June 4 2020 - Horoscopes Vs Bridge

Some days I do a search on what is the daily news.  I know the news today so don't really know what made me search for   "News today June 4 2020."  The top retrieval will be coronavirus.  What was the second one?  It was the daily horoscope,  and just down the page is this surprise: Bridge: June 4, 2020 - The Mercury News.  Playing today's four spades, he ruffed West's ace of diamonds and took the A-K of trumps... Like a horse race, I wonder if bridge has made it to the front of the line. But don't underestimate the horoscope as news;  there are two more horoscope headlines.  So for today, it looks like horoscope wins by at least a head, and maybe a neck.    How popular is bridge if we compare it to horoscopes? Worldwide 200 million people play bridge.  25 million people in the U.S. are bridge players. The American Federation of Astrologers put the number of Americans who read their horoscope every day as high as 70 million, about 23 percent of the population. So wouldn't that mean that horoscopes has won by 3 lengths in the horse race of news.  Or maybe it is much more.  Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths - an astonishing record that will remain for decades. It takes skill to play bridge while it only takes basic reading for a horoscope. So much easier to play at horoscopes.  And we have a lot more invested in what's going to happen to us each day.  So my bet stays with horoscopes as winning by a lot. Our pictures today are courtesy of special effects software by flaming pear  - flexifly for bending and twisting images and flood for creating wave reflections.

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May 6 2020 - Horoscopes or Sinkholes - News today

Searching for news today?  Your horoscope comes up on top. Can a horoscope be news?   The Times of India thinks it is and is predicting some long distance travel.  The Chicago Sun Times horoscope has a "Moon Alert" which is:  We have the all clear to shop and do business.  The moon is in Scorpio.  Should we thank the moon in Scorpio for opening up the stores? On the other hand, there is real news in terms of it being sinkhole season.  Spring and summer are the worst because frozen water underneath the surface will start to flow again.  A sinkhole in Central Saanich B.C. was in the news yesterday.  You know the headline:  It just opened up!  That's because that's what sinkholes do. There are permanent world wonder sinkholes.  The one that comes to mind is the Great Blue Hole - a giant submarine sinkhole in Belize.   Here's a picture of the Great Blue Hole - just over a thousand feet across and 407 feet deep and within a massive reef that can be seen from space.  It was made famous by Jacques Cousteau in 1971 who brought his ship, the Calypso to chart it.     The top fives is a YouTube channel with video of 5 sinkholes - two of the videos are real-time with the sinkhole consuming a dump trunk, and then opening up in a highway full of cars.  The video is Here.  Today's picture is a calmer sight, and was taken last Friday in Queenston.  This is the historic town of Laura Secord who saved the country, and William Lyon MacKenzie whose printing press is the oldest in Canada. Here's one of its prettiest  heritage houses with an ancient Magnolia tree in the front.

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It's Your Birthday Today

This is a call out to send Gerry a Birthday Wish today! We highlight Dezi's thoughts on his birthday in our photo card.  Our newspapers offer happy birthday advice via the Horoscope Columns. The question comes to mind:  Why does almost every newspaper have a daily/weekly horoscope but not a science page?  I wonder what it tells about the society as a collective.  There is a simple answer in this article in the independent.co.uk.  Chris French, professor of psychology at Goldsmiths University, who specialises in belief in the paranormal, is entirely sceptical about horoscopes – though he'll flick to his star sign in newspapers. "I do it for the same reason that half the population do: for entertainment," he explains.  So here's our entertainment from the Globe's: The message of your birthday chart this year is that you must focus only on those things that are of genuine importance. What is the long-term goal that means the most to you emotionally? Only do those things that take you at least one step closer to it. Here is the Toronto Star's: This year you might feel that if you detach and try to understand where others are coming from, you will be able to make a difference — not only in their lives, but also in yours. You are likely to gain professional clout as a result. If you are single, you are likely to meet someone of significance before winter 2017. This person will walk into your life without you having to make any kind of effort. If you are attached, share more of what is going on with your significant other. You might hit a misunderstanding or two, but the two of you will be able to work them out. SCORPIO admires your ability to get along with others. This comes from dailyhoroscopes.com: Your gains and losses are of your own making at this time. Many of us like to be in control–this is the time for you to achieve control. You may receive an offer that most cannot refuse, but you will be wise to refuse any hard-to-believe-it’s-true type of offers. Your peace of mind comes when bills are paid–among other things. Do everything in your power to work out a plan of payment with all your debts. Instead of purchases, invest in yourself through savings. Take care of business now as you crave organization and expediency and you want to get things accomplished. You join friends after work today for a bit of celebration. At home, there are more celebrations, perhaps a lot–go with the flow. Happy birthday!

Was Nancy Reagan a Lunatic?

The Globe and Mail's moment in history yesterday was about Nancy Reagan telling the press that she was guided by astrology and horoscopes. Wouldn't we call this an alignment of the stars?  I hadn't known of the coincidence of the topic. What about alignments with the stars?  We've heard the expression 'It must be a full moon'.  We call madness 'lunacy', so this has been an association for hundreds of years.  Lunacy was most popular in the late 1800's. But think of Shakespeare “It is the very error of the moon. She comes more near the earth than she was wont. And makes men mad.” —William Shakespeare, Othello It turns out that the moon is NOT necessarily closer to the earth for a full moon. The Moon can be full and close – supermoon. Or it can be full but farther away – minimoon. Scientificamerica.com asks why the urban legend is so widespread.  The article suggests it can be attributed to 'illusory correlations'.  This is our mind's propensity to attend to and recall most events better than nonevents.  When there's a full moon and something decidedly odd happens, we notice it, tell others about it and remember it. The psychiatrist Charles L. Raison poses the explanation that it is a 'cultural fossil' from the long-bygone era when we slept outdoors and the full-moon was linked to psychological conditions, such as bipolar disorder and most observable then. Our picture today is the back garden, packed with plants that will go off to the Grimsby Garden Club plant sale on Friday.

What is your horoscope today?

When I do date searches on iGoogle, how is it that horoscopes show in the top three searches>? They seem to have passed into disrepute compared to a few decades ago when there was more interest in them.   However, centuries ago, there was significant attention to astrology.  Astrology was closely related to astronomy in 1600.  It was a scholarly tradition until the 17th century, and it helped drive the development of astronomy. An article by Ryan J. Stark  says that: "Except for the Bible, no body of documents had a larger circulation in seventeenth-century England than astrological almanacs. "  It was in the 1700's that astrology declined. Here we are today with newspapers and magazines in our time including the daily horoscope, and somehow persisting. I found the answers in an article in the Smithsonian "How are Horoscopes Still a Thing?"  The newspaper horoscope is accredited to R.H. Naylor, a prominent British astrologer of the first half of the 20th century.  He did the horoscope for the recently born Princess Margaret in 1930, and it somehow was a tipping point for the popular consumption of horoscopes. Naylor did some predicting that seemed to come true, so he started a weekly column. And why do horoscopes continue to run so many decades later?  Readers like them.  There seems to be little scientific proof that astrology is an accurate predictor of personality traits, future destinies, love lives, or anything else. And for many people they go online to find out what their horoscope says for today.  Is it your birthday?