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
Video.
Interesting story about the US Crosley car with an engine made out of sheet metal.
The engine was originally designed for the US military where it worked fine for constant RPM applications but it did not work well in civilian applications because civilians a) did not use the specified coolant and b) it did not work well in a car with variable RPM.
However the engine was extremely innovative and did work.
With appropriate materials selection in might even work today.
https://youtu.be/RhtlqXLwY1Q
51
I still remember the racing/ speedboat my father built when I was around 8/9 years old. It was fitted either the cast iron version of the Crosley engine. The boat was aptly named “ Banshee “ as it screamed like its namesake . No exhaust silencer. Dad won several races in her! The Crosley was selected for its low weight to performance ratio!
20
I suspect modern alloys and casting technology/production costs would keep the Crosley a historic novelty .
10
Yes. I dont understand how the Crossley engine was actually constructed.
Sheet metal? Ok, it was apparently air cooled so no need for a water jacket, nor head coolant passages, but what about oil galleries, cooling fins etc.
00
How weird is it that random people can just call up the most powerful man in the world’s cellphone and he’ll pick it up and talk to them. He’s not kidding when he says his is the most accessible administration in history.
What a HUGE contrast to the Weekend at Bernie’s presidency of Joe Biden, where he was completely inaccessible unless you went through multiple layers of intermediaries and handlers.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/03/trump-phone-number/686370/
There is even a bit in there that applies directly to Australia.
Trump’s personal phone number is the worst kept secret in Washington. The fact that Albanese is not even sure that Trump has a cell phone is mind-boggling. OF COURSE he does. You can constantly see footage of him thumbing out Truth Social posts on the golf course. He’s the World’s most famous and notorious social media addict.
210
Anthony Albanese … I’m not even sure he has a cellphone.
Random Substack journalist or twitter/X meme-lord … ‘Hello Mr President, whassup?’.
30
Some might need to search for videos of “wassup commercials”
Whassup? was a commercial campaign for Budweiser beer from 1999 to 2002. The first spot aired during Monday Night Football on December 20, 1999.
Contrast this block-buster with the infamous BudLight fiasco.
30
I preferred the frogs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVcbasIb8lQ
20
Here’s another article on it that shows just how easy it is to obtain Trump’s digits (and mocking the Atlantic article above for it’s claim that people are paying for it). If anyone is actually paying for the number, they are the living embodiment of ‘A fool and his money are soon parted’.
https://www.semafor.com/article/03/15/2026/why-and-how-everyone-is-cold-calling-the-president
90
POTUS Trump is the greatest leader ever.
History tells us that Trump does not suffer fools for very long. Many fools have made an effort to bring him down but they only prove Trump was right. The haters at their ABC and BBC are outstanding fools.
One of the sweetest moments last year was watching Rudd squirm in Trump’s presence.
Very few people have Trump’s affable and engaging manner. Barnaby Joyce is probably the closest Australia has to offer among the present crop.
205
‘POTUS Trump is the greatest leader ever.’
He has a charismatic personality, but without intellectual depth.
319
He has an IQ of 150!
130
lol
312
So he says, but this is the same guy who confused dementia screening for a ‘very hard’ IQ test.
His frontal lobes are in meltdown while escalating a religious war, which he has referred to as armageddon.
Thankfully life is only a simulation, 3I/ATLAS is not a comet and has altered course to approach Jupiter.
214
And he is a poo poo head, right El?
60
That would be undiplomatic.
‘Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie has labelled the US president’s outburst at allies as “petulant” and says that the rules-based order is “dead”. (ABC)
26
We are on Trump’s bad list until we get a change of Government.
31
The Atlantic eh?
“How weird is it that random people can just call up the most powerful man in the world’s cellphone and he’ll pick it up and talk to them.”
A moment’s skepticism would lead to the question of when exactly this has ever happened? Has it ever happened when he is interacting with the press? Has it ever happened when he is interacting with his advisors? Or when he is eating?
So when exactly did any RANDOM person have their call PICKED UP and with no introduction whatsoever ENGAGE in conversation?
Just one example will do for starters.
100
With the American corporate media going all in on trying to shift midterms in Democrats favor by declaring Trump’s Iran gambit a miserable failure, Al-Jazeera is now offering more substantive and honest assessments of how the war is going than you can find in American media. I swear, Pravda and TASS had nothing on 21st century western media.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/3/16/the-us-israeli-strategy-against-iran-is-working-here-is-why
INTRODUCTION
CONCLUSION
160
As Che Guevara noted back in 1959:
““Foreign reporters—preferably American—were much more valuable to us at that time (1957-59) than any military victory. Much more valuable than recruits for our guerrilla force, were American media recruits to export our propaganda.”
The churnalistic “opinion-shapers” have an agenda.
130
Steve, after relaying what The Atlantic had to say without any apparent skepticism, you now quote Al Jazeera.
Not that it hurts to have various opinions but if you are tossing a pinch of salt over your shoulder you’re going to need some of the 25kg bags I put in my pool.
32
Logical opinions – Yes. Illogical garbage/lies – No.
Trump being a despot/king is illogical. If he were no one would be brave enough to say so, eg Iran, Cuba.
30
I have found Tousi TV to be ahead of the game on most of the reporting associated with the US-IRGC war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REMkm3KD_s0
They are often two or three days ahead and have been reporting from the streets of Iran and civil unrest for a long time. Tousi obviously knows a lot about Iran and has many sources within Iran.
The latest that Australia is now giving safe haven to Iranian clerics is really concerning.
60
Britain is dragging its feet before engaging in the Iran War.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/hms-dragon-the-british-warship-that-s-in-no-rush-to-reach-the-war-is-still-in-gibraltar/ar-AA1YRd4e?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=69ba54aa70b94259a4cbe10fd40fedda&ei=70&cvpid=69ba654f24944c9795a8c8a3638f4972
Could be there in about a week. Akrotiri is a British Airforce base in Cyprus. It has been hit by an Iranian drone already. Not sure what HMAS Dragon could do about it anyway.
10
Excellent analysis of current Iran conflict. Well worth reading.
“Data Analysis of the State of the Iranian Conflict on March 16, 2026. An attempt to OSINT the current state of affairs”
https://datarepublican.substack.com/p/data-analysis-of-the-state-of-the-dad
71
The state of modern information… “I don’t know anything about the subject, but I gathered a lot of stuff and fed it into AI, and now here’s the TRUTH..”
When Wikipedia is confirming stuff its not likely to be true! The rest of it? Who knows?
41
KP, you are mischaracterizing the article.
She said Nothing about “the Truth”. She posted an Analysis with caveats with links to all sources.
Such mischaracterization is dishonest and petty.
30
The situation could change fairly quickly.
Iran is leaderless now and has no government.
IRGC units remain in situ but not co-ordinated, they have predetermined targets for their diminishing supply of missiles and drones but can they be effective at controlling the population?
https://joehoft.com/next-72-hours-may-determine-shape-middle-east/
Will have to wait and see.
80
Indeed. The puzzle piece for me is how Iranian forces continue to be able to ping various weaponry at various targets.
I would have thought that the US and Israelis would be able to pinpoint the source and rapidly reduce them to nil. They can hardly stay invisible once they have launched.
Maybe it’s like trying to swat a swarm of mosquitos one by one.
40
The missile and drone attacks are way down on their initial effort. They have to come out of hiding to launch and then retreat quickly to avoid becoming a target.
USA is now sending in Warthog aircraft. These are intended for small, more mobile targets. They should be able to reach targets quicker than drones.
80
A-10s fly low and slow [Congress wants them gone for that reason] so only venture out after total air dominance has been achieved. They are still vulnerable to MANPADs so wish the aircrews well.
20
Some time ago I was shown a video of low flying A-10 Warthog flying raid fire cannon carrier fighter, they are not slow and pilots high skilled and far better than most commercial crop dusting aircraft pilots who also dodge obstacles from power line to trees and stray tourist gyrocopters (see Kununurra WA Ord River Irrigation Area where that did scare a crop duster pilot who have very rude words to shout at the pilots of the two-seat air tour operators.
A-10 tactic is called “Nap Of The Earth” flying at very low altitude and very fast, heading towards a hill, flipping over inverted to cross with pilot observation of ground conditions and then back to normal, flying under bridges and transmission lines, and so on.
And when the rapid fire gun is activated the A-10 slows considerably as the large depleted uranium rounds armour piercing are fired.
For various reasons Apache Attack Helicopters are now more often deployed.
40
A major player has been taken out.
‘Israel’s assassination of Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council and one of the linchpins of Iranian politics, will be a devastating body blow to the country and probably a bigger reverse than the loss of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the outset of the war.’ (Guardian)
11
Trump appointee resigns.
Joe Kent:
“… as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center … I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no threat to our nation… we started this war due to pressure from I$ræl and its powerful American lobby”.
His letter goes on to blame the aforesaid country/lobby for getting the U.S. into the “disastrous” Iraq War of 2003.
If you don’t believe the last bit, look up Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith & co.
The Clean Break Memo.
25
Tell all book deal following in 3.. 2.. 1..
111
Didn’t get a promotion that was supposed to be his?
22
Lost a wife, and has consoled himself with a replacement one who is strongly left-wing, doesn’t have his own mind any longer.
12
… Richard Peŕle, David Wưrmser, too.
03
Yet another war…just what the MAGA crowd voted against.
Trump is just Israel’s puppet, bombing their enemy, and creating the new axis of power in the process…
Is it over yet?
412
Joe Kent is correct, Iran posed no threat to the US, so its a stitched up job.
221
So what if Iran gets ONE nuke?
The USA has over 5,000.
How many people even know that Iran’s oppressive regime was caused by the USA?
Look up Operation Ajax, a joint CIA & MI-6 operation to oust Mosaddeq and reinstate the shah, giving the west control over their oil, at the expense of freedom and liberties of the people who didn’t want the shah.
Money, power and oil rule…
54
US since Trump Term 1.0 is again self sufficient in oil and gas, and exports more than Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Nearby producers Canada and a bit further away Venezuela.
40
So what if Iran gets ONE nuke?
Was that an explosive nuclear device or a traditional “dirty” bomb which spreads (long term) radioactivity over a several square km area?
00
” traditional “dirty” bomb which spreads (long term) radioactivity over a several square km area?”
Like South Australia?? No, wait, they were explosive nuclear bombs we set off there… is anyone worried? One nuke doesn’t make a summer, you’d need a lot more for a war.
10
Does that include no threat to US people and assets stationed overseas? Or is his “no threat to our nation” description limited to the north american United States?
Kent was advocating for no US presence in the middle east and ceasing anti terrorism measures overseas before he was appointed to this position. So it might not be an opinion based on evidence he has gained as Director. Might be just advocating an already established position.
In 2024 the FBI and Homeland Security were warning of Iran’s plans to carry out attacks on US soil, targeting particular individuals, cyber attacks, and targeting US personnel overseas.
50
A genuine warrior, did many tours. His wife died O/S.
He has the right to his own opinion, the right to resign if he disagrees with the boss and the right to be wrong. Just do it with dignity.
60
FWIW – might be more to that –
“President Trump Responds to Resignation of National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent (VIDEO)”
Senior admin official says Joe Kent was “a known leaker” – and was cut out of POTUS intelligence briefings months ago. He has not been part of any Iran planning discussions or briefings at all.
Official says also the White House told DNI Gabbard Kent should be fired for suspected leaks, but she never did.”
https://x.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/2033936122011607150
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/03/president-trump-responds-resignation-national-counterterrorism-center-director/
40
‘Iran posed no threat to our nation….’ ‘Death to America’ still sounds fairly threatening, as they edge ever closer to becoming a nuclear state.
Not to mention sponsorship of terrorist activities which have taken thousands of American lives already.
151
“terrorist activities which have taken thousands of American lives already.”
What is hard to understand about that?
50
Not amazing Grace would say that is propaganda, never happened.
sarc
10
Suppose oil had never happened.
And the West had never maneuvered to control the resource.
Would an Islamic regime* not now be chanting ‘Death to America’?
The thousand years prior to carbon energy would indicate the chants would still be there.
One way this situation could have been avoided is if Charles the Hammer had been bested in 732 (A f-ing D).
One of the aspects of the demise of the age scientific Enlightenment is the failure of the enlightened to respect how the old religions might still guide the affairs of men … I mean persons.
Now we are told there are ‘anomalous’** things in the sky.
Perhaps they are anomalous for the similar reasons that we can barely declare a woman a woman anymore.
I shall close my typically insightful and marginally erudite comment by quoting the rock band Styx …
“I thought that they were angels but much to my surprise, we climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies”.
* Historical note: without Charles’s victory there would be no concept of a possible secular culturally Islamic nation. Or maybe no concept of nations altogether. And no America to wish death upon.
** “Anomalous’ is a replacement of ‘flying’ because just as we can no longer posses surety in the meaning of ‘woman’, we can no longer have confidence in the descriptive meaning of ‘flying’.
20
Funny isn’t it? Why do all these countries hate America with a passion? Is there something they know that we don’t get told?
21
It’s called consensus. The groupthink here is that it is an unreliable indicator of the truth, however.
00
There are a few LPG and oil tankers getting through the Strait of Hormuz.
Sea Bird is an LPG tanker headed to China that has just passed through the Strait.
70
FWIW – longish
“People Are Not Widgets”
“If there is one thing that I’d enjoin you to remove from your mind, for the sake of humanity, please, if this idea that people are widgets who can be molded, twisted, packaged, arranged, engineered!
The proximal cause of this post is Paul Ehrlich’s death, but that’s only part of it. I might or might not, later, write a post about Ehrlich, the man who was always wrong and an actual contender for History’s Greatest Monsters, easily edging out Carter’s considerable credentials and bidding fair to compete (if in a different way) with people like Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Heck, he bids fair, just in lives distorted, maimed and never born to compete with Karl Marx himself. (And as a very minor footnote scared the screaming bejeezus out of me when I was a little kid, reading him.)
However, the cause of this post was a comment on an x post about Ehrlich. This man was well intentioned, I think, and trying to say “whoa, Ehrlich went way too far.” ”
More at https://accordingtohoyt.com/2026/03/17/people-are-not-widgets/
10
What about Bodgits that go with Widgets?
lol
00
FWIW
“The challenge to writers and content creators
Ted Gioia points out the real challenge to making an impact in the writing and publishing world – not just authors, but journalists, essayists and thinkers in general.
As journalists lose their jobs, more publicists get hired. The result is that there are now seven times as many publicists as journalists. The rise of AI agents will only make this worse, much worse.
The entire media ecosystem is breaking down. Around three-quarters of journalists now block publicists who are (they believe) spamming them. I get so many pitches from PR people that I can’t even begin to deal with them.
I’m fortunate that I’ve found other ways of getting access to useful information—but that’s more a workaround rather than a real solution. In the meantime, all the noise coming from the publicity world isn’t good for anyone. As a result, many deserving musicians, authors and other creatives can’t get any attention, no matter how talented they are.
There are many causes, but the single biggest one is the decline in paid jobs for journalists. And the underlying reason for that is obvious: Google and Facebook stole all the ad revenues that previously supported journalism. Fix that and so many other problems go away End of story.”
More at
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-challenge-to-writers-and-content.html
10
Seems like sour grapes for incompetent reporting.
This short video from Rita Panahi from 2 weeks ago has had 1.5M views. That single video would make a reasonable monthly income.
I noticed Sky News Australia is pushing more into the US market. A lot of their content is slanted toward the US market.
Tousi TV is the best coverahge I have seen on the routing of the Iranian clerics. That channel now has 1.5M subscribers.
Lots of people are making money out of YouTune. And POTUS Trump provides a massive amount of their content.
Peta Credlin got 230k views in one day on this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ma_wzWvBJ4
30
FWIW
“Sen. Kennedy Just Shut Down the UK Over Iran…and It Was Epic”
“I mean, the British Empire fell decades ago. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) finished what was left of our cousin’s once proud standing in the world. The United Kingdom is flooded with Muslims and woke leftists who have been engaged in a long campaign of suicidal empathy that is going to destroy the island nation soon if it doesn’t get a grip on reality and change its immigration policy, though that’s the least of it.
It’s well-known that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer isn’t involved in Operation Epic Fury because he can’t risk offending Muslims at home. So, please, spare us your usual snobby Eurotrash advice, dude. We don’t need guidance from a prime minister who’s afraid and stuck on his own island. And we don’t care what those in the cheap seats have to say.
Kennedy, with his epic one-liners, delivered this blow to the UK, likening Starmer’s advice to listening to a nun about sex:”
https://x.com/SenJohnKennedy/status/2033934052885926281
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2026/03/17/sen-kennedy-just-obliterated-uks-keir-starmer-about-operation-epic-fury-n2672986
120
because he can’t risk offending Muslims at home.
That could never apply in Australia. Could it?
/s
90
And “Two Tier” has just made the horrifying discovery that they don’t keep voting for Labour
20
Trump: your energy bills will be cut in half within 12 months
https://x.com/patriottakes/status/2014796561671184757
Before or after the latest war?
20
US thanks to President Trump Term 1.0 now self sufficient in oil and gas, and exports more than Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Trump has also removed nuclear power stations and plants restrictions in the USA, even compliance inspection based 80 years operation now and provision to extend to 100 years.
Every bills will probably go down
41
So we just need some 3rd-world country with oil that we can bomb to bits and take over, then we can have cheap energy too! Is that East Timor? We started on them a few decades back…
12
East Timor for Independence deployment of ADF
Later the government there wanted revenue from the Timor Sea oil-gas ventures and even asked for an export terminal be built on East Timor but the location was unsuitable, and later an agreement to share was entered into.
00
No-one saw that Cuba achieved net zero? 😆
60
And close to gross zero.
30
Albanese keeps telling everyone not to panic buy fuel!
The reason nobody takes any notice of this is that nobody with any brains trusts him or Bowen or the government to solve the problem of supply.
40
Don’t panic.
10
FWIW – “true dat”
“BACK TO THE LAND WAS SILLY FOR THE LEFT AND IT’S SILLY FOR US: Yeah, I know this is engagement bait bullshit from a European with no clue, but I see this kinda RETURN TO FARM post on X all the time, and it’s always some idylic dreamscape of rural niceness, which makes it really f*ing obvious to all of us who come from farming backgrounds that these people have zero f*ing clue, and would probably end up wrapped around an auger on their first day.”
https://x.com/monsterhunter45/status/2033962336449663374
Via https://instapundit.com/783416/#disqus_thread
“True dat” – ever since the bloody poets invented bloody Arcadia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_(utopia)#External_links
00
FWIW
Expanding industry
“ALAS MINNESOTA: Map shows glaring scope of auto theft increase in Walz’s Minneapolis: ‘Deterrence problem’. Auto thefts in Minneapolis shot up 34% during the first 2 months of 2026.”
https://instapundit.com/783419/#disqus_thread
00
They’re getting competition from California
“HOTEL CALIFORNIA: Here is the full 40 minutes of my crew and I exposing California fraud, Minnesota was big but California is even bigger… We uncovered over $170,000,000 in fraud as these fraudsters live in luxury with no consequences. Like it and share it, the fraud must STOP.”
https://x.com/nickshirleyy/status/2033708929398845886
https://instapundit.com/783408/#disqus_thread
10
FWIW
“Step by step, row by row”
“Senate Republicans Delivered a Brutal Response to Democrats After the SAVE Act Vote”
Read things presented before it got the vote of
“The vote to advance the SAVE Act to a floor debate passed 51-48, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski crossing over to oppose the bill.”
“Senate Republicans Delivered a Brutal Response to Democrats After the SAVE Act Vote”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/josephchalfant/2026/03/17/senate-republicans-delivered-a-brutal-response-to-democrats-after-the-save-act-vote-n2673015
10
Back in the day, without any help from CO2, SST was warmer in the Great Australian Bight.
https://notrickszone.com/2026/03/18/new-research-south-australias-mid-holocene-sea-surface-temperatures-were-4c-warmer-than-today/
10
That paper suggests that the Earth had been cooling for the past 5000 years. It wasn’t just warmer on the Yorke peninsula. Higher sea levels point to a warmer Antarctica and Greenland.
I wonder what Rick Will can make of that?
10