Criticizing Sensationalism Over Science Gets 40yr Professor Fired

Why do the majority of scientists believe in anthropogenic global warming?

Because those who don't get fired.

Professor Peter Ridd challenges James Cook University sacking

Former James Cook University climate scientist Peter Ridd outside the Federal Court Brisbane.

He claims he was unfairly dismissed from his job for publicly voicing his opinions on climate change.

Picture: Liam Kidston.

CHARLIE PEEL
JOURNALIST

Lawyers acting for sacked James Cook University professor Peter Ridd say the university sought to turn its disciplinary process into a “star chamber” after he publicly criticised the institution and one of its star scientists over claims about the impact global warming had on the Great Barrier Reef.

Professor Ridd, who worked at the university for 40 years, has challenged the dismissal in the Federal Court, saying the university breached its own enterprise agreement which allowed all staff to express controversial or unpopular views.

The physics professor’s lawyers say the Townsville-based university, which is renowned for its marine science expertise, dismissed Professor Ridd in 2018 for breaching its code of conduct.

But they argue that the code was secondary to the enterprise agreement.

Barrister Stuart Wood said his client had every right to criticise his colleagues and the university’s perceived lack of quality assurance processes.

The first alleged breach of the code occurred in April 2016, when Professor Ridd emailed a journalist to allege that images given to the media by the Australian Institute of Marine Science and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority were misleading.

Sensationalism not science

Professor Ridd said the images of bleached coral reefs near Stone Island, off the coast of Bowen in north Queensland, were misleading because they showed poorly affected corals, which were selected over nearby healthy coral and used to show “broad scale decline” of reef health.

Many years ago I worked with an hydrologist who was furious at a very famous Canadian scientist who took the erosion of a particular and unique watershed and applied it to all of British Columbia. It was sensationalism over science.

Field technicians working for Professor Ridd took photos in the same vicinity as the bleaching pictures supplied by the university and GBRMPA which showed “spectacular coral living there”.

Professor Ridd told the journalist in the email that the use of the pictures was “a dramatic example of how scientific organisations are happy to spin a story for their own purposes”.

He also said his colleague Professor Terry Hughes, the head of JCU’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, would “wriggle and squirm” when asked to explain the discrepancies in the images.

“Mr Ridd said the photos being used were not, in his view, an accurate representation of what was going on at the site,” Mr Wood said.

“The complaint was that there should be much more care taken when representing the photos to ensure the story is not based on sensationalism but on science.”

Professor Ridd was sceptical of the photos and warnings around the health of the reef, which had undergone extensive bleaching, because his own academic work had shown coral health was not affected by sediment runoff or increased water temperatures, as claimed by other scientists

After receiving a warning from the university, Professor Ridd was censured again in November 2017 after appearing on Sky News and making similar claims about the lack of quality assurance processes on coral reef science.

At one stage Professor Ridd was told he could not even discuss the proceedings with his wife, leading Mr Wood to compare the proceedings to a coercive “star chamber”.

After a third alleged violation of the code of conduct, Professor Ridd was sacked in April 2018.

Mr Wood said there was no argument that his client attacked the integrity of his colleagues and the organisation, but that this was not in breach of the enterprise agreement.

He said Professor Ridd offered Professor Hughes a public apology for the phrasing of his complaint, not the subject matter, but Professor Hughes rejected the apology.

The hearing is expected to continue for three days.

Terror Suspect Arrested in Austria for Trying to Sabotage High-Speed German Train

By Clyde Hughes

An unnamed Iraqi male was arrested by Austrian authorities in connection with failed terror attacks on railways

in Germany late last year. Photo by Andrew Bone/Wikimedia Commons

UPI -- Austrian authorities arrested a 42-year-old Iraqi man in Vienna in connection with failed terror attacks on railways in Germany late last year.

Prosecutors accused the unnamed man, arrested Monday, of being an Islamic State sympathizer and attempting to sabotage high-speed trains.

In October, a high-speed train hit a steel cable stretched across the tracks between electrification masts on the Nuremberg-Munich line in Germany, Bavarian State Criminal Police Office said Wednesday.

The driver's cab of the train was damaged but police found no other injuries.

Investigators found what was described as a threatening note written in Arabic nearby. Police discovered damaged overhead wires in Berlin as well as a note in Arabic and a flag of the Islamic State militant group in December.

Vienna prosecutors said that the suspect was a father of five and a migrant who was granted refugee status 20 years ago. Authorities said the suspect praised several Islamist terror attacks on social media, including the 2016 truck attack in Nice, France, that killed 86 people.

A local media report said he called for revenge in the March 15 New Zealand attack in which a right-wing suspect is alleged to have killed 50 worshipers at two Christchurch mosques.

The Austrian arrest follows raids Saturday in Germany where authorities arrested 10 people on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack using a car and guns. The suspects in that case ranged in age from 20 to 42 and included some German citizens.

"They are believed to have agreed to carry out an Islamist, terrorist attack using a vehicle and guns that would kill as many 'non-believers' as possible," Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement at the time.

Former Russian Minister Detained Over Massive Embezzlement, May Face 20 Years in Prison

Corruption is Everywhere - You Better Believe in Russian Politics

FILE PHOTO: Mikhail Abyzov © Sputnik / Iliya Pitalev

Former Russian minister, Nikolay Abyzov, who only left the cabinet last year, was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) over accusations of organizing a criminal group to embezzle 4 billion rubles (around $15.5 million).

The investigators believe Abyzov and his accomplices obtained the money by swindling the shareholders of two major energy companies in Russia’s Novosibirsk Region. The funds were then transferred abroad through offshore firms, which the ex-minister was a beneficial owner between 2011 and 2014.

The actions of the criminal group that Abyzov “organized and headed” have jeopardized the energy security and stable economic growth of several Russian Regions, the Investigative Committee said.

The probe against the 46-year-old is head by the top branch in the Investigative Committee, which only deals with high priority cases, with the assistance of the FSB.

Abyzov is charged with organizing a criminal group, with the offense carrying a prison term of up to 20 years, under Russian law. The investigators say they’ll ask the court to put him in custody.

A source told Interfax that the ex-minister was recently living abroad – in Italy and the US – and the FSB “operatives had to lure him to Russia.” He didn’t elaborate on how the detention happened.

The ex-ministers’ lawyer, Aleksandr Ansis, told the media that his client "categorically refuses to acknowledge his guilt."

Maybe it's just the translation, but that sure sounds like a curious way of stating his innocence.

Abyzov began his business career in the 1990s and occupied key positions in several of the country’s largest energy companies, including Unified Energy System of Russia and E4 Group. He’s one of the richest people in the country, with Forbes estimating his wealth at $600 million last year.

He joined the Russian government in 2012 under Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and maintained the ministerial post until May 2018. The man oversaw the functioning of the Open Government, a new approach which was introduced to make the Russian state more transparent and allow the authorities to discuss its initiatives with the society.

This just gets more hilarious by the line.

Vladimir Putin was informed of Abyzov’s case in advance, Kremlin press-secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said.

Medvedev’s office also said that the PM was aware of the situation, but pointed out that Abyzov is being investigated “for the activities that aren’t related to his work as a government member.”

Of course, no-one in the government would ever be guilty of corruption!!! 

Are Thousands of British Pakistani Kids Going to Jihad Summer Schools?

And is Britain paying for their 'education'?

By ABUL TAHER FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

A secret Government report has warned that more than 3,000 British children are being taken to Pakistan each year and enrolled in extremist summer schools.

The chilling Home Office study says courses at madrasas teach a 'glorified version of jihad', according to a source.

Officials fear some youngsters will be radicalised and return to the UK with a warped ideology and pose a terrorism risk.

'It is highly likely that this education in Pakistan, even for short periods of time, increases the risk of exposure to extremism for British-Pakistani children,' the source told The Mail on Sunday.

Could this be contributing to the fact that second generation Muslims in the UK tend to be more devout (read radical) than their parents? Although, I suspect that second generation Muslim immigrants have little or no experience of actually living in a Muslim country, like their parents, and, so, actually believe it's a good thing.

Denial: Students are seated at Pakistan’s Jamiatul Uloom Ul Islamia madrasa

- the report identified this madrasa as among three of concern

'Enrolment at madrasas poses the greatest risk of exposure to more serious forms of religious extremism.'

Two of the 7/7 bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, enrolled on madrasa courses in Pakistan a year before they launched their deadly attack in 2005, which killed 52.

But the security services have established that some Pakistani parents take their children back to their native homeland during summer holidays under the pretext of visiting extended family.

In reality, they sign them up for lessons at some of Pakistan's estimated 20,000 madrasas.

Summer camps! Only instead of playing and learning social skills they are brain-washed into hating and prepared to kill infidels. How lovely!

Is this where Pakistani men learn to have such respect for little British girls?

The report says some of those madrasas receive funds raised in Britain and that UK-based imams have established seminaries in their ancestral homeland.

It identifies three madrasas of concern – the Darul Uloom Haqqania (DUH) madrasa in the remote Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region bordering Afghanistan; the Jamia Binoria in Karachi and Jamiatul Uloom Ul Islamia in Azad Kashmir.

Each has denied involvement in extremism. The DUH madrasa has previously been labelled the 'University of Jihad' because former students include Asim Umar, an Al Qaeda leader, and it awarded an honorary doctorate to the former Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

There are also fears that British taxpayers may have inadvertently provided it with funds.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, which controversially handed a £2.2 million grant to the madrasa in 2016, will have received £283 million from Britain to help boost education when a ten-year project ends in 2020.

A satellite image shows a remote madrasa near Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan

Denying any involvement with extremists, the madrasa's chief Maulana Hamid ul Haq said: 'If you ask questions about the 'Taliban', 'Taliban' is a term used for students so we call all students 'Taliban'.

If some of the students turn violent or extremist, then what can we do? We have nothing to do with it.'

The Jamia Binoria madrasa has been accused of adopting a 'pro-jihadi and anti-Western stance' and has reportedly enrolled foreign students. However, an official said British students no longer attended and the madrasa had no involvement in extremism.

The British founder of the Jamiatul Uloom Ul Islamia madrasa, based in Mirpur, also denied any links with terrorism. Haji Bostan, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said no British students had enrolled and that no form of extremism was taught.

And I'm sure he wouldn't lie! He's a Muslim!

A Department for International Development spokesman said: 'All funds for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are for agreed purposes. It does not include funding for madrasas.'

But it certainly frees up funds for madrasas!

Good grief! Britain is paying for the radicalization of it's own citizens who will come back and attack them. Islam really has this all figured out, don't they. 'We're going to rape and kill Brits and get them to pay for it!'

Erdogan: Christianity’s Iconic Hagia Sophia Might Be Active Mosque Again

Is Erdogan the Abomination of Desolation?

Once the very centre of Christianity, the first church on this site was built by Constantine the Great. But in 404, John Chrysostom was exiled by another Emporer's wife. Riots ensued and the church was burned to the ground. 

Another church was erected in 415 by Theodosius II, but a revolt in 532 resulted in it being burned down. Within weeks, Justinian I began planning the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) which stood as the largest building in the world for nearly a thousand years. 

The Ottomans turned it into a mosque in the 15th century and Attaturk secularized it in 1935 turning it into a museum. President Erdogan is a devout Muslim and, so, it was just a matter of time before it was profaned again.

FILE PHOTO © AFP / Yasin AKGUL

Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, originally a Byzantine Christian church, might be turned into a mosque again – a potential back-down from the legacy of Turkey’s secular government that turned the site into a museum in 1935.

“This is not unlikely,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a live interview with Turkish television on Monday, adding, “We might even change its name to Ayasofya Mosque.”

The Hagia Sophia became a museum under Turkey’s secularist government back in 1935, but “we may as well take a step and change that,” he said.

Erdogan hinted that the change in status would benefit tourists. “Tourists come and go at the Blue Mosque. Do they pay anything?” he asked, referring to another popular site in Istanbul. “Well, we will do the same with the Hagia Sofia.”

The Hagia Sophia was first built as a church by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century and served as the main Orthodox Christian church. Following the conquest of Constantinople, now Istanbul,  by the Ottomans in 1453, it was immediately converted into a mosque.

It was the world’s largest cathedral surpassed only in the 16th century by  the Catholic Seville Cathedral was erected in Spain and later by St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican. 

The idea of turning the Hagia Sophia into an active mosque has been around for several years. Some high-ranking politicians and Muslim clerics suggested that the place be opened to worshippers, triggering backlash in Greece, Turkey’s historic rival.

That aside, in 2016, the traditional Muslim call to prayer, the adhan, was chanted from a prayer room, not from inside the historic landmark.

In 2015, thousands of worshippers performed a morning prayer in front of the Hagia Sophia on the 562nd anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.

Matt 24:14-16

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

"Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

Is it possible this refers to Erdogan standing in the Hagia Sophia? It's a remote possibility, but, it could be the signal that Turkey will invade Israel. Perhaps he will announce the invasion from the pulpit just as the invasion is happening. 

Senior Russian Orthodox Priest Calls Sex Affirmation Surgery a Crime

© Sputnik / Vladimir Astapkovich

A senior Russian cleric has criticized gender reassignment surgeries and called for the criminal prosecution of parents who teach their children that they can choose their gender.

I agree! If a child is encouraged to 'change' their biological sex, that is a form of child abuse, IMHO. These children need help, but sex reassignment surgery, puberty blockers, etc., will almost certainly do more harm to a child than good. Trans people have extremely high rates of attempted suicide.

“Such surgeries are, in my opinion and in the opinion of the church, a crime against God,” Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s external relations department, said in an interview.

He explained that the church doesn’t recognize a person’s “new” gender after sex affirmation surgery.

Hilarion reiterated that the Russian Orthodox Church “will never recognize such lifestyle as normal… when children from the cradle are being taught that there is a biological gender and a gender they can choose.”

The cleric stressed that parents who plant these ideas into their children’s head should be criminally prosecuted.

According to Hilarion, a child should wait until full legal age to decide "if they want to stay as God created them" or change their gender. 

In 2017, the Russian Orthodox church criticized a law introduced in Greece, allowing gender reassignment surgeries for teenagers as young as 15.

In Russia, sex affirmation surgeries are permissible for citizens aged 18 and above, if they are diagnosed as transsexuals.

According to experts, transsexualism is a rare condition that may affect 1 in 30,000 to 1 in 100,000 cases.

ISIS is Only Mostly Dead - What to Expect Next

Discovered files reveal IS plans to launch revenge attacks in Europe, Syria – reports

FILE PHOTO: A Kurdish SDF fighter fires on ISIS positions in Syria, 2015 © REUTERS / Rodi Said

SDF militia have cleaned out the last ISIS stronghold in Syria at Barghouz. Many ISIS fighters melted silently into crowds elsewhere in Syria and beyond. What will they do now? The leaders, what's left of them, have a plan, only their plan was captured by the Kurds.

As the last remnants of Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ is dealt a severe blow on the ground, sleeper cells from the group are already planning devastating revenge attacks in Europe and Syria, recently discovered files reveal.

The documents, obtained by the Sunday Times, show that Islamic State operatives are supporting jihadists to plan fresh attacks in European cities, while sleeper cells within Syria have formed hit-squads to assassinate its enemies.

The cache was contained in a hard drive dropped by an IS sleeper cell during a firefight with local forces in the Syrian desert in February. Attesting to its authenticity, the paper said the files contained the types of meticulous detail that have become a hallmark of the group’s record keeping and bureaucracy. Lists of fighters’ names and allotted weapons were joined by budget spreadsheets and payments to fighters and their wives. Others lament the lack of availability of suicide bombers and vehicles for use as car bombs.

However, more startling are letters from a senior IS leader who goes by the name Abu Taher al-Tajiki, claiming he has fighters willing to conduct operations “far away from the Islamic State” and would be in touch with them to “carry out the operations.” To facilitate these attacks, he requests the setting up of a Bureau of Foreign Relations for the Department of Operations in Europe.

Just a couple days ago German police arrested 10 Salafist Muslims preparing for a major attack to kill lots of Germans. Whether the arrests were linked to this event or not, whoever knows is not likely to say.

Other letters addressed to group leaders in Iraq and Syria by al-Tajiki proposes the establishment of what he calls “crocodile cells,” called such to represent IS killers who hide beneath the surface before attacking. Their missions would involve “killing the enemies of God and taking their money.” Online hackers and technicians were also available for missions without the need for weapons.

Al-Tajiki had planned to present the plan to the group’s elusive head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but this didn’t go ahead after a go-between was killed.

News of the plans comes as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) claimed victory over the so-called caliphate’s last remaining pockets in Syria on Saturday. The victory comes following months of efforts to oust the last remaining IS holdouts along the Euphrates.

However, the Syrian government remains skeptical of Washington’s claim that the jihadist group has been defeated militarily following several previous claims of victory over the group by US President Donald Trump. Speaking on Friday, Syria’s UN envoy warned that terrorists were hiding within the Rukban refugee camp, located in a US-protected zone near the Jordanian border.

Rukban Refugee Camp, Syria