XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX SITE 2 above OR SITE 1 below XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Location under query. 2 sites believed to be concurrently operating. No definitive dates/CIMO rating.

Shirburn Model Farm is located in Oxfordshire. The Met office claims this site is an all time national record holder. However, does the Met Offfice’s claim stand up to scrutiny and local knowledge? An intriguing investigation.

Firstly to clarify the above images, I was notified by a qualified Met Office observer (who wished to remain anonymous) that he believed there were two manual reporting stations at this location. Such a situation is not unusual at official Met office sites as I have demonstrated before most notably at Manston where there have been two concurrently operating automatic stations since December 2019. Other examples, of several, are RHS Wisley and RAF Wittering.

The story runs that the original site from 1968 ( site 2 in above headline) was due for relocation due to being severely compromised by both surrounding buildings and business activities. Normal procedure is to have new sites run concurrently to verify parity of readings between sites. Where readings conform and relocation distance is small, no renaming nor renumbering occurs. Conversely if divergences are noted the new site is usually renamed/renumbered to identify the changes. The same operator read both sites but, for reasons not verified, this dual reading process continued well beyond any normal verification period and was alleged to be operating in 2022 and possibly still is. The image below shows both sites.

It is worth noting that the Met Office archived location coordinates do not refer to either site though it is quite normal for their location coordinates to be only “approximate”. It is obvious the original site (annotated Shirburn 1 above) is really not acceptable so relocation was suitable, however, it is worth noting both sites appear to have co-existed for at least twenty years – not dissimilar to the Nettlecombe examples. Shirburn 2 appears better located though still only (according to the Met Office if this really is the assessed point) a rather dubious Class 3.

So what about this alleged all time national record?

In between the typical scare-story headlines of “DEATH” due to exceptionally rare hot weather events it was reported that….

As the Met Office chooses to highlight this rather odd benign type of record, I would point out that continued human unclothed exposure to 21°C can lead to DEATH from hypothermia and certainly not being too hot. The claimed 26.8°C is over 10°C below a normal healthy body temperature of 37°C

It was this alleged “highest minimum” that my informant felt was particularly questionable for not only which actual site the readings were taken from but also how valid the readings were . The aspects of both timing and area comparison were emphasized. Whilst “area comparison” seemed logical, “timing” seemed an odd aspect to raise until I considered the above article.

Shirburn is a manual reporting station. Historically the thermometers would have been standard “Six’s” types and indeed the minimum recorders still would be. No specific time would be available for the reading. To be so “time precise” (i.e. 4:32 am) the thermometers must be modern Platinum Resistance Type which would not have been the case in the past. This “Facebook/Meta” video clip demonstrates the ability to “wind back” readings to particularly time points as demonstrated at Floors Castle that was, also in 2022, wrongly credited with a Scottish “record”.

The suggestions of inaccurate or “modified” readings at Shirburn could easily be ruled out (or in) by comparison with other nearby official Met Office weather stations. What does the Met Office say about weather records?

{note that specific term “feasible”}

The above statement needs to be taken into account with regards to what the Met Office clearly states about their “climate averaging” system.

“Where stations are currently closed in this dataset, well-correlated observations from other nearby stations are used to help inform latest long-term average figures in order to preserve the long-term usability of the data. Similar peer-reviewed scientific methods are used by meteorological organisations around the world to maintain the continuity of long-term datasets.“

Thus, it is Met Office policy to compare to other local “well-correlated” sites in a manner described by high calibre words such as “robust”, “reliable” and “feasible” …..their words, not mine. So what are those local well correlated stations. Bear in mind Shirburn Model Farm recorded a MINIMUM temperature on the 19th July of 26.8°C at 4.32 a.m. The nearest Met Office stations to Shirburn recorded in archived records indicate the following:

Benson situated 5 miles west – Dropped to 19.5°C i.e a difference of 7.3°C lower than Shirburn.

Wallingford situated 7 miles west south west – Dropped to 16.9°C i.e a difference of 9.9°C

Reading situated 15 miles to the south – Dropped to 18.3°C i.e a difference of 8.5°C

Cippenham situated 12 miles to the east/south east – dropped to 17.4°C i.e. a difference of 9.4°C

High Wycombe HQAir (a non CIMO assessed site) situated 9 miles east – dropped to 22.2°C i.e a difference of 4.6°C

Oxford Radcliffe ( a highly UHI influenced site) situated 14 miles to the north west – dropped to 17.9°C i.e. a difference of 8.9°C

{NOTE: Manual stations report 24 hourly in arrears at 9:00 a.m. from the previous day at 9:00 a.m. Automatic stations archive data 12 hourly with readings at 9:00 a.m. for the preceding 12 hours from 21:00 the previous day.}

There are no Met Office stations to the immediate north of the Shirburn site, however, there is an automatic private weather station in Thame barely 4 miles to the north, an urban site that reports its data hourly to the Met Office Weather Observations site.

Thame – Queens Close dropped to 18.3°C i.e. a difference of 8.3°C

For confirmation this is the Met Office archived Shirburn site reading:

The archived and observed reality is that NONE of the nearby official Met Office weather stations recorded readings even remotely close to the Shirburn site. The nearby Private weather station similarly did not record anything close to the Shirburn readings. Even the exact location of where or which site the Shirburn reading was taken at is in doubt. A suggestion of readings being taken at completely unacceptably compromised and uncontrolled sites is difficult to refute given the circumstances.

Despite the Shirburn readings bearing no correlation whatsoever to local sites, the Met Office opted to proclaim this (these?) low grade and remote manual reporting station(s) as an all time national record flying in the face of all the comparative and “feasible” evidence rather akin to their desperate record chasing at Faversham. Is this acceptable from a largely taxpayer funded organisation?

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February 22, 2025 at 05:18AM

By Paul Homewood

 

 We have just escaped the Climate and Nature Bill by the skin of the teeth, but it seems the Germans have not been so lucky.

Benny Peiser sent me an essay (translated) by Robert von Loewenstern, which tells about a new law, the “Energy Efficiency Act”, which was passed in 2023. He writes:

The crucial sentences can be found in Paragraph 4 : “The aim of this law is to reduce Germany’s final energy consumption by at least 26.5 percent by 2030 compared to 2008, to a final energy consumption of 1,867 terawatt hours.” For the period thereafter, it is planned to “reduce Germany’s final energy consumption by 45 percent by 2045 compared to 2008.”

Loewenstern goes into detail of how this law was pushed through almost unnoticed and as a result of a secret deal by the SDP and Greens, without the knowledge of their coalition partners the FDP.

His full essay is below:

Germany’s craziest energy law goes unnoticed

With lies and deception, hardcore green ideologists pushed through a law that is leading Germany into the abyss. Apparently neither the CDU/CSU nor the AfD discovered the time bomb. It is a kind of hunger law.

Imagine a country whose athletes are at the top of the international rankings. Let’s call it Lala Land. The Lala Association is responsible for sporting matters. The LLV has a department for nutritional science. The Lala ecologists play an important role in the association, because what you put into athletes at the front determines what comes out at the back. Ideally, medals.

A school of thought has become established among the Lala eco-freaks, whose followers call themselves anti-kalorists, or AntiKa for short. True to their motto "less is less", AntiKa develops a training plan with a gradual reduction in food intake. The goal is to limit the calorie intake to half of the current one. To implement the plan, AntiKa draws on the teachings of two management gurus: Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli and Jean-Claude Juncker. Their core principles are "the end justifies the means" and " when things get serious, you have to lie ".

For the presentation to the LLV board, AntiKa chose the title "Eat better, win better". The concept was presented as "implementation of the guidelines of the world sports association". The board approved the plan. It was distracted by the "fight against right-handers" in the LLV, which was identified as discriminatory and racist. The calorie limits for athletes remained in force even after a change in the board.

life light

Nice story, you might think, but far from reality. Even the biggest nutcases can’t think of such nonsense as the Lala hunger requirement. But they can. The German Greens have done even worse than the AntiKa in Lala Land. They pushed through a law that puts the whole of Germany on a permanent diet. In the future, we will only be allowed to use about half as much energy as before – for eating, heating, washing, playing, working, producing, building, transporting, traveling. For everything. Life light. Planned, tested, forced.

The legislative work of art bears the sleek name "Law to Increase Energy Efficiency in Germany", or Energy Efficiency Act for short. Never heard of it? Haven’t seen a single ARD Brennpunkt, ZDF special, or Lanz consultation hour on the subject? Haven’t seen any loud protests from the opposition? Haven’t seen a lead story in Bild, Spiegel, FAZ, Zeit or Welt ? No wonder.

The EnEfG is so inconspicuous that hardly anyone seems to have taken the trouble to take a closer look. The few well-known voices that raised the alarm were not heard. Or deliberately ignored.

Before we turn to the wet dream of the reduction apostles, let us first recap how it came about. The decisive move was made by a small group of Greens in the course of the dispute over the shutdown of the last German nuclear power plants. " Radical Green ideologues " tricked, deceived and lied. Anyone familiar with the dirty details of the final nuclear phase-out may want to scroll straight to the subheading "Secret additional agreement".

closed-ended examination

Phase one began on February 24, 2022, when Russian troops invaded Ukraine, and lasted less than two weeks. Economics Minister Robert Habeck, who had only recently taken office, suddenly found himself "surrounded by reality ," which is apparently an experience that is both surprising and painful for the Greens. A discussion immediately began about the security of Germany’s energy supply, which was largely dependent on cheap Russian gas.

Habeck promised an "open-ended review" of the possible continued operation of the three remaining German nuclear power plants. On March 1, he added that there would be "no taboos" in the review. Another six days later, the open-ended review was concluded. On March 7, the traffic light cabinet decided to reject the continued operation of nuclear power plants beyond December 31, 2022.

Cicero magazine was not the only one to wonder how a "professional examination" could take place in "a few days and without consulting recognized experts." The requested access to the files was denied for a long time. It was only after two years and a court ruling that the ministry released crucial documents. After evaluating them, Cicero concluded : "The expertise of the experts in the ministry, who were paid with taxpayers’ money, played hardly any role. […] When the specialist departments of both ministries were allowed to give their assessment, it was usually ignored – or deliberately falsified."

The Energy Wendler

Officials in Habeck’s House had expressly pointed out the beneficial effects of an extension of operating times : "Electricity prices will fall and grid operation will become more secure." Without nuclear power plants, the costs of grid stabilization would even "rise sharply." But at the management level, with EnergieWendler Patrick Graichen, the positive assessments miraculously disappeared.

The Ministry of the Environment, led by Steffi Lemke of the Greens, was even more creative. A department head called Niehaus worked there. His officials considered that continuing to operate the nuclear power plants that were still running "for several years" was "compatible with maintaining nuclear safety". Niehaus, a Green, quickly turned the statement into the opposite. An extension of the operating time was "not justifiable from a safety point of view".

The chairman of the committee of inquiry summed up the actions of the Green nuclear network : "It was a large-scale deception." It is unclear how much the ministers Habeck and Lemke knew about the pro-nuclear verdict of their officials. There are two possibilities: either Habeck and Lemke lied to the public, or they had no idea what their trusted people were doing. Both options would be grounds for ministerial resignations. But resignation was a thing of the past; today, people don’t just "bear" responsibility, they "take it on" when necessary, and that’s it.

Habeck feared "Edeka"

Phase two of the final nuclear phase-out took place in late summer 2022. The supposed killer epidemic subsided, but real trouble loomed. Cheap Russian gas was no longer available, and electricity and heat prices reached record highs. Germans were threatened with a cold winter, with brownouts or even blackouts in the worst case scenario.

Even devout greenists felt uncomfortable at the thought of gathering around the needle-bearing eco-fir in the frosty living room with a tea light and felt gloves, relying solely on the power of body heat. Green functionaries were different. For them, dogma was more important than pragma. The nuclear phase-out had to be implemented at all costs.

Robert Habeck had a choice between the plague and cholera. Extend the term and provoke war with the party, or shut down nuclear power and risk freezing voters. In both cases, the worst of all evils could occur, namely "Edeka" – the popular abbreviation for "end of career" in middle management. Being relegated to a quiet supply post at the Flensburg municipal utilities may seem like a lottery jackpot to the average Joe, but not to someone who dreams of saving the world as King of Germany.

The directive competence was a fake

The Chancellor stepped in to help in this predicament. In October 2022, Olaf Scholz used his powers to issue directives to order the nuclear power plants to continue operating until mid-April 2023. Safety concerns suddenly no longer played a role – the nuclear power plants that were still running had apparently recovered spontaneously.

The exercise of the power to issue guidelines, which is anchored in the constitution, was a fake. After all, it is intended to bring a recalcitrant minister back into line by issuing instructions. That did not happen here, as documents available to Die Welt show: "According to this, the Chancellor did not exercise his power to issue guidelines against Habeck, but in consultation with him." The three traffic light men Scholz, Habeck and Lindner agreed: the nuclear power plants should continue to operate, at least until spring 2023, and if the FDP wants it, much longer.

So Scholz’s alleged decisive word was not one. It helped the Minister of Economic Affairs out of a jam, who was able to claim to his party: It wasn’t me, it’s the Chancellor’s fault. However, the revelation was not really spectacular, because it only confirmed an obvious assumption. Die Welt had already asked Scholz in October 2022 : "Was the decisive word actually agreed upon?"

Secret Supplementary Agreement

Another revelation in the Welt publication was more interesting. Habeck and Scholz made a secret additional agreement when they came to an agreement without the FDP’s knowledge. Die Welt: "The documents clearly show how Scholz worked with Habeck on a solution and deliberately bypassed the front man of the Liberals in the coalition, Christian Lindner." Graichen, a lobbyist who became a state secretary, gave his minister "negotiating chips" by email "in return for a possible extension of operations in Emsland." The Greens had already agreed to the extension of two nuclear power plants, but were still reluctant to extend the third, Emsland.

It remains to be seen whether Olaf Scholz fell for a Green bluff. Perhaps Habeck simply declared: "I need something else to make it look as if we had negotiated hard." In any case, the Chancellor delivered "largely what the Greens had ordered," as Welt’s Robin Alexander writes. One day after Graichen’s email, Scholz issued the following directive: "Parallel to this decision, the following decisions will be made: An ambitious law to increase energy efficiency will be presented."

This is where the commendable Welt research ends. What the Springer investigators did not notice is the significance of the Habeck-Scholz scheming. The Chancellor himself probably did not even know what a green camarilla had foisted on him. This is a reasonable assumption, because "Law to increase energy efficiency" sounds as innocent as the AOK’s electricity-saving tips : "Only fill the kettle with the amount of water you really need."

The name itself is a lie

In truth, Scholz’s promise was the basis for the creation of a monster. The "ambitious law" saw the light of day a year later, in November 2023. The name "Energy Efficiency Act" is already a lie. At its core, it is not about increasing efficiency. Better efficiency could mean, for example, that more effect is achieved with the same consumption. The EnEfG does not allow that. It sets absolute limits. The total amount of energy used in Germany must decrease, year after year.

The crucial sentences can be found in Paragraph 4 : “The aim of this law is to reduce Germany’s final energy consumption by at least 26.5 percent by 2030 compared to 2008, to a final energy consumption of 1,867 terawatt hours.” For the period thereafter, it is planned to “reduce Germany’s final energy consumption by 45 percent by 2045 compared to 2008.”

Now, some may object that a limit might not be so dramatic, as we have already become much more economical in our energy consumption. Why shouldn’t this continue? This brings us to the next trick of the green magicians. The chosen reference value, the "comparison with the year 2008", suggests that a considerable distance has already been covered in the past 16 years on the road to reduced energy consumption without any problems or complaints. This is not the case.

Federal Environment Agency cannot calculate

A publication by the Federal Environment Agency entitled "Central pillar of the energy transition – energy consumption and energy efficiency in Germany" provides some clarification . On page 4, the UBA claims: "Since 2008, the economy’s final energy productivity has increased by 55.9 percent." Sounds good, but is wrong in several respects.

Firstly, the civil servants who are environmental specialists cannot do math. The "final energy productivity" is the ratio between the energy used in Germany and the gross domestic product generated with it. In 2008, this was 1,210 euros per megawatt hour, as the graphic next to the text shows. In 2023, the last year listed, it was 1,595 €/MWh. Even those who only know basic arithmetic can work out that the increase between the two values is not 55.9 percent, but only 31.8 percent.

Secondly, even the 31.8 percent increase in efficiency between 2008 and 2023 is still significantly exaggerated. As the UBA graph shows, annual energy consumption in Germany remained almost constant from the end of 2008 to the end of 2019. In 2008 it was 2,591 terawatt hours, in 2019 it was 2,514 TWh – a mini reduction in eleven years of a total of three percent, on average only 0.27 percent less energy consumption per year.

Not efficiency, but renunciation

At the same time, real GDP, i.e. adjusted for inflation, rose by an average of around one percent per year during this period. This increased energy productivity from €1,210/MWh to €1,431/MWh, an increase of 18.3 percent in eleven years. It was only from the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2023 that German final energy consumption fell by a whopping ten percent in just four years. However, this remarkable decline did not occur as a result of a sudden and miraculous increase in efficiency in energy use, as the UBA suggests.

In 2020, Corona appeared on the world stage.

Lockdowns and other restrictions reduced private and economic life. From 2022 onwards, the explosion in energy prices, general inflation and recession did the rest. Added to this was the structural crisis in German industry. From November 2017 to June 2024, production in the manufacturing sector fell by 15.3 index points.

The energy savings from 2020 onwards were not due to increased efficiency, as the UBA claims, but to sacrifice. Citizens and businesses consumed less because they were initially not allowed to do more and later could no longer. In summary: The 55.9 percent increase in efficiency in 15 years claimed by the UBA was, as already mentioned, incorrectly calculated. But even the corrected 31.8 percent is exaggerated on closer inspection. It is not based on increased efficiency, but on energy sacrifice due to multiple crises.

Only a third of the energy for everything

I don’t want to burden you with more numbers, but I will say this: Let’s assume that we achieve a meager increase in GDP by 2045, like between 2008 and 2019, of around one percent annually. Then we would have to more than double our energy efficiency compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019 in order to achieve the EnEfG consumption target for 2045. If the German economy grows by a reasonably healthy two percent a year by 2045, energy efficiency would have to almost triple.

In other words: in 2045, your heating would only need a third of the gas for the same heat output as in 2019.

Your diesel would no longer use 7 liters per 100 km, but only 2.6 liters. With the same amount of kerosene, your holiday plane could take you to Mallorca and back not once, but twice. Plus once to Venice and back. This is how it works in every area of life and economy: from the stove to the excavator, from the vacuum cleaner to the steel press, from the breakfast omelette to chicken farming – everything works with half or just a good third of the energy used so far.

The fun fact: The green Redux fetishists make no distinction between good and bad energy. Regardless of whether the electricity comes from a wind turbine or a coal-fired power plant, whether the heating runs on natural gas or green hydrogen – consumption must fall dramatically.

Government-imposed permanent crisis

Of course, further increases in energy efficiency are possible in many sectors and can be expected through technological progress. But a doubling or even tripling in all areas by 2045 is an absurd idea. Such an explosion in performance is sheer utopianism as long as Elon Musk doesn’t bring a magic potion from distant galaxies.

In purely practical terms, the requirements of the green clan and planned economy people therefore amount to a permanent crisis imposed by the government. What remains is renunciation. Every year a little less energy, every year a little more renunciation. The Energy Efficiency Act is in reality legislatively cemented degrowth, an industrial and macroeconomic contraction with all the consequences: loss of prosperity, mass unemployment, social disintegration. Germany is abolishing itself.

Well, it probably won’t come to that. No matter who is in power, someone will pull the ripcord at some point when we fall into the green paradise of abstinence. The only question is how much damage will be done before we reverse the trend. Germany is currently losing around 10,000 industrial jobs every month . They will not return, even if politicians come to their senses one day.

Green Paradise of Abstinence

Anyone who believes that the EnEfG is not yet having an effect is mistaken. Practical implementation has long since begun. As is usual in such cases, bureaucracy at its finest has been installed. Companies must meet reporting deadlines for waste heat, carry out energy audits, and set up a company energy management system – many by July 2025. Failure to comply can result in fines of up to 100,000 euros. Consulting firms are offering their help, and TÜV and IHK are holding online seminars on the subject.

The EnEfG is already contributing to economic migration. Business owners are reluctant to take a public political stance. They simply decide. Anyone who invests tens of millions in machines or entire factories does so with a view to a time frame of at least five to ten years. Reason and the reliability of the state framework play a decisive role in the choice of location. A state that passes crazy laws from a parallel universe can be trusted to do a lot, but not reason.

The Energy Efficiency Act surpasses everything the Greens have achieved so far in the area of climate policy. Compared to this, “ Habeck’s heating hammer ” is nothing. Despite this, the EnEfG is practically absent from public discourse. The opposition did not even take up the issue during the election campaign. Apparently neither the Union nor the AfD noticed the green time bomb.

"Extremist Climate Policy"

Even in major media, the law of horror was only acknowledged in exceptional cases. In December, two experts explained the "drastic consequences" of the "most blatant climate law" in a guest article on Focus Online . The experts did not mince their words. They said that they were coming very close to a "legally backed zero or degrowth policy and an energy shortage economy in Germany". Germany had once again practiced "gold plating", i.e. had gone far beyond EU guidelines. The EnEfG was evidence of "political encroachment, presumption of knowledge and fantasies of omnipotence".

At Achgut.com , Fritz Vahrenholt recently pointed out the "monster law of planned economy" that will "destroy Germany as we know it". Another renowned expert has been sounding the alarm for some time. The economist Hans-Werner Sinn thundered in a lecture last year ( no longer available online ): "Final energy consumption is to fall by 45 percent between 2008 and 2045, and not just dirty final energy consumption, but all final energy consumption. […] You have to ask yourself what that is all about. It is downright idiotic. It is a program of deindustrialization. […] It is hard to believe, but that is the legal situation in Germany."

The former head of the Ifo Institute was even more harsh in his assessment of the green-dominated activities as a whole: "An extremist climate policy has taken hold of this country and is being implemented. It is a centrist extremism that can be observed here. The country has somehow lost its mind in setting these values."

Graichen’s work and Habeck’s contribution

You can also put it differently: With their extremism on climate and energy issues, the Greens have finally left the political center. Of course, politicians like Robert Habeck, who react to the challenges of reality with the full force of their chatter, appear relatively harmless in their naivety. That is why it is wrong to call the Minister of Economic Affairs a " professional idiot ." With the best will in the world, Habeck cannot be accused of professionalism.

There are hardcore ideologists in the background who pour madness into paragraphs. Loyal people like Habeck only serve as a friendly facade for the puppet masters. The really dangerous ones are the Graichen and Niehaus and their extensive network. In the service of the "good cause" they have no scruples. Anyone who sits down at a table with the world saviors must know what they are letting themselves in for. The Greens are playing with marked cards.

We can wait with excitement to see when the political competition wakes up and what happens next with the Energy Efficiency Act and other climate nonsense. To compensate, I will tell you the end of the story from Lala Land:

Some time after the introduction of the hunger program, top-level Lala sport has slipped to district league level. To investigate the inexplicable phenomenon, the LLV board decides to set up a commission of experts. The experts are to be selected according to purely scientific criteria. A neutral, trustworthy institution is entrusted with this task. It is called AntiKa.

Robert von Loewenstern is a lawyer and entrepreneur. From 1991 to 1993 he was a TV correspondent in Washington, first for ProSieben, later for n-tv. He lives in Bonn and Berlin.

The German original is here:

https://www.achgut.com/artikel/das_irrste_ampel_gesetz_bleibt_unbemerkt

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February 22, 2025 at 04:11AM

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February 22, 2025 at 04:07AM

By Paul Homewood

 

From the Telegraph:

 

 

One of Britain’s biggest wind farms was handed £65m to slash its output by nearly three quarters last year, amid warnings that the country’s “staggeringly inefficient” power grid is pushing up household bills.

The Seagreen offshore wind farm in the North Sea – the largest of its kind in Scotland – had its output curtailed for 71pc of the time it was due to operate in 2024, grid data show.

This meant that of 4.7 terawatt hours of power its turbines generated, 3.3 terawatt hours were effectively discarded – with owner SSE paid by grid operators each time this happened.

SSE also owns the Viking wind farm in the Shetlands, which had 57pc of its output curtailed last year at a cost of £10m. It was only switched on in August.

Full story here.

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February 22, 2025 at 02:29AM