Archive for the ‘Corruption’ Category
February 27, 2012
Thai show elephants
The Thai Government relies heavily on the $2 billion tourist industry which in turn uses elephants as a focus for attracting tourists. But most of these “show” elephants (estimated to be 100- 200 per year) are captured as young calves by poachers who kill their mothers when trying to protect their calves. But the Thai Government which makes all the politically correct noises about protecting elephants is reluctant to disturb the poachers and the tourist industry. So when poachers are threatened the Thai Government (ironically through its National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department) rushes to their defence.
The Age: A partly Australian-funded wildlife rescue foundation whose chief spoke out about the illegal poaching of baby elephants in Thailand has been raided and had 103 animals taken away by Thai parks officials. … witnesses say many of the animals, including endangered species, were injured during the raids on the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand centre by up to 100 armed men, some of whom wore balaclavas to hide their identities.
The raids over four days followed claims by the organisation’s founder and director, Edwin Wiek, that more than half the elephants in tourist camps across Thailand had been illegally caught in the wild when they were young, sometimes by poachers who shot their mothers or other members of their herd that tried to protect them. …….
Thailand’s National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department said the animals were seized because the foundation failed to produce paperwork showing they were being kept legally. “We need to enforce Thai laws that have been issued to protect those animals,” said the department’s director-general, Damrong Pidech.
Ironically many of the animals seized were originally rescued from government centres and will now find themselves back in these centres.
Tags:elephant poaching, Poaching, Thailand, Tourism
Posted in Business, Corruption, Environment, Thailand | Comments Off on Thai Government rushes in to protect elephant poachers
February 26, 2012
Fakegate enriches language!
gleick, n, a vain and inept person
to gleick, v, to forge ineptly
Peter was a gleick, Peter is a gleick, Peter will always be a gleick.
Peter gleicked, Peter is gleicking, Peter will gleick.
It trips of the tongue very nicely.
Fakegate and Peter Gleick’s inept (but “heroic”) escapades are the source of much amusement over at Climate Audit. One reader, a Dr. UK has found a very apposite quotation from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Bottom (wearing the head of an ass): Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
Titania:Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
But there are many contenders for the role of Titania! Monbiot and Laden lead the list.
To gleick, or not to gleick ..
Peter (soliloquy):
To gleick, or not to gleick, that is the question:
Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Heartland,
Or to take Fakes against a Sea of Truths,
And by publishing end them:
(with apologies to WS)
Tags:Climate Audit, climate change, ethics, Fakegate, global warming, Heartland Institute, Laden, Monbiot, Peter Gleick
Posted in Academic misconduct, Alarmism, Corruption, Ethics, scientific misconduct | 1 Comment »
February 23, 2012
The Global Warming priesthood have long experience in fudging data, cheating and suppressing opposing views. But Peter Gleick, a true acolyte of the religion, has now been reduced not only to lying, cheating and stealing but also to forgery and fakery.
The blogosphere has been full of the Fakegate or the Peter Gleick affair for the last week. First he used impersonation and lying to extract confidential documents from Heartland. He clearly has broken some laws. But he found nothing very damaging regarding climate sceptics so he forged a “summary” document so as to be able to add some spice to the affair. He then disseminated the documents widely and these were immediately publicised by a gullible and hypocritical orthodoxy.
Peter Gleick - Faker
Of course Gleick is a climate alarmist and activist and for him and his friends Heartland remains the “villain” and his ends of “exposing” the alleged bad guys apparently justifies his dishonest and criminal means. His authorship of the forged document was recognised by Steven Mosher and Climate Audit just from his writing style and bad punctuation. Needless to say Gleick is considered by the global warming priesthood as an expert exponent of integrity in science research. In this sordid case some are delusional enough to see him as a hero.
Gleick’s own work is unimportant and lacking any real scientific content. His lack of ethics (apart from his poor writing and general incompetence) is of no great significance. But his behaviour exposes and is in the tradition established by the Hockey Stick crowd (Mann, Jones, Hansen, Trenberth et al) of fudging and cheating and suppression of opposing views.
BREAKING: Gleick Confesses
Peter Gleick Confesses
Gleick’s AGU Resignation
Megan McArdle gives Mosher and the blogosphere props for pointing to Gleick
Peter Gleick Confesses to Obtaining Heartland Documents Under False Pretenses
FakeGate: Just Another Day at Team Green
Fakegate Illustrates Global Warming Alarmists’ Deceit and Desperation
Tags:Climate Audit, climate change, Fakegate, Forgery, global warming, Heartland Institute, Megan McArdle, Peter Gleick, Scientific misconduct
Posted in Alarmism, Climate, Corruption, Ethics, Fraud | 1 Comment »
February 11, 2012
zu Guttenberg is back and has friends in high places. Baron Cut and Paste rides again.
This might be considered ironic but being the European commission I put it down to plain stupidity. To have a plagiarist who was brought down by net activism but who then bought his way out of criminal prosecution (by paying €20,000) as a special advisor on net activism illustrates the stupidity and the corruption at the centre of the European Commission.
Stupid is as stupid does.
From TechDirt:
European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes has invited Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a former Federal Minister of Defence, and of Economics and Technology, in Germany, to advise on how to provide ongoing support to Internet users, bloggers and cyber-activists living under authoritarian regimes. This appointment forms a key element of a new “No Disconnect Strategy” to uphold the EU’s commitment to ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected both online and off-line, and that internet and other information and communication technology (ICT) can remain a driver of political freedom, democratic development and economic growth.
Of course, that’s rather rich coming from a region where France already allows disconnections as punishments (HADOPI), and where the UK has legislation in place that will allow it to do the same (Digital Economy Act). But it turns out that the ironies are even deeper.
The reason that Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg — once seen as a likely successor to Germany’s current Chancellor, Angela Merkel — is no longer the Federal Minister of Defence, and of Economics and Technology, is that he resigned when it emerged that he had plagiarized significant parts of his doctorate.
After initial denials, Guttenberg was forced to admit the extent of his plagiarism thanks largely to a crowdsourced wiki called GutenPlag (original German) offering “collaborative documentation of plagiarism”, which went through his thesis searching for passages taken from elsewhere without acknowledgement. In total, it claims to have found “1218 plagiarized fragments from 135 sources, on 371 out of 393 pages (94.4%), in 10421 plagiarized lines (63.8%).” There’s even an interactive, color-coded visualization of what happened where.
A petition against this stupidity can be found here: zu Guttenberg must leave the European Commission
Tags:corruption, European Commission, European Union, Germany, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Neelie Kroes, Plagiarism
Posted in Corruption, Ethics, European Union, Germany | Comments Off on Plagiarist zu Guttenberg invited to join the European Commission
January 18, 2012
The new McCarthys in the US
- Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Diane Feinstein(D -California), Harry Reid (D- Nevada), Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
- Motion Picture Association of America, Chris Dodd (Lobbyist and Chairman of MPAA and former Senator)
- News Corp., Time-Warner, Sony and Disney
Tags:Hollywood censorship, internet censorship, McCarthyism
Posted in Corruption, Media | Comments Off on The new censors – McCarthyism by Hollywood
December 6, 2011
While I have been travelling over the last week, the IPCC Durban circus has been performing to dwindling audiences.
The Climategate 1 and 2 emails that have been released so far (about 1,000 + 5,000) are focused mainly on a 3-way nexus between a group of rather mediocre scientists, a few willing (and gullible) reporters and some of the bureaucrats/politicians who have seized on the advantages of fear-mongering.
The mediocrity of the so-called climate scientists is palpable. Michael Mann leaves out data whwnever he feels like it, Phil Jones can’t fathom the intricacies of an Excel table, Tom Wigley (appropriate name) tries to get the PhD’s of his opponents retracted, etc …….. . And all for “The Cause”.
We have seen the blatant lobbying activities of Harrabin and Revkin undermine the reputation of the BBC and the New York Times. At least George Monbiot does not pretend to be anything other than a lobbyist. Harrabin’s pompous defence of his blinkered view is particularly nauseating.
Now we find that the IPCC itself was not averse to falsifying data when it felt the message needed strengthening.
The Global warming fraternity have been busy defending themselves, denying that what they have been engaged in has been bad science or bad journalism. But the politicians and bureaucrats have escaped scrutiny — at least so far.
But there are 200,000 further emails waiting to be un-encrypted by the release of a decrypting phrase (the emails themselves have already been released). And some bureaucrats, some IPCC functionaries, some carbon trading entrepreneurs and some amoral, fear-mongering politicians have to wait their turn.
But they will probably not have to wait very long!!!!
Tags:Andy Revkin, Climategate 2.0 emails, ethics, global warming, IPCC, Mann, Phil Jones, Roger Harrabin
Posted in Academic misconduct, Alarmism, Climate, Corruption, Media, Politics, UN | Comments Off on Climategate 2.0: What’s in the encrypted 200,000 emails?
November 14, 2011
Yet another case of predatory behaviour by sports people in authority over young boys. Peter Roebuck committed suicide in S. Africa by jumping out of his hotel window after being questioned by police about drugging and sexually assaulting a young boy. Many people must have known anout his behaviour.
He wrote very well and I always enjoyed his articles. But he had some dark secrets and they are not very pretty. In 2001 he was found guilty of caning 3 young S. African cricketers he was training.
Daily Telegraph Australia: In 2001, the former Somerset cricket captain was given a suspended jail sentence after admitting caning three young cricketers he had offered to coach. Roebuck, of Exmouth in Devon, pleaded guilty to three charges of common assault involving three South African teenagers between 1 April and 31 May, 1999. He had pleaded not guilty to three counts of causing actual bodily harm, which was accepted by the prosecution. Roebuck was sentenced to four months in jail for each count, with the sentences suspended for two years, at Taunton Crown Court. Judge Graham Hume Jones told Roebuck he had abused his power and influence over the boys, who were far from home and far from friends and family.
Update! I see that tributes, and here, are flowing in about his writing and his cricket career. But I am afraid that whatever he may have done well, his sexual predations and the lives of all the young people he has traumatised is too heavy a price.
Better that he had never written a single word if that would have meant that his horrible behaviour to young cricketers under his authority could have been avoided.
(more…)
Tags:Australia, Cape Town, Fairfax Media, Peter Roebuck, sexual assault, South Africa, suicide
Posted in Australia, Behaviour, Corruption, Cricket, Sport | 2 Comments »
November 4, 2011
The status conferred by academic titles in the Czech Republic is almost as strong as in Germany. Whereas in Germany it is the title of “Doctor” which is most sought after by politicians – as a stamp of public acknowledgement that one is a “deep thinker” – even a Masters degree in the Czech Republic can lead to the title “Pani magistra” or literally “Mrs Master’s degree holder.”
Petty politicians appending academic titles to enhance their electoral chances is not of course so uncommon. What is surprising for me is that Prague and its citizens, who I think are extremely sophisticated and discerning in matters academic and who have a strong sense of the long academic traditions of the city, would be taken in by such nonsense.
And the mass-production of fake doctorates by the law faculty of the University of West Bohemia (ZČU) in Plzeň led to over 300,000 degree awards being audited in 2009! This even led to a Wikileaks cable from the US Embassy in Prague ( Wikileaks id #233660) in November 2009 about the scandal and reporting:
A joke is making the rounds: “What are you doing this weekend?” Answer: “Getting a law degree.”
Czech position now reports that yet another politician is accused of plagiarism – this time for a Master’s thesis.
Prague district mayor ‘plagiarized’ his master’s thesis
… Two prominent academics who separately examined the master’s thesis of Prague 11 mayor Dalibor Mlejnský (Civic Democrats, ODS), due to suspicions of plagiarism, say the majority of the paper was indeed copied verbatim — and almost completely lacked citation. Mlejnský’s thesis titled “The History of Charles University” was lifted from two books (Jacques LeGoff’s “Intellectuals in the Middle Ages” and, more obviously, volumes of “The History of Charles University” by various scholars over the centuries, according to the two academics, who had been asked by the state broadcaster to make the expert assessments.
(more…)
Tags:Czech Republic, degree-mill, fake degrees, Jan Kalvoda, Milan Jančík, Plagiarism, Plzeň, Prague, University of West Bohemia
Posted in Academic misconduct, Corruption, Czech Republic, Education, Politics | Comments Off on Plagiarising politicians and weekend Doctorates in the Czech Republic
October 18, 2011
This is a very strange tale of a prestigious Italian bio-medical Research Institute, a strange priest, tons of money, huge debts, corruption, a suicide, the Vatican and – of course – links to Berlusconi.
It reads like a film script and a subject worthy of a Dan Brown blockbuster.
Alison Abbott writes in Nature:
One of Italy’s most prestigious biomedical research centres now faces bankruptcy, against a backdrop of rumours fed by intrigue among power-brokers, allegations of fraud and corruption, and a violent death. Next week, a court will decide whether to leave the Milan-based San Raffaele Scientific Institute to its fate, or allow a consortium led by the Vatican Bank to rescue it. (more…)
Tags:Da Vinci Code, Giuseppe Profiti, Italy, Luigi Maria Verzé, Mario Cal, San Raffaele, San Raffaele del Monte Tabor Foundation, San Raffaele Research Institute, Silvio Berlusconi, Vatican
Posted in Academic misconduct, Behaviour, Corruption, Italy, Politics, Science | Comments Off on The strange story of the San Raffaele Research Institute, Don Verzé, the Vatican, corruption and a suicide!
October 16, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
The Fox-Werrity scandal keeps growing. Liam Fox may have resigned but as the spotlight falls on his “best man” Adam Werrity, it becomes clear that the brain behind the subterfuge was that of Liam Fox. Adam Werrity was just a pretty boy with a pretty bad degree when he was selected and built up by Fox. (A 2.2 degree is pretty close to a “fail”). He took advantage of the position he was put into to effectively operate a slush fund to pay for his luxury jaunts – all ostensibly for facilitating the contacts between Fox and influential – and risch – backers. But what is clear is that he was nothing more than a front for Fox. If at any time Fox had withdrawn his backing for his “best friend man”, Werrity would have been a zero and he can not point to any real accomplishments of his own.
Werrity only shone in the light provided by his master.
To what extent Fox was running a shadow foreign and defence policy from behind the scenes to satisfy the interests of his backers is the real question that remains. How many defence contracts were placed as a result of the shadow Fox policy is also unknown. How far UK foreign policy was influenced by Fox and his backers is a mystery. I just listened to the UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, on BBC Radio and his stonewalling of the question of Fox’s influence on UK foreign policy (in Sri Lanka particularly) only raised my suspicions that he too feels he has been duped by his friend. His only real defence (and hope perhaps) was that that government was so large that Fox’s influence could not have penetrated very far.
The Telegraph today is pretty scathing. Liam Fox: How his best man Adam Werritty brought him down. But it cannot be forgotten that Liam Fox was the one who built Werrity up in the first place.
Liam Fox has only himself to blame. Fiercely intellectual, politically astute and genuinely capable, Dr Fox has in the end come unstuck over a misguided but long-held friendship with a man 17 years his junior.
He met Adam Werritty when his future best man was still a teenager and nurtured him for close to 15 years. He installed Mr Werritty as the head of businesses and charities which had his backing, enabling them to travel the world often at the expense of others.
They may have worked hard but the pair played hard too. They dined together in the finest restaurants, enjoyed marathon drinking sessions and even indulged in occasional bouts of karaoke.
It might have been acceptable behaviour — a giddy mixture of business and pleasure — out of power. But for a Defence Secretary, presiding over multi-million pound contracts and cuts, it proved to be fatal. …..
Werrity is described brutally by The Telegraph as a handsome teenager who the years have not been kind to. And considering that Werrity was only about 18 when as an undergraduate he was singled out by the 35 year old Fox, it begins to seem like the case of a gullible – but not very bright teenager – being seduced and corrupted by a much older and cleverer and unscrupulous man.
Tags:Adam Werritty, Fox Werrity scandal, Liam Fox, William Hague
Posted in Behaviour, Corruption, Ethics, Politics, UK | Comments Off on Sleaze and potential level of corruption rises in the Liam Fox / Adam Werrity affair
The k2p blog 