The Australian Academy of Science has announced their 2014 HONORIFIC AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE
The description reads:
Academy Medal: for contributions to science by means other than the conduct of scientific research. Hmmm, that actually seems appropriate, since his tourist affair hardly seemed like “scientific research” Here’s the bio on Turney in the awards section:
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Professor Chris Turney
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of New South Wales
Professor Turney is an internationally recognised earth scientist and research leader in both climate and environmental change, from the tropics to the poles. By pioneering new ways of combining climate models with records of past climate change (spanning from hundreds to thousands of years), he has discovered new links between variability mechanisms in the Australian region and global climate change.
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Source: http://www.science.org.au/awards/awardees/2014awards.html
I wonder if the award was decided before his Antarctic fiasco or if AAS simply has glossed over the recent incompetence?
h/t to Jo Nova
NikFromNYC says: @ur momisugly January 21, 2014 at 11:30 am
Progressive intellectuals successfully placed junk on pedestals in the art world first, so science seemed an easy mark too, which for a time it was, all alas pegged to the weather in a way that now threatens to topple the whole popular edifice of misdirection that is the contemporary liberal arts….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I always figures the lot of them, literary as well as artists were intimidated by the greats of history so took their toys and went off to play in a different playground where they could pat themselves on the back and say how great they are.
Upon reading the first line of this post, I immediately thought it was a joke (literally, not figuratively), but not for the reason one might think. As I continued reading the post, I quickly realized it wasn’t meant to be a joke. I then reread the first line and realized my mistake.
Initially I thought the first line read: “The Australian Academy of Science has announced their 2014 HORRIFIC AWARD FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE”
Needless to say, I’m a bit dyslexic.
“I remember when awards were for doing unique and special work.”
That fits Turney quite well, remember he was Leader/Co-leader of the PAGES2K consortium which broke new ground in scientific methodology, by first inventing a new supposedly splendid method for selecting proxies and then…er….forgot to actually apply it to the data in the paper wher it was announced (Gergis et al. with Turney as part of the et al.). That was indeed a unique and special piece of work.
Just goes to show that the award is worth nothing. Just like the Nobel Peace Prize.
Well of course he deserves that. With his help now millions have seen the difference:
– how was the area when Mawson navigated there 100 years ago and landed on the coast
– and where did they had to land now and travel tens of kilometres over multiyear ice to get to his landing point:
http://climateaudit.org/2014/01/15/ship-of-fools/
Without his contribution, how many people would have realised that?
The Australian Academy of Science was behind a truly atrocious propaganda piece a few years ago, in fact, it was very similar to the hate piece put out by the Royal Society, which was then watered down and moderated into the latest and far more pleasant 2010 summery of the science, but only after the rest of the fellows realized their entire society had been misrepresent by a minority over zealous alarmists.
An appropriate analogy for Turney’s adventure would be an expedition to the top of mount Everest by a geologist, or perhaps a professor who is an expert in moon rocks getting sent to the moon, or maybe a vulcanologist trekking up the side of of mount fuji with a bunch of camera happy Japanese tourists, either way its no place an inexperienced, over confident professor who put lots of gullible peoples lives at risk for his own gain.
Yeah, sure, give him a medal, and while your at it, tag him with a GPS locator for everybody sake.
“Hide the decline!”
WUWT will have to create some awards. Like some to honour those who service for good. Then for those who contribute rubbish for destruction some drongo awards for the likes of T…… I am sure we will all be really good at voting!
I just realised what the expression “hide the decline” really means.
It means a few years ago alarmists realised they desperately needed to ‘hide the decline’ in the morality of the scientific establishment, especially in regards to ‘climate science’.
The alternative was the widespread realisation that alarmist scare stories were being sponsored by immoral pseudo-scientists.
And what would that mean?
Answer: No more government grants and the consequential collapse of the Global Warming Industry.
The BBC just published this article: “Why did Antarctic expedition ship get stranded in ice? By Andrew Luck-Baker, on board the Aurora Australis. It contains a detailed account of what happened before the ship got stuck. A quote:
“The teacher in me cringes at the logistics,” said one of the paying members of the expedition.
Another said the expedition was run like a “boys own adventure” and expressed concern over what she believed was a lack of thorough briefing on safety procedures throughout the Antarctic leg of the expedition.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25833307
Agree with others above in the fact that Rorke’s Drift is not a good example to use as a comparison of handing out a swag of Victoria Crosses in one action to the bestowing of one science award for some obscure feats of scientific “excellence”.
Even though there was criticism of so many VCs being awarded (“it is monstrous making heroes of those who shut up in buildings at Rorke’s Drift, could not bolt, and fought like rats for their lives which they could not otherwise save”) and it has been seen as a distraction from the defeat at Isandlwana – there is no doubt that there were some real heroes at Rorke’s Drift.
There is also no comparison between the unassuming Lieutenant John Chard, an engineer with no combat experience who suddenly found himself in charge of a small garrison of 140 including sick and wounded with 3-4000 ferocious Zulus advancing AND Professor Chris Turney, known only to me for his escapades on ice. Perhaps some-one can enlighten me on his feats of excellence.
However, I do agree that there could be many other good examples from WW1 as some-one in the JoNova blog pointed out.
It will no doubt be interesting to see how the Prof reacts to his new award when according to the ABC he addresses the media later to-day:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-22/52-tourists-and-reserchers-rescued-from-antarctic-ice-return-to/5212072
But I do like his twitter remark: “Just arrived in Hobart. Great to be in Oz. It’s warm!”
Only relatively Prof. At the moment it is only 13deg C and the forecast is for it to reach the exact January long term average.
Frank says:
January 21, 2014 at 2:33 pm
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continued
If y’all had looked at the papers and work for which Turney was honored before you commented you might have reached the conclusion that the award was well deserved.
https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-chris-turney/publications
There is a very interesting article in the sydney morning herald today. Basically says
When the button was pressed to evacuate that more people got driven to antartica.
The BBC report is interesting, but the smh report is more interesting.for some reason the
BBC, did not report that passengers actually heard the return order being given and ignored.
This is the gist of the Sydney morning herald report.
Peter Miller says:
January 21, 2014 at 8:41 am
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‘….The prize of up to $3000 (GST exempt) is awarded biennially to researchers up to 15 years post-PhD in the calendar year of nomination,’
‘ Royal Holloway, U. of London
PhD, Quaternary Science
1994 – 1997 ‘
http://au.linkedin.com/pub/chris-turney/25/8a1/926
So it would seem the nomination was 2012.
Spin spin spin…
http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2014/stuck-in-the-ice/
To get a medal before you’ve even examined your data. Kind of like Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize (in the hope that he would be peaceful in the future).
Chris Turney certainly deserves an award………….for self promotion.
It may be that he is a clever bloke and has done some good science.
Unfortunately he is also very enthusiastic about telling us all about how clever he is ..
http://www.christurney.com
At the very least he seems to have convinced the management of the Australian Academy of Science that he is a clever chap
Dr Norman Page says:
January 21, 2014 at 5:03 pm
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Ahmed M; Anchukaitis KJ; Buckley BM; Cook ER; Smerdon JE; Asrat A; Umer M; Borgaonkar HP; Braida M; Stenni B; Büntgen U; Neukom R; Chase BM; Christie DA; Lara A; Curran MAJ; Moy AD; Cvan Ommen T; Diaz HF; Esper J; Fan Z-X; Gaire NP; Ge Q; Shao X; Gergis J; González-Rouco JF; Goosse H; Grab SW; Nash DJ; Graham N; Graham R; Grosjean M; Wanner H; Hanhijärvi ST; Korhola AA; Kaufman DS; McKay NP; Kiefer T; Von Gunten L; Kimura K; Krusic PJ; Lézine A-M; Ljungqvist FC; Lorrey AM; Luterbacher J; Werner JP; Masson-Delmotte V; McCarroll D; Prieto MR; McConnell JR; Sigl M; Morales MS; Mundo IA; Villalba R; Mulvaney R; Nakatsuka T; Sano M; Nicholson SE; Oerter H; Palmer JG; Phipps SJ; Turney CSM; Rivera A; Severi M; Shanahan TM; Shi F; Solomina ON; Steig EJ; Thamban M; Trouet V; Verschuren D; Viau AE; Vinther BM; Wagner S; Zorita E; Wahl ER; White JWC; Yasue K, 2013, ‘Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia’, Nature Geoscience, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 339 – 346, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1797
Seriously, he’s writing papers with his football (soccer) team – maybe even the league. Since when did scientists author papers with over 50 co-authors?
So you can now win a Victoria Cross for being rescued. The bar is lying on the ground.
+1 for a Nobel prize.
Was the award for discovering ice?
I’m frankly angry at the attempt by these goons to coopt the heroism of Mawson and his party. Mawson and colleagues braved terrible conditions and suffered real privation, without any easy out. They put their bodies and their lives on the line. Turney’s diletantes carefully avoided exposing themselves to any tough conditions and raced for the exit (at the expense of other people) as soon as the situation became inconvenient. These people are a self-indulgent disgrace.