Monthly Archives: February 2012

Heartland-1 … NCSE-0

So, it turns out that Heartland was behind the Heartland leak after all.

The evidence seems to suggest that Heartland’s Joe Bast wrote a memo, then he and/or Heartland-symp blogger Steven Mosher sent it secretly to Peter Gleick. Peter Gleick then obtained additional material from Heartland, which came to him at his request but all to easily to be explained as a mere oversight on the part of some administrative or secretarial staff. The only thing missing here is evidence that Bast or Mosher or someone suggested to Peter that he verify the memo by asking for related documents from Heartland. But that would be too easy.

Anyway, it now seems clear that the document, the allegedly faked internal strategy memo with the most damning text in it (but nothing really different from what is shown in other verified Heartland documents) was fed to Gleick, presumably in an effort to engineer his downfall as an incipient board member of the National Center for Science Education.

Brilliant. Heartland: 1 … NCSE: 0

The evidence for this is the analysis just published by Shawn Otto. Shawn does not go quite as far as I do in suggesting the details of this conspiracy, but maybe he’s just a nicer guy than I am. Shawn notes that Heartland did not expect the tables to be turned on them. I’m thinking they did, and that the outcome that occurred … setting the NCSE back in their efforts to address climate science denialism … is what they were looking for, and what they managed to engineer. Shawn Otto’s analysis is here.

Continue reading Heartland-1 … NCSE-0

Davy Jones Died

Davy Jones suffered a heart attack and died, in Florida, at 66 years of age.

Davy Jones, the lead singer of the 1960s group The Monkees, died of a massive heart attack Wednesday in Florida, his spokeswoman said. He was 66.

His publicist, Helen Kensick, confirmed that he died in Indiantown, where he lived.

Jones rose to fame in 1965 when he joined The Monkees, a British popular rock group formed for a U.S. television show. Jones sang lead vocals on songs like “I Wanna Be Free” and “Daydream Believer.”

Jones was born Dec. 30, 1945, in Manchester, England. His long hair and British accent helped Jones achieve heartthrob status in the United States.

more

Republicans Have Driven Out One Of The Few That Are Still Human: Snowe To Retire

Olympia Snow, of Maine, one of the few Republicans that is not an embarrassment to the rest of humanity, will retire. She’s had enough of the political climate her compatriots have created:

…she said she was swayed by the increasing polarization in Washington.

“Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term,” Snowe said in a statement. “So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.”

NYT

There is a pretty good chance that she will be replaced with a Democrat.

Good Financial News, and Romney on Burning Hair

For the first time since George Bush ruined the economy, the Down Jones Industrial Average has closed above 13,000 points. Republicans have declared this a bad thing and blamed it on Obama. Details at 11.

In related news, unemployment is down, and consumer confidence is up, and many regional housing markets are starting to show a pulse. Republicans insist that these things must stop; they are planning impeachment proceedings against Obama.

Meanwhile, Romney breaks with Republicans on the question of being mean to Obama. Then he says some really bad things about Obama:

The Virginia Senate has Approved Revenge Rape Bill

Women who exercise their legal and constitutional right to make their own reproductive and medical decisions in Virginia will henceforth be subjected to what amounts to being raped by a robotic device that looks inside their uterus in the hopes that something in there looks like a person, which can be photographed and show to the woman to make her feel very bad about having an abortion.

I find it hard to believe that the women of Virginia are going to stand for this.

From the New York Times:

The 21-19 vote in the Republican-controlled Senate — mostly along party lines — came after Gov. Robert F. McDonnell asked legislators to soften the bill following protests on Capitol Square and mocking on national television, including “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Saturday Night Live.”

The bill was changed. If the woman can prove that she was already raped recently, she does not have to get raped again by the Virgina Senate, Governor, and Republican Party. And Charles Colgan and Phil Puckett, the turn-coat Democrats that voted with the others.

Mockery here.

Climate Science Denial at Carleton University: A Detailed Take-Down

A report detailing an audit of a course called “Climate Change: An Earth Sciences Perspective” (ERTH 2402), taught at Carleton University, has been compiled by a team of concerned individuals and was released a few minutes ago. From the report:
Continue reading Climate Science Denial at Carleton University: A Detailed Take-Down

Court To Hear CO2 Arguments

The EPA made what is called an “endangerment finding” a while back which asserts that it is appropriate to regulate the release of greenhouse gasses. This was challenged in court by science deinialists and energy interests via “the state of Virginia, the industry front-group Coalition for Responsible Regulation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Tea Party-industry front Southeastern Legal Foundation.”

Brad Johnson has a post outlining the situation here.

The endangerment finding is based on a large and internally consist ant corpus of scientific findings. The argument against the finding is in conflict with what we know from a scientific perspective, and is rather self serving for the interests involved.

Your help is needed: Climate Science Legal Defense Fund

The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund continues to receive donations and offers of help from various stakeholders. We are actively working with several organizations in order to make CSLDF a one-stop resource for scientists looking for legal resources and we are currently pursuing several educational and legal initiatives which will be made public in the future.

In the short-term, CSLDF would greatly appreciate your financial support to help Dr. Michael Mann. Funds are needed to:

  1. Fend-off ATI’s demand to take Dr. Mann’s deposition, which is a blatant attempt to harass and intimidate him for exercising his constitutional rights by petitioning to intervene in the case.

  2. Defeat ATI’s attempt to obtain Dr. Mann’s email correspondence through the civil discovery process, which essentially is an “end-run” around the scholarly research exemption under the Virginia FOIA law.

  3. Prepare for summary judgment on the issue of the exempt status of his email correspondence under the Virginia FOIA law.

Donations can be sent to CSLDF online or by sending a check made out to PEER, with Climate Science LDF on the memo line to:

Climate Science Legal Defense Fund
c/o PEER
2000 P Street, NW #240
Washington, D.C. 20036

Through PEER, a private non-profit organization organized under Section 501 (c) 3 of the Internal Revenue code, your contribution will be tax deductible.

Sincerely,

Climate Science Legal Defense Fund

Grappling with Diversity in the process of Selection

The issue of diversity is being discussed, from several different angles, among the Freethoughtblogs community and others. This is a list of posts you might want to have a look at.

This is especially important in relation to maintaining or enhancing diversity when you are engaged in some sort of selection process: Hiring, making a list of authors, putting together a blog network, etc. etc.

They are listed in date order:

Grappling with Diversity in the process of Selection

The issue of diversity is being discussed, from several different angles, among the Freethoughtblogs community and others. This is a list of posts you might want to have a look at.

This is especially important in relation to maintaining or enhancing diversity when you are engaged in some sort of selection process: Hiring, making a list of authors, putting together a blog network, etc. etc.

They are listed in date order: