Queen guitarist to complete doctorate

The Associated Press

LONDON — Brian May is completing his doctorate in astrophysics, more than 30 years after he abandoned his studies to form the rock group Queen.

The 60-year-old guitarist and songwriter said he plans to submit his thesis, "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud," to supervisors at Imperial College London within the next two weeks.

May was an astrophysics student at Imperial College when Queen, which included Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, was formed in 1970. He dropped his doctorate as the glam rock band became successful.

Queen were one of Britain's biggest music groups in the 1970s, with hits including "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You."

After Mercury's death in 1991, May recorded several solo albums, including 1998's "Another World." But his interest in astronomy continued, and he co-wrote "Bang! The Complete History of the Universe," which was published last year.

He was due to finish carrying out astronomical observations at an observatory on the island of La Palma, in Spain's Canary Islands, on Tuesday, the observatory said.

May told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he had always wanted to complete his degree.

"It was unfinished business," he said. "I didn't want an honorary Ph.D. I wanted the real thing that I worked for."

I have to admit, this is pretty cool. Goes against the common belief about people in rock n' roll. Smart guy, all the memebers of Queen had Degrees or Dipolmas, some with Honours. Great achievement and although he will never see this post, my congrats go out to him.

I don't normally paste other's comments from other sites but I did find this LTE in the Daily Zero intersting, especially the last lines.

"Freedom is worth fighting for

How great it would be to live in a world free from strife and hatred — a world where peace would be assured. But we do not. So, we must be willing to stand against those who would destroy us. If we do not, we will sacrifice our children to tyranny and betray those who have fought and died for our freedom. If I were to turn my back on the struggle for freedom going on in Iraq and throughout the world, I would be dishonoring my own father, who risked his life fighting for his country in the Philippines, ultimately earning him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Likewise, I would be dishonoring my father-in-law, who was severely injured in combat in France and as a result had to spend the rest of his life disabled and in pain. And what about the 2,500 American GIs who willingly gave up their lives in a single battle in Normandy, and the multitude of other patriots who have fought and died to secure our freedom?

We are in a battle for survival, individually and as a citizen. The war on terror is not a bumper sticker slogan; it is real and as frightening as any war that we have ever fought. Life and honor are at stake. President Bush is not the problem; the attack on America by radical Islamic fundamentalists began long before Bush hatred united the left into a frenzy of character assassination.

I do believe what he says is true. What people either forget or like to ignore is that America was being attacked by radical fundamentalists long before the hated "Bushco" as some wag dubbed them, came along. Anyone who thinks otherwise seems to have their heads in the sand or is so blinded by hatred/dislike of the current President and Vice-President.

I am saddened again by Benroya pulling their bid for the old, and newer Olympia Brewery. It seems that there never seems to be a straight answer about why different interested parties pass over the brewery property.

The Schmidt family ran a very successful brewery business until consolidation in the brewing industry took its toll. The Schmidts tried to fight this by buying the ailing Theo. Hamm Brewing Company in 1975 and than merging with Lone Star Brewing in 1976. Unfotunately, Hamm's was too far gone, sales had slumped in a huge way and the fight with old Hamm distributors cost millions of dollars in legal fees that could have gone other places, like developing a new brew, or pushing advertising.

Pabst bought Olympia Brewing in 1983, and then was the target of Paul Kalmanovitz and his brewery wrecking empire in 1985. After this, it was all downhill and fast. Under Kalmanovitz and the new business model, advertising was slashed and only the minimum of brewery maintainance was done. This would haunt the brewery later on. Under the Pabst/Stroh/Miller deal in early 1999, it seemed that the Tumwater Brewery would be reborn. In an asset swap, Miller bought the brewery and the Hamm's label from Pabst, for the best it would seem. New spending happened at the brewery, new machinery was installed, more workers hired and the grounds improved.

About 4 short years later, Miller had turned into SABMiller and Tumwater was shut down. Numerous reasons made the rounds, the brewery was too small to fit into SABMiller's system, the fight with LOTT, Union unrest, and the years of neglect by Pabst of the brewery. Huge money needed to be spent to bring the brewery up to what SABMiller wanted and then it was still too small.