Then again, as I've said here and elsewhere at great length, I don't see how we're going to raise the quality of reporting when scientific and statistical literacy doesn't appear to be valued in our newsrooms.

agree with you entirely on this one Craig – since I've been back in…

Yes, well intentioned bullshit is still bulshit..... But part of the point is that what Greenpeace does, IS as you say, for IT'S OWN ends.....

I don't know how to put this more concisely: If you ends include telling porkie pies, you deserve to be exposed. Full stop. If you…

Yes, well intentioned bullshit is still bulshit..... But part of the point is that what Greenpeace does, IS as you say, for IT'S OWN ends..... it makes no pretense about what it stands for and why it's doing it. Heartland, and some of these other groups however, are not…

I think the difference between these guys and Greenpeace is that the sceptics operate on behalf of big oil and coal, whose core business is the very substance that is causing global warming.

Sorry, Cindy. Well-intentioned bullshit is still bullshit in my book, and I think it's more than a…

I think the difference between these guys and Greenpeace is that the sceptics operate on behalf of big oil and coal, whose core business is the very substance that is causing global warming.

Their tactic is to dress up politics as science. Greenpeace does accept the science of the…

It's not just on Macs

True! I'm getting the blank character squares on my Windows work computer, which doesn't support the rogue alphabet set.

am i the only one who can see chinese characters where the date and times should be at http://publicaddress.net/system/

This happens to me sometimes when I'm looking at PA System on my Mac. It seems that the AM and PM next to the times turn into some sort of Chinese/Japanese…

am i the only one who can see chinese characters where the date and times should be at http://publicaddress.net/system/ ?

Don't worry, it's just The Matrix. Go back to sleep. :)

am i the only one who can see chinese characters where the date and times should be at http://publicaddress.net/system/ ?

Conrad Black was (before his trial and conviction) in business both to make money and because he enjoyed the power and influence that owning influential publications like the Telegraph and Spectator got him.

Sure, but I don't accept that it's a zero-sum game. As Simon Courtauld's __To Convey Intelligence: The…

PA model is obviously an attempt to address that issue.

But, long term, if they want to keep attracting eyes to those adds... they've got to have…

I think if he had acquired Hello or Womens Day he could have made much more money…

Just watched the Media7 feature. I think that Kerr's right in what he said to Deborah Hill-Cone – there is a limited business advantage in having quality journalism wrapping a publications ads.

Um, I'd quibble with Kerr on that point. As I've said elsewhere, my blog diet runs more towards…

The arrival of the story here and in the local media isn't an accident: Greenpeace, with an eye on Heartland beneficiary Owen McShane's select committee submission yesterday, has been shouting it from the rooftops. But that doesn't mean it's wrong.

Certainly not, but I do have to note the irony…

The reason Al Gore and his little Truth number appeared in the courts is that his doco wasn’t science in the strict sense of the term.

erm, no.
the reason he was in court was because, to quote the Guardian, the court case was

funded by a Scottish quarrying magnate…

Oh dear....

Did you actually read the Daily Howler post you linked to???

It is a critique of the errors in the Curtis Wilkie review you quote.

Scraping. The. Bottom. Of. The. Barrel.

Check out Vanity Fair on the truth behind the media claims.

It looks in detail at the media's distortion of what he said. For example, he never said he "invented the internet" he actually said that he presided over the congressional cttee that made the internet…

WILKIE (paragraph 1): The subtitle of this campaign biography could be: The Riddle of Al Gore. Why does a disciplined, earnest, intelligent man with high morals have, as the authors describe it, "an occasional propensity to enhance his role in events?" To believe that as a 20-year-old he contributed…

any problems Russell 'with the way they conduct themselves'

Is the Arctic's biggest ice sheet in irreversible meltdown? And would we know if it were? Alexandra Witze reports.

When people talk about catastrophic climate change, there's a fair chance…

Well known is claim over the internet.
Also he claimed to have been 'shot at ' in Vietnam, he said that he was a ' newspaper trainee' at the NY Times and that he had a part in writing Hubert Humphreys acceptance speech at the 68 convention.

Oh yawn.

I…

And yeah, not everyone on PA is a Mr. Bean fan.

Please. Let's not confuse the distinctly average comedy that is Mr Bean, with the masterful Blackadder series, particularly Goes Fourth. It should be compulsory to view Blackadder before you're allowed to watch Mr Bean.

What Don Christie said.

And, what Don Christie said.

Thanks Don.

The makers of AIT 'highlighted the bits they wanted you to see' just as much as the makers of GDWS did, as evidenced by the fact that details of the former are winding their way through the US judicial system.

Again, I call bullshit. The Swindle guy was an out…

Somehow – goodness knows how – I managed 702,567 km

Wow. That's almost further than the moon. Enoch Brown will be most impressed.

The original release was in September last year. I presume the story came up here today because the scientists made their release against it. Does anyone know why it took them 8 months to do that?

It's presumably because DeSmogBlog brought it to light, contacted the scientists and told them…

... and the fact that you can't get a basic Blackadder reference — and the obvious kudos that implies — also speaks volumes.

I think you need to work on your poncy German accents, when written in text. I've seen that Blackadder episode about a dozen times, and I didn't…

I backgrounded Durkin after the "documentary" screened. This is one of the more striking parts:

In 1998, Durkin shopped the BBC a prop for a documentary claiming that silicone breast implants were beneficial…

I maintain, the purpose of the exercise, and the way the "co-athor" list was presented was no scholarly, and it was not accidental.

Its specific purpose was to generate headlines like these:

Oh indeed.

But the first and fourth articles you've listed link to the Hudson institute media release, not…

They two documentaries are nowhere near equivalent. The fact you can't even be bothered to spell Gore's film correctly speaks volumes.

... and the fact that you can't get a basic Blackadder reference — and the obvious kudos that implies — also speaks volumes.

The makers of AIT 'highlighted the…

You can debate appropriate levels of public spending or whatever, because they are a matter of opinion and societal preference.

But when *all* the people who are trained in this area and have done proper research are of one mind about the existence…

a scientist could easily say "umm, no I didn't document any doubts, because I have none"

Or "that's a lie, take my name off your list". People are, I think reasonably, still responding to the way it was originally presented.

Heartland can interpret research however they like. Yes. And presenting the…

Heartland institute and the authors of the original book should be allowed to interpret research how they will (after all, scientists who believe in global climate change will do that as well), even if they do a really bad job of it.

Well, yes, but for all their bitching about…

A great critique of the Swindle was the interview by ABC Australia's Tony Jones with documentary maker Martin Durkin. WELL worth a watch. There's a lot of scientific critiques as well, and UK TV watchdog Ofcom ruling due out soon.

part 1 here
and
[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goDsc9IaSQ8&feature=related|part 2…

1. Last week a German study stated that the world will cool till 2015.

I am already sick of that talking point. I'm sure somebody who's actually looked can clarify but my impression was ...

A lot of the analyses are kinda dense, but this one from Climate Progress is…

And perhaps I'm wrong, but I took "co-authors" as a claim of authorship for Heartland's paper.

Well, I was looking at the first paragraph of their media release:

A new analysis of peer-reviewed scientific literature reveals that more than 500 climate scientists have appeared as authors or coauthors of peer-reviewed…

Don, you've done it again. The science is not clear. I can't see how you can be so confident in this issue. The Scientists aren't even clear. Here's a few of the latest facts:
1. Last week a German study stated that the world will cool…

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the March 2008 Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent, which is measured from passive microwave instruments onboard NOAA satellites, was below the 1979-2000 mean, but greater than the previous four years. This…

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2008/mar/global.html#seaice
Just maybe we are getting colder not warmer

This simply isn't true. The science is clear, if complex.

I rampantly disagree.

The documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle does the same thing, kick off proceedings by making great pains of how many scientists that are listed/cited as directly supposedly the IPCC's findings are outraged at being so, on…

their original book is a pile of crap.

Oh I'm sure. I'm not defending it, I just think if that's where it starts from, that's what should be attacked. Not the bibliography that someone has ripped out of it.

As far as getting their names removed as co-authors goes, NZ…

1. Last week a German study stated that the world will cool till 2015.

I am already sick of that talking point. I'm sure somebody who's actually looked can clarify but my impression was

1) The study suggests there is a (local) cycle running across the top of whatever the long…

I agree – there's so many bits of climate science that are still unclear: how much sea level rise, how fast, how much warming, how fast, etc etc.

This should all be discussed and researched rigorously and with peer reviewed research, in the halls of science.

But this is…

The only people muddying the waters are self interest groups…

See my post earlier for both Singer and Avery's biographies. I have much more info on Singer but won't bore people with it here. The book has not been through a peer review process.

Heartland does nothing "innocently", esp on global…

The list calls them 'co-authors'. In light of this, surely they're entitled to ask for their names to be removed.

The first page of the media release says:

A new analysis of peer-reviewed scientific literature reveals that more than 500 climate scientists have appeared as authors or coauthors of peer-reviewed…

If it was entitled "scientific articles used in this book here" then you couldn't really complain.

But it isn't, so I am.

I just found the demands of scientists to be taken off a list strange.

The list calls them 'co-authors'. In light of this,…

If it was entitled "scientific articles used in this book here" then you couldn't really complain.

But it isn't, so I am.

I just found the demands of scientists to be taken off a list strange.

The list calls them 'co-authors'. In light of this, surely they're entitled to ask…

]]> Thu, 08 May 2008 13:44:42 +1200 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-birthday-cheer-for-ricky-the-special/?p=49903#post49903 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-birthday-cheer-for-ricky-the-special/?p=49903#post49903 Somehow – goodness knows how – I managed 702,567 km. Now I feel really bad both because (a) I find out she's a really good person and (b) I played the game in the first place.

On the other hand, if I could find Peter Brown listed...

]]> Thu, 08 May 2008 13:44:21 +1200 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-birthday-cheer-for-ricky-the-special/?p=49901#post49901 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-birthday-cheer-for-ricky-the-special/?p=49901#post49901

Oh this is just sad. One of their experts is a dead astrologer...

There's some frothing on both sides on that page.

Just because people are dead now, doesn't mean that they didn't write good quality articles when they were alive. I'd like to think that just because you die,…

All my other criticisms stand though. And, explain to me again, why we shouldn't be criticising the Heartland Institute? They're the ones with it on their website.

Well perhaps I shouldn't say "we shouldn't criticise them". If they were posting the list innocently, that might be the case, but obviously…

Don't, however, let that get in the way of good argument and good facts. All in short supply in this climate debate.

This simply isn't true. The science is clear, if complex. So are the economics. The facts are out there and have been for nearly 20 years (when did…

All my other criticisms stand though. And, explain to me again, why we shouldn't be criticising the Heartland Institute? They're the ones with it on their website.

Some of the references come from pretty…

I think part of the point is one compiles bibliographies of research, not bibliographies of scientists.

(If they did that, I'm sure that some scientists would feel their research was being misrepresented and be upset too – and I assume they would know best.)

But if you download the Heartland…

Kicked a migrant 1041km

Damn, I could only get 567.

It's a subversive little game, and we need an NZ version to annoy Winston.