Not me guv, but Tom Fuller (just when I’d given up hope he would ever say something sensible). You might say, “well der”. But this chimes in very neatly with a not-fully-discussed problem with the Spencer and Braswell error, which Gavin talks about at RC: With better peer review, Spencer could perhaps have discovered these things for himself, and a better and more useful paper might have resulted. By trying to do an end run around his critics, Spencer ended up running into a wall.
Spencer and his ilk are afraid of peer review. Not for the reasons that they give – that the vast conspiracy will squelch them – but because they know their work is weak, and they really don’t want it exposed to proper scrutiny (you might disagree; but never mind that, my argument doesn’t depend no it. All you need to agree is that the sceptics avoid proper journals). So they send their stuff to journals where they know it won’t get proper review by experts, as happened in this case. This is intended as a cunning plan to evade scrutiny, but it ends up depriving them of the vital feedback and interaction with peers that improves papers. And not just at review stage: from Woy at least you can see a bunker mentality which means he won’t be discussing his ideas with others even as he tries to mature and work on them pre-publication. Its the lack of this feedback/interaction that will doom future skeptic-type papers from the likes of Woy.
Refs
* Conspiracy Dog-whistling about GRL and the New Dessler Paper
* “Dr” Roy Spencer is sad and lonely and wrong.
wmconnolley: scienceblogs.com/stoat archive 