Free Republic

Since the publication of Rahmstorf et al 2007, a highly influential comparison of models to observations, David Stockwell has made a concerted effort to figure out how Rahmstorf smoothing worked. I now have a copy of the program and have worked through the linear algebra. It turns out that Rahmstorf has pulled an elaborate practical joke on the Community, as I'll show below. It must have taken all of Rahmstorf's will-power to have kept the joke to himself for so long and the punch-line (see below) is worth savoring.

James Hansen, head of the Goddard Institute and Guru of the Church of Global Warming has a philosophy, "If God deals you bad numbers--fudge them." Hansen is the guy who came out with the announcement that October was the warmest in history and then, "OOPS NEVER MIND." The Grand Poobah of warming screwed up the numbers. It was actually a quite average month. Ranked 70th in the last 114 years. And guess what? Its wasn't the first time Hansen has screwed up his numbers. This time the Poobah hasn't screwed up his numbers, he MADE them up. He changed numbers...