Re: global warming

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:07:11 -0700 (PDT), Bill Sloman
<bill.sloman@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Oct 17, 7:31 am, d...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Don Klipstein) wrote:
In <76476b93-20ee-45a7-8c3a-ce0710015...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,Bill Slomanwrote in part:

On Oct 16, 7:02 pm, ChrisQ <m...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There's nothing particularly noble or empowering about the act of
collecting the data. What matters is the analysis and to get the best
results, we need as many good minds as possible, *especially* the most
skeptical and off the wall.

Collecting data is tedious and often downright painful. Someone
dropping into a field and wanting to make his or her reputation by re-
analysing data somebody else has collected isn't going to get an
enthusiastic reception. It isn't about getting noble or empowered,
it's all about doing a fair share of the leg-work.

  What if the raw data collection was done at taxpayer expense?  Should
that not make the compendium of the raw data being public property, free
to taxpayers unless there are military/national-security issues?

It all depends what you mean by "at tax-payer expense". I was
supported through my Ph.D. by an Australian government funded research
grant, which paid me roughly half what I would have been paid if I'd
had a proper job in industry. According to some economist I read at
that time, this meant that I paid half the cost of my Ph.D. by working
for half what I was worth, and I had a very clear title to the data
that I'd accumulated.


Which is or should be nonsense. Any sensible organisation owns the
rights to the work of its staff and makes this clear in their
contract. I see no reason for tax payer funded organisations to be
any different.

You didn't pay for half your PhD, you invested your time for the
potential longer term rewards whether or not you actually achieved
these rewards.

The government support was essentially an investment - someone with a
Ph.D. earns more than someone with B.Sc. and the difference rises as
they get older, and the government expected to recoup their investment
because I should have ended up paying them a lot more income tax after
completing the degree than I would have done if I stopped at my first
degree. They weren't buying the data I collected, merely the extra
income I was expected to earn by virtue of collecting the data.

And I would have been mightily irritated if some bureaucratic clown
had told me to make the raw data accessible to some crank with an axe
to grind.


So the only cranks reviewing your work should be the institutionalized
cranks who can't see the wood for the trees? That would seem to be
your view.


SNIP predictable rant about McIntyre.
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: global warming
    ... that not make the compendium of the raw data being public property, ... which paid me roughly half what I would have been paid if I'd ... income I was expected to earn by virtue of collecting the data. ... So the only cranks reviewing your work should be the institutionalized ...
    (sci.electronics.design)