There’s a saying in American Football (and perhaps other sports too) that “The best defense is a good offense.”
Perhaps it’s with that in mind that we have the highly informative blog Wott’s Up With That, which effectively (and entertainingly) skewers the continual stream of nonsense from Watts Up With That. Heck, I’ve been known to skewer Anthony and his cadre myself from time to time.
But we can’t let the northern hemisphere have all the fun! So there’s a new kid on the blog block, itsnotnova, which focuses on the nonsense from Australian blogger JoAnne Nova.
Enjoy!
Open Mind 
Had a look at Wott’sUpWithThat, and the tone’s all wrong. It’ll just preach to the converted rather than persuade anyone of anything – other than that the guy writing it hates and despises Anthony Watts, perhaps. The points he wants to make could be made so much more attractively to the uncommitted if they were made with a little less snidery and a little more cool.
[Response: Do you think Anthony Watts’ site is less snide?]
I’m with Charlie; readers wanting to understand why/how Watts is wrong are likely to be put off. The point (or at least, the need) isn’t to out-snide (or match) WattsUp, it’s to provide a resource,
It’s more of a comical tone than a snide tone. If you are commenting on clowns how do you not laugh? And you have to laugh when you are wading through such shit everyday.
IMO it’s best to make it clear that the content is nonsense with reckless-endangerment consequences, but to do so calmly.
(…which isn’t always easy; but laughing at reckless endangerment isn’t good since it’ll send a message to readers that there’s no harm in what these folks are saying.)
Look, you are very unlikely to change anyones mind. So its much more fun to just deride them. If you can do it with class and humour, that’s great. If you can do it with clear, logical argument, that is fantastic.
Wow, that notice from the Oregon Local Chapter of the AMS regarding the canceling of their “climate change panel” was rather humorous. They claim they couldn’t find one person to get on the panel to discuss climate change with the “skeptics” and the point of the panel was simply to share the side of the argument of those “opposed to anthropogenic global warming.” I always love it when it gets worded that way by skeptics… because they seem to forget that the scientists actually studying climate change know how bad the impacts could be, and they likely overwhelmingly “oppose” it as well.
I live in Oregon, and I’m proud of OMSI and those serious scientists who refused to “debate” with the local equivalent to Monckton …
@dhogaza
Yes, Gordon Fulks is a real treat isn’t he. I have grown tired of responding to his BS on Oregonlive.com time and again. I too am happy to see that OMSI did not rise to the bait.
Exactly, Fulks is a cut and paste artiste who parrots whatever themes the denialsphere is pushing at any particular point in time. Another stellar member of the Denial Debate team was George Taylor, self-proclaimed martyr to the cause, as I’m sure you know …
I like wottsupwiththat. I don’t go there to find out what’s wrong with Anthony’s latest steaming pile though.
We get caught up and involved in the constant anti-science chicanery, and it’s nice to have a light-hearted site to go to and have a bit of a laugh.
Good therapy I reckon. :)
Mike
Nice! It’s like a more specialized incarnation of SkS–focused on the object to be debunked, but even in tone and information-rich.
It’s hard to be funny about complex political processes. (If it were easy there’d be more Daily Shows and Onion Networks.) The best comedy shows have always demanded teams of writers if only to keep from growing stale. (And the new guy always has to buy donuts.) I remember once when Jon Stewart accepted an Emmy for The Daily Show’s writing, it looked as if half of Brooklyn was on stage with him.
As a dumbo, I can’t help make climate science funny, but I can offer a timeless bit of advice on any attempt to claim our attention: keep it short.
Thanks for noticing, tamino! You’ve been a great technical resource for my skewering of Anthony’s malicious nonsense. I try to keep it light, but I’m often pressed for time and the result can be a bit more “pointed” than it needs to be.
Here are a bunch of quots from you know who, starting from the time of the new release of the old stolen CRU emails (nothing has been added, some have been redacted (or subtracted));
… we all know that the IPCC reports differently.
… but this is climate science, where ridiculous has become the norm, especially when trotted out for the Durban Climate Conference.
That’s typical Gavin putz-speak …
WUWT – helping to educate UEA students on climate
Another electric car company bites …
Coal – confirmed by NASA as getting cleaner
From Purdue University , another “just in time for Durban” press release. When you see phrases like “the mother of all tipping points” and you know this is overhyped control knob science.
And to think I almost wasted my time going to visit Dr. Trenberth at NCAR this fall.
… Rahmstorf is the outlier oceanographer that projects a sea level rise of about 1.4 meters, even when the rest the world, including real observations, all point to something that is about 1/7 of that.
… Steve McIntyre from the Climate Audit blog, who exposed the infamous “hockey stick”, talking about the leaked emails that expose the warming scare.
Hockey stick falsification – so easy a caveman kid can do it
We’ve seen a lot of claims on how green technology will reduce emissions and save the Earth. Often these claims are met with scorn and derision because some of them are just junk ideas as they just don’t deliver on the claims. Windpower, for example.
This simple accessory added to any vehicle offers an improvement on automobile fuel economy of 20% or more. … This isn’t a joke. This is a real product with real claims.
I wonder how that research was accomplished and how much money was involved. “Commissioning” a scientific study … means a predetermined result.
I’m pretty sure New York, Boston, Baltimore, and Miami are still here. Ditto for Tokyo and Osaka.
http://www.wherewillsantalive.ca/
Is it any wonder informed people are doubting the climate change issue when presented with crap like this?
A collection of fudge from The Team, sweet!
Consider the resemblences between the Climategate and Penn State scandals. … A grad student, later a coach, sees a coach molesting a boy in the shower. …
I like this idea, in fact I think all “occupy” folks should immediately go to Durban, occupy the place, and stay there as long as it takes.
Pheesiks? We don’t need no steenkin’ pheesiks!
I think that this is why as a discipline, more and more physicists are dismissing AGW.
The science has been “McKibbenized” for quite some time.
Behind the scenes, I’ve been playing with a … tool … hunting hypocrisy, corruption, bias and unprofessional behaviour …
Apparently Mann went “a little crazy” over a paper showing the Medeival Warm Period exists. (Faux quote)
Thanks perhaps in part to Climategate 2, it is looking less like success and more like FAIL at Durban.
Clearly, there an incestuous relationship between climate science and the BBC.
If I lived in the UK, I’d stop paying my BBC TV and radio license.
It may very well be, but I’ve had a theory that I’ve floated with a couple people about this related to a curious comment coming from an IP address in China I found on WUWT months ago, but it reached a dead end due to lack of information. Perhaps it is time to have another look at that.
Wow, make the earth flat? That has to be some sort award winning headline for the most stupid strawman argument ever.
Quote of the Week- Climategate 2.0 reaction to Mann’s errors: “not honest” (Faux quote)
Al Gore said in his AIT bag of BS that Mount Kilimanjaro was losing its snow/ice cover due to global warming.
Ditto for Gore, but he has no scruples so I don’t expect him to acknowledge it at all.
I’ve not had time to read through all these emails, but this one really, really Stick in my craw.
In a statement, UEA doesn’t deny these emails, but posts about the whitewash investigations of the past, like they matter now.
One big difference between Climategate 1 and 2 is that in 1, it took days for the MSM to catch on, now they are on top of it.
Hockey stick falsification – so easy a caveman kid can do it
I don’t go over to WUWT very often, but I did see the this bit. It was an absolutely stunning display of incompetence on the part of Watts and his minions. Not quite up there with Watts’ histogram fiasco, but still a most impressive display of ineptitude….
Tamino,
you may be interested to know that a serial mis-informer, one Andrew Orlowski is attempting to spread manure (again) over at The Register.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/06/ramsdorf_foster_still_warming_no_really/
best
rob
[Response: Curious how that article appeared before the paper itself. And that he misspelled Stefan Rahmstorf’s name.]
The only good thing about the article is that it included a link to the paper itself. Too few news stories about specific papers do that.
I used to enjoy El Reg, but I stopped going there a couple of years ago, after one too many postings by denier Orlowski.
Thanks for the heads up on itsnotnova. I also like Deltoid. His blog is fun because the residents are as feral as the denialati, rather than being all nice and reasonable.
I wouldn’t say that. Rather, they respond to liars and idiots in the fashion they deserve.
Deltoid’s residents are feral? And I thought that they were all gentlemen! ;-)
Seriously, though, I do laugh. Tim’s place is cathartic, and is merciless in a cat-playing-with-a-mouse fashion. I miss Curtin however… the blunderbus of denialist idocy.
On the subject of this thread, INN’s tackling of Joanne Codling is welcome. She’s been spraying too much offal for too long, unchallenged, and it’s good to see the scalpel being taken to her haggis.
Corrr… I can’t spell ‘idiocy’…
Well, I think it’s either “W-U-W-T” or “N-O-V-A.”