I’ll traveling for a few days, taking part in the Boston Marathon. See you soon!
I’ll be toward the front of the second wave, so don’t look for me on any podiums. Also because I don’t want to give nose-tweaking denialist comedians any opportunity to criticize me I will be minimizing my CO2 output by holding my breath for the entire race.
Yawn… Hey, the sun came back! It warm again! (Note to self: the junk calories at Watts Up With That are no foundation whatsoever for a proper hibernation; Anthony gamed that stupid internet popularity poll! He is not the handsomest man in school.)
As I dozed off in January the global (i.e. my neighbourhood) temperature trends (for a few weeks at least) indicated the clear return of a new ice age. How I wept bitter tears as I shuffled into the den I share with Al Gore, knowing I had been fooled by those climate scientists and their greedy self-interest!
Yet I was already too sleepy to beseech forgiveness from the noble citizen-scientists who had so bravely rejected the alleged evidence and the so-called physical science. The warming had stopped, just like Henrik Svensmark had said it would. Snow was falling (somewhere), just as Anthony Watts was always pointing out. The Arctic sea ice was piling up anew just a Steve Goddard had promised. CO2 was plant food! I knew I was in for more than the usual number of hibernation dreams in which I found myself in public without my fur on.
…
So what’s happened during my nap? Let’s gather a list of Anthony’s winter whoppers in the comments. I hear that Anthony has been encouraging his readers to drown out scientist’s voices. And did Watts really try to wriggle into the spotlight and falsely pre-announce the results of Dr. Richard Muller’s Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project’s “skeptic” dream-team reexamination of global temperature trends, only to misrepresent their initial findings and declare that they were dead to him because it, err, matched the published scientific consensus?
Here are some entertaining (or infuriating if you are Anthony Watts) quotes from Dr. Muller’s 2011-03-31 Testimony to the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, who was brought in by the controlling tea-party Republicans as a dependable tame scientist:
“Many US stations have low quality rankings according to a study led by Anthony Watts. However, we find that the warming seen in the “poor” stations is virtually indistinguishable from that seen in the “good” stations.” and later, “Did such poor station quality exaggerate the estimates of global warming? We’ve studied this issue, and our preliminary answer is no.”
“In our preliminary analysis of these stations, we found a warming trend that is shown in the figure. It is very similar to that reported by the prior groups: a rise of about 0.7 degrees C since 1957.”
“The Berkeley Earth agreement with the prior analysis surprised us” [Must suck when your boasts of transparency prevent you from jigging things to match your personal biases, eh Dr. Muller? Don’t worry, your Republican pals will legislate the Earth’s temperature, along with the value of pi and that annoying evolution thing.]
Which brings us to this website… As much as I try to have fun with Anthony Watts’ malicious website, I can’t keep this up by myself. Getting inside Anthony’s head is not only time-consuming but corrosive and claustrophobic, and my Significant Other is much more fun to interact with. In the Fall I had some research help from a few readers, which I greatly appreciated. I need to find a way to facilitate this more directly and where appropriate recognize contributions. Put your thinking caps on and look for a post here discussing some options.
In the meantime, I’ve finally got e-mail working here and you can contact me privately at ben@wottsupwiththat.com.
A short bit of news about me. After all I’m doing this to steal attention from the esteemed Anthony Watts, aren’t I? So why not preen myself in front of the mirror for a moment. Well, that’s a common theme of the criticisms I receive…
I’ve been knocked out by a variety of colds for the last few weeks, with just a short interlude that let me enjoy a family Christmas. This has naturally impeded my “obsession” with Sir Anthony. I’m still focusing on catching up, and I have to say it’s very entertaining to look back at all the howling about winter weather on Watts Up With That over the Christmas period. Anthony’s Christmas Guest authors are also proving a reliably enthusiastic collection of myopic loose nuts.
Thanks for the support you readers have given me, and in particular for the tips that are starting to help me tame the fire-hose of misinformation that Anthony likes to tout as “voted Best Science Blog (of 2008)”.
It’s cold here in Canada this Christmas, so I must conclude that Anthony Watts is right. Global Warming isn’t happening! I’m so embarrassed! My faith in mainstream climatology was woefully misplaced, I was trapped by my partisan world-view.
Not!
2010 has been an interesting year. Back in January I finally had my fill of Anthony’s deception and decided that someone needed to try to call him out on each of his posts. That was the genesis of this website. I’ve had mixed success in keeping up with him and his team of contributors. However it’s been very satisfying sitting on the sidelines watching Anthony declare “victory!” with each scientific defeat. I hope that this website will form a lasting record of his dishonesty and scientific obstinacy. Undoubtably he’ll eventually refocus on some similarly ill-conceived libertarian cause.
I face 2011 with a new determination in part because of the support and encouragement I have received through this website, both through the comments and privately. I’ve realized however that I need to follow Anthony’s example and recruit contributors.
No, I’m not’ reaching out’ to outcasts that even Anthony could no longer tolerate (I’m looking at you Steven Goddard). I’m going to see if I can use WordPress’ group editing functions to speed up responses to Anthony’s posts. Maybe I’ll be contacting you shortly!
There’s been a remarkable drop in comment quality here over the last day or two, but a rather massive increase in visitors. Seems that this is down to a sudden and unexpected influx of Anthony’s readers.
The purpose of this blog is not school-yard taunting, it is to highlight Anthony Watts’ unending dishonesty and hypocrisy. Sue me if I start to find it all a bit comical.
Please note that all comments are screened here. Don’t expect any more insightful denialist arguments like “bet you got a small dick” to make it through. Don’t stink up the place!
Wott's Up With That? 