Friday

I’m making a few site layout changes and seeking feedback at #18 below. Most items that were in the left column have moved to the right column in a trial today (like Tags, Categories, Archives, Skeptics Handbooks). The “Recent Posts” could shift to the Right hand side too. Is it time to get rid of the left column, and leave more screen space for blog posts and images?

 

 

8.8 out of 10 based on 20 ratings

128 comments to Friday

  • #
    Strop

    Friday Funnies:

    .

    I was wrong about my chiropractor. I stand corrected
    .
    How many optometrists does it take to change a light bulb, one or two?
    One …. or ….. two?
    .
    I just found an origami sports channel, but it is paper view only.
    .
    I made a graph of my past relationships. It has an ex axis and a why axis.
    .
    A friend said he didn’t understand what cloning was about.
    I said, “That makes two of us”.
    .
    The urge to sing ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ is just a whim away, a whim away, a whim away, a whim away…
    .
    I’m not sure what the best thing about Switzerland is, but its flag is a big plus.
    .
    When I was working in a pub, some guy came in and with a German accent says, “Martini”.
    I asked, “Dry?” and he said, “Nein, eins”.
    .
    I got kicked out of a karaoke bar for singing “Danger Zone” five times in a row. Apparently, I exceeded the maximum number of Loggins attempts.

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    • #
      John Connor II

      Ever notice how the # of pronouns is proportional to BMI?
      [snip]

      Google is a woman because it doesn’t let you finish a sentence before it makes suggestions.

      “I am” is supposedly the shortest sentence in the English language. “I do” is the longest sentence.

      —-

      #2 – I went to the optometrist recently for a routine test and got that irritating “one or two?” test. Grrrr…

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      • #
        Gee Aye

        Woah… this should come with a rating.

        [Indeed. Snipped. Commenters, the Unthreadeds are apparently a valued forum, given the number of comments. Can we please treat the top of the Unthread with a bit of respect?. – Jo]

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      • #
        John Connor II

        Aaawww…they were tame on the scale of things for most adults, especially considering the “uncle Jack” one someone posted months ago.😉
        Behave JC2…😁

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    • #
      Andrew McRae

      😀
      That last joke is brilliant. Absolutely loved it. Glad you left the best until last.

      Now this is not meant as criticism in any way, because I could not take anything away from such a superb joke. But perhaps something can be added to that joke. All you would need to change is the 3rd word in the setup and then the punchline will twist just that little bit faster. Observe.

      I got locked out of a karaoke bar for singing “Danger Zone” five times in a row. Apparently, I exceeded the maximum number of Loggins attempts.

      That just puts the polish on an already great item.

      01

  • #
    Gee Aye

    Did you see that the ABC is spreading its climate fear again. Coldest weather for the year and coldest May days for 3 years. Whoop de doo.

    When I was growing up we just called that weather and burnt another puppy to keep warm. Snowflakes.

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  • #

    Happy Friday and I hope that the lights are still on.

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      So derivative

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    • #
      Ted1.

      I’ll turn the floor heating on tonight in honour of the promise of snow to 1,000 metres. I guess that will be the first test.

      The commentary is getting a bit frantic since Liddell closed. Where were they last week/month/year?

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      • #

        Anyone spoken to the Waffler of Woollahra yet as to his position on Snowy 2.0 and soon to be Snowy the ‘dog’ (and where are you Tintin?) and the NBN. BTW, how is that over 440 million dollar taxpayer donation/gift/stolen money to assist the GBR going? Can we have an Audit please?

        Thankyou from a very concerned Taxpayer.

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  • #
    ColA

    I dropped a line to some of the reporters at Sky today, went like this

    Hey Rowan,

    Do you know if Sky have dropped the ban on talking about Ivermectin yet??

    It was so obvious at the height of the Covid scare that someone had issued an order to all the reporters to STFU about IVM, here 1 day, gone the next never to be mentioned again!!

    So Jo Nova has the freedom to discuss Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, Vitamin D Zinc and a whole raft of valuable Covid-19 info.

    So yesterday she published this

    Regulatory crime of the century: Australian government TGA finally lifts Ivermectin ban « JoNova

    Regulatory crime of the century: Australian government TGA finally lifts…

    Are you and the others @Sky allowed to start discussing this again or is the ban not lifted yet?

    Craig Kelly was vilified for being correct.

    Clive Palmer bought millions of HCQ tablets and they sat in a warehouse as he watched Covid kill thousands die. That must have really hurt him!

    Do you and the others have the ticker to start the debate? Will you swell the chorus for a Royal Commission?

    Here’s a new idea, lets get a label on it, something easy to remember and easy to associate to Covid and the perpetrators, primarily Big Pharma, but ably supported by governments, Big Medicine, WHO, Aunty and the MSM and don’t forget Big Tech and the manipulation of social media, how about

    PHARMACIDE!

    Col Andrews,

    Tweed Heads

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    • #
      Broadie

      Hey Col,

      Not to sure why you are looking for some kind of conspiracy Rowan Dean needs to explain. My guess is like any news item you eventually move on or the segment could become kind of crowded?

      That said, I am surprised Outsiders exists on air in Australia. As we have seen with Tucker Carlson, Alan Jones etc ratings mean nothing in the strange new world of main stream media.

      In my opinion, Rowan has shaken this like a dog with a bone to the point I thought he was history on Sky especially after what I remember was a passionate rant before the Christmas ‘well earned break’. As it is his image appears to be absent from the Sky presenter puff piece, though Rita has snuck back in.

      How about?

      Kicking a Gift Horse in the Mouthacide

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  • #
    Peter C

    Lake Goldsmith Steam Preservation Society Rally

    I expect to visit Lake Goldsmith tomorrow afternoon.
    Thank David Maddison for the heads up.

    I will call into the main hall with the steam power station at 2 pm and see if anyone else is there.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Thanks Peter. Unfortunately I will be there Sunday, not Saturday.

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      • #
        Ted1.

        Maybe 4 or 5 years ago I was driving on the highway in Mudgee town when a vintage car coming towards me sent off a cloud of smoke or steam. It pulled over to the kerb and people got out as I went by.

        I got thinking, where will they find a mechanic on Saturday afternoon? Brother in law has a motor repair business specialising in 4WDs. So I turned around to see if they needed help; just in time to see it send off a great cloud of steam. I thought: She’s buggered now”, but the people got back in and drove off.

        A few days later I was talking to brother in law, and he said: I did a weld on a Stanley Steamer on Saturday. There had been a steam car rally in town.

        He said: As it drove off it didn’t make a sound.

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        • #
          TdeF

          Amazing history with the genius Stanley twins. They built a mansion in the Rockies at Estes Park, not far from Denver/Fort Collins. Not only the Steamer but made their millions earlier with the photographic plate business which they sold to Eastman of Eastman Kodak fame. I think isolated Estes Park is the model town for South Park. Good skiing.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Which power station is Australia destroying next?

    Is it Eraring?

    It’s all so much reminiscent of Nerobefehl or the Nero Decree of the National Socialists when the order was given to destroy all infrastructure.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Oh look – SBS is running back-to-back “The Fifth Element” all afternoon right through to 2am tomorrow, AGAIN!

    They really need some better funding.
    How about we pull all funds from the ABC and BOM and push it their way instead?

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  • #
    el+gordo

    Models fail to capture the hydrological cycle.

    ‘Per a new study on the hydrological cycle’s role in climate change, today’s state-of-the-art climate models “assume the mean relative humidity at the ocean surface is constant.”

    ‘They are also known to “assume unchanged wind conditions.” Even with this imaginary constancy, “uncertainties in modeling the hydrological cycle significantly [orders of magnitude, or more than 100-fold] exceed the observed effects of global warming.” (Notrickszone)

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    • #
      Ted1.

      There we go again. Plural models.

      How can they ever tell which one is right?

      If just one of their models was sound, they wouldn’t need two.

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      • #
        el+gordo

        If you think of models as a tool, it can be reshaped.

        The modellers are looking at different aspects of atmospheric science, they are hoping that it will lead to a greater understanding of how the system works.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Turbo cancer – brain cancer (glioblastoma) in young people on the rise – 15 cases explored

    In the post COVID-19 vaccine era, these brain cancer Glioblastomas seem much more aggressive and kill much more quickly. Usually patients would survive on average 1.5 to 2 years, but now they are dying in a matter of weeks or months.

    I see a strong signal of COVID-19 Vaccine induced Turbo brain cancers here. These brain tumors behave differently.

    https://makismd.substack.com/p/turbo-cancer-brain-cancer-glioblastoma

    This is interesting and worrisome on 2 fronts:
    1. That there are significant cases of Glio lying dormant, activated by Fakevax ™ but caused by what in the first place?

    2. Fakevax ™ is causing cases of Glio where it wasn’t present in the first case.

    Glio is the most common form of CNS cancer and cases are rising globally, bjt new treatments are advancing rapidly.

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  • #
    Graeme#4

    And despite all the downsides of Snowy 2, plus the recent comments of Paul Broad and Ted Woodley, what does Albanese do? Sets up yet another CC authority organisation called Net Zero.

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – Read it all

    “How Corrupt Is Our Current Situation? It’s Worse Than Most Can Fathom…
    May 4, 2023 | Sundance | 72 Comments”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/05/04/how-corrupt-is-our-current-situation-its-worse-than-most-can-fathom/#more-246353

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    • #
      another ian

      That might be of a lot of interest to the lawyers working for those charged with J6 offences

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  • #
    John Connor II

    New Footage Shows El Paso Engulfed In ‘Mass Migration Dumpster Fire’ As State Of Emergency Declared

    On Monday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre made an absurd claim: “When it comes to illegal migration, you’ve seen it come down by more than 90%” under the Biden administration. And if that was the case, why did a Democrat mayor of a Texas border town declare a state of emergency?

    Well, new footage from border town El Paso, Texas, shows a sobering view of a worsening migrant crisis that the Biden administration, liberal media, and progressive politicians have ignored for two years while calling anyone who pointed it out ‘racist.’

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-footage-shows-el-paso-engulfed-mass-migration-dumpster-fire-state-emergency-declared

    What a total joke. Around 10,000 a day flooding into the USA expecting a better life.
    Ship ’em all to Marthas Vineyard.
    At this rate South America will be empty before long…

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Mars in Unprecedented Detail: Get Lost in the Red Planet’s 5.7 Terapixel Landscape!

    A 5.7 terapixel online image of Mars, with a resolution of 5 meters per pixel, has been unveiled by Caltech’s Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization. The image was created by merging 110,000 individual images taken by the Context Camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, covering 99.5% of Mars’ surface. It took six years and tens of thousands of hours of labor to create. Users can access the image through an interactive interface called SceneView, enabling seamless exploration of the Martian surface. The mosaic represents a 20-fold increase in resolution compared to the previous highest-resolution global image of Mars.

    A planet-spanning online image of Mars created at a scale of 5 meters per pixel was unveiled this month. The image is freely available to the public and can be accessed online through Caltech’s Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization. It will also be delivered to the NASA Planetary Data System for posting.

    https://murray-lab.caltech.edu/CTX/V01/SceneView/intro_m.html

    Covers 99.5%
    I have yet to check Cydonia. 😁

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Astonishing Discovery Finds 10,000 Mostly Unknown Viruses in Baby Poo

    An international team of scientists who spent five years studying the poo of 647 Danish babies found something astonishing.

    The nappy samples contained 10,000 species of virus – ten times the number of bacterial species in the same children. Most of the viruses had never been described before.

    This may alarm many readers. Viruses haven’t exactly had a good reputation in recent years. But what many people don’t realize is that the overwhelming majority of viruses do not make people sick and do not infect humans or animals at all.

    The viruses I’m referring to are bacteriophages. They exclusively infect bacteria and make up a large part of the human microbiome.

    It’s these bacteriophages that the researchers found so abundantly in baby poo. Indeed, around 90 percent of the viruses found in the nappies of the Danish babies were these bacteria killers.

    https://theconversation.com/thousands-of-unknown-viruses-discovered-in-baby-poo-why-this-is-not-necessarily-a-bad-thing-204419

    Bacteriophages or not, that’s a shocking number, especially for “settled science” people.😁

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  • #
    David Maddison

    A review of Vitamin K2.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9237441/

    Front Pharmacol. 2022; 13: 896920. 

    Published online 2022 Jun 14. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.896920

    PMCID: PMC9237441

    PMID: 35774605

    Molecular Pathways and Roles for Vitamin K2-7 as a Health-Beneficial Nutraceutical: Challenges and Opportunities

    Nikita Jadhav, 1 Saiprasad Ajgaonkar, 1 Praful Saha, 1 Pranay Gurav, 1 Amitkumar Pandey, 1 Vivek Basudkar, 1 Yash Gada, 1 Sangita Panda, 1 Shashank Jadhav, 2 Dilip Mehta, 2 and Sujit Nair 1 ,*

    Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer

    Go to:

    Abstract

    Vitamin K2-7, also known as menaquinone-7 (MK-7) is a form of vitamin K that has health-beneficial effects in osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and peripheral neuropathy. Compared to vitamin K1 (phylloquinone), K2-7 is absorbed more readily and is more bioavailable. Clinical studies have unequivocally demonstrated the utility of vitamin K2-7 supplementation in ameliorating peripheral neuropathy, reducing bone fracture risk and improving cardiovascular health. We examine how undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) and matrix Gla protein (ucMGP) are converted to carboxylated forms (cOC and cMGP respectively) by K2-7 acting as a cofactor, thus facilitating the deposition of calcium in bones and preventing vascular calcification. K2-7 is beneficial in managing bone loss because it upregulates osteoprotegerin which is a decoy receptor for RANK ligand (RANKL) thus inhibiting bone resorption. We also review the evidence for the health-beneficial outcomes of K2-7 in diabetes, peripheral neuropathy and Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, we discuss the K2-7-mediated suppression of growth in cancer cells via cell-cycle arrest, autophagy and apoptosis. The mechanistic basis for the disease-modulating effects of K2-7 is mediated through various signal transduction pathways such as PI3K/AKT, MAP Kinase, JAK/STAT, NF-κB, etc. Interestingly, K2-7 is also responsible for suppression of proinflammatory mediators such as IL-1α, IL-1β and TNF-α. We elucidate various genes modulated by K2-7 as well as the clinical pharmacometrics of vitamin K2-7 including K2-7-mediated pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD). Further, we discuss the current status of clinical trials on K2-7 that shed light on dosing strategies for maximum health benefits. Taken together, this is a synthetic review that delineates the health-beneficial effects of K2-7 in a clinical setting, highlights the molecular basis for these effects, elucidates the clinical pharmacokinetics of K2-7, and underscores the need for K2-7 supplementation in the global diet.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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      eNvironment scepTic

      It is bizzare to the highest degree of K2 that nattokinase, has not yet been associated with, ….and is the same as korean cheongukjang

      Meanwhile, we have all kinds of expert like Dr bob and Dr peter advocating nattokinase without knowing the fermentation process that produces nattokinase or the like was an inescapable part of ancient diets and legume fermentation practices. IN other words, these doctors and expert seem unaware, perhaps wilfully that we do need to use a ‘Var natto’ strain of the baccilus Subtilis to make our own natokinase at home very, very inexpensively.

      Of course, the fermentation of legumes by B Subtilis was quite universal and could not be avoided until the invention of the household fridge….

      In any case, i make my own K2 and natokinase analog legume fermentation at home and am not at all surprised that K2 and natokinase is a massive money spinner post covid. What a darn shame..

      Just make it at home is what i do and save quite a lot….and i can be more certain that the soy beans i use in the fermentation process are of the highest quality.

      95% (in my opinion) of microbiome experts have not even heard of Bacillus Subtilis yet…..good grief!

      Look up Kiran Krishnan the microbiologist and Maangchi the ultra cool korean cook to find out more………

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        eNvironment scepTic

        further typo edit…*perhaps willfully that we do not need to use a ‘Var natto’ strain of the baccilus Subtilis to make our own similar or the same as natokinase at home very, very inexpensively.

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    • #
      eNvironment scepTic

      Compared to vitamin K1 (phylloquinone), K2-7 is absorbed more readily and is more bioavailable.

      It is my belief that K1 and K2 are different. if one is more “bioavailable” than the other does not make any sense to compare in my opinion….good grief..!!

      Like i say, Kiran Krishnan talks about this kind of thing every day and is part of his speciality of knowledge and understanding. Please look him up and the cook on youtube called Maanchi to learn how to make ones own and her video here without having to use var natto starter culture… https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/cheonggukjang

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      environment sceptic

      The many faces of Natto (similar to nattokinase/ultra rich K2 source) and its relatives….

      From: https://www.soyinfocenter.com/books/151

      The many names natto / kinema:

      “aakhone
      “aakhuni
      “akhoni
      akhuni
      akuni
      axone
      bari
      bekang or bekang-um
      bekanthu
      bhari
      chuana
      cheonggukjang or cheonggug-jang
      ch’onggukchang
      chongguk-jang
      chongkukjang
      chonkukjang
      chungkok-jang or chung kok jang
      chung kook jang or chungkookjang
      chung-kook-jang or chungkook-jang
      chungkukjang or chung kuk jang
      hawaijar
      hokuma
      itohiki natto
      joenkuk-jang
      kenima
      kinema
      kinemba
      kinima
      kirima
      natto
      pe-bout or pe bout
      pe-boutsu
      pepok or pe-pok
      pepoke or pe-poke
      peruyyan
      satlyangser
      shui-tou-shi
      shui-dou-chi
      tooa-nao
      tuanao or tua’nao
      tao-nou
      thua-nao
      troombai
      tungrymbai
      turangbai
      ……
      In West Africa, relatives of natto now
      made from soybeans:
      dawa-dawa or dawadawa
      dadawa
      daddawa
      iru
      ogiri
      soumbala
      soumbara
      soumbala
      soydawadawa
      néré or nèrè or nere
      tonou”

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    • #
      Custer Van Cleef

      Some food for thought there, in that paper:

      “Interestingly, the ratio of circulating K2-7 serum levels between eastern Japanese
      women and British women is 15:1 which inversely mirrors the fracture rate of 1 in Japanese
      women to that of 15 in British women (Kaneki et al., 2001). This implies a strong beneficial
      effect of K2-7 circulating levels in reducing the risk of fractures globally.
      . . .
      “Considering genes involved in bone formation and mineralization, vitamin K2-7 enhanced
      vitamin D3 gene induction of osteocalcin. Hence, co-supplementation strategy has the
      potential to help in better development of bone and reduce bone-related disorders.
      . . .
      “Matrix Gla protein (MGP) plays a key role in inhibition of vascular calcification; it has
      the potential to inhibit as well as to reverse the process of calcification.”

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Why does the Thugs and Goons Administration have to wait until Jun 1st until they relegalise Ivermectin?

    I would hate to be a patient needlessly dying in ICU right now without access to this drug, given according to appropriate protocols. It might help. And will do no harm.

    If it is OK to legalise on Jun 1st, why not now?

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  • #

    Seeking feedback here.

    I have muted the background pink-yellow colors on popular comments, just to increase the contrast with the text. I have control over how many thumbs up it takes to trigger a background color. But in comment nests, all the replies inherit the color, so there has become a bit of a vast sea of color that wasn’t part of the original plan.

    At the moment 15 likes will trigger a pink. 25 likes will trigger the yellow.

    I’m open to suggestion. The original comments threads didn’t have nesting so it has evolved quite a lot since it started and I confess I haven’t paid much attention. I think it would probably be better if the nested replies didn’t inherit the color, but I don’t know that I can change that.

    BTW: Otherwise my comments have a kind of pale orangey-yellow as a default, which is a bit unfair. 😉 And by default also, every second comment is styled grey or white before the 15 likes trigger is hit.

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      David Maddison

      I am happy how it is now Jo. No complaints. But it would be better if the nested comments didn’t inherit the colours if they don’t have the required number of thumbs up. However, as you said, you may not be able to control that.

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        Memoryvault

        It would be even better if comments were in posted order instead of nested.
        Bit apparently locals prefer the current, confused coagulation so I guess that’s it.

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          I am shuffling all the left column items to the right column today just to see what it looks like. So if anyone used the Categories, Tags, or Skeptics Handbook links they are now on the long right hand column.

          I have left the “Recent Posts” on the left for the moment. But am thinking that the site would be better if it had only one column of things and more screen width for posts and images.

          I suspect most people don’t use the side links much — except for Recent Posts and Recent Comments.

          How do people feel about that?

          MV, point noted on the nesting, but I think more people prefer the nesting. Open to suggestion on that too.

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            Memoryvault

            Don’t sweat it Jo.
            I know I’m in the minority re the nested thing, and I accept that.
            But nested comments pretty much demands easy access to “recent comments” to follow a particular commentary, so don’t move them too far!!

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            robert rosicka

            Shift everything to the right including recent comments .

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              Graeme#4

              Agree. Never look at the LH column. I can quickly see new posts with their date/time.

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            skeptikal

            I would suggest that “Tabs” and “Categories” get drop-down boxes like “Archives” has got. I’ve never used either of them, but people who do use them would still be able to find what they’re looking for and it would make things a bit more compact.

            I don’t usually like changes when a site is working well, but having everything on the right side might not be too bad.

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            Mike Jonas

            I don’t look left or right, so no comment on them. But I do like the nested format, because it supports dialogue. I’ll often go back to an earlier article to see if a dialogue has progressed. Colour doesn’t matter to me, but I do like your (Jo’s) comments highlighted.

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            Philip

            Yes, simplify the front page. Its rather 1990s. I never use any of the links.

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          Annie

          I much prefer the nested system. I find the Cats sites very tedious; there can be huge gaps where new comments make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
          Jo’s is my favourite blog by far.

          [Thanks! Email coming your way Annie…]

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            another ian

            Annie

            I agree – and I use sites that do both

            Jo – I get along nicely with what you have. But experimenting might produce better so keep testing.

            For comparison – if a medico of old hadn’t kicked over the traces we wouldn’t be at leeches yet.

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            b.nice

            Ditto ! 🙂

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            Vicki

            I’m inclined to agree with that. If you post on a common thread at the Cats and come back to see any comments – it is really tedious to trawl back through comments.

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        Broadie

        My Feedback! Ahem!
        Dave’s Icon should be skin coloured or brown like your image Jo. He generally scores over 25 and it will clash with the pink.
        Sorry couldn’t help myself had to have my own angle on the subject.

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          True Broadie, but David — like anyone — can set his Gravatar image to be whatever color or image he likes.

          https://en.gravatar.com/

          After an image is set at Gravatar, all past comments as well as new ones will display it.

          People can also lock in their current Gravatar auto-generated image (or change its hue) to keep it if they use a new email address. At the moment if no image is set, gravatar autogenerates one using the email in the comment.

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            Re Gravatars.

            I got a small one time puzzlement when I originally submitted my first Post here at Joanne’s site, and my ‘profile image’ showed up as my Gravatar ….. instead of one of the small generic icons shown here, and oddly, the first thing I thought of when I hit that original Post Comment was … I wonder what sort of icon I will end up with.

            I then realised that if I have a ‘home site’ on WordPress, where I do have a profile image and a bio, then that profile image shows up everywhere.

            My site’s owner has been ever so gently suggesting that I update my now 16 year old Gravatar to a more recent one, but I liked the old one, taken an hour before I set off on an ANZAC Day march with my brother, the only time we got to march together as ex servicemen, with his 9 years in the Navy. With our two Sons, we have a combined service of 63 years. [Two of us in the RAAF, and two Navy Clearance Divers, (and haven’t those two got some secrets)]

            Like others have mentioned here, (something that probably can’t be changed) I would like just the actual 20 plus likes to be the only yellow, and not all the nested comments as well.

            Tony. (finally with a new Gravatar)

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              Peter C

              I liked your old image Tony,
              For quite a while I thought you had taken that from John Cleese!

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      John Connor II

      I’ve never used anything on the left or right panes.😁

      Just remember – if you change something, it’ll break something.😄

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        another ian

        The amoeboid tendencies of things

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        Broadie

        As a business, you do not touch your financing, telephone, internet, software, energy unless you have a desperate need. You are just about guaranteed two weeks of doing anything but looking after your customers.

        I use my avatar to log into the MyGovID, better looking. Thanks Jo.

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      Hanrahan

      In the header you say leave more screen space for blog posts and images? I love posting images but might blow your bandwidth. 🙂

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        Hanrahan, I’m thinking more of blog post images which I limit to 600px wide. We’d only gain another 150px or so. But with videos and graphs, sometimes that helps.

        The issue of commenters posting images is a tricky one. It could chew bandwidth as you say, but I can also see the appeal. It would add a layer to the discussion, and I’d like to allow it, but I’m not sure how we could manage it.

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          Memoryvault

          I have been on sites where posting a link to say a Youtube video displays the image as it appears at Youtube. However, when you click on the image instead of playing the video it opens a new tab at the Youtube post.

          I have no idea how this works but it gives a far better idea of what the video is about than just some text and would use minimal bandwidth.

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          Hanrahan, I’m thinking more of blog post images which I limit to 600px wide.

          Joanne, I’m not sure if you have this facility here, but at WordPress sites, whilst you are drafting the new Post, you can load the image at a much larger size, and then, if you click on the edit image button, you can size the image to best fit the page. Then click the tab titled Link To, and at the drop down menu, click on Media File. (and, as soon as you load the image to your site, it automatically generates a file number link for that image) A little further down there is another box titled Open link in a new tab. Tick that box, and then press the blue Update button.

          Then, every time someone clicks on the image when reading the Post, that image will open in a new window, and at the much larger size.

          That way, you can see the larger image in that new window, and still navigate back and forth between the Post and the image.

          Tony.

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            Tony, thanks, indeed I can and often use the wordpress “medium” image and linking to the “media file url” which produces the larger image when clicked. Sometimes I load up small and large images because I’m not convinced wordpress compression is offering smaller files. I mean, if I embed a 1200 px file, and shrink it to 600, I expect it still uses the same Mb.

            If you mouseover many of the graphs here you’ll find the larger images open in a pop up, or right clicked as a new window. It’s a good idea of yours to view them in side by side windows.

            The wordpress.org software is getting more similar to wordpress.com.

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          Have been posting on RenewEconomy lately (they did let me back on) and they do have an option to show an image with your comments, but I seem to be the only one using it. I don’t think that it is a WordPress site. I have been using their Disqus login.
          The images appear to be stored off-site. Below is a comment I posted recently with link to the image

          Based on my observations, the Autumn to Early winter months are the periods most likely to experience wind stagnation events. There has been a lot of press about offshore Gippsland, so I had a look at the spasmodic energy site to gauge how reliable the wind would be in Bass Strait. The answer is below – definitely more 100%, but just as many zero’s. Offshore Gippsland wind is really not that much better than onshore.
          http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e613265f24b72789f693d1569f73d26427fc3a5ccf63fdc22c0ec42cd85a433.jpg

          That option could be handy on this site but may need some moderation – could be awkward for the impatient commenters!

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      Leabrae

      This is much too wide. For reading, the narrower the better (within reason).

      I remember when I began to use a word processor, on a site for various computing tools related to design, the intense critique of what people did with (essentially) A4 paper and it’s only got worse in the intervening quarter century.

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      Broadie

      For what?
      Did someone receive a set of clothes that did not fit or was a batch of fencing wire used to make a superior fishing spear of an inferior grade?

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      Annie

      Perhaps the British should charge reparations for all the benefits of Western science and technology they’ve given to this country.

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      TdeF

      What have the British done for us? Monty Python were prescient. It was invading universities in the 1960s.

      The idea that everyone was living idyllic primitive but happy lives without the massive advances of Western democracies is to invent a fantasy world which did not exist.

      Life in most countries was short and brutal. All the children died. It must have been so terrible. Endless heartbreak. Even without the endless violence, tribal warfare and invasions.

      When the British came to India as traders the average life expectancy was 24 years. Even in England, childbirth was lethal and maternal mortality was 30% even in Victorian times! Child mortality in the first year was 50%. Everyone is so much better off in every measurable way and poverty is vanishing from the world and starvation.

      But the UN/EU/WEF want to bring it all back, poverty and death by starvation and war and invasion. And they are attacking the energy supply, food supply, jobs, Democracy, religion, history and heroes, gender, just like the communists. Remember Mao’s Suits and Red book? Everyone just gets a number and studies the thoughts of President Xi.

      In Post Modernism, new science is what you feel. Like Gender. And History. Climate Change. Facts don’t exist. Or logic.

      Of course everyone wants reparations. But why is it limited to so few people? In Australia don’t the Irish, Scottish and the poor need reparations too? The convicts were political prisoners deprived of everything, family, freedom, not the locals. What about the Vietnamese Chinese Catholics fleeing after the war? It never ends once you start saying sorry for history. And fake aborigine Bruce Pascoe makes fortunes identifying as an *boriginal and inventing a fake society for people who were not even neolithic, stone age.

      As I read last week, women athletes are afraid to speak because they would lose sponsorship and their dreams. Scientists too fear for their jobs. The reign of terror of the left is getting worse. And they hate everything British. Which is odd as it is the entire source of their easy lives.

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        TdeF

        And I love their take on transgenderism in 1979! Symbolic of his struggle with reality.

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        Honk R Smith

        Love the Pythons.
        Cleese especially.
        But just saw him on a talk show saying “most Python fans are not Trump fans”.
        (Notice the YouTube title … he says nothing about the Holy Grail movie, the punchline is the Trump supporter dig.)
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1RSIwexj9g&t=242s
        I wouldn’t exactly call myself a ‘Trump supporter’.
        Perhaps only by default.

        My perception is that a very frightening Government/Media propaganda machine made the comfortable believe that Trump did and said things that he never did or said.
        And that Joe and his son never did the things they did.
        (See another ian’s link above #11)
        And that machine scares me way more than one man.
        The climate hysteria campaign along with the Trump character assassination campaign, followed by 3 years of COVID madness, I keep hoping to wake up.
        (BTW, you’re now free to take your Horse De-wormer.)

        I’m disappointed that someone I admire like Cleese, can’t see it.
        But anyway, liberal elitist takes another little chunk of my flesh.
        Can’t listen to a Bruce Springsteen song or watch a De Niro movie anymore.
        Now the Pythons?
        Divide.
        (The right political POV brings applause on late night TV, the wrong POV invites Deep State scrutiny.)
        Conquer.
        Turn out the lights.
        The only thing they hate more than us is themselves.
        Perhaps at least one thing we might agree on.

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          TdeF

          The attacks on Trump have been going on for decades. I used to believe them and repeat them. They couldn’t be lies.

          Then I decided to look at the facts and found it was all fake. He ran Miss America for 20 years and no one alleged a thing. He has had three wives and they said nothing bad about him. There is a huge gulf between what the press say and what Trump actually says. The same with De Santis today and Don’t Say Gay. And the January 6th fake news, the two impeachments, the head of the FBI wearing a wire into the oval office to trap a President. 51 Security chiefs telling the country that the Hunter laptop was fake to help Biden to be elected.

          What sums it up is that 98% of Washington DC voted for Hillary Clinton. Which tells you the public servants want someone like themselves, often extreme left. Which makes it hard to govern. The same in Canberra and Whitehall. As Adam Bandt said to me, “we tell them what they want to hear and when we get power, we do what we like”. Even Eisenhower warned about the danger of the military industrial complex. The threat to the country of an overly powerful bureaucracy is real when the FBI investigate school councils.

          In four years Trump proved himself to be truthful and as good as his word. And I believe the appalling Ukraine war would be over in 24 hours. And that uncontrolled migration, Fentanyl, Chinese spies, crime rates in Democrat states and cities and weaponized agencies including the FBI, CIA and judges are very serious threats to democracy and world peace.

          The business of the Chinese spy balloon over their missile installations in North Dakota was surreal. And Biden did nothing. His excuse for letting them continue was absurd. The corrupt geriatric sock puppet has to go. Will he even make the next election? Or will they use a cardboard cutout?

          While China engages in the biggest military buildup in human history and Russia is forced into the same corner, the out of control Biden administration is putting the world in mortal danger. And hiding Biden in his basement. What other President would not be at the Coronation? What other President would send his wife?

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      another ian

      Be interesting to ask a male of that species if he’d voluntarily submit to a whistlecocking job

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      Gee Aye

      It is actually quite a long time since 1788

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    RickWill

    The results of a simple experiment I did on sealed and unsealed light globe filament:
    https://1drv.ms/b/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNhTZwC6v5kTo8cmrI?e=UrPRfY

    This followed a post by Thomas Shula at WUWT last month based on the Pirani vacuum gauge, which is not something most people can relate to. Results are similar but I can actually put power flux to radiation and convection at ground level.

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    David Maddison

    Google bans words.

    Gosh it must be a pathetic state of being, being a woke Leftist. They must live in a permanent state of terror about the possibilty of hearing certain words or phrases.

    (Trigger warning for Leftists, you may need to crawl into your “safe space”, there are unapproved WORDS ahead.)

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12032907/Woke-Google-bosses-ban-staff-using-terms-including-man-hours.html

    Google bosses have asked UK staff to stop using common phrases including ‘man hours’ and ‘you guys’, it has been reported.

    The US tech giant sent out a new ‘inclusive language dossier’ which includes changes to language.

    Several phrases targeted by Google chiefs include ‘whitelist’, ‘blackhole’, ‘blacklist’ and ‘black box’, as well as ‘chubby’ – and to refrain from describing people or things as ‘crazy, bonkers or mad’.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    JP REACTS COMMENTS:

    https://youtu.be/CsENxvwwQTM

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      RickWill

      It appears no animals were harmed in the filming. But they did run for their lives. A pity there is no sound because something spooked the animals.

      Wind power is a function of windspeed to the third power. It is why sailing boats have the ability to reef sails and even pull them down completely and sail with bare poles. All the wind turbines can do is feather and apply brakes. It appears the control system failed and the speed was fantastic. Imagine the trip speed at that diameter.

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      Graeme#4

      Lucky the blade bits went up and down, not out towards that house.

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        Ted1.

        A shame there’s no sOund. It would have been something to remember.

        What would the tip speed have been? A bit hard to say, but I estimate 1.5 rps times2pi the length of the blade. Roughly 10 m/s/metre of blade length. 200 m/second?

        Not as much as I thought it might have been.

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      David Maddison

      Excellent. Thanks for posting.

      I’m glad no people or animals were harmed.

      Even the animals hate wind turbines. It could be that animals, horses in this case, are very sensitive to infrasound and living near these monstrosities must be maddening for them.

      https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/horse-ears-facts-482458

      Ever wondered why your horse suddenly stops or spins around out hacking, or snorts and spooks unexpectedly — usually when there is nothing there? In fact there is, but as the horse’s range of hearing eclipses a rider’s, you are unaware of what they have heard. Although small, the ears are one of a horse’s greatest assets, and it is important to understand how they work

      1. Horses can detect sounds as far as 4km away.

      2. The ability to hear higher frequencies means horses can detect the ultrasonic shriek of a bat, which is inaudible to a person’s ear. That is why a horse often reacts to something that the rider is unaware of.

      3. Horses can detect low-frequency sounds while grazing, via vibrations transmitted through the ground that he picks up with his teeth. The vibrations are conveyed to the middle ear through the jawbone. Hooves also pick up on these vibrations, thus warning of possible predators.

      SEE LINK FOR REST

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    another ian

    Jo – FWIW

    “Rud Istvan
    May 4, 2023 11:48 am
    The 2012 Steriou and Koutsoyiannis paper presented at the European Geophysical Union is also important. It showed that globally there was an upward temperature bias in station temperature homogenization. Not a little, a lot.”

    In comments at

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/04/the-case-of-the-missing-climate-crisis-greek-edition/

    And an interesting title for a paper –

    “A sharp-eyed reader suggested covering this new paper with the clever title: “In Search of Climate Crisis in Greece Using Hydrological Data: 404 Not Found”, published 27 April 2023 in the hydrology journal Water. [ .pdf copy available at that link ].”

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    Turtle

    Dropping the left column is good for me, I never use it.

    I mainly read this blog on my phone, so more space is great.

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    Philip

    I keep hearing of miracle batteries just around the corner. But does technology plateau? My PC laptop is an i7 bought in 2017 and still going exceptionally strong. If you bought a PC in 1993 it would not be going strong by 2000. It would most definitely be dead.

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      el+gordo

      Right on average, but the WMO disagree.

      ‘The Arctic is among the fastest warming regions in the world and is heating more than twice the global average. The extreme temperature and ongoing climate change prompted a WMO panel of experts to add a new climate category “highest recorded temperature at or north of 66.5⁰, the Arctic Circle” to its international Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes.’ (WMO)

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    Reader

    Green tax credits in Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act could cost US $1.2 trillion

    https://nypost.com/2023/05/04/green-tax-credits-in-bidens-inflation-reduction-act-could-cost-us-1-2-trillion/

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    Honk R Smith

    I think the Feudal period was marked by the literal inbreeding of sociopathy.
    Mitigated eventually by the development of nation states.
    Now we’ve entered a new period of institutionally bred intellectual sociopathy.
    Most government/business/academic cultures are led by sociopaths.
    Take Biden and Trudeau, Fauci … long list.
    I see very few people in leadership anywhere willing to stand up and say this is wrong.
    Most that have that sort of character attribute have been weeded out maybe by grad school level.
    Maybe just a flaw in human cultural development.
    Evolutionarily beneficial until it’s not.

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      David Maddison

      Psychopathy seems to be genetically determined but sociopathy comes from defective personality development due to poor parental upbringing or poor training in schools, or both, as you allude to. Both are similar.

      It’s hard to tell if most politicians and senior public serpents are psychopaths or sociopaths, probably a combination of both, plus they are present in a much higher proportion than the general population.

      According to Britannica:

      Both psychopathy and sociopathy, then, are characterized by an abiding pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, as manifested through three or more of the following habitual or continual behaviors: (1) serious violations of criminal laws; (2) deceitfulness for personal gain or pleasure, including lying, swindling, or trickery; (3) impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead; (4) irritability and aggressiveness often resulting in physical assaults; (5) reckless disregard for the safety of oneself or others; (6) failure to meet important adult responsibilities, including job- and family-related duties and financial obligations; and (7) lack of meaningful remorse or guilt—to the point of complete indifference—regarding the serious harm or distress one’s actions cause other people.

      From Wikipedia, Robert Hare is quoted, one of the world’s leading experts on psychopathy. I have read his books.

      Incidence
      Hare reports that about 1 percent of the general population meets the clinical criteria for psychopathy. Hare further claims that the prevalence of psychopaths is higher in the business world than in the general population. Figures of around 3–4% have been cited for more senior positions in business. A 2011 study of Australian white-collar managers found that 5.76 percent could be classed as psychopathic and another 10.42 percent dysfunctional with psychopathic characteristics.[better source needed]
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_in_the_workplace#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DHare_reports_that_about_1%2Cmore_senior_positions_in_business.?wprov=sfla1

      I have read that psychopathy was more prevalent in ancient times as in order to defend your tribe, you had to be prepared to commit violence against others and this was of no consequence for psychopaths.

      Until recently societies were becoming more gentle and caring until the rise of the modern Left who have now institionalised psychopathic or sociopathic-like behaviours and attitudes. E.g. it’s “their way or the highway” and they are prepared to commit violence or take other extreme measures to get their way.

      Another example, look at the terrifying behaviour of Australian police, especially in Victoria during the covid lockups. That was sociopathic behaviour encouraged by government. It brought out inate psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies in those police members. Many actually enjoyed what they were doing. Few were prepared to refuse to follow orders. It permanently changed my view of police and Australian politics and society in general.

      In fact, I could never understand how the National Socialists committed the crimes they did. Germany was a seemingly normal, advanced industrial civilisation. After the covid lockups in Australia, I realised how such things could happen, and that they could easily happen here as well.

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    Ireneusz Palmowski

    Storms drenched California for months and piled on epic amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada. The state’s May 1 snowpack clocked in at 254% of average for the date.

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    Ireneusz Palmowski

    When will the snowfall in the Sierra Nevada end?
    https://i.ibb.co/yBxc7gv/gfs-hgt-trop-NA-f024.png

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    another ian

    Re blogging things –

    This morning’s issue of Covid and Coffee newsletter has gone back to allowing “Sharing” to copy the link to view the newsletter

    Whereas, for the last couple of attempts, I got an invite to copy parts via Substack.

    And then there is this –

    “An alert reader suggested that, if you have trouble with any of today’s twitter links, try copying the link and pasting it into a new browser window. Maybe if Twitter doesn’t know you’re coming from Substack then it will work better.”

    I worked out yesterday that the rejection as spam (if forwarding tyhe email copy) was likely due to an error message about “the link you are attempting goes to another link – do you want to do this?” – and the email software was likely picking up on that.

    Obviously some of the background “joys of blogging” – from which Jo isolate us!

    Thanks!

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Follow Up – Answering Questions
    May 5, 2023 | Sundance | 157 Comments”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/05/05/follow-up-answering-questions/

    That to

    “https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/05/04/how-corrupt-is-our-current-situation-its-worse-than-most-can-fathom/

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    another ian

    SMR happenings

    “Cameco buying Westinghouse is going to pay dividends, with new SMR”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/05/05/cameco-buying-westinghouse-is-going-to-pay-dividends-with-new-smr/

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    another ian

    More “Nut Zero”

    “$50 Trillion For What? Kennedy Dumbfounds Biden Climate Peddler In Fiery Exchange Over ‘Carbon Neutrality'”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/50-trillion-what-kennedy-dumbfounds-biden-climate-peddler-fiery-exchange-over-carbon

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    Reader

    Europe must ditch self-serving Brussels’ bureaucrats and their doomed green agenda, ex-Czech PM Babiš tells CPAC Hungary

    https://rmx.news/article/europe-must-ditch-self-serving-brussels-bureaucrats-and-their-doomed-green-agenda-ex-czech-pm-babis-tells-cpac-hungary/

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    another ian

    “Biden and the Bank Crash – Why Biden’s Green Energy Push is Driving US Banks into Insolvency”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/05/biden-and-the-bank-crash-why-green-energy-drove-banks-into-insolvency/

    00