CORRESPONDENCE WITH MANN      

November 12, 2003

Mr. McIntyre,

All of the data used by Mann et al (1998), including the specific 159 series that are used in the stepwise reconstruction approach clearly described in our original article, are available on our public ftp site:
ftp://holocene.evsc.virginia.edu/pub/MBH98/
in a clearly organized directory structure, where they have been since the summer of 2002, nine months prior to any request on your part for the data. This is a hard fact that you seem unwilling to accept. The "BACKTO_XXX" directories within each sub-directory contain the specific networks of data (including PCs of the various sub networks) used back to each starting point of the various intervals of the stepwise reconstruction. The directories also include all the individual proxy data that were used to construct the PC series for each sub-interval. It is unfortunate that you continue to seek to advance the view that all of these data are not in the public domain, when other scientists, indeed, have successfully downloaded the data from our ftp site. You'll note in my original email to you that I steered you towards our ftp site, not towards a spreadsheet version of the data, which was provided to you in response to a specific request on your part to Scott Rutherford (the earlier matlab date on that text file, which you have noted in your attempts to misrepresent the history behind this, results from the fact that he produced that file for you from a master matlab file that he had used for his own purposes at an earlier time).

The file that you  requested from him includes 112 indicators that comprise the network used by Mann et al for the 1820-1980 component, it does did not contain the full set of 159 indicators. You did not indicate to Scott Rutherford your purposes at the time, so he had to anticipate precisely what you were asking for.

The new file posted on our website, according to Scott Rutherford, is unrelated to this entire matter--it is an unrelated dataset that has been posted for use by colleagues of ours at another institution. I am suggesting to Scott, by cc of this email, that it be put in a separate location to avoid any future confusion.  By cc of this message to Scott, I am also suggesting that any spreadsheet versions of our data should be deleted from our website, as they seem only to have added to confusion. That you have sought to publicly vilify Scott Rutherford (and me) for a good faith effort on his part to provide you data in a format you had requested is unconscionable.

I am far too busy to be answering the same question over and over for you again, so this will be our final email exchange. That you have oddly cc'd your message to the chair of our department, by the way, unfairly places him in an awkward position, and you may want to apologize to him for that. 

I am sorry that you did not, as originally suggested to you by me on 4/9/03 (see below), simply go to our ftp site where all of the data were available, and that you continue to cast aspersions against others for what can only be viewed as some serious mistakes make on your own part.

Sincerely,

Mike Mann