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Tom Ewing's Top 100 Singles Of The 90s
Tom • FT • 5 comments • 7,763 views
So what happened in the 1990s? Trying to put a lassoo round a decade is difficult and dumb, and never more so than now, when all the critics seem to be talking about 'fragmentation'. The best way to read ten years' worth of entrails, I thought, was to come at it sideways, single by single, and hope that some kind of picture built up. Did it? You be the judge.
Why singles, though? Because everyone else was doing albums, because we listen to music one track at a time anyway, because so much of the decade's most vital music never even surfaced on LP. Album-based rock criticism has its own rhetoric, mostly concerned about whether a record will last and where it stands in relation to the established critical pantheon. I don't care about whether these records will last – why try to second-guess the future? For me, now, this is the music that mattered.
Tom • FT • Essays/features/Pop • 1 comment • 1,272 views
Low's Christmas tree is a simple one, with eight plain wooden baubles. The band write four tracks themselves, offer interpretations of two carols and crooners' favourite "Blue Christmas", and nobody's bothered to take credit for "Taking Down The Tree" (but it sounds like one of Low's own). The record is packaged – beautifully – like a very plain, precious card, steeped in a quiet sense of occasion. Low have won half the battle before you've even unsleeved the CD.
Certain strands of Alternative music and certain strands of post-Reformation Christianity have in common an occasional appreciation for starkness, and a reflexive distaste for vulgar and worldly ornament. Low, with their professed Mormon faith and the slow, stern but compassionate guitar music they make, bring the strands together, which explains why they've become the Christian Rock it's OK to like.
1. PULP – "Common People"
Tom • FT • Pop/Tom Ewing's Top 100 Singles Of The 90s • 6 comments • 1,733 views
Why? Because I still believe in the pop single as a public event, and "Common People" was on every station, every channel, every show in Summer 1995, and because it was wonderful each time you heard it, the one glorious, undeniable surprise of that year, of Britpop. The only unpredictable things about Britpop were the scale of it all, and Pulp – Lord knows all the other records had been made before. Actually, you could easily have seen Britpop coming. Once the Americans had shown people how to market college music to everybody else, once the industry realised how stubbornly difficult it was to sell dance to people who weren't dancers, once British indie had given up all that silly cutting-edge nonsense, well then, something big was inevitable.
So we got Britpop, and everything you read about it was true – almost. It was a ridiculous, exciting time; it did turn up a lot of wonderful characters and made the tabloid pop pages a better place; it did give British guitar pop a distinctive identity; it did help change the country, or at least the prosperous metropolitan bits of it. Britpop also called my kind of people's bluff – this was what we'd all wanted, wasn't it? Our music in the charts, even battling it out for Number One on News At Ten – fantastic! Except, of course, for the fact that the records that were suddenly exploding all over the country weren't all that interesting, and some of them were plain horrible.
Yes, we were elitists, and bitter elitists at that. We'd grown up on indie, we'd flown the flag for Morrissey and Brett and Saint Etienne, we'd fooled ourselves that what the charts needed was 'glamour' or 'style' (albeit hackneyed ideas of both) when what the charts wanted were beery music-hall romps and teary guitar ballads. But when "Common People" burnt a hole in the countdown at No.2 and stuck there it redeemed us and Britpop both at once – all it took was that one sainted record to make all the hype and bluster worth it.
At the tail end of that summer, I went to a wedding, and the DJ, being not unfamiliar with the Top 40, played Pulp's big hit. The first two verses of "Common People" are a fuse, too slow for dancing unless you know what's coming, and everyone shuffled for a while and then crept off the dancefloor. When the song ignited, we were the only people left, and it was beautiful. Halfway through the DJ shoved "Roll With It" on instead and the floor filled up quickly enough.
The point? That raging, clever songs like "Common People" don't fit anywhere easily, even after they've conquered the radios and shops. The moment you heard the record you knew it was going to be stupefyingly huge, but you also knew that it would not be a music for other people to rip off. I can't think – even after Pulp have sold millions of records – of more than one band who've tried to sound like them in the slightest degree. Was it simply that "Common People", inevitable anthem though it was, is too radical, too far away in mood from Britpop's good-time shenanigans and in music from its blocky. tried-and-true guitar moves?
(A sidenote: the band "Common People" feels most like isn't even Roxy Music, it's Carter USM in overdriven agit-pop mode. That's not meant to put you off, just to underline how astonishing the creative and commercial success of the song is.)
But of course on one level isn't "Common People" completely bogus? It's a song of disgust about a girl who romanticises the working class which proceeds to go on about how they "burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why". Right. Saying the poor are innately noble is just the other side of the coin from saying the poor are innately stupid. So that gnawed at me for a while – except I was wrong, and that's not what Cocker's singing about. All the overtly romantic stuff in "Common People" – a song which plays with perspective more cleverly than any No.2 hit can be expected to – is, directly or indirectly, the girl's point of view. Jarvis never even says that he's one of the 'Common People'. What he's singing about ultimately is the irreducibility of personal experience, the impossibility of understanding – let alone packaging – what you haven't lived: "Everybody hates a tourist". Which is just as arguable but somehow more sympathetic in a decade where selling pop has more than ever been about niche marketing, a decade which made tourists of us all.
(I might just be thinking this because I'm a middle class parasite who feels guilty for wanting to jump like a fool every time "Common People" comes on. But that after five years this song makes some part of me wriggle and make excuses is in itself testimony that some deep, difficult note is being struck by the track.)
Britpop, of course, was all about class anyway: not any real class system, nothing that related to how people actually lived, but the pantomime version of class that keeps British culture holed somewhere below its psychic waterline. Bluff northern lads against pretentious southern toffs, the forever 'down-to-earth' working class versus the inevitably 'arty' bourgeois. "Common People", whatever its flaws, was the only Britpop song exciting enough not to be dragged down by that tiresome, endless discourse, and the only one intelligent enough to say something direct and new about it too.
Listened to in the context of Different Class-era Pulp, "Common People" takes its place as part of a general, misanthropic counterblast against the whole mess of British life. Jarvis' sympathies may broadly lie with the common people, but any notion that he'd play kitchen-sink romantic would be disabused by a quick listen to "Mile End"'s horrifying, mordant portrait of tower-block living. All he hates is stupidity, which sadly seems to be institutional. "It's the angriest song of the decade", said one Freaky Trigger writer when I told him "Common People" would be heading my list.
It is, it really is, but I also picked it to end on a positive note. And that's where the music comes in: "Common People" is Pulp's masterpiece, not just Jarvis'. The music – new-wave keyboards, steamroller drumming, fuzzed-up glam licks – builds from wry kit-built pop, which we knew Pulp could do, to a righteous tower of noisy colour, which we didn't. Layer after layer of singleminded instrumentation, the tempo shifting gradually up, and Jarvis preaching over the top. And then, in that worldbeating moment when the metronome drum pattern finally breaks into a series of machine-gun fills, it turns into the best party British music ever heard. When Cocker yells, "You will NEVER understand!", fury and euphoria turn out to be one and the same – which has been pop's lesson for fifty years, but can stand the repetition.
I haven't talked about Jarvis' delivery, or the casually perfect opening couplet, or the Glastonbury performance, or most of the little musical touches that keep me coming back to "Common People" when I'm not in a Cocker mood. I haven't even done the big personal context thing, which might well be a relief. I haven't because I don't need to: there's no longer any contest. "Common People", the kind of untouchable record that only comes along once in a generation, is the single of the 90s.
2. DISCO INFERNO – "The Last Dance"
Tom • FT • Pop • 3 comments • 2,563 views
Between 1992 and 1994, Disco Inferno put out probably the most remarkable and innovative string of singles since Pere Ubu's initial 1975 releases, singles which in ten or fifteen years' time will seem as precious and unprecedented as Ubu's first few do now. This was the best of them.
Like a lot of the finest ideas, Disco Inferno's was quite simple. Sampler technology had changed the game-plan of pop utterly: every possible sound, from a symphony orchestra to the crunch of feet in snow, could now be claimed, used, treated and twisted in any way you could dream of, cheaply and quickly. But most pop musicians, as if scared by the immensity of this newly possible sound-world, were tinkering away at its edges, confining themselves just to sampling and playing with other people's records. At the same time, the songwriting revolution set in motion in the 1960s was far from played out: a band set-up still offered unlimited opportunities for direct, lyrical self-expression. If you were like Disco Inferno's Ian Crause, alive to the potential and need for innovation but also itching to say things, then the never-ending prophecies of the song's death-by-sampler weren't exactly helpful.
Disco Inferno had a solution. They kept writing stark, sinewy and sad guitar pop with intelligent, severe lyrics, but to play it they wired their instruments to samplers, which in their case meant wiring them to the world. A sweep down Crause's guitar might trigger footfalls, clocks, bells, the crunch of gravel, the crash of cars, the rush of water – anything at all the song demanded, played in real time like notes. The sound of the samples and the sound of the guitar were inseparable, so sometimes Disco Inferno's songs seemed breached by the sounds they used, stuck in a death-struggle with the everyday: a perfect sonic expression of the compromise and alienation Crause seemed to sing about. Other times the music drowned in its own cacophony. But sometimes the songs and the sound locked together and DI explored a beautiful New World for pop, riding forward on the intoxicating sharpness of their own noise into what should have been an amazing future.
You can get some idea of where they were going on the two albums they made for Rough Trade: DI Go Pop (which is, ironically, the least pop thing they ever did, the sound of a band trying to harness a technological hurricane) and Technicolour (recorded after their samplers were stolen, and so far from the record it could have been, but still a superb, committed collection of songs). By the time Technicolour came out, frustration and internal differences had ended the experiment, with Crause by all accounts disillusioned and unwilling even to accept that his band had created anything worthwhile at all, let alone had been the most forward-looking of the decade. Anyone who saw the band's 1994 live shows knows how wrong he was – Disco Inferno were uncannily good, miles ahead of anybody else I've (even now) heard, an unbelievable flood of bejewelled, alien sound. Ian Crause is the only musician I've ever bought a drink for – though he seemed glum, keener to talk about his new-found love of the Byrds than the era his band were surely ushering in for pop.
That left their string of singles as the best evidence that something wonderful had happened. "The Last Dance" is the least formally groundbreaking of DI's records (though the moment I heard it I was floored by its originality and sense of purpose), with the sample-barrage kept to a minimum. A constant ticking of clocks and in the distance a crowd chanting, that's all. But "The Last Dance" is also their wisest, most moving song, a meditation on history, on the impossibility of making something new in art and on the need to try and do so anyhow. It's also their most musically endearing, a tune as taut and poignant as anything Wire ever recorded, with delicate guitar lines meshing and weaving, always pretty but always understated. Ian Crause's singing was barely singing at all, but he made it a virtue, his slightly breathless voice sounding urgent, desperate to communicate, but at the same time faltering. On "The Last Dance", he sighs "Was there ever a time / Like this?", just before the guitars skid all over the track, and it's as inspiring as it is heartbreaking.
"No oceans left to cross, no mountains left to climb / Least that's what I've been told" : Disco Inferno should have mattered more than anyone, but their curse was to turn up at a time when exploring the frontiers of pop – especially using songs – simply wasn't fashionable any more. They could have settled for the marginal, dessicated existence granted to those unhappy bands stuck halfway between indie-pop and the avant-garde, but what kind of living is that to scratch out? In 1993, making the most radical guitar music in the world, Ian Crause probably didn't think he was singing about the years ahead and what they would do to pop, but in a way he was: "The noise of the past builds up into a crescendo / And the waves of rubbish…are amplified a million times or more" Too right: no matter how many lists you list or polls you poll, now matter how often you talk up reheated mediocrities or chuck superlatives around, you won't convince me that an era where bands as dull as Oasis became multi-millionaires and a band as special as Disco Inferno collapsed un-noticed was anything other than an era where things went catastrophically wrong. "In the end it's not the future, but the past that'll get us." – single of the 90s? This single looked the 90s in the face, and shuddered.
3. MY BLOODY VALENTINE – "Soon"
With this kind of kick-off, you have to ask why the 90s weren't better. The striated rills of drum that open "Soon" sound like God cracking his knuckles: ten seconds later the wavefront of the song hits you and his uncanny rhythms become your own. A lot has been written about the fabulous sound Kevin Shields could get out of his guitar, how he made the instrument talk in tongues for him and how My Bloody Valentine's songs sounded like they were in a state of perpetual, endless dissolve. All that stuff is true, but what makes "Soon" so extraordinary is everything else that's going down – especially, as I say, the rhythm. There's no sound on "Soon" as slippery or displaced as the alien keening of "Only Shallow" or "To Here Knows When"'s celestial smear: Shield's guitar switches from teasy bouncings to great gutsy roars but by Valentine standards it's quite straightforward. The things that really churn up the song and drive it forward are the motorised bass grind, that delirious beat, the enraptured voice – and the interplay between all these, the tectonic shifts of bass over beat, the way the voice rides and tames the landslide guitar even while getting smothered in it. Rhythm and structure had been MBV's secret aces ever since they'd put out "You Made Me Realise", a five-track nail-bomb of compressed beat power where Shields used his guitar to reinforce Colm O'Ciosog's drumming, and the rhythm mattered more than anything else, pulling the songs back then letting them burst to raging, erotic effect.
The amazing thing about "Soon" is that in sound and arrangement it was the furthest thing imaginable from fifties rock and roll, but still in a literal sense it was a rock and roll song, a record that aimed squarely at the hips. "Soon" may have sounded like an atmospheric storm, but it also felt impossibly carnal – those hungry, whited-out kissers on the single's cover aren't there by accident. If you had to explain sex to a machine, you could play it this song: the steady tumble of the rhythm, the excitable bubble of the verses and then the exhausting joy of release as engorged surges of guitar swamp the track. "Soon" isn't warm or funky, nothing like it, but it is sexy: sex as an abstraction, as a fundamental force.
(And now I've tried haltingly to describe it, let's put "Soon" in context. Even if it wasn't intentional, the happy effect on punk in Britain was to provide an amnesty, an opportunity for pop to start again and build itself up better this time, away from the public eye. That was what indie music was about, both the rediscovery rock that it turned into and the relentless boundary-pushing modernism that peaked here, with "Soon". "Soon" was the edge of pop, almost the last time that a guitar-drums-bass-vocals outfit could sound so new, so unselfconscious and so irresistible. The innovation game was up: bands could take the easy way out, buy a bunch of tasty pedals and wander around inside the very accomodating spaces Shields had so kindly set up with Loveless. Or they could try to pick up on the rhythmic explorations of "Soon", digressing into dance music or pure abstraction. For My Bloody Valentine itself, "Soon" proved impossible to follow, and Kevin Shields has ended up as the post-punk Brian Wilson, albeit one whose masterpiece was released. In the end, only one band took pop further out, and then never made it back. Their story to follow.)
4. THE ORB – "Little Fluffy Clouds"
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This record taught me two things, the most important things I learned this decade. First of all it taught me about repetition and how it could work to structure a song, and then go beyond structure to become the song itself. When I felt the light, economical sequencer runs of "Little Fluffy Clouds" pool and ripple in my head was when pop took on an abstract dimension for me, when I realised that I could find myself in a song as much through stability as variation. Up until then I'd used music to explain things, not to explore: I'd listened first for the lyrics, then for a general tone – rage, joy, frustration, boredom – that I could call my own. I still think that's about the best way there is to haul yourself through adolescence but you've got to stop somewhere, and I stopped in Arizona, where the skies always had little fluffy clouds.
The second thing I learned was how unexpectedly gorgeous the recorded human voice could sound. Rickie Lee Jones, sampled by the Orb from some forgotten interview, sounds distracted, close and sexy even before her voice is cut-up and refracted by the band. As well as every little hesitation, you can hear the filmy smack of saliva as her lips part, the wet sound of tongue unpeeling from palate: it's no wonder she detested a track which sounds like somebody built a studio inside her mouth. But she enraptured me – hearing "Little Fluffy Clouds" was like hearing a spell, and then realising that the same spell was being cast every time someone opened their mouth to speak near a microphone. Maybe it shouldn't have taken a piece of dance music to wake me up to vocal texture, play and inflection, but it did, and ironically that gave me a way to love the songs I did already even more, just by listening to the how as much as the what.
Between them, repetition and the voice could take me everywhere. Into dance music, obviously – "Little Fluffy Clouds" wasn't quite the first dance record I liked, but it was the first one I had no choice but to like – but also into drones, into harsher electronic sounds, into avant-rock, into soul, into melodramatic pop. Coming back to the Orb single now, I was a little worried that it might sound clumsy, even silly. Wrong – the track which started all this off for me is still just as dreamy. To make a comparison I wouldn't have known about then, the bucolic "Little Fluffy Clouds" sounds like Kraftwerk going off to get their shit together in the country – Alex Patterson had learned a lot from their Spartan approach, but he'd also absorbed the rich fluidity of musicians like Manuel Gottsching, whose entrancing E2 = E4 was the root of so much 90s ambient music. And, of course, Patterson's take on minimalist transcendence comes with a thick side order of English pothead humour. Almost a decade after this song changed my life the plummy opening monologue can still make me smile, with the truth of it as much as anything else: "Over the past few years, to the traditional sounds of an English summer – the droning of lawnmowers, the thwack of leather on willow – has been added a new noise…" Dance music – which is what The Orb are making him talk about – was a revolution that happened one head at a time. This was my turn.
5. PULP – "This Is Hardcore"
Tom • FT • Pop • 1 comment • 1,206 views
It's impossible to imagine any other band even attempting something like this. Nobody else, I think, has the right combination: a cabaret singer's panache, an ear for pop hooks, a dramatist's eye for character and a dash of experimentalism. It's very easy to say you're experimental, it's not even too difficult to take sound and do magical and unexpected things with it, but it's dreadfully rare to find a band as willing to push open the pop song like Pulp do on "This Is Hardcore". That's why they're my favourite group, basically.
If this sounds like anyone, it's Serge Gainsbourg. France's greatest pop icon would have understood the slow, dark groove that carries "This Is Hardcore", would have admired the low drag of the strings and the heady, theatrical flourishes, would have arched a brow at Jarvis Cocker's throaty, desperate delivery, and would certainly have appreciated the porno metaphors. Musically the track is a collection of great moments, each of which follows gracefully and logically on from the last, building and building through loping seductiveness and smoky melodrama to the screaming, draining climax and its loathesome afterglow.
Most of all, though, Gainsbourg would have recognised the awful sexual self-immolation at the ugly centre of "This Is Hardcore". But where a Gainsbourg hero tends to be doomed, mad or foolish, there's something essentially sympathetic about them even when they've done their lover in with a fire extinguisher. Not so here: in this track, Jarvis sings like a molester, but the worst thing is, you can still hear yourself in it. It's the ultimate Pulp song, in a way, the end-point of Jarvis' obsession with the British Way Of Sex – prurient, shameful, obsessional, dirty. All the voyeurs, lechers, seducers and masturbators of Cocker lyrics past combine, and at last, they get what they want, they get to do it.
The results aren't pretty. The worldview of "This Is Hardcore" is as stark as that of Swans – sex as power, sex as vengeance, sex as catharsis, with no satisfaction involved, just an ever-deepening disgust. The guitars flare around him and Jarvis Cocker sings from a private hell:"This is hardcore / There is no way back for you / This is hardcore / This is me on top of you." And then, most terrible of all, "And I can't believe that it took me so long" If you want honesty in pop, here it is, enjoy it: this is as brutal as the form has ever got.
6. A GUY CALLED GERALD – "Finley's Rainbow"
I think if I could pinpoint one time in my life when I've been really, unconditionally happy, this would be the one: April 1995, about half-past eleven in the morning, sitting in T-Shirt and Jeans on the steps of the Bodleian Library, taking a break from some work or other, watching dust dance in the sunlight, watching the sunlight bring out the cream in the marble, and "Finley's Rainbow" on the walkman. Though I can't think of a single song more apt, it wasn't the song that made me so happy. In fact it wasn't anything that made me happy, which was I suppose the point. I'm not in general a miserable person, but most of the time my mood is pretty much contingent on other people or objects – am I in love with someone? are they in love with me? how are my friends doing? how is my job going? have I paid my bills? isn't this record terrific? So when happiness creeps up on you like it did to me that morning, you tip your hat to it, and then treasure the moment for a long time afterwards.
A Guy Called Gerald's Black Secret Technology is a great album, the best jungle album ever, and "Finley's Rainbow" is at once steeped in its intense, inspired methodology and drawing on something else entirely. Nothing else on the album is as straightforward: the lazy, sweet vocals of a pre-fame Finley Quaye are something earthy and obvious to grab onto. Behind them, the jungle: the word was never, ever so appropriate as when it described Gerald's teeming music. A drowsy, dislocated bass pulses under twining drums, synthed pizzicatos flit by like strange fauna, and everything's permeated by a humid gauze of brushes. The drums rattle like bones, and the mood might be arid if it wasn't for Quaye's vocals coming down on the song and quenching it like a shower. I didn't know who Quaye was, didn't know that "Sun Is Shining" was a lilting reggae standard, but what I did know was that this was at once among the freshest things I'd ever heard and the most timeless. There's a hint of the jazz singer in Quaye's voice here, a brassiness, and there's something like jazz in the music too, something unpredictable, tense and thick. But while his contemporaries took hold of the politest bits of fusion, Gerald – by all accounts a difficult and shabbily treated musician – latched onto a more turbulent tradition, the jazz-funk-electronica of Pangaea-era Miles Davis or Sextant-era Herbie Hancock, and the music he made boiled like theirs had. Combine that with Quaye's love-drunk lullaby and you have a certain blueprint for wonder.
7. TEENAGE FANCLUB – "The Concept"
Tom • FT • Pop • 2 comments • 896 views
It's just a beautiful song. "The Concept" for me is being young and in love, and I think it probably always will be: I've had eight years to grow bored of the feeling and the track, and I haven't even got bored of the opening lines yet. There may, granted, come a time when I won't feel able to use the word "young", but I hope not and so do the band: why do you think they called themselves Teenage Fanclub? Like Sonic Youth, it's more a promise to themselves than a clutch at straws, a pledge to never making music that can't live up to their name.The day I grow out of this record is the day I grow out of pop.
"The Concept" is a love song in the very widest sense, though, a grinning big-hearted hug of a tune about your feelings for your friends, for music and being alive. The girl Norman Blake is singing about might be the love of his life, but she might just be his best friend, or just a friend, or not even that: if you write a song this soaked in emotion you're probably half in love with everyone you meet anyway. Play it when you're drunk and it sounds like the truest song in the world (even more so than all the other truest songs in the world you hear in that happy state), play it when you're hungover…well, no, don't actually, go back to bed and get some sleep. Play it in the warm afternoon afterglow instead. If all that sounds sappy and sloppy, so be it – Teenage Fanclub are that kind of a band sometimes. With Norman Blake's blocky, friendly chords underpinning the song, how could they not be? But – maybe because it's rather oblique, maybe because it runs out of words well before you get tired of them – "The Concept" has never seemed sentimental or corny to me.
"The Concept" doesn't come out of nowhere. It doesn't come out of Big Star, either: Alex Chilton's ramshackle big-chord radio pop always had a lairy, menacing edge to it, whereas Teenage Fanclub's clumsiness is much chummier, as if they're bashing out the chords so straightforward-like because they're wearing teddy bear costumes. No, where "The Concept" comes from is the whole heritage of good-time Scottish pop – the Pastels' American influences and DIY ethic, Edwyn Collins' knack for finding warmth in the everyday, even a bit of Rod Stewart's drinking-man's-romanticism. In the last couple of minutes you get everything, as the Fanclub just solo away like they're playing a drunken indie-pop "Freebird", wringing their guitars to squeeze out every last drop of joy. "Blissed out" is a term which got hijacked by the abstracted: as "The Concept" rolls on home, Teenage Fanclub take it back.
8. DJ CRYSTL – "Warpdrive"
Tom • FT • Pop • 1 comment • 746 views
Dance music appreciation tends to end up an uneasy alliance between purism and a promiscuous thirst for novelty. Despite the breathtaking speed at which club sounds evolved between the end of last decade and the middle of this one, a lot of people who listened to and lived out the stuff would be hugely suspicious of any new developments. Simon Reynolds, to whose writings and explorations of dance music Freaky Trigger remains thoroughly indebted, suggests that the experience of clubbing follows a similar pattern to the drug experience: revelation, then exploration, then a slow decline and disillusionment. So the listener wants, for example, to hear techno in the style they associate with their biggest, best nights, but at the same time there's the creeping feeling that it can never be so good again. Hence the oscillation between the familiar with its diminishing returns, and the new with its unknowable risks.
What has this little precis got to do with DJ Crystl and the mesmerising piece of cyborg-music under discussion? Only that in order for listeners to be turned on to a new genre – even one that had led such a breakneck subcultural existence as jungle – you needed gateway tracks, records so dazzlingly inventive and so perfectly executed that they would open up and validate their style to anyone who heard. For a lot of people I've talked to, "Warpdrive" was that record. Once they'd heard it, no going back – no more thinking that drum and bass was novelty music, or thug music, or stupid music. And DJ Crystl wasn't some talked-up auteur, either, so if you wanted a copy yourself you were forced to buy it on a compilation – Drum And Bass Selection Volume 1, for example – instead of being able to bask in the cosy pleasures of the single-artist LP. In fact, if you want the reason why I'm doing this list in detail rather than the albums one, here it is, this record.
Structurally, "Warpdrive" sticks to a familiar – because awesomely effective – disco dialectic blueprint. You have your beats (clipped and martial), then you have your top-end keyboard hook (sleek and cold), then you have the hook over the beats. But sonically this record is something else – right from the start it surrounds everything with a stark generator thrum, tactile and tense like a bad ozone buildup. That miasmic background cuts the weight from the beats, turning them into quicksilver jolts of rhythm. Listening to "Warpdrive" on headphones is intensely visual, a ride at impossible speeds through an android world: wireframes and manga shapes, claustrophobia and chrome. The breakbeats turn in your head with a shudder, then slither round corners and down holes in the track's architecture. Other sound-events – tonebursts and soft explosions – rush at you from the edges of the soundfield and then vanish: by the time you've fully registered them they're light years behind you.
When the diffused, chiming ambient hook comes in and the beats and the hum cut out, it's like you've shattered some barrier, and you're rushing through a space so vast, heavenly and mapless that you might as well be floating. "Warpdrive" is pure sci-fi, the soundtrack to the best video-game you could ever imagine, and six years on I've heard no dance record that can touch it. DJ Crystl went back to his hip-hop roots after this, working to fuse that music with drum and bass on some deliciously programmed records which never quite gelled. But if you've been reading this list and you're still looking for that one undisputable electronic record to turn your collection around – well, stop reading and start hunting.
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THE DAVE CLARK FIVE – "Glad All Over"
THE SEARCHERS – "Needles And Pins"
THE BACHELORS – "Diane"
CILLA BLACK – "Anyone Who Had A Heart"
BILLY J KRAMER AND THE DAKOTAS – "Little Children"
THE BEATLES – "Can't Buy Me Love"
PETER AND GORDON – "A World Without Love"
THE SEARCHERS – "Don't Throw Your Love Away"
THE FOUR PENNIES – "Juliet"
CILLA BLACK – "You're My World"
ROY ORBISON – "It's Over"
THE ANIMALS – "House Of The Rising Sun"
THE ROLLING STONES – "It's All Over Now"
THE BEATLES – "A Hard Day's Night"
MANFRED MANN – "Do Wah Diddy Diddy"
THE HONEYCOMBS – "Have I The Right?"
THE KINKS – "You Really Got Me"
HERMAN'S HERMITS – "I'm Into Something Good"
ROY ORBISON – "Oh, Pretty Woman"
SANDIE SHAW – "Always Something There To Remind Me"
THE SUPREMES – "Baby Love"
THE ROLLING STONES – "Little Red Rooster"
THE BEATLES – "I Feel Fine"


text:
package org.supler.field

import org.supler.FieldPath
import org.supler.validation._
import play.api.libs.json._

case class ActionField[T](
  name: String,
  action: T => ActionResult[T],
  label: Option[String],
  description: Option[String],
  actionValidationScope: ActionValidationScope,
  enabledIf: T => Boolean,
    includeIf: T => Boolean,
    icon: Option[String] = None) extends Field[T] {

  require(name.matches("\\w+"), "Action name must contain only word characters (letters, numbers, _)")

  def label(newLabel: String): ActionField[T] = this.copy(label = Some(newLabel))

  def description(newDescription: String): ActionField[T] = this.copy(description = Some(newDescription))

  def icon(icon: String): ActionField[T] = this.copy(icon = Some(icon))

  def validateNone(): ActionField[T] = this.copy(actionValidationScope = BeforeActionValidateNone)
  def validateAll(): ActionField[T] = this.copy(actionValidationScope = BeforeActionValidateAll)
  def validateSubform(): ActionField[T] = this.copy(actionValidationScope = BeforeActionValidateSubform)

  def enabledIf(condition: T => Boolean): ActionField[T] = this.copy(enabledIf = condition)
  def includeIf(condition: T => Boolean): ActionField[T] = this.copy(includeIf = condition)

  private[supler] override def generateFieldJSON(parentPath: FieldPath, obj: T) = {
    import JSONFieldNames._

    val validationScopeJSONData = actionValidationScope.toValidationScope(parentPath).generateJSONData
    val validationScopeJSON = JsObject(Seq("name" -> JsString(validationScopeJSONData.name)) ++ validationScopeJSONData.extra)

    Json.obj(
      Label -> JsString(label.getOrElse("")),
      Icon -> JsString(icon.getOrElse("")),
      Type -> JsString(SpecialFieldTypes.Action),
      Path -> JsString(parentPath.append(name).toString),
      "validation_scope" -> validationScopeJSON
    )
  }

  private[supler] override def applyFieldJSONValues(parentPath: FieldPath, obj: T, jsonFields: Map[String, JsValue]) =
    PartiallyAppliedObj.full(obj)

  private[supler] override def doValidate(parentPath: FieldPath, obj: T, scope: ValidationScope) = Nil

  private[supler] override def findAction(parentPath: FieldPath, obj: T, jsonFields: Map[String, JsValue], ctx: RunActionContext) = {
    if (jsonFields.get(name) == Some(JsBoolean(value = true))) {
      Some(RunnableAction(
        parentPath.append(name),
        actionValidationScope.toValidationScope(parentPath),
        () => action(obj).completeWith(ctx)
      ))
    } else {
      None
    }
  }
}

trait ActionResult[+U] {
  private[supler] def completeWith(ctx: RunActionContext): CompleteActionResult
}

object ActionResult {
  def apply[T](t: T, customData: Option[JsObject] = None): ActionResult[T] = FullResult(t, customData)

  def custom(data: JsObject): ActionResult[Nothing] = CustomDataResult(data)

  def parentAction[T, U](action: (T, Int, U) => ActionResult[T]): U => ActionResult[U] = { u =>
    new ActionResult[U] {
      private[supler] override def completeWith(ctx: RunActionContext) = {
        val (t, i, _, parentCtx) = ctx.pop[T, U]()
        action(t, i, u).completeWith(parentCtx)
      }
    }
  }
}

private[supler] case class FullResult[U](result: U, customData: Option[JsObject]) extends ActionResult[U] {
  private[supler] override def completeWith(ctx: RunActionContext): CompleteActionResult = {
    val lastResult = ctx.parentsStack.foldLeft[Any](result) { case (r, (_, _, parentUpdate)) =>
      parentUpdate.asInstanceOf[Any => Any](r)
    }

    FullCompleteActionResult(lastResult, customData)
  }
}

private[supler] case class CustomDataResult(data: JsObject) extends ActionResult[Nothing] {
  private[supler] override def completeWith(ctx: RunActionContext) = CustomDataCompleteActionResult(data)
}

private[supler] sealed trait CompleteActionResult
private[supler] case class CustomDataCompleteActionResult(json: JsObject) extends CompleteActionResult
private[supler] case class FullCompleteActionResult(value: Any, customData: Option[JsObject]) extends CompleteActionResult

private[supler] case class RunActionContext(parentsStack: List[(Any, Int, Function1[_, _])]) {
  def push[T, U](obj: T, i: Int, defaultUpdate: U => T): RunActionContext =
    RunActionContext((obj, i, defaultUpdate) :: parentsStack)

  def pop[T, U](): (T, Int, U => T, RunActionContext) = {
    val (obj, i, defaultUpdate) = parentsStack.head
    (obj.asInstanceOf[T], i, defaultUpdate.asInstanceOf[U => T], RunActionContext(parentsStack.tail))
  }
}

private[supler] case class RunnableAction(
  path: FieldPath,
  validationScope: ValidationScope,
  run: () => CompleteActionResult)

trait ActionValidationScope {
  /**
   * Convert this action validation scope to a validation scope.
   * @param parentPath Path to the parent of the action field.
   */
  def toValidationScope(parentPath: FieldPath): ValidationScope
}
object BeforeActionValidateNone extends ActionValidationScope {
  def toValidationScope(parentPath: FieldPath) = ValidateNone
}
object BeforeActionValidateAll extends ActionValidationScope {
  def toValidationScope(parentPath: FieldPath) = ValidateAll
}
object BeforeActionValidateSubform extends ActionValidationScope {
  // validating the subform means validating all fields under the parent of the action field
  def toValidationScope(parentPath: FieldPath) = ValidateInPath(parentPath)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Getting asp.net user control to emit SCRIPT block only once if needed I'm seeking advice on how to best encapsulate this HTML markup and behavior for extensive reuse.
I've developed a working version of some "context sensitive" help on a given .aspx page that uses the qTip2 plugin for jQuery ("squeezed up" here for completeness for the question):
$('a.myMore[title]').qtip({
    content: {  title: { button: true } }
    , style: { classes: 'qtip-youtube myCustomClass' }
    , position: { target: 'mouse',  adjust: { x: 5, y: 5} }
    , show: { effect: function() {  $(this).fadeTo(500, 1); } }
    , events:{hide:function(event, api) {if (event.originalEvent.type !== 'click') return false;}}
});

Here is a sample of the the markup operated upon by the plugin above that I'd like to encapsulate:

This is in an older environment of Visual Studio 2008 webforms using VB.Net. One thread on SO expressed my need very well - see MVC3 Razor views - but the only encapsulation approach I can think of is writing an ASP.Net web user control (.ascx) to dump out the HTML I need. I envision being able to sprinkle something like this throughout my .aspx pages:
<qTipH:qTipHelper Title="Here is some content for the qTip." runat="server" />

Am I on the right track given the "old-ish" environment in which I have to work?
I started in on writing this control and immediately noticed there is no title attribute for any of these server controls - <asp:HyperLink nor <asp:ImageButton nor <asp:LinkButton. I don't think the code-behind of the user control can inject the title attribute text into a standard HTML  tag.
I think I know what I need rendered but I'm looking for advice on the best approach. Thanks.
EDIT - UPDATE:
So here is my .ascx file I came up with:
<%@ Control Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false"
  CodeBehind="qTipHelper.ascx.vb"
  Inherits="myProjectName.qTipHelper" %>

<asp:HyperLink ID="HyperLink1" runat="server" CssClass="myMore"></asp:HyperLink>

I discovered that any "missing" attributes like "title" can be handled by the following code-behind which adds to the Attributes collection of the control:
Public Partial Class qTipHelper
Inherits System.Web.UI.UserControl
Public Title As String = Nothing
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
If Title Is Nothing OrElse Title = "" Then
        Visible = False
Else
    Dim encodedTitle As String = Server.HtmlEncode(Title)
    HyperLink1.Attributes.Add("title", encodedTitle)
    HyperLink1.Attributes.Add("href", "#")
    HyperLink1.ImageUrl = "../images/icon/info1.png"
End If
End Sub
End Class

On my invoking page(s), I added this:
<%@ Register  TagPrefix="qTip" TagName="qTipHelper" Src="~/UserControls/qTipHelper.ascx" %>

and then to spit out the HTML, I added this:
<qTip:qTipHelper runat="server" title="grist for the mill courtesy of qTip" >
        </qTip:qTipHelper>

Is there a coding technique that could be added to the user control that would emit one Javascript script block at the bottom of the page (assuming that one or more tags for qTipHelper were present in the HTML above)?

A: In retrospect, this is weird question (I think because I never had to do anything like this before)...
Anyway, I simply collected all my current uses of qtip in a single Javascript file which I reference at the bottom of each .aspx page that uses it like this:

So, this boils down to:
1. writing a single user control
2. registering the user control on .aspx content pages that will need it
3. sprinkling the .aspx content page with the user control tag whereever it is needed
4. adding the script tag to point to the qtip Javascript file
5. ensuring that the selectors in the jQuery "match up" with the HTML markup on the page

I hope this helps someone else. I have learned alot about new stuff trying this.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Map json to menu in Openui5 In w2ui I can map a json to a sidebar http://w2ui.com/web/demos/#!sidebar/sidebar-1
Can I do it in openui5?
I want the same result.
Obviously I do not want a tree but a list of items that swipe right if I tap on an item (and visualize a sub-menu list) and slide left if I press back button (and visualize the menu at upper level).

A: I think it's possible, but as far as I know you have to do some manual labor:

*

*Detect whether your node has one or more child nodes, and based on that set the sap.m.ListType  to Navigation or not

*If your root node (f.i., "/items") has child nodes (f.i., "childs"), you need to re-bind your list to this child path ("/items/<index_of_parent_node>/childs)

*To get the swiping effect, you probably need to encapsulate the list in a sap.m.Page

*Depending on the node level you're in, you need to hide/display your back button, and by pressing it bind your list to the parent path

However, if there's a cleaner, simpler approach I would love to hear it too!

A: I solved my problem:
Every time  that i click on a menu item i call this function into view controller:
//when click on item
    onPressMenuItem: function(evt) {

        var selectedItem=evt.getSource().getBindingContext().getObject();
        var objAction=getActionWhenPressMenuItem(selectedItem, this.getView().getModel());
        console.log(objAction);

        if(objAction.hasNextSidebar==true){ // sub menu
            var model = new sap.ui.model.json.JSONModel();
            model.setData(objAction.nextSidebar);
            var oSplitApp=sap.ui.core.Core().byId("splitApp");
            var nextView = sap.ui.xmlview("general.master.menuMaster");
            nextView.setModel(model);
            nextView.byId("idPageSidebar").setTitle(selectedItem.text);
            oSplitApp.addMasterPage(nextView);
            oSplitApp.toMaster(nextView);

        }else{ // open operation detail
            var idDetail =objAction.opDetail;
            var targetApp = getAppBySelectionId(idDetail);

            if(targetApp.masterView!=null){//if app has own master
                sap.ui.getCore().getEventBus().publish("navMaster", "to", {
                    idView: targetApp.masterView
                });
            }
            if(targetApp.detailView!=null){//if app has own detail
                sap.ui.getCore().getEventBus().publish("navDetail", "to", {
                    //titleOfDetailPage: selectedItem.text,
                    idView: targetApp.detailView,
                    //idCall: selectedItem
                });
            }
        }

    },

I create every time a new istance of the menu on a new page.


text:
NFLNBAMLBNCAAFSoccerGolfNCAABNHLWNBAMMATennisBoxingOlympicsRacingWrestling
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ShopShopPro Shop
Swag Golf, Makers of Coveted Accessories and Putters, Signs Nick Hardy as PGA Tour Ambassador
The Chicago-based brand, heavy on creativity with a cult-like following, signed the 26-year-old who will make his 2023 debut at the Sony Open.
John Schwarb
Nick Hardy rolled his Swag putter to eight consecutive birdies in the final round two months ago at Mayakoba.
Courtesy Swag Golf
Nick Hardy has a decent putter cover collection, with about 60 amassed in recent years across multiple brands.
But now he's in the pipeline for a really good collection.
The 26-year-old is Swag Golf's newest PGA Tour ambassador, officially debuting at next week's Sony Open with a putter that's already been hot this season plus a full Swag setup including a bag and headcovers, which are among golf's most colorful and coveted among collectors.
"I definitely love that stuff," Hardy said. "They make the best covers I've ever seen and I want to make more of a collection. All my buddies are coming up to me, interested in what that brand is. It catches people's eye."
Hardy's signing is the latest splash from Swag Golf, a five-year-old company with a cult-like following that makes memorable gear but also putters with a pedigree.
The pedigree is Nick Venson, Swag's 39-year-old founder and CEO who was a Scotty Cameron enthusiast at a young age, then an employee at Bettinardi working on design and strategic planning. Five years ago he decided to start his own shop, with ideas he had always wanted to do but couldn't. The company launched at midnight on April 1, 2018, with a limited-edition putter and a handful of putter covers with designs including sunglasses-wearing skulls and flipping dolphins.
"When we started, we wanted to be a putter company first. I wanted to machine putters a certain way, to do things a certain way," Venson says. "It also happened that we were awesome at designing headcovers. That was the happy accident."
The Captain's Gift
Even if you're not familiar with Swag Golf, you may have seen their covers in one of the biggest events of 2021. A few weeks before the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, U.S. captain Steve Stricker tracked down Venson's phone number. Stricker had heard from one of his players that Swag made cool stuff, so could Venson make something that Stricker could present to the players as captain's gifts at the final dinner prior to the matches?
Venson sure could, creating a set of wood covers playing off a template of "Swagged" U.S. dollar bill covers that the company had made for the public before. The serial number on the bills were the opening date of the matches (09242021), with Stricker's signature used for the United States Treasurer and each player's signature used for the U.S. Secretary of State.
Driver and wood covers made for the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup team by Swag Golf are still in some players' bags.
"We didn't really know if anyone would use it, we were just excited to make them," Venson says. "When everybody started walking out the next day and had them on their bag, that was one of the coolest moments."
The red, white and blue covers were not only used throughout the Ryder Cup but several stayed in bags when players returned to the PGA Tour. Last month at "The Match," Rory McIlroy peered into Jordan Spieth's bag on the range and briefly studied the red fairway wood cover. Perhaps the Irishman was puzzled to see Alexander Hamilton in sunglasses.
In the months after the Ryder Cup, Swag released a similar version of those covers to the public, which sold out in seconds–par for the course for nearly every Swag "drop." The aforementioned flipping dolphin cover, one of Swag's first releases and a regular in its lineup, is a nod to one of the byproducts of Swag's success–a robust secondary market for collectors where the rarest covers can sell for thousands of dollars.
Staying in the Bag
Hardy's deal with Swag will mean a steady rotation of covers, but what they're covering up won't change often.
"I don't switch things," says Hardy, a Chicago native just like the company. "I have the same driver shaft, same iron shaft, had the same putter for eight years before this one."
The handcrafted one he has now, which Swag calls the "Hardy Prototype," went into the bag in the fall and paid off instantly–at Mayakoba, he made eight consecutive birdies in the final round (one off the Tour record) and finished T21.
Swag Golf's Hawaii-themed covers.
"Their putters are already great, and we've dialed in something I love even more," Hardy says, adding that he may move to a sight dot instead of a line to allow for more athletic stroke, but that's about as much as he'd change now.
In the meantime he's continuing to ogle over Swag's collection, like many fans ("my favorite is the Ditka one with the quote on it," Hardy says). He'll have Hawaiian-themed covers next week, and then who knows?
"I told Nick and the rest of the guys, whatever they want me to use," Hardy says. "I'm just proud and excited to represent whatever they choose.
Part of the fun in the accessories game, even for a Tour pro, is not knowing what might come next.
Golf GearNick HardySwag Golf
John Schwarb is the Senior Editor of SI Golf. He has covered golf for the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times), PGATour.com and Visit Florida. He lives in Indianapolis.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package tests.api.javax.net.ssl;

import dalvik.annotation.KnownFailure;
import dalvik.annotation.TestTargetClass;
import dalvik.annotation.TestLevel;
import dalvik.annotation.TestTargetNew;

import javax.net.ssl.SSLServerSocket;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLServerSocketFactory;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSession;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSessionBindingEvent;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSessionBindingListener;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocket;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;

import junit.framework.TestCase;

/**
 * Tests for SSLSessionBindingListener class
 *
 */
@TestTargetClass(SSLSessionBindingListener.class)
public class SSLSessionBindingListenerTest extends TestCase {

    public class mySSLSessionBindingListener implements SSLSessionBindingListener {

        public boolean boundDone = false;
        public boolean unboundDone = false;

        mySSLSessionBindingListener() {
        }

        public void valueBound(SSLSessionBindingEvent event) {
            if (event != null) boundDone = true;
        }
        public void valueUnbound(SSLSessionBindingEvent event) {
            if (event != null) unboundDone = true;
        }
    }

    /**
     * @throws IOException
     * @throws UnknownHostException
     * @throws InterruptedException
     * @tests javax.net.ssl.SSLSessionBindingListener#valueBound(SSLSessionBindingEvent event)
     */
    @TestTargetNew(
        level = TestLevel.COMPLETE,
        notes = "",
        method = "valueBound",
        args = {SSLSessionBindingEvent.class}
    )
    public void test_valueBound() throws UnknownHostException, IOException,
            InterruptedException {
        SSLSocket sock = (SSLSocket) SSLSocketFactory.getDefault()
                .createSocket();
        SSLSession ss = sock.getSession();
        mySSLSessionBindingListener sbl = new mySSLSessionBindingListener();
        ss.putValue("test", sbl);
        assertTrue("valueBound was not called.", sbl.boundDone);
    }

    /**
     * @throws IOException
     * @throws UnknownHostException
     * @tests javax.net.ssl.SSLSessionBindingListener#valueUnbound(SSLSessionBindingEvent event)
     */
    @TestTargetNew(
        level = TestLevel.COMPLETE,
        notes = "",
        method = "valueUnbound",
        args = {SSLSessionBindingEvent.class}
    )
    public void test_valueUnbound() throws UnknownHostException, IOException {
        SSLSocket sock = (SSLSocket) SSLSocketFactory.getDefault()
                .createSocket();
        SSLSession ss = sock.getSession();
        mySSLSessionBindingListener sbl = new mySSLSessionBindingListener();
        ss.putValue("test", sbl);
        ss.removeValue("test");
        assertTrue("valueUnbound was not called.", sbl.unboundDone);
    }
}


Retraction cord, knitted with 100% cotton-wool. This non-impregnate retraction-cord with thousands of interconnecting tiny loops is building a tubular cord. It guarantees easy application and has got a high absorption capacity. The cord doesn't frazzle and carries-out an optimate pressure on the sulcus.
Temporary retraction of marginal gingiva and therefore presentation of the preparation-border.


text:
Multimodal Transport and Transportation Technology Driven by Inevitable Growth
Carlos Castillo	by Carlos Castillo 5 July 2019 8 July
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Human civilization is, in many ways, the result of a raucous process of migrations, transformations and transferences. Rapid economic progress, robust international trade and transportation technology have spurred massive increases in trade. It is the same with tourism across international borders. Oceans and continents are no longer barriers but are now avenues. The rapid growth of multimodal transport has also contributed to the increase in trade.
Recent statistics bear witness to the effects of transportation technology. The value of merchandise exports rose to a staggering US$17.73 trillion between 2016 and 2017. It is a sum unimaginable a few decades ago. Tourism also registered an impressive expansion over the same period. It grew by around seven percent as international tourist arrivals reached some $1.32 billion across the globe. This is according to a report issued by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
Multimodal Transport: The Freedom of Movement
Clearly, transportation technology and multimodal transport have combined to encourage better trade opportunities. It also aims at increasing the mobile populations. Freedom of movement has invigorated both cultural exchange and commercial enterprise. And mobility has become key to any nation's progress and economic prosperity.
Experts believe that communications will play an important role in the developments in transportation technology.
Where shipment is concerned, the capability to combine different means of transport so cargo could be facilitated more efficiently is an innovation embodied by multimodal transport.
The rise of a new development paradigm has directed greater public attention to the need to improve the transportation technology in virtually every corner of the world. In Singapore, for instance, transportation technology has become vital to the continued growth of the local economy. The country's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system has blossomed into one of the most reliable and extensive railway networks in Southeast Asia. Such are the economic benefits that brought by the system that the Singaporean government has embarked on. The public works on the MRT network may last until the end of the coming decade.
Development experts in India, too, have begun to realize the tremendous economic benefits of an efficient, well-maintained national transportation technology. The world's third largest economy depends on improved public transportation to fuel its progress.
Economic growth is partly dependent on a nation's transportation system.
Transportation Technology of Caltrain
The rapid growth of public transport infrastructure throughout much of the world has highlighted the necessity of transparency and well-organized information dissemination. This need is perhaps illustrated best in California's Caltrain system. It is the fastest and most low-cost way to travel between San Francisco and San Jose. But while the transportation technology is state-of-the-art, long boarding times and service interruptions limit its utility for many would-be commuters. Some Caltrain staff claimed that 66 percent of the railway system's delays are due to issues like passengers carrying bicycles onto the trains.
Modern communications and transportation technology has begun to provide a solution. Startups are now working to improve transparency for the Caltrain railway network. For now, the goal is to use crowdsourcing data in an effort to move ticketing operations the calculation of fares to the smartphone. In all, the fledgling companies have made remarkable progress. Mobile apps like Interphone LLC's Caltrain can now automatically plan the most efficient trips possible for commuters along the Caltrain route. More effective mobile communications might even help inform passengers about relevant public transport rules and policies – such as those concerning the transport of bicycles along the system, if so designed.
The Silk Road: Communications and Transparency
Communications and transparency will no doubt play a crucial role in the success of China's ambitious and much-publicized Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI). The sprawling vision behind the effort connects Asia, China, and Europe along with several integrated transport systems. The ultimate aim is both formidable and multi-pronged: to boost economic progress, promote sustainable growth, and improve economic relations among contributing nations.
Communications will no doubt perform a critical function in the colossal endeavor, and the world knows it. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has declared that – in order to achieve its objectives — the BRI must make full use of modern information and communications technology (ICT). This will improve transparency and connectivity between participating nations and peoples.
"In addition, ICT contributes directly and indirectly to economic, social and environmental aspects of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)," reports UNESCAP.
Today, more than ever, geography is an influence rather than a restraint. Communications and transportation technology have therefore stepped onto the center stage. National wealth is ever more derived from the effects of mobility and real-time communications.
True, human culture and economic development may be said to be an impossible blend. But true also is the fact that with national progress comes the building of an identity in progress – one that is, let us hope in most cases, more confident, more optimistic, and more efficiently geared for new ways of doing business, new methods to cross time and distance, new means of communication.
Posted in Transportation Tagged Multimodal Transport Multimodal Transportation Planning Transportation Technology Urban Transportation Planning
The German Digital Council – Inviting Innovation and Insights for Future Digitization
Founder Depression: A Side Effect of the Entrepreneurial Bubble
Electric Vehicle and Autonomous Driving Converging in the Near Future
by Staff Writer 13 February 2018 15 March
Colorado Pushing for $24 Billion Hyperloop
by Staff Writer 12 December 2017 12 April
Ambitious Sidewalk Labs Toronto Project is Slowly Taking Shape
by Staff Writer 4 May 2018 3 July
Maven Car-Sharing: Monetizing Mobility and Expanding its Service
by Staff Writer 29 August 2018 15 March
Carbon Black Changes Transportation Industry
by Staff Writer 6 July 2017 10 July
Could Trucks and SUVs Cause Sedans to go Extinct?
by Staff Writer 6 June 2018 3 July


Rochdale Securities' analyst Richard Bove said fears of a possible impact of a European debt crisis on U.S. banks were overblown, with only Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase having a significant exposure to the crisis.
"Assuming some relatively worse case developments, it appears that Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase are at risk to the developments in Europe. No other American institution is," Bove wrote in a note.
Citing the filings from the International Financial Statistics Yearbook, released by the International Monetary Fund for the year 2010, Bove said Citigroup is at biggest risk with exposure of $12.3 billion in Italy and $10.8 billion in Spain.
JP Morgan Chase risks write downs on the $18.8 billion it loaned to Ireland, $12.2 billion to Italy and $12 billion to Spain, according to the filings.
The brokerage ruled out any risks from limited exposure to either Goldman Sachs , or Morgan Stanley and termed the exposure amount "not significant."
"The declines in the bank stock prices based on fears in this area (due to fear of financial crisis in Europe) seem to be meaningfully overdone," Richard Bove said.


There are many theories and regiments out there in the internet professing ultimate ways to remain healthy. The plethora of information online is massive. It's pretty much easy to get drown in information overload.
Plus, it is quite tricky how to tell which information is correct and which ones are false!
The solution is to always rely on science and fact-checking. So, in this article we will compile a number of means one can stay healthy. This is not based on some hearsay, but based on real scientific efforts.
1. Stay hydrated and be mindful of the liquids you take.
We've been taught to drink at least 8 glasses of water since we were young, but few people discuss how vital and life-giving the quality and structure of water is to our body.
What does 8 glasses of water really mean for us? In reality, drinking 64 oz of tap water (filled with chlorine, fluoride, and environmental particulate) does us little favor.
In his brilliant (but sometimes controversial) book, Your Body's Many Cries for Water, Dr. F. Batmanghelidj discusses the results of decades-long scientific studies, which reveal the relationship between water and ultimate health: You are not just what you eat – you are what you drink.
In his lectures, he often spoke about how the muscles that move our body are 75% water, that our blood plasma is 82% water, our lungs are 90% water, brain is 76% water – and even our bones are 25% water.
Just as our planet is covered with water, it is the foundation for our very cellular lives. And today, 80% of us are suffering from chronic dehydration, and many of us mistake hunger for thirst.
His pioneering work shows that Unintentional Chronic Dehydration (UCD), his unique term and field of study, becomes the underlying contributing cause of pain, chronic pain and nearly all of the degenerative diseases that plague our times: from heartburn and arthritis to colitis, cholesterol, and cancer.
These ailments can be prevented by increasing water intake on a regular basis. Humans need in excess of four pints of water each day. Water is used for digestion, detoxifying cells, watering the lungs, keeping the body alkalised and a host of cleaning duties, and not all water is created equal.
To rehabilitate our bodies from chronic dehydration, he recommends 2-3 liters of water a day, structured with a little bit of real salt.
2. Stay connected with nature as often as you can.
If you are most people, you are probably working on an 8-to-5 job and spend most of your days in the cities, in your office, and in the four walled room of your abode.
This is our routine, this is our life. We are accustomed to such lifestyle. Unfortunately, we are missing out on feeling connected with nature. This probably explains why travelling is most of us' ultimate work-life balance formula.
Now, let's talk about travelling a little later. Let's talk about the immediate benefits (or otherwise) of staying connected with nature.
For one, lack of time in the sun means you're not getting your Vitamin D, which is necessary for many, many important functions in the body, including constructing all of our hormones.
Studies show that being cloistered indoors leads to feelings of depression and stress, too. We are social animals after all.
Meanwhile, walking by the seashore, trekking the mountains, or strolling in the woods, provides a plethora of negative ions that balance our circadian rhythms, slows our heart rate appropriately, and creates a sense of peace and well being.
So, take a picnic lunch. Go for a hike on the weekend. Make it a priority to reconnect with the greater world beyond the one humans have made.
3. Choose healthy food choices like vegetables and fruits.
Did you know that a traditional Japanese diet today consists of some 11-15 servings of vegetables?
Meanwhile, our USDA food pyramid recommends a paltry 3-5. Knowing that there's a multitude of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients available in these rainbow colored foods should be all we need to hear to get us on the veggie bandwagon, but sadly, so many of us just don't eat them.
These colorful plant foods also contain antioxidants, which scavenge free radicals (causing cell damage and aging), aid longevity and youthfulness, and fight cancer. They cleanse the blood, offer hydration and healthy sugars, support the liver, regulate cholesterol levels, and promote healthy elimination. It doesn't hurt that they taste delicious either!
Make it a goal to put a rainbow on your plate. Be adventurous, try new things, challenge your palate. A good start is to aim for a salad and two types of veggies with dinner, and some fruit during the day or as dessert. It's so important to continue evolving nutritionally.
4. Take care of your gut (literally).
Perhaps you or someone you know has experienced this: noticing your digestion is hitting the skids.
You're feeling more bloated, uncomfortable, or gassy. You favorite foods are giving you heartburn when they never caused an issue before.
You read about how bad so many foods are: gluten, nightshades, dairy, eggs, sugar, fruit, and so you decide to remove the offending foods – no matter how health supporting it may actually be.
You feel better for a while, until, lo and behold, something else is causing your gut to complain. Outside of developing a true allergy later in life to a well-loved food , there's often one real reason why you can no longer eat the foods you've always eaten: your gut bacteria levels have hit painfully low numbers.
A healthy gut, which is necessary to eat and absorb healthy foods, depends on proper stores of gut bacteria. Our world is so dependent on antibiotics and so germ-a-phobic that many of our everyday habits work against the health of our stomach, as an environment in need of protecting itself. Eating probiotics foods like kefir and yogurt, kim-chi or sauerkraut or kombucha, are good ways to restore your good bacteria levels. Getting outside and playing in the dirt (camping, hiking, gardening, flag football) now and again, helps too.
5. Practice mindfulness, especially when it comes to how you breathe.
How many of you are aware of your breathing?
Unless you have a cold, and all of a sudden you can't breathe comfortably, or get the wind knocked out of you and you just can't catch your breath, most of us pay little attention to this important automatic activity. But our breath not only oxygenates the body, it expels toxins, and enlivens the tissues. It also helps us to process our emotions.
Ever notice how you breathe when you're angry, or happy, or sad? Your breathing rate will change in correspondence to how your emotional biology is working. It also helps with digestion. Many yoga enthusiasts go to class not just for a good workout, but to spend an hour breathing and feeling fully embodied.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, when we breathe through our mouths, we age the body. But when we breathe through our nose and do so efficiently, we access the lower lobes of our lungs where our anti-stress hormones get activated.
If you want to make sure your entire and soul body and soul is experiencing the benefits of good health, breathe!
So many wise people and traditional approaches to health recognize the fact that emotions play a foundational role when it comes to health and disease.
In particular, there are seven emotions that have a calculable effect directly on our biology. They are: sadness, anger, grief, timidity, fear and fright. While such ephemeral emotions cannot contribute pathologically they do however constitute what we consider healthful emotional aspects of well balanced persons.
When we do not allow ourselves to feel what we feel, when we limit our voice, and our deserved-ness to live the life we hope for, or love the body we have, the emotions we keep under lock and key can erupt like volcanoes, and if they don't, such long term suppression generates illness and imbalance in the body: physically, mentally and spiritually.
Don't put on hold for a single day more, the chance to be authentic with yourself about who you are. By expressing yourself you are not only freeing up your conscience, but you take a spiritual load off your physical shoulders.
7. Always get a good night's sleep (and some power naps) regularly.
We don't get enough sleep, pure and simple, and yet this is an enduring cure too much of what ails us. Sleep is our body, maintenance period. Damn, even your bank's' online banking systems have downtimes to maintain and upgrade their systems!
With enough sleep, our minds work better, we digest our meals better, we process stress and emotions more appropriately, and we just feel all around better about life.
It is not a secret that we grow and repair and rejuvenate our whole body when we sleep. If you don't know that yet, well now you do. Lack of it can lead to chronic issues of hypertension, a propensity for diabetes, or obesity, and other health problems.
8. Add some fat in your diet.
While our brain contains 76% of its structure as water, it is also composed of a high concentration of fat, and the best way to maintain proper brain function is to get that fat (like omega 3 and saturated fats) from our diet.
But it doesn't just help keep us smart. It's old news now that saturated fat doesn't contribute to heart disease after all, instead, it actually plays a key role in our cardiovascular health.
Loss of sufficient saturated fatty acids in white blood cells damages their ability to recognize and destroy foreign invaders, such as viruses, parasites and bacteria. It's also required for calcium to be effectively incorporated into bone.
Certain saturated fats, like those found in butter or coconut oil, all function as messengers in the body that directly influence our metabolism, and the release of insulin in particular.
Researcher Ray Peat explains that by including saturated fatty acids in our diet, we greatly diminish, or turn off entirely, the stress reactions in the body, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids amplify them. Who knew vegetable oils could cause us so much stress?
Dr. Mary Enig, Ph.D, a well known research expert in dietary fats and human health, made a case for having nearly half of the fats in your diet be saturated because of the above reasons. The right fats in your diet can also help you burn off unwanted body fat. Fat in the diet makes for a greater sense of satisfaction after meals, and even helps fight inflammation.
9. Stay mobile. Keep moving. Exercise even.
While this may be the most technologically advanced age we have ever been able to sustain, it is also most certainly the era of the couch potato.
When we make it a priority to be on the move everyday, whether we decide to hit the gym, swim, take a bike ride, catch a yoga, tai chi, or dance class, or go for a 30 minute walk after dinner around the neighborhood park, we are treating our body right.
With movement, we keep our lungs and cardiovascular system healthy, and the more we challenge the body gently, the fitter and the more amazing our body becomes, and I'm not talking about looking hot in a swimsuit, but literally more amazing, capable and comfortable.
When we exercise, even a good walk, cleanses our lymph system and helps our body to naturally excrete toxins, waste and unnecessary weight or aches and pains. Try making it a habit to commit 20-30 minutes everyday to moving your and enjoying your body.
This is one of the oldest, most ancient, most beneficial methods for self-care. It quiets the mind, and aligns our brain waves, it allows us to feel more at ease, more fully present, and deeply rested.
While many religions and philosophies have endorsed prayer, contemplation and meditation, it need not be tied to any dogma. Sometimes just closing your eyes and becoming aware of your breath can being a deeply calming influence over the whole mind-body organism. Even just 10-20 minutes a day can work wonders for your entire sense of self. Many masters have spoken this truth: if you're too busy to take 10-20 minutes just for you, then you're just too damn busy.
Health is not just a science, but an ongoing creative adventure that often takes some interesting twists and turns, and is always asking us to pay attention and keep waking up to what it means to be alive and vibrant in this world. Perhaps these ten tips are just the beginning. Are there any that you'd like to add to the list?
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Sharkey, L. (2016). 8 tips for ditching fad diets and staying fit in 2016. [online] The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/8-tips-to-get-fit-and-stay-healthy-throughout-the-year-without-becoming-obsessed-a6795751.html [Accessed 24 Jun. 2017].
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I-Team: UNLV collaborating in the race to send a person to Mars
by: George Knapp
Posted: May 6, 2019 / 05:39 PM PDT / Updated: May 6, 2019 / 05:53 PM PDT
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Inventor and businessman Elon Musk is one of several space entrepreneurs who is pushing for a permanent human presence on Mars. But a venture across millions of miles of hostile space is not only expensive but would be incredibly dangerous.
Some of the work being done to make a mission to Mars more likely is underway in Las Vegas, within the UNLV engineering department.
A few weeks ago, international news was made by a grad student whose algorithm made it possible to get the first photograph of a black hole. It turns out PHD candidates at UNLV's School of Engineering are tackling equally daunting tasks, trying to figure out how to transport people to Mars and how to get them back. It's a continuation of work that started in Nevada decades ago.
READ: JFK toured Nevada Test Site to check on classified project
A still-glistening facility tucked inside what used to be called the Nevada Test Site is a reminder of what could have been. NERVA, a program to develop a nuclear engine to propel humans to Mars and beyond proved the technology works but a planned 1980s mission to the red planet never happened. Budget cuts killed NERVA. The idea, though, lives on.
"At the Atomic Testing Museum, there was a historian from Los Alamos. He was just, like, 'who's ready to go to Mars?' And I was the only one who was like, yeah," said Kimberly Gonzalez, UNLV PHD candidate.
She didn't know at the time that she would get a chance to help make a future Mars mission possible. Gonzalez was chosen by NASA to spend this summer working on a nuclear fusion system that could get humans to Mars in a hurry. She grabbed NASA's attention because of work she's been doing with her mentor, UNLV engineering professor Dr. Bill Culbreth, picking up where NERVA left off.
They're experimenting with different materials that could produce a more efficient, less corrosive fuel element inside a nuclear engine. Greater efficiency would mean a human crew could get to Mars faster, which is a huge consideration.
"If you're taking only half the time to get to Mars, that's half the radiation you're exposed to, and so with radiation, with high levels of exposure, you can develop cancer," Gonzalez said. "The less time you spend in space, the less effects it will have on your health."
Kim's older sister is also a UNLV graduate student. She's now finishing her degree working at Los Alamos Lab. Culbreth, whose other students have moved on to classified work at sensitive facilities, has hints of cutting-edge research all over the engineering lab. Drones made from special composite materials, which were test flown at the Nevada National Security Site, capacitors capable of igniting fusion reactions, experiments on which molten salts might work best for future solar power plants but few of these get Culbreth as excited as a possible mission to Mars. He thinks humans need to go, not just robots.
"Getting humans onto the surface of Mars, onto the surface of Titan and other celestial bodies is important because they can flexibly adapt to new situations, investigate things beyond what the machines can do," said Dr. William Culbreth, UNLV engineering professor.
Culbreth laments the cancellation of NERVA decades ago but is excited by private efforts to get humans into space such as Elon Musk's powerful rockets and Robert Bigelow's space habitats. If the work being done by Kimberly and others pans out, Culbreth knows the perfect time for a manned mission.
"The next opportunity seems to be 2030," he said. "The reason, it's the closest approach between Mars and the Earth. We're both on the same side of the sun. That means we're about 50 or 60 million miles apart. It'd a great time for exploring Mars. It's something humankind needs to do. We need to be out in space. We need to be exploring."
"I've met a lot of the people working in nuclear rockets and if they'll lead me to Mars, I'll be happy, but if I ever went to Mars, I'd like to come back,"
Gonzalez has just returned from delivering a paper at a green energy conference in Paris. She will be leaving for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in a matter of weeks.
Culbreth's name was in the news a few months ago because of a paper written about hypersonic objects in space, part of a secret Pentagon research project.
by Shakala Alvaranga / Jul 19, 2019
LAS VEGAS (KLAS ) -- The Clark County School District needs more money to fund education in Nevada. One way they're proposing to get that money is by taxing you. But, the idea isn't coming without backlash from people who are fed up with broken promises.
Thursday night's meeting at the Clark County Government Center was a first of its kind discussion between the School District and Clark County Commissioners.
by Sasha Loftis / Jul 19, 2019
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- Four dogs took their first steps on American soil Thursday after a Las Vegas rescue saved them from a meat farmer in South Korea. They came from a life of torture and pain, but still have nothing but love to give.
Danielle Roth with Retriever Rescue of Las Vegas wants to make sure they spend the rest of their days feeling safe and at peace.
by Nikki Bowers / Jul 18, 2019
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- Bob's back! That was the exciting text message 8 News NOW Reporter Shakala Alvaranga received from the missing tortoise's owner, Peter Grave. Remember 8 News NOW first told you on July 12 how Grave was offering a $5,000 reward for Bob's safe return.
Grave had just moved into his home near Eastern and Pebble when his beloved pet tortoise disappeared from the back yard. The story about Bo's disappearance and his owner's heartbreak was one that tugged at so many heartstrings of the 8 News NOW viewers. It touched many people to the point it went viral. The post was shared thousands of times on the 8 News NOW Facebook page.


It's common knowledge that bacon goes perfectly well with a Bloody Mary. To be honest, it pretty much goes along with everything else on most menus, but it just makes these blood-red cocktails taste better and more flavorful somehow. It doesn't make sense to fry a few strips of bacon every time you drink the cocktail, even though the idea is pretty tempting. It's just too much hassle.
What would be perfect instead is Demitri's Bacon Rimshot Salts.
These are bacon-flavored salt crystals that's supposed to be places around the rim of the glass filled with the Bloody Mary. You can put some on a little dish and help yourself whenever you sip, but either way will do. It's the newest (and can I say, the best) way to enjoy Bloody Marys: salty and porky with a hint of smoke.


The purpose of the course: Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to improve and/or change their supervisory style and skills, which will contribute to improve work effectiveness.
Target participant: Project managers, project officers, counterparts, accountants and finance managers.
The purpose of the course: Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to effectively perform project financial management tasks which contribute to increase project effectiveness.