Brian Williams NBC Nightly News talks about astrology

1
I just saw a little side story on the NBC nightly news where NBC news anchor Brian Williams says that an astronomer from Minnesota has said that the signs have shifted and they have added a new 13th sign which is unpronounceable which is big news to astrologers. Then he said that actually it was old news because of an astronomical phenomena called "precision". Brian either misread it or it was incorrectly written on his teleprompter, it should be "precession" which is the backwards movement of the equinoxes which astronomers trot out every year or so to try to confuse novices and make the more experienced look like fools to those who don't know any better. I'm not the only one who saw this:

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum ... 323250/pg1

I was wondering the same thing... who writes these news scripts and who OK's them? Some people are probably laughing behind the scenes because with the stories about dead birds falling from the sky and such, it sets the tone for 2012. News like this makes me wonder what the agenda is.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

3
Why in the world has the precession issue suddenly gone so viral on the internet and over the airwaves? Absolutely everyone seems to be talking about it, yet as Curtis says, the subject has been raised ad infinitum whenever astronomers have sought to ridicule astrology. I'm retired, yet three former clients telephoned me today in near-despair about this. Huffington Post and all the major news outlets are abuzz with the shocking "discovery" that the sidereal and tropical zodiacs don't coincide. I can't understand the hysteria this seems to be causing in the news - what don't people understand about the precession of the equinoxes, after lo, these hundreds of years? Is no one vetting news reports these days? "Precision of the equinoxes"...oh, my aching head.

5
Thank you for the link, Olivia. This chestnut gets dredged up regularly, yet for some reason it has really gotten people stirred up in its latest resurrection. I can't figure out why now, particularly, since the issue has been with us for centuries.

6
As Gabe suggested, there is actually a branch of demographics and advertising that studies how internet memes (such as "shift in zodiac") occur and have the ability to manipulate thought...

From Wikipedia:

Their (internet memes) rapid growth and impact has caught the attention of both researchers and industry.[3] Academically, researchers model how they evolve and predict which memes will survive and spread throughout the Web. Commercially, they are now actively used in viral marketing, seen as a free form of mass advertising. The Internet community itself has cultivated methods to encourage the generation and popularization of successful memes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme

There is obviously an agenda here.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

7
We've also been hearing about 2012 and shifts (there's that word again) and there has been so much hype about 2012. It seems that many news stories are playing into the 2012 theme lately.

There was also some interesting work done by a former Microsoft engineer named Clif High on a web bot that was able to predict the future by sampling words on the internet...
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

9
According to this new zodiac, some Scorpio's are now Virgins (oh the irony)...

Capricorn: Jan. 20 - Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 - March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18- May 13
Taurus: May 13- June 21
Gemini: June 21- July 20
Cancer: July 20- Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10- Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16- Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30- Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23- Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29- Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17- Jan. 20
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

10
Huffington Post and all the major news outlets are abuzz with the shocking "discovery" that the sidereal and tropical zodiacs don't coincide.
It's not just the left wing blogs either. Glenn Reynolds Instapundit, a right wing blog, carried the story as well.

I love Brian WIlliams pronunciation of "precession" as "precision." It shows they are just talking heads - nothing more.

11
Tom wrote:
Huffington Post and all the major news outlets are abuzz with the shocking "discovery" that the sidereal and tropical zodiacs don't coincide.
It's not just the left wing blogs either. Glenn Reynolds Instapundit, a right wing blog, carried the story as well.

I love Brian WIlliams pronunciation of "precession" as "precision." It shows they are just talking heads - nothing more.
If they can screw up something as simple as that, just think of how many other stories have inaccuracies in them... from the war on terror, to Julian Assange...
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

12
just think of how many other stories have inaccuracies in them...
And this is new? Hah! During the Viet Nam war a famous American football player (our kind not yours) was asked about his views on the war. It was common practice then to ask everyone, expert or not, the same question. He replied, he would not give that opinion because he saw what the sports writers did to his quotes regarding football. He couldn't imagine how badly news reporters screwed up more important information.

I always thought that remark should be put in a frame and hung up in every journalism classroom in the US and be atop every newspaper.

Tom