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Friday

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88 comments to Friday

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    RicDre

    Claim: Government Mandates can Help Australia to Seize Renewable Energy Export Opportunities

    Essay by Eric Worrall

    Australia could become the world’s first net-zero exporter of fossil fuels – here’s how

    Published: June 18, 2025 6.09am AEST

    Frank Jotzo Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy and Director, Centre for Climate and Energy Policy, Australian National University

    Annette Zou Senior Researcher, Centre for Climate and Energy Policy, Australian National University

    Emissions embedded in Australia’s exports do not count towards our national emissions targets. But they contribute to climate change – and they’re the reason for Australia’s international reputation as a fossil-fuel economy.

    On the bright side, Australia boasts huge potential for low-cost renewable energy and a knack for resource industries.

    So how does Australia give salience to this idea on the global stage, while our fossil fuel exports continue? The solution could be a new net-zero target for Australia, in which emissions from green exports are tallied up against those from fossil fuel exports.

    If it is a profitable opportunity, why is government intervention required to make it happen?

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/06/18/claim-government-mandates-are-required-for-australia-to-seize-renewable-energy-export-opportunities/

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    • #
      David Maddison

      If it is a profitable opportunity, why is government intervention required to make it happen?

      Indeed.

      In reality, it’s just an excuse to further impoverish the Aussie taxpayer and direct their hard-earned money toward Elite subsidy harvesters who produce nothing worthwhile except their own enrichment, and in a free market would produce nothing whatsoever in the same “business” if it were not for subsidies.

      I’m sick of hearing Australia will become a “renewable energy superpower”.

      It’s a delusional or deliberate lie.

      What’s Australia going to do with all these masses of “free renewable energy”? And where is it? Because the more “free” “renewables” we get, the more expensive electricity becomes and the more our economy is destroyed.

      The most fundamental input to the economy, electricity and other energy is already priced beyond economic usefulness and affordability and is getting worse by the day. It has already massively destroyed the economy and Australia is one of the only, if not the only Western country in which the standard of living is diminishing. How much lower does the Government want it to go?

      Imagine how bad it must be if even the Government propaganda unit, Their ABC admits to the dire state of the Australian economy?

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-07/can-albanese-government-fix-the-economy-four-corners/105260320

      Yet Australia experienced a far sharper fall in living standards (measured by household income per person) than elsewhere.

      Across the wealthiest countries living standards, on average, rose by nearly 6 per cent from mid 2022 to late 2024. In Australia they shrunk by an alarming 6.7 per cent.

      SEE LINK FOR REST

      Remember, that’s the ABC saying that. Imagine how bad it really is!

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    • #
      another ian

      Bumped

      FWIW – and another one – – –

      “£2 Billion UK Hydrogen Plant Cancelled”

      https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/06/19/2-billion-uk-hydrogen-plant-cancelled/

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      • #
        Dennis

        Apart from all of the issues and problems price is far too high to compete with natural gas and not likely to ever be cost competitive

        10

    • #
      OldOzzie

      ADAM CREIGHTON

      Net zero is Australia’s biggest self-imposed economic burden

      When I began writing about economics at The Australian more than a decade ago, these pages were filled with optimism:

      the resource boom was in full swing, the phrase “miracle economy” still prevalent. If we had a problem it was a “two-speed” economy, and an Australian dollar that was almost as valuable as the greenback.

      Fast-forward to now and there’s only one speed – and it’s too often in reverse. National income per person has fallen for nine of the past 11 quarters. Australia is dropping down global living standards league tables.

      Our country excels at self-imposed economic burdens: an excessively regulated labour market that throttles small business, a compulsory saving system that takes money from workers when they need it most, and a shockingly high – and growing – income tax burden that acts as a de facto prohibition on innovation and as a powerful incentive for young, bright Australians to emigrate.

      But perhaps the most damaging, and indeed ridiculous, self-harm of all is the determination to reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

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    • #
      Dianeh

      I was wondering how we export renewable energy in our effort to be a renewable energy superpower.

      From the CSIRO

      Australia is now touted as a future clean energy superpower. There’s even talk of exporting renewable energy – either in the form of “green” hydrogen , or directly via undersea electricity transmission cables.

      Good luck with that.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        A stupidpower, not a superpower.

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        • #
          OldOzzie

          US energy expert Robert Bryce warns Australia is ‘acting like an energy weakling’ despite being a global powerhouse in resources

          A US energy expert has delivered a blunt warning on rising energy costs, policy failures, and the nation’s refusal to harness its full energy potential.

          Robert Bryce, a veteran energy analyst and journalist who has testified before the US Congress and written for the Wall Street Journal, is currently touring Australia with the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).

          During his visit, Mr Bryce did not mince words, branding Australia’s approach to net zero as “madness” and “reckless”.

          “You’re an energy superpower, and yet you act like an energy weakling. I just don’t get it,” Mr Bryce, pointing to Australia’s vast natural resources and puzzling refusal to fully utilise them.

          In particular, Mr Bryce was sharply critical of Australia’s pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

          “You’re pledging to zero out your emissions by 2050 — that’s next week, in terms of planning purposes,” he said.

          “You export seven times more coal than you consume, and you’re blowing up your coal plants.”

          “You export three times more natural gas in the form of LNG than you consume, and yet you won’t drill for it onshore.”

          Mr Bryce expressed disbelief at Australia’s contradictory position on nuclear power, describing it as illogical to say “yes to net zero and no to nuclear power” when the country holds nearly a third of the world’s uranium reserves.

          “Australia’s emissions have gone from about 1.5% to 1% of the global total, while China and India together have gone from about 18% to 40%, and that percentage is rising.”

          Calling for a return to common sense, Mr Bryce said the first step should be to “stop doing stupid things” such as shutting down coal plants prematurely.

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      • #
        Gazzaton

        The delusional woke at the CSIRO still haven’t figured out the “Green hydrogen” is just a leftist wet dream that isn’t feasible as discussed in depth many times by real energy experts.
        “Exporting via undersea electricity transmission cables” would be a reference to the insane proposed Sun Cable Project pushed by loony billionaire Mike Cannon Brooks to export solar energy harnessed in a 12 hectare solar “farm” in the NT to Singapore via a 4000+km cable.
        Both completely uneconomical, delusional climate cult solutions to non problems.

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    • #
      KP

      “Government Mandates can Help Australia”

      That’s the first lie and its lies from then on down! Govt mandates help the politicians and impoverish the people, there is nothing a Govt can do better than private industry can, except force people to give up their wealth.

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    • #
      Bruce

      “If it is a profitable opportunity, why is government intervention required to make it happen?”

      The “spillage. It is ALWAYS about the “spillage”.

      A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon we are talking serious money.

      10

  • #
    MeAgain

    https://paulcollits.substack.com/p/building-a-third-world-dog-box-future

    Planners wish to end the alleged blight of “sprawl”, to end the reliance on fossil fuel-powered cars, and to so end the aspirational Australian dream. By building high rises everywhere, especially near public transport nodes. To turn Australian cities into what they take Europe to be. Walkable centres. Light rail vanity projects everywhere. Public green spaces. Vibrancy. Low carbon emissions. Wins everywhere, for the converted.

    They think this will work.

    And developers just want to make a financial killing, without any interest in the social and cultural outcomes. They will go along with anything.

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    • #
      Simon

      There are very good reasons for urban intensification. One you have omitted is that Australia’s most productive agricultural land has slowly but surely been converted to suburban sprawl.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        Why urban intensification?

        Australia has one of the lowest population densities in the world. That’s a good thing. Why should we live like we’re in Hong Kong, despite the Left’s reverence for all things Chicomm.

        And just think how much extra land could have been irrigated if hundreds of billions hadn’t been thrown away on solar and wind, and flood mitigation could have been done as well. Too late now. The kitty is empty.

        And fossil fuels are great for cars, especially in large countries with long distances to travel like Australia. And coal and gas are great for electricity as well, especially as Australia (most present company excepted) doesn’t consider itself sufficiently mature for nuclear and/or is terrified of the idea. There are no suitable replacements for fossil fuels. Not wind. Not solar. Not “green” hydrogen. Not ammonia. Not Unicorn flatulence.

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      • #
        Eng_Ian

        I think this is the first time that I have agreed with something that Simon has written.

        For anyone who drives to the city centres in Oz will attest, the urban sprawl is growing. It is not a grand solution. 50+km of sprawl.

        Well planned, well built high rise accommodation is required. It needs to be well placed, near to the places of employment and it needs to be central to offer access to multiple opportunities. Transport to and from these hubs is an obvious requirement too, and should be aligned as the development progresses. For too long the infrastructure has fallen behind the sprawl, often built out or built over before implementation, requiring expensive tunnels and train tracks of the never, never.

        I for one would love to see the fringe suburbs bulldozed back into the ground, establishing a green fringe around the cities. This sprawl does nothing other than reduce the transport speeds from freeway bliss to commuter crawls. Ask anyone who lives in these new suburbs, 50km from the city, whether they enjoy their 1 hour commute in the morning and the same at night. All for a piece of garden too small to justify a lawnmower.

        And for info, I live 250+km from Melbourne and do not miss the place in the slightest.

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        • #
          Graeme

          Living in Germany, about 20 km out from Frankfurt, the location was a very compact village of around 60,000 people – you could walk through the village, from one side to the other, in 30-40 mins. And 2-3 kms away was the next village, separated by either crops or sustainable forests. The countryside between the major centres seemed to be carpeted in these small compact villages, separated by green spaces. Appeared to be a great way to combat urban sprawl.

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        • #
          KP

          “Well planned, well built high rise accommodation is required.”

          No, this outdated idea of a ‘center of town’ needs to be thrown away and the office blocks for paper-pushers spread through the suburbs. We have no manufacturing so we don’t need to worry about the ‘working man’ living by his factory.

          Without Council’s regulations and ‘urban planners’ with their fresh degrees from the University of Socialism the private sector would solve the problem by itself. Even the internet itself should have made stacking high-rise paper-pushers cheek by jowl redundant, there is no reason for it at all.

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      • #
        Yarpos

        Ahhh the hypocrisy. The great solar/wind factory lover suddenly shows concern about “productive agricultural land” what a joke

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      • #
        Esra Taf

        Yes, we looked at our farming and decided we were not doing the environment any favors. We had diesel tractors, diesel harvesters, diesel trucks transporting stuff, fossil fuel derived fertilizers to improve crop yields, all the ways of running a modern, efficient farm. So we decided to move to a farm entirely run on dragon breath and unicorn farts. We were going to try and fertilize the fields using the unicorn poo, but the damned things only sh*t rainbows.

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      • #
        MeAgain

        I didn’t leave anything out – this was an article share, something that I found challenged my own perceptions – I thought the crew over here might enjoy it too.

        As an adult, I have a visceral ‘urban sprawl = bad’ feeling. I developed this – as a child, travelling into the city from a rural home, I can remember being so proud that ‘our City’ was getting bigger and bigger. (I guess while you are growing yourself, growth all seems good).

        I would say that urban ‘sprawl’ (or maybe just geographic increase) is more of a challenge for available industrial land than agricultural land – there are challenges with people and agriculture, yes, but most people are happier with a house near farmland than a house near factories.

        I also find it hypocrisy to hold both a need for ‘heritage’ architecture to be preserved and prevention of urban sprawl – can’t have your cake and eat it. That was what Joh and Dean Brothers were about in the 80s – preventing urban sprawl.

        I would also say that they should include country towns in their sprawl measures – I grew up in places that have sprawled nowhere in 50 years and in fact shrunk over the last 100 or so years.

        00

        • #
          MeAgain

          Speaking of cake eaters – the sprawling Parliament and Council complexes in the middle of most cities – put them into highrise and there is an immediate set of inner-city plots for apartments.

          Lead by example

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    • #
      Dave in the States

      to end the reliance on fossil fuel-powered cars..

      Why?

      230

  • #
    David Maddison

    Crime is up in the Australian fiefdom of Victoriastan, a worker’s paradise (at least for CFMEU union thugs).

    It’s what happens when you either don’t bother arresting offenders, or if you do bother, you let them out on bail, multiple times, and never jail or otherwise punish them.

    Frankly, as per the article below, I’m surprised it’s “only” up by 15% or 17% depending upon if you take population increase into account.

    I think the Government is probably lying or misrepresenting these figures though. Crimes aren’t recorded unless the police arrest and process someone and if they don’t get arrested in the first place, miraculously, the crime rate seems lower.

    It’s only amount of time before Green/Labor/Teal in Australia decriminalises certain crimes like shop stealing as the DemonRATs do in the United States so they can further lower crime statistics and destroy society.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/19/victorias-crime-rate-surges-with-young-offenders-contributing-to-record-arrests

    The Crime Statistics Agency on Thursday released data showing 627,268 criminal offences were recorded in Victoria in the 12 months to March 2025 – a 17.1% increase from the previous year. When adjusted for population, the crime rate per 100,000 people was 8,838.7, marking a 15.2% rise.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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    • #
      Eng_Ian

      Why do you go to the Guardian for news? You only have to walk the streets to see the crime. Drug deals in plain sight occur in Dandenong, Footscray and I’d bet almost anywhere that people gather for extended periods without any obvious means of employment.

      What this country needs is true crime statistics. The insurance agents may be a good place to start, that would cover the property issues.

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      • #
        Yarpos

        Maybe more a matter of showing that even the most lefty news rags are starting to admit there is a problem.

        60

      • #
        Gary S

        Unfortunately, Ian, high excess rates on insurance policies will be masking the statistics somewhat. Many people doing it tough will be reducing premiums and accepting the resulting higher excess. Then less petty crime gets reported.

        40

    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      David M,
      Correction for population change is wrong. When populations grow, not just tea leaf numbers can grow, so can police numbers. Geoff S

      30

  • #
    David Maddison

    The Victoriastan Liberals, fake conservatives, agreed to loan Persutto $1.55 million toward his paying of Moira Deemibg’s legal bills after he defamed her.

    If Persutto was made bankrupt, he would have been rendered ineligible to sit in parliament. Yes, they have standards, you know! It’s just that we never see them…

    So his stupidity is being rewarded. He had multiple opportunities to withdraw his false claims about her but instead kept on repeating them.

    I’m not sure how keeping Persutto in parliament helps the Libs anyway. They have so few numbers, what difference does the loss of another make? In any case their anti-energy policies are much the same as Labor’s.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-19/liberal-party-victoria-loan-agreement-john-pesutto-moira-deeming/105438020

    Former Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto will avoid bankruptcy after the party agreed to provide him a $1.55 million loan.

    Mr Pesutto was ordered to pay fellow Liberal MP Moira Deeming $2.3 million in legal costs after she successfully sued him for defamation.

    He was unable to pay the debt but has been seeking donations to avoid bankruptcy and be kicked out of parliament.

    On Thursday night, the party agreed to pay $1.55 million to Ms Deeming directly, with Mr Pesutto to repay the party under a commercial arrangement.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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    • #
      Murray Shaw

      Bugger!

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    • #
      Skepticynic

      >I’m not sure how keeping Persutto in parliament helps the Libs anyway

      It helps by further ensuring the Libs remain unelectable.

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      • #
        Graham Richards

        The new Liberal leadership got off to a good start . ( sarcasm).

        The first speech I saw on TV with the deputy “ leader “. was in front of the lefties 3 flag
        array. Totally opposite of Dutton’s one flag policy.

        They’ve also reaffirmed their commitment to net zero & appeared to be quite comfortable with Snake Charmers capital gains tax on unrealised profits and comments on antisemitism have been conspicuous by their absence. Judging by the non existent comment on immigration they agree on that as well.

        If you thought Dutton’s leadership was too far left you’re in for some really nasty awakenings under this lot doing opposition impressions.

        60

      • #
        Ted1

        In fact, it is very likely old days where the faceless men determined policy.

        00

    • #
      Vladimir

      Does anyone know why Passuto could not just borrow money from a bank, if anyway he has to return the loan based on commercial interest?

      50

      • #
        MeAgain

        The Bank of Zambia did a review about a decade ago now of the (very limited) consumer credit market (primarily civil service payroll-linked loans)

        A policewoman in her loan application when asked how she would pay back the loan filled in that she would ‘set up a road block’. She was given the loan.

        Surely he would be able to put something like that down in his application eg ‘I will sell my votes in Parliament’

        20

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Liberals Unelectable with this Decision – now only made up of LINOs!

      Why not be done with it and change the name to Labor-Lite?

      40

      • #
        Graham Richards

        Or likely they’ll form a coalition with ALP! That of course is if ALP will have them!!!!

        10

  • #
    David Maddison

    Here’s something to add to your “just when you thought the Left couldn’t get any more crazy” files.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-19/history-naming-body-parts-anatomy-men/105426140

    The controversial and very male history of naming body parts

    Take a look at your body.

    All the parts you can see, as well as all those on the inside, have been given a name at some point in history.

    There are plenty of descriptive, fairly innocuous names. But many parts are named after people. The vast majority of these are men, whose identities are invisibly stamped on every human.

    “There are hundreds and hundreds of dead old white men living inside us,” Adam Taor, author of Bodypedia: A Brief Compendium of Human Anatomical Curiosities, tells ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live.

    But some doctors believe these names need to be retired, with more anatomically descriptive terms used instead.

    “The world has changed,” says Nisha Khot, the president-elect of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

    “So I think it’s time to change the language that we use.”

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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    • #
      Shy Ted

      I’m glad there’s a para on female reproductive parts. I’d have named it the Clintoris cos then she could say “go ahead, make my day” rather than “see if you can find it”
      Seriously, what a load of testicles

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    • #
      KP

      “Nisha Khot, the president-elect of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.”

      Yes, I’m wondering what part of the female body she has lined up to be called a Khot. These people only get involved in social engineering for their own self-promotion.

      150

  • #
    David Maddison

    A very good summary of Australia today.

    When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – You may know that your society is doomed.

    Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

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  • #
    David Maddison

    When I was at school, in English classes we were required to read and analyse “Summer of the Seventeenth Doll“, a play by Ray Lawler. I think the teacher was obsessed with it.

    I hated it.

    Does anyone have any similar experiences of this work?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_the_Seventeenth_Doll?wprov=sfla1

    20

    • #
      Ronin

      Sounds like a bit of an ocker, low rent story.

      20

    • #
      Earl

      In my English class it was a case of enter sit be quiet … and “learn”. If you were the one that did make a noise or venture an inappropriate comment, or sat near the miscreant responsible, you ducked because the teacher had a penchant for throwing his chalk duster – the wooden backed ones – in the general direction of his source of displeasure.

      60

    • #
      Skepticynic

      Yes we had the same book on our reading list and I couldn’t understand how anybody would find it interesting, although as my mother was involved in live theatre I could see that the book fit in a particular genre that to my generation seemed dated and parochial.
      I felt the same when the films Alvin Purple and Barry McKenzie were released. Philip Addams was pompously proud of them, but to me they seemed boring stupid ugly and puerile.

      60

    • #
      John Connor II

      DM – where did you like to sit in class? At the front, the middle or back?
      😉

      00

    • #
      MeAgain

      Had to read it at school, I think year 8, but had completely forgotten it until you mentioned it here.

      Had no resonance.

      Even the Wikipedia page doesn’t tell you what meaning you were meant to take away.

      00

    • #
      John B

      The play was a big thing in the day. My parents went and saw it in Sydney.
      They made a movie of it and the Hollywood stars considered were impressive.
      Here is a summary of the movie

      00

  • #
    Philc

    Fun times ahead as the criminal complaints begin

    WHO Hit with Criminal Complaint Over Surging ‘Turbo Cancers’ Among Covid-Vaxxed

    https://slaynews.com/news/who-criminal-complaint-surging-turbo-cancers-among-covid-vaxxed/

    Jail them all

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  • #
    Ronin

    It’s so cold at Canberra Airport, they are deicing the planes just before they push back for departure, frost everywhere.
    Must be global warming.

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    • #
      KP

      Yes, a great week of ‘frost then sunny’, -4 this morning and the chickens didn’t want to come out… The mittens were quite happy racing across the frozen grass for ten minutes, cats paws must be very cold-tolerant, and they are such heat engines when they’re young.

      100

      • #
        GlenFromAUS

        This morning it was -8C (with a real feel of -10C) at my place 30km from Jindabyne (the foot of the Snowy Mountains).

        We have been experiencing July/August temps from early-mid June.

        I hope the climate doesn’t heat up any higher otherwise we will freeze to death 🙂

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      • #
  • #
    Ronin

    The supply of tradesmen in Australia has been kneecapped by the leftist education system, likely backed by the chicomms.
    They have done a great job of convincing students that university is the only path to a future.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      And then they go to “university” and learn nothing useful like science or engineering but things like “feminist studies”, “climate change” and “queer theory”.

      140

  • #
    David Maddison

    Einstein was asked about “genius.”

    Most expected a reply long & sour, but he kept is short & sweet: “Everybody is a genius! But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    A prompt sheet for your next EV registration?

    “American got his Washington State Vehicle Registration Fee for a Tesla Model S

    Just to register his car it’s $1,659.25

    This is every year

    The amount of fees Washington Democrats add on is INSANE”

    More detail at

    https://instapundit.com/727198/#disqus_thread

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    • #
      Yarpos

      Leading edge virtue doesnt come cheap. Its for the planet after all. Maybe the will make it up with the insurance?

      60

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “IT GOES WAY BACK: Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed. “The tracks showed human activity in the area occurred between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago—a timeline that would upend anthropologists’ understanding of when cultures developed in North America. It would make the prints about 10,000 years older than remains found 90 years ago at a site near Clovis, New Mexico, which gave its name to an artifact assemblage long understood by archaeologists to represent the earliest known culture in North America.”

    Turns out Clovis Man was living on stolen land.”

    https://instapundit.com/727096/#disqus_thread

    Now there’s a thought that could multiply

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    • #
      Greg in NZ

      There are numerous stories of folk already living here when Polynesian Boat People arrived – dated to the onset of the Little Ice Age c. 1300 AD.

      Maori friends have told me of their old people talking about the forest people who stayed away from the coast and resided up in the hills… a safe place to be if you wanted to avoid being cooked for dinner. Sure would upset the ‘indigenous’ land claim industry here.

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    • #
      Vladimir

      Our good friend Scotty would have said: It is a beautiful set of numbers !
      10 000 year plus/minus…

      Why I mention this –
      Three years ago a schoolmate grandkids were taken to Poland and are (within reason) settling there but he is very sad. Hopefully his grandson will return from the war and his family will come back. However few short years for small kids is their whole life – the new friends, new school, new language.., he is not that sure that they would want to. Many Europeans are like Australians – grandma’s from here, granddad’s from somewhere else…
      Though aware of Europe problems with neonazies and refugees, he did not believe me when I mentioned the Treaty between Victoria and First Nations.

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    ““The Freedom to Buy Inefficient Products”: A Rebuttal”

    ““When relevant factors are properly considered, the most cost-effective appliances are usually the cheapest to buy and maintain. Super-efficient appliances are super expensive to buy and maintain.””

    More at

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/06/19/the-freedom-to-buy-inefficient-products-a-rebuttal/

    50

  • #
    John Connor II

    “I think we’re quite close to digital superintelligence,” the billionaire said. “It may happen this year and if it doesn’t happen this year, next year for sure.”

    Musk said. “Ultimately, if we become, say, or whatever our future machine descendants, or mostly machine descendants, become a Kardashev scale two civilization or beyond, we’re talking about an economy that is thousands of times, maybe millions of times, bigger than the economy today.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/elon-musk-downplays-importance-doge-vs-coming-ai-tsunami

    So, not decades away or never?
    Wow – a Kardashev scale 2 rating.
    You really will be able to change the climate then! 😁

    10

    • #
      KP

      $16bn to get a big computer.. I can see there’s money it it! I’d like to see his definition of ‘economy’ first.. There are just so many people on this Earth, so what does he mean? We print a few more trillion and everyone becomes richer?? I think that’s been tried.. We don’t pour helicopter money in, but we shop faster to make the money-go-round faster and the GDP climb? That’s been pushed for decades as Keynesian economic theory, and it hasn’t worked either!

      How about game-changing technology?? Like inventing the smart-phone! Except when I see people wasting their days glued to a tiny screen getting tiny bits of information, I don’t see it as much of a gain in our quality of life.

      Wake me up when the spruikers have left the stage and something is proving the investment worthwhile! Greater data-scraping for spying on people doesn’t count!

      30

    • #
      dadgervais

      No computer model has (or ever will have) intelligence.

      But, when a sufficient number of people are ignorant or gullible enough to turn over a sufficient amount of decision-making to AI (Artificial Idiocy) we will achieve Idiocracy.

      10

  • #
    John Connor II

    16 billion passwords from Apple, Facebook, Google and more leaked.

    Sixteen billion passwords to Apple, Facebook, Google, and other social media accounts, as well as government services, were leaked in what researchers are calling the largest data breach ever, according to reports.

    The leak exposed 16 billion login credentials and passwords, prompting both Google to tell billions of users to change their passwords and the FBI to warn Americans against opening suspicious links in SMS messages, according to a report published Thursday in Forbes.

    https://www.the-independent.com/tech/data-breach-apple-facebook-google-password-leaks-b2773462.html

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    John Connor II

    Another Nail in the EV Coffin

    Exclusive What Car? research shows that electric vehicles (EVs) suffer more breakdowns than diesel, hybrid or petrol models, and that EVs are the least likely to be fixed at the roadside.

    Overall, 11% of survey participants said their car had broken down in the past two years, but the breakdown rate for EV owners was 16.8%, the highest of all fuel types. In contrast, 10.7% of petrol-powered cars needed to be recovered, 14% of hybrids broke down and 15% of diesel vehicles.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/18/another-wheel-has-just-flown-off-the-ev-dream/

    Then find a mechanic with electronics and computer skills.
    The industry mass exodus continues…

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      Dennis

      Seven out of ten EVs sold are still on the roads today, the others made it home.

      150

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      Dennis

      Recent test of Tesla autonomous driving on a public road, a school bus stopped at the kerb and as the EV approached and was passing the bus a “child” dummy on wheels was pulled across from in front of the bus and the EV stopped, and then continued on its way running over the “child”.

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    John Connor II

    World’s smartest person got brainwashed early in life

    https://x.com/yhbryankimiq/status/1892695368430690644

    https://x.com/yhbryankimiq/status/1935171190827667641

    An IQ of 276.
    Religion:1, verifiable science:0

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    Custer Van Cleef

    Fox News is “disgraceful” and “propaganda” … according to Tucker Carlson on the WarRoom show.
    (And I agree.)

    But he still likes the owners — they’re charming — but “[they always promote] wars that don’t help the U.S.”

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    MeAgain

    Got to love the thermometer sitting on a cement wall in the sun to get it to show 30: https://uk.yahoo.com/news/uk-heatwave-hot-weather-photos-121643616.html

    Note the tourists shading themselves with their jackets or hoodies that they had put on in the morning when they left their hotel – because there was a little cool spell in the morning – in the middle of the “heat wave”

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      KP

      “A woman covers her head from the Govt spy cameras on Westminster Bridge as temperatures went over 30C in central London. (Getty)”

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    MeAgain

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-20/fsq-director-linzi-wilson-wilde-suspended/105444062

    All the focus on the ‘offenders who got away’ – what about wrong convictions…?

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Eh Gawd”! A “Well Educated ex US Congressman”!

    “Matt Gaetz Finds Out the Hard Way That There IS Such a Thing as a Very Stupid Question”

    “If Israel is a Democracy when do all the Arabs who live there get to vote?”

    https://x.com/FmrRepMattGaetz/status/1935750889647882354

    Via https://twitchy.com/laura-w/2025/06/20/matt-gaetz-steps-in-it-arabs-vote-in-israel-n2414488

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Public Ridicule Hyped Summer Heat Headlines…Meteorologists Losing Credibility”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/06/19/public-ridicule-hyped-summer-heat-headlines-meteorologists-losing-credibility/

    Keep it up!

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    Peter Bear

    Hi Jo
    Love your work. Regarding your post “In publicity stunt, Australia offers “climate visas” to islanders of Tuvalu, which is not sinking”
    The height above sea level of Tuvalu rather than just the area would clinch this argument. ie theoretically an island could be gaining area but losing altitude.
    Any thoughts/information on this that you could publish?

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