Monday, January 25, 2010

Bat Boy Is Source of U.N. Panel's Report on Climate Change

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently admitted that the most alarming conclusion in its 2007 report -- the claim that the Himalayan glaciers would be melted 25 years from now -- was wrong, and that it was based on unsubstantiated news reports instead of peer-reviewed scientific studies.

One independent scientist who decided to look up the original source for the claim became suspicious when it was attributed to "Bat Boy," a half-human, half bat creature popularized by the now defunct Weekly World News.

IPCC scientists defended the error, saying "Bat Boy has huge, penetrating eyes, and he seemed to be shrieking his global warming predictions with eerie certainty. Or at least it appeared that way in the scandal rag we found waiting in a grocery checkout line."

Associated articles: The Atlantic; Technology Review; Times of London; Times of London 2; Wall Street Journal; London Telegraph; Institute of Physics; AFP; Washington Times; UK Guardian

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