Suing NASA, Swine Flu Declines and Climategate Tricks
CEI announces a plan to sue NASA over violations of the Freedom of Information Act.
The Centers for Disease Control report cases of swine flu are dropping around the country.
Sympathetic colleagues attempt to defend the actions of climate change researchers involved in the “Climategate” scandal.
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.
1. LEGAL
CEI announces a plan to sue NASA over violations of the Freedom of Information Act.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Chris Horner on what he’s looking for:
“The information sought is directly relevant to the exploding ‘Climategate’ scandal revealing document destruction, coordinated efforts in the U.S. and UK to avoid complying with both countries’ freedom of information laws, and apparent and widespread intent to defraud at the highest levels of international climate science bodies. Numerous informed commenters had alleged such behavior for years, all of which appears to be affirmed by leaked emails, computer code, and other data from the Climatic Research Unit of the UK’s East Anglia University.”
2. HEALTH
The Centers for Disease Control report cases of swine flu are dropping around the country.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Michael Fumento on why we needn’t fear flu-spreading family togetherness:
‘“Health officials say swine flu cases appear to declining throughout most of the U.S.,’ reports the Associated Press. But, making evident its reporter hadn’t actually bothered to look at the data or try to comprehend it, the story concluded ‘They say it’s hard to know whether the epidemic has peaked or not, and many people will be gathering – and spreading germs – next week at Thanksgiving.’ Well, there you go, there is a possible exception to the rule of infectious disease epidemic curves known as Farr’s law. It’s called ‘Thanksgiving.’”
3. ENVIRONMENT
Sympathetic colleagues attempt to defend the actions of researchers involved in the “Climategate” scandal.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on one of the tricks involved:
“Is the ‘trick’ Phil Jones learned from Hockey Stick author Michael Mann a form of trickery? Does it create a false impression, as an illusionist does on stage, right out in the open, in front of an audience? The trick, according to RealClimate.org, is to splice onto the end of a temperature reconstruction, built on proxy data going back several centuries, the data from instrumental records starting in 1960 and 1981. Now this is quite a trick, because it involves comparing apples (proxy data) to oranges (instrumental data) and pretending that the composite forms a continuous record…Grafting instrumental data onto proxy data to produce a seemingly continuous record is trickery, because instrumental data, unlike proxy data, are massively influenced by land-use changes and site-specific quality control issues.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.