Experts create new image of Bach | Science | Reuters

Experts create new image of Bach | Science | Reuters:

"BERLIN (Reuters) - Experts have digitally rebuilt the face of 18th century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach -- and say the results may surprise his fans.

Using his bones and computer modeling, they have come up with an image of a thick-set man with closely-shorn white hair.

The new Bach face, the creation of Scottish forensic anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson, will go on display at the Bachhaus museum in the eastern German town of Eisenach, Bach's birthplace, next month. ..."

Johann Sebastian Bach's portraits show him in a wig, and that is how we "know" him. But these guys didn't live in their wigs. Put a powdered wig on this reconstruction to the right, and it would look plausible.

The image below is the iconic portrait painted in 1748 by Elias Gottlob Haussmann.


Click on the image for a larger version.

Alice Cooper: The shock rock pioneer speaks about his Christian faith - Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper: The shock rock pioneer speaks about his Christian faith - Alice Cooper:

"... 35 years since 'School's Out' and at school, Alice is very definitely in. Witnessing him on his current arena tour of the UK, he draws an audience which ranges from five to 65 and everyone to a man (or woman) admires his showmanship, his ability to hold an audience in the palm of his hand and take his entire audience on a journey from grim horror and death to victory and life. There are no altar calls at an Alice Cooper show. There is no church. But this is not someone trading on his past. Not a whiff of nostalgia. Alice Cooper is still very relevant to his audience today. He still rocks. Alice is cool. And your church elders are not going to understand how Christian faith and Alice's show fit together. And your Granddad still won't like it.

Alice has thought about this: 'As a Christian, I don't declare myself as a 'Christian rock star'. I'm a rock performer who's a Christian. ..."

Apparently Alice Cooper (born in 1948 as Vincent Damon Furnier) has been a Christian since the 1990s, but has not gone the "celebrity Christian" route. He is quoted as saying that he is not a theologian and simply wants to learn who God is and to love his neighbor.

I have to confess that I know little about Alice Cooper (other than his bizarre persona onstage), but having seen a number of celebrities publicly embrace Jesus, only to backslide in a spectacular way, it is refreshing to hear of a person who has embraced Christ, and quietly tried to live as a Christian.

The Associated Press: Leonardo Painting Has Coded 'Soundtrack'

The Associated Press: Leonardo Painting Has Coded 'Soundtrack':

"ROME (AP) — It's a new Da Vinci code, but this time it could be for real. An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Last Supper,' raising the possibility that the Renaissance genius might have left behind a somber composition to accompany the scene depicted in the 15th-century wall painting."

I heard a snippet of the music on the news this evening. It certainly is musical, and it stretches my credulity to think it could nothing more than a coincidence. With what we know of Leonardo da Vinci, he certainly could have done this with the full realization that few people would even suspect it was there.

There is another story on the Discovery Channel website along with a video clip that has some more fascinating aspects of this unusual story.

Finally, for those who are into art, what is billed as the highest resolution digital image available anywhere depicts The Last Supper by da Vinci, courtesy of Haltadefinizione in Italy

Queen guitarist wraps studies for doctorate - Yahoo! News

Queen guitarist wraps studies for doctorate - Yahoo! News:

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brian May, the lead guitarist from rock band Queen, is close to earning his doctorate in astrophysics -- more than 35 years after quitting his studies to become a rock star.

May arrived on the island of La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands several days ago to conduct astronomical observations in support of his thesis, according to a statement by the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands.

His thesis, 'Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,' is the last component of his PhD studies, and May expected to complete his work on Wednesday."

I first became acquainted with Brian May when Queen released A Night at the Opera, in which the song Bohemian Rhapsody appeared. As is so often the case, once you buy an album for a particular hit, you tend to find other cuts on the album that are just as good, and arguably better.

Brian May wrote '39 and it became one of my favorites of that era. It is not hard to see where a lot of his inspiration came from:

In the year of thirty-nine
Assembled here the volunteers
In the days when lands were few
Here the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn
The sweetest sight ever seen
And the night followed day
And the story tellers say
That the score brave souls inside
For many a lonely day
Sailed across the milky seas
Ne'er looked back never feared never cried

Don't you hear my call
Though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I'll take your hand
In the land that our grand-children knew

In the year of thirty-nine
Came a ship in from the blue
The volunteers came home that day
And they bring good news
Of a world so newly born
Though their hearts so heavily weigh
For the earth is old and grey
little darlin' we'll away
But my love this cannot be
Oh so many years have gone
Though i'm older but a year
Your mother's eyes from your eyes cry to me

Don't you hear my call
Though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I'll take your hand
In the land that our grand-children knew

Don't you hear my call
Though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
All your letters in the sand
Cannot heal me like your hand
For my life, still ahead, pity me.

An interesting career trajectory....