This is news?

Apparently CNN thinks a bunch of idiots declaring that the end of the world is May 21st is somehow headline news.

It's an exceptionally sad story. It starts off describing Sheila Jonas, a woman who has ditched everything to to on a nationwide RV tour to tell people that the apocalypse is coming. Other members of the caravan gave away everything they owned. Others left behind families, wives and chidren, all because they were so conned by a "broadcasting ministry" known as Family Radio.

This station, which has a long reach, backs up their nonsense with "irrefutible proofs" which are nothing more than throwing numbers together and coming up with things that come out to whole numbers every once in awhile and assigning significance to such incidences. As (I hope) even my students could even tell you by now, just because you get something that looks conceivably plausible doesn't mean you've done anything right. But that's what Family Radio, and other fraudsters like Richard Hoagland do. Sadly, scientific and mathematical skills are so poor, that people are easily conned by it.

Come May 22, when they should be forced to admit they were wrong, they, of course, won't. They'll simply say they made a mistake, fudge some more numbers, and do it again. Such people are beyond reproach. They can and should be left behind. They should not be treated with respect and civility. They should be laughed at and mocked lest others fall for their crap.