Happy To Be A Musician

Sounds Good

"Studio Musician". Oil on Canvas... Robert Schefman

In a study in the latest issue of European Journal of Neuroscience, an interdisciplinary Northwestern research team for the first time provides biological evidence that musical training enhances an individual's ability to recognize emotion in sound.

"Quickly and accurately identifying emotion in sound is a skill that translates across all arenas, whether in the predator-infested jungle or in the classroom, boardroom or bedroom," says Dana Strait, primary author of the study.

In essence, musicians more economically and more quickly focus their neural resources on the important -- in this case emotional -- aspect of sound. "That their brains respond more quickly and accurately than the brains of non-musicians is something we'd expect to translate into the perception of emotion in other settings," Strait says.

Roadwork

President Obama signed the release of money to the states for roads. This could result in the immediate employment of 400,000 people.

To keep the state governments from dragging their feet, they must begin using the money on road projects within 4 months, or they will lose it.

Another reason to get that money into the system quickly; To prevent more layoffs.
The tax credits in the stimulus package will help those who still have jobs.
There is even some money in there to help people like me, on social security.


Darwins piano playing wife
gets credit for theories.

Music inspired the theories of Darwin.

Charles Darwin was so captivated by his musician wife Emma's daily piano playing that her music influenced at least two key evolution theories formulated by the British naturalist, according to a new paper.

"The long-term marital dance of Emma and Charles Darwin was set to the routine beat of an almost daily piano recital," according to Julian Derry, who told Discovery News that "music was central to home life and a panacea after a hard day's work, or often when not feeling well."

Charles Darwin, music lover.

In "The Descent of Man," Darwin wrote, "I conclude that musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex."

Rewriting History
As It Happens

George Bush and puppeteer Karl Rove

George Who?
What 8 Years?
It's no accident that Rush Limbaugh is all over your TV screens, sweating and spewing anti-government slogans. This is a carefully orchestrated effort by Karl Rove, to draw attention away from the real cause of our current crisis; 8 years of republican rule. While keeping the illiterate, ignorant followers of Rush Limbaugh, focused on bringing down Obama, he is quietly sweeping the responsibility for the failed policies of the Bush years under the rug.

Granted, the economic stimulus wont do much for millionaires like Limbaugh, Rove, and Bush, but to attack it with so much hate and venom, is suspect.

Question; 95% of Americans will be helped by this economic recovery package, why are these guys making so much noise?

Answer; To keep people from remembering it was these greedy jerks that got us into this mess.

Dawn Get's Mars Close-up

Mars from 341 miles away. (photo credit-Dawn spacecraft)

The Dawn spacecraft did it's Mars flyby and is on it's way to explore Vesta and Ceres. It uses Ion propulsion, but saved even more fuel by being slung around Mars to achieve even greater velocity. At first this picture didn't seem to look all that great, but the longer I looked at it, the more detail seemed to appear, (Like the rim of the crater).

Electric Roadster

The Tesla Roadster

If you have the,"Green", you can buy an environmentally friendly, race car from Tesla. I am content to visit their website and pick out the color I want by just moving my cursor over the color choices. TRY IT , it's fun.

East Coast Snow

Picture of Eastern States after snowstorm.

This picture from space was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

The Weatherman Said Sunny

Sky from my balcony....3/4/09

It's "ARMY DAY".
..March 4th...
...wait for it...
..march forth, ha, ha, ha.

Thank You

Thank you for reading, "Phil's Place".

I made a little thank you video,
I hope appears here...

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Strange Magic -ELO

Tranquility