“The skeptics seem to be building up a head of steam here! Maybe we can use this to our advantage to get the series updated!
The e-mail is below.
###
cc: “raymond s. bradley” , “Malcolm Hughes”
date: Mon Feb 21 16:21:45 2005
from: Phil Jones
subject: Fwd: CCNet: PRESSURE GROWING ON CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCHER TO DISCLOSE
SECRET DATA
to: mann@virginia.edu
Mike, Ray and Malcolm,
The skeptics seem to be building up a head of steam here ! Maybe we can
use
this to our advantage to get the series updated !
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Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 15:40:05 +0000
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From: Keith Briffa
Subject: Fwd: CCNet: PRESSURE GROWING ON CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCHER TO
DISCLOSE SECRET DATA
Subject: CCNet: PRESSURE GROWING ON CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCHER TO DISCLOSE
SECRET DATA
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 15:02:37 -0000
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CCNet 22/2005 – 21 February 2005
PRESSURE GROWING ON CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCHER TO DISCLOSE SECRET DATA
——————————————————————–
This should have produced a healthy scientific debate. Instead, Mr. Mann
tried
to shut down debate by refusing to disclose the mathematical algorithm by
which
he arrived at his conclusions. All the same, Mr. Mann was forced to publish
a
retraction of some of his initial data, and doubts about his statistical
methods
have since grown.
–The Wall Street Journal, 18 February 2005
But maybe we are in that much trouble. The WSJ highlights what Regaldo and
McIntyre
says is Mann’s resistance or outright refusal to provide to inquiring minds
his
data, all details of his statistical analysis, and his code. So this is
what I
say to Dr. Mann and others expressing deep concern over peer review: give
up your
data, methods and code freely and with a smile on your face.
–Kevin Vranes, Science Policy, 18 February 2005
Mann’s work doesn’t meet that definition [of science], and those who use
Mann’s
curve in their arguments are not making a scientific argument. One of
Pournelle’s
Laws states “You can prove anything if you can make up your data.” I will
now add
another Pournelle’s Law: “You can prove anything if you can keep your
algorithms
secret.”
–Jerry Pournelle, 18 February 2005
The time has come to question the IPCC’s status as the near-monopoly source
of
information and advice for its member governments. It is probably futile to
propose
reform of the present IPCC process. Like most bureaucracies, it has too
much momentum
and its institutional interests are too strong for anyone realistically to
suppose
that it can assimilate more diverse points of view, even if more scientists
and
economists were keen to join up. The rectitude and credibility of the IPCC
could be
best improved not through reform, but through competition.
2005
(1) HOCKEY STICK ON ICE
The Wall Street Journal, 18 February 2005
(2) SCIENCE AND OPEN ALGORITHMS: “YOU CAN PROVE ANYTHING WITH SECRET DATA
AND
ALGORITHMS”
Jerry Pournell, 18 February 2005
(3) OPEN SEASON ON HOCKEY AND PEER REVIEW
Science Policy, 18 February 2005
(4) CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE: TIME FOR TEAM “B”?
The American Enterprise Institute, 15 February 2005
(5) BRING THE PROXIES UP TO DATE!
Climate Audit, 20 February 2005
(6) CARELESS SCIENCE COSTS LIVES
The Guardian, 18 February 2005
(7) RE: MORE TROUBLE FOR CLIMATE MODELS
Helen Krueger
(8) HOW TO HANDLE ASTEROID 2004 MN4
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
(9) AND FINALLY: EUROPE FURTHER FALLING BEHIND IN TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH
EU Observer, 10 February 2005
==================
(1) HOCKEY STICK ON ICE
The Wall Street Journal, 18 February 2005
[1]http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB110869271828758608-
IdjeoNmlah4n5yta4GHaqyIm4
,00.html
On Wednesday National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the
season, and
we guess that’s a loss. But this week also brought news of something else
that’s been
put on ice. We’re talking about the “hockey stick.”
Just so we’re clear, this hockey stick isn’t a sports implement; it’s a
scientific
graph. Back in the late 1990s, American geoscientist Michael Mann published
a chart that
purported to show average surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere
over the past
1,000 years. The chart showed relatively minor fluctuations in temperature
over the
first 900 years, then a sharp and continuous rise over the past century,
giving it a
hockey-stick shape.
Mr. Mann’s chart was both a scientific and political sensation. It
contradicted a body
of scientific work suggesting a warm period early in the second millennium,
followed by
a “Little Ice Age” starting in the 14th century. It also provided some
visually
arresting scientific support for the contention that fossil-fuel emissions
were the
cause of higher temperatures. Little wonder, then, that Mr. Mann’s hockey
stick appears