This is the next in an occasional series of diaries on the state of Northern Hemisphere Arctic sea ice (and other topics as warranted), written in memory of Johnny Rook, who passed away in early 2009. He was the author of the Climaticide Chronicles.
Many love the feeling of vindication they get when some event or result seems to prove them right. I'm no exception, but I do my best to be aware of that tendency and check myself, especially when the conclusion I am drawing is not well-grounded in scientific fact; what is often called a "theory", much to the delight of those who don't understand that the theory is fact, to the best of our current knowledge.
Since the Enlightenment, scientists have usually been the ones to challenge such facts through experimentation and independent verification. If the results being tested cannot be verified independently, one presumably goes back to check his/her methods and data and either revised the theory or corrects the verification for the error(s) made.
More on this and other boreal winter matters below.