Posts tagged…Evidence
Feather duster ambush
Fri, Jul 23 2010Of course, the Labor party would not have needed to "back down" if it hadn't inflated the issue with worse-than-WMD hysteria, religious zeal (cf. Ross Garnaut's invocation of Pascal's wager) and contempt for contrary evidence.
"Julia Gillard has put the pretty wrapping paper of conviction and consensus around Kevin Rudd's emissions trading backdown. But inside it's the same poll-driven backdown."…
Read more…Led by lunatics
Wed, Jul 21 2010Mark Lawson's new book "A Guide to Climate Change Lunacy" (ConnorCourt Publishing, 2010) arrives with brilliant timing, just as Australia gets another chance to make a choice on climate change policies in the 2010 election. Based on his credentials as a respected journalist -- he's a leading science journalist and editor for the Australian Financial Review -- Lawson has a great opportunity to…
Revisiting the climate evidence
Tue, Jun 29 2010Julia Gillard's determination as Prime Minister to revisit the debate about an Australian response to the potential dangers of climate change calls for a review of the evidence to ensure that any response is proportionate and effective. In my view, the relevant data show less and less reason to attribute recent warming to human activities ('anthropogenic warming').
Counterfeiting data is phoney
Thu, Apr 15 2010Ottawa University Professor of Law, Michael Geist, points to a new U.S. Government Accounting Office report that concludes the U.S. government—and they might add, other governments negotiating the poisonous ACTA "anti-counterfeiting" treaty —have been inventing their estimates of losses from global counterfeiting.
"Three commonly cited estimates of U.S. industry losses due to counterfeiting have…
Evidence on State hospital administration
Thu, Apr 15 2010Adam Cresswell in The Aus. offers us the data instead of spin. The impression of 'excellence' in Victoria fades in the light of the evidence.
"...[H]ealth experts say official comparisons show no evidence that Victoria's system is any better: whether cheaper or, the more important question, whether patients emerge healthier on the other side" Extract from Diagnosis: state of mediocrity | The…
The evidence for ‘stolen generations’
Thu, Apr 01 2010The so-called 'history wars' are disputes about research, historical data and the interpretation of events. As such they should be approached like any other discussion of evidence; with an open mind, a sceptical attitude and a respect for verifiable evidence.
Since reading the 'Stolen Generations' report for myself a couple of years ago—around the time of Kevin Rudd's parliamentary 'apology'—I…
A call for evidence-based policy
Thu, Mar 18 2010Excellent!
"Many social, educational and economic policies are the modern equivalent of Dr Spock’s advice that babies should sleep face down: well-meaning, authoritative – and wrong. No doubt it would be awkward to see the wisdom of experts punctured and the pet policies of politicians discredited on a regular basis. But if politicians really cared about those they represent, they would insist on…
Discounting the Intergenerational Report
Fri, Feb 12 2010"[H]ow often does the IGR [Intergenerational Report], in five pages vaunting public investment in infrastructure, use the term 'cost benefit analysis'? Not once. Clearly, suggesting that public investment only be undertaken when the benefits exceed the costs is no longer politically correct." Extract from Henry Ergas in The AustralianHenry Ergas is—as ever—right on the money. The 2010 IGR has…
Shorting common sense
Sat, Feb 06 2010I've previously noted that the policy of banning short-selling looked just like the sort of hunch driven regulation that hurts both the economy and common sense. Its prohibition of speculation on price falls was Canute-like.
Now here's some strong evidence that bans such as ASIC's had adverse impacts on precisely factor most needed in a crisis of market confidence: liquidity.
"The evidence…
Rahmstorf rebuffed
Tue, Jan 12 2010The Potsdam Institute physicist whose 2007 paper Ross Garnaut relied on for his assertion that "on the balance of probabilities" CO2-driven warming was accelerating dangerously, has been exposed as a scientific gadfly.
At the time of the publication of Garnaut's interim report, several well-qualified sceptics disputed Rahmstorf's projetions, including David Stockwell, Lucia Liljegren and Steve…
Let’s look at the data
Fri, Oct 30 2009
This is a very fine summary of the case that nothing very unusual is happening to the global climate and of the evidence—direct data, not proxies—that the IPCC projections are simply wrong about the key factor they say will result in alarming climate change (by the way that's not CO2)
Lindzen has a record that calls for attention. He has researched and taught atmospheric and climate science for…
Why Australia should not adopt an ETS
Tue, Oct 13 2009The mainstream media offer us nothing but politics on the question of whether the proposed Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) legislation should be adopted. Political calculation is less demanding for the journalists and offers readers an engaging melodrama. But the politics are no guide to a responsible decision on the ETS. In this post I review both the governments' stated reasons for the ETS and my…