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
As regards the so called climate catastrophe, The Romans were sceptical about such fervently believed nonsense.
Hic ego aut omnino
‘I am confident that these things are either altogether false, or at any rate less serious than they are thought to be”
William Bradley Latin Exercises 1855
240
The Romans grearly benefited from a naturally warm period 250 BCE to CE 400.
Back in the day it was known as the Roman Warm Period.
Civilisation always thrives during naturally warm periods.
E.g.
Egyptian Warm Periods.
Second Intermediate Period: A warm period around 1800 BC
New Kingdom: A warm period around 1600 BC
Third Intermediate Period: A warm period around 1000 BC
Minoan Warm Period.
Around 1275BCE
Roman Warm Period
250BCE-400CE
Arguably Rome reached peak Civilisation, at least peak expansion, under Trajan (98 to 117CE), around 117CE.
Medieval Warm Period.
950-1250CE
140
Not sure about that? Hic ego aut omnino Translates as I am here or I am not. I suppose it was the vernacular from an expert but it’s very cryptic. Perhaps closer to Rene Descartes Cogito ergo sum.
40
I think therefore something is. 😉
40
‘I think, therefore I am.’ It was the first principle.
00
Extraordinary example of temperature inversion today in Austria as a cold layer is trapped under a warm layer of air.
At our apt at 400 metres the temperature was minus 3 centigrade, as we drove along the flat it dropped to minus 6.
As we drove up to 1100 metres in a 20 minute drive the temperature rapidly rose and at 1100 metres the temperature was plus 7.5 centigrade.
This reminds me of the time we arrived one time at Salzburg airport in December to go skiing, to be told by the pilot as we touched down that it was plus 21 degrees centigrade.
Our son was joining us the next morning so we were concerned his ski experience would be non existent.
However on driving to the airport the next morning to collect him it was snowing heavily and minus 2 centigrade.
The most extreme example of Sudden Stratospheric warming I have ever witnessed.
When previously researching English temperatures from hundreds of years ago I came across 3 reports of similar SST’s
200
So what was the average air temperature on those days?
And that’s why global warming, using air as the measure stick, is useless. An air pocket can be several degrees warmer than the surrounds and if that bubble is on the local temperature gauge, then bingo global warming.
Average air temperatures should NOT be based on the simple average of the lowest measure and the highest measure. If air temperatures are to be used, then it should be a time weighted average, eg 5 minutes at 40C and the rest of the hour at 30C would show an average for the hour of very near to 30.8C.
It would be interesting to see how the modern data, (5 minute intervals), can be used to calculate an average based on this and compare that to the average of the min and max. Anyone want to do that over a month or two and report back. (Yes I’m lazy. Maybe someone has already done it?).
If the ‘average’ reported is so variable, why are we using it?
150
Even the median, say from 10min or 30min averages over 24hrs, would be better. Digital world makes it so easy. Too often a 1sec spike is found in the recent records, that were vety unlikely in the mercury or alcohol days. Add in poorer siting and ground based temperature readings are not fit for purpose.
60
“Add in poorer siting and ground based temperature readings are not fit for purpose.”
if that is the case then comparing today’s temperature with those from previous years seems pointless.
81
Exactly.
50
I said it few times here – immediate air temperature is of interest, academically and for some engineering purposes.
Yet, to get the correct picture of local climate new standard should be measuring the soil temperature – exact details should worked out by specialists.
41
I’d be a lot happier if they were to measure the temperature of the inside of an aluminium block, say 100mm sides.
Place the aluminium block 1.5m above the ground, under a shade which covers all sides and the top, site the shade 500mm from the block, ensure the outside is painted gloss white.
How hard would it be to utilise a system like this. Anyone can buy aluminium, shade material could be tightly specified. The thermometer would have to be a near zero current device so that it didn’t heat the unit, alternatively only power it up at the time of the reading, say once per 5 minutes.
Something as simple as this would work wonders.
Or even simpler. Use a glass fish tank, clear on all sides, full of water and sealed to prevent evaporation. Mount clear of the ground. Ensure that the thermometer is silvered to prevent sun heating. Being clear glass and transparent water you wouldn’t even need to shade this device. Just keep the glass clean.
Then again. We have ideas why they won’t do this. How can you cook a temperature gauge that’s closer to idiot proof and so simple that people can see if it’s being played around with?
40
Ian !
It is unbelievable how similar our thoughts.
Last year when somebody on this website broke this subject I actually sketched a vacuum-sealed 1 L / 1 kG glass tank, filled with distilled water about 3/4, (for our US brothers it could be 60 F) – something like old vacuum tube, with a Pt100 sensor etched on its internal surface.
Obviously it follows the platinum-irridium etalon, etc, etc,.. from primary school textbook.
The water level at 20 deg C (60 F for our US brothers) is marked on the glass, any “scientist” can see with his own eyes it is working…
My grandchildren laughed at me, so I shut up…
However, what we are saying has much more sense than current madness.
The SAA still exists, at least some engineers sit on its committees, they can be persuaded.
31
Eng_Ian,
I disagree. A global temperature is profoundly useless for any practical purpose no matter how you compose it. You’re taking a whole planet and assigning some number to it. All the *useful* information has been thrown away.
Deep Thought says the answer is 42. Now what?
111
Fully agree. Pretending the planet is a billiard ball in uniform response to heat and cold is absurd. It’s an artificial measure and it if produces worthwhile insights, the fact that no one actually lives in the resultant temperature is irrelevant. But given that 99.9% of all surface heat is in the oceans which cover 72% of the planet, 74% if you include Antarctica, it is nonsense in terms of representing the weather anywhere.
Plus we are trusting historically to reverse tempearture engineering as even today only 2% of people live in the bottom 40% of the planet. There are no historical records for most of the ocean. Even Australia which has great records from 1850 to 1909 excludes those records.
So it’s all done by proxies which purport to be correct to 0.1C? Really?
The only analysis which I believe is the actual temperatures measured by real thermometers in six European cities from the invention of the thermometer. And this graph is so unlike the ‘world’ graph and matches what written records tell us, that 1870 was the coldest year and post 1870 is not much different form pre 1870.
And as all our heat, all water, all weather comes from the sun and the ocean, how can we possibly leave out the ocean in determining the weather beyond the immediate tracking of water and wind?
We are still using crystal balls to try to guess at El Nino and all the other massive ocean cycles which control climates totally. No models. And a Global Temperature which has been debunked as useless because it cannot predict Europe let alone the rest of the planet.
111
Quite normal in early morning. Cold air is more dense so it sinks to flats and gullies.
10
Some of you may know that the (Australian) NSW Fire Services are sending fire officers to LA.
You may have read in the media…“NSW firefighters head to LA to learn lessons from horror blazes.”
Ok, Imho. Unless they study the failure of DEI in an emergency organisation…
Then sending selected Senior Fire personnel on a junket, will do nothing to improve the suppression or outcome of future NSW bushfires.
Those sent will learn nothing more than our most experienced NSW “first responder” rank and file already know.
NSW fire management and Govs already have all the information they need..
Every NSW Fire Report, Coroners Report, Inquiry and Royal Commission finding is available.
From 1994, I wrote quite a few of those.
We have 70+ years of NSW Bush fire reports and findings. The answer is there.
It seems apparent to me, that In the 2020’s, Australian politicians and the NSW Senior Fire management, still can’t read, study or learn.
And if they are incompetent and bad stuff happens, they always use their safety excuse, which is to blame “Climate change”
620
And when they get back we’ll soon learn that we have fires here and because we don’t have enough women in the NSWFS they will have to keep rescuing men who get into the ‘wrong location’.
That should all end by next Christmas, (after the DEI roll out).
200
And I believe that NSW only cool burns less than 2% of their forests annually. That’s a long way away from the 10-15% required annually.
120
Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) is already fully committed to DEI.
https://www.fire.nsw.gov.au/page.php?id=9250
How much lower do they wish to descend?
I guess they’ll be checking to see if they’ve missed anything.
E.g. they might be doing regular checks of hydrants, pumping systems, delivery capabilities, water supply etc.. That must stop with DEI.
They must focus on:
-Abandoning physical ability tests. E.g. make sure a fireperson (firething?) cannot carry a victim or colleague to safety.
-Make sure hydrants and fire engines have rainbows painted on them.
-Participate in “pride” marches on paid work time.
Etc..
240
Best of luck! DEI and firefighting don’t mix.
Just check out the physical fitness requirements:
https://firerecruitmentaustralia.com.au/firefighting-career-medical-reviews/
You should be able to walk 5km in 45 minutes, and that’s a brisk pace normally, but fully kitted up in restrictive firefighting clothes and carrying 20kg dead weight as equipment.
You’d want to be seriously fit.
Obviously a high tolerance of brutal heat is mandatory. Sit in a sauna at 65C for an hour…
Then there’s a raft of practical real world skills like chainsawing certification, brushcutter use, MR truck licence, and more.
Cardiac conditions (have you been vaxxed? Wink..) rule you out.
Maybe the Ishihara plate test. Colour blindness may rule you out.
See how YOU do:
https://www.colour-blindness.com/colour-blindness-tests/ishihara-colour-test-plates/
I went for a job years ago with a multinational that required the test.
I failed the red green test so I went around the doctor’s office correctly identifying every colour I shouldn’t be able to.
The doctor was baffled. “That shouldn’t be possible. I don’t understand” he said.
I got the job. Tests aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.😎
Then there’s psych tests for anxiety, psychosis, neurosis, confined space disorder, acrophobia…
No mention of TDS or other liberal disorders but I’d suggest most soyboys and DEI bs hires won’t cut it at all.
Do we want a Palisades style event here?
41
Doesnt matter if we want it , its really just a matter of time. Canberra burbs have already burnt and larger cities have ares just ready to go. Areas that come readily to mind are Eltham and Warrandyte in Melbourne, Helensburgh and most of northwest Sydney, denser areas of the Adelaide Hills. Only takes a few factors to line up.
We have friends in Eltham who think they are perfectly safe because its the suburbs. One acre treed block adjacent to forest reserve. More than a bit naive I think.
30
Those junkets are always highly amusing. I’ve talked to many farmers who go on Farm Tours of eg USA or Europe. They hope going on the tour will inform them of new farming practices and they will bring them back home to improve their own farming businesses. A great deal of them come back and usually say ” we’re actually way ahead of the yanks or poms” (or insert country visited ). Usually they learn little, but nevertheless have a good time while there. Maybe the NSW firies will go on a Hollywood tour.
110
Probably helps with continuing education credits
00
It is not Monday yet in the USA, much as I wish it were.
Shortly after Noon — about 28 hours after I click “Post Comment” — a new course will be established. I will hoist a beer and wish us well.
Also of interest is the Arctic Outbreak, having been somewhat delayed in Canada, will sweep across the middle and eastern states over the next 3 or 4 days. Minus 12°C (10°F) expected in Wash D.C. This is after a 1,800 mile trip south and east from the prairie provinces of our very cold northern neighbor. Regina is -30°C (-22°F).
190
If it drops to minus 40 you won’t have to note the scales. (minus 40 is the same in both ℃ and °F )
But where is the Global Warming which was predicted by all those losers?
About the End of the World I point out that Isaac Newton in the 1690’s, exasperated by lots of predictions about the imminent date claimed that “the world may end in 2060. It may be later but I cannot see any reason for it to be sooner”.
190
There is a lot of discussion about the way Britain almost had a massive power failure a few days ago.
This all needs to be exposed and explained to the general public. However it is a secondary problem along with everything else that is going wrong like the cost and the instability of the current.
The fundamental problem, the Original Sin you might say, was the failure of the meteorologists to tell us about wind droughts/Dunkelflautes and the failure of the architects of the so-called transition to plan for the worst case scenario in the wind supply, namely low winds for several days in succession or even weeks.
These two failures demand explanation.
Everything else that is going wrong followed as night follows day from the original blunders but I do not see this being put about even by conservative commentators who should be the first and most outspoken about it.
Nothing can improve as long as the subsidies and mandates for unreliable energy are in place. Fix that or die!
https://www.flickerpower.com/images/The_endless_wind_drought_crippling_renewables___The_Spectator_Australia.pdf
370
‘In October of 2024, the isolated small city of Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia with a 36 MW load
(including the large nearby mines) could not be reliably served by 200 MW of wind, a 53 MW solar array, significant residential solar,
and a large 50 MW battery all supplemented by diesel generators.
Many people falsely believe that wind, solar and batteries have been demonstrated to provide grid support and deliver energy independently
in large real word applications. Few people realize that we are a long way away from having wind, solar and batteries support a large power
system without significant amounts of conventional spinning generation (nuclear, gas, coal, hydro, geothermal) on-line to support the grid.’
Russ Schussler, Planning Engineer Post @ Climate Etc 5/12/24
360
50 yrs ago the generating authorities took spinning reserves seriously. Their aim was to always have enough capacity on standby to take up the load should the biggest gen-set trip. Also in those days annual inflation in power costs was less than general inflation, so electricity was gradually getting cheaper in real terms.
Those engineers could still achieve that today I reckon if allowed to. What has happened to education?
201
Russ Schussler and Chris Thomas did a credible job on this. Russ is an experienced engineer.
Yet as is the form in Climate Etc with the 700+ comments that follow this, there is almost no discussion (perhaps the first 3-4 posts) on the substance of the article, nor even recognition of it.
The next 700+ comments are the usual tennis game lobs from all the usual posters that go absolutely nowhere – bogged in the mud, while Broken Hill reverted to diesel power to survive while surrounded by enormous amounts of pink elephant renewabubbles. My point is that for the most part, people seem completely uninterested in the actual ground data.
Sad for Climate Etc – usual form is high quality articles followed by volumes of inconsequential biffo.
90
It used to be a common feature of design to assess the probability of multiple input events happening simultaneously. AS1170.0 addresses several of these with regard to structural loads.
For example, you can have a live load on a building roof, (maintenance, etc), you can also have wind loads on the roof, (storms), you also obviously have dead loads, (the roof materials). AS1170 makes several simple assessments, these being sensible attribution of each of the loads to create a range of different load cases, and each should be able to be withstood by the structure.
For example, you are highly unlikely to have maintenance loads on the roof when the storm loads are also present, so this case is factored down from a simple sum of the two. Also, windloads that act UPWARD are countered by LESS than all the design dead load, because sometimes the roof is built lighter than the designer considered. Again, very sensible, the load reflects reality.
And for electrical power, we have Bowen. Wind and solar work all the time in his head. Why haven’t we turned off and demolished the expensive carbon based generators yet? How did it ever get this wrong?
I just can’t see our minister of blackouts being allowed to change AS1170, so why can he destroy our grid?
180
You are talking about two non overlapping bubbles. Bowen can destroy whatever he likes as he is unconstrained by the burden of reality.
230
Unconstrained by cost too! politicians whatever the hue spend baby spend
20
Hi Beth, and Eng_Ian,
“Planning Engineer” as quoted is spot-on in his assessment.
It is clear from a number of reports published well prior to the Broken Hill blackout in October 2024 that the Service Provider was well aware that the disconnection of the single transmission line to Buronga that serves Broken Hill was a highly credible accident and that therefore a proper, always-ready backup facility, needed to be in place at all times.
That facility, consisting of two 25 MW gas turbines generators, had been in place for many years to deal with exactly that event.
Why it was that, apparently, the Service Provider had not continued a proper maintainance programme on that facility, is a mystery.
The bottom line is that the series of blackouts in Broken Hill, commencing on 16 October last as a result of the line disconnection, with all the accompanying stress and losses to some 20,000 people, never needed to happen, or, if there were resulting power disruptions, the impact would very likely have been much less, if both backup generators had been fully operational and available.
Paul Miskelly
210
“Why it was that, apparently, the Service Provider had not continued a proper maintenance programme on that facility, is a mystery.”
The main reason was that the provider was so convinced that their marvelous wind, solar and battery could
take over in the event of a failure of the one and only supply line, that they wanted to decommission and sell off the standby turbine generators.
160
Not exactly. Transgrid never setup the battery system to island/ provide FCAS, as they wanted another (unnamed?) facility to provide the islanding/FCAS. The renewables enthusiasts seize upon this fact to “prove” that the Broken Hill failures were not as bad as claimed, and to some extent they are correct.
20
The problem most likely was a combination of the points you noted PLUS the inclusion to the grid of roof top solar.
The fueled generators have low spinning mass, this allows them to come on line fast but it does not provide sufficient inertia to the grid to allow for a significant number of roof top solar.
Consider this. Broken Hill loses power. Blackout. All roof top solar switch off to ensure no power is provided to the grid, which could harm linesmen etc.
The generator(s) start. Electrical power flows to the local grid, the lights come on. After a finite time, the roof top solar comes back on, after sensing a stable grid. Unfortunately this roof top solar is NOT crystal locked and by nature will bounce around trying to lead or lag the grid. Only the inertia of a large grid will stabilise these units.
After a few minutes where the roof top solar is sensing fluctuations in the line phase, it will switch off. They will bounce on and off like this until something with large inertia starts up, (not going to happen on an isolated grid).
With the solar units bouncing on and off the fueled generator will be seeing both an unsteady load, bouncing around and also an unsteady phase as the solar units start and stop pulling on the local grid.
No matter how good your generator, it will always use feedback to monitor the grid. It can’t tell if the grid voltage ‘defects’ are caused by itself or by external loads. If the defects exceed the allowable range of the generator, then it switches off.
And then you are back to a blackout.
I’m betting that this scenario was a close match to the cycling of the fueled generators in Broken Hill. And probably why the power could come back on at night and failed during daylight.
100
Ian,
That would explain the flywheel on King Island renewable boondoggle . You would need a massive flywheel to stabilise the frequency in Broken hill . Black starts always take a long time for this reason (renewables) as well as system loading (As SA found out).
50
Not necessarily. FCAS is provided by the South Australian battery bank, and perhaps could have helped at Broken Hill. These days electronics can do a reasonable job of providing a stable 50 Hz sine wave, usually by high-speed waveform synthesis, that phase-matches where necessary. But there is nothing like large rotating machinery to smooth out sudden transient load changes.
Flywheels are great for keeping power supplied while a diesel cuts in – Australia’s airports all had no-break power systems using large flywheels.
10
FCAS on a stable grid is related to matching the frequency not the phase.
It’s basically a load balancing act. What I was referring to was the phase jittering whilst the frequency remains relatively stable. It would be akin to the peaks of the sine wave being advanced in time, leaving the zero crossings in relatively the same place, or alternatively, the bulk of the wave being all advanced with the exception of the final zero crossing. (And obviously a dozen or so other weird shapes).
The SA battery is just charging up when it’s cheap to do so and selling back for profit when it’s dear. Instead of selling back over 4 hours, (and being dead flat), it sells back over say 6 hours, allowing 30% headroom to follow any small peaks. And they call that FCAS. I call it ‘profiteering’.
20
Ian, surely you also have to phase match? Imagine the consequences of connecting two 180-out-of-phase energy sources together. I’m currently involved in writing a HV Switching manual, and the stuff I’ve come across while preparing this manual is frightening. And the subject of phase matching is constantly mentioned.
20
Phase matching is absolutely correct, what I was saying is that the fueled generator needs to keep a specific wave shape AND frequency, else it trips.
The solar from the roof tops pulls and pushes the peaks of the sine wave, this poor shape results in an effectively very low Power Factor. At these low PFs the generator will sense that things are not right and will shut down.
The only way around it is to have some REAL inertia. You can only synthesise inertia to the energy capacity of its electrical input. HOWEVER, a real spinning inertia will actually supply many multiple times the input energy as available inertia. Only a very heavy spinning mass can do this.
As an example, here is a relatively small generator, spinning at a typical line frequency. For example a 10T rotor, 2m diameter spinning at 3000RPM, (assuming the mass is at the perimeter). The stored energy would be (about), 1/2 M V^2 = 0.5 x 10,000 x (3.14 x 2 x 50)^2 = 493 MJ
This is many, many times above the energy available from a battery for FCAS. And I’m only talking a relatively small spinning mass not a 100MW armature. And that’s why I laugh when I hear that a battery system is providing frequency stability. In reality it’s providing load management but a short on the transmission line would kill it flat. BUT A spinning mass would cause the line breaker to trip, and it would keep spinning.
30
Ok Ian, gotcha. Out of interest, converted your 493 MJ to kWh: 137 kWh.
Am now wondering what is the typical mass of a power station turbine setup.
00
The politicians in the UK (and their masters the “Public Service”) don’t want to know about “technical matters” so they might read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – published 1835.
Or they might wonder why the Millers of Brittany switched to Tidal Mills (before steam engines) from Windmills because it enabled them to work every 24 hours rather than wait for wind (despite the inconvenience of changing -but predictable hours).
Or why Newcommen steam engines were used to pump water from mines in the 1700’s? Watt’s engine was a commercial success because it was more efficient. The Dutch switched to them in the 1820’s (those windmills are for tourists).
150
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
‘Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
120
Certainly seems that way. Aus is no different. There is always a quiet biffo between the self-labelled policy experts and the teams of hard-edged people who actually make things work.
I’ve been told this is a management technique – Last Man Standing – but it mostly results in disasters such as the Broken Hill example. Accountability is the key to resolving this, which is why it’s so difficult to implement.
50
They cant have a plan really, at least while they idiolise wind and solar, demonise coal and gas and have no viable storage solution. I guess they just pray that their many interconnects to the EU stay up and power is available.
Ive noticed lately some softening of the language around gas. It seem to be moving catastrophic CO2 bogeyman to least worst , if we really have to.
110
Coming to Australia under Blackout Bowen & The Australian Labor Party/Greens/TEALs
A day in the life of blackout Britain: how net zero electricity rationing would play out
The UK avoided lights out last week – but a ministerial nightmare is edging closer to reality
For the last five decades, that’s what blackouts have been – just a nightmare.
But a few days ago, the UK came closer to losing power than it has done for years.
The first warning came on Tuesday when the National Energy System Operator (Neso) issued an alert predicting a major shortfall in power for next day.
Plummeting wind speeds, outages on three interconnectors and at some gas-fired power stations meant generating capacity was down. At the same time, forecasts of freezing temperatures meant demand was set to peak.
Demand for power was set to exceed supply, and if that happened, Neso’s grid operators would be forced to blackout chunks of the country.
In the end, the risk receded. Neso bought its way out of the crisis by paying generators to switch on extra power stations. It meant paying some of the highest prices for power ever seen, and cost consumers at least £17m extra on their bills – but it kept the lights on.
80
OldOzzie,
Maybe we’re even further down that path than Britain…
Was chatting on the phone with my brother yesterday afternoon when the power went out. I told him and he said they’d had a power cut in the morning. I’m in the Blue Mountains, he’s in SW Sydney. Rolling blackouts? (Both outages were for over an hour)
Interesting looking for historical blackout data: there’s plenty about what’s happening now, and a fair bit from more than 9 months ago in spreadsheet form. On that page, Ausgrid says they can provide more recent historical data if you need it for an insurance claim. It’s the sort of thing that ought to be pretty easy to set up on the web, but I guess it’s handy keeping us in the dark about how many others are in the dark.
60
Rafe, keep hearing about these close calls in terms of grid breakdown. But, apart from Adelaide/South Australia in 2016, nothing really has happened in Australia. I suspect it wont, because there’s possibly still enough rolling reserve from coal and gas to prevent this. But it also comes down to your definition of “failure”. To me the grid in Australia has already “failed” in that it’s providing unsustainable electricity prices. Prices that wont support heavy industry and a lot of other businesses as well. But also prices that are now hurting normal households.
110
The “Original Sin” as you put it, isn’t related to a failure in meteorological predictions, rather it is a failure of confusing physical reality against imaginary politics.
In Reality, the physics, economics, and mathematics of power generation is ignored, in favour of politics, wishful thinking, and greed at the public trough.
From an engineering perspective, absolutely nothing is gained by supplanting synchronous generation with intermittent generation, except for the political benefit of subsidies to favoured generators.
Grid stability relies upon the coupled and synchronised AC generation network, not upon inverter supplied Watts that follow the synchronous grid generators that follow the actual load in real time.
Wind and solar inverter based power is Always 2 layers behind the actual load in real time. Only a synchronous base load system can Ever provide stability at grid scale. If this isn’t true, let the wind/solar generators bid into the load a day ahead and guarantee their generation without limit of liability for failure. Let them pay for their own interconnection costs and for the frequency, current, voltage , and reactive power needs that they cannot provide.
I’ve yet to see any politician, wind/solar, or green enthusiast, that ever, actually, understands grid scale power generation, transmission, distribution, or control. Ignorance is bliss right up until the lights go out and nobody has a clue how to bring them back on.
100
Back in the days when every farm in Australia had a windmill or three, there were companies like Southern Cross, Buzzacott, Aermotor and others who made a handy income from producing simple hit and miss engines made to attach to the base of a windmill and operate the sucker rod when there was a wind drought.
So 100+ years ago, there were backup systems for when the wind didn’t blow.
30
Gearing up the fight against offshore wind:
https://www.cfact.org/2025/01/19/cfact-demonstration-in-richmond-takes-aim-at-dominion-energy/
Stopping a $300 billion industry will not be easy but we are going to give it a hard go. Stay tuned. Or join in.
181
Hoping that the new President does what he says he is going to do about wind, especially offshore wind. And also hoping that this will impact the subsidy miner’s ability to install offshore wind in Australia.
30
The push back is already happening in Australia.
‘A South Australian offshore wind farm industry appears dead in the water after the cancellation last week of a proposed $2bn project slated to be built at Kingston in the South-East. The Kingston decision follows a similar move earlier in the year when the proposed Port MacDonnell offshore wind project was shelved.’ (The Advertiser)
20
In case you missed a recent Dr John Campbell video from about 4 days ago about negative covid “vaccine” efficacy, here it is.
https://youtu.be/sKkKGK6wsF8
And the referenced paper:
Note that, unbelievably, YouTube and the Australian Government still attach their propaganda to the video and attach this link:
https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines
I know a couple who have received multiple covid “vaccinations” and boosters and they have both had covid about five or more times.
230
This effect was already known before 2020, when a series of animal trials had demonstrated that vaccines fail to produce long term immunity from corona viruses. Problem is, the antibodies produced are specific to only one spike protein and the virus quickly mutates to bypass this protection.
There’s a well known limitation of human immunity where recovery from one virus can make the individual weaker to certain types of closely related viruses … the common example being catching Zika virus, then recovering and later catching Dengue Fever. This effect is inconsistent and the details are poorly understood, but the fact that it happens at least some of the time is well documented.
They ran into similar problems with cats catching FIPV and multiple attempts to produce a vaccine against this have failed. There’s sufficient natural mutation in the overall virus pool to keep popping up closely related viruses which always defeat the vaccine.
30
Also, there’s been people pointing out in 2021 that this was going to happen.
https://joannenova.com.au/2021/07/vaccines-not-the-magic-bullet-the-advertisers-claim/#comment-2440649
40
I wrote this in 2017:
The Australian federal and VIC state governments are paying $230 million over 4 years to “save” 700 direct jobs at the Portland aluminium smelter. That is a cost of over $82,000 per job per year. The reason this smelter is in trouble in the first place is it was damaged when the power failed first time and then the government chose to triple the coal tax and also shut down the Hazelwood Power Station. Aluminium smelters rely on cheap night time power from fossil power stations and the power stations rely on customers like aluminium smelters to sell their surplus power to. The taxpayer would not be suffering any additional burden if it were not for the systematic destruction of cheap and reliable power production in favour of the unreliables. The whole exercise is insane.
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Dont worry AnAl is going to save the aluminium industry by giving them Green subsidies or something. Which is just a form of higher bribes. Last time we did this was for the car manufacturing industry. All the companies did was pass on these subsidies to the workers salaries. If I’m Alcoa I’d be just waiting for either Indonesia, Vietnam or Thailand to get another couple of their new coal burners working and then shut the Australian operations. Probably cheaper to ship the bauxite from Northern Australia to one of those countries anyway. There’s this powerline that goes from Melbourne right across the Victorian western district to Portland. I think the Vic state government built that powerline ( not Alcoa funded ) so that means we the taxpayer might have to be pay for its demolition. Ahh, the Victorian government, stupid one day, even stupider the next.
70
That power line also keeps the lights on in SA, so it’s not coming down, even when the smelter closes.
And don’t be surprised to see the Portland smelter announce it’s closure this year. Costs are going up, the world aluminium prices aren’t keeping up and, as you note, it’s cheaper to do it elsewhere. Much less union issues, much less green tape and much less red tape.
Another industry closes. And Portland will probably follow once the wages evaporate.
https://img.capital.com/imgs/articles/1350xx/Aluminium-price-forecast-_-MCT—9007-_-EN.png
20
90
Most Australians are apathetic and shouldn’t complain about the inevitable decline of Australia if it remains on it’s current self-destructive path.
91
If you Immediately know the candle light is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago.
/wisdom
02
So – regular fuel reduction burns are not allowed because they are claimed to be destructive but mega fires that destroy everything are the result and are OK according to the Greens and fellow Civilisation-destroying parasites?
190
Au contraire, mega fires are a good thing because they support the global warming narrative. Same with floods, tornadoes, droughts, etc, etc.
“Never let a good disaster go to waste.”
130
I recall a land owners despair after a bushfire ravaged his property in Tasmania. His local council refused to allow him cool burn part of his property, saying that it would impact local fauna. After the bushfire, he again wrote to the council saying that it didn’t matter anymore, there was no fauna left to create any concerns.
110
FWIW
“Federal Reserve Withdraws from Global Climate Coalition”
“In recent weeks, the climate policy landscape has shifted significantly, with institutions, governments, and corporations beginning to step back from the ambitious but economically questionable climate commitments they made over the last decade. Two major developments underscore this retreat: the U.S. Federal Reserve’s exit from the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and BlackRock’s withdrawal from the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) and it’s subsequent suspension of activities. These high-profile decisions, along with similar moves globally, suggest growing recognition of the economic damage wrought by costly, ineffective, and overreaching climate policies.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/19/federal-reserve-withdraws-from-global-climate-coalition/
80
In Melbournistan there is a by-election in the seat of Prahan coming up due to the resignation of the Greens leader due to some alleged extra-marital shenanigans.
Apparently Labor is not even bothering to run.
Liberals are running a candidate.
I live near that seat but not actually in the electorate but am being bombarded with georeferenced ads on YouTube.
I have seen hundreds of ads for Greens but only one for the Libs.
Obviously the Greens are very well funded and organised and the fake conservative Libs are not.
120
Not since Damien Mantach cleaned it out a decade ago has the Victorian Liberal Party had any spare dough.
20
Shorten is declaring himself to be a great success as he leaves- His NDIS employs more people than mining or agriculture, critics of it ‘view it through a narrow prism’, and “We’re leading the world in the development of a care economy.”
I suppose it depends on your definition of success and failure, however I’ve never seen a politician with any idea of what success really is! The rate of growth of the NDIS cost is 20% per year, and currently over 500,000 people make money from the $50,000million it costs. Hmmm.. that’s $100,000 for each person employed, those carers and bureaurats are quite expensive these days! In actual fact, he says its just over 300,000 full-time equivalents, so its $150,000 for each job!
But that’s all a success you know…
120
Apart from “renewables” and any public works projects in the state of Victoria, where fr@ud is standard and essentially legal, NDIS is by far Australia’s most defr@uded system.
And the Left don’t understand how this fr@ud harms their supposed constituency of working people because they don’t understand and/or don’t care where “the Government” gets its money from.
100
Shorten’s “care economy” will only survive as long as there is money to pour into it.
To have the money to pour into it, you have to have an effective productive economy where people make things and do things that generate real income and trade for themselves and the country.
Borrowing money to pay for the NDIS just costs everybody more for everything.
50
Hmmm!
“Shorten is declaring himself to be a great success as he leaves- His NDIS employs more people than mining or agriculture, critics of it ‘view it through a narrow prism’, and “We’re leading the world in the development of a care economy.” ”
Having just read “Hillbilly Elegy” – –
40
“We’re leading the world in the development of a care economy.”
We’re leading the world in the percentage of people who are too ill or damaged to take care of themselves.
30
Not to forget the various ‘tax exemptions’ across this industry which dampens any automatic stabilisers for government spending – it is hugely distortionary spend which is not properly accounted for at a macro level https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2023-370286
00
Many Democrats boycotted Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration, partly because they supported slavery and Lincoln opposed it.
70
Surely there is nothing new in the revelation that (D)s are the party of slavery, the KKK their militant arm.
That’s history.
Today they still want to keep them on the plantation, metaphorically speaking.
80
Correct.
20
I often ask people, “if a second civil war breaks out here in the US, what will it be about?”
I usually get blank stares, and seldom the same vagaries form any two people.
I’m confident when I travel back to 1861 in my time machine (I’m almost finished), and ask around I will get the same.
Great moral justifications are constructed after the fact, to compensate for the guilt and pain of the fools parade and the march to folly.
And the seeds for the next conflagration are usually sown in the previous mess by the same great moral crusaders that demanded we empower them to save us from some vagary or another.
(Hmm … reminds me of something.)
70
So they haven’t evolved far, stupidity rules.
00
FWIW
“The Saturation effect questions the prevailing narrative on CO2”
“The implication of CO2 saturation is a game changer, and should provide the Trump Administration with a substantial line of questioning of EPA’s Endangerment Finding.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/18/the-saturation-effect-questions-the-prevailing-narrative-on-co2/
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Aluminium Smelters – renewable energy
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-19/labor-pledge-2-billion-for-new-aluminium-production-credits/104835420
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That’s insane!
How can you run an aluminium smelter on expensive, unreliable wind and solar?
The whole point of aluminium smelters is that you put them where electricity is cheap and reliable such as from coal, gas, nuclear or real hydro (not SH2) generators.
100
Besides Auminium there are other industries which can not tolerate even few seconds power interruption.
Many plants utilise large tanks with, eg – chem. reactors or mixing vessels fitted with giant stirrers; stopped in the middle of process means the end of that plant.
80
You can, just not 24/7.
More like 7/24 – 7 hours out of 24.
/lol
20
The only reason aluminium smelting became possible in the first place, was the development of cheap, abundant electricity from real power plants fed on coal.If western civilisation was still mired in the medieval methods of power generation, e.g., wind, water, horses, etc., we could never have progressed to this point. Ironically, progress has never been a priority of ‘progressives’, so backwards we go.
80
Yes. I refer to “progressives” by the more honest term regressives.
60
You miss the point Gary, this decision is about political announcements, to succeed at these you don’t need a degree in physics, chemical engineering, electrical engineering or mechanical engineering you just need to announce that something will happen and apparently it does, even when it doesn’t. Like wind and solar are the cheapest form of electrical energy so as a result everyones power bills will GO DOWN by $275 per year!
40
Not only aluminium smelting Gary S. The only situation that provides a positive effect from pumped hydro ( you know like Snowy II in Australia) is when the power is provided by coal. So you pump the water uphill when there’s an excess of electricity from coal in the early morning hours. Using renewables is just nutty, there’s never going to be enough when you need it, at the right price.
40
Despite being only the 2nd cyclone of the season (apart from minor Robyn out in the Indian Ocean last Nov.) the present Cat 1 low off WA’s North West Cape has been christened Sean: whatever happened to naming them A, B, C, etc. at the commencement of each year/season?
Even in the Pacific, the season’s 1st disturbance on 11 Jan (a 1-day Cat 1) was named Pita. Are they who own the science attempting to pull off a Mannian-sized ‘nature trick’ by claiming there were so many storms they had to use the alphabet twice – when in fact so far the numbers have been, to use their lingo, below average?
Signed: Curious And Disbelieving.
90
Apparently the Atlantic Jetstream is an exceptional 265mph, and there will be a double (on account of it deepening twice as fast as the definition of a) weather bomb heading for the UK, although it may fizzle before it gets here. Don’t you Just love BBC weather men.
30
Probably because WA has not had many cyclones in the last few years, something the MSM doesn’t mention. The BOM chart of cyclones clearly shows how they have decreased around Australia. And no, the remaining ones are NOT more intense, as the same BOM chart also shows.
20
So BlackRock is a major investor in ‘Chinese-owned’ TikTok. Curiouser and curiouser.
100
The primary purpose of TikTok is to spy on people plus spread social degeneracy in the West.
While most TikTok videos in the West are inane and/or degenerate, the ones on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, are mostly educational.
TRUMP banned TikTok for use by US Government last time he was president.
Curiously, this time he has given them a reprieve.
00
Will Larry Fink be sitting amongst Bezos, Z-burg, Musk, and Mickey Mouse, later today inside the White House? I hear it’s mighty cold outside.
10
I want to buy an antenna analyser for my amateur radio activities, essentially a vector network analyser.
A certain model I was considering comes in a variety of upper frequency ranges. The wider the frequency range, the more you pay.
BUT, the hardware of all models is exactly the same. You pay for a software license to make it work at the higher frequency range.
It’s like my oscilloscope. It was purchased as a 50MHz unit but was exactly the same as the 100MHz unit. You could, and I did, upgrade the firmware to make it a 100MHz model.
60
Have you looked inside any electronics recently, they mostly have one circuit board, some leave components off to lower the model’s usefulness and cost and others just change the software.
This allows for a simpler design process and a quicker run to market for multiple models, all crippled in some minor way to provide a range of goods and prices to the market place.
As you note, the software cripple is the easiest to remedy. Wouldn’t it be nice if they just sold one model that had all the bells and whistles, even the extra components on the board are probably worth less than the reprint of the consumer box and manual.
When I design circuits, I always aim to make it fit for purpose, why would you build a worthwhile device then cripple it so you can sell a range of cheaper versions alongside the one that the people actually want? To me, it just looks like the lower value versions are not functional, this lowers my valuation of their brand.
30
Yes, it has certainly lowered my respect for that brand.
00
I design circuits to be very reliable. Back when working, the logistics of tracking down every unit out in the field, particularly when mobile, was so daunting that you had to get it right first time. And these days I just want to install something in the museum and forget about it – it has to work all day every day, throughout all temperatures.
I just wish our politicians would see our electricity supplies the same way.
40
I just wish our politicians would see our electricity supplies the same way.
the problem being that they have no experience of being without electricity fir any meaningful length of time.
10
These monthly license fees to keep using what you’ve already paid for or to “upgrade” or unlock features is just a cash grab by the manufacturers and one that’s widely disliked.
Louis Rossman rants endlessly about it.
Back in the day products would be a number of pcb’s, and you could charge good money to diagnose them. Now thanks to major advances, it may be just one board, making products throwaway and wiping out the repair industry.
10
Interesting alternative marine propeller design:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voith_Schneider_Propeller?wprov=sfla1
20
Red October was better. And it’s been around for years. The Yanks should have copied it by now, they’ve had it since 1990.
/s
11
On a more serious note, how many moving parts on a classic propeller? Nil.
How many moving parts on this newer version. Heaps. And a gearbox below the water line. Maintenance would be significantly higher than hosing off barnacles.
For a tug, fine, for an ocean crossing, with long duration loads at maximum thrust, maybe not so good.
30
You have answered my question about why, in all these years, it hasn’t become more used.
20
About that “global warming” –
“Y2Kyoto: Gulf Of Eskimo”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/snow-600×503.jpg
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/01/19/y2kyoto-gulf-of-eskimo/
10
Looking at my home solar efficiency to see what happens on hot days, my system output dropped 9% yesterday when the temperature hit 39 degrees, compared to Saturday that was a lot cooler. Both days sunny all day. So there is a noticeable drop in efficiency on hot days, but not as much as some folks believe.
10
Some people add water sprinklers to their panels to cool them, often collecting the water and reusing it for more cooling. Not sure if it’s worth the trouble though.
20
Despite the slight efficiency drop, I still obtain 36-38 kWh daily, which helps while I’m running my air con non-stop these very hot days and nights. Besides, the panels are two storeys high on sloping roofs, and there is no way I’m ever going to get up there.
11
The loss of output is of the order of 0.4%/C above 25C, which is the rating temperature. You actual panel will be considerably warmer than ambient and will depend on many factors.
Your reduction of 9% with ambient at 39C works out at 0.6%/C but you would need to compare actual panel temperature on the two days tio arrive at the precise loss per degree C.
I have played with single panels with power maximising load and have got as high as 120% of panel rating on cool daya with high cirrus cloud and only exposing the panel long enough to do the measurement. There are three factors that improve the output over rating:
1. The panel temperature is closer to 20C than 25C.
2. The summer sunlight at 37S on a perpendicular surface gets closer to 1100W/m^2 than the 1000W/m^2 used for the panel rating.
3. The cirrus cloud disperses sunlight so the cloud can add to the direct solar input.
My 14yo nominal 3kW on-grid system still produces above 3kW on a cool day with passing cloud. 2024 was a good year for solar here despite voltage often limiting output. My grid connected system produced 3002kWh. It did not get above 3000kWh in 2022.
The other factor that can impact output for grid connection systems is backing off on over-voltage.
20
On your last point, you could defeat this limit with the application of an auto transformer. Just have the inverter side connected one or two turns under the mains side.
Simples. Yes.
Cheap….. maybe not.
00
The WA SWIS grid seems to do a good job of reducing coal and gas outputs during sunny days, where house solar contributes up to 56% of grid supply. Wind not that much – sometimes up to 30%, often less than 10%. And the wind tends to vanish around the evening peak – very inconvenient. So hopefully not many times when grid voltage is too high.
Frankly, I couldn’t care if my home solar isn’t allowed to export, as the export returns are so low.
10
Very interesting – thanks for the comment. The temperature difference between the two days was nine degrees, quite sudden but due to the cyclone up north. So it was a good opportunity to establish what the efficiency drop was. If I have my maths correct, it was 1% per one degree C.
My system is 5200 Watts, using 17 panels east and west. Insufficient roof area for any north-facing panels. Good quality Sony panels.
00
Perplexity defines “intelligence” as the ability to learn from experience. But Perplexity also told me that it is incapable of learning from experience. So I pointed out its name was a lie. This is its response:
31
Trump is being hailed as someone who will overturn the Woke world and Climate Change.
He is going to issue 100 Presidential orders on Day 1.
Will he resign from the Paris agreement on Day 1?
Will he restart the XL pipeline?
Will he free the prisoners of 6 January?
And his tough minions, all competent people in their own right and quite young will have their own agenda to clean up Washington and chase the money lenders and war mongers out of the temple and stop the DOJ from prosecuting Biden’s agenda and his enemies.
90
As for man made CO2 driven runaway tipping point Global Warming, it is a hoax.
And every step is nonsense
1 That the CO2 atmospheric increase of 50% since 1750 is almost entirely man made.
2 That the CO2 in the air is NOT in rapid equilibrium with the 98% of CO2 in the ocean.
Or
2 that there are two disconnected oceans, the surface ocean and deep ocean for CO2.
3 human output of CO2 adds to total atmospheric CO2.
4 the increase in CO2 produces additional warming
5 this warming is rapid
6 warming produces catastrophic weather
7 there is a tipping point at which catastrophic runaway warming begins
8 the increase in CO2 is bad with no benefit
All of these things are demonstrably wrong. And after 37 years since it was announced and 250 years since it started, the inauguration is being held indoors because it is freezing in Washington.
How many years does it take for people to ask if they have been totally deceived?
The Inauguration should be outside on a sunny warm day in mid winter. But since 1988 the Polar Vortex has been invented.
90
Not ‘a’ hoax … the very hive mother of hoaxes.
The hoax around which a professional systemic industry of hoax politics was constructed.
A hoax by which generations of bankrupt academic hoaxsters built a Tower of Science Babel.
That robbed and is still robbing the future productivity of generations.
A hoax that has fouled the optimism of youth.
A hoax that when the hoaxed realize they’ve been had, will add heavy psychological baggage to their debt.
A hoax, that has destroyed scientific modernism, and has with its’ demonic progeny “Pandemic’, may be fomenting
a regression to apocalyptic superstition.
20
And now the 57th President has had four years to think about what he would do better next time. After a lifetime of building teams and 12 years on the campaign trail and in the White House, Donald Trump is the best prepared President in living memory.
His team of brilliant young performers is destined to run America for another two terms or more. All confident, proven, capable and feisty and their agendas are all laid out. They do not need the Swamp or Wall Street or Hollywood for advice. This time they will direct, not listen to the Humphrey Applebees or the closet woke people in Congress or the billionaires who are rapidly changing sides.
161
170
I’m going to start buying lamp posts, I can see the day when the supply and demand for them will make them a very desired commodity. Maybe pitchforks too.
AFAF, of course.
And I don’t provide financial advice, just comments.
50
The trees hugged by greenies have many branches that – possibly – could stand in for lamp-posts.
For certain uses, at least!
Auto
00
Every bloke and his dog knew the mRNA technology was not only dodgy but poorly safety tested. A quick internet search or just following some decent vaccine savvy people could have told you this. Yes, the technology had been around since the 1990’s but no company up to 2020 had ever made these vaccines work or be safe to a large number of people. So, you would think an “overabundance of caution” should have been applied, like it did for most other COVID measures. That, anyone using these mRNA jabs had their medical history followed for 2 years at least. Even Greg Hunt ( ex LNP Health Minister ) admitted it was the biggest human experiment ever. But no, comprehensive records were not adhered to. The only state to attempt it was Qld, but even they hurriedly halted the data acquisition after less than 12 months.
60
Normally, caution would have been expected, but the usual rules had to be disregarded due to the horrendous numbers of people falling off ladders, getting run over, dying of lung, kidney or liver disease plus of course being hospitalised in their 90s (almost always fatal).
20
Yes, it was a fairly simple matter to research the development of mRNA technology. When Weinstein, Kirsch and Malone revealed more of the background it was pretty clear that it was unsafe to rely on the advice re the vaccines.
60
Dah dadahda, dahdahda dah da-ah!
Just the facts ma’am!
H/t Joe Friday.
amhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdCHNtf7iRg
00
If a technology that had been around since the 1990’s had actually worked, there would have already been a product on the market using this technology (I know some are blethering about a Zica vaccine and an Ebola vaccine already being released, but these claims are not evidenced). They would not have invested without the aim of monetising, why was this sitting there just waiting for a pandemic to come along? I smelt BS from the start. Interestingly, this is what flagged Gerard Renniks spidey senses – he had hit this MRNA stuff from the financial side well before COVID.
30
The choice of vaccine ‘brands’ was to provide the illusion that people were making a ‘choice’ to be jabbed. Same folks behind all of it.
10
Marco Rubio will get a smooth run to become Secretary of State, excellent choice.
Last year he had a meeting with UAP whistleblower Jacob Barber, so he’s definitely competent to replace Blinkin.
32
Blinkin was the worst since John Kerry, who was even worse than Hillary. Or at least as bad.
Not a high bar there.
60
Another Lithium battery inferno:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-massive-clean-energy-environmental-disaster/
(Make sure to read the comments)
50
Another potential site for a similar sized battery system is now concerning authorities, as it has a higher population than Moss Landing.
20
The sun will rise on a New Land? Sure Trump has had time to think things through, and assemble a crack team. But I bet the elites have been preparing too. Adviser and funder Theil, libertarian? – privatised the CIAs surveillance technology; huge ties to deep state; owns JB. Musk, has massive Defence and CIA contracts, hugely compromised with China – can he just walk away?
Very possibly the elites saw the crazy woke madness had passed it’s zenith, and will be happy to let Trump flail the public sector – more business and power for the big boys. Milei wants to scrap Argentine’s Education Dept, and have Facebook take over learning! Red tape big govt isn’t useful, but neither are powerful business monopolies. Power corrupts, whether it is some junior clerk, or a business titan.
Tax cuts will solve the constipated economy!? Really, are we saying that there isn’t any money wafting around in the cloud, doing sweet f a to add wealth to Main Street, and the wealthy wont invest in anything that involves labour, without it being a public/private partnership. So basically giving tax breaks is the same as creating a public/private partnership. Investors wont do anything, unless we hand them money?
And AI is here, and AI can run the automation. Visions of ‘Metropolis’- the huge machine. I think that is where Xi is heading as fast as he can. To hell with the population (which is headed for collapse)- he is flat out for huge energy, automated industry, and controlling AI.
“We live in interesting times.”
10
Funny: Zelensky visits the White House after Trump takes office
https://x.com/KarluskaP/status/1880799306103607696/
Mega LOL. 😆
11
I wonder when the UN delegation plan to visit Trump.
00
The cicadas, the cicadas! I’m starting to get a hunch. Could it be that this cicada year tops all records for excruciating ear buzz. Without using a sound level meter I’m estimating around 120 dB at 2-3 m. I love cicadas and this year has seemingly produced more than the usual varieties, but the white noise effect has made voice and hearing communication difficult. Noise cancelling earphones aren’t all that effective either. The noise is like gamma rays, it goes through everything.
20
FWIW
“Its Rotting Chunks of Junk: Interior Secretary Smacks at Trump ‘Wind Here to Stay’ ”
“Outgoing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland credited the Biden administration with jump-starting the offshore wind industry in a Newsweek interview Friday — while issuing a pointed rebuke to President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to halt future offshore wind projects.”
“Deb says “offshore wind is here to stay.” Fortunately for America, she’s not.”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/01/19/its-rotting-chunks-of-junk-interior-secretary-smacks-at-trump-wind-here-to-stay-n3798978
10
Just looked at the WA SWIS grid, to see how it is holding up after another very hot day, with a hot night to come. 5GW consumption, well up from the normal 3GW. Wind has again fallen away to only 4%, leaving gas and coal to do all the heavy lifting again, and they still will have to work hard all night. So Labor, tell me again how you plan to run a grid on 80% renewables.
50
There is a line from a John Prine song –
“A question’s not really a question when you know the answer too”
00