Kid blogger Chris Mooney (at left) often writes fascinating articles for their sheer single mindedness of purpose – making anyone who doubts AGW in even the slightest look like fools. I’ve been on the receiving end a few times but generally never bother to respond. I do however, find it interesting that he gets to blog at Discover magazine, while at the same time writing hit pieces for Jim Hoggan’s paid public relations inflamers over at DeSmog Blog. Science and paid PR don’t mix.
But back to our story, Chris must have never been to Missouri, or taken a course where science is taught to be tested by replication and verification. Otherwise, he wouldn’t get so upset when the aptly named commenter “Nullius in Verba” (Take nobody’s word for it) asked to see the calcs behind what Mooney was writing about. It starts out innocently enough:
In the article is this passage about Kerry Emanuel’s “back of the envelope” calcs that prove the issue:
And then comes the obvious question, since the calcs were not included in the article, nor by any link nor citation. The response however, is the surprise:
See the comments yourself here
Hectoring? Wow! So much for the “discovery” in Discover magazine. Change the name to “Don’t Ask Magazine” perhaps?
I guess that makes anyone who asks to see proof of BOE calculations either from Missouri, a denier, or both:
OK I’ve had my chuckle and made my point. Ribbing aside, Chris Mooney really could do everyone a great service by simply answering the question, or writing to Dr. Emanuel and having him show it for him if he doesn’t know what those calcs are. Either way, next time Chris writes about how we all just need better communications, using trusted messengers, remind him of this over the top response.
h/t to Tom Nelson
UPDATE: After only 5 comments, comments for the article were closed. No discussion allowed. That’s really lame Chris.
IAmDigitap:
I strongly recommend you read: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/tips-for-not-appearing-crazy-on-the-internet/
Because I think you just broke most of those tips.
At 10:42 AM on 16 June, Another Anon recommends to IAmDigitap Frank J. Fleming’s “Tips for Not Appearing Crazy on the Internet” (12 June 2011), Because I think you just broke most of those tips.
I would agree with most of those tips, but I have to take issue with the admonition to avoid all nonstandard grammar (some such usage can be interpolated to good effect), and the bit about “No Long Screeds is just plain stupid.
Some of the best material I’ve ever read on the subject of the great AGW bogosity have been the “Long Screeds” comments of Dr. Jeff Glassman. Dr. Glassman’s own Web log is primarily a venue for the public dissemination of his own highly technical research papers, and the commentary exchanges appended to these items tend to run at levels far beyond my own knowledge of physics and mathematics; I’m a country GP whose undergraduate degree was in Biology, and my only research experience has been clinical.
Dr. Glassman’s “Long Screeds” are so thoroughgoing and – more importantly to me – so accessible that I’ve wound up saving some whole pages of comments on various other people’s blog sites just to retain Dr. Glassman’s contributions for later reference.
In an area as complex as climate change, and with particular attention paid to the fallacious conjecture regarding adverse anthropogenic global warming (AGW), the thirty-year accumulation of “the consensus” has created a deadly log jam in the stream of Western scientific thought, and untangling that obstruction impairing honest and effective inquiry before the back-up floods out and destroys the economies of these United States and the rest of the developed world is a necessity.
When it is possible to post briefly and still blow away the bafflegab of the warmist con artists, that’s to be desired. But taking their “cork-screwing, back-stabbing, and dirty-dealing” to bits, piece by piece, is commonly quite necessary. Think of it as the excision of a cancer. You’ve gotta get it all when you take your crack at it. We’re talking real human beings out there upon whom the warmists are malevolently preying.
Real morbidity, real mortality.
Reason sufficient for conscientious conduct in these blog comments.
We have a name for guys like Mooney, but they would be quickly stricken.