Vergano Reports
Dan Vergano of USA Today has an update on the Wegman plagiarism scandal uncovered by Deep Climate and John Mashey. Since Eli believes most readers of this blog are literate, just go there and read it. You can enjoy EW's response
But in response to a request for materials related to the report, GMU said it "does not have access to the information." Separately in that response, Wegman said his "email was downloaded to my notebook computer and was erased from the GMU mail server," and he would not disclose any report communications or materials because the "work was done offsite," aside from one meeting with Spencer.Spencer in this case is Peter Spencer an assistant to Joe Barton. Eli has been lead to believe that John Mashey will be releasing another data dump soon. Stay tuned.
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http://dmining-technology.com/bios.html
Somehow the USAT article omits any reference to an investigation by the VA Attorney General into the plagiarism. No doubt the AG was too busy investigating to comment.
Re HR's link...
Ah! Perhaps GMU's increasingly looking over-tardy investigation/report into the WR plagiarism issue is because they are trawling through his >160 papers and 8 books to see whether other issues will surface (?)
And I see that dMT say:
"Data mining identifies trends within data that go beyond simple analysis. Through the use of sophisticated algorithms, users have the ability to identify key attributes of business processes and target opportunities.
The term data mining is often used to apply to the two separate processes of knowledge discovery and prediction. Knowledge discovery provides explicit information that has a readable form and can be understood by a user. Forecasting, or predictive modeling provides predictions of future events and may be transparent and readable in some approaches (e.g. rule based systems) and opaque in others such as neural networks. Moreover, some data mining systems such as neural networks are inherently geared towards prediction and pattern recognition, rather than knowledge discovery.."
Now I wonder if he/they've applied their...
Cymraeg llygoden
GMU's faculty committee to investige the alledged misconduct by Wegman must be wishing that they are moved earlier, as more and more evidence of incriminating and sloppy work is coming forward. I must say that I don't envy the faculty at GMU. I saw that at one point Wegman had received an "outstanding researcher award' from the university. No doubt that he has been seen as a senior faculty member who brings prestigue to the university. For his part, Wegman must wish that he had not gotten involved in the whole mess. This feels a little like the situation where a newspaper must admit that it printed a story fabricated by one of its reporters.
Having asked statistics professors for advice and help in analyzing my own data, it's very clear to me that statisticians are in dangerous waters if they venture to criticize the analysis of complex data which they barely understand. It's important for scientists and statisticians to work together. A scientist needs a good understanding of statistics to help the statistician understand what assumptions are reasonable and what approaches are warranted.
Bill D,
We agree about statisticians and scientists, see Eli's post on Toolboxes for more
(H/T to julesandjames)
Trivia question: Who said this a few months ago?
"Let me say that this is one of the most reprehensible attacks on a reputable scientist that I have seen, and the so-called tsunami of accusations made in regards to climategate are nothing in compared to the attack on Wegman." "To see such a respected academic accused in this way (with the accusations so obviously baseless) is absolutely reprehensible."
Hint: Overly-spiced Indian cuisine
--caerbannog the anonybunny
Wegman said his "email was downloaded to my notebook computer and was erased from the GMU mail server,"
So, the GMU server was just the "channel" (think Shirley MacLaine) and can ntherfore not be held responsible for anything that was said?
Even if it was "erased" from the server, but it might still exist on backup tapes (depending on how long they keep before overwriting).
hey, caerbannog
As they say "Some like it hot".
For his part, Wegman must wish that he had not gotten involved in the whole mess.
He can limit the damage by coming clean! Just tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They put you op to it, didn't they? :-)
But Wegman is displeased with me.
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