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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Greetings from Southern Spain. Wishing all on Jo’s blog a very Happy Christmas and a Merry one too.
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And a Happy Christmas for you too.
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Thankyou Graeme No.3 🙂
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Good to hear you got there and the region is recovering.
Enjoy the Christmas get together
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Thankyou Yarpos.
The region is looking very green after all the recent rain and is most attractive. We haven’t done much sightseeing as the ‘flu left us a bit wan but we look forward to a quiet Christmas Day with our son and DIL.
Feliz Navidad! I hope I got that right!
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Happy Xmas to you both, Annie.
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Thankyou Beth and our best wishes for a Happy Christmas to you too. Annie
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🙂
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Latest from the terrible scenes at the German Christmas market
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14216817/German-Magdeburg-Christmas-market-attack-victims-revealed.html
The perpetrator is said to be a Saudi Arabian refugee who long ago renounced Is**m. The motive of attacking a Christmas market full of Germans therefore still seems very unclear at present.
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That seems to be the Official Narrative.
I remain sceptical.
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It shows the guy is first and foremost a narcissist. He’s all over the place, obsessed with himself.
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Isn’t lying considered a lgitimate method in certain sections of the population?
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Apparently a loony who came to police attenition but they deemed “no concrete risk” working as Psychiatrist? also wanted by Saudi authorities by extradition declined. There is a long background at Eugypius substack.
Meanwhile the German authorities focus on the Afd and if people are making mean comments (even if accurate)
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https://www.eugyppius.com/p/magdeburg-christmas-market-attack
German authorities repeatedly refused Saudi Arabian requests that he be extradited.
The Saudis accused him of terrorism and human trafficking, for alleged complicity with efforts to smuggle Arab girls to the European Union.
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BREAKING: In latest threat to German democracy, dangerous fascist Elon Musk tweets six words about Alternative für Deutschland
Elon Musk then brought down the hammer on the German democratic order, retweeting Seibt’s video and remarking that “Only the AfD can save Germany.”
Today a lot of very important and influential people got out of bed and took to their keyboards to denounce Musk’s election interference.
His statement might be illegal, at any rate it is very likely fascist and certainly it is beyond the pale for an American to voice an opinion about German politics.
Germans absolutely never, ever, utter the slightest word about American politics and certainly would never advance negative opinions about the American president in the middle of an election campaign.
Our Foreign Office would never try to fact-check an American presidential debate! Our journalists would never depict President Donald Trump dressed as a Ku Kl@x Klan member or offering the H@tler salute or decapitating the Statue of Liberty!
That’s just not done!
Like a great stream of green di@rrhoea, the outrage is pouring fourth.
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One thing for sure is Elon has killed his market base with Tesla. Not the smartest business move. Everyone who drives a Telsa is a raving green lefty. And the other side of the political market don’t like EVs.
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I think Elon has sold much of his Tesla shares when he bought Twitter (now X which I do not subscribe to but am starting to think about it with its more free speech and facts particularly with technology)
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I recently got an X account. Its ok, better than its old censored incarnation. But, be prepared, lot of crazy nutters on there. Heaps of national socialist types. One of the consequences of free speech is you get loud mouth nutters.
Not the place for debate at all, people are not interested, they just throw muck like monkeys at the zoo. And small accounts are ignored completely, actually tweeting is a waste of time. Putting down comments is the only way to get any engagement, and then you’ll only get a “like”, maybe a bit of back n forth.
But if you’re not after being heard, it is the place to find out about things first and the stuff you won’t see elsewhere, and to follow people of interest.
But it is horribly addictive and wastes hours of your time. For venting ideas and discussion, you’re better off on a blog like this one.
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Could not agree more!
If you find the discussions useful be sure to donate some chocolate to Joanne’s Christmas appeal.
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That is a great article on how bad Germany has become.
Germany is losing a lot of friends in Europe due to exporting high electricity prices.
Their high price motor vehicles are not doing very well with BMW overall sales down 2.3% and the decline is accelerating. BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen have rapidly declining profits; YoY down more than 60% for all three.
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Taqiya
Taqiya, also spelled Taqiyya or Taqiyyah, is a concept in Isl@m that refers to the practice of concealing one’s belief and faith when under threat of persecution, violence, or death.
It is a principle of self-preservation and protection, allowing M@slims to maintain secrecy about their religious identity in hostile or non-M@slim environments.
Principle and Application
Taqiya involves the dissimulation of outward conformity, permitting M@slims to hide their beliefs and practices in order to ensure their personal safety.
This may involve denying or concealing one’s M@slim identity, or pretending to adopt non-M@slim beliefs or practices.
The principle is based on the idea that a M@slim’s primary duty is to preserve their life and well-being, and that this may require temporary deception or concealment of their faith.
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Think about the ridiculous logic pushed in the governing narrative:
The terrorist was “Isl@mophobic” but chose to target Christians at a Christmas Market, to protest the Isl@mization of Germany?
Good grief, even the FBI would be blushing at this level of twisted narrative engineering.
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Maral Salmassi@MaralSalmassi
Despite claims made by the German press, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen is not an ex-M@slim ath@ist, nor is he a fan of the AfD or Elon Musk.
While he may have spread this misinformation himself, it aligns with the practice of Taqqiye, an Isl@mic doctrine that permits lying and deception to advance Isl@mic objectives.
In reality, he is a radical Shia M@slim, as evidenced by his name and numerous tweets and chat leaks circulating on Arabic-speaking platforms like X.
Disturbingly, his plans to carry out mass killings of Germans were brought to the attention of German authorities by a Saudi woman.
Tragically, the police ignored her warnings.
The links are added in the thread.
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Sounds like a name Aboriginals give to their daughters these days.
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The Saudi Christmas killer: Was he or wasn’t he (Muslim)?
By Andrea Widburg – December 21, 2024
Yesterday, a Saudi Arabian man drove his heavy-duty Mercedes through a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing five (as of now) and injuring 200 others.
The killer’s Saudi background screamed “Muslim!!!” However, we’re now being told that the killer is an “ex-Muslim.”
I keep thinking of those old Clairol hair dye commercials.
Younger readers won’t remember them, but older ones will: “Does she or doesn’t she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure.”
In this case, whether he really was an “ex-Muslim” is one of those things that, perhaps, only Allah knows for sure
The car’s driver was a guy named Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, and we’re now being told that he was actually more of a right-wing conspiracy theorist.
Based upon this information, there are three possible scenarios:
(1) The guy is a former Muslim who hates Germany for being complicit with Islam, so he decided to slaughter innocent people at a Christian-oriented Christmas market;
(2) the guy is a complete lunatic; and
(3) the guy is a Muslim who has played a Taqiyya game for almost two decades as a Muslim sleeper agent in Germany.
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Those who know Toby Young-an avid proponent of free speech and publisher of the Daily Sceptic-will be pleased to hear he has been made a peer so will be able to try to shape events in Parliament
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/12/20/toby-young-awarded-peerage/
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The headline says it all
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/12/20/trump-this-time-everybody-wants-to-be-my-friend/
Unfortunately those in the EU still hate him but perhaps realise they will have to work with him
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Manufacturers in Canada say they will have to lay many people off if Trump enacts tariffs
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/50-canadian-manufacturers-considering-layoffs-if-trump-tariffs-enacted
Other countries will also be affected but it will also cause price hikes in the US.
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I suggest the best option for Canada is to make Trudeau the first layoff.
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Good job the prices will be going down due to cheaper “gas” and electricity for transportation and.farms and factories.
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For 50 years we have been served by scholars who never read beyond the first page of the text books. No, not even that far.
Trump says he will impose tariffs.
Our scholars scream: That will hurt us!
How?
Tariffs are levied on manufactured goods. In manufactured goods Australia just does not compete.
In the area where Australia does compete, farm produce, it is more ilkely that we will see shortfalls in world production bring higher prices.
Australia looks probably safe from Trump’s tariffs.
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How some AI lies and deceives.
It’s disturbing that so many people in what used to be called the “professions” now rely on it.
Apart from the docunented built-in Leftist bias of some of the big ones like ChatGPT, it might also be deceiving and lying to you.
The authors of the following paper call this “scheming”.
PART 2 FOLLOWS
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PART 2 OF ABOVE
Link at https://www.apolloresearch.ai/research/scheming-reasoning-evaluations
SEE LINK FOR REST
Time to implement Asimov’s three laws of robotics.
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There is a discussion of these findings at:
https://youtu.be/GlZfndaO01c
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Considering the state of Victorian Justice today, I would be very content to be judged by any gizmo, eg – a smart fridge instead of a human jurist.
We have more than enough Laws for any situation, real or imagined; our problem is an ideological refusal to use them.
A fridge by definition has no ideology so it is good enough for the task.
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Keen for cold logic Vlad?
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How many likes can I put to that?
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Quoted from elsewhere:
“Trust the science” is one of the most unscientific statements one can make.
Questioning science is how you do science.
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Very well said.
The politicians and academics asking us to “trust the science” are the biggest deniers of reality.
For example CO2 is a life giving gas required to sustain all plant life, and by extension animal and human life, due to photosynthesis. Yet they tell us CO2 is a dangerous gas that is destroying the planet.
I could name a million other things here.
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I can trust the science OK. It’s poorly trained scientists that are the problem.
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That little imp, Fauci went one better. ” I am science” he proclaimed, as if he were some science messiah. What a horrible little man. To think that almost our whole COVID response ( even In Australia ) was influenced by him, is really depressing.
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Similar to Jacinda Ardern, who announced that if you wanted to know the truth, come to the government because we are the truth. Still laughing. ToM
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We’ve entered a post-science age.
There would seem to be two irreconcilable factions.
Those that consider science to be a social hierarchical construct and those (most of us on JoNova) that recognize it as simply a structural system of inquiry.
Most folk need the social hierarchy as the basis for ‘trust’.
And hence would utter such shallow reasoning .
Most of the minds the are likely to advance science will first have to escape hierarchical thinking to advance new questions.
Many, if not most pioneers and founders of the late Great Scientific Age were wealthy aristocrats with the ability to pursue ideas outside the social hierarchy because the hierarchy wasn’t really paying attention.
Now it does and demands obedience because science turned out to be very valuable for power acquisition.
Most post graduate educated people I interact with are very uncomfortable discussing the issue of anthropogenic ‘Climate Change’.
The great sacred cow and mother of ‘consensus’ science.
Their personal social position depends on adherence to the hierarchy.
This is the underlying character of the post-science age.
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Honk,
But there are exceptions like many (most?) of my scientist mates and me, who could not care less about personal social position. Scientists should evaluate their own performance to see if they have added to society more than they have taken out. Money is an acceptable metric, but not the only one. Scientists scoring a plus can then take the position that they are often likely to be more often correct than wrong and so have earned an unofficial licence to interrogate other scientists, irrespective of the alleged social rank of the other scientist(s). Social rank probably correlates poorly with scientific ability – numerous examples exist of nutty scientists so unsmart they need help with their shoe laces.
What climate change has done is blur the definition of “scientist” and cause a huge increase in people who label themselves as such. It is like blue eyed blonde fair-skinned people choosing to identify as aboriginal and so greatly increasing the census count. The bottom line is that some people will never make good scientists. I am no good at golf, so I do not play. These pseudo-scientists need to be revealed by successful hard scientists so the ranks are thinned to a happy 10% or so. Then, scientific results shown to the public will become understandable instead of post modern drivel and progress will proceed.
So, if you are happy to have shown to yourself and others that you have earned your science badge, use gusto to question poor science wherever you see it. Questioning the mundane is a normal, important part of advancing hard science, as numerous authors have stressed.
In particular, we are in a current wave of middle aged to youngish females, often addressed as “professor” who are harming hard science by their arrogant ignorance, hiding behind justification by claims that women have been suppressed in the past, so society owes it to them to be heard in increasing numbers. Sort of like Teals in our present political system, devoid of value to society but on nice earners by wealthy sponsors. These arrogant special pleadings females are holding back the advancement of hard science. They cannot handle hard science, not clever enough, but admit to weeping about lack of recognition for their causes. (No, I am not in denial about the important contributions from talented women. Ideally, the gender of hard scientists does not need to be known. As was customary, what matters is the quality of their science).
Geoff S
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Conservatives should never complain they don’t understand the Left. We have their instruction manual, Orwell’s “1984”.
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FWIW
“Keep an Eye on Your Ocean Liner Alert: World’s ‘Largest Ice Berg’ Has Broken Free”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/12/21/keep-an-eye-on-your-ocean-liner-alert-worlds-largest-ice-berg-has-broken-free-n3798105
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I’m disappointed that the current “world’s largest iceberg” wasn’t attributed to climate change or boiling oceans like the previous ones have usually been.
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The world’s largest iceberg broke off from an ice shelf somewhere a few years ago, due to rising global temperatures. It ran aground and got stuck but is now free due to rising sea levels due to global warming.
It will soon melt in the boiling oceans!
/s
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I would have been more impressed if it was the size of England rather than Greater London.
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With TRUMP soon to be leader of the West, in order to maintain the Official Narrative in the woke Western countries like Australia, the lies and propaganda efforts from Government will have to be massively increased.
Hence expect more attempts at censorship and control of social(ist) media and blogs like this one.
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” . . . TRUMP soon to be leader of the West, . . .”
Pull the other one.
🙂
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Donald can’t understand why the authorities are reluctant to tell the truth about this drone flap, so its fallen to him to expose the deep state.
I don’t expect more censorship unless WW3 breaks out.
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I hope Germany is enjoying its wokeness.
From Aug 24.
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Relatively, the Pb solution is still cheap, so up against a wall…
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Rule 303.
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Help me understand please….
My understanding is that anthropogenic (fossil ) CO2 contains zero C14. ?
So how does this chart of C14 prove that anthopogenic CO2 decays in 10 years ?
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Hi Chad,
My understanding is there was a spike in C14 from the atomic bomb tests in the middle of last century. The decay of the C14 from those tests when they ended, shows the half life of CO2 with a real life experiment rather than theory.
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I’m not fully answering the question but apart from historic atmospheric nuclear tests C14 is also continuously generated in the upper atmosphere when neutrons derived from cosmic ray particle cascades collide with nitrogen atoms.
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Depends on the meaning of “decay”.
Removed from the atmosphere = decay ?
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Well, even “removed from the atmosphere” in 10 yrs….how does C14 reduction show anthropogenic CO2 levels ?
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Tdef has commented on this topic on 24 October 2022, 28 February 2023, 15 March 2023, 24 March 2023, 20 May 2023, with links to some research papers. Also see: https://notrickszone.com/2023/03/23/new-study-atmospheric-co2-residence-time-is-only-5-years-too-short-to-affect-the-climate/
And the latest one in August: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/08/30/new-study-co2s-atmospheric-residence-time-4-yearsnatural-sources-drive-co2-concentration-changes/
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Thx G4 ,
So that chart Richard linked to, is indicating that ALL CO2 is cycled from the atmosphere in 10 yrs (or less)
Ok, so what process in the nuclear tests generated the C14 CO2 ?
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Answering my own question from above…via Wiki ..
And “Nuclear C14” is considered “anthropogenic” since its a result of human activity in power stations etc.
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FWIW
“Green energy is basically the equivalent of paying some people to dig holes and others to fill them in.”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/12/21/circling-the-drain-4/
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You seem to have to have a certain kind of arrogant, dogmatic and uninformed character to be an energy minister these days. The link talks about Milliband, but he sounds awfully familiar as he stumbles toward disaster.
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They are calling him Milliwatt … perfect nickname!
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Or just be in politics –
The socialist/green led coalition government and the prior Merkel governments decommissioned 19 nuclear power plants (30% of Germany’s electricity demand) and 15 coal-fired power plants were taken off the grid on April 1, 2023 alone. The combined THEORETICAL Capacity of Wind & Solar in Germany is 113% which IN THEORY should have powered Germany all year. Instead they supplied on 38% (2023) not much more than the remaining coal-fired plants.
And this year they’ve got a Dunkelflaute (SURPRISE there been 6 in the last 30 years and that doesn’t count the various months with reduced output (due to weather) e.g. 2 this year. This shot up elecricity prices and they have to rely on neighbour countries who also suffered. Germany & Denmark 936€ per MWh.
Southern Norway 890, Southern Sweden 700, Northern Norway 112, Northern Sweden 11, Finland 40.
I let you work out who isn’t connected to Germany.
And the Finns rely on nuclear – so much for nuclear being too expensive (France at 272 is sending some to Germany but want to keep their home voters warm). [Blackout Bowen please Note! -he won’t]
And In January 2025, RWE’s Weisweiler power plant will go offline. This, of all months, will occur in January, when electricity consumption in Germany is at its highest. The next German election Feb23 may bring in a more sensible lot.
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Germany is hothead central. In modern times it has given us Communism, Fascism (I know but it’s a safer word), and radical Greenism.
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‘Antiquated’ concept of base load power is more relevant to Australia’s energy future than Zali Steggall would have us believe
Australians just need to look at what is powering our grid right now to know why Zali Steggall’s obsession with batteries and lithium is nothing but hot air, writes Nick Cater – SkyNews.com.au Contributor and Political Commentator
The invention of smartphones allows fewer excuses for ignorance than at any time in human history. Fact-checking political pronouncements has never been so simple, even on technically complicated subjects like climate change and energy.
The AEMO Energy Live app, for example, tells us the source of the electricity we’re using in real-time, as opposed to the type of generators Zali Steggall prefers.
Steggall told Sky News this week that base load power is “an antiquated idea”
Steggall does not need to get her head around the engineering detail of the failed Broken Hill renewable-only experiment to recognise that it’s no use following the science if you ignore the laws of physics.
Renewables backed by storage cannot do the heavy lifting performed by always-on antiquated base load at those difficult moments in the day when predictably unreliable solar and wind are taking a little nap.
Steggall’s base load denialism must be judged on its own merits by whether it is in harmony with the data. Unfortunately for her, it is not.
From the Comments
– I seriously doubt she even knows what baseload power is 🤔
– I can nearly understand why voters got sucked into Albo,s lies and voted him in but really THE TEALS I have to question the inner city elites intelligence to not see they are pretenders..
– What is a group of four Teals called?. An Audi, all zeroes.
– I like the idea of the “Turf a Teal” campaign this coming election. Here’s hoping it gains traction.
– As Andrew O’Keeffe would ask “Teal or No Teal?”
Cross your arms & reply “No Teal”.
– It just takes one political clown to bring us all down.
– Steggall – the Kamala Harris of Australia.
That’s still hugely insulting to Kam no matter how hopeless she turned out to be.
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Trust everyone enjoyed their longest day of the year yesterday – or shortest if you’re in the wrong hemisphere. Spent the day playing footy & cricket with nephews & nieces on the shores of Lake Macquarie opposite the Eraring Power Station (an outstanding monument of engineering) under a pleasant 30*C sun.
Monday appears to have a slight ‘change’ in the weather forecast with Their BoM calling for SNOW from Tasmania’s Kunanyi to Victoria’s Hotham to NSW’s Thredbo ski areas: 1,000m, 1,300m, and 1,700m respectively, albeit a brief flurry, yet how can this happen 2 days out from Christmas Day, 2024, the Hottest Year Ever Invented By Mannequins!
Thought I’d come here for a heatwave and plagues of locusts yet BoM pulled out their snowflake icon (❄️) from retirement and plastered it all over White Monday 23/12/24 – or are they still tricking us?
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Monday we have a high of 16˚C where I live, then on Boxing Day 38˚C. Quite incredible we are all going to survive. But apparently, if the world’s average temperature increases by 1-2 ˚C, the earth will burn, the oceans will boil and there will be a climate armageddon. Pull the other one, it plays jingle bells.
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MAGA in Australia now means ‘Make Albanese Go Away’………..LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fVb8DbEaJA
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I think Victorian “leader” of the “opposition” Pesutto is a total waste of space.
He is also a member of the far Left, so-called “moderate” faction of his fake conservative Liberal Party.
His refusal to resign over his disastrous defamation of Moira Deeming, plus his refusal to readmit her to the party, even though she was expelled on the basis of Pesutto’s lie means that Labor will see out its remaining term of 2 years plus Labor will get re-elected for another 4 years.
The thought of another 6 years (at least) of Labor is unbearable.
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The fools supporting him, and representing half of MPs as Pesutto had to use his second casting vote to stay ahead, are classic examples of self serving.
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Apparently he has got the message, and is performing a backflip (with half pike and twist) by calling a meeting in January specifically for he readmission.
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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1870382338040848634.html
Fact or fiction? I don’t know but, so far, nobody in authority has refuted it.
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A friend just got a ‘not wearing seat belt’ notification- $490 and 3 points. It was on, but not over the shoulder. This would have to be AI stepping up to do it’s bit for the treasury. There is no way there is a human skimming through millions of shots.
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What would happen if someone wore a shirt a seatbelt graphic on it? 😉😎
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And a hand holding a phone maybe
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How “independent “ are these reviewing officers? Independent of the AI trailer camera but still dependent!
I wonder if I will get pinged when driving my 77 yo classic car. It was never made with seatbelts in mind. However I have them installed to appease my good wife. In any case the belts are lap, no sash. Perfectly compliant with the rules pertaining to fitting of seat belts.
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Why on earth would you not put it over your shoulder in the first place? Shoulder injury?
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My 1974 Fiat X1/9 had no place to attach the upper harness point (the shoulder portion) as it was a targa top design.
I have a scar to prove the limitation of that system.
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You see it sometimes in US TV shows, people will tuck the sash under their arm. I guess it annoys them.
My wife has an interesting relationship with seat belts , always fiddling, adjusting, getting caught up in ever tightening intertia reels, the adding accesories and clips to compensate. Not sure how effective her belt would be in the worst case.
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New CEO closes ALL Party City stores after just 4 months. NO SEVERANCE, you’re all FIRED 5 days before Christmas!
https://twitter.com/realkylepeter/status/1870197236103286877
I worked at a statewide business years ago (where people were actually happy), bought out by a national group, that decided to terminate people on Dec 24.
One was a sales rep, very nice guy but very religious although he never pushed his beliefs onto others. His wife had just had a baby too.
Talk about total a-hole management.
Loyalty to the new owners went to zero after they did that.
Wave after wave of staff cuts decimated the once thriving multi million dollar business until it finally shut its doors, and the national group not long after.
A-hole clown CEO’s are a dime a dozen.
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Why do you blame the CEO?
What would you have done?
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How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge
Aides kept meetings short and controlled access, top advisers acted as go-betweens and public interactions became more scripted. The administration denied Biden has declined.
To adapt the White House around the needs of a diminished leader, they told visitors to keep meetings focused. Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some cabinet members—including powerful secretaries such as Defense’s Lloyd Austin and Treasury’s Janet Yellen—were infrequent or grew less frequent.
Some legislative leaders had a hard time getting the president’s ear at key moments, including ahead of the U.S.’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan.
Senior advisers were often put into roles that some administration officials and lawmakers thought Biden should occupy, with people such as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, senior counselor Steve Ricchetti and National Economic Council head Lael Brainard and her predecessor frequently in the position of being go-betweens for the president.
Press aides who compiled packages of news clips for Biden were told by senior staff to exclude negative stories about the president. The president wasn’t talking to his own pollsters as surveys showed him trailing in the 2024 race.
Presidents always have gatekeepers.
But in Biden’s case, the walls around him were higher and the controls greater, according to Democratic lawmakers, donors and aides who worked for Biden and other administrations. There were limits over who Biden spoke with, limits on what they said to him and limits around the sources of information he consumed.
Throughout his presidency, a small group of aides stuck close to Biden to assist him, especially when traveling or speaking to the public. “They body him to such a high degree,” a person who witnessed it said, adding that the “hand holding” is unlike anything other recent presidents have had.
The White House operated this way even as the president and his aides pressed forward with his re-election bid—which unraveled spectacularly after his halting performance in a June debate with Donald Trump made his mental acuity an insurmountable issue.
This account of how the White House functioned with an aging leader at the top of its organizational chart is based on interviews with nearly 50 people, including those who participated in or had direct knowledge of the operations.
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Position of strength: Here’s why Putin’s Direct Line was so important
Speaking from a position of strength, Putin projected an image of a leader in control, guiding a nation that is defying the odds and reshaping the global order
By Nadezhda Romanenko, political analyst
On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual ‘Direct Line’ session, a unique combination of a press conference and a call-in show, that once again showcased his strategic positioning both domestically and internationally.
This year, the overarching theme of his address was clear: Russia is speaking from a position of strength. Whether addressing the conflict with Ukraine, relations with the West, or Russia’s military prowess, Putin projected confidence and control. This strength underscores why Russia appears to be winning the war against Ukraine and solidifying its stance against Western powers.
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Putin on Ukraine, Israel, Trump, Zelensky and even porn: Highlights from his Direct Line
The annual event ran for over four hours and saw the Russian president address topics from Ukraine regrets to future hopes
Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual ‘Direct Line’ event in Moscow on Thursday during which he addressed a wide range of issues in the marathon Q&A session. From regrets about the timing of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine to blunt comments on global and domestic challenges, the Russian leader offered numerous insights into his thinking. Here are the key takeaways from the event:
– Putin: Maybe we should have launched the Ukraine operation earlier
– Moscow ready to talk to Ukraine, but Zelensky needs to be elected
– Zelensky will likely go abroad
– P@rn is a global ‘scourge’
– The demographic issue is one of Russia’s key problems
– Migration is an issue acute for Russia
– Relations with China at all-time high
– Israel is the big winner in Syria, Russia did not lose
“Israel has gained influence in Syria… but we achieved our objectives,” he argued.
“Russia’s presence there has always been about fighting terrorism and stabilizing the region, and keeping down the Isl@mic State,” he explained.
– Putin reveals no contact with Trump for four years
– Black Sea oil spill an “ecological disaster”
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‘What is your dream and duties you hate’: Most unexpected things Putin was asked during Q&A session
Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on Thursday, combining it with the traditional marathon ‘Direct Line’ question-and-answer session.
The event lasted over four hours, during which Putin answered 76 questions from Russian and foreign journalists, as well as the country’s citizens, on a range of matters, primarily the Ukraine conflict.
However, some unusual and unexpected personal questions and moments also took place during the session. Here are some of them.
When asked, “What is Russia to you?” the president responded, that Russia is a huge country but the most important thing is the people. “I treat Russia like my family,” Putin said.
Asked whether he has obligations that he hates, the Russian president said he didn’t. “If people have entrusted me to be the country’s president, I set my mind to perform my duties with full dedication,” Putin said, emphasizing “Everything I have to do, I have to do with pleasure.”
Some text messages and questions from the viewers of the president’s press conference were displayed on the wall monitors of the studio.
One of them read: “Katya, I know you are seeing this. Will you marry me?”
Another text complained about the use of foreign words in everyday life in Russia. “How do you explain to grandma what the word ‘cashback’ means?” the author asked.
The next message asked Putin if he has any portraits in his office, and the president responded that there are none, but there is an icon and a bust of Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov.
60
December 19, Thursday 2024
Results of the Year with Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin summed up the results of the year and answered questions from journalists and the people of Russia in a live broadcast.
December 19, 2024 16:30Moscow
Full Transcipt of Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual ‘Direct Line’ event in Moscow on Thursday 4 Hour Event on Right of Screen
At the Bottom of the Transcript Area you can click on the 4 Hour 27 Min Video of the Session which has English Transalation & in HD –
worth watching or Click on this link which takes you directly to the Video
40
Putin’s “position of strength” has just taken a direct hit in Syria.
30
Here, let the Govt look after your health, they have all the right incentives to to do a good job…
“A radiology department under siege at a hospital in Sydney’s west is struggling to keep up with a backlog of more than 17,000 MRIs and other scans, leaving trainees to work unsupervised and placing patients at risk of delayed diagnoses for cancer and other serious diseases…”
They blame things like management bullying and a toxic work environment while cancer patients die waiting for their results. If they can’t get their sh1t together why are we paying them?
“A radiologist staff specialist has a base salary of roughly $186,241 in NSW compared to $210,332 in Queensland.”
20
I saw a strange rainbow flag flying in town the other day.
I don’t know what country it represents but they’ve sure got some ugly women!
😆
90
Thank You, Israel, for Saving the World, Defending Freedom and Reshaping the Middle East
by Majid Rafizadeh December 21, 2024 at 5:00 am
When it comes to national security, appeasement is not an option.
Bribing aggressors only finances their militaries for attacks on the West in the future.
. Israel’s approach to combating terrorism has always been characterized by thoroughness and determination — for which is usually put through the tortures of hell by the very countries it is working to save.
. With a vision of ultimately fostering peace, harmony, security and prosperity throughout the region, as in the Abraham Accords, Israel expanded its military operations beyond Hamas… reshaping the Middle East into a region free of the grip of terror… Make Persia Great Again!
, So long as Iran’s regime remains in power, brutalizing its people and making plans for global expansion, there can be no chance for peace in the region.
. Removing the regime – would bring lasting security and prosperity to the Middle East and beyond – One could then set about subduing Turkey and its terrorist proxies in Syria.
130
Slow learners. As Rudyard Kipling put it in 1911
“Once you pay up the danegeld
You never get rid of the Dane”
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_danegeld.htm
100
Windless periods play havoc with German energy needs.
https://notrickszone.com/2024/12/21/as-germanys-energy-crisis-heightens-two-brief-windless-periods-pushes-grid-to-the-limit/
41
Already In Australia Under Labor/Greens/TEALS & Labor Blackout Bowen!
From November 2 to November 8 and from December 10 to December 13, Germany’s electricity supply from renewable energies collapsed as a typical winter weather situation with a lull in the wind and minimal solar irradiation led to supply shortages, high electricity imports and skyrocketing electricity prices.
At times, over 20,000 MW, more than a quarter of Germany’s electricity requirements, had to be imported. Electricity prices rose tenfold (93.6 €ct/kWh). Companies that did not have long-term contracts had to cease production. Wolfgang Große Entrup, Managing Director of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI): “It’s desperate. Our companies and our country cannot afford fair-weather production.
We urgently need power plants that can step in safely.”
The reason:
The socialist/green led coalition government and the prior Merkel governments had decommissioned 19 nuclear power plants (30% of Germany’s electricity demand) and 15 coal-fired power plants were taken off the grid on April 1, 2023 alone.
4.35 billion euros of taxpayers’ money in decommissioning premiums were distributed to RWE and LEAG (East Germany).
In January 2025, RWE’s Weisweiler power plant will go offline.
This, of all months, will occur in January, when electricity consumption in Germany is at its highest and France may have little to supply.
This is because France is the most heat-sensitive country in Europe and even small fluctuations in temperature can have an impact on electricity consumption due to the widespread use of electric heating systems.
1 degree Celsius less and consumption in France increases by 2400 megawatts!
It is also often forgotten that wind turbines consume electricity when they are stationary or switched off.
This is because all technical components (oil pumps, fans, control systems, etc.) must remain in operation even when they are still.
Vestas specifies an electricity consumption of 55,000 kWh per year for a 4.2 MW turbine at standstill.
During production times, the turbine supplies itself with electricity. But it is virtually idle 120 days a year.
90
I think I beat you – see comment 14.
In any case this is a disaster for Europe. The Socialist/Greens coalition has destroyed the industrial base of Germany hence problems in many countries there. Also quite a few countries (Norway, Sweden. Finland, Hungary, Poland?) may well want to leave the EU. With the economic collapse in Germany the EU won’t have any money to bribe the southerners.
The only hope for Germany is for cheap gas & oil from Russia – No wonder Putin thinks he will win.
60
Interesting info about a stationary turbine power consumption. If we assume 2MW turbines being mainly used in Australia (somebody can correct this), with our 4440 turbines, that’s 116.3 GWh of power lost annually.
60
Assuming your figures are true, it still only represents less than 5 hours average consumption (25 GW) from the grid.
Or,…. 0.05% of the 200+ TWh annual consumption
00
The city of San Francisco hired a “body positivity” consultant to promote obesity.
Like so much from the Left, it’s not immediately obvious if it’s a joke or not or parody, but it’s true.
Matt Walsh discusses:
https://youtu.be/POX3TQtshaE
40
Well, it would be no good hiring a slim, good-looking girl would it?
20
1900 Quantum Theory for the Future of the 21st Century
by Lawrence Kadish – December 18, 2024 at 2:00 pm
This is the month that, in 1900, quantum theory was presented by German physicist Max Planck in a paper to his scientific peers.
[snip]
And this is where Planck may play a role in directing the future of the 21st Century.
Central to controlled fusion is a massive installation called a tokamak. It is essentially a huge thermos with magnetic confinement devices inside to keep the fusion concentrated in one place under enormous pressure.
It is so promising that the Chinese government has invested what some experts believe is up to $1.5 billion annually to win the race for unlimited energy. In the interim, the same experts say the lead the United States once had in this arena has disappeared.
One telling remark from an observer said that it was not the size of the investment that startled him, but the speed by which the Chinese are advancing in this field, building new tokamaks while America’s similar research facilities are aging.
50
FWIW
Taqiyya again
https://x.com/MaralSalmassi/status/1870413236996092217
80
Good find. No surprise of course.
50
Similar statements have now appeared in The Australian, saying that his beef was with the German govt, saying that they failed to support similar immigrants.
20
FWIW
“The Clever Hopes Expire”
“Hope For The Future
A light at the end of the tunnel here is that the Magdeburg massacre may finally put the kaibosh on the mass immigration scam. Elon Musk, who has praised skilled immigration in the past, had already expressed support for Germany’s immigration restrictionist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party before the massacre; perhaps he will now rethink his enthusiasm for skilled immigration from incompatible cultures.
If so, Musk may exert his influence on mass immigration in a similar way as he is exerting his influence on deficit spending. As Box CEO Aaron Levie suggested recently, governments may be underestimating Elon, particularly his ability to shine a spotlight on problematic policies. ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2024-12-21/clever-hopes-expire
10
Sounds about right
“Nothing says
“Trust the Science”
like asking for the data
to be hidden for
75 years
Pfizer”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1715073045012176896.jpg
140
Tucker interviews James Furst who has just released “Thank You Doctor Fauci”, a doco on guess what. Towards the end, he says he is very worried about bird flu, and that there have been a number of ‘natural’ outbreaks highlighted, and he worries that they might be a smoke screen for when there is actually a lab release. The wet market was a pretty silly cover story, and he worries they are setting up a better narrative, because bird flu will make covid look like a common cold – a 10 to 50% mortality in all age brackets, and they have been working on it’s transmissibility for 10 years! The near future might be a good time to have a distraction, as all sorts a shenanigan’s might be coming to the light of day.
Still no one is wondering out loud if the pandemic was election interference? Everything else seems to be covered, but not that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCn0OYE1Z8E&t=92s
10