Thursday Open Thread

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195 comments to Thursday Open Thread

  • #
    TIP

    Hey Jo

    Whats your take (will we see an post) on the CDC data –

    6% of the 170,000 reported Covid Deaths in US are deaths due to covid (about 10,000) – the remaining 94% (about 160,000) are deaths with covid

    The 94% have an average 2.6 comorbidities.

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  • #
    Reed Coray

    Today was a good day. Nancy Pelosi, the democrat Speaker of the House, who has been pushing for “voting by mail” in part because it’s too dangerous to vote at a polling place just got caught on camera breaking the law by having her hair done inside a salon without wearing a face mask. I’ve read a couple of comments on various blogs and IMO the best one so far is “hair brained.” You’d think it couldn’t get any better, but you’d be wrong. Botox Nancy then publicly declared she was “set up”by the owner of the salon and the only thing she felt responsible for was “falling for the setup.” With class acts like this, how can the democrats lose?

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    • #
      Peter C

      Thanks Reed,

      In my view the western world needs Donald Trump re-elected almost as much as the USA does.

      It has been very very disturbing watching the mayhem in US cities. If that does not motivate the average American to cast his vote for Trump I don’t know what will.

      If the Democrats engineered all this, or even if they just let it go, with the intention of damaging Trump’s re-election chances they must be evil people indeed. If, on the other hand, they have removed all law and order for ideological reasons, the ideology is very perverse and destructive.

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    • #
      PeterS

      It will be interesting to see the outcome of the election. By normal standards Trump ought to win by a massive landslide. If he doesn’t then it’s proof that the US is on the decline; socially and morally.

      50

      • #
        Bulldust

        Remember that the US Postal Service Union endorsed the Dems. What could possibly go wrong with mail in ballots?

        I expect Project Veritas will get very busy on this issue. They just released a video on someone who voted twice.

        40

        • #
          PeterS

          So if it is found the voting system is compromised on a big scale, will the FBI investigate it like they did with the fake Russian collusion? Probably not, especially if Trump asks for one. He might just walk away and let the Democrats crash and burn the US, and then he can come back later and say “I told you so, so make me President for life and I will fix things once and for all”. He’s a very patient guy.

          10

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    People were calling BS on the virus a while back…now the CDC appear to have finally caught up 🙂

    But see the bad news for the CCP puppet state of Victoriastan, is that this 94% news collapses the whole covid pantomime….

    Hes behind you….!!

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Add this to the list of growing drugs to manage or kill the virus:

      https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/covid19-treatment-steroids-linked-to-lower-death-rate-in-critical-patients/news-story/16b895f6429b5dc2ec846100cb329c24

      “A new study has found cheap, readily available steroid treatments can lower the death rate of critically ill COVID-19 patients.

      “The analysis, which included findings from seven randomised trials backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), found the rate of death over a 28-day period was lower in patients who received doses of corticosteroids, compared with those who received a placebo, or regular types of treatment.

      “The analysis found steroids were linked to a one-third reduction of death in critically ill patients.

      There are enough drugs that have been shown to work, so we can end the lockdowns now.

      20

      • #
        PeterS

        The politicians can’t remove the lockdowns now without losing face. They are committed, and I suspect one day they will regret the day they were born for pursuing the lockdown “solution” for so long. It might take another 6+ months, but by that time people will get very angry, and the pandemic will be the least of their worries.

        30

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          I think it may happen sooner than later.

          When you see photos of flags flying up side down…..

          The CDC 94% news is going to shatter the whole sc*m….the whole thing is predicated on covid being dangerous….well…guess what?

          10

  • #
    Rowjay

    The following table summarises Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) capacity factors for the Eastern Australian Grid for June-August 2020, compiled from the AEMO SCADA website. It is based on 15 minute data intervals. The performance of Bayswater thermal coal Power Station has been included for comparison.
    :
    SOURCE____:_JUNE_:_JULY_:_AUGUST
    Solar_______ :_13.4%_:_15.4%_:__16.4%
    Wind_______:_26.8%_:_24.2%_:__34.6%
    Solar+Wind__:_22.4%_:_21.3%_:__28.4%
    Bayswater PS :_80.0%_:_80.0%_:_75.2%
    :
    We are entering the windy months with longer daylight hours so VRE performance is improving. So could the nameplate 11,545 MW VRE producers reliably replace the nameplate 2,640 Bayswater PS?
    Bayswater produced 1,477,888 MWh for August 2020 while VRE output was 2,482,678 MWh, about 1.7 times that of Bayswater. But was it useful?
    A graph showing the outputs from both sources can be found here.
    Bayswater PS has been running as a baseload + peaking generator during August, cycling from a low of about 1,179 MW (45% capacity factor) to a maximum 2580 MW (98% capacity factor) when needed every day of the month. By comparison, the VRE generators cycled from a low of 684 MW (5.8% capacity factor) to a maximum 6,921 MW (59% capacity factor) randomly throughout the month.
    There were about 15 wind stagnation events adding up to a generation shortfall of 98,677 MWh (red areas on the graph) when compared to Bayswater PS. This shortfall was massively over-compensated by VRE spill generation (green areas on the graph) of 1,103,467 MWh. The worst culprits are the solar generators, whose peak loadings on top of wind generation during daylight hours create significant daily production spikes and drops of 1 to 2 GW that have to be managed by the AEMO.
    In future, the spill energy will be used for utility storage schemes (batteries, pumped hydro etc), but they are not industrial scale at present. You would need another 490 Tesla units at Hornsdale to cover the above shortfall – which was much worse for June and July. Right now, it is major posteria pain for the grid managers. Imagine what it will be like when another 10 GW of VRE is added, all without industrial scale backup.

    91

  • #
    Lank

    Wearing a mask during Covid19 may have interesting implications on carbon dioxide toxicity. Air exhaled during breathing contains about 3.8% CO2 (38,000ppm, but much higher during exercise) which is nearly 100 times the amount of CO2 in inhaled air. Clearly, even with ‘filtering’ of cloth masks,long-term mask wearers will be have some symptoms of hypocapnia from time to time.
    We are told by many CC scaremongers that breathing high levels of CO2 are poisonous and a risk to health – but we are also told, often by the same people, to wear masks.

    141

  • #
    TdeF

    The prejudicial manipulation of public opinion is so obvious.

    Consider the names

    “Black Lives Matter” If you agree with this, you must support these violent racists.
    “AntiFA” Anti Fascist. Who isn’t, except these people are anarchists and violent fascists.
    “Climate Extinction”. You don’t want to be made extinct, so you have to join. No actual evidence but you cannot be against Climate Extinction.

    The fact is I am utterly against all of these appalling, utterly deceitful groups, but if you say you are against them, you appear to be the problem. And everyone is playing the pin the racist on the donkey game. Extreme leftists are even calling each other racist, as with Joy Reid yesterday who made the mistake of comparing conservatives to self evidently violent muslim terrorists. Other leftists and Donald Trump are both arguing her presumption has offended muslims and she should resign or be fired. It’s hard to be on the left.

    And I have adopted Burn Loot and Murder as more accurate. Try saying you support that proposition. From abortion to murder rates, it is a direct assault on Black lives and Black rights. The businesses being burned down in the inner city are black businesses. And the doubling and tripling of murder rates is of blacks. And they have the highest abortion rates. So Black Lives don’t Matter would also be more accurate.

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    • #
      R.B.

      Conservatives just sounds like elderberry jam on toast instead of “think this through before you cock it all up for everyone”.

      30

  • #
    Yonniestone

    Don’t know if many here have seen the footage of a young 5 months pregnant woman arrested in her home yesterday for making a Facebook post about a peaceful protest this Saturday https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/02/viktoria-police-arrest-a-hardened-criminal/

    This happened in my home town of Ballarat and I’m absolutely disgusted with Victoria Police and the Government that controls them, but on a more personal level I’m disgusted with friends and people I know well supporting the Police actions.

    I really don’t know how tackle any of this at the moment, it brings back bitter memories of trying to wake people up to this scenario plying out for real five years ago only to be met with a wall of apathy.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      There is no patch for stupidity……

      People are nicknamed “sheeple” for a reason.

      You have to have a thick hide, but if they push it, be prepared to give them a dressing down. Asking hard questions usually shuts them up as they realize how ignorant they are….problem is, ultimately the bulk of the population arent deep thinkers, and in a crisis are more fangerous than the crisis itself…

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      • #
        Yonniestone

        Perhaps I’m being punished for accusing alarmists of a Cassandra Paradox once too often and had the curse placed on me?

        Trying to convert individuals while noble in attempt is folly for the course, the truth has to be spoon fed, standing alone, en masse for anything to sink in, the general plebian have been conditioned for decades to believe “trusted news sources” as any alternative is unimaginable, I know this as I was one of them.

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    • #
    • #
      Stoichastic

      Yonnie: I really don’t know how tackle any of this at the moment

      It’s numbing. The FB protest event description started, “Social distancing enforced so we don’t get arrested. Wear a mask unless exempted”.

      If you disagree with your government, you know, the people meant to be serving your interests, wtf can you do to disagree?

      Write a letter is all well and good but banning protests effectively squashes and makes illegal active dissent. It’s repugnant.

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      • #
        Yonniestone

        With the declaration of a State of Disaster they’ve essentially taken away freedom of movement, protest, enterprise and defence.

        I’ve said before the only real right you’re born with is the right to fight to defend yourself, people will soon be faced with this choice.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Yes, unfortunately true. At that point, all bets are off.

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        • #
          RickWill

          It is highly likely that most of the ‘inciters’ in Victoria do not vote Liberal. My bet is they vote Labor or Green. They have got what they voted for – a woke government that puts diversity ahead of competence.

          The Victorian Labor government did not want to be seen as a ‘police state’ so they avoided any assistance from the military that was on offer. All other states accepted that assistance. Victoria had to declare a ‘state of disaster’ before the police had the power to force home quarantine. Now look at what that woke belief has got the State. It has literally become a ‘police state’.

          There has been no admission that the diversity policy was a key factor in the hotel quarantine failure. There has been no admission of failure that the secretive aspects of the movement of infected individuals limited individual ability to avoid contact with those infected and the places they had frequented. The contact tracing system would be wrongly classified as ‘third world’. Pre-industrial would be a more apt term. BLM and Eid al-Fitr gatherings were sanctioned by lack of effective control – they are woke activities.

          Victorians are reaping the rewards of electing a woke, incompetent government that recruits dingbats for high office and throughout their ranks.

          The difference between Victoria and Democrat governed states in the USA is that not many Victorians have guns. The violence in the streets is not deadly and police would have no fear of entering any residence facing an individual armed with an automatic weapon with the exclusion of a few bikie strongholds.

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          • #
            yarpos

            About 225,000 gun owners in VIC. However I think hardly any think of their guns as any way connected to political issues. Probably one of the most vetted and compliant groups in the community.

            20

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    • #
      tonyb

      Yonniestone

      So that was in your town? I saw the video and had hoped it was ‘staged’ by those wishing to make some sort of political point.

      So you can confirm it definitely happened. What has happened since?

      Six months ago if we had seen this enacted in China we would have been shouting loudly, disgusted with the actions. Those who have been stoking up the fires of hysteria in the West need to reflect on where it has led us.

      This pandemic was always wildly overblown and the measures taken to deal with it Orwellian. Which is not to say we should not be cautious of course but we seem to have completely lost our minds.

      What excuse are your friends and family giving for their support of this action?

      80

      • #
        Yonniestone

        Yes it happened in the Victorian rural city of Ballarat and definitely happened from proof of Officers and warrants being confirmed, the link to Catallaxyfiles has covered it very well.

        I agree with the initial caution as there was the unknown element of a virus coming from a CCP military laboratory but yes the hype of CV-19 appears to have preceded itself.

        The support of the action comes purely from belief and fear of the apparent Covid-19 pandemic, besides that I honestly cannot answer for someone as to why they are so willing to throw away what basic civil rights they have left in this Godforsaken Marxist cesspool, strong naive realism perhaps?

        80

    • #
      yarpos

      Arrest was complete BS and overkill. Dan and his stormtroopers “sending a message” They could easily just have served a summons.

      40

    • #
      TdeF

      Unbelieveable. Handcuffs behind her back like a violent offender needing restraint, not a summons. Ballarat. Pregnant mum with two children.
      Is this the same police force who persecuted Cardinal Pell and had him jailed, despite the complete lack of evidence and the impossibility of the offence? And who let the BLM march against aboriginal slavery go ahead in the middle of the pandemic?

      If only they had policed the hotels instead of the people of Victoria. When was an infected person in handcuffs?

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    • #
      Analitik

      it brings back bitter memories of trying to wake people up to this scenario plying out for real five years ago only to be met with a wall of apathy

      So true. I tried to warn people I knew about Red Dan and his cohort as the previous state election loomed but the stupidity of the RBA low interest rates along with the seeming health of the electricity grid in SA and Vic as they plowed along the renewables path had people saying “Dan Andrews is getting things done”

      Now our state is almost done.

      30

  • #
    Rocket Rod

    Cure:
    http://covexit.com/we-know-its-curable-its-easier-than-treating-the-flu-professor-thomas-borody/

    Pick a country with Malaria that uses HCQ. Covid? What’s that !
    Roll out HCQ now abd you don’t need Bill Gates “vaccines” or chips.

    190

    • #
      spark

      Prof Borody was interviewed about Ivermectin again by Bolt last night https://youtu.be/wdq9Z6S3t_g

      – he’s written to both the federal and Vic governments with a “positive response” from Greg Hunt’s office and is “sharing information and data with them”. No response from Victoria.
      – He’s started a self-funded trial in some Victorian aged care facilities with more than 100 practitioners prescribing Ivermectin, with positive results so far and some data coming out in the next few weeks.

      150

      • #
        Stoichastic

        Spark: He’s started a self-funded trial in some Victorian aged care facilities

        Given how poorly the government handled those facilities this will be a relief I imagine.

        Be very interested in seeing the results of this trial.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    For the corona file

    “cdquarles says:
    2 September 2020 at 6:47 pm

    About cough medicine, I ran across this: https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercomputer-analyzed-covid-19-and-an-interesting-new-theory-has-emerged-31cb8eba9d63. Hmm, bradykinin. I don’t recall seeing that chemical brought up before. (Side note: multicellular organisms grow and develop by means of a carefully regulated chemical song and dance; which includes programmed cell death. Deprivation via any means, or excess by any means, is pathological. Individual variation matters in determining what either means in that specific situation.)

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/08/28/wuhan-covid-evidence-for-hydroxychloroquine-herd-immunity-status/#comment-132606

    10

  • #
    David Maddison

    “Just following orders” or the plea of “superior orders” hasn’t been acceptable since the trials of Peter von Hagenbach (1474), the trial of Australian Breaker Morant (controversial) in the Boer War, Lieutenant Karl Neumann, U boat captain in WW1, and most famously Nazis in the Nuremberg trials.

    Victorian public serpents tasked with doing things contrary to Australian tradition would do well to remember that.

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  • #
    Chad

    The SOLAR GARDEN SCHEME !
    The latest ploy to con more punters into “investing” in “RoofTop” even if they do not have a roof or live in an apartment.
    Some cunning sales snake is promoting the plan for anyone in a rented property, or apartment etc , to invest in a remote “Community Solar Garden” ..( a solar farm by another name ! )… in return for a discount on their ongoing power bills.
    $4000 up front which theoretically pays back over a 10 yr period.
    Im sure there are a few pages of small print to hide the profit skimming !
    To me it sounds like a “ Crowd Funding” scheme for a solar plant ?

    50

    • #
      Chad

      The promoters..
      https://www.enovaenergy.com.au/community-owned-solar-gardens
      I hope i am reading it wrong , but it looks like it is $4000 for a 1 kW “plot” !

      20

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Chad:
        Assuming that 1kW supplies at 17% it works out at $0.26 per kWh nominally. There is the problem of payment to the plot owner, deterioration of the solar cells, maintenance, cleaning, replacement of inverter etc. And management costs — wouldn’t touch it with a 3.058 metre barge pole.

        On the other hand the scheme would appeal to inner city believers in AGW….(better not go into moderation).

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  • #
    TedM

    Dr Mobeem Sayed on Bromhexine and TMPRSS2 and a bit more.

    10

  • #
    TedM

    Dr John Campbell on masks. What logic and commonsense should have told you.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DANEqOPcDwc

    30

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Thanks TedM,
      I reckon that was one of his best sessions, and covered the topic as completely as I’ve seen. So far I’ve not used one (isolated, no local cases, no public transport), but I will next Thursday as my optometrist is requiring one, and I think that’s reasonable.
      But I was quite disappointed in a different session of Dr Campbell’s, pointed to following his masks one. Titled “Hydroxychloroquine, evidence of efficacy”, I watched it in hope. Although net positive he hadn’t discovered Dr Zelenko, zinc, early application of the protocol, or that Zelenko also prescribes vitamin D. Nor the Swiss experience. However I was not alone, as I found just now when I started reading the comments below the clip. I hope he expands his research, and updates his viewers.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uzXHnUViro
      Cheers,
      Dave B

      10

      • #
        TedM

        I was disappointed in his coverage of HCQ too David. Unfortunately I think much of the medical profession only gets to see what the officialdom wants them to see. They literally have to look outside the medically constrained box to find it. There are numerous Dr.s using the Zelenko protocol now where their country/state allows it. Our deputy CMO just stated that there are hundreds of studies that show that it doesn’t work. That statement was either coming from a position of gross ignorance or was a blatant porky.

        20

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  • #
    Jojodogfacedboy

    New report in Canada shows that our 3 levels of government impose 40% of taxes on Canadians before our cost to live is included.
    https://www.howestreet.com/2020/09/fraser-institute-report-on-taxation-municipal-auditor-general-kris-sims/
    This spending in government is highly wasteful with very little is used where it needs to go.
    And now the federal government want to add additional taxes to home ownership on top of the property taxes already imposed.
    The regulations and delays on projects has gotten even longer now due to waiting for government approval and permits needed.
    Our governments have gotten massive with no oversight to what they spend our money on. Such as government trips and wasteful spending projects.

    10

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      I commend to you Prof. C. Northcote Parkinson’s book The Law and the Profits (published 1959) in which he develops the theme “Expenditure rise to meet Income”. Or to put it crudely Government expenditure keeps rising until the economy collapses.

      40

      • #
        Jojodogfacedboy

        The economy has to collapse as our government has made it illegal to work in any other field without having to follow the massive amount of laws and regulations.
        Break any one of them come with penalties from fines to jail.
        And add to this the new Pandemic laws that business has to follow or they are fined or license pulled.

        10

  • #

     
    A global warming paradox
    ======================

    I have a friend called Mickey Orlando Mann. Mickey lives and works in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

    According to the “weatherbase.com” website, these are Mickey’s current temperature statistics:
    – annual average temperature = 13.3 degrees Celsius
    – average winter low temperature = -3.6 degrees Celsius (for January)
    – average summer high temperature = 30.6 degrees Celsius (for July)

    In summary, Mickey normally experiences a temperature range of about 34.2 degrees Celsius over a year, with an average temperature of 13.3 degrees Celsius.

    Mickey is very worried about global warming. He knows that global temperatures have risen by about 1 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times. If global warming increases by another 0.5 degrees Celsius (taking us to the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature limit), them Mickey expects that his quality of life will suffer.

    If global warming increases by another 1.0 degrees Celsius from the current temperatures (taking us to the 2.0 degrees Celsius temperature limit), then Mickey expects that his quality of life will be seriously affected.

    Mickey is so worried about the prospect of reaching the 2.0 degrees Celsius temperature limit, that he has worked out what his temperature statistics would be, if that catastrophe were to happen.

    These are Mickey’s global warming temperature statistics, if we warm by another 1 degrees Celsius (taking us to the 2.0 degrees Celsius temperature limit):
    – annual average temperature = 14.3 degrees Celsius
    – average winter low temperature = -2.6 degrees Celsius (for January)
    – average summer high temperature = 31.6 degrees Celsius (for July)

    In summary, Mickey would experiences a temperature range of about 34.2 degrees Celsius over a year, with an average temperature of 14.3 degrees Celsius.

    But you don’t need to worry about Mickey, because he has a global warming contingency plan. Mickey’s parents gave him the middle name of “Orlando”, and Mickey has always dreamed of moving to the city that he was named after. If things get too hot for Mickey in Philadelphia, then Mickey plans to retire to Orlando, Florida, like many of his older friends have already done.

    To take his mind off global warming, Mickey decided to look up the current temperature statistics for Orlando, Florida, to see what temperatures the people who live in Orlando are currently experiencing.

    These are Orlando’s current temperature statistics:
    – annual average temperature = 22.9 degrees Celsius
    – average winter low temperature = 9.9 degrees Celsius (for January)
    – average summer high temperature = 33.2 degrees Celsius (for July)

    In summary, Orlando currently experiences a temperature range of about 23.3 degrees Celsius over a year, with an average temperature of 22.9 degrees Celsius.

    Looking at these temperature statistics, Mickey suddenly realised that the people who live in Orlando, Florida, are currently experiencing temperatures far, far hotter than Philadelphia will have at the 2.0 degrees Celsius limit. How can they live in such extreme temperatures?

    The current average temperature in Orlando is 8.6 degrees Celsius hotter than the average temperature that Philadelphia will have at the 2.0 degrees Celsius temperature limit.

    The current average summer high temperature in Orlando is 1.6 degrees Celsius hotter than the average summer high temperature that Philadelphia will have at the 2.0 degrees Celsius temperature limit.

    Mickey wondered why any sane person would move to Orlando, Florida, when it is currently far, far hotter than Philadelphia would be at the 2.0 degrees Celsius temperature limit.

    Mickey thought about this for a while, and then he saw the answer to his question. All of the people who live in Orlando, Florida, are mad.

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    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Would that be the same Mickey who moved away to the bushfire capital of the world, Sydney, to avoid that horrific North American situation that he devised?

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    • #
      RickWill

      He knows that global temperatures have risen by about 1 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.

      No one KNOWS this. Like Climate Change, ‘global temperature’ can mean whatever you want it to mean. It is a meaningless number subject to the most political manipulation of any meaningless number ever dreamt up. It can be whatever the authorities want it to be. The homogenisations process that provide a trend have a step-wise process of reducing historic temperature measurements to produce a rising trend. The algorithms could be used to produce any required trend.

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      Kalm Keith

      Thanks Joseph, an excellent piece.

      We knew the funding arrangements months ago but it’s a key factor in what happened.

      What would a hospital administrator do when faced with the choice of categorizing patients for insurance purposes as either;

      # a $ 4,600 patient, or
      # a $13,000 patient, or
      # a $39,000 patient ?

      A difficult choice.

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    tom0mason

    From the link https://newatlas.com/energy/nano-diamond-self-charging-batteries-ndb/

    Technology of self charging ‘batteries’ made from nuclear reactor waste is what they tout. However these are NOT truly batteries …

    Update, August 27, 2020: We have contacted NDB to clarify several of their claims in this article. At this stage we believe the power density claims may relate to the power delivered by the supercapacitor part of the cell, rather than to how much energy the carbon-14 diamond itself is capable of generating. If this is the case, we may be looking at a very slow trickle charge from the diamond into the supercapacitor, and a high power output from the supercapacitor.

    Such a system – a trickle-charged supercapacitor – could be useful for sustained, low-power applications, and for emergency applications like Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) that can slowly charge themselves for weeks or months between periods of discharge, but would not generate power anywhere near quickly enough for use in a long-range electric car or other applications requiring sustained high power outputs from a compact battery pack.

    So apart from the difficulty of making utterly flawless nano-diamonds from super refined single isotopes of carbon, it’s not a ‘real’ battery but a rechargeable supercapacitor, with all the destructibility and reliability that these offer.

    I’m sceptical, these ‘batteries’ as these look much like the cold fusion all over again. However I’m willing to be proved wrong and will be if they ever get to be a commercial reality (and get around all the excessive legislation about nuclear anything).

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    StephenP

    Article about nuclear versus wind and solar for the UK, with interesting comments.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/09/03/britains-nuclear-industry-faces-sharp-u-turn/

    00

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    StephenP

    Article about nuclear versus wind and solar for the UK, with interesting comments.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/09/03/britains-nuclear-industry-faces-sharp-u-turn/

    10

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    RicDre

    Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity

    Mining threats to biodiversity will increase as more mines target materials for renewable energy production and, without strategic planning, these new threats to biodiversity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/03/renewable-energy-production-will-exacerbate-mining-threats-to-biodiversity/

    10

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    RicDre

    Claim: British Conservative Climate Change Plans “The Stuff of Dreams”

    NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has told former UK prime minister Theresa May that from an Australian perspective it was “the stuff of dreams” to see her conservative government legislate last year net-zero carbon emissions targets by 2050.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/02/claim-british-conservative-climate-change-plans-the-stuff-of-dreams/

    10

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    Richard Ilfeld

    Well, here’s a conundrum.
    The US has perhaps 70 government financial jurisdictions of national significance, Aus perhaps a dozen.
    The Pandemic is of an age now where some of the bills will be coming due on the time frame that impact governments,
    typically annual tax cycles. Some of the jurisdictions are in panic. Several have, at the heart of their impending
    bankruptcy, simply awful energy policy; many have this as a part of their woes. Unionized civil employment with unrealistic
    and underfunded pension promises litter the governmental landscape, as well, as do the usual sinks of waste, fraud and abuse.

    Now, were our governments corporatized, we’d bankrupt the weakest performers, preserving the assets as best we could, helping out
    the employees where we could, and putting in a receivership and a new management. There might be a future, but there would be pain.

    The shareholders would suffer as always.

    The shareholder class in our governments are the permanent bureaucracy, custodians and distributors of our taxes far removed from any meaningful influence,
    and their wholly owned elected vassals.

    In the US, the worst off expect a full bailout, with all past debts fully funded by the rest of us, and the behaviors that caused hideous indebtedness validated.

    What will we do?

    Yes, COVID has impacted us all. Yes national decisions applied everywhere. But there are reasons that some folks are suffering more than others. Will a confederation of the states elect to punish those few whose bad performance has left them disproportionately in pain, or will a nation of citizens feel that all citizens deserve equally to be made whole. This revisits a fundamental question of the founding of our two countries.

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      Kalm Keith

      Good perspective there Richard with the day of reckoning near.

      Will we see a bit of inflation soon to “devalue” the debt.
      What was that term they used last time?

      KK

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      Graeme No.3

      Interesting Richard in light of comment 16.1 from sixty years ago.

      In Australia we have at least 3 States in financial trouble (Qld. SA, Vic) without any attempt to remedy the situation, indeed quite the reverse as the politicians in power hand out money to the bureaucracy to encourage them to vote for them. The centre of bureaucracy (Canberra) occasionally gets noted as the place where the average salary is twice that of other places, and you must wonder whether we are getting value for money. As for their pensions that has been placed in the too hard basket. As I recall the French revolution had another use for a basket as they lopped heads.

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      el gordo

      ‘What will we do?’

      Countries are printing money like its going out of fashion and there is no sign of inflation. Stock markets are on a bull run, so the fundamentals are sound.

      Buy Bitcoin.

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  • #
    David Wojick

    CLINTEL has started pinging on Associations with alarmist climate change position statements.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/02/challenging-icheme-climate-scaremongering/

    More coming.

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    Kalm Keith

    COVID19 killed more than half of this family, a tragedy.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/nyregion/new-jersey-family-coronavirus.html

    Affluence and overindulgence are Not to blame.

    KK

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  • #
    R.B.

    The WaPo has an opinion piece
    Trump could refuse to concede – The Washington Post
    It’s paywalled so I can only link to Breitbart’s take on this.

    The Post’s tweet advertising the piece (which I also won’t link) sums up the threat perfectly: “The election will likely spark violence — and a constitutional crisis,” the tweet reads. “In every scenario except a Biden landslide, our simulation ended catastrophically…
    The Post’s bald-faced threat is couched in a piece of analysis that does not even attempt to be serious, especially in a country where, as I write this, countless Democrat-run cities are on fire thanks to Black Lives Matter and Antifa, two left-wing terrorists groups who operate as Brownshirts for the Democrat Party and media outlets like the Washington Post — who regularly encourage and protect these domestic terrorists.

    Even more ludicrous, the Post’s threat is only made possibly by way of its cherry-picking of “experts.”

    They make it all so official-sounding. I’ve emphasized the howlers:

    President Trump has broken countless norms and ignored countless laws during his time in office, and while my colleagues and I at the Transition Integrity Project didn’t want to lie awake at night contemplating the ways the American experiment could fail, we realized that identifying the most serious risks to our democracy might be the best way to avert a November disaster. So we built a series of war games, sought out some of the most accomplished Republicans, Democrats, civil servants, media experts, pollsters and strategists around, and asked them to imagine what they’d do in a range of election and transition scenarios.

    A landslide for Joe Biden resulted in a relatively orderly transfer of power. Every other scenario we looked at involved street-level violence and political crisis…

    Anyway, the Transition Integrity Project’s war games (can you believe they used the term “war games?”) are staffed only with ringers. The “accomplished Republicans” are all — and I do mean all — bitter, half-witted, Trump haters: Michael Steele. Bill Kristol. Trey Grayson.

    On the other side are only Biden loyalists: John Podesta. Donna Brazile. Jennifer Granholm.

    You do have to wonder why such prominent members of the Democratic party would think that this is good politics.

    I always thought that gen x and y were a countdown to gen useful-idiots, and that there were a ridiculous number of zombie movies and films made. A slow push to an unecessary revolution.

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    David Maddison

    Someone wrote this about Zoe Lee’s arrest for what would be called “pre-crime” from Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report” or Orwell’s “thought crime”. This is the pregnant woman arrested in what is now a world-wide viral video over her Facebook post. Note that she was in an area NOT subject to the same Stage 4 restrictions as Melbournistan.

    QUOTE
    Here is a list, in no particular order, of the problems with Zoe Lee’s arrest.

    1. She probably did not commit the crime of incitement. It requires first, intent, and second, for the crime incited to have actually happened. (See Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) s 321G). She was probably falsely arrested.

    2. Daniel Andrews claimed, when questioned the following day (today), that he had not seen the video. This is either a lie, or he specifically told his staff not to show it to him so that he could say he had not seen it.

    3. The Assistant Police Commissioner (APC) distinguished her event from BLM because hers was during stage 4 lockdown, and BLM was during stage 3. Wilfully deceptive. Ballarat – the location of Zoe’s event – is in stage 3 lockdown.

    4. The APC distinguished her event from BLM on the basis that BLM encouraged social distancing and mask wearing. So did her event, very specifically… I quote, “All social distancing measures are to be followed so we don’t get arrested please. Please wear a mask unless you have a medical reason not to.” Again, wilfully deceptive.

    5. The APC said, “While this deadly virus doesn’t discriminate, we won’t discriminate and we can’t discriminate, in holding people to account.” – err, Black Lives Matter, anyone??? This made me snort my coffee out my nose. VicPol are not enforcing a righteous standard, but a political one. Agree with their politics, they lie to defend you. Disagree, they lie to falsely arrest you.

    6. The police simply do not have to handcuff a person, do not have to arrest a person, and do not have to execute a search warrant under these circumstances. Doing do is unusual on all three counts. The doing of all three, in front of her family, whilst pregnant and compliant, is nothing short of intimidation tactics. (Not to mention she committed no crime, see point 1).

    7. From her interview the following day: “Sorry about my bimbo moment, but I didn’t realise I wasn’t allowed to. I wanted to protest in Melbourne but obviously realised I wasn’t allowed to do that… so I just wanted to feel like I was doing something, you know standing up for human rights, and you know I am just a passionate person and I am sick of the lockdowns, I am sick of hearing about suicides, I personally lost my job, and I am just sick of watching the economy collapse. It got to the point where I just wanted to peacefully protest.” Okay, so she is not some sort of anti-lockdown fanatic, or serial protester, or any such thing… and she intended no harm. This accords with the phrasing of her event – among other words, she said, “Here in Ballarat we can be a voice for those in stage 4 lockdowns.”

    8. Despite point 7, above, the APC implied very heavily in his press conference that she probably had a history of negative police interactions which led to her handcuffing. Rather unfair conjecture.

    9. Even if she did seem to breach the Crimes Act, the Act is not allowed to be applied in a way that infringes on her freedom to politically communicate. This is a well known constitutional law doctrine in Australia, and state law is limited on this basis.

    10. Even if she did seem to breach the Crimes Act, she has a further protection. The Victorian Police are not allowed to carry out their duties in a manner that breaches the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities which includes the rights to “peaceful assembly and freedom of association” and “freedom of expression”

    11. The APC called it “That serious offence of inciting a protest” – actually, what she did (well, didn’t do – see point 1) is the most utterly benign, low level crimes. Their actions were outrageously disproportionate.

    12. The arresting officers later told Zoe they didn’t want to do it. If this is true, then it’s as I suspected – politicised leaders in the police force (a change of government usually changes that – hint, hint Victoria).

    Summary: Andrews lied, the Assistant Police Commissioner lied, the media didn’t bother holding them to account. The bored, Facebook-surfing police went digging to find an offence which they could use to “teach her a lesson” based on the fact they disagreed with her politics… and misread the offence, or hoped nobody would read it, thereby booking her for something she did not do, in handcuffs, in front of her children, and made off with her devices and searched her home.

    This is the latest in a long line of incidents of VicPol persecuting those with political differences. See my earlier posts.

    Somebody wake me up already. I don’t like this dream.

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      Stoichastic

      David: the media didn’t bother holding them to account

      The media are a fcking joke.

      * Masks were introduced because “new studies have come to light”, but nowhere are the studies cited. Q: Which ones?
      * A couple of days ago, Komrad Dan says he can’t discuss opening up because he’s still consulting with “experts” how to go about it – but no questions as to who these experts are or their area or duration of expertise. Q: Who are they and what are their qualifications?

      Idle curiosity alone should provide sufficient motivation to ask these simple questions, yet our complicit spineless media: *crickets*.

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      Stoichastic

      David: “The arresting officers later told Zoe they didn’t want to do it”

      Do you have a link for that? My googling only shows “police defend arrest” type articles.

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        David Maddison

        Note that I didn’t write that piece but I did see a subsequent video of Zoe where she said that. I think it was on YouTube.

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      OriginalSteve

      Good summary, thanks.

      The thing about this type of stuff is that God sees it….dont worry.

      Maybe send a copy of your analysis to The Oz and Sky News…I suspect it would provide further resources to ensure balance in all this…

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      robert rosicka

      David a lot of people are unaware just how draconian our laws have become , it is now considered a “serious offence” to breach any Covid rule or law .
      Even if it’s only a minor inadvertent breach that gets you a warning and not a fine if your a firearms owner you will get a “Show cause notice” in the mail .

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        OriginalSteve

        So a socialist govt that uses any flimsy excuse under a draconian lockdown, to grab law abiding owners firearms…who would have thought….?

        Dan & the whole covid nonsense will go soon enough.

        The Elite in the US are already panicking – they have fast tracked some likely bodgy vaccine onto the population on November 1 , and need to get it to them before people really start to turn on the Elite as people start to finally realize whats actually going on. The US has a full blown marxist revolution going on as well, so they have that to contend with.

        Its possible that due to the international press coverage about the heavy handed pregnant woman’s arrest, this has headache for the Elite gone global and a lot of global attention is on Victoriastan mess now.

        Internally in Victoria too, open rebellion appears to be accelerating, and that panicks the Elite as it threatens their grip on power via draconian lockdowns, so my prediction is all of a sudden, with an accompanying beam of golden light from the sky, we will see some halo-covered vaccine suddenly emerge to try and diffuse the growing anger among normal people.

        Stay the hell away from that vaccine it is my suggestion. Its likely fast tracked ( so limited safety testing ) & likely RNA based…..nope….

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      PeterS

      Excellent summary. The rest of the world recognises how Victoria is now a state run by a tyrannical government. How come the Australia media doesn’t, apart from Sky News Australia? It really is time for the Federal Police to start investigating the State Police in Victoria for crimes against humanity.

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      Kalm Keith

      Thank you David.

      That poor woman, an extraordinary stress like that during pregnancy can cause damage.

      Damages should be sought both because the woman and her family have been wronged and the perpetrators and public need to have it made known that the action was not supported by Australian Law.

      Decent Australians should not be made to cower in the dark out of fear of Government.

      If only there was some way of keeping her out of the limelight while this is done.

      KK

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      David Maddison

      Someone else made this comment:

      QUOTE
      This is the Australia the left want. This is entry level socialism and it’s all downhill from this point. Post covid the next big push to help the world to supposedly recover will be a world central governing body to coordinate it NWO. ie SOCIALISM. The government will legislate new powers to take ownership of your super, your savings your property and if you think this is fictional, well just wait and see.

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    Lance

    NuScale SMR design approved by NRC

    https://www.heraldstandard.com/business_ap/us-gives-first-ever-ok-for-small-commercial-nuclear-reactor/article_becc8069-a6d2-5c75-812c-910cc7c71357.html

    60 Mwe, 200 Mw thermal, small modular reactor. 5% enriched fuel. Passively cooled.

    https://www.powermag.com/nrc-gives-final-approval-to-nuscales-smr-design/

    Projected to begin generation in 2027 – 2029.

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    OriginalSteve

    It iccurs to me that the whole hard cire eco movement at its core, appears to be anti- Christian.

    The core beliefs are tgat humans need to be managed, culled and locked down. Do we see a global lockdown to reduce “green house” gasses? Are the gkobalists cheering that in effect economic limits are put on growth and consequently resource and coal usage? Yes.

    And the lie of humans are ” just another animal” is pushed. When did you last see a giraffe go to the moon?

    However, right from the start in Eden :

    “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

    Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
    ( Gen 1:28 )

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      el gordo

      Creating humanity was an experiment fraught with danger, but the gods have succeeded.

      On reflection, our journey into space is on a par with walking out of Africa.

      03

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        PeterS

        God created mankind for a purpose but then I suppose you don’t understand that. I pray one day you do, for your own sake.

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          el gordo

          We are not the only intelligent life in the universe, your prayers are wasted on me.

          02

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            Serp

            “We are not the only intelligent life in the universe” wins the prize for evidence free assertion of all time; at least you forbore citing Erich von Daniken’s opus.

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              el gordo

              With billions of galaxies its mathematically impossible.

              02

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                PeterS

                That’s only if you believe life can come from non-life by natural means (ambiogenis) which is an impossibility, or you believe God create other civilisations, which you won’t even consider.

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                el gordo

                Life evolves spontaneously in a carbon based universe, if the right conditions exist. A rocky planet in a habitable zone, with a strong dynamo and big moon, should offer the best chance for intelligent life.

                So here we are on an outer spiral of the Milky Way, are we the outcome of natural forces or intelligently designed?

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                PeterS

                Life can’t come into existence without an intelligent designer. Spontaneous evolution of life is the stuff of myths and legends, and most scientists know that to be the case. More and more atheistic scientists have realised they are wrong about evolution as an explanation for life originating here on earth and now believe life has seeded, either indirectly via meteors or directly by aliens. The trouble with those nonsensical ideas is it just pushed the problem further out into space. SpongeBob SquarePants sort of stuff.

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                el gordo

                We got our oceans from the Kuiper belt, the world took more than seven days to construct.

                The alien theory is plausible, but without verifiable proof it remains speculation. On that point, the Younger Dryas asteroid impact has their fingerprints all over it. Tinkering to create the best conditions for civilisation to develop, so that we become spacemen and join the galactic community.

                We know from the speed of their craft that our visitors aren’t human, what is the Christian perspective on this?

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                Graeme No.3

                Let me upset a few people.
                The latest science has water on this planet from an early stage. Water asteroids aren’t that common.
                The Younger Dryas doesn’t appear to have been caused by an asteroid (although there might have been a small one approximately coincidental) but from solar variation (there was a Older Dryas and an Oldest Dryas as well as an Inter-Allerød. Be10 levels rise coincided with the Younger Dryas indicating more cosmic rays (hence weaker solar wind from a cooler Sun).
                There is accepted evidence of early life about 3,700 million years ago, and claims of even earlier. They originated in the oceans in ‘black or white smokers’ and relied on different chemistries. See Extremophiles as (mostly) bacteria living in very hot conditions without light. Sulpher instead of oxygen. There is even one which uses Arsenic.

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                el gordo

                If the right conditions exist, then life is bound to emerge.

                ‘Any water on Earth during the later part of its accretion would have been disrupted by the Moon-forming impact (~4.5 billion years ago), which likely vaporized much of Earth’s crust and upper mantle and created a rock-vapor atmosphere around the young planet.

                ‘The rock vapor would have condensed within two thousand years, leaving behind hot volatiles which probably resulted in a majority carbon dioxide atmosphere with hydrogen and water vapor. Afterwards, liquid water oceans may have existed despite the surface temperature of 230 °C (446 °F) due to the increased atmospheric pressure of the CO2 atmosphere.

                ‘As cooling continued, most CO2 was removed from the atmosphere by subduction and dissolution in ocean water, but levels oscillated wildly as new surface and mantle cycles appeared.’ wiki

                ————-

                The Younger Dryas could be rolled over to the new open thread, because of its complexity and theological implications.

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    Peter Fitzroy

    If the fraction of Crude oil was not used to make single use plastics, what would it be used for?
    It’s my understanding that a lot of plastic is made from parts of the fractionated crude which could not be used otherwise
    This means that there is some return on what would otherwise be wasted, and most likely dumped.
    It’s strange that no group, and by this I mean greens, has come up with any innovative use for this otherwise wasted resource.
    After all disposing of waste oil, or single use plastic amounts to the same thing when you consider the environment

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      el gordo

      How about converting it into fuel? They can turn plastics into hydrogen, so there should be a way to process this waste crude and avoid manufacturing plastics.

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      Peter C

      It’s my understanding that a lot of plastic is made from parts of the fractionated crude which could not be used otherwise

      Which fraction would that be Peter Fitz?

      It is my understanding that all of the components of crude oil are used, from the lighest parts (hydrogen and methane) to the most tarry parts (Asphalt) and all the parts in between.

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      Robber

      Plastics are made from natural gas, LPG, naphtha, and diesel. There are no wasted or unused components from hydrocarbon feedstocks.

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        Peter Fitzroy

        Yes Captain obvious, the point is if the fraction is not used to make single use plastic, what else could it be used for. Please try to keep up

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          David Maddison

          What is “single use plastic”? I guess you mostly mean bags. Everyone I knew had multiple uses for the free bags once given out in supermarkets. The list was huge. After secondary, tertiary and quarternary uses they were finally appropriately disposed of.

          Only Leftists were too stupid and too wasteful and too irresponsible to see them as other than “single use”.

          Enjoy your organically grown hessian bags, Peter.

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          • #

            you need to educate yourself on single use plastics – you are welcome to your private definition of course but it is not the generally accepted one. And it has nothing to do with your politics- single use plastics are single use. Simple.

            Just google it.

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              John F. Hultquist

              Plastic bags at the check-out counter were banned. Please bring a cloth bag with lots of germs, they said.
              Then Panic2020 came along and personal bags and boxes are banned and check-out counter plastic bags are back.
              Meanwhile, in the produce section plastic bags were allowed all along.
              When I was young things such as mustard, pickles, milk, and most other such things came in glass. These could, but rarely did, become cullet and replaced some of the sand, lime, soda, and fuel. Now plastic containers almost always go to a landfill.
              Plastic bags were banned, mostly, because they escaped into the “seen environment”. Plastic bottles are less fleet afoot.

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              • #

                What has this to do with the definition of single use plastics? You are welcome to reuse the plastic around your sausages or crisps but the intention of their manufacture is that you don’t.

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                OriginalSteve

                I always get a plastic bag, the irony is that all it does is now make money for the supermarket by charging us.

                Who said eco-lunacy and capitalism cant go hand in hand?

                I recall my mum contending with stupid paper bags in the supermarket when I was a kid…which was fine until the paper bag got wet…..

                Single use plastics burn quite well….just use as a fuel source to produce electricity. Job done.

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          Lance

          So, Peter, let’s follow your logic.

          If Peter had not sent a question to Jo’s website, then what would those unused electrons have been applied to otherwise?

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            If Peter had not sent a question to Jo’s website…..

            Yes Lance, but which Peter Fitzroy is this?

            That’s the fourth or fifth different icon I have seen for the persons who use this one name.

            How does that even happen? We are all honest enough to use just the one person who we really are, so how come these persons just use the one name.

            You never really know which one of them you are replying to. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have been asked to reply to the same question. You’d think that they would co-ordinate with one another to see if they have got their questions sorted out, eh!

            Or could it be that it might even be just the one person trying to find a way to ‘game’ the comments, or use the ploy of asking the same question multiple times to waste our time. We all know that they don’t take any of the links they so religiously ask us to supply. My suggestion would be that we stop responding to them, whichever one of them that they are.

            Tony.

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            • #

              everyone should join the gravitar club.

              Sometimes my name varies because on a different device I just wrote it differently and it autopopulates from that moment on. So when I have different cases or a “the” that is the explanation.

              And Peter if you are watching – it is not 13! It is much much less.

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                Peter C

                In your case Professor the Fig Leaf Avatar stays the same because it is linked to your email address (by Gravitar).

                I tried an experiment a while back and posted under the name of Peter Fitzroy and then put in a random email address. It was posted as “Peter Fitzroy”, with a different Avatar to the ones he has used.

                My simplistic conclusion (could be wrong) is that the number of possible avatars for Peter Fitzroy is very large.

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          yarpos

          apart from the needless snark and point scoring that seem to characterise your input, why does it have to be used for anything? cant we just use the resource at a reduced rate?

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      David Maddison

      In capitalism, nothing is wasted. This is a web page from an oil refining company that explains how all fractions are used.

      https://www.neste.com/nothing-goes-waste-%E2%80%93-oil-refining-uses-its-resources-very-wisely

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      RicDre

      “If the fraction of Crude oil was not used to make single use plastics, what would it be used for?”

      Since the government imposed Covid-19 restriction were put in place here in the US, we are no longer allowed to use our reusable bags and were forced to go back to using “single-use” plastic bags so those fractions of crude oil can’t be redirected to some other use.

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    • #

      waste oil can be returned to whence it came.

      Also, the energy added into the chemical equations is basically held in the bonds that make plastics resistant to breaking down. As a consequence plastics (on average) are more difficult to dispose of.

      And what is it with the pejorative use of “greens”? Surely concern about single use plastic and waste disposal is apolitical? Further, why should a “green” be required to come up with a use for it?

      03

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      To add to your comment:
      Waste from petroleum refining is burnt. See the flare from the tall chimney. Looks impressive but very little is actually lost.
      A lot of ‘single use plastics’ are made from natural gas as that can be converted into feedstock as ethylene or propylene or other.**
      I worked for a company that recycled plastic bottle waste into resin, and that was 25 years ago. (Before that they used X-ray film sheets). That was fine until the quality became worse and worse as other plastics were added.
      There are/were companies making items from plastic waste, I still have some boards made from recycled thermoplastics and sawdust, unfortunately the jump in cost of electricity owing to renewables drove them out of business.
      Singapore (and quite a few countries in Europe) burn their plastic waste, generating some electricity and some for hot water. Saves on landfill.

      **NZ had a plant turning natural gas into methanol, with plans to convert that to petrol. Both projects were discarded when the price of oil dropped.

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      RickWill

      It’s my understanding that a lot of plastic is made from parts of the fractionated crude which could not be used otherwise
      This means that there is some return on what would otherwise be wasted, and most likely dumped.

      Fundamentally, your understanding is incorrect. Plastics are formed by polymerisation of relatively light hydrocarbon molecules. The names sort of give it away.

      Ploypropylene is the polymer of propylene, C3H8. Refinerary crackers can be optimised to increase the yield of propylene over propane. But propylene is a good fuel with higher burning temperature than propane.

      With PVC you need to know a bit more chemical nomenclature. The feedstock is usually ethane C2H6 that goes through a process to produce ethyl (also termed vinyl), C2H3. Ethynl – ethylene with a missing hydrogen – vinyl chloride monomer has chlorine added to replace the missing hydrogen – C2H3Cl. VCM is polymerised to PVC.

      I have only seen enough of hydrocarbon refining to be dangerous but I suspect that all plastic feedstock from cracking could just as easily follow another path to form a useful fuel.

      Natural gas also provides feedstock for the plastic industry. The light hydrocarbons are all present in natural gas and they are often separated to provide feedstock for plastics industry. For example, PVC is most commonly produced by direct conversion of ethane to VCM. This chart gives typical composition of natural gas:
      https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Malek_Mezni/publication/317840680/figure/fig23/AS:668799229493259@1536465570561/Typical-Composition-of-Natural-Gas.ppm

      Hope that improves your understanding of the feedstock for common plastics. They could just as easily be burnt for fuel as being used for plastics. Using plastics for fuel though brings in a few issues.

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    Robber

    Victoriastan is supposed to hear something new from Premier Disaster Dan on Sunday about his “roadmap” out of lockdown “based on the science.” Dan has been delivering a boring daily press conference for over 50 days during the CV19 lockdown reporting the latest meaningless statistics, and lecturing Victorians on how some of us refuse to follow his orders to stay home, don’t meet with family or friends, and why anyone except his union mates cannot work, resulting in an unemployment rate of over 11% (and that’s after the federal govt schemes of Job Keeper and Job Seeker).
    He has never admitted that the second wave of infections is largely due to his government’s incompetence in implementing hotel quarantine for those at risk – although damning evidence is now emerging from an inquiry into that disaster.
    Dictator Dan is warning that restrictions will continue until some undefined targets are achieved, with his government intending to maintain a state of disaster and a state of emergency for the next six months with new laws created supposedly on the advice of a compliant Chief Health OFficer (who needs a parliamentary democracy?)
    And be warned, if you try to encourage any protests about his actions, or go sitting in a park, or travelling more than 5 kms from home, Victoriastan Police will arrest you. (so much more fun than chasing real criminals).
    I suspect that given his seeming delight in having dicatorial powers, his roadmap on Sunday is more likely to be a road to nowhere.

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    • #
      TdeF

      And the MPs appeared for less than a day in Parliament just to vote Daniel a six months extension of absolute dictatorship and themselves an extra six months on full salary, with no work and two pay rises. Absolutely irresponsible luxury.

      With representative democracy like this, who needs a parliament? 22 dead in New Zealand but 500 in Melbourne and the police sent to the home of a woman who dared to disagree on facebook when friends of Andrews regularly shut down the city, even in a pandemic. It is to be hoped that Daniel Andrews is charged with over five hundred cases manslaughter as the man solely responsible for those deaths. And the deaths of firefighters, trauma and massive property damage caused not by climate change but deadly fires due to his policies.

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        PeterS

        The fact that Victorian are so quiet on all that is odd. Perhaps thy will awake from their slumber in 6 months time when their economy is all but destroyed.

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          Serp

          Be patient, when the football’s over the Victorian populace will have a slot available for other considerations.

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    • #
      RicDre

      “… Dictator Dan is warning that restrictions will continue until some undefined targets are achieved …”

      This reminds me of the old saying: “The beatings will continue until morale improves!”

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    David Maddison

    “Just following orders” or the plea of “superior orders” hasn’t been acceptable since the trials of Peter von Hagenbach (1474), the trial of Australian Breaker Morant (controversial) in the Boer War, Lieutenant Karl Neumann, U boat captain in WW1, and most famously Nazis in the Nuremberg trials.

    Victorian public serpents tasked with doing things contrary to Australian tradition would do well to remember that.

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  • #

    Tell me again how much money was spent on Macarthur Wind Plant, the largest in Australia with a Nameplate of 420MW. (hint – $1.2 Billion)

    Ten days now off line with no output at all. Flat line zero from 140 individual towers.

    It’s not lack of wind or too much wind, as the six wind plants closest in proximity to Macarthur are all delivering their little bits of power here and there, and not at zero for ten consecutive days anyway.

    This plant has been intentionally turned off for some reason.

    Hey, wait a minute. I thought that these things were meant to save the World, you know, altruism and all that.

    Tony.

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      David Maddison

      Does it even matter if the fans are turning or not?

      It’s still useless.

      But think of all the bird and bat lives saved and the horrific infrasound that drives people mad that’s not being produced.

      Bird and bat lives matter.

      Human lives matter.

      Not running them is far better than running them.

      The only point of running them is that it makes ignorant Leftists think useful energy is being produced.

      If they’re not running I doubt if any Leftists would notice anyway. They never notice details like that.

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    • #

      Tell me again how much money was spent on Macarthur Wind Plant, the largest in Australia with a Nameplate of 420MW.

      OK… 1.2 billion. Not sure why you needed that information because you wrote it as a hint immediately after asking for it.

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      el gordo

      It has been a sick joke for years.

      ‘The performance of Macarthur has been the subject of much speculation in the wind industry, with no one too sure what is the reason for the lower than expected performance.

      ‘Indeed, according to this data from the Climate and Energy College, it has never produced anywhere near its hoped-for capacity, and never reached above 28.6 per cent.’

      RenewEconomy 2017

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    Greg in NZ

    2020 “warmest winter on record” for NZ according to NIWA statisticians & number crunchers: dedicated followers, and preachers, of flaming fashion. Their cook-book recipe (released Thursday) can be found as the lead article at http://www.niwa.co.nz

    This winter was allegedly 1.14 degrees Celsius above average, an astounding 0.06*C warmer than the previous record in 2013. Seven years to show any, minuscule though it may be, warming? The country’s average was a scorching 9.6*C.

    NIWA’s high point was 25.1 degrees C recorded 30 Aug at Timaru (due to a roaring pre-frontal nor’wester foehn wind off the mountains). They conveniently forgot to mention that two days later, the 1st of Sept, the southerly buster which blew through dropping freezing snow, to sea level in some parts, across the South Island. First day of Spring? Meh, nothing unusual.

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    • #

      So in a report about winter they forgot to mention a day in spring. How foolish and complicit.

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    • #
      el gordo

      They know global warming is happening, so they enthusiastically look for signs to support their belief system.

      Across the gap BoM is saying it hasn’t been this warm so early in the season for at least 30 years.

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        Maptram

        I don’t know about anywhere else, but according to BoM records for Deniliquin, the average for maximum temperatures the first 3 days of spring 2020 was 20.1 while for 2019 the average was 22.7. So much for being this warm so early in the season for at least 30 years.

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      TdeF

      And ‘warmer’. That is an average from the top of NZ at 35South to the bottom at 47-50South. America is 28 to 49. From semi tropical to near arctic. Mountain ranges. Very strong winds in the roaring forties. Night and day, winter and summer and they have found an astounding 0.06C in a made up number. Blind Freddy could create a very different number but the one created has not moved in a way which anything less than very modern instruments could detect.

      And how good and comprehensive are those historic ‘records’ to come to this amazing conclusion? Even the entire Maori population of New Zealand in 1901 was 43,000. We should check their records too.

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      • #
        RickWill

        BUT 0.06C in 7 years translates to a staggering 0.85C over 100 years.

        Can you imagine the dislocation caused by increasing from a single digit temperature of 9.6C to a double digit temperature of 10.45C by 2120. It would be like enduring the heat that Melbourne experiences in winter.

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        • #
          TdeF

          And I might just be able to tell the difference a hundred years from now if I buy a bigger thermometer so I can read the temperature to 0.1C.

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  • #
    Mick

    Question: What’s worse than Paul Keating giving Australia obscenely high interest rates and the ‘recession we had to have’ and Kevin Rudd spending money like a drunken sailor (the surplus left by the Coalition)? Keating and Rudd giving economic advice on how to get out of the recession resulting from COVID-19.

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    Mick

    Question: What’s worse than Paul Keating giving Australia obscenely high interest rates and the ‘recession we had to have’ and Kevin Rudd spending money like a drunken sailor (the surplus left by the Coalition)? Keating and Rudd giving economic advice on how to get out of the recession resulting from COVID-19.

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  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Original Steve’s comment: “people are nicknamed sheeple for a reason” has always applied, as outlined in Matthew 9:36:

    “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”.

    When Jesus saw the large crowds as sheep without a shepherd, His compassion led Him to teach them the things the false shepherds of Israel had abandoned. The priests and scribes were proud and corrupt; they despised the common people and neglected them, but Jesus had compassion on them, and He taught and loved them.

    Today’s population of sheeple got that way through lack of critical thinking whilst being fed on propaganda via the cultural Marxist scribes and priests.

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  • #
    RickWill

    Victorians should be encouraged by the fact that the hard working individuals in charge of the hotel quarantine have been awarded a 2% pay rise along with the rest of the public servants in Victoria.

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    • #
      RickWill

      If Victoria goes through another lockdown post September, I propose all government salaries, federal and state, are reduced to $750/wk. That is recognised as a survival payment for the front line fighters and would really encourage those pulling the strings to get their act together.

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      • #
        Bruce J

        Why not just reduce the Victorian politicians and public servant salaries by 5% for every week the lockdown extends past the 30th September?

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        • #
          RickWill

          At a 5% weekly reduction it would take a long time to get salaries down to a survival level that would cause some hardship. And federal employees are complicit. They provided the rules that enable private aged care owners to make a bundle while risking the lives of the people they are supposed to care for. They are called aged CARE homes but are regarded by the owners as get rich quick homes.

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    RickWill

    It appears that a significant proportion of the comments on this blog are from people domiciled in Victoria – or more accurately imprisoned in Victoria. Not much else to do.

    JoNova is doing her fair share for giving Victorian people a platform to vent and help maintain their sanity.

    I can see my wife deteriorating. Her fuse is getting shorter as the incompetence in Victorian government and media is exposed on a daily basis.

    My only concern is that Victorians have a short memory. Maybe also that the alternatives are also heavily woke infected. And it is not easy to remove dingbats from high paid government jobs.

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    • #
      Annie

      Your wife is far from alone RickWill. I am furious at the sheer incompetence of government and their bureaucrats and the media.
      I feel for the people in Melbourne; a sheer nightmare.

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Annie, I think it will be over soon, but I suspect they have deliberately kept the pressure on people through lock-downs so they will gladly accept a bodgy, limited tested vaccine to *just* get back to normal.

        If you keep sheep in a pen long enough, any gate you open they will gladly use….

        My suggestion is stay as far away as possible from any vaccine offered.

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    • #
      RickWill

      My wife gets some masochistic enjoyment from listening to the questions in Dan’s daily press conference. The only woker people in Victoria than the government and employees are the journalist.

      A journalist question today – “Premier, what is your advice for people planning protest marches in Melbourne over the weekend?”

      Dan with beady eyed stare behind his dark rimmed glasses, responded – “DON’T”

      The response made her laugh out load.

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    • #
      PeterS

      Look at it this way. The longer they keep the lockdowns in place the worse it will get for the politicians. I can’t imagine even the Victorians putting up with say 6 months more of this nonsense. Besides, the economy would have imploded by then and other serious issues will join the front line news giving them even more headaches. I suspect they will relax the lockdowns sooner than later, unless they are completely stupid, which is a distinct possibility.

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Victoria will lose it soon.

        The pregnant woman arrest has kicked it all off…..

        Its very similar to V for Vendetta….it just needed done incident to kick off the population.

        The Elite now have to either basically deploy huge police presence everywhere( like China) , or roll over.

        Dan will be thrown under the bus by the Elite, he has served his purpose.

        Just beware any “miracle” vaccine that amazingly appears…..

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      • #
        TdeF

        What choice do we have. President for life Daniel Andrews could cancel the elections. He is ruling by personal decree. There is no parliament. Wu Flu is his excuse, nothing more. He is accountable to no one and clearly, he personally instructs the police. And as in the Pell fake trial, he gets what he wants.

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        • #
          TdeF

          And what good has 6 months of dictatorial power done for Victoria. The place is in economic ruin and 560 people are dead. 22 in New Zealand. 6 in Queensland and some of those came from the Ruby Princess.

          Thanks entirely and solely to dictator Daniel Andrews, last night more people died from Dan’s flu than all in New South Wales since it started. Why would you extend the emergency powers by another six months? To continue the good work? Or did he pay them off, as he has paid everyone off. With our money, full wages and a holiday at home and pay rises to let him do what he likes. The Greens MP who came in from maternity leave can now be on full salary. What fun. Money for contractors, hotels. And death and destruction like nowhere else in Australasia.

          The Governor is our only hope. We have no democracy in Victoria. Daniel Andrews is doing what he likes.

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          • #
            TdeF

            The main constitutional responsibilities of the Governor in relation to the function of the government of the day are to:

            call an election
            chair the Executive Council
            give Royal Assent to Bills passed by both Houses of Parliament
            dissolve the Legislative Assembly in exceptional circumstances

            appoint and dismiss Ministers.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Well its possible if it gets ugly, he could get rolled by an internal purge within his own party or maybe even the police could decide they want to overthrow him….and dont rule out nasty stuff as well from unexpected quarters.

          Im not advocating anything, rather in periods of grest stress, anything is possible….

          But..if it drags on, Victoria could default on loans, triggering a serious collapse of its credit rating. The bankers might even get Dangerous deposed….its hardly the first time the bankers have overthrown a govt.

          In a power vacuum that follows, all hell could break loose…but victorians might get thier freedoms back….who knows how it will spin out…one thing i do know is that Dan doesnt have any military backing…Scomo could hust order in the troops and clap Dan in irons…it could be a good use of the military.

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  • #
    TIP

    I saw talk of a temporary medicare levy to aid covid response recovery.

    I think better option – a temporary public sector income levy …..maybe 20-30% to aid the economic recovery they have thus far immunised themselves from

    (wont bother keeping my fingers crossed)

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    Analitik

    This is an interesting article in that, on the surface, it is defending the right of self employees by denouncing California’s recent legislation that classes ‘Gig Economy’ workers as employees which adds all manner of expenses to the like of Lyft and Uber and then threatens their viability along with the livelihood of their ‘Gig’ workers.

    California’s Odd Desire to Suffocate the ‘Gig Economy’

    What the writer fails to grasp is that the ‘Gig Economy’ is largely a load of BS where pre-existing businesses are undermined by shams that bypass existing regulations through the loophole of the workers being part time, self-employed (it’s very much akin to renewable generators not needing to guarantee the supply for their generation bids, requiring thermal generators to cover their mess).

    While I am the last to wish for more bureaucracy, I am fully in favor of enforcing regulations so that everyone works from a level playing field. This is a rare instance of where two wrong actually do make a right.

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      How can any government claim legitimacy when they take substantial Taxi License fees from legitimate cab operators, and then turn a blind eye to other operators like Uber who operate outside of these government constraints. The license fee is immediately devalued.

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      How can any government claim legitimacy when they take substantial Taxi License fees from legitimate cab operators, and then turn a blind eye to other operators like Uber who operate outside of these government constraints. The license fee is immediately devalued.

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    Serp

    Either Dan’s staked his career on Stockholm Syndrome kicking in some time over the next six months of tethering and curfew or he’s actually on a Robespierre frolic without any idea what’s coming though he’ll keep himself aware of the, usually wrong, numbers in the opinion polls.

    Dan loves to sleep and go into his favourite recurring dream in which till the crack of doom his public does what he wants it doing and he confers with Xi’s consular officials to put arrangements in place that enable him to rule for life as all the other top world leaders have recently done. Now he’s awake and grumpy because that dream state remains unattained; let us pray for our premier.

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  • #
    el gordo

    ‘The largest corn harvest in history is among the reasons the International Grains Council (IGC) is forecasting record total grains production in 2020-21.

    ‘According to the IGC’s Grain Market Review, released Aug. 27, total global grains production will reach 2.230 billion tonnes this marketing year, up 50 million tonnes from the July forecast and 9% higher than the previous year (2.181 billion tonnes).’

    World Grain.com

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    el gordo

    If you believe in the Anthropocene (sic) you will believe anything, like this fellow.

    https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/climate-change-and-tyranny-psychological-distance

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    el gordo

    A small island south of Tokyo hasn’t seen any warming in 80 years.

    https://notrickszone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Hachi_Summer-1.png

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      Graeme No.3

      They are being discriminated against. Come on NASA rush some global warming to them. And while doing so, send some to Scandinavia which has been cooling (slowly) since the late 1980’s If that isn’t possible because stocks of global warming are in short supply, at least send Greta some wooly knickers.

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    el gordo

    The start of the LIA was in 1215 AD and the next climate chaos won’t begin until later this century.

    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/schwabe-cycle-variability-ulric-lyons

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    el gordo

    ‘The world’s oceans are better at soaking up carbon dioxide than most scientific models have previously found, according to a new study.

    ‘Although emissions of carbon dioxide are easily quantifiable, how much goes into the atmosphere and how much is absorbed by bodies of water is hard to calculate.

    ‘Due to a previous oversight, the oceans may actually soak up an extra 0.9 petagrams of CO2, the same as 900 million metric tonnes.’ Daily Mail

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  • #
    Slithers

    publish what I consider to be Fraud!
    Obfuscation squared!
    I just watched a Scientist and a Mathematician to publish what I consider to be Fraud.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PooFvQEN4n8
    Let me proceed to shoot down this false information which is sprinkled with facts.
    Firstly: The is NO Point that is the center of the Earth!
    Where ever you are the distance to the center is different from everywhere else!
    This makes all the rest of the presentation subject to error, sometimes large error!
    The second glaring miss quoted fact was the height.
    The height cannot be evaluated because the distance from the non existent center of the earth cannot be determined!
    Need I go on?
    I have in my distant past programmed a rocket, ‘Black Night’ that was launched from Woomera, so I do know what I am talking about!

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    Jay Elink

    In my state, Massachusetts, the daily covid dashboard showed the cumulative covid deaths-by-age-group. It was easy to see that only fewer than twenty people under the age of 30 died from the disease, and NONE under the age of twenty, in a state with a population of 6.9 million.

    But that wouldn’t sustain the “narrative” about schools being breeding grounds for the virus, that thousands of little Janes and Johnnies would die, or that their teachers would be guinea pigs—NEVER MIND that no study has shown school-attending children have been vectors infecting their parents or grandparents.

    So…the State removed that data.

    Of course they did; why let parents feel secure that their kids can return to school, when you can make them shake impotent Fists of Fury heavenwards and blame Trump?

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