Daily Bafflements

• Wei-Hock Soon, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics whose work is often cited by politicians opposing climate change legislation, has been found to have accepted $1.2 million from the fossil-fuel industry over the past ten years, thanks to Greenpeace obtaining his correspondence through a Freedom of Information request. He failed to disclose those corporate ties in his scientific publications, or when he testified before Congress that “variations in the sun’s energy can largely explain recent global warming.” And the quid pro quo arrangement is pretty clear; as the New York Times describes, “the documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as ‘deliverables’ that he completed in exchange for their money.”

• Fox News contributor Stacey Dash said that she was “appalled” by Patricia Arquette’s Oscar acceptance speech on Sunday night, in which Arquette advocated for equal wages and rights for women in the workplace; Dash added that Arquette needed to “do her history.”

• Today in Billionaires: Four prominent Indian billionaires are embroiled in a case of corporate espionage. “Nobody will be spared,” said government official Dharmendra Pradhan.

• The owners and workers of twenty-nine West Coast ports have come to a tentative agreement about a new five-year contract.