81–90 of 96 posts
Hm, 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?
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What confuses me is that we all seem to have more-or-less the same moral compass when it comes to fiction. "The bad guy" is often going to extremes to prevent something from going public - dumping toxic waste in a river, taking bribes, selling a vote, torturing people in secret etc. Somehow it seems like these days, if someone gets caught doing these things in real life, nothing happens. Dumping toxic waste is pro-bu…
> What confuses me is that we all seem to have more-or-less the same moral compass when it comes to fiction. > Torture? Heck, it's not torture, and they're really bad people anyway. The use of torture 'by the good guys' is actually pretty ubiquitous in modern TV.
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> We cannot know what his original view on climate change might have been. Does it matter? You don't have the right to demand that everyone agree with you, even if you're right . We don't burn people at the stake or try to silence them for disagreement. Please stop trying to create unanimity; it's not healthy. What we should punish people for: lying to Congress, taking or offering bribes, doing dishonest work while i…
I don't think you disagree with me. Of course people have every right to deny climate change or whatever else they want to deny. His original view, if there ever was such a thing, still matters because many of us would like to know whether he changed his views after accepting the bribe. It doesn't matter if he changed his views from right to wrong or the other way around, what matters is that a scientist might have c…
I'm a bit curious what people's opinions are after reading this http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/12/08/breaking-greenpeace-co... Seems like there is some info being left out. Both sources seem to be hiding things, why not publish the entire e-mail exchanges?
Ah, I see the entire exchange was published here http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2642410-Email-Chain-H... Seems quite different than how it was being portrayed. From what I'm seeing, they asked for a white paper, not a research paper and Happer said they could send money to his 501c3 charity which only pays part of his travel expense and would only write what he believed in. Even correcting them on peer review…
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What confuses me is that we all seem to have more-or-less the same moral compass when it comes to fiction. "The bad guy" is often going to extremes to prevent something from going public - dumping toxic waste in a river, taking bribes, selling a vote, torturing people in secret etc. Somehow it seems like these days, if someone gets caught doing these things in real life, nothing happens. Dumping toxic waste is pro-bu…
Unfortunately, what people seem to pick up as "evil" from the fictions isn't the immoral actions , but instead the color-coding of villains as wearing ominous clothes (often dressed for a funeral) and accompanied by certain musical stings. I mean, for God's sakes, the Nazis wore skulls and didn't notice they were the baddies!
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> 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 normall…
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?
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Ah, I see the entire exchange was published here http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2642410-Email-Chain-H... Seems quite different than how it was being portrayed. From what I'm seeing, they asked for a white paper, not a research paper and Happer said they could send money to his 501c3 charity which only pays part of his travel expense and would only write what he believed in. Even correcting them on peer review…
He is embezzling money from a 5013c also?
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What confuses me is that we all seem to have more-or-less the same moral compass when it comes to fiction. "The bad guy" is often going to extremes to prevent something from going public - dumping toxic waste in a river, taking bribes, selling a vote, torturing people in secret etc. Somehow it seems like these days, if someone gets caught doing these things in real life, nothing happens. Dumping toxic waste is pro-bu…
Unfortunately, what people seem to pick up as "evil" from the fictions isn't the immoral actions , but instead the color-coding of villains as wearing ominous clothes (often dressed for a funeral) and accompanied by certain musical stings. I mean, for God's sakes, the Nazis wore skulls and didn't notice they were the baddies!
You mean like the Queen's Royal Lancers [1] (17th/21st Lancers in WW2) maybe?
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1) Intentionally hiding the source of funding; aka taking a bribe. 2) Intentionally publishing in a sham journal to avoid peer review. These are both tolerable behavior in the free market, but ought to be firable offenses for university professors.
No question that this matches the definition of manufacturing consent albeit if he guy was all ready on their side or not. I wonder if topics like education, biotech, military engagements, and torture are handled in a likewise fashion? A dime per word so to speak.