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
I have spent hours on AI questions to work out how to sort heatwaves index data. I want to sort it into the hottest then next hottest etc heatwaves index each year for each weather station, with the complication of rejection of the index of such days that are within 2 days before or after the date of a hotter index.
AI has failed every time, by assuming it can invent home-made culling rules that I have not specified. On successive attempts it just gets sillier then admits failure.
I am wondering if anyone here with skills in Excel such as writing macros using conditional formatting wants to get together. Or taking a fresh start without Excel and writing a short program. Or showing a way with SAS JMP software.
I have spent most of my climate work on this problem since the start of 2025 and have thought myself into a corner. I was never good at writing software because I was usually surrounded by programmers far better than me, employed to help.
Geoff S
151
At the moment, AI is Automated Idiocy. Nothing intelligent about it at all.
Rubbish In and Rubbish Out IMHO.
Machine Learning has a long way to go yet.
240
JR I do not agree. Yes different AI sites are programmed initially by people you do not understand technology (engineering in particular from which physics has been derived and often twisted) but ask the right questioned, ask for proofs etc then the AI will learn and hopeful come up with facts. I have had a go at Chat GP and Perplexity.AI. The latter apologised twice for being wrong when I asked them to go deeper and provided factual data. Have sites have said about the 2nd law of thermodynamics that it applies spontaneously at every point of heat transfer got them to admit that a molecule of CO2 in the atmosphere can not radiate to the warm Earth surface. The AGW is based on wrong assumptions and a breach of engineering technology.
Perplexity.ai admitted that it had not read the peer review article by Niklov and Zeller and that it and the critics of the article did not understand dimensional analysis (an engineering subject to obtain relationships with dimensionless numbers such as the Reynolds number (for fluid flows) or the Mach number. It admitted that using the data on planets obtained from NASA and other country space probes puts a new and different aspect in which atmospheric composition has no significance.
I will not mention names but two well known posters (one a scientist and the other no technical qualifications but some experience computer data interpretation) who criticised the N&Z paper have no idea about dimensional analysis. Perplexity.ai at least read the paper after prompting.
21
“.. a molecule of CO2 in the atmosphere can not radiate to the warm Earth surface.”
If a molecule of CO2 emits a photon then surely that photon might be emitted downwards towards the Earth. Of course if the Earth’s surface is warmer than the air at a certain hight then more infra red photons will be emitted upwards than come downwards but if some are emitted downwards then surely the rate of heat loss from the Earth’s surface will be reduced? Surely the debate about anthropogenic global warming should be about the extent of the greenhouse gas effect and not whether or not the effect exists?
33
Roy, the movement of energy from a CO2 molecule may occur by loss of energy in collision with other atmospheric gases or by radiation.
Bohr theory.
Radiation will only occur when a drawing potential is large enough to initiate the process.
The emitted energy will move towards the drawing potential and not towards a hotter Earth.
That’s basic thermodynamics and atomic theory.
01
Keith, can you define “drawing potential” and are there any observations to support this hypothesis?
If there are none, are there any mysteries or puzzles that this speculative idea might explain that we cannot already explain with standard physics and photons that are emitted randomly.
Roy, thank you, and yes, that’s how I see things.
30
CO2 emits energy in two ways. By collision or radiation, agreed.
However, this radiation is not caused by a ‘drawing potential’, whatever that might be, but by the interaction of the electric dipole moment of the molecule with the surrounding electromagnetic field. The electric dipole moment of the molecule changes as a result of the vibration of the molecule (Symmetric, asymmetric, or bending)
Photons are emitted from CO2 in random directions, including back at the earth.
20
Hi Jo and Leo.
My comment was prompted by this statement from Cementafriend:
“sites have said about the 2nd law of thermodynamics that it applies spontaneously at every point of heat transfer got them to admit that a molecule of CO2 in the atmosphere can not radiate to the warm Earth surface. The AGW is based on wrong assumptions and a breach of engineering technology
00
Dear Keith, as I keep saying, the Second Law applies to the NET flow of photons, not each individual one. Relevant to your point above, consider what happened when I asked ChatGPT to find me a Feynman or Rutherford or Maxwell type quote to fit. It replied:
Then I asked it for the exact page and chapter, and that’s when I found out that the quote was what Feynman would have said if he’d been asked. But since none of the physicists discussed this (presumably because it was not worth asking, it was so obvious) Feynman never had to answer.
My point is that AI makes stuff up all the time. If you think an AI telling-you-what-you-want-to-hear means something, I have bad news.
20
Sorry my phone locked up.
My post above was also prompted by Roy’s response to Cementa and then Leo’s comment which was primarily about Collision energy.
The emission of radiation from CO2 is tied to the understanding of the electron orbitals of the individual ATOMS within that molecule; ie a different process.
The first question then becomes, “what prompts the release of radiant energy from the atom”?
The radiant energy being released is energy put into the atom which elevated an electron to a higher orbital .
When conditions change the electron drops back to its normal position and releases a very specific amount of energy.
The Algorithm has a lot to answer for.
00
Dear Jo,
When you say: “My point is that AI makes stuff up all the time. If you think an AI telling-you-what-you-want-to-hear means something, I have bad news.”
I have some even badder news: I don’t use AI, whatever that is.
It’s best to stick to learned core science and engineering.
[Keith, then you don’t realize Perplaxity.ai (which you quoted) is an AI? – Jo]
00
Leo, a quote from someone else:
“The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal empirical observation concerning heat and energy interconversions. A simple statement of the law is that heat always flows spontaneously from hotter to colder regions of matter (or ‘downhill’ in terms of the temperature gradient).”
That doesn’t mean that heat can go from cold to hot. It does imply a reduction in the heat flowing from hot to cold because of the presence of the cooler source.
People are misinterpreting this.
00
Yes, some people (you) are saying that “heat” = “photon” which is not correct. Heat flows to cold but Photons go in every direction.
But no matter how many times I explain it, you argue that space or cold has a pull — a “drawing potential” but here we are. I ask you for any observations, even any mysterious puzzles and you don’t answer my question.
00
Re= d.ub.ro/mu
01
More of the same. So much more that it might be useful.
00
Is that the AI content or the other CO2 retention thing.
In recent days our local temperature has varied by 7C° from midnight to high noon and if the sun didn’t rise tomorrow we would be looking at a further drop.
It’s the presence of an atmosphere with or without CO2 that slows thermal loss and keeps us from freezing overnight.
00
Searching AI for an answer to a question is a waste of time. It will always be ‘Garbage in Garbage out’.
If you want to spruik garbage, that’s fine, you have that right. If I see AI or a chatbot listed as the source or used as a reference then I know the whole comment is to be ignored, that’s my right.
Adding value is not repeating some AI rubbish, it’s a process where you use your brain, do some analysis, add some reasoning and be human. Then comment. If I wanted a computer to talk to, I’d do those ‘confirm you are human tests’, (issued by a computer too thick to care).
110
Geoff
Send me an Excel file with a single temperature record and a description of what you would like to get from in it.
60
Rick,
Thanks, will do.
I have found ChatGPT useful. For example, how many km from each other are the 10 main stations in my study, given lats and longs? A neat table came back in seconds with all 45 pairs. Geoff S
70
Geoff Sherrington,
It’s as Mr Rotten says, Automated Idiocy.
The Spurious Correlations site has been around for a while; a good one for statistics sceptics.
As an example, there’s a near perfect relationship between Associate Degrees Awarded in Health Professions and Number of Vending Machine Repairers in Mississippi. Pure coincidence, of course, but might wake a few people up to the fact that high statistical significance proves nothing.
The site now includes an AI-generated “explanation” for the relationship, and a similar scientific paper. If AI had any intelligence at all it’s response would have been: You must be joking!
61
Using Ventusky dot com, (or similar) have a look at North America. Except on fringes, it is cold everywhere and snowing hard in places. Here in central Washington State, 100 miles east of Seattle, visibility if about 1/4 mile because of snow. and I need to go ten miles for a medical appointment!
A change-of-season has been promised for next week. 🤠
140
Dr Who for the Axe? It has become very silly
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/02/18/doctor-who-faces-axe-while-lead-actor-is-on-verge-of-quitting-amid-drop-in-ratings-and-fan-fury-at-woke-storylines/
200
Bring back Tom Baker and the Daleks. And his lovely Assistant,
190
Get woke. Go broke.
260
I am sure we will all be relieved when asthma inhalers and anesthetics are changed to ensure their use doesn’t alter the climate. Now this is being extended in Wales to pharmacists.
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/02/18/pharmacists-expected-to-undergo-training-in-climate-change-and-carbon-literacy/
160
Is America still a reliable ally? It cut and run in Vietnam, did the same in Afghanistan leaving its allies in the lurch.
Dictators worldwide will be emboldened by Americas direct talks with Ukraine whilst appearing to blame them for the conflict. They will recognise that the West does not always have the attention span and long term commitment they do. Australia has many riches. Does it ever consider itself at all vulnerable –over the long term not short term trade spats-to China, if not by actual invasion, by extreme coercion?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14412763/Chinese-warships-Sydney.html
107
Australia has many traitorous politicians.
In 2019 the Australian Government, unbelievably, invited Chinese warships into Sydney Harbour and didn’t even bother announcing it beforehand.
In doing so the boundaries were lowered and as the Chicomms are patient, they waited another six years for this show of power.
America has always been a reliable ally for Australia but presently we have a Sinophile Ambassador to the US, a Prime Minister and a Foreign Minister all of whom have Trump Derangement Syndrome and all of whom are of the far Left.
This time, I don’t think TRUMP will be rushing to our aid.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/03/three-chinese-warships-arrive-in-sydney-harbour-for-four-day-stopover
220
I agree completely with Donald Trump’s assessment. And Zelensky as a dictator without elections. Perfectly expressed.
Zelensky does not want peace except on his terms. And the press in Europe is outraged. But when have the UK, France and Germany been concerned about the rights of the million Russians who have died in Zelensky’s war or any war. Ukraine is not in NATO and Zelensky blew up the pipeline which supplied their ally Germany. Where has all the money gone?
Trump’s approach is not cutting and running. How many more have to die? What point is being proven? At what cost? Kiev is not destroyed.
This is a long standing Civil war of over twenty years and now a proxy war between Europe and Russia with support from Biden’s America. Obama for some reason put Biden in charge of Ukraine and a disaster has unfolded every since. Trump has even been impeached over the allegation he threatened to do exactly what Biden did in stopping the investigation into Burisma and his son’s $1M a year. Arms for influence.
Biden’s Afghanistan was very different to Vietnam where the Viet Cong won the war and captured Saigon and the Americans fled.
In Afghanistan the army was shipped out in a rout within 24 hours with no warning to anyone, especially America’s allies. It was not a strategic retreat in face of an actual threat. Kabul was peaceful.
The US army even abandoned tens of billions of dollars in the very latest weapons and helicopters. No general would do that. There was zero planning. And they had to fly the army back to protect US friends and allies so they could escape as well when there was no need to flee. Only the President himself, Commander in Chief could have ordered this total rout. Without explanation, planning. It is being investigated. I suspect Blinken because the President had no idea.
Behind every war you find Blinken. Behind the invasion by tens of millions of illegals, you find Mayorkas. Behind Gaza you find Blinken. Biden has not been in charge for years. It’s been all Blinken.
The real world power is in the UN Security Council, the states who can launch nuclear war in 20 minutes. China, America, France, UK, US. It is these countries which control the planet. And most wars since WWII are proxy wars between these. At no time do I read any criticism of the UK and France, fighting yet another proxy war against Russia. Why? And when in the last 250 years has that not been true?
Thankfully Trump and Putin will stop this war. You would think that was a bad thing?
I would suggest a UN plebiscite in the ‘conquered’ Crimea and Donbas to settle the matter once and for all. Then maybe tens of millions of displaced Ukranians can go home at last without their country destroyed. Many of those fled to avoid conscription and death in Zelensky’s war. History will decide on his role as a one man non democracy as the facts come out.
In Ukraine and Afghanistan and Gaza, it was Biden and friends, not a false friend in America. And the money has been turned off, the real driver of war. Money and power and land. The real enemy is never mentioned as they buy influence and real control. As in the Panama Canal and the Port of Darwin and waiting in the wings for the US airforce base on the Chagos islands.
446
Ukraine is a democratic country that was invaded by a foreign power. This is not a civil war.
754
Read some history. Study the subject.
301
I do. Various empires have fought over Ukrainian land for centuries. Ukrainians have there own distinct language and culture and have a right for self-determination.
The UK suspended elections during World War II, that didn’t make Winston Churchill a dictator.
613
A good answer Simon. Addresses the topic and makes some salient points in doing so
49
Try Victor Davis Hanson for some reasoned clarity – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTzTheRD25M
02
Almost all Ukranians speak Russian, not that Ukranian is much different. And usually one or both parents are Russian. In fact Zelensky is a native Russian speaker who speaks Ukranian badly. Most are Russian Orthodox, which Zelensky has restricted as their allegiance is to Moscow. The Polish are largely Catholic, another source of conflict.
The areas in the NW around Lviv grabbed by Stalin in WWII can be Catholic, parts of Poland. They were all carved out of Russia by the Germans after Russia was defeated in WW1. Most cities including Odessa and Sebastopol were created after the Russian conquest of the steppe cossacks in the 1880s. There were so few people after the removal of the Zaporozhian Cossacks that Grigory Potemkin advertised internationally for migrants, even people from jails. It’s newer than Australia. Kiev itself though is ancient, the heart of the Kievan Rus which predated Moscow. Russia is very careful not to destroy their own history.
This war is a tragedy for all the people of the region. The Germans in WWII even stole the fertile black topsoil which they shipped in trains back to Germany. It is unbelievable that German tanks are back in Kiev.
70
And tell me which language is normally spoken in Crimea?
00
>a democratic country
Really? With a one-party state, no elections, and a support-base of 4%?
In a treaty-breaking expansionist effort to extend NATO right up to the Russian border, Ukraine’s democracy was overturned by a Victoria Nuland/USAID?C!A manufactured civil unrest/massacre where, as is usual in these colour revolutions, the democratically elected leader has to escape by helicopter or jet and a NATO-friendly leader is installed. Zelensky has a 4% popularity, (that is the massively USAID-enriched kleptocratic elites who are offending Europe with their ostentatious Lamborghinis and Prada handbags), meanwhile the war-criminal puppet Zelensky has lorded over the destruction of his beautiful historic country, the tragic genocide of the male population, and the evacuation of everyone else who was able to escape.
223
Maybe 57%.
60
It makes no difference.
The POINT is that this is mass slaughter on an industrial scale! It needs to stop. Zelenssky wants it to continue. Click this link to see a tiny glimpse of the tragedy he is profiting from… and weep.
Zelensky and Biden are monsters.
Meanwhile the EU discusses more ways to kill off the Ukrainian male population in an unwinnable conflict.
https://x.com/Alex_Oloyede2/status/1891856569547063427?mx=2
40
Undoubtedly needs to stop.
I seriously doubt anyone (including Trump) could have negotiated an end before it started.
Anything ceded early surely would have resulted in the same war moved a bit further westward.
00
“Really? With a one-party state, no elections, and a support-base of 4%?”
The 4%is a false figure from Trump on February 18. The reality is that Trump’s assertion does not align with the available polling data. According to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), conducted between February 4-9, Zelensky enjoys a trust rating of 57%, a notable increase from 52% in December 2024.
Critics have quickly debunked Trump’s claims, with experts pointing out that the 4% approval rating is a baseless figure, and Zelensky’s true approval is much higher. Keith Darden, a political science professor at American University who closely monitors Ukrainian politics, stated that the KIIS polling is one of the most reliable sources in Ukraine.
https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/zelenskys-popularity-under-scrutiny-amid-accusations-of-dictatorship/3754838/
43
That figure of 4% is straight from Putin and now echoed by Trump. Consistent figures show up to around 60% support. The UK had no elections between 1935 and 1945.Under martial law elections are banned.
Perhaps you can clarify how you hold elections when 20% of your territory is in someone else’s hands, millions of people displaced internally and are in other countries and when the Russian ruthless targeting of civilians would no doubt be extended to polling stations.
23
Simon this story is old, but you might find it interesting.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957
42
Very selective prism you look through Simon.
No mention of 2014 US inspired coup
No mention of a decade of terrorizing ethic Russians in the East
No mention of the Oblasts wanting seperation from Ukraine
No mention of the called democratic country being lead by an expired now self annointed dictator, with no prospect of an election.
We can all read the Guardian if we are silly enough, there is no need to regurg it here
143
Simon is correct. (and I rarely get to say that)
However you look at this, it was an invasion: an armoured column launched at Kyiv, helicoptered special forces attempted to take over the airport, troops rolled into Donbass.
Somehow it was all Ukraine’s fault?
I am very sure that an immediate negotiated surrender of part of the territory would have simpy resulted in a frontline war launched a bit closer to Kyiv.
And somehow it is legitimate because Moscow has now changed its mind and would like to regain territory they once held and had ceded to self governed democracy?
Trump may be being brutally practical in seeking a simple end to the war, but there is little doubt the aim is also to buddy up to Putin. To what end I don’t know. That may or may not turn out to be a good idea for the USA.
01
Obama for some reason put Biden in charge of Ukraine and a disaster has unfolded every since. Trump has even been impeached over the allegation he threatened to do exactly what Biden did in stopping the investigation into Burisma and his son’s $1M a year. Arms for influence.
And Biden pardoned Hunter & his Family all the way back to the 2014, when was the Maidan Revolution – See Victoria Nuland – Hmmm?
Victoria Nuland, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, was involved in the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine.
She visited the Maidan Square on December 13, 2013, the day after a violent clash between protesters and the Berkut riot police, to show support for the protesters and handed out bread and cookies to both protesters and security forces as a gesture of acknowledgment and compassion.
During the turmoil, Nuland was also involved in discussions about shaping the post-Maidan government. In a leaked phone call, she and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, discussed the role of various opposition figures in the new government, with Nuland expressing a preference for Arseniy Yatsenyuk over Vitali Klitschko.
Some narratives portray Nuland’s actions as part of a U.S.-orchestrated coup
200
Good Summary by this Comment
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2025/02/trump-on-zelenskyy-and-ending-the-war-in-ukraine.html#comment-6a0177444b0c2e970d02e860fa105f200d
70
French President Macron and British PM Starmer Coming to U.S. to Discuss Ukraine with President Trump
February 19, 2025 – Sundance
Last weekend French President Emmanual Macron organized an emergency meeting in Paris with leaders from the European Union to address the unfolding crisis of President Trump organizing a ceasefire and peace in the war between Ukraine and Russia.
The outcome of the meeting was what would be expected. Each member of the EU said they would not put their military forces into a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine if the United States were not leading the effort.
Having previously warned the NATO alliance to step-up their military spending, President Trump has no intention of putting U.S. troops into a regional conflict that affects Europe.
Additionally, Macron has domestic political issues he is hopeful to draw attention away from; meanwhile British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is similarly alarmed as the U.K has taken up the prominent position of military support for Ukraine. Together, they are both planning quick trips to the White House for talks with President Trump.
90
I would like to see a full accounting of the US$183 billion (at least) of US taxpayer money that Biden sent to Ukraine.
I assume this “aid” has stopped with TRUMP?
https://www.ukraineoversight.gov/Funding/
130
If the Left are supporting Ukraine and TRUMP Russia, I think it’s a fair bet that Russia are the good guys.
212
“f the Left are supporting Ukraine and TRUMP Russia, I think it’s a fair bet that Russia are the good guys”
I hope you don’t frequent the bookies.
46
‘And Zelensky as a dictator without elections.’
Elections cannot be held in time of war, even Churchill knew that.
I saw Tony Abbott on Times Radio, very impressive.
And I agree with Simon on this being an imperial invasion, regardless of Nuland.
47
Abraham Lincoln held an election in the midst of an horrific Civil War, which looked like he would lose both war and election. However, he was a Republican that believed in the Constitution, Democracy and the Union.
100
The Viet Cong didn’t win the war in Vietnam. It was the North Vietnamese Army who broke the cease fire and invaded. The then Senator Joe Biden had stopped all resupply of parts for the South’s tanks and airplanes so the South could not fly their planes or drive their tanks. The follow on was Biden stopped any food or accommandation for the Vietnamese refugees from government sources. President Ford had to ring up the churches to supply food and accommadation 🙂
50
Biden
20
TdeF, quite correct.
The UK in World War II had a coalition government. In no sense was it controlled by one person, Churchill or anyone.
The current government of Ukraine is controlled by Zelensky whose mandate has expired and who allows no dissent. Corruption and p-piano playing may be considered relevant. The election that put Zelensky into power was a Obama/Nuland coup.
10
The current threat to Australia is loss of cultural identity through immigration. Probably not as bad as the UK where men of certain cultural background treat women as scum. In Australia, the concept of private property is being eroded. A motor vehicle visible from the street belongs to whoever is willing to take it. An unveiled woman is an open invitation for sex.
Asian immigrants are more respectful of property rights than those coming from Africa (northern or central)
The riches in terms of energy abundance do not count for much when there is a globalist inspired prohibition on their exploitation. Australia’s main enemy is within like JD Vance pointed out for Europe. The globalist take over of all of government to suppress the aspiration of the productive people in the population. Again, not as bad as the UK, but up there.
I do not see any present conflicts as serious. They are meat grinders where fools go to die. I considered Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war as stupid. I avoided conscription through being at university and was the only time I participated in protest marches.
Goebbels Schriftleitergesetz is being re-invigorated across Europe while Australia is not far behind. Musk has now placed himself firmly in the role as the protector of free speech as governments, inspired by the UN, are applying draconian measures to limit free speech.
What right has JoNova got to provide a platform for open, public discussion when she has not undergone the required training in “Information Integrity”. This site ranks as a cesspit of on-line pollution if the UN principles were applied to it.
The biggest external threat to Australia is the UN. Not sure how much control China has over the UN.
https://www.undp.org/information-integrity
181
Some years ago, at an Australian naval base, I was told that in every naval exercise the notional enemy was China. I think the RAN got that one right.
50
Why Trump called Zelensky a Dictator?
Here are the FACTS:
– He’s in year 6 of his 5 year term
– Declared martial law Feb 2022 and has banned elections since then
– Banned 11 political parties
– Passed law in 2022 to censor journalists and combined all news into one gov’t station
– Journalists investigating his corruption get conscripted and thrown on the front lines to die
The list ended with the observation that “Even Saddam Hussein held elections!”
We should add to this list the ongoing persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Zelensky government, merely because it maintains spiritual communion with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Elon Musk@elonmusk
Zelensky cannot claim to represent the will of the people of Ukraine unless he restores freedom of the press and stops canceling elections!
In America, we hold a presidential election every four years — even during wartime.
We held an election during the Civil War.
We held an election during World War II.
Before President Zelenskyy decides to lecture the American President again, he should hold an election too.
320
The UK did not hold a general election between 1935 and 1945
Ukraine is in existential danger from a thoroughly ruthless and powerful opponent who wants to wipe the state of Ukraine from the face of the earth and believes it has no right to exist.
Lack of elections, which would be disrupted by missile and drone strikes is surely not surprising
815
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2025/02/trump-on-zelenskyy-and-ending-the-war-in-ukraine.html#comment-6a0177444b0c2e970d02e860fa105f200d
The area Putin annexed when he sent in troops has a huge number of Russian nationals living there, a region where the people voted to become an autonomist state and reinstate ties with Russia (as they also did in Crimea).
The whole Ukraine war was a setup from the start as western nations had never planned to abide by the 2015 Minks agreement, and sent NATO troops to set up along the Russian border, which was a direct breach of the pact. It has now become the largest money laundering operation in human history (like all wars are) to enrich the elites in the Democratic Party, it’s EU chums and to pay off their buddies in the military industrial complex with billion dollar arms contracts and the deep state.
181
We have some Ukrainians here who were forced to take part in those hastily arranged elections,they had no choice on who to vote for.
How does it enrich the EU who have spent €300 billion to date.?
71
There is a vast difference between Ukraine the people, Ukraine the country and Ukraine the government. The last is a criminal fascist kleptocracy you are defending. There is zero information on this alleged democracy in the press. It’s all about Zelensky. What about the other 80 million people?
212
“criminal fascist kleptocracy”
Is that Russia or Ukraine you are referencing? . If the former you need to add in “brutal and ruthless”
33
I have travelled around both. It was only in Ukraine that I was scared. Of the police. The bad stuff does not get reported.
Read about the 2014 massacre in the Union building in Odessa.
Ukraine is a violent Fascist state. People live in fear of the central government. Not in Russia.
40
Bumped from Tuesday
“FWIW
“Churchill forms Wartime Coalition Government”
https://www.information-britain.co.uk/famdates.php?id=354 ”
You could have a go at showing that UKR has got that far for comparison?
40
Some national news outlets worry — without irony — that President Volodymyr Zelensky could be voted out of office if Ukraine holds elections.
Uhm!
“Donald Trump is demanding Volodymyr Zelensky hold elections that could oust him from office as the price of peace,” laments the Telegraph.
“There are concerns that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could be ousted from office after President Donald Trump said that Kyiv should hold elections,” writes Newsweek.
What?
Back in late 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told his people that the very idea of holding a presidential election the following year was “absolutely irresponsible” while fighting the war with Russia.
Zelensky won a five-year term in 2019. His term was scheduled to end in 2024, but with his declaration of martial law after the 2022 Russian invasion, there would be no election. Zelensky also outlawed the opposition party.
100
FWIW
“Yes, Newsweek Really DID Say That Out Loud…”
In there
“Ukraine is Schrödinger’s democracy. As long as we don’t measure whether Zelenskyy is democratically supported by his population, we can pretend that he is the legitimately elected leader of a democratic regime.
Zelenskyy was legitimately elected, but his term was to have expired last year. He is currently empowered by martial law to remain in power, and implicitly by the fact that the US government pays all Ukraine’s bills, including the salaries of the government, the budget for the military, the pensions, the media, the…everything. Zelenskyy is an American satrap. ”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/02/19/yes-newsweek-really-did-say-that-out-loud-n3799971
160
““Ukraine is Schrödinger’s democracy. As long as we don’t measure whether Zelenskyy is democratically supported by his population, we can pretend that he is the legitimately elected leader of a democratic regime.
Check out Zelensyy rating with the Ukranians. It ain’t the 4% from Trump but 57% from the Ukranians
25
Ill bet any number you like that Zelensky would lose an election in the Ukraine if one were held. He is an expendable dead man walking cia / nato puppet. Good riddance to bad rubbish
101
“Does it ever consider itself at all vulnerable –over the long term not short term trade spats-to China, if not by actual invasion, by extreme coercion?”
Maybe the “invasion” has already started? If China actually started a shooting war with Australia, whose side would the multitude of Chinese living/working here be on? Even if they aren’t actual covert CCP fighters or agents, they would be foolish to join the losing side, which would be Australia IMO. We could have – or end up with – thousands of armed insurgents in our midst.
20
Is it coincidence that Joe Biden was happy to shovel such extraordinary sums to Ukraine, the same country where his son mysteriously took up a lucrative board position with their natural gas company, Burisma, despite having no useful ‘skills’ other than being vice president Joe Biden’s son?
Is it coincidence that Joe Biden was happy to shovel such extraordinary sums to Ukraine, the same country for which he was Obama’s ‘point man’?
Ukraine is infamous for corruption, its government especially so. The Bidens are surrounded by the stench of corruption too. The Bidens and Ukraine have history.
All just coincidence?
30
To add:
For some reason, Biden did not demand ‘Equalization’ in return for America’s aid. Apparently, this is standard practice when a nation aids another militarily (either with hardware, personnel or funds) for a conflict the benefactor nation isn’t part of. Equalization effectively turns the aid into a loan, which can be repaid in cash or in-kind, such as by handing over ownership of the receiving nation’s oil industry, or exclusive rights to provide rebuilding services. Once again, this practice isn’t being mentioned by the anti-Trump media.
Incredibly, despite America providing most of the ‘funding’ for Ukraine’s fight, Biden asked for no equalization, though the Europeans did. Consequently, while other nations should be compensated, America will never see that money again.
Unless of course Trump forces Zelensky to sign an Equalization agreement in return for further aid …
10
Kash Patel vote due soon
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/02/18/senate-cloture-vote-on-fbi-director-nominee-kash-patel-likely-tonight/
I hope he is appointed. The Trump team is nearly complete now.
Prosecutions coming!
210
Because of my article about the Queen, I was told that since 3rd November 2021, Britain has had four active DSMA-Notices in operation to cover-up the military involvement with Covid and the Vaccines, with another put into operation by Starmer on 8th November 2024 to cover-up his crimes: https://www.dsma.uk/standing-notices
120
Thanks Paul,
I had a look at those D notices.
How do they relate to the Covid Vaccine?
20
How do the DSMA-Notices relate to the Covid Vaccine?
Covid was not a public health event, although it was presented as such to the world’s population. It was a global operation, coordinated through public-private intelligence and military alliances and invoking laws designed for CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) weapons attacks: https://sarahwestall.com/the-covid-dossier-a-record-of-military-and-intelligence-coordination-of-the-global-covid-event/
On 3rd November 2021, those four DSMA-Notices were updated. This was to add more reasons to cover-up the military involvement with Covid and the Vaccines: https://the-blindspot.com/ww3-watch-counter-cyber-activity-and-dsma/
42
What military involvement in Covid. Compared to the brutal events in Oz the police were quite hands off and the military virtually non existent. I don’t understand the point you are making
04
The US military were involved, I thought this was by now common knowledge.
Also did you not read the link in the post to which you replied?
“The Dossier contains information regarding the military/intelligence coordination of the Covid biodefense response in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. For some countries we have extensively documented information. For others, we have some documentation of military/intelligence involvement, but not all the details. For as many countries as possible, we list the military/intelligence agencies in charge of their country’s Covid response; dates on which emergency declarations were made in each country; military/intelligence-related agencies and bodies in charge of censorship/propaganda; and top people with military/intelligence jobs who were known or reported to hold leadership positions in the response. We also list connections to global governing bodies, including the EU and UN/WHO, through which the response was coordinated. In the final section, we provide a list of military/intelligence/biodefense alliances and agreements that provide multinational frameworks for responding to a bioterror/bioweapons attack.”
30
Dutch Minister of Health Acknowledges that The Pandemic Policy was a Military Operation: https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-dutch-health-minister-fleur-agema-nato-obligations/5872252
Robert Koch Institute says that NATO Major General Dr. Hans-Ulrich Holtherm was put in charge: https://shonaduncan.substack.com/p/the-covid-19-show-part-3
Robert F. Kennedy Jr & Sasha Latypova Say the COVID Vaccines Were a ‘Huge Military Operation’: https://rumble.com/v2fw8l6–robert-f.-kennedy-jr-and-sasha-latypova-say-the-covid-vaccines-were-a-huge.html
20
Australia’s Uniparty is trying to change the electoral rules such that there is a $2000 deposit per candidate which is only refundable if they secure at least 4% of the vote. Thus a small party would require $300,000 to run candidates Australia wide and they are unlikely to be able to afford this, unlike Uniparty candidates.
The purpose of this is to make it much harder for independents to run.
Australia is becoming more of a One Party (Uniparty) state every day.
Independent Senator Gerrard Rennick speaks about this in Parliament in the following video:
https://youtu.be/ud3RCYepWEk
240
I actually think the $2000 deposit is a good idea.
Imagine if it was completely free.
How many people would register as a candidate just to get their name on a ballot? The ballot would be several dozen pages long and the chance of a ballot being useful would fall to zero.
$2000 seems very cheap to me. If a party is serious about placing a representative into the parliament, then the $2000 is a burden that is worth climbing over.
72
If a candidate can’t scratch together 2 grand, prolly shouldn’t be in parliament.
110
One might cynically imagine greatly enhanced chances of “the peter being tickled”
(to be quite specific on the term used there –
https://australian_slang.en-academic.com/8245/Tickle_the_peter )
10
And a lot of these political costs are tax deductible, so the people of Australia end up paying anyway. But at least it is a brake on frivolous applications and their cost to everyone else.
50
David Maddison,
A deposit has been required from all candidates for years (maybe since federation: it was definitely required in NSW in the ’80s).
$2000 sounds fair enough to me; the 4% is a bit of a stretch though. How about a $1 offset for each first-preference vote you get?
60
In the same way that US government/political meddling via NATO caused Russia to invade Ukraine in 2014 Labor both State and Federal caused the demise of Whyalla Steelworks. Eradicating coal fired power in SA making the cost of producing steel using battery/solar too expensive. So now they have had to nationalise Whyalla to avoid making thousands of workers redundant just prior to an election. Thanks Labor! There’s no point in the taxpayers of SA moaning you facilitated it by allowing your government to prematurely knock down a functioning coal fired generator.
260
Also, all aluminium smelter jobs in Australia are now heavily subsidised due to the high cost of “green” electricity.
And we are competing against countries that operate with free markets and low cost energy.
What could possibly go wrong?
190
It makes you wonder if any members of the public actually think about where their employer gets their energy from and most importantly, if any political party is doing their best to kill that supply off.
If I were involved in a high energy industry, whether it be smelting, melting, casting, heating, cooling, transporting, lighting, manufacturing, etc, etc, etc, then I would be seriously concerned about any green candidate that was promoting the closure of the energy source that permits me to earn a wage.
Then again, I think, I’m not sure the electorate, (as a whole), do. If they did, then the uniparty would be shown the door. No ifs, no buts.
180
“… all aluminium smelter jobs in Australia are now heavily subsidised …”
Ronald Reagan described this type of policies as: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidise it.
180
The Australian Labor Party Economics – Anthony Albanese, SA Premier unveil $2.4bn package to save Whyalla Steelworks
$2.4 Billion here, $10 Billion there, +$Billions everywhere!
One Day Older & Deeper in Debt, Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the ATO
Australian Taxpayers further down the Drain in Debt & the RBA will have to increase Interest Rates
At a Cost of $2.4 billion divided by 22,000 Votes, is approximately $109,090.91 per Vote
100
I was in Geelong last week for a wedding. In the evening we had a glorious view of the Point Henry smelter across the bay, still there after all these years. Its been 11 years since it was closed but from a distance it looks intact. Looking at their website it appears “de commissioning” was completed in 2023. I assume that means it was gutted and anything of major value removed. Still to do is removal and remediation. Apparently the previous 11 years werent long enough to have a plan and het on with it.
10
All they needed were 2 or 3 solar panels on the roof and they could have been up and operating or so the authorities probably believe.
30
What’s another half a billion dollars to a politician?? Its election time!! Time to throw the money around and buy votes, just as you say.
Nothing is new, NZ Govt bailed out the BNZ for twice that just so it could be sold, bailed out Air NZ, bailed out… Whatever it takes, they’re in for it, its not their money!
Democracy.. greatest form of robbing the peasants without problems..
130
If you follow the trajectory of Gupta and Greensill, it is a trail of destruction and lies and staying one country ahead of a full accounting. They even make out Gupta was crippled by $5Bn loaned by Greensill, illegally as it turns out. No one is crippled by getting $5Bn without security. It’s an outrageous claim. Greensill’s friend in the Swiss Superannuation business which loaned the money was fired and that brought the roof down. Lex Greensill’s invention was a very shaky scheme selling future income for cash today. His funding of Gupta was also his undoing.
120
Greensill and Gupta are birds of a feather. Starting with nothing, they have used Swiss superannuation funds to create empires. Greensill’s came crashing down, but Gupta is still going, buying National steel businesses around the world in which Governments are implicitly tied because of the number of jobs involved, as in South Australia. And talk of sovereignty. As if there was no election coming. And above it all is this incredible idea that you can make steel and aluminium without making CO2, whether a blast furnace or an electric arc melting furnace. In the first, carbon is used to change iron oxide to iron. In the second you use vast amounts of electricity to melt old steel, as if you would run furnaces on solar and wind.
70
I am not convinced that the typical politician is sufficiently numerate to understand what that number actually represents.
130
Albanese throws away one or two billion as if it was nothing. Quantum Computing. Snowy II. Solar panel manufacture. Smelting aluminium and steel with windmills. A billion here and there. No accountability, no plan. Just vast sums of taxpayer money to buy votes and in total defiance of reality.
100
Typical kiwi “eats roots and leaves”
10
A-ha, spot on. The PEOPLE who vote these idiots in need to start looking in the mirror and recognize who the real incompetents are. Yes, the politicians and the public serpents are to blame, but how do they get in their positions?
150
I don’t recall that I was given a choice at all.
There are lots of coal deposits in SA but generally lower quality and more expensive to develop that elsewhere in Australia. Leigh Creek coal was developed by Sir Thomas Playford to feed the new power stations in Port Augusta due to the interruptions of coal supplies from Newcastle. The quality of the coal meant a lower efficiency and somewhat higher costs than newer plants when it was shut down in 2016 along with Leigh Creek but it gave reliable electricity.
Once shut down by the (renewables fixated) Labor Government a State wide blackout occurred.
There is a lesson there but Labor (Federally) hasn’t shown any ability about learning or indeed thinking.
180
End of the rainbow thinking!
40
South Australia could get cheap power simply by setting up a company to build a new lignite fired power station in the Latrobe Valley.T
his id DEEPSEEK’s estimate for a 2GW power station running on Lignite:
Summary of Estimates
Capital Cost:
7.2 to 10.8 billion AUD
Running Costs:
931k to 1,105 million AUD/year
LCOE:
72.15 to 88.66/MWh
It looks like peanuts compared with cost of nuclear.
60
I remember a time when a construction wage was around $50k a year for a standard work week. That number has a 1 in front of it now and if you drive a crane, place a 2 there.
We’ll never build anything competitive wrt world wide sales with a handicap like that. And that’s just the construction phase.
If your business makes money the union seem to think that they are entitled to make demands sufficient to drain all profits back to the workers.
Manufacturing is dead or on life support in this country. Anyone who creates a new product locally will immediately look for ways to have it made overseas to lower costs. The risk of course is that it gets cloned by others before your first delivery arrives.
Oz is ruined. We need another country to move to, this one is on the way out, just like Europe, maybe a year behind, that’s all.
90
I removed my evaporative cooler and gas heater last week ahead of a reverse cycle system being installed under the Victgov goodbye to gas subsidy.
I have an outdoor unit with a heating rating of 20kW. There are 4 indoor heads with individual control. Under full power cooling test on the day it was installed, it pulled 7kW and ripped the temperature down from 30C to very comfortable 22 to 24 in around 20 mintes.
The longest run for piping was 35m and only one head unit was less than 20m from the outdoor unit so did not involve a pipe joint. There were two plumbers, a plumber apprentice and an electrician. I have to say that their work ethic and workmanship were commendable. They work for a company that contracts to another company set up to harvest the subsidies. The apprentice arrived at 7am for a 7:30 start. One plumber was still here at 6pm finishing off the load testing. It was tedious work, in and out of roof cavity on a 35C day. The apprentice had knee surgery for a football injury last October and was still recovering but was climbing on the tile roof and in and out of the roof cavity for about 6 hours. No formal meal break, just had a short lunch and rest for 20 minutes or so then back into it.
I figured they were all well paid because they had recent model Hilux 4WD dual cabs – even the apprentice. And high quality tools and test gear.
I am still waiting on the new kitchen benches and the installation of the induction cooktop before I am off gas.
61
Quite the project. My son is going through the same process at his place de gassing his place. I always found gas heating quite pleasant, but of course eveything is slanted away from it these days. In my tegional location its not an option apart from bottles, which still seem popular.
00
Mining a ‘whipping boy’ in Australia as Glencore’s costs climb
Glencore boss Gary Nagle says the mining industry has been a ‘whipping boy’ in Australia in recent years, and warned high power costs were a major threat to its Mt Isa Mines copper smelter and refinery.
“The smelter is challenged given high power costs. We’ve seen power costs in Australia more than double some other places in the world,” he said.
“The only way to survive that you have a competitive cost line, and a big input into that is the cost of power. Unfortunately, the cost of power in Australia, versus where other smelters are in the world, is significantly higher.”
50
After the USAID expose, with several trillion taxpayers euros spent so far…
https://www.thomasfazi.com/p/the-eus-propaganda-machine
60
FWIW
“An interesting look at USAID operations in Cairo, Egypt. Sure sounds corrupt to me!”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/02/an-interesting-look-at-usaid-operations.html
More rough ended pineapples needed?
100
Whatever work is done in that compound, clearly it is not closing down,
nor feeding the hungry, nor clothing the threadbare, nor is it scientific research, unless bio-weapons.
00
It is clear this morning that I was at least 50% correct: DJ Trump is the only politician in History who says wrong but does right.
The second half is coming soon. Well, I hope…
Remember, in his era reckoning First 100 Days stretched to about a week.
100
Study: Climate Change is Reducing Wind Speeds in Europe
Eric Worrall
(Eric Worrall’s) question – does this mean we can get rid of wind turbines and the motivation to build those horrible turbine eyesores by burning more coal?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/19/claim-climate-change-is-reducing-wind-speeds-in-europe/
80
Windmills are running out of puff?
60
Germany (& most of northern Europe) can get low wind speeds in winter (along with higher ones in storms when wind farms struggle to produce. Solar panels are useless in that weather also.
German coal fired plants run all year but ramp up production when and & solar don’t work. Germany also gets back coal fired from Poland, nuclear from Czechia, France and Sweden along with hydro from Norway & Sweden via the interconnectors. The price of electricity shoots up during those times which also raises the price elsewhere which is getting their politicians (and public) annoyed.
So the message is, if you want to rely on UNreliables expect higher electricity prices.
100
Or alternatively the erection of windmills is strongly correlated with reducing wind speeds. Testing that proposition is easy. Wait until next year to see whether additional windmills and reduced wind speeds correlate again.
Or alternatively the reduced wind speeds cause windmills to be erected. Testing that proposition is easy too. Wait until next year to see whether additional windmills are erected in response to the lower wind speeds this year.
Or alternatively using windmills to generate electricity is just a really bad idea.
100
Anything and everything is caused by gerbil warming I tells ya!
Droughts in Australia – gerbil warming!
Floods in Australia – gerbil warming!
Bushfires in Australia – gerbil warming!
Island nations sinking – gerbil warming!
Island nations growing – gerbil warming!
Athletes breaking world records – gerbil warming!
Albosleazy losing election – gerbil warming!
This CO2 stuff is bad man!
Now where did I put my stash of weed???
60
The so called ‘stilling’ is simply blocking high pressure.
https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2024/04/generation-gone-with-the-wind/
00
More pearls of wisdom from Donald :
Zelenskyy, the dictator who started the war with poor innocent Russia .
317
Zelenskyy, the dictator who started the war is enough. A million dead Russians later, they are the villains. Doesn’t anyone care about the truth? And who else is running Ukraine, the biggest country in Europe?
153
Yeah, and Hitler didn’t start ww2, I can see the same disciplined logic that you apply to science.
214
At least I know what I am writing about. You are showing the same ignorance on both subjects.
122
So Zelenskyy started the war ?.
213
If Z and Co hadnt supervised shelling and rocketing ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine for over a decade, its highly likely they would have attracted Russia’s military attention.
You dont think all this started in 2022 do you?
40
Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and two weeks later he began causing trouble in eastern Ukraine, he has imperial ambition.
13
Then you will be amazed by the reports of the 2014 slaughter in the Odessa Union building by the fascist state.
40
Well he didn’t start the war, just those (including the State Dept) who deposed the elected President and started shelling those in the Donbas region who objected. Zelenskyy isn’t an elected President because his term ran out and he became a dictator because he was unlikely to have been reelected.
253
Sorry. Meant Green.
30
Source please including the words “poor innocent Russia”.
Or be a better bot.
81
Try Trump’s own post ???.
38
I see what you did there –
That is a “grey literature” tactic
50
Link?
Or be a better bot.
20
I just figured it out.
The left side of the political spectrum was sympathetic towards Russia when it was Soviet Socialist.
Then Russians stopped being Soviet Socialist and the left side pivoted to being about fighting Russia.
(I don’t recall the ordinary liberal progressive getting indignant when the Soviets went into Afghanistan.)
Or …
the MIC institutionalized in the Cold War.
And when the Cold War ended they couldn’t let go of the gravy boat which necessitated brainwashing the other side of the political spectrum.
Anyways …
Russia, Russia, Russia, Orange Man Bad.
Gender is a social construct and we’re all gonna die from carbon.
Did I forget anything?
Oh yeah, free speech causes N@zees. (Who also had the S word in their name.)
110
The anti-Trump propaganda is getting laid on thick in the SMH-
‘Trump has heaped more lies on Ukraine – it’s not helping anyone’
‘Trump’s bizarre accord with Putin is downright dangerous’
‘Why Trump’s bullying is going to backfire on him’
…and we have our own Clive Palmer being compared to Trump, and hence ‘bad’ as well-
‘Palmer targets Dutton in $90 million MAGA-style election pitch’
132
If Clive Palmer is the answer then it is probably a stupid question.
132
Who ate all the pies?
20
Clive has directly said he’s copying Trump’s policy’s.
13
FWIW – about audits
“Educating the Stupid on How Audits Work In Real Life”
“So now, as a guy who used to be an auditor, who has defended companies from dozens of audits from different government agencies, I’ll try to correct some of your incredibly stupid NPC talking points you keep endlessly barfing up.”
https://monsterhunternation.com/2025/02/18/educating-the-stupid-on-how-audits-work-in-real-life/
51
And then like Topsy “It Growed”
“In At the Beginning”
“Reading here and there about what can only be viewed as corruption of various charitable agencies by an apparent flood of government dollars, I am certain now that I was inadvertently present at the very start of that corruption – a warping of charitable concern towards refugees, as well as non-refugee migrants, the homeless, the addicted and the otherwise socially maladjusted.”
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/73325.html
Instapundit lead-in –
“THE GOVERNMENT IS A LOUSY VEHICLE FOR CHARITY: In At the Beginning.”
https://instapundit.com/703633/#disqus_thread
40
Mars is the only planet we know of whose sole occupants are robots.
60
The AI says No.
20
Yeah but, we dont know much really
00
It’s getting cold, folks.
90
And you guys aren’t exceptionally hot, despite The Bureau’s penchant for child-like coloured scribbles and warnings of ‘low-intensity’ heatwaves in the outback.
Of Aus state capitals this week, only Perth & Darwin have (just) made it into the 30s C, while the rest hover in mid-20s and Melbourne & Hobart shiver through high teens, brrrrr! Plus the few cyclones so far have stayed well out to sea – apart from Port Hedland and Cairns & Townsville’s recent rains.
And it snowed as well. Emissions™️ is what done it!
100
New snowfall records will be a feature of weather reporting for millenia to come. More daily records set this week:
https://www.quintenews.com/2025/02/17/350707/
The SST of oceans in the NH are still anomalously high and will continue that way for millennia as well. At least until the ice starts accumulating across the northern latitudes.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=-181.89,33.57,384/loc=154.375,42.219
Given that parts of the oceans are up to 3.5C warmer than the 30 year average, it would not surprise me if February comes in as the hottest evah Feb.
The descent into NH glaciation starts with the oceans in the NH getting warm. That increases atmospheric moisture, which increases snowfall over cold land. The cooling of the land does not start until the permanent ice extends. The ocean are then dropping and the temperature difference between ocean surface and ice mountains increases thereby accelerating the snowfall until the solar intensity moves south, which is about 9,000 years away.
The SH below 60S remained in glaciation throughout the period of highest sunlight 2500 years ago in the present precession cycle.. Most of Greenland remained in glaciation as well during this cycle. The ice extent on Greenland is already expanding.
Climate models do not consider solar intensity (power flux) so they have a huge blind spot to the precession cycle.
Most people do not appreciate that solar panels in the SH get more intense sunlight than those in the NH. The peak intensity at summer solstice at 35S is 128W/m^2 greater than the peak intensity at 35N. Big difference. But not a difference that would appear in climate models because they are based on energy not power. The SH gets the same amount of energy as the NH each year but it takes the NH four more days.
60
I just had a thought and if I get a chance I’ll run the sums on it.
The Earth has an elliptical orbit and Kepler determined that an elliptical orbit has several interesting properties. Most notably that a planet will be traveling faster, (angular rate), through the part of the orbit when near to the sun and slower when further from the Sun. This is derived from his equations which show that the area, (defined by the path swept from the Sun to the planet from one time period to the next), is the same for any planet assuming that the two sample periods are the same duration, regardless on when the start and stop periods occur.
At present, the southern hemisphere is in summer mode WHEN the Earth is nearer to the Sun, it can be shown that the sunlight energy hitting the Earth will be higher for a SH summer compared to a NH summer day. BUT the SH peak will be defined by a more rapid climb and decline when compared to the NH’s peak.
So, the question is… Is the total energy from the Sun, falling on a cloud free Earth the same for the SH and NH?
Now to the calculations.
30
The simple way for Elon to turn it around:
Reducing budgets for overheads increases the money available for research and reduces the amount of grant money being sucked up by parasitic administrators.
70
Already being done at the NIH with great protest. Not really Elons job but the people who move forward with the DOGE information certainly need to look at that and much more.
00
Chinese Communist Party-linked group sends ‘clean energy’ money to American universities
https://www.thecollegefix.com/chinese-communist-party-linked-group-sends-clean-energy-money-to-american-universities/
40
FWIW –
“”Ukraine Has Scorched Earth; What It Doesn’t Have Is Rare Earths” ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ukraine-has-scorched-earth-what-it-does-have-rare-earths
10
Rare Earth’s are predominantly used in wind turbines and BEVs. Nether of which have much interest to Russia.
30
The Cambridge Union Society is a historic debating and free-speech society in Cambridge, England, known for putting on spirited debates addressing some of the most important, and often mostcontroversial, issues of the day.
During a debate on the motion “This House Believes Trump is a 21st Century Fascist,” on February 6, 2025, Tom Slater, Editor for Spiked, spoke as the second opposition for the motion in the Debating Chamber and provided an epic defense of Trump.
Tom Slater: Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump, Il Duce, Der Führer, The Donald, The Roman Salute, The Zekeile, The YMCA Dance. The comparison is so absurd, it practically debunks itself.
Totalitarian control, messianic dictatorship, a cult of racial superiority, para militaries crushing the left at home, a Darwinian militaristic struggle abroad, the worship of war and violence, the mechanized attempt, let’s not forget, to murder all of European’s Jews.
If that sounds like America in 2025 to you, then I suggest you leave here and have a nice long lie down.
“Calling Donald Trump a fascist is an insult to democracy and to history. You are turning the graveyards of the 20th century into a playground to have out your political spats. Get a grip”
200
“The Cambridge Union Society is a historic debating and free-speech society in Cambridge, England, known for putting on spirited debates addressing some of the most important, and often mostcontroversial, issues of the day.”
So how did they go on “Global warming is a scam”?
00
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/18/hydrogen-energy-not-clean-green-cheap/
Just like Solar and wind power is the cheapest form of power generation but only when the sun shines and the wind blows. When the total establishment and servicing costs are amortized over 24/7 period that contain net zero sun and wind they are a lot more expensive than coal!
The Nationalisation of Whyalla Steel will prove the point in spades! Thanks Labor “you’ve done it again”
120
Anthony Albanese and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas have unveiled a $2.4 billion package to save Whyalla Steelworks, with the vast majority of the funding to be used to upgrade the mill so it can become a major producer of green steel under a new owner.
The package from the federal and state governments includes nearly $500m towards keeping the steelworks operational while it is in administration, including $50m to pay creditors who were owed money by the company controlled by British steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta.
There will also be $1.9bn to fund upgrades to the mill to ensure the future owner of the facility can manufacture steel with green energy sources.
The Albanese government will set up a new “green iron fund” to help decarbonise the steel sector more broadly, with $500m of federal funds earmarked for Whyalla.
30
Of course Bowen and Albanese realise that a blast furnace uses coke/carbon/coal to convert iron oxide to iron? You CANNOT decarbonize that. Sorry, you could always buy Dr Forrest’s hydrogen fuel after you completely rebuild the furnace. And build all the hydrogen infrastructure.
Who put politicians in charge of science and engineering and the Climate? We will be a windmill super power!
60
I can just see Albanese as Don Quixote and Bowen as Sancho Panza.
50
And who’s playing the coconut shells to make the clippity-clop clippity-clop horse donkey ass sounds a la Monty Python?
20
That would be Tony Gilliam.
20
Somewhat O/T
There is that Churchill joke about nationalising steel industries – allusion only here
00
“Anthony Albanese and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas have unveiled a $2.4 billion package to save Whyalla Steelworks,”
Ah, they should ask NZ how much the Think Big projects ended up costing the taxpayer! No-one talks about them any more, way over budget, way over time, way under performing.. and sold for a dollar to get rid of them. Oh wait.. Snowy2 of course..
00
FWIW – latest Kunstler
“Krakatoa Blows
‘Save democracy’ is code phrase for a club of delusional people who belong to a delusional group that does delusional things to justify their delusions. — Wendy Williamson “
30
Oops! Link
https://www.kunstler.com/p/krakatoa-blows
10
Published in Nature this week, “a New Zealand glacier expert … feels like she is yelling into the void”.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/542425/new-zealand-s-glaciers-have-shrunk-by-29-percent-since-2000
She claims “global glacier mass loss was … more than twice that from the Antarctic Ice Sheet” – twice nothing is still nothing – and we need to “bring this continual temperature increase under control”. Ah yes, the old control method again.
This so-called glacier expert also claims Maori are upset as “the form of the mountain[s] changed” as their taonga / sacred ancestors aren’t the same anymore: welcome to living geology sweetheart, d’oh!
50
“the form of the mountain[s] changed”
Don’t tell her about the last Taupo eruption, now that REALLY caused the form of the mountains to change. When it eventually goes again any Maori that are left will really be p#ssed off .
50
Or the Alpine Fault which splits the South Island (practically) in half lengthwise – which we’re continually reminded is waaaay overdue for another rupture – and is why the mountains exist in the first place. Oh the humanity!
30
China is just so AWESOME!!! China! China! China!
Can you smell the sarcasm already?
https://youtu.be/YFOqhpkDEwQ?si=Me2UVRjlHVwoqgUv
Wow China! Your engineering is just amazing!
…and this video is official CCP propaganda PR too.
Ignoring from their Escher-esque railways, created by a blind 6yo with Photoshop, at least their “AI” and robotics are world beating.
/Would the CCP lie to you?
30
Apparently unaided humans reach negative buoyancy at around 50 feet depth of water and then go into what freedivers call “free fall”.
20
All the way to the bottom of the Marianis Trench.
Hey! There’s Jason Statham with a diving helmet on!
20
I’ve seen a few, who seem to have packed on the kilos, who were so buoyant that they didn’t get their hair wet when the stepped into the water from the dive blocks.
I’m fairly certain that 50 feet isn’t going to cut it for them. Not without a harpoon and an anchor attached.
50
Microsoft announces its Majorana 1, a revolutionary topological core quantum computer with a 1 million qubit potential
https://youtu.be/wSHmygPQukQ?si=W8x2kKka0P1Tn2Xk
As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s not decades away, it’s imminent.
/At least mankind’s new AI God will be real.
10
John Connor II,
You think 12 minutes of marketing hype makes it imminent?
We already have a computer that does that. It’s called the universe. Bit tricky to program.
70
Once elected, I’ll be vegetarian!
https://imgbox.com/zdTfkVHz
/Nothing ever changes…
40
Japan’s second-largest bank is now on the brink of collapse
The cracks in Japan’s banking sector just split wide open. Norinchukin Bank, Japan’s second-largest, is teetering on the edge of liquidation, sending shockwaves through the financial world. The collapse of this massive institution could spell disaster not just for Japan but for global markets.
In the last quarter alone, the bank posted a staggering net loss of 500 billion yen. Total losses for this fiscal year? A jaw-dropping 1.4 trillion yen—about $9.2 billion.
https://justdario.com/2025/02/norinchukin-bank-implosion-officially-begins/
Japan’s financial woes are reaching a head.
50
I knew US DemoCraps were Dumb – But this takes the Cake!
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you … progressive ‘leadership’ in a nutshell. Said nutshell provided by Southern California’s leading progressive nut, in fact.
LA Mayor: I’m Investigating Why I Was ‘Allowed’ to Go AWOL
LA Mayor Bass points fingers when grilled on Africa trip amid botched wildfire response
Los Angeles Mayor Bass reveals she is opening an investigation into why nobody told her not to travel to Africa
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has come under intense scrutiny for traveling to Africa last month amid a botched fire response, is deflecting blame on the controversial trip.
“I felt absolutely terrible not being here for my city,” Bass, a Democrat, told a Fox 11 Los Angeles reporter in a recent interview.
“Would I say it was a mistake, absolutely. The idea that I was not present was very painful,” she added, saying that proper “preparation didn’t happen” to notify her ahead of the Ghana trip.
She said she would not have even traveled south to San Diego had she been given the proper “preparation” about the fire danger.
“It didn’t reach that level to me to say ‘Something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip,'” the Democrat added.
“I think that’s one of the things we need to look at, everything that happened, including that, needs to be examined,” she continued
60
She promised at the election that she would not leave America at all. And then traveled incessantly, five trips to Paris. It’s called lying.
150
“Germany Is Turning Into An Unlivable Tyranny”:
https://notrickszone.com/2025/02/18/germany-is-turning-into-an-unlivable-tyranny/
70
What I find amazing is that Trump is across so many international situations at once. His question is simple. Where did the money go?
70
“And still the wonder grew”
“SHOCKING: DOGE Uncovers Over 4 Million Government Credit Cards Linked to 90 Million Unique Transactions”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/shocking-doge-uncovers-4-million-government-credit-cards/
“BREAKING: DOGE Reveals Biden EPA Awarded $2 Billion to Firm Linked to Election Denier Stacey Abrams in “Gold Bar” Heist – Lee Zeldin Responds”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/doge-discovers-biden-epa-awarded-2-billion-firm/
70
“Government Credit Cards”
I can tell you that agencies with “car pools” – my experience is with a university – will have in the glove compartment a credit card for a major gasoline chain of stations. When anyone needs “a company car” the gasoline is charged to that card when away from the home-base. I suspect the government car pools do the same. So the question is: How many of the 90M transactions were unnecessary, a waste, or fraud?
20
“It’s extremely concerning that an organization that reported just $100 in revenue in 2023 was chosen to receive $2 billion. That’s 20 million times the organization’s reported revenue”
Almost as good as Malcolm Turnbull’s parting gift of $0.5Billion to his wife’s committee. Six people to receive $500million and did not ask for it and no idea what to do with it. The Australian government has no idea where the money went. But each year we pay the $14Million interest on the gift.
30
” But each year we pay the $14Million interest on the gift.”
Yes, that should be publicised at every election!! Its not just that they are wasting our taxes, they are indebting our children and grandchildren into the future.
10
FWIW
“When Reality Meets the Babylon Bee”
“Most of us would think that the cancer-ridden trans person is more worried about their cancer than anything else, but what do I know?
I am a big believer that investments in scientific research are important, but we can’t keep throwing money out the door to conduct ideological BS research to produce propaganda that makes life worse for everyone.
When I hear somebody is doing “cancer research,” I want the research to be about CANCER, not gender identity BS. Until it is I will support cut after cut after cut. ”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/02/19/when-reality-meets-the-babylon-bee-n3799988
A potential model for viewing research in Oz
50
“Federal science spending is filled with similar grifts, with somewhere around 25% of US science funding going to DEI-related “studies.” It got so bad that scientists were looking for ways to shoehorn in gender or sexuality into everything, including astronomy.”
30
FWIW
“How USAID Assisted the Corporate Takeover of Ukrainian Agriculture”
And more
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/02/19/how-usaid-assisted-the-corporate-takeover-of-ukrainian-agriculture-n3799980
20
And if you have to ask why such a large rich country as Ukraine can be the poorest in Europe (I leave out tiny neighbour Moldova), where is their money going, not just America’s money? I suppose we could ask Hunter Biden, as innocent as the day is long.
80
Company Involved In Pearson Airport Plane Crash Was Obsessed With DEI
The Delta Airlines flight that flipped over and crashed at Pearson Airport was operated by Endeavor Air, a company that has relentlessly pushed DEI initiatives and bragged about having “unmanned” all-female flights that contained no male staff.
Respondents to the shocking incident noted how Endeavor Air, the Delta subsidiary that operated the flight, was obsessed with DEI initiatives, and produced a feminist girlboss video promoting its all-female flights with a rap song featuring the lyrics “bad girls do it well.”
Other videos linked to the company show other female Endeavor Air flight crew and stewardesses performing choreographed dance routines celebrating the total absence of men.
“Buckle up ladies and gentlemen, your flight is unmanned today. #girlpower,” proclaimed a tweet posted by the company.
Buckle up, indeed.
Another tweet asserted, “Who run the world? Girls,” before featuring a quote by Capt. Pamela Nucifore, Mgr, Flight Standards which made clear that passengers are informed about the fact that no men are on the flight crew before take off.
Many have blamed pilot error as the cause of the crash.
“A key detail from the Delta crash was that video footage did not show the usual “flare” maneuver typically performed by pilots before landing,” reports the Express Tribune.
“This maneuver involves pulling the nose of the plane up just before touchdown to expose the wings to more air resistance, which slows the aircraft down and helps with a smoother landing. The lack of this flare led some aviation experts to speculate about potential issues with the pilot’s actions during the landing attempt.”
60
Women are every bit as good as men in this area. But the question is whether in the name of feminism, gender was the metric not competence. The black box will be interesting, so see if it was something the pilot did as much as didn’t do.
50
Endeavour Air Refuses to Name Pilots
Endeavor Air, the regional airline affiliated with Delta Air Lines that operated the crash-landed flight, has not released any information about the pilots involved in the incident.
The airline has not specified the gender or identities of the pilots, leading to speculation and debate on social media about the potential influence of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices on aviation safety.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian stated that the flight crew was experienced and trained for difficult conditions, but did not identify the pilots specifically.
30
I tried posting this –it seems to be in purgatory, so sorry if it appears twice.
A recording from ‘LiveATC.net’ revealed an air traffic controller in conversation with the Delta Air Lines plane’s pilots prior to the crash, with the controller stating: “Endeavor Air 4819. Turn right heading 210. Descent to 3,000. Cleared ILS 23 approach.”
Another voice responds: “Alright heading 210. Down to 3,000. Cleared through the ILS, 23. Endeavor 4819.”
However, air traffic control then warns of winds measuring ’27’ and gusts ’33’ adding despite the plane being ‘cleared to land Runway 23,’ it ‘may get a slight bump’ and ‘there will be an aircraft in front of it’.
After another comment approving the plane as being ‘clear to land,’ the next comment is from the ‘other pilot’ who states: “We need crash fire rescue on the runway.”
[Found in the bin. No idea why. – LVA]
10
The pilots have clearly flipped out.
10
FWIW – more covid
“And still they come”
“Yale Scientists Link COVID Shot to a Rare, Alarming Syndrome that Causes “Distinct Biological Changes” in the Body”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/yale-scientists-link-covid-shot-rare-alarming-syndrome/
40
FWIW
“Trump Could Be About To Ban COVID Vaccines; Report”
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/trump-could-be-about-ban-covid-vaccines-report
30
If that happens it will take the shine off another “Elbow Enterprise”
10
These people are ‘something else’ altogether… 🙁 {aka the money ran out…}
The pendulum ‘swung too far left’: BlackRock’s Larry Fink
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/the-pendulum-swung-too-far-left-blackrocks-larry-fink/news-story/84b72d9c45029d7457ffa40594d9661d
10
Paywalled.
00
I’m not a fan of Elon Musk. He is being celebrated here for nothing more than political theatrics. These are the facts:
1) He’s the biggest government leach of all time. Everyone of his ventures rely heavily on government subsidies, government contracts or just flat-out mandates forcing consumption (EV mandates).
2) No one has benefited more from climate change than this man. Every buyer of Tesla believes they’ll change the weather with their purchase.
3) I have to reiterate again how much government policy has pushed up Tesla. Even their first few years of operational profits were derived entirely from the Californian government transfer taxing ICE automakers for not having enough EV production (EV certificates). Even on their production side of things, how many governments around the world have replaced their entire car fleets for Teslas because of ESG requirements? The whole world isn’t inner-city Melbourne who believe in the weather changing abilities of Tesla.
4) Who in their right mind thinks a chip in their brain is a good idea?
5) He is chronically online and yet he’s supposed to be the world’s greatest manager across multiple businesses.
6) He is a habitual liar and even went as far as making up grandiose lies about his video game skills
7) He is a man with multiple (IVF) children, never settles down and yet is supposed to be promulgating traditional values
210
1/ Elon is working for free.
2/ He supports ending subsidies for EVs and chargers.
3/ He could have done what all the other Tech Giants did, complied, supported Climate propaganda, supported the Dems and kept cheering for pagan weather control which would have supported his car business. Instead he spent $44b buying X so you and I could speak, and risked his entire business empire to support Trump.
4/ The people who want the chips in their brains are quadriplegic. Ask them if they want to use their arms and legs again.
5/ Yes. Amazing eh?
6/ These are video games were talking about?
7/ So he’s aspergic, a workaholic, probably hard to live with, and the richest man in the world, it’s a freak situation. None of his ex’s seem to be unhappy. He wants everyone to have more babies, says so, and does it.
He has uncovered the largest financial crimes ever uncovered. It’s hardly “political theatrics”.
When someone is the greatest inventor of the era, the greatest supporter of democracy and free speech, do we ask for perfection in video game antics, or do we say “no ones perfect” and talk about things that matter?
180
Technically true, but his companies rely on the U.S. Government for huge amounts:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/musk-works-slash-federal-spending-firms-received-billions/story?id=118589121
Seems to me he’s more of an entrepreneur/businessman. Yes, he has “vision”, but inventions, not so much.
Cheers!
00
Well said. Yes, he is amazing. Trump calls him our Leonardo.
As the world’s richest man, he is doing what he preaches, populating the world. Why not?
At least he is not going around with a begging bowl. When he has an idea for 30,000 satellites, he builds the company to launch the satellites. Why not? And along the way single handedly renews everyone’s interest in space while showing NASA and Boeing how to do it. Possibly all for less than our NBN.
70
I posted figures a few days ago.
From memory NBN invested $50 billion of taxpayer money, but many say the true figure is $100 billion due to creative accounting.
The cost of the present Starlink constellation is US$10 billion or about A$16 billion.
Revenue NBN about $5.5 billion.
Revenue Starlink US$11.8 billion A$18.4 billion.
https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/3485839/nbn-co-revenue-hits-5-5b-as-net-profit-loss-deepens.html
https://spacenews.com/starlink-set-to-hit-11-8-billion-revenue-in-2025-boosted-by-military-contracts/
And speeds of Starlink are much greater than NBN.
80
And that’s just Australia. Starlink connects all countries, ships at sea, 100% coverage of the planet. And local telephone companies are connecting to the network, allowing ordinary telephones in places which cannot be wired, making all phones into satellite phones. When President Lulu in Brazil threatened Musk and X, Lulu had to backpedal as most of regional Brazil is serviced by Starlink. He had no idea. So multiply NBN costs x 165 countries in terms of savings.
Musk did what whole countries could have done. And lacked the vision. Australia does nothing. We could have owned the spectrum in this side of the world. But you have Albanese and Bowen running around preaching windmills and solar panels and Green steel and massively subsidized green aluminium. All I see is our debt (to China) ballooning with no end in sight.
60
” When he has an idea for 30,000 satellites, he builds the company to launch the satellites. Why not? And along the way single handedly renews everyone’s interest in space while showing NASA and Boeing how to do it. Possibly all for less than our NBN.”
That alone! No-one has ever gone to space privately, never mind on the scale that Musk has. He has blitzed all the Govts of the world with their free money and whole populations to pick engineers from, and shown himself to be as great a businessman as Henry Ford.
Tesla, The Boring Company and the rest.. Just playthings compared to SpaceX. Tesla will sink under the Chinese electric car invasion, and Musk won’t care.
The big question is, where is he investing this year?? What does he see as worthwhile for when Govts give up global warming and return to sanity.
I see someone was arrested for threatening to kill him, predictably described as a Democrat.
70
I’m glad Elon Musk has lots of babies.
He and the entire TRUMP team are all in favour of having children in a traditional family unit as opposed to the Left who are sterilising themselves because of TRUMP. The TRUMP team are frequently seen with their many children.
Come to think of it, it’s not a bad thing that conservatives are having children and Leftists are not.
60
I used to watch a guy on YouTube called Thunderf00t. He was OK at debunking various things but then developed a severe case of Musk Derangement Syndrome and he is now totally obsessed with Musk. Very sad.
20
IIRC Churchill also said
“In war you don’t have to be polite – you just have to be right”
30
He knew. He was wrong about Gallipoli. It consigned him to oblivion for a decade.
30
Under Albanese’s Socialist government we are witnessing the wholesale destruction of australia’s energy capabilities. The Green Energy Scam is falling apart. However, under feckless Albanese and green dreamer Bowen, Australia risks becomming an energy boondoggle backwater as the rest of the world pulls out all stops and embraces nuclear energy options.
70
It’s now 4 weeks into the Trump Presidency. And he is doing everything he promised he would do.
Ceasefire in Gaza and the return of hostages, just when that seemed impossible.
Stopped the border invasions and Fentanyl deaths and started deporting criminals and illegals.
Forced Canada and Mexico to guard their own borders with 30,000 troops each.
Put the world on notice that if you dump in America or tariff American products, you will be tariffed.
Is examining the Constitutional validity of birthright citizenship for children of non residents and non citizens
DOGE finding vast sums misdirected against the explicit wishes and without the knowledge of the American voters. Even funding Soros and Politico and left wing media.
Brought the modern internet media on board.
_____________________________________________
And now ending the war Ukraine. No war ends satisfactorily. But they do end.
Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
but not by the Press or Stamer or Macron or Zelensky or HAMAS or the warmongers of the US, France and UK. They want an endless war.
Even President Erdogan of Turkey, openly a supporter of HAMAS bluntly told Zelensky who dropped in rather than in Saudi Arabia, that Trump is doing exactly what needs to be done. And invited Trump and Putin to meet in Turkey.
What is certain is that Zelensky does not want peace. He wants to win or wage endless, pointless war, no matter how much it costs everyone else and his own people.
I wonder if Zelensky would win an election? I doubt it.
It is likely that 90% of Ukranians would vote to end the war tomorrow. And aren’t they the ones who should be asked?
They have gained nothing and lost everything. Except the people of the Donbas and Crimea would would say they have won their freedom, at great cost.
110
You can be absolutely certain Zelensky does not want an election. Even Churchill was thrown out, despite winning the war.
90
And it is notable that the Democrats are not gainsaying everything Trump does. Not Schumer or Pelosi or Obama or Jeffries and certainly no one in the Biden Crime Family, all pardoned in advance. The news is almost empty.
Maybe Kathy Griffin or perennial Mia Farrow or one of the other rapidly fading 1960s geriatrics? And Trudeau has gone quiet. It is left to the incredibly unpopular Starmer and Macron to stomp around in indignation with Zelensky, demanding that they be treated as important. They may even go to Washington and demand an audience. I hope Trump is at golf.
100
“Put the world on notice that if you dump in America or tariff American products, you will be tariffed.”
I was intrigued to read recently that Trump views value-added taxes such as GST and VAT as tariffs. I can see the point he’s making, though I didn’t hitherto realise America didn’t have such a tax. If he chooses to define GST/VAT/sales taxes as tariffs, Australia will also be in his sights.
40
Australia has numerous “luxury” and “sin” taxes such as for cigarettes and alcohol, and many other taxes, all of which should be in his sights as trade barriers. Apart from the fact that they harm Australians.
31
And artificially increase the price of tobacco. So we regularly have shops burning across Melbourne in the ‘tobacco wars’.
The tax has done its job. Anyone paying $75 for a packet of cigarettes is not going to stop. It’s now time to drop the tax, but the government is hooked on the extortion. And the cost to the people is rocketing for no reason at all except greed by criminals matched only by the greed of the government.
50
It looks like the competition is that the criminals set their greed level somewhat below the government.
An ironic reverse of “make it all legal and bury the idiots”
30
I don’t smoke and don’t recommend it but the other day I meant someone who buys the “illegal” i.e. untaxed cigarettes and she pays $16 per packet, still outrageous by free market prices, but much cheaper than the government taxed ones at $50++ per packet.
She bought these cigarettes at a regular shop, and they were proper cigarettes in regular packets etc. but without the ghastly health warnings. Apparently a lot of smokers know where to get them.
Government is substantially more greedy than organised crime.
90
Massive taxation has created a criminal enterprise from simple smokers needs. As with all prohibition. Is alcohol next?
And communist Government is organized crime, especially carbon dioxide taxes flowing overseas in the billions. No one seriously believes we are reducing CO2. The government is simply taxing Australians to death with worthless, pointless carbon certificates. Which are not legal, even if they are legislated.
50
Your taxes at work.
60
The Royal Society, was created as a partnership between the SE of England and the SE monarch, at a time the industrial North of England was starting to dominate business, and by becoming wealthy to dominate politics. Before the commonwealth, the King had had the absolute right to “permit” any industry by giving “patents” to allow processes like salt pans. That was a hugely profitable business. That power disappeared with the commonwealth, and so did the power of the king to reign in those who just wanted to get ahead and make things and so make money.
The result was a surge in ideas, technology and money … which left the old aristocracy poor and out of the loop.
Hence, the Royal society was created as an attempt for the south to regain control over technology. To re-establish the king’s “right” to patent processes. The Royal society was supposed to give the SE of England control over industry … and so make the SE rich again.
move forward … and now the SE has totally destroyed the industry in the North of Britain … and Nut Zero is yet another way they are fighting the same old battle of the south against the north.
By SE read Oxford and Cambridge and everything to the SE (i.e. London). The “Royal” Society is a way to keep them powerful … which means putting down everyone else.
31
None of that sounds right. Letters Patent were introduced to control the very profitable Bible. Later to control inventions. The use of Letters Patent to establish Royal monopolies was removed in 1623.
And Patents are alive and well and very expensive today in every country, a major source of government revenue, except communist countries like China where everything is stolen. Which explains why no one invents anything in China. Big companies like Amazon, Apple, IBM, Google,Samsung, Microsoft.. each file thousands of patents a year, just in the US. And most area a waste of money. They are more a defensive device. You still have to make the invention work and commercially profitable. Nothing is free.
But it has to be a real invention, new, unprecedented, not obvious. They all have to be examined carefully for originality and novelty, and you can wait ten years for validation for general ideas like software as opposed to Design patents which take about 18 months. Then you have exclusive use of the invention in the country of filing for 20 years, less the examination time. I know this as I now have over 80 of them across a dozen countries. Amazon was based on a single US patent, the ‘one click sale’ and made Jeff Bezos one of the richest men in the world.
They have nothing to do with the Royal Society which is a private science club by nomination only with 8,000 members.
40
FWIW
“Scandal-ridden Nikola — known for its electric semi-trucks — files for bankruptcy”
https://nypost.com/2025/02/19/business/scandal-ridden-ev-maker-nikola-files-for-bankruptcy/
Summarised elsewhere as “From bragging to bankruptcy”
40
If it’s not covered in wind turbines, still can’t go there: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-20/sa-kati-thanda-lake-eyre-plan/104961682
10
Computer says no: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-20/billie-eilish-tickets-stolen-ticketek-marketplace/104961194
More push for digital ID
00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlNTdofWXZg
Food gardens in the desert
10