| I know, I know, we’ve heard enough about this nut case and the more people publish stuff about him, the more we contribute to his ultimate scheme. However, I want to set the record straight on a few things. I am a trained meteorologist and experienced storm chaser from Colorado and when I first got word of this story it really got my attention. |  |
During a phone call with my wife while the saga was unfolding live, she said to me that “he is a meteorologist and storm chaser”. I thought to myself… huh, I’ve never heard of him. I consider myself somewhat in tune to the storm chasing community so I did a quick google search on him to find out more. And there it was: “The Psyience Detectives”. That’s right folks, Richard Heene, Psyience Detective. The Psyience Detectives explore science, paranormal activity, and magnetism. They have a cheesy web-based series where they try to find magnetic force within dust devils and tornadoes (by driving a motorcycle into them!) amongst other conspiracy theories like the world is going to end in 2012. Okay, fine he’s a conspiracy theorist and produces an immature web series. There are stranger things found on Internet.
What really chaps my hide is that the media is calling him a “scientist”, “storm chaser”, and “meteorologist”. Recently I’ve noticed the word “amateur” being added to these descriptions. From what I can gather Richard has not received any formal schooling or training past the high school level. To be considered a meteorologist, I would argue, that one has to have a minimum of 4 years of college education at an accredited school. Richard Heene IS NOT A meteorologist!
Now let’s take a look at him being described as an “amateur scientist”. The definition of scientist is: “A person having expert knowledge of one or more sciences, especially a natural or physical science”. Quite frankly it’s impossible to be an “amateur expert” at anything so let’s just refer to him as an “amateur psyientist”.
Finally, he’s been described as a “storm chaser”. Okay, that’s fair since he does physically go out and pursue storms. However, I consider myself a storm chaser and putting myself within the ranks of this man just doesn’t sit well with me. Myself along with hundreds of other real meteorologists and scientists have spent many years in school and in the field collecting data near tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in the name of science (spelled with an “s” not a “p”). Guy’s like Richard Heene and storm chase adrenaline jockeys are quickly turning storm chasing into a spectacle. There’s an old term in the storm chase community called a “yahoo” chaser. A yahoo chaser is one who is not a trained meteorologist, has little experience, and does things to make other chasers cringe (like trying to drive a motorcycle into a tornado). Calling Heene a yahoo chaser is being generous, I might add, but I think we need to reintroduce this term back into our vocabulary. There always have been strange folks out there like Richard Heene and there always will be, but please do us a favor and not offend real scientists and meteorologists out there by calling Richard Heene any of these. Let’s give Richard a title that he deserves: “Yahoo Psyientist”. Nothing more.
More so than yahoo psyientists with no formal training and idiotic ideas, he and his wife are liars and irresponsible parents.