Jerry E. Pournelle: Damage Control for Big Science

Big Science is stunned. People no longer have blind faith in Science -- which may mean that the whole grant system is in danger. The reach of Climategate lengthens.
...
My own views have not changed: of course science is not unitary, of course there is politics including dirty tricks and outright lying, faking data, character assassination, invocation of police and military power to suppress opposition -- and none of that changes the rules, which are that scientists when they are being scientists should welcome opposition hypotheses, and must account for all the data, not just that which favors their own positions. Of course most of the time scientists are not acting like scientists. They are acting like advocates, or sometimes like politicians. When they do, they should have no more credibility than lawyers and politicians. I covered all this years ago in The Voodoo Sciences.

Because scientists do not often act like scientists and often act more like bureaucrats, it is important to set up counter-bureaucracies when the subject matter is funded by public money (controlled by a bureaucracy) and the outcome is important to public spending. I am a supporter of the National Science Foundation, but I want it reformed: I want 10% of its budget devoted to funding contrarian science that challenges existing consensus. That should be done through establishment of a funded bureaucracy dedicated to finding and funding such challenges.

South Africa: 'What is the mayor doing in Copenhagen?'

He said it was a shame council funds were used in such a fashion. "We cannot see the value of this trip, especially in the light of the difficult financial condition the council is in," he said.

He said that since there was no official information on the trip, they would regard it as "wasteful expenditure".

A "concerned resident", who did not wish to be named, said Ramokgopa's trip was "unnecessary expenditure", taking into consideration the council's difficult financial position. The man had earlier claimed that "the mayor and six of her MMCs had gone to Copenhagen".

Battle for climate data approaches tipping point - environment - 16 December 2009 - New Scientist

At stake here is the principle that scientific findings are only valid if they can be replicated - which in turn requires sharing data. And not just with friends. McIntyre told New Scientist: "There is an unseemliness about scientists willingly providing data to their friends and resisting the provision of data to people who are perceived as critics."

LIVE BLOG: Youth activists sit-in, refuse to leave until negotiators listen to 11 million voices calling for a fair, ambitious, and binding deal « It’s Getting Hot In Here

10:03 About 20 yards from the sit-in, fossil fuel hack is interviewed by Fox news – people riled up by sit-in respond with “boos” and laughter. He’s laughed off the camera.
7:30  ...it turns out that they turned off the lights for Earth Hour, thanks WWF!
...
7:04 All the lights in the corridor turn off, they are trying to get civil society to leave.