When I pose that question I’m not referring to the Danish Meteorological Institute’s long “deprecated” 30% concentration threshold Arctic sea ice extent metric so much as the reaction to its demise amongst the more “skeptical” of we cryospheric bloggers. Here once again is the “controversial” graph in question, archived from the start of the year:
No sooner had Paul Homewood moved on from that topic to finally reproduce on his blog an NSIDC Arctic sea ice graph I first brought to his attention last spring than across the Atlantic in the good ‘ol US of A a certain Mr. Anthony Watts suddenly loudly proclaims that he “tends to agree” with Mr. Homewood’s assertion that:
There has been so much skulduggery going on in the climate establishment in recent years that it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this graph has been withdrawn simply because it gives the “wrong” results.
Given the actual facts of the matter this is peculiar enough, but then things get positively surreal. Regular readers will realise that up here in the penthouse suite at the pinnacle of the tallest of the Great White Con Ivory Towers we pride ourselves on our surreal sensibilities. Today though, we are forced to admit that WUWT has beaten us at our own game. Whilst we were conducting a perfectly sane interview with one of the world’s top sea ice scientists Tony was concocting these perfectly formed surrealist fantasies.
In his update 1 to this already nonsensical story Anthony assures us that:
The typical haters, such as Neven Acropolis, are making claims in comments that I see this as some sort of “conspiracy”. I do not and any such claim is false and political in nature.
Mr. Watts is evidently a big fan of William Burroughs, and has used his celebrated “cut-up” technique to transform “Skulduggery going on in the climate establishment” into “magnets cued she got on the inimitably ginger skull” which is obviously not even slightly conspiratorial.
Let’s move swiftly on to update 2, wherein we are told:
DMI has an entire page dedicated to the use of the 30% concentration value that is still operational!
However if you read the small print on Anthony’s accompanying image it says that:
The maps are additionally overlayed with the corresponding multi-year monthly mean of the periods 1978-2014.
and if you click the accompanying link you will discover that there is no way on Earth to persuade the DMI web site to display “operational” data from 2015, let alone 2016.
Whilst we eagerly await the no doubt imminent arrival of What’s up with that Watts DMIgate update 3 we will leave you with some words of wisdom from Dr. Walt Meier of NASA, the aforementioned top sea ice scientist, who informed us earlier today that:
Regarding DMI, the issue seems quite simple. The 30% plot is an older version that they stopped supporting as they transitioned to the 15% plot.
It is that simple, and the fact that Homewood and Watts (and many of their commenters) didn’t see this straight away, but posted anyway because of the conspiracy potential, and then dug their heels in, denying the undeniable, is telling of their whole attitude towards science.
If Homewood would have accepted our explanations and added a caveat to his blog post, Watts would never have fallen into the same trap. Shame, isn’t it? 😉
Mind you, for that Update2 Watts eagerly jumps at info provided by a certain Pethefin, who on Homewood’s blog writes stuff like:
But in similar style to conspiracy thinker Watts, Pethefin denies that these are accusations of fraud and deception.
Needless to say my own replies to Pethefin remain invisible on NALOPKT. Here’s my most recent one:
The surrealism is increasing exponentially!
Lawrence has no friends, except one secret admirer, but my old mate Chilly has put in a good word for me over at Watts Up With That!
However my heartfelt thank you note remains unloved and unwanted by the WUWT moderators 🙁
Thanks to Lawrence for directing my attention to this August 14th 2013 statement by Anthony Watts on his WUWT blog:
This is not the first time that we have noticed that Mr. Watts seems to be strangely forgetful when it suits him. See for example:
“Mark Serreze and the Arctic Sea Ice Death Spiral”
Is it the case that Anthony Watts is getting extremely forgetful in his old age? Alternatively is his memory in actual fact extremely selective, much like his choice of Arctic sea ice metrics?
Wow, this deserves a blog post all of its own. Watts knew about the old graph being discontinued, and knew that it could be erroneous because of that.
Looks like the DMI will have to apologize to him again. 😉
I will have to apologise too. Obviously Mr. Watts and/or his faithful moderators shouldn’t have had to go to the trouble of deleting all my comments telling him something he already knew.
Sorry Anthony!
Watts has his panties in a wad already, now he has got me to blame for digging up this GEM of a thread. I am going to risk predicting that I am not going to be on the #queenoftrolls Christmas card list.
I finished my book and am going to enjoy willard watts’ (aka #wutz) DOWNFALL TWO…
Wouldn’t that be a fun project done behind the scenes?
Regardless who actually helps write the video’s script, everyone who has had the misfortune of making my acquantance here is going to share the blame. It nebecomes Jim Hunt’s fault because he used poor judement when he allowed Reggie to post on this thread back in 2013. Mann because if he hadn’t retweeted Reggie this neverending thread would have died at birth.
Stick a fork in that boy…he’s done like dinner
There is no way out of the corner he is backed into and his modus operandi
Run away… play victim …declare victory
Jim if you read my last email…I am sure you will agree it is time…
CHECKMATE
Here you go Neven:
“DMIGate Skulduggery In a Nutshell”
I found a treasure trove trove of future pain for willard watts in the future, all posted in plain sight at his pseudoscience blog, the silly little bugger does not do Augusts well.
Master of Space and Thyme August 14, 2013 at 8:13 am
“If you don’t let the “smoke” get in your eyes, it’s obvious that bottom growth on that particular piece of ice did not start until February.”
TSMT aka Reggie offers a tutorial on how to feed off watt’s stalker trolls and despite heavy moderation get everything desired through moderation he needed.
Rule One: never ever let the trolls change the subject, always remain steadfastly on topic and remind the readers it is watts’ minions who are derailing the thread.
Rule Two: When the stalker troll minions make false accusations always politely ask for documentation with facts from the reality based universe and keep asking until they give up.
Rule Three: When willard’s crew gets totally pnwed and he sends the moric mods out to attack you…DON’T PANIC! Use what you have learned so far to post in a way that makes it difficult to censure.
I know why Watts had a melt-down when he learned of the DMI 30% graph’s demise. It has been posted tens of hundreds of times at Troll Central and now everyone of those posts are now genuine gibberish with what shows today.
If Snow White asks nicely I may tell her about the memory-holed comment from a week ago Thursday that contributed to weird willards childish meltdown eleventy days ago. Somehow I have the feeling that Jim, Snow White and a few readers have already figured out the answer.
We’re in good company Lawrence. Nick Stokes has recently revealed how he too has disappeared down the WUWT memory hole:
It is no surprise that Nick was disappeared by Watt’s, that was inevitable given Stoke’s effectiveness against Willard’s stalker trolls. What is surprising to me is that he added Stokes to the list of those whose names shall not be mentioned. Is there anything more childish than having a filter that removes all comments that mention Nick’s name? Of course this isn’t unprecedented, “snip-gate” had its origin when Peter Hadfield and Peter Sinclair were deemed too “dangerous” to be allowed mention at the pseudo-science blog.
It would be interesting to collect the names of individuals who were vanished down the memory hole for the crime of consistently posting inconvenient facts in a polite non confrontational manner. Someone (not me) should ask Ms Curry what she thinks of Watt’s actions, can she defend the indefensible?
It appears that Reggie’s return will be delayed until this past weekend’s events play out.
There’s currently loads of Arctic nonsense being spouted over at WUWT under a headline that contains the word “Antarctic”. Needless to say Ron Clutz’s gibberish about MASIE is visible, whereas my “polite non confrontational” comment setting the record straight is currently consigned to the memory hole. As Nick Stokes might well put it:
Shock News! Nick is back!!
In a recent update to his original post he adds:
Even more “Shock News” today!!!
One of my two comments on WUWT earlier today has been acknowledged! Mind you it has been [Snip]ped in it’s entirety. According to the [mod] that’s because:
Here’s the comment in question:
I give your LMGTFY ( http://bit.ly/1O7H5jgan ) A+ for search results. This post is at the top of the list, the WAR post at ASIB second, followed by the post from the intellectual lightweight Watts that led to #DMIgate.
Can you imagine the LMGTFY(s) we are going to have if the same technique and effort are applied as was used to create the Goddard TMGTFY three years ago?
I predict that Willard Watts’ meltdown will exceed what we will see in the Arctic and you have that promise in writing. We are working on a Watts’ downfall sequel to be released August 4th using Eric Cartman pics and voice to represent Willard. Any suggestions from the ones at the link below?
http://bit.ly/20Xx5u8
This video is timeless
[I embedded the video for you – Mod]
How about this one?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=watts+curry+dmigate+con&l=1
Thank you for embedding the video. Watt’s is done like dinner, now we get to play with the intellectual lightweight until August 4th. There also is a score to settle with the “second dumbest man on the internet” Steve Goddard/Tony Heller. You are making him look like a fool, which is expected because he’s #batshit_crazy.
This video illustrates Willard’s situation perfectly, although I doubt they make pliers small enough, judging by the fact he has little hands.