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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
 Posted - 06/12/2010 : 20:31:17
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Thanks to William Connolley, Bart Verheggen and Michael Tobis, I'm now aware of what appeared to be a cruel hoax perpetrated on a ten-year-old girl.
Julisa Castillo entered a science fair in Beeville, Texas, with a project "Disproving Global Warming." She didn't place in the top five.
Later, a package arrived at her home from the "National Science Foundation" with a letter congratulating her for becoming the "2010 National Science Fair Jr. Grand Champion," and including a plaque and a trophy. The letter claimed she had also won a trip to Space Camp.
The letter ended with an actual employee of the actual NSF, who had no idea what people were asking her about when they called to confirm this "award." The NSF has disavowed the whole thing.
Some climate-change denialists are already trumpeting this fraudulent "win." Some, to their credit, were following Tobis' lead. Newspapers picked up the story without doing any more investigating than reading other newspapers.
In a really twisted end to the story, Julisa's father announced in an email,What was intended to be a way to honor our daughter for a job well done on her project has really gotten out of hand and we’re ready to put this behind us. So, it wasn't so much a hoax as a poorly thought-out "atta girl," which got blown insanely out of proportion and already has been living a life of its own.
Unfortunately, even climate realists are trumpeting this story as an example of how badly climate denialists behave. Michael Tobis titled his post "A New Low" and ended the original on this note:The clearest lesson to be learned from this is how amazingly base this behavior is. What sort of person would manipulate the emotions and expectations of a ten-year-old girl in this vile and crass way for a small political point? Clearly, he thought the perpetrator of the "hoax" would be a climate denialist probably trying to grab a headline like, "Climate Questioning Fourth-Grader Wins National Science Fair."
But the real lesson is to not believe anything because it agrees with what you want to be true. Bart Verheggen makes this point, with the denialists in mind, but neglected to apply it in his own posting on the subject. And as above, Michael Tobis obviously wanted the "fraudster" to be some denialist. Really, anyone who reports on this without mentioning the father's admission may very well be trying to score a "small political point" or two. (And it doesn't count if someone who blogs on it doesn't do more than allow his/her commenters to set the record straight - lots of people don't read the comments.)
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- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2010 : 21:44:19 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Clearly, he thought the perpetrator of the "hoax" would be a climate denialist probably trying to grab a headline like, "Climate Questioning Fourth-Grader Wins National Science Fair." |
Except I'd bet the father is a climate denialist. I doubt she's picking up such ideas at school, since they didn't seem to grade her project very highly. So why would a 10-year-old girl do a science project counter to everything she's ever been taught on the subject in school unless somebody at home was filling her head with climate denialism? Her father seems a prime candidate. He might have prompted her to take up the topic of global warming in order to challenge the "propaganda" the school was teaching, much as creationists print up questions for their kids to go and pester biology teachers.
Even the award sounds like something a creationist might do. Since the "elitists" of academia never recognize their scholarship, they're forced to create their own bogus degrees, science journals, and universities. Printing up a fake letter of congratulations is nothing. And I'm sure the father justified his fraud on the grounds that his daughter was robbed of her due credit by evil liberals who'll stop at nothing to defend the lie of global warming. He's fighting a full-blown conspiracy. What's a little white lie if it puts a smile on his daughter's face and keeps her drinking the denialist Kool-Aid?
And how did the story get out? Was the daughter so proud of her letter that she started showing it around herself or did the father forget to mention his deception when he posted about the letter on the denialist blogs he frequents? He probably enjoyed the attention at first, then began to cringe as more and more people passed on the letter and invited increased scrutiny.
So I'm not sure how much the father's admission changes anything. It's still probably a case of Science Deniers Acting Badly. I admit that's speculative, but I find it a plausible motive in the absence of any other.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 06/12/2010 21:48:09 |
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ThorGoLucky
Snuggle Wolf
USA
1487 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2010 : 22:48:23 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Except I'd bet the father is a climate denialist. |
Given his bogus degrees (see the last half of the last article I linked to), I have little doubt that he is. But that's exactly why I think that he didn't intend to make the national news with this little stunt: what was a couple people on a few blogs who were checking into Mr. Castillo's claimed background is now (or will soon become) an army of investigative journalists. I think this part of the whole thing was as badly thought-out as the rest. Mr. Castillo may be actively getting a higher education, but that doesn't mean he isn't a stupid, stupid man.| And how did the story get out? |
From what I've read, the principal of Julisa's school called the local paper, so I suspect Julisa told someone in school, either a classmate or a teacher, and the literally incredible news ran up the grapevine. The principal seems to have had a twinge of skepticism (she pointed out that Julisa didn't even make the top five in the local science fair), but suppressed it.
At some point, Julisa's family received a phone call from a newspaper reporter. At that time, they had a serious choice to make, and I bet they still thought, "who will ever know about this outside of Beeville, Texas?" So they had their photo taken for the paper with the school principal, answered a few questions, and thought that would be the end of it.
Except for taking the kid to Space Camp (on their own dime). The idea that nobody would ask Julisa how she got there, or if someone did ask (even just during idle chit-chat) that they could keep the story clamped down, is yet another incredible idea. Julisa's parents don't seem to be too bright, to me.| So I'm not sure how much the father's admission changes anything. It's still probably a case of Science Deniers Acting Badly. |
I'm just saying that it's not a case of deniers acting badly in order to influence national politics, which is how this is being framed on anti-denialist blogs. I'm willing to assume stupidity instead of malice, this time.| I admit that's speculative, but I find it a plausible motive in the absence of any other. |
Well, we're not working in a motive vacuum. Mr. Castillo has given us one. It's plausible, if he's a very unwise man, and all evidence seems to me to be pointing that way, regardless what he thinks about climate science.
Maybe I'm giving these tards too much of a benefit of a doubt. But in the absence of someone providing evidence that the original intent was to have the story in national media like USA Today, and make Julisa a country-wide laughingstock, I'm willing to conclude that her parents are idiots. It's actually a best-case scenario for the kid, since anything more nefarious means that someone in this world actively hopes that she doesn't have the best life possible (given the context of her situation before this all started).
I suppose I'm just hoping that the worst of humanity hasn't gotten so bad that ten-year-olds are seen as acceptable targets for political manipulation. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 06/14/2010 : 11:26:12 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
And how did the story get out? Was the daughter so proud of her letter that she started showing it around herself or did the father forget to mention his deception when he posted about the letter on the denialist blogs he frequents? He probably enjoyed the attention at first, then began to cringe as more and more people passed on the letter and invited increased scrutiny. |
Whoops, nevermind:Castillo informed the school of Julisa's accomplishments and provided the information for the original news story regarding Julisa's winnings. What a dumbass. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Fourthgradergate
