No One Peer-Reviews Scientific Software

Recent revelations that the peer review system in climatology might have been compromised by the biases of corrupt reviewers miss a much bigger problem.

Most climatology papers submitted for peer review rely on large, complex and custom-written computer programs to produce their findings. The code for these programs is never provided to peer reviewers and even if it was, the peer climatologists doing the reviewing lack the time, resources and expertise to verify that the software works as its creators claim.

Rising Temperatures and African Conflict - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

”The temperature effect was extremely strong” Mr. Burke said. “We tried hard to knock it down with all sorts of controls — economic growth, increase in African democratic institutions — but we still found that temperature has had a strong effect on recent conflict, and that there is little reason to think that effect will disappear over the next few decades.”

[With this well-established link between warm temperatures and conflict, I shudder to think how violent the Vikings would have been if they were based in Ecuador]: What does "THE NORTH WIND MADE THE VIKINGS" mean? - Yahoo! Answers

My guess is that since the Vikings were considered big and strong, the cold and harsh north wind made them tough. They had to be tough to survive, so the weaker and smaller Vikings probably died off in natural selection. They also used the winds to sail and travel, explore, conquer, and pillage.

Flashback: Where Is the CRU Climate Data? - Edward John Craig - Planet Gore on National Review Online

If the Times is finally going to cover this, it would seem appropriate to dip further into the CRU e-mail correspondence, no? Like, say, this e-mail from Phil Jones to Michael Mann, in which they discuss hiding other things besides the decline in global temperatures?

The two MMs have been after the CRU station data for years. If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I'll delete the file rather than send to anyone. Does your similar act in the US force you to respond to enquiries within 20 days? - our does ! The UK works on precedents, so the first request will test it. We also have a data protection act, which I will hide behind. Tom Wigley has sent me a worried email when he heard about it - thought people could ask him for his model code. He has retired officially from UEA so he can hide behind that.