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
“The illusion of consensus is powerful. Here’s why you should fight it.
What a 1950s experiment reveals about conformity in the age of the internet”
” Solomon Asch’s famous 1951 experiment showed that the pull to conform to a group can cause us to doubt the evidence right in front of our eyes. Today’s online environment intensifies this effect, allowing a small number of loud or coordinated voices to masquerade as true consensus. ”
https://bigthink.com/thinking/the-illusion-of-consensus/
Interesting article on how “consensus” overrides facts and observation.
220
The confounding thing about the anti-CO2 consensus is that many people are inclined to find fault with “western societies”, while the person being investigated in the Asch cases were supposedly neutral. Thus, I think, the group is affirming the belief that those people like.
60
Consensus is NOT VALIDATION / “PROOF”.
If the subject at hand is “barred” from debate, it is political theology, not “science”.
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Trump to End All Migration from Third World Countries
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2025/11/28/trump-to-end-all-migration-from-third-world-countries-reverse-bidens-autopen-admissions/
That must include Australians because that what Australia is fast becoming under Labor/Greens convergence. Thanks Albotross
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While I can get behind this as a short-term solution, I’m not a fan of it as a long-term one. The screening criteria should be talent and skills, not country of origin. After all, I would consider South Africa a failed 3rd world state, but where would America be today without Elon Musk being the standard bearer in the space race, electric cars, and free speech on social media? Stop importing military age cavemen from overseas who want to impose their 7th century religious beliefs on Americans, and economic migrants from south of the border who bring no discernible skills and undercut American wages for unskilled labor, but continue to take the cream off the crop of prospective immigrants no matter where they come from.
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Draining the third world of it’s people, (taking only the capable), leaves the third world in a much worse position.
It could be argued that the policy of only importing the best and brightest has resulted in the third world expanding and declining.
Surely it’s time to develop our own talent pool, this might mean raising education standards and actually failing those who do not perform. Participation awards are the problem, it seems everybody now has the right to go to university, it used to be just the best and brightest. Everyone attending has not resulted in a well educated country, it’s just provided us with more art and politics students/graduates. How many times do we need to be asked, “Would you like fries with that?”?
Vicdanistan has the title of the education state, (refer number plates). Surely a mistake, the average punter has problems with shoelaces, (and finding a competent government to represent them).
220
“Draining the third world of it’s people” Will never happen! They reproduce too quickley!
40
I think you missed the part in the brackets, (taking only the capable). I doubt very much that their gene pool is improving when the first world keeps taking the ‘cream’.
When the cream’s all gone, only the flotsam remains. I think that would include Bowen, Albo and co. in Oz. There must be an equivalent in the third world.
70
That’s the problem with unrestricted immigration. Prior to 2015 (when European immigration went ‘open borders’) and 2021 (when American immigration did the same), western countries were only skimming a few thousand off the top. A country like Nigeria with 200MM+ citizens can afford that and still have plenty of cream left. What it can’t afford is when that trickle turns into a flood. That’s what happened when western governments removed the restraints to immigration.
10
One of my recent medical practitioners was a Nigerian. In WA he buys his vegetables from Perth. These are Nigerian vegetables that are flown in regularly. 🙂
40
Anyone with children or grandchildren graduating from high school right now must ask a question – how did Australia got into this position.
Which is called knee-elbow or, sometimes – on all fours.
The system of education degenerated into machine producing 2-, or maybe 3-tier society, reminding The Shape Of Things To Come.
40
Eng.Ian, Speaking of problems with shoelaces, whilst teaching apprentices in the vocational training ‘system’, I soon came across students whose abilities and I.Q.’s were below that of their shoelaces. I queried the ‘Senior Educator’ in my department as to what happened if I failed these students – would they have to repeat next year? Answer – ‘They’ve paid their fees, they can’t fail’. Needless to say, I don’t teach any more and never will again.
Also, bear in mind that some of these ‘educators’ had been in the institution for 25+ years, a career path for lazy incompetents, just like career politicians, their tenure should be capped.
50
Good news.
Import the Third World, become the Third World.
That’s how its been working in the woke Western countries in practice, not that it should be that way and didn’t used to be.
Unfortunately it means people in Third World countries who actually do want to improve their lot in life, abandon their primitive beliefs, who want to come to work hard and pay taxes, assimiliate, abide by the law, contribute to their new country, be patriotic and advance their own lives (as immigrants used to do, back in the day) won’t be able to do so.
It’s always been (post WW2 immigration wave) near impossible for people from Western countries to migrate to the US unless you have a particular needed or desired job skill or via marriage hence massive Third World immigration but the immigrants weren’t expected to assimiliate and brought their traditional problems with them. As in Australia, they are embraced by the Left because they are future voters for the Left.
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The left are now agitating for the UN to declare immigration a “ human right “. No doubt Trump’s declaration of “ pausing “ all migration from 3rd world countries ( aka hell holes)
For the foreseeable future!
Go UN declare immigration a human right & compel the USA to carry on importing 1,000,000 per month. They won’t of course because the USA will withdraw from the UN & even worse they’ll withdraw their funding & probably tell the UN to pack up & leave USA territory!
The left gnashing their teeth & screaming at the thought of the USA shutting its doors to all the welfare seekers, murders etc!
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Diversity isn’t your strength. It lowers your wages, marginalises your culture, increases your crime, fills your hospitals, occupies your housing, ruins your schools, consumes your taxes, tightens your laws, restricts your freedoms, endangers your children, and calls YOU racist.
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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/11/28/denmark-sets-up-trump-night-watch-after-greenland-row/
With Denmark, France and Germany stationing troops on and Supporting the protection of Greenland from Invaders is precisely what DJT wanted! It will save the US from expending any resources and achieve protection for Newfoundland too.
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I’ve always said that DJT is at least 6/12 months ahead of everyone else!! 🤓
10
SMH is still lambasting Trump for his peace moves in Ukraine and telling us Russia is weak… and if we just spend more money and send more soldiers we can win…
All completely out of touch with reality, it will just kill more Ukrainians and Russians while Russia continues to roll over the country.
“Future historians will wonder how a regime of unelected thugs, with an exhausted army that poured everything into failing to conquer a smaller neighbour, managed to intimidate NATO, the most powerful military alliance in history.”
They struggle with the obvious dichotomy within their views, ‘Russia is weak and hopeless’ versus ‘Russia must be stopped by the might of NATO and America’. If Russia was that bad Ukraine would be in Moscow by now.
“Russia has obvious weaknesses. Its economy is feeble compared to those of Europe and America. Western sanctions have strangled Russian business, while consumers see disruptions to essential services. Its power to continue the war, however, remains significant. Until this month, according to NATO, Russia was making more ammunition each week than all NATO members combined. ”
Of course Trump even trying for peace is enough to get him mocked in the lamestream media. The people he uses are trolled for not being part of the diplomatic parasites-
“It was almost as if Witkoff was trading blocks in Manhattan, where he made a fortune estimated at $1.2 billion…. Trump says he may send his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to join Witkoff on the mission. ”
It says Europe and Ukraine rejected the peace deal Trump was working on, but a ‘new’ one is on the table for Russia to accept. Seeing its the same one with worse conditions for Russia, that’s not going to happen. The only realistic comment in the whole article is…
“The most likely outcome, then, is no deal. And more war.” …until Russia gets what it set out to take, the Donbass buffer zone that keeps NATO missile off the border.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/the-enemy-next-door-why-these-dealmakers-won-t-stop-putin-20251127-p5nj4u.html
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https://www.gbnews.com/politics/pauline-hanson-defends-burqa-australian-senate
This is a call Australia should heed too!
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In Once Great Britain the ignorant and woke DEI justice secretary David Lammy wants to scrap jury trials as Britain becomes an Orwellian dictatorship. Jury trials were a right given by Magna Carta.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7vdvrnnvzo
The History Debunked YouTube channel discusses:
https://youtu.be/5pv-RGaXtOE
No doubt Australia’s ignorant, woke DEI non-leadership will want to follow.
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I read this the other day. I am absolutely dumbfounded and still haven’t wrapped my head entirely around it. Aside from repealing individual property rights, I can’t think of anything more likely to undo a millennia of English common law. It’s only a matter of time before the only place you can find English common law is in British diaspora countries. The mother country is going back to feudalism.
It’s going to be an interesting race to the bottom between the UK and Germany to see who gets there first.
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I think they’re already backtracking on that idea. Just another kite flown that came down in flames.
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How long before they round up and burn with great publicity all existing copies of Magna Carta?
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King John would be proud.
You would think that Englishmen who grew up learning about English common law and that the Magna Carta had to be imposed on King John under duress would know better. You would think that Englishmen who grew up on stories of Richard the Lionheart, Robin Hood, and King John would NOT want to emulate the last guy, but here we are.
If the UK wants clean free energy, they should look into creating a perpetual motion machine to capture the energy of William Blackstone spinning in his grave.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blackstone
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They don’t teach any of that anymore, history is racist and misogynistic don’t ya know
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Proud to say that one of the four original copies of Magna Carta is displayed in Lincoln castle in my home county. A pity that real history is so seldom taught these days and the young are in general unaware of their heritage. Mistakes forgotten are bound to be repeated.
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Sat here now, not a mile away from the castle!
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Envious, Deej. Took two of my adult children there last year and they were blown away. Even though we travelled around a large swathe of England and Wales, they both regarded Old Lincoln as the standout (trumping places such as Bath, Stonehenge, Avebury, London, etc.)
Anyone who has not seen the cathedral is missing something extraordinary.
30
Corruption in Ukraine exposed and Zelenskyy’s chief of staff resigns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRvUrQhgrqM
I heard this was happening more than a week ago. Sort of odd that it has taken this long to actually happen.
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They had to find a replacement, so its taken a week.
Corruption in the Russian Federation is widespread from the top down, behind the iron curtain it was standard practice.
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Corruption in the Russian Federation WAS widespread from the top down…until it was found at the start of the SMO and Putin sorted it out. A lot of the top military have been fired for corruption or non-performance, and of course NATO will find the same if they ever go to war.
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Putin’s personal wealth is estimated to be US$200 billion (AU$304 billion).
Nothing like the average wage of president. Vlad is the richest man in the world, but Elon disputes this.
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Corruption wars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x-JqKQgSTA
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My comment at #27 leads to an interesting list
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It is actually #28.
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The corruption figure of $48bn is now out in the open.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY_ag5tJ6jE
It appears this was USAID funding to encourage the EU war effort. There could be some very interesting corruption charges coming up. How long has Zelensky goto? One of the items in the peace plan is for elections 100 days after the deal is signed.
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‘ … elections 100 days after the deal is signed.’
After a peace deal is signed that should be possible, the Opposition could run an anti corruption campaign.
21
All this talk about corruption 15 000 km away from my couch.
Yeah, right…
True gangwar runs hotter and hotter in Melbourne and Sydney, $95M for a $4M job, Catholic Primate goes to prison without a single witness in court case, add at will ….
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https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fda-chief-fauci-involved-massive-covid-19-origins-cover
We know all this and have done for several years but where are the consequences? MIA! Okay so Fauci was guilty but so was Ardern (NZ) Morison/State Premiers (AU) etc etc. The only thing I see is jobs and titles for the official “boys and girls” that orchestrated it
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The latest woke nonsense from Australia, a country which saw so little value in space that it abandoned its first space program in 1967 (I wrote about WRESAT https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2017/October/WRESAT%3A+Australia%E2%80%99s+first+satellite+%E2%80%93+50+years+ago%21).
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How is establishing a presence on a dead planet with no inhabitants ‘colonialism’?
Space is up for grabs. Always has been, regardless of idiotic international laws here on Earth. It’s just a matter of time and money before it happens. Maybe not transplanting whole populations to live there, but certainly for commercial purposes. There is a whole lot of valuable stuff floating around in the solar system (minerals, water, etc.). It’s just a matter of getting the cost:benefit ratios turned around.
If ‘leave it in the ground’ greens really want to save earth, they should be cheering for space exploration. Move all the dirty industry off earth and put it on the moon or Mars or the asteroid belt.
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C3 is abundant on the moon, so that should give fusion power a leg up.
Here is a rather long essay, asteroid mining is the future.
https://australianminingreview.com.au/issue/2025/10/the-missions-making-asteroid-mining-a-reality/
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I think you mean H3.
20
Thanks, had a brain fade, its Helium-3.
20
You should see the proposed indigenous space program that Oz has planned. It starts with a sit down, proceeds to a dreaming and then ends with their hand out for more money.
Space, the final frontier. Or maybe just another desk at Centrelink, a lawyers picnic awaits and rolls of black tape.
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Lol! That’s exactly what it sounds like! ‘You’re successful, so give me a lump of what you created ‘cos I’m a retard…’
If the losers want to go to space, buy a ride off the winners or copy their technology yourselves.
“The researchers are experts in space law, anthropology, astronomy, and Indigenous knowledge systems, and warn that the current trajectory of space development mirrors historical patterns of land appropriation and ecological harm. They call for a fundamental shift in how space is governed—one that centers on collaboration, consultation, and mutual benefit.”
More laughs- ‘Experts in space law’ when there is no law in space yet! Funny how those who will never have anything that someone else would want always call for mutual benefits.
Good to see Blue Origin landing their booster on a droneship last week, Musk’s tech is spreading.
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I believe the ‘natives’ were planning a mission to the Sun, but when informed it was so hot that they would be incinerated, declared that they were not that naive – they planned to go at night.
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That excerpt reads like one of those sham/joke papers that make their way into supposedly serious journals from time to time. Quite the chain of buzzwords and cliches.
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Space Programmes can be started anywhere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POL0J982TJI
Roundly mocked by the international press, historians and Zambians alike still debate what the Zambian space program really was: an honest attempt at reaching space on a shoestring budget? A parody of the West’s overinflated ambitions? Or was it a cover for something more sinister?
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FWIW
“Thanksgiving Controversy: What Nobody Tells You About Indians and the Natives of North America”
Every time I hear about the tragedy (the tragedies) suffered by the Indians of North America (whether at Thanksgiving or at any other time), I bring up some variant of the following questions:
Do the calamities also include the theft of the lands of the Apaches? Does the genocide, real or alleged, of the Native Americans also concern the extermination of the Huron tribe (Huronia)?
This type of question usually boondoggles the leftist, whose eyes grow like saucers and who waffles trying to reply, since in his eagerness to sum up American and world history by meting out simplified explanations in one-sentence platitudes (that conveniently, and invariably, happen to be damning towards Americans, i.e., white Americans), he has neither had nor taken the time to think any details through as he attempts to display his alleged expertise as a modern-day genius. The most intelligent leftists will be — rightly — suspecting that the questions are in some way or another some form of trap…
The problem, of course, is that the lands of the Apaches were stolen by the Comanches.
While the Hurons were wiped out by the Iroquois. ”
“But apart from that — apart from those tiny and utterly inconsequential details that we can posthaste proceed to forget and ignore — it is surely indisputable to posit that all “Native Americans” are, and were, spiritual peacemakers in harmony with nature and with the Earth, as well as something akin to Tibet’s Buddhist monks. (And with that said, let’s turn off the sarcasm faucet…) ”
“Incidentally, what do the names of the Indian tribes mean, anyway? They all mean the same thing (albeit in their respective languages) — the “people.” And what was most tribes’ names (again, in their respective languages) for their neighbors? Again, the same thing: The “enemy.” ”
More at
https://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/2025/11/thanksgiving-controversy-what-nobody.html
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Precisely the same applies to any “indigenous” person! During The Ice Age Earths population was gathered adjacent to The Equator for obvious reasons. As the Ice receded it took the people with it! Australian Aboriginals for instance dropped off in Australia on route to/from Asia. In those days there was a land bridge that made things easier.
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Australians lived through the Last Glacial Maximum, when New Guinea and Tasmania were connected to the mainland.
When people first arrived, at least 63,000 years ago, they spread out naturally in search of food. There was plenty of large game to be had, but they left them alone, no matter what Flannery says. Because of the cooler climate there was less evaporation and easier to travel long distances, watering holes were everywhere.
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I have seen that during the last ice age, the interior of Australia was a cold, dry, windswept grassland, and most people would have sheltered around the coast, which was expanded to the continental shelf. Genetics is pointing more to Aboriginals arriving 45-50 000yrs ago.
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At the Last Glacial Max 26,000 to 19,000 BP sand dunes reached the Great Dividing Range, it was a cold and dusty landscape.
They hugged the coast, or where ever there was a permanent water supply, food and fuel. Billabongs, I think paleoclimateers call them refugia
The 100,000 years between the Eemian Interglacial and LGM was considerably warmer.
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It was still pretty cold.
https://clivebest.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Global-temps.png
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Same thing in what is now Latin America. Progressives bemoan the evil Conquistadors wiping out the Aztecs, but ignore the fact that 99% of their army was local indigenous peoples who had been brutally oppressed and slaughtered by the Aztecs for centuries. There were only about 500 Conquistadors involved in that conquest.
The Aztecs were jerks and their neighbors hated them, so the Conquistadors rolled up with the boom sticks and steel weapons and powerful battle tanks (mounted heavy cavalry) and said “hey, we’ll help you overthrow those jerks. And we’ll do it basically for free. We won’t demand any human sacrifices, or your harvest, or defile your women. We’ll just take all of those worthless golden rocks you can give us”.
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-29/cape-barren-island-20-years-after-land-return/105916324
This is what remains of the Land Bridge referred to in an earlier reply
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“The problem, of course, is that the lands of the Apaches were stolen by the Comanches.
While the Hurons were wiped out by the Iroquois. ”
Not only the stealing of lands, but the absolutely extreme cruelty inflicted on any captives. The fact that Native American Indians were cruel in the extreme is simply overlooked. Atrocities are only ever talked about by “colonists”. There is a written account by a Jesuit priest of how the Huron tortured an Iroquois captive for over a day and a half. Apparently these ceremonies were similar amongst all the waring tribes but not talked about in polite circles because you know “noble savage”. Strangely when I tried to find a link to this account, it didn’t appear. Some links talking about the narrative were there but the actual account is missing.
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Depends on the tribe.
Some (particularly out west in the latter stages of westward expansion) were exactly as you described. But there were also plenty (particularly in the east) who did not use such tactics, or only used them in a tit-for-tat manner as a response to violence done against them. And then there were the Comanche, who were pretty much reviled by everyone (Americans, Mexicans, Texicans, other native tribes). That’s why Comanche is among the smallest of the tribes remaining. They were the last to give up and were the least likely to receive mercy.
One thing the guy got wrong in that blogspot article is that Conquistadors were prevented from moving north by the presence of the Comanches. That’s not true. The Comanches, like the rest of the western tribes, originated in the great plains. They only moved to the southwest because the Sioux hated their guts and chased them out of better hunting grounds and kept chasing them halfway across the country. They didn’t become powerful until wild horses proliferated through the Americas (generations after the Conquistadors). They were the first native tribe to figure out how to use horses as more than beasts of burden, but as platforms for mounted light cavalry like the Mongols in Eurasia.
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Did the Commanches have saddles and stirrups?
20
Yes
Though they were infamous for their ability to hang off the side of the horse at full gallop and use it’s body as a shield while firing their bows over it’s back or under it’s neck with ridiculous accuracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comanche_Feats_of_Horsemanship
20
Add the Maoris in NZ, wiping out the previous peoples and then fighting amongst themselves for land and slaves. …and the reason the Xhosa hate the Zulu in South Africa is hat the Zulu were invading at the same time as the whites landed.
Its the way humans work, and its still working in Ukraine. You only own what you can defend.
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And the Xhosa people are the descendants of Nguni clans who settled in the Southeastern part of Southern Africa displacing the original inhabitants, the Khoisan.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
30
Therefore, the way things are going in the West I feel we will eventually all be speaking Mandarin. Although I should be long gone by then.
40
In the latest news a story about the recent visit by a CCP senior and behind doors meetings with PM Albanese that our Labor Government refuse to discuss with the media.
Coincidently on the Bolt Report a story about a young Australian who attended a venue in Brisbane where the CCP official was visiting and that he was ordered to move away from where he was displaying a politely worded protest sign by Queensland Police Chinese Liaison Officers who allowed a group of Chinese Australians to wave the Flag of China nearby.
There have other earlier reports about alleged to have been Chinese Government Police Officers operating in certain Australian cities monitoring Chinese Australians.
Also consider the long list of Australian politicians with close ties to China and business interests, a former VIC Premier
attending a 2025 military parade in China who earlier when Premier signed a Belt & Road Agreement with China/CCP that was cancelled by the Morrison Coalition Government.
Consider the possibility of a Vassal State.
At least in the minds of our political left factions.
90
A South African born and raised there told me that as a younger child he lived in a Zulu village where his father had a government position. Explaining how he had enjoyed being with the people and them teaching him bushcraft and traditions he explained that during the Roman Empire period Zulu warriors were hired as mercenaries for the Roman Military and the fighting formation Zulus used fighting the British were Roman tactics.
30
Hmm ?.. as far as i am aware, the Romans never got within several thousand km of Zulu lands ?
And the Zulu “tactics” against the brits was simply to massively outnumber them !
If you want to understand the history of the British with the Zulu, i recommend reading. “The Washing of the Spears “
00
Great book, read it several times.
00
Victorias long hotter than average summer is struggling to get started. Snow is forecast to 1800 metres tomorrow, calendar wise the last day of spring. The grass is growing quite slowly although silage making has commenced In the district. Many paddocks are struggling to get any “guts” into the grass with bails per acre being lower than last year. Oh well just another BoM prediction that hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Maybe we should have looked up the “indigenous knowledge ” section on the new website to see how it compares to reality.
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Indigenous knowledge like the VicGov recent funding grant of from memory $105 million to research Dreamtime and space travel?
70
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from The Australian today
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/real-world-data-blows-a-hole-in-renewable-energy-modelling/news-story/6d37a7082abf9a8979bacfefd7488bc4
AEMO said that while wind output could fall to low levels, reliability was maintained because other generators – including solar, hydro and gas – step in to cover the shortfall. It then modelled a worst-case scenario by isolating “a historical severe dark and still weather event observed in June 2019” – where only 14 per cent of available wind capacity was producing power – and casting that across eight days
But in the months before and after the system plan was released, the weather in the real world was delivering a far deeper wind drought than its worst-case model assumed.
Between May 22 and 27, southern wind generation slumped into one of its deepest lulls, sitting between 4 and 8 per cent for six straight days. From mid-June through mid-July, the wind repeatedly slumped below the market operator’s 14 per cent extreme line, with multiple dips under 10 per cent – including deep troughs around June 13, June 18 and June 21-22, along with days below 14 per cent on July 1 and July 12-13 – before beginning to strengthen in the second half of the month.
AEMO assumes every new gas unit will carry 14 hours of diesel in tanks, and its modelling shows southern gas plants would burn the equivalent of 30,000 litres of diesel in a single extreme day to keep the lights on. This means, even in the market operator’s best-case scenario, a renewables-based grid only survives long wind and solar droughts by relying on gas and large volumes of diesel stored in tanks beside the generators.
Meanwhile other bureaucrats are trying to stop any supplies of gas or diesel etc.
120
Surely this is now “official” backup of what the team of Anton and Paul, plus others, and as constantly reported by Rafe, has been saying for a long time. If only the LNP would grab this issue and run hard with it.
100
??…. What has diesel storage got to do with GAS generator plants ?…..
I would expect gas generators to be permanently connected to main gas lines enabling unlimited full time generation. ?
20
I understand that the recommendation if renewables (so called) are to be installed that no more than thirty percent of a total grid demand be built, subject of course to a cost-benefit analysis to justify the expanses involved including dedicated firming and transmission?
And that there must be one hundred percent controllable generator back up.
I can understand the use of hydro power stations as “renewables” but not wind turbines and commercial solar installations that must be removed and replaced on average 20-25 years.
The original Labor Renewable Energy Target from Rudd-Gillard governments was thirty two percent installed capacity. Since 2022 Albanese Labor increased to RET 82%
20
The WA SWIS grid has a number of gas peakers situated along the main north-south gas line running through Perth and its suburbs. System works very well, providing extra gas during the hot summer peak times.
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I assume you intended to say ..”providing extra electricity”…
I realise many remote towns have backup doesel powered generators for renewable shortages, but they are not “ gas peakers” plants.
10
Interesting video about the proposed (1968) Lockheed L-500, a civilian version of the C-5 Galaxy.
https://youtu.be/xvQmAMF-fms
10
Have you heard of this Wuffy AI robot puppy?
It’s apparently gone viral and everyone wants one.
It’s sad that people seek companionship in a soulless machine.
40
There’s one born every minute…
“But behind the heartwarming scenes and glossy website lies a troubling truth. The so-called Wuffy Robot Puppy from GetWuffy.com is not what it claims to be. Thousands of buyers have reported being misled by fake AI promises, inflated discounts, and manipulative marketing tactics. Instead of a smart robotic dog, customers often receive a basic battery-powered plush toy worth only a few dollars, with no motion sensors, no learning ability, and no AI at all.”
https://malwaretips.com/blogs/wuffy-robot-puppy-review/
Yet another fake AI chinesium toy.
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It’s not a fake toy from china. It’s just a measure of gullibility.
Besides, after the 1st of December, they will be changing the spelling of gullible because it’s hard for the chinese to say, too many Ls.
It will now be known as gurrible. As in, “You sirry, you gurrible, I keep your money.”
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As Benny Hill used to say “Stua iriots”. 🙂
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Here’s an analysis of the tragic multiple building apartment block fire in Hong Kong.
https://youtu.be/PXcFFreGwYg
10
FWIW
“The cave where it happened: Denisova cavern’s congress of ancient peoples”
https://www.razibkhan.com/p/the-cave-where-it-happened-denisova?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=94899&post_id=180046917&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=9bg2k&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Via https://instapundit.com/759048/#disqus_thread
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Something the transition supporters obviously do not understand or maybe not think about regarding electricity retail prices increasing by so much as Renewable Energy Target percentage contribution increases and coal fired power stations are forced to operate less profitably;
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A lot of people mistakenly believe that a coal plant will experience thermal shocks when ramping between different power settings. This is NOT correct.
ALL power stations operate at an almost constant steam and firebox temperature. What changes is the volume of steam being produced falls as the electrical load/demand decreases. To achieve this decline, you simply throttle back the fuel feed into the firebox. This results in less steam being produced BUT because the inlet pressure to the turbines, (attached to the generators), are set with fixed pressure inlets, the pressure is maintained in all lines but the flow rate drops off. The temperature of the steam is the same and hence so is the temperature of the boiler tubes and all transfer pipes, (excluding minor variance in the losses as the steam is transferred in pipes from the boiler to the turbines).
By throttling the steam flow, the torque that the turbines produce is also throttled. This reduction in torque reduces the power outlet on the shaft and hence the electrical generation, (remember, the rotational frequency is unchanged so only a change of torque can vary the work done/power delivered).
So, throttling a steam generation plant does not significantly affect the steam temperature. If it did, then you would start seeing condensation on the turbine blades followed by rapid decomposition of the blade elements as they are rapidly eroded by water droplets. All steam generator plants are designed for a particular steam temperature and pressure, eg super critical, etc. This is not changed during load fluctuations, only the volume of super critical steam , (as an example), is varied to match the load.
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Sounds like the comments of someone who has never operated a high temperature chemical process.
All high temperature chemical processes run most economically under stable conditions. Operating a pulverised coal boiler over wide operating range has negative consequences.
There is a risk of flame out. The combustion process becomes sub-optimal so combustion products can move outside specified tolerance. Any change in operating conditions inevitably means thermal cycling of some components such as the temperature change through boiler tubes and their expansion. The end result may be the same steam pressure and temperature but the furnace conditions depend on the rate of heat flow.
The main problem is that all the fixed costs of a power station do not go away if the plant is idled or run flat out. The highest maintenance regime will be associated with the rate and frequency of the loading cycle.
10
Rick,
Are you replying to my comment about keeping the temperatures stable or the one from Dennis?
I never mentioned a temperature change in the boiler, I actually said that it is incorrect to think that they do.
10
Keeping the steam at temperature and pressure for different power output requires changing furnace conditions. It is those conditions that alter the boiler tube conditions and intruduces changes in expansion/contraction. I do not know the temperature drop across the tubes in a big furnace but I would not b surprised if it was more than 100C from low load to full load..
Temperature can be the same inside the tube but the furnace temperature will need to change depending on the flow.
Lignite burners in big furnaces are about 800mm in diameter. It is not easy to turn them down and keep stable combustion. There are likely ways that pilot flame can be used to help stability at low rate but that will come at a cost. And if you shut burners down and keep others going then the heat distribution is not as good.
Any variation requires a control system response and those changes are process upsets that take time to recover from. The worst operating condition for a coal plant is trying to load follow wind and solar. That is why batteries are getting the bulk of the FCAS market. The batteries are easier to control over a range of output than steam plant.
The current coal plants in the NEM are only dropping to 60% of peak capacity during the middle of the day. They are paying to generate into the wholesale market under those conditions. They will be getting other benefits but I do not think they are being ordered to run.
https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/nem/?range=1d&interval=30m&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed
If it was easy to turn down then they would not be operating at 60% of capacity and paying to export.
20
Rick,
As you’d know from the chemistry industry, in a heat exchanger the flow circuit runs counter. The outlet of the steam circuit is in close contact with the hottest part of the flame, (and of course the coldest part of the steam circuit is in contact with the colder, discharge end/chimney side of the flue gases).
The water coming into the boiler pipework is almost always the same temperature, you want to return the water to the boiler as a liquid but only just, (if it was atmospheric pressure, you’d be aiming for 95+ C), this improves the efficiency of the boiler, why cool it any more than you need to, it would just be a waste of energy?
The steam leaving the boiler is at the operating temperature required to work the turbines. This is a set point to ensure maximum efficiency and to eliminate condensation in the turbine. eg, if a system is designed for super critical steam at 400C, then that is what it will deliver, at all ‘rated’ loads.
So back to that flow pattern. The boiler pipework never gets lower than the liquid point of the water at the operating pressure of the condensate return path, (minus a few degrees for safety). In a well designed, efficient boiler, this is just below the outlet flue gas temperature, signifying that no excess heat was dumped.
At the steam discharge end, the steam is at 400 C the flue gases will be a little above 400C, an optimised boiler will again have the temps very similar, no need to waste/overheat the flue gases, it just leads to corrosion. etc.
Since the steam temperature doesn’t change, then neither does the flue gas temperature, (when in steady state).
The reason you don’t turn down the steam plant is not due to thermal cycling but instead due to emission controls. A burner designed for a specific fuel burn rate will have local hot spots at the flame front when throttled back too much, (a lean burn), this produces NO and ultimately NO2 gases, not good. So in general a burner is rated for a specific steam production rate, turn it down too much and the NO goes up, the overall flue gas temperature don’t change too much. Older boilers would have a very limited turn down rate, often just 100% down to say 80%, depending on the fuel, some newer units will go down to 50% but not all. If you had no emission controls you could turn it down as low as the fuel would allow, and then you can have smog. I wonder if this explains the smog in china?
The only other way to stay compliant with the emission standards and to produce less power production is to dump steam directly to the condensers, avoiding the turbines. This will keep the boiler system in spec, (wrt emissions), but is wasteful of fuel. eg fuel burned and no income. You also heat the condenser circuit up more than is necessary, even large ponds have limits. Atmospheric dumping of steam is the ultimate method but this wastes not only energy but also good quality, demineralised water. A relatively expensive commodity.
Maybe these latter points are why the cost goes up, turn down the boiler a little and the overheads go up a little, if you want to turn it down a lot, then expect the overheads to soar.
10
I got lost on this point “you simply throttle back the fuel feed into the firebox.” should that read water not fuel? if you reduce fuel surely the temp would drop. Or is it a terminology thing re what constitutes “fuel”
10
Yarpos,
The fuel feeds into the firebox. The water feeds into the boiler, actually the header tank located above the boiler pipework.
The fuel feed is governed by the boiler temperature, if the boiler gets too hot then the fuel supply is reduced. A simple feedback mechanism.
Steam is drawn from the boiler in accordance with the turbine demand, the more torque required, (high generator loads), the more steam is drawn off. When you draw steam off the boiler it is replaced with water returned from the condensers. (located downstream of the turbines). This water is cooler than the steam and hence requires heating. The more water you pump into the boiler, the more heat is required and this drives the need for more fuel to be consumed.
So, (as per the example above), a reduction in electrical generation is directly matched by a reduction in the volume of steam consumed. This means less make-up water is pumped into the boiler. The less water pumped into the boiler means that less fuel is required to maintain a constant temperature.
I hope that helps, (I missed the part about returning the condensate before).
10
Politicians then use the lowered capacity factors of the coal generators as proof of the unreliability of them. They are rarely challenged on this lie.
In a sane world they would be called out by the lamestream media every time they lie.
In Australia public trust in politicians is down to record lows of 12-16%, while for the media public trust is 32-37% depending on which survey you read.
I am being honest when I say that I am surprised that those percentages are as high as they are.
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“I am being honest when I say that I am surprised that those percentages are as high as they are.”
They’re the ones buying Wuffy robot plushies…
40
The great awakening
https://youtu.be/6QPLXtmRMsE?si=niQdc4yebU0xiARR
40
Minister Bowen again this week in Parliament stated that during 2025 Australia has achieved fifty percent “renewables” electricity supply, but he is using Installed Capacity figures not Capacity Factor and achievable average supply from those installations.
The original RET was for 32% and since 2022 raised to RET 82% and since the Minister and others have indicated they want even more.
How can the government build the future electricity grid supply using Installed Capacity as target?
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Bowen lied…..?
Really…..?
Who’d have thunk that?
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No he’s not. Way more than 50% of the installed capacity is 50% weather dependent. Rooftops are almost half of the installed capacity.
The actual energy for the past 12months was 218GWh. 94GWh was from weather dependent generators including hydro. So 43% from WDGs.
There have been some weeks when WDGs have totalled more than 50%. The last month averaged 50% fro WDGs.
11
Bowen has also been exposed using the wrong coal cost figures to say that coal power was more expensive. He used the exported coal cost, which is a lot higher than coal mined and used for local power stations.
40
FWIW – more on what FDR did or didn’t do
“AMITY SHLAES: Sorkin Rounds Up the Usual Suspects.”
“Mark Steyn once wrote that “Lots of other places — from Britain to Australia — took a hit in 1929 but, alas, they lacked an FDR to keep it going till the end of the Thirties. That’s why in other countries they refer to it as ‘the Depression,’ but only in the U.S. is it ‘Great.’” For those who want to explore why, there’s FDR: A New Political Life, by David T. Beito, which Reason’s James Bovard dubs, “An Antidote to the FDR Cult:” ”
More at
https://instapundit.com/759193/#disqus_thread
20
We know it’s only weather BUT
Boom Bang BoM’s 3 day forecast for ‘summer’:
Today / Monday 1 Dec
32°C / 26 – Sydney
18°C / 15 – Melbourne
17°C / 15 – Hobart + SNOW on mountains
28°C / 38 – Perth 🌞
At least it’ll be warming up in W.A.
while in New Zealand’s South Island:
Mt Cook – snow Snow SNOW ❄️
-10°C min, -6 max, snow showers all week.
Up north here it’ll be a balmy 25, perfect.
Hopefully by 21-22 December the mythical beast called ‘global warming’ has made an appearance, otherwise…
70
Message from President TRUMP.
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The media will have a meltdown over this decision.
Get the popcorn!
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FWIW
“Washington State City Councilwoman Under Fire for Opposing What No Sane Person Should Support”
“Spokane’s Spokesman-Review reported Wednesday that “Spokane Valley City Council members rejected a call to issue an apology or stronger condemnation of Councilwoman Jessica Yaeger, who declared herself a ‘proud Islamophobe’ in a Facebook post last week.” It is astonishing that public officials anywhere, and especially in far-left Washington state, would refuse to accommodate demands for the professional ruin of someone who had the temerity to take the despised label of “Islamophobe” upon herself willingly, but Yaeger did so in a way that made it difficult for Council members to throw her under the bus.”
More at
https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2025/11/28/washington-state-city-councilwoman-under-fire-for-opposing-what-no-sane-person-should-support-n4946503
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How to “respectfully” declare that you are an Islamophobe – in a Christian country
00
Warning over Airbus A320 flight control failure from solar radiation
Analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.
https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-11-airbus-update-on-a320-family-precautionary-fleet-action
20
Unlike Boeing, with Airbus, certain decisions by the aircraft flight control systems can’t be over-ridden by the pilot.
This is called “Normal Law” and has hard protections to prevent pilots making certain command inputs.
So if a bad decision is made by the flight control system it can’t be countermanded.
Tough luck if the command is wrong due to computer corruption from solar radiation.
It’s an interesting reflection of the respective mentalities of Nanny State Europe (or Australia) vs the free and independent thinking United States.
80
Unlike Boeing, Airbus aircraft aren’t flying into the scenery.
20
I can understand some orders from the pilot(s) not being allowed, for example, applying reverse thrust whilst in flight or changing the COG position to a point outside of a position required for stable/controlled flight.
I think what is required is the ability for the pilot to cancel a computer input sensor and hence computer output, requiring the pilot to take over that control function thereafter.
eg a flight attitude sensor goes tits up, signalling a critical stall angle has been reached/exceeded. The computer responds by pushing the nose down. Pilots generally cannot fully cancel this function regardless of airplane brand. The fix is to use multiple attitude sensors and to accept that one is out of range. A pilot would supplement this by looking at the horizon and realising that the plane is not excessively nose up. If this occurred during non visual flight conditions, then the pilot could monitor the air speed and by observing no change to the air speed.
My suggested fix, (should the attitude sensor fail), would require the pilot to fly the plane manually, at least in elevator control, until the sensor could be excluded from the computer or till the faulty sensor is replaced, (after landing). Much better than the plane entering a very steep and very sudden descent.
It’s flights like these where a pilot might want to disengage the input sensor(s).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_72
10
If the computer makes an erroneous output to say the elevator, as in the max 8, the pilot just has to select the trim overide switches off and the upset ceases.
00
Hardware prevents reverse thrust being applied in flight through a Weight On Wheels switch.
00
Satellites must be well-made, they get more radiation than jets. The technology must be there, its surprising the Europeans didn’t shield the computer enough.
20
I wrote an article about radiation hardening of electronics.
https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2019/July/Radiation+Hardening
10
If it truly was a radiation issue as the primary cause then it wouldn’t be fixed with a software update and back to normal operations. It will be interesting to see the full story when it is released.
Apparently what is being talked about as a software update is in fact a roll back to the last stable version. In some cases it also requires a hardware back track as well, to run the old software (depends on age and maintenance activities)
00
If it is a fault due to memory error, affected by solar radiation, then software COULD be a fix.
You would write the same data say three times into memory, if the data is read back from two of three addresses at one value, then the third could be ignored. Compare this to software where you only write the data once into memory.
Data corruption by flipping bits due to radiation is possible, more likey to be accepted by the computer if a double flip occurs, eg one bit goes from zero to a one, another bit goes from a one to a zero in the same data byte. This would keep the parity bit correct and hence not trip the simple computer fault detection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parity_bit
00
News reports say that problem originated with recent software update. This is being rolled back.
00
FWIW
“Cheer Up, Libs! Here Are 10 Things Even You Can Be Thankful For This Year”
https://babylonbee.com/news/cheer-up-libs-heres-10-things-even-you-can-be-thankful-for-this-year
30
Meanwhile in Venezuela…
https://imgbox.com/uUuzhOV4
20
“Researchers” are making novel chimeric bat/pig explosive diarrhea viruses
If you need help with the title it means that hubristic researchers with lots of government funding for ‘science’, including the National Key R&D Program of China, are making novel chimeric viruses by swapping bat-derived spike (yes, that spike) genes into pig-adapted coronavirus backbones that are potentially capable of inducing a human-diarrhea fest…
The reason they chose the SADSr-CoV virus to play with is because it is known that bats can carry it and can pass it to pigs and mice to cause death via explosive diarrhea.
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/researchers-are-making-novel-chimeric
Stock up on TP! 😆
10
FWIW
“Zelenskyy Fires the Head of His Presidential Office as Corruption Probe Continues – Widespread Skimming of Money Now Publicly Visible
November 28, 2025 | Sundance | 193 Comments”
“However, notice how quiet the U.S. Senate has been on this explosive story about Ukraine officials being caught skimming money. The Senate is quiet because almost two-thirds of the senators are taking money from the laundry operation [LIST HERE].It’s not just Ukraine officials making money from the massive EU/USA funding scheme.”
(My bold and that link –
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Senate-Yeas-Ukraine-Funding.jpg )
More at
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/11/28/zelenskyy-fires-the-head-of-his-presidential-office-as-corruption-probe-continues-widespread-skimming-of-money-now-publicly-visible/
40
Every country has a mafia of some type, but in Russia the mafia owns a country.
01
FWIW
“Industry win on rural speed limits”
“Australia’s transport ministers have halted work on reducing rural speed limits.”
https://www.beefcentral.com/news/industry-win-on-rural-speed-limits/
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Too late in our region of the NSW Central Tablelands where the local Council has already reduced the 100kph to 80 kph. Few outside rural areas understand that this reduction means that the Council has reduced obligations to maintain the road and the verge. The ever growing potholes will likely cause more accidents on the popular tourist road than a reduced speed limit.
60
I dont know if this has surfaced before, but a couple of days ago I saw a Centrelink AI video, about November being the start of nation wide changes to traffic rules. (Is this real, and why cant Centrelink find real people among their numerous staff, to do this?) Anyway the changes are pretty horrific, involving fine increases of at least 30%, increasing points lost, and increasing the use of AI cameras, making it much easier to police parking – (a quick swing around this area, would bring in a million or five, from nature strip parkers!) They are putting cameras on multi lane roundabouts, because no oldies know how to use them, and this is being done with zero publicity, so obviously this is being done for your safety. AI is making it much easier to police regulations. Welcome to 1985.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMz_nFHTuIw&t=7s 14mins, and there are other vids where other details are gone into.
Aren’t the hand gestures graceful! It looks like AI has conquered fingers!
20
Yes this was posted a few days back, and I pointed out that the majority of the “new” road rules have been in place for many years and are not new. The Australian road rules had not been updated since 2023, and the Victorian rules, last issue was September 2025.
The others, like not being able to park on the road facing the opposite direction of traffic, parking on footpaths, nature strips, changing lanes in the middle of a roundabout, lane filtering for motorcycles, using your mobile phone when in a car are all current rules/laws, they are not new. The other biggie, increased time zones 7am to 5pm and reduction of speed limits around school zones are just BS. Read some of the comments in the video, it’s AI BS and is doing what they want, it’s getting the attention, so likes and clicks and comments.
As I said in my response to the earlier post of this video link, this is like that video that mentions new fines for eating and drinking while driving, just more sensationalist BS. If was real wouldn’t have the media got hold of this now and we’d have heard something?
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Tying Centrelink to State based traffic rules should be enough to set off your BS detector
20
IMHO it is fake. Centrelink is under Services Australia and looks after pensions etc. Road rules and penalties are the purview of the various State governments transport and road safety departments.
40
FWIW – latest Kunstler
“CoupCoup Birds
“Literally everything the left did, every line they crossed and rule they broke, all came back to slap them in the face.” —Insurrection Barbie on “X” ”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/coupcoup-birds
00
Uhlman on the warpath.
‘Real instant calmer: electricity grid faces threat from energy transition.
‘Australia’s renewable energy roadmap relies on flawed weather data that missed wind generation plummeting to just 4 per cent capacity during multiple week-long droughts last year.’ (Oz)
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Covered in 12 above.
20
I agree that the LNP should pick the ball up and run on this.
12
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Seems to link to this?
https://docs.wind-watch.org/Boccard-Capacity-Factor-Of-Wind.pdf
10
Australia is slightly less than 30%, the U.S. slightly higher.
00
The only sensible policy is to make all generators dispatchable and have minimum bidding interval of 24 hours.
It means all WDGs have to have sufficient storage or gas plant to meet their bid capacity. Once you start doing that they arrive at a cost up around 10 times what old coal costs. That is why the smelters are shutting down.
Back in the late 1980s we bough power in Tasmania for $20.MWh. Victoria was $40/MWh and NSW $60/MWh. There was no BassLink then.
60
When the Climategate scandal erupted we thought it would bring down the edifice, but we were sadly mistaken.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/11/28/the-climategate-whitewash-continues-scandal-of-a-scandal/
22
Albo marries rent-a girlfriend. Wonder if Penny was best man?
50