Congratulations Jo

Posted on 10 January 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

Jo Swinson bay

Congratulations Jo

Baby Andrew (on the right)

I’m a little late, but its still the best news I’ve heard all day.

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Can you isolate a volcanic temperature signal in the temperature data?

Posted on 10 January 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

This is an excellent article which is well worth reading in full.

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Windows 8 my uClimate

Posted on 9 January 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

I don’t know about anyone else but I’m already addicted to uClimate.com. But it is certainly bringing up surprises. The first was that WUWT is not the top blog – at least in terms of posts with Stephen Goddard producing some 269 articles and Climate Depot some 184 compared to WUWT’s 97. Obviously there’s no comparison in terms of quality but even so it was a surprise.
But the real eye opener has come from the new addition which records clicks on articles. It is so new, that it is not publicly available (sorry I’m still trialling the software). But what do you suppose the top article is? Was it …

Yes, they are all in the top few, but no they are not top. Instead, if the number of clicks are to be believed, what is the most important issue flexible the combined intellect of sceptics? It’s this:

Warren Meyer: Windows 8 Even Worse Than I Thought

Up to this point, after some initial bad impressions trying Windows 8 briefly, I have avoided it like the plague.  However, my son needed a new laptop and the only ones that really met our requirements only came in Windows 8 flavors, so we bought one. What an awful mess.  The system boots up into …

2014-01-08 06:08   1 Comment … and the worst thing is that I too hate Windows 8.

Posted in Climate | 2 Comments

Mini Nukes Touted as Solution for Climate

Posted on 9 January 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

I think I got there first:- in a letter on 10th December 2009 in the Irish Independent
As I listen to the claims of Climate Chaos, with its “imminent threat” and undeniable evidence, I wonder where I have heard this all before.

Wasn’t it Tony Blair who also told us that there was an imminent threat?

A threat so serious that we could not gamble, that we had to invade Iraq on the “precautionary principle” to prevent weather . . . sorry I mean weapons of mass destruction.

This is what happens when experts/scientists become politicised. The spin doctors come in, the evidence gets sexed up to “hide the decline” and in the end the public is misled.

Following the latest revelations on Climategate there is now very little doubt that these ‘scientists’ have been adjusting the temperature data in a way that can not be explained in scientific terms.

If people really feel we “can’t gamble” with the minuscule bit of warming we saw in the 20th century and believe it really amounts to the greatest problem in the world, why aren’t they shouting out the obvious solution?

The “scientists” themselves tell us that the reduction in atmospheric pollution from particulates (smoke) which had blocked out the sun led to an increase in global temperatures in the 1970s.

Have the environmentalists forgotten their nuclear winter caused by sun-blocking dust being taken up into the atmosphere? Why aren’t they telling the public they already have the solution: get rid of the clean air acts, bring back that lovely sun-blocking smog!

Hypocrites all of them! We don’t need to gamble, we already have the solution and if any environmentalist can’t believe how quickly we can fix all this manmade CO2 they should go to a small offshore island, where we can detonate a few nuclear bombs and demonstrate how quickly we can get rid of this global warming scare.

Mike Haseler

Glasgow

Irish Independent

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A charter for the citizen scientist (websites & blogs)

Posted on 8 January 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

In my previous post I asked whether it was time to up our standards to reflect the growing importance of the “citizen scientist“. I started by thinking about what I thought was important and … where I could/should do better. This may be entirely the wrong way forward – but I think it is worth publishing for discussion.

A charter for citizen scientist websites & blogs.

Continue reading →

Posted in Climate | 4 Comments

Update to uClimate.com

Posted on 7 January 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

uClimate.com has been improved. The main change is that the list of sceptic and non-sceptic blogs can now be viewed separately and the sites are listed with the number of posts in the last month. This gives us the following league table:- Continue reading →

Posted in Climate | 7 Comments

The citizen scientist – time to change?

Posted on 6 January 2014 by Scottish-Sceptic

The internet has created a new movement in science of the Citizen Scientist (aka sceptics in climate). This movement now rivals “official” sources for credibility in areas like climate. Is it time for this movement, which is so critical of “official” science for poor standards, to raise its own standards? Continue reading →

Posted in Climate | 10 Comments

The Citizen Scientist : a paradigm shift in Science.

Posted on 28 December 2013 by Scottish-Sceptic

After several conversations regarding my article: “The Citizen Scientist“, I am beginning think this may possibly be the most important article I have ever written about the climate debate.
What I suggested is that sceptics can be considered as a community of citizen scientists, people from outside academia with an interest in science, joined together by the internet. We are not “anti-science” but instead an alternative community of scientists that now rivals the “official” community and in some (but not all) areas is beginning to exceed the skill and understanding of the “official” community.
This is a new paradigm in science: that science can exist amongst “the citizens” outside academia and outside the academic controlled communication channels of their journals. This is hard for academics to understand because they have what I described as a ‘closed shop’ culture in academia where largely:

science = academic science.

However, it is not only difficult for them to understand but also extremely threatening. “Outsiders” are beginning to threaten the monopolistic position of academia regarding scientific knowledge and authority. This, I think, goes a long way to explain much of the vitriol and hatred we have experienced from “official” science when even world governments appear to be listening to those outside academia on climate.
(The lack of action by world governments shows that governments are no longer slavishly following the “official” advice and so presumably tentatively acknowledging the credibility of the views of those citizen scientists called sceptics.)
Fundamentally, I think we are seeing a change in the power relationship between academia and outsiders. Before the internet, that relationship was the “master” and “student” and academics were looked to for “the answers”. Now, citizen scientists – empowered by the internet – do not simply accept the answers given by their academic  “masters”. Instead the internet allows “citizen scientists” to gain knowledge and develop their own answers.
This is as fundamental a change to academia as internet shopping was to the high street shops. And it is inevitable that this will be worrying to academics because:

“We citizens are no longer students of our academia masters but researchers and even professors in our own right.”

This, I think, is why we keep hearing academia saying they should “communicate better”. What this really means is that they wish to enforce the old power relationship where academic masters spoke and (student) outsiders listened. But that relationship has broken down in climate, and by extension it is likely to break down in many other areas where academia formerly could expect to be listened to as the single source of authority.
Scientific Authority
And scientific authority is perhaps the single most cherished prize of academia. Because formerly, it could assume that on all matters of science, governments would turn to academia for advice. But that appears to be under threat particularly in regard to the climate where that authority has been severely diminished by their failure to deliver reliable predictions or even admit their failures.
I am old enough to remember when “made in Japan” meant plastic toys that sank in the bath & “made in Britain” meant (was supposed to mean) quality. Within less than a generation, the unthinkable happened and the reputations were reversed.
Science “made in academia” used to be the hallmark of good quality. Now climate science has a very poor reputation.
In contrast, “internet” science has been portrayed (by academia?) as full of fantasy science and conspiracy theories. This is the meme of the attacks from those such as Lewandowsky. But now we are seeing sites specialising in climate (Climate Audit is a clear example) that surpass their academic rivals in rigour and understanding.

What we may be seeing, is that in areas like the climate where there is enough interest and robust informed debate, governments may be more willing to trust “citizen scientists” than what we tend to think as “official” sources.

Is it time to think the unthinkable? That the robust and chaotic exchanges of sceptics are a more credible source of advice to governments than those like the Royal Society?
Conclusion
The growth of “citizen science”, is challenging “official” science, largely as a result of the internet. This is because the internet is making it possible to build a well-informed community outside academia which now challenges it for authority on the subject. And, unless one were to “uninvent” the internet, that community will continue to grow and even flourish and not just on climate. As such we may see “citizen science” increasingly challenging academia for credibility in areas where academia thought it was the only authority on the subject.
This is a paradigm shift: one which is likely to change science and academia perhaps more fundamentally than we can now imagine.

Posted in Academia, History, Media, Sceptics, science | 60 Comments

Twas the day after Christmas

Posted on 26 December 2013 by Scottish-Sceptic

Twas the day after Christmas,
and all round the house,
lay sleepy children as quiet as a mouse.
The table top covered,
in tools and batteries,
as I try to make the pound shop things,
work as they should be.
The women out shopping,
What on earth is that about?
The men sitting round chatting,
about the women who are out.
Twas the day after Christmas
just 364 days to go,
until the house is again covered
in children’s fake snow.

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Reindeer Poo: a Happy Xmas and a cool New Year

Posted on 25 December 2013 by Scottish-Sceptic

reindeerpooA glass of whisky,
Some flour,
Some Cocoa powder,
Some porridge oats
Some Butter
Water as required.
Glitter
Mix up all ingredients except glitter and whisky together. Roll into a 1/2″ diameter sausage . Cut every 1/2″. Roll each bit into a very long egg shape.
Put glitter in a bowl and roll bits around to coat outside. Place neatly next to fire (on old newspaper). Scatter grass or oats around.
Now drink whisky and off to bed.
Happy Xmas

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