Comments on: What Happened to Gerald Schatten?

By: The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Elite Science's Selective Outrage

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Elite Science's Selective Outrage — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:24:42 +0000

[...] that criticized the methodology in Mann's hockey stick chart. Alarmists have accused Wegman of plagiarism in their efforts to prop up Mann, but have not been able to refute the fact that it's always the [...]

By: Wolfgang Flamme

Wolfgang Flamme — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:47:23 +0000

Intimidation works by estabishing double standards and letting everyone know about it.

By: John M

John M — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:32:16 +0000

It means new in an interesting or quirky way, designed to attract attention.

No doubt. One would at least hope the publication resembles the adjective more than it does the noun.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/novel

By: xyzlatin

xyzlatin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:30:55 +0000

Novel does not just mean new. It means new in an interesting or quirky way, designed to attract attention.

By: Bad Andrew

Bad Andrew — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:19:12 +0000

It looks like RP Jr. has resorted to legalism and academic mutations of word meaning to defend misrepresentation.

(sigh)

Andrew

By: clazy8

clazy8 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 02:06:20 +0000

“Novel” is tiresome the way “utilize” is, but really, it only means “new”, hardly a grand claim. It’s not a case of overselling — actually quite modest, asserting no importance beyond the date of publication. “Unique”, on the other hand, is pretty extraordinary, indeed one of a kind — but there are different kinds of uniqueness, and most of them are trivial.

By: John M

John M — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:24:20 +0000

er… make that Brent.

By: John M

John M — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:22:30 +0000

Relevant to both Bret & Roger Pielke Jr.’s comments (and relevant to ethics in “modern science”).

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/11/12/99_yield_that_friends_is_deception.php

Note the commenter freely uses a word that’s not fudge.

A follow up story appeared in this week’s C&E News, the house organ for the American Chemical Society (unfortunately, only available electronically to subscribers). In the more recent article, it is bemoaned how often terms like “novel” and “unique” are used in modern scientific literature in order to oversell the importance of the work.

“Unprecedented” didn’t make the cut though.

By: pete

pete — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:09:18 +0000

So cherry-picking for Figures 4.1 and 4.4 is okay because there are other figures without cherry-picking? (Ignoring, for the moment, that only looking at the PC1 is another kind of cherry-pick).

By: pete

pete — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:04:56 +0000

But Wegman withheld data too – the 9900 simulation results (out of 10000) that didn’t show a good enough hockeystick index in Figs 4.1 and 4.4.

This is probably a little unfair to Wegman. Wegman’s error was to use code which he didn’t understand. The cherry-picking is Steve’s, although Wegman has to take responsibility for using that in testimony to Congress.