Real Climate has a much more interesting take on the paper:
Finding the weak points in various temperature proxies and using that knowledge to improve the overall accuracy of the temperature record is a good thing, and a normal part of the scientific process. Sensationalist reporting of the type The Register engages in just serves to inflame the debate without adding anything useful to the discussion.
How long until I can buy one at Harbor Freight?
Also Siberia is one of the worst places to look at homogeneity, as the stations aren't that close together (as they are in Fennoscandia and most of Canada) and also the temperature varies an awful lot from year to year.
It appears to me that they know the Siberian data is junk and they are trying to discourage people from using it. The entire email up to that point is a discussion of why Siberian data is poor, and how trends reflected in other disparate areas of the globe are not always evident there.
Also, I'm not entirely convinced that your standard of evidence (a simple statement that collapses the works of thousands of scientists using huge data sets and millions of hours of computer time, into an elevator pitch) is entirely reasonable. I think its fairly well established that CO2 traps heat in the atmosphere, and we have increased its concentration to a level unprecedented in human history. Is there is an above average chance that there is a tipping point in the global climate system that can be reached and will end up setting a new stable point with a vastly different climate than we currently enjoy? The literature would seem to point to this conclusion.
I'm sure you could start from first principles and do all of the math by yourself, starting from the raw climate records. It would be a massive undertaking, but since you seem ready to dismiss the opinions of the majority of climate researchers because you yourself don't understand what they are doing, this seems like a fair compromise. Should only take 15 or 20 years, lemme know how that works out for you.
If you think welding is "unskilled", you haven't done much of it. Welding is a trade, like plumbing or carpentry, that takes years to master, and $20 seems pretty fair (possibly even on the low end) for compensation.
Actually, it looks like they replaced 1300 Sun machines with an unspecified number of HP Linux boxes. They are also converted their existing IBM mainframe to run Linux instead of whatever proprietary OS it had before. The article is a little ambiguous there.
The glow of their web server melting down probably isn't helping...
I think that MM's claims have been shown to be wrong.
Mater artium necessitas. [Necessity is the mother of invention].
