Utopia, you are standing in it!

I recently wrote a short piece for Adam Smith Works, on the influence of David Hume on Adam Smith, in the field of trade and international politics.

You may find it here: https://www.adamsmithworks.org/speakings/van-de-haar-insights-of-david-hume

Earlier in the week I did a post that included economist (and former Victoria University academic) Martin Lally’s sketch outline of an approach to thinking about applying cost-benefit analysis techniques to Covid vaccine “mandates”. In that post I included a few suggestions, questions, and thoughts on aspects of Lally’s note and the wider issue of coercion in a Covid context.

Since then, Lally has extended his note into a fuller short paper. I offered to make it more widely available here

A COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF COVID-19 VACCINE MANDATES by Martin Lally

Here is his Abstract

Abstract

Covid-19 vaccine mandates for the general population must trade off the rights of those who object to being vaccinated against the costs that the unvaccinated impose upon the vaccinated, most particularly the increased risk to vaccinated people of death by covid-19.  This paper provides a methodology for doing so.  It is then applied to…

Greenland drink break [image credit: leisurelylifestyle.com] As a bonus in today’s climate obsessed times, carbon credits could come into play for farmers to sell with this discovery. Even Danish brewers can benefit. Why fear glacier melt if it makes life better?
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On a shore near Greenland’s capital Nuuk, a local scientist points to a paradox emerging as the island’s glaciers retreat: one of the most alarming consequences of global warming could deliver a way to limit its effects, says Reuters (via Yahoo News).

“It’s a kind of wonder material,” says Minik Rosing, a native Greenlander, referring to the ultra-fine silt deposited as the glaciers melt.

Known as glacial rock flour, the silt is crushed to nano-particles by the weight of the retreating ice sheet, which deposits roughly one billion tonnes of it on the world’s largest island per year.

Professor Minik Rosing and his team at…

Apocalypse Now (1979) Director: Francis Ford Coppola

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

★★★★★

Originally conceived as an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in Vietnam, Apocalypse Now is a haunting, terrifying, powerful portrayal of the Vietnam War by Francis Ford Coppola who takes us deep into the dark recesses of our primitive subconscious. In truth, it was a miracle that the film was even made at all; nearly everything went wrong during during production. The original title was “Apocalypse Three” but was changed by scriptwriter John Milius to poke fun at the pop culture idiom “Nirvana Now.” The initial intent was for George Lucas to direct the film as a black comedy, but after several years and a denied request to shoot the film on location in Vietnam, Lucas moved on to other projects (American Graffiti and Star Wars) and Francis Ford Coppola…

Hamlet (1948) Director: Laurence Olivier

“This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind.”

★★★★★

As a follow-up to 1944’s triumphant Henry V, the writer/director/producer virtuoso Laurence Oliver returned with an absolutely iconic depiction of Hamlet in 1948 which won a string of awards including Best Picture (the first non-American film to win Best Picture) and Best Actor (Laurence Olivier), though Oliver ultimately lost Best Director to John Huston for his equally amazing film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. In the end, Hamlet won four Academy Awards. Despite the omission of numerous characters and scenes (especially the absence of Fortinbras and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern), as well as some revisionist dialogue, this dark and brooding masterpiece comes with high praise from me –one which I have seen several times now.

Even though I am something of a Shakespeare purist, I found Olivier’s Hamlet

Apparently Stuff ran an article by Andrea Vance in last weeks Sunday Star Times accusing the Taxpayers Union of Racism and other things for opposing 3Waters. I have not seen or read this Stuff article but apparently it was spread across two pages – so was a major expose.

When the Taxpayers Unions responded with a rebuttal of the accusations Stuff refused to run it and then refused paid advertising from the Taxpayers Union when they tried to explain their position that way. Obviously Stuff are well in the Governments pocket and making sure they earn their share of the $55million plus paid by the Government.

What follows is the piece that the Taxpayers Union presented to Stuff – I have pinched it from Homepaddock because it deserves maximum exposure and I am sure she and the Taxpayers Union will not mind..

`This iswhat Stuff won’t publish:

Irresponsible…

Credit: NASA

H/T Tallbloke
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By Dr. Rudolph Kalveks — As the media, politicians and climate activists continue to circulate hysterical hot air from the Cop26 conference, the topic of climate change or anthropogenic global warming (AGW) has become an emotional one, increasingly detached from the thoughtful and meticulous process of theory development, calculation and observation that is supposed to characterise scientific endeavour.

It may come as a surprise to some that “The Science”, as expounded in the IPCC Summaries for Policymakers that inform conference participants, is not uncritically accepted by all scientists in the field, and that widely different views are held by a substantial cadre of experienced and eminent researchers.

Moreover, a multitude of peer-reviewed papers contradict many aspects of the IPCC’s alarmist narrative.

Furthermore, a coherent theory about the impact of changes in greenhouse gases (GHGs) is starting to emerge, one that is built up…

Seeing as a few people showed interest in my post on a best New Zealand Eleven I thought I would try my luck with an Australian team. My interest in Australian cricket started with the 1958/59 Ashes series but a number of the players I have selected were from before that time and they were great players I grew up reading about.

My team in batting order is:

1. Bill Ponsford
2. Bill Woodfull
3. Don Bradman
4. Greg Chappell
5. Steve Waugh
6. Keith Millar
7. Alan Davidson
8. Don Tallon
9. Shane Warne
10. DennisLillee
11. Ray Lindwall

Bradman would be Captain and Norman O’Neil would be my 12 man..

There are a number of unlucky players in my mind – Neil Harvey, Ashley Mallet, Bobby Simpson, Clarrie Grimmett, Doug Walters, Mathew Hayden, Richie Benaud, Charlie McCartney, Rodney Marsh, Ricky Ponting to name a few – you cannot pick them all.

On form Steve Smith would have pushed hard…

The author notes, with examples, that ‘it is difficult to reconcile this latest research with many other lines of inquiry to determine past temperatures.’ Using a single computer model to ‘fill in gaps’ in data has its own drawbacks, as mentioned below.
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Modern warming differs from the gradual rise in temperature seen in the past 10,000 years. That’s the conclusion of a paper just published in the journal Nature, says David Whitehouse.

Reconstructing the temperature timeline back to 24,000 years ago – the so-called Last Glacial Maximum – a team of researchers show that recent warming is unusual.

Knowledge of past climate is important to put our present climate into context, allowing us to see what climatic variations can take place in the absence of contemporary amounts of greenhouse gasses.

Add ‘wind’, ‘solar’ or ‘renewable’ to a financial asset and you’ll soon have a line of suckers between here and the horizon.

The canny investor knows that, if it’s too good to be true, it is. However, that doesn’t curb the enthusiasm of those eager to take your money and run.

Not that the habit of fleecing investors is exclusive to the wind and solar industries, heaven forbid. However, as Paul Homewood outlines below, these boys are very good at it; provided that the subsidies keep flowing.

Solar Subsidy Farming
Not a Lot of People Know That
Paul Homewood
9 September 2021

There’s an outfit called Next Energy Solar Fund, who are after your money to invest in solar projects:

https://www.nextenergysolarfund.com/solar-asset-portfolio/

Next Energy don’t directly own the solar farms, it is merely the holding company for a number of shell companies who do own them. This is advantageous to them…

On 12 October 1917 the following event took place about three miles from Passchendaele Ridge in Belgium: A soldier who had been slightly wounded in the fighting earlier that day left the line to find the nearest casualty clearing station. In the gloom, he deviated from the wooden duckboard path which snaked its way through the mire. Later he was discovered stuck fast in a shell hole. He was only a few yards from where he had started some hours before. Men were called up. Ropes and spades were brought forward. Repeated efforts were made to dig or pull him out. At one moment there were sixteen men working on this task. When his battalion was relieved the following night he was still stuck fast. His fate is unknown. But the probability that he drowned in the mud is very high.

What we will investigate is:

1. why men were sent…