One of the hurdles Michael Mann has to overcome in his lawsuit against NRO/Steyn is the tenet that public figures are expected to have a higher level of tolerance when it comes to ridicule, satire, and defamation. For that reason, because I myself am a public figure in the climate debate, I’d have little success in prosecuting a defamation claim over an article that says I have sex with farm animals (see “corrections” at bottom of linked article).
After Mann’s libel case against the National Review Online and Mark Steyn was filed, he’s recently been whining that he’s a “reluctant public figure“, perhaps to somehow shift the lawsuit in his favor.
Now, thanks to an opinion piece by Mann in the Guardian, he’s pretty much blown his own argument out of the water while managing to make a ridiculous and easily falsifiable claim about typewriter technology in an analogy on “path dependency”.
Here, Mann uses his familiarity with what “the science tells us” to effect change in public and political policy, going even so far as to challenge president Obama:
If the president won’t protect us, who is he protecting?
That challenge pretty much places him in the realm of public debate, and being a “public figure”, even if he claims it was reluctant or involuntary:
A person can become an “involuntary public figure” as the result of publicity, even though that person did not want or invite the public attention. For example, people accused of high profile crimes may be unable to pursue actions for defamation even after their innocence is established…
Source: Aaron Larson: Defamation, Libel and Slander Law. Expertlaw.com, August 2003
Mann often claims he’s been “cleared” of any wrongdoing related to his world famous “hockey stick” in later investigations. So, like “people accused of high profile crimes may be unable to pursue actions for defamation even after their innocence is established” he may be unable to make any viable defamation argument after his hockey stick became a sensation not only for the initial press, but the questions and ridicule that followed.
As a humorous aside, Mann really doesn’t know what he’s talking about with this analogy in the same Guardian article, bold mine:
A classic example is the “qwerty” keyboard layout. Even though this layout may not be the most efficient, it was the first one, and so it became the standard.
The omniscient Dr. Mann, who often positions himself as an expert in everything, botched this example badly. The QWERTY keyboard was not the first keyboard layout, and it was designed on purpose to be inefficient, to prevent a mechanical jam that frustrated early experienced typists:
The first model constructed by Sholes [4]used a piano-like keyboard with two rows of characters arranged alphabetically as follows:
- 3 5 7 9 N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
2 4 6 8 . A B C D E F G H I J K L M
The construction of the “Type Writer” had two flaws that made the product susceptible to jams. Firstly, characters were mounted on metal arms or typebars, which would clash and jam if neighboring arms were pressed at the same time or in rapid succession.[1] Secondly, its printing point was located beneath the paper carriage, invisible to the operator, a so-called “up-stroke” design. Consequently, jams were especially serious, because the typist could only discover the mishap by raising the carriage to inspect what he had typed. The solution was to place commonly used letter-pairs (like “th” or “st”) so that their typebars were not neighboring, avoiding jams. Contrary to popular belief,[2] the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down,[3] but rather to speed up typing by preventing jams.
- Rehr, Darryl, Why QWERTY was Invented
- http://www.maltron.com/media/lillian_kditee_001.pdf
- http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/221/was-the-qwerty-keyboard-purposely-designed-to-slow-typists “…at least one study indicates that placing commonly used keys far apart, as with the QWERTY, actually speeds typing, since you frequently alternate hands”
- US 79868, Sholes, C. Latham; Carlos Glidden & Samuel W. Soule, “Improvement in Type-writing Machines”, patent issued July 14, 1868
A few seconds with Google and Wikipedia as I did to verify what I believed I knew, would have helped him avoid this silly blunder, but he comes across almost always so full sure of himself, he probably thought he didn’t need to.
Dr. Mann now can add “failed typewriter expert” to his long list of curriculum vitae claims, along with being a “reluctant public figure” and Nobel Prize Winner.
h/t to Barry Woods for the Guardian link
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Sam Grove says: “More on the story of competing keyboard layouts. Guess who ran the trials indicating that the Dvorak layout was more efficient?”
http://reason.com/archives/1996/06/01/typing-errors
From the above link: “Even worse, there is clear evidence that the results were altered through a series of inappropriate data manipulations…The report states that, because three typists in the QWERTY group had initial net scores of zero words per minute (!), the beginning and ending speeds were calculated as the average of the first four typing tests and the average of the last four typing tests. This has the effect of raising the measured initial typing speed, and lowering the measured ending speed. In contrast, the initial experiment using Dvorak simply used the first and last test scores.”
Sound familiar?
As someone already pointed out, QWERTY wasn’t designed to be deliberately slow. It was designed to let letters that tended to follow each other be at a certain angle to each other (from the resting position). A bigger angle would give the letter that had just hit extra millimetres to bounce back without jamming with the next letter.
A beneficial side-effect of this thinking is that when you type on a QWERTY keyboard, there’ll be a tendency that your hands engage in the pattern left hand, right hand, left hand, right hand etc, which is a rather comfortable way to work and probably speeds typing up a little, compared to if one hand is overworked all the time.
–Ahrvid
Mann’s story is about the Keystone XL pipeline permission. I commented that they should ask Dana Nutticello (prolific Guardian writer) for insider comments as he works for the company that lost the last bid to build it. “Of course” it got censored.
To show my age, or rural background: I still remember to this day my middle aged typewrite teacher in 8th grade, telling us that we had to spend at least on class hour typing on a manual as it was good for us to learn where it all began and we would discover ‘jams’. We had just gotten shining new ‘lectric typewriters in our new school.
He explained to us after our day on the manual that the design of the keyboard was for reducing jams.
Also to break ties on the fastest typewriter in class was always done on the manuals.
Unfortunately for Mann, Obama’s remarks during SOTU generally supported alarm. Contradictory remarks aside, this is bad news for Mann and co, because you can pretty much guarantee a politician will simply say something, and then do the exact opposite.
Perhaps Mann’s article will change /or pressure Obama and his aids. One thing is for sure, when your a socialist activist like Obama, your not going to let anything get in the way of progress for the middle and lower classes (the majority of the US), and that means signing the pipeline.
I think that my typewriter is pregnant… I keeps skipping periods
I’ll never win any typing speed competitions, but Dvorak certainly is easier than QWERTY on my arthritic wrist! There is a marked difference in the amount of finger and hand movements between the two layouts. I began using Dvorak about 15 years ago — it took 2 or 3 weeks to learn, and switching back and forth with QWERTY doesn’t seem to be particularly difficult (usually a deep breath does the trick).
Mann keeps using that word “science”.
I do not think it means what he thinks it means.
I am going to keep putting this poem up until Mann decides to sue me also. Come at me little man!!
Also this poem should be read at the trial. Mann is obviously a disgusting humbugger and publicly known as one! Humbugger! Humbugger! Humbugger!
THE HOCKEY STICK
There was a crooked Mann
Who played a crooked trick
And had a crooked plan
To make a crooked stick
By using crooked math
That favored crooked lines
Lysenko’s crooked path
Led through the crooked pines
And all his crooked friends
Applaud what crooked seems
But all that crooked ends
Derives from crooked means
Eugene WR Gallun
Berényi Péter says:
February 1, 2014 at 3:08 pm
If nothing else, publishing “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines” made him a “public figure” and not a particularly reluctant one at that.
This review of the book is excellent:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2Z9NJVEA0L1D1/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0072N4U6S&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=
“If the president won’t protect us, who is he protecting?” The Israelis. That’s his job.
1957chev says:
February 1, 2014 at 2:57 pm
” …Climate alarmist are not any different than the old “crazies”, with a sandwich board, proclaiming that the end is near! …”
—-l
I think of them them more as playing the antagonists in Shaun of the Dead – slow-moving and only dangerous in large clusters 🙂
I tried the DVORAK layout and liked it a lot. Got to 30 WPM with about 2 hours of practice. My normal QWERTY speed is 50 WPM (I correct all errors during the typing tests so 100% accuracy on both). I liked it a lot because my hands didn’t tire but the real breakthrough for me was the split keyboard from Microsoft. On a normal QWERTY keyboard with the hands bent at the wrist I get tingling fingers after 2 minutes of typing. With the DVORAK it was 5. On the split keyboard with my wrists straight 30+ without a problem. I now have one split keyboard at work and one at home and a few spares.
I’ve seen typing contests with both DVORAK and QWERTY winning so I think it comes down to the dexterity of the individual.
By the way the inventor realized that the QWERTY layout was not required about 16 years after he introduced it and tried to change it to an alphabetical layout to no avail. It is more a lesson in “installed base” and “user preference” than anything else.
a ‘keystroke pipe dream’
I think a much more serious error is being overlooked. The typewriter thing is amusing but the really substantial mistake is something else. Science cannot tell us what “must” be done. That involves a judgement about social costs vs benefits. Or, if you prefer, which social problems should get priority. Climate scientists per se have no special authority to put global warming ahead of fighting malaria say, or any one of at least a dozen other global problems.
Adam says:
February 1, 2014 at 11:39 pm
“If the president won’t protect us, who is he protecting?” The Israelis. That’s his job.
You might want to look into Valerie Jarret.
Mine is an AZERTY
I blame the BIg Keyboard industry for this.
How far can one benefit both from anonymity and publicity? There must be a point of no return somewhere. The question is if Mann crossed it.
In my opinion, yes he did at the point when he volunteered his unfounded hockey-stick to UN/IPCC summary for policy makers. We have politicians to dream up policies. We cannot afford scientists playing that game, however well-intended they may be. Information from scientists should by definition be traceable, verifiable, repeatable and reliable.
Mann is far from being the only willing, loose running scary Gyro Gearloose in politics. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20110103STO11194/html/Professor-Paul-Crutzen-Nobel-winner-and-advocate-of-a-climate-escape-route
Luckily there are good administrative practices to protect the public from the worst. I’m astonished how Pachauri can continue in UN after demonstrating his ignorance of them in so easily understandable, verifiable and public way.
I wonder if any court has taken Twitter, Facebook and blogs into consideration in determining whether an individual is a “public figure” for libel/slander purposes? These days, anyone can have a website, host a blog, have Facebook groupies and Twitter followers. Anyone can make himself a “celebrity”, at least in his own mind.
The fact that anyone can do it weakens the distinction between ordinary (private) citizens and “public figures”. Maybe it would depend on how many friends / followers / hits your social media garnered (and whether they were real or phony)? Or perhaps if one uses social media to behave like real celebrities by discuss one’s sex life, posting pictures of one’s arrests, etc. ?
Interesting questions arise when new technology meets established legal precedent.
Personally, I think anyone who writes books about himself and injects himself into the major public controversies of the day has willingly made himself a public figure. Add in his use of social media and I think it unlikely a court will accept his claim of being a private citizen.
This is an interesting concept that mann has injected himself into….”Path Dependence”…….I mean WOW and DOUBLE WOW!!!!
Budding young persons thrown to their own devices at college campuses all over this country get to pick and choose what they study. Path Dependence must certainly play a roll upon their choices, once the have made some. Liberal arts and science students will choose Economics—not in the Business school but in their own building, influenced by the liberal minded professorial ranks those students company with—Business economics anathema to their world.
Thusly, in the buildings that house “climate sciences”, those programs garner repute and cash from claims of planetary death in the absence of their models……and so their “path” is “dependent” upon making dire claims and making good little “eichmans” that will push their cash cow even further.
Path Dependence as associated with early collegiate class choices makes people into who they become, as a result of the associations they make and the biases they create by making choices such as either a Business economics class or a liberal science economics class.
Gail Coombes mentioned 30,000 excess deaths in the UK due to fuel poverty. The UK provides a winter fuel allowance for old people. I think last years figures were 23000; back in 2005 it was 29000. Excess winter deaths are due to reasons other than fuel poverty as studies have shown. Southern Europe countries like Portugal have significant excees winter deaths. Countries noted for their winter cold do not.
Mr. Mann is a perfect example of “Chicken Little”, and the sky is falling mentality. They are also profoundly disappointed when the sky doesn’t fall.
Err . . . “nationality”?
That is a great article. Thanks for the reference. How often do we hunt for the original source only to find that those who cite it have mis-stated its findings, or didn’t read it at all most likely? Often. Scholarship is hard.