The article really shouldn't have led off with that. Its much stronger point is that the only reason we think of the golden ratio as a design principle is confirmation bias and wishful thinking.
Either keep comparing lots of things to each other until you get a ratio that's about 1.6 (I mean, seriously? The height of some guy's navel?), or just Photoshop a spiral onto anything with a ratio between 1.3 and 2. Golden ratio confirmed!
And I particularly like how the one with Cape Cod completely misses the spiral of Long Point by like 30 miles, and just spirals in toward some arbitrary point in Massachusetts Bay.
Either keep comparing lots of things to each other until you get a ratio that's about 1.6 (I mean, seriously? The height of some guy's navel?), or just Photoshop a spiral onto anything with a ratio between 1.3 and 2. Golden ratio confirmed!