Blogotariat

Oz Blog News Commentary

Articles from THE BLOT REPORT

What next?

February 12, 2024 - 19:55 -- Admin

Barnaby Joyce was recorded lying on his back on the footpath in Lonsdale Street, in the suburb of Braddon, Canberra, late on Wednesday night (7th February). He was heard mumbling into his phone “dead f***ing c**t”, while supposedly talking to his wife, Vikki Campion1. Campion, and her father, a member of One Notion, are now trying to put the blame onto onlookers for not trying to help Joyce, even suggesting that he was in a “very bad place” and that “who’s to say he didn’t have a stroke”1.

Natural selection, again

February 7, 2024 - 09:33 -- Admin

I had measles as a kid, some time in the 1960s. I can still remember spending days lying on the lounge in a darkened room. I did not need to go to hospital, and I cannot remember how ill I was, and that is probably a good thing. Having measles was almost a rite of passage for a kid in those days. At about the same time, a vaccine was developed for the virus, and subsequently the disease largely disappeared from view.

Beginning of the end for Tasmanian Liberals?

January 30, 2024 - 17:14 -- Admin

Everyone has seen the decline of the Victorian Liberal Party which, in the two most recent state elections, has gone backwards1,2, in part because the party in that state was perceived as having been taken over by religious nutters3. Such a takeover of the Liberal Party by religious nutters is also seen to be, in part, the reason the Liberal Party was almost annihilated in a state election in Western Australia4.

How could they?

January 24, 2024 - 08:41 -- Admin

Once the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, they introduced legislation to restrict the rights of Jews. Discrimination against Jewish doctors, lawyers and businesses began at about the same time. 

Having a lend

January 11, 2024 - 16:59 -- Admin

In recent years, there have been all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories floating around, many of which have been instigated by a person or persons referred to as Q, whose gullible followers are known as QAnons.

The coming revolution?

January 2, 2024 - 14:24 -- Admin

I recently read a fascinating book by Simon Winchester entitled ‘Knowing what we know’1,2. I have a soft spot for Winchester, as he also wrote the book ‘The map that changed the world’ which is about the first nation-scale geological map produced by geologist William Smith, which was effectively the beginning of modern geology and biostratigraphy*3,4. A copy of this large map hangs in Burlington House in Piccadilly (London, UK), the headquarters of the Geological Society.

Salt and battery

January 1, 2024 - 15:13 -- Admin

Four and a half years ago, I wrote a piece about how advances in battery design were increasing the energy density of batteries. Energy density is measured in Watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/Kg). These advances had led to improvements in energy density such that Lithium ion batteries had an energy density of about 250Wh/kg, such that they could be used for all modes of transport, even aircraft.

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