I was surprised to see this essay and poll on the Daily Kos tonight.
Don Mikulecky writes:
Michael Mann is a Modern Hero and we need to acknowledge that!
I have been both a scientist and a political activist for most of my 76 years. But the situation regarding Michael Mann is very different. I just finished a very moving experience reading The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines and I have lots more to say than I can fit in a single diary. So I will devote this diary to trying to convince you that this Mann is a hero. There are too few heroes among the scientific community because of the nature of what we do.
Michael Mann was not someone who chose his role. Military persons can anticipate the possibility of being in situations where acts of heroism are called for. Scientists are certainly not in the same situation. Or at least, they have not been for a long time. Galileo comes to mind and it was the Church then that made his life one of great sacrifice. In these times the situation has deteriorated so rapidly that few of us have had a chance to evaluate the impact of what is going on. Science is a threat to the dark forces that are moving to control us all. People like Carl Sagan and Stephen jay Gould were out there early on fighting against these dark forces. They did a lot for us. Rachael Carlson and many others were on the front lines.
Yet the situation with Professor Mann is something beyond all that. He has become a symbol for what our future is all about and he did not chose his role. No sane person would have. Read on below and I will try to paint a broad picture of how much is at stake and give you a perspective on how this one Mann has focused on the threat to all of us.
…
The full essay is here:
And, there is a poll at the end which has some surprising choices.
Update 3/14: One of the comments there is by somebody who posts here regularly, John Sully. He writes:
Anthony Watts posted about this over at his site and told the trolls to come and freep the poll. This is why year after year his site gets voted “Best Science Blog” or whatever.
Mr. Sully please point out exactly where in the 35 words I wrote (the rest are from Kos) in this essay I have “…told the trolls to come and freep the poll.” Otherwise sir, you are a liar. – Anthony
Last 2 questions: 228
All the rest: 20
Mann’s corner should throw in the towel (but not before someone takes a screenshot)
Seems as though the author himself doen’t like the poll results
.
now at 70% clicking distortion
It reads like Mark Anthony speaking of Caesar.
Was that intentional?
I couldn’t figure out how to comment on Kos but if I had been able to, I would have commented that Mann’s apt nick name is “Piltdown Mann” and that his book should always be read along with “The Hockey Stick Illusion” and “The CRUtape Letters”. I voted that he had distorted evidence and rather than for being fired because I think he should remain at Penn State as a permanent blot on their academic reputation.
How awfully funny – reducing Dr Mann’s work to a popularity contest; and at last check he is losing badly in his home court. Pathetic.
I can see the World Climate Widget on your blog from my comment box and I’m sorry but Global Temperature Anomaly looks like noise about a non-alarming mean to my engineer’s eye . And I don’t mean that in any sort of demeaning way. I am very interested in improving our understanding of climate and atmospheric science; but again, as an engineer I think we should be paying a lot (and I mean a lot) more attention to fundamental measurement of real-world climate variables in real time before we make too many rash statements about Mankind’s alleged contribution. For every dollar generated one way or another by Dr Mann’s Hockey stick, if we would contribute one dime to Mr. Watts’ surface station project; our returns would be tenfold over again in returns in our understanding.
Statistical wish fulfillment ala Dr Mann has proven to be silly exaggeration now apparently reduced to nothing but PR.
Now 195 votes for distortion and 62 votes for sacking out of 277 votes. That is a condemation rate of almost 93%.
I did notice that there were 4 positive choices including an “all of the above” which is where to pro votes are meant to accumulate and 2 negative choices which are meant to split the anti vote. Pretty transparent and completely ineffectual.
Anybody running a pool on when they pull it down? near 100% in the two bottom choices.
20 (sum of four favorable), 196 distorts data, 61 “should be fired” of 277 votes.
70% of the vote ~ 209 votes out of 279 are currently listed for he’s distorting the science.(If you can get thru to see it!) Seems the poll is closed… ;o)
Our trolls are better than their trolls. Site won’t let me comment.
Hopefully Santorum wins tonight will probably mean Romney is finished. This is VIP for the global warming story. If this guy gets elected the whole AGW fabrication will be brought to task and terminated.
Michael Mann suffers from personality science distortion, so says the poll.
I’d love to leave a comment there, but can’t figure out how,
I voted for sacking.If I did what he did,I’d be passing my cigarettes through the bars.
I can just see the oversized picture of Chairman Mao over Mikulecky’s fireplace, joyously ablaze, as he sacrifices all reason on the altar of liberal utopianism…
If I could only vote in that poll without increasing DKs traffic count.
Where is the selection “Mann is a modern fraud and we need to acknowledge that”?
OK so there’s a lot of skeptics voting on their poll, possibly from here. But why aren’t they balanced by climate change believers? This happens all the time, the skeptics are frequently a majority presence at the front line where the non-stupified (e.g. Guardian) debates are had. Though if you go to the Guardian you find many people supportive of the cause regurgitating the worn out 97 % settled science style arguments. Does seem to be a dearth of climate change supporters who actually inhabit the more remote corners of the internet where real debates are had.
Of course Mann is a hero to some. Take a look at the profile of Prof. Mikulecky.
http://www.dailykos.com/user/don%20mikulecky
That pretty much says it all.
What a joke, only a fog brain could believe this man Don Mikulecky on Mann idolatry.
See the poll, Mann is getting his butt well and truly kicked!!
Poll
Michael Mann
is distorting evidence to prove his point
70% 242 votes
should be fired from the university
23% 80 votes
Total: 343 votes
Don’t be surprised to see some warmist pole/data fudging very soon, they won’t like whats happening poll wise!!!
If you put ‘daily kos michael mann’ into the google search box this preposterous article is the first link which pops up.
It’s quite amazing that people can still write such unsubstantiated stuff… But I had a row with an old friend, a Democrat activist, on FB only two days ago merely for pointing out that there is NO scientific consensus, He responded that he wasn’t prepared to listen to Republican deniers.
I’m not even an American! The AG propaganda machine has really done its work, and will still take many years to dismantle – it’s very depressing
When I read something like this, I wonder how one person’s perspective could be so different from my own understanding of the facts. A look at Don’s profile cleared that up for me.
“don mikulecky’s Profile Retired prof. still active in teaching and writing. See my web page for more. Charter member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)”.
Poll is still open apparently, screenshot linked above.
Hero? Nah. Zero? Well, no with that as well since he has benefitted greatly from his poor science. He’s been to Hawaii how many times?
I think Nero is a better fit, fiddling while his theory and schtick go down in flames. The man is truly delusional. I don’t know what it is, what strain of Denial hansenitis Mikey suffers from, but I’ve seen my share of Amherst activists (was almost one myself in fact) and they rarely yield an inch.
Mann is a truly special case of ego gone awry. The Climategate emails show he doesn’t have many fans even amongst his closest colleagues. He seems a rather nasty little bully if you ask me.
Yes, Nero indeed, Emperor of snakes with a venomous tongue and marshmallow teeth…and an empire in flames…and the wind’s picking up.
Good luck Mike. Good luck, that is, recovering from the inevitable Fall of Mann. It’s “very likely” you won’t stop swinging all full of piss and vinegar and tiger blood, but they make a jacket for that. Methinks it would fit you nicely. I kid, kind of. Sorry. The dude gets under my skin.
PS The poll isn’t closed, I just voted. It’s only closed if you try to go straight from this site