Thursday Open Thread

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181 comments to Thursday Open Thread

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    RicDre

    California’s Zero Carbon Plans: Can Anybody Here Do Basic Arithmetic?

    From The Manhattan Contrarian

    May 11, 2021/ Francis Menton

    In California, as we all know, the inhabitants and their elected officials are far more sophisticated and virtuous than the rest of us rubes who inhabit the other parts of the country. This particularly goes for the arena of climate change, where California is leading the way to saving the planet by rapidly eliminating all of the carbon emissions coming from its electricity sector. California’s CO2 emissions are about 1% of the world annual total, and its electricity sector accounts for about 15% of those emissions, so we’re talking here about approximately 0.15% of world emissions — an amount whose elimination, as you can easily see, will rapidly transform the world’s climate.

    The Plans show that the California regulators have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Perhaps I am wrong. I invite all readers to check me and see if I am missing something. But I don’t think so. Either these people do not understand the basic units used for these calculations, or they cannot do basic arithmetic, or both. In their projection of incremental costs, I think they are off by a factor of about 1000 or more.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/12/californias-zero-carbon-plans-can-anybody-here-do-basic-arithmetic/

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    • #
      PeterS

      Let them go ahead and destroy themselves. Perhaps that will wake up the rest of us just in time. We can only hope.

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      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        Who feeds these dopes?

        Worse, who puts them in positions of power over us?

        I suppose Bloomberg wouldn’t have written the article himself, but he owns it.

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  • #
    RicDre

    Degrowth: Universities Push Permanent Poverty as the Solution to Climate Change

    Guest essay by Eric Worrall

    According to modelling by University of Sydney and ETH Zürich, scaling back total production and placing a cap on maximum wealth would not only save the planet, it would also allow us all to enjoy shorter working weeks and the financial security of a generous universal basic income.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/12/degrowth-universities-push-permanent-poverty-as-the-solution-to-climate-change/

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    • #
      Yarpos

      You would never guess the Universities favoured de growth from the way they wailed when their growth was threatened by a lack of foreign students.

      I mean how will the VC afford their next Ferrari?

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      • #
        sophocles

        how will the VC afford their next Ferrari?

        … by being given large salary cuts to dwindle/reduce his/her/their salaries to true poverty levels.

        I can live with such pay cuts for them,

        They can be given a (small) pay increase/rise towards the higher levels of the poverty classes every time they manage an accurate and correct prediction.

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        • #
          sophocles

          Given their past `successes’ at predictions, pay increases will remain thoroughly sustainable for the forseeable future.

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    • #
      David Wojick

      Socialized poverty. A form of the doctrine called Contraction and convergence:
      https://www.cfact.org/2021/02/23/un-calls-for-contraction-and-convergence-to-low-living-standards/.

      Apparently very popular at Oxford. But not a real threat so who cares?

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    • #
      Brian the Engineer

      yes its called communism

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      • #
        David Wojick

        Convergence is communism, contraction not so much as far as ideology goes, although it happens in reality. Communism on paper seeks a worker’s paradise based on technology. That was Marx’s vision.

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  • #
    Lance

    Jo and Tony From Oz quoted often in this article. Congrats, you’re famous!

    Total Joke: Australian Wind Farms Regularly Deliver Tiny Fraction of Their Total Capacity

    https://stopthesethings.com/2021/05/12/total-joke-australian-wind-farms-regularly-deliver-tiny-fraction-of-their-total-capacity/

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    • #
      David Wojick

      Wind turbines almost never deliver nameplate capacity because that takes sustained winds over 30 mph, which are rare almost everywhere, including offshore. Plus below about 10 mph they deliver little or nothing, which happens frequently. Weather is like that. Weather does not like wind.

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      • #
        tonyb

        David

        So is there a ‘sweet’ spot then at about 15 to 50mph? Below that there is not enough wind and above that the turbines may need to be braked?

        20

        • #
          David Wojick

          At 15 mph you only get maybe 25% of nameplate. Between10 and 30 it is pretty linear. So the output tends to oscillate irregularly up and down that line, which is a huge problem in itself. The output is seldom steady because the wind is seldom steady.

          They lock down at 55 mph, probably at gusts not sustained wind, but I do not know which.

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          • #
            Richard Owen No.3

            Wind turbines are going off-shore because the wind is better there.
            On-shore farms may not deliver for nearly 30% of the time, indeed may be consuming power to run their controls and (more importantly) rotating the blades to prevent bearing trouble (as in big ships which run propellors even while at berth).

            Danish off shore wind delivered 94% of capacity for 3.2% of the time. 50% for 40% of the time and 11% for 86% of the time.
            This was for an average CF of 35% although the newest 6 averaged 40% of nominal capacity.
            UK off-shore wind farms delivered an average 36.7% of capacity for the year 2018. Newest installations averaged 38.5% (max. 45.2%)

            This in comparison with land based UK installations which varied from 21.7 to 27% of capacity depending on the wind strengths that year.
            The “emissions saved” never allow for that from the backup by coal, gas or diesel.

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              David Wojick

              Yes there is more airflow near the smooth offshore surface, but nameplate is still a hoax.

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            • #
              Tilba Tilba

              Wind turbines are going off-shore because the wind is better there.

              It’s nearly always windy just off-shore, but what about all the add-ons? Rust obviously, corrosion of aluminium, salt crusting, increased installation costs, getting the power effectively to shore, and other maintenance items I can’t even think of?

              I personally don’t find them really ugly, but there is something fundamentally unpleasant about them.

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      So for a A$20bn cost outlay, all we receive is averaging 200-300 MW? UAE is building a 5.6GW nuclear power station that will cost around A$27bn, and continue generating that power 24/7 for the next 60 years.

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  • #
    Lance

    For those in Oz who want to see the AU unreliables data graphically, this is a nicely done web site.

    http://www.spasmodicenergy.com/Pages/Home.aspx

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    • #
      RicDre

      I love the site’s name, Spasmodic Energy, its much more accurate than “Renewable Energy”.

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      • #
        Broadie

        “Toxic Energy”

        as it destroys the environment, industry and domestic users at all phases of its life cycle.

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      • #
        PeterS

        “Renewable energy” is a stupid term anyway. Energy is never be renewed; only converted from one form to another.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          Leftists don’t understand basic physics, or anything of value, in fact.

          But they will be able to recite by rote all 37 genders or whatever it’s up to now…

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    • #
      Chad

      Lance
      May 13, 2021 at 8:09 am ·
      For those in Oz who want to see the AU unreliables data graphically, this is a nicely done web site.

      http://www.spasmodicenergy.com/Pages/Home.aspx

      Thanks Lance,… That is a very useful site
      But it doesnt seem to be very current,..i could not find any data for the past month ?
      For current , up to the minute “live” data this is a useful source..
      http://nemlog.com.au/gen/region/sa/

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      • #
        Lance

        The site is under development. From the interactive response time, it appears to be “self hosted”.

        He’s trying to make something useful and that’s a good thing.

        You’re right that the Live data is at your link. But I like the guy’s spirit. He’s got the right ideas.

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    • #
      RickWill

      Actually that demonstrates Australia has been far more successful than most in integrating WDGs. In 2010 85.9% of electricity was sourced from fossil fuelled thermal plant. In 2020 the fossil fuelled generation was down to 75.4%.

      Admittedly the first part is the easy bit and there is low hanging fruit but 12% is not too shabby over a decade starting with near nothing; far better than most other grids. Within 100 years, it would seem possible to wean off coal and just sell what is left to China so they can keep making stuff for us. Of course that relies on them not deciding to come and take it.

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  • #
    RicDre

    Biden’s Low-Key Con Can’t Hide He’s Jimmy Carter 2.0

    Joe Biden hopes that acting like he’s competent will fool us into not seeing that his destructive incompetence has already saddled America with Jimmy Carter 2.0.

    http://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/12/nolte-bidens-low-key-con-cant-hide-hes-jimmy-carter-2-0/

    Personally, I think this comparison is totally unfair to Jimmy Carter who was far more intelligent, likable and competent than Mr. Biden.

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    • #
      David Wojick

      Agreed! Carter was an engineering graduate from the Naval Academy. Biden is a sloth.

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      • #
        RicDre

        “Carter was an engineering graduate from the Naval Academy.”

        True; He would have been the engineering officer for USS Seawolf (SSN-575), one of the first submarines to operate on atomic power had his father not died in July 1953 prompting him to resign from the Navy and return to Georgia to manage his family interests.

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        Kevin kilty

        Its odd that my research cannot pinpoint exactly what Carter’s degree was. We would assume engineering of some sort, but there was no nuclear engineering discipline in 1946. I can’t understand why historical sources are so coy about the subject. There was a common degree program at that time known as “general engineering” which doesn’t sound impressive, but turned out lots of solid engineers who did great things…

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        • #

          Did your research extend to wikipedia?

          Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and joined the United States Navy, where he served on submarines.

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          • #
            Kevin kilty

            Indeed I did GA, but note that we don’t know what the degree is. He got a B.Sc. in 1946, as they say in the Navy, “That is all.”

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        • #
          David Wojick

          As an aside, today’s US Energy Dept has a billion dollar a year program on Navy nuclear power, run by an Admiral. The Navy still loves nuclear. So do the Russians who are building massive nuclear icebreakers to keep open the Northeast passage longer. Only the civies are stupid.

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    • #
      yarpos

      lets not forget coherent, regardless of what you thought of his politics at least Jimmy could form strings of coherent thoughts and sentences together and answer questions in real time.

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    • #
      James

      Jim Carter was an honorable man I believe, but an unsuccessful President.

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  • #
    RicDre

    Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Says ‘Pipe Is the Best Way’ to Transport Fuel After Admin Canceled Keystone Pipeline

    Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm admitted during a press briefing on the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack Tuesday the best way to transport fuel across parts of the country is pipelines, despite the fact that the Biden administration has revoked pipeline permits, including Keystone XL.

    http://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/12/energy-secretary-jennifer-granholm-says-pipe-is-the-best-way-to-transport-fuel-after-admin-canceled-keystone-pipeline/

    Its a good thing that US politicians don’t have to create policies that support the things they are supposed to manage.

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    • #
      Deano

      The U.S. pipeline outage is a rude awakening to the truth about the essential role fossil fuel plays in running the modern world. It’s amazing how many folk deny it.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    This is hilarious! Copied from President Trump’s website.

    Martha’s Vineyard is where climate catastrophists Obama and Kerry live in their sea level mansions!

    Donald J. Trump
    7:15pm May 11, 2021

    Congratulations to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts for the privilege they will have in looking at massive windmills that have been approved by the Biden Administration and are being built, in China of course, as part of an extraordinarily large wind farm. Wind is an incredibly expensive form of energy that kills birds, affects the sea, ruins the landscape, and creates disasters for navigation. Liberals love it, but they can’t explain why. In any event, Martha’s Vineyard, an absolutely wonderful place, will never be the same. Good Luck!

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  • #
    David Maddison

    In Commiefornia they are about to introduce fully woke “educashion” in the finest of Leftist traditions. Pol Pot would be so proud.

    The lunatics are running the asylum, but you already knew that.

    California unveils new woke math program, encouraging teachers to punish good students by holding them back

    6 May, 2021 17:59

    https://www.rt.com/usa/523097-school-math-racist-affirmative-action/

    California’s Department of Education has announced that the gap between well-performing students and their less able peers must disappear, indicating that mere words are not enough – schools must deliver ‘equity’ in classrooms.
    Such an effort would involve faculty holding well-performing students back, even while pushing their less intellectual peers forward (as if they were all indeed equal in abilities). Potentially stranding a group of gifted individuals in a situation where they are held back by a single child who simply can’t get a problem right and needs endless special instruction is hardly something to be proud of, for the school or the students themselves.

    Released on Tuesday, the sprawling, hundreds of pages-long manifesto delivered by the California Health Department described how schools must focus on “active efforts” in mathematics. Starting at the beginning of K-12 education to ensure no “gifted and talented” or advanced tracking programs take hold among the faculty, the policy implies to parents that if they want the same free public education as anywhere else in their school district, they have no choice but to subject their kids to racist pandering and a warped new form of mathematics that many may find insulting.

    Indeed, the mathematically inclined children will be effectively held back until the last few years of high school, essentially forcing them to miss out on an opportunity to hone their talent at a younger age.

    “We reject ideas of natural gifts and talents,” the proposal states, insisting “there is no cutoff determining when one child is ‘gifted’ and another is not.” The proposal also wants to “replace ideas of innate mathematics ‘talent’ and ‘giftedness’ with the recognition that every student is on a growth pathway.”

    The authors of the district’s recently-released math instruction framework decided that “too many students are sorted into different math tracks based on their natural abilities,” arguing instead that gifted California kids owe it to their peers to sacrifice their own opportunities for as long as they can – all in the name of equity.

    See link for rest.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Why am I shocked? But I am. Orwell could not have foreseen this.

      The exodus will continue.

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    • #
      Serp

      Turnbull would be comfortable with this philosophy; these are the people who will legislate physical and mathematical truth as he maintains parliaments have the prerogative to do. I await these lunatics reviving the calendar reform that Napoleon so callously overthrew two hundred odd years back.

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      David just found this absolute gem on how maths is going in America , it’s a bit of a watch but the punch line makes it worth it .

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dmErVe3uK4

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      CA is officially a basket case.

      Anyone who wants to further themselves needs to leave little North Korea…..

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      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        Anyone who wants to further themselves needs to leave little North Korea…..

        Little North Korea? California has 1.5 times the population of NK, and 125 times the GDP.

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    • #
      Doc

      It’s one thing to poke fun at California, NYC, MN etc. That actually misses the point, the real wonder of the last election.

      Nobody can say that the plans of the Democrats were unknown before the election and that everyone that voted for them went into the election blindfolded as to the future under this mob.

      Nobody could have any doubt as to the character of those leading the Democrat Party after the Russian Collusion Affair.

      Nobody could doubt the one-sided distortion already apparent in the application of the law to legal affairs and people of the USA, nor the taking of sides by those occupying the top seats of power in the legal institutions such as the FBI, DOJ etc. Democrat policies were laid out. Borders and immigration, heavy increases in taxation, destruction of Trump’s built up fossil fuel energy systems and pipeline construction. Everything woke was on display and riots were occuring and had been for months in Portland,Oregon etc etc.

      Yet, a majority of US citizens ostensibly voted for all this stuff! I just sit back now, as the complaints roll in and say: ‘This is what the majority of you voted for. You were totally aware of the Democrat policies. You have just started 4 years of voluntary self destruction. It’s much too late now, and logically unwarranted to whinge about it! You even knew Biden was probably mentally compromised, but accepted it. You believed the character assassination of the imperfect Trump, yet in the past you had no trouble with Kennedy’s philandering (or Hawke, for Australians). The Press was generally totally biased, yet you derided the, at least, reasoned facts based criticisms of Fox. Most US citizens would not be hysterical activists, yet you ignored the patently obvious factual bias eminating from electronic media outlets owned by billionaires.’

      Unbelievable that the USA, of all nations, succumbed to the point of knowingly self destructing. That only emphasises the wonder of the unquestioning national acceptance of the politically induced and increasingly destructive theology of Anthropogenic Global Warming. The entire Western system is collapsing itself deliberately as against the fall of the Roman Empire through senescence.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        Unbelievable that the USA, of all nations, succumbed to the point of knowingly self destructing.

        Our [Australia’s] referendum on becoming a republic failed and it wasn’t really close. Today I thank God.

        In the UK, Australia and theoretically NZ and Canada we have a remedy for such a disaster as Biden in our wishy washy constitutions. Whitlam being brought down by the Senate denying him supply is the standout example. Less dramatically, parties regularly change leaders. A change of leadership may [but nor necessarily] bring substantive change. In the US Nasty Nancy and the Turtle seem to have a divine right to leadership. Can’t happen here.

        When drafting your constitution your Founding Fathers showed great wisdom writing checks and balances into it but they envisioned otherwise successful people doing politics as a distraction from their “profession” to which they would return. How could they envision thieves and vagabonds forming gangs parties where politics was the means to great wealth and who were as ruthless as Chicago mobs when protecting their patch?

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        • #
          Tilba Tilba

          Our [Australia’s] referendum on becoming a republic failed and it wasn’t really close. Today I thank God.

          Yes – I definitely prefer the Westminster Parliamentary system … it tends to keep people on their toes, and there is no lame-duckery and fixed dates, which are heavily built into the US presidential system. And tragically, their system of “checks and balances” have made the process sclerotic and deadlocked – open to much bribery and other abuse.

          However, it has little to do with the Australian Republic debate – if we had a president (either directly or indirectly chosen), they could still have “reserve powers”. In 1975, Garfield Barwick, John Kerr, and Malcolm Fraser acted corruptly and unconstitutionally in my view. Having the Queen in the mix didn’t stop the illegalities that occurred.

          I think we really need full independence from the colonial past.

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    • #
      Lance

      A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims, but accomplices – George Orwell

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    • #
      Tilba Tilba

      “We reject ideas of natural gifts and talents,” the proposal states, insisting “there is no cutoff determining when one child is ‘gifted’ and another is not.” The proposal also wants to “replace ideas of innate mathematics ‘talent’ and ‘giftedness’ with the recognition that every student is on a growth pathway.”

      Good grief … it is so misguided, and so unnecessary.

      There should be a core set taught well (reading, writing, foundation maths, history, geography, music, literature, drama, poetry, art, sport), but as early as possible, it seems to me kids should be encouraged to select the streams that really interest them, and to over-perform. Put the high-performance kids in special classes – whether it’s higher maths, music, drama, whatever.

      When I was at school, the musically talented kids (for example) specialised in that stream, and I didn’t suffer angst or loss of self-esteem because they were better than I was.

      I read somewhere that the actual maths practice itself would be “dumbed down” to a level of “equality”. I don’t see why the school curriculum (and 500 years of hard-won scientific and mathematical knowledge) has to be sacrificed in order to address other social issues.

      I taught film, TV, and audio production for quite a few years, and it was chronically frustrating … the lowest common denominator was hard to rise above, and the best, most talented students were under-serviced, and basically had to do it themselves.

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  • #

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/ffXgcdkzrTfm/

    For anyone interested in Q

    Ryan (Majic Eyes) has made what he describes as super proofs from the Q post numbers and how they are connected to the USA “Law of War Manual”

    The Law of War Manual, Capter XI is The End of Occupation (of a belligerent Government) eg the Biden Administration.

    Other anons also connect Q’s posts to the Manual.

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  • #
    Hanrahan

    High inflation spooks US markets: 4.1% annual, 0.8% for the month.

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    • #
      el gordo

      Seems more likely to be ‘transitory’ because of the spending spree.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        Please explain.

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        • #
          el gordo

          “We share the Fed’s view that this isn’t the start of an upward inflationary spiral. We look for supply [and] demand imbalances to gradually be resolved and the pace of inflation to gradually cool heading into 2022,” said Kathy Bostjancic and Gregory Daco of Oxford Economics.’ (Financial Times)

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          • #
            yarpos

            Nothing transitory about printing trillions of dollars.

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            • #
              el gordo

              It’ll be alright, the whole world is at a low ebb and any inflation is a good thing.

              02

          • #
            Kevin kilty

            This is the same story we get from our investment advisors in the U.S. — that supply and demand will come back into balance and tame inflationary expectations, but just as in the 1970s there are people in power who want to hinder the growth of supply by punishing those who would expand supply — think “windfall profits tax” or Nixon’s price and wage controls. They hindered prices to spur supply growth.

            Once Reagan removed the price cap on fossil fuels, a move all my leftist acquaintenances would do nothing more than enrich the businessmen, supply expanded rapidly to the point that prices actually declined. By the late 1980s oil was $16 per barrel in the U.S. Stayed there until the early 2000s I think.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    I don’t trust any fiat currency, but I don’t trust crypto currencies either.

    Bring back currencies based on rare, portable in small quantities and desirable commodities like gold.

    Bitcoin mining and the network consume about the same amount of electricity as the entire country of Norway and a bit less than the State of New York.

    https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-power-consumption-of-bitcoin-mining

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    • #
      RicDre

      “Bitcoin mining and the network consume about the same amount of electricity as the entire country of Norway”

      That was the reason Mr. Musk gave for suspending the use of bitcoin to purchase Tesla’s cars:

      Tesla has “suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin,” out of concern over “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining,” according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday.

      https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/12/elon-musk-says-tesla-will-stop-accepting-bitcoin-for-car-purchases.html

      (also see #9 from Maptram above)

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        James

        I think he has been buying bit coin again. Then he will resume accepting them and allow the price to rise. Then sell for a profit!

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      Graeme#4

      From what I understand about Bitcoin transactions, their inherent slowness would make it impossible to process billions of Bitcoin transactions daily in the same way our current financial transactions are processed.

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      yarpos

      They never really went anywhere David , you can buy and stack gold/silver/platinum etc to your hearts content. Like classic cars it will depend what the emerging generation thinks they are worth beyond their industrial value.

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  • #
    Br0adie

    Very simple explanation of a virus that infects your airways and the uselessness of antibodies in you blood, (Logic even a monkey can understand) from a Doctor born in John Hopkins Hospital.

    Warning!!!! this gentleman uses plain language and simple explanations.

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  • #
    Lance

    A good read from statistician Wm. Briggs. Covid Update LXX

    https://wmbriggs.com/post/35617/

    Pokes a lot of holes in the masking fetish as well as other things.

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  • #
    Lance

    An excellent, if somewhat long, examination of the origins of covid19

    https://nicholaswade.medium.com/origin-of-covid-following-the-clues-6f03564c038

    Mr Wade makes some very good observations. Worth reading.

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      RicDre

      One of the statements early in the article did make me laugh:

      …the political agendas of governments and scientists have generated thick clouds of obfuscation, which the mainstream press seems helpless to dispel.

      The mainstream press is not trying to dispel the thick clouds of obfuscation they are working very hard to thicken those clouds.

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        Greg Cavanagh

        That’s why Fact Checkers were invented. To make sure those clouds are as opaque as possible.

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      Graeme#4

      Thanks Lance. That was a well-reasoned discussion.

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    TdeF

    It is interesting how the UN through Helen Clarke are moving to cover Tedros Adhonem and whitewash his action. This from the Australian..

    “The World Health Organisation was too slow in declaring a public health emergency following the emergence of COVID-19 in China, and a “lost month” of inaction allowed the disease to spread out of control, an independent review has found.

    The WHO-commissioned evaluation of its response to the deadly coronavirus, co-chaired by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clarke, found “valuable time was lost” to the agency’s overly bureaucratic processes and the “wait and see” approach of many countries.

    The report called for a new global alert system to rapidly warn of potential pandemics without the approval of affected countries, and major reforms to strengthen the WHO’s independence from its member states.”

    No mention of the fact that President Tedros Adhonem announced on January 14th 2020 that Wuhan Flu was NOT infectious person to person. That’s not being slow. That’s not being ‘bureaucratic’ or ‘wait and see’ or a problem with ‘many countries’. He was in possession of at least one report from Taiwan in November 2019 which fully documented the lethal pandemic and the extreme infectiousness he announced did not exist with all the authority he had. And he is not being called to account for this. Why?

    It was mass murder.

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      TdeF

      The UN ‘investigation’ follows a common Yes, Minister pattern.

      Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews setup his own commission to whitewash his culpable manslaughter of 800 Victorians with his own Labor friendly judge, even though the whole country knows he is personally responsible.

      JCU examined its own R&D with 22 CO2 effects on fish papers which are now declared non reproducible and deemed fraudulent but found no problem according to their own rules of conduct. The same rules which resulted in the firing and persecution of their Physics head for daring to allege poor practice. Something now officially confirmed.

      There is no end of culpable organizations like the UN examining their own homework and making up the most ridiculous excuses and watering down any blame as being ‘the system’ and to make sure it does not happen again.

      And when Man Made Global Warming collapses, the IPCC will be blameless. Like the Chinese Communist Party.

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  • #

    I’m linking into an article at a green renewables supporting site (WattClarity shown at this link) for no other reason than to point something out.

    Rafe over at ‘The Cat’ mentioned in an email to me that he had posted a comment at the article, so I thought I’d also attempt the same, and to my surprise the comment was posted immediately without going to Moderation, which I expected, but hey, they don’t get very many comments there at their articles, so they just post all they can get, I guess, safe that not many people will read it anyway.

    However, the article was what I expected, hyping wind power to the max, and while mentioning some negatives, they were only in passing.

    The article’s author is big on the good points, but really has no mention of the overall picture, preferring to gloss over those things which may not be all that favourable to wind generation.

    Said author mentioned the loss of wind generation, but had no clue as to why, mentioning this:

    In the same month of these high points, we see that there was a 5-6 day period in the week that’s just passed where wind output significantly disappeared right across the NEM (this had been noted by a number of people I’d spoken with during the week, and I gather this had something to do with a high pressure system in the southern part of the NEM … but I am definitely not a meteorologist!).

    As we have shown conclusively, wind generation is affected by those weather systems, both in no wind and high wind situations, and the fact that the author here has not done much in the way of due diligence to check this reflects how those good points will be mentioned, and the bad points just go by the wayside, unchecked.

    The author also mentions curtailment of wind, and my guess here is that he thinks those large falls in wind generation are due to this, as he mentions it more than a couple of times, and then offers negative pricing as the reason.

    So, to this point of curtailment.

    Wind generation plants being so small in Nameplate, and so sporadic in generation would be looking for as much money as they can get, so actually quoting that they pull them off line when prices go negative I think reflects badly on wind generation, only in it for the ‘big bucks’, when they are on offer, in other words shouldering out reliable generation so wind can take advantage of those higher prices.

    But hey, the wind plant’s owners don’t WANT curtailment because they lose money.

    The green supporters don’t WANT curtailment because it might reflect poorly on wind power, and people might ask uncomfortable questions.

    Renewable supporting Politics don’t WANT curtailment, because they have ‘spruiked’ it to the max, and hard questions that they have to address are not their thing.

    The boss of AEMO doesn’t WANT curtailment (or more importantly, to mention curtailment, because it’s her people actually doing that curtailing) because that person also has ‘spruiked’ wind power.

    So then, and here, curtailment of wind generation is actually HAPPENING.

    Think about that for a minute.

    The AEMO, against all the above ….. IS curtailing wind generation.

    So, why then would they be doing that?

    Not out of bl00dy mindedness to thumb their nose at all the above, because it’s their jobs on the line here.

    They must be doing it to ….. PROTECT the grid.

    It also gives some (perhaps clueless maybe) green leaning supporters who write articles a reason as to why wind is dropping out in large amounts, without having to investigate the real reasons as to why wind generation is not all it’s cracked up to be.

    Tony.

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    • #
      TdeF

      There is one common thread with the absurdly named ‘renewables’. They often have no output at all. Imagine an aircraft like that. Or a car. Or a factory. Or an operating theatre.

      It is utterly incomprehensible that anyone can push these replaceables as being even safe, fit for purpose. A country which relies on unreliables is unworkable, unsafe. China is not making that mistake. Only the Greens think we can run a country on Unicorn urine.

      150

      • #
        Ronin

        Why are they allowed onto the grid with no guaranteed output, leaving the gas and coal plants to keep the grid useable, just a green scam.

        160

        • #
          Serp

          They are actually the preferred supplier and they’re paid twice for their output, once for the generated power and once again for the generation certificate. It’s hard to think of a way to make the scheme weirder eh.

          130

      • #
        Ronin

        How do the green nongs think they will charge mega batteries or pump water back uphill with 10 to 15% ( of nameplate) output.

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        • #

          “How do the green nongs think “; apparently, if at all, with chemical assistance and no reference to reality.

          20

    • #
      Ronin

      Certainly blows the myth out of the water that ‘the wind will always be blowing somewhere’. LOL

      90

    • #
      RickWill

      Tony wrote:

      Wind generation plants being so small in Nameplate, and so sporadic in generation would be looking for as much money as they can get, so actually quoting that they pull them off line when prices go negative I think reflects badly on wind generation, only in it for the ‘big bucks’, when they are on offer, in other words shouldering out reliable generation so wind can take advantage of those higher prices.

      Actually it is the opposite to this. The thermal plant all bid blocks of energy at negative prices so they force the WDGs into curtailment. It is expensive to take thermal plant off line so they prefer to idle them back to a stable value but keep them on line. That is why the minimum demand is so important. Ultimately rooftop solar set the minimum demand and that stays connected when prices go negative; meaning there is no penalty for overproduction.

      You should go though the bid stacks to get an understanding of how the pricing works. Coal plants are quite will to bid in negative blocks to push grid scale WDGs off line.

      I believe the vast majority of WDG curtailment is voluntarily. I know when the SA-Vic interconnector went down last year there were forced curtailments. However under usual circumstances the directions are mostly for gas plants in SA to stay connected rather than directing WDGs to get off.

      10

      • #
        Chad

        RickWill
        May 13, 2021 at 11:39 am ·

        I believe the vast majority of WDG curtailment is voluntarily. I know when the SA-Vic interconnector went down last year there were forced curtailments. However under usual circumstances the directions are mostly for gas plants in SA to stay connected rather than directing WDGs to get off</blockquote
        Rick, i suspect it is simpler than that..
        If you follow the Nem log reporting for SA, i think you can see the winf curtailment only happens when supply exceeds demand and Gas generators are already on “Minimum standby” (4-500MW ?) ,..AND they cannot push anymore back to Victoria via the interconector.
        So, i think it must be AEMO who pull the plug on some of the Wind in those situations..

        10

    • #
      Gary Simpson

      In the words of the immortal Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., ‘Surprise, surprise’ that when it’s not windy, wind turbines don’t work.

      10

    • #
      Jock

      Tony. Wind and solar get dispatched no matter what. They dont bid, they just get whatever the price is.
      Thats the reason they try to curtail. So long as the price is positive they make money but negative, who wouldnt want to curtail. But if you are hedged then you can bid a low number knowing you get paid anyway. So it begs the question, how much wind is hedged and how much is firmed?

      30

  • #
    David Maddison

    One good thing that will happen as we enter the next glaciation event (in the next few hundred years?) is that as sea level falls, land about twice the area of Australia will be exposed. This was last dry about 10,000 years ago and hopefully will reveal some good archeology, especially if Graham Hancock’s theories about earlier advanced civilisations are correct.

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    RickWill

    Here we are in mid May. This is the time when the Indian Ocean north of the Equator is hitting its straps. Most of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are in the maximum temperature regulating zone at 30C:
    https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp/orthographic=-277.99,1.98,425/loc=71.853,10.809

    Apparently the word monsoon derives from and Arabic word for changing season in the Arabian Sea that passed through Dutch sailors for the timing of wind reversal in the Indian Ocean dating from 1580. So the conditions in the Arabian Sea are now primed to begin the 2021 monsoon. 2021 forecast to be a “normal year. So here we are seeing something that has repeated annually for a million years or more through periods of glaciation and, despite all that fiendish CO2 in recent history, is doing what it has always done.

    40

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Energy
    Australia hits oil producers with levy to decommission abandoned Timor Sea field.
    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/australia-hits-oil-producers-with-levy-decommission-abandoned-timor-sea-field-2021-05-12/

    It would appear that Woodside and Talisman flick passed the platform to a virtual shelf company to avoid responsibility for remediation. I, for one, applaud the gov. action. Next step, get BHP to pay for dredging the Fly R. in PNG. Their tailings dam broke and they never rebuilt it. The tailings simply went into the river, or something like that. A navigable river, important to the locals, filled with sand.

    50

    • #
      Serp

      Fly River was poisoned by the gold extraction chemical soup in the collapsed tailings dam is my recollection.

      40

      • #
        RickWill

        OTML has made more from copper than gold. Wind generators need copper so that is good. And PNG is a third world country. Might be different if it was the Danube or Mississippi. Amazon not so much. Nile? Yangtze probably worse but do not get to hear about it being in CCP territory. Congo, who cares. Do not know about the Thames as it is just a puddle by comparison.

        The Ok Tedi River is a tributary of the Fly River, which has a discharge rate twice the Danube about 1/3rd the Mississippi and a tiny fraction off the Amazon, which sits a long way on top for discharge rate.

        Actually the Gordon in Australia remains at risk.

        00

      • #
        Len

        BHP? = Broken Hearts and Promises?

        00

    • #
      yarpos

      Should set a nice precedent for the remediation of the windmill fields of dreams.

      10

  • #
    David Maddison

    Department of Conservation caught charging plug-in hybrid EV with diesel power

    Thomas Coughlan12:42, May 13 2021

    The Department of Conservation (DOC) has been charging one of its electric vehicles with power from a diesel generator, undercutting the car’s goal of providing low or no emissions power.

    The vehicle isn’t a full electric vehicle, but a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, a plug-in hybrid EV.

    It’s located on Rakiura-Stewart Island, where it’s been since October 2020, and is charged with electricity from the Stewart Island Electrical Supply Authority (SIESA), which provides the island’s domestic electric and industrial electricity.

    See link for rest.

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/300306177/department-of-conservation-caught-charging-plugin-hybrid-ev-with-diesel-power

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    • #
      Ronin

      Wait, I think I can see the problem, Department of Conservation staff, university educated as a degree is required for these jobs, so they aren’t very bright in the ways of the world and would have no idea how the power on their island was generated.

      50

    • #
      yarpos

      Yet another triumph of virtue signaling (and spending your budget) over reality.

      30

  • #
    another ian

    Re the US pipeline crisis

    “Why has Joe Biden not dispatched his secret weapon to solve the gas shortage?

    The man’s son was paid $180,000 a month for his expertise in this field in the Ukraine and we’re not going to utilize that skillset?

    Come on, man.

    https://gab.com/LaurenBoebert/posts/106225291493071986

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  • #
    Raven

    About those roof-top solar Small-scale technology certificates (STC’s)

    If the guy down the street gets two dozen subsidised solar panels installed on his roof and he sells the excess electricity back to the grid, hasn’t the Govt. effectively forced you, the tax payer, to finance his little business enterprise?

    Aren’t you entitled to a dividend?
    And if not, aren’t these Small-scale technology certificates actually Gift Certificates?

    https://www.energymatters.com.au/rebates-incentives/solar-credits-australia/

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      Correct me if I’m wrong, but the STCs are different from the money gained from selling back excess energy to the energy supplier. For example, I received a one-off system discount of around $2000 that I’m presuming was the STC. Then on top of that, I continuously receive 7c/kWh excess buyback.
      This however doesn’t alter your main point.

      30

      • #
        Raven

        Yes, STCs are created up front and represent the one-off discount you describe.
        As per the link:

        How does the solar credits scheme work?
        STCs are issued with qualifying solar power systems and solar panels and can be redeemed for a dollar value that is deducted from the cost of the solar system. The value of an STC at any one time depends on market conditions.

        When you purchase a solar power system from Energy Matters, we have already discounted this value for you in your solar quote. That’s because we take over the hassle of registering and selling the STCs on the market from you. We give you a point of sale discount based on your STCs.

        Your ‘buyback’ arrangement is commonly called the ‘feed in tariff’ (FIT).

        20

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Anyone who installs a system larger than necessary to milk 7c/kWh can’t do math. I installed a modest system and save 27c/kWh. This doesn’t impact other users.

          My neighbour has two 5kW systems getting 42c/kWh. There is one on his garage and he wouldn’t have a beer fridge in that so he sells 100% of generation. That pisses me. How long would those high FITs have left to run?

          20

          • #
            Graeme#4

            I don’t believe you have a choice in the FIT amount H, as it seems to be that each electricity supplier has a different FIT figure. So I cannot see how the FIT value influences a solar system’s design.

            00

            • #
              yarpos

              You did have a choice and could contract your choice for a number of years a while ago. A few of my car club mates are on that deal , although its phasing out (for them at least in the next few years)

              10

            • #
              Hanrahan

              AFAIK nobody connecting today is getting over 10c FIT. Given a choice I would have installed a big system with a 42c FIT. It wasn’t on offer. :sigh:

              00

              • #
                Chad

                Hanrahan
                May 13, 2021 at 8:58 pm · Reply
                AFAIK nobody connecting today is getting over 10c FIT. ..:

                Some suppliers still offer up to 20c FIT but you have to check the small print….their normal consumer rates are extortionate and other clauses to trap you.

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          • #
            Jock

            Wonder what it will cost owners to remediate these things in 10-15 years time, They evidently contain some toxic stuff so cant be sent to landfill. Perhaps a levy? Can I ask if you are all sure that they were not created using slave labor in China. Your supplier should have guaranteed this when they were purchsed from the Chinese.

            10

            • #
              Chad

              I have a 9/10 year old RT solar system (2.4kW) that is crapping out. It keeps faulting to “Insolation Error” and has to be manually reset…..hardly worthwhile at this time of year when i barely get and in a quiet bored moment i baited one into a conversation..
              Bottom line was that they could offer me a 6.4 kW system AT NO COST TO ME .?….and take away the existing system into the deal !
              (Other installers have quoted me $1k+ to remove the existing system.
              He claimed the system would save me so much on my bill, and give me such huge FIT returns (20kWh / day ?, @ 17c/ kWh with AGL ) that i would be a fool not to do it !
              I did not take him up though, because the catch is that “no cost to me” trick required me to take out a personal loan of $9500 over 3 years with them ,
              His point being the FIT payback more than covered the loan repayments ??
              BUT .. the FIT is only set for 2 years….AND can be changed at any time..!
              Also there is a proposal to cut all FIT rates to the “Wholesale electricity generation cost” ..possibly as low as 3-5c /kWh…….
              Most solar sales companies are Con merchants.

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  • #
    Gary Simpson

    Came across an article on page 20 of Sunday’s Herald Sun in Melbourne this week. It was titled ‘State’s $517m firebreak’. Apparently the Andrews government has allocated $517 million for fire prevention measures. I think the problem lies in the breakdown – let’s see if you can spot it.
    $339.5m for Forest Fire Management technology, fire towers and ensuring equipment remains current and operational. $133m for digital radios. $21m to create a new Office of Bushfire Risk Management (choke). And finally – $15.6m to allow fuel management measures to be taken including planned burns, new specialist machinery and advanced bushfire risk modelling.
    Perhaps if the last item was allocated the money from the first item, then most of the rest would not need to be spent at all, particularly on MODELLING and A NEW GOVERNMENT OFFICE.

    100

    • #
      Gary Simpson

      Especially as everyone here already knows what causes major bushfires in the first place.

      50

      • #
        Dave

        And in addition to that is:

        $22.5 million investment to ‘reinvigorate’ Traditional Owner-led cultural land and fire management practices, by supporting Aboriginal Victorians to implement the Victorian Traditional Owner Cultural Fire Strategy.

        Absolute madness!

        So the local indigenous people can contact the local firefighters that the whole place is burning!

        Victoria is asking for another Black Day of fires!

        30

        • #
          yarpos

          Traditional Owner Cultural Fire “Strategy” = wait for lightning and see what happens

          30

          • #
            Yonniestone.

            Empty ‘Goon Sacks” in the bush might be a good conductor of lightning.

            10

          • #
            Hanrahan

            wait for lightning and see what happens

            Pick up meat – hot take away.

            10

          • #
            GD

            Traditional Owner Cultural Fire “Strategy”

            1. Cull animals driven out by the bushfire

            2. Move quickly away from the bushfire

            3. Watch while the bushfire burns itself out.

            20

    • #
      el gordo

      Each according to their ability, each according to their needs. The money spent in this way helps give the indigenous population a sense of purpose. Out in the bush we are always in need of volunteer firefighters and any support is always greatly appreciated.

      Fire stick burning is already practiced on the Top End and the southerners are playing catch up.

      10

  • #
    Richard Jenkins

    It seems ‘voters’ coming into USA from Mexico are largely from Cuba and other Socialist countries.
    They hated Trump for preventing them coming into his America that they appreciate.
    Without ID they are very likely to vote Republican as they are escaping countries like the Democrats are creating.
    How many Cubans voted Democrat in Florida?
    Sure they’ll enjoy all the freebees but they know the cost.
    I suspect the Democrats have not thought this through. Typical.

    50

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Another thing they haven’t thought through is their love affair with @bortion. The conservatives with their bibles and guns are outbreeding them.

      But the left is not travelling well worldwide. British labour is in its death throes, but there seems to be a swing to the right in many European countries.

      50

  • #
    David Maddison

    The financial statements for the financial year ending June 30, 2020 for the Hepburn Wind Farm are available at the following link.

    https://www.hepburnwind.com.au/membership/members/

    The main revenue is from the sale of electricity with a substantial contribution from the sake of large scale generation certificates.

    Others might like to delve into the report in more detail.

    Electricity $771,419
    Large-scale Generation Certificates $447,707

    There is also revenue from taxpayer funded government grants.

    70

    • #
      Graeme#4

      I have been following this wind farm over the years David, and it’s painfully apparent that the two wind turbines can only continue if the govt pours in more money. They have been able to secure a couple of grants for some further “ research”, but in reality I think this money will just disappear into general running costs. The organisation is encouraging the shareholders to badger their local MPs for more govt money. I’m not sure if the shareholders expect any ROI, but think that if they do, they will be disappointed. Also I believe the turbines are up for some expensive maintenance soon.

      60

    • #
      Raven

      Electricity $771,419
      Large-scale Generation Certificates $447,707

      That’s not a bad little earner considering the piddly 2 x 2.05 MW wind turbines, though income has been declining.
      Just imagine the river of tax payer funded cash swilling around ‘serious’ wind (subsidy) farms.

      20

  • #
    Maptram

    The Victorian Government is going to spend several million dollars to plant 500,000 trees. The State Environment Minister partly justified the spending by saying trees make things cooler.

    No need to spend $billions on solar panels and windmills just plant trees.

    50

  • #
    David Maddison

    I’ve met quite a few politicians of all persuasions over the years and conclude that with only a few exceptions, most of them are either ignorant, evil or stupid or a combination of all. Politicians also have a higher than normal incidence of psychopathy.

    30

  • #
    Tarquin Wombat-Carruthers

    A test for Sally McManus and her sycophants. Please pick a basket list of essentials (food, energy, transportation, etc – your choice) and point me to any equivalent worker world-wide who is better off than his/her Australian counterpart in terms of hours worked per return on the basket you chose. Hint: Sally, crickets are chirping…….

    50

  • #

    Aunty Pravda’s rolling news feed of unacceptable articles for the 13th May – https://thepointman.wordpress.com/rolling-headlines/  #freepointy

    Pointy

    10

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Is Biden the new Carter?

    It doesn’t matter what I think nor what most of us here think, what does matter is that this question is being asked and it is starting to be asked openly and not just by Trumpsters.

    Rusted on libs will never hear a good word for Trump because they do not listen to anyone who may utter such blasphemy but this is different. This after just 100 days – 2024 will be so bad dirty rolls and cheat-by-mail will not be able to save them.

    30

  • #
    el gordo

    ‘A major geomagnetic disturbance caused the Aurora Australis to shine on Wednesday night. 😍 Some lucky viewers were at the right place at the right time in parts of Victoria and Tasmania to see the incredible colours in the sky.’ (Weatherzone)

    20

  • #
    el gordo

    Sea ice extent close to average.

    https://sunshinehours.net

    30

  • #
  • #
    Enoch Root

    https://nicholaswade.medium.com/origin-of-covid-following-the-clues-6f03564c038

    Interesting account of the two major theories behind COVID19 origin.

    00

  • #
    Hanrahan

    This clip is older than me, and that’s old.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQia-42W-v8
    It was 15 years later Elvis realised he could steal black R&B music no self respecting white DJ would play, and sell it to all those white college boys.

    I was never a “college boy” and could never dance like this but I appreciate Elvis unlocking black music for me to enjoy and now I have broadband I can enjoy the real thing, not a vanilla version.

    Lacking sound quality but it shows how rich were the pickings:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P78Z_PTjrzk

    20

    • #
      GD

      it shows how rich were the pickings

      The pickings were rich, but if it weren’t for the likes of Eric Burdon and the Animals, the Rollingstones, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, et al, and the Beatles to some extent, that music would have disappeared long ago.

      00

  • #
    RicDre

    CAUGHT: ‘Inconvenient’ U.S. Wildfire Data Has Been ‘Disappeared’ by National Interagency Fire Center @NIFC_Fire

    It’s been an open secret, ever since Dr. Michael Mann used “Mike’s Nature Trick” to “hide the decline” by covering up some inconvenient tree ring data in the hockey stick climate graph, that climate alarmists will go to almost any length to only show the public the “crisis side” of climate data.

    The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) has been the keeper of U.S. wildfire data for decades, tracking both the number of wildfires and acreage burned all the way back to 1926. However, after making that entire dataset public for decades, now, in a blatant act of cherry picking, NIFC “disappeared” a portion of it, and only show data from 1983.

    Fortunately, the Internet never forgets, and the entire dataset is preserved on the Internet Wayback machine and other places, despite NIFC’s ham-handed attempt to disappear the data.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/13/caught-inconvenient-u-s-wildfire-data-has-been-disappeared-by-national-interagency-fire-center-nifc_fire/

    50

  • #
    CHRIS

    Dr Michael Mann = irrelevant idiot. We all know Mann got his doctorate from a packet of Corn Flakes. As for the Hockey Stick, this just may be true…in reverse. I’m predicting sharp global cooling from 2050 – 2100, no matter how many countries achieve “zero emissions” by 2050.

    30

    • #
      Chad

      Unfortunately, Mann is still the “go to” guy for any Climate documentary maker , so his comments keep getting reheated.
      And when that cooling becomes undenyable, Mann and his followers will simply say it is because of their efforts to get emissions reductions adopted.
      ..( ignoring the minor detail of ever increasing CO2 ppm in the atmosphere !)

      30

  • #
    Lucky

    Questions and opinions from those who know, or not:

    [A]
    In the Australian government site-
    https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/03/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-clinicians.pdf

    on page 2 there is-
    “.. it should be noted that PCR tests cannot distinguish between “live” virus and non-infective RNA.”

    Question-
    Is this statement and document still current?
    and if not
    What replaces it and on what evidence?

    [B]
    According to Joe Mercola and others-
    The minuscule bits of viral RNA that the PCR test can pick up if run through too many augmentation cycles — thereby rendering a false positive result — are not infectious. You need a whole, and live, virus for that.

    Questions-
    Can the PCR test be set to recognize only a complete virus?
    Is this problem solved by keeping the number of augmentation cycles sufficiently low?
    If so, what is that number? and
    Can a patient insist on being tested at no higher than that number?

    20

    • #

      Questions-
      Can the PCR test be set to recognize only a complete virus?

      It is difficult to see how. ONe thing to note is that RNA degrades rather quickly so you expect that remnant RNA will be from a recently intact virus.

      Is this problem solved by keeping the number of augmentation cycles sufficiently low?

      No, though high viral loads are detected by low cycles. One problem is you can’t control swabbing. Some swabs of highly infectious people will not have a high virus count so you have to keep cycle numbers high enough to allow for this sort of variation.

      If so, what is that number?

      NA. Added note. real time PCR allows for detection of which cycle the positive signal appears so high cycle numbers have no affect. If the signal is at the last couple of cycles then the person should get retested.

      Can a patient insist on being tested at no higher than that number?

      No. Well they can insist but no one will do what they are insisting.

      10

      • #
        Lucky

        Gee Aye- Thanks for your reply which presents more angles contributing to my current opinion-

        Among uncertainties in interpreting PCR test results there are:
        – The range of Ct used for testing
        – RNA degrades quickly, it is an RNA strand which is detected by the test.
        – Concentration of the virus in the body, varies. There is a choice in the body among the various localities used for sampling/swabbing.

        Thus, whatever the certainty of the statement made about the sample, another sample taken soon after from the same person even from the same or another standard location could give a different result.

        The use made of the test result is governed by the purpose of the test. There are two purposes-
        -To protect the community, the common good, the populous, from the chance that the person tested can spread infection. Or.
        – As for other medical tests, to provide information and advice to the individual tested.
        For both purposes the advice, acted on by different parties, consists of possibilities, probabilities, and consequences.

        00

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    RicDre

    North Atlantic Nonsense

    by Alan Longhurst

    This announcement from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research was headlined recently in my morning newspaper in France (and in dozens of others elsewhere) as being the result of the anthropogenic ‘rechauffment climatique.’ We were warned that the consequences would include more rigorous winters for us over here in Europe.[1] Whoever wrote that cannot have critically examined the old adage that it is the Gulf Stream that brings Western Europe a comfortable maritime climate, because folklore it turns out to be…

    https://judithcurry.com/2021/05/12/north-atlantic-nonsense/

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    • #
      el gordo

      Comments are informative and the author defends his position.

      Ulric Lyons made an interesting observation: ‘The increase in negative NAO conditions during centennial solar minima, does appear to see more warm flow transported into the far North Atlantic and Arctic.’

      00

  • #
    RicDre

    Study claims: Climate Change Increasing the Risk of Space Junk Collisions

    Guest essay by Eric Worrall

    Before you ask, it’s not because of all the climate satellites NASA plans to launch in the next few years.

    What if Space Junk and Climate Change Become the Same Problem?

    Changes to the atmosphere caused by carbon dioxide emissions could increase the amount of debris that stays in orbit.

    By Jonathan O’CallaghanMay 12, 2021, 12:38 p.m. ET

    It’s easy to compare the space junk problem to climate change. Human activities leave too many dead satellites and fragments of machinery discarded in Earth orbit. If left unchecked, space junk could pose significant problems for future generations — rendering access to space increasingly difficult, or at worst, impossible.

    Yet the two may come to be linked. Our planet’s atmosphere n
    aturally pulls orbiting debris downward and incinerates it in the thicker lower atmosphere, but increasing carbon dioxide levels are lowering the density of the upper atmosphere, which may diminish this effect. A study presented last month at the European Conference on Space Debris says that the problem has been underestimated, and that the amount of space junk in orbit could, in a worst-case scenario, increase 50 times by 2100.

    Given we appear to be experiencing a prolonged period of abnormally low solar activity, any fluctuation in the thermosphere is more likely due to change in solar EUV emissions, rather than anthropogenic CO2. The EUV component of solar emissions is far more variable than total solar irradiance, so even a small change in solar activity can have a profound impact on the energy budget of layers of the atmosphere which are especially sensitive to EUV flux.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/13/study-climate-change-increasing-the-risk-of-space-junk-collisions/

    10

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    el gordo

    The blocking high is out of place for this time of year, its a global cooling signal.

    https://www.weatherzone.com.au/synoptic.jsp?d=0

    A meandering jet stream, clearly visible, is causing the block.

    11

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    el gordo

    Scientists have detected something happening in the Southern Ocean, South Atlantic and East Australian Current.

    ‘They found a significant increase in eddy strength over the Southern Ocean, as well as significant changes in their activity over the boundary currents – the intense flows of water along the boundaries of the major ocean basins, such as the Gulf Stream and the East Australian Current.

    ‘Lead researcher Josué Martínez Moreno, of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Australian National University, said the eddies were constantly merging and detaching from more permanent ocean currents.’ (Guardian)

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    OldOzzie

    I asked a question a number open threads ago –

    these days one does not use cash, so in America how will you tip door openers/maids/bag carriers in the future.

    A new generation of early adopters in China is stealing a march on the West

    THE STORY OF OLD YANG AND THE GROWTH OF MOBILE PAYMENT

    Old Yang is a beggar who lives in Beijing. He can usually be found just outside the Gu Lou Street subway stop in one of the city’s tourist districts, where for years he survived on loose change and spare bills from commuters. But life changed dramatically for him in 2015, when everyone in Beijing abruptly stopped carrying cash. Seemingly overnight, the entire Chinese population began to download apps such as WeChat Pay and Alipay and integrate mobile payment into their daily lives.

    For Old Yang, this tech disruption could have spelled disaster: His livelihood relied on cash. But faced with a crisis, he adapted. First he scraped together enough money to buy a cheap Xiaomi smartphone. Next he printed a sign that displayed the QR codes for his WeChat Pay and Alipay accounts. Then he returned to his spot outside the Gu Lou Street station, where, with the sign strung around his neck, he connected his phone to the subway Wi-Fi — and waited. Old Yang didn’t simply survive in China’s new cashless world. He thrived. Today, when people want to give him something, they no longer reach into their pockets for spare change. Instead they open the mobile-payment app on their phones, scan a code on Old Yang’s sign, and transfer a few yuan to him. The average donation he receives has grown from one or two yuan to three to five yuan — an almost 300 per cent increase. Digital upgrading works.

    No payment is too small or too big for Chinese mobile-payment apps and no business is too informal. In 2015 in Chengdu, I used my phone to pay for a new laptop from a global brand. Then I went outside the store and used my phone to buy a breakfast sandwich from a woman who cooked it on an upside-down metal trash can suspended over hot coals on the side of the road.

    Old Yang, the computer-store owner and the breakfast-sandwich vendor are not innovators. They don’t have much “value” in the systems we use to rank global economies on innovation. But what happens when rapid adoption and adaptation become normal for more than 900 million internet users in every social stratum? You get a force that can change the terms of global competition.

    The story of mobile payment is especially instructive because the technology that enables it emerged in the US and China at almost exactly the same time. Thus their comparative innovativeness or timing — who copied whom? — becomes almost a nonfactor. In 2014 Apple Pay was launched in the US, followed a year later by Samsung Pay and Android Pay, and Alipay and WeChat Pay were launched in China. In timing and tech the innovations were all but equal, but their adoption rates have differed dramatically.

    In early 2019 Apple announced with much fanfare that 383 million phones around the world had activated Apple Pay — but at that point only 24 per cent of US iPhone owners had used the technology. And not until that year did Apple Pay surpass the Starbucks mobile app — used only in Starbucks stores — as the most-used mobile-payment app in the US.

    Things have unfolded very differently in China, where WeChat Pay has won 84 per cent market penetration among smartphone users. (The app is available to users of Tencent’s super-app WeChat, which has 1.2 billion monthly active users.) That kind of penetration explains why in 2018 WeChat Pay did 1.2 billion transactions a day, whereas Apple Pay did one billion a month. And it’s why in 2019 the total gross expenditure in China via mobile app (347 trillion yuan, or roughly $US54 trillion) was 551 times greater than the total expenditure in the US ($US98bn).

    So in the case of mobile payment, which country or company was more innovative? And did it matter?

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      OldOzzie

      YOUNG CHINA

      Undeniably, the regulatory environment has helped mobile payment take off there. Though this article focuses on the under-examined will of Chinese citizens to try and to trust new technology, the specific way China widely adopted mobile payment was paved by two groups: Chinese innovators, who are increasingly at parity with their Silicon Valley counterparts, and the government. In this case Chinese regulators did the unprecedented by granting banking licences to two nongovernmental tech giants, Alibaba and Tencent, at the expense of state-owned lenders. Without that support the mobile-payment rocket wouldn’t have left the ground.

      But what has made China’s adoption of mobile payment so successful — and globally unique — is its people. Even here the government has played a significant role because it has conditioned its citizens to expect less data privacy than Americans do — and indeed, has granted them fewer rights. But there’s more to the story than that. To understand why the Chinese public is so fiercely adoptive, let’s think about Young China, by which I mean two things: first, the 700 million Chinese who are under the age of 40; and second, a new national identity, which in the past decade has emerged as distinct from the manufacturing identity of the late 1990s and the 2000s.

      Experience has shaped China’s unique attitude toward adoption in recent years, and that experience has been unlike any other country’s. To have lived in China since 1990, broadly speaking, is to have lived in a country that is moving faster and changing more quickly than any other place on earth.

      When we talk about the speed of change in China today, we tend to focus on its rapidly changing physical landscape — and the differences there are dramatic. But in doing so we neglect changes in the mental landscape of China’s people.

      Looking at side-by-side pictures of Shanghai in 1989 and today, you might ask yourself how living through that sort of change would shape your expectations for progress and your sense of what government, technology and commerce can do.

      American Millennials have lived through dramatic, life-altering changes since 1990, the year I was born. First came the internet. Then mobile phones. Then smartphones, social media, dating apps, mobile banking, electric cars, big data, CRISPR and so much more. Since 1990 Americans have seen US per capita gross domestic product grow by roughly 2.7 times, which sounds impressive until you realise that somebody born in China in 1990 has seen per capita GDP grow by 32 times — a whole order of magnitude greater. In 1990 China’s GDP represented less than 2 per cent of the global total. By 2019 its share had jumped to nearly 19 per cent.

      Consider some of the specifics. In just three years, from 2011 to 2013, China poured more concrete than the US had poured in the entire 20th century. In 1990 China’s rural population had one refrigerator per 100 households; today that number is 96 per 100. (Food preservation is a common benchmark for development.) In 1990 China had only 5.5 million cars on the road; today it has 270 million, of which 3.4 million are electric, representing 47 per cent of the global electric fleet. In 1990 three-quarters of the country’s population was rural; today nearly two-thirds is urban, an increase of more than half a billion people.

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        OldOzzie

        Apologies Moderator – found the Original Article not Paywalled

        Harvard Business Review

        Globalization

        China’s New Innovation Advantage

        China is achieving a new level of global competitiveness, thanks to its hyper-adaptive population.

        by Zak Dychtwald

        From the Magazine (May–June 2021)

        Summary.

        Long considered a global copycat, China is now home to many of the fastest start-ups to reach a $1 billion valuation globally. Whatever has propelled Chinese companies to the top, the metrics we use to evaluate innovation have missed it. The author argues that China today has a resource that no other country has: hundreds of millions of people who have lived through unprecedented amounts of change—and who, consequently, can adopt and adapt to innovations at a speed and scale unmatched anywhere else on earth. Those hyper-adaptive and hyper-adoptive consumers are what make China so globally competitive today. But competition with the Chinese should not be considered a zero-sum game. Foreign companies would do well to seek to learn from China’s newly powerful example.

        A long excellent read

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      Annie

      Umm…what happens when/if the internet goes down? Carrington event or whatever?

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    robert rosicka

    Here is the best bit of comedy disguised as climate science I’ve seen yet , tree farts anyone ?

    https://www.treehugger.com/ghost-forest-tree-farts-contribute-to-climate-change-5184590

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    el gordo

    China may turn the screws on natural gas, very considerate of them.

    ‘Deepening tensions between Australia and China have reignited fears the dispute may spill over into shipments of liquefied natural gas.’ (SMH)

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    another ian

    A UN survey that apparently has “gone missing”

    http://web.archive.org/web/20200728091358/http://data.myworld2015.org/

    Via WUWT

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    robert rosicka

    Maricopa county 2020 vote auditing is getting interesting with claims the duplicate vote count could be over 200,000 , if proven correct and this is as widespread as we think it is it’s going to be interesting what next.

    https://rumble.com/vh007j-ariz.-audit-reaches-duplicate-ballots.html?fbclid=IwAR3eX2SiUhRr3hht4_2QQp-i0W_dlzrhEUH3N8Ic2cDERgtMkYMjdSSofiA

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    Strop

    Ryan Long – Advocating total equality

    https://youtu.be/MzpMRCeTHYE

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    another ian

    Re “Spasmodic energy”

    A couple of nice pie graphs here re EU

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/05/14/we-dont-need-no-stinking-giant-fans-48/

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    CHRIS

    While our global Neville Chamberlain politicians keep trying to appease Chinese aggression, there is not much hope for the world. Mankind NEVER learns from its mistakes, and never will. Humans are far too tribal for this.

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