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. The debate over whether to use τ instead of π to teach geometry heated up again.

Apparently, none of that is as interesting as your frakkin' astrology chart.

Comments

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

I think you've hit smack on a chunk of human nature that's going to need to be harnessed, because it might be unchangeable.

magical / metamagical thinking is something our species just *does*. As such, it's more accessible and interesting to the bulk of the population than complicated scientific stuff. These self-same people, individually, would likely agree with you that all the advances you listed are of greater impact for the species as a whole, and might even be of direct benefit to them personally, depending on their location, status, and if they understood what you were talking about. They just probably wouldn't care.

I was amused that your post on my friendslist was immediately preceeded by
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/dorktowerfeed/269137.html that.

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

My only interest in such is as a source of comedy. That lasted about ten minutes this morning and I moved on. As for the mass populace, they are uninterested in things they cannot understand unless it is of immediate benefit to them.

[erisiansaint]

I don't know. I'm far more interested in ALL those things than in the astrology chart, but I didn't see any of them in the major news. I think that speaks more to what the corporations that publish news think Americans want than what Americans actually want.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

I dunno?

I think I could deal with being a transgendered healer?

Huh?

[autopope.livejournal.com]

What's this astrology thing?

Re: Huh?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Astronomers announced (http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/13/horoscope-hang-up-earth-rotation-changes-zodiac-signs/) 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.livejournal.com]

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

Astrology, precession of the equinoxes, and reality.

[(Anonymous)]

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.livejournal.com]

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

[blaisepascal]

In a week, few will care or remember in depth that there are 13 constellations on the ecliptic, yet the guinea worm will still be eradicated, the flu-free bird will still be there, thunderstorms will still make antimatter, and the need for amniocentesis will still be reduced/eliminated.

I hadn't caught that the τ instead of π "debate" had picked up again. Where was this?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Well, New Scientist is trying to rile it up again in their latest article. But reading NS is a bit like reading the Weekly World News for fans of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

[(Anonymous)]

That's a great description of "New Scientist;" it's a shame only a few people will get the last reference though.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

What's the dustup about Pi? Not heard about this one.

[blaisepascal]

The argument is basically that the ratio of circumference to diameter (π) is a poor choice of fundamental unit for circular things. Rather, the preferred choice of fundamental unit should be the ratio of circumference to radius (essentially, 2π). Using τ = 2π instead of π would simplify a lot of formulas and is in many case conceptually simpler (one revolution corresponds to τ radians, so τ/4 is a quarter-turn, etc.)

The major objection is that π is very entrenched and it doesn't really hurt much to use π instead of τ.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Thanks - my display isn't showing that as a pi symbol and I was very confused.

[blaisepascal]

Ah, OK, then to clarify, the symbol for C/r proposed is the lowercase Greek letter tau. Other proposals have historically included the name "turn" and a symbol looking like a pi with three legs.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Of course, there are as many factors of π and π/2 in mathematics and physics as there are factors of 2π.

So, really, this τ= 2π messes up as many formulas as it simplifies.

It also totally messes up all of physics, since τ is actually used in equations as the preferred symbol for oscillation period, orbital period, and for proper-time. All of the aforementioned equations can or do also have factors of π floating around them. So, I repeat: messes up as much notation as it potentially simplifies.

[blaisepascal]

I'm not saying I'm a τ advocate. But read The Tau Manifesto and π Is Wrong! and voice your objections to them.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

The mass media caters to the masses. And the masses? Well, their average IQ is 100. Astrology is something they can understand, and it's vaguely relevant at least to those people who read their horoscopes, even if it's only for the amusement value. That other stuff is less relevant: Guinea worms are skeevy and icky and happen Somewhere Else to Other People. Down's Syndrome pretty much happens to Other People, except when it doesn't, and a blood test is not terribly relevant to parents who already HAVE a child with Down's. They aren't really interested in antimatter, or chickens (unless they're cooked), and the finer points of geometry are really something for those intellectual math types to worry about.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

"Astrology is something they can understand" - you give the masses too much credit.

Since astrology cannot be mistunderstood, what with having no validity whatsoever, its main advantage is that no one can understand it any better than anyone else.
It's a great leveler, like guns and death.

(And I don't care how geometry is taught as long as it's actually taught - axioms, theorems, proofs, logic.)

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the discovery that survivors of H1N1 influenza have developed a broad-spectrum immune response against all of the last decade's H1N1 strains, the 1918 pandemic influenza, and the H5N1 avian influenza -- a discovery which may make it possible to develop a universal influenza vaccine.

[moiety-tx.livejournal.com]

Nice! My sister managed to catch H1N1 while vacationing in China -- and be placed under isolation in a hospital room full of mosquitoes, and only one person who spoke English. She'll be happy to hear there was an upside.