Wednesday Open Thread

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142 comments to Wednesday Open Thread

  • #
    ColA

    So China and Russia make a fool of the EU and the West again, it just like we ask for it!!

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-aggressively-reselling-russian-gas-europe

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    • #
      Ted1.

      And the method of delivery is???

      The same???

      How often have we seen this before?

      50

      • #
        Graeme#4

        That’s an interesting question, because some of the gas China buys from Russia comes via ship. Am now wondering if some (or all?) of these ships leave the Russian ports and simply turn west instead of east.

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          It’s a long pipe from Russian gas fields to China. The existing pipe would have been operating at 100% before Feb so China has no excess “cheap” gas to on-sell.

          Here is an interesting map showing that there is no way Russia can deliver cheap seaborne LNG. Most of the LNG is shipped from above the Artic Circle. The summer route through the Bering Strait is a long way around Siberia but still reasonable. The winter route is via Suez and that might add half a mill to the shipping.

          I doubt there is any large scale sanction busting. The ship owners will be fully booked so why would they risk having their ship impounded? You can’t keep routes secret.

          But HEY! never let a chance to knock the West go to waste.

          42

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Australia exports twice* the LNG than Russia does and has far less steaming time and no canal charges.

          * Did a quick search only.

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        • #
          • #
            Graeme#4

            Until the ship turns off its tracking beacon, and there has been recent reports of ships doing exactly that.

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            • #
              Graeme#4

              Yep, just confirmed. China has been turning off its ship’s tracking beacons since 1st November 2021.

              20

            • #
              Scissor

              All the ships crossing the North Pole appear to have done just that.

              20

              • #
                Hanrahan

                They can’t just enter port unannounced. Ever heard of customs documents?

                Once they pass through the Arctic, where is there a sanction busting port? China?

                China is an LPG importer, they would have receiving terminals but no liquefaction terminals, so if what you say is true the LPG tankers wold simply sail past China, through Strait Of Malacca, through Suez {Half a mill, thanks. Kching] to a country not far from the starting point. I’ve been in business and would never go with this as a business model.

                11

              • #
                Graeme#4

                So H, you don’t believe that LNG ships leaving Russian ports would simply sail west and “vanish” for a while, reappearing somewhere in Europe?

                00

            • #
              Hanrahan

              Enough of the theoretical. What happens when an oil/LPG tanker turns off its beacon? Does the US just shrug? There aren’t that many of them that they can be lost in the noise.

              You need to join the real world where even China is cautions about how far they can go without invoking secondary sanctions. Do you SERIOUSLY think a Greek ship owner [charging a motza for legal trade anyway] will go where China fears to tread?

              US led sanctions sound like they are world bullies, [not unreasonable] that they are out to hurt the citizens. So do wars and bombs.

              The US did not start this war.

              14

  • #
  • #
    John Connor II

    An Irish coffee shop just got their power bill!

    https://twitter.com/DolanGeraldine/status/1564392353300889603

    That’s around $14k AUD…
    I think vodka is in order 😅

    130

    • #
      OldOzzie

      OldOzzie
      August 31, 2022 at 8:41 am · Reply
      Today’s Priorities

      dover0beachsays:
      August 31, 2022 at 8:03 am
      William Wheelwright
      @ploughmansfolly

      Sorry about your mother’s café but it’s absolutely crucial that gay marriage be legalized in Ukraine.

      Callum ??
      @CallumMckeefery
      · Aug 29
      My mum owns a small café in Leicester. Her electricity bill has just jumped from £10k ($12k) a year to £55k ($64k) a year.

      She is working out her options but more than likely she will be forced to close.

      170

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Beaten By

        OldOzzie
        August 31, 2022 at 12:16 pm · Reply
        UK manufacturing sector insolvencies rise by 63% since last year

        Support groups say energy bills, higher interest rates and falling order books putting thousands of firms on the edge

        Insolvencies across the manufacturing sector have soared by 63% since last year ahead of a wave of business failures expected this winter in response to rising energy prices, higher interest rates and falling order books.

        The number of firms going bankrupt increased from 893 in 2020-21 to 1,454 in 2021-22, according to Insolvency Service figures analysed by the accountancy firm Mazars.

        Many more companies are likely to have voluntarily wound up their companies before running out of credit and becoming insolvent.

        Manufacturing groups have warned that thousands of firms stand on a financial cliff edge after negotiating the pandemic, Brexit trade restrictions and more recently skills shortages and rising wage bills.

        Energy bills for some businesses are expected to increase by 300%-400% in October, when many fixed-price agreements are renegotiated.

        Annette Dolan, managing director of Bath Aqua Glass, said the bill to keep her glass-making furnaces running was scheduled to increase in October from £14,000 to £131,000 a year.

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        • #
          PADRE

          The rot in UK was partly initiated by EU directives on CO2 emissions, but amplified by the likes of LibDems Glegg and Davey, aided and abetted by Cameron then May with the finishing touch from Mrs Johnson through Boris.

          Here in Aus, we have a similarly evolving scenario, not helped by Morrison going to COP26, but now gathering full ‘steam’ under Bowen.

          Not only does the WEF not want us to own anything, it would seem that we are not supposed to be able to make anything.

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    • #
      Ronin

      It would have to be cheaper to generate it yourself.

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      • #
        yarpos

        Where its possible in tbe more densely packed Euro style places. I have been noticing more of the shops in our nearby town are sporting big generators. The chemist, the biggest cafe and at least one of the pubs have them in place.

        60

  • #
    John Connor II

    ‘I was brainwashed by the trans community’: Detransitioner reveals all.

    The detransitioner, known as Shape Shifter, 32, was born male, transitioned to female but then reverted back
    The surgeries have left him without a penis, while his ‘neo-vagina’ has brought a host of medical problems.

    He believes that those who are now detransitioning are being shunned by the medical community and often dismissed as ‘difficult patients’
    Shape believes a lot of people would reconsider having surgery in the first place if they knew of the possible complications and regret that can follow
    But he believes it would be ‘bad for business’ if surgeons alluded to such realities.

    But soon after the operation was complete in 2015 in his mid-20s, Shape Shifter quickly realized he had made a terrible mistake, and that he was just a gay man who enjoyed presenting in a feminine way.

    The procedures he has undergone – which include the removal of his penis and the creation of a ‘neo-vagina’ are irreversible.

    They have left him with osteoporosis, scoliosis, a ‘vagina’ which his body believes is a wound, and which it tries to close up, as well as a host of mental health conditions including depression and a reduced sex-drive.

    Shape Shifter believed that making the initial switch to a woman would make him finally feel happy in his own body.

    But he ended up feeling even more depressed than before the surgery, ultimately realizing that he was simply a man who enjoyed expressing his femininity.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11151433/Detransitioner-says-brainwashed-having-gender-reassignment-surgery-woke-doctors.html

    Shakes head…
    (Actually I can shake both, or all 3 in Tas 😅)

    That’s the problem. They THINK they’re the wrong gender but they’re not.
    Crossdressing would have done. 😉
    It’s a sure bet any man transing to a woman would have the same vag issue.
    If evolution didn’t intend you to have an opening somewhere then the immune system sees it as a wound and tries to close it.
    Duh…
    Brilliant surgeons. Not!

    If an adult can make such a massive mistake how can a young child possibly make such a decision?

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    • #
      Maptram

      Then there is cancer. Some cancers e.g cervical cancer and prostate cancer, are gender specific. As a male he would have been born with a prostate and unless the surgery inluded removal of the prostate, Shape Shifter could contract prostate cancer

      71

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      The surgeons who perform such gender changing surgery should be sued out of business!!

      80

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      A male without his penus; how can he ever hope to get sexual satisfaction?

      30

    • #
      Deano

      It seems quite amazing that suddenly, so many people are discovering they’re “in the wrong body”. Many of them seem to be attention seekers too which tends to explain why they are prone to going through with this latest fad.

      50

  • #
    John Connor II

    No person, especially children, are better protected than if they are unvaccinated in highly vaccinated nations! Keeping them unvaccinated during high infectious pressure TRAINED their INNATE immunity.


    As a parent who withstood the madness, you gave your child a gift they can never ever repay, in this matter. You allowed their innate immune system the training it needs, that all children need. They will now benefit.

    They were bought enough time that allowed their natural innate antibodies to bind to live virus and to train their innate immune system and to educate their innate immune system on how to confront existing COVID virus and on how to handle and respond to a broad range of other glycosylated pathogen in the future, viruses that have similar sugars, glycans on surface etc. and which look similar. It allowed the proper training of their natural killer (NK) cells of the immune system, a key function of that training being that the child’s immune system can learn to recognize ‘self’ from ‘non-self’ components and so that their immune systems will know what it should attack and what it should leave alone as belonged to the child (self).

    https://palexander.substack.com/p/no-person-especially-children-are

    How long before the parents of the world realise what they have done by giving their kids the fake vax?
    Who will they blame?
    You can’t unbreak Humpty…

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    • #

      Never been jabbed by these experimental gene therapy emergency approved drugs and never will. Maybe I have INNATE Immunity then as I don’t believe that I have ever contracted the ‘Virus’. Never been tested so I guess I will never know.

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    • #
      ando

      My unvaxxed kids have allegedly caught covid (according to the chinese test kits) – a very, very mild cold. I look on in disbelief that some of my extended family have injected their children with these experimental, dangerous and clearly ineffective serums that have no long term safety data, for the sniffles – Insanity. I dont know anyone, of any age group (as old as late 70s) who is unvaxxed and had a problem after catching covid, beyond cold like symptoms. The triple and quadruple jabbed at work however, thats another story…Sick leave is off the charts.
      I’m the only unvaxxed one at work and the only one who hasnt caught covid or had time off with colds and flus in the last 12 months – has the faux vaxx compromised their immune systems?

      10

  • #

    Shut Them Up, Argues the Academy of Science

    From the Quadrant Online –

    “In a move unprecedented in the democratic world, the Australian Academy of Science is lobbying the tech giants Meta (Facebook), Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and TikTok to censor and harass any Australians who circulate what the Academy insultingly labels “climate denialism misinformation”.[1]

    The Academy represents 589 leading scientists and operates as funding/political lobby and trade union for the largely university-based science community. When not disrespecting freedom of speech and crying wolf about climate perils, it does good work promoting Australian science in education and the community.

    It wants the Big Tech giants to “inoculate” Australians against critics of alarmism by “actively promoting reliable, peer-reviewed and appropriately labelled material from trusted sources,” presumably the Academy and its followers. “These positive measures should be in addition to measures to reduce the spread of disinformation.”

    The Orwellian agenda is in the Academy’s public submission to the tech giants’ 2022 review of the Australian Code of Practice on Misinformation and Disinformation. The Academy made its submission on August 3 in conjunction with the junior group, the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering.

    The Academies wants the tech giants’ power brought to bear against news organisations – it specifically names Rupert Murdoch’s “Sky News Australia and its media personalities”.”

    https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2022/08/shut-them-up-argues-the-academy-of-science/

    Goodbye Free Speech……………..

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    • #
      TdeF

      It’s stuffed with Climate Change pushers like Professor Tim Flannery. No hard science past secondary school for Tim and a degree in English at Latrobe because he could not get into a science course. But pushing the barrow for man made Climate Change, which according to the United Nations is a real thing.

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      • #
        ColA

        TdeF, I understand he has a PhD in Paleontology and also studied Mammalogy

        It appears no qualifications in hard sciences, but highly qualified in waffling and wankering equally balanced with large quantities of bullsh*t!!

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Flannery

        40

      • #
        NuThink

        @TdeF

        Flannery is a person of many talents.

        How did he get to Korea – in his tinny that he travelled the Murray in?

        Will we be able to measure the strength of concrete or rather seaweed concrete in Mega Flannerys?

        https://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/can-seaweed-save-the-world/11017106

        Professor Tim Flannery investigates how seaweed is helping to save the world – from growing the foods of the future, helping clean polluted water and even combating climate change.

        Growing seaweed is now a ten billion dollar a year global industry. Tim travels to Korea to see some of the biggest seaweed farms in the world and meets the scientists who are hoping to create a seaweed revolution here in Australia.

        40

    • #
      GlenM

      Time for the call to proper debate(if only) and to leave the politics out of it. Unfortunately for climate science, it’s Turtles all the way down but that’s OK with the alarmists.

      40

    • #
      Henrietta

      You have a right to voice your opinions, not your alternative facts.
      That’s how science works, try offering some data.

      11

      • #
        yarpos

        Why stifle discussion? if the alternatives are indeed facts is that not what science is about? replacing what once were thought to be facts with what are now known to be facts, until they arent.

        00

  • #
    Vene

    https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/-/10616/baltic-sea-countries-to-intensify-energy-cooperation

    The declaration signed at the summit set several ambitious targets. One of these is to increase offshore wind power production in the Baltic Sea region to seven times the current amount by 2030.

    The price of energy heading southeast soon? I’ve my doubts.

    80

    • #
      DLK

      increase offshore wind power production

      “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

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      • #
        Vene

        Nah, in the past it was only a small scale insanity. Increasing madness seven fold will lead to a totally different result. Just wait and see.

        80

    • #
      Indur Goklany

      I guess misery loves invites company.

      00

  • #

    Shut Them Up, Argues the Academy of Science

    From the Quadrant Online with more –

    Dr Garth Paltridge, who has been a Fellow of the Science Academy for more than 30 years, is shocked that the Academy is turning to Big Tech to shut down climate debate. He tells Quadrant Online: “The bottom line is that research on climate change is indeed still highly controversial – both in the prediction of the extent of the change and (even more so) in the prediction of the impact of the change on society.

    “I just cannot understand how any science academy that is supposed to operate through rational debate can behave like this – that is, to use pure political brute force to prevent one side of the argument from putting its case.

    “I can only assume that the Academy is subconsciously ‘chasing the money’ and is influenced by the vast funding available these days for the support of alarmist climate research. Certainly there is virtually no money to support scientists brave enough to put their heads above the parapet with a contrary view. That might be why the critical scientists seem largely to be retired.”

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Jim Jordan leads investigation into Justice Department inspector general

    House Judiciary Committee Republicans are opening an investigation into Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz over reports suggesting his office’s involvement in examining a cellphone the FBI seized from Rep. Scott Perry’s (R-PA).

    A letter sent Monday by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the ranking member, said such a move by the agency’s independent watchdog “creates a serious conflict of interest for the OIG in reviewing the Department’s actions.” Among the demands made of Horowitz were those for relevant documents and communications, as well as explanations for a forensic examination of Perry’s phone and concerns raised about the seizure. Jordan asked the inspector general to produce this material no later than 5 p.m. on Sept. 12.

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Women Are Disproportionately Hurting Our Country

    The result is that women are disproportionately active in doing damage to our society.

    The most obvious example is education. American schools teach less and indoctrinate more than ever before. Big-city public (and most private) schools are damaging young Americans to an extent and in ways no one imagined just a few years ago. Young children are prematurely sexualized — they are, for example, exposed to “Drag Queen Story Hour” in class and in local libraries from the age of 5. These feature a man dressed as a woman reading and dancing for them.

    And who is facilitating all of this? In virtually every case, a woman. Ninety-two percent of kindergarten teachers are women, 75% of all teachers are women and 85% of librarians are women.

    And they are teaching young people to despise their country (the creator of the poisonous “1619 Project” is a woman), to feel guilty about their “white privilege” or to think of themselves as victims if they are black. Even worse, they are indoctrinating them in “nonbinary” thinking regarding sex and gender.

    And women are disproportionately supportive of cancel culture, the greatest threat to free speech in American history.

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    • #
      Adellad

      This is obviously un-provable, but I’d bet the overwhelming majority of said women are self-loathing because of negative self image – hence the green hair and stupid clothes one sees on land whales.

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      This is a topic I have been interested for a few years now. I don’t expect it to be debated, much less actually investigated.

      I have noticed how, in several blogs/comments sections around the interweb, that contributions about this matter are censored or, in my case, a written warning issued.

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    • #
      Mike Jonas

      Actually, I suspect that the opposite is the case. These women teachers lose their job if they go against their boss, and their boss is mostly male.

      (That last bit is a stylised way of saying that most bosses are male, but in today’s world who knows …….).

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  • #
    Patrick Donnelly

    Immune system is designed to protect the appropriate DNA. It is prepared to kill an individual to save the entire species or phylum etc. It does this by clotting.

    Save yourself and deserving people by taking nattokinase or serrapeptase. These are enzymes that help the body reduce proteins to amino acids, with scrap from clots and scars going to the lungs to be coughed up as phlegm.

    50

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Australians warned to prepare for a power shortage as coal and gas is taken off the market from 2023

    The National Energy Market Operator warned of electricity shortages by 2023

    . The shortfalls are forecast in the NSW, Queensland, SA, and Victorian markets
    . At least five coal and gas power plants will be retired in the next decade
    . The report said significant investment needed in renewable energy and storage

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    • #
      James Murphy

      The less rational part of my mind wants to see gas and coal stop much sooner, as in, next week. It would definitely make people some wake up to the problems caused by subsidy farms.
      However, aside from the people that would inevitably suffer as a result, the media has already managed to successively brand gas and coal as “unreliable, so I’m not sure such an action would have the desired impact.

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      • #

        Liddel is (nearly) as old as I am and deserves a stately retirement, but Eraring is another matter altogether – a spring chicken by comparison. It should be packed up and moved to the Liddel site, as the coal resource originally set aside for it has been effectively sterilised by rampant McMansion development on the Central Coast.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      Tucker Carlson: Energy Shortages In Europe Are A Preview Of The “Green New Deal” Future

      In Germany, the continent’s richest country, only about 6% of households, most of them rural, heated with cordwood and you’d expect that, given that, again, Germany is a modern industrialized country with central heating and indoor plumbing and all the other trappings of a society that has moved beyond the medieval period. Last year, only about 6% of Germans used wood to heat their homes, but that has changed dramatically. Demand for firewood in Germany has risen so fast that there is none left to buy. You can’t get it, so desperate Germans are now cutting their own wood, scouring the forests like their ancestors for sources of heat.

      So, they call it biomass, but it’s wood. They’re burning wood again, as they did during the feudal period. That’s Germany. In Poland, families are standing in line for days to buy coal, not in 1910, right now, tonight, cars queued up outside coal mines hoping for fuel. “This is beyond imagination,” one 57-year-old Polish man told Reuters. “People are sleeping in their cars. I remember the communist times, but it didn’t cross my mind that we could return to something even worse.”

      Oh, but it’s come. Something even worse has arrived. The French government has announced energy rationing this winter. Just the other day, France had so much energy that it exported it to other countries. It was a net exporter of energy. Now, there won’t be enough heat in France for everyone in the country to stay warm. In the U.K., 70% of restaurants are preparing to close to go under. Why? Because when winter comes, they won’t be able to afford to keep the heat and lights on, etc., etc. This is happening across Europe, in every country.

      So, the question is: why is it happening? And the answer is extremely simple. There is an energy shortage in Europe. Cheap energy is essential. It is the key to everything that a normal society strives for: prosperity, safety, a longer life expectancy for its citizens. Everything depends on cheap energy, but Europe no longer has it and as a result, things are falling apart very quickly.

      Full Transcipt Follows

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        Energy-starved Europe is about to learn the worth of Washington’s friendship

        The US energy secretary is pressuring refiners to stop exporting more fuel to European allies in dire need

        It’s starting to look like it’s Europe’s turn to learn what Washington’s promises are worth. (Spoiler alert: Not much.)

        In a letter that the Wall Street Journal editorial board has described as “bullying,” US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm demands that the nation’s main energy refining companies refrain from increasing fuel exports at a time when America’s allies in Europe are in deep need. “Given the historic level of US refined product exports, I again urge you to focus in the near term on building inventories in the United States, rather than selling down current stocks and further increasing exports,” Granholm wrote, citing “historically low inventory levels of gasoline and diesel in parts of the country.” In other words, America first. Who’s surprised? Europe certainly shouldn’t be – despite what it may have been led to believe.

        Granholm’s posture is a far cry from the joint statement issued by the EU and the White House on June 27th, citing cooperation in “working together to find ways to further reduce Russia’s energy-derived revenues in the coming months.” The Western allies claimed “important strides towards reducing the European Union’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels by decreasing natural gas demand, cooperating on energy efficiency technologies, and diversifying energy supplies.”

        Where’s that cooperation now? The truth is that the US simply doesn’t have the infrastructure and capacity to meet Europe’s massive needs, and faces environmental pressure at home that complicates its construction. It’s the same rationale that prevented Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from promising Canadian liquified natural gas to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his visit to Ottawa earlier this month.

        The White House stated that it was “partnering to diversify energy supplies to Europe” and that “the United States and other producers have stepped up.”

        Except that now the US energy secretary is telling US energy suppliers to hide behind the couch and pretend to not be home as the EU runs around worldwide knocking frantically on doors.

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        • #

          “rather than selling down current stocks and further increasing exports”

          Errrrrrrrrrrrrrr………Wasn’t it Joe Biden who recently authorised the selling of some of the USAs Strategic Oil Reserve at bargain basement prices to China? So Joe Biden will sell Oil to an enemy but not to a friend.

          Joe Biden IS The Manchurian Candidate.

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      • #
        Adellad

        Carlson covers issues that nobody else does on mainstream media. One wonders how much longer he will be “allowed” to continue.

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  • #
    Zane

    Wouldn’t be surprised to see electricity here go to 42¢ a kWh or more if Eraring and Liddell both close in NSW in the next year or two as scheduled by Origin and AGL, their respective owners. Each company is committed to decarbonizing. How the State government expects to replace well over 4000 MW of baseload power generation has not been explained.

    200

  • #
    David Maddison

    Apparently Victoriastan Labor want to remove the gas supply from schools.

    To save the planet.

    Not sure what they’ll use for Bunsen burners in science class.

    They’ll probably just stop teaching science and replace it with “gender studies” or similar nonsense.

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  • #
    Robber

    Here is an option to replace the output from Liddell coal station that has been generating 850-1050 MW every day and night through August. (It is forced to cut back to 850 MW during daylight hours due to existing solar generators.)
    Build an additional 4500 MW of solar panels with 850 MW used during the day and the balance going into battery storage that will then be used to deliver power through the night. (The 128 MW Numurkah Solar Farm in Victoria cost $200 million.)
    The batteries must be able to deliver 1050 MW for 16 hours, that’s 16,800 MWhr of storage. For comparison, the Victorian “big” battery near Geelong has a capacity of 450 MWhr (meaning it can deliver 450 MW for just one hour) at a cost of $160 million, and the SA big battery is 130 MWhr. Ah yes, solar power is “free”.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Robber:
      What happens if the clouds roll in? Will we be left in the dark?

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    • #
      Chad

      Robber
      August 31, 2022 at 3:25 pm · …..For comparison, the Victorian “big” battery near Geelong has a capacity of 450 MWhr (meaning it can deliver 450 MW for just one hour) at a cost of $160 million, and the SA big battery is 130 MWhr. Ah yes, solar power is “free”.

      Ahh !…
      Much missinformation around this Vic big battery, and not easy ..or clear, exactly what the data actually is !
      For sure, that $160 m was only part of the full cost,…infact that was only the Australian Clean Energy Council (?) contribution of our tax money !!.
      The full cost is many times that !
      What is clear, is that those “first generation “ Tesla MegaPacks cost us$1.98 million each ..
      https://www.tesla.com/megapack/design
      …and multiple sources state there are 212 of those units at Geelong !
      So that would put the Tesla equipment cost at us$ 387 million (Au$550 million) !
      Ignoring any site, services, transmission connectors, etc etc ..

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      • #
        Graeme#4

        Similar to the SA Hornsdale battery cost. It’s still not possible to determine its actual cost and how much of a subsidy it received.

        20

        • #
          Chad

          Hornsdale, “stage 1” (129 MWh) was widely reported,( even by Tesla), at $100m
          Stage 2 ..(64 MWh) was reported at another $90m of Tesla equipment.
          All Au$$$s i belive.
          Subsidies ?.. who knows ?, they are very cagey about much of the details and full installed costings,

          00

      • #
        Chad

        Oops !
        Those Tesla prices do look odd in that the price of packs is obviously discounted to us$1.82m when a quantity of 212 units is ordered. ( there is a order quote facility on the .Tesla site )
        So, GEELONG got a bargain discount on their order !

        10

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Hmm…anyone else seen this ?

    It appears the covid vaccines are classified as Schedule 4 poisons.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20210510044129/https://www.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-05/210305-Authorisation-to-supply-administer-COVID-vaccine-No2-Aus-Defence-Force.pdf

    “Carry out the functions
    in line with the
    requirements for supply
    and administration of
    Schedule 4 medicines in
    the Medicines and
    Poisons Act 2014 (WA)
    and the Medicines and
    Poisons Regulations
    2016 (WA) to the extent
    that they are consistent
    with the authorisation.”

    20

  • #
    David Maddison

    To add to the list of things that cause climate change…

    Vitamin D tests.

    Bumped from the Monday Open Thread.

    Here is a bizarre item.

    Despite the numerous benefits of Vitamin D, including improving resistance to, and outcomes of covid infection, there is a war against Vitamin D.

    See Jo’s links on the benefits of Vitamin D and also Dr John Campbell 

    https://youtu.be/0mtg5eukmP0 .

    The war against Vitamin D includes:

    E.g. 1) claims of “overdoses” (when stupid people take massive quantities).

    E.g. 2) claims of excessive testing of Vitamin D levels.

    Gosh, I wonder who might be against Vitamin D?

    Anyway, now there is a bizarre association of the “carbon (sic) cost” and Vitamin D testing.

    YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

    https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2022/08/24/cutting-down-vitamin-d-tests-could-help-lower-carbon-footprint-of-healthcare.html

    Cutting down vitamin D tests could help lower carbon cost of healthcare

    24 August 2022

    Burden on healthcare and the environment ‘avoidable’

    Unnecessary vitamin D testing in Australia is costing our health care system up to $87 million and creating a significant carbon footprint which otherwise could be avoidable, says researchers.

    Unnecessary vitamin D testing in Australia is costing our healthcare system up to $87 million and is contributing to the sector’s significant but avoidable carbon footprint, say researchers. 

    A study examining the climate impact of low-value healthcare activity in Australia has found that unnecessary vitamin D tests generated carbon emissions equivalent to a car driving from Sydney to Perth 59 times.  

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    Is that what passes for science today?

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    OldOzzie

    Cloudy With a Chance of Fraud: Federal Weatherization’s Back

    By Eric Felten, RealClearInvestigations
    August 30, 2022

    Alarm bells are sounding at the Department of Energy as the Biden administration has moved to triple the budget for the Weatherization Assistance Program, which provides low-income applicants with free home and apartment renovations, such as insulation, duct-sealing, new heating systems, and kitchen appliances. The last time the program was lavished with such a surge in funds, through President Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill, audits and investigations uncovered a pattern of fraud, embezzlement, shoddy work, inflated expenses for parts and materials, sketchy billing, kickbacks, and gimcrack construction.

    In a private meeting in February, the department’s inspector general, Teri L. Donaldson, warned Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm that the enormous new budget for the program – slated to grow to $1 billion a year from $315 million – threatens to overwhelm the department’s ability to protect taxpayers’ money. In April, the inspector general made that warning public with a memo to Secretary Granholm cataloging the risks to the money being entrusted to the Department of Energy. Donaldson identified a history of problems with the program, noting that “few administrative remedies such as suspensions and debarments were made for the multitude of problems that occurred and were identified.”

    Despite those problems, the program’s labyrinthine structure remains. Congress apportions weatherization funds to the Department of Energy. The department, then, distributes grants to the states; the states, in turn, disburse the monies to “community action agencies” [CAAs], organizations that administer, at the local level, various programs to aid the poor, including Head Start, “Community Services Block Grants,” and “SNAP Education & Training.”

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    John Connor II

    Chinese spies from the infamous Red Ladon group infiltrate the Australian government and key business sectors in a major hacking operation using a fake news website.

    Cunning Chinese cyber spies have successfully infiltrated Australian computer systems in a bid to steal sensitive information to aid Beijing’s militarisation of the South China Sea.

    The spies, linked to China’s Ministry of State Security, launched a fake media outlet in order to glean the intelligence from Australians working within defence, health, energy and government sectors.

    Beijing’s con began with a string of emails in the lead up to the May federal election with a message from a self-described ‘humble’ digital new site called the ‘Australian Morning News’ asking recipients to click on a link which would infect their computers with malware and compromise their privacy.

    Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison shocked the nation in June, 2020, by outlining how un-named ‘state-actors’ had targeted banks, universities, hospitals, transport networks, electricity grids, and the military, as part of a lengthy cyber-warfare campaign.

    Insiders at the time claimed the cyber invasion was payback for Australia’s decision to ban Chinese state firm Huawei from the national 5G network in 2018 over national security concerns.

    Between April and June this year, hackers also targeted companies involved with the operations of energy generators in the South China Sea – where the authoritarian power is creating man-made islands in contravention of International law.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11160623/Chinese-cyber-spies-infiltrate-Australia-fake-news-site-Australian-Morning-News-Red-Ladon.html

    So…what sort of AV/malware software are these Aussie sectors using? Probably freeware junk…

    90

    • #
      David Maddison

      The Chicomms barely have to spy, they have Australian traitors, including large numbers of sitting politicians and senior public serpents, willingly betraying their country.

      160

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    John Connor II

    Dictator Dan on track to win Victorian election.

    Daniel Andrews is on track to become Victoria’s longest serving Labor premier, with the latest Newspoll showing his government is heading towards a third election victory.

    The Newspoll, published in The Australian, shows Labor holds a two-party preferred lead over the Coalition of 56 to 44 less than three months out from polling day.

    However, Labor’s victory is set to be not as comprehensive as its November 2018 “Danslide”, when the two-party preferred percentage was 57.3 to 42.7 in its favour.

    Labor’s primary vote has dropped from 42.9 at the 2018 election to 41, while the Coalition’s has risen from 35.2 to 36 – but the Greens have seen the biggest change in support, increasing from 10.7 to 18.

    https://xyz.net.au/2022/08/dictator-dan-on-track-to-win-victorian-election/

    Game over for Victoria by the looks of it.
    After all they’ve been through needlessly, how stupid would you have to be to let that clown run the show again.
    Stockholm syndrome perhaps…

    120

    • #
      David Maddison

      It will be another four years of Dictator Dan and it will finalise the destruction of Victoria and bring down the rest of Australia with it.

      It appears no longer possible to elect a rational thinking government. Liberals are only slightly less bad than Green Labor.

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      The Libs lost government because many of their erstwhile supporters ditched them, disagreeing with how certain matters were handled. To me, this was another example of how conservatives act on principle rather than blindly supporting a ‘side’.

      Lefties however, tend to be welded-on and will keep the most corrupt and incompetent government in power just because it’s a leftist government. For them, the side comes first, every time.

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    OldOzzie

    Australia’s FINALLY cuts ridiculous Covid isolation rules from seven days to five – and removes mandatory masks on planes

    . Australia to axe mandatory masks Covid isolation rules from seven days to five
    . Isolation periods will be cut for those who have no symptoms from September 9

    50

    • #
      David Maddison

      What took them so long?

      40

      • #
        Steve of Cornubia

        I have said all along that economics will determine when this pandemic comes to an end.

        40

        • #
          Honk R Smith

          So when does ‘renewable’ energy come to an end?
          How bad do the ‘economics’ have to get?
          I only got a decade left in me at best.
          Do you mean Lord/Serf economics?
          Are they hiring Medieval scholars at BlackRock yet?

          30

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    John Connor II

    PROVEN RELATIONSHIP: COVID Boosters and Excess Mortality in 2022

    This article will show that there is a very strong statistically significant association between excess mortality in 2022, and uptake of COVID boosters.

    The booster rate as of Jul 1 explains excess deaths in 2022, by country, using linear regression with R^2 = 40% and P-value an incredible 0.0002, giving this relationship ironclad statistical significance!

    https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/proven-relationship-covid-boosters

    Why am I not shocked? 😅

    40

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    John Connor II

    Nigeria bans white models from appearing in commercials

    Nigerian ads will have to rely solely on local models and voiceover artists in future, the African nation’s government announced this week. The policy changes will come into force on October 1.

    “All advertisements, advertising and marketing communications materials are to make use of only Nigerian models and voiceover artists,” the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) said in a statement on Tuesday. Current advertising campaigns using foreign talent will be allowed to continue but no new permits for similar campaigns will be issued by the relevant authorities, the government agency added.

    https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=63303

    So only Nig..erians can appear in ads. 😉
    More anti-white racism.

    100

    • #
      MrGrimNasty

      Well if you watch UK adverts, for sometime you’d think every nuclear family consisted of a black bloke, a white woman, a pair of mixed race twin girls, and an Asian boy.

      60

  • #
    Strop

    I see the ABC has a new podcast called “Who’s Gonna Save Us”.
    It is a co-production of the science team at ABC RN and triple j Hack.

    .

    Episode 00

    This isn’t a podcast about how climate change is real – we’ve known that for a long time. And it’s not another show about the devastation climate change is causing, or how we got here.

    Because we don’t need to talk about the problem anymore. We know what’s going on.

    This is a show about how much better things could be, and the people who are fighting to get us there.

    Reporters from the science team at ABC RN and triple j Hack have been travelling around the country to meet the people bringing about real change and coming up with authentic climate solutions.

    If we want to avoid a climate catastrophe … WHO’S GONNA SAVE US?

    Unfortunately this is ABC activism and not a balanced impartial presentation of facts and opinions.

    140

    • #
      el+gordo

      Aunty is an utter disgrace.

      70

    • #
      David Maddison

      Morrison’s appointment of Buttrose as ABC chair was a huge disappointment.

      90

      • #
        Mike Jonas

        Actually, I thought at the time that Scott Morrison’s appointment of Ita Buttrose was a great step in the right direction. What a terrible disappointment she has been. She has delivered a grand total of stuff all.

        90

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      That mindwash programme* has been airing here for a month or so, however it’s repackaged (relabelled) ‘People Protecting the Planet’ (PPP) or some such childish gibbering repetitive alliteration.

      If/when it comes on the radio, I’ll briefly listen for a laugh then change stations: the dis-mis information* is too strong (rhymes with wrong).

      30

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    Steve of Cornubia

    I just watched another excellent Youtube talk by Dr. John Campbell, in which he walks through new advice from the UK government concerning Covid vaccination of pregnant women. If I understand it correctly, the advice is that pregnant woman should be vaccinated based on their risk profile (age, comorbidities, etc) rather than prioritised for vaccination, as per the ‘old’ advice.

    OK, so that’s a small step back from Defcon 1, but there is still a push toward vaccination. However, their reasons for continued vaccination include, ” … the Delta variant is associated with an increased risk of severe illness … ”

    So the bang-up-to-date advice is to continue vaccinating, because a more or less extinct variant could make you very ill …

    Science.

    70

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    David Maddison

    Will Australia ever un-ban HCQ or IVM for covid treatment or prophylaxis (used according to the published protocols, of course)? (The one exception is Queenslandistan that allows HCQ.)

    70

  • #
    David Maddison

    Quick quiz.

    Which indefinite article, “a” or “an”, would you use to precede “yttrium aluminium garnet crystal”?

    10

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    David Maddison

    Australia was the laughing stock of the world when it deported Novak Djokovic for not being vaxxed even though he had had the ‘rona and would thus have natural immunity.

    Now the US CDC is relaxing it’s rules and may soon be allowing people into the US without having been vaxxed if they have natural immunity.

    It means he might be able to play in the US Open unvaxxed.

    https://au.sports.yahoo.com/tennis-2022-novak-djokovic-handed-staggering-boost-us-open-bid-002518611.html

    “Prior infection and vaccination confer some protection against severe illness, and so it really makes the most sense to not differentiate with our guidance or our recommendations based on vaccination status at this time,” said CDC scientist Dr Greta Massetti.

    The CDC also said in a statement: “In the coming weeks, the CDC will work to align stand-alone guidance documents, such as those for healthcare settings, congregate settings at higher risk of transmission, and travel, with today’s update.”

    The announcement moves to grant the unvaccinated the same guidance as vaccinated people within the US.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    40

    • #
      Hanrahan

      The competition has started without him. What are you on about?

      30

      • #
        David Maddison

        My mistake. I didn’t notice the date on the article. It referred to the expectation that due to the rule change that “he might be able to play in the US Open unvaxxed”.

        40

  • #
    Vlad the Impaler

    Just wondering if anyone will be ‘russian’ to Gorbachov’s funeral … … …

    20

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  • #
    william x

    Ahh. Mawson Antarctic Base.

    https://www.antarctica.gov.au/antarctic-operations/stations/amenities-and-operations/renewable-energy/wind-power/

    Two quotes:

    First.

    “In 2003, Mawson had two 30 m tall, 300 kW wind turbines installed. This system could provide a total of 600 kW for both powering and heating the station.
    In 2017, one of the turbines suffered a critical failure and is no longer operational. Today, the one remaining turbine continues to produce power for Mawson station.”

    Second.

    “This system manages both the wind resource and power from the diesel generator.
    This ensures power supply to the station is always optimised and efficient.”

    End quotes.

    On their website, under the page wind power.. they proudly promote their icon to green renewable energy, the one remaining wind turbine.

    It is front and centre.

    If this turbines is effective, why are they not “renewing” the failed turbine and expanding their “renewable” wind turbines?

    (An aside, as an engineer I can safely state that everything is “renewable” if you have a fossil fueled mining sector and factory to provide it.)

    Yet nothing has been done since 2003.

    So as an engineer I ask,

    If wind power can provide energy for the Mawson Antartic base,
    (As they state on said website. Their quote: “The katabatic winds blowing from the inland of the continent make Mawson station ideally situated for power generation by wind turbines.”)

    I ask, Why don’t they replace the wind turbine that critically failed, with another 15?
    and… maybe throw in a few “renewable” batteries and be rid of their fossil fueled diesel generator?

    If a base crammed with scientists, engineers and tradies can’t ensure their own reliable “green” energy supply,
    What hope do the rest of us lemmings have on the Australian mainland.

    190

  • #
    CHRIS

    Mawson Antarctic Base has little to do with the current CC. Whatever is researched WRT Global Warming is only a minor factor.

    10

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    David Maddison

    As the weather warms in Vicdanistan, the Victoriastan Dictator Andrews has been saved by the electricity grid not collapsing prior to the November election.

    This is partly due to the huge amount of load shed due to the permanent closure of industry, permanent closure of small businesses and the fact that electricity is just too expensive for most people to use, except sparingly.

    Plus, Vicdanistanis are possibly the most indoctrinated people in the whole country and Andrews is a superb propagandist in the Stalinist tradition. He even pays with taxpayer money whole armies of useful/useless idiots to “like” and follow him on Farcebook.

    https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/politics/premier-daniel-andrews-facebook-ad-spend-topped-1m-since-2015/news-story/b549790748c2341c108b9357e4a5f7ae

    Premier Daniel Andrews’ Facebook ad spend topped $1m since 2015

    Victorian taxpayers have had to foot the Premier’s mammoth million-dollar Facebook bill since he was elected in 2015.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    40

  • #
    Lance

    “We now have all the CMA Canadian doctor death data in a spreadsheet. It shows that doctors 50 and younger are being killed after the second booster a rate that is 23X normal.”

    https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/doctors-in-canada-are-dying-at-a

    40

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    David Maddison

    Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who posses it; and this I know, my lords: that where law ends, tyranny begins.

    William Pitt

    20

  • #
    David Maddison

    The FDA have approved release of a bivalent “vaccine” for both the original covid strain and omicron.

    It was not tested on humans, it was just assumed that it would be just as defective as the two individual doses already used, not more so when given as a combination.

    https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-moderna-pfizer-biontech-bivalent-covid-19-vaccines-use

    00

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  • #
    cadger

    Serious errors in research published linking deaths to red meat https://thetimes.co.uk/article/serious-errors-in-research-linking-deaths-to-red-meat-qtdh28fv5

    A deafening silence from @TheLancet
    & it’s editor @richardhorton1
    on many calls to retract
    Did you ever think fake news would be associated with one of the world’s leading scientific journals?

    https://twitter.com/QUBFoodProf/status/1564892930611060736

    I’d quibble with “world’s leading scientific journals”.

    30

  • #
    el+gordo

    Super Drought in China

    ‘Departing the spring season, soil moisture across much of China was adequate to surplus. However, foreshadowed by record warm SSTA off the East Asia Coast, high-pressure formed and amplified through the summer season.

    ‘The result? An incredibly rapid evolution of a super drought, one of the worst one record for East Asia. River beds have dried-up and immense water shortages and crop damage has occurred. The only way to break a drought this intense is inland migration of a weakening tropical cyclone.’ (Climate Impact Company)

    10

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Tweet of The Day

    Catturd ™
    @catturd2

    The party who closed your businesses, locked you down, mandated vaccines, tried to destroy the lives of the unvaccinated, and just added 87,000 IRS agents – wants you to know that you’re a fascist.

    30

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  • #
    el+gordo

    Triple dip La Nina, floods predicted.

    ‘The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast flooding will be the major natural disaster risk over coming months, more likely than fires or heatwaves across most of the country. The eastern states, in particular, are likely to experience wetter weather, with giant hail and intense rainfall predicted.’ (Guardian)

    00

  • #
    el+gordo

    Large gas deposit discovered off shore NSW,

    http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=6975

    10

  • #
    another ian

    “A climate scientist on the planet’s simultaneous disasters, from Pakistan’s horror floods to Europe’s record drought”

    https://theconversation.com/a-climate-scientist-on-the-planets-simultaneous-disasters-from-pakistans-horror-floods-to-europes-record-drought-189626

    00

    • #
      el+gordo

      Nice work, Rossby Waves and blocking are not caused by a small increase in CO2.

      ‘Rossby waves can also result in heatwaves occurring at the same time, thousands of kilometres apart. Earlier this Northern Hemisphere summer, we saw simultaneous heatwaves strike the western US, western Europe and China.

      ‘Rossby waves may well have contributed to simultaneous disasters this summer, but it’s too soon to say for sure.’

      00

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    another ian

    What you might call a “Gotcha-Gotcha”?

    “California Announces Ban on Gas Powered Vehicles Then Announces Energy Emergency Requesting Residents Not to Charge Electric Vehicles

    August 31, 2022 | Sundance | 114 Comments

    A week ago, California state regulators voted to ban the sale of gasoline powered cars by 2035. The goal is to make every vehicle in California an electric vehicle.”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/31/california-announces-ban-on-gas-powered-vehicles-then-announces-energy-emergency-requesting-residents-not-to-charge-electric-vehicles/

    10

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    unusually quiet on the FPOTUS this Wednesday.

    00