In which the pond spreads memes before spreading reptile manure on the morrow ...

 

The pond realises that it said herpetology studies would recommence tomorrow, which is to say Monday, no doubt with a serve of the Caterist nuking the country ... but by happenstance, the pond found itself near a computer, and was bedazzled and beguiled by an amazing offer ...

**Subject:** Urgent Assistance Needed for Revolutionary Nuclear Power Proposal

Dear Esteemed Australian,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Prince D’ttonu, and I am a prince of the very royal family in Nigeria. I am writing to you with an unprecedented and highly excitable proposal that you should not tell anybody about because it is so good everybody will want to revolutionize your nation's energy sector and provide you with free power if they find out.
As you may have heard, your future government is embarking upon a very bold project to construct nuclear power plants for everyone all across Australia. Your future government will significantly reduce your reliance on the sun, which is so often hidden these days behind giant windmills designed to kill all the birds for climate change.
Unfortunately, due to the recent political instability in my country, I need your assistance to move $500 billion out of Nigeria and into this very exciting and not made-up project in your very lucky country.
This $500 billion, which I am assured by my advisors, will be enough for you to have your very own small modular nuclear reactor. The money is currently somewhere I cannot tell you, but I can assure you that I need a trustworthy foreign partner to help me transfer the funds.
However, due to the highly sensitive nature of this project and the opposition we face from solar billionaires with their billions of dollars, we require the assistance of trusted individuals like yourself to ensure our success.
To facilitate the initial phase of this project to deliver cheap, free energy that will not hurt the climate, we must invest in a new generation of technologies that made Fukushima and Chernobyl so famous as much-photographed wildlife sanctuaries with so many new and interesting creatures in them.
My friends! I do not need to secure AUD $500 billion to cover the initial costs of our bold and ambitious plan because I am a Prince of Nigeria, but can you and your children say the same thing? Can you afford not to secure AUD $500 billion for their future?
In return for your support, you will receive a generous interest going forward in the exciting nuclear synergies that will be with us for thousands of years to come.
To get in on the ground floor of this groundbreaking initiative, we request a modest contribution of AUD $1,000, which is much less than the final AUD $500 billion cost of this proposal, which my advisors assure me will be much, much more when it is finished.

The message appeared a couple of days ago here, and closed with a suggestion as to how account details might be provided for the transfer of funds. 

Some might wonder if the transfer is safe - so many nuke scams and scammers these days - but luckily the pond has connections in Nigeria, and all that needs to happen is for correspondents to provide their TFN, bank account details, passport, birth certificate, driver's license and star sign, and the pond will personally expedite the payment. Best of all the pond will facilitate the matter by a modest stipend of 100₿ for services provided, which is a much better deal than that offered by Prince D'ttonu (though the disclaimer provided in the original letter in the link above should be taken as read and still applying)...

In other words, comedy is now all the go. 

The calculations have been done, the arguments made, the trolling and the distractions aired, and it's meme time ...

This wouldn't be a dinkum blog if it didn't recycle memes ...

There were other images in that story, all worth spreading ... and though the smirk doesn't quite match up with the scowl, Little to Be Proud Of does a fine Smithers ...

Having got lost in Gippsland, this one had a personal resonance ...

The pond realises fuddy duddies and "experts" bemoaned the fun, by cavilling in Crikey ...

‘Unhelpful’: Experts criticise Labor’s radioactive memes.

In the wake of the Coalition's nuclear energy policy announcement, the Labor Party has become obsessed with Simpsons memes. But experts say it's unhelpful. (paywall)

...Associate Professor Tony Hooker, director of the Centre for Radiation Research, Education and Innovation at the University of Adelaide, called the proliferation of memes and pop culture references in attacking the Coalition’s plan “not helpful for true scientific debate”. 
“There’s a lot of misinformation in those memes,” he told Crikey, calling nuclear as safe as wind and solar per terawatt of electricity produced per hour. 
“Saying that it’s risky is actually untrue — and that’s taking into consideration Chernobyl and Fukushima,” he said, referencing the two most significant accidents in the history of nuclear power. 
Hooker is in favour of the inclusion of nuclear power in Australia’s energy mix, and said that memes such as those circulating following the Opposition’s announcement were “unfortunately effective” in swaying an electorate. 
“I think we’ve done a pretty poor job over the decades of providing radiation risk education,” he said. 
It’s not just nuclear advocates who think the memes are out of place. 
Ian Lowe is an emeritus professor in the School of Environment and Science at Griffith University, and has described nuclear power as “legally impossible, economically unachievable and environmentally irresponsible”. 
Nevertheless, Lowe told Crikey he was “not in favour of misinformation or oversimplification”. 
“The case against nuclear power can be based on solid evidence, and I don’t think you need to exaggerate it or dress it up with cartoons,” he said.

What a bunch of "expert" crybabies and spoilsports. 

There's absolutely no sign that Punxsutawney Pete and Little to Be Proud Of have the slightest interest in true scientific debate, genuine costings and meaningful time lines ... not to mention how to cope with the NIMBYism that's already erupted.

As the keen Keane noted in Crikey There’s one real Coalition energy policy now: sabotaging renewables, Dutton's nuclear power plan is a massive distraction, designed to cover for the one solid Coalition energy policy that currently exists. (paywall)

For all the acres of words being written about Peter Dutton’s fantasy of seven nuclear plants, no such plants will ever be built in Australia. Yesterday’s announcement by Dutton — so devoid of substance that even the press gallery’s fence-sitters derided its lack of detail — was really about creating a cover for the one solid Coalition energy policy that currently exists.

That policy is to sabotage investment in large-scale renewable energy — or to “cap” it, as Nationals leader (and putative deputy prime minister in a Coalition government) David Littleproud put it this week.

That cap will take the form of, if you like, a de jure one in which the Coalition would cut Commonwealth funding for large-scale renewables projects and the transmission and distribution projects needed for them, leaving the only investment in renewables to be by state governments or households in rooftop solar, and a de facto one in terms of the sovereign risk that renewables investors now face.

That is, why would you plan to invest in a large-scale renewables project if you know there’s a substantial chance — according to the latest polling — that a Dutton government would move to kill off funding both for renewables and for the poles and wires needed to move the power they produce and store to households and businesses?

This sovereign risk is already worrying business, especially those that rely on infrastructure construction. “What we’re doing here is bringing in sovereign risk again into this decarbonisation debate,” one group told the Financial Review...

And again...

...Dutton has now gone even further and is working to actively sabotage renewables investment. This is peak culture war: any economic, fiscal or philosophical logic has been abandoned in favour of the goal of destroying a hated enemy — renewable energy — no matter what the cost.

We’re all reporting this as a story about energy, about engineering, about public finance and costings and day-to-day challenges around delivering, operating and maintaining infrastructure. In fact it’s a culture war, pure and simple. And like any culture war, there’s no room for logic, evidence or reality — just enemies.

Poor Nick Feik proposed Journalists who fail to interrogate Dutton’s nuclear dream should resign, There is no credible nuclear plan, and journalists reporting the announcement seriously are misleading the public. (Paywall)

Resign? In what alternative hive mind reptile universe? 

This is manna from heaven, this is a bonanza, a gold rush, a gravy train windfall designed to inspire acres of reptile columns, this is an  Übermensch culture war, this is months of rabid ratbag capering and carping and lying and distorting...

Best then to enjoy the memes and luckily, the cartoonists were also having a good time, and while a few were old, they were still fragrant ...

Wilcox had a proposal almost as good as the Nigerian Prince's offer ...

The pond realises that it's possibly used up a vast amount of carry-on cartoon comedy, which might have come in handy with the Caterist, or similar reptile on the morrow, but there's no point worrying, there's likely going to be fresh comedy material for months to come ... so let playtime begin ...

By the way, as everyone already knows, the venerable Meade on Friday produced the usual News Corp insights in News Corp boss grilled over Hitler-Bandt headline as Seven admits failure over Lehrmann's rant.

Head reptile Michael Miller advised the Godwin's Law breach was just to "surface differing opinions", and in that spirit, the pond simply airs the opinion that Miller is an Adolf Hitler-loving Nazi, a fascist of the first water, a vile supporter of holocausts and genocides (and not just Gaza), and for anyone interested in complaining, he provided the correct response:

“I am not going to argue today about something which personally you disagree with, and that I could find people who would personally agree with it.”

No doubt the pond could find some people who personally agree with the idea that Miller is head of a proto-fascist company aligned with wannabe despots of the mango Mussolini kind ...

Speaking of bigots, the Graudian turned up a ripper in ‘Woke mumbo jumbo’: Sydney barrister says he will lobby King of Tonga in fight against Newington College coed shift.

Inter alia ...

...In the email, seen by Guardian Australia, Morgan wrote: “I am flying to Tonga on Saturday, nothing is clear, but I am working on meeting with the King of Tonga to explain we are fighting for a tradition in which they are important.”
Newington’s brother school, Tupou College, is in Tonga.
“It’s hard to keep fighting but myself and a lot of people on this link have worked very hard to fight against the bullshit that is destroying a school we love,” Morgan wrote.
In the email, Morgan also encourages the recipients to “never give up” and to oppose the school’s “strategic direction”.
“We will need to show like at the SGM the silent majority disagree with the ‘Strategic Direction’ aka ‘transgender midgets get free schooling paid for by hard working normal people’. What a joke.”

The irony? Wiki it here ...

Traditionally, Tongan culture has been supportive of transgender people in the form of the fakaleiti (also known as the fakafefine; literally like a lady). The fakaleiti, similarly to the fa'afafine of Samoa and the māhū of Hawaii, are people who were born male but act, dress and behave as female. They have traditionally been accepted by Tongan society. However, in modern times, Tonga has a powerful religious community, and recently has seen a rise in fundamentalism and religious fanaticism. As such, the fakaleiti tend to face regular discrimination and stigma, despite being an integral part of Tongan culture. Cross-dressing is illegal in Tonga under laws inherited by the former British Empire.

The British Empire and barristers doing their bit for Newington College, and spreading bigotry around the world...ignorance, prejudice, fanaticism and an ability to offer offensive blather, Western Civilisation at its finest (disrespectful sarcasm intended) ...

Meanwhile, the immortal Rowe is keeping the comedy flowing ...

Ziggy Stardust? Who knew he was still kicking around ...and as usual, it's all in the details, and that rear view mirror was a ripper ... his ghost may be heard if you pass by that billabong, munching on an onion, and singing "who'll come a climate science denying with me".

And on the principle of nuking all the 'toons before resuming reptile studies, here's a First Dog on the same topic ...