Thanks again to the Encyclopeida Britannica thing on my Yahoo home page, I learned of another famous person's birthday. Today it is Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, (how about that for a name) the composer of “La Boheme”, “Tosca”, and “Madame Butterfly” Three of my very favorite pieces of music. Born this day in 1858 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Puccini). Instead of a lot of words, how about some videos:

"La Boheme:"

"Tosca":

"Butterfly"

To all my blogging buddies, Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

From Thomas Edison:

And remember to put on your halo:

Have enjoyed all of my blogging associations. Thanks to everyone.

I was going to put a picture of rats feeding at the top of this but Blogstream would not take it. See my blog at http://sinannblog.blogspot.com/ to see the picture.

On the news last night (ABC World News with Charlie, http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/Politics/story?id=4028750) was an article on the Iraq war appropriations bill. So full of pork, “earmarks”. President Bush mentioned them in his speech this morning and that the bill has a total of 9800 earmarks. 298 of them costing $800 million added at the last minute before anyone had a chance to read them. $113K to Alaska for rodent control. Are we sending rats to Irag to fight? Or just to Washington to cheat us out of our taxes. Why is Alaska the corruptiion capital of America? Or is it Georgia - $430K. Louisiana - $1 million for a Lousiana congressman already accused or cheating. $2 million for Charlie Rangel. $213K for olives in France. I guess that is because the French were so brave in helping in Iraq. And on and on, sick.

Do I remember something about the Democratic Congress going to cut back on these? See the picture to view Congressmen feeding at the appropriations trouogh. But then, why expect the Democratic Congress to be any better than the Republicans? When Will Rogers said that the greatest contribution Congress makes is to take the 500 biggest liars in the country and put them in the same place, he did not say anything about their parties.

And if we elect a Democratic President, will it get any better. The Democratic candidates are all still party hacks.

Why is getting elected, buying votes, supporting the military-industrial complex, moving the party ahead, etc. so much better than the Nation's welfare? Or is it that each politician knows deep in his heart that his re-election and his party is the Nation's savior?

The revolution is at hand and good will prevail. I have been telling myself that for a lot of years, now. I would bet that George Washington said it to himself, too.

Once again, coninkidinks, (Jimmy Durante lives still) point the way to today's entry. Coincidences, you say? I think not! When the Fates and the Muses speak, one must listen or pay the consequences. For today, it is trying to learn to play the guitar. Johnny (http://annoiato.blogstream.com/) has Roy Orbison and “friends” in the “Black and White Nights” version of “Pretty Woman”.

Hawk (http://isntlifestrange.blogstream.com/) has a video guitar lesson, Santana, and Chet Atkins. A couple of comments have been from bloggers learning it.

At an advanced age (at this age I do not know if I am advancing or not), learning a musical instrument is a lengthy process. Helps keep the Alzheimer's away, however. I can follow the written notes – slowly. And a couple of the easy chords. One problem is that the strings are wire and they are pretty tight. Holding it down to get a decent tone really cuts into my sof' finger tips. They are getting better. And then I ran across a chord where it says to hold down a bunch of the strings at a time with one finger across them. Now it is not the finger tip but the whole &%(*# finger that has to get hardened up!

The chord is an F chord. It is the first chord in a song I found along sith “Detour” in a bunch of old sheet music. “Three Little Fishes”:

Some really neat kids doing it:

A stage act including it:

Itty Bitty Poo:

Determned to do it, however. But don't look for me on YouTube. And in time, I , too, can be Santana or Chet. But, time is the problem.

Thanks to the Encyclopedia Britannica thingy on my Yahoo home page, it came to be known that today is Tycho Brahe's birthday, 14 December, 1546. That would make him ............well, really old. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe)

The chain of events that led to the overthrow of the Ptolemaic, Earth centered universe, has always fascinated me. Kepler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler) and Brahe pretty much started the revolution. Continued by Copernicus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus) and Galileo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo), and others. And, now we know that not even Sol is the center.

And Brahe might very well be the most interesting of them all. A Danish nobleman ( my wife is half Danish so that gives him a good head start in my book), Brahe noted the great differences in astronomical measurements at the time. He constructed several observatories, 1500's, pretelescope, style, to try to get more accurate and precise values. He and his assitant, Kepler, noted that things did not seem as they should and that the only way to make them work out was to make the sun the center. Brahe was more the measurer and Kepler the geometrician.

As a student at the University of Copehagen, he got into an enebriated rapier fight (Brahe was enebriated, not the rapier) and got his nose pretty much cut off. “For the rest of his life, he was said to have worn a replacement made of silver and gold blended into a flesh tone, and used an adhesive balm to keep it attached.” (Wikipedia) Tycho for a period of time had a clairvoyant dwarf and a pet moose. But the poor moose drank too much beer and fell down the stairs and died. The dwarf just stayed under Brahe's table.

Tycho had a good relationship with King Frederick II but disagreed with the new King Christian IV and he and Kepler moved to Poland. He probably died of mercury poisoning. Since he was also a chemist (alchemist), he messed around with mercury salts. But also should have known better. Rumors that Kepler poisoned him (possible but doubtful) and took all his data and equipment (which he did). In physics classes in 2007, we learn Kepler's laws. Not Brahe's Laws.

They don't make Danes the way they used to.