victoria! Read this and weep!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/10/debt-dependency-defiance-some-nations-push-back-against/
Just a small excerpt
“Harvard Kennedy School shows that more than 80 percent of China’s government loans to developing countries have gone to nations already in or near default.”
“To keep these countries afloat, Beijing has shifted from financing infrastructure to issuing bailouts, conducting 128 rescue operations worth $240 billion across 22 countries. These so-called “rescue loans” often carry interest rates more than twice those charged by the IMF”
“Much of the infrastructure funded under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has proven either unnecessary or substandard.”
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The ultimate purpose is so China can do a debt for equity swap thus gaining control of the client country’s assets.
Just ask Sri Lanka about the Hambantota International Port, built under the Belt and Road Initiative now under control of China.
And why do you think there is an endless stream of Australian politicians visiting China, including our PM?
It used to be that Belt and Road projects were for Third World countries as their politicians were the ones who could be most easily bought, but then they discovered Victorian (Australia) politicians. It won’t be long before China starts to take control of Victorian assets built under B&R either.
Incidentally, it is probably not legal Victoria signing up to B&R. It is a foreign treaty and only the Federal Government can sign those. Hence last time Victoria signed up to it, it was cancelled by the Feds under the last Liberal regime.
150
This their ABC article covers the cancellation of the belt and road initiative agreement between Victoria and China after the passing of the Foreign Relations Act in December 2020. Progressive Victoria’s earlier agreements with Iran (2) and Syria are also mentioned.
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‘ … endless stream of Australian politicians visiting China, including our PM?’
Yep, the social democrats are leading the charge because regime change is coming to Beijing.
04
Sounds like a bad case of VDS
20
FWIW
“The Doughnut Delusion: A Case Study in How to Turn Data into Ideology”
“It’s fitting that a pair of academics from Oxford and Leeds have decided the best way to save humanity is to bake a giant metaphorical pastry. The Doughnut of Social and Planetary Boundaries, recently published in Nature (October 2025), offers us what its authors, Andrew Fanning and Kate Raworth, describe as a “renewed Doughnut framework” — 35 indicators tracking “social deprivation” and “ecological overshoot.” The paper’s premise is that the world is “out of balance” because we’ve failed to meet “the essential needs of all people within the means of the living planet”.
In other words: capitalism bad, GDP evil, and you should feel guilty for owning a refrigerator.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/09/the-doughnut-delusion-a-case-study-in-how-to-turn-data-into-ideology/
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FWIW
“Automotive chickens coming home to an illegal alien roost?”
“If you’ve been following the cascade of bankruptcies in the sub-prime auto loan sector, you’ll know that Tricolor Auto’s collapse has precipitated all sorts of third-order consequences. Ace has the details.”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/10/automotive-chickens-coming-home-to.html
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Great find and share Thank you. Wonder how many of those car purchases were for EVs which would add another third-order consequence industry affect? It seems that corruption is everywhere and the majority of western civilisation is now based on ponzi scheme “principles”.
00
FWIW
“Wrongthink: Australia Confiscating Guns of Those Who Don’t Recognize Government Authority”
https://www.shootingnewsweekly.com/gun-rights/wrongthink-australia-confiscating-guns-of-those-who-dont-recognize-government-authority/
12
Its a good call, sovereign citizens are anarchists and a danger to the social fabric.
25
Where does that place citizens that favor neither the Labor nor Liberal political parties?
21
If you don’t like the majors then vote for a splinter group of your persuasion.
The anarchists they are looking for have a habit of killing police.
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>The anarchists they are looking for have a habit of killing police
Plural? They’re looking for more than one?
I only read about Filby/Freeman, but he doesn’t seem to be an anarchist.
Habit (n) An action performed on a regular basis.
The only other police shooting in recent times I’m aware of wasn’t anarchists either.
The Wieambilla shootings were a religiously motivated terrorist attack (Wikipedia)
10
Its a preemptive strike to nip it in the bud.
‘Anarchism has most commonly been described as a moral doctrine encompassing egalitarianism and personal freedom as its core values and rejects all forms of hierarchical structures and authority (e.g. governments, police and corporations). (NIH)
01
‘Anti-Israel protests see ayatollahs and anarchists marching arm-in-arm.
‘Protests have been portrayed as a mainstream movement when they are an affront to human intelligence and decency.’ (Oz)
01
In the wilderness, eating vegan with the Teals.
01
Quite a few contradictions
No mention of the guns being illegal, so owned by licenced owners holding a permit. What law are they breaking? Not tugging the forelock enough to the State governmen?
Claimed to be sovereign citizens yet have guns registered?
If they do have guns buried in the bush you have just made them more valuable and the owners more angry by showing your intent to victimise.
Only really a small step now to targetting based on being with the “wrong” political party or commenting on the “wrong” blog or otherwise tarnishing the social fabric.
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I’m still waiting for the ABC News here to interview or quote any of these dangerous sovereign citizens. I’ve never met one, nor know anything about them, yet the ABC News and Police Commissioner tell me they are terrible people who are not fit to own a gun license. I mean, perhaps that is the case, but where is the evidence? And if people who disagree with any government law are unfit to hold a gun license then it’s just a matter of time before skeptical farmers who happen to own guns will be raided by SWAT Teams.
And if they want to stop these Sovereign Citizens from feeling shafted by taking away their legal property, at least interview them so they can air their grievances. Otherwise, we might wonder if the establishment was just winding up people to make them angry, perhaps hoping to provoke them into acting violent. Wouldn’t that be convenient?
Meanwhile farmers wives may be telling their husbands not to speak up on any issue for fear they will be “put on a list”. It’s a great way to silence gun owners isn’t it?
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FWIW
“DECOLONIZATION: Italy’s ruling party proposes ban on burqas, niqabs, and foreign mosque funding.
Italy’s ruling party, Brothers of Italy (FdI), has announced plans to draft a bill aimed at banning face and body coverings such as the burqa and niqab in all public spaces across the country, describing it as a measure against “Islamic separatism.”
“Freedom of religion is sacred, but it must be practiced openly, with full respect for our constitution and the principles of the Italian state,” Andrea Delmastro, one of the lawmakers drafting the bill, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
The ban would prohibit wearing face-covering garments in all public spaces, including shops, schools, and offices. Violators would face fines ranging from €300 to €3,000.
The proposal is part of a broader bill aimed at addressing what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing party describes as “cultural separatism” associated with Islam.
The Left used to be all in favor of decolonization, but you can bet that won’t be the case now.”
https://instapundit.com/749712/#disqus_thread
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Solar Citizens will represent Australian households at COP30 to help bolster Australia’s bid for COP31. Australia’s energy transition one rooftop at a time:
https://www.solarcitizens.org.au/raise_the_roof_blog?utm_campaign=coptober_launch_email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=solarcitizens
As Australia bids to co-host COP31 in Adelaide in 2026 alongside Pacific Island nations, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to show the world what’s possible.
While others campaign against fossil fuels, we’re focused on scaling the solutions to replace them. Through a Rooftop Solar Champions Alliance, we’ll partner with NGOs across at least three Asia-Pacific countries to help them set their own rooftop solar targets and roadmaps.
Because we can’t end fossil fuel exports without ensuring that countries like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have clear, affordable pathways to transition their energy systems too.
Not sure if Japan, Korea and Taiwan want to hand off their industry to mainland China. And not confident covering the roof of a 20 storey apartment block is going to supply the electricity needs of the occupants.
This displays a lack of understanding of the basics and mainland Australia’s unique relationship with the Sun.
https://footprinthero.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Solar-Irradiance-Calculator-Image-1-1024×608.jpg
I wonder how a Chinese monopoly on global manufacturing would work out.
60
I wonder how much taxpayer money or other concessions Albanese will give to Turkey to encourage them to call off their bid for COP31?
Australia MUST demonstrate to the woke world its fanatical commitment to Net Zero Prosperity “whatever it takes” to quote Labor apparatchik Graham Richardson.
40
I’m not sure what a “Solar Citizen” is.
A “citizen” implies independence, freedom and strength and capable of independent thought.
They are subjects (serfs or slaves) not citizens.
11
Solar citizens usually pay little or nothing for their electrical energy. Some make money from selling excess to retailers. We took advantage of OPM that was on offer to avoid the high cost of electrical energy in Australia.
Solar citizens are rapidly destroying the economics of Australia’s electrical grids and bringing on the necessary shift away from from the NetZero fantasy sooner rather than later – albeit the majority do not realise they are party to the destruction of the grid and the end of the NetZero fantasy in Australia.
Rooftop solar is on a tear:
Australia’s rooftop solar market has climbed by more than 16% in the past month with the latest data revealing that 237 MW of small-scale rooftop PV capacity was installed last month as consumers increasingly turned to solar-plus-storage solutions.
https://www.ess-news.com/2025/10/07/australias-rooftop-pv-rides-wave-of-distributed-storage-adoption/
Every added rooftop means more grid scale WDG curtailment thereby killing their business case. Grid solar in SA already loses more output through curtailment than the demand it serves. It is already stranded.
I was thinking that Snowy 2 would slow the decline of grid scale WDGs but rooftops are growing so fast that I now doubt that.
I am not certain if the lunatics in the government understand why the unit cot of grid power has to keep going up or if they are worried about riots and wilful damage. But every rooftop solar installation also reduces the demand for essential generation meaning that those generators have to spread their high standby costs across much reduced output. Meanwhile there are already 10M Australians who are paying very little for electricity.
Our high FIT ended on 31 Dec 2024. I am yet to get an electricity bill because I pull next to no energy from the grid; I still export a little at much reduced FIT and I get the Federal rebate that covers the cost of connection.
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A solar citizen is a member of the collective unconscious.
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My father sometimes called me Son.
sarc.
10
FWIW – will Snowy 2 buy a couple?
“The Boring Company’s “Prufrock” tunneling machine can porpoise—it arrives on a truck, tilts down, and launches into the ground within ~24 hours, then resurfaces by mining onto a trailer—so you don’t need huge launch pits or cranes. It’s also designed for “zero-people-in-tunnel” operations run from a control center.”
https://instapundit.com/749714/#disqus_thread
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FWIW
“Gazans Celebrate Peace Deal with a Chant That Should Raise Eyebrows, But Won’t”
“Everyone wants peace, right? And so everyone is thrilled the Trump’s Hamas/Israel peace deal. Even Barack Obama has found it in his heart to utter some encouraging words, and the likes of MSNBC and the Washington Post are pausing from their nonstop orgy of Trump hate to hail the cessation of hostilities in Gaza.
Amid all this good feeling, there is just one group that doesn’t seem all that excited about peace. They’re excited, all right, but not because the war between Hamas and Israel is over, at least for the moment. That group is the Gazans, or at least some of them. One group of Gazans was captured on video chanting “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahood, jaish Muhammad sa yaoud.” That is, “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.” ”
https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2025/10/09/gazans-celebrate-peace-deal-with-a-chant-that-should-raise-eyebrows-but-wont-n4944683
Might influence the betting odds on long lasting success?
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And
“Unfortunately, the Jihad Against Israel Will Continue”
“Yes, it is amazing. Still, there are a few inconvenient truths that should be borne in mind. Trump is right: Israel cannot fight the world. But the world, or at least the forces of jihad and their non-Muslim useful idiots, can fight Israel, and will continue to do so. As far as Hamas and other Islamic jihad entities are concerned, there will be no peace, just a pause, a slight delay in the jihad. At best.
As much as peace may be the desire of the entire world, and regardless of Trump’s imagination, daring, and innovation in pursuing it, Hamas and other Islamic jihad groups have no interest whatsoever in establishing what Trump called a “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” except on its own terms, which would still require the total destruction of Israel and its replacement with a Sharia state.
This is because Hamas is an Islamic group. An Islamic group can be reasonably expected to follow Islamic law. Islamic law does not allow for the establishment of peace between a Muslim entity and a non-Muslim one on an indefinite basis, with, say, two states living side by side and respecting each other’s right to exist. ”
More at
https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2025/10/09/unfortunately-the-jihad-against-israel-will-continue-n4944678
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While some Islamic nations – or sections within them – will continue hostility towards Israel, many of the wealthy oil states will increase trade relations with Israel. The Abraham Accords reflect this desire for normalising of trade with, and through, Israel. The involvement of these states in the Peace Plan, encouraged by Trump’s visits to the more significant states, indicate this development.
30
Trump to permantly cut Democrat-only programs
“We’ll be making cuts that will be permanent, and we’re only going to cut Democrat programs, I hate to tell you. That’s the way it works. They wanted this.”
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1976328709218107765
There will be fireworks! LOL.
I wonder what the major event in a few weeks will be. Civil war 2.0 maybe?
01
And don’t overlook –
“‘Taqiyya’ and Why Islam’s Pro-Lying Principle Raises Worries for Gaza-Israel Peace”
Behind a wall but you get the gist
https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2025/10/09/taqiyya-and-why-islams-pro-lying-principle-raises-worries-for-gaza-israel-peace-n4944670
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History tells us that the one absolutely necessary prerequisite to lasting peace is a resounding victory, negotiated ceasefires don’t cut it.
I am under no illusion that Hamas had an epiphany, if they are negotiating ANYTHING it will be because they can no longer keep fighting. Let’s hope any weakness is long lasting.
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FWIW – The Qld electricity industry and coal –
On-line Courier Mail headline – behind the Murdoch wall
“Labor’s 2035 coal shutdown target thrown out in treasurer’s huge power play
Treasurer David Janetzki will today reveal coal will power Queensland until at least 2046, in a dramatic $2.1bn energy reset that abolishes Labor’s “dishonest” plan.”
150
Absolute proof that Blackout is a mental midget:
With private sector investment flagging, Energy Minister Chris Bowen is announcing further federal intervention by expanding, and re-jigging, the Capacity Investment Scheme which was introduced last year to “firm up” the electricity grid, or keep the lights on, as coal-fired power stations close.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-23/australian-taxpayers-to-subsidise-renewable-energy-projects/103138990
This is taxpayers money being shown at a completely useless black hole. Surely any dimwit would ask why the private sector does not want to invest before throwing taxpayers’ money into a black hole.
Wake up Blackout – wind farms are stranded assets. You cannot push on a piece of string. The voters have taken their demand from the grid by installing rooftop solar. When you look up on the ridge line and see all those wind turbines not spinning but the trees are bending to the wind please ask why. It is because the wholesale price for electricity is NEGATIVE. No one can make money selling something at negative price unless it is subsidised by organised theft from consumers or taxpayers. South Australian wind turbines at 8:30 am are producing 700MW but that is less than the 1084MW being curtailed. By midday, the SA rooftops will service the entire demand and wind will have no demand to serve.
The RET ends in 2030 and all the existing wind farms relying on the organised consumer theft are then unprofitable. They will need taxpayer bailouts as well because they will not be able to make a profit. Meanwhile rooftop solar continues its tear; robbing the demand. So wholesale market in turmoil with horrendously rising costs on falling demand. Unit price in explosive growth as more businesses fail.
Then the taxpayer bailout of failing businesses has the makings of a USSR socialist collapse. All chasing the NetZero fantasy. Boris is obviously no mental giant but he gets it – wake up!
120
What’s to stop the present Government, or even a fake conservative Liberal Government in the unlikely event they are elected, from extending it?
30
All governments, State and Federal, are between a rock and hard place with regard electricity. The grid was headed for terminal decline when Howard introduced the RET. Allowing intermittent generation into the grid on favourable terms ensured the inevitable decline we are now observing.
The wholesale market peaked in July 2008. Since then there has been declining volume. It is now declining rapidly as more big consumers (which I represented on the National Grid System Development Group by the way ) shut down and rooftop solar grows rapidly.
So the efficient coal fired generators that underpinned Australia’s economy for half a century lost their demand to grid scale wind; grid scale solar; rooftop solar and decline in big consumers. These big thermal generators work at least cost when operating steadily around 100% of their rated capacity. They now carry increased maintenance and operating burden through varying load condition and high fixed costs speed across reduced demand. Coal and gas are essential generators and there has been no reduction in their peak demand simply because wind and solar has a minimum rated output of zero. And that can happen any night.
So the unit cost of essential generation has to be very high to keep all the essential generators in profit. And unit costs will continue to increase as they try to recover their high fixed costs across reduced output.
The non-essential grid generators are having their demand taken away by rooftops. Their opportunity to earn certificates is declining. So increasing the large scale target means the price of LGCs will rise astronomically and force even more businesses and households to seek alternatives to grid supplied energy. It will accelerate the decline of the grid – not sure if they realise that or if it is just politically unpalatable for Labor.
There is no other country with the suburban sprawl and sunlight to match Australia. It is probably the only G20 country that could be powered from rooftops – Spain is not in G20. But rooftops are not going to run BSL, Tomago or Portland. They are dead economically unless the bidding system is changed to merit order and only essential generators permitted to bid. Treat electricity as an essential service rather than a casino.
The hard place is that rooftop owners are a powerful political force. Do anything that upsets us and you will not get elected. Rooftop solar paired with batteries are not a significant burden on the grid. They are not economic compared with coal fired generation but they are now a sunk cost and can always abandon the grid completely.
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‘ … force even more businesses and households to seek alternatives to grid supplied energy.’
You say that as though it’s a good thing.
11
it is good thing that Australia is going first , so that others can learn what not to do , although Spain should have been a heads-up already.
00
They are getting what they voted for.
Some people are slow learners. Our children have well paying careers so will stay float. I am hoping that accelerating the inevitable collapse of the grid, sanity will prevail sooner rather than later. That will give our grandchildren a better outlook for rebuilding the industrial economy of Australia.
I have been active in calling out their CSIRO but mostly in vain. I have contributed tio various enquiries into the electricity grid. Also mostly in vain. And I expect my response to the NEM review and misinformation enquiry will also be in vain.
https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=69239ab6-4aec-4a79-9969-1549f2a778d6&subId=778187
It is hard to fix stupid or convince a zealot they are wrong or convince anyone that they should tell the truth when their income depends on promoting a lie.
30
They are NOT getting what they voted for. They were told unreliable generators were cheaper. They were told they were saving the world.
They were not told that their poor neighbors would be forced to pay for half the cost of their parasitic solar panels, and most of the cost of the back up network they need.
They were not told unreliable energy is a fantasy that in the long run will cause everyone’s bills to rise, industries to fail, and manufacturing to move to China.
102
Yes they are and you have proven it. They voted for liars and scoundrels.
The last time I cast my vote for a Liberal representative was when Abbott won. His demise was a sad day for the LNP and when they lost my support.
There are a few honest polies that are worth voting for. It is just so sad that Australians have lost their BS meter and are willing to accept lies.
The proof of what I say is that there are still people who listen to their ABC and actually believe what they are being told.
41
I guess they never learned to believe none of what they heard , and half of what they saw, although AI has made the latter questionable.
The fact is that the cancellation of the classical education (maths, science , and three languages) has produced a couple of generations incapable of much rational thought.
Democracy cannot exist in the absence of an informed electorate,as we now see.
20
Arsonist arrested
https://nypost.com/2025/10/08/us-news/suspect-in-deadly-los-angeles-palisades-fire-arrested-law-enforcement-sources-say/
It was arson not CC.
30
Vulture Capital. Pirate Empathy. Private Equity. This is at the evil, greed, end of the ‘Power Spectrum’. The spectrum that stretches between naked Greed, and naked, death dealing, power, the two forms of power corrupted.
Anyway the happy chaps in Private Equity are playing Monopoly, especially in the US. I guess we’ve always had a feudal version – they used to build castles, and monopolize trade, but thanks to galaxies of funds, sloshing around in the ether, that up to now has seemingly only been accessed to build factories in the third world, or in joint ventures with governments, in Public/Private monopolies. It seems now they have worked out another way to use it. Borrow to build local, regional, or national monopolies, gobbling up dozens of small companies that are gutted, laden with borrowings that are siphoned off, leading to bankruptcy and collapse. Wash, rinse, repeat. Very profitable ‘Piracy 2025’. I reckon you need a very special mentality to live in that world?
Businesses I’ve come across in the last few months that are being gobbled up into monopolies:-
Vet clinics, and pet food. Regional cement factories. Ski resorts. Local electrical grids. Trailer parks. Private houses, and rental agencies. Meat. Restaurant and take away food services. Hooters. Dental clinics.
Banks, Big AG, Big Pharma, Big Tech etc have always bought out the completion, but at least that was buying out, this is the carrion, ripping and tearing, leaving only ruined businesses. Someone said recently that Communism’s object was the destruction of the middle class, well this is Greed’s version of that.
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I wonder if there is one Australian who read Satan Tango by Laslo Krasnaharkavi who won Nobel Prize for Literature last night.
Bela Tarr shot a movie of the same name : https://youtu.be/eQ66STMnBt0 , if anyone manages to watch the trailer to its end, please remember it was written in 1985 in not the worst country of Socialist Paradise.
Having live there I attest that is exactly how Socialism looks like, tastes like, smells like.
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Some powerful imagery there. I have been looking for a book to read: this author will be next.
20
Not sure what age you are, Gregor.
Any case, hope you managed to see Ash and Diamond – Popiol I Diament (1958) – much was borrowed from it by later generations of directors.
And RickWill, Andrzej Wajda (died in 2016) had ment exactly what you have shown – the last couple of days of once great civilisation.
40
Gregor has had his three score and ten, but continues to actively farm.
An infrequent attender of movies : the last one that I saw was Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia”.Probably ten years ago.
20
I watched it to its end. In a word – bleak.
Australia has a much brighter future with its built environment under its socialist government:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F6fhkvzn2d7k51.jpg
20
FWIW
“Mohammed Upset As Democrats Keep Calling Islam A Religion Of Peace”
https://babylonbee.com/news/mohammed-upset-as-democrats-keep-calling-islam-a-religion-of-peace
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/10/09/thursday-on-turtle-island-168/
10
The nose ring squad aren’t happy!
Today, 63% of men are single with the majority not looking for a partner. By the year 2030, 45% of western women between the ages of 25 and 45 will [be] single and childless (spinsters). It’s a demographic disaster; it’s the end of civilization as we know it, and that’s exactly what the political left wants.
Even if modern women decided they prefer to find a man in 2025, most men do not want them. This has led to what some are calling the “female loneliness epidemic”; a rise in women seeking relationships but unable to find men willing to reciprocate. Within feminist circles, the word on the street is that men are “no longer approaching”.
This is a trend that is visible in many European countries (and Canada and Australia) where feminism has been allowed to spread beyond universities and into vital social structures. Men wait for women to approach, or, they avoid women altogether.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feminists-have-discovered-nose-ring-theory-and-theyre-not-happy
Ha ha…yep..
How about a hookup site for non-left, non-tramp stamp, non-psycho chick, unvaxxed, nose ring free women?
/joke
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‘Men wait for women to approach, or, they avoid women altogether.’
It is better this way, the weaker sex should not feel intimidated by unwelcome advances.
03
With Mrs H in care I’m effectively single, and hate it.
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No polite words are not needed Mr H, my heart is with you.
30
Thank you for your thoughts Vlad, appreciated, but my point was simple: I love woman. I have no idea how men with a proper testosterone count can choose the life of a monk over having a warm female body beside you at night, it beats me.
00
sorry but there are too many cartoons/comments about the male being the warmer party in a bed.
And true from experience…..
But there are other benefits than body warmth
00
No polite words are needed Mr H, my heart is with you.
10
They just don’t get it – Reserve Bank governor Michelle Bullock in defence mode today, as she denies that the RBA’s monetary policy (interest rates) is to blame for the housing shortage, blaming the government for ‘lack of supply’.
Cut to Albo, telling reporters that previous governments are ‘Absolutely’ responsible for lack of supply – just not his government, of course.
These reprobates are dancing around the issue that everybody here can clearly see – there is not a SUPPLY problem at all, they have created a DEMAND problem through mass migration.
By the way, has anyone here noticed whole families of immigrants living on the streets of our cities? Me neither, so where are they if we have a
so-called housing shortage? Don’t tell me they’ve taken a leaf out of the UK playbook and we are subsidising hotel/apartment accomodation.
40
Chinese slopaganda, fake AI and Grok nonsense
https://youtu.be/3dDYNigCsec?si=hPwGF8vWm1txvrcA
What a joke.
00
I’m pretty sure this is fake. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9upPP1nEjn8
30
I reckon Django Bates has done the definitive version of New York New York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N19rEz26Ufw&list=RDN19rEz26Ufw&start_radio=1
00
Mathematicians in denial about AI replacing them
https://youtu.be/EzAIRE1MIrk?si=ROTiQTFCnDYEh9qO
A commenter said:
“If AI will replace mathematicians the same way it replaced coders, then mathematicians have nothing to worry about”.
LOL…he obviously doesn’t know what’s really happening right now.
Honestly, it scares me.
The advances are so fast, so powerful and so amazingly good, I’m now in the “shutdown all AI development while we still can” camp.
We are dangerously close to losing control…
20
The peace deal in the middle east, long lasting or (more likely) short lived could address another problem. All those military aged i.e. able bodied males who made the trip to Europe/(once)Great Britain could be offered fast-track citizenship if they go to Gaza and work rebuilding it for the next 8-years.
Just clearing all the concrete from the ruins and disposing of it environmentally responsibly would take a good couple of years.
The arab states are apparently going to refund the rebuild so I am sure they would welcome an immediately available source of able bodied single men which come with the added advantage that they already share the same religion.
10
Trump will need to get a wriggle on if he wants to claim credit for ending the slaughter in Ukraine.
Any more of this and the Ukie generals will offer unconditional surrender before NATO gets out of bed.
https://www.rt.com/russia/-sprawling-blackouts-reported-kiev/
20
Correct site is:
https://www.rt.com/russia/626167-sprawling-blackouts-reported-kiev/
00
World’s first international governing body and judicial authority declares mRNA injections Biological and Technological Weapons of Mass Destruction
“This Tribunal finds and hereby declares that the ‘COVID-19 nanoparticle injections’ or ‘mRNA nanoparticle injections’ or ‘COVID-19 injections‘ meet the criteria of biological weapons and weapons of mass destruction according to the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act, of 1989 18 USC § 175; Weapons and Firearms § 790.166 Fla. Stat.(2023), Canada‘s Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Implementation Act, 2004, and the International Biological Weapons Convention. This Order and Declaration is intended to have immediate worldwide effect.”
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-worlds-first-international
The noose is tightening but the horse has long bolted.
10
Is the arrest of Fauci et al the next episode in the current series of Days of Our Lives?
Rumour has it that we are soon to be treated to a blockbuster episode (starring The Donald no doubt).
P.S. Yes I know it is early (3a.m.) but I was checking a young cow who is about to calve.
00
Returns me a “404”
10
Me too, but I have some other news, Xi Jinping has been rushed to hospital with a stroke. Wang Yang is leading the transition.
10
Rumors are reported to abound.
OTOH one item suggested this
If he has had a severe stroke Xi will not be able to speak in Beijing within a week. This is what we know now.
00
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/archive?sort=new
00
FWIW – books and covers?
“Feminists Have Discovered “Nose Ring Theory” And They’re Not Happy”
https://x.com/LangmanVince/status/1974825877599830165
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feminists-have-discovered-nose-ring-theory-and-theyre-not-happy
00
I identified ‘militant’ feminism as a socially destructive force ages ago. It goes well beyond those extremists though, infecting otherwise sane women who now see the world as a dangerous place because they have to share it with men. Going further, even feminist women much, much more successful than most men still complain that they are oppressed by men. They are somehow simultaneously a ‘girl boss’, but also victims of the patriarchy.
There seems to be an intriguing overlap between this militant brand of feminism and leftist politics, including what we call ‘woke’. They share many characteristics. I don’t know why.
10
FWIW – an interesting development
“Pro-Paper-Ballot Firm Buys Dominion Voting Systems”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pro-paper-ballot-firm-buys-dominion-voting-systems
I wonder what they’ll find hidden in the books?
20
FWIW
“Greta Thunberg Awarded Nobel Prize For Ending The War In Gaza”
https://babylonbee.com/news/greta-thunberg-awarded-nobel-prize-for-ending-the-war-in-gaza
Via SDA
20
‘Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado has won the Nobel peace prize.
‘The committee commended Machado as a “brave and committed champion of peace” who “keeps the flame of democracy burning during a growing darkness”. (Guardian)
11