Monday, February 23, 2015

Media Watch-Dunning Kruger in action

The Australian report on Media Watch Ineptitude. A case study of Dunning Kruger effect...

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias wherein unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than is accurate. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their ineptitude. Conversely, highly skilled individuals tend to underestimate their relative competence, erroneously assuming that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others.

Legal move threatened over Media Watch report ACOUSTIC expert Steven Cooper is considering launching legal action against the ABC’s Media Watch program for its portrayal of him and his research on the effect of the Pacific Hydro wind turbines on local residents.
On the February 16 edition of Media Watch host Paul Barry dished out a stinging criticism of Mr Cooper’s seven-month study conducted at Cape Bridgewater in southwest Victoria — and the ­reporting of it by The Australian’s environment editor Graham Lloyd and Network Seven’s Today Tonight.
However, in damning the report, the Media Watch team hand- picked a group of pro-turbine ­“experts” — with no real expertise in the field — ignored submissions from genuine acoustic experts, misrepresented Mr Cooper, ­selectively and incorrectly quoted the National Health and Medical Research Council, ignored balancing quotes in the newspaper ­reports and made a number of factual mistakes.
Following his utter disbelief at Media Watch’s misrepresentation, as well as pending legal action, Mr Cooper has also sent a letter to the ABC demanding a retraction.

And

In response to the Media Watch report about The Australian’s coverage of wind farms
THE Media Watch report of February 16 (“Turbine torture: do wind farms make you sick?”) is littered with mistakes, omissions and misrepresentations from the opening scenes.
The program represents blatant advocacy for commercial interests over the widespread concerns of a genuine minority group who deserve thorough investigation of their complaints.
The Australian provided balanced, factual reporting of a national issue of public interest where Media Watch indulged in what amounts to little more than ad hominem, ideological propaganda.
The Media Watch program misrepresented the National Health and Medical Research Council position that the quality of existing research into the possible health impacts of wind turbines is poor and that it will fund more high quality research.






Tuesday, February 10, 2015

ACTON update

BOM have finally put up the daily min records for the ACTON weather station. This provides another case where the records need to be adjusted. In its Special Climate Statement 48 BOM asserted on page 4...
"On the 17th, Canberra (39.7°C/11.2°C) had its largest diurnal range on record, 28.5°C"

Looking  over the records for the Canberra heatwave in January 1939 we find the exact same diurnal range was recorded at the ACTON station on January 13 1939 when this first class weather station recorded a max of 41.9 and a min of 13.4.

BOM continue to disregard history!


The BOM's ACTON weather station in 1921-according to BOM it may as well not exist!



12/2/2015...Reply from BOM after we pointed out their error...(seems like they have been infected by ABC disease)

Dear Marc,

The Special Climate Statements are prepared to describe major climate events close to the time that they occur.

For this reason, the reports indicate that the data are valid at the time of writing, and each report provides the date that the final data were sourced.

This provision is necessary since the data may change subsequently for a number of reasons, such as late-arriving manual observations, or subsequent quality control and analysis that may revise the data.

Special Climate Statement 48 was prepared on the 19th January 2014, and carries the following advice.

"This statement is based on data available as of 19 January 2014. Some changes may occur as a result of late-arriving data or the Bureau’s routine quality control procedures.”

Rainfall records in particular are commonly subject to such revisions, and the Bureau does not typically amend previous reports unless a substantial update is required.

In this case, there has been no change to the data considered in the report at the time of writing. The record referenced in Special Climate Statement 48 is for Canberra Airport (station numbers 70014 and 70351). This is detailed in table 3 of the report.

While recently digitised data from Acton has not yet been quality controlled, the observations for January 1939 are consistent with surrounding locations, and show that the 1939 heatwave was one of the most significant on record for the southeast. This information is already provided in the report.

"Over most parts of this region, it ranked alongside the heatwaves of January-February 2009, January 1939 and (from the limited information available) January 1908 as the most significant multi-day heatwaves on record.”

Regards,
Climate Analysis Section

Canberra Weather Station

Last year we took the Climate Council to task for ignoring the 1939 Canberra heatwave (see HERE). The  high quality data available from Canberra's first weather station at Acton ignored because it somehow doesn't fit the alarming story. Looking over the NLA's Trove site today came across the photo below showing the station setup at Acton in 1921. Hard to deny, but somehow they managed it with a straight face!


Monday, February 9, 2015

Does this guy know anything?

Classic put down at Catallaxy from Judith Sloan....

Oh, please, Verrender get your facts straight

There is only one thing you need to know about the final decline of the ABC and that is the appointment of ex-Fairfax journalist, Ian Verrender, as Business Editor, a person who hates business with a passion.
What was Mark Scott and the board thinking?  Verrender came to the ABC with a dubious reputation and zero broadcasting skills.  His appearances on the television are truly embarrassing.

Rest via the link; the closing paragraphs a classic.