JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Shakespeare’s Birthday today and St George’s Day.
40
Just back from naples. England looks glorious, full of blossom, cars that actually stop at pedestrian crossings and no graffiti, unlike naples.
Our fishing fleet locally is moored, it’s become to expensive to fish because of the price of diesel, no shortages but people are canceling overseas holidays and staying locally.
Unless Trump makes his move soon, the world economy will be seriously damaged.
91
Operation to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz is underway.
No one is saying how long it will take.
MV Touska (cargo) is drifting in the Gulf of Oman, with no engine and apparently not under command. Apparently its cargo was missile propellant, from China. Blockading Iranian shipping considered better than bombing but Iran not negotiating yet.
110
Missile propellant, aha, caught redhanded.
51
I usually don’t visit any of the you tube sites linked here so often, and I can’t explain (even to myself really) why I actually did click on this one. Probably because I had a brother, and then my son, both in the Navy, and both in the Clearance Diver Teams, (albeit thirty years apart) so, that (Mine clearance) being just one segment of the work they did as part of their jobs, there was an inkling of interest, as this particular video concerned the clearance of mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
So here’s the link to that video about mines in the Strait, and the methods now used by the USN to clear them.
In the old days, it was ‘men in the water’ as the only way, and now the USN do not put men in the water to do it, the only Navy on Earth that has the technology to do mine clearance without putting men’s lives at risk.
As ex Military myself, (25+ years in the RAAF) I perceived the video as perhaps a little over the top, but at least it offers a fairly close representation of what might be happening.
I cannot remember who it was that posted this video here at Joanne’s site, but I’d like to thank him.
I did send that link on to my son to watch, and although he’s not allowed (still, after all these years) to say anything about the work he did, (and that secrecy also applied to my brother as well, and that was back in the 70s) he, my son, was interested in these new methods. (My late younger brother with Timor in 1975, and my son in the first Gulf War, actually clearing mines in that same Gulf, and also at the Port of Um Qasr)
We have an awful lot to be thankful for when it comes to ‘the work’ our Military Services do on our behalf.
Tony.
140
Oh, and the anti mine ship, the LCS-30 USS Canberra shown is an aluminium Trimaran designed and commissioned here in Australia, and named in honour of the Cruiser HMAS Canberra.
Tony.
40
We do have much to be grateful for to our military. Just before I came here I was reading the UK Telegraph, sick at heart at the traitorous treatment of British servicemen, both in Iraq and further back, in Northern Ireland. They have been set up by the likes of Starmer’s mate Hermer; I won’t dignify them by adding an unearned ‘sir’.
We have the same sort of disgusting treatment being meted out to the military here too. The arrest of BRS at Sydney Airport was way beyond disgusting; words fail me.
St George’s Day today and ANZAC Day on Saturday.
120
I saw an estimate of 6 months…
10
‘Apparently its cargo was missile propellant, from China.[
You will need a verifiable link for that.
12
The reference was here;
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/04/china-caught-sending-nasty-gift-iran-massive-cargo/
Google AI also lists, metals, pipes and chemicals described as dual use ( civil and military).
10
Okay, thanks.
In the middle of hostilities this is unseemly.
‘John Phelan, the US Navy secretary, has been fired by Pete Hegseth, according to reports.
‘The Pentagon confirmed Mr Phelan has left his post after months of simmering tension with Mr Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, and senior military officials.
‘Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, announced the exit on X on Wednesday evening, saying Mr Phelan would be “departing the administration effective immediately”. (UK Tele)
22
Sounds more and more like Russia… I remember people on here being very scathing as Putin cleaned out the bum-warmers in the early days of war the with Ukraine.
Simplicious has a bit about Palintir’s Project Maven, very much spyware for sale, and it shows that NATO were doing all the spying, research and command for Ukraine from the first day of tanks crossing the border.
Very much a NATO war with Russia, just using Ukies as meat shields..
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/power-again-rebalanced-in-europe
23
The oil pipeline has been repaired and the 90 billion Euro released from a Brussels bank, its all going swimmingly.
The new PM has to settle things down, give the people a sense of stability and future prosperity
01
That’s just about the case in Australia too. Despite being surrounded by vast unpolluted oceans, Australia imports fish from filthy and polluted SE Asian fish farms.
Apart from the fuel prices, the regulations are also excessive.
But our pro-Chicomm government doesn’t mind giant Chicomm factory ships stripping the surrounding oceans bare.
210
And, for a few anniversaries:
Friday is Kapyong Day,
Saturday is ANZAC Day AND the 108th anniversary of the Australian victory at Villers-Bretonneaux.
Sunday 26 is Chernobyl Day.
Any advances?
40
Some readers are still experiencing April 22nd.
April 22, 1904: J. Robert Oppenheimer born.
April 23: World Book and Copyright Day.
April 25: World Malaria Day.
April 26: World Intellectual Property Day.
10
Happy St George’s Day!
I hope the present unpatriotic, wrecking government will be removed asap, somehow, and England become Merrie once more.
40
China unveils new car battery that can be charged in a few minutes.
If true it could be a game changer.
Anyone know more? Will fast charging ruin the battery? What capacity will it have? Does it use yet more rare earths?
https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-15754737/EV-battery-SIX-minute-charging.html
32
There are constantly claims of some new “revolutionary super battery”.
Let’s see if this is THE ONE.
But even if true, in domestically energy poor countries like Australia, it’s not clear where the electricity will come from. Certainly not wind and solar and they are shutting down the coal power stations and even destroying the mines (like Hazelwood) and nuclear is outlawed.
Also, energy poverty is bad enough, but if an EV can be charged in minutes, there will be massive and unsupported demands on the electricity grid to deliver huge power in a short time.
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But have they unveiled the “new connecting cable that allows that to happen”?
100
The one that’s as thick as a man’s wrist? Would be interesting to see the vehicle connecting plug and socket.
20
It has got myriads nano-holes which suck renewable electricity from atmosphere.
The faster you charge the more free electrify you get.
Made by public-gov venturi company
50
‘Made by public-gov venturi company”
That’s how the Govt sucks the public dry..
00
But have they unveiled the “new connecting cable that allows that to happen”?
Charging a standard range 50kWh auto battery in 6 minutes would require a 500kW+ power supply somewhere in reasonably close proximity to the vehicle – with consumer connections and requiring a no-fault load.
Shirley nothing could go wrong there.
60
It will and stop calling me Shirley.
20
I guess it would slightly change the game. People would be complaining about a different aspect of charging.
30
There have been suggestions that Supercaps are involved. I consider the use of them in large quantities even more dangerous than lithium batteries.
10
Some years back, when i was servicing “electronic arcade games” / pin-balls / juke boxes, for a “living”,I was present when an electrolytic Capacitor a bit bigger than a a beer-can, “unraveled” explosively in a “vintage video game under test.
Hell of a “BANG”, quite a mess, including the “mystery fog” in the workshop.
20
Have experienced a few going up at close quarters. One instantly metallised my glasses. I believe that when folks restore old radios, the first replace all electros before turning on the power.
00
French believe in “great replacement theory”.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/04/21/majority-of-french-think-country-experiencing-great-replacement-by-non-european-migrants/
This seems to be happening in many Western countries as the indigenous old die and incomers replace them.
Judging by the figures David posted yesterday this seems to also be true in OZ with around a million incomers from Asia and India coming over a year.
121
See; Jean Raspail’s “The Camp of the Saints” for a NOVEL that laid ALL of this out, way back in 1973.
A book savagely reviled by the “usual suspects”.
https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-camp-of-the-saints-jean-raspail/book/9798988739999.html
Almost surprised the “book burners” have not been busy. Maybe they have read Heinrich Heine; (Unlikely).
‘Wherever books are burned, men also, in the end, are burned’
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), was a journalist and essayist, with a penchant for poetry and was a leading figure in German Romanticism.
As Ray Bradbury, author of “Fahrenheit 451”, noted:
‘You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.’
60
Quote from Neil Postman:
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Does this Postman always ring TWICE???
00
Australia, being now a domestically energy poor country has largely deindustrialised with ongoing closures of the last remaining industries.
Theoretically, Australia could emulate the example of other resource-poor but human-resources-rich countries like Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and Tawain and become an innovator.
But is this even possible with so many impediments to doing business in Australia, apart from energy poverty?
We are not importing anyone with skills, only future Labor voters, and the universities are thoroughly dumbed-down with little focus on genuine scholarship in sciences and engineering, rather producing people with useless degrees in “critical theory” or “feminist studies” etc. and expensive but impossible-to-fail degrees for rich overseas students.
Apart from becoming a nation of coffee shops, which seems to be our only growth industry what is Australia to do with no energy and no clue?
150
And even the growth industry of coffee shops is now failing, apparently people that would buy coffee on a daily basis are now having second thoughts as the cost of fuel to drive to the shop has impacted their ability to spend on “service industries”
50
Here in the UK, we have a considerable growth industry in Turkish Barber shops [Some possibly Kurdish, I am told].
Young men, of Turkic appearance, sit round much of the day – they do get a few customers, I gather.
Whilst I do not wish to tar all such establishments with the same brush, I have noted reports recently of several raids on some of their number. Supposedly for Immigration; money laundering; drug distribution; and prostitution; reports of ‘holding’ firearms are few.
Perhaps also other matters of interest to our constabulary.
In my modest ‘town’, within the M25, in London, we have at least 5 Turkish Barber shops.
And one, surviving, long established [non-Turkish] barber shop.
We also have a lot of vape shops [employing a wide variety of staff, mostly non-European in appearance, some raided for also selling non-approved vapes], and several ‘Nail Bars’, which appear to employ exclusively Asian origin staff.
Coming soon to a settlement near you … employment for, er, some!
I am not clear what we Brits can do when all our industries have closed – work for the Civil Service, collecting and ‘sharing’ taxes, I guess…
Auto – Happy St. George’s Day!
And, right on cue – BBC leads with this: –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62l429w2pko
“High Street mini-marts selling cocaine, cannabis and prescription drugs, BBC secret filming reveals”
But we ALL know about it.
Part of a campaign by the BBC – exposees – to show ‘We are doing a useful service’.
Nothing to do with th forthcoming renegotiation of their charter.
10
So the ABC reports that some suburbs don’t have enough electricity to run their homes.The have drunk the cool aid and have electrified everything in their home, dumping gas. Now they find they can only run one induction hot plate, their hot water won’t heat, their everything charger cuts out, their ac won’t run to warm their house. The current infrastructure is not suitable for increasing demand. unicorn farts and rainbows just are not enough for a modern society. I was asked to disconnect my gas by my provider, because it was bad for the environment. theyd give me nearly $300 to do so. ok so where was i to find the $ to replace my gas stove and water heater? yeah subsidised but I’ll still be out of pocket. I’ve been forcibly retired so I just don’t have the spare cash to electrify and I won’t anyway. when the power fails I’ll still be able to cook, heat the house and have a hot shower. oh, the energy provider that asked me to disconnect my gas, we’ll I disconnected from them, found someone cheaper and not so green.
171
That’s only the beginning.
BTW, in a suburb near me there are too many EVs in one street and they depress the grid voltage if they all charge at the same time, I assume it’s worse on a windless night.
It’s stupid to be driving EVs in an energy poor country like Australia. Wind and solar should be rationed for more important domestic and business requirements.
110
If you do the sums, Australia currently gets less than 5% of its energy from wind and solar. You will see figures claiming more than half but that only relates to the electricity supply and includes hydroelectric power that has been part of the grid for decades.
So there has already been a king’s ransom spent on wind, solar and batteries to get to almost 5%. The prospect of getting it higher than 5% within the next decade is not good.
There is not much point owning a BEV in Australia if you do not have a lot of rooftop solar and a large battery. The ever rising cost of grid electricity will make them a very expensive option compared with a hybrid. Public charging stations are already up to 50c/kWh. That cost for electricity into a BEV is equivalent to $2/l for gasoline into a hybrid.
80
Victoria does it again… And maybe more surprisingly, the ABC has found out.
” First, Ms Slako noticed she could only use one hotplate at a time on her induction cooktop. Then she found the microwave would not heat food at dinnertime, but would burn everything at other times.
This month, she discovered her split system would not heat the house. ”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-22/victoria-undervoltage-melbourne-gas-electricity/106588882
Cheers,
Dave B
70
FWIW
“SERIOUSLY, WOULD ANYONE TRUST THESE DRONGOS TO RUN A CHOOK RAFFLE?”
https://richardsonpost.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image-18.png
https://richardsonpost.com.au/cliff-reece/42104/seriously-would-anyone-trust-these-drongos-to-run-a-chook-raffle/
And then
“Secret ‘Kuwait of Australia’ fuel-rich claim revealed in tiny town”
In yesterday’s Courier Mail on-line
https://www.realcommercial.com.au/news/secret-kuwait-of-australia-fuelrich-claim-revealed-in-tiny-town?campaignType=external&campaignChannel=syndication&campaignName=ncacont&campaignContent=&campaignSource=the_courier_mail&campaignPlacement=spa
What odds of making a “fuster” of that?
60
FWIW – for the covid files
“A Reckoning Is Underway At The FDA”
“For months, a quiet battle has been unfolding inside the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”
“It began with an analysis of child deaths after Covid vaccination, followed by strategic leaks to major media outlets, and has now erupted into the open with a memo from the regulator’s own vaccine chief.
In September, it was reported that FDA officials had privately investigated 25 paediatric deaths following Covid vaccination — the first systematic review of such cases since the rollout began.
The findings were meant to be presented to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). But the presentation never came. The meeting passed without a word. Something had happened behind closed doors.
Now we know what.
On 13 November 2025, STAT published an extraordinary insider account describing a tense internal meeting in which FDA scientist Dr Tracy Beth Høeg presented evidence of young people who had died after Covid vaccination.
According to STAT, her findings triggered pushback from career FDA regulators who feared the implications of acknowledging fatal cases.”
More at
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/reckoning-underway-fda
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These truths are moving outward very, very slowly because the majority of media outlets themselves supported the lies and persecuted those who didn’t want the jab. Thus implicated in the whole scam, they will be reluctant to help the big reveal, instead either slowing it down, ignoring it or spinning it to make it seem less damning, e.g. continuing the ‘very rare side effects’ conspiracy.
Likewise, current governments will be loathe to join the movement, for the same reasons – they’re not going to confess their mistakes.
So ‘the truth’ will not be allowed to spread quickly but will be suppressed until those boardrooms and news desks have new incumbents, perhaps another ten or twenty years from now when it will all be ‘shocking news’.
41
FWIW
“Medicine, health and gender ideology
I hadn’t realized how endemic the gender apocalypse had become in the health care (?) industry until I read this article.”
More at
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/04/medicine-health-and-gender-ideology.html
10
More covid scene
“DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: The February Call, and Everything Downstream.”
“Four pieces, published together. Read in order.
I’m publishing four pieces today instead of one. They make a single argument across four moves, and I don’t want the moves absorbed separately.
The order matters.
Piece 1 is the wound. Piece 2 is the predicate the wound rests on. Piece 3 closes the philosophical exit the managed response is already reaching for. Piece 4 explains why the decision in piece 2 was structurally predictable without absolving the people who made it.
Read them in order.
1. I’ll Forgive The First Eighteen Months
What was done. I forgive the first eighteen months of the COVID response because March 2020 was a real emergency and the Captain Trips scenario was live. September 2021 is where my forgiveness ends and my ledger opens. By that date the apparatus had the IFR stratification, the myocarditis signal, and Pfizer’s own biodistribution filing. They mandated anyway. Fired nurses anyway. Mandated healthy 18-year-old soldiers anyway. Recommended it for children anyway.”
More at
https://markatwood.substack.com/p/the-february-call-and-everything
Via https://instapundit.com/791658/#disqus_thread
40
Sure, but remember all those who refused the vaccine did so from the very start, for good reasons. For me, if people with little or no pharma/medical knowledge recognised the danger, or at least had serious reservations, others with more knowledge should have been concerned too, and at the very least allowed a conversation to happen.
It still alarms me to recall how rapidly governments, health experts and the media got on board, without having any apparent doubts. The whole totalitarian nature of the thing was unprecedented.
90
I believe the linked chart shows the reason why AR7 will not materialise:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/OHHC_Net_Departure-1776894380.9131.png
The ocean heat accumulation in the SH is close to going negative. A negative heat gain translates to heat loss. On present trend, heat loss in oceans of the SH will occur before 2030.
40
Maybe, it depends on marine heatwaves.
https://classic.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=-46.92,-35.61,592/loc=-93.653,-41.218
03
FWIW
“UK Food Supply Peril, EU Legard Hints at Rationing”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2026/04/22/uk-food-supply-peril-eu-legard-hints-at-rationing/
And the first comment
“More on the loss of oil and via that the loss of Nitrogen Fertilizers.”
20
I wouldn’t be able to stand watching it, but I wonder if Legard was talking about the UK rationing food… Nothing to do with her, what happened to Brexit?
As for “so just eat the grains instead of the meat for a little while..”.. no, just pick up the rifle and walk down the back paddock at night. There’s more wild meat in Aussie than what we can eat.
00
no, just pick up the rifle and walk down the back paddock at night. There’s more wild meat in Aussie than what we can eat.
Two problems with that.
1 -We lack access to government certified abattoirs which are required to ensure that the meat we eat is “safe”
2- The governments ensure that hungry people do not / will not have access to fire arms. And the few that do have access are limited where and what they are permitted to shoot.
00
Re oil transport in the first comment there
“ALL the ships that ought to be bound toward the Persian Gulf for oil are being redirected toward the USA instead – double the distance, double the time, so half the capacity per unit time; half as much oil hauled per month.”
00
Laissez-faire capitalism.
‘US has total oil products production equal to Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. The US exported over 5 million barrels of oil per day last week, a record high, amid the Iran War.
‘In aggregate, the US exported a record 12.7 million barrels of crude oil and refined products per day last week.’
00
FWIW
“Miliband Doubles Down on Net Zero”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/04/22/miliband-doubles-down-on-net-zero/
I guess “ElBowen” will claim that as a vote of confidence?
00
Oh to live in Oz where anyone who stands out is subject to extreme scrutiny and must be brought to heel.
Read this mans achievements and weep. A system that cannot adjust for any reason, least of all successful ones.
Charlie Teo to be banned from practising medicine in Australia
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/final-nail-in-the-coffinteo-facing-cruel-permanent-ban-from-practising-medicine-in-australia-china-baffled-by-decision/news-story/5625ea7dc839e39c3da9a6a8a8d0e76c
50
Another nail in the coffin of the medical establishment.
Ben Roberts Smith is another guy who just seemed to get on the wrong side of the wrong people and now they won’t leave him alone.
70
“And those Australian rules said that I couldn’t even propose or recommend surgery, even if the Australian Guidelines stated clearly that surgery was indicated, even if I thought it was appropriate and even if I thought the patient needed that to save their lives. ”
The establishment would rather see people die than lose their grip on their members. So he ends up taking his talents to China, where.. “political correctness is not a priority – or as he puts it, his colleagues abroad “don’t understand this whole concept of sucking d*ck”.”
Another case of Prof Borody and his Covid cure using Ivermectin, or no heart surgery for you until you get jabbed…
10
FWIW
“The King and His Subjects
Mark Steyn from Steyn Online 1:00 PM | April 22, 2026”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2026/04/22/the-king-and-his-subjects-n3814142
10
I know someone who is a former IT suppport person but permanently retired at a relatively young age due to a mental health issue. He is now in receipt of a disability pension and NDIS. He told me how his house gets cleaned courtesy of NDIS, one of Australia’s biggest scams apart from “renewables” and nearly any Government construction or other project.
I asked how long do they clean for and how much do they cost. He said 1.5 hrs for $150.
I said to him, he’s not physically disabled, why doesn’t he do it himself. He told me he’s too lazy and that’s what NDIS is for anyway…
Gulag AI tells me the going rate for regular house cleaning in Melbourne is $35 to $45 per hour by professional firms (i.e. no cash payments which many people do for this kind of service).
NDIS is such a huge scam that even some of the Labor Party agree that it is although I doubt they’ll take any effective measures.
Don’t forget the Liberal Party voted for the NDIS scheme, as did, I’m sad to say, One Nation.
NDIS is a disaster, as totally predicted at the time.
80
Everyone who spent decades in IT knows what it does to you.
10
This tends to be why smaller retailers and even motels cannot get staff. Women would have done these jobs except that they can now register with an NDIS provider and do cleaning jobs for $80/ hr instead of $40. The provider of course gets money for “ providing”.
10
FWIW
“A Jihadi Stabs a Soldier for Allah, and Doctors Come Up With a Remarkable Cure for What Ails Him”
https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2026/04/22/a-jihadi-stabs-a-soldier-for-allah-and-doctors-come-up-with-a-remarkable-cure-for-what-ails-him-n4952067
30
Best discussion yet re Iran.
Summary: All good. Globally, things are looking up.
Joaquin Flores and Steven Khun on CryptoRich – 23 April 2026
Titled: London Panics: Trump’s Controlled Burn: Iran Becomes A Dollar Weapon.
.
[Link added https://youtu.be/rocyps5Xmo0?si=sxXSxKf-q6FgtsgI
Hope it’s the right one. – Raquel.]
10
1h 8m 4secs
I think I can miss this.
00
The SPLC indicted on multiple charges. Seems they have been caught funding the KKK et al. Nothing like having a funded hate group to justify your own anti-hate fund raising.
There is still the FBI and CIA to go.
30
Well, the SPLC is run by Democrats.
The KKK was effectively the original military arm of the DemoKKKrat Party before they started using the racist and antisemitic* black shirts of Antifa as their military/terrorist arm in modern times. It’s no surprise they would be funding their original military supporters. [The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups dedicated much of their efforts to keeping white Democrats in the majority, and getting rid of anyone who they perceived as a threat to that goal, whether they be black or white. https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/exhibits/show/kkk-methods/background/background ]
Republicans voted to abolish slavery. Dems voted to keep it. [In 1864/5 almost all Republicans voted in favor of the 13th Amendment, while the majority of Democrats voted against it.]
Republicans voted to give blacks the vote. Dems voted against that. [For the 1870 ratification of the 15th Amendment in the House of Representatives 144 Republicans voted to approve, with zero Democrats in favor, 39 no votes, and seven abstentions. In the Senate, 33 Republicans voted to approve, again with zero Democrats in favor.]
Republicans passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Southern Dems opposed it. [House of Representatives: 80% of Republicans (138-34) voted in favor, compared to 63% of Democrats (152-96). Senate: 82% of Republicans voted in favor, compared to 69% of Democrats. For Southern Dems: House Southern Democrats: 8 “Yes” – 83 “No”, Senate Southern Democrats: 1 “Yes” – 20 “No”.]
The first black Republican was voted to the US Senate in 1871. The first Dem senator was not elected until 1993.
The first 22 blacks elected to the US House were all Republicans.
Martin Luther King Sr was a Republican.
Martin Luther King Jr was an independent.
Jim Crow was a Democrat.
Abe Lincoln was a Republican.
After slavery was abolished in the US the Democrats turned black people into “voting slaves” rather than plantation slaves by keeping them poor and then offering welfare and dependency to “solve” the poverty problem in return for votes, not strong economic policies like TRUMP, for example, who has created significant black employment and reduced poverty rates.
* https://spectator.com/article/why-do-some-anti-fascists-have-a-problem-with-jews/
30
Just reading an article on anti smoking legislation in the UK, which contained this paragraph.
Smoking, which remains the UK’s leading cause of preventable death and disability, causes around 75,000 deaths per year and is responsible for a quarter of all deaths in the country.”
UK has just under 600,000 deaths per annum. A quarter of 600k is not 75k. This sort of lazy journalism just growing numbers at a story is annoying. It lines up with the general lack of numeracy when discussing energy and “renewables” apart from Liam Bartlett.
60
It’s either poor numeracy or the word cancer is missing from that sentence.
The sentence would be correct if “cancer” was inserted so it reads as, “and is responsible for a quarter of all cancer deaths in the country.”
I suppose better numeracy skills and a critical eye would have alerted them to the word missing, or that there was a mixing up of the stat.
90
Smoking causes non-cancer deaths too
25
Didn’t say or even suggest it doesn’t.
But stats show that smoking related cancer deaths are 25% of cancer deaths in the UK.
And we know that smoking deaths are not 25% of deaths in the UK. Per the 75k smoking caused deaths out of 600k deaths total. Yarpos’ point.
I was simply speculating how the journalist might have erred with stats and statements. One word would have made all the difference.
100
Smokers are the only ones who pre-pay their hospital stay, and they are gypped their share of the aged pension pool by dying early.
Of course it’s dumb, but so are many things.
40
Does government demonstrate actual concern for people’s lives, or virtue signaling about behavior for the purpose of political manipulation or the benefit of one industrial donor base or another?
I figure if your reading this blog you know the answer.
‘Public Health’ and ‘non-profit advocacy’ have become joke memes.
Here in the US, the Southern Poverty Law Center* (non-profit/sarc), which proports to fight ‘white supremacy’ has just been indicted for having white supremacists on their payroll.
In particular the leader of ‘Unite the Right’ in Charlottesville.
(I always wondered where they got 400 matching bamboo patio tiki torches.)
*As an American Southerner it has always amused me that the Southern Poverty Law Center types seem to think that the only poor people in the South are black.
Historical note: I’ve met Morris Dees founder of SPLC. My impression was positive. He was ousted and I think I know why. It’s the industrial political radicalization of good doing as good doing has become corrupt, functioning often as the employer of last resort for the dysfunctional offspring of the ever growing richer educated managerial elite.
Twas’ what bought us the Reformation.
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“Lazy Journalism”
I’m a bit fascinated why puff pieces on any subject have multiply journalists credited, and they still have spelling mistakes and the wrong words for the subject ( think whether, weather etc) I only read News.com on line cause its free however I don’t believe any of the subscribed outlets are any better. The daily 10 to 15 line diatribe about how Trump has failed, been defeated, misunderstood etc without any supporting argument is just the easiest example but it runs across all topics. Melbourne crime is reported daily, no in depth questions, no challenging the government position. Even though I am old, with sight that is no longer 20/20 I can see through this crap like its glass,
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Preppers note, another thing to add to your list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjZGtgERtd8
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FWIW
”
“On Earth Day: Oysters With STDs, Witch Executions, and How More and Fewer Clouds Are Good and Bad News”
“As we complete another solar lap, today is Earth Day, which means one thing: WE ARE DOOMED!
Let’s face it: After generations of a promised cataclysm, saying “Happy Earth Day” seems far out of place; good luck finding anyone even remotely attached to environmentalism being anything remotely close to happy.
We have been conditioned for generations now that we are on the brink of planetary annihilation, at least according to alleged adherents to science. Somehow, mankind will kill off the billions-of-years-old Earth, even though we have been on this rock for a minuscule fraction of a percentage of that time. But good news, it will only take us drastically altering our lifestyles, regressing to primitive standards, and throwing off vast fortunes into “programs” in order to save the planet.
While I allow that I may be a harsh cynic, there are issues to be found in the messaging from the soup-tossers coating cherished artworks in the name of the planet. For instance, not terribly long ago, if anyone was heard uttering words aligned with lectures from the environmental movement, such as “I can control the weather!” we would be tossing them into mental institutions for observation. Today, they sound very much like the tribal leaders tossing virgins into volcanoes.
Still, these voices are trotted out as “experts,” and we are to heed their directives as they declare that “the science is settled,” all because “there is scientific consensus” about global warming. That is, um, climate change. Well, actually, it is a Climate Crisis now. But be assured, every scientist agrees — they just do not agree on what to call it.
Welllllll — in actuality, it is really more the consensus of the media covering the scientific community — but this is serious stuff! So long as you don’t analyze their claims, that is. This is because in the mad rush to report on anything and everything that can be connected to planetary calamity, the people who tell us to follow the science never manage to actually do the research.”
More at
https://redstate.com/bradslager/2026/04/22/on-earth-day-oysters-with-stds-witch-executions-and-how-more-and-fewer-clouds-are-good-and-bad-news-n2201576
And at https://instapundit.com/791916/#disqus_thread
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And the video there –
Example – “Carr: You know what the biggest industry in the world was in 1903?”
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Nicola Scafetta has a new book out.
https://judithcurry.com/2026/03/10/rethinking-climate-change/
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FWIW
“Masters of the Obvious
and incompetents at everything else.”
Both of them are massive failures to do the job they’re paid to do, but is it worse to “discover” some fact that anyone with the brains the Gods gave to geese knows without thinking? Or to report as fact things that are completely wrong?
That’s the discussion for today. Pull up a seat, dinner tonight is whatever the VFW is feeding after the business meeting, you know where the drinks are, grab something, and please don’t forget the tip jar where we collect for the mess.
The “Getting it massively wrong” side of the coin does more damage of course, to the people (an ever-diminishing pool mind you) that actually believe what these idiots are saying, but the stuff in “well DUH” territory enables the getting it wrong reports.
I’ll explain (probably mansplaining here, sorry):”
More at
https://wlehman.substack.com/p/masters-of-the-obvious?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Via https://instapundit.com/791919/#disqus_thread
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The End of the World (c) Moonbat
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/23/catastrophic-climate-event-scientists-atlantic-system-collapse-billionaire-existential-crisis
A link to a Guardian article by one G. Monbiot.
Dripping his envy from every sentence – and not without errors; and quoting Rahmstorf, who appears to be paid to curdle the blood.
Oh, and bad-mouths William Nordhaus, a Noble Laureate …
I’ve read it, so you don’t need to.
Happy St. George’s Day!
Auto, in England
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But, as Sidney Hook said,
“What did Bertrand Russell believe? You tell me the year and I’ll tell you what he believed”
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