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When I was 13, I saw Led Zeppelin at the Kingdome in Seattle in 1977. It was the event in my life to which seemingly nothing else would or could ever compare. I mean, how could anything ever come close to seeing Led Zeppelin live, in their prime, when you are a 13-year-old boy?
Ah, but then I went to the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 19. The game of the decade perhaps, or for sure, one of the top three games of my beloved Seattle Seahawks' franchise history. We beat our conference rival, the San Francisco 49ers, in a hotly contested battle. It was messy and scrappy. Young and brash. The crowd there -- The 12th Man -- made that game like a damn rock concert at the Kingdome. I'm not 13 anymore, but going to the Super Bowl will coincide with my 50th birthday, and I do feel like a kid again. I now have an event in last Sunday's game that compares to that Led Zeppelin show I saw way back in the Jimmy Carter era.
Seattle has had a tough run as a professional sports town. Hell, we didn't even have the NFL or MLB until 1976, and our 1979 Seattle Supersonics brought us our one and only championship trophy.
In the 1970s and 1980s, to the rest of the country, Seattle was "that little town up there somewhere." All we had was Boeing then, and even when Microsoft, Starbucks, Amazon and grunge music helped expose this region to the rest of the world, the sports scene here remained virtually nonexistent in national media. I think we like it that way. Seattleites are different. The 12th Man ethic, I believe, came about because, heck, if no one else was going to pay attention to the Seahawks, the fans themselves would celebrate and support this team all by themselves.
I've known Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell since about 1989. We've both had some serious ups and downs in our lives, and our friendship has deepened as we've seen our respective bands go through hell, or far worse, witnessed friends and bandmates perish. A large component of what bonds us is our mutual love of the 'Hawks. I'm not trying to sound funny here, but our football team became a steady constant in some of our most chaotic and dark times. Sports can be a powerful thing.
Jerry and I watched the first game of this season together on a tour bus somewhere in America. Our bands were touring together. He and I making plans to watch the 'Hawks on Sundays became just as important on that tour as the gear getting from gig to gig. We watched a game together on a computer screen traveling through England later that season on another tour our bands did together. We went to that NFC Championship Game together last Sunday, too. We are akin to Trekkies, and the Seattle Seahawks are our "Star Trek."
In 2006, Jerry, me and my wife Susan went to the Super Bowl in Detroit (Susan being a Seahawks fan understood that was part and parcel to the two of us being in a loving relationship). The geeked-out excitement I had for that game was quickly extinguished by a lopsided, flag-throwing contest where all the calls went against my beloved team. If you are from Seattle, we all knew what the deal was. We got burned, and Seattle went back to our little corner of the United States, licked our wounds, and home-grew The 12th Man.
And now we have this season. This magical run of 16 games, plus two and counting. We have an undersized quarterback in Russell Wilson, who leads with calm stoicism. Beast Mode with his quiet demeanor and crushing on-field play epitomizes the blue-collar attitude that once dominated Seattle. Richard Sherman is, uh, outspoken, but he backs up his words with his play, game in and game out. His spirit is always on 10, and with Seattle being voted the most literate city just about every year, it makes sense that our man Sherman has a Stanford intellect. He is a master of the fine art of the 'rile.'
Our defense has been scrappy and gnarly as hell. Our receivers get little credit, and that's OK. Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse and Golden Tate made the catches when they counted. These are our guys, and we love them all up here in Seattle.
When you are a fan like me, you don't want to do anything to jinx your team. I didn't dare utter the words "Super Bowl" once this season. I thought if I tried to get tickets to this main event, say, in November or December, it would have been a sure bad omen that would have crashed the Seahawks' hopes of postseason success. Kind of like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.
But now Jerry and I, our wives and our friends are doing a mad scramble to get tickets to -- yes indeed -- the Super Bowl. We've got a place to stay, and I will look at flights later today, and hell, I know a lot of people in New York, but we don't have tickets yet (paying eight thousand dollars a ticket from Stub Hub, or some such place, is not a doable thing when you are putting two daughters through school ... those tickets get swallowed up by corporate buyers anyhow, right?).
I had a connection at the NFL back in '06, and we got excellent seats at face-value. That person is no longer there. So now, we scramble.
"Our football team became a steady constant in some of our most chaotic and dark times."
-- Duff McKagan
It's not just myself and Jerry that are big Hawks fans. My whole, huge family is down with our NFL Football team (there are literally over 100 McKagan's, or affiliates, in Seattle alone!). My oldest nephew Dennis came with me last Sunday, too. His mother is my sister, and we lost her a year and a half ago. She was a massive Seahawks freak like us, and Dennis and I have been hanging out and keeping in touch with much more frequency since her passing. Dennis's son (my great-nephew) is an All-American offensive lineman for the University of Washington Huskies. Football has held our family together. Seriously. Dennis, Jerry and our friend Todd all group-hugged and jumped up and down like school girls when that clock ticked to zero against the 49ers.
Of course, this next game will be in New Jersey, and the temps are threatening to be in the single digits. I just went through all of my mountain climbing gear in anticipation for this game. I have my down jacket that is rated for Mount Everest. I've got a cold-weather balaclava, long johns, double cold-weather socks, climbing gloves and my Seahawks beanie. Hopefully, I can get my Richard Sherman No. 25 jersey over the top of this insanely puffy coat. To hell with fashion and getting all GQ-like in NYC. I've got a game to go to!
So, that is it. You have my story on where my state of mind is currently and my overt love of my Seattle Seahawks. I will hopefully be at the Superbowl: all bundled up and if all goes right this time, hopping up and down like school girl once again. Go Hawks! Go Hawks! Go Hawks!
- Duff McKagan is a founding member of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, and is currently on tour with Seattle-based Walking Papers. McKagan writes for The Seattle Weekly, Playboy and ESPN.com, and released his New York Times best-selling book "It's So Easy (and other lies)" in 2012. That same year, GN'R was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.


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Black and white photographs are often deemed as elegant or classy. Although colored photographs can be breathtaking, colors can also be such a strong element that it can overpower the other elements such as patterns or texture. There is something stark and intense about black and white pictures that captures the viewer's attention and doesn't let it go.
Composition – when an image is stripped of color, other elements become much more obvious. The various textures become more noticeable, patterns and shapes become more pronounced, and contrast and toning need a deft touch. One needs a good command of the elements of composition to bring out the best in black and white images.
Shoot in color – the great thing about shooting in color is that you can always convert it to black and white in post processing. Then, if you change your mind and want it colored after all, you still have the original file to work with.
Use RAW – if your camera is capable of taking photographs in RAW format, it would be advisable to use that function. The image appears as black and white on the LCD screen but the camera is storing all the colors as well. RAW stores all of the image data unlike JPEG which compresses the file and disposes of some data. These extra data might be the saving factor in retrieving detail to over or underexposed areas.
When converting to black and white in post processing, try not to use grayscale or desaturation. Instead, play with the channels which will give you more control about editing the shades between black and white.
Shoot during overcast days –you might not usually take colored pictures on days like these because the colors look washed out and dull. However, overcast or gloomy days are a great time to shoot black and white pictures. As a matter of fact, you can also take fabulous black and white shots during bright sunlight because the harsh lighting can cause hard shadows which can appear dramatic in the monochrome image.
Low ISO – unless it is for intended effect, it is always best to choose low ISO when taking a photograph, whether colored or black and white. This is particularly necessary with black and white shots because image noise or grain is more visible.
Choose your subject – some subjects just look better in black and white rather than color. For example, a lot of portrait photography is shot in black and white because blemishes and imperfections are less apparent. Wedding photography is another area that makes full use of this style. Black and white wedding photos have this aura of elegance, solemnity and romance that seems difficult to capture in color. Cityscapes and landscapes also make great subjects because lines and patterns are emphasized.
Tags: b&w photography, b&w photography tips, black and white photography, black and white photography tips, photo tips, photography tip, photography tips b&w, photography tips black and white

subset: commoncrawl


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Fat Transfer
Smoothing out the wrinkles…
Facial wrinkles and creases are part of the aging process. They begin to appear as the underlying collagen and elastin fibers break down and wear out. While this breakdown is part of the natural aging process, it can also result from excessive squinting, frowning and smiling.
Fat transfer, also called autologous fat transplantation or micro-lipoinjection, is performed by our doctor for patients in our region to plump up facial features with a patient's own fat. It is a popular alternative to other wrinkle treatments. Fat transfer to the face is a safe, natural, non-allergenic procedure designed to recontour your face and can provide definition to your cheeks and chin. It can also be used to correct facial deformities. Since fat transfer uses your own fat cells, you can never have an allergic reaction, because it's from your own body.
With fat transfer it is possible to have fat liposuctioned from your thighs and then transferred to any area of your body. Reinjected fat lasts longer in larger areas of non-movement, so it is very successful for the correction of sunken cheeks because this area does not move as often. Fat transfer can also correct atrophic aging of the hands and post-surgical and post-traumatic defects. But not every area of the body responds well to fat transfer. The breasts for instance, are out. Injecting fat into the breast makes it much more difficult to detect breast cancer with mammograms.
How is the fat transfer procedure done?
Fat transfer is performed by DoctorFullName for patients in PracticeRegion, in our office, on an outpatient basis. Both the area from which the fat is taken and the treatment site are anesthetized with a local anesthetic. Using a small needle attached to a syringe, fat is removed from a donor site where your fat is most tightly packed, such as your abdomen or your buttocks.
Once removed, your fat is processed to remove excess fluids and then reinjected using another needle, which is placed just under your skin beneath the wrinkle. This process may be repeated until the desired correction has been achieved.
Harvesting the fat cells for reinjection is often performed in conjunction with other procedures, such as liposuction, tummy tuck or cosmetic breast surgery. When fat is harvested during another procedure, it is often possible for your surgeon to harvest a larger amount of fat, then freeze and store your fat for future injections when they become necessary.
What are the benefits of fat transfer?
- Fat transferred to the face can last as long as three years.
- Fat transfer can be very cost effective when combined with another procedure.
- There's no chance of an allergic reaction.
What can I expect after my fat transfer?
After DoctorName performs a fat transfer, patients are up and around immediately. Any discomfort following the procedure can be controlled with medication. Some swelling at the treatment site may last up to 36 hours. There may be some bruising, which can be covered with make-up. Your initial injection should last up to 6 months. For results that will last years, patients usually receive 3 – 4 treatments over a 6 month period.


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Libya tribes: Who's who?
With more than 140 tribes and clans, Libya is considered one of the most tribal nations in the Arab world, a crucial factor in determining Muammar Qaddafi's political future.
As Libya teeters on the edge of civil war, with antigovernment protesters and defected soldiers now controlling the oil-rich east, eyes are turning to the North African nation's more than 140 tribes and clans that will likely determine the political future of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
His son admitted as much Sunday in a state television address. "Unlike Egypt and Tunisia, Libya is made up of tribes, clans, and alliances," Saif al-Islam said, warning of civil war if the tribal fabric breaks down. Indeed, Libya is considered one of the most tribal nations in the Arab world.
"In Libya, it will be the tribal system that will hold the balance of power rather than the military," Alia Brahimi, head of the North Africa program at the London School of Economics, told Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National.
Several leaders have openly turned against Mr. Qaddafi, though he claims to retain support from "all the tribes."
In any case, their strength today is unclear. While the tribes were instrumental in fighting Ottoman and Italian rule, Qaddafi's greatest and most lasting accomplishment may prove to be stripping them of their political power as modernization also diluted their importance. The current chaos, however, has given them a window to reassert their importance.
They appear to be taking it. The nation's largest tribe, the Warfalla, was the first tribe to join the opposition.
"Just like the Army, tribal chiefs can have a crucial impact in this movement, even to the point of toppling the regime," Hasni Abidi, director of the Study and Research Center for the Arab and Mediterranean World, told France24. "They legitimize the antigovernment movement and if they join it, they can considerably expand the movement's reach."
Qaddafi's son isn't the only one warning of civil war because of Libya's unique makeup. World leaders from President Barack Obama to French President Nicolas Sarkozy have all expressed such concern, and many diplomats, intelligence agents, and analysts agree that if Qaddafi stays, civil war erupts.
"Civil war is most likely unless someone assassinates Qaddafi today or tomorrow," Robert Baer, a former CIA officer, told Bloomberg yesterday.
Only one world leader, actually, doesn't appear to be concerned about that option – and he's the one that counts.
Qaddafi has "used the country's vast oil and gas wealth to co-opt tribes," reports The Associated Press. "He gave them cash, perks and jobs, and fostered blood ties with intertribal marriages." There about 140 tribes and influential large families in Libya, regional expert Hanspeter Mattes told German magazine Der Spiegel, though only 30 have political influence.
Here is a breakdown of some tribal alliances that will undoubtedly influence Libya in the coming days and weeks:
From the east...
Abu Llail (anti-Qaddafi): Many of the antigovernment movement's activists are members of the Abu Llail tribes, according to Mr. Mattes in the Der Spiegel article.
Misurata (anti-Qaddafi): The largest and most influential tribe in eastern Libya, according to Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat, takes its name from the Misurata district in northwestern Libya. The tribe has particularly strong influence in the cities of Benghazi and Darneh.
Al-Awaqir (pro-Qaddafi): According to Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat: "The al-Awaqir tribe has also historically played a prominent role in Libyan politics, including during the previous era of the Libyan monarchy as well as during Gaddafi's reign. Al-Awaqir tribal members have held senior positions within Gaddafi's regime, including ministerial positions."
From the west...
Qadhafah (pro-Qaddafi): A relatively small tribe from which Qaddafi hails has staffed his elite military units. Reported to control the Air Force. It "had historically not been an important tribe in Libya prior to Colonel Gaddafi's ascent to power," reported Asharq Alawsat.
Magariha (alliance unclear): Libya's second-largest tribe, the Magariha are led by Abdel Sallam Jalloud, who was second-in-command in the country for decades until he fell out of favor with Qaddafi. A member of the tribe, Abdel Baset Al Megrahi, was convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Brigadier General Abu Bark Younis Jaber, Libyan head of the army, is another prominent member. Indeed, the Magariha may be "best positioned to carry out a coup against Colonel Qaddafi because many of its members are in senior government and security services positions," reports The National.
Zuwaya, or Zawiya (alliance unclear): Hailing from the central coast, the tribe is active in government, with member Abdulqasim Zwai serving as justice minister. But on Feb. 20, tribal leader Sheikh Faraj al-Zwai threatened to interrupt oil exports if the use of violence didn't stop, according to Der Spiegel.
Warfalla (anti-Qaddafi): With more than 1 million members, the Warfalla is Libya's largest tribe and accounts for one-sixth of the nation's total population. It has traditionally made up Qadaffi's security apparatus and aligned with the pro-Qaddafi Qadhafah tribe. But in a stinging rebuke to the regime, the Warfalla was the first tribe to join the antigovernment movement. "It's a very bad sign for Gaddafi's regime," said the analyst Mr. Abidi. "And the regime knows that."
In 1993, Warfalla officers from southeast of Tripoli launched a failed coup attempt with alleged backing from the Magariha tribe. The reason, according to a 2002 report from Input Solutions, "was this tribe was poorly represented in the regime and only occupied second-echelon posts in the officers' corps."
According to the report: "If Jalloud's Magariha, the Warfalla, and Islamic militant groups unite against Qadhafi in an all-out confrontation involving the military, they could take over power. But that would soon be followed by challenges from other tribes. Ultimately, if Qadhafi is overthrown, these tribes could fight each other and Libya could be split into several regions."
Also to watch...
LIFG jihadists (alliance unclear): Formed in 1995, the Al Qaeda-aligned Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) has in the past launched assassination attempts against Qaddafi. Global intelligence unit Stratfor, in a report this week, says LIFG has been "for the most part demobilized and rehabilitated." But it warns that LIFG may yet attempt to seize control in the security vacuum.
"If the regime does not fall and there is civil war between the eastern and western parts of the country, they could likewise find a great deal of operational space amid the chaos.... Given this window of opportunity, the LIFG could decide to become operational again, especially if the regime they have made their deal with unexpectedly disappears. However, even should the LIFG decide to remain out of the jihad business as an organization, there is a distinct possibility that it could splinter and that the more radical individuals could cluster together to create a new group or groups that would seek to take advantage of this suddenly more permissive operational environment."


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This is the time of year when people start to look at their cute little foals, and suddenly realise they're starting to grow up fast… As a result, it's also when we start to get phone calls from people to talk about gelding them.
If you are considering getting a colt gelded ("cut"), my advice would be to contact your vet, who will be able to advise you on the best approach in your particlar circumstances. However, I'm going to try and go through some of the commoner questions below, so you've got some basic information on the decisions to be made, the procedure, and what you'll need to consider.
The first question, of course, is whether or not to get him cut. It's an important decision, so these are my thoughts…
The majority of male horses are castrated, and for very good reason – very few people have the facilities, the time, or the inclination to manage an entire stallion. The old adage had it absolutely right – "You can tell a gelding, you can ask a mare, but you discuss the matter with a stallion". Although there are some superbly well mannered stallions out there, it takes years of expert training – and in my experience they're almost always more "bolshie" than a gelding, and much less forgiving of any mistakes. They are also much more easily distracted (e.g. by a passing mare), and prone to fighting.
Does this mean you can't train them well and keep them happily and healthily? No, of course not – but it's a lot harder. The majority of stallions can't be kept in groups because of the husbandry regimes on most yards, so have to live on their own. That's not good for their mental health, or their owners and riders! If someone has the knowledge and facilities to bring up a stallion, I don't have a problem with that, and I wish them luck, but I've seen too many bored, frustrated and borderline dangerous stallions who haven't been brought up correctly, and remain a liability.
Geldings, however, can be kept in groups, can mix with other horses, and are less likely to lose the plot or throw a temper tantrum. They also don't present you with unexpected foals in your competing mares…
If you decide not to have him done, you need to be sure that you're doing it for the right reasons. The majority of horses are not necessarily good breeding material – you need to take an objective look at him and decide if breeding from him is actually going to benefit the breed. If you're avoiding doing it just because you don't like the thought of the procedure, you'll need to think long and hard about whether thats in his best interest – or yours.
If you are getting your colt cut, the next decision is when to do it. There are two major concerns – the time of year, and the maturity of the colt. In terms of time of year, it's best to do it when the weather is cold enough to prevent flies from infecting surgical wounds. Ideally, then, this would be in late autumn or early spring, but gelding him in winter is perfectly acceptable if the facilities are suitable. Regarding the colt's maturity, there is an upper and a lower limit.
The lower limit is the most rigid – except in an emergency (e.g. a strangulating hernia), I would never geld a colt until both testes had descended into the scrotum – because it's really important to make sure you've got both! This usually happens between 6 and 12 months old, but it is a bit variable. In addition, the colt has to be strong and mature enough to survive the surgery, although with modern anaesthetics this isn't as much of an issue as it used to be. The upper limit is much more flexible. Stallions into their twenties are castrated fairly commonly, but once they've passed through puberty, a lot of the stallionish behaviour is learnt, and won't be reversed by castration, including some forms of aggression, and mounting behaviour. Sometimes, people like to wait until a colt is 3 or 4 years old before gelding, but I think that often even that is too late – although it does allow the colt to develop more muscle, he'll also be developing stallion traits. In addition, the younger the colt, the smaller the testicles, and the smaller the testicles, the lower the risk of bleeding during the op. During puberty, the testicles increase dramatically in size, and as a result, their blood supply increases accordingly; the bigger spermatic artery in a post-pubescent colt is much harder to control bleeding from.
As a general rule (and it's a VERY rough rule of thumb!) I'd normally look to geld between a year and eighteen months old. That said, there are a lot of exceptions – I once had to sort out the castration of a four month old colt because he'd started mounting his mother… There are also a number of opinions about weaning – before, after or at the same time? In this case, I think it depends entirely on the colt in question, and it's an area (one of many) where I'll usually defer to the owner's judgement.
Before you go any further, its a good idea to get the colt thoroughly checked out – both testicles need to be present and easily palpable; if one is "shy" and difficult to find, I usually recommend checking again in a month or so. If it's still inaccessible, the colt may be a cryptorchid (i.e. a rig, with one undescended testis). These colts should ALWAYS be castrated, and have to be done under general anaesthetic, if possible in a clinic. This is because the retained testicle, being kept at an abnormally high temperature inside the body, is more likely to become cancerous. Also, the defect may be genetic – and if so, he'll risk passing it on to his offspring.
Once you've decided when, there's another important decision you and your vet will have to make, and that's the details of the procedure. Basically, there are two factors to decide – firstly, do you want him done "at home or away"? Secondly (a related point), do you do him under standing sedation or down under a general anaesthetic?
Regarding the location, it depends on your practice's policy and facilities. Many practices now offer castration at the clinic, but the majority of people still choose to have the op done at home. The advantage of having it done at a clinic is that the procedure can be cleaner, and all the equipment and apparatus is there; in addition, many practices charge a callout fee for coming to the yard. However, that's offset by the fact that you'll have to transport the colt to the clinic; in addition, I think it's usually less stressful for the procedure to be done at home, assuming the appropriate facilities are available. Exactly what facilities you need depend on the technique that's going to be used.
There's a lot of debate as to this decision, and some frankly ridiculous comments from some badly-informed people out there. I'm going to talk through the options and the pros and cons.
The two main options that you'll need to think about for the procedure itself are whether to have the op done under standing sedation or general anaesthetic. In some cases, the decision is easy – miniature horses and small shetlands should almost never be done standing, because they're too small for the surgeon to get good access and control the site, for example. Draft breeds are at a higher risk of eventration (see below, when abdominal contents escape through the castration wound), and so need a different surgical technique, which may be easier under a general; and fully adult stallions bleed more so may need better surgical access – again, a general anaesthetic makes this easier. However, most colts can be done either way, so you and the vet need to decide which you prefer.
Under standing sedation, the colt is given intravenous sedatives (see my blog on sedatives) so he becomes very dopey. He will continue standing up, but his head will drop, and he is likely to adopt a wide-based stance (which makes surgical access easier!). However, its important to remember that he is still to some extent aware of what's going on, so local anaesthetic is injected into the testicles (perhaps 20ml into each one, plus some under the skin of the scrotum) or into the spermatic cord (although I find that that's easier said than done, with most colts pulling the testicles up tight to the body wall so the cord is difficult to access from outside) to numb the area. The castration is then performed with the vet working from standing beside the horse. This approach avoids the risk of a general anaesthetic, and means the horse will recover from the sedative faster. However, the degree of sedation achieved is variable, and some colts appear to be more aware of the procedure than one would like, no matter how much sedative you pour into them. There's also a MUCH higher risk of the vet or their assistants being injured – unsurprisingly, some colts object violently if they realise what you're doing…
In addition, the surgical access is poorer (the vet is having to work upside down, and largely by feel) so if there is a complication, it is harder to control it.
Under a general anaesthetic approach, the colt is sedated and then given an injection of a general anaesthetic. He'll become very sleepy, and then lie down. Once he's out, an assistant lifts up the top leg, giving the surgeon access. The disadvantage is that most vets will only do a GA on a horse if there's another vet along to monitor the anaesthetic, which may affect the cost. In addition, a GA is a risk in its own right – one study suggested that the average mortality rate from GA in a horse is 1% (although this includes colics and emergency operations – the risk for a young, healthy colt is much lower). On the other hand, the risk of injury to the vet or assistants is much lower, and the risk of surgical complications is also much reduced, as the surgeon can see exactly what they're doing.
Is either one definitively better than the other? No. However, it is a decision to take WITH your vet, as they may have a preference that will affect their efficiency. For what its worth, I've done geldings both ways, and personally I prefer to do them under general, because its safer for me and everyone else around – and if there was to be a complication, I've got a better chance of finding and fixing it at the time.
The procedure itself is pretty much the same whichever way up the horse is. Along with sedation, I give an injection of an anti-inflammatory and painkiller, and antibiotic cover (no procedure done on a yard or in a field can ever be truly sterile, so I'd prefer to make sure there are antibiotics on board when we start). In the past, vets didn't routinely give painkillers as well as the sedation (which contains a painkilling component), but personally I don't think its fair not to.
There has historically been quite a mystique about the procedure itself – probably because people are a bit shy to discuss it. As a result, there is sometimes serious confusion – remember, gelding is NOT the same as a vasectomy, and it can't be reversed… Not even (as apparently happened to a colleague of mine) if the client stops you as you're about to drive off and, holding up a neatly severed pair of testicles, asks the vet to reattach them because she's changed her mind…
So, here's a quick run through the procedure:
The area of the groin is scrubbed with a skin disinfectant, and a final check is made that both testes are accessible. Whichever one is held closer to the body is the one I'll start with, just in case it is retracted later. I'll then scrub up so my hands are sterile. Some vets wear gloves, others don't – I don't think it really matters as long as they've scrubbed thoroughly. Gloves add an additional sterile barrier; but on the other hand they can reduce your feel and grip, so it depends on what the vet is happiest with.
Once the scrotal area is scrubbed, the vet will use a scalpel blade to cut through the skin of the scrotum. There are a couple of different options from here on, but the principle is the same; to cut down through the tissue to the vaginal tunic (the membranes that surround the testis itself) and then gently pull the testicle down and out. In an "open" castration, the tunic will be opened, in a "closed" technique, it gets left intact and the testicle pulled down still inside. Once there's enough slack in the spermatic cord (containing the blood vessels, nerves etc that supply the testicle), the emasculators are applied across the cord, with or without the tunic, depending on the technique. These are a clever bit of kit that crush the cord, preventing it from bleeding, while at the same time cutting off the testicle itself.
(Quick aside here – I was doing a gelding once and, as is customary, I showed the removed testicle to the owner to show it had been done; he was a teenage lad and he fainted dead away. Interesting ethical problem there – do I try and help the unconscious boy, or do I just keep working on the anaesthatised horse who'll soon wake up? Fortunately, he recovered on his own before I had to scrub out, but he was pretty green around the gills for the rest of the morning…)
In an older stallion, most vets will put a suture through the cord to ligate the artery, but this increases the risk of infection, so we don't always put one in if doing an Open procedure. After removing the emasculators, the vet will check closely for bleeding from the stump. If there isn't any, they'll repeat the procedure on the other side. If the surgery is taking place in the field, the vet will usually leave the incision open for drainage; closing it seriously increases the risk of post op swelling and infection.
As a note, there is always a bit of bleeding after the operation. The rule of thumb is, if you can count the drops, its fine! There's also invariably some swelling of the sheath, but again, it isn't usually anything to worry about. If in any doubt though, you should contact your vet. Your vet will give you instructions for post op care, but the most important thing is to keep the new gelding moving, to reduce the swelling and encourage drainage.
The complications to be aware of are bleeding, eventration, and infection.
eventration, is when abdominal contents prolapse through the inguinal canal, and it's more common in draft breeds. This is the main reason we'd do a Closed castration, as it ties off the tunic; but it does increase the risk of infection. Eventration usually involves some fatty tissue (the omentum) and although it needs urgent surgical repair, it isn't usually life threatening. Very occasionally, however, it progresses to evisceration, where loops of intestine come through. This is very serious, but (touch wood) it's also very rare.
infection is uncommon, and usually responds to antibiotics. In a few unlucky cases, though, a schirrous cord forms, where abscesses form in the canal. These take months of management, and in the end, treatment is usually surgical removal of the infected tissue.
These complications are very rare, and even if they occur, they're usually fixable, so don't get scared of the possibility! I only mention them so you've got an idea of what to look out for.
The last thing to bear in mind is that the gelding may still show sexual interest for some weeks after castration (at least, if he was before), and may even be fertile for a time: although he can't make more sperm without testicular tissue, there will still be some "in storage" in the spermatic ducts. I always advise that a newly gelded colt or stallion should be isolated from mares for at least 6 weeks, after which any remaining sperm will have died or been flushed out, and his testosterone levels will have declined to the point where he won't have any hormonal urges.
The bottom line is this: although it doesn't seem a nice thing to do, for most colts in most situations, gelding leaves them happier and more content than they would otherwise be as entire stallions.


text:
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ProjeQtOr (ID : 629) package has been updated to version 10.0.4. ProjeQtOr is an open source project management software grouping in a single tool all the features needed to organize your projects. It is simple, easy to use daily while covering a maximum of project management features. Its particularity, in addition to its completeness, is to be quality oriented.
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text: Hackers have managed to deface several hundred Web sites hosted by Network Solutions, the company said Tuesday.In a blog posting, the Internet service provider described the incident as a "limited attack on websites hosted on Network Solutions Unix servers." Several servers were hit and "intruders were able to get through by using a file inclusion technique," the blog post said.A Network Solutions representative could add little to the blog's description of the attack, but remote file inclusion attacks are a relatively common way of exploiting buggy Web server programming in order to run unauthorized content on the server. "Our preliminary investigation indicates that the source of entry was through a single site," said spokeswoman Susan Wade in an e-mail.Network Solutions customer Lucina Mastro learned Sunday that someone had crawled the folders on the Web site she maintains and replaced all of the index.html and main.html files with new files claiming that the defacement was "For Palestine."Mastro, a volunteer Web administrator with St Anne of the Sunset Catholic Church in San Francisco, replaced the files from backup. That seemed to fix the problem, she said.Harry Brooks was not so lucky. He learned that one of his clients had been hacked with a similar defacement Monday, and restored the site from backup, only to learn that it had been defaced anew on Tuesday, apparently by someone else.The second defacement made no mention of Palestine, but said simply "Server Is RooT!"Brooks, president and CEO of Search First Internet Marketing in Gainesville, Virginia, was upset with the defacement. "You can't have 15 simple static HTML pages hosted in a shared hosting environment without some maniac getting in," he said. "Clearly there is a vulnerability in their shared hosting environment otherwise this wouldn't be happening."


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I first interviewed Barry Berkus 20 years ago about a custom house he designed for the singer Kenny Loggins. Barry spoke so quickly in our phone interview, I could barely understand him. He was the fastest talker I had ever encountered. Ultimately, I got the gist that his design for "Villa Lucia," a Tuscan-style house on 20 hilltop acres in Santa Barbara, sprang from the conceit of a building added onto over generations. He had long been inspired by Italian hill towns, especially Palermo, and had filled many vacation sketchbooks with drawings of ancient buildings scrambling up the cliffs. The images were tucked into a corner of his imagination, waiting for the moment of release.
For Berkus designing was a contact sport, requiring the full engagement of his prodigious intelligence and creativity. Every project needed a solid narrative—a theme and a purpose. Even if the style was Traditional, the design needed to move the discipline forward. That Tuscan Villa, for instance, used large quantities of salvaged and recycled materials—before sustainable design was back on anyone's radar.
Although Barry designed many custom homes throughout his career, he's best known for his innovations in mass market housing. In his early years, he was the rare architect who concerned himself with design for the 99 percent. As he told me for a cover story in Residential Architect in 2000, "When we started, housing was looked down upon. I lead a design panel at the National Association of Home Builders, but I couldn't do one at the American Institute of Architects. Not until Sea Ranch, Reston, Columbia, West Lake, Irvine, Hilton Head did people become interested in housing. They became interested in making a place."
One of the stumbling blocks for architects in production housing was economics, he said at the time. "Housing as a product has to move on and off the boards quickly, because it doesn't pay very well." Berkus made it pay, largely through harnessing his great energy and speed. Not only was he a fast talker, he was a quick thinker and a facile designer. He was a pen and paper guy, a maestro of the epiphanic sketch on a cocktail napkin. One estimate tallies his lifetime portfolio at 600,000 dwellings. They weren't all award winners, but by some counts more than 300 garnered special recognition—an astounding figure.
He claimed a number of firsts in the housing industry: the first national architecture firm to specialize in housing, the first international housing firm, and the first housing firm to go public. At its height, it employed more than 200 architects and maintained satellite offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, Miami, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur. Along the way, Barry worked with every important builder in the country. And he worked with many of his own family members, including daughter Carey, an interior designer; son Steven, a builder/developer; and son Jeffrey, an award-winning architect in his own right. Until his death on November 30, 2012, Barry led two firms--B3 Architects, geared to custom design, and Berkus Design Studio, focused on production housing.
Barry's inspiration derived from extensive travel and a lifelong passion for art. He was an important collector of modern art and a generous patron of local and national museums. He put his thoughts together about both disciplines in a book called Architecture, Art, Parallels, Connections. As he told me and our readers for our cover story, "Residential architecture is about romance, learning, fulfillment of a journey. It should never be below you to do housing."
In 2005, Builder magazine named Barry to its Builder's Choice Hall of Fame. The honor was the culmination of decades of collaboration between Hanley Wood, Residential Architect's parent company, and Berkus. He was the company's go-to architect for visionary ideas in residential design, including a number of demonstration houses in conjunction with the annual International Builders' Show. His idea houses envisioned open plans, multitasking spaces, multigenerational households, movable walls, and add-on modules.
At the time of his death, Barry and his firm were at work on The New American Home for 2014, a joint program of the National Association of Home Builders and Builder magazine. His firm will continue the effort with his son Jeffrey. Says Warren Nesbitt, group president of Hanley Wood's New Construction Group, "Barry was an enormous talent. He was a design pioneer, an innovator, a coach, a teacher, and a friend. He packed so much into one lifetime, while enriching the lives of so many others. He will be greatly missed."
Hear Barry Berkus's thoughts on creativity in this recent TEDx talk:
More on the life and work of Barry Berkus:


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1 July 2012 by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
The European governments, in accordance with IMF
International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates.
When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments.
As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change).
The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%).
The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries.
http://imf.org criteria, have made the choice of imposing strict austerity measures on their peoples. Slicing away public spending, lay-offs, pay freezes and salary cuts for civil servants, reduced access to vital public services and welfare, later retirement age, etc. Increased cost for public transport, water distribution, health services, education, etc. Heavier indirect and particularly unfair taxes like VAT. Massive privatization of companies in competitive sectors. The strictest austerity policies since 1945. The consequences of the crisis are multiplied by the so-called remedies which protect the interests of capital. Austerity seriously aggravates economic slowdown producing a snowball effect: weak growth, when there is any, automatically increases public debt. The meaning of 'triple A' becomes clear: wage Austerity, monetary Austerity and budgetary Austerity.
The people are less and less willing to accept the injustice of these reforms and the serious social regression they incur. Relatively, it is the workers, the unemployed and the lowest income households who are called upon by the States to ensure the continued fattening of the creditors. Amongst these it is, as usual, women who bear the brunt of precarious, part-time and underpaid employment [1] as imposed on them by the present social and patriarchal system. The struggle for a different social logic is inseparable from the struggle for the absolute respect of women's rights.
Let's look at what this implies.
Reducing the public deficit is not in itself an objective. In certain circumstances, it may be used to stimulate economic activity and ease the conditions of the victims of the crisis. Once economic activity has picked up, public deficits must be reduced, not by reducing social expenditure, but by increasing tax revenues from the estates and incomes of the highest net value sector, cracking down on tax evasion, imposing higher taxes on capital gains and financial transactions. Deficit reduction also means non-payment of the part of the public debt found to be illegitimate, the compressing of military budgets and other spending that is socially unnecessary and dangerous for the lives of people and the environment. On the other hand it is fundamentally necessary to increase budgets for socially useful ventures and to relieve the effects of the economic depression.
Spending in favour of renewable energies, infrastructures for improved public transport, schools or public health facilities must be increased. Boosting the economy by stimulating public or private demand stimulates tax revenues. Furthermore, the crisis must offer an opportunity to break with the capitalist logic and create a radical change in society. This new logic, which still remains largely unexplored, must cast away productivism and different forms of oppression such as racism and patriarchy in favour of ecological considerations and the promotion of collective commons.
For this it is necessary to build a vast anti-crisis movement, at local level as well as on a European scale, combining creative energies and a balance Balance End of year statement of a company's assets (what the company possesses) and liabilities (what it owes). In other words, the assets provide information about how the funds collected by the company have been used; and the liabilities, about the origins of those funds. of power favourable to radical solutions centred on social and climatic justice.
1. Stop unfair austerity plans which aggravate the crisis
Putting an end to antisocial austerity measures is an absolute priority. By public street demonstrations, strikes, refusal of unfair and unpopular taxes, governments must be forced to disobey the European authorities and repeal austerity plans.
2. Cancel the illegitimate public debt
Carrying out a public debt audit under citizens' control, coupled in certain cases with unilateral and sovereign suspension of repayment of public debt, would enable repudiation of the illegitimate part and greatly reduce the remainder.
There must be no question of accepting public debt renegotiations decided by creditors, primarily because of the severe conditions that go with them. The March 2012 Greek public debt plan was accompanied by the application of another dose of measures that trample on the economic and social rights of the people and the sovereignty of the Greek government [2]. According to a Troika
Troika: IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank, which together impose austerity measures through the conditions tied to loans to countries in difficulty.
IMF : https://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html study, despite a debt reduction accepted by the private creditors, Greek public debt will rise to 164% of GNP Gross National Product
GNP The GNP represents the wealth produced by a nation, as opposed to a given territory. It includes the revenue of citizens of the nation living abroad. in 2013 ! [3] This operation must be denounced in its present state in favour of an alternative. Unilateral debt repudiation by a debtor country is a very strong sovereign act.
Why must the indebted State radically reduce its public debt by cancelling what is deemed to be an illegitimate debt? First, for reasons linked to social justice, but also for economic reasons that everyone can understand and fight to achieve. To successfully emerge from the current crisis, we cannot simply create an economic stimulus package based on public demand and that of households. For if we were simply to be satisfied with such a stimulus package, combined with fiscal reform based on redistribution, the additional fiscal revenues would be to a large extent siphoned off by the repayment of the public debt. The higher contributions imposed on the richest households and major corporations would be greatly offset by the income they earn from government bonds, their being the main bond Bond A bond is a stake in a debt issued by a company or governmental body. The holder of the bond, the creditor, is entitled to interest and reimbursement of the principal. If the company is listed, the holder can also sell the bond on a stock-exchange. holders and beneficiaries of these bonds (which explains why they refuse to consider cancelling this debt). It is therefore necessary to cancel a very large proportion of the public debt. The scale of this cancellation will depend on the level of awareness among the victims of this debt system (the citizen debt audit could play a crucial role to this end), the way the economic and political crisis develops, and especially the real power relations that emerge in the street, in the public space, and in the workplace through present and future mobilizations. For certain countries such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Hungary, cancelling the debt is an extremely hot topic. For Italy, France, and Belgium, it is starting to be one, and it will soon be a core issue in political debates throughout the rest of Europe.
For the countries already being blackmailed by speculators, the IMF, and other institutions such as the European Commission, it would be appropriate to call for a unilateral moratorium on the repayment of public debt. This proposal is gaining in popularity in the countries most seriously affected by the crisis. Such a unilateral moratorium must be combined with a citizens' audit of public borrowing, which will provide the public with the tangible proof and arguments needed to repudiate the part of the debt identified as illegitimate. As the CADTM has demonstrated in several publications, international law and domestic law provide a legal basis for engaging in such sovereign action unilaterally. [4]
The audit will also enable the various responsibilities to be determined in the indebtedness process, and to demand that those responsible both nationally and internationally be brought to justice. Whatever the case may be, it is legitimate for the private institutions and wealthy individuals who own these government bonds to bear the burden of the cancellation of this illegitimate sovereign debt Sovereign debt Government debts or debts guaranteed by the government. , because they are to a large extent responsible for today's crisis, from which they have also profited. The fact that they must bear this burden is simply a fair and fitting step toward greater social justice. To that effect, it is also important to establish a list of owners of such government bonds in order to indemnify citizens holding bonds but having only low or medium incomes.
If the audit shows up offences linked to illegitimate debt, the perpetrators must been sentenced to pay reparations, and depending on the seriousness of their acts, these sentences should include prison sentences. Authorities who have taken out illegal loans must answer to the court.
As for the debt not found to be illegitimate by the audit, it would be appropriate to force creditors to act positively by reducing total debt stock
Debt stock
The total amount of debt
and interest rates
Interest rates
When A lends money to B, B repays the amount lent by A (the capital) as well as a supplementary sum known as interest, so that A has an interest in agreeing to this financial operation. The interest is determined by the interest rate, which may be high or low. To take a very simple example: if A borrows 100 million dollars for 10 years at a fixed interest rate of 5%, the first year he will repay a tenth of the capital initially borrowed (10 million dollars) plus 5% of the capital owed, i.e. 5 million dollars, that is a total of 15 million dollars. In the second year, he will again repay 10% of the capital borrowed, but the 5% now only applies to the remaining 90 million dollars still due, i.e. 4.5 million dollars, or a total of 14.5 million dollars. And so on, until the tenth year when he will repay the last 10 million dollars, plus 5% of that remaining 10 million dollars, i.e. 0.5 million dollars, giving a total of 10.5 million dollars. Over 10 years, the total amount repaid will come to 127.5 million dollars. The repayment of the capital is not usually made in equal instalments. In the initial years, the repayment concerns mainly the interest, and the proportion of capital repaid increases over the years. In this case, if repayments are stopped, the capital still due is higher…
The nominal interest rate is the rate at which the loan is contracted. The real interest rate is the nominal rate reduced by the rate of inflation. , as well as prolonging the payback period. Here again, it would be useful to adopt an 'affirmative action' policy in favour of those who own small quantities of government bonds and who should be paid back at the normal rate. In addition, an upper limit should be set on the proportion of the State budget allocated to pay off the debt according to a country's economic health, the capacity of a government to pay back, and essential, irreducible social expenditures. Measures should be aligned on what was done for Germany after World War II: the 1953 London Debt Agreement, which consisted in reducing the German debt by 62%, stipulated that the relationship between debt servicing and export revenues should not exceed 5% [5]. Such a ratio could be defined as follows: the amount of money allocated to paying back the debt must not exceed 5% of State revenues. In order to avoid a repeat of the crisis that began in 2007-2008, a legal framework must be adopted, which would ban the socialization of private debt, make it mandatory to organize a permanent audit of public debt policy with citizen participation, consider offences linked to illegitimate debt as being imprescriptible, nullify illegitimate debt, and adopt a golden rule according to which public expenditures that enable fundamental human rights to be guaranteed cannot be compromised and take priority over expenditures related to repayment of the debt. There is no lack of alternative routes.
3. For a fair redistribution of wealth
Direct taxes on the income of the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations have continued to drop since 1980. Hundreds of billions of euros in tax breaks have been handed out to the wealthiest, who have used them to speculate and accumulate yet more wealth.
In-depth fiscal reform aiming for social justice (reducing both the revenues and the patrimony of the wealthiest in order to increase those of the majority of the population) must be harmonized at European level in order to prevent fiscal dumping [6]. The goal is to increase public revenue, particularly via a progressive tax on the income of the wealthiest individuals (the marginal income tax rate can easily be increased to 90% [7]), as well as the tax on wealth as of a certain level, and corporate tax. This increase in revenue must go hand in hand with a rapid drop in the price of basic goods and services such as basic foodstuffs, water, electricity, heating, public transport, and educational equipment, particularly via a significant and targeted reduction of VAT on these vital goods and services. A fiscal policy should also be adopted in favour of environmental protection by creating a dissuasive tax for industries that pollute.
Several countries can combine their efforts to adopt a tax on financial transactions, particularly on foreign exchange markets, in order to increase government revenues, limit speculation, and promote exchange rate stability.
4. Wage war on tax havens
Tax evasion through tax havens is the cause of lost resources that could be used for development in northern as well as southern countries. The different G20 G20 The Group of Twenty (G20 or G-20) is a group made up of nineteen countries and the European Union whose ministers, central-bank directors and heads of state meet regularly. It was created in 1999 after the series of financial crises in the 1990s. Its aim is to encourage international consultation on the principle of broadening dialogue in keeping with the growing economic importance of a certain number of countries. Its members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, USA, UK and the European Union (represented by the presidents of the Council and of the European Central Bank). summits have refused, despite their declarations of intention, to face this problem. One simple measure would be to prohibit all persons or companies within a country's territory, to execute transactions with or through tax havens, punishable by a fine equal to the size of the transaction. Beyond that, these financial black holes favour illicit activities, corruption and white collar criminality. The industrial powers, which have accepted them for years, have all the necessary means to act.
Organized tax evasion deprives the community of considerable means and destroys jobs. Important public resources should be allotted to financial services so they may efficiently, and as a priority, track down and prosecute the fraud organized by big business and high net worth families. The results should be made public and the guilty heavily penalized.
5. Rein in the financial markets
Global-scale speculation represents several times the riches produced on our planet. Sophisticated packages make such speculation completely uncontrollable. The complexity of the system destructures the real economy, and discretion and opacity are the rule. This being the case, to tax faulting creditors they must first be identified. The dictatorship of the markets must be put to an end. Speculation on public debt bonds, currency exchange and staple commodities
The goods exchanged on the commodities market, traditionally raw materials such as metals and fuels, and cereals.
[8] must be prohibited along with short selling [9] and Credit Default Swaps
Credit Default Swaps Credit Default Swaps are an insurance that a financial company may purchase to protect itself against non payments. . Over the counter second markets, which are real black holes escaping all regulation and surveillance, must be closed.
The credit rating agencies
Rating agency
Rating agencies Rating agencies, or credit-rating agencies, evaluate creditworthiness. This includes the creditworthiness of corporations, nonprofit organizations and governments, as well as 'securitized assets' – which are assets that are bundled together and sold, to investors, as security. Rating agencies assign a letter grade to each bond, which represents an opinion as to the likelihood that the organization will be able to repay both the principal and interest as they become due. Ratings are made on a descending scale: AAA is the highest, then AA, A, BBB, BB, B, etc. A rating of BB or below is considered a 'junk bond' because it is likely to default. Many factors go into the assignment of ratings, including the profitability of the organization and its total indebtedness. The three largest credit rating agencies are Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings (FT).
Moody's : https://www.fitchratings.com/ must also be strictly reformed and controlled, and prohibited from rating sovereign debt. Far from being an objective and scientific monitoring method they are structurally involved in neo-liberal globalization and have, on several occasions, been at the root of social disasters. The downgrading of a country's rating may raise the interest Interest An amount paid in remuneration of an investment or received by a lender. Interest is calculated on the amount of the capital invested or borrowed, the duration of the operation and the rate that has been set. rates it must pay to successfully borrow on the financial markets - resulting in a deterioration of the economic situation of the country. The "follow my leader" behaviour of the speculators multiplies these difficulties, which will weigh still heavier on the population. The embedded submission of the rating agencies to the financial establishment makes them a major international actor. Their share Share A unit of ownership interest in a corporation or financial asset, representing one part of the total capital stock. Its owner (a shareholder) is entitled to receive an equal distribution of any profits distributed (a dividend) and to attend shareholder meetings. of responsibility in the evolution of the crisis is not sufficiently highlighted by the media. The economic stability of the European countries has been put into their hands, without safety nets, without serious control by the authorities. For this reason their potential for damage must be removed.
To prevent other politically destabilizing manœuvres a strict control of capital movements must be restored.
6. Transfer the banks and insurance companies to a public sector under citizens' control
Through their own errors many banks are in a position of insolvency rather than simply having cash-flow problems. The central banks' policy of granting them unlimited credit without imposing a change in the rules aggravates the problem.
We must get back to fundamentals. Banks, by reason of their size and the potentially devastating effects their bad management can have on the economy, should be public services. Banking is too serious a business to be handled by private interests. Banks use public money guaranteed by the State and provide a basic fundamental service to society. For this reason they should become a public service.
States should reclaim their power of intervention and control of economic and financial activity. They also need instruments to make investments and to finance public spending that would require only a minimum of resources from the money markets. To achieve this it is necessary to expropriate the banks, without compensation, creating a public sector under citizens' control.
In some cases, expropriation of private banks could be costly if the State is put under the obligation of taking on the debts and toxic financial products they still hold. These costs must be recovered by the dispossession of the estates of the major shareholders. The banks have often been pushed towards insolvency by major shareholders who are private companies and who have holdings and make generous profits in other economic sectors. Their overall assets must be tapped to avoid, as much as possible, the nationalization of losses. The Irish example is emblematic ; the way Allied Irish Banks was nationalized at the cost of the Irish taxpayer is unacceptable.
We support an option that implies the elimination of the capitalist banking sector, as much in the savings and loans branches as in the merchant and investment branches. In this way there would remain just two kinds of banks: public banks with a public service status and moderate-sized cooperative banks.
Although its state of health is less publicized, the insurance sector is also at the heart of the current crisis. The big insurance companies have cut capers as risky as those of the private banks with whom they have many close ties. A large part of their assets are made up of treasury bonds and derivative instruments. Chasing a maximum of immediate profits, they have put the premiums paid by their prudential, private retirement scheme and life insurance holders dangerously at risk. The expropriation of these contracts would avoid their collapse and protect the savers and policy holders. This expropriation of insurance companies must go hand in hand with a consolidation of general pension schemes.
7. Socializing companies that have been privatized since 1980
A characteristic feature of the last thirty years has been the privatization of companies and public services. From banks to manufacturing industries, from the post office and telecommunication companies to energy and transport, governments sold off the economy wholesale, thus depriving themselves of the capacity to regulate. Those public goods, produced as they are by collective labour, must become public property again. New public companies will have to be created and public services will have to be adapted to the needs of the population, for instance, to meet the issue of climate change through the creation of a public service to insulate homes.
8. Radically reducing working hours so as to guarantee full employment and adopting an income policy to achieve social justice
Sharing wealth on a different basis is the best possible answer to the current crisis. The share in produced wealth available to workers has sharply decreased over the past decades, while creditors and shareholders have increased their profits and used the accumulated money to speculate. Increased wages not only lead to decent standards of living but also boost the financing of social security and retirement benefits.
With shorter working hours - without wage reduction but with more jobs - we can improve the workers' quality of life and provide employment to those who need it. Radical reduction of working hours also creates an opportunity to change the pace at which we live, to enrich our social relationships, and to relinquish a consumerist approach. More leisure time means an opportunity for all to actively participate in political life, to strengthen solidarity, to engage in volunteer work, and get involved in cultural activities.
The level of minimum wage, average wage and social benefits also has to be significantly raised. On the other hand a strict ceiling should be placed on CEOs' incomes, whether the company be private or public. Bonuses, stock options, executive retirement packages and other unwarranted benefits should also be forbidden. We must decide on a maximum income. We recommend a maximum discrepancy in income of 1 to 4 (as Plato recommended some 2,400 years ago) with all sources of income being taxed together.
9. Public borrowing that promotes improved standards of living, common goods Common goods In economics, common goods are characterized by being collectively owned, as opposed to either privately or publicly owned. In philosophy, the term denotes what is shared by the members of one community, whether a town or indeed all humanity, from a juridical, political or moral standpoint. and a break with the logic of environmental destruction
A State must be able to borrow so as to improve living standards, for instance through community work and investments in renewable sources of energy. Some of the financing can be supported by the current budget thanks to clear political choices, but loans can facilitate a more inclusive approach, for instance moving from a form of mobility that caters for individual cars to wide-scale development of public transport, shutting down nuclear plants and replacing them with renewable sources of energy, creating or reopening railway lines all over the country, starting with cities and suburbs, or building and renovating low energy and well equipped social housing and public buildings.
We must urgently define a transparent public borrowing policy. Our proposal is as follows:
1. the aim of the loan must be to improve standards of living and break with the current logic of environmental destruction;
2. the loan must be part of a redistributive policy that reduces inequalities. This is why we suggest that financial institutions, private corporations and rich households be legally compelled to buy government bonds at 0% interest rate and without any indexing for an amount that is proportional to what they own while other citizens can buy bonds on a voluntary basis and with a positive return higher than the rate of inflation Inflation The cumulated rise of prices as a whole (e.g. a rise in the price of petroleum, eventually leading to a rise in salaries, then to the rise of other prices, etc.). Inflation implies a fall in the value of money since, as time goes by, larger sums are required to purchase particular items. This is the reason why corporate-driven policies seek to keep inflation down. . If annual inflation rises to 3%, the interest rate actually paid by the government for the corresponding year would be 6%. Such a measure of positive discrimination (comparable to those used to fight racial oppression in the US, the caste system in India, or gender inequalities) will contribute to greater tax fairness and a more equitable distribution of wealth.
10. Debating the Euro
The current debate on whether countries such as Greece ought to exit the euro zone is definitely necessary. Clearly the euro is a straightjacket for Greece, Portugal and Spain. If the issue figures less prominently in the present programme it is because social movements and left-wing parties are still divided by contradictory arguments. Our main concern is to bring people together on the vital issue of the debt and for the moment leave aside what divides us.
11. A different European Union built on solidarity
Several provisions in the treaties governing the EU, the euro zone and the ECB
European Central Bank The European Central Bank is a European institution based in Frankfurt, founded in 1998, to which the countries of the Eurozone have transferred their monetary powers. Its official role is to ensure price stability by combating inflation within that Zone. Its three decision-making organs (the Executive Board, the Governing Council and the General Council) are composed of governors of the central banks of the member states and/or recognized specialists. According to its statutes, it is politically 'independent' but it is directly influenced by the world of finance.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/html/index.en.html have to be repealed. For instance, we must cancel articles 63 and 125 of the Lisbon treaty which prohibit any restriction of movements of capital and any assistance to member States in a precarious position. We must also get out of the Stability and Growth Pact. The European Stability Mechanism ESM
European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism is a European entity for managing the financial crisis in the Eurozone. In 2012, it replaced the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, which had been implemented in response to the public-debt crisis in the Eurozone. It concerns only EU member States that are part of the Eurozone. If there is a threat to the stability of the Eurozone, this European financial institution is supposed to grant financial 'assistance' (loans) to a country or countries in difficulty. There are strict conditions to this assistance.
http://www.esm.europa.eu/ has to be cancelled too. Moreover we have to replace the current treaties with new ones in the context of a genuinely democratic constituent process so as to draft a pact of solidarity among peoples that is mindful of both employment and the environment.
We have to completely overhaul the monetary policy as well as the status and functioning of the ECB. The political authorities' inability to bring it around to creating money is a heavy drawback. When it set the ECB above governments and thus above peoples the EU made a disastrous choice; it chose to subordinate human life to financial concerns instead of the reverse.
With several social movements denouncing rigid and inadequate statutes, the ECB had to change its established role at the height of the financial crisis. Unfortunately it agreed on doing this for the wrong reasons, not to ensure that the interests of people would be taken into account but to cover for creditors. This is proof enough that we need a new deal: the ECB and national central banks must be allowed to directly finance member States striving towards social and environmental goals that meet the fundamental needs of people.
Nowadays economic activities as diverse as the construction of a hospital or a purely speculative venture are financed along similar lines. The government should apply different rates: low rates for socially fair and environmentally sustainable investments, very high or indeed prohibitive rates for speculative operations, which in fact ought to be prohibited in some areas.
A Europe built on solidarity and cooperation should allow us to break with the ultimately debasing competitive model. Neo-liberal logic has brought us to the current crisis and exposed its failure. It has forced social indicators down: less social protection, less employment, less public services. The handful of people who have benefited from the crisis have done so by denying the rights of the majority. The culprits are in the winning seats, the victims have to pay! This logic, which underlies all founding EU documents, must be broken. Another Europe, based on cooperation among member States and solidarity among peoples must become our top priority. To achieve this, tax and fiscal policies must be coordinated and not uniformized, so as to yield Yield The income return on an investment. This refers to the interest or dividends received from a security and is usually expressed annually as a percentage based on the investment's cost, its current market value or its face value. an 'upward' trend (European economies are too diverse to be merged into one single mould). European-scale global policies including massive public investments to create public employment in key areas such as support services, renewable energy, fighting climate change or basic social sectors must be implemented. A different policy will require a process coordinated by the people, in order to draft a Constitution and thus build another Europe.
This other democratic Europe must strive to enforce such non-negotiable principles as tax and social justice, improved standards of living, disarmament and radical reduction of military expenditure, sustainable choices in sources of energy without the use of nuclear power, a ban on genetically modified plants. It must also put an end to its policy of besieged fortress towards immigration applicants and become a partner in fair trade with peoples of the South. The first step in this direction must be to unconditionally cancel Third World debt. Cancelling the debt is a common denominator in all the struggles we must urgently fight in both the North and the South.
Translated by Judith Harris, Mike Krolikowski, Charles La Via and Christine Pagnoulle
Damien Millet (mathematics professor, spokesperson for CADTM France cadtm.org) and Eric Toussaint (Doctor in political science, president of CADTM Belgium, member of the Scientific board for ATTAC France). Damien Millet and Eric Toussaint directed the collective work La Dette ou la Vie (Aden-CADTM, 2011), which received the Political Book Award at the Liège political book fair in 2011. See also: Damien Millet and Éric Toussaint, AAA, Audit, Annulation, Autre politique, Le Seuil, Paris, 2012. Most recent publication in English: Eric Toussaint, Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket Books, Chicago, 2012.
[1] Christiane Marty, « Impact de la crise et de l'austérité sur les femmes : des raisons de s'indigner et se mobiliser »
[2] See The CADTM condemns the disinformation campaign on the Greek debt and the rescue plan by private creditors
[3] See Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-eurozone-greece-debt-idUSBRE82C0FM20120313
[5] Éric Toussaint, The World Bank, A Critical Primer, Pluto Press, London, 2007, Chapter 4.
[6] For instance, Ireland, which taxes corporate profits at a 12.5% rate. In France, the actual tax rate on CAC 40 corporations is only 8%.
[7] A 90% rate was imposed on the rich as of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency in the United States in the 1930s.
[8] Damien Millet and Éric Toussaint, La Crise, quelles crises ?, Aden-CADTM, 2010, chapter 6.
[9] Short selling: selling a value that you do not own in the hope of buying it before the end of the account at a lower price. The German authorities have prohibited this activity whereas the French among others are against prohibiting it.
is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the spokesperson of the CADTM International, and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France.
He is the author of Greece 2015: there was an alternative. London: Resistance Books / IIRE / CADTM, 2020 , Debt System (Haymarket books, Chicago, 2019), Bankocracy (2015); The Life and Crimes of an Exemplary Man (2014); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago, 2012, etc.
See his bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Toussaint
He co-authored World debt figures 2015 with Pierre Gottiniaux, Daniel Munevar and Antonio Sanabria (2015); and with Damien Millet Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank: Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers, Monthly Review Books, New York, 2010. He was the scientific coordinator of the Greek Truth Commission on Public Debt from April 2015 to November 2015.
7 September, by Eric Toussaint , Roberto González Amador
1 September, by Eric Toussaint , Jorge Muracciole
10 August, by Eric Toussaint , Ashley Smith
15 July, by Eric Toussaint , Sushovan Dhar , Yuliya Yurchenko
13 July, by Eric Toussaint , Alberto Acosta , Pierre Salama , Joan Martínez Alier , Wilma Salgado , Rosa Sueiro , Aleida Azamar
3 July, by Eric Toussaint
22 June, by Eric Toussaint
20 June, by Eric Toussaint
14 June, by Eric Toussaint
When President Joe Biden says that the US never denounced any debt obligation it's a lie to convince people that there is no alternative to a bad bi-partisan agreementDebt ceiling: Radio Silence Concerning United States President Franklin Roosevelt's Repudiation of Debts
28 May, by Eric Toussaint
professeur de mathématiques en classes préparatoires scientifiques à Orléans, porte-parole du CADTM France (Comité pour l'Annulation de la Dette du Tiers Monde), auteur de L'Afrique sans dette (CADTM-Syllepse, 2005), co-auteur avec Frédéric Chauvreau des bandes dessinées Dette odieuse (CADTM-Syllepse, 2006) et Le système Dette (CADTM-Syllepse, 2009), co-auteur avec Eric Toussaint du livre Les tsunamis de la dette (CADTM-Syllepse, 2005), co-auteur avec François Mauger de La Jamaïque dans l'étau du FMI (L'esprit frappeur, 2004).
22 August 2018, by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
16 May 2016, by Damien Millet
31 May 2012, by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
1 April 2012, by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
16 March 2012, by Damien Millet
4 February 2012, by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
4 January 2012, by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
15 July 2011, by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
27 August 2010, by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet , Sophie Perchellet
5 August 2010, by Eric Toussaint , Damien Millet
8 rue Jonfosse
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The Public Health Advocacy Institute has filed an amicus curiae brief in an appeal pending before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Plaintiff/Appellants are seeking to reverse a decision of the attorney general and get a question certified for inclusion on the 2014 ballot to repeal a law legalizing casino gambling in Massachusetts. The case is Steven P. Abdow et al., v. Attorney General, et al., No. SJC-11641.
Legalized casino gambling causes devastating effects on the public's health, including not only the gambler but also their families, neighbors, communities and others with whom they interact. Massachusetts voters should not be denied the opportunity to be heard directly on the question of whether to invite a predatory and toxic industry to do business in the Commonwealth.
The harm caused by the tobacco industry's products has been the archetype of a commercial threat to public health, and in considering the introduction of gambling industry casinos into Massachusetts, much can be learned from the object lesson of considering the tobacco industry as a disease vector. The predatory gambling industry shares much in common with the tobacco industry.
Some examples of the similarities are:
- Casinos employ electronic gambling machines that are designed to addict their customers in a way that is similar to how the tobacco industry formulates its cigarettes to be addictive by manipulating their nicotine levels and other ingredients.
- Mirroring the tobacco industry's strategy of creating scientific doubt where none truly exists, the casino industry has co-opted and corrupted scholarship on the effects of gambling through the use of front groups that funnel money to beholden scientists who are able to sanitize its origin.
- Borrowing another tobacco industry technique of shaping the debate around its products, by creating a misleading lexicon and using euphemisms, the casino industry has tried to influence debate, deflect criticism and mislead the public about its role as a disease vector.
- By employing personal and corporate responsibility rhetoric honed by the tobacco industry, the casino industry hopes to gain and maintain social acceptability and stave off litigation, regulation and citizen-driven activism.
Both the tobacco and casino industries profit from preying upon society's most vulnerable members, acting as disease vectors which adversely affect the physical, emotional and social health of the individual users and the communities where use of the products is prevalent.
The brief declares that the voters of the Commonwealth should be allowed to act on their own behalf in expressing an opinion of this type of predatory behavior. The power of the citizen ballot initiative is the ultimate in personal responsibility, agency and self-determination. Therefore, PHAI asks the court to compel the attorney general to certify the Plaintiffs'/Appellants' petition and allow the repeal measure to be included on the 2014 ballot.
The full brief can be downloaded here.


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Ford Van is a good example of American style, perfect look and high quality car produced by famous American multinational automaker Ford which was founded by Henry Ford in 1903. Ford Van is one of the most successful vehicles marketed by the company. You can find Ford Van at price range $25488 - $39850 according to its modification and production year.
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Get a valid ESA letters after speaking with one of our licensed doctors via Telehealth. Appointments available same-day.
Many who wish to board flights with their therapy pet are banned from doing so.
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text: Share description Datasheet Internet of Things for Oil & Gas The Internet of Things represents the constantly growing universe of sensors and devices that create a flood of granular data about our world. The "things" include everything from environmental sensors monitoring weather or energy usage to "smart" household appliances and telemetry from production-lines and vehicles. file_download Download datasheet Topics Big Data Big Analytics Big Data Analytics Oil and Gas


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Tuesday, February 14, 2012
family pictures & it's v-day!
33 comments:
the pictures turned out great! love them you guys are so cute. cant wait to see the next round of fam pics with 2 little ones!ReplyDelete
Cute pictures, I love Parker's face in the first one. I don't know when you took these so maybe you weren't prego yet, but if you were, that would be fun to know the other little was in there too!ReplyDelete
These are so great!! Beautiful family!!ReplyDelete
So beautiful! Great outfit choice, I love what you put together!ReplyDelete
Love the color scheme in your outfits! And love love your sweater! Too cute.ReplyDelete
Parker's face in that first one is awesome! These turned out marvelous!ReplyDelete
Those turned out so well! Beautiful family. :) I love your outfit!!ReplyDelete
great family photos! you all look so happy :)ReplyDelete
such adorable pictures! she did an amazing job and i am so loving that last one!! and what a cute tradition you started!! so fun!!ReplyDelete
They turned out B-E-A-utiful! The first and last are my favorites!ReplyDelete
Beautiful family!!!ReplyDelete
What awesome pictures!! Love love love them!ReplyDelete
Happy love day, friend!! I like your traditions, they sound fun! Philip and I don't have traditions cause we're kinda downers and don't really like hallmark holiday's. BUT I think I want to change that now that we have kids. And... you already know I love your family pics! Can't wait to see what you do with your collage wall!ReplyDelete
Beautiful photos! Beautiful family! Parker is just the cutest kid ever.ReplyDelete
Happy Valentines Day!xx
aww I love these pictures. They turned out awesome. I am also in love with the cardi your wearingReplyDelete
You all are so adorable!! Lovely photos!ReplyDelete
Beautiful pictures. Your family is adorable. xo, rvReplyDelete
Awwww, they are all great! I wouldn't be able to pick which one to frame. You have a beautiful family:)ReplyDelete
I love them! If you would like to give me a pic, I would totally love it. Just saying.ReplyDelete
Aww beautiful pictures!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 14, 2012 at 1:39 PM
Oh my goodness!!! I LOVE them. Such gorgeous shots.ReplyDelete
amazing pictures!! one adorable family!ReplyDelete
Such wonderful photos of your beautiful family!! Happy Valentine's Day!ReplyDelete
Super cute!!! Where did you order your canvas? Did you know you can make your own??ReplyDelete
Beautiful photos! Happy valentines day!ReplyDelete
Oh man! these are all so wonderful!!! Love them each one! The Parker just keeps being so much fun! Love you all!!ReplyDelete
You are such an AMAZING Family!! I love your blog :)ReplyDelete
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Gorgeous pictures!! & I love your coordinating outfits, so so sweet!! xxxReplyDelete
You cant mean that you wont be doing family maternity pictures?!?! *gasp* You have too! :)ReplyDelete
These are gorgeous!
love your family photos, you guys make such a gorgeous family. I so need to do ours but waiting to loose more of the baby weight before that.ReplyDelete
there are amazing! The outfits go so well together! And can I say, I LOVE your jeans! Beautiful family!ReplyDelete
They are great Amy! You guys all look so cute!ReplyDelete
♥ Kyna
These are SO SWEET! I just love your outfits!!!! They're great for photos especially the yellow and blue!ReplyDelete


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Ryan Suter (born January 21, 1985) is a professional ice hockey defenseman who currently plays for and serves as an alternate captain for the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is also an alternate captain of the US Olympic Team for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Ryan's father, Bob, was a member of the historic gold medal-winning 1980 United States Olympic hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union in the famous "Miracle on Ice" game. Ryan's uncle Gary Suter was a long-time standout in the NHL, playing for 17 seasons with the Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, and the San Jose Sharks, and won the silver medal representing the United States in the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City. Ryan was alternate captain for the US team, and carried on the family trend by earning a silver medal in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Suter played for the Madison Capitols, Culver Military Academy and then on to USA Hockey's National Development Team in Ann arbor, Michigan before he was drafted 7th overall by the Nashville Predators in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. He then played one year with the Wisconsin Badgers (Western Collegiate Hockey Association in NCAA Division I) before joining the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League during the 2004–05 season. He played his rookie season in the NHL with the Predators in 2005–06.
In international play, he has represented the United States in around seven tournaments, and has won three gold medals. He says that,