Global Warming Ate the Science

The next time you hear about anthropogenic global warming or global climate change, demand to see the data. It no longer exists.

I've been a skeptic all along, because I remember the warnings about the "coming ice age," that I read in my "Weekly Reader," back in grade school. (In the dark ages of the 60's and 70's.)

This is not science, people. The proper scientific method involves the reporting of detailed, open, and reproducible modes of collecting data. Little black boxes - in which numbers are cooked without access to the raw data by colleagues and even rivals - are not allowed.

The United Nations organization that oversees climate change or global warming is the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC uses data (if you can call it that) from the Climate Research Unit, or CRU. In fact, the CRU apparently only releases numbers that have been collated and "adjusted."

After years of refusing to turn over the raw data and releasing only modified numbers, Phil Jones of the CRU reports that the organization has lost all the old data that was used to prove global warming.

From the UK's Register, "Global Warming Ate My Data":

The world's source for global temperature record admits it's lost or destroyed all the original data that would allow a third party to construct a global temperature record. The destruction (or loss) of the data comes at a convenient time for the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in East Anglia - permitting it to snub FoIA requests to see the data.

The CRU has refused to release the raw weather station data and its processing methods for inspection - except to hand-picked academics - for several years. Instead, it releases a processed version, in gridded form. NASA maintains its own (GISSTEMP), but the CRU Global Climate Dataset, is the most cited surface temperature record by the UN IPCC. So any errors in CRU cascade around the world, and become part of "the science".

Professor Phil Jones, the activist-scientist who maintains the data set, has cited various reasons for refusing to release the raw data.

Daschle/Dole/Baker! Health care on the fast track -along with the entire Nation's finance

Right after this Yellow Brick Award ceremony, I'm thinking that it may save my life for me to learn to use Twitter and Facebook. Now.

While President Obama is planning to take over the entire finance world ASAP, ABC is planning their all-day infomercial for Obama and his push - there is no "plan," yet - for health care "reform" by July 4. No opposing or alternate viewpoints will be allowed. They're even refusing to take a paid-for program in rebuttal, according to the Drudge Report.

ABC REFUSES PAID ADS OFFERING ALTERNATIVE VIEWPOINT FOR WHITE HOUSE HEALTH CARE PROGRAM
ABC is refusing paid ads for its health care program at the White House. Thus they're refusing even a paid-for alternative viewpoint.

Conservatives for Patients Rights requested the rates to buy a 60 second network spot immediately preceding the broadcast of the Town Hall meeting.

While looking for verification of this story, I came across several that report that former Senators Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and Howard Baker are working on a health care "compromise." (Come on! there's a reason they aren't Senators any more!)

See their report, "Crossing the Streams Lines" here.

So, we'll have a Secretary of the Treasury (who claims to be unable to do his own taxes using Turbo Tax) running Wall Street and all the banks. We'll have a known plagiarist and serial failed Presidential candidate (who also can't figure out that gifts and services are taxable) working with another serial failed presidential candidate (who took money for telling the world that he needs a little pharmaceutical help in the bed room) working to reign in the cost of doctors, hospitals, and those pharmaceutical companies. (The third player in the health care waters is Baker, another serial failed presidential candidate. It's just that no one's ever heard of him.)

But don't worry -- even if you are able to vote for a completely new House and a turnover of a good portion of the Senate in 2010, Obama will still run the Census out of his Committee to Reelect the President.

In the meantime, Obama is planning to cut Medicare fees to Hospice, hospitals and doctors while instituting a new tax on health care insurance benefits from employers, according to the Washington Post.

Why not? After all, Daschle had to pay taxes on his limo and driver and Geithner had to pay them on his kids' summer camp!


Addendum after skimming the report:
The "Crossing the Lines" report is full of calls for more regulation with a sprinkling of pablum.

First, they demand that everyone have health insurance. (Could be acceptable if we were allowed to chose between Major Medical and From-First-Dollar. And if it weren’t for the rest of the trash.)

They believe - or at least claim to believe - that it will pay for itself. (Who knew old white haired men could be so funny?)

How will the money be raised?

By a “trigger” to enforce cuts when costs reach a certain point and by not paying for those treatments that are considered less effective.

What are they going to do with all the men and women who insist on antibiotics, today, for their bronchitis? Will they protect the doc when the patient develops bacterial pneumonia?

How about my man in his mid-80’s with a 102 fever in the ER, a bladder infection, multiple falls that resulted in bruises and skin tears, and potassium at 2 (normal is 4)? Medicare would not allow me to actually admit him because he turned out not to be septic by their criteria. He ended up on “Observation” for 3 days while his wife and I tried to find some safe place for him to go after discharge and I tried to get a handle on his potassium. He left for the rehab hospital with a potassium of 2.6. On a heart monitor. Because Medicare rules threaten us with charges of “fraud and abuse.”

How about our local hospice? Obama has announced his intention to cut funding to hospice. I guess there’s not much efficacy in hospice. After all, the hospice patient is, by definition, expected to die within 6 months. However, hospice patients are less likely to present at the ER, with the costs of their care much less than hospitalization.

Obama will fund more losing embryonic stem cell research (New Yellow Brick Award to the President)

Just days after we hear about functioning induced Pluripotent stem cells from adult skin cells, cells that can produce dopamine, the proteins missing in Parkinson's disease, we read that President Obama is going to overturn the limits on funding for embryonic stem cell research. Despite the fact that these cells match the patient because they come from the patient, that they will be cheaper, more accessible and we believe have less risk of causing cancer, this Monday morning, the 9th of March, 2009, the White House plans a quiet ceremony to sign the Executive Order.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Mr. President. The great embryonic Oz will get you home. Do not look behind the curtain, ignore that little man.

"Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool!" (Thank you, Paul Begala.) We've been trying to spend a Trillion dollars every 10 days in the Obama administration. Let's just throw more good money after bad.

Typical of the news articles, is this one, from the US News and World Report, entitled (sigh)"Obama to End Stem Cell Ban Monday
Researchers applaud his action, which is expected to kick-start efforts to unlock therapeutic potential."

I recommend that you read that link above, in order to compare reality with what the proponents of destructive embryonic stem cell research believe.

The article is so full of holes. The title and first paragraph say "ban." There never was a ban. Ask Daley and Melton of Harvard who have been creating embryos for destruction to harvest the parts.

And then, there's this gem of an emotional non sequitor, I'm afraid from my State of Texas:

"It's going to remove an embarrassment for American science," said Dr. Darwin Prockop, director of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, said in February. "It's a statement that we're going to again believe in science."

Prockup must have been teased too much about his name as a child. Seriously, who among us stopped and now started to believe in science again?

We are not behind, we are not embarrassed, unless it's in imposing regulations. Even the "Progressives" are calling for more restrictions. The UK has more regulations on regenerative medicine and embryonic research than the US. France, Germany and Israel have similar limits on funding. Germany, at one time had criminal charges and fines attached to their ban.

CIRM has $3 Billion which must be spent on cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Their "Strategic Plan?" (This is a pdf, for a review, read this article at the CIRM website.) One cure and 2 trials in ten years. Who thinks the US is going to top their billions in embryonic research, when results with induced Stem Cells are bounding ahead?

Oh, I know, CIRM thinks the NIH should buy their $400 Million in bonds, this year. No one else wants the losing proposition.

Texas teens form pro-life club

And, it seems that the kids in Coppell, Texas (near Dallas) are only "anti-abortion" because of the undue influence of their families and churches. From the Dallas Morning News:

Abortion rights advocates say it's even harder for them to organize high school students because of the focus on abstinence.

"We're up against a movement that has federal dollars going into public schools," said Kierra Johnson, director of Choice USA. "You compound that with what they could be learning in church, and it sets us back in terms of outreach to young people under 18."

Of course, the Dallas Morning News calls the club "anti-abortion," not "pro-life." In spite of the fact that the kids call themselves "The Pro-Life Club." The author calls for tolerance on the part of the "anti-abortion crowd but can't even bring herself to use the term the teens would prefer.

I guess the DMN doesn't keep up with the latest research. Otherwise, they'd know that the study on abstinence that was in the news earlier this month informed us that teens - whether they sign a pledge or not - who come from religious, conservative backgrounds are more likely to delay their first intercourse for about 3 years longer than their peers. I nominate the author of the article,Katherine Leal Unruth, her editor, and Ms. Johnson for Twits of the Year and definitely award them my own Yellow Brick Road award. ("Do Not Look Behind the Curtain, Ignore That Little Man." Or small woman.)

Bravo Coppell teens, their parents, and their churches!

Trash from Reuters on Stem Cells

Just read the first two sentences of this article.

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stem cells from tiny embryos can be used to restore lost hearing and vision in animals, researchers said Tuesday in what they believe is a first step toward helping people.

One team repaired hearing in guinea pigs using human bone marrow stem cells, while another grew functioning eyes in tadpoles using frog cells.

What a disgrace! The second sentence/paragraph tells us the sources of the stem cells: (mesenchymal) bone marrow stem cells, which are adult stem cells and frog cells. There are no embryos or embryonic stem cells used in either experiment.

Here is a much better article on the frog's eye cells from pleuripotent (not embryonic) stem cells, at Science Daily:

Under normal conditions, pluripotent frog cells form only skin tissue. The scientists were able, however, to convert the pluripotent cells to retinal cells by forcing them to express the eye field transcription factor (or EFTF) genes. The reprogrammed cells formed all seven classes of retinal cells normally found in the eyes, including the retinal ganglion cells, which have axons (optic nerves) that extend to the brain.

Furthermore, these new cells eventually formed into functioning eyes. When tested, tadpoles used their induced eyes to detect light and to engage in a vision‑based behavior. The scientists also found a population of self‑renewing cells in the periphery of the induced retinas, suggesting that EFTF‑induced cells also formed adult retinal stem cells.

Click here to let the Reuters editors know they need to fix this story.

ScienceDaily (How to show your social eugenics agenda)

ScienceDaily, a website that often carries news headlines and just about any press release anyone sends them, has topped themselves today with a blurb suggesting that same sex civil unions are a "600 year old tradition." We know that homosexuality has been around at least since Exodus was first related, and murder and lying are even older. That doesn't make them "traditions" or ScienceDaily a legitimate scientific source.

But it is a good excuse to review what is and what is not "science."

Science is the practice of observing, collecting and *processing* information about the natural world. Valid scientific subjects are subject to formal testing by experimentation based on a hypothesis and formal manipulation of conditions, with as few variables as possible. The "gold standard" for scientific evidence is that such experiments can be reproduced by other observers, in other labs, with the same results.

I haven't pulled out the Yellow Brick Award in months, but this wins that dubious honor. Scientists do not hide behind curtains, depend on smoke and mirrors and false images to fool the public, earn grant money, or make headlines. We don't rely on personalities or even tradition. Neither should a legitimate science news service loan their name and webspace to a cheap publicity stunt, no matter how much the editors wish to shock or engage in social experimentation. The American College of Pediatricians calls this sort of political activism "social eugenics." I call it an evolutionary dead end (at least for that website and its editors' credibility).

It certainly isn't science.

Housekeeping

I fixed a broken link in that story about Nature Neuroscience's refusal to allow dissent on its editorial pages, or even a rebuttal when the editors attack a scientist for expressing her opinion in another journal. (It seems that extraneous commas interfere with html.)

If you follow the (functioning) link, there are links to all the editorials and articles in question.

WHO(se) life is it anyway? (Or "We meant well")

The Miami Herald (with a HatTip to Drug Wonks) reports on the Lancet's report on the World Health Organization's lack of evidence for its "evidence based" recommendations and guidelines.

I like this part (From the The Miami Herald) the best:

One unnamed WHO director was quoted in the study as saying: "I would have liked to have had more evidence to base recommendations on." Another said: "We never had the evidence base well-documented."

Pang said that, while some guidelines might be suspect and based on just a few expert opinions, others were developed under rigorous study and so were more reliable.

For example, WHO's recent advice on treating bird flu patients was developed under tight scrutiny.

Oxman also noted that WHO had its own quality-control process. When its 1999 guidelines for treating high blood pressure were criticized for, among other things, recommending expensive drugs over cheaper options without proven benefit, the agency issued its "guidelines for writing guidelines," which led to a revision of its advice on hypertension.

"People are well-intended at WHO," Oxman said. "The problem is that good intentions and plausible theories aren't sufficient."

Edited January 27, 2010 to add "WHO" and "World Health Organization" labels.

"Sneaky" Texas Legislator

Perhaps this article, written by an Associated Press writer, should be receive the Yellow Brick Award. (Should I put "copyrighted" here? No, there's others, although most - like the award for finishing the obstacle course at Quantico - are awards for achieving the impossible, not for misdirection.)

Someone is practicing distraction and projection by calling a vote in the Texas House State Affairs Committee a "Sneak attack."

Friday's vote came after a committee meeting that began Thursday and lasted through the night. Critics said the vote came hours after testimony concluded and while the committee was focused on an unrelated bill.

"Those of us who rely on the hope stem cell research holds, and anyone who cares about an open public dialogue, should be outraged at the manner in which the vote was taken on Friday afternoon — without discussion and while two members opposed to the bill were absent," said Judy Haley, president of Texans for the Advancement of Medical Research.

Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, called the vote's timing a "sneak attack."

"It's a shameful case of putting politics ahead of science as well as patients and their families," she said.

The bill, HB 225 by Ken Paxton (R - District 70, McKinney)reads as follows:

By: Paxton, Olivo, Christian, Chisum, Parker, H.B. No. 225 et al.

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT
relating to prohibiting the use of state money for certain
biomedical research.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subtitle H, Title 2, Health and Safety Code, is amended by adding Chapter 169 to read as follows:

CHAPTER 169. BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
Sec. 169.001. PROHIBITION ON USE OF STATE MONEY FOR CERTAIN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH. A person may not use state money for biomedical research if federal law prohibits the use of federal money for that research on January 1, 2007.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2007.

For those of us who object to embryonic stem cell research, the bill serves the purpose of preventing our tax dollars from being used to destroy embryos whether from existing in vitro embryos or from purposeful creation of new embryos for the purpose of research, including cloning or parthenogenesis.

And for the fiscally responsible, the bill ensures that any research we pay for will be eligible for additional Federal research funds, and/or we won't spend money on redundant labs and equipment.

The House was in session until nearly midnight last Thursday, and began hearing testimony on HB 225 about 1 AM. They were in session, hearing about stem cells and cloning, until 5:30. (I had to work on Friday, so I went home at 1, and didn't get to testify.) The Committee met again on Friday: for a few minutes at 8 AM and again after the House adjourned for the day. The Chair, Representative David Swinford (R- 87th District, Amarillo), was a little punch drunk from being up all night - the maximum amount of sleep he could have gotten if he'd stayed at the Capitol would have been about 2 hours.

Representative Swinford made an effort to make sure that the members were present, and all were at certain points. However, the Committee members came and went both Thursday night and Friday. In fact, Representative Farrar (D-148, Houston) didn't attend Thursday's meeting at all, and Chairman Swinford reminded her on Friday that she probably wanted to "vote against this bill."

It's possible to watch both Committee meetings on line.

Yellow Brick Award

The Yellow Brick Award will note those in the Biotech and Bioethics research and policy communities who attempt to lead us down a winding, deceptive path, using explosions, smoke and mirrors, pulleys and levers, novel definitions, distraction, projection and destruction. There are usually at least a few wicked witches, projectiles (not necessarily houses), lots of hot air and maybe a few gene-mod flying monkeys and a forest of threatening trees.

When we look behind the curtain, we find that with stem cell research and abortion, we're just like Dorothy and the gang: we already have what we thought we needed. We just didn't know how to use it or notice when we did.