Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen...

Mausi, the cat, took me aside this morning and pointed out that she really needed a proper road through the garden in all this white fluff! Or did I want her to go out, fall into a snow drift and vanish until next spring? Of course not, so I grabbed the shovel and built an autobahn for Mausi...


It's been snowing heavily around here since yesterday afternoon. People in the village say they haven't seen that much snow around here for the last 49 years. It's great, although my attempts at building a snowman were defeated this morning: not the right kind of snow!

Snow time?

It's currently snowing very gently here in Punak, a suburb of Tehran. So far it isn't settling, but it is gently getting heavier and I suspect if this continues we will have a layer of the white stuff by this evening. As Punak is on the lower slopes of the mountains that form the northern boundary for the city, it may well not be snowing lower down as my apartment is quite high up, about 200 metres above the training centre we are working in.

Interestingly though, the city below me is hidden in the murky cloud and the softly falling curtain of snow flakes is certainly cutting down visibility.

Better break out the longjohns for this evenings outing to a restuarant!

Damn all politcians ....

I need to make a payment to an account I have in the US for services I use. I would normally do this through PayPal but when I tried earlier I got the interesting message that I cannot make the payment as "sanctions" prohibit this! Now I am definitely seeing red. Sanctions? What bl**dy good will they do pray tell? I'll tell you the effect of sanctions of this sort - it hardens attitudes and drives people into the hardliners camp, that's what it does. I watched this happen in South Africa and you can see it happening everywhere else Blair, Brown and all the rest of the socialist *rs*h*l*s have stuck their ignorant and poisonous noses.

Iran is not going to lie down and be a poodle to the liberal coteries who now dictate policy. Yes, this is a country with problems, but you don't solve them without actually understanding the people, the culture and the influences that guide them. British politics is, at the moment, driven by the airheaded and prejudice filled Blair Babes and their friends, none of whom have ever set foot here, much less anywhere else and even those places they have been they have no understanding of the history (irrelevant they scream), the culture - despite protests that they "respect" this they don't have a clue and immediately cause grave offence by refusing to conform! - or the concerns of the people in that nation. In short the vast majority of them are a danger to us, to the world and to the people they claim they want to help.

Its time to clear Whitehall and Westminster of all these parasites and to shoot or hang anyone who even mentions "multi-culturalism" (They haven't a sincere intention in them!) or "human rights" most of which conflict with everything about the first of these political monstrocities! Add to that list anyone proposing "sanctions against anyone for anything! The only people hurt by them are the people they are supposed to help!

End of Course

Said good bye today to our students from the oil and gas industry and look forward to starting a new course on Saturday with more fire fighters. In the meantime we have had some interesting weather to deal with starting night before last with torrential downpours that flushed the streets, cleared the gutters and turned the training centre into a mudbath. It also dropped what looks like several inches of snow on the mountains behind us and brought a chill factor that is lazy enough to need a good thick coat and a couple of jumpers!

Last night we had wind. Plenty of it. And more snow on the mountains with a little rain and some attempts at snowing lower. The wind soon sorted that out though and so we awaoke this morning to a good freeze with patches of ice on the ground and rimming the standing pool we now have where a building was demolished on Sunday and Monday. And a wind that doesn't bother going round you.

The forecast is for more snow, rain and wind. Glad I brought the long johns ....

Sustainable energy.... The scam exposed.

Got this from a friend in Australia and it pretty much sums up why I get mad as a snake whenever I listen to those earnest idiots from Greenstrife and Fiends of the Earth rabbiting on about "sustainable energy".

This article appeared in the Rockhampton morning Bulletin on 22.12.09.
This is an excellent piece for anybody who needs to be educated about Australia's Coal driven power houses.
Terry is now retired and is in excellent health at age 69. Nobody paid him to write the article which was, (to their credit), published by the local press.

Written By Terence Cardwell

The Editor
The Morning Bulletin.

I have sat by for a number of years frustrated at the rubbish being put forth about carbon dioxide emissions, thermal coal fired power stations and renewable energy and the ridiculous Emissions Trading Scheme.

Frustration at the lies told (particularly during the election) about global pollution. Using Power Station cooling towers for an example.. The condensation coming from those cooling towers is as pure as that that comes out of any kettle.

Frustration about the so called incorrectly named man made 'carbon emissions' which of course is Carbon Dioxide emissions and what it is supposedly doing to our planet.

Frustration about the lies told about renewable energy and the deliberate distortion of renewable energy and its ability to replace fossil fuel energy generation. And frustration at the ridiculous carbon credit programme which is beyond comprehension.

And further frustration at some members of the public who have not got a clue about thermal Power Stations or Renewable Energy. Quoting ridiculous figures about something they clearly have little or no knowledge of.

First coal fired power stations do NOT send 60 to 70% of the energy up the chimney. The boilers of modern power station are 96% efficient and the exhaust heat is captured by the economisers and reheaters and heat the air and water before entering the boilers.

The very slight amount exiting the stack is moist as in condensation and CO2. There is virtually no fly ash because this is removed by the precipitators or bagging plant that are 99.98% efficient. The 4% lost is heat through boiler wall convection.

Coal fired Power Stations are highly efficient with very little heat loss and can generate massive amount of energy for our needs. They can generate power at efficiency of less than 10,000 b.t..u. per kilowatt and cost wise that is very low.

The percentage cost of mining and freight is very low. The total cost of fuel is 8% of total generation cost and does NOT constitute a major production cost.

As for being laughed out of the country, China is building multitudes of coal fired power stations because they are the most efficient for bulk power generation.

We have, like, the USA, coal fired power stations because we HAVE the raw materials and are VERY fortunate to have them. Believe me no one is laughing at Australia - exactly the reverse, they are very envious of our raw materials and independence.

The major percentage of power in Europe and U.K. is nuclear because they don't have the coal supply for the future.

Yes it would be very nice to have clean, quiet, cheap energy in bulk supply. Everyone agrees that it would be ideal. You don't have to be a genius to work that out. But there is only one problem---It doesn't exist.

Yes - there are wind and solar generators being built all over the world but they only add a small amount to the overall power demand.

The maximum size wind generator is 3 Megawatts, which can rarely be attained on a continuous basis because it requires substantial forces of wind. And for the same reason only generate when there is sufficient wind to drive them. This of course depends where they are located but usually they only run for 45% -65% of the time, mostly well below maximum capacity. They cannot be relied for a 'base load' because they are too variable. And they certainly could not be used for load control.

The peak load demand for electricity in Australia is approximately 50,000 Megawatts and only small part of this comes from the Snowy Hydro Electric System (The ultimate power Generation) because it is only available when water is there from snow melt or rain. And yes they can pump it back but it cost to do that. (Long Story).


Tasmania is very fortunate in that they have mostly hydro electric generation because of their high amounts of snow and rainfall. They also have wind generators (located in the roaring forties) but that is only a small amount of total power generated.

Based on a average generating output of 1.5 megawatts (of unreliable power) you would require over 33,300 wind generators.

As for solar power generation much research has been done over the decades and there are two types. Solar thermal generation and Solar Electric generation but in each case they cannot generate large amounts of electricity.

Any clean, cheap energy is obviously welcomed but they would NEVER have the capability of replacing Thermal power generation. So get your heads out of the clouds, do some basic mathematics and look at the facts not going off with the fairies (or some would say the extreme greenies.)

We are all greenies in one form or another and care very much about our planet. The difference is most of us are realistic. Not in some idyllic utopia where everything can be made perfect by standing around holding a banner and being a general pain in the backside.

Here are some facts that will show how ridiculous this financial madness the government is following. Do the simple maths and see for yourselves.

According to the 'believers' the CO2 in air has risen from .034% to .038% in air over the last 50 years.

To put the percentage of Carbon Dioxide in air in a clearer perspective;
If you had a room 12 ft x 12 ft x 7 ft or 3.7 mtrs x 3.7 mtrs x 2.1 mtrs, the area carbon dioxide would occupy in that room would be .25m x .25m x .17m or the size of a large packet of cereal.

Australia emits 1 percent of the world's total carbon Dioxide and the government wants to reduce this by twenty percent or reduce emissions by .2 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions.

What effect will this have on existing CO2 levels?

By their own figures they state the CO2 in air has risen from .034% to .038% in 50 years.

Assuming this is correct, the world CO2 has increased in 50 years by .004 percent.

Per year that is .004 divided by 50 = .00008 percent. (Getting confusing -but stay with me).

Of that because we only contribute 1% our emissions would cause CO2 to rise .00008 divided by 100 = .0000008 percent.

Of that 1%, we supposedly emit, the governments wants to reduce it by 20% which is 1/5th of .0000008 = .00000016 percent effect per year they would have on the world CO2 emissions based on their own figures.

That would equate to a area in the same room, as the size of a small pin.!!!
For that they have gone crazy with the ridiculous trading schemes, Solar and roofing installations, Clean coal technology. Renewable energy, etc, etc.
How ridiculous it that.
The cost to the general public and industry will be enormous. Cripple and even closing some smaller business.

T.L. Cardwell

To the Editor I thought I should clarify. I spent 25 years in the Electricity Commission of NSW working, commissioning and operating the various power units. My last was the 4 X 350 MW Munmorah Power Station near Newcastle. I would be pleased to supply you any information you may require.

Essential reading for the Climate Change debate

I have found two new books on the Climate Change debate which I will be buying as soon as I can. They were shown on the blog Climate Audit and are written to expose the dubious science and downright skulduggery that has been deployed to protect the lucrative "research" funding the current crop of politically motivated and supported "researchers" are enjoying. The Hockey Stick Illusion and Climategate; The Crutape Letters are written by scientists who do not agree with the manipulated data and selective datasets currently used to - among other things - show dramatic meltdown of the ice caps.

Frankly its not a moment before time for these books to emerge, the tragedy is that they are unlikely to be read by the W*nk*rs of Whitehall or the Westminster Motormouths whose careers are now closely tied to spouting the Greenstrife and Fiends of the Earth/IPCC propaganda. There's far too much money at stake.

Reading the latest news from the US I see that someone there has at last cottoned on to the effect of all the new "health" legislation Obama's socialist fascistas are pushing through "Regulation" and which bypasses the Senate and the Congressional process. They've realised that the restrictions the EPA is planning would drive industries out of the US with millions of jobs going with it. That would mean raising tax on those who do remain in employment so that they can pay for more bureaucrats and more handouts. Sund familiar? Welcome to the path the UK has been following sonce the Blair Regime took power and handed power to the "Focus Groups" and "Minority Interests" that now run the country.

I suspect these books will also be largely ignored by the socialist media. After all, they don't suggest handing out huge aid packages or massive social engineering projects, they just try to get the truth told.

Politics of Climate Change

The politics behind all the hype, hysteria and frankly bad science is being exposed inexorably. As Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Now that the IPCC has finally admitted that its date for the dissappearance of the Himalayan Glaciers is wrong, their denial that it is part of the overall hype and hysteria is notable by the fact that they say they have published the "wrong" date - but don't give a new one.

It speaks of altogether too much politicing behind all of this debate and I just wish that the Greenpeace and Fiends of the Earth Ecowarriors would grow up, stop being complete prats and get a little realism. These ignoramuses swallow the hype and don't understand the very real concerns about the data, the models that are used, and the way the media and the political classes are manipulating them and everyone else with it. I doubt whether the likes of Gordon Brown or Tony Blair even understand the science, they simply do as their civil servant puppet masters tell them.

Watts up with that? has been publising some very telling and interesting articles on the "bad science" and refusal to accept any counter evidence to the desired political line of the moment. And it is political. The Copenhagen Summit failed to deliver precisely because far too many people have woken up to the fact that the developed nations would have had to tax their populations to new heights to pay for the subsidies and handouts to the overpopulated polluters in the developing nations - and most politicians knew they stood no chance of getting away with it. Brown was the single idiot left standing at the end - and we all know where he's headed in May/June next year. If he's lucky he'll keep his seat.

This whole topic is unravelling, which is a shame since there are some things we do need to consider about the environment. The problem is that it has become a political tool and a fight to get and keep research funding. Thus people like the professor in the US who is now being investigated will stop at nothing to make sure that their research funding stays with them and does not get drawn off to explore the very powerful arguments of the skeptics. We also have the problem of the politicians who see "Carbon Tax" as a great way to line their pockets and the pockets of the civil servants while proclaiming that its "good for the environment".

Thankfully, many people are now starting to see through the sham. The founder of Greenpeace is now on record saying that he thinks the organisation should drop its opposition to nuclear power. Edifying was the typically knee-jerk reaction of a typical Greenpeace supporter ....

If Copenhagen tells us aything at all, its that Abe Lincoln was mostly right. He left out the bit that says "except for some idiots who refuse to use the brains God gave them." Those you can fool all of the time.