M Is FOR MASHUP - RERUN - April 11th, 2018
the rillen rudi collection # 16 Arrives!
By DJ Useo
From Stuttgart comes a total master of bootleg mixing,
rillen rudi
( rillenrudi.blogspot.de/ )
. ( Intentional lower caps ) Over the course of 15 incredible albums, & over 160 singles, he's crafted tracks that hold vast appeal to a large audience. Now rr has dropped his amazing 16th edition,
"the rillen rudi collection # 16"
( rillenrudi.blogspot.de/2017/04/the-rillen-rudi-collection-16.html )
Featuring 10 superb mashups, this set will assuredly inspire you to obtain previous editions of his releases. There's lots of genre clash, wherein differing styles are combined in such a manner that there's often an elevation of content from the source tracks. rillen rudi always uses accessible music to begin his tracks. As proof, you will see tracks on this collection pairing artists like The Smiths vs Carly Rae Jepson, Bruce Hornsby vs Faith No More, Gwen Stefani vs Nirvana, & seven more.
You can
stream or download the individual tracks here
( hearthis.at/8qdjxkjg/set/the-rillen-rudi-collection-16/ )
or you can go whole hog, & grab
the complete zip file here
( rillenrudi.blogspot.de/2017/04/the-rillen-rudi-collection-16.html )
I know I always push mashups every week, but these are all creations well worth the listening. Hear for yourself why rillen rudi rules internationally by virtue of his DJ skills.
Another new mashup album coming next week. Hold onto your horses till then, if you can. ( Whoah, Nelly! )
Podcast of the week
"DJ Useo - April 2018 Rock Mashups Podcast" ( 1:16:09 ) A selection of rock mashups by the best.
Find it here
( hearthis.at/vxmfxz7w/01-dj-useo-april-2018-rock-mashups-podcast/ )
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Hope for a Green New Year (NY Times)
Democrats can't pass legislation yet, but they can get ready for 2021.
Greg Sargent: Democrats must wage war against Trump's lies. Here's what they can do. (Washington Post)
Well-staged, effectively presented truths can also go viral. Democrats should do all they can to make that happen wherever possible and get into the fight against Trump's war on facts and empiricism wherever they can.
Andrew Tobias: All I Know
Another testified behind closed doors to the Senate Intelligence Committee and told me - based on years' involvement in all this - that the Intelligence Community has the goods on both Trump and Pence, and will somehow make a deal where Trump resigns . . . Pence is briefly president naming some moderate as his VP (Romney?) … then Pence goes and (Romney?) names a Democrat as his VP (Biden?) … and the world sees stable, experienced, honorable grown-ups back in charge. Utterly fantastical (or is it? …
Amanda Sakuma: Trump orders federal pay freeze for 2019 (Vox)
It comes at the worst time: in the middle of a government shutdown.
Jonathan Chait: Trump Fears Greatest Economy in History Is on Brink of Collapse (NY Mag)
Obviously these wildly inconsistent views are perfectly consistent with Trump's position that every positive development in the world is due to him, and every bad thing is the fault of somebody else. If your economy is a couple tiny interest-rate bumps from making you the next Herbert Hoover, you may not have quite as much confidence as you are attempting to project.
Paul A. Cantor: Frankenstein at 200 (Weekly Standard)
Whether the Frankenstein monster can or cannot be killed is still debated among movie fans, raising the possibility that it will live forever. But one thing is certain: As of 2018, the creature has reached the ripe old age of 200 and shows no signs of going away soon. Mary Shelley's original novel was published on January 1, 1818.
Damian Carrington: Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth (The Guardian)
Biggest analysis to date reveals huge footprint of livestock - it provides just 18% of calories but takes up 83% of farmland.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce's Blog #1
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David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
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David Bruce has over 100 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
responded:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• "Father John," aka Chaplain Rev. Father John De Valles died a hero of World War I. He worked hard in No Man's Land, bringing back many wounded soldiers so that medics could take care of them. Once, after Father John had carried a wounded soldier out of No Man's Land, someone said, "That is a good joke on you. He is a Protestant." Father John replied, "There is no distinction of creed or race; we are all Americans here." (Other Chaplains felt the same way, and they respected the religion of all. During World War I, one Chaplain, a Jewish Rabbi, held a cross before a dying Christian soldier's eyes in No Man's Land.) Father John was free in giving away his possessions to soldiers; in fact, he was so free that soldiers sometimes took what they wanted when he was not around. After a soldier took his last pair of underwear, Father John smiled, then said ruefully, "That was rubbing it in." As you would expect, Father John won many medals and awards; they included the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre, with gilt star. Major-General Clarence R. Edwards said about Father John, "He was the bravest man I ever knew."
• On September 1, 1983, during the Cold War, the USSR shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, killing all onboard, including US Congressman Lawrence Patton McDonald, from Georgia's 7thdistrict. This led to heightened tension between the USSR and the United States. Shortly afterward, on September 26, Soviet army software engineer Stanislav Petrov was working at a surveillance center near Moscow. He remembers, "Suddenly the screen in front of me turned bright red. An alarm went off. It was piercing, loud enough to raise a dead man from his grave." What did the excitement mean? Mr. Petrov says, "The computer showed that the Americans had launched a nuclear strike against us." This first alarm was followed by a second alarm and then by a third alarm. He remembers that "for 15 seconds, we were in a state of shock. We needed to understand, what's next?" It was up to Mr. Petrov to make a decision: Was the United States really launching a nuclear attack against the Soviet Union, or was this a computer malfunction? He decided that it was a computer malfunction because the computer was saying that only five missiles had been launched against the USSR. He thought, When people start a war, they don't start it with only five missiles. You can do little damage with just five missiles. If Mr. Petrov had not made the right decision on September 26, 1983, the Soviet Union could have launched nuclear missiles against the US, starting a nuclear war and perhaps ending the existence of civilization.
• Action star Chuck Norris is a favorite of many American soldiers. In 2006 and 2007 he went to the Middle East, and he says that he shook hands with nearly 40,000 soldiers. One soldier was up for reenlistment, and he said that wanted Chuck to be there when he re-upped. Chuck was willing, and he also was willing when the soldier asked him to twist his arm as he signed the reenlistment papers so it looked as if Chuck-a tough guy-was forcing him to sign. Many of the Chuck Norris Facts going around the Internet refer to Chuck's image as a tough guy. For example: "Why were no weapons of mass destruction found in the Middle East? Because Chuck Norris lives in Texas." By the way, in real life the front door of Chuck's home displays a picture of a gun and these words: "We don't dial 9-1-1 here." Also by the way, when Chuck showed up at American bases in the Middle East some soldiers held up a sign that said this: "Chuck Norris is here! We can go home now!" Chuck says, "I wish that were true."
• Funny and tragic and stupid incidents occurred during the Korean War. Captain Evelyn Decker, a U.S. Army nurse during the Korean War, remembers a funny incident involving one of two gay corpsmen she worked with who "were the best corpsmen we had." One of the corpsmen wanted to leave Korea and go back home, so he wrote the Pentagon to announce that he was gay. Captain Decker says, "The reply he received said he was doing such a great job that he had to stay." Tragically, Army nurses work on injured and dying soldiers. Captain Decker remembers that many of the newly injured soldiers who came into the medical facility where she worked were concerned about the condition of what they called their "family jewels." She remembers, "Not all were lucky enough to have their 'jewels' intact." Back in that racist time, some people, unfortunately, were stupid. Captain Decker remembers, "As some of the soldiers lay dying, they refused to let a black nurse [Captain Decker is African-American] care for them. They'd rather die than be treated by a black nurse-and some of them did."
• Chips, a German shepherd/collie/huskie mix in the Army K-9 Corps, won both the Silver Star and the Purple Heart while fighting in Sicily, Italy, for General George Patton during World War II. Chips and the soldiers were pinned down on the beach when suddenly Chips ran toward and attacked the enemy soldiers in an Italian bunker. Enemy soldiers ran screaming out of the bunker, and the Allied soldiers saw Chips grabbing one enemy soldier by the throat. The remaining enemy soldiers surrendered. No problems occurred when Chips received the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, but when Chips met Supreme Allied Commander Dwight David Eisenhower, Chips bit his hand.
• Controversial film director John Waters got out of being drafted during the Vietnam War by checking a number of boxes (including "gay") on a form and by weighing 129 pounds at a time when the minimum weight for a draftee was 130 pounds. He was classified 1Y, along with singer Iggy Pop, who had a very heavy illegal drug habit. When the Gulf War broke out, Iggy asked John, "Do you think they'll call us?" John answered that they would be called only after all the hairdressers had been called.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Dueling Michele Obama's - on both Colbert & Fallon.
New Year's Resolution
Jane Curtin
Actress and comedian Jane Curtin said on CNN that her resolution for the new year is to "make sure the Republican Party dies," and people on Twitter had a lot to say about it.
During the cable network's live New Year's Eve broadcast, celebrities shared their 2019 resolutions. Terrence Howard said he hoped to "break down the entire economic global infrastructure" while Lena Dunham said she'd like "to kiss more gay men on the lips consensually."
Curtin, in a now-viral clip, quipped about her desire for the demise of the GOP.
Naturally, the clip popped up all over Twitter with people from both sides of the aisle offering their opinions on the words of the "Saturday Night Live" alum.
Jane Curtin
US, Israel Exit UN Cultural Agency
UNESCO
The United States and Israel officially quit the U.N.'s educational, scientific and cultural agency at the stroke of midnight, the culmination of a process triggered more than a year ago amid concerns that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias.
The withdrawal is mainly procedural yet serves a new blow to UNESCO, co-founded by the U.S. after World War II to foster peace.
The Trump administration filed its notice to withdraw in October 2017 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed suit.
The withdrawals will not greatly impact UNESCO financially, since it has been dealing with a funding slash ever since 2011, when both Israel and the U.S. stopped paying dues after Palestine was voted in as a member state. Since then officials estimate that the U.S. - which accounted for around 22 percent of the total budget - has accrued $600 million in unpaid dues, which was one of the reasons for President Donald Trump's (R-Yeti Pubes) decision to withdraw. Israel owes an estimated $10 million.
Officials say that many of the reasons the U.S. cited for withdrawal do not apply anymore, noting that since then, all 12 texts on the Middle East passed at UNESCO have been consensual among Israel and Arab member states.
UNESCO
Surprise Concert
Madonna
Madonna hasn't been on tour in three years, since her Rebel Heart album, but she returned to the stage last night on New Year's Eve. Well, technically, it was already 2019 when she gave a surprise performance at New York City's historic Stonewall Inn, an institution for which she was recently announced as the ambassador in celebration of its 50th anniversary.
The pop icon, who was in town visiting from her new home of Portugal, treated the crowd to two songs: "Like a Prayer" and a cover of Elvis Presley's 1961 song "Can't Help Falling in Love," with help from her 13-year-old son David Banda, as Page Six notes. Banda also backed his mom on the guitar, in between Madonna's impromptu speeches.
The concert wasn't just notable because it shocked the audience, it was also her most intimate one ever, as she explained. "I just wanna say I've never performed on a stage this small!," she reportedly said, adding "I stand here proudly at the place where pride began, the legendary Stonewall Inn, on the birth of a new year. We come together tonight to celebrate 50 years of revolution."
Madonna also talked about how excited she was to be back in the city, instead of having "no life" as a soccer mom in Portugal. "If you can't imagine how happy I am to return home to New York City, where dreams are born and forged out of fire and brought to life, where I am proud to say that my journey as an artist began, and my commitment to equality for all people took root," she said, before launching into a political message. "If we truly took the time to get to know one another we would find that we all bleed the same color and we all need to love and be loved. Let's remember who and what we are fighting for - ourselves, for each other, but truly and most importantly, what are we fighting for? Let's take a minute to reflect on how we can bring more love and peace into 2019, let's look at how we can bring random acts of kindness. Maybe we can find an opening to bring the light in. Are you ready to do that?"
Madonna
Pulls 'Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj' Episode
Netflix
Netflix has removed an episode of "Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj" from its service in Saudi Arabia after the country's government flagged the episode for being in violation of its anti-cyber crime law.
Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) flagged the episode, titled "Saudi Arabia," which it said was in violation of the country's anti-cybercrime law.
In the episode, which was the second one of the series and aired shortly after the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Minhaj was critical of the Saudi government, in particular, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
"Now would be a good time to reassess our relationship with Saudi Arabia. And I mean that as a Muslim and as an American," Minhaj said in the episode.
"MBS asked, 'Why the outrage?' and frankly, MBS' confusion is completely understandable. He has been getting away with autocratic s- like [Khashoggi's killing] for years with almost no blowback from the international community," he added.
Netflix
There's A Term
"Cute Aggression"
You know that feeling you experience when you're confronted with so much cuteness (say, in the form of puppies or babies) that you just want to aggressively squeeze the source of said cuteness overload? Well, there's actually a scientific term for that very feeling, so you can blame science for your aggression.
Katherine Stavropoulos, a psychologist in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, published a study about "cute aggression" this month in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, explaining the neurological mechanisms behind that feeling. In an interview with NPR, she said, "When people feel this way, it's with no desire to cause harm."
The feeling is quite the contrary, as those sentiments of "I just want to crush it!" or "I just want to squeeze it!" stem simply from feeling overwhelmed by such positive emotions. Aw. That's so cute. Don't you just want to squeeze the sentiment to death?
Since Stavropoulos was curious about what cute aggression (a concept first explored by researchers at Yale University in 2014) looked like in the brain, she and a colleague examined the brain activity of 54 young adults. Participants looked at a series of images (all altered to look either super cute or not so cute), and were found to exhibit greater brain activity when viewing the cuter images. In terms of just what qualified as adorable, Stavropoulos chose images that displayed "big cheeks, big eyes, small noses-all these features we associate with cuteness." So, picture the 1942 Disney animated film Bambi.
"Cute Aggression"
Five Times the Size of New York City
Experimental Antenna
China has completed the construction of an experimental radio antenna that is five times the size of New York City. The antenna, which was built in a secret location, emits low-frequency waves that can be used to communicate with submarines, which would allow the navy to move around at greater depths without needing to resurface.
According to a report in the South China Morning Post, the Wireless Electromagnetic Method (WEM) project involves extremely low frequency-or ELF-waves, a technology the Chinese navy has been heavily investing in. The project took 13 years to complete, with the antenna located in a facility spanning 1,400 square miles. The exact location is not known, but it is thought to be somewhere in central China.
The WEM antenna allows researchers to emit ELF signals at a frequency between 0.1 to 300 hertz. The main surface sees two high-voltage power supply lines that form a cross shape. At the end of each line, copper wire is forced into the ground. Two power stations then generate strong currents that electrify the ground to produce the signals. As well as passing through the atmosphere, ELF signals can travel through Earth's crust to a distance of around 2,200 miles.
The report follows news that Russia and China have carried out an experiment to modify the atmosphere. In a study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Physics, researchers said they had performed the first series of experiments emitting high-frequency radio waves to disturb the ionosphere.
There is huge military interest in being able to control the ionosphere as doing so would allow nations to disrupt the communication capabilities of enemy satellites. Concluding, the scientists said their results provide "additional confidence" that more experiments will be carried out in the future to refine the technology.
Experimental Antenna
Was 'Oldest Person' A Fraud?
Jeanne Calment
Jeanne Calment, who holds the record as the world's oldest person, actually was not that old - and she wasn't even Jeanne Calment, alleges a researcher who delved into the French woman's long-accepted claim.
The woman who was reportedly 122 years and 164 days old when she died in 1997 was actually Jeanne Calment's 99-year-old daughter, says Moscow mathematician Nicolai Zak, according to Agence France-Presse.
The alleged fraudulent claim was the result of the daughter's attempt to avoid paying inheritance taxes, says Zak, who, with along with gerontologist Valeri Novosselov, studied biographies, interviews, photos and official archives.
Zak believes that Jeanne Calment died in 1934 and her daughter, Yvonne, took her mother's identity to avoid paying taxes. The evidence he cited includes an identity card with physical attributes that did not match Jeanne Calment's.
Gerontologist Jean-Marie Robine, who participated in the validation of Calment's age for the Guinness Book of World Records, told the news agency he "never had any doubt about the authenticity of the documents." He said Zak's theory "seems to me defamatory."
Jeanne Calment
Stolen From Storage Unit
Comic Books
Police in Las Vegas are looking for the thieves who stole $100,000 worth of rare comic books.
Investigators say the two thieves sawed through a storage unit and stole 3,000 comic books and collectibles.
The owner, Daniel Ballard, says many of the comics had been part of his personal collection.
Some also belonged to a charity where volunteers dressed as superheroes to deliver comic books to children in hospitals.
"The crown jewel was the Amazing Spider-Man. I have, or had, the entire run, one to 700, volume one and two," Ballard said.
Comic Books
New Year's Eve
Tequila
Four men were arrested early Monday morning and accused of stealing more than $500,000 worth of Patron Tequila in Tampa, Florida.
Deputies say they found Vidal Estrada, Lemuel Escobar, Humberto Ramirez, and Alberto Obaya taking cases of Patron Tequila from a stolen semi-trailer after a driver found it was missing following a stop for dinner in Tampa, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
The men had allegedly already transferred 20 cases of the tequila to a box truck registered to them before deputies found them.
There were approximately 966 cases of the tequila with a retail value of $507,105, according to the sheriff's office.
All four men were charged with resisting an officer without violence, grand theft, and burglary of an unoccupied conveyance. Obaya, 46, was additionally charged with possession of a controlled substance.
Tequila
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