EFTA00638630.pdf

From: To: Bcc: Subject: Date: Attachments: Inline-Images: Gregory Brown undisclosed-recipients:; jeevacation@gmail.com Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.. 9/25/2016 Sun, 25 Sep 2016 07:24:33 +0000 Fela Kuti bio.docx; The:Anti&tic_Apocalypse_Advances_Dr._Mercola_September_20,_2916.docx image.png; image(1).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png; image(9).png; image(10).png; image(11).png; image(12).png; image(13).png; image(14).png; image(I5).png; image(16).png; image(17).png; image(18).png; image(19).png; image(20).png; image(21).png; image(22).png; image(23).png; image(24).png; image(25).png; image(26).png; image(27).png DEAR FRIEND Arms in the Air — Shot by Police How Many Times Does This Have to Happen Before White America Understands That This is a Serious Crisis Video of the Shooting - Web Link: https://youtu.beirmifTEZRBko EFTA00638630 Last Friday unarmed 40-year-old Terence Crutcher and father of four young children was fatally shot by Tulsa, Oklahoma Police Officer Betty Shelby. Crutcher was heading home from class at Tulsa Community College, where he had been studying music appreciation when he experienced car trouble and his SUV stalled. Both Police dash cam and helicopter video shows that Crutcher's hands were in the air from all views as four armed Police officers approached. Footage clearly shows that Crutcher made no aggressive moves or sudden movements that could have been considered a threat or life- threatening toward the officer. The video shows Crutcher walking toward his SUV with his arms held in the air, as Shelby follows behind him with her gun drawn and a second officer approaches with his Taser drawn. He has his back to her and the other officer. Crutcher appears to lean toward the SUV with Shelby at his side and the other officer behind him. A single shot can then be heard and other officers run toward the SUV. The Tulsa Police Department released other videos from the shooting. The first video shows the scene of the shooting from a Police helicopter. In the video, one of the helicopter pilots says, Crutcher, "looks like a bad dude ... might be on something." In the video, one officer can be seen deploying his Taser and the other officer then fires her gun. Then after having shot Crutcher, it appears that it look like a couple minutes went by before anyone actually checked on him as far as pulse or to give medical assistance — leaving this innocent man to die on the cold asphalt like a dog. As usual the Police officers on the scene tried to cover up this senseless killing by claiming that Crutcher had not obeyed their instructions — except that a civilian who is expecting assistance from these same officers and does not want to lie down spread eagle on the cold pavement is not reason enough for any Police officer to even tase him, let alone shoot him in cold blood. This wasn't a car EFTA00638631 chase. This wasn't someone that the authorities was trying to apprehend. This wasn't someone who was drunk and disorderly. This was an unarmed father of four heading home from a community college where he was studying music appreciation. Then several days later police in Charlotte, NC shot another black man, Keith Lamar Scott (a father of seven), who had suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident a few years earlier, as his wife (Rakeyia Scott) pleaded with the officers to not shoot him, "He doesn't have a gun, he has TBI (traumatic brain injury). He is not going to do anything to you guys, he just took his medicine." She also shouts to Scott, who is blocked in the video by cars, saying, "Come on out of the car, Keith. Don't do it." Within seconds, four shots ring out in quick succession. "Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him? He better not be (expletive) dead!" she shouts. Rakeyia continues to record, yelling at the officers that she is not going to go near them. "I'm going to record you. He better be alive." She also asks the officers if they have called for an ambulance. Whether or not Scott had a gun is not the point, as North Carolina is an open-carry state, meaning that it is legal for any adult to carry a gun without a license. But obviously that is only true if you are white. Secondly, how come with guns drawn four police officers felt that they were in danger, when the only one in real danger was Scott? Unlike Tulsa, the murder of Scott incited four days of civil unrest to which Donald Trump's response was to show no compassion for the protesters — blaming the rioters instead of addressing the underlying problem. We've seen back-to-back deaths like this before. In July, Philando Castile was shot and killed in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. His fiancée, Diamond Reynolds, filmed a graphic video that showed Castile bleeding to death from gunshot wounds. The officer "shot him three times because we had a busted taillight," Reynolds says in the clip. The day before Castile was killed, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old father of five, became the 135th black person killed by police this year. Police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, fatally shot Sterling following an encounter with Officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake. The two officers were responding to reports of a man carrying a gun, threatening others and selling CDs in front of a Triple S convenience store. Two videos of the incident, apparently filmed by witnesses, were released to the media. One showed a detained Sterling lying on the ground as officers hovered over him before shooting him at close range. A second video offered a dearer perspective, showing that Sterling wasn't reaching for his pockets and didn't have anything in his hands. Since the 2014 death of 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of police in Ferguson, Missouri, the media has reported extensively that police arrest and kill black men at far higher rates than other groups. Six out of 10 black men say they have been treated unfairly by police because of their race, according to a 2015 study. Based on The Guardian's data, black males between the ages of 15 and 34 are nine times more likely to be killed by police than any other demographic. This group also accounted for 15 percent of all 2015 deaths from law enforcement encounters, even though black males in this age range make up just 2 percent of the U.S. population. In 2015, The Guardian estimates, at EFTA00638632 least 306 black people were killed by U.S. police. The Washington Post puts the number of black people who were shot dead last year at 258. Activists have called for diversifying America's predominantly white police force. But interactions between black officers and black civilians can be stained by violence as well. A 2007 study found that black residents of Washington, D.C., felt as though black cops treated them more harshly than white officers did. A 2006 study of Cincinnati police records discovered black officers were more likely than white officers to arrest black suspects. "Race is a trigger for police brutality," Jack Glaser, an associate professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. The reasons for this may lie in the history of policing in America and the fact that modern-day policing, at least in the South, can trace its lineage to slave patrols. But statistics and history aside, Keith Scott, Terence Cnitcher, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile didn't deserve to die. "Sterling was a black man who lived in an America that consistently devalues, disrespects and destroys black lives," HuffPost Black Voices editor Lilly Workneh wrote in July. "Now is not the time to stay silent about these injustices. Black men and women have raised their voices to declare that black lives matter and to say the names of those who have died unjustly." How many more black men and women have to die at the hands of people who are supposed to protect them? Where is your shock and outrage my white friends ****** So True How Mass Incarceration is Hurting Our Communities "If rich folks' kids get in trouble, they go to rehab. Poor folks' kids get in trouble, they go to prison." Web Link: https://voutu.be/hZZmMrFQzVs EFTA00638633 Van Jones ****** It Finally Happened Bitcoin investors lost more than a third as a result of a hack. Inline image 1 As I speculated last year and again recently one of the weaknesses of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is that they can be hacked and boy was I right. Last month, nearly 120,000 bitcoins were stolen from Hong-Kong based exchange Bitfinex when it was hacked. The exchange allows users to trade in several different forms of cryptocurrency, as well as deposit U.S. dollars into their account. The company later decided to spread these losses among all investors on the platform, including investors who never used the digital currency, and took 36.067 percent from each account. As a result, Investors had more than a third of the value of their accounts on bitcoin exchange Bitfinex wiped out when the site "socialized" its losses from a hack. Legal experts say that these investors may be able to pursue the company through the courts. Lawyers Jef Klazen and Randall Arthur, from law firm Kobre & Kim, said Bitfinex customers may have legal recourse against the exchange, but it depended on their situation and contractual agreements. "Customers who received the haircut might be able to assert some type of misappropriation claim against Bitfinex for having their accounts reduced in order to soften the blow to the customers whose accounts were hacked and suffered the losses," they said. Continuing on, "other potential claims that might be available to customers are negligence or other tort claims arising from Bitfinex's handling of their accounts, such as an alleged lack of adequate security features, and possible breach of contract claims." EFTA00638634 Joseph Schweitzer is an investor on Bitfinex whose account received the 36 percent haircut. He said he was frustrated, as he wasn't invested in bitocoin but another digital currency, ether, which currently trades at $11.96 and has a market cap of $991 million. Bitcoin meanwhile is worth around $589 and has a market cap of $9.3 billion. "I'm not invested in bitcoin, but another token that was not exploited here. The idea of [Bitfinex] dipping into USD, and digital asset wallets that were 100 percent unaffected, and without user approval selling 36 percent of those funds is likely criminal," he told CNBC via email. At the time of the hack, Bitfinex froze all trading in order to settle accounts and decide how to spread the loss. It also issued a token to each investor recording the dollar amount of their loss, which it will redeem at an undisclosed point in the future. To make matters worse for investors like Schweitzer, ether was trading at an eight-month low when Bitfinex froze trading. "The result is that the most [Bitfinex] would ever plan to pay back would be the USD value of these assets at their 8-month low, from which it's already bounced back well over lo percent," Schweitzer said. "Even worse, their IOU [token] is tradable, but not by U.S. users. This will assuredly be a dump upon the open of trading, and Americans will feel the fallout yet again." Bitfinex's website states U.S. residents may sell their token to another customer on the exchange, but cannot buy them, while non-U.S. residents can sell and buy tokens without restriction. According to Klazen and Arthur, bitcoin and blockchain is currently not regulated in Hong Kong, but this situation is likely to change. "The Hong Kong government has recognized that in the future it might be necessary to regulate the use of blockchain technology and that many issues may need to be addressed as the technology develops," they said. "Ultimately, what will be most valuable to virtual currency investors is the creation and implementation of the most robust possible security measures to protect virtual currency investments against the type of theft that occurred against Bitfinex." Traditional financial products have strong consumer protections. If someone makes a fraudulent transaction with your credit card or your bank goes belly-up, there are laws in place to limit consumer losses. Bitcoin has no such safety net. If your Bitcoins are lost or stolen, there's no intermediary with the power to make you whole. A number of governments have voiced guidelines for virtual currencies to combat money laundering. Except that Bitcoin has been extremely resistant to any government regulation. There are two basic ways to hold Bitcoins. You can participate in the Bitcoin network yourself, storing the keys to your Bitcoins in a wallet stored on your hard drive. Or you can delegate this function to a third-party wallet service such as Coinbase. The former option makes you vulnerable to hard drive failures, malware, and user error. To safely hold Bitcoins, you need a reliable backup system and a good encryption scheme. A single misstep or security breach could wipe out your Bitcoin holdings overnight. The online wallet option isn't much better, and potentially worse, evidenced by what happened with Bitfinex and its largest competitor which was hacked in June with more than $59 million "Ethers" stolen. When asked by CNBC, Bitfinex did not respond to requests for comment. So for those of my friends who are still fans of cryptocurrencies you can continue to accept Bitcoins but please pay me in U.S. dollars. Because I don't need my dollars to appreciate as much as I need it to keep their value and today the safest currency on the planet is not Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency — it is the U.S. dollar, which I can use to purchase stocks, bonds, gold, real estate and other financial instruments as investments that hopefully hold their value and kick out a dividend or better yet, appreciate in value. EFTA00638635 Please Explain Wells Fargo fired 5,30o workers for improper sales push. The executive in charge is retiring with $125 million. 2,Inline image 1 When Wells Fargo was hit last week with $185 million in fines after thousands of its employees were caught setting up fake accounts customers didn't ask for, regulators heralded the settlement as a breakthrough. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau noted that the $loo million it will collect as part of the deal was the agency's "largest penalty" ever. The head of Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a banking regulator, said its $35 million penalty would "demonstrate that such practices will not be tolerated and banks will be held responsible." "This is a major victory for consumers," said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, touting the $50 million the city extracted from the bank. But the fines being levied against Wells Fargo pale in comparison to the bank's yearly profit -- more than $2o billion in 2015. It is also less than the more than $2oo million that the stock in the company held by company's chief executive, John G. Stumpf is worth. The fines also are not that much more than the $125 million one of its top executives, Carrie Tolstedt, will walk away with when she retires this year. An 27-year veteran of the bank, Tolstedt ran the community banking division where regulators said aggressive sales goals fueled illegal behavior by bank employees, 'Tolstedt's team is a leader in building and deepening customer loyalty and team member engagement across the business, which today serves more than 20 million retail checking households and 3 million small business owners, and employs 94,00o team members," the company said in a statement last July announcing her retirement. As first noted by Fortune Magazine, Tolstedt, 56, retirement package is expected to reach nearly $125 million, including thousands of shares of Wells Fargo stock, options, and restricted shares. Tolstedt's has earned a base salary of $1.7 million for at least the last four years, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. That was set to reach $1.75 million this year before Tolstedt announced her retirement. She has typically awarded millions a year in bonuses and Wells Fargo stock. EFTA00638636 According to regulators, thousands of Wells Fargo employees were allegedly involved in a widespread scheme to reach aggressive sales goals -- and earn bonuses -- by creating 2 million accounts, including credit cards, customers didn't authorize. The employees created phony email addresses to enroll existing customers in online-banking services, for example, and issued them debit cards they didn't request. Customers were then often hit with assorted fees for accounts they didn't know they had, the regulators charged. Wells Fargo said it has dismissed 5,30o workers, including some managers, during the past five years for such illegal practices. They all worked in Tolstedt's community banking division, the company said. The bank is "working to significantly strengthen our training, monitoring, oversight and compensation structure, which led to a reduction in this behavior," Wells Fargo spokeswoman Richele Messick said in an email. "We believe the changes we have made have strengthened Wells Fargo and will help ensure this behavior doesn't happen in the future." At the center of the bad behavior appears to be an effort by the bank to persuade customers to sign up for multiple products, known as "cross selling." A customer who opened a checking account would be encouraged to consider a debit card or savings account. This strategy is common in banking industry, but Wells Fargo is considered particularly aggressive. The case has thrust the San Francisco-based bank into a harsh spotlight at a time when big U.S. banks are still attempting to repair their reputations following the 2008 financial crisis. Anti-Wall Street rhetoric has become a common refrain during the presidential campaign and some advocates are hoping to turn that populist anger into an aggressive legislative push to rein in the financial industry next year. The Wells Fargo case could be used to further galvanize criticism that the Obama administration has not done enough to banking industry executives responsible for bad behavior, consumer advocates say. 'There are two possibilities: Customer abuse was part of business model, in which case lots of high ranking people need to go to prison," said Bart Naylor, a financial policy advocate for Public Citizen. "Or the bank is too big to manage, and folks high up don't even know that laws are being broken a few levels down." The magnitude of the fraud described by regulators should be thoroughly investigated, five Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to the head of the Senate Banking Committee, Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), asking for a hearing on the case. The lawmakers, including Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, said Wells Fargo's CEO, John G. Stumpf, should be called to testify. "It is difficult to believe a large-scale, coordinated [scheme] like this took place without knowledge of some higher ups," Menendez said in an interview. But think about this — under Tolstedt's stewardship, 2 million fraudulent bank accounts were created and she gets to retire with a $125 million golden parachute, while 5,30o underlings were fired. To me she was running a criminal enterprise, no different to Mafia loan sharks. The fact that no one will go to jail is almost outrageous as Tolstedt's retirement package. And when a corporation that has $20 billion in profits is only fined $185 million — like a Colombian drug cartel, it's considered the "cost of doing business." If we really want to stop white collar crime/malfeasance, jail sentences of executives have to be imposed and when the businesses and/or business units under these masters of the universe are caught doing something illegal, they should go to jail and lose their generous compensation and retirement golden parachutes. EFTA00638637 Why Aren't People Talking About This Middle class and the working poor had their fastest growth on record last year Republicans seem to forget that the day that Barack Obama entered the Oval Office as President, the country was going through the worst recession since the Great Depression with the country losing more than 800,000 jobs, middle-class wages in decline, housing prices in free-fall, the total banking sector on the verge of collapse and the Big Three Automakers going bankrupt, in addition to a $1.1 trillion deficit as and more than two million American families losing their homes. Yet one of their biggest gripes against President Obama is that he wasn't able to get the country out of the horrendous situation that Bush/Cheney Republican economic policies created. Well it may have taken longer than any of us wanted and it may not be as strong as we would like but the truth is the Obama economic policies has worked a miracle as the United States is currently enjoying the strongest economy in the industrialized world — without the help of the Republicans and their desire to make Obama a failed President. Why is no one celebrating this? And yes, this tide hasn't raised all boats, but the country has created more than 14 million jobs since the job market bottomed out in 2010 in the depths of the Great Recession, the deficit has been cut by 2/3, unemployment is 5%, 20 million more Americans have access to affordable healthcare insurance, the auto sector has had its strongest year in decades, manufacturing and the Rest Belt is coming back and there is no inflation. EFTA00638638 Inline image 1 Currently middle-class Americans and the working poor enjoyed their best year of economic improvement in decades in 2015, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, a spike that broke a years-long streak of disappointment for American workers but did not fully repair the damage inflicted by the Great Recession. Real median household income was $56,500 in 2015, the bureau reported, up from $53,700 in 2014. That 5.2 percent increase was the largest, in percentage terms, recorded by the bureau since it began tracking median income statistics in the 1960s. In addition, the poverty rate fell by 1.2 percentage points, the steepest decline since 1968. There were 43.1 million Americans in poverty on the year, 3.5 million fewer than in 2014. share of Americans who lack health insurance continued a years-long decline, falling 1.3 percentage points, to 9.1 percent. A combination of forces fueled the gains, including an improving job market, low inflation and rising wages, particularly for low-earning workers who may have benefited from state and local initiatives to boost minimum wages. And while incomes increased for men and for women — with the income gap between the two genders narrowing slightly - and across racial and ethnic groups, they did not reach all workers evenly. Median incomes did not budge significantly in rural areas, while in cities, they grew by 7.3 percent. The South saw significantly weaker income growth than the West. On health care, states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act continued to see a decline in their uninsured rate, widening a coverage gap with those states that did not expand the program. The numbers from the government's annual report on income, poverty and health insurance, complicate the economic narrative underpinning the 2016 presidential election. They were hailed by the Obama administration and by Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, but greeted with silence by Republican nominee Donald Trump, who frequently cites median income stagnation as a sign of American decline. EFTA00638639 Inline image 2 'This exceeds the strong expectation that I already had," Jason Furman, chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview, in which he called the income report the strongest ever from the Census Bureau. "The news here is the growth rates. I've read the last 21 reports, including this one. I have never seen one like this, in terms of, everything you look at is what you'd want to see or better." Some Republicans discounted the improved outlook, saying the overall numbers remain weaker than they should be. "Today's report is another disappointing confirmation that too many Americans are still struggling to provide for their families and reach their full potential. The federal government invests billions of dollars each year in programs to help low-income Americans — but more than 43 million people continue to live in poverty. It shouldn't be this way in America," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) said in a statement. The numbers appear to run counter to Trump's contention that America is in decline and working people's lives are getting worse. Trump frequently cites median income stagnation, relying on previous Census data, on the campaign trail. His campaign had not released a statement on the new Census report as of midday Tuesday. One of Trump's economic advisers, Stephen Moore, cautioned in an interview that the 2015 increase could be a "blip" that fades in 2016, because the economy is growing slowly, and that they still do not make up for more than a decade of income stagnation. "It's a very good thing that we finally have some income growth for middle-class families," Moore said. "But the most depressing thing about where we stand in America — and I think this is why the Trump phenomenon has taken hold — is that the average American is still poorer today than it was 15 years ago." Clinton has argued that the economy is improving under President Obama but that working families still need more help to get ahead. Her campaign said Tuesday that the Census numbers reinforce that view. "These are really positive numbers by and large. They show real progress," said Jacob Leibenluft, a senior policy adviser to the Clinton campaign. He added: "This is definitely at odds with the picture that Trump provides." EFTA00638640 Liberal economists said it was encouraging that the gains started with the workers who earn the least. Income grew most for the lowest-earning workers and least for the highest-earning ones, though all income groups saw improvement. "The highest income growth was in the bottom fifth" of workers, "which is very welcome news," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute think tank. Furman, of the White House, credited wage-boosting policy initiatives for some of that increase: "The fact that millions of workers have gotten a raise, as states have raised minimum wages, has definitely had an effect there," he said. All told, the gains brought median incomes nearly back to their levels before the recession, after adjusting for inflation, though they remain below 1999 levels. Bureau officials said the 5.2 percent growth rate was not statistically distinguishable from five other previous increases in the data, most recently the 3.7 percent jump from 1997 to 1998. Several measures had suggested that 2015 was strong for wage growth. Other indicators had pointed to an improvement for the Americans who are the worst off. The unemployment rate had declined to 4.9 percent as of last month. Since 2014, increases in wages have accelerated for the one in five workers earning the least, according to new research by Bank of America. In this group, wages are now increasing at roughly 4 percent year over year. This doesn't mean that more improvement isn't necessary, but if we don't cherish our accomplishments we lose the momentum that they generate to produce more good and this is my rant of the week... WEEK's READINGS The First Sign Of Alzheimer's May Not Be What You Think This study sheds new light on the earliest symptoms Inline image 1 EFTA00638641 Most people think of memory loss when they think of Alzheimer's, but a new study suggests that the earliest sign of the disease is trouble with navigation. Long before a clinical diagnosis is possible, new research finds, Alzheimer's patients have trouble finding their way around new surroundings. Study participants were asked to learn and navigate a maze on a computer, using wallpaper patterns and various landmarks as their guides. Those with preclinical Alzheimer's found it harder to learn the locations of objects in the maze. Navigation skill test could diagnose brain changes long before memory fails. Long before Alzheimer's disease can be diagnosed clinically, increasing difficulties building cognitive maps of new surroundings may herald the eventual clinical onset of the disorder, finds new research from Washington University in St. Louis. "These findings suggest that navigational tasks designed to assess a cognitive mapping strategy could represent a powerful new tool for detecting the very earliest Alzheimer's disease-related changes in cognition," said senior author Denise Head, associate professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences. "The spatial navigation task used in this study to assess cognitive map skills was more sensitive at detecting preclinical Alzheimer's disease than the standard psychometric task of episodic memory," says Denise Head, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences in arts & sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and one of the study's authors. "These findings suggest that navigational tasks designed to assess a cognitive mapping strategy could represent a powerful tool for detecting the very earliest Alzheimer's disease-related changes in cognition." The cognitive findings from this study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, are consistent with where in the brain the ill effects of Alzheimer's disease first surface, as well as with the progression of the disease to other brain regions. Previous research has shown that navigation problems crop up early in individuals with Alzheimer's disease. These deficits may be associated with the buildup of amyloid plaques and tau tangles and other signs of deterioration and shrinkage in the brain's prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and caudate. The hippocampus, which is associated with long-term memory storage, the recognition of new surroundings and the creation of cognitive maps, is well-established as an early target for Alzheimer's- related damage. Similar damage also turns up in the caudate, which is associated with learning as well as voluntary movement. "Our observations suggest a progression such that preclinical Alzheimer's disease is characterized by hippocampal atrophy and associated cognitive mapping difficulties, particularly during the learning phase," said first author Samantha Allison, a psychology doctoral student at Washington University. "As the disease progresses, cognitive mapping deficits worsen, the caudate becomes involved, and route learning deficits emerge." Making a mental map EFTA00638642 While these deficits are well documented in patients with early stage Alzheimer's disease, they have not been well studied in seemingly normal patients who may be progressing toward identifiable early stages of the disease, a status known as preclinical Alzheimer's disease. In this study, researchers used a virtual maze navigation experiment to examine whether specific problems with route learning and cognitive map building, with the caudate the hippocampus, respectively, could be detected in preclinical Alzheimer's. The experiment's design plays on the fact that humans generally find their way in life using two distinct forms of spatial representation and navigation. With egocentric navigation, people rely on past knowledge to follow well-worn routes, moving sequentially from one landmark to another until they reach their target destination. In allocentric navigation, people become familiar with their big picture surroundings and create a mental map of existing landmarks, allowing them to plot best available routes and find shortcuts to new destinations. maze. Participants in this study were separated into three groups based on a test of brain and spinal fluids that can detect biomarkers shown to predict the future development of Alzheimer's-related plaques and tangles in the brain. People who are clinically normal with these markers are considered to have preclinical Alzheimer's disease. This study included 42 clinically normal individuals who lacked the cerebrospinal fluid markers for Alzheimer's, 13 clinically normal individuals who were positive for these markers and thus had preclinical Alzheimer's, and i6 individuals with documented behavioral symptoms of early stage Alzheimer's. All 71 study participants spent about two hours on a desktop computer being tested on their ability to navigate a virtual maze consisting of a series of interconnected hallways with four wallpaper patterns and 20 landmarks. Participants were tested on two navigation skills: how well they could learn and follow a pre-set route and how well they could form and use a cognitive map of the environment. Participants were given 20 minutes to either learn a specified route, or study and explore the maze with a navigation joystick. They were then later tested on their ability to recreate the route, or find their way to specific landmarks in the environment. "People with cerebrospinal markers for preclinical Alzheimer's disease demonstrated significant difficulties only when they had to form a cognitive map of the environment -- an allocentric, place- learning navigation process associated with hippocampal function," Head said. "This same preclinical Alzheimer's disease group showed little or no impairment on route learning tasks -- an egocentric navigation process more closely associated with caudate function." When compared with cognitively normal study participants who lacked the cerebrospinal fluid markers of Alzheimer's, those with preclinical Alzheimer's disease scored lower on their ability to learn the locations of objects in the environment in relation to each other during the initial study phase. While these results suggest deficits in the ability to form a cognitive map, preclinical Alzheimer's disease participants eventually managed to overcome these map-learning deficits, performing almost EFTA00638643 as well as cognitively normal participants during a subsequent wayfinding navigation task. "These findings suggest that the wayfinding difficulties experienced by people with preclinical Alzheimer's disease are in part related to trouble acquiring the environmental information," Head said. "While they may require additional training to learn new environments, the good news here is that they seem to retain sufficient information to use a cognitive map almost as well as their cognitively normal counterparts." A more sensitive diagnostic? Head cautions that the current study has several limitations, including a relatively small sample size and a lack of direct information about brain regions and networks that have a role in spatial navigation and wayfinding. However, Allison notes, "We are currently investigating how brain regions impacted early during the course of the disease are related to cognitive mapping deficits in a larger sample of individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's disease." Within the context of these limitations, the current investigation demonstrates significant preclinical Alzheimer's disease-related deficits in aspects of cognitive mapping with relative preservation in route learning. In contrast, people experiencing memory lapses and other behavioral problems associated with early-stage Alzheimer's disease had clear difficulties both in learning an established route and in finding their own way to new landmarks. In simpler terms, we're looking at a new —and better — tool for detecting Alzheimer's in its earliest stages. ****** The Age Of The Superbug Is Already Here The U.N. is convening a landmark meeting this week on antibiotic resistance, but scientists are concerned the action may be too late. EFTA00638644 When the United Nations General Assembly convenes a high-level meeting about a health issue, it's clear there's a crisis that requires our immediate attention. And this is one of those times. The assembly has only held a handful of such meetings in its history. It gathered in 2011 to discuss eradicating HIV and AIDS. later that year, it met to examine another health emergency: non- communicable diseases, including cancer and diabetes. In 2014, it met to discuss how to stop the spread of Ebola. Now, the General Assembly is meeting to tackle a global health crisis that's estimated to "kill more people than cancer" does now in the coming decades. Antibiotic resistance causes the deaths of at least 700,000 people annually. That number is expected to balloon to 10 million by 2050. The all-day high-level meeting on September 21, 2016 in New York City is expected to result in the first-ever U.N. resolution focused on combating the health threat of antibiotic resistance. "This is only the fourth time the General Assembly has addressed a health issue, and the others rose to the level of HIV and Ebola," Keiji Fukuda, the special representative for antimicrobial resistance for the director- general of the World Health Organization, told National Geographic this month. "Hopefully what will be achieved is to have the highest-level decision-makers in the world acknowledge that we have a major issue that has to be addressed, and also have that level acknowledge that certain actions are needed." This scanning electron micrograph image shows an antibiotic-resistant strain of the E. coli bacteria. `Victims Of Their Own Success' EFTA00638645 When antibiotics rose in popularity in the mid-loth century, they were celebrated as a miracle that could cure all. Some scientists even hailed the end of infectious diseases. But they were sorely mistaken. Every year, in the United States alone, at least 2 million people are infected with bacteria that cannot be killed with antibiotics. More than 23,000 of these patients die annually in the U.S. of these infections. These numbers are estimated to shoot up in the next decade. "We're either entering or have already entered a post-antibiotic era in many nations where there are no antibiotic treatments available for people who really need them," said Otto Cars, a professor of infectious diseases at Sweden's Uppsala University. "And we are going to be seeing more and more of these cases in the next five to 10 years." Just last month, the WHO warned that the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea was becoming "untreatable" because of antibiotic resistance. And researchers in the U.S. discovered in May a strain of E. coli bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort. "We're losing decades of medical progress," Cars told The Huffington Post in an August interview. The medicine's sheer popularity assured the demise of these "miracle" drugs, according to Cars, one of the world's leading voices in the fight against antibiotic resistance. "Antibiotics have been victims of their own success," he said. "It's really sad how we've misused them in human medicine and animal husbandry. We've deceived ourselves, thinking that this `magic' medicine would always be around." The excessive, often unnecessary, "take-it-just-in-case" use of antibiotics over the decades has resulted in the exponential rise of so-called "superbugs," or bacteria that's resistant to multiple antibiotic strains, said Dr. Jean Patel, deputy director of the office of antimicrobial resistance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We used to use antibiotics for everything," she said. "We really took it for granted that antibiotics would always work, and if they stopped working, we figured we'd just use new antibiotics. But that strategy has fallen apart." Part of the challenge is that antibiotics can't just be whipped up in a lab at one's whim and fancy. At least not initially. Antibiotics are based on chemicals that exist in the natural world, produced by organisms like soil bacteria and, in the case of penicillin, fungi. These organisms need to first be found in nature before scientists can figure out how to synthesize them in a test-tube. Unfortunately, it seems almost all the "easy" antibiotics have already been discovered and researchers have not found many new ones in recent decades. (That's why when you hear about new antibiotics being found today, it's in places like under the sea, or in remote deserts, or even hidden in human noses.) We need to keep finding new antibiotics because bacteria are incredibly good at evolving and are very adaptable, according to Patel. Bacteria will change to protect themselves from the antibiotic. "One thing we've learned about them is that anytime an antibiotic is introduced, resistance follows very quickly." EFTA00638646 Web Link: https://youtu.be/znnp-Ivj2ek A Post-Antibiotic World Signs of an impending superbug crisis have been emerging for years — but the issue was long shrugged off, mistakenly believed to be a problem that could be easily resolved with improved technology or pharmaceutical innovation, according to Cars. "That's not the case. Big Pharma has been trying to get new antibiotics for many, many years — and it's not just because of a lack of investment or financial return that's stopped them," he said. "The scientific challenge is enormous. Medical chemists have simply not been able to keep up with bacteria's ingenuity." Antibiotic discovery, though critical, is thus only one solution to this health scourge. Equally important is the need to significantly reduce the use of the drugs and to find alternatives to them, health experts believe. "Ultimately, we need to avoid all unnecessary use of antibiotics," Cars said. Better diagnostic tools and improved infection prevention will be crucial in this effort, as will the sequestering of antibiotics for use in only the most urgent cases. "People need to understand that antibiotics are not a harmless drug," Patel said. "Patients have to be ready to have a conversation with their doctor about whether or not an antibiotic is really needed." Research into alternative treatments will also be key. There has recently, for example, been enhanced interest in the benefits of phage therapy, or the use of particular viruses that can kill bacteria. Other more unusual treatments are being investigated, too. Patel pointed to how doctors are using fecal matter transplants to treat certain gastrointestinal infections which usually need antibiotics. EFTA00638647 United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York on September 19, 2016. The assembly will convene a high-level meeting on antibiotic resistance on Wednesday. To tackle antibiotic resistance effectively, an "unprecedented global effort" will be required, Cars said. Fortunately, it seems the world is finally starting to awaken to the urgency of the crisis. Scientists and health professionals have pointed to this week's General Assembly meeting as a clear signal that the issue is hitting home — a little too late, though still potentially pivotal, according to some experts, including Cars. "I'm really happy that this issue is finally coming to the attention of governments, but having said that, we are far too late with this," Cars said. "We're already in this period of crisis and no one knows how deep this valley will be or how long it will take for us to back on our feet again." Still, "if there wasn't this global attention, this problem would get much worse very fast," Patel said. "This is not a problem that's ever going to go away," she added. For as long as humans need antibiotics — and it continues to be an important treatment for many ailments — we are going to need to figure out a way to use them in a very different, much more responsible way. "These are life-saving therapies," Patel said. "We need them." Dominique Mosbergen — liuffington Post — September 20, 2016 ****** 9 Health 'Facts' You've Been Told All Your Life That Are Totally Wrong EFTA00638648 Inline image 1 Carrots give you night vision. Swimming after eating will give you cramps. You need to drink eight glasses of water a day. Organic food is more nutritious and free of pesticides. Nope, nope, nope, and nope. Who hasn't shared these and other amazing-sounding notions about health and the human body, only to feel embarrassed later on — when you find out the information was inaccurate or flat-out wrong? It's time to put an end to these alluring myths, misconceptions, and inaccuracies passed down through the ages. To help the cause we've rounded up and corrected dozens of the most popular health "facts" that we've heard. MYTH: MILK DOES A BODY GOOD! R. This is an incredibly successful bit of advertising that has wormed its way into our brains and policies to make milk seem magical. The US Department of Agriculture tells us that adults should drink three cups of milk a day, mostly for calcium and vitamin D. However, multiple studies show that there isn't EFTA00638649 an association between drinking more milk (or taking calcium and vitamin D supplements) and having fewer bone fractures. Some studies have even shown an association with higher overall mortality, and while that doesn't mean that milk consumption itself was responsible, it's certainly not an endorsement. MYTH: ORGANIC FOOD IS PESTICIDE-FREE AND MORE NUTRITIOUS. Inline image 3 Organic food isn't free of pesticides and it isn't necessarily better for you. Farmers who grow organic produce are permitted to use chemicals that are naturally derived — and in some cases are actually worse for the environment than their synthetic counterparts. However, pesticide levels on both organic and non-organic foods are so low that they aren't of concern for consumption, according to the USDA. Eating organic food also doesn't come with any nutritional benefits over non-organic food, according to a review of 98,727 potentially relevant studies. MYTH: EATING FOOD WITHIN 5 SECONDS OF DROPPING IT ON THE FLOOR IS SAFE. it Inline image 4 It's the worst when something you really wanted to eat falls on the floor. But if you grab it in five seconds, it's ok, right? The five-second-rule isn't a real thing. Bacteria can contaminate a food within milliseconds. Mythbusting tests show that moist foods attract more bacteria than dry foods, but EFTA00638650 there's no "safe duration." Instead, safety depends on how clean the surface you dropped the food on is. Whether you eat it or not after that is up to you, but if the people that walk on that floor are also walking around New York City, for example, we wouldn't recommend it. MYTH: THE CHEMICAL TRYPTOPHAN IN TURKEY MAKES YOU SLEEPY. Who doesn't love the post-Thanksgiving nap? After all, turkey contains tryptophan — an amino acid that is a component of some of the brain chemicals that help you relax. But plenty of foods contain tryptophan. Cheddar cheese has even more than turkey, yet cheddar is never pointed out as a sleep inducing food. Experts say that instead, the carbs, alcohol, and general size of the turkey-day feast are the cause of those delicious holiday siestas. MYTH: Eating chocolate gives you acne. EFTA00638651 For one month, scientists fed dozens of people candy bars containing 10 times the usual amount of chocolate, and dozens of others fake chocolate bars. When they counted the zits before and after each diet, there was "no difference" between the two groups. Neither the chocolate nor the fat seemed to have any effect on acne. MYTH: Natural sugar like honey is better for you than processed sugar. Inline image 7 A granola bar made with honey instead of high-fructose corn syrup is not better for you. That's because sugar in natural products like fruit and synthetic products like candy is the same: "Scientists would be surprised to hear about the 'clear superiority' of honey, since there is a near unanimous consensus that the biological effect of high-fructose corn syrup are essentially the same as those of honey," professor Alan Levinovitz told Business Insider. The problem is that candy and other related products typically contain more sugar per serving, which means more calories — a difference you should actually be watching out for. MYTH: Eating a lot of carrots gives you great night vision. Vitamin A is a major nutrient found in carrots, and it is good for the health of your eyes — especially those with poor vision. But eating a bunch of the vegetables won't give your all-seeing superpowers. The myth is thought to have started during as a piece of British propaganda during World War II. That EFTA00638652 government wanted to secret the existence of a radar technology that allowed its bomber pilots to attack in the night. MYTH: You need to wait an hour after eating to swim or you can cramp and drown. Inline image 9 The theory behind this seems to be that digesting food will draw blood to your stomach, meaning that less blood is available for your muscles, making them more likely to cramp. But there's no evidence to support this claim. In fact, many sources say there are no documented cases of anyone ever drowning because they've had a cramp related to swimming with a full stomach. Cramps do happen frequently when swimming, but they aren't caused by what's in your stomach. If you do get one, the best policy is to float for a minute and let it pass. MYTH: Eating before drinking keeps you sober. Eating before drinking does help your body absorb alcohol, but it only delays the alcohol entering your bloodstream, it doesn't restrict it. Your body absorbs the alcohol more slowly after a big meal, so eating before drinking can help limit the severity of your hangover. Eating a lot after drinking, however, won't do much to help your hangover. EFTA00638653 Web Link: http://www.businessinsider.eom/worst-seience-health-body-myths-2O16-8? _fa.547_4O267.1487367OO6.14719(a9855 To see 40 more myths that have been debunked please click on the web link above. Dave Mosher — Tech Insider — August 3, 2016 ****** The Ugly Truth About Shrimp Americans love shrimp. On average, we consume about 4.10 pounds of it a year, compared with only 2.8 pounds of canned tuna and 1.84 pounds of salmon. Most of that shrimp is imported from countries in Southeast Asia, where it's produced using chemicals and drugs not approved in the U.S. Shrimp may be the most popular seafood in the U.S. But would we eat as much of it if we fully understood the food safety, environmental and ethical issues associated with its production? Like contemporary factory farm meat production, shrimp farming has become intensive. Shrimp are crowded into small ponds. Because the water in those ponds typically is not re-circulated, harmful waste builds up, oxygen is depleted and disease breaks out. To combat disease, fish farmers often turn to the excessive use of antibiotics. It isn't just the shrimp itself that's questionable. Shrimp production in Southeast Asia is rife with worker abuse and destruction of local farmland — which means destruction of local livelihoods. In EFTA00638654 Bangladesh, for instance, local fanners have lost land to industrial shrimp operations that are operated by non-locals. Their once-fertile land now is submerged under the commercial operations' man-made ponds, which often are built by destroying mangrove forests which previously supported the local community. The "chemical soup" that commercial shrimp are grown in threatens local workers, and pollutes their water bodies and marine life with toxic effluent. When the ponds become so polluted that even antibiotics no longer work, the operators pack up and move on to a new location where they destroy another local environment. Clearly, consumers should avoid imported shrimp. But unfortunately, it's not easy. Labeling omissions and even outright fraud make it almost impossible to know where the shrimp you buy comes from, or how it was produced. Farmed fish are often labeled "gulf shrimp" even though an Oceana exposé found instances where packages of "gulf shrimp" included many non-gulf species — even aquarium pet shrimp. Yet packages marked just "shrimp" often, ironically, contain wild-caught shrimp. Such fraud costs Americans an estimated $25 billion annually says the Atlantic. Mislabeling is more often than not intentional. The largest seafood vendors pressure the government not to enforce proper labeling, seafood writer Jerald Horst told the New York Times. The federal Country of Origin Labeling Law (COOL) used to mandate disclosure of where fresh seafood was farmed or caught, but the law didn't apply to processed foods, including boiled and breaded seafood, seafood added to packaged meals, or shrimp sold in restaurants. However now, even that consumer protection is gone — Congress repealed COOL in December 2015. Chemicals, including banned ones, dominate shrimp farming Commercial shrimp production in India, the second largest exporter of shrimp to the U.S, begins with a long list of chemicals, including urea, superphosphate and diesel. From there it gets worse. Fish- killing chemicals like chlorine and rotenone (linked to Parkinson's Disease), and the use of Borax and sodium tripolyphosphate (a suspected neurotoxin), are rampant in in India's shrimp production, according to "Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood." By contrast, only one chemical, formalin, is approved for use in U.S. shrimp production. Formalin is a parasiticide which contains formaldehyde gas. It has no mandatory withdrawal time or legal residue tolerance. Other chemicals, such as the antibiotics the chloramphenicol and quinolones, are completely banned in U.S shrimp production, while others are "unapproved" but widely used "off- label." Too many inspection loopholes Both the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the shrimp industry have mechanisms to protect the consumer from bacterial and chemical shrimp risks, but the regulations are difficult to enforce. The FDA relies on the Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) program, the PREDICT system, random shipment checks, "import alerts" and 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations to stop unhealthful shrimp. But there are only 200 full-time inspectors to police 300 ports, according to interviews. HACCP does not include checks for a bacterium called Vibrio in shrimp. EFTA00638655 Widely but erroneously believed to be destroyed by a quick freezing process, Vibrio is known to sometimes survive freezing. When imported shrimp arrives in the U.S., the FDA is in charge of ensuring its safety—but over 96 percent of shipments are not opened or checked at the ports. Instead, the FDA relies on an automated system that flags companies with prior offenses for greater scrutiny, including document inspection, visual inspection (is it really shrimp?) and actual lab tests. If a company or country is an actual violator of FDA regulations, shipments are automatically detained and denied entry under the FDA's Import Alert program, without inspections or lab tests. Automatic detention of shipments is not lifted until a manufacturer, shipper, grower or importer demonstrates to the FDA that the violation has been corrected. But the system isn't foolproof. When a country is blocked from shipping shrimp it often "transships" through a different country, one that is believed to be safe, say seafood safety experts. Most trade and seafood experts agree the solution to unsafe shrimp from farming operations is not stopping it at the port but at the pond, using third-party certification in the country where it is produced. Yet a 2011 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which assessed FDA third-party certification of shrimp production, found language barriers, data collection irregularities and a general feeling that "no one was minding the store." Six out of eight auditors, for example, did not even know what drugs and chemicals were approved in U.S. exports. Wild-Caught shrimp — better for you, bad for the environment Wild-caught shrimp do not put consumers at the same risk of exposure to chemicals as farm-raised shrimp, especially imported farm-raised shrimp. But wild-caught shrimp takes a huge toll on the environment. The process used to catch wild shrimp involves dragging cone-shaped nets, called otter trawlers, along the ocean floor. But these nets catch more than just shrimp. For every pound of wild-caught shrimp, another six pounds of other marine life, referred to as "bycatch," is destroyed—and discarded. Bycatch, including dolphins and sharks, can be reduced if shrimpers replace otter trawlers with Turtle Exclusion Devices (TED). But some shrimpers forego these devices because they reduce the size of the shrimp catch. In 1987, Louisiana even passed a law prohibiting enforcement of federal TED regulations in its water, rightfully inspiring the Monterey Bay Aquarium to blacklist Louisiana wild shrimp. Is there a way to safely and ethically eat shrimp? Clearly, designations like "gulf shrimp," "wild caught," "organic" or "turtle safe" mean nothing. Unless labels are third-party certified, shrimp sellers can, and do, claim whatever they like on their labels. Luckily several third-party certified labels exist on shrimp packages that provide some transparency about production methods, from stocking density and chemicals used to negative environmental and social impacts, including the use of unethical labor. EFTA00638656 Certifications that are widely trusted are the Marine Stewardship Council, Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, Global Aquaculture Alliance's Best Aquaculture Practices label (BAP), the Aquaculture Stewardship Council's Farmed Responsibly label, Whole Foods Market's Responsibly Farmed label and the Naturland label. But for the most part, when it comes to buying shrimp — whether from a store or a restaurant — it's buyer beware. Martha Rosenberg — Organic Consumers Association — August 10, 2016 THIS WEEK's QUOTE Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.... Mark Twain THIS IS BRILLIANT How To Park The Right Way EFTA00638657 Web Link: htlps://www.facebeelbeern/biniem.griffin/posts/10154622929091159 THINK ABOUT THIS EFTA00638658 2 BEST VIDEO OF THE WEEK Ruby and Kida's contemporary dance to "Over the Rainbow" by Shawn McDonald. EFTA00638659 Inline image 1 Web Link: https://youtu.be/OOBmXVflioA Although the dancing isn't technically perfect this performance is beyond wonderful, so please dick on the above link and enjoy.... THIS WEEK's MUSIC Fela Inline image I EFTA00638660 This week you are invited to enjoy the music of Fela Anikulapo (Ransome) Kuti (or just Fela as he's more commonly known) to the global musical village: producer, arranger, musician, political radical and outlaw. He was all that, as well as showman par excellence, inventor of Afro-beat, an unredeemable sexist, and a moody megalomaniac. It's almost impossible to overstate the impact and importance of Fela and to understand his impact you would have to combine, Miles, Prince, Bird along with Michael Jackson and James Brown to come close. His irreverence against conformity, rage against corrupt authority and power to inspire the disenfranchised is legendary in his native country of Nigeria, where I first came across his music and saw him perform while visiting friends in Lagos in the 1970s. Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, north of Lagos in 1938, Fela's family was firmly middle class as well as politically active. His father was a pastor (and talented pianist), his mother active in the anti-colonial, anti-military, Nigerian home rule movement. So at an early age, Fela experienced politics and music in a seamless combination. His parents, however, were less interested in his becoming a musician and more interested in his becoming a doctor, so they packed him off to London in 1958 for what they assumed would be a medical education; instead, Fela registered at Trinity College's school of music. Tired of studying European composers, Fela formed his first band, Koola Lobitos, in 1961, and quickly became a fixture on the London dub scene. He returned to Nigeria in 1963 and started another version of Koola Lobitos that was more influenced by the James Brown-style singing of Geraldo Pina from Sierra Leone. Combining this with elements of traditional high life and jazz, Fela dubbed this intensely rhythmic hybrid "Afro-beat," partly as critique of African performers whom he felt had turned their backs on their African musical roots in order to emulate current American pop music trends. The '69 Los Angeles Sessions -- In 1969, Fela brought Koola Lobitos to Los Angeles to tour and record. They toured America for about eight months using Los Angeles as a home base. It was while in L.A. that Fela hooked up with a friend, Sandra Isidore, who introduced him to the writings and politics of Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver (and by extension the Black Panthers), and other proponents of Black nationalism and Afrocentrism. Impressed at what he read, Fela was politically revivified and decided that some changes were in order: first, the name of the band, as Koola Lobitos became Nigeria 7o; second, the music would become more politically explicit and critical of the oppression of the powerless worldwide. After a disagreement with an unscrupulous promoter who turned them in to the Immigration and Naturalization Services, Fela and band were charged with working without work permits. Realizing that time was short before they were sent back to Nigeria, they were able to scrape together some money to record some new songs in L.A. What came to be known as the '69 Los Angeles Sessions were remarkable, an indication of a maturing sound and of the raucous, propulsive music that was to mark Fela's career. Afrobeat's combination of blaring horn sections, antiphonal vocals, Fela's quasi- rapping pidgin English, and percolating guitars, all wrapped up in a smoldering groove (in the early days driven by the band's brilliant drummer Tony Allen) that could last nearly an hour, was an intoxicating sound. Upon returning to Nigeria, Fela founded a communal compound-cum-recording studio and rehearsal space he called the ICalakuta Republic, and a nightclub, the Shrine. It was during this time that he dropped his given middle name of "Ransome" which he said was a slave name, and took the name EFTA00638661 "Anikulapo" (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"). Playing constantly and recording at a ferocious pace, Fela and band (who were now called Africa 70) became huge stars in West Africa. His biggest fan base, however, was Nigeria's poor. Because his music addressed issues important to the Nigerian underclass (specifically a military government that profited from political exploitation and disenfranchisement), Fela was more than a simply a pop star; like Bob Marley in Jamaica, he was the voice of Nigeria's have-nots, a cultural rebel. As a result of his political stance Fela was hounded, jailed, harassed, and nearly killed by a government determined to silence him. In one of the most egregious acts of violence committed against him, 1,000 Nigerian soldiers attacked his Kalakuta compound in 1977 (the second government-sanctioned attack). Fela suffered a fractured skull as well as other broken bones; his 82-year old mother was thrown from an upstairs window, inflicting injuries that would later prove fatal. The soldiers set fire to the compound and prevented fire fighters from reaching the area. Fela's recording studio, all his master tapes and musical instruments were destroyed. After the Kalakuta tragedy, Fela briefly lived in exile in Ghana, returning to Nigeria in 1978. In 1979 he formed his own political party, MOP (Movement of the People), and at the start of the new decade renamed his band Egypt 80. From 1980-1983, Nigeria was under civilian rule, and it was a relatively peaceful period for Fela, who recorded and toured non-stop. Military rule returned in 1983, and in 1984 Fela was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of currency smuggling. With help from Amnesty International, he was freed in 1985. As the '8os ended, Fela recorded blistering attacks against Nigeria's corrupt military government, as well as broadsides aimed at Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan (most abrasively on the album Beasts of No Nation). Never what you would call progressive when it came to relationships with women or patriarchy in general (the fact was that he was sexist in the extreme, which is ironic when you consider that his mother was one of Nigeria's early feminists), he was coming around to the struggles faced by African women, but only just barely. Stylistically speaking, Fela's music didn't change much during this time, and much of what he recorded, while good, was not as blistering as some of the amazing music he made in the '7os. Still, when a Fela record appeared, it was always worth a listen. He was unusually quiet in the '9os, which may have had something to do with how ill he was; very little new music appeared, but in as great a series of reissues as the planet has ever seen, the London-based Stern's Africa label re-released some of his long unavailable records (including The '69 Los Angeles Sessions), and the seminal works of this remarkable musician were again filling up CD bins. He never broke big in the U.S. market, and it's hard to imagine him having the same kind of posthumous profile that Marley does, but Fela's 5o-something releases offer up plenty of remarkable music, and a musical legacy that lives on in the person of his talented son Femi. Around the turn of the millennium, Universal began remastering and reissuing a goodly portion of Fela's many recordings, finally making some of his most important work widely available to American listeners. His death on August 3, 1997 of complications from AIDS deeply affected musicians and fans internationally, as a musical and sociopolitical voice on a par with Bob Marley was silenced. A press EFTA00638662 release from the United Democratic Front of Nigeria on the occasion of Fela's death noted: "Those who knew you well were insistent that you could never compromise with the evil you had fought all your life. Even though made weak by time and fate, you remained strong in will and never abandoned your goal of a free, democratic, socialist Africa." With this, you are again invited to enjoy the music of one of the greatest musicians of his era.... the great Fela Kuti Fela Kuti — Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense -- https://youtu.be/odk7QRsaBk Fela Kuti — Sorrow Tears & Blood -- https://youtu.be/F4ZUnPWxgvc Fela Kuti — V.I.P. https://youtu.bet7bpThXP9f8I Fela Kuti — Beasts Of No Nation -- littp youtu.be/E0BhNPiq78k Fela Kuti — Coffin for Head of State -- https://youtu.be/Q021-VyLzpk Fela Kuti — Zenith -- https://youtu.be/DDPChDbZqs0 Fela Kuti - Shakara https://youtu.be/vvYxd35xFx8 Fela Kuti — Cross Examination -- https://youtu.be/uMGWx6DjMkU Fela Kuti — Lady -- https://youtu.befuP3ifisIARHOs Fela Kuti in Concert -- httpn',47outu.besU39XGAS9MY Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 - Big Blind Country -- https://youtu.beljvK9fiA6uPY Fela Kuti & Africa 70 - Pansa Pansa https://youtu.be/wzrXHKa7TY Fela Kuti — M.O.P. .1 (Movement of the people n.1) -- https://youtu.be/T.IsychDYDdc Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 - Just Like That -- https://youtu.be/GVrDIQ5B6wA Fela Kuti — You Gimme Shit I Give You Shit -- https://youtu.be/3tGuY-GZ3PU Fela Kuti - V.I.P. (Vagabonds in power) -- https://youtu.be/6hep_Poe_IQ Fela Kuti - Water No Get Enemy (Broadway Cast) -- https://youtu.be/Rp6KWhy2FAk I hope that you enjoyed this week's offerings and wish you and yours a great week.... Sincerely, Greg Brown EFTA00638663 Ciregory Brown Chairman & CEO GlobalCast Fanners. LLC US: Tel: Fax: EFTA00638664