“Running Thru a Field of Smiles,”

Listening to music is a form of emotional self-care that many of us turn to every day, without much conscious thought. The streaming service Spotify, well aware of this, offers a collection of “Mood” playlists, from “Anthems of Angst” to “Running Thru a Field of Smiles,” to my personal favorite, “The Happy Hipster.” 
While music’s therapeutic qualities have long been known—Aristotle described music as a force to purify the emotions—music therapy as it exists today began in the early-mid 20thcentury, when musicians in the U.K. travelled to hospitals and played music for soldiers suffering emotional and physical trauma after World Wars I and II.
Music therapy is now a sanctioned form of health care with clinical, quantitative research to back it up. In some cases, it’s as effective as traditional forms of therapy, especially for adolescents with mood disorders or adults with depression. One tool music therapists use with patients—along with actively playing or composing music—is guiding patients through the music listening experience, helping them to process what they are thinking and feeling. What we do when we put on headphones is, in many ways, just a self-guided version of this process.
And it often feels good to listen to Aretha Franklin to lift our spirits, or croon along with Adele to make sense of a breakup. But is it also possible to listen to music in ways that sabotage our mental health?
This is the question that Emily Carlson, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Music at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, explored in a recent study.
The study asked 123 participants about their music-listening habits using a scale developed by one of the study’s co-authors. This scale assessed how much people tended to use seven different music mood-regulation strategies, based on their agreement with statements like “When I'm angry with someone, I listen to music that expresses my anger.”
Of particular interest were the three strategies in which people use music to deal with negative moods: Diversion, where music is used as a distraction from negative thoughts and feelings; Solace, where music is used to search for comfort, acceptance, and understanding when feeling sad or troubled; and Discharge, where anger or sadness are released through music (think of a mosh pit in the mind).
All of the participants were assessed for depression, and anxiety, and levels of the trait neuroticism, one of the Big Five personality dimensions associated with a predisposition for mood disorders. Half then had fMRI imaging on their brains while they listened to a selection of wordless musical samples that tended to evoke sadness, happiness, or fear. Carlson and her colleagues were most interested in the activity of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), an area of the brain widely thought to be related to subconscious mood regulation. Irregular activity in the mPFC has consistently shown up in those suffering from depression. Carlson and her team found that of all the music-listening strategies, Discharge—using music to express negative emotions—correlated with higher levels of anxiety and neuroticism in all of the participants, but especially men. In turn, the fMRI data revealed that those men who tended to use the Discharge strategy more showed decreased mPFC activity during music listening.

Apple and 60 Tech Companies Supports the Houston Unites Coalition on Key Human Rights Vote

Apple and 60 Tech Companies Support the Houston Unites Coalition on a Key Human Rights Vote this Week

The Houston Unites Coalition is a broad coalition of groups and people working to defend the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). The coalition noted that high-profile Fortune 500 companies have joined the overwhelming majority of local Houston business leaders in support of a Yes vote on Proposition 1 to protect Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance. 

 Apple, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, BASF and EMC Corporation joined a strong roster of nearly 60 businesses that have joined the coalition's campaign, including the Greater Houston Partnership, Dow Chemical, the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. These businesses know that Houston needs an equal rights ordinance in order to attract and retain top talent—and send a message that the city is truly open for business to everyone. 

 In a recent statement, Apple urges Houstonians to vote Yes on Prop 1 to ensure everyone is treated fairly and equally under the law: "Apple is proud to be a part of Houston with four stores that employ over 500 people. Our stores and our company are open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. Apple supports Proposition 1 as it sends a clear message that Houston is focused on a future of inclusion, diversity and continued prosperity." For more on this, visit the Houston Unites Coalition website here. 

YouTube Finally Unveiled Streaming Subscription

Last week, YouTube finally unveiled the details of its much-anticipated streaming subscription platform after years of rumors. Red is available to the public this week, and it is poised to make a big splash—one which could bring some much-needed revenues into a shrinking music industry.

According to the company, YouTube has over one billion users, which represents about one third of every person on the planet with internet access. One really couldn’t ask for a better starting point from which to launch a new product, and the potential for Red to become a game-changer for the industry is clear just from looking at the numbers.

If just one percent of YouTube’s users sign up for Red, that’s 10 million people right off the bat, which translates to just under $100 million dollars in revenue per month. Add it all up, and those 10 million streamers will end up paying a total of $1.2 billion per year. To put that figure into perspective, the entire recorded music industry was worth around $15 billion as of last year. So, if just a single percent of YouTube’s users subscribe to Red, the company could see its product bring in one fifteenth the annual net worth of the entire music industry.

So, what if instead of estimating just one percent, that figure was raised to five percent, or even ten? At just five percent, YouTube’s Red would bring in around $6 billion per year, and at ten percent that number grows to an incredible $12 billion annually.

Is it unreasonable to assume that ten perecent of all YouTubers on the planet would pay $10 a month to get rid of ads and to be able to save music offline to listen to later? Probably, but coming anywhere close to that would have amazing repercussions on the industry. The music business is hurting for cash, as it is essentially still locked in the idea that selling records and singles is where the money is at, meanwhile the number of sales drops every year, and that trend is only going to continue. Streaming platforms may be the way of the future for the consumer, but for the industry they have posed some issues.

These figures should be met with some cautious optimism, as there really is no telling how many people will subscribe to Red. When Apple launched its streaming platform, earlier this year, the company was candid in saying that it had aspirations of convincing 100 million people to sign up, which also would have changed the industry in a meaningful way. While the company hit 11 million users at the peak of its free trial period, that number has since subsided to a respectable 6.5 million, which still makes it larger than many other streaming services.

YouTube’s Red goes live this week, so it’s only a matter of time before we have an idea of what kind of an effect it will actually have on the industry, but hopefully it’s a a big one—the industry could use it.

Nigeria's economy is growing at the slowest

LAGOS, Nigeria - Nigeria's economy is growing at the slowest pace this decade as oil prices drop. Companies are complaining they can't get the dollars they need to do business. And trading in the naira has long since dried up.

There are many good reasons why Godwin Emefiele, who runs the central bank of Africa's biggest economy, should lift currency controls and let the naira depreciate. One of the things holding him back is politics.

Devaluing the naira may give opposition parties the opportunity to claim that Emefiele's main supporter, President Muhammadu Buhari, has lost control of the economy. With his backing, the policy chief will be able to resist his critics into 2016 before the worsening economic slump eventually forces him to capitulate, according to Standard Chartered and Bank of America.

"They could probably hold out for at least six months, maybe even a year," said Ayodele Salami, chief investment officer for London-based Duet Asset Management, which manages about $200 million of African equities. "The central bank has chosen currency stability and the price they're paying for that is growth. They could hold the line for a lot longer than the markets expect."

Streaming advocate

24-year-old singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran is a big music streaming advocate — he is the most-streamed artist on Spotify, after all — but the hearthrob/superstar made a dumbfounding statement in a recent interview regarding his own experience with streaming services: he doesn’t use them.

In a new Billboard cover story, Sheeran told the publication that he doesn’t “stream anything ever.” This from the man who, to date, has racked up over 2 billion streams on Spotify alone.

Car bomber hits NATO convoy in Afghanistan, one civilian dead

Car bomber hits NATO convoy in Afghanistan, one civilian dead
By Mirwais Harooni

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber rammed a NATO military convoy along a major road out of Afghanistan's capital Kabul early on Monday, killing one Afghan civilian, authorities said.

It was the second car bomb attack on international forces in Kabul in a month as Taliban insurgents and their allies step up attacks ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops at the end of the year.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the Jalalabad Road, a main thoroughfare with a U.S. military base and a housing compound for U.N. and other international contractors and aid workers.

At least three foreigners were wounded in the blast targeting their armored vehicles, but their identities were not known, police said.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan said a patrol was attacked but there were no fatalities among the international force. The force does not confirm injuries.

The bomber in a Toyota Corolla car drove into the convoy just before 7 a.m., said Farid Afzali, head of Kabul's police investigation department.

"As a result of the blast, one of our countrymen was killed and three foreigners slightly wounded," Afzali said.

Reuters television footage showed the remains of one of the white armored vehicles, its engine blackened and mangled and side door damaged.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Majahid said on Twitter that the target was a foreign military convoy and several troops were killed. The insurgents, who are fighting to expel foreign forces and re-establish their strict Islamist state driven from power in 2001, often exaggerate the results of their attacks.

The Taliban have been seeking to create instability ahead of this year's withdrawal of most foreign troops and also test the mettle of the newly trained Afghan security forces who will bear most of the fight next year.

On Sunday, two Taliban suicide bombers stormed a police station in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing two and wounding 18.

(Reporting by Mirwais Harooni. Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)

Mother of all frauds: How Nigeria Stock Exchange spent N186 million on Rolex watches for employees

Wonders shall never end.  An auditor’s report  into the affairs of the Nigeria Stock Exchange under the headship of deposed director general Mrs  Ndi Okereke-Onyuike   have  found out that the Exchange  spent a whopping N186 million on Rolex watches for its staff in 2008, as gifts to employees who had served the Exchange for 10 years.
The audit report, carried out by KPMG, and Aluko Oyebode & Co., also found out that only 73 out of the 165 Rolex watches were actually presented to the awardees. The implication is that a total of 92 Rolex watches valued at N99.5 million remain unaccounted for.  Said the report: “We observe that the gifts awarded / presented far exceeded the value stated in the staff handbook.”
The report said further: “Our investigation so far reveals that the following allegations may have merit: Total expenses of the NSE are too high, 2006 to 2008 expenses consumed more than 80 per cent of income/undisciplined spending and financial imprudence; That there has been sharing of money among council members, That the sum of N400 million were paid to the past president of the Council, That wages, training and IT expenses were overstated." The report was ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and it goes to uncover shocking cases of fraud and recklessness on the part of Mrs  Ndi Okereke-Onyuike, the disgraced, former director general.
 xclusivenigeria.com