Jeff Id at the Air vent writes about the recent UEA/CRU announcement that the Climategate files were all left on a single server. Gathering them into one zip file and posting on a Russian FTP: “not so sophisticated”.
That and Sir David King – making up stuff.
Konrad (14:08:34) : ” If they [Norfolk Police] conclude that this was a hacking incident this may provoke the whistle blower to subsequently reveal themselves. A whistle blower publicly revealing themselves after the authorities have released an official hacking claim would be even more politically damaging than an admission that this was a leak. ”
&
“The tactic of delaying the investigation and hoping people forget will no doubt be tried, despite this being the age of Little Brother. ”
Konrad: This blog is amazing, your points are well articulated. I would like henceforth to use the expression “Little Brother is Watching” as a rallying cry against the “Big Brother is Watching”. Who do I attribute the Little Brother idea? You?
John
Not so hard to believe. In our much smaller business operation in the past 5 years we’ve had our one data array and our one server replaced, but in the first case we copied over all the data to the new array, and in the second just attached the existing array to the new server. The data hasn’t disappeared. With HD space cheap and ample, there’s no need to wipe old data files off, especially if you want to access them from time to time.
/Mr Lynn
Well I sure hope they don`t teach Information Technology and Computer Security at East Anglia!
Not here in the good ol’ USA. The major papers and broadcast networks are still firmly in the Obambi administration camp, and still following the party line on AGW. This administration has three years to go, and it is full of extreme enviro-ideologues, namely Holder, Chu, and Jackson. They and their allies in the Congress have had the AGW bit in their teeth for years, and they’re not going to release it without a fight.
Maybe the midterm elections next fall will keep them in the stable, unable to race to a Cap-and-Trade and CO2-restriction finish line, which they so fervently desire.
But I need a beer, so I’ll have one anyway.
/Mr Lynn
IT seems more logical that the info would come from within then some Kiddie “Pub-Scanned” Open Russian FTP
John Whitman (16:17:17) :
I don’t think I could claim to be the first to use the phrase, although I use it a fair bit.. The internet has some reference to getting kids to be informers or companies as opposed to governments using CCTV. I use the term to refer to the public, especially on the internet watching government and main stream media. My more common usage would be “Little Brother is watching and recording…” which I feel serves to remind those in government and old media that they are no longer the gate keepers of opinion and they cannot rewrite history. WUWT, CA and the climate debate seem to be becoming a cornerstone of the New Media. In this debate we are seeing Old Media dancing to New Media’s tune and thousands spent on government propaganda failing to fool the public. I’m sure these interesting times will be the subject of study for Media and Political Science students for years to come.
Hey ‘Konrad @ur momisugly(17:37:56)’,
Regarding our Little Brother discussions on this thread, I will try to use Little Brother in the context of independent individuals monitoring the established organizations (gov’t, MSM, IPCC, UEA, PSU, GISS, etc). This is like a modern internet era equivalent to the old David vs Goliath theme (without the religious slant). So, if there is a Big Brother watching us then now there is a multitude of independent Little Brothers watching them.
John
IOW, they were copied, not moved.
Richard Saumarez (15:58:13) :
“I’m sorry, I’ve just had another thought. If the original data of temperature records have been “lost”, how the hell did these e-mails survive?”
I wonder that too. I expect either the records were selectively deleted, or the records and emails are on two different computer systems (unix and Windows) with two different retention policies.
Can anyone validate the computing environment that is (or is likely) in place at the CRU or a typical British University?
Obviously, the Fortran programs execute on a unix mainframe. But how about personal computer usage?
My crazy theory that Jones accidentally created FOIA.zip using a faulty eraser program is looking better all the time.
http://appliedimpossibilies.blogspot.com/2009/12/own-goal-at-cru-hockey-team.html
Imagine how many people will have a fit if I’m right. Aaaaaaaaaagh the shreders bugged.
But that’s not what actually happened:
Further, King evidently hasn’t been following my posts here as attentively as he should. I pointed out months ago that the e-mails should have been released six weeks earlier, at least, if the leak was meant to affect Copenhagen. We can see how only after that delay did the alarmist consensus start to unravel. Climategate only opened a chink in the armor. It’s taken six weeks for insiders like Kaser to speak out, for the press to have the nerve to exploit that opening, etc.
(IOW, the leaker trolled through the “deleted” bucket.)
Poetic justice! I hope it’s true.
Power Grab (12:52:07) : …so the users themselves deleted the most valuable items…thereby marking them for easy collection.
Roger Knights (20:34:02) : (IOW, the leaker trolled through the “deleted” bucket.)
Poetic justice! I hope it’s true.
I cannot see any immediate holes in your theory. UEA however and the Norwich police unfortunately have all the evidence. Will they reveal all their evidence? I am cautiously optimistic.
John
There’s a curious attraction to these emails, pictures and data coming from the ‘deleted items’ bucket on the main server.
We know that there was a strong desire to evade FOI despite the blatantly obvious risks to reputation and position. Maybe someone was also stupid enough to think that deleted is the same as gone forever.
“Little brother is watching” an old saying as well as “little pitchers have big ears”. Actually if I remember correctly little sister had the big mouth! and at the worst time 🙁
Oh well it appears to me P J gathered the files and moved them to the server.
Most people that use modern computers, just know how to use them. They do not know how the hardware and software work. He thought he hid them from prying eyes by stashing them on a separate server, not knowing that anyone with access to that server could view and copy them.
The total number of files that would have to be sifted through and the number and different kinds gathered togather would make an outside hack very difficult to yield the zipfile.
I think that this comment, copied from the Independent’s comment pages, should be given a wider circulation.
This parodies a well-known advert for insurance in the UK:
……………………………………………………………………………
alexjc38 wrote:
Monday, 1 February 2010 at 07:04 pm (UTC)
Greetings! It is I, Aleksandr Meerkat (ex-KGB) who give you lowdown on latest dramatic climate story!
Absolutely Sir David King is right, and this must be truth behind recent ClimateGate scandal – far from being leakage of incriminating e-mails and files showing gross misconduct of Phil Jones and cronies at Climatic Research Unit, in reality this is exciting and mysterious Cold War spy novel! International conspiracy of denialistic American Big Oil, in league with shadowy Russian petrodollar plutocrats to discredit heroic IPCC and destroy planet itself. Da, is true! SMERSH and Illuminati involved too, perhaps, who knows!??
Forget dull details of ClimateGate, with blatant corruption of peer review process and climate scientist cabal behaving like tiny Supreme Soviet, quashing all dissent and hiding decline! Forget revelation that latest IPCC report based on motley collection of magazine articles, eco-propaganda pieces and student essays. Forget complicated and boring financial connections between Government, TERI-Europe, WWF and Greenpeace. Forget tedious analysis of NASA GISS and CRU computer code, revealing unholy tangled meerkat’s nest of errors and fudges. Forget fact that northern hemisphere now whiter than ever on top, like decadent Western Christmas pud with brandy sauce! Pay no attention, is not interesting or significant, truly!
Sir David King is absolutely man who knows what he’s talking about! Da, is true – this is person who say entire human race must move to Antarctica when Global Warming catastrophe annihilates civilisation next Tuesday, so is obviously sensible and knowledgeable of these matters. Simples!
British Rules of Evidence are much more “Pragmatic” than the US rules derived from the 4th amendment, that might be in the mind of American readers. Pretty much the material in question would have to be privileged (e.g client counsel communication) , Forged or tampered with (e.g anything from special branch or the ATU), or blatantly handled outside PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act). Even then a Judge may still want to aid the search for justice (e.g “firearms residue” in the Barry George case was admitted even though the jacket in which it was found was not properly secured and protected, the chain of evidence was not preserved, it was taken to a non-laboratory setting and photographed by non-forensic staff in a room where contamination by “Firearms residue” was very probable. You might state that where the judicial thumb is applied to the scales of justice it is usually the crown that benefits, I couldn’t possible comment….:-)
MI-5 thanks you, the FBI thanks you, as well as every other investigative agency in the world. Through your colective deductions you have just helped them determine that the person who “leaked” the Climategate data was a 12 year old girl visiting her father and being told to play with that computer over there while Papa did his very important work. It was a Bank Holiday and Papa had come in to prepare a special report. Oh well. The cat’s out of the bag. The poor kid will probably be “accidently” snuffed tonight, along with her whole family. Best to let little things be sometimes.
John Whitman
The first time I heard the “Little Brother” thing was in the context of last year’s G20 summit in London, where a guy died after receiving the focused attention of some police officers. While the police take photos of demonstrators these days, acting as “Big Brother”, the evidence for the assualt by police officers was obtained by other demonsrtators taking photos of the incident with their mobile phones. Little Brother therefore was watching Big Brother.
Alex the Meerkat
We’ll get Dan Brown to write this one up as a best selling novel.
There’s a novel out called Little Brother, by one of the guys behind the Boing Boing site.