Pseudoscience - Astrology vs Economics vs Financial Engineering

This article is ,by no means, a vindication of astrology.

Astrology is labelled as a pseudoscience. Agreed.
But then, economics and financial engineering are pretty much in the same boat as astrology.

If I think about the underlying science behind astrology, it could be a regression model (not necessarily linear) mimicking the effect of planetary magnetic fields on the human mind. Assuming that the magnetic field/pattern of the human brain is accurately mapped using the astrological charts. The effects of changing gravitational fields upon this static (really ?) mapping is evaluated using the original regression model. The analysis is subject to the interpretation of the astrologer and as in the case of regression models, noise could be pretty substantial. Is there a perfect science behind this ? As an Azimovian and lover of his mythology of psychohistory and foundation, I still do not believe that we can model individual human beings or humanity as a whole. It would still be interesting to analyze astrology from a mathematical perspective.

Let's talk about economics or financial engineering. Economics should never be awarded a nobel prize (as was the original intention of Alfie Nobel - Was it because of his wife running with an economist (crazy) or a well thought out decision ? One can never know except speculate.). It is pretty much pseudoscience as astrology.
Using math and statistics does not alone warrant an exalted status.

Economics (and financial engineering) try to model ever dynamic human behavior using past data. Ain't gonna work. All the failed economists who predicted eternal prosperity during the great depression of 1929 and the not so great recession of 2007-2009 are testimonial enough of this fact.....

Econ is another scam with everyone in cahoots! Just my two paise. :-)

A Study in Emerald

I recently read this Sherlock Holmes "spoof" ( I use the word spoof very liberally here.) by Neil Gaiman ( who elevated himself onto my great author's list - not yet all time favorite. He did come close with the Sandman series though).

The entire short story can be found in A Study in Emerald.
It is very cool spoof of Holmes and HP Lovecraft's Cthulu.
The story had interesting twists.
However, Dynamics of an asteriod was a dead giveaway.
To the delight of the initiated, there were many references to the SH folklore and H.P.Lovecraft mythology. Add in the advertisements - simply awesome.

My only disappointment was that the story was short.
I expected the story to be a bit more protracted like the original Study in Scarlet.

You can't take the sky from me

One of my favorite theme songs from the show Firefly (movie Serenity)....

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me...

The song video can be found below:
Firefly/Serenity Video.

My favorite episodes:
Jaynestown and Out of Gas!
Jaynestown is especially great - both hilarious and philosophical.
Our Mrs.Reynolds had some interesting moments.

btw, firefly is a space western.

From Darkness to Light

It is time for me to move from darkness to light......
I changed the template from dark black to white.......


And Naveen said " Let there be light....". Lo! behold, then there was light everywhere in his blog
guided by st.blogspot's customized templates......