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Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Best slashdot comment ever? 

(via Boing Boing) We have a winner! I believe I have just read my all-time favourite Slashdot comment. Commenting on a post about the melting of Siberian permafrost, commenter MillionthMonkey posted this tour de force: a long yet sustained and insightful Goofus-and-Gallant-themed take on some facts of life relevant to the "debate" on whether global warming is for real.

Some choice excerpts:

GOOFUS gets little respect as a scientist outside the scientific community.
GALLANT gets little respect as a scientist inside the scientific community.

GOOFUS and his graduate students do the dirty work of collecting raw data and looking for conclusions to be drawn from it.
GALLANT does the dirty work of discrediting GOOFUS by manipulating his data in Excel with statistically invalid techniques.

GOOFUS isn't paid much attention by the press since his opinions are commonplace among scientists.
GALLANT holds maverick opinions for a scientist which keeps him busy running from one balanced talk show to the next.