M Is FOR MASHUP - January 3rd, 2018
Do The Mashup!
By DJ Useo
The Institute Of Bootleggers generally releases a new mashup album four times a year. They don't choose an album theme, they just make a new discs' worth available. I get the lucky job of mastering the tracks, so they match each other level-wise. Some people use an app to master, but I like to do them each by "hand". The new collection is called "Do The Mashup", & you can obtain it from
mirror links here
( theinstituteofbootleggers.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-institute-of-bootleggers-presents.html )
Per the norm, this collection features the world's best home producers doing what they do best. No one asks us to adhere to any "style". We all just provide what we already do, the mixes that we think best please us & you. Shahar Varshal made "Part Time Rebel Eater" ( Hall & Oates vs Stevie Wonder vs Billy Idol vs Elton John ), while ToToM releases "Johnny Is Playing at My House" ( Johnny Hallyday vs LCD Soundsystem ), & satis5d provides "Rockabye Bells" ( AC/DC vs Clean Bandit ft Sean Paul and Anne-Marie ) .
To assist in motivating you towards further listening, DJ SeVe offers up the preview track " Blame Your Smalltown Boy" ( Bronski Beat vs Calvin Harris ft.John Newman ft.Ellie Goulding ), which can be
streamed here
( sowndhaus.audio/track/8313/i-blame-your-smalltown-boy-by-dj-seve )
The modern pop vocals over 80's club tunage is ideally suited for pleasing your ears. It's genre clash that works, I say.
I reckon this assortment will hold you until the next Institute Of Bootleggers appears sometime in late March. If you can't wait, there's plenty more
past IOB albums currently linked here
( theinstituteofbootleggers.blogspot.com/ )
Thanks for your kind attention, now proceed with the non-mashup fare!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Can the Economy Keep Calm and Carry On? (NY Times)
On election night 2016, I gave in temporarily to a temptation I warn others about: I let my political feelings distort my economic judgment. A very bad man had just won the Electoral College; and my first thought was that this would translate quickly into a bad economy. I quickly retracted the claim, and issued a mea culpa. (Being an old-fashioned guy, I try to admit and learn from my mistakes.)
Josh Marshall: Thoughts on 2018 (TPM)
The last couple years have had a way of making saps and chumps out of optimists. They've gotten shot down enough they don't even want to poke your head above the parapet. Optimism is an ethic and an attitude, not a belief. But surveying the ground in recent days I've seen hints of better things afoot for 2018.
Josh Marshall: In Search of the Black Confederate Unicorn (TPM)
Two South Carolina legislators who sponsored a bill to erect a monument to African-American Confederate Veterans were confronted over the weekend with new evidence that the men they wish to honor never existed.
Barbara Ehrenreich: "'Rise of the Robots' and 'Shadow Work'" (NY Times; from 2015)
His solution is blindingly obvious: As both conservatives and liberals have proposed over the years, we need to institute a guaranteed annual minimum income, which he suggests should be set at $10,000 a year. This is probably not enough, and of course no amount of money can compensate for the loss of meaningful engagement. But as a first step toward a solution, Ford's may be the best that the feeble human mind can come up with at the moment.
Daniel Krupa: Spielberg's Ready Player One - in 2045, virtual reality is everyone's savior (The Guardian)
At last, a film that dares to show the positive side of living in virtual reality. Steven Spielberg's future shocker, about people using VR to escape hell on Earth, is everything The Matrix wasn't.
Patricia Kozicka: "Andrea Werhun: 'It's a really good time to talk about sex work'" (The Guardian)
Modern Whore, the young Canadian's memoir, is a candid account of her time as an escort. She explains how she 'created something that's never been made before.'
Tony White: Top 10 experimental thrillers (The Guardian)
In these risk-taking novels, by writers from Paul Auster to William Burroughs, watching the formal adventures can be as thrilling as the detective work.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Suggestion
Borowitz
So many times Borowitz's satire is more truthful than funny:
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
EARTH TO TRUMP!
REPUBLICAN GASBAGS.
TRUMP SAVES US FROM THE FLYING MONKEYS!
TRUMP GETS A BONER.
THE PEE PEE TAPE!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The skunk is back, and fragrant as ever.
Hit With $1.6 Billion Copyright Lawsuit
Spotify
As the new year begins, the music industry could be set for an epochal moment. Hopes are running high for the first significant reform of music licensing rules in decades. The coming year may also see Spotify go public. But before any of this happens, the Stockholm, Sweden-based streaming giant must now contend with a massive new copyright lawsuit from Wixen Music Publishing, which administers song compositions by Tom Petty, Zach De La Rocha and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo, David Cassidy, Neil Young, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Stevie Nicks and many others.
On Friday, Wixen Music Publishing filed a lawsuit in California federal court that alleges that Spotify is using Petty's "Free Fallin'," the Doors' "Light My Fire" and tens of thousands of other songs without a license and compensation. The plaintiff is seeking a damages award worth at least $1.6 billion plus injunctive relief.
Wixen's lawsuit is being revealed here for the first time, but the move will come as hardly a surprise to those who have been paying attention to Spotify's growing copyright problem.
Last May, Spotify came to a proposed $43 million settlement to resolve a class action from songwriters led by David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick. The plaintiffs in that case had alleged that Spotify hasn't adequately paid mechanical licenses for song compositions.
In July, Spotify was hit with two more lawsuits, including one from Bob Gaudio, a songwriter and founding member of the group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Like Lowery and Ferrick, the plaintiffs in these new cases asserted that Spotify hadn't fully complied with obligations under Section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act, which provides a compulsory license to make a mechanical reproduction of a musical composition, but only if a "notice of intention" is sent out and payments are made.
Spotify
Embarrassed
Murdoch Spawn
The youngest son of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate) has reportedly told people privately that he is embarrassed by some of the network's coverage of issues like climate change, a New York Times report says.
The report indicates that James Murdoch, who became Chief Executive Officer of 21st Century Fox in 2015, holds more progressive views than his father or older brother, Lachlan Murdoch, and that those views have created friction within the family to some degree. The details came from individuals who are friendly with the Murdochs, though they had asked to remain anonymous to maintain close contact with the family.
The overall report details a family dynasty in flux, as Rupert Murdoch - who has built his influential empire at least in part by foreseeing where the media landscape would go next - considers how his company can survive in an increasingly competitive market with blustering newcomers like Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook attempting to make a place for themselves in programming that traditional media companies have dominated.
James Murdoch was thrust into the national spotlight last year when he wrote an email criticising President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Failed) for his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a woman was killed after a white supremacist drove his car through a gathering of peaceful protesters.
Murdoch Spawn
Replacing Lauer
Hoda Kotb
Television host Hoda Kotb was named the new co-anchor of the NBC News "Today" show on Tuesday, replacing former co-host Matt Lauer several weeks after the longtime anchor was fired for inappropriate sexual behavior, according to a network statement.
Kotb will join Savannah Guthrie during the first two hours of the popular program, starting at 7 a.m. EST (noon GMT), and become the first pair of women to host the show along with weatherman Al Roker and Orange Room host Carson Daly. Kotb will continue co-hosting the 10 a.m. hour of "Today" with Kathie Lee Gifford.
"It's 2018 and we are kicking off the year right because Hoda is officially the co-anchor of Today," said Guthrie, 46, who announced the news during the program's opening moments.
Kotb, 53, quickly filled in as co-host when Lauer was fired on Nov. 28 after a female colleague complained to NBC officials about a pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior that began while they were on assignment at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia, according to the network.
Hoda Kotb
1954 Concept Car Up For Auction
Plymouth
There will be a lot of rare and classic cars going under the hammer at Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale auction that runs between January 13 and 21 in the US state of Arizona, but cars don't get any rarer than the 1954 Plymouth Belmont concept that could be yours if you were to win the bidding. That's because this is a one-of-a-kind concept that never went into production after its appearance at the 1954 New York Auto Show.
Motor show concepts are often futuristic and exciting, but until quite recently, most never went anywhere near a production line, even in a very watered-down form. In fact, many were not even completed to a point where they can even be driven under their own power. Today, a lot of concepts are close to being production-ready models, but even though this curvaceous 1954 roadster does drive, it was purely a one-off.
At one point in its life, after its appearance at the New York Auto Show, the car was owned by famed Chrysler designer, Virgil Exner. It drives because it has a 241 cubic-inch V-8 under the extravagantly elongated hood mated to a three speed automatic gearbox, although it's unlikely to go as fast as it looks as the engine only produces a very modest 157 horsepower.
To be fair, this probably isn't a car that needs to go fast as that would deprive onlookers of being able to properly take in the incredibly beautiful sweeping curves of the car's stunning bodywork. The flanks are so smooth and the lines are so clean that only the shut lines of the doors interrupt the look, and there isn't even a door handle to be seen to spoil the effect.
No estimate for how much the car is expected to sell for is being publicly quoted by Barrett-Jackson, but there is a reserve price, so this one isn't likely to go cheap.
Plymouth
Paris Climate Goals
World's Land
If the Earth's temperature rises by 2 degrees Celsius in the next 30-some years, more than 25 percent of the earth will dry up, according to a new climate study.
Projections of 27 global climate models determined that 24 to 32 percent of the world's total land surface would suffer from aridification with a 2 degree increase, according to a Nature Climate Change study published Monday.
But efforts to limit that temperature change to only 1.5 degrees would prevent the drying out of about two-thirds of the areas that are at risk, according to the report. Major population areas, including Southern Europe, Southern Africa, Central America, coastal Australia and Southeast Asia, would be spared from significantly drying out.
The Paris climate accord set out to keep the global temperature rise below the 2 degree mark this century, aiming to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. Yet the study predicts changes that would occur before 2070, and recommended that countries act even sooner than that to forestall increasing dryness.
President Donald-for-now Trump (R-Corrupt), who had advocated a resurrection of the coal industry, withdrew from the climate pact in June and his administration has tirelessly worked to dismantle numerous Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
World's Land
Secret Rounds Of Golf
White House Says
Donald Trump (R-Crooked) loves golf. He has spent at least 91 days of his presidency at golf courses and has been confirmed golfing at least 35 times. Presumably, he has golfed more times, but the White House is often tight-lipped at what in the world the president is doing at these golf courses.
On Christmas Day, Trump tweeted that he was taking the day off then getting "back to work" after the holiday.
But Trump then spent the next seven days at the golf course. Reporters confirmed that the president was golfing during at least some of this time.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-Deflector) defended Trump's time on the links when asked by Yahoo News reporter Hunter Walker what his biggest accomplishment there has been.
"I think it would certainly be developing deeper and better relationships with members of Congress in which those relationships have helped push forward the president's agenda - specifically when it comes to helping get the tax reform and tax cuts passed," Sanders said, adding, "He has played golf with a number of senators and used that time certainly to accomplish that."
White House Says
History Lesson
South Carolina
Two South Carolina lawmakers want to build a monument at the Statehouse to honor black Confederate veterans, but pension records show the state never recognized armed African-American soldiers during the Civil War.
The State newspaper reviewed pension records from 1923 that show three blacks claimed armed service in South Carolina units under the Confederacy. Two pensions were confirmed as cooks or servants, and none for armed service.
That didn't surprise historian Walter Edgar at all.
"In all my years of research, I can say I have seen no documentation of black South Carolina soldiers fighting for the Confederacy. In fact, when secession came, the state turned down free (blacks) who wanted to volunteer because they didn't want armed persons of color," said Edgar, who spent 32 years as director of the University of South Carolina's Institute for Southern Studies and is author of "South Carolina: A History."
Any African-American who served in a Confederate unit in South Carolina was either a slave or an unpaid laborer working against his will, Edgar said.
South Carolina
Biggest Supporters Turning
T-rump
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Pendejo) won nearly every county in Iowa in 2016, but the state has turned on him in a sweeping fashion, which has Democrats optimistic about 2018.
"If Trump were to run again, he'd be in deep trouble," Janet Petersen, the leader of Iowa's Senate Democrats, told The Washington Post. "A dog bites you the first time, it's not your fault. The second time it bites you, it's your own damn fault."
In December, as attention turned to Alabama and the result of the special election to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions's vacated Senate seat, Iowa had a special election of its own. The Democratic challenger was defeated there, but only by 9 points in an area so reliably red that Democrats didn't even run a candidate in 2010 or 2014.
The competitive race was sobering for some state Republican leaders. "I see that Senate race as a wake-up call," Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann told the Post. "They've picked good candidates, and there may have been a complacency factor on the part of Republicans."
Just 35 percent of Iowans surveyed in December said they approved of Trump, while 61 percent say they disapproved of his work performance, according to an end-of-year poll conducted by Des Moines-based Selzer & Company. The poor polling numbers weren't limited to Trump's base-it was also consistent for Republicans. If the 2018 election were held today, only 34 percent of voters said they would back a Republican for Congress.
T-rump
Age Revealed
Plant Photosynthesis
Ancient rocks from a remote Canada island contain the oldest algae ever discovered.
The samples, found on Canada's Baffin Island, also reveal roughly when plants had the components necessary for photosynthesis, a new study finds.
The finding reveals that Bangiomorpha pubescens, the oldest known algae on Earth, is more than 1 billion years old. Working backward, the researchers figured out that algae could likely harvest the sun's energy through photosynthesis about 1.25 billion years ago.
"I think it's pretty spectacular that this fossil is almost identical to red algae [one of the oldest groups of algae that still exists today], and we have shown that it is over 1 billion years old," said study lead researcher Timothy Gibson, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill University, in Canada.
When a plant photosynthesizes, it uses sunlight to fuel a reaction between water and carbon dioxide, producing carbohydrates and oxygen. Bacteria have been photosynthesizing since at least 2.5 billion years ago, but B. pubescens is the first known example of a eukaryote that could photosynthesize. (Eukaryotes are organisms, such as plants, some algae and animals, whose cells have a membrane surrounding the nucleus and other organelles that are inside them.)
Plant Photosynthesis
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
