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The New Gag Rules
Science Magazine ^ | Feb 17, 2006 | Donald Kennedy

Posted on 02/26/2006 11:12:43 AM PST by alumleg

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Donald Kennedy is possibly the most highly respected science journalist in the nation. In particular he discusses NASA's efforts to put a gag on James Hansen, direct or of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, after a talk he gave at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in December 2005. His sin was that he pointed out that the climate change signal is now so strong, 2005 having been the warmest year in the past century, that the voluntary measures proposed by the administration are likely to be inadequate. These efforts are described as a high-water mark for bureaucratic stupidity, reminiscent of the Three Stooges.
1 posted on 02/26/2006 11:12:46 AM PST by alumleg
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To: alumleg

Greenpissers. What else to expect from them?


2 posted on 02/26/2006 11:16:45 AM PST by GSlob
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To: alumleg

ib4z


3 posted on 02/26/2006 11:18:23 AM PST by brooklin
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To: alumleg

Welcome to FR.


4 posted on 02/26/2006 11:18:58 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (Peace Begins in the Womb)
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To: alumleg
JunkScience.com has done a great job of debunking hansen's rants. Kennedy knows where the bucks are (taxpayer) and can't understand why othjer won't play ball.

Kennedy has jumped the shark and I have lost all confidence in him and scrutinize closely anything he "pushes".

Why is he pushing so hard?

5 posted on 02/26/2006 11:23:23 AM PST by corkoman
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To: alumleg
Interesting...Headed the FDA under Carter....No agenda here.


6 posted on 02/26/2006 11:23:26 AM PST by darkwing104 (Let's get dangerous)
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To: alumleg

The NHC produces a lot of data, problem is, it doesn't support the hypothesis. 2005 was not the most devatating hurricane season. Katrina was NOT a cat 5 when it went inland. Tens of thousands did NOT die. There was no concerted effort to abandon minorities, in fact, it was the swiftest and largest response to a natural disaster in the history of this country.


7 posted on 02/26/2006 11:25:01 AM PST by SouthTexas
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To: GSlob
I think we need to be a little more open-minded here. There are the people who brought us GPS and men walking on the moon. They're only trying to keep us from harming ourselves by taking a shortsighted view of man's dominion over the earth. Are you really so sure you can neglect your children's future so cavalierly?
8 posted on 02/26/2006 11:27:28 AM PST by alumleg
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To: SouthTexas

But what does all that have to do with politicians muzzling scientists?


9 posted on 02/26/2006 11:28:55 AM PST by alumleg
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To: alumleg

Yes, global warming seems to be taking place but is it all that BAD? After a century of development, the traveling world is locked into otto/diesel cycle engines which produce lots of CO2; but it is water vapor that is the main driver of global warming, not CO2. The president realizes this and calls for our weaning off foreign, and domestic, oil/hydrocarbons; and yet, we in the new energy field have had the answers for years, and we don't see a single DIME of funding. Now, whose fault is that?


10 posted on 02/26/2006 11:29:54 AM PST by timer
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To: alumleg
California has earthquakes, the Midwest has tornados, the northeast has snowstorms, and the Gulf coast has hurricanes. Pick your poison and deal with it.
11 posted on 02/26/2006 11:30:45 AM PST by SouthTexas
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To: alumleg; GSlob
I believed you just stepped in it big time...
Check out GSlob's homepage.


12 posted on 02/26/2006 11:31:14 AM PST by darkwing104 (Let's get dangerous)
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To: alumleg

The sky is NOT falling. Junk science does NOTHING except further one's own agenda, especially when they benefit from the taxpayer.


13 posted on 02/26/2006 11:32:02 AM PST by SouthTexas
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To: alumleg; Admin Moderator
They're only trying to keep us from harming ourselves by taking a shortsighted view of man's dominion over the earth.

Awfully shortsighted, for such a short-timer:

alumleg
Since Feb 26, 2006

14 posted on 02/26/2006 11:32:21 AM PST by JennysCool (Liberals don't care what you do, as long as it's mandatory.)
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To: alumleg
>The New Gag Rules

It's SO ironic
when "mainstream" types talk gag rules.
How many news feeds

carried the story
of Mims catching NASA at
bad ozone numbers?

---------------------------------------------------

In 1990, Mims had calibrated two of his TOPS devices to agree with measurements from a multi-million-dollar Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) aboard a polar-orbiting NASA Nimbus 7 satellite as it overflew Texas. But then the satellite data began to diverge from his TOPS measurements.

In 1992 Mims checked the TOPS devices against the gold-standard, US$100,000 Dobson spectrometer at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory – and its readings also differed from the satellite’s. Clearly, the problem lay with the satellite’s TOMS instrument.

Confronted by the possibility that their vital observations of the ozone "hole" over Antarctica were in error, sceptical NASA researchers checked – and found the satellite had drifted in its orbit, so that the satellite could no longer see sunlight scattered from a special calibration panel, and was giving incorrect measurements. [That's a 'cleaned up' version of how NASA admitted their mistake!]

Mims suddenly had the attention, and respect, of professional ozone researchers.

His reputation grew further in 1993 when he won a Rolex Award for his proposal to establish an international ozone-monitoring network called SPAN (Sun Photometer Atmospheric Network), equipping a small number of volunteer observers with his invention so they could gather atmospheric data anywhere in the world, on land or at sea, especially in data-sparse regions.

[The Rolex Awards, Forrest Mims]

...................................................................

Forrest Mims III

Forrest Mims III set up a network to monitor ultraviolet radiation and ozone levels, first in his home state of Texas and then across the world, using a hand-held device he invented himself. He also proved that NASA’s ozone- monitoring satellite was giving false readings, after which NASA and other climate scientists started taking him more seriously. Most recently, he has been looking at the effects of smoke, dust and haze on sunlight and ecology. He makes a living writing books about science, lasers, computers and electronics.

Q: Your hand-held ozone monitor became a crucial tool in monitoring stratospheric ozone levels, which protect life on the Earth’s surface from damaging ultraviolet radiation. How did you come to invent it?

A: I became interested in measuring levels of UV radiation when I learned that the US government had closed down its UV-monitoring network in the late 1980s. I then realised that you could measure the ozone layer by looking at UV light at two different wavelengths where it is absorbed by the ozone. So I built some ultraviolet detectors at home and in 1990 I began making daily measurements. I now have almost 16 years’ worth of data and I have published many scientific papers about my findings.

Q: What happened when you discovered that NASA’s satellite measurements of the ozone layer
were out?

A: The satellite measurements began to diverge from my data in 1991. NASA said, maybe you’ve got an aerosol error or maybe your instrument has got a problem. I visited Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, which houses the world-standard ozone instrument, four times, and guess what, it was also seeing a difference compared with the satellite. Later NASA said they had made an error. The satellite was drifting out of orbit. At that stage they agreed to write a paper with me, although they later pulled out. The management weren’t too keen. But that was my first paper in Nature.

Q: How does an amateur get through the peer-review process?

A: Sometimes there is resistance to publishing my papers, but most of them have been published. Now I peer-review papers for scientific journals and I’ve peer-reviewed two-dozen books for scientific publishers. On a number of occasions professional scientists have taken me aside and asked me how to get published in Nature. Only once or twice in my career has somebody been rude or resentful that I didn’t go through the process they did.

Q: Why do you think amateurs like yourself make such an important contribution to science?

A: I once asked the famous Canadian ozone scientist James Kerr, “Why is it that Canada does so much better at measuring ground-level ozone than the US?” He had a very simple answer: we can’t afford satellites. That made my day. That is why an amateur scientist can do science just as well as anyone else: we can’t afford the tools of the professionals so we have to do the very best we can with the tools we have.

[Forrest Mims — An ID proponent you should know]

15 posted on 02/26/2006 11:32:57 AM PST by theFIRMbss
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To: darkwing104

But what might that agenda be? Helping build housing for the homeless? Selling Priuses? I don't see why this issue is a political one. Conservatives should be the ones leading this charge, not liberals.


16 posted on 02/26/2006 11:34:40 AM PST by alumleg
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To: alumleg
"Are you really so sure you can neglect your children's future so cavalierly?"
Absolutely. Greenpissers are a contemptible bunch in my book. Those who brought GPC and Apollo program are not the same individuals who [as is the habit with greenpissers and the lefties in general] are trying to wrap themselves in the others' mantles. And BTW, the credit for an accomplishment in one field is normally NOT transferrable to another.
17 posted on 02/26/2006 11:36:25 AM PST by GSlob
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To: alumleg

Ok, I get the part where some scientists have connected increased hurricane activity with a change in water temperature.

Where is the paragraph that proves man is responsible for affecting the water temperature?

I guess we are just supposed to accept that with no scientific proof.

Maybe if we all ran out and bought hybird cars and electric lawnmowers there would be no hurricanes next year.


18 posted on 02/26/2006 11:36:55 AM PST by keat
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To: alumleg

Oh yes, we can't have scientists going around talking about climate change. All must be muzzled by Bush, who is an evil Republican trying to keep us beholden to those extremist Muslims who control the oil.

In fact, this is the first scientist who is crying about climate change I've ever heard, because those evil Republicans keep throwing them in Guantanamo, where there is torture, proven by terrorists who talk to the press about their abuses.

In fact, global warming caused by scientists is a proven fact which cannot be denied, like Darwin's theory of evolution, the big bang, stem cells, 5-day forecasts, fat free diets...not only the MSM knows this but also Liberals!

We must protest the muzzling of Scientists big S! I can't believe one scientist escaped the evil Bush administration which has gestapo like powers to keep them all quiet! I'm sure Hansen is not writing a book or looking for crass publicity! I believe! Kerry is really the President! We must listen to Journalists and take their word for everything!

This rant brought to you by a fed up evil conservative.


19 posted on 02/26/2006 11:37:03 AM PST by soloNYer
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To: timer

Not sure about your point regarding water vapor. There are many constituents keeping global climate relatively stable. The amount of water vapor is a big one. But people don't have much of an effect on water vapor content in the atmosphere.


20 posted on 02/26/2006 11:38:26 AM PST by alumleg
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