Schadenfreude Monday!
It’s a vile day here — wet, wild and windy (though I must say, unseasonably warm) — and I’ve spent the whole of it piled up on the couch reading the leaked emails and datafiles from the University of East Anglia. I love this kind of shitstorm. And the lame-o spin that goes with.
There won’t be a “hey, kids, let’s put on a giant hoax!” message. Not the point. The most scandalous bits are incontrovertible. To wit:
The Warmists are a small, insular crowd. It’s no use saying these were only a few scientists; they’re all on each other’s Rolodexes. The data these guys were pushing underpins mucho research. If that data is sloppy or nonexistent, it discredits a LOT of the science.
They leaned on journalists and editors. There’s not much virtue in “peer reviewed” papers if editors are pressured into or out of reviewing particular scientists.
They broke the law. Destroying information that is the subject of a Freedom of Information request is flat-out illegal. Also, some of the grant money discussion looked a little…fiddly.
They are fucking morons. Seriously. You don’t ever, EVER, EVARRRR put anything into writing that you wouldn’t want to read on the internet. I knew that. Didn’t you?
Journalists (particularly ones mentioned by name) will work hard to keep this information out of the funny papers, and they may succeed. Maybe. But the scientific community will be rocked by this. At the very least, it hamstrings the ability of these particular guys to strongarm editors and dismiss the opposition as beneath notice.
When Copenhagen fizzles, we’re going to see a lot more crude activist tearjerking bullshit like the stupid raining bears ad. Because — robbed of their extra-super-powerful 100% dissent-free global scientific consensus — that’s the best they’ve got.
Follow along at Watt’s Up With That and Climate Audit (among others). And remember, the good stuff is often in the comments.
Posted: November 23rd, 2009 under gaia, personal, politics.
Comments: 28
Comments
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 23, 2009, 4:24 pm
If you’re thinking to yourself, “Jesus, that’s a terrible Photoshop, Stoaty” — yes. Yes, it is. I started out doing a good Photoshop and it was intensely icky and disturbing.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 23, 2009, 4:51 pm
Bishop Hill is another good one. No reason these guys aren’t on my blogroll but pure laziness on my part.
Comment from Pupster
Time: November 23, 2009, 4:58 pm
Silly Weasel. There’s waaaaaay to many people making a kick-ass living on this hoax to let a few ‘bad actors’ foil attempts at saving the planet.
Still, we have the truthers, the birthers, what shall we call our movement?
Teh haXXors?
Comment from Scubafreak
Time: November 23, 2009, 5:31 pm
Nice dig on the plunging polar bears advertisment. The people who created that monstrosity should be chained to sawhorse and presented to the next Gay Pride event as the entertainment. (sorry for the vitriol, just not in the mood to be civil to Lib Ponzi Schemers today)
P.S. Stoatie, got a recommendation for your Zazzle page. A variation on the “Release the Weasel” shirt should have a caption on it that says “My Weasel is smarter than your President” with the sweasel.com logo on it.
I’d buy one…..
Comment from Clifford Skridlow
Time: November 23, 2009, 5:37 pm
“shirt should have a caption on it that says “My Weasel is smarter than your President” with the sweasel.com logo on it.”
Gadzooks, Scuba, you’re a genius. Stoatie, PLEASE!
*waving credit card*
Comment from BuckNutty
Time: November 23, 2009, 5:42 pm
Nice call on the photoshop. The polar bear thing is disturbing
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 23, 2009, 5:54 pm
You know you can do that yourselves, right? Add text, move stuff around. Resize the weasel. Pick a different style and color of shirt. Zazzle’s a pretty clever site.
Their customer service has a good rep, too, if anybody gets a duff product.
Comment from Scubafreak
Time: November 23, 2009, 6:13 pm
OK, that works.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 23, 2009, 6:59 pm
I wasn’t saying no, just pointing out that you can put any ol’ wild-ass thing you like to my art. It’s all good…
Comment from Scubafreak
Time: November 23, 2009, 7:07 pm
Personally, I prefer your art to their customizations. The end result is better.
PLUS being good advertising for your blog AND zazzle site 😉
(moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney)
Comment from Enas Yorl
Time: November 23, 2009, 7:15 pm
Polar bears keep fallin’ on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turnin’ red
Flyin’s not for me
‘Cause I’m never gonna stop the planes by complainin’
Because I’m carbon-free
Nothin’s worryin’ me…
Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: November 23, 2009, 8:22 pm
The Warmists are a small, insular crowd.
I think this is one of the most disturbing parts – they’re all in contact, sharing and manipulating data, and growsing about the same people who dare disagree. It’s not a conspiracy, its an incestuous group of zealots who consider anyone else a heretic and monster, they’re like a demented inbred family of haters, sort of the Westboro Baptist Church of science.
Comment from Mrs. Compton
Time: November 23, 2009, 8:27 pm
This is their religion, they’re gonna go rabit on us for trying to tell them you fucked up.
And those bears, omg, that was worse than any slasher pic I’ve seen.
Comment from JackStraw
Time: November 23, 2009, 9:26 pm
>>The Warmists are a small, insular crowd
Well, yes. But this is what makes pal, er peer review possible.
Not just anybody can back up your crap research. You need peers.
Comment from The Dread Pirate Neck Beard
Time: November 23, 2009, 9:47 pm
But! Consensus! Algore! Internets!
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: November 23, 2009, 10:37 pm
These asshats have been making a living off this crap for ages…they’re not going to give up their free ride at our expense.
If you haven’t read Michael Crichton’s ‘State of Fear’ you should…it should be required reading because it describes this situation so well.
SWeasel…you should do a play on ‘hide the decline’ next…maybe a magician with AlGore’s face photoshopped on, cloaking part of a graph 🙂 …or cloaking his yacht or a private jet or something inconveniently truthful…course, you could always apply ‘hide the decline’ to Obambi’s poll numbers 🙂
‘Hide the Decline’ is a phrase we should make a point of driving the lefties crazy with…heh.
Comment from porknbean
Time: November 23, 2009, 11:00 pm
You know you can do that yourselves, right? Add text, move stuff around.
Yeah, but we can’t put that one weasel face – the one that said, ‘I’m a girl, wanna rassle’, over the ‘My weasel is smarter than your president’.
How about opening a store on this site selling little weasel originals and prints that we could hang on our refrigeraters? Stuff like your one Damien pen and ink (I think it was pen and ink)….or a badger having to sleep in his green house…or a mouse dining on weasel fare…or a weasel dining on the neck of an effite commie crybaby poopypants of the used-to-be free world, who’s momma told him his shit don’t stink. Something like that.
Comment from mesa in Texas
Time: November 23, 2009, 11:04 pm
Hey, sea kittens!
How’d they get up in the sky?
Comment from Scubafreak
Time: November 24, 2009, 12:29 am
Ooo, I just watched the new Obama Saturday Night Live clip, and I have to say THEY WERE NOT KIND!! 🙂
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=116836
Worth the watch…
Comment from JuliaM
Time: November 24, 2009, 1:50 am
If the leaked emails can generate an apology from George Monbiot of all people, for ‘not being a better journalist’, then they’ve done their job well..
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: November 24, 2009, 8:16 am
Call me a cynical old mustelid, JuliaM, but I wouldn’t take anything Moonbat says at face value.
The man has an prodigious ego and viperous tongue. I expect him to continue stamping on disagreement and sneering at contrary evidence, just as before.
Comment from iamfelix
Time: November 24, 2009, 8:29 am
That pic … & “Westboro Baptist Church of Science” … bwah ha ha ha ha!
I have Crichton’s “State of Fear,” but haven’t started it yet. Better get busy.
Comment from Sissy Willis
Time: November 24, 2009, 10:23 am
THE. BEST! How come you don’t twitter? It’s a great place for one-liners, and you’re soakin’ in ’em. Also, if you’re into addiction, it’s a great place for that. : )
Comment from Sissy Willis
Time: November 24, 2009, 10:24 am
See. You ARE on twitter: http://twitter.com/SissyWillis/status/6008868245
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 24, 2009, 12:00 pm
Sissy! Good to see you! Gosh, I am so shockingly behind on my blog reading.
I’m mostly read-only on Twitter so far. Except when I’m flogging my crap 🙂
Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: November 24, 2009, 5:31 pm
State of Fear was a pretty painful read. I tried it but its just so full of data and stats and long monologues on various information my brain got full like that old Far Side Cartoon and I had to lay it aside.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 24, 2009, 6:16 pm
Skeptical Environmentalist was not too grim, considering it was written by a statistician. But I still haven’t made it past the first chapter.
I just can’t read the way I used to. I blame the lack of nicotine…
Comment from Allen
Time: November 24, 2009, 7:05 pm
I knew this was coming. I’ve been having a long scientific correspondence with one of the dudes who did some of the original work on ice cores. I have some overlapping research on the properties of ice under certain loading conditions.
Yes it is like watching paste dry, but we find it exciting. One of the things you always do is have someone from outside review your stuff. Keeps you on the straight and narrow, and they can also point out holes in your work. Several years ago my correspondent started getting a little dodgy, and implied that there might be some issues with some of the interpretations of the main temp. data set. He stuck to his own knitting so he’s clean. But, others won’t be.
This is the real problem, whoever used this data in any form, even innocently, now has their work called into question. That’s going to cause a whole lot of harm to people’s reputations.
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