Hmm …

… Seth's Blog — Web Browsers, Black Swans and Scientific Progress. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Modern science works well as a way of developing discoveries, not making them. An older system was better for encouraging discovery. Professors mainly taught. Their output was classes taught. They did a little research on the side. If they found something, fine, they had enough expertise to publish it, but nothing depended on their rate of publication. … In the debate over climate change (is the case that humans are dangerously warming the planet as strong as we’re told?) it is striking that everyone with any power on the mainstream side of the debate (scientists, journalists, professional activists) has a job involving the subject. Everyone on the other side with any power (Stephen McIntyre, Bishop Hill, etc.) does not. People without jobs are much more free to speak the truth as they see it.