Amoeba

If you're worried about picking up an infectious disease this summer, you may be fretting about catching West Nile disease from a mosquito, H3N2v influenza from a pig, or salmonella from a cantaloupe.  But for those who like to dabble in pure medical horror, there's little scarier to ponder than a brain-eating amoeba lurking in your tap water. That's exactly what CDC investigators found when they swabbed the plumbing in the houses of two people who died of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis in 2011.  The illness, which is extremely rare, strikes when the amoeba Naegleria fowleri travels into the brain through the nose and olfactory nerve, causing fever, vomiting, seizures and coma.

If any L.A. music fans have rock 'n' roll funds left after the first weekend of Coachella, Record Store Day is a perfect way to clear them out. The Southland has seen a small wave of specialist vinyl stores open in the last few years, and Saturday's Record Store Day (an annual event meant to highlight independently owned shops) is like senior prom for record nerds. It's a chance to go throw down on special-occasion releases and enjoy intimate in-store performances, and keep local shops thriving in the churning sea of the new music economy.

Your article on record store clerks ["The Music Clerks Who Can Spin Your World," Dec. 9] is one of the most ridiculous fluff pieces I have ever witnessed. The inclusion of a few other record stores around the L.A. area (where's Rockaway, Eastside or Atomic Records?) does not cloud the fact that this article is another free advertisement for Amoeba. Interesting how Scott Timberg doesn't point out that Amoeba, a behemoth, is slowly destroying the smaller record stores in L.A. I, for one, am sick of reading about the holiness of Amoeba.

If you're worried about picking up an infectious disease this summer, you may be fretting about catching West Nile disease from a mosquito, H3N2v influenza from a pig, or salmonella from a cantaloupe.  But for those who like to dabble in pure medical horror, there's little scarier to ponder than a brain-eating amoeba lurking in your tap water. That's exactly what CDC investigators found when they swabbed the plumbing in the houses of two people who died of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis in 2011.  The illness, which is extremely rare, strikes when the amoeba Naegleria fowleri travels into the brain through the nose and olfactory nerve, causing fever, vomiting, seizures and coma.

Giving birth is never easy, and potential mothers often need help from a midwife. New research suggests that rule extends even to amoebas, single-celled creatures that reproduce by splitting apart into mother and daughter cells. Researchers have previously noted that, in at least one species, this process often stalls while the two cells are still connected by a slender thread--and they were unsure how the cells completed the process.

Did you know that Canterbury records in Pasadena has a more diverse inventory of hard-to-find titles ["In the Classical Aisle," Jan. 25]? I am a big fan of both Amoeba and Canterbury. ANNE HOWELL Glendale

Hot springs illness: In Monday's Health section, an article on the risks of an infection from soaking in freshwater lakes and hot springs misspelled the name of the amoeba that causes the illness as Naegleria flowleri. It is Naegleria fowleri.

A veteran Murrieta firefighter has died after being infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba that usually lives in soil, the city Fire Department said in a statement Tuesday. Capt. Matt Moore died Monday at UC San Diego Medical Center Hillcrest from complications of meningoencephalitis. The 43-year-old father of three had been in a coma. Moore fell ill in November. A biopsy showed in January that his brain had been invaded by the parasite Balamuthia mandrillaris. The disease was first identified in 1990 after a mandrill baboon at the San Diego Wild Animal park was infected.

My name is Elijah Dittersdorf and you used me in a large color picture for your article about Virgin Megastore and other music stores in L.A. ("Where do you buy?" Dec. 19). The caption read: "Elijah Dittersdorf, a Virgin employee who wears his love of music on his arm, arranges stock at the store." You failed to mention that the majority of employees at these stores are paid minimum wage, are given no benefits and have one of the highest turnover rates in retail. These "super-size" companies do not like to keep employees very long, as the help then might want a slight wage increase and maybe a shot at some health care.

Do you know what ambidextrous means or what antlers are made of? For the answers, tune in "Encyclopedia," a slick new series on Home Box Office from the Children's Television Workshop. Volume A debuts tonight at 7:30; other letters will follow in weekly succession.

The band called thenewno2 sounds good --  whether in the deep abyss of headphones or in the open space of the Amoeba Music store in Hollywood, where the group was celebrating the release of its second album, "The Fear of Missing Out" -- as well as band member Dhani Harrison's 34th birthday. The rock, dub, electro, indie and psychedelic sounds coming from the back of the store, behind the rows of CDs, was thick and full from that compact stage. “Thanks for that,” Harrison (of the George Harrison Harrisons)

Last week, Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals issued a warning to residents: Don't use tap water to rinse your nasal passages. The warning came after a 51-year-old woman in the state died after she was infected with the "brain-eating" amoeba Naegleria fowleri , which enters the body through the nose and sometimes causes devastating meningitis.  Apparently, the amoeba lurked in tap water the woman used in her neti pot, a pitcher-like device...

The recent brain-eating amoeba deaths in Florida, Louisiana and Virginia may have some people wondering something they haven't given a thought to since the last basic bio class: What is an amoeba anyway?  Well, it just so happens that in cleaning out my garage the other day I unearthed my 1978 college notes from a class called “Fundamentals of Biological Organization,” and as luck would have it, they contained a rendition of an amoeba, below. OK, so it's not very good.

The death of Courtney Nash -- the 16-year-old who succumbed to a deadly brain infection last week after going for a dip in a Floridariver -- marks the third case this summer of death after exposure to the waterborne amoeba Naegleria fowleri.  Earlier in the season, according to news reports, one person in Louisianaand another in Virginia also died from the "brain-eating" malady amoebic meningoencephalitis, which causes headache, stiffness, fever and...

UNDERRATED 'Winnebago Man' (2009) : If you've enjoyed the Internet's many viral videos, you might recognize Jack Rebney, a profanity-spewing man melting down in spectacular fashion through an '80s video shoot for an RV company. Exploring the realities of Internet fame and just what makes us laugh at strangers, this surprisingly sweet documentary about Ben Steinbauer's search for Rebney reveals the flesh-and-blood person behind your coffee break comedy. The clearance bins at Amoeba: They've long been a sort of last refuge for forgotten next-big-things and never-weres, but something seems to have changed among the bargain-priced treats to be had among the stacks in the back of the rock section and on the floor of the jazz room.

The gig: Co-founder of Amoeba Music, the world's largest independent record retailer, with close to 1 million albums in three California locations ? Hollywood, Berkeley and San Francisco. Rolling Stone magazine in September named it among the nation's 25 best record stores, calling it "simply the most thorough and welcoming place a record lover could hope to shop. " Personal: Met his wife, Valenta, 17 years ago at the first Amoeba Music store in Berkeley. Likes to listen to Jaga Jazzist, Scorch Trio, Miles Davis, John Coltrane.

At the ripe old age of 23, Adolescents lead singer and lyricist Tony Montana feels he's earned the right to sound off a bit--particularly at local music followers who charge that the band, which broke up five years ago, reunited earlier this year strictly to "exploit" its past popularity. For their brief moment in the limelight, the Adolescents were the darlings of Orange County punk, pioneering that energetic scene in 1981.

The recent brain-eating amoeba deaths in Florida, Louisiana and Virginia may have some people wondering something they haven't given a thought to since the last basic bio class: What is an amoeba anyway?  Well, it just so happens that in cleaning out my garage the other day I unearthed my 1978 college notes from a class called “Fundamentals of Biological Organization,” and as luck would have it, they contained a rendition of an amoeba, below. OK, so it's not very good.

MUSIC French Passion Francophiles and classic music fans alike will get their fill of Ravel, Debussy and Saint-Saëns at this Hollywood Bowl evening with the L.A. Philharmonic, featuring conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and violinist Martin Chalifour. Hollywood Bowl. 2301 N. Highland Ave. 8 p.m. $1-$129. (323) 850-2000. http://www.hollywoodbowl.com. Admiral Radley Former Grandaddy members Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch teamed up with Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray to form this new indie rock quartet.

BOOKS The New Dead Contributors Max Brooks and Aimee Bender sign copies of the harrowing new anthology of zombie short stories, edited by Christopher Golden. Haunting and genuinely unsettling, the dark tales of the risen dead prove that the recent zombie phenomenon is here to stay. Dark Delicacies, 4213 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank. Free. 6:30 p.m. (818) 556-6660. www.darkdel.com. Dissident Poets: I Am Neda American poets respond to the civil upheaval in Iran and the events of last summer that transfixed the world.