JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
Offshore wind madness:
https://www.offshorewind.biz/2025/01/30/uk-unveils-measures-to-fast-track-16-gw-of-offshore-wind/
Money for weather.
20
After a good week for UK wind, it’s dropped to just 4% of demand Friday evening.
The BBC was plugging high-density pumped ‘hydro’ today. Looks like another mad scheme.
Using something suspiciously like fracking fluid instead of pure water. As it’s 2.5 times heavier it reduces the size of schemes, but the maths still don’t add up, you’d never be able to build enough.
20
Well, not aqueous solution. What were they thinking of? 2.5 times is near enough to be aluminium but doesn’t pump well at room temperature.
My browser does show anything relevant. Sure it wasn’t a trial run by the BBC for April the first?
20
Here it is.
https://www.rheenergise.com/how-it-works
https://en.reset.org/new-denser-than-water-fluid-could-make-pumped-hydro-cheaper-and-more-efficient/
The composition of the R-19 fluid is a secret but claims to be used in dental work. It needs to be cheap if it’s going to be used by the megalitre.
00
Public Notice for Air Traffic Control Specialist (Direct Hire)
Federal Aviation Administration
Department of Transportation
FAA – Air Traffic Locations
ATO – Air Traffic Organization
Starting at $43,727 Per Year (AT AG)
Permanent • Full-time
Open 11/09/2024 to 11/07/2025
Job open to persons with disabilities.
50
Trump blames DEI hiring by FAA.
That could have contributed, but the army Chopper seems mostly at fault.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/wayne-root-here-is-best-explanation-ive-heard/
40
Trump acknowledged this saying it was way too high.
40
Type Resign in the Subject Line and Hit Send
How can the size of the Public Service be Reduced?
President Trump shows us how!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/just-president-trump-offering-millions-federal-workers-buyouts/
10
I think the humans at the coalface (pilots and air traffic controllers) were doing the best they could with a system that thought routing choppers at 200 ft UNDERNEATH aircraft on short finals on approach was ok, sheer lunacy.
Choppers can hover & climb vertically, something aeroplanes cannot do, so why wasn’t the chopper required to gain altitude well above the aircraft on approach BEFORE they transited the airport approach paths.
20
Probably because they are in very congested and constrained airspace with aircraft using 3 runways. I dont think there are simple answers, however the fundamental point you raise of intersecting routes does appear to verge on insanity with such low margins and at night. really seems like if you must do it, you would treat that crossing the same as an aircraft crossing an active runway on the airport, especially dealing with aircraft that can stop and wait at a designated point.
10
It has been suggested that one of the chopper pilots was a woman transitioning to a man.
Hard to say there’s much wrong with that except motive to sign up. Did she sign up for free medical procedures rather than every boy’s dream to be a fast jet pilot?
10
Surely not.
00
FWIW
“On the DCA Crash”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=252747
10
Three people on the blackhawk- 2 mentioned (white men) 3rd a mystery- things still are not transparent are they!
10
Today’s Coffee and Covid mentions rumours of a “shim” and is awaiting details
10
FWIW
“Citigroup: “Trump Can’t Stop Energy Transition”!”
Doesn’t format properly but you get the idea –
”
I’m not an ESG analyst, but I did minor in math back in the Pleistocene:
Year Fossil Fuels Nuclear Renewables Energy Production (quads)
2017 81% 10% 9% 84.36
2023 84% 8% 8% 102.78
The growth in US energy production since 2017 has been almost entirely driven by crude oil and natural gas.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/30/citigroup-trump-cant-stop-energy-transition/
40
Trump doesn’t need to do anything to stop the “energy transition” Its not a viable strategy with the current technology set. It will die a natural death as it hits assorted reality walls. I think we are seeing the leading edge of that now.
What Trump (or anyone else) can do is do harm minimization and stop investing in a demonstrable dead end, and promote and support viable technologies.
10
Eh Gawd!
Chiefio highlights another dangerous chemical hiding in plain sight –
“I’m much more worried about the MonoOxygenBiHydrate with lye chloride in it… (ie. sea water…)”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2025/01/30/facebook-face-plants-bans-linux-topics-as-security-threat/#comment-175272
20
FWIW
“JON CALDERA: FDA completely contradicts Denver council claims on flavored nicotine.”
“How very embarrassing, then, that after years of rigorous study, the nation’s Food and Drug Administration has cleared the makers of Zyn to market their product, finding it leads to reducing tobacco use, not increasing it. Oopsie!
But by banning flavored vapes, Denver gives the appearance of DOING SOMETHING — something far more important to them than actually getting anything done.”
https://instapundit.com/699689/#disqus_thread
Also in there –
“Related: The Democrats’ Governance Problem. “Think about it. If you wanted safe streets and public order would your first impulse be to turn to…a Democrat? Or if you wanted a secure, actually-enforced border? How about efficient, effective delivery of public services? Or rapid completion of public projects and infrastructure? Or nonideological public administration?”
And that’s from Ruy Teixeira, a Democrat — or at least he used to be one.”
10
LEARNING FROM THE WIND LEADERS, SA, Germany and Britain.
The evidence is in. The windpower experiment has failed.
South Australia has thrown in the towel because the Energy Minister requested a change in the rules to permit diesel backup. While the RE enthusiasts regularly celebrate new heights of generation, almost every night SA imports coal power from Victoria. The success of the transition to green power is not measured by the high points, it is measured by capacity to get through windless nights.
The failure in Germany is more spectacular because Germany has been the economic and political powerhouse of Europe.
Starting in the 1980s the Green Party drove a radical green agenda and when they formed a coalition with the SDP in the 1990s that agenda became Law in 2000. Even more ambitious targets were set in 2011 – approaching net zero by 2050.
Sadly, the energy transformation, the energiewende, was dead in the water by 2018 when the official progress report admitted abject failure on the three arms of the policy triangle, price, reliability and emission reduction.
As someone wrote, there is a power of ruin in a country, and it took a while to bring down the economic giant but they are now in recession as power-intensive industries relocate in China or the United States.
Insolvencies are at record levels, the public infrastructure decays while tens of billions are still pouring into wind and solar facilities that invade forests and farmland while making the supply of power less reliable and more expensive.
Despite that, public opinion remained strong in support of green objectives until reality began to bite in the last couple of years.
Britain is in the same parlous state and they also aspire to increase the wind power capacity by as much as nine times. Of course overbuilding does not compensate for the lack of wind during wind droughts.
In the words of one commentator, “we are creating what might be called a zero-industrial society.”
In recent months the massive Ineos ethanol plant in Scotland closed with the chairman warning of “the extinction of our major industries.” Iconic firms are closing or shedding thousands of jobs, 500 at GCB, a third of the Dyson workforce, Vauxhall has closed British plants , the last genuine steelworks at Port Talbot closed costing 1000 jobs and Hotpoint shut a factory in Bristol.
Chemical production is down 40% since 2021, cement and electrical equipment down 50% , overall industrial output down 10%. Britain was once the workshop of the world and lately it has dropped out of the top 10 manufacturing countries.
That should be enough to change the minds of people who saw green energy as the way of the future but the Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently announced that they are committing to artificial intelligence to boost productivity. The British grid is teetering on the brink of collapse already without adding demand from the most energy-intense industry on the planet.
These three case studies indicate how trillions have been spent to get more expensive and less reliable power with massive collateral damage to the environment. Meanwhile emissions march upward in the developing world. Nothing that we do in Australia will make a detectable difference, so why would we spend a dollar to pursue net zero, let alone hundreds of billions, maybe a trillion?
On a positive note, what is to be done?
What about building new coal plants using the technology proved in South Korea to rapidly build capacity at a cost of $2 billion per GW, and gradually replace the faithful and hardworking old clunkers for about the cost of Snowy 2.0. That could halve the cost of power and put a stop to the carnage in the countryside.
80
I appears we are in for a string of hot calm nights in south eastern Australia next week. It will be interesting to see what eventuates as wind and solar evaporate in the evenings. I may be able to run my new standby toys.
10
MorrisonGate part 3
Aidan Morrison is exploring lapses in due process, professionalism and public trust by the agencies that plan and regulate the energy system.
He is the team leader in the energy project at the Centre for Independent Studies but all the views expressed here are his own as he identifies the agencies and some individuals who are playing pivotal roles in wrecking our electricity supply at vast expense with massive collateral damage to farmlands and forests.
I urge people who are short of time to start at the 25 minute mark.
https://youtu.be/rOhjL_jEuu0
Nothing short of a Royal commission can do justice to the violations of public trust, professionalism, due process and the abuse of political power by irresponsible Ministers, led by Chris “I have learned how to pronounce Dunkelflautes” Bowen.
These abuses are documented well enough for Aidan to be on firm ground with multiple claims of violation of the public interest in pursuit of the fantasy net zero world created by AEMO in the travesty of planning called The Integrated System Plan. This and cognate documents have been scandalously withheld from the review processes which were laid down in the legal framework and the rules prescribed for the operation of the regulatory bodies.
Please watch from the 25 minute mark and make up your own mind. This is the third longish video that Aidan has recorded and there is more to come.
https://youtu.be/rOhjL_jEuu0
This is an outstanding exhibition of public service based on forensic scrutiny of the failureto adhere to the processes that are supposed to ensure transparency and accountability in planning the overwhelmingly most important piece of infrastructure in the nation.
Getting the power supply in order is a matter of life and death and at present we are on the road to ruin, following Britain and Germany.
For a symbol of our situation, look the big hole in the Snowy Mountains where Florence is buried:)
40
BoM has moved away from thinking ENSO is the only driver, Southern Hemisphere Monitoring is a better option.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/?ninoIndex=nino3.4&index=nino34&period=weekly
00
I saw this posted on Quora Digest. So sad what’s become of Australia.
61
I’m not sure I buy one slightly fishy anecdote as what’s become of Australia.
I dont know a single person , friend or family , that has done this. I see lots of videos of mostly Poms and Americans residing in Asia and it certainly seems like a viable choice for some.
Some people work backwards from the answer they want, dramatize their situation to make their option look good, then lash out at the system/country/people they see as the cause of their situation. I suspect having full knowledge of the situation and their life choices in the last few decades might paint a different story.
00
FWIW
Trump Reportedly Tells USDA To Remove All Climate Change Propaganda From Their Websites By End of Day Today
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/trump-reportedly-tells-usda-remove-all-climate-change/
10
TRUMP doesn’t mess around.
He expects things to be done the same day.
Not next month or next year.
And rightly so. He has a lot to get done in just four years.
10
FWIW
“Trump, in 2016, tried to do something outside of his comfort zone. Play politics.
Trump, in 2024, is doing what he was built for. A hostile takeover of a bankrupt and failing business.”
https://x.com/lecternleader/status/1885041061501792312
Via https://instapundit.com/699662/#disqus_thread
40
FWIW – another US plane crash
“BREAKING: Plane in Philadelphia Explodes After Crashing into Row Houses (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/breaking-plane-philadelphia-crashes-row-houses-video/
00
Video is pretty amazing, it looks more like a missile arriving its going so fast. Last report I saw said it was a medical flight small jet (Citation or similar)
00
The joys of building the world’s most expensive nuclear plant, in Britain. Would we do it any more cheaply or quicker? 13mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycNqII5HYMI&t=79s
00
If nothing else is changed, No and No
Small scale and modular and anything else that minimizes Union engagement will be needed. Plenty of time will be spent in engaging the inevitable lawfare.
00