UPDATE: 3/17/12 Thanks to everyone for all the support, kind words, and well wishes. Today I found myself taking another long nap, and I awoke feeling much better than yesterday. Stress is an insidious thing, and until it catches up with you, you don’t realize what impact it has. – Anthony
It has been an exhausting month since Fakegate hit the scene, and tonight when I came home from work, I crashed hard, taking a nap. I even missed dinner. My children tried to wake me up apparently to no avail. At the moment I feel like I have a hangover.
Behind the scenes, I’m dealing with a lot of things related to WUWT and the legal fight building with the Pacific Institute and Gleick, plus other things. Today for example I’m wrestling with starting the blog all over again on another platform because my wordpress.com free hosting keeps messing under the hood with the production code and they’d broken something yet again (some readers can’t comment any more thanks to a new security feature) just after we got the mess with adwords fixed last week. So yeah, I’m pretty toasted all in all at the moment. Then I read this comment from a reader on the DeSmog Blog headed back to obscurity thread.
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Ally E. says:
I found WUWT barely a month before Fakegate happened. Prior to finding this site, I was a head-in-the-sand kind of person. I knew the whole fry-and-die alarmism was wrong, the claims were getting very stupid, as was the panic.
Getting fed up with ever increasing nonsense scare tactics, I pushed back from news outlets. I didn’t want to hear anymore. I also felt very alone. It was Ian Plimer’s “How to get expelled from school” that opened my eyes to the growing fight back to rational thinking. I bought the book (and there were only two left on the shelf, so I know it’s popular) and read it in a day.
Encouraged, I got online and found WUWT and others. I cannot express how wonderful it felt to learn that REAL scientists out there are practicing REAL science and presenting it properly.
Point is, for those years I had my head in the sand, I didn’t know just what a tangled mess this had all become. I didn’t know what a horrible world was developing right under our noses.
I come here every day. This is my home page. I love the science, I love the way it is presented and I love reading the comments and thoughts from so many very intelligent people. But I also devour any news on the political front. I crave and seek out every snippet of good news, and believe me, this is good news.
Anthony, I want to see these dastards go down. I came in at a most exciting time and I want to watch every step of the alarmists fall from grace. Thank you for providing the whole picture, the wide picture, science, politics and all.
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Thanks, Ally. That made my week.
Anthony, you and a few others (Benny Peiser, Richard Lindzen, Ian Plimer, Nigel Lawson, Chris Monckton, Jo Nova and others) are genuine teachers and lights to the world. You need to pace yourself. There is no doubt that the truth will out, and that fabrications finally fail. God Bless and keep well.
Anthony, the fact that you have been voted the Best Science Blog on the web in consecutive years says it all. Like many others I keep your site open on my computer at all times and check it several times daily along with Bishop Hill and, being a True Blue Aussie I also have Jo Nova and Andrew Bolt open on the same basis.
If our current Government proceeds with the recommendations of it’s recent enquiry into Media control not only our newspapers, but blogs will also be subject to their scrutiny (interesting that a Judge with a Jewish name like Finklestein should propose similar press controls as those utilised by Goebels in a democratic country with severe laws regarding libel and defamation already in place).
Anthony, you should be justifiably proud of this blog. It is an outstanding achievement. It isn’t just the best science blog, it’s the best blog on the entire internet IMO.
When they come to write to the social history of this era, I expect that you will get mentioned as one of the people who used the internet to break the power of big media/goverment, etc to peddle dogma as science, and to provide people like Ally and many others a place to get the facts and interesting debates around the science..
I know people who don’t want to read WUWT because they may read something they don’t want to read and because what is here proves invariably to be factually correct or logically correct. I’m talking about some real deniers, AKA alarmists. Keep up the good work Anthony.
Well said, Ally. The same from me, Anthony. Well done to you for your hard work! And thank you.
I believe, the day will come, when Anthony Watts will be awarded the Nobel Prize.
I`m a positive person – and I believe that truth and justice will win the day eventually. It will take another 5-to-6 years. Around 2018 when we get to “20 years with no warming” is when the C.AGW scam will completely crash down. I doubt it will happen before then, because there are too many crooks involved in the C.AGW scam, (I include the MSM as crooks). But eventually, the public will demand that those responsible for the $billions wasted and the millions of children brainwashed and the millions of jobs lost, be brought to justice (criminal justice). And then real science can resume. When that happens, I think Anthony along with Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick will be awarded the Nobel Prize.
They certainly deserve it…..
Stress builds up gradually, and then waylays you when a few things unexpectedly go wrong. We’re made with limits, and when you reach that limit, simple tasks suddenly become impossible. Been there. A warning sign is dizziness that sets in about 30 seconds after standing — then you know you’re nearing the wall. Sleep is the best cure. I’m guessing the prospect of migrating off WordPress is too much of an ask, Anthony. Recommend you rest, make no big changes for now, and see what your moderators can do for you to lighten the load.
One man and his blog..
taking on the whole of the $b of the AGW bretheren.. and winning ..
because he is right,………
and because he never lowers himself to their very low standards !!!
PLEASE keep going until this fraud is dead and buried !
Anthony,
I have appreciated your blog since finding it via “Climate Debate Daily” – sometime back in ’08.
As a small token of my respect to you and WUWT, I will proudly post USING my full name from now on.
BEST WISHES TO YOU SIR
DAB
In a world where the press has betrayed the people, WUWT is a treasure. Pure science and the pursuit of truth are rare commodities these days so what Anthony hosts here is exceptional. We need ever be vigilant in defense of free speech for once that is lost, the game is over.
Been a regular reader since 2008. Many thanks for your work, from Brisbane Australia.
Same here – keep up the astonishingly good work
It’s a battle free thinking individuals can’t afford to lose, Ally. Welcome to the ranks.
For God’s sake Anthony, please don’t get to the stage the Git did!
http://thepompousgit.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/royal-hobart-habattoir-part-v-%E2%80%93-the-stroke/
We need you intact and compos mentis.
On the website front.The good thing about wordpress is that you are limited in what you do so instead of playing with the technology, you create articles. WordPress also boost articles way beyond what they would as ordinary sites (at least my small blog can suddenly come out no.1 on google search whereas my village website has never achieved the same).
However, there is a lot more you can do with your own site. …. but it needs more expertise, and you may find that you have even less people able to contribute and/or your regular helpers are spending time on the website and not time on the articles.
For those who visit WUWT for interesting science, here is some juicy, X-rated plant porn.
Oh, baby, open those beautiful petals for daddy! …
Hang in there mate; WE are not alone.
I’m down here in the City of Sails doing a bit of climate science myself; well weather science. Last Monday I visited with Professor Roger Davies at the UofA, to talk about his “Sky is Falling” paper; well clouds are falling anyhow; so I now have a copy of the complete paper. He’s a very pragmatic guy, and just wants to report what he finds from his (satellite) observations. I’ve been seeing some sky is falling effect myself. It’s a tad humid here, and the puffy cumulus clouds are so bloody low, they can almost go under the Harbor bridge. But Davies looks at Cirrus mostly, and I guess you, being a weather geek, would understand why that is. (I don’t). And my old electronics Professor told me that quite a few respectable scientists (Physicists) here.including Dr Chris de Freitas, are confident there are gaping holes in the knowledge of climate.
Davies told me specifically, that “they” don’t know how to properly model the reflectance of clouds.
This afternoon, I was out with a friend (and some new ones) tooling around in a 70 foot Volvo Round the World ocean raceboat; a former second place finisher. And the clouds were almost down to the mast top, and so bloody bright on my eyes. These things are even more powerful than the Americas Cup Boats, and we were flying full sail in 20 kts of wind, while a 2003 AC boat had to take two reefs in its main sail. I spent so much time looking at the clouds, and photographing them with a fisheye lens, that I hardly noticed much of the In Harbor race, that the current Volvo Race boats put on. Well the Team New Zealand/ Camper (Spanish shoe Company) boat won that race easily; and the current Volvo Leader came in last (Telephonica). Camper made good use of their knowledge of the local ocean crrents to scream into the lead early, and never looked back. They all head out into the Southern Ocean tomorrow, to monitor Antarctic ice growth; next stop Brazil.
It was a fun way to study the energy interplay beweent he atmosphere and the ocean.
If I had your knowledge of the weather system, I probably could have had even more fun.
But definitely the clouds are falling; but the sun is shining on WUWT, so don’t sweat it Mate, it will all come out in the wash, and she’ll be right.
Chin up Anthony! There are so many people here behind you. As said before, Ally speaks for many of us, and I heartily endorse the sentiments. I can’t remember ever posting before, but if I have it was a very long time ago, however, I visit the site daily and frequently e-mail snippets from it to friends. I am also a regular visitor to Jo Nova, Bishop Hill and Australian Climate Madness, and a less frequent visitor to a few other similar sites, but your is at the top of the ‘must read daily’ list.
I would like to offer my thanks and gratitude for all that you and your helpers are doing.
As an aside, when I was in senior classes at High School, over 50 years ago, we had a section of English called ‘Clear Thinking’. In that we would be given some written work- sometimes from a newspaper, sometimes from books, and had to analyse the information. All contradictory statements had to be exposed along with false arguments etc., and I am sure those who took that course have been helped through life by understanding how to see the wood through the trees. I believe that such courses don’t exist any more. I wonder why?
Dane.
I’ll certainly add my deep gratitude to you, Anthony, for what you have done and are doing – and the gentlemanly way in which you insist on doing it.
Thanks too Anthony, your site is a tremendous help to me, please keep it up, but you do appear to enjoy doing what you do, as do all your commenters. As a long time ‘bludger and lurker,’ I have finally been able to send you a few dollars in appreciation after selling some seedlings to the government. If they only knew how much I ‘bag them’!
Thank you Anthony for having a place where there is a bit of sanity. For the time and effort that you put into this blog. I look forward to reading it daily.
In years past the media controlled the message, and therefore controlled us. With the internet, the people have regained some degree of power. It is amazing to be able to participate, each of us in our own small way, pushing back against the system that is trying to control our lives and our futures.
Cheers!
Agreed, in spades. You’ve done huge things in service of both truth and science, and at no small cost. If you closed up shop tomorrow to get your life back … at some point, you have to decide whether doing 90% of what’s possible is enough. Or 92%, or 95%. Thinking about 100% … that way lies madness. You’ve set a standard to be proud of, and you’ve reached millions, directly and indirectly. Thanks for that, most sincerely. Sooner or later, though, success becomes a matter of picking the right time to pass on the baton. Don’t worry … you’ve trained an army, and more than a few of them will carry on what you’ve started. Whatever you decide to do with WUWT, and whenever you decide to do it, you’ve earned our gratitude and respect. Very best wishes for a good life to you and yours. You’ve earned it.
Anthony,
you have had enough praise, I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to CHARLES the M
The back room boys seem to be forgotten .
Ally, it’s good to meet you – it’s always good to welcome a fellow rationalist. My own story is not so different, if you replace Fakegate with Climategate 1. Shortly before that, an amateur weatherwatching friend put cash on the table for anyone who could show him the evidence of impending catastrophe produced by mankind’s CO2: I set to with a will, having always been a scientific sort, but was horrified by the half-baked pseudoscience which I found. That in turn was explained when I started looking into the politics of it. (I hope you don’t horrify easily, if you’re going to look into that too, but it’s enlightening in its own horrible way.) Oh, and you won’t be surprised to hear that I think my friend’s cash is pretty safe, even as he annoyingly increases the sum annually (grrr!).
Anthony, you know a lot of us out here wonder how you manage to keep so many balls in the air – WUWT, family life, work, ham radio, and, and. From where I sit, it looks like Chico gets more hours to the day than we do in the Old World! Total respect, and endless thanks for a site which is always interesting, informative and – just as important – kept polite and to the point. As long as you want to keep WUWT going, I shall be happy to call in and add my occasional two pennyworth, and I think I speak for most of us when I say that. Now, have a day off with your family!
Vy 73 OM, Steve
Love yer Anthony. I feel the same, coming to first Climate Audit, then WUWT has rekindled my love of science, which I stopped when I left school. WUWT is both full of well presented science and fun. You should be teaching in High School. Your evaluation of the Gore CO2 video was fascinating and ROTFL (I discussed it with a César winning film editor, and she agreed with you, anything that is edited contains a point of view and is therefore subjective).