[marktwain]

This essay is precisely on the money. Richard Feynman was a great scientist, and he had a wonderful sense of humor as well.

[Seruzawa]

The shift to Authoritarianism is the sign that the entire structure is beginning to collapse. When Authoritarianism becomes dominant it is because the facts no longer fit the theories. It is a last ditch effort to protect the rice bowls of the so-called experts who are incapable of assimilating new data and are only acting to protect their power and position. Fortunately it eventually collapses. The next generation will look back at the current models of the universe and chuckle at how primitive they were. Authoritarian bodies like the IPCC will be likened to the Inquisition.

[DuncanWaring]

And I say, Amen. Notice that “you” is the average person. You have the right to hear the evidence, and you have the right to judge whether the evidence supports the conclusion. We now use the phrase “scientific consensus,” or “peer review,” rather than “science has shown.” By whatever name, the idea is balderdash. Feynman was absolutely correct.

The late Michael Crichton said much the same thing in his lecture "Aliens Cause Global Warming".

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.

[mlo]

"… there is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science. … It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty — a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you’re doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid — not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you’ve eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked — to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated."

Very good. THIS is the main lesson from ClimateGate. Not the specifics of the data, or the manipulation itself, but the underlying behavior. The whole effort to be less than forthcoming, to hide information, and to prevent other voices from being heard. That's what's wrong with the science, among other things.

[Richard Kimball]

It's not cargo cult. It's Clutch Cargo:

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2207835/posts?page=13#13

google “cargo cult science” site:freerepublic.com

and watch the hits appear. Freepers have been on to this for a long time.

[Agamemnon]

Great read. This is just more evidence that the same academics, and politics-drenched "scientists" who have at first bought into a darwinian world-view and its group think have subsequently extrapolated that same core thought process, including data biases, and data manipulation to climate-change "science" -- and that to its peril

This plagued core thought process is crumbling before our eyes. Roundly discredited, this circumstance carries with it the potential for taking down just about everything that passes for fashionable "science" today together with its media lap dogs, as well as the blighted world-view which spawned it.

I welcome it.

FReegards!

[TChad]

It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty — a kind of leaning over backwards.

One of my favorite Feynman quotes.

I wonder how many people would not understand it.