#vt theory

[lunadreamscaper]

Did any one else piece together that Johnny Ghost was probably adopted. Since, ya know, he started out as Gregory Casket, then ended up in an abandoned mansion with a ghost alone in the middle of nowhere. To his name “suddenly” being Johnny Ghost?

Also the multiple dad thing. I assumed the ones named Johnathan Ghost were made up in his imagination since it sounds like Peewee died when Ghost was young. Though it could be like, his different dads that he had going through the system for a bit before Peewee (who he inherited the McDonald’s from.)

(Thoughhh Some people like to think he had like multiple dads at once. At least two. Which is cute. Not my headcanon but I wanted to acknowledge it since it’s a valid take <3 )

Not much is spoken about his mothers or if he had more than one. I just know at least one of his mothers was shit. (Johnny Ghost UN-retirement video lol)

Got a little off topic but that’s the vibe I’ve gotten. If that’s not what others think I’m genuinely curious to see what you think happened instead? Bc I can’t see it any other way wheeze 😭

[codacontainmentbreach]

A great big spiel of Timothy Casket theories—

I love how the combination of Johnny Ghost being an unreliable source for anything from his childhood and the original Cardboard Friend video having a million contradictions about Gregory allows us to come up with basically any theory and have at least one canon statement that lines up.

Example: Johnny Ghost claims his father died before he was born and he lived alone with his mother, but Gregory claimed both of his parents left him (and then his grandparents). So you could headcanon pretty much anything about them. I want to explore the possibility of Timothy Casket being alive, at least until Gregory met Box Friend.

Running with the idea that his father was a bad person, probably with very dark secrets, and if he actually were alive after Gregory was born, he was also a bad parent.

I see some headcanons that he would have been neglectful and cold outside of providing financially. IMO it’s possible that his dad was also a cruel and unsafe person, but that Ghost doesn’t remember at all. T. Casket was probably the reason why a demon like Cardboard Friend was drawn to the house where Gregory was left alone, I’ll elaborate on that in a bit.

I think Gregory’s parents separated, and he was sent back and forth from his mom’s to live with his dad sometimes because his mom wasn’t as financially stable. I think he grew up a little poor without his father’s income (after T. Casket either dies or abandons the family), as much as Johnny Ghost denies it.

His dad would leave him alone for days at a time, and the house had so much negative energy that it was a beacon for demonic forces which brought along Cardboard Friend. I also think demons are drawn to vulnerable people, such as neglected / mentally unstable children like Gregory.

I think Jimmy Casket is a product of both Timothy being either neglectful or straight up evil and CF driving Gregory crazy on purpose, except it worked way too well and now Jimmy Casket is a paranormal entity manifested by them that CF is terrified of.

I would love to see a fic of PIE investigating a haunted place, and when they see the ghost, it’s an older man with dark eyes, silver hair, a black coat and umbrella, and calls Ghost “Greg.” oooooooooo spooky oogoolaboogaloo

[maddiefriendlovesbilly]

This is not coherent at all but we have (slightly weak) evidence that jimmy casket that is passed down from parent to child (tommy to gregory/ghost) in the casket family. When tommy died, he gave jimmy to ghost. Jimmy has possessed and/or impersonated (implying they look similar) princeton quagmire. Mayhaps. Quagmire is related to Johnny Ghost ? Yes. 👍

[vt-scribbles]

Color Theory Confusion [long post/call for help]

There is a concept in color theory [it might have a different name?] that NOBODY talks about/teaches that I cannot wrap my head around, and it frustrates the hell out of me.

SO every video or w/e I find is like 'this is complimentary colors! Tri-whatever color palettes! blah blah blah' and I'm like YES. I know how to PAIR UP color types! But they're only! Talking about HUES!!!

They're talking about THIS:

Like! cool! I know how to use THIS part! I know my bullshit of like. All these colors technically work together. [READ MORE]

But these are all at full saturation. My knowledge stops here. And this is where I get frustrated. they'll whip out palettes like this:

Monochromatic:

Complementary:

Etc:

AnD THIS IS WHERE I GET GRUMPY. I understand 'this has red and blue so it works, this has different shades of green and blue so it works' but HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THE VALUES? THE SATURATION??? Each of these palettes has varying values and saturation for each color, and it looks great! SO HOW DO YOU FIGURE /THAT/ PART OUT??? Why doesn't anyone talk about this part of color theory? I can only ever find people talking about how to pair HUES. I'm going insane.

HOW DO THESE COLORS GET PICKED??

Sources: Girl and the Glim

Sources: Magnum Bullets

Some of these palettes have SO many colors, but they're completely cohesive. And like! I understand why the HUES work together. Yellow and pink and blue, yellow and red, pink and green and brown, etc.

But all of these palettes have massive ranges of value and saturation. And that's why they work. But how do you figure that stuff out??? I hate trial-and-erroring my way through every project. Or worse, trying to make palettes for model sheets. I just don't get why I can't seem to find info/teachings on this specific aspect. It's like every 'color theory' video stops at 'here's how to pair up hues on the color wheel' or completely skips over this step like you should just. Know what to do.

Like, let's say I have a picture I wanna do. It's a forest scene. so I go 'okay, blue yellow and green. Those work together.' And I start with full saturation. But okay, I don't want full saturation... I want a muted palette. If I just choose randomly inside blue, yellow, and green, I get shit like this:

only ONE of these even remotely looks okay! And that's cuz they're ALL desaturated. But then look at this piece!

This does exactly what I WANTED to come up with, but like. How do you land on these colors? How do you pick them?

Bah

I am lost and confused and this is something seriously holding me back in my art. I'm so tired of doing Local colors on a character and then shading them with effects layers. I want to know how to /color them/ to be cohesive with a background. Or just... how to make colors for a background in the first place.

[huntersapprentice]

one of these days, I kinda wanna ramble about how veggietales characters are 8 times out of ten shown to be as large as humans and not as actual vegetables

[jesidres]

Oh, HELL yes! I used to use this game to teach kids in museums.

Look. Kids, and a lot of adults, don't understand a lot of art, and can get overwhelmed quickly (and grumpy. LORD, Mondrian isn't my favorite, but saying 'my kids can do that' ISN'T HELPING). Getting them to step back and just *see* the art like this DOES SO MUCH to help viewers begin to start using Visual Thinking Strategy.

....the number of kids who want to be the 'dude asleep in the back' of El Jaleo cracks me up (he's actually singing, but kids dun care).

Okay so I’m an elementary school art teacher right, and I have this really fun game I made a PowerPoint for to teach like, emotions and intent and looking at the whole picture to first grade.

The idea is, when we count down and change slides, kids have to mimic one thing in the painting as best they can, whether it’s animate or inanimate. If there’s nothing in the shot for them to mimic (because I threw some contemporary abstract stuff in), they have to show me how the painting makes them feel. Easy enough, gets them excited to move around and vocal about their feelings regarding art, it’s very chaotic. I can tell pretty fast who’s got the emotional maturity to mimic things in a complex way, and who’s just enough of an abstract thinker to mimic inanimate objects early on in the game...

So the first picture is this:

Napoleon Crossing the Alps. My favorite reactions are usually the kids who pretend to be the freaked-out horse, but 2 memorable occasions were the one where a student immediately scrunched up to be the rock in the foreground, and the one where a pair of girls, without any communication on their parts, decided to be Napoleon riding the horse with one as Napoleon and one as the horse. Basically one of them fully tackled the other apropos of nothing, it was hilarious

I’ll add more if y’all want or if I feel like it lol I have a bunch of stories from this one game

[orionsces]

Calling all the VT fans!!!

Some pals and I are making a VT P.I.E iceberg!! If you're able please drop obscure facts, theories (either yours or someone else's) then please do so!! Even getting some help with more research with topics that would be really appreciated!!! Somethin' even like a tiny interview would help us all out a whole lot!! If you do have an possible entry you wanna submit, please remember to give a link to the video, timestamp or overall some good proof of the entry!! We're trying to make this as well-researched as possible ^_^

Thank you from all of us!!! Either contact me or my pal @pupley !! We actively encourage ramblin' and as much detail to any of your possible entries or to the VT insanity!!!

[eretzyisrael]

by Kylie Ora Lobell

Dutton is just one of many journalists who has chosen to ignore facts, instantly side against Israel and spew lies to the public. From the outside, it looks like Israel’s supporters are losing the information war, as there seems to be an endless wave of fake reports about the country, always putting it in a negative light. 

But Murray, who has been in a similar fight for years against progressivism in the West, is convinced he is making a difference. To him, there is a reason to keep fighting.

“I think I make a lot of headway,” he said. “My view is that 1,000 lies can be corrected by one truth. Obviously social media is testing my theory in real time, but I still believe it. Whenever I’m in a debate with someone who is fervently anti-Israel, I tend to find that audiences appreciate you introducing new facts or little known or unknown facts to the debate. They appreciate that people are pushing back against this. Is there a percentage of the population who simply won’t listen? Absolutely. But the majority of the public is still available. They do listen. And it’s to them that I speak.”

When it comes to Israel, Murray said there are people who “absorb the mainstream media each night, and then they call for the killing to stop and think it’s being done by Israel. In such moments, it’s very important that a voice speaks up and gives courage to others to speak up as well. I have a favorite quote: ‘All I have is a voice to undo the folded lie.’”

Sometimes the lies and criticism come from the Jewish community itself, like when Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke up against the Israeli government, or Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded “No more money to Netanyahu’s war machine to kill Palestinian children.” Why does Murray think this is happening?

“Chuck Schumer, whom I respect, is probably playing a domestic political game in the U.S.,” Murray said. “He’s an intelligent man, and he must know that every Israeli leader would be doing the same thing as Netanyahu [in the aftermath of Oct. 7]. If America had thousands of citizens taken hostage �� relative to its size – and tens of thousands murdered in one day, America would be doing much more than Israel is doing, and Schumer knows that. I think it’s about a domestic political game playing out in America, which I regret, because this issue is above politics.”

As a staunch defender of the West and its values, Murray is compelled to support Israel because, as he said, it’s on the front line of the civilized world, defending the West. “Israel has recognizable ethics and culture,” he said. “It’s different, as all countries are, but it’s part of us.” What baffles him – and many others – is the fact that Westerners in America and Britain are supporting every country in the Middle East except for Israel.

“Israel is the one country in which Americans could live in the Middle East,” he said. “I’ve spent enough time in other countries to know this difference. A lot of people don’t. Israel is a core part of the West. When people ask me, ‘Why do you support Israel?’ I say, ‘Why would you support every other country but Israel?’” 

[overthinkingtaleblr]

I know some people want to see CBF as good, but it ends up malicious in my headcanons no matter what I do. I have some theories for its creation, though. (I use it/its for my idea of CBF btw)

- Billy Acachalla/Ernie Ghost accidentally creating CBF while trying to give Gregory an imaginary friend and it would up incredibly possessive <- current fave

- CBF is a creation of the Housekeeper/the Whisperer. Its purpose is unknown, but seeing as the Whisperer is an entity of Chaos, im not sure he needs a reason. Since the Whisperer is also represented by death and undeath, it is constantly absorbing the life of whatever is around it, including wildlife and plants. <- gonna use this in a fic

- one of the canon explanations is that CBF is a version of Toast that got really Fucked Up. I think this could be rotated like a potato.

- Imaginary friend given form

- dead sibling/cousin/ghost who previously haunted the house of either Jimmy or Gregory

- Jimmy Casket Himself before possessing Gregory

- Demon

I wanna hear some peoples CBF headcanons I'm currently desperate to watch my favorite video, The one with ghost and CBF but supporting the channel :(

So I just wanna read others stuff

[lunadreamscaper]

Shattered Reality Theory?

- taleblrlorekeeper

Hi yes hello. I’m about to go autism hyper fixation mode let’s go

I call it that as if it’s a well known theory BUT ITS nOt bc I haven’t shared it yet

So basically this theory explains a lot of continuity errors and contradictions and the faulty way the VT world works Imo. (Which irl is only like that bc the irl creators didn’t keep track of everything but that’s fine) But basically what I believe/vibe I get is that the main dimension where all the main event happens is a larger fragment of a reality that’s now shattered. And other dimensions like the 13th Dimension like the Anti-challas for example (and the hundreds of other numbered dimensions 😭) are other shards of that reality. So basically the whole thing is barely functioning.

And also, it might not have a proper after life or “ghost dimension” … or “veil” and that’s why ghosts are so common and capable of ridiculous things??

Also an alternative minor theory attached to this one is that sometimes the reason that characters come back from the dead is because there’s no space for like more souls in the afterlife(?) or where ever ghosts are supposed to go. But also I’m kinda iffy on that one.

Basically the VT world(s) is like a broken world- similar vibe to when a planet is thrown out of orbit.

Funny enough though is that in the VT 5 year anniversary stream Johnny Ghost from the future/Alt time line tries warning Present Day P.I.E. (Ghost was retired at the time) that they need to get their Ghost to rejoin P.I.E. Because in future Ghost’s future Housekeeper “shatters reality.” But that implies it hasn’t happened but will- so idk but genuinely is a fascinating coincidence (there’s SO MUCH lore in that stream btw bahsjd)

I do believe that the Divine One (a canon deity made of 13 beings that also created Housekeeper) may have tried fixing or adopted their shattered reality?? And maybe housekeeper got mad and/or jealous and started causing problems idk tbh 😭

Also another part of how i picture this broken world is that sometimes it tries to fix itself (either that or it’s the divine one) so it’ll like repeat events and it’ll change what happened (which would explain certain contradictions. Example: Ghost originally being afraid of birds. Then way later Ghost is completely unphased by birds but Toast is terrified of them?? That happened in an anniversary stream too but it was either year 3 or 4)

Basically a bunch of cosmic horror / reality stuff 😭

(I picture it a lot like a dirty/scratched/broken CD that’s bouncing around, replaying or stuttering or skipping around in the cd player kinda lol but also it’s floating through space deeper and deeper into the void while grabbing the attention of interdimensional higher beings that see it as a cool toy)

Also Acalacams (if you know what those are) kinda tie into this as well as the Divine One but I’ll get to that later

This is also my personal headcanon but I’m curious to see what others think :3

God I hope this made sense 😭😭

[aropride]

wrt that poll abt tone indicators thats going around.w ell first of all tbh i think some of the hatred for them comes from cringe culture. but second of all. some of the criticism is totally fair like there are a fuckton of tone indicators and sometimes . there really dont need to be. and the abbreviations can be confusing i try to type out ones that arent s srs or j. tho i feel like most of the newer ones were popularized on twt so itmakes sense they wouldnt be written all the way out

like i think my prolem is when theres SO many and theyre redundant. i found a carrd with a fuckton of them that im gonna comment on To entertain myself sorry

like these 3 all feel redundant .. why do u need a different tone tag for Mostly joking than Half joking ? or for a Coping joke ? just use /j or combine with with like, /neg or something to get the tone across yknow? and /ji - first of all looks like /ij (inside joke), second of all why not just use /j

and like. why half serious or mostly serious or not serious when /j or /hj exist ? why /ns when it looks so similar to /nsrs, which means the opposite ? ive been using /s since like 2015 and /srs since like 2018 so ivegot those down and dont confuse them but i see why could be for some one who hasnt used them b4, why make it more complicated?

i like /g or /gen in theory- ppl have said its confusing bc gen could be general which i get, but for ppl familiar w tone tags tend to know what it means. genq is one ive used just bc. its fun to type tbh. and i think ppl get what it means but its not really Necessary. BUt genep and genc feel unnecessary when /g and /srs exist, and /gene is just, a word. that's just a word ! 😭

ojh my god. i should do a tone indicator tier list

as you can see my adhd meds are working

/nbr is funny bc half the time when some1 says theyre not being rude they definitely are. also there's already /g /srs and /lh. /nm is either helpful or deeply confusing Bc i try to take it at face value but sometimes i see it and im like. Why would i be mad ? and i start overthinking. but thats a me problem

i like this one i use it when i complain a lot Bc i dont want ppl to think im vagueing them i just love complaining

i love these ones. tone indicators for Being Mean To Someone. dunno if its on this list but ive seen /pa and /sbh (/passive aggressive & /somebody here, respectively) which is SO funny. i dont think theyre helpful really though except /neg Bc again. these all mean very similar things !!! why not just clarify extra things with a parenthetical

THESE R ALL THE SAME TONE !!! why not jsut use one single tone indicator for this !!! or none at all and just type the word !!!

need /nfl on a shirt in the aro colors so poeple know im not fucking interested in them. that aside. 1. whywould u need this ever !!! why not use again just /j if necessary.and 2. isnt the nfl a football thing

these r similar but i do like them, i think typing out a whole word again is a better solution so u dont have to scavenge google for the meaning but i think its helpful to clarify this and isnt synonymous with /j or /s or /lh

i think these ones are almost all just from the op's discord server or w/e, i won't bash that cuz if it works for them it works, that being said i dont think This many tone indicators for these types of things r helpful outside of that specific context yknow? also, /fx is really funny

ok i wont say that typing tics dont exist bc tics can be complex and vary by situation etc so im sure they can, but is that happening That much that u need a tone tag for it ? and also like. for /unin just delete the msg or say "oops sent too early hang on" or smth.. and as for vocal stim. first of all why is it /vt ? and second of all . why ... would u need that to type out ? bc if ur vocal stimming that would be. out loud? i.e. not in a chat where youre typing ???????@????>?,//???? BAFFLING. also in what situation is /gib necessary i genuinely cant think of one

ANYWAY.

None of this is to rag on tone indicators (/genuine) i think they can be helpful + i am always being gensrs when i use them. i just think some r a little silly & a lot from longer lists are unhelpful Bc theyre supposed to make communication Easier and Clearer + haveing So many tone indicators with Different Implied Tones WITHIN the indicators !!! makes it harder imo. bc if theyre to clarify tone why should i have to fight for my life deciphering why someone went from /mj to /hj yknow.

like this is all my Opinion and imsure these r all helpful for Someone otherwise they wouldnt exist but i rly feel like the system could be condensed a bit yk.

do i have a system in mind to suggest here ? well.

(also. this whole post is /genuine, /lighthearted, /not upset, and /not passive aggressive. and a bit /silly)

[dailyanarchistposts]

Notes: This article was written in early 1995. It first appeared in the Groundhog Day 1995 edition of Alarm, a journal of revolutionary ecology, Box 57, Burlington, VT 05402. The section on patriarchy differs slightly from the version in Alarm, as it was updated and revised by Judi, and given as a talk at the Willits Environmental Center in June, 1996. This edition was published in the Mendocino Environmental Center Newsletter issue dated September 1997.

Revolutionary Ecology

I was a social justice activist for many years before I ever heard of Earth First!. So it came as a surprise to me, when I joined Earth First! in the 1980s, to find that the radical environmental movement paid little attention to the social causes of ecological destruction. Similarly, the urban-based social justice movement seems to have a hard time admitting the importance of biological issues, often dismissing all but “environmental racism” as trivial. Yet in order to effectively respond to the crises of today, I believe we must merge these two issues.

Starting from the very reasonable, but unfortunately revolutionary concept that social practices which threaten the continuation of life on Earth must be changed, we need a theory of revolutionary ecology that will encompass social and biological issues, class struggle, and a recognition of the role of global corporate capitalism in the oppression of peoples and the destruction of nature.

I believe we already have such a theory. It’s called deep ecology, and it is the core belief of the radical environmental movement. The problem is that, in the early stages of this debate, deep ecology was falsely associated with such right wing notions as sealing the borders, applauding AIDS as a population control mechanism, and encouraging Ethiopians to starve. This sent the social ecologists justifiably scurrying to disassociate. And I believe it has muddied the waters of our movement’s attempt to define itself behind a common philosophy.

So in this article, I will try to explain, from my perspective as an unabashed leftist, why I think deep ecology is a revolutionary worldview. I am not trying to proclaim that my ideas are Absolute Truth, or even that they represent a finished thought process in my own mind. These are just some ideas I have on the subject, and I hope that by airing them, it will spark more debate and advance the discussion.

[the-harvester]

8 Year Anniversary + Updates + Shameless Plug

Dang guys- 8 years since TH debuted here on Tumblr and on AO3.

There have been ups and downs, and times of plenty and times of quiet. And some of you have been here through all of it. And for that, we want to thank you guys.

TH exists for CZ and VT first and foremost, but having our little community has always made things a little brighter. We're so happy that this funky little roleplay found an audience that enjoys it as much as we do. Every comment we get, or theories we see people rambling about, make sharing our stories more fun. <3

2023 was very spotty, and it was a pretty traumatic year for us. Some pretty major stuff happened, and we were forced to move cross-country much sooner than we planned. But, we're now settled into our new place in hopes that we'll be working on making our lives better.

We can't know for sure if we'll be posting chapters more frequently in 2024, BUT, we do want to assure people that our quiet never means the story is abandoned. We'll let everyone know if we ever plan on retiring it. We still have 2.5 arcs finished and ready to post at our own pace- we just never want the public to fully catch up where we are, so you guys don't have to wait even /longer/ than you already do for new chapters.

Anyways- that's all the updates for now! And now for a shameless plug.

If you like The Harvester and have any interest in reading more of CZ or VT's work- there's this tasty little nugget VT is working on called "Find Your Wings"! It's a story about a size-shifting """Super Hero""" [if you can call him that] that is struggling to find a way to exist in a city where his powers are against the law. None of his friends know about his secret life of fighting storm giants to protect the city- and he intends to keep it that way. But how long can that last? It's a story with strong LGBT+ themes, and talks about finding your place in the world and how important a support system is, all while being wrapped up in a flashy, original fantasy setting with elves, giants, dragons, and all sorts of other creatures.

The tumblr is here if you're interested in following its development! It is not a replacement for The Harvester, but rather, is being developed alongside it in VT's free time. It will be a physical and digitally released set of 2-3 actual books, but will also be posted chapter-by-chapter like TH once the first book is done.

Okay shameless plug time done.

Here's to 2024, everyone. Thanks for being on this ride with us, and here's to the new year. <3

Happy hunting,

CZ & VT

[sidewayspeace444]

That theory is dumb.. why would he sell his house to move in when they’re already “married” since September like😂

It’s just like the theory he sold his VT house because she was pregnant.

[thisisyourprincipalspeaking]

i will counter that slightly by saying that if they (the married couple) want it to not be our business, then they should act like it. not all publications can be stopped but it has been obvious over the past year that the happy couple is more than willing to share their lives. they just want to be able to control what and how we see it.//

I understand what you are saying but do disagree slightly. What have they willingly shared. Two videos montages early last year and a handful of pap walks. No real deals have come out of the wedding ceremonies nor have they given any interviews about their relationship/life barring the small snippet Chris said in his infamous GQ interview last year. They have not been papped since VF. So they may have controlled a few pap outings but that’s it. I suppose you could say AB is sharing her life via her friends IG stories but her friends are allow to live their lives and if it includes her it includes her and if certain blogs didn’t follow everyone randomly involved with AB no one would know or care.

To me the entitlement that a lot of former fans or fans feel they need is amazing. Yes Chris has overshared during his career and fans loved it. They followed his friends when they were public to get another they could and then turned on them when they went private and this started.

The over investment in this is a whole thing is another level from finding hotels in Bath, to a house in VT which originally was claimed was rented only for someone to come back 4/5 months later to say it’s his. Why are you even still looking. To the over analysis of every photo, action, the conspiracy theories,the flight tracking,stalking,the you are a plant,paid by teams,screaming in CaPs,the calling normal people liars who post a photo with them.

Imagine what would have happened if people just went oh look Chris is another HW cliché dating a younger woman and ignored it the fandom would not be where it is today - in a mess that was created in part by people who decided they had the right to know what was happening in an actor’s life. 

you and i agree much more than we don't, nonnie. because actually the only variation in my line of thinking is that the things they have chosen to share has been within their control, therefore what and how it's released is also within their control. they knew well in advance how their content would be treated and took advantage of that. it's also no coincidence that a majority of their content drops happened at the same time as career announcements for them. their schedule came in handy during the strikes, too. 😏

i feel confident that if there's something a celebrity wants to keep private about their lives, they are more than capable of doing so. you can't stop all gossip, that's impossible. but it can be curtailed.

what i think is more interesting is what we haven't seen. but maybe that's just me lol

[rogalion]

‘meteorology is the only job you’re paid to be wrong in’

Oooh if you’re a aspiring meteorologist of any kind you’ll hear this a lot and it’s making me recognize, along with my own personal experience, that the general perception people have of science based jobs is completely wrong!

I was originally in Fine Art, which is often contrasted as like, opposite to math and science heavy professions, and switching from fine art to meteorology was in fact a huge shift, but it also prepared me for it in ways I did not expect.

There’s this idea that science is purely fact-based and objective, and it’s easy to see how people en masse have come to this conclusion. Many people may have learned of the ideas of hypothesis, theories, and laws, and that hypothesis are proven through experimentation, become a theory if a large enough body of research appears to back them up and becomes so well established that no new facts are likely to disprove them. Laws are similar to theories, but the difference is that Laws can be used to predict the behavior of variables, while theories describe a feature of nature supported by a large amount of observations and experimentation.

Newton’s laws of motion describe the general tendencies of motion and allow us to make predictions of how something will move if a force is exerted onto it in xyz environment.

The Big Bang, Evolution, everything about Atoms, those are Theories. 

The caveat that is difficult for us to realize is that none of these are objective facts. Laws allow us to predict the behavior of something, but that doesn’t necessarily mean our prediction will be correct. Theories, despite large amounts of evidence backing them, are still theories. It’s up to the individual to decide if there’s enough evidence that they believe the theory is true or not.

I don’t say this to make you doubt that evolution is real, or make you think that everything you learned in Chemistry about atoms is fake. That’s not the point I’m trying to make. As humans we love to compartmentalize into simple categories, and “True” and “False” are two of those categories we love to sort our thoughts into. It’s a lot easier to say something is Completely True or Completely False than have everything be in a murky gray area that takes much more work to sort out.

The best way to see science is that it is attempting to reach an unattainable goal. We want to decipher and clarify how the universe works and want to get as close as we possibly can to the truth. Unfortunately, the universe has a metric fuck ton or so of variables, many of which we probably still do not know about and many of which may suddenly exist or not exist. It’s all chaos, and as scientists we are doing our best to get as close as humanly possible to the ‘truth’ of how things work.

Which brings me back to meteorology being the only job you’re paid to be wrong in. Technically, all scientists are paid to be wrong. We meteorologists just get the most flak for it because our job is incredibly important for literally everyone. If there are more people paying attention to you, there’s gonna be more people giving you shit for getting something wrong.

Another thing people need to understand about weather forecasting is that it’s literal witchcraft. Weather forecasting is literally-- we are attempting to PREDICT THE FUTURE. Not only that, but we’re often trying to predict the future weather of relatively small areas, and since you all have perhaps existed on this planet, a large portion of people have experienced just how acute and localized weather can be. You can live in a town that spans four miles, and meet up with a coworker and tell them ‘how about that rain on sunday?’ and they’ll be like “what rain?” because despite living in the same town they did not get any rain.

Weather is a fucking nightmare to predict, and while we have a lot of radars out there, they are not placed very well in many situations (Hi, Burlington VT) and are tilted half a degree upwards because people didn’t want to get hit by the spooky radar beams because they might cause problems with people’s health (they wont unless you get within a super small distance from them, something along the magnitude of ten meters or less). This means that radars can completely miss weather if its far enough away. There are also a lot of blind spots where we have no radar coverage, even in the USA! Not to mention our current radars are getting pretty old, and if they go offline we do not have backups. Grey Maine’s radar had to undergo maintenance for four days and we just could not see anything on radar here in Plymouth for those four days. 

One of the most important things I have learned about weather and meteorology is that there’s a lot of science that we actually know, for a fact, is not correct. The entire concept of an adiabatic process, for example, is technically useless if we want to accurately assess real life processes. Nothing is truly adiabatic-- literally NOTHING. But it gets the job done good enough, so we use it.

Now, why would we use concepts that we know are incorrect but are ‘good enough’ in science? Because, well, it’s a lot better to have a weather forecast that’s close to right than no weather forecast at all. So many things depend on the weather forecast-- if you’ve ever planned or attended an outdoor event, been to a graduation of some kind, a 4th of July fireworks show, parties, sports games, parades, you name it? The people planning those have to know what the weather is going to be like on the days they’re able to actually hold the event. If you’re traveling, you need to know the weather. If you’re going outside in the summer, the UV index is helpful for deciding whether you need sunscreen or not. For many people, it helps them plan when to turn on the heat or AC in their building. Weather forecasts are important!! So it’s better to be able to predict things as close as possible and still get it wrong than to not have a forecast whatsoever.

That’s not even getting into the amount of work and stress meteorologists go through when the weather gets life-threatening-- heat waves, supercell thunderstorms, hurricanes, polar vortexes, snowstorms, even just systems with a lot of water that get stuck over one area. There is a tendency to over-forecast these events-- it’s a lot more likely that your meteorologist will overstate the intensity of severe weather events. This is a good thing, because I’d much rather have someone tell me bad things will happen and then they don’t, rather than not be warned about bad things happening and they DO. 

Meteorologists have a really difficult job and all things considered, we do PRETTY GOOD. So if you got through this whole rant, thanks, you now hopefully know better than to make the joke that meteorologists are the only job that’s paid to be wrong.