When scientists become political–even with the best of intentions–the result is sloppy science. That appears to be the case with the ongoing saga of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has been embroiled in controversy around email leaks. The group does not conduct its own research but filters the work of researchers around the world.

Now, according to the WSJ, the IPCC is working to heal the bruises on its tarnished image, to smooth over the negative effects of inside dialog such as this:

As climate change gained public attention in recent decades, some IPCC-affiliated scientists privately expressed concerns that conclusions were risked getting oversimplified. Keith Briffa, a climate scientist at East Anglia, expressed this worry in emails to colleagues in 1999, as work intensified on the IPCC’s third major report, published in 2001. Mr. Briffa’s particular concern: tree rings.

Scientists use tree rings and other proxies to assess temperatures thousands of years ago, before thermometers existed. Wider rings indicate greater growth, generally suggesting warmer temperatures, or higher precipitation, or both. Mr. Briffa pioneered the technique.

“I know there is pressure to present a nice tidy story as regards ‘apparent unprecedented warming in a thousand years or more,’ ” he wrote to other researchers in the email, among those hacked at East Anglia. “In reality the situation is not quite so simple,” Mr. Briffa wrote.

Guest post from David Bodamer, editor-in-chief, Retail Traffic Magazine

Simon Property Group via a press release made public this morning that just more than a week ago it submitted a formal bid to acquire General Growth Properties for about $10 billion.

General Growth has not yet responded to the release. All indications are that General Growth would like to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as an independent entity. To date it has been extremely successful in restructuring its secured debt. It still, however, has about about $6 billion in unsecured debt that must be restructured. A big chunk of that is believed to be owned by Simon Property Group with Canadian REIT Brookfield Asset Management Inc. owning another big piece of that debt. As unsecured creditors, both firms have the a great deal of power over the fate of the bankrupt entity and can end up owning most of the company in the event of a debt-for-equity swap. In addition, holders of unsecured debt will get to vote when General Growth’s plan for exiting bankruptcy is presented to creditors. For its part, General Growth recently sought to extend the exclusivity period for the filing of its reorganization plan by six months, until the end of August, in part to deal with this debt.

Simon’s offer says that General Growth’s shareholders would get $9.00 per share in the deal. That’s actually lower than where General Growth’s stock is trading in the OTC markets. Indeed, with this announcement the stock will probably jump even higher. Pre-market activity has the stock at $10.60 and counting.

It appears Simon’s play here is to offer unsecured creditors 100 cents on the dollar for the debt they own rather than face any reduction in that amount that General Growth might seek as it continues with its restructuring.

The full text of Simon’s release is below: more

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has suffered the consequences of an inflated mortgage and falling property values. Last week, CoStar Group bought the organization’s D.C. headquarters for $41.3 million, somewhat less than the $79 million the group reportedly paid in 2007.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The price also is far below the $75 million financing that the MBA received from a group of banks led by PNC Financial Services Group Inc. to finance the purchase.