One of the pillars of global warming lore in the scientific community - the so-called "hockey-stick" graph that shows temperatures rising toward the end of the 20th century - has been discovered to be a fraud.The problem isn't so much that the data was cooked (the hockey stick had been debunked by skeptics several years ago), but rather the fact that it has taken so long for the author of the theory, Keith Briffa, to release the underlying data that is supposed to support his theory.This is as big of a scientific no-no that one can commit. And the reason for Briffa's reluctance became clear when a long time critic finally got his hands on the data.John Steele Gordon writing at Commentary: While widely published in such prestigious publications as Science, Briffa has consistently refused to release the raw data on which his studies have been based. That alone should have been enough to disqualify him, as that is about as serious a breach of the scientific method as you can...(Read Full Post)