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
Well, Trump’s approval rating went up, despite last week and probably the biggest anti-Trump media blitz yet. The MSM are beside themselves.
151
Yep, the Blob gets madder (as in hatters).
Probably writing the script to Georgepandemic 2.0 as we speak.
70
Dave in the States,
Wisest not to care about popularity polls. Who did the poll? Why did they do it? What did they ask? *Who* did they ask? What will you do if his rating goes down?
In Australia, Turnbull knifed Abbott for the PM’s job with the justification that Abbott had lost “30 Newspolls in a row” (for preferred Prime Minister). It was outrageous, and I could only manage a hollow laugh some time later when reporters were confronting Turnbull with his own 30-loss streak.
Besides, recurring theme at Jo Nova’s: consensus is overrated.
40
The SAM entered a positive phase in the opening days of April and has since gained strength, with the SAM index reaching +2.55 on April 5. Sustained values above +1 indicate a positive SAM event and this is now the second strongest positive SAM we have seen in almost five months.
https://news-images.weatherzone.com.au/twc/weekly_rain_20250407.png
Average SOI for last 30 days 10.40
Average SOI for last 90 days 6.87
Daily contribution to SOI calculation 13.84
50
Marshall Southern Annular Mode (SAM) Index
The station-based SAM index, which extends back to 1957, uses records from six stations at roughly 65S and six stations at roughly 40S.
🤔 … is effectively a measure of the strength of the Southern Westerly Winds …
I suggest a post on the topic.
60
Ok, I’ll bite. How does a stronger/higher SAM affect SW winds?
10
‘In a positive SAM phase, the belt of westerly winds contracts towards Antarctica. This results in weaker than normal westerly winds and higher pressures over southern Australia, restricting the passage of cold fronts inland. Generally, this means that there are fewer rain events in winter for southern Australia.’ (BoM)
A large blocking high pressure will push the SW winds further south.
10
Thanks EG. Should have looked further down at Peter C’s comment before asking.
00
Looking up what SAM is – Southern Annular Mode (SAM) – doesn’t look great for the wet West (or East, depending where you are)
Also found this gem:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/6-minute-english_2022/ep-221110
Neil
David Keith believes that geo-engineering could provide an excuse for inaction on climate change – a reason for countries to explain why they did not take action.
Sam
He says controversy over the method has waxed and waned – an idiom connected with the cycle of the moon which describes something that increases then decreases over time. In the 1960s for example, geo-engineering was uncontroversial, but by the 1990s it had become taboo – a subject that is avoided for social or religious reasons.
Neil
While these ideas to change the weather have potential benefits, other suggestions – for example to position a giant floating mirror between the earth and sun – are highly controversial… Although personally, I think the idea of giant floating umbrella above Britain would be good!
40
Professor Katja Friedrich
People are thinking, yeah, you’re putting some substances in the atmosphere that should not be there. Usually I respond and say, every time you get into your car, every time you get on an airplane you put substances in the air that don’t belong, so you’re also playing God.
40
Comparing a De Stranelove-esque plan to manipulate global weather with one person driving to the shops in the most benign climate we have seen for millenia, does rather seem a false equivalence.
40
https://www.google.com/search?q=SAM+positive+mode&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari
30
There goes THAT theory 😃
NZ’s South Island ski areas BURIED under short sharp shock wintry bliss and it’s only 8 April:
https://www.queenstown.com/webcams
Quick – before it all melts! Nothing to see here folks, it ALWAYS snows in April, a little pre-winter teaser before the main show opens in June/July.
40
Sad for the windmills…
10
That might explain WA’s absence of wind most days, especially the lack of the “Fremantle Doctor” that usually cools Perth in the afternoons on hot summer days. Zero wind for around 48 hours currently. Lucky we have cheap gas and coal to see us through the windless nights.
20
Britain’s War on Free Speech: A new report in the Times has revealed that police in the UK are arresting more than 12,000 people each year for words that cause offence. That’s over 30 arrests per day for speech crime: https://dailysceptic.org/2025/04/07/britains-war-on-free-speech
I was also contacted by Humberside Police for something I cannot remember saying. I asked why I was being investigated. They said it was my local MP, a Climate alarmist Tory MP, but no crime had been committed. The two male officers replied: “We need to check your thinking.”
Thinkpol was thought up by George Orwell not by Humberside Police: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Police
Thoughtcrime was thought up by George Orwell not by Humberside Police. A thoughtcrime is the offence of thinking in ways not approved by the British Government. The main job of Humberside Police is to detect thoughtcrime by looking at comments on ‘X’ that do not agree with the governments lies and propaganda and violate information censored by the government and OFCOM. These thoughtcrimes are contrary to the accepted norms and ideology of a soviet socialist society. A society which worships the wonderful benefits of Islam, gender bending chemicals and mRNA technology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtcrime
120
It’s tragic what’s become of Once Great Britain.
And due to the dramatic demographic changes, much of the population now come from a culture that doesn’t accept freedom, free speech or democracy and its probably not fixable, especially with another almost another five years of Starmer.
Orwell’s prophecies are being fulfilled.
Once Great Britain ought to be a warning for all Western countries.
90
“And due to the dramatic demographic changes, much of the population now come from a culture that doesn’t accept freedom, free speech or democracy …”
I find it strange (not) that, as far as I know, the majority of those being harassed, arrested and/or charged for saying something wrong are conservative white people. I haven’t seen a single example so far of any follower of a certain religion being similarly treated.
50
Here’s a reminder to NOT park your EV near anything you care about….
https://www.9news.com.au/national/gold-coast-house-fire-investigation-centres-on-electric-vehicle-recharger/09602272-28e4-47fe-b2da-a1fc7b86f328
81
Glad they all got out
20
Last week there was yet another fire at a Pickles car yard this time in Brisbane suburb of Archerfield. I heard about it on channel 7 news report and ears pricked up at mention of Pickles as they have a long history of fires at not just Queensland yards but also Sydney/Melbourne/Perth. Courier Mail comment paywalled.
You would think that with their bad run – authorities have in the past suggested possible arson – they would improve their security and automatic fire fighting. Certainly, if I was an insurer I would not be insuring them.
Of course, the one thing that Pickles cannot “tighten up on” themselves is to refuse to deal with EVs, I mean that is their future. Believe Perth fire was confirmed as EV starter.
Genuine question (“They” call it a “conspiracy theory”) with all this wet weather we have been having how many more fires a la Pickles and this Gold Coast car/house fire can we expect from water damage to battery cells maybe contributing to the GC incident when it was put on charge.
Great video of the Pickles fire on Tik Tok.
When Brave/AI couldn’t give me straight answers I went to Fire Services to see if I could search for previous fires. Low and behold guess what…. there was a 10:18am entry that they were on site of a car fire at Aspley (northern suburb of Brisbane). Will be interesting to see if it makes news anywhere and whether it’s a single fire spontaneous burn or crash initiated burn. Yes, that is of course if an EV was involved.
00
China has announced a 35% tax on US goods and banned the sale of rare earths to America.
They cornered this entire market with to the help of Green activists who shut down rare earth mines all around the world. Then the average price of rare earths jumped from $8 a kilo to $250 a kilo. So now rare earth control is being used to punish the US. Which confirms Trump’s basic argument that countries and China in particular have been waging a major trade war against the US. Rare earth mining would drop prices 3000%. It is behind Trump’s talk of rare earths with Ukraine.
It is just one example of how the Communist Greens and Communist China work as one to create megaprofits and hike costs and shut down world manufacturing, mining and agriculture.
In the bizarro Green world no one cares if all the CO2, all the mining, all the money is Chinese. It’s Green policy. So all the steel industry, mining, manufacturing and all the carbon credits and carbon cash go to China. And the world’s Green parties and the UN find that a desirable solution to Climate Change.
Australia’s invisible 35% CO2 tax will produce hundreds of billions which will find their way to China while all our ‘biggest polluters’ go out of business, crippling Australia’s independence and employment and Federal incomes, as intended. Just like banning rare earth mining. No one voted for this massive punitive CO2 tax, supported but not mentioned by all political parties.
China wins everything and Australia loses everything and the world is worse off. Like rare earth bans, Green policy and the 35% CO2 ‘tax’ or ‘theft’ is not being mentioned by any party in the Australian election. This inexplicable disastrous massive cash grab is 10% this year and 15% next year as thousands of jobs are already lost and all prices soar. What Canberra has done to electricity prices is being done to all goods and services and food and mining. Punish Australians massively to move Climate Change to China.
It is unbelievable that this is not the killer governance issue or an issue at all in the Australian election as everyone tries to placate the Green voters and pretend to stop world Climates from changing. All on our own. It’s brutal Monty Python logic. Chop our legs off and beg.
151
Surprisingly The Guardian
Here’s one key thing you should know about Trump’s shock to the world economy: it could work
James Meadway
It’s hard to say if the president truly knows what he’s doing. But there is a precedent for the US causing short-term chaos and reaping long-term gain
It’s less than a week since Donald Trump’s sensational announcement that he was unilaterally ending the world’s trading system with the imposition of a 10% minimum tariff for trading with the US – and a very much higher rate for those countries unfortunate enough to have the US as a major export partner. Long-term allies such as Japan and South Korea have been hammered with tariffs of around 25%, while export-dependent poorer countries such as Vietnam, which sells about a third of its exports to the US, have been hit with tariffs in excess of 45%. A further round of global debt crises is possible as heavily indebted countries face the sudden loss of export earnings.
Global stock markets have tumbled as panicked investors dump shares, and political condemnation has been near-universal. China has already retaliated with 34% tariffs, threatening an escalating trade war. Right now, it looks and feels like disastrous overreach by a uniquely erratic administration at the behest of a president with a terrifyingly limited grasp of how the modern economy works.
Trump has talked about imposing tariffs on the world since he first rose to prominence in the 1980s, when his target was Japan. In a political career notable for its jack-knifes in policy and direction, tariffs – “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” – have been a constant. But this is about far more than his long-cherished whims. However inconsistent or even confused Trump may sometimes appear to be, those around him have a clear-eyed view of what they want to achieve.
His Treasury secretary, hedgefund billionaire Scott Bessent, has spoken of a “global economic reordering” that he intends to shape to the benefit of the US’s elite.
Perhaps the rolling market chaos will become too much. Perhaps the administration will blink first. There is no guarantee this extraordinary gamble will work, not even for those in the clique around Trump.
But it would be a mistake to assume it cannot work – and however the pieces now land, they will not return to their old places.
60
“global economic reordering”
But isn’t this exactly what Herr Schwab and all the other Davos cohort wanted?
Oh wait its not happening in the direction that they wanted.
Oh wait again, they have spent decades trying to push their views of what is an ideal wealth distribution and Trump has just done it with the stroke of a sharpie marker!
70
China started buying up North American “rare-earth” mining operations and “prospects”, a couple of decades ago. Very few people “blinked” at this intense interest in “fancy dirt”. A brief scan through the uses of things like Tantalum reveals much.
It is a LONG game of 4D chess. Folks in Oz might find interesting, in that apocryphal Chinese Curse” way, just how much of Oz primary and secondary industry is now in the same hands, courtesy of local “cut-outs” fronting the shopping spree,
First, they bought the souls of the “gatekeepers”. Some they got for FREE, willingly.
About those “interesting times”?
90
Hey Australia just had a Naval Check by Our Landlords
One positive for Chinese in Australia, they intermarry – SIL 2 brothers have married Chinese Girls
00
Mining rare earths happens all around the world. Rare earths are rather common. It is the processing that no one else wants to do, because of the toxicity of the residual, mainly water. I guess The US is going to have to hold its nose?
00
SITREP 4/6/25: Hint of Spring as Russian Pressure Rises on Every Front
Simplicius
Fascinating view of how warfare is changing
Scroll down to and watch the videos associated
Let’s do an instructive autopsy on one of the recent advances, to understand how current frontline assault tactics are evolving.
From the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade, formerly of the 2nd Army Corps of the LPR forces. This brigade operates in the south Chasov Yar region, west of Bakhmut. Several days ago they captured Ukrainian positions with a classic armored train of heavily-modified combat vehicles:
[SNIP do we have permission to copy?]
A Russian unit again shows off the vast amount of drones their electronic warfare has downed near the Kursk border:
Over 1,000 Ukrainian FPV drones were grounded by Russian electronic warfare units near the Kursk border.
They stripped them for parts that’ll come in handy for Russian drones, and piled up the empty frames into a sort of improvised installation—kind of a visual on the new realities of modern warfare. The Khokhol keeps trying to hold even one foot in our border area, constantly sending in new drone crews.
Here Russian center group is seen recently training some of these assault tactics:
40
[SNIP do we have permission to copy?]
Given Simplicius has Paywalled Articles, and as this was not one of them, I would assume so – https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-4625-hint-of-spring-as-russian
and this is a very long article and the point I was rasing re Warfare was the Mods to Tanks (then Drones)
It can be seen the front of the group uses tanks with heavy rollers to neutralize mines and form a safe passage to the target area. Note that the tank is sporting anti-drone EW modules on the roof—different modules to cover as many frequencies as possible:
At the 0:40 second mark of the video you’ll note infantry dismounts from beneath the tank shed itself.
Which means the main battle tanks are being used to carry assault infantry directly on top of them, in conjunction to other armored personnel carriers.
One of the reasons is due to the ongoing drone threat, it’s now often considered ironically safer to ride on top rather than inside of a ‘deathbox’, because it allows troops to quickly dismount and disperse if drone detectors are warning of a threat, or hits are already incoming.
00
It’s war. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5oSmth_NEM
Of note is that Russia has no problem flattening the towns/villages that they claim with massive glide bombs and artillery barrages – what a waste of infrastructure and residents that choose to remain in place.
00
I am amazed that the fight against Trump is using economic modelling. Collapsing stock prices. Soaring inflation. No one used modelling to attack the Biden government or even reality of soaring interest rates and power prices. Or Australia.
Are these the same genuises who do Climate Modelling? Why aren’t we all underwater?
If anyone questions China, the UN or EU, they are clearly wrong, according to the infallible modellers who predicted the GFC, for example.
These people are like rowers facing the wrong way and have 20/20 hindsight but zero proven ability to get any prediction right. Headlines nevertheless. Who needs facts and certainty when you have modellers?
Trump is doing what has to be done to fix serious financial problems and massive trade and government debt. As in Australia and Europe. But he threatens the world order which is grinding Western democracies into the dirt. With rare earths, for example.
131
Yes. It struck me as odd as well that Jim Chalmers (who “identifies” as Australia’s “treasurer”) said his department had invoked modelling to analyse the impact of the tariffs.
If they had a clue how anything worked, it wouldn’t be hard to work it out without invoking a model which is likely not validated in any case.
Modelling is such a buzz word for politicians and senior public serpents but most would have no clue what it means or what’s involved. It just sounds like they know what they’re talking about, at least to the Lamestream Media and Green Labor and other low information voters.
I was once involved in a project in Canberra with one of the largest and most expensive Government departments. They had spent years and millions of dollars plus hugely overpaid “consultants” to develop a costing model for something because the relevant minister had a brain f@rt that one was needed. This “model” had tens of thousands of inputs. It was all pointless. It could just as easily be modelled using just two variable cost inputs, the important ones, not the others which were just trivia and essentially fixed costs anyway. The amount of our tax money wasted on this sort of thing is staggering but it keeps the “Big Four” accounting firms well anointed with our taxes.
110
For those who think the Liberals are a serious alternative to Green Labor, consider how many policies or legislation of Green Labor Liberals remove when they win Government.
It’s not much and often not anything.
The bad laws and regulations of Green Labor just keep accumulating.
90
That has always been a marker for the true philosophy of any new Govt, and as you say, rarely does any change of Govt mean laws get removed.
We don’t only suffer from the burden of Leftist rubbish that gets passed, the Right pass rubbish to suit their mates and have plenty of brain farts too.
10
The US has a variation – a new administration comes in, reverses the previous administrations executive orders, signs new executive orders to be reversed by the next administration. Passing actual legislation requires work.
10
Surprise surprise. JSO back as Youth Demand, with most of the same members, including ones who are clearly pensionable!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14578953/Youth-Demand-plot-bring-London-standstill.html
30
Back in the day children would learn about all the wonderful products made from petroleum.
Today, these violent children (or those who “identify” as children) of Just Stop Oil would have no clue that nearly everything they wear, use or touch is derived from it.
This was most ridiculously expressed when Saint Greta sailed across the Atlantic in a high tech carbon fibre yacht made mostly from petroleum products. She and her mindless drones just don’t have a clue.
She’s sick of that now and has moved on to advocating for terrorists.
100
The child never attended school long enough to learn anything worthwhile.
90
I heard TRUMP say, although it wasn’t widely reported, that tariffs would be removed from individual countries as soon as trade deficits were eliminated, i.e. there has to be a balanced trade between the two countries and no unfair trade barriers.
E.g. TRUMP has already mentioned that Australia exports $3 billion worth of meat to the USA but allows zero return trade.
Yes, I know the non-tariff trade barrier of “biosecurity” is always used but it’s implausible that an advanced country like the US couldn’t meet whatever requirements are in place.
Consider food imports from Asia such as fish from fish farms where the fish are raised in polluted waters in horrible conditions etc.. There doesn’t seem to be a problem with those in terms of invoking biosecurity barriers.
Also, it’s unfair that Australia is subsiding steel and aluminium exports to the US. If we can’t sell it at a fair price due to expensive “green” energy, then don’t have taxpayers unfairly subsidise the trade.
These are just two examples.
TRUMP is merely reacting to unfair trade policies that the US has endured from Australia and other countries for decades.
120
“Consider food imports from Asia such as fish from fish farms where the fish are raised in polluted waters in horrible conditions etc.. There doesn’t seem to be a problem with those in terms of invoking biosecurity barriers.”
Mekong catfish, rebranded as anything you like, it has half a dozen names in Australia, the stuff is raised in ponds fed by the most polluted river on Earth.
60
Back in the day, (decades ago) I was involved in a minor way with imported prawns. These were reportedly failing antibiotic levels and approved types as a matter of course but still allowed into the country. All sorts of excuses why this was allowed to happen. Aussie prawns, about twice the price, were controlled to the “nth” degree.
Remember when you could buy yabbies in the markets but their production has been regulated out of existence because of “health regulations” and are now only raised for bait.
40
as i understand It, The “biosecurity” for beef imports relates to “Mad Cow” desease, which risk , is only eliminated after a extended time period from the last recorded incident (2023 in the USA), rather than any possible pharmacutical treatments.
31
US beef and other meat and meat from other countries has always been hard or impossible to import even before Mad Cow was a thing. Two exceptions are NZ and believe it or not Japan.
I find it implausible that no country has ever been able to meet Australia’s biosecurity regulations. It’s obviously a non-tariff barrier.
Australia’s BSE-related prohibition on US beef imports dates to 2003 and was theoretically lifted in 2019 but still apparently remains in effect in practice because the US imports live cattle from Canada and the US. I very much doubt the US wouldn’t be doing the relevant tests before allowing that.
However, the Australian Government claims that the prohibition of US beef is lifted so why no US beef exports? Unless biosecurity is still the excuse.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-06/trump-claims-australia-bans-american-beef-imports-incorrect/105139686
00
As I also understand it, due to NAFTA, there was no guarantee that the beef was US grown – could be Mexican or Canadian.
NAFTA must be dead in the water now.
00
David Maddison,
That idea would make sense if you wanted to conduct all international trade as barter. No need for money at all.
Thing is, money was invented to make trading easier. The farmer has grain the miller can use. The miller makes flour the baker can use. The farmer wants bread from the baker, but the baker doesn’t want his raw grain. What to do? Call in the goldsmith. He can make a portable store of value which everyone can use. Later, it’s realised that the portable store doesn’t actually have to be valuable itself.
The point is that all the trades *are* balanced: the goods flow one way, balanced by the money flowing the other. Mr Trump’s reasoning appears to be broken.
10
This morning, at 6.30 South Australia the wind leader was burning diesel and the wind was producing about 20% of local demand for power.
LOL!
30
https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island shows…
0% wind, 70% solar and 30% diesel
Worth noting is total output of 1470kW against total customer demand of 2168kW
No soup for you!
Update: looks like the clouds have rolled in
0% wind 28% solar and 72% diesel
10
More wind than showing on WA’s SWIS grid. Has been zero wind for about 48 hours, over 52% coal yesterday morning, rest gas. First time I’ve seen the grid battery above 4% – currently 7.6%.
00
FWIW
What passes for “news”
“‘Dead Wrong,’ But the Media LOVE the Story So They Keep Printing It”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/04/07/dead-wrong-but-the-media-love-the-story-so-they-keep-printing-it-n3801551
00
And
“DNC (Pin)Head Says RFK Jr ‘Murdered Another Child’ Who Died From Measles”
“What makes it even more disgusting, more low-class, more slimeball revolting than the average Democratic gaslighting is the moron obviously didn’t even read the article he reXweeted with his disgusting and libelous accusation.
It says right there in it that RFK Jr has been busy surging materials and assets to support vaccination access to the area since mid-March when word first surfaced of the outbreak.”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/04/07/dnc-pinhead-says-rfk-jr-murdered-child-who-died-from-measles-n3801549
10
Here is a thought for the day, wind and solar are a net drain on the energy economy of the world!
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/wind-and-solar-the-energy-thieves
20
Trump Cancels Biden Grants to China-Tied Think Tank Behind War on Gas Stoves
https://freebeacon.com/energy/trump-admin-cancels-green-grants-funding-left-wing-climate-think-tank-tied-to-china/
20
FWIW
The bark heard round the world?
“Remote Access Backdoor Discovered in Chinese Robot Dog Unitree Go1”
https://cyberinsider.com/remote-access-backdoor-discovered-in-chinese-robot-dog-unitree-go1/
Via Instapundit
10
Your experts and betters in Sydney are pushing for a tripled parking tax on heavy SUVs and utes…
“Heavier vehicles increase damage on inner-city roads, thereby increasing maintenance costs on roads, with the largest SUVs doing 16 times more damage than small cars on Australian roads.”
Not that its just a cash grab because the public are buying more SUVs than anything else, but of course it clashes with their overweight darling, the electric cars. So-
” Councillors would need to consider “appropriate equity caveats … for example, considering the needs of people with disabilities, tradespeople,..and other people with specific mobility or business requirements”… and their fat-ass electric cars, to make sure…
“that any proposed changes do not perversely discourage the switch to cleaner vehicles which are heavier due to their batteries.”
So, $25/hr to park in Sydney. I figure they all deserve it anyway just for living there..
https://www.drive.com.au/news/sydney-proposes-parking-tax-on-suvs/?utm_campaign=syndication&utm_source=smh.com.au&utm_content=article_3&utm_medium=partner
30
Up to 21 felt reports were recorded in Singleton and nearby Broke as locals woke to the early morning tremors.
This morning’s breakfast conversation in some Singleton and Broke households:
“No, darling that was me, not an earthquake”.
00