Schneier on Security

Slime Mold with Mustard • May 7, 2016 10:50 AM

@Clive Robinson

You certainly hit my sore points. As I wrote on the Squid thread two weeks ago, science is very broken . Regrettably, the articles start with the “soft” sciences, where one would expect them. They do go on to medical research and even physics. But they barely scratch the surface.

The most popular manipulation nowadays is to selects data sets that support the (orthodox) conclusion, and ignore those that do not, even when the data sets have been discredited (although their discredit was not widely advertised – too many careers on the line).

A good example of this is Graybill’s stripbark Bristlecone Pine series. A dendrochronology frequently cited as a “proxy” in climate studies. The idea being that; warm years should yield wider rings, cooler years, narrower. In 2007
Linah Ababneh published results contradicting this assumption. Since she had weather data available for more recent years, she was able to determine that ring width was determined exclusively by rainfall. But the Graybill series continues to be cited by researchers prominent, even famous, in the climate studies community (Michael Mann). There are other sheninanigans and especially “adjustment” fraud. I am trying to keep this short.

I have to fire people: Sometimes from firms they have worked for in excess of 20 years. (OK, I write the reports, conduct the interviews, use forensic methods or hire experts for physical evidence: It has been many years since anyone – administrative judges included – have questioned my conclusions). I start with the negative hypothesis . That is: What I suspect is not true . I take this to heart rather than as a silly opening paragraph. I am not merely open to other ideas. I actively search for alternate explanations.

RE: Discrimination

In the US, and I am told, the UK, young men of African ancestry face peer pressure against both education and meaningful employment. There are, of course exceptions. When I have to do hiring and or training, I often notice among young American black men an expectation of failure . I do not see this in many African American women, and almost never see it in those born in Africa. If you walk through the offices of America’s cities, you will see three times as many black women as men. Some scholars have claimed that this is because the dominant white culture feels less threatened by women. I say we will never know unless we close this gapping cultural chasm. My firm employs black men in senior positions. With a single exception, they are all from Africa. I doubt their friends see their efforts at work as them “trying a be a white mother f***er”.

The government’s new tool, despite their protestation, will first be used as a basis of lawsuits, either bought by NGOs, the Department of Justice, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or Housing and Urban Development, and then eventually legislation. I have had to prepare the response to discrimination suits (always filed in bad faith). It never takes less than 200 hours of my time, and a similar amount from the company attorney. We have never paid a penny. The process is the punishment .