OLD MUSIC

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2.			Singapore            77,436
3.			United Kingdom  19,619

• I've never been able to explain this, but the viewership from Singapore is usually off the charts.  Perhaps someone from Singapore can contact me to explain why.  I will be there from December 23 until December 30, when we depart on the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Luminara for Hong Kong.  

Well, now on to the topic of today.  Many of us, especially me, are getting too old.  One indicator of aging is your choice of music.  I seem to gravitate to mostly rock/roll/popular music before 1990.  I somehow missed the period from 1990 till today. which just whipped through my life without making any impact on my mind.  Say I go back to 1930:

• I know every top ten song in the 30s.  And I wasn't even born yet.  The star of this decade was Fred Astaire.  He also dances a bit.

1. Judy Garland, “Over the Rainbow,” 1939.
2. Glenn Miller, “Moonlight Serenade,” 1939.
3. Artie Shaw, “Begin the Beguine,” 1938.
4. Bing Crosby, “Pennies from Heaven,” 1936.
5. Fred Astaire, “The Way You Look Tonight,” 1936.
6. Fred Astaire & Leo Reisman, “Night & Day,” 1932.
7. Kate Smith, “God Bless America,” 1939.
8. Benny Goodman, “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)”, 1937.
9. Fred Astaire, “Cheek to Cheek,” 1935.
10. The Andrews Sisters, “Bel Mir Bist Du Schoen,” 1938.

• Same for the 40s.  Know them all.

1. Bing Crosby, “White Christmas,” 1942.
2. Vaughn Monroe, “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky,” 1949.
3. Glenn Miller, “In the Mood,” 1940.
4. Bing Crosby, “Swinging on a Star,” 1944.
5. Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters, “Don’t Fence Me In,” 1944.
6. Dinah Shore, “Buttons & Bows,” 1948.
7. The Mills Brothers, “Paper Doll,” 1943.
8. Dick Haymes, “You’ll Never Know,” 1943.
9. Les Brown & Doris Day, “Sentimental Journey,” 1945.
10. The Andrews Sisters, “Rum & Coca-Cola,” 1945.

• And 50s.  This is my favorite decade.

1. Bill Hailey & His Comets, “Rock Around the Clock,” 1955.
2. Bobby Darin, “Mack the Knife,” 1959.
3. Elvis Presley, “Jailhouse Rock,” 1957.
4. Nat King Cole, “Mona Lisa,” 1950.
5. Doris Day, “Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be),” 1956
6. The Kingston Trio, “Tom Dooley,” 1958
7. Anton Karas, “Third Man Theme,” 1950
8. Elvis Presley, “Heartbreak Hotel,” 1956
9. Doris Day, “Secret Love,” 1954
10. Les Paul & Mary Ford, “Vaya Con Dios (May God Be With You),” 1953

• The Beatles dominated the 60s.

1. The Beatles, “Hey Jude,” 1968
2. The Rolling Stones, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” 1965
3. The Beatles, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” 1964
4. Procol Harum, “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” 1967
5. Roy Orbison, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” 1964
6. Elvis Presley, “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” 1960
7. Elvis Presley, “It’s Now or Never,” 1960
8. Archies, “Sugar, Sugar,” 1969
9. The Beatles, “Get Back,” 1969
10. The Beatles, “She Loves You,” 1964

• Know all these 70s songs.

1. Bee Gees, “Stayin’ Alive,” 1978
2. George Harrison, “My Sweet Lord,” 1971
3. The Beatles, “Let It Be,” 1970
4. Abba, “Dancing Queen,” 1976
5. John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, “You’re The One That I want,” 1978
6. John Lennon, “Imagine,” 1971
7. Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” 1976
8. The Village People, “YMCA,” 1978
9. Mungo Jerry, “In the Summertime,” 1970
10. Blondie, “Heart of Glass,” 1979

• Into the 80s, fine.

1.  Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two),” 1980

• The group first formed in 1965.
• The song deserves some elaboration, for there were 3 parts, going on for almost 10 minutes.
• #2 was the most popular.

2. Irene Cara, “Flashdance…What a Feeling,” 1983

3. Kim Carnes, “Bette Davis Eyes,” 1981

4. The Police, “Every Breath You Take,” 1983

5. Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean,” 1983

6. Stevie Wonder, “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” 1984

7. USA for Africa, “We Are the World,” 1985

8. George Michael, “Careless Whisper,” 1984

9. Survivor, “Eye of the Tiger,” 1982

10. Madonna, “Like a Prayer,” 1989

• However, in the 90s, I don't remember the #s 7 to 10.

1. Brian Adams, “Everything I Do (I Do it for You),” 1991
2. Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You,” 1992
3. Celine Dion, “My Heart Will Go On,” 1998
4. Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U,” 1990
5. Elton John, “Candle in the Wind ’97,” 1997
6. Cher, “Believe,” 1998
7. Coolio, “Gangsta’s Paradise,” 1995
8. P Diddy & Faith Evans, “I’ll Be Missing You,” 1997
9. Britney Spears, “Baby One More Time,” 1999
10. Spice Girls, “Wannabe,” 1996

• 
  I can't believe this, for not only don't I know the top ten in the 2000s (2000-2009)....I don't know the TOP 100 songs (from Billboard).  #1 is How You Remind Me by Nickelback.  Never heard of them.  So I went to Wikipedia and learned that this is a Canadian rock band which formed in 1995.  Went to You Tube to watch that video, and that was the first time I heard HYRM.

• 
  So turned to the video of Billboard's Hot 100 songs of the 21st century, which includes music from this year.  Of course I recognized people like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, but not the songs they were performing.  I recognized something by Adele (Rolling in the Deep) and Pitt Bull.  Liked Moves Like Jagger by the Maroon Five.  Boom Boom Pow Pow and I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas, two of my favorites.  Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams.  Of course, Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson, to which I have in the past actually danced to on two cruise ships.  I watched the entire 17 minute video of this top 100.

Much of the above is music of the USA.  There is a Billboard Global, but you need membership.  Also, this source only began in 2019, so all the songs listed are current.  BTS has the most #1 hits with 7.

Is there a Billboard for classical music?  Something that tracks the best pieces or albums and publishes a regular ranking?

• Nothing, really.
• iTopChart does have something, but to access, you need to sign off on a bunch of declarations that will scare you, and not get much.

I'll close with three production from Netflix:

• Jersey Boys (2014)
• Got only 51/62 scores from Rotten Tomatoes, but enjoyed this film.
• I thought it was better than the Broadway show version, which I've seen on two occasions.  Certainly was a different script.
• Of course, the Jersey Boys is the group led by Frankie Valli.

• 
  Pig (2021)
• Great Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 97 and 83.
• Nicolas Cage plays a roughed up (looks beaten up through most of the film).  Fine performance.
• About a famous chef in Portland, Oregon who got disenchanted with the profession and became a recluse truffle hunter, who had a pig, which was stolen.
• 
  Eternaut (2025)
• Super Rotten Tomatoes scores of 95/89.
• This is a finely made series from Argentina about survivors of a deadly snowfall as the first stage of an alien invasion, released on Netflix 30April2025.

• 
  The special effects were terrific.  I don't think I have ever seen a movie from Argentina before.
• Eternaut was first attempted in 1968, but the project was cancelled because of the cost.

• 
  Resurrected on numerous occasions, but alway with failure.
• Language spoken is Spanish.
• The final episode 6 ended with mostly questions because the conclusion will come in Season 2 with perhaps 8 episodes.  
• Looking forward to Season 2.

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DOGE LIVES ON

I've been featuring Elon Musk the past couple of days, and start off with him again because this was his farewell moment in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump this morning.  He is wearing a black Make American Great Again cap. 

Earlier today, the New York Times reported:

As Elon Musk entered President Trump’s orbit, he told people he was taking so much ketamine that it was affecting his bladder. He was also taking Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, and he traveled with a daily medication box of about 20 pills.  At the same time, he faced an increasingly turbulent family life.

If you're barred from reading the NYT, try the Guardian version.  This newspaper indicated:

Popular podcaster and public intellectual Sam Harris, who publicly ended his friendship with Musk, wrote in a January newsletter: “There is something seriously wrong with his moral compass, if not his perception of reality.”  

From Wikipedia:

Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, determinism, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Harris came to prominence for his criticism of religion, and he is known as one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism, along with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett.^[2][3][4]

Spend an hour with these Four Horsemen.  Part 2 of this discussion.  I referenced Harris quite a bit in my chapter on  religion in SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity.  

The End of Faith by Sam Harris was particularly influential.  Harris was a Stanford undergrad when he got so interested in spiritual insights without the use of drugs, that when a sophomore, he left school to study meditation in India and Nepal.

He returned to earn a B.S. in Philosophy in 2000, wrote this book immediately after 9/11/2001, and went on to gain a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA.  To quote him on his point that religion contains bad ideas:  one of the most perverse misuses of intelligence we have ever devised.

So back to DOGE, the staff will remain.  Who will run the effort?

Musk's efforts at the cost-cutting initiative will be carried forward by Trump, his Cabinet secretaries as well as DOGE appointees, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

"The DOGE leaders are each and every member of the President's cabinet -- and the president himself -- who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government," Ms Leavitt said.

Actually, three candidates have been mentioned to head DOGE:

• Even though he is running for Governor of Ohio in the 2026 election, Vivek Ramaswamy is still considered to be the favorite.
• Amy Gleason, currently the acting administrator of DOGE, could just step up.
• Russell Vought is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget and key figure behind Project 2025.  He is has a self-proclaimed vision to shrink government.

And if you still haven't figured out why Musk is many times pictured with this dog, I explained the link in my posting of 24November2024.  It is a Shiba Inu dog from Japan called Kabosu. From that article:

Read the story of how dog was intentionally misspelled to doge, and how it became associated with Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency.  Kabosu passed away in May of this year at the age of 18. 

14-year old Faizan Zaki of Plano, Texas won the 100th Spelling Bee. 

• He correctly spelled éclaircissement to emerge victorious.  Never heard of it and is a noun meaning enlightenment. 
• Was runner-up last year.  
• Spent 5-6 hours daily and 7-8 hours on weekends scanning a dictionary for words he didn't recognize, writing them down.
• That routine, he said, was more enjoyment for him than practice, something he has been doing for 6 years.
• Next, he'll try the International Mathematical Olympiad.

The National Hurricane Season begins on June 1, but the East Pacific already has a tropical storm, named Alvin, as the first real ocean storm.  Not expected to do much, and will head for Baja without becoming a hurricane.

For the record, here are some graphics.

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THE COMING OF THE NEXT COVID-19 VARIANT?

During the pandemic, Thursday was my day for COVID-19.  Looks like there is a new variant that could become serious, so I return today for an update.  But first, yesterday I ended with input from Elon Musk.  Today I will start with him.  From the New York Times:

Elon Musk is leaving Washington. In a post on X last night, he confirmed for the first time what has become increasingly clear for weeks — that his work with the Trump administration and DOGE is coming to an end. He thanked Trump “for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.” 

One more matter dealing with politics.  The New York Times this morning also showed the following graphic, which is startling:

Trump won because many counties shifted from Democratic to Republican.  Ironically, Democrats improved in mostly richer counties.  What has happened is that Republicans are now making gains in working-class areas.  Wonder what will happen in November 2026 when they see that President Trump has aced them out to only support the rich.  That is, if Trump does not cancel that election.

What to Know about the new COVID-19 variant named NB.1.8.1:

• SARS-CoV-2 has mutated again, now into a variant called NB.1.8.1.  It is part of the Omicron family, which means that current vaccines and immunity from recent infections should provide some protection against serious symptoms.
• Symptoms are similar to other COVID-19 strains.  There seems to be potential, however, for the NB.1.8.1 spreading more easily among people.

• 
  This virus has caused a jump in infections in China, and a few cases have recently appeared in the U.S.
• The first known appearance was late in March, seen in travelers from China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
• NB.1.8.1 is now the dominant strain in China, where cities have seen spikes in emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
• Cases are being reported in California, Hawaii, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.
• Every year since 2020, COVID cases have peaked in the U.S. between June and August.  Last summer, the FLiRT variants drove a late summer surge.

• 
  Variant LP8.1 currently accounts for more than 70% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
• In May 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expert vaccine committee indicated that the fall/winter vaccine will continue to be the JN.1 vaccine, and did not specify whether the updated shot should even target LP8.1.  Part of the logic is that all three variants are from the Omicron family and are related.

• Variant LP8.1 also leads in the world.

• How best to protect yourself?  The JN.1 vaccine should be mostly protective.
  

• However, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy recently announced that the CDC will no longer recommend this vaccination for healthy children and pregnant women, and previously, the FDA indicated that vaccination of healthy adults will not be recommended until vaccine makers conduct additional studies to prove its safety and effectiveness.  This means that insurers may no longer cover the cost of that shot.
• We now have an anti-vaccine-minded administration.  Unless attitudes change, you will need to pay for any COVID vaccinations for the next cycle.

Finally, Worldometer still reports on COVID-19 cases for those countries that participate.

• Last week, number of cases:  World 45,737, #1 Russia 19,954, #2 USA 15,599 and #3 Australia 4,992.
• Deaths in the past week:  World 363,  #1 USA 173, #2 Russia 69 and #3 Germany 54.
• Cases in the past week per million population: #1 Australia 191, #2 Russia 137, #3 Hong Kong 92 and #6 USA 47.
• Mortality rate 0.8%.
• Only 33 countries reported.
• 
  China did not.  However, I found a source that said between March 31 and May 4, the number of positives rose from 7.5% to 16.2%.  According to the U.S. CDC, in April, China had 168,507 cases.  Remember, during the past week, those 33 reporting countries reported 45,737 cases. Two days ago the New York Post said:  

Highly infectious new COVID strain from China that led to massive spike in hospitalizations has spread to the US — including NYC

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