Dr. Bradley (of MBH98 hockey stick fame) really outdoes himself this time.
‘Scientifically, “the hockey stick is a brick outhouse, very robust,’’ as Bradley put it.
The reliability of his findings has been confirmed by more than a decade of testing and scrutiny by the field. And yet the campaign to discredit what he and almost all of his colleagues accept as the fact of human-influenced global warming has made significant gains in popular and political culture over the past decade. “
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/06/08/playing_rough/
The tone of the book review is thus: Bradley had to suffer all sorts of attacks and personal slurs by ‘fringe- dwellers” because of his scientific acumen. .
The author uses no less than 5 slurs on those that would dare to question Bradley.
The author’s American Studies class must be interesting. Although an English PHD, the section on literary irony escaped him.
Scientifically, “the hockey stick is a brick outhouse, very robust,’’ as Bradley put it. “Brick Outhouse”= bad analogy. They were not built out of brick for a reason. As they filled to a certain level, one would fill the remainder with a layer of lime, and the remainder with dirt. The hole from which the dirt came is the new’ honey’ pit, for placing the WOOD outhouse upon. Should one use brick, eventually it becomes full and useless, not robust.
“The book came out of the frustration and aggravation of my own experience,’’ Bradley said on the phone recently, “and mine was by no means the worst. Good scientists like Ben Santer, Mike Mann, and Phil Jones have received the blunt end of it.
Unbelievable
It’s probably quite a good place to keep trying to polish that turd !!
Today’s Science Digest
Current Carbon Dioxide Emission Higher Than It Was Just Before Ancient Episode of Severe Global Warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110607121525.htm
“Our findings suggest that humankind may be causing atmospheric carbon dioxide to increase at rates never previously seen on Earth, which would suggest that current temperatures will potentially rise much faster than they did during the PETM,” concluded Dr Harding.”
They are talking about:
“Around 55.9 million years ago, Earth experienced a period of intense global warming known as the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which lasted for around 170,000 years. During its main phase, average annual temperatures rose by around 5°C.”
Mega Panic
Steve M’s comments on the image provided by Jeff Id at Climate Audit just cracked me up. Thanks to the Hockey Team for so much unintended comic relief!
That’s Grumpy Old Man USA, not Grumpy Old Man UK.
uh?
Seems to be …
Downward Projection.
Hard to hide the decline in an outhouse.
splat.
The White Mountains, home of the most famous Bristlecone stands, are this morning, June 8th, covered in fresh snow from at least 8,000ft. Totally white with snow. Most of the time in winter they don’t have that much snow on them.
And should you make a visit to the Patriarch Grove, be sure to look up hill. You will see all the dead trees that during the Medieval and Roman Optimums colonised well above the current tree line.
A brick outhouse… Sounds great if you either don’t consider the possibility of having to someday move it over a fresh hole, or outright are certain that’ll never happen. As it is, the need for moving wasn’t considered, the hole is fouled and overflowing… But the proponents of (C)AGW just can’t abandon that robustly-built outhouse, and are ever-so-happy to keep on using it, and tell everyone just how much they like it! They’ll gladly recommend it to anyone they can!
Just a hunch here…Is the distinguished Doctor up for an award or a big grant in the near future? He seems to be getting out in front of the media or some reason.
Then, lets huff and puff together to bring that outhouse down. The bricks might be robust but not the mortar that was used to put it together.
Hmmm – an endurance ride in Colorado was just cancelled due to snow drifts blocking the road to the campsite.
A hockey stick would be most appropriate in this case given things are still frozen at this date … so where is that hockey stick warming that was going to reduce the snow pack in the west?
bushy says: “He really really could have picked a better analogy that an outhouse. OMG is that how they view their science?. Actually I concur…”
It’s really a very apt metaphor, Bushy. I strongly suspect that Bradley’s unconscious mind selected it deliberately. Underneath it all, he knows the truth. Let’s send him a copy of his press release in ten years.
I think the comments at the end of this Boston Globe unusually biased towards an AGW viewpoint. I wonder if this is typical for Boston Globe readers or if there will be a resurgence of pro-AGW views.
Wil, your point is well taken. Hockey sticks are indeed ‘composite’ fabrications made from different inputs:, one part made unnaturally straight (the handle) and the other made of a plastic material forced into a heated mould so as to take on the shape desired by the fabricator, tacked onto the end with a tiny notice on it in fine print reading, “Tacked onto the end,” hidden inside the socket.
As for being robust, the description of what things look like from outside and what it smells like inside when we are allowed to open the door and find out what is really in there – wow. The door was pried open by McIntyre and Co. What they found was ‘robust’ all right. Something about ‘stinks’ and ‘high heaven’.
It has been my opinion for a while now that MBH ’98 is the most discredited publication to appear in a major journal in recent decades, and still remain un-pulled. There are lots of officially discredited publications, but not in Nature and Science! Remember that it is not so much the output shape that is wonky, it is the method that was used to create it: selectively looking for hockey sticks and then messing up the stats methods. It is surely one of the curiousities of modern science that such an artifice, so boldy exposed against all odds, still stinks up our climate discussion platforms because it remains, extant on the books, so to speak. For the artificer to defence his artifice is not unexpected; disqualifying it is the job of the referees, literally. Nature, do your duty!
Using brick for an outhouse has a major problem, it’s hard to mount the Sears Catalog dispenser.
…‘Scientifically, “the hockey stick is a brick outhouse, very robust,’’ as Bradley put it.
To give full credit to Dr. Bradley, that is a brilliant analogy for science which works already and does not need any improvements, re-examination, or questions.
This is an old tale, but I think that it fits.
—
In the beginning was the Plan.
And then came the Assumptions.
And the Assumptions were without form.
And the Plan was without substance.
And darkness was upon the face of the workers.
And they spoke among themselves, saying, “It is a crock of shit, and it stinks.”
And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said, “It is a pail of dung, and we can’t live with the smell.”
And the Supervisors went unto their Managers, saying “It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it.”
And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying “It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide its strength.”
And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another, “It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.”
And the Directores went to the Vice Presidents, saying unto them, “It promotes growth, and it is very powerful.”
And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him, “This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company with powerful effects.”
And the President looked upon the Plan and saw that it was good.
And the Plan became Policy.
And that is how shit happens.
An outhouse is an appropriate metaphor…. and repository for the flatulently peer reviewed anal-ysis that employed ‘Mike’s Nature Trick’ to ‘Hide the Decline’. Just remember to throw a little slaked lime down the hole…. to cover the ‘robust science’ adequately.
A bit OT but in the spirit of the thread, in response to Richard Glover’s column in the Sidney Morning Herald suggesting that climate skeptics be forced to have their opinions tattooed on their bodies so they can be recognized when the climate Armageddon hits in the future, JunkScience.com is holding a contest.
http://junkscience.com/2011/06/06/win-500-in-the-climate-change-denier-tattoo-sweepstakes/
“Sydney Morning Herald columnist Richard Glover appallingly suggested that climate ‘deniers” be forcibly tattooed for purposes of future shaming.
While the chilling totalitarian mindset of this barely tongue-in-cheek commentary speaks for itself, we at JunkScience.com like to think of our status as climate change skeptics as a principled stand against shoddy science, public policy hysteria and unnecessary economy-killing regulation.
In that spirit, we’re proud to announce this opportunity for fellow skeptics to win $500 by entering the Climate Change Denier Tattoo Sweepstakes.”
Yeah, the hockeystick is “built like a brick $$$hithouse” – we are forced to pay as a result of Bradley’s b.s.inside. Man, I haven’t heard that term in 50 years, and, among us guys, it was meant as a complement to a woman!.
It’s unbelievable, like a vampire rising from its grave. What does it take to kill this monstrosity?
Excellent subliminal choice of structure “brick outhouse”.
Exactly the sort of structure you need when designing a container for waste hypotheses.
You wouldn’t want the big bad Ice Age wolf blowing your outhouse down.
But of course! What could be better to house the very bowels of the CAGW “movement”, than a “brick s-house”? All credit to you, Dr. Bradley!