Wednesday

10 out of 10 based on 16 ratings

97 comments to Wednesday

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    First up. Typical silly stuff from left field.

    Boston Globe’s whale protection contradiction
    By David Wojick
    https://www.cfact.org/2024/04/02/boston-globes-whale-protection-contradiction/

    The beginning: “The Boston Globe recently ran a silly story about the CFACT et al. whale protection lawsuit. As this title indicates, it is basically a political hit piece — “Activists are spreading misinformation about whale deaths to obstruct clean energy policies, researchers find”.
    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/25/science/activists-use-whales-to-fight-wind/

    What the researchers actually found is that CFACT, Heartland, etc. are conservatives. Ten minutes on their websites would make that clear, but apparently, it is a research result if you put a lot of work into it.

    The article talks about, but never addresses, the lawsuit. Its basic (and obvious) point is that the Feds in charge of environmental impact assessment have failed to consider the cumulative impact on the severely endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) from lining the Atlantic coast with huge wind facilities. Cumulative impact analysis is specifically called for by the Endangered Species Act, and the lawsuit simply asks that this law be enforced by the Court. There is no misinformation.

    First, in the Globe article comes a lengthy, nonsensical attack on some of the conservative groups fighting to save the whales from green industrialization on the grounds that conservatives cannot or should not do this. No comment needed.

    But then the article wanders into impact science, where they unwittingly present a telling contradiction. First, it says this:
    ““At this point, there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could potentially cause whale deaths,” NOAA said on a website dedicated to questions about whales and wind.”

    Note no evidence of POTENTIAL. NOAA used to say there was no evidence of actual killing of whales. Now, they have upped their denial to no potential. No potential means no risk, which is sheer nonsense. But then they make the mistake of talking to an actual whale scientist. The scientist says this, which clearly describes several potentials, thus contradicting NOAA:

    “That said, offshore wind development isn’t risk-free for whales, said Jessica Redfern, associate vice president of ocean conservation science at the New England Aquarium. She and other scientists studying the potential impacts of offshore wind are watching to see if the development forces them to change migration paths and whether the noise from construction could hamper a mother’s ability to nurse her calf or cause stress. And they’re watching what wind development might do to the whales’ prey.”

    Mind you, Redfern’s description of some of the well-known risks is itself symptomatic of the neglect CFACT et al‘s lawsuit seeks to correct. She refers to “watching to see” what, in fact, cannot be seen because the severely endangered whales live underwater. The whole federally funded strategy at this point is to just wait and see what happens, as though extinction were reversible.

    And, as usual, there is no mention of the huge federal harassment prediction numbers for sonar and construction, which create a huge potential for killing endangered critters. NOAA itself estimates that both sonar site surveys and construction pile driving expose a lot of whales and other protected marine mammals to dangerous noise levels.”

    More in the article. Please share it.

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      Kalm Keith

      KinkyKeith
      October 19, 2015 at 7:53 pm

      I have been aware of the Very Low Frequency problem for almost 20 years now.

      VLF is NOT noise as many greenflies would have us believe; it is pulsing which penetrates the heart/lung system and leads to serious health issues.

      The only research done on this is at NASA in relation to inter space travel where there is continuous LF vibration on long trips

      and, wait for it, Iron Curtain Countries.

      You can’t get a grant to study this widespread industrial health issue in the west because if it became public

      the drivers of heavy trucks and trains to start with, would be looking for compensation for heart lung problems and general VLF associated issues.

      Then there are the wind-farms !!!!!!!!

      No health issues there ; we’re GREEN and untouchable?

      KK

      The above also applies to whales.

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        Tel

        The only research done on this is at NASA in relation to inter space travel where there is continuous LF vibration on long trips

        That’s not right, every modern sailor deals with constant vibration from the engines.

        There’s also intermittent LF vibration in many industrial settings. For example, there’s been studies of the vibration caused by power tools … generally not real healthy if you use the same tool continuously for too long.

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        Tel

        Here … this is the first example I grabbed from a search.

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415671/

        I’ve read quite a few of these about vibration caused by power tools.

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      RickWill

      It is interesting how quickly money can convert green pretenders to business useful idiots.

      To make the slightest dent in global energy demand using WDGs require industrialisation on a scale one to two orders of magnitude higher than present. It is unachievable. But there is no limits on how far the scammers will go to rob the people who are not on their side.

      The simple test of viability is to stop all subsidies/theft from consumers and see how many WDGs get built.

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        John B

        Submissions to this proposed offshore wind farm may be made here:
        Indian Ocean off the Bunbury region, Western Australia proposed offshore wind area

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        Graeme#4

        In an area that is well served by cheap gas and coal energy, that’s stupidity on steroids. I hope that the local Nationals and Liberals take up the cudgels.

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          ozfred

          Note that the current WA Labour government has arranged to minimize the “voice” of rural residents by invoking one vote is equal in value with the understanding that almost everyone lives in the urban Perth area.
          And while I hope that the loyal opposition does continue to highlight “issues” with Labour government policies, I have little hope anyone in the Perth area will listen.

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            Graeme#4

            Because there currently aren’t any major problems with WA’s SWIS grid, my belief is that the state govt won’t be in a hurry to change the current energy mix. Part of this reasoning is their continued support of coal energy by importing coal to keep Bluewaters running, and the knowledge that coal and gas supply the majority of the grid power. Also WA gas is cheap and it’s very easy to switch on the gas peakers when demand is higher.
            I think that they will just tinker around the edges, experimenting with renewables and batteries, without planning to shut coal down any time soon.

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    tonyb

    Deep fake vice cloning on the way?

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/04/01/openais-creepy-voice-cloning-tool-which-can-replicate-anyones-voice-within-just-15-seconds-is-deemed-too-risky-for-public-use/

    It seems that AI can already mimic text and bots can spread disinformation far and wide, which leads me to wonder how the less experienced will deal with fake messages during Election campaigns? The same applies of course to such matters as climate, but it seems that what the powers that be deem to be incorrect is already targeted and removed.

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      CO2 Lover

      leads me to wonder how the less experienced will deal with fake messages during Election campaigns

      But politicians have been lying since time immemorial.

      This is the only skill that can be attributed to Australia’s current Prime Minister.

      How much so you trust the Indian who is the UK’s interim PM?

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    tonyb

    You would think Germany has enough problems already with its economy in recession, an over reliance on green energy and huge numbers of immigrants the authorities are scrabbling to find room for.

    However it seems that everything can be cured through its legalisation of Cannabis

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13258871/Germany-legalises-cannabis-Berlins-Brandenburg-Gate-spark-Smoke-celebration.html

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    please delete, as it’s obsolete now

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    David Maddison

    Australia is MUCH closer to a full-on dictatorship than most people realise.

    We have already seen what Australian Uniparty Governments are prepared to do during The Covid Lockups.

    https://www.rebelnews.com/victorian_premier_s_office_battles_to_keep_dictator_dan_s_documents_secret

    Victorian Premier’s Office battles to keep ‘Dictator Dan’s’ documents secret

    A legal dispute aiming to shield hundreds of records from Dan Andrews’ highly controversial tenure sparks concerns over government transparency.

    By Rebel News

    Premier Jacinta Allan’s legal team is locked in a heated debate at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, asserting that documents related to the mishandled hotel quarantine program, crucially sought under Freedom of Information laws, are now off-limits following Dan Andrews’ resignation in September.

    The opposition has slammed the former premier, alleging he’s deliberately stalling to evade scrutiny, fearing the case could establish a dangerous precedent enabling the government to withhold swathes of documents from public scrutiny.

    ….

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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      Yarpos

      First we wete expected to accept “I dont recall” and accept the idea that people operate at a senior level without minutes, recordings or diary notes. Now we are expected to accept witholding documents is good governance.

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      Skepticynic

      battles to keep ‘Dictator Dan’s’ documents secret

      No wonder they’re trying to censor what they call misinformation, disinformation, and “malinformation”, via the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combating Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill and every other means they can think of.

      There are some nasty skeletons in the closet.

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    David Maddison

    Dr John Campbell is interviewed by Rowan Dean on Sky News Australia.

    He is in Australia at the moment.

    Frankly, I’m surprised the Government allowed him a visa as he speaks the truth and doesn’t follow the Official Narrative.

    https://youtu.be/jQWtp-lCrq4

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    David Maddison

    Do as I say, not as I do.

    https://www.rebelnews.com/aussie_pm_and_climate_minister_slammed_after_taking_separate_private_jets_to_green_announcement

    Aussie PM and climate minister slammed after taking separate private jets to ‘green’ announcement

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen’s separate private jet usage to launch solar energy scheme called into question.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen are under scrutiny for their use of two separate private jets during a recent trip to the Hunter Valley.

    The controversy sparked after the presence of two Dassault Falcon 7X Jets at Scone airport was revealed ahead of a touted funding announcement for solar panel manufacturing.

    While the Solar SunShot program announcement was made at the former Liddell power station, Mr Albanese and Mr Bowen arrived separately on RAAF jets.

    Flight data revealed Mr Albanese’s jet left Canberra, reaching Scone in under 40 minutes before continuing to Newcastle and then Canberra. Mr Bowen’s jet followed a similar route, departing Canberra slightly earlier and returning just before the Prime Minister.

    Also, I read separately that the aircraft were left running on the tarmac (I guess the APU), presumably to keep the air con running so the crew on board didn’t feel uncomfortable…

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      CO2 Lover

      Solar Sunshot

      Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)
      https://arena.gov.au › funding › solar-sunshot
      The program aims to support innovative manufacturing facilities in Australia across the solar supply chain

      A more apt description

      Moonshot: A plan or aim to do something that seems almost impossible.

      Manufacturing is now dead in Australia with high energy costs being a leading cause.

      A recent example:The closure of ExxonMobil’s refinery in Victoria has had a knock-on effect on plastics manufacturer Qenos, which has lost $420 million over the past two years for which it has filed accounts with the corporate regulator.

      Qenos to relocate production to China.

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        Dennis

        1) China is the world market leader in solar panels.

        2) There is a world market over-supply situation.

        3) Before manufacturing could begin here on the Liddel Power Station site those buildings would have to be demolished, land prepared and new factories constructed.

        So why was it necessary for the PM and many others to travel to that site?

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      Gob

      The loss of two leading Labor twerps would be received with grateful ululation by the general public surely not lamented as a catastrophe which would have been averted had prudence dictated they’d flown separately; the lamentation would have been on account of more members of the cabinet not having been aboard so as to reprise the Katyn commemoration of over a decade ago when Poland lost president Lech Kaczynski in an air crash.

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    Kalm Keith

    The dangers to humans living in the vicinity of Wind Turbines has been perpetually referred to as “noise” in a very deliberate unscientific manner.

    The use of the irrelevant scientific term decibels is evidence of this.

    True, there is undoubtedly “noise” during their operation and this may be annoying, but the term “noise” is used to enable the misdirection of attention away from the real and damaging effect of VLF Pulsing.

    Very Low Frequency pulses will override the CNS and lead to heart damage along with violent nausea akin to constant ugly vomitous sea sickness.

    We couldn’t save humans from this ugliness so what chance do the Whales have. The whales, dolphins etc will also have to endure construction noise.

    Of course this is old news but the fact that the it continues just shows how far modern society has collapsed and we are never going to bring ourselves back to the real world anytime soon.

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    Kalm Keith

    A blast from the past:

    “Kalm Keith

    October 30, 2021 at 11:01 am

    It has been known for a very long time that atmospheric “pulsing” or physical shaking as experienced by heavy machinery operators is damaging to human health.

    Our bodies have a background control system in the ANS which, unsurprisingly, seems to be quite happy to operate normally under the natural pulsing present in the bloodstream.

    While variable the average heart rate can be put at say 70 bpm and the body has no problems accepting the variations down to 40 and up to 180 bpm.

    Our skin is the largest organ in the body: it receives and processes the Windmill pulsing along with intrusion of pressure override into the lungs.

    The windmill “pulsing” overrides the heart beat which is trying to control the ANS and, surprise surprise, people get very unwell. The ANS detects the Windmill pulsing and adapts to it with damaging effect.

    This fact has been cleverly “hidden” in the West where insurance companies proliferate: it would be a financial massacre for workers compensation to deal with all the heart problems from “vibration” issues that exist.

    Driving heavy machinery, maybe operating jackhammer and other industrial settings would be big issues for employers.

    At the moment they get a free run along with windmills just so long as they can misdirect the “science” by treating the problem as Noise.

    The whole thing is scandalous. Big money speaks, and politicians don’t need interpreters to get the message.

    VLF pulsing is Not Noise.

    Just what is the “pulse rate” of a windmill.

    Politicians don’t have our best interests

    KK.”

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    CO2 Lover

    First it was Australia Day for Woke Woolies – Now Anzac Day

    Continue the boycott

    Veteran diggers erupt as Woolworths turns its back on an iconic Anzac Day tradition
    Woolworths not stocking Anzac day biscuit tins this year

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13262053/Woolworths-Anzac-Day-RSL-biscuit-tins.htm

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      Ross

      This is the old circular argument probably proposed by Woolies, which they used with the Australia Day merchandise. They will say no-one bought the biscuits and so therefore there is not a commercial incentive for Woolies to stock the Anzac biscuits in tins. But like the AD merch the biscuits have never really been adequately displayed and promoted. Contrast this with the Halloween merchandise ( crap ) which had almost whole aisles devoted to this largely American tradition and big promotions. If instead of stocking the biscuits Woollies said they would be donating $1million to Legacy, then I would excuse them. How much did they contribute to the Voice, for chrissakes??

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      Strop

      I note the article points out that Woolies sells the packet version of the biscuits all year round, which benefits the RSL. It’s just the collector tins they’re not stocking from now. They also sell the ANZAC badges. Woolies claims to be the only supermarket doing the latter and said they’ve raised $13m over the last 10 years.
      So they’re not totally bad on this matter. If they stop doing the other components then perhaps there’s an agenda.

      Apparently the annual collector Tinned biscuits can be purchased from Coles, Aldi (limited sort), some Australia Post outlets, plus some other stores.

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    Paul Siebert

    Latest podcast from Decouple Media
    The two Marks explore Californian heaven.
    I’m taking it as explanation of South Australian heaven.

    https://youtu.be/LpYci_i4eV4

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Top International Virologist Issues Dire Warning: “Massive, Massive Tsunami of Death Among Highly Vaccinated…is Imminent” ”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/top-international-virologist-issues-dire-warning-massive-massive/

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      CO2 Lover

      Evolution at work – Survival of the fittest.

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        John Connor II

        People often speculate that if my predictions come true (of which I remain 100% convinced), the unvaccinated will once again be scapegoated for exacerbating the public health damage caused by the virus. However, I firmly believe this won’t be the case, as it will become unmistakably clear that cases of enhanced severe Covid-19 (C-19) disease will almost1 exclusively occur among the C-19 vaccinated, leaving healthy unvaccinated individuals unaffected.

        However, what is more probable is that public health authorities and self-proclaimed health experts will assert that the pandemic, which they believed was receding, has suddenly surged again due to the growing vaccine hesitancy. Consequently, they may argue that the immune system of people who decline updated C-19 vaccines is at risk of being overwhelmed by the current circulating, highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 (SC-2) variants and that many of them will therefore contract chronic SC-2 infections. As a result, they would persistently shed their own ‘home-made’ variants , so-called ‘cryptic’ lineages2,3 that typically are very peculiar and always contained in one place (i.e., primarily localized where the allegedly chronically infected person resides).

        https://www.voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org/scientific-blog/i-can-now-spot-the-tsunami-at-the-horizon

        Unvaxxed:1, vaxxed:0
        If he’s right it’ll make the Black Plague look trivial.

        And of course the German revelation:
        Over 2,000 pages showing that the ‘pandemic’ was all fraud. Highlights:

        1. ‘High health risk’ was not derived from data, but a political decision.
        2. ‘Herd immunity’ was seen as a mere narrative.

        These secret documents were obtained by Multipolar magazine and @paul_schreyer via a FOI request and a subsequent legal action.

        https://my.hidrive.com/share/2-hpbu3.3u#$/

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    another ian

    FWIW - Linux and”System D” gets a mention

    “Does Malicious Backdoor Compromise SSH?”

    https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=57646

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    CO2 Lover

    More Tesla battery problems

    This time the low voltage battery and not the high voltage one.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=201GWM_t2OM

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    another ian

    On the EV scene

    “Sinking Canoe”

    “Among the wreckage of Tesla-wanna-be “new green deal” companies out there, each of which is a flaming dumpster fire of cow dung, one particularly bad one is Canoo (which has the oh-so-clever symbol of GOEV – like GO Electric Vehicle……..get it?) It has lost approximately 99.6% of its value, which is an abysmal performance by any standard.”

    “Now, I’m much more of a chartist than a fundamentals guy, but glancing at the financial data for Canoo is quite the study. Below, for example, we can see they turned in revenue for 2023 of $886,000. That figure isn’t in millions. They literally delivered 22 vehicles over the entire year. Twenty-two. Of course, that’s cause for celebration compared to their prior year, in which 0 vehicles and $0.00 in revenue were enjoyed. The literal bottom line to this is that they bled out $488 million in 2022 and $302 million in 2023. They lost nearly a billion bucks on not even a million in revenue. Incredible.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2024-04-02/sinking-canoe

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      RickWill

      There are some well known retired cricket players who have lost a bundle on a “renewable” uber style scheme. When cricketers are investing in stuff you can probably bet on it being a good time to get out.

      Retirement funds that are heavily invested in “renewables” should be working hard on divesting these assets. The tilting to nuclear at COP29 will likely end “renewables” but not before a lot more harm in Australia. New investment in grid scale WDGs is all-but dead. It will remain that way unless there is limits placed on rooftop solar. Grid scale stuff has to respond to price signals that do not exist for rooftops. Consumer theft would need to go a lot higher for grid scale stuff to be competitive with rooftops.

      Any investor who reads the recenrt AEMO quarterly reports can see the way it is heading. The electricity market is already saturated with weather-dependent generation.

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “When You Abuse People, They Leave – $US vs BRICS+”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2024/04/02/when-you-abuse-people-they-leave-us-vs-brics/

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      David of Cooyal in Oz

      Thanks a i,
      I’ve picked out just one paragraph I wish I could disagree with, to encourage others to read it all:

      ” The Western GEBs (Greedy Evil Bastards – and their minions the Idiots In Charge: IIC) could see their end game in reach: Total World Domination was just around the corner. China was too poor to matter and the Soviet Empire was gone. They rushed to take over anything that was available (which was a lot). ”

      By the way, that extract is not the punch line.

      Cheers
      Dave B

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    Mayday

    Tennessee Senate Passes Bill Targeting Vaccines in Food while the University of California–Riverside research project is looking at whether mRNA that targets pathogens could be implanted into edible plants.
    “Vaccine Lettuce” will be classified as a drug.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/tennessee-senate-passes-bill-targeting-vaccines-in-food-5619356?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy

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      Mayday

      Why would The Epoch Times be posting an April Fools Day joke two days after the event?
      The news every day now looks like April Fools Day.

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    Hanrahan

    Callide C3 returning to service after cooling tower rebuild:

    02 APR 2024
    Section Menu
    NEWS
    Unit C3 at Callide C Power Station is generating electricity following its return to service over the Easter long weekend.

    CS Energy brought C3 back online yesterday afternoon (1 April) following a thorough commissioning process to test the unit and its new cooling tower over recent weeks.

    Callide C’s other generator – Unit C4 – will make a staged return to service beginning on 30 June 2024 (200 MW) before returning to full capacity (420 MW) on 31 July 2024.

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      RickWill

      Good news for the grid.

      NutZero needs massive government guarantees to rekindle investment. The whole woke mess will be treading water until (or unless) Snowy2 is completed. You cannot get very far by pushing on a string and that is where the NEM’s grid scale WDGs find themselves. And,in fact, their market opportunity is shrinking as more rooftop solar is installed.

      Government guarantees come with sovereign risk and that has proven to be a certain way to lose money investing in Australian projects. There are many examples where governments have changed the rules to terminate contracts.

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    John Connor II

    Magnitude-7.5 earthquake hits Taiwan, triggering a tsunami warning for Japan

    A tsunami warning has been issued for south-western Japan after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 struck in the ocean near Taiwan.

    The warning was issued for coastal areas near the southern prefecture of Okinawa, National broadcaster NHK said.

    The tsunami is expected to be up to 3 metres.

    The strong quake knocked out power in several parts of the Taiwan capital Taipei, according to a Reuters witness.

    The Japanese Meteorological Agency says the depth of the earthquake is very shallow, making the impact worse.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-03/tsunami-warning-issued-in-japan-after-earthquake/103661984

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    John Connor II

    Alleged Financial Benefits of Diversity Vanish Under Scrutiny, Study Shows

    The road to riches may not be paved with diversity, equity, and inclusion after all.

    A pair of economists investigated a trio of studies that claimed there are bottom-line benefits to diversity in the executive ranks of companies. They found that the linkages did not exist.

    The researchers — Jeremiah Green, an associate professor of accounting at Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, and John Hand of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School — found there were no statistically significant correlations between the racial and ethnic diversity of a company’s executive team and its financial success.

    Mentions of DEI or diversity, equity, and inclusion appears to have dropped dramatically since its peak in 2021, according to Axios.

    Johnny Taylor, the president of the Society for Human Resource Management, said in a January interview, “The backlash is real. And I mean, in ways that I’ve actually never seen it before. CEOs are literally putting the brakes on this DE&I work that was running strong,” since the death of George Floyd.

    https://www.yourdestinationnow.com/2024/04/alleged-financial-benefits-of-diversity.html

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    OldOzzie

    How an Italian province made it affordable to have a family

    Bolzano, Italy: In a municipal building in the heart of the alpine city of Bolzano, Stefano Baldo clocked out of work early for his breastfeeding break.

    “It’s clear I don’t breastfeed,” Baldo, a 38-year-old transportation administrator, said in his office decorated with pictures of his wife and six children.

    But with his wife home with a newborn, one of the parents was entitled by law to take the time, and he needed to pick up the kids. “It’s very convenient.”

    Full houses have increasingly become history in Italy, which has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe and where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as well as Pope Francis, have warned that Italians are in danger of disappearing.

    But the Alto Adige-South Tyrol area and its capital, Bolzano, more than any other part of the country, bucked the trend and emerged as a parallel procreation universe for Italy, with its birthrate holding steady over decades.

    The reason, experts say, is that the provincial government has over time developed a thick network of family-friendly benefits, going far beyond the one-off bonuses for babies that the national government offers.

    Parents enjoy discounted nursery schools, baby products, groceries, health care, energy bills, transportation, after-school activities and summer camps. The province supplements national allocations for children with hundreds of euros more per child and vaunts child-care programs, including one that certifies educators to turn their apartments into small nurseries.

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      Graeme#4

      Wouldn’t make much difference to their work output, from what I observed working in a Rome office for a week. Local staff never there, lucky to obtain two hour’s work a day out of them – always across the road for a coffee break or lunch. Came in late, always left early.

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      Steve of Cornubia

      Where is the money coming from to pay for all these “family friendly benefits”?

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        KP

        An interesting question.. Can we return to the society where only one married person needed to work and the other stayed at home and raised a family? Why are we so poor nowadays that both people in a couple need to work?

        It looks to me like the march of progress has been reversed and we are worse off, even with dishwashers and iphones. Not only are both people working, but they are far more indebted and the country’s Govt is much deeper in debt.

        Some big decisions along the way were clearly wrong, but no-one wants to discuss how and why it happened.

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          Yarpos

          Read a story the other day about a mum, who worked to top up her husbands wage to afford a mortgage. In the evening she watched a video of what her kids did at childcare that day, instead of being there.

          She figured something was wrong. They had a chat. They went regional so the could afford to live basically on what he earned and she could be with the kids as they grew up. Apparently it makes more sense.

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    Dennis

    The total area of agricultural land in Australia with a level of foreign ownership has decreased by 10.0% from 52.985 million hectares (ha) at 30 June 2021 to 47.709 million ha at
    30 June 2022.
    Using the ABS measure of total agricultural land area in Australia, the estimated proportion of agricultural land with a level of foreign ownership at 30 June 2022 is 12.3%, compared to 14.1% in the prior year.
    Figure 1 shows the area of foreign held agricultural land against the ABS measure of total Australian agricultural land to show the level of foreign ownership as at 30 June 2022.

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    Dennis

    When the total foreign held freehold and leasehold interests are aggregated, China has the largest holding of total Australian agricultural land of 2.0%. This is followed by the United Kingdom with 1.9%, Canada with 0.7%, the United States of America with 0.6% and Netherlands with 0.6%. Refer to Table 5.

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    Dennis

    Foreign owners aside note that over 55 per cent of all land in Australia is controlled by Aboriginal Land Councils beginning from Labor’s Native Title legislation late 1980s and related Mabo Decision – continuous occupancy must be proven.

    Additional land has been granted and other areas now subject to land claims under State legislation, public lands not in use, even for example a former bowling club site in the North Sydney Council District.

    The question should be how much of the now Aboriginal lands is continuous occupation proven?

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    OldOzzie

    Things are Tough in Ukraine

    Zelenskyy Acquires Highgrove House, Former Residence of King Charles for £20Million

    Ukraine’s Zelensky is the New Owner of Highgrove House, Former Home of King Charles and Princess Diana

    Royal Purchase – Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the New Owner of Highgrove House, Previously Owned by King Charles. Highgrove House, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire, served as the country residence of King Charles III even after he assumed his new role as Britain’s reigning monarch.

    It was purchased in 1980 by the then Prince Charles from Maurice Macmillan, son of the former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. During his first marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, the family would spend weekends in Gloucestershire with Princes William and Harry, before returning to Kensington Palace.

    In 2024, King Charles III sold his residence, having owned it for 44 years.

    What is _at first glance surprising_ is that the new owner of the royal estate is Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine.

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    another ian

    FWIW

    Cartoon caption (no link)

    “JUST IN: Sen. Bernie Sanders spotted
    sprinting back and forth between his
    three mansions so the squatters he
    advocates for don’t move in. “

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      another ian

      And

      “PEOPLE ARE BEING PÅID TO PROTEST MY RALLIES

      CLIMATE PROTESTERS CRASH DONALD TRUMP RALLY IN IOWA

      I’M NOT PRESIDENT YET, AND I’M ALREADY CREATING JOBS”

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        The anti-Israel protestors made a noise outside the meeting of the Three Stooges at Radio City Music Hall, so no one is immune.

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    another ian

    Mentioned in despatches again!

    “Another Outlandish Overreach By The CDC”

    “Easter weekend was lovely in every way.

    And yet I could not stop thinking about the strange manner in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has had such an outsized role in the ruination of American rights and liberties. This agency is supposed to be tracking infectious disease and finding ways out. This mandate became the leverage to allow them to impose nationwide mask mandates, a rental moratorium, a shutdown of the cruise industry, and otherwise send the whole country into fits of hysterics for two years and more.”

    “As it turns out, the CDC had quite a large role in guiding election processes. Not that you can find the evidence on their website now. Nope, it’s all been scrubbed. However, if you look at the Wayback Machine, you can find an interesting little point. The CDC strongly recommended mail-in, absentee, and early voting as a means of disease control.”

    “It seems that President Trump was following the advice of his scientific advisors who later turned out to be snake oil salesmen. Indeed, he seemed extremely uncomfortable making this announcement, almost like he knew that it was weird and probably unwarranted. Strange night.

    As it turns out, earlier that day, the CDC decided that the whole country really ought to be voting by mail. They went into the website and edited the page that very day and produced the following checklist.”

    More at

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/another-outlandish-overreach-cdc

    And the TGA?

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    John Connor II

    Adidas Bans The Number 44

    Adidas has banned football fans from buying German football kits customised with the number 44, after media raised their resemblance to the symbol used by World War Two-era Nazi SS units.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68708981

    Ban the letter “S” next?

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    another ian

    “‘The Lab-Leak Cover-Up Is Damaging Science’

    “We need to get government out of research if we want to return from “science” to actual science.

    https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/04/02/the-lab-leak-cover-up-is-damaging-science-n3785786

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      John B

      Easy (grant) money, with a big possibility of being mentioned and your photo taken by the ABC. As long as the news fits with the dogma of catastrophic climate change.

      20

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        el+gordo

        The average person is undisturbed.

        ‘Australia just had one of its wettest and warmest Marches on record as the country experienced a climate juxtaposition of persistent late season heat alongside widespread outback rainfall.

        ‘The national area-averaged rainfall in March 2024 was 86% above the 1961-1990 average, making it Australia’s third wettest March in 125 years of records.’ (Weatherzone)

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          Annie

          Not wet here in Nth Central Vic, only 17mm for the whole of March. However, we had 59.4mm on the 1st of April!

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          Graeme#4

          Not in the west, at least not in Perth. Driest six months for almost 150 years. Thank goodness for Desal.

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            el+gordo

            The Desal in Sydney is a white elephant.

            I’ll follow up that Perth anomaly and see if anything can be linked.

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    Yarpos

    So , Taiwan. Severe earthquake damage.

    China says Taiwan is China. Will China use this moment to:

    A) Be seen to help their claimed fellow Chinese

    B) Strike in a time of weakness

    C) Continue sabre rattling, but basically do nothing.

    20