In reply to my email request, a spokesperson from Macquarie replied today. The entire response to Murry Salby’s 20-point-list of serious accusations is reproduced in full (my thoughts below):
10 July 2013
STATEMENT REGARDING THE TERMINATION OF PROFESSOR MURRY SALBY
Prof Murry Salby
Macquarie University does not normally comment on the circumstances under which employees leave the University. However, we feel in this instance it is necessary to do so in order to correct misinformation.
The decision to terminate Professor Murry Salby’s employment with Macquarie University had nothing to do with his views on climate change nor any other views. The University supports academic freedom of speech and freedom to pursue research interests.
Professor Salby’s employment was terminated firstly, because he did not fulfil his academic obligations, including the obligation to teach. After repeated directions to teach, this matter culminated in his refusal to undertake his teaching duties and he failed to arrive at a class he had been scheduled to take.
The University took this matter very seriously as the education and welfare of students is a primary concern. The second reason for his termination involved breaches of University policies in relation to travel and use of University resources.
The termination of his employment followed an extensive and detailed internal process, including two separate investigations undertaken by a committee chaired by a former Australian Industrial Relations Commissioner and including a union nominee.
— Attributed to “A spokesperson” for Macquarie University
My thoughts
Is that it? This did not address any of Murry Salby’s points. What misinformation was corrected here? Macquarie University want us to believe his unpopular research conclusions had nothing to do with his termination of employment. But when he claims to have been employed to do research, they reply instead that he failed his teaching duties. Wasn’t that his point?
As I understand it, Salby was lured here for his research. He moved all the way to Australia in order to “rebuild his research program” for which he was promised many resources. According to him, Macquarie delayed, broke its contractual agreement and failed to provide them. (See points 1,2 &3). Macquarie don’t appear to disagree with this. When he protested, didn’t the university try to reduce his role to that of “a student teaching assistant”. (See point 10). If he objected to taking on that teaching role (say, in order to do the research he was originally employed to do) is that so bad?
Purely hypothetically, suppose, after they hired him, they realized he was not making the “right” conclusions. Wouldn’t it be o-so-convenient to withhold resources, then ask him to do more and more teaching, of a more and more onerous nature, and then starve him of time and resources to do his research, until he quit, or grew frustrated, or stepped over some arbitrary new line? It would be the bureaucratic way to sabotage awkward research. We don’t know that happened, but the response above does nothing to show that it didn’t.
What Macquarie University did not say:
First and foremost, they find no fault with his research or methodology.
They did not describe (with details) how forces outside their control made it impossible to provide Salby with the resources they were contractually required to provide. They did not describe making an effort to help him with his research. Nor do they point to other researchers they employ with skeptical views who speak highly of Macquarie Uni.
They don’t disagree with his points, implying they did cancel an air ticket on him leaving him in a foreign city with no accommodation and no warning, or even a courtesy call. Apparently, they did hold a misconduct proceeding which he was unable to attend because of the flight cancellation (really?). Macquarie claim that process was “extensive” and “detailed” but most people would expect that if that was the case, Murry Salby might have had the right to explain himself in person, rather than to be phoning last minute hotels in Paris instead.
The university may well take the education and welfare of its students as “a primary concern” but I suspect great universities hold groundbreaking research as the top goal (and the students learn by imitation). Furthermore, brave talented research attracts brave talented students. Shouldn’t Macquarie Uni want to foster debate, keep a broad spectrum of voices on campus, provoke a little controversy, and maintain impeccable standards of logic and reason?
It’s hard to imagine science students would be inspired to watch universities reward researchers who find results that fit government policies, but quietly sideline and undermine the potential of researchers who announce results that don’t. Am I being taxed to fund that?
I suggest that a university of this type (if that is what Macquarie is) would train good bottle-washers, but not researchers who break new ground.
Macquarie University is welcome to respond, as is Murry Salby. Obviously there are many details we do not know, but if Macquarie Uni had a good reason to act the way it did, it has not provided it today.
ADDENDUM:
Murry Salby has emailed me today with some background information, and to answer a question I had. He confirms the email yesterday was written by him, and has provided some documentation to back that up, for which I am grateful. He remains very concerned about his former PhD student.
Minor correction: “education and welfare of
it’sits students”—Ta. I thought I had fixed that – Jo
30
Sorry to hijack … just so it’s attached close to the top – the uni response is a standard message which was posted on its web site 16 hours ago:
http://www.mq.edu.au/newsroom/2013/07/10/statement-regarding-the-termination-of-professor-murry-salby/
Searching Salby at MQ yields:
http://www.mq.edu.au/search/search-results.html?cx=018228073491741698199%3Abz06o_gto80&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=salby&sa=Search
But the staff link 404’s:
http://envsci.mq.edu.au/staff/ms/
Interestingly you still see his research there:
http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/BibliographyStatistics/Salby,%20Murry%20L?letter=S&highlights=true
70
Seems his Russian PhD student is still listed at MQ:
http://envirogeog.mq.edu.au/about/students/person.htm?id=etitova
How do I know she is the one?
http://www.climatefutures.mq.edu.au/postgraduate-studies/students/
See listed supervisor. I trust no one will misuse the contact information.
50
Spotted that one yesterday 🙂
Salby had a contract with Maquarie as stated by both Salby and Maquarie, therefore Salby may have a claim under unfair dismissal law in Australia.
Australia also has FOI laws, so no reason why Salby cannot request information concerning his dismissal
As can Evgenia Titova
91
Oops. Tim flannery. ….boldly auto spell check.
10
Exactly.
Who was the Commissar and who was the union nominee?
Why would I not be surprised if both were supporters of the Labor Party and, in turn, biased in favour of the Labor Party’s position on CAGW?
And, when was the right to Natural Justice (Procedural Fairness) rescinded from administrative law in Australia?
It smells like a stitch up and looks like a stitch up to me.
MacQ is looking even more flaky given its “non-response”.
50
‘MacQ is looking even more flaky given its “non-response”’
‘Here’s an amusing tale:
Remember Murry Salby, He-Who-Has-Been-Wronged by Macquarie University?
Prior to moving to Australia, he was a tenured Professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder. But he was forced to resign in 2007 and by 2009 had been debarred by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from Federal funding until 08/13/12.
http://www.desmogblog.com/2013…
From the NSF’s report:
“The Subject’s fifteen-year-long pattern of deceptive statements to his University and to NSF disguised his participation in entities and activities that existed for the purpose of maximizing his personal financial compensation and shielding the extent of his compensation from discovery or accountability”
“The most egregious act of misconduct is the deficient and likely fraudulent preparation of the Subject’s time and effort reports for Company 2.”
“the Subject’s response was to continue and expand his pattern of deception and obfuscation, and to begin personal attacks on his former colleagues”
Salby claimed unfair treatment, sued, and lost.
It’s funny that everyone here leapt to his defence and will happily poke at Mann/Briffa/Jones with any stick-shaped argument you can find. But Salby’s previous conduct is demonstrably appalling, and there are court records that testify to this. He was debarred from NSF funding, for heaven’s sake!
Long may this story fester so the full Macquarie story will out.’
With credit to soosoos
41
Well, indeed. Let’s have the full story before we judge. I’m sure Macquarie will be only too forthcoming. /sarc
10
Well I see that MacQ has responded with a further statement (see #62 below) that admits it cancelled the return leg of Salby’s ticket.
Under those circumstances it would be interesting to hear from MacQ how it intended Salby to attend the misconduct proceedings that he says they held in his absence. I ask again: when was Natural Justice (Procedural Fairness) removed from Australia administrative law?
And, it still looks like a bias existed on the investigation committee, given that MacQ is not telling who the chair of the committee was and who was the union rep.
10
I notice Tom Flanders is in the list of supervisors…hmmm. I smell a rat.
10
His old pages can be easily seen using one of the time machines on the web. I must say the quality of Macquarie’s staff pages is pretty poor.
21
As you say, the statement from the university provides no answers to the points mentioned in Murray Salby’s E-Mail. If anything, it confirms his claims.
Unfortunately, when it comes to describing my feelings, words, fail me,but the nasty taste in my mouth will remain for some considerable time
I salute Murray Salby and all those of his ilk for having the tenacity to stick to their guns. Where would we be now without these honourable people?
481
Peasdia,
Tim Sprague, HR Director would inform his collaborator (Chief Information Officer, Marc Bailey) to take action. The IT staff can remove all electronic resources (including Prof Murry Salby’s email account, all his research works and files).
They don’t want Prof Murry Salby has any evidences for his claims to against the university in future.
It is a standard formula that they use all the time at Macquarie University. Macquarie university would not tell the true to the public.
60
Now they’ve insulted everyone’s intelligence.
500
The student is a concern. Does anyone know what’s happening with her, or even where she is?
240
I hope I’m not the only one that finds some of the wording from Macquarie University really odd. Like this snippet: “he failed to arrive at a class he had been scheduled to take”.
Would that have been after the Uni cancelled his ticket?
380
Don’t you think that is a set-up? Macquarie university did not want Prof Murry Sadly to take the class. Therefore, Macquarie can claim that he “failed to arrive at a class had been scheduled to take”. HR claimed ‘a misconduct case’ and pushed him out of the university. That’s why Macquarie University removed electronic records and communication evidences.
It is a criminal (organised crime) issue. You would not want to believe this is happening in a public Australian university.
61
When in a hole don’t start digging. Methinks ‘a spokesperson’ would have done much better to say nothing.
320
This has an eerie similarity to the replies those of us who were libeled by the Lewandowsky/Cook crew got following complaints to UWA.
Complete avoidance of the substantive points raised – combined with a straw man argument so hastily assembled that the straws blew away in the wind as one watched.
It also closely resembles the output that those of us in the Mother Country regularly get from complaints to the BBC.
The decoded message reads – “We are part of the establishment. We know what’s best for you – and, more importantly, for us. You, on the other hand, are powerless untermenschen whose concerns are of no importance. Thank you for your interest.”
540
Hey, you’re lucky you got s response! I didn’t
50
The university’s statement is so inept that, to me, it provides confirmation of the gist of what Salby said.
270
But not apparently including the person whose conduct was under investigation? That would be a blatant breach of industrial relations law, as well as principles of natural justice.
Did the “committee” comprise people who were parties to the dispute? Eg judge and jury in their own cause? Were audio recordings made of the proceedings?
“Union nominee” in this context means nominated by the person under investigation. If the union person was “accredited” eg having status under industrial relations law, they should have known better than to turn up without the person they were supposed to be supporting.
Seen this sort of thing before. Academia’s version of “bait and switch”. At another University recently in the news for terminating an association with a former staffer, I got criticised for “not doing enough research”. I concentrated on teaching, and was required to supervise one of the student computer facilities, serving 300+ students, access available 24/7/365 … I quit soon afterwards, took a $10,000 drop in salary to get away from such impossible demands. My successor in the job was promised that others would take over the computer facility, but this didn’t happen. He then got criticised for concentrating on research (which was very useful) and neglecting his teaching and computer lab responsibilities.
360
Look up “Kangaroo Court”
Trials in absentia aren’t part of a just society.
240
Bernd … clearly you are wrong. Macquarie lists ethics foremost in its list of core values! How could such an institution behave unjustly?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yes, that is sarcasm…
140
Kangaroo? Try Family.
The Family Court ‘trialled’ this type of procedural and pre-emptive strategy way back in the 70’s and has honed it to a fine art over the years.
Allow false accusation without evidence to establish a ‘doubt’ and a ‘possibility’. Set a process that cannot be followed by the accused. Get an ‘expert’ who has no relevant knowledge to ‘report’. Take all the Father’s (always a father) goods and home and give it soley to the false accuser. Tell him that he is likely to be very angry, so, ‘In the best interests of the children’ he is banned from seeing them.
160
This sounds uncomfortably like what is happening in UK Family courts. See Christopher Booker many times in the Sunday Telegraph.
‘Justice’ it is not…
90
No but it is one of the primary means the so called progressives deliver what they call social justice. Which, by the way, has nothing to do with justice. It has everything to do with one social class getting even with another social class for attributed (usually not actual and certainly not proven) violations against still another social class.
80
Do we have a list of former Australian Industrial Relation Commissioners? There can’t be a lot of them.
80
It is one thing to get into a pissing contest. it is another to engage in libel. The Uni knows it. So it will stick to the strictest sense of the truth, and not address any of the other points.
They smell a lawsuit coming, and it is best they make sure all their “facts” are documented. it seems the only one they can dredge up is that he would not teach. Since “teaching” at a Uni is subjective, they can easily rest on their interpretation there.
230
Perhaps true for terminating his position, but there seems to be a potential for other contract breach. To lure Salby away from work in the US it seems to me that there must have been some “sweetener” in the terms of the contract. It looks to me like the sweetness turned bitter pretty early.
160
I have been mulling over that aspect for a couple days now. If true, it could be a diabolically clever attempt by the “consensus” to muzzle those who would investigate the science.
Think about it. How best to shut someone up? Get a cohort (another Uni in crime) to hire them away, then never fulfill the obligations or the terms of the contract, and fire them without giving them access to resources or research.
I am not saying that was the intent with Salby. But it is very Machiavellian.
80
How does an institution cancel the return portion of an air ticket in the possession of the traveler?
Not turning up to give lectures is a serious matter, and doing so persistently could be grounds for dismissal.
A union representative was present during the deliberations of this case according to the university.
It is easy to conclude that the university pushed Salby out for his views on CO2 emissions, especially after the recent affair with Bob Carter.
I am sure we will never know the real truth.
112
I think that’s a good point Bruce. They can’t. The ticket is inviolate and in the name of the traveler. Were it ‘canceled’ this would presumably have required collusion from the University’s travel agency (easy enough to expedite I suppose) together with breaching the privacy laws and probably a raft of employment laws. Odd claim.
Almost certainly, the prof.would have had some teaching obligations, but perhaps he thought not? Conceivably they may have been considered too onerous and research activity compromising, so a spat ensured, resulting in him being given a teaching assistant role, again presumably in order to give him the minimum amount of teaching to permit him to engage in research, which it seems he was unable to do, for reasons not entirely clear.
Quite difficult to see precisely how the truth lies.
71
The university travel department would have booked the ticket and paid for it. It is well within it’s rights to therefore cancel the ticket it booked.
He is accused of missing “a” class.
“he failed to arrive at a class he had been scheduled to take.”
60
Not if it strands the traveler on the other side of the World. Salby can take that one to a court of law for compensation and have an easy win. If they had wanted to cancel the ticket they should have done so before the outward leg of the journey had been started.
10
It sounds like a tactic used in local government; where a disliked person (for whatever reason), is pushed sideways and given tasks he doesn’t like until he finally gives up and moves on. Or as is often the case, he becomes a department of one. The next restructure that comes along, hello redundancy.
230
It’s called constructive dismissal and if proven penalties can be imposed.
120
The neutrality of the response is lawyer-style. If Salby files a lawsuit, he will do so on specific points which they will respond to as they decide.
A passive defense is the best approach when you hold the high ground. Let your oppenent drain himself in the attack. In the field, you need only 1/5th to 1/3rd the enemies numbers to “win”, when winning is not losing. You provide nothing for him. That is what the University is doing.
Earlier we have had other skeptics apparently fired for their non-mainstream views, and skeptics sued for saying things that indicated some warmists knew that their CAGW positions were not defensible but said so anyway (being wrong isn’t a crime or reason for apology, but giving out falsehoods against what you hold true, can be and is). But what came of them?
We are in a remarkable position nations find themselves only every couple of hundred years, in which a world-class demon has been identified and the People called together to defeat. Mostly the demon is a foreign country, but it can be a religious entity, socio-philosophical program or even a pandemic disease. No quarter is given, and none taken. Pragmatism eventually wins, as all this demonizing and flailing about is disruptful to good business and mentally tiring – especially as the extremes do not happen, creating anger in the former agitated disciples. Pragmatism will win in CAGW, but not quite yet. And until then the Salby dispute will be part of the scene.
Act I, curtain dropping. Act II …
260
Whether or not a lawsuit is filed, the court of public opinion is now in session and eminent and influential people are paying attention to this right now. If Macquarie have a good case, they ought to put in the time to verify it, and this reply did nothing to help them.
410
Yes Jo, and the marketing people at Macquarie have to be squirming. How this all works out will potentially have a chilling effect on future recruitment efforts. They will not like a big public street fight.
201
There are already a few cases in the past. Macquarie uses its resources (i.e. Australian tax payers money) to fight any cases. Macquarie executives will hire hit-man (or specialised staff) to do the fight or cover-up.
However, they will not like big public street fight.
100
Not only are ’eminent and influential’ people taking note, even unnotable and impotent people are paying attention. Yours truly!
100
Don’t you think that is a set-up? Macquarie university claimed ‘a misconduct case’ and pushed him out of the university. That’s why Macquarie university remove Prof Saldy’s electronic records and communication evidences.
Macquarie knows that it is hard for Prof. Sadly to provide evidences for his case while HR Dept can provide all ‘falsed’ documents. They use these evil tactics for many years.
It is a criminal (organised crime) issue. You would not want to believe this is happening in a public Australian university.
70
They have many strings to their bow.
40
All the better to make the rope by which they hang themselves.
100
The next line of attack be Macquarie University, or the defenders in the warmist community will be to say it is a prestigious University (with support from the wider “scientific” community) against a dilettante who has become blinded to a truth obvious to the vast majority.
If Salby had made false claims, their reaction should be to say that a response will follow legal advice. If they are untrue, Salby’s claims are actionable through being highly damaging to the prestige of a University as a research institution. Discouragement of original research would diminish the ability of the university to attract fee-paying students and (in a non-partisan political environment) discourage research funding.
110
Salby’s book may save him there. He’s clearly not a maverick to write a 650 page manual on climate science, which by all accounts is pretty thorough.
I’m tempted to get it myself as a reference.
60
For most people being labelled a maverick is a derogatory term. But in previous thread I called Murray Salby a maverick in the sense of people who went on to win Nobel Prizes. That is people who successfully challenged orthodoxy.
20
Just what, exactly, do you want from Macquarie University?
How about a full catalogue of Professor Salby’s transgressions with an annotated commentary describing his shortcomings in all respects? Would you like them to publish that? You can be fairly sure that they will have well documented evidence to support their actions, in theses days of extreme protections against unfair dismissal.
They’ve taken the risk of providing a bare-bones, inoffensive response which defends their action without too much offence to their ex-employee. It seems perfectly reasonable to me.
340
Is that the next move open to Salby? Write a very public letter to Macquarie relieving them of any obligation to confidentiality and asking them to list all grievances against him recorded by the Uni that in any way contributed to his dismissal.
For example, firing a Professor for one missed lecture would be selective enforcement because lecturers will miss lectures every once in a while, and usually they can call up a grad student or someone else in the department at short notice to give the lecture instead so the students at least get something.
What your argument shows is that “What they don’t say” is just an information vacuum into which one can superimpose any preconceptions one likes. You choose to assume there’s a dirt file on him, whereas the rest of us didn’t.
We just don’t know at this point. As Bruce says, we may never know.
190
Presumably Salby didn’t have tenure, even so, the University’s position seems very weak.
20
I agree that I am not surprised the university just gave a bare-bones response.
This is what they have to do in order to preserve privacy for Salby and to be
safe in case there is a lawsuit. He is allowed to talk about his own case but
they are still not allowed to discuss certain things I’m sure.
I was looking forward to seeing Salby publish his most recent stuff.
I don’t know where the truth lies. I find it hard to believe that this is really
just to silence someone who disagrees with the consensus and is about to
publish groundbreaking, world changing research. I like to think the
system is not that corrupt. Plus, you can’t hide the truth forever, especially
in science.
But I also find it hard to believe that Salby just happened to be let go at
this time. If his account is accurate, then it is problematic. Oddly, I find
myself agreeing with Eli Rabett to some extent, let the dust settle a bit and
don’t make baseless accusations. The ball is in Salby’s court. If needs funds
to pursue his legal case, one could choose to help him, but none of us know
the real story.
14
The criminal set-up was designed to push Prof Sadly to the wrong direction.
Macquarie University’s ‘hit-man’ and a group of ‘hit-men’ have arrived. This ‘local criminal network’ controls/affiliates local courts, govt and local dept administrations. They are the specialists to provide false documents that no one can proved. Public media is the killer for this criminal group. They are frightened to the mass public and international powerful global groups. Power is their “God”.
44
Somebody should put Kim Sprague on the spot – and the sooner the better!
Given the protracted trajectory of all this and the associated shenanigans – it’s clear that he must have handled the knife used …
It would be delicious if somebody at Macquarie University leaks or breaks rank…
70
Tim Sprague, HR Director is indirectly reporting to his master – Michael Egan. Michael Egan also put a new Vice Chancellor recently. HR Dept uses (doggy) psychological games and tactics to abuse staff. If you are targeting Tim Sprague, he will get extra annual salary bonuses from his master and the university. By the way, union is Macquarie’s friend, not enemy. – higher level politics.
50
Will Trevor Keenan be next to go?
Reported in The Australian paper today ….’The efficiency dividend, shown by long-term data from forests around the world, was bigger than predicted by sophisticated computer models.“This could be considered a beneficial effect of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide,” said Macquarie University’s Trevor Keenan, lead author of a Nature paper today reporting the results. ” ‘
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/plants-are-learning-to-live-with-extra-carbon/story-e6frgcjx-1226677347957
90
They’ve got it arse about face. Plants have learnt to live with lower CO2 levels and are finally recovering as CO2 levels return to normal. CO2 levels were much higher when plants evolved.
150
Macquarie university has just posted statements to cover-up. Liar, liar, liar!!
The most criminal activity in university. Shame, shame, shame!!
Michael Egan (Chancellor) is a leader at Macquarie university. He is also a former union official and former Australian politician. He should ask himself why these evil tactics can be used in university ‘repeatedly’ for many years. Would you hire Tim Sprague as a HR director to manage your organisational culture?
Who is the sponsor of the faceless men in Australia? This is what we have in Australia – ‘very doggy people’ are operating Australia.
Dictatorial, barbaric and sickness behaviour!!
293
A former Carr NSW Labor government treasurer.
131
An amusing reflection on Mr Egan, when he left politics he purchased a vintage Triumph motor cycle but when he attempted to rid it he discovered that his short legs could not reach the roadway and maintain bike stability at the same time.
80
We have some very dodgy people running Australia as well …
20
The entire reply looks like a big “smoothing” of the data, now where have I seen that before?
It’s also a text book AGW/political statement,
– Claim innocence of any fault, their evidence is gospel.
– They respect freedom of speech when their actions clearly don’t.
– Cherry picked one “possible” fact to explain the entire case (Epidemiology).
– Use of an emotive straw man “the students welfare”, evidence please.
– Salby broke “University policy”, a quasi legal argument.
– The decision was made by their system and final, Australian law not good enough?
The more I look at this farce the angrier I get, so I say to Murray good luck mate and with Lord Monckton on your side I hope you tear Macquarie University a new one.
250
These are the standard formula and tactics that have been used all the times in university.
Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and university policies are their “witch-menu” to overrule the “law”. The university executives hire ‘hit-man’ to do the jobs. The internal criminal network is also quite large.
161
Reminds me of the Australian union movement, the manipulators of the ALP and many other areas of influence achieved via Labor in government.
140
Enough of conspiracies! If anyone has any evidence to support their claim then please post it, otherwise cease with the allegations.
I’m not on Macquarie University’s side and I’m not on Salby’s side. I just don’t see enough information from which to draw a conclusion. Macquarie University was under no obligation to provide a point-by-point rebuttal of Salby’s claims and as is normal it is cautious about how it expresses what it does say. Conversely we see allegations but precious little evidence to support Salby’s claims.
Salby alleges that Macquarie University failed to meet his expectations; perhaps he failed to meet Macquaries’ expectations.
Lord Monckton would be foolish to get involved with this matter, and if he attempts to then the university is under no obligation to respond.
The only way that we might reasonably learn more about this matter is if Salby takes legal action against the university. I see no sign of such action having been taken and I ponder whether that’s because Salaby’s case is weak.
1130
Good point.
Yup it is. Certainly where i work, academics are expected to be available for teaching roles. Research active Academics are in a position to make valuable contributions to undergrad teaching, and are expected to make some contribution to the “grunt” work of teaching such as marking. If he wasn’t turning up for classes as the Macquarie statement suggests then the teaching role he was assigned was obviously more than the minor grunt work Salby’s statement referred to.
Claiming this is some sort of conspiracy to silence a researcher based on the nature of their research outcomes is drawing a pretty long bow.
433
If you bring in enough research money, you can pay your own salary. Then you don’t have to teach, and the university doesn’t mind. But if that is not the case you need to earn your living teaching…
519
I once had the displeasure of working with world leaders in the field of the propogation of high frequency radio waves in the ionosphere and i have never in all my life met a bigger bunch of obnoxious, rude, ignorant people in all my life.
I can imagine the reaction if you had asked them to stoop so low to mark a students paper.
One of them was OK, he lamented the fact that he spent the better part of 40 years at school learning “stuff” and not actually living in the real world. He said his only claim to fame was his thesis where he showed the assumed brightest spot on the moon was in fact not the brightest……..I thought this was a pretty good achievement but he went on to say why? No one knows my name, no fame or fortune so what was the point would have been better with a real job.
And you know something? (RegTM KRudd) He was right.
100
Hmm, a comment from Jo’s resident squealing warmist weasel. I note that you too have found your way to Dr. Salby’s excellent video of the scientific work the employer of Tim Flannery, Macquarie University, is suspected of trying to suppress. The sorry little comment you left there indicates you are incapable of understanding it, let alone challenging it.
Yesterday I emailed the Dean of science at Macquarie and gave my congratulations on the promotion of the video and the departments efforts to discredit the post normal pseudo science of global warming.
Since that email, a further 1600 people have accessed the video.
Just a little lemon juice to go with the salt in Macquarie University’s wounds 😉 Their shame will live on the Internet forever.
230
You could be right. This could just be a case where someone
has not been all that productive and they found a way to get
rid of him. The odd thing is that the troubles started so soon
after he was courted to take the position.
It is also odd that his views go against the consensus and that
extreme measures apparently were used against him. We only
have his word for that though. But, I also find it hard to believe
that it is all a conspiracy to silence him. You can’t really hide
scientific “truth” for too long. His ideas are out there. But, maybe
they think he is a crackpot and want to get rid of a perceived source
of embarrassment who has not been as productive as they wanted
and who was (possibly) argumentative/hard to get along with??
I have no reason to believe this is true but it is a possibility.
It’s also possible that they got rid of him due to embarrassment
but will be even more so when he is found to be right
on one or more issues. Only time will tell.
27
The other part of this is that it can be very, very
difficult to get funding if your views are not in
line with the “consensus”, particularly in highly
politicized fields which climate has clearly become.
Many funds are actually ear-marked to study or
remedy CO2 caused AGW and therefore research
that said it was not a factor obviously would not
qualify for funding at all for those sources.
60
The second half of this is obvious-no perhaps about it. Just what the “expectations” were isn’t so clear and that is nearly the whole point. Employee-employer disagreements and ultimate separations are common as can be. Many are settled quietly and with both sides benefiting by saving some face. Clearly the Uni failed to resolve this quietly. They have plenty to lose PR-wise by making this messy.
My take is that Macquarie chose to make this bloody on purpose because they likely had every tool to resolve it quietly and did not.
Why? is the question.
121
Because they want to make a public example, and thus send a very clear message to the rest of the academic staff?
We may be witnessing a battle between those who look to the level of financing as a measure of success, and those who look to the integrity and quality of the research and teaching.
Is a university first and foremost a business, like any other, or is it primarily an institution that exists to gather knowledge?
Stay tuned … we may be about to find out.
150
Wouldnt makle a monkeys diffrence to me what they said or what they did, what happenned or what the entire issue is about, its a university and I (as a result of multiple experiences with several of them across several decades) have a very dim view of universities and the people who work for them (aside from those exceptions who are among my friends).
82
So your reason for making a comment then is as follows
57
…to take every opportunity to dump on universities.
32
hurrah
10
These are the standard formula and tactics that have been used all the times in university.
Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and university policies are their “witch-menu” to overrule the “law”. The university executives hire ‘hit-man’ or ‘hit-men’ to do the jobs. The internal criminal network is also quite large.
111
I did Salby have a contract?
If so, the lawyers will have to fight it out.
Yes, it’s shabby treatment, etc, etc. At the end of the day each party is bound by the contract provisions.
101
‘Power of corruption’ and ‘abuse of power’.
100
I believe he explained in his initial letter that the contract, duly signed by both parties, was never registered with some government authority, thus making it null and void.
22
I am not sure if this is possible but some data that gives a perspective on this case would be good. I am wondering, what is the rate of dismissal of academic staff in Australian Universities? What is the rate of dismissal for contract breaches? What is the rate in different disciplines?
113
I doubt anything Macquarie University try will work in the long term.
Dr. Salby produces this work that effectively challenges the very foundation of the global warming hoax.
The university that employs Tim Flannery, head of the climate commission, then sacks Dr. Salby.
It just looks bad now. However the hoax is collapsing rapidly. How is this sorry episode going to be viewed by the cheated taxpayers in the future? “Bad” won’t be the half of it.
Good luck with the “nothing to do with his views on climate change” line Macquarie 😉
221
As I see the sequence of events, we have Prof. Murry Salby sacked from Macquarie University, Prof. Bob Carter sacked from James Cook University, both because their pronouncements are at odds with the Federal Government’s propaganda, an ABC organisation that only repeats items favourable to that propaganda and totally ignores any item that contradicts the faith in spite of having a charter that requires balance, a Climate Change Commission that has been set up to promulgate the Federal Government propaganda, a CSIRO that merely plagiarizes the IPCC pronouncements with no alternate views offered by their scientists, a Bureau of Meteorology that goes to the extent of using unspecified mathmatical tools to produce climate results that meet the Fed. Govn. requirements for brain washing the public, even a Chief Scientist who studiously ignores commenting of the need for balance and alternate views. Is this not the way that Stalin controlled Russia during the communist era? Are we completely lacking scientists of integrity? Where is our local Julian Assage or Snowden?
Incidentally where can one purchase the books by both Carter and Salby?
221
No, Stalin had people shot, or assigned to a Gulag in Siberia. It was generally acknowledged in the West, that the “University of Siberia” was “home to some to the best academic minds in the world”.
What we are witnessing is something that Governments, of all political persuasions, have always done to the populace; and that is lie, and cheat, and rip them off.
You have only to study the Feudal system of the 12th and 13th Centuries to see Agenda 21 writ large.
111
Bevam: I always prefer to support my local bookshop, and back in 2010 they quickly obtained a copy of Robert Carter’s ‘Climate: the Counter Consensus’ for me. Failing that, there’s always the internet and Amazon.
I think you might also enjoy ‘The Great Global Warming Blunder’ by Roy W. Spencer – have a look at his website as well.
60
Assigning a professor grading duties cannot be seen as anything but as an attempt at humiliating the person. All relevant professional societies agree on this. The American Association of University Professors, the most important of such societies, would surely condemn such conduct. If Salby’s account of this matter is the whole story then Macquarie has not a leg to stand on.
332
Theo – you speak unadulterated nonsense but two people are nonetheless in agreement with you.
Amazingly experts in the field assess the work of students. It’s true! They actually do marking. I know of many. They’d be mightily pissed off if there was someone not pulling their weight.
Second item of nonsense is your evidenceless supposition about what an organisation would say on this matter. I’ll forgive you if you are from a country other than the USA, but in the USA “professor” is not the highest rank for an academic in many institutions. Indeed liberal arts, teaching only institutions are full of professors, many of who are barely out of college themselves. They do a lot of marking without feeling insulted.
621
Make that three
80
Yes, how much grading you do depends on the type of institution at which
you are employed, your contract, your productivity, which semester it is, etc.
Some professors will leave the grading of labs to grad. students but grade
exams themselves if the class size is small or if it is not multiple choice.
Using US standards, if Macquarie is a research institution, then most grading
will be done by grad. students and assigning a lot of grading to an older
professor would be a way to attempt to get them to leave voluntarily.
It would be odd to recruit a well established senior professor and give them
lots of teaching/grading. But after 4 years if he had not brought in money
they could then assign him a lot of grading and take away lab space, etc.
as an inducement for him to work harder to get funding or leave. Whether
this is allowed or not depends on his contract but typically at US universities,
they are free to take away your space if you are not “paying your way”.
I hope he is able to publish his work. It looked extremely interesting.
40
And that, I suspect, is the heart of the matter.
It is, perhaps, a little too interesting for some tastes; and therefore it must be “buried”.
80
Its a little too scientific for some tastes….. or perhaps just way over their heads.
40
I read somewhere yesterday he is in the process of writing 3 papers on his recent work.
( But I can’t remember where I read it !!)
00
You confuse “being assigned the role of grading assistant” and “grading one’s student papers.” Salby said that he was assigned the role of a grading assistant. Being a grading assistant means working for a teacher but not being a teacher.
20
Organizations such as the AAUP investigate situations like that of Salby and publish results to their members. If what Salby says is true and the whole story, which it might not be, then taking a job in Salby’s department at Macquarie would be simply unthinkable. My point is that this matter is serious. Both parties should strive for a solution that satisfies both and do so immediately.
20
Utter crap. If they are involved in teaching and setting the tasks that are being assessed then they should be involved in the assessment. Yup, many will try and outsource this to minions as much as possible, but the better ones wont.
220
Bullshit Catamon. I marked papers on Quantum Mech and Stat Mech when I was doing my PhD. It was expected as part of my PhD grant. The lecturers and my supervisor (a Reader) had better things to do.
131
And a good little minion as well. 🙂
11
Charles Bourbaki has it right and has an example of being a grading assistant drawn from personal experience.
70
In Australia researchers are expected to teach classes and tutorials, mark assignments and supervise graduate students as well as do research.
50
It is such an insult.
27
Over at wuwt, Steve McIntyre makes comments re Salby:
Steve McIntyre says:
July 10, 2013 at 10:36 am
In my opnion, Salby’s first recourse should be to file a grievance against his termination under macquarie procedures
http://staff.mq.edu.au/human_resources/ea/professional_staff_agreement/4_working_at_macquarie_university/415_grievance_procedures/.
He should do so without much delay as such appeals need to be filed within 3 months of the event (which took place in May.)
He’s much better advised to exhaust the university system before contemplating litigation. His best outcome is to get his job back. That’s far more valuable than any damages that he might obtain. Commenters who are inexperienced with litigation are far too quick to urge it on others.
.
There are more comments from SM worth a look.
160
I’m going to respectfully disagree with that one. There’s no point working at a place where the management look down on you. You will never get promoted, never get a pay rise, and even if they do promise you something, they will treat you like a joke and never deliver what they promised. Once you get to that point you really don’t have a job at that place any more, the rest is formality.
As for damages, they *can sometimes* be quite large in Australia, not that I would bet on the outcome of this particular case. Sexual harassment cases have been known to clock up millions in damages, often for only a handful of incidents.
70
Hmmm, I just did a search on that and the biggest I could find was Kristy Fraser-Kirk who asked for $37 million, but supposedly only got $850,000 so perhaps not quite as high as I first thought, but still pretty serious money.
Might even buy a small house in Sydney for that kind of money.
50
Within the UK this would be a clear cut case of constructive dismissal. However, compensation is quite limited under the law, and is capped at about £50k. The same or similar may be true for Australian law and may also contain traps for the unwary such as perhaps a requirement to follow employer tribunal procedures before being able to go to external law for instance.
Could be the university have accurate legal advice and are expecting to lose only a small amount of money if compensation is capped in the same manner in Australia, effectively allowing them to do whatever they want and get away with it.
00
http://www.2gb.com/article/alan-jones-professor-bob-carter
80
Would people here change their tune if it was learned that Salby was negligent in his teaching duties and asking for things that were not in the contract (signed or unsigned)? In other works that he was sacked for non-performance of duties that he was engaged to perform – just like sackings in all businesses.
I’m not saying that this was the case, but maybe it was. I point out that we’ve heard little from Macquarie and only allegations from Salby, so who’s to know where the truth lies?
Would discovering this hypothetical scenario is correct, would you change your opinion? If not, why not?
315
JohnM
If it was as straightforward as your hypothetical scenario sets out then yes, I would say it was fair enough.
But the University’s own actions show it is nowhere near that simple. Why cancel the airfare like they supposedly did?
Why was Dr Salby not at or allowed to at the final meeting?
If it was anywhere near as simple as your scenario then the University could have easily given a much more substantive response , without going into any “gruesome” detail.
130
What evidence has Salby produced to show that Macquarie cancelled the airline ticket? None as far as I can see. What’s Macquarie’s version of events? We don’t know because it hasn’t stated one.
In the absence of that information let me speculate about why an airline ticket might have been invalidated
– Salby didn’t confirm within the specified time, or maybe didn’t check-in
– the type of ticket was in contravention with Macquarie’s policy regards airline travel and Macquarie only just discovered this
– the airline cancelled the ticket for some reason (eg. cancelled the flight)
– people (Macquarie or the airline) might have attempted to contact Salby about the change but he failed to receive the message
As I said, these are speculation. They could however account for the situation that Salby described only as a cancellation but provided no evidence for.
03
If Salby was from the US and contracted to Australia, MacQuarie University would still be liable for his return costs to the States.
Isn’t the MacQuarie University still responsible for repatriation to the States of Professor Salby? By stranding him in Paris, doesn’t in effect cost them more?
That’s normal for expatriate business contracts overseas, and even applies if sacked.
Does it apply to University Professors lured to Australia for research, teaching etc?
00
will await further developments before commenting.
however, if u want to keep a CAGW job, u need to be willing, like Fitzgerald, to pose for the hilarious pic with the bread:
11 July: WeeklyTimesNow: Peter Hemphill: Carbon hits bread size
PHOTO CAPTION: Shrinking dough: Glenn Fitzgerald displays loaves of bread grown under current (left) and elevated (right) carbon dioxide levels.
Department of Environment and Primary Industries researchers have been studying the impact of elevated carbon dioxide levels on wheat production in a long-term trial at Horsham…
“In just about every case, you get lower micronutrient levels,” Dr Fitzgerald told the Birchip Cropping Group expo last week.
He said in the case of iron and zinc, this could impact human nutrition in underdeveloped countries.
Dr Fitzgerald said the FACE research had shown rising carbon dioxide levels resulted in about 22 per cent more grain, but it also impacted on grain quality…
Dr Walker (DEPI research chemist Cassandra Walker) said the yitpi and janz varieties grown in higher carbon dioxide environments produced smaller loaves of bread.
She said other impacts included janz producing a weaker dough while yitpi lost dough extensibility…
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2013/07/11/576013_grain-and-hay.html
it took SIX years to get that bread pic, so don’t laugh:
30 July 2012: Age: Darren Grey: Listening for the hissing in wheat carbon trial
In a project that includes researchers from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, Melbourne University and the CSIRO, crops are being grown under the anticipated carbon dioxide levels of 2050 (expected to be 550 parts per million), as well as under the existing level of today (about 380 parts per million).
***The research started in 2007 and will continue until 2013…
Grain yields from the Horsham sites have increased by 10 to 40 per cent, while field pea yields have risen 15 to 50 per cent, depending on the variety.
But there has also been a downside. The protein levels in wheat grown under higher carbon dioxide levels declined by 2 to 7 per cent. This is important because lower wheat protein levels can mean lower payments to farmers. The levels of micronutrients such as zinc and iron in wheat also declined, by almost 10 per cent…
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/listening-for-the-hissing-in-wheat-carbon-trial-20120729-236hr.html
30
I could use the same wheat, bake it two different ways and get the same result are they trying to convince me with this argument or are they trying to shore up their support from bleeding away?
60
Pat & Craka,
Don’t know why they would test here in Australia, when high protein wheat is not normally grown. What a waste.
Also most Aussie wheat flours never have enough gluten protein for bread making. (except Durum high which is for pasta)
They should check with UWA, QLD DPI previous studies prior to doing research like this, as agriculture in Australia is really not suitable for growing wheat to produce bread flour. They have got to look at hardness also, eg. for biscuits, noodles, bread or pasta. They all vary and most of Aussie wheat is for grain feed.
40
thanks for the info Dave
Cheers
20
Hilarious. Thanks.
20
these researchers know how to play the game:
11 July: PhysOrg: Researchers set out path for global warming reversal
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) can reverse the global warming trend and push temperatures back below the global target of 2°C above pre-industrial levels, even if current policies fail and we initially overshoot this target.
This is according to a new study, published today, 11 July, in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters, which shows that ambitious temperature targets can be exceeded then reclaimed by implementing BECCS around mid-century.
The researchers, from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, show that if BECCS is implemented on a large-scale along with other renewable energy sources, temperature increases can be as low as 1.5°C by 2150…
Co-author of the study, Professor Christian Azar, said: “What we demonstrate in our paper is that even if we fail to keep temperature increases below 2°C, then we can reverse the warming trend and push temperatures back below the 2°C target by 2150.
“To do so requires both large-scale use of BECCS and reducing other emissions to near-zero levels using other renewables – mainly solar energy – or nuclear power.”…
However, the authors caution against interpreting their study as an argument for delaying emission reductions in the near-term.
Azar says: “BECCS can only reverse global warming if we have net negative emissions from the entire global energy system. This means that all other CO2 emissions need to be reduced to nearly zero…
http://phys.org/news/2013-07-path-global-reversal.html
00
papers, papers, papers:
10 July: Guardian: Nafeez Ahmed: James Hansen: Fossil fuel addiction could trigger runaway global warming
Without full decarbonisation by 2030, our global emissions pathway guarantees new era of catastrophic climate change
The world is currently on course to exploit all its remaining fossil fuel resources, a prospect that would produce a “different, practically uninhabitable planet” by triggering a “low-end runaway greenhouse effect.” This is the conclusion of a new scientific paper by Prof James Hansen, the former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the world’s best known climate scientist.
The paper due to be published later this month by Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A) focuses less on modelling than on empirical data about correlations between temperature, sea level and CO2 going back up to 66 million years…
According to a scientific paper given at the Geological Society of London last month, climate records from Siberian caves show that temperatures of just 1.5C generate “a tipping point for continuous permafrost to start thawing”, according to lead author Prof Anton Vaks from Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences…
Another paper suggests that conventional climate modelling is too conservative due to not accounting for complex risks and feedbacks within and between ecosystems. The paper published in Nature last Wednesday finds that models used to justify the 2C target as a ‘safe’ limit focus only on temperature rise and fail to account for impacts on the wider climate system such as sea level rise, ocean acidification, and loss of carbon from soils. It concludes that the 2C target is insufficient to avoid dangerous climate change…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/earth-insight/2013/jul/10/james-hansen-fossil-fuels-runaway-global-warming
12
Do you think Hansen has ever stopped to wonder why no world leader bothers to listen to him?
60
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/09/national-park-on-moon-proposed/
The USA own the moon?
20
LOL
Can you buy permits for camping there?
20
Maybe they instead should clean up the garbage they left behind?
31
That is what they are trying to create the park for! LOL
20
They planted their flag first. 😉
20
They had a man put a flag there. Did you? Seems they have a good enough claim.
10
I have had some experience in academic management at the Departmental level. That is the very first time I have heard of an academic being summarily fired for failing to turn up to ‘a’ class. When I was managing a Department there were academics constantly evading their teaching and other duties, as well as failing to adequately perform research, and it was very difficult to bring them to task about this; they often pleaded illness, or misadventure, or lack of information, or stress of the work etc. For termination of employment, there would have to have been a series of such failures, about which the academic should have been given due ‘staged’ warnings, the final one warning he was under threat of summary termination of employment if he failed to attend any future class that had been clearly nominated to him to attend. Even then, given this was a contractual position, the ground is very shaky, and much depends on his reasons for non-attendance on that day and the terms of his employment regarding the teaching and research components agreed on in his contract (the work of a teaching ‘assistant’ is an extremely lowly teaching position to offer to a senior research appointment as his teaching load). This University statement is too brief to be very illuminating. However, if the employee was not given the opportunity to attend his case hearing it may be that natural justice has not been satisfied. The conjecture is that there is a different ‘back story’ to the circumstances and reasons for this dismissal. Dr. Salby should consult his lawyers with his documentation and be frank with them concerning his actions and understandings, with a view to reinstatement or compensation. We do not know enough of the circumstances to advise him, and the University comment is unhelpful in its sparseness, which in itself raises some concerns. Perhaps, after taking legal advice, Dr. Salby could write a public version of his own.
293
I suspect that his legal advice would be not to do what you suggest in the last sentence.
414
Professor Salby has already reported. It is a set-up with evil tactics to attack Prof Salby and his student. Both of them have no idea how evil of these executives (management) can be.
Please refer to JoNova’s previous posts for further details about the background and history discussions. I am not surprised Macquarie University would hire another “hit-man” or a group of “hit-men” to cover the case.
The power of corruption and abuse of power – look up the connections and history of the Chancellor’s background, local government administrations, NTEU and senior Labor party executive in federal Govt.
72
Lizzie – I also had some experience in the administration of staff at University and I agree with you. Firing a staff member is a very involved process with all sorts of safeguards on the staff members behalf. The warning system as you say is extensive and it has to be fully documented at every stage.
141
These readers did not know any facts about the Prof Saldy and students situations and made general comments about their own experience. Do they do ‘science research’? These are the quality people we have in university for management and administration roles. Yes, you can get promotion when you are doing hit-man job too.
60
Elizabeth (Lizzie B)
With well over 1000 comments so far, on JoNova, Bishop Hill, and WUWT yours is the most helpful so far.
If Prof Salby was indeed humiliated in this way (reduced to a mere ‘teaching assistant’) in an attempt to force him out, then the potential repercussions are mind-boggling.
Thank you, and more power to your elbow !
92
Toad, that is right. Power – corruption and abuse of power
This is because people would not want to believe this is happening in university – i.e. corruption and abuse of power.
Unfortunately, Lizzie only used her own experience without knowing this case. I am telling you, Professor Sadly is telling the true. There are many cases I know at Macquarie University.
81
Browsing in Dynocks yeaterday, I saw 5 copies of Clive Hamilton’s book in the Science Section!
I quietly moved them to the Science Fiction Section. How lon will they remain?
100
Sorry this is OT but I thought most would be interested
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/energy-ticker/2013/07/09/peak-oil-web-site-to-close-its-doors/
50
Another one bites the dust. That’s another primer for “renewables at any cost because we’re all duuummmmed” cut down at the knees right there.
40
I think they got rid of him because his research undermines their means, CAGW(UNFCCC), to promote international Marxism?
72
I agree and don’t forget that the bloody wound was really a piece of red cloth that was blowing in the wind in space, launched by the explosives hidden in the basement.
210
WTF!!!!!!!!!!
91
Parody by exaggeration. (I hope.)
40
I think it’s code. Code that triggers those that were hypnotized by their “keepers” to act on their commands. Wait and see who was triggered by this code.
In the meantime WTF ??????
80
fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord
10
I am probably late here but I’m just so gob smacked athe the headline in the Australian today
Plants are “learning to live with extra carbon”!!!!
Are these guys for real!!!!
60
They believe that they are. The continuing ignorance is hard to take. Journalist Schools, lefty managed institutions of propaganda.
20
Dennis, I’m not inclined to consider this ignorance, rather to consider it a deliberate, orchestrated cultivation and manipulation of group think. That ‘they’ have both the intent and gall to perpetrate their propaganda is the thing that needs to be called out and scrutinized.
It would seem that ‘they’ (MSM) will never admit to the adoption of an unfalsifiable C/AGW hypothesis. Thereafter, we are ‘saved’ indeed, reprieved by the magnificent tolerance and adaptability of Gaia. They don’t even have the grace of pretense any longer.
There is no intention to sound melodramatic here but the C/AGW has never been less than a war of ideals and politics. It is now overt.
10
Macquarie University Insider –
Chancellor is:
Wikipedia: Michael Egan (Australian politician)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Egan_(Australian_politician)
do wonder if Coalition voters are noticing the extraordinary & exceptional daily output of positive headlines in the MSM for Rudd, & the near-invisiblity of Abbott? the following are just PART of today’s offerings, yet if u do a search of Abbott News, u will get almost entirely the Rudd criticisms, or even some of the positive headlines below, which don’t even mention Abbott:
Rudd may soften ALP reform plan – The Australian
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the king of political social media – Herald Sun
Kevin Rudd’s Instagram selfie, use of term programmatic specificity dominate Twitter during National Press Club address – Herald Sun
Yirrkala, 50 years on: Kevin Rudd flags fresh push on Indigenous constitutional …ABC Online
Opinion:Kevin Rudd’s served up a hearty meal at the Press Club lunch NEWS.com.au
In Depth:Prime Minister wants productivity pact Sky News Australia
Capt Negative is easy politics: Rudd – Herald Sun
Tony Abbott has no plan for the economy: Kevin Rudd – Sydney Morning Herald
PM Rudd urges union-business pact – Brisbane Times
Labor pleas fail as Kevin Rudd sticks with Nova Peris – The Australian
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to visit PNG – ABC
National Press Club: Kevin Rudd – ABC
Rudd to paint a pretty picture of the economy to the Press Club – ABC
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will address the National Press Club – NEWS LTD
NSW driving the Kevin Rudd resurgence: Newspoll – The Australian
20
Guys, This has nothing to do with Rudd.
20
Macquarie University Insider – Pat’s posts usually have nothing to do with the thread – he’s our daily news source on things happening in the media. If you’d been on this site for a while you would know that.
20
Much the pity that Parliament has recessed so no chance for issue to be raised with the relevant ministerial appointees. The university is probably thanking its lucky stars for the timing and hope the initial fuss is lost in the election farce that is developing. Still nothing to stop the whole issue being opened up in the USA in the lead up to their elections and that of course will give ample time to build backlash against the University.
Needs some careful timing and our financial support to ensure that Professor Salby can be adequately represented in both Jurisdictions, This may well be the means of bringing down the whole CAGW fraudulent meme. After all we have the most biased political media system and ample evidence that our Universities have been poorly used and abused in the suppression of those that have tried to speak out.
The Lewandowski’s the cockeyed cook get a free run, public funding, rewarded like Flannery and the Garnault economists promoted as climate scientists, but hold no such qualifications and then a genuine and qualified climate scientist gets treated poorly, yes this could be the watershed case that will eventually hold the cabal to account.
Students should be out in the street shouting save Salby, lest they be the victims of such a system.
71
I received a reply from Joanna (Wheatley?) enclosing the news release. In my email I asked if Titova had also been dismissed – no response. I’ve asked again if Titova has been dismissed and I’m waiting for a response.
If I don’t receive a response, I think we can assume Titova has been dismissed as well
82
Has it occurred to you, Mango, that its none of your business?
227
I rest my case.
100
I was going to say the delay of 4.5 hours put the hypnosis theory on shaky ground, but if he was busy on domestic matters it is still possible JB was triggered the moment he read it.
Just a bit more SkepticalScience for J.B., it’s gravy for the brain, gravy for the brain… 😉
40
Has it occurred to you, JB, that Salby and Titova may be looking for all the friends they can find, at the moment? It would appear to be the most obvious explanation for Salby emailing several conservative blogs, in the way that he did.
Mind you,your attitude is not in the least bit surprising, or new, for someone like you. To better understand yourself – and how others see you – you might start with this guy – Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, to get a better understanding of your “it’s not my problem” attitude.
You could do worse than have a read of “The Gulag Archipelago”.
232
what’s your problem, John?
a simple “it’s none of your business” response would be fine – better would be a yes/no answer
the truth will out anyway
60
A short, sweet comment from Brookesy. Maybe he was on his way to mop up some vomit in the University’s Cafeteria.
71
Has it ever occurred to you, jb … that you’re an idiot ?
Jo only let’s you post here because it makes us look good.
51
Why are you surprised with this ? The guy clearly has non-politically correct opinions on climate change and has been pilloried by Macquarie University. THINK on this, parents, and DESPAIR for your children being educated at this CLIMATE HYSTERIA INDOCTRINATION AND LARGELY TAXPAYER FUNDED OUTFIT.
121
I doubt very much Macquarie University would want this to go to Court lest evidence and facts against the Climate Change consensus be raised in a Court of Law.
We wouldn’t want that to happen now, would we?
51
Don’t you know the ‘local criminal network’ controls/affiliates with the local govt & departments (even union).
Macquarie university senior executives (senior academic management) are frightened the news will go to local and international media. They afraid their reputation could be damaged. Macquarie will not like public fight. The faceless-man’s sponsor and local corruption could be exposed.
41
I guess they think they can further suppress, and will try to arrange a quiet payout settlement with the usual, “don’t rock the boat” confidentiality clause that some church officials used for secrecy and suppression of truth, and you can only hope that will come back and bite them on the bum too in the fullness of academic time.
20
I am less eager to leap to Salby’s defense than most of you seem to be. Has Salby told us the whole story? There are gaps in what he has told us.
Why did the university buy a plane ticket for someone who was suspended and facing a dismissal procedure? They had already locked him out of his office and denied him computer access. And according to Salby they also told him they wouldn’t support his trip. So why then did they pay for his ticket? That just doesn’t add up. Did he buy the ticket using his university credit card when he had no authority to do so? Is that why they cancelled it?
Before defending the man I would like to know more. Yes he is a sceptic. That doesn’t make him a saint. What do we really know about him?
We know that many of his students think he is a poor teacher
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=365852
which is not surprising as he seems to think teaching is beneath him. He comes across as a bit of an arrogant prick in this regard actually.
We know that he was involved in an earlier court case against the University of Colorado.
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/colorado/codce/1:2007cv00225/100407/
around the time of his resignation from his tenured position, the details of which are
unavailable but which seems to have been settled out of court.
We also know that it is alleged
http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/07/12/murry-salby-sacked-australian-university–banned-national-science-foundation
that the reason he left his tenured position at Colorado concerned serious financial impropriety with respect to an NSF grant. While desmogblog isn’t a neutral and trustworthy source, I doubt that even they would make such an allegation if it were not true. They point
to the Office of the Inspector General semiannual report 2007
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/oig0902/oig0902_4.pdf
and although this document doesn’t identify Salby by name, enough is quoted on desmogblog to identify him as being this person
OK – that doesn’t exactly make me want to go in to bat for this guy. And it makes my conjecture about how he bought his plane ticket seem entirely plausible. He has form, as the police would say.
I have no illusions about how Universities work. His dismissal will be only the last chapter in what would have been a long, bloody and complicated fight lasting many years and involving all sorts of nastiness and dirty tricks. That always is the case when a University decides it wants to try to get rid of someone. But why did they decide to try to get rid of Salby in the first place? Were his climate views the main reason? I am sure they made him unpopular. But can we believe the story that Salby has told us – especially given his history of dishonesty. Did Salby deserve it? From what I now know about him I suspect he may have done. Therefore I think it prudent to withhold my outrage over his dismissal.
41
Why not?
The NZ Met Service was subjected to frivolous court action, supported by Bob Carter incidentally, which the court tossed out on its ear. I doubt they had to break a sweat to see their way through that.
I’m still waiting with (much-delayed!) anticipated amusement to see how the Uni of Tasmania deals with Monckton’s raving lunatic nonsense from back in February. I suspect they are cooking-up something good!
33
Oregon State University issued a statement almost identical to Macquarie’s statement in the wake of sceptical chemistry professor Nicholas Drapela’s firing from Oregon. (Technically, it was a ‘non-renewal” of Drapela’s teaching contract.)
Maybe Macquarie used Oregon’s statement as a template.
Blogger statements negative toward Drapela sound identical to statements made in this blog negative toward Salby as well.
We’re all looking forward to statements from hard liners like Richard Parncutt – who might as well admit that he is in fact a Neo-Nazi.
80
Lucky Stephen Hawking was never employed by Macquarie University .
20
They would have just followed University policy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bonw1xOF-I
Nothing to see here!
10
There is a nice Josh picture at WUWT which explains it all:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/07/10/josh-on-the-salby-macquarie-university-affair/
10
Well the sea ice extent has fallen off a cliff, we have well and truly entered the death spiral for this year.
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm
Therefore i predict another bone chilling bitterly cold winter for you guys up north, as an aside i have watched the last ten tour de France races and i have never seen winter snow still lingering on the side of the road until this year.
The omnipotent force of CO2 never ceases to amaze me.
51
Correction – “Professor Salby”, not ‘Professor Sadly’
10
However there is a good chance he is feely rather Sadly at the moment 🙂
Sorry MUI but i could not resist
20
Bjorn and I should have a pint sometime … we are of like mind methinks. Today’s article in The Oz (just Google arounf the paywall – which works for the SMH/Age as well) slams the old Club of Rome “Limits to Growth” scare story:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/pessimists-fears-proved-wrong/story-e6frg6n6-1226677872806
TBH it is nothing new… Barnett and Morse wrote “Scarcity in growth” soon after Limits and debunked the Club of Rome scaremongering for exactly the same reasons. It serves to remind people from time to time that the solution to most problems is improved technology and getting people out of poverty.
Once you have a roof over your head, internal plumbing, electricty, food and water etc… then you can start worrying about environmental issues. Chances are, you improved a lot of environmental problems in the process of attaining the aforementioned roofs, food, water etc
50
Prof. Sably, Good luck for the case! I will need to leave this discussion forum. Best regards
50
Galileo’s observations of Jupiter’s moons, his explanation of Venus and Mercury’s appearance on the horizon – all bogus evidence of the failure of an Aristotelian system.
No evidence of global warming, no evidence of a CO2 connection with global climate at any period in history- all bogus evidence of the failure of AGW to account for anything.
Hard facts apparently mean nothing to some people. The remarkable thing is to find Universities saturated and actually managed by such people. No one would find the story credible if it were the content of a novel
81
Another interpetation is that Galileo’s work occurred around the end of the MWP and start of the LIA. My take is that something changed that forced Copernicus and his successor Galileo to explain the new arrangement in the heavens. That new arrangement seems to be linked to the global event that caused the LIA, as the Korean Choson Annals tend to suggest. Remember that the RC Church also discovered that its calendar was out, Easter not falling on the Equinox as expected.
Two opinions could be offered
1. That the Medieval peoples were idiots and misinterpreted the celestial motions, implying that the change in opinion was purely intellectual, or
2. That they were as wise as we, but the physical environment changed subtly, causing things like calendars that used to work, not to. That’s maybe why Copernicus et al started to offer new explanations for their observations.
30
It could be coincidence, but interesting to think about.
Given that some of the stone sundials in Europe are much older than Christianity, and given that Europe has a strongly seasonal climate where farmer’s life and death hinges on planting at the right time, it’s pretty well established that a massive amount of thought went into the question of calendars and climate. I think it is unlikely they were idiots.
20
It’s a common sign of present day ignorance & poverty of perspective, the prseumption that those that went before were idiots.
The appeal to novelty, with its presumption that that which is newer is better, constantly ammazes me.
10
I am sympathetic to anyone who is dismissed and it sounds as though the University has questions to answer. But there are two issues that professor Salby also needs to address, to re-assure those of us who might be sympathetic to his cause.
First, did he use a corporate card to purchase an air ticket to Europe when he was expressly told in writing that he did not have approved leave of absence to fly to Europe? If so, then that would be extremely serious and grounds for dismissal in any organisation – though perhaps Universities are more lenient? I simply cannot imagine someone doing this in an organisation and expect to keep their job, so let’s hope this is false!
Second, did he repeatedly refuse to carry out his teaching duties, as the University claims? If so, then that seems inappropriate and disrespectful of students. Is he “above” teaching mere undergraduates? If he is a “superstar” then why isn’t he on a major research-only fellowship? Lots of academics are on fellowships – and those who aren’t can’t expect to be “carried”. The University say they supported his fellowship applications, but it sounds like he was not successful. If that is true, then there is no reason he should not be teaching like everyone else. So I would like to know whether he was on a research-only fellowship and, if not, how many courses he convened and taught over the past few years. If he refused to teach and is not on a research only fellowship, then it seems hard to argue with the University’s decision to terminate his employment, because he refused to carry out his duties.
Listen: it is easy to instantly take the side of a person being dismissed and assume that there is an unreasonable “corporate” decision, but the other side of the coin is that there are precious few jobs at Universities and huge numbers of young academics desperately hoping a position will come up. Many have families to support and yet bleak prospects. So if there are people taking up these precious positions, flatly refusing to teach and blithely using corporate cards against policy, maybe they shouldn’t be taking up these precious spots.
But of course, this is still hypothetical: if Professor Salby can answer the above issues, then I will remain sympathetic to his cause.
41
B PArkmen, as I understand. Essentially MQ promised Salby a lot of money and help to get his research done to get him to come here. But after 5 years of delays and excuses and non-provision of said obligations, it reached the point where they were asking him to do full-time low level onerous marking and tutoring work, plus a few lectures, and worse, some of it was for courses run by junior staff and I think possibly outside his expertise – “non-climate” as well. He had not agreed to these dramatic changes in his duties. Purely hypothetically, if I were a bureaucrat wanting to get rid of a staff member, and I had few scruples, that would be a technique to solve my problem, would it not?
100
As I mentioned previously, if MQ brought in Salby on e.g. a 457 visa with a description of the job (contract) as the basis for filling the position, and instead assigned Sakby other tasks that could be done by the minions of post-grads already at the university, then that is a matter for immigration officials to investigate; especially in view of the governments announce clamp-down on 457 visa abuse.
I understand that employers could go to prison for making false declarations on visa applications. It’s a criminal offence. Something that can, in future be severely limiting to international travel after release if the sentence is for more than 12 months. One can basically kiss goodbye to any dreams of visiting the UK, Canada or the USA; especially when they find out it was in connection with visa “fraud”.
41
Teaching would have been mentioned on his contract. Even if his original position was intended to be predominantly in research, teaching would have been mentioned as he would
be expected to teach PhD students.
Immigration cares that the correct process is gone through in appointing a foreign national to a job vacancy. Once the appointment is made he becomes a legal resident and their interest ends. I doubt they have either the resources or the inclination to involve themselves in this matter years later. I doubt they have the jurisdiction!
Mention of prison sentences is just silly.
11
Certainly one (suspended) gaol sentence have been handed out in earlier cases, where the paperwork didn’t reflect the actual assigned duties and conditions.
10
Looks to me more like the university has discovered that Salby is more or less on the run from the law back in his own country and decided they don’t need to be associated with a bad egg.
44
Sure, when it’s in the Government’s political interest. And probably not when it’s not.
00
Considering Salby’s long history of unsuccessful legal action against previous University employers who managed to get shot of him, it seems more likely that the story he has given you is bogus.
If it’s true, he will be able to sue them.
In the meantime, it might pay to be sceptical of his claims.
22
Crakar DMI shows a very different picture
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php
pretty much above all previous years stillBTW I only trust scandinavians with ice extent. The yanks English Aussies all are up to their necks in AGW BS and will do ANYTHING to prevent the truth
61
given CAGW policies are bound to cause MORE ENERGY BREAKDOWNS, u have to admire the cheek of Broder’s headline:
11 July: NYT: John M. Broder: Climate Change Will Cause More Energy Breakdowns, U.S. Warns
“We don’t have a robust energy system, and the costs are significant,” said Jonathan Pershing, the deputy assistant secretary of energy for climate change policy and technology, who oversaw production of the report. “The cost today is measured in the billions. Over the coming decades, it will be in the trillions. You can’t just put your head in the sand anymore.” …
In the meantime, Mr. Pershing said, cities, states and the federal government must take steps to adapt and improve their resiliency in the face of more wicked weather…
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/us/climate-change-will-cause-more-energy-breakdowns-us-warns.html?_r=0
don’t u love seeing the latest buzzword “resiliency” & “wicked” in a single sentence?
10
Right, because, California’s electricity grid disaster was caused by:
– central government planning and renewable energy investment
– privatisation and deliberate price-manipulation by coal-plant operators.
Here’s what the carbon tax is designed to do:
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2013/07/04/575710_cattle.html
A business emits 95% less CO2 and reduces its operating costs by over 30%, funded by a carbon tax grant.
Looks like a bright future to me.
31
well worth a read to see who is driving the agenda:
10 July: InsideClimateNews: Katherine Bagley: Wealthy Donors in His Corner
as Obama Comes Out Swinging on Climate Change
“Obama is going to be a very young when he is done his second term,” Rabe
said. “Who knows what he’ll do next, but we’ve never seen a president so
engaged in ongoing fundraising. He’s continuing to court donors. It doesn’t
surprise me that their voices seem to have influenced this new agenda.”.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130710/wealthy-donors-his-corner-obama-comes-out-swinging-climate-change
10
9 July: Australian: AAP: Germany to pull plug on solar subsidies
GERMANY will stop subsidising solar energy by 2018 at the latest, its
environment minister says, after last year initiating a scaling-back of
generous state support for the faltering industry…
Berlin “has so far invested 216 billion euros ($A308.24 billion) in
renewables and the biggest chunk went to solar, the technology which does
least to ensure the power supply,” said the head of industrial group
Siemens, Peter Loescher, in an interview published in the business daily
Handelsblatt on Monday.
Germany has seen a wave of solar company insolvencies and the number of
people employed in the industry fell to 87,000 in 2012 from 110,900 a year
earlier, while sales plummeted by 11.9 billion euros, according to
government figures…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/breaking-news/germany-to-pull-plug-on-solar-subsidies/story-e6frg90f-1226676305151
30
There is a lot we do not know about this case. But it seems evident that Salby has been dismissed under the terms of the Macquarie University Academic Staff Enterprise Agreement, specifically Clause 4.12 Misconduct and Serious Misconduct http://staff.mq.edu.au/human_resources/ea/academic_staff_agreement/
The committee referred to in the media release would be the Misconduct Investigation Committee (MIC) detailed from sub-clause 4.12.8 onwards. However, under the MUASEA, the final decision on dismissal would have been made by the DVC, in this case most likely the Provost, and the whole process would have been orchestrated by the Director of HR. (Regarding the MU statement: an important function of media units in universities is to protect the senior executive.)
Similar to most university enterprise agreements, termination of employment under MUASEA is only possible in instances of “serious misconduct”, which has a different definition to the lesser charge of “misconduct”. For a reasonable person, serious misconduct would mean gross dereliction of duty or character such as criminal conviction, awarding of marks for ‘favours’, or scientific fraud. However MUASEA also defines serious misconduct as “repeated incidents of misconduct”.
Now, the media release cites two examples of misconduct. Failure to turn up at a class, if used as a case for dismissal, would see a number of academics on the dole queue. “..breaches of University policies in relation to travel and use of University resources” could see large-scale decimation of the academic population (think taking home paper clips for personal use). Two separate charges makes the case for serious misconduct. This would be a promising strategy if your purpose is to dismiss someone.
The MUASEA has no provision for appeal against termination for serious misconduct. It is specifically proscribed under their grievance and dispute settling clauses (4.9 and 4.10). It may be possible to seek review by the NSW Ombudsman (due process) or, depending on the circumstances, NSW ICAC. Otherwise, litigation for redress to the Supreme Court would seem to be the only option. Constructive dismissal would seem to be an option worth considering.
10
Missing one lecture not misconduct. But willful and repeated refusal to teach as specified in his employment contract would be. The world is full of desperate talented young people in search of academic jobs who would be happy to accept a position that allowed them to teach and do research. Salby is a waste of space.
51
Upon further reflection I think I have misrepresented possible options under MUASEA. Under the dispute resolution provision, sub-clause 4.9.10 says:
“Decisions in accordance with this Agreement to terminate employment shall not be
subject to further review or dispute.”
So you cannot dispute the decision, but you can maybe dispute the process – did MU correctly follow the processes under 4.12? (Salby’s statement published here suggests they did not). If so, you ultimately have access to Fair Work Australia under 4.9 Dispute Settling Procedures.
Unlike Supreme Court litigation, this approach (at least, initially) would not require expensive legals.
10
Macquarie Uni’s response seem wholly inadequate. I’m with the Salby. Nothing like a bit of diversity of opinion in interpretation of the evidence. Long as it’s science. Disappointing to see such a significant university so unconvincing. The thought police are at it again.
20
There is a new statement from Macquarie
http://www.announcements.mq.edu.au/vc/professor_murry_salby_and_his_dismissal_from_macquarie_university
It looks like he did indeed misuse his University credit card to buy the ticket. The statement also makes it explicitly clear that teaching is mentioned in his terms of employment. Those thinking of going to the barricades for Salby also might want to investigate the circumstances that surround his resignation from Colorado. Dishonesty of a serious financial nature was involved. Such dishonesty suggests that we should be highly cautious before trusting his version of events.
40
If Salby takes them to an external tribunal, then the University will have to come up with substantiated evidence, not just a bald statement.
The verdict of the internal review must be held to be null and void since the reason that Salby was not present was directly caused by the University when they cancelled the air ticket.
The only way a satisfactory conclusion can be reached in this matter is for an external investigation involving solicitors and complete transparency rather than a University of East Anglia style of whitewash.
10
Got bored reading comments by people who don’t seem to have read Salby’s version of events so thought I would help.
According to Salby, the university withdrew their permission for him to give his research results a public airing for whatever reason. Effectively from February he was suspended without pay. He had already agreed a lecture tour. The university appears to have withdrawn funding for the trip but Salby went ahead anyway, paying out of his own pocket. Already in conflict with MU, the university cancels a ticket they paid for that enabled a suspended employee to do something he had been instructed not to do.
following his acrimonious departure from Colorado, Salby doesn’t look like the clean party in this. Before jumping to conclusions, read with care and a more considered eye the actual evidence.
10
Thanks for bringing this to our attention in a timely manner Ian H. The VCs statement does elaborate on the circumstances. It is good that he is taking ownership and is getting behind his Provost – something that does not always happen in Australian universities.
So, one verdict is that Salby miss-used a corporate credit card to book work-related travel. There is no suggestion that this was a miss-use of funds (perhaps it was out of the travel funds he was promised in his contract)but rather that he bypassed travel approval processes. There have been many high profile Professors in Australian universities who have done this in recent years. Worth a slap on the wrist? Certainly. But this has never got anywhere near misconduct proceedings. (but can be used if determined to establish two instances of misconduct, leading to serious misconduct)
So the clincher and main cause of his dismissal is Salby’s teaching responsibilities. This can only be assessed with regard to his contract of employment. I would bet that his contract was not a straight 40/40/20 contract for an academic – his teaching duties would be minimal, in line with that of other God Professors we employ.
It’s interesting that dirt about Colorado is now being raised on cue. If Colorado is Salby’s previous employer, then MU would surely have sought a reference from them. If not, then the Provost and Director of HR should be called to account.
21
With regard to the reference, Salby’s problems in Colorado concerned mishandling of an NSF grant and not university funds. With the university at one remove from the situation and no formal charges laid, they may have felt excused or even constrained by libel laws from discussing the full situation. The timing might also be of interest. Did he wait for the offer from Macquarie to come through before resigning? If so then perhaps Colorado had a vested interest in giving him a glowing recommendation, keen as they may have been at that point to see him gone.
10
A lot of people speculating here really do not have much idea of how universities work.
First of all, I am a professor and I mark my examinations and assignments and
Of course teach class. It goes with the job. However, the more successful
Ones research, the less teaching one will have to do. Research professors
Are expected to getvresearch grants, and if they don’t, then employment
Becomes less secure.
There are all sorts of reasons To get out of teaching a class. However,
Being overseas when told not to go, does tend make many of the usual
Excuses untenable.
I would not unreservedly believe either of the parties of this dispute.
University administration statements I regard with skepticism. The letter
Of contract to salby would be interesting to read as well as his
Statement of duties. This is documentary evidence that can be used
To substantiate claims by either the university or salby.
One things that sometimes happens at appointment time is that verbal
Statements regarding resources are made, which are not fulfilled
Due to budgetary pressure. A key point is what is in writing.
10
[…] http://joannenova.com.au/2013/07/macquarie-uni-responds-to-murry-salby-what-they-dont-say-speaks-vol… […]
00
Salby is being torn to shreds over at DesmogBlog….. this whole thing is really really ugly.
Career gone.
10
Now that we have such damning evidence from the NSF regarding Salby’s less than squeaky clean behaviour with research grant funds while at U. Colorado (Boulder), first rervealed on WUWT by no less than the Master Rodent himself, am I to be the first to point out that we now seem to have yet another Shakespearian tragedy in the making along the lines of the previous Miskolczian debacle?
And yet, and yet, how are we to reconcile such appearances with this sweet piece of cutting edge science?
http://www.dhushara.com/Biocrisis/11/jun/ozone_recover.pdf
Endorsed by Prof. David Karoly himself too, gadzooks!
Is nothing sacred?
00
I haven’t seen any “damning evidence” from NSF or Colorado here Ecoeng. If there was any problem at Colorado re an NSF grant then it was the responsibility and accountability of Colorado to sort it out. The university is not “removed” or “excused” or “constrained”. This is total bullshit. Their DVC (Research) would have signed a statement taking full responsibility for discharge of the terms of the grant.
Many Professors here do not understand the obligations of ARC grants and act as if they are unaccountable. They need to be brought to account. But serious misconduct? I don’t think so..
11
All this seems to have been beaten up by a very insignificant character called Graham Readfern.
10
That’s what he does. Still trying to make any name for himself he can, still stirring from the sidelines, after the embarassing performance in Brisbane which preceded his departure from a Queensland newspaper.
10
Terminator, read the available evidence carefully and you will see that Salby took tax dollars twice. All the talk of climate scientists feathering their nests and carbon taxes being wrong and here is a man lucky not to be up on a criminal charge. Character is what someone does when no one is looking. Guess Salby is not of good character.
11
Right Fragass…. we also all believe everything we read…. NOT.
20
What is this – Invasion of the Brain Snatchers?
http://www.nsf.gov/oig/search/I06090025.pdf
00
Yes, compelling. The bit about ‘overlapping applications’ brings a wry smile to anyone who knows how the research heavyweights play the game. But, agreed, not good. Still leaves open how the hell MU employed him.
00
Before jumping to conclusions, read this. (right through)
http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/07/12/murry-salby-galileo-bozo-or-p-t-barnum
00
I decline to dignify the children at desmogblog..
00
http://www.nsf.gov/oig/search/I06090025.pdf
This link might help clarify!
00
Good riddance to bad rubbish….
00