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One significant death overlooked during this time of election. James Randi was probably the world's most well-known skeptic and debunker of the modern age. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03050-5

Are your friends in a gang? If they are, why don't they let you join their gang?

I think one of the appeals that it is still developing. They may not have the nutrients now, but they'll get there. Despite resistance, I think food technology and bio-engineering will win out over the Luddites. By 2030 I think we'll be in a designer food boom, which will include technology like food printing and the aforementioned cellular meat. In the long run, it works out better for green-minded people as well. Less animals used for agriculture, the less land needed. This can open things up for re-wilding of areas or maybe a new landrush of people who are tired of the burbs that don't want to walk out their door every morning and see their neighbor's house.

Are you part of a gang IRL?

What color man skirt would you prefer then or is it a design flaw you see? Care to provide examples of skirts you would wear?

Do you not like the skirt because you refuse to wear underwear?

Like this?

They go better with your Star Trek Cosplay?

This was the cutting edge phone in 2003 when ASMB went online:

Your 30s are better than your 20s. You're a bit wiser than you were a decade before and you still have the youthful body for about a decade more. Enjoy the mix of the two, because you probably still won't have money.

I was in my mid-20s when I joined shortly after ASMB went online in the early aughts.

Companies like Cargill and Tyson are beginning to invest in cultured meat companies. Cultured meat is developing at a fast rate. About a decade ago one burger made by the process cost $250K. The same burger now is less than $13. They're also at the point where it's almost no different than regular meat. You may hear a bunch of naysayers now, and western countries will probably be among the last to accept it, but once mass production is put in place, you'll find it surge in densely populated countries that have high demand for meat, like China. When you start hearing rumblings that Tyson or Cargill is about to roll something cultured out, I'd say it'd be a good time to look at buy some stock from them. It isn't going to be an overnight sensation, probably, but it will be one of those things that grows, grows and grows over time as it takes a chunk out of the always strong meat market.

I imagine it's a tough time for their kind of writing. The news is dominated by two subjects, the coronavirus and election, and almost everything that has been done with those two subjects has already been done. If there's one thing about Stone and Parker, they tend not to beat dead horses. Plus, South Park is at its best when it holds up a mirror at the viewer and makes them laugh at their own little bit of hypocrisy. I think that's also difficult to pull off in this environment.

Twitter went from a site that where you vied with others to get acknowledged by a celebrity to a chamber of constantly outraged blowhards and Trump fanboys.

Homo Erectus are the progenitors of both modern humans, Neanderthal and Denisovans, maybe Homo Floresiensis. Modern humans have existed 200,000 years, Homo Erectus existed at least 1.8 million. Source: https://www.inverse.com/article/62044-when-did-the-homo-erectus-die-out

If there’s one album I recommend that was made after Jan. 1, 2001, more than any other it would be 2006’s There Be Squabbles Ahead by California-based Stolen Babies. That album was a masterpiece leaving both fans of heavy metal and the avant-garde satisfied. If I were to die after listening to There Be Squabbles Ahead, I would have died at least knowing that there’s still creativity in the heavy metal scene, which has become dominated by screamo-emo and older bands writing the same songs over and over. As someone who has been an avid music listener since the early 1990s, I know it would be wise to temper my expectations when their second full-length album, 2012’s Naught, finally came around. After all, there was no way they could top There Be Squabbles Ahead, which I consider as near to perfect as you can get. There were really two ways that Stolen Babies could go. They could either try to make There Be Squabbles Ahead Part II, by writing the same sort of songs with different variations. They could also try to write something totally different, expanding the band’s musical direction. While regularly, people would say this would isolate fans, I doubt that it would turn off the sort of fans Stolen Babies has. After all, they are not only metal, but avant-garde too. So, what direction did they go with Naught? Both, actually. The songs on Naught both compliment There Be Squabbles Ahead and expand the band’s sound into new directions. The intro track “Never Come Back,” No. 2 track “Splatter” and standout track “Mousefood” could all fit perfectly as tracks There Be Squabbles Ahead. All of these tracks keep that heavy sound which is blended with keyboards and accordions which is glued together by lead singer Dominique Lenore Persi’s vocals. The band, consisting of Persi (vocals, accordion), Rani Sharone (bass, guitars and a lot of other instruments), Gil Sharone (drums, percussion) and Ben Rico (keyboards, percussion) also pushes into new directions. “I Woke Up,” is probably the most avant garde on the album. It’s more industrial sounding with it’s menacing bass and staticy vocals. But, it doesn’t last very long and doesn’t follow usual song-writing structure, with Persi straining to whisper the lyrics. “Dried Moat” is another track where the band tries sort of a funky direction with an almost Depeche Mode (think “Personal Jesus” type sound). In a similar vein is “Civil Disguise” which continues the alt-80s type sound. Surprisingly, my favorite on the album is “Birthday Song.” It’s a funky little number with clean guitars until the chorus. It’s the most stripped-down sounding song on the album and really catchy. “Behind the Days” and “Swimming Hole” see the band move things into a slower direction. Persi’s accordion, violins and other non-traditional rock instruments move to the forefront. “Behind the Days” actually sounds almost like a song you’d find on a Disney soundtrack, maybe for a scene involving gypsies. One song that really sticks out as sort of a meeting between Stolen Babies expansion of its sound and the sound it had made with There Be Squabbles Ahead is the single for the album “ Second Sleep.” “Second Sleep” moves Persi’s accordion to the foreground along with some creative drumming by Sharone. The title fits the music as it is a dark song that sort of envelops you. Listening to Stolen Babies is less about hearing a bunch of songs and more like an experience. That experience being a trip through a demented circus with There Be Squabbles Ahead followed by a twisted gypsy caravan with Naught. They mix a variety of music and moods, taking you from the thrill of watching the tortured lion finally biting off the head of the cruel lion tamer to a lonely waif singing alone under a dead tree. I definitely recommend Naught. But, before you buy it, I recommend buying There Be Squabbles Ahead first. https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/11/30/no-squabbles-here-stolen-babies-naught-is-great/

What is noise pop? I guess you could say it's catchy tunes done by creative people who aren't afraid to experiment. California's Medicine (Band) is probably one of the best examples of it. In this retro-review, we take a look back at their fist album, Shot Forth Self Living, and see if it still holds up 25 years later. http://bit.ly/2iXzlUq

Napalm Death over the course of its more than 30 years of existence has become synonymous with "extreme metal." But, before they were metal, they were punk. Grindcore punk that is. While today, we think "metal" when we here "grindcore" back in 1987, it was still incubating in the underground. Napalm Death's "Scum" broke the genre through, and while it never went mainstream, it gained a devoted audience which still exists to this day. Don't know "Scum?" Well, check out my review of that barrier breaking album here: https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/11/23/napalm-deaths-scum-elevated-grindcore/

Anyone remember .hack//Sign? It hit screens 15 years ago in Japan, before joining Cartoon Network's Saturday programming before Toonami and Adult Swim took over the entire block. Unlike it's successors, it's actually pretty good. http://bit.ly/2AKKUJy

Just gave Post Self a listen for the first time. Sounds pretty good and atmospheric. I hear what may be the influences of some younger acts, like Velvet Acid Christ in there, but that may just be me.

Not yet. I plan on it soon. I have to admit though, I feel like Godflesh lost something when they went away from the drum machines. I guess their mechanical precision just added sort of a mechanical feeling to the music that made it "feel" industrial, if that makes sense.

Napalm Deaths 1992 album Utopia Banished, followed Harmony Corruption, an album that saw the band transition from grindcore punk to something new, grindcore metal. Utopia Banished sees them continue this evolution, nearly perfecting it before entering their experimental era a couple of years later. It's in part thanks to this album that we think of Napalm Death as a metal band, not a punk band nowadays. Read the retro-review here: http://bit.ly/2iF6zrL

When it comes to putting the words "industrial" and "metal" together, you're either talking about manufacturing or music. It's kind of like when you put the words "God" and "flesh" together, you're either talking about communion or a UK industrial metal band. Today, I'm talking about the band Godflesh and their 1992 release "Pure." Twenty-five years later, I can still say it's that year's heaviest album and is today's retro-review. http://bit.ly/2knHTIm

People like to think in genres. I think our brains just naturally categorize things like that. I try not to think in terms of genre, but more like "innovative" and "avant garde." I like things that are interesting, even challenging to listen too, which is why I drift toward the industrial and metal end of things.