Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The Mansion the Freds Built...




Click on the picture for a larger image suitable for framing

While Eli is quite the happy bunny about much of the design, he does know that there is room for improvement. All anonymouses are invited to contribute names for the mansion rooms. But remember, don't be bitter.

The original appeared in the New Yorker as a drawing by Bruce McCall giving a tour of the editorial facilities there.

43 comments:

  1. There's a few labels missing (one on the right, one on the left and one at promet...sorry, in the middle) which is a bit tantalising. Any chance of filling them in, please?

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  2. The room with the blaring gramaphone is almost certainly the "Climate Fraudit echo chamber" and that Doorkeeper looks a lot like James Inhofe to me.

    The "too clear" pile should bear the subtitle "To be obfuscated", since it contains IPCC reports.

    But what I am trying to figure out is where is the Harvard Smithsonian observatory with its sunspotters?

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  3. Oh, never mind, the observatory is up on top of the mighty wurlitzer tower.

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  4. The room on the lower left that looks to be awash in toilet paper?

    That's the John (for the Johns).

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  5. ..and the circular room with the circular table (for circular arguments)?

    The Prometheus blog room.

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  6. I believe the 1925 plaque commemorates the year Tim Ball got his PhD in climate science.

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  7. And the narrow, cone-shaped tower?

    That's the Pielke Point.

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  8. The point on top of the observatory is the "Al Gore Memorial Lightning rod".

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  9. Forgive me for saying so, but shouldn't it really be a house of cards?

    That mansion looks a little too solid given that most of the denialists' arguments are foundationless.

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  10. Ah, but it is all too solid since unlike some they don't just get Monopoly money for their services.

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  11. (tower on lower left with pile of paper)

    The Roger Pielke Jr. Tower of Babble.

    Or

    The Prometheus Alcove of media press releases. Nothing peer-reviewed here!

    Mus musculus

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  12. Adam and others, feel free to add. There are some excellent suggestions here which will be added tomorrow.

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  13. I can't see their model and it's a little hard to tell from so far away, but it looks like all those monkeys in the astroturf studio are drawing false conclusions -- and are undoubtedly getting paid to do it.

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  14. I doubt Denialists play denialist bingo...but they sure do like to throw knives...

    ...and the circles in that Bingo room look suspiciously like the wheels that the blindfolded knife thrower at the circus attaches his assistant to.

    Perhaps you should add Michael Mann and james hansen to the wheels.

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  15. Shouldn't that read the
    "Tech Central Station Rubbish Pile"?

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  16. That sure looks like Rosemary Wood next to the "too clear pile" -- erasing the global warming data.

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  17. I believe the room labeled "quiet" is where they send the government employees like Hansen who have gotten out of line -- and where they make them write "I will not talk to the press" a thousand times.

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  18. Exxon review board...

    ...sentencing a Tuvaluan to death by drowning.

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  19. Yes sorry, I was being a bit dim there (as per usual).

    That unnamed room on the right, you can't see it in the picture, but next to the arrow it says "This Way Is Up".

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  20. Those shirtless (and clueless) guys are the AGW Undertakers -- burying the evidence for AGW.

    "Sure is getting hot down here, John."

    "Sure is, John... *&%$#@ sunspots"

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  21. IPCC Exam room... where they search for undotted i's and uncrossed t's (ie, reasons to scrap the document)

    Also referred to as the "Tick Tack Toe room".

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  22. I believe the dirty deed was done (dirt cheap) by Professor Rabett, in the Edit Room with the Meershaum pipe...

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  23. The white-filled garret bottom left is a refrigerated ice diorama used to create pictures of polar bears happily playing on abundant Arctic Ice.

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  24. The cutaways in the walls of "Manipulation Mansion" are not purely for the illustration.

    They are real and were specially designed to let CO2 in , because as everyone knows, "CO2 is Life" and without it, we would simply shrivel up and die (or at least the Exxon-Mobil grant money would).

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  25. Somewhere at the back side:

    the cosmic ray unit with:
    *cosmic ray cloud relation cherry pick data machine
    *creator of trends in cosmic rays despite satellites printer


    Furthermore there is the:
    *global warming stopped in 1998 chamber.

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  26. The plaque above the front door reads "Welcome to Manipulation Mansion... where we fool most of the people all the time."

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  27. Can I please direct your attention,
    To Manipulation Mansion.
    Where we're doing an expansion,
    On behalf of Jimmy Hansen.

    He's complained about the noise,
    So we built him a "Quiet Room"
    Where he can write a thousand times,
    "I will not foretell Doom".

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  28. Made the first set of suggested changes. Keep them coming....:)

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  29. The chimney is, of course, the blogosphere smokescreen maker.

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  30. Wouldn't that be "John A's collection of censored comments"?

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  31. or if that comes a cross as too bitter at least parenthesize it: "lost"

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  32. Can I please direct your attention,
    To Manipulation Mansion.
    Where we're doing an expansion,
    On behalf of Jimmy Hansen.

    He's complained about the noise,
    So we built him a "Quiet Room"
    Where he can write a thousand times,
    "I will not foretell Doom".

    We added a dining room,
    For Singer, Seitz and Soon,
    Fine wine and beer and cheese,
    And lobster if you please.

    And sleeping quarters for Timmy Ball,
    With paintings on the wall,
    And frames for his credentials,
    That really was essential.

    A room with a table round,
    Was added on the ground,
    To the left an argument departs,
    And ends back where it starts.

    The Exam Room is now a gem ,
    With a brand new STM,
    For examining IPCC reports,
    And cranking out retorts.

    On the roof, a lightning rod,
    To protect against angry Gods,
    We named it for Al Gore,
    To even up the score.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Can I please direct your attention,
    To Manipulation Mansion.
    Where we're doing an expansion,
    On behalf of Jimmy Hansen.

    He's complained about the noise,
    So we built him a "Quiet Room"
    Where he can write a thousand times,
    "I will not foretell Doom".

    We've added a dining room,
    For Singer, Seitz and Soon,
    Fine wine and beer and cheese,
    And lobster if you please.

    And sleeping quarters for Tim Ball,
    With paintings on the wall,
    And frames for his credentials,
    That really was essential.

    A room with a table round,
    Was added on the ground,
    To the left an argument departs,
    And ends back where it starts.

    The Exam Room is now a gem ,
    With a brand new STM,
    For examining IPCC reports,
    And cranking out retorts.

    On the third floor we now have Bingo,
    If you speak denialist lingo,
    You're welcome to come and play,
    And the winnings are $10K.

    On the roof, a new lightning rod,
    To protect against an angry God,
    We named it for Al Gore,
    To even up the score.


    All told, it's quite a treat,
    100,000 new square feet.
    We think you'll be impressed,
    But if not, we've done our best.

    ReplyDelete
  34. We think it's horrible that you've ignored the most mediagenic of the contemporary contrarians in favor of those who are already seen as fools.

    Nothing for little Roger Pielke?

    American Anonymice United
    (West Coast Division)

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  35. Needs arrows pointing to M&M hiding under John A's comments. (or brackets after John A's name -- I was never sure)

    Geoff

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  36. Technically, the Pielke Pika is not of the species Denialista.

    For those who don't know, pikas are little creatures that hang out in bolders (or is it Boulder's?) and are often heard but seldom seen.

    They hide under rocks and make loud chirping noises that seem to come from every direction -- to confuse predators ( eagles and the like) and presumably also to rub in the fact that adaptation is better than mitigation.

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  37. True the "Pielke pika" is not a true denialist, but he is a relevant subspecies with many of the the same behaviorial characteristics.

    1. Need for constant media attention.
    2. Gets angry when media is not fawning. (See posts on Dave Roberts)
    3. Takes money from corporate front groups. (See Pielke's article in Cato's Regulation for which he apparently received a tidy sum).
    4. Constantly bashes those who are actual scientists who publish.
    5. etc...

    And it should not be forgotten that many denialists cite Pielke as a fellow brother. So they do see him as one of theirs.

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  38. Is this trying to tell us something?

    http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20041208/Feature1.asp

    That's the link that comes up when you put both "Pielke" and "pika" into a google search, by the way, so I think the relationship is closer than even I had guessed.

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  39. I think Adam's suggestion about the chimney is a good one, with one addition: smoke.

    What self-respecting Exxon-Mobil apologist would not have smoke spewing out of his chimney?

    Support the team, for Eli's sake.

    A chimney without smoke is like a day without sunshine.

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  40. You wanna hear a good one about Tim Ball? According to one of the guys who lives in the same condo building as Ball, there was a decision made that each resident was to pay $5000 to fix a minor leakage problem in the building.

    Ball went around talking to all the residents telling them that the damage wasn't as bad as people thought and listen to him because he knew all about building envelopes.

    When it came to the vote, Ball convinced enough people that the decision failed and Ball won. Nothing was done and the damage that could have been stopped in the short term, was put off.

    Fast forward two years to the punchline:

    Since the initial damage was never fixed because Ball denied the reality of the leaking building, even though experts in the field were saying they should be concerned (sound familiar), the problem went from a little one to a MASSIVE one and now everyone in the building is facing $100,000 each to repair the damage. I'm not making this up, heard it straight from one his neighbors, who obviously hate Balls' guts.

    If you don't believe me, ask Ball himself: timothyball@shaw.ca

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  41. Eli, In light of the last comment, perhaps you should add the "Leaky Ballroom" as a fitting salute.

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  42. Sorry mice, Ethon is on a no liver diet for February. The phrase abusing a bag of wind creeps into his mind frequently these days and Eli is kind of burnt out at the moment. Will work on the house later this weekend.

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  43. That looks just like the Bishop's Palace in Galveston, Texas.

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