JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
Happy Friday everyone……………………
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I’ll be happy when it is Friday too
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Fridays good. Mondays bad.
10
Monday’s stormy. Tuesday’s just as bad.
01
Pharma giant GSK announces sales of its shingles vaccine Shingrix have doubled!
How convenient. GSK’s bottom line has never looked healthier. š
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thank goodness people are protecting themselves against a horrible disease.
222
Check the DAEN database for what was the likely sole cause that gaveth.
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[SARC]
20
Is that irony?
00
No! Not irony, a horrific fact!
When the vaccinating against the pandemic started for the oldies, they started to come in with shingles , elevated PSAs, sudden recurrence of cancers and then not at all when they contracted the illness that affected our Queen, death. Was this due to the ‘clot shot’ or was it the baby boomers reaching the product recall date? No one outside of the NSW Health department appears to be taking any interest. When the under 65 became eligible in the women came for their pregnancy tests as their cycles changed. ‘They are breeding like rabbits’, was the comment of a Pharmacy assistant, only that the husbands were trapped away in fly in stay in isolation from their family.
So more a tragedy than an irony. Look up the 5 to 11 year olds reported in the DAEN in August. What kind of of human beings are we dealing with?
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Right. I was responding to Gee Aye. The only objective data we have is all cause mortality. This has to be right up there with the worst crimes in history. Certainly it was the most ambitious crime, in terms of its intention.
10
A mate’s partner got shingles lately. Had been vaccinated.
After contracting shingles was told the vaccine is only 60% effective.
60
That’s what I was told before I got it.
I still opted to get it.
60% of something is better than 100% of nothing.
10
How much better is tge question.
My calculated risk for Covid was 1:10,000.
A vaccine that reduces that risk by 60% , only reduces my risk by a further 6:100,000 .
Thatās not a very big gain.
20
Nord Stream: Sweden finds new leak in Russian gas pipeline
Sweden has found a new leak in a major undersea pipeline carrying Russian natural gas to the EU – making it the fourth discovered this week.
Denmark and Sweden reported gas leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines earlier this week.
Nato said the incidents were the result of “deliberate, reckless and irresponsible acts of sabotage”.
Russia dismissed suggestions that it had attacked its own pipelines as “predictable and stupid”.
Instead, the Russian foreign ministry said the blasts had occurred in “zones controlled by American intelligence”.
The German ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger, told the BBC it was clear that a non-state actor could not have been behind the incidents – in other words, a country must have been responsible.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63071552
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Draw your own conclusions on who dunnit from a collection of facts compiled by Moon of Alabama:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/whodunnit-facts-related-to-the-sabotage-attack-on-the-nord-stream-pipelines.html#more
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‘A destroyed pipeline gives Russia no leverage.’
Good point.
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and there was a much better target for Russia.
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Don’t know where the 9 O in my response to Rob B came from. Tsk!
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Aims and means. 9 0
00
If the first line is such unbridled BS, why go further?
For decades US has been an importer of oil, so much so they could be squeezed by the Saudis. Only briefly were they an exporter.
What the Yanks did, after the war, was to keep the sea lanes safe. So when China boasts how many millions of people they rose out of poverty, America did that. US friendly ME sheikdoms were protected with freedom to navigate guarantees at the small price that they sell in US$.
So the World benefited, not just the US.
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It is not unbridled BS when you remember the difference between Russia/Soviet Union (an adversary) and Saudi Arabia (a de facto ally).
01
Being an importer of oil does not exclude you from exporting gas eg. Australia
00
Engineers who work with high-pressure gas lines are pointing out that the conditions within those pipes are perfect for the formation of hydrate plugs… and that Gazprom does not have a great record for dealing with them.
Not the references to time taken, and leaks and ruptures if time and competence are not used.
https://petrowiki.spe.org/Hydrate_plug_removal
It’s looking very much as if the “maintenance issues” cited by the Russians for ceasing gas deliveries, were not entirely made up, and it seems equally likely that some politician ordered the blockage to be cleared “immediately”.
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You telling me that the Russians have never heard of MEG?
It’s been in use for a long time and the world shares it’s engineering knowledge.
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The is a difference between something being āknownā, and having it applied by people under pressure from higher up the food chain, in a culture of āDo as you are toldā.
Oh, and NS2 as filled and pressurised with Natural Gas, which was then allowed to sit there, static. If a pipeline is not going to be used, the standard procedure is for it to be emptied, cleaned, checked and filled with nitrogen
The disadvantage of that, is that it takes weeks to empty and depressurise, then weeks more to pressurise with nitrogen…. then weeks more to reverse the process . Not exactly attractive to a State-Owned gas company under orders from a Government that is using gas supply as an economic weapon.
01
I forgot…. And the second pipeline, which is still in commissioning, how did it block up?
10
Russia’s oil extraction, at least that within the Arctic Circle, will collapse without western know-how. Is this the first domino?
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I’ve read a comment that sabotage would be unlikely because of the long time frame between blasts. A sabotage incident would require a quick exit to avoid surveillance/detection, more likely to be a maintenance issue.
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Don’t think so, seismologists in Sweden and Denmark recorded underwater blasts.
The saboteurs attached the explosive device and weeks later its detonated, a quick exit is not required.
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It would appear the charges were set months ago.
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What forensic evidence do we have that there were āchargesā at all?
Genuinely curious.
One of the busiest oceans in the world….. it takes more than āthis ship was there on such-and-such dateā.
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They are waiting for the gas to subside before a closer inspection.
The US Navy Seals are practicing with a mimi sub called the Mark 11 Shallow Water Combat Submersible.
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Ok….. so there is zero forensic evidence.
Nothing more than, āThere was an American ship, somewhere near, sometime in the past…ā
Forget the fact that this is an incredibly busy stretch of ocean, to hundreds of ship including Russian navy vessels have been in the same location. Forget the fact that submersible technology is available to every nation with a significant Navy or offshore oil and gas interests. Devices that can pierce 1-2ā steel are owned by every military on the planet that thinks it might have to fight an enemy with armoured fighting vehicles.
Keep in mind that the longer you leave a destructive device in place, the more likely it is to be found or fail . Not smart.
Too many unknowns and points of failure.
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No worries, we’ll wait for the forensics before apportioning blame.
Do you think it might be commercial sabotage?
01
How about a US anti-submarine martime patrol aircraft, a P-8 Poseidon, flying low over NS2 at the time of the explosions?
View from about 10 min in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfpw9I01J0o&t=1171s
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Info Iāve seen is that the Baltic in that area is 300feet deep, which puts it at 50% greater depth than the known capabilities of the Shallow Water Submersible you mention.
Iām not suggesting any form of deliberate sabotage at all. The hydrate-plug theory seems far more likely given ALL of the information we have at the moment.
However… if it is shown to be sabotage, it is well to remember that there are any number of nations with the capability. Conspiracy theories almost always leave something out.
01
It is already being predicted that the damaged pipelines are not recoverable:
The estimate for Nordsteam 2 is put at GBP35bn. That is more than enough to buy batteries and solar panels to replace the at least two 2GW Liddell size power station in Australia.
Nordstream 2 was designed for 110E9m^3 per year. That is equivalent to 130 Liddell power stations working continuously. So GBP35bn is enough money to buy the output of 130 Liddells or install solar panels, batteries and gas fired back-up for 2 Liddells. It shows how much you get for your money going green.
China will be a significant beneficiary of the pipeline sabotage. They are now Russia’s sole major customer so have more bargaining power. Only small compared with Europe but growing fast and future long term contracts will have more favourable terms than the one agreed in February.
On the other hand, Biden could be waiting to see how the cards fall so decide if he takes credit for it or if it was Nast USN accident while they were testing detonation range of explosives already placed.
I cannot see any green groups claiming they did it.
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I keep reading this : Salt water … the BALTIC or East Sea is FRESH WATER. and from memory, goes from Brackish , way “inland” to salty where there is a TIdal influx from the N Sea at Denmark ( Between Denmark and Scandinavia ) ….. just saying.
And when there is a catastrophic burst in a pipe, how come there are several other Blow holes?
You brake a pipe open and everything comes out at that broken end. break it open again further back, ….. and you tell me …
40
You can get gas expelled from more than one point, if the breaks are not 100%. Think of a soaker hose compared to an open ended hose.
And the water is brackish on top, but the pipe is at the bottom of the sea, where the water is salty, not as salty as the open ocean but still salty.
Steel corrodes in water with chloride ions, the more the faster. So in brackish water, it might take a little longer but it still occurs.
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Aye mun, – that’s the reasoning I like to hear: But the pipe is NOT a Soaker Hose: is quite big with a large ( 4 ? ) holes. Anyroad, surely there are Control Shutoff Valves fitted every 10 -20 miles. It’s a very long pipeline and as on land, accidents can happen and you wouldn’t want to be losing / polluting so much, even the Russians, surely would have thought about that? Crumbs if the Germans are involved, they’d be worse than our Legendary Aberdonians!.
Now IS the Baltic so salty at the bottom in such a relatively shallow sea being fed by all those RIvers ? From Documentaries out ofGermany over the years, the water is fairly churned / mixed up in storms etc.
01
Two reasons for multiple leaks.
1…. You have a pipe under enormous pressure that has been subject to stress well beyond its design limits. Other explosion events in major gas pipes have destroyed kilometres of pipe, not just the point of failure.
2. If methane-hydrate plugs (And poor management thereof ) are the culprit, as seems increasingly likely then we should expect multiple plugs under these conditions, and one break leaves other plugs with differential pressures….. each one likely to cause another kablooey.
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OldOzziesays:
September 30, 2022 at 4:59 pm
Thanks Dover ā Liked Painting sums up Wife in her sunroom sitting on couch under sunlight window reading
For me liked ā Big Serge Thoughts ā The War Has Just Begun ā The Winter of Yuri
I have been attempting for several days to collect my thoughts on the Russo-Ukrainian War and condense them into another analysis piece, but my efforts were consistently frustrated by the warās stubborn refusal to sit still. After a slow, attritional grind for much of the summer, events have begun to accelerate, calling to mind a famous quip from Vladimir Lenin: āThere are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.ā
In all, it is clear that we are currently in the transitional period towards a new phase of the war, with higher Russian force deployment, expanded rules of engagement, and greater intensity looming. Season 2 of the Special Military Operation looms, and with it the Winter of Yuri:
In any case, what is far more interesting than the technicalities of the referenda is what the decision to annex these regions says about Russian intentions. Once these regions become formally annexed, they will be viewed by the Russian state as sovereign Russian territory, subject to protection with the full range of Russian capabilities, including (in the most dire and unlikely scenario) nuclear weapons. When Medvedev pointed this out, it was bizarrely spun as a ānuclear threatā, but what he was actually trying to communicate is that these four oblasts will become part of Russiaās minimum definition of state integrity ā non-negotiables, in other words.
Annexation confers a formal designation that a territory has been deemed existentially important to the Russian state, and will be contested as if the integrity of the nation and state is at risk.
The large scale view of force ratios is as follows:
Ukraine has spent much of the combat power that they accumulated with NATO help during the summer, and will have an urgent need to reduce combat intensity for refitting and rearming at precisely the same time that Russian combat power in the theater begins to surge.
Simultaneously, NATOās ability to arm Ukraine is on the verge of exhaustion. Letās look at this more closely.
Depleting NATO
One of the more fascinating aspects of the war in Ukraine is the extent to which Russia has contrived to attrit NATO military hardware without fighting a direct war with NATO forces. In a previous analysis I referred to Ukraine as a vampiric force which has reversed the logic of the proxy war; itās a black hole sucking in NATO gear for destruction.
There are now very limited stockpiles to draw from to continue to arm Ukraine. Military Watch Magazine noted that NATO has drained the old Warsaw Pact tank park, leaving them bereft of Soviet tanks to donate to Ukraine. Once these reservoirs are fully tapped, the only option will be giving Ukraine western tank models. This, however, is much harder than it sounds, because it would require not only extensive training of tank crews, but also an entirely different selection of ammunition, spare parts, and repair facilities.
What is not explicitly mentioned in the press release is that the HIMARS systems donāt exist in current US inventories and will have to be built, and are thus unlikely to arrive in Ukraine for several years.
The Winter War
Nordstream and Escalation
And so, we return to elementary analysis, and ask: Cui bono? Who benefits? Well, considering Poland celebrated the opening of a new pipeline to Norway only a few days ago, and a certain former Polish MP cryptically thanked the United States on Twitter, it is fair to make a few guesses.
Let us briefly meditate on the actual implications of Nordstreamās demise.
1. Germany loses what little autonomy and flexibility it had, making it even more dependent on the United States.
2. Russia loses a point of leverage over Europe, reducing the inducements to negotiation.
3. Poland and Ukraine become even more critical transit hubs for gas.
Russia clearly perceives this as a bridge burning move of sabotage by NATO, designed to back them into a corner. The Russian government has decried it as an act of āinternational terrorismā and argued that the explosions occurred in areas ācontrolled by NATOā ā the concatenation of these statements is that they blame NATO for an act of terrorism, without explicitly saying that. This precipitated another meeting of the Russian National Security Council.
On the Precipice
I am fully cognizant that my views will be spun as ācopingā after Ukraineās gains in Kharkov oblast, but time will tell out.
Ukraine is on its last legs ā they drained everything usable out of NATO stockpiles to build up a first tier force over the summer, and that force has been mauled and degraded beyond repair just as Russiaās force generation is set to massively increase. Winter will bring not only the eclipse of the Ukrainian army, the destruction of vital infrastructure, and the loss of new territory and population centers, but also a severe economic crisis in Europe. In the end, the United States will be left to rule over a deindustrialized and degraded Europe, and a rump Ukrainian trashcanistan sequestered west of the Dnieper.
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You reckon?
If reports of Ukrainian gains in recent weeks are half true then Russian morale and discipline may be just about non existent.
The question then would be how much further can Ukraine go before Russia recovers some form of organisation.
Even if they have to withdraw the Ukrainians have inflicted very big losses on Russian morale, and with that discipline. Where are his generals?
And surely the approach of winter will benefit the Ukrainians. Putin will be sending his 300,000 reserves to die in the snow. Much like he did last winter.
00
The residents of Netherdale will not be very happy with the new pumped hydro scheme!!! According to the attatched map they will all need to learn to breathe water . https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/bigger-than-cross-river-rail-premier-puts-12b-price-on-pumped-hydro-site-20220929-p5bm15.html
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Will this be a stranded asset? There is no northern generation [no point in draining hydro to pump water uphill] and somehow I doubt the existing transmission lines could handle the input/output.
How can a government decide on such a crazy scheme without a REAL enquiry where they ask REAL engineers about it?
30
Shingles seem to have increased in the community. Covid vaccines? My GP was puzzled that I refused the ākindā offer of a Shingles vaccination to protect against it.
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Have you had chicken pox? Are you over 60?
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Calm the farm for Christ’s sake.
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I had chickenpox as a kid. I was not a good patient, and complained about the itch.
Years later my wife and kids got it, and every spot became an excruciating ulcer, including in the mouth. My itch was nothing in comparison.
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One of IVM’s collateral damages was a curing of shingles.
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I could believe that.
My wife had a mastectomy 15 years ago, including all the lymph nodes in that area. There have been ongoing problems as a result.
About a year ago she began to develop a rash which started with spots which slowly spread and filled in especially on areas that had been suntanned from working outdoors, arms and back of neck. Numerous visits to GP brought no change. The rash continued to advance like a grassfire without wind, advancing in a face leaving scorched earth behind. I think the rash might have been lichen planus.
Last January a specialist prescried hydroxychloroquine. THe rash stopped advancing and slowly faded away.
10
Florida hurricane report
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/09/29/hurricane-ian-recovery-update/
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Whoopi has lost it…
https://twitter.com/i/status/1575519640905666562
Looks like an overgrown Greta.
Applause! Applause!
Baa baa woke sheep,
Are you led by fools?
Yes sir, yes sir,
The woke all drool.š
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What I want to know is how the he11 they can get away with this.
Queensland Has announced that it is going to build two pumped hydro power stations 6,000MW, (Nameplate) with one of them the largest in the World at 5000MW, and here’s the link to the article on the ABC site.
Okay so, some Professor at UQ blows heaps of praise into the Premier’s fundament, wonderful, amazing, outstanding, committed, ….. blah blah blah!
And then, in the same article no less, he says the following (my bolding here)
So, not only is this ….. NOT new power generation, it’s in fact a nett power CONSUMER, and being so huge, that makes it a nett HUGE power consumer.
They can say what they like now ….. even the outright truth, and no one has the slightest clue at all.
So now, after the water has been consumed by generating power while flowing ‘down the hill’, they have to find 6,700MW to get the water back ‘up the hill’. The average hourly power consumption for Queensland is 7200MW per hour.
Journalists know journalism. I wonder what an answer might look like if an electrical engineer turned up at a press release like this and asked the pertinent question.
“Beautiful plumage!”
Oh, and I wonder how many people, including the Premier herself, knows what this means when she also said this
Tony.
250
It’s not a power station at all.
Just another big battery with 30% losses on charging.
And it cannot be charged unless there is excess power. And you still have to pay for that. Unlike coal, renewable power is not free.
All to make unreliables look more reliable.
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A very expensive White Elephant which is bound to cost much more than the Pollie/Media quoted rubbery estimates. That’s if it ever gets built.
How many HELE Coal Fired Electricity Generating Plants could be built in Australia for that kind of money? Ypo know the answer to that one. LOTS.
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Johnny:
I see you believe the old saying “an elephant is a mouse built by the government”.
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I posted this late into the Thursday thread. Seems to fit here…
—————————————————————————-
My āback of the envelopeā numbers (although I probably should have used a coaster ā it was good enough for the NBN)
Spend $100 Billion^ to 2040 (so, about 17 years) to sequentially replace all of our existing coal-fired fleet with upgraded Advanced Ultra SuperCritical(AUSC) Coal Plants, on their existing sites.
Thatās well less than half the $$$ theyāre already proposing to obliterate on useless ārenewablesā (letās āreallocateā / ārepurposeā / āappropriateā some of that massive misspend)
^ yes government-type bureaucrats, it is spending, not investment ā weāre using peoplesā taxes
AUSC plants should give us about a 30% reduction of CO2 emissions#, as a by-product of increased efficiency, for the same amount of energy produced.
# Whether you think any action to reduce CO2 is necessary (I donāt) is largely irrelevant since we can all agree the increased efficiency is good.
The aging assets are scheduled for decommissioning anyway, so this is simply replacing the asset as it expires with newer technology, along with all of the benefits like efficiency and reduced maintenance of a newer plant.
The infrastructure is already in place to support the new asset.
Construction and deconstruction jobs are created (oh damn, we will have to borrow some of the workforce from all of those windmills, solar installations, and miles of useless transmisson lines we wonāt be needing).
Existing jobs are preserved.
The benefits of cheap, reliable, and efficient electricity are reclaimed.
The secondary and tertiary economies attached to the energy source are allowed to thrive and produce even greater productivity.
Consumers see their electricity prices plummet (or return to the cheap level they should always have been).
Bonus: The ārenewablesā grifters go broke (and good riddance ā nice knowing ya. Thanks for the decades of inflated power prices, you criminal reprobates)
In the meantime, un-ban nuclear* technologies and see what they can provide by way of commercial viability in competition with cheap and efficient coal over the coming decades (it will take that long just to overcome the cost of having that ban here for so long).
*We need to increase our nuclear capabilities anyway, we have a sub fleet to operate and support. It would we best if we had some clue of what weāre doing.
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And more deviously to guarantee full income to windmill owners for producing electricity randomly or peak solar output when no one wants it. The base load cannot rely on random replaceables. Under the RET scheme they get preference over coal, which cripples the income of coal.
If and when RET vanishes, this guarantees that windmill and solar owners get paid for supply at full price regardless of the inconvenient time in a competitive market. Which makes no commercial sense unless there is a shortage of coal because the government loses 30% of the value immediately.
In a real electricity trading business, not a fake government operated save the planet business, random power suppliers would lose the 30%, not the people of Queensland.
110
This will assist the COAL fired power that drives QLD electricity.
Pumped hydro will happen when costs are lower, then gain back the cost when the price goes high.
It means that they will not have to ramp up and down as much, and will thus operate more efficiently.
20
I once explained that the benefactor of batteries and pumped hydro are the coal fired stations that don’t have to ramp up and down quite as much, to a greenie on another forum and he wouldn’t have a bar of it.
20
Okay, okay, I suppose that was a little cruel of me, to leave you all for an hour to ask the questions.
You see, that’s exactly how they do get away with it. (Not that the Premier knows that, she just reads it from the press release or the teleprompter)
Nobody knows the first thing at all about electrical power generation and nobody knows the Maths.
I mentioned it’ll take 6700MW to pump the water back up the hill, and yet Queensland only has an average hourly consumption of 7200MW.
That 6700MW would be if they theoretically pumped it all back up the hill in ONE HOUR, and that’s not how it works.
The generated power is sold to the grid at the daily Peak Power time, around 6.40PM each and every night. they’ll release the water around 5PM, as the Peak approaches and keep it going for say four hours tops, and that covers the most expensive power cost time of the day, again, every day, and the last four days here in Qld, that has averaged at $280/MWH. Here, I’ll just quote for the Monster, the 5000MW pumped hydro. So 5000MW for four hours at $280 comes in at a take of, umm, $5.6 Million, (every week day, because they won’t be using it on weekends when power consumption is way lower, and that maximises the profit)
So, now they have to pump the water back up the hill. They’ll do this like Tumut Three Pumped Hydro does, and they all do it like that. They’ll take say 6 hours to do that, and as with Tumut, it’s around 4AM, the lowest power consumption of the day, and also the cheapest, as in the main, it’s all coal fired power. So, this Qld hydro is 5000MW, so 6700MW to Pump it back up the hill. Starting around Midnight, and spread across six hours that’s around 1100MW per hour, and at that low power consumption time, power costs only $125/MWH. So, the cost to pump it back up the hill comes in at, well, around $850,000.
So, here we have a profit of a pretty cool $4.8 Million ….. each week day.
The problem here is that pumping it back up the hill time, because anything outside those hours and the cost of electricity is a fair bit more.
And there’s the case of that 1100MW needed to pump it back up the hill. Even at that time, that is still 20% to 25% of all of the State’s power consumption.
Now, as I have always said, you either use the power as it is being generated or divert it to charge the battery, or pump water back up the hill. (same thing really)
So, now they have to construct an awful lot of extra power plants to cover that extra consumption. There’ll be no Solar at that time of day, and all the wind in Qld won’t cover that 1000MW, and note specifically how they STRESS that it will be excess overflow renewable power used to do it, so that means wind only at that time of morning.
So, really, it’s, all of it ….. Pie In The Sky.
And right now, I suppose you’ve noticed that it’s not out of altruism they’re doing this, as all pumped hydro really is ….. is a money maker. That’s all. Sell it when power is at its most expensive, and pump it when power is at its cheapest. Again it has nothing to do with their stated Mantra, cheaper power for the people, as they are ….. RELYING (hand on heart) for power to be expensive.
Please don’t even begin to think that the Qld Premier, Dear Leader, Comrade Annastacia knows even the first inkling of what I have written here. She makes Joh look like Albert Einstein.
Tony.
210
Don’t forget supply and demand.
If the peak now is $280/MWHr, when the hydro is on line, with more supply, that value will come down, maybe to $200/MWHr. Similar for the recharge time, but this time a price rise. So the profit each day will be less.
But anyway you look at this, it will be a battery for coal fired power, not windmills and certainly not solar. If only there were electrical engineers in the room during these announcements.
Or maybe, a journalist who bothered to be educated in the scam and was provided with some talking points and questions.
30
Hello Tony ā I have been looking at the peak usage time performance of wind for a while ā solar is more of a spectator at these times. Under La Nina conditions, it seems that wind is averaging about 30-35% capacity factor or about 3-3.5 GW at these times as you have shown for full days. Fossil fueled (FF) dispatch is currently about 16 GW in the morning peak and about 19 GW in the evening peak.
If half of the FF dispatchable units are retired by 2030, then another 8-9 GW dispatchable needs to come from somewhere ā I assume mainly wind. Using the 30% average capacity factor, that means another 30 GW nameplate wind generation will need to be installed, connected and operating by 2030. Assuming each tower is a 4 MW unit, then another 7,500 towers are needed, or about 85 a month for every month until 2030.
All the additional pumped hydro and batteries will be needed to cover the inevitable wind droughts.
Simple reallyā¦.
50
No … the storage system needs to be ready to deal with the peak nameplate capacity, not the average after it’s reduced by capacity factor.
Even if that 100% capacity event only happens now and then, when it does happen you still need to do something with the power. That’s the whole point of storage … to turn those occasional bursts of wind into useful dispatchable power.
40
Dispatchable power is intrinsically more useful than intermittent and unreliable power … it turns a less valuable commodity into a more valuable commodity.
However, the equipment has a capital cost, therefore why would anyone be upset over this project making money? The capital won’t come from nowhere … people want return on investment.
10
Tel:
Snowy Hydro claimed that they would make money with a $40 differential between input and output, but that when Snowy 2 was going to cost $2 billion.
00
Sure … getting the capital costs right is important … also borrowing cost, interest, inflation, devaluation, etc. All of those are up in the air right now making it difficult to plan.
We do have a stock market for the purpose of allowing people to estimate that stuff. Not saying it’s perfect … but what are the other options? I am not a fan of central planning, although perhaps might be slightly ahead of no planning at all.
Having a day when the peak vs the low point is $40 per MWh (i.e. 4c per kWh) is not so unusual. It’s also a matter of how much total energy can be bought and sold though … the more successful a storage solution is, the more it reduces it’s own margin … at some stage it ain’t worth it.
20
To be fair I don’t think Tony was argueing that the project should not make money. His argument is that the project will not make power costs cheaper for the consumer as touted by the premier pluckaduck.
40
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the facility in Pioneer Creek will be āthe largest pumped hydro energy storage in the world with five gigawatts of 24-hour storageā.
Plenty of people would be bamboozled by this, thinking that it means round the clock storage, no it’s not. !
30
I always go to G Earth when I read about these things and what it shows is that there is 700 m head of water between the top and bottom reservoirs, which is good but the gradient of the pipes is 1:5 and 1:6. I do recall reading that the gradient matters muchly. Would it be that gradient that causes the low 70% round trip efficiency quoted?
00
How do they get away with it?
Truth is that which supports the narrative.
If your are using a dictionary made of dead trees, you may not be up to speed.
10
Trying to analyse this proposal using current information is futile.
We all know itis not going to work the way that is being suggested.
To replace coal and gas generation in QLD (10-12GW) would imply at least 50 GW (nameplate) of RE generators ā¦most of which would likely be Solar ?. Together with that 6 GW of storage.
Simplisticly, it would need the surplus daytime Solar to charge the storage ( pumped hydro) ready for the evening peak and the overnight demand from that storage.
One issue will be ensuring enough generation capacity for those ātransitionā phases , am and pm peaks,.. when solar will not be available and 6 GW of hydro is not sufficient !
Profit harvesting is inevitable in such a senario..but any ācheapā power would be from the daytine solar surplus,..not the current overnight coal/gas surplus generation !
However, by the time any of this is likely to be commissioned, the market structure and pricing could be very different
00
Hindawi and Wiley to retract over 500 papers linked to peer review rings
After months of investigation that identified networks of reviewers and editors manipulating the peer review process, Hindawi plans to retract 511 papers across 16 journals, Retraction Watch has learned.
The retractions, which the publisher and its parent company, Wiley, will announce tomorrow in a blog post, will be issued in the next month, and more may come as its investigation continues. They are not yet making the list available.
Hindawiās research integrity team found several signs of manipulated peer reviews for the affected papers, including reviews that contained duplicated text, a few individuals who did a lot of reviews, reviewers who turned in their reviews extremely quickly, and misuse of databases that publishers use to vet potential reviewers.
https://retractionwatch.com/2022/09/28/exclusive-hindawi-and-wiley-to-retract-over-500-papers-linked-to-peer-review-rings/
Be sure to follow the corrupt peer reviewed science…
130
Hacking group hides backdoor malware inside Windows logo image
Security researchers have discovered a malicious campaign by the ‘Witchetty’ hacking group, which uses steganography to hide a backdoor malware in a Windows logo.
Witchetty is believed to have close ties to the state-backed Chinese threat actor APT10 (aka ‘Cicada’). The group is also considered part of the TA410 operatives, previously linked to attacks against U.S. energy providers.
Steganography is the act of hiding data within other non-secret, public information or computer files, such as an image, to evade detection. For example, a hacker can create a working image file that displays correctly on the computer but also includes malicious code that can be extracted from it.
In the campaign discovered by Symantec, Witchetty is using steganography to hide an XOR-encrypted backdoor malware in an old Windows logo bitmap image.
The file is hosted on a trusted cloud service instead of the threat actor’s command and control (C2) server, so the chances of raising security alarms while fetching it are minimized.
“Disguising the payload in this fashion allowed the attackers to host it on a free, trusted service,” Symantec explains in its report.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hacking-group-hides-backdoor-malware-inside-windows-logo-image/
I’m no fan of cloud-anything.
80
This achieves a number of goals. The malicious code bomb is buried in baggage, a big image file which is not checked for code as it cannot be executed, so no logical threat.
What is downloaded is tiny, innocent and lacking any malicious code. Once past security it accesses the big image and assembles the weapon. This is literally a false (Microsoft) flag attack. So someone is having fun.
What is downloaded is minimal, just the detonator.
Impressive. People download images with every web page. Baggage. Now the baggage also has to be checked for weapons.
It’s not about cloud. There are now bombs in the graphics. The only guaranteed solution is to use text only, as it used to be.
40
Ah… weren’t the good ol’ days wonderful! No idiots on Youtube being recommended for ‘information’, no massive d’loads of some stupid video clip you don’t want to watch but it autoplays while you read what you DO want to see… No flashy photos taking up most of the page while adding nothing worthwhile to the story.
Its sad that kids haven’t learned to read for the last 30years.
20
Friday weirdness. Dolphin saves dog that fell overboard
https://twitter.com/i/status/1575446180221394944
That’s something you don’t see everyday!
90
Dolphins have been renowned for this since records were first kept. Sailors have been rescued. This is obviously staged but still wonderful.
60
Yeah I thought it looked staged too
50
It’s one of those wish I had a camera moments except you have a camera and can change angle. I saw one recently here where the photographer zoomed in for what was going to happen. Now that takes prescience or planning and editing.
50
Looks like some kind of “Flipper” remake or something.
30
“Zeus And Roxanne is a 1997 American family comedy-adventure film directed by Giorge T Miller. It revolves around the friendship between the title characters, a dog a dolphin, respectively.”
00
This shows the full sequence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV58m8As9O8
Probably so old that very few remember flipper. But I do not think this video sequence came from that series. But lots of cameras indicate it was no accident.
30
Faked? Maybe…
But then again…
https://metro.co.uk/2014/05/03/a-dog-on-a-dolphin-and-17-other-ridiculous-riding-companions-4716377/
10
Bidenās Brain is Deteriorating
From Martin Armstrong –
“President Joe Biden recently thanked Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) for her recent work. āJackie, are you here? Whereās Jackie?ā he asked. āShe must not be here,ā he continued. The problem is that Jackie is dead. She died in a car accident over the summer. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tried to cover up Bidenās gaffe by saying Joe simply had her at āthe top of mind.ā
A reporter went further and asked Jean-Pierre why the president of the United States was actively searching the room for a dead woman. āI have John Lennon on top of mind just about every day, but Iām not looking around for him,ā a reported rebuffed. Other reporters shouted to ask follow-up questions, demanding that the American people deserve to know if the man leading the country is suffering from cognitive impairment.
Another āgaffeā happened again a few days later. Biden was speaking at FEMA headquarters. He refused to speak with Governor DeSantis as the hurricane was approaching Florida. I could only imagine what would occur if those two had to debate. During this incident, Biden suddenly walks away from the podium as his handlers whisper, āMr. President!ā He tried to pull it off by shaking hands with people in the room, but this man was clearly lost. It is time we demand that Biden takes a cognitive test to determine if he is fit to lead.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/bidens-brain-is-deteriorating/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
80
There are two points
Firstly Joe Biden knew she was dead. He had completely forgotten. So he made a huge point of repeatedly calling out her name over the crowd, showing his amazing memory.
Then the White House Press Secretary explained Joe had remembered her. She was ‘top of his mind’. True, except Joe had forgotten why he remembered her.
Or perhaps he didn’t. Perhaps his minders just warned him quietly that the most important person had just died and to be careful but with poor hearing and comprehension all he heard was her name. So instead of being sympathetic or avoiding the subject, he did the exact opposite and demanded to know where she was. That fits. Old Joe is not coping. It’s like prompting a deaf sheep.
The two reasons no one is yelling ’25th Amendment’ are that the press is solid Democrat and they have the doddering deaf old codger they wanted and secondly that no one wants President Kamala Harris. Who on the same day in a statement at the Korean DMZ praised the long partnership between America and the Republic of North Korea. You could not write this stuff.
It has always been the way to have a very weak VP who is not conceivably competent. But the people who put up the effete geriatric sock puppet known as Joe Biden have excelled in choosing an utterly unthinkable alternative. She would declare war on Mexico.
120
If the republicans had put forward an electable opponent Biden would not be there now.
124
Sure. Because Trump could never win an election right and he didn’t have 96 mile fleets of cars and trucks in Arizona while Biden had an empty bus…
270
“Actual Freakinā Congressman Pleads Guilty to Large Scale Vote Fraud. Nothing on the news. ā Id was right again #3”
FWIW
https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2022/09/29/congressman-pleads-guilty-to-vote-fraud-id-was-right-again-3/
“Id Was Right Again ā Part #2”
https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2022/09/25/id-was-right-again-part-2/
“Id was Right ā Again”
https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2022/09/10/id-was-right-again/
10
Also
“Erich Speckin Forensic Document Analyst”
https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2022/09/20/erich-speckinforensic-document-analyst/
00
It’s funny but I read that as democrats rather than republicans.š
50
“If the republicans had put forward an electable opponent Biden would not be there now.”
So Biden is Trump’s fault.
Gosh … never heard that one before.
Just curious, if you are right, and you’re certain you are, why are the Democrats so desperate to prevent him from running again?
So desperate, that they are abandoning their own most deeply held historically liberal principles.
80
His opponent was elected, but Biden was installed. Get it?
90
Gee Nae.
30
I have watched Joe many times. And seen and heard him fit rubbish made up noise in where we could guess the real words. What that means is that he knew to keep talking and went into a mumble mimicking the sounds roughly. His famous stutter apparently. Terrible thing.
But I think he has a hidden hearing aid and full time prompter somewhere behind him, telling him who people are and what to say. But sometimes if the prompter is unclear or speaks quietly, he misses half of it. All he heard was her name. So he yelled out, misunderstanding what he was supposed to do and trying to look competent.
That makes it even worse, not only didn’t he know she was dead, he had no idea who she was. I think when he has no teleprompter, he has someone in his ear telling him what to do and what to say.
Declare war on Russia perhaps?
102
If you observe Biden closely, any time he speaks, you cannot fail to notice that complete lack of expression – that ‘dead’ eye look. That is a classic sign of dementia where there is no comprehension of time or space and certainly no form of connection with the people around him. He is then able to be led by the nose by those puppeteers who are manipulating him. Very sad – and very, very dangerous for the rest of us.
90
Perhaps his eyes don’t appear to move because he is reading the teleprompter or because people freeze when they are listening intently.
Consider if he is trying to be freeform with his hands and turning around, he has to listen, take in what he is being told and repeat it and there is always a lag because it is hard for anyone to think and listen and remember and repeat at the same time. And he has no idea what is coming next. And he plays catchup with mumbling.
Plus his mobility is suspect if you watch the walk. He is nearly down to stumbling. And gets lost in a straight line walking straight into a hedge. The bicycle ride stunt to show his balance was planned carefully with the TV reporters all ready for him to stop, but ended up a disaster as he couldn’t get off the bike and fell over.
I think it’s elder abuse. The question is, who’s really running the puppet show?
But you can be sure ordering everyone out of Afghanistan immediately was his order, no planning at all. Once his minders were back in control they had to send the army back to try to get the others out. No time for $10Billion in munitions or their allies.
Even Biden is publicly protesting directly to the camera that he is being contradicted and overruled by his own staff? When has that ever happened to a US President before?
40
Matteo Renzi Defends Rival Giorgia Meloni
From Martin Armstrong –
“The media is clearly in the wrong when politicians from the other end of the spectrum are coming out to condemn fake news. Former Italian PM Matteo Renzi (2014 to 2016) is putting his political views aside and defending newly-appointed PM Giorgia Meloni. Countless articles have compared her to Benito Mussolini, claiming she would bring fascism back to Italy. Renzi said that this is fake news.
Renzi took to CNN, a platform that immediately compared Meloni to the deceased fascist dictator, and defended her character. Renzi admitted that Meloni is his rival and that they will continue to fight in the political realm. āThere is not a danger for Italian democracy,ā Renzi said on CNN. āSheās my rival, Iām her rival, we will continue to fight each other, but the idea now that there is a risk of fascism in Italy is absolutely fake news.ā
Renzi said that Italy has not changed its position on Russia and that NATO should not worry about any problems from Italy. Does the media recall what the Italians did to Mussolini in the end? They hung him and his mistress in the streets and brutalized their corpses. Italians certainly do not want a repeat of Mussoliniās fascist reign, nor do they want to give the government more control. They also do not want to give the EU control or abandon Italian culture for a melting pot of European values set forth by Brussels. Renzi is more in favor of the EU than Meloni but admits she is a sovereigntist, which is precisely why she is the new prime minister.”
For the video, refer to the weblink below –
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/matteo-renzi-defends-rival-giorgia-meloni/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
50
As per Richard C (NZ)’s comments on the previous thread, it’s interesting to see how the Elites seem to have chosen Jacinda Ardern as the “acceptable” face of fascism and suppression of freedom of speech.
She is a Klaus Schwab graduate.
https://www.younggloballeaders.org/community?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=jacinda&
She wants to be the only source of truth.
https://youtu.be/MJjq_K9M4EQ
She is a communist.
https://youtu.be/5RM9Q7XW72U
70
She is the female Barry Soetoro- oops Barack Hussein- oops Ex-Pres Obama… that’s it! Young, personable, has a clean(ish) record, resonates with the new generation and can deliver a prepared speech like she means it. Both had the vital extra points, black or female.
In a decade she will be head of the UN, I’m sure its all planned out.
50
Hello from Florida & Fake News
From Martin Armstrong – His Business Office is in Florida –
“Thank you for all the emails of concern. I am fine. My dog is fine. Never lost power and nothing damaged. All of the newscasters go to the worst possible spots they can find and just stay there showing the very same backdrop all the time. The problem with such sensational broadcasting is that the vast majority of people no longer trust the media so when they play up a storm, so many people no longer trust the forecasting and do not evacuate.
This was Anderson Cooper standing in waist deep water while the camera crew was on high ground from 10 years ago. This is standard. I see the same reporter standing in the same spot on FOX with boats piled up. They never move from the most dramatic spots so you never see the whole region. It is no longer about reporting news. It is also about drama.
The people in South-West Florida were hard hit. By Tampa, the wind blew the water out of the bay, when it came back, it was just normal. No 10 ft wall of rushing water.
I really wish all the news channels returned to reporting the news instead of you will die in 3 hours so tune in so we can tell you the minute you will die so you can make your last phone call.
It has gotten to the point that you just do not know what to believe any more. That is causing people to lose their lives because they perhaps really should have evacuated, but did not because the last time the news dramatized the event then nothing happened.
I suffered no flooding, no power outage. From about Tampa northward on the West Coast, we were generally untouched. My cousin moved down here from New York, and he too was perfectly fine and never lost power.
Where Ian made landfall, that is the place people were hard hit. Inland, low lying levels were flooded because of the heavy rain. It would be nice if ALL the news channels realize that they have a responsibility to report a balanced view, not fixed on one spot that is the worst possible place to dramatize the news to get viewers. That is what is costing lives ā crying wolf as they say. Just report the truth. They are costing lives with this dramatization. The last one CNN reported there would be a huge 10 to 15 wave, that amounted to 1.5 feet. So you stop listening after a while.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/opinion/hello-from-florida-fake-news/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
52
Hurricane Ian Recovery Update
September 29, 2022 – Sundance
I donāt even know where to begin. Hopefully this hotspot holds up long enough to transmit. Thanks Ad Rem for earlier.
First things first, myself and family are okay. We are blessed and fortunate. Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and well wishes.
For those who are familiar with Hurricanes, Ian was unique; painfully slow and painfully unique. However, it had similarities to three previous storms, Frances (location), Michael (intensity) and Andrew (aftermath). What made Ian very unique was the duration.
Normally there is 1 hour scary, 1 hour hell, 1 hour scary. Soup to nuts three to four hours. For Ian, that was just the first half. With a start time around 1:30pm and a finish time around 9:30pm this one was brutal. Thatās why so much infrastructure failure.
When I saw the search and rescue flight path overhead at daybreak this morning, I knew the barrier Islands were catastrophic. Indeed, Fort Myers beach, Sanibel Island, Upper Captiva and Pine Island all suffered topography changing events. People will reevaluate living on barrier islands.
The Sanibel Causeway is destroyed. The three spans still exist, but the spoil islands which held the road are totally wrecked. No way on/off the island by vehicle. The Pine Island bridge also failed. The only way to Sanibel or Pine Island is by boat. The dozens of air national guard flights today were all heading to those locations. Regional Southwest Airport (RSW) remains closed except for rescue flights.
Another odd thing about this specific storm, an alarmingly fewer number of generators running. Easily 75% fewer generators running in the aftermath around me. Perhaps because the outcome was just too bad to try and inhabit while recovering; perhaps more evacuated this time; perhaps with the economy means fewer financial resources to try and cope. Regardless of reason, the drop in the number of people running generators is odd.
Tomorrow, we continue to put a few more layers on those callouses. After mostly securing the immediate homestead, we can now look to help others. This is going to be one long recovery effort.
Thanks again for all the well wishes. Love to all,
Sundance
20
Inner city luvvies reluctant to move west.
‘ABCās $50m move irks staff.
‘The ABC will spend almost $50m in funding on its move to Parramatta, but staff are speaking out, saying management is taking an ādictator-likeā approach to the move.’ (Oz)
60
I bet the private sector could do it much cheaper than $50 million.
And Paramatta used to be considered an outer suburb of Sydney but it is now the centre of Sydney.
It might give the drones who work for Their ABC a concept of reality.
40
It’s probably best for all concerned if they resign and find an alternative use for their time closer to home.
100
āYou canāt live remotely from the rest of the community and I think because our headquarters in Sydney are based in Ultimo weāre a bit remote from the rest of the community.ā Ita Buttrose
20
They are all living ‘remotely from the community.’ That there is the problem.
40
Dang! Such an elegant solution and in retrospect so obvious. They should have moved it to Dubbo.
40
Tel:
But there is already a zoo in Dubbo.
70
The DemocRAT state of Illinois, US is about to stop arresting criminals for a whole range of serious crimes like vehicular homicide (which I guess would be called culpable driving in Australia), robberies, burglaries, drug dealing and much, much more.
Totally insane.
This must surely be part of the plan to destroy America.
https://youtu.be/sC_qdm501LM
100
Excellent. And the Red Wave gets a little bigger.
50
Looks more like an admission that the ‘authorities’ have lost control of law and order and are seeking a convenient cover story. Also plays right into the hands of the crims, lefty activists and other rag tag bands of culture deficient reprobates. When the application of law and order becomes too difficult a task for those charged with that very responsibility, it is time for the populace to remove them from office and install a replacement who remembers the old-fashioned notion of common sense crime and punishment.
40
Great post on WUWT.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/09/29/sternberg-on-risk-to-financial-institutions-from-climate-change/
I particularly like the meme image š
https://wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/meme_sternberg.png
30
Dried dung is more common. No need to carry it. Hard to find peat in that desert.
10
The construction of a major bridge project in Texas has had to be suspended due to findings by an independent reviewer that there were major structural deficiencies in the design. The engineering issues are discussed in the following video.
https://youtu.be/CZxqVC_tBdc
20
Bitcoin Is As Costly to Environment As Beef Production
Taken as a share of the market price, the environmental costs of mining the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin are more comparable to the climate damages of producing beef than gold mining costs, according to an analysis published in Scientific Reports. The authors suggest that rather than being considered akin to ādigital goldā, Bitcoin should instead be compared to much more energy-intensive products such as beef, natural gas, and crude oil.
Benjamin Jones and colleagues present economic estimates of climate damages from Bitcoin mining between January 2016 and December 2021. They report that in 2020 Bitcoin mining used 75.4 terawatt-hours per year (TWhyear-1) ā higher energy usage than Austria (69.9 TWhyear-1) or Portugal (48.4 TWhyear-1).
The authors assessed Bitcoin climate damages according to three sustainability criteria: whether the estimated climate damages are increasing over time; whether the market price of Bitcoin exceeds the economic cost of climate damages; and how the climate damages per coin mined compare to climate damages of other sectors and commodities. They find that the energy emissions for Bitcoin mining have increased 126-fold from 0.9 tonnes of emissions per coin in 2016, to 113 tonnes per coin in 2021. Calculations suggest each Bitcoin mined in 2021 generated 11,314 USD in climate damages, with total global damages exceeding 12 billion USD ā 25% of market prices. Damages peaked at 156% of coin price in May 2020, suggesting that each 1 USD of Bitcoin market value led to 1.56 USD in global climate damages.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-18686-8
Well now…the digital future is as damaging as the meat they want to eliminate.
š
40
It is A Leftist lie thst me at production is unusually “costly” to the environment.
It is part of the push for non-Elites to eat poverty food.
90
Toyota boss challenges California emissions plan, bans on new petrol car sales
Toyota president Akio Toyoda says the planned ban on pure petrol-powered vehicle sales in California in 2035 needs to be reconsidered in a broader move towards carbon neutral motoring.
The world’s biggest carmaker believes it will be difficult to achieve a planned ban on the sales of new, non-hybrid petrol and diesel cars in California by 2035 ā and has renewed its calls for consumers to be offered a range of efficient vehicle types, not just electric cars.
Toyota has acknowledged the need to move to a carbon-neutral future but believes the California ban ā which is now reported to be copied in New York state ā is not workable with current technology and for many consumers.
āRealistically speaking, it seems rather difficult to really achieve that,ā the president of the Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda, told a briefing for reporters in Las Vegas, reported by Automotive News.
āEverything is going to be up to the customers to decide.ā
Mr Toyoda also said a planned national goal for 50 per cent of new vehicle sales in the USA by 2030 to be zero emissions would be āvery difficultā.
Toyota led the drive towards petrol-electric hybrids ā it has sold more than 20 million worldwide since 1997 including more than 300,000 in Australia ā and is also working on hydrogen cars.
Mr Toyoda reiterated the transition to electric vehicles needed to be broader than a one-hit approach, cautioning that regulations ātend to narrow the options available for solutions toward carbon neutralityā.
“Playing to win means playing with all the cards in the deck ā not just a select few. So thatās our strategy and weāre sticking to it,ā
he told dealers and employees at a presentation in the USA.
āToyota is a department store of all sorts of powertrains. Itās not right for the department store to say, āThis is the product you should buy’.ā
90
The Japanese are very polite people and therefore besides simple language translation, you also must “read the air” in order to understand the spirit in terms of how an Australian would say it.
When a senior Japanese man says, “Ohhh, very difficult, please reconsider,” that roughly means the same in Ausralia as, “Yer bloody dreaming mate! Piss orf ya clueless drongo”.
150
National rent freeze a Greens recipe for disaster – Pauline Hanson September 30, 2022
The Greensā terrible economic illiteracy was skewered this week after their call for a national freeze on rents.
It sounds like a great idea on the surface. There is no more pressing problem in Australia than our rental crisis. Every day it seems thereās a media story about an Australian family facing homelessness.
However like all ideas from the Greens, a national rent freeze will only make this crisis worse.
Seventy percent of Australian landlords own only a single investment property. Most of them have worked hard and sacrificed much to invest in a rental property to supplement their income into retirement. While Labor and the Greens view them as greedy property tycoons, they are anything but.
Rents are certainly going up, but then so are the costs on landlords like insurance, council rates and state government taxes. Property investors are also facing increasing costly regulation that effectively takes away their rights. The Palazsczuk government is even taxing Queensland investors on the value of property they might own in other states.
This is driving people out of the market. There are many other ways to invest their money, for example entering the lucrative short-term holiday accommodation market. This means there are even less homes available for rent.
Our rental crisis is primarily one of very short supply. Australia has the lowest proportion of dwellings per population in the developed world, because for at least a decade home construction has not kept pace with population growth. Demand is only going to intensify as the Albanese government floods Australia with more than 200,000 new immigrants every year.
Increasing the supply of rental accommodation needs to be the priority, and one surefire way to do this is to ban foreign ownership of all residential property in Australia while putting in place policy settings which encourage, rather than discourage, property investment by Australian families.
Agencies and vendors should be required to sight evidence of Australian citizenship or permanent residency for a sale to go ahead. Lowering immigration to more sustainable levels would also help reduce demand. Councils need to get their act together too, releasing land more quickly and reducing red and green tape.
And we need to have a hard look at state and territory government fees and charges, particularly stamp duty. When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced, we were told the revenue would replace what the states and territories derived from such charges. That didnāt happen, and today those fees and charges can make up to 40% of the total costs of purchasing a property.
As always, fixing our various crises ā the rising cost of living, housing, health, energy, workers and skills ā can be achieved by putting Australia and Australians first.
50
Queensland shunts land tax change, but treasurer āstands by everything heās saidā
Queenslandās premier has pulled the plug on contentious tax changes aimed at landowners who also owned property interstate.
The land tax change came under heavy recent criticism from the opposition and property groups who claimed the burden would fall on renters, after its announcement in the December budget update.
But Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Treasurer Cameron Dick had defended the change, which was to come into effect next July, with Dick describing it as an effort to stop investors avoiding tax by spreading property across jurisdictions and below their thresholds.
While all Australian land not subject to exemptions would be considered towards the $600,000 trigger ā a test not used in any other state or territory ā only the Queensland portion of land would have tax applied.
While Dick had not publicly revealed any push back from other states, who he hoped would provide data, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Monday he would not help Queensland levying the tax on NSW residents.
Amid the criticism, Palaszczuk flagged this week she would speak to her counterparts personally while in Canberra for a meeting of national cabinet on Friday, culminating in a decision to defer the change.
Taking questions after national cabinet, Palaszczuk said the negative feedback had already been relayed to the government through discussions at a Board of Treasurers level.
āIt does require the goodwill of other states and if we canāt get [that] additional information, I will put that aside,ā she said.
A spokesperson for Dick said: āThe Treasurer stands by everything heās said about land tax, but of course he accepts the decision the Premier has made after talking to other leadersā.
On Friday afternoon, Perrottet told Sydney radio station 2GB he thought Palaszczuk had āmade a great decisionā.
The recent campaign against what had been labelled a ārenters taxā by the opposition and property sector, a categorisation rejected by housing advocacy groups, grew to a fever pitch amid tightening cost of living, property price and rental market pressures.
10
The AFR View
Queensland makes right tax call
Queenslandās retreat on property tax would be a win for everyone if it turned into a wider overhaul of taxes
Only one good thing came out of Queenslandās egregious and short-lived interstate property tax plan, scrapped by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Friday after a string of stories and critical editorials in The Australian Financial Review. It has at least rekindled debate about reforming the rest of Australiaās unfit-for-purpose tax system.
State Treasurer Cameron Dick proposed to tax the owners of Queensland property on the basis of their other Australian properties too, unless they happened to be Queensland residents and voters. As a combination of unprincipled tax grab and parochialism it had little equal.
Unsurprisingly, the idea was killed off when other state premiers declined to hand over personal data to assist the double taxation of their residents. And when Queensland realised how much investment it might drive into the southern states.
But the tax must not die in vain. Australia cannot be as productive as it needs to be with the tax system it has. If Queenslandās retreat underscores the need for the comprehensive tax review that the Financial Review has called for, then everyone is a win
10
Unseasonal wet weather strikes north west Australia, breaks precipitation records for September.
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/rain-records-obliterated-in-wa-kimberley-region/838915
10
No activity has done more to stop the ongoing progress of mankind than the anthropogenic global warming fraud.
100
The Chinese are doing fine.
21
True, but they’ve ignored the warmist doctrine.
Cheers
Dave B
10
Dunno, the Covid prank test hit economies pretty hard.
10
The Left are pushing for non-Elites to eat poverty food – like insects.
Insects are already served as “food” in 1000 Aussie “schools” and I have previously posted the reference.
You can also buy “cricket powder” in Woolworths (major supermarket chain in Australia).
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/810770/macro-cricket-protein-powder
Here is an excellent video from Dr Sam Bailey in NZ critiquing the promotion and action of insect eating.
https://youtu.be/Ba5VKAtgFTI
00
I read that an OZ company is making chocolate coated insects which makes it not only a luxury food but means that we can send some to Jo as a donation for her chocolate habit. Yum!
11
let’s hope not
and not just Democrats have little knowledge of history
50
According to the science global tropical cyclones have undergone āextreme rapid intensification,ā Ian is typical of the new normal.
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Except they didn’t have a single Hurricane in August. Florida gets 15 hurricanes a year. That is poor publicity for the state so they redefined any hurricane which did not make landfall as a Tropical Storm. Now they are down to 3 or 4 but the worst sort, so they can claim things are atypical and storms like Ian are unusual. Like Cyclone Tracey in Australia. They don’t matter unless they hit a populated area and with 22 million people at sea level, Florida’s hard to miss.
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I’m pretty sure they said there will be less hurricanes and cyclones under global warming, but they will be more intense.
They are clutching at straws.
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Testing my lost name..
Cheers
Dave B
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As part of the FEDERAL zero emission strategy they will need to drastically curtail ALL aspects of “Farming Activity” However the Feds are obliged under the Constitution to pay “Just Terms” compensation to those involved and disadvantaged.
Previously in NSW (see “The Australia clause” in the Kyoto protocol) the Feds used the State SEPP mechanism to curtail “farming activity”. There was no obligation for The STATES to compensate any losses (and they did not do so). I believe this situation was successfully redressed in the High Court of Australia.
So the next mechanism is to impose restrictions at a LOCAL GOVT. level by means of zoning restrictions (e-zones). This process will expand until they achieve the desired outcome(by zero emission standards)
This very serious issue will determine the wellbeing of our local and regional communities and deserves timely and strong pushback.
It is not an exaggeration to see this as an existential threat to many regional towns.
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Got me thinking: https://twitter.com/wattsupwiththat/status/1575591350094831616/photo/1 Do people with Teslas ( to stand out from the crowd) or other EVs have petrol driven lawnmowers or Generators at home? or do they have ALL ELECTRIC households, to prove they are so committed? and the n to bring back some sanity to the situation which applies all around the world, surely, https://twitter.com/kscottpugh/status/1575317027077738503
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How many of them are two-car families…. with the electric for commuting and a gas-guzzler for the things that the EV canāt do conveniently?
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Yes, indeed, and unfortunately so ? Is this then an admission of Failure in the EV argument….. ‘ things that the EV canāt do conveniently’ In my book , then “Lifestylers” who don’t really care about the environment in that sense. OK OK I hear some of you say: one has to try out before commitment: just as one dips the toe in the water before jumping in – But but but, we are not to go in from the beach, rather we are being pushed in over the cliff. ….
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The Science of Why Electric Vehicle Batteries Are So Dangerous
In a recent op-ed, the Washington Post outlines how Teslaās battery issues and fires may not just be due to poor design and manufacturing but a side effect of electric vehicles relying on lithium-ion batteries.
The Washington Post reports in an op-ed titled āTeslaās Big Batteries Arenāt the Fire Problem. Lithium Is,ā that Americans should be questionubg whether lithium-ion powerpacks should be used for applications such as electric vehicles. The piece argues that the science of lithium-ion batteries make them inherently dangerous.
The Washington Post writes:
The large-scale use comes with significant risks, although most modern power systems choose this formulation because it boasts higher energy density, as well as greater charging and discharging efficiency. However, lithium-ion batteries have a volatile, flammable electrolyte. So, while there are safeguards to avoid fires, all the combustible ingredients are still there. Flames can accelerate through chain reactions, known as thermal runaway.
Big batteries are made up of several cells packed together. Current is constantly flowing inside, which generates heat. If there are no barriers between the components, a failure in one part quickly cascades through. While elaborate (and critical) equipment for cooling the system is put in place, it draws on the energy of the actual powerpack and reduces its output. In addition, when charged, a coat of lithium metal can form on the surface and dendrites, or needle-like structures can grow, and lead to short-circuits.
There are other considerations, too. For instance, in its review of battery failures in 2019 and 2012, the Arizona State Commission pointed to reports of āfires with 10 feet to 15 feet flame lengths that grew into 50 feet to 75 feet flame lengths appearing to be fed by flammable liquids coming from the cabinets.ā After one incident, it took nearly three months to discharge the stranded energy.
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There’s over 6,800 cells in every Tesla battery pack. That’s a lot of opportunities for a bad connection i.e heat.
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Hurricane Ian has passed. 12 dead, many missing. Climate Change. We will hear this thousands of times. But I would be celebrating the low toll so far. Amazing, with 2.1million people moved rapidly out of harm’s way, the whole of Perth. Job well done.
Consider that Florida is a very dangerous place to live but has exploded in population, from 2.8million in 1950
to 21.2million today. From the population of Melbourne to the population of Australia. Queensland has exploded similarly to bigger than Victoria. Because modern technology makes it possible. But while it powers the jets and ships and cars and airconditioners of Florida, it cannot stop Hurricanes. They are a fact of life in the tropics. And everyone in Florida knows it. It’s their choice and they know the risks.
What is amazing is how few lives are lost. Property damage sure. Rubble everywhere, luxury boats smashed and sunk. A million dollar car under water. Entertainment piers/jettys ripped up. Even island communities cut off losing causeways, often luxury communities. All a sign of luxury, often extreme luxury existence in the Sunshine state. So measured in $$$, the storm is likely the most expensive in history, as usual. But nothing like Katrina because everyone in Florida was expecting it and no one is actually building behind levees and below water level. Think Holland with Hurricanes.
So as around the world power plants are blown up, factories silenced and cows slaughtered to stop them farting, we have to ask why? Do politicians really believe Global Warming exists, especially extreme left politicians and Democrats and Labor? And that tiny invisible carbon dioxide is toxic, that males are toxic, that white people are toxic and that there are hundreds of variable genders? Who is writing this script? And why does anyone believe a word of it?
The modern way to control the climate is to eat bugs. Apparently.
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Jo – FYI from WUWT
Spambot Announcement
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/09/30/spambot-announcement/
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Ta. Useful to know.
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Oh dear… Cold, wet September eats into Germany gas reserves in lead-up to winter.
https://notrickszone.com/2022/09/30/colder-wetter-than-normal-september-pushes-german-gas-consumption-14-5-winter-gas-outage-looms/
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Bound to happen.
Notice that they are talking about restrictions and still āasking ā people to use less.
This is Germany. If the shortages were expected to be life-threatening, The orders would be going out NOW.
Look what they did for Covid.
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Oh dearie me…. Electric ferry runs out of juice. stranding passengers.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/09/30/police-rescue-passengers-from-powerless-electric-ferry/
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Total fantasy. A virus isn’t a code. Its an object. If its there we can see it, but there is only one way to see it, and thats an electron microscope. They say there is evidence from five testing methods that converge. Convergent evidence. In science its convergent evidence that determines what we can be sure of. But in this case its just fantasy methodologies programmed to dovetail off each-other. So we are looking at fake convergence. A fake-up of the scientific method.
The two hard facts of the mater are as follows
1. You don’t know a virus is there without pulling out an electron microscope. END OF STORY
2. You cannot sequence a virus before isolating that virus FULL STOP
Any deviation from these two hard facts of life is science fraud.
[Mikhail. There’s no saving this conversation. Your email has bounced, and you are down to repeating the same error, YELLING at us, ignoring what I say (there are lots of ways to detect a virus and I keep listing them) and you are inventing your own “facts”, redefining words to suit yourself and denying that observations even need to be explained somehow (sickness, assays, antibodies, d-dimer, blood oxy sat, x-rays, cytokines, contact tracing, PCR, plaque forming assays), we’re at the end of the road. Start your own blog. Good luck publishing your material. Best wishes, and goodbye. I hope you find some joy somewhere out there. – Jo]
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You should have admitted you were wrong already. The physicists have taught children that logic doesnāt matter in science. If you so explicitly reject logic in science you ought not be putting forth your own ideas. The two requirements I pointed out are unassailable. The methodologies that donāt meet these requirements are therefore fraudulent and obviously so.You were fooled by charlatans. You should admit it.
Here Dr Cowan talks about actual scientific standards that exist outside of the virology fraud.
https://rumble.com/v1lac2z-all-about-smallpox-webinar-from-september-23-2022.html
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Oh my gosh. That’s thirty minutes of my life I won’t get back. The video is made by people who have not studied virology in the last 100 years. Instead they “debunk” it because Medieval doctors got things wrong, used leeches once, or because someone got some political benefit sometimes, therefore millions of experiments by hundreds of thousands of people are “all wrong”. Or the whole field is junk because someone in Australia who knows a lot of Chemistry didn’t understand an entirely different branch of science and thought they didn’t use “controls”. If he studied the field he’d know the controls he wants were done in 100 permutations over the last 100 years and are redone in the factories that make the products etc every week as standard practice.
We have controls (or course), but it’s silly to run experiments with 100 reagents and do every permutation of control of every reagent, in every experiment. The experiments I used to do had 36 steps, took three days to carry out and two weeks to get results, involved many different components — mostly commercial and made en masse. For sure someone who had never studied microbiology would feel bamboozled and might think there were “no controls” but that’s not the case. We were repeating the same proceedures over and over and with only slight changes. We were using the same chemicals over and over. The chemicals were batch tested against controls. But the gels we ran had control lanes. Etc etc. We would name the brands of components in the papers so people could repeat the experiment with all the exact same things.
And by crikey — when microbiologists realized that different viruses caused “poxes”, you’ll be shocked, but every time they found a new agent, they gave it a unique name. This is what discovery looks like. It’s not a conspiracy. The wannabee critics have never spent a day searching PubMed to find out that, for example, 31,000 papers have been published on Measles. The number doesn’t prove measles exists of course but it shows the critics are 31,000 papers behind in coming up with a reasonable and better hypothesis to explain all those observations.
PubMed has 34 million citations. I suggest before anyone does a Youtube maybe spend an hour or two there?
*+*
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And for anyone who wonders how to stop leprosy being spread to health workers, it’s just a 2 second search away:
“Leprosy is curable with multidrug therapy (dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine), a combination that kills the pathogen, cures the patient, and halts transmission.”
In other words, every leprosy patient is on drugs that reduce the spread, and leprosy is not highly contagious to start with. Note — medicos use antibiotics. A multi drug therapy — like we do with AIDS. Not vaccines.
The Mycobacterium leprae (bacteria) that cause leprosy are among the smallest bacteria known. They are about the same size as the largest virus. But where Covid has 29,000 bases, Mycobacterium leprae have 3.2 million. They are very different creatures. Amazingly the leprae take up to 13 days to double. The slowest replication of all known bacteria.
See also: how most people are not at risk unless they work with armadillos. https://www.leprosymission.org/blog/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-leprosy-transmission/
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Thats what junk science does. No measles virus has ever been isolated yet the charlatans say they have sequenced it. Its never been found. Doesn’t matter how many papers they write on it, its junk science since they don’t have the virus. You would think that having gotten a handle on the rort that is climate science you might be able to identify it elsewhere. No measles virus has ever been sequenced in reality since you need to find if first, isolate it then sequence it. If you don’t do things the right way around thats science fraud.
They could write another 31,000 papers on it and it will still be science fraud because they didn’t find the measles virus first then isolate the measles virus, and have a vial of pure or near pure measles virus. These vials don’t exist.
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I can’t deny that bacteria can be a problem. But your faith in the medical treatment of leprosy may be misplaced. Since we have already seen how poor the scientific standards are with virology. Bad science is likely to be the case throughout medical science more generally. The main point of the video was at the beginning with a plea to bring virology up to the standards of analytical chemistry. Which would be the end of virology and obviously so. But lives are on the line, so we need to give this pseudo-science a quick death.
Sometimes these people aren’t humble enough when it comes to the potential for bacterial infection. But we don’t need to be humble where viruses are concerned. Since thats an obvious grift.
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“We have controls (or course), but itās silly to run experiments with 100 reagents and do every permutation of control of every reagent, in every experiment. The experiments I used to do had 36 steps, took three days to carry out and two weeks to get results, involved many different components ā mostly commercial and made en masse. For sure someone who had never studied microbiology would feel bamboozled and might think there were āno controlsā but thatās not the case. We were repeating the same proceedures over and over and with only slight changes. ”
Yeah that makes sense. But where the fraud comes in is when they never had a gold standard test for starters. So they just build castles in the air, virus genomes on the computer, and tests based around nothing at all. Now you should understand the logic of this. Its really just a decision on your part to be stupid or not to be stupid. It comes down to a decision-point.
The in silico virus sequences weren’t based on sequencing an isolated virus so they are rubbish. The tests weren’t based on a real test so they are fraudulent. The vaccines witches brews weren’t conjured using a real virus so thats murder. There is no getting around this. If they wrote 31,000 papers for measles they could write 31,000 papers for Covid, and if they then wrote another 31,000 papers for Covid, that wouldn’t change how the real world works. Its just doubling down on the grift.
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Yes well. While its true that one has to be humble about the potential for bacterial infection, thats a bit suspicious right there. What toxin does this bacteria make? If a bacteria starts churning out botulism toxin and divides every ten minutes, then its potential for harm is obvious. What nutrients does the bacteria use up in the body, and how? With such a slow replicating bacteria it all looks a bit suspicious. Plus think about the harm of prolonged use of those anti-biotics and drugs? If they identified that the bacteria was using up zinc, vitamin C and collagen it might be that these treatments are misplaced.
All looks pretty dodgy to me. We can’t blame a bacteria unless we can figure out how its doing all this harm. Its like looking at a destroyed building, scooping up a homeless child, and thinking that the crime has been solved.
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There is no Covid virus JO. So it doesn’t have 29000 bases because it doesn’t exist. No vial of Covid virus exists anywhere on the planet. This is a real impasse because if you claim that you can sequence a virus when other genetic material present would outmatch that virus one thousand or one million to one, then you are just being an idiot. You’ve reduced yourself to absurdity and there is nowhere to go from there. Now you keep saying that you can sequence this microscopic stuff without isolating it first. Thats a grift. You should not be oppressing people with that level of idiocy.
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Iām probably late to the party, but Iām growing sceptical of the narrative that millions of Europeans are going to freeze this winter due to lack of LNG.
Firstly, the Germans are clearly showing that their storages are at around 90%, and estimating that they have enough to get through winter with some restrictions.
https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/EN/Areas/Energy/Companies/SecurityOfSupply/GasSupply/start.html
They are not on the verge of collapse and surrender to the Russians, as inconvenient as this may be for Putin-apologists and the American-sabotage narrative.
We have already seen what European governments are willing to do if there is a choice between large numbers of citizens dying, and ābusiness as usualā. The Covid lockdowns, as misguided as they might be, demonstrated that those governments are willing and able to shut down business and transport in order to āprotectā people. If/when gas shortfalls require energy restrictions, the most probable response – based on past actions – will be to force industry, transport and ānon-essential activities ā to bear the brunt.
You average German may be required to turn down the heater, throw an extra doona on the bed instead of the electric blanket, and wear thermal underwear and an extra cardigan indoors. There will be the occasional case – much publicised in the media – of a pensioner being found āfrozenā , without reporting that they actually died of a heart-attack, or from the flu caught while huddling indoors.
Keep in mind that everywhere cold winters are normal, it is also normal for everyone to have clothing suitable for cold weather. It may be uncomfortable wearing āoutdoorā clothing indoors, but it isnāt lethal.
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The Europeans are still buying Russian oil. Apparently, those sanctions donāt kick in till November, so Iāve read. And, I read early on that either Brussels or many individual countries had fashioned work-arounds to some of the sanctions. So, thereās a public story and a not-so-public story.
Tom Luongo blames it all on Davos below. But, how exactly does one define/identify Davos?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/luongo-curious-whodunit-nordstreams-1-2
He hints at something that I remember Rayelan writing at rumormillnews many years agoāthat the worldās leaders all get together every few years and hand our scripts, assign parts. Theyāre all in it together. I fear that they all have stars in their eyes, currently, as to how WWIII will benefit them each of them. I think there is incontrovertible evidence for that with the engineered pandemic. Only a few leaders here and there refuse to play the game. At the moment, in Europe, itās Serbia.
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