Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

The Problem with the Climate Data

16 Comments

Explained:

I note that over at RealClimate they are desperately trying to spin this as two-year-old turkey. However, it’s not just my case that has new information. Regarding a host of other issues, the recent emails contain much previously unrevealed evidence of the perfidy, subversion, misdirection, and malfeasance practiced by the Climategate un-indicted co-conspirators. Among many other things, they provide clear evidence of the destruction of incriminating emails. This was not just “boys will be boys”. This was the leading lights of the AGW supporting scientists, working together to deny access to publicly funded climate data, and twisting, bending and breaking the scientific norms, FOI regulations, and possibly the law in the process. And that’s just what they did in my case, that doesn’t even begin to touch their other misdeeds that they discuss in detail.

The discouraging part is that, to this day, not a person among them has admitted that they did anything incorrect in the slightest. Not one has acknowledged that they went a ways, not just a little ways, but a long ways over the line of ethics, morality, and honesty. No one has said they did a single thing wrong, no one has admitted they evaded an honest FOI request. Silence.

And silence, unfortunately, has also been the overwhelming response of the climate science community to their misdeeds. The miscreants say nothing, their supporters say nothing, they keep awarding each other honors and prizes, and they hope it will go away.

And as he notes, it’s not going to go away. It’s only going to get worse as more and more comes to light over time. Whoever is leaking this know what they’re doing, and knows the whole story.

[Update later afternoon]

Inappropriate conduct by the National Research Council? I wish I were capable of being shocked.

Business, Space, Technology and Society

Jeff Bezos

21 Comments

An interesting interview. It’s mostly about Amazon’s business model and plans, but Blue Origin does come up:

Levy: You have a separate company called Blue Origin that hopes to send customers into outer space. Why is that important to you?

Bezos: It is a serious effort. When I was 5 years old, I watched Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. It made me passionate about science, physics, math, exploration.

Levy: Will you walk on the moon someday?

Bezos: Me? Are you saying would I if I could?

Levy: I bet you’d like to, but do you think you will?

Bezos: Boy. I’ve been asked to make tough predictions before. That one’s very tough. But that’s not what this is about. If I wanted to buy tourist trips to fly to the International Space Station and Soyuz and those things, there’s nothing wrong with that. But that’s $35 million. I want to lower the cost of access to space.

Levy: How do you do that?

Bezos: I like to say, “Maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times.” For Amazon, that’s selection, speed of delivery, lower prices. Well, for Blue Origin it’s cost and safety. If you really want to make it so that anybody can go into space, you have to increase the safety and decrease the cost. That’s Blue Origin’s mission. I’m super passionate about it.

Levy: Do you feel that it’s a bit disconnected to start a space-exploration company in this economically grim time?

Bezos: No. We employ a lot of aerospace engineers. They have families, their kids go to college. We buy a lot of materials. Somebody made those materials, right?

I don’t even understand that last question, but note the use of the e-word. I wish we could get people to think about space in terms other than science and exploration.

[Late morning update]

This is sort of related. Lileks isn’t impressed with the Kindle Fire.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Ironic Presidency

45 Comments

The difference between 2008 and 2011:

The one constant here is Obama’s false pitch in 2008 that everything that came before his hope-and-change elixir was simply awful and everything after would be wonderful, from a cooling planet to falling seas — all delivered in teleprompted mellifluousness with a new post-racial cool. In 2008, for a conservative critic to suggest that the former Chicago community organizer was a glib rookie senator — without any experience in national politics, clueless about the private sector, with no prior record of industry or inspired legislation, and with a mostly unknown and poorly researched past — was to earn the charge of racism; in 2011, for a liberal to do the same, I guess, will be seen as sober and judicious bipartisan reflection.

And they’ll still call us racists.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Climaquiddick Redux

32 Comments

They’ve found more incriminating emails. Validating that the “exoneration” of Mann was a whitewash.

[Update a while later]

A lot more over at Yid With Lid.

[Update a few minutes later]

Ace has more, too.

These people aren’t doing science. They should be drummed out of their so-called profession.

[Late afternoon update]

The emails seem to be real. At least Mann isn’t denying them. Though certainly he’ll continue to spin.

[Bumped]

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!