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
Two recent articles posted by your favourite catastrophe organisation, with a few omissions, fractures in logic and lots of cherry picking:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-08/why-renewables-are-getting-cheaper-all-the-time/7826876
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-09/catastrophic-loss-of-wilderness-on-planet-earth/7819362
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Planet Earth has lost one tenth of its area of wilderness since 1993.
Take the Trans Siberian Express. The largest country on earth by far and no one lives there, not East of the Urals. Then Antarctica, the size of South America and no one lives there.
As for Europe, it looks great, but the landscape is made by man, but is that so bad, so evil? People need to live somewhere and as they crowd into cities, the country is farmed but we cannot eat trees. I doubt you could argue that the Steppes of Russia or the plains of the mid west of America or central Australia were devastated by man? Or Egypt or the Middle East, where a blade of grass is to be photographed and treasured? The world has not been devastated by man. This is a myth.
As for the ‘wilderness’ area, this is pushing Brazil as the single largest forest area in the world. Not by a long way. Russia is the ‘lungs of the world’. The other half is actually on the ocean surface where phytoplankton are the world’s biggest farm, supplying half the world’s oxygen, as much as all the grasses and trees of the world.
I could thoroughly recommend a train trip across Russia. You can tell the time zone from the tree species as endless forest flies past. Also hot water is provided within a certain radius of a city centre like Ekaterinberg. Outside that radius, survival is difficult. So outside the area, wolves, bears and even Siberian tigers rule in the endless forests.
This is just the usual ABC beat up, that man is evil and Tony Abbott is the most evil man in the universe and the reason Turnbull is such a flop as Turnbull had no policies of his own and does not care for Tony’s. His monumental deal with the Greens fell through at the last moment, leaving him covered in guacomole. His thousand year rule as President of his Liberal Green Turnbull party did not happen. Now he has no policies and no party. He only has his ABC and they are getting impatient.
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“devastated by man”?
They say “we”. But they mean “you”.
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This is exactly it. What’s been left out is the Arctic, Antarctic, the South American plateaus lika Atacama Desert. large swaths of Siberia, Africa most of Asia and whatnot. So much actual wilderness has been left out that the 10% is likely well below 1%. It sounds just like our rising temperatures and hottest months on record mantra.
Go here to see the map they have used: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30993-9.
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Yes, they are talking about 10% of 10%, 1%. Russia and Alaska (used to be Russia) account for perhaps 20% of the total land area. Add Antartic and you are talking 33million km2 out of 150million km2. Add another 10million for Canada alone. Where are they devastated? Watch the Revenant or Liam Neeson in The Grey. Endless forests. Then the band of deserts including the Sahara (Arab word for desert), Namibia, Australia and great swathes of the Americas. No, this is all political fantasy pushed for political reasons by very politically active Malcolm’s ABC. Certainly not our ABC even thought they want more and more money, like all bureaucracies.
You also have to love ABC people denying they know the politics of ABC journalists. Everyone else knows. All Greens pushing for a takeover of Australia by Green activists who just want to stop everything. No borders, no electrical power, no farmers, no miners, no cars, no food and long holidays over Christmas where no one works. Happy people like them, paid to do nothing but tell stories about their dream time, $1Million a year for Ms Guthrie to run 5,000 people, many times the salary of the heads of the armed forces who each have 10x as many people. Twice the salary of our PM and much more than the President of the US. An utter disgrace, their ABC.
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Sell it. If it is worthless, what good does it do for $1Bn a year? If it is worth big money, why should we keep paying? As former head Mark Scott said, we are not North Korea. We do not need a government media.
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The ABC is like renewable energy, it can’t survive without taxpayer subsidies.
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There is also evidence that, just about the time of Columbus and earlier, wide swaths of the S American rain forest were, um, farms. The people would cut and burn, and grow the crops on the soil amended by the burned bits of forest, crop, etc. Some of the N American peoples did the same.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/01/searching-amazons-hidden-civilizations
http://www2.nau.edu/~alcoze/for398/class/pristinemyth.html
Of course the eco-nuts hate this idea, but all those people who built those amazing cities had to eat something a bit more than ferns and fish.
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Eh no. Wrong. They appear to have neglected the inclusion of a trifling 71% of “Planet Earth” covered by water, which renders the fraction theoretically lost a considerably smaller, 0.029%.
This if course garners less attention.
On the other hand we have the idea that Earth’s biomass has grown by 15% in the last century, a steady beneficial greening leading to a growth of the carbon sink, theoretically aided and abetted by CO2 and N2 – see The Structure, Distribution, and Biomass of the World’s Forests
Yude et al. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 2013. 44:593–622
And then there is are the recent satellite obs by NASA nicely outlined here, NASA – The Earth is getting Greener and commented (below) by Matt Ridley, here The Greening of the Planet
It seems that the propaganda meisters over at the State mediocracy of the ABC are paid far too much.
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You’re quite correct, the oceans and seas are legitimate wilderness areas.
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“the oceans and seas are legitimate wilderness areas”
They certainly are when you are at sea level, days from land with a sea level 360 degree horizon and waiting for a decent breeze to fill your sails so that you don’t have to use that dreadfully evil fossil fuel in the tanks.
🙂
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Guys,
Please, you are violently agreeing with each other. Time for this to stop, before peace breaks out.
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the mammoth pirates
In Russia’s north, there is a new goldrush under way …
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Very interesting Handjive.
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All you Aussies keep cool and don’t let that awful global warming get to you. Beware of duck-billed platypuses and coastal taipans.
I’ve been practicing hanging upside-down from my oak tree. That way I’ll be used to it when I come down to visit.
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Actually we are on top of the world. Yours is the heavy side, so it must be on the bottom.
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Watch out for the deadly drop bears. Poison hind claw.
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Triggered SJW’s are more of a threat lately, but you can usually chase them off with the truth and a big stick…..
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Just carry and show a photo of Milo Yiannopoulos and the SJWs will run screaming in terror. 🙂
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Milo confuses them to no end, they wildly promote his lifestyle while abhorrent to his politics, doublethink in action. LOL 🙂
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We have a saying – “On Top Down Under”.
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Ummm, that …sounds…. dirty.
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You will likely find that the real Australians are genuine, honest, and friendly folk.
I wouldn’t trust the white fellas, though!
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And those darn Kiwi invaders.. !!!
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Freezing my butt off here in Victoria , how about some of that global warming stuff you’ve been promising .
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G’day,
A word, for your consideration. AUTODIDACT
From the Oxford Dictionary of English iPad ap.
Seems to apply for a number of contributers here, and can be worn as a badge of honour.
Cheers,
Dave B
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Self taught is great so long as one is not also self assessed
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Or self obsessed.
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“Or self obsessed.”
That’s a cruel thing to say to Gee. !!
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Self obsessed is someone who self proclaims to be an autodidact.
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This is all so confusing.
I’m curious though, what is the word for someone that is self un-taught?
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Ignorant.
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Does anyone know whats become of The Griss? Apologies if this has been previously broached.
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I believe the spirit of the Griss still haunts us in the metaphysical sense 😉
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Just reminded myself of an interesting article I read the other day ‘Why Science Should Stay Clear of Metaphysics’ about van Fraassen the inventor of “constructive empiricism,”
For those feeling a bit masochistic on a Sunday.
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I still am.
I still read JoNova occasionally.
But I now have a yummy young lady, and have FAR better things to do.
Cheers to all.
And keep hammering the CAGW scummers into the primordial sewer where they belong.
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Ahh, good to hear Griss. Enjoy the FAR better things 😉
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the Griss September 11, 2016 at 7:16 pm ·
“I still am. I still read JoNova ccasionally.”
Hi ya guy Welcome back!
“But I now have a yummy young lady, and have FAR better things to do. Cheers to all.”
That is excellent! When ‘she’ gets a bit tired of you, Please politely ask ‘her’ to report here! We much need more opinion from those with different plumbing!
“And keep hammering the CAGW scummers into the primordial sewer where they belong.”
Ah we will!
All the very best to you and your lady friend! -will-
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Yay. We all wish we had one of those hence why we write here. No way to write here as intelligently as you once did plus hold down any sort of personal relationship. The burden of being an autodidact.
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All day? Well good for you then. But you might take time out to spare a moment for old friends now and then. 😉
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From the leading lefty newspaper in Canada.
Australia and Canada closely resemble each other. Then why have the Aussies done so much better than us?
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“Canberra’s tough-love spending restraint beginning in the 1990s enabled Australia to spend more on stimulus per capita to cushion the blow from the Great Recession than any country but China. Ottawa was able to do the same, and for the same reason, having accumulated 11 consecutive budget surpluses ahead of the epic downturn, a record unmatched by any country.”
The writer has obviously ignored that spending restraint ended when Labor formed government in 2007. The federal debt 95/96 was $95.8 Billion coupled to a budget deficit around $10 Billion when the Howard led Coalition formed government in 1996. They repaid that debt and interest by 2006 and managed budgets in surplus all but one financial year (the Timor Deployment year) and handed over zero debt and a $22 Billion budget surplus to Labor in 2007/08.
It was not economic stimulus that protected the Australian economy from the northern hemisphere financial crisis, but Labor did spend all of that $22 Billion budget surplus and then borrowed heavily to spend more, mostly aimed at protecting their voter base knowing that from the 2007 election results they could lose in 2010. Even when Labor claimed to have saved Australia from the “GFC” they continued to borrow and spend or squander our monies. From 2010 to 2013 they added over $150 billion to the debt not including the NBNCo hidden off federal budget debt, NBNCO being a wholly government owned private company.
What really saved our economy was major economic reforms commenced from 1985 based on a model created by Liberal Treasurer Howard and Treasury Secretary Stone, confirmed by economics Professor Campbell in his Campbell Report. Hawke led Labor adopted the economic reform model, as did the Lange Labour Government of New Zealand. The Howard led Coalition completed the economic reform process from 1996 onwards including establishing the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority on banking and finance to oversee operations. What also saved our economy was dedicated debt retirement 1996/06 and managing budgets into surplus. By 2006/07 Australia also had a Futures Fund of investment amounting to over $60 Billion (currently double that amount) and an Education Fund of about $6 Billion.
Australian major economic reform, deregulation of banking with a watchdog created, floating of the Dollar, major tax reform including abolition of WST and introduction of GST, regular reviews of tax brackets downwards to avoid bracket creep and to make the economy more competitive and much more is why Australia was high on the list of strongest global economies by 2007.
Our economy was boosted by a mining boom however that did not get underway until around 2002 or 6 years into the Coalition Government term that ended in 2007 yet they still were able to retire debt and manage to operate within federal budgets. Prime Minister Howard remarked before the 07 election that Australians had never been better off. Our standard of living was at that time 8th in the OECD and down from 13th when the Keating led Labor Government left office in 1996.
New Zealand has also benefited from Campbell Report major economic reforms since 1985 and it is a credit to the Lange Labour Government for implementing the reforms in full. Here in Australia Hawke led Labor pushed by their union movement masters were unable to complete the reform process. Treasurer Keating was understandably outraged and went on ABC 7.30 Report (different name then I recall) to claim that: “the wheels have fallen off the (economic) cart.”
Apart from the sincere and workable attempt by Treasurer Hockey and Prime Minister Abbott in their 2014/15 Budget to establish a several year budget repair and debt retirement plan as far as I can see our position has slipped behind target ever since Hockey and Abbott left office.
However, Union Labor stands condemned for undermining the Australian economy and national prosperity which could have been a whole lot better in 2016 if they had behaved responsibly while in government.
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I decided to add that our public debts include state, territory and local governments, and government owned private companies. It is almost impossible to discover the total amount of public sector debt but I believe that it is over $900 Billion.
But what really angers me is the deceit about debt and how state governments in particular have hidden financial creative accounting from voters using the wholly owned private companies as cover, monies borrowed off government budgets but accounted for as revenue or dividends. The New South Wales electricity businesses are a prime example, referring to the 16 years of Labor Government and in this example to their last couple of years in office.
A rushed sale of half the electricity businesses was pushed through ignoring the market value which was I understand from $12 to $15 Billion accepting just $5.9 Billion. In other words a loss to taxpayers amounting to $6.1 to 9.1 Billion potentially. Why did they do this? The short answer is to hide up to 16 years of arranging for those businesses to borrow to pay the state government extra “dividends” used to make the state budget bottom lines look stronger.
After the debts and interest were retired all that was left of the $5.9 Billion sale price was $800 million !!!
New South Wales is not the only state-territory where financial games are played that keep adding to public debt.
Look at the unused desalination plants, and they continue to cost taxpayers money for maintenance purposes.
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Dennis @ #6.1.
You have noted what many didn’t. But. You have been too kind to Hawke.
Hawke deregulated the banks. Maybe changes were needed. But nobody observed any link between his deregulation of the banks and his promotion of Bond’s gross abuse of that deregulation. Nobody noticed that of our “big four” banks three fell for the promotion. That promotion was half of Australia’s contribution to the crash of 1987. The other half was readily visible in the annual budget, as with policy switches they directed private capital into areas where it could be readily destroyed. e.g. What they did with the racehorse industry, and the abolition for a time of negative hearing, which directed capital out of “bricks and mortar” into heavily promoted tourism, where billions were later bankrupted with Hawke’s pilots’ strike.
Nobody has yet noticed that public debt must be funded by private capital. All this debt represents capital taken out of private management. And for what? The purpose is to destroy that capital, not to build anything at all. The “stimulus” package studiously avoided expenditure on items capable of generating new wealth.
The NBN, a new QANGO to operate alongside another that we have been trying to sell off for 20 years now, was foisted on our construction industry at a time when the industry was fully occupied servicing a mining boom. Unemployment had never been lower. Competing for resources in that market the NBN maximised not only its own cost, but also the cost of every other construction project being undertaken in Australia. And this to provide a service that was already being developed anyway.
And they didn’t really float the currency, you know. At the time it was called a “dirty float”. Australia ran with usurious interest rates which heavily inflated the exchange rate. It’s still a dirty float, which has been in operation the whole time since then. Australia’s interest rates have always been higher in comparison. This dirty float has cost Australia’s exporters and import competitors at least 1%, maybe more than 2% on their gross income over the 30+ years. That also represents private capital destroyed. We did need to float our currency, but we didn’t do it. We only sham floated it.
And @ #6.1.1. Further good analysis. And…
There should be a Royal Commission into those desalination plants.
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Negative hearing? Try Gearing! I had better make a habit of using the preview facility with its bigger print.
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If we have done, then that must be because it’s easier to live in a hot desert than in a permafrost.
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Do we have something like this for Australia?
http://www.debtclock.ca/
Andthis one seems to include the unfunded liability (Public sector pensions)
http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/canada
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Words, not to be taken lightly:
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Don’t worry about moderation. You can leave the comment out.
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Is it just me or is anyone else having problems staying on this site? Many times today the connection has been dropped and sometimes refused.
I can not really tell if it is this site or my ISP’s kludgied system.
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Haven’t encountered any problem here yet on Telstra adsl.
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Thanks for the info.
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Nor Telstra wireless here
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I am writing from sunny Ramingining,central Arnhem Land NT of Australia,having no problems with this connection,I can see the communications tower through the screen door.
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Thanks guys. I’m going to have to write another ltter of complaint.
🙁
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“write another letter of complaint”
Why is it that always reminds me of this ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZZRAU3DeOo
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No Tom, no problems, I’m on Telstra too, on an iPad.
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I had a lot of problems with Firefox and eventually went to Google Chrome, which is more stable.
I found running microsoft security essentials far better than trying to run purchased antiviral programmes.Make sure you delete the existing antivirals with the internet disconnected so they don’t tell their buddies back in base camp what you are doing, a bit like what happened to HAL.Doing a speed test helps with broadband, and if it is poor ring up your supplier and get them to test the line and your modem. I ended up slowly upgrading modems as each burned out.
Telstra has had a lot of problems recently in NBN areas. The adage is that the old copper wire is to be pulled out and so disconnected when the new fibre to the node is connected. Trouble is that the subcontractors disconnect large parts of the service then reconnect you on the new system, but sometimes forget or don’t know how to do the latter. My ADSL2 was cut for 10 days because of this. Also Telstra does not always know where the fibre optic is already laid, so local contractors can pull the plug on the copper assuming the phones are connected, but the fibre has no end time to be connected, as happened recently at Norwest.
They don’t talk to each other.
I am assuming you have a PC.
Make sure you have no blockers working that are blocking this site.
After you start up immediately scan with MSEssentials and see if that helps.
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I put this up earlier and deserves another run.
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/new-paper-finds-climate-change-co2.html
Its 416 AD and the Roman Empire is crumbling, the Dark Ages begin in 34 years. Quickly traveling on to 1216 AD the LIA is set to start in 34 years, the large icebergs in the North Atlantic are a testament to that. The 40 year cycle takes us to the Great Climate Shift of 1976.
Nice fit.
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el gordo
Thanks thats cheered me up no end!
Well not really, as natural cycles are rather chaotic hopefully it will yet stay warm for a while longer.
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Good post El gordo, thanks for the link.
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Just discovered a chap on Youtube this weekend and watched several hours of his interviews in The Rubin Report:
https://www.youtube.com/user/RubinReport
Love the way he cleanly dissects and detroys so many of the sacred cows of what he calls the regressive left wing (Note: he is an American who states he holds traditional liberal values, and certainly not a Republican by nature).
As I find myself continually explaining on blogs, I am neither left- or right-wing by nature, I just have a strong need to debate bad ideas. That is Rubin in a nutshell. I would love to see him interview Andrew Bolt, for exaample.
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O-o first regressive left red thumb. Badge.of.honour.
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Ball4 says: September 10, 2016 at 7:54 AM
Wrong Will, Dr. Spencer’s thermometer indicated an increase in temperature measuring an increase in hit plate KE not hotplate PE from your “potential” flux off the ice,
Trick, Do not say ‘wrong’, point out what you think is even one error pwease!
Dr. Spencer’s lamps At higher temperature than all else are the only supply of additional KE in the whole demo, the only!The lamps sustain a variable level of KE (sensible heat) in the plate.
That same plate must dispatch that same ‘extra power’ to achieve a sustainable/stable temperature. The plate can ‘only’ do that; if exists a lower ‘radiance’ surround that has the capability of accepting such EM flux from the energized plate. As the ice ‘radiance’ is replaced by the cardboard ‘radiance’, the plate ‘radiance’, must increase in order to sustain that required difference in thermal EM radiative potential (delta radiance). I.E. the plate temperature must increase to sustain the required difference in potential (radiance). Radiance is never a potential energy, it is a flux (power) potential. Please learn the difference. Please also try to learn the difference twixt potential for flux, and flux itself. Please point out even one technical error in you can!
“a very silly notion, photons are EMR per Maxwell’s equations not potentials”
Again you refuse to inform anyone else what you may mean by your use of your word ‘photon, just as any brainwashed academic Climate Clown (Nazi) must do!
Scientifically the gauge boson ‘photon’ is but a mathematical probability construct that somehow ‘mediates’ the ‘action’ at the intersect of EM flux and mass, absorption, transmission, or reflection of all or parts of the emitted wave packet, cycle by cycle. The generation of thermal EM flux is always spontaneous and always limited as described above! Nothing comparable to a ‘photon’ is ever so generated.
“buy a clue Will pick up a copy of “The Theory of Heat Radiation”.”
I have so read every word of Max Planck’s 1914 novel, including auf Deutsch, with assistance. There is absolutely nothing in that document that is anywhere close to what you and your other Pfucking idiots claim.
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Very good Will. I’ll have to go back over there and see how they are taking it.
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Sixth Birthday of Climate Etc, Professor Judith Curry’s blog,
another out reach for free speech and sceptical enquiry in
the climate debate and more, as is this blog, here, Jo Nova.
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El Nino may have a solar trigger with a lag.
‘Wen-Juan Huo and Zi-Niu Xiao, two physicists at the Chinese Academy of Science, have published new research today suggesting that the strong 2015/16 El Niño event occurred right after the 2014 solar peak and may be directly linked to strong solar activity. The Chinese scientists found a significant positive correlation between sunspot numbers and the El Niño Modoki index, with a lag of two years.
‘Moreover, strong El Niño events were found within 1–3 years following each solar peak year during the past 126 years, suggesting that anomalously strong solar activity during solar peak periods may be the key trigger of such El Niño events.’
GWPF
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Its not far fetched to believe lunar tidal force might also contribute.
‘The most important ENSO driver is linked to variations in gravitational tidal forcing associated with Moon’s Perigee. Moon is in what is called Perigee, when the Moon is at it closest point during its elliptical orbit around Earth. This is also when the tidal force caused by the Moon is at its strongest.
‘The second most important forcing is linked to variation in solar activity.’
Per Strandberg . Tallbloke’s Talkshop
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el gordo September 11, 2016 at 2:09 pm ·
“Its not far fetched to believe lunar tidal force might also contribute.”
(‘The most important ENSO driver is linked to variations in gravitational tidal forcing associated with Moon’s Perigee. Moon is in what is called Perigee, when the Moon is at it closest point during its elliptical orbit around Earth. This is also when the tidal force caused by the Moon is at its strongest.’)
Indeed! Average Lunar mid ocean tide is 4.3 meters. That is one large mass of liquid H20, bulging in opposing directions.
In the upper troposphere and stratosphere we have huge bulging in the direction of the Sun because of insolation and atmospheric thermal expansion in that direction. The nearby Lunar gravitational mass OTOH, more greatly distorts the mass distribution of Earth’s upper atmosphere, in relation to the academic religious dogma of gravitational effects on nearby compressible fluids. All popular rejection (skepticism) of the 97% CAGW/GHE is only due to the “Magnificent/Grand/Blatent Incompetence” of self appointed academic Skyintists! No conspiracy need apply!
All the best! -will-
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‘The nearby Lunar gravitational mass OTOH, more greatly distorts the mass distribution of Earth’s upper atmosphere…’
Okay, thanx.
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Watts is running the ENSO story out of China and the paper has been demolished after a spirited debate.
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more CAGW hypocrisy:
9 Sept: UK Daily Mail: Caitlin O’Toole: ‘Appreciate the support!’ Leonardo DiCaprio suits up to premiere climate change documentary in Toronto
Fighting climate change is a cause close to his heart.
And actor Leonardo DiCaprio proudly debuted his new environmental documentary Before The Flood at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday…
The actor was all smiles as he attended the screening of the film, which will air on National Geographic next month.
Before The Flood follows the Oscar-winner and environmental activist as he travels around the world to study the impact of climate change.
Along the way, Leo meets with scientists, experts and US President Barack Obama to learn more about the issue in the documentary…
The Wolf Of Wall Street star recently pulled out of hosting a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in Los Angeles because he was busy trying to get the film ready in time for its Toronto premiere…
But there were suggestions Leo pulled out of the hosting gig as questions were raised over his Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation’s links to a multi-billion-dollar embezzlement scandal in Malaysia…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3782548/Appreciate-support-Leonardo-DiCaprio-suits-premiere-climate-change-documentary-Toronto.html
30 Aug: Hollywood Reporter: Alex Ritman: Rainforest Charity Urges Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation to Repay Donations Linked to ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Scandal
The Bruno Manser Funds, focused on Malaysian rainforest protection, accuses the star of “double standards” for his environmental charity that is alleged to have accepted donations linked to an international money laundering scandal…
The Bruno Manser Funds, a rainforest charity active in Malaysian Borneo, has written an open letter to DiCaprio calling on him to return money he received from individuals connected to the 1MDB Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, now the subject of a major Justice Department asset seizure complaint…
“We were appalled to see that a foundation that basically champions very similar causes to ours would accept corrupt funds,” Bruno Manser Funds’ executive director Lukas Straumann tells THR. “It’s double standards. It really damages his credibility and the credibility of the foundation. If he wants to be a role model, a U.N. ambassador for peace and for climate change, then he should also be an example in how he handles his role.”
But it’s not simply DiCaprio’s charitable finances that have been called into question, with Straumann also focusing on his wages for The Wolf of Wall Street, now alleged to have been funded via siphoned-off 1MBD funds. The actor is thought to have been paid as much as $25 million to star in the hit 2013 film, and more as a producer.
“Money was stolen from the treasury and went straight into Leo’s pocket,” says Straumann. “That is dirty money, and he should pay it back.”…
The charity boss asserts that political corruption in Malaysia – of which the 1MDB scandal is the biggest known example, with billions of dollars laundered internationally – has been a “major driver” of deforestation, with local politicians handed lucrative logging contracts as bribes to support the under-fire government…
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rainforest-charity-urges-leonardo-dicaprio-923979
5 Sept: Hollywood Reporter: Alex Ritman: Rainforest Charity Questions DiCaprio Foundation Sponsor Over Donations Linked to Corruption Scandal
Bruno Manser Funds, which has already penned a letter to the star calling on him to return money linked to the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ corruption scandal, has now written to private bank Julius Baer…
The Bruno Manser Funds, which is active in Malaysian Borneo and links corruption in the country directly with deforestation, has sent a letter to Julius Baer, the Swiss-based private bank that acts as the Foundation’s “long-term partner” and has sponsored each of its annual auctions held in St. Tropez, where its CEO Boris Collardi is an “event chair.”…
Earlier this year, Julius Baer agreed to a $547 million payment to U.S. authorities after admitting to having conspired to defraud the IRS by helping taxpayers hide billions of dollars in offshore accounts…
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rainforest-charity-questions-dicaprio-foundation-925702
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comment #13 is in moderation.
more CAGW hypocrisy:
posted stuff on the inaugural Fortune & Time Magazines’ Global Forum 2016 to be held at the Vatican in December on Jo’s “Most of Asia’s bankers” thread, comment #29.
included link showing ***WELLS FARGO is on the Official Host Committee, along with Richard Branson, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Monsanto, Barclays Bank, Siemens, the Clinton-connected Teneo Holdings, etc.
also posted link to Working Group Topics/Fortune/Time Global Conference 2016 which includes:
Energy & Environment
The burden of environmental degradation—and the imperiling effects of climate change—are borne disproportionately by the poor ETC…
another topic is:
Financial Inclusion & Entrepreneurship
The world continues to reel from the financial crisis; meanwhile, millions lack access to basic banking services. “It is increasingly intolerable that financial markets are shaping the destiny of people rather than serving their needs,” says Pope Francis… What bold action can the financial community take to foster entrepreneurs and bring marginalized communities online to the global economy, thereby enabling billions to share in the world’s prosperity? What can the private sector do to encourage financial inclusion for the “underbanked”? …
***WELLS FARGO has some experience!!!
9 Sept: CNN: Matt Egan: Workers tell Wells Fargo horror stories
Relentless pressure. Wildly unrealistic sales targets. Employees leaning on family members and friends to open unnecessary bank accounts.
That’s how more than a dozen former Wells Fargo employees described the bank’s culture to CNNMoney…
Wells Fargo (WFC)has been accused by federal regulators of illegal activity on a stunning level. Authorities say employees at the bank secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts between 2011 and July 2015, allowing the bank to make more money in fees and meet internal sales targets.
Wells Fargo agreed to pay penalties of $185 million and fired 5,300 employees over the last few years related to this illegal activity. The news is rocking the industry and rippling across Wells Fargo’s millions of customers nationwide…
http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/09/investing/wells-fargo-phony-accounts-culture/index.html
10 Sept: NYT: Michael Corkery: Wells Fargo Offers Regrets, but Doesn’t Admit Misconduct
Wells Fargo was flowing with regrets on Friday, taking out ads in nearly a dozen newspapers saying the bank took “full responsibility” for creating sham bank accounts without its customers’ permission…
Legal experts say that not admitting wrongdoing may have another benefit for Wells Fargo: helping the bank defend itself against lawsuits from aggrieved customers…
9 Sept: WaPo: Wells Fargo settlement over phony accounts raises questions about oversight
By Renae Merle and Jonnelle Marte
Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest bank, scrambled on Friday to contain the fallout from an investigation that found its employees set up 2 million fake accounts that customers didn’t ask for to get bonuses…
Pope Francis should cancel this Forum now, if he wishes to claw back any credibility.
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Wells Fargo has a dirty rep with a lot of people in the US. The absolutely refused to even consider refinancing or lowered interest rates on homes caught in the foreclosure crisis, left the subsequently foreclosed homes empty and untended, took their time in asserting ownership to avoid assessments and taxes.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/who-can-go-after-banks-for-the-foreclosure-crisis/480588/
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22658-as-wells-fargo-is-accused-of-fabricating-foreclosure-papers-will-banks-keep-escaping-prosecution
and
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-me-wells-city-suit-20150718-story.html are more recent articles.
Not a nice bunch of folks to do business with, and I consider them a blight on the mortgage market.
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comment #13 on Leo DiCaprio, which was in moderation, disappeared so I re-posted as comment #16 and it is in moderaton.
[Pat, I will ask Jo to contact you, via email. Fly]
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what was showing as DiCaprio comment #16 in moderation is not showing at all now. funny things happening on jo’s website?
8 Sept: DefenseOne: U.S. Intel Chief: Climate Change Is Adding Fuel to the World’s Extremist Fires
By Caroline Houck Atlantic Media fellow at Defense One
DNI Clapper says environmental factors will keep the cycle of extremism going long after ISIS is vanquished…
So said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, giving an overview of global threats as he opened an annual intelligence community conference in D.C. on Wednesday…
???Americans as a whole are increasingly concerned about global warming as well, according to Gallup polls. The share of the population worried a fair amount or great deal about climate change more broadly increased from 2015 to 2016, regardless of the individual’s political affiliation…
The House of Representatives, however, would rather the military concentrate solely on what Rep. John Fleming, R-La., called “real, credible threats”…For the third year in a row, its version of the National Defense Authorization Act included an amendment, passed largely along party lines, that prohibited using funds to implement executive orders directing the military to plan for climate change.
“These executive orders require the Department of Defense to squander—squander—precious defense dollars by incorporating climate change bureaucracies into its acquisition and military operations and to waste money on green energy projects,” Fleming said in a floor speech proposing the amendment.
http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2016/09/pentagon-continues-beat-climate-change-drum/131384/
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10 Sept: UK Telegraph: Emily Gosden: Danish firm reaping wind farm subsidy bonanza says UK must accept foreign turbine parts
Britain must accept that major parts of its offshore wind farms will be manufactured abroad, Danish giant Dong Energy has said, as new figures reveal the vast scale of subsidies it is set to receive from UK consumers.
The state-backed Danish company has benefited more than any other developer from the UK’s push for offshore wind and is facing fresh calls to invest more of its multi-billion pound proceeds into a British supply chain.
Figures obtained by the Telegraph show that existing UK wind farms in which Dong has stakes, combined with new projects it is currently building, are together set to receive more than £1.5bn a year in subsidies, funded by levies on energy bills. Dong is in line for a significant share of the windfall…
Although blades for the new turbines will be made in the UK, Samuel Leupold, a senior Dong executive, said it made sense to source other major parts elsewhere, such as nacelles – the part of the turbine that houses the generators – from Germany, and most foundations and towers from other European countries…
John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation, a campaign group critical of wind subsidies, said: “The subsidies to offshore wind turbines in Dong’s portfolio are in effect energy taxes levied on British consumers for the benefit of the Danish government and equipment manufacturers, mostly in Germany.”…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/09/10/danish-firm-reaping-wind-farm-subsidy-bonanza-says-uk-must-accep/
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when I posted a new comment, #16 is showing up again, and is in moderation.
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2 pages: 9 Sept: Forbes: Neil Winton: Tesla Sales Dive Close To 25% In Europe
Tesla Motors Inc’s sales in Western Europe are on the slide and the latest figures point to a near 25% fall, according to European newsletter Automotive Industry Data (AID).
AID said Tesla sales, mainly of the Model S, dropped 23.8% in the first seven months of 2016 to 6,430, from 8,443 in the same period of 2015…
According to AID, some of the fall in part was down to weak sales in oil-rich, socialist Norway, where sales of electric cars have been artificially boosted by various government subsidies and inducements, including free parking in cities and sole use of special lanes. AID said Tesla sales in Norway in the first seven months dived 54.6% to 1,314…
There have been reports that the Tesla Model X has been dogged by problems with the soft-ware which operates the rear gull-wing doors.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2016/09/09/tesla-sales-dive-close-to-25-in-europe/#4fc3ed5662f5
9 Sept: TheNationalAE: AP/AFP: Tesla says Autopilot system not to blame for crash in Netherlands
THE HAGUE // Tesla Motors has said a Model S car involved in a fatal crash in the Netherlands was not operating in the company’s semi-autonomous autopilot mode and was travelling at high speed when it crashed.
The 53-year-old driver of the electric sedan died when his car smashed into a tree in the central Dutch town of Baarn and burst into flames on Wednesday…
Tesla said the car’s logs showed autopilot was not engaged at any time during the man’s trip, and that he was driving at more than 155 kph. The speed is consistent with the damage the car sustained from hitting the tree, the company said.
Tesla sent representatives to the scene of the accident…
Ronald Boer, an emergency services spokesman, said firefighters did not recover the man’s body immediately because of fears of electrocution.
“The car was so badly damaged that the firefighters could not operate its security systems,” he said…
Tesla is also probing an incident in France last month when a Model S caught fire during a test drive in the south-western town of Bayonne.
US federal regulators also recorded two fires involving the Model S, one each in the states of Washington and Tennessee in 2013.
http://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/tesla-says-autopilot-system-not-to-blame-for-crash-in-netherlands
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Pat local storage of more energy than a 1000 pound bomb has is always dangerous! The fuel tank on your 1.5 HP lawn mower does just that!
In regular use engineering can reduce the risk. However good engineers are always at the point of, “I wonder if”, BLAM!
Best to be elsewhere/when, when such is about to happen.
All the best! -will-
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Having heavily modified [ A couple of us here in Australia plus another couple from the USA a few years back were known on the international combine harvesting blogs as the hot rodding gurus for a particular brand and make of American grain harvesting machinery ] and built some fairly sophisticated and big farming industry machinery with lots and lots of big bits that shook, rattled and rolled in my farming career, I’m not in the least surprised that Musk’s Tesla cars are having a number of problems, soon to turn into a bucket load of problems when all those shiny bits particularly the hidden internal ones, lose some of their polish and shine.
It usually took a few years of operations to iron out problems that arose from either changing the design of a machine or were inherent in the original machine we designed and had built.
And this was when we completely understood and controlled the performance and operation of that machine ourselves and didn’t have some cowboys getting onto the machine and trying to do things with it that it was never designed to do.
Unlike the Teslas, the early petroleum autos used a very low grade of fuel and as experience was gained through an immense number of failures which most of have never been recorded , the fuel and its associated volatility increased.
But the knowledge and skills required in handling such a volatile fuel kept ahead of the major potential problems so there has never been any real safety problems with both petroleum fuels and gas and diesel fuels for automotive type use.
Tesla’s electric power on the other hand is there from the get go at the full potential voltages and amperages so it has become a quite seriously dangerous situation for all concerned, seriously concerning if you have to get into the guts of the damn thing when a Tesla for some reason or another gets creamed in a crash or just gets a flare up of troubles and sidelined as a consequence.
Not a dissimilar situation to that of fire fighters who in large fires even at night where a factory roof has been covered with solar panels, will refuse to go anywhere near the blaze from a roof top level as even the floodlights of the fire wagons can create enough power in the solar panels to electrocute a person. Isolating the panels doesn’t work as the panels before the isolator switch are still generating power if any light is shining on them.
There are a number of reports from overseas where fire fighters have simply stood by and let a large premises burn out because it had the full roof regalia of solar panels installed.
It was to dangerous to get onto that roof to cut through it to get at the fire below as is usual, because of the solar panels generating high voltages from the sun or from the flood lights of the firies.
The airline battery designer guys at Boeing who have to really do some hard research before any substantial modifications different from the older, very well tested and sorted technologies is to be used in a new design, thought they had everything covered with their lithium celled batteries in the 787 Dreamliner until they very nearly burnt a couple of 787’s out from faults in the then not well understood critical design characteristics of the lithium batteries and their containers.
And that was whilst those aircraft were still sitting on the ground to everybody’s long sighed relief.
Elon Musk’s real genius lies not in building anything of consequence that has a long term future and that will last but in his ability to hoover up vast amounts of OPM, ie ;taxpayers hard earned via the politicals whom he seems to be able to con them into gifting him their own mother in laws if he asks for it.
Although come to think of it, gifting some MIL’s to somebody else would probably be classed as relief from purgatory for the giver and the equivalent of crossing the River Styx to the Hades of Greek mythology to the receiver of the said MIL.
As there seems to be a bit of a Lithium rush developing at the moment on the stock exchanges of the western world as the brokers lick their chops at the prospects of the mug punters to the financial slaughter getting conned into paying exorbitant share prices for any potential lithium mine shares.
All this generated primarily by Elon Musk as he continues on his way with outlandish claims on what he intends to accomplish with Tesla and begins dodging the heavy financial artillery that is beginning to zone in on his financial affairs and the financial rainbow of many colours he has been industriously weaving in the media.
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Don’t you blaspheme Elon. You will be damned to drive fully manually controlled IC vehicles for all eternity.
Now please join us for The Musk Prayer
Our saviour who sleeps in Freemont
Elon be thy name
On conference calls
Thy tell us tales
of profits that are non-GAAP
Tweet us this day our daily hype
and forgive those with bearishness
as we forgive thee for diluting thy stock
And lead us not into profitability
but deliver SolarCity more capital
For Tesla is the future
for Power and for Transport
until Goldman Sachs sells out
Then Chapter Seven
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A simple error in the basic definition of nuclear binding energy isolated humanity from reality eighty years (1936-2016) ago.
http://www.journalijar.com/article/11650/neutron-repulsion–social-costs-from-overlooking-this-power/
The level baseline used to define Aston’s 1922 nuclear “packing fraction” (bottom of Fig 1) versus the slope on the baseline used to calculate Weizsacker-Bethe’s 1936 nuclear “binding energy” (top of Fig 2)
1. Exaggerated proton-proton repulsion
2. Obscured neutron-neutron repulsion,
the weakest nuclear force in light elements that became the dominant nuclear force in cores of heavy elements, ordinary stars and galaxies.
02
It is working… you’ve blown away the “journal’s” upload record
00
I am glad the story is getting to the public.
The Millennium Group tried to tell the public on 4 July 1998:
http://www.tmgnow.com/repository/solar/cosmicrays.html
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Reading something for a laugh is different from believing it.
00
This, GI. Your comments helped.
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Since it’s likely that people are still looking at this open topic thread I thought I’d drop this about robotics in here just for your pleasured and amazement.
Notice how this robot can juggle steps to stay on its feet when the snow gives way under it severely enough that you and I might lose our balance and fall down.
I don’t know much about the robot or how it’s controlled but what I see is quite amazing. Just the fact that it can see well enough to walk along following the handler is quite a feat of engineering.
It looks like it’s a good thing that the machine doesn’t have the capacity to get mad at its handler.
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