Articles from THE BLOT REPORT
Primary tabs
Strange beasties
In the hierarchy of life on planet Earth there are three domains. These are, the Eukaryota, Bacteria and Archaea. The Eukaryota comprise all the life around you that can be seen with the naked eye1. They are characterised by each cell having a nucleus and other membrane-surrounded organelles (e.g. Mitochondria, Chloroplasts). Bacteria and Archaea do not have nuclei.
Welcome to the future
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government will make the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars illegal from 2035, and by 2030 it wants 80-90% of new light vehicles (passenger cars, motorcycles and small trucks) sold to be zero emission models. As you would expect, the take-up of electric vehicles in the ACT is faster than the rest of the country1.
The blue hydrogen, methane and uranium con
Australia has a National Hydrogen Strategy which supports all production sources that are capable of producing ‘clean hydrogen’. However, the definition of clean hydrogen is hydrogen produced using renewable energy or using fossil fuels with ‘substantial’ carbon capture and storage (CCS). Currently there are three main methods for producing hydrogen. These are:
Rumourmongers
One of the things which amazed me during the 2022 election campaign was ‘who is Albanese?’ or ‘people don’t know who Albanese is”, both of which were almost repeated as a mantra at the time. It was put about by the Liberal Party, the Murdoch media, as well as the Daily Cut and Paste1,2.
Stagnation and revolution 1
The history of life on this planet is one in which there are intervals of time where not much happens. These are punctuated by events which completely change the trajectory of that life. It seems that a similar thing happens in our political system. While the title of this piece may in some cases be an overstatement, the alternative of ‘stasis and change’ is an understatement.
Insiders ignorance?
Sunday morning’s Australian Broadcasting Corporation political journalist panel show ‘Insiders’1 was unusual in that it was hosted by Patricia Karvelas2. It is usually hosted by the answer interrupter David Speers. It was also unusual in that it did not have a Murdoch or Sevenwest hack on the panel. On the panel were Narelda Jacobs (Channel 10), Shane Wright (Sydney Morning Herald/The Age) and Sarah Martin (The Guardian).