Category Archives: Satire

Snow White is Actually a “Cowardly Cross Dresser”!

Satire, , , ,

In order to avoid the malicious “spammer” label attached to me by Steven Goddard of “Real Science” fame many moons ago I have been using the nom de guerre “Snow White” in skeptical circles for a while. Unfortunately my pseudonimity didn’t stand a chance against the laser sharp investigative skills of Anthony Watts. My embarrassment is now archived in the public record, plain for all to see:

An extract from the "WUWT near the center of the climate blogosphere"
An extract from the “WUWT near the center of the climate blogosphere” thread on the “Watts Up With That” blog on April 9, 2014 at 2:01 pm

A commenter at “Watts Up With That” then piled on the scorn:

"Snow White" is revealed as a "Cowardly Cross dresser", for all the world to see.
“Snow White” is revealed as a “Cowardly cross dresser”, for all the world to see.

The thing is though, that in the process of so skilfully “outing” Snow White Anthony kindly pointed his loyal readers in the direction of our humble “Resources” section and our videos, so I suppose we’ll have to tart them all up a bit now!

A Conversation With David Rose

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Perhaps “conversation” is somewhat too strong a word? We have somehow managed to engage the Mail on Sunday’s top investigative journalist (AKA David Rose) in a debate about sea ice on Twitter. For some strange reason he tried to change the topic from the Arctic to the Antarctic!

Us:

Them:

 

Us:

Meanwhile we gatecrashed another debate that David Rose was gatecrashing, about a topic we have some experience with.

Them:

Us:


We’ll keep you posted!

Our Guardian’s Sleeping on the Job

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Here’s a copy of an email I sent to James Randerson et.al. over at The Guardian shortly after my mail to The Mail earlier this week:

Us:

Shock news about Arctic sea ice!

Hello James,

Further to our telephone conversation just now, here is the latest “shock news” from the Arctic, hot off the presses down here at Ivory Towers:

https://greatWhiteCon.info/2014/03/the-arctic-sea-ice-recovery-vanishes/

Particularly in view of the recent inclement weather in this neck of the woods, I thought perhaps you might be interested in taking a closer look at the most recent evidence concerning this “hot topic”?

I hope you enjoy your meeting!

Best wishes,

Jim Hunt
AKA “Snow White”!

Them:

Hi Jim,

Thanks for drawing our attention to the blog. It is not a topic that we’re planning something on imminently, but it is something we are certainly keeping an eye on and will come back to in future.

Many thanks for your interest.

Best wishes,

James

Meanwhile over on Twitter:

Us:

 

Them:
We’ll keep you posted!

New Mail for The Mail

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Now seems like an entirely appropriate time to bring the latest “Shock News!” from the Arctic to the attention of the “mass media” here in once Great Britain. Here’s a copy of an email I sent to John Wellington over at The Mail earlier today:

Us:

Re: PCC – Global cooling in an ideal world

Hello again John,

Further to our previous correspondence on this controversial topic here is the latest “shock news” from the Arctic, hot off the presses down here at Ivory Towers:

https://greatWhiteCon.info/2014/03/the-arctic-sea-ice-recovery-vanishes/

In view of the recent inclement weather in this neck of the woods, perhaps you could forward it on to one of your finest investigative reporters for me?

Best wishes,

Jim Hunt

Them:

It’s now March 15th 2014, and this morning I received a “Dear Jim” note from John:

Dear Jim,

Nice to hear from you and I trust you were not hit by the West Country floods, climate-influenced or not.

I have discussed your message with a colleague who is interested in these things and we conclude that March is a little early in the year to be drawing significant conclusions. I have been shown some different graphs that appear to show 2014 is not dissimilar to the last few years. I am attaching these for your information.

Best regards

John

S_stddev_timeseries N_bm_extent cryo_compare_small ssmi1_ice_ext_small

Us:

Dear John,

Thank you for your kind words. We’re situated halfway up Haldon, so we avoided the worst of the inclement weather. The top of the hill took a bit of a battering however.

The entrance to Haldon Forest Park on February 24th 2014
The entrance to Haldon Forest Park on February 24th 2014
Haldon Forest Park on March 8th 2014
Haldon Forest Park on March 8th 2014

Our garden suffered a bit too, but thankfully the house was OK.

A new spring gushes from the side of Haldon Hill on Valentine's day 2014
A new spring gushes from the side of Haldon Hill on Valentine’s Day 2014

Others weren’t quite so fortunate:

http://econnexus.org/the-weather-report-from-soggy-south-west-england/

Regarding your own attachments, perhaps in the first instance you might ask your colleague to explain why he or she chooses to send you a NORSEX Arctic sea ice extent graph rather than one from the NSIDC, which I believe we established last summer is The Mail’s oracle on such matters? Please take a good look at the latest NSIDC equivalent to the Antarctic extent graph you sent me, which I attach for your convenience.

NSIDC Arctic sea ice extent graph for March 13th 2014
NSIDC Arctic sea ice extent graph for March 13th 2014

Whilst you’re at it perhaps you could also ask your colleague to answer at least the first three of these simple questions:

https://greatWhiteCon.info/2014/03/some-sceptical-questions/

You may also wish to pass on to your colleague the shock news that earlier this week the daily atmospheric carbon dioxide readings from Mauna Loa rose above 400 ppm almost 2 months earlier than last year?

https://greatWhiteCon.info/2014/03/our-guardians-sleeping-on-the-job/

Best wishes,

Jim

We’ll keep you posted!

How to Upset a Global Warming Sceptic

Satire, ,

We are proud to bring you this blast from Steven Goddard’s past, reprinted with permission from econnexus.org.uk:

In the first of an occasional series under the “Shock News” banner we reveal how to upset a global warming sceptic in three easy stages.

  1. Smell something fishy about a headline that states “New Ice At The North Pole” on July 2nd 2013 and examine “the evidence” from arctic.io presented to substantiate this assertion:
Satellite image of sea ice near the North Pole on July 2nd 2013, courtesy of arctic.io
Satellite image of sea ice near the North Pole on July 2nd 2013, courtesy of arctic.io
  1. Post a link to an alternative view of the same scene from NASA Worldview:
Satellite image of sea ice near the North Pole on July 2nd 2013, courtesy of NASA EOSDIS Worldview
Satellite image of sea ice near the North Pole on July 2nd 2013, courtesy of NASA EOSDIS Worldview
  1. Indulge in a little light hearted banter
A little light hearted banter on July 3rd 2013
A little light hearted banter on July 3rd 2013
  1. QED!
Whoops!
Whoops!
  1. Hence no opportunity to present any “real scientific” evidence about what’s really happening to the Arctic sea ice near the North Pole:
Thermistor temperature profiles for IMB 2012J
Thermistor temperature profiles for IMB 2012J

Mail Online Moderation Policy

Satire, ,

Over recent months I have made a wide variety of comments on some of David Rose’s articles published on The Mail Online. Around half of them never saw the light of day.

Here is some recent correspondence about this controversial issue:

Them:

Thank you for your email, and my apologies for the delay in the reply. I have looked into your account to see why your comments are not being published. Out of the 12 comments that you have submitted six have been published. The other comments were not published because they contain a URL to an external website/ blog, which breaks our house rules.

Rule 9: No linking or copyright infringement – You must not insert links to websites (URLs) or submit content which would be an infringement of copyright.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/house_rules.html

I hope that this answers your question on the publication of your comments. If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me directly and I will be able to help you.

Regards

Me:

Thanks for your admittedly belated reply.

Please explain to me how linking to an article I myself wrote is in any way an infringement of anyone’s copyright.

Please also explain to me how a comment of mine that contained no links somehow never managed to make it out of your moderation queue.

http://econnexus.org/the-strange-tale-of-the-mail-and-the-snow-dragon/

Thanks in advance.

Them:

Thanks for your email. The house rules state that you must not insert any links, of any sort. The reason that your other comment was rejected was because it was directing our readers to your website, albeit by not adding the link, but still advertising your website by trying to get round our filters.

I hope this answers your questions.

Regards

Me:

Thanks for that additional information, but it doesn’t answer all my questions. In fact it raises some more.

“The house rules state that you must not insert any links, of any sort”

In that case I suggest you clarify your house rules. Your rule 9 currently states that:

“You must not insert links to websites (URLs) or submit content which would be an infringement of copyright.”

Which reads to me like “You must not insert links to websites which would be an infringement of copyright.” Maybe an extra comma would be sufficient?

“The reason that your other comment was rejected was because it was directing our readers to your website, albeit by not adding the link, but still advertising your website by trying to get round our filters.”

Your rule 7 states that:

“You must not use our Site for the promotion of any products or services or for any other commercial purpose”

As the URL suggests, econnexus.org is not for profit and has no commercial purpose. It does indirectly “advertise” the likes of charities such as ShelterBox however. Your house rules don’t forbid people from searching the web for further information on the topic(s) of an article do they? I can therefore see no reason why my comment on David Rose’s “Great Green Con #1” was in violation of your house rules. As I explained in my associated blog post, I was in fact endeavouring to find a way to bring to the attention of your readers the content of this URL

http://portal.inter-map.com/#mapID=49&groupID=297&z=1.0&up=-310610.7&left=2001105.4

which seemed to me to be perfectly fair comment on David Rose’s article. It’s not possible to post images in comments on The Mail Online either is it? How do you suggest I go about putting such relevant information in front of your readers in future, short of building my own authoritative web site full of relevant images on a controversial topic and then contacting the Press Complaints Commission about it?

GreatWhiteCon.info is also not for profit, and carries no advertising of any sort, direct or indirect. Since it seems a direct link is forbidden by your ambiguously worded house rules, how about the phrase “Great White Con dot info” in a comment on The Mail Online for example? For your information the following comment of mine on there doesn’t seem to have fallen foul of your eagle eyed moderators yet, and has even received a certain amount of approbation from your loyal readership:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/Global-cooling-Arctic-ice-caps-grows-60-global-warming-predictions.html?offset=0&max=100#comment-37694863

Can I take it that using that form of words is acceptable to The Mail? I would appreciate a prompt response, since based on past performance I anticipate that you will be closing the comments section below David Rose’s most recent “economical” article in the near future.

Best wishes

Them:

Thanks for your email. I have no suggestions as to how you can get our readers to your site. I can advise you also that your comment:

“Whatever the David and Judy show may proclaim today, the facts of the matter are that the increase in Arctic sea ice extent compared to “this time last year” was just HALF of what David Rose said in The Mail on Sunday this time last week. For more information please visit:

Great White Con dot Info”

Was rejected and is not live on our site, so no, in answer to your question, it is not possible to try and get around advertising by writing a link out in words.

There isn’t really much more that I can add to what I have already said. I do hope that if nothing else, I have been able to give you some clarity on why your comments have been rejected.

Regards

Me:

I’m still confused I’m afraid. Just to try and clarify matters, something along the lines of:

“For more info try googling: david rose economical with the truth”

is OK with the Mail’s moderators, but:

“For more information please visit: Great White Con dot Info”

is not, even though GreatWhiteCon.info is an authority about the topic under discussion, and is in no way commercial? Have I got that straight now?

Best wishes

Them:

I would allow neither of those comments.

Regards

Me:

But why not? As far as I can see neither of them contradict the letter of your house rules, and both conform to both the letter and spirit of your rule 1, which states:

“We welcome your opinions. We want our readers to see and understand different points of view. Try to contribute to the thread, rather than just stating if you agree or disagree…. Please explain why you hold your opinion.”

Best wishes

Them:

What you are asking our readers to do is to go to your  website which essentially calls our journalist a “liar”. If you want readership for your website I can only suggest thinking up other ways of getting it.

Regards

Me:

You totally fail to understand the point I am attempting to make. After less than a week GreatWhiteCon.info already has a considerable readership. Check out the comments.

The point is that none of them (or certainly very few) found out about it via the Mail Online, despite your rule 1.

Best wishes

Them:

I have received no further reply. I can only assume that comments must now be closed on this topic.

Hello, Good Evening and Welcome!

Satire, , , , ,

David Frost died last week . So it goes.

According to the BBC:

Politicians regularly complained to BBC management that they were being ridiculed by David Frost and his team. But the programme gained a massive following and soon achieved cult status.

We hope to achieve something similar!

By way of brief introduction, the name of our humble organ is an ironic play on the title of David Rose’s series of “Great Green Con” articles in The Mail on Sunday.