Weekend Unthreaded

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31 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

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    A quick look at Australia’s weather for October and its implications for climate change. Keeping the casual observer in touch with reality. http://www.dinosaurdiary.com.au

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      Memoryvault

      Forget the “official” figures BS. Both daily max and min temps here in SE QLD have been been around 3 degrees BELOW average for the past year. There is definitely “climate change”, but it’s getting cooler and drier, not warmer and wetter, and it has has SFA to do with CO2.

      Climate is cyclical. We have been through our 150 year warming cycle. The sun went into a Grand Solar Minimum around 2004, and we are now starting a 150 years of cooling. We are effectively where the world was at back around 1700, which is now referred to as the beginning of the “Little Ice Age” (LIA), which lasted from ~1700 to ~1850.

      Atmospheric CO2 is a CONSEQUENCE of global warming/cooling, not the CAUSE of it, and is fully in accordance with Henry’s Law. As the oceans warmed since 1850, they gave off CO2 and atmospheric levels went up, benefiting crops. As they now cool they will absorb more CO2 and atmospheric levels will go down, to the detriment of crops.

      Getting the population firmly under lock and key to control the coming mass panic is what this coronovirus scamdemic is all about.

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    seeker24

    Hi, Jo.
    Here in the UK, your site has suddenly got glitchy / slow to load.
    Is your server being overloaded? (You certainly deserve high viewing figures!)
    Or has the eye of Sauron been turned in your direction?

    Thanks for great journalism.
    Seeker.

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      Seeker, thanks for the info. Traffic is waaaay up. Sorry if things are slow. Please do let me know how things are going. Because if I have to get more Ram, I will.
      I’ve only had one timeout today for a few mins.

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        RicDre

        Jo,

        Here in Ohio, USA, I have been getting a “500 Internal Server Error” off and on the last couple of days when trying to view your home page and some of your articles. At the moment, it seems to be slow, but the articles are eventually displayed.

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        Jo

        You will remember we had this self same problem of slow loading many months ago. Don’t know if it’s the same fault or something different

        [The host is onto it TonyB and yes it’s a problem for all of us , expecting an improvement in a few hours .]AD

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          Jo

          For what it’s worth here are some timings,

          From google to your site took 92 seconds. When at your site it then took 186 seconds to get to the thread I clicked on. I followed a link supplied by one of the commenters which was instant. Coming back to your site took 80 seconds. Posting a comment took 96 seconds.

          For comparison climate etc was a few seconds for each function but WUWT is so slow I can no longer access it from my admittedly ageing iPad. I generally post in the evening so the connection can be a little slow but no other site, other than WUWT takes remotely the time that yours does

          You had the same problem some months back but then it seemed to get back to a normal speed until a week or so ago.

          Hope that helps

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        Here in Michigan, USA it has been taking 15 to 20 seconds to load the JoNova home page … but the content is worth waiting for. In the old days of internet over telephone modems, I had patience. But after 25 years using the internet, my patience lasts about 2.2 seconds before I go berserk — this excellent website is the one exception.

        Starting this year as the best climate science in the world, the expansion into COVID news was risky … but the articles were good … and now this new expansion into the US election is risky too … but so far the articles are good again. By “good” I mean that I’m learning things not found on the other seven climate science blogs and websites I read daily.

        It’s good news, and sad news at the same time, that this Australian website covers important US news that’s missing from the US mainstream media.

        The main problem with the very slow download time is that it gives my computer’s spell check program a lot of extra time to garble my comments. My comments start out as Ph.D. level masterpieces, in my opinion, but then my confuser goes to “work”, and what actually gets posted on the website reads like the rantings and ravings of a deranged child, half-drunk on the scotch from his dad’s unlocked basement bar liquor cabinet.

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        Here in Michigan, USA it has been taking 20 to 30 seconds to load the JoNova home page … but the content is worth waiting for. In the old days of internet over telephone modems, I had patience. But after 25 years using the internet, my patience lasts about 2.2 seconds before I go berserk — this excellent website is the one exception.

        Starting this year as the best climate science in the world, the expansion into COVID news was risky … but the articles were good … and now this new expansion into the US election is risky too … but so far the articles are good again. By “good” I mean that I’m learning things not found on the other seven climate science blogs and websites I read daily.

        It’s good news, and sad news at the same time, that this Australian website covers important US news that’s missing from the US mainstream media.

        The main problem with the very slow download time is that it gives my computer’s spell check program a lot of extra time to garble my comments. My comments start out as Ph.D. level masterpieces, in my opinion, but then my confuser goes to “work”, and what actually gets posted on the website reads like the rantings and ravings of a deranged child, half-drunk on the scotch from his dad’s unlocked basement bar liquor cabinet.

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    seeker24

    PS. Just saw the time stamp on my last post.
    Here it is still Sunday 8th, now 15.55. Tea time.
    Seeker

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      Yes, sorry. Time stamp here is set to an island 45 minutes past Brisbane to the East. It’s its own timezone.

      I’ll have to pay someone to fix it.

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    RicDre

    Students develop tool to predict the carbon footprint of algorithms

    On a daily basis, and perhaps without realizing it, most of us are in close contact with advanced AI methods known as deep learning.

    However, the rapidly evolving technology, one that has otherwise been expected to serve as an effective weapon against climate change, has a downside that many people are unaware of — sky high energy consumption.

    In response to the problem, two students at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Computer Science, Lasse F. Wolff Anthony and Benjamin Kanding, together with Assistant Professor Raghavendra Selvan, have developed a software programme they call Carbontracker. The programme can calculate and predict the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of training deep learning models.

    One of the biggest deep learning models developed thus far is the advanced language model known as GPT-3. In a single training session, it is estimated to use the equivalent of a year’s energy consumption of 126 Danish homes, and emit the same amount of CO2 as 700,000 kilometres of driving.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/08/students-develop-tool-to-predict-the-carbon-footprint-of-algorithms/

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    RicDre

    The future of nuclear: power stations could make hydrogen, heat homes and decarbonise industry

    Future nuclear reactors will not just be big kettles making steam to drive turbines that generate electricity. The heat produced during the nuclear reaction can be diverted to power processes that are currently difficult to decarbonise.

    High-temperature heat (between 400 and 900°C) could be diverted from nearer the reactor, before it reaches the turbine in a nuclear plant. It could be used to power processes that produce low-carbon hydrogen fuel, ammonia and synthetic fuels for ships and jets. This heat could also supply industries such as steel, cement, glass and chemical manufacturing, which often otherwise use burners powered by fossil fuels.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/08/the-future-of-nuclear-power-stations-could-make-hydrogen-heat-homes-and-decarbonise-industry/

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    RicDre

    Hi Jo,

    I just wanted to thank you for the great job you do on your blog, especially over the last few weeks. I purchased some ‘Chocolate Support Units’ to say thank you.

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    RicDre

    Fancy Leaving the Planet? Virgin Galactic Announces a November Flight

    Virgin Galactic has announced their first flight from Spaceport America to be launched from November 19-23rd. Virgin spacecraft don’t have the capacity to reach orbit, but a few minutes trip to the edge of space would still be a pretty amazing experience.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/08/fancy-leaving-the-planet-virgin-galactic-announces-a-november-flight/

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    MrGrimNasty

    Lockdown hell in England, Brighton on the south coast, turned pleasantly mild for November.

    https://www.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/12008746/

    Boris has dismissed suggestions of lifting the lockdown after it was shown the ‘circuit breaker’ in Wales achieved nothing apparently, and that spread in the worst areas in England was already slowing, and that the scary ‘expert’ predictions were completely duff.

    Emergency fencing is going up in supermarkets to prevent access to non-essential goods.

    On the plus side, no reports of ferrets in Yorkshire with extra-long covid going zombie…….. yet.

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    Furiously curious

    AUSTRALIA RETALIATES!
    Chinese wind turbines and solar cells are held up at Australian ports, as talks break down over repatriation costs for recycling in China.

    What are the chances o—————————0

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    RicDre

    strong>Boy Child, Girl Child

    I started this by saying I do functional analysis. I don’t look at what causes the El Ninos or the La Ninas. I’m not trying to understand the processes. Instead, I look at what they do.

    When I do that, I see that talking about the El Nino and the La Nina as separate phenomena is incorrect. They function together as the world’s largest pump. What they do is pump trillions of tonnes of warm equatorial Pacific water polewards. So much water is pumped that the elevation of the equatorial Pacific sea surface drops, and the effect is visible in local tide gauges.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/08/boy-child-girl-child/

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    Andrew McRae

    Jo, do you have an audience in the UK Ministry of Health? 🙂

    Vitamin D to be delivered to millions of vulnerable people to help protect them from Covid

    Free supplies of vitamin D will be delivered to more than two million clinically vulnerable people and care home residents over the winter amid growing optimism about the role of the supplement in cutting the risk of death from Covid-19.

    Ministers are drawing up plans for four-month supplies of the vitamin to be delivered directly to care home residents in England and those deemed to be clinically extremely vulnerable. The move follows a similar move by the Scottish Government.

    Some 2.2 million people classed as “extremely vulnerable” to Covid have been issued with guidance on protecting themselves in the coming months after the Government dropped the formal shielding scheme deployed during the first wave.

    One of the studies understood to be under consideration by health officials is an analysis by Ben Gurion University, involving around 1.3 million participants, which suggested that vitamin D supplementation can cut the risk of death from Covid-19 in some groups by as much as half.
    The Israeli team also came across findings appearing to suggest that vitamin D taken in liquid form, rather than tablets, produced the protective effect.

    Nice to see the approach of strengthening the weapons rather than retreating. The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, but they do turn.

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    CHRIS

    Vitamin D is very useful for many health problems, not just COVID-19. In my opinion, Vitamin D (1000mg per day) along with a minimal intake of Vitamin C (500g per day) is excellent for the immune system. These 2 vitamins are what I used to carry me through my COVID-19 infection. As for the advantages or otherwise of liquid Vitamin D instead of tablets, the jury is still out.

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    Howie from Indiana

    Anyone here on Facebook? I’ve been getting my posts/comments deleted recently.
    Are there any alternatives?

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    RicDre

    Vindication of HCQ

    Here’s a couple of papers which establish the life saving value in early hydroxychloroquine treatment.

    Randomized Controlled Trials of Early Ambulatory Hydroxychloroquine in the Prevention of COVID-19 Infection, Hospitalization, and Death: Meta-Analysis

    Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/09/vindication-of-hcq/

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    RicDre

    GWPF calls for urgent inquiry into rising blackout risk, threatening national security

    Britain faces an energy emergency as lack of wind exposes tottering electricity system, rescued by coal

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/08/gwpf-calls-for-urgent-inquiry-into-rising-blackout-risk-threatening-national-security/

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    RicDre

    The Guardian: Joe Biden’s $1.7 Trillion Investment Could Reduce Global Warming by 0.1C

    The Guardian has inadvertently revealed the utter futility of throwing trillions of dollars of borrowed government money into the bottomless renewable energy pit.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/08/the-guardian-joe-bidens-1-7-trillion-investment-could-low-global-warming-by-0-1c/

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    MP

    Don’t know if its just my computer but the last two posts of yours will not bring up comments all the ones previous still bring up comments.

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