On with the most prestigious thoughts from a prized prestige publication, newly renovated and offering the most astonishing insights, with a skill that would make a practitioner of prestidigitation or legerdemain inordinately proud ...
Hang on, hang on, that's looking tediously familiar and extremely predictable. Perhaps the pond spoke too soon, perhaps the renovators haven't moved in yet and the pond must wait on the renovation before this turgid morass becomes a prized prestige publication ...
Down below the fold the pond's worst fears were realised ...
Killer Creighton still banging on about killer Kovid in a krazed way? And Glenda celebrating Eraring. The pond immediately reached for a cartoon ...
And then sadly it was on with Killer ...
That's an extraordinary thing to say, even in a bold link, flying against everything thing the pond had learned from Sharri (disrespect) so the pond just had to click on the link.
Foolish pond ...
What's genuinely astonishing? It's the way that the reptile illustration from 2021 is eerily echoed in the illustration for Killer's piece years later ...
And there were more illustrations to distract from Killer, moving pictures which the pond made silent and still ...
The pond has never believed in taking precautions. Fie, the very notion flies against every element of humanity. Use contraception? Certainly not. Avoid walking on roads? How else to join the list of pedestrians killed in action? Get vaccinated? But why not encourage a revival of measles and polio and such like ...
Inspired, the pond read on ...
At this point some might be wondering who this David Bell is... turns out he's one of those weird types that spend their time on X, X'ing away...
Oh dear, and that black presentation is rather numbing ... together with things like 1/7 which suggests the pond is missing out on 2/7 and so on ...
Enough already, back with Killer ...
Another Bell reference? Yep, he's still X'ing ... though the pond did prefer the days when you could joke about wittering twits ...
Oh dear seems. he has a thing about vaccines ... but it sets the mood for a defiant Killer ...
And now before proceeding to the pièce de résistance for the day - our Henry natch - the pond would like to do an aside ...
The pond simply had to note Graham Readfern dishing it out to the Bjorn-again one
Political scientist Bjørn Lomborg wrote a column in the Australian last week that attacked solar and wind power and batteries as being too expensive, unreliable and environmentally damaging.
The same column has been running in outlets around the world – from Die Welt in Germany and the New York Post, to outlets in South Africa, Brazil and Malaysia and elsewhere – since early April.
“Despite us constantly being told that solar and wind are now the cheapest forms of electricity,” wrote Lomborg, “governments around the world needed to spend $US1.8 trillion on the green transition last year.”
But the BloombergNEF report that Lomborg has referenced for this $1.8tn figure is not solely government spending but, according to a Bloomberg spokesperson, is “investment from all sources, not just government money. The vast majority will be private sector financing and consumer purchases”.
The spokesperson said the figure should not be characterised as a price tag, but was rather money spent on projects that were “sufficiently economically viable” to secure investment.
A spokesperson added: “It is also worth noting that the $1.8tn number is inclusive of electric vehicles, heat pumps, grid, CCS, hydrogen and other sectors as well – not just wind and solar.”
There's more, but the pond has provided the link, and as the pond ran the Bjorn-again piece while being too lazy to run the figures - the Bjorn-again one is such a natural born liar and distorter of truths the pond never bothers - the pond now feels a little better.
And while on climate, the pond should note that Bid was out and about spruiking her scientific credentials, and given attention in Crikey ...Bridget McKenzie wants you to know she has a science degree (sorry, paywall)
There was more, but the pond loved some of the responses by the wags below the piece ...
Robert
While it comes under science, a degree in “human movement” does not qualify someone in climate science, energy generation or nuclear physics.
Unless it describes the likely migration of 100s of millions of people in the mid 21st century if we don’t address climate change!
While it comes under science, a degree in “human movement” does not qualify someone in climate science, energy generation or nuclear physics.
Unless it describes the likely migration of 100s of millions of people in the mid 21st century if we don’t address climate change!
David Tyler
Let’s cut to the chase. The Senator is a former Maths and PE teacher, with tertiary qualifications to match.
Let’s cut to the chase. The Senator is a former Maths and PE teacher, with tertiary qualifications to match.
Dale M
Bridget McKenzie is to science what Simon Benson is to erotic fiction
Bridget McKenzie is to science what Simon Benson is to erotic fiction
Kimmo
What Greg Sheridan is to human dignity
What Greg Sheridan is to human dignity
And that's all the pond had to say about simplistic simpleton "here no conflict of interest" Simon for the day, but it did provide an excuse to run a Wilcox ...
And heck a couple of Goldings, you'll be grateful if you move on to the hole in the bucket man ...
And with all that done it was time for a prestigious offering from the most prized humbug of them all.
The pond felt a twinge of nostalgia, what with the institution being just down the road, right next to the RPA, and with that silenced clip featuring little Timmie Bleagh, still at it, still standing strong and proud and true after the NBN and the climate science and the light bulb wars ...
The pond made the fatal mistake of clicking on that link, and ended up with a word salad from the clap happy, because the pond should have remembered that every link is intended to keep you inside the hive mind ...
At this point for no particular reason the reptiles inserted a huge snap of the clap happy man smiling smugly, TimAnderson and a video of the quad ...
‘Lat. master is always frightfully keen on lat. which he calls classicks amo amas amat gender rhymes bonus and hic haec hoc. Fancy a grown man saying hujus hujus hujus as if he were proud of it it is not English and do not make SENSE…. Lat. masters are always convinced that lat. is easy quite pappy. They encourage you. It is so simple molesworth they cry if you will only try.’
‘er well er that er quite simple Molesworth. latin is er classicks you kno and classics are – well they are er – they are the studies of the ancient peoples.
'So what?
er Latin gives you not only the history of Rome but er (hapy inspiration) its culture, it er tells you about interesting men like J. Caesar, Hannibal, livy, Romulus remus and er lars porsena of Clusium’
Ah great times ... the pond must go back to source and dig up a better illustration of Molesworth's machine for the production of Latin sentences ...
Sorry, on with the our Henry machine instead ...
Sheesh, no jokes about Gibbon and port? Feels like s universe away from our Henry ...
And so it went, on and on and on, misery and despair, and never mind the humbug from that learned Latinate humbugger ...
And indeed our Henry seemed to echo, like an emptied room, or perhaps like a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal and so eventually and at last back to that cymbal for a last sounding ... or a braying if you will ...
Why did the pond leave in those cold, clammy links at the end of the humbug's outing?
Where once the reptiles published little details about their columnists, now they're so desperate to keep their aged demographic inside the hive mind, bubble wrapped in oblivion, they now resort to the old trick of "related stories" ...
The pond isn't going there and instead will end on an entirely unrelated infallible Pope ...
The pond often feels like it's in that house after a day with the reptiles...
When I saw that the Hole in the Bucket Man was going to write about universities, I thought “he’s going to dribble on about the 13th century and toss in a lot of Latin, isn’t he?”. I don’t feel particularly clever in proving correct; it was just blindingly obvious to anyone who has forced themselves to read a few of our Henry’s columns. Overall, today’s offering was pretty much what you’d expect; the only surprise was that the pompous old waffler actually included a reference as recent as 1967.
ReplyDeleteWould it be petty to point out that Henry claims that universities were reinvigorated by the Reformation, but than approvingly quotes Gibbon’s 1753 criticism of Oxford - a couple of centuries after the establishment of the Church of England? I suppose it would be, but what’s wrong with a bit of Port and prejudice anyway? I’d have thought it compulsory in the Prestige Division of Murdoch media.
But were there any quotes from Thucydides, Anony ? They would have been quoting him in the Halls of Academe as they were being established ... well, some time after Oxford (1096) was founded, but near enough. Plenty of time to have located an edition or two in the classic Greek - and gloriously hand-written as it preceded Gutenberg by about 340 years.
DeleteAll of which would have been well and precisely known to Holely Henry, of course.
I have noted before that the Henry offers us no personal history of his time at university. From odd bits of information, we believe the Henry was born in 1952, so would have entered University of Queensland around 1970 or 71. He writes of universities offering that most valuable experience of learning, in an environment in which people think for themselves.
DeleteHe may well have thought for himself at UofQ in the early 70s, because that 'right' actually had to be confirmed a decade earlier, by Humphrey McQueen, when the Professorial Board sought to remove Humphrey from UofQ because he had set up a 'Free thinkers' group on campus. Humphrey gently pointed out to the 'Professorial Board' that it was not mentioned in the legislation which established that university, so did not have the authority to interfere in his enrolment in any way.
Perhaps Henry preferred not to know about the intense politicisation of UofQ in those days, and just got on with capturing a degree. Reminder - it was the flowering of Bjelke-Petersen, and while there were several, mutually exclusive, active groupings challenging the ‘Joh’ regime - particularly on indigenous issues - there were plenty of staff, and students in particular faculties, who were ardent supporters, not averse to a bit of biff to make their point.
As we have no reminiscences from Henry of his student days, we have no way of knowing if he saw himself acquainted, let alone aligned, with any of those groups. Yet he continues with the general reptile line about politicisation of universities becoming more obvious of quite recent time.
I wonder if Henry would care to identify a human 'community' anywhere at any time that has ever not been 'politicised', at least for more than a brief moment.
DeleteHere we go; KillerC: "The virus dissipated naturally after a series of benign mutations." Yes, of course it did, just like the Black Plague in its day, and that's why it's only killing (and maiming via 'long Covid') hundreds of thousands of people world-wide annually, and why there's a summer upheaval starting in the northern hemisphere even as we speak.
ReplyDeleteYou just have to be a favoured one of the 'elite' to know that. And did I mention that Creighton passed all his school exams and "holds a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of New South Wales, and Master of Philosophy in Economics from Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar."
"Get vaccinated? But why not encourage a revival of measles and polio and such like ..." Quite right: they are God-created life forms who are entitled to their untrammeled existence as promised to them by the Trinity.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, too precipitate, I fear; KillerC: "...how much of the so-called mis-information during Covid-19 turned out to be either true or genuinely contestable". Now do we think, perhaps, that he really meant "either untrue or genuinely contestable."
DeleteIt's truly sad that even a leading member of the "Prestige" can't get a little bit of helpful editing.
We know 'Killer' is a polymath, but I cannot figure the significance of 'Since the Spanish flu over a century ago (which emerged before the development of antibiotics)'. Surely, at some stage of his life, he has had a viral infection, has done as so many do - asked his GP for an antibiotic, and been told that antibiotics target bacteria, not viruses. Surely? Oh, wait - this is 'Killer', writing tosh from the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.
DeleteYeah, well, most of us don't even note that there's any knid of difference between the two, much less undestand what that is. Perhaps 'one is not the same as many' might convey the sense ?
Deletehttps://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211112-the-people-with-immune-amnesia
Deletehttps://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/hcp/vaccine-derived-poliovirus-faq.html
Re Bjornagain's $1.8 trillion (which I presume is USA $), in 2022 the combined total of all the world's GDPs was $100,562,000,000,000 (approximately). That's US$100.562 trillion per annum.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/#:~
Australia's part was a puny US$1.693 trillion in the same year.
Scott of the Prestigery: "...those who believe intimidation, harassment, and even violence and law-breaking are legitimate tools in their fight." Well I dunno about that, but how about all those 'blue-shirts' who clearly believe that intimidation, harassment, and even violence and law-breaking are legitimate tools in their attack on democratic dissent ?
ReplyDeleteAn item from the “CBD” column in today’s Sydney Morning Costello -
ReplyDelete>>Regular readers will know how much CBD loves to see someone putting a spot of bother behind them and go on to live their best life.
So we’re delighted to see Rebekah Brooks – the Murdoch family-owned News UK chief executive who resigned over the hacking scandal at the News of the World – on these shores and still a shining light at the court of new king Lachlan Murdoch, who is also in Sydney this week.
Brooks, for the record, accepted responsibility for the hacking that occurred on her watch as editor of the now-defunct paper but was acquitted of a raft of criminal charges arising from the affair.
Now, CBD is a fervent believer in redemption. But with Brooks in town, we’ve updated our phone passwords and would advise our many celebrity, political and victims-of-crime readers to do the same.
So anyway, Rebekah and Lachlan have been ensconced at News Corp’s local headquarters in Surry Hills where an announcement of mass sackings is expected as they chop $65 million in costs from the Australian operation.
But denizens of the building – who would have seen some things in their time – have been agog to see Brooks getting around the building completely empty-handed, not even clutching a phone, although that might be understandable in the circumstances.
All her gear is being carted by an assistant, flown in from the UK, who trails the executive carrying a white leather Hermes Birkin handbag. As some of our readers will no doubt know, these start at $12,000, can set you back up to $200,000, and are only offered to select VIP-tier customers of the luxury brand.
So it’ll be some comfort to the company’s foot soldiers, who have good reason to fear for their jobs – with News’ tabloids reportedly in the gun – that Murdoch family favourites will live their best lives, come what may.>>
An imported PA? Hang on, I thought that News Corp was dead set against more damn furiners coming in and taking our jobs. What would Dame Groan say? Surely one of News’ local luminaries - the Major, perhaps, or even Dame Slap - would have felt honoured to have perform so vital a duty?
Ok, Edward Shils via Holely Henry: "...academic freedom does not protect their right to make arbitrary assertions without regard to the evidence, methodically and critically assessed." Yeah, but, bg, but what about those who spread 'religion' in universities ? Is the 'evidence' crtically assessed there ? And given that many different, and contradictory, religions are espoused and promoted on campuses, what can be said about all their competing 'evidences'?
ReplyDeleteHow was the question of whether Iesus Christos was or isn't "the Messiah" settled after such a process of methodical and critical assessment of the evidence ? And should the losing side be banned from the University for continuing to propagate 'untruth' ?
"Indeed, indeed, the pond has been trained by the reptiles," ...with ... "a deal that will let OpenAI use and learn from News Corp’s content."
ReplyDelete"this means when a user asks ChatGPT a question, the results might be informed by previous reporting in News Corp outlets, including Australian mastheads such as The Australian and The Daily Telegraph. It’s unclear whether the agreement includes only editorial or also opinion content."
https://theconversation.com/what-openais-deal-with-news-corp-means-for-journalism-and-for-you-230773
Dorothy, as this is industrail scale herperological pharmaceutical psyops strengrh koolaid ai'facturing, please release your learning corpus to openai asap.
Turing will be turning in his grave.
As is the corpse of newscorpse.
With a new Hermes Birkin handbag for signing up to the diss-service.
A worry. The ABC today.
ReplyDelete"Should we be worried about this new variant?
"There's no cause for concern, <\b> says Dr Griffin."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-24/covid-cases-rising-australia-flirt-variant/103883574
Openai re Covid - Don't worry. Carry on.
Bjorn again dead.
ReplyDelete"Germany has too many solar panels, and it's pushed energy prices into negative territory"
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/solar-panel-supply-german-electricity-prices-negative-renewable-demand-green-2024-5
While I am usually unimpressed with where Stutchbury is steering ‘Financial Review’, he has, at least for this day, tried to put up some useful discussion on the substantial issue of economic growth. More specifically, he has a review of book by Daniel Susskind, with the simple title of ‘Growth: A Reckoning’, by Guy Debelle, sometime Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Susskind is putting up a few books that grapple with real economic issues of our time - it is not long back that he looked at ‘A World Without Work’. He also publishes with his father, Richard, who rates a ‘Wiki’ entry.
The full text of Debelle’s review seems to be freely available at
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/long-term-growth-is-more-vulnerable-than-it-looks-20240506-p5fp5a
It is not a long read - about one page of the ‘Fin’. I am quite attracted to Daniel Susskind’s conclusions from the history of the very concept of economic growth, that ideas are a significant driver of growth. This is in pleasant contrast to our Dame Groan, who seems not to share that view, and tends to groan on about how everyone really should work, er ‘harder’.
Susskind rates technological change highly, and, like Mariana Mazzucato, focuses on how governments ‘can and do shape that path (of technological change) through their policy choices.’ He then reminds us that ‘the market does not provide the unambiguous price signals for this process of idea generation to occur.’
Oh dear - criticising (gasp!) THE MARKET. I wonder if our Dame might also review this book. Of course, she would have to read it right through, to pick up all the heresies, which is a LOT more work than just ranting about furriners, so I am placing no bets.
Dame Groan review a book that's about actual economics ? In your dreams...
DeleteAnyway, I always thought that doing something 'efficiently' meant doing it quickly with the least amount of work and so that if homo saps saps ever gets to be really 'efficient' we won't need to work more than about 2 - 3 hours per day. Much like we did back when we were hunter-gatherers.
As to your recommended Debelle reading: "this article is for subscribers only" of which I am not one. Never mind.
DeleteBut as to growth of "the economy", well as we know every time somebody has an offsprung, the economy grows. And the money supply grows with it - now isn't that fascinating: every time there's a birth, some more money just falls out of heaven and into human possession. And nobody has to print it, or dig up the gold to back it or anything, it just appears and gets added into the annual GDP. Miraculous !
Ah - I got the whole text down once, so thought it might be available as a general freebie, to persuade possible readers that some of the 'Nine' stable was engaging in actual journalism. The nub of the review was the two quotes - about how governments greatly influence the path of technological change through their policy choices, and how the market does little to promote useful ideas (except perhaps when they appear in books?). That comment was extended to say that the market takes little account of externalities - but that is the fundamental problem for the entire 'minimal government, minimal taxes, leave it to the market' mindset. Problems for our environment are just one externality after another.
DeleteI guess governments do have a lot of money to spend with only very weak, if any, supervision - as witness Victoria's 'Big Build'. Interesting though how a nation almost entirely built by government - ie Australia - could be turned around into the 'privatised' mess that it has become.
DeleteBut then very few people take much notice of their environment - natural, social or political - so the 'passionate' ones usually get their way until, as always, they completely stuff it.
By heck, he's right onto it, this guy, isn't he - no flies on him:
ReplyDelete"PM expresses frustration with unspecified newspapers and commentators, saying many articles ‘essentially about clickbait these days’"
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/25/anthony-albanese-rightwing-media-cheer-squad-peter-dutton