I cannot read your article. I am too stunned by that epic facial hair.

I suspect a shoop. I can tell by the brush strokes.

As for the “funny language” of the wikipedia article, could a native English user please explain what it is that make it “funny”, so that I can improve my English. I’m not actually a Danish speaker myself, but a Swedish speaker (well, West Geatish actually, if you, as some people do, use the English term “Swedish” only for SveamÃ¥l, Norrländska and Finlandssvenska), but my language is almost identical to Danish (or my language is at least as similar to Danish as Scottish English is to Texan English, more then 1/4 of the “Swedish” speakers in Sweden, actually speak East Danish dialects (Geatish is not one of those dialects)) and I have always hard when I have to express my thoughts within the limitations of the English language. It is so much that just can’t be expressed in English (at least not without sounding very long-winded, or “funny”) and we speakers of Scandinavian languages are not trained to reduce our thoughts to the level of vagueness that English require (it isn’t even possible to be that vague in most Scandinavian dialects, as that in itself would express uncertainty of the speaker/writer). It might sound funny to native English speakers when we try to write/speak English, but to someone used to more expressive and precise languages, it as frustrating as trying to make a wristwatch out of twigs and dust, with no tools available, the obvious solution is to make a sundial instead, but we are used to something better and it is painful for us to limit ourself.

(*) Most Europeans immigrating to Northern US had never seen an elk(**), but had heard stories about them. When they saw large deer (wapitis), they thought they where the elks of the old tales.
(**) Although almost a pest in most of Europe today, European elks was almost extinct at that time period and still are extinct in the parts of Europe that has the most dense human population. They where saved by legal protection in Scandinavia and Russia during the 18th and 19th century.

Tycho Brahe has a silver nose,
He takes it with him everywhere that he goes.
Got no buttons on his evening clothes, but
Tycho Brahe has a silver nose.

They made it up in a plaster mold,
Down at the place where the noses are sold.
He coulda had platinum, he coulda had gold,
I wonder what happens when he catches a cold.

Tycho Brahe has a silver nose,
He takes it with him everywhere that he goes.
It makes no difference when he’s smelling a rose, but
Tycho Brahe has a silver nose.

Tycho Brahe has a drunken moose,
That moose is known for hittin’ the juice
He’s gonna wind up in the calaboose, ‘cos
Tycho Brahe has a drunken moose

Tycho Brahe has a silver nose,
He takes it with him everywhere that he goes.
So bright and shiny, you could say that it glows, yeah
Tycho Brahe has a silver nose.

I hope that he’s happy with the nose that he chose.
It works much better than a garden hose.
I guess in the end, it just goes to show:

God picks your face, but you pick your nose.

http://shardcore.org/shardpress/index.php/2007/09/15/tycho-brahe-2007

http://discovermagazine.com/photos/08-dead-people-science-wont-let-r-i-p/

In May 2007, while I was living in Copenhagen, I was lucky enough to visit the island (Ven in Swedish, Hven in Danish) where he had his observatories. It’s a very beautiful place, and we visited the Stjerneborg observatory (now a multimedia exhibition … and not a very good one, unfortunately) and the site of Uraniborg, which is mostly ornamental gardens:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daen/717121075/

Here’s a picture of a statue of the great man contemplating the heavens at Uraniborg:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daen/718009284/

Finally, here is a photo of an odd poster on the Hven ferry from Copenhagen, possibly relating to Tycho (it’s an advert for a catheter product):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daen/718223666/