Pork from the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland should not be eaten due to contamination fears, the Food Standards Agency has said. The advice follows the Irish government's recall of pork products made in the Republic since September. Dioxins were found in pigs thought to have eaten contaminated feed on 56 farms - nine in Northern Ireland. The UK's Food Standards Agency said it did not believe at this stage that UK consumers faced any "significant risk".
Pork from the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland should not be eaten due to contamination fears, the Food Standards Agency has said.
The advice follows the Irish government's recall of pork products made in the Republic since September.
Dioxins were found in pigs thought to have eaten contaminated feed on 56 farms - nine in Northern Ireland.
The UK's Food Standards Agency said it did not believe at this stage that UK consumers faced any "significant risk".
DUBLIN/LONDON (Reuters) - Irish pig meat contaminated with toxic dioxins could have been exported to as many as 25 countries, Ireland's Chief Veterinary Office said on Sunday. The Irish government has recalled all domestic pork products from shops, restaurants and food processing plants because of contamination with dioxin -- which in some forms and concentrations, and with long exposure, can cause cancer and other health problems. Neighbouring Britain, the main export market, has warned consumers not to eat any Irish pork products after tests revealed the contamination. "We believe it's in the order of 20-25 countries. It's certainly less than 30," Chief Veterinary Officer Paddy Rogan told a news conference, speaking about how many countries could be affected. Authorities said 10 farms in Ireland and a further 9 farms in the British province of Northern Ireland had used a contaminated pig feed that prompted Dublin to announce the recall on Saturday.
DUBLIN/LONDON (Reuters) - Irish pig meat contaminated with toxic dioxins could have been exported to as many as 25 countries, Ireland's Chief Veterinary Office said on Sunday.
The Irish government has recalled all domestic pork products from shops, restaurants and food processing plants because of contamination with dioxin -- which in some forms and concentrations, and with long exposure, can cause cancer and other health problems.
Neighbouring Britain, the main export market, has warned consumers not to eat any Irish pork products after tests revealed the contamination.
"We believe it's in the order of 20-25 countries. It's certainly less than 30," Chief Veterinary Officer Paddy Rogan told a news conference, speaking about how many countries could be affected.
Authorities said 10 farms in Ireland and a further 9 farms in the British province of Northern Ireland had used a contaminated pig feed that prompted Dublin to announce the recall on Saturday.
Why were Wall Street workers not asked for concessions? Autoworkers stepped up to the plate to save the car industry. White-collar workers, on the other hand, weren't expected to do the same when financial firms went to Congress with hat in hand. David Lazarus, December 7 LA TIMES Say what you will about the role of the union in exacerbating Detroit's financial troubles, one thing stands out: Blue-collar workers are taking it in the shorts as part of their employers' efforts to secure some bailout bucks from Uncle Sam. I don't recall white-collar workers on Wall Street stepping up with similar concessions in return for their companies' receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer cash. "There is absolutely no excuse for a bailout without significant sacrifices by all stakeholders," said Robert Reich, who served as Labor secretary under President Clinton and is now a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. -Skip- "Most Americans don't understand -- or don't want to understand -- the complicated deal we made with Citigroup," Reich said. "But when you talk about General Motors, it's much more concrete. People know what a car is." For that reason, he said, lawmakers in Washington have been more assertive about wringing concessions from the auto industry, whereas the heads of Wall Street firms essentially got by with slaps on the wrist.
David Lazarus, December 7 LA TIMES
Say what you will about the role of the union in exacerbating Detroit's financial troubles, one thing stands out: Blue-collar workers are taking it in the shorts as part of their employers' efforts to secure some bailout bucks from Uncle Sam.
I don't recall white-collar workers on Wall Street stepping up with similar concessions in return for their companies' receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer cash.
"There is absolutely no excuse for a bailout without significant sacrifices by all stakeholders," said Robert Reich, who served as Labor secretary under President Clinton and is now a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley.
-Skip-
"Most Americans don't understand -- or don't want to understand -- the complicated deal we made with Citigroup," Reich said. "But when you talk about General Motors, it's much more concrete. People know what a car is."
For that reason, he said, lawmakers in Washington have been more assertive about wringing concessions from the auto industry, whereas the heads of Wall Street firms essentially got by with slaps on the wrist.
... Anthropologists trace the acceptance of people of mixed gender to pre-Colombian Mexico, pointing to accounts of cross-dressing Aztec priests and Mayan gods who were male and female at the same time. Spanish colonizers wiped out most of those attitudes in the 1500s by forcing conversion to Catholicism. But mixed-gender identities managed to survive in the area around Juchitán, a place so traditional that many people speak ancient Zapotec instead of Spanish. Not all muxes express their identities the same way. Some dress as women and take hormones to change their bodies. Others favor male clothes. What they share is that the community accepts them; many in it believe that muxes have special intellectual and artistic gifts. Every November, muxes inundate the town for a grand ball that attracts local men, women and children as well as outsiders. A queen is selected; the mayor crowns her. "I don't care what people say," said Sebastian Sarmienta, the boyfriend of a muxe, Ninel Castillejo García. "There are some people who get uncomfortable. I don't see a problem. What is so bad about it?" ...
... Anthropologists trace the acceptance of people of mixed gender to pre-Colombian Mexico, pointing to accounts of cross-dressing Aztec priests and Mayan gods who were male and female at the same time. Spanish colonizers wiped out most of those attitudes in the 1500s by forcing conversion to Catholicism. But mixed-gender identities managed to survive in the area around Juchitán, a place so traditional that many people speak ancient Zapotec instead of Spanish.
Not all muxes express their identities the same way. Some dress as women and take hormones to change their bodies. Others favor male clothes. What they share is that the community accepts them; many in it believe that muxes have special intellectual and artistic gifts.
Every November, muxes inundate the town for a grand ball that attracts local men, women and children as well as outsiders. A queen is selected; the mayor crowns her. "I don't care what people say," said Sebastian Sarmienta, the boyfriend of a muxe, Ninel Castillejo García. "There are some people who get uncomfortable. I don't see a problem. What is so bad about it?" ...
The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals. The research - to be detailed tomorrow in the most comprehensive report yet published - shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people.Backed by some of the world's leading scientists, who say that it "waves a red flag" for humanity and shows that evolution itself is being disrupted, the report comes out at a particularly sensitive time for ministers. On Wednesday, Britain will lead opposition to proposed new European controls on pesticides, many of which have been found to have "gender-bending" effects.It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals."This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat," says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report.
The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals.
The research - to be detailed tomorrow in the most comprehensive report yet published - shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people.
Backed by some of the world's leading scientists, who say that it "waves a red flag" for humanity and shows that evolution itself is being disrupted, the report comes out at a particularly sensitive time for ministers. On Wednesday, Britain will lead opposition to proposed new European controls on pesticides, many of which have been found to have "gender-bending" effects.
It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals.
"This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat," says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report.
"For many who witnessed it," writes John Markoff in his book "What the Dormouse Said," about the development of the personal computer, "it was more than a bolt out of the blue: It was a religious experience." ..... "A small box with a tail coming out - you might as well call it a mouse," said English, who figured out how to construct the device based on a sketch that Engelbart had drawn in 1961. The mouse wasn't the automatic choice. It won out only after other approaches - a light pen, a joystick, even a knee-operated control - proved to be far less efficient, English said. Many retrospective looks at the 1968 demonstration have highlighted the introduction of the mouse, which Engelbart patented under the name "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System."
The mouse wasn't the automatic choice. It won out only after other approaches - a light pen, a joystick, even a knee-operated control - proved to be far less efficient, English said.
Many retrospective looks at the 1968 demonstration have highlighted the introduction of the mouse, which Engelbart patented under the name "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System."
Steve Jobs was 13 years old; Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog) was behind the camera as Engelbart communicated from the stage to his lab.
There's a fascinating memorial site here. Complete with catalogued clips as well as the entire demo. From this little creature evolved the 3-D trackpad, or touch sensitive screen; who'da thunk it? "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
PC premiered 40 years ago to awed crowd:
The invention featured rudimentary windows and hyperlinks that allowed jumping from one document to another, as well as the ability to edit text and add graphics on a video monitor.
However, this puzzles me:
I would have guessed that the light pen would have proven more efficient than the mouse. Was this due to technological limits of the time? Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
Also, you can only use a light pen by poking at the screen with it. A mouse can be set up so you can move across the entire screen with a much smaller and less physically demanding wrist movement.
I used to have an A4 graphics tablet, and while it was good for drawing, it was a huge pain to use as a pointing device - I had to make huge swooping arcs with my forearm to move the pointer, and it soon became tiring.
Engelbart's idea of 'efficiency' was as much ahead of the time as the mouse was. He didn't just point and guess - he produced empirical models which measured accurately how easy it was to use each device.
The only thing which might be easier to use than a mouse is an eye tracker combined with a finger switch - there are commercial (military/med) products which work like this, but they're not as cheap as a $50 rodent.
I was hoping by now we could have something like a fine grain touch screen tablet A3 size: that would solve the feedback problem in that you'd be looking at what you drew. You can't be me, I'm taken
I had one of these for a while - one thing it isn't is light.
The other thing it isn't is accurate - the drawing accuracy drifted noticeably towards the edges.
There's a new generation of multitouch products due next year. A 22-24" multitouch interface light enough to keep on my lap is probably all I'd ever want for music, graphics and general browsing.
Like the display hardware it comes probably from the military (RADAR) displays. The light pen is only usable to select an illuminated point, i.e. for selection. This case is easy to program, as the light pen is activated the moment the display order is executed; the light pen interrupt pointed to it. – No need for big in-core data structures to search. With raster-graphic displays this advantage was no more and the light pen died.
Remarkable how long this trade-off worked. However, the needed storage was not readily available until the 1980s, delaying the use of raster graphic displays.
Even more remarkable it is that Engelbart was so well funded that he could ignore these short-sighted economies.
Those early years were very innovative, unfortunately the machines lacked the power, or the researchers and in particular the students (with the exception of the MIT AI Lab) lacked the machines. In that respect the PC was an educational machine.
Amid the tall citrus trees of Okinawa, Japan, Tsune Ganaha is busy picking fruit as she does eight hours every day. It's not what she does, but who she is that's remarkable. "I just turned ninety," she says. Age ninety. Climbing trees after tree, hauling down bags of fruit, and doesn't remember a day she's ever been sick in her nearly seventy years on this farm. Ganaha's 54- and 61-year old daughters say good luck trying to get her to retire. "We can't stop her," they say. And why would they? She's the best climber in the family. <...> We met 96-year old Toyohide Taira who loves to flirt with the ladies, who tells young people: "Don't get married. You'll be sick of your spouse when you're 90!" <...> Gerontologist Craig Wilcox has been studying longevity in Okinawa for fifteen years, an island that has the highest percentage of centenarians anywhere in the world. He points to a number of factors: the Okinawan diet: very low in fat, salt and sugar: this traditional lunch plate is filled with papaya, tofu and dark leafy vegetables at this weekend event, they snack on citrus fruits and sip on unsweetened green tea they exercise and work well into old age there's a good, affordable healthcare system that focuses on prevention and a strong sense of sense of community that values optimism, where older people remain active and respected Wilcox says any community can replicate this: "We still refer to these types of diseases as 'age-associated diseases' back in North America. Well, people don't do that anymore here. There's tremendous amount of control people have over these diseases if they live the right lifestyle." <...> Tsune Ganaha's family swears by a daily dose of Okinawan citrus. But more importantly, working and being close to family, a recipe she says will keep her hiking these hills for more years to come.
"I just turned ninety," she says. Age ninety. Climbing trees after tree, hauling down bags of fruit, and doesn't remember a day she's ever been sick in her nearly seventy years on this farm.
Ganaha's 54- and 61-year old daughters say good luck trying to get her to retire. "We can't stop her," they say. And why would they? She's the best climber in the family. <...>
We met 96-year old Toyohide Taira who loves to flirt with the ladies, who tells young people: "Don't get married. You'll be sick of your spouse when you're 90!" <...>
Gerontologist Craig Wilcox has been studying longevity in Okinawa for fifteen years, an island that has the highest percentage of centenarians anywhere in the world.
He points to a number of factors:
Tsune Ganaha's family swears by a daily dose of Okinawan citrus. But more importantly, working and being close to family, a recipe she says will keep her hiking these hills for more years to come.
the report doesn't mention another possibility: survival of the fittest (only half-kidding) Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
