Advanced Agnotology

Here’s some light reading for your evening, cross-posted from Crooked Timber. On the Cuccinelli/Mann affair:

First and foremost, public accountability in matters of science is crucial.  Somewhere in that pile of grant applications, letters, and emails, surely, is “smoking gun” proof of Michael Mann’s wrongdoing; indeed, I suspect that Attorney General Cuccinelli is looking for, and will find, the legendary “bwah hah hah” diary entry in which Mann writes, “Today!  Today is the day that I will perform the ‘trick’ that hides the decline!  And then the entire planet will kneel before Zod as I institute ‘cap and trade’ socialism around the world.”  There is also a rumor that the files contain a valuable photograph of Mann and colleague Phil Jones rubbing their hands together in glee, as well as a LOLcat captioned, “IMIN UR NATUR / HIDIN TEH DECLINE.”  Finally, and most importantly, if the files turn out to weigh the same as a duck, they must be made of wood, and I’m sure you can all draw the obvious conclusion from that.  So yes, the public needs to know.