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Reader Comments (19)
Brilliant.
Perhaps Mike Mann could write a great novel about how the sinister forces of evil plot to take billions of dollars and euros from the down trodden punters by faking weather data and claiming the world will end if they aren't paid off.
Or has he already?
Good one, Josh. How about David and Goliath? Need to commemorate David Holland's win.
Excellent as ever - great likeness.
Prof Acton has got to do some creative accounting now, as the university faces rising costs and a steep reduction in public funding.
http://tinyurl.com/2bnsz28
The cartoon has reminded me of the old days when I was applying to go to University to do physics. In those days you chose 6 universities and the last choice was always a university which would accept you even with poor grades. So I put UEA down as my 6th choice just in case I messed up A levels. I note that UEA no longer does physics, presumably because it couldn't attract students and staff. So there would appear to be real truth in UEA not doing science (because environmental science ain't a science). I guess it might have helped CRU if there were some real scientists on hand for them to go to for advice about how to do science.
The UEA Creative Writing course was probably better known before Climategate than CRU was.
Good find Henry
I got a bit of a chuckle out of The course is split into three strands: Prose, Poetry and Scriptwriting (which is Skillset accredited). Perhaps they should add "Science Fiction", and appoint Phil Jones that course.
Absolutely brilliant. In the classic tradition of the stinging Punch political lampoon. I suppose we have all at one or the other had to react to a similar challenge, and how we respond is even more entertaining to our associates, who immeditely relish the joy of being an imp with a trident waiting for it!.
Nice one Josh, wonderful skill and wit "just Acton on orders" class, pure class!
Brilliant
When I was a student UEA popularly stood for University of Easy Access. The only course which had a good reputation was the creative writing one, apart from that the place was full of duffers. UEA owes everything it has gained in the last couple of decades to climate change.
I wonder if UEA offers "Basket Weaving 101"? It should do well, given the popularity of their "Hockey Stick Making 101" course.
It does not sound like a school I would like to have on my curriculum vitae. I wonder what their party life is like? We have such schools in the US where students, like the Syracuse University in upper NY state. Texas A&M is another.
Don P, I wouldn't be too harsh on the Aggies, I have met some extremely pleasant, intelligent and very competent alumni from A&M. WHile it is not Ivy League, some would regard that as a plus...
Personally, I wouldn't want to think a kid of mine was going there, even to study basket weaving.
Their reputation, never great, has now been comprehensively trashed by Acton and the CRU crew.
A pity. Not only the waste of resources but I've no doubt some of the kids that end up there are perfectly decent. They'll finish up with a qualification that every potential employer will snigger at.
Chuckles
My apologies, I am a bit out of date, being I've been out of the university life for 40 years. I should have listed The University of Texas at Austin. It is listed is several "best schools to have fun at" lists:
collegetips.com
playboy 2010
Of interest is Mike Mann's employer, Penn State has captured the coveted Number 1 slot in at least one survey.
Here
UEA you say?
Insinuate the unctuous,
Actin' on behalf.
==========
Brilliant, Josh! And speaking of "creative writing", here's an interesting snippet:
"If you want to publish an article in some scientific or medical journal, here is some unusual advice from Scott Armstrong, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School: Choose an unimportant topic. Agree with existing beliefs. Use convoluted methods. Withhold some of your data. And write the whole thing in stilted, obtuse prose.
"Armstrong, who is the editor of a new research publication called the Journal of Forecasting, offered the advice in a serious. scholarly article last month in the journal’s first issue. He said yesterday that he had studied the publication process in research journals for years." [emphasis added and h/t T.Hulsey -hro]
(1982) Source
Seems as though many of these "climate scientists" took (at least some of) Armstrong's words to heart.
http://www.cce-review.org/evidence/UEA-CRU_IV4_Briffa%20and%20Jones_v6_1.pdf
I like the bit about developing a 'instinctively knowing what is right' in relation to quality...
Rigour and Quality Assurance
4. It was noted that individual CRU researchers develop their own algorithms and
their own software to encode those algorithms. No systematic approach could
be evidenced to either peer review of algorithms or software either within or
outside the CRU. Retrieval of data sets, meta-data and documentation from
departing researchers appeared to be at best haphazard. When pressed on the
quality issues Prof. Jones noted that “one developed a feel for the data and
instinctively knew what was right”. There seemed to be little awareness that
development and testing of software has different characteristics to that for
physical systems. In physical systems, reasonable inferences can be made as to
correct operation by testing at specific points and interpolating between them.
That is not the case for software systems. A strong impression was given that
pressure on resources led to a very low priority being given to data indexing and
archiving plus software development and testing.”
Also...
http://www.cce-review.org/evidence/UEA-CRU_IV2_ICO_270110FIN2.pdf
ICO believes a ‘whistleblower’ was likely source of Climategate leak. Apparently the ICO are waiting for completion of both the Police investigation and Russell report before taking further action on three out of four of their areas of investigation in relation to CRU/UEA.
@ hro001
Armstong also wrote (on IPCC forecasting): When we inspected the 17 [forecasting] articles, we found that none of them referred to the scientific literature on forecasting methods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Scott_Armstrong