mwalimu

I was out somewhere recently and heard some music that was fronted by traditional bluegrass instruments like fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar, and mandolin, but it was backed up by an EDM/techno dance beat and synths, with some synth lead interplaying with the bluegrass leads. It was really quite amazing, or at least I thought it was. I don't expect my description is enough for anyone to give a title or artist, but can anyone at least point me to some songs, artists, or albums fitting this description?

I once found a list of the top 200 classical composers along with their nationality, and noticed that every one of them is European except a dozen or so from the last couple of hundred years who were from the USA, and a couple of Canadians. None at all from Japan, China, India, Australia, Africa, Latin America or the Middle East, and chances are those from North America were of European descent.

This led me to conclude that classical music is a Eurpoean genre, but it left me wondering, what do these other cultures and regions of the world have that is comparable to classical music, that represents the same niche in their cultural history?

Can anyone recommend an Android music player app that supports:

- ReplayGain (should be able to select either album gain and track gain);

- Gapless play;

- Album shuffle?

By album shuffle, I don't mean shuffling the tracks within an album. I mean having a possibly large number of albums loaded, choosing an album at random and playing the whole album in order. Also note that an "album" might be an actual album but not necessarily; it could also be two or more consecutive tracks from an album, all movements of a classical piece, or a single track.

I wouldn't mind paying a few dollars for a decent player that supports all of the above features with .mp3 files (since that's almost entirely what my music library consists of).

I'm looking for a heart rate monitor I can wear during exercise such as running, one that I can program with a target range. It would produce an audible tone if I reach or exceed the top of the range, and a different tone at or below the bottom of the range. I might use it, for instance, to run until I hear the top tone, then drop to a walk until I hear the bottom tone.

Any recommendations would be appreciated. It could either be a standalone device or a combined monitor and smartphone app.

Over the last 40 years, college tuition has increased at a rate 4x the general inflation rate. Some attribute this to cuts in state funding to colleges and universities, but this is not the case according to a number of investigations, which have found that states still provide as much or more financial support to colleges as they did back then. The big difference they found was that colleges have greatly expanded the number of administrative positions over that time, which of course means that student tuition has to pay their salaries and the cost of their workspace.

So what do all these additional administrative employees do? How were colleges able to get by without them a few decades ago?

A buffer car is a different type of car at the beginning and/or end of a unit train consisting of nothing but tank cars, usually a covered hopper or a boxcar. But what purpose does it serve?

After hearing various commentary by sportscasters covering horse races, and especially Steve Coburn's rant after the 2014 Belmont Stakes, there's one thing I don't understand.

Why is a horse running his third race in five weeks at a disadvantage compared to a fresh horse, one who hasn't raced during that time?

I can understand that a certain amount of time is required to recover, heal up and recharge after any sort of athletic event, and I can see where that would be a concern if the horses had to run in more than one race in a day, or even on consecutive days, but it seems to me that three races in five weeks, or even one a week, ought to be far below the threshold where that would be a factor. Don't these horses do training runs between races?

Could someone try the following and tell me if it works?

You need the following:

1. A digital camera with sweep panorama capability

2. A turntable (or potter's wheel or similar)

3. A coffee mug with a wrap-around image

Place the coffee mug on the turntable and center it. Set up the camera to photograph the coffee mug. Start the turntable and wait for it to come up to speed. Take a "sweep panorama" image for a full rotation of the coffee mug.

Does this result in a seamless picture of the image on the coffee mug?

Here are a few I am familiar with:

Jimi Hendrix could play a feedback solo without an amplifier.

Jimi Hendrix once received a noise complaint... from Los Angeles International Airport.

The strings on Jimi Hendrix's guitar were made of tool steel.

Guitar pedals were invented so other guitarists could make sounds Jimi Hendrix made without pedals.

In Dungeons and Dragons, if you find Jimi Hendrix's guitar, you become invincible.

One of my young adult children recently made three office visits to a medical provider, none of which exceeded an hour and none of which involved any "hands-on" medical procedures; they may have taken his weight/temp/BP/pulse but the remainder of the visits were basically consultation/counseling. The son in question has health insurance through both his own employer and through mine. However, the medical provider in question seems to be using an approach of "set the prices so high that they will exceed any insurer's covered amount so that we can get the maximum payout". In this case, the provider is trying to charge about $3700 for three office visits. Negotiated discounts with one of the insurers will drop it by 10% and the combined payout of both insurers is about $1400, leaving about $1900 outstanding that the medical provider may be billing us for. This exceeds by a huge amount the copay we might reasonably have expected to owe for services of this nature (I would have thought $50 per visit would be reasonable if a little steep; anecdotally, my son claims he was told would be covered by insurance and would cost little or nothing out of pocket).

Some recent news stories on medical costs indicate that medical charges of this nature should not be treated as a final amount owed, but as a starting point for negotiation. Frankly, I strongly dislike the fact that I am in this position, but it may well be that the only way to avoid paying the full remaining balance is to negotiate. I'm worried that having already negotiated 10% off with one of the insurance carriers they may be unwilling or less willing to negotiate further discounts with me. I have no idea how to approach this. Can anyone offer any suggestions on how best to engage in negotiations of this nature with a medical provider?

I've already reviewed the Wikipedia articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthera_hybrid and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felid_hybrid , which discuss ligers, leopons, blynxes, servicals, and numerous other hybrids. None of the hybrids mentioned has a snow leopard parent, but I could not find anything that says it can't happen.