Anthony Watts goes to AGU Fall Meeting

Update: here is the schedule for the live #AGU13 videos. I don't know if they will all be made available on demand, so if there's something you want to see best set your alarm clock :)


The AGU Fall meeting is the biggest annual conference of the American Geophysical Union.  It attracts scientific researchers from all around the world and has a huge program.  This year there are around 22,000 people attending in person.

How to view the AGU Fall Meeting on-demand videos

Those who aren't able to get there can view the sessions on video.  This is the last year the on-demand sessions will be open to all and sundry.  From next year onwards you'll have to be an AGU member, according to their website.  (It costs $US50 a year to join as a full member or, if you don't qualify for membership, as an associate - $US20 if you are a student.  Here is a list of the benefits.)

You don't need to pay anything this year so jump right in!

The  instructions on how to get access to the videos aren't very clear and you have to jump through a few hoops.  This is what you need to do, if you're not already registered.

1. Go to http://virtualoptions.agu.org/
2. Scroll down and enter your email address in the box under "Registration"
3. Check your email and click the hyperlink or copy and paste it into the address bar on your web browser
4. On the page that appears,  be sure enter promo code AGU13 so you aren't charged $100
5. On the next page fill in the boxes - you'll need to repeat your email address and come up with a password
6. When you get to the end you can go back and check your email again, you'll need to view it in HTML, not plain text, to read it.
7. Click on this link again  http://virtualoptions.agu.org/ and enter the email address and password you provided in step 5.
8. I think it's here that you have to fill in more details
9. You'll finally arrive at the page you want, which is full of videos - live streaming and all the sessions held so far.
10. Set aside several hours for the next several days.
11. Enjoy and learn :)

WUWT readers paid Anthony Watts to attend the AGU Fall Meeting

Anthony Watts got some money from his readers to go to the AGU Fall Meeting.  He also managed to get a press pass. So far he's written four blog articles:

1. An article which mainly consisted of a link to the AGU Fall Meeting videos page
2. An article which mainly consisted of a photo of a link to the AGU Fall Meeting videos page, saying Steve McIntyre was having trouble with figuring out how to access them (nothing new in that)
3. Two blurry photos about the Ethics Workshop
4. An article of Anthony's "first impressions" (archived here)

In his "first impressions" article, Anthony didn't report anything of note.  He put up a few blurry snapshots and a couple that weren't framed well but at least they were more or less in focus.

Anthony shows his ignorance of AGU blogs

Two of Anthony's photos were of a poster showing the AGU blogs.  Anthony said he hasn't heard of any of the AGU blogs.  He doesn't get out much.

I'd have thought he would have come across at least Dan Sattersfield's blog, since he is a meteorologist. Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal blog has been around in one space or another for years and is very popular.

Ethics Workshop

Anthony says his first stop was an ethics workshop.  All he said about the content was:

 "It addressed the lack of ethics in several hypothetical situations."  

Very incisive in-depth reporting!

Of course maybe all his "stop" consisted of was opening the door and snapping some pictures.  (He wrote about another WUWT-er who attended, saying the topics weren't what he was interested in.  Not very interesting at all.)

Ironic: flaunting (fair) game photography

One of Anthony's photos was of a woman at her laptop.  Anthony posted the picture to mock a sticker on the laptop which was: "Gas sucks ride a bike".  Anthony thinks it's "ironic" that someone who rides a bike would use a laptop - or something like that :(

In the comments Pippen Kool asked:

"By the way, do you have to get the permission of people when you take pictures and post that way? I’m just wondering."

To which Anthony replied using phrases that I assumed would have disappeared out of even the most sexist mens' vocabulary by 1990 at the latest: "it's all her fault, she was flaunting. She WANTS to be noticed.":

REPLY: This woman was sitting in a commons area in the basement of Moscone south with a bunch of other people using laptops. This is a public place, no permission needed. Besides, she’s flaunting, she WANTS to be noticed. Besides, she’s already being photographed by the camera in the background.- Anthony

zootcadillac, a professional photographer wrote about his understanding of privacy and photography.  To which Anthony responded, using not dissimilar language: "fair game":

REPLY: Moscone Center is the city’s convention center. It is a public facility. Thus, photos of anyone on the public city owned property is fair game. – Anthony

Anthony thought it ironic that someone would have a sticker on a laptop urging people to use less petrol. The wider irony is Anthony posting about an ethics workshop and a close up shot of a woman with comments about "flaunting", "WANTS to be noticed" and "fair game" - all in the one blog article.

Kevin Trenberth is too busy

Another bit of non-reporting that Anthony provides is the fact that he saw Kevin Trenberth in the corridor and Anthony tried to interview him - just like that - out of the blue.  However Dr Trenberth was on his way to another commitment and wouldn't give Anthony Watts the time of day.

All up, Anthony's first blog articles on the AGU event are non-events.

From the WUWT illiterati

I wrote this to let readers know how to access the AGU videos.

But the other reason I'm writing this is not so much to report Anthony's lack of reporting anything of scientific interest or his ignorance of science blogs or his questionable ethics.  It's because even I am surprised by some of the comments at WUWT, and I've been following WUWT fairly closely for almost a year now. If you didn't already know that WUWT is a haven for the scientific illiterati, well the comments below might enlighten you.

Here are some of the more extreme reactions (archived here):

TalentKeyHole Mole says "science = fascism":

December 9, 2013 at 5:32 pm
Nazi extremist-tippers movement hijacked the AGU I’d say. Only difference in the fellow with the “Repent” sign outside and the President on the sign inside is … location. Ha!

EW3 says "science is filth":

December 9, 2013 at 5:33 pm
You are going to use lye soap to feel clean again.

PaulH thinks the NSA is spying on everyone and says:

December 9, 2013 at 5:45 pm
Oh, and note the wall mounted video surveillance camera aimed directly at “gas sucks” lady’s laptop. I wonder which three-letter organization is monitoring her online activities. Come to think of it, there must have been many such cameras scattered throughout the convention centre, eh?

ldd says "scientists are all thieves":

December 9, 2013 at 5:57 pm
You have my admiration Anthony, don’t thing I could stand being in a den of thieves.

dbstealey says that a scientific convention - to a WUWT-er - is a fearsome event that takes enormous courage to venture into.  It is on par with stepping into the lion's den. He's probably got that right from the illiterati viewpoint:

December 9, 2013 at 6:19 pm
Good for Anthony! He wasn’t afraid to step into the lion’s den.

I had to laugh at the pitiful appeal for eyeballs for their blogs [pic #6]. I’ve been following this debate since the 1990′s, and I didn’t recognize a single one of them.

They could add all those blogs together, and even if they doubled and squared their traffic, they wouldn’t reach nearly as many readers as WUWT.

Cut off the attendees’ taxpayer funding, and Anthony & John Whitman might be the only ones there! Those other folks need real jobs.

Janice Moore says:

December 9, 2013 at 7:02 pm
A.F.L.C.I.O. (as if I really care)

zootcadillac in a deluded moment thinks petty-minded anti-science blogger, Anthony Watts must be causing quite a stir among the 22,000 attendees and says (excerpt):

December 9, 2013 at 7:05 pm
Give ‘em hell fella, even your presence must be ruffling feathers and personally I’m all for that.