The Underground – Need to Know

Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: Why toothpaste makes everything taste bad, a dramatic zombie movie, a must-see documentary on the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, a bionic hand, and an American lawman that would make Clint Eastwood feel inadequate.

At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention, dammit, we will bring it to your attention. With The Underground, we mean to do exactly that: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about.

Don’t you remember the time you heard that first song from your favorite band? You made the decision to jump head first into that first album and then delve deeper into them. Now, you don’t remember a time where you haven’t listened to that band. If you play guitar, you don’t remember the time where you didn’t know how to play. We want to bring you new stuff that you didn’t know you need in your life to the point where you can’t remember not knowing about it. That’s The Underground.

1. Why the hell does toothpaste make everything you eat or drink after taste awful? We’ve all brushed our teeth and had a sip of orange juice. You can remember the taste like you can remember the taste of blood when you bite your tongue. But what causes the toothpaste to make everything taste like chalky garbage? Let this video explain it to you:

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in the zombie drama Maggie, and it looks amazing. Arnold’s comeback has been a bit rocky since he came back, but with the new Terminator coming out, and this film looking full of potential, I think he’ll be back, and he’ll be back better than ever.

A teenage girl in the Midwest becomes infected by an outbreak of a disease that slowly turns the infected into cannibalistic zombies. During her transformation, her loving father stays by her side.

Sounds like a simple story, but when you watch the trailer, it shows the hopelessness of an apocalypse and a Father having to care for his sick daughter. When I first viewed it, I thought, “This is The Road, but with zombies.” What also stood out was Schwarzenegger really breaking out all of his acting ability in this. He’s almost unrecognizable in how powerful he shows his emotions.

Watch the trailer to what could be one of the most powerful dramas of the year;

3. Inside Job is a documentary you need to see and show to your friends. Remember that whole Subprime Mortgage Crisis thing a fewar years ago that put America into one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression? Remember how those who caused it didn’t get in trouble, and it took years and years for the country to go from being in the dirt to being stronger than ever? Yeah. This is a movie about all of that.

It explains how it all got started, and shows the major players responsible for it and the smart people who predicted it but were muzzled because the rich need to be richer. It means a family getting thrown out of their homes for thinking they got a good deal. Once you watch this documentary, you’ll understand how it was built to bring down a country.

Check out the trailer below:

You’ll see Eliot Spitzer, who you know as the Governor of New York that was caught with a high-price call girl, but the guy is super smart and knows his stuff. The smartest people can make the dumbest mistakes. You also see Senator Elizabeth Warren interviewed as well. I’ve viewed this movie multiple times just so I could explain it to people who think they know what they are talking about by just blaming one person when it’s really decades of deregulation and stupid decisions.

4. Lose a hand in some tragic injury? Well, bionic hands controlled by your brain are happening. There was a scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Luke loses his hand and gets it replaced with a bionic one that looked so real that I thought it was. Well, this could soon and may already becoming a reality.

These are the first such individuals who have gone through this particular treatment plan. These are the prior people who got this way of treatment which named as Bionic Re Construction by the doctors. In this operation errors-prone hand to separate voluntarily, transplants of muscle and nerve and then through brain moving their hands training are involved. Medical University of Vienna, Dr Oskar Aszmann configured the methodologies with his fellows together. Dr Aszmann said in an interview with news agency, the Associated Press. This is the first time that we give a hand to the patient, which is used by the power of the brain, they added, if I see a patient like that five or seven years ago, we just shrugged but we cannot do anything for him. He said that transplant in hand like that is also facing some problems, For example, such people take medications for life time through which transplanted hand to the body can be safe from rejection or cancellation. The research report has been published in the “Lenest” on Wednesday, 25 February 2015 by Dr Aszmann and his fellow team about the new way of this medical treatment procedure. From those who have been bionic hand, the 30-year-old Milorad Marinkovic is one of them. 10 years ago, Milorad Marinkovic lost his right hand in a motorcycle accident. (Via)

If I lose a hand, and there is a way that it can be replaced where it can feel what it touches with electrical signals from my brain, I’m down. If it can’t, well, I have a lot of guitars to put on to Ebay.

5. Introducing Bass Reeves, (July 1838 – 12 January 1910). He was one of the first African American Deputy U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi River, arrested over 3,000 felons and shot and killed fourteen outlaws in self-defense.

Justified is one of the best shows on television. It’s about a Southern Deputy U.S. Marshal that battles against all the meth dealers, drug deals, robbers, and killers in the region. Bass Reeves feels like that type of badass, but he’s real, and even more badass. He was even mentioned in the series on numerous occasions. Here’s a summary of his career of such a legendary U.S. Marshal:

Reeves and his family farmed until 1875, when Isaac Parker was appointed federal judge for the Indian Territory. Parker appointed James F. Fagan as U.S. Marshal, directing him to hire 200 deputy U.S. Marshals. Fagan had heard about Reeves, who knew the Indian Territory and could speak several Indian languages. He recruited him as one of his deputies and Reeves was the first African-American deputy west of the Mississippi River. Reeves was initially assigned as a Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, which also had responsibility for the Indian Territory. Reeves served in that district until 1893, when he transferred to the Eastern District of Texas in Paris, Texas. In 1897 he was transferred to the Muskogee Federal Court. Reeves worked for thirty-two years as a Federal peace officer in the Indian Territory. He was one of Judge Parker’s most valued deputies. Reeves brought in some of the most dangerous criminals of the time, but was never wounded, despite having his hat and belt shot off on separate occasions. Once he had to arrest his own son for murder. In addition to being a marksman with a rifle and pistol, Reeves, during his long career, developed superior detective skills. When he retired in 1907, Reeves claimed to have arrested over 3,000 felons. He is said to have shot and killed fourteen outlaws to defend his own life. One of his sons was charged with the murder of his wife. Marshal Reeves was disturbed and shaken by the incident but demanded to accept the responsibility of bringing his son to justice. His son was eventually tracked and captured, tried and convicted. He served his time in Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas before being released and living the rest of his life as a responsible and model citizen. (Via)

I can’t think of a more amazing sounding lawman. He may also have been a big inspiration for The Lone Ranger, but Reeves was even more of a epic and is considered one of the greatest lawmen of all time. Even Morgan Freeman has expressed interest in playing him in a movie. Yes, please!

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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.