Dave Thomas and Kim Johnson to debate 9-11 "Truth" Advocates Richard Gage and Niels Harrit on Coast to Coast AM Radio, Saturday, August 21st, 11:00 PM MDT - 3:00 AM MDT.
To listen in, you can find a list of stations that live-stream Coast to Coast AM, here.
If you're curious when the show runs in your locale, click here.
Background: For the 9-11 episode of the Tru TV television show "Conspiracy Theory", Jesse Ventura's crew filmed a test using thermite on steel beams at NM Tech's EMRTC (Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center). You can see the segment here:
starting at 2:00 minutes in.
There are two burn tests on the beam, one with the beam unpainted, the second with the beamed laced with thermite. After the first test, the narrator on the "Conspiracy Theory" show announces "The beam burns briefly, but it does not melt."
After the second test, Romero is shown asking the question "Does it burn long enough and hot enough so that we have structural failure?"
But, this question is never answered on the show. Instead, with a dodge that both Romero and I consider to be dishonest, Ventura simply asks "Anybody still got any doubts?"
The question that should have been asked here is "Was the beam cut? Did it fail??"
The answer to that question was left on the cutting room floor. Here, friends is "THE VIDEO JESSE VENTURA DOESN'T WANT THE WORLD TO SEE!"
First, some clips I've obtained directly from the EMRTC.
Clip #1: Pouring burning thermite on beam that has not been painted with thermite.
Clip #2: Pouring burning thermite on beam that has been painted with thermite.
Finally, Clip #3, "THE VIDEO JESSE VENTURA DOESN'T WANT THE WORLD TO SEE!":
Dr. Van Romero, banging on the beam after the second (thermite) test, and answering the question "Does it burn long enough and hot enough so that we have structural failure?"
The answer is "NO!"
I presented this in my critical thinking class as an excellent example of how to spin a scientific test as coming to the opposite conclusion of what it did in reality.
What with all the problems Toyota has been having with cars that are affected by runaway acceleration, I conjured up a mental image of a new design, the Toyota Tsunami, that would be described with slogans like "It's a Force of Nature!", "Can't Be Stopped", and so forth.
Then I discovered my would-be joke was actually a reality, some 6 years back.
In 2005, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called global warming the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” Rep. Joe Barton, (R-TX) joined the assault by harassing three respected climate scientists, demanding immediate documentation of what he called “methodological flaws and data errors” in their work. Barton held hearings and ordered a review of the “hockey stick” temperature graph the scientists had published. Edward Wegman—a statistician with no background in climatology and little understanding of physics—led the investigation. Wegman’s team submitted a report that criticized the statistical methods used by the scientists. Denialists embraced this criticism, claiming that the hockey stick has been discredited and declaring that global warming was a fraud.
To many researchers, the investigation was nothing more than an anti-science witch-hunt. Scientists play by well-defined rules. They require peer reviewed publication, logic, and evidence. Science is like a hockey game that only works if fans understand it and teams play by the rules. Inhofe and Barton knew their side could not win against a world-class “hockey team.” They chose instead to create confusion and sow doubt. Their tactic was to act like unruly fans and throw hundreds of decoy pucks onto the ice and then take advantage of the chaos. The idea was simply to delay any action in order to protect vested interests in the status quo. They didn’t have to win the game. All they needed to do is disrupt it by turning it into one big “ClusterPuck”.
Scientists were understandably angry and were not always circumspect in their private messages. They did not expect political activists—willing to tap phones and break into computers—to steal their correspondence. Although there was no evidence for any wrongdoing by the scientists, their words were twisted and taken out of context. Emails were published by bloggers and broadcast by media for whom controversy and conflict trumps accuracy. This non-scandal became known as “ClimateGate.”
The actual scandal is associated with the Barton investigation. Last month a blogger called “Deep Climate” demonstrated that, in a cruel irony, the Wegman team actually plagiarized from a textbook written by one of the scientists under investigation. Even worse, they changed the meaning of the text they stole. The supposedly unbiased referees of the game were part of the ClusterPuck.
New evidence continues to mount (see deepclimate.org for updates). Will the media investigate and report the “ClusterPuck” scandal as aggressively as they did for the “ClimateGate” non-scandal? Or is there a journalistic double standard that favors deniers? Stay tuned.
New Mexicans for Science and Reason (NMSR) is one of the most dedicated, effective pro-science groups in the United States. Since 1996, they have successfully defended the teaching of evolution in New Mexico public schools against the Religious Right’s repeated attacks. Two NMSR members, physicists David Thomas and Kim Johnson, also do a weekly radio program, Science Watch, which airs each Saturday afternoon on KABQ AM 1350 Progressive Talk in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Concerned about the attack on science education in Louisiana by the Discovery Institute and the Louisiana Family Forum, Science Watch has done two interviews with Barbara Forrest about Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signing the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA). The first interview, “Statehouse Statue: Creationist Legislation Update,” on March 14, 2009, was intended to update listeners about the Discovery Institute’s promotion of its model “academic freedom” legislation in state legislatures around the country. The audio clip is posted here (14 minutes, 19.5 MB mp3). The second Science Watch interview, “What Hath Jindal Done? Scary News from Louisiana,” on October 31, 2009, reflects the seriousness with which NMSR views what creationists have done to our state. This interview includes an update on the creationist-influenced policy that was adopted in September 2009 by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education governing the filing of complaints about materials used in Louisiana science classes. The audio clip is posted here (11 minutes, 15.3 MB mp3). ...
Mr. Dave Thomas is a physicist and mathematician, and is president of the science group New Mexicans for Science and Reason. Dave also is a Fellow of CSI (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry), the publishers of Skeptical Inquirer.
