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Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Aadhi Uruththiram/Sri Uruthram
Kerala`s Panjal village to host yagna for universal peace
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Sign of the times: Astrology story soars like a comet | StarTribune.com
Sign of the times: Astrology story
soars like a comet
If we had checked our horoscope,
maybe we would have seen this
coming: Astrology buffs who follow
the stars don't like finding out that
their world -- and sign -- might
have changed.
By Staff and wire reports, Star Tribune
Last update: January 14, 2011 - 10:22 PM
Sofia Whitcombe began her day with the
startling realization that she might not be
exactly who she thought she was.“My whole
life, I thought I was a Capricorn,” the 25-
year-old New York publicist said. “Now I’m a
Sagittarius? I don’t feel like a Sagittarius!”
Countless people were astonished by the
“news” in Monday’s Star Tribune in which
Minneapolis astronomy instructor Parke
Kunkle affirmed that the Earth’s “wobble”
has shifted the zodiac signs. The buzz has
raced across the Web like a shooting star.
Some people seemed angry. “I believe it’s a
zodiac scam,” said Jose Arce, 38, from Fort
Lee, N.J., who runs a body shop. “I’ve known
myself to be a Sagittarius, I believe, since I
was born. So to come up now with some new
sign? It’s unacceptable!”Others who took to
the blogosphere to gnash and wail displayed
a mix of:Defiance: “Dude, I’m a Leo and
always will be a Leo, no matter where the sun
is on August 5th. Besides, this very expensive
tattoo on my right shoulder tells me so.”
Consternation: “Darn it, the whole time I
thought I was an introvert, now to find out
that I’m an extrovert. I’m going to need
awhile to unravel my life.”Delight: “Upgrade
from Cancer to Gemini. Woo!”No matter that
Kunkle, who started it all, said it was an old
story — 2,000 years old, actually — and that
astrologers were insisting it wouldn’t change
a thing.
Cosmic rumbleSurely Kunkle’s horoscope
for this week was something along the lines
of “you will be a center of attention.”“It’s
been unreal,” he said Friday afternoon,
estimating that he has received more than 1
00 media requests from as far away as
Germany. “I have had messages upon
messages.”In the article, Kunkle affirmed that
since the Babylonian zodiac periods were
established millennia ago, the moon’s
gravitational pull has made the Earth
“wobble” around its axis in a process called
precession. That has created about a one-
month bump in the stars’ alignment, meaning
that “when [astrologers] say that the sun is in
Pisces, it’s really not in Pisces,” said Kunkle,
who teaches astronomy courses at
Advertisement
Minneapolis Community and Technical
College.Astrologers across the country
reported a wave of calls, e-mails or website
hits from concerned clients. “People are m
ore attached and loyal to their signs than
they thought,” said Eric Francis, editor of
PlanetWaves.net, who said he had had 25,000
hits on his site since midnight. “It’s
interesting how many people are panicking
their sign is wrong.”New news or old, most
people had never heard it before. And one of
the more fascinating elements was talk of a
new sign altogether.By the reckoning of
Kunkle and other astronomers, astrologers
are not only a month off in their zodiac signs,
but they are neglecting a 13th constellation,
Ophiuchus (Ooh-FEE-yew-kus) the Serpent
Bearer, for those born from Nov. 30 to Dec.
17.According to myth, Ophiuchus became a
healer when he killed a snake and another
appeared with an herb in his mouth that
revived the dead one.“The sun has been
going through Ophiuchus for thousands of
years,” said Kunkle, who says that his sign is
“vegetarian.”Linda Zlotnick, an astrologer for
32 years in St. Paul, said she and fellow
astrologers have long known of the issue
raised by Kunkle, but that the most
commonly used zodiac — tropical — isn’t
affected by it. Zlotnick, also known as
“Moonrabbit,” said the
sidereal zodiac, which isn’t as widely used,
IS based on the constellations.Other
astrologers expressed resentment that the
brouhaha had been launched by an
astronomer.Francis, who is based in New
York, said he’s weary of the endless skirmish
between astronomy and astrology.“When
astronomers make fun of us, they’re making
fun of the human suffering that leads people
to seek answers,” he said. “People do get
comfort and wisdom from astrology — and
science gives us Prozac.”A spokeswoman for
the American Federation of Astrologers,
Shelley Ackerman, said she’d been swamped
with e-mails from worried clients. She
advises them not to overreact.“This doesn’t
change your chart at all. I’m not about to use
it,” she said. “Every few years, a story like
this comes out and scares the living daylights
out of everyone, but it’ll go away as quickly
as it came.”That should make one
demographic happy — people with zodiac
tattoos.Sam Bielinski, who owns Atomic
Tattoos in Milwaukee, estimated that one in
five customers asks for a zodiac tattoo. “I
think most people are going to brush it off,”
he said of the new zodiac.Kunkle, meanwhile,
is ready to brush off the whole brouhaha.
“This has been,” he said, “an exhausting
hoot.”
____________________________
Staff writer Bill Ward and the
Associated Press contributed to this report
soars like a comet
If we had checked our horoscope,
maybe we would have seen this
coming: Astrology buffs who follow
the stars don't like finding out that
their world -- and sign -- might
have changed.
By Staff and wire reports, Star Tribune
Last update: January 14, 2011 - 10:22 PM
Sofia Whitcombe began her day with the
startling realization that she might not be
exactly who she thought she was.“My whole
life, I thought I was a Capricorn,” the 25-
year-old New York publicist said. “Now I’m a
Sagittarius? I don’t feel like a Sagittarius!”
Countless people were astonished by the
“news” in Monday’s Star Tribune in which
Minneapolis astronomy instructor Parke
Kunkle affirmed that the Earth’s “wobble”
has shifted the zodiac signs. The buzz has
raced across the Web like a shooting star.
Some people seemed angry. “I believe it’s a
zodiac scam,” said Jose Arce, 38, from Fort
Lee, N.J., who runs a body shop. “I’ve known
myself to be a Sagittarius, I believe, since I
was born. So to come up now with some new
sign? It’s unacceptable!”Others who took to
the blogosphere to gnash and wail displayed
a mix of:Defiance: “Dude, I’m a Leo and
always will be a Leo, no matter where the sun
is on August 5th. Besides, this very expensive
tattoo on my right shoulder tells me so.”
Consternation: “Darn it, the whole time I
thought I was an introvert, now to find out
that I’m an extrovert. I’m going to need
awhile to unravel my life.”Delight: “Upgrade
from Cancer to Gemini. Woo!”No matter that
Kunkle, who started it all, said it was an old
story — 2,000 years old, actually — and that
astrologers were insisting it wouldn’t change
a thing.
Cosmic rumbleSurely Kunkle’s horoscope
for this week was something along the lines
of “you will be a center of attention.”“It’s
been unreal,” he said Friday afternoon,
estimating that he has received more than 1
00 media requests from as far away as
Germany. “I have had messages upon
messages.”In the article, Kunkle affirmed that
since the Babylonian zodiac periods were
established millennia ago, the moon’s
gravitational pull has made the Earth
“wobble” around its axis in a process called
precession. That has created about a one-
month bump in the stars’ alignment, meaning
that “when [astrologers] say that the sun is in
Pisces, it’s really not in Pisces,” said Kunkle,
who teaches astronomy courses at
Advertisement
Minneapolis Community and Technical
College.Astrologers across the country
reported a wave of calls, e-mails or website
hits from concerned clients. “People are m
ore attached and loyal to their signs than
they thought,” said Eric Francis, editor of
PlanetWaves.net, who said he had had 25,000
hits on his site since midnight. “It’s
interesting how many people are panicking
their sign is wrong.”New news or old, most
people had never heard it before. And one of
the more fascinating elements was talk of a
new sign altogether.By the reckoning of
Kunkle and other astronomers, astrologers
are not only a month off in their zodiac signs,
but they are neglecting a 13th constellation,
Ophiuchus (Ooh-FEE-yew-kus) the Serpent
Bearer, for those born from Nov. 30 to Dec.
17.According to myth, Ophiuchus became a
healer when he killed a snake and another
appeared with an herb in his mouth that
revived the dead one.“The sun has been
going through Ophiuchus for thousands of
years,” said Kunkle, who says that his sign is
“vegetarian.”Linda Zlotnick, an astrologer for
32 years in St. Paul, said she and fellow
astrologers have long known of the issue
raised by Kunkle, but that the most
commonly used zodiac — tropical — isn’t
affected by it. Zlotnick, also known as
“Moonrabbit,” said the
sidereal zodiac, which isn’t as widely used,
IS based on the constellations.Other
astrologers expressed resentment that the
brouhaha had been launched by an
astronomer.Francis, who is based in New
York, said he’s weary of the endless skirmish
between astronomy and astrology.“When
astronomers make fun of us, they’re making
fun of the human suffering that leads people
to seek answers,” he said. “People do get
comfort and wisdom from astrology — and
science gives us Prozac.”A spokeswoman for
the American Federation of Astrologers,
Shelley Ackerman, said she’d been swamped
with e-mails from worried clients. She
advises them not to overreact.“This doesn’t
change your chart at all. I’m not about to use
it,” she said. “Every few years, a story like
this comes out and scares the living daylights
out of everyone, but it’ll go away as quickly
as it came.”That should make one
demographic happy — people with zodiac
tattoos.Sam Bielinski, who owns Atomic
Tattoos in Milwaukee, estimated that one in
five customers asks for a zodiac tattoo. “I
think most people are going to brush it off,”
he said of the new zodiac.Kunkle, meanwhile,
is ready to brush off the whole brouhaha.
“This has been,” he said, “an exhausting
hoot.”
____________________________
Staff writer Bill Ward and the
Associated Press contributed to this report
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