Re: OT: sea level 'rise' hmmmmm....

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:51:59 -0700, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jonathan Kirwan wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:14:46 -0700, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[...]

May I suggest you also write Dr.Steve Nerem?

Only a few days have passed. People have lives. My normal practice
is to wait a month, if my question is likely to involve more than a
minute or two of their time. I don't know what you wrote (feel free
to publish it here), but if you asked for something that might take
some care in responding I'd tend to allow a little more time.

Agreed. However, what I do when there is a request I don't have time to
handle right now: I send a short email that I've got to run but will get
back to the requester in about x weeks. Personally I try to avoid
auto-replies but even that would be ok in this case.

Okay.

Let me know what you asked. If I can see what that is and agree with
the slant of it, I'd be willing to put it in my own words and find
someone else who might be able to answer. You've already started Dr.
Nerem on your point, so jumping from two sides within a week would be
a bit... excessive. But there are other scientists working in the
area and I could probably track one or two down on my own and try that
approach.

Email is on another secure PC, not easy to copy. What I wrote:

Thanked him for the quick reply. Wrote that I clicked all over their
interactive map, could not find step increases either, suggested he try
the same. Asked him how the graph was calculated.

Okay. I get the gist. Sounds like a reasonable question to me. I'll
see what I can do. I'll probably phrase it a little differently, of
course. But I'll see if there is someone "down in the mud" on this
stuff who can provide some insight.

I could start saying the same as you did above about IPCC scientists and
publications, and with what I believe good reason, but right now I won't.
IPCC doesn't do basic research. It's charter is more along the lines
of providing an informed digest.

BTW, no answer yet ...
Sorry to hear that. I think the longest I've had to wait is two
months. In one case on plate techtonics, I'd tried to contact one of
the primary researchers in Seattle. He called me back three weeks
later. He'd been in Japan, personally going through records 300 years
old, on the subject I'd called about. It was an enjoyable and lively
discussion to have... but I had to wait a while for good reasons it
turns out. I didn't press him beyond the single contact. No follow
up, no pressure. Just the first message. Three weeks later, when he
had a moment, he called back to someone he had no idea of. I find
this not uncommon.
IMHO when an institute make a rather bold claim that has serious impact
on policymakers there should be a backup for information requests.
Either the researcher can read his/her email while traveling or
designates a secretary or someone to monitor it. In industry you'd have
a serious chat with El Capitan if you didn't put that in place before a
trip.

Doesn't work like that. Just because a scientist _happens_ to write a
paper that later just _happens_ to have some policy impact doesn't
mean their funding source adds more budget. One could always wish.

Yep, you got a point there.

Thanks,
Jon
.

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