I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of cash. Anyone want to let me know who will buy off a math professor?
You could always take my finals for me...
Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
31–40 of 96 posts
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#32Hm, I feel like this is way less sinister than it sounds. From what I know of his prior reputation, Will Happer has long made his position on climate change clear, so it's not like he changed his mind when people offered him a big pile of money. If you already believe something and someone is going to give you money to promote your views, why on earth would you say no?
Will Happer has long made his position on climate change clear, so it's not like he changed his mind when people offered him a big pile of money. You're missing the point. It's not that this guy was paid off and therefore changed his views. It's that he published research that he claimed was independent that was not, and in the process neglected to disclose his sources of revenue and conflicts of interest. Those very…
"BTW, "Merchants of Doubt" has covered this territory extensively, so to be honest, I'm not sure Greenpeace has added much to the dialog, here, aside from flat out catching folks in the act."
Yeah flat out catching highly placed, non-anonymous culprits is very significant. I'll bet a lot more people would be paying attention to this article compared to those who read or watch Merchants of Doubt.
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#33Hm, I feel like this is way less sinister than it sounds. From what I know of his prior reputation, Will Happer has long made his position on climate change clear, so it's not like he changed his mind when people offered him a big pile of money. If you already believe something and someone is going to give you money to promote your views, why on earth would you say no?
Nothing wrong, as long as you change all your business cards from "Chief Scientist" to "Market Guru".
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#34When you get a grant, the university has academic freedom stipulations in the contract or memorandum of understanding. You cite sources for every paper. There's a yearly statement of conflict of interest on file. There is absolutely no way these researchers aren't aware of the difficulty of what they've done, even if they are saying what they believe.
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#35Hm, I feel like this is way less sinister than it sounds. From what I know of his prior reputation, Will Happer has long made his position on climate change clear, so it's not like he changed his mind when people offered him a big pile of money. If you already believe something and someone is going to give you money to promote your views, why on earth would you say no?
My thoughts exactly. If someone were to phonily offer Hawking a cartoonish sack of money to write a report about black holes, should we be shocked when he shows interest in the offer?
No, no, no, no. You miss the point.
If you claim to be a scientist, you leave your personal beliefs at the lab door and abide to the experimental results. If you cannot do that, you pick a different subject of study and let some other unbiased scientist pick on the thorny (for you) subject.
How would you feel if Hawkings were a Christian, and he would take money from the Pope and then wrote a report on how he saw Jesus in the black hole?
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, not really, take this for example: >The emails and recordings also outline how Happer ran a sham peer-review process through the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a prominent U.K.-based climate skepticist think thank. Happer admits that his papers would not likely be published through typical the academic peer review process. “I would be glad to ask for a similar review for the first drafts of anything I write fo…
> Happer ran a sham peer-review process through the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a prominent U.K.-based climate skepticist think thank. I really don't think submitting papers to similarly minded groups in the name of "peer review" is an uncommon occurrence on any side of the climate change debate -- or any other debate for that matter.
"I really don't think submitting papers to similarly minded groups in the name of "peer review" is an uncommon occurrence"
Yes it is. It's not just uncommon, it's simply unacceptable in regular scientific research. Don't believe me, here's Prof. Happer's own words:
Verbatim from William Happer's email:
"For example, Golkany knew the names of the reviews he received, but for a journal, the peer reviewers would normally be anonymous.
.
.
Unless we decide to submit the piece to a regular journal, with all the complications of delay, possibly quixotic editors and reviewers that is the best we can do, and I think it would be fine to call it a peer review"
He knows exactly what he's doing is wrong and why. He's deliberately engaging in a a sleight of hand in order to deceive the casual reader/listener with the words "peer review".
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#37This seems a bit like the Planned Parenthood tapes: approach someone with false pretenses, and then report the things they say in the worst possible way. I would find it much more damning if they found a professor that would change their position for money, rather than finding people that will accept money to forward a position they think is correct.
I think most of the controversy around the Planned Parenthood tapes was around the editing not the style of journalism.
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#38The truth will out, complicated character-assassination plots notwithstanding.
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#39I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of cash. Anyone want to let me know who will buy off a math professor?
If you're good at stats and scientific writing, there is money to be made in ghost writing research papers for pharma. They give you the raw trials data, you work it up and write the analysis.
Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
My thoughts exactly. If someone were to phonily offer Hawking a cartoonish sack of money to write a report about black holes, should we be shocked when he shows interest in the offer?
No, no, no, no. You miss the point. If you claim to be a scientist, you leave your personal beliefs at the lab door and abide to the experimental results. If you cannot do that, you pick a different subject of study and let some other unbiased scientist pick on the thorny (for you) subject. How would you feel if Hawkings were a Christian, and he would take money from the Pope and then wrote a report on how he saw Jes…
There is no such thing as an unbiased scientist. They are human, after all. Whenever you read about scientists reporting on X or discovering Y, you should absolutely consider their motives, especially in contentious subjects such as this one.
And your analogy is only comparable if Hawking already had a history of reporting about seeing Jesus in black holes.