Free Republic

Jimmy Page playing Rumble at the RRHOF last year. The actual title of the Youtube video is scrambled ("Jimmy Page Link Wray's Rumble Rock Hall 2023 Full Performance") so I cleaned it up some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxOh12Uhg08

Was indulging in some '90s nostalgia on YouTube and bumped into this video. The performer known as Vanilla Ice reacting to his iconic video and song Ice Ice Baby from back in the day. Posted about a month ago. What strikes me: 1) The song is a stone cold classic, totally infectious 2) Love those dance moves, so cool in a period kind of way 3) This represents the end of the era stretching back to the '60s when we still believed in racial reconciliation and thought we were going to have a good thing together. The modern Left is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NpOZMZr5iU

[snip] Home gardeners should pick tomatoes sooner than later. There is a common misconception among the public and home gardeners that vine-ripened tomatoes taste better. But picking tomatoes at color break does not hurt quality, reduces fruits’ exposure to damage and can extend their shelf-life, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert. Larry Stein, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension horticulturist, Uvalde, said tomatoes are fully mature when they begin to break color. Tomatoes ripen as they begin to produce ethylene gas, which promotes the process. “Breakers,” mature tomatoes starting to change colors, begin to turn a yellowish green and then...

[snip] In this episode, Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA delves into their hits, songwriting, avatars and discusses the emerging role of AI in music creation. [snip]

Throw out those bogus shopping tips about pepper size. Decades of deliberate planning created a less-hot jalapeño. It’s not just you: jalapeño peppers are less spicy and less predictable than ever before. As heat-seekers chase ever-fiercer varieties of pepper—Carolina reapers, scorpions, ghosts—the classic jalapeño is going in the opposite direction. And the long-term “de-spicification” of the jalapeño is a deliberate choice, not the product of a bad season of weather. This investigation began in my own kitchen. After months of buying heat-free jalapeños, I started texting chefs around Dallas to see if they were having the same experience. Many agreed....

Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm. Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling. But the news gets worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs. The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams. That rate was twice as high just three years ago. The mix of songs actually...

In this video, Rick Beato analyzes the song "Never Gonna Let You Go" by Sergio Mendez, pointing out the twists and turns of its super complicated chord progression. The song was released in 1983 and he's using it to illustrate the loss of complexity in modern pop songs, a theme he's been working for the past few months.

[snip] She was removed in a voice vote just about 15 minutes after the meeting started, the swift culmination of weeks of building tension within the House GOP. “We are unified behind a single mission of winning back the majority and it was clear from the way that the vote occurred that 99% of our members are focused on that, so it’s time to move on,” said Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. [snip]

SOMIS, Calif. — Thirty miles northwest of Los Angeles, the Lemon Hill grove — a square mile of rolling slopes covered with healthy young trees, laden with fragrant yellow fruit — evokes the Arcadian vistas of classic citrus crate labels. Everything looks familiar, but inside the lemons there’s a crucial difference: There are no seeds. [snip] Adam Cooper, senior vice president of marketing for the Wonderful Company, estimates that the company’s seedless lemons will command a 50% premium over seeded fruit, boosted by a “robust marketing plan” including prominent displays in stores. [snip] Rabe said that in a few years...

President Donald Trump said U.S. health officials should have a “good idea” whether an anti-malaria drug being tested as a treatment for COVID-19 is effective in fighting the coronavirus in “the next three days.” “Hydroxychloroquine is something that I have been pushing very hard,” Trump said Monday morning during an interview on Fox News. “I think we’re going to have a good idea over the next three days because it’s been used now in New York at my request -- 1,100 people. It’s been used. I think that’s better than testing it in a laboratory. But the doctors tell me...

Officials are working out final details in plans to begin clinical trials next week for a malaria drug combination that appears to hold some promise for confronting the coronavirus pandemic. New York state Health Department officials are making arrangements to determine what patients at which hospitals will be allowed to participate in trials with hydroxychloroquine, Zithromax and chloroquine, a senior official at the department with knowledge of the plan told ABC News. The bulk of the patients are expected to be in the New York City metro area because the region has the biggest cluster of cases. [snip] New York...

Hottish link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFGs7HP15d4

I find this totally fascinating, though not completely unexpected. When a random sample of American adults were asked the question “Just a rough guess, what percent profit on each dollar of sales do you think the average company makes after taxes?” for the Reason-Rupe poll in May 2013, the average response was 36%! That response was very close to historical results from the polling organization ORC’s polls for a slightly different, but related question: What percent profit on each dollar of sales do you think the average manufacturer makes after taxes? Responses to that question in 9 different polls between...

Not all liberals are evil, but it is becoming increasingly clear that 21st-century liberalism is an evil ideology. It incites race hatred for political advantage. It tries to keep disadvantaged people down, so they will stay on the Democratic Party plantation. It lies about pretty much everything–for example, “police violence.” And liberals almost never debate public policy issues in time-honored fashion; rather, they try to destroy anyone who disagrees with them. The Covington Catholic media scandal has brought these issues into sharp focus. Liberals, mostly but not exclusively–i.e., the Associated Press–on Twitter, have lied about the trivial encounter between a...

Very poignant video ad produced by the Tennessee Department of Tourism. Apparently TN has installed special viewfinders at various scenic overlooks that enable the colorblind to see the view in color. The reactions as they see the fall leaves in color for the first time are really moving. Enjoy!

Roberto Micheletti Baín played a significant role in the political crisis that struck Honduras in 2009. He assumed the presidency of the country when the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the arrest of then-President Manuel Zelaya, who was subsequently expelled from the country by the armed forces. Six years on, Micheletti has retired from political life, and lives surrounded by nature and his family. Yet the specter of political turmoil has returned once more to the Central American nation. Late in April, a chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice revoked two key constitutional provisions that prohibited presidential reelection: paving...

UTSUNOMIYA, Japan — In the sofa-appointed listening room of a factory north of Tokyo, hi-fi fans can listen to vintage vinyl records on a sound system costing $45,000, including a sleek silver turntable. Musical choices include rock — the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” sounding warm and vivid through four-foot-tall speakers — jazz and classical. Not on the menu: hip-hop. Or disco. Or the thumping, floor-convulsing sounds of modern techno or house music, which helped make the record player at the center of this audiophile’s paradise famous. The turntable, the Technics SL-1200, may not enjoy the name recognition of, say, Fender electric...

ABBA, I Have a Dream, 1979