Scam-o-Rama

The lads from lagos have raised scamming to new levels, perhaps not reached since 1998 when Fred (Seitz) or someones associated with him spent a packet (Eli figures about 200K$ with about 52K$ extra to Sallie Baliunas and a bit less to Willie Soon) flacking for something called the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine Petition .

New York Times did a story on that

The National Academy of Sciences has taken the extraordinary step of disassociating itself from a statement and petition circulated by one of its former presidents that attack the scientific conclusions underlying international efforts to control emissions of industrial waste gases believed to cause global warming.

Many atmospheric scientists and ecologists who believe global warming to be a serious threat had expressed anger and alarm over the article because it was printed in a format and type face similar to that of the academy's own journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [emphasis mine] In his letter, Dr. Seitz, a longtime skeptic on the question of global warming, also identified himself as a past academy president.

Simon Donner reports a bad second act. Somebunny had mailed him an

. . . envelope full of photocopied articles, from the Wall St. Journal and other sources, and various scribblings all attacking the scientific evidence that humans are primarily responsible for recent climate change.

. . . .I'll guess that [we] were not the only people studying climate change to receive copies of this particular material (let me know in the comments).

This package was unique, however, in one important way. The return address - no name was given - was "One Physics Ellipse" in College Park, Maryland.

A retirement community for physicists, you ask? Well, sort of.

One Physics Ellipse is the Corporate Headquarters for the American Institute of Physics. The AIP, like most scientific bodies on the planet, has as policy endorsed the scientific evidence that humans are contributing to climate change.

While it is true that not all of its members agree on that statement, scientists and certainly physicists are not exactly pros at speaking in one voice, I do find it odd to receive a package of "skeptic" material, much of which was downright silly (CO2 emissions don't "rise"), from the actual headquarters.

Eli has acquired (us Rabetts have our ways) a copy of the envelope. It appears to come from a Post Office Substation in zipcode 20690, which is Tall Timbers, MD in Saint Mary's county. Any of Eli's friends live there? Perhaps AIP might be interested or even the Postal Inspectors?

Tis often not better to receive.