Shaun of the dead blade - Josh 212

Shaun Marcott's much discussed FAQ includes reference to Michael Mann's infamous Hockey Stick, which, of course, has been comprehensively de-wooded by our esteemed host. Marcott thinks his results are, you know, just like the Hockey Stick graph results. Who are we to disagree?

Cartoons by Josh

Comments

[Ole Reslow]

Note the reflection in his sunglasses :-)

[HaroldW]

"Why so large a cost ... does thou upon your fading Mann-Shaun spend?”

[Skiphil]

Mann validates Marcott just as Marcott validates Mann.

What's wrong with that picture?

Nicely reminiscent of all the allegedly "independent" Hockey Stick reconstructions.

[James P]

You're on form, Josh - but I can't remember when you weren't... :-)

[jorgekafkazar]

Fun! Love the sunglasses!

[Snotrocket]

Ole!! Great spot!!! The reflection is the Marcott - without the blade....so it's FAQ all, really. Wonderful comment, Josh!!

[not banned yet]

Revkin's view of RealClimate:
//
Andy Revkin
Dot Earth blogger

I stand by what I wrote after the AGU gave its communication award to Gavin Schmidt. Realclimate.org remains a "vital online touchstone."

Any comparison to the mafia is invidious. As for "personal and political gain," it's hard to find anyone involved in climate research or communication who doesn't have some kind of reputational or financial stake. The same is true for any consequential field of inquiry. One's integrity in such a situation is more a function of the consistent quality of one's output.

In reply to MikeH
April 1, 2013 at 2:55 p.m
//
Last sentence says a lot IMO.

[Martin A]

Before: from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgnMuKuVXzU

1:21 "What do we learn? We learn that for 10,300 years temperatures have been doing a long subtle slow slide down. And small, you know ½ a degree, ¾ degree cooling over the long run of the last several thousand years.

And in the last century, they ticked up that much, (1:42 ? 1:44) they just ticked up that much in last century. And the really interesting thing is when you tack on where it is headed in the 21st century and then you got the last 10,000 years does this today ...... And then BOOM!! you know we're just outside the, outside the elevator, you know. Up and out. So I think that's the thing precisely we did."

(Revkin: So a super hockey stick, a really long.....)

"A super hockey stick? Yeah, right!" 2:05

After: from
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2013/03/response-by-marcott-et-al/

“Q: What do paleotemperature reconstructions show about the temperature of the last 100 years?

A: Our global paleotemperature reconstruction includes a so-called “uptick” in temperatures during the 20th-century. However, in the paper we make the point that this particular feature is of shorter duration than the inherent smoothing in our statistical averaging procedure, and that it is based on only a few available paleo-reconstructions of the type we used. Thus, the 20th century portion of our paleotemperature stack is not statistically robust, cannot be considered representative of global temperature changes, and therefore is not the basis of any of our conclusions“

[KnR]

Supporting the 'stick' was the actual purpose of this 'research' , sadly it highly likely that Marcott career prospects in this field have been nothing but enhanced by all of this , which tells us a great deal about the nature of climate 'science '

[RHL]

Looks like Shaun Marcott did some field work for Big Oil early in his career. From the Wayback machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050104175736/http://www.proglacial.com/CV/CV_Frameset_Home.htm
Marcott's CV states: "Data processor duties involved inputting well log data, seismic data, drill reports, and core sample information into a database (Asset DB) for British Petroleum’s 'Charter Project.' "
His current CV at his proglacial website has no mention of this work.

[Don Keiller]

Our results are like, not robust. What that means, like, is there is this big tick thing at the end, like.
It's like, scary, you know, like.

[Grumpy]

Don Keillor
Oh god, no.

[ZT]

Help we're surrounded by mumbling warmist revkins who refuse to admit that the hockey stick is dead!

[Mark T]

As for "personal and political gain," it's hard to find anyone involved in climate research or communication who doesn't have some kind of reputational or financial stake.

A rather candid admission... either way, he's simply wrong on this point. The biggest threat to Revkin's dream is Steve McIntyre with little, if anything, to gain. Furthermore, I can't recall the last time any of the big-name scientists or political activists actually owned up to their financial (or political) stake in this race.

I have nothing to gain but less intrusion in my life from big-government and its advocates such as Revkin.

The same is true for any consequential field of inquiry. One's integrity in such a situation is more a function of the consistent quality of one's output.

I'd argue one's integrity is a function their commitment to openness about any conflicts that may hinder their objectivity. Integrity has nothing to do with how good you are at something. There are a lot of people that have impeccable integrity that simply aren't very good at anything, except being honorable, I guess. If Revkin really want's to pin integrity on quality of one's output, he picked a silly place to make such an admission - Marcott, et. al. Sheesh.

Mark

[shub]

Knr,
Of course. When all this dies down, who's going to remember that a few bloggers debunked Marcott. Why, it'll just be how Skepticalscience and Joe Romm debunk everything they see.

[shub]

The Marcott FAQ is one of the most brazen acts carried out in science. Each sets the standard for the next.

[KnR]

'Revkin
One's integrity in such a situation is more a function of the consistent quality of one's output.'

The trick is of course how you define 'quality' which in pratice is a judgement based not scientific validity but on its usefulness for 'the cause' has we seen time and again from climate 'science '

[Geckko]

Why does Sean Marcott only have three fingers?

Could that have some bearing on his problem with the maths?