GOP's Demise

SURE, I'M A REPUBLICAN--A PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICAN LIKE LINCOLN, TEDDY ROOSEVELT AND EISENHOWER...

I used to be a Republican.  I'm now an independent, voting (lately) more often Democratic.  The Republican party has changed.  The progressive Republican party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower is, alas, long gone.  It has only gotten worse, though, lately--it has now become the party of populism, ignorance, fascism, bigotry, with both Ayn Rand style atheism and religious extremism, and pandering to powerful lobbying interests such as the gun lobby, wall street, the super-rich, and the military industrial lobby, which Eisenhower himself warned us about.

1.  I'm financially conservative.  In contrast, the Republican party no longer cares about deficits, and has a record of doing the opposite of what they say.  It supports subsidies to rich "welfare queens", i.e., weapons exporters, corporate farmers, ethanol, oil companies.  It supports continued tax cuts without spending cuts.  It pretends that tax increases are "evil".  It's a good thing Republicans don't try to operate a bank or credit card company.

2.  The U.S. has historically record low tax rates on the super rich, even discounting the ultra-low capital gains taxes.  Income inequality is the greatest among industrialized nations, comparable to France prior to the French revolution.  The Republican "solution" is to further reduce taxes on the rich, scale back environmental/pollution controls, and further subsidize the oil industry--as if more pollution equates to more economic opportunity.  I do not agree with this stance.

3.  I believe that waterboarding is torture.  The Khmer Rouge and the Spanish inquisitors would agree with me.  So, apparently, did the U.S.--in 1947, the U.S. charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian.  Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.  George Washington prohibited torture during the revolutionary war.  The advantage of waterboarding over other forms of torture is that is only leaves psychological scars--no burn marks or severed body parts that would serve as damning evidence.  We might wink at this but other countries take it seriously.  If we were a small, powerless country, we would be ostracized by the community of western civilized nations.  Even Josephus spoke at length about Herod the Great's use of torture and its ineffective and disastrous results.  History has repeated itself.  The United States is now an official member of torture-practicing nations. We share this distinction with such kindred spirits as North Korea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Burma.  The Republican administration supported waterboarding, calling it "enhanced interrogation".  I do not agree with this.

4.  I do not support the NRA in their efforts to legitimize any and all sorts of firearms, including full-autom­atic weapons, lubricant-­coated rounds that can penetrate Kevlar (The "cop-kille­r" bullets), and more.  The Republican party apparently does.  The gun lobby has come to expect the Republican party to toe their line.

5.  I'm a Christian conscientious objector who does not believe in killing people as part of a "nation-building initiative", or for wars whose justification is based on false pretenses--especially wars in which the rest of the world had not been threatened.  History tells us the middle east is the "graveyard of empires," and Afghanistan is no exception.  Republicans refuse to acknowledge their role in two disastrous and futile proxy wars in which 150,000 innocent civilians were killed and nearly $4 trillion was wasted.

6.  I no longer support capital punishment, after our own previous (Republican) governor put a stop to it upon finding that DNA evidence exonerated several people on death row in IL.  I believe the U.S. should join virtually all the other civilized countries in the world who have already banned capital punishment.

7.  I do not like abortion, but I do not think "anti-abortion" is the defining issue of today, as some Republicans do.  I believe it is a cynical, hypocritical sideshow to paper over a predilection for starting foreign wars costing many innocent lives and terrible bodily and emotional harm, for torture, for export of deadly weapons for profit, and for indifference to massive starvation and genocide in other countries that "coincidentally" do not have petroleum resources.  Not to mention indifference to physical and psychological abuse of unwanted children who often suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome, drug related abnormalities, and aids infection.

8.  I believe very strongly in separation of Church and state, as did our founding fathers--which our previous Republican president did not believe in, unfortunately.  As government starts giving government money to the Presbyterian, Lutheran and Catholic charities, it will also be obligated to give money to Muslim charities.  Government has no business funding religious organizations, nor should they inject religion into the war effort by employing "Christian" propaganda to encourage killing.

9.  I believe our healthcare system is in deep trouble.  We spend twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries and end up with inferior health care and worse health statistics.  Instead of working in a bi-partisan partnership with the democrats, the Republicans have united in an effort to gut any meaningful parts of "Obamacare", ensuring its failure.  Their political strategy is to label it socialized medicine and therefore part of a communist conspiracy, as if all the other developed countries in the world apparently have "communist" health care.  I do not agree with this destructive, irresponsible and cynical behavior on the part of the Republicans.  I am also concerned by their acceptance of outsized campaign contributions from drug companies, hospitals and health insurance companies.  Worst of all, the Republicans have absolutely no plan of their own, other than cutting Medicare, which they now say is off the table.  (Incidentally, guess which party created Medicare?)

10.  I believe the climate is changing, as do 97% of climatologists.  The other 3% get on TV and mock the 97%, basking in the media attention.  Some have correctly pointed out that global average temperatures have been rising rapidly for the last 30 years, but have since leveled out a bit.  However, the last 11 years are still the hottest on record.   Even if climate change has nothing to do with global warming, our profligate use of natural resources is hideous compared to other nations, and it also has had a huge effect on pollution of our planet.  And even if we care for none of those things, we SHOULD care that we are bankrupting our nation by buying oil "on credit."  The Republican party opposes alternative energy, opposes a gas tax hike, and consistently opposes fuel efficiency regulations.  Meanwhile, our transportation infrastructure is crumbling because we don't have the money to maintain it.  I do not believe this is responsible behavior from a political party.

IN CONCLUSION:  When the stock market was about to tank, euphoria was at its highest, and people predicted DOW 40,000.  Politics is similar in that way--Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were shocked and surprised (despite the "obvious" historical hindsight that we now have) when the French revolution started--they were insulated from reality.  They thought France was doing fine, except for poor people who were "lazy", and they even thought they could afford to help bankroll the American revolution--talk about naive and ironic (but fortunate for us)!  There are a lot of people insulated from reality today.  They do not believe America's moral standing among the rest of the world is important.  They believe they are safe from social turmoil, and do not notice disturbing trends happening right in front of their noses.  They've learned no historical lessons from the crusades.  They are shallow thinkers who listen to populists as they pander to our paranoia, greed, selfishness and self-delusion with paid-for politics.  They are suckers for the oldest trick in the political playbook--create an enemy to distract us from the real issues whenever their political support starts to get shaky.

The Democratic party seems to have taken up the mantle of reform while the Republican party seems out of ideas and is content to be reactive and cling to the status quo.  The Grand old Party isn't so grand anymore.

--Anonymous

Knowledge

Web Sites
Everything you should have learned in school but probably didn't!
http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.factmonster.com/

 Free online courses
 https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

https://www.coursera.org/   

What to do if stopped by the police (In North America)

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/what-to-do-when-you-get-pulled-over-by-the-police/

Learn Computer Basics
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/COMPUTERBASICS

How to search using a browser
https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

Everything you may not know that is happening in the world!

https://www.newsmax.com/links/

Wonderful photos of early 1940's across the nation followed by other Plog links

https://www.denverpost.com/2010/07/26/america-in-color-photos-1939-1943/

Museum Collections
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?searchField=All&showOnly=openAccess&sortBy=relevance&offset=0&pageSize=0
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner

Live cams:  Some of these have sound 

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/norge/nordland/lofoten/henningsvaer.html

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/zambia/eastern-province/mfuwe/african-animals.html

Some beautiful Desktop Themes
http://www.nextofwindows.com/new-official-windows-themes-for-both-windows-7-8-from-microsoft

Lost your favorites?  Start here:
http://www.100bestwebsites.org/

Lost your friend?

http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesearch/tp/peoplesearch.htm

Some free information: https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/

Best TED Talks
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMydMDi3rI

Fun stuff
flightradar24.com

Strange Unexplained Mysteries – Unexplained Mysteries, Aliens & Strange things

100,000 Stars

Ancient History Encyclopedia

Big Think
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R8ZS-EHJUc
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20140702-the-best-onboard-footage-ever
http://www.digicc.com/fido/
http://www.richstevens.com/weird.htm

Vim Hof

http://www.highexistence.com/the-wim-hof-method-revealed-how-to-consciously-control-your-immune-system/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaMjhwFE1Zw

Blind Post

Q: Why don't blind people skydive?
A: It scares the heck out of the dog.

Skydiving
A blind man was describing his favorite sport, parachuting. When asked how this was accomplished, he said that things were all done for him: "I am placed in the door with my seeing eye dog and told when to jump. My hand is placed on my release ring for me and out I go with the dog."

"But how do you know when you are going to land?" he was asked. "I have a very keen sense of smell, and I can smell the trees and grass when I am 300 feet from the ground" he answered.

"But how do you know when to lift your legs for the final arrival on the ground?" he was again asked. He quickly answered: "Oh, the dog's leash goes slack."


There are no dogs allowed here
A man goes to a bar with his dog. He goes up to the bar and asks for a drink. The bartender says "You can't bring that dog in here!" The guy, without missing a beat, says "This is my seeing-eye dog." "Oh man, " the bartender says, "I'm sorry, here, the first one's on me." The man takes his drink and goes to a table near the door.

Another guy walks in the bar with a Chihuahua. The first guys sees him, stops him and says "You can't bring that dog in here unless you tell him it's a seeing-eye dog." The second man graciously thanks the first man and continues to the bar. He asks for a drink. The bartender says "Hey, you can't bring that dog in here!"

The second man replies "This is my seeing-eye dog." The bartender says, "No, I don't think so. They do not have Chihuahua as seeing-eye dogs." The man pauses for a half-second and replies "What?!?! They gave me a Chihuahua?!?"


Are the pilots flying blind?
One day at a busy airport, the passengers on a commercial airliner are seated waiting for the pilot to show up so they can get under way.

The pilot and copilot finally appear in the rear of the plane and begin walking up to the cockpit through the center aisle. Both appear to be blind; the pilot is using a white cane, bumping into passengers right and left as he stumbles down the aisle. The copilot is using a guide dog. Both have their eyes covered with sunglasses.

At first, the passengers do not react thinking that it must be some sort of practical joke. After a few minutes though, the engines start revving, and the airplane begins moving down the runway.

The passengers look at each other with some uneasiness. They start whispering among themselves and look desperately to the stewardesses for reassurance.

Yet, the plane starts accelerating rapidly, and people begin panicking. Some passengers are praying, and as the plane gets closer and closer to the end of the runway, the voices are becoming more and more hysterical.

When the plane has less than twenty feet of runway left, there is a sudden change in the pitch of the shouts as everyone screams at once. At the very last moment, the plane lifts off and is airborne.

Up in the cockpit, the copilot breathes a sigh of relief and tells the pilot: "You know, one of these days the passengers aren't going to scream, and we aren't going to know when to take off!"

A blind man vists the state of Texas
There once was a blind man who decided to visit Texas. When he arrived on the plane, he felt the seats and said, "Wow, these seats are big!" The person next to him answered, "Everything is big in Texas."

When he finally arrived in Texas, he decided to visit a bar. Upon arriving in the bar, he ordered a beer and got a mug placed between his hands. He exclaimed, "Wow these mugs are big!" The bartender replied, "Everything is big in Texas."

After a couple of beers, the blind man asked the bartender where the bathroom was located. The bartender replied, "Second door to the right." The blind man headed for the bathroom, but accidentally tripped over and skipped the second door. Instead, he entered the third door, which lead to the swimming pool and fell into the pool by accident.

Scared to death, the blind man started shouting, "Don't flush, don't flush!"

There is a blind man here to see you
A nun in the convent walked into the bathroom where mother superior was taking a shower. "There is a blind man to see you," she says. "Well, if he is a blind man, than it does not matter if I'm in the shower. Send him in."

The blind man walks into the bathroom, and mother superior starts to tell him how much she appreciates him working at the convent for them. She goes on and on and 10 minutes later the man interrupts: "That's nice and all, ma'am, but you can put your clothes on now. Where do you want me to put these blinds?

Blonde Bar
A blind man and his guide dog enter a bar and find their way to a barstool. After ordering a drink, and sitting there for a while, the blind guy yells to the bartender,
   
      "Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke ?"
   
      The bar immediately becomes absolutely quiet. In a husky, deep voice, the woman next to him says,
   
      "Before you tell that joke, you should know something. The bartender is blonde, the bouncer is blonde, and I'm a 6' tall, 200 lb.blonde with a black belt in karate. What's more, the woman sitting next to me is blonde and she's a weight lifter. The lady to your right is a blonde, and she's a wrestler. Think about it seriously, Mister. You still wanna tell that joke?"
   
      The blind guy says, "Nah, not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."



Going Blind
Darryl and Harold were in a mental institution. The place had an unusual annual contest, picking two of the best patients and giving them two questions. If they got them correct, they were deemed cured and free to go.
   
      Darryl was called into the doctor's office first and asked if he understood that he'd be free if he answered the questions correctly. Darryl said "yes" and the doctor proceeded. "Darryl, what would happen if I poked out one of your eyes?"
   
      Darryl said, "I'd be half blind."
   
      "That's correct. What if I poked out both eyes?"
   
      "I'd be completely blind." The doctor stood up, shook Darryl's hand, and told him he was free to go.
   
      On Darryl's way out, as the doctor filled out the paperwork, Darryl mentioned the exam to Harold, who was seated in the waiting room. He told him what questions were going to be asked and gave him the answers.
   
      So Harold went into the doctor's office when he was called. The doctor went thru the formalities and then asked, "What would happen if I cut off one of your ears?"
   
      Remembering what Darryl had told him, he answered, "I'd be half blind."
   
      The doctor looked a little puzzled, but went on. "What if I cut off the other ear?"
   
      "I'd be completely blind," Harold answered.
   
      "Harold, can you explain how you'd be blind?"
   
      "My hat would fall down over my eyes."



How to Deal with Sighted Persons
People who use their eyes to receive information about the world are called sighted people or "people who are sighted." Sighted people enjoy rich, full lives working, playing, and raising families. They run businesses, hold public office, and even teach your children.
TRANSPORTING THE SIGHTED
People who are sighted may walk or ride public transportation, but most choose to travel by operating their own motor vehicles. They have gone through many hours of training, at great expense, to learn "the rules of the road" to further their independence. Once that road to freedom has been mastered, sighted people earn a "driver's license" which allows them to operate a private vehicle safely and independently.
THE TRAGEDY OF LIGHTING
Sighted people cannot function well in low lighting conditions and are generally completely helpless in total darkness. Their homes are usually very brightly lit at great expense, as are businesses which cater to the sighted.
BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION WITH THE SIGHTED
Sighted people are accustomed to viewing the world in visual terms. Thus, in many situations they will be unable to communicate orally and may resort to pointing or other gesturing. Calmly alert the sighted person to his or her surroundings by speaking slowly, in a normal tone of voice. There is no need to raise your voice when addressing a sighted person. Questions directed to sighted persons help them focus on verbal rather than visual and gestural communication.
HOW BEST TO ASSIST THE SIGHTED PERSON
At times, sighted people may need help finding things, especially when operating a motor vehicle. Your advance knowledge of routes and landmarks, particularly bumps in the road, turns, and traffic lights, will assist the "driver" in finding the way quickly and easily.
Your knowledge of building layouts can also assist the sighted person in navigating complex shopping malls and offices. Sighted people tend to be very proud and will not ask directly for assistance. Be gentle yet firm.
HOW DO SIGHTED PEOPLE READ?
Sighted people read through a system called "Print." Print is a series of images drawn in a two-dimensional visual plane. Because the person who is sighted relies exclusively on visual information while reading, his or her attention span tends to fade quickly when reading long texts. People who are sighted generally have a poorly developed sense of touch. Braille is completely foreign to the sighted person and he or she will take longer to learn the code and be severely limited by the dominance of his or her existing visual senses.
HOW DO SIGHTED PEOPLE USE COMPUTERS?
Computer information is presented to sighted people in a "Graphical User Interface" or GUI.
Sighted people often suffer from hand-eye coordination problems and poor memories. To compensate, people who are sighted often use a "mouse," a handy device that slides along the desktop to save hard-to-remember keystrokes. With one click on the "mouse" button, the sighted person can move around his or her computer screen quickly and easily. People who are sighted are not accustomed to synthetic speech and may have great difficulty understanding even the clearest synthesizer. Be patient and prepared to explain many times how your computer equipment works.
HOW CAN I HELP A SIGHTED PERSON?
People who are sighted do not want your charity. They want to live, work, and play alongside you. The best way to support sighted people in your community is to accept them for who they are. These citizens are vital, contributing members of society. Conduct outreach. Take a sighted person to lunch.


http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/1199/sighted.htm

Special Education

Throughout history,

People with physical and mental disabilities

have been abandoned at birth,

banished from society,

used as court jesters,

drowned and burned during the Inquisition,

gassed in Nazi Germany,

and still continue to be segregated, institutionalized,

tortured in the name of behavior management,

abused, raped, euthanized, and murdered.

Now, for the first time, people with disabilities are taking their rightful

place as fully contributing citizens.  The danger is that we will respond with

remediation and benevolence rather than equity and respect.  And so, we offer you

A Credo For Support

Do Not see my disability as the problem.

Recognize that my disability is an attribute.

Do Not try to fix me because I am not broken.

Support me.  I can make my contribution to the community in my way.

Do Not see me as your client.  I am your fellow citizen.

See me as your neighbour.  Remember, none of us can be self-sufficient.

Do Not try to modify my behavior.

Be still & listen.  What you define as inappropriate

may be my attempt to communicate with you in the only way I can.

Do Not try to change me, you have not right.

Help me learn what I want to know.

Do Not hide your uncertainty behind “professional” distance.

Be a person who listens, and does not take my 

struggle away from me by trying to make it all better.

Do Not use theories and strategies on me.

Be with me.  And when we struggle 

with each other, let that give rise to self-reflection.

Do Not try to control me.  I have a right to my power as a person.  What you call non-compliance or manipulation may

actually be the only way I can exert some control over my life.

Do not teach me to be obedient, submissive, and polite.

I need to feel entitled to say No if I am to protect myself.

Do Not be charitable towards me.

The last thing the world needs is another Jerry Lewis.

Be my ally against those who exploit me for their own gratification.

Do Not try to be my friend.  I deserve more than that.

Get to know me.  We may become friends.

Do Not help me, even if it does make you feel good.

Ask me if I need your help.  Let me show you how you can best assist me.

Do Not admire me.  A desire to live a full life does not warrant adoration.

Respect me, for respect presumes equity.

Do Not tell, correct, and lead.

Listen, Support, and Follow.

Do Not work on me.

Work with me.

Dedicated to the memory of Tracy Latimer

1995© Norman Kunc and Emma Van der Klift

Humor

AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES

1. If you are choking on an ice cube simply pour a cup of boiling water
down your throat. Presto! The blockage will instantly remove itself.

2. Avoid cutting yourself slicing vegetables by getting someone else to
hold them while you chop.

3. Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by using the shower.

4.  For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will
be afraid to cough.

7. You only need two tools in life - WD-40 and Duct Tape.  If it doesn’t
move and should, use the WD-40.  If it shouldn’t ' move and does, use the duct tape.

Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:  SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES.
NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.

Oil Additives

3 Additives Your Car Doesn't Need

By Tara Baukus Mello • Bankrate.com

If you are like most Americans, your car is older and perhaps starting to show its age, so it's natural to wonder if it doesn't need a little extra something to give it more oomph.

While it is important to take care of your car and follow the manufacturer's recommendations on maintenance, don't be tempted by snazzy advertisements or the dealership that your car needs additives.

Here are three common additives you might be enticed to buy and why you don't need them.

Gas additives

The claims are big -- improving performance, reducing your emissions and improving your gas mileage -- but the fact is, none of these additives are necessary if your car is properly maintained.

Those designed to reduce knocking may actually do so, but using them simply masks a problem. It doesn't fix it. Engine knocking is a sign that your car needs a repair, so make a trip to your mechanic to rectify the problem instead. Tests on additives designed to clean your fuel system have not been shown to make any significant difference in reducing corrosion or deposits and don't improve performance, while tests on additives that claim to improve gas mileage never have shown significant improvements, the Environmental Protection Agency says. The only gas additive that has proven useful is a stabilizer, but this should only be used in cars that aren't driven very often.

Extended-life radiator coolants

The proper mix of radiator coolant and water is essential to keeping your engine cool in both hot and cold temperatures as well as to prevent corrosion. Some coolants are promoted as extended life, and they use a different type of corrosion inhibitor.

While the claims are valid, automakers designate their cars for one type or the other, so don't assume extended life coolant is best for your car, and never mix the two types as that affects the corrosion inhibitors.

Check your owner's manual to see which type is recommended. You can confirm the proper fluid has been used by the color. Green or red is regular coolant and orange is extended life coolant. Follow the manufacturer's schedule for draining and replacing the coolant as well. More frequent coolant flushes are a waste of money.

Oil additives

With an older, high-mileage car, it's easy to believe the engine is getting tired and needs an additive to improve performance or reduce wear. But oil additives simply don't work and may actually harm your engine, according to numerous independent testing agencies.

In fact, the Federal Trade Commission has gone after several companies that sell these additives for false advertising. The dreaded engine sludge that causes an engine to run poorly or even seize is a rare occurrence and typically happens only when oil changes have been neglected or if the car has been driven a lot with an extremely low oil level.

For more information on those wonderful oil additives: http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~rblander/snake_oil.txt

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/auto/additives-car-doesnt-need.aspx?ec_id=m1078093

Aspects of Music

VARIOUS ASPECTS OF MUSIC:  Here are just a few interesting things I found about music:

  a)  I was amazed at how ignorant I was of the mathematics of beautiful music.  While I had had an engineering training, I was relatively clueless about the easy-to-understand (and familiar) mathematics behind what makes music "beautiful" and why.  For instance, what--mathematically--makes a chord sound pleasing?  One very important element is the degree and richness of shared harmonic frequencies associated with chords, note progressions and even timbre.  There is a mathematical elegance and beauty in this.  (Of course, this is still only part of the story, as there are other aspects such as rhythm, percussion, mode/scale, style, etc.)  If you are interested in this subject, see here0 and here1 and here2 and here3 and here4 and here5 and here6, etc.

   b)  The pentatonic and diatonic scale were used long before Pythagorus, but he sought to understand it (as  did later the father of Galileo) and introduced the "circle of 5ths" tuning.  Somehow, it seems appropriate that Pythagorus dabbled in this, he being the same man who formulated his famous Pythagorean theorem that's indirectly related to a sine wave formulation.  The sine wave is ubiquitous in nature--it is seen in geometry and in nearly every branch of physics.  Even string theory evokes the idea of an oscillating wave, or a vibrating string.  A special case of the hauntingly mysterious Euler formula  e^(ix) = cos(x)+ i sin(x) , when looking at the special case where x = pi, reduces to e^(i pi) +1 = 0 (also called the Euler identity) and thus unites the constants 0, 1, i, e and pi using one addition, one multiplication and one exponent.  This is not only an example of mathematical simplicity and beauty, but Euler's formula is actually a useful tool in trigonometry as well as waveform calculations.  Perhaps the complex acoustic waveform harmonics in music are fascinating and beautiful to us because they are reminiscent of the structure of nature itself, including the stuff we are made of.  (I wax philosophical here ;-)

    c)  The 5-note major and minor pentatonic scale is interesting, in that it's impossible to create a really bad sounding chord with these notes--perfect for wind chimes.  Rock music, jazz, blues as well as traditional music from around the world is often limited to the pentatonic scale.  Archaeological finds indicate that music based on both the pentatonic and the 7-note diatonic scales has been around since the beginning of civilization.  The 12-note chromatic scale represented a logical further step that made it easy to play in both the major and minor modes, as well as in different keys.

   d)  Speaking of ancient music, Suzanne Haik-Vantoura claims to have deciphered heretofore mysterious markings in the original old testament texts and claims they are musical notation.  Her work is still controversial, but interesting.  Some of the resulting music is rather good.

   e)  The bible (especially the Old Testament) is full of references to music and musical instruments.  David surely must have invented and played a variety of musical instruments.  (Amos 6:5, 1 Chr 23:5, Neh 12:36, 2 Chr 29:26-27, 2 Chr 7:6)

   f)  So why a 5-note pentatonic scale, 7-note diatonic scale and 12 note chromatic scale?  Why not a 10 note, or 27 note scale?  (Other scale sizes do exist in a few isolated parts of the world.)   Again, there are good mathematical arguments for preferring this choice, which appeal to our desire for a maximum number of nice-sounding chord possibilities while at the same time minimizing the number of bad-sounding (or dissonant) chord combinations.

   g)  The equal tempered chromatic scale is often presented as a "compromise" between pleasing sounding chords and key-hopping utility.  I am beginning to doubt this, though.  I believe there may be a mathematical argument supporting the equal tempered chromatic scale as "sounding the best", when we look at all the possible "good" chord harmonics, even discounting the need for key-hopping.  I might be wrong, and this subject is too involved to discuss here...

   h)  Music can help to relieve pain, relax the body, speed stroke recovery, boost immunity, improve memory performance, concentration and ability to learn, improve athletic performance, improve productivity, reduce negative emotions, improve one's mood, and reduce fatigue.  It is even used in such diverse endeavors as therapy for autistic children and stimulation of plant growth.

   i)  Music can evoke emotion, and can amplify emotions we are already feeling.  This is not overlooked by the advertising industry.  Here's a simulation of dynamic emotional and neural responses to some music.

   j)  Music, like language, seems particularly unique to humans and has been engaged in and innovated by humans since the beginning of civilization.

   k)  So can computers make music?  Well, sort of.  Not exactly Beethoven, though.

   l)  Do violins sound better with age?  There is a lack of good evidence for this.  It might be a myth.

   m)  Even music is capable of being politicized or "culturized."  Here's is an example that's admittedly a bit patronizing.  On the other hand, here's an example of an attempt to rationalize "bad" music.  Theoretically, we can all learn to like hip hop and acid rock, right?  Perhaps our brain adapts to prefer a particular type of music after long listening?  Or does it require and/or create a certain mindset before compatibility is achieved?

   n)  Accomplished musicians of many years experience have certain parts of their brain areas enlarged.  This sort of begs a more general question:  Do our thoughts, experiences and actions affect our physical brain just as much as our brain affects our thoughts and actions?  The old nature/nurture question...