More Summer Reading:
Thanks to DeSmogger Brian D., we now have this well-categorized version of The Best of Tamino, a veritable celebration of debunkery courtesy of the clearest writing statisticians around. Brian’s recommended (and annotated) reading list is posted below.
“It hasn’t warmed since 1998!”
(Also an excellent introduction to the concept of signal and noise to those unfamiliar with statistics.)
“The hockey stick was debunked!”
(This is rather technical. The first one is an overview, the rest are in-depth. Number 4 goes into detail on the McIntyre/McKitrick argument and clearly shows why it’s wrong. Part 4 can be read without reading the others, although some of the math won’t make sense. Part 5 goes into more detail and demonstrates the robustness of the stick.)
”NASA / Hansen is lying / cooking the data! / The surface stations are unreliable!”
One of These Things is Not Like the Others
(This covers joint bullshit from Antony Watts and ClimateAudit, depending on which particular form this argument takes. MSU is the only odd one out – it covers adjustments in the SATELLITE data, and compares the different records. [Surprise surprise, but Christy and Spencer’s UAH is poorly adjusted for variation and is cooler than all the others or the surface stations. The other posts validate the surface station system used to compare.] One Of These Things covers one of McIntyre’s adjustment bitchfests in detail. Surface Stations covers one of the surface station adjustments as an example. Best Estimates is an overview.)
(There’s a followup series to the surface stations, where he analyzes the differences and historical trends in the three largest datasets, but those are less pertinent to communication purposes and more for general interest.)
Those are the most frequent inactivist arguments I’ve seen here that are based on statistics.
While I’m at it, you might also appreciate the following:
Tamino showing, mathematically, how a basic climate model is built (a first-order approximation with no weather included, but explained VERY clearly; those who suspect the models aren’t based on science or who don’t know what a model is would find this interesting).
See also the giant “Climate Data Links” link at the top of every page; this lets you get the actual datasets he uses. Some require subscriptions, sadly, but most are public. (Note to Gary et al: Look up Excel’s LINEST function and try it out on any of the land-ocean temperature indices.)
Smackdown of shoddy ‘analysis’ from Antony Watts and his crowd; even if you don’t know who Watts is, you’ve probably heard some of his arguments before. This is entertaining on other grounds as well – read it and see. This also serves as a decent model of peer review – suffice it to say, nothing analyzed there would have made it into the peer-reviewed literature, and for good reason.
How Not to Analyze Data Part 1
HNTAD Part 4: Lies , Damned Lies and Anthony Watts
The comment threads here are also interesting, as the accused always stop by to try to defend themselves… poorly. Watts himself tries an (unsuccessful) PR smokebomb in Part 1, for instance.
