laughing like mad, all the way to the grave
President Ronald Reagan's recent actual demise has reminded me of many things...
not the least of which is the confusing similarity between Alzheimer's Disease and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow Disease
--
here's the article by good ol' Jim Hightowwer, which i had originally heard about... it is not very long, or particularly informative, as it was meant as a piece of propaganda to incite political action:
The Mad Cow Connection To Alzheimer's
--
but this articles explains the situation in more detail:
Alzheimer's & Mad Cow Disease
` ` Mad cow disease is technically known as Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (BSE). It’s just one member of a family of related
diseases known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE). These
diseases include the human form, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
(CJD), and scrapie, which are found in sheep.
...
TSE is caused by infectious agents called prions (pronounced
"pree-ons"). Prions are a type of protein and bit of a scientific
mystery
...
Some in the medical community, in fact, think that many of the people
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are actually victims of
CJD. Indeed, a study of 46 Alzheimer’s patients at Yale University
found that six actually had CJD not Alzheimer’s. Another study tested
the brain tissue of 12 Alzheimer’s sufferers and discovered that three
were misdiagnosed cases of CJD.
Other studies show that between 3% and 5% of those diagnosed with
dementia have CJD. So while only a couple hundred official CJD cases
are reported in the U.S. each year, the actual number may be far higher
due to the many suspected diagnostic errors that are occurring. ' '
--
it does seem that there's a similarity between Alzheimer's And Mad Cow
Disease, which is described in the following article:
"Strikingly Similar" Protein May Be In Alzheimer's And Mad Cow Disease
--
Of course, these scientific discoveries can also lead us to develop
useful technologies, too:
Prions offer nanotech building tool
--
http://www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11317
The B.S. of Bush's Mad Cow Policies
BushCo's mad, mad, mad, mad Mad Cow policy
USDA Rejects Meatpacker's Mad-Cow Testing
First North American death of Mad Cow disease reported (months after it
happened)
Organic Consumers Association (Campaigning for Food Safety, Organic Agriculture, Fair Trade & Sustainability): Mad Cow Disease, Mad Deer Disease, Chronic Wasting Disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
NOVA program, "The Brain Eater"
Two Articles: Molecular Evolution of Prions & Rogue Prion Protein
FDA: BSE
CDC: BSE and CJD
Public Service Announcement (humor): How to identify if your cow has mad cow disease...
--
and if that's not enough info for you, my lj post, "Where's the beef?"
should provide more "food for thought"
My personal position on how to change the industry standards and improve the
quality of our food has been inspired by Dr. Temple Grandin, who is mentioned in the afterward to Eric
Schlosser's book,
"Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" ...from which comes this poignant excerpt:
` ` In addition to forcing compliance with the FDA's feed regulations,
McDonald's has required that its meatpacking suppliers handle and
slaughter animals more humanely. For years, excessive line speeds and
improper stunning have led to cattle and hogs being dismembered while
fully conscious. McDonald's new policy on humane slaughter did not
arise in a vacuum. Animal rights groups, such as People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, were staging protests at McDonald's, asking the
company to seek changes from its suppliers. Whatever the true motive,
McDonald's acted decisively and hired Dr. Temple Grandin -- one of the
nation's foremost experts on animal welfare and proper livestock
handling -- to devise an auditing system for the slaughterhouses that
provide the chain's beef and pork. According to Dr. Grandin, McDonald's
threat to stop purchasing meat from companies that mistreat animals
changed many of the industry's practices within a year. Although
McDonald's auditors are employed by the same companies that manufacture
its hamburger patties, Dr. Grandin says they seem genuinely committed to
the new policy, making unannounced visits to slaughterhouses and
observing whether animals are properly handled and stunned. When
advocated by animal rights groups, such an inspection program had gone
nowhere; demanded by McDonald's, it received the enthusiastic support
of the meatpacking industry and the American Meat Institute. ' '
--
Of course, when one of those 'Mad Cows' is ingested by a human, it can result in a condition known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).
I'm not sure how we will explain this to A Stranger in a Strange Land, like Valentine Michael Smith, who might ask:
"If they are our brothers, then why can't we eat them?"
Sorry to break it to you water brethren, but our supplies seem to have become contaminated...
Another form of CJD is known as Kuru, which can result from practicing human cannibalism.
When you know that natives of the south pacific refer to human meat as the "long pig" (i hear that the base of the palm is the tastiest bit...), the episode in Upton Sinclair's work, "The Jungle" seems even more horrific... you know, the one where the tour guide says that the slaughterhouses and meat packing plants "use everything from the pig 'cept it's squeal!" And now, there's a tape loop in my head of Burroughs talking about how the One God Universe (OGU) has created pain and suffering so that OGU will be able to do something, and that one traumatic death provides more enegy for OGU than an entire cancer ward. Hence, OGU invented all of the friction and conflict, pain, fear, sickness, famine, war, old age, and Death. What I'm getting at is that it seems to me that the followers of OGU have learned how to even use the squeal of the human livestock to fuel the fires of their conquest of Manifest Destiny...
If we are supposed to be so 'civilized, then why are our livestock developing diseases caused by cannibalism? Perhaps cannibalism is actually not so morally repugnant, after all... as long as it is not practiced by 'sentient' beings? Well, just ask the natives of Papua New Guinea, who were willing to give it up after a Kuru epidemic in the 1960's, even though, according to Lindenbaum in 1979, Kuru victims were highly regarded as sources of food.
So, even if someone like Armin Menschenfresser Meiwes claims that they are practicing something akin to "compassionate cannibalism," now you know about the real risks involved in eating people, right kids?
And if I haven't made it clear enough already... no, I don't think spam is any healthier!
not the least of which is the confusing similarity between Alzheimer's Disease and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow Disease
--
here's the article by good ol' Jim Hightowwer, which i had originally heard about... it is not very long, or particularly informative, as it was meant as a piece of propaganda to incite political action:
The Mad Cow Connection To Alzheimer's
--
but this articles explains the situation in more detail:
Alzheimer's & Mad Cow Disease
` ` Mad cow disease is technically known as Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (BSE). It’s just one member of a family of related
diseases known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE). These
diseases include the human form, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
(CJD), and scrapie, which are found in sheep.
...
TSE is caused by infectious agents called prions (pronounced
"pree-ons"). Prions are a type of protein and bit of a scientific
mystery
...
Some in the medical community, in fact, think that many of the people
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are actually victims of
CJD. Indeed, a study of 46 Alzheimer’s patients at Yale University
found that six actually had CJD not Alzheimer’s. Another study tested
the brain tissue of 12 Alzheimer’s sufferers and discovered that three
were misdiagnosed cases of CJD.
Other studies show that between 3% and 5% of those diagnosed with
dementia have CJD. So while only a couple hundred official CJD cases
are reported in the U.S. each year, the actual number may be far higher
due to the many suspected diagnostic errors that are occurring. ' '
--
it does seem that there's a similarity between Alzheimer's And Mad Cow
Disease, which is described in the following article:
"Strikingly Similar" Protein May Be In Alzheimer's And Mad Cow Disease
--
Of course, these scientific discoveries can also lead us to develop
useful technologies, too:
Prions offer nanotech building tool
--
http://www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11317
The B.S. of Bush's Mad Cow Policies
BushCo's mad, mad, mad, mad Mad Cow policy
USDA Rejects Meatpacker's Mad-Cow Testing
First North American death of Mad Cow disease reported (months after it
happened)
Organic Consumers Association (Campaigning for Food Safety, Organic Agriculture, Fair Trade & Sustainability): Mad Cow Disease, Mad Deer Disease, Chronic Wasting Disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
NOVA program, "The Brain Eater"
Two Articles: Molecular Evolution of Prions & Rogue Prion Protein
FDA: BSE
CDC: BSE and CJD
Public Service Announcement (humor): How to identify if your cow has mad cow disease...
--
and if that's not enough info for you, my lj post, "Where's the beef?"
should provide more "food for thought"
My personal position on how to change the industry standards and improve the
quality of our food has been inspired by Dr. Temple Grandin, who is mentioned in the afterward to Eric
Schlosser's book,
"Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" ...from which comes this poignant excerpt:
` ` In addition to forcing compliance with the FDA's feed regulations,
McDonald's has required that its meatpacking suppliers handle and
slaughter animals more humanely. For years, excessive line speeds and
improper stunning have led to cattle and hogs being dismembered while
fully conscious. McDonald's new policy on humane slaughter did not
arise in a vacuum. Animal rights groups, such as People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, were staging protests at McDonald's, asking the
company to seek changes from its suppliers. Whatever the true motive,
McDonald's acted decisively and hired Dr. Temple Grandin -- one of the
nation's foremost experts on animal welfare and proper livestock
handling -- to devise an auditing system for the slaughterhouses that
provide the chain's beef and pork. According to Dr. Grandin, McDonald's
threat to stop purchasing meat from companies that mistreat animals
changed many of the industry's practices within a year. Although
McDonald's auditors are employed by the same companies that manufacture
its hamburger patties, Dr. Grandin says they seem genuinely committed to
the new policy, making unannounced visits to slaughterhouses and
observing whether animals are properly handled and stunned. When
advocated by animal rights groups, such an inspection program had gone
nowhere; demanded by McDonald's, it received the enthusiastic support
of the meatpacking industry and the American Meat Institute. ' '
--
Of course, when one of those 'Mad Cows' is ingested by a human, it can result in a condition known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).
I'm not sure how we will explain this to A Stranger in a Strange Land, like Valentine Michael Smith, who might ask:
"If they are our brothers, then why can't we eat them?"
Sorry to break it to you water brethren, but our supplies seem to have become contaminated...
Another form of CJD is known as Kuru, which can result from practicing human cannibalism.
When you know that natives of the south pacific refer to human meat as the "long pig" (i hear that the base of the palm is the tastiest bit...), the episode in Upton Sinclair's work, "The Jungle" seems even more horrific... you know, the one where the tour guide says that the slaughterhouses and meat packing plants "use everything from the pig 'cept it's squeal!" And now, there's a tape loop in my head of Burroughs talking about how the One God Universe (OGU) has created pain and suffering so that OGU will be able to do something, and that one traumatic death provides more enegy for OGU than an entire cancer ward. Hence, OGU invented all of the friction and conflict, pain, fear, sickness, famine, war, old age, and Death. What I'm getting at is that it seems to me that the followers of OGU have learned how to even use the squeal of the human livestock to fuel the fires of their conquest of Manifest Destiny...
If we are supposed to be so 'civilized, then why are our livestock developing diseases caused by cannibalism? Perhaps cannibalism is actually not so morally repugnant, after all... as long as it is not practiced by 'sentient' beings? Well, just ask the natives of Papua New Guinea, who were willing to give it up after a Kuru epidemic in the 1960's, even though, according to Lindenbaum in 1979, Kuru victims were highly regarded as sources of food.
So, even if someone like Armin Menschenfresser Meiwes claims that they are practicing something akin to "compassionate cannibalism," now you know about the real risks involved in eating people, right kids?
And if I haven't made it clear enough already... no, I don't think spam is any healthier!