There is a whole new world out there! Thanks to Charlie (http://isntlifestrange.blogstream.com/) showing me how to put videos into a blog entry, I have been wandering through the music on YouTube. Found a bunch of my favorites. Mario Lanza singing “Song of India” and Beverly Sills “Vilya”. My parents wanted me to listen to good music but I insisted on the bad stuff – Louis Armstrong (he played at our – USNA '58 - graduation dance) and Benny Goodman. Here is one that my Mom and Dad used to play on their record player. On those old 78's (http://crazy50andcounting.blogstream.com/):

And the hymn that Nana (my Grandmother Stine) used to play on our old pump organ while Mom and her siblings sang it:

Great stuff.

A great video. James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti! Whoda thunkit.

Thanks to Charlie, the Hawk, http://isntlifestrange.blogstream.com/ for the video and how to put it in the blog.

I have been reading a great book, “Einstein, his Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson. There are a bunch of quotes in it that I need to put into a text document to save.

One that keeps sticking in my mind: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Einstein was frequently accused of being an atheist. He most certainly was not that. He may have disagreed with organized religion but an unbeliever he was not. He was a tribal Jew but not a religious Jew.

There always seems to be comments that scientists are not believers in God. It would appear to me that it is completely otherwise. I would bet that if you lined up all the people in the world with scientists on one side, philosophers on the other, and the rest of world down at the end, and asked all of the atheists to raise their hands, most of the philosophers would be jumping up and down waving their hands in the air. The rest of the world would have a bunch. But the scientists would be mostly quiet with their belief.

The wonders of mankind, our earth, and of the universe thrilled Einstein. He searched to unlock the mysteries and the beauty and attributed them to God. Certainly have not searched to unlock any mysteries but I can relate to his being thrilled and to his “religion without science” comment. There are no better believers than those who ponder on how things work. Nor than those who question and find some thread of the answer.

The blindness of those who arrested Galileo and centuries later had to apologize. They were more interested in their organization and in promoting their own goals and welfare. And the blindness of those who deny evolution, one of God's and Mother Nature's most spectacular gifts. Once again, putting their own gain first.

See my entries of 10, 12, 16, 18, and 24 February, '07, 8 November, 19 August, 17 and 28 July, 2006. Obviously one of my favorite topics.

I started blogging last summer – 11 June, 2006. Started on http://sinannblog.blogspot.com/, http://sinannblog.blogstream.com/, and http://scdiv.spaces.live.com/. Sort of an experiment to see which blog was the easiest to use, the most fun, and found some like readers.

18 July, 2006, I added http://360.yahoo.com/sidaugherty. I found that Yahoo's home page and online radio station worked for me so I tried their blog site, also.

On 30 July, 2006, msn's Spaces changed their format and I had trouble putting my posts on it. Spaces did not go to Google's blog search, either. It did not generate any responses. I liked the world map on it but stopped making entries.

Some recommendations on a website said to try WordPress and on 15 April, 2007, I started http://sinann.wordpress.com/. They also said to try thumblogger but do not go there.

The best of the lot continues to be the blogger (blogspot) and blogstream. As time has gone by, a good list of blogs I like has grown, particularly on blogstream. There are some folks whose blogs I like and who come by mine now and then.

So, the step I have taken in my blogging experiment today is to post a note on the WordPress, Yahoo, and Spaces blogs that I will not be making posts there anymore. I compose on my OpenOffice word document and then cut-and-paste to the blogs so it is easy to post the same entry on a bunch of blogs. But, those that I discontinued were still a waste of time and space on someone's server.

Blogging is fun. Even if no one reads it. Having some readers certainly adds to it. Some friends out there somewhere.

After being away from my computer, visiting friends and children, it is high time to get back to my blog.

The middle of October, 2007, and already the negative political ads have started! It seems like only yesterday that I made a series of blog entries about the last elections. See 12 September, 2006 - 14 June, 2006 - 13 June, 2006. Have I really been blogging that long?

There are a bunch of very positive ads. Senator Rerras and his opponent, Dr. Northam, have the kind of ads I would not vote against, They do not tell me anything about their planks and the issues but do make me like them both. Especially Senator Rerras' because it emphasizes his family, a good property in a candidate. I have followed Senator Rerras and generally like what he has done. Hope the League of Women Voters will set up the site they had some years ago that outlines each candidate's stand. Also hope the ad campaign that has started out positive stays so.

There is a general ad campaign against Representative Thelma Drake. I have followed her record and get regular letters from her. There are a number of issues I do not agree with, most of them, but feel she has been straightforward, not a Republican party hack. She survived foul MoveOn.org ads before and they are after her again. I just might vote for her this time because of the ads against her. Any object of MoveOn.org ads sounds like my kind of candidate. Why is it that we need to vote against vicious politics instead of voting on the issues at hand? See http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases/campaignads-july-6-1999.html.

Several campaigns for Virginia Congress started right out with the attacks. It is too early to start keeping score but I want all of them to note that I vote against negative ads.