STORM JUNO, DEFLATEGATE, AND OTHER THINGS THAT RAN OUT AIR

Apparently, those south of me are bitching to high heaven how the storm of the century fizzled by them, bringing only an inch to areas like Philadelphia, eight inches to NYC and ten to some of NJ. This of course brought the global warming deniers out in full force complaining that if the weather forecasters can't get the forecast right 24 hours in advance, how likely is it they can see fifty years in the future, and to an extent, they have a point.

Weather forecasting is a lot of guess work as there are so many variables a slight change in just about anything can a storm's course as this one tracked father east. But, even though we may not be able to give an exact time table to our planet's destruction, all signs point to a warmer climate. Also, having studied this subject since the late 80's, I can tell you from personal experience that most of what scientists said would happen then, has, minus the few crackpots that spoiled it for everyone. And that is the problem with science today: there are way too many "experts" out there who either have an agenda or are certifiably insane and these douchebags are destroying any faith we have left in anyone anymore.

Here in MA, Storm Juno was the worst blizzard in the history of Central MA with three feet sitting outside my house right now. It is the worst blizzard I have ever been through anywhere and I have lived all over the North East. Our meteorologists did just fine, actually having nailed the storm path, the dangerous areas and snow totals. Part of the problem with forecasts may have less to do with science than the idiots they sometimes hire to do the weather forecasts. Take for example the most famous weatherman on TV, Al Roker. Al Roker has no weather related experience other than his years on TV. He holds a communications degree from State University in NY. In other words, I am far more qualified to forecast the weather than he is. Yet, there is his on TV regurgitating what other people are saying and lacking the ability to know whether it is accurate or not. I get the feeling that this would be the same for many in the areas that got the forecast so wrong. Why hire a real meteorologist when some pretty boy or girl will do? This is why when they screw up a forecast so profoundly.

Also, I found out today that there are prestigious sounding magazines, like The Journal for Orthopedic Science, which sounds real but isn't. While it is very similar sounding to the Journal OF Orthopedic Science it is actually a money scam which will print anything, no matter how stupid, for $500. Then these same junk studies are used as "proof" for whatever idiotic idea they are trying to propagate, like global warming is not occurring.

The excuse I keep hearing is that every time a single voice comes out against any established science, that person is immediately elevated to Galileo-like status, as if these kinds of geniuses are a dime a dozen. Isn't it more likely, that these people are crackpots or are receiving money from an industry hell bent on providing as much disinformation as possible?

Take the current anti-vaccination crowd. A "whistleblower" came forward recently and said the CDC was covering up the "fact" that black males under 3 years of age who get the Measles vaccine are three times more likely to get autism. The problem with this is we only have this guy's word. He provides zero evidence of said cover-up, a big red flag right there, and also suffers from what I call single person syndrome. If one person accuses another of something he needs real good proof and corroborating testimony. Since his accusations in September of last year, not one person at the CDC has come forward to agree with him. NOT ONE! If Bill Cosby had a single accuser against him we would all think she was full of it and rightfully so. 36 women later, not so much. Are to believe that everyone who works at the CDC is a heartless bastard who doesn't care about black people, babies none the less? Of course not. That's retarded. The most likely explanation is that Dr. William Thompson and Brian Hooker (not a doctor, shocker) are either insane or, more likely, paid to do the study which appeared in Translational Neurodegeneration which received this retraction soon after:

Editor and Publisher regretfully retract the article [1] as there were undeclared competing interests on the part of the author which compromised the peer review process. Furthermore, post-publication peer review raised concerns about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis, therefore the Editors no longer have confidence in the soundness of the findings. We apologize to all affected parties for the inconvenience caused.

In other words, Dr. Thompson and Hooker used unsound statistics to prove a theory that was never right to begin with most likely from a paycheck from an anti-vaccine group. And while I can find no proof of profit from the authors, the line "undeclared competing interests" strongly suggest a monetary link. And considering there are links to these two and Dr., I mean, Mr., Andrew Wakefield who lost his license for pedaling this crap, says loads about why this story is nothing more than hot air and people are buying into it because they are not smart enough to know better.

And then again we have deflategate, thankfully knocked off the news by the snow. It came out recently that the equipment manager disappeared into a bathroom with the balls before going out onto the field with them. How long was we gone you ask? 90 seconds. I dare anyone to perfectly deflate 11 balls in that amount of time. It is simply not possible. That hasn't stopped some with an unbelievable lack of understanding of physics to cry FOWL and say "SEE, see, they cheated!" Others, with more reason, know this impossible and see this as hate for a team that has been great for almost 15 years now. Sour grapes, guys. Sour grapes.

Science knowledge is so lacking from almost everyone that we believe things so stupid we might as well still be cavemen wondering where that big ball of light goes every night. Statistics show how dumb we are when one fifth still think Obama is a Muslim, 25% don't believe in evolution, 50% believe Iraq was behind 9/11, and, most shockingly, 20% think the sun revolves around the Earth which is ironic as that is the same person, Galileo, the wrong headed use to prove their point. Open a book people and stop believing what anyone tells you without looking into thoroughly. We are being led by the nose to own destruction and it's a complete lack of common sense that is responsible. It is this idiocy that explains why people still vote Republican, even though they have been talking the same talk for forty years and blame everyone but their own crappy policies for why things are not better.