Really? We Still Read About This?

In this new century, with breakthroughs in neuroscience, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and many other scientific and technological fields, do we really still get excited about a groundhog pulled out of its den and waved in the air? This year, Reuters reports, over 12,000 people attended this childish theatrical event, some of whom:

came from as far as Chile and the Netherlands

Setting aside the likelihood that anyone would come to freezing Pennsylvania from where it is currently summer SOLELY to see this event, and overlooking the forced nature of this event, what does this say about our culture?

Reuters provides a delicious if perhaps inadvertent, commentary on this foolishness by noting that other groundhog viewing occur around the country, and:

New York City's "Staten Island Chuck" did not see his shadow.

Well, duh. What are the odds that every place in the US would have the "same" weather at the "same" time? Even if every groundhog had the "same" experience, does "winter" mean the "same" thing in all 50 states? Not hardly.