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So, I'm sitting here watching my son play with his motorized airplane toy (he's four and a half and impossibly cute), when the phone rings. It's a representative for the National Rifle Association, who proceeds to play me a recorded message from Wayne LaPierre, NRA's president, about how the UN is trying to push a global gun ban. We need to stand up, take action, and get out our checkbooks to ensure that keeping and bearing arms, our inalienable 2nd Amendment right, as American as apple pie and the 4th of July (and jingoism and xenophobia), isn't trampled by some foreign folks. Hey, I'm a big advocate of individual freedoms and personal rights; seems like a sound plan of action to me. Trouble is, it's complete horse manure. As you can read here, there's no such agenda at the UN. It's a fabrication by the NRA to get people riled up so they'll donate money to the cause. Did it ever occur to the marketing people at the NRA that using outright lies might backfire? The bigger question: why do so many right-wing organizations try to galvanize public support through the dissemination of exaggerations and falsehoods? Are the platform positions so inherently weak that their supporters won't endorse them otherwise? You know, I used to be a member of the NRA in the 1980s. I neither hunt nor own any guns, but I enjoy target shooting on occasion. I applauded the NRA's advocacy of constitutional rights, but I was compelled to let my membership lapse when I could no longer ignore their increasingly inaccurate and strident tone. This latest ploy really strikes me as a prime example of "shooting yourself in the foot." Ironic, huh?

I agree that this is the major issue that nobody is talking about.* Regardless of the ultimate cause of climate change, be it natural or man-made, or our specific political leanings, these scientists have clearly violated the public trust through their manipulation of the scientific process. From withholding data (in clear violation of the law) from people who might be critical of their work to threatening peer review publications as a way to prevent them from publishing contrarian viewpoints, these guys blatently overstepped the bounds of good science. This is completely and totally inexcusable. I've long been on the fence regarding human-induced climate change, but these emails cast a long shadow across climate change proponents. They also, unfortunately, reflect very poorly on the entire scientific community. (*I did find one very good article where a climate researcher acknowledges the mistakes of the CRU.) [Later] After reading a bit more it appears the emails may not be the most condemning part of the hacked information. That would be what appears to be a readme file ("Harry_Read_Me") containing notes by a programmer working on the code of their mathematical model. There's a story on the CBS blog here.

Paul, I think it's a big leap to think that because a few scientists have deleted data (if these affirmations have not been taken out of context), that all the climate scientists are covering the truth. You find a rotten apple, you expose it and take it out of the basket. You certainly don't throw the whole basket away. Francois, I think you're missing a key point. From what I have read, it appears (though I am not certain) these scientists may have provided much of the data the climate science community based their findings on. It's not simply a matter of removing a bad apple, it's that the bad apple is held up as a model of what "good" apples should look like. At the very least their papers have had a major impact on public policy, both within the US and in the IPCC. The economic impact of the proposed solutions based on their research is huge, both in monetary and geographical terms. In that context, I have to agree that this may be the biggest scam in history. I'm not saying human-induced global warming isn't happening or that those who believe it is happening are enganged in a huge conspiracy. (Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't. Having spent time reading through various arguments and critiques from both sides I personally haven't seen any compelling evidence that it is.) I am saying these scientists let their personal/political motivations influence their work to the extent the results can no longer be accurate labelled "scientific." Yet they published and promoted their work as through it was, and successfully influenced public policy with it. The more I read, the more disgusted I get. This is the religion of science at it's worst, and religious ideology of any sort should not form the basis of governmental action.

TestStand

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Perhaps for the same reason one might suggest suggest the Value(Sgnl) node?

I can't believe so many otherwise intelligent PROGRAMMERS can be so flippant about cooking data, manipulating data, using "tricks" on data, hiding data and DELETING data for nefarious purposes. Did I wake up in a parallel universe? If this turns out to be the scam I believe it is the ramifications are stunning. I called this the biggest scam in history because in terms of monetary and political clout it IS. We are talking huge global financial and political consequences. Why? A bunch of elitist politicians and climatologists traded in their collective integrity so they wouldn't lose their funding, Nobel prizes and clout in the UN. What bothers me the most about this is that we need to count on scientists to have a certain amount of integrity. What happens the next time a group of scientists cry wolf? "A meteor is coming and it will destroy the earth!" "Oh, yea, sure, I remember 'climategate'". "A new influenza has just mutated and it could kill billions!" "Oh, yea, sure, I remember 'climategate'". "The earth REALLY IS warming, and it's OUR FAULT! We have to change our lifestyles NOW or we are ALL GOING TO DIE!" "Oh, yea, sure, I remember 'climategate'". Everyone's ears and brains should have gone into alert mode when they stopped calling it "global warming" and started calling it "climate change". WTH is CLIMATE CHANGE?! What's up with that?! Otherwise intelligent people are buying this nonsense!!!

Saved back to 8.2. Bring on the rep points .... GetDiskInfo-8.2.zip

I'd say the 10 year global cooling trend is a pretty good clue.

Conspiracy James is out of town this week so I'll be glad to fill the void. XKCD: http://xkcd.com/258/ And just because it's Paul: Every thing we ever know could all be lies. We know the earth is round because many different independent groups tell us it is, but I have never done any experimentation to determine if it is. What about atoms, and molecules and the periodic table of elements is that all made up? Could be I don't know for sure it isn't. For all I know computers could run off of fairy dust and moon beams, I've never built one from scratch, how do I know what makes it work? Ultimately I don't know, I take all the information that is given to me and I formulate an opinion based on what I am told is fact from groups and organizations which may have a private agenda. I believe global warming is an issue we should be concerned. I may be completely wrong but I know that I don't have the technical data to backup hardly any claim without referencing someone else's work, which could be total crap.

Indeed. "Anyone willing to read". THEY ERASED THE FRACKIN' DATA!

Selected anagrams of Elliott Darcy Relf: (edit: fixed misspelled name in link text. the anagrams themselves are correct.) Latticed Elf Lorry Called Tritely For It Corralled Lefty Electoral Dirt Fly Fecal Ditty Roller Torridly Let Fecal Craftier Old Telly Title Farce Drolly Fed Troll Literacy Frilly Rotted Lace Clearly Filed Tort Do Filter Rectally