Tuesday, December 01, 2009

"Big News for People Who Don't Actually Understand Science"

Flashback to Balbulican's famous words regarding Climategate. I wonder what sort of "science" ol' Balb was actually referring to? Was he simply ignorant of basic standards, and if so, is that an indication of the state of decay in today's research facilities? Or has his academic credibility been so badly compromised that he simply doesn't recognize where he is?

I suspect he has advanced degrees in the social sciences - anthropology perhaps, or something close, as well as a law degree. Is this kind of malfeasance just so common in his field of expertise that its practitioners simply have no clue how corrupted they have become? Or is it considered okay because all's fair in love and lawfare?

No folks. This is not the way science is done. In the past two days we have news that heads are already rolling, or very nearly so. Politicians are giving notice that investigations will be forth coming. Governments are falling. Academic institutions have had their reputations irreparably damaged and, with good reason, are putting their errant employees on notice. When the outcome of "science" is the expenditure of trillions of dollars world-wide on a quite possibly non-existent problem created by the fervent imagination of a handful of "scientists" in the pockets of a corrupt United Nations agency, you can bet your sweet patootee that this should not be "how science is done".

This thing has only just begun. As it unravels, as more and more of it is made public and the dust begins to settle, we should see a very different landscape emerge. Any number of decades-long practices may be up for scrutiny - peer review, for example, or the sanctity of tenured professorship, and most certainly, the United Nations - by now so fully riddled with scandal that it's surprising it still exists - and its multitude of shady and corrupt agencies, not to mention the missing-in-action and presumed dead main stream media, which has taken a very serious blow to its already flagging fortunes.

No Balb. This isn't business as usual. This is a earthquake size wrenching of the status quo. When it's finished we will have a very different world.

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