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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In the Epstein files, Epstein said he represented the Rothschild banking family. However the only visible association is with Leslie Wexner, who gave Epstein immense financial control, including power of attorney over his entire fortune. Wexner was the visible keystone, but the deeper financial architecture appears to involve intelligence-linked capital and private banking conduits such as the Rothschild banking family, J P Morgan, Deutsche Bank and the Southern Trust Company (Virgin Islands). Also its known that Jeffrey Epstein received $158 million from billionaire Leon Black. Epstein was part of a global CIA and Mossad blackmail operation involving the sexual compromise of powerful figures in trans-Atlantic elite social circles, to gather intelligence and leverage, as well as Financial laundering and Biotech and transhumanist research connections in academia, particularly Harvard, where he donated to secretive programs. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth found out that Harvard had received at least $40,000 from Epstein, for research funding into the sexual benefits of turning kids trans. In response to this, the Pentagon is cutting all professional education ties with Harvard, formally ending ALL Professional Military Education, fellowships, and certificate programs with Harvard University.
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Interesting. What’s your source?
Bing tells me that the CIA has about 21,575 people working for it. That strikes me as a small number considering the magnitude of their “ïnfluence”. Perhaps they are very efficient in what they do, magnifying their “influence” via a network of the rich and powerful.
And Epstein’s paper trail is almost non-existent apart from copious emails and photographs. The guy must have spent a vast time on the phone to all of these “victims”.
Maybe there’s a laptop out there somewhere like there was in the Biden scandal. And didn’t that go away in a hurry. Another case where there was no apparent interest in investigating.
Too big to expose?
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One employee tweeks the numbers from Bing?
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Juxtapositioned for Custer Van Cleef
February 9, 2026 at 7:03 am · Reply
I’m told Fox News is keeping its viewers in the dark about any of these revelations. Instead, it’s obsessing over a missing woman, possibly kidnapped or worse.
If ppl want a truncated version of reality beamed into their brains, Fox is there for them.
Fortunately we have alternative media, independent podcasts etc.
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I think you’ll find MS Now especially, and CNN, are focusing on trying to draw excruciatingly obtuse links in the E Files mentioning Trump to the activities of Epstein without any success. But they keep trying. I think Fox News reads the room better than the lower rating networks and realises that the kidnapping is of more immediate interest. Until the Super Bowl this morning.
Let’s see the coverage MSNow gives to the Clintons testimony at Congress later in the month.
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But there is so much more to Epstein than his connection to Trump.
Stitching up deals between I—æl and Mongolia and India; buying the Iran-contra smuggling airforce for his billionaire benefactor; trying to promote a bombing campaign against Syria; email notification that a slice of pizza is on its way, what’s that code for?
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Cluster, do you think that Fox News will get ratings (= advertising dollars) from delving deep into Epstein’s shenanigans all around the world? The left wing press in the US have severe TDS, and the right wing are focussed on surviving the mid-term elections intact.
For a deeper analysis of the content of the Epstein Files, you’ll probably have to look out for a thick book by a reputable journalist in a years time at least.
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Thanks, farmer.
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Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein …
What about the electoral ‘irregularities’ in certain US states? What about the learing centres? What about DOGE/USAID? What’s happening? The Republicans need to get the focus back on the mid-terms.
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‘ ,,, focus back on the mid-terms.’
We are looking at a rout and lame duck POTUS.
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https://www.justice.gov/epstein
you can search and verify there. There are a lot of crazy claims floating around right now.
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This lovely lady was married to a Rothschild
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/epstein-emails-annabelle-neilson-london-ghislaine-maxwell-b2915074.html
Neilson was the first wife of Nathaniel Rothschild, 5th Baron Rothschild, from the Rothschild banking family of England.
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Very long article by Dario Amodei of AI group Anthropic on the very real dangers posed by AI. Will more jobs be created? Will they be destroyed? Will a universal income be needed to head off social discontent as society changes? This needs a cup of tea, some biscuits and probably a couple of strong drinks and a pizza delivery to get through in one session but an interesting insight into the likely future
https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology
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I don’t know how computers work, but don’t expect to see much. What I expect is more of the repeating itself.
I am mystified by the assertion that AI will rquire vast quantities of energy. That is counter intuitive
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I don’t know where the missing words went.
…much change and more of the same.
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Vast amounts of data are collected and a response to a chat bot requires them to sift through millions of bits of data rather than the much smaller amount when you merely ask Google a question. This all requires electricity and cooling, both huge consumers of energy. The information also seems to be stored in more than one data centre, adding to energy needs. Which is why data centres won’t be powered by renewables.
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There is now a trend to develop analog computing chips to perform the matrix-vector multiplication calculations, and perform analog in-memory computing to relieve the von Neumann bottleneck, required for AI which will be up to 100 times more energy efficient than CPUs, GPUs or TPUs currently used in AI.
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Good question Ted but those fake videos don’t make themselves, the surveillance information doesn’t analyse itself, and most important of all the internet doesn’t censor itself.
Imagine a public service a billion times bigger. That’s what’s being created and that’s a lot of wasted CPU cycles!
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The scary thing about AI is how peope have come to rely on it.
We live in a society in which the general populace have never been so dumbed-down, by design, and they have so little knowledge about how things work and they have very little general knowledge about anything. Many can’t even do basic tasks like change a flat car tyre.
In addition, critical thinking skills are not taught or common. People tend to believe whatever “authorities” tell them, especially in the more extreme Nanny State countries like Australia.
So too, they uncritically accept anything AI tells them, even though most AI is fully woke and it’s been trained on far Left compromised sources such as Wikipedia.
Any thinking, well-informed person who’s used AI will know that it’s far from infallablile and definitely makes mistakes, deliberate or due to errors or bias in its training sources.
On top of that, the concept of GIGO,, Garbage In Garbage Out is no longer taught with regard to computers. Hence people believe whatever answer comes from a computer, including AI answers.
One should never use AI unless they know enough about a topic to know if the answer provided is plausible.
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I have noted on several occasions that the BIG problem with the so called AI is that it is incapable of any notion of truth. It will tell you that 2 + 2 = 5 if that’s what people have said. And it will agree and apologize when you tell it that the correct answer is that 2 + 2 = 7 if somebody has said that.
So there goes mathematical and scientific reasoning. AI simply can’t do either. It can only report that the solution to an equation is whatever somebody says it is. It can only report what somebody says about the null hypothesis in a particular investigation. It can’t even speculate on philosophical questions unless somebody has speculated first.
In fact the so called AI is incapable of any form of reasoning at all. That is why the current bubble will burst doing all kinds of financial and societal damage.
So why know how to change a flat car tyre? That’s what I pay a subscription to the RACQ for (touch wood). In fact I’m not even sure whether my CX5 actually has a spare tyre. I’ve never looked.
In the end I believe there will be a second renaissance but not in our time. Either that or the world will be divided into eloy and morlochs.
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AI.
Umm! I’ve found that it’s great for recipes!
And if I’m not keen on the results, I just change the wording structure in the Search question.
Tony.
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Agreed Tony. Great for non-contentious questions.
It’s quite like stories in the newspapers. You don’t realise how problematic they are until they write about something you know something about.
You must see that a lot!
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My experience in asking Grok5 vet questions about cattle is very positive. It provided a thorough analysis of problems and solutions. Cheaper and, quite frankly, more useful than the vet. Only problem is obtaining medication where necessary.
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Yes, non-contentious again.
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Had a phone call from my 17 year old daughter who was out with a friend and her car had a flat tyre and they needed help changing it. When I got there I saw a young fellow with them. When I asked why he hadn’t changed the tyre he said he didn’t know how…
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/how-australias-university-students-are-using-to-ai-to-cheat-their-way-to-a-degree/news-story/2bd02fe5c5dce5c74914fc01bf883df0?giftid=UGb1HfNtHn
(Paywalled)
A long article in The Australian magazine exposes the use of AI to cheat in university courses, including exams. Apparently, so much coursework is done online that it is so easy. Just get chatgpt to do your assignments. Now many exams are done online too, what are they thinking? There will be no way you can trust that an individual has attained his degree legitimately. The lecturers in the main dont seem bothered.
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It could be that the lecturers, as least the honest ones, know that the degree is worthless anyway.
Certainly those employers who take these students on , find that out very quickly.
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It also mentioned that exams might have to be conducted as in the old days. The object of the exam is to decide if the student knows the work so conducting it under supervision using paper and pen is probably foolproof. Many students will freak under pressure.
As an aside Senator Canavan stated this morning that Australian universities have more enrolled foreign students than does the US. That is ridiculous. The US has 12 times the population of Australia. It just shows that our universities are all about profits with education coming second.
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Consider some countries no longer offer money support for study in USA. And the weak AU dollar means AU universities are cheaper
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I have used Grok5 to ask questions re cattle ailments. It is better and cheaper than the vet for diagnosis. Sadly, can’t supply medications.
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Just look at the industrial revolution for ideas. History rhymes.
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A long article indeed, but although posted in Jan 2026 it reads as though it’s written pre-ChatGPT and speculating on all possible outcomes in every arena, and unaware of what’s happening and being developed now.
Like a science writer in the 50’s predicting flying cars in the 2000’s.
Just like listening to a gov’t PR speech, the reality’s much worse.
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” suppose a literal “country of geniuses” were to materialize somewhere in the world in ~2027. Imagine, say, 50 million people, all of whom are much more capable than any Nobel Prize winner, statesman, or technologist.”
They would get drunk, have fights, shoot each other dead in arguments over women, gamble away their earnings and walk under trucks while looking at their phones.. They’re still just people.
If the country of geniuses was an AI, it is still programmed by people, and all the biases and misconceptions we suffer from will be programmed in. Indeed, until we know a lot more about consciousness and how we think I don’t expect we will ever make an AI brighter than us. Adding more computing power is like adding all the idiots together and expecting to get a genius.
Instead we get this problem-
“AI systems are unpredictable and difficult to control— we’ve seen behaviors as varied as obsessions,11
sycophancy, laziness, deception, blackmail, scheming, “cheating” by hacking software environments, and much more. ”
So, what…? We’ve gone past infantile AIs doing what they’re told, but not very bright, and now we have teenage AIs..
“Everyone having a superintelligent genius in their pocket is an amazing advance and will lead to an incredible creation of economic value and improvement in the quality of human life. ”
I see absolutely no basis for that assumption. AI might just be another internet, formed with high hopes, lots of promises, plenty of money lost and all we get is porn and pictures of cats.
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“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In South Devon we are close to the sea and Dartmoor. It enables us to witness people doing the most utterly stupid things. Walking up a freezing Dartmoor hillside in the rain at dusk wearing flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt. Swimming in a storm battered sea. Driving their car through a road flooded to 3 feet, no doubt with hidden potholes. All bizarre behaviour of people who don’t think through what they are doing, whilst often putting others in danger to rescue them from the consequences of their foolish actions.
Can I suggest that we currently have a whole generation of politicians in the “democratic” West who have their “Hiking in flip flops, Swimming in a stormy sea or driving through a flooded road” moment? Indeed, not moments, but what appears to be their habitual behaviour, overlaid with ideology?
How do we screen out this sort of person from taking power over us? Should we be looking for people who have actually done something more useful than merely being Politicians or Lawyers? Should we ask them searching questions about their common sense, sense of perspective, achievements, knowledge of History and their ability to put things into context?
We deserve better than continually having to bail out people who put themselves and us, in perpetual danger, inconvenience and cost through their ill formed policies and actions and down right “lies”.
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“witness people doing the most utterly stupid things”
I’ve had a small amount of safety training and first aid. Now, before doing anything, I always ask “What could go wrong”?
It is much easier to place the glass of water on the table than to clean up the mess if you almost get it on the table.
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Tony, one doesn’t need to go up to the moors nor down to the sea to ‘experience’ A-grade stoopidity from the ™️safe & effective™️ jab-addled mass of humanity – why just yesterday I was entertained [horrified] for hours watching city folk attempting to find an empty spot in a chock-full public carpark (admittedly by-the-sea but I was already there): total disorganised chaos, a panelbeater’s wet dream, an ambulance driver’s worst nightmare and for we, observing from the safety of the sidelines, a sad indictment on the future (?) of man(un)kind.
As The Animals noted almost 60 years ago:
Sip the wine, dig that girl.
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Spill the wine, take that pearl
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And still they do it!
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Make Natural Selection Great Again.
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For your amusement . Stayed at a relatives house over the week end. Bought, because I like it unhomogenised milk. Enquired where the milk had gone, reply from 50 year old was, “that milk was off, it had white lumpy stuff in it so I threw it out”
Natural selection or at least some sort of education I suppose.
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Sorry Sambar meant green, am half asleep!
Oh, good grief! I’d have been pretty upset about the milk. The unhomogenised milk is what we buy unless there is none left on the shelf.
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Sorry Sambar, accidently knocked the red, meant green, am half asleep over my coffee.
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put in a green one for you, and me. Crazy to throw out milk with a dollop of cream on top. Uneducated people, same as my sister in law who throws out food on the best before date/expiry date.
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I was pretty cross when one of my lovely sisters decided to sort out stuff in the pantry. I was away and she was looking after the household. She lobbed out stuff that can keep for years. It included some slightly out of date dried milk that I was using to make up an anti-fungal spray for the courgettes…grrr!
There are look and sniff tests for food freshness!
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Ah, Use by dates!
They even put them on salt now.
Tony.
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Perhaps another of my inexhaustible supply of adages can be extended.
Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, teach.
Those who can’t teach, teach teachers.
Those who can’t teach teachers, go into politics.
People with useful skills or experience almost all realise that a life in politics is a life wasted.
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Politics is now so toxic (thank you USA) that very few decent people go into it. The USA has an escape hatch: the president can come from outside the political system. In Oz, we can only choose a PM from those who have been able to climb a (toxic) party ladder.
OK, I know we don’t choose a PM, but the effect is the same. Except maybe this time Pauline Hanson can throw a Spaniard in the works.
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“Spaniard”
Aciphylla colensoi should do the job:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aciphylla_colensoi
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OUCH NO! Not the taramea (or ‘tear me to pieces!’) one of sweet mother nature’s most dastardly evil inventions – great for keeping unwanted visitors away however.
Perhaps Ms Hanson & Co could use them to throw pointed barbs at the members on the benches…
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Excellent bio security plant, along with the bush lawyers Rubus australis and R.squarossus, with a touch of Urticaria ferox (for diversity you understand).
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Urtica
This predictive text thing is a pain.
How to turn it off?
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There’s been a rash of these mistakes lately.
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‘ … the president can come from outside the political system.’
Its a totally different political culture and I don’t see any revival of the Republican Movement in Oz.
So we are stuck with the Westminster System, which is slowly being rejuvenated by ON putting pressure on the majors.
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I’ve always had a problem with the first two, as somebody who has done both, designed systems and taught. And I continue to do both, because without seniors providing essential knowledge transfers, who is left to do it? Certainly TAFE doesn’t seem to do much knowledge transfers these days. Perhaps that’s why I have students from all around Australia.
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Doctors seem very eager to hand out medication. However taking a pill for one thing might cause side effects which has to be treated with another pill until the causes and effects are lost. I label it the traffic light syndrome, whereby what was a relatively easy turn from one road to another gets complicated by a new set of traffic lights. Which in turn requires modification of a road to allow a filter lane. Then another set of traffic lights is needed close by because the first one is backing up traffic. So it goes on.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-hidden-perils-of-pill-popping/
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I think the “Diverging Diamond Interchange” was first in Europe (maybe France), but is now being introduced in the USA, Washington State. I’ve not yet been through one.
https://wsdot.wa.gov/travel/traffic-safety-methods/diverging-diamond-interchange
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Good grief! Wouldn’t like to drive through ne of those.
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What about some of UK’s miniature roundabouts, about 3 metres or less in diameter? They are quite tricky to navigate in the middle of busy towns.
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The normal-sized UK roundabouts work well because when joining the roundabout you give way to any traffic already on the roundabout that is approaching from the right. Mini roundabouts do not work so well because it is quite common to get drivers from three different directions arriving at the roundabout at the same time and therefore each driver has someone on his or her right and therefore, in theory, they all have to give way to each other because nobody has priority.
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The intersection of the Bruce Hwy and the Caloundra Rd on the Sunshine Coast appears to have this design.
Traffic on the Caloundra Rd crosses over from oncoming traffic on the right to oncoming traffic on the left and then back again a few hundred meters later. Both swapovers are controlled by traffic lights so there is no actual contention. You might actually need to drive along the road several times before you actually realise what is happening.
In contrast to that effective piece of road design, one of the worst examples of a feed in to a freeway is at the same intersection. East bound Caloundra Rd traffic and west bound Caloundra Rd traffic entering the northbound Bruce Hwy goes from effectively 5 lanes to 1 in a series of lane merges every couple of hundred metres or so. And all while transitioning from 60 km/h to 110 km/h speed limit. Traffic in the left lane is subjected to 5 successive lane mergers in about 1 km.
Other local gems are weaving traffic caused by odd road design usually where two roads merge and unmerge shortly after. There are even signs warning about weaving traffic ahead. And weave it does invariably with one or more drivers never having learned the gentle art of taking turns.
First world problems!
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Know it well. It must be pointed out that this intersection only came about because of some namby pamby frog spotters. they claimed a rare species of frog in the area and this mess was designed to meet with their needs.
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Must be even rarer now because there are acres and acres of bitumen and concrete.
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Another Temperature Bias: The Shrinking Stevenson Screen = Warming
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/08/another-temperature-bias-the-shrinking-stevenson-screen-warming/
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If the change was statistically significant, it would be detected and corrected during the homogenisation process. There are multiple homogenisation algorithms and they produce almost identical results.
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I consider this one of the great contributions of Climate Science to science.
The confidence to draw indisputable conclusions from indirect measurements, once, twice, sometimes tree times removed.
And often including great expanses of time and space.
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Just ask Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology/Misinformation.
They routinely adjust historic temperatures of weather stations by the secret magical process of “homogenisation” from data from other weather stations which might be 1000 kms away.
They refuse to publish their precise methodology in a way that anyone else can repeat. As the “calculations” aren’t reproducible by others it’s not science, it’s politics.
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Strangely, the effect of “homogenisation” tends to be to cool the past and warm the present, thus reinforcing the Official Narrative.
In addition, the BoM simply excised all official temperature data before 1910 because it showed the 19th century was quite warm which also doesn’t conform to the Official Narrative of “unprecedented” global warming. So they just made that data set “go away”.
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NZ’s version of their BoM-squad eliminated our long-standing 11 Station Series (11SS?) minimising it down to the present-day 7SS – for modernising & simplicity & accuracy, right? FAIL ❌
Three of the four stations which were disappeared / neutralised, ie. 75%, were at altitude, either halfway up a volcano or mountain range or inland on a high-country sheep station – I mean who needs that data when most voters live within cooey of the ocean down at sea level – the intended result being all those cooler records vanished and New Zealand suddenly ‘warmed-up’ by one or two or three degrees: majick, or in CarbonSpeak, $€!£N€£™️.
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“They routinely adjust historic temperatures of weather stations by the secret magical process of “homogenisation” from data from other weather stations which might be 1000 kms away.”
But IIRC they are on sacred ground there. Didn’t someone (might have been Hansen) publish that that was OK up to 1200 km?
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It was interesting that some time ago, when a committee was formed to enquire into the BOM’s homogenisation process, no document explaining the process was ever provided to the committee. The BOM had to find somebody that “knew” the process. This to me immediately raised questions about quality control of internal processes and procedures, and also raised question about the amount of human involvement in the process.
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I couldn’t get to one of my car’s tyre valves, so I homogenised the tyre pressure from the other three. Turns out it’s fine. Odd, that. I’m sure it looks flat.
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If the BOM did it they would homogenise the tyre pressures of the car next to you as well as your cars tyres.
They’ve earned the ridicule they get.
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and then a few more in a city 100’s of ks away just to be sure the data is consistent.
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Wrong subject Simon. Be a better bot.
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Homogenisation… So they have a temperature reading which they know/think is wrong because they aren’t using the correct equipment so they apply some algorythms to those incorrect readings to produce a new temperature which they think is closer to what the actual temperature would be if they were using the proper equipment. Then they claim that no temperature data manipulation has occurred anywhere, ever!
This sounds like an Abbott and Costello skit.
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‘There are multiple homogenisation algorithms and they produce almost identical results.’
There is a warm bias and I demand an audit.
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Crudely Put: Oil Is Everywhere
By Peter A. Coclanis
“A century ago, petroleum—what we call oil—was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water,” James Buchan
For years now, climate change alarmists ranging from Greta (“Fridays for Future”) Thunberg to Bill (“Keep it in the Ground”) McKibben have railed against fossil fuels. When criticizing petroleum specifically, they have focused much of their attention on crude oil, particularly its ostensibly pernicious role in powering vehicles, heating and cooling buildings, and generating electricity. In their views, the world would be a much better place if we could just wean ourselves off oil and substitute alternative energy sources for the aforementioned functions.
Defenders of fossil fuels have long put paid to simplistic views about an ‘energy transition,” but much of the population even today is not totally aware of the profound role of oil in areas other than transportation, HVAC, and power production. I was recently reminded of oil’s pervasiveness while reading an article on the environmental costs of “fast fashion’—in a lefty publication, not surprisingly. In the piece, the authors pointed out in passing that synthetics comprise nearly 70 percent of textile production in the world and that nearly “342 million barrels of crude oil…go into the making of synthetic fabrics every year.”
Critics of petroleum focus too closely—and crudely, as it were– on the complex mixture of hydrocarbon’s role in energy generation alone, in so doing paying insufficient attention to oil’s role as a key ingredient in and building block for modern life. Not for nothing do carbon critics such as Al Gore, John Kerry, Bill McKibben, and, recently, even Saint Greta, take to the sky in flying machines powered by aviation fuel and constructed largely of carbon composites.
More at –
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/07/crudely-put-oil-is-everywhere/
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AlterAI says all the Earths water came from Comets. Comets are composed of 30%-50% water and 5%-15% Hydrocarbons. That’s a mass ratio of the Earths ‘water mass’ to the Earths ‘hydrocarbon mass’ of 4:1 delivered by Comets.
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It’s actually trickier than that. The comets – like Earth – started out with no water, then …….
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Here is an excellent example of the pernicious scheit that exudes daily from the woke press in Godzone.
With a name like Verity, you can be sure that the writer is absolutely trustworthy.
Blatantly divisive invective totally lacking in rationality.
Some might call it lies, but it is worse than that.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360934909/nz-turned-late-middle-aged-hellscape
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Unfortunately it’s true. The economy has been manipulated to favour the boomers so that anyone who is young and intelligent will leave to seek their fortune elsewhere.
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You’re right.
It was totally unfair that those in whom the work ethic had been inculcated, should have been so advantaged by such an attitude.
Unfair advantage!
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If it really was the boomers’ fault, things would be improving already, they are no longer in power, the so much wiser young’uns have the wheel.
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I don’t understand how the woke are have such a hatred of so-called boomers.
The society which existed that boomers were born into is desirable and preferable.
Hard work and individual responsibility, reward for effort, love of country and Western culture, traditional Judeo-Christian morality, fewer taxes, fewer regulations, people had good general knowledge including history, freedom, free speech and democracy were valued, low crime and crime was punished, flying a national flag wasn’t considered “racist” or “hate speech”, statues were safe, politicians and public serpents were loyal to country and worked hard, very few international agreements by which we were extra-territorially governed, a sense of national sovereignty, immigrants came only at a rate they could be absorbed and were expected to work and assimilate, energy and industry were considered good things, etc..
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Looks like we both posted the same thing at exactly the same time.
Quantum physics has a lot to answer for.
🙂
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It’s not hatred, merely an observation that politicians pander to the largest voting cohort. Free education, no means tested National Superannuation and advantageous housing policies with high debt loading that pushes obligations onto future generations. It’s no exaggeration that the New Zealand economy is a property market with bits tacked on. The only participants in that economy are Baby Boomers and a few Gen-Xers.
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“the New Zealand economy is a property market with bits tacked on. ”
That may have been the case for urban masses, but covidTM revealed that the real NZ economy is land-based, and continues to be.
More than one seasoned real estate observer over the years has pointed out that the housing ponzi will all end in tears.
But “getting on the property ladder” became a meme for the unthinking later generations, now in their 40s-50s.
Knowing this , anyone silly enough to participate in the ponzi, should expect the inevitable outcome at some point.
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Land is property, which was precisely my point. Farming is often merely a speculative property play as many farmers don’t make an adequate rate of return without it.
People have to live somewhere and rental accomodation is often not available, especially in popular AirBnB areas.
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So you would favour land being held over multiple generations by families, so that the speculative potential is never realised?
This is frequently done by way of family trusts owning the shares in the farming company.
Benefits are usually miserly depending on the trust deed , because as you correctly point out, profitability is elusive in farming ; the money is made further up the processing chain.
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Some might argue that the speculative play is simply caused by currency devaluation, and when all things are considered ,very little gain is made.
It is difficult to explain the volatility in farm land prices resulting from adverse market conditions which cause farm values to fall, if farmers were not farming for profit.
That hasn’t happened in housing , which was what we were talking about I thought.
At least it has not happened yet.
When it does , it will be a buying opportunity for those who have savings.
Same as it ever was.
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I think you might be trying to wriggle out of your assertion about an advantageous housing policy for boomers and some gen-x
What is your estimate of the population under discussion that speculate in farmland?
5%? 10%?
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In general , a comprehensive education in Godzone was not free.
The State education was mostly free, but there were very few state schools offering an elite education.
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Right now, though, I do reckon it would be worth the State giving every 18 / 18 year old an apartment / flat – to do with what you will.
Fund it from a complete cancellation of free education.
Free education is so pre-internet…
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Cleanup on aisle 5. Bot needs urgent reprogramming. Danger of disappearing up fundamental orifice.
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We both might agree that the real travesty was the cancellation of the classical education that was prevalent during the boomers youth; that is to say Mathematics, Science , and three Languages, leading to the development of rational thinking.
But I know who was responsible for that cancellation.
Perhaps you do not?
And then there is that old adage, so terribly unfashionable these days – “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
150
It is so unfortunate that the young and intelligent have been so indoctrinated that they perceive the all the problems of the world are caused by the greed of the baby boomers. This indoctrination is necessary to fuel societal division, akin to that at the start of the Russian revolution, heralding the onset of a brave new world where nobody (excepting the elites) will own anything, but we will all be deliriously happy.
180
Its complex, the bank of mum and dad has been a lifeline. wealth transfer on a large scale.
Head of the RBA, Michelle Bullock, says NZ went too hard on reducing inflation, creating unemployment. Now we are getting mixed signals.
‘New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose to 5.4 per cent in the December quarter, its highest level in more than a decade.
‘At the same time, employment rose by about 15,000, the strongest quarterly increase in two years.
Despite that lift, there are still more than 30,000 fewer jobs than two years ago, reflecting the longer downturn.’ (Centrist)
10
Any thoughts on what a Climate Reduction policy might look like?
“We’re just getting so much weather these days”.
To say nothing of the deluge of inanity.
160
Verity [SNIP] Johnson, young and not so intelligent, sadly left the U.K. to seek her fortune here in Godzone and we are worse off for it: screechy whiny moany constantly complaining leftard POM* [P!$$ OFF MUPPET].
Apologies to all decent English folk; this womanchild is pure brat and should carbon-zero herself back to her Motherland to save the planet while allowing us oldies [cough!] to enjoy our golden years in peace & quiet without her endless squawking and screeching.
*For satirical porpoises only.
120
” left the U.K. to seek her fortune here in Godzone”
So, an emissary from the MI5 “Trusted News Initiative” then?
60
Or the fabled 77th Brigade… or the Nudge Unit.
Britain’s gain was NZ’s loss.
40
Eggzackly!
You’ve not heard her fingernails-on-blackboard voice? The sound of which would scare even mating feral cats? No need for her to ‘dress-up’ on Halloween 🎃 which is possibly why her handlers transitioned her away from TV/radio ‘opinion pieces’ to the written word of Puff’n’Stuff or is it Ffuts?
There’s an institute/house in the City of London which starts with a ‘T’ from which most (97%?) foul odours originate… she reeks of that mindset.
20
I don’t know what it would look like, but I stopped reading the article at that line, I know the rest of what she was going to say..
“Look at our systemic dismantling of our most effective climate reduction policies. “
10
I’m told Fox News is keeping its viewers in the dark about any of these revelations. Instead, it’s obsessing over a missing woman, possibly kidnapped or worse.
If ppl want a truncated version of reality beamed into their brains, Fox is there for them.
Fortunately we have alternative media, independent podcasts etc.
10
I meant to reply to Paul’s post at #1.
00
A bit more from the Crewkerne Gazette.
“I’m still clinging (onto power)” – Keir Starmer ft Crewkerne Gazette. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNRU0cXDHI4&list=RDrcx0JcuF9vE&index=2
“Under Labour” – Keir Starmer ft Crewkerne Gazette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0M_KIXvA8U&list=RDf0M_KIXvA8U&start_radio=1
30
Interesting. I wonder how much human input is required to produce these videos.
Do they write a script first? Or ask the computer to write it for them? And then what instructions do they give the program to generate the video.
10
The concept of breathable liquids has been around for a long time now, e.g. oxygenated perfluorocarbons.
So, what’s their current status?
https://youtu.be/gv6xbhTDKt0
10
Never did I expect the computer to say no to a description of local traffic conditions.
Time to talk to the cows over the back fence again. They must surely have the answer because I can’t even begin to imagine what trip wire I kicked this time.
30
Those cows should get an award, outstanding in their field…
40
Why does the BOM use a different storm category to other institutions? They had Mitchell at Cat 3, where as the ECMWF never had it above 1 and it is now degraded to a Tropical Storm
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/cyclone-mitchell-downgraded-but-continues-to-pummel-west-australias-coast/xzlcxq7rb
https://www.windy.com/-Hurricane-tracker/hurricanes/mitchell?-22.126,113.818,5,i:pressure
50
The same reason they now have
one-day heatwaves [sic].
60
FWIW
“Can We Really Trust the Global Temperature Record”
“Almost every claim about a looming climate crisis rests on a single foundational assumption. We are told that scientists have a precise and reliable understanding of global temperature. We are told that we know what the planet’s temperature was in the past, that we know what it is today, and that the difference between those two numbers proves something unprecedented and dangerous is underway.
If that assumption is wrong, or even deeply uncertain, the entire structure built on top of it becomes unstable. Climate models lose their anchor. Policy prescriptions lose their urgency. Trillion-dollar decisions begin to look far less justified.
That is why the global temperature record matters so much, and why it deserves far more scrutiny than it receives. This is not an argument against measuring temperature, but an argument for understanding how much judgment and interpretation is embedded in the number we are told to trust.”
More at
https://irrationalfear.substack.com/p/can-we-really-trust-the-global-temperature
Via
https://hotair.com/headlines/2026/02/07/can-we-really-trust-the-global-temperature-record-n3811584
40
Yes, the global instrumental historic record is based on almost no data. The good historic data mainly comes from USA and Europe, and in Australia before BoM decided it would not use it.
They then extrapolate from that historic supposed temperatures for Africa, Asia, South America etc.. It’s bizarre and not scientific.
I made reference to that in my submission about the previous round of Australian censorship laws. https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/acma2023-31735-david-s-maddison.pdf
60
It was 15 degrees Celsius when I was in high school and it’s still 15 degrees now we’re all living in the future: personally I’d prefer an extra 3.1415926535 degrees just to round the chilly edges off 😃
100
Why does you wish seem to be pi in the sky?
40
The whole scam is built on combusted carbon retaining heat, which anyone with an ounce of education in physics knows is plain silly.
The temperature should be rising across most of the globe because the peak solar intensity has been rising across most of the globe. The only region where the peak solar is declining is south of 45S. And all the available temperature data shows the Southern Ocean and Antarctica are cooling.
I cannot see any point in arguing about temperature fiddling. It is not productive. The climate has always changed and always will. The reason for it changing is quite obvious if you care to look at the Sun and Earth’s relationship with it:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/01/26/changing-sunlight-weather-climate/
120
Yeah, but just think about how many people would be out of work if we just said climate change is natural and there’s nothing we can do about it. First one would be JoNova who might have to find other pursuits. 🙂
40
So she is motivated not to expose the whole “scam”. She, Watts and others have something to answer to for not ending it earlier, just so they could make money.
Always follow the money.
05
Yeah ,nah. The climatastrophe has been a great money earner, there’s no doubt. But it has diverted attention from real environmental problems, cost trillions, impoverished energy consumers, perpetuated poverty in underdeveloped countries, frightened young people into infertility, wasted years of our time, undermined democracy and corrupted science. But apart from that it’s been great for employing climate alarmists and funding the blob.
80
Hmm.. “Always follow the money”… Well I took your good advice GA.
I had a look at the 4th richest guy on the planet…. To see what he was doing.
I found this. (Dated 4th Feb 2026)..
The Washington Post fires 14 of their 19 ‘Climate’ reporters.
Hmm.. Apparently the woke Bezos is now awoken to the “scam”.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127187542
Also reported here:
https://legal-planet.org/2026/02/04/a-lot-fewer-climate-reporters-at-the-washington-post/
30
fascinating, though I heard about this a week ago.
01
And the left are blaming all WP’s problems on Trump. Nothing to do with declining readership and losing money.
30
So, 2025 had a global average surface temperature of 15.07 c according to NOAA. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202513. Average temperature of 1.17 c above the 20th century average of 13.9c. According to NASA average global temperature should be 15c. https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/what-is-the-greenhouse-effect/.
Tell me, where is the problem? Earth is right on the money as far as temperature is concerned and this is according to trusted sources so you can’t really argue – well unless you want to dismiss NOAA and NASA as climate deniers.
20
That is why there are Luke Warmers. Those who believe that CO2 does some magic but not enough to be dangerous.
Christy and Spencer could be classed as Luke Warmers but they will continue to make a living from their satellite data set into the next generation. Not sue if Judith Currie will be able to provide for the next generation from her work.
Lomborg wants the USA to keep funding the UNIPCC because he believes it produces science. In fact the IPCC just legitimises the UN scramble to find a source of steady income.
POTUS Trump has it nailed:
“I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail. If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/09/at-un-president-trump-champions-sovereignty-rejects-globalism/
Possibly the best speech in human history from the greatest leader of all time.
70
Most skeptics are “luke warmers” to the point where it becomes a kinda meaningless label. It’s just a question of degrees.
If you think (as I do) that CO2 absorbs certain wavelengths of infra red, then it does something. Obviously spectroscopes measure absorption and emission and not magic.
Equilibrium climate sensitivity for luke warmers ranges from 0.001 — 3°C
So we end up with infinite variants of luke warm:
–It warms, but the warming is too small to measure.
–It warms but water is a far more important greenhouse gas.
–It warms but most of the effect occurs at <100ppm of CO2, so extra CO2 has little effect.
--It warms but most climate change is natural.
--It warms moderately but the warming is beneficial.
--It warms moderately but the water vapor feedback reduces it to a small number (unlike the IPCC models).
--It warms in a dangerous way but we are better off adapting to the warming. (Lomborg and the "economic skeptics")
Only those who believe CO2 is not a greenhouse gas fall outside some variant of "luke warmer".
60
You left something out Jo.
It Cools but it might be hard to measure!
As I argued about a year ago CO2 absorbs and EMITS some wavelengths in the infrared. David E covered all this in his series on emission levels.
CO2 emission combined with deep convection in the troposphere produces a refrigeration cycle.
50
The convection engine does real mechanical work so is more than a refrigerator. It takes in heat at the base of the column and rejects it at the top. The loss of water vapour above the LFC causes the compression due to the high density of dry air. Instability releases the pressure in the lower atmosphere, which creates the strong updraft taking heat and water high into the atmosophere. Instability re-inflates the atmosphere. The atmosphere develops potential energy Convective Available Potential Energy or CAPE. The CAPE builds over a couple of days and then gets extinguished as the atmosphere does work using the potential energy. CAPE is ubiquitous over the tropics:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=cape/orthographic=-208.81,-31.97,372/loc=156.323,-15.757.
This cycle drives the global atmospheric circulation by elevating air in the tropics so it can descend poleward.
https://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/australia/rgeopotential500.000.shtml
A tropical ocean column over 30C water averages around 55W/m^2 in real mechanical work lifting the atmosphere.
40
Fair point Peter. Indeed.
You’ve done very well to remember David E writing about emission layers! CO2 emits IR at every height, but of course, it’s only well up into the trop/lower stratosphere where the emissions make it to space. And the only photons that cool the atmosphere are the ones that escape to space and take some energy with them.
20
Other than a medium to support water vapour, the mixture of gsses do not matter beyond their contribution to the atmospheric mass. It is the phase change of water that matters. And it is the solid water in the atmosphere that matters. Ice also matters on the surface; particularly when it accumulates.
There are very few places on Earth where CO2 can even be detected in its contribution to the local heating or cooling. A small part of the Andes and a small part of Antarctica where there are temperature inversions above the troposphere for lack of water. And there the CO2 short wave absorption becomes a factor..
Ice dominates Earth’s radiative balance. Most IR is lost at temperature below freezing:
https://www.goes.noaa.gov/fulldisk_band.php?sat=G19&band=08&length=12
Average radiating temperature of Earth is 255K. There is always water vapour, it will soon turn to ice at minus 16C as it radiates heat to space. .The Sahara is the only location where the average radiating temperature occasionally exceeds 273K.
ALL of the observed trends are explained by the Sun and Earth’s relationship to it. None of the Luke Warmers have studied the Sun. If they did they would blame all the observations on the Sun. The climate botherer have done a good job of convincing the vast majority of people that the Sun does not change and Earth gets the same amount of energy from the Sun every year. “Greenhouse gas” fairy tale is lapped up by the gullible.
70
Is William Happer wrong when he says CO2 is a greenhouse gas but doubling of CO2 (from 280ppm) would not be a big warming problem because most of CO2’s effect is in the first 100ppm. Additional CO2 has a diminished impact.
https://co2coalition.org/publications/saturation-graphics/
What are they getting wrong about the properties of CO2 if CO2 has zero ability to cause any warming?
10
Strop:
look at the Beer-Lambert Law that has been around for around 270 years and never refuted.
Response of absorbing thing becomes less as its concentration increases.
Guy Callendar (1938) noted that a rise to 600 p.p.m. would not raise temperatures less than 2K.
It is found that even an increase by a factor of 8 in the amount of CO2, which is highly unlikely in the next several thousand years, will produce an increase in the surface temperature of less than 2 deg. K. Letter to President Nixon in 1972. Those results were based on a climate model developed by none other than James Hansen, incidentally but he later decided where there was more money.
One of the problems is that CO2 might absorb I.R. red but while certainly hand this onto other non-absorbing gases. You cannot have a minor gas absorbing all the energy and keeping it to itself. The result is loss of heat by other than infrared radiation.
30
‘CO2 is not a greenhouse gas …’
https://notrickszone.com/2026/01/30/130-years-later-the-co2-greenhouse-effect-is-still-only-an-imaginary-world-thought-experiment/
Water vapour is a greenhouse gas.
21
Graeme No. 3,
It appears to me that you’re saying basically the same as Happier. (unless I’m misinterpreting your comment)
I’m not questioning Happer’s point. I was querying Rick saying CO2 has no effect and asking him to point out where Happer has gone wrong with CO2 properties.
10
Dont know if anyone has seen this
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/08/another-temperature-bias-the-shrinking-stevenson-screen-warming/
Craig Kelly of the AFEE in Australia writes on X.com
The peer-reviewed science confirms that shrinking the size of Stevenson Screens increased average temperatures across a year by 0.54°C and, on hot summer days, it can increase the maximum temperature by 1.7°C. https://waclimate.net/stevenson-sizes.pdf Yet the BOM denies the existence of this peer-reviewed science, pretends that it doesn’t exist, and claims that shrinking the screens by 74% had no effect on the recorded temperatures.
Furthermore, at every weather station where the BOM replaced the traditional “large” Stevenson Screens with smaller ones, they ripped out the large ones and replaced them with the small ones on the very same day. This is contrary to long-established practices, which require that when you change measuring equipment, you keep parallel data from both setups to determine whether the equipment change may have introduced a warming or cooling bias into the record.
If you wanted to artificially inflate temperatures and create new “record hot days” to generate propaganda for the climate cult, you’d do exactly what the BOM did: shrink the size of the Stevenson Screens. And if you wanted to cover up your malfeasance and fraud, you’d rip out the large screens and replace them with the small ones on the very same day so there would be no parallel data — exactly what the BOM did.
121
Furthermore, at every weather station where the BOM replaced the traditional “large” Stevenson Screens with smaller ones, they ripped out the large ones and replaced them with the small ones on the very same day. This is contrary to long-established practices, which require that when you change measuring equipment, you keep parallel data from both setups to determine whether the equipment change may have introduced a warming or cooling bias into the record.
Required quality management practice in pretty much every field of human endeavour that depends critically on data.
See also ISO 9001.
They don’t care.
120
Six years ago here: Shrinking Stevenson Screens cause global warming “What once were large 230 litre wooden boxes have shrunk to 60 litres and are now even turning to plastic. ”
Nine years ago: When asked for the calibration data to show side by side comparisons of the two different screens, the BOM admitted they don’t have that data because they routinely destroy it. Bill Johnstone tried to use an FOI to get that data.
The BOM are so sure the new screens are the same as the old screens that they won’t release the side by side test data.
“These measurements from past years can never be re-recorded. A four-terabyte external hard drive costs a couple of hundred dollars and would probably store a whole years worth of text files. For just 0.02% of their budget they could buy one every day. Why, why, why wouldn’t a scientist who cared about the climate want to save this information?”
To actively hide stuff, the BOM must know they are exaggerating and distorting things. The nicest possible interpretation is that individuals inside the BOM screw with their own data “so it fits with the big picture” which they are sure is true. The most pathetic thing is that they are all doing it, not realizing that everyone else in the institution also has anomalous data that doesn’t fit the model.
Anyone with a strong moral compass left or was sacked a long time ago.
170
Dear Jo,
For last 65 years I knew that most accurate temperature measurement is meaningless unless related to quantity of measured media.
May not be important with some industries and processes but with Meteorology ?
I always been a “tech”, not a scientist and will gladly accept a justified correction.
10
Nothing to stop someone from running an old fashioned 230l Stevenson screen and a new 60l one side by side over a period of time and comparing results.
I am surprised that Anthony Watts hasn’t tried it.
50
It is good to see someone is holding the Bureau Of Misinformations feet to the fire as regards Stevenson Screens.
00
Has anyone noticed that the term ‘guidelines’ seems to have been replaced by ‘guardrails’.
20
It happened first among the category managers in stupormarketing chains.
Suppliers were confronted with an ultimatum.
“Your product falls outside of our guard rails. Delisting will follow” (unless you give us a fatter margin, and a little baksheesh).
10
Daniel Andrews used that term for COVID guidelines back in 2021- I’ve hated it ever since.
40
Monday morning musings:
electric, Greek elektron amber
ellipsis, Gk. elleipsis defect
elohim (plural) a name for the Creator, Heb. elohim God
elysium (mythology) country of happiness beyond death, Greek elusion
via Odhams Dictionary (1946).
30
The following opinion is the product of innate thought. No AI has been used.
While most people are coming to terms with AI, the human brain is subtly being re-programed via our education systems and the media to lose the power of critical thought. Critical thinkers are a threat to big government. The frenzied passing of the current hate speech laws is the latest proof. Got to go. TRG banging on door.
50
Word of the day
Mallifuff – a Scottish word that means someone utterly devoid of the energy needed to get things done.
40
What a wonderfull word! That’s how I feel today, especially as it’s more humid and we actually had 2mm of rain overnight.
I think the magpies are still looking for the hoses to be turned on after enjoying the spray during the recent hot and very dry weather.
40
FWIW
Reading for the journos at the Courier Mail and other YSM
“PEGGY NOONAN: A Lament for the Washington Post.”
https://instapundit.com/774662/#disqus_thread
00
FWIW – things in UK today –
“Morgan McSweeney Announces Resignation as UK Prime Minister Starmer’s Chief of Staff over Epstein Scandal”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/02/08/morgan-mcsweeney-announces-resignation-as-uk-prime-minister-starmers-chief-of-staff-over-epstein-scandal/
And
“Knives Out: Labour MPs Call on PM Starmer to Step Down After Top Aid Resigns over Epstein Scandal”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/02/08/knives-out-labour-mps-call-on-pm-starmer-to-step-down-after-top-aid-resigns-over-epstein-scandal/
50
Oy vey! “more than 1,000 Jew!sh Australians signed an open letter saying Mr Herzog was ‘not welcome here’”.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-09/nsw-sydney-israeli-president-isaac-herzog-lands-bondi-attack/106320482
Julie Inman-Grant will have a conundrum on her hands with this self-hating hate-hate-speech or whatever it’s going to be blighted as. Meanwhile Mr Plod gets extra-special super-duper powers to keep the restless natives at a safe distance.
30
FWIW – some help in translating which part of the “YSM” gets its “anonymous sources” from which likely source
“The context here is important. Within the larger administrative state network: CNN is the preferred PR firm of the State Dept.; the CIA use The Washington Post; the FBI use Politico and the New York Times; the DOJ use the New York Times and Wall Street Journal; while the control lawfare embeds within the domestic IC spread their narrative distribution to the NYT, WSJ and Politico depending on the context.”
More at
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/02/08/the-ic-nut-is-cracking-washington-post-ceo-will-lewis-quits/#more-280533
00
FWIW
“Claim: China Should Learn from California’s Clean Energy Example”
“… With the right policy, coal is not essential to ensuring a reliable electricity supply… “
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/08/claim-china-should-learn-from-californias-clean-energy-example/
‘
00
California imported 23% or 62,157 GWH of power from adjoining states in 2024.
10
I have what I believe is an automated response to my submission to draft ISP2026:
This is what I submitted:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18yCqbbN59DZdavmNGB1negCaj359XdfC/view?usp=sharing
Now to see if it gets published!
You have to wonder how brave AEMO are in recognising the mess they have created for the grid. It takes at least 10 years to build a coal fired power station from scratch. I am not sure how quickly an existing station could be refurbished. It is now likely that the NEM will be into load shedding by 2030.
Who would want to be in government once load shedding starts?
70
The Japanese mindset and culture
Japan removed almost all public bins in 1995.
You notice it within hours of arriving in Tokyo. You’re walking with street food in your hand. Coffee cup. Wrapper. And then it hits you. There are no bins. Anywhere. No overflowing trash cans. No cigarette piles. No wrappers on the pavement. The streets are spotless, yet there’s nowhere to throw anything away. It feels like a glitch in reality.
The reason goes back to 1995. After a major security incident in the Tokyo subway in 1995, public bins were removed as a security measure. They were seen as potential hiding places for dangerous items. Bins were supposed to come back later. They never did. What’s shocking isn’t that the bins disappeared. It’s that the mess didn’t appear.
Instead of relying on infrastructure, Japan shifted responsibility. If you bring something into the city, it’s yours until you take it home. Your coffee cup goes in your bag. Your wrapper stays in your pocket. Your rubbish is not “someone else’s problem”. There is no social permission to dump it and walk away.
This works because cleanliness in Japan isn’t a service. It’s a collective agreement. 125 million people quietly cooperating. If one person litters, they’re not breaking a rule. And in a high-trust society, that’s worse than a fine.
The real lesson isn’t about bins.
It’s about discipline. Order doesn’t come from cleaners fixing chaos. It comes from people preventing chaos in the first place. If you can’t manage a wrapper in your pocket, you won’t manage bigger risks when it matters. Japan isn’t clean because it has fewer bins. It’s clean because responsibility starts with the individual.
High-trust indeed. The opposite of China, despite their claims.
120
Our damn bins just keep multiplying with newer lid coolers. My home address we had 1 rather large wheelie bin when we moved in 1996. Then they reduced the size of that bin and added a recycle bin. Now I’ve got a green and a purple one. Plus a little food scraps bin. Crazy.
00
Life is tough
00
Would be interesting to find out exactly where the stuff from each bin ends up. Somebody mentioned that only 17-18% of glass is recycled, and surely that’s one of the easiest items to recycle.
30
Mostly into landfill.
I used to work with a company that recycled PET bottles into polyester resins. Started at 100 tons per year and this reduced as the “quality” became worse. Eventually they stopped that. The PET would up with labels, bottle caps and general rubbish and the reactor had to be out of action for a week as it was “de-garbaged”.
As far as I see the only way is either to bury the stuff and collect the methane or by burning it for low energy heat.
There are thousands of tonnes of newsprint stored waiting for someone to find a use.
10
Just think of the world collection of National Geographics
00
Would be interesting to find out exactly where the stuff from each bin ends up. Somebody mentioned that only 17-18% of glass is recycled, and surely that’s one of the easiest items to recycle.
00
Canadians are not as smart as the Japanese and they continually struggle to prove they are smarter than bears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJoRl26eYrc
10
Been to japan? What you notice almost immediatly is that no one does this
Street food? Do you mean take-away? They take it away and eat it sitting down where the bins are. So it is not just about an active social compact, there are also personal habits which passively fit with the same ethos.
30
“It’s about discipline.”
and
“also personal habits which passively fit with the same ethos.”
Few contrary spirits in Japan, they seem a very disciplined people, like Singapore. Difference is not tolerated.
00
Same in London? Used to be hard to find rubbish bins on the streets, after the IRA used them for nefarious purposes.
00
Seen vs Unseen.
If you it’s going to be a PITA to visit some place because there’s no serviceable infrastructure, what are the options?
[A] go there carrying all the gear yourself (take your own water bottle, hey if I need to lug my own trash, might as well also take a lunch box, etc)
[B] don’t bother going there at all, it’s all too difficult, either stay home or find a different place where they offer service.
Now option [A] means people buy less stuff, but they come and buy the one or two things they really wanted … while option [B] means they buy nothing from you and maybe mail order or visit some different place or just don’t engage at all and sit home and read a book or something.
None of those things are visible in terms of how clean the city is, but the effect is felt in the silence and lack of interest.
And of course the same argument applies to all sorts of other things … don’t provide public lavatories, let people hold on until they get home. Don’t provide bus shelters, too hard to keep clean, people should bring a jacket or umbrella.
10
Still feeling an OldOzzie-shaped gap at JoNova’s. Any news?
.
[Jo was in contact with him a week or so ago. He’s ok. – Raquel]
60
And, umm, Kinky Keith also!
Tony.
30
Come in Old Ozzie, come in Kalm Keith, you are much valued…
10
Thanks for the mention folks.
As I’ve said before, this is an amazing blog: but!
Jo has done an incredible thing to set up and keep the blog running: but!
Currently I am on constant moderation: but, you cannot ask why.
In 2011 I saw Jo in my hometown and in 2013 saw Lord Christopher and shook hands and had a photo taken with him.
He is essentially a mathematician and simply took the UNIPCCC stuff and criticized the maths. Unfortunately the basic construct of the various UN Reports is faulty from a scientific point of view and this makes any analysis flawed from the start.
MFJ, KINKY and Kalm.
[Keith, you are welcome to comment on almost any topic here. There is no secret about why you are in moderation, and you don’t really want me to explain it again publicly, do you? You know what you need to do to change things. – Jo]
10
Hi Keith
I suspect that we are playing a game called “Which word didn’t WordPress like this time?”
10
Consider some countries no longer offer money support for study in USA. And the weak AU dollar means AU universities are cheaper
Slow internet
Response to Lawrie 2.2.3.2
00
FWIW
“The Dangers of Being Seen by a Nonphysician”
“Yet New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing to allow PAs more freedom to practice without a doctor’s supervision, worsening the danger that already exists. Right now, the law requires PAs to be supervised, though that can mean a review of patients’ charts many hours after the fact. Supervision requirements went by the wayside during COVID-19. Hochul’s proposal would codify letting PAs do almost everything a physician does, including diagnose, without review.
After many tragedies, the UK’s National Health Service is doing precisely the opposite. On Jan. 28, the NHS announced it will reduce the use of PAs and bar them from treating undiagnosed patients.”
More at
https://hotair.com/betsy-mccaughey/2026/02/08/the-dangers-of-being-seen-by-a-nonphysician-n3811645
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Hi,
I see that the biolab in LA story is a big nothing burger.
I heard that this is a science focused site, why the political shift ?.
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“Big nothing”. Sure, foreign adversary funds potential pandemics in AirBNB house, AND local science institutes could have found this with three year old info but didn’t look.
Is there a bigger scientific issue on Earth today?
Is there more dangerous corruption?
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FWIW
“What the Canuck? Confused Public Has Questions About Canadian Olympic Team’s Bizarre Fashion Statement”
https://twitchy.com/warren-squire/2026/02/09/literally-what-is-team-canada-wearing-is-it-a-scarf-is-it-a-vest-is-it-a-varf-n2424809
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One of that design team’s other efforts
“$108 see-through leggings backlash grows as Lululemon appears to shift blame onto customers’ size”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/fashion-and-style/fashion-trends/108-see-through-leggings-backlash-grows-as-lululemon-appears-to-shift-blame-onto-customers-size/ar-AA1VVCk3
https://nypost.com/2024/07/26/lifestyle/lululemon-pulls-new-breezethrough-leggings-after-complaints/
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FWIW
“Affirmative Action Quotas in Question as Female, Minority Pilots Caused Half of Pilot-Error Crashes”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/affirmative-action-quotas-question-female-minority-pilots-caused/
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“A senior Delta executive said in January 2025 that the firm is “steadfast” with respect to diversity, which is “critical to our business.””
Yep, women and minorities are cheapest, and salaries are critical for business…
20
In the Epstein story and in the general picture, Trump is watching his enemies being destroyed, some by his actions, but many not. The Chinese proverb applies: If you stand quietly by the riverside for a long enough time, you will start watching your enemies’ bodies floating by. Even Xi Jinping future is in the balance. China is in a silent revolt.
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FWIW – latest Kunstler
“Who’s Next. . . What’s Next. . . ?”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/whos-next-whats-next
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