JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
No comments yet? Is everyone watching the World Cup? Or is interest in tracking renewable fantasies decreasing?
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Some of us have work to do! Vet coming this morning to do some hoof trimming for a couple of elderly cows. It is lightly raining and have to do preparation work. Not pleasant. Cheers.
140
Rain? Here too this morning. With promise of more.
Which will be the fourth useful fall in about six weeks. The countryside will be a picture, and, I am told, already is to our near south
But yesterday I heard the BOM has declared an El Nino!
Meanwhile, I fear I have lost the battle of the App Upgrades and the New Passwords, passkeys, Passcodes, Pass****** or whatever..
Trying to fend off deteriorating eyesight, I swallowed the propaganda and bought a 15″ MacBook Air sight unseen. It is no Air, it is a monster. I wish I had bought iPad. And the touchpad does not work for me
50
Vicki and gentlemen,
re: Record Levels.., by Jo
I do not know how you personally Waste Time.
When Mr & Mrs Vlad can not see big screen anymore we do Wordle or Qwordle.
Maybe, you do not have time to waste…
However, I wonder if you, scientifically inclined lot, would think of an Energy Wasting Machine which could legally and cheaply burn energy.
There seem to be money laying on the floor waiting for a smart engineers to be picked up.
Sure, I do not exclude batteries or flywheels but that avenue must’ve been already done to death at by CSIROs of this world.
I meant a modest gizmo bringing traditional 15% annually to brave SMSF members while they are doing their Qwordles.
21
Vlad, yes! There are, and I can’t understand why they have not flooded the market without any help from you or me. e.g.:
1. All over the place we see gymnasiums full of machines designed to waste energy. Why not save that energy for future use? It would cost little more than the batteries.
2. EVs are built on the same pattern as ICE vehicles. All the problems that I see with EVS are with the batteries. so design your vehicles to use swappable batteries. That would alleviate many of the problems.
10
Where is everybody? Normally several comments by this time.
Perhaps that it was only 6 degrees at 6 (local time) this morning.
30
We were in “glorious blackness”.
Power outage report “Due to third party contact with powerlines. Restoration time unknown. Next update at 10:00 AM”.
They did better than that though.
20
In the spirit of “The Agony and the Ecstasy”
When we make a call like that we are dealing with “The Ergony”
00
DM sleeping in? 😁
20
Beat me, Stuart. Just.
I wonder how long it will take for Climate “Scientists” to realise that this planet they are on, has lots of liquid water?
40
Lots and lots of liquid water. And even more now all the ice at the poles has melted never to return.
Oh wait.
80
Ships moving in the Strait of Hormuz
Marine traffic shows more ship movements through the strait of Hormuz. Not as many oil tankers as I expected moving yet.
Surprisingly there seem to be more ships than ever in the Persian gulf. Maybe they have had their transponders switched off until now.
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https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:56.3/centery:26.2/zoom:7
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Why is a body of water so bent and crooked called a ‘Strait’.
As shipping is so ‘dirty’, and there’s been a C0V!D-like shutdown of shipping in the Gulf (and the ‘Strait’) surely CARBON levels have plummeted, saving the planet™️, except for all the bombers & jets & transport planes (and private jets toing’n’froing) which will more than compensate.
The ‘Strait’ is OPEN again? Ladies & gentlemen, start your engines, the race is about to – – –
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Why does your nose run and your feet smell….lol
30
It’s a complicated combination of commercial, legal and insurance issues, moving a vessel in waters that are still mined and transited by other vessels with their AIS switched off or spoofing – and where the vessel itself may have degraded its own compliance.
“Gentlemen. Start your engines” was announced by someone not fully across the details. Or aware of them.
Kpler explains.
https://www.kpler.com/blog/hormuz-risk-question-has-changed-compliance-frameworks-havent-caught-up
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As one who has come to dislike the concept of insurance (seeking too much control, looking after themselves first) I wonder if some of the Hormuz shippers are feeling unwanted pain. Geoff S
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SometImes I used to think if the insurance companies can make money out of insuring me, then I should be able to make money out of insuring me.
This applied especially where some people didn’t work overtime at harvest time.
20
It’s amusing to read all the “news” about “deals” and resumed shipping.
Even sites like Zerohedge, which are way ahead of the MSM, haven’t mentioned even ONE of the myriad of problems with the situation.
Hull foulings, stock degradation and secondary processing needed, narrow exit passageway (the channel that isn’t mined), increased transit times, destination port and distribution synchronisation, production restarts etc.
Notably the bombing in Lebanon hasn’t stopped. A deal breaker.
Iran cancels Switzerland deal trip.
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202606189569
If only renewables could replace oil.
Who won the war?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran_war
30
I wonder our Prime idiot and his band of flunkies will now loose focus on fuel security and just kick the can down the road yet again.
21
BOM said warmer wetter winter. I will give them warmer , we have had very few real winter days. Rain is still running 200% + year to date over last year.
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You must be misreading something, after all Tim Mammery, said it would never rain again
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Well it must be not raining (or snowing) somewhere……
Did Tim move to the Atacama Desert?
10
When is a drought not a drought? When it’s a draught under your door or in your glass.
As we say over here: It’s been a mixed bag. Lots of early snow in Feb/Mar/Apr down south then nothing, just big happy highs with calm clear weather (and the ‘odd passing shower’). Mild, gentle, pleasant are words I’d use to describe our apparent ‘climate crisis’ and if the tooth be known, I’m quite happy with that.
Shortest day this Sunday 21 June, with high tide bang-on midday, perfect for a mid-winter dip in the briny 🥶 If only the oceans were boiling…
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The reason for the unseasonable warmth.
‘A persistent ridge of high pressure situated further south than usual for this time of year has blocked significant outbreaks of polar air from reaching southern Australia, apart from one brief system in the first few days of June.
‘The position of the highs has enabled air with tropical origins to stream southwards from the Indian Ocean, with a series of northwest cloudbands crossing the country.’ (Weatherzone)
11
Very chilly in Perth this week!
30
Then it’ll be warm again.
‘Weather whiplash is the phenomenon of rapid swings between extremes in weather, which most scientists argue is caused by climate change.’ (wiki)
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“Just you wait till next week” Weatherzone.
20
When winter officially begins.
20
Blocking high pressure is a universal phenomenon which requires the assistance of grok. Why is it so?
11
Counting is underway in the UK by-elections. Looking like Starmer’s replacement is on his way – at least by the way betting markets have moved. On BetFred Burnham is still an unbackable favourite.
Early reports suggest that, despite Restore Britain on the margin, Reform is likely to be a strong second place. Which gets you nowhere in a FPP election, but is a significant bellwether in a traditionally hard left seat with a celebrity candidate.
70
I love Sting’s music but I wonder if he matured since
Good baritone V Russlanov preformed an answer (or was it vice-versa?) Do The Russians Want War?
and you do not need English subtitles.
I can stick my doubts into … The reputable Levada opinion poll says 72% “supported the actions of the Russian armed forces”, but 67% said “Russia should move to peace negotiations with Ukraine”
10
I once believed Sting and that message. I was once naive.
30
Dear moderates, what has happened to my not?
11
FWIW
“Meet Tessa Khan, the Climate Activist-Litigator Waging War on North Sea Oil and Gas”
“There is a peculiar growth industry that has flourished in the green movement: the professional climate litigator. Funded by an interlocking web of American and European philanthropic foundations, staffed by lawyers with no grounding in economics, energy engineering, or the lived realities of working people dependent on affordable power, this industry pursues a singular goal – to achieve through the courts what democratic electorates have repeatedly declined to endorse via the ballot box. Nowhere is this enterprise more vividly embodied than in the career of Tessa Khan.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/18/meet-tessa-khan-the-climate-activist-litigator-waging-war-on-north-sea-oil-and-gas/
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FWIW
Coffee and Covid looks at the US-Iran MOU
“ood morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Your roundup includes: Gas prices plummet as President Trump inks Iran deal early, and critics pounce— not on the terms in the deal, but on all the ones critics think should have been in it; negotiations continue, and we see the deal isn’t really final yet; the U.S. could restart hostilities right after the midterms; ”
More there.
And
“New study on remote work from home proves the experts gizzled us again with bad advice and failure to tell us about the real risks;”
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/deals-and-leverage-thursday-june?
40
And
“Why Trump Signed the MOU — and What’s Going to Happen When All That Iranian Oil Hits the Marketplace”
https://pjmedia.com/scott-pinsker/2026/06/18/why-trump-signed-the-mou-and-whats-going-to-happen-when-all-that-iranian-oil-hits-the-marketplace-n4954109
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WOW! A positive post about Trump and Iran. KP may have read that and had a heart att@ck so the board is quiet.
21
He’ll be happy that 2017 took nine years to return
21
Trump rushed the MOU through as he apparently didn’t know about the world going off the energy cliff in a month’s time.
How could he NOT know???
He must watch CNN.😎
10
A good read and this caught my eye … Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism”, which is outside the political culture and unAmerican.
00
Nah, nobody believes this is the end of it! What would America do without countries it can call enemies?
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Yea, You’re a nobody.
12
This is the beginning of the end.
‘The unexpected release of a former Iranian prime minister from nearly two decades of house arrest has led to speculation Tehran may be testing a post-war reordering of power.’ (Oz)
00
The MOU is a positive first step towards normalisation. Iran is a capitalist theocracy, beastly to its own people, but they might also be swayed to smell reality.
00
Well! Didn’t take long
“Iran Cancels Switzerland Talks”
More at
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/06/19/iran-cancels-switzerland-talks-n3816102
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“Duck’s off, sorry!” Redux 😎
00
There are videos of mantis shrimp attacking clams showing in my feed. I asked if they also attack COT starfish and the answer was “No” but the harlequin shrimp and conch shells do.
I remember Dr Robert Endean [dead 29 yrs ago] mentioning the conch and the painted shrimp so I asked about the painted shrimp. The answer:
I never knew how a shrimp could kill COT.
31
“I never knew how a shrimp could kill COT.”
..and in quite a nasty way! Gang up on it, throw it over on its back and hold it down to eat the soft bits while it struggles!
10
One immigrant per minute arrived in Australia in 2025, new data shows
One immigrant per minute arrived in Australia in 2025, new official data shows, and migration was responsible for 73% of the annual population growth.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday showed there were 563,500 overseas migration arrivals during the 2025 calendar year, 32,300 (5.4%) fewer than in 2024.
“Labor has been told many times that its migration settings have been unsustainable. But it has ignored that advice, lost control of the system, and every new release of data confirms the same problem.”
SPA spokesperson Michael Bayliss said Labor had “lost all control” of immigration and appeared to be “operating in a state of delusion”.
https://www.noticer.news/one-immigrant-per-minute-arrived-in-australia-2025/
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Over the coming years it will hovver around 185,000 annually.
https://ethosmigration.com.au/australias-migration-program-planning-levels-explained-2026-27/
03
Note How Governments Shaped Immigration
https://immitrack.com.au
10
FWIW – latest Kunstler
“Monsters Far and Near
“We used to say that we don’t know what 2050 will look like. Now it’s more like we don’t know what 2030 will look like.” —Jesus Enrique Rosas”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/monsters-far-and-near
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” that is, a full card of tattoo-bedizend savages beating the crap out of each other UFC style, like it was a Hooters parking lot on wife-swap night. . . why, it just doesn’t get more surreal than that. ”
Well! There’s a vision or two!
“Imagine what Victoria Nuland, Robert Reich, George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Warren, and other good folks of that ilk must be thinking. The. . . (Sputter sputter) indelicacy of it all!…Like their whole world had turned out to be the meanest, lowest, most sordid backwater of the Marvel Comics universe where no one has ever heard of Chardonnay. ”
Pretty well sums up the difference between inter-generational political families and Trump! He’s not in their club and his club is getting pretty popular with the peasants..
10
So, the betting markets were accurate, a comfortable win for Burnham in the Makerfield by-election.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c3928mlyle8t
The clock is ticking down for Starmer’s dismal PMship. To be replaced by a lefty populist promising more and better redistribution of rapidly shrinking supplies of OPM.
20
You believe the bbc??? I wont believe it unless it comes from a free thinker on YouTube.
12
0% free thinkers by 2050. 🤭
10
Unless Australian life expectancy suddenly well exceeds 100 years?
00
Interesting: Labour chooses its leader using a preferential system (obviously with more than 2 candidates).
10
FWIW
One way of looking at the situation in UK
“Maybe the real reason for the social media ban for children in Britain is to stop girls from speaking out and telling their story about the grooming gangs?”
https://x.com/PeterSweden7/status/2067714915117244513
Correct.
They will let Mulsim migrants gang rape the girls, block everyone in the government from helping them, and finally block them from sharing their stories publicly.
It’s vast evil.
And it’s deliberate.”
https://x.com/mattvanswol/status/2067788373821927709
Via https://instapundit.com/804771/#disqus_thread
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The real reason is the ban is the same reason it was done in Australia …. to force digital ID on everyone and take the first step towards a Chinese-style social credit system.
20
Starmer meme for the day
https://imgbox.com/nt4ecAZh
😆
20
FWIW
“19% of Low Income Australians are Eating from Trash Cans – the True Cost of Net Zero”
“According to the Salvation Army, just under one in five Australians who sought emergency relief admitted to scavenging discarded food from trash cans.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/18/19-of-low-income-australians-have-eaten-from-trash-cans-the-true-cost-of-net-zero/
00
Some of us just limit ourselves to the grocery “mark down” or “expiring today” items.
A reason to not shop online?
10
I’d wager a number higher than 19% also have used services like Doordash and Grubhub to deliver restaurant food to them, and subscribe to multiple online entertainment services, and use Uber and other rideshare services to get around.
A lot of modern cost-of-living problems could be solved by living a more frugal lifestyle. Eat a Vegemite sandwich and read a library book rather than spending $50 on having a meal delivered and surfing Netflix on your phone. And when you need to get somewhere, take a bus or … walk.
30
FWIW
“Guardian: Climate Action is a Priority for Trump Supporters”
“… The 2024 election was not a referendum on climate change – Americans believe in climate change, worry about climate change and support action on climate change …”
Conclusion drawn by reviewer –
“I think get it – believers in the “everyone wants climate action” theory think the reason voters elected President Trump in 2024 is they hate his climate policies.
But you would expect an active imagination from people who think we’re in the midst of a climate crisis.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/18/guardian-climate-action-is-a-priority-for-trump-supporters/
20
And
“Bias in Scientific Journals”
“A report has just been published by Springer Nature (the company that publishes Nature scientific journal among others), on a global survey of perceived bias in scholarly publishing:
Perceptions of fairness and bias in the scholarly publishing ecosystem: a global survey
In 2024, they invited submissions from researchers and received 11,866 responses, of which they analysed 8,485. They explain the use of a survey of perception rather than of empirical data: “Bias can be challenging to demonstrate empirically, so this report focuses on perceptions and personal experiences.“. ”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/18/bias-in-scientific-journals/
Note the opening cartoon
10
” June 23 Falcon 9 • Starfall Demo
Launch time: Window opens at 6:43 a.m. EDT (1043 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida ”
A re-entry vehicle for bringing freight back from space, a hollow disc 3M in diameter and 750mm deep, it has its own thrusters and disposable heatshield, coming down on parachutes once the heatshield is jettisoned.
If you want something bought back physically from your spy satellite, rather than risking hacking on radio wavelengths, this is for you!
Maybe even a lifeboat for your space station, for passengers able to withstand high-G re-entry.
Never let it be said that Musk rests on his laurels!
00
..and if you have a lot of time on your hands, here’s the other Starfall… Sam Starfall, the only sqid to get off his planet… nearly 30years ago!
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff100/fv00001.htm
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Putin should be suing for peace, but instead he draws a red line.
‘The Kremlin today threatened ‘nuclear strikes with catastrophic consequences’ if the West refuses to kowtow to Vladimir Putin’s demands over Ukraine.
‘The warning from the dictator’s hardline foreign minister Sergei Lavrov came as Russia is being forced onto the back foot in the war, highlighted by a devastating attack this week on Moscow’s main oil refinery.
‘Claiming the Kremlin is under unprecedented threat from the West, Putin’s top diplomat alleged the current turmoil could spin out of control into a nuclear Third World War.’ (Daily Mail)
01
Zerohedge updates Iran situation
Talks between Iran and the US were postponed on Friday in Switzerland, delaying what was supposed to be the opening round of negotiations towards a permanent peace and nuclear deal.
The delay appears to center on a new escalation between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, a troubling development that threatens the fresh interim deal signed by President Trump and Iran just days ago. Tehran has insisted that a ceasefire in Lebanon is part of the interim deal, meaning the Israel-Hezbollah front could derail the US-Iran diplomatic path to a sustained reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/opening-round-us-iran-nuclear-talks-postponed-after-lebanon-clashes-erupt
I knew it at 5am, ZH is 16 hours behind.
Now, what happens next?
Place your bets. Great prizes to be won!
Will Israel go c-r-a-z-y? 😎
01
Ah, the good ‘ol days when you could opt-out of tracking cookies.. Not any more!
“Strictly Necessary Trackers:
We’ve reclassified most of our analytics trackers into the “Strictly Necessary” category. ”
Bunnings Kaboodle kitchen design.
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