Is Mercury In Retrograde?

Please tell me you’re joking about astrology. Otherwise I’m unsubscribing from this RSS feed.

ty_a
Nov 27th, 2011 / 11:42 pm

@ty_a You don’t have to unsubscribe. Read about astrology before you dismiss it. No offense. You might also wanna check what physicist Isaac Newton said in defense of astrology. (“Sir, I have studied it, you have not.”)

SKD
Nov 27th, 2011 / 11:58 pm

i really not agree to you here…… i dont think so… n never read this such kind of thing before n any where else!!!

Nora Reed
Nov 28th, 2011 / 1:16 am

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

The James Randi Foundation will pay $1 million dollars to anyone that can make a prediction using astrology or prove any other paranormal claim. Until someone claims the $1 million dollars, it’s horse pucky.

It’s so funny that people that won’t buy electronics without reading reviews believe in magic.

ty_a
Nov 28th, 2011 / 1:29 am

Is there scientific proof of good? As far as I know: no! But nevertheless many people believe in it and no one blames them for it. So why not believe in astrology?!

uersel
Nov 28th, 2011 / 1:48 am

There is nothing more despairing than seemingly intelligent people believing in bullshit. Please tell me this was ironic. If not, I think it’s time for me to make a quiet exit from your blog.

MJT
Nov 28th, 2011 / 3:58 am

I still do hope you’ve had some nice experiences during your time in Switzerland.
Life is full of challenges despite of our personal beliefs and ways to cope with them.
Have a fun time back in your home!

Rebi
Nov 28th, 2011 / 4:29 am

The Sun is 150 millions miles from Earth. Yet it’s wave of vibrations touch each and every single one of you everyday. It grows the food you eat, it warms the beds you sleep.

The Moon is 240 thousand miles from Earth. It moves the tides of your oceans, it moves the tides in the very veins of your blood.

Everything in this Universe is interconnected and intraconnected (inlcuding Mercury) whether you have the instrument to see it or the understanding (by the virtue of your own evolution) to know it.

Thank you Tina for the update.

Sa'dhaka
Nov 28th, 2011 / 5:55 am

Either I’m misunderstanding something about this post or I’ve misunderstood this blog for years. Astrology? Really?

Erik Tjernlund
Nov 28th, 2011 / 10:03 am

uersel, you must be the dumbest living thing. Your argument for believing in astrology is the lack of evidence for God (or good if it indeed was not a misspelling). This is mindboggling. I might as well start believing in unicorns and flying pigs.

Sa’dhaka, http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/astrology.html

Here’s a question. Why is Pluto figuring in astrology? Probably because it used to be classified as a planet so astrologers had to include it – not discovered until 1930 astrologers must have had a hard time before that getting their readings right. Oh but who cares.

Bill
Nov 28th, 2011 / 11:14 am

People, really. One post about something ‘you’ can not relate to – and you start judging this whole blog. Sad. If you are so small minded, maybe you should just have ‘quiet’ exit.

Again, one post. Really?

Nanda
Nov 28th, 2011 / 11:17 am

I don’t believe in Mercury.

Frank Chimero
Nov 28th, 2011 / 12:06 pm

those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.
-Dr. Suess

Tina, I don’t mind one bit about your mercury post. it’s your blog, talk about what you want! :)

Carrie K Keefe
Nov 28th, 2011 / 1:01 pm

Hey Tina, you’re a fantastic designer and curator and we’re all glad you have this website because it makes the internet a little bit better of a thing… thankya

jeremy buller
Nov 28th, 2011 / 6:28 pm

@ty_a You win. The Randi Prize has been around for years and nobody has claimed it. It should be the easiest million $ in history, if astrology actually worked. I’d like to suggest reading Carl Sagan’s Demon Haunted World to anyone with a belief in astrology, ghosts, or other paranormal things. It’s really illuminating.

In defense of swissmiss, I don’t see a problem with astrology as a fun distraction (it’s not that different from the alternate reality of a video game) as long as it doesn’t inform important decisions.

Karl Peterson
Nov 28th, 2011 / 6:53 pm

It will be sad to see Swiss Miss go. Now that ty_a has unsubscribed, there can be little hope that this site will survive.

And I agree, the scientific method must be applied in all aspects of life. I personally wouldn’t pour a bowl of cereal without opening several boxes and asking an objective panel to confirm that I am pouring out cheerios, and not, for example, small insects.

Oh sure, sometimes I indulge in astrology. And sometimes I tell my girlfriend I love her, even though I know that “feeling” is just a bunch of chemicals. It’s wrong, but I can’t help my humanity sometimes. If only I could be as dogmatically focused on one definition of reality as ty_a! I wouldn’t have to make art, or feel things. Life would make sense. We’ll miss ya buddy!

pete
Nov 29th, 2011 / 1:25 am

Astrology??? WTF?

I assume this post was meant as a joke?

Jerome
Nov 29th, 2011 / 3:40 am

Hey Tina

As a good Swiss citizen you are obliged to hear Mme Etoile on DRS 3 every Monday morning (in swiss german language). Thanks to internet technology, you can listen to her ~3 min show every week even from abroad. At least for my wife and me this is a weekly must. :-)

Check out: http://www.drs3.ch/www/de/drs3/sendungen/top/madame-etoile.html

P.S. Interesting controversy gong on here. Wowdy… :-/

Manuel Studer
Nov 29th, 2011 / 6:03 am

There’s no controversy. Astrology, like creationism, homeopathy, psychics and exorcism to name a few, is empty-headed garbage.

As mentioned above, Carl Sagan’s ‘The Demon Haunted World’ is essential reading for anyone who needs some help distinguishing between fantasy and reality.

B
Nov 29th, 2011 / 2:09 pm

I agree with Dr. Seuss :)

People are allowed to believe whatever they want and no one agrees with anyone about everything. Confused that this is even a point of contention… or that everyone cares so much? Or that I’m even replying here..does reality even really “exist” ;)

That is to say, Tina is a great person and that should be enough (and it is!)

JC
Nov 29th, 2011 / 3:02 pm

@pete Sure you can reduce love to electrochemical interaction in the brain, just like you can reduce the entire universe to energy. Of course if that’s what you focus on you’ll miss all the interesting parts! You didn’t say a thing in support of astrology, you mockingly portrayed the argument against astrology as being devoid of feeling and humanity. That’s unfair.

Karl Peterson
Nov 29th, 2011 / 3:33 pm

@Karl. Re: your comment “you mockingly portrayed the argument against astrology as being devoid of feeling and humanity. That’s unfair.”

That’s called a straw man argument, they’re pretty popular amongst supporters of pseudoscience. They create a false enemy, and attack it in a bid to qualify their position by default. In this case ‘Pete’ creates the straw man that to be against astrology, or pro-science, is to be inhuman and unable to enjoy art or life.

To quote wikipedia:

“…To “attack a straw man” is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet inequivalent proposition (the “straw man”), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position. Generally, the straw man is an exaggerated or over-simplified version of the opponent’s original statement, which has been distorted…”

B
Nov 29th, 2011 / 5:44 pm

So I’ve decided that living in perfect accordance with the scientific method is too difficult. Today, I was making a pot of rice, and the instructions said that a cup of rice mixed with 1 and 1/2 cups of water would yield 3 cups of cooked rice. Which, of course, is impossible, so now I no longer believe in rice — and I love rice!

But B’s argument about my argument being a straw man argument is perfectly valid, at least, I assume it is, as it’s backed up by 4 references on Wikipedia. And Karl, I definitely gave short shrift to the argument against astrology. But “There is nothing more despairing than seemingly intelligent people believing in bullshit” sums up that position so well, I didn’t feel the need to look at it from that angle again.

I don’t have an argument for astrology. Or art. Or music. Or sex. Or delicious, delicious cheese. I enjoy these things on my own terms. They give my life meaning, that’s good enough. My argument is against crapping on someone’s beliefs because you don’t share them. (And that argument extends only to beliefs that do not harm others — if you think you will get closer to god, or good, by eating live puppies, then yes, society should bury you in a large pile of crap). I’m pro imagination, which is the essence of science. I’m pro science, or pseudo science, or whatever helps us find meaning in our lives. I’m against using any idea as a broom handle to beat the meaning out of life.

Anyway, I’m going back to my rice, content in the the belief that the extra half cup appeared because the kernels of rice were heated to the point of excitement, and mated like little rice bunnies.

pete
Nov 29th, 2011 / 10:20 pm

There is ZERO evidence for astrology to be true.

Jerome
Nov 30th, 2011 / 2:13 am

Oh Pete, you are a funny chap, whatever gets you through the day I guess.

I thought you’d able to grasp the very simple concept of a straw man, but I guess not. The sourcing was actually irrelevant, it was just very well explained, hence why I used it. Saying that, you did actually use a little straw man in your response, so maybe you did understand it after all. You are a crafty one Pete, i’ve misjudged you.

Or course we should all be open minded and ‘pro-imagination’ as you so beautifully put it, but we shouldn’t be so open minded that our brains fall out.

Be open to the evidence, whatever it supports or denies. You won’t go far wrong there.

B
Nov 30th, 2011 / 11:53 am

I’m also disappointed to see this promotion of astrology here. But I still think it’s a great blog. So I’m not going to get up in arms about it.

However, I do want to point out that even while mercury is in retrograde, there are people who win the lottery, successfully have tumors removed, design beautiful things, come up with great ideas, fix their broken cars, happen upon neat things they never knew about, fall in love, ace their tests, and other awesome stuff. The notion of mercury being in retrograde leading to bad things happening is nothing more than superstition and confirmation bias.

David
Nov 30th, 2011 / 3:58 pm

“There is no scientific evidence for it, therefore it is bullshit, and he (or she) who believes in it is useless.”

Well, how narrow minded is that ? How can someone that would say something like this end up on a blog posting about rainbow parades and temporary tattoos of popsicles ?

Keep going Tina.