Posted on 12/02/2009 10:38:24 AM PST by Pharmer
What is the phrase? Oh yea: “Denial isn’t a river in Egypt” They say it to alcoholics in an intervention and to abducted kids suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Its cliché, but now is a point of massive irony.
To start, allow me to recall the tale of the esteemed immunologist, David Baltimore. Dr. Baltimore is a Nobel laureate, chairman of the board of director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and holds a professorship at CalTech. However in spite of his current position his reputation has been permanently scared by a scandal in the early 1990’s at MIT involving himself, one of his graduate students, a collaborator, and a high profile journal article. The graduate student, attending MIT most likely on a National Institutes of Health grant, charged that the collaborator on the paper falsified contributing data and reported such to the NIH. As the research itself was funded by the NIH Dr. Baltimore was obliged to follow the stringent rules of transparency as dictated by law and open his research records for audit by not only the NIH but by the FBI. As the investigation unfolded Dr. Baltimore was given the opportunity to retract the original manuscript with the letter to the journal editor and no one would have been the wiser, the incident would have been over. But he let his ego get in the way only to relent and withdraw the manuscript under duress as the scandal escalated. The FBI forensics labs had uncovered evidence of fraud based on falsified notebook entries and X-ray films spotted with radioactive material to look like autoradiography gels and presented to them in congressional hearings, along with eyewitness accounts. However no criminal charges were brought against his collaborator. Subsequently he used what was left of his reputation to persuade his colleagues to dismiss ethical charges of fraud against his himself and his collaborator and restore his academic standing. But as the mighty fall hard, Dr. Baltimore may be living large but his name is still Mudd in the scientific world.
This scandal sent shock waves through the scientific community. It woke the community up to the consequences of taking license with their data. It also outraged many because it reminded them and their oversized egos that their data is the property of those who paid for it, in this case the US taxpayer, and not theirs to do what they pleased. As a result all reputable journals strictly require contributing scientists to disclose the source of funding used to obtain the data presented. But in light of recent events this incident may be no more that a speeding ticket.
For years, many reputable scientists have demanded that the promoters of Anthropomorphic (or Man Made) Global Warming communicate with their colleagues in their field so they could verify their models and their findings are still waiting. But for years a few scientists at NASA (James Hanson), Penn State (Michael Mann) and at the University of East Anglia (UAE) in the UK (Phil Jones) have stonewalled and obfuscated, all the while calling inquiring scientists, colleagues and reasonable skeptics “deniers”.
Former Vice President Al Gore quickly joined the chorus cited the work of these guys and declared “the science ‘settled and debate over, those few skeptics are corporate deniers’”. This has only fueled the controversy to me and other scientist, as to us, unless you’re talking physical law (i.e. works of Newton and Einstein), NO SCIENCE TOPIC IS SETTLED! If that were the case the world would be flat, no airplane could fly faster than 700 mph, an atmospheric nuclear explosion would ignite all the oxygen in the atmosphere destroying the earth, and chicken soup cures the common cold!
Mr. Gore, I accepted your glove slap years ago before you made that stupid statement. I am able and willing to rebut you point for point if I ever had the chance to debate you. But, I always thought you were taking honest men at their word in your rhetoric. But sadly after what I have learned over the last 10 days, I have severe doubts. In fact, because you have made and have so much to gain from this in personal wealth, I have to ask, how well do you know Bernie Madoff?
I digress; the revelations in the e-mails obtained from the University of East Anglia Climate Research mail server are devastating. In case you haven’t noticed it is sending a tsunami through internet. At first you guys in the media tried to shoot the messenger. “They were obtained illegally!” Well if that’s the case so were the Pentagon Papers (thank you Mark Levin) and all the disclosures made by the NY Times about the entire goings on at the CIA and the Pentagon during the Iraq war!
And don’t tell me that they were taken out of context as Phil Jones is claiming. It is one thing to apply legitimate statistical methods to data to test hypotheses. It is also legitimate to delete data if there is a technical problem with the data collection or other reasons that apply with the rather stringent rules of hypothesis testing. Any discussion of “tricks and messaging” of data means that it has been manipulated to present a picture that may be misleading. We in the scientific community call it “fudging”. It is highly unethical and in most countries very illegal. All the climatologists outside this group was requesting was to see the raw data and a legitimate method of analysis in order to truly peer review it. Sadly this was denied and the now the data has been destroyed.
At the risk of sounding elitist you need to know is how day to day scientists work. We in the scientific community live to push open the envelope of knowledge every day. When I go to work and I see my cells under my microscope, I know that there are secrets in that cell that are taunting me find. Telling me that my intrigue is irrelevant is like challenging me to a duel. But it is hard work and mostly for little pay. We do this because we love it. Only academic senior faculty like Dr. Baltimore or R&D executives make over six figure salaries. Our stock in trade is data. It is the result of often tedious observation, note taking, and detailed knowledge of the instruments we use to measure the objects of our study. I was told by my professors in college “you even record when the sun goes down if you see it, regardless as to its relevance to your experiment… It just might be…” The number one rule in science: never dispose of original data, including notebook entries and scribbles on a tablet that are marred by spilled coffee, bench reagents or even blood, period. They are data.
I have little doubt that the “scholars” at NASA, UEA and at Penn State will try to do the same as Dr. Baltimore. They have circled the wagons and crying foul. But I am heartened by the fact that these fools will have an exponentially harder time digging out because Baltimore’s colleagues at least tried to make the appearance of propriety by freely giving the documents in question to the FBI. In short questionable data beats NO DATA AT ALL… But now that we can no longer see the data as is has been destroyed, who are the deniers now?
The destruction or loss of such vital original data on which so much consequence rests is unforgivable and I urge my colleagues to rise and be counted in this outrage. We must preserve the integrity of our profession regardless of political leanings.
Please put your name to this little gem and I’ll do my best to make sure it goes viral over the Internet.
BUMP
May it go ballistically viral to the detriment of Al Bore and all his co-conspirators.
Bump
We have sick care in this country. Like, if we spend $315 billion on pills why aren’t we healthy. Don’t teach anything about nutrition or avoiding the toxins that are put in the water and food. Just keep drinking that fluoride and lose 8-20 IQ points.
Government is criminal enterprise and not to prosecute the FDA felons proves they are fine with crime. Here is a quote from Mike Adams of natural news reporting on those that say AIDS can be treated with nutrition: http://www.naturalnews.com/027631_AIDS_House_of_Numbers.html
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[b]The pharmaceutical industry operating today is largely a cabal of unindicted criminals who are guilty of crimes against humanity, and one of their favorite methods of multiplying their profits is to push a disease, then sell a vaccine they claim “treats” the disease. It’s the same old scam, whether we’re talking about cervical cancer, swine flu or even AIDS.[/b]
Reply was meant for this thread- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2398587/posts
Don’t miss this great letter to the editor.
OK troll... WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH AGW???
bump
Thanks hennie pennie.
Good luck Doc. I fear we lost the sane world long ago. They don't wanna publicize it cuz it undermines the growing global state enterprise that media critters think is the most important thing.
So Which Story is Sinister Media Pursuing?
It's not as if Tiger, in his actions, had been aiding and abetting those on the verge of enslaving the entire planet.
Climategate has exposed how this science has become deductive which is to say anti-science.
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