What is wrong with you people?

[elfs]

This week, the guinea worm, a disgusting disease endemic to Africa and as deadly as polio, was eradicated in another nation. A lab announced developing a strain of chicken that cannot host bird flu. Another lab developed a blood test for Down's syndrome, ending the need for invasive amniocentesis. Thunderstorms create small amounts of antimatter

Comments

Huh?

[autopope]

What's this astrology thing?

Re: Huh?

[elfs]

Astronomers announced that, what with stellar progression over the past 5 millenia, astrologers have their constellations all wrong and have proposed a 13th astrological sign, Ophiuchus.

Personally, I think this is just an attempt to tweak the astrologer's noses. Although this might be an issue for the Laundry to consider...

Re: Huh?

[mouser]

They miss all the press they had when Pluto was downgraded.

Astrology, precession of the equinoxes, and reality.

[autopope]

This isn't really a brand new discovery, for people who are simultaneously sufficiently knowledgeable about the combination of astronomy and astrology. Oh, wait, who would that be? Me and a rather small number of other people, I guess. Nonetheless, an astrologer published a book a few decades ago called something like "Sky Diamonds" in which she proposed updates to astrology to 'fix' this "precession of the equinoxes" related problem.

So for a small fraction of the population, this 'news' story is like 'chemists announce, water's still wet.'

But seriously, since a well-understood scientific mechanism for astrology actually somehow working has not to my knowledge been publicly proposed, you can't expect to scientifically 'disprove' such a mechanism with _mere actual facts_.

Just say, "I feel that astrology is a mechanism of oppression, man, telling everyone what to do and feel, keeping us from realizing our true potential, man." Or something like that.

Re: Huh?

[autopope]

Huh; sounds like somebody's rediscovered John Sladek's satirical leg-pull Arachne Rising (written as "John Vogh).