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
An addendum to my post yesterday about the ubiquity of mobile phones. We walked to the ice rink in the Swiss mountain village we are staying in.
Two girls staggered onto the ice took some very elaborate poses and the obligatory self-esteem then immediately left the ice no doubt uploading the results to their social media followers.
On a more serious note we came out on Tuesday to allow a full week before a dental appt in the UK on Wednesday. If not for that we would have come out on Wednesday.
If we had done we would have arrived in the middle of a full blown riot centred around the railway station and the hotel opposite where we stayed.
It seems 5000 protesting about ga#a were whipped up by a couple of hundred violent anarchists. The police tried to kettle the crowd and used batons and tear gas which they lobbed into the station lobby as hundreds of commuters and tourists came off the trains.
Lots had to go to hospital because of the tear gas effects.
As I say we missed it by one day thanks to a dental appointment.
I have seen no reports of the riot in any media other than the very local ones.
370
For a minute I thought I had travelled back in time and you were describing avoiding a protest about Gaia. Those were the days when Greta was complaining about stealing her future!
100
Thought for early Monday morning-
Search engine results for- Joanne Nova
Google.com: Today, joannenova.com.au came up first
yesterday: came up second after wikipedia.
Yandex: joannenova.com.au comes up first
Startpage: ”
Qwant: ”
Is this a new development?
Perhaps a flow on from the recent court win by Trump against Google deplatforming.
250
TRUMP has put Big Tech / social(ist) media on notice that if they don’t stop censoring conservatives and fellow rational tbinkers he will remove Section 230 exemptions. Section 230 lets them claim to be a common carrier like a telephone service with no responsibility for the content, when clearly they are publishers because they control the narrative and content and therefore are legally liable for content. I have actually noticed more free speech and more uncensored conservative content on Farcebook, YouTube etc. But Gulag search results still seem to be biased against conservatives in general despite Jo getting a higher ranking as you noticed.
210
On a lighter note:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/10/04/1-700-pound-squash-smashes-the-crap-out-of-a-porta-potty-at-state-pumpkin-drop/
Fall festival?
101
Those giant pumpkins are amazing.
The cultivars lack the genes required to stop growth. They can theoretically be eaten but lack taste and are grown for size only.
40
I have photos of the farmer, but I’ll get in trouble if I post them. 😆
10
“I’ll get in trouble”
farmerbraun is curious. How can this be so?
00
Amateurs.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15164281/Whopper-twins-prized-pumpkin-drinks-1-000-pints-water-day-record-breaker.html
60
Why a port-a-potty when there are much better targets?
I would suggest some but don’t want to be censored (as many of those suggested targets want to do to those that don’t follow their cult)
60
If the pee trough is called a urinal, should a porta potty be called an arsenal?
230
Here is the latest video from Dr John Campbell talking about research work submitted to a US Senate committee inquiry showing that vaccinated children (any vaccine) are far more likely to develop chronic diseases.
Explanations to account for these results such that chronically sick children receive more medical attention in the first place so are more likely to be vaccinated don’t appear to be valid as most children routinely get vaccinations anyway.
I used to be a huge believer in vaccines and always got the latest ones until I realised that there was something wrong with the compulsory covid vaccines we were forced to get in Australia which I resisted (and alternative covid treatments or prophylaxis were banned). Since then I haven’t had a fluvax which I also used to get regularly but I got a typhoid vaccine for travel.
I am not saying vaccines are not valid in principle, but I think that the defective covid “vaccines” and subsequent revelations from RFK Jr and others showed that most vaccines have not been properly tested.
Video: https://youtu.be/ZrQuPPMOp4U
See link for further details.
Research report at: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Siri-Testimony-1.pdf
There are also criticisms of the study at:
https://www.henryford.com/news/2025/09/vaccine-study-henry-ford-health
220
Have a read of this new book before you get your next vaccine.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Vaccines-Mythology-Ideology-John-Leake-ebook/dp/B0F7HVVTDR
Is it valid to think that injecting a little bit of a serious disease, or a weakened form of a serious disease won’t causes problems? Is it valid to think that the injection will give protection against getting the serious disease?
I used to think I knew the answers. Now I am not so sure.
120
I will take a look.
40
On topic for older Australians. When Covid was on, my local GP asked if I wanted the vaccination. I responded by asking him what was in the mix; his reply he couldn’t tell me. No surprises there. I declined his offer. After Covid they started hounding me over the flu vax, which I declined and continue to do so. Reason, up to 2019 I had the flu vaccine and also had the bad flu of the season, Since the flu mysteriously disappeared during Covid I haven’t had the seasonal flu since. Not having any further vaccines as I and manv others have lost faith in many things in the medical world.
250
You seem to have regular access to GP services. Minimum wait of six weeks in the lower South East of South Australia. I did see some one a few weeks ago who told me that the bronchitis I had had would go away. Some hope.
We also have no representative in the South Australian parliament.
40
That research seems to have some serous credibility. The study was well designed, executed, certainly worthy of publication. Unfortunately, it produced a result the medical community didn’t want to hear. When these sorts of findings are publicised, there generally is the co-ordinated “medical” response to it. It’s what happened to IVM and I read about it first in Pierre Kory’s book on IVM. Firstly- silence, the findings or alternative product/treatment gets no publicity. Certainly not in any MSM and usually not even published in journals. If you don’t talk about it, no one hears about it. Secondly- censorship. If silence doesn’t work then active censorship happens either against the findings or the authors gets sacked, or never get a research grant ever again. It’s a take no prisoners type of strategy. If that doesn’t fully work you move onto No 3- which is ridicule. So for IVM this was “horse paste”. Don’t think the ridicule has started for this research just yet, but it has towards RFK jnr and Trump. Look at the Tylenol/ possible autism link. People are being led to believe that Trump thought all this up by himself, or that mad anti-vaxxer Kennedy (sic) concocted the findings. Lastly there’s Step No 4, which is sabotage. That’s where the medical establishment actually fund studies or trials using wrong doses, badly timed treatments or a number of other tricks to produce data showing the dangers of the opposing treatment. To suppress publicity regarding an issue like this, those 4 steps are separated by significant time periods. Before social media the SCRS strategy worked a treat, because big pharma, government etc could literally buy off the media, particularly in the US. But also, influence the main scientific journals as well. To this day, Nature still hasn’t retracted their “proximal origins of COVID” paper, even though many scientists and commentators criticised its publication. With the internet and social media, the SCRS strategy is now much harder to implement, but then some components are improved. Achieving ridicule via social media bots is so much easier these days. I’m a bit like you – not an anti- vaxxer completely, more vaccine selective. So maybe a vaccine selector??
180
Vitamin D3 reduces severity of virtually all infectious disease by 70% or more and that means you don’t die. Further cancer and much more is reduced by 50% so why would a vaccine substitute such that D3 not be better.
I have been testing a dosage of 7000units/day and my levels have over a 12 month period risen to 163 below any risk level but will reduce to 4000units/day in future, its summer.
40
Morning David,
Just to add a bit to the vaccine story. When my grandkids were born my daughter made everyone get the whooping cough vaccine. Annoying as I don’t remember it being such a big deal when we had kids.
Interestingly the Dr that gave the shot said if was a different one than the one we had when we were kids and mentioned something about it not being all that good compared to the original.
I wonder what changed and if this is common with kids vaccines that they have all changed since we were kids and what does that do to studies looking at long term effects.
60
I found this:
https://theconversation.com/whooping-cough-is-making-a-comeback-but-the-vaccine-provides-powerful-protection-254647
Not my favorite source of information but probably correct.
So the vaccine was changed because of unacceptable side effects. No one wants to give children a high fever and it has been noted as a precursor to onset of autism.
Is it really less effective. I doubt if anyone can really say. In any case pertussis is treatable with antibiotics
30
The other trick with medical procedures, drugs, vaccines. Over publicise supposed positive results by blanketing MSM and other channels. In January 2024, a Scottish study led by Dr. Tim Palmer, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, claimed zero cervical cancer cases among women vaccinated against HPV at ages 12 or 13, prompting global headlines celebrating the vaccine as a breakthrough. However, Australian researchers Assoc Prof Samir Saidi and Assoc Prof Mark Jones later exposed critical flaws, revealing that the vaccinated women were mostly under 25—too young to typically develop cervical cancer, which often appears 10-20 years after HPV infection. Since Scotland’s cervical screening starts at 25, the absence of cases was predictable and not necessarily due to the vaccine.
The study also inflated population numbers, including more women than existed in Scotland’s age groups, and failed to account for higher screening rates among vaccinated women, which likely reduced abnormalities through early detection rather than the vaccine. These issues undermine the claim of a “miracle” vaccine, as the data reflects a statistical illusion. While the HPV vaccine may reduce cervical lesions, there’s no firm evidence it lowers cancer rates beyond what screening achieves. Exaggerated media hype risks fostering false confidence, potentially discouraging screening, which is proven to save lives.
80
I recall John Campbell talking about a cholera vaccine in one of his videos some time ago. It’s an 2 dose oral vaccine which will settle in the gut where cholera will enter and proliferate. It makes sense and I’d take it if l was going to travel to an area where cholera is endemic. Injectable cholera vaccines were abandoned because they weren’t effective- much like the so-called covid vaccines.
20
I wonder if Jihn Campbell has changed his mind. He strongly promoted the Covid 19 vaccine initially but changed later. He regrets taking the vaccine now.
Cholera is spread by contaminated water. Cholera was the disease which made Dr John Snow famous when he stopped the spread in his area of London by removing the handle from the water pump in Broad St!
When travelling almost anywhere is is good to make sure that you water is safe, either by buying it in sealed bottles or by boiling it.
10
Peace on powder kegs – Balm and bluff in Gaza
Trump’s quick fixes to the Middle East conflict reward violence, leaving Palestinians’ historic grievances unresolved.
https://www.rt.com/news/625945-peace-powder-keg-gaza/#:~:text=Ultimately%2C%20powder%20keg,claims%20to%20resolve?
[Descriptor added. – LVA]
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Gregor Melekhov,
Can you name one instance where a “historic grievance” has truly been resolved?
If Palestinians’ present happiness depends on resolving historic grievances, they will never be happy.
Suggest they try aiming for something that isn’t impossible.
200
Good point which may apply equally to both sides in this mess.
Did the creation of the modern state in 1948 resolve any historic grievance, in your view?
55
Gregor Melekhov,
Of course it applies equally to both sides. Let me put it another way: there can be no cure for history.
The useful part of learning history is to learn things that worked, and things that didn’t, with a view to what might/mightn’t be good things to do today. If all you do with history is milk it for grievances, grievances are all you’ll get.
Better to deal with the present.
Practising what I preach, the Palestinians might learn something if they turn their eyes to Ireland. The troubles turned out to have a solution. No, not the Good Friday agreement; it was 9/11. Specifically, that after that terrorist attack, money stopped coming from romantic fools in the USA. The troubles, it seems, were sustained by a bunch of organised criminals milking historical grievances.
That doesn’t seem a million miles away from the situation in Palestine.
90
There can be no cure for history.
In the light of that observation, was the establishment of modern Israel in what was occupied Palestine doomed to fail?
Of course it may have been no more than British oil/banking interests establishing a place-holder in the Middle East, and the refugees were just being used as useful idiots in a similar fashion to the use of the bolsheviks in earlier skirmishes by the same operators I.e perfidious Albion.
21
Gregor Melekhov,
If you were really using the “light of that observation”, you wouldn’t be asking a question in the past tense.
Moving to the present tense, Israel still looks pretty viable from here. I think the situation really is quite similar to Ireland. There are people both outside and inside Israel who benefit from the conflict. They are the enemies of peace in the region. Cut the money pipelines and the trouble will dry up. The baddies will still be bad of course — remember how the former IRA men turned up in Colombia — but at least it should cramp their style for a time.
30
“money stopped coming from romantic fools in the USA. ”
If only it were so vis-a-vis Israel and Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2HH7J-Sx80
Lawyers , guns and money.
10
Robert, #5.1,
____Squatters using an old collection of books as deeds of title could apply this mindset also.
21
Gregor, #5, 🤣
____Turns out gardening gloves can be used on touch screens.
10
Gregor is not understanding this comment.
13
Gregor, #5.2.1,
____We sometimes fat finger the red thumb.
I’ve got an idea the red thumbs at #5 got hit with rabid feeling though. 🤣
10
Finally, the conservatives are waking up in Europe, but expect Leftists to become even more violent to protect their open borders, anti-energy, socialist, anti-family/transgender, anti-Western and anti-Enlightenment positions.
320
And it is erupting very quickly.
I wonder if Britain might also get a Reform Government very soon.
00
As an amateur radio operator I am wondering if, with Australia’s totalitarian ban on children using social media, Australian children will become more interested in other social activities, including amateur radio. At least it would teach them something about science and technology. There is no minimum age limit to obtain an amateur radio license, but you do have to pass exams.
250
You do have to pass exams. And that’s why amateur radio is in a death spiral. If you were to look at the membership vs population the numbers are not where they need to be.
The internet has eliminated the thrill of communicating to a distant person. Now you can just chat with anyone, even someone in orbit. Listening for skips used to be great fun, catching a radio station that is more than over the horizon, it’s in a different state. Now you can just listen to anyone using their web broadcasts.
Some people think that amateur radio will be a saviour when the internet is switched off, (pick a reason). In reality, those same reasons for switching off one technology will most probably eliminate the radio too. No power, no radio. EMP, no radio. Zombie attacks, no radio.
Unfortunately amateur radio, despite the odd bounce, will become obsolete like the telegraph and maybe, (soon), even free to air TV. How long before the government switch off your access, (for you own good)?
60
Unlikely DM.
More likely they’ll parrot the chinese rat girls, a trend with a rapidly growing following.
Perma-sloths as they have no future.
https://youtu.be/pLLG9OGg3UM?si=DPD0MCF9Lz9XLJco
30
This (Once Great Britain) sounds like Victoria (Australia) where despite the obvious Government lie that it has introduced tough bail laws, repeat criminals are routinely let out on bail to commit further crimes or even go on overseas holidays (not a joke).
210
Seems his radicalisation may have been quite close to home. Allegedly his father’s swift condemnation of his son’s attack are out of character with a lot of his other internet postings.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sk900hhk6le
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15159909/Manchester-attackers-warzone-doctor-father-praised-Hamas-terrorists-carried-barbaric-October-7-attacks.html
20
Why has the cost of house insurance in Australia increased so dramatically?
Are they incorporating imaginary risks from supposed catastrophic climate change because Government and anti-Civilisation activists keep claiming imminent death of the planet?
Or our governments forcing insurance companies to insure for unreasonable risks like people who build or buy in flood or bushfire zones?
Does anyone know?
230
No, I don’t know, but I’ll hazard a guess and suggest an increase in house fires caused by EVs and electric scooters on charge might be at least part of it.
270
Not to mention home invasion and subsequent torching !
170
Replacement costs have also increased markedly over the past few years.
Increased building costs, material costs, supply chain issues and all that.
200
True, but replacement costs shouldn’t factor if the insurance is for a fixed sum insured.
80
If your house is insured for a million dollars and it costs 1.5 million dollars to replace then you are under insured.
00
Tell me that it is not the increased costs of government permits and adherence to vastly more complicated (and therefore expensive) building codes.
20
The fires back in 2019 or so, and the East Coast floods would have pushed their costs up. The only way to tell would be their profit ratios.
I made my first move ever when I gave up Westpac after they hit $700/house, probably around 2018, but now even the Budget setup is hitting $2000. It varies a lot with location, the rental in Kingaroy costs 80% more than the rental in Orange, yet both face the same risks.
I am surprised the insurance companies don’t geomap the houses and record flood/fire/building materials photographically, instead of asking each year ‘What is the roof made of, is it on a slab…’
110
The insurance companies ask a lot of questions. Ever wonder what happens to your claim if you answered one of the questions incorrectly?
Any guesses if the payout will be affected?
If you ask enough questions, one will be incorrect, it’s just a matter of time and numbers. That’s why they don’t do their own assessments. The risk would be on them.
100
Simples, because they can and are nothing but a pack of profiteering arzholes.
Don’t forget they are a pack of bookies (apologies to genuine bookies) laying odds on disastrous events and laying those bets off around the world with the reinsurance bookies.
A good disaster covers the excuse for fleecing the punters ever more in the “game”.
80
I assume because of Covid.
No, that doesn’t make sense, but nor does it make sense that the price rises we saw during and after Covid, for virtually everything, have ‘stuck around’ now that the so-called supply chain issues have resolved. It seems to me (and I know you agree) that everybody is desperately trying to rip off everybody else in order to accommodate higher cost of living.
It’s like we all have this feeling that economic armageddon is just around the corner, so grab what you can.
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The real reasons aren’t disclosed, but just lame “inflation and market forces” replies.
The Oz housing market is a huge bubble as I’ve said although it’s on borrowed time now.
They need to factor in artificially high prices and their risk.
Ditto climate alarmism – include it anyway, what the hell!
Also, once on the hook, people are too lazy to switch insurers, and the insurers know it, along with consumer tolerance of price changes, so the insurers can ramp up prices knowing the apathetes won’t jump ship.
There’s also the supposed hard market where demand outstrips supply, some companies are multinationals and passing on losses elsewhere.
Compare prices and jump if need be.
I could also be a cynic and say it’s a plan to force everyone to be uninsured so when the next disaster hits those properties can be snapped up real cheap by an unscrupulous buyer (just like a few spots in the USA) but I wouldn’t say that…
20
You also have to have a good look at what they include in their insurance policy and subsequent values to rebuild. When I did a quote for my place the insurance valued the place at around $800,000 and that was not the land, just the capital improved value, and the premium for that was $2.5K.
After doing some digging they insure for a complete rebuild of everything on your property which you may need in a flood/bush-fire/earthquake. All are very very unlikely where I live. For a complete site rebuild, In my case the rebuild would include the backyard in-ground pool, (I’d never replace), the pergola down the back, the large shed, some fencing etc, possibly worth 150,000 – 200,000 to replace. A new house on your block of land can cost $250,000 – 300,000.
If just my house was burnt down, I’m looking at site clearance, and rebuild for around $300K. So I insure for $500,000 total for the building, which should see me right, increased my excess to $1K and now my insurance now costs $1700. There is no flood or bush-fire overlays on my property and I’m sure that helps keeping the price down. My rates notice puts my value at $518,000, land and capital improvements. My only concern of course is if the bad happened, they’ll say I’m under insured and only pay a % of their value.
30
Insurane companies invest in asetts such as inner city office buildings and commercial buildings. They have to cover the costs of poor investments somehow.
10
Another example of the unrestrained violence and abuse by the Left. They are becoming more deranged by the day.
Extract from Make America Healthy Again newsletter:
260
There’s that term again: Fascist.
People don’t even know what it means. They have redefined it to ironicaly describe attitudes and actions that they themselves practice. It and like terms have no real meaning anymore. Certainly not the original meanings. It is used to smear opponants, who they can’t win a civil debate against. A sound bite or a label, much like Far Right.
30
The so called far right are populists, Trump is a populist oligarch, Putin and Xi are fascists.
European countries are falling under the sway of populists and the social democrats are in despair.
14
So where do conservative fit? Are they all far right? Or don’t they exist?
40
Conservatives are a broad church and christians don’t necessarily like MAGA. A catholic pope has given it the thumbs down.
01
The Left is always right
The Right is always wrong
As soon as you realise this
We can all get along*
*according to the Left that is
30
Conservatism in the US.
‘Conservatives typically hold that the government should play a smaller role in regulating business and managing the economy. They typically support economic liberalization and oppose welfare programs to redistribute income to assist the poor.’ (wiki)
01
I used to be a conservative, but apparently I am now a far-right Nazi fascist white supremacist misogynist. The change must have been subtle, I never noticed it.
50
That is not so bad; Gregor was recently accused of being a Zionist.
Horrors!
Admittedly, Gregor has some Ashkenazi ancestry, probably from the Siegel line, or possibly the von Wishnowsky connection.
But it does appear that owning a farm is the giveaway,
lol.
20
https://mises.org/mises-wire/governments-eternal-hunger-free-lunch
“Since at least 1755, when Richard Cantillon published [his essay], it has been known that new money enters the economy at specific points, not everywhere at once. The ones receiving the new money first, such as government personnel, are able to spend it before prices rise. People who receive it later are stiffed with higher prices.”
That is correct … but new money COULD enter the economy “everywhere at once” if central banks changed to a FAIRER system:
The only MORAL way to feed new money into your economy is for the central bank to pay — say 2 dollars — once a year into every Demand Deposit account for every 100 dollars recorded there. (You would expect that to stabilize prices if economic growth is 2% per annum.)
It would be fair because everyone’s money is diluted at the same time.
What isn’t fair is today’s system: our money loses its Purchasing Power when banks lend New Money to already-established-asset-owners so they can expand their portfolio of assets before the price of everything goes up!
The losers being young adults, people on fixed incomes, renters, etc.
70
An interesting character.
He got a considerable fortune in the Mississippi boom (and bust) in France in 1717-1720.
Not least was his death in 1834 in what is now Guyana, after his supposed death in England some years before.
10
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/05/abc-50-million-aussie-clean-energy-scholarship-money-remains-untouched/
The reluctance to bring this brain fade into reality speaks volumes to me about Government intentions starting to wane!
50
Why can’t it be claimed by people who support and want to work with actual clean energy like coal, gas, nuclear and real hydro (not SH2). It’s usually compact, generates plant food and water for coal and gas, is usually out of sight and doesn’t require clear felling of forests or destruction of agricultural land like solar and wind. It is cheap and reliable and long lasting, not semi-disposable like wind and solar therefore not resource-wasting. Etc..
60
The bottleneck is plain to see.
‘On Friday, shadow skills minister Scott Buchholz pointed to new data showing a drop in apprenticeship numbers by 30,000 from a year prior.
“When the Coalition left office, there were 428,150 apprentices and trainees in training across the country. In just three years, that figure has plummeted by over 107,000,” Mr Buchholz said in a statement.
“You can’t build the homes, the roads, or the essential infrastructure our country needs without skilled apprentices and trainees coming through the pipeline.” (ABC)
71
I drove past a small ridge line wind farm in coastal Victoria on the weekend. Plenty of wind but all turbines were braked. On checking, the price in Victoria was negative at the time with Victorian rooftops meeting 59.4% of the demand. (Rooftop uptake in Victoria is strong)
I then looked at SA. Saturday lunchtime, rooftops were meeting the entire demand in SA. Some wind was still generating but being exported. Over the week, SA got 95% of its electricity from wind and solar. Rooftops contributed 20%. And it is only the first week of October.
https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screen-Shot-2025-10-06-at-8.51.51-am-1759701934.8723.png?fit=%2C&quality=75&ssl=1
The Australian electricity grid is a dead duck economically. Hugely expensive with stranded grid assets on falling volume yet no reduction in the need for dispatchable generating capacity. Consumers reacting to high pricers installing rooftop solar/battery as fast as China can dump the stuff no one else in the world wants.
161
Random energy is near useless. Almost every real time application requires constant energy without interruptions. Random energy has to be backed up by an equivalent amount of constant energy in reserve, so what is the point of random energy except to export our cash to China? Like 5 million Chinese electric cars by 2035 for which there is no spare energy available?
120
Oh really? Lots of processes can be retooled only to run when power is inexpensive. There’s a lot of AI training that could be be done. Most appliances and batteries (car, e-bike, etc) can be set on timers to only run on off-peak rates.
There are exceptions, e.g. if you are running an aluminum smelter…
116
In-milk cows find this sort of thinking to be quite inconsiderate.
160
They would also find living on the 17th floor of highrise building awkward.
50
17th floor?
Swiss cows go higher than that in summer.
30
There is something called service reliability that you seem to be ignoring. The AEMO reliability figure is 99.98%. We have a right to expect that this figure remains. So your statements are immaterial, in that they cannot meet this reliability figure.
20
Some people’s comments are near useless.
80
I agree. There should be a useless tag option set up for those responses. LOL
20
Or a hospital
the unawareness is epic
10
Not only hospitals. Some folks are attached to electrical machines at home that are keeping them alive. They expect that their home power is available 24/7. To say that home appliances don’t need 24/7 power shows a critical lack of understanding.
00
The sooner the better.
The 16-year olds who’ll vote in next election must understand that by 2030 all those poles and wires covering Victoria will have a negative value, and they will be paying for it.
60
I wonder how many young and old Australians realise that wind turbines operate on average for 20-25 years before needing removal and replacement with of course foundations and other repairs?
That in Australia the estimated removal only cost per unit subject to location access is $500,000 to $700,000 each unit?
And that many shareholders will sell their shareholdings well before replacement time.
Add to the cost of renewables under maintenance.
70
Few wind turbines are reaching the 20-25 year lifetime, and if they do, their output appears to have dropped considerably. Unfortunately, the actual output figures are not available to the public, so we don’t know if the turbines are still producing their rated output after many year’s operation.
60
Wind turbines are neither renewable nor replaceable. Hopefully they will be removable including the massive concrete footing they are mounted on.
30
A little off topic and just a factoid anyway, but the local solar farm has three weather stations, if ANY go offline AEMO drops the whole farm off the grid ’til repaired. So they are trying for a little short term stability at least.
Jeez! What’s the naughty word there?
10
To quote the reply to the Minister in the Abbott Government 2014/15 period in response to a letter from Dr Jennifer Marohasy and associates pointing out the various BoM issues they had discovered – “errors and omissions”.
20
I’ll ask AI. If you have a million solar panels how much useful electricity will they produce on a cloudy day?
20
About 30% They have tracking.
01
IIRC, Tony’s figure was 16.7%. I know folks mention tracking, but every photo I’ve seen of a solar facility, tracking apparatus doesn’t seem to have been fitted. Willing to be corrected, but I believe most systems have fixed orientations.
30
If I may expand, AI seems to indicate the most older solar systerms were fixed, while many newer systems are using single-axis tracking. So far no large-scale solar system uses dual-axis tracking in Australia.
But this article, comparing the CFs, ouputs and income from two comparable large-scale systems, one fixed and one using using single-axis tracking, seems to indicate the despite the tracking system having a higher overall CF, their actual incomes were very similar.
https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2023/03/why-capacity-factor-is-an-increasingly-simplistic-way-to-compare-solar-farm-performance/
00
My son is sparky on one. On an overcast day I asked him how much they would be generating he gave the 30% figure.
I have great respect for Tony but I believe my son on both generation and tracking.
20
Average throughout the year?
00
I might add that we are at 19 deg S ie tropical.
10
Question is unanswerable with any accuracy. What does “cloudy” mean? A bit of haze or 8000ft of cloud?
20
“Cloudy” in Perth can drastically the daily output. For example, a sunny day today gave me 29.25 kWh, but a cloudy day yesterday only produced 13.16 kWh. Last month, best output was around 26 kWh, but a really cloudy day produced only 5 kWh.
10
Just to hammer home the point on grid solar being a stranded asset. The linked OpenNEM chart above shows that economic curtailment of grid solar in SA amounted to 18GWh. This is twice as much as the 9GWh demand actually served by the grid solar.
So who is going to build more solar farms when it is quite clear that rooftops are rapidly removing their demand.
The same thing is happening with wind but it is a bit slower. It will become increasingly apparent as more heavy industry shuts down and more household batteries are installed. Both work to reduce the demand available for wind farm to serve.
Who was predicting that grid scale wind and solar would be stranded assets a decade ago- Anyone who understands why the electricity grid of the 1990s benefitted massively from the economy of scale and wind and solar have no economy of scale. In fact it is quite clearly uneconomic against small scale generation and storage.
60
The meme for today is “That can”t be TRUE”
See EG above (12.2)
Apprenticeship numbers fall under a labour government, that can’t be true !
See RickWill (13 )
Windmills turned off because of low power prices, that can’t be true!
Freedom of speech is allowed in Australia, that can’t be true!
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.9news.com.au/national/western-australia-sovereign-citizen-guns-dezi-freeman-porepunkah-police-killings-victoria/c20e17d1-7f1d-42ac-a36e-7d45153546a9&ved=2ahUKEwjhzJCDi46QAxW14zgGHby0I_oQFnoECB4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0uazt3tYxXHCYr-OHooLJN
100
Sovereign Citizens are anarchists.
32
The WA police recently raided their homes and removed a lot of firearms and cancelled firearm licences.
10
“”[They] oppose the laws that are the cornerstone of a free and democratic community, ” ..and thereby proving it is not a free society at all!
Have your guns confiscated because you expressed a political opinion..
10
“ Sovereign Citizens”…have rejected the normal social and legal boundaries established by the democratic majority.
Hence they should not expect to benefit from the privelidges of the majority population.
They are “Wanabe modern bushrangers”
00
The next dot com bubble burst will be in AI
Everyone on the bandwagon! She rides!
Before 2028.
Just sayin’.
/AI = chatbots, LLM’s etc, not the real AI…
40
With AI spending being calculated at 40% of U.S. GDP growth, that seems entirely possible.
20
The British government is now controlling what food you are allowed.
They have BANNED supermarkets and stores in England from offering buy one get one free promotions on certain food items such as snacks and candy, cakes, ice cream and pizza. Food that they deem to be unhealthy.
And they have also banned restaurants and cafes in England from offering refills of Coca Cola and other sodas containing sugar.
https://www.petersweden.org/p/dystopian-britain-policing-how-many
You have exceeded your EV charging for the month, your 20 litres of petrol a month, your 100g meat per month…
70
20
You have exceeded your breathing allowance for the week and you are exhaling way too much CO2.
Exterminate (Using a Dalek voice). LOL.
10
You need a digital pass to take a leak?
In the name of safety and convenience, thousands of schools around the nation are implementing digital bathroom passes that track and limit how many times a student can go to the bathroom during the school day.
These digital systems even monitor which students are going to the bathroom at the same time so students cannot meet up. Time limits are even built into each bathroom break.
Puns intentional presumably…
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2025/10/05/yikes-digital-tracking-bathroom-passes-for-students/
dumpwatch. 😆
40
What is school – prison!
01
Imagine tracking student’s movements? Haven’t laughed so much since reviewing the lyrics to Hey Jude: “The movement you need is on your shoulder”…..banal?
00
Next, they will be counting how many sheets of paper that you use to do a number 2.
10
Checking on who is going for a smoke.
10
The last quarterly electricity account I received was much higher in price than I had anticipated it would be as I was away from home for three weeks and during winter mostly rely on an efficient wood heater. The bill advised that my meter was not read because the meter reader could not access locked premises, but the meter is on the front verandah wall and has been since the house was connected, it was built in the early 1930s. Access is open with no front fence, only side and rear fences beginning from the side of the house and the meter box is locked with an approved padlock with green ring attached that alerts the meter reader that the master key will open it.
After arguing (emails) with Red Energy, typical response offering meter reading for a new charge and ignoring my advice about meter location and accessed for decades past and advised the only other option was adjustment of the charge after the next meter reading.
This was followed by a letter sent by mail advising that a smart meter will be installed in October.
30
I was recently advised by my water provider that they would be replacing our meter with a so-called ‘smart’ version. This was being recommended as a way to alert them to leaks or burst pipes due to the constant monitoring of usage.
As I live in a reasonably bushfire prone area, it occurred to me that if a fire was to break out locally, and I suddenly activated my sprinklers and was using all of my outside hoses, would the genius meter interpret the sudden surge in water consumption as a burst pipe and shut off my supply when I needed it most?
I called them and opted out.
51
Tell the muppets that you will provide a reading and that you don’t want a smart meter.
10
“You vill all haff ze smart meter by 2029..” Labor Govt edict, according to Red Energy.
00
The new so called Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally was born in Woking, England. Does that make her woke? Sarah signs herself as + Sarah. The African Anglican bishops are traditional Christian and don’t acknowledge the progressive take over the Church and don’t support Sarah’s apppointment. Sarah mentioned “Climate Change” in her address following the announcement. 🙁
40
What was the U.S. doing in the Baltic states in 2013?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVuYC8dDwHs
10
Millions Sign Petition to Dismantle UK Digital ID System –
The people of the United Kingdom are fighting back against the government’s plan to roll out a digital ID system. The petition to counter the legislation quickly became the fastest-growing online petition in UK history, with over two million people signing in less than 48 hours. “We demand that the UK Government immediately commits to not introducing a digital ID cards. We think this would be a step towards mass surveillance and digital control, and that no one should be forced to register with a state-controlled ID system. We oppose the creation of any national ID system. ID cards were scrapped in 2010, in our view for good reason.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/britain/millions-sign-petition-to-dismantle-uk-digital-id-system/
30
FWIW
“Trump And His Get Sh*t Done Attitude”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2025-10-04/trump-and-his-get-sht-done-attitude
Could be considered essential reading for some of our politicians but most likely won’t be
30
More down that line
“Germany In Shock: Merz’s Media Show Vs. Economic Collapse”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/germany-shock-merzs-media-show-vs-economic-collapse
Notes for “Elbow”‘s speech writer there?
40
FWIW –
“We’ve come to this”
“UK Police Still Searching For Motive Of Terrorist Named ‘Jihad Jewkiller’ ”
https://babylonbee.com/news/uk-police-still-searching-for-motive-of-terrorist-named-jihad-jewkiller
30
French PM resigns hours after proposing new cabinet
Sebastien Lecornu has stepped down after 27 days, making his tenure the shortest in French history.
A former defense minister, Lecornu was the seventh prime minister appointed by French President Emmanuel Macron and the fifth in two years. His sudden resignation less than a month after entering the role makes him the shortest-lived prime minister in modern French history.
https://www.rt.com/news/625973-french-prime-minister-resigns/
Who in their right mind would want to be anywhere near the top in any government now.
40
Oh ! ..there are plenty of power hungry ego maniacs lining up in every country.
10