Utopia, you are standing in it!

Fossil fuels are consistent at 82% of the global energy cake, so to speak, but the cake is getting bigger. Someone wails that ‘overall global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions increased again’ as the so-called Paris climate agreement fades further into irrelevance. Time to stop clinging to pipedreams and admit realities.
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Record increases in solar and wind installations in 2022 failed to cut into the massive 82% share of fossil fuels in global energy consumption, says OilPrice.com, amid turbulent energy markets and energy security concerns, the annual Statistical Review of World Energy showed on Monday.

Moreover, despite the record growth of global solar and wind capacity additions last year, emissions rose again, to a new record high, and further put the world off track to the Paris Agreement targets, said the report, published by the Energy Institute (EI) and partners KPMG and Kearney, which earlier this year…

Tradition holds that Martin V was the first Renaissance pope, but it was his successor, Eugenius IV (or “Eugene”), who actually brought the flower of the Renaissance to Rome. After spending nine months with the Medici in Florence, he returned to Rome and began serious efforts to bring the city back from its medieval decay. He sought to emulate the magnificence of northern cities like Milan, Genoa, and Venice.

John Julius Norwich offers the following reflections on this exciting epoch, the dawn of the Renaissance:  

“Artistically and culturally, however, Rome was still something of a backwater when Cardinal Tommaso Parentucelli, the son of a modest physician in Liguria, was elected pontiff in March 1447, taking the name of Nicholas V. Of the previous 140 years the popes had been absent for well over half, and thanks to the consequent chaos the flowering of classical and humanistic learning that had…

It was so when humans lived in caves and remains true today.

It must be killed to eat it, It needs to be killed before it kills the hunter, it sometimes needs to be killed as a humane act, some killing can be a defensive act, most rural children learn lessons at a young age, although there will be protein on sale sometime that was never a living animal it remains a fact every bit of flesh on sale to eat was very likely once a living thing, ironically that is a fact of life.

A south sufffolk female sheep was reared by the Dodger Children in the seventies as a lamb, she failed to conceive as a hogget, again as a 2 tooth, and finally as a 4tooth at three years of age it could be accepted infertile was highly probable, A family group conference was initiated and quickly…

It is election year. Political parties are building candidate visibility – they are testing each other in the House before they clash on the hustings – they are refining existing policy and announcing new manifesto commitments.

Democracy requires free, fair and regular elections based on one person, one vote, and all votes are of equal value. It requires freedom of speech, open Government, a critical media, and the rule of law. It assumes human universality and therefore equal citizenship rights. It requires a secular Parliament and other Government institutions.

That is the way democracy is supposed to work in New Zealand. However, the reality is that radical change is now occurring with little scrutiny, and much electioneering is just a side show.

One change driver is the belief that centralization and Government control will give better outcomes than market workings, subsidiarity, individual initiative and local democracy. However, the major driver…

Having considered the matter of finding a new wife for King Henry VIII, his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell suggested Anne of Cleves.

Anne was born in 1515, on either September 22, or more probably June 28. She was born in Düsseldorf, the second daughter of Johann III of the House of La Marck, Duke of Jülich jure uxoris, Cleves, Berg jure uxoris, Count of Mark, also known as de la Marck and Ravensberg jure uxoris (often referred to as Duke of Cleves) who died in 1538, and his wife Maria, Duchess of Jülich-Berg (1491–1543). Anne grew up in Schloss Burg on the edge of Solingen.

In 1527, at the age of 11, Anne was betrothed to François, the 9-year-old son and heir of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine. But because François was under the age of consent (10 years old) at the time of the arrangement, the betrothal was…

Goldilocks-thinking is the basis for the wind and solar transition, which relies on power sources that can only operate when conditions are “just right”.

When the weather turns nasty, giant industrial wind turbines simply turn off. When there’s no wind, they produce nothing; when winds hit gale force, they produce nothing.

Solar panels aren’t any more resilient.

A few fluffy clouds give them grief.

Hailstones make short work of them; a blanket of snow and ice cuts their production to nothing, even when the sun is shining.

A hurricane or tornado soon tears them to worthless shreds.

As the wind and sun cult would have it, however, the answer is always more wind and solar capacity, not less.

Their central and founding myth is that solar panels and wind turbines are gradually, inevitably replacing conventional generators, especially coal-fired power plants.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the weather is…

King Henry VII of England, Lord of Ireland died on April 21, 1509, and the 17-year-old Henry succeeded him as King Henry VIII of England, Lord of Ireland. Soon after his father’s burial on May 10, Henry suddenly declared that he would indeed marry Catherine of Aragon. Technically at this time she was the Dowager Princess of Wales as the widow of Henry’s brother, Prince Arthur, Prince of Wales.

Catherine of Aragon daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Fernando II of Aragon, Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Prince Arthur, heir apparent to the English throne. They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. Catherine spent years in limbo, and during this time, she held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese crown to England in 1507, the first known female ambassador in European history.

Henry’s desire to marry Catherine which…

Libertarians often make the claim that taxation is a form of robbery, and some of them (especially the anarcho-capitalists) even assert that it is a form of slavery.

Since I’m an economist, I stick to less flamboyant arguments about the adverse impact of high marginal tax rates and double taxation.

But, based on a controversy in the Netherlands, maybe the more radical libertarians have a point.

There are some people in that country who think a race car driver who left the Netherlands and now lives in Monaco has an obligation to surrender half his income to the Dutch government.

Here are some excerpts from a report published by a sports website.

Max Verstappen, ever since he turned 18 has been living in Monaco which is known to be a tax haven. Essentially, Max Verstappen has not paid any tax whatsoever to the Dutch government for his earnings…

The Kings of England and the Kings of France had a history of rivalry, enmity and even being enemies of one another. There are often times when attempts at peace were made.

An early meeting between the kings of England and France when they’re trying to bring peace between the two realms occurred in 1396 rom October 27 to 30, 1396, when King Charles VI of France and King Richard II of England had meeting at Balinghem, Ardres near Calais to treat for peace during the Hundred Years’ War. The scale, splendour and pageantry were comparable to the later Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting held on the same site in 1520.

At this meeting a truce was agreed to, which was to last 28 years. As part of the truce, Richard agreed to marry Isabella of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France, when she came of age…