Thought for the day

I heard someone mention the phrase “Mercury in retrograde” this morning so I went searching for meaning, and found this great little video by someone named Joss Fong, explaining the phenomenon “without astrology” she promises. And she delivers.

After she discusses Ptolemy’s explanation, which was “sensible but completely erroneous” because he assumed that the earth was stationary, and at the center of the universe, Fong turns to Copernicus, who got things straightened out, so to speak, and thus was able to explain the optical illusion that gives rise to the “Mercury in retrograde” belief.

Fong’s conclusion: “We may be vulnerable to illusions when we think that everything revolves around us”.