Sunday, March 18, 2007

Auditing the odd

Universitaets Prof. i.R. Dr. Jürgen U. Keller (another one gone emeritus)
Universität Siegen
FB11-Maschinenbau
Institut für Fluid- und Thermodynamik
Paul-Bonatz-Str. 9-11
57072 Siegen (Spent a year there one night)

Dear Prof. Dr. ret. nat. Keller,

In our auditing of Essex, McKitrick and Andresens provocation, Rabett Labs has attempted to locate a climatological station in Souda India which is one of those listed as being used for a reconstruction. However to our distress there is no station in Souda, India, indeed, using Google, there appears to be no Souda, India, although there is a Souda Airport climatological station in Greece. That however, appears an extremely unlikely choice as the record only begins in 1974 and has many months since with no data reported. There is a Vidhana Soudha in India, which is the seat of a state legislature and not a climatological station.

If this is the case, we are forced to invoke the McKitrick/McIntyre rule which requires that the paper be withdrawn forthwith and the authors offer ritual apologies, burn their PhD degrees and retire to a life of flipping burgers at McDonalds for having shattered scientific regulations established by the Climate Audit Institute.

With proper respect, we remain

Very truly yours

Rabett labs
Auditing on request and sometimes if you don't ask

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they meant "Saudi Arabia"?

After all, "Souda India" kinda sounds like "Saudi Arabia" (if you say it fast and with an economian accent) -- more than "Celsius" sounds like "Kelvin", at any rate.

Tim Lambert said...

That one shows up in the famous degrees/radians paper as well...

Anonymous said...

Just curious,

Do they measure temperatures at Souda, Whereeveritis in degrees or radians?

Hank Roberts said...

Hm, they cite Souda India to the GISS page that lists Souda Airport, and they say they filled in missing data points except at the beginning and end where they could average two around a missing one.

The only other page listing a "Souda India" on the web is some password-protected site.

I couldn't read the whole thing; is their point that they picked a handful of stations and then proved they weren't the same as one big thermometer?

EliRabett said...

Look at the geographic coordinates for Souda Airport, somewhere in Greece.

As to what they do, stay tuned. Essentially they set up a strawman and prove it is made of straw.

Anonymous said...

Would that be an ad strawmanem attack?

Anonymous said...

Good one.

Either that or a Bad Eminem attack.

We anonymice have a good sense of humor. Otherwise, when people like John A (Andrews) come into our (I mean Eli's) cleanly abode and start throwing cheese ball insults about, we might get upset.

But instead we just laugh and make up jokes about how foolish the whole thing appears (and is) -- and eat the cheese balls where they land.

I taught high school, but I tell you, this John Andrews fellow reminds me of my days in elementary school (as a student, dealing with the school bully). And is there is one thing I have learned over my years in school and teaching it, it is that humor is the best way to deal with bullies. That and destroying their arguments with real physics.

Anonymous said...

Real physics as in, um, ballistics?
or as in IP addresses?

Anonymous said...

I think I just figured out where the Souda, India station data might have originated:

Mark Souder* (Indiana)

*pronounced, as a Bostonian would, like Clam "Chowda"

Souder is a (very partisan) Republican member of the "House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee".

That committee, run by Democrat Henry Waxman, is currently having hearings into politicization of science by the Bush administration, taking testimony from James Hansen, Rick Piltz, George Deutsch (remember him?), Phillip "Exxon-Mobil" Cooney and others as described here

Scientist Accuses White House of "Nazi" Tactics
By Joel Havemann
The Los Angeles Times
Some of the sharpest exchanges came between Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the committee, and a Republican member, Mark Souder of Indiana. Souder said the Democrats' approach made "a mockery of the hearing process."

Anonymous said...

Ballistics

I refer you to the two consecutive comments on "Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium of air at the earth's surface", starting with the one that reads "John A: In case you don't read..."

Anonymous said...

My two comments on "local thermodynamic equilibrium" on the other thread begin with

"John A: In case you don't look..."

Forgive me, I wrote the first thing that popped into my mind about John A ("In case you don't read...") instead of what I had actually written before.

Anonymous said...

Eli, you're hilarious!

-Stephen Berg