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The 20-year star of this summer's movie hit Superbad is known for his unassuming and quietly comic manner that he first crafted in the cult TV series Arrested Development. Born in Canada, Michael's career in Hollywood has followed an upward trajectory and shows no signs of slowing down. After co-starring in in the funny and touching teenage coming of age Superbad, his new movie Juno also received rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

With the release of her third album Good Girl Gone Bad in June 2007, pop singer Rihanna has achieved worldwide fame as it hit #1 in many countries. Although she emerged as a popular artist in 2006 with the previous release A Girl Like Me, her star has risen higher than ever this year. Is it just because "Umbrella" was a catchy song, or were the planets on her side as well? Her horoscope shows a very creative and artistic person as Moon and Venus, the planets of beauty and art are closely conjoined in sidereal Pisces, a watery sign associated with aesthetics and imagination. Her creative and artistic side gets a big boost from Mercury exactly sextile Venus. Rihanna also has a very energizing sextile from Mars, Saturn and Uranus to her Sun. It's interesting that all of these three planets are either masculine or neuter, as her singing style has been described as cool, distant, even robotic. She's unlikely to emote strongly or use any diva-like heavy vibrato in her songs.

[The following article appeared in the June 2003 issue of the Fraser Valley Astrology Guild's Newsletter.]

With the worst of the SARS outbreak apparently behind us, I thought it would be interesting to compare the Canada horoscope for the most serious health emergency in our history, the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic with the recent planetary configurations that coincided with SARS. While significant afflictions can be seen using western techniques such as progressions, I am taking a vedic approach to these charts, using the sidereal zodiac/Lahiri ayanamsha and vimshottari dasha system whereby certain planets exert disproportionate influence during their periods.

[The following article appeared in the September 2003 issue of Express Star Teller.]

On August 7, former body building champion (he won the Mr. Universe title 4 times) and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for Governor of California, the USA's most populous state. The election is the result of a formal recall movement sparked by disgruntled citizens and business people who seek to end the continuing budgetary and energy troubles that have plagued the state under the present governor, Gray Davis. With California's wide open approach to electoral democracy where any citizen with $3500 and 65 signatures can run for governor, the gubernatorial field now stands at 200 and the October 7 ballot promises to be one of the strangest in US history.

Predicting the outcome of elections is a fairly thankless job. With or without astrology, you've got about a 50-50 chance of getting it right, enough chance to look foolish if you're wrong and enough to be called lucky by skeptics or detractors if you're right. That said, I've been looking at the charts of the respective candidates again and find myself still convinced that Bush will win it all on November 2 -- or at least take the oath on January 20. This confirms my position stated last year that Bush would win reelection although I am providing a more systematic analysis here for the first time.

[Here is an article I wrote for Express Star Teller in early September 2004 where I correctly predicted the outcome of the US election using conventional Vedic reasoning. It was published in the November issue which came out in mid-October.]

On November 2, Americans will go to the polls and re-elect President Bush. Perhaps it is fitting that an adminstration that has sowed such discord domestically and internationally should be returned to office by the power of the Great Malefic, Saturn. As apparently paradoxical as it first seems, Saturn is the planetary energy that Bush has successfully harnessed in his rise to power. While benefic Jupiter does play a role his November drama, it will be as a bit part.