Saturday, January 28, 2012

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.

10 comments:

  1. Tall Timbers, Maryland? Why, that's only 60 miles SE across the state border from a certain PO Box in Manassas, Virginia, and GMU. Small world indeed.

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  2. You mean SPPI in Haymarket? I went there. My GPS was going nuts. I kept driving around this shopping center looking for an Institute. Then I realized it was nothing but a store that mails packages.

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  3. The one who would be 101, had he not died five years ago, and whilst alive, known to unwisely lend the other Fred carte blanche.

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  4. A Nonny Mouse --- Got it, thank you.

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  5. It has to be some dinosaur.

    Who the hell uses mail anymore?

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  6. Dr. Jay Cadbury, phd.


    "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."

    In fact there were so many angry scientists, we didn't have time to list them all!

    Oh ho ho ho ho! How convenient! I suspect the only person who cared about this was true believer Crank Froster expert in american folklore and upholding the status quo.

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  7. I remember receiving an invitation in the mail to sign the Oregon petition. The fake "reprint" was very convincing in reproducing the very distinctive PNAS layout and typeface. The only clue that it was a fake was the omission of volume and page, which any real reprint would have. Considering that I'm not a climate scientist, they must have spammed every scientist in the country--quite an investment in printing and posting.

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  8. trll -- "they must have spammed every scientist in the country"

    Judging by the signatories; and every science graduate, and the Spice Girls, and the doctors from M*A*S*H, and dead people.

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