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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.

Industrial music was evolving and diverging in the early 1990s. Some bands doubled down on their samples, keyboards and drum machines. Others went a more metallic direction. Skrew is one of the latter and they are the focus of this review. Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame is the debut album of the band, released in 1992. While there are high spots, it leaves a lot to be desired. https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/11/09/skrews-first-album-broke-no-new-ground/

When I decided to try my hand at blogging again, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I did roundups on science news, wrote some commentary and shared insightful columns. People read them, but not in big numbers. With Ministry's album Psalm 69 turning 25 this year, I thought I'd write some on that and to my surprise, people were into it. So, I decided to do some more retro reviews and people read them. So, I've decided to do some more of them, drawing on albums I owned and some I wish I did the first time around. Anyway, here's a snippet and link to Psalm 69's review. Read it here: https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/11/07/psalm-69-encapsulated-1992/

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4953218/Japanese-journalist-works-death.html#ixzz4ulJ7qY2y

I never heard of it until I saw it on my deal app today. I just thought they were something new on the breakfast menu.

You're full of shit. You've had a circle jerk of political posters, led by one of your own mods, that has made this place more hostile to even center-left points of view than ASMB ever was. I mean, you've had one user tell Master_Debater, who talks like a robot 95 percent of the time, that she needs to kill herself, and your mods did nothing. Seriously, don't even bother because you're not going to enforce it in any fair manner.

On this day 25 years ago (1992 if you suck at math), Alice in Chains released their second full-length studio album Dirt. pretty much anyone who bought the album will tell you there’s something special about it. Alice in Chains were one of the few bands which could record an entire album where none of the songs felt like filler. Each song from the opening “Them Bones” to the closer “Would?” were distinct. When you talked to someone who bought the album, there was no explaining which song you were talking about, they knew. While many people say now that it was the album that launched them into the mainstream, they seem to forget that 1990s Facelift had already been a great success with its hit song “Main in a Box.” That song was seemingly played nonstop on MTV’s Buzz Block, if anyone remembers that.

Mean Gene isn't dead.

It wasn't totally unexpected, he has been fighting cancer for a while

How many Toonami viewers were actually old enough to remember watching it back then. You're approaching it like the target demographic is 35-65 year olds instead of 18-24 year olds.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is close to approving its first gene therapy treatment for cancer. This gene therapy targets cancer by turning the bodies own cells into anti-cancer weapons. Here’s a dumbed-down explanation from NPR: The new treatment is known as CAR-T cell immunotherapy. It works by removing key immune system cells known as T cells from the patient so scientists can genetically modify them to seek out and attack only cancer cells. That’s why some scientists refer to this as a “living drug.” Doctors then infuse millions of the genetically modified T cells back into the patient’s body so they can try to obliterate the cancer cells and hopefully leave healthy tissue unscathed. Now, there are some risks. The biggest being “cytokine release syndrome,” in which the immune system attacks vital organs. Unlike treatments in the past, no patients have died from the new therapy. That means that while the treatment may make you sick, you’re probably still going to survive it more so than the cancer. Of course, much like vaccines, there are people who hear “gene” and freak out. But, they’re becoming a minority as knowledge of how genetics works becomes more commonplace. CANCER MOONSHOT Although it was well underway beforehand, this new treatment brings to mind former Vice President Joe Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot.” The “Cancer Moonshot” and Biden’s involvement originates with President Barack Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address. Obama called on Biden to lead a new, national Cancer Moonshot focused on making a decade of progress in preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer in 5 years, ultimately striving to end cancer as we know it. This is something near and dear to Biden’s heart, as he lost his own son to brain cancer in 2015 A Presidential Memorandum established the Cancer Moonshot Task Force, which was directed to unite the Federal government in achieving the Moonshot’s mission through a focused effort to leverage Federal investments, targeted incentives, private sector efforts, and patient initiatives, among other mechanisms. The Moonshot’s seeks to create a near future where: all segments of society have access to prevention strategies, diagnostics, and treatments that save lives; there are cures for some forms of cancer and others have been turned into chronic conditions that do not diminish the quality or length of life; cancer researchers and doctors are collaboratively engaged in a system that accelerates knowledge and breakthroughs; and patients and health care professionals are partners, and patients can easily access and control their health information to use as they wish, including to further biomedical research. Most of us know someone that has had or has died from cancer. Both the new CAR-T immunotherapy treatment and Moonshot offer hope. Hope that cancer will go from complicating or destroying life, to being in the same vein as diabetes or allergies. That is, something that you may have to deal with your entire life, but it’s not going to kill you. https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/07/14/panel-oks-cancer-killing-gene-therapy/

So I didn’t realize it was already Asteroid Day 2017. That might have something to do with having no idea Asteroid Day existed until just a few minutes ago though. But, I think I have an excuse though. Asteroid Day has only been around two years. It hasn’t made its way into the broad public consciousness yet. I just learned about it by chance myself, when I was looking for interesting news via Google News search. The purpose of Asteroid Day is pretty simple: Bring attention to asteroids. The purpose of this attention is to protect earth through an early prevention mechanism, which has yet to developed. What’s particularly interesting about Asteroid Day is who created: Brian May. May co-founded and played guitar for Queen. He now works as an astrophysicist. In case you didn’t know what asteroids are, the quick definition is this: They’re small rocky bodies, ranging from dust particles to 1,000 miles across, that orbit the sun. Occasionally, their orbits cross paths with Earth, sometimes with disastrous results. Just ask the dinosaurs. So with the dinosaurs in mind, let’s get back to protecting Earth: So, why June 30? Well, it’s the date of the Tunguska event. This event happened on this date in 1908 when 5–10 megaton airburst occurred over Tunguska, Russia. The airburst flattened 800 square miles and 80 million trees, making it the largest impact to occur in modern times. Most recently, and also in Russia, we got a reminder of how dangerous even a small asteroid could be with the Chelyabinsk event, when a car-sized asteroid exploded overhead. Hundreds were injured and the event was caught on camera by several people, giving us spectacular documentation of the event. So, if you want to spend your day getting your space on, then I’d suggest you check out the 24-hour feed going on to mark Asteroid Day. Just to let you know, from what I’ve seen so far, it’s a bunch of guys sitting around a table talking about asteroids. https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/06/30/asteroid-day-aims-to-raise-awareness-protect-earth/

With all the political theater dominating the news cycle, it’s easy for things to get buried. Often among those items that get overlooked in the shuffle are those that do with science and technology that will have a bigger impact on the future than today’s politics. One of those stories has to do with robots and their changing place in the world. Robots have been part of the military for sometime. Believe it or not, the use of unmanned vehicles goes back to WWII when the Germans used the remote-controlled Goliath tracked mine to carry explosives to enemy targets. We’ve come a long way since then. While we may still use remote-controlled drones, fully automated robots are on the horizon. For some people that’s scary, largely because they saw Terminator as kids, and for others it’s going to lead to fewer American deaths on the battlefield. Which brings us to some news from two weeks ago. This is something pretty big. In a few years, if this work is successful, humans will be working with robots that have artificial intelligence on the battlefield. While some people are going to be worried that we’re taking things too far, their cases don’t matter much. We’re in a race with rivals to stay one step ahead. Now, it’s not just the military where that robots are going to make a mark. They’ve already had a huge impact on manufacturing. Within the last few years, there have been robots designed for nuclear clean up and even bartending. Resisting the robotic world is futile. We’ve already let the rabbits out of the cage and they’re multiplying like crazy. There is no “going back” and it’s not a bad thing … unless those human workers who find themselves displaced by robotic technology are left to starve. But, I like to think that our governments will get that the old “get a job” model won’t work anymore when that point is reached. https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/06/15/robots-to-integrate-into-military-units/

I don't see them doing a board. They're not really an outreach to a wider audience like FB or Twatter and don't generate money.

There's going to be new boards?