Comment by 99_00 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 99_00 | Hacker News Reader

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In present day Canada, tax payer and corporate dollars go to geomancers in exchange for their services.

>In 1990, Tai emigrated to Canada and started working as a professional geomancer...

>Among some of his commercial clients are banks, shopping malls, office buildings and real estate consortiums groups, who seek his advice in the areas of feng shui, to ensure that their business environments are in harmony. Tai is the exclusive feng shui master hired by HSBC in Canada, continental America and Europe. He was the first Chinese geomancer hired by the Richmond City Hall who employed his services in feng shiu analysis in connection with their official building in B.C. Canada.

He was also paid for work done a 2010 olympic building.

http://www.shermantai.com/eng/author.php

http://www.shermantai.com/ch/pdf/2006_02_14_Globe%20Mail%20(...

http://www.shermantai.com/eng/pdf/2006_04_Business%20Magazin...

This isn't about the westernized version of Feng Shui. It's about a method of divination more akin to the I Ching:

In its original form, the geomantic figure was created by making lines of random numbers of dots in the sand, hence the name. - the beginning of the "Geomancy Step-By-Step" link

Why is this distinction important?

For the same reason Wikipedia has a ton of disambiguation pages for dealing with multiple concepts that have the same name: so you know which particular thing you're talking about, instead of just going "oh I heard that word once" and going off on a lengthy tear about what turns out to be a totally different thing with the same name.

Wikipedia is a general purpose store of knowledge. Comments exist in a context. In this case, discussion of geomancy.

More precisely I would say that the context is "discussion of a site about geomancy-the-divination-method", not "discussion of geomancy-the-landscape-related-magic-system" or "discussion of anything called geomancy".

It’s like conflating palm reading with astrology.

Irrespective of whether you believe the methods have any value, we should at least make sure we’re talking about the same thing.

In Singapore, rent in buildings known to have "bad feng shui" are measurably cheaper than in buildings with "good feng shui". So even though the belief itself may be irrational, if you're a property developer or a banker catering to clients who do believe, it's still rational to invest in a geomancer.

And politicians who pander irrational beliefs are known to get as many votes as those that pander to rational beliefs.

Wow, and I thought having no 13th floor, or floors with 4 in them, was nonsense.

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