Posted on 09/18/2009 5:04:41 AM PDT by decimon
Galileo Galilei wasn't just an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and heresy suspect (not to mention father of modern observational astronomy, modern physics, science, and modern science, that last one he was named by both Hawking and Einstein). He was also a friend of the Medici, the political Italian dynasty whose patronage of scientists and artists led to the Renaissance.1
Arguably, Galileo's biggest contribution to astronomy was the development of a 30x telescope, through which he made many of his subsequent observations and discoveries (most notably the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and sunspots). He also argued in favor of the Copernican theory (a sun-centered universe versus the earth-centered universe).
Luckily, I happen to live in the town selected as the world-exclusive host for the Galileo, Medici and the Age of Astronomy exhibit, presented by Officine Panerai, and as I am a thoughtful Scientific Blogger, naturally I visited the exhibit in order to bring the wonder that is Galileo to you.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificblogging.com ...
Some of the pictures are quite large (high bandwidth) despite their apparent small size. Please check the file size before posting them to the thread.
Angles, dangles and purty pictures ping.
BTW, this book is a rollicking good time. Lorenzo the Magnificent was wounded, so the entire plot failed on its first day. Lorenzo, being the brilliant mind, carried out a political flanking maneuver that kept him alive, and he bided his time, until one by one his erstwhile enemies were removed, either by time or by others. The day of the attacks, the Florentine people were so enraged that they chased the troops sent in to carry out the coup, and basically just lynched or beat to death the various church officials and so forth who had put together the plot. One of the conspirators was killed, buried, dug up, strung up dead, body was mutilated for a couple of days, then tossed into the Arno River. Oh, you know what? It's the following book that I read and is a rollicking good time:
April Blood:
Florence and the
Plot Against the Medici
by Lauro Martines
Kindle Edition
Hardcover (import)
Paperback
The Montefeltro Conspiracy:
A Renaissance Mystery Decoded
by Marcello Simonetta
Kindle Edition
Hardcover (Deckle Edge)
Paperback
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SITREP
My pleasure. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve seen part of that series, but it was from the library, and I couldn’t get them to play all the way through. It’s a problem with the blankity blank useless antitheft BS the Grand Rapids Public Library uses, along with the usual devil-may-care handling library patrons subject the disks to.
Fortune Is a River:
Leonardo Da Vinci and
Niccolo Machiavelli's
Magnificent Dream to
Change the Course of
Florentine History
by Roger D. Masters
Hardcover
Sounds great! Putting them on hold as I type. I too have problems with the DVD’s....had to break down and buy a disc repair machine to deal with all the unplayable library Dvds. ;)
I’ve seen one used disk place (out in Holland) that buffs ‘em with a jeweler’s wheel, and they do that as one buys them — they pull the disk, buff it, put it into the box (since the box is all that’s out on the floor).
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