JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
Jo appreciates your support to help her keep doing what she does. This blog is funded by donations. Thanks!
Follow Jo's Tweets To report "lost" comments or defamatory and offensive remarks, email the moderators at: support.jonova AT proton.me
Statistics
Well we can start the day with a good story! FLCCC and IVM involved in fighting a rampant prostrate cancer. They are starting a 500 person observational study, at 5 clinics in the US, using different repurposed drugs, on different cancers.
https://rescue.substack.com/p/patient-zero-comes-back-from-stage
“When Paul Mann was diagnosed in June of 2022, his chest, abdomen, and pelvic region were riddled with tumors. The cancer had invaded his spine and sternum; it was in his ribs and shoulders. His PSA level, the prime indicator of prostate cancer—where the cancer began—was “off the charts,” said Ruddy, who trained at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and cared for 10,000 breast cancer patients.
Here are some of the things Mann recalls doctors telling him during his four months of traditional care:
“You are completely full of cancer; you are well beyond any kind of surgery.”
“There’s no cure. We’re just trying to prolong things as much as we can.”
“We’ve done the best we can. That’s kind of all there is that can be done.”
At one point, Mann was hospitalized for more than a month for chemotherapy complications and radiation esophagitis, his timeline shows. At the end of treatment in October 2022, he could only say that radiation had eased the debilitating pain in his right pelvis and chemotherapy had resolved the cancer in his skull.
That was when Mann got the call from Ruddy. A month later, he started ivermectin. But he took other things too: ground flax seed to reduce tumor-feeding testosterone; chaga mushroom powder and antioxidant-rich soursop extract; high-dose vitamin D and zinc. He stopped eating sugar.
“He was dying, and the man’s not dying now,” said Dr. Ruddy. “He goes out and dances three times a week.”
His current PSA level is so low that Ruddy said it indicates “complete biochemical remission.” The tumors disappeared and cancer in other parts of his body appear to have stopped growing. “His clinical remission over the past year has also been remarkable—very close to a ‘complete clinical remission’ at this point in time.”
310
“ground flax seed to reduce tumor-feeding testosterone”
Ah, now I see why the hippies are like they are… I’m surprised the Govt haven’t made it compulsory in our beer or bread, they mandate plenty of other chemicals in there.
” ‘complete clinical remission’ at this point in time.”” See, said all the oncologists, our chemotherapy worked!
10
It occurred to me that it’s been a while since I’ve thanked Jo for all that she does to keep us informed, so thank you Jo and there are some “Emergency Chocolates” on their way to you.
310
Brilliant RicDre! Thank you.
130
Blowing a billion dollar whistle.
Highway funds illegally used for floating wind factories
By David Wojick
https://www.cfact.org/2024/06/21/highway-funds-illegally-used-for-floating-wind-factories/
Key excerpts: “The Biden Administration is illegally redirecting hundreds of millions of dollars in highway grant money to fund construction of floating wind manufacturing facilities. The funding mechanism is the INFRA Grant Program in Biden’s Transportation Department. To begin with, here is how the website describes the Program: “What is the INFRA program? INFRA (the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects program) awards competitive grants for multimodal freight and highway projects of national or regional significance to improve the safety, efficiency, and reliability of the movement of freight and people in and across rural and urban areas.” Projects typically range from as little as $8 million up to $200 million.”
“And yet INFRA recently awarded a whopping $426,719,810 for the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind MVP (Minimum Viable Port) in Northern California. This is not a port in the transportation sense where freight and people get on and off ships. It is where they are going to build a bunch of floating wind turbines, which then get towed out to sea and anchored in a big federal offshore wind lease area. In short, it is a big boatyard. A boatyard is clearly not eligible for INFRA funding…”
“Surely, it is illegal for a Federal Agency to take money that Congress has allocated for a specific program like INFRA and spend it on something else. It seems clear that is what is happening here unless there is some hidden exemption loophole in play, which I doubt very much. To hell with the rules seems to be Biden’s hallmark. Nor is this a one-shot deal. The State of Maine has an application for an even bigger $456,000,000 grant to build the Sears Island floating wind production site. Maine’s is called the Dirigo Atlantic Floating Offshore Wind Port, but it too is not a port in the transportation sense. It is a boatyard, a place where they make boats, in this case, giant turbine floaters.”
“So here we have almost a billion dollars possibly being illegally diverted from INFRA. That means a lot of worthwhile highway projects do not get funded. Moreover, there are more floating wind production facilities in the planning stages to go with the numerous deepwater leases in the works. Someone in authority needs to take a hard look at these INFRA offshore production facility grants and stop them if they are, in fact, illegal, as they certainly seem to be. If the Biden Administration wants to throw billions at offshore wind production, then Congress must first provide the funds. That is how the American system works.”
More in the article. Please share it.
Floating wind is not a highway.
211
But it is a highway to hell.
150
And Oz is on it big time:
https://www.offshorewind.biz/2024/06/18/australian-govt-approves-reduced-wind-zone-offshore-illawarra-after-community-concerns/?%3Futm_source=offshorewind&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_2024-06-20
131
Yes, it’s insane.
The water depth 20km+ off the Illawarra area is greater than 70m so floating Wind plantations will be used.
And the illustration at
https://illawarraoffshorewind.com.au/project-introduction/
shows the huge number of mooring lines and cables going down to the sea floor from the platforms. They will be a hazard to whales, fishing vessels and other things yet to be envisaged.
This is what happened to the last “green” energy project they built in that area:
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/628552/5m-port-kembla-wave-generator-wrecked/
160
I wonder if it was still ‘live’ when they tried to tow it.
40
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/06/more-albanese-government-commitment-to-nuclear-power-generation.html#comments
Labor hypocrisy knows no bounds! It appears that Albo and Bowen failed to read the small print of an agreement to install small nuclear reactors in our region!
130
“I grew up without electricity and I recently explained how I questioned the official climate narrative. I do find it extremely disgusting that a senior journalist sitting in Greater London, using daily modern technologies powered by fossil fuels, in a country that became rich thanks to fossil fuels (and loot from Kenya), should write such a disdainful piece on one of the biggest media outlets on earth about a young man who appears to have knowledge, hard work, and passion to serve his community and people.”
https://brownstone.org/articles/bbc-climate-disinformation-reporter-attacks-kenyan-farmer/
A reporter, who seems to not leave their computer and just reports about what is on it, attacks a man growing food….
200
A snuggle in Winter Solstice film: https://archive.org/details/a-matter-of-who-colorized-movie-720p-hd – great archive.org channel for old movies. I find I struggle with entertainment made in the last 10-20 years, as I am engaging with characters in a ‘you don’t know what they are going to do next with the COVID scam’ kinda way….
80
Recycling Plastic Is a Dangerous Waste of Time
https://quillette.com/2024/06/17/recycling-plastic-is-a-dangerous-waste-of-time-microplastics-health/
The recycling industry—and the world at large—has yet to fully reckon with a bombshell study that dropped last year.
140
Plastic and other waste should be burned and the heat used to generate electricity. It’s a valuable fuel, why bury it in landfill as is done in Australia? They even burn it in woke places like EU and New York City. Steel and aluminum is useful and worthwhile to separate from waste streams to recycle.
130
Lithium-ion batteries are causing thousands of fires a year causing extensive damage to waste facilities, trucks and homes across Australia.
Australia produces about 3300 tonnes of lithium-ion battery waste each year, which has caused more than 10,000 fires annually in waste management facilities and trucks alone.
The alarming figures have prompted environment ministers across the country to take urgent action to prevent fires from having devastating consequences on lives and property.
On Friday, an Environment Ministers’ Meeting was held at Taronga Zoo in Sydney with ministers agreeing to work together on reforms to Australia’s product stewardship arrangements for all batteries.
A product stewardship is similar to how container deposit schemes work and acts to minimise the health safety and environmental impacts of a product and its packaging throughout its life cycle.
It helps governments identify the best option to reduce the risk of fires, support the battery recycling sector and deliver the most cost-effective and efficient approach for businesses and consumers.
A key focus for ministers will be creating financial incentives to ensure the safe disposal of all types of batteries, reducing the chances of batteries ending up in bins or landfills.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek chaired the meeting.
She said government and states are working together to stop lithium batteries ending up in landfill and causing dangerous fires.
NSW Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe said fire and Rescue NSW attended more than 270 lithium-ion battery fires in 2023 alone, but they knew this was just a small fraction of the true number of battery fires.
Authorities across the country have been urging the public to be aware of the risks of lithium-ion batteries as fires are increasing at alarming rates.
In Victoria last year, emergency services responded to at least one lithium-ion battery fire each week.
In WA, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services responded to 70 fires ignited by lithium-ion batteries in the first six months of 2024, compared to 110 for 2023.
Queensland authorities recently recorded 47 residential structure fires, eight non-residential structure fires, and 38 other fires that were caused by lithium-ion batteries.
40
Costco Recalls More Than 500,000 Battery Chargers After Multiple Fires
Costco has urgently recalled more than half a million portable battery chargers after two homes caught on fire and more than 100 other instances of the devices overheating were reported.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) told consumers to “immediately stop” using the myCharge POWER HUB All-In-One 10,000mAh portable chargers with model numbers AO10FK-A, AO10FK-B, and AO10FK-C in a Thursday notice.
The chargers, sold exclusively at Costco, have been the subject of 120 reports involving faulty overheating, including two reports of residential fires that resulted in “approximately $165,000 in reported property damage,” officials said.
Costco had already received more than 100 returns of the product after many had melted, begun smoking, caught on fire, exploded, and more.
“There have been no reports of injuries requiring medical attention,” the commission noted.
The recall has impacted about 567,000 battery chargers.
Owners of such chargers have been warned against discarding them in normal trash bins or even designated battery recycling boxes.
“These potentially hazardous batteries must be handled differently than other batteries,” the CPSC said, directing consumers to instead follow the procedures established by one’s municipal recycling center for “damaged/defective/recalled lithium batteries.”
20
” These potentially hazardous batteries must be handled differently than other batteries,” the CPSC said, directing consumers to instead follow the procedures established by one’s municipal recycling center for “damaged/defective/recalled lithium batteries.” ”
Sounds like buck passing to me.
20
Track down the very good GWPF report briefing #32 by Mikko Paunko, “Save the oceans stop recycling plastic”. Definitely a good read with lots of factual information.
Many countries now burn the majority of their waste, including recyclables and even processed sewage. When you view the photos of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, the “power plant” across the river is actually their high-temp waste incinerator.
40
A very good article on how every time we touch a plastic product we increase the dangerous tiny plastic particles in the environment. Machinery and plastics don’t go together.
While I agree recycling has always been a complete waste of time & money, there is no discussion about what burning the plastic instead will release in the way of equally dangerous chemicals. If we can’t catch nano-plastics going from treatment water to the environment, will we catch phosgenes and fluorines getting out of incinerqtion plants.
21
In discussion a couple of threads down page the question was asked how can a State like Colorado have high humidity. Normally it doesn’t, but the area east of Fort Collins all the way to Fort Morgan and beyond has much irrigated crop land.
60
Indeed in some CO rural electric co-ops irrigation pumping is a major fraction of MWh sales.
41
That area is actually in a rain shadow. The water comes from the west slope of the Rocky Mountains. Horsetooth Reservoir west of Fort Collins is a part of the system.
Michener’s “Centenial” is set around there.
60
There is a little doubt that irrigation in the USA caused historic climate change for the better. Irrigation ramped up during the 1940s and turned the USA from a dust bowl to highly productive land.
During my first flight over the USA, I was awed by the extent of crop irrigation. Flying 10km above the land, the crops spanned from horizon to horizon for long periods.
Water begets water. Managing water resources through storing them and releasing gradually into crops that retain the moisture so it is available to the atmosphere when the surface heats up maintains an active water cycle.
Water punches well above its weight in contributing to the energy in the atmosphere. Saturated atmosphere over land at 30C has 17% more energy than dry atmosphere over 30C land for a little over 1% increase in mass due to added water. This accelerates the atmospheric water cycle.
I believe the same thing happened across Europe due to the canal systems that were started by the Romans. China has been undergoing a similar transformation in more recent decades.
There is a widely held view that the available water is limited but storing the water, either in surface dams or underground , then gradually releasing it through crop transpiration increases its availability to the atmosphere. Once the atmospheric water reaches 30mm and a temperature above 15C, it will support cyclic convective instability and that will draw in ocean air. Above 30mm and 22C, it will produce rainfall. So the ocean evaporation preferentially results in land precipitation because the land warms faster on a daily basis than the adjacent oceans.
The worst possible thing humans can do for the local climate is to remove large regions of biomass and replace with hard surfaces (like solar panels) and reduce ocean air advection to land by robbing energy from the air along coast;ines with wind turbines.
60
China is working on a new massive 220 million acre irritation project, it will also be their largest and most complex hydropower system yet.
Woolworths have announced they are going to sell Chinese canned peaches and apricots instead of Australian, it is forecast that 40 to 60 percent of these orchards in Australia will be pulled out as a result.
Just love the way the Chinese invest the money we send them every day and hate our governments at all levels making it harder for me to farm every day.
30
Living in borrowed time!
https://instapundit.com/654655/#disqus_thread
50
I think we only have 5 years left before Climate hysteria and Net Zero crashes Western Civilization.
So there.
110
That was always the intention.
80
Sir Starmer, our own Beige Knight, wishes the UK to be a ‘Climate Leader’; he doesn’t tell the electorate that he means that the UK will be [one of] the first to crash and burn.
But Nut Zero electricity, by 2030. With no plan for batteries – let alone how to pay for them – just a few gas-fired back-ups to ‘ensure power security’.
Yeah, right!
And, at the moment, it looks like a landslide win for the STEM-ignorant Beige Knight …
[No, I’m not sure Rishi is any better. Sad, ain’t it?!]
I weep for my country.
Auto
20
Copied.
Apparently the woke SMH is going to publish this letter today.
280
Doesn’t appear in the on line version today, but this one did:
” I’m glad your correspondent enjoys his local Woolworths, but as for benefiting Australian shareholders, the largest shareholder of Woolworths is Blackrock, a US investment company (Letters, June 21).
Mike Keene, Mollymook Beach “
90
A major topic in The Australian these days, with many articles every day and thousands of comments.
Albanese with his silly three-eyed fish cartoon and other ridiculous ones is copping quite a hammering.
50
‘Dutton labels Albanese ’a child’ in party speech
‘Peter Dutton has got personal with Anthony Albanese, calling him ‘a child in a man’s body’ and a political appeaser who has compromised his office.’ (Oz)
21
I reckon the best advertisement against the woke lefts push to grab our money and stuff it into billionaires pockets is a well placed daily record of fuel mix from AEMO in The Sun and The Daily Telegraph. Over time this advertisement will be quite powerful.
30
Interesting 5.5 min video discussing MacPherson strut vs double wishbone suspension in cars.
https://youtu.be/BbU269DsMyM
40
Torsion beam
Simple, solid, sorted. Torsion bars take up less vertical space than MacPherson strut setups and less horizontal space than double wishbone and multi-link systems, netting more room for humans in the cabin and their stuff in the boot.
My first VW had this.
40
Wishbones for smooth tarmac, struts for gravel!
20
Saturday WOOHOO! – Wales is on the verge of making history by criminalizing politicians who lie.
Wales is taking a bold step in addressing the issue of politicians who lie. A proposal in the Welsh Senedd (parliament) seeks to introduce legislation that would criminalize politicians intentionally spreading falsehoods.
Politicians who knowingly make or publish false or deceptive statements with the intent to mislead would face criminal charges.
Violation would disqualify the person from being a Senedd member.
While the bill is still under consideration, this move reflects a growing demand for accountability and transparency in politics.
https://citizenwatchreport.com/wales-is-on-the-verge-of-making-history-by-criminalizing-politicians-who-lie/
Make it global, starting here.
ROTFL!!!
110
But who decides what is false.
Is it false to say there are only two genders?
Is it false to say that the climate is not changing rapidly?
120
The Welsh government can’t be trusted to arbitrate truth. I have absolutely zero doubt that this would just be another way in which the left will persecute its opponents.
50
” I have absolutely zero doubt that this would just be another way in which the left will persecute its opponents”
” I have absolutely zero doubt that this would just be another way in which the left will persecute its opponents – whilst claiming that it, and it alone, has access to the Truth, and all others are Ray-seests, Seck-seests, Ayge-eests, etc., etc. ad nauseum”
A bit better perhaps?
Auto
40
Clickbait of the day –
But wait, there’s more –
Like acadumbics in Australian universities for example.
Further reading for masochists
Interesting the “experts” say “yes, but…”
What jobs can smaller-brained babies grow up to do?
70
The smaller brained humans can grow up to work for the BOM (Bunch of Muppets).
20
Did they control for other variables such as vaccination status?
30
Saturday loony left soapies: Racism causes cancer
NBC’s medical drama New Amsterdam has been ripped to shreds for a woke episode in which a patient develops a tumor from ‘internalized racism.’
The episode is from 2020, but apparently only liberals watched the show, because it has just now come to light as a fit subject for ridicule.
Tragically, a teen is diagnosed with tumors. A psychiatrist explains why the imaginary oppression of non-Caucasians is to blame:
‘Your son feels threatened on a daily basis, like everything he’s earned can be taken away. He’s disenfranchised,’ the psychiatrist says.
‘But because his life is seemingly free from all this, because he can’t name it, he’s internalizing it.’
When the mother seems confused, the psychiatrist says: ‘Racism – I think your son’s tumor was caused by racism.’
https://x.com/zermatist/status/1803527814018211906
The loony left makes Fawlty Towers look totally normal.
70
I’d like to thank the cameraperson for not taking a pic of them coming out of the water Hobart nude swim.
50
Given how cold the water would be, there wouldn’t be much to see, eh guys.😉
80
PM ‘shedding authority like fur from a sick cat’
What a terrible week for Anthony Albanese and the nation. He gave us sycophancy and cowardice on China – averting his eyes as Cheng Lei was bullied by Chinese officials in Parliament House – and silliness and scares on nuclear energy.
Chris Kenny
80
Labor loves wasting our money to try and make themselves look good!!….look at the 40 million wasted to tell workers about the alleged Clayton’s Tax cuts where in reality we are all worse off under this highest taxing government in 23 years.
The low and middle tax offset has been abolished so take $1500 off you to give $800 back.
The big kicker is everyday costs and therefore tax on everything is just through the roof!!!! 😡MAGA 🇦🇺
70
Labor’s new theme song “Running Scared” sung by Roy Orbinson
Meanwhle – Anthony Albanese is prioritising his inner-city seats over the security of the national energy supply by waging war on Dutton’s nuclear proposal
The Prime Minister is putting himself on the wrong side of history as Western democracies across Europe drop the taboo on nuclear power and turn against the climate zealots pursuing net zero ideology at any cost, writes Nick Cater.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen describes Small Modular Reactors as “a fantasy” and claims “they don’t survive contact with economic reality”.
The Labour Party in Britain begs to differ.
“Small Modular Reactors will play an important role in helping the UK achieve energy security and clean power while securing thousands of good, skilled jobs,” reads the Party’s manifesto released last week.
Like our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Keir Starmer has chosen to campaign on nuclear policy, but that’s where similarity ends.
The Labour manifesto for the July 4 General Election chides the Conservatives for going slow on nuclear power.
Labour promises to extend the lifetime of existing plants, assisting it in seats like Hartlepool where the threatened closure of an ageing reactor is seen as a threat to jobs.
Labour says it will complete the much-delayed Hinkley Point C reactor and build many more.
Britain is one of a growing number of countries where nuclear energy is not a partisan issue but a practical necessity.
Meanwhile, the Australian Labor Party blunders on, firmly opposed to nuclear thanks to a dogma that took hold on the Australian intellectual left in the 1970s for reasons few can remember.
In Britain, Labour’s commitment to nuclear power is one of the few bright spots in the party’s ramshackle energy plan, the public policy equivalent of an unmade bed.
It promises that oil and gas will remain part of the UK’s energy mix but says Labor will ban new offshore drilling.
After the shock of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Labour says it will insulate Britain from fluctuations in world gas prices while preventing the expansion of domestic gas extraction.
Labour says this will somehow reduce electricity prices, although Starmer has been careful not to follow Albanese into the trap of saying how much cheaper household bills will be.
70
“Meanwhile, the Australian Labor Party blunders on, firmly opposed to nuclear thanks to a dogma that took hold on the Australian intellectual left in the 1970s for reasons few can remember.”
Anyone want to take bets that the whole anti nuclear movement in the west, was run by the KGB?
91
It seems to me that the governments and pollies in UK and Australia obey different paymasters. Australia under Labor is firmly in the grip of China, where much of the hardware to build ‘renewables’ is manufactured.
20
Japanese eye investment in Australian nuclear rollout
Tokyo Japan’s giant energy trading houses would consider helping to pay for a nuclear rollout in Australia in return for decades-long investment returns, industry insiders say.
The Coalition’s announcement that it would build seven nuclear power plants sparked a flurry of conversations in Tokyo this week around how Japan’s largest power players could become involved.
70
tis the Australian way, we could never capture the benefits to stay in Australia.
10
Good piece of uncommon sense here.
10
And it’s causing a major furore in the political area a right now. Fun, fun, fun…
20
MAGA
Maybe Afford Groceries Again
140
Make Albanese Go Away
130
Liberal/National/One Nation/Advance Australia Slogan for well before next Election
Make Albanese Go Away – MAGA 🇦🇺
20
Saturday funny: no KFC vegan options
https://imgbox.com/UHJZ3uwo
😆
40
Walt Disney has racist policies.
Hidden camera.
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1803843934516351395
50
‘Sick of the division’: ABC will ‘keep losing audience’ with bias problem
Sky News host James Macpherson says the ABC will “keep losing audience” as the Australian public are “sick of the division”.
“I am feeling so inspired … the ABC is not a campfire it is a dumpster fire, that is the big difference,” he said.
“They could get ten billion dollars a year … it does not matter how much money you give them, they will keep losing audience.”
100
Making Sense of “The Fatherland”
June 21, 2024 – Sundance
A Russian person could not visit New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and then say they visited The United States and have an understanding of Americans. They might think they understand, but any American would giggle at the notion.
Conversely, the same is true in Russia. You cannot visit Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazan and think you have an understanding of Russians. However, if you give yourself time, join in the daily tasks and challenges of ordinary Russians, you can easily discover some of the deeper stuff that really puts context on life in the Russian Federation.
Perhaps what follows is a different perspective.
♦ The Russian Federation, at least through the prism of life as an ordinary Russian (generally middle class/worker class), is not really close to the portrayal that we see about it through Western media.
Russia is a beautiful country; it is massive and filled with natural resources. From the landscape beauty and natural resource perspective, it is similar to the United States in many ways, but the USA is better. Culturally, there is a big difference between the USA and Russia, some of the differences may be considered good, some of them not good depending on what point exactly we were discussing.
Long & Interesting Read – summed up my own thoughts from visit to Russia Sep 2018
60
Here is Russian folk group Beloe Zlato singing “Young Cossack Girl”
40
From the Comments
My Russia Professor used to say suffering is a major component of being Russian. Suffering is in the DNA. Overly simplistic…perhaps.
Heh – exactly the same comment was made to me by my Female Russian Employee, where we attended her marriage to an Italian (who we knew) in Sydney Russian Orthodox Church (no seats), then at the reception in Blacktown on every table there were Bottles Gin, Vodka, Whiskey etc – we were on the Russian side and her father came round and raised a Cheers drink at every table – Then Guests went up to give presents to the Happy Couple, and her Father gave cheers drink to the people giving presents.
Lots of Russian Dancing by the younger people.
I said to her when she returned from her Honeymoon – “How was your Father still standing”
She repled “Many melancholy nights spent drinking Vodka during the long Russian Winter”
40
Traditionally Russia is referred to by Russians as the Motherland. Fatherland by tradition refers to Germany.
40
FWIW
Sounds like “Speedbox” who contributes to
https://newcatallaxy.blog/
is visiting Russia again and will be commenting on what he sees there
10
UK weather: 48-hour 26C heatwave to hit and five English cities will be the hottest
Forecast maps for the UK indicate when the current cold spell could possibly end, promising a 48-hour blast of sun with temperatures reaching up to 26C. A heatwave is predicted to encase the UK at the month’s end, as June finally warms up. The mercury, which currently lays low, is expected to at last climb towards the 30C mark by the end of June.
According to weather maps from WX Charts, utilising Met Desk data, the temperature will likely peak around 26C in certain intervals. Cities that will be the hottest include Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Manchester, and Newcastle. This warm spell is anticipated to sweep across Britain from June 26th to the 28th.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-weather-48-hour-26c-33019020.amp
OMG! 26C – there’ll be more deaths than from the plandemic and Fakevax ™ combined!
Someone call Just Stop Oil and tell them to spray paint Big Ben pink!
80
It was warm like that in most of June last year and we ate outside many evenings. My BIL went into panic mode over local low rivers (in Cumbria). Just after our return to Australia we were told that those same rivers were flowing well again! I think we had the best of the English summer last year, by sheer good fortune.
This was meant to be a reply to #22, forgot to use its proper reply box.
51
Never Would Have Happened”: Trump Talks Ukraine, Nato, And Hints At “The Next AI Trade” In Explosive Interview
BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, JUN 22, 2024 – 01:20 AM
Just two weeks after Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks hosted a high-profile fundraiser for former President Trump at his Silicon Valley mansion, filled with venture capitalists and tech elites, Trump made an appearance on Sacks’ podcast on Thursday, covering a wide range of topics from taxes and tariffs to energy to artificial intelligence to foreign policy decisions to Ukraine to China to Covid to immigration and many other issues the Biden administration seems to be failing on.
The podcast features Sacks, entrepreneurs Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg, who spoke with Trump for about 50 minutes – asking intelligent and clear questions. There were no ‘gotchas’ like you see with corporate media activists.
Sacks began the interview by explaining how business leaders at his fundraiser expressed tremendous difficulty in today’s economy under the Biden administration.
“You got the crypto guys who just want a framework. They just want the government to tell them how to operate – and they can’t get that. You have no M&A happening right now in tech. The real estate guys can’t get loans because interest rates are through the roof, and there’s a credit crunch. So I think one of the common themes we just heard across that dinner was that it was just so hard to do business right now,” Sacks said.
He then asked the former president: “What are the three things that you would do to kind of get things moving again, you know if you’re reelected?”
Trump responded: “Regulation Regulation and Taxes – Okay. I gave the biggest tax cut in the history of our country a lot to the business,” adding, “As you know, companies were paying 40% 45% including state and city taxes in many cases, and we got it down to 21% – would like to get it down lower.”
Trump defended his tariff proposals against criticism that they would spark more inflation, asserting the policy was essential for maintaining the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. He stated he would penalize countries that abandoned their peg to the dollar by slapping them with tariffs on their products coming in the US, adding, “With tariffs, it gives you a tremendous power.”
“You know MSM is dead when political candidates really begin to hit the podcast circuit,” one X user said.
X users asked All-In to now interview Biden.
60
cant you just see Joe Biden hitting the podcast circuit 🙂
40
Nearly Half Of US EV Drivers Consider Switching Back To Gas Vehicles: McKinsey Study
More electric vehicle drivers are thinking about switching back to internal combustion engine automobiles, according to new findings from the 2024 McKinsey & Co. Mobility Consumer Global Survey.
Forty-six percent of EV owners surveyed in the United States say they will likely return to driving gas-powered vehicles.
Globally, the survey of 30,000 respondents in 15 countries found that more than one-quarter (29 percent) of EV owners are likely to go back to driving gas-powered cars.
Australia topped the list with 49 percent confirming they want to return to driving behind the wheel of an gas-powered automobile, the study found.
The lack of public charging infrastructure was the chief reason respondents wanted to switch back to gas-powered vehicles, with 35 percent saying it is “not yet good enough for me.”
Thirty-four percent noted that the total costs of EV ownership were “too high.”
The list of reasons for being disappointed in electric cars rounded out with being unable to charge at home (24 percent), too much worry and stress about charging (21 percent), changing mobility requirements (16 percent), and not enjoying the driving experience (13 percent).
Overall, 21 percent of global respondents said they would never want to switch to an electric vehicle, unchanged from 2022. By comparison, 18 percent confirmed their next automobile will be an EV, up from 16 percent in 2022.
Looking ahead to the next 10 years, 29 percent want to replace their automobile with other forms of transportation. They cited expensive car ownership costs, a desire to live a more sustainable lifestyle, and remote work.
Other studies have found similar trends in the United States.
20
Tesla battery dies without warning, trapping toddler inside during sweltering Arizona summer
Let me start out by alleviating any distress because the baby girl was just fine (toxic masculinity to the rescue!), but this story points out what could have been another very deadly design flaw of electric vehicles.
On Wednesday, a local outlet in the Phoenix area reported on a scary turn of events which culminated in a 20-month-old little girl becoming trapped in a hot car in the heat of the day with her frantic grandmother on the outside, before firefighters showed up and freed the toddler. Here are the details, from AZ Family:
‘And I closed the door, went around the car, [to] get in the front seat, and my car was dead,’ she said. ‘I could not get in. My phone key wouldn’t open it. My card key wouldn’t open it.’
As On Your Side explained in a recent report, when the Tesla battery that operates electronics dies, a hidden latch on the driver’s side armrest will manually unlock the door. Many Tesla owners don’t know about this latch.
But in this case, Sanchez was stuck outside of her Tesla while the toddler was trapped inside, buckled into a car seat.
Apparently Tesla cars are supposed to give a series of warnings when the battery is about to die, but Sanchez’s car failed to do so, a claim confirmed by Tesla itself, and I can only assume the extreme Arizona temperature killed whatever charge Sanchez’s battery did have almost immediately—Tesla’s own website states this:
It is expected for a Tesla car to consume around 1% of charge per day while parked. In some cases, you may notice that consumption is higher.
And, I imagine “some cases” would be scorching heat, like the temperatures seen during Phoenix summers; the Tesla website also suggests that after driving, you park in the shade to “reduce power consumption.”
50
Assuming there is any shade to park under!
40
“Assuming there is any shade to park under!”
Indeed.
Find your local solar power factory – plenty of shade there ….
Tho’ maybe no chargers!
Auto
10
Biden’s Fiscal Crisis Is Far Worse Than We Thought- Imagine What Australia’s is like under Albo & State Labor Premiers?
I & I Editorial Board June 21, 20244
Nothing should shock us anymore, but the latest Congressional Budget Office report did. Released this week, the report shows that the nation is in vastly worse financial shape than anyone thought just a few months ago. And the report makes clear who is to blame.
The CBO’s latest “Budget and Economic Outlook” projects that the federal deficit this year will top $1.9 trillion. That’s $408 billion higher – a 27% increase – than what the CBO thought it would be just four months ago.
This will make the 2024 deficit the biggest ever recorded in American history – not counting the two years of panic-induced COVID-19 spending sprees – and will mark the third consecutive increase in deficits under Biden. (See the chart below.)
It’s also highly unusual for the CBO to make such a huge correction to its forecast.
The nonpartisan office routinely produces a budget and economic forecast at the start of the year, and then an update mid-year. Normally, these don’t vary much. In Trump’s first three years, for example, the average variance between the first forecast and the final deficit was just $73 billion.
Under Biden, however, deficits have come in higher than expected every single year by an average of $380 billion.
Here’s where the sudden, sharp jump in the 2024 deficit came from, according to the CBO:
10
Captain Biden and His Economics Crew are Tempting Fate
An old Russian proverb admonishes readers to “Pray to God, but row away from the rocks.”
Good advice. But based on the dreadful macroeconomic strategies and visible results of the Biden administration’s policies, their misreading of this adage has had them commanding the ship of state at flank speeds towards the financial rocks.
The broad areas where Biden took us off course toward the shallows deal with strangling oil and gas availability, and unsustainable government overspending, both resulting in higher interest rates. His administration’s radical moves have greatly contributed to the inflationary conditions with which we are now grappling.
There were two major miscalculations that President Biden initiated during his administration which transformed President Trump’s workable, term-ending inflation rate of 1.9% to President Biden’s parabolic three-and half-year aggregate levels of 20% plus.
In 2022, U.S. budget figures reported by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showed federal government expenditures of $6.3 trillion were running $1.4 trillion more than it took in taxes. That $1.4 trillion shortage (deficit or government spending minus total tax intake) was bridged by borrowing and added to the debt pile from prior years’ overspending. As usual, Congress averted their eyes from the fiscal bleeding. In the following year (2023), the U.S. Treasury reported that the federal government spent $6.1 trillion while taking in $4.4 trillion in taxes, adding another $1.7 trillion to U.S. debt. While 2024 has a few more months to run, CBO (as of 18 June) projects $6.8 trillion in federal spending, while collecting $4.9 trillion in taxes, adding another $1.9 trillion to the total debt.
As of this date, the total of U.S. federal debt accumulated from George Washington’s era until the present stands at approximately $34.8 trillion. While the Biden’s administration has been in office, the total debt has increased by approximately 21%.
10
US borrowing binge risks market strains, analysts warn
Federal Reserve may be forced to end quantitative tightening early, as stock of Treasury bills forecast to soar above $6trillion
The Congressional Budget Office, the independent fiscal watchdog, this week said aid packages for Ukraine and Israel would help push up the US deficit this fiscal year to $1.9tn — compared with its February prediction of $1.5tn.
“We are spending money as a country like a drunken sailor on shore for the weekend,” said Ajay Rajadhyaksha, global chair of research at Barclays.
The increase in the deficit has long alarmed fiscal hawks, who warn the US’s lack of discipline will inevitably push up borrowing costs and that neither President Joe Biden nor his Republican challenger Donald Trump have substantive plans to shore up the country’s finances.
The more recent shift to short-term financing may also disrupt money markets and complicate the anti-inflation drive of the US Federal Reserve.
Some of the expected increase in the deficit is because of student loan forgiveness, which is not expected to have an immediate effect on cash flows.
But Jay Barry, co-head of interest rate strategy at JPMorgan, said the expanded deficit would require the US to issue an additional $150bn of debt in the three months before the fiscal year ends in September.
He added he expected most of the funds to be raised through Treasury bills, short-term debt instruments whose maturity ranges from one day to a year.
Such a move would increase the total outstanding stock of Treasury bills — unredeemed short-term US debt — from $5.7tn at the end of 2023 to an all-time high of $6.2tn by the end of this year.
“It is likely that the share of Treasury bills as a share of total debt increases, which opens up the question of who is going to buy them,” said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo. “This absolutely could strain funding markets.”
00
We Bought This Bread in April. It Still Looks Fine.
The loaves that line America’s grocery-store bread aisles are marvels of modern culinary engineering: uniform and built to last, with a shelf life that typically runs at least two weeks from the day they emerge from the oven.
Sliced, bagged and sealed with mechanically placed clips, the Wonder and Pepperidge Farm loaves in one supermarket match those sold in another hundreds of miles away. That’s the point. Their low cost and reliable quality is the result of decades of refinement—of industrial baking processes and ingredients like monoglycerides and datem, added to strengthen dough and stave off staleness.
Those same ingredients are among the ones that have landed packaged bread in the middle of a fraught debate over “ultra-processed foods.” The term has no universally agreed-upon definition but is applied to many potato chips, cookies and frozen pizzas, and lots of seemingly more virtuous foods, like soups, cereals and packaged breads.
Ultra-processed generally refers to mass-produced foods made with ingredients you wouldn’t find in a typical home kitchen. Most are made with whole foods that have been broken down and chemically modified, and they often include ingredients designed to boost a food’s color, flavor or texture.
Diets high in ultra-processed foods have been linked to health problems including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, depression, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
60
Interesting from Making Sense of “The Fatherland” Comment 21
June 21, 2024 – Sundance
♦ Food and Diets – Russian people eat well, and generally you would say they eat healthy fresh food. Because he was apparently concerned about it at some point, Dear Father banned Canola oil in Russia as a food additive. Fresh foods are what the average American would consider “organic foods.” For those of you who grow in your own gardens, you understand what the food markets are like in Russia.
Good quality food is cheap in Russia. Everything you see on the counter in this picture (left) was purchased for less than $70. I transposed the prices that I would pay at my local grocery store in the USA, and I came up with around $150-$175.
Processed food prices in Russia (crackers, chips, candies, cereals) generally are about half of what you would pay in the U.S. However, on the fresh foods side (produce, fish, meats, dairy), the Russian prices are a fraction of the U.S.A costs.
[10 eggs for $0.50, bread $1, bananas $0.05/lb, salmon $2.00, head lettuce $0.50, berries less than $1, apples $0.45/lb, steak $2/lb, ground chuck $1.50/lb, etc]
Why Europe banned Canola oil.
https://techcritix.com/guides/why-is-canola-oil-banned-in-europe/
50
Russia >[10 eggs for $0.50, bread $1, bananas $0.05/lb, salmon $2.00, head lettuce $0.50, berries less than $1, apples $0.45/lb, steak $2/lb, ground chuck $1.50/lb, etc]
Woolworths NZ ($NZ):
Eggs 10pack $7.90 Was $10.29
Sliced Bread White 600g $1.19, $2.39, $3.05
Bananas $0.86 each (approx) $3.45 kg (S7.61/lb)
Salmon Fillets 120g @ $54.00/kg $6.48
Head Lettuce $2.70
Blue Berries 500g $6.75 (Chile frozen – NZ fresh in season $$$)
Apples Simply Red $3.99kg ($8.80/lb)
NZ Beef Rump Steak Grass Fed $24.50kg ($54/lb)
NZ Beef Mince 18% Fat Grass Fed 1kg $14.90 Was $16.90 ($37.26lb)
20
In Venezuela, a Haircut Costs 5 Bananas and 2 Eggs
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-04/in-caracus-venezuela-a-haircut-costs-five-bananas-and-two-eggs
In NZ$:
5 bananas – $4.30
2 eggs – $2.06
Haircut – $6.36
Basic back and sides here – $45
30
“$24.50kg ($54/lb)”
Wrong way around Richard? A lb would be about $11 wouldn’t it?
30
KP >”A lb would be about $11 wouldn’t it?”
No.
A kilogram is 2.2046226218 lb.
Convert kg to lbs
https://www.unitconverters.net/weight-and-mass/kg-to-lbs.htm
24.5/kg x 2.2 = 53.9/lb (54.013254235)
You’ve divided by 2.2 I think.
I was schooled in imperial then metric. Worked with both in length, area, weight, volume, whatever. Got to know some conversions by memory e.g. links to metres multiply links by 0.201168.
Worked in a materials testing lab weighing stuff to 9 decimal places of a gram. Last 3 places are nanograms. Ultra precision in that lab.
00
KP >Wrong way around Richard? A lb would be about $11 wouldn’t it?
Yes you’re correct. One kg is 2.2 lb. $24.50kg ($11/lb)
Many moons since I brought a lb of beef (pre 1972). Lost the “feel” for the quantity so no self-correct.
Apples and bananas are incorrect too.
20
Clean up:
Bananas $0.86 each (approx) $3.45 kg (S1.57/lb)
Apples Simply Red $3.99kg ($1.81/lb)
NZ Beef Rump Steak Grass Fed $24.50kg ($11/lb)
NZ Beef Mince 18% Fat Grass Fed 1kg $14.90 Was $16.90 ($7.68lb)
20
>Those same ingredients are among the ones that have landed packaged bread in the middle of a fraught debate over “ultra-processed foods.”
My stomach can’t cope with packaged bread anymore so I’ve given up on it – don’t miss it and found replacements with 100% in the ingredients or at least 90+ % (check out bread).
Only 2 bakers: Goodman Fielder and Vogels. GF has several different variations of basically the same ingredients with several different price levels and grains. I wondered about the ingredients to the point that I just didn’t trust the processing as per that article.
Vogels uses old European recipes and whole grains. More cost and suffering from shrinkflation. When much younger I just about lived on it. Great with scrambled eggs on top or manuka honey, which pre-fashion did not cost the earth back then although prices have fallen lately.
Can’t quite stomach Vogels either now dammit.
Old European is not necessarily better, example chocolate. See next.
20
Look up Wiki: Dutch process cocoa. Most chocolates use this processed cocoa. In NZ Whittakers is very popular and doesn’t used Dutch-processed cocoa. People overseas, see Canadian here, are amazed at the size of the 250g blocks when their own are 45g or 100g.
From the Wiki link above, here’s the difference:
You decide.
20
Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers’ court win
As a result of book publishers successfully suing the Internet Archive (IA) last year, the free online library that strives to keep growing online access to books recently shrank by about 500,000 titles.
IA reported in a blog post this month that publishers abruptly forcing these takedowns triggered a “devastating loss” for readers who depend on IA to access books that are otherwise impossible or difficult to access.
To restore access, IA is now appealing, hoping to reverse the prior court’s decision by convincing the US Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit that IA’s controlled digital lending of its physical books should be considered fair use under copyright law. An April court filing shows that IA intends to argue that the publishers have no evidence that the e-book market has been harmed by the open library’s lending, and copyright law is better served by allowing IA’s lending than by preventing it.
“We use industry-standard technology to prevent our books from being downloaded and redistributed—the same technology used by corporate publishers,” Chris Freeland, IA’s director of library services, wrote in the blog. “But the publishers suing our library say we shouldn’t be allowed to lend the books we own. They have forced us to remove more than half a million books from our library, and that’s why we are appealing.”
IA will have an opportunity to defend its practices when oral arguments start in its appeal on June 28.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/06/internet-archive-forced-to-remove-500000-books-after-publishers-court-win/
Any comment GA? 😎
Fortunately I have access to some truly massive alternative archives.
00
So is intellectual property rights worth something? Is the IA paying an online publishing royalty for these books?
Do we want original authors to be paid for their work to encourage them to do more of it?
Copyright law is there for a reason.
60
“Do we want original authors to be paid for their work to encourage them to do more of it?”
or do we want to spread their word through free advertising so they become famous far and wide?
Copyright law and patents are not ‘all good’ at all…
20
being allegedly famous because other people distribute your stuff for free, does not pay the mortgage or feed the family
70
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Turkey to Leave NATO and Join … (video)
00
Just talking to a tunneling engineer today and he reckons the Snowy Two problem came as they went to turn the TBM and didn’t get the radius right. Seems they are very tricky machines to manoeuvre and we don’t have much expertise in using them at all.
20
Faero Islands Tunnels – Up in that part of the world they build their tunnels by using explosives – very effective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVD0hG-_5gQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EruSZNI4th4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-lV2XZ0CbI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZx4TIUozxg
20
I doubt very much ‘we’ are steering them, don’t we have imported tunneling experts on the job.
00
My eldest son and my son in law are both on a tunnelling crew. Thankfully not in the Snowy Mountains.
00
Doubtful.
00
Martin Armstrong: Western Empire Facing Same Collapse as Rome in its Final Days (video)
00
A glimpse of what power rationing looks like: https://www.lusakatimes.com/2024/06/18/government-to-recall-100-megawatts-from-export-market-amidst-power-crisis/
00
“a second plant at Maamba Collieries, expected to produce around 300 MW. This project, requiring approximately $80 million,”
So… 3000MW for $800million? $Au1.2billion or so. Economies of scale would surely make it less! That would need 9000MW of wind turbines, so 30 more Hornsdales in SA, at $AU90million each that’s 3000MW when the wind blows for $2.7billion.
..and I’m told renewables are so cheap compared to coal!
00
‘Blowing apart the climate energy consensus
‘With his plan to drag Australia to the nuclear energy starting line, Peter Dutton has split the political atom and has built the foundations for a big-target election campaign based on strength and vision.’ (Graham Lloyd / Oz)
51
FWIW
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff77f8006-6277-4435-b5b8-febbb5484a3f_800x560.jpeg
Via https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-62024-putin-signs-defense
40
The cartoon is great.
30
From his next article-
“Rhodes remains among the political haute monde, having founded a thinktank alongside Jake Sullivan,”
Does this website count as a thinktank? I always wonder what makes thinktanks worth listening to, but some people do take notice of them I suppose.
At least this one had some good ideas!
“In an immense departure from US policy to date, he advocates that the US “abandons the mindset of American primacy” and “pivots away from the political considerations, maximalism, and Western-centric view that have caused [the Biden] administration to make some of the same mistakes as its predecessors”…..Also, significantly, he points out the insanity of “framing the battle between democracy and autocracy as a confrontation with a handful of geopolitical adversaries” when the West’s own democracies are in such sorry states today that they can hardly be called “democracies” anymore… ”
and as the world moves forward to multi-polarity, leaving the West to stew in its own juice-
“why is the (Rules based) Order dead? He answers: because countries previously vassalized by strict obedience to the Hegemon are now, for once, acting independently and making—quelle surprise!—sovereign decisions. And thus is translated the secret message of the inter-elite argot: the ‘Rules Based Order’ was nothing more than a veil for line-toeing slavery, and it’s now finished forever. “
The next few years should be interesting!
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/ruling-class-finally-awakens-to-the
10
..and THIS is the real reason for the current fascination with artificial intelligence-
“In large-scale computer war games involving all branches of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the AI commander has been given an unprecedented supreme power of command, learning and developing rapidly in the endlessly evolving virtual wars…. Under enormous pressure, humans ” struggle to form a fully rational decision-making framework under tight timelines ,” the engineers noted.
The AI itself detects new threats, constructs plans and makes optimal decisions based on the overall situation when battles are not going well or the results are not as desired. He also tends to learn and adapt from both wins and losses.”
https://warnews247-gr.translate.goog/diethnh/kina/pagkosmios-seismos-h-kina-tolmhse-to-adianohto-strathgos-ai-tha-kathodhgei-tis-dunameis-tou-pla-se-ola-ta-polemika-metwpa/?_x_tr_sl=el&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB
Now, who believes the Yanks AREN’T doing the same? Another step closer to those endless wars of machines against machines in SciFi.
00
Corrupt Insolvent US Government Wants To Sell Off National Parks, Wildlife Refuges
https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-06-19-wall-street-public-lands-nyse-november-17.html
10