Thursday

I’ll be away for a few days at the Conference in Albury. Apologies, posting will be lighter…

10 out of 10 based on 9 ratings

95 comments to Thursday

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    The people of smaller, more vulnerable nations suffer from sanctions

    The West’s own goal: although the sanctions severely harm countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, they are a great gift for Russia. The American economist Galbraith provides a well-founded explanation.

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      Vladimir

      Totally agree with you, Krishna and other Putin Verstehers,

      It was Boris J. who sent tens of thousands of Russians to die in Ukraine; also it was Angela M. who killed them in Georgia and Chechnya. Of course, dead non-Russians (100 000?) is just a collateral damage…

      I tell you more – it will be bloody Finns and Swedes who will cause major bloodshed in Baltic countries soon.

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    New documents prove that Russia preferred peace and stability over war. Yet the West declined.

    As it had no intention of invading Ukraine, Russia was prepared to negotiate with the United States at the end of 2021. The proof has finally become public. Around the same time this news broke, German NATO generals were discussing their insidious war plans against Russia.

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    CO2 Lover

    EV Bus Fires Worldwide

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Ez54n27Gw

    Over the next 3 years, the Victorian Government and Kinetic Melbourne will introduce 36 new Zero Emission Buses to the public transport network.

    https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/footer/about-ptv/improvements-and-projects/bus-and-coach/zero-emission-buses/

    Stay tuned for further developments

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    CO2 Lover

    Guess who will have their hand out for more Government (taxpayer) subsidies?

    A massive tender for wind and solar projects is to be launched next week to help repower Australia’s biggest aluminium smelter Tomago, near Newcastle, with its majority owner saying nuclear is out of the question because it is too slow and too expensive.

    The tender will be a landmark event for the Australian renewable energy transition, because the Tomalgo smelter – with annual demand of more than 8 terawatt hours, is the biggest single energy consumer in the country.

    Majority owner Rio Tinto this year has already announced two record-breaking contracts for wind and solar farms in Australia to provide power for its Boyne Island smelter in Gladstone, Queensland, and its two alumina refineries in the same port city.

    https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-biggest-smelter-to-launch-massive-wind-and-solar-tender-says-nuclear-too-costly/

    In France, two sites produce primary aluminum: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, the oldest factory in Europe (1907), and Dunkirk, the last factory built in Europe, in connection with the nuclear program.6 Oct 2022

    https://www.aluminium.fr/en/production-and-processing/#:

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      Kalm Keith

      I suspect that the Tomago plant may be quietly equipped with a rapid startup, gas fired generation hidden behind the massive bank of batteries that will supposedly provide juice when the wind and solah are briefly not producing.

      Rio Tilto will not suffer as the government will subsidise the show fully and taxpayers will not be unreasonably hit as all the money needed will be borrowed and added to the current national debt of one thousand billion dollars.

      No worries mate.

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    another ian

    FWIW – a look at sanctions

    “I’m sure they’re weeping and wailing all the way to the bank“

    https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/03/im-sure-theyre-weeping-and-wailing-all.html

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    Reader

    Warsaw mayor funds Last Generation activists who destroyed iconic Warsaw Mermaid monument
    https://www.rmx.news/poland/warsaw-mayor-funds-last-generation-activists-who-destroyed-iconic-warsaw-mermaid-monument/

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      CO2 Lover

      Those unloved fossil fuel stocks!

      Stocks don’t get included into the Dow when they are out of favour. In fact there are numerous studies out there that show, beyond reasonable doubt, that stocks added to the Dow tend to UNDERPERFORM while those dropped from the index OUTPERFORM. Who Woulda thunk it?

      Exxon getting dropped might be the best case in point as it perfectly highlights the sentiment around energy investments. Exxon was booted from the Dow in September 2020. And guess when the best time to buy it was…

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      Adellad

      Are the Germans bailing purely because the China manufacturing juggernaut (powered by our coal) is churning out so many ev’s at such low prices that it’s simply not worth trying to compete? Maybe it’s not possible to differentiate as they do with ICE vehicles on the basis of performance, style and so on in this Brave New World?

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        Steve of Cornubia

        Don’t forget that most of the IP and expensive R&D incorporated into Chinese EVs came ‘free’, too. Combined with their cheap energy and labour, it’s a business model that’s impossible to compete with. Only Trump has the answer and is willing to do what he says he will do (though of course he won’t be allowed).

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    John Connor II

    Figure 01 AI is evolving quickly

    Figure has demonstrated the first fruit of a collaboration between the company and OpenAI to enhance the capabilities of humanoid robots. In a video released today, the Figure 01 bot is seen conversing in real-time.

    The development progress at Figure is nothing short of extraordinary. Entrepreneur Brett Adcock only emerged from stealth last year, after gathering together a bunch of key players from Boston Dynamics, Tesla Google DeepMind and Archer Aviation to “create the world’s first commercially viable general purpose humanoid robot.”

    By October, the Figure 01 was already up on its feet and performing basic autonomous tasks. By the turn of the year, the robot had watch-and-learn capabilities, and was ready to enter the workforce at BMW by mid-January.

    https://youtu.be/Sq1QZB5baNw?si=d1QmAZJV2FelrbWk

    Putting dishes away – it’s already surpassed 99.99% of uni students.
    2025 is going to be one hell of a year.

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    another ian

    FWIW – via Instapundit

    “Dish soap, hotel key cards, and confusion: Boeing FAA audit unearths dozens of issues”

    https://www.popsci.com/technology/boeing-faa-audit/

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    John Connor II

    Thursday tips corner

    If you’re after a Google Earth alternative try Satellites Pro.
    Free to use.

    https://satellites.pro/

    I now use this as it’s sharper than GE and gave better results than GE for some spots I was looking at.

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      John Connor II

      Limited nuclear war is a few years away, although it always seems imminent. Unless of course, Putin gets replaced by a hardliner this month.
      The biggest worry now is the 2025 global food crisis.
      Or was it AI? 😎😆

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        CO2 Lover

        What do you call a blonde who dyes her hair brown? Artificial Intelligence.

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          Adellad

          I know it’s curmudgeonly of me, but I have railed against blonde jokes for 30 years or so. Who is blonde – guess what, just Caucasians. These “jokes” are just another bit of casual anti-white race baiting as I see it.

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    John Connor II

    Why Have They Stopped Cellphone Radiation Research?

    U.S. Federal agencies are cancelling research, differing significantly from Europe’s more precautionary approach to cellphones. Decades of animal research point to serious health risks from cellphone radiation exposure, but examining a possible link stops now.

    The NTP published results in 2018 from two-year toxicology studies showing “clear evidence” of associations between 2G/3G cellphone radiation and tumors in male rats. Follow-up research in 2019 revealed DNA damage in the brains, livers, and blood cells of exposed rats and mice.

    Since 2019, France has mandated cellphones include warnings to keep such devices away from teens and pregnant women’s lower abdomens because of radiation risks. The European Union also funds extensive research on RFR hazards.

    “So why are we ignoring animal study results showing harm?” Ms. Davis said. “There’s only one reason: because there’s so much money involved.”

    https://principia-scientific.com/why-have-they-stopped-cellphone-radiation-research/

    You know it’s all true when they deny it. 😁

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      ozfred

      On a more radical theory, I suspect that incidence of cancer has increased greatly since the 1920s. This was the period with the massive increases of radio (electromagnetic) transmissions. Then radar and television, followed by aviation positional aids, cell and satellite devices and WiFi.
      Should we ban all of the above and require that all communication be by fiber optic cables?

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        KP

        “Should we ban all of the above and require that all communication be by fiber optic cables?”

        ..only if you don’t want to get cancer.

        People don’t seem to mind getting it, they figure there’s a cure for it, like everything, and who would want to give up the hallmarks of civilisation like mobile phones, radio, radar or TV. You can’t have a car that parks itself without EMF radiation, or lane-assist, or collision avoidance or…

        Look up “The Invisible Rainbow”, by Arthur Firstenberg, an interesting account of the problems that electricity and EMF have bought us since the 1800s. Its online as a free download.

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    OldOzzie

    For Australian Labor Party Energy Minister “Blackout” Bowen

    Nuclear fusion for the grid is coming much sooner than you think

    Britain is on the brink of striking gold in the race for limitless energy

    Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

    Commercial nuclear fusion has gone from science fiction to science fact in less than a decade.

    Even well-informed members of the West’s political class are mostly unaware of the quantum leap in superconductors, lasers, and advanced materials suddenly changing the economics of fusion power.

    Britain’s First Light Fusion announced last week that it had broken the world record for pressure at the Sandia National Laboratories in the US, pushing the boundary to 1.85 terapascal, five times the pressure at the core of the Earth.

    Days earlier, a clutch of peer-reviewed papers confirmed that Commonwealth Fusion Systems near Boston had broken the world record for a large-scale magnet with a field strength of 20 tesla using the latest high-temperature superconducting technology. This exceeds the threshold necessary for producing net energy, or a “Q factor”, above 1.0.

    “Overnight, it basically changed the cost per watt of a fusion reactor by a factor of almost 40,” said Professor Dennis Whyte, plasma doyen at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The March edition of the IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity published six papers ratifying different aspects of the technology.

    The magnets are used to fuse hydrogen isotopes by squeezing super hot plasma inside a tokamak device. The temperature must be ten times hotter than the surface of the sun in order to replicate solar fusion because the Earth’s magnetic field is that much weaker.

    The “old” low-temperature magnets are made of niobium alloys operating near absolute zero at -270C. The new magnets lift the temperature from 4 kelvins to 20 kelvins using rare earth barium copper oxide (ReBCO) with a radical new design. They combine superconductivity with extreme magnetic power. This leverages a “multiple order-of-magnitude increase” in fusion capability.

    Commonwealth’s chief executive, Bob Mumgaard, told me the game-changing technology scarcely existed 10 years ago, and was still in its infancy five years ago. “The breakthrough is in superconductors. Much stronger magnets mean that we can build a plant that is 40 times smaller,” he said.

    It is time to drop the old joke that fusion is 30 years away, and always will be. A poll at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s forum in London found that 65pc of insiders think fusion will generate electricity for the grid at viable cost by 2035, and 90pc by 2040.

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      CO2 Lover

      Even if CO2 did have some measurable impact on global climate, there are centuries before a “solution” would need to be found.

      The fusion would most likely to be well developed and CO2 could be extracted from the atmosphere and turned into methane and liquid fuels at an economic cost – so “fossil” fuels would be in the same category as “biofuels”.

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      OldOzzie

      Uranium hasn’t been this critical since the days of Oppenheimer

      And that takes us to today: nuclear is finally making a comeback.

      Unfortunately, most of the West (as usual) is missing the boat; the vast majority of new reactors will be in China, India, and other rapidly growing nations who understand that no other energy technology offers the same advantages as nuclear.

      Western politicians are still stuck in their idiotic, Dark Age beliefs that wind and solar are the way to go. But these are both completely inefficient and extremely expensive technologies.

      The amount of energy it takes to produce solar panels relative to the electricity that solar panels actually generate is a laughable pittance; this is known as ‘Energy Return on Energy Invested’, or EROEI… and with nuclear power, it’s off the charts.

      Plus, nuclear power also has one of the lowest levels of CO2 emissions of any energy source.

      (It’s also worth noting that emerging nuclear reactor technology promises to slash costs even further of establishing a new nuclear plant and increase safety even more.)

      This means that nuclear has the potential to provide massive economic AND environmental benefits. Virtually no other technology has that capability… which is why it’s only a matter of time before the world ‘rediscovers’ nuclear.

      Again, it’s already happening in Asia. In fact, it’s possible to literally count all the planned / in-progress nuclear power plants that will be coming on line in the next few years, and then estimate the annual uranium demand.

      One of the best researchers in this field, by far, is my colleague Adam Rozencwajg, who has spoken at a few of our Total Access events; Adam has gone through the trouble to count up all the new reactors and their projected uranium needs, and the answer is very clear:

      Bottom line, uranium demand is set to skyrocket. Yet supply isn’t going anywhere, not for a while.

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      OldOzzie

      Three energy realities that renewable advocates can’t answer

      Renewable energy advocates like to stick to their talking points about wind and solar, but they never seem to address the elephant — or elephants — in the room when it comes to running a grid with weather-based, intermittent energy sources, such as not being able to survive without subsidies, causing massive price increases, and ultimately leading to blackouts.

      When it comes to accounting for these issues, renewable advocates have mastered the lessons of Patches O’Houlihan.

      . Dodge
      . Duck
      . Dip
      . Dive
      . Dodge

      here are three energy realities that go unanswered.

      1. Renewables can’t survive on their own
      2. Renewables increase the cost of electricity
      3. More wind and solar means more blackouts

      Conclusion

      Despite claiming to be ardent followers of “tHe ScIEncE,” wind and solar advocates live in their own universe of alternative facts that deny the basic physics and economics of the electric grid.

      Hopefully, this piece is useful for you the next time a wind or solar stan is arguing with you in the comments section.

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    another ian

    FWIW – for comparison

    “Teaching The Science: Virginia Style”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/13/teaching-the-science-virginia-style/

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      Geoff Sherrington

      OldOzzie,
      There is abundant uranium ready to mine at the Jabilika deposit, 10 km or so North of Ranger. It is large by world standards, was part developed as an underground mine when activism and aboriginal opposition stopped it. I presume that the Ranger mill, which stopped not long ago, could be activated. It is all tied up in ab resistance following leftist legal decisions by commos like Lionel Murphy.
      There is abundant exploration potential in the Alligator Rivers region, but the Hawke mob closed this option with the United Nations world heritage mechanism. I know where we could drill a hole tomorrow and probably intersect ore grade uranium. Again, close to the Ranger mill.
      It all makes no sense. Memory lane, I was at Jabiluka the afternoon they first hit uranium in a shallow percussion hole, at the smaller Jabiluka One deposit. Later, I argued strongly for my company to take over Jabiluka with the big Jabiluka Two poised for 30 years of production, which they promptly did, so I feel like I have an interest in all of this.l
      My mates and I who were there at relevant times hold the detailed knowledge to help a fast restart, are starting to ride on ahead now. A valuable national resource is becoming extinct, while present day decision makers have little idea of why we are still in this mess of political dick swinging.
      People should go to jail for corruption of the clear, best national interest. Geoff S

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    John Connor II

    mRNA food labeling bill failed to progress in the Utah state legislature.

    The bill was sponsored by Utah Rep Trevor Lee and proposed labeling of the animal products from animals that had received genetic vaccines. The transparency to the consumer is extremely important for the products that are produced by animals treated with these poorly studied injections. The key issues with human covid shots include their inherent toxicity by design, false regulatory status as “vaccines” (since originally designed as gene therapy), their status as “EUA countermeasures” devoid of consumer safeguards, severe adulteration with plasmid DNA and other problematic contaminants found in every independent test conducted to date.

    The proposed bill was not accepted by Utah state legislature. It was defeated by an embarrassing show of paid influence with not one person speaking “against” referring to human health risk, animal health risk or risk to the environment, but only the money this regulation would cost and even ‘meat hesitancy’— if you can believe it!

    https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/mrna-food-labeling-bill-failed-to

    One way or another, they’re gunna get ya.

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    John Connor II

    Thought for the day:
    You know you’re old when you can remember songs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s perfectly, but can’t remember why you wanted to go to the kitchen.😁

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      CO2 Lover

      When I get older losing my hair
      Many years from now
      Will you still be sending me a Valentine
      Birthday greetings bottle of wine
      If I’d been out till quarter to three
      Would you lock the door
      Will you still need me, will you still feed me
      When I’m sixty-four

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      Geoff Sherrington

      JC,
      In 1965, my wife and I stepped into the world of vinyl with an LP of Beethoven’s Symphony Number 9, the Choral. We remember it well, but it did not last for long. Our 3 year old first born seemed to resent our time listening to it instead of to him and so he coated it with tooth paste and brushed it in.
      In 1983 or so our Perth electronics genius friend, Albert Berkavicius, returned from London with an exquisite Sony CD player of the type just starting in BBC broadcasting. It cost a few thou $$ but was toothpaste proof until 2019 when we finally retired it. Exquisite performance compared to vinyl. Can’t recall what we named that particular son, though. Geoff S

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        Annie

        We happily still have our LP of Beethoven’s Choral symphony. No child having fun with toothpaste luckily. We also still cherish Beethoven’s symphonies 1 to 8 in our precious Deutsche Grammaphon LPs.
        I did have younger siblings who were a bit careless with some of my parents’ old 78s, much to my annoyance.

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    John Connor II

    GM’s “Smart Driver” is watching you

    Insults are literally being added to injuries.

    The latest example being what GM styles “Smart Driver” – which isn’t a “service,” either. It is embedded in new GM vehicles whether the owner (sic) wants it or not – and it collects data about the owner’s s driving, which is then sold to the insurance mafia, which adjusts what the owner (sic) is forced to pay, accordingly.

    “GM’s Smart Driver service is optional to customers. Customer benefits include learning more about their safe driving behaviors or vehicle performance that, with their consent, may be used to obtain insurance quotes. Customers can also unenroll from Smart Driver at any time.”

    A news story references several people who own GM vehicles who – as far as they knew – never “enrolled” in the “service. Yet found out later – in the mail – that they were. This includes owners of Corvettes, the high performance sports car. What is the point of owning – of paying for – such a car when driving it more “aggressively” than an ’80s-era Yugo will be a guaranteed “ticket” every time you do?

    EV lovers ought to chew on this a little.

    In this particular case, data about your driving – collected in real time, as you drive, very much like the telemetry stream from the Apollo lunar missions broadcast live, back in the day – is sold to a “risk broker” (LexisNexis) which then sells the valuable data to the insurance mafia. It is valuable to the mafia because every “incident” of “unsafe” driving recorded by your car – the one that sold you out, literally – can then be used to justify forcing you to pay the mafia even more money than you’re already forced to pay. News stories about this ugly little arrangement describe inexplicable “adjustments” of more than 20 percent.

    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2024/03/13/smart-driver/#more-331840

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      CO2 Lover

      Since EVs do not use petrol or diesel with their exise taxes goverments will need another method of taxing EVs – this is it.

      Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

      Ronald Reagan

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    Greg in NZ

    Beware the Ides of March –

    Friday 15 March 2019: five years since the Christchurch ‘operation’ enacted by a young Australian male residing in New Zealand.

    Et tu Brutus?

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      Adellad

      And how many infidels (not to mention others of their own belief system) have Muslims dispatched at Allah’s will in those 5 years I wonder?

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      TheShadster

      Sorry for the hijack, but your post immediately brought to mind:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiLaNEFyCiM

      The Ides of March with the classic Vehicle. A bit of cheer for everyone’s Thursday… for everyone’s everyday 🙂

      (Honour the Op’s post, no replies to this post please.)

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      KP

      Pop in to see him and ask him what he thinks about it now.. I was going to catch up with Mr PortArthur but apart from being an unbelievable crack shot from the hip he is so retarded he can’t run three words together really.

      I’m sure it all makes sense if you believe the right things.

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    OldOzzie

    China EV imports are ‘landing in Europe with mold’ – 10,000 unsold cars sit in warehouses

    The cheaper average price tag doesn’t appear to tell the entire story in this China-based EV manufacturer’s case.

    Chinese-owned brands like BYD have recently launched more affordable electric vehicles in the UK, but these imported cars are reportedly experiencing quality issues that require several fixes and repairs following their arrival.

    The electric automobiles — priced at around £25,000 — are around £15,000 cheaper than the least expensive Tesla. However, their transport roadblocks include mold accumulation, scratches, and warping from the roof rack weight.

    This molding was reported as occurring with European BYD imports, with scratches happening in Japan and warping in Israel, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    While the surface presence of mold wasn’t a focus point, European importers feared that the cars didn’t receive an ionization process properly removing mold spores.

    News of BYD imports experiencing peeling paint and plastic also emerged from Thailand.

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      John Connor II

      They just “pre molded” them in anticipation of the pommy cold, wet, miserable weather.😁

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      OldOzzie

      Inaccuracy of official EV range figures exposed

      What Car? winter range test highlights the gulf between official electric car figures and the distances drivers can actually expect to travel in cold conditions…

      Official testing of electric car ranges is completely unrepresentative of real-world conditions, potentially leaving drivers disappointed and with insufficient mileage, What Car? testing has revealed.

      The official Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP), which is used to measure range, was found to be particularly unrealistic in cold conditions, where the shortfall reached almost 40% for some cars.

      Comparing a selection of 12 new fully electric vehicles (EVs), the latest What Car? winter range test found that none of the cars could get within 20% of the official figures, which manufacturers are legally required to publish.

      This is because the official tests subject EVs to unrealistically gentle acceleration and are conducted in a laboratory at an ambient temperature of 23deg C, instead of at colder temperatures where batteries are less efficient. Indeed, What Car?’s real-world testing shows an average drop in range of 18% in winter versus summer conditions.

      What Car? is calling for a new testing regime which provides drivers with realistic range estimates for both summer and winter conditions, to ensure buyers aren’t left disappointed and put off electric cars. However, in the absence of this, the What Car? Real Range testing provides drivers with figures that are in line with what they can expect to achieve on the road.

      To find out how far the 12 EVs could really go on a full charge in winter, we took them to a private test centre and drove them until their batteries were flat.

      Read the full winter range test story >>

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      OldOzzie

      The Wall Street Journal

      Electric-Vehicle Startup Fisker Prepares for Possible Bankruptcy Filing

      Electric-vehicle startup Fisker has hired restructuring advisers to assist with a possible bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the matter.

      Fisker, which recently warned that it risked running out of cash this year, hired financial adviser FTI Consulting and the law firm Davis Polk to work on a potential filing, the people said. The car company reported last month that it had $273 million in sales last year and more than $1 billion in debt.

      Fisker last month issued a so-called going-concern warning that there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay in business. The company said it was negotiating to raise additional cash from investors and looking for a new manufacturing partner in the U.S.
      Fisker and FTI Consulting declined to comment, while Davis Polk didn’t immediately respond.

      Shares of Fisker fell more than 46% in after-hours trading Wednesday after The Wall Street Journal reported the company’s hiring of the restructuring firms.

      The Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based company in late February delayed the release of its full financial results for last year, because it lacked a sufficient number of experienced accounting professionals, according to a regulatory filing.

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      OldOzzie

      California braces for new electric plan: Make more, pay more

      How to go green without going broke?

      That’s the latest challenge in the alternative energy capital of California, where Democrats propose taxing the rich to make energy more equitable and affordable.

      To do so, lawmakers mandated utilities statewide begin billing ratepayers based not on how much electricity they use, but on how much money they make.

      “This would be the first state to charge people based on their income rather than what they actually just use,” said Shon Hiatt, director of the USC Business of Energy Transition initiative.

      “The problem here has been affordability. While California has focused almost completely on clean energy, it has disregarded reliability and affordability, and costs have continued to escalate. So, one of the (ways) they thought to address affordability (was), ‘Let’s just consider a tax and begin taxing people based on their income to address electricity rates.'”

      The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has until July 1 to impose the new rate structure. The state’s three main utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric — proposed a tiered rate plan.

      Households earning $28,000-$69,000 would be charged an extra $20 to $34 per month. Those earning $69,000-$180,000 would pay $51 to $73 per month, and those earning more than $180,000 would pay a $85-to-$128 monthly surcharge.

      That’s a lot considering California’s electricity rates are already among the highest in the nation. People living in California have been paying 32 cents per kilowatt-hour compared to the national average of 18 cents, according to Energy Sage, which has monitored energy prices nationwide. It claimed California residents have been paying $273 per month on average for electricity, or $3,276 per year.

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        CO2 Lover

        Why are so many residents leaving California?

        Some parts of California are losing residents due to the high cost of living, politics, and crime. More than 800,000 people moved out of California between 2021 and 2022, according to the US Census Bureau. After subtracting the number of people who moved in, California lost almost 350,000 residents.4 Dec 2023

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          Steve of Cornubia

          “After subtracting the number of people who moved in … ”

          Do you mean the official figures, or those that include the hundreds of thousands of illegals? But of course the total population isn’t what matters. What matters is the quality of people living there, as measured by their wealth generation potential. I reckon California is experiencing a very real ‘brain drain’ that will seriously impact their economy. Businesses too are leaving, taking lots of jobs with them.

          So population numbers are only a very small factor in a state’s ‘health’ and GDP.

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    John Connor II

    Thursday satire

    Look! Up in the sky!
    Is it a bird?
    Is it a plane?
    No, it’s parts off a Boeing!

    A suspect has been identified:
    https://rvideos1.memedroid.com/videos/UPLOADED771/65e234aa1e1a6.mp4
    😆

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    OldOzzie

    [AUSTRALIAN] Alice Springs: NT’s Indigenous legal service overwhelmed after staff exodus

    Last month, 79-year-old Mick Liddle drove to the Alice Springs courthouse every day for almost two weeks in the hope his grandson, Anthony Kenny, would be able to face a judge for a bail application on a drink-driving charge.

    Liddle would arrive by 9am and sit in the waiting area wearing his fedora and collared shirt, his ­walking stick by his side, for the whole day.

    Every night when he got home, Liddle would study the Northern Territory bail legislation, writing meticulous notes by hand, in case he was required to stand up before the judge and speak on behalf of his grandson.

    In almost any other jurisdiction, Kenny would have been granted bail within a day or two. But it took 11 days for the 32-year-old, a full-time employee of Territory Housing, to have his bail application heard in the NT’s overwhelmed and under-resourced justice system. That meant 11 days locked in a packed cell in the Alice Springs watch-house, with no fresh air, faulty air conditioners and the lights permanently on.

    Aboriginal people accused of crimes in Alice Springs have increasingly been forced to represent themselves in court following a mass exodus of staff from the country’s largest Indigenous legal service, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency.

    Kenny’s long wait for bail provides a glimpse of the shocking state of the court system in the Territory, and especially Alice Springs. The Australian spent three weeks observing various courtrooms in the town.

    The Alice Springs local court is like no other.

    Despite being at the heart of the nation, many defendants cannot speak English, let alone follow the legal intricacies of their cases.

    Translators can speak most of the different dialects but many of the concepts are foreign.

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    OldOzzie

    When the Houthis Found “the Cloud”

    More than 20 countries are, in one way or another, involved in the four damaged undersea cables.

    KEVIN XU 13 MAR 2024

    One topic this newsletter has been obsessed with over the last four years is cloud data centers.

    Partially because of my previous industry experience, working deeply on cloud-based tech products, partially because these data centers are just fascinating and so crucial to the global digital economy yet so misunderstood, I have always felt the need to write every time something interesting about “the cloud” comes up.

    This obsession took an interesting turn when, last week, the AP reported that the Houthis slashed four (not three, as the headline suggested) undersea data center cables buried in the depth of the Red Sea. If true, then the Houthis have just found “the cloud” and realized how much disruption damaging these cables can cause to the global economy, perhaps even more damaging than their attacks on all the ships.

    These four cables, together, carry roughly 25% of all the data traffic that goes through the Red Sea. All the cables under the Red Sea carry roughly 80% of the traffic that goes westward from Asia – which amounts to roughly 15% of all Asia traffic (the rest, presumably, goes eastward under the Pacific). So that is about 3% (0.15 * 0.8 * 0.25) of the entire traffic volume from Asia. This may look like a small number, but considering that the APAC region has 2.6 billion online users, one-third of humanity, this 3% corresponds to roughly 78 million people. Not a small number.

    What’s more interesting is the geopolitical implications. Most of the cables that connect all the data centers, which make up “the cloud,” are owned and operated by a consortium of large telecom companies or large tech companies that want their own cloud computing infrastructures (e.g. Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, etc.) More than 20 countries are, in one way or another, involved in the four damaged undersea cables – TGN-EA, AAE-1, EIG, SEACOM – either directly via state-owned telco’s or indirectly through private companies or investment vehicles within their jurisdiction.

    Let’s take a closer look at who these companies (and countries) are.

    Hong Kong at the Center

    It’s not clear yet how these cables were cut. And, so far, the Houthis have not claimed responsibility (or credit) for these damages, though there were signs of their intentions (i.e. in the group’s Telegram chat room) leading up to the cable cutting on Leap Day (February 29).

    Amidst all the attacks above and below water still happening in the Red Sea, the only source of reliable information on these data center cable damages comes from a Hong Kong company, HGC Global Communications, a digital infrastructure operator and broadband provider that happens to be at the center of it all.

    Through two concise, matter-of-fact statements, HGC shared the extent and significance of the damage, as well as what it did to re-route traffic and keep services online for its customers. The re-routing is quite interesting. Some of the traffic was diverted to the other 11 undamaged cables still under the Red Sea. Some moved eastbound through the US and then to Europe – the long way. And some traffic actually went through Mainland China via land cables to make its way eventually to Europe.

    All this simply shows despite the omnipresent “cloud,” made only more powerful by all the AI-focused GPUs going into them, it is a fragile network connected by cables that are vulnerable to their physical surroundings.

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    David of Cooyal in Oz

    I wonder if IVM might work?
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2024-03-14/q-fever-cases-spike-queensland-/103576250

    But I bet no one official will even suggest a trial…

    Cheers
    Dave B

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      KP

      “Queensland health experts have been mystified by an “unusual” spike in cases of Q fever, a nasty bacterial disease that has long plagued rural communities.”

      Uh-huh..nothing top do with Covid vaccines destroying people’s immune system.. Nah, the answer must be-

      “Dr Steven Graves and his team at the Australian Rickettsial Reference Laboratory have been tasked with creating a new and improved vaccine.”

      …alongside the mRNA developers I am sure! ..Yes, well, the mRNA vaccine for that disease made you susceptible to this disease, but now we have another vaccine for that!

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      ozfred

      I wonder if anyone thought to check the vit D levels?

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    David of Cooyal in Oz

    These guys lack ambition – no disaster till the end of the century. They’re really not trying.

    But they have done some cherry picking :
    ” The study found one in eight ski areas across the globe, or 13 per cent of winter ski slopes, were predicted to lose all natural snow cover this century under a high emissions scenario.

    High emissions referred to one of three climate change scenarios based on the Shared Socio-economic Pathways model laid out in the study, alongside “low” and “very high”. ”

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-14/australian-alps-snow-cover-climate-change-german-researchers-/103577562

    Cheers
    Dave B

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      Yeah, sure. And we had Catherine Pickering from the ANU, claiming in 2012 that most of Australian snow would be gone by 2020. Don’t hear much from her these days.
      So when their prediction fail, they double down with even more predictions of disaster.

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      ozfred

      Do not worry. The Argentinian Congress is examining whether Mr. Milei has the authority to actually do what he has done

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Explosive Secret French Military Report Makes Shocking Admissions:”Ukraine Can’t Win!””

    “Why, I’m nearly beside myself! We were mocked for two years writing these very words, yet all along NATO military heads were secretly whispering agreement. It feels almost surreal to be vindicated in such fashion.

    Notable is the fact that in previous such public distributions, of ISW, RUSI, and other propaganda farm variety, some praise occasionally managed to slip through, but rarely without the accompanying counterbalance of heavy ridicule. “Russian forces showed strength in capturing XXX town, but they did so with meat waves generating 50,000 casualties,” and so on.

    But this report has nary a single critique—just simple unvarnished praise for the Russian Army’s demonstrated supremacy.”

    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/explosive-secret-french-military

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    DOC

    Despotism takes over Victoria completely. The State governmenr
    to remove ownership rights that stand in the way of its planning for solar farms and wind turbines. One is left with taking argument only to the Supreme Court which most individuals can’t afford.
    Dutton must immediately come out and say no way. Australia is and always will be a democracy, and function as one. The rights of the citizens are supreme. Such laws will be overturned with no right to reimbursement for any company or person that takes advantage of these despotic laws when introduced.

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