My second day at the American Geophysical Union conference was entirely different than the first, mainly due to the fact that all of a sudden I found myself unable to do photography. Even though I had made extensive photographs in sessions and during talks last year, this year I was informed after my first blog post on Monday that I was no longer allowed to make any photography in these events. Apparently, this year AGU has put in a event-wide kibosh on photography. Readers may recall from last year’s reports that I made extensive use of photography which enabled me to recall some of the technical details and comment on them. It really puts a crimp on my style of reporting because I’m very visual mainly due to my lack of auditory skills and having photography helps me remember what transpired. Now, with no photography, reporting becomes even more difficult.
Now, I can understand that the American Geophysical Union is running a private event and when you run a private event you get the control how that event is portrayed to the public. But, at the same time asking reporters not to photograph things like posters with highly technical details in a place like Moscone Center which is a public venue owned by the city of San Francisco borders on infringement of a free press. While I will comply with this requirement it does force me to limit myself in my reporting which is going to be a loss for everyone.
Of course not everyone got the “no photography in sessions” memo delivered as I did:
Polar bear as poster child of #climatechange seems distant & exotic, in fact it's here & now. @MichaelEMann #AGU14 pic.twitter.com/0dSE8tzKfw
— Prof. Kimberly Nicholas (@KA_Nicholas) December 16, 2014
On the plus side, I was told that photography in the hallways outside and of signs and displays for the public is fair game. So I decided to concentrate on those things that I could photograph yesterday. It is unfortunate though that I will be unable to give you a photo of the sneer Dr. Michael Mann gave me when he discovered that I was sitting just two rows behind him at the sessions that he and John Cook, Dana Nuccitelli, Katharine Hayhoe, Chris Mooney, and Dr. Jeff Masters presented in the basement of the Marriott Marquis in the meeting room that was the furthest walk from the main AGU venue at Moscone Center. I am unsure if the distance of separation for that venue was intentional or accidental but I can say that unlike last year the sort of condescending alarmism that group of people pushes didn’t seem to be part of the mainstream event.
During this event that I attended….
Dr. Jeff Masters said (and I Tweeted):
At #AGU14 session on communication with @MichaelEMann @dana1981 and @jeffmasters1 who says"imagery is important"…Ironic I can't show any!
— Watts Up With That (@wattsupwiththat) December 16, 2014
Indeed, “imagery is important”, so here is the photo imagery from the hallway I’m allowed to present:
More free beer at #AGU14 post sessions pic.twitter.com/INFJPfwdfv
— Watts Up With That (@wattsupwiththat) December 16, 2014
Beer station 2 #AGU14 pic.twitter.com/ibQ8GhEGhw
— Watts Up With That (@wattsupwiththat) December 16, 2014
Beer station 3 #AGU14 pic.twitter.com/g0aUiiQ4qb
— Watts Up With That (@wattsupwiththat) December 16, 2014
I also happened across Dr. Peter Gleick on the Moscone West 3rd floor, and was able to capture his contempt on camera:
And like last year, AGU 2014 was funded by “big oil” such as Exxon-Mobil and Chevron, as this poster just feet away from Dr. Gleick demonstrated yet again:
It sure would be nice to be able to report on the science of AGU with photography, other than what goes on in the hallways.
Sigh.
=============================================
UPDATE: Gavin Schmidt says the obvious, as I demonstrated above:
https://twitter.com/theAGU/status/545298138551308288
Won’t the presenters provide copies of their slides?
Oh, An-thony {chuckle} — see if you can hand this vid to one of the tech assistants to run in place of one of the AGW-promoters’ presentations…. lolololo
Audience of mostly AGW Cult Members {indignant, pouty lipped, drunk}: Wha’? Wha ish thish? … Obsheverations?!! How dare …. aaaaand ….. who’sh thish Rishard Feynaman guy, anyway?….
“Scientific Method” — Richard Feynman (YouTube video)
Janice
Very nice Feynman video (my personal Feynman riff is “cargo cult”).
Ya gotta wonder if people calling themselves “climate scientists” even know who Feynman is.
Merci and thanks for saying so!
It’s been shared by others on WUWT, too, I must acknowledge, here.
And, yeah… only scientists interested in data would know about Feynman.
“… lots of beer and ‘big oil’ funding flowed…”
Well, it is a good thing that neither of those contribute to the atmospheric CO2.
Oh, wait…
never mind.
No photography is an opportunity.
Ask the booths you are interested in for a card, and once you have it, ask them to send you a photo of their posters. The AGU can stop you from taking pictures of researchers works, but they can’t stop the researchers from taking a picture of their work and sending it to you.
Give them some suitable time period (say one month) and then publish a list of all the cards you got, and which ones complied with your request and which didn’t.
Lots of hours of amusement looking at the ones that send their work, and just as many digging into those that didn’t….
We should have bought Anthony Google glasses and a big fake nose and mustache!
Or he could go full metal SkS and walk around in a you-know-what uniform. This is San Francisco, after all.
So long as he remembers to have the seat of his pants cut out. Then he’d look San Francisco.
You mean that’s not his real nose and mustache?
Dear An-thony,
As you walk those halls in your quiet, unassuming, manly, way, hold that head high. Beneath that modest exterior beats the heart of a true hero for truth. WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!
#(:))
This video personifies you (and ALL you science giants of WUWT, all you engineers and chemists and physicists and geologists and other science men and women — you ROCK!):
“I Need a Hero” — sung by Bonnie Tyler with “Avengers” movie video (YouTube)
Truth — will — win!
AGW is the walking dead!
Your admirer,
Janice Moore
janice:
youre a good soul. it is so clear from all of your posts.
#(:))
#(:))
#(:))
Thank you! What a kind and generous thing to say!
If you only knew how much I needed to hear that… .
Agreed!! +10
Really?? Wow! Merry Christmas to you, too! 🙂
Which one is Anthony, the one in the Lycra or the green one ???
He (and ALL the male WUWT Science Giants) is personified by ALL the male heroes.
Scientists like Norahforyou and Anna V and Pamela Gray and Rhoda and all the others whose names I cannot recall at the moment are the spunky red-head (esp. Pamela who IS a redhead…. much to the delight of that wonderful guy WHO NEEDS TO JUST ASK HER TO MARRY HIM AND TELL HER “NOW OR NEVER” … come on Pam….. it’s time….. seriously!).
#(:))
Anthony, you are the best. You must really burn these guys. So good to read your blog.
It’s on YouTube – Why do geologists love beer?
Maggie,
These are geophysicists, not geologists. There is a difference.
Sorry for getting a bit huffy, below, M. Painter…. but, there is something so endearing about the name “Maggie” that your remark to her raised my “don’t you dare talk to my little sister that way” hackles.
They’re just geologists with more math, that’s all.
Your video is on point, Maggie C..
M Painter is not only patronizingly rude, but mistaken.
Evidence:
AGU Member Phil Skemer, President Elect of the Mineral and Rock Physics Section of the AGU (http://sites.agu.org/leadership/sections-focus-groups/):
“Research interests include high pressure and temperature experimental rock deformation, apparatus design, and feedback processes between mantle rheology and microstructure. BA in Geology from Pomona College (2000). PhD in Geology and Geophysics from Yale University (2007).”
I’ll bet you a beer I could come up with at least 99 more geoLOGists… .
#(:))
(Source: http://sites.agu.org/leadership/leader/phil-skemer/)
Not to mention the oral testimony in your video repeatedly referring to “geologists”…. however…. one might argue reduced capacity and not get that testimony in…,heh, thus, the cite to credentials above.
A Bachelor of ARTS in Geology? That’s a new one on me.
Hm. That IS weird. Typo? (shrug)
As long as the AGU rules proscribing photos of live sessions and poster sessions are applied equally to all the attendees and press then there is no basis for concerns of targeted censorship by the AGU. It is an opportunity to measure the AGU’s integrity at the meeting, because it is possible to see if the AGU does apply its photography restrictions equally to all the attendees and press. I think the AGU has unwisely set themselves up to be seen as defensive about skeptical reporting.
I think AGU’s proscribing photos of the live and poster sessions does, prima fascia, inhibit some open exchange of ideas; ideas that were funded almost entirely by public tax monies. So, the AGU does show limited enlightenment when it fetters the stimulation of idea exchange and thus fetters the open flow of debate on the subject of climate; a subject which is important to all mankind.
John
No photography? Oh, how so very quaint. I recall there being a time when everyone didn’t wear 24 hour video recorders the size of buttons.
RBG – 5 years from now.
Buttons? I’m not even going to tell you about those confetti-sized toilet cams.
RBG – 10 years from now.
These days there are venues and even countries (Saudi Arabia for one) that turn away video cameras. But bring in a motion-stabilized still camera with a huge image detector shooting 200 megabits per second that shames traditional video? Please come in!
RBG
The rules for the workshop on applied propaganda are very strict.
http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2014/events/communicating-climate-science-workshop/
As with the proscription on use of recording or video devices, it’s all about controling the message.
” It is unfortunate though that I will be unable to give you a photo of the sneer Dr. Michael Mann gave me when he discovered that I was sitting just two rows behind him at the sessions ”
Mann’s face is weird. Kind of pudgy, soft, and with those two beady little eyes way too close together. Nothing says “you don’t understand the basic physics” like a sneer on such a face. Still, free beer.
Even the organizers of most rock concerts have now given up trying to ban photography.
Those organizers actually have to adapt to reality, don’t get taxpayer money and can’t offer free beer ?
Well this (researcher) never went http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2877313/Scientists-ground-squirrels-beavers-contributing-global-warming-previously-released.html
“…lots of beer and ‘big oil’ funding flowed”
———————
I’m lovin’ it.
No photos allowed? Maybe next year you can bring Josh with you.
(Would they allow an audio recording?)
Josh is great, but can you imagine the result if we could get Ralph Steadman to cover one of these events?
How to put off media? Lesson one: ban photography.
“We’re so transparent you can’t see what we’re doing!”
Also a question:
Has this always been their policy but Anthony just didn’t know about it last year or is it something new? If the later, who proposed it?
Elsevier looks after the “scientific journals” and the “Gamechanger Salon” thousand+ look after the non-scientific CAGW propaganda:
12 Aug: TheNewAmerican: Alex Newman: Big Media “Journalists” Exposed in Secret Progressive Network
The watchdog group Media Trackers recently announced that it had discovered a secret network of more than 1,000 radical Big Government activists that includes more than a few prominent individuals masquerading as objective news reporters at major press outlets. Lobbyists, fringe political activists, climate alarmists, Democrat Party operatives, and Big Labor are also all represented in the group, which has as its declared mission to create a “more coordinated” movement for leftists to take over America…
(members include) 350.org, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, etc…
Some analysts are even referring to the new revelations as “JournoList 2.0.” The reference, of course, is to another scandal in recent years that exposed hundreds of far-left activists posing as non-biased “journalists” across the establishment press…
Americans are led to believe that these supposed journalists are merely non-biased observers reporting the facts. In truth, they are radical activists promoting their wild beliefs while pretending to be reporters…
At the very least, readers deserve full disclosure.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/18896-big-media-journalists-exposed-in-secret-progressive-network
to be fair, one could call them all “useful pawns” for a bigger agenda.
pat
December 17, 2014 at 2:13 pm
Why do they bother. The press are already card carrying leftist activists.
Why would Gleick single out Anthony for such scorn. Was he the only press that didn’t applaud the felony.
Why would oil companies support AGU? Because they are the ones doing real geophysics – their models work because they have to and they are being done by engineers and not tenured (tethered?) lefty mathematicians. Oh, and why do lefties all have Apple computers – was Stevie Jobs a raging anti corporate ‘progressive’? No he was a go for the jugular captalist.
Good point, re: Apple/Jobs, Mr. Pearse. Same reason(s) they pay 3 times as much for “organic” produce and drive hybrid cars:
1. misinformation about the competitor’s product;
2. emotion-based belief that “the little guy” is the one to support no matter what.
3. ignorance of the amount MICROSOFT donates (as an organization) to socialist causes.
4. peer pressure. [<— THE MAIN REASON]
“No photos” is normal. At the equivalent meeting for chemistry, the ACS meeting in August at the same venue, it was regularly announced at the beginning of sessions that photography, and other recording devices, were not allowed. It is not aimed at one person!
A photo ban is really common. No photos is mainly to protect the students. Unscrupulous scientists have been known to photograph posters, go home, and repeat the work with a postdoc and publish first, screwing the poor grad student. Allowing photography means people tend to only show old published stuff, and the meeting becomes duller.
I hope they are offsetting all the carbon emissions from the beer, as well as the methane that follows.
Me too.
I put 11 kWh of PV solar on my roof about a year ago – at year-end I receive a marketable certificate (i.e.: I can sell the thing) for roughly 5-6 tons of “CO2 avoidance”. The fact I don’t believe warmist CO2 crap won’t stop me from profiting from the stupidity of those that do.
PS: Oh, my $36,000 gross capital cost was reduced by a 90% rate payer + Federal tax payer subsidy. You can’t make this stuff up.