The web site Real Science has posted an announcement of the death of blogger and former WUWT contributor Steve Goddard. WUWT has not yet been able to verify any of the details but Anthony has asked that the link be posted.
UPDATE :
An alternate Steve Goddard site is claiming that Real Science was hacked and that the death announcement is fake. WUWT is still unable to verify the details.
UPDATE 2:
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the report of the death of Steve Goddard is somewhat premature. When I first e-mailed Anthony with this news, his first response was “I don’t know this might be a fake is real name is ….” a subsequent e-mail responding to a link to the Real Science site noted “some of it jibes with what I know it some does not I’d be cautious…” then he asked me to post the link to the notice with a notice that we could not confirm anything. Apparently his caution was justified and WUWT readers can be assured that Anthony keeps a close watch on his interns even when he takes a rare few hours off.
UPDATE # 3
Steve Goddard himself appears to have weighed in here at WUWT:
I’m fine. I was off at a soccer game when this happened. Basically, someone I trusted went insane and took control of the site. I still don’t have access, as my IP address has been blocked.
Looking like somebody hacked the site.
Is this a kind of intimidation by some CAGW fanatic?
Or somebody thought this would be funny to announce his death? The CAGW guys reaching to new lows?
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/real-science-was-hacked/
The hack story seems right. A comment from me to real science landed in moderation, and a lot of sockpuppet comments are there. The alternate Steve Goddard site accepted me without moderation.
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”
Much is not adding up here…
Someone was posting great articles earlier this morning signed “Steven Goddard”.
Some are now gone.
But the site says he died last night. ??
The national database has no Steve or Steven Goddard age 81 in the entire USA.
There is one Mr. Goddard in Missouri who is 79.
Besides I thought “Steven Goddard” was a pen name. ?
Something goofy here. Is it something special for “Earth Day”?
And how’s Peter Gleick?
kbray
Steve Goddard is his real name. He’s from Colorado, a keen cyclist and certainly not 81. I saw quite a loit of him in Lisbon. I’d be very sorry to hear that something had happened to him, but this story sounds dubious.
.
Has the real-science.com domain been hijacked? If not, he can shut down the DNS redirection.
Possibly somebody is gathering now id’s and emails from skeptics. Fake posts and the kind to follow…
Just had a look at Real Science – Steve Goddard appears to be alive and well and responding to comments .
Steve was not 81. he did not live in texas. his name isnt even steve goddard
Hmmm…
Found this link…
http://lazarus-on.blogspot.com/2012/01/who-is-steven-goddard.html
“reason from a dead man walking”
This is something from a guy who has a blog ‘Really Sciency’
Strange…
Cheers,
Michael
Here is a brief exchange just now from his old blog:
————————————————————-
u.k.(us) says: April 21, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Are you dead, or alive.
I need to know.
Reply stevengoddard says: April 21, 2012 at 8:39 pm
I’m fine, thanks.
Reply Eric Barnes says: April 21, 2012 at 8:41 pm
How could you resist the temptation to answer “I’m dead”?
u.k.(us) says: April 21, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Now that that has been resolved, are you really 81 years old ?
stevengoddard says:
April 21, 2012 at 8:49 pm
No. Not yet!
—————————————————–
He seems quite lively…
The mystery continues….
You have to wonder what is going on in the collective psyche of alarmists when we have, in a short frame of time, exploding unbelievers, advocating burning people’s houses down, death notices for people who disagree etc. As more moderate people shift their opinions, the lunatic fringe comes to the fore. What they don’t get is that this stuff alienates the mainstream even more.
I sincerely hope that none of these deranged fanatics decides to take it any further. Thanks to a compliant MSM, things like destroying experimental GM crops, disrupting coal loading (in Australia) and harassing scientists and their families (in the UK) are treated as high spirited pranks. I suspect that a lot of MSM journalists think ‘there, but for the grace … etc’ with regard to their own offspring when reporting these events.
Last week, the Australian Leader of the Opposition was bailed up in a restaurant where he was having dinner with a friend by a couple of harpies who disagreed with his views on gay marriage. They then attracted a Twitterati who gathered around the restaurant and banged on the glass windows. As it happens, I agree more with their stance than his – I don’t care much who marries whom. It makes no difference to me. But, I am repelled by the view that shrieking abuse in a public restaurant, and gathering a mob to do the same, is a legitimate form of political protest in a functioning democracy. It is playground behaviour, at best.
In the lead up to Rio (if only Hunter S was still with us!) I guess that a lot more weirdness will surface. Perhaps this time a few decent investigative journalists will recognise the potential for stories beyond the press releases at this forthcoming Bacchanalia For The Planet.
Fantasing about the death of skeptics is the penultimate step. Given what Zwick wrote, this hacking is not to be taken lightly. Long before this or the 10:10 video I explained that this stage would come. First stage: declare the end of debate. Second stage: ignore the other side.
Third stage: dehumanize the other side ( crazy, criminal, ect) Fourth stage: Fantasize violence.
5th stage: real violence.
The original post on real-science has info about his funeral and cremation even though his reported death was apparently only hours old. I’ve never seen those kinds of details emerge that quickly following someone’s unexpected demise.
Steven Goddard is a part of the illuminati!
[Reply: Are you “Carlos Robinson” or “Robert Smith”? Please use only one screen name. ~dbs, mod.]
Mosher, you know you weren’t the first with the five stages. Other than that, I agree fully with your post.
Ummm, what’s going on with this?
Oh, I see, that is your version of the five. I agree completely with your post then, …
This is a bit of a worry.
It seems the hackers have probably got hold of email addresses, and will now be able to post on many sites under the name of the owner of that email.
This has the potential to make things VERY awkward especially if it was orchestrated by some extreme warmist group.
The notice said that Steve Goddard was a Catholic, and that his remains would be cremated. The two don’t go together.
Glad you are ok, Mr. Goddard !!
Weird. I did a whois on real-science.com and posted that at http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com, but my comment is in moderation.
Just trying to get a handle on this hacking.
I’m no master webmaster, but it seems that there are two (at least) ways a site can be hacked.
1) Someone compromises the server that hosts the web site. A continued “hack” would mean that the access password has been changed and the original site owner cannot log in. Presumably there exist means to cure this situation with the hosting company.
2) Someone compromises the DNS registration and redirects name lookups to an alternate site. From my limited experience that does not appear to be the case here, as all of Steve Goddard’s postings at real-science.com still appear to be accessible. Presumably Mr. Goddard still has control of his DNS registration and can assert control of his domain name, if not the web site.
Steven Mosher says:
April 21, 2012 at 2:32 pm
“Steve was not 81. he did not live in texas. his name isnt even steve goddard”
===============
So what, do tell.
Someone needs to point the domain elsewhere so he can re-take control of it.