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
Asteroid Impact That Wiped Out The Dinosaurs Also Caused Abrupt Global Warming
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/24/614105843/asteroid-impact-that-wiped-out-the-dinosaurs-also-caused-abrupt-global-warming
Interesting, they see a temperature rise and a CO2 rise, assume a correlation and say this shows how the atmosphere reacts to an increase in CO2.
81
Another puff piece.The article states the bleeding obvious-that large amounts of CO2 are released by such impacts,but really wants to segue into present scenario whereby mans activiies are to blame.Of course disaster comes from all angles.
31
The article said:
That cloud would have chilled things quite quickly. But wait! There’s more: most of the forests died from no sunshine. The dead forest burnt. The iridium-rich layer in the rocks which first alerted the eologists who discovered it, was topped by a layer of carbon—the ash from the fire which burnt off the dead plants. Now, that had to be a rather large fire, over thousands of miles to leave such record. So, yes, it got hot … until the fire burnt out.
Global? Not likely. Continental, probably. At that time of the Cretaceous, the single continent (Pangea?) was coming apart, with the impact site surrounded by shallower seas. Everything was beginning to move towards their present places. So the ocean wouldn’t have noticed.
32
sophocles:
By the end of the Cretaceous the breakup of Pangaea was old news. Were you thinking of Gondwana?
As for the article never let scientists near a catastrophe as they will always exaggerate the disaster.**
I am getting sick and tired of the number of times I find that the oceans turned anoxic and wiped out all sea life e.g. the Permian extinction (possibly including the previous Guadaloupian event), the End-Triassic extinction, the Cenomanian-Turonian extinction effect in the middle Cretaceous and of course the Cretaceous Paleogene extinction. Tell that to the Coelacanth, a deep sea fish, that survived them all, as did lampheys, hagfish, sharks, sponges etc.
** see also any article about the death of the Great Barrier Reef
FROM https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/bbcs-climate-change-and-me-series-blasted-by-booker/
“This began with a marine biologist rehearsing the familiar scare story of how rising sea temperatures are destroying that wonder of the natural world, the Great Barrier Reef. He recalled seeing how the exceptional El Nino of 1998 produced a scene of “complete devastation”, when “99 percent of the corals were dead”. But he then went on to admit, without a blush, that after a year or two they “had bounced back to almost complete recovery”. The El Nino of 2016 wrought similar devastation. But again, on revisiting the Reef this year, he “found the corals springing back fast”.
30
I’m more interested in them investigating the idea that massive impacts precipitate episodes of hyper volcanism.
00
How eco group in Florida misleads/lies about wind power in order to sucker in the gullible public.
The tactics used are likely the same around the world.
http://www.cfact.org/2018/05/26/environment-florida-misleads-voters-on-renewable-energy-costs/
60
Well sourced article on the massive amount of toxic solar panel waste looming in our future.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/05/23/if-solar-panels-are-so-clean-why-do-they-produce-so-much-toxic-waste/#2e05e176121c
“The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2016 estimated there was about 250,000 metric tonnes of solar panel waste in the world at the end of that year. IRENA projected that this amount could reach 78 million metric tonnes by 2050. ”
That’s a lot of cadmium, antimony, etc. The cost of handling this decommissioning will boggle the mind.
80
China will have the world’s worst problem with ageing solar panels in less than two decades, according to a recent industry estimate.
Lu Fang, secretary general of the photovoltaics decision in the China Renewable Energy Society, wrote in an article circulating on mainland social media this month that the country’s cumulative capacity of retired panels would reach up to 70 gigawatts (GW) by 2034.
That is three times the scale of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, by power production.
By 2050 these waste panels would add up to 20 million tonnes, or 2,000 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower, according to Lu.
“In fair weather, prepare for foul,” she warned.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2104162/chinas-ageing-solar-panels-are-going-be-big-environmental-problem
40
To be fair Lance it’s still green heavy metal waste so there will be no problem .
21
Cadmium pigments are brilliant reds, oranges and yellows. Sorry Robert: no green in there at all! 🙂
21
You trying to tell us that greens ain’t reds?
No chance.
11
No. I’m not: I’m saying Reds ain’t Green.
11
So what do the think happened to all the communists and the Communist Party in Australia? You think they all just disappeared? No, mate, they just got a new coat of paint. Same ratbaggery, same hatred of the west, same ultimate dire agenda. Actually, the Greens make the former Communist Party look like pussycats.
10
After the fall of the Berlin Wall the Marxist everywhere decided to infiltrate main stream politics, Julia Gillard was the personification of the movement within Labor.
But it was the takeover of the Balmain Greens which became a blueprint for other cells, it was extraordinarily successful.
10
Best tell that to Lee Rhiannon.
The epitome of the communist enviro-fascists.
10
If there is a viable economy left by 2050, this will force it into extinction. If they don’t clean it up, the toxic metals will degrade the ability of the people to produce wealth. If they do, the people who produce wealth will be stripped of any wealth they might need to continue to be productive. The fact that CO2 can’t/won’t/hasn’t cause catastrophic runaway global warming won’t matter. A Mad Max world will seem as a paradise by comparison.
A tipping point will be reached but not of the kind predicted by the green blob.
90
How hard can it be to dump it in a big hole out west in Xinjiang? bit like their Woomera
10
try some of these: http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/05/n-korea-update.html http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/05/that-north-korean-warmth-is-stunning.html
http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/05/our-cooperation-can-isolate-america.html
http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/05/some-bilderberg-meetings-summaries.html
10
Rob this story is going the rounds, do you think it has credibility?
‘Geoff Meyer, global channel director of foodservice, Fonterra, said that by 2030, 66% of world’s middle class will reside in Asia and just 7% in the US.’
00
Bezmenov worked for KGB in India. Bezmenov stated that he was also instructed not to waste time with idealistic leftists, as these would become disillusioned, bitter, and adversarial when they realized the true nature of Soviet Communism. To his surprise, he discovered that many such were listed for execution once the Soviets achieved control. Instead, Bezmenov was encouraged to recruit the persons in large circulation, established conservative media, rich filmmakers, intellectuals in academic circles, and cynical, ego-centric people who lacked moral principles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Bezmenov
00
Is anybody sending Climate Hustle around the indie cinema traps in New Zealand?
00
There may be instruction to be gained from the Ward Churchill case pertaining to academic freedom issues. About were we are at and what are practical courses of action. Churchill, an ethnic studies professor, was fired from Colorado Boulder. Churchill is a radical lefty but got himself in trouble calling the 911 victims Little Eichmanns, among other things. Churchill had become a liability to the academic community.
He was fired for scholastic malpractice, and was accused by CU and the Colorado Board of Regents of plagiarism, fabricating data, and altering data. (where have we seen this before?) But he claimed that was just a smoke screen to fire him because of his offensive remarks, which were free speech. He appealed through the court system but they found his firing was based on his scholastic malpractice and not a punishment for his practice of free speech, as offensive as it was. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
What is interesting is that CU cared little about his long standing scholastic malpractice until he became an PR embarrassment to the university. Then they turned their back on academic freedom and threw one of their own under the buss. CU was not willing to allow academic freedom if it brought embarrassment to the institution.
Are there parallels to the recent JCU firing of a professor? As far I know Professor Ridd is guilty of nothing and has never practiced scholastic malpractice of the sort that Ward Churchill was accused. Nonetheless, CU was successful in removing a tenured professor that they were embarrassed by, avoiding the issue of free speech (although I think Churchill was correct that was the real reason) and focusing on process issues.
10
Sunday mornings I buy a paper.
There is an old guy (80) who is there every Sunday with a joke whilst checking the lotto.
Per chance last week in passing it was noted the 80 yo used to work the coal mines in Qld.
At this stage he became a little animated.
“You know, when we were down there, we would find frogs alive in the coal seams. Alive.
I dont understand why no-one was interested in this,” he said.
“Alive, in sealed holes in the coal seam.”
So, I said I would check it out on the internet.
Turns out it is a phenomenon that has been reported since 16th century.
Without any scientific explanation how it is possible.
Seems the primary excuse is no-one of scientific repute has never observed the discovery as it happens, therefore, unable to be confirmed.
‘oogle search returned only 37k + results.
Here is a few:
Toads in the hole
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/jan/20/science.highereducation1
~ ~ ~
Despite the notoriety of this phenomenon (more than 210 historic reports exists) no physical evidence or real toad-in-the-hole survives.
Various hypothesis were formulated to explain the toad-in-the-hole phenomenon – the work of the devil, spontaneous generation, animals entrapped during the biblical flood or a juvenile animal grown too large to leave its prison.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/the-zombie-toad-in-the-hole/
~ ~ ~
If frogs could be proven to have this ability, it would overturn much of what we’ve learned, and would be a tremendous discovery for a biologist.
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4223
80
Are the sceptics, sceptical? about AGW anyway.
.
20
Amazing, I’d expect to find a frog in the hopper…………
31
The next big thing?
“What’s wrong with this picture?”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/05/26/whats-wrong-with-this-picture/
20
A prize comment there IMO
” davidmhoffer
May 26, 2018 at 10:06 am
I love this graphic. What it says clear and simple is this:
We have no alarming data. All we have is ways of presenting data so that it looks alarming”
62
Ignore the red
21
KK
No worries. I follow the AndyG scoring system – they’re worth 10 green ones
21
Might be better off changing my blog name to Kareless Keith.
30
Nah, run the horizontal scale from right to left, with 2018 at the origin … works just fine 🙂
That could then be claimed to be a colourful rendition of Holocene temperatures …
20
As usual some people mix up confirmation bias with real scientific analysis. That’s my diplomatic response. My preferred response is too dangerous to post here as it would cop a lot of flak from the leftists. My other response would be to say red can mean cold and blue can mean hot.
42
… as in oxy-acetylene torches. Agreed.
00
Its a new exciting area called Linear Perspective Proxy Art, this particular example from Hawkins is titled Parallel Lies.
21
Check out the comments … on that original twitter feed
Group think
https://twitter.com/ed_hawkins/status/999242147135188993
00
Jo – LOOK OUT!. WordPress and Chiefio
“Pervasive Legal Paranoia”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/05/26/pervasive-legal-paranoia/
20
And for your email information
“The new folks are named “Oath” and their non-Privacy Policy is a good indication of just why I am an extremely reluctant user of E-Mail. I’ve known about these kinds of activities for years. Just now we will get to know just who is actually doing them. Maybe now more folks will wake up to using encrypted email and it will get easier to find…
https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/controls/index.html
Remember, this applies to all AOL email and to any email to or from me.”
10
Far worse to use your work email, as Peter Ridd did. JCU read all his emails and used that information as an excuse to sack him.
30
As expected the elite are stepping up their push to subjugate the whole world. Believe me it will get much much worse before it’s all over. Shields up!
51
Better to engage full warp Peter.
31
My name is Winston Smith (anti hero of the revolution against unreason) I will not surrender and become subjugated.
30
The dark art of contract language always reminds me of the great Marx Brothers The Sanity Clause scene from – A Night at the Opera.
10
For the Mod Squad: THE WEEK IN PICTURES: TRUMP DERANGEMENT OVERDRIVE EDITION
My pick, Thomas The Tank.
00
Reporting from the Feidman Libertarian Conference in Sydney.
I went to 2 sessions in the afternoon.
The first was on Nuclear Power with Mark Ho, president of the Australian Nuclear Association an Ben Heard, founder of Environmental NGO Bright New World.
Mark gave a run down on current and upcoming nuclear reactor technology. He surprised me by saying that he feels that the most promising technology for the future is the same as the current technology, ie the pressurised light water reactor. Chief among the advantages is that light water in the reactor core is good at slowing down the neutrons. Slow neutrons are more easily captured by a Uranium nucleus, thereby sustaining the chain reaction.
He talked a little about the Nuscale small modular reactor ( and other brands), which ROM mentioned during the week.
Ben Heard spoke frankly about the cost of Nuclear Power. The news is not good. Nuclear Power stations have a long life (60 years) but are very expensive to build. Long construction times and regulatory hurdles increase the costs substantially. So much so, that private finance is not interested, the return on capital is too low and too long delayed. Therefore Ben wants public (government) money.
The best builders are the South Koreans. They are currently building 4 separate plants in the UAE at less than half of the cost of equivalent construction in the USA or Europe. Sequential construction and good supply chain logistics help a lot to keep costs down.
Even with S Korean techniques Ben estimates the cost of new Nuclear power at $95/Mwhr. That is about 10 times higher than we were paying a few years ago when our electricity came mostly from coal . According to Ben we will need to get used to that. The reason he thinks the costs are worth it is that he believes the threat of CO2 is real, immediate and severe.
Both speakers agreed that our current power stations will start to close after 2020, Because of the lead time we need to have replacement plans in place or we really will have an electricity crisis.
91
‘The reason he thinks the costs are worth it is that he believes the threat of CO2 is real, immediate and severe.’
He has been brainwashed and gives CO2 pariah status, but otherwise I agree nuclear power is a no brainer because of the exorbitant start up.
72
el gordo
“There seems to be no reason whatever to believe this except the pressure of a keen desire for it to be true”
Quoted by Bill Bryson, “Shakespeare”
30
elgordo and Ian,
You are both correct,
I did get a minute alone with Dr Ben Heard. He said that he agreed with the IPCC view of CO2 global warming but had no further evidence (which is an example of affirmation bias). He did concede that slightly increased levels of CO2 might improve agricultural productivity.
I have also talked to other Engineers who promote Nuclear Power. They also quote the Green house Gas Crisis. Nuclear Power makes no sense economically unless one agrees with the Greenhouse crisis (motivated reasoning).
So I agree that Dr Ben has been brought up to believe in the IPCC science and also that he has good reason to want to believe t because his pet project (Nuclear Power) needs it to make any sense rationally.
50
Hi Peter,
A good weekend.
The thing that really caught my attention was the cost of nuclear generation as opposed to coal fired.
You have clearly nailed the Ben Heard belief in the dangers of CO2 as a means of promoting his main interest.
KK
30
Was LFTR even mentioned?
10
The only advantages for light water reactors I can see are:
1. expensive to build – require a high-pressure containment building
2. easy to make/breed weapons-grade materials
3. fuel must be regularly and expensively re-refined or reprocessed
4. removes a lot of land from use when they pop their tops (Chernobyl)
The major disadvantages of LFTRs are:
1. don’t make weapons-grade material
2. a fraction of the cost of LWRs. (No built-in Get Rich Quick Scheme …)
3. much safer than LWRs (can’t pop their tops) so lots of land is not taken out of production
anything goes wrong: just dump the liquid fuel into a wide bucket and leave to cool.
4. can burn LWR fuel down to non-radioactive ash (no expensive fuel reprocessing)
5. modular: replace and reprocess reactor core regularly (why they’re cheaper than LWRs)
</sarc>
20
Yes the liquid fluoride thorium reactor was mentioned as a possible technology for the future.
10
Good. That’s not far away now. Terrestrial Energy is going through the final stages of Certification and expects that to be complete in two years time.
00
The persecution of Tommy Robinson.
It is hard to think that England was the home of modern justice. Tommy has been sent to prison a few times and been set up to be killed by other prisoners a couple of times. This is the worst miscarriage of justice I know. Do a search on him but this is a starter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7WEFeBJTUQ
50
Michael Black gives an excellent legal argument against The Wrongful Arrest & Imprisonment of Tommy Robinson, I highly recommend this rational erudite insight.
This is extremely dangerous circumvention of the basic individual rights of citizens freely participating in a democratic society, vigilance always was and is needed.
31
How a media ban works in practice
“[Redacted] Arrested for [Redacted] Outside [Redacted]: Leeds Crown Court Issues Media Ban”
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/05/26/redacted-arrested-for-redacted-outside-redacted-leeds-crown-court-issues-media-ban/
Now as for filling in the blanks
“Several other media outlets have kept their coverage of the arrest and the subsequent court details up, despite potentially falling foul of the court-issued ban which is to be lifted following the conclusion of a separate case.”
30
Breitbart, having a British presence must comply. O/S pundits and bloggers cannot be controlled by pommy D notices.
30
Hanrahan
I’m guessing the wish for internet censorship just went up several notches in UK particularly
20
There are some comments about this disgusting business in the comments section of the (UK) Daily Telegraph letters page online, unless they have been expunged in the last few minutes.
00
Two comments already disappeared…wish I’d taken a screen shot of the first one.
00
From the Mirror EDL founder Tommy Robinson ‘arrested filming outside grooming trial’
How long before they close down the Wayback Machine?
00
I love the way the downplay the core event even through the use of the euphemistic “grooming”. There was a damn sight more than grooming going on.
00
Michael Smith News
“Compare and contrast Tommy Robinson’s imprisonment with media reporting on Cardinal Pell’s court appearances”
http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2018/05/compare-and-contrast-tommy-robinsons-imprisonment-with-media-reporting-on-cardinal-pells-court-appea.html
40
In one case a sympathetic warder gave him the advice to attack the next warder that came into his cell, which he did. The screws were to take him to another wing where he would not come out alive but his attack got him solitary instead.
Tommy is a brave man whose life [and his teeth] has been destroyed. He is trying to save the children but it seems few care.
20
“Climate Feedback Follies”
” The Sound Of Settled Science
May 26, 2018 Kate Climate Cult Unsettled Science
@JudithCurry —“A new angle on climate model uncertainty: changing the order in which different climate processes are computed can vary climate feedback parameter by half the full CMIP5 spread in climate feedback. “ ”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/climate-feedback-follies/
With links
21
Oh Noes!
By the comments it is getting worse!
BTW Chiefio found similar order problems while he was in this phase
“GIStemp – dumber than a tomato”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/gistemp/
21
Grahame J. W. Webb, in his book “Wildlife conservation : in the belly of the beast” notes that in his world wide experience of wildlife conservation he has never seen a successful one that ignored socio-economic effects.
There has been comment that the latest round of woody vegetation management regulations in Queensland have ignored socio-economic effects.
However for years there has been the saying that “To leave the mulga country with a small fortune you should start with a large one”.
So the latest ALP regulations have considered these effects – just raised it to “Start with a much larger fortune”.
50
This is my final selection for the Blue Team: Will Kininmouth, Salby, Ridd, Marohasy, Evans and John Abbot,
11
‘I chose to assess the sea-level trend from 1915-45, when a genuine, independently confirmed warming of approximately 0.5 degree Celsius occurred. I note particularly that sea-level rise is not affected by the warming; it continues at the same rate, 1.8 millimeters a year, according to a 1990 review by Andrew S. Trupin and John Wahr. I therefore conclude—contrary to the general wisdom—that the temperature of sea water has no direct effect on sea-level rise. That means neither does the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide.’
Fred Singer
41
Well Fred Singer is extrapolating from air temperature measurements to the temperature of sea water.
So his conclusion; “contrary to the general wisdom—that the temperature of sea water has no direct effect on sea-level rise. ”
is not valid
30
Sun warms surface sea-water. (sea is 71% of surface area)
Surface sea water expands and outgases CO2 (maybe top 1% of 3 mile deep ocean)
Surface sea water heats lower atmosphere (direct conduction)
Sea level rises only 1.whatever mm pa.
He might be right.
30
The two main causes of sea level rise are glacial melt and thermal expansion, so sea level fall indicates increasing mass balance and greatly reduced thermal expansion because of cooler air.
The AD 1300 Event is a clear indication of the mechanisms involved, Fred might be clutching at straws.
00
EG – try looking at this re the “AD 1300 Event”
http://pacificarchaeology.org/index.php/journal/article/view/15
00
PeterC:
But what is the temperature of sea water? The top little bit of the sea that might be warmed by warm air, or the deep cold sea which turns over ever thousand years or so?
00
Peter C:
The air hasn’t got the required mass to warm the surface of the sea. It’s also almost transparent to the solar insolation whereas sea water, being denser, isn’t. The atmosphere warms somewhat from the sun but most of the heat goes into the water. Therefore, in bulk:
– the sun warms the air (a bit)
– the sun heats the sea (a lot)
– the sea further warms the air (direct conduction)
– warm air rises (refer to Hot Air Balloons. This is why the air can’t and doesn’t warm the sea)
– the warm rising air expands as it rises (more surface area to fill) losing pressure and cooling
– the heat eventually radiates back into space.
There is somewhere about 104 times the mass of the atmosphere in the oceans, therefore there is a greater heat content in the oceans and the oceans heat the air, not the other way around. It can’t be the other way around—see my fourth point above.)
Simple Fizzix. 🙂
The deep ocean is at least at or below 4°C Some is warmed by active submarine volcanoes. There are an awful lot of those. A few of those volcanoes are no longer submarine: the Indonesian islands and the Hawaiian Islands are good examples. Most Pacific Islands are dormant volcanic islands.
An Interesting aside:
The next (really) big Pacific bang might be Iwo Jima (Sulphur Island)—it’s been quietly rising over the past three hundred and nineteen years or so. In 1779, Captain Cook’s surveying crew landed on a beach which is now 40 m (131 ft) above sea level which is due to volcanic uplifting. There’s been small amounts of volcanic activity over those years so it hasn’t been totally quiet but there have been no signs of a major eruption—not so far, or not yet. Tomorrow is another day …
20
Great outline Sophocles, you have the makings of a model for something or other in there.
KK
00
For the high speed rail fans
“A Reminder: Why the US Rail System Is At Least as Good As the European System if You Care About Energy Use”
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2018/05/a-reminder-why-the-us-rail-system-is-at-least-as-good-as-the-european-system-if-you-care-about-energy-use.html
10
I expect that is true. Canadian railways also in my limited experience.
The thing is that they mainly carry freight. I could not get a passenger train from New York to Columbus, OHIO. There weren’t any. Passenger trains are not economic without subsidies, so they have gone.
Similar here in Australia outside the local and the capital city routes.
UK is totally different. Still has passenger trains. They are very good. Quite expensive, but people use them.
20
The push for a bullet train network in Australia is dependent on land capture along the route to build cities, which is where the real money is. The idea is that the consortium will build the line and supplying rolling stock for a peppercorn, if they can secure a hundred year lease on the land.
Decentralisation on a massive scale is not only politically correct but urgently needed, even Tony Abbott says the capital cities are full.
20
The Monash Group turns up the heat on Turnbull & Frydenberg on Liddell and directly criticises the green activist heads of AEMO and the Energy Security Board.
https://stopthesethings.com/2018/05/27/affordable-energy-wars-australian-mps-determined-to-end-subsidies-to-wind-solar/
20
24 May: The Federalist: The FBI Used Its Secret Spy Program To Protect Killers, Jail Innocents, And Screw Victims
An internal FBI spy program reportedly used to surveil the Trump campaign has a long history of being used to protect killers and jail innocents.
by Sean Davis
(Sean Davis is the co-founder of The Federalist)
http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/24/fbi-used-secret-spy-program-protect-killers-jail-innocents-screw-victims/
10
Another ‘“rare” wind turbine fire…
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.kcci.com/article/wind-turbine-fire-could-be-seen-for-miles/20917855
Why do they keep ending up “extremely well done”? Time for a new chef…
10
I’m sitting up to watch Danial Ric in Monaco.
Another shoie on the podium?
00
26 May: Macleans Mag: Alberta’s handful of anti-pipeline protestors wage a lonely war
In a province consumed by the fate of one oil pipeline, it isn’t easy being green
by Jason Markusoff
On a day of national protests against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, a few dozen Calgarians wanted to stand up and be counted, too. They gathered to present a container of clean, west-coast water to a downtown Liberal MP’s office. Their hey-ho chants that Kinder Morgan had to go, however, were quickly drowned out by a much larger group waving pro-pipeline signs. “Build it, build it!” they chanted. “It’s a little disheartening. I thought we had more support,” anti-pipeline demonstrator Jacob Dowling told a TV camera. His voice was hoarse after it became clear his side was losing the shouting contest.
A few blocks away, on the 27th floor of Calgary’s Stock Exchange Tower, five young Albertans zip-tied themselves to Kinder Morgan Canada’s office doors. Their chants about climate change and shutting down Trans Mountain went unanswered for the couple hours before police arrested them for trespassing…
If anti-pipeline protest is a defiant act, the few who do it in Alberta rage against many machines. They find zero support in the legislature, where the governing New Democrats are full-throated champions of Trans Mountain and the United Conservative opposition wails that the government isn’t doing enough. There’s little outcry among Indigenous leaders in the province who have come to prefer financial partnerships with oil developers over resistance…
Environmental groups here tend to steer clear of the pipeline debate, and Greenpeace’s lone full-time climate campaigner in the province recently relocated to the group’s bustling Vancouver office…
The last couple polls have put Canada-wide support for Kinder Morgan’s project in the high 50s. In Alberta, it ranges from 84 (Ipsos) to 87 per cent (Angus Reid), while opponents represent as few as six per cent…
Emma Jackson moved west for grad school two years ago after getting a degree at New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University, where she led efforts to persuade the school to divest from fossil fuel companies. She mulled launching a similar initiative upon arriving at University of Alberta, but quickly realized what an uphill battle that would be. Then, this spring, her university seemed on the verge of divestment push of a different sort—business donors and alumni threatened to pull funds if the school followed through on plans to bestow an honorary degree upon broadcaster and pipeline critic David Suzuki, triggering apologies and denouncements—of Suzuki—by the deans of business and engineering…
A recent nationwide billboard campaign by Rachel Notley’s government posits that a pipeline “means more money for roads, schools and hospitals.”…
The New Democrats’ shift since winning power has left scarce oxygen for the skeptical side in the province, activists say. “There isn’t an alternative that stands and speaks for us and what we believe in,” Jackson says. “That is something that is so isolating and difficult to navigate.” A clutch of NDP activists tried at a 2016 convention to break up the party’s newfound love affair with pipelines, but that went nowhere. Hudema says some critics stay quiet for fear that needling the Notley government will drive more votes to Jason Kenney’s United Conservatives, who are favourites to win the 2019 election…
In a recent book called Oil’s Deep State, former Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft describes the one-industry stranglehold that goes beyond Alberta politics and into other institutions: regulators, universities, media, bureaucracy and more. That has its influence on public discourse, Taft says. “It’s an unhealthy time for democracy, and I think it endangers Alberta’s long-term prosperity because, like it or not, the world is going to be moving beyond fossil fuels.”…
To counter detractors who view pipeline protest as anti-economy, activists in Calgary and Edmonton swear they care deeply about energy workers, touting renewable-energy jobs they say will emerge during a “just transition” from oil. Those who tune out the first half of that message may ignore the second…
Alberta’s few eco-warriors against Trans Mountain also purport to be acting on behalf of Indigenous people—but in Alberta they, too, skew far more pro-pipeline than elsewhere in Canada. Nearly half of Alberta First Nations along the pipeline route have signed benefit agreements or letters of support, compared to about one-third in B.C. According to Eriel Deranger of Indigenous Climate Action, few Alberta chiefs have come out opposed…
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/albertas-handful-of-anti-pipeline-protestors-wage-a-lonely-war/
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comment in moderation re: 26 May: Macleans Mag: Alberta’s handful of anti-pipeline protestors wage a lonely war
26 May: CTV: Hundreds of scholars gather for country’s largest academic conference
Based on a report by CTV’s Madina Azizi
On Saturday, hundreds of scholars and researchers from around the country gathered at the University of Regina for the 87th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The annual congress brings together more than 70 scholarly organizations to build partnerships, spread ideas and discuss ways to improve the country. It’s the largest academic conference in the country.
One of the key topics at the event was sustainable energy, which Melina Laboucan-Massimo talked about in her speech…
“Currently we have over 11,000 small-scale renewable energy projects across Canada that are indigenous- led, and over 150 large-scale renewable energy projects that are indigenous community owned and led, so indigenous communities are a part of this charge and a part of implementing solutions,” Laboucan-Massimo, who is a speaker and fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation, said.
Laboucan-Massimo also hopes to see more students being educated about sustainable energy.
“If we start young, you know, just like anything, the more that we bring about energy literacy into our communities and into our families, the more we will understand the impacts of climate change and the more we will also understand our part in solving the issue,” she said…
Congress will wrap up on June 1.
https://regina.ctvnews.ca/hundreds-of-scholars-gather-for-country-s-largest-academic-conference-1.3946966
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“How Did We Survive The 1970’s?”
https://realclimatescience.com/2018/05/how-did-we-survive-the-1970s/
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I remember being in a petrol station in the 70s with the owner telling me to enjoy my cheap full cause pretty soon it will be a dollar a gallon!
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It cost me 4/6 (four shillings and sixpence) for a gallon of petrol to fill my little old 1953 Morris Minor in 1965. Mind you, my salary was commensurate with that!
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And your Morris Minor would have had worse fuel consumption than a Commodore today. The Holdens of the sixties couldn’t get from Marlborough to Sarina on a tank. The half way roadhouse made a fortune,
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Yes, and it’s top speed was 55mph and it took me 8 solid hours to drive down from the north part of Yorkshire to Hampshire!
01
I was helping a car club mate with his Morris Minor, it had a bad miss. We found the problem and then took the car out on the highway for a test run.
Me: floor it so revs out a bit
short pause
Me: have you done it yet?
Him: yeah, but it doesnt make a lot of difference. Thats normal though.
Acceleration is somewhat leisurely 🙂
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“The Children Are Our Future”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/05/27/the-children-are-our-future-6/#comments“
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“Summaries of Every World Leader on Earth”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/05/27/summaries-of-every-world-leader-on-earth/
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Have you noticed how the Perth Water Corporation – your WA Govt owned water utility has stopped publishing dam catchments rainfall now.
Perth Water Corp. stops publishing dams rainfall online
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=5798
And the notice at the page bottom has been there since ~August 2016.
And for several stations relating to catchments the BoM is way out of date too.
Mundaring Weir years out of date
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/wData/wdata?p_nccObsCode=136&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_stn_num=009031&p_startYear=
Victoria Dam partial data not worth cup of warm spit
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=136&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_startYear=2018&p_c=-17021587&p_stn_num=009216
Churchman Brook another partial data joke in 2017 – zilch for 2018
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/wData/wdata?p_nccObsCode=136&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_stn_num=009010&p_startYear=
Wungong Dam nothing after March
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/wData/wdata?p_nccObsCode=136&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_stn_num=009044&p_startYear=
Serpentine Main Dam nothing for two years
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/wData/wdata?p_nccObsCode=136&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_stn_num=009115&p_startYear=
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26 May: Daily Caller: An Oil Company Just Earned A Huge Settlement After Environmentalists Brought False Charges
by Tim Pearce
The Supreme Court of Gibraltar awarded the oil company Chevron $38 million Friday for damages related to charges alleging the company contaminated the Amazon region of Ecuador…
“In issuing this decision, the Supreme Court is holding the perpetrators of this fraudulent enterprise accountable for their actions,” Chevron Vice President and general counsel R. Hewitt Pate said in a statement. “In courtrooms around the world, this fraudulent scheme against Chevron Corporation continues to implode.”
The Gibraltar court’s decision follows a similar one in Dec. 2015 when the court awarded Chevron $28 billion in damages from Donziger and Amazonia and issued an injunction between them and the case. Pablo Fajardo, Luis Yanza and Ermel Chavez – Donziger’s partners in the scheme – tried to keep the pressure on Chevron by working through the company. They ignored the first judgement, resulting in the court leveling a new, higher judgment against them and the Amazonia…
http://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2018/05/26/an-oil-company-just-earned-a-huge-settlement-after-environmentalists-brought-false-charges/
26 May: Forbes: Solid As The Rock of Gibraltar: Coup De Grâce To Ecuadorean Lawfare Against Chevron?
by Michael I. Krauss
(Michael Krauss is Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University, and is a nationally known scholar of Tort Law) and Legal Ethics)
News about the lawfare campaign waged against Chevron Corp. is coming in regularly, and this news is good for those who believe in the Rule of Law. Following on the heels of this week’s Ontario high court decision, the Supreme Court of Gibraltar issued a default judgment against Messrs. Pablo Fajardo, Luis Yanza, and Ermel Chavez, and against two organizations, Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia (the “Front”) and Servicios Fromboliere, for their role in a conspiracy to procure and attempt to enforce the fraudulent Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron Corp. The Gibraltar court awarded Chevron $38 million in damages and issued a permanent injunction preventing defendants from assisting the case against Chevron in any way…
This column has related the history of this sordid example of “lawfare” — I’ve linked to four of my many articles. In brief, Chevron Corporation never operated in Ecuador. An indirect subsidiary of Texaco Inc. was in a joint venture with an Ecuadorean government-owned corporation. When that joint venture ended 28 years ago, the government-owned corporation took over operations…
I hope Chevron Corp. will be able to recover the damages it has been awarded in Gibraltar, but that’s far from certain. The news I still await is that of the New York State Bar Association, which I understand has been investigating Mr. Donziger.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkrauss/2018/05/26/solid-as-the-rock-of-gibraltar-coup-de-grace-to-ecuadorean-lawfare-against-chevron/#722e494f4836
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… so the Lorefare of the Lawfare proved inadequate to win. 🙂
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comment in moderation re: 26 May: Daily Caller: An Oil Company Just Earned A Huge Settlement After Environmentalists Brought False Charges
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behind paywall:
26 May: UK Telegraph: Energy firms on the brink of collapse, reveals report
By Jillian Ambrose
Half of Britain’s energy suppliers face an existential risk after the “Beast from the East” tore through the balance sheets of the industry’s small players.
Thousands of energy customers could be left in limbo due to a high risk that around 10 of the most fragile suppliers are on the brink of going under.
Many hundreds of thousands more bill payers face the risk of sudden energy tariff hikes because almost 40 suppliers may be forced to squeeze their customers to survive.
The startling strain endured by the industry in the wake of the volatile winter energy market is laid bare in leaked proprietary data compiled by one of the City’s top analytics firms, Dun and Bradstreet.
The report, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, ranks 37 of Britain’s 81 energy suppliers as being at risk. Eight are identified as being on the brink of failing based on forensic analysis of company financial accounts and trade payments…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/05/26/energy-firms-brink-collapse-reveals-report/
Paul Homewood has more of the Tele article:
27 May: Paul Homewood: Energy firms on the brink of collapse, reveals report
from the Telegraph:
Energy supply bosses fear the regulator may force their companies to pick up swathes of disgruntled energy customers if a smaller market rival goes bust. Their fragile profit margins have been tested by the sudden freeze that swept Britain in late March, and decimated cash flows for poorly-funded new market entrants after energy markets spiked to six-year highs…READ ON
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/energy-firms-on-the-brink-of-collapse-reveals-report/
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odd world we live in, massive cold front sweeps country, enregy demand goes through the roof, energy companies struggle to make a profit and dread getting new customers.
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read the comments in both Homewood thread.
27 May: Paul Homewood: BBC’s Climate Change and Me Series Blasted By Booker
Booker’s column today deals with the BBC’s lamentable series, Climate Change and Me, this week…READ ON
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/bbcs-climate-change-and-me-series-blasted-by-booker/
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having created the energy mess, let’s make it even worse:
27 May: Herald Scotland: Think tank backs bus and energy nationalisation led by councils
by Andrew Whitaker
COUNCILS should take charge of Scotland’s buses, energy and broadband, a think tank has said.
The radical shake-up would see privately owned services nationalised.
However, councils rather than the government would be placed in charge…
The left wing Jimmy Reid foundation calls for a “municipal” form of public ownership.
In a report published tomorrow (Mon), it said that would be a radical alternative to privatisation and monolithic state ownership.
Dave Watson, its author, said it would allow councils to cut fares and tackle pollution…
“A stronger role for local government in transport would give them the power to tackle air pollution, reduce climate emissions and halt rising fares.”…
Meanwhile, Watson said that gas and renewable energy should also come under local authority control.
He said that model was widespread in America and European nations such as Denmark…
Watson said councils could run energy services on a not-for-profit basis.
He said that would free up cash to tackle fuel poverty and cut energy bills.
Watson said: “Municipally-owned energy companies that can supply electricity and gas at competitive prices and don’t have to distribute profits to private shareholders.
“By targeting those on low incomes, they can also help tackle fuel poverty.”
The Scottish Government has launched plans to set up a state-owned energy company…
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16252697.Think_tank_backs_bus_and_energy_nationalisation_led_by_councils/
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Oh please yes, renewable energy supply run by local govt. It doesnt get much better.
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behind paywall:
27 May: UK Times: Sunny Scotland set for Highlands solar farm
by Mark Macaskill
In light of Scotland’s reputation for bad weather, relying on the sun to produce green energy might seem optimistic. However, Europe’s most northerly solar farm is poised to be built on an abandoned airfield in the Highlands.
Ministers have given their blessing to a 50 megawatt (MW) project in Elgin, Moray, that could power 15,000 homes or 19,000 electric cars for a year. It will be almost four times bigger than the 13MW Errol solar farm in Perth, currently the largest of its kind in Scotland.
Details of the project have been disclosed by developers Elgin Energy after it became the first solar farm to win approval from the Scottish government’s energy consents unit, which rules on large-scale projects.
(excerpts found elsewhere) As many as 300,000 solar panels are planned on Milltown airfield, a former RAF base owned by the Tennant family, which owns Innes House. It i s estimated the solar farm could generate revenues of more than £40,000 a day. The family said some of the profits will be reinvested into maintaining Innes House, one of the area’s most important historic houses. While Scotland is often regarded as bearing the brunt of the worst UK weather, solar irradiance is similar to Germany, which is home to the largest photovoltaic market in the world. Data published by the Met Office shows that north Scotland was blessed with 158.8 hours of sunshine last month, the highest recorded in the UK…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/sunny-scotland-set-for-highlands-solar-farm-ccfzg0s7b
27 May: Herald Scotland: Scotland set for Highlands solar farm
by Victoria Weldon
Despite the country often lacking in the warm, yellow stuff, an abandoned airfield in the Highlands has been earmarked for a 50 megawatt (MW) project that could power 15,000 homes or 19,000 electric cars for a year.
Ministers have given approval for the farm in Elgin, Moray, which will be almost four times bigger than the 13MW Errol solar farm in Perth, currently the largest of its kind in Scotland.
Edward Tennant said: “This is an exciting new chapter. The need for renewable energy is becoming increasingly important and we are very happy to be contributing to the green future of Scotland.”
Ronan Kilduff, the managing director of Elgin Energy, said work on the Milltown farm was expected to start “in the early 2020s”…
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16253193.Scotland_set_for_Highlands_solar_farm/
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£40,000 per day income from a 50MW solar farm ?…….Tell him he’s dreamin ‘ 🙂
That would require a return of at least $150 /Mwh. ($300/MWh) !
But, maybe that is where solar power costs will end up ?
Or maybe they have a very lucrative “carbon trading” system in Scotland ?
More likely he may get £4000 /day…in the summer, if the sun shines, few clouds, etc etc.
Assuming solar does cost £2 /W to install, that little 50MW facility would cost £100 mill to build.
….so how can £4k /day (on a good day) ..say £1.2m per year….less operating costs etc..
…..how can that make financial sense ?
What might the annual rates be for an “airfield” sized piece of land ?
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Hardly any of the numbers make any cohesive sense when you start to use them. 300,000 panels lands you in 75-90MW territory so they expect > 50% capacity factor in northern Scotland. Its interesting that they expect electric cars to be larger consumers than entire households.
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The recent nice sunny weather has flipped their brains I think!
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behind paywall:
27 May: UK Times: Biomass: another renewables plan that’s gone up in smoke
Subsidies for burning biomass — better known as wood — never made sense
by Dominic Lawson
Please could you reassure your readers,” said the charming young man from the environment department, “that we have not banned wood-burning stoves? No one will have them taken away.” His anxiety was understandable. There is a mutinous stirring in the countryside, following the strictures issued by his boss, Michael Gove. In his Clean Air Strategy, launched last week, the environment secretary indicated that various types of stove would have to be taken off the market because the amount of soot they produce sends too many of us choking into an unnecessarily early grave.
It’s all very confusing. For years we have been actively encouraged by government to switch our domestic fuel supply to wood, on the grounds that it is much less damaging “to the planet” than burning fossil fuels.
(excerpts found elsewhere) My family home, unconnected to the gas grid, is fuelled by oil brought in by small tankers. But we have woodland; and I have often been tempted by the leaflets that get posted to us, advertising the subsidies we could enjoy if we switched to a wood-burning stove. These are not just from companies flogging the things (“Not only do you get the benefit of installing a stunning wood pellet boiler, but you also earn money from it – up to £11,900 over the next seven years starting from the moment it is fitted”).
The hard sells come from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, too. “Welcome to the domestic renewable heat incentive (RHI) payment calculator,” it cheerily told us a couple of years ago, with the additional happy news that there would be an increase of almost 70% in the domestic RHI biomass subsidy…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/so-another-renewables-plan-goes-up-in-smoke-6p8s3hcwj
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25 May: BusinessGreen: Corporate renewables market on the march in 75 countries
by James Murray
New report released at Clean Energy Ministerial confirms corporate demand for renewable power is accelerating fast
Corporate demand for renewables is continuing to grow rapidly, with companies in 75 countries having actively sourced 465TWh of renewable energy in 2017. That is the headline finding of a new a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published at this week’s Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in Copenhagen. The report predicted the continued decline in the costs of renewables means corporate demand is expected to continue to increase as companies seek to reduce electricity bills, hedge against future price spikes, and address sustainability concerns. Entitled Corporate Sourcing of Renewables: Market and Industry Trends, the report is the first attempt to quantify the scale of the corporate renewables market, which is widely seen as a major driver of global clean energy investment…
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3033062/corporate-renewables-market-on-the-march-in-75-countries
May 2018: IRENA: Corporate Sourcing of Renewable Energy: Market and Industry Trends
REmade Index 2018
DOWNLOAD REPORT
View the full report or the executive summary, or download the info-graphic highlighting key findings…
http://www.irena.org/publications/2018/May/Corporate-Sourcing-of-Renewable-Energy
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my additions in brackets for Orsted & IKEA:
23 May: EnergyVoice: Nordic firms press EU over 35% renewable energy target
by David McPhee
Eighteen Nordic have urged EU energy ministers to back a 35% renewable energy target by 2030.
Orsted (renewable energy company), Vestas Wind Systems and Ikea (Since 2009, IKEA Group has invested EUR 1.7 billion in renewable energy) penned an open letter to the EU urging it to be “ambitious” in terms of energy efficiency and climate neutrality.
The letter has been forwarded to EU energy ministers ahead of the Clean Energy Ministerial summit in Malmo and Copenhagen at the end of May.
The letter said: “We believe that the adoption of a strong Clean Energy Package with a high level of ambition of the energy efficiency directive, renewable energy directive and governance regulation, is crucial for greenhouse gas emission reductions.
“Ambitious climate and clean energy targets also drive economic development with increased competitiveness, job creation and improved health as well as lower dependency on energy imports.”
https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/172204/nordic-firms-canvass-eu-over-35-renewable-energy-target/
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novel-length. Carbon Brief mob enjoy another trip, another CAGW conference. check it all:
25 May: CarbonBrief: Negative emissions: Scientists meet in Sweden for first international conference
by Daisy Dunne, Leo Hickman and Robert McSweeney
This week, Gothenburg in Sweden played host to the first international conference on “negative emissions” (LINK).
The three-day event brought together around 250 researchers at Chalmers University of Technology (LINK) to discuss the different ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it on land, underground or in the oceans.
The topics presented and debated ranged from “natural” solutions to the technologically advanced, through to the potential limitations and risks. Running parallel to the scientific discussions was a focus on the policy challenges…
Carbon Brief was at the conference to watch the 11 keynote speeches, 140 presentations and three panel debates. A range of presenters, such as Dr James Hansen and Dr Sabine Fuss, was asked on camera (see below) what they each think is needed for negative emissions to become a reality at scale…
***The conference closed with the announcement that it will not be the only one. A follow-up is planned for around 18 months’ time, with a view to the conference becoming a regular event.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/negative-emissions-scientists-meet-sweden-first-international-conference
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there’s a feud between Elon Musk and the FakeNewsMSM:
27 May: CNN Money: Elon Musk has more to say about the media
by Jackie Wattles; CNN’s Seth Fiegerman contributed to this report
Elon Musk has ratcheted up his criticism of the media.
In a Twitter exchange on Saturday Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, described newsrooms as “bleak.” He accused NBC News reporter Ben Collins of “living in a bubble of self-righteous sanctimony” when Collins asked Musk if he’d ever spent time in a newsroom…
Musk, whose business endeavors frequently receive positive coverage, raised eyebrows last week when he took to Twitter to criticize the press, accusing journalists of being motivated by advertising dollars and saying he wanted to launch a site called Pravda to rate the credibility of journalists, editors and publications…
Many on Twitter praised Musk’s idea and joined him in criticizing the news media…
“[P]lease stop assuming I’m against all journalists,” he said in one tweet. “This is not true. Something needs to be done to improve public trust in media.”
He also made a donation on Wednesday to ***PolitiFact, a fact-checking site owned by Poynter, a non-profit school for journalists…
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/27/media/elon-musk-press-journalists-attacks-pravda/index.html
***pity about the donation to the UNBELIEVABLY LEFTWING, PARTISAN, CAGW-INFESTED POLITIFACT.
PolitiFact: climate change
http://www.politifact.com/subjects/climate-change/
why i’m posting this is because Erin Biba, who lists BBC, Scientific American, etc as part of her credentials, put up a tweet, which has been removed and her twitter account locked, etc:
Erin Biba on Twitter: “FEMALE JOURNALISTS: Have you been …
https://twitter.com/erinbiba/status/1000799555577896961
10 hours ago – Erin BibaVerified account. @erinbiba …. FEMALE JOURNALISTS: Have you been harassed by Elon Musk fans? Please DM me your most horrific tweets …
the full, original tweet:
TWEET: Erin Biba, Science Writer — BBC, Scientific American, PopSci, WIRED, Adam Savage’s Tested and others. Fact Checker:
FEMALE JOURNALISTS: Have you been harassed by Elon Musk fans? Please DM me your most horrific tweets and messages. AND PLEASE SHARE THIS.
3.03AM 28 May 2018
TWEET: 25 May: The War Economy: Erin Biba locked her account after trying to win a Twitter fight with Elon Musk and losing because she, a “journalist” / “science writer”, said Musk was attacking journalism and science, when Musk told her he was attacking sh*t journalism.
Naturally, Biba played the victim card
https://twitter.com/The_War_Economy/status/1000134001443659776
for the record, she does contribute to BBC & Scientific American:
The city where the internet warms people’s homes
BBC News-13 Oct. 2017
Erin Biba visits Sweden…
Inside Australia’s War on Invasive Species
Scientific American – 1 Aug. 2017
by Erin Biba
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hilarious:
27 May: Fox News: Dan Gainor: Journalism continues to shrink, right before our eyes
(Dan Gainor is the Media Research Center’s Vice President for Business and Culture)
Journalism got a lot smaller last week. The media lost two of their biggest names – author and journalist Tom Wolfe and Interview Magazine…
The industry is diminished, left with its war against President Trump as journalists battle over whether an informant sent to spy on the Trump campaign is actually a “spy.”
That is part of their larger anti-Trump crusade, but it’s also tied to how negatively the press is viewed generally.
Tesla CEO and tech wunderkind Elon Musk provided a huge example of the anger at the media, tweeting: “Going to create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication. Thinking of calling it Pravda.”…
Reporters skewered Musk. The Washington Post called out his “meltdown” and Politico dubbed him “a Media Assassin.”
Verge Senior Transportation Reporter Andrew J. Hawkins used journalism’s ultimate criticism, saying Musk “continues his slow transformation into a media-baiting Trump figure screaming irrationally about fake news.”
But 88 percent of those who voted in Musk’s Twitter poll supported his Yelp for news media…
2. Depends on What the Definition of ‘Spy’ Is: The media are in an uproar because President Trump called the “informant” investigating his campaign a “spy.” The Times led with this classically parsed headline: “F.B.I. Used Informant to Investigate Russia Ties to Campaign, Not to Spy, as Trump Claims.”
The Times didn’t name him, stating it “typically does not name informants to preserve their safety.” That was May 18. Four days later, Professor Stefan Halper was a headline in The Washington Post as the informant.
“Spygate” was suddenly the news and journalists even resented that. The Associated Press reported that President Trump used the term to “raise suspicions about the probe that has dogged his presidency since the start.”
The press grew obsessed with the “S” word, even though former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted “they were spying” on Russians and their potential ties to the Trump campaign. CNN warned of President Trump’s “paranoia.”…ETC
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/05/27/dan-gainor-journalism-continues-to-shrink-right-before-our-eyes.html
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comment in moderation re: 27 May: Fox News: Dan Gainor: Journalism continues to shrink, right before our eyes
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I’ve just had a good laugh. I was looking at Notalotofpeopleknowthat site and one of the ads that came up was ‘make up tips for old ladies’. Now, was that just sheer chance or have ‘they’ taken the opportunity to watch me while my tablet camera wasn’t covered? The piece of tape I had over it came off as we were just about to leave the UK and I replaced it only yesterday.
As I almost never bother with make up they are wasting their time. I have noticed that a lot of women wear a lot of make up in Dubai.
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Keep your eyes on SA’s wind generation tonight, it may collapse with high winds predicted.
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“Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Oh, Ozymandius.
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But SA isn’t that antique a land. Is it?
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No it ain’t, Sophocles, but ’tis corrupted by hubris.
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In case some of you hadn’t noticed. Will Power was the first Australian to ever win the Indianapolis 500. I live about 30 miles from the track and been to several races though none recently. I lost interest in going to that race when they went to cookie cutter cars there by quashing major innovations in the late 90’s. Since then the greatest innovations have been in safety but that can’t compete with the many different kinds of cars one would see there during the 80’s and before. These days I spend my race entertainment dollars on watching sprint cars on dirt where a guy can go down and look at the cars and talk to the drivers and crew and then see the whole track and what’s going on during the races all for $25.00 to $40.00 for a full night of racing. Broad brimmed hat and safety glasses are a must IMO when watching that racing.
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Yes, a good weekend for the Aussies.
But back in the sixties they were all front engined Offies, until a Brit took a rear engined Lotus across the pond. Are the sprint cars still deadly? They used to be in Sydney.
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Much prefer speedway to most forms of car racing these days , much less a manufactured “product” and more real racing. Modern top level V8 sprint cars are quite mid boggling in terms of speeds they can achieve.
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Hanrahan and yarpos
The cars are safer now but there are still fatalities. The cars are pulling about as much hp as an F-1 car with a lot more torque. The speeds the sprint an midget cars can reach on the 1/4 to 1/2 mile tracks they race on are amazing. About 5 miles from where I live is the Anderson Speedway. It’s a 1/4 mile paved “bull ring”. Since 1949 they have been running a 500 lap sprint car race called the “little 500”. The race is run the night before the Indianapolis 500. It is quite a sight to see 33 spring cars lined up 3 per row for the start of that race. there isn’t 100 yards between the front row and the back of the last row at the start. The problem with the race is that one can’t possibly keep up with the placing of more than 3 cars once the race has run for a few laps.
It is not a cheap sport. The way to make a small fortune racing is to start with a large one.
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