Fun stuff everyone. Just to pull out a few things I miss salsa. At least that gives you both sides of the clave.
My playing experience has been classical and 'big band' jazz (by which I mean the size of the ensemble, rather than the swing bands that people think of) so my Latin experience is pretty minimal, but I did have a section in the post about the clave's evolution to reggaeton, but it is 1) hard to explain about rhythms and 2) I'd probably screw it up. This first article on this page might be of interest for folks wanting more https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y00/jun00/12e9.htm
Yonaguni, as a feminine coded island holding of Japan
I wasn't able to find any interviews with BB talking about the song and how it came about, so I imagine it was a mélange of reasons.
one could really capture an international audience and maintain a US presence all without ever having to make a single move to acknowledge the US mainstream.
I've recently been getting youtube videos titles [Indian journalist/Singaporean minister/Chinese author] destroys [Western journalist/politician/pundit]. and one of the lines that always seem to score points is the first person calmly pointing out that the West is about 15% of the world while Asia is about 60%.
This life brought to you by The Algorithm.
I wonder if there is a chicken-egg thing going on here. The trends mentioned by nous have been in popular music since the 50s, before the tech-bros had gotten their hands on the internet. I don't want to absolve them of their responsibility, but I don't want to give them too much credit for the idea, more of the shitty implementation.
I also think that these Weekend Music threads, because of my own interests, are going to lean into how so much music is blended and remixed. It's not new, classical music has a long tradition of taking folk melodies and rhythms and repackaging them, but I'm beginning to think that this is really foundational. So if that sounds boring, guest Musical weekend threads are solicited!
I've changed it to 5 links and 28 days. I was tempted to change it to either 23 or 29 because they are prime numbers, but opted for the 4 weeks.
I've also changed the default order for comments to oldest.
If you become a subscriber, you can choose your own picture as your avatar, I've taken the liberty of adding Hartmut as a subscriber so he can show off that fine bust, which I think is Sargon the Great of Akkad.
Speaking of Akkadian, I've just discovered some more settings for the comment plugin that seem to written in language... I would like to try and get the comment box at the bottom, but is seems that this is a nod to mobile users. Gemini tells me a way to change the php file, so I'll give that a go this weekend.
The limit is set at 3, but it is possible to change it. Boosting it up to 10 is possible, but the reason it is not just open is that it is an easy way to try and identify spam
1 vote for longer than 14 days, any idea how much longer? You don't want it open forever because then spammers drop comments in (and my anal retentive self gets really angry when I read something and go thru the comments and find one of thos f**king spam posts there)
About information 'in the wild', some people prefer not to sign up for things. I'm not going to distribute anyone else's info, and I try to be careful, but as soon as you are making it so your commenting history can be pulled up by you, something could happen to make them available more widely. I'm not positive how much information can be seen by others, and I'm not going to just open everything up for anyone to sign up, but if people don't want to subscribe (or don't know what it means and don't do it), I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to add features for subscribers.
With the commenting plugin, there is a system for up/down voting comments. I was planning on removing that, but it is like an appendix or tonsils, where you don't mess with it unless it is causing problems.
Hi all, just a quick bts note. Nous is right, editing a comment gets it put in the spam bucket. There was also a comment from bc there which I have pulled out and posted, it was blocked because it had 3 links.
I'm making a separate post to get opinions on some things on the blog so as not to disrupt this discussion. Thanks!
Here in Japan, we generally use boiling water, fortunately, there is usually a hot pot for green tea. I was looking at Gemini and it says that undiluted vinegar also get them.
Well, at the risk of scoffing at Godwin's law, Hitler and Stalin were buddy buddy until they weren't. Trump gets along with other authoritarians, but that's no guarantee they are always going to be bff.
And Michael has some more measured points as well, which I will put here for reference
Is there an alternative? No one else will lease us enough space for the air base we operate there. Parking a carrier in the Persian Gulf is at least impractical, and may not be able to fly everything we fly out of Qatar. Iran has already launched missiles at Qatar once because of our presence. That one was face-saving, but if you were Qatar, wouldn’t you want a “we’ve got your back” guarantee in the event of real attack? Even more pressing, perhaps, since Iran signed security agreements with Pakistan, who has nukes and ballistic delivery systems that can reach Qatar.
<i>What are your thoughts about the unilateral defense agreement with Qatar?</i>
I'm going to lift up Michael's comment to the front page, with some comments from me. I think it is a very interesting topic and one that might bring out a lot of discussion.
I have a few questions about blog format that you mentioned bc, so I hope I can ask you later about that, but I did want to point out one thing
I guess it depends on who you read. I do think there is some truth here (Trump being somewhat indifferent in the first term), but I think Biden was far worse than Trump.
I'm guessing that COVID spending could be debited 50/50 to Trump and Biden, but the article doesn't mentions the CHIPs act or the Infrastructure Investment act. Also, I had to look, but another program that significantly increased debt was the PACT act https://www.va.gov/resources/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits/
One has to wonder how all these things are going to fare after the DOGE CF.
So yes, all of these things increased the debt under Biden, but you can't wave your hand and have the underlying issues disappear. That heritage page is pretty disingenuous, imo.
I've gone ahead and pulled the comment out of spam. Right now, 3 links is the threshold, and yours had a bunch more than that, but if it has 3 or more, it should hold it in a moderation queue, though yours was classified as spam, possibly because it had 10+ links. This can be a problem with copy and paste from articles that have multiple embedded links because those will just transfer over.
Akismet uses aldorithms to figure out what is or is not spam, and will change those, especially after there is some sort of spam surge, but they don't say what the algorithms are and I think they are constantly shifting.
Also, there is the time difference. I'm in bed when a lot of discussion gets going, so it's going to be about 6 or 7 hours before I can do anything, if I notice. When Typepad did this, I had the spam folder open so I could free comments when they popped up, but yours is the first to have done that. Fortunately, I don't think we have the problem that we had with typepad where comments would get lost, so people would repost them. Generally, if you don't see something, it did get to the blog, so a quick note reminding me rather than multiple reposts is best.
With the Leslie article, it might be better as a front page post. I know that there is an expectation of adding some additional information, but that is a self imposed expectation that has arisen rather than something that has to be there. If you want to do that, send it to my email (libjpn@gmail) and I'll put it up.
Fun stuff all! The line about Wagner's music is credited to Mark Twain, but a quick gemini check says it was something that Twain quoted of Bill Nye (Not the Science Guy, Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye)
About the synch, I don't really notice is. I don't know if this video has the same synch issues, but it shows Solti in rehearsal and in concert.
Some may recognize the Overture to Tannhauser as the melody that Elmer and Bug sing a love song to each other as Siegfried and Brunhilde. Sadly, What's Opera, Doc is no longer on Youtube.
To summarize (so youse don't have to sit thru it), previously, Netanyahu had a number of pressure points on the US government, such as evangelical Christians and politicians who wanted to make a splash by opposing whatever the White House wanted, but those are much less effective with Trump in office, so the rise of Trump has actually reduced Netayahu's ability to mold events. Second, both Israel and Palestine were dealing with non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah, but now, the process is with places like UAE and the Saudis mediating, there is also a loss of leverage there.
however, I think that his metaphor of Trump's challenge in the middle east
he's trying to put together a Rubik's cube while people are still shooting at each other and at him in metaphorically speaking and the pieces themselves are sort of crumbling.
makes me realize that he's the moustache, and nothing will change that.
I put this as a comment so as not to distract. The post is wonkie's, but the image of a spade is what I found at Amazon.
I'm grateful for her guestpost and want to encourage others if they have something they want to say. I think I have demonstrated that posts don't need to be airtight. Just send them over the transom to libjpn@gmail.com.
Some might wonder what would happen if a submission came in that I and the powers behind the screen (Russell, janiem and wj) were vehemently opposed to. Well, we can burn that bridge when we come to it. So give it a try, what do you have to lose?
Big thumbs up for Josh Johnson. It is astonishing to me that he can craft a bit that is structured and crafted, but sounds like someone telling a story at a party off the cuff to a bunch of friends. Pretty amazing.
Another tweak, wpDiscuz only allows the comment box at the top, so I've set the order for Newest to appear first, so anything you are replying to should appear immediately below the comment form box.
I'm not sure about that, I'll never see them in a show, and from a lot of the articles, it looks like they have been slammed with fan mail. They may feel like they are being villianized (is that a word?) and canceled for 'just' telling jokes and trying to make a living, but I think they are fooling themselves pretty profoundly and a letter from a person who occasionally watches a joke they do on Youtube is not really going to have the traction that is needed.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny”
Fun stuff everyone. Just to pull out a few things
I miss salsa. At least that gives you both sides of the clave.
My playing experience has been classical and 'big band' jazz (by which I mean the size of the ensemble, rather than the swing bands that people think of) so my Latin experience is pretty minimal, but I did have a section in the post about the clave's evolution to reggaeton, but it is 1) hard to explain about rhythms and 2) I'd probably screw it up. This first article on this page might be of interest for folks wanting more
https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y00/jun00/12e9.htm
Yonaguni, as a feminine coded island holding of Japan
I wasn't able to find any interviews with BB talking about the song and how it came about, so I imagine it was a mélange of reasons.
one could really capture an international audience and maintain a US presence all without ever having to make a single move to acknowledge the US mainstream.
I've recently been getting youtube videos titles [Indian journalist/Singaporean minister/Chinese author] destroys [Western journalist/politician/pundit]. and one of the lines that always seem to score points is the first person calmly pointing out that the West is about 15% of the world while Asia is about 60%.
This life brought to you by The Algorithm.
I wonder if there is a chicken-egg thing going on here. The trends mentioned by nous have been in popular music since the 50s, before the tech-bros had gotten their hands on the internet. I don't want to absolve them of their responsibility, but I don't want to give them too much credit for the idea, more of the shitty implementation.
I also think that these Weekend Music threads, because of my own interests, are going to lean into how so much music is blended and remixed. It's not new, classical music has a long tradition of taking folk melodies and rhythms and repackaging them, but I'm beginning to think that this is really foundational. So if that sounds boring, guest Musical weekend threads are solicited!
On “What’s up, doxx?”
GftNC
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/us/politics/trump-sandwich-assault-indictment-justice-department.html
To be fair, it was a Subway salami sandwich, which isn't really their best offering.
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
From Propublica, via LGM
13 links, so being an admin has it's perks.
On “Opinions on settings”
Tony P and GftNC, those are cookies from your browser. I'd be happy to make you both subscribers!
"
I've changed it to 5 links and 28 days. I was tempted to change it to either 23 or 29 because they are prime numbers, but opted for the 4 weeks.
I've also changed the default order for comments to oldest.
If you become a subscriber, you can choose your own picture as your avatar, I've taken the liberty of adding Hartmut as a subscriber so he can show off that fine bust, which I think is Sargon the Great of Akkad.
Speaking of Akkadian, I've just discovered some more settings for the comment plugin that seem to written in language... I would like to try and get the comment box at the bottom, but is seems that this is a nod to mobile users. Gemini tells me a way to change the php file, so I'll give that a go this weekend.
"
Thanks GftNC, that's helpful.
About subscriber superpowers
I'm trying to take out the up/down vote, but it's built in the plugin, so requires some buk lernin on my part.
"
The limit is set at 3, but it is possible to change it. Boosting it up to 10 is possible, but the reason it is not just open is that it is an easy way to try and identify spam
1 vote for longer than 14 days, any idea how much longer? You don't want it open forever because then spammers drop comments in (and my anal retentive self gets really angry when I read something and go thru the comments and find one of thos f**king spam posts there)
About information 'in the wild', some people prefer not to sign up for things. I'm not going to distribute anyone else's info, and I try to be careful, but as soon as you are making it so your commenting history can be pulled up by you, something could happen to make them available more widely. I'm not positive how much information can be seen by others, and I'm not going to just open everything up for anyone to sign up, but if people don't want to subscribe (or don't know what it means and don't do it), I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to add features for subscribers.
With the commenting plugin, there is a system for up/down voting comments. I was planning on removing that, but it is like an appendix or tonsils, where you don't mess with it unless it is causing problems.
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
Hi all, just a quick bts note. Nous is right, editing a comment gets it put in the spam bucket. There was also a comment from bc there which I have pulled out and posted, it was blocked because it had 3 links.
I'm making a separate post to get opinions on some things on the blog so as not to disrupt this discussion. Thanks!
On “Bathtub Bug is Dead”
Here in Japan, we generally use boiling water, fortunately, there is usually a hot pot for green tea. I was looking at Gemini and it says that undiluted vinegar also get them.
"
How did you kill the centipedes? They are really tough buggers.
On “The Qatar that plays like butter”
Well, at the risk of scoffing at Godwin's law, Hitler and Stalin were buddy buddy until they weren't. Trump gets along with other authoritarians, but that's no guarantee they are always going to be bff.
"
And Michael has some more measured points as well, which I will put here for reference
Is there an alternative? No one else will lease us enough space for the air base we operate there. Parking a carrier in the Persian Gulf is at least impractical, and may not be able to fly everything we fly out of Qatar. Iran has already launched missiles at Qatar once because of our presence. That one was face-saving, but if you were Qatar, wouldn’t you want a “we’ve got your back” guarantee in the event of real attack? Even more pressing, perhaps, since Iran signed security agreements with Pakistan, who has nukes and ballistic delivery systems that can reach Qatar.
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
<i>What are your thoughts about the unilateral defense agreement with Qatar?</i>
I'm going to lift up Michael's comment to the front page, with some comments from me. I think it is a very interesting topic and one that might bring out a lot of discussion.
"
I have a few questions about blog format that you mentioned bc, so I hope I can ask you later about that, but I did want to point out one thing
I guess it depends on who you read. I do think there is some truth here (Trump being somewhat indifferent in the first term), but I think Biden was far worse than Trump.
I'm guessing that COVID spending could be debited 50/50 to Trump and Biden, but the article doesn't mentions the CHIPs act or the Infrastructure Investment act. Also, I had to look, but another program that significantly increased debt was the PACT act
https://www.va.gov/resources/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits/
One has to wonder how all these things are going to fare after the DOGE CF.
So yes, all of these things increased the debt under Biden, but you can't wave your hand and have the underlying issues disappear. That heritage page is pretty disingenuous, imo.
On “Brought to you by your latest captain of industry”
Speaking of Blair, this New Statesman podcast is eyeopening
https://youtu.be/QwCsQYUFuEE?si=Jjf_FCPYomnP5TQM
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
I've gone ahead and pulled the comment out of spam. Right now, 3 links is the threshold, and yours had a bunch more than that, but if it has 3 or more, it should hold it in a moderation queue, though yours was classified as spam, possibly because it had 10+ links. This can be a problem with copy and paste from articles that have multiple embedded links because those will just transfer over.
Akismet uses aldorithms to figure out what is or is not spam, and will change those, especially after there is some sort of spam surge, but they don't say what the algorithms are and I think they are constantly shifting.
Also, there is the time difference. I'm in bed when a lot of discussion gets going, so it's going to be about 6 or 7 hours before I can do anything, if I notice. When Typepad did this, I had the spam folder open so I could free comments when they popped up, but yours is the first to have done that. Fortunately, I don't think we have the problem that we had with typepad where comments would get lost, so people would repost them. Generally, if you don't see something, it did get to the blog, so a quick note reminding me rather than multiple reposts is best.
With the Leslie article, it might be better as a front page post. I know that there is an expectation of adding some additional information, but that is a self imposed expectation that has arisen rather than something that has to be there. If you want to do that, send it to my email (libjpn@gmail) and I'll put it up.
On “Weekend music thread #1”
Fun stuff all! The line about Wagner's music is credited to Mark Twain, but a quick gemini check says it was something that Twain quoted of Bill Nye (Not the Science Guy, Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye)
About the synch, I don't really notice is. I don't know if this video has the same synch issues, but it shows Solti in rehearsal and in concert.
https://youtu.be/2L85eTSWrmg?si=ZhwNpAPkM4weqDyu
Some may recognize the Overture to Tannhauser as the melody that Elmer and Bug sing a love song to each other as Siegfried and Brunhilde. Sadly, What's Opera, Doc is no longer on Youtube.
On “…..”
I've never been a fan of Friedman (aka "The Mustache of Understanding") but he has some good points in this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdPXAi8hMa4
To summarize (so youse don't have to sit thru it), previously, Netanyahu had a number of pressure points on the US government, such as evangelical Christians and politicians who wanted to make a splash by opposing whatever the White House wanted, but those are much less effective with Trump in office, so the rise of Trump has actually reduced Netayahu's ability to mold events. Second, both Israel and Palestine were dealing with non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah, but now, the process is with places like UAE and the Saudis mediating, there is also a loss of leverage there.
however, I think that his metaphor of Trump's challenge in the middle east
makes me realize that he's the moustache, and nothing will change that.
On “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk”
Trevor Noah's set on the Riyadh Comedy Festival
https://youtu.be/U9bfuM7YR2U?si=FIZNw7x5hjszSay2
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
I put this as a comment so as not to distract. The post is wonkie's, but the image of a spade is what I found at Amazon.
I'm grateful for her guestpost and want to encourage others if they have something they want to say. I think I have demonstrated that posts don't need to be airtight. Just send them over the transom to libjpn@gmail.com.
Some might wonder what would happen if a submission came in that I and the powers behind the screen (Russell, janiem and wj) were vehemently opposed to. Well, we can burn that bridge when we come to it. So give it a try, what do you have to lose?
On “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk”
Big thumbs up for Josh Johnson. It is astonishing to me that he can craft a bit that is structured and crafted, but sounds like someone telling a story at a party off the cuff to a bunch of friends. Pretty amazing.
His bit on Bad Bunny has some points that I want to use in a future post, but for now, just enjoy.
https://youtu.be/QU93N7saW_E?si=vJCj4XdfM9fEkjwM
"
Well, I can start watching this guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb0Vd-XnlkU
On “Excelsior 2.1”
Another tweak, wpDiscuz only allows the comment box at the top, so I've set the order for Newest to appear first, so anything you are replying to should appear immediately below the comment form box.
"
Tony P. and all, how about this?
On “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk”
I'm not sure about that, I'll never see them in a show, and from a lot of the articles, it looks like they have been slammed with fan mail. They may feel like they are being villianized (is that a word?) and canceled for 'just' telling jokes and trying to make a living, but I think they are fooling themselves pretty profoundly and a letter from a person who occasionally watches a joke they do on Youtube is not really going to have the traction that is needed.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.