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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Satellite Trains
A few nights ago I had a clear night sky after sunset so I went out to look for satellites.
By the time it was dark enough to see the Milky Way I saw the first one, then another and another.
The interesting thing was that they were all following the same track from west the east across the sky and were all more or less equally spaced, about 30 degrees apart. In the space of half an hour I had counted 17 satellites, all following the same track.
The next night was also clear and I saw 8 satellites but they were all going in different directions.
What is the purpose of the satellite train? Did Space X launch them?
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You likely saw a Starlink satellite cluster transiting overhead. There are more than 7000 of those satellites and they tend to travel various low orbits in long trains. The stated purpose is to provide satellite based internet anywhere in the world. They may have various other unstated purposes.
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Probably Starlink satellites.
Track them here:
https://satellitemap.space/
I wrote an article about Starlink:
https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2023/June/Starlink%2C+Swarm+and+Starshield
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At the first link click on any dot to see the satellite track.
30
I am sure we all know that carbon capture is a silly idea but this seems scarcely credible as 20000 subscribers pay monthly for carbon credits. The equipment is supposed to suck co2 out of the air
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/carbon-capture-scam-does-not-even-offset-its-own-emissions/
40
Just about all such “green” projects are scams.
Their main purpose is to harvest taxpayer-funded subsidies, taxpayer money for “research” by fake “scientists” or the cash of gullible people and/or Leftoid virtue signalers as in this case.
None of them have any purpose to generate electricity, of which ‘green” electricity is expensive and unreliable and fundamentally useless.
And removal of CO2 from the atmosphere as in this case is just stupid. It is a vital gas for life and barely above the level required to avoid a mass extinction event (about 200ppm). It’s a good thing it’s naturally increasing.
And another stupid idea is Herr Starmer’s idea to blot out the sun. That’s simply insane. Once Great Britain needs more sun, not less. And what happens to all the solar panels with less sunlight? Apart from the absurdity of terraforming.
It would be better that the money be spent on useful and productive things or returned to taxpayers as TRUMP is doing in the United States.
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Another related scam I’m aware of is purchasing carbon offset credits for airline flights.
Even about 20 years ago I am aware that the Australian Government would always purchase these for all official flights by their public serpents.
What a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money.
50
Climeworks? More like Crimeworks, as it certainly appears to be doing in this case.
00
Britains longest train ride at 775 miles ceases today
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14720163/UK-longest-train-journey-Aberdeen-Penzance-time.html
It runs from Aberdeen in northern Scotland through to Penzance near lands end in Cornwall.
It runs through our local main line station. The service will now terminate at Plymouth some 90 minutes from Penzance.
50
That’s a shame.
I’m surprised that they don’t cite “climate change” as the reason.
40
From Senator Gerard Rennick on Farcebook:
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Here is a video of the news item.
It looks like a real mess and potentially quite serious bridge damage.
https://youtu.be/lXAl9nUNnBQ
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That piece of expensive junk should be left in situ as a monument to absolute stupidity. No risk some lefty vandals will cut it down like Capt Cook statues.
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One way to get it moved Gleee!
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I really thought that after TRUMP was elected his leadership and promotion of reason, common sense, small and efficient government, support of free speech, a return to traditional morality and the war against junk science would be followed throughout the world.
Instead, the rest of the world seems to be going in opposite directions, the most recent examples being the election of the Leftist regimes of Australia and Canada.
50
Disappointing for sure but take heart. The enlightenment didn’t happen all at once.
I was interested by two articles this morning. Both about computing.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/joe-rogan-guest-reveals-facebooks-secret-experiment-that/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/15/the-dumbest-genius-librarian/
We live in interesting times!
00
I don’t think most Australians, including those who identify as “feminists”, are aware that in Australia there is no legal recognition of biological women. Instead, a person is a woman if they think they are a woman. Biological status is irrelevant.
The fake feminist Julia Gillard changed the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 to identify men and women according to their self-identification, not actual biology.
That is unlike the situation in the USA and the UK where under recent law changes and court determinations only biological sex is recognised as one’s true sex.
The implications are profoundly negative for women’s rights in Australia.
Right now we have two cases, Tickle v Giggle https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/services/access-to-files-and-transcripts/online-files/roxanne-tickle-v-giggle-for-girls where a biological man was refused membership of a women’s only App and most recently a biological man refused membership of a women’s only gym.
Irene BritUSA discusses.
https://youtu.be/EnDGGhjJFXs
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Britain is saved!
There is a way we can save lives, employ millions on the dole – in ‘green jobs’, and please Gretas!
How wonderful!
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/road-safety-charity-calls-for-10-mph/
The Road Safety Federation wants a 10mph speed limit.
The Government – this one, anyway – will agree; in two years time, it’ll be 5 mph – and you’ll need a man with a red flag to walk 50 yards in front.
Sorted!
Auto
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I know that, before 1896, it was 4mph – but we’ve moved on and are SO very much more advanced, now!
Auto
10
In Australia there is a continual push by the Left for a reduction in speed limits as part of their war against non-Elite motorists. The Left have always hated the personal mobility afforded to non-Elites by the private motor vehicle.
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I’m not sure there is a “left” with any sort of central control structure. I think their group behavior has more similarity to a brood of cicadas, a shoal of fish, a flock of birds or a nest of termites.
I am convinced that there is no coherent intellectual structure other than a compelling desire to control and be controlled.
I’m not sure where that takes rational actors who prefer to act with autonomy. Perhaps the enlightenment was an anomaly.
00
A Tesla car in self driving mode can handle the roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Europe’s biggest roundabout?
Video:
https://x.com/teslaeurope/status/1923302585034756360
20
FWIW
An interesting read (IMO)
“Will No-One Listen To Russia?”
And the comments
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/will-no-one-listen-to-russia/
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And
“I DON’T DOUBT THEIR SINCERITY BUT PUTIN SO FAR HAS BEEN GIVEN LITTLE REASON TO COOPERATE: Rubio and Trump: This Is the ‘Only Way’ to End the War in Ukraine. “Yeah, it’s my assessment and I think it’s the President’s assessment. By the way, I think he said publicly today that the only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here – nothing is going to happen at this point – given everything we know, after months of working on this, nothing is going to happen until President Trump sits across the table from Vladimir Putin and puts it on the line and puts it on the table. I think that’s the only chance we have at peace at this point given everything we’ve seen over the last few weeks. There’s been talks, there’s been negotiations, there’s been trips and meetings. But in the end, I think we’ve reached the conclusion, and rightfully so, as the President has, that the only way this is going to happen – if it has a chance to happen, the only way it happens is – is the President directly engages with Vladimir Putin.” ”
https://instapundit.com/720048/#disqus_thread
00
That is pretty much my take on the situation as well except that it does not mention the fact that it is a US proxy war with Russia.
That leads me to the question of why Trump does not simply shut off funding. Perhaps he is concerned that Russia will simply annex the whole of the Ukraine. Perhaps there are forces preventing the shut off which are beyond his control. Perhaps he is looking at a bigger picture.
It’s all way beyond my pay grade and my crystal ball is on the blink.
00
FWIW – re “that plane”
Oh Dear!
“So let me get this straight the plane that was a gift from Qatar was actually a conversation that was started a year ago by the Biden administration with the Qataris? You literally can’t make this stuff up.”
https://x.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/1923098990666449204
Via https://instapundit.com/720084/#disqus_thread
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And more thoughts on “that plane”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/05/sounds-about-right.html
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And once more the lie has made its way around the world while the truth is still getting its pants on.
00
FWIW
“BUILT TO LAST: NASA Revives Voyager Thrusters ‘Considered Dead’ for 20 Years. “NASA’s engineers revived a set of thrusters on board the Voyager 1 spacecraft to use as backup while the mission goes offline for ongoing upgrades to a radio antenna used to communicate with deep space missions, the space agency revealed this week. Voyager’s primary roll thrusters had stopped working in 2004 after losing power in two small internal heaters, but the team managed to restart the thrusters while the spacecraft cruises through interstellar space at a distance of 15.14 billion miles away (24.4 billion kilometers).” ”
https://instapundit.com/720044/#disqus_thread
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Hard to beat that for long distance mechanics!
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FWIW
The last election –
“Universal suffrage” provided by “universal suffrage”
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““Universal suffering” provided by “universal suffrage””
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FWIW – more revealings
“https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1923167781765382263”
“Full text:
Today, I launched a powerful new tool that indexes the National Endowment for Democracy journal… and here’s what it uncovers:
🔍 Dozen-plus Open Society Foundation staff, funded by George Soros, are writing in a U.S. government-backed journal.
🇺🇸 That journal is part of our taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy, a quasi-government operation tied to foreign “democracy” missions- and Congress sits on its board.
No conspiracy theories. This is hard data.
📎 This proves Soros and our intelligence apparatus are deeply intertwined.
You can sift through the data yourself, right here.”
Via https://instapundit.com/719982/#disqus_thread
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Perhaps the advent of computers being able to process vast amounts of information will throw spanners in the works of the bad guys.
And let’s face it, the bad guys have had a pretty easy time of things.
My guess is that the bad guys will make themselves much more visible as they cling to power.
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