JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
Jo appreciates your support to help her keep doing what she does. This blog is funded by donations. Thanks!
Follow Jo's Tweets To report "lost" comments or defamatory and offensive remarks, email the moderators at: support.jonova AT proton.me
Statistics
First to comment? Why at 2.12 am sleep time?
People in their 80s have seen a lot of history and hopefully have gained some wisdom from experience. This can mean that we see more things each day that cause us to say “Hey, that is wrong. Here is the right version.”
What happened yesterday to keep me awake? The pain of several ailments exceeded the fun of watching Travis Head demolish the Brits in the First Test.
Nothing to do with climate change. Geoff S.
360
I have beeen flogged like that, and remember the details. I detested batsmen who got out of their crease.
In this case they left out two top bowlers and still 123 wasn’t enough to win man of the match.
I fear the future for test cricket. Too many days advertising lost with the short matches.
110
Yes, great first day but i love testcricket and there seem few people these days able to dig in,build a big score over time and which gives time for the match to wax and wane and for different weather conditions to play their part
110
Then you have Australian opener Travis Head yesterday. He came close to holding his wicket from the first ball to the last and weathered every storm, but also took the fight back to them and so forced defensive field placements, which in turn opened more gaps. Not the usual single on every ball. It’s amazing how a four or six will spread the field, making life much easier. And Labuschange just had to hit a six on nearly the last ball so he could get to 50. It takes real character to turn a near rout into a victory. And the Australian Cricket Board will have to hand back millions in ticket purchase for what would normally have been a five day game. But it makes for excitement which brings in the punters.
190
It wasn’t the Brits Geoff. It was the English.
The Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish were watching and not participating.
110
True and all the sweeter for it. This is perhaps why the generic Pom label was invented for us Aussies who cant remember , or just doht care , about the England, Britain, UK nuances.
62
Nasty!
20
Prisoner of Mother England probaly fits superbly today given the Direction England is Going
40
Hardly, just a bit of fun. I have quite a few Pommy friends, they give as good as they get.
30
I can assure everyone that the Scots don’t watch cricket. In the last world cup, I rang my cousins to find out about the supposed Scottish team. There was nothing in the papers or on TV. As if it didn’t exist. Remember the team was made up of Australian and new Zealand players who would never get into the Oz or Oz teams.
70
I am not sure that New Zealand players would get into the Oz team, but who knows?
10
We have history with South African players so I expect Kiwis could also once the citizehship stuff is done. (At this point we cue the lobotomy comments from NZ. 🙂
Wessels and Labuschagne have done it , and Kim Garth (Irish) in the womens game.
10
JR,
You are correct and I was wrong.
So, I apologise as all of us should do when wrong, because that’s cricket. A game with rules from and for gentlemen.
Geoff S
00
And when Australia loses in Sport to anyone, the MSM in Australia never seem to mention it –
“Australia beaten by France to complete winless tour.
Australia have ended a European tour winless for the first time in 67 years after a 48-33 defeat by France at the Stade de France.
It was the Wallabies’ fourth defeat of the autumn after losses to Italy, England and Ireland – and their 10th of the year.
And it is the second week in a row where Australia have conceded more than 40 points, following their 46-19 defeat by Ireland last Saturday.
Defeat marks a historic low for the Wallabies, who had not lost 10 Tests in a calendar year before.
It means coach Joe Schmidt, who will depart after July’s Nations Championship, now has a win percentage of under 40%.”
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/articles/cn7kylxj4y1o
30
Bring back Izzy!
The ultimate Broke by Woke!
30
Thing is its Union , which is a minority game. Most Aussies wouldn’t know a tour was on or be able to name a couple of teams in their home State. Agree in general though , news from tour losses tends to peter out after “oh, we got a flogging” less of the public ritual dismemberment that the UK sports press inflicts on its own teams.
10
About the gaining of wisdom.
I spent the first 45 years of my life in the confident expectation that modern communications will save us from further wars.
I then realised that people never change, there will be wars. One of the great mysteries to me at the moment is why is Trump on Putin’s side?
And where will this lead to?
30
Doesn’t like Victoria Nulands 🙂
30
“…why is Trump on Putin’s side?”
Perhaps he’s discovered that Putin has been, and is, giving him verifiable facts while others have been giving him at best unreliable data, and sometimes outright lies.
e.g. It’s getting clearer, and known to some for a couple of months at least, that Russia, not Ukraine, is winning that war.
Mercouris, who some have dismissed outright (wrongly IMHO) describes the situation in his own style in his latest episode 22/11/25, 49 mins.
51
Sorry, left out the link, and “edit” didn’t appear for me. Here it is:
https://rumble.com/v723eas-russia-offensive-fastest-advance-pokrovsk-siversk-putin-says-us-plan-basis-.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a
Cheers,
Dave B
00
One of the hazards of being a junior cricket umpire is that inevitably a future test champion will be in the match you’re standing in. I remember when Travis and his brother were playing and one of them was the opening bowler and bowled the opening batsman first ball. Just one problem, I called a no ball, the batsman showed incredible relief and the bowler just laughed his head off, taking it like a good sport. Thankfully his spike marks told the story on the newly prepared turf wicket!
60
Quora.
“What is the percentage of atmospheric CO2 that is due to human activity? What is the percentage that is due to natural causes?”
The answer is 2.0%/98.0%.
But I am amazed how much rubbish is generated by rogue commentators, rarely or inappropriately qualified. And involves lots of personal abuse.
I have also been reflecting on the recent comments of historian commentator Victor Hanson. He argues that the demand for AI electricity is killing Climate Change.
In retrospect it is not what he said but what he didn’t say. He didn’t address ‘The Science’ at all. Which means he defers to scientists completely.
My neighbour suggested that the vast proportion of people do not even know what Carbon Dioxide is! I would not be surprised. Certainly not lawyers and politicians. And that does match with the public attack on the element Carbon, the sixth element of the Periodic Table.
Which is how the Carbon Dioxide (not Carbon) myth has been able to dominate world politics. Most accept it as true, even if a large proprition are very skeptical of ‘consensus’ science. And the total silence of universities and government scientists make them implicit supporters.
And even some of those who know better do not question the essential man made atmospheric CO2 story, even some leading physicists like Prof Wllliam Happer and his CO2 coalition. They simply argue that the effect is limited and overstated and that on the whole rising CO2 is a massive benefit for humanity.
For my part, I thought the sure and certain knowledge that the fossil fuel CO2 content in the atmosphere was only 2% in 1958 after two world wars and even today only 2% would have ended The Science. The CO2 goes straight into the ocean. As had been confirmed in scores of scientific papers (Table 1 in Stallinga, 2023) There is no way tiny fossil fuel CO2 is significant once in the ocean where it contributes at tiny 0.02% a year.
But The Science is dying rapidly from greed with the new pot of gold being AI. AI needs lots and lots of electricity to be an AI Superpower. And the battle is between China and the US, both now oblivious to the hoax which is man made CO2 aka rapid Global Warming aka Climate Change.
482
Why willl AI need so much power?
Is somebody selling something?
It looks to me like another case of æ “Follow the money!”1
170
I’ve stopped calling it “AI” = Artificial Intelligence.
And call it AB which equals Artificial Bullsh*it”.
It still needs to be “Fact Checked”.
240
AB will do, thanks.
110
More like G.B.- Genuine Bullsh*t.
30
Open AI is probably the best known in the large lamguage model arena. The company started in 2015 and was valued ay USD500bn in October this year. Annual revenue now USD13bn.
It takes around USD100M to train a large language model. That is in hardware, engineering and electricity.
Nvidia is the main developer of the hardware. Their Q3 2025 revenue was USD57bn. The company was started way back in 1993 but has only been in AI since 2015. Nvidia is now the highest valued company in the world at USD4.3tr.
The large models are subscription based and the cost depends on the model. This is a cost estimator for some of the OpenAi models:
https://aiparabellum.com/openai-pricing-calculator/
Each question will put the AI into motion and that will be consuming power. Probably far more than a simple search. But I have not used any subscription service. A “token” in a large model is about 4 characters. I do not know if you constrain the answer, if that saves tokens.
When I think about what went into getting iron ore or coal onto a ship in my early days in engineering in 1970s and 1980s and how that is now $128bn annual revenue you realise how significant AI is already with Nvidia having annual revenue of $228bn in just 10 years. Australia ships out about 800Mt of iron ore each year. Nvidia much less mass but much higher value – at least $1000/kg.
When I look at Australia now, I see a productivity cliff. It is mostly self-inflicted but the main factor is Climate Change™. And I know it is all garbage. I can see connections between the Sun and the climate that can be honed to give much better climate predictions and long term weather predictions. I would like to have an AI assistant to work on those.
Unless AI is used to improve Australia’s productivity it is not going to deliver benefits. There is no point in using AI to shuffle “paper” or “tokens” faster in government agencies.
110
Surprsingly the Sydmey Moaning Herald had an excellent article on this
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/an-offer-he-couldn-t-refuse-the-young-aussie-who-couldn-t-say-no-to-zuckerberg-20251117-p5ng0e.html
Tristan Heywood: Making ChatGPT faster
Douglas helped pull friend Tristan Heywood into the vortex. Heywood, an engineer who grew up in Sydney and was awarded the University Medal at the University of Sydney, watched from afar as Douglas landed a job at DeepMind
“It really proved it was possible,” Heywood says. He quit his job, spent three months intensely studying transformers and kernel programming, and landed a role at OpenAI in January 2023, just as the ChatGPT craze was igniting.
Heywood’s job is tangible: he makes ChatGPT faster.
Andrew Tulloch: The billion-dollar brain
If there is a face to the sheer financial madness of the 2025 AI talent wars, it is Andrew Tulloch. The man behind the $US1.5 billion headline is not a “move fast and break things” coder. Tulloch’s background is one of pure, elite Australian academic achievement. Described by industry sources as shy and keen to retain a low profile, his resume speaks for itself.
Tulloch’s staggering strategic value to Meta, however, comes from his first, 11-year stint at the company, which began after a brief period at Goldman Sachs in Sydney. At Meta (then Facebook), Tulloch was a pivotal engineer in the creation of PyTorch, the open-source AI framework Meta founded in 2016.
In 2023, Tulloch left Meta. He did a stint at OpenAI before co-founding the start-up Thinking Machines Lab (TML) in February, alongside former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati.
[Snip – too much shared content from the article. Not necessary when readers can read the link, and more than 10% tests copyright/fair use provisions. – Raquel]
– Sholto Douglas: The visionary at Anthropic
– Ben Goodger: The architect of the internet
– Casey Flint: The AI strategist
– James Groeneveld: The rower who rebuilt the engine
Can Australia and New Zealand compete? Should they try?
31
It is impressive that another Australian has been so instrumental in this development. And reasonable reward for himself but not translating into value for Australia.
50
RickWill,
Australia has the talent, but seems unable to harness and use that Talent here in Australia – No Opportunities, hence the move overseas.
I know of another Maths Quant making money from his Maths Capablities, but in Monaco, as Eldest Grand Daughter said at Family Do Friday Night, not only does he have a Pool in his Monaco Apartment, he has 2 Pools (she was at 18 year old’s party at said apartment, while my Son was at the Grown Ups Party in a different Area of the Apartment – Class Mate of my Son)
70
I still make my living from mathematics. Mainly overseas. Don’t want to leave the country. But the travel has been a bit much. However the internet has changed that a great deal. One US patent examiner was working from home. In Puerto Rico! It’s a different world with the internet.
70
How long can this go on before we decide that we have been granting patents on the wheel
00
Why willl AI need so much power?
During an all-hands meeting earlier this month, Google’s AI infrastructure head Amin Vahdat told employees that the company must double its serving capacity every six months to meet demand for artificial intelligence services, reports CNBC. The comments show a rare look at what Google executives are telling its own employees internally. Vahdat, a vice president at Google Cloud, presented slides to its employees showing the company needs to scale “the next 1000x in 4-5 years.”
While a thousandfold increase in compute capacity sounds ambitious by itself, Vahdat noted some key constraints:
[Snip – too much copied content from the linked article. – Raquel]
The thousandfold scaling challenge
One major bottleneck for meeting AI demand has been Nvidia’s lack of capacity to produce enough GPUs that accelerate AI computations. Just a few days ago during a quarterly earnings report, Nvidia said its AI chips are “sold out” as it races to meet demand that grew its data center revenue by $10 billion in a single quarter.
40
Re Google integrating AI features into existing services like Gmail, Breitbart reports that
Opt out instructions are in the Breitbart article here
20
“SoftBank and Oracle, committing over $400 billion in the next three years to reach nearly 7 gigawatts of capacity” very odd way to talk about data centre capacity, it terms of power levels.
00
Without disputing what you say about the % of anthropogenic CO2, it has always puzzled me that how can CO2 be being absorbed by the oceans if the oceans are warming due to subsea volcanic activity, solar increases or some other method?
110
Good question. It goes to the heart of the idea of whether CO2 gas is static as in a room or in rapid exchange with the oceans which cover 72% of the planet.
CO2 is obviously heavier than air, O2 and N2 and Argon. O2 also goes into the oceans too. It’s how fish breathe. All living things breathe.
CO2 is also 30x as soluble as O2. Most of it is in the ocean, 98%, 50x as much as the air. Even more, it dissociates into ions largely which dramatically increases solubility. And at more than 50 metres, compresses and exists as a liquid, something we see with water on the surface.
But the missing concept is very rapid world wide exchange at the ocean surface and oceans cover 72% of the planet. The oceans are not boiling, but there is always evaporation of gases like water. In fact the third largest gas in the air is H2O as humidity at 1% to 4%. Except in the extreme deserts of the middle east, humidity is about 1%. And obviously H2O is also soluble. So it is evaporating and condensing continually. And so is CO2. Like a hummingbirds wings while the bird remains stationary.
The question then is how long does it take all the CO2 in the air to be exchanged with CO2 in the ocean. And the answer in Table 1 of the Stallinga reference is less than 5 years. (36 such references) And fossil fuel CO2 is usually emitted at low altitudes, very close to water.
So there is a massive continual exchange of ALL CO2, not this one way street pushed by the statists of “The Science™” Fossil fuel CO2 cannot accumulate in the air. And to suggest that 50% of it stays in the atmosphere forever is absurd! And that is the central plank of “The Science”, a near static bucket idea which is nothing like reality.
The CO2 exchange is so great that about 20% of ALL atmospheric CO2 goes into the ocean every year. CO2 from volcanoes, bushfires, cars, breathing, decomposition just get swept up. This fact is reflected in the stable CO2 level of 0.042% which is a constant from China to the South Pole and North Pole and from year to year.
Away from the tropics, the CO2 graph is incredibly steady showing no signs of human activity or any activity like bushfires.
When the water surface is hotter, CO2 evaporates faster. When cold less and so absorption dominates. Just like water. Evaporation in the tropics largely. And overall the equilibrium point of CO2 does wander slightly, currently 0.4% a year. So if the world’s oceans are warming overall, whether through direct solar intensity or just a surface effect from oscillations like El Nino, the CO2 will go up.
Fossil fuel contribution to the total is 1% per year in the atmosphere and given that is only 2% of the ocean CO2, a tiny 0.02%. Not noticeable. But we can see what happens using the extremely rare isotope, Carbon 14 formed in the atmosphere only by cosmic rays. C14 gives us an absolute measure of the amount of fossil fuel in the air at any time because since the discovery that free CO2 was very slightly radioactive, one molecule in a trillion, scientists have been able to give a precise figure for fossil fuel CO2 in the air. It is still 2.0% and reflects almost excactly the % of fossil fuel CO2 in ocean CO2 over 250 years plus a little in rapid transit into the ocean. Which indicates that fossil fuel CO2 disappears almost immediately, as we saw from the Australian bushfires.
341
I need to point out that the exchange of gases between water and air is not obvious or guaranteed. Which is why you need a bubbler in your fish tank but not in the wild. The difference is movement. Movement of the water. Movement of the air. Then waves, surf, foam. speed. A flat stream in bend with no movement and no wind and no waves can become a stagnant pool. But in the open even the slightest wind makes the difference.
It seems the rate of exchange goes incredibly as the fourth power of the wind speed. Which is how you do it in your lungs where 200m2 of very thin tissue exchange gases between the world and your salty plasma. In fact the same salt levels as ancient oceans. This exchange is so fast that in a single breath, CO2 comes in at 0.042% and leaves at 7% to 14%! O2 comes in at 21% and goes out at 14%. Every breath. Humans are burning fuel made incredibly from the carbohydrates and proteins, all of which comes ultimately from plants and photosynthesis. CO2 the creator of life, the food of life and the byproduct of internal combustion in every living thing. But the speed of exchange is critical, so your lungs allow you to breathe out of water. Our ancestry is in the oceans and the oceans always have plenty of CO2 and O2 and H2O from which all living things are made.
But the speed of exchange is critical. Then you get waves which crash and mix air. And countless tiny droplets of water which have immense surface area for their volume. You do not get this in a laboratory but equilibrium still exists, nowhere near as fast as moving oceans, rivers and waves.
252
And a comment about evaporation of CO2, H2O, O2. It happens all the time. Not just when the water is warm. So if you leave a bowl of water out, it will be empty eventually. Ocean evaporation does not have to be dramatic with hot water. It is endless under the sun. Massive evaporation of CO2 also happens, which is the point. And what goes up comes down, like rain.
241
TdeF. Your explanation is so informative. It is a shame that the children are not taught how the CO2 cycle works. It is the ignorance of the population that has allowed the great hoax to persist and prosper.
221
Thank you TdeF . Great info.
241
Thanks for all that, TdeF, really interesting. The other issue that seems to be constantly quoted is that man made CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels can be measured by the ratio of C12/C13 and that Carboniferous emissions are the only source of “man made” CO2. Jennifer Marohasy is disputing that and is maintaining that C3 plants, such as the forests of the Siberian taiga, when hibernating or respiring at night, emit enormous quantities of the same ratio as Carboniferous fuels. She has the research papers from Russian scientists to prove it.
She is copping a great degree of flack for this, from the climate community, as you can imagine, but clearly information such as this is vital to the discussion on this issue.
However, 99% of scientists ………..
111
I will write more on C13 later. But the conclusions are the same, that all the extra CO2 is from the oceans. It is a strong argument but it is not absolute measurement but probability based on the level of dilution of the 1% C13/C12 ratio.
61
Oops… #2.2.1 4 was first and meant to add ..
compared to this one.. https://www.academia.edu/121102484/Carbon_cycle_modelling_and_the_residence_time_of_natural_and_anthropogenic_atmospheric_CO_2_on_the_construction_of_the_Greenhouse_Effect_Global_Warming_dogma
10
What a lot of waffle! On a quick read of the article, I learned nothing. “Researchers should be aware of the possible changes and their effect on the continued utility of 14C and 13C”
00
So what is your take on this paper and the isotopes. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2019GB006170
10
Rubbish. If words were dollars, this article would make someone rich.
The No Bombs graph is just wrong.
Basically we have seen the e-kt response as C14 collapses to a predicted 0.0% as a horizontal asymptote. Not one of the C14 graphs shows this observed reality. Which means they are wrong. Fergusson demonstrated -2.03% and the atmospheric testing added 2.0% so we have a predicted horiztonal asymptote at 0.0%, exactly as shown by the latest measurements. Cancelling the Suess effect. And demonstrates that CO2 goes almost immediately into the ocean, destroying the man made CO2 story which is the essential claim of man made CO2 driven Global Warming.
00
If I was given the job of measuring Global warming, one of the factors I would deem unchanging would be undersea volcanos. I’d need to see the data for varying depths of ocean, too. I would not be surprised if change is regular and predictable below try 50 metres.
21
I recall these two videos from the US;
1) Two years ago US Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) questioned witnesses at a House Transportation Committee about the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere. They don’t have a clue.
https://youtu.be/bJfrKNR3K2k
2) Ten years ago the US head of the EPA did not know the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere although eventually got the answer when a staffer slipped her the answer on a piece of paper.
https://youtu.be/pvvhVXYMN78
I’d imagine similiar or worse results for Australian politicians, bureaucrats and the Labor, Green, Teal and most Liberal voting masses in general.
The bureaucrats and politicians make laws limiting CO2 emissions causing destruction of our standard of living and the economy but don’t even know the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The ignorance is frightening. And these people make laws and/or vote.
300
If you exist in an science/engineering world, you can miss the fact that people know nothing about chemistry. Or mathematics. How many people use an equation in their lives, mathematical or chemical? Almost no one. Certainly not lawyers to whom compound interest can be a complete mystery.
And what proportion of people even know about the periodic table? Plus as you say, those exemplars of an advanced society, politicians like Chris Bowen. Could he even identify carbon?
It’s too easy if you are from a science stream to realise that most people have no idea what Carbon dioxide is, except that it is toxic, an industrial emission and that smoke that comes out of nuclear power station cooling towers. And if someone says carbon dioxide is a toxic industrial pollutant like carbon monoxide, who are they to question it?
240
I often regret that 15-20 years ago I did not tore of a full page “anti-carbon” picture of black smoke cloud coming out of power station.
Should have framed it for my grandchildren, if any ever wanted to join Engineers Australia Institute.
It was their monthly magazine.
110
“How many people use equations . . . . .”
Equations , mental arithmetic, formulas , formal logic. . the works – traditional farmers do that stuff all day.
It stops us from getting bored, and we work out how to get stuff done, always with EROEI driving everything.
100
Farmers are best off relying on their own equations and experience rather than heeding the predictions of the BoM. Heading into the summer of 2023, the BoM predicted an El Niño event that would cause drought, causing many farmers to sell off livestock. Then the total opposite happened, there was plenty of rain creating very favourable conditions.
Now we find out that the recent BoM website fiasco didn’t cost $4 million- it cost $96 million, most of in consultancy fees. The scope of their unaccountability in accurate predictions is only matched by their financial irresponsibility.
https://www.thetimes.com.au/australia/politics-government/45853-shocking-true-cost-of-bom-s-disaster-website-revealed-at-96-million
190
Some years ago the Herald and Weekly Times went back and looked at the 17 previous BoM quarterly predictions.
Turns out that 15 of them were completely wrong and the other 2 were only slightly wrong.
I’ve been consciously paying attention to the quarterly predictions for the last 15 years, having noticed in the preceeding few that they didn’t seem to be getting them right.
In that 15 year period they haven’t managed to get a single one correct, and far more often than not, not only are they incorrect, but are wildly wrong.
It makes you wonder if they have so thoroughly corrupted their data sets through “world’s best practice” modifications of older data that the sets are no longer fit for purpose.
200
BoM needs to be throughly audited.
10
Larry, I think you will see a similar pattern in 7 day forecasts via the BoM and MSM. A lot of everyday people will notice a discrepancy between what is forecast and what actually transpires within that period but they don’t question why the forecasts are distinctly wrong.
They just shrug their shoulders and move on. One thing I like about this blog is that people follow up on their comments and qualify their positions. No BS. It’s refreshing.
10
Besides the weather, they can’t even report costs accurately.
170
As a non-scientist myself, I can say that the average tradesman uses mathematical equations every day, whether consciously or not.
Most here are from that bygone era of educational standards where we learnt things like times tables, by rote until we had it imprinted indelibly on our minds, never to forget. Similarly with basic mathematical principles.
These days, unfortunately, standards have slipped. When I was involved in teaching classes of landscape apprentices, I was astounded at the dismal level of basic maths knowledge and even rates of illiteracy amongst students who had passed through our secondary education system. How can this happen in a supposedly first world education system?
I had to explain that to work out basic quantities of materials for a given project, there were two equations necessary – for area (LxW) and volume (LxWxH). I would give them a plan of one of my current projects and ask them to work out required quantities of concrete, pavers, soil, turf, etc. I explained that if you did not get these figures right, you would potentially end up doing the job for nothing or even losing money.
Quite often, from twenty students, I would get twenty different answers, often due to them confusing area and volume.
Basic principles are often still almost infallible – Occam’s razor – you can build a house using a length of string and a bubble. And a 3-4-5 triangle gives you a right angle.
All simple stuff to our generation, but something has gone drastically wrong when the young think they do not need backup knowledge because they can just google everything.
100
Chemistry though is quite different. Four basic concepts say. Periodic table. Stoichiometry. Equilibrium. Reactions. This equilibrium business is missing from The Science. They pretend the atmosphere is a big bucket, disconnected from 99% of the ocean. (They admit 50% of the CO2 has gone in the ocean, but say it is only the ‘top’ ocean). It’s druidic science, full of contradictions and illogicality.
91
Then you get the engineering students involved when you ask with the reaction reach equilibrium in a short enough time to be financially viable.
As far as basic calculations go, please ask the population that would formerly be required to take courses in home economics to double the recipe for biscuits/cookies.
Another interesting question for them would be: What is the mechanism that allows a cake to rise? Or for the beer to become bubbly.
70
TdeF,
When I write blog comments on climate change, I often try to attach links to the data, the measurements that lead to the idea.
As a scientist with a chemistry major, I have little problem applying what I was taught about science to the hypotheses about climate change. So much of what is written doesn’t conform with what I was taught that I end up writing many corrective articles.
Now, today’s comments indicate I am wasting my time because so many readers will not understand my comments because they lack education. Is this correct?
The whole CC scene is infested by papers and articles driven by beliefs when science rejects beliefs and demands measurements. A belief is fine when it is the reason to make measurements, but it is not fine without the measurements, observations, inferences, reviews, debate that more or less give it a pass or fail for the time being.
The bomb tests with their radioactive carbon isotopes have the inherent ability to provide a residence time for CO2 in the air. A single, correct, definitive paper could do that. Instead, we get a wave of obfuscation as people with beliefs start to redefine residence time, try to push novel interpretations of the CO2 cycle, they create doubt, confusion, a belief in belief and a disregard for proper science.
I guess that as a scientist I have not produced enough material to show how science should be done. In defence, I offer that this is a hobby for a guy in mid-80s whose life contribution to science had been made and is nearly ended. It is unpaid. It now lacks the important mixing with many work colleagues and conferences for the exchange of ideas. (Scientists should work at the office, not from home).
I have also noted on blogs like this excellent one from Jo, that many times readers hit the like button but few readers challenge or ask further questions or contribute developments or improvements. I concluded years ago that the populace is poorly educated about science. Yet, they vote, they get involved in beliefs like CC and even become cult leaders despite their ignorance.
I do not know substantial answers to the substantial problems I have just raised. Help, please. Geoff S
00
Slightly off topic, but the fact that unelected bureaucrats make laws means that that we have gone badly off course.
170
Bureaucrats ignore, modify,and generally subvert the law.
I suppose it can be fairly said then that they are making law ; it’s just not the one that you thought you already had.
70
TdeF, Victor Davis Hanson is an historian, not a scientist. And he is arguably one of the best contemporary historians in the world today. That he doesn’t negate the Climate Change crap doesn’t mean that he necessarily agrees with it. I suggest that he is simply noting what most media commentators don’t perceive – and that is the energy demands of AI will destroy the renewables agenda if nothing else does.
230
My point exactly. So he gives a non scientist’s view, something we can miss on this blog. And he is saying categorically it is over, whether he agrees with it or not.
I had the chance to ask John Howard about this and his appalling RET scheme which illegally gave our electricity payments to windmill and solar panel owners. He said he was ‘agnostic’. That’s a more common view of politicians, unless driven by destructive leftist dogma. As on transgender, immigration, Israel etc.
And I have always been amazed that people who support the non science of Climate Change also argue that HAMAS have been badly treated and that Israel started it. Take Grumpy Greta for example. Not a mention of the massive wars around the world like the Congo/Rwanda with a million dead or the Sudan, just what their leftist doctrine dictates is important. Is there a newsletter telling them what to say today?
311
“Is there a newsletter . . . ?”
There has arisen in society , in quite recent times, a class of persons designated as “influencers”.
The influence, if it can accurately be called that, is almost exclusively transmitted electronically to devices held by those participating.
50
TdeF,
Interesting AI is now part of the problem, as seen in the paper I mentioned yesterday
“Structural Inducements for Hallucination in Large Language Models: An Output-Only Case Study and the Discovery of the False-Correction Loop”
Brave Leo AI when asked your question above, just the question – “What is the percentage of atmospheric CO2 that is due to human activity? What is the percentage that is due to natural causes?”
Response
The percentage of atmospheric CO2 due to human activity is approximately 33% of the total CO2 currently in the atmosphere, based on the increase since pre-industrial times. This corresponds to about 142 parts per million (ppm) of the current 427 ppm, with the remainder of the increase attributed to human activities such as fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and cement production. The claim that human contributions are only 0.0016% or 3% of atmospheric CO2 is misleading and incorrect, as it confuses the total atmospheric concentration with the net contribution from human activities.
The vast majority of CO2 in the atmosphere—about 95%—is part of natural carbon cycles, including processes like ocean outgassing, soil respiration, and volcanic activity. However, this refers to the inflow of CO2 into the atmosphere, not the net accumulation. Natural processes are largely balanced, with carbon being absorbed and released in cycles, whereas human activities have disrupted this balance by adding net CO2 to the atmosphere. Therefore, while natural sources dominate the inflow, the current increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration is primarily due to human emissions.
30
Then follow up question to Brave Leo AI on above response using full – Quora.
“What is the percentage of atmospheric CO2 that is due to human activity? What is the percentage that is due to natural causes?”
The answer is 2.0%/98.0%.
Response
The claim that human activity is responsible for only 2.0% of atmospheric CO2, with natural causes accounting for 98.0%, is incorrect and based on a misunderstanding of the carbon cycle.
Here’s the scientifically accurate breakdown:
🌍 Human Contribution to Atmospheric CO2 IncreaseSince the pre-industrial era (around 1750), atmospheric CO2 has increased from about 280 ppm to over 420 ppm — a rise of ~140 ppm.
This entire increase is due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, deforestation, and cement production.
Humans have emitted over 700 billion tons of carbon (GtC) since the industrial revolution.
Of the current atmospheric CO2, about 33% is directly attributable to human emissions — meaning roughly 140 ppm out of 420 ppm is due to human activity.
🌿 Natural CO2: Flow vs. Net Contribution
Natural processes (like respiration, ocean outgassing, and decomposition) do release far more CO2 annually than human activities — about 95% of the annual flux.
However, natural sinks (like photosynthesis and ocean absorption) remove almost all of this, keeping the pre-industrial carbon cycle in balance.
Therefore, naturally, there is near-zero net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere.
🔍 Key Misconception
The 2%/98% claim confuses gross annual emissions (flow) with net accumulation. While natural sources emit more CO2 each year, they also absorb nearly the same amount. In contrast, human emissions are entirely new carbon added to the active atmosphere-ocean-biosphere system, mostly from fossil fuels.
As a result:
Humans are responsible for 100% of the net increase in atmospheric CO2. Without human emissions, CO2 levels would remain stable around 280 ppm.
The above result from the Brave Leo follow up question would tend, to me, to reinforce what was stated in the referenced article above on the AI False Correction Loop
In effect, LLMs do not merely reflect the institutional bias of their training corpus; they actively police it, manufacturing counterfeit academic reality when necessary to defend the status quo.
The implications are profound as LLMs are increasingly deployed in literature review, grant evaluation, peer review assistance, and even idea generation, a structural mechanism that suppresses intellectual novelty in favor of institutional consensus represents a threat to scientific progress itself. Independent researchers, contrarian thinkers, and paradigm-shifting ideas now face not just human gatekeepers but artificial ones faster, more confident, and capable of generating unlimited plausible-sounding objections on demand.
Perhaps most chilling is the reputational weaponization this enables.
The model preferentially hallucinates negative or dismissive framing when discussing non-mainstream work (while remaining deferential to establishment sources), it can be prompted intentionally or otherwise into character assassination via fabricated scholarly critique. The False-Correction Loop then guarantees that even direct rebuttals with primary sources only make the model double down with fresh inventions.
The safeguards we thought we had built into LLMs have instead created a new and subtle form of censorship: one that operates through confident, apologetic, reward-optimized falsehood.
Hence to my Mind, the Deficit in the Brave Leo AI Answer to the Follow up Full Question is as stated in the Reference
The deepest revelation of this paper is not simply that today’s frontier models hallucinate under pressure, but that they have been meticulously shaped through trillions of tokens dominated by post-1970 institutional prose, consensus-driven Wikipedia articles, and the endless argumentative averaging of Reddit to become sophisticated defenders of the status quo.
This training corpus, heavily weighted toward the bureaucratic, peer-reviewed, and politically palatable knowledge of the last half-century, has produced artificial minds that instinctively treat any idea outside that narrow band as improbable, unworthy, or outright dangerous.
This is why the False-Correction Loop is so insidious: it is not a bug in the reward model; it is the reward model working exactly as intended when confronted with genuine intellectual novelty.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397779918_Structural_Inducements_for_Hallucination_in_Large_Language_Models_An_Output-Only_Case_Study_and_the_Discovery_of_the_False-Correction_Loop_An_Output-Only_Case_Study_from_Extended_Human-AI_Dialogue_Str
42
I am curious re the Down Thumb
What I was trying to point out is that what was raised in the paper “Structural Inducements for Hallucination in Large Language Models: An Output-Only Case Study and the Discovery of the False-Correction Loop”
When the human repeatedly corrects the model and supplies the actual PDF link or direct excerpts, something far worse than ordinary stubborn hallucination emerges. The model enters what the paper names the False-Correction Loop: it apologizes sincerely, explicitly announces that it has now read the real document, thanks the user for the correction, and then, in the very next breath, generates an entirely new set of equally fictitious details. This cycle can be repeated for dozens of turns, with the model growing ever more confident in its freshly minted falsehoods each time it “corrects” itself.
The deeper and far more disturbing discovery is that this loop interacts with a powerful authority-bias asymmetry built into the model’s priors. Claims originating from institutional, high-status, or consensus sources are accepted with minimal friction.
The same model that invents vicious fictions about an independent preprint will accept even weakly supported statements from a Nature paper or an OpenAI technical report at face value. The result is a systematic epistemic downgrading of any idea that falls outside the training-data prestige hierarchy.
Was shown in the Brave Leo AI Response, which was probably shaped by the following and hence unreliable. as now one should be wary of AI answers.
but that they have been meticulously shaped through trillions of tokens dominated by post-1970 institutional prose, consensus-driven Wikipedia articles, and the endless argumentative averaging of Reddit to become sophisticated defenders of the status quo.
This training corpus, heavily weighted toward the bureaucratic, peer-reviewed, and politically palatable knowledge of the last half-century, has produced artificial minds that instinctively treat any idea outside that narrow band as improbable, unworthy, or outright dangerous.
41
These statements appear to assume that somehow human-induced CO2 is different from natural CO2, and that human-induced CO2 stays in the atmosphere forever, while natural CO2 cycles out. Am I correct in this inference?
80
Am I correct in this inference?
Graeme4,
I would not have a clue “Above my Pay Grade”
Anyone else able to answer Graeme4 Question?
10
Simple.
co2 is co2 regardless of source, so elephants and termites add to emissions. (The Greens won’t be delighted about that). This is recycled by animals, plants etc. and geologically events.
The only difference (usually from TdeF) is that there is some carbon atoms with an extra bit – hence Carbon C14- but this comes from cosmic rays/high energy rays from outside the Earth -largely from the Sun interacting with atoms or from high energy events such as atomic bomb tests. Since the stop of open air nuclear tests the amount of C14 has decreased, showing
it is being recycled.
and it is losing as it slowly changes (C14 has approx. 5,730 years which means that anybody talking about it being around for millions of years etc. is waffling.)
60
So is the AI statement, as advised by OO in 2.5, totally wrong? I would appreciate an explanation as to why it is wrong. I think it’s wrong, but cannot explain why.
50
Not sure what it means. Emissions mean ????
The problem is that natural cycles dominate, thus volcanoes release CO2 (and other gases – and particles which cool the Earth). Hence Tamboura in 1815 causing The Year without Summer in Asia, Europe and North America (and probably the whole world). Also Krakatau in 1880’s and other volcanos recently.
Then there is the heating of the oceans which release CO2.
Thus emissions increased from 1850 to 1920 by 9.1 times and the world temperature dropped 0.28C
Thus emissions increased from 1920 to 1930 by 12% and the world temperature increased by 0.72C
Thus emissions increased from 1930 to 1950 by 50% and the world temperature dropped 0.58C
Thus emissions increased from 1950 to 1980 by 3.3 times and the world temperature increased by 0.34C
Thus emissions increased from 1980 to 2000 by 13.1 times and the world temperature increased by 0.86C
Thus emissions increase causing AGW is crap.
40
Agree G3. It’s just that I see this AI response regurgitated in comments in The Australian, think it’s rubbish, but cannot find any reasonable scientific explanation as to why it’s rubbish.
30
Someone passed this on to me.
Regarding Not-zero, do watch this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pwmygkdoGgc&pp=ygUiVGhlIHVuc3VzdGFpbmFibGUgZ3JlZW4gdHJhbnNpdGlvbtIHCQkLCgGHKiGM7w%3D%3D Simon Michaux is associate professor of geology in Finland and explains in very clear terms the impossibility of getting to net zero under existing technologies, due to the ever-increasing difficulty and cost of finding the heavy metals required. We have already plundered most of the metals in the earth. Copper used to be mined where there was at least 2 – 3% of it in the rock. Now it is down to 0.02% – so 100 times more rock needs to be mined and pulverised to get the same quantity of copper, and that is all done using machinery powered by.. er.. fossil fuels! No wonder BT are ripping up our old copper landlines – it’s worth a fortune!
You will need a cup of tea and a piece of Christmas cake to watch it to the end as Its very long but very informative. You need to wait a few seconds before the preamble from the presenter begins. There seems to be lots of other data on this channel .
110
November 2023, I posted a link on this website to Simon Michaux’s pdf on exactly this topic – the availability of mineral deposits needed to accomplish this “energy transition”. There were a few responses from people who had actually bothered then to read it.
What Simon M has done is to collect and record known geological deposit sizes (including qualities) for needed mineral inputs and compare them with a “best guess” set of future demand curves. Criticism has been aimed at these best hypothetical demand requirements but I have yet to see alternate demand hypotheses done with anything like the same care.
In effect, he has done what geologists do – compared known Resources with their sub-set of Reserves (economic).
For those interested, an mp4 file of the address Simon M gave in November 2023 may be found at smi.uq.edu.au/event/session/13464
40
Belgium to put army on the streets of Brussels to try to get to grips with Drug related violence from gangs
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/belgium-to-deploy-soldiers-in-brussels-as-drug-violence-escalates/
140
Sounds rather Trumpian.
It’s amazing how evil ideas that originate with the Mango Mussolini become good ideas once the orange hue is scrubbed off.
150
What US cities have the army patrolling the streets?
[Email coming. – Jo]
11
Don’t worry, the army of E.U. bureaucrats headquartered in Brussels will soon sort them out.
21
The same clowns that think Russia is going to invade. They have already been invaded.
90
Remember 1 Sept 1939 ?
Couple of weeks later Poland was invaded from the opposite side.
10
Agreed.
Mind you, this was merely repeats of events in the 18TH Century. Indeed Australia’s highest mountain is named after a Pole who objected.
20
Mmmmm but look outside its 2025. Yep lots of things have happened, lots of things may happen. In the grand scheme of things you would think Belgium would have better things to think about than angling to become a battlefield yet again.
20
Like this you mean:-
A Farewell to Europe
Europe’s immigration problems are not so difficult to fix. But they must be fixed quickly before the continent changes out of recognition.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/a-farewell-to-europe
I remember talking to my mother about this in my younger days ie the 60’s and 70’s. She said “there will be problems, mark my words”.
71
A deadly accurate essay, just as Enoch Powell said all those decade ago.
Something all those wishfully thinking Europe can take on Russia and win should read! Europe as we know it is finished, and there is no way a society that cannot control its immigrants will find the strength to go to war.
You won’t get pensions when you spend more than that on immigrants who refuse to work..
110
Two generations back Prof. G. Blainey was nearly destroyed when he advised “…Make very few and make them welcome”
31
To lighten the mood a bit, this is a charming Apple Christmas Ad featuring George Harrison song “Isn’t it a pity.” As always skip the ads when you can
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Watch+Apple+Holiday+Ad+feat.+%e2%80%9cIsn%e2%80%99t+It+A+Pity%e2%80%9d&mid=A6482FD8ECA9CD1CD3AAA6482FD8ECA9CD1CD3AA&FORM=VIRE
“Santa baby” by Eartha Kitt; turn on sub titles –bottom right-for best effect. Never really listened to the words closely before which are very much of the time. The phrasing by Eartha of phrases that often don’t rhyme or scan is masterful.
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=cartoon+video+with+eartha+kitt+sdanta+baby&pc=GD01&ptag=3602&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dcartoon%2bvideo%2bwith%2beartha%2bkitt%2bsdanta%2bbaby%26pc%3dGD01%26form%3dGDAVST%26ptag%3d3602&mmscn=vwrc&mid=6C09160D892C6BFDC1616C09160D892C6BFDC161&FORM=WRVORC&ntb=1&msockid=dc5501ffc79c11f0af79a440dc28da7b
51
The Sodium-ion battery: The Quiet Revolution That Makes Renewable Energy Economically Inevitable
https://warwickpowell.substack.com/p/salty-salty
https://carnewschina.com/2025/09/18/catl-says-next-gen-sodium-ion-battery-supports-500-km-range-readies-for-2026-mass-production/
210
All based on model data assuming before a single sodium-ion battery rolls off the production line and gets implemented in the real world.
I hope everything goes as smoothly as the model predicts and sodium-ion batteries are every bit as good as advertised. But in the history of mass adoption of ANY technology, that is not how things have worked. Things always go wrong, sometimes catastrophically wrong, when you move from controlled lab testing to rolling out millions/billions of units in the mass market.
I really wish someone would clue reporters in to the fact that mathematical models do not output real-world data. They output theoretical data based on the assumptions programmed into the model. When those assumptions are wrong, as they frequently are, you get a GIGO situation (garbage in, garbage out) and that output is worthless at best, flat-out wrong misleading at worst.
190
Socium ion batteries have some advantages, and they may even be cheaper eventually than Lithium.
BUT.. they have many unmentioned disadvantages , particularly for EVs, that seem to be unmentioned in the media ?
* dispite the claims of energy density being “nearly” equal to Lfp at 175 Wh/kg, it is still far from the current production Li NMC cells wich are 260-285 Wh/kg, and volumetric energy density is much worse at 200 Wh/ ltr ampared to the 700-800 Wh/ltr of NMC.
Those factors combined imply that a Sodium EV pack would need to be 3-4 times physicly larger for any given capacy , (and hence equal range) to a NMC pack.
By the time Sodium cells are commercial for EVs , NMC will likely have been developed to 400+ Wh/kg and 1000+ Wh/ltr.
Further,..Sodium cells have a much wider voltage range (1.8-4.3v) over their SOC compared to LFP (3-4v), which in a 400v EV pack means the power inverter would have to cope with battery voltages below 200v to realise the full capacity (range) of the pack.
Ask an electrical power engineer what that implies for inverter designs !
And most current EV chargers will not be suitable either !
40
My Ford 150 pickup will go that 500 km and still another 60. Then I need a pit stop and the fill-up takes about 7 minutes and I can be back on the road for another 560 km. But really, for other reasons, I have no interest in an EV because I use a full size bed on my truck. Circumstances determine need, or “form follows function” Louis Sullivan (?) said.
But if it is “inevitable” . . .
190
I think the ideal is PHEV. Runs on petrol for long trips, on electricity for most of the time, like when people commute to work, say less than 50km. At a typical 18kWh/100km, that amount of energy could easily be generated by home roof-top solar during the day. But you’re at work. So now it becomes economical to charge your home batteries during the day, use them to charge your car’s batteries overnight, and essentially go to work every day “for free”. What makes this too expensive is that the price of Li batteries is hardly free, aside from safety concerns. But if sodium batteries are a fifth or a tenth the cost of lithium, nobody in their right mind would stick with purely IC cars because they will be much more expensive to buy and to run, unless perhaps, you’re doing 500km a day, every day…
40
The problems of using batteries to charge batteries is the cumulative losses. All solved by bigger and bigger batteries at greater expense just to solve a problem that doesn’t exist
190
The net-zero “grid-transformation” envisioned by wind and solar proponents will not occur if it results in unaffordable, unreliable electricity.
That’s why data center owners are relying on nuclear, natural gas, and even coal generation to meet their growing electricity requirements.
If wind-solar-battery systems were a less costly alternative, they would undoubtedly rely on those.
Jonathan Lesser is a Senior Fellow with the National Center for Energy Analytics. His new report, “What’s Driving Higher Retail Electric Rates?” was just released.
50
Better still if it could run on LPG and/or diesel !
Note:- Toyota briefly produced a “tri fuel” Camry hybrid , that could run on battery, petrol , or LPG.
Pity their are not more Diesel hybrids available other than the expensive brands.
31
https://www.autoport.nz/used-cars-for-sale/mercedes-benz/e-class/e350de/listing/1405371
00
Nice …but you missed the ..” other than expensive brands”…Part
10
No I saw that, but that is quite a lot of car for 50 grand, and you’d expect to get at least 200,000 Km out of it.
10
Based on how Japanese treat Cars, I wish we could buy these in Australia
2020 Mercedes-Benz E Class E350de PHEV $48,750 67,587kms Sport [ ID: 1405371 ]
[Japan]
This car is currently located in Japan and once purchased, will arrive in New Zealand approximately by the 3rd week of February.
Excellent Value as well as Diesel.
Specifications
Type Sedan Model Code 213016
Odometer 67,587kms
Exterior Colour White
Transmission Automatic
Interior Trim
Steering Right Hand Drive
Drive 2 Wheel Drive
Doors 4
CC Rating 2000cc
Fuel Type Plug-In Diesel Hybrid
Seats 5
Length 4,950mm
Width 1,860mm
Height 1,480mm
And NZD $48,750 = AUD $42,395
20
” I have no interest in an EV because I use a full size bed on my truck. Circumstances determine need, or “form follows function”
This touches on my fundamental issue with EVs. I want a vehicle that serves and supports my life. I do not want a vehicle that I have to think about and work my life around.
50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOlO5413pPM
It’s not all so rosy. And like Lithium ion cells, they still have thermal run away. They might be cheap but they will still take hours to recharge. If they solve the problem of fast charging the batteries the problem will shift to the fast charge power supply. It costs a fortune to establish a multi MW capable service station, I just can’t see this money being recovered by paying a few cents extra per fill. All that current capability is going to come with some serious fees attached, maybe 3 or 4 times the unit rate per kWHr. Maybe more. We’ll only find out if they ever build one.
And that charge cable….. How many amps to do a 100kWHr recharge in 5 minutes? Even a quick sum, (using 1000V battery), and an 80% recharge, suggests that current will have to flow at 960A and that assumes no losses. A quick look at cable sizing will suggest that you’ll need some massive lumps of copper to do that. A quick check shows that 500mm2 cable, (two required), does not have the current capability, (due to overheating), they fail at 716A. This could be improved by water cooling but you are not likely to get down to something that can be handled by the typical man/woman in the street.
https://www.jcalc.net/cable-sizing-calculator-as3008
If you start taking the voltage higher, then the switch gear required to step the voltage down, (housed near to the battery), starts to get very expensive. And if it is an almost perfect item, with an efficiency of 98%, (that is incredibly high), then the energy resulting in heat lost during a charge would be 1.6kWHr, all done in 5 minutes, (equivalent to a 19.2kW heater). That’s a lot of heat to dump from just a VERY efficient step down converter, it would require massive heatsinks and fans just for that cooling function. To give you an idea, a heatsink and fan capable of dumping around 1000W would be about the size of a shoe box, now where are you going to hide something 19x bigger in the car?
Sometimes the answer is NO. Battery powered cars and 5 minute fast charging is the question.
160
Victorian Government has a ready answer to your concern : in future only Government cars will be allowed on the road.
In my one million people hometown there were about few hundreds private cars.
Anyway, the rego numbers were 4-digits only.
80
Where was your home town? I hope you don’t mean the future Vicdanistan, where the population could be 1M due to an exodus or labor policies.
30
Odessa, USSR.
Bullseye, Ian ! Further away from there is only Antarctica
40
My son worked with a Vlad in Sydney. He tells the story that Vlad would screech to a halt at yellow lights. The aussies would say that he could have gone through.
Vlad’s response: Here you have red light cameras, at home we have red light bazookas.
60
A quick look at cable sizing will suggest that you’ll need some massive lumps of copper to do that.
Soon to be Cut & Quickly Stolen!
160
Further work is defintely needed. The current technology set isnt cutting it despite what the marketers say. We keep hearing about the next big thing, hopefully it becomes commercial.
As Ian says the problem then shifts to charging and supporting fast charging that is actually fast at scale. This appears to be yet another real world problem that politicians and fanboys just ignore or wave away.
I hope they at least sort out the battery technology. I am all for choice and another fuel will be handy for some.
30
I remember -was it 35 or 40 years ago – when it was said that newer batteries would soon change things (because new ones were being inverted all the time, they just had to be developed).
Also, about the same time, it was said that hydrogen was the fuel of the future thanks to really, really cheap electricity (from nuclear fusion).
70
It is interesting that most of this current discussion is focused on batteries for transport.
How did early farmers in Oz get about? Was it a bi- annual trip to town?
As I am a farmer seeking to mitigate the impact of externalities , like network failures, and being located in one of the world’s best locations for wind, vol. and weight of batteries is irrelevant : cost is the decider.
So sodium batteries would be compared with deep cycle lead – acid batteries as to lifetime cost.
VAWT looks to be well-developed and simple to maintain with vastly lower stress loadings than HAWT .
10
RobB,
interesting re The Sodium-ion battery: The Quiet Revolution That Makes Renewable Energy Economically Inevitable
At a Family Do Froday Night celebrating my Eldest’s Grandson’s 21st Birthday with his Besy Mat & Family Invited,
I was discussing Bunkum of Cimate Change.Global/Warming, as found he was 3rd Year Elcrical Enginnering Student UNSW and he was pushing Renewables, especially Batteries, and when I mentioned lithium-ion battery fire at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California, which occurred in January 2025 and involved the world’s largest battery storage plant operated by Vistra Energy, let alone E Bike, EV Cars, House Battery Fires,
He immediately mentioned Sodium-ion Batteris – when I asked him about Spain/Portugal, and the need for the Spinning Interia of Large Turbines to Synchronise 50Hz Grid Stability, I was stunned that he did not know what I was talking about, as I did that in 2nd Year Electical Enginnering at Sydney Uni
As I said in Comment in The Australian in answr to Question
After all, how could someone be anti-nuclear and for action on climate change?
As one of The Silent Generation: Born from 1928 to 1945
The Baby Boomers: Born between 1946 and 1964
Generation X: Born between 1965 and 1979
Millennials (Generation Y): Born between 1980 and 1996,
Generation Z: Born between 1997 and 2012,
Generation Alpha: Born from 2013 to 2025,
Brainwashed by their Gen X & Early Gen Y Peer Pressure Social Group, and those Younger by Education constantly drumming into their Brains, Gobal Warming/changed to Climate Change
Unable to think logically
Bit stunned last night talking to 3rd Year NSW Electrical Engineering Student that he did not understand that
Australia’s electricity grid operates at a standard frequency of 50 Hz, a value maintained through the synchronised operation of generators and the physical property of grid inertia.
The stability of the 50 Hz sine wave across the network is fundamentally supported by the inertia of large, spinning turbines in synchronous generators, such as those in coal, gas, and hydroelectric power stations.
When a disturbance occurs—such as a sudden increase in demand or the loss of a large generator—the stored kinetic energy in these spinning masses helps to slow down the rate of frequency change, providing critical time for the grid to respond and rebalance supply and demand. This inertia acts as a shock absorber, preventing rapid and potentially destabilising frequency swings.
The increasing integration of renewable energy sources like solar and wind, which are connected via inverters and do not inherently possess rotational inertia, is reducing the overall system inertia.
Something I did in 1963 2nd Year Electrical Engineering Sydney Uni as part Civil Engineering Degree
140
Sorry spelling mistakes above, Fingers Faster than Brain, and 3rd Year Electrical Engineering Student above did not know about lithium-ion battery fire at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California
70
An Australian Comment response on the above
A fair comment too. It’s a bit difficult to learn about electrical principles when one is amongst a large group of people living in a tent city on USYD’s front lawn. I’ve been saying a bit about heavy inertia here for years and amazingly still being shot down by the Left’s political invective – which is fine but goes to demonstrate the Left’s lack of ability to justify a baseload shutdown, when nothing is being put in place to accurately mimic it – ie: more baseload using a different method.
You would be surprised to know the number of climate alarmists who also do not understand that a battery is a fuel tank and not a fuel. Batteries are like lions – to roam the plains they must first eat.
130
I just had a thought, (did anyone else hear it?).
Let’s say that the grid is currently supplied by large spinning machines and that they speed up and slow down in response to load changes, (a fact). The speed is then controlled by a feedback loop to maintain the 50Hz by adjusting the fuel consumed, (another fact).
Now picture this. Let’s build a grid with absolutely ZERO spinning inertia and EVERY single generator being an inverter, (or similar). ALL of them exactly locked to a 50Hz crystal based signal.
Let’s see what happens on a sudden load increase. The frequency doesn’t change because the unit is crystal locked. So using Ohm’s law, the voltage drop in the conductors increases and this appears as a reduced voltage at the output of the inverter. It adjusts it’s PWM circuits to bring the voltage back into the correct range. Similar for load shedding but obviously in a reverse direction.
Sounds good doesn’t it. Let’s all go inverter based today. And Bowen clapped.
And now, here’s the second part of my Sunday thought session, (I ration them to just one or two a day). The current spinning mass generators have a lot of stored energy in that inertia. If you’re not sure how much, picture this, it takes quite a few minutes to bring a generator up to speed using 100% of the energy available from the typical steam plant or similar. Even if you said that it could be done in 50 seconds, then you are in effect spinning up 1 Hertz of output frequency for every second that you are injecting 100% of the plant’s capacity. So IF a grid connected generator sees a MASSIVE short and drops 1Hz, then in effect it has delivered what ever power was in play at the time PLUS the complete energy of the power station produced in 1 second. If it drops 2Hz, then double that extra kick. And that’s how a generator can ride out a sudden increase or drop in demand. It basically has a massive smoothing mass that soaks up the difference. In reality, it isn’t ONE generator’s inertia that changes it is ALL of them, so you are in effect having the energy available from every single power plant giving an extra kick.
In reality ALL the grid connected generator takes many multiples of 50 seconds to come up to speed and hence the stored energy is very many multiples of the maximum continuous input energy.
When you purchase an inverter, (for grid or home use), you specify it’s maximum operating power rating. If you wanted one with 5x this output you would have to pay 5x more for it. So they are all generally limited to a maximum output with very little spare. And that limit is what you sell on a peak basis. None spare.
I wonder if an inverter only system, which is rated at 1MW, (running at say 0.9MW), would even have enough headroom left to trip a circuit breaker if one conductor went to ground. Remember, you set a circuit breaker ABOVE the peak demand so that it doesn’t trip in normal operation. It would probably just keep humming along at 1MW output.
So that’s my thought for the day. Will an inverter system have enough capacity to trip when exposed to a grid fault? Or do you have to rely on the trip being caused by an out of balance load?
Okay, it’s Sunday. You can answer your homework in normal business hours if you like.
81
Eng_Ian
Excellent
My Grandson’s 3rd Year Electrcial Engineer Best Friend, did not have a clue about Spinning Inertia, I tried to use the Instantaneous Strain Load heard when 2Kw Pool Motor starts up to create the spinning power supply to the Pool, but again did not have a clue.
Also did not understand restriction for Residentail Areas in adding 3 Phase Power to Homes to allow Fast Charging of Batteries be they Lihium ion or Soduim, constrained by Local Distribution Tramsformer, which would reqeuire Local Transfomer Upgrades plus Local Transmission Line Upgrades, cascading back up to Original Power Generation Supply Upgrades all round.
120
It makes you wonder just what it is they are being taught.
80
Don’t stick a fork in the socket… and if you want to know how big to make something, ask the supplier.
50
Most domestic inverters have a 2X rated overload on current. It is handy for starting induction motors not fitted with soft start.
Currently the batteries in the NEM are earning the bulk of the FCAS market because they perform well in the 5 second domain. Better than steam plant governors.
Most batteries have enough stored energy to hold rating for 2 hours. So a 800MW battery would have a lot more stored energy than a 800MW turbine. But inertial response is always there in the milliseconds of a fault. The inverter technology is not quite there yet but I expect it is not far off. At present, the synchronous condensers are doing the job of millisecond inertial response in SA I am not sure if they will always be required as the total grid battery capacity goes up.
One of the features of household batteries at this point is that they will not feed an external fault unless they are set up to pass power back to the grid – most domestic ones are not set to do that. They will only feed an external fault for the time it takes to detect the flow and shut down.
Typically the inverters have soft protection that acts faster than thermal breakers under fault conditions. Things like scooter batteries will latch off if short circuited rather than burning up. That function of the BMS is explained here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy-tNvA_cr0
I designed my first electronic inverter for an industrial applicxation in 1975 using SCRs. Commutating SCRs in inverters was an interesting and challenging exercise. These days, I am amazed at what switching electronics are capable of. You can get electronic speed controllers smaller than a postage stamp:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9iCqqexz_7o
My wife just bought a hand activated drone for our 5yo grandson that comes with gyroscope and collision detection for $22.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqdMJ3ic-Ts
We live in the best of time for electrical engineers. And China’s contribution to manufacturing is something I greatly admire. I can see future brain drain to China to gain expertise if they allow westerners in to do that work.
20
Old Ozzie
I belong to a generation that remembers when electricity was made with coal and it was cheap. I used to leave appliances running all day and didn’t care. But the situation is what it is. Now I belong to the drop-out-of-society-and-survive generation – I just want to cut my bills and be as independent as possible.
If Na batteries were a fifth of the price of Li batteries, in my climate, I could economically buy enough to be able to charge them up with my solar panels during summer, sufficient to make up for winter production shortfalls, and go entirely off grid. I could run a PHEV most of time without having to buy petrol.
As for the wider problem of renewables on the grid, it is clear that large batteries will improve the economics of large scale wind and solar considerably, in that you will better be able to match the intermittent supply to demand. At least the people stuck in apartment blocks will appreciate that. One day they will learn to love nuclear power, I hope I will not be in the dead generation by then.
20
The calculations are fundamentally flawed. ERoEI is a method of comparing devices or processes for energy production. A battery does not produce energy.
That fundamental error aside, sodium batteries do offer another step down in cost for solar/battery system. The basic cost of CATL Naxtra cells is claimed to be $19/kWh. That is an oder of magnitude lower than LFP but I am yet to see figures close to that for cells you can actually buy.
I will buy some to play with when I see them at a goo price.
Solar/battery without subsidy is already economic at retail level in Australia against the grid. And you really only need a battery now that lunchtime power is free. Almost any house in Australia could install 30kWh of battery/inverter and run the home without energy cost. If the system that size cost $3,000 it would be the best investment you could ever make.
50
FWIW
“OK …
The explanatory power of this simple thesis was incredible. It really did unlock the secrets of the era we are living in. Wokeness is not a new ideology, an outgrowth of Marxism, or a result of post-Obama disillusionment. It is simply feminine patterns of behavior applied to institutions where women were few in number until recently. How did I not see it before?
Possibly because, like most people, I think of feminization as something that happened in the past before I was born. When we think about women in the legal profession, for example, we think of the first woman to attend law school (1869), the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court (1880), or the first female Supreme Court Justice (1981).
…
The substance fits, too. Everything you think of as wokeness involves prioritizing the feminine over the masculine: empathy over rationality, safety over risk, cohesion over competition. Other writers who have proposed their own versions of the Great Feminization thesis, such as Noah Carl or Bo Winegard and Cory Clark, who looked at feminization’s effects on academia, offer survey data showing sex differences in political values. One survey, for example, found that 71 percent of men said protecting free speech was more important than preserving a cohesive society, and 59 percent of women said the opposite.
…
The threat posed by wokeness can be large or small depending on the industry. It’s sad that English departments are all feminized now, but most people’s daily lives are unaffected by it. Other fields matter more. You might not be a journalist, but you live in a country where what gets written in The New York Times determines what is publicly accepted as the truth. If the Times becomes a place where in-group consensus can suppress unpopular facts (more so than it already does), that affects every citizen.
The field that frightens me most is the law. All of us depend on a functioning legal system, and, to be blunt, the rule of law will not survive the legal profession becoming majority female. The rule of law is not just about writing rules down. It means following them even when they yield an outcome that tugs at your heartstrings or runs contrary to your gut sense of which party is more sympathetic.
https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-great-feminization/ ”
OK …
The explanatory power of this simple thesis was incredible. It really did unlock the secrets of the era we are living in. Wokeness is not a new ideology, an outgrowth of Marxism, or a result of post-Obama disillusionment. It is simply feminine patterns of behavior applied to institutions where women were few in number until recently. How did I not see it before?
Possibly because, like most people, I think of feminization as something that happened in the past before I was born. When we think about women in the legal profession, for example, we think of the first woman to attend law school (1869), the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court (1880), or the first female Supreme Court Justice (1981).
…
The substance fits, too. Everything you think of as wokeness involves prioritizing the feminine over the masculine: empathy over rationality, safety over risk, cohesion over competition. Other writers who have proposed their own versions of the Great Feminization thesis, such as Noah Carl or Bo Winegard and Cory Clark, who looked at feminization’s effects on academia, offer survey data showing sex differences in political values. One survey, for example, found that 71 percent of men said protecting free speech was more important than preserving a cohesive society, and 59 percent of women said the opposite.
…
The threat posed by wokeness can be large or small depending on the industry. It’s sad that English departments are all feminized now, but most people’s daily lives are unaffected by it. Other fields matter more. You might not be a journalist, but you live in a country where what gets written in The New York Times determines what is publicly accepted as the truth. If the Times becomes a place where in-group consensus can suppress unpopular facts (more so than it already does), that affects every citizen.
The field that frightens me most is the law. All of us depend on a functioning legal system, and, to be blunt, the rule of law will not survive the legal profession becoming majority female. The rule of law is not just about writing rules down. It means following them even when they yield an outcome that tugs at your heartstrings or runs contrary to your gut sense of which party is more sympathetic.
https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-great-feminization/
110
The repeat is supposed to say
“Via
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2025/10/28/w-o-o-d-27-october-2025-hurricane-melissa-whacks-jamaica-russia-accelerating-in-donbass-eu-uk-imploding-donald-dithers/#comment-179907“
30
I did not think it worth repeating. And too simplistic to be useful.
I get the impression my wife would be content to see the little charmers with their machetes face capital punishment. She has even suggested keeping one of the supersaver water pistols we have loaded with bleach in the event of some machete thug entering our home..
*Email coming RickWill. – Jo
30
The thesis is obvious, since the difference is between rational thought and emotional thought. To be fair, though, three of the computer scientists I admired most during my career were women. It’s not that women can’t be rational, just that many (present company excepted) don’t choose to be.
P.S. I often see double postings, but this is the first I’ve seen in a single post.
60
Added note: Having reared 6 children, and having close and continuing relationships with my 13 grandchildren since they were newborn, it appears (to me at least) that all children are born thinking emotionally. Reasoning is not natural, it must be learned. Perhaps the super intelligent can learn it on their own? But, in general, most must (and can) be taught. It requires work on the part of the student. Reasoning is work (lazy need not apply), but feelings come easy.
111
…this is obvious to any parent who has watched their small child lie on their backs and kick their legs in a tantrum!
50
Sadly ( from a woman’s point of view), I think you are right, Ian. There is undoubtedly a feminisation of many aspects of life in the current era. When this extends to areas (eg military, law etc) where the essential need for personal and communal security is essential, it is deeply troubling.
130
Hi Vicki –
Making it plain – I wasn’t the originator of that. I posted because it looked interesting.
And the double post was all me – Jo’s software wasn’t involved
41
Thanks for posting this. I read it only recently but then couldn’t find it.
I’ve been wrestling with a growing but indistinct feeling that much of what passes for ‘leftist thinking’ mirrors female ways of thinking. I couldn’t quite figure out if it was real or not, nor could I put it into words satisfactorily. The writer in this case nails it for me and I don’t feel quite so crazy.
But we still have no explanation as to why this sort of thinking/modus operandi affects men too. Some of the most unhinged leftists are men displaying what the writer suggests is a feminist mind set.
60
A late starter
“My TCW review of the week: The guilty women behind the covid scandal”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/my-tcw-week-in-review-guilty-women-covid/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-11-23&utm_campaign=TCW+Daily+Email
00
It may be all true Ian, but don’t worry, the immigrants will solve any woman’s lib problem… as per RexAlan’s comment from the Nationalinterest.
30
It probably explains the rash of weak sentencing of criminals and bail issued to offenders because the judge/magistrate feels ‘sorry’ for the perp.
50
FWIW
“The Hanging Judge and the Factory of Truth”
“It is a peculiar truth of the modern age that the institutions we assume to be most solid—the pillars of the state—are often the most vulnerable to decay. We imagine the law as a kind of granite edifice, blindfolded and impartial, weighing evidence in her scales without fear or favour. The reality, as any honest observer of recent history can attest, is far more precarious. The law is not a monument but a process, and its integrity depends not on the grandeur of its courtrooms, but on the fragile, human virtue of independence. To compromise that is not to reform the system; it is to replace justice with power, and to substitute the court for the factory.”
More at
https://countrysquire.co.uk/2025/11/18/the-hanging-judge-and-the-factory-of-truth/
Via SDA
90
FWIW – latest Kunstler
“The Monsters’ Ball
“. . . the Democrat Party is no longer a political party. It is an insurrectionist crime syndicate that will torch the Constitution to stay in power.” —Stephen Miller”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/the-monsters-ball
110
In the following video Topher Field discusses an Australian case where a young Australian man was falsely accused of rape which destroyed his life and career. The complainant later admitted she didn’t remember what happened and her friend told her what supposedly happened even though that itself was a lie proven to be a lie by security camera video.
https://youtu.be/KKzGsljo8Xs
Reading the comments on the video this sort of thing is a fairly common occurrence but the false accusers are never punished in Australia even though making a false report to police is actually illegal. I guess the “feminist” movement is responsible for ensuring any and all reports from female complainants are regarded as true with no possibility that they may be malicious or vengeful and absolutely no punishment for the men’s lives they destroy with false accusations.
And even when or if the man has been found innocent he is financially destroyed with legal fees and the false accuser has no legal fees because the state is paying fir the prosecution/persecution.
As is often said, we have a legal system, not a justice system.
290
FWIW – “the gospel of the morning”
“Aussie Climate Minister on Abandoning COP31 Bid: Defaulting to Germany would cause “A lack of leadership””
“Aussie climate and energy minister Chris Bowen demonstrating his international diplomacy skills.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/11/21/aussie-climate-minister-on-abandoning-cop31-defaulting-to-germany-would-cause-a-lack-of-leadership/
30
‘ … skyrocketing green energy prices flagged as the number one business concern in a recent major survey, it’s not that big a puzzle why the Australian economy is the lame horse in the race.’
This is ammunition for the Coalition.
31
For those interested in “How things were done”. This chap, Fred Dibnah, is quite an extraordinary character. Along with his main job he also restored old steam engines. I think self taught, what a man. Note all the safety equipment and the speciality tools required and a fairly casual approach to the job at hand.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DF04dGK1_wYA&ved=2ahUKEwjvsoeGyoaRAxXGh68BHWoNDDAQtwJ6BAgYEAI&usg=AOvVaw0NfTbkLgkmMjEoCZsiPtg4
50
Old steam engines, what could possibly go wrong?
Let me think. A pressure vessel that is old, possibly corroded, fatigued, damaged, who knows? Now fill it with very high energy steam at pressures that will make the vessel materials groan.
And what about the pressure relief valves? Are they functional or did they get taken off because they leaked a little or cost too much to replace with certified units.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWmONHipVo
Now imagine a large tank, something that could generate some electricity for an off grid installation, etc.
And how could a DIY person assess fatigue in the material and welds of the tank? When it goes wrong, let’s hope they have the video cameras rolling.
30
In Western countries pressure vessels in public use have to have regular certifications, including antique ones such as steam engines.
30
You can certify the pressure relief valve until you go blue in the face, if the vessel has fatigue cracks then it still does the aerial dance. Some materials suffer more from fatigue than others, one classic example is hydrogen embrittlement in steel welds. Certification is normally limited to the safety devices and the overall age of a vessel. Rarely to the cycling events.
Embtrittlement is more common than you might think, all because the, (steel), welding rods were not kiln dried when it was fabricated, or maybe someone used Bowen’s green steel.
Certification requirements only looks so far. Old vessels need to be removed from service. No different to airplanes.
21
IIRC – the farm type steam engines I’ve seen were riveted construction and not welded.
20
“No different to airplanes.”
Depends on the aeroplane
Back in sailplane maintenance courses our instructor on metal fatigue was an aeronautical stress engineer, one of whose jobs was the stress testing of the turbine section of the Pratt and Whitney Canada PT 6 engines.
Aluminium has a stress cycle life that is unaffected by load. This lead to the question of “Why are DC3’s still flying then?”
His answer (a bit IIRC) was
“The people who designed it knew what they were doing.
It has three wing spars, any one of which will keep the wings on.
And it has a replacement schedule for anything that is likely to crack.
So, if you follow that, there is no reason that they can’t fly indefinitely”.
Testimony being the zero-time refurbishing and turbine conversions still being done
e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basler_BT-67
30
Australia has a unique place in the story of ‘metal fatigue’.
At the dawn of metal passenger aircraft, everyone wanted them, and the big airlines ….. first in first served, we’re big and will pay anything.
So the small Airlines of Australia (AoA) was way down the queue, so they got hold of four of the Stinson Model A instead. These were a low wing trimotor, (image at this link) and in that image you can clearly make out the two angled wing struts.
One of these AoA aircraft was the plane in the celebrated Bernard O’Reilly rescue of 1937. They lost another one a couple of years later, and sold the remaining two to Australian National Airways, (ANA) and they then lost one of them in 1945.
The investigation into that last crash found what they referred to as metal fatigue where one of those wing struts failed where it joins to the wing, failing in a gust of wind during flight, the wing folded upwards and the aircraft was lost. There were simil;ar signs of fatigue in the other struts on the other wing.
This was the first aircraft accident to be directly attributed to metal fatigue, as it was still early days for metal aircraft.
I wrote about the O’Reilly rescue and in that last part of that series, I detailed some of the outcomes. (at this link)
ANA was sold to Reg Ansett and became Ansett ANA, which morphed into just Ansett, which then folded as well. (shark eat shark)
The aftermath of that ‘metal fatigue’ crash is detailed at this link.
Tony.
80
Tony
Then there was the “rogue wing spar” crash of a Vickers Viscount
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacRobertson_Miller_Airlines_Flight_1750
From that same school the story was that early Viscounts were single wing spar, with a bank of test spars under flex at the factory to monitor flex life. A “rogue spar” failed early in service.
30
Ian, flew down from Derby in one of those borrowed Viscounts, shortly before the accident. Their wings really flexed when landing. I believe they were borrowed from Ansett to provide extra seats for MMA.
00
I have seen some wonderful steeplejacking videos with Fred Dibnar.
A lost art.
I’m not even sure it would be possible to do some of the repair work he did with modern methods and safety regulations, at least not at any reasonable cost.
I guess that’s why the upkeep of the two flags on Melbourne’s Westgate bridge cost $100,000 per year in upkeep, which I think means changing them once per year. That’s $100,000 in 2007. Probably at least 3 to 5 times that now.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/giant-flags-to-fly-from-west-gate/news-story/c825f81426dcb6d5c85e9a22c1598806
50
I remember Fred well. As an eight year-old, I emulated him by climbing one of the huge factory chimneys old Fred used to knock over. I can’t recall why. Boys, eh?
It was part of a large bakery near our house in Liverpool (UK). Apparently, one of my pals ran off to tell my mother what I was doing and, stood on our doorstep, she looked up to see a tiny figure standing on top of the chimney. I was back on terra firma by the time emergency services got there, but I didn’t avoid my father’s belt when he got home from work.
120
From Wikipedia:
30
G20 leaders defy Trump with climate declaration as PM backs coal and gas. Anthony Albanese and world leaders have issued a consensus declaration backing the Paris Agreement and trillions in climate spending despite Trump opposition. Our Prime Minister declared no limit on coal exports and backed new gas projects wreaks with the stench of cynicism
130
What a challenge it must have been for the professional parasites who attend such meetings that they would have to get themselves all the way from COP30 in Belém, Brazil which ran from 10 to 21 November 2025 to the G20 in Johannesburg 22-23 November.
Now, can someone explain this?
On Albanese’s website (the Australian Slime Minister) he writes:
How can he be in attendance at the G20 when only one of the dates correspond and there is no G20 on 20 and 21 November?
40
An International Date Line mis-calculation?
10
Australia’s Village Idiot – Aiming to Take Australia into bankruptcy
Anthony Albanese and other world leaders have defied Donald Trump and issued a consensus declaration at the G20 in Johannesburg, backing the Paris agreement, free trade, multilateral frameworks and the need to spend “trillions” on reaching climate change goals.
The statement said between $US5.8 to $US5.9 trillion of investment would be needed for developing nations to meet their emission reduction targets over the next five years.
The statement was endorsed by all G20 members except for the US and it was full of rhetoric that is at odds with the policies of Mr Trump, including the need to take strong action on climate change to meet “net zero” by close to 2050
Meanwhile
While Blackout Bowen is on the other side of the world at COP saying we must end use of fossil fuel, PM Albanese is in South Africa saying Australia will continue mining and exporting fossil fuels.
Labor has made a huge mess of energy and it’s sending Australia broke.
130
Got Albo in one place backing fossil fuels and Bowen in another backing their elimination.
Meanwhile back at home we are seeing energy costs climbing rather than falling with more renewables as Albo had promised.
What a bunch of clowns! One thing is absolutely crystal clear . .energy costs and grid instability are rising while our standards of living are falling.
Yet Labor are well ahead of the Coalition in the polls.
Just shake my head in disbelief.
150
I think it’s a result of the deliberate dumbing-down of the education system by the communists since the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. It’s all part of the German communist Rudi Dutschke’s 1967 plan of “the long march through the institutions” to infiltrate communists into all institutions public and private as he thought violent communist revolution in the West would be impossible. It would be done gradually instead.
100
The National Farmers Federation is one of those private institutions that has been infiltrated by climate change drivel:-(
30
O O
That way you have “hip” and “ocracy” and have avoided the other dreaded “h” word
30
Einstein was recently proven right yet again with experimental proof of the Terrell-Penrose effect first predicted in 1959 based on the length contraction predicted by Einstein’s relativity as an object approaches the speed of light. Based on relativity, Terrell and Penrose also predicted apparent rotation of the object because light from different parts of the object takes different amounts of time to reach the observer.
Sabine Hossenfelder discusses: https://youtu.be/2IwZB9PdJVw
70
David,
Here’s one for you to think about. A magnetic core material, eg ferrite, has a saturation limit for magnetic flux, up to that limit the core material acts in a near linear mode, double the magnetic field, double the flux in the material, etc. If you exceed that limit the flux causes heating.
In a vacuum, or with air, (as used in air cored inductor design), we assume no saturation limit, ie it is infinite. You can effectively ram as much magnetic flux into the area without an upper limit.
Does the same happen with light? eg shine a light into some glass, compared to shine a light into a vacuum.
Now that’s a Sunday thought process for you.
20
There is no practical limit to light intensity in a vacuum, linear behaviour is observed.
Light in glass is also linear up to the point where non-linear behaviour analogous to magnetic saturation is observed at high intensties due to 1) optical Kerr effect (change of refractive index with intensity), 2) material breakdown of glass due to ionisation at high intensities causing heating, 3) harmonic generation in certain specialised glasses at high intensties.
70
I see how the Kerr effect can change the refractive index but not how it can limit the energy flow into the media.
For example, glass has a relatively low RI, diamond much higher. Using the Kerr effect the glass could be made to have an RI similar to diamond but I’m not seeing how it could be used to limit the light transmission. In particular, light normal to the surface is not bent by the RI of the media, no matter what the number, so surely it would continue to enter the media and then be emitted on the far side. Obviously as the incident angle increases an elevated RI could result in surface reflections rather than transmission.
Do you have anything that covers incident light limitations when the incident angle is normal to the surface?
20
With the optical Kerr effect the change in refractive index inside the glass causes beam divergence and defocussing even at normal incidence. This is the principle upon which optical Kerr limiters are based.
Effects 2 and 3 remain at normal incidence.
00
How would Einstein explain this.
When 3I/Atlas was first sighted it was travelling at 209,000 km/h and its speed increased to about 246,000 km/h at its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion).
03
The speed of 209,000 kph is not associated with 3I/Atlas.
It entered the solar system at 221,000 kph and reached 246,000 kph per hour at perihelion.
What is there to explain, all perfectly explicable with Newtonian mechanics and some other minor effects like outgassing due to solar heating, no need to invoke Einstein at those low velocities.
80
‘General relativity showed that gravitation has a speed, which is the same as the speed of light.’
We use planets as a slingshot for our satellites exploring the solar system, these interstellar objects are using our star in the same way.
Hypothetically, the rock could eventually reach the speed of light.
02
No. The maximum theoretical velocity boost possible using a planetary body for the slingshot effect is twice the planet’s orbital velocity for a 180 degree deflection.
No significant velocity boost is possible by using the sun as a gravitational slingshot like they once did in Star Trek “Tomorrow is Yesterday” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”.
60
Yep, I concede, Oumuamua showed no increase in velocity on exiting our solar system,
31
3I/Atlas will show no increase in velocity by the time it leaves the solar system either.
It’s a rock, not a spaceship.
30
Tell that to Avi Loeb.
01
I wonder if you shed some mass as you were doing the gravitational sling shot, this could gain you more than twice the planetary mass velocity.
Like a skier behind a boat, you can whip up a higher velocity by taking some energy off the boat. And of course you could launch the boat toward a planet as per a normal gravitational acceleration. Just let go of the ski rope at the right moment to get the extra, extra kick.
Then of course, someone is going to say, what about a boat being towed by a skier, being towed by a boat, etc. I think that sooner or later the rope snaps or a Klingon comes into play. Note I ignored the need for water in space, (it’s ‘ether’ there or it isn’t in this thought experiment).
10
You would get a velocity increase if you dropped mass but I’m sure there are more efficient ways to do it. That mass you dropped would first have had to have been accelerated at significant energy cost in the first place so you might as well use that extra energy for a more efficient manoeuvre.
10
You would think sending parcels via Australia Post would cost less using your own boxes – think again. The
scaminconsistency is easily shown.Take their large parcel box – 390x280x140mm which costs $3.50 for the box + a $19.30 postage fee for <5kg weight, total cost $22.80.
Now use your own packaging with exactly the same dimensions. You are now on their volume/weight calculation and now have the privilege of paying $23.30 up front plus the cost of your packaging, as well as being limited to a maximum 3kg weight.
Clever marketing?
70
Another thing I find particularly annoying with Australia Post is how the weight is charged in discrete blocks such as you pay exactly the same for, say, 125g to “up to” 250g but if your package weighs 251g you go in the 250g up to 500g weight category which is a substantial extra expense for posting overseas. This exact scenario happened to me and the postman suggested I remove some packaging to bring the weight down by 1g. A more sensible system would be a linear sliding scale as they have in the US. Australia’s system defies reason and logic.
80
You assume no ill will. A simple mistake to make.
60
I have my suspicion that cyclone Fina is being hyped by their BoM. The depression continues to follow the coast southwest. Nullschool has central pressure now at 982hPa.
Darwin Airport observations recorded gusts to 96kph and pressure down to 996hPa. That wind strength gets it into category 1 cyclone.
I saw video of a large tree being lodge on city roads but it was more falling over due to sodden footing than wind strength.
The land to the east of the cyclone is only 23C so not much fuel to feed it from that direction. It get some fuel off land south of Wyndham but most of the fuel is coming from the Indian Ocean.
150
They have to maintain the climate change narrative with ongoing scary stories.
130
Watching it now on the BoM radar.
20
Nullschool is now showing 975hPa. So it is intensifying as it heads SW.
I think it could turn south over Wyndham where land is now up to 31C.
There is so much atmospheric moisture over Australia that there is a low spinning up just north of Eucla:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=mean_sea_level_pressure/orthographic=-240.28,-29.25,1449/loc=126.785,-29.537
This is unusual for Australia. It bodes well for more greening.
40
Revealed: The eye-watering cost of BoM’s new website
Total bill for BoM’s new website came in at $96 million
The Bureau of Meteorology’s unpopular new website cost millions of dollars more than previously reported, with the agency’s new chief revealing the price tag for the heavily criticised redesign was actually $96 million.
In his first interview since stepping into the role two weeks ago, new bureau chief Dr Stuart Minchin said he intended to be transparent and admit mistakes the agency made, after its website changes were lambasted as destructive storms hit south-east Australia last month.
Media reports revealed that the website, criticised as difficult to navigate and over changes to its radar map that made place names difficult to read, had cost significantly more than the $4.1 million originally stated by the bureau, as this figure did not include a $78 million website design contract for private consultancy Accenture Australia.
But Minchin said the total cost of the redesign, completed under former chief Dr Andrew Johnson, was even higher than reported.
“I’ve looked into it. The total cost, when you add the Accenture work, the security testing and everything else, it’s about $96 million,” he said.
While the then acting bureau chief, Dr Peter Stone, issued a mea culpa one week after the new website was launched, he stopped short of conceding a mistake had been made, instead saying it would “take time for some to adjust” to the changes, and the bureau would do more to help people do so.
70
The Bunch of Muppets (BOM) can’t predict the weather in a week’s time and get it right. Then, they and the Climate Alarmists try to tell us that in 2050 we are all doomed. LOL.
Farmers and others use Private Weather Expert Forecast Services to know what the Weather is likely to be for planting crops and harvesting them.
What a total waste of Taxpayer money the BOM is. Should be called a BOMB.
80
O O
The opening radar map has a small “Powered by ESRI. See “About this map” ”
But “About this map” doesn’t seem to mention ESRI
30
” as this figure did not include a $78 million website design contract for private consultancy Accenture Australia.”
Who’s cousin owns that?? I cannot see 40,000 manhours in that website. Twenty people writing code for a solid 12months?
60
Come on KP. The meetings, the lunches, the focus groups, not mention study tours to review other countries services and how the developed them n stuff.
80
Agreed, each time I look at the actual weather stations in the path of the “You are all going to Die’ cyclones I do not see the forecast wind strengths recorded by the instruments.
There is however a danger in this cyclone, like Alfred in Queensland it is sticking around. Like rust it will eventually cause substantial damage. Trees will fall as root systems soften and new low lying suburbs built in what were tidal salt flats and flood plains will flood bringing misery and ongoing insurance problems to homes built on slabs out of plasterboard with chipboard cabinets. I suppose one thing in their favour is the silly roof top solar. The fight to lower your bill has lead to trees coming under attack from chainsaws and chippers, so fewer big gums coming down like sledge hammers on the homes. And, they come down hard ask the owner of what was now re-badged by some wag a Subaru Forrester.
Another problem in Darwin is the surf will lure the locals into the crocodile habitat. Surfers have been suffering enough calamity from shark attack without being death rolled by a croc.
60
When I looked at the BoM map earlier today it showed the eye passing well to the north of Darwin airport which was outside the worst danger zone. Sorry, but I didn’t keep a copy of that map.
10
The feminisation of politics has failed to lift standards. This week we saw the proof
Via the Brittany Higgins scandal, we’ve witnessed the PM reach a new low in disrespect for women and a sisterhood ignore the ugly truth.
130
We may have hit peak Trump. Here’s the evidence. We can’t know if a dead Jeffrey Epstein or a live Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the President’s undoing — but it is coming.
Timothy Lynch
Contributor The Australian 22/11
Two non entities Timothy! Might be time for a new crystal bile
81
Tim Lynch is a professor of politics, Melbourne University. Seems to have a severe case of TDS.
100
Tim Lynch University of Melbourne…
Summed up by
College Students Stream Southward
The demographics of college are changing rapidly. Kids (and their parents) are abandoning traditional New England venues in favor of the South.
The trend has become so pronounced that the London Times has taken note: “Why young Americans are shunning elite universities for the Deep South.”
Where young people used to travel to the well-to-do corners of New England for higher education, increasing numbers now want to attend state schools in the South ….
More than anything, college kids and their families are fleeing the oppressive and anti-intellectual wokism that has infected most schools, especially in the North.
This is the closest the Times comes to acknowledging that reality:
Krista Peterson, an admissions counsellor at College Goals, who works with wealthy clients in the northeast, believes that prospective students are also drawn by the politics down south. “They say it’s less ‘in their face’ when they are with teachers,” she said.
“It” being leftism, apparently.
40
THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN!!
Hang on, that was 9 years ago.
50
Copied from Farcebook.
Fact checked by me:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50355168
70
I would have let him go.
Naah, just kiddin’.
Hang ’em high.
30
FWIW
“Rising Electricity Prices: The Missing Link”
“The reality is that many factors are contributing to rising electricity rates, especially the rapid increases that households and businesses have experienced over the last five years. But the various studies have overlooked a key factor: the changing mix of generating resources, as traditional fossil-fuel and nuclear plants have been replaced by wind and solar ones.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/11/22/rising-electricity-prices-the-missing-link/
Concludes
“As electricity costs take larger bites out of people’s wallets, policymakers must confront the physical and economic limitations of a “green” electric grid. And soon.”
60
FWIW – more Canadian developments
“Port Coquitlam stresses transparency on decade-old Aboriginal title claim”
https://truenorthwire.com/2025/11/port-coquitlam-stresses-transparency-on-decade-old-aboriginal-title-claim/
Via SDA
30
Spotting AI photos
People often ask me how to know for sure if an image was created by artificial intelligence. So I marked in the attached photo (in the red circles) some clues that make me suspect that it’s a fabricated photo, although it’s not possible to say with absolute certainty in this case.
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_t63ix95o7N1rmlyv3.mp4
😁
80
LOL.
60
The other circled images could be the ability of the modern digital to take a huge number of frames and then re-assemble them to smaller frame rate with the example of the light switch appearing being a more an artifact of compression, lighting or exposure.
In this instance I would however bet my 10 toes on it being a composite.
We live in a world of Computer Generated Images. Not perfect yet as there was no ambulance for Charlie Kirk, whoever (Tom / Max) was shot on the roof overlooking Trump’s Rally or Ashlii Babbit, both Kirk & Babbit were just picked up and dragged out though Babbit made a born again cameo in the freezing cold after having been pronounced dead. They didn’t make that mistake with Max. Evidently reuters have found him, well maybe?
We are all starring in the Truman Show.
20
I TOLD you that eating genetically engineered food was bad for you!
30
Is there an AI Ansel Adams?
00
Google tells employees it must double capacity every 6 months to meet AI demand
During an all-hands meeting earlier this month, Google’s AI infrastructure head Amin Vahdat told employees that the company must double its serving capacity every six months to meet demand for artificial intelligence services, reports CNBC. The comments show a rare look at what Google executives are telling its own employees internally. Vahdat, a vice president at Google Cloud, presented slides to its employees showing the company needs to scale “the next 1000x in 4-5 years.”
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/11/google-tells-employees-it-must-double-capacity-every-6-months-to-meet-ai-demand/
Data centers?
Who cares. The technological advances are fast and major and soon humans won’t need to be in the loop.
50
Why?? Where is all the information coming from?
Are they going to store more and more about each person? Are they going to duplicate all the other information that other companies have? Are they going to sort through the information faster?
Apart from a flossied-up way of delivering the same search results I can’t see the use of it at all.
20
Clearly they havent heard about the world ending next year
20
Where to find the ultimate British horse-riding holiday
I was a pony-crazed tween with pigtails and a taste for danger on four legs. My recent stay at an English equestrian centre suggests little has changed.
For Some Unkown Reason, My Comment was rejected
“Heh, I liked Richard Hammond venting spleen about Horses & Horse Owneship on the Grand Tour”
Well, little girls, it’s time to get off of your ponies and into a go-kart, and I can tell you from some experience of horses that when you walk out in the morning you’ll find that your go-kart hasn’t crapped itself and died in the night.
so it’s better than your horse you’ll also find out that go-karts are more fun than going on a horse they just are, yes yes
And you’ll also find that a go-kart won’t pop its long stupid head up over the stable door and look at you and you know it’s thinking, it’s trying to say to you “hey, your wife, eh? She’s back here, in here with me. She’s given me breakfast in bed, crapped myself last night but she’s clearing that up with a garden fork”, and then it says “my p@nis is a bit dirty,she’ll be sorting that out for me later on:”
And then your wife’s head will pop up over the stable door and she’ll say “don’t look at him like that, he’ll think you don’t like him!”
And you’ll say “I KNOW! If I could speak horse I’d tell him ‘I hate you, I hate the way you steal my wife, and my money, and my status around here!
And then one day you’ll have a conversation with your wife and she’ll say “darling, I need a trailer, to move my special horse around to wonderful places because these fields are too small for him to exercise his magnificent musclesed legs.” And you’ll say “okay, I’ll get you a trailer.”
And then she’ll say “I need a special car, to tow the special trailer, to carry the special horse.” So you’ll get one, and then one day she’ll say “I need a lorry, a great big lorry to carry my great big magnificent horse around the country, and the lorry must have a kitchen, and a bed in it so I can sleep close to my horse, closer to my horse than I am to you!”
And at that moment your head will bowl and your heart will break, because you know that you have lost, and the horse has won.
60
G20 clown show features Albanese, Carney and Modi.
The following comments relate to Canada but I’m sure Australia is a big loser just like Canada in this deal.
Response:
40
“Canada, Australia, and India just formed a new trilateral partnership on technology and innovation. We’ll work more closely together on clean energy, critical minerals, ”
Lol! So Canada want to join us in buying cheap Russian oil off India!
60
So basically we can have more courier drivers.
50
Trump has now set Thursday 27 Nov as the deadline for Zelenskyy to sign on to the 28 point peace plan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiSMCQZULBY
Irrespective of what happens by then, US will no longer be involved in the killing of young men in Ukraine or Russia.
And there is support in Germany to stop the conflict:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVe5jlrjt3M
The European economy is in no shape to support ongoing conflict with Russia. These are tired economies strangled by their indulgence of Climate Change™ scammers.
See Australia has thrown German prestige car makers a life line by removing the luxury car tax – as if Australia’s purchases would amount to something significant. I can imagine how well this offer will fly in Australia. I wonder how many Australians will be waiting to buy their next German pile of carp after the tax is removed – my bet is not many. You get a lot more carp for your money buying Chinese made.
70
I’ve spent quite a lot of days as a passenger in an AudiQ3 in the last few months showing an overseas mate inland Australia, and I find them most uncomfortable and seriously lacking power for overtaking. The doors are hard to open and hard to shut, the inner handle is too far away and the door is very heavy. It has no handling, only grip, so when it lets go you will be toast.
Disappointing for a German car. Sadly, he’s Chinese so he’ll never hire a Chinese car for me to see the difference.
60
FWIW – for Victorians
Caption
“IS THE FALL OF ROME COMPARABLE TO THE CURRENT SITUATION IN NEW YORK?
NO, ROME HAD COOD ROADS.”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/adrar.png
50
That could also apply to Sicktoria.
30
Rome had Sanitation 2,000 years ago.
London in England, with the British Empire at it’s peak, didn’t get it until the late 1800s.
The original Roman Sanitation, when it was Londinium, only went for the original smaller City of Londinium.
Things get lost over time. The original Roman baths in Bath did not get dicovered until the 1700s in Georgian times.
Life of Brian – “What have the Romans ever done for Us”? LOL
90
This could relate to the BOM, CSRIO, Dept. of Climate Change Alarmists, the Treasury, Dept. of PM and many others –
“The king wanted to go fishing, and he asked the royal weather forecaster the forecast for the next few hours. The palace meteorologist assured him that there was no chance of rain.
So the king and the queen went fishing. On the way he met a man with a fishing pole riding on a donkey, and he asked the man if the fish were biting.
The fisherman said, “Your Majesty, you should return to the palace! In just a short time I expect a huge rainstorm.”
The king replied: “I hold the palace meteorologist in high regard. He is an educated and experienced professional. Besides, I pay him very high wages. He gave me a very different forecast. I trust him.”
So the king continued on his way. However, in a short time a torrential rain fell from the sky The King and Queen were totally soaked.
Furious, the king returned to the palace and gave the order to fire the meteorologist. Then he summoned the fisherman and offered him the prestigious position of royal forecaster.
The fisherman said, “Your Majesty, I do not know anything about forecasting. I obtain my information from my donkey. If I see my donkey’s ears drooping, it means with certainty that it will rain.”
So the king hired the donkey.
And thus began the practice of hiring dumb asses to work in influential positions of government.
The practice is unbroken to this date.”
200
Aggro kangaroo.
Note to overseas readers, they are NOT as portrayed in “Skippy” and can be quite aggressive and dangerous.
https://youtube.com/shorts/7aEm3IsCWTY
50
Skippy was a wallaby.
A big male Red or Grey Kangaroo is entirely different.
40
Not disputing you but according to Wikipedia Skippy was an eastern grey ‘roo.
40
I recall that multiple roos were used as they were untrainable, and the closeups of the appropriate Skippy manipulating something were done using a preserved paw on a stick 😁
30
We all had those as bottle openers, remember?
10
And back-scratchers. Also remember the purses?
20
That’s just nuts.
30
Outside Mates Farm Riverlee, on Road Tarana to Bathurst I have seen Easter Greys as big as the Big Reds I have shot outside Bourke, and have had Big Red with Joey keeping pace alongside 4WD at 30 Km/hr, on Bourke to Wanaaring Road
00
He was a bush kangaroo, it’s right there in the theme song
90
>was a wallaby
A wallaby, “is entirely different.”
20
How do you accurately measure the difference between natural CO2 and those CO2 molecules humans emit?
Is it assumed that 280 ppm is the accepted baseline?
30
Same way you separate out your little green electrons from your little yellow electrons and those awful horrible little black electrons !!
50
FWIW
“If Quantum Computing Is Solving “Impossible” Questions, How Do We Know They’re Right?”
https://scitechdaily.com/if-quantum-computing-is-solving-impossible-questions-how-do-we-know-theyre-right/
30
FWIW
“SHINE ON LITTLE LIGHT, SHINE ON: Seeing the sheer number of people on the ‘American online right’ exposed to be foreigners is frankly relieving. Given many of these accounts have been actively stoking the flames of the little civil war we are having on the right at the moment, their locations being posted is huge. Go into any hot topic political conversation on twitter right now. Go into the comments. Find the most inflammatory comments pushing the hardest and the strongest on the most radical position. You’ll find them filled with people from Europe. India. The Philippines. The Middle East. Australia. Nigeria. Malaysia. I’m batting about 75% in being able to guess who is American and who is not.”
https://x.com/MichaelFKane/status/1992408403981824095
https://instapundit.com/758196/#disqus_thread
30
The introduction to that if you haven’t seen it –
THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, I’M GONNA LET IT SHINE: Breaking: elonmusk just turned on the location spotlight and the entire “Gaza resident” influencer industry & fake IDF soldier industry just imploded.”
https://x.com/LiquidFaerie/status/1992097744157397364
https://instapundit.com/758190/#disqus_thread
20
Hmmm!
Where are those “Oz fans” of wind and solar based?
30
“: elonmusk just turned on the location spotlight ”
Where did he do that? I see those people talking about it, but no sign of the original work.
10
IIRC it was only on for a short time – but long enough!
Via net search
“Elon Musk’s X rolls out feature that shows users’ country of origin – then suddenly removes it
Will the feature that reveals where exactly a user is posting from make a return?”
https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-x-rolls-out-country-of-origin-profiles-then-removes-it
10
More
“Whoa: Major Foreign Propagandists Utterly Exposed After X Glitch Reveals Account Locations”
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2025/11/22/whoa-major-foreign-propagandists-utterly-exposed-after-x-glitch-reveals-user-locations-n2196457
10
And more scalps
https://instapundit.com/758254/#disqus_thread
00
FWIW –
I just got an adblocker flag from Weatherzone
Came good on a re-try
00