OTG WE 11 May 2025

The robots are coming.

As a technology freak, I keep abreast of new developments, especially in robotics. You will have noticed many articles that highlight recent milestones. The major leap in recent times has been the integration of AI with conventional Robotics. AI adds the brain to the robotic machine. The programming of conventional robots has required extensive time-consuming programming. Robots require function-specific programming to ensure the robot does exactly what was intended and nothing that was not specified. The need for each task to be programmed meant a drag on their use to repetitive tasks, where the cost of programming was justified through repetition. 

That is now changing. AI is providing the facility for the robots to respond directly to instructions from a human. The AI then programs the robot to execute what is required. While this integration is in its infancy, over time, it will enable the elimination of all manual labour. The Rosie robot of Futurama will become a reality. Of course, it will create significant challenges to human organisation, but is a topic for another day. 

Here is a recent video that highlights some of the most recent developments in robotics.

Is Musk's Starlink raining satellites?

Everything Musk is undergoing scrutiny. It's as if the once Dr Jekyll had turned into Mr Hyde following his taking a pro-Trump elixir. The most recent claim is that some 4 Starlink satellites are falling to earth every day. A rather stark and worrisome claim. Alas, as seems to be the case with every reason given for a new panic, there is more to the story. Once 'more' is explained, it is less worrisome. 

Let me not be the one to explain, just listen to YouTube physicist Sabine Hossenfelder.

Adolescent distractions

Given the many and diverse real social issues that pervade today's United Kingdom, it is shameful to focus the nation's attention on a red herring. Yet that is the case. The Netflix series 'Adolescence" has attracted widespread and high-level attention. Spoiler alert, while I have not seen the show, I believe the series tells the story of a young teenage boy bullied on social media, ending up knifing and killing a teenage girl.

The story seems to have struck a chord, with many talk shows raising the social issues it portrays. Some claim it as being a true story, a documentary, and politicians are asked how they will address social media epidemic that causes such breakdowns. Even in Australia, family members have raised it with me and one friend thought it was a true story. 

It is certainly not a true story, nor is it representative of the types of problems teenagers face. I don't have the statistics, but the much more common knife crime in the UK, and other Western cities, is teenage gang members knifing each other. Yes, the television series has exposed our feckless media once again, chasing illusive problems while ignoring the very real problems staring them in the face. 

Here is Konstanti Krisin summary. Konstantin is always entertaining.

  

You cannot trust polls!

Given their lack of success over many elections, it is surprising that anyone would trust a poll. Just think of the 2016 US Presidential election, which Hillary would win by a country mile, or even the recent 2024 US presidential election, which the pollsters had totally misjudged. In Australia, too, the pollsters are not much better with multiple failures at National polls. The election of 2019, where the Opposition leader was predicted by pollsters to "walk it in",  but ended up failing. Came close, but "no cigar".  

I accept that predictions are subject to error, and we cannot assume a poll will give an accurate prediction. However, given that the results in these elections were far outside the predicted error in the polls, we have to ask why. Why does this keep happening, and why do these pollsters keep their jobs? 

The recent 100-day milestone of Trump's second presidency has seen the media engage pollsters to apply a popularity gauge to Trump's performance. This resulted in many polls declaring a loss of support for Trump. But can we trust these polls? It seems not.

Victor Davis Hanson provides some insight into why many polls are just producing what the anti-Trump media wants to promulgate.

Here is the short video, well worth a watch.

Is China in chaos due to Trump's Tariffs?

The Trump China tariff battle is still in progress. I can't keep up with the numbers. However, at this stage, new very high reciprocal tariffs have been imposed on goods being transferred between the countries. Trump's argument is that this has a greater impact on China as it benefits more from US purchases. There are already some exceptions, and more will follow. Trump has already softened his position on this. We can expect more changes. 

But already I  am seeing multiple YouTube videos highlighting the impact on China of these tariffs. The videos claim panic as orders are being cancelled and exporters are going broke. Surprisingly, I am not seeing corresponding reports from our mainstream media. So I am somewhat skeptical, but we will see.

Here is one of these videos.

Shocking abuse by unhinged radicals

Given the distractions of our recent general election, we have forgotten about the extremists who held their repeated demonstrations at our Universities. Perhaps one may have thought it was all in the past. But no, Avi Yemini of Rebel News recently posted a shocking video of the vile abuse screamed at Mark Leach, of Never Again is Now, as he and his daughter were at a University Campus. This occurred about 4 weeks ago, during the election campaign, but that is no excuse. 

While I am reluctant to give more 'air' to such vile events, we do need to remember these hateful people are amongst us. 

Here is the video.

But there is something to celebrate in the election results. The Greens, the hate-filled party stoking the type of bullying and abuse demonstrated in the above video, have had a major electoral setback. Adam Bandt, the party leader, has lost his seat, and all the Greens' lower house seats are currently in doubt. This is a resounding rejection of their hateful policies. Something to celebrate!

Is Spain the canary in the renewables coalmine?

The recent Earth day, 22 April, was especially significant for Spain. It national grid had managed to run 100% renewables for the first time just 6 days earlier on 16 April.  (See Spain hits first weekday of 100% renewable power on national grid). However the celebrations did not last long, just a week later Spain & Portugal were hit by a massive blackout.  

"A massive blackout has caused mayhem along the Iberian Peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and hundreds of elevators and leaving millions without phone and internet coverage in Spain, Portugal and – briefly – south western France.

A state of emergency was declared in Spain in the wake of the major outage, which the country’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said occurred when about 15 gigawatts of electricity – more than half of the power being consumed at the time – “suddenly disappeared” in about five seconds."  Ref Spain blackout, News.com.au

Electricity blackouts are not generally reported in headlines, certainly not worldwide. So why was this, admittedly serious, blackout so significant? It is recognition that the 100%-renewables target of much of the Western world may be flawed. 

Of course, the climate zealots are looking at other explanations. Indeed several were posed by operators. Be it some technical mumbo jumbo that the average pundit cannot follow, or "very rare and unusual environmental circumstances", these causes do right the ship of doubt. If these events have occurred, they can occur again, so the unavoidable conclusion is that the new renewables grid is unstable. Moreover, the greater the proportion of renewables in a system, the less stable the grid becomes to unexpected fluctuations. 

This video provides a more technical analysis of the issues, and well worth a view.

It seems the blackout in Spain is an early warning of a serious flaw in the strategy of decarbonization by using Wind and Solar. That is a difficult conclusion for the many countries that are busy trying to transform their countries' electricity grids to renewables. Hopefully they are watching!