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 New York!
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I expect 2023 to follow a similar trajectory as Joe Biden’s cognitive health.
And we should all thank Judith for running such a nice blog.
40
Covid in Shanghai?
https://twitter.com/72powpow/status/1608376110546587650/
Uh huh…
60
Silly me! I thought China was a big country.
11
2022 was a reasonable cool year except for parts of N Aust and the west coast. According to the BoM, the mean max temp for Aust for 2022 was 0.32C. This makes it cooler than the drought-stricken and hot year of 1914 (2.0C).
Do they really expect us to believe that?
Looking more carefully we find that the original temp for 1914 was a tad over 0.5C but they have successfully adjusted it in two major steps – ACORN1 and ACORN2.
Here’s the original adjustment.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/acorn-sat/documents/5-ACORN-SAT-TAF-TOR3.pdf
Here’s the ‘new’ temp.
http://www.bom.gov.au/web01/ncc/www/cli_chg/timeseries/tmax/0112/aus/latest.txt
No wonder they believe in ‘man-made’ warming.
270
Just for fun, here is a graph of the “numbers” from Ian’s second link , compare to UAH (Australia) (to end Nov each year) from 1980-2022.
https://i.ibb.co/SNS7PL2/UAH-v-Bom.png
I’ll try to remember to update when Roy posts December data.
40
Says it all, b.nice.
30
“Do they really expect us to believe that?”
I don’t.
Yea Naa. The 0.5 is mostly based upon derived infil. The chart is theory vs theory. If you look even more carefully you will see that the supposed 0.5 comes from “AWAP”. It is gridded map data of thermometers too far apart for them to have much idea what really occurred between thermometers. The chart i think you are looking at says “The Blue line is the unadjusted (AWAP) gridded Australian average temperature. The red line is the homogenised (ACORN-SAT) temperature for Australia. ” So notice that neither of them is thermometer data.
AWAP is a picture. Each pixel is a 0.05 degree latitude by 0.05 degree longitude chunk of our map with a number written in it that represents what they think the temperature in that square was. These AWAP gridded pixel numbers mostly come from theory not thermometers. The grid square pixels were originally empty with no value from a real thermometer available. Back in 1914 and even now most of those chunks are out in the deserts 100’s of kilometers from any thermometer. So the AWAP average is an average of mostly derived infil.
100
So any temps prior to ‘whenever’ are based upon “derived infil’. Therefore the 0.5C could be higher or lower than 0.5C. (No doubt 1914 (and 1915 were quite warm and bad drought years due to El Nino)) Yet the BoM ia able to determine what the mean temp for 1914 using ACORN1 and 2 calculations based on limited data.
So explain this. Check the average mean yearly temps from 2000-2017. You’ll find all the yearly means have been adjusted upwards from the original raw data. For instance, 2001 and 2011 had original mean average temps below average. Not any more they don’t. Why? ACORN adjustments?
50
Nope. Even tomorrows AWAP is going to be an average of mostly derived infil. AWAP is a model.
The 0.5 figure you used came from a model not raw data. ACORN is also a model. When you compare garbage to rubbish what is the answer worth? When you compare rubbish with 1914 written beside it to garbage with 1914 written beside it is that somehow more meaningful?
To explain this a little better perhaps you could tell me where yesterdays “Raw” temperature for this location came from. https://www.google.com/maps/@-28.25,130.1,11z
The temperature for that grid pixel will be included in the Australian area average. Which thermometer recorded it for the “raw unadjusted” AWAP data?
Yes the ACORN temps are adjusted but if you did not ever know what the temperature was and adjust a guess up or down, you still don’t know what it was.
20
Obviously they do know what they measured at ACORN sites between 2001 and 2011 and adjusting them is a vote of no confidence in themselves. They are declaring their own measurements to have been wrong.
20
Perhaps if they used only the temperatures at the same times they used to measure the mercury, the results would be different. That would be a more accurate comparison with pre-satellite and pre-digital days
I think the highs during a day pass much more quickly than the lows, so measuring every minute will give more record highs than once every 4hours.
10
Totally true, KP. One-second response time thermometers will beat LIG thermometers any day.
10
Kp and Ian re:
The modern platinum thermometers are problematic and the way they are used could produce higher maximums but response time is not the problem with maximums. The thermal response times are matched to be the same as mercury thermometers. There are problems but that is not one of them.
First thing i would like you to think about is minimum temperatures. Would not the 4 hourly reading also not be the coldest minimum? Thus the platinum thermometer would be lowering minimums and daily averages from back when they did not record every second? Before i tell you what the real problem is i need to show you that the old thermometers did record every moment of the day.
Take a look at this record from 1869 and notice the wording at the top of the table.
“Self Registering thermometers”.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13189731
What the old mercury thermometer did is record the highest moment until they were reset each day at 9AM. If you search “Trove” you will also find them called “self recording thermometers”.
The real problem with platinum thermometers is that the cabling and perhaps the thermometer itself can pick up via induction electrical noise. For this reason many samples need to be averaged to reduce the effect of outliers. The BoM however do not average many samples over a minute or more. The more samples the more accurate an average is. The value of the outliers is absorbed into an average of many values. The BoM however keep only one value per minute for Max, the highest. 1 sample per minute is far too slow for a good average to even out random electrical noise. So they really collect an outlier.
00
Response times is a bit of a problem with alcohol minimum thermometers though. This because the thermal response time of the single platinum thermometer is not matched to the alcohol but to the mercury. There were two differnt thermometers when it was inglass. A single one can’t match both. The thermal response time is the time it takes for a step change in temperature to produce a 63.2% change in reading value. It was specified for the old glass thermometers at far less than one minute, closer to half a minute. Response time should not be mixed up with sampling rate. So keeping only one sample per minute can miss the minimum peak entirely, also causing minimums to read too high. Far better to have 1000 samples per second averaged over one to ten minutes. An average of 60,000 readings to 600,000 readings for outliers to blur away to no effect.
00
*63.2% is for response time measure as one thermal time constant. sometimes they use five to seven time constants.
00
Ever since around 2010 when the Earth was seeing a plateauing of temps, did those in the data control business start to adjust the temps. This can be seen in NASA GISS data. Darwin is an example.
Darwin before adjustments.
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/show_station.cgi?id=501941200004&dt=1&ds=1
Darwin after the adjustments.
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/stdata_show_v4.cgi?id=ASN00014015&ds=14&dt=1
Shows the lengths they go to to support the meme.
10
“Shows the lengths they go to to support the meme”
Yep a little bit here a little bit there.
00
Stevenson Shields were introduced to Aust in the 1880s and rolled out to most areas in 1910 (thus the BoM official record starts in 1910). The SSs were manually inspected and usually the temps were recorded meticulously. Now these records have been adjudged unreliable and so High Quality data was introduced followed by ACORN1-2. These data bases rely on cleaning, homogenising and shading – so technically ‘made-up’. For example:-
I checked Bourke’s Jan 1939 temps AWAP against ACORN1 and 2. Every daily temp had been adjusted to bring the average down from 40.4C to under 40C. Bourke had been warmer than Cobar, Tibooburra and Walgett for that month. After the adjustments, Bourke was COOLER than the towns mentioned.
You may be correct in all you say, Siliggy, but it appears the temp record cannot be relied upon and keeps being adjusted to support the meme.
It will be interesting if the Onslow AP equal record of 50.7C will be officially recognised. Marble Bar was around 3.5 degrees cooler that day and Onslow itself didn’t reach 50C. Will they adjust Onslow due to a shading comparison/different thermometers or just shrug the shoulders and let it stand?
10
Australia: Covid enquiry 2.0
https://twitter.com/RebekahsRight/status/1608723018771226626/
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I would like to think an honest inquiry into the covid vaccine disaster would have an effect, but if it happens at all, the results will be ignored. I think.
-No politician or public serpent will be, or can legally be punished except if they broke the law, which they didn’t. They lied and were incompetent, but that is not necessarily illegal.
-Members of the medical establishment will claim they were “following the best advice”.
-Big Pharma will cite their immunity from prosecution.
-Media, both legacy and tech, will claim correctly that they have no obligation to investigate anything or tell the truth.
-The judiciary is mostly fully woke and will not act or will side with the above.
180
I think it is a line from “Yes, (Prime) Minster”.
“Never start an inquiry if you do not already have the answer”
It is a variation on advice to Parliamentary members: “Never ask a question in the House, to which you do not already have the answer”.
Remember; “Politics is Show-business for UGLY people”. And vice versa.
And they REALLY know where the vice is versa!.
Happy New Year, and hang onto your hat, wallet and loved-ones.
110
Vaccine doubts spreading?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MKQ0krjLpo&ab_channel=BretWeinstein
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The doctors (every country that forced RNA covid injections) know they are seeing a step change in serious medical problems with their patients. There are now almost a 1000 peer reviewed papers which explain how the RNA covid vaccines cause the damage. What is happening is a military problem where evil plans fail, due to overkill. The overkill is obvious, because most people can and have stopped repeating injections of the RNA covid vaccines because of Omicron. The fatality rate for Omicron is less than the flu. The ‘science’ is very clear. The more RNA covid vaccination injections, the greater than the damage to the patient’s immune system and body. The plan was to create a long-term health crisis for the Western countries.
Tests have shown the RNA vaccine produced Wuhan-1 covid spikes, remains in the body up to a month. The long-term presence of the Wuhan-1 spike in the body, has been found to cause, a change to the human immune system which degrades the body’s protection against the covid virus and other viruses. The long term presence of the RNA covid vaccine generated Wuhan-1 spike, degrades the human immune system affecting mothers, fetuses (fetuses get their immune system details from the mother), and newborns. The RNA covid vaccine degradation of the human immune system explains the sudden outbreak of RVS in infants and serious flu symptoms in the general population, as well as the new turbo cancer.
The covid RNA vaccines unexplainable still produce the deadly Wuhan-1 spike that has been modified to make it more difficult for the body to eliminate. The CDA FQA July 20, 2022 was stealth changed (no revision number and no explanation for the change) to note the RNA vaccine spike, remains in the body for weeks, replacing the statement that the covid RNA spikes only remain the body for a few days. Omicron was not part of the evil plan. Now everyone has long term immunity to covid because of Omicron. Omicron has more than 50 mutations on its covid spike which explains why Omicron is more than 30 times less lethal than the Wuhan-1 first release covid.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.13.22281024v1
“Altogether, our data reveal the extent and potential mechanistic underpinning of the impaired vaccine responses present in the elderly after a booster dose, contributing to their increased susceptibility to COVID-19 infection.”
https://rairfoundation.com/german-hospital-federation-demands-withdrawal-of-vaccination-mandate-after-massive-side-effects-revealed/
The German federation of hospitals one hour after the German health ministry admitted that the RNA covid vaccine are not safe, removed the mandatory RNA vaccine requirement for German hospital workers.
https://correlation-canada.org/report-probable-causal-association-between-australias-new-regime-of-high-all-cause-mortality-and-its-covid-19-vaccine-rollout/
Probable causal association between Australia’s new regime of high all-cause mortality and its COVID-19 vaccine rollout
“…..The excess mortality in the vaccination period (mid-April 2021 through August 2022; 14 % larger all-cause mortality than in recent pre-vaccination periods of same time duration; 62 million administered vaccine doses) was 31±1 thousand deaths, which is more than twice the deaths registered as from or with COVID-19. …
…We give thirteen numbered arguments as to why we conclude that the excess mortality in Australia is causally associated with the COVID-19 vaccine.”
80
If Mr Putin calls up 300,000 “reservists”, who is going to do the work at home in Russia?
If Mr Putin has Chechnyan soldiers fighting in Ukraine, who is maintaining Mr Putin’s order in Chechnya?
The manner in which the Russians withdrew in September/October indicated serious dysfunction in the army. Were elements in the army fighting each other?.
113
Ted,
Don’t worry the best is yet to come . The Russians are introducing Ukraine to their version of “Shock and Awe” . We are walking a fine line and the man with the nuclear launch controls is senile . What can possibly go wrong ?
21
You are right, having Biden anywhere near nuclear launch capability is indeed a concern.
50
Things might be escalating since merkel opened her trap and said the quiet part out loud.
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/mercouris-something-big-is-on-the-way/
00
The amazing benefits of Leprosy
Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, is one of the oldest and most persistent diseases in the world. However, new surprising research suggests that the bacteria that cause leprosy may also have the ability to stimulate the growth and regeneration of the liver in adult animals without causing damage or scarring. Scientists have discovered that parasites associated with leprosy can reprogram cells to increase the size of the liver.
The findings suggest the potential to use this natural process to rejuvenate aging livers and extend the period of disease-free living in humans, known as healthspan. It may also be possible to use this process to regenerate damaged livers, potentially reducing the need for liver transplantation, which is currently the only effective treatment for individuals with severely scarred livers.
Professor Anura Rambukkana, the lead author from the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine, said: “If we can identify how bacteria grow the liver as a functional organ without causing adverse effects in living animals, we may be able to translate that knowledge to develop safer therapeutic interventions to rejuvenate aging livers and to regenerate damaged tissues.”
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666379122003792
Well, that’s different!
70
Study Finds That Stop-and-Go Traffic May Be Linked to Reduced Birth Weight
According to a recent study, stop-and-go traffic may be associated with lower birth weight, and it is estimated that around 1.3 million pregnant individuals are exposed to this type of congestion annually.
While there is extensive data demonstrating the negative impact of vehicle-generated air pollution on health, there is a lack of research on how specific types of traffic, such as bottleneck traffic, can lead to negative health outcomes.
A study led by a researcher at the Boston University School of Public Health has now found that traffic congestion may be linked to lower birth weights.
Published in the journal Science Advances, the study found consistent associations between traffic delays and a nine-gram reduction in birth weight among infants born to parents who reside in areas with heavy traffic, such as highways or freeways. More than 11 million people live within 150 meters of highways, and the study results showed that up to 1.3 million pregnant people, representing 27 percent of US births, may be exposed to high levels of traffic congestion annually.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abp8281
A few planet-saving traffic lockdowns should fix that…
20
Is 9 grams statistically significant to health?
60
In my view that would depend on how much the statistician was getting paid.
80
John,
So many confounding factors – environmental factors that can affect the outcome way more than the “9” grams . So many vitamin/hormone supplements and lifestyle choices .
20
What about the effects of cooking over an open fire?
00
Flights suspended in Philippines on New Year’s Day after power outage, airspace shut
Flights in and out of Manila were put on a halt on New Year’s Day in the Philippines due to a malfunction of the air traffic control system which officials said was caused by a power outage.
A total of 282 flights were either delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports, affecting around 56,000 passengers at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the airport operator said on Sunday.
It was unclear how many overflights were affected.
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/philippines-flight-suspended-new-years-day-power-outage-air-traffic-control-2316115-2023-01-02
Broken backup systems, no manual alternatives.
Just wait until they go solar and the sun goes behind a cloud…
60
No way to run an airport, crank up the Lister !
31
The Chinese are building plenty of HELE Coal Fired Power Stations in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Australia is planning to shutdown Coal Fired Power Stations.
30
Okay, let’s list some books to read then, and I can keep my Booktopia account humming along. I’ll give you some, and perhaps others can come in with ones they liked as well.
This year I got back into reading, something I had lapsed, without realising how much pleasure it gave me. The first one here, Texas was the one that spurred the thought to start again in earnest, and the rest on this list are just this year’s lot.
Texas – James A Michener (a re-visit from an original read in 1997)(actually like a first time read in fact, and I picked up things I missed first time around, like Texas Longhorn Cattle almost going extinct)
Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry (a re-visit from an original read in 1987) (just as good this time around, probably better in fact)
Days Without End – Sebastian Barry. (this has four or five pages of glowing recommendations as being soooooo good)(was actually pretty ordinary, sort of woke in a way, the U.S. Civil War and the cowboy years Indian Wars following it)
A Thousand Moons – Sebastian Barry (a follow up of the above mentioned book, also average)
The Salvation Series – Peter F Hamilton (the three part novel series science fiction, NOT fantasy) I’m almost finished book 2, and so far both have been excellent. Science Fiction in the classic mould of the early greats, Asimov, Doc Smith Lensman and Heinlein. (Hamilton is an English author and I’ve now read around 15 of his novels and never been disappointed)
The Happiest Man On Earth – Eddie Jaku (a harrowing tale, but uplifting)
1989 – Val McDermid (here, she moves away from her classic crime fiction genre and it’s not too bad, but not as good as her Carol Jordan, and Karen Pirie novels. Also read 23 of hers as well, again, never disappointed)
Ridgeline – Michael Punke (set just after The U.S. Civil War and during the Indian Wars, a re-imagining historical fiction take on an actual event with the actual people, The Fetterman massacre on the Bozeman Trail in Montana. Odd treatment,trying something like that, but it came off relatively well I think.)
Nightfall, and other Short Stories – Isaac Asimov (Science Fiction, a consolidated collection of his early works I originally read in the 70s, and oddly, not dated even now that SF has moved on)(in fact, one of those short stories, It’s Such A Beautiful Day has a striking resemblance to the latest Hamilton Series. In the Asimov short, he calls them ‘doors’, and in the Hamilton novels he calls them ‘portals’, but the same thing, you step through them from one place to another a veeeeeery long way away)
Hardware, The Definitive SF Art Work of Chris Foss (this is a large sized coffee table hard cover showing all the art work he did across the years, and Foss did all the covers for an awful lot of those 70s/80s SF paperbacks)
I have a few still waiting to be read.
Book 3 of the Hamilton SF series.
Where The Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Desert Star – Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard Crime Fiction)
Empire Of Shadows – George Black (this looks good. It’s about the opening up of Yellowstone National Park, The Indian Wars, and a lot of history about that area. It blend actual history with a sort of license on fiction of the actual people and events, blending fiction and fact)
Snowy, The Making Of Modern Australia – Brad Collis (I originally got this out of the Gold Coast Library back in the late 90s and always meant to get my own copy, and this year I finally did. It’s probably the definitive book on the history of Snowy Hydro)
There’s just so much good to read out there, and I’m certain some here will add to my list.
Booktopia actually surprised me. I had never done online shopping (for anything) much before the middle of last year. Earlier this year, I was chasing up a novel (Lonesome Dove) to get for my granddaughter along with two Val McDermid crime fiction novels for her as well, and I just used a search engine and found Booktopia. I had all three novels sent to her and it was all done in less than a week. Reasonable cost, well packed and reasonably fast delivery too. Now, I use them exclusively. I used to do Angus & Robertson, but now why drive all that way to browse when I can do it right here. Even with the early releases I chased up, the McDermid and Connelly books, I pre ordered and within a day of release, I got the email that they were on the way. My granddaughter surprised me asking if I had any good crime fiction, and naturally there were the McDermids, and to a lesser extent the Connellys. At our local Library here in Beenleigh, Crime fiction has its own stand right at the entrance to the main body of the Library. I never noticed that before, and I asked one of the Librarians about crime fiction and she told me that it’s become huuuuuuuuge with young women aged 18 to 25, and even the Library has a tough time keeping up. And here’s me thinking that the only thing 20 something women read was their mobile phones! You never fail to learn new things I guess. (me, that is, even at my age)
Life is good.
Tony.
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And all those books made of… carbon.
Life is good.
90
Sequestered carbon it is, and in many cases will stay that way long after the “Climate Cult” has gone to “rapture.”
10
Colleen McCullough Masters of Rome Series
and
LINDSEY DAVIS BOOKS IN ORDER
Publication Order of Marcus Didius Falco Books
or – Books by Robert Harris
Colin Dexter – Morse Series – https://www.goodreads.com/series/50464-inspector-morse
Agatha Christie
I use Book Depository for books – great service – https://www.finder.com.au/amazon-australia-vs-amazon-us-vs-booktopia-vs-book-depository
50
Tony.
Continuing from a previous recent book discussion with you, I asked Santa for Atlas Shrugged for Christmas and was rewarded.
It came with a set of reading glasses with a higher magnification than usual, and once I opened the book I discovered why.
Initially I thought it may have been a list of possible mRNA c19 injection adverse reactions but soon realised it is simply very small font.
Just normal paperback size but over 1000 pages.
I’ve only just started but looking forward to the journey – however I think it may be quite some time before I reach the end.
70
Grogery.
Our local Seaforth Library looked after by older volunteer ladies has a lot of Large Print Books for Oldies, besides great books for the Grandkids, that we have been using for over 45 years
https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/library/your-library/branch-facilities/community-libraries/balgowlah-seaforth-community-library
You should have a similar local library
Always a Great selection
Enjoy
20
Thanks OO, great advice, I will look around.
In this instance, I’ve decided it’s not such a bad thing because I do most of my reading at night, lying in bed. So being a paperback, it doesn’t get annoying to hold up.
00
Grogery, with respect to reading glasses.
I always wanted to read ‘the classics’ but for some reason, I knew I had to build up to them, not just start early, and I’m glad I waited, really, because reading is something that requires time and understanding, and working into it.
So, even though I had read some of the shorter classics, I didn’t go flat out till after reading Atlas Shrugged. Therein lies a conundrum. I read The Fountainhead (also by Ayn Rand, and a wonderful novel as well) in the mid 70s, and knew I HAD to read Atlas, but I also knew I had to wait till the time came, and again, I have no idea why. I finally read Atlas in 1993, and I was so glad I had waited, when I did read it.
That was the lead in for the move to ‘the classics’. I got hold of all the (thick novel) suspects, and really, I actually enjoyed them, the opposite to what I thought when I was in my 20s. And I read quite a lot of them.
For so long I had heard (most probably) ‘old wives tales’ about War And Peace, and how it was pretty obviously ‘trendy’ to be seen to have a copy on your bookshelf, but hey, no one has ever really read the d@mn book anyway, as it’s just there for show. So, aware of that, I got hold of Anna Karenina (also by the Count Leo Tolstoy) It was a novel I would not have even touched when in my 20s, or if I had, I most certainly would not have finished reading it. However, after reading it, I thought (and still do think) it was one of the best things I had ever read, so I thought, okay, now’s the time for War And Peace. Part way through, well, very early on in fact, I found I was having similar problems with reading it, a problem that originally started a couple of years earlier with Atlas Shrugged.
The print was just so small. What showed up was that one eye was focusing at around twelve inches, and the other was focusing at a different distance, and it was so annoying that I couldn’t get it right.
So I went and got an appointment with an Optometrist, who did the tests and prescribed glasses that solved the problem immediately. When she asked what prompted me to come in and get tested (as the distance was really only at the marginal stage, and only for reading, and the finer print) I sheepishly answered ….. War And Peace. She smiled and said, “you’re not the first.”
As an aside, I suppose like all 18 to 22 year old young men, I started out with Harold Robbins.
When I did purposely make the move to expand my reading horizons, I moved to Irving Wallace and Calder Willingham, and perhaps an author no one really thinks about these days, but who wrote some really wonderful novels, and that was John O’Hara. I can recommend anything written by those three authors, if you’re looking for a window into earlier times.
Those who don’t read are missing out on something really.
Tony.
00
Thanks Tony.
Once again, you’ve probably prompted me to get serious about reading glasses instead of just buying the cheap 2.0x or 2.5x which I expect isn’t a great solution.
I’m not quite 10% of the way into Atlas Shrugged, I just read for a while at night until I start dropping the book onto my face – i.e. Time to go to sleep.
00
We’ve found Booktopia to be good too.
30
“Climate of the Past, Present and Future” by Javier Vinos.
Definitely not a light read, but important.
20
Book Depository is good — free postage and competitive prices.
Order some Dermal McTernan or Tana French titles for your grand-daughter, both write very good Irish crime fiction. For myself during 2021-2 I re-read the entire Patrick O’Brian ‘master and commander” series (all 19 titles) and am currently working through Mick Herron’s Slough House/”slow horses” series. Just finished Richard Osman’s 3rd “Thursday Murder Club” title, a most enjoyable series.
Also recently read Rob Mundle’s “Cook,” and Marsden Hordern’s “King of The Australian Coast,” about the 1817-1822 voyages of discovery by Phillip Parker King, vastly superior to anything the turgid Peter Fitzsimmons produces, plus Simon Winchester’s volumes, “Pacific” and “Atlantic.” and Geoffrey Blainey’s “Sea of Danger,” rounding off a nice year or two of maritime history reading.
Two other engrossing fiction titles by Robert Harris were “The Fear Index” set against an AI scenario, and “Second Sleep,” set in a future post-tech reprise of medieval times. Many more on my shelves still to be read and re-read from before the Plague years while living through the frustrating present.
30
Master and Commander Series, you are there! Minor correction, 22 book series.
00
Thanks, Beth. I just checked my shelves., “Blue at the Mizzen” was book 20, Book 21 is “The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey,” which Patrick O’Brian was writing when he died. He also wrote 5 stand-alone novels set in the period, of which I have “The Golden Ocean” and “The Unknown Shore”, but they were not part of the Aubrey-Maturin series.
10
“The Salvation Series – Peter F Hamilton (the three part novel series science fiction, NOT fantasy) I’m almost finished book 2, and so far both have been excellent. ..(Hamilton is an English author and I’ve now read around 15 of his novels and never been disappointed)”
Plus 3.. my son buys them then sends them from Melb to here and my daughter & I read them too. Having read scifi for 60+years, his books are excellent.
Lindsey Davis also, a completely different genre, and with those Falco detective stories I read Rosemary Rowe’s novels of the mosaic maker Libertus
00
Science Fiction is an acquired taste really.
I just could not get into Science Fantasy at all. Tried to, but just didn’t like it.
I have no idea at all why I even purchased Foundation (my first SF Novel) in 1974, but how lucky was that, and it might even have been that cover art by Chris Foss. It could have been any other novel at all and I may not have liked it, so the genre might have become closed for me. Then it was book two and three, and then all I could get hold of from Asimov, and then I moved into Robert Heinlein, and again not a bad book in them either.
I only purchased the Lensman Series because I liked the cover art, again Chris Foss. That was also lucky as I later got hold of his Skylark Series, nowhere even close as good as Lensman, and had I read Skylark first, I wouldn’t have got hold of Lensman at all. I read a few others from him, but Lensman was ‘the purple patch’.
So, it was all a case of good fortune.
Similar happened with the Hamilton novels as well. I saw book one in The Night’s Dawn Trilogy in 97, and that ‘hooked’ me onto him. Then, as soon as I saw a new one by him, I got hold of it.
Tony.
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The Fetterman fight was indeed on the Bozeman trail, but occurred just north of present day Sheridan, Wyoming. Wyoming and New Mexico both have an awkward status in the U.S. Most people can’t name Wyoming as a state, and aren’t sure where it is. Lots of Wyoming geography is mistakenly placed in Montana. Lots of people think New Mexico is a subdivision of Old Mexico and thus outside the U.S. An acquaintance of mine wrote a book about New Mexico’s plight — “One of Our Fifty is Missing.”
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Plasma Boring Robot Can Dig Tunnels 100 Times Faster And 98% Cheaper
Unlike conventional boring machines, which typically use massive cutting wheels to slowly excavate tunnels, Earthgrid’s robot blasts rocks with high temperatures to break and even vaporize them via a process called spallation.
The machine can run on electricity, meaning it can also be emissions-free, depending on how energy is sourced. Earthgrid also claims that its system, which doesn’t need to come into contact with the rocks directly as it excavates, is so fast and cheap it will open up a whole host of possibilities. In other words, projects that were once deemed economically unfeasible will now be possible.
Earthgrid is currently operating on pre-seed funding, and it is developing its “Rapid Burrowing Robot (RBR)”, a spallation boring robot with several 48,600 °F (27,000 °C) plasma torches mounted on large discs.
Earthgrid has submitted a patent for its machine, which provided estimates for the energy required to power those torches. A version of the RBR using 72 plasma torches to drill a 1-meter (3.3-ft) bore, for example, would require roughly 40 megawatts of electricity on the low-power setting.
If operators need to go faster, they would have to use the high-power setting and would need to draw a constant 120 MW. All of that for a relatively small hole a person could barely fit into. For large tunnels, Earthgrid explains, large rigs would have to be attached to the back of the BRB, reaching power draws of approximately 1.38 gigawatts.
Using a high-speed configuration, Earthgrid says it can tunnel up to 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) per day, which is approximately 100 times faster than existing systems.
https://principia-scientific.com/plasma-boring-robot-can-dig-tunnels-100-times-faster-and-98-cheaper/
Speed comes at big price though…
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So in summary the system that isn’t in commercial use is much faster and cheaper as long as you have ready access to a lazy 1.4GW of power, which could of course be emission free if “renewables” are used given their proven ability to provide dispatchable electricity to meet critical needs. That’s if you believe “renewables” are really emissions free and slide off of rainbows and into production somehow. All operating in clown world where we have trouble producing enough power for routine needs due to stupid choices.
Sounds like an interesting technology that may well have great applications in some areas. Not something I would want to be near in operation under a 1000 metres of granite though. But I scare easily.
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1.4GW, the entire output of a full size real power station is a huge amount of energy to be dumping onto the flat face of a tunnel being bored.
Supposing the tunnel was 10m diameter, enough for a twin railway tunnel:
Area is about 80 square metres.
You are dumping 17.5MW of power per square metre.
The surface of the sun is less than 4 times greater at 64MW/sqm at 5800K.
Ref: https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/01/basking-in-the-sun/
It’s a huge amount of energy to dissipate from the area of the tunnel opening.
And how are you going to move or dispose of the liquid or gaseous rock?
And even the power cables to convey 1.4GW would be monstrous.
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I believe the technical term for a project such as this is boondoggle.
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..Just tell them they are. “Dreamin’ “.. !
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Actually…
….it sounds a lot like an supersize version of the technology being used to develop deep drilling for Geothermal power ..
… the gyrotron, and millimeter-wave energy beams ..
https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-deep-geothermal-millimeter-wave-drill/
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So Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, has passed away. But I have often wondered about his “retirement” making way for a woke pope.
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‘Mistakes were made.’
The Ratz.
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Yes, it is always suspicious when an apparent conservative is replaced by a woke one.
And Francis has certainly proven his woke credentials.
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Transgender woman in tears after bank account frozen as she ‘sounded like a man’ on the phone
Sophia Reis, 47, said she was “humiliated and embarrassed” after telephone banking staff said she failed security checks because she didn’t speak “like a lady”.
Sophia said: “I work as a woman, I identify myself as a woman and I look good as a woman but for the first time in my life I felt embarrassed about being who I am.
“It was humiliating having to go into my bank and to explain myself when all my information was at the click of a button.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7180177/transgender-womans-bank-account-frozen-claims-sounded-like-man/
Can’t imagine why at all.🤣
No surgery for that “problem”.
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The protruding Adam’s apple and the mustache and 5 o’clock beard could be a bit of a give-away ! 😉
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What does the being concerned expect to happen?
Though not 100% accurate, the sound of a voice is a reasonable indicator of a person’s gender. And the perceived gender needs to match the gender on the bank’s records.
It is a basic screening test that failed in this case. Well, it didn’t fail, it is still correct that the being concerned is a biological male.
https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/leader.FTR1.24022019.44
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Is 9 grams statistically significant to health?
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Oops. Double post somehow.
Cheers
Dave B
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Cyanide? Arsenic? A copy of Chris Bowen’s plan for Net Zero?
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The Christmas/New Year’s Wars
From Armstrong Economics –
“Many emails have come in asking if the January target is going to be geopolitical. Holidays are a favorite time to launch attacks. Remember the Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War? Of course, during Vietnam, President Richard Nixon ordered major bombings to begin on Dec. 18 when North Vietnamese walked out on peace talks. The bombings did not use Christmas as a tactic, but the Troops called it the “11 Days of Christmas.”
Bet you did not know that in the Famous Battle of Trenton, New Jersey, and Washington’s Crossing the Delaware he used Christmas day to take the British off guard. He crossed the Delaware Christmas night and at dawn on December 26th, 1776, about 2,400 Continental troops pushed into Trenton, and they did indeed surprise the enemy, who surrendered within an hour and a half.
During the American Civil War, the Union tried to use Christmas to attack Fort Fisher but failed. They packed a warship with explosives and blow up the fort’s walls. The ship blew up and only warned the Confederates of the holiday attack. Then on Christmas Eve, the Union started bombarding the fort with heavy cannon fire. That fell short and missed its target. Then on Christmas morning, they shelled the fort and sent in the troops. But the heavy artillery was completely untouched and they had to retreat.
Russia invaded Afghanistan on Christmas Eve 1979, not because the Afghans were celebrating, but because the entire West was taken by surprise.
This Christmas has been another opportunity to catch the West off-guard. Absolutely the entire East Asian region has exploded with geopolitical tension. China, Taiwan, Japan, North, and South Korea have all raised their military readiness to their MAX. China strategically sent 7 ships and 71 aircraft of which the majority, at least 43, had entered Taiwan’s air defense zone. This is a NEW RECORD. What I have been warning about is that China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia will all join together because of this insanity coming from the Biden Administration.
North Korea simultaneously entered the Airspace of South Korea which, up to now, was unprecedented! The military leadership of South Korea was forced to come out and publicly apologized to the people for this violation of their Airspace by the North Korean drones. Reports are surfacing claiming that they remained there for at least 3 hours and perhaps some up to 7 hours.
Iran’s staged a major military exercise on Friday ahead of New Year in the coastal area of the Gulf of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. This was reported by state TV in Dubai. ABC News reported that they were testing their attack drones. Russia launched a major attack on New Year’s Eve and Zelensky still refuses to accept peace and let the Donbas go which is occupied by Russians. All Zelensky does is plead for endless money and Patriot missiles to attack Russia directly and engulf the entire world in this chaos. Zelensky is willing to sacrifice his entire country for this hatred of Russians. He said:
“For me, as the president, ‘just peace’ is no compromises as to the sovereignty, freedom, and territorial integrity of my country, the payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression,”
It was Kyiv that started the war by sending troops to attack the Donbas in 2014 and that was the West’s installed “temporary” government that started the war – not any elected Ukrainian government. He was elected promising to pursue peace and end corruption. So much for campaign promises, They always say whatever they need to win, and then do the exact opposite.
Orthodox Christmas Day for the year 2023 will be observed on Saturday, January 7th, 2023. Strangely, most of the markets are showing turning points the week of January 2nd and/or 9th even with some markets showing Panic Cycles the week of the 9th following Orthodox Christmas.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/the-christmas-new-year-wars/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
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Patriot missiles are not offensive. They are for destroying other missiles.
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Very short video.
Yanjin County in China is the narrowest city in the world.
My advice: Never build on a flood plain.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ToDCYoIEFuE
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It’s always a give away as to the prevailing authorities real position on climage when the organise long term planning to build such as on the Thames estuary in London. *the so called thames corridor. There’s what they know and there’s what they say in public about sea level rise.
Politicians going back as far as Gordon Brown over here have been cynically going along with climate disaster talk while openly acting in a way that shows they know better.
…and Russia’s about to surrender on behalf of Putin
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Dr. John Campbells Awakening: The End of evidence based Medicine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6tLCVXeg4
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The header I used on another forum was: Dr John Campbell comes to Jesus.
It was clear to anyone listening to tone, not only words, that over the last six months he no longer believed “the story”. Credit for finding the truth, C for being too trusting, too long.
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FWIW
https://youtu.be/8V2aznOEPNU
More if you need it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Tam
Straight down the CDC line
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Well, he does see when you’re sleeping.
And he knows when you’re awake.
He also knows who is real daddy is.
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… or was.
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Can it really be that Tam thinks Canadians are that juvenile?
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Vegetarian ate 1 burger, got hooked and became a butcher
Tammi Jonas, a longtime vegetarian living in Victoria, Australia, had a surprising — but undeniable — craving for a hamburger while pregnant with her third child. Just one prime patty after many meat-free years.
Now, she’s a professional butcher and a pig farmer.
“Hats off to you if you don’t want to participate in any livestock production, but try not to have too hard a go at those of us who are trying to restore landscapes with livestock,” she said, adding, “and doing a much better job of it than your vegan impossible burger.”
https://nypost.com/2019/10/29/vegetarian-ate-1-burger-got-hooked-and-became-butcher/
That’s the way! 😁
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Seems like the days of being able to laugh at those gluing themselves to things are numbered.
Buying shares in companies and then demanding the companies destroy themselves seems to be a commonly used tactic, but I doubt it is violent enough for some of their followers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-02/uk-branch-extinction-rebellion-shift-away-public-disruption/101821168
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“The rise and fall of peer review”
Well worth reading IMO
https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-peer-review
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A comment at Chiefio –
“On average, we live pretty well: worse than last year, but definitely better than next year. – Russian joke.”
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Only Russia?
Sadly my forecast for this year is that Wuhan Fly isn’t going away, nor is AGW or the war.
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“Only Russia?”..
Definitely applies to the West! Europe will struggle, we will blow up the next coal-fired station and get rationing, America will continue to fall apart.
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“Home Insulation Makes Little Difference To Energy Consumption–New Study”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/01/home-insulation-makes-little-difference-to-energy-consumption-new-study/
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“Cartoons and memes for 2020”
https://patriotpost.us/articles/93755-readers-choice-best-of-cartoons-and-memes-for-2022-2023-01-02
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Wall Street Journal questions the covid vaccine scene –
“Are Vaccines Fueling New Covid Variants?
The virus appears to be evolving in ways that evade immunity.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-vaccines-fueling-new-covid-variants-xbb-northeast-antibodies-mutation-strain-immune-imprinting-11672483618?st=tsf89b834ryetrr&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Via Covid and Coffee
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And a local “sudden death”
“Queensland, Australia doctor Wilson Chin, 31, who ran the Pacific Pines covid vaccination center, died suddenly and unexpectedly AT HOME last week.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11578455/Wilson-Chin-Gold-Coast-doctor-received-death-threats-anti-vaxxers-dies-suddenly.html
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..and straight under that article-
“ABC This Week producer Dax Tejera dies from heart attack aged 37”
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Someone had a “working holiday”?
“USVI Attorney General Who Filed Lawsuit Against JPMorgan Chase Over Epstein Crimes Has Been Terminated”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/01/02/usvi-attorney-general-who-filed-lawsuit-against-jpmorgan-chase-over-epstein-crimes-has-been-terminated/#more-241633
And some reminders here
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/01/02/its-probably-nothing-143/#comments
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Gadget FWIW
“The $350 Life-Altering Device”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=247768
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“Well, this is interesting… America’s National Library of Medicine recently published an article about the Covid19 censorship of doctors and health professionals.”
https://richardsonpost.com/harryrichardson/29988/censorship-and-suppression-of-covid-19-heterodoxy/
Article at
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9628345/
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More interesting data failure from the BOM. There’s been no BOM Cyclone trend updates for about 5 years and I’m sure the lower trend continues to upset their narrative.
So far in our region there has been a lower trend since 1970 and this includes non severe and severe cyclones. Big surprise NOT.
BTW I think the Bolter is probably the main factor because he often links to this BOM Aussie cyclone region graph.
AGAIN the 2015 to 2016 year shown is the only year that has NO SEVERE cyclones in our region since 1970. THINK about it.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bom+cyclone+trends&atb=v344-1&ia=web
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Sorry, this is the best BOM link.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/climatology/trends.shtml
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You are NOT allowed to talk about this
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Excellent ten minute video spelling out the cone of silence around current covid excess deaths. Thanks, Kim.
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Coming in late on the book thread, but Abebooks is easily the cheapest place to pick up everything except new releases. It’s an agglomeration of second hand bookshops all over the world. I tend to use British shops as their postage is usually cheaper than postage within Aus. Can be faster to!
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Noticing!
“Remarkable Survey: 28% Of Americans Personally Know Someone Who Died from COVID-19 Jab
January 2, 2023 | Sundance | 139 Comments
A rather remarkable poll from Rasmussen [Full Data Here] shows some remarkable public polling outcomes about the COVID-19 jab.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/01/02/remarkable-survey-28-of-americans-personally-know-someone-who-died-from-covid-19-jab/
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Here’s a surprise to find in a lamestream media outlet-
“Russian military bloggers, whose information has largely been reliable during the war, said …”
I’m quite sure if the article was about any other aspect of the war except an American missile that killed a lot of Russian soldiers, the SMH would poo-poo anything that Russian bloggers said!
Generally the Russian military bloggers are supportive of Putin, see the war as grinding Ukraine’s military to dust and the outcome will be as Putin said, NATO pushed back away from Russia’s borders.
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Knowing the BOM and their “adjustments”, they’ll start changing Category rates for Tropical Cyclones eg: Cat 1 becomes Cat 2, etc etc, just to make it look worse than it really is (as they do for temperatures).
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Oh dear- On Sunday I posted-
“…and on that subject, one of the eight or so Twitter feeds I read that were banned for not obeying the narrative on Ukraine has come back- https://twitter.com/geosprinter1
Maybe Musk has some effect!”
and today I am greeted with-
“@geosprinter1 This account doesn’t exist”
So no free speech under Mr Musk, the FBI/CIA still run Twitter!
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Love Mick Herron then do try the epic spy novel, Bill Fairclough’s Beyond Enkription in TheBurlingtonFiles series. He was one of Pemberton’s People in MI6 (see the news article dated 31 October 2022 in TheBurlingtonFiles website). The thriller is the stuff memorable films are made of, raw, realistic yet punchy, pacy & provocative. It’s a fact based book which follows the real life of a real spy, Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ) aka Edward Burlington who worked for British Intelligence, the CIA et al. It’s like nothing we have ever come across before … and TheBurlingtonFiles website is as breathtaking as a compelling thriller. It’s a must read for espionage cognoscenti.
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I’ve just finished reading Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick “The untold history of the United States”.
615 pages of text, pp 619 – 712 of “Notes” – I have not proof read the notes
Ends in 2013 with conclusions coloured by “CAGW” and what “Obama 1” might have done. One could say that their crystal ball was not well polished in the light of things since.
Heavily pictures the “American Empire” unless the “Notes” are extremely slanted.
Leaves one with the feeling that there is a religion taught that might be called “America the Greatest” with about as many jihadis as that other well known religion.
And that, if US gets a blooded nose in Ukraine, it will , like the Treaty of Versailles, be an excuse for another go probably sooner than later.
Views of a heathen looking from outside
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