That leaves an area of opposing views that are scientific.

What is this stalinist view that any opposing opinions must be eliminated, along with those who do so ( and their families ?) and expose who is…

on the business side it seems that Grade's innovation for the total organisation has the channel as its own profit center..

things aint too…

Back to Graeme, Andrew was equating Gore to Durkin and as I recall, you were taking up the mantle on his behalf.

Perhaps. I was mostly just responding to your request for an example of a lie told by Gore some time in An Inconvenient Truth.

I came up with…

apologies

How's the head this morning, Russell?

Decidedly average.

But you'll have noted that I wrote a blog, posted a guest blog, uploaded a bunch of podcasts and found some evidence for Graeme.

Because that's the kind of caring blogger-guy that I am.

Planning on taking the afternoon off though ...

Back to Graeme, Andrew was equating Gore to Durkin and as I recall, you were taking up the mantle on his behalf.

What evidence do I want? The name of a single island from which a single person has been "evacuated" because of rising seas.

Seems there's more than one:

Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands – in the Pacific atoll nation of…

this is the actual link I tried to post.

and moving right along...does this:

I can go to the NetGuide Awards tonight

allow me to post this link here?*

*Usual disclaimers apply.

Or the definition of "evacuated".

I'm not equating Gore with Durkin. I'm equating a single clanger of Gore's (sorry if howler was OTT :-P )…

In the US the word "all" is shoved into many contexts where it seems strange to…

We wait with baited breath for Al Gores corrections.

The extra data could be a mistake on the level of Gore's or it might be more on the mendacious side. I haven't seen the doco so don't have a feel for its general tone. But the offended scientist describes the…

it's only a lie if there is knowledge of the falseness of the claim (ie intent to decieve)

Quite right.

I note that above I did make the distinction:

[the statement] is a lie, or is so reckless and ignorant that it's hard to tell the difference when one is…

Maybe it's the only lie, but given this howler I suspect there might be others.

Graeme, I have a special loathing for left-wing agitprop but I really doubt if Gore was lying. He was most likely ill-informed. Which I admit is unusal for a US politician.

The cool movie critic James Berardinelli has written some great stuff about how the whole 'Based on a true story' movie genre sprang up to run an end game around burden of proof.

Here he is on An Inconvenient Truth

I have not disputed claims that the sea level is…

Good point. And you are right that documentaries that purport to educate rather than entertain have a higher bar to clear.

Which is a shame,…

Graeme's comeback is that people…

Depends how much cutting back we do, of course. I don't believe there's any real controversy…

I take your point, but a part of me wonders, does every documentary or piece of non-fiction have to pass the 'perfectly balanced/showing both sides of the argument' test?

. . . no, I guess not.

But if a documentary's aim is to be educative, then surely the burden of…

New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research climatologist and IPCC author Jim Salinger says that they wouldn’t consider using tide gauge records “unless they are at least 50 years long”.

Don – that'll teach me for skim reading (hard to read the whole article when i'm also pretending…

With respect to the whole climate change thing, I'm as un-learned as everyone else . . . I *want* to form my own opinion, but having seen how the mainstream media origami'd the GE thing, I'm loath to take anything I see/read there from that general direction…

it though was that it only showed one side of the story, without showing opposing and/or comparative data to give weight to the points it was trying to make.

Here's an article that looks at the topic from both sides.
I thought that this Independent article was good at putting…

I take your point, but a part of me wonders, does every documentary or piece of non-fiction have to pass the 'perfectly balanced/showing both sides of the argument' test?

While that migt be good for…

Like say an ipod, an axe and a large sad face?

Po-lite, because I could get off my arse and find the links myself (even if it's hard because teh roflcopter made me lmao @ lolrus).

My beans with it though was that it only showed one side of the story, without showing opposing and/or comparative…

Greame seems to apply a legalistic interpretation to scientific investigation and analysis...if there is scientific uncertainty then any conclusion drawn must be lies?

There is not scientific uncertainty – 100% of scientists everywhere with any knowledge of the situation know that the populations of entire South Pacific Islands have not…

I was surprised – although perhaps I shouldn't have been – at the extent to which MPs aren't familiar with the whiffier details of the Copyright Amendment Bill...

I'm surprised you were surprised.

Australia’s anti-Kyoto stand has raised issues of NTC’s credibility, but University of the South Pacific oceanic geosciences professor Patrick Nunn says he is happy with that. “What troubles me is that the data is not being…

Thanks guys, from the other side of the world (Madison, WI)

:)

"I made you a…

Maurice Williamson, who had been regaling me beforehand with tales of how he uses his DVD recorder (he pays his nine year old son $5 for every programme he goes through and edits out the ads from!), certainly seemed to take the point.

What's he going to be minister of…

Graeme might have a point. while it's not a howler, it's stretching the truth a bit – tuvalu-ians might have to move to NZ in the future, but not yet.

i googled these articles which seem to show…

He made some other rather good points in his NBR article (10 Nov 2006) ... doesn't appear to be online, but it includes a rather lengthy list of points regarding "exaggerated and distorted information" (perhaps…

Gosh and golly my heart sinks.

[[http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1927131.ece|Speaking at the annual South Pacific Forum in Fiji, Mr Tong said that rising sea levels would create countless environmental refugees. "If we are talking about our island states submerging in 10 years' time, we simply have…

those crazy walruses, they get me every time

Andrew, no no. You publicly put it out there that Al Gore has lied about climate change. So, let's publicly hear those lies and see them for what they are.

Well, I saw the An Inconvenient Truth for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and while I haven't…

I don't have have a geeky cell in my body, and party because it's so hard to do well.

Craig, I'm waaaay late, but that's a beautiful typo (my bold). I can see the premise of a movie right there.

I only watch an Inconvenient Truth recently and would like to…

Download it over the bittorrent using Telstra and the amount of cap it takes up is roughly (should you be a big seeder) $3.

Did you ask for your money back?

Don, they have the money in shoeboxes at the Reserve bank. Cullen is not allowed to handle them. Separation of powers and all that.

Russell do you think that these meetings have much bearing on which way the pollies jump? It would go…

Russell, you didn't tell him that his Communications Policy needs a bit of work? http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleId=5115

I…

It is that time of year, right?

We shouldn't let the lies from both sides of the debate (Al Gore and Martin Durkin) detract from the real science which is still in dispute. Let's remain open minded about the Climate Change debate;…

I thought so, and that's where I'm inclined to cut MPs a wee bit of slack. (I know...) I love good 'popular science' writing…

cheers for pointing out that independent article russ. shame it came out waaaaay too late. and its preaching to the converted, the independent's further left wing and greenie than the guardian imho.

oh well,…

'shit-loads and depends on who's giving it'

And who's getting it too I reckon.

J00 CAPS LOCK KEY B0RK3D? !!@~~~ ROFFLES!

OTOH, I really get the shits with the Aussie rugby league…

Don't we get a lolRuss pic?

Heh. Perhaps I can get Leo to do one ...

Craig – there's a whole thesis in that question, but to boil it down to a few words, 'shit-loads and depends on who's giving it' :)

OK, bu manfully resisting the urge to take the usual slap at politicians, I'd like to think I'm a moderately intelligent chap…