Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Pride goeth before destruction

The AGW scandal known as Climategate shows a disturbing pattern of scientist who have become partisan plotting to marginalize their peers who disagree with them. One of the techniques to do this was to withhold data from them.

Now this not only goes against the scientific method but is also contrary to a freedom of information law that the UK has in place. In fact, it is recognized that these scientists broke the FOI law, but aren't being prosecuted as the statute of limitations have run out on this.

Phil Jones was the director of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. He has temporarily stepped down, but appears to be looking to get his old job back.

He was quoted today as saying, "We need to work differently, making more data available and making our assumptions clear. Everything needs to be more and more open and we will be striving to do that in the future."

This quote by Jones reminded me of something. When Saddam Hussein was captured he reportedly said, "I'm the president of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate."

In both cases, you have defiant people who when cornered suddenly become reasonable.

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

No comments:

Post a Comment