Obviously, another way to throw away tax-money has been found in Germany: unemployed people can now get a training in Astrology paid by the employment center, as reported by the Hamburger Morgenpost. The German blogs Astrodicticum simplex and Wahrsagercheck Blog have already posted articles about this. According to the Morgenpost-articel, the courses, costing 800 Euro per month and person according to the newspaper, are fully funded. They take at least 17 month to complete and when I understand it correctly, are also available as distance learning courses. They are provided by the Astrologer Helen Fritsch, who offers a number of courses in her ‘Astro-Praxis’ and informs extensively about possibilities for public funding.
At least two unemployed women already get the coursed paid. One of them, Viviane Wahls, is cited in the Morgenpost. From a physicist’s perspective her CV is saddening: She dropped out of physics studies, now she learns astrology. That is why I think it is important to teach the scientific method in the very first semester of physics, so everybody understands how critical thinking and evidence-based tests work. But it seems like she was already interested in both, astrology and astronomy, when she started her studies. Obviously, Geore Orwells Doublethink does not work too well in the real world. The other trainee explains how she became aware of the possibility to get her astrology course paid:
„My responsible official at the employment advised me of the training at the Astro-Praxis.“
Oh my … And there seems to be a pattern in this, Viviane Wahl can tell about a meeting with her official, too:
„The topic of astrology was came up very early in our meeting. However, it was me who first was sceptical, and she was the one who was pushing me into this direction, as she obviously took my interest in this area very serious.“
I can only repeat myself: Oh my …
The ‘educating’ astrologer Helen Fritsch once was a school teacher, she has additional training in psychotherapy. No wonder that her courses are called ‘Psychological Astrology’ (but there are some in ‘Medical Astrology’, too, whatever these are). Whenever I hear this, it raises a question in me: Do ‘astrological life coaches’ or ‘therapists’ aim at the weak, people with problems who would accept every help, even a completely reality-free, and switch of critical thinking? I don’t know. But in my opinion, there is a danger to get addicted or better: dependent, to this esoteric ‘help’. People who have psychological problems should be treated by professionals, who do not complicate their patients lifes and worldviews with esoteric ballast, astrologically formulated commonplaces and unlearning of rational thinking. I can imagine that these people’s problems might not be solved by astrologers, but only get covered and the customers distracted. This might help them first, but on the long run I don’t see how this can be a solution.
As a life coaching astrologer one can easily counter skeptic’s claims that astrological prognoses are impossible. They can say: Hey, it is not about predicting the future, it is about self-awareness, showing trends in ones character and possible solutions for problems. That this creates more problems (like a distrust in science and evidence-based medicine, because a different view of reality is developed) than it solves is ignored. They don’t even exist in the astrological view of things, because their claim of validity is not based on evidence. So, there is no need to have philosophical thoughts about parallel universes, some people already live in one.
Here a quote from Helen Fritsch fits well:
„There is no scientific evidence for our lore. But that does not exist for god’s existence either.“
Well, yes. That is why I am an atheist. An it is not only missing evidence, the reality of astrology is falsified by science. Planets do not have influence on our personality. Zodiac signs are arbitrary combinations of far-away suns on the sky. Horoscopes consist of valid-for-all Barnum-Statements, because people tend to accept vague, general statements as correct descriptions of their personality. The Barnum-Effect, by the way, is a term from psychology … maybe it indeed makes sense for astrologers to have an additional psychological education.
A speaker of the employment office is cited in the Morgenpost article, saying:
„With this job description one has excellent chances on the employment market.“
Great, so let us all become Astrologers. Then we do not have to care for little annoying things like reality, being able to test assumptions and concrete statements. The argument is so good, why not apply it to other sectors? Maybe the employment office would like to pay for re-training unemployed to work as air-guitar sellers or thimblerigger. There are also always profitable markets for people like drug dealers prostitutes or porn ‘actors’? But the idea seems not to be new. placebo-Effect applying ‘alternative’ ‘medical’ ‘educations’** are already paid for: Homeopathy, Bach flowers, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda (See comment here). Self-delusion made easy and cheap.
It is simply ridiculous for the state to pay people so that they get an ‘education’ in astrology. On the one hand, these anti-scientific worldviews are financed, on the other hand, science like astronomy is also paid for (could be better, though ). That reminds me of an astrologer’s talk at the public library in my city, last year because it was the international year of astronomy. I should finally write a report on that. I still can not believe how much crap was told there.
But please don’t get me wrong: Whoever wants to become an astrologer can take these courses. And whoever looks for help by meeting an astrologer is doing so on his or her own responsibility. But an education for this pseudo-scientific, anti-reality propagating job must not be paid by the state. Otherwise, we could go on and include astrological-psychological coaching in our healthcare system. At least the Federal Emplojment Office seems to be critical to this case and does not intend to finance it. Well, there might be a glimmer of hope left.
*: Maybe view of irreality would be the better wording.
Today’s picture is a lighter one, I am not in the mood for the usual heavy, melancholic stuff. Shot on the first day of our stay in Sydney. Walking towards Circular Quay, starting at Darlin Harbour, one passes by numerous old storehouses and piers. On one we found these two man fishing in the sun in front of the impressive Harbour Bridge.
No further news from the Chilenian astronomers in Conception so far … Everybody seems to be fine, thanks to Andreas for the info.
I am exhausted. For several days an ugly cold plagues me, working is impossible and my personal pleasures like editing photos are so even more. It is getting better by now, slowly.
In addition I spend quite some of thoughts on the earthquake in Chile. The country might seem far away, but the world is small and Chile feels like having one of the highest astronomer densities in the world. So inevitably I think of some friends in Chile, hoping they are all right. Of some I already got news and they are well, but others have not replied yet, including a Chilenian PHD student from Conception. That city still seems to be more or less cut off from the world in terms of communications and websites are inaccessible. Astronomers love Chile because the country offers excellent places for observations. Regions that are very high and dry are perfect places for telescopes: The thin atmosphere and no water vapour give good visibility conditions. The observatories, at least those of the European Southern Observatory ESO, remained undamaged, in part because they are far from the earthquake site. But astronomical observation plans will probably get disturbed severely, especially because of difficulties in travelling. Good that I am a theoretician, not an observer …
Usually I don’t post YouTube videos in this blog. I don’t like the look of them and think it makes the site look somewhat ugly. But this time I have to make an exception, to show my respect to the artist.
The video below shows a flip-book, made up of 2100 hand-drawn pages! Wonderfully analog for these digital times we live in. And then it even shows the History of the Universe, starting with the Big Bang and Evolution until today’s space flight. And all this in an amazing and very humorous manner. It made my day.
The last two rolls of film from Australia are developed, but I still keep on scanning. Can’t hear the scanner-sound anymore. But it will take some more hours to finish with that. Right now, I only have a collection of raw scans on my harddrive. Editing them, even in the most simple form (removing dust, one or two scratches and adjusting the graduation curve) will keep me busy in the weeks to come.
But the above picture I had to share with you now. When I scanned this shot, I fell in love with it right away. I took it at the Sydney Opera House, where I was looking for pictures of architectural details and maybe some tourists (it’s a hobby of mine to photograph people watching things and sceneries. Don’t know why ). The contrasts in illumination were extreme, owing to the strong Australian summer-sunlight. That allowed me to make this silhouette photo. A man with a backpack is standing in front of one of the Opera House buildings, looking up to the impressive architecture. He stands in the shadow, but in front of a streak of light which falls through a gap between two parts of the opera. This results in him being a shadow figure in front of the illuminated area. Part of the building is well lit by the sun, so one can recognise the building. And as a bonus, at least to me, are the contrasty clouds in the sky.
I like the simple, abstract structures in this one, which combine with the human perspective in form of the tourist. But he, too is abstract, only a silhouette which might be filled with anybody.
Today the ‘Street-Carnival’ has started again, mostly in the Rhineland. That’s why I repost the sign on the left. I don’t like what carnival makes out of most people. While it is funny and nice to see how people dress up, the collective, mindless and public alcohol orgy and the impacts on public life are what I strongly dislike. Soon you will have to avoid collisions with people who’s path of movement is great to illustrate the Brownian Motion of molecules, but who are too drunk to now where they are going. And these will be right next to small children who of course like carnival because of the sweets, the masquerades and the free time.
As some of you might remember, I have this ongoing photo-series project: I take pictures of coin-operated binoculars and public pay-telescopes. As I don’t know of any proper name for them, I coined the term ‘Touristscopes‘. They fascinate me because of their appearance: they resemble faces, robot-like. The effect is called pareidolia. It is a human habit to recognize a face in the strangest things.
When I was in France last summer, in Normandy to be precise, I was able to collect some more touristscope photos. I used to shot them in a very standardized manner, filling the frame like head-on portraits. I always use the same 24mm lens and preferably a 100 ISO black and white film. The touristscope-types do not vary a lot, there seem to be three major models in France, which I have seen in Germany, too. That’s why I decidetd to also take pictures of the surrounding, the context of the touristscopes, in the future.
Below, I present you five of the touristscopes from Normandy. I choose to show them as a list, because that was the January Monthly Special: Lists at Take Out Photo. Finally, I managed to participate in a monthly challenge again.
Arromanches-les-Bains (overlooking the beach where the allied invasion landed on D-Day. Arromanches was where the allies build a temporary harbour to offload supplies for the troops.):
In Arromanches, too. Note the similar posture of the tourists :
Fecamp:
Le Havre:
Villers-Sur-Mer (Situated right next to the Greenwich Meridian, obviously.) :
As I am already talking about comments in the last blog post, I can as well start a new category now: comment analysis. I regularly get comments on my critical post concerning esoteric and the misuse of quantum-physics for their purposes. Those comments are often, well, ‘interesting’. I am going to analyze one in the following. Maybe at some point in time I will have collected enough of them to compare and find common features.
Today’s comment is by someone calling himself ‘Art. 4 GG’. This is the first observation: These type of comments are often anonymous. It was posted at a followup of a followup (what’s next, followup cubed?) of a article criticizing a esoteric event stating that quantum-physics would support their believes. As most of these comments, it is in German. Another interesting point.
It starts with quoting a former German judge, in a typical manner of referring to ‘authorities’ in support of one owns point of view. I am actually immune to it: Not the opinions of some people count (even famous people do make errors and might have strange believes). What is important are the arguments.
By the way: the quote by said former judge, Martin Kriele, is critisized here (in German), he reacts to this in a very impolite manner on his homepage, personally attacking the lifestyle of the critic. He signed a declaration which supports the view that you could ‘heal’ homosexuality. His Wife, Alexa Kriele, works as an ‘Angel-Interpreter’, has been in the German TV recently (a good criticizing article can be found here, in German). Her husband supports her, was involved in her books on angles and their healing powers and wrote a foreword. Now I should take this guy seriously?
The comment goes on in a very rude manner, attacking me and my mental capabilities. There are no arguments or supporting evidence why I should be wrong. Instead, he says:
Your critical comments are undecided, blatantly unsubstantiated and confirm your self-assessment that quantum physics is hard to understand for you, because obviously you are uninformed, or de facto intellectually unable to grasp the findings of quantum physics.
In short, less complicated words: “You have no idea or are stupid.” I am not sure what is the best way to treat these kinds of comments: simply ignore and delete them, or allow them to appear as they unmask the was esoterics think and argue? I decided for the latter here. Especially, because the commenter does not have any clue about who I am: I studied Physics for several years, my professor in theoretical physics must have been of other opinion about my capabilities than the commenter as I got my degree recently, and now I am doing my PhD. Furthermore, I even studied the influences of quantum physics on philosophy in my minor. I would say I know enough about the topic.
I like to get comments on my articles. Probably every blogger does. Actually, I think most people like to get some kind of feedback to their ideas, thoughts and stories.
I very much appreciate critical comments, too. Not only, but also aimed at my photos. I use to describe what I like in a photo, but also tell my readers when I think something could be improved. I do not show my pictures to get all-positive comments. If you don’t like something, say it.
Now, what I dislike is spam. Obvious spam is filtered automatically. But there is this other form. Real people writing a comment that really has to do with the blog post. But then, they don’t call themselves Bob or Joe, but “Cheap Medicine Sale” or “Plastic Surgery”. And they link to obviously commercial sites. Sometimes, they even have normal names, but they still link to some commercial sites. For example, I had several commenters linking to sites selling esoteric stuff. They obviously were attracted by some key-phrases in the posts.
So, just for them to be theoretically able to know it, this is my policy regarding this kind of semi-spam (I know, spammers will not read this post and I will most probably just annoy my regular readers with this. Sorry guys.):
If your comment lacks substance, your name is not a name and you link to a commercial site: Your comment will be banned as spam.
If your comment makes kind of sense and might be of interest to others, but you still have no acceptable name and link to a commercial site: I will ban the comment or remove the link and change your name. That will depend on my mood
If you post a good comment and have a name that you mother might had given you, but link to a commercial site: I will remove the link. One-time commenter links are non-follow anyway, they will not help you in your website’s search engine optimization.
For all my honest, regular commenters in contrast, there is a benefit: Links of commenters with several comments will be set to do-follow.
So, now nobody can tell my I did not tell them.
By the way: All this Search Engine Optimization (SEO) stuff out there makes me crazy. I mean, how many people think they can make money online by telling other people how to male money online by starting blogs about how to make money online. Even big media corporations don’t manage to make much money on the web. Give it up and don’t ruin my nerves and the internet with your junk.
PS: Anybody interested in the Shroud of Turin? I don’t really get the point of this comment by someone calling himself Anthony. Maybe he is willing to share the profit with me if I find a buyer?
As you can see above, the first bunch of films exposed in Down Under has finally arrived. I guess it makes sense to start with something typical, so here are two icons of the city of Sydney and Australia in general: The Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, combined in one picture. I too the photo from a ferry departing at the Circular Quay, using the EF 17-40 mm f/4.0 lens at it’s widest focal length. The shot is nothing special, just a black and white photo of the two landmarks (By the way: shouldn’t it be called citymarks?). At least the sky makes the photograph a bit more dramatic, I am happy I decided to buy a dark red filter for this lens, too.
So , now I’ve got ten out of 34 films developed. Time for scanning them. Unfortunately, I became an involuntary workaholic recently. There is one paper I was asked to contribute a section to, and that has to be finished as soon as possuble. As usually, things look easy at first, but it turns out to become more and more complex. I hope it is worth the time. It’s a pity I can not give more details, but before it is published, I prefer to keep quiet.
The pictures on this site are solely black and white film photography. I shoot most pictures when travelling to places in europe. Mostly Normandy and Paris in France and German cities like Berlin, Cologne and Bonn. You will find urban scences, landscapes and maybe some street photograpy.
Science and Philosophy
I'm studying physics, astrophysics and philosophy at the university of Bonn in Germany. As my studies take up a lot of my time I'm sure I will post something on these topics, in particular on astronomy. I'll try to keep it generally understandable, but feel free to ask if questions arise.
Scepticism
Applying scientific methods to debunk widespread nonsense is both fun (for some believes it's hard to belive that somebody belives them) and necessary to avoid a reign of stupidity. Thus I plan posts on pseudosciences, criticism of religion and anti-antiscience (defending science from antiscientific attacks like 'Intelligent design').
). That reminds me of an astrologer’s talk at the public library in my city, last year because it was the international year of astronomy. I should finally write a report on that. I still can not believe how much crap was told there.
Entries (RSS)