2025 in Review

 

With Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster. The Triggernometry lads. 

Tanintharyi, Burma. April 2016

Jing and Peter Jones in the islands of Burma's western archipelago.

"Australia Rises Up Against the Islamic Terrorism Challenge" | The Lotus Eaters

 

Australia is an "exporter of terrorism". 

We, the Australian government, the Australian people, have consciously, deliberately, specifically,  brought in to Australia, people who hate us. Who want to kill us. 

Elon Musk: by other tech wizards

Yatharth:

Larry Page: “Elon is one of the people who genuinely understands physics and applies it.”

Sergey Brin: “Elon is someone who thinks extremely deeply about hard technical problems.” Eric Schmidt: “Elon is extremely smart. He thinks about problems at a fundamental physics level.” Satya Nadella: “Elon has a deep understanding of engineering trade-offs.” Yann LeCun: “He’s a very smart guy and I’m in awe of some of his projects.” Jeff Dean: “Elon Musk is extremely capable technically.” Andrew Ng: “Elon is clearly very smart and technically capable, even when I disagree with him.” Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Elon Musk understands engineering at a level that most CEOs do not.” Chris Hadfield: “Elon Musk is clearly very intelligent and serious about engineering.” Andrej Karpathy: “Elon has an incredible ability to reason from first principles. It’s very rare.” Tom Mueller: “He’s a super smart guy and he learns from talking to people. He’s so sharp, he just picks it up.” Jim Cantrell: “Elon taught himself rocket science faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been doing this my whole career.” Robert Zubrin: “Elon Musk is a brilliant engineer with an extraordinary ability to cut through nonsense.” George Church: “Elon Musk is extraordinarily intelligent and unusually well-read across sciences.” Vaclav Smil: “Elon Musk is a very intelligent engineer, though overly optimistic.” Miguel Nicolelis: “Elon Musk is a brilliant mind, even when he overreaches.” George Hotz: “Elon is actually very smart. People underestimate how technical he really is.” Sal Khan: “Elon Musk is a deeply intelligent person who genuinely understands the science behind what he’s building.” Mark Cuban: “Elon is very smart and ahead of the curve.” Naval Ravikant: “Elon Musk is operating at a different intellectual level.” Rodney Brooks: “Elon Musk is smart and technically literate, even if provocative.” Cory Doctorow: “Elon Musk is obviously very smart. That’s not in dispute.” Tim Urban: “Elon Musk is one of the deepest first-principles thinkers I’ve ever encountered.” Uday Kotak: “Elon Musk is a genius in the way he combines engineering with execution.”

Not All Apples are the Same | Konstantin Kisin

 

IMO: it's not an issue with "radical" Islam. It's a problem with Islam. Its core texts are the Koran, the Hadith and the Sirah, life of Muhammad. In all of these the enemy is all non-Muslims. The aim of all Muslims -- according to these foundational texts -- is to fight against all non-Muslims. To carry out Jihad against them.

To me that means the problem is ISLAM. Nor radical Islam. But Islam. 

By all polls large chunks of the Islamic community believe all the stuff in the core texts. They believe in the supremacy of Islam over all other religions; they are homophobic; they are misogynist; they are racist. And they do not believe in free speech. All of that in their core texts. The Trinity of Islam. 

Purple Orchid Cattleya

Used to be pink. Today purple. In our garden

Grok: This beautiful orchid is a Cattleya (likely a hybrid variety, as pure species are less common in cultivation). Cattleyas are often called the "queen of orchids" for their large, showy, ruffled blooms.

Key identifying features from your photo:

• The vibrant magenta-purple petals and sepals with heavily fringed/ruffled edges.
• The prominent yellow-orange throat (inner part of the lip/labellum) with a contrasting central column.
• The overall large, flamboyant flower shape typical of Cattleya hybrids.

These are popular in homes and greenhouses, often bred for bold colors like this deep purple-magenta with yellow accents. They thrive in bright indirect light and well-draining orchid bark.

Muslims are violent. Much more than their share of the population.

 

I wrote about MEMRI from the beginning of this blog. It’s the Middle East Media Research Institute. It takes the Arab media and translates it for we westerners. Who otherwise are seeing Islam through the rose-tinted spectacles of the willing naive Left and of the confused and confusing Right. This stuff from MEMRI is straight from the horse’s mouth. As it were. 

There’s a lot of “in their own words” talking of take over of the west; of the need to oppress non Muslims … so much stuff that may be shocking to those who haven’t been paying attention , but which is endemic in Islamic society. They say “We’re not here in the west to take part. We’re here to Take Over.” That’s about the sum of it. That’s the distilled essence of Islam. To take over, violently if necessary. 

Our guide in the video above is the very knowledgeable Oren Cahanovitc from Israel. Who runs his own Travelling Israel company. 

I don’t kid myself that Australia is going to do anything at all meaningful to reduce Islamic violence and murder of our fellow Australians. Mark my words. Doing “more gun control” is not it. Focusing on “the far Right” (as Albanese just did) is not it. What is “it”, is stopping immigration from offending Muslim countries. A pause at least. Until we get a grip on the nature of the current problem. And at the same time deport people. At the very least those with ISIS links.

By “offending” I mean those countries where the prevailing culture is to hate the west, to hate Israel, to hate Jews, to call for “Global Intifada”. Where young men are warriors for Islam. I don’t think it’s too difficult to identify those. Then stop taking young men from those places.

But that’s not going to happen. Because, you know, “Islamophobia”. “Racism”.

Tesla to double in 2026...

 

Steven Mark Ryan, on his "Solving the Money Problem” podcast. 

He’s a Tesla Bull. Also: He knows whereof he speaks, on matters TESLA. 

On which we are VERY LONG....

"Elon Musk is the genius of the milleniium" | Ron Barron

 

And, says Steven Mark Ryan, Elon Musk is "The MVP of Earth". 

I've said he's "The Mozart of Business". "MVP of Earth" is sexier, for sure. More with it. More Rizz baby... 

Elon is the ultimate transformational CEO. A man we're lucky to live in the time of. 

Fireworks in Sydney: but For What??

Here’s an irony. Some of the witnesses to last Sunday’s Massacre of the Jews on Bondi Beach thought the gunshots were fireworks. Until they saw beachgoers fleeing in panic.

Now, last night, in Sydney, on the horizon, what do we see? Fireworks! 

What are they celebrating? Or are they perhaps Mourning Fireworks? Not Celebrating? 

Oh no! These are indeed Celebratory Fireworks! So... what are they celebrating?

They Celebrate the killing of those very Jews on Bondi Beach.  A tragedy that prompted many Sydnesiders to lay flowers at the beach, in memoriam, prompts Sydney western suburb Hamas-nicks to set off fireworks. In our face.

These fireworks people are part of the “Diversity is our Strength” crowd. They are people we have deliberately let into our society. People who openly hate the values of our society. People who have a murderous hatred towards one particular group of we Australians, who have been here since the First Fleet: The Jews. (There were 12 London Jews on the First Fleet). 

These fireworks people are people we Let In. We Let In people who celebrate genocidal mass slaughter. These. We let in. And called them our good neighbours. When they are bad. Very bad. 

I mean if you don’t think that, if you don't think Hamas is fundamentally bad, if you don't think that Hamas it is not after a "2-state solution", that its main aim in life -- per its Charter -- is to kill Jews... If you don't think Hamas, again, per its Charter, is supremacist, homophobic, misogynist, anti-free speech... If you don't think all of that, then what do you think? Do you think it’s alright to kill random Jews, and the occasional random Goy? That that’s fine? And that then you celebrate? With fireworks? In our face?

You have to have a view of the fellow citizens out in western Sydney, setting off fireworks to celebrate the tragedy last Sunday on the hot sands of Bondi Beach. 

You have to have a view of the wide swaths of the Islamic Umma who laugh and celebrate the massacre. 

My view is simple: I'm on the side of the Jews. I'm a jew-lover. I'm a philo-Semite. I support the right of Israel to exist. The right for Jews, who were in this land well before the Muslims, to have a homeland. On just 0.16% of the land in Muslim Arabia. When Muslims have 57 countries for them to call home. The Jews just want one, they have it, they got it legitimately and I suppor them keeping it however much they have to fight tough to keep it.

I support Israel and Jews. 

People Setting off fireworks to support killing Jewish Australians on a Beach. I oppose that. Do you? 

Think on’t.

New Islamist terror threats. Turtle Island. Black Lotus

 

Christmas activities in Paris….. cancelled. Because of our “Diversity is our Strength” crowd. Yeah. Like Paris. Like Bondi beach, Sydney. What strength! What diversity! 

We are cowards for stopping Christmas activities. Because they’re “too expensive”. When they have the  money to host illegals, give them food and accommodations. They’ve got money for that. But not to protect our existing citizens. 

What is going on now, in Paris, in LA, in New York City, on Bondi Beach, all is the Global Intifada. This is it. It’s here. Yet the FBI says “our hands are full”.  There are so many threats to our society, by people we have deliberately brought it, that the FBI can't follow them all. 

Think on't. 

What have the Somalis ever done for us? | Michael Knowles

The headline is a nod to the famous Monty Python skit: "What have the Romans ever done for us?" 

With the twist: that in the skit, Romans have done a boatload of stuff for the local Levantines, for the Jews, for the Arabs, for the "Palestinians". 

Whereas today everyone from the Minnesota governor Tim Walz to the Congressional rep, Ilhan Omar, are all saying "Somalis are the backbone of Minnesota". They "built America". When the facts are the opposite. They have come into the United States after it's been built and they've bilked that state. They've stolen from that state. 

How Audience Capture Fuels Antisemitism, Identity Politics, and Anti-Israel hysteria | Corey Walker

Show Notes:

From algorithmic incentives to progressive posturing, this episode explores how anti-semitism has

become a feature—not a bug—of influencer culture. Zoe Booth speaks with Corey Walker, a Washington, D.C.-based reporter focusing on the Middle East and global terror groups, about audience capture, the anti-Western project of the modern Left, and why Israel represents values worth conserving.

Corey's Piece: “Owned by the Audience”.

Timestamps: 

00:00 – Introduction 02:59 – Interview begins 05:37 – The Anti-Israel Sentiment in Media and Culture 08:28 – The Role of Institutions and Counterweights 11:21 – Creating Safe Spaces for Pro-Israel Voices 14:09 – The Broader Ideological Conflict 17:09 – Cultural Pride and Identity in Israel 20:06 – Comparative Perspectives on National Identity 23:02 – Concluding Thoughts on Values and Patriotism 28:39 – Understanding Right-Wing Perspectives on Israel 31:24 – The Rise of Antisemitism Among Young Conservatives 34:25 – Cultural Dynamics and Victimhood Narratives 39:16 – Corey’s Journey: From Anti-Semitism to Advocacy 45:39 – The Complexity of Racial Identity and Politics 51:06 – Lessons from the Jewish Community 55:05 – Impact of Immigration on Jewish Lives 57:47 – The Left and the Muslim Community 01:00:26 – Nuances in Political Alliances 01:03:29 – Cultural Dynamics and Identity Politics 01:06:17 – Conservatism vs Liberalism 01:09:16 – Multiculturalism and National Identity 01:12:15 – The Future of Western Civilisations

"Muslim Leader Has A BLUNT Message For Islamists In Australia That’s Going Viral Now!" | Tal Oran

 

"Which way, Western man?" | Melissa Chen

Melissa Chen:

We can talk about UAE / Singapore versus Australia and the West more broadly as model states in how they deal with Islamist extremism but let's actually look at an example that demonstrates the point. In 2002, Singaporean Zulfikar Shariff fled to Australia after getting charged for his activities organizing and campaigning against a hijab ban in schools, and defending and promoting Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Australia welcomed him with open arms, and provided him with scholarships and a place to further postgraduate study, despite not having an undergraduate degree, even after his work with Al-Qaeda financiers was made public in 2006 by the left leaning ABC. He was granted Australian citizenship in 2011. He continued to receive state grants and unemployment benefits from the Australian government, all the while continuing his activism from there. He made videos posted on various social media sites where he said things like Chinese Singaporeans were colonial settlers, not migrants, and that Singapore's ideology had insulted, degraded and oppressed Muslims. In 2016, he gets arrested when he returned to Singapore and detained under the Internal Security Act. He then renounces his Singaporean citizenship and returned to Australia where he now resides with his family. If this is the kind of immigrant Australia accepts, is the Bondi massacre really such a surprise? Why does Australia grant citizenship to people who are not compatible with the values they claim to embrace? Shariff's case highlights differences in how Singapore and Australia approach these issues. The West embraces high-minded ideals of tolerance and pluralism which is commendable, but has its trade-offs in terms of balancing security and freedom. It's time to have that difficult conversation: which way, Western man?

From here.

Melissa Chen is Editor and Chair of the world's oldest magazine, The Spectator 

What can Australia do about the murderous immigrants we have LET IN?

 

What is Australia going to do about the thousands of Islam-believing legal immigrants we have willingly allowed into our country? People who hate Australian values. Who say so openly and repeatedly. Who hate Australian values because they hate Western values. Who will lay down their lives to destroy western values. Who will sacrifice their babes to destroy Western values. Who will lay down their lives to establish the values of Islam. The values of Islamic Sacred Law? Sharia? 

What are we to do about all this?

Given the vast numbers that are already in Australia? Is it too late? 

If it is too late, then Australia is already fallen to Islam. 

Gloom. 

Dave Rubin talks it through, here or click above. 

What the West must learn from the collapse of Rome | Barry Strauss

 

Rome, Rome, Rome... Ahhh, Rome, the Eternal City. Except it's not and was not, Eternal. She was the centre of a flourishing empire. Then gone. Not immediately, not quickly, but... ineluctably. Slowly, then all at once. 

Is today's collapse of the West ineluctable? Feels like it sometimes, when I'm in a pessimistic mood. Then, in my optimistic mood, I think we'll wake up to the threat of bad actors who want to destroy “the West”, the most liberal, the most tolerant, the most consequential, the most inventive, the most impactful civilisation the world has seen. 

Who are those "bad actors". Who are trying to take down the West? Well, there's the Islamic World as a whole. The 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, who openly and repeatedly say that the West must be destroyed; that it must bow the knee to Allah and the "Religion of Peace". 

Then there's the Global South: the "BRICS" plus. That's Brazil (though not so much), Russia (very much), India (kinda), China (definitely, in its present configuration), South Africa (just generally a bad actor, though weakening). 

The video above is a summary of a talk the Triggernometry lads had with the scholar Barry Strauss. There's so much of what he says that sounds eerily similar to what's happening today. 

"Prime Minister: DO Something!" | Chris Kenny

 

Louring Days. Siena Club Pool. Discovery Bay. Hong Kong

Jing by the pool. Tiger Head mountains behind

15 killed in Bondi Beach Massacre: the “Globalised Intifada”

Port Arthur 1996

Back in 1996 Australia suffered the Port Arthur massacre: 35 people killed by Martin Bryant, a mentally disturbed young man, borderline intellectually disabled, with an IQ of 66.

The government response? Prime Minister John Howard implemented the “National Firearms Agreement”: he banned automatic and semi-automatic weapons, introduced strict licensing, a national registry, waiting periods, and a massive gun buyback scheme that removed over 640,000 firearms.

No one said anything like “most gun owners are peaceful”. “We shouldn’t tar all with the same brush.” “There is No need to ban guns”. No one said anything like that. The gun buy-back was bipartisan and popular. 

The source of the massacre was a mentally ill young man able to purchase semi automatic firearms. That source was stopped.

Bondi Beach 2025

Now, what do we suppose this Labor government will do after two Muslims with apparent ties to ISIS (per Australian ABC Radio report this morning)*, stepped onto a bridge at my beloved Bondi Beach and shot their rifles, randomly, into the crowd of Jews gathered on Bondi beach to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah? They shot and killed 15 Jews. The youngest dead a child of ten. The oldest an 87-year old holocaust survivor. [The two killers: father Sajid Akram and son Naveed Akram]

What do we suppose the government will do? Do we think they’ll take the same logical step they took after Port Arthur, and stop the source of the violence? That source being murderous Islamic hatred of Jews. Which must be stopped at our border. 

Do we think the government will ignore the “don’t tar them all with the same brush” push back? No, they will not. They are already doing it. They are already running the: “we mustn’t demonise all Muslims” line. Which of course we do not. But it is unarguably the case that the violence these recent years and decades, globally and in Australia, has been overwhelmingly from the Muslim community. Often against the Muslim community itself. But most often against the Jewish community. That’s a fact. 

So, no. The source of the Bondi massacre will not be stopped. The source of so much murderous mayhem, the Jihadi community, living freely amongst their broader community, will not be stopped. There will be no reconsideration of immigration to stop people coming in from places that will kill fellow Australians. We should but we don’t. 

To do so would “Racism”, you see. “Islamophobia”.

Instead: they’re pushing the tired trope of “more gun control needed”. Nah. That’s not gonna do it.

This massacre, these murders, is what “Globalise the Intifada” looks like. The call, the chant, that’s come from all Ivy League schools in America these past two years and more.

A Globalised Intifada, by the way, is explicitly supported by incoming New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Good luck to New York Jews. The largest Jewish expatriate community in the world.

=================

ASIO Failure?

*ABC Radio National in Australia this morning reported that Naveed Akram, the son, was investigated for ISIS ties in 2016, by ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. (!!)

ASIO decided they didn’t have enough to pursue. Whatever that means. Yet still, the gun-control-obsessed Australian authorities allowed Sajid Akram, father Jihadi, to legally purchase NINE rifles. And in turn to go on a murderous shooting spree with his son. To Bondi beach on a sunny Sunday… for some beach cricket with Son…  Oh, no! I’ve got a better idea, Naveed: “Let’s kill us some Jews, Son!” That’ll learn ‘em. 

WTF? 

When are the red flags bright enough, when is the bell ringing loud enough?

Zoomer v Boomer. The New Culture Wars

 

Conor Tomlinson above, analyses the Nick Fuentes phenomenon. 

People like me, and indeed me myself, I, Boomers (b. 1946 to 1964), have hated much on Fuentes. I consider him, by his own words, a racist, homophobic, misogynist, anti-emite. There! Any more ad hom we can throw at him?!

But… he’s the voice of something happening amongst lots of Zoomers (b. 1997 to 2012). People in their 20s. Rather than simply dismiss their views because all the “isms” above, we ought — and I’m going to try — to understand where this now popular trend amongst the rising Zoomers is coming from.

Conor is Fuentes’ age. Like Fuentes, he’s a strict Catholic. I’m nothing. Long time atheist. So I share none of those perspectives. 

But still. I get why Zoomers are cranky at a guy like David Finkelstein who demands a Jewish motherland to provide safety and refuge for his tribe, but denies it to the Scots-English in Britain.

But I’d say that’s the understandable but wrong target. Consider Islamic countries. 57 in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and 22 in the Arab League. They represent 1.8 Billion Muslims (vs just 15 million Jews worldwide), and entering the U.K. in vastly greater numbers.They say: “we’re not here to Take Part. We’re here to Take Over”. Surely that’s the bigger danger, by at least two orders of magnitude. 

ADDED: “British media reacts to Fuentes furore”

Three people killed at Chanukah by the Sea on Bondi Beach, Australia

Bondi Beach is my favourite beach in Australia. An icon. 

The Jewish community celebrates a "Chanukah by the Sea". Described as "a public Menorah lighting events held in coastal areas during the Jewish holiday of Chanukah (or Hanukkah). These events are typically organized by local Chabad centers to promote Jewish unity and pride.

"A prominent event is "Chanukah by the Sea 2025," scheduled for December 14, 2025, at the Bondi Park Playground in Bondi Beach, NSW, Australia, hosted by Chabad of Bondi."

Then...

Two "black clad men" lined up on them from nearby, shouldered their rifles and shot them. At least three are dead. 

The two men have not been identified yet. 

Here's my guess. I'm going to jump straight to a conclusion, with zero evidence.

These two men are Muslims. There! I said it. Let's see. And let's see how long before we know it's true, then the cry goes up: "Don't mention Islam in case there's backlash against the Muslim community. Which we must remember, is mostly peaceful."

And... 

PM Albanese, FM Penny Wong & Co: Let's keep on importing these young, middle eastern, Muslim men, and their pathologies. Say otherwise and you're Rrrraaacist. 

Black voters desert the Democratic Party

 

I don't know who Doc Rich is, but I've followed him for some years and he's got 1.8 m subscribers which makes him a major influencer on the Black Conservative side. 

People who are in the Democratic Party and then leave, are those that have been surrounded by the Democrat atmosphere: CNN, CNBC, ABC, CBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post. All that media, all on the Left, plus all of academia, on the Left. So, to get to leave, it's got to be because you know all that, all the Dem talking points, all its philosophies, all its views, all its talking points, but you see the Other Side, which takes some effort, yet you find it more congenial. 

I respenct these people because they have used their own minds. To come to a conclusion that makes more logic than simply going along with the Common Narrative. 

The Tale of Two Somali Women: the Good; the Bad

I’ve followed these women for a very long time. 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali since she shot to fame and infamy in the Netherlands, right back to the beginning of this blog in 2009. 

Ilhan Omar since she was elected to the United States Congress in 2019. Both are born in Somalia and both have been given refuge in western countries. Ayaan is grateful. Ilhan is an ingrate. 

My short take: Ayaan is a wonderful, brave and moral woman. Omar is the world’s greatest ingrate.

===================

Here goes my slightly longer take:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ilhan Omar, both born in Somalia and refugees who found opportunity in the West, represent starkly contrasting paths.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali endured female genital mutilation as a child and fled an arranged marriage. In the Netherlands, she boldly exposed Islamic misogyny through her writings and the film *Submission* with Theo van Gogh, which critiqued the oppression of women under fundamentalist Islam. 

The film provoked outrage: van Gogh was assassinated by an Islamist in 2004, and Hirsi Ali received death threats, living under protection ever since. Undeterred, she champions Western liberal values—freedom, tolerance, and women's rights—while rejecting the cultural practices that harmed her. Her courage embodies gratitude toward the open societies that sheltered her.

===================

In contrast, Ilhan Omar fled Somalia's civil war as a child, spending years in a refugee camp before her family was granted asylum in the U.S. in the 1990s. America welcomed her, enabling her rise to Congress in 2019 as one of the first Muslim women elected. Lawmakers even changed House rules to allow her hijab on the floor—a gesture of inclusion. 

"Who is Ilham Omar?". It's a pretty nasty family history, tbf. Despite which she seems to be following it. Calling, for example, the 911 Twin Towers atrocity "some people did some things". And Jew-hating: "They love their Benjies". 

Omar non-stop smears on America, from its foreign policy to domestic systems, while emphasizing solidarity with Somalia. In speeches to Somali-American audiences, she has vowed to prioritize Somalia's interests, such as protecting its territorial claims, prompting accusations of divided loyalties and ingratitude toward the nation that gave her refuge and power.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali risked everything to defend Western freedoms. Hero. 

Ilhan Omar benefited immensely from western freedoms and tolerance; then does and supports everything to bring them down. Grifter. 

Just look at how Omar is handling the Somali Fraud Scandal in Minnesota. Deflect, deny, project, excuse.

Dawn-Sun. Dog-Ball

Our Labradoodle, Byron, in Siena Park, Discovery Bay, Hong Kong 
Photo: Arlene Villante

“The BBC attack British history, Again”

 

I don’t know the guy above who does a fact-check of the BBC’s latest attack on the perfidious British empire. A documentary on the transatlantic slave trade. I do know the scholarship of Rafe Heydel-Mankoo, the Kenyan-Indian-Brit historian, who also brilliantly covers these issues. From a historically factual base rather than to a preferred narrative. 

From the Show Notes of the above video: 

The BBC have released there latest documentary, Empire with David Olusoga. Like many similar documentaries the BBC view Britain's past in an overwhelmingly negative light, treating the past as one long list of wrong doings by Britain. This comes at a time of intense scrutiny, as the BBC's bias has been the subject of a recent memo accusing it of not being impartial in the coverage of Donald Trump, the war in Gaza and their treatment of British history

Look, it’s not “Noooo mea culpa”. It’s “yes, Culpa, we Brits”, but also: everyone culpa. Including Africa and the vast, expansionist Islamic Empire. Where, by the way, slavery remains endemic to this day….

But also: “we Brits stopped the transatlantic slave trade”. And used blood and toil to stop it everywhere. And that’s simply not covered. Relevant, surely?! As the guy I don’t know, above, points out: lying by omission. A cunning BBC trick. And the BBC lying by commission as in: treating the violently imperialist slave-trading Mughal empire in India as a form or lovely, benign governance, with massive wealth, which bedazzled the colonial Brits. Right. 

ADDED: Brendan O’Neill talks to Robin Aitken who worked at the BBC for decades, and now talks as an insider about its bias. “BBC bias: it’s worse than you think”. Robin traces the background to how the BBC bias developed and how difficult if not impossible it would be to change it back to a genuinely impartial source. He speaks beautifully. So mellifluous. 

“Tesla China Crushes Targets” | Herbert Ong

 

People, like me even, Tesla Bull, often forget Tesla has a major factory in China. Which is selling into China and around Asia, like here in Hong Kong. 

Herbert Ong reports how well Tesla is doing in China. Despite major competition from much cheaper Chinese EVs. 

11.11.11. Lest We Forget

It’s just passed here in Hong Kong.11 am on 11 November. 

Remembering, Lest we Forget, the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh month of 1918.

The Armistice day of the First World War, 1914-1918.

We memorialise it here in Hong Kong as well. This early morning dawn service at the Cenotaph in Victoria Park. 

China was in the side of the Allies, with major contributions of blood and toil. That is too little known or recognised in the world.

ADDED: Oh dear. I’m only out by a month, innit!?. Blame it on age… 😞

Elon blows minds | Farzad

Farzad is an ex Tesla senior employee, now YouTuber focused on TSLA. A Bull. Also knows a lot about it. Which explains his bullishness, I guess. For me it’s a life long hold, whatever happens, and my prediction is what will happen is going to be Great. Just Great.

In the video above Farzad gathers clips that Elon Musk fan-boys like me will love. But everyone should look at it. For Elon is true visionary. An entrepreneur for the ages. Possibly, as I’ve argued, the best of all time. The Mozart of Business. “Wolfgang Amadeus Musk”.

This Mozart of business, Elon Musk, appears to be in a hyper phase. Hyper vision hyper action hyper delivery hyper closure.

Important: Elon is very much about humanity. He’s talked about it all his life. He cares deeply about its survival, about keeping alight “the flame of human consciousness”. To those who criticise his Mars endeavours, Musk says Tesla and its company SolarFuture are all about attacking carbon emissions and making sure Our Earth is liveable first. Before going to create a Plan B planet, if that’s even possible. 

The very first clip, the interview lady appears to be a Tesla staff, but she’s not. She's the Katie Miller podcast. The rest are from many in the business world who are themselves hyper accomplished heroes. Like Jensen Huang who founded NVIDIA, currently the world’s most valuable company. He tells stories of how Elon was his very first customer, when no one else wanted his super computer chips. 

Jensen has an interesting chat with Joe Rogan, clip included above. Note his comments on Trump “saving” AI in America. 

ADDED: Elon talks of work being optional in 10 or 20 years. Maybe. I wish he’d been quizzed:  “and what then?”  People need purpose, don’t they? And isn’t purpose given by work? Sure, family. Friends. Hobbies. But work has been such a part of humanity since the beginning. Can that just dissolve? There are all sorts of questions around this, aren’t there? 

" The Big Problem With Solar Power" | Sabine Hosselnfelder

 

Sabine Hossenfelder — German particle physicist— finally gets it. Solar is only "cheap" if you don't count (1) the cost of intermittency, (2) the cost for a whole new system of transmission lines and (3) the cost for storage at nightime, on cloudy or windless days.

We have rooftop solar on our house here in Hong Kong. So we’re “doing our bit” right? Well, only kind of…

We get paid a "Feed in Tariff". Which is: our solar-generated electricity goes back to the Power Company (China Light and Power) through the grid. 

CLP pays us for that by a cheque each month, assuming what we use each month is less than the solar power we put back into the grid. Since we've had these rooftop panels, in 2022, we've got monthly cheques. 

Why? Because we always put in more power back to the grid than we use from CLP. But also because the power we use is cheaper than the power we put back into the grid via the FiT. 

Why? Because CLP pays us more per Kwh of electricity ($HK5 per Kwh) than we pay them for the grid power they give us ($HK1 per Kwh). Quite a subsidy!

Why? Because the Hong Kong government requires CLP to do so. 

Why? Because the Hong Kong government has made commitments per the Paris Climate Accord to do so, for the sake of bringing down CO2 emissions. 

Therefore the more rooftop solar we have in Hong Kong the "better" we are. Even though it makes no sense. 

Here's the crazy thing: Here in Hong Kong we already have very low CO2 emissions, of around 4 Tonnes per capita. Australia is 15 T/capita -- despite massive attempts to move to renewables-only electricity -- as is the US. The world average is around 7T/capita. So, we're already doing pretty well, with our mix of Nuclear and Natural Gas. But for the sake of virtue signalling (that's all I think it is), our government has committed to using taxpayer money to subsidise people like us, rich people, to install rooftop solar, by taking money away from the poor people. This policy is deeply regressive. 

ADDED: Why do I say “virtue signalling” for our Hong Kong government? Because we are not a good place for solar and wind. Both need large amounts of land. Around 400 to600 times the amount needed for the same amount of electricity produced by nuclear or natural gas. We are, as the world knows, a Vertical City. Land is at a premium. It makes little sense, or difference, to install solar on a 50-storey building. People like us, who have a house, on which we can put solar panels, are the rich people. The government subsidises us rich people by transferring wealth to us by taxing all the rest of not-as-rich folks. That’s the very definition of “regressive” and is usually a big no-no to the progressive left. Just not when it comes to anything to do with renewables…

Solar subsidies take from the poor and give to the rich. In our case the ROI on installing rooftop solar is a guaranteed 25% pa. This is crazy. But of course we do it, when it's free money on the table. But I'm also free to feel bad about it, on behalf of our government and to think that there's lots of the renewables issue that's a scam similar to our rooftop solar one. 

One of the biggest is our governments around the world, Australia in particular, banging on about "how cheap" solar is. Not really so. We know this CEO the fact that electricity bill have gone up. Even after some of the cost has been subsided — and hidden — by the government  

Here endeth the rant.