Category: Uncategorized

  • Abundant cheap renewable energy? Imagining will make it so

    Drove to Melbourne and back a few weeks ago. Haven’t driven interstate for decades; haven’t owned a car for about eight years. Could I still drive? Still not sure because the Hume Highway offers little challenges. Two generous lanes, dual carriageway, all the way. Rest areas aplenty. Not long out of England, many decades ago,…

  • Lake Election Contest: Summary of Case and Result

    Here is a pretty detailed rundown of the case presented by Lake and Hobbs’s defence, as well as a summary of the judge’s decision. Worth a look while you have some time on your hands over the holidays.

  • Open Thread – Tue 27 Dec 2022

    Cabins along the Loing Canal, Sunlight Effect, Alfred Sisley, 1896

  • O Advent Tree!

    The buds begin to appear towards the end of November, just before Advent. Thoughtfully, the trees vary in their timing, some retaining their vibrant heads of blossom well into January, but for the most part, their display is at its most spectacular in the third and fourth weeks of Advent with a show that always…

  • Guest Post: Mother Lode – A Pagan Christmas

    Well we are closing in on Christmas – a special, even magical time of the year. Families will be sitting down together, table heaped rich foods, adults already slightly aglow from a glass or two of Christmas cheer, kids on their second wind after their frenzied ravine upon Christmas wrapping, aaand then some pompous boor…

  • The modern slave trade

    From the transcript People need to know about this… Never throughout the history of slavery has there been more suffering that generated more profit that was linked to the lives of more people around the world… Preview YouTube video The Disturbing Reality of Cobalt Mining for Rechargeable Batteries Who are the modern slave traders? When…

  • Open Thread – Christmas Weekend 2022

    Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence, Caravaggio, 1609

  • A Small Price (for us) To Pay

    On 25th of March, 2022 (keep the date in mind) Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, released figures for Russian army casualties in the month-long war, or “special military operation,” in Ukraine. 1,351 Russian servicemen had been killed, and another 3,825 wounded. NATO sources put the number killed at between 7,000 and 15,000. On 22nd…

  • Offshore Wind.

    From The Guardian: Australia’s first offshore windfarm zone … will be on Victoria’s Gippsland coast, which environmental advocates have labelled a game-changer. “It is one of the most significant wind resources anywhere in the world,”the premier, Daniel Andrews, said, referring to powerful winds from the Bass Strait. The projects are expected to support more than…

  • Diversity, a one-way street

    Efforts are afoot to make North American (ice) hockey more diverse. Apparently it’s too white. I am not aware of any similar efforts being made in water polo or swimming or in chess for that matter. Nor am I ware of any complaints that American basketball and football and, say, athletic sprinting are disproportionately too…