Thursday Open Thread

Welcome to your Thursday open thread. It’s like Friday for me. I’m off tomorrow! I’m ready for the 4-day weekend.

Seriously, Politico? Isn’t there some other fake scandal to start?

President Obama, who has expressed his fears about his daughter Malia becoming a teenager next month, is apparently dreading her birthday so much that for a brief moment on Wednesday, he thought she had already turned 13.

At a press conference at the White House, Obama suggested that his daughters, who “generally finish their homework a day ahead of time,” could serve as role models for members of Congress.

“Malia’s 13, Sasha’s 10,” the president said, even though 12-year-old Malia still has a few days to go until her July 4 birthday. “It is impressive. They don’t wait until the night before. They’re not pulling all-nighters. They’re 13 and 10.”

It’s called rounding up. This is not a hard concept.

The American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) made the unusual move of issuing a statement about the personal attacks on climate scientists.

“AAAS vigorously opposes attacks on researchers that question their personal and professional integrity or threaten their safety based on displeasure with their scientific conclusions.” This declaration was contained in a 400-word denunciation of attacks on climate scientists and the politicization of climate science that was issued June 29 by the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The board is not objecting to people voicing opinions about climate data, explains AAAS board member Raymond L. Orbach, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute. “This is about an attack on people. And that’s an important distinction,” the physicist emphasizes. The concern, he says, is that these attacks can have “a chilling effect on scientists’ ability to present facts.”

Attacking the messenger can discourage researchers from publishing data they fear might lead to intimidating phone calls — even death threats, he says. And that would jeopardize public access to important data on which public decision making should be based, he argues, “which is just pernicious.”

This is a new tactic of the anti-science brigade. Nuisance FOIA requests and hauling scientists in front of panels and investigations is part of the tools they are using. What’s more troubling is the talking heads riling up the TV audience against scientists, their families and science as a whole.