Self-appointed Nobel Laureate Michael Mann was at the Virginia Supreme Court today, arguing that he shouldn't have to release the scientific data behind his increasingly flaccid "hockey stick". Here's how Richard Schiffman in The Guardian sees the case:

Harassment of climate scientists needs to stop

Climate change denialists are suing scientists...

That's pretty funny. Because, when it comes to Michael Mann, it's the "scientist" who can't stop suing the "denialists". The litigious Dr Mann is so pathologically insecure he reaches for his lawyers over the mildest joke, threatening to sue the "denialists" behind the parody song "Hide The Decline", and actually suing a Canadian "denialist" for a bit of word-play (Michael Mann "should be in the state pen not Penn State"). And, as Schiffman mentions in his piece while mangling most of the facts, Mann is also suing Rand Simberg, me, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and National Review.

So Schiffman has grasped precisely the wrong end of the hockey stick:

Mann also did not imagine that he would be spending quite so much time with lawyers and in courtrooms. Today, he is the plaintiff in a controversial case that is being argued before the Virginia Supreme Court.

He's the "plaintiff" in the Virginia case*. He's also the plaintiff in the "Hide The Decline" case, and the Canadian case, and the Steyn case. The plaintiff is the one doing the suing. The thin-skinned Dr Mann is a serial litigant. He is never not suing, or threatening to sue. By contrast, nobody is suing Dr Mann.

So, if Mann is spending a lot of time with lawyers, it's by choice. If the reflexively litigious dweeb were to spend less time with his lawyers, he might have time to do a bit more science. After all, the hockey stick is a decade and a half old. He's starting to look a bit of a one-stick pony.

Meanwhile:

The effects of climate change could hinder sea snails' extraordinary ability to leap away from predators on one foot, Queensland researchers have found.

What I wouldn't give to be able to hop away from Michael Mann on one foot...

*Actually, Mr Schiffman doesn't quite get this right, either. Mann was neither the plaintiff nor the defendant in the original case - which was "American Tradition Institute and Robert Marshall vs the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia". Dr Mann then chose to insert himself into the case and was granted leave to intervene. But again, nobody sued him: no "denialist" sued the "scientist".