I don’t like mice. I saw one last Saturday night. I was sitting at our kitchen bar at maybe 8pm having a glass of wine with the wife. A movement out on the patio caught my eye, and there it was. A mouse. I swivelled on my stool and watched it through the French windows. It was jumping around all over the place in a crazy kind of way. Maybe it was after some bits of food I’d thrown out for the seagull earlier. The seagull usually arrives at teatime and taps on the glass. Here he is:
Seagull outside my French window. The wife has made me promise to stop feeding him, because it will cause trouble.
Smart birds, seagulls. They’re good at catching things too. Throw the seagull a piece of steak fat, and he’ll catch it with his beak. I like seagulls. And crows. And cats. And horses. And lots of other animals. But I don’t like mice. I’ve thought that ever since I was a boy. When my sister and I were young, she had a mouse. It was brown and big-eared, and leggy and manic. When you opened the sliding door of the cage, it would jump straight out and run right up the curtains. Then after chasing it all round the room, when you finally got hold of it, it would try to bite you. So you had to be quick. Grab, whoosh, throw it in the cage, and clop, get that door shut quick.
The pissy sweaty dirty smell was the smell of mice
That wasn’t my only experience of mice. We also had house mice when I was a boy, on more than one occasion. It wasn’t very nice. Ditto when I first started work. I lived in Muswell Hill, in a rather scruffy flat with a bunch of other guys. One of them was not the easiest person to live with. He would pile up dirty plates in the sink, and leave food lying around. For example, you’d walk into the kitchen on a Saturday morning and there would be pizza crusts all over the place. After a while I started noticing little black things in the sugar bowl. And in the butter. And in the larder and its contents. They were mouse droppings. It is not nice to learn that your breakfast muesli has had visitors. That’s when I realised that the pissy sweaty smell was the smell of mice. That’s when I realised that those little sounds keeping me awake at night were mice scuttling around. Things came to a head one day when I came back on a Sunday night after staying at my girlfriend’s place. There was a big black plastic dustbin in the kitchen. I lifted up the lid to chuck in some rubbish and Wahh! Three dirty brown mice jumped out and scattered in all directions. Gross.
Mice Have Been Seen Eating The Brains Of Live Albatrosses
But not as gross as the mice that eat the seabird chicks. You can find videos about that, such as Killer packs of alien house mice eating world’s biggest birds alive. That’s about Gough Island in the South Atlantic. Mice were accidentally introduced to the island donkey’s years ago, and now they’re killing two million seabirds a year. For more, take a look at the Sott.net article Giant Mice Devouring Island Seabird Chicks, Threatening Extinction. Pay attention to this: “The birds did not fight off their attackers, even as some mice fed inside the body cavity of one albatross chick”. Inside the body cavity! Yuk! If that isn’t gross enough for you, check out the IFLScience article Mice Have Been Seen Eating The Brains Of Live Albatrosses:
Caption: Mice have apparently developed a taste for chicks’ brains. Image: RSPB
Also see The Project: Restoring Gough Island, which is about efforts to eradicate the mice. Helicopter pilots will be dropping tons of rodent poison. There’s more about it the SusanScott.net article The monster mice of Gough Island, Midway, and beyond. Gough isn’t the only island affected by predatory mice. Susan says “The success of this project has huge implications for other islands with the same issue, including Midway, where mice have also started eating albatrosses alive”. Also see the 2016 Guardian article about eradicating mice from the Antipodes Islands: The million-dollar mouse: navy heads to remote Antarctic islands to hunt out pest.
Australia mouse plague sees rodents crawling into beds and biting occupants
There are other articles talking about biosecurity, which is all about stopping the mice reaching an island in the first place. No way would I let those mice get to another island. Absolutely no way. Or to a whole continent. You must have seen the videos about the Australian mice plague. Here’s one Gravitas: Mouse plague in Australia. Here’s another: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers – BBC News. And another: Australia mouse plague sees rodents crawling into beds and biting occupants | The Independent.
Screenshot from the Independent article Australia mouse plague sees rodents crawling into beds and biting occupants
Also see the Guardian article Three hospital patients bitten as mouse plague sweeps western NSW. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know what could happen. Those mice biting the hospital patients, would, if they could, eat them alive. Yes, I think mice are pretty revolting creatures. If I was an Australian farmer I’d like to torch them with a flamethrower. I’d like to clear all those islands of the damn things, and make sure they don’t get to any other islands. Because they breed like flies and swarm like locusts and eat everything they can. Because they are vermin.
Our visitors have the same opinion of human beings as my opinion of mice
But by now I suppose you’re wondering why I’m talking about mice. Well, it’s to do with what I was saying last time. Multiple witnesses see something doing right-angle turns in the sky, and it’s dismissed as the planet Venus. Or a lighthouse. Or a weather balloon. Or a bird, a black ops plane, or a meteor. Like I said, I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but as an eye witness myself, it’s crystal clear to me that UFOs are the real deal, and that the authorities have been dismissing UFO accounts for decades. The question is why? Why won’t our governments admit that we have visitors from other worlds? I think it’s for a good reason, and that reason is this: our visitors have the same opinion of humans, as my opinion of mice.
Humans Are Driving The World’s Megafauna To Extinction
Think about it. We don’t say as dead as a Dodo for nothing. The Dodo was a swan-sized island bird that was wiped out by humans. It was actually a kind of giant pigeon. The passenger pigeon was also wiped out by humans. As was the Great auk, Steller’s sea cow, and the Moa. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It started with the megafauna. Some people try to say it was climate change that killed off magefauna like mammoths and woolly rhinos. But it was the same story in continent after continent: humans appear, megafauna go extinct. See the Atlantic article Megafauna Extinction: Humans Always Kill Off Big Animals. Or the Australian Geographic article Humans killed most of Australia’s megafauna.
Megafauna illustration by Sergio de la Rosa, see Bringing the Ice Age to life – Storybench
It’s still going on. See a blog post by Angel Ortiz called Humans Are Driving The World’s Megafauna To Extinction. Yes, you can find articles that say elephants are threatened by global warming, but have a read of Central Africa elephants being killed for meat (nbcnews.com). It says “The markets in the Central African Republic offer all of the jungle’s delicacies, including monkey, chimpanzee, antelope and, if you have the cash, even elephant”. It also says increasing human populations have increased demand for elephant meat, and that forest elephants are being hunted to extinction for that meat. An elephant “can earn a poacher up to \$180 for the ivory and as much as \$6,000 for the meat. The average income for an African in the Congo Basin is about \$1 a day”. It also quotes Andrea Turkalo saying “I think people are still killing for ivory, but there has been a shift in the meat trade because of the human demographics. There are a lot more people here”. That’s right. The population of Africa was circa 100 million in 1900, and is projected to be 4.3 billion by 2100. It’s why the bushmeat trade is threatening just about every animal in Africa.
Kilamanjaro is losing its icecap due to deforestation, not climate change
Just about every tree in Africa is threatened too. In Africa, deforestation is rampant, because a lot of people cook over an open fire. So they chop down trees for firewood. Kilamanjaro is losing its icecap due to deforestation, not climate change. Not only that, but in Africa a lot of people measure their wealth in livestock, and one of the primary causes of desertification is overgrazing. See articles like Desertification of arid lands (columbia.edu), or Nicholas Wade’s Sahelian Drought: No Victory for Western Aid. Note this: “Not foreseen was the fact that cattle are the nomads’ only means for saving”. It’s like the Sahara desert is the ultimate tragedy of the commons. Take a look at Lorraine Boissoneault’s Smithsonian article What Really Turned the Sahara Desert From a Green Oasis Into a Wasteland? It tells how 11,000 years ago “the now-dessicated northern strip of Africa was once green and alive, pocked with lakes, rivers, grasslands and even forests”. It also tells how archaeologist David Wright pored over the sediment cores and pollen records, and noticed something: “It was as if, every time humans and their goats and cattle hopscotched across the grasslands, they had turned everything to scrub and desert in their wake”.
The expansion of the Gobi is attributed mostly to human activities
It sounds similar for the Gobi desert. Check out the Wikipedia Gobi Desert article which says “The expansion of the Gobi is attributed mostly to human activities, locally driven by deforestation, overgrazing, and depletion of water resources”. It also says “as well as to climate change”, but’s that’s referring to a paywalled New York Times article which says people are being displaced by climate change, which isn’t true. See a copy of the article here and note the way the Chinese government is trying to stop the herding, and plant millions of trees.
Drunken shrimps, live fresh donkey, and raw live monkey brains
Talking of China, Chinese traditional medicine has been threatening animals for millenia. There’s Tiger bone wine, rhino horn tonic, bear bile, and much much more. There’s also the Chinese wet markets, reputed to be the source of pandemics. The Chinese are said to eat anything with legs apart from tables. See Why The Chinese Eat (And Drink) Anything And Everything – Worldcrunch. The Chinese giant salamander, which is facing extinction, is considered a delicacy. So are drunken shrimps, live fresh donkey, and raw live monkey brains. Gross. See the Reuters article ‘Animals live for man’: China’s appetite for wildlife likely to survive virus. Or search the internet on Chinese skin animals alive. I don’t like that. Not one bit. And whilst I’m on a roll, I don’t like whaling either, especially when it’s Japanese “scientific” whaling. Ditto for Dutch electrofishing. Nor do I like the way so-called indigenous people get a free pass when it comes to killing whales or hunting anything they damn well like. Closer to home I don’t like to see marine mammals getting killed by supertrawlers either:
Image from Dead Whale Washes Ashore On Kent Coast | UK News | Sky News
Why doesn’t Princess Nut Nuts put a stop to that? Then there’s the puffins in the North Sea. People will tell you that they’re in decline because of climate change, but that’s bullshit. The real cause is Danish industrial fishing for sand eels. See Paul Homewood’s article Industrial Fishing Of Sandeels Is To Blame For Seabird Declines, Not Climate Change. Also see the ScienceDaily article Overfishing threatens the survival of seabirds. It’s similar for the puffins in Iceland, see Collapse in Puffin Nesting in West Iceland. Note though that it says “the ocean temperature in Icelandic waters has been increasing since 1996”. They’re trying to pin it on climate change. But search on puffin capelin fishery, and note that the Icelandic capelin catch was 1.6 million tons in 1996. The catch was zero in 2019 and 2020 because there weren’t any capelin left. If you dig around you can also learn that the Icelanders used to catch 2 million tons of herring a year, but then the fishery collapsed in 1969. Doubtless that was due to climate change too.
The contrails of all the other planes were black
Having said all that, I do like the way Extinction Rebellion say air travel is bad for the atmosphere. A few years back the wife and I plus the boy went on holiday to Rhodes. We flew over Germany, where I was surprised to see that the contrails of all the other planes were black. It wasn’t just one plane, it was every plane. It was like the Avia Films video Black contrails or Scattering Effect?
Screenshot from the Avia Films video Black contrails or Scattering Effect?
I don’t know whether it was just a trick of the light, but it made me realise that chucking out kerosene exhaust at 37,000 feet has got to cause a lot more grief than chucking out petrol exhaust via a catalytic converter at 2 feet. But I don’t like the way Extinction Rebellion focus on climate change, and don’t say anything about the way population growth is driving habitat destruction, deforestation and desertification, and mass migration. Or about the way man has been responsible for the mass extinction of animals. And I really do not like this: “the world’s resources are being seized faster than the natural world can replenish them. Children can do the maths on this, and know they are being sent the bill. And the young are in rebellion now. This is their time, their fire. The flame is theirs and they are lighting the way”.
Save the children, or save the planet
Why don’t I like it? Take a look at some satellite pictures of fires in Africa. Or have a read of the NASA article Thousands of Fires in Africa Continue To Burn Bright | NASA. Getting rid of your gas boiler is nothing compared to that. Net zero is nonsense compared to that. Extinction Rebellion say they tell the truth, but they don’t. Because what they don’t tell you is that the world’s population is growing by about a billion people every twelve years. That’s a billion children eating their way through all the elephants and the bush meat and the fish, frogs, and fowl. All cooked on fires burning the wood from all the chopped-down trees in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Greta Thunberg might rally the children against climate change, but the supreme irony is that they’re causing it. One day she may come to appreciate that. Because one day, there’s going to be a rather unpleasant Malthusian choice: save the children, or save the planet.
Planet of the Humans
Meanwhile I think Michael Moore nailed it with Planet of the Humans. Director Jeff Gibbs exposed the double-dealing hypocrisy of the environmentalists who have sold their souls, or never had one in the first place. These are the guys like Prince Charles, the Prince of Hypocrites, who has never done a day’s work in his life. These are the faux-green fatcats who will tell you not to drive a car while they fly to the climate-change conference in a private jet. Or wax lyrical about biomass power stations like Drax B whilst saying nothing about the clear-felling of primal forests to feed it. Or blather on about biofuels whilst turning a blind eye to jungles being cleared for palm-oil plantations. They know it’s turned into a reverse-Robin racket, where burning rubbish is “green”, and even Greenpeace admit that we’re living in a golden age of greenwash. That’s why they never say anything about all that overpopulation. Even though it’s patently blatantly obvious. See the BBC news article Population: The elephant in the room. Note this comment: “Take away the massive levels of overpopulation and all the other problems – climate change, resources, food shortages, space to ‘breath’ etc. they all just melt away. Perhaps it is the only real problem, the rest are symptoms”. Quite. Planet Earth isn’t suffering from a plague of mice. It’s suffering from a plague of men.
What must the neighbours think of us?
Now, given what I know about physics, I don’t think our visitors are from a long way off. So cosmologically speaking, I think of them as the neighbours. Hence I ask myself this: what must the neighbours think of us? I think they’re like the Primes in Revenge of the Fallen: We have been watching you for a long long time. And whilst I think they generally don’t interfere, I think they are now aghast, horrified, in despair. Not at the cargo-cult pseudoscientific fraud that is modern physics. Not at the BLM hypocrisy or the Covid control freaks or all the woke claptrap. But at the way the plague of men are breeding like flies and swarming like locusts, eating all the animals and chopping down all the trees, and then saying climate change did it. Whilst “mining” Bitcoin. Mining Bitcoin! I am reminded of the centuries of war and conflict. I am reminded of First World War generals making the men walk slowly into machine gun fire. I am reminded of the cold-blooded murder of six million Jews. And all the other insanity, stupidity, and greed. We are truly living in an idiocracy.
What is it you want us to do?
I remember that memorable scene in Independence Day when Bill Pullman asked the alien in the lab “What is it you want us to do?” And the alien said “Die”. I also remember the Mitchell and Webb sketch Are we the Baddies? And I’m afraid the answer is yes.
Screenshot from the Independence day clip Peace
That’s why I think the aliens have grown to hate us, just as I hate those mice. They despise us, they loathe us, they want us dead. They think we’re malevolent, they think we’re evil, they think we are vermin. So no way are they going to let us journey to other planets around other stars. Absolutely no way. So if I was your government, I’d feel duty bound NOT to tell you. If you saw a shiny silver UFO stop on a sixpence in the sky, I’d say it must have been the planet Venus. If you saw a mile-long mothership at thirty thousand feet, I’d say it must have been a lenticular cloud. Not because I’m involved in some mad bad deep-state conspiracy. But because I’m trying to protect you from living in fear. Living in fear that one day, one of the neighbours will do a Prince Philip and take the 12 Monkeys solution to all the troubles of the Earth. All eight billion of them. Or nine billion, or ten. It would be like the flip side of Independence Day and The War of the Worlds all rolled into one. Ever seen the movie Prometheus? You might think you’ve lived through a pandemic, but I have a nasty sneaking suspicion that you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Musewell Hillbillies by the Kinks is one of my all time favorite rock albums. If you are not familiar with it John, it is basically a story about Ray Davies’s alter ego character who fantasizes about how much happier he would be if he lived in a previous era of time. A pre-technology era to be exact. Hmmm? A time of shorter life spans, much more man driven diseases,malnutrition, substandard healthcare, greater socioeconomic divide amongst the classes,constant nonstop warfare in Europe and most of the world . The ‘ good old times ‘ weren’t exactly that good ,were they?
Back to the year 2021 and yes, life is much better for many of the world’s peoples, but not for everyone. Not for a staggering large amount. And like you have so eloquently stated it is worse for most of the animals,forrests,and oceans of Mother Earth. All due to we selfish, shortsighted, arrogant bastards of upright walking apes. Mea Culpa!
I don’t think the neighbors are out to get us, all they have to do is sit back, and patiently wait for us to continue to commit global suicide. History will continue to repeat itself in many negative ways because most of us mammon worshipping apes will still continue to forget the past. The optimist in me wants to think the Aliens will help show us the error of out self destructive ways, but the pessimist in me thinks they will give us all the free gasoline and matches we want. Mother Nature does have amazing healing powers,especially if we Homo Sapiens are out of the way.
I sincerely hope my guesses and predictions are complete wrong of course, but only time will tell and unfortunately it will tell long after I pass on from the existence to whatever comes next.
P.S.: Slow and painful deaths to all vermin !
No, I don’t think “the good old times” were good at all, Greg. People didn’t have modern medicine, dentists, showers, electric lighting, central heating, cars, trains, planes, and so on. It’s only relatively recently that we’ve acquired all that. Only a lot of people haven’t. As to why, I’m not sure. Maybe a lot of countries are “third world” countries because of corruption. Hmmn, I should find out about that I suppose. Whatever the reason, that’s where the population growth is coming from, not from countries like the UK. If it continues, we’re screwed, and so is Mother Nature. Mind you, I suppose “the neighbours” might have taken a few elephants etc into storage to give Mother Nature a kick start at some future date. Anyhow, if I am talking out of my rear, I wouldn’t be surprised if some upright walking apes were working on the 12 Monkeys solution to global warming. If you catch my drift.
Doesn’t 12 Monkeys include time travel ? Such physics blasphemy John ! I predict more of a Mad Max dystopia future, where humanity presses the reset button on modern societies. I think the Survivalist Movement is on to something, I am only slightly involved and prepared myself.
I agree, it is third world countries and the likes of China, India,Mexico and Brazil who over pollute the most. Coincidentally they are also the most over populated as well. And even more coincidentally the most corrupt. Coruption is rampart all over the world, even here in the U.S.of A.. Over population, over grazing, over farming here are the main contributors to pollution and to the massive extreme droughts/fires/red tides all over North America. Nothing will improve until my fellow ‘Mericans realize of our indulgent,self-centered,extravagant and most importantly unsustainable lifestyles. And what it is doing to our planet directly (off-roading is a perfect example),or indirectly like purchasing ivory or teakwood products, ect,ect.
Unfortunately the answers are clear and very doable, but stand in the way of excessive greed. I think in the long run we are truly Fucked unless some miracles take place. I still hope I am wrong and it’s just my turn to talk out my largest spincter valve!
Yep, 12 Monkeys features time travel, but it’s still a great movie. As is Terminator, Timescape, About Time, and of course Déjà Vu. There’s lots of great time travel movies, and whilst I know that time travel is pants, that doesn’t stop me enjoying a good movie. I too think the survivalist guys have got a point. I myself still have my “Brexit stash” of extra food in case shelves started to go bare. I wonder if one day I’ll have to have bars on all the windows like they have in Africa. See this: https://www.ebstaalwerke.co.za/p/268277/burglar-bars. All points noted re overpopulation, corruption, overgrazing / overfarming, and indulgent unsustainable lifestyles. I hate off-roading too, here in the UK we have “green lanes” which have been getting trashed, see http://www.gleam-uk.org/. My pet hate is people “getting back to nature” by building a house in the woods and living off the land. As for how things are going to turn out, I’m afraid I don’t believe in miracles, Greg. Here, this is what I think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C6GZQ7UNaU
It is a pity, that now I can not express – I am late for a meeting. I will be released – I will necessarily express the opinion.
Go for it Jerome. I think it’s important that people do their own research and think for themselves, instead of just meekly believing what they’re told. I’m old enough to remember when newspapers and news programmes used to tell you the news, not tell you what to think.
Hi physics detective. Will you be writing a post on Steven Weinberg? Scot Aaronson has. He said he was a truly towering figure of 20th-century physics.
No, sorry Gavin, I won’t be writing about Weinberg. You’ll forgive me if I leave it at that.
I saw your letter in the Telegraph today. I agree with every word
Thanks David. Unfortunately The Telegraph sits behind a total paywall, which I think is a really bad move. IMHO they should let people see more of their stuff, then they might buy the newspaper. In addition it would help combat the Goebblesque globalist propaganda from The Guardian, the BBC, et cetera, all aided and abetted by Google and co. I’m forever saying do your own research and think for yourself, but it really doesn’t help if you can only find one side of the argument. The side that says you can save the planet by not rinsing your dishes before you put them into the dishwasher. The side that won’t tell you that the population of the world is increasing by a billion every twelve years.
Here’s Allegra Stratton’s article. I’m sure The Telegraph won’t mind me retyping it because I buy the paper, and this is a perfect example of the virtue-signalling idiocracy who are ruining the country:
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Each of us can take small steps toward achieving net zero carbon
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If you think the climate needs to be fixed, look to COP26. The conference the UK hosts in Glasgow in 96 days could be one of the most critical political meetings this century. The world has already warmed by 1.2 degrees, scientists say it needs to be capped at 1.5, and we’re on course for three. That’s why people say COP26 “must keep 1.5 alive”. For readers weary of international summitry, who view this as just “more talk” from world leaders, COP26 is different. In 2016 the Paris COP was historic for getting leaders to agree to limit carbon emissions. It tasked 196 countries with detailing actual, real-world steps in five years’ time. Six years later, delayed a year by Covid, that moment is now. We need to see substantial movement on coal, cars, and trees, to bring carbon emissions down by 2030 and “keep 1.5 alive”.
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As the Prime Minister’s spokesperson for COP26, I am often asked by people what they personally can do in the fight against climate change. You might be doing it already, I reply. Around the UK, a great many are lowering their carbon footprint in ingenious ways – saving cash as well as carbon. To find the best of these, we’ve launched the One Step Greener competition. With 13 climate ambassadors chosen already, over the next two months they will hunt for 13 climate heroes to make 26 for COP26. Formula E racing driver Alice Powell whose car is electric; NHS boss dame Jackie Daniel whose hospital is working to net zero; Hugo Chambers who monitors the carbon footprint of the coffee stocked by Sainsbury’s; Toby McCartney who turns industrial waste into eco-tarmac; Jasmine Allen training to become a wind turbine engineer; and many more.
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But could you go One Step Greener? Did you know, according to COP26 principal partner Reckitt, who make Finish, you don’t really need to rinse your dishes before they go into the dishwasher? Does your brand of plastic bottle shower gel come as a bar in cardboard packaging? I bet it does. It might be freezing half a load of bread when you get it home, to get out later in the week, rather than throwing half of it away when it goes mouldy. It could be walking to the shops, not driving. Micro steps maybe, but all the more achievable because of it. Ahead of COP26, choose one thing: go One Step Greener.
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On your own, we are not pretending that these steps will stop climate change. But here in the UK, you are not on your own. The Prime Minister’s green 10-point plan to build back greener means the Government is getting stuck in. Business large and small are lowering their emissions, and the NHS is too. With One Step Greener, it will all add up. Some feel disheartened when larger G20 countries continue to belch out carbon. But by going One Step Greener here in the UK you will grow the market for green goods and add to Britain’s “first mover advantage”. It could also be the time to think about the cleaner technology that’s coming. Nobody will be forced to ditch their gas boiler or diesel car overnight, but in 10-15 years there will be change.
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Around the world, the UK is one of the trailblazers. When Alok Sharma began the UK’s COP26 presidency only 30 per cent of the world had net targets – that’s now up to 70 percent. We are already leading, and you can strengthen that leadership in your own small way by going One Step Greener.
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Here’s my letter in full:
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Each of us can take small steps towards achieving net zero political suicide
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As I read Allegra Stratton’s piece, I found turning green and bursting out of my shirt. Talk about condescending patronising hubris. I’ve just renewed with Avro energy. The gas tariff is going up from 2.40p per kwH to 3.177p per kWh. The electricity is going from 13.65p per kWh to 18.165p per kWh. That’s a 32% increase. Yesterday I had a letter from Wessex Water saying our monthly direct debit will be going up from £45 to £71. That’s a 57% increase. Doubtless I can look forward to a lot more of these small steps as my gas tariff rises six-fold to match my electricity tariff. Doubtless my electricity tariff will then rise further on windless winter days in order to “save the planet”. Until eventually I’m sitting shivering in the dark with no internet, no TV, and no car, telling my wife and son not to flush.
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Meanwhile all the faux-green Allegras of this world turn a deliberate blind eye to the inconvenient truth: the population of the planet is increasing by about a billion people every twelve years. That’s a billion extra children eating their way through all the fish, fowl, and bush meat in the world. All cooked on fires burning the wood from all the chopped-down forests and jungles in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Greta Thunberg might rally the children against climate change, but the supreme irony is that they’re causing it.
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All the net-zero virtue-signalling claptrap here in the UK is useless compared to that. It’s worse than useless, because it’s political suicide.
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Now for the fourth time trying. The New American is owned by the John Birch Society, America’s oldest organized conspiracy hate group. They started up and picked up where McCarthyism left off. They only proceed to espouse a one sided, far right tautology on politics.
Same goes for OAN,Newsmax,Faux News ect…..ect…..nothing but completely lopsided party propaganda
President Trumps own Attorney General William Barr and the FBI proclaimed there was no credible evidence for widespread voting irregularities ! Trump is still 0 wins and 86 losses in court, this is not only hard cold fact, but case law too!
As far as Antifa being funded by the national Democratic Party, that too is a Big Lie perpetually being pedaled by Trump World. If it was true, then William Barr and the FBI would have started an investigation, along with a Congressional inquiry as well. The real facts are intentionally buried on all of these news sites to be replaced by the Big Lies.
These same sites also don’t inform their audiences with the facts on the fledgling investigation on the January 6th Capitol riot. Same with the various state and federal investigations on Trump and Giuliani . Mark my words John : rioters are allready being convicted and sentenced; political heads will eventually role in the future.
Now for the fourth time trying. The New American is owned by the John Birch Society, America’s oldest organized conspiracy hate group. They started up and picked up where McCarthyism left off. They only proceed to espouse a one sided, far right tautology on politics.
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Sorry Greg, but that’s an ad-hominem, and it just doesn’t cut it. That website proved a wealth of evidence here: https://thenewamerican.com/widespread-voter-fraud-myth-or-reality/. It isn’t all fiction and lies. We all saw what happened. The sudden jumps in Biden’s favour. The ongoing counting that always resulted in more and more Democrat votes until they had enough to stop counting. The surreptitious looking around before pulling the cases out from under the table. How can you dismiss all that? When Trump had a rip-roaring campaign and got more votes than 2016, whilst Biden was a vegetable and Marxists rioted all year? Have a look at this: https://freedomwire.com/voterga-georgia-audit-provable-fraud/
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Same goes for OAN, Newsmax, Faux News ect…..ect…..nothing but completely lopsided party propaganda.
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Again, ad hominems don’t cut it. Fox News are demonstrably honest, they back up their claims with clear evidence. Do you think they’re lying about Congress being the body that passes laws rather than the CDC? https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-blasted-analysis-biden-evictions Do you think they’re lying about Soros? https://www.foxnews.com/politics/george-soros-dismantle-replace-minneapolis-police# Or about the illegal immigrants being sent all round the USA regardless of whether they’ve got Covid? https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-patrol-official-covid-migrants-released-day-in-day-out
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President Trumps own Attorney General William Barr and the FBI proclaimed there was no credible evidence for widespread voting irregularities ! Trump is still 0 wins and 86 losses in court, this is not only hard cold fact, but case law too!
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They didn’t even look for the evidence. As to why, my American friend said there was an unwillingness, even from Republicans, to admit that the USA was like some banana republic where voter fraud occurs, and that Barr decided the best thing for America was to sweep it under the carpet.
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As far as Antifa being funded by the national Democratic Party, that too is a Big Lie perpetually being pedalled by Trump World. If it was true, then William Barr and the FBI would have started an investigation, along with a Congressional inquiry as well. The real facts are intentionally buried on all of these news sites to be replaced by the Big Lies.
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Re “if true they would have started an investigation”, see above. The Democracy Alliance fund Antifa, with the connivance of the DNC. Note that DNC Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison endorsed Antifa, and Biden staffers contributed to the MFF bailout fund. Also note that the Democrats would not condemn the rioting looting and violence that went on for the thick end of a year. Remember the ludicrous “peaceful protests” reportage with the burning building? But my, how they howled about the Capitol. PS: See https://democracyalliance.org/. They have the gall to say “#Resist is a demonstration of distributed leadership advancing the fight to save our democracy”. FFS, now that is Orwellian doublespeak.
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These same sites also don’t inform their audiences with the facts on the fledgling investigation on the January 6th Capitol riot. Same with the various state and federal investigations on Trump and Giuliani . Mark my words John : rioters are already being convicted and sentenced; political heads will eventually role in the future.
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The only rioters getting convicted are the pro-Trump rioters. See https://nypost.com/2021/06/20/hundreds-of-nyc-rioters-looters-have-charges-dropped/ about Democrat rioters and looters having their charges dropped. Here’s another story referring to other cities: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/4/prosecutors-dismiss-looting-rioting-charges-agains/. I’m sorry Greg, but your country is in big trouble. UK and Australian national newspapers are now saying it out loud. You are losing your country, and you can’t see it. I can, because I know people who used to live in Rhodesia and South Africa. I only hope that good people like yourselves stop taking the “see no evil” line. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
I started to think of my counter- rebuttals, but suddenly realized we are both unmovable objects when it comes to politics. Neither one of us is going to budge from our positions. So why continue on ?
I’ve had my say and I thank you for the privilege of posting them on the Physics Detective.
Let’s get back to science, especially the newest lunacy coming from CERN, cubit time crystals,and any other supposedly new world changing physics discoveries.
OK. Do prepare something though, even if you never tell me about it. IMHO doing that helps you to think things through.
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What’s all this about cubit time crystals? I didn’t see anything about that on the CERN website: https://home.cern/news?audience=23. I didn’t see much about physics either. As far as I can tell it’s flatlining. Beeeeeep….
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I was going to do an article on antigravity next.
I should clarify my last comment concerning CERN. I was redundantly referring to the ongoing tetraquark,beauty,charm hype: my mistake. You already brilliantly covered most of that in your March 31st, 2021 essay titled The Leptoquark Hype.
The Google cubit time crystal story really did just break this past week. I have no idea how accurate, or even plausible their claim is.
I anxiously await your upcoming anti-gravity piece. Reading about anti-gravitons, gravitons and all the other supposed carrier particles should be a “like a really levitating experience, fer shure dude! “.
Ah, the time crystal, in Quanta magazine, by Natalie Wolchover:
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https://www.quantamagazine.org/first-time-crystal-built-using-googles-quantum-computer-20210730/
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Search this physics detective website to learn my opinion on Quanta Magazine and Natalie Wolchover. I note the preprint https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.13571 where one of the authors is Daniel Sank, who tried to get me banned at Physics Stack Exchange. I ought to write about this article and paper I suppose. As for what I might think of it, I can’t say without reading the material. But I have not been impressed by this sort of “research” so far, see my article on Quantum computing and the quantum quacks?
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When it comes to antigravity, it’s really just artificial gravity, and there aren’t any gravitons involved I’m afraid. People say photons are the “messenger” particles of the electromagnetic interaction, but those messenger particles are virtual photons, not real photons. They only exist in the mathematics of the model. As for why they don’t call gravitational waves gravitons and then talk about virtual gravitons, search me.
One of the great things about The Physics Detective is your uncanny ability to cut thru the chaff and repost only the best, most pertinent articles and links. I seem to get mired in redundancy at times. I got my info on the supposedly latest, greatest discovery on Google’s own news feed. And I haven’t forgotten your stance on QuantaRag, Ms.Wolcover,or your previous article on Quatum Quacks. However Wolchover’s piece did contain a few interesting tidbits: John Chalker’s statement; the 2014 Proof against Wilczek; and the mention that the 2019 Sycamore Test was basically rigged. But yet these articles continue to push for the S.O.S.? I speculate that Googles marketing department has a huge imput on releasing these hyped up “discoveries”, perhaps to placate nervous investors and drum up new ones?
I do have a question: would a frozen star/black hole that doesn’t produce relavistic jets be as close to possible as a perfect state of equilibrium?
I should have a careful look at Ms Wolchover’s piece I suppose. Sigh. I’m not sure Google are behind these hyped up “discoveries”. Somebody told me Google would only fund this stuff for a set number of years, so I imagine the people behind the hyped up “discoveries” are the people Google are funding.
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Would a frozen star/black hole that doesn’t produce relavistic jets be as close to possible as a perfect state of equilibrium?
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I think so. But I’m not sure. After all, maybe the whole universe was like that up until 13.8 billion years ago. So maybe that perfect state of equilibrium isn’t quite so perfect.
Nothing personal against Wolchover myself, it just seems most of her articles are like sales pitches on the behalf of a paying customer (the standard model). This most recent one surprised me with a least three small pokes at the status quo.
Here are three recent articles that throw a little more shade on the Copenhagen Rascals.
1.Aug.9th,2021 by Emily Conover in the ScienceNews.
2.July 23rd,2021 by Jussi Lindgren & Jerry Liukkonen in ScienceX.
3.July 5th,2021 by Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio in the ENTICES.
I apologize John for not being able to copy any links, my computer skills still sucks and I do everything from my cellphone anyway.
Hey John, any thoughts on this year’s Breakthrough Prizes ?
Hmmn:
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https://breakthroughprize.org/News/65
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Yes, here’s my thoughts:
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What a load of crap.
Hell if I know anything about these subjects, research, institutions or winners.
So I assume you’re not impressed at the physics or math parts of the awards? Not even the lattice trap time clocks?
At least the medicine awards ,on the surface, appear to be legit.
Greg: no, I’m not impressed with the maths or physics parts of the awards. A more accurate clock is not a breakthrough. Whilst I think the amyloid work is fair enough, amyloidosis is rare. As for the Pfizer vaccine, I’m not sure it actually works. It isn’t a traditional vaccine. It isn’t like the vaccines we’ve been giving to children here the UK:
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https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/899422/PHE_Routine_Childhood_Immunisation_Schedule_Jun2020_03.pdf
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I have never heard of people who have been given a vaccine transmitting the disease to others. Or then catching the disease. Or needing a third “booster” shot so soon. I’ve had two jabs of the Pfizer vaccine by the way, with no side effects. I also think I had Covid in January 2020, I think. Before we knew about it. I was coughing up yellowy gunk for about a week.
I am just old enough to remember getting both the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines when they were brand new ! I also have had most of vaccines on the list provided by the link. Along with numerous yearly flu shots; and because of my own recklessness 7 or 10 tetanus shots down thru the years. I will probably get my Pfizer booster as soon as it is available as well.
As far as the anti-vaxers go in this country, my federal government should let them have all the anti-malarial and horse worm meds they want for free. To go along with the free rabies and distemper shots they desperately need !
I’ve had all the vaccinations too, as have our three children. I’m no anti-vaxxer. That’s why it bothers me when I hear stories about the Pfizer vaccine being ineffective. Like in Israel. I haven’t checked it out, but somebody told me the effectiveness claim is based on cherry-picking, not robust science. They gave circa 18,000 people a placebo, and they gave circa 18,000 people the vaccine. Then something like 150 of the first group later tested positive, and only 8 of the second group. From that they claimed that the vaccine was 96% effective. What they didn’t do is administer the vaccine to a control group, then give them Covid to see if they developed symptoms. Or do their trials on married couples, giving one the placebo and the other one the vaccine. See https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/vaccine-efficacy-effectiveness-and-protection.
Shame on you for not reading the details of the studies and taking your science for a foreign substance jab in a multitrillion dollar world wide operation from media.
* People who got Covid19 from jabs in first 7-14d were kicked out of study or unvaccinated (remove the vulnerable)
* Remaining people have lesser numbers
* Efficacy baked into study design = fraud
If 8 pfizer and 162 placebo were getting positive tests with symptoms
* even that does not mean they got Covid (since high CT could be a false positive, or positive RNA w/ in fact another symptom from COPD or what not)
* we know for a fact that the numbers who possibly got Covid, or who had fevers were potentially higher than even 162 meaning there might be 0% efficacy
In practice, the jabs are immunosuppressants that can make you susceptible, and are highly targeted to a certain confirmation of spike bypassing the broad based natural immunity.
Please consider reading science going forward. That is what a detective must do in these times, and we all must be detectives.
Navid, I am confused about one of your claims: can you please explain as precisely as possibly how the modern mRNA Covid vaccines work as an autoimmune suppressant in the human body ? Isn’t it suppose to be the other way arround ?
Thanks,I will check out the link sometime today.
Navid: did you actually read what I say, or did you just post a standard antivaxxer comment? I said I was hearing stories that the Pfizer vaccine was ineffective. I also said I have never heard of people who have been given a vaccine transmitting the disease to others. If that’s what’s been happening with the Pfizer vaccine, then it isn’t a vaccine.
Seems like you looked at the data but are still skeptical. Regarding older vaccines, just because you didn’t hear about people getting vaccinated and still transmitting doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening the whole time! The yearly flu vaccine usually has around 50% efficacy (half of the vaxxed will get the flu and transmit it). Similar data for many vaccines, none are 100% effective, none! Maybe the Rabies vaccine but that’s a whole different story where you get the vaccine after you get rabies and it still works.
Yes, I’m skeptical Doug. I’m afraid to say I get more and more skeptical about everything to do with Covid. I think it’s been used and abused for political purposes. We had the pingdemic just before “freedom day”, which I think was deliberate and dishonest. We’ve had “Covid cases” where nobody is ill, and “Covid deaths” that were in truth deaths within 28 days of a positive test. I don’t know if those tests give false positives, but I do know that Public Health England (now UKHSA) still won’t tell us the agebands. Or why flu deaths have disappeared. The latest thing today is that the PCS union are trying to organise a strike at the DVLA. Doubtless they’re a bunch of card-carrying Marxists whose aim is to make sure the HGV drivers don’t get their licences. Meanwhile general-practice doctors are working three mornings a week, and most of the civil service are “working from home”. Or should I say woking from home, and skiving.
You are all dumber than rocks. First you believe you are living on a spinning ball flying through the vacuum of space and now you happily commit time delayed suicide with an obvious bioweapon. Are you ever going to be “fully vaccinated” with your continuous “boosters” meant to increase your risk of an adverse “vaccine” event? Not bloody likely.
Congratulations, you won’t be alive longer than 2 years from this date forward because of your staggering stupidity.
“You can be highly intelligent and very good at what you do, and still be stupid”
John, this year’s Nobel Dyn-O-Myte award in physics appears to be even more underwhelming than this years Breakthrough Prize Wieners. Are my assumptions correct? Maybe the selection committee are the ones in a perpetuating state of disorder and entropy? I desperately need answers that make sense………..
Thanks Greg:
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https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2021/summary/
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“The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 was awarded “for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex systems” with one half jointly to Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming” and the other half to Giorgio Parisi “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”
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Oh FFS. That isn’t physics.
Hopefully next year we can celebrate the team at the RHIC at Brookhaven winning for documenting that the Breit-Wheeler process is real. Or maybe the two teams at Harvard and ETH Zurich for independently creating Wiger crystals. Or other legitimate physics that are yet to be announced . However I am not getting my hopes up too high for the immediate future.
Don’t hold your breath, Greg. Fundamental physics is looking pretty terminal right now. Sad. But hey, let’s get ready with them paddles: Clear!
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I don’t know why Wigner crystals matter much: https://newatlas.com/physics/wigner-crystal-solid-electrons/
Thanks John, that’s the same link I read about Wigner crystals. I thought because they weren’t tied to the Standard Model it might be significant.
So who/what should next years Nobel/Achievement awards be given to ? Any good canadates you think are deserving ?