Might be more interesting than the Olympic opening ceremony and first heats.
More e-mails? Who knows. We'll have to wait until Sunday. Of course it might not have anything to do with global warming of the lack thereof at all, but I'd be willing to bet the Bishop's annual salary that it is!
BUT, for the "will attract a broad global interest due to its controversial and unprecedented nature" it seems like it's got to be as big as anything seen in CG1 and CG2. If it is Climategate-3 it may be a more limited but still quite important set of emails rather than the whole 220,000 or whatever..... given the care with which "FOIA" limited the first two releases I think it's less likely that he would just release all with the password (which may still be some kind of protection or insurance for him). Another few thousand emails could still be a very big deal if there were some real "dynamite" info, perhaps of a kind Pointman discussed....
For this kind of announcement promised I don't think it can be at all anticlimactic to CG1 and CG2. Anthony has worked much of his career in media/television and I don't think he would put the notice about media checking in right around 12 noon PST on Sunday if this were not very VERY newsworthy..... "controversial and unprecedented" and of "global" interest.... I don't want to get too excited yet, but consider that few things could alienate a journalist more than checking for a promised story line on a Sunday and finding that it is utter anticlimax.
I also suggested the password on unthreaded, but at this point they're old emails and the more contentious ones have been selected. I'd expect there'd be a lot of personal stuff that would be better to remain unreleased.
Not sure how old emails or even a newer set (post CG1) would be "unprecedented".
...or it's the unveiling of the identity of RC/FOIA, but we all know it's Steve Mosher so hardly a big story there. (j/k)
WUWT is going to become the mouthpiece of The Royal Society and the news on Sunday will be the mass resignation of the current council (if that's what they have) and an announcement that CERN has discovered the evidence that proves Svensmark's mega-theory of Climate, Evolution and The Meaning of Life.
Steveta, so true, for Anthony's notice to make any sense it has to be info of a truly "unprecedented" kind with "global" significance. It can't be just another batch of emails unless the info is explosive.
There's also the urgency of it.... he is quite specific that this Sunday announcement could not be postponed and that he needs to be there "on the bridge" for it (which in the digital age is surprising). Fascinating, trying to keep calm here....
Aside from the UEA/CRU email dump there is an archive of some 30,000 email documents to and from Michael Mann, at issue in a state-level (Virginia) Open Records / FOIA lawsuit. WUWT covered the press release the other day , http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/26/status-of-the-ati-vs-mann-and-uva-emails-saga/
If there is notice that those documents have been, or are about to be, released,then a small-crowd source review of the Mann-made background to the entire hockey-stick controversy would be timely. The news of the release would be news; but examples of "Mike Mann's Nature trick" and others as applied over time and over numerous events would be headline news.
I always caution those around me on useless speculation, but this is too much fun. I find the proximity to the abrupt end of 'operation cabin' to be interesting. FOIA must have been watching that very closely.
To be (very) serious for a moment - this pause makes you realize how much WUWT has done over the years. Consider where we would be if there had been no WUWT or Anthony had not guided it so surely through difficult waters.
This is not to reduce the role of Bishop Hill and CA, all labourers in the vinyard - just the WUWT gets the hits.
Don't know what he's going to announce, but I hope it will be some great vindication for him.
Perhaps Penn State is reopening the investigation into Mike Mann's Nature Trick, hoping to avert a reprise of the PR disaster following the Jerry Sandusky trial.
Notes on the Public Relations pressure Penn State faces, http://www.endofyourarm.com/2012/07/three-strikes-youre-out.html
Inviting a press-savvy antagonist - such as Anthony Watts -- into such a hypothetical investigation would go a long way into framing the terms of the inquiry AND avoiding any appearance of a whitewash.
Gotta be CG3, that is the kind of thing which would take days to go through and need him to give up his hols. I assume there's a Mrs Watts who would exact a high price for that. Most alternatives would not need that amount of time. And of course it isn't anything under Anthony's control or he would make the timing suit himself. He does use the phrase 'something has happened'. That means he has the PW and is looking through the files right now. Maybe he is going along with the devaluation of the word unprecedented which has happened in the last four years or so.
He going to announce "Big Oil" has finally transferred the billions of dollars into his bank account and he will now be distributing it to us "evil deniers" so that we can finally implement the "well orchestrated attack on climate science".
About time to, I'm running a bit short at the moment and could do with the cash influx.
Maybe something to do with Gleick and the Heartland Institute? That suit finally to be filed? Anthony had personal information exposed in those emails.
Hmmmm. Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting. I've got Sunday "off". Wife and kids going to Olympics (couldn't get enough tickets). And I was thinking it was going to be a "slack" day!
Hmmmm. Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting. I've got Sunday "off". Wife and kids going to Olympics (couldn't get enough tickets). And I was thinking it was going to be a "slack" day!
It's just attempting a transatlantic distraction from the highly successful London Olympics. After Romney's crass and ignorant comments a coupla days ago, the Yanks have to find some other way to try to derail them.
But seriously, unless CG3 contains some real juicy stuff (if so why were they not released when the impact would have been greatest in CG1?) it wouldn't be enough to justify this step. Nor would it be 'unprecedented' as we have already had CG2. So it has to be sthg even more interesting. Anthony is no media novice so he wouldn't make a big fuss and set expectations he couldn't fulfil
I'm with the masses here - it has to be the password. That - or he's been taken over by the warmists for a shed load of dosh. You'd think being in the pay of 'big oil' would be enough though...
I can't see it being CGIII, the previous releases were a completely different MO
My guesses:
1 Mann has defected and is now selling his new book "I was once a True Believer Denouncing Denialist Deniers of the Truth, but Now I've Seen The Writing is on The Wall" 2 Prof. Jones has mastered Excel spreadsheets 3 Al Gore has dropped his speaking fees from $150,000 to $149,000 to avoid accusations of promulgating bull shit whilst milking the green cash cow 4 George Moonbat writes something remotely sensible 5 Scott Mandia is photographed helping Gavin Schmidt change his face mask to Richard Black and then to Michael Mann 6 All of the above
Anthony Watts, thinks it is big - then it very probably is big, possibly a shattering seismic event of an anthropomorphic catastrophe - for some!?
Idle speculation, is just that, however, i.m.[very]h.o - I think Pointy, is erring towards the truth of it and it may involve some political 'names' too - so we shall see.
I can't wait, but one must remember not to wish one's life away - a human life-span, it is a brief flare in the eternal darkness, sadly ephemeral - as it is. WAIT I WILL - I shall have to and patiently, it may be the news, that many of us here have been secretly and rightly suspected and theorised about.
Andrew: Many thanks for providing this forum. Everything else is eerily quiet. Anthony's was a very strange post. Like many others, my first thought was CG3. However, that does seem a bit tame and likely dated, especially given Anthony's somewhat hyperbolic language. What would be unprecedented is an equivalent leak from say the Hansen shop or Fenton Communications or a new leak from CRU/UEA. I guess we will all have to wait until Sunday.
Yes, the file key would be it. Yet -- and I hate to think this -- a few months ago Steven Goddard's blog, also at Wordpress, was taken over by someone who announced Steve's death and locked Steve out of the blog. Sensational announcement, blog posting stopped.
The one thing you don't want happening is everyone coming in on Sunday for a dud. Watts is very good on confirming stories - the big ones - before going public. So he must have a sense that whatever he's sitting on is already good to go.
Reader Comments (258)
If it is what I think it may be, Sunday should be very interesting.
Pointman
Bet it's something Orwellian...
Ok, wild speculation :)
FOIA has dropped the password somewhere?
Somebody found the password?
Why else shut down for two days, pull everyone off moderating. Cancel all leave, all hands on deck and start reading emails ...
Pointman
Might be more interesting than the Olympic opening ceremony and first heats.
More e-mails? Who knows. We'll have to wait until Sunday. Of course it might not have anything to do with global warming of the lack thereof at all, but I'd be willing to bet the Bishop's annual salary that it is!
Well, that's interesting. Everyone is going to assume Anthony has got the password to that zip archive.
Leopard
That's exactly what I was thinking. Is this the mother lode?
I do hope so. It takes something for AW to suspend publishing AND his vacation.
BUT, for the "will attract a broad global interest due to its controversial and unprecedented nature" it seems like it's got to be as big as anything seen in CG1 and CG2. If it is Climategate-3 it may be a more limited but still quite important set of emails rather than the whole 220,000 or whatever..... given the care with which "FOIA" limited the first two releases I think it's less likely that he would just release all with the password (which may still be some kind of protection or insurance for him). Another few thousand emails could still be a very big deal if there were some real "dynamite" info, perhaps of a kind Pointman discussed....
For this kind of announcement promised I don't think it can be at all anticlimactic to CG1 and CG2. Anthony has worked much of his career in media/television and I don't think he would put the notice about media checking in right around 12 noon PST on Sunday if this were not very VERY newsworthy..... "controversial and unprecedented" and of "global" interest.... I don't want to get too excited yet, but consider that few things could alienate a journalist more than checking for a promised story line on a Sunday and finding that it is utter anticlimax.
Glad that we can at least comment here. ;-)
@Dominic Allkins
Yeah I think we all went there :)
I think something a bit more mundane has to be proposed by someone now otherwise I suspect a major anticlimax is coming!
How intriguing.
Squeaky bum time over at RC?
Nope.
Anthony's changing sides. He's seen the light, or possibly the back radiation.
The delay is for the installation of a borehole.
Something tells me that the discovery for a potential Mann vs. Steyn lawsuit might now be described as "proctological"...
I also suggested the password on unthreaded, but at this point they're old emails and the more contentious ones have been selected. I'd expect there'd be a lot of personal stuff that would be better to remain unreleased.
Not sure how old emails or even a newer set (post CG1) would be "unprecedented".
...or it's the unveiling of the identity of RC/FOIA, but we all know it's Steve Mosher so hardly a big story there. (j/k)
Maybe WUWT has been purchased by the New York Times to help stem the financial bleeding at the 'paper of record'.
I never thought of CGIII. I have an idea - a wild guss - what it might be but I'm not telling until Sunday night.
Nobody could claim CG3 is "unprecedented" after CG1 and CG2 - Anthony isn't that sloppy with language.
I think Mann has seen the light, and is going to admit to all his evil deeds.
WUWT is going to become the mouthpiece of The Royal Society and the news on Sunday will be the mass resignation of the current council (if that's what they have) and an announcement that CERN has discovered the evidence that proves Svensmark's mega-theory of Climate, Evolution and The Meaning of Life.
Steveta, so true, for Anthony's notice to make any sense it has to be info of a truly "unprecedented" kind with "global" significance. It can't be just another batch of emails unless the info is explosive.
There's also the urgency of it.... he is quite specific that this Sunday announcement could not be postponed and that he needs to be there "on the bridge" for it (which in the digital age is surprising). Fascinating, trying to keep calm here....
Aside from the UEA/CRU email dump there is an archive of some 30,000 email documents to and from Michael Mann, at issue in a state-level (Virginia) Open Records / FOIA lawsuit. WUWT covered the press release the other day , http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/26/status-of-the-ati-vs-mann-and-uva-emails-saga/
If there is notice that those documents have been, or are about to be, released,then a small-crowd source review of the Mann-made background to the entire hockey-stick controversy would be timely. The news of the release would be news; but examples of "Mike Mann's Nature trick" and others as applied over time and over numerous events would be headline news.
Perhaps it's the "political" emails?
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/some-thoughts-and-some-questions-about-the-climategate-2-0-release/
Pointman
Perhaps he's going to announce the Internet will collapse from overload at 1201 PDT.
I always caution those around me on useless speculation, but this is too much fun.
I find the proximity to the abrupt end of 'operation cabin' to be interesting.
FOIA must have been watching that very closely.
To be (very) serious for a moment - this pause makes you realize how much WUWT has done over the years. Consider where we would be if there had been no WUWT or Anthony had not guided it so surely through difficult waters.
This is not to reduce the role of Bishop Hill and CA, all labourers in the vinyard - just the WUWT gets the hits.
Don't know what he's going to announce, but I hope it will be some great vindication for him.
An alternative,
Perhaps Penn State is reopening the investigation into Mike Mann's Nature Trick, hoping to avert a reprise of the PR disaster following the Jerry Sandusky trial.
Notes on the Public Relations pressure Penn State faces, http://www.endofyourarm.com/2012/07/three-strikes-youre-out.html
Inviting a press-savvy antagonist - such as Anthony Watts -- into such a hypothetical investigation would go a long way into framing the terms of the inquiry AND avoiding any appearance of a whitewash.
Gotta be CG3, that is the kind of thing which would take days to go through and need him to give up his hols. I assume there's a Mrs Watts who would exact a high price for that. Most alternatives would not need that amount of time. And of course it isn't anything under Anthony's control or he would make the timing suit himself. He does use the phrase 'something has happened'. That means he has the PW and is looking through the files right now. Maybe he is going along with the devaluation of the word unprecedented which has happened in the last four years or so.
OK, while we're all waiting, how about a thought for the poor polar bears?
Check out my new blog, Polar Bear Science - first new post up yesterday.
http://polarbearscience.com/2012/07/26/cooling-the-polar-bear-spin/
Tom Nelson just posted a hightlight
http://tomnelson.blogspot.ca/2012/07/zoologist-susan-j-crockford-on-warmist.html
Come Sunday, we'll all have other things on our minds. Oh, and don't forget to stock up on popcorn!
Susan
What time is noon PST in BST?
He going to announce "Big Oil" has finally transferred the billions of dollars into his bank account and he will now be distributing it to us "evil deniers" so that we can finally implement the "well orchestrated attack on climate science".
About time to, I'm running a bit short at the moment and could do with the cash influx.
Maybe something to do with Gleick and the Heartland Institute? That suit finally to be filed? Anthony had personal information exposed in those emails.
I don't think it's CGIII.
Hmmmm. Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting.
I've got Sunday "off". Wife and kids going to Olympics (couldn't get enough tickets).
And I was thinking it was going to be a "slack" day!
Hmmmm. Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting.
I've got Sunday "off". Wife and kids going to Olympics (couldn't get enough tickets).
And I was thinking it was going to be a "slack" day!
I think now it is related to his "important project" or recent trip announced some days ago:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/22/light-posting-over-the-next-few-days-call-for-guest-authors
Naah
It's just attempting a transatlantic distraction from the highly successful London Olympics. After Romney's crass and ignorant comments a coupla days ago, the Yanks have to find some other way to try to derail them.
But seriously, unless CG3 contains some real juicy stuff (if so why were they not released when the impact would have been greatest in CG1?) it wouldn't be enough to justify this step. Nor would it be 'unprecedented' as we have already had CG2. So it has to be sthg even more interesting. Anthony is no media novice so he wouldn't make a big fuss and set expectations he couldn't fulfil
@Terry S.
If only!
As part of the Worldwide "Big Oil" denialist conspiracy, I've been waiting along time for my cheque.
They could at least compensate me for my time fighting UEA and the ICO over FOI requests.
Which, by the way, is still ongoing.
12:00 PST = 21:00 BST
I'm with the masses here - it has to be the password. That - or he's been taken over by the warmists for a shed load of dosh. You'd think being in the pay of 'big oil' would be enough though...
12 noon PST is 20:00 GMT or 21:00 BST
Noon PST is 8pm BST. We gotta wait all day.
I can't see it being CGIII, the previous releases were a completely different MO
My guesses:
1 Mann has defected and is now selling his new book "I was once a True Believer Denouncing Denialist Deniers of the Truth, but Now I've Seen The Writing is on The Wall"
2 Prof. Jones has mastered Excel spreadsheets
3 Al Gore has dropped his speaking fees from $150,000 to $149,000 to avoid accusations of promulgating bull shit whilst milking the green cash cow
4 George Moonbat writes something remotely sensible
5 Scott Mandia is photographed helping Gavin Schmidt change his face mask to Richard Black and then to Michael Mann
6 All of the above
Jul 27, 2012 at 6:20 PM | Peter Czerna
Can I just second what Peter said? Hear hear!!!
Anthony Watts, thinks it is big - then it very probably is big, possibly a shattering seismic event of an anthropomorphic catastrophe - for some!?
Idle speculation, is just that, however, i.m.[very]h.o - I think Pointy, is erring towards the truth of it and it may involve some political 'names' too - so we shall see.
I can't wait, but one must remember not to wish one's life away - a human life-span, it is a brief flare in the eternal darkness, sadly ephemeral - as it is.
WAIT I WILL - I shall have to and patiently, it may be the news, that many of us here have been secretly and rightly suspected and theorised about.
Hallelujah - maybe.
He uses the term "unprecedented nature" which suggests it's not CGIII but does not eliminate it entirely.
Pointman - thanks for that link.
Well worth a read to put CG3 in possible context.
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/some-thoughts-and-some-questions-about-the-climategate-2-0-release/
Andrew: Many thanks for providing this forum. Everything else is eerily quiet. Anthony's was a very strange post. Like many others, my first thought was CG3. However, that does seem a bit tame and likely dated, especially given Anthony's somewhat hyperbolic language. What would be unprecedented is an equivalent leak from say the Hansen shop or Fenton Communications or a new leak from CRU/UEA. I guess we will all have to wait until Sunday.
Yes, the file key would be it. Yet -- and I hate to think this -- a few months ago Steven Goddard's blog, also at Wordpress, was taken over by someone who announced Steve's death and locked Steve out of the blog. Sensational announcement, blog posting stopped.
I bet it has something to do with UHI.
Something like 'all MMTS stations have a virus in them'. :)
The one thing you don't want happening is everyone coming in on Sunday for a dud. Watts is very good on confirming stories - the big ones - before going public. So he must have a sense that whatever he's sitting on is already good to go.
If it was a breaking story it would break, feels like we're being trolled.
Can I be the first to say that I actually hope it's not more emails.