text:
The Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus is confident that at least a few U.S. Senators will join House members on January 6 to question the fairness of the November 2 election. John Conyers, Jr., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Salon.com he doesnt believe the Senate will repeat its performance of four years ago, when Black lawmakers sought in vain for one senatorial objection to official misconduct, deliberate fraud, and an attempt to suppress voter turnout by unlawful means in Florida, as Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL) put it at the time.
No, I think the Senate is going to go along with an inquiry this time, said Conyers. I don't think they would embarrass themselves to let this happen two times in a row I just don't think the Senate would get caught in that position. Conyers is careful not to name names, claiming he hasnt spoken directly to a single Senator, but adding, there are Republicans who support what I'm doing who haven't been willing to come forward.
Conyers is the indispensable person among the righteous Grinches who are casting a shadow over the Republicans holiday. Through his hearings in the Capitol and Ohio unsanctioned and unattended by Republicans and his engagement of the Government Accountability Office to study election irregularities, the 75-year-old Detroit lawmaker has thrown an institutional spotlight on GOP crimes and misdemeanors. How high these crimes can be connected is another story, but there is no doubt that massive violations of a variety of laws occurred on the ground. Conyers prefers to call them things that went wrong in swing states like Ohio:
It depends on what part of the state we're going to examine. In Hocking County, a private company accessed an election machine and altered and tampered with it in the absence of election observers. It disturbed a deputy chair of the election in the county so much that she has given a sworn affidavit that has been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and we're in the process of running that down. But what about in Cleveland, Ohio? There, thousands of people claimed that their vote for Kerry was turned into a vote for Bush. Poll workers made mistakes that might have cost thousands of votes in Cleveland. And in Youngstown, machines turned an undetermined number of Kerry votes into Bush votes as well. Provisional ballots were thrown out. There were several conflicting rules. There was mass confusion. In Warren County, they talked about [the possibility that] terrorism might close down the election. I mean, please.
Conspiracy? Conyers understandably avoids using a word that corporate media so eagerly associate with nut cases. Instead, Conyers employs a less loaded term:
Well, you know, orchestrated attempts don't always require a conspiracy. People get the drift from other elections and the way [campaign leaders] talk about how they're going to win the election. When you have the exit-polling information discrepancies that occurred in 2004, where the odds of all the swing states coming in so much stronger for Bush than the exit polls indicated they say that that is, statistically, almost an improbability.
But conspiracies do exist; they occur every time a group of persons plans to commit criminal acts. Conyers knows this. Hes not only a lawyer, hes a Watergate lawyer, having sat on the same Judiciary Committee that saw Richard Nixons presidency unravel in 1973-74. District attorneys in big cities across the nation love conspiracy law, designed to connect the seemingly random depredations of criminal gangs. Conspirators can be convicted even if they dont know all the other players or the whole scope of the criminal enterprise. They need only be shown to have acted in the furtherance of the larger scheme.
Sounds very much like Rep. Conyers orchestrated attempts, doesnt it?
To catch a vote thief
A prosecutor like Rudy Giuliani would have a field day with the GOPs myriad 2004 criminal offenses. Just a few examples:
Those who act in concert with others to violate the Voting Rights Act or related laws (such as the National Voter Registration Act, in the box below) should be confronted with the prospect of conspiracy charges in addition to criminal penalties (prison time) for individual offenses. Thats the way gangsters are brought down, every day.
National Voter Registration Act
973gg-10. Criminal Penalties
A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office,
knowingly and willfully intimidates, threatens, or coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any person for--
registering to vote, or voting, or attempting to register or vote;
urging or aiding any person to register to vote, to vote, or to attempt to register or vote; or
exercising any right under this subchapter; or
knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by--
the procurement or submission of voter registration applications that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held; or
the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held, shall be fined in accordance with Title 18 or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
Thousands of perps
The dozens of problems of which Rep. Conyers speaks are actually hundreds of specific criminal offenses involving perhaps thousands of persons acting with large or small groups of others in Ohio and Florida, alone. Investigators should view the legions of co-conspirators in Republican election crimes some casual or even unwilling, others purely mercenary and politically unreliable as assets, potential witnesses in a constellation of criminal conspiracies, any one of which might lead to the Mother Lode: the Bush inner circle.
We have purposely not dwelt in this article on the mega-crimes whose outlines became apparent in statistical analyses of the exit polls vs. tabulated votes in battleground and other states, or damning variances in results depending on modes of vote counting the hawks eye view of the crime. (On Wednesday, Rep. Conyers called on news organizations to provide his committee with raw exit poll data, rather than the numbers that were adjusted to conform to the official vote tallies.) What has too often been lost in the conversations surrounding the 2000 and 2004 elections, is the fact that laws already in existence have been violated.
In every other arena of criminal justice it is standard procedure to entangle suspected perpetrators in their own lies, and in the lies of their co-conspirators. Yet somehow, this practice does not obtain when Black voting rights are criminally violated. It is as if no crime has been committed, at all, just mere voting irregularities. Get over it, say the corporate media. Concentrate your energies on reforms from the next Congress, or the one after that, say others, including some people who claim to be progressive. Such responses are maddening, outrageously racist at their very core, the product of a profoundly Jim Crow worldview that denies African Americans their full measure of dignity as human beings, that treats our victimization as a matter of course whose resolution but never redress can always be put off to another, more convenient day. To paraphrase the infamous U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Taneys 1857 Dred Scott decision: African American voters have no rights that the larger society is bound to protect.
It is these rights that are at issue, Black human and citizenship rights. The outcome of the presidential election is secondary.
Hostility to Black citizenship
It has been suggested that violations of Black voting rights are treated lightly by media, prosecutors and predominant white public opinion because of the white collar nature of the crimes. Not so. As with all aspects of criminal justice in the United States, race is the primary prosecutorial and political determinant. With a zealotry that spans seven generations, from Reconstruction to the present, yesteryears Dixiecrats and todays Republicans have succeeded in firmly linking the words Black and vote fraud in the public mind. This historical/mythological association is the rationale for the now-routine invasion of Black polling places by hordes of GOP observers whose real mission is voter intimidation.
Registering-voters-while-Black has long been a crime in Dixie. Alabama and federal lawmen spent four years, beginning in 1995, prosecuting Black Belt electoral activists for alleged absentee ballot fraud. The November 15, 1999 issue of The Nation recounts:
In all, nearly 1,000 people in three counties were questioned and asked to submit handwriting samples to state and federal officials. The investigation was a joint state and federal undertaking spearheaded by Alabama Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, a politician with a history of making racist comments about blacks and launching voter-fraud investigations in predominantly black counties. He would go on to win a seat in the US Senate in 1996.
Confronting the full weight of the state and federal governments, nine African Americans ultimately pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 1999. According to The Nation article, the feds were much more lenient with North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms who, while trailing a black opponent in 1990, mailed out postcards to 125,000 black voters implicitly threatening them with jail if they went to the polls. Helms's campaign settled a complaint with the Justice Department in 1992, but not before he had won another term.
Aint a damn thing changed in the 21st Century. As columnist Bob Herbert reported in the New York Times this past August, Florida Governor Jeb Bushs State Police targeted Black, mostly elderly members of the Orlando League of Voters on suspicion of absentee ballot vote fraud. Joseph Egan, an Orlando lawyer who represented some of activists on the states hit list, told Herbert: "People who have voted by absentee ballot for years are refusing to allow campaign workers to come to their homes. And volunteers who have participated for years in assisting people, particularly the elderly or handicapped, are scared and don't want to risk a criminal investigation."
No, vote fraud is only treated as a white collar infraction an irregularity when the alleged perpetrators are white.
The truth is, somewhere around a majority of whites dont really think African Americans should have an unqualified right to vote although very few will say so, and most may be unaware of their constricted views of Black rights. This is the only conclusion that can be derived from a study by Harvard political scientists Michael Dawson and Lawrence Bobo, which found that 62 percent of whites surveyed just before the 2004 election believed Blacks had little reason to worry that they would be prevented from voting. Such fears were either not a big problem (20%), no problem at all (17%), or a complete fabrication of the Democrats (25%). In nearly identical proportions, whites surveyed shortly after the 2000 election tended to dismiss Black complaints of voter suppression and fraud in Florida. These numbers reveal far more than ignorance or denial, but rather, an underlying hostility to full Black citizenship rights.
(Close to half of Americans dont think Muslims should have full citizenship rights, either. A Cornell University poll found that 44 percent of respondents favor some degree of curtailment of Muslim Americans' rights, including 27 percent who say Muslims should be required to register their locations with the federal government. These are undoubtedly the same people who believe Democrats fabricated all those stories about abuse of Black voters in Florida.)
Thus, the corporate media may be more reflective of than responsible for the widespread demand that African Americans get over the events of the last two presidential elections. Recounts and investigations of systematic Black voter suppression are made to seem ridiculous if the results do not alter the outcome. By such reasoning, it would not matter if all the Black voters of Alabama and Mississippi were turned away from the polls, since whites were going to give George Bush the electoral votes of those states, anyway. Crimes against Black citizenship do not matter unless it can be proven that the election was tipped in the process (or maybe not even then). Television news personalities smirk while presenting election protest items, conveying the message: You lost. Why dont you people quit? As if the harm done to untold numbers of Black citizens is of no consequence. Its like telling a rape victim to get over it and be grateful she wasnt killed.
This pervasive mindset also infects elements of the white left. Greg Moses, editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review, calls it type two racism the dogged insistence on disconnecting race and racism from election crimes:
Overt racism by right-wing Republicans is the core dynamic at work here, but it is aided and abetted by invisibility racism found in left commentators and media reports, who fail to center the civil rights struggle. An issue that is clearly about racism and civil rights has been whitewashed into voter fraud generica. Type one racism answered with type two.
Serious business
Given the hostile backdrop, post-November 2 protesters, investigators, litigators, agitators and fundraisers are nothing less than heroic. Although he would disagree with the notion, Rep. Conyers is acting as our Special Prosecutor, methodically laying the factual groundwork for future legal and political action while at the same time giving the troops a central focus around which to orbit.
Already a congressman for nearly a decade when the Watergate hearings began in May 1973, Conyers is a long-haul legislator and lawyer who understands the critical importance of documentation. I ask and invite everybody to turn in any evidence that they want that helps prove whatever position they believe, or even a position they don't believe, he told Salon.com. But this isn't a hunch and suspicion game. This is very serious business.
The arrogant and shameless Ohio Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, who refused an invitation to appear before Conyers hearings, has earned his place at the nexus of the investigation. I know that Kenneth Blackwell made some decisions that were blatant and outrageous for a secretary of state, said Conyers. How he felt that his head was big enough to be chairman of the Re-elect Bush committee and also head of the administration of the electoral vote for the president in that same state was beyond me. There are very few people who did what he did.
Conyers December 2 letter to Blackwell reads much like a prosecutors document. For example:
(27) How did you inform your workers, and the public, that their vote would not be counted if cast in the wrong precinct? (28) Your directive was exploited by those who intentionally misled voters about their correct polling place, and multiplied the number of provisional ballots found invalid. What steps have you or other officials in Ohio taken to investigate these criminal acts?
We think Conyers smells conspiracies, or at least some very nasty orchestrated attempts to break the law.
Without Conyers clear determination to press forward with hearings, it is doubtful that the movement (if it can called that) to lay bare the facts of November 2 could have been sustained, to this point. There might have been no national scene of the crime rally in Columbus, Ohio, scheduled for January 3; no growing list of Electoral College Electors demanding, for the first time in history, a complete investigation; and little prospect of even one senator standing with the Congressional Black Caucus on January 6, when the body meets to certify the Electoral College vote. And no possibility, however remote, of anyone going to jail for the crimes of November 2.
Absent relentless agitation, litigation and investigation of the past election, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.s constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote will come to naught, as will every other effort at meaningful election reform.
Rich mans dream
Hawking his Social Security personal savings accounts, George Bush this week attempted to explain his vision of an ownership society, stammering: One of the philosophies of this government is if you own something, it is it makes the country a better if more people own something, the country is better off; you have a stake in the future of the country if you own something.
Political translation: The best society is one in which those who own, rule. This was in fact a core belief of the Founding Fathers, who created a system in which a very tiny cohort of white men with property held all political power. In a brief but brilliant 1994 essay, Democracy Was Not What They Had On Their Minds, Marquita Hill points out that only 30,000 voters less than 1% of the population participated in the presidential election of 1796 in which John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson. Only about 112,000 citizens took part in the 1804 election, out of a total population of more than six million! Total votes didn't top a million until Native American killer Andrew Jackson's defeat of John Quincy Adams in 1828, Ms Hill wrote. By then, the U.S. population was approaching 12 million. Hill concludes: Handfuls of white, male propertied voters established the precedent that only their kind would sit in the White House.
This was the intention of the Founders who launched the nation on its rule-by-the-white-rich trajectory. Our struggle is to force that trajectory to bend toward justice.
is published every Thursday.


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MS Patients Who Smoke Show More Brain Atrophy, More Lesions, Than MS Nonsmokers
- Date:
- August 18, 2009
- Source:
- University at Buffalo
- Summary:
- Persons with multiple sclerosis who smoked for a little as six months during their lifetime had more destruction of brain tissue and more brain atrophy than MS patients who never smoked, a study by neuroimaging specialists has shown.
- Share:
Persons with multiple sclerosis who smoked for a little as six months during their lifetime had more destruction of brain tissue and more brain atrophy than MS patients who never smoked, a study by neuroimaging specialists at the University at Buffalo has shown.
Research published in the Aug. 18, 2009, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, showed that "ever-smokers" had more brain lesions and greater loss of brain volume, as well as higher scores on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), than MS patients who had no history of smoking.
The EDSS score is an average number derived from measures of various functions of the central nervous system. It is based on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 representing greatest disability. Nonsmokers recorded an average EDSS score of 2.5, compared to 3.0 for ever-smokers.
"Cigarette smoking is one of the most compelling environmental risk factors linked to the development and worsening of MS," said Robert Zivadinov, M.D., Ph.D., UB professor of neurology, director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) where the research was conducted and first author on the study.
"The biological basis of the potential link between smoking and MS has not yet been fully elucidated," Zivadinov said. "In addition to nicotine, cigarette smoke contains hundreds of potentially toxic components, including tar, carbon monoxide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
"In MS patients, smoking was associated with higher increased lesion burden and greater brain atrophy. Our results indicate that a wide range of quantitative brain MRI markers are affected by smoking in MS patients."
The study involved 368 consecutive patients who were seen at the Baird Multiple Sclerosis Center of the Jacobs Neurological Institute (JNI), UB's Department of Neurology, UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Within the study cohort, 128 had a history of smoking: 96 were active smokers who had smoked more than 10 cigarettes-per-day in the three months prior to the study start and 32 were former smokers who had smoked cumulatively for at least six months sometime in the past. The remaining 240 participants were lifelong nonsmokers.
Nearly 80 percent in both groups were female, and nearly 75 percent were diagnosed with progressive MS, characterized by a steadily increasing disability.
All participants were evaluated by a clinician, were rated by disability using the EDSS scale and underwent a variety of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans conducted by MRI analysts who were blinded to the patient's clinical status and characteristics.
Results showed that smokers with MS had a greater breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, had nearly 17 percent more brain lesions -- patches of inflammation in the sheath surrounding the nerve fibers that impair their function -- than nonsmokers with MS, and also had less brain volume. Smoking also was associated with increased physical disability, as measured by the EDSS score.
Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, M.D., director of the Baird MS Center, UB associate professor of neurology and a principal co-author on the study, said: "The findings underscore the detrimental effect of smoking, providing a link between smoking and a more severe brain injury in MS patients.
"Increased antismoking education in schools and more targeted smoking cessation programs for patients with MS should be encouraged further and supported."
Murali Ramanathan, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, is senior author on the study. Additional authors, all from UB, are Komal Hashmi, M.D., Nadir Abdelrahman, M.D., Milena Stosic, M.D., Michael G. Dwyer, Sara Hussein and Jackie Durfee.
The research was funded by an independent grant from the BNAC, by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and by a Pediatric MS Center of Excellence Center Grant. The Pediatric MS Center of Excellence is located in Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo. The BNAC is located in Buffalo General Hospital. Both hospitals are part of Kaleida Health.
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Materials provided by University at Buffalo. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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We have a view this morning of the latest Mideast war as it looks to Israel and as it looks to Hamas. For 10 days now, Hamas has fired rockets out of its enclave in Gaza. Israel's military has intercepted many of those rockets, but 12 people have been killed in Israel. Israeli planes have devastated parts of Gaza, collapsing buildings and killing at least 200 people, by the latest count. The international community is pushing for a cease-fire. The Israeli view of this comes from a senior official who spoke with reporters, including our own Daniel Estrin, who's on the line. Daniel, welcome back.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Thank you very much.
INSKEEP: What did you hear and from whom?
ESTRIN: This was a very senior military official. He would not let us name him. He was discussing sensitive military issues. He said Israel right now is assessing its, quote, "achievements" in this offensive, which are - according to him - killing senior militants, destroying rocket launchers, destroying some of the underground tunnels Israel says Hamas has built inside Gaza. And he said Israel is assessing whether that is enough to deliver a message to Hamas to deter them from firing rockets deep into Israel. Until then, he says, the military is prepared to go on fighting for more days.
INSKEEP: How, if at all, did this official address the damage that's been done to the civilian populace in Gaza? We mentioned 200 dead. Many of them are believed to be children. And we're also talking about loss of electricity, loss of clean water and potential deaths from that.
ESTRIN: Yes. Well, he said he's never met an air force pilot who likes killing children. And, yes, children have been killed in this conflict on both sides. He said, Israel does what it can to avoid killing innocent people in Gaza. Israel does sometimes call Palestinians and warn them to evacuate a building before bombing that building. But he was not apologetic about many things. He said it was more important to protect the lives of Israelis under rocket fire than the lives of Palestinians who live next to rocket launchers. And he said he understands why the media around the world focuses on the deaths and destruction in Gaza. He says, I get it; if the media were leading with pictures of what's happening with Israeli civilians, that would mean that Israel would be the weaker side. And that's not what he wants Israel to be.
INSKEEP: Nevertheless, he's saying it's justified when they attack a target and civilians are killed.
ESTRIN: He says, Israel does everything it can to prevent civilian casualties, but sometimes that is what happens; it's unavoidable, he says.
INSKEEP: Is there a pattern to how these conflicts come to an end?
ESTRIN: There is a pattern. Usually Hamas and Gaza asks for promises of investment. You know, Gaza is under blockade. It faces a deep humanitarian crisis. And Egypt has already pledged money for Gaza. Egypt is a key mediator in efforts for a cease-fire. And despite international pressure for a cease-fire, we have seen in previous Gaza wars that, for Israel, domestic considerations trump any kind of international pressure. And right now, I have to say, Steve, the Israeli public widely supports this offensive. It's an opportunity, Israel thinks, to hit at Hamas.
INSKEEP: Well, what is it like to be in Israel right now, Daniel, particularly for you? Because you've been through a couple of these wars now.
ESTRIN: I have. I mean, I'll tell you, yesterday, the other day, my neighbors were on their balcony, speaking to each other, and one said, it's painful to see what's happening in Gaza, and the other said, yes, but it's better that it happens to them than to us. So it's just very sad to reflect on how far away we are from any kind of peace. I have to say, after this military briefing, I pulled up into the parking lot - I'm here right now - of the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center. That's the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated after a peace rally years ago. I'm looking at his car, the one that rushed him to the hospital after he was shot. It's just - it's a moment to reflect on just how far away we are from peace, Steve.
INSKEEP: NPR's Daniel Estrin is in Tel Aviv, Israel, today. Daniel, thanks so much.
ESTRIN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Flashback Friday.
In Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality, Joane Nagel looks at how these characteristics are used to create new national identities and frame colonial expansion. In particular, White female sexuality, presented as modest and appropriate, was often contrasted with the sexuality of colonized women, who were often depicted as promiscuous or immodest.
This 1860s advertisement for Peter Lorillard Snuff & Tobacco illustrates these differences. According to Toby and Will Musgrave, writing in An Empire of Plants, the ad drew on a purported Huron legend of a beautiful white spirit bringing them tobacco.
There are a few interesting things going on here. We have the association of femininity with a benign nature: the women are surrounded by various animals (monkeys, a fox and a rabbit, among others) who appear to pose no threat to the women or to one another. The background is lush and productive.
Racialized hierarchies are embedded in the personification of the "white spirit" as a White woman, descending from above to provide a precious gift to Native Americans, similar to imagery drawing on the idea of the "white man's burden."
And as often occurred (particularly as we entered the Victorian Era), there was a willingness to put non-White women's bodies more obviously on display than the bodies of White women. The White woman above is actually less clothed than the American Indian woman, yet her arm and the white cloth are strategically placed to hide her breasts and crotch. On the other hand, the Native American woman's breasts are fully displayed.
So, the ad provides a nice illustration of the personification of nations with women's bodies, essentialized as close to nature, but arranged hierarchically according to race and perceived purity.
Originally posted in 2010.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.


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The estimated loss to the nation's economy from Superstorm Sandy has climbed to as much as $50 billion, making it one of the nation's most costly disasters.
Eqecat, which does loss estimates from catastrophes for the insurance industry, puts the total losses at between $30 billion and $50 billion. Its initial estimated loss earlier in the week was only $10 billion to $20 billion.
Eqecat said the higher estimate is due primarily to the large electric and utility losses, coupled with the transit and road closures that shut many businesses longer than expected. It also said further information about damage is raising the estimate.
It now believes the insured portion of the loss could reach in the $10 billion to $20 billion range, up from its earlier estimate of a $5 billion to $10 billion in insured losses.
Related: 19 bags of rotting food, and a business at risk
Moody's Analytics, a economic research firm, puts storm losses at $49.9 billion. About $30 billion of the loss comes from the physical storm damage, split fairly evenly between households, businesses, and public infrastructure such as rail lines, roads and water and sewage systems. The rest of the Moody's estimate comes from lost business activity.
Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics, said if he had to guess, he would estimate that the loss estimate is more likely to rise as the full extent of damage and the actual cost of repairs becomes better known.
"The property damages are typically revised up, and economic damages are revised down because businesses find a way to make the business back," he said. "But a lot of estimates come from estimates about when power is restored. If that takes longer than estimated, it could be more costly."
Related: Sandy hits October car sales
About 60% of the lost business output is likely to come from New Jersey, dwarfing the 15% from New York City and 14% from Philadelphia. The remaining lost output is from the Washington, D.C., area.
Moody's estimates Sandy will be the third most costly U.S. natural disaster, trailing only the $157 billion total economic loss from 2005's Hurricane Katrina and the $54.5 billion loss from 1992's Hurricane Andrew when those losses are adjusted for inflation.
This is the second most costly hit to the affected area, trailing only the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. That caused $99 billion in damages nationwide, with most concentrated in New York. It is much greater than last year's Hurricane Irene, which followed a similar track and caused about $12.6 billion in total economic losses.
The greatest amount of lost business in Moody's estimate is $7 billion from financial services. Zandi said the two-day shutdown in the nation's stock exchanges was particularly costly in terms of lost commissions and fees, since traders are not going to trade a share of stock twice just to make up for not being able to trade it during the shutdown. "That's hard to get back," he said.
Related: Insurance may not help many businesses shut by Sandy
Business and professional services, which include everything from high-priced legal and accounting services to messenger services, is the second biggest source of lost business, with an estimated $4.6 billon loss.
Zandi said the lost business estimates do not take into account the cost of the extra time residents of the area are having to spend dealing with the problems caused by the storm, such as long commutes, waiting in long lines for gasoline or even lost productivity at work due to increased fatigue.
"There's so many ways it weighs on the economy that can't be measured," he said.
Despite the size of the loss, Zandi said the drag on the economy will be temporary, with rebuilding and recovery activity quickly making up for much of the economic damage from the storm. He believes any minor slowdown in the nation's gross domestic product in the fourth quarter due to Sandy will be recouped early in 2013.


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The belief that the economy would find its equilibrium at full employment depended partly on what had long been called Say's Law — for J. B. Say, the French counterpart and interpreter of Adam Smith — and partly on the corrective movement of wages, prices and interest rates when there was unemployment. Say's Law, not a thing of startling complexity, held that, from the proceeds of every sale of goods, there was paid out to someone somewhere in wages, salaries, interest, rent or profit (or there was taken from the man who absorbed a loss) the wherewithal to buy that item. As with one item, so with all. This being so, there could not be a shortage of purchasing power in the economy. Movements in prices, wages and interest rates then validated J. B. Say and also ensured that the fundamental tendency of the economy would be to operation at full employment. People and firms saved from their income, and this saving had, obviously, to be spent. This happened when it was invested in housing, plant, capital equipment. If people saved more than was invested, the surplus of savings would bring down interest rates. Investment would thus be stimulated and saving (at least in theory) discouraged. So the excess of savings would be eliminated and Say sustained. Prices of goods would also fall in consequence of any short-fall in purchasing power that resulted from an excess of savings. This would encourage buying and, by reducing the income from which savings were made, also reduce savings. Again Say was sustained. Until Keynes, Say's Law had ruled in economics for more than a century. And the rule was no casual thing; to a remarkable degree acceptance of Say was the test by which reputable economists were distinguished from the crackpots. Until late in the '30s no candidate for a Ph.D. at a major American university who spoke seriously of a shortage of purchasing power as a cause of depression could be passed. He was a man who saw only the surface of things, was unworthy of the company of scholars. Say's Law stands as the most distinguished example of the stability of economic ideas, including when they are wrong.
Supplementing Say, as noted, were the forces that kept the economy at full employment. These too were relatively straightforward. Were there unemployment, the competition for jobs would bring a fall in wage rates. Prices would be less immediately affected by the unemployment. The relationship of prices to costs would thus be made more attractive — real wages would fall — and workers whose employment was previously unprofitable to employers would now be hired. The fall in wages would not affect purchasing power; because of Say, that was always sufficient. Employment would continue to expand until the approach to full employment raised wage costs and arrested the hiring. Thus did the economy find its equilibrium at or very near full employment. From this also came the one decisive recommendation of the orthodox economists for ending unemployment. Do nothing to interfere with the reduction of wages in a depression. Resist all siren voices, including that of Herbert Hoover, who, it will be recalled, urged against wage cuts. On no matter was compassion so softheaded, for to keep up wages merely perpetuated the sorrow of unemployment and the sorrows of the unemployed. This was the doctrine, perhaps more accurately the theology, that Keynes brought to an end. There are numerous points of entry on his argument; perhaps the easiest is by way of the rate of interest. Interest, he held, was not the price people were paid to save. Rather it was what they got for keeping their assets in plant, machinery or similarly unliquid forms of investment — in his language, what was paid to overcome their liquidity preference. Accordingly, a fall in interest rates might not discourage savings, encourage investment, ensure that all savings would be used. It might cause investors to retreat into cash or its equivalent. So interest rates no longer came to the support of Say's Law to ensure that savings would be spent. And if Say's Law was no longer a reliable axiom of life, the notion of a shortage of purchasing power could no longer be excluded from calculation. It might, among other things, be the consequence of a reduction in wages.
What people sought to save, in Keynes's view, had still to be brought to equal what they wanted to invest. But the adjustment mechanism, he argued, was not the rate of interest but the total output of the economy. If efforts to save exceeded the desire to invest, the resulting shortage of purchasing power or demand caused output to fall. And it kept falling until employment and income had been so reduced that savings were also reduced or made negative. In this fashion savings were brought into line with investment — which also, meanwhile, would have fallen but by not so much. The economic equilibrium so established, it will be evident, was now one in which there was not full employment but unemployment. Thus unemployment for Keynes was a natural condition of the economy. There was much else. And not all of Keynes's argument survived. The liquidity-preference theory of interest, for example, though it served Keynes's argument, did not gain permanent acceptance as a description of reality. But on two things Keynes was immediately influential. Say's Law sank without trace. There could, it was henceforth agreed, be oversaving. And there could, as its counterpart, be a shortage of effective demand for what was being produced. And the notion that the economy could find its equilibrium with unemployment — a thought admirably reinforced by the everyday evidence of the '30s — was also almost immediately influential.


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Of the 10,000 images he snapped of Street Art this year, photographer Jaime Rojo gives us 110 that represent some of the most compelling, interesting, perplexing, thrilling in 2012.
Slideshow cover image of Vinz on the streets of Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Together the collection gives you an idea of the range of mediums, techniques, styles, and sentiments that appear on the street today as the scene continues to evolve worldwide. Every seven days on BrooklynStreetArt.com, we present "Images Of The Week", our weekly interview with the street.
We hope you enjoy this collection – some of our best Images of The Year from 2012.
Artists include 2501, 4Burners, 907, Above, Aiko, AM7, Anarkia, Anthony Lister, Anthony Sneed, Bare, Barry McGee, Bast, Billi Kid, Cake, Cash For Your Warhol, Con, Curtis, D*Face, Dabs & Myla, Daek One, DAL East, Dan Witz, Dark Clouds, Dasic, David Ellis, David Pappaceno, Dceve, Deth Kult, ECB, Eine, El Sol 25, Elle, Entes y Pesimo, Enzo & Nio, Esma, Ever, Faile, Faith47, Fila, FKDL, Gable, Gaia, Gilf!, Graffiti Iconz, Hef, HellbentHert, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy & Sot, Interesni Kazki, Jason Woodside, Javs, Jaye Moon, Jaz, Jean Seestadt, Jetsonorama, Jim Avignon, Joe Iurato, JR, Judith Supine, Ka, Kem5, Know Hope, Kuma, Labrona, Liqen, LNY, Love Me, Lush, Matt Siren, Mike Giant, Miyok, MOMO, Mr. Sauce, Mr. Toll, ND'A, Nick Walker, Nosego, Nychos, Occupy Wall Street, Okuda, OLEK, OverUnder, Phlegm, Pixel Pancho, Rambo, Read Books!, Reka, Retna, Reyes, Rime, Risk, ROA, Robots Will Kill, Rone, Sacer, Saner, See One, Sego, sevens errline, Sheyro, Skewville, Sonni, Stick, Stikman, Stormie Mills, Square, Swoon, Tati, The Yok, Toper, TVEE, UFO, VHILS, Willow, Wing, XAM, Yes One, and Zed1 .
Images © Jaime Rojo and Brooklyn Street Art 2012


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Guilty, Your Honor
Ethelbert Nevin [September 2006.] Tower Records has filed for bankruptcy again. I feel responsible not just for the collapse of this chain, but for the severe downturn of all brick-and-mortar music sales. After all, it was my disposable income that helped fuel the cycle. I have the CDs to prove it, shelf upon shelf. And I'm old enough to discuss the LP era wherein I made most of my purchases at several specialty stores in the quaint college town of Cambridge, MA. Back then, the clerks (never sales associates) could recommend a Klemperer over a Kleiber or passionately discuss the differences between American and European winds. The quarterly Schwann catalog was our bible. We browsers would queue up to consult the foxed tome. At first the shopkeepers stocked CDs along the periphery. Browsing merely involved glancing at a wall. After modifying the playback rig to accommodate the new technology, the big philosophical debate centered on whether to duplicate existing LPs or to acquire only new releases. One could have worse problems to deal with. I remember when the market's direction finally defined itself. One revered shop dumped its LP inventory throughout summer-long weekend sidewalk sales. Budget pressings from Deutsche Grammophon, London and Nonesuch could be snapped up at five for a tenner. I remember collectors staggering away from the bins under armloads of vinyl. Were they filling gaps in their holdings, oblivious to the sea change? In an otherwise attractive medium, CD longboxes provided something to gripe about. The stores liked them because there was no need to reconfigure LP displays and bins, with shoplifting concerns serving merely as a ruse. Consumer outcry (eradicating the need for CD-enclosing cardboard would save the planet), saw the shrink-wrapped jewel box emerge victorious. Retailers, who begrudgingly redesigned to accommodate the smaller, lighter package, soon saw green, having come to understand that compact packaging increased revenue-per-square-foot, with under-cabinet inventory storage further increasing sales areas. Smaller product also eased distribution, as exemplified by panel vans shuttling between chain stores equalizing inventories. When mega-chain Tower Records first arrived at my outpost, we resented the encroachment on our little shops, threatening the livelihood of salespeople we knew by name. But the chains soon seduced us with free tee-shirts and deep inventory. Sales operated as a further enticement. On many occasions I lugged home filled-to-bursting orange-and-yellow bags. HMV opened an anchor store blocks away for a piece of the action. The gigantic CD chains stocked everything — a browser's dream. It became possible not just to acquire everything you wanted, but to rebuild an entire collection from scratch, with public libraries the beneficiaries of discarded LP collections. The giants' volume sales permitted lower profit margins on imports and oddities, at the same time undercutting the independents. The niche stores had lost their edge. The chain-stores' employees were generally kids with excessive body piercings who endured their employment in the Classical section as a spell in jail. It never failed to amuse me that each store put Classical behind soundproof glass. If you wanted more information on a recording, you could come back later and hope for an untattooed grownup. But, ultimately, it didn't matter. In that brief period when the Internet was mostly about information, we got our minutiae online and, as a bonus, connecting with like-minded souls. The clerk who had memorized each Bach cantata's BWV number became a sideshow oddity. Tower eventually grew careless about pricing. Rumor had it that multi-disc sets could be bought for the single-unit price because cashiers had no experience multiplying. Some advertised sales were suicidal, permitting customers to buy imports at less than their wholesale value. I know about this firsthand. Small wonder several distributors cried uncle. The big chains, having saturated the market and squashed the independents, suddenly retrenched. To find CDs on my last visit, I had to navigate past disorganized racks heaped with birthday cards, magazines, "art photography," condoms, gum, travel books, soap, incense, candles and batteries. Desperately hurting, the big stores will sell anything now. I only enter major chains to inspect the new releases, never to buy. Today I complete my purchasing online, directly with labels and the bigger distributors. I also patronize used-disc retailers. I feel that my money is going into hands doing the actual work rather than nameless shelf-stockers lorded over by some corporate lummox. Brick-and-mortar stores hold no bargains now. (With their different importers, it's not quite the same in Canada and Europe.) As local record stores convulsed, sheet-music retailers also vanished. Boston used to have its own Tin Pan Alley, a street of shops devoted to sheet music and pianos. Most are extinct. As a sad example of decline, one of the region's oldest music-publishing houses decamped across town into a parking garage's street-level retail space. Of course, astronomical real-estate prices were also contributing to these problems. I can name only two independent sheet-music stores in the greater Boston area. Otherwise they're gone from malls and town centers. Presumably junior goes online for his beginning piano method. [More Ethelbert Nevin]
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Separation anxiety Disorder
Separation Anxiety DisorderIt is normal for very young children between the ages of 7 and 15 months old to experience separation anxiety. Often times kids go through a phase when they are scared nervous of unfamiliar people and places. Anytime a child has the fear it can be excessive and if it last longer than four weeks the child may have separation anxiety disorder. Separation anxiety disorder is a condition in which a child becomes alarmed or frightened when away from home or separated from a parent or love one. This fear may interfere with the child's normal activities, such as going to school or playing with other children.
Symptoms Of Separation Anxiety Disorder
- An unrealistic and lasting worry that something bad will happen to the parent or caregiver if the child leaves
- Repeated complaints of physical symptoms (such as headaches, stomachaches, nausea, or vomiting) when separation from major attachment figures occurs or is anticipated
- Refusal to go to school in order to stay with the caregiver
- Refusal to go to sleep without the caregiver being nearby or to sleep away from home
- Fear of being alone
- Repeated nightmares involving the theme of separation
- Bed wetting
- Repeated temper tantrums or pleading
- Recurrent excessive distress when separation from home or major attachment figures occurs or is anticipated
"Don't forget a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated."
Helpful Links For Anxiety Disorder
- Separation Anxiety - Describes typical phase of separation anxiety in infants and young children.
- Anxiety and Children - Provides an overview of separation anxiety disorder, symptoms and treatment options. (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)
- Separation Anxiety - Offers practical suggestions for parents dealing with separation anxiety disorder, as well as books to read to children.
We provide great information and resources to help meet your needs.
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The beauty of natural wonders and rustic wildlife sightings makes this Alaska cruise a remarkable experience. Venture into the wilderness on a dogsled ride in Juneau, witness Misty Fjords aboard a jet-powered catamaran in Ketchikan, and take it all in via the rails on the Skagway White Pass Scenic Railway.
The Magic City might make it hard to say goodbye. Explore the art deco architecture on South Beach with a walk down Ocean Drive or indulge in a café Cubano from a café on Calle Ocho. The Caribbean's premier resort-style destination awaits you in Harvest Caye. Settle in poolside or explore the 7-acres of beachfront before grabbing some souvenirs and zip lining across the entire island.
Discover the magic and mythology of the Greek Isles – one of the most storied regions of the world. Sail across the azure waters of the Aegean Sea visiting the small hidden ports of Nafplio, Monemvasia, and Patmos and the legendary islands of Santorini and Mykonos.
The best way for nature lovers in search of rustic elegance to experience Denali and the heart of Alaska's wilderness. Tour Highlights: 7-Day Alaska Cruise, 5 Ports + 5 Day Post-Cruise Land Tour Overnights in Girwood, Denali and Anchorage Deluxe Dome Railcar journey from Denali to Talkeetna Explore Denali with a Tundra Wilderness Tour Visit…
Explore Alaska as the mountain climbers do with an overnight stay in the quaint community of Talkeetna. Located 60 miles from the base of Mt. Denali, this tour gives you the best possible opportunity to see the largest mountain in North America from two distinctly different views. Tour Highlights: 6-Day Pre-Cruise Land Tour + 7-Day…
This 6-night voyage offers time ashore to explore the historical cities of Hue and Da Nang from Chan May before departing Vietnam for an overnight stay in vibrant Hong Kong.
Greek temples and Turkish mosques punctuate the golden coastlines of these ancient rival nations throughout this 8-day coastal exploration of the Aegean Sea, scenic Dardanelles and the Sea of Maramara. Transit the narrow, time-saving Corinth Canal to Itea and the sacred ruins in the Sanctuary of Apollo, the former home of the ancient world's most respected oracle. Sip tart and flavorful white wines made from local Assyrtiko, Athiri and Aidani grapes grown atop the windy ridges of Santorini.
Discover the culture, history and cuisine on both sides of the Italian peninsula during this 15-day cruise of the Adriatic, Ionian, Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas. This back-to-back cruise is ideal for optimizing shore excursion time in Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Monaco, France, and Spain.
Discover Italy and Greece at their best, when towns and beaches are less crowded and the weather is just right for strolling historic ruins and admiring Greece's 5,000-plus wildflowers. Feast your eyes on the smooth bone-white columns of Athens' Parthenon, and the honeycombed spires of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia. Inhale the heady aroma of wild rosemary and thyme mingled with fresh-baked guttiau bread in Cagliari, and the citrus tang of kumquat liqueur in Corfu.


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Brand: ULTRAGUARD PRO ® for DOGS
Company: HARTZ
FORMULATION: «spot-on» solution for topical administration on the back of the animals (also called pipettes, squeeze-ons, drop-ons, etc.)
- ETOFENPROX: 550 mg/ml (=55.0%)
- METHOPRENE: 2.5 mg/mL (=0.25%)
- PYRIPROXYFEN (=Nylar): 5.0 mg/mL (=0.5%)
- PBO: 100 mg/kg (=10%): no direct therapeutic effect
- MGK 264: 10 mg/kg (=1%): no direct therapeutic effect
CHEMICAL CLASS of the active ingredient(s):
- Etofenprox: PYRETHROID
- Methoprene and pyriproxyfen: JUVENILE HORMONE ANALOGUES
- PBO and MGK 264: SYNERGISTS
PARASITES CONTROLLED* (spectrum of activity)
* Can be slightly different in some countries: read the product label!
- Dogs, small 5 to 14 lbs. ≈ 2.3 to 6.7 kg bw: 1 pipette with 0.5 mL (equivalent 119.6 - 41.0 mg/kg etofenprox, 0.5 to 0.2 mg/kg methoprene, 1.1 - 0.4 mg/kg pyriproxyfen)
- Dogs, medium 15 to 30 lbs. ≈ 6.8 to 13.6 kg bw: 1 pipette with 1.95 mL (equivalent 157.7 - 78.9 mg/kg etofenprox, 0.7 to 0.4 mg/kg methoprene, 1.4 - 0.7 mg/kg pyriproxyfen)
- Dogs, large 31 to 60 lbs. ≈ 14 to 27.2 kg bw: 1 pipette with 3.90 mL (equivalent 153.2 - 78.9 mg/kg etofenprox, 0.7 to 0.4 mg/kg methoprene, 1.4 - 0.7 mg/kg pyriproxyfen)
- Dogs, very large 61 to 150 lbs. ≈ 27.6 to 68.4 kg bw: 1 pipette with 6.5 mL (equivalent 129.5 - 52.3 mg/kg etofenprox, 0.6 to 0.2 mg/kg methoprene, 1.2 - 0.5 mg/kg pyriproxyfen)
* Can be slightly different in some countries: read the product label!
- LD50 (acute oral) in rats: >5000 mg/kg (according to study by HARTZ)
- LD50 (acute dermal) in rats: >5000 mg/kg (according to study by HARTZ)
- Estimated Hazard class calculated according to the WHO: U unlikely to present acute hazard (based on the LD50, learn more)
Suspected poisoning? Read the articles on etofenprox safety and methoprene safety in this site.
WARNING !!!: Never use on cats pipettes approved only for dogs or vice-versa. Never use on small dogs pipettes approved for large dogs. Learn more about spot-ons and their safety.
You may be interested in the following articles in this site dealing with the general safety of veterinary products:
- Safety for humans
- Safety for domestic animals
- Safety for the environment
- Hazard classifications of pesticides
Risk of resistance? YES, significant for:
- fleas, mainly the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis
- brown dog ticks, Rhipicephalus sanguineus
- mosquitoes
Resistance to pyrethroids (including etofenprox) is common in fleas and mosquitoes worldwide, and in brown dog ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) in some countries (e.g. the USA, Panama, Brazil and Spain). Mosquito resistance is mostly due to large scale spraying of pyrethroids for vector control or pest control in agriculture. As a consequence protection provided by this product against fleas, mosquitoes and brown dog ticks may be lower or shorter than expected.
This product contains two synergists (PBO and MGK 264) that have no direct effect on the parasites, but are supposed to neutralize pyrethroid resistance due to enhanced detoxifixation through mixed function oxidase (MFO) enzymes. However detoxification through MFOs is only one among several possible resistance mechanisms (e.g. other detoxifying enzymes, target site insensitivity, reduced penetration, behavioral change, etc). This means that the chance that these added synergists overcome resistance to etofenprox in fleas, mosquitoes and ticks is rather modest. And it is impossible to know in advance whether they will work or not. Consequently if the product does not work, you will never know whether it is due to incorrect administration or to resistance.
So far there are no reports on resistance of fleas to methoprene or pyriproxyfen.
Alternatives to prevent resistance through product rotation:
- Amitraz (T*): toxic to cats!
- Carbamates (F+T*), e.g. carbaryl, propoxur
- Indoxacarb (F*)
- Insect Development Inhibitors (F*), e.g. lufenuron
- Isoxazolines (F+T*), e.g. afoxolaner, fluralaner, sarolaner
- Macrocyclic lactones (F*), e.g. selamectin
- Neonicotinoids (F*), e.g. dinotefuran, imidacloprid, nitenpyram
- Organophosphates (F+T*), e.g. chlorpyrifos, coumaphos, diazinon, fenthionn, etc.
- Phenylpyrazoles (F+T*), e.g. fipronil, pyriprole
- Spinosyns (F*), e.g. spinetoram, spinosad
*F = effective against fleas; T = effective against ticks.
These alternative products may not be available in all countries, or may be not available as spot-ons.
Resistance of fleas and brown dog ticks to carbamates, organophosphates and pyrethroids is not uncommon in several countries, including the USA.
Learn more about resistance and how it develops.
Are the active ingredients ORIGINAL* or GENERICS**?
- Etofenprox: GENERIC (introduced in the 1980s)
- Methoprene: GENERIC (introduced in the 1970s)
- Pyriproxyfen (Nylar): GENERIC (introduced in the 1990s)
- PBO: GENERIC (introduced in the 1940s)
- MGK 264: GENERIC (introduced in the 1940s)
*Meaning that they are still patent protected and generics are not yet available
**Meaning that they have lost patent protection and may be acquired from manufacturers of generic active ingredients other than the holder of the original patent.
COUNTRIES where this product is marketed (maybe under another TM): USA
GENERIC BRANDS available? YES, perhaps not with the same composition
Click here to learn more about GENERIC vs. ORIGINAL drugs.
ULTRAGUARD PRO for dogs is a once-a-month flea+tick spot-on from HARTZ combining etofenprox (kills fleas, kills and repels ticks and mosquitoes) with methoprene and pyriproxyfen that both inhibit the development of fleas.
Administered about every 4 weeks controls established flea infestations and prevents flea populations to develop in the pets environment, but only if all the dogs and cats in the same household are treated against fleas. It also kills/repels several tick species (e.g. Dermacentor variabilis, Ixodes scapularis, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Amblyomma americanum, etc,) and mosquitoes.
Etofenprox is a veteran broad-spectrum insecticide and acaricide pyrethroid introduced in the 1980s (by MITSUI). It is abundantly used in agriculture and against household pests. It is effective against fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. However, resistance of fleas and mosquitoes to pyrethroids is not uncommon, in the USA and elsewhere. This means that protection against these parasites may be lower or shorter than expected.
Pyriproxyfen (Nylar) is a veteran insect development inhibitor introduced in the 1980s (by SUMITOMO) scarcely used in pets and not at all in livestock. It is also used moderately in agriculture and vector control. In this product it stops development of flea eggs and larvae. It has no protective effect whatsoever against fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, and biting flies
Methoprene and pyriproxyfen have no effect on ticks or mosquitoes, only on the development of flea eggs and larvae. The logic of adding an IGR is to ensure that if a few fleas survive the killing effect of etofenprox (what usually happens), development of their offspring is inhibited because the eggs of the surviving fleas will not develop. The combination of more than one active ingredient of different chemical classes makes also sense regarding resistance prevention, because it means attacking fleas or ticks through two or more different mechanisms of action, which is vastly assumed to help preventing or at least delaying resistance development.
The logic of combining etofenprox with an IGR is to ensure that if a few fleas survive its killing effect (what usually happens) development of their offspring is inhibited, because the eggs of the surviving fleas won't developed.
Usually only one IGR is included in many flea spot-ons. The logic of adding two with a similar mechanism of action (juvenile hormone analogues) is not evident, also because so far there are no reports on flea tolerance or resistance to these IGRs.
As previously mentioned, both synergists in the formulation (PBO and MGK 264) have neither a direct effect on fleas, ticks or mosquitoes, nor enhance the efficacy of etofenprox. The chance that they neutralize resistance to etofenprox is very modest.
Topical products (mainly spot-ons and insecticide-impregnated collars) have some advantages over systemic products (mainly tablets for oral administration and injectables):
- Most topical products kill or sterilize the parasites before they bite and suck blood on the pet, whereas systemic products kill or sterilize the parasites only after their blood meal.
- Topical products cannot be vomited.
- Spot-ons and collars are very convenient to administer.
- There is a larger choice of topical products.
But topical products have also some disadvantages:
- Topical products contaminate the pet's hair coat and it is advisable for children and also adults to avoid contact with the pet for several days after treatment.
- Topical products may not control parasites in some parts of the pet's body (e.g. the ears, below the tail, between the legs, etc.), whereas systemic products reach the blood-sucking parasites through the blood wherever they are.
- Efficacy of topical products may be reduced or shortened through exposure to dirt, sun, shampooing, washing, rain, baths, etc., whereas efficacy of systemic products is independent from these factors.
This product is one of many examples of a questionable practice regarding the use of pyrethroids at very high concentrations on pets, mainly on dogs. Photostable pyrethroids (including permethrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, cyphenothrin, phenothrin, etc.) can have a dose-dependent irritant effect on mammals. Most of them are toxic to cats at the therapeutic dose used on dogs. Etofenprox is less toxic and irritant than other synthetic pyrethroids, but adverse drug reactions are not surprising when administered at such high doses as in this case.
Pyrethroid-related irritation is a well-known problem in livestock. Ready-to-use pour-ons are frequently used on cattle, comparable to ready-to-use spot-ons por dogs, but usually at a concentration of 1%-5% active ingredient and at a much lower dose of 1-5 mg/kg. Even at this dose some cattle show signs of irritation, particularly dairy cows and calves. In this particular dog spot-on etofenprox is delivered at a concentration of 55.0%, which results in a dose rate of up to up to ~158 mg/kg, about 30 to >100 times more than on cattle. It is not surprising that not all dogs tolerate such a dose, particularly small breeds, puppies and weaker animals (sick, stressed, old).
A comparable situation occurs with amitraz for dogs (and cats, to which amitraz is also toxic). There are no amitraz ready-to-use pour-ons for cattle, because cattle just don't tolerate it at high concentrations. Instead there are topical amitraz sprays or dips that are applied to cattle at concentrations of ~0.025% (250 ppm = mg/L), which results in a dose of 3-5 mg/kg body weight. Even at this dose cattle may not tolerate amitraz and show undesirable side effects (sedation, depression, etc). Spot-ons for dogs may contain up to 10% amitraz and can result in doses of up to 45 mg/kg body weight! Chihuahuas and puppies are particularly at risk of amitraz side effects.
It is also not surprising that such products erroneously administered to cats can be deadly.
In fact, serious problems with adverse reactions after use of certain spot-ons have been reported in the USA, especially on cats and small dogs. According to an EPA report from 2010, most problems occurred with spot-ons containing permethrin, phenothrin, cyphenothrin (all are synthetic pyrethroids) and amitraz, not approved for use on cats but erroneously used on them. There have been also numerous overdosing cases of small dogs, apparently because some users buy large vials for large dogs but use them several times in smaller dogs to save money. It seems also that small dogs are more sensitive than large ones and don't tolerate the treatment as well as large ones. It also seems that some insufficiently investigated inert ingredients (e.g. solvents) in the formulations are not as harmless as they were supposed to be.
Deeper information on the misuse of synthetic pyrethroids in dogs and pets can be found in: Anadón et al. 2009. Use and abuse of pyrethrins and synthetic pyrethroids in veterinary medicine. The Veterinary Journal, 182, 7-20.
My personal opinion is that the fierce competition for market share in this largest and most profitable veterinary market has pushed some companies to take too many risks in order to launch products that are "new" or at least "different" to those of their competitors. In fact it has become very difficult to be "new", really "superior" or simply "different" in a market driven mainly by generic active ingredients during the last decade. Once one company has taken the risk, others will follow and launch their "me-too" brand, to be sure they don't miss an opportunity.
For an overview and a list of the most popular pet antiparasitics for flea, tick, lice and/or mite control click here.
This article IS NOT A PRODUCT LABEL. It offers complementary information that may be useful to veterinary professionals and users that are not familiar with veterinary antiparasitics.
Information offered in this article has been extracted from publications issued by manufacturers, government agencies (e.g. EMEA, FDA, USDA, etc.) or in the scientific literature. No guarantee is given on its accuracy, integrity, sufficiency, actuality and opportunity, and any liability is denied. Read the site's DISCLAIMER.
In case of doubt contact the manufacturer or a veterinary professional.


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Here you can find full details of our book GENE VINCENT A Companion, the most complete and detailed resource of information on Gene Vincent's recorded legacy. You can buy a copy on-line for prompt dispatch to you, and you can keep your copy updated by noting corrections and additions to the Gene Vincent sessionography, discography, bibliography, and other information in the book. Add us to your Bookmarks/Favorites and come back regularly, or subscribe to our Newsfeeds or Emailing list.
We hope that you will also enjoy the wealth of other information relating to Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps to be found here.
The website was created for us by the multi-talented Nikki Pugh.


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"Last" X-Men Stands Strong
- Christian Hamaker Contributing Film and Culture Writer
- Updated Jul 30, 2007
Release Date: May 26, 2006
Rating: PG-13 (intense sequences of action violence, some sexual content and language)
Genre: Action
Run Time: 104 min.
Director: Brett Ratner
Actors: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden
The X-Men return to the big screen for what the title of the series' third installment promises will be their "last stand," but when the results are as enjoyable as this effective film, why stop? Far worse films have spawned sequels, and the X-Men franchise still looks to have plenty of life left in it.
Patrick Stewart returns in "X-Men: The Last Stand" as Charles Xavier, head of a school for mutant children in – the movie informs us – the "not too distant future." For those unfamiliar with the series, these mutants, ostracized and feared by the human race, have unique individual abilities. Xavier teaches the mutants how to harness their gifts for good purposes.
His nemesis, also an old friend, is Magneto (Ian McKellen), who desires to bring about a great war between humans and mutants. Hastening the conflict: a new cure for mutantcy. Should the mutants accept the cure and choose to live as humans, on human terms, or should they retain their unique identities? When tensions between the human and mutant factions escalate, the president looks to a mutant, Dr. Henry McCoy (Kelsey Grammer), to help mediate a solution.
Fighting alongside Xavier are Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Scott (James Marsden) and Jean Gray (Famke Janssen). Magneto's allies include the lethal Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) and Cyclops (also played by James Marsden).
The larger battle for the future is complemented by the personal struggles among the mutants. Wolverine continues to pine for Scott's girlfriend, Jean, counted for dead at the conclusion of "X-2." When she reappears, the romance between Jean and Wolverine kicks into overdrive, but all is not what it seems. Xavier explains that Jean is one half of a dual personality; the other half, the Phoenix, is a fiery all-consuming being, restrained by Xavier when Jean was younger.
"I chose the lesser of two evils," Xavier explains.
Magneto, aware of Jean's great power, uses her as a weapon of war and calls for an army of mutants to follow him into combat. The explosive conclusion to the epic showdown between Jean and Xavier is one of many startling developments that will leave viewers wondering how the series might continue.
The philosophical issues raised by the "X-Men" series are simple but profound. How should we treat others who are different from us? Should we use our individual gifts for good purposes or for evil? Are we willing to sacrifice our very lives for the betterment of others? Will societal change take place gradually and peacefully or does it sometimes need to be brought about, in Malcolm X's words, "by any means necessary" (a line spoken by Magneto earlier in the series and repeated by another character in "The Last Stand")?
Fans of the first two "X-Men" movies, both directed by Bryan Singer, worried when Brett Ratner (the "Rush Hour" movies, "The Family Man") signed on to direct the third film, but Ratner hasn't embarrassed himself. Far from it, he successfully packs more characters into a film with a leaner running time than the first two films in the series – a positive development in an era of blockbuster films with bloated running times but skimpy scripts – while retaining a sense of wonder and fun in the storytelling. It all adds up to enjoyable, escapist entertainment.
Viewers are advised to stay through the end credits for a surprising development.
AUDIENCE: 13 and up
- Language/Profanity: Lord's name taken in vain; multiple profanities; one male character is said to have "only one thing" on his mind.
- Drugs/Alcohol: Cigar smoking.
- Sex/Nudity: Kissing; an erotic scene between Wolverine and Jean; a mutant is transformed into an unclothed human.
- Violence: A mutant promises to kill a man, then follows through; numerous other killings and fights, as well as massive destruction of property; forcible medical injections; a character asks to be killed.
- Ethics: Mutants are said to be "curable," but they fight back, claiming that there's nothing wrong with them.


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Ted Thompson, whose 13-year run as Green Bay Packers general manager included their 2010 Super Bowl championship season, has died. He was 68.
The Packers announced Thursday that Thompson died the previous night at his home in Atlanta, Texas. The team said it was contacted by a direct family member.
Thompson announced in May 2019 he had been diagnosed with an autonomic nerve disorder.
He was the general manager from 2005-17 and drafted many notable players on the current roster, including two-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He acquired 49 of the 53 players on the Packers' 2010 championship team.
"He, in my opinion, is the best talent evaluator, especially when it comes to the draft, that I've ever seen or been around," said Brian Gutekunst, who worked alongside Thompson at Green Bay before eventually succeeding him as general manager. "He had a very unique way of seeing what a player was going to become and the greatest he could become."
Thompson spent more than two decades in the Packers' front office and was the team's director of pro personnel when the Packers won the Super Bowl for the 1996 season and captured the NFC title the following year.
"I think the one thing that really stands out to me is just his humility," Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said. "It was never about Ted. It was always what's best for the organization."
Thompson had a 10-season playing career as a linebacker with the Houston Oilers from 1975-1984. Tennessee Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said in a statement that Thompson "was a smart and savvy player, who made his mark on special teams and clearly had a great feel for the game."
But he made his biggest impact as an executive. He worked in Green Bay's front office from 1992-99 and was the Seattle Seahawks' vice president of football operations from 2000-04.
He returned to Green Bay in 2005. Mike Sherman had been working as Packers coach and general manager up to that point. The Packers decided to have Thompson take over the general manager duties while having Sherman remain as coach.
"This is not going to be where I'm going to walk around with a big sledgehammer like I'm ruling the roost," Thompson said at the time. "Again, this is not a democracy. But it's also a place where we're going to work together."
During Thompson's first year as general manager, the Packers made the franchise-altering decision to select Rodgers with the 24th overall draft pick when they already had Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre on their roster.
The move enabled the Packers to have a three-decade run of exceptional quarterback play.
"I always appreciated his steady hand and the conversations that we would have," Rodgers said in a statement. "He always made things pretty clear about what he expected from the team and what he expected from me. He always preached to put the team first, to not be a distraction, to be a good teammate, to be a good professional, and I always appreciated those comments."
With Thompson as general manager, the Packers made eight consecutive playoff appearances from 2009-16, including the Super Bowl championship season in 2010.
"When I think about Ted, who he was as a man will always carry more weight than what he did professionally," said Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who coached the Packers from 2006-18. "There has never been a finer human being to walk the playing fields or have a presence in the scouting rooms.
"Ted gave me an opportunity of a lifetime. As a young first-time head coach who thought he had all the answers, I couldn't have been matched with a more perfect leader. He taught me patience. I will forever remember all of the times he would simply smile at me and say, 'Slow down young man.' "
The 2010 Packers team that won the Super Bowl featured defensive back Charles Woodson, Thompson's most notable veteran free agent signing. Woodson, the 2009 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, tweeted that "once upon a time circa 2006 I was a free agent and one team took a shot on me orchestrated by Ted Thompson."
"He was willing to dabble in free agency," Murphy said. "But he knew the best way to build a team was through the draft."
Thompson draft picks who remain on the roster include four All-Pro selections from this season: Rodgers, wide receiver Davante Adams, left tackle David Bakhtiari and center Corey Linsley. Rodgers was the only first-round pick in that group. Adams was drafted in the second round, Bakhtiari in the fourth and Linsley in the fifth.
Other notable current Packers drafted by Thompson: defensive tackle Kenny Clark, kicker Mason Crosby, and running backs Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams.
"Certainly he's a guy who's held in the highest regard in this building and, I think, just around the league," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. "He's had a tremendous impact not only on people in this building, obviously Gutey (Gutekunst) but people in other departments as well. His impact is still felt to this day when you look at our roster, but I think he's had a tremendous impact amongst many people across the league, when you look all the other GMs that have learned under him."
Packers officials praised Thompson's calmness, patience and quiet confidence. Seahawks general manager John Schneider, who worked with Thompson on three separate occasions, called him "an amazing person and mentor to so many people."
Other Thompson draft picks who had productive careers with Green Bay before departing include linebacker Clay Matthews, offensive tackle Bryan Bulaga, wide receivers Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Greg Jennings.
Thompson said that his health led him to step down as general manager after the 2017 season.
Thompson moved into a senior adviser role. Gutekunst, who had been working with Thompson as player personnel director, was promoted to general manager and remains in that position.
"One of the things that was helpful for me being around him as much was seeing things through his eyes as a former player, always understanding that what matters is the team and those guys out there," Gutekunst said.
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid was an assistant coach with the Packers during Thompson's first stint at Green Bay and referred to him Thursday as a "good friend."
"He was good at what he did but an even better person," Reid said.
TOP PHOTO: FILE – In this April 24, 2005, file photo, Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson stands next to the team's first-round pick, California quarterback Aaron Rodgers, during an NFL football a news conference in Green Bay, Wis. Thompson, whose 13-year run as Green Bay Packers general manager included their 2010 Super Bowl championship season, died Wednesday, Jan 20, the team announced Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. He was 68. Thompson was Packers general manager from 2005-17 and drafted many notable players on the current roster, including two-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer, File)
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