[Merged] What's the betting...

[Mojo]

...that this will be used as 'evidence' that astrology works?

British 'studied' Hitler's stars (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7276217.stm).

[devnull]

not really - AFAICT theyre talking about replicating the advice he received from another astrologer, and using that to predict his movement (assuming he gave weight to the advice he received).

Not so much proof that astrology exists, only that the people that take the advice of astrologers become very predictable :)

[Cuddles]

Not so much proof that astrology exists, only that the people that take the advice of astrologers become very predictable :)

With the only slight problems being that Hitler didn't take astrological advice and the efforts to predict his moves failed miserably. Von Wohl was a conman, plain and simple.

[devnull]

that's only a slight complication though :)

And calling an astrologer a 'conman' is superfluous in my opinion...

[zooterkin]

And is there even any evidence that two astrologers would produce the same reading for the same person?

[Cuddles]

And calling an astrologer a 'conman' is superfluous in my opinion...

In all fairness, some of them no doubt believe what they say rather than actually trying to con people. In this case, the idea itself sounds logical enough. If the predicitions of one astrologer can be replicated by another then the actions of someone following the predictions can also be predicted to an extent.

And is there even any evidence that two astrologers would produce the same reading for the same person?

Of course, that's where it all falls down.

[Mojo]

not really - AFAICT theyre talking about replicating the advice he received from another astrologer, and using that to predict his movement (assuming he gave weight to the advice he received).

Not so much proof that astrology exists, only that the people that take the advice of astrologers become very predictable :)

With the only slight problems being that Hitler didn't take astrological advice and the efforts to predict his moves failed miserably. Von Wohl was a conman, plain and simple.


Even if they'd got everything right, and Hitler actually was basing his decisions on astrological advice which could be duplicated by other astrologers employed by the allies, it says nothing about whether astrology works. If they had been able to predict Hitler's decisions, all it would have shown was that two astrologers were able to produce consistent predictions from the same data. It would have said nothing about whether those predictions were correct.

But, even given all that, how long do you reckon it'll be before we see astrologers making claims about the security services using astrology, and that this shows that it works?

cf the claims about psychics "helping" the police...

[Charlie in Dayton]

Seems as though the idea of the gubmint throwing money at paranormality isn't as new as we might have thought... (http://news.aol.com/story/_a/britain-hired-astrologer-to-fight-hitler/20080304073609990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001)