Astro Blog
by Adrian Duncan | Aug 21, 2015 | Adrian’s Articles 2015
Could the Republicans possibly be better placed ahead of the November 2016 presidential elections? The Democrats have been severely damaged in the 2014 mid-term elections, when they lost control of the Senate and when the Republicans won another 25 seats in Congress to have an unassailable majority. After two terms of a Democratic presidency, USA will – according to historical election patterns – be turning towards Republican leadership. The 2016 presidency is theirs to win. But that could depend on whom they choose as Republic candidate out of the multitude of hopefuls – 38 have declared their candidacy at the time of writing. …Read More
by Adrian Duncan | Aug 12, 2015 | Articles
It would be a strange thing if you could predict the result of elections. All that rushing around canvassing voters, all that money spent on adverts, all the passionate debates – these would be unnecessary. Fortunately polls and pundits (and astrologers) get their predictions wrong all the time, so elections continue to make life interesting. How fascinating it is, for example, that in the USA there is an almost exact split between two parties – Republicans and Democrats. The difference between these voters is so deeply rooted that half of them disapprove of even having a relationship with someone supporting the opposite party. (Note 1) And it is probably the same story for supporters of the Labour and Conservative parties in Britain. Somehow our political values resonate with the core of our being.
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by Adrian Duncan | Aug 10, 2015 | Adrian’s Articles 2015
Planets and Sign Borders
Throughout history, countries have vigorously protected their borders, and travellers had to have their papers in order if they wanted to leave one country and enter another. It is always a nervous process, as anyone who has entered the USA from abroad will know. You’ve travelled far, and it would be an expensive experience to be refused entry – and I know people who have been. Similarly, if you are a refugee from Africa or Syrian, the act of entering a European Union country is even more nerve-wracking, and thousands of people lose their lives trying to do so. …Read More
by Adrian Duncan | Jul 22, 2015 | Articles
You probably know the feeling. You build your castle of sand by the seaside, but the tide begins to approach your carefully built walls and parapets. Your next smart move is to build a mote. It fills up. You strengthen your walls. But it is all to no avail. Water will always find the lowest point where it can flow over, and all your defenses are bypassed. Welcome to Neptune in Pisces, and welcome to the overflow, which is taking place as Jupiter in Virgo makes the exact opposition to Neptune here in mid-September 2015. And refugees from godforsaken lands like Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan pour over the European borders, overwhelming efforts to register, contain and control them. …Read More
by Adrian Duncan | Aug 26, 2014 | Articles
The most popular man in Russia right now is Vladimir Putin. Fresh from the international success of the Sochi Winter Olympics, he has managed to engineer a referendum in Crimea that has brought this peninsular, which in the past has been ravaged by war, back into the Russian family. 96% of the residents of Crimea voted to leave Ukraine and unify with Russia. It’s odd, because in 1991, when Ukraine became independent during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, 56% of Crimea voted to leave Russia, and 90% of Ukrainians generally. Of course it did not help that non-Russians were terrified of showing themselves and basically boycotted the vote, opposition media were closed down, and activists arrested. The good old Soviet times are coming back. …Read More
by Adrian Duncan | Aug 21, 2014 | Adrian’s Articles 2014
If this is springtime in the Arab world, then there are probably a lot of citizens in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, Iraq and Syria who would prefer winter. What started out as a promising process leading to democratic elections in some of the countries and the elimination of leaders perceived to be tyrants like Gaddafi (Libya), Mubarak (Egypt) and Ben Ali (Tunisia) has descended into chaos. Citizens in Syria, who thought the time for their Arab spring had come, have ended up on the losing side in a civil war, which has become infiltrated by anti-Western jihadists. With the US exit from Iraq, there are rising casualties as Sunni Muslim rebels fight the predominantly Shiite government, and with the coming NATO exit from Afghanistan, who knows how long the current leaders will survive Taliban resurgence? …Read More
by Adrian Duncan | Aug 19, 2014 | Articles
At a time when there is an economic crisis in the world, it does not seem to be a very good idea to have aspirations to be an astrologer. Mother and father are not going to jump for joy, and your government is not going to support you. Your school will not welcome your questions on the subject, your university will not provide any courses, your employer will not appreciate your skills. You may have discovered the magical correlation between human behavior and the cosmos, you may embrace a holistic view, you may value the spiritual riches that come from being receptive to transcendental influences. But this is not going to get you a job. …Read More
by Adrian Duncan | Aug 17, 2014 | Adrian’s Articles 2014
At the time of writing – one day before the Scottish referendum on independence – England is shaking in its boots. When an overconfident David Cameron agreed with the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Alex Salmond, the terms of the referendum a couple of years back, just one question was agreed on: “Should Scotland be an independent country?” This unwisely allows people to say Yes for independence, rather than Yes for continued union with Britain. Back then, Cameron along with everybody else assumed that there could not possibly be a majority for independence. But now, one day before the United Kingdom can be torn asunder, the bagpipes have a different tune. Yes and No voters are so evenly divided, nobody can say who will win. …Read More
by Adrian Duncan | Aug 16, 2014 | Adrian’s Articles 2014
There is nothing like the feeling that things are out of control to bring on a few nervous tics, and right now it seems not much is going right for the world, seen from a Western cultural perspective. As we approach the last two clashes between those otherworldly planets, Uranus and Pluto, it seems their signature is everywhere. This combination, which takes place on average about twice every 125 years, and last ravaged the world during the Depression and Nazi domination of the 1930’s, shows the forces of revolution and tyranny in violent interplay. Uranus wants change, and Pluto does not mind what the cost is in human terms. They may bring evolutionary development, but the pain threshold is high.
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by Adrian Duncan | Aug 14, 2014 | Articles
In July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft will pass by Pluto. Launched in 2006, it is the fastest spacecraft ever and has been designed to investigate this distant planet, and all the other bodies in the space beyond Pluto. Although Pluto was demoted to “dwarf planet” status a few years ago, it is actually quite a large place, with a diameter of 5000 miles (8000 kms). No spacecraft has ever been able to send back information from Pluto or any of the thousands of bodies thought to be in the Kuiper Belt, which Pluto is a part of. The only detailed visual information we have of Pluto comes from the Hubble space telescope, which recently discovered a new moon orbiting Pluto, bringing the total to five, of which Charon is the largest, with a diameter half the size of Pluto, (This has led to Pluto being considered a double-planet.) The other moons are Kerberos, Styx, Nix and Hydra. Hmmm… does not sound so cozy.
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