SkepticalScience goes Godwin-Nazi or something

Was someone at SkepticalScience plotting to pretend evil skeptics created these pictures? (… surely not.)

Brandon Schollenberger found them on the SkS forum. Admire the effort taken to get the SkS penguins, the leaf insignia on the hat, the lapels, the button…

Reichstuhrer J.Cook

 

Or lo, is this just the weekend fun of teenagers let loose with photoshop? Looks like.

Spartans for Science, Watts, Monckton and Delingpole

Anthony Watts has a larger set (and a pretty good six-pack too) which is “lucky” (sort of), because not long after he posted the first few, the images disappeared from their original links. In a true SkS logical maneuver they were moved to …/images/a11gon3 (images “allgone”), which took real skeptics about five minutes to find. That set have gone too now (except for the 400 copies placed all over the Internet).

As Anthony says, Skeptical Science takes creepy to a whole new level.

Brandon wonders (like we all do) why anyone would bother?

It’s possible these images were taken from somewhere else and uploaded, but that seems unlikely as a couple of them show signs of further photoshopping done to improve them.  To see what I mean, compare this image to this one.

Combined with the fact there are a number of similarly photoshopped images done to flatter Nuccitelli, it seems almost certain SkS members have photoshopped images of SkS members as Nazi soldiers.  I can’t think of a single sensible reason they would do that.

I don’t think they dream of being Nazis, and I can’t imagine it was particularly fun to make those images.  It’s possible they made these with the idea of a false flag operation in mind, but that seems ridiculous.

As RichieP says in a Watts Up comment:

Shows how little these people know and understand (and not only about science). They’ve forgotten that the Spartans (and the others with them) were standing up for freedom against the autocracy and domination of the Persian king of kings.

9 out of 10 based on 77 ratings

216 comments to SkepticalScience goes Godwin-Nazi or something

  • #
    Brian G Valentine

    Desperation from John Cook, who is well aware of who holds all the cards. One bit of evidence supporting AGW that stands the test of time and scrutiny is worth ten thousand pictures that a nine year old wouldn’t find humorous or particularly imaginative.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

      Mahatma Gandhi

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      • #
        Andrew McRae

        “I’d prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around.” – Han Solo.

        “Where are you?!! You foul smelling demons! Come out and show yourselves!” – Magic Monkey.

        “If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.” ― John Lennon.

        “The strategic adversary is fascism… the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us.” ― Michel Foucault.

        Recall when irate
        the sixth of the eighth
        and Cook’s Nazi photoshop.
        There’s no sense in stopping
        Cook’s Nazi photoshopping
        from ever being forgot.
        – V’d me.

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      • #
        Ace

        BUTBUTBUTBUTBUT…Mahatma Ghanddi had half a billion followers.
        Scptics dont.

        People like to believe things. Even things that aint so.

        Sceptics choose to believe they are winning.

        Most people choose to believe the Warmists.

        Numbers are what win.
        Look at Korea, look at Afghanistan.
        The Glorious Gloucesters kept on a killing but the suicidal Chines kept on a coming.

        Ten years poundint the shit out of the Talkeban, 40,000 of them killd, next year they take victory.
        Numbers win.
        Sceptics will lose.

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        • #
          mkelly

          If skeptics loose we all loose.

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          • #
            Ace

            We’ve all lost as soon as we are conceived.

            Except theres one way to salvation.

            Other than that, take a long view. None of this amounts to a hill of beans, in the long run.

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            • #
              Father of Josh

              You poor thing. You sound like one of my sons – all disillusion and woe. Don’t give up. You’ll get better.

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        • #
          David

          Oh Ace you forgot the company of the 24th foot at Rorke’s Drift and a whole host of other examples of why it is not always correct to back the big battalions. And if you are going to cite the Korean War then you should also include Kapyong where the Australians, Kiwis and Canuks stopped the Chinese advance. Or perhaps jump to Vietnam and a rubber plantation at Long Tan. To misquote Clauswitz “God is not always on the side of the big battalions”.

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          • #
            Ace

            David, your argument is covered by my example of the Gloucesters. About twenty men held off about twenty thousand Chinese. They won the battle for one hill, but having pushed the Chinese all the way to China, then getting pushed all the way back to the umpteenth paralell…it can be said the allies lost the war.

            Plenty of examples of winning the battle…Wolf at Quebec, etc….but losing the war. Your choice of but one example from Viet Nam is apt: the USA never lost a single battle there, but they were resoundingly defeated nonetheless.

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        • #
          James Bradley

          Ace,

          “Sceptics choose to believe they are winning.

          Most people choose to believe the Warmists.”

          Problems with your argument:

          1. Sceptics don’t believe hence the term ‘sceptic’.

          2. Pretty sure the vast majority actually question the ‘science’.

          3. Warmists refuse to accept the facts.

          4. Warmists label and portray sceptics with negative and offensive terminology.

          5. Warmist proponents waste enormous resources shutting down debate.

          6. Warmists denying free speach to counter opinions.

          7. The majority of the world’s population are smarter than warmists ‘believe’.

          10

        • #
          iainnahearadh

          Ace,
          Not even close, mate.
          1. Sceptics have been very proud of the term, Sceptic. To this day, they continue to be, both proud and Sceptical.
          It’s denotes the ability to think critically and clearly, based on Empirical evidence, amongst other criteria.
          As for Mahatma Ghanddi was a Fakir, in more ways than one.

          2. Sceptics believe a great many things, based on some form of evidence, however, all Sceptics question the so called ‘Gaian Pseudo Science’, hence the term, Sceptic.

          3. Sceptics have yet to see anything approaching the scientific definition of a fact, where CAGW is concerned.
          This statement would remain true for all other definitions, except for that based in Religion, Law, or Politics, where “facts” are transformed and interpreted.

          4. Sadly, as the last political contest in the United States proved, Low Information Voters are actually nearly half of the average human population.
          That’s nothing to be proud of, as this figure seems to be universally replicable.
          Call them what you like, but anyone who fails to think, much less, critically, or who fails to consider contrary evidence, is going to be called a lot worse than a Warmist.
          Not that I have a problem with Warmists, the world is full of them, after all, but I object to funding their lifestyle and pet loves and projects from my own pocket.
          So, by all means, be a Warmist, but do it on your own dollar, in your own time. Also, leave me out of it. All of it. Whatever it, ‘it’ currently is.

          5. Ace, I’m ex. regimental. Numbers don’t win. Time does. The last man or woman standing wins.
          Korea. I give you North Korea. Without China, this would be an even bigger basket case. What cost now, eh’ China?
          Afghanistan. Deserves the Roman solution. Walk away, let them die off. Either by their own hand, or their own folly.

          6. Taliban. Also deserves the Roman solution. Walk away, let them die off. Either by their own hand, or their own folly.
          This is pretty much the solution for the entire Middle & Far East.
          Step back.
          Wait.
          Clean up the mess. Then continue from Terra Nullius.

          While I’m Sceptical enough to believe that your silly examples may right size themselves, I am experienced enough to know my sad predictions are more likely than not.
          I am also experienced enough to know my sad predictions are also based on Empirical and Historical fact. At the end of the day, you can believe in what you like.
          However, if you choose the Gaian solution, which regardless of it’s name or basis, is a slide backwards into the Dark Ages, you will reap what you sow.

          Rome is, or rather was, the Reference point and example here, Civilisation is not guaranteed, the undoing of it happens much faster than you think.
          Unfortunately, also, like the Dark Ages, you will take the bulk of Civilisation with you.
          This includes the village Warmist’s & Low Information Voters, and their enablers, all of which, won’t fair well.
          Good luck with that.

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      • #

        Well, in this case, then we laugh at them again.

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    • #

      This is similar to the 10:10 SPLATTERGATE episode. No one could understand their motives. They couldn’t. But the splattergaters also, could not understand what the fuss was all about.

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      • #
        ExWarmist

        Paradigm conflict.

        They have a values framework that says that they are right in what they do.

        For an outsider to their paradigm – it seems senseless, but they most likely took great enjoyment in putting these images together.

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  • #
    Eddie Sharpe

    It’s Lewandowski’s latest attempt to paint skeptics as paranoid , conspiracist ideatieated , Godwin prone, Moon Landing deniers.
    Your reactions are being monitored closely and will be ‘interpreted’ and written up in the best tradition of UWA’s celebrated Psychology Professor.

    Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence, unless SkS is involved.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Your reactions are being monitored closely (by) … UWA’s celebrated Psychology Professor

      I thought I would include the Gandhi quote, it must be worth at least a paragraph or two in his “original” view of the world.

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    • #
      Ian H

      UWA’s celebrated Psychology Professor.”

      Didn’t he move to the UK? Probably explains why they are celebrating at UWA.

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      • #
        Eddie Sharpe

        How they deal with embarrassment at the University of Went Away, this time to the UWE (Bristol).

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        • #
          Ace

          If your talkking about Lew hes not at UWE but Bristol University. They are two totally different organisations. Think University of Colorado and Colorado State University. The state university in UK used to be called Polytechnics. UWE is that. Lew is at the old University.

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          • #
            Eddie Sharpe

            Ahh forgive my sloppy inattention to Lew’s career. So it was the Polytechnic Colleges that adopted the regional monikers and joined the RedBrick Universities was it ? While Lew has joined a grander institution. As far as UWAs concerned anywhere but here is possibly all that matters.

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    • #
      Owen Morgan

      I doubt if John Cook thinks of himself as a communist, but there is no doubt that plenty of his fellow-travellers started out that way. Communists excel at projection, i.e. accusing others of crimes of which the communists themselves are guilty. The reason communists have been historically so good at projection is that they, or the regimes they have supported, have been guilty of exactly the crimes which they have tried to pin on others. Communists delight in depicting themselves as the heroic defenders of the world against fascism, with any non-communist portrayed as a nazi. Alarmists have long used nazi-associations (“deniers”, “denialists”) to attack realists. The present ploy looks like a projection of that: an attempt, with manufactured “evidence”, to suggest that realists are accusing alarmists of nazism.

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      • #
        ExWarmist

        I’m beginning to think that these guys at SKS are actually Ultra-Ultra Conservative – they seem to want to undo the Renaissance and revert us back to the days prior to Copernicus, Gaileo, etc, when The Truth was whatever the Authority said it was, and if you disagreed with the Authority – you get a nice barbecue…

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        • #
          James Bradley

          Right on the money X, why else would warmists actively campaign to stagnate the evolution of the planet and try to maintain one particular climate phase (not necessarily the optimum climate phase either), and why else would they deny proven energy technologies and the ability of life to adapt to an ever changing planet.

          These people are truly conservative and are the equivalent of Luddite Special Forces.

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      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        Owen,

        I appreciate what you say, and you are right.

        But to put a slightly different slant on it, I contend that there is very little difference between the practice of communism and the practice of fascism, at the political level.

        The political spectrum is not a line, but a circle, where the two “extremes” become one, on the opposite side from lassez faire economics. The only differences between communism and fascism is the direction taken to arrive at the totalitarian state.

        Most of the environmental NGO’s are more fascist than communist. The Greens pretend to be on the left of politics, but most of their policies are fascist through and through.

        In fact the German Nazi party started out as a conservationist movement that wanted to preserve the Black Forest and other “national assets”, from exploitation by foreign industrialists, and the non-Aryan foreigners who worked for them (i.e. the Jews and the Gypsies).

        From that point of view, for Cook to be depicted in a Nazi-style uniform makes perfect sense.

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      • #

        @ Owen “Communists delight in depicting themselves as the heroic defenders of the world against fascism, with any non-communist portrayed as a nazi.” That’s exactly what Stalin tried to do post WWII. He even tried to suggest that the West was somehow harbouring a still living Hitler. Those pictures are puerile and desperate. I reckon we really are getting under the skin of those fools.

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      • #
        Phil Ford

        “…Communists delight in depicting themselves as the heroic defenders of the world against fascism, with any non-communist portrayed as a nazi.”

        All a bit ironic, really, given the origins of the National Socialist Worker’s Party

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  • #
    spence

    Perhaps this does not seem abnormal to these people. They preferred to move the directory rather than delete the photos, that tells me they found the whole episode little more than a minor irritation. I’ve seen the phrase ‘We’ve got tanks all over your lawn’ bandied about too, makes you wonder.

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  • #
    Barry Woods

    Someone at SkS took the time and effort, and did it well! to remove the original Nazi symbols from an original 1936 SS Nuremburg rally photograph,
    and replace them with Skeptical Scence logos..
    Original nuremburg rally – nazi logo’s (or very similar photo):
    http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/XD169226/Massed-ranks-of-the-SS-at-the-Nuremberg-Rally-1936

    SkS version – labelled SkStroopers_marked.jpg !!
    http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/skstroopers_marked.jpg?w=108&h=150

    They did such a good job of it, ie greyscaled, etc, it almost looked original!
    Then actually naming an adulterated 1936 Nuremburg rally SKStroopers_marked is just utterly odd.

    what would happen, if they leaked out!! just think… oops!

    Scrawling an arrow to Hitler, and labelling it John Cook is almost trivial in comparison (effort wise)

    Whatever the reason, these images were there, however they got there, the fact that the kept them is truly odd.

    Initially I just these very crass and juvenile, it wasn’t until I took a second look until I noticed that time and effort to replace nazi insignia with SkS logo’s!
    The HerrCook photo, in Jo’s article seems to be based on Himmler, or most probably an already doctered, version of the photo used to attack a USA politican a while back
    http://images.politico.com/global/2013/02/19/130219_rove_teapartyemail_274.jpg
    http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/tea-party-group-pictures-karl-rove-in-nazi-uniform-87793.html
    that is an identical base picture I think

    Dana’s Scooterboy, and tankboy pictures, makes you wonder exactly why the Guardian have given him a 97% consensus column.

    Dana photo hero photo shopped as Dr Who is comically tragic.

    I wonder who actually created them, one person or muliple.
    Until we here other wise John Cook is a prime ‘suspect’, some of these are parody’s of other photo, etc. and he spent 16 years parodying star wars(sev wars) star Trek (sev trek, Bored of the Rings, etc.

    like Dana’s Scooter photo(again a german soldier on a bike, could be a lame attempt of parodying Cartoons by Josh, cartoon of Dana Nuccitteli riding a scooter.

    The Josh Cartoon of Dana Nuccitelli on a Scooter (scooter boy)
    http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/4/22/a-bit-sensitive-josh-216.html

    The Sks forum image Dana Nuccitelli herrscooterboy.jpg (actually there are 3 different versions)

    Even the hero shots of Watts, Delinpole and Monckton, is based on the parody movie. ‘Meet the Spartans’ – not the ‘300’ movie.
    So putting sceptics heads on a parody picture of the ‘300’ heros of Sparta movie that saved western civilasation, makes some sort of sense.

    Too be honest, I have no idea, who did, why they did them, why they kept them, etc, it is just very, very odd….

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    • #
      Barry Woods

      better res version here. (Nuremburg rally photos) SkS version
      http://unsettledclimate.org/?attachment_id=649

      look at the three logos…. ( cropped SkStroopers_marked.jpg vs nuremburg rally…)

      http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/XD169226/Massed-ranks-of-the-SS-at-the-Nuremberg-Rally-1936

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    • #
      Ace

      Barry, you are leading one to a conclusion contrary to the general assumption here. Maybe these werent made to giv th imprssion of being by sceptics. Maybe, given the loving care taken to insert thmselves into the high momnts of the Third Reich the person who made them really does venerate the NAZIs.

      Its the simpler explanation.

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      • #
        Yonniestone

        Nazi symbols have and are being used in western armies in recent times, SS Death’s head, SS lightning insignia, and you wonder where these peoples heads are at, when I was an Australian army reservist in the 80’s you would have got a beating for displaying such disrespect to your country and war veterans alike.
        Certain people are attracted to the Nazi ideals of ultimate power and I have met them before, however when asked at what point and with whom does the discrimination end with in such a system there is never a clear answer.

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      • #
        Backslider

        given the loving care taken to insert thmselves into the high momnts of the Third Reich the person who made them really does venerate the NAZIs

        I think you are correct. I use Photoshop regularly and know just how fiddly such a task would be. It’s not just a quick copy and paste, particularly this one above of Cook.

        When you consider how their behaviour is on the SkS website and elsewhere and their treatment of those who disagree with them (contrary bloggers on the SkS website are regularly sent to the gas chamber) it does not surprise me at all that the whole lot is going to their head.

        They may think it’s just “funny”, but I think it reflects where really their heads are at.

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        • #
          Ace

          Whilst agreeing with your general point Backslider, it isnt rocket-science, it just involves zooming in and applying a clone tool. The thing is the time it takes. However, the Cook one is not actually well done at all. If you look at the right hand side and follow the collar you’ll see part of his neck sticking out from the original source image.

          In fact its really inept.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      “John Cook is a prime ‘suspect’, some of these are parody’s of other photo, etc. and he spent 16 years parodying star wars(sev wars) star Trek (sev trek, Bored of the Rings, etc.”

      And the last several years parodying science and statistics. !

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      • #
        Backslider

        I think you are correct. The obvious care taken with the SS shot of Cook himself shows his vanity – those of Nutticelli are nowhere near as carefully executed.

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  • #
    Joe V.

    Well anyone could have done it. Look who’s publishing them though.
    How might that be portrayed to the unaware & unconverted ?

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  • #
    RoyFOMR

    SKornographicS

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  • #
    John in NZ

    It looks like an interrupted false flag operation to me.

    They want it to look like these were made by skeptics, so it makes sense to have a photo with the skeptics as heros and themselves portrayed as nazis.

    I suppose the plan was to plant these images somewhere to be “discovered”.

    Print out a few copies and leave them on the desk.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Absolutely with you John.

      Running a misinformation campaign requires a great deal of skill, and a lot of luck. Whoever did this has neither.

      But the pictures will go viral to a degree. Twitter and Facebook will see to that. But they will be lost in the noise, especially if they keep moving around.

      The climate scare scam is becoming a zombie – now isn’t that fashionable – bring out the shotguns.

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      • #
        John in NZ

        Thanks for your kind words Rereke but I have decided my initial explanation is

        insufficiently conspiritorial.

        Given that I am a climate skeptic and therefore a conspiracy theorist, I think it makes

        sense to conclude that the images were put there by Stephen Lewandowsky.

        He did this hoping someone like me would conclude the images were placed there by a skeptic

        who hacked into the SkS site to create the impression that the SkS people were about to

        plant these images on a skeptical site and fool people into thinking that the skeptics were

        very juvenile.

        If Lewandowski had fooled me into believing this and then I wrote about it he could use me

        as an example to show that climate skeptics are conspiracy theopry nutters.

        Fortunately I didn’t fall for his cunning plan.

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        • #
          Andrew McRae

          Yep, and fossils were placed in the ground to test our faith! 😉

          But seriously, which side has the track record for misrepresentation, manufacturing consensus, impersonation, and hiding and destroying evidence?

          Once again it has not been the original act that has exposed them, but the coverup. It was somewhat ambiguous as to whether the 3 Spartans were being idolised or derided by the artist. The fact the files were in an area only approved users could upload into doesn’t tell you where the images originally came from and why they were made. It was the subsequent attempts to remove access to the evidence without deleting them which indicates SkS values these images.

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          • #
            ghl

            “The fact the files were in an area only approved users could upload into”
            Whoever found them had access.

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      • #

        With you there Rereke, a type of smear campaign which suggests that theirs’ is a battle of perception as opposed to our defense of the rational.

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  • #
    Barry Woods

    but the other silly but positive photos, ie Dana Nucitelli, as Doctor Who… make it look like just interbnal ‘fun’ stuff.. for a very odd definition of ‘fun’
    not to be used for anything…..

    Imagine,IF it were a false flag operation to be planted, or some mad Lewandowsky research, who in their right mind would say, go aheed (Cook or Nuccittelli) make me look like a Nazi, to do it!!

    I would say NO, whatever the intent!

    simpler explanation very odd insular groupthink going on in that internal private chat forum..
    (remember how 100+ people worked on 10:10 No pressure video, and nobody there said to the group, is this really a good idea!! and that WAS for public consumption)

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    • #
      Ace

      Barry, that fits with my interpretation that they think its “cool” to put themslves in Dr Who ( 🙁 ) AND in the SS! As with their casual and callous use of the expression “denier”, heedlss of the feelings of Holocaust families. They are so wrapped up in their narcissistic shared delusions that they exhibit an almost autistic level of insnsitivity to the feelings of people in the real world.

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      • #
        Backslider

        autistic level of insnsitivity

        Please do not denigrate autistic people. Generally they are highly sensitive to people’s feelings.

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    • #
      jorgekafkazar

      “…very odd insular groupthink going on in that internal private chat forum…(remember how 100+ people worked on 10:10 No pressure video, and nobody there said…is this really a good idea[?]!!)”

      I wasn’t aware that many people worked on the 10-10 vid, but it was on my mind as I read this thread. The vid images reveal what is truly in the minds and hearts of those who participated. I would say the same applies here.

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  • #
    Yonniestone

    Don’t think that because the actions are juvenile they are done by juvenile’s, it’s my experience that when you get to the core of activist’s you will find very immature people who’s age should reflect a more mature outlook, these are people haven’t moved on from the rebellious teen days who won’t grow up.
    I believe anyone any age has a right to protest but you will always get those who protest only as an excuse to agitate and purge some latent personal issues, take a look at ongoing protests here and worldwide you can see the usual suspects of rent a mob.
    Mature people can and should have a sense of humor as displayed here many times, but at some point the humor has to stop and rationale should take over if not the above will result.

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    • #
      Brian G Valentine

      That’s why their moms have such a tough time getting them to leave the house and earn a living. They’re working for “The Planet”! Thus their parents are forced to support their parasitic existence. They have few friends outside of their greenie blogs (who they don’t know personally, only their online personae).

      They attend anti-anything rallies, don’t bathe, and most people consider them a pest at best.

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      • #
        Brian G Valentine

        By the way these people are created by taking courses from the likes of Stephan Lewandowski. There are thousands of that ilk with positions in US universities.

        Send them off to college, with the end result a dead-end greenie. Not today’s best value in “education” by any means.

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  • #
    MadJak

    Looks like an attention deficit disorder to me.

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  • #
    ColdinOz

    Their emotional development is about the level of their science. That of a pre adolescent.

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  • #
    pattoh

    Yep

    When I was way back in primary skool I observed that when arguments fail, emotion takes over &&&& name calling starts. Then there are tears. ( & nowadays we then get therapy)

    Photo shop has just made this a bit graphic, not any more edifying.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      … name calling starts, then there are tears …

      You must have gone to a very refined school.

      At my school, we had a choice, “name calling and tears” or “ten inches of gas pipe”.

      Gas pipe wins, every time. 😉

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        AndyG55

        Nah, no weapons allowed. If you couldn’t sort it out 1 on 1, you were considered a wuss.

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        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          OK, so in the spirit of the conversation, I have to cry harder and louder than you? How does that work?

          Oh, I see, I need to make you cry first. Ten inches of gas pipe tends to do that, if applied with finesse. 😉

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      • #

        We must have gone to different schools together Rereke 😉

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    Ace

    Its very interesting actually. The second one indicates things about the creators percption of people. Its very, very easy to adjust the paste objects, so it can only b attributed to the pasters judgemnt: the heads are disproportionate to the bodies.

    Now if they were much more out of proportion it would imply intntional caricature convention. But they are just enough wrong to indicate that they were intended not to be realistic.

    So we can obtain some insight into the person who made the image. Warmist or sceptic, he or she cannot actually have very often really LOOKED at another human being, in any meaningful, comprehending way. Otherwis they would be able to get the proportion of head and body more nearly correct.

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  • #
    Eddie Sharpe

    I cannt seem to help finding the first image mildly offensive. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the uniform though.
    The heroic Spartans seem quite becoming though.

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    • #
      Ace

      Uniform aint nothing to do with it.

      I know a German guy who wears a DDR polizei uniform because its virtually identical to the Waffen SS uniform (which he would not be allowed to wear)..he wars it in public, and he looks just fine and gets no negative reaction to my knowledge.

      No what makes this one offensive is that [snip] of a face

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      • #
        Ace

        …I mean that snip-crass snip-crass smip-uncalled-for-remark would look mildly offensive WHATEVER he wore.

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  • #
    Greg Cavanagh

    So SKS whent Godwin, can we say they’ve lost the argument?

    I don’t think they have the smarts to do a sting operation. I think it’s more likely someone was experimenting with their new photoshop program and chose these as subjects. I guess an easy sharing method was to put them up in a secret directory so they could all have a laugh.

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      Ace

      No Im drifting into the view mooted earlier that whoever did it really digs the NAZI schtick. Its nothing to do with CAGW or anything. Just a way of fantasizing about NAZIness whilst rationalising it as somehow “for the cause”.

      You see the Devil has some of the best tunes…had the bst uniforms in history, designd by Hugo Boss, and it takes some effort not to succumb to “The Glammer”. That is how Evil works. Its insidious and seductive.

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        Greg Cavanagh

        Both explanations are complementary.

        Remembering that the Nazi’s philosophes did indeed attract a lot of followers and believers, who’s so say it still doesn’t.

        Idealism. Hmmm, isn’t that what CAGW been about all along?

        10

  • #
    George McFly......I'm your density

    I think the shot of Watts, Monckton, and Delingpole looks great! Wish I had abs like that!

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    Heywood

    But but but SkS has won an AWARD for science! AAD said we should all bow down to their opinion because they have won an AWARD!

    Kook the Cartoonist and Nutterelli the ‘Big Oil’ employee wouldn’t stoop to this level after winning a Eureka award now would they??

    Perhaps AAD, being a devotee and apologist for SkS, can shed some light on the reasoning behind these childish photos.

    20

  • #
    Heywood

    But but but SkS has won an AWARD for science! AAD said we should all bow down to their opinion because they have won an AWARD!

    Kook the Cartoonist and Nutterelli the ‘Big Oil’ employee wouldn’t stoop to this level after winning a Eureka award now would they??

    Perhaps AAD, being a devotee and apologist for SkS, can shed some light on the reasoning behind these childish photos.

    10

  • #
    AndyG55

    And “foxglove” was immediately on the task with yet another overdub of that famous Hitler video. 🙂

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/07/inside-the-skeptical-science-secret-tree-house-bunker/#more-91202

    50

    • #
      Eddie Sharpe

      Well done, that dubber.

      40

      • #
        Eddie Sharpe

        I used to believe ‘dubbing mixer’ meant the person who prepared the boot wax, but never could understood why they had it specially mixed for movies.

        20

        • #
          Ace

          Those boots will never shine again if you use dubbin.

          Do you know what a Foley is? (I do, Im keeping it to mself, like wher Grmans get their @ symbol from).

          20

          • #

            like wher Grmans get their @ symbol from).

            Clearly by stealing your e‘s 🙂

            Seriously; they get @ from spider monkeys. (Klammeraffe)

            30

            • #
              Ace

              Bernd, you with a German name, I’m dissapointed in you!

              Alright, I know, if I whisper the answer tonight, by tomorrow I can be asking it again and noone but you will know.

              Germans summon the @ symbol by pressing Alt-Ground.

              Please Bernard, dont pass it on.

              10

          • #
            Eddie Sharpe

            Do you know what a Foley is?

            You mean apart from Eddie Murphy in Beverley Hills Cop ?
            Isn’t a Foley like the Rolf Harris of radio, the artist who conjures up all sorts of sound effects from everyday objects ?

            10

            • #
              Ace

              Correct…I used to be provoked to speculation everytime I saw that in credits but not provoked enough to Google it up. later.

              But then I did. And found out its called that after some geezer who was an exceptionally good practitioner.

              10

    • #
      AndyG55

      I suppose the term “sub-scripted” should have been used, rather than “dubbed” .. me bad. 🙂

      20

      • #
        Ace

        Sub-scripted… so you mean reharsed scenes of sexual slavery?

        Or the words from Hunt For Red October.

        10

        • #
          AndyG55

          “sub-titled” Doh !!… you can see I don’t watch many foreign movies !!

          00

          • #
            Yonniestone

            Like “Crouching Warmist Hidden Gerbil”

            50

            • #
              AndyG55

              Flies through the air with the greatest of ease… the great supermandia.

              Never did understand why they do that in those Chinese movies.

              Its so “staged” you know , like a certain KRudd

              41

              • #
                Ace

                subtitles are good. nowadays i only watch movies with the sound disconnected. a really good movie is easily understood without sound. and i dont mean what you think…dirty mind you…crap movies require dialogue to explain whats happening. niw im resigned to the fact most movies are crap. sturgeons law…97 per cent of everything………whereve i heard that 97 before……so anyway, with the dvd you can activate subtitles foir the hard of hearing.

                however, with crap movies its usually better to not know whats supposed to be happening but just watch the pictures.

                10

  • #
    JohnM

    Nah, just a “comic book” background awaiting a big bright splash of a title, which will be added when some issue arises.

    SkS seem to persistent with its “ad hom” attacks because it’s bereft of any scientific argument.

    20

  • #
    Joe V.

    Perhaps he just dreams of looking smart.

    30

  • #
    ROM

    Ace says
    August 8, 2013 at 6:59 am ·

    It’s now some three quarters of a century since the rise in the 1930’s of the German National Socialist Party, the Nazi’s, and nearly all of that generation who experienced and suffered from the Nazi’s and their evil soul destroying ideology have passed on.
    The generation who followed carried the memories of their fathers and mothers who lived through those terrible times when the Nazis were destroying so many lives. But they too are now of an age where they also are starting to pass on.

    With their going the collective and direct memories of the deeds of the Nazi’s will fade into just another dispassionate discussion of past history with little feeling and little empathy for those who suffered so much and who fought and died that National Socialism, the Nazi’s evil ideology would be destroyed .

    We are seeing this divorcing from the past and complete loss of historical memory and the lack of any empathy with the people of those past times when so many suffered and died in fighting against the Nazi ideology, in the complete and total ignorance of a ragbag cabal of functionaries and groupies in SkS who in their ignorant arrogance are now apparently glorifying the Nazis by dressing like them and and imitating them.

    Although when looking at SkS’s past track record in promoting and implementing some seriously bad and deliberately bigoted and fascist like smear and personal denigration techniques for so many who have disagreed with the SkS ideology there are some in SkS who would have quite easily and no doubt quite smoothly made the transition to the Nazi ideology and membership.

    And yes, I am 75 years old and was born in 1938. I am one of those who knew and carry the memories and know the stories of those who lived and fought and died through those terrible traumatic times of the rise of the Nazi’s and the equally evil and vicious Imperial Japanese Empire.

    In his base ignorance and complete arrogance John Cook of SkS has just grossly insulted those still alive and those who are gone, who fought and died to stop Nazism, by attempting to imitate and pass himself off as a caricature of a uniformed Nazi officer.

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      AndyG55

      “his base ignorance and complete arrogance John Cook of SkS”

      Darn, you have really nailed that description !! 🙂

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      Graeme No.3

      Well, the Nazis were very much “nature” worshipers and others fads. Hitler was a vegetarian, and they were very much against cigarettes, one of the few good things you could say about them even though I think that was partly so they could order people around.

      Cook et al. are authoritarian, desperately want to be able to have the power to tell people how they must live, and claim to be keen on nature and conservation (except where it gets in the way of what they want to do e.g. build Autobahns, bio-diesels farms etc. If they ever got power you can be certain that concentration camps would follow.

      This may not be an attempt to damage the reputation of sceptics so much as how Cook et al. would like to be. Why else store the images once they had been rumbled, rather that dump them? Instead of Eco-Nazis maybe they are just Neo-Nazis.

      30

      • #
        Ace

        Apparently…according to somone here who posted a link….the Mongolian NAZI party has declared itself to be rebranding as the Eco-NAZI party, or something like that.

        10

        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          There is no Mongolian Nazi party.

          For one thing, it is impossible to buy jackboots in Ulaanbaatar. You can’t even order them through Amazon.

          Mind you, in the spirit of Marco Polo, that may represent a nice little export earner to the right person.

          20

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            Ace

            i think youll find the octopus of ebayt reaches all parts.

            they dont liv in yurts anymore rrrk. ive sen their tower blocks…well, in photos.

            10

            • #
              Rereke Whakaaro

              Well, those tower blocks might not look like yurts, but they do smell like yurts, and like yurts they do not have high-speed broadband. So there be no easy bay.

              10

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        blackadderthe4th

        ‘ Hitler was a vegetarian’ no he wasn’t. He eat vegetarian meals under the orders of his doctor, at times, but his preference was sausage!

        00

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          Backslider

          no he wasn’t

          Why am I not surprised that you are expert on Hitler? Do you sleep with a copy of Mein Kampf under your pillow?

          00

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            Ace

            mein kampf is has been in the top ten best seller list throughout the middle east for decades.

            00

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            Chris

            Do you sleep with a copy of Mein Kampf under your pillow?

            How does pointing out a fact about someone equate to following their philosophy? That’s some pretty lazy thinking.

            00

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              Ace

              Chris.the point is that to claim something to be a “fact” which isnt in order to make a person look better than othertwise implies a favourable view of that pewrson.

              00

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          Graeme No.3

          Some quotes:
          Today, it is acknowledged by historians that Hitler – at least during the war – followed a vegetarian diet.
          In a November, 1938 article for the English magazine Homes & Gardens describing Hitler’s mountain home, …. Hitler’s kitchen plots are both varied and heavy in produce. Even in his meatless diet Hitler is something of a gourmet — as Sir John Simon and Anthony Eden were surprised to note when they dined with him in the Chancellry at Berlin.

          People familiar with Hitler’s diet indicate that he ate meat prior to the Second World War but adopted a vegetarian diet some time in the late 1930s. Dione Lucas, his cook before the war, claimed that he would eat stuffed pigeon, Bavarian sausages and sliced ham. Margot Wölk, who became his unwilling food taster during the war (in order to ensure that the food was not poisoned), stated that all the food she tested for Hitler was vegetarian, and she recalled no meat or fish.
          Traudl Junge, who became Hitler’s secretary in 1942, reported that he “always avoided meat”

          So, it would appear that he was a vegetarian before he started the Holocaust. Or, are you going to DENY that.

          20

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            Franny by Coal light

            Did Hitler like eating his greens, or did Europe & Afric pay the price for the rage it induced in him.

            00

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          Ace

          lookee whose popped up to defend hitlers reputation.

          hahahahaha

          is it a false flag…did a septic steal ////adders moniker and impersonate him.

          no, he came and of his own free will…on a thread discussing whether ecos are nazi-lovers…to defend adolf hitlers reputation.

          brilliant…is it only in ostralia.

          10

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          jorgekafkazar

          Hitler seldom ate meat. He developed an aversion to it after the death of Geli Raubal. There are accounts of his eating a bit of sliced ham or other meat that didn’t display its animal origin. I’ve never seen any reference stating that his doctor told him to eat vegetarian meals. Reference, please.

          11

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    Backslider

    That guy Dana Nutticelli has the weirdest hairpiece I have ever seen. Was that Photoshopped in or does he really wear it?

    30

  • #

    erk how tacky. I see the Daily Tele has the same sense of “humour”

    03

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    John Rombi

    John Cook….an answer to a question nobody asked. When someone is so closed minded, and unable to put two consecutive syllables together without putting their foot in their mouth, I refuse to waste my time & energy with them.

    30

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    jim

    Hail Cook the Books, the real Climate Fuhrer.

    Are all warmists deviants?

    60

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    Safetyguy66

    I was strangely attracted to Chris Monkton before I saw his rippling abs. Now its a full on crush!

    40

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      All in all, this thread is getting weirder and weirder.

      I think I shoud stop using the etter that comes after K and before M in the aphabet. That way Ace and I wi not be abe to discuss those ong fish that ive in streams, that the engish eat jeied.

      40

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    Mark D.

    I don’t understand why we should be sending more traffic to Craptical Seance?

    20

    • #
      Brian G Valentine

      In the order of collection of offensive bloggers I have encountered (and I mean STINKY), here are my prize winners:

      – Skeptical (Grand Prize Winner)
      – Climate Progress (not very close to Skeptical)
      – Deltoid
      – Tamino
      – Real Climate

      The last three are about par, all get 3rd place

      30

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Mark,

      They provide a valuable public service.

      Having them being so moronically clueless, and terminally ungifted, defines a low base, that the rest of us can measure ourselves against, and feel good about our lot in life.

      You can hear people say, “I might have the second dumbest job in the universe, but at least I am not forced to work somewhere like SKS.”

      Once they have made that comparison, their life changes, and they are more confident, more optimistic, and no longer have the desire to pull the legs off slugs.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Rubbish. The first paragraph uses the word “could” three times, in four sentences, and the last sentence draws a hypothetical conclusion from the first three non-statements.

      It is the sort of puff-piece that you get journalism interns to write as a space filler. I wouldn’t hire them for a permanent role.

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      Greg Cavanagh

      I read the article.

      Between a lot of ‘could’s the meat of their statement was “better insulation, better windows and doors that keep heat where we want it, shading, and reflective roof paint to keep houses cool.”

      It talked about solar pannels and green energy, but I didn’t take those statements seriously.

      When they build a house and live the dream, then they can tell us how they did it….

      50

    • #
      MemoryVault

      .
      Trouble is, there are people who actually believe this crap.

      I know one, otherwise intelligent, educated young lady, who is miffed that the electric commuter train she catches to work each morning, isn’t already powered by solar panels on the roofs of the carriages.

      When I politely pointed out that it was dark by the time she returned home, she retorted with, “Haven’t you ever heard of batteries”?

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      • #
        bobl

        This does tend to be the problem with the whole CAGW issue – Scale. Ordinary people know enough to flick the ipad on, they have no idea what it takes to takes it work!. Nor do they have any concept of the energy consumed by a passenger train compared to the 8W per square meter that can be reliably intercepted by a solar panel. It’s the same reason why SCALE – of the warming gets ignored.

        It’s a common problem, people really do actually believe that it’s feasible to replace coal fired power station with solar and wind. When you describe that it would take 15 square km tiled with solar panels where nothing will ever grow just to get 1 GW, they still think that’s possible or a good thing to do. The energy density of sunlight is unbelievably low compared to fossil fuel.
        I have just today had this conversation with a friend I consider quite knowledgeable, I had to explain in detail that Solar / Wind can’t cut it and why. Eventually got him to see that only Nuclear is a viable alternative (with Hydro in most cases in OZ you eventually run the risk of running out of water).

        It’s tough being an Engineer some days

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        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          But bobl,

          If you used solar and wind, you could pump the water below the dam back up into the lake at the top, and you would never run out of water.

          /sarc

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        • #
          Ace

          Folks dont get scale in anything.

          I know a post-card company that occupied its own tower block. I once calculated how many post-cards they had to sell per day to pay for it (this was back in the Nineties). It wasnt the astronomical figure that was impressive, it was the figure arrived at by multiplying it by the number of post card publishers whose products they compete with, the n by the number of potential customers including those not actually deciding to buy that day. The scale of the post-card buying public, in order to sustain such a “tiny” industry (with hundreds of peoducers, some in swish tower block office complexes) is utterly mind boggling.

          Human society basically achieves NOTHING but for immense scale.Nothing, no products or services of almost any kind would exist but for the collossal numbers of people involved in either provision or market.

          30

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Wind turbines only run around 70% of the time, and generate serious amounts of electricity about 30% of the time. When they are stopped and the wind picks up they MUST be connected to the grid.
          Firstly, they consume power as the yaw motor turns the nacelle to the right direction (if the wind is light and variable the turbine can ‘hunt’ for some time, so the wind farm uses a considerable amount of power).
          Secondly, the electronics need a reference voltage/cycle etc. to condition the power suitably for export to the grid.

          3 overcast days with little wind and all the disadvantages of “renewable” energy would come home to anyone trying to run on any 100% “renewables” system. The grid would be down, and even when the sun shone or the wind blew, there would be no power. And nothing our resident contrarian EmptyHeadFullBladder says will alter that.

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      I believe this was already tried in England–an “energy-efficient” housing development where the electric bills were supposed to be much smaller. Sadly, the god of reality stepped in and the tenants pay MORE for electricity than their not-so-every-efficient neighbors. Besides, you can already live off the grid now–the only thing stopping people is the $30,00 or so it takes for set-up and the reality of the need for a diesel generator (or gasoline) for the frequent times when the wind doesn’t blow, it’s cloudy, the batteries freeze/overheat, the controller burns out……It’s already here. I know of no one living off grid who does not have a back-up fossil fuel generator and pays as much for repairing parts as they would for electricity. People do this when they are too far from the grid or they have a romantic notion of the past (the latter is often cured quickly as costs mount and discomfort sets in).

      The only way to stop this nonsense is to set a town with this type of electricity and let people live there for a year at a time. Reality is the only thing that corrects this nostalgic insanity. You may have to extend the time period for the younger set–there are college students who will live on a farm for a year and plow with oxen and think it’s fun. You need to keep people in these places until reality slaps them. Better to be done while they can still regret their beliefs than when they’re stuck in the “lala” land they thought they wanted.

      There is one other “cure”–a one-way ticket to the third world country of their choice so they can immerse themselves in nostalgia.

      50

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    Greg Cavanagh

    But SKS get all uppity when people use SS for Skeptical Science.

    Now This? Are they upset or not?

    60

    • #
      Eddie Sharpe

      Do they see themselves as heroic protectors of the cause, of the great global warming cause, like the SS were the Fuhrer’s ‘Republican Guard’ ?
      Like little boys like playing at being important.

      40

  • #
    handjive

    Going off topic to previous post …

    If the Antarctic is melting, why would Australia want to replace Australia’s ageing Antarctic icebreaker Aurora Australis?

    What possible use can a state of the art ice breaker that “will be bigger and have better icebreaking capability” have on a planet that should be devoid of ice?

    New Antarctic icebreaker on its way

    40

    • #
      Eddie Sharpe

      At present rate of melting it could still take 62,500 years until the the ice caps have half gone. In the meantime there are plenty of careers to be made in saving the planet by jaunting around Antarctica and opening it up to tourists.

      60

    • #

      Hedging their bet??

      20

  • #
    Yonniestone

    Sorry a bit OT, I was emailed the new video from The Galileo Movement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOv_4-KeeKI
    not a bad debate in the comments for youtube as well.

    30

  • #
    Bulldust

    State Budget papers are out BTW:

    http://www.ourstatebudget.wa.gov.au/

    I think one fact sheet every Western Australian should read is the CGC-GST redistribution sheet:

    http://www.treasury.wa.gov.au/cms/uploadedFiles/State_Budget/Budget_2013_14/05_2013-14_Fact_Sheet_WA_GST_revenues.pdf

    It is currently projected that by 2016-17 WA’s share of teh GST pool will be almost zero. The current estimate is that we will get 7% back of our GST … that’s not 7% of the 10%, no, that’s read as 7/100ths of our population-based share of GST.

    Any wonder our state is heading into debt? Eastern states are milking WA dry. There’s a reason I get excitable when GST/royalties are discussed, and this is why.

    50

    • #
      Streetcred

      That’s southern states, Bull … Qld also gets screwed. Eventually ‘other people’s money will run out as well.

      30

    • #
      Macha

      Also says that solar rebates drop from 47c to 20c over next year. Excellent. We are overly biased towards a welfare state already. If those that bought panels could not see a deal that was too good to be true, or that they still wanted power when the sun went down, then more fool them.

      31

    • #
      handjive

      Another WA paper just out:

      ABC- Updated coastal policy seen as good start to climate change fight

      The Conservation Council of Western Australia has cautiously welcomed the release of an updated coastal planning policy by Planning Minister John Day.

      The policy was launched at the Esperance Coastal Conference and deals with coastal areas that will be affected by rising sea levels and increasing extreme weather events.

      20

  • #
    Anton

    Personally I’d be proud to have been one of the Spartans at Thermopylae. And as for Nazi, let’s not forget that it is a German acronym for National SOCIALIST.

    Most satire is probably motivated by a curious mix of hate and humour. But we could probably return the compliment by finding appropriate pics on which to paste the faces of Hansen and Mann. Suggestions anyone?

    51

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Nationalist Socialist Workers Party. In the early thirties most observers called them Bolsheviks, and saw little difference between them and the Communists.
      Nor did many germans; the easy way many communists converted to being nazis (and after the war, back again) was commented on also.

      It is not something that I can claim much knowledge of, but it seems that there were homo-erotic associations with the Nazi persona. Many early converts were homosexual (Rohm etc.) and (was it Isherwood ?) commented on homosexuals being attracted to the Blackshirts. There may be a reason that the Believers are portrayed as SS and the sceptics as half naked ancient Greeks.

      Who knows what fantasies lurk in the minds of these people (apart from AGW)?

      30

      • #
        jorgekafkazar

        “It is not something that I can claim much knowledge of, but it seems that there were homo-erotic associations with the Nazi persona.”

        That is true, Graeme, and may be related to Hitler’s preference as reported by blackadderthe4th, above.

        30

  • #
    Dave

    What really peeves me off is this:

    Dana Nuccitelli impersonating the Third Doctor Who.

    Here is the third Doctor Who in the Tardis and

    Here is the Imposter in the Tardis. What an insult. Looks like Farrokh Bulsara.

    What an insult to the BBC and Doctor Who, a Time Lord who has been controlling the climate since we were amoebas all the way to current time and space as animals.

    The Third Doctor Who worked for the United Nations Intelligence Task force (UNIT) and the lovely lady I think was Jo Grant. How can Dana seriously think he can represent anyone from any Intelligence Task force is beyond me.

    The Third Doctor in order to save the whole cosmos, sacrificed his life, exposing himself to lethal levels of radiation to destroy the GAIA worshipers, but unfortunately left remnant biological specimens that future Doctor Who’s will have to deal with.

    They are still CATamongst us.

    Heywood, can’t you get rid of this Retardis Cat.

    50

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      You have obviously not met many people from an Intelligence Task force.

      The name itself is an oxymoron. Intelligence decreases in a square law relationship to size of the force performing the task.

      That is why wharmists go around in groups and have huge meetings, whereas skeptics tend to work independently of each other.

      I am still researching the cause and effect implications of this.

      40

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    Ace

    Hes not retarded, he just needs someone to alllow him to lacerate them for therapeutic anger exprssion once in a while. Or for fun.

    50

  • #
    Ace

    Dave…thaty was meant to be in refrnc to Heywood.

    30

  • #
    Andrew McRae

    hey Jo, new gold detection technique developed.
    http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/2013/08/07/12/10/x-rays-could-help-detect-gold-csiro-says

    Cheeky CSIRO, they take with one hand while giving with the other.

    Speaking of redistributing money…

    ~ ~ ~ ~

    Greens’ $600 million pitch to farmers

    “Too many of our farmers are struggling to make a living, we’re losing precious agricultural land to mining …
    “We will give our farmers a fair price and help them stay on the land, because we can’t give every Australian healthy food without them.”
    The plan also includes funding for 180 new agricultural officer jobs, an independent biosecurity authority and commission, and a food waste reduction campaign.

    Well obviously they have to add a small army of Green Police, because just helping out farmers wouldn’t be Big Governmental enough. And of course more subsidies to foster dependence and drive up prices.

    Here’s an idea, why not bust up the fruit and vege price fixing duopoly of Woolies and Coles so that farmers can ask for a higher price for food. Then they might not be so willing to sell out to mining companies or go broke.

    I mean what else can the Greens do about the food price situation. It’s not like they can change the weather…. oh, heh, yeah…. 😉

    50

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    handjive

    Off topic re- Oz election 2013:

    A bipartisan warning over the dangers of climate change has pierced the electioneering, with a Senate committee pointing to the rising threat posed by extreme weather events …

    The Senate panel, which includes Labor, Coalition and Greens members, recommended that “credible and reliable flood mapping” be introduced, along with better access to insurance and amended building codes, in order to help Australia cope with floods, storms and bushfires.

    The insurance industry has welcomed its findings.”

    Senate panel warns over climate change
    .

    20

    • #
      Andrew McRae

      Preparation for changes in climate no matter what they may be? That almost sounds…rational… and is basically what Bob Carter has been recommending for the last six years.

      The only way to screw that up is to make the insurance mandatory or some other stupid government rule like that. Expect a gift to the insurance brokers. /cynic.

      Greg Hunt, the shadow climate change minister, said … “On the specific recommendations on insurance and building codes, … There needs to be a co-ordinated approach..”

      And there you have it. Forcing people to take out insurance they may not need and may not be able to afford. It’s Obamacare for the weather, brought to you by the Liberal party.
      Please wake me when I have a meaningful choice to make at an election.

      Hewson helped unveil the report and said that climate change could carry an economic cost that would make the global financial crisis seem like a “blip”.

      OMG what is Hewson saying, the fool. In the GFC 60% of the world’s wealth was destroyed in one year. The only natural disaster that could come anywhere close is a giant meteor impact.

      The Liberals are chasing the bank profits that Labor had promised via the carbon tax. If the banks can’t make money on the carbon trades, they demand mandatory insurance premiums to make up for it. Is anyone else here making this connection or am I going too far?

      40

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        MemoryVault

        Please wake me when I have a meaningful choice to make at an election.

        Rip Van McRinkle??

        20

        • #
          Andrew McRae

          I’ve heard the name but I had no idea what the story was about. I looked it up.
          I will be generous and assume that the sleeping part was the entire basis of that analogy.
          Okay. As voting is compulsory, my strategy of slumber was impracticable and in hindsight was wishful thinking.

          Actually I haven’t even looked at who is running in my electorate, which made me ill-prepared yesterday for the 2nd push-polling call from Skynet that I have received.
          Let me assure you, Skynet didn’t take “none of the above” as an answer so it sure as hell isn’t going to accept “wake me when it’s over”!

          00

  • #

    If I were Lewendowski, I would be analyzing why skeptics are presented as winning warriors while climate change science is all about “winning the war”, “fighting the battles”, “all’s fair in war–even fudging data”, etc. Seems to be a bit of projection or envy in the Spartan photoshopping. Maybe Lewendowski could do a poll or something and see if people view the skeptics as winning warriors? They’re a lot of subtle psychology here for anyone needing to publish in one of those “peer-reviewed” things. Oh, and it’s pretty easy to manipulate the psychology of choosing winning spartans as your opponents by pointing out how downtrodden climate scientists are, how they work for bread and water in basements, tolling away purely out of love for the planet. The possibilities…….

    20

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      If I were Lewendowski, I would be analyzing why skeptics are presented as winning warriors while climate change science is all about “winning the war”

      Lewandowsky aside (because he has so often demonstrated his inability to see anything as fitting outside the paradigm of his magnificent obsession!) … Some might think that the concept (photo-shopped or otherwise!) of “skeptics as winning warriors” is almost the “flip-side” of Gleick’s exaggeration of his own importance in his infamous phishing and forging expedition’s fake memo! But I couldn’t possibly comment.

      But speaking of Lewandowsky and the remarkable photo-shopping talents within the ranks of SkS … considering the inadequacies (and lack of credibility) in the responses of UWA to Simon Turnill’s FOI requests pertaining to dates of Lew’s mash of missives on STW last September (as recently meticulously documented by Steve McIntyre) it certainly makes one wonder if (as UWA has asserted) the illustrious authors at STW are truly saddled with the very primitive “custom designed, hand coded” “author administration system” pictured in the “screengrabs” they offered as evidence of a requirement that authors manually enter a publication date on their blog posts.

      For further questions arising from this curiosity, pls see The mystery of missing elements in Lewandowsky’s blog bluffery

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    Eddie Sharpe

    Getting back to the real world.:
    Here is Chris Monckton holding his own against a remarkably unschooled Russian presenter

    Oksana Boyko on RT.
    Oksana seems to have rather more attitude than her aptitude can cope with, while Monckton calmly keeps correcting her misconceptions & naive conflations. RT presenters seem used to usually having more compliant guests.

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      Yonniestone

      Eddie thanks for the link, yes the good Lord Monckton articulate as ever with his delivery somewhat wasted on this commie throw back, and how’s the bloody mouth on it!

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    Joe V.

    Oksana, rather more of a Herbert than Stacey, but to be fair she does have a real guest rather than an own correspondent & sidekick like Kaiser and the BBC prefer.

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    handjive

    Break out the AFDB!

    Conspiracy theories abound for the “pause deniers” at non-Skeptical Science:

    Fox News found to be a major driving force behind global warming denial

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      Greg Cavanagh

      What an incredible read handjive.

      They are convinced the message is what is causing dissent.

      They can’t imagine that people seek out the things that interest them. Or that people seek out knowlage of their own and come to their own conclusions. Just wow.

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      Interesting–I think climate scientists are guilty of most of the five deadly sins, except their take is it’s the “non-climate scientists” (you know, like Cook, Lewendowski–oh, wait, any scientist can be a climate scientist if you say the right things…..) are the ones with the problem. It’s the anti-science scientists (what a stupid oxymoron) that are the problem as well as those nasty conservatives who think the government should stop interfering in everything. Of course, that is a bad thing for climate change people because they want to mess with EVERY single part of your life. Oh well, we all know how this works. If you’re not unquestioningly with them (thus the nasty “religion” tag) you’re against them.

      And Greg, no these people have no concept of anyone would dare to question the sacred texts or the high priests of climate science. No one should think for themselves and if you do, well….you’re just the problem.

      They are going to be really angry when we turn out to be right. 🙂

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        Rereke Whakaaro

        Actually, I think we are on to something here:

        1. Decide on which confirmation bias you want to support. This decision can be based on what your friends are doing, and how much you want to be like, and be liked by, them. Or it could be because you want to rebel against your parents, or your teacher, or that nerdy kid who lives down the block.

        2. Find those sources of information that support your confirmation bias, and help it to grow. This requires careful attention at first, because confirmation biases can be delicate things, and are susceptible to damage by cynicism, whilst they are still forming. Later on, when your confirmation bias is fully developed, it will form its own immunity.

        3. Once your confirmation bias is robust enough, you should use it to evaluate your relationships with members of your family, your friends, your school or place of work, and all of the other things in your life that affect you socially. The results of this evaluation can help you decide what actions to take.

        4. If you find that you can no longer ethically do your job, then it is probably time to move on. If you find the school you attend does not support your views, then dropping out may be a good solution for you, or joining the military, if that is where your confirmation bias points.

        5. The important thing is that you should only associate with people who demonstrate similar confirmation biases to your own, and who think in the narrow way that you do. Remember that most conflict in the world is started by people who are too stupid to see how the world should be properly run.

        6. When your confirmation bias is fully formed, and is recognisable by others, then many new career opportunities will open up to you, such as politics, social advocacy, being a shock-jock on local radio, journalism, public service clerk, or a photoshop editor for a renown blogsite.

        7. Whatever you choose to do, in your fabulous career, you should always remember that it was your confirmation bias that was the key. You should protect it always, and at whatever cost, and never be swayed by those people with other, inferior confirmation biases.

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      Joe V.

      Oh look , it’s by the ” Skeptical Science colleague of John Cook, at the University of Queensland”. Dana Nuttercelli.

      Thoroughly ensconcing themselves as tripartite pillars of the compliant Press, Acadaemia & oil industry.

      So it must be true, but hardly new, just the same hackneyed old alarmist talking points recycled again.

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      Ace

      pause deniers………………….that is a feckin good one.
      true semiotic ju-jitsu right there.
      sickens me that i didnt think of it first.

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    Peter Pond

    Earlier this week, Dr Karl (ABC [Australia] Science presenter – at which task he is reasonably good) was answering a question from a listener who wanted information to counter his sceptic friends. The esteemed Dr Karl referred the person to SkS as being a site with reliable information. Dr Karl trusts these guys!

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    Manfred

    What bothers me these days is the paradigm drift. What I mean is how issues that were in their moment ‘hot’, ‘topical’, and ‘central’ gradually acquire ‘answers’ that evolve into entrenched truths not through further scientific inquiry but through MSM cultural imposition, political decree and politicised science into wider cultural fulcra and a position of ‘accepted truth’.

    That RT interview with the Noble Christopher M. was a classic example and handled well.
    I say, keep the b’sterds on point. Don’t buy into the drift.

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      Ace

      thomas kuhn must be sliding in his grave.

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        Manfred

        I just don’t know about ‘sliding’ Ace. Whatever it is, it’s not ‘turning’.
        In any event, way to much movement involved. The snippet below about describes ‘progressive’ science. Couple that with the precautionary principle and hey presto, ppffffff, you’ve about got the cloud of fog that is the IPCC and their wonderful top hat evidence: consensus.

        Kuhn made several notable claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge: that scientific fields undergo periodic “paradigm shifts” rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way; that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding what scientists would never have considered valid before; and that the notion of scientific truth, at any given moment, cannot be established solely by objective criteria but is defined by a consensus of a scientific community. Competing paradigms are frequently incommensurable; that is, they are competing accounts of reality which cannot be coherently reconciled. Thus, our comprehension of science can never rely on full “objectivity”; we must account for subjective perspectives as well.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn

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    Safetyguy66

    Well it would appear at least that people are coming to their senses (those that had any in the first place) with regard to voting for the Greens.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/wipe-out-greens-for-good-of-all-kennett/story-fn9qr68y-1226693844430

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/voters-walk-away-from-greens/story-fn9qr68y-1226691682571

    I said some years ago that The Greens would follow the same political trajectory as the Dumbocrats and it seems to be coming to pass. If we can just get rid of Granny Milne, Adam Bent and Snivvely Hanson Young, the economy and job seekers might actually have a chance at a better life over the next few years.

    I think people were quite naturally sucked in by the verbal images of rainbow land painted by Bob Brown and his cohorts over the years. But nothing sharpens people’s ability to pick up on nonsense like being exposed to it for a while and now most normal folk see that while the greens can talk about utopia, they have no plan to deliver anything other than recessions and sky rocketing unemployment.

    Whoever did the images of Cook etc, was very likely part of this group that believes they know best for everyone. If there is one thing Greens have done well, its demonstrate world class smugness at their own expense, but even their demise will be someone else’s fault (angry old white guys no doubt) because they are all omniscient to a man.

    Checkout Peter Whish Wilson (I mean hows that for an appropriate name) http://candidates.greens.org.au/sites/candidates.greens.org.au/files/0Z6A8279_web.jpg
    This is the picture he has on his electoral posters around Launceston… could he be more smug? The poster says, “if you dont vote for me, your just a dumbass” basically.

    Alternatively checkout Andrew Nikolic https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQEegC7V_iRy0oCDohBNv-wB0Raky4jOmahedm9VPe240XoS5qVJA
    This picture says… Gday Im Andrew… not much more… Ive met him, seems like a decent bloke, ex digger… just an ordinary guy, no dreams of pink unicorns sleeping on marshmallow pillows with Andrew…

    Bye Greens… Id like to say its been nice, but its been excruciating and if we all die in a fireball, as long as I don’t have to listen to any more of their know it all crap, Ill fry happy.

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    DavidA

    When questioned about the pictures an indignant John Cook would only remark “I know NUTHING!”.

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    AndyG55

    PLEASE JO….

    Start a new topic, so that that moronically stupid grin isn’t the first thing we see when coming to the blog. !!!!

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    Exactly what part of the “What has been seen on the internet cannot be unseen” lesson do our AGW-promoter friends not understand? Didn’t Shub Niggurath already point out this lesson directly to SkS???

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    Skiphil

    At first I thought the altered Nazi photos must be some kind of outsider plant on their server, because who in the SkS world would really want to portray themselves in such a light. However, the lack of such a claim from SkS world has made it appear that someone in their inner circle really did think this was a good idea. Yuck!

    btw, don’t miss a great take-down of Cook, Lewandowsky, and friends at Geoff Chambers’ blog:

    http://geoffchambers.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/lews-third-table/

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    Uniform of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler.Thought someone would have picked it!

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      Backslider

      Yes, it’s Himmler alright.

      It’s quite sickening that Cook would clothe himself with the visage of the chief of the Holocaust.

      Frightening when you consider that one of the key aims of those who would “save the World” is to drastically lower the population……

      Their catch cry is:

      By any means necessary.

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    Will bring the matter up at a formal function tonight with some SkS types who will no doubt be in attendance….. Ummmm.They think I’m the anti-Christ! Apostate!

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    Barry Woods

    The Dana Nuccitelli HerrScooterboy photos, were almost certainly I think inspired by, a Josh Cartoon – Dana on a little scooter (moped)..

    http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/4/22/a-bit-sensitive-josh-216.html

    “Not sure which direction Dana ‘Scooter‘ Nuccitelli is going but I don’t think it is too worrying”. – Josh 216

    So someone at Skeptical Science created a parody of it?, HerrScooterboy2 – Dana on a big motorcycle, and a bigger vehicle, Dana in a tank. (more macho?, Herrtankboy)

    http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/herrscooterboy2.jpg

    And down in the comments of that Dana on a scooter – Josh 216 Cartoon at Bishop Hill, we find this comment

    “My fav SkS cartoon hasn’t been drawn yet. It would look something like John Cook and his 300 astro-turfing Spartans holding back endless hordes of Persian WUWTians. No need to draw rippling abdominal muscles for that lot, of course.

    So someone at Skeptcal Science flipped the idea Watts, Delingpole and Monckton as parody spartans (not even their own idea), and we got this:
    http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/weareskeptics.jpg?w=640&h=420

    I’m now personally fairly convinced that John Cook was responsible for some of these images, ie HerrScooterboy Dana photo’s,
    because they are a parody of a Josh cartoon (probably the rest as ittook some skill with SkS logos, on the helmet, the Nuremburg photo, and the HerrCook photo

    So not even an original idea for the sceptics as Spartans photo (note a still from the movie of ‘300’ but a still from ‘Meet the Spartans’), an idea borrowed from a Bishop Hill comment.

    So why do I hypothesise that John Cook as the creator, because John Cook spent 16 years, cartoon parodying sci/fi fantasy movies – Sev Trek, Sev Wars, – his website was the Sev Wide Web

    http://web.archive.org/web/20101231044327/http://www.sev.com.au/
    http://web.archive.org/web/20070831162300/http://cartoons.sev.com.au/Sev-Space/Sev-Trek/
    http://web.archive.org/web/20120622170218/http://cartoons.sev.com.au/Sev-Space/Sev-Wars/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sev_Wide_Web

    Another SkS ‘parodied Josh Cartoon, of the Tree Hut Gang (which must have stung)
    http://rankexploits.com/musings/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/drop_reality_blackboard.jpg

    The SkS ‘parodied’ version
    http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/sks_attacks.jpg?w=150&h=112

    Note, it’s ‘attacks’ heading, (not criticism, but ‘attacks’) internal let of steam humour amongst a small closed private group (Sks forum) that feels under attack?
    ie all those sceptical bogs (WUWT, B Hill, Lucia, Josh, etc, etc) vs Skeptical Science

    As parodies are rarely better than originals, I guess that is a compliment to Josh,
    and in the ‘Climate Wars’ will the side with the best cartoonist ultimately ‘win’

    Or is all that reasoning far too thin?

    Quite why they chose WW2 tanks and bikes for Dana is beyond me
    I still can’t explain and remain totally bemused by the HerrCook.jpg though (look at the cap badge – very well done)
    http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/1_herrcook.jpg

    nor can I explain the choice of the Nuremburg rally parody? (skstroopers) and again the NAzi symbol replaced with Sks logo, which is skillfully done (John Cook?)
    http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/skstroopers_marked.jpg

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    Roy Hogue

    Or lo, is this just the weekend fun of teenagers let loose with photoshop? Looks like.

    That picture can’t be the work of teenagers. Teens would have made the Spartans female without a doubt, even with their current heads. But then you can never tell what’s what on skepticalscience for sure, can you? 😉

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