this is my blog about faith, hope, and love, love of friends and family, hope in the future, and faith in making each day a better day then the one before, in spite of pain, heartbreak, and death

fuck

fuck

fuck this old year 2003

i was a boyscout and a jesus freak, and my life was perfect for 18 years, then the next 30 years was pure hell, and now i am in a constant hell full of pain
sculpting to save my sanity, i have no one and nothing



i give my first 18 years to god and to the southern baptist, i go to stetson to become a minister, they tellme i cant because i am gay, i fall in love and my heart gets broken, i do not get a good job with the soc dept, a doctotrate gets the job, i end up wipping asses of retarded kids, i get a job at the deland museum, i am into drugs, broken heart, and lost my way, i end up moving back to daytona and live with my grandmother, i am stuck with evil randy brewer, who takes advantage of me for many many years, i get hurt at ajob, and am in pain for over ten years, i leave randy and move in with mom, i get well and get a good job, only to have it all fall apart when medicare changes its rules and i cant bill for kids with conduct disorders anymore, and they turn me into a case manager so they dont have to fire me so i cant get unemployment, it starts an awful trend, where i am pitted against things, bosses, conditions, injuries that are all out of my control, and i end up here in dunedin, dependent on my old lover, my family , aunt and uncle, dont care about me at all, i have no money and no way to even pay doctor bills and pain pills, and i start sculpting after 40 years, what has happened to my life?




i was one of their best counselor, bringing in money because i was a high biller, they fired most of us, but for me they turned me into a case manager and shipped me off to deland, twenty miles away, and gave me a case load around deltona, where i had to drive over fifty miles each day, and in the end, i messed up my billing, because i hated case managers and hated being a case manager, so in the end they fired me, or forced me to resign, so i couldnt get unemployment, what a bunch of shit, i had just moved into my own apartment, had a car payment, and had to move to tampa while taking prozac for pain in my prostate, my new pain doctor wouldnt give me vicoden, as i had been on that for a year for pain, so off i want to tampa, and fucked that up with my sister, and my mother, and got a job, then got another job doing hiv case management, my friend my boss gets fired and dies from cancer, i go into a deep depression, when ends my relationship with james griffin, i loss another job as an hiv case manager with gulf coast commuity care, i get another job family counseling, they go bankrupt, i lost james, i loss my apartment in feather sound, i get addicted to x, i lost james and move to fort lauderdale with no money, i escort for seven months, get off of drugs and quit escorting, i get a job, they go bankrupt at the wilton manor therather, i work for two millionaries for a month, they play games, i say no to sex with them, they fire me, i get a job at kids in distress, i get hurt, i lost my job there, i have to move back to the tampa bay area back with james griffin, my back and knees get worse, my doctor tells me to apply for disability, what the fuck has happened to my life???

i was one of their best counselor, bringing in money because i was a high biller, they fired most of us, but for me they turned me into a case manager and shipped me off to deland, twenty miles away, and gave me a case load around deltona, where i had to drive over fifty miles each day, and in the end, i messed up my billing, because i hated case managers and hated being a case manager, so in the end they fired me, or forced me to resign, so i couldnt get unemployment, what a bunch of shit, i had just moved into my own apartment, had a car payment, and had to move to tampa while taking prozac for pain in my prostate, my new pain doctor wouldnt give me vicoden, as i had been on that for a year for pain, so off i want to tampa, and fucked that up with my sister, and my mother, and got a job, then got another job doing hiv case management, my friend my boss gets fired and dies from cancer, i go into a deep depression, when ends my relationship with james griffin, i loss another job as an hiv case manager with gulf coast commuity care, i get another job family counseling, they go bankrupt, i lost james, i loss my apartment in feather sound, i get addicted to x, i lost james and move to fort lauderdale with no money, i escort for seven months, get off of drugs and quit escorting, i get a job, they go bankrupt at the wilton manor therather, i work for two millionaries for a month, they play games, i say no to sex with them, they fire me, i get a job at kids in distress, i get hurt, i lost my job there, i have to move back to the tampa bay area back with james griffin, my back and knees get worse, my doctor tells me to apply for disability, what the fuck has happened to my life???

Big agribusiness disease
Geov Parrish - WorkingForChange.com

12.30.03 - The confirmation last week of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) -- mad cow disease -- in a dairy cow outside the town of Mabton in Central Washington has sent the US beef industry into a tailspin. Industry spokespeople and the USDA have scrambled to reassure consumers that the country’s beef is safe and that the chances are extremely low of any humans contracting the debilitating and fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD, the human form of spongiform encephalopathy). Nonetheless, so far at least 28 countries have suspended the import of US beef, and the public remains skeptical.

As we should. It’s true that the chances of contracting CJD are remote at this point -- but its discovery in the US, 15 years after a mad cow epidemic ravaged Britain, is an indicator of much deeper problems.

The Mabton cow came from a large, mechanized operation, with 4,100 cows. It’s a far cry from the family dairy farms of old, which for simple logistical reasons couldn’t support more than a couple dozen head. My colleague at Eat the State!, Maria Tomchick, grew up on a family-owned dairy farm a quarter century ago; she ticks off the differences that come with a large, mechanized operation, of the sort big agribusiness now routinely runs.

In 2002, there were some 96 million cattle living in America, virtually the same number as in 1960 -- but on only half as many farms. Maria’s parents sold their farm 20 years ago. Once there were nearly 10 million farms in a country of only 100 million; today, with 300 million people, there are only about 2 million farms. Mechanization has made the farms larger even as it has helped depopulate rural America.

It almost goes without saying that this sort of factory farming is cruel to the animals, and leaves animals far more prone to disease. The machines themselves can be vectors of cross-contamination, both when dairy cows are alive (milking) and when any type of cow is being rendered. It also means the cows aren’t individual animals -- they’re cogs in a machine, milked and slaughtered on an exact schedule. A dairy cow, in years back, usually lived 15 or so years on a farm; now, they’re slaughtered for meat at age four, sooner if they’re sick or a “downer” cow -- a cow that cannot stand or walk easily on its own due to disease or injury.

The initial symptoms of BSE only emerge, and are testable, four or five years after contamination. Many of the cows that wind up in our nation’s food supply are slaughtered before any symptoms of BSE could appear. There could easily be any number of past instances of contaminated meat making its way to food distributors -- as happened last week before the Mabton cow’s test results came in and a recall was issued.

If that’s not scary enough, consider what happens to “downer” cows. Their meat does not go into the human food supply -- but the diseases that felled them can. The cows’ meat is instead mixed in with grain (for extra protein) and fed to chickens, on the reasoning that viruses, bacteria, and the prions that carry BSE don’t affect chickens’ digestive systems. Assuming that’s true, it goes straight through the birds instead -- into their manure, which is then used by many organic farming operations as a fertilizer. Remember that, vegetarians, and vegans, the next time you eat carrots or potatoes without peeling them.

Regulators are having a hard time figuring out where, exactly, the Mabton cow came from in its life’s journey. It had apparently been born in Canada, sold several times, and lived in multiple states. In all likelihood it contracted BSE as a calf -- perhaps through the use of artificial milk, given to factory calves because it’s cheaper (and because mom is long gone). The fake milk is protein-enriched through being sprayed with freeze-dried cow blood. Beyond the cow-cannibalism, that’s also a great disease vector. The prions that spread BSE are impervious to freezing or high heat.

None of these reckless (and, to the animals, unbelievably cruel) big agribusiness practices would be possible were we Americans not, by and large, profoundly ignorant as to where our food comes from. Similarly, contamination of all sorts in our nation’s food supply has become far, far more likely in recent years through the systematic relaxation and dismantling of food safety regulations and inspections. Budgets for federal food safety enforcement have been gutted; leadership posts have gone to figures closely tied to the industries they’re supposedly regulating; compliance now frequently relies on industry’s self-policing. For the worst corporate violators, the ones actually inspected and found to be egregiously violating food safety laws, the penalties are slaps on the wrist. Many large operations consider such fines a cost of doing business, a pittance compared to the money they save through mistreatment of the animals, fouling of the environment, and careless handling of the meat.

These issues are hardly confined to cattle -- industrial pig farming has become notorious for its noxiousness -- or to meat. The use of antibiotics on farm animals, pesticides on crops, and genetic engineering on anything agribusiness can figure out how to “improve” all carry risks right through the food chain into our bodies.

Illness from bad meat and food is almost impossible to quantify; unless it’s an obvious epidemic involving serious illness and a single source, most such illnesses go unreported. Certainly, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is well-established in the U.S.; some 300 new cases are diagnosed each year. News reports that no cases of CJD have ever been confirmed in the U.S. are only technically true; CJD can only be confirmed by autopsy, and beyond the expense, handling the brain tissue of someone infected with CJD, even in a highly controlled laboratory setting, is simply too dangerous. This disease is with us, and contaminated meat is almost certainly one of the ways it has spread.

The discovery of mad cow disease in one cow, out of nearly 100 million now living in the U.S., is hardly a major risk to the public. But the factors that made it possible -- big agribusiness, lax regulation, and consumer ignorance -- also fuel any number of far more common problems. For meat, such problems are usually avoidable by buying organic meat free of antibiotics and the ravages of factory farming. In fact, for nutrients and taste as well as food safety, organics in general are well worth the higher price.

Just peel your carrots before you eat them.

(c) Working Assets Online. All rights reserved.


URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=16209

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 30, 2003
Sheep Ailment May Hold Clues to Mad Cow Disease
By DENISE GRADY

o one knows for sure when or where the first cow went mad, but the first recorded case occurred in December 1984 when a dairy cow on a farm in West Sussex began to stumble around and act strange. That cow, identified only as No. 133 in a British government report, died two months later, as others on the same farm fell ill. An autopsy on one in 1985 found its brain full of holes, like a sponge. Sick animals turned up on other farms, and by 1986 the British knew they were facing an epidemic of a terrible new cattle disease.

By 1994, the illness had spread to people, probably from eating beef. So far, the number of human cases has remained relatively small, 137, mostly in England, out of millions there who may have eaten contaminated meat. But the disease inspires fear because it is fatal, the incubation period is uncertain, people have no way of knowing they have been infected until they get sick and the symptoms are horrific. The disease attacks the brain, leaving a person mentally and physically helpless. Many victims were young, including some in their teens and 20's.

The discovery last week that the disease had turned up for the first time in the United States, in a cow in Washington State, led to a recall of meat from at least eight states and Guam, even though the risk to consumers is low because highly infectious tissues — brain, spine and part of the intestine — had been removed from the sick cow in Washington before its meat was butchered and shipped. The discovery also highlighted questions that scientists still cannot answer with certainty. Where does this disease come from? Can there be just one mad cow?

If the Washington cow was infected by feed — as is thought to have occurred in the British epidemic — it seems unlikely that only one could have been infected, since feed is shared. But if the cow developed the disease spontaneously, which is theoretically possible though not proved to occur in cows, then it may be possible to have one mad cow at a time.

The new case and the unanswered questions have heightened interest in efforts in this country to sequence the cow genome, as a potential source of information about what makes animals susceptible and whether resistant livestock can be bred or genetically engineered.

A widely (though not universally) accepted theory holds that mad cow disease and several other related brain disorders are caused not by bacteria or viruses, but by prions, abnormal proteins that build up and damage the brain. Collectively, the diseases are called spongiform encephalopathies, for the spongelike holes they leave in the brain.

Prions are thought to be misfolded versions of a normal protein that is abundant in the brain and spinal cord. Somehow, the theory goes, prions force normal proteins to misfold, setting off a destructive chain reaction in the brain. Prions may transmit disease between people or animals, or some people or animals may have an inherited genetic tendency to form prions. In other cases, the tendency to form prions may develop sporadically, for unknown reasons, in an individual with no family history.

The term prion and the theory were developed by Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco who won a Nobel Prize in 1997.

Dr. Prusiner built on the work of another researcher who won a Nobel Prize in 1976, Dr. D. Carleton Gajdusek, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Gajdusek proved that members of the Fore tribe in New Guinea contracted a brain disease called kuru from eating the brains of relatives who had died of the disease. At the time, he thought the disease agent was a "slow virus," meaning one with an incubation period lasting years or decades. But no virus was ever found for any of the spongiform diseases, and Dr. Prusiner eventually concluded that a prion was responsible.

Many scientists think Britain's mad cow epidemic had its origins in scrapie, a spongiform brain disease that occurs in sheep and goats. The name comes from the sick animals' tendency to rub against things and scrape off patches of wool.

Scrapie has never been known to spread naturally from sheep to cows or to people who eat lamb, but it is believed to have infected cows in England in the 1980's because they were given feed made in part from rendered sheep carcasses that were heavily laden with scrapie prions. Flesh and bones from dead cows were also rendered and added to cattle feed, which may have spread the prions even more efficiently. Both types of rendered additive are now banned from cattle feed.

The epidemic in Britain eventually infected nearly 200,000 cows, but waned as infected cows were destroyed and feeding practices changed. Small numbers of cases turned up in about a dozen other countries as well. Britain alone destroyed about 4.5 million cows in hopes of stamping out the disease.

Although British health officials initially thought the sickness would not spread to people, they grew increasingly worried as house cats and some zoo animals fell ill, indicating that the disease could jump readily from species to species.

When it did jump to humans, it resembled a spongiform disease already known in people, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, C.J.D., which can be inherited, sporadic or, in rare cases, transmitted by surgery. But the mad cow form, known as variant C.J.D., created a unique pattern of damage in brain cells and struck younger victims than the original disease. Genetic tests led researchers to conclude that it must have been caused by contaminated beef. That finding, and the unknown incubation period of the disease, led the United States to ban blood donations from anyone who had lived in Britain for more than three months in the time contaminated beef was on the market.

Now, researchers say that efforts to eliminate scrapie may shed light on mad cow disease. Scrapie has been killing sheep for more than 200 years despite efforts by farmers in many countries to wipe it out by getting rid of diseased animals.

Australia and New Zealand are the only countries internationally recognized as scrapie-free and allowed to sell breeding stock to other nations. In the United States, the disease was first found in 1947 and still occurs, though it is not common, with 351 confirmed cases reported by the government for 2003. But scrapie prevents American farmers from exporting lamb or live sheep.

A government program has set a goal of ending scrapie outbreaks by 2010 and having the United States declared scrapie-free by 2017.

The program is using techniques that scientists say may one day also be used to help prevent outbreaks of mad cow disease.

Certain genetic traits have been found to make sheep either resistant or susceptible to scrapie, and researchers hope to use a test, genotyping, to identify resistant sheep and use only them for breeding, so that eventually all sheep will be resistant.

"A similar test is theoretically also possible for cattle and other species, but to my knowledge it is still under study," Dr. Niels C. Pedersen wrote in an e-mail message. He is director of the veterinary genetics laboratory at the University of California at Davis, which does the scrapie genotyping.

Genotyping for cattle is a long way off, he said, because prion diseases in cows are relatively rare, and yet many related resistant and susceptible animals are needed to develop the tests.

"When and if they are discovered, I am sure that the emphasis will be to genetically control the infection," Dr. Pedersen said.

But 19 years after the death of dairy cow No. 133, scientists do not know whether that will be possible.



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top

All of these claims were wrapped around the rhetoric of September 11, making a clear connection for the American people: If we do not invade Iraq and get those weapons, they will be given to terrorists for use against you. This rhetoric is further buttressed by claims on a page on the White House's own website titled 'Disarm Saddam Hussein.' That page outlines, in specifics, why Iraq was a threat. The threat: 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX gas (500 tons = 1,000,000 lbs.), nearly 30,000 munitions to deliver these poisons, and al Qaeda connections just itching to take possession of it all.

In a bit of black comedy, the Niger uranium claims - so thoroughly debunked that America stands ashamed before the world because Bush used them publicly to augment his case for war - still remain on this official White House page. The tens of thousands of liters of anthrax and botulinum toxin, the million pounds of sarin, VX and mustard gas, have thoroughly failed to turn up after nearly a year's worth of occupation and investigation, after almost 500 American soldiers have died, after thousands more have been horribly wounded, to defend America against a threat that did not exist in the first place.

The White House lied. George W. Bush lied. Dick Cheney lied. Don Rumsfeld lied. Ari Fleischer, perhaps predictably, lied. Joseph Wilson called them on just one of their lies, and that same White House reached out and destroyed his wife's career in order to protect itself politically, and to warn any other whistleblowers that public criticism might well amount to complete personal destruction. In doing so, the White House trashed an intelligence network that was working to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists.

As the New Year approaches, all sorts of retrospectives will be broadcast across the spectrum of television networks. Famous people who died will be remembered, and the most interesting news stories of the year will be rehashed. You'll see Saddam Hussein's capture many times, and you will see his statue toppled in Baghdad many times.

You won't hear about Valerie Plame, or her savaged intelligence network that was protecting you. You won't hear about the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. You won't hear the names, nor see the faces, of the nearly five hundred American soldiers who have died because of the Bush administration's lies. You won't see the ripped flesh or bloody stumps on the thousands of American soldiers who were torn up because of the Bush administration's lies.

All of that happened, however. All those dead and wounded soldiers happened. Valerie Plame happened. Joseph Wilson happened, and he is not finished yet. Not by a long chalk. What would you do if someone attacked your wife?

dream with nana with me again in her back porch
me playing with an orange kitten, it bitting my hand and nana laughing, also somehting about a kiln in her porch, i was looking at an outlet to see if i could plug in a kiln, and asking her if the next door neighbors would sell me their kiln, nana was getting me a kiln was the overall feeling

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 28, 2003
HEALTH
The Next Generation of Diseases Are in Hiding, Somewhere
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

N 2004, the world will be on the lookout for the re-emergence of SARS, monkeypox, new forms of flu and the unexpected. We have been warned. But must epidemics always catch humanity by surprise?

They kill far more people than war does, while billions of dollars are spent watching the political shifts that presage war. If the World Health Organization had half the budget of the Central Intelligence Agency, far more lives might be saved.

But epidemics are hard to police, because they do not emerge in the cities where they do most of their killing. They rise from biological caldrons in some of the world's most obscure places - the half-logged jungles of Africa, the shellfish flats of Bangladesh, the bamboo restaurant cages of southern China - where man eats rare beast and the germs leap out as the butcher's knife slips in.

AIDS and Ebola come from apes, SARS from the palm civet, cholera pandemics historically began on the banks of the Ganges. The human brain-wasting disease variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob came from eating mad cows, who got it from eating sheep infected with scrapies. Where scrapies - a disease caused by prions, the misfolded proteins that cause mad cow - started is not known.

By now, the world has become adept at watching for some diseases. Flu shots, imperfect as they are, come from a joint effort by more than 100 laboratories around the world constantly testing for new strains.

Other killers are held in check by alert public health officials: measles with vaccine, cholera with water trucks, chlorine and well-borers.

But for many diseases, the world does not put the clues together in time. It was two years after rare sarcomas were noticed in California men in 1981 before the world realized that the same symptoms existed in central Africa and began connecting "gay cancer" to "slim disease." AIDS turned into one of history's great scourges.

"It's tricky to put people at fault for not seeing it, because it didn't exist before,'' said Dr. Beatrice H. Hahn, the University of Alabama at Birmingham virologist who proved that AIDS comes from chimpanzees.

As for the bloodiest hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola, they are hard to study, she said, because they thrive in countries that are often dangerous and lack safe laboratories. Also, there is often little cross-talk between environmentalists upset over dying apes and doctors treating dying people.

Other epidemics simmer for years attracting little attention, said Dr. David M. Morens, an epidemiologist and historian at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The red rash of what we now call Lyme disease was noted by dermatologists in the 1800's, but dismissed as "unexplained," he said.

The bacterium Legionella pneumophila, so named after dozens of American Legionnaires were struck with pneumonia at a 1976 Philadelphia convention, probably caused many previous outbreaks, he said. Even now, Dr. Morens said, the real killer of thousands whose deaths are ascribed to flu is another cold-weather enemy, respiratory syncytial virus.

Thanks to the world's ever-freer media, it is harder to mount cover-ups, as Hamburg did in 1892, trying to hide its 17,000 cholera victims to keep its harbor open, said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian. China tried to cover up SARS, but word of a mysterious pneumonia leaked out, especially on Web sites monitored by epidemiologists.

As Dr. Markel noted, however, doctors now have far less time to react. For centuries, pandemics traveled simultaneously with word of them - travelers carrying the news often carried the microbes. Only with the spread of telegraph wires in the 19th century could news outrun germs traveling by train or ship, leaving time for passengers to fall ill and a ship's doctor to raise the quarantine flag.

Now, as SARS showed, illnesses race abroad by jet, arriving in people who clear customs before they even feel feverish. They often land far away before news of them does, making the global village a small and infectious place.



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top

lots of pain today, and dreams
one dream was so real i woke up to check on my sculpture cross, as in the dream it has been cut up, and a dream with nana in it feeding me chicken and pizza, and her in the front yard of her house on seneca in daytona beach putting up a solid fence of thin peices of wide peices of wood, i was holding the pizza wrapped in plastic and she and i were eating it like chewing gum and i feel we were laughing, the chicken, was three peices, and like james chicken, but on each piece some chicken was already eaten off of it

Print This Article Close This Window
U.S. Mad Cow Link Raised in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Cases
Fri December 26, 2003 04:37 PM ET

By Jed Seltzer
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Family and friends of victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the fatal brain disorder sometimes linked to mad cow disease, on Friday questioned whether the victims contracted the condition from contaminated U.S. beef.

After federal authorities said on Tuesday that a cow in Washington state was found to have the disorder known as mad cow disease, public health experts have been calling for a review of the U.S. Agriculture Department's screening procedures for cattle.

Some researchers believe that the human form of the disease has already hit the United States, but that the government either did not put the pieces together or was slow in notifying the public and the beef industry. So far, victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in the United States have never been linked to U.S.-produced beef.

A spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said he did not know if there was any ongoing investigation into whether cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease were related to U.S. beef.

"We would investigate any potential cases," said spokesman Von Roebuck. "Anything that has been suspected has been looked at."

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease occurs spontaneously at a rate of about one case per 1 million people. It is incurable and always fatal, chewing holes in the brain that lead to dementia and death. A related illness, known as new variant CJD, has been linked in Europe to eating meat from cattle infected with mad cow disease.

Janet Skarbek, an attorney and accountant from Cinnaminson, New Jersey, three years ago began investigating the possibility that mad cow disease has afflicted and killed several people in or near southern New Jersey.

Skarbek's suspicions center on the now-defunct Cherry Hill horse racetrack, where her mother worked. A colleague there, Carrie Mahan, died at age 29 of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

Skarbek said it is unclear whether Mahan's case was naturally occurring Creutzfeldt-Jakob or the variant commonly linked with contaminated cows. The natural, often inherited, version is more frequently seen in old people.

Through obituary reports, Skarbek has since tracked down six other deaths over the past three years in the southern New Jersey and Philadelphia area that were likely due to CJD. She says she contacted the family and friends of all the victims, and found they all had eaten at the racetrack in the late 1980s or in the 1990s.

"If I can find seven CJD people who ate at this racetrack, think of how much the government could do with all the information they have," she said.

Skarbek said she was denied a request for information from the Centers for Disease Control to find out what the agency knows. She sent an appeal on Thursday.

A Kansas woman's recent death from the brain-wasting disease has sparked some family concerns that her death may be connected to mad cow disease in the United States, even though medical experts have said there is no connection, a Kansas newspaper reported on Friday.

Linda Foulke, 62, died of the disease on Sunday, a few weeks after she began having difficulty walking, and a specialist at the Wesley Medical Center in Wichita confirmed the diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob, the Wichita Eagle said.

Bill Patton, Foulke's son-in-law, said doctors told the family the type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Foulke contracted was different from the type tied to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease.

But Patton was quoted as saying the family was worried there might be a connection, especially after U.S. government officials confirmed this week that BSE had been discovered for the first time in the United States in the carcass of a butchered cow.

Wesley Medical Center spokeswoman Cheryle Olsen said she would not comment on the case other than to say the family was likely too grief-stricken to understand the situation clearly.

In February this year, the CDC said three outdoorsmen who ate game animals they had killed at a cabin in northern Wisconsin, and who later died of neurological diseases, probably did not succumb to mad cow disease, although two of the hunters who died were diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

The CDC said at the time that it "didn't find any association" between the game feast and the men's development of CJD, and that their disease was probably the naturally occurring form, not the one caused by eating infected meat. Elk and deer in parts of the United States get a related disease called chronic wasting disease.

(Additional reporting by Carey Gillam and Toni Clarke)



© Reuters 2003. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Close This Window

A scientist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the type of infectious proteins that cause mad cow said current safeguards may be inadequate. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco, said the proteins, called prions, (PREE-ons) may be in cuts of meat from infected cattle, not just in the brain or spinal cord as previously known. He advocates wider testing for the disease because no one knows how many of the USA's 100 million cattle might be carrying the prions, which can arise spontaneously within an animal's cells

Dec. 26, 2003. 02:38 AM


ELAINE THOMPSON/AP
A worker walks past cows as they feed at the Sunny Dene Ranch dairy farm in Mabton, Wash., yesterday. The farm has been quarantined.

Canada won't widen mad cow clampdown
Animal may not be from the U.S.

Speculation about Canadian links



OTTAWA—A British lab has confirmed that the United States has its first case of mad cow disease, but Canada says it doesn't plan to broaden its limited ban on beef imports from the U.S.

It came as no surprise yesterday when U.S. authorities said they had received early confirmation that a Holstein cow in Washington state was infected with the disease, said Dr. Brian Evans, Canada's chief veterinarian. American authorities are now awaiting the final results of independent tests from world specialists in England, expected by the end of the week.

It's not likely even that will lead Ottawa to change its decision to restrict just a few beef products, rather than close the border entirely as some other countries have done, said Evans, chief veterinary officer with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. "It doesn't change our response to the U.S. circumstance as it currently is and ... (the finding) is what was expected," Evans said in an interview.

Meanwhile, a top U.S. official and a veterinarian familiar with the probe into where the animal came from said the infected cow may have brought in the disease from outside the state or country.

They both mentioned Canada as one place from which cattle have been imported.

A veterinarian in the Yakima Valley familiar with the investigation who asked not to be identified told the Washington Post he had learned the "cow didn't spend her whole life in the state of Washington."

In recent years, a large number of cattle have been imported into the Yakima Valley, primarily from Canada, according to another vet, Ernie Munck.

"I have several clients that have brought in cows from Canada," said Munck, from Prosser, Wash.

"One client brought in a few truckloads from Ontario.''

W. Ron DeHaven, the U.S. department of agriculture's deputy administrator and chief veterinary officer, declined to speculate on whether the Holstein might have come from Canada, where a case of mad cow disease was unearthed in May. After that discovery in Alberta, the U.S. clamped down on beef imports from Canada. The infected Holstein likely ate contaminated feed around 1999 or 2000, before the ban on Canadian cattle and products was in place.

"Cattle move interstate and internationally all the time,'' DeHaven said. "At the time this cow entered the herd from which she went to slaughter was before Canada had found their first case and live cattle were moving back and forth ... what we're doing is tracing all the premises of residence.''

Scientists at the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Waybridge, England, concurred with the reading of tests that led U.S. officials to conclude Tuesday the cow had the brain-wasting disease.

The English lab still wants to conduct its own independent test, using another sample from the dead cow's brain.

But both Canadian and U.S. authorities say they consider the results so far to be confirmation of mad cow.

U.S. government officials have said there is no threat to the food supply because the cow's brain and spine — nerve tissue where scientists say the disease is found — were removed before it was sent on for processing.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
`The North American beef supply is safe.'

Canadian Agriculture Minister Bob Speller

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Humans can contract a fatal variant of mad cow disease by eating infected beef products, but experts have said muscle cuts of beef — including steaks and roasts — are safe. Also hamburger ground from labelled cuts, such as chuck or round, poses little health risk, experts say.

However, a recent Swiss study suggested that, in theory, muscle tissue could carry the agent.

Also, no one knows how much a person has to eat to become infected.

Canada would expand its ban on imports only if the situation dramatically changes, said Evans, who has been "in constant contact" with U.S. officials.

"We took this action on the basis we felt this provided the maximum protection for public health and public interest in Canada and a positive finding would not significantly change the response."

Agriculture Minister Bob Speller said Christmas Eve the partial ban was as far as the country would go, even if the Washington cow was confirmed to have the disease.

Canada's ban covers certain processed meats but the border remains open to imports of U.S. beef products and animals still considered safe.

That includes boneless beef from cattle aged 30 months or less at slaughter, live cattle destined for immediate slaughter, semen, embryos and bone-free tallow. Dairy products are also considered safe, Speller added. He maintained he has no concerns about food safety.

"The North American beef supply is safe," Speller said, adding that both Canada and the U.S. have taken aggressive steps since the 1990s to reduce the risk of BSE.

Many other countries were less patient, however, slamming their borders shut to U.S. cattle exports. Japan, Mexico, South Korea, China and others have shut their doors to U.S. beef.

But Canada is much more sympathetic, given this country's disastrous experience with closed international borders after the single case of mad cow was discovered in Alberta.

The crisis has abated since September, when the U.S. began accepting some boneless beef cuts from Canada. Since then, more than 60,000 tonnes of beef have moved into the United States and Mexico — all from animals under 30 months of age, which are believed at lower risk of contracting BSE.

But the U.S. beef industry won't likely suffer as much as Canada's did, since it exports only about 10 per cent of production — mostly to Japan, Mexico and South Korea — compared to 60 per cent for Canadian producers.

Ottawa is confident that no diseased products crossed the border, based on import records and the fact that the Washington cow was slaughtered at a small facility that doesn't normally export beef, said Evans.

The Star's wire services



› Get 50% off home delivery of the Toronto Star.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAQs| Site Map| Privacy Policy| Webmaster| Subscribe| My Subscription

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home| GTA| Business| Waymoresports| A&E| Life

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of any material from www.thestar.com is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. For information please contact us using our webmaster form. www.thestar.com online since 1996.

Friday, December 26, 2003, 12:00 A.M. Pacific

Permission to reprint or copy this article/photo must be obtained from The Seattle Times. Call 206-464-3113 or e-mail resale@seattletimes.com with your request.

The politics of cattle slaughter

By Wayne Pacelle
Special to The Times

The "mad-cow" threat to public health and the potential economic disaster that now looms could have been prevented if the U.S. Congress, the Department of Agriculture, and the American beef and dairy industries had agreed to a single, simple step: Ban the slaughter of diseased cattle for human consumption.

Animal-welfare and food-consumer groups have long warned that the agriculture department has been playing Russian roulette with the nation's meat supply by allowing "downer" animals — cattle too sick to stand or walk — to be slaughtered for human consumption. Most downers are spent dairy cattle, and are the prime carriers of "mad-cow" disease. (The Holstein in Yakima County that tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was unable to walk due to complications from a pregnancy.)

A 2001 study in Germany found that downed cows were up to 240 times more likely to test positive for BSE. The USDA itself has warned that downers "represent a significant pathway for spread of disease if they are not handled or disposed of with appropriate safeguards."

Despite this known threat, an average of only 10 to 15 per cent of downers are tested for BSE in this country.

The alarming economic consequences from the discovery of a single, infected dairy cow are unfolding now — import bans on American beef, consumer confidence rattled, cattle quarantined and destroyed.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and beef-industry representatives blithely assure the public that our food supply is safe. Yet the continuing boycott of Canadian beef by the U.S. and some 30 other countries that so far has cost Canada almost $3 billion makes that claim ring hollow.

If we won't buy Canadian beef, why should other nations buy ours when the mad-cow scenarios are identical?

Congress and the USDA must share the blame, and face the fact that the threat of mad-cow disease can be strongly mitigated by not processing the meat of animals most likely to be carrying BSE. Each year, about 200,000 sick or injured downed cattle are shipped to slaughter, a tiny fraction of the roughly 35 million head that will be killed and butchered this year.

To prevent a future BSE catastrophe and at the same time ensure more humane treatment, a law should be passed requiring all downed animals to be euthanized on the farm or feedlot instead of being sold and shipped to slaughter.

Such a measure was approved last year in the U.S. House and Senate, but was killed in conference committee after the dairy industry lobbied against it. The Senate passed an even stronger measure this year but a conference committee again dominated by members obedient to the dairy and cattle industries defeated it once more.

Farmers continue to sell these crippled, low-value animals for processed meat or hamburger, instead of euthanizing them. A study by California Department of Agriculture veterinarian Pam Hullinger found that their average net value to the farmer is just $28.70 per animal after shipping and other costs are factored in.

The fast-food industry — led by McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King — considers downer meat too dangerous for its customers and no longer buys it. So do mink farmers who refuse to feed it to their animals.

Three years ago, the USDA banned it from the National School Lunch Program. Several states including California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin prohibit downers from being sold or killed at state-inspected abattoirs, but have no control over federally regulated slaughterhouses that process most of these disabled animals.

Following its recent outbreak that involved a single, aged dairy cow, Canada is on the verge of banning the slaughter of downed cattle. That's exactly the preventive action Veneman should have ordered months ago when the discovery of BSE north of the border signaled its virtually certain appearance here.

Veneman needs to take immediate action for economic and humane reasons. Euthanizing broken-down cattle instead of cruelly squeezing a few more dollars out of them is a small cost to bear for protecting our health, the beef industry, and the nation's economy.

Wayne Pacelle is a senior vice-president of The Humane Society of the United States. www.hsus.org.



Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 26, 2003
Mad Cow Case May Bring More Meat Testing
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

s the American beef industry struggles with its first case of mad cow disease, the Department of Agriculture is debating whether to do far more screening of meat and change the way meat from suspect animals is used, department officials say.

The officials declined to say exactly what they would recommend, but acknowledged that European and Japanese regulators screened millions of animals using tests that take only three hours, fast enough to stop diseased carcasses from being cut up for food.

United States inspectors have tested fewer than 30,000 of the roughly 300 million animals slaughtered in the last nine years, and they get results days or weeks later.

But the American system was never intended to keep sick animals from reaching the public's refrigerators, said Dr. Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian.

It is "a surveillance system, not a food safety test," Dr. DeHaven said in an interview on Wednesday.

Statistically, it is meant to ensure finding the disease only if it exists in one in a million animals, and only after slaughter.

A beef industry spokesman said Wednesday that cattlemen would endorse adopting more rapid tests.

Western European countries generally test all cattle over two years old, all sick cattle and a small percentage of apparently healthy ones. Last year, they tested 10 million cows. Japan tests all the cows it slaughters each year, 1.2 million.

Dr. DeHaven said Japan tested too much, "like a doctor testing every patient who comes through the door for prostate cancer."

Yesterday the Agriculture Department said that it had received confirmation of its own tests from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Waybridge, England, that a Holstein cow that was slaughtered on Dec. 9 had the degenerative brain ailment bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. More testing is planned.

An official close to the investigation said the cow came from Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Wash., which has about 4,000 dairy cows.

American beef is still "extremely safe," said Dr. Daniel L. Engeljohn, a policy analysis official in the Food Safety and Inspection Service in the Agriculture Department, but the discovery of the disease "will spur the U.S. to look at the preventive measures it's had in place for the last decade."

Critics of the industry called the current testing inadequate and said they had been warning for years that mad cow disease was in American cattle but undetected because too few animals were tested.

They accused the Department of Agriculture of failing to be a vigilant guardian over the nation's dinner table and said it did not fulfill the common claim that its inspectors test all obviously sick cows.

How many "downers" — cows too sick to walk — are slaughtered each year is in dispute. The beef industry says the number is only about 60,000 among older animals, while animal rights advocates cite figures based on European herds that suggest the number is nearly 700,000.

The Agriculture Department said its best guess was from a 1999 beef industry survey that estimated there were 195,000 downers on ranches, feedlots and slaughterhouses that year.

In any case, only 20,526 animals were tested last year; through the 1990's, only a few hundred were tested annually.

Which downers might have mad cow disease is also in dispute.

Dr. DeHaven said inspectors tested animals that were twitching, aggressive, nervous, stumbling or showing other signs of brain damage; they also test some dead or unconscious animals, which are not supposed to be sold for food.

The beef industry argues that many animals that are falling down are merely lame. Its critics claim that some downed animals are passed by inspectors because they are just conscious enough to respond to a kick.

Tests in Japan have found the brain-wasting disease in animals that appear healthy.

Although neither Dr. DeHaven nor Dr. Engeljohn would say exactly what changes were contemplated, some food safety experts want changes like those made in Britain, including a ban on selling brains or vertebrae or meat attached to them, mandatory testing of all cattle over 30 months old, and a national ear-tagging system tracking each animal from birth to slaughter. Others want to outlaw giving herbivores any animal-based feed.

In some European countries, diseased carcasses are boiled down, dried into powder and then incinerated.

Dr. Engeljohn said the department might take measures like those Canada adopted after it found a mad cow case in May.

But other than slaughtering and testing the herds in Alberta that the animal came from, Canada did not take aggressive measures compared with those used in Europe and Japan.

Canada has tested only about 10,000 animals in the last decade, and has had a serious backlog of cases. Its one diseased cow was slaughtered in January and probably made into pet food. It was marked for testing because it was thin; pneumonia, not brain disease, was suspected. It was not tested until May.

"Compared to our neighbor to the north, we did pretty well," said Dr. John Maas, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of California at Davis.

The Washington cow was tested within two weeks, but by then its muscle meat had become food for humans and its spinal cord was sent to a plant that makes food for pets, pigs and poultry. Its brain went to Ames, Iowa, and then to Britain for more testing.

Dr. DeHaven said the department's testing was "not to provide public safety," but to give officials 95 percent certainty that they would eventually detect the disease if it appeared in one animal in a million. There are about 100 million cattle in the United States.

The department has repeatedly called its test, an immunohistochemistry assay, "the gold standard."

But Michael Hansen, a Consumers Union researcher, said the test failed to detect mad cow disease in a 2-year-old bull in Japan this year, while a Western blot test, like those used in Europe, did.

Expanding testing would be "hugely expensive," Dr. DeHaven said. He estimated that it would cost $25 to $50 per animal tested, plus any costs of storing the meat until results were ready. Test makers say that works out to only pennies per pound.

The current system is "grossly inadequate," said Gene Bauston, the president of Farm Sanctuary, a farm-animal rights group in upstate New York. Mr. Bauston said he believed the lone cow found so far was "the tip of the iceberg."

"I think we've had the problem for a decade and it hasn't been detected till now," he said.

Farm Sanctuary obtained U.S.D.A. slaughterhouse records under the Freedom of Information Act, he said, and found that downers with hepatitis, lymphoma, gangrene and other ills had been passed by inspectors.

A spokesman for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association defended the current testing but said it would back the introduction of rapid tests.

"In Europe, they needed to test more animals because they had the disease," said Dr. Gary Weber, the association's vice president for regulatory affairs.

American testing looks only at downers, and Dr. DeHaven said its goal was to test "as many animals as possible" with signs of brain damage.

But inspectors and slaughterhouse workers have said that they see near-dead animals dragged in by chains or forklifts, and inspectors complain that they are pressured to approve them.

Dr. Lester Friedlander, an Agriculture Department veterinarian from 1985 to 1995, said he worked in a huge Pennsylvania plant that specialized in turning old dairy cows into hamburger. It slaughtered 2,000 a day, including 30 to 35 downers, and could have as many as 1,200 cows waiting for him to see when it opened at 5:30 a.m.

Ideally, Dr. Friedlander could pick animals at random and watch them walk, looking for stumbling, facial paralysis, drooping ears and other signs of nerve damage, which can also be caused by rabies or cancer. Instead, he said, department rules let them be walked by in groups of six.

"I'm lucky if I see the second or third," he said. "The sixth? Forget about it."

He said that he rejected 25 to 30 cows a day worth about $500 each, and that when he stopped the production line, managers complained that he was costing them $5,000 a minute. Ultimately, he said, they complained to Washington, and he was transferred. He quit and has since sued the department over his transfer; it is fighting his suit.

The world's most popular tests for prions, the misfolded proteins that cause mad cow, are made by the Prionics AG of Schlieren, Switzerland. Its newest, a luminescence immunoassay, lets one worker screen 200 samples in three hours.

Tests use a small scoop of brain. Scientists are still seeking one for live cows. There is one for scrapies, a prion disease of sheep, Dr. Maas said. It requires cutting a piece of nerve from an inner eyelid.



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 25, 2003
Expert Warned That Mad Cow Was Imminent
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

ver since he identified the bizarre brain-destroying proteins that cause mad cow disease, Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco, has worried about whether the meat supply in America is safe.

He spoke over the years of the need to increase testing and safety measures. Then in May, a case of mad cow disease appeared in Canada, and he quickly sought a meeting with Ann M. Veneman, the secretary of agriculture. He was rebuffed, he said in an interview yesterday, until he ran into Karl Rove, senior adviser to President Bush.

So six weeks ago, Dr. Prusiner, who won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on prions, entered Ms. Veneman's office with a message. "I went to tell her that what happened in Canada was going to happen in the United States," Dr. Prusiner said. "I told her it was just a matter of time."

The department had been willfully blind to the threat, he said. The only reason mad cow disease had not been found here, he said, is that the department's animal inspection agency was testing too few animals. Once more cows are tested, he added, "we'll be able to understand the magnitude of our problem."

This nation should immediately start testing every cow that shows signs of illness and eventually every single cow upon slaughter, he said he told Ms. Veneman. Japan has such a program and is finding the disease in young asymptomatic animals.

Fast, accurate and inexpensive tests are available, Dr. Prusiner said, including one that he has patented through his university.

Ms. Veneman's response (he said she did not share his sense of urgency) left him frustrated. That frustration soared this week after a cow in Washington State was tentatively found to have the disease. If the nation had increased testing and inspections, meat from that cow might never have entered the food chain, he said.

Ms. Veneman was not available for interviews yesterday, and the White House referred all questions to the department. A spokeswoman for Ms. Veneman, Julie Quick, said: "We have met with many experts in this area, including Dr. Prusiner. We welcome as much scientific input and insight as we can get on this very important issue. We want to make sure that our actions are based on the best available science."

In Dr. Prusiner's view, Ms. Veneman is getting poor scientific advice. "U.S.D.A. scientists and veterinarians, who grew up learning about viruses, have difficulty comprehending the novel concepts of prion biology," he said. "They treat the disease as if it were an infection that you can contain by quarantining animals on farms. It's as though my work of the last 20 years did not exist."

Scientists have long been fascinated by a group of diseases, called spongiform encephalopathies, that eat away at the brain, causing madness and death. The leading theory was that they were caused by a slow-acting virus. But in 1988, Dr. Prusiner proposed a theory that seemed heretical at the time: the infectious agent was simply a type of protein, which he called prions.

Prions (pronounced PREE-ons), he and others went on to establish, are proteins that as a matter of course can misfold — that is, fold themselves into alternative shapes that have lethal properties — and cause a runaway reaction in nervous tissue. As more misfolded proteins accumulate, they kill nerve cells.

Animals that eat infected tissues can contract the disease, setting off an epidemic as animals eat each other via rendered meats. But misfolded proteins can also arise spontaneously in cattle and other animals, Dr. Prusiner said. It is not known whether meat from animals with that form of the disease could pass the disease to humans, he said, but it is a risk that greatly worries him.

Cattle with sporadic disease are probably entering the food chain in the United States in small numbers, Dr. Prusiner and other experts say.

Brain tissue from the newly discovered dairy cow in Washington is now being tested in Britain to see if it matches prion strains that caused the mad cow epidemic there, or if it is a homegrown American sporadic strain, Dr. Prusiner said.

"The problem is we just don't know the size of the problem," he said. "We don't know the prevalence or incidence of the disease."

The Japanese experience is instructive, Dr. Prusiner said. Three and a half years ago, that country identified its first case of mad cow disease. The government then said it would begin testing all cows older than 30 months, as they do in Europe. Older animals presumably have a greater chance of showing the disease, Dr. Prusiner said.

Japanese consumer groups protested and the government then said it would test every cow upon slaughter, Dr. Prusiner said. The Japanese have 4 million cattle and slaughter 1.2 million of them each year. The United States has 100 million cattle and kills 35 million a year.

Early this fall, Japanese surveillance found two new cases of the disease in young animals, aged 21 and 23 months. "Under no testing regime except Japan would these cases ever be found," he said.

The 23-month-old cow tested borderline positive using two traditional tests. But the surveillance team then looked in a different part of the brain using an advanced research technique and found a huge signal for infectious material, Dr. Prusiner said. It was a different strain of the disease, possibly a sporadic case.

The only way to learn what the United States is facing is to test every animal, Dr. Prusiner said. Existing methods, used widely in Europe and Japan, grind up brain stem tissue and use an enzyme to measure amounts of infectious prions. Animals must have lots of bad prions to get a clear diagnosis.

Newer tests, by a variety of companies, are more sensitive, cheaper and faster. Dr. Prusiner said that his test could even detect extremely small amounts of infectious prion in very young animals with no symptoms. Sold by InPro Biotechnology in South San Francisco, a single testing operation could process 8,000 samples in 24 hours, he said.

British health officials will start using the test in February, Dr. Prusiner said. If adopted in this country, it would raise the price of a pound of meat by two to three cents, he said.

"We want to keep prions out of the mouths of humans," Dr. Prusiner said. "We don't know what they might be doing to us."

His laboratory is working on promising treatments for the human form of mad cow disease but preventing its spread is just as important, he said. "Science is capable of finding out how serious the problem is," he said, "but only government can mandate the solutions."



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top

| HOME | NEWS | SPORTS | ENTERTAINMENT | CLASSIFIED | BUSINESS | WEATHER | SHOPPING |


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/nationworld/ats-ap_business10dec25,0,6395346.story?coll=sns-business-headlines
Poultry, Pork Industry Unhappy Over Scare



By PAM EASTON
Associated Press Writer

December 25, 2003, 6:49 PM EST

New concerns about U.S. beef safety don't offer any glee to producers of pork and poultry -- they figure Americans' concerns about one food can easily translate to suspicions about others.

"This is not good for chicken," said Bill Roenigk, an official with the National Chicken Council. "Consumers should be and are concerned about their food supply. Anything that jeopardizes consumer confidence in the food supply is not good for us."

The beef industry took an early hit after an initial diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, in a dairy cow slaughtered in Washington state earlier this month. British scientists confirmed the diagnosis on Thursday.

The largest importers of U.S. beef -- Japan, Mexico and South Korea -- have halted shipments, while others imposed temporary bans.

But an even bigger issue for U.S. agriculture will be how deeply Americans' confidence is shaken in the safety of the overall meat supply.

"It's just anybody's guess," said Jon Caspers, president of the National Pork Producers Council and a hog farmer in Swaledale, Iowa. "Markets don't deal with these things very often. It is hard to predict."

Mad cow disease, which eats holes in the brains of cattle, appeared in Britain in 1986. It spread through countries in Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and decimating the European beef industry.

Humans can contract a fatal form of the disease by eating infected cow tissue.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman has said there is no danger to the food supply because muscle cuts of meat, such as steaks and roasts "have almost no risk." She said dangerous portions of the Washington state cow, including its brain and spinal column, were removed.

The mad cow scare hit just as chicken and pork producers had seen prices improve in August and September, in tandem with higher beef prices attributed to the popularity of high-protein diets like the Atkins diet.

It was "sort of like the water in the harbor lifting all the boats," Roenigk said.

Now, concerns about food safety could have a negative effect for all producers, said Mike Ovesen, executive director of the Kentucky Pork Producers.

"It's not even going to help the apple industry," he said. "Although, I'm sure everything is contained and everything is going to be fine. I still think we've got the safest food supply in the world."

One industry did expect a boon -- organic beef, which comes from animals fed only milk, grasses and grains from birth to slaughter.

Mad cow disease is believed to be spread through cattle feed containing protein or bone meal from infected cows or sheep. Although the government banned feeding cattle such products in 1997, organic food advocates say the law has loopholes and is poorly enforced.

"We will now see a huge increase in the demand" for organic beef, which currently accounts for no more than 1 percent of U.S. beef sales, said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association.

Organic beef carries a premium price; organic ground beef, for example, is priced six to eight times higher than what supermarkets charge for regular ground beef.

The Center for Consumer Freedom, a coalition that includes mainstream restaurants and food producers, says "radical social activists" are using the mad cow news to create panic over the food supply.

"These activists are clearly hoping to drive U.S. shoppers away from the grocery meat counter and toward more expensive organic and so-called 'natural' options," said David Martosko, director of research for the group.

Meanwhile, meat producers remained optimistic that the impact of the mad cow discovery would be limited and that consumers will retain their confidence in the food supply.

Charles Reeves, an independent hog farmer in South Carolina, predicted customers will return to their normal meat-purchasing habits after a few weeks.

"Everybody's overreacting," he said. "I'm not going to stop eating it."

* __

Associated Press writer David Dishneau contributed to this report from Hagerstown, Md.

* __

On the Net:

Organic Consumers Association: http://www.organicconsumers.org

Center for Consumer Freedom: http://www.ConsumerFreedom.com

National Chicken Council: http://www.nationalchickencouncil.com/

National Pork Producers Council: http://www.nppc.org/
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

Was Jesus Gay?
by Matt Johns
365Gay.com Newscenter
Los Angeles Bureau



Posted: December 25, 2003 12:01 a.m. ET


(Los Angeles, California) As Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus few of them will be told in their churches and Cathedrals anything about the sexuality of Jesus, yet a growing group of Biblical scholars believe that Christ may have had at least one sexual relationship with another male.

Noted Methodist theologian Rev. Theodore Jennings Jr. and Dr Morton Smith a world renowned Bible scholar at Columbia University say there is irrefutable evidence that Jesus was at least bisexual. Dr Rollan McCleary of the University of Queensland, in Australia, says he has discovered through his research that three of the disciples were gay.

Prof. Smith points to a fragment of manuscript he found at the Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem in 1958 which he says allues to Jesus having a homosexual relationship with a youth he raised from the dead. The fragment shows that the full text of St. Mark, Chapter 10 (between verses 34 and 35 in the standard version of the Bible) includes the following passage:

"And the youth, looking upon him (Jesus), loved him and beseeched that he might remain with him. And going out of the tomb, they went into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days, Jesus instructed him and, at evening, the youth came to him wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God".
Rev. Jennings, a professor at the United Church of Christ's Chicago Theological Seminary, points to the Gospel of St. John. In his recently published book "The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives From the New Testament," Jennings writes that the reference in St John about "the disciple Jesus loved" was actually a reference to Jesus' gay boyfriend.

Jennings also claims the centurion's servant who was healed by Jesus actually was the centurion's gay boyfriend and that Jesus did not denounce their relationship.

Dr McCleary spent the last three years researching “gay spirituality”. His book, "Signs for a Messiah" published earlier this year says that Jesus and at least three of his disciples were gay, and Christianity in general is built on “gay principles”.

McCleary says that Christianity needs to recognize its homosexual roots and abandon the practice of alienating gays and spreading homophobia.

British gay rights advocate Peter Tatchell says even though the information about Jesus' sexuality remains scant, "there is certainly no evidence for the Church's presumption that he was heterosexual. Nothing in the Bible points to him having desires or relationships with women. The possibility of a gay Christ cannot be ruled out."

"Since there is no proof of the heterosexuality of Jesus, the theological basis of Church homophobia is all the more shaky and indefensible," Tatchell said.

"Large chunks of Jesus' life are missing from the Biblical accounts. This has fuelled speculation that the early Church sanitized the gospels, removing references to Christ's sexuality that were not in accord with the heterosexual morality that it wanted to promote", said Tatchell.

The Vatican has denounced the research by Jennings, Smith and McCleary as "heretical". It has also been denounced by Southern Baptists and evangelical Anglicans.

When recently asked if his research might be tainted because he is gay, McCleary said: "You could see that either way. You could also say that heterosexual people have their eyes wide shut on the matter, that they don't want to see that Jesus would have been of gay disposition.

"You maybe have to be gay to read the signals and to see things and research things which other people wouldn't," he added

Dairy Under Quarantine on Mad Cow Report
55 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press Writer

MABTON, Wash. - Residents of this tiny south central Washington town rallied around neighboring dairy owners as news leaked that a local farm was the source of what could be the nation's first case of mad cow disease.


AP Photo



There are about eight dairy farms in Mabton — population 2,045 — and dozens more in the surrounding area. A government source familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that the cow came from Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton.


Mayor David Conradt said he did not expect "any financial hit" to the town, as long as the disease is limited to one cow. "The impact, I hope, is going to be minimal," he said. Locals were unwilling to discuss the matter with reporters, who were turned away from businesses and farms.


Sid Wavrin, who identified himself as the owner of the Sunny Dene Ranch, declined to comment when contacted by The AP. Sunny Dene has operations in Mabton and nearby Grandview. William Wavrin, who also is listed by the state Department of Agriculture on registration documents for Sunny Dene, did not return a call for comment.


U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman had announced Tuesday that a single Holstein from a farm near the town, about 40 miles southeast of Yakima, likely had mad cow disease. If confirmed by follow-up tests at a lab near London, the case would be the first in U.S. history.


The case quickly affected at least one company associated with the slaughtered cow. Supermarket giant Safeway Inc. said it has stopped selling all fresh ground beef products from an Oregon supplier that received meat from the affected cow.


Outside the Sunny Dene dairy, police warned that anyone entering property without permission would be arrested for trespassing, so reporters lined up alongside a road that separates the farm and the Yakama Indian Reservation. A sign at the farm read "Private Property."


The U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) said the cow was slaughtered at Vern's Moses Lake Meat, Inc., in Moses Lake, about 70 miles northeast of Mabton, on Dec. 9, after she became paralyzed, apparently as a result of calving.


The USDA said Vern's was voluntarily recalling about 10,410 pounds of raw beef, but the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service said there was an "extremely low likelihood" that the recalled beef contains the infectious agent that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy.


Tom Ellestad, co-manager of Vern's Moses Lake Meat, told the Columbia Basin Herald in Moses Lake that he remains confident in the inspection system that led to the discovery. "We have done nothing wrong," he told the newspaper. "The inspection system works because we caught this cow."


The USDA said the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia, and the meat — though no contaminated spinal or brain tissue — was sent to two other plants in the region, identified as Willamette and Interstate Meat.


Safeway, which has sold fresh ground beef products from Interstate Meat Distributors Inc. of suburban Portland, Ore., said Wednesday that it will stop doing so and will look for another supplier.


"We're doing this voluntarily out of an abundance of caution," Safeway spokeswoman Bridget Flanagan said.


Interstate spokesman Quint Daggett said Wednesday that the USDA had told the business to refer all calls to the agency.


Messages left at Midway Meats were not returned. Jeff Kline, spokesman for Willamette Valley Meat in Portland, Ore., refused to comment.

Secondary School Under Siege by US Forces
By Dahr Jamail
Electronic Iraq

Thursday 18 December 2003

On the evening of December 16th, in the Amiriya suburb of West Baghdad, the residents held a pro-Saddam Hussein demonstration. Many of the kids were throwing stones at a US Humvee Patrol as it passed by. Aside from this, it was a non-violent demonstration-no shots were fired, nobody was injured.

Today, US forces from the First Armored Division returned with two large tanks, helicopters, several Bradley fighting vehicles and at least 10 hummers to seal off the Al Shahid Adnan Kherala secondary school for boys.

The school was sealed off completely, as well as the doors locked when soldiers and Iraqi Police entered with photos of students taken during the demonstration the night before.

I asked the first soldier I came upon today at the school,

"I'm an American journalist. Can you please fill me in on what is going on here?"

He started to talk to me, and then was yelled at by another soldier in a tank behind us. We looked back to see a soldier waving his hand across his neck, telling him to be silent.

"I can't talk to you," he said.

We walked closer to the school. Two hummers with loudspeakers mounted atop them were parked out front. An Iraqi translator was telling the crowd standing in front of the school,

"You must not attend the demonstration tomorrow that is to be held here. Please disperse and go away."

A US soldier from Wisconsin, who asked to remain nameless, provided me with the following information on what was happening:

He told me the aforementioned about the demonstration last night, and that IP (Iraqi Police) were in the school trying to catch the kids who were throwing rocks last night.

I asked him if anyone was injured last night at the demonstration, or if any weapons were fired.

"No. Some kids were just throwing rocks."

I ask him how they knew which kids to talk with from last night.

"We had some IP here last night who took photos. They are going through the school to get the kids in the pictures."

Several Humvees with machine guns surrounded a large canvas covered troop transport truck into which 26 students were loaded, then driven away with tanks both in front and behind.

The arrests were apparently a preemption for the demonstration to take place tomorrow in the same area.

As we continue to the front entrance of the school we see students held inside, all the doors sealed with security guards outside of them. Students are seen crowded behind the bars of the doors, waiting to be released.

Shortly thereafter the doors are unlocked, releasing the frightened students who are flocking out the doors. The youngest look to be about 10 years old, none of the students older than 18.

At the front gate they are running out, many in tears. Others are enraged, kicking and shaking the front gate.

We are surrounded by frenzied students, yelling,

"This is the democracy? This is the freedom? You see what the Americans are doing to us here?"

Another student is crying, and tells us,

"They took several of my friends! Why are they taking them to prison? For throwing rocks?"

They surround us and are threatening to beat us because we are western. Our translator steps in, and they call him a traitor for being with us. As he explains to them we are here to report the truth, that we are on their side, myself and the Hungarian videographer I am with quickly walk away.

A few blocks away a smaller group of students who have run from the school talk with us, and tell us many of their friends were taken away for throwing rocks.

One student is crying, and yells to me,

"Why are they doing this to us? We are only kids! A few threw rocks, and now we don't know where they have taken them!"

Tanks and hummers that were guarding the perimeter of the school now drive down the street next to us, exiting the scene. Several young boys with tears running down their faces pick up stones and throw them at the tanks as they drive by.

US soldiers on top of the tanks begin firing M-16's above our heads as we duck inside a taxi. A soldier on another tank, behind the first, passes and is firing randomly above our heads as well. Kids and pedestrians in the shops are running for cover. None of us can believe what we are seeing.

A boy holding a stone is standing just on the side of the street glaring at the tanks. Another soldier riding by atop yet another passing Bradley pulls his pistol out and aims it at the boy's head, keeping him in his sights until the tank rolls out of sight.

One of the students, crying, yells to me,

"Who are the terrorists here now? You have seen this yourself! We are school kids!"

All of us in the car are shocked and deeply shaken as we drive back into central Baghdad. Ahmed, our interpreter, is weeping quietly, holding his head in his hands.

Thus far, the public relations officer for the First Armored Division has failed to return our phone calls, or emails.

-------

Dahr Jamail is a freelance journalist and political activist from Anchorage, Alaska. He has come to Iraq to bear witness and write about how the US occupation is effecting the people of Iraq, since the media in the US has in large part, he believes, failed to do so.

Opposition To Gay Marriage Grows
Dec. 20, 2003


Despite last month’s Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling that the state could not deny gays and lesbians the right to marry, Americans continue to oppose laws allowing homosexual couples to marry or to form civil unions -- and the number opposing gay marriage is higher now than it was in July before the Massachusetts action.

Some 61 percent of respondents in a CBS News/New York Times poll said they were against gay marriage, up from 55 percent in July, and only 34 percent said they favor gay marriage, down from 40 percent five months ago.

The public has reversed itself on the overall question of same-sex relations. Half now think homosexual relations between consenting adults should not be legal -- a reversal of opinion from the summer, when a majority of Americans thought they should be legal.

More than half now favor an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.

At 49 percent, the percentage that thinks homosexual relations should not be legal is the highest recorded since the CBS News/New York Times Poll started asking the question in 1992. As recently as July, 54 percent thought such relations should be legal, while 39 percent thought they should not. Now, 41 percent think homosexual relations should be legal.

DO YOU THINK HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONS SHOULD BE LEGAL?

Yes
Now
41%
7/2003
54%
8/1992
41%

No
Now
49%
7/2003
39%
8/1992
44%


Attitudes on this matter have changed among nearly all demographic groups, but opinions of men have changed dramatically. Men now think homosexual relations should not be legal by 50 percent to 40 percent. Back in July, 56 percent of men thought homosexual relations should be legal, while just 36 percent thought they should be outlawed.

GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNIONS
61 percent oppose a law allowing homosexual couples to marry, giving them the same legal rights as other married couples; 34 percent favor allowing gay couples to marry. In July 55 percent opposed gay marriage, while four in ten supported it.

GAY MARRIAGE

Favor
Now
34%
7/2003
40%

Oppose
Now
61%
7/2003
55%


While the public is somewhat more open to the idea of same-sex couples forming civil unions, more than half are against a law permitting that. 54 percent are opposed to gay couples forming civil unions giving them the same legal rights as married couples, but four in ten favor civil unions.

GAY CIVIL UNIONS

Favor
39%
Oppose
54%

The only proponents of both gay marriage and civil unions are Americans under age 30, liberals, and those who know a gay or lesbian person. Even among those who know a gay or lesbian person, gay marriage is favored by a narrow margin of 49 percent to 46 percent. Overall, 44 percent of Americans know someone who is gay or lesbian, but even more -- 54 percent -- of those under age 30 say they know a gay or lesbian person.

While men and women oppose both gay marriage and civil unions, women are more supportive of these ideas than men. 43 percent of women favor homosexual couples forming civil unions compared to just 35 percent of men. The differences between men and women on the question of gay marriage are similar. Women are also more likely than men to know a gay person or a gay couple.

VIEWS OF MEN AND WOMEN

Civil Unions

Favor
Men
35%
Women
43%

Oppose
Men
56%
Women
51%


Gay Marriage

Favor
Men
30%
Women
38%

Oppose
Men
65%
Women
57%


Homosexual Relations

Legal
Men
40%
Women
43%

Not legal
Men
50%
Women
49%


Other factors that affect attitudes toward gay marriage and civil unions include religion, education and opinion on whether being homosexual is a choice or the way a person is born.

White evangelical Christians who say religion is extremely important to them are strongly opposed to gay civil unions (as well as gay marriage): 77 percent oppose a law allowing homosexual couples to form civil unions. Catholics are less likely than Protestants to oppose gay civil unions; half oppose gay civil unions, but among Protestants that figure is 62 percent.

Americans with at least a college degree favor gay civil unions by 52 percent to 42 percent, but Americans with less than a college education oppose these unions. However, college graduates oppose a law allowing homosexual couples to marry.

Views on whether homosexuality is a personal choice or something that cannot be changed greatly influences opinions on gay marriage, civil unions, and homosexual relations. Americans are split on this: 44 percent think homosexuality is something a person cannot change, but just as many -- 44 percent -- think being homosexual is something people choose to be.

IS HOMOSEXUALITY A CHOICE OR SOMETHING THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED?

Choice
44%
Cannot change
44%

Majorities of those who believe homosexuality is something people cannot change favor gay marriage, civil unions, and believe homosexual relations should be legal. People who think being gay is a personal choice are strongly opposed to both gay marriage and civil unions and would outlaw sex between members of the same sex.

Homosexuality is a choice

Favor civil unions
19%
Oppose civil unions
76%

Favor Gay marriage
15%
Oppose Gay marriage
81%

Homosexual relations legal
21%
Homosexual relations not legal
70%


Homosexuality cannot be changed

Favor civil unions
61%
Oppose civil unions
31%

Favor Gay marriage
55%
Oppose Gay marriage
40%

Homosexual relations legal
63%
Homosexual relations not legal
28%


There are gender differences on this question. Men think homosexuality is a choice, while women disagree. People who know someone who is gay or lesbian are more likely than those who don’t to say that homosexuality is something that cannot be changed.

White evangelical Christians for whom religion is extremely important are very likely to say homosexuality is a choice; more than three-quarters of this group think that.

Whites and blacks also have different opinions on this question. 48 percent of whites think being homosexual is something that cannot be changed, but nearly seven in 10 African Americans say homosexuality is something that is chosen. Blacks are less supportive than whites of civil unions, gay marriage and legal homosexual relations.

RELIGION AND MARRIAGE
Americans view marriage more as a religious rather than a legal matter. Overall, 53 percent of Americans think of marriage as a religious matter, while a third see it as a legal matter.

DO YOU THINK OF MARRIAGE AS A …

Mostly legal matter
33%
Mostly religious matter
53%

By a large margin of 71 percent to 24 percent, those who think of marriage as mostly a religious matter oppose a law allowing homosexuals to marry. Those who view marriage as mostly a legal matter support a law allowing gay couples to marry by 55 percent to 42 percent.

Think Of Marriage As …

Religious Matter

Favor Gay Marriage
24%
Oppose Gay Marriage
71%


Legal Matter
Favor Gay Marriage
55%
Oppose Gay Marriage
42%


Americans have strong opinions against gay couples getting married in places of worship. Six in ten say it would not be acceptable to have couples of the same sex marry in their own place of worship. And nearly all Americans believe the public in general would find same-sex marriage in their churches, synagogues, or places of worship unacceptable. 87 percent say that most people would find gay marriage in their place of worship unacceptable.

DO YOU THINK IT IS ACCEPTABLE FOR COUPLES OF THE SAME SEX TO
MARRY IN YOUR CHURCH?

Yes
32%
No
60%


MARRIAGE AND THE LAW
Currently, the laws governing marriage are determined by individual states, but there has been a recent push for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman. In this poll, more than half of Americans say they would favor that amendment, and 40 percent would oppose it.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THAT WOULD ALLOW MARRIAGE ONLY BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN

Favor
55%
Oppose
40%


Those under age 30 are opposed to an amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman by 52 percent to 44 percent. All other age groups support such an amendment. Seniors are among the most supportive: 69 percent of those age 65 and over favor a constitutional amendment, while just 27 percent oppose it.

GOVERNMENT AND VALUES
The case of gay marriage and the opinions it provokes may be special; in general, Americans do not think the government should be involved in promoting traditional values. 50 percent say the government should not favor one set of values over another, while 43 percent think the government should do more to promote traditional values. These views have not changed much since July of 2000.

THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD …

Promote traditional values

Now
43%
7/2000
41%


Not favor one set of values

Now
50%
7/2000
52%


Many Democrats do not support gay marriage, and it may not be an issue that is weighing heavily on Democratic voters’ minds. 45 percent of Democratic primary voters say the Democratic nominee’s stance on gay marriage does not matter to them. Only 15 percent say they would like a nominee who supports gay marriage, while 40 percent would prefer a nominee who opposes it. Most of the current Democratic candidates for president oppose gay marriage, but all of the major Democratic candidates support gay civil unions in some form.

HOMOSEXUALITY AND MORALITY
Opinions on the morality of homosexual relations have not changed substantially in the last 10 years, but fewer people now view homosexual relations as morally wrong than did a decade ago. 49 percent of Americans now think homosexual relations between adults are morally wrong, compared to 55 percent who thought that way back in February 1993. A bit more recently, in 1996, 52 percent thought homosexual relations were morally wrong.

HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONS ARE …

Morally wrong

Now
49%
2/1996
52%
2/1993
55%


OK

Now
13%
2/1996
12%
2/1993
9%


Don't care

Now
36%
2/1996
34%
2/1993
33%


While Americans may be reluctant to say they fully endorse the idea of homosexual relations (just 13 percent now describe them as being “ok”), 36 percent say they don’t care either way.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The December 10-13, 2003 poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 1057 adults interviewed by telephone. The error due to sampling could be plus or minus three percentage points for results based on the entire sample.


For detailed information on how CBS News conducts public opinion surveys, click here.





©MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Feedback • Terms of Service • Privacy Statement
[ Sat Dec 20, 01:37:37 PM | Dave Hell | edit ]

Fusion project decision delayed
ITER - NUCLEAR FUSION PROJECT
The project is estimated to cost $5bn over the next 10 years
It will produce the first sustained fusion reactions
Iter is the final stage before a commercial reactor is built
A decision on where to site the world's first big nuclear fusion reactor has been postponed, France has said.
Delegates meeting in Washington were divided over France or Japan for the multi-billion dollar project.

The US has been against the French option because of France's opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

Nuclear fusion holds out the promise of virtually limitless pollution-free energy - but the reactor will take 10 years to build.


Pros and cons

Member countries of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) project gathered in the US to try to make a final decision on the location of the project.

"At the end of the meeting...it was agreed by all parties present that no definite choice could be made at this stage," France's research ministry said in a statement.

A French Government envoy at the meeting, Pierre Lellouche, said the matter would be deferred until next year, probably mid-February, the French news agency reports.

The Japanese site of Rokkasho-mura has the advantages of proximity to a port, a ground of solid bedrock and a nearby US military base.

The French site at Cadarache offers an existing research facility and a more moderate climate.


Iter consortium
European Union
United States
Russia
China
Canada
Japan
South Korea
The experts were supposed to reach a consensus based on objective criteria.
But BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse says the decision is highly political, involving huge amounts of horse-trading behind the scenes.

Delegates were hoping, he says, that one of the countries involved would drop out and so avoid the need for a vote.

The European Union is backing France - but Canada, China, Russia, South Korea, the United States and Tokyo itself are reported to be favouring Japan.

The US, in particular, has raised objections to the French option, citing its opposition to the Iraq invasion.

"We have the structure, scientific and technical environment to ensure that this scheme can start up with competence, expertise and solid safety guarantees," French Research Minister Claudie Haignere said.

"If our site is chosen, Japan will cover the costs that are needed," said Hidekazu Tanaka, a senior official of the Japanese Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ministry.

Self-sustaining

Iter is the boldest nuclear initiative since the Manhattan Project - the effort to build the first atom bomb, says BBC News Online's science editor David Whitehouse.


It would also be the world's largest international co-operative research and development project after the International Space Station.
Scientists say it will be the first fusion device to produce thermal energy at the level of an electricity-producing power station.

Its goal will be to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer during each individual fusion experiment and, in doing so, demonstrate essential technologies for a commercial reactor.

But they are all agreed that taming the power of the Sun will not be easy.

The superhot gas in which the fusion takes place is notoriously difficult to control.

The gas, termed a plasma, has to be kept hot and contained for fusion to take place. So far, no one has achieved a prolonged self-sustaining fusion event.

Advocates of fusion power point out that if they succeed, there is an almost limitless supply of power available because the deuterium atoms on which it would be based can be derived from seawater.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3336701.stm

Published: 2003/12/20 19:20:43 GMT

© BBC MMIII

[ Sat Dec 20, 03:26:46 AM | Dave Hell | edit ]

Iraqi police killed by US troops
US troops have killed three Iraqi police in northern Iraq mistaking them for insurgents, Iraqi officials say.
The policemen were manning a checkpoint south of Kirkuk when the soldiers opened fire overnight on Friday, according to Kirkuk police.

There was no immediate comment from the US military.

Meanwhile, Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar - a strong supporter of the war in Iraq - paid a surprise visit to Iraq on Saturday, his office said.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3336529.stm

Published: 2003/12/20 10:24:49 GMT