Global warming noted...

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Algorithm or “Al-Gore”-rithm?

Harold Ambler:

Among the points of interest in the unfolding climate scandal is the fact that the term “climategate” rapidly eclipsed global warming in the number of links produced by a simple Google search.

As is standard, Google’s auto-suggest function facilitated this, several days into the story’s evolution.  Anyone typing in the letters c-l-i would see the suggested time-saving choice of climategate.  Within a day or two of the auto-suggest function being added for “climategate” it had become the top item in the list.

Suddenly, though, on Monday December 1, Google stopped offering “climategate” as a choice to those who typed c-l-i and even to those who typed c-l-i-m-a-t-e-g-a-t. Strange.

So he wrote ’em a note, and got back:

Hi Harold,

I can verify that Google has not ever removed the query [climategate] or variations of the query from Google Suggest.  It was never a “decision” as you suggest in your question, but instead it may have disappeared from the Suggest feature because of a normal update of the Suggest feature.  The suggestions change dynamically over time through automated processes based on relevance algorithms.

Google Suggest uses a variety of algorithms in order to come up with relevant suggestions while the user is typing.  We do remove certain clearly pornographic or hateful or malicious slur terms from Suggest, but we have not removed anything in this case.

Hope this helps,

Jake [Hubert, Google Global Communications Department]

Well, yeah, except that doesn’t exactly explain why "global warming" (11 million links) or "climate gate" (note the space, 10 million links) get auto-suggested, but "climategate" (now over 30 million) does not.  In the comments, Harold’s readers report similar behaviour with google.ca, google.co.uk, and google.com.au.  They also note Al Gore’s position as a member of Google’s board (pointing to the obvious pun).

Here’s Google’s auto-suggest for "climateg", as of a couple of hours ago (Sorry about the quality, I can’t screencap javascript popups and so had to photograph the monitor face):

The suggestions I was offered:

Despite the fact that the link count for "climategate" is now over 30 million:


As America’s information sources morph increasingly toward the Soviet model of concealing as much as they report, people are noting this stuff.  Allowing it to occur (even if innocently) only encourages the paranoia.

LATER (091219 19:25), Related:

Via:  Andrew Bolt.  Title idea from Neil Jones.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 20:14:12 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Who is behind secureamericanfuture.org?

They’ve been running ads on the local TV stations, ads that look like trailers for Soylent Green, warning of horror an’ violence if we don’t all turn off the fridge, the furnace, the TV (?!!!), give up clean water an’ go live in mud huts, eating only what we can grow usin’ our own excrement as fertilizer. Otherwise, they warn, after Glow-ball Warmening, we'll all be livin’ in a Third-World hellhole!

Roberta X does the research, finds the usual suspects. Well done!

(reposted to fix typo in title)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:37:25 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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On the road to Copenhagen

“The Pedant-General” draws a map:

• If the climate and recent changes are not unprecedented, then there’s nothing to do.  Let’s go to the pub.


• If it is unprecedented, then we need to know why.

If we don’t know if it is unprecedented or if we don’t know why, we need to stop here until we can find out.

• If it is unprecedented but it’s not us, then we need to question seriously if there is anything that we can do about it and the answer to that is very very likely to be “no”.


• If it is us, we then to move into economics. Will the damage [of warming-o.g.] outweigh the benefit?  [i.e., Should we do anything about it?]
  


• And even if the damage does outweigh the benefit, we still need to consider if the cost of stopping the climate change at source is less than the cost of adapting to the problem to minimise the damage.


• And even if the mitigation does cost less than adaptation, we need to ask if our only option for mitigation is to subborn all our freedom to a putative benevolent world government.

Only if you can answer “yes” all the way down that chain can you get to Copenhagen. One misstep and you are looking at adaptation, either because we shouldn’t do anything, or it’s the best thing to do or the alternative is so appallingly ghastly, depending on which route you took to get there.

But that’s not all:  Read on, as the Pedant describes how each step of the scientific process was corrupted.

UPDATE 100610:  The post has been moved.  It’s now here.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 02:06:40 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Rats in the walls...

Postmodernists in the house of science:

A new concept of science was introduced by Funtowicz and Ravetz during the 1990s…  The concept of post-normal science goes beyond the traditional assumptions that science is both certain and value-free…  The exercise of scholarly activities is defined by the dominance of goal orientation where scientific goals are controlled by political or societal actors… Scientists’ integrity lies not in disinterestedness but in their behaviour as stakeholders...  The guiding principle of normal science – the goal of achievement of factual knowledge - must be modified to fit the post-normal principle…  For this purpose, post-normal scientists should be capable of establishing extended peer communities and allow for ‘extended facts’ from non-scientific experts…  In post-normal science, the maintenance and enhancement of quality, rather than the establishment of factual knowledge, is the key task of scientists…  Involved social actors must agree on the definition of perceptions, narratives, interpretation of models, data and indicators…scientists have to contribute to society by learning as quickly as possible about different perceptions…instead of seeking deep ultimate knowledge. - Eva Kunseler, Towards a new paradigm of Science in scientific policy advising

“Scientist for Truth” dug through the intellectual underpinnings of the Warmingists, and found the same leftist corruption so common elsewhere in the academy.  Written before Climategate broke; read the whole thing.


(HT:  Katabasis, in a comment at The Devil’s Kitchen.)

Related:

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 01:33:31 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Clipfile - December 3, 2009

“The Left owes Nixon some apologies if erased data is cool now.” - the “Rodent Liberation Front”

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Clipfile - December 1, 2009

“If the needs and desires of some can transcend the liberty of others, then liberty itself is a meaningless concept.  Freedom is not what you have left after everyone else is finished making demands of you.” - “Doctor Zero”

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