Anthony Watts has posted a story “written by” Larry Bell, who according to NewsMax is “a professor and endowed professor at the University of Houston, where he directs the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and heads the graduate program in space architecture.”
Honestly speaking I don’t care how distinguished Prof. Larry Bell may be, or how distinguished others might think he is. In my book, I don’t think much of the character at all. In my view his piece automatically gets an “F” as a grade.
The reason is that he evidently thinks it is not necessary to cite sources and to give credit where credit is due. He appears to think it’s perfectly okay to copy and paste other people’s work and give readers the impression it’s all his very own.
On June 9th I posted a piece titled: Giant Of Geology/Glaciology Christian Schlüchter Refutes CO2…Feature Interview Throws Climate Science Into Disarray, which got a fair amount of attention, including Larry’s.
Eight days later, on June 17, he posted his “own” version at NewsMax. At the end of the story NewsMax even had the temerity to write: “© 2014 Newsmax. All rights reserved.”
Of course much of the story is Larry’s own. But the quotes of Prof. Schlüchter were translated from the original German to English by myself. Unlike Larry, I cited at least a half dozen times the German source. Larry on the other hand simply helped himself to my hard translation work, without citing it.
Maybe steps can be taken to change his thinking, and that of NewsMax’s.
In the future I’d appreciate if the good professor practiced proper academic behavior and cited his sources.
All he had to do was cite and add a link or two.
Well at least your pagerank dropped about 16% in the last 3 months, Pierre…
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fnotrickszone.com
You’re starting to enter the top 100,000 web sites of the world…
Wow…that’s great to hear. Wouldn’t you think that’s good enough to be worthy of being cited? 🙂
you are one of my favorite sites! thanks for all of your hard work!
“endowed professor”
Perhaps it means something different in American
We used to call things like giving due credit “common courtesy”.
Not so common these days, it seems.
Pierre, I have translated into Spanish many of your articles and published in our website of FAEC, (Argentinean Foundation for a Scientific Ecology), but always with your name on top as the author, and the corresponding link to the specific article.
The use of taking entire pieces of articles -copy & paste, a real case of plagiarism- is something our website has been suffering since about 12 years now. Receiving credit for our work is rewarding, but seeing our information being distributed and read by so many people is more important.
We’ll keep translating your tremendous work!
Eduardo. Great work on your part to make sure the Spanish-speaking world, (arguably bigger than the English speaking world) has access to the truth . However, doesn’t a Spanish translation of an English translation of a German original increase the chances of something getting lost in translation?
Kevin, I don’t think so. I read and understand German (but don’t write or speak it fluently…) so at the beginning I used to check Pierre’s translations but very soon I saw they were so good that I just put myself into Pierre’s hands -or pen-, so to speak, and did my translations into Spanish without going to the originals in German.
I am also a professional technical translator into Spanish from French, Italian and Portuguese, languages I speak very well. My 35 years experience in this job has shown me that people can trust that what they read in our website is what the original texts wanted to mean.
Thanks!
You’re more than welcome to use the material, and I’m of course grateful that you provide links and cite the sources.
Hard luck Pierre. You do the hard work and he claims the credit.
His problem is that he had to turn to you to get something accurate and true, so he sounded good.
I would suggest a brief letter to the University with a dated copy of your article and the same for his, and addressed to the Dept. of Plagiarism might stir the pot.
Otherwise just let him sink back into obscurity, unlike you.
Anthony’s WUWT at some point will demand even a higher standard from his guess essayists, which will certainly help.
I know from experience that another skeptic scientist (abbreviation DJE, and popular with the WUWT audience) is also one who has not been fond of citing other’s work, at least in the past.
Quite frustrating seeing one’s own chart being used in an article without any link or attribution. (I don’t read or link to his articles any longer.)
Keep up the good work, Pierre. Don’t let Larry Bell’s plagerism get to you too much; eventually his chops will get busted over that type of crapola, thus blessing you with glorious schadenfreude.
Not only is it bad form to use someone’s work and pass it off as your own, it’s downright dishonest but as we know PG – in Germany senior politicians are at it and here in the UK, many students plagiarize work and pass it off as their own and use it to pass exams.
I’d still be chuffed, it is wrong…………… but wow it’s good PR old Son!
Pierre,
I’m sorry for the trouble. I used excerpts from both stories. I always cite you and provide a link back to your website any time you are mentioned.
Oddly, I almost never use anything of Larry’s, because I don’t much like NewsMax. In fact I think this was the only time I’ve ever used a NewsMax story. It will probably be the last.
It was a tip left on August 7th seen here at sott.net, and I traced it backwards to NewsMax.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/tips-and-notes/#comment-1703914
But I saw that you also had the story, so I cited both to be fair. I didn’t realize it would cause a firestorm.
Anthony
Nothing against you, Anthony. And thanks for linking to my site. It’s just awfully annoying to see 400+ reader comments, many praising Bell as if he did all the hard work. All in all, I’m glad the story got lots of attention, especially with your help.
He is a professor at an American university, part of the select group whom was chosen to guide and instruct lesser mortals like us.
Get your Phd peer reviewed by lizards like him before you are allowed to speak-up in the faculty lounge. Until then shut-up, drink your tea, and don’t dive into the biscuits plate more than once.
Just like Eduardo Ferreyra, many times I have used your articles and links for my Spanish articles and translations, and always with due links and recognitions to your site. Nothing special at that, because that is what I always do with all my sources; good manners, that is all.
Keep on with your great work.
This “endowed professor at the University of Houston” is clearly not endowed with much in the way of ‘kahunas’.
Pierre & Anthony:
I recommend you admonish Newsmax per the link below:
http://www.newsmax.com/Contact/editors/
There is a drop down menu for Copyright and Infringement, etc.
You could both update your readers on any feedback you receive.
Well done to both of you for your work in sourcing and presenting information which differs from the lap-dog approach of the MSM regarding Climate Change!
Incidentally, there is nothing “controversial” about the early- to mid-Holocene (as well as the Minoan, Roman and other Climate Optima) having significantly warmer climate than the present, based on extensive studies of the Austrian and Swiss Alps. Indeed, Thomas Stocker, a prominent figure in the IPCC today, has co-authored studies coming to this conclusion. Some studies estimate that 65% of the Holocene had reduced glacier extent compared with today (Patzelt et al). The evidence is compelling: remnants of forests are becoming uncovered beneath ice and moraine rubble as melting continues today. The “surprising” part is that neither the general public nor the activist community are particularly aware.
Kurt in Switzerland
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