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
How much did I save by not setting foot in a retail store on Boxing Day?
Actually a trick question, since I ate far too many of the 4 dozen chocolate peanut butter chip bikkies I baked a couple of days ago.
May the New Year usher in a time of sanity.
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Many ads say “Spend X, save y. Spend XX and save 2y.” or something like that.
Then it says “See how much you saved!”
They try to redirect your attention from money spent to false savings.
If you don’t buy any of the junk they peddle, you save. Buy it and you spend.
My choice of cookies” Chocolate chip & Pecan.
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Understand all…. As a firefighter, I think you need to know this.
If you have been exposed to high levels of toxins from a Li-ion fire, you have just started your toxic Li-ion fire journey.
One of the many toxins you will encounter is…. Hydrogen Fluoride.
OK.. Large amounts of hydrogen fluoride (HF) will be generated in a Li-ion fire..
It is toxic, life threatening at 130 ppm.. With 10 minutes exposure at that level you will be gone…..
(Imho, you would be a fool to hang around putting out your li-ion scooter, let alone an EV.)
Ok so why is HF a problem for firefighters?… Well my friends, you can absorb hydrogen fluoride through your skin. You don’t have to breathe it in.
If you actually breathe enough in, good luck.
If you are in a confined area with a Li-ion fire… you will be exposed to high levels of HF… Understand that.
A link to a paper that addresses the issue of fluoride gases, is attached below, titled:
“Toxic fluoride gas emissions from lithium-ion battery fires.”
Larsson, F., Andersson, P., Blomqvist, P. et al. Toxic fluoride gas emissions from lithium-ion battery fires. Sci Rep 7, 10018 (2017).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09784-z
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Even hydrogen fluoride in water will penetrate the skin (and attack the bones). I worked with HF for 5 years and everybody was very careful about handling it (mostly as 35%).
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Pic in the Daily Mail today of an obvious EV fire. BMW hit by a “quadbike” burst into flame and the 2 occupants did not get out.
10
Japanese researchers say Omicron variants were man-made
In the Japanese paper, the scientists deduced COVID was only a “preliminary experiment” and more will follow.
“The Omicron variants were formed by a completely new mechanism that cannot be explained by previous biology. The process of how SARS-CoV-2 mutations occurred should prompt a reconsideration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,” they write.
“If the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic strain is an artificially mutated virus and if the corona disaster (corona hoopla) was a well-designed global experiment in human inoculation and a social experiment, then the design of this experiment and the nature of the virus used make it likely that this experiment is a preliminary experiment.”
https://www.westernstandard.news/news/japanese-researchers-say-omicron-variants-were-man-made/51152
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FWIW
On narratives for the coming year – and other things
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/characters-and-stories-tuesday-december?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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Good article. Not in a good way.*
Zombie Narratives.
They wander the Earth consuming brains long after they are dead.
AGW is the Origin Zombie Narrative.
Warming causes Colding.
*(BTW I learned a new term … “ableist neurotypicals”. Methinks I shall have some fun with that one.
Thank you.)
00
The numbats who have pushed CO2 induced climate change need to be outed and face judgement. An interview from 2007:
So here we are in 2023 – not much different to the last two years:
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/2023/12/26/rainfall-records-likely-as-storms-continue-to-batter-east-coast
Flannery was pushing solar, wind and geothermal to bring rain. Now we have Also promising more solar and wind generators to stop the flooding.
I suggest that these two clowns need to get their heads together and work out what solar and wind generators can actually fix. (Flannery’s geothermal was a relatively low cost obvious failure but it is taking a lot longer and a lot more money to realise that more solar and wind generators are NOT going to fix the weather)
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https://www.blitzortung.org/en/historical_maps.php?map=20
00
Tesla robot attacks an engineer at company’s Texas factory during violent malfunction
PS: It’s click bait and a beat up but it makes interesting points.
00
FWIW
“10 Improbable Energy Ideas For 2024”
“The market for Grid-scale nuclear will be dominated by 3 players.
This is the year we unofficially abandon climate targets because of the growing recognition they are unobtainable.
The world’s lightest element (hydrogen) replaces small modular reactors (SMRs) as the most over-hyped idea but we become more realistic about its appropriate industrial uses.
Nowadays, you have to prepare for the unexpected, for the event that seems barely plausible but happens. ”
More at
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/10-improbable-energy-ideas-2024
10
A wider review –
“2023: The Year In Review And A Cloudy Crystal Ball”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=250376
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FWIW
“Pandemic Industrial Complex – EcoHealth Alliance currently is receiving $50+ million in Department of Defense and NIH grants, despite having defrauded the Department of Defense, having double-billed NIH and USAID, and likely having caused a pandemic that killed 20 million and cost $25 trillion.
Related discussion on X: Virologists have some pretty strong disincentives to acknowledge the possibility that sloppy virological research killed 8++ million people.”
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1739076689936687480
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/12/26/one-flu-out-of-the-wuhan-nest-108/
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https://www.westernstandard.news/news/japanese-researchers-say-omicron-variants-were-man-made/51152
10
“Extraordinary. J.S. Bach on Glass Harp. Toccata & Fugue in D Minor”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2023/12/25/extraordinary-j-s-bach-on-glass-harp-toccata-fugue-in-d-minor/
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10 Improbable Energy Ideas For 2024
00
There is an intense winter storm slowly working its way toward North America west coast. The central pressure is 960hPa. It is whipping up waves 12m high.
I cannot find any news on its tracking but WA State should be getting some hint of its approach now.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2023/12/26/2200Z/ocean/primary/waves/overlay=significant_wave_height/orthographic=-121.30,28.18,467/loc=-149.668,37.039
It will likely bring a lot of rain to the west coast and maybe more snowfall records to tumble in the Rockies. It is likely too far south to impact Alaska and add to their already record snowfall tally.
40
the media are having second thoughts or brain farts
this just appeared in stuff
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/canterbury/301007474/nzs-hottest-day-ever-melted-roads-workers-striked-and-it-killed-26000-chickens
10
I won’t read ‘Stuff’ fluff – it’s not even worth the $1 the activist owner paid for it. Was the article about CHCH’s one hot day in a roaring nor’wester while it was snowing in the mountains recently?
Dunedin will be scorching on 12C today (typical mid-winter temp) perfect tonic for those activists who fled to the southern city to escape the prophesied burning of those of us further north, where it’s TWICE AS HOT with a mild 24C. Meh, average.
20
No not that one a rerun of a 2018 one referring to the 1972 heatwave (from memory the 1980 one was hotter)
IMHO they are testing the water to see if the activists bite while having the begging bowl out
Is the new govt having an effect
00
What the White House knew. ToM
https://www.2ndsmartestguyintheworld.com/p/bombshell-new-found-emails-prove?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web
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Fewer People Died In Britain In Years Following Doctor Who Christmas Specials
Here’s some good news: the mortality rate in the UK, and maybe the world, should be down in 2024 thanks to some intervention from the BBC and Disney. Admittedly, to believe that you need either a very poor understanding of statistics or a very optimistic faith in the influence of television, but that’s most people, surely?
Every December, the British Medical Journal (BMJ), one of the most prestigious scientific publications in the world, lets its hair down a little with an edition that has some fun. No lies are included, but sometimes papers make suggestions that shouldn’t be taken too literally. One tradition involves pretending to draw outlandish conclusions from real, but almost certainly spurious, correlations.
This year, the BMJ has teamed up with another beloved British institution, the science fiction series Doctor Who, to explore whether one doctor working over the festive season can have a meaningful impact on people’s health.
At first sight, the answer appears to be yes.
https://www.iflscience.com/fewer-people-died-in-britain-in-years-following-doctor-who-christmas-specials-72169
I guess they haven’t seen the 2023 one.
A black doctor, gay, wearing a tartan dress.
Woke+ and rubbish. The demise of the doctor.
https://www.newsweek.com/doctor-who-getting-canceled-pronouns-non-binary-60th-anniversary-special-1847038
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Quote
SMR Global Status Report March 2021
Part I: Introduction
i. This report examines the global status of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and reviews their readiness for deployment.
ii. This report separately categorises SMRs according to their design features as Light Water Reactors (Gen III/Gen III+) or Gen IV Reactors.
iii. Small reactors have been in wide use for more than 50 years to reliably power submarines, aircraft carriers and ice-breakers and the early power reactors for electricity generation were “small”. A widely accepted definition of “small” is less than 300 MWe. Reports from 2019 Parliamentary inquiries at Federal and State levels in Australia identified SMRs as suitable for Australian conditions.
iv. In August 2020 the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a final safety evaluation report (FSER) for NuScale’s SMR. This completed the safety review and allowed a Design Certification to be issued. This was the first SMR to pass NRC assessment and is a major milestone in the deployment of SMRs.
v. Reviewing the latest generation of SMRs for electricity generation, this report identifies that the two reactors at Pevek in Russia are in commercial operation producing electricity and district heating, the HTR-PM in China is in final commissioning, and two other SMRs are under construction. Many more are at an advanced stage of licensing.
vi. The South Australia State blackout in 2016 and the events in Texas in February 2021 showed how vulnerable the electricity supply system can be to extreme weather events. The frequency of these events is expected to increase and it will be important for the generation mix to include technologies which are independent of the weather. SMRs fulfil this role.
vii. There is an increasing awareness that, in addition to electricity generation, other sectors of industry have to be decarbonized. Many countries are investigating the multipurpose use of SMRs, including process heat, hydrogen production and desalination as well as electricity generation.
00
Scientists Destroy 99% of Cancer Cells in The Lab Using Vibrating Molecules
Scientists have discovered a new way to destroy cancer cells. Stimulating aminocyanine molecules with near-infrared light caused them to vibrate in sync, enough to break apart the membranes of cancer cells.
Aminocyanine molecules are already used in bioimaging as synthetic dyes. Commonly used in low doses to detect cancer, they stay stable in water and are very good at attaching themselves to the outside of cells.
The research team from Rice University, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas, says the new approach is a marked improvement over another kind of cancer-killing molecular machine previously developed, called Feringa-type motors, which could also break the structures of problematic cells.
“It is a whole new generation of molecular machines that we call molecular jackhammers,” says chemist James Tour from Rice University.
“They are more than one million times faster in their mechanical motion than the former Feringa-type motors, and they can be activated with near-infrared light rather than visible light.”
The use of near-infrared light is important because it enables scientists to get deeper into the body. Cancer in bones and organs could potentially be treated without needing surgery to get to the cancer growth.
In tests on cultured, lab-grown cancer cells, the molecular jackhammer method scored a 99 percent hit rate at destroying the cells. The approach was also tested on mice with melanoma tumors, and half the animals became cancer-free.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/scientists-destroy-99-of-cancer-cells-in-the-lab-using-vibrating-molecules/ar-AA1m43jv
Nikola Tesla would have been impressed but not surprised.
Big pharma buyout standing by.
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4
https://i.imgflip.com/75otn8.jpg
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Are these actions close to acts of war???? https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/mass-migration-blueprints-reveal-ngos-carefully-planned-us-migrant-invasion-report
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• ★ Merry ★* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★ Christmas ★。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚| 田田 |門| ˚
* Joy to all! ♫•*¨* Except for the WEF ♪♫•*¨*
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What happens when pollies are in charge of power generation?
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_s670jttk8h1w5pr9j.mp4
Pretty much !
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Rolls Royce abandons electric propulsion research
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Safe low CO2 climate; 8 killed by avalanche in southern England, Lewes, Dec 27th 1836.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/17545574.jpg
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FWIW
“General Motors has issued a stop-sale order for the all-electric Chevrolet Blazer. As previously reported, the model has been criticized for presenting reviewers with electrical problems. That’s not what you want to see from any vehicle and absolutely intolerable on an EV. Even worse is the fact that the Blazer EV uses the Ultium platform GM claims is about to underpin its future lineup.[…]
The Fast Lane Truck noted electrical problems with the GMC Hummer that made it un-drivable, requiring help from the dealership and a software flash. Meanwhile, both Edmunds and InsideEVs recounted similar problems with the Chevy Blazer EV.”
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/news-blog/stop-sale-issued-for-2024-chevy-blazer-ev-44504299
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/12/27/we-dont-need-no-blazin-sparky-cars/
10
AW: Vaccine Exemptions in NZ: Dr. Ursula Edgington Reveals Hidden Details
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(Canada) Ottawa’s 2035 EV Target Will Be a Costly Policy Failure
https://archive.is/20tUT
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(Canada) Gas-powered vehicles have become like horses and buggies, says Guilbeault
https://www.ipolitics.ca/news/gas-powered-vehicles-have-become-like-horses-and-buggies-says-guilbeault
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AW: AHPRA’s First Suspension: Dr. Oosterhuis Shares His Experience
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