This Week's TOP 10 Must Reads - 1-7 July 2024
A summary of this week's most interesting news, studies, reports and articles
Naked Emperor: Exposing the Narrative
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It’s Sunday, and you may not have had a chance to keep up with the news during the week, so sit down with a cup of coffee and read this week’s top 10 most popular articles.
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This Energy Transition Thing Really Is Not Happening. From reading the left-wing media, you know (or think you know) that there is an energy “transition” going on. This is something that must happen as a matter of urgent necessity. Vast government subsidies are being disbursed to assure its rapid success. Fossil fuels are rapidly on the way out, while wind and solar are quickly taking over. But if you read any one of dozens of pieces from the Times or other “mainstream” sources, what you won’t find are meaningful statistics on the extent to which fossil fuel use is declining, if at all, or the extent to which renewables like wind and solar are actually replacing them.
The critical cog in Putin's machine and how British firms help to keep Russian gas flowing into Europe. This is the story of how an obscure company based in an office block on a quiet street in Glasgow became an accessory in Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. It is the story of how Europe and Russia remain locked in a tense relationship of economic dependence, even as they supposedly cut their ties. It is the story of the uncomfortable truth behind why the cost of living crisis came to an end.
Gravitational Wave Research Reveals Missing Details on The Mysterious Antikythera Mechanism. Little more than a handful of corroded bronze wheels and heavily encrusted gears now remains of the ancient artifact called the Antikythera mechanism, leaving archaeologists to speculate over its functionality and purpose. Researchers from the University of Glasgow in the UK have now used statistical modeling techniques borrowed from the study of gravitational waves to extrapolate missing details of a critical dial on Antikythera mechanism.
My battle for the truth about Australia’s spiralling death rate. “SINCE the day I was elected as a Senator for Victoria I have been seeking answers as to why so many of my fellow Australians are dying. It took five attempts to convince my colleagues in the Australian Senate that a spike in the number of deaths was worth investigating. Perhaps their reluctance was due to other priorities. Our political class fully intended to look at excess deaths amongst their fellow Australians just as soon as they’d erected a few more wind turbines and installed some more solar panels on prime agricultural land. Maybe their lack of curiosity was just bloody-minded politics. After all, dead people don’t vote. I suspect the real reason behind the complete lack of curiosity was fear – that an inquiry into excess deaths might open a Pandora’s box of uncomfortable questions and that the findings might demand that those responsible are held to account. Many of these people are still in power today”.
Ukraine to be told it is too corrupt to join Nato. The alliance will request “additional steps” from Kyiv before membership talks progress, a senior official in the US State Department said. The position will be set out in writing in the Nato communique to be signed at the alliance’s annual summit on July 9. Mr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is pushing for swift Nato membership after the war ends to protect from future invasion. It would compel the US and Europe to come to the defence of Kyiv in the event of any Russian attack. But corruption has been a sticking point in recent talks between Nato member states over whether to offer Ukraine a concrete timetable for joining the Western military alliance.
The Reason Biden Was Permitted to Debate Trump. Joe Biden was sent to the podium as the sacrificial lamb of the DNC. His handlers knew his condition, and no amount of preparation, layup questions, or alterations from the liberal media could have improved his performance. Even Donald Trump seemed concerned that Joe Biden would keel over at any moment. There is a reason the Democrats agreed to this debate — they are setting up the stage for a candidate swap.
The UK is about to enter a nightmare much darker than anyone yet realises. A Labour landslide with the Lib Dems as the official opposition will turn us into a Left-wing one party state. The next few years won’t merely be “a little bit worse”, as many delusional voters of a centre-Right persuasion have sought to convince themselves. The imminent Labour ascendancy will be truly calamitous. Every conservative nightmare will come true, and more besides. The Left-wing stormtroopers who are about to seize the keys to No 10 will enjoy almost unimaginable power, and will be far more competent at wielding it to annihilate their enemies than the Tories ever were.
It Was Biodefense, Not Public Health: UK Edition. the Covid pandemic response in the US was not designed or led by public health agencies. Rather, it was a biodefense response, led by the National Security Council and FEMA/Department of Homeland Security. In addition to military/intelligence agencies, the biodefense cartel that ran the Covid response encompassed global pharmaceutical companies enmeshed in public-private partnerships with governments to create and disseminate “countermeasures,” and global NGOs who invest in and benefit from all the activities related to pandemic preparedness, first and foremost: vaccines. this pattern was repeated in the British Covid pandemic response: the national public health agency was replaced at the helm of the response by military/intelligence entities, and the response switched from public health to lockdown-until-vaccine.
The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden. “Longtime friends of the Biden family, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, were shocked to find that the president did not remember their names. At a White House event last year, a guest recalled, with horror, realizing that the president would not be able to stay for the reception because, it was clear, he would not be able to make it through the reception. The guest wasn’t sure they could vote for Biden, since the guest was now open to an idea that they had previously dismissed as right-wing propaganda: The president may not really be the acting president after all”.
Mysterious Symbols on 4,000-Year-Old Rock Art Hint at an Unknown Culture. Hidden deep in the highlands of southern Venezuela, archaeologists have uncovered one of humanity's best-kept secrets. At around 20 different sites, carved and painted in caves and on boulders, archaeologists have discovered glyphs, pictograms, and other symbols, left behind thousands of years ago. It's the first rock art of any kind discovered in southern Venezuela, and while there are similarities to rock art in Brazil, it's unclear whose hands left behind the mysterious motifs.
Where did I read recently that fossil fuels currently account for 84% of the world’s energy needs, and that in 1973 that number was 87%?
Batteries are energy storage devices. No matter the battery technology that is all they will ever be. So every single EV out there is powered by ~40% coal, most of the rest being fuel oil, natural gas…. The idea that solar and wind energy can power a world full of EVs and the growing energy demands of EVERYTHING ELSE on the planet is so fraught with an assumption of ignorance and stupidity(this is what they think of us) that only a Fool would entertain the thesis. It is pure logical absurdity right out of the gate.
I really like your new intros!