text:
The accuracy and efficacy of screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis: a systematic review
Emma Honey, Alexander Allan Templeton, J. Paavonen, A. Stary, B. S. Pederson, I. Russell, P. A. Mardh
Screening women for lower genital tract infection with Chlamydia trachomatis is important in the prevention of pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. This systematic review aims to state clearly which of the available diagnostic tests for the detection of C trachomatis would be most effective in terms of clinical effectiveness. The review included all studies published from 1990 onward that evaluated diagnostic tests in asymptomatic, young, sexually active populations. Medline and Embase were searched electronically and key journals were hand-searched. Further studies were identified through the Internet and contact with experts in the field. All studies were reviewed by two reviewers and were scored by Irwig's assessment criteria. Additional quality assessment criteria included a documented sexual history and recording of previous chlamydial infection. The reviews were subjected to meta-analysis and meta-regression. The 30 studies that were included examined three types of DNA-based test-ligase chain reaction (LCR), PCR and gene probe-as well as enzyme immuno-assay (EIA). The results showed that while specificities were high, sensitivities varied widely across the tests and were also dependent on the specimen tested. Pooled sensitivities for LCR, PCR, gene probe and EIA on urine were 96.5%, 85.6%, 92% and 38%, respectively, while on cervical swabs the corresponding sensitivities of PCR, gene probe and EIA were 88.6%, 84% and 65%. Meta-analysis demonstrated that DNA amplification techniques performed best for both urine and swabs in low prevalence populations. We conclude that nucleic acid amplification tests used on non-invasive samples such as urine are more effective at detecting asymptomatic chlamydial infection than conventional tests, but there are few data to relate a positive result with clinical outcome.
Journal of Medical Microbiology
LIGASE CHAIN-REACTION
SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED DISEASE
LOW-PREVALENCE POPULATION
TRANSCRIPTION-MEDIATED AMPLIFICATION
FIRST-VOID URINE
DIRECT FLUORESCENT-ANTIBODY
ASYMPTOMATIC YOUNG-WOMEN
LEUKOCYTE ESTERASE TEST
AMPLICOR PCR TEST
PACE 2 ASSAY
Honey, E., Templeton, A. A., Paavonen, J., Stary, A., Pederson, B. S., Russell, I., & Mardh, P. A. (2002). The accuracy and efficacy of screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis: a systematic review. Journal of Medical Microbiology, 51(12), 1021-1031.
The accuracy and efficacy of screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis: a systematic review. / Honey, Emma; Templeton, Alexander Allan; Paavonen, J.; Stary, A.; Pederson, B. S.; Russell, I.; Mardh, P. A.
In: Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol. 51, No. 12, 2002, p. 1021-1031.
Honey, E, Templeton, AA, Paavonen, J, Stary, A, Pederson, BS, Russell, I & Mardh, PA 2002, 'The accuracy and efficacy of screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis: a systematic review', Journal of Medical Microbiology, vol. 51, no. 12, pp. 1021-1031.
Honey E, Templeton AA, Paavonen J, Stary A, Pederson BS, Russell I et al. The accuracy and efficacy of screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis: a systematic review. Journal of Medical Microbiology. 2002;51(12):1021-1031.
Honey, Emma ; Templeton, Alexander Allan ; Paavonen, J. ; Stary, A. ; Pederson, B. S. ; Russell, I. ; Mardh, P. A. / The accuracy and efficacy of screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis: a systematic review. In: Journal of Medical Microbiology. 2002 ; Vol. 51, No. 12. pp. 1021-1031.
@article{34ca896d0f8c4a28a78f476e9795e14e,
title = "The accuracy and efficacy of screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis: a systematic review",
abstract = "Screening women for lower genital tract infection with Chlamydia trachomatis is important in the prevention of pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. This systematic review aims to state clearly which of the available diagnostic tests for the detection of C trachomatis would be most effective in terms of clinical effectiveness. The review included all studies published from 1990 onward that evaluated diagnostic tests in asymptomatic, young, sexually active populations. Medline and Embase were searched electronically and key journals were hand-searched. Further studies were identified through the Internet and contact with experts in the field. All studies were reviewed by two reviewers and were scored by Irwig's assessment criteria. Additional quality assessment criteria included a documented sexual history and recording of previous chlamydial infection. The reviews were subjected to meta-analysis and meta-regression. The 30 studies that were included examined three types of DNA-based test-ligase chain reaction (LCR), PCR and gene probe-as well as enzyme immuno-assay (EIA). The results showed that while specificities were high, sensitivities varied widely across the tests and were also dependent on the specimen tested. Pooled sensitivities for LCR, PCR, gene probe and EIA on urine were 96.5%, 85.6%, 92% and 38%, respectively, while on cervical swabs the corresponding sensitivities of PCR, gene probe and EIA were 88.6%, 84% and 65%. Meta-analysis demonstrated that DNA amplification techniques performed best for both urine and swabs in low prevalence populations. We conclude that nucleic acid amplification tests used on non-invasive samples such as urine are more effective at detecting asymptomatic chlamydial infection than conventional tests, but there are few data to relate a positive result with clinical outcome.",
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author = "Emma Honey and Templeton, {Alexander Allan} and J. Paavonen and A. Stary and Pederson, {B. S.} and I. Russell and Mardh, {P. A.}",
journal = "Journal of Medical Microbiology",
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T1 - The accuracy and efficacy of screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis: a systematic review
AU - Honey, Emma
AU - Templeton, Alexander Allan
AU - Paavonen, J.
AU - Stary, A.
AU - Pederson, B. S.
AU - Russell, I.
AU - Mardh, P. A.
N2 - Screening women for lower genital tract infection with Chlamydia trachomatis is important in the prevention of pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. This systematic review aims to state clearly which of the available diagnostic tests for the detection of C trachomatis would be most effective in terms of clinical effectiveness. The review included all studies published from 1990 onward that evaluated diagnostic tests in asymptomatic, young, sexually active populations. Medline and Embase were searched electronically and key journals were hand-searched. Further studies were identified through the Internet and contact with experts in the field. All studies were reviewed by two reviewers and were scored by Irwig's assessment criteria. Additional quality assessment criteria included a documented sexual history and recording of previous chlamydial infection. The reviews were subjected to meta-analysis and meta-regression. The 30 studies that were included examined three types of DNA-based test-ligase chain reaction (LCR), PCR and gene probe-as well as enzyme immuno-assay (EIA). The results showed that while specificities were high, sensitivities varied widely across the tests and were also dependent on the specimen tested. Pooled sensitivities for LCR, PCR, gene probe and EIA on urine were 96.5%, 85.6%, 92% and 38%, respectively, while on cervical swabs the corresponding sensitivities of PCR, gene probe and EIA were 88.6%, 84% and 65%. Meta-analysis demonstrated that DNA amplification techniques performed best for both urine and swabs in low prevalence populations. We conclude that nucleic acid amplification tests used on non-invasive samples such as urine are more effective at detecting asymptomatic chlamydial infection than conventional tests, but there are few data to relate a positive result with clinical outcome.
AB - Screening women for lower genital tract infection with Chlamydia trachomatis is important in the prevention of pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. This systematic review aims to state clearly which of the available diagnostic tests for the detection of C trachomatis would be most effective in terms of clinical effectiveness. The review included all studies published from 1990 onward that evaluated diagnostic tests in asymptomatic, young, sexually active populations. Medline and Embase were searched electronically and key journals were hand-searched. Further studies were identified through the Internet and contact with experts in the field. All studies were reviewed by two reviewers and were scored by Irwig's assessment criteria. Additional quality assessment criteria included a documented sexual history and recording of previous chlamydial infection. The reviews were subjected to meta-analysis and meta-regression. The 30 studies that were included examined three types of DNA-based test-ligase chain reaction (LCR), PCR and gene probe-as well as enzyme immuno-assay (EIA). The results showed that while specificities were high, sensitivities varied widely across the tests and were also dependent on the specimen tested. Pooled sensitivities for LCR, PCR, gene probe and EIA on urine were 96.5%, 85.6%, 92% and 38%, respectively, while on cervical swabs the corresponding sensitivities of PCR, gene probe and EIA were 88.6%, 84% and 65%. Meta-analysis demonstrated that DNA amplification techniques performed best for both urine and swabs in low prevalence populations. We conclude that nucleic acid amplification tests used on non-invasive samples such as urine are more effective at detecting asymptomatic chlamydial infection than conventional tests, but there are few data to relate a positive result with clinical outcome.
KW - LIGASE CHAIN-REACTION
KW - SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED DISEASE
KW - LOW-PREVALENCE POPULATION
KW - TRANSCRIPTION-MEDIATED AMPLIFICATION
KW - FIRST-VOID URINE
KW - DIRECT FLUORESCENT-ANTIBODY
KW - ASYMPTOMATIC YOUNG-WOMEN
KW - LEUKOCYTE ESTERASE TEST
KW - AMPLICOR PCR TEST
KW - PACE 2 ASSAY
JO - Journal of Medical Microbiology
JF - Journal of Medical Microbiology


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1 minute reading time (187 words)
Behind the Synth: Dan Rouse Chat
Blake Angelos
This week Nate and Blake chat with Yamaha Aritst Dan Rouse.
Behind the Synth continues our series of artist chats with Dan Rouse. Dan is the Musical Director, Keyboardist and Production Manager for the Village People. He's also performed with Patti Labelle, Jennifer Hudson, Hoodie Allen, and Demetria McKinney. Dan is deeply involved in the Philadelphia music community and mentors other musicians wanting to break in.
In this chat we talk about Dan's background, big breaks and his thoughts on being successful in the music business. His positive attitude and insightful thoughts and observations are great. We even discuss the very cool triple Yamaha MODX configuration he shared on his Instagram page below:
Dan shares his knowledge of being a musician, musical director and manager:
"If you can't see a world where it works, then it won't...Find out what you want to do and find someone who's already doing that...Real recognizes real...Whatever gig you're trying to do just know what's needed."
Check out our Behind the Synth with Dan Rouse below:
Yamaha Synth · BTS048: Dan Rouse Chat
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reface MODX MONTAGE Behind the Synth Dan Rouse
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Yamaha Synthesizer Product Specialist Blake Angelos has over thirty years of experience with music hardware and software. An expert in music technology, Blake has conducted numerous clinics, master classes and presentations throughout the United States, Europe and Canada. In his role as Product Specialist for the Synthesizer Department Blake appears in many product videos and artist interviews, writes many articles for YamahaSynth.com and co-hosts a regular Podcast called "Behind the Synth".
Before his work with Yamaha, he taught music theory and jazz studies courses at Arizona State University; managed a technology-focused music store in Seattle and was a production supervisor at Microsoft, where he led a team that developed groundbreaking interactive music content for the Microsoft Network. Blake holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a Master of Music degree from Arizona State University. Blake currently resides in Bellingham, Washington with his family, and between his travels around the world for Yamaha, he performs as much as possible with several jazz and creative music groups in Bellingham, Seattle and other places in the Pacific Northwest.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Entrepreneurs and (especially) venture capitalists have been waiting for a return to health of the public markets and a renewed interest by public market investors in tech stocks.
Well, 2011 is actually looking like a bumper year for IPOs.
We've already had in close succession Youku, the "YouTube of China", DangDang, the "Amazon of China" and even Demand Media had a strong IPO despite controversy around its content farm model and accounting. So now plenty of tech companies are waiting in the wings and are either filing or looking to go public.
LinkedIn doubled revenue last year, but is going to be unprofitable this year.
LinkedIn has filed to go public. In the past 9 months it had $161 million of revenue and $10 million profit but it expects to be unprofitable this year as revenue growth slows and they invest into the business.
Pandora says in its filing it wants to raise up to $100 million, and it's still posting a narrow loss. It's still an amazing success story for a company that was turned down by literally hundreds of VC and has built a huge, fast-growing business in the cursed category of online music.
Renren is a huge social network in China. They started out as a straight Facebook clone but have now become an innovator in their own right and want to raise $500 million in a US IPO.
Vacation rental site HomeAway seems to be doing very well for itself. But a huge competitive threat is Sequoia-backed AirBnB, which lets individual people rent out their homes, a model which is classically disruptive to HomeAway's. The company raised $500 million already and it's going to need all the cash it can get to fend off AirBnB.
Groupon is the fastest growing company in the history of anything, it's huge, profitable, and nothing seems to stand in its way. The investors who pumped almost a billion dollars into the company at a $4 billion valuation are getting a sweet sweet deal since Groupon wants to IPO before the end of the year at a $15-20 billion valuation.
Google was worth $23 billion when it went public so if Groupon really crushes it and the markets are really hot, there's a chance Groupon's IPO ends up bigger than Google's.
Active Network provides software for event registration and management. It's obviously big business and Active Network wants to cash in by raising $150 million.
Skype is already worth $2.5 billion, how much higher can it go?
Skype was spun out to private equity investors at a $2.5 billion valuation and surprised a bunch of people by filing to go public late last year. They're now planning to raise around $100 million this fall. The question is, how much can their valuation go up?
In any case it's a big pay day for venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, who have $50 million in the company.
Real estate search engine Trulia is adding big hitters like former Yahoo exec Paul Levine, which is usually indicative of an impending IPO. The company is profitable and in 'no hurry' to go public, but it'll get there, and maybe sooner rather than later if the markets keep going up.
Viadeo started out as the LinkedIn of France but now it's huge in emerging markets like Brazil, India and China. They're planning on an IPO by the end of the year, and are considering Hong Kong rather than France for their listing. XING, Germany's professional social network, went public in 2006 and LinkedIn is going public, so it makes sense for Viadeo to go for it as well.
Kayak is the leader in travel search and has a great business. Revenue for the nine months ended September 30 2010 was $128 million, with net income of $6.2 million. The only problem? Kayak gets most of its flight data from a company called ITA Software, which Google is acquiring, almost certainly to build a competing product.
Tudou is frequently referred to as the 'YouTube of China' but that's a misnomer. It's part YouTube, part Hulu, and part media company, making its own shows. It's a success, and is even bigger than Youku, the other big Chinese video site, which had a roarer of a US IPO. They want to raise $500 million, and they'll probably get them given investor appetite for tech stocks and China stocks.
What happens after an IPO? You get rich -- like Tyra Banks did when Demand Media went public.


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Ben O'Toole
Genre: Drama/War
Directed by: Nicolai Fuglsig
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Austin Stowell, Geoff Stults, Rob Riggle, Elsa Pataky, Said Taghmaoui, William Fichtner, Navid Negahban, Trevante Rhodes, Thad Luckinbill, Ben O'Toole, Austin Hebert, Kenneth Miller, Kenny Sheard, Jack Kesy, Laith Nakli, Fahim Fazli, Yousuf Azami, Said Taghmaoui, Elsa Pataky, William Fichtner, Rob Riggle
More Information at: 12 Strong Trailer
https://teaser-trailer.com/movie/12-strong
Watch the official movie trailer of 12 Strong below:
Tags: 12 Strong, Austin Hebert, Austin Stowell, Ben O'Toole, Chris Hemsworth, Drama, Elsa Pataky, Fahim Fazli, Geoff Stults, Jack Kesy, January 2018, Kenneth Miller, Kenny Sheard, Laith Nakli, Michael Pena, Michael Shannon, Navid Negahban, Nicolai Fuglsig, Rob Riggle, Said Taghmaoui, Thad Luckinbill, Trevante Rhodes, War, William Fichtner, Yousuf Azami
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jacob Latimore, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray, Kaitlyn Dever, Jack Reynor, Ben O'Toole, Joseph David Jones, Ephraim Sykes, Leon Thomas III, Nathan Davis Jr., Peyton Alex Smith, Malcolm David Kelley, Gbenga Akinnabve, Chris Chalk, Jeremy Strong, Laz Alonzo, Austin Hebert, Miguel Pimentel, Kris David, with John Krasinski, Anthony Mackie
More Information at: Detroit Trailer
https://teaser-trailer.com/movie/detroit
Watch the official movie trailer of Detroit below:
Tags: Algee Smith, Anthony Mackie, August 2017, Austin Hebert, Ben O'Toole, Chris Chalk, Detroit, Drama, Ephraim Sykes, Gbenga Akinnabve, Hannah Murray, Jack Reynor, Jacob Latimore, Jason Mitchell, Jeremy Strong, John Boyega, Joseph David Jones, Kaitlyn Dever, Kathryn Bigelow, Kris David, Laz Alonzo, Leon Thomas III, Malcolm David Kelley, Miguel Pimentel, Nathan Davis Jr., Peyton Alex Smith, Thriller, Will Poulter, with John Krasinski


Barton Black Law | Small Firm Feel. Big Firm Results.
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fantastic and the tutorial spot on , i have implemented this on blog and its just stunning.
Awesome tutorial!! Why don't you make it a wordpress plugin?
I would like to change the side of the list , make it appear on the left and slide to the right … how to change it ?
We use this to solve retrieving data from SQL, only fix limit to see.
Hi, I've implemented this to work with my wordpress site, the idea is to use it to feature specific posts i.e. upcoming events.
1.Can i change the shuffle to just show the next list of items?
2. Can i place a button at the top to hide all, I have a flash application on some pages and the navigation is unclickable.
I'd like to implement this on the left side of a webpage. Is this possible?
This is what we really want, thanks for posting, related post are must to decrease bounce rate.
Hey, I was hoping I could get my hands on the instructions t load this to a blogger site, any help?
nice tut, is there any way to have it not fixed? I tried position absolute and related and it breaks the design, how can we make it not to be fixed while scrolling?
p.s. I managed to position it, you have to put it inside a div with position relative.
if we remove it – nothing changes.


Get your hairspray ready! The Thassophobia Read In will return to MFHS on March 22nd. In order to participate, you must sign up outside of Room 144. You will also have to audition for the Thasso Club by March 12th.
You can participate during your English class or study hall, and attendance will also be more exclusive this year. However, the Thasso Read In will still provide a relevant learning and entertainment experience, so encourage your English teachers to bring you to the auditorium on 3-22.
C.12.1 Prepare and deliver formal oral presentations appropriate to specific purposes and audiences.
C.12.2 Listen to, discuss, and comprehend oral communications.
See your participating teacher for more exciting curriculum integration exercises.
On Friday April 12, 2013 from 3:00-6:00 there will be a party to decorate pairs of TOMS shoes. You may be asking yourself, "Why is this being posted so early?" While the party is a ways away, the ordering of the shoes is not.
The time is almost here once again. Art students have been making bowls, the donations are rolling in, and the soup is ready to be made. This year Empty Bowls will be held on Friday February 1st from 5:00 to 7:30. This is right before the Boys Varsity Basketball game against Marquette, so you won't be missing a thing.


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Posts Tagged 'Debt'
Loach's Documentary Shows Why We Still Need the Attlee Government
The Spirit of '45, director Ken Loach, Dogwoof, Sixteenfly Limited, British Film Institute & Channel 4.. Running time 92 minutes, with 420 minutes of extras, 2013 release.
This superb documentary provides great evidence for one of the real reasons Keef Stalin has purged Loach from the Labour party. Quite apart from being a staunch critic of Israeli barbarism, Loach is a socialist whose films show the misery, poverty and degradation inflicted by capitalism. This documentary shows not just the great achievements of Attlee's reforming government of 1945, but why we still need these reforms today. Why, indeed, we do need to turn the clock back against the Thatcherites to 1945 again. And as an ardent Thatcherite, that's something Keef and his cohorts really can't tolerate.
The film consists of interviews with ordinary men and women, former workers in the affected industries, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals as well as academics, along with interviews and footage from the period. These include tales of real struggle and hardship, often moving, and sometimes inspiring anger. It begins by describing the horrendous conditions people lived in before the foundation of the welfare state. One man describes how, as a child, he and his four siblings lived in a slum crawling with vermin. They had to sleep in the same bed, infested with lice and fleas. This is accompanied by footage showing a hand turning over blankets in a bed in which just about every inch was alive with such parasites. And the man recalls that after a night of this, he was beaten at school for having dirty knees.
The film states that the welfare state and its founders were determined not to repeat the situation following the First World War, where demobbed troops returned to unemployment, depression and poverty. The film is divided into sections for each part of the economy that was nationalised – coal, the Railways, the NHS, housing and electricity.
There had been demands for the nationalisation of the coal industry for decades. It was divided between various coal companies, some of which were extremely small. These companies were individually too poor to pay the miners a decent, living wage. Former miners describe how hard and dangerous conditions were. Miners were paid according to the amount of coal they hewed. They weren't paid for putting up the props that stopped the mine shafts collapsing. As a result, not enough props were put up and terrible accidents followed. One man recalled seeing one his workmates killed in just such a rock fall because not enough props were put up. Nationalisation resulted in much better conditions, but disappointed many of the miners. They were hoping for something like workers' control. Instead the same people were left in charge, including one manager, who was appointed leader of the industry, who had written extensively against nationalisation. Naturally this left many miners angry and disappointed.
Medicine before the NHS for working people was poor and expensive. Some workers were covered by insurance schemes for their industries, allowing them to see panel doctors. This did not, however, according to the film, cover their families. I'm not sure about this, because my mother remembers cases in Bristol where family members were seen by the panel doctor, but this may have been the exception. You had to pay to see a doctor, and they weren't cheap. Very low paid workers, like farm labourers, were paid six shillings a week, and seeing the doctor could cost one of those. Patients were very often in debt to their doctors, who employed debt collectors. Death from disease was common. One man angrily recalls how he became an atheist after the death of his mother, who died following complications in childbirth because she could not afford proper treatment or an abortion. One former GP tells how he went round to call on a family of his patients the very day after the foundation of the NHS. When he inquired after the boy he'd been treating, the mother informed him he was well. But the man could hear coughing, and so continued to ask. The mother replied that the coughing was his brother, who was recovering because they'd given him half of the bottle of cough medicine he'd given to the other boy. When the doctor said he could still hear coughing, the woman replied that it was her mother. When the doctor offered to treat her, she refused, saying they couldn't afford him. The doctor replied that this morning they could. This part of the documentary includes comments from Jacky Davis, a great campaigner for the NHS and one of the editors, with Ray Tallis, of the excellent book, NHS – SOS.
The railways before nationalisation were in a comparable state as the mines. The rail network was divided between different companies, who also owned their own track. As a result, services by the different railway companies frequently interfered with each other. One old railways worker recalls how one train going to Exeter was held up for half an hour by a train from another company. And the system was incredibly bureaucratic. The first thing to go at nationalisation was the clearing house. This was a massive office of 50+ clerks just passing chits to each other as the various companies billed each other for the use of their services. I suspect something similar goes on in the privatised railways when you buy a ticket that involves more than one network.
The film also describes the massive improvement in housing that came with the government's programme of building council houses. There were queues to get into these, with many workers amazed that they would live in such massively improved conditions.
The film also covers the nationalisation of the electricity network, with an historian stating that it was generally agreed that it made more sense to nationalise it and amalgamate it into one company than leave it in the hands of a multitude of competing small companies.
The film moves on to the destruction of the welfare state following the election of St. Margaret of Monetarism. All of these have been disastrous. The spit up of the railways led to a series of terrible train disasters, with the companies involved refusing to accept responsibility and blaming each other. It was so appalling that the track had to be renationalised in 2002.
As for the NHS, service is becoming worse as the government has privatised more of it. NHS workers and ordinary folk made it very clear how much they hate its privatisation. One gentleman says that those who want to see it sold off should be put in a bottomless boat, sent out in the North Sea, and told to swim back. I quite agree. Jacky Davis makes it clear that this isn't making the service cheaper or more economical. Under the NHS, administration costs were 6 per cent. A little while ago they were 12 per cent. Now they're heading up to American levels of 18-24 per cent.
The NHS has become less efficient because of four decades of Thatcherite privatisation, all for the profit of private healthcare companies.
The film is a superb piece of social history and documentation, directed by one of the masters of British cinema. And makes a very strong case for socialism. Attlee and his government weren't without their faults, but they created the modern welfare state following the Beveridge Report. This shaped British society for more than three decades afterwards, and which still demands our support against the attacks of the likes of Blair, Starmer and Boris.
Tags:'NHS - SOS', 'The Spirit of '45', Abortion, Beveridge Report, Clement Attlee, Deaths, Debt, Disasters, doctors, Farm Workers, Housing, Jacky Davis, Keir Starmer, Ken Loach, Margaret Thatcher, Nationalisation, NHS, NHS Privatisation, Nurses, Railways, Slums, tony blair, Welfare State, World War I
Posted in Agriculture, Atheism, Coal, Electricity, Film, Health Service, History, Industry, Israel, LIterature, Politics, Poverty, Socialism, Wages, Welfare Benefits, Working Conditions | 5 Comments »
Lobster Book Review on Corporate and Governmental Corruption in America
One of the fascinating book reviews Lobster has published recently is John Newsinger's review of Sarah Chayes' Everybody Knows: Corruption in America (London: Hurst 2020). Chayes worked for the western army of occupation in Afghanistan, during which time she came to realise that the American forces weren't their to free the Afghans, secure democracy and defend women from a vicious and repressive theocracy. No, they were there to prop up Hamid Karzai's massively corrupt government, whose members and clients were doing everything they could to screw whatever they could get out of Agha and Khanum Ordinary Afghan. This formed the subject of his first book, Thieves of State. In Everybody Knows, she turns to the subject of the massive corruption in America, most especially in Donald Trump's administration.
The companies participating in this corporate looting of America and the rest of the world include the Koch companies, Goldman Sachs, one of whose former inmates is our own Rishi Sunak, the connections between Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, and the connections between the mercenary outfit Frontier Services Group and Cambridge Analytica. The politicos involved include Mitch McConnell and Steve Mnuchin. McConnell was active trying to hold up increased funding for health-care and pension funds for retired miners, many of whom were his own constituents. He also managed to redirect $4 million of a grant intended to pay for the clean-up of a heavily polluted industrial so that instead it helped to pay for a new, $200 million steel plant ready for its Russian owners, whom McConnell also helped get sanctions lifted on the Russian company, Rusal.
These networks don't just infect the Republicans, as you'd expect. They're also heavily interlinked with Democrat politicos and Clinton's and Obama's governments. One passage of the review which I found particularly interesting described Madeleine Albright's corporate looting of Africa. She owns a company that specialises in buying up Third World debt and then forcing those nations to pay it. Of course it comes out their hard-pressed budgets for healthcare, clean drinking water and education. Her hedge fund, Albright Capital Management, bought out a company specialising in pop-up electricity plants in developing African nations. These benefit the countries' kleptocratic leaders at the expense of local people, who remain 'mired in pollution and conflict'. It was Madeleine Albright, if I remember correctly, who told American women that there was a special place in hell for them if they didn't vote for Killary. I'd say there was a special place in hell reserved for someone who enriches herself and her already overprivileged friends and partners stealing badly needed money from the world's very poorest.
How to tackle this corporate corruption and exploitation? Chayes and Newsinger make it clear that the corporate elites have been able to get away with this because of the massive transfer of wealth and power away from the working class. The book describes how the corruption of the American Gilded Age of the 19th century was successfully fought and broken by a militant and powerful working class. Newsinger's review concludes
Chayes celebrates struggle through to the great class battles of the 1930s. She clearly recognises that the kleptocracy that is swallowing the world will only be beaten back if there is a shift in the balance of class forces; and will require, needs to be based on, struggle in the
workplace. What is needed, therefore, is the revival of a militant labour movement. And this is absolutely urgent because 'the Midas disease' threatens environmental catastrophe on an unprecedented scale. (pp. 283-284) She has come a long way since Afghanistan.
How this can be done with corporatist like Biden in charge of the Democrat party and the country, and the nullity Keir Starmer as head of the Labour party, remains a very good question. But this book review, and the light it sheds on the military-industrial complex in America and its looting of the Third World, is particularly relevant now that we have Biden and the other G7 leaders meeting in Cornwall.
If you want to read it, the reviews at: Everybody Knows (Book Review) (Summer 2021) (lobster-magazine.co.uk)
Tags:Armed Forces, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Cambridge Analytica, Corporatism, Debt, Democrat Party, Developing World, Donald Trump, Frontier Services Group, Goldman Sachs, Hamid Karzai, Hillary Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein, JLobster, Joe Biden, John Newsinger, Keir Starmer, Koch Brothers, Madeline Albright, Mercenaries, Mining, Mitch McConnell, Pollution, Republican Party, Rishi Sunak, Rusal, Sarah Chayes, Steel Industry, Steve Mnuchin, Women, Working Class
Posted in Afghanistan, Africa, Banks, Democracy, Education, Electricity, Environment, Factories, Health Service, History, Industry, LIterature, Politics, Poverty, Russia, Water, Welfare Benefits | 2 Comments »
Is the End of Debtfare Forced Labour?
In his chapter 'The Violence of the Debtfare State' in Vickie Cooper and David Whyte, eds., The Violence of Austerity (London: Pluto Press 2017), David Ellis uses the term 'debtfare' to describe the dismantling of state welfare provision and its replacement by debt and credit. And I'm starting to wonder how far this can go before something like debt slavery arises. The Romans abolished debt slavery, but the punishment for debt was addictio, forced labour. People are being forced into mountains of debt through poverty created by austerity and the removal of living wages and proper unemployment and disability benefits. Students are also mired in it through tuition fees which now may amount to tens of thousands of pounds.
I am therefore left wondering at what point the various banks and other organisations offering credit will stop it and start demanding their money back or some other form of repayment. Clearly if people remain in debt, they can't repay the money. The alternatives seem to be either that the banks keep on giving them credit in the hope that they'll be able to repay something, or else write it off as a loss. But if the number of people in irrecoverable debt hits millions, what happens? If the levels of indebtedness actually starts to harm the banks and the other organisations, will they turn to the state to demand some kind of forced labour in order to make good their profits?
I've already pointed out the similarity of the workfare schemes to the forced labour systems of Stalin's Russia. Stalin used slave labour from the gulags to industrialise the Soviet Union. Business managers would give the KGB lists of the kind of workers their enterprise needed, and the KGB would then have those with the appropriate skills and qualifications accused of anti-Soviet crimes and arrested. The workfare scheme now used to punish the unemployed doesn't teach anybody any new skills, nor does it allow them to find employment. Indeed the stats a while ago showed that people on workfare were less likely to get a job than if they were left to their own initiative. But workfare does supply cheap, state-subsidised labour to the scheme's backers and the parties' business donors, like the supermarkets.
So if the number of people in grievous, irrecoverable debt, will the government simply write them off and let them starve to death, as so many disabled people have done already thanks to false assessments under the Work Capability Tests? Or will they decide they can still make some money for business by pressing them into compulsory labour in order to work their way out of it, as in the Roman system?
I'm not saying this will happen or even that it's likely. But I do wonder if it's a possibility.
Tags:'The Violence of the Debtfare State', 'The Violence of Austerity', Businesses, Corporate Donors, David Ellis, David Whyte, Debt, Forced Labour, Gulags, KGB, Managers, Roman Empire, Soviet Union, stalin, Starvation, Students, Tuition Fees, Vickie Cooper, Workfare
Posted in Banks, communism, Disability, Education, History, Industry, LIterature, Persecution, Politics, Poverty, Rome, Russia, Slavery, Unemployment, Wages, Welfare Benefits, Working Conditions | 2 Comments »
'Financial Times' Review of Book on Real, Modern Slavery
This is another old clipping I've kept in my scrapbooks from the Financial Times, from May 29/30th 1999. It's a review by their columnist, Ben Rogers, 'Forced into human bondage', of Kevin Bales' Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. This is another book that the former Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol had in its library. It's an excellent book, but obviously very, very grim reading in its truly harrowing accounts of the brutality meted out to real, enslaved people across the world. I'm posting the review here because, while Britain and America are re-evaluating the legacy of slavery following the Black Lives Matter protests, real slavery and its horrors still exist around the world and I am afraid that this is being overshadowed by the debates over historic European slavery.
Rogers begins his review with the subtitled 'Slavery today may be illegal, but it is still rife'. The review then goes on
It is tempting to think of slavery as a thing of the past. Its legacy lives on, disfiguring relations between Black and Whites everywhere, but surely the practice itself has gone?
This sober, well-researched, pioneering study shows that this, alas, is far from the case. Bales, an American social scientist who teaches in London at the Roehampton Institute, is careful to distinguish slavery from other forms of exploitation: the Pakistani child labourer, the Burmese agricultural worker, although paid a subsistence wage, are not necessarily slaves. Nevertheless, he argues that there are still, on a conservative estimate, perhaps 27m slaves in the world today – a population greater than that of Canada.
Most are located in the Indian subcontinent where they work as bonded labourers, but they exist in almost every country in the world. Paris harbours as many as 3,000 household slaves, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arab states many more. In the Dominican Republic, enslaved Haitians harvest the sugar that we eat. In Brazil, child prostitutes are forced to service the miners of the metals we use.
Of course, modern slavery is different from the old variety practised in ancient Athens or the American South. But in certain respects, Bales persuasively argues, the new variety is worse. In the traditional version, slave holders owned their slaves, who were almost always of a different race or religion from their masters; slaves were relatively expensive "capital" goods and usually kept up for life. Nowadays legal ownership is outlawed in every country of the world (Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, after all, states that "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude"), so modern slavery is disguised and "ownership" is replaced by manipulative debt bondage or fictive long-term "contracts". Modern slaves tend to be taken from the same ethnic group as their holders and, because they are cheap, they are often used for only months or a few years before being discarded. Another difference is the size of the profit slaves produce. Agricultural bonded labourers in India generate not 5 per cent, as did slaves in the American South, but over 50 per cent profit per year for the slave holder; a Thai brothel owner can make 800 per cent on a new teenage girl.
To illustrate the nature of the new slavery, Bales has travelled around the world to investigate five cases in detail (often at some risk to himself): that of an enslaved prostitute in Ubon Ratchitani, Thailand; a water carrier in Mauritania; charcoal burners in the camps in Matto Grosso do Sul, Brazil; brickmakers in the Punjab, Pakistan; and bonded agricultural labourers in Uttar Pradesh, India.
The cases varied in significant ways. Ironically the one that most resembles old-style slavery – that of the water carrier from Mauritania – proves perhaps to be the least vicious. Slavery in Mauritania represents a lightly disguised continuation of a centuries-old practice; there slaves are kept for life and many slave families have been working for the same masters for generations. The cruellest example, by contrast, is provided by "Siri" the Thai prostitute, who was sold into slavery by her parents aged 14. Her debts to her owners are manipulate to ensure that she will continue to work until she is too tired or ill to be profitable.
Despite the differences, however, two continuities run through all the cases Bales so graphically describes. In every case the worker is tricked or forced into bondage; in every case he or she is provided with the barest means of subsistence and sometimes not even that. In the charcoal camps of Brazil the men are often denied medication and left to die – on the principle that it is cheaper to acquire a new worker than repair an old one.
The western world has been slow to recognise the problem of the new slavery – in part because it is carefully disguised. The slave holders hide it from their government, governments hide it from the international community. The result is that, unlike, say, torture or censorship, slavery has yet to become a major human rights issue. The main international organisation dedicated to the abolition of slavery, Anti-Slavery International, has only 6,000 members. And without grass roots pressure, the World Bank, IMF and national governments are not inclined to show much concern.
"What country," as Bales asks, "has been sanctioned by the UN for slavery? Where are the UN inspection teams charged with searching out slave labour? Who speaks for the slaves in the International Court of Justice? Governments and business are more likely to suffer international penalties today for counterfeiting a Michael Jackson CD than for using slaves."
Modern slaves face the same conditions as the poor of the third world – they are the victims of industrialisation, population explosion and government corruption. Where labour is abundant, wages low, bribery rife, workers often face a stark choice between enslavement and starvation. Slavery, however, calls for its own particular solutions. Bales shows how strict enforcement of existing laws combined with programmes aimed at enabling slaves to set up on their own, have had some effect in diminishing debt bondage in northern India – although, as he reminds us, unless steps are taken slavery is set to grow.
Incredibly, Bales' study is about the first to explore slavery in its modern international guise. The picture it offers remains patchy, given the limited resources at Bales' disposal. He makes much of the west's role in aiding and abetting slavery, yet most of the cases he studies belongs to local economies. This remains, however, a convincing and moving book. One can only hope that it will draw some attention to the terrible phenomenon it describes.
Although this was written 21 years ago, I've no doubt that it's still acutely relevant and the situation has got worse. Since then there have been a series of scandals involving the enslavement of migrant workers in Britain and eastern European women trafficked into sex slavery. And, as the book Falling Off the Edge, shows very clearly, poverty around the world and the consequent exploitation of the poor has got much worse due to neoliberalism and globalisation. One of the programmes due to be shown on the Beeb – but I can't remember whether it's on TV or radio – is an examination of global terrorism. One of the groups looked at are Maoist terrorists in India. They're a horrifically violent outfit, but they're the result, according to Falling Off the Edge, of the horrific poverty and exploitation foisted upon the agricultural workers of central India.
And then there's the increasing poverty and mounting debts of the British poor, thanks to Thatcherite welfare cuts, wage freezes and the replacement of loans for welfare payments and services. I wonder how long before this morphs into something very much like debt bondage over here.
Tags:'Black Lives Matter', 'Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy', 'Falling Off the Edge', Anti-Slavery International, Ben Rogers, Burma, Children, Debt, Financial Times, Globalisation, Human Rights, Immigrants, International Court of Justice, Kevin Bales, Kuwait, Maoism, Matto Grosso do Sul, Mining, Neoliberalism, Prostitution, Punjab, Ubon Ratchitani, Uttar Pradesh, Weflare Cuts, Women
Posted in Africa, Agriculture, America, Arabs, Banks, Brazil, Canada, Charity, communism, Crime, Economics, Education, France, History, India, Industry, Justice, Law, LIterature, Mauretania, Medicine, Music, Pakistan, Persecution, Politics, Popular Music, Poverty, Radio, Saudi Arabia, Slavery, Television, Terrorism, The Press, United Nations, Wages, Welfare Benefits | 1 Comment »
Furious! Tories Include NHS in Secret Trade Deal with Trump
I'm afraid it's taken me a few days to get round to this story, but it's partly because this whole, shabby deal has made me so enraged. Mike put up a piece a few days ago reporting that the Tories have lied to us. Despite their fervent denials, they have put the NHS on the table to Donald Trump. This means the privatisation of the NHS as a whole comes that bit closer, and medicines are going to be more expensive. Because what Trump's donors in big pharma really hate is a big state machine demanding value for money and affordable drugs. Some of us still remember the moan of one of these company heads when he took over the firm making the anti-AIDS drugs. He immediately raised the price to exorbitant amounts as he didn't want to make them for poor Indians. I think his name was Martin Shkreli, and he was torn to shreds for his disgusting attitude on social media. But the attitude against supplying cheap drugs is still there.
Mike in his article pointed out how the Tories lied to us. Jeremy Corbyn told the public the truth. He presented the evidence, but was shouted down by the paid liars of corporate media, who carried on smearing him and his followers as anti-Semites. As Mike showed, one of those claiming that the NHS was not going to be included in the deal was Laura Kuenssberg. She claimed it would be far too unpopular. Well, it would be if more people knew about it, I suppose. But it's been kept off the front page so far by the scandal about Russian interference, so I'm guessing that the Tories hope that their grubby deal has been successfully buried.
Mike also pointed out in his article that the Tories have a proprietorial attitude towards the Health Service. It isn't ours, it's theirs, and they can, in their view, do what the devil they like with it. There's so much truth in this. When David Cameron was busy preparing the dismemberment of the NHS eight years ago with his disgusting Health and Social Care bill, there was a meme showing just how many Tory and other MPs were connected to private healthcare companies, or companies supplying the NHS, that would stand to profit from the deal. And there was no shortage of them – over 100. This is all for the profit of Dodgy Dave, Bozo and their friends and donors in private healthcare.
It also shows how little libertarian internet personality Sargon of Gasbag really knows about free market capitalism as it really exists, as opposed to the idealised version he's taken over from the panting disciples of von Hayek, Mises and Milton Friedman. When the possibility that the Tories would include it in the deal with Trump first broke, the Sage of Swindon put up a piece on YouTube denying that such a deal would be made. This was because no private businessman would want it.
Sargon obviously hasn't been paying attention for the past couple of decades. Because ever since John Major's time American companies have been desperate to get their claws into Britain's NHS. It began with the private healthcare insurance fraudsters Unum, who advised Major's health secretary, Peter Lilley. And when Major lost the 1997 election to Blair, Unum simply moved in there. Along with other American companies. Blair even decided he wanted to remodel the commissioning system of the NHS on American private healthcare company Kaiserpermanente, because he thought mistakenly they were able to provide better value for money.
The Tories and the media lied to the British public. As Mike states in his article, the Tories are inveterate liars. But they succeeded in getting the British public to believe them, handing them an 80 seat majority. Because Boris was going 'to get Brexit done'. And Brexit would be absolutely wonderful, we'd be able to have all these wonderful trade deals made on our terms without the interference of the EU. And we wouldn't have to worry about all the nasty bureaucracy we'd need to travel to or trade with the Continent, because all that was just lies dreamed up by Project Fear.
That was also a lie, as Zelo Street has also shown in his articles about it. No-one is queuing up to trade with us on our terms. The Japanese have made it very clear that any deal they make with us will be very much on theirs. And I have no doubt Donald Trump has made the same point. Outside the great trading block of the EU, we are very weak and vulnerable. The Tories need Trump's trade deal, and so it was almost inevitable that despite their weasely denials, they'd fold and give into him.
Not that selling off the NHS isn't something they haven't wanted to do since Margaret Thatcher planned on doing it in the 1980s. Or when a section of the Tories in 1948 refused to back the NHS as it was too expensive, and then returned in the 1950s to demand its denationalisation.
If this deal goes through, it will bring even closer the Tories' dream of replacing the NHS with a private healthcare system, funded through private health insurance. Where if you don't have the cash, you try getting your treatment from medicare or the charity hospital. Something like 20 per cent of Americans can't afford their health insurance. As Mike says, 3/4 of all bankruptcies in the US come from Americans unable to pay their medical bills.
It will mean a return to the terrible, deeply unequal provision of medical care that existed before Labour's foundation of the NHS in 1948. When millions of working people couldn't afford the doctor. And what is also boiling my blood is that Nandy and Starmer are complicit in this privatisation. Blair would also liked to have privatised the NHS, although I think he would still have kept it funded by the state. But Nandy revealed on the Andrew Marr show that she and Starmer would also have kept the NHS' inclusion in Trump's trade talks secret as well.
British working men and women are being sold into grinding poverty, debt, despair, starvation, illness and death for the corporate profit of a Thatcherite political and media class. Mike in his piece comments about how generous the Beeb and newspaper hacks, who stand by when deals like this are being made and dutifully keep their keyboards and mouths shut, or hail it as a success in bringing more private investment into the NHS, are rewarded with personal private healthcare cover for themselves.
Because you can bet that they have. Just as Tory bigwigs have connections to the big private healthcare firms slavering to buy up the NHS.
Here's how the Tories reneged on their promises to protect 'our' NHS
https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2020/07/brexit-ball-and-chain-exposed.html
https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2020/07/brexiteers-meet-project-reality.html
Tags:AIDS, Andrew Marr Show, BBC, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Capitalism, Conservatives, Corporate Donors, David Cameron, Deaths, Debt, Drugs, Free Market, Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer, Labour Party, Laura Kuenssberg, Lisa Nanday, Margaret Thatcher, Martin Shkreli, Milton Friedman, NHS, NHS Privatisation, Private Health Insurance, Private Healthcare Companies, Sargon of Akkad, Starvation, tony blair, Trade, Von Hayek, Von Mises, Vox Political, Zelo Street
Posted in America, Charity, Economics, European Union, Health Service, History, Hospitals, Industry, Japan, Libertarianism, Medicine, Politics, Poverty, Radio, Television, The Press | 1 Comment »
Despite the Lockdown, Tories Still Enforcing Benefit Sanctions
Mike put this story up only a few a hours ago, and its disgusting. According to the DWP, their promise that there would not be any sanctions for three months during the Coronavirus emergency only meant that there wouldn't be any new sanctions. If you're already sanctioned, tough – those sanctions are still very much in place.
A young man in his early 20s, Ben, found this out the hard way according to the Mirror. He had been sanctioned earlier this year because he had not found work. He believed, however, the freeze would be lifted during the crisis, like the payment holiday for homeowners and the payments made to support employees furloughed. But this didn't happen. After waiting a week to go shopping, he received a statement from the DWP's online portal last Thursday that his family were entitled to a big, fat, round zero. He was directed to take out a hardship loan instead, which he would have to pay back if and when he was given benefit. Mike's of the opinion that it's the Tories' plan to force him, and those like him, further into debt and hardship.
The DWP then issued its clarification to the Mirror, which stated that sanctions imposed before the freeze still continue to apply. As Mike points out, this means that people, who were led to believe that they would be helped in during the crisis, are left to fend for themselves with no money. And it's especially harsh on the disabled, who may find it difficult coping with sanctions normally.
Fortunately, it has worked out well for Ben, as after the Mirror took up his case, the DWP reinstated his payments and gave him £1,600.
Benefit sanctions have NOT been suspended – as Universal Credit claimant found out the hard way
The Tories began replacing benefits with loans a long time ago. I think it began under John Major, when they set up the Social Fund in the DHSS as it then was. The previous system, I believe, included a series of grants that could be made to the unemployed to purchase necessities that they couldn't afford. This was replaced by a system of loans. Some of those loans were to give claimants money to tide them over a certain period, for example if they had absolutely no money and still had to wait several days or a week for their benefit cheque. Others were for the desperately poor, who could not afford to buy certain necessities, like cookers. The system meant that those, who were already desperately poor, would be left with even less money if they were forced to take out these loans due to the repayments, which would be deducted from their benefits. Not everyone approved of the Social Fund system, and some Benefits Agency staff privately said that the previous grants system was better.
Since then, the Tories have expanded this scheme into a replacement for welfare, a policy the authors of The Violence of Austerity call 'debtfare'. There's an entire chapter on it, and how it is leaving people vulnerable to starvation and homelessness, as well as mental health problems from the stress of worrying about this danger and debt obligations.
But I think that's the point. You degrade, humiliate and impoverish the poor, following Thatcher's 'Victorian value' of less eligibility, so that they will do anything not to have to take up state aid. It also benefits the employers by giving them a cowed, fearful workforce, which will put up with poor wages, terrible conditions, few employment rights and insecure contracts, simply to avoid the humiliation and starvation inflicted by the DWP.
This crisis and the necessary lockdown have pushed many more Brits into poverty. We've already seen mass sackings, when some employers decided that rather than apply for the government's payment of 80 per cent of their employees wages during the lockdown, they'd rather sack them instead. This would have surprised no-one, who actually knew how rapacious some business people can be. It did, however, shock the Beeb's political editor, Laura Kuenssberg. This either shows how massively naive she is in some ways, with a very idealised notion of capitalism completely at odds with what it's like for many people. Or it shows just how insulated she is as part of an extremely affluent, metropolitan media set. Way back when Cameron was inhabiting 10 Downing Street, it was revealed just how many leading members of the lamestream media lived in his home village of Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds. And while 80 per cent of people's wages may sound generous, it means that those, who are paid far less than the living wage and who therefore find it a struggle to cope normally, are forced even further into poverty.
The many people made unemployed and forced to rely on jobseeker's allowance will not have magically found work by the time the lockdown is lifted. They will still be faced by the sanctions system, so there will be even more people reliant on charity and food banks, and more people forced onto the streets. Perhaps Laura Kuenssberg will be astonished by that as well. The Tories won't, as it's what they're aiming for. But they will hide it from the rest of us so people keep voting for them, deluded into believing that the ranks of the unemployed has magically come down through the invocation 'market forces' and 'personal responsibility'.
The sanctions system is an abomination. It should be ended now, not merely given a rest during this crisis.
Tags:'The Mirror', 'The Violence of Austerity', BBC, Benefit Sanctions, Capitalism, Chipping Norton, Conservatives, Coronavirus, Cotswolds, David Cameron, Debt, Debtfare, DWP, Food Banks, Homelessness, Job Insecurity, Jobseekers' Allowance, John Major, Laura Kuenssberg, Margaret Thatcher, Media, Starvation, the Disabled, Vox Political, Workers' Rights
Posted in Charity, Disability, Economics, History, Industry, LIterature, Medicine, Politics, Poverty, Radio, Television, The Press, Unemployment, Wages, Welfare Benefits, Working Conditions | Leave a Comment »
Cartoon: Borice KKKooper – Dead Babies
Hi, and welcome to another of my cartoons expressing my outrage and disgust at the Tory party and the clown, who currently leads it and, unfortunately, our great nation. I've used as the basis for these drawings SF/Horror films and pop songs. This one's based on another pop star, the Rock legend Alice Cooper. And it is to express my utter disgust at the scandalously high infant mortality rate in Britain.
Cooper became notorious in the '70s for his weird and disturbing stage act, in which he'd behead dolls and even hang himself. He said in an interview on British television some time ago that some people tried to psychoanalyse his attack, and read a bit too much into it. It was claimed that his destruction of the dolls were a metaphorical attack on babies. Cooper denied that it was any such thing. He just hated dolls. It was, he said, possibly something to do with his sister.
But one of his songs at the time was 'Dead Babies', about a mother, who neglects her child so that it dies. It has the line 'Dead babies don't need looking after', and includes the sound of a baby crying. It's a really disturbing track and I'm really not surprised that Cooper drew criticism. He's a major figure in Rock, of course, but it has also been claimed that he has also been one of the influences on Goth music through his horrific stage act and equally horrific and bleak songs.
And so it seems to me entirely appropriate to attack BoJob and his wretched party for their part in giving Britain one of the highest infant mortality rates in Europe by showing him as an Alice Cooper figure, with a hanged doll and the title of Cooper's song. As always, I want to point out that I'm not sneering at Cooper, his music or his fans. Certainly not! But I am sneering and mocking BoJob and the Tories. And the idea of Boris as any kind of pop fan, whether Rock or Punk, as I portrayed him in my last cartoon, is pretty ridiculous. Boris definitely comes across as a classical music fan. Nothing wrong with that, but I suspect that when it came to pop music he would be very much like the judge, who had to ask who the Beatles were.
And unfortunately I can very much see our infant mortality rate getting worse under Johnson. Despite the poverty and hardship inflicted on the economy and Britain's working people by the Coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown, he's still pushing ahead with his programme of A and E closures. There has been a mass sacking of workers on zero hours contracts, despite claims that this wouldn't happen. The government has promised to pay workers 80 per cent of their wages if they are unable to work because of the lockdown. But that's only if their employer agrees. And some of them, like Tim Martin, the head of Wetherspoons, don't seem to have done. Martin's apparently told his staff that they can go off and seek work at McDonald's, if they like. For those made unemployed, there's still a five-week wait for the money after they claim Universal Credit. Boris has also promised to pay the self-employed 80 per cent of their earnings. But they'll have to wait until June to get it. For many, that's going to be too long. As a result, Mike's reported that people are getting into debt for food just one week into the lockdown.
Tory cuts to the NHS are destroying people's health, and so is the mass poverty caused by austerity and now the Coronavirus crisis. This will make child poverty and poor health worse, and probably push the infant mortality rate up further, despite the best efforts of our overworked and under-resourced doctors, nurses and other medical professionals.
I am also aware that BoJob's partner is pregnant. I wish her and her baby all the best for a safe, healthy pregnancy and delivery, and that both baby and mother enjoy good health. But I want every mother and their children to have this. And that is one of the reasons why I've drawn this cartoon – because they aren't, thanks to Boris and his vile crew.
Here's the cartoon. I hope you enjoy it, and don't have nightmares!
Tags:'Borice KKKooper - Dead Babies', Alice Cooper, Beatles, Boris Johnson, Cartoons, Conservatives, Coronavirus, Debt, doctors, Food, Goth Music, Hospital Closures, Infant Mortality, McDonald's, Nurses, Punk, Rock Music, Self-Employed, Tim Martin, Universal Credit, Wetherspoons, Working Class, Zero Hours Contracts
Posted in Comics, Economics, Film, Health Service, Hospitals, Medicine, Music, Politics, Popular Music, Poverty, Science, Technology, Television, Unemployment, Wages, Welfare Benefits, Working Conditions | Leave a Comment »
Voter ID and Other Tricks to Stop the Radical Poor from Voting
Mike reported a little while ago that the Tories were going ahead with their plans to demand photographic identification of voters at polling stations before allowing people to cast their votes. This is supposedly to cut down on voting fraud, despite the fact that actual instances are so low they're negligible. Of course, the people who will find it most difficult to produce such identification will be students and the poor. Which is why the Tories are introducing it.
It's another trick they've learned from the American Republicans, who introduced similar legislation over there. It prevents the poor, students and Blacks – the demographics mostly likely to vote Democrat – from being able to vote. And such tricks to stop working class radicals and Blacks from voting have a long history in America. All the way back to the Populist movement in the 1890s. This was a left-wing movement of America's rural poor against exploitation by the great landlords. Bhaskar Sankara gives a brief description of it, and its fall, in his book The Socialist Manifesto. He writes
But ferment was growing in rural America. The Populist Movement sprang from the 1870s struggles of indebted farmers in central Texas but soon spread throughout the country. As the price of cotton collapsed and the economy entered a depression in the 1890s, the Populists fervently supported Debs during the Pullman Strike, backed many demands made by labor, and were leading tenant and sharecropper efforts against the crop-lien system. Populist leader Tom Watson challenged white and black farmers to organise across racial lines, telling a crowd, "You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system that beggars both."
In 1892, the movement formed a national political party around a progressive platform that called for a graduated income tax, nationalised railways, debt relief, and public works to combat unemployment. Planter elites responded with a campaign of electoral fraud and violence, including the lynching of hundreds of organisers, while the Democratic Party came to co-opt much of the movement's platform in 1896. After the pro-Populist Democrat William Jennings Bryant's election loss that year, the movement fell apart. Legislative efforts to disenfranchise blacks through poll taxes and biased "literacy tests" were expanded, helping prevent another multi-racial movement from emerging for decades. (pp. 163-4).
That's the tactics of the Right. Keep whites and blacks attacking each other, so that they don't unite against the system that's oppressing both, and bring in laws to disqualify Blacks and the White poor from voting. The Tories also do both. But they haven't yet started lynching members of the Labour party. So far, that's been left to the far right. Thomas Mair and his assassination of Labour MP Jo Cox. Then there are the crazed Brexiteers who screamed at Anna Soubry that she was a traitor, and who took a model gibbet to their protests outside parliament, and the Nazi, homophobic thugs who beat up Owen Jones.
Perhaps after the Tories have introduced voter ID and similar legislation, they'll bring back lynching as well. They've encouraged people to beat up the disabled already.
Tags:'The Socialist Manifesto', Anna Soubry, Assault, Bhaskar Sankara, Blacks, Brexit, Conservatives, Debt, Democrat Party, Eugene Debs, Farmers, Gays, Jo Cox, Labour Party, Lynchings, Nationalisation, Owen Jones, Planters, Populist Movement, racism, Railways, Republican Party, Strikes, Students, Tax, the Disabled, the Poor, Thomas Mair, Tom Watson, Voter Fraud, Vox Political, William Jennings Bryant
Posted in Agriculture, America, Crime, Democracy, Education, European Union, Fascism, History, Law, LIterature, Persecution, Politics, Poverty, Socialism, Trade Unions, Unemployment | Leave a Comment »
Book on Austerity as State Violence
The Violence of Austerity, Vickie Cooper and David Whyte, eds. (London: Pluto Press 2017).
Okay, I realise that this isn't the kind of book most of us would choose to read at Christmas. We'd rather have something a bit more full of seasonal good cheer. I also realise that as it published nearly three years ago in 2017, it's somewhat dated. But it, and books like it, are needed and still extremely topical now than 14 million people have been duped into electing Old Etonian Tory Boris Johnson.
I found the book in one of the many excellent secondhand bookshops in Cheltenham. I was particularly drawn to it because of its title, and the titles of the chapters it contains. It's a collection of papers describing the Tories' attack on the poor, the disabled, the marginalised, the unemployed, homeless and BAME communities, and particularly women of colour, as forms of violence. This isn't mere hyperbole. The book discusses real instances of violence by the state and its officials, as well as landlords and private corporations and individuals. Mike in his articles on the Tories' wretched benefits sanctions has argued time and again that this is a form of state violence against the disabled, and that it constitutes genocide through the sheer scale of the deaths it has caused: 130,000 at a conservative estimate. It's therefore extremely interesting that others attacking and campaigning against austerity share the same view. The blurb for the book runs
Austerity, the government's response to the aftermath of the financial crisis, continues to devastate contemporary Britain. Thius books brings together campaigners and writers including Danny Dorling, Mary O'Hara and Rizwaan Sabir to show that austerity is a form of systematic violence.
Covering notorious cases of institutional violence, including workfare, fracking and mental health scandals, the book argues that police attacks on the homeless, violent evictions in the rented sector, community violence and cuts to the regulation of the social protection are all being driven by reductions in public sector funding. The result is a shocking exposes of the ways in which austerity policies harm people in Britain.
One of the editors, Vickie Cooper, is a lecturer in Social Policy and Criminology at the Open University, while the other, David Whyte, is professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Liverpool. He is also the editor of How Corrupt Is Britain, another scathing look at the UK under the Tories.
The book's introduction by the editors is on the violence of austerity. After that it is divided into four sections, each on different aspects of austerity and its maltreatment of the poor.
Part 1, 'Deadly Welfare', contains the following chapters
Mental Health and Suicide, by Mary O'Hara
Austerity and Mortality, by Danny Dorling
Welfare Reforms and the Attack on Disabled People, by John Pring
The Violence of Workfare by Jon Burnett and David Whyte
The Multiple Forms of Violence in the Asylum System by Victoria Canning
The Degradation and Humiliation of Young People, by Emma Bond and Simon Hallsworth.
Part II, 'Poverty Amplification', has these
7. Child Maltreatment and Child Mortality, by Joanna Mack
8. Hunger and Food Poverty, by Rebecca O'Connell and Laura Hamilton
9. The Deadly Impact of Fuel Poverty, by Ruth London
10. The Violence of the Debtfare State, by David Ellis
11. Women of Colour's Anti-Austerity Activism, by Akwugo Emejulu and Leah Bassel
12. Dismantling the Irish Peace Process, by Daniel Holder
Part III, 'State Regulation', includes
13. Undoing State Protection, by Steve Tombs
14. Health and Safety at the Frontline of Austerity, by Hilda Palmer and David Whyte
15. Environmental Degradation, by Charlotte Burns and Paul Tobin
16. Fracking and State Violence, by Will Jackson, Helen Monk and Joanna Gilmore
17. Domicide, Eviction and Repossession, by Kirsteen Paton and Vickie Cooper
18. Austerity's Impact on Rough Sleeping and Violence, by Daniel McCulloch.
Part IV, 'State Control', has these chapters
19. Legalising the Violence of Austerity, by Robert Knox
20. The Failure to Protect Women in the Criminal Justice System, by Maureen Mansfield and Vickie Cooper
21. Austerity, Violence and Prisons, by Joe Sim
22. Evicting Manchester's Street Homeless, by Steven Speed
23. Policing Anti-Austerity through the 'War on Terror' by Rizwaan Sabir
24. Austerity and the Production of Hate, by Jon Burnett.
These are all subjects that left-wing blogs like Vox Political, Another Angry Voice, Pride's Purge have all covered and discussed. The last chapter, 'Austerity and the Production of Hate', is on a subject that Mike's discussed several times in Vox Political: the way the Tory press and media justifies the savage attacks on the poor and disabled through stirring up hatred against them. Mike has published several articles on the way Tory propaganda has resulted in vicious attacks on the poor, particularly the homeless.
This violence and campaign of hatred isn't going to stop after Boris' victory, and his appeal for healing after the election is just rhetoric. He doesn't want healing, he wants compliance and complacency. He doesn't deserve them, and should not be given any, because from now on he and his party will only step up the attacks.
Don't be taken in by establishment lies. Keep working to get him out!
Tags:'How Corrupt Is Britain', 'The Violence of Austerity', Akwugo Emejulu, Another Angry Voice, Asians, Asylum Seekers, Austerity, Blacks, Blogs, Boris Johnson, Charlotte Burns, Cheltenham, Children, Conservatives, Daniel Holder, Daniel McCulloch, Danny Dorling, David Ellis, David Whyte, Debt, Emma Bond, Eton, Evictions, Fracking, Fuel, General Election, HIlda Palmer, Homelessness, Joanna Mack, Joe Sim, John Pring, Jon Burnett, Kirsteen Paton, Laura Hamilton, Leah Bassel, Liverpool University, Manchester, Mary O'Hara, Maureen Mansfield, Mortality, Paul Tobin, Peace Process, Pride's Purge, Propaganda, Rebecca O'Connell, Rizwaan Sabir, Robert Knox, Ruth London, Simon Hallsworth, Starvation, Steve Tombs, Steven Speed, Suicide, the Disabled, the Poor, Vickie Cooper, Victoria Canning, Violence, Vox Political, Women, Young People
Posted in Crime, Disability, Economics, Education, Environment, Gas, Industry, Ireland, Justice, Law, LIterature, Mental Illness, OIl, Persecution, Politics, Poverty, The Press, Unemployment, Welfare Benefits | 5 Comments »
Before You Vote Tory, Think: Can You Afford £50 for Medicine? Or £50,000 for an Operation
Corbyn's factual statement that the Tories are considering selling off the NHS to the Americans clearly has got both them and Trump rattled. The Sun's headline today followed in that wretched rag's long, ignoble tradition of deceit. It denied furiously that the NHS was for sale, and that Trumped had definitively refuted it. In fact it shouted that he had 'thumped' Corbyn 'the chump'. In fact he hadn't. Zelo Street has produced a devastating refutation of its own, which demolishes the Scum's lies. It quotes Trump and his wretched UK ambassador, Woody Johnson, who both side that they wanted the NHS on the table. As well as a report from Sky, which also said they did.
The piece concludes
'Tory cheerleaders can stamp their feet and cat-call all they want. Trump has already said that the NHS would be on the table in future trade talks. No amount of propagandist knocking copy can change that. Nor can it make Bozo The Clown a competent PM.
The Murdoch mafiosi is now beyond desperate. But you knew that anyway.'
See: https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2019/12/bozo-and-trump-nhs-denial-busted.html
The Scum would lie about this, as recent biographies of Murdoch have shown that he, as well as the Tories and Trump, want the NHS privatised.
To anyone considering voting Tory anyway, I strongly advise you to think. I've friends, who have trained in medicine. And they told me the real price of what some services we so far get free or at least cheap, would cost if we had to pay for them if the NHS was privatised. Some prescription cough medicines actually cost as much as £50, or so I've heard. And an operation can cost £30-50,000. These are the kinds of prices you would expect to pay if the Tories, Trump and Murdoch have their way and privatise the NHS, following long-term plans that started with Thatcher.
The leading cause of bankruptcy in America is medical debt. About 40,000 people die every year because they cannot afford proper treatment. In Virginia, people wait overnight in their cars for that one weekend every month when dental treatment is available free. And in some areas people are so poor that they are forced to hoard medicine or get animal medicines from the vets'.
This is what you would get here, if the Tories, Trump, and their backers in private medicine, private equity firms and hedge funds get their way.
We cannot let that happen.
Vote Corbyn to keep the NHS nationalised and free from charges.
Tags:Boris Johnson, Deaths, Debt, Donald Trump, Hedge Funds, NHS, NHS Privatisation, Private Equity Firms, Private Healthcare, Private Healthcare Companies, Rupert Murdoch, Sky News, The Sun, Virginia, Woody Johnson
Posted in America, Banks, Health Service, Industry, Medicine, Politics, Television, The Press | 3 Comments »


The information contained in this application will be treated as confidential by the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce and the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, Inc. and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy! Loudoun and permitted licensees.
Step 1: Talk to your parent or guardian. You'll need permission to participate. Specific student and parent/guardian contact information is required to complete the application.
1: Why are you interested in learning about entrepreneurship?
2: If you are currently in the process of launching your own business or social movement or if you have an idea for a business or social movement, please describe.
3: What entrepreneurial story, either from the past or present, inspires you? Please describe.
Describes a situation when you demonstrated at least two of the following characteristics of successful entrepreneurs: persistence, inquisitiveness, self-confidence, tolerance for failure, creativity, innovation, initiative, competitiveness, commitment, strong management and organizational skills.
Step 5: Upload your academic transcript or report card.
Step 6: Upload a letter of recommendation from a teacher, counselor, sports coach, club advisor, church leader, a personal mentor, etc.
Have you gathered everything above? You're ready to begin!
Please make sure you have filled out all sections that have an asterisk(*) next to them.
To be considered for the YEA Class of 2020, all application materials will be due by June 14th. If needed, you will be contacted for an in-person interview.
*Please note if you are asked to be interviewed, interviews will be taking place in July of 2019. If you are unable during that month please email Program Manager, KC Repage at krepage@loudouchamber.org after you have submitted your application.
Thank you for applying to the YEA Program!
Please explain in 250 words or less why you are seeking scholarship assistants? Please state if you are enrolled in the LCPS CAMPUS program or on Free and Reduced Lunch.
Your most current transcript or report card must be submitted to be considered for YEA!. You may submit your academic transcript any time before the June 19th deadline.
1. Why are you interested in learning about entrepreneurship?
2. If you are currently in the process of launching your own business or social movement, or you have a creative and innovative idea for a business or social movement, please describe.
3. What entrepreneurial endeavor/story, either from the past or present, inspires you? Please describe.
**Please make sure you state which questions you are answering.
Please write a brief essay (between 250-500 words) on the following topic.
Successful entrepreneurs share similar characteristics such as persistence, inquisitiveness, self-confidence, tolerance for failure, creativity, innovation, personal initiative, competitiveness, commitment, and strong management and organizational skills.
Describe a situation when you demonstrated at least two of these characteristics, and the outcome.
What role do you typically play when working on a team? Describe the importance of this function in the completion of a goal/project.
Ask a teacher, guidance counselor, or community leader to write a letter of recommendation that addresses how long the recommender has known you and in what context, your academic abilities, level of maturity, social skills, commitment to the community, and other characteristics that demonstrate you are a good candidate for the program. Upload the letter below.
If my son/daughter is accepted as a student, I agree to abide by the Young Entrepreneurs Academy regulations and rules. I understand that a payment plan must be selected and a deposit received and that no deductions or refunds will be given for late cancellations or expulsion.
Furthermore, I give permission for my son/daughter to attend all functions and activities connected with YEA!, including any which may be held off campus. I hereby release the Young Entrepreneurs Academy and the officers, trustees, employees, agents, and volunteers of the aforementioned organizations for all actions, claims, or demands for damages resulting from my child's participation in the activities, and from liability and damages, injuries, or losses which might be sustained by my child, except those caused by the direct and sole negligence of the aforementioned organizations.


Branch wise list of IDBI Westsinghbhum IFSC code and MICR code in Jharkhand along with branch details.
Locate any details of IDBI Westsinghbhum branch in Jharkhand.
IFSC code: and MICR code: ; IDBI BANK address : , - Jharkhand; Branch code is , Contact Number: , IDBI BANK Timings: Monday to Friday: 10 AM to 4 PM, Saturday - 10 AM to 4 PM(Except 2nd and 4th Saturday).


Difference between revisions of "Animation"
There are a variety of rendering and image processing tools that support a wide range of visualization techniques. Tools that may be of interest include '''rt''', '''rtedge''', '''rtxray''', '''pixmatte''', and '''pixblend''' as well as a variety of other rendering and image processing tools.
If the animation you want is very simple like having an animation of something spinning, the relatively simple process is described in the [[#Fly-around animation]] section. If, however, what you want to animate is considerably more complex, there are a variety of tools that become important for setting up animation paths, managing keyframes, interpolating between frames, and previewing the animation. There are animation tools in MGED (see the '''animmate''' command for starters) as well as a variety of animation table processing tools outside of MGED.
If the animation you want is very simple like having an animation of something spinning, the relatively simple process is described in the [[#Fly-around animation]] section. If, however, what you want to animate is considerably more complex, there are a variety of tools that become important for setting up animation paths, managing keyframes, interpolating between frames, and previewing the animation. There are animation tools in MGED (see the '''animate''' command for starters) as well as a variety of animation table processing tools outside of MGED.
The question often comes up about how to make an animation in BRL-CAD. As BRL-CAD is primarily a solid modeling system for engineering and analysis purposes, there is (presently) only limited support for generating animations but it is possible with the assistance of some third-party tools. The basic method is to make your model, decide what keyframes and sequencing you want to have in your movie, render those keyframes as images, and then composite them into an animation. BRL-CAD can help will all but the last compositing step.
So basically you need to render frames for your animation and then composite them together into a movie.
There are a variety of rendering and image processing tools that support a wide range of visualization techniques. Tools that may be of interest include rt, rtedge, rtxray, pixmatte, and pixblend as well as a variety of other rendering and image processing tools.
If the animation you want is very simple like having an animation of something spinning, the relatively simple process is described in the #Fly-around animation section. If, however, what you want to animate is considerably more complex, there are a variety of tools that become important for setting up animation paths, managing keyframes, interpolating between frames, and previewing the animation. There are animation tools in MGED (see the animate command for starters) as well as a variety of animation table processing tools outside of MGED.
See Animation Techniques in BRL-CAD.
This renders 36 images of the object top_level_object from a geometry database that was named database.g, creating images every 10 degrees (azimuth) at an elevation of 35 degrees. The images are named image000.png through image350.png.
The third line calls rt to render an image. The -a option sets the azimuth value and the -e option sets the elevation value. The -w and -n options set the width and height of the image respectively. The -o option specifies the filename for the output image that is generated. Finally, there is the name of the database to read from and the name of the object in that database that we want to render. The object is automatically centered in the view.Please make sure that the commands loop and rt are in the your search PATH using the linux export command.
Once you run the script and have generated your image frames, you're done with BRL-CAD. The next step is to take those image frames that were rendered and provide them as input to any number of tools that will generate a movie for you.
For more control of the animation, the MJPEG project is another toolset that may help. See this tutorial for example steps.
Open iPhoto and import the images (File->Import).
To create the movie, select all of the images, and then choose File->Export. Since they are numbered sequentially with padded zeros, they should already be in order.
Select the "QuickTime" tab. You may wish to un-check the "Add currently selected music to movie" button. Now click the Export button.
Type a filename and click "Save".
That's it. At this point you should have a quicktime movie of your geometry.
then you get a smooth animation of your geometry.


text:
Pedigree Updates for the August Yearling Sale
The 2016 OBS August Yearling Sale is begins Tuesday , and although the catalog was printed in July, timely pedigree updates are just a click away via the sale's Sortable Master Index on the OBS website at obssales.com. Up to the minute pedigree updates are also available to iPad users via the Equineline Sales Catalog iPad App. The Sortable Master Index also contains links to conformation photos of the horses in the Selected Yearling Sale.
There are 1047 yearlings cataloged for the three-day sale, which gets underway at 10:30 a.m. with 274 horses offered in the Selected session. The Sale continues with two Open sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, August 24th and 25th. Hip No.'s 275 – 660 will be sold Wednesday; Hip No.'s 661- 1047 sell on Thursday. Both Open sessions also start at 10:30 a.m. All three session will be streamed live via the OBS website as well as the DRF and BloodHorse websites.
Several of the horses in the sale have precocious 2-year-old siblings that have broken their maidens as well as black type updates since the catalog went to press. Here are some of the highlights of the pedigree updates through Friday, August 19th.
Nathan's Tizzy, by Tiz the One, broke his maiden in Special Weight company at Louisiana Downs on August 12th. He's a half brother to Hip No. 218, a filly by The Factor out of stakes winner Coteau Kitten, consigned by Select Sales, Agent.
Hip No. 235, consigned by Bill Murphy, Agent, is a Street Boss filly out of stakes placed Donna D, by Dixie Union. Yes Mon, her half brother by Yes It's True, scored by 2-1/2 lengths at first asking in Special Weight company at Presque Isle Downs on June 20th.
Callie California, a 2-year-old filly by High Cotton, romped to victory by 8-1/2 lengths in a Special Weight test at Gulfstream on July 17th. She's a half sister to Hip No. 340, Gracias Adios, an Adios Charlie filly consigned by Hidden Brook, Agent.
Hip No. 359, consigned by T-Square Stud LLC, Agent, is a half sister to stakes placed Dear Lilly by Poseidon's Warrior. Her half brother by Repent, Glory Stars, scored by 6-1/4 lengths in a Maiden Special at Parx on July 24th.
Elle Va, a 2-year-old daughter of Biondetti, won at first asking in Special Weight company at Parx on August 7th. She's a half sister to Hip No. 362, a With Distinction filly, a half sister to stakes placed Miss Hatter, consigned by Sharon Biamonte , Agent.
Hip No. 482, a colt by Soldat consigned by Kaizen Sales (Richard Kent), Agent, is a half brother to Evvamene, by Kantharos, a four length winner of a Gulfstream Special Weight test on July 15th.
Hip No 490, Jalen Journey, a colt by With Distinction consigned by Kim Harrison (Top Speed Farm), Agent, is a half brother to Derek Adrian, by In Summation, a winner of all three of his starts in Puerto Rico by a combined 36 lengths.
Awesome Drama, a winner at first asking in a Presque Isle Special Weight test on July 14th, is a full sister to Hip No. 795, a filly by Big Drama out of Awesome Thrill, by Awesome Again, consigned by Top Line Sales LLC, Agent
Hip No. 877, Custom Infinity, a Custom for Carlos colt consigned by Tom McCrocklin, Agent, is a full brother to Made to Fit, a Maiden Special winner at Presque Isle on August 15th.
Hip No. 38, a colt by Congrats out of Montera, by Easy Goer, is consigned by Watershed Bloodstock LLC. A half brother to two graded stakes winners, his graded stakes placed half sister Conquest Curlgirl added a third place finish in the Mari Hulman George Stakes at Indiana Downs to her resume on July 16th, increasing her earnings to $171,375.
Hip No. 66, consigned by Select Sales, Agent. is a Stormy Atlantic colt out of Pleasant Quality, by Elusive Quality. Noholdingback Bear, his graded stakes placed stakes winning half brother by Put It Back, was second in Woodbine's Bold Venture Stakes (G3) on July 23rd.
Hip No. 68, consigned by Chapel Hill Bloodstock, is a colt by Tale of Ekati out of grade one winner Poseida (CHI). Adian, his half sister by Dixieland Band, is the dam of graded stakes placed stakes winner Flora Dora, third on July 24th in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) at Saratoga.
Hip No. 91, a colt by Liaison consigned by Summerfield (Francis & Barbara Vanlangendonck), Agent, added another stakes placed half sister to his pedigree when 2-year-old Easy Money, by Into Mischief, was third in the White Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware Park on August 3rd.
Graded stakes placed stakes winning OBS April graduate You Bought Her was third in Arlington's Chicago Handicap (G3) on June 25th. She's a half sister to Hip No. 128, a Wildcat Heir colt out of Striking T. by Smart Strike, consigned by Sue Vacek, Agent.
Hip No. 206, consigned by Sequel New York, Agent, is a Mission Impazible filly out of graded stakes winner Chimichurri, by Elusive Quality. Her half sister, Loving Vindication, is the dam of graded stakes placed stakes winner Solemn Tribute, by Medaglia d'Oro, who added a third place finish in Woodbine's King Edward Stakes (G2) to his resume on July 2nd.
Hip No. 244, consigned by Woodford Thoroughbreds, Agent, is a colt by Elusive Quality out of graded stakes winner Euphony, by Forest Wildcat. OBS April graduate Tequila Joe, a half brother to Euphony, was third in the American Derby (G3) at Arlington Park on July 9th.
Hip No. 385 is a Special Rate filly out of Margarita Mistress consigned by Stoneview Farm, Agent. Her half brother, stakes winner Texas Chrome, has been busy since the catalog went to press, winning the Prelude Stakes on August 6th at Louisiana Downs after a third in Churchill's Matt Winn (G3) on June 18th and a second in the Iowa Derby (G3) on July 1st.
Stakes winner Miss Matzoball, by Smoke Glacken, is a half sister to Citizen Matzo, Hip No. 409, a Proud Citizen filly consigned by Summerfield (Francis & Barbara Vanlangendonck), Agent. Miss Matzoball improved her record on July 31st at Saratoga with a third place finish in the Caress Stakes.
Hip No. 412, also consigned by Summerfield, is a full brother to graded stakes winning two-time OBS graduate Mr. Jordan, out of Miss Skeedt, by Cloud Hopping. Mr. Jordan has recently been on the board in a pair of graded stakes at Monmouth, running third in the Salvator Mile (G3) on July 2nd and the Monmouth Cup Stakes (G3) on July 31st. He has now earned $363,095 to date.
Posted to Headlines.


Red Rock Canyon was designated as Nevada's first National Conservation Area. Red Rock Canyon is located 17 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip on Charleston Boulevard/State Route 159. The area is 195,819 acres and is visited by more than one million people each year. In marked contrast to a town geared to entertainment and gaming, Red Rock Canyon offers enticements of a different nature including a 13-mile scenic drive, more than 30 miles of hiking trails, rock climbing, horseback riding, mountain biking, road biking, picnic areas, nature observing and visitor center with exhibit rooms and a book store.
The unique geologic features, plants and animals of Red Rock Canyon NCA represent some of the best examples of the Mojave Desert. In 1990, special legislation supported by the Nevada congressional delegation, changed the status of the Red Rock Recreation Lands to a National Conservation Area (NCA), the seventh to be designated nationally. This legislation provides the funding to protect and improve the area. Red Rock Canyon NCA is enjoyed by the local population as well as visitors from the United States and many foreign countries. One million visitors each year enjoy the spectacular desert landscape, climbing and hiking opportunities, and interpretive programs sponsored by the BLM.
The BLM is the largest administrator of public lands in the West. It adheres to the policy of multiple use, thereby providing recreational opportunities, protection for cultural sites, and the management of natural resources, including wildlife.
From Sunset Cities.com: Oak Creek is a hiking trail located about 2.5 miles south of the Red Rock Canyon Visitors Center on SR 159. Note, this trail is accessible from the Scenic Drive also. This hike is slightly longer and also takes you into Oak Creek Canyon. It's a great trail for hiking, horseback riding and photography. The hike is about 4 miles long, fairly level most of the way, with a limited amount of steep grades. It takes you from the Desert Scrub ecological zone to the Pinion Juniper zone. The contrast is interesting.
As you walk up the trail, you can actually see the environment change. On an average weekend you might meet 6 to 10 people along this trail. It takes you to the base of Mount Wilson, then Oak Creek Canyon and then Rainbow Mountain.
Oak Creek is a good example of the type of stream found in the Great Basin. It is snow fed and starts deep within the canyon. As it makes its way to lower elevations, it waters a variety of environments and sustains numerous plant and animal communities. Eventually it disappears into the desert becoming part of the subterranean water table.
If your interest is photography, bring a lot of film. There are countless photo opportunities on this trail. Outstanding vistas, both to the north and to the south, the sheer cliff face of Mount Wilson, the jagged cliffs of Rainbow Mountain, the twisted forms of the Juniper trees, Oak Creek and Oak Creek Canyon. Even the rocks along the trail are worth the attention of your camera.