Discussion > Mann and his side order Cook visit Bristol Lew: Watt's to be done?
excellent to hear, Barry; should I bring a Josh calendar for identification purposes?
CarolineK
Geoff - I hope the others have the technology because I certainly don't, sorry.
CarolineK
Geoff - Prof Lewandowsky organised both Mann and Cook events...
(according to a nice lady - Hayley - I spoke to that runs events the Cabot Institute)
Barry Woods
CarolineK
The technology involved consists of a keyboard and a pair of headphones. There's no other way. I justify the hundreds of hours I've spent doing this by comparing the insights I get with those of psychoanalysts. Try spending ten hours transcribing Lewandowsky and you'll see what I mean.
Barry Woods
Interesting. I googled Cabot Institute Lewandowsky and came up with some fascinating stuff, including this at
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2014/443.html
“Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, Chair in Cognitive Psychology and member of the Cabot Institute at the University of Bristol, said: 'We can understand the implications of uncertainty, and in the case of the climate system, it is very clear that greater uncertainty will make things even worse.'”
This is one of Lew's dead hobbyhorses he likes to flog. The fact that the frequency distribution of estimates of climate sensitivity is severely skewed, with a fat tail to the right, leads to the mean and the mode being seriously out of kilter. From this Lew deduces that the less you know about something, the more likely it is to be bad. He's written peer-reviewed papers about it. He really seems to believe that the state of the world is affected by our knowledge of it. The man is mad, and so is anyone who choses to be associated with him.
geoffchambers
I'm on the 'wait list' for Mann and could do something after in Bristol.
Richard Drake
Richard, let me check - I may have ordered 2 tickets for Mann and therefore have a spare. That's the case for cook on Friday, so definitely a spare going there. (I foolishly thought I may go with a friend. Of course, none of them were really that bothered.)
So, is there a meeting place on Friday and Tuesday where we might have a quick half before kick off?
Ian Woolley
Bugger, just the one ticket for Mann. Sorry Richard. I'd obviously learned my lesson by that point.
Ian Woolley
No worries Ian, thanks for trying! Caroline's probably the best person to suggest a place. Barry obviously knows about Anthony's plans - I would be most interested to spend time with him (and Lucia) but given his hearing problems a noisy pub is almost certainly not the thing. Open to any suggestions. I should be in Bristol from 5pm till late.
Richard Drake
there is a pub not too far away, the Channings, in Pembroke Rd (about 5 - 10 mins walk away (afraid i've never been in it, but i think it would be ok. otherwise, if there were not too many people (not above a dozen or 15 perhaps,) you would be very welcome to come to my house which is not far away either, which might be quieter for conversation. We live in All Saints Rd off Pembroke Rd too, about 15-20 mins walk from the Victoria Rooms.
perhaps we could meet before hand at the Channings, walk to the Vic rooms, and then, if you like, come here after, unless the pub seems a better option.
CarolineK
9 mins to walk from The Victoria Rooms to the Channing according to Google Maps. Sounds like a plan. I could be there from 5pm till late, drowning my sorrows for missing the Big Mann! Will discuss with Caroline and others by email.
Richard Drake
by the way, the Channings when I googled it, seemed to show sometimes an erroneous position. the correct position is on Pembroke Rd at the acute angle with Hanbury Rd - the acute angled bit being the garden, which, if weather good, might be the best place to meet. the other location, near Alma Rd, is not right.
CarolineK
I'm up for Channings. Nice pub. Hopefully no longer full of braying public school types (which it was it was when I was a student.) In fact, I don't mind where.
Ian Woolley
so shall we say 5pm, as Richard suggested, at the Channings Hotel, and decide then what to do after the meeting (which will only be around 7.30pm, so the night will yet be young!). Looking forward to meeting BHers there.
CarolineK
Sounds good to me. Channings, 5, tomorrow. See you there.
Ian Woolley
I shall be setting off to Bristol first thing tomorrow to see and hear what John Cook and Michael Mann have to say for themselves. I look forward to meeting BH readers. By my reckoning the Victoria Rooms has a capacity of up to 500 so it might be hard to find each other when Mann speaks as the free event is "sold out". However, I almost feel sorry for Cook who obviously cant give his tickets away as there were some 314 seats left at 9:30 this morning.
David Holland
Are you coming to the Channings beforehand, David Holland, where some of us are meeting at 5pm to fortify ourselves for the event? Hopefully a few BHers will come there to meet up and introduce ourselves. I shall bring a Josh calendar for ID purposes. I'm surprised that so few are coming to hear Cook, but there we are - perhaps we'll outnumber the consensus!
CarolineK
Hi, Caroline.
I will try to get there. Kathleen an I will be taking the caravan to Cheddar tomorrow afternoon then driving back up to Bristol so we may be tight for time. I was thinking of contacting you for advice on parking meters or car parks in the area. I have to go out for an hour and will check the forum when I return.
David Holland
David Holland: have sent an email to Andrew and asked him to fwd it to you re parking etc.
CarolineK
Gutted that I won't be able to make it now - another appointment has clashed which I cannot miss. As a UoBristol Alumnus I was quite looking forward to it as well :-(
Spence_UK
Can't you come on Tuesday Spence? Or is that the one you're talking about?
Richard Drake
hi I'm coming to both (from Taunton) so can I (and my daughter) meet at the pub if we can get there on time? (She's driving down to and back from Cornwall on Friday). I may have a ticket for Tuesday as she can't come, just waiting on someone else to say yea or nay.
Jo Beaumont
Jo
as far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier; hope we'll all be able to identify one another as BHers! (I'm bringing a Josh calendar if I remember)
CarolineK
Jo: I'm still lacking a ticket for Mann on Tuesday so let me know if you have a spare. Looking forward to seeing everyone in the Channings at 5pm tomorrow or somewhere in Bristol on one of the two days!
Richard Drake
I would not go far to listen to either Mann or Cook, but I am looking forward to reading an account of their lectures and particularly answering the questions. Good luck to you all in getting heard. What I would like to do is meet and hear Anthony Watts. If there is to be any meeting with him that would be great. I will keep re-visiting this space to see if anything materialises.
Derek
CarolineK, Barry Woods (or any other attendees)
If you can record the talks and email an MP3 or post it at my blog
http://geoffchambers.wordpress.com/
I'll have a go at transcribing them. Look out for any announcement of video or audio versions to appear later. In my experience they tend to eliminate the Q&A sessions, which might be the most interesting part.
I think Alex Cull will give a hand with transcribing. If anyone else is interested, say so here. It's boring work, but since it will be aired at least at WUWT, having a transcription ready ASAP could be a big advantage in generating publicity.
I tend to start at the beginning and churn through till the end, which can take a day or two for an hour long talk. No doubt there'll be threads up at WUWT and BH, so if you link to any recordings there we may get a crowd thing going. The faster the information is available, the easier it is to get the counter argument into the public domain.
Good luck with asking questions. I suggest that questions should be targeted very specifically to things said in the talk. Posing clever “gotcha” questions designed to discredit CAGW in toto just invites the brush off response “Ah yes, argument number three in the denier's handbook”.