Althouse: Oh! The Climategate professor is sad!

February 7, 2010

Oh! The Climategate professor is sad!

Sniff.

48 comments:

Anonymous said...: He's only thought about suicide.

I'd suggest he hasn't thought on it long enough.

Anyone facing the sort of stinging criticism Phil Jones is receiving owing to his own falsehoods and fraud, who then claims they've been thinking about suicide, is pathetically attempting to limit that legitimate criticism of themselves by pulling at heartstrings.

And that is laughable.; 2/7/10, 1:08 PM
Meade said...: “I am just a scientist."
He fiercely defends the unit’s science —
“I stand by it 100%”

A scientist who is apparently weak in the maths.; 2/7/10, 1:12 PM
robinintn said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/7/10, 1:18 PM
robinintn said...: Maybe he should write a bodice ripper, then suggest his critics wash their faces with asbestos.; 2/7/10, 1:20 PM
Anonymous said...: He says that he thought about seriously about suicide. Obviously there are aspects of himself that he doesn't like-- he, quite literally, can't live with them.

So why doesn't he look at himself honestly and see what those things are?

I'll tell you why: He likes to feel good, and the way he has found to feel good is to be one of the Science Man Saviors of the planet. But that's not his job anymore. The world has moved on.

His thoughts of suicide are entirely rational in light of the situation. But to dwell on them instead of pursuing the necessary self-reflection is a wussy thing to do.

Man up, dude! Go visit the Underworld (metaphorically!) for a while. Recharge yourself. And then come back to your life.

Western Civilization really needs the Eleusinian Mystery Cult to come back. Those mysteries could really help a guy like this.; 2/7/10, 1:23 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: I'm sure Bernie Madoff was sad when he got caught, too.; 2/7/10, 1:24 PM
Anonymous said...: BTW- Elliot Spitzer found himself in a similar situation and handled it well, much better than this dude.; 2/7/10, 1:27 PM
Skyler said...: Jones believes that the unit was maliciously targeted with multiple FoI requests by climate change sceptics determined to disrupt its work.

And it would seem they were justified in doing so. Scum. No pity for him feeling bad. He ought to feel bad for a long time in jail. Defrauding world governments should come with some sort of criminal penalty, you would think.; 2/7/10, 1:28 PM
AllenS said...: He'd feel better if he confessed his sins.; 2/7/10, 1:32 PM
From Inwood said...: And many of us skeptics were sad when we were dismissed as "deniers" or (worse?) "fundamentalists" by our friends who wrapped themselves in the mantle of Phil Jones & his “corpse” of cranks with their “splendid samples of sham science with spurious specificity”, a/k/a, "settled science"; 2/7/10, 1:38 PM
joewxman said...: Prepare yourselves for the next memo from warmists as they try to push the idea that the snowstorms this winter in the east are being caused by global warming. There actually is science behind the idea that warming could increase snowfall but try expaining that to a snow weary public. And now a second major storm is lining up to dump another 1-2 feet of snow from DCA to just south of Boston! The political movement is circling the drain and Al Gore is nowhere to be found. His bullshit shovel could come in handy come Wednesday.; 2/7/10, 1:39 PM
Meade said...: AllenS said...
"He'd feel better if he confessed his sins"

Yeah, but if he wants to feel really great, he'll do penance.; 2/7/10, 1:41 PM
From Inwood said...: "AllenS

"Confessed his sins"

There you go again, proving that you are a, gasp, fundamentalist religious commentator & QED, to be ignored.; 2/7/10, 1:41 PM
AllenS said...: If he thinks it's warm now, wait until he goes to hell. There, I said it.; 2/7/10, 1:43 PM
knox said...: If the planet's ending anyway, why bother with suicide?; 2/7/10, 1:46 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: If the planet's ending anyway, why bother with suicide?

Correct. December 21, 2012....party like the world is going to end. What can it hurt? If it doesn't end.....we had a good party, hopefully with hors d'oeurves.

I don't care that he feels sad. Look at the damage to the world economy that his dishonesty has caused.; 2/7/10, 1:54 PM
From Inwood said...: Meade

You old fundamentalist, you, you're right about penance.

And how about some atonement, also?

To begin, how about saying some thing truthful like “I no longer can defend the unit’s science, can no longer stand by it at all.” & stop the Obama-like blame game (“climate change sceptics determined to disrupt [his corpse of scientists’] work)

Knox

You have a very good very logical point @1:46!; 2/7/10, 1:54 PM
Chef Mojo said...: @Julius Ray Hoffman:

BTW- Elliot Spitzer found himself in a similar situation and handled it well, much better than this dude.

Yeah, but Spitzer at least had some pleasant memories to help him struggle through all the angst.

/sarcasm; 2/7/10, 1:54 PM
Sydney said...: Jones, 57, said he was unprepared for the scandal: “I am just a scientist. I have no training in PR or dealing with crises.”

I would hope that even PR people and professionally trained crisis managers would recognize shame when they feel it.; 2/7/10, 2:10 PM
hombre said...: “I am just a scientist. I have no training in PR or dealing with crises.”

No training in PR? A guy who played a major role in what may be one of the most expansive and fraudulent propaganda campaigns ever?

Él es un llorón con huevos enormes.; 2/7/10, 2:13 PM
Chef Mojo said...: My pity meter is barely registrering.; 2/7/10, 2:24 PM
Andrew said...: I think he's quaking because its only a matter of time till someone looks into his stock portfolio.

If he's got any green tech companies in there, he's committed so many convict-able offenses he'll die penniless in jail.

WV: Dersa dersa? Dersa dersa Jihad!; 2/7/10, 2:31 PM
Anonymous said...: 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
All may be well.

wv: rumbo - Dumbo's older brother, who went to 'Nam.; 2/7/10, 2:31 PM
Fen said...: The perps who ran the AGW con are also guilty of:

1) using it to place a carbon collar of slavery on every human on the planet, and

2) destroying the credibility of any data we have collected re AGW.

Suicidal? In a just world, they would have already chosen it to avoid the slow rotting suffering death they deserve.

They should be banished from scientific circle forever.

And they should be grateful to carry the label of Pariah for the rest of their miserable lives.; 2/7/10, 2:33 PM
Fen said...: That said, I do not want anyone to murder this scum. I want him to live in hell on earth for the rest of his days.

When its time, I'll reseach his cell-mates and forward along some lovely torments to them.; 2/7/10, 2:37 PM
Synova said...: I don't want for anything bad to happen to him, but I can't help but think he ought to man up.

Part of that is examining in his own deepest self what it was that led him into error. Even if it's something like suddenly finding yourself *important* in the world and not being able to handle that.

And what might have been good enough before in obscurity, science that relied on others to check it and push back if it was too sloppy... just one data point among all of it... what is good enough for that isn't good enough when the results are used to justify political decisions with global impact, possibly severe global impact to developing nations and the economies of developed nations; when tyrants are given a tool and an international stage to push political theory that has real world consequences.

It's not good enough, anymore, not to be meticulous and open about the science that you do.; 2/7/10, 2:55 PM
rhhardin said...: He could start a blog.; 2/7/10, 3:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm sorry his spirits are low. He should take some Paxil to hide the decline.; 2/7/10, 3:09 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: He wouldn't release scientific information, but he has no problem releasing personal information?

I call bullshit. He's basically crying in front of everyone so he will be forgiven after having done something wrong and unethical. I wont stand for it in a child and I certainly wont stand for it in an adult.

Put him in front of one of those tribunals for crimes against humanity that are so popular in Europe.; 2/7/10, 3:19 PM
rhhardin said...: It's global moodiness.; 2/7/10, 3:22 PM
Phil 314 said...: I know how he can feel better in 3 easy steps:
1) Get a PR firm to compose the appropriate public (as in posted on Twitter or Facebook) apology.
2) Go on Oprah
3) Write a book; 2/7/10, 3:37 PM
damikesc said...: C3, come on, he has to go to rehab for something as well.; 2/7/10, 3:55 PM
traditionalguy said...: He was so close, and then a slip up in the E-mails that he failed to erase diligently. Damn those computers. And next came outer darkness. That is a sad story. Maybe he should pay triple the price for all of his gas and electricty until the million dollars that he was granted to swear falsely to the world to help Obama destroy America has at least been paid back.; 2/7/10, 4:07 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: That Okay, you might have missed on the impending doom by anthropomorphic climate change thing, but your colleagues have already moved onto the impending doom due to dire drastic anthropomorphic global topsoil shortage.

Which reminds me, Aerogarden Co. replaced three light hoods for free. Is that cool or what? I wrote them a very mature letter describing my difficulties and told them although I loved the units while they worked properly, now that they've failed I view them as broken toys and I cannot recommend them. But now that they're replacing them all for free, I can recommend them. Buy yourself an Aerogarden, a good one, for herbs and stuff, and you won't have to worry about global anthropomorphic topsoil destruction.; 2/7/10, 4:25 PM
Anonymous said...: @Chip Ahoy- Aerogarden, huh? I've heard those recommended before. Here is a photo of one in action. Nice to read that they've been good to you; I think you might have just convinced me to get one or two or three.; 2/7/10, 5:16 PM
bagoh20 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/7/10, 6:00 PM
bagoh20 said...: What the hell did he expect, a Nobel Prize?

The truth has become quite inconvenient, in deed.; 2/7/10, 6:01 PM
From Inwood said...: t-man

MACPHIL (Jones):

Is this a hockey stick which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee!
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A hockey stick of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going,
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses,
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
And on thy end and dudgeon gouts of heat,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing.
It is the heated business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the polar bear,
Whose growl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he warms;
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

[A bell rings.]

I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Algore, for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.; 2/7/10, 7:44 PM
Fen said...: And where are all the Fricken Libtards who So Righteously asserted that AGW was settled science, and that the rest of us were "ignorant deniers [as in holocaust]" for merely questioning the data?

Have they taken up with Ritmo and bravely run away again?; 2/7/10, 7:52 PM
DADvocate said...: Jones, 57, said he was unprepared for the scandal: “I am just a scientist. I have no training in PR or dealing with crises.”

It appears he still doesn't understand the principle of honesty. Had he been honest, there would have been no crisis.; 2/7/10, 8:52 PM
MikeR said...: You guys sure are mean. I personally have no doubt that he sincerely believes what he preaches. Only, he's not a very good scientist.
Imagine how someone feels who has spent his professional life trying to accomplish something, something that he feels is important to humanity. And then to have it all ruined by his own emails and his own actions.; 2/7/10, 9:05 PM
bagoh20 said...: "You guys sure are mean."

It's not like he cheating at golf. His lies have already cost the world economy billions and would have been trillions. Many resources that could have been used to save lives or improve them have been squandered. The greatest fraud in history and the most costly even before it got started. A less civil age would him roasting in a brass bull right now.; 2/7/10, 9:12 PM
traditionalguy said...: Jones can found a support group for recovering Mega Frauds of Science Stars. The Noble prize winners list can be his first mailing list. The entire Obama Czars team will need a place to hear how Jones got thru the suicide phase and went on to accept retirement on his consolation prize of millions in Swiss gold franks held in numbered Swiss accounts from his grant/bribe bonus money. If he dedicates himself he can start up a Sweat Lodge chain for Disgraced Climate Fraudsters that desperately need to establish contact with Mother Ship of weather gods.; 2/7/10, 10:16 PM
Fen said...: I personally have no doubt that he sincerely believes what he preaches.

Uhm he DELIBERATELY CORRUPTED THE DATA AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS.; 2/7/10, 11:40 PM
Synova said...: I have no doubt that he sincerely believes it.

But how is that an excuse? It might be a reason for the bad science, but also the *reason* for meticulous science... to keep sincere belief from warping the process.

And the problem with trying to save the world is the same one that CS Lewis pointed out so long ago. A person is willing to destroy so much more for your own *good* than they would do simply to enrich themselves. If nothing else evil will get bored, while virtue never sleeps.

In order to save the world, based on this fellow's "science", people were willing to destroy economies and retard progress in industry and science and relegate the undeveloped nations to perpetual undeveloped status with all the human horror and hardship that goes with that. (Prettied up to a quaint primitive aesthetic, of course.); 2/7/10, 11:58 PM
Michael McNeil said...: There actually is science behind the idea that warming could increase snowfall but try expaining that to a snow weary public.

Good point. And since quantity of snowfall is actually a greater controlling influence on the growth of glaciers than temperature per se (at least in places where it's cold enough to snow), honest-to-God “global warming” might actually result in the great ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica increasing in size, and thus sea levels declining — as I say, providing it's cold enough for snow to exist at all.

If that situation eventually occurs (recurs), however, and snow becomes ephemeral or impossible, then the Earth may resume conditions prevalent during the large bulk of the last quarter of a billion years (since the great glaciations of the Permian epoch, up to a few tens of millions of years ago leading up to the “age of ice” known as the Pleistocene era, which we're basically still in) — a vast span of time when no permanent ice existed anywhere on the planet at all, not at the poles nor the tops of the highest mountains.

Even if that begins to happen, though, simulations suggest that it will take many centuries for all of the world's great ice sheets (more than a mile deep across Greenland, and even thicker covering Antarctica) to disappear, while loss equivalent to only about a foot of worldwide sea-level rise is estimated will occur by the end of this century.

As for the bogus “2035” date for the disappearance of all the Himalayan glaciers is concerned, an article in the Jan. 21st issue of the prestigious scientific journal Nature put it (starting on p. 276), though “many of the more than 45,000 glaciers in the Himalayan and Tibetan region are losing mass,” “given the observed rate of decline so far, many experts doubt that even small glaciers will melt completely by the end of the century” — much less 2035 — and the Himalayan glaciers are far smaller and more vulnerable than the huge ice sheets encompassing Greenland and Antarctica.; 2/8/10, 8:30 AM
Original Mike said...: "If he would rather die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

Ebenezer Scrooge; 2/8/10, 9:23 AM
Original Mike said...: Jones, 57, said he was unprepared for the scandal: “I am just a scientist. I have no training in PR ...”

Nor ethics. Nowadays, we have our students take ethics training. This is why.; 2/8/10, 9:37 AM