Peter Bromberg's UnBlog

Have you ever seen a newspaper headline, "Psychic Wins Lottery"? Or, "Astrologer Wins Lottery"? In one poll, 31% of Americans expressed a belief in astrology and, according to another study, 39% considered it scientific. The core beliefs of astrology were prevalent in parts of the ancient world and are epitomized in the Hermetic maxim, "as above, so below". Tycho Brahe used a similar phrase to summarize his studies in astrology: suspiciendo despicio , "by looking up I see downward". Although the principle that events in the heavens are mirrored by those on Earth was once generally held in most traditions of astrology around the world, in the West there has historically been a debate among astrologers over the nature of the mechanism behind astrology. In other words, the so-called experts cannot even agree how to practice it! Predictive astrology, in the Western tradition, employs two main methods: astrological transits and astrological progres...

I believe that people would be alive today if there were a death penalty. - Nancy Reagan When I first heard the Al Gore crowd talk about carbon credits as a solution to our purported climate problems, the first thought I had was to create a carbon credit trading web site and make a lot of money. Then I thought about it some more and I got a sense that something didn't compute. When supposed leaders, both scientific and political, believe that buying and selling what they call carbon credits will help solve the global warming problem (if it actually is a problem), then it is time to stop and question the whole shebang. Here’s the deal, in case you are curious. Let's say that Al Gore, with his private jets, mansions, etc., is afraid that people might call him a hypocrite for telling them to stop burning so much fuel while he is jetting around burning humongous amounts of it. He can assuage his conscience by taking a small sum of his money and buying what are called carbon credi...