University of Illinois climate scientist Michael Schlesinger threatens the NYT‘s Andrew Revkin with “the Big Cutoff” because he quotes and interviews the wrong people. According to Schlesinger, this makes Revkin’s reporting “very worrisome to most climate scientists.” Revkin’s offenses? Noting that some Copenhagen prostitutes promised to give freebies to climate conference delegates (“gutter reportage”) and “giving space in [his] blog to the Pielke” [climatologist Roger Pielke Sr. and environmental studies professor Roger Pielke Jr.] Pielke Jr. comments:
You’d think that after the actions of certain activist scientists to suppress certain perspectives was revealed in the CRU emails that there would be a little bit more self-awareness in this community.
Mike says:
Maybe they are self-aware. Surely the are aware that they are the Made Men of academia.
The public will howl, but it will blow over. Sort of like the bailouts. Goldman is still going to give billions. We’ll all scream. So what. Nothing will change.
Climate scientists are still going to get funding and grants – and the status attached thereto. Who cares about the sentiments of the grubby-fingered masses?
December 6, 2009, 5:28 pmneurodoc says:
Schlesinger’s fulmination reminds me of Maugham’s short story Rain in which Reverend Davidson makes life miserable for Sadie Thompson, who the reverend rails against as a “loose woman” only to succumb to the sexual attraction and kill himself. (Jimmie Swaggart was just doing the same thing.) Now, the question is whether any of those upright scientists will accept the sex workers’ offer. (Since the postcards would-be johns must produce to get it for free went to the city’s hotels, not to those registered for the conference, it might be hard to come up with one and collect.)
[According to Der Spiegel online, the Sex Workers Interest Group is complaining that Copenhagen's mayor is using the conference as a platform for a "hetz" against them. What may I ask is a "hetz," is that a German word for "boycott"?]
December 6, 2009, 6:14 pmPersonFromPorlock says:
Um, if they don’t charge, is it prostitution?
On the other matter, is it just my imagination or are authoritarian types incredibly tin-eared?
December 6, 2009, 6:28 pmDave N. says:
Schlesinger’s fulminations reminded me of the Obama Administration’s actions toward Fox News — including a full-court press against Fox News in the left blogosphere — which ended with the President being interviewed by Major Garrett on Fox News.
In other words, those with a message need the messenger more than the messenger needs them.
December 6, 2009, 6:38 pmneurodoc says:
You see it as just another form of “expressive speech,” like flag burning, stripping, etc.?
December 6, 2009, 6:43 pmBrett Bellmore says:
No, I think he sees it as having sex. Which is only prostitution if you charge for it.
December 6, 2009, 7:05 pmHarryEagar says:
Yeah, you know how a uniform turns some women (and men) on, and there’s nothing more uniform that a climate alarmist.
More seriously, this just shows that among climate alarmists, gratitude is fleeting. In Stephen Schneider’s autobiography (one of the worst books of our time, everyone should read it), he relates how outraged he was at the 3rd IPCC conference with the behavior of the American delegates, but he got his way by threatening to go to Revkin and Seth Borenstein (AP environment reporter) and rat them out.
Apparently, he was confident they would behave like lapdogs. Borenstein’s still drinking the Kool-Aid, but Revkin sometimes sticks a toe outside the reservation.
I’ve been a newspaperman over 40 years. I wouldn’t trust either one of those guys to cover a one-alarm fire.
December 6, 2009, 7:39 pmPersonFromPorlock says:
Good heavens, what brought that on? My question was purely a legal one: if ‘free’ sex from a prostitute is still prostitution, then shouldn’t the recipient declare the waived fee as income? Perfectly obvious question.
December 6, 2009, 7:42 pmFub says:
Just a WAG, but could it be related to “arrow” in Yiddish?
December 6, 2009, 8:01 pmkdackson says:
Q: What does a scientist use for birth control?
A: His personality.
December 6, 2009, 8:02 pmLaura(southernxyl) says:
kdackson, how can you identify an extraverted engineer?
He looks at your shoes when he talks to you, instead of his own.
December 6, 2009, 8:52 pmTom Ault says:
Hey, I re
December 6, 2009, 9:09 pmsemblesent that remark!John Moore says:
As the introverted engineer, I’m looking at my shoes because it just occurred to me that I might have put on shoes from two different pairs in my absent minded trek to the office.
December 6, 2009, 9:35 pmkdackson says:
I worked with a guy who actually did that.
Then he pointed it out. To everyone.
December 6, 2009, 10:22 pmCharlie Martin says:
Hetz, die Hetze, a hunt of a chase.
December 6, 2009, 10:32 pmJim N. says:
The man is a total fraud, does he think us fools for not noticing the glaring omission on his bio page on the university website? Nowhere in his bio does it mention working as an extra on Miami Vice, which he obviously did based on the photo posted.
http://www.atmos.uiuc.edu/people/schlesinger.html
December 6, 2009, 10:39 pmneurodoc says:
I don’t think it is illegal in Denmark whether the women charge or not. I just wondered, semi-facetiously, if it might alternatively be viewed as “expressive speech” because it was about making a statement.
December 7, 2009, 12:44 amRicardo says:
Who says they are upright (ok, there’s a joke in here but I’ll let it pass)? For all we know, maybe they all engaged in cocaine-fueled orgies in their hotel rooms until 4 am during the conference. How would that change the substantive scientific and policy discussion one way or another?
December 7, 2009, 1:13 amsitzpinkler says:
Mike’s resume trick?
December 7, 2009, 2:35 amCurt Fischer says:
Ooo, a climate change-Miami Vice joke? But how could it not involved Michael Mann, err, I mean, Michael Mann????
December 7, 2009, 2:35 amArrowSmith says:
Why care about being “cut off” from fake science? Now that the hoax has been exposed, it’s the job of any true journalist to go after these “climate scientists” and rat every single one of them out to be the frauds that they are.
December 7, 2009, 3:45 amkdackson says:
ArrowSmith:
That is not the point. The point is that this episode shows the climate “scientists” would only grant audiences and favors to those that promote their agenda.
Which makes it advocacy, and decidedly non-science.
December 7, 2009, 8:11 amMark Buehner says:
Cataclysmic climate change is too important to not address just because it isn’t happening. It may not be real, but think of the implications.
December 7, 2009, 9:49 amA. Zarkov says:
According to one Danish dictionary, a “hetz” is a smear campaign. In German “hetz” means to hunt with hounds. I don’t think this word translates exactly– we need an expert here.
December 7, 2009, 10:25 amA. Zarkov says:
Here is a picture of the mayor of Copenhagen. In another age and another place she would look like a member of WCTU. Now I understand why she doesn’t want hotels to help their guests find prostitutes.
BTW I’ve heard that the Danish government sends prostitutes to service retired men as party of their social security benefits. I wonder if this is really true and what those girls look like.
December 7, 2009, 10:44 amJames T. Carrington says:
They are probably on their way to retirement as well…
December 7, 2009, 2:16 pmShelbyC says:
I wonder what the rules are wrt sex discrimination for sex workers?
December 7, 2009, 2:57 pmneurodoc says:
Well, on behalf of the Devil who couldn’t be here…
The email kerfuffle has caused some to question the integrity of participants in those substantive scientific and policy discussions, and hence whether they and their opinions can be trusted. If those same individuals are engaging “in cocaine-fueled orgies in their hotel rooms until 4 am during the conference,” that might be seen as yet more evidence that they are not reliably “upright.” (The Devil’s argument, not my own.)
December 7, 2009, 4:14 pmneurodoc says:
Thanks, that would fit. Since “hetz” was in an otherwise all English text published by Der Spiegel, I assumed it was English that I had never seen, or German, which I wouldn’t know. It didn’t occur to me to look for it in a Danish dictionary.
December 7, 2009, 4:19 pmIllini says:
schlesin@atmos.uiuc.edu
December 7, 2009, 4:55 pm