Some random Monday stuff

*  What's going on with Firefox, and why it is being advertised heavily on the (limited) social media I use?   I asked Claude.ai and it said this:  

The most likely explanation is a new Mozilla campaign called "Billionaire Blast Off". It looks like it launched in late September 2026, but I only found one report on it, from a German tech site, so treat the details as unconfirmed. I can't tell from here whether it's the ad you're seeing.

Mozilla says it's timed to Firefox's 21st anniversary in November, and it deliberately positions Firefox against rival browsers backed by tech billionaires.

I still use it as my default browser, on laptop anyway.  It does have a tiny share of the market now, though.  

*  Brisbane weather is a tad odd this year.  With all of the build up of the El Nino, I been expecting something, but not what we have been getting.   It seemed that winter was cloudier than usual, although without that much rain, and not actually all that cold (probably due to the cloud, given how it is dry, clear Brisbane nights that make for colder temperatures here.)   And then August and September seem to have cooler nights that usual, and (apart from a very brief burst of high heat a couple of weeks ago), the days feel cooler for this time of year too.

It's certainly been dry for a month or two now, and the grass is browning everywhere.  Possibly storms tomorrow, I see.   No hail and wind, I hope.

*  I've been wandering around Youtube looking into the hitherto unknown world (to me, and presumably 99.9% of my readers) of Asian popular music.  Sure, the Korean stuff is easy to check out as it does have an international audience, but Mandopop is a world of its own.   Have I mentioned this before, but Taiwanese music video clips are very often of high cinematic quality, such that I feel sure that their cinema directors (who I think are routinely great with the cinematography) cut their teeth on music video, or perhaps just never give it up as a source of income.   So, even if the lyrics are completely incomprehensible, they can still be good to watch.

Here's an example:  a folk rock band with the English name "Your woman sleep with others" (!):

  

 I like their sound! Then there is another group Cosmos People who seem very popular.  This video is not cinematic, but it's very charming and the song is impossible to dislike: 

I suppose I should mention the so-called King of Mandopop, Jay Chou.  Every Chinese speaking person in the world knows of him, and he's been around for more than 20 years now.   But the handful of his songs I have listened to strike me as OK, but nothing overly appealing.  He does sometimes spend a lot of his money on videos, though, if this recent one is any indication.   I gather that he has done some controversial things that might be hurting his popularity a little, but overall, he does look as if he takes himself very seriously, and I prefer happier looking pop musicians, for the most part.

Moving to another bit of Asia, to my surprise, Youtube recommended an Indian indie rock band the F16s who seem to have been around for some years, but have recently put out music again.  They definitely don't take themselves too seriously (look at some of the song titles such as "Sucks to be Human"), but I really like this song and its eccentric video, even though I don't know what it means and what the nappies are about:

 

OK, I might end on a return to KPop, and the endless stream of boy bands who look very similar, sound very similar and do very similar things. I would say most fall into the category of "mostly harmless", but hardly worth watching. [My daughter has always said that she doesn't understand the appeal of the semi feminised fashion aesthetic, and wouldn't want to date any guy with better skin and make up than hers. :)]

That said, I think this group 82Major looks a tad (just a tad) more masculine than some, and I actually like this song, but they are not yet super popular.  (They don't appear on any list of popular or "best" boybands I googled.)   Would be funny if I picked them as being a future success, but given the ridiculous competition they face, probably not going to happen.  Anyway, this song is one of those that has a simple  riffy thing thrown in (probably by the producer) that is the song's making.  (Rather like "I'm a Believer", which I think will always be the best example of that.)