Foot-and-mouth disease has resurfaced in Vietnam infecting buffalos and cows in two provinces in northern and southern provinces, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. After a lapse of several months, FMD broke out again in the northern province of Hoa Binh, causing 45 cows and buffalos to be infected. It was also spotted in herds in the central province of Nghe An. Animal health authorities in the two countries are containing the disease, culling and disinfecting affected areas, and taking preventive measures to control the spread of the disease.

An Emendation to the Joycean Canon: The Last Hurrah for “Politics and Cattle Disease”
By: Terence Matthews

In this article Matthews makes an argument that Joyce did not write an article title “Politics and Cattle Disease” in 1912. This article was unsigned, but has often been attributed to Joyce. Honestly, Matthews argument is of little use to me; my concern with the article stems from the biographical details it gives regarding Joyce’s involvement with the politics surrounding cattle. Especially following an episode like Circe, I feel that any biographical information I can get about Joyce in relation to animals could help in making sense of his complex use of animals throughout the novel.

Matthews’ article notes that Joyce was involved in helping the President of the Irish Cattle Traders in some capacity with the issue disease in cattle. Later the article mentions that Joyce had know sympathy for cattle….I just found another article that I want to talk about as well, so I’m going to quickly tie up my thoughts on this one: this gives concrete proof that Joyce had a genuine interest in the treatment of animals. This could indicate that Joyce’s comments in Ulysses about that subject function as a way for him to get his opinion across.

Horses Versus Cattle in Ulysses
By: FRIEDHELM RATHJEN
In case you had difficulty deciphering the nature of this article from the title: Rathjen explores the relationship between bovine and equine references in Ulysses. Rathjen sees a connection between horses and history early on in the novel, and points out that Stephen views history as a “nightmare from which I am trying to awake” (2.377). Also, Rathjen thinks “nightmare” might be clever use of wordplay here (night-mare= dark horse). Rathjen also sees horses tied to sterility in the novel. This is interesting given the connection between Boylan and horses; despite Boylan’s sexual prowess, he does not produce any offspring. On the other hand, Rathjen sees bovine as connected with fertility and hospitality in Ulysses. Furthermore, Rathjen feels that Bloom is connected more to the bovine images than to the equine images. In fact, Rathjen shows that many of the times when Bloom is associated with horse, it’s a false connection (example: the misinterpretation of Throwaway).

While I believe a lot of what Rathjen argues, some of his points seem a little reaching for my taste. His arguments concerning Boylan’s association with horses, and Bloom connecting more with bovine, align with my thoughts towards the characters. However, Rathjen’s connection between cattle and hospitality is weak and confusing, and this raises questions to how Stephen fits into this equine/bovine dichotomy since the hospitality notion is used to link Stephen to the bovine.

The outbreak of animal diseases, particularly zoonotic diseases such as SARS, foot and mouth disease, and avian flu is a public health concern and can have a detrimental effect on economies across the world. Many of these diseases are associated with the agriculture industry.  Much of the developing world, including Southeast Asia, depends on agriculture to support its economy.

A decade after the initial outbreak, the H5N1 avian influenza is still costing the economies of Vietnam and Indonesia millions of dollars in loss of feed sales and lost trade.  The facts are staggering:

1. The World Bank estimated that by 2005, there had been a $10 billion loss for all of Southeast Asia due to the avian flu.
2. According to WHO data from November 2003 to April 2009, Indonesia had 108 cases of H5N1 in poultry and 141 confirmed cases in humans, while Vietnam had two cases in poultry and 111 cases in humans respectively.

These statistics are most likely vastly underestimated due to under-reporting.

In addition to the measurable effects on the economies of these countries, it is unclear how much the loss of consumer confidence, increased border controls, and sanctions from animal diseases have damaged these economies.

As the demand for safer products and international standards improves, it is in Southeast Asia’s best interest to invest in (a) better surveillance systems and (b) improved laboratory capabilities to better detect outbreaks in animals. Currently, the global framework for the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases is a joint effort by OIE and FAO to empower regional organizations to address some of these issues.

In addition to improving systems, it is also important that producers are given incentives to report diseased animals and are adequately compensated for slaughters to sick animals.

Although transparency is crucial, simply punishing non-compliant farmers and implementing sanctions will do little in the way of advancing poverty in these countries.  The continued implementation and oversight of a strong animal disease program is critical for reducing outbreaks, increasing public safety, and promoting fairer trade among Asian countries.

by BEN VORE

Behold! I am about to reveal to you my amazing ability to perform a super secret Joycean mind meld which allows me to discern some of the thoughts and probing questions of a few Wandering Rocks regulars. Allow me to address those unspoken questions here:

“Could you just give me a brief overview of what’s actually going on in this episode? I’m new to Wandering Rocks and have chosen to remain in the shadows of anonymity until I get my sea legs, so to speak.” – Anonymous 

Yes, Anonymous (although I know who you are!). Stephen Dedalus is a history teacher and he’s teaching his class about Pyrrhus. It’s toward the end of class and the natives are restless. They ask for a joke and Stephen tells a morbid riddle that kinda freaks everyone out. But then class is over and everyone runs outside to play hockey, everyone except a kid named Sargent. Sargent needs a little extra help with math. Stephen helps him and feels an affinity for the kid. After that Stephen goes into headmaster Deasy’s office to collect his paycheck. Not only does he get paid, he also gets an earful of preachy monetary advice, curious historical assessments, anti-Semitic accusations and then some good old misogyny to top it all off. Deasy asks him to deliver a letter to some local newspapers, which is Stephen’s out. 

“I don’t speak Latin, so could you translate Amor matris for me? Also, Mike Allen’s corn hole tournament was a farce.” – Tad Smith

Tad, Amor matris translates to “mother love.” Joyce uses the phrase while Stephen is helping Sargent (with whom he feels a certain kinship) with his sums. This is noteworthy because Sargent ( “ugly and futile”) doesn’t seem like a lovable kid, although Stephen reasons that “someone had loved him, borne him in her arms and in her heart.” Here we have Amor matris, made all the more poignant because as Eric Jerric Jerry noted in his Telemachus Funmary, “Stephen is haunted by his dead mother, and his guilt surrounding her death. She asked him to pray for her at her deathbed. He refused.”

“This is well and good, but what about the last part of the sentence? It’s ‘Amor matris: subjective and objective genitive.’ And I’m really still steamed about that sham tournament.” – Tad

Based on my copious reading of commentaries, analysis and annotations, I believe I’m correct in saying that “subjective and objective genitive” suggests that amor matris can mean either a mother’s love for a child or a child’s love for a mother. It’s a two-way street. Why is this important? It might have something to do with Stephen’s ability to be the actor — or the acted-upon — for the journey ahead. Sort of like how you, Tad, have the choice to passively accept that it was indeed a sham tournament, or actively lodge an official protest with the International Corn Hole Association (located, conveniently, here in Cincinnati, Ohio).

“You said yesterday that ‘History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake’ is the episode’s money quote. Elaborate, please. And you know what else is money? Your unparalleled fashion sense.” – Andrew Cashmere

Thank you, Andrew! What a kind thing to say.

This is a money quote on several different levels.

1. It’s a rebuke to Deasy. Deasy tells Stephen that “all history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of God.” Stephen wants none of it.
2. It’s a rebuke to Haines. Back in “Telemachus” Haines tells Stephen, “It seems history is to blame,” an easy way to absolve certain parties (read: Brits) of responsibility. Stephen sees history as personal, close-at-hand, sometimes violent (especially with regard to Irish history). Note too that during this conversation Stephen’s color is rising and that Haines has “detached” some tobacco fibers from his mouth before speaking “calmly.” One speaks of a living, breathing history; the other exists in a sort of “ahistory.” 
3. It’s true on a personal level. Stephen is a gloomy guy. He’s haunted by his dead mother. He’s wracked by guilt. He couldn’t make it on his own and had to move back home. A loudmouth and a freeloader kicked him to the curb. He sits through lectures by anti-Semitic blowhards. He’s literally trying to wake up from the nightmare of his personal life.

There’s also the tension here of how we should read history, a question that echoes from Stephen’s thoughts earlier in the episode. Thinking of Haines (though Deasy fits the bill too), Stephen muses, “For them too history was a tale like any other too often heard, their land a pawnshop.” Stephen’s history isn’t pliable in the same way because it’s anchored by fact, not memory. ( “Had Pyrrhus not fallen by a beldam’s hand in Argos or Julius Caesar not been knifed to death? They are not to be thought away.”) So while Haines/Deasy absolve themselves of any responsibility for history, Stephen can’t shake it free.

“I have always wanted to be a star hurling player. Do you have any footage I could watch of you playing?” – Brooke Jackson

Yes, Brooke, I do!

“What would you prescribe for someone prone to coughballs of laughter which drag after them rattling chains of phlegm? I’m asking on a friend’s behalf.” – Mark Hoobler

Mark, I would advise your friend that it’s probably time to stop laughing altogether. Or get a lung transplant.

“As you may have noted if you read my spot-on post ‘swine flu — excuse me while i fail to be frightened,’ I’m not buying the media hype. But should I be at least a wee bit concerned about another outbreak of foot and mouth disease?” – Gflawrence 

Gflawrence, your post was indeed spot-on. And while I don’t want to downplay the potentially pandemic effects of another foot and mouth disease outbreak, you should rest assured that humans are rarely affected. Sleep easy tonight.

“Would anyone out there like a little perspective on Stephen’s classroom management skills from an actual 7th grade teacher (and Wandering Rocks participant!)? You would? Great! Because I’ve already written a blog post about it. Enjoy.” – Liza Anne

Thank you, Liza Anne!

“I rather enjoyed John Hodgman’s ‘Jokes That Have Never Produced Laughter.’ Might there be one more?” – Katie Else

Indeed there might, Katie! 

A dog goes into a bar. He is wearing an eye patch. The dog says to the bartender, “Have you heard the one about the one-eyed dog?” The bartender, who is deaf in one ear, thinks the dog is making fun of him. He asks him to leave. The dog says, “Don’t you have a sense of humor, deafie?” At the end of his shift, the bartender is tired of all the jokes. Today it’s a one-eyed dog. Yesterday it was a horse with rickets. The day before: ants. He lives above the bar, in a small room. He spends the night alone there, listening to his battery-operated radio, which picks up only a bad jazz station. He listens to bad jazz with his bad ear.

That closes the book on “Nestor”!

NEXT UP: The orphaned “Proteus”! What kind of monster would fail to adopt this poor child?*

* = clearly not you, as you are not a monster!

by BEN VORE

The pp. 31-36 tweets:

• p31. Greasy Deasy laughs at SD’s debts, calls him a fenian, then lectures him on The Potato Famine. This guy’s a royal prick.
• p32. Deasy asks SD to deliver a letter to the papers. He types, SD reminisces about the racetrack and playing hockey (“the joust of life”).
• p33. Deasy’s letter is about … foot and mouth disease? Cue anti-Semitic bluster!
• p34. Deasy really hates the Jews. SD wants to awake from the nightmare of history, hears God in “a shout in the street.”
• p35. Deasy to SD: You’re not a born teacher. SD to Deasy: “A learner rather.” SD rustles the sheets, really wants this conversation to end.
• p36. Deasy has to get in one last anti-Semitic joke. It’s bad. He’s a sad, phlegmy blowhard. SD says nothing; at last he’s free of him.

On to the recap:

We pick up in the middle of Stephen’s transaction with Deasy, who has just lectured Stephen about thrift and self-reliance and then — being the prick that he is — goes in for the kill by asking poor Stephen if he too can say I paid my way. I never borrowed a shilling in my life. I owe nothing. Of course Stephen can’t, and p. 31 begins with a comical internal accounting of Stephen’s extensive debts. Stephen answers Deasy’s question with, “For the moment, no,” which prompts Deasy to laugh “with rich delight” and respond ( “joyously,” no less), “I knew you couldn’t.” Say it with me: This guy is a jerk.

But he’s just getting warmed up. Like many a bully who masks his insecurities beneath an obnoxious personality, Deasy assumes Stephen is Fenian (an Irish Catholic nationalist), and thus hostile to Deasy being a Tory (an English-fearing Protestant). This is all Deasy needs to begin espousing his views on Irish history, going back to the Irish potato famine. 

Let’s watch a short clip for some background on the famine. For our purposes, the first 40 seconds are the most relevant here. Should you choose not to watch the remaining 2:38, please just put your head down on your desk and go to sleep or something.

Can someone get the lights please?

How about that creepy Famine with the scythe? Yikes!

For fun: Read through the comment thread on the video to get a little taste of the ongoing Irish/British hostilities with regard to this little bit of history.

As for its relevance to us and “Nestor,” it’s worth one more quick tangent on the name Deasy. According to Ulysses Annotated, The Deasy Act (1860) was “an act ostensibly intended for land reform in Ireland but in practice a ruthless regulation of land tenancy in favor of landlords (i.e., in favor of the pro-English, anti-Catholic establishment).” If Joyce named his Nestor after this Act, as seems likely, then we can see Deasy as the smug, self-serving, condescending embodiment of English Superiority whose selective reading of history would pin blame for the famine back on “you fenians.” The SparkNotes commentary sums it up nicely: “The purpose of [Deasy's] lecture is less to teach than to assert authority, an authority that is undermined by several factual errors.”

Once Deasy is done lecturing he asks Stephen for the favor of delivering a letter to the papers (Stephen has the hook-up). The hot button issue Deasy is eager to sound off on? Foot and mouth disease. ( “There can be no two opinions on the matter,” Deasy says. That’s another way of saying, “Everyone who doesn’t agree with me is an idiot.” Blooooooooow-hard, Blooooooooow-hard.)

As Deasy types, Stephen (seated “before the princely presence,” a nice little echo of Telemachus/Nestor) recalls a trip to the racetrack with his friend Cranly, then — hearing shouts and whistles from the hockey game outside — imagines himself down on that field, engaged in “the joust of life.” But in Stephen’s head, the game takes a rather grisly turn and ends with “the frozen deathspew of the slain, a shout of spear spikes baited with men’s bloodied guts.” (He’s been watching The Last Boy Scout one too many times.)

Then we get an ugly blast of anti-Semitic bile from Deasy, who suspects Jews have infiltrated every sector of the “highest places” in England. (He’s just getting warmed up.) Stephen recalls standing on the steps of the Paris Stock Exchange and contends that greedy merchants can be Jew and Gentile alike. Jews, Deasy retorts, “sinned against the light.” Stephen counters by asking, “Who has not?” This leads to the money quote of this episode, spoken by Stephen: “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”

Deasy, surely caught off guard by cryptic non-responses to his anti-Semitic charges, tells Stephen that “the ways of the Creator are not our ways. All history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of God.” At that moment there are more shouts from the hockey game. “That is God,” Stephen says, gesturing outside. This throws Deasy for a loop. “A shout in the street,” Stephen adds. Hooray! Ay! Whrrwhee!

Deasy is way off-balance by this point, so he shifts from anti-Semitism to some good old-fashioned misogyny. He trots out the tireless charge that “a woman bought sin into the world.” Stephen has had enough and politely raises the letters, indicating he’ll be off to take care of Deasy’s business. But Deasy keeps going, telling Stephen “you were not born to be a teacher.” Stephen is strangely passive here. “A learner rather,” he responds, but his heart isn’t in the fight. He rustles the sheets some more and keeps trying to get out the door. The conversation ended long ago for him.

Deasy, perhaps worried Stephen didn’t pick up on how Deasy really felt about the Jews, runs after him in the street to tell one more anti-Semitic joke. After he tells it, we get this rather repulsive little sentence:

A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a rattling chain of phlegm. 

Yum! Who’s hungry?

You’d better get hungry for the Nestor Funmary tomorrow. We’ll try to draw together the loose threads and tease out this “history is a nightmare” business. Until then, some questions for discussion:

• Can you feel that you paid your way and never borrowed a shilling in your life? No? Are you ashamed of yourself then?
• Have you suffered from foot and mouth disease? Really? You have? Sick. You disgust me.
• How is God like a shout in the street?
• Is Deasy right in his assessment of Stephen as a teacher? 
• What to make of Stephen’s increasing non-responsiveness from that point on? His internal monologue basically gets turned off.

Also, anyone with a firmer grasp on European history (here I’m thinking particularly of resident scholar Katie Else) care to tell us more about the Irish Potato Famine?

TOMORROW: The “Nestor” Funmary!

But who has adopted “Proteus”?

by BEN VORE

At the bookstore where I am employed, teenagers are beginning to trickle in to purchase their summer reading books. The other day one such student approached me at the information counter and showed me his list, which required him to select one of four titles. “We should have these in, so you can take your pick,” I said as we walked over to the summer reading cases. “I already know which one I’m picking,” he said. “The shortest.” (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie it is.)

Anyone notice how long the “Nestor” episode is?*

Let’s tackle it in two days. I’ll twread and recap pp. 24-30 tomorrow (so we can dig into the juicy financial transaction which occurs between Stephen and Deasy) and then pp. 31-36 Sunday.

I think it would be helpful to hear what method everyone is using to read Ulysses. I took Jerry’s advice and purchased Ulysses Annotated (which has proved to be quite a life preserver thus far). But now I’m faced with the problem of deciding when to consult the annotations: During the reading? After? Before? During is the most practical yet it blunts any momentum and threatens to bog one down in textual minutiea. After would theoretically allow for smooth, uninterrupted reading except for the fact we’re reading Ulysses, not The Monster At The End of This Book. And before, while conceivably like watching game tape and developing a subsequent strategy, is simply depressing: Twenty-odd pages of full-justified, double column text with lots of inscrutable abbreviations? What did we sign up for again? (And why I am typing this at one in the morning in the middle of my vacation?)

After reading two episodes now, this is the strategy I’ve settled on:

1. Attempt to read the episode sans annotations;
2. Re-read the episode with annotations at hand (or on the screen, as lizaanne42 recommends);
3. Proceed directly to the liquor cabinet for a stiff drink.

Basically, I’ve resigned myself to at least two readings. Except “resign myself” sounds defeatist. Let’s try: I’ve embraced the fact I need at least two readings. To paraphrase the Beastie Boys, Wandering Rocks is like the lotto: You gotta be in it to win it.

What other methods have been helpful? Anyone drowning out there?

Finally, I thought it might buck up morale and be a nice team-building exercise (a Wandering Rocks trust fall, if you will) to start a friendly blog rivalry with the hosers over at infinitesummer.org. And what would cripple a bunch of pomo pantywipes more than some bona fide Joycean epithets? So let’s debag those scrotumtightening fenians and collect some prepuces!

Maybe give ‘em some foot and mouth disease!

A coughball of laughter we phlegm in their general vicinity!

Rotto!

* = I did not consult the length of this episode before selecting “Nestor.” Honest. Nevertheless, I anticipate feeling judged and scorned by others in the group, especially the poor sap who signed up for “Circe.”

The first two Laws are not Malcolm’s:

• When in a hole, stop digging.
• All the best Tory scandals involve sex; and all the best Labour ones involve money.

The first is, of course, Denis Healey’s famous Law of Holes. If only a lot of current MPs, faced with a TV news camera or a reporter’s dictaphone, had followed it, life of late would have been much duller (vide infra).

It should have a corollary:

• If you have nothing to say, say no more than that.

Which is why Malcolm has had nothing to offer on the great madness that is gripping Britain, and causing ripples of mirth around the English-speaking world (surely these revelations and the accompanying apologias do not readily translate).

Quite when and by whom the second Law was originally pronounced escapes Malcolm. It might well have been those dear lost days when the Daily Telegraph filled its pages (and escaped the Irish censors) with the titillating details of the Profumo affair and its sub-plots. Present events seem to disprove this Law’s application, unless (oh, please! please!) it transpires that some MP has been providing for his/her bit-on-the-side on “expenses”.

All that apart, we now come to:

Malcolm’s third Law of British politics:

• Nice Tories are not bright; and bright Tories are not nice.

The prime examples in the former category have to be Sir Peter Viggers, of duck-house fame, and Bill Wiggin.

Viggers has been a fixture in the Commons for 35 years. In all that time he rose to ministerial office, as a bag-carrier (the Industry port-folio for Northern Ireland) over just a few months in Thatcher’s last administration.

Bill Wiggin … well, what’s to say?

Paul Waugh in the London Evening Standard reckons:

Not for nothing is Bill Wiggin known among colleagues as “Bungalow Bill”* (he’s not got a lot upstairs, geddit?).
Wiggin’s main defence today seems to be that he blundered in signing the wrong form and declaring which was his ’second home’. He had better be right, because David Cameron stuck his neck out today in suggesting it was “an honest mistake” (though he warned if it was shown to be anything else, Wiggin would be ‘out of the door’ like the others).
The Tory whip was out and about making his case on the Today prog, BBC News and Sky News. Yet for my money the most hilarious exchanges were on Sky.
Eamonn Holmes: “You don’t look like the sharpest tool in the box, do you?”
Wiggin: “Yes, I have to hold my hand up.”
Eamonn Holmes: “Not so much ‘bungalow bill’ as ‘bungling bill’?”
Wiggin: “Yes, Eamonn”.
FOOTNOTE: The nickname stems from another Bill Wiggin, a businessman who ’squired’ (copyright, the Daily Mail) actress Joan Collins way back in the 80s. He was a bit thick.

Nice to see that Waugh remembered “Bungalow Bill” Wiggins (notice the plural form), celebrated by the Daily Mail as:

a handsome, charming, smiley man named Bill Wiggins. Joan took one look at him and went weak at the knees.

He took one look at her, recognised her instantly and said wickedly: “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch your name.” She giggled, and kept on giggling. By the end of the meal she was hooked.

To make their meeting even more perfect, she discovered that his friends called him “Bungalow” Bill because – so they joked – he had nothing much up top but a hell of a lot down below.

If we believe the leaked e-mails of Des Swayne (Cameron’s PPS), way back in July 2006, Wiggin was known among the Tory higher echelon as “Mince-head”.

But, as they said of the party-going mushroom, a fungi to be with.

And the Tory bright guys?

Not nice. Not cuddly.

As the Great British Public will come to realise, as those Tories recently thrown to the wolves already have done, about David Cameron. To think it was said (perhaps this should be the Fourth Law) that loyalty was the Tory Party’s secret weapon.

I am strongly opposed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan for a National Animal Identification System, NAIS for short. Please don’t just take my word for it that this is a poor idea, read this post from “La Vida Locavore”, a food blog we track here.

To Jill Richardson, the writer of the post, NAIS makes about as much sense as Star Wars. Not the movie series that plagues Virginia’s life, but the missile defense shield proposed by President Ronald Reagan. And to prove it, she shreds the assertion by Minnesota Democratic Congressman Collin Peterson that the NAIS would be necessary if there were an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the U.S. (For the record, America’s domesticated livestock are FMD-free now.)

The threat, if you care about our export markets for livestock, is roughly like a nuclear bomb. It could come anytime, from anywhere, and it’s instant (economic) annihilation. It’s really scary. The government’s general plan if it happens is to find all of the sick or exposed animals as quickly as possible and kill them. Yes – you read that right. This is a disease that nearly all animals recover from naturally, but the government would kill them. And to aid with the killing, they want to register all animals in a burdensome, costly, Big Brothery national animal ID system.

Follow us for more commentary from time to time on this misguided and insidious attempt to control livestock production in the U.S..

FARMING TODAY
BBC Radio 4, listen again (31 Mar)

Government plans to make livestock farmers pay 22 million pounds towards preventing animal diseases such as foot and mouth, have been described as “outrageous” by the President of the National Farmers Union. It cost the taxpayer 44 million pounds last year to prevent and prepare for outbreaks of so-called exotic animal diseases, including bird flu and foot and mouth. The Department for Food and Rural Affairs is now suggesting all farmers should pay a levy to halve that bill AND pay into an insurance scheme for tackling any disease outbreaks.  

The government is proposing to introduce the new system by 2012.

EDIS CODE: BH-20090219-20575-TWN
Date & Time: 2009-02-19 04:30:43 [UTC]
Area: Taiwan, , Changhwa County, Yunlin County,

The name of Hazard: Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Animal)
Damage level: Moderate (Level 2)

Not confirmed information!

Description:

Foot-and-mouth disease has broken out on two Taiwan hog farms, 12 years after the epidemic hit the island and shattered Taiwan’s pork export markets, press reports said Thursday. The Council of Agriculture as saying that foot-and-mouth disease broke out earlier this month on hog farms in Changhwa County and in adjacent Yunlin County. Health workers have slaughtered 677 hogs from both farms, disinfected hog farms within a 3-kilometre radius of each outbreak site and banned the movement of animals in these areas. Changhwa and Yunlin are on Taiwan’s west coast, about three hours’ by bus from Taipei. Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture is investigating how the swine foot-and-mouth disease erupted on the island after an absence of 12 years. Authorities are worried that the new outbreaks could delay a declaration by the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE) that Taiwan is free of foot-and-mouth disease. Foot-and-mouth disease broke out on Taiwan hog farms on March 20, 1997, prompting Taiwan to cull 3.8 million swine.

Posted:2009-02-19 04:30:43 [UTC]

A disease is an illness which affects people, animals, or plants, for example one which is caused by bacteria or infection.

A medical conditions or disease is an abnormal condition which deteriorates body functions, associated with the symptoms and the specific signs. it can be caused by external factors, such as the organizations of invasion, or it can be caused either of the internal tle=” Autoimmune”>autoimmune diseases.
In, human beings disease is employed often more largely to refer to any condition which causes the extreme pain, the dysfunction, the distress, the problems social, and/or death with the afflicted person, or to similar problems for those in liaison with the person. In this broader direction, it includes sometimes damage, incapacities, disorders, syndromes, infections, symptoms of insulation, behaviors deviating, and of the atypical variations of structure and function, whereas in other contexts and for other goals those can be considered distinguishable categories.

Some Dieseases -

*  mad cow disease

Mad cow disease is a disease which affects the nervous system of cattle and causes death.

* venereal disease

Venereal disease is used to refer to diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhoea which are passed on by sexual intercourse. The abbreviation VD is also used.

* foot-and-mouth disease

Foot-and-mouth disease or foot-and-mouth is a serious and highly infectious disease that affects cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats.

* motor neurone disease

Motor neurone disease is a disease which destroys the part of a person’s nervous system that controls movement.

Here’s one I picked earlier!

The more Malcolm considers this photograph, from David Cameron’s “spoiler’ of a press conference yesterday, the more peculiar the image seems.

It was used as a spread over pages 6 and 7 of today’s Times. It disappeared from (or never appeared on) the Times website.

Was that because:

• someone spotted the possible implication?
• the Times wouldn’t afford the royalty to Stefan Rousseau and AP?

Even The Sun (even the Sun?) used something a bit more delicate.

PAGE CONTENTS

THIS – 87,000 Flights each Day – The Skies over Britain – Aviation and the Environment – Climate change – Mechanisms – Total Effect – Radiative Forcing – Vostock Core Samples – Potential reductions – Reducing travel – Kyoto Protocol – Emissions Trading – References for Understanding the Atmosphere

Don’t forget my other pages, links and comments are one click away at the top right of the page…

THIS:

This increase in the number of passengers using UK airports is representative of the world as a whole. It almost exactly also represents the annual number of millions of tons of water deposited as ice in our stratosphere. Where once it was SIX MILLION TONS per year (in 1958), it now (in 2008) is THREE HUNDRED MILLION TONS per year of exhaust ICE that finds its way into our stratosphere as a consequence of Man’s aviation activities. THAT is what is VISIBLE in your sky when you are complaining about it. NOTHING ELSE. It’s a piffling amount compared with the amount of water vapor ALREADY up there!

87,000 Flights each Day

http://www.natca.org/mediacenter/bythenumbers.msp#1

On any given day, more than 87,000 flights are in the skies in the United States. Only one-third are commercial carriers, like American, United or Southwest. On an average day, air traffic controllers handle 28,537 commercial flights (major and regional airlines), 27,178 general aviation flights (private planes), 24,548 air taxi flights (planes for hire), 5,260 military flights and 2,148 air cargo flights (Federal Express, UPS, etc.). At any given moment, roughly 5,000 planes are in the skies above the United States. In one year, controllers handle an average of 64 million takeoffs and landings.

For every one flight you see listed on an airport monitor, two you don’t see show up on air traffic controllers’ screens. It would take approximately 7,300 airport terminal monitors to show all the flights controllers handle in a single day and approximately 460 monitors to show the number of flights being handled at any one time.

The Skies over Britain

Aviation and the Environment

(From Wikipedia)
 Aviation impacts the environment because aircraft engines emit noise, particulates, gases, and contribute to climate change and global dimming. Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines, the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation. In the EU greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87% between 1990 and 2006.

There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme, with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account.

 Climate change

 Like all human activities involving combustion, most forms of aviation release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the earth’s atmosphere, very likely contributing to the acceleration of global warming. In addition to the CO2 released by most aircraft in flight through the burning of fuels such as JP-4 and JP-8, Jet-A (turbine aircraft) or Avgas (piston aircraft), the aviation industry also contributes greenhouse gas emissions from ground airport vehicles and those used by passengers and staff to access airports, as well as through emissions generated by the production of energy used in airport buildings, the manufacture of aircraft and the construction of airport infrastructure.

While the principal greenhouse gas emission from powered aircraft in flight is CO2, other emissions may include nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, (together termed oxides of nitrogen or NOx), water vapour and particulates (soot and sulfate particles), sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide (which bonds with oxygen to become CO2 immediately upon release), incompletely-burned hydrocarbons, tetra-ethyl lead (piston aircraft only), and radicals such as hydroxyl, depending on the type of aircraft in use. The contribution of civil aircraft-in-flight to global CO2 emissions has been estimated at around 2%. However, in the case of high-altitude airliners which frequently fly near or in the stratosphere, non-CO2 altitude-sensitive effects may increase the total impact on anthropogenic (man-made) climate change significantly — this problem is not present for aircraft that routinely operate at lower altitudes well inside the troposphere, such as balloons, airships, helicopters, most light aircraft, and many commuter aircraft.

Mechanisms

Subsonic aircraft contribute when aloft to climate change in four ways:

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
CO2 emissions from aircraft-in-flight are the most significant and best understood element of aviation’s total contribution to climate change. The level and effects of CO2 emissions are currently believed to be broadly the same regardless of altitude (i.e they have the same atmospheric effects as ground based emissions). In 1992, emissions of CO2 from aircraft were estimated at around 2% of all such anthropogenic emissions, though CO2 concentration attributable to aviation in 1992 was around 1% of the total anthropogenic increase, because emissions occurred only in the last 50 years.

Oxides of nitrogen (NOx)
At the high altitudes flown by large jet airliners around the tropopause, emissions of NOx are particularly effective in forming ozone (O3) in the upper troposphere. High altitude (8-13km) NOx emissions result in greater concentrations of O3 than surface NOx emissions, and these in turn have a greater global warming effect. The effect of O3 concentrations are regional and local (as opposed to CO2 emissions, which are global).
NOx emissions also reduce ambient levels of methane, another greenhouse gas, resulting in a climate cooling effect. This effect does not, however, offset the O3 forming effect of NOx emissions. It is now believed that aircraft sulfur and water emissions in the stratosphere tend to deplete O3, partially offsetting the NOx-induced O3 increases. These effects have not been quantified. This problem does not apply to aircraft that fly lower in the troposphere, such as light aircraft or many commuter aircraft.

Water vapor (H2O) Contrails
Aiircraft in flight at high altitudes emit water vapor, a greenhouse gas, which under certain atmospheric conditions forms condensation trails, or contrails. Contrails are visible line clouds that form in cold, humid atmospheres and are thought to have a global warming effect (though one less significant than either CO2 emissions or NOx induced effects). Contrails are extremely rare from lower-altitude aircraft, or from propeller aircraft or rotorcraft.
Cirrus clouds have been observed to develop after the persistent formation of contrails and have been found to have a global warming effect over-and-above that of contrail formation alone. There is a degree of scientific uncertainty over the contribution of contrail and cirrus cloud formation to global warming and attempts to estimate aviation’s overall climate change contribution do not tend to include its effects on cirrus cloud enhancement.

Particulates
Least significant is the release of soot and sulfate particles. Soot absorbs heat and has a warming effect; sulfate particles reflect radiation and have a small cooling effect. In addition, they can influence the formation and properties of clouds. All aircraft powered by combustion will release some amount of soot.

Total Effect

In attempting to aggregate and quantify these effects the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that aviation’s total climate impact is some 2-4 times that of its CO2 emissions alone (excluding the potential impact of cirrus cloud enhancement). This is measured as radiative forcing. While there is uncertainty about the exact level of impact of NOx and water vapour, governments have accepted the broad scientific view that they do have an effect. Accordingly, more recent UK government policy statements have stressed the need for aviation to address its total climate change impacts and not simply the impact of CO2.
The IPCC has estimated that aviation is responsible for around 3.5% of anthropogenic climate change, a figure which includes both CO2 and non-CO2 induced effects. The IPCC has produced scenarios estimating what this figure could be in 2050. The central case estimate is that aviation’s contribution could grow to 5% of the total contribution by 2050 if action is not taken to tackle these emissions, though the highest scenario is 15%. Moreover, if other industries achieve significant cuts in their own greenhouse gas emissions, aviation’s share as a proportion of the remaining emissions could also rise. Per passenger kilometre, figures from British Airways suggest carbon dioxide emissions of 0.1kg for large jet airliners (a figure which does not account for the production of other pollutants or condensation trails).

RADIATIVE FORCING 

The radiative forcing units are in watts per metre squared. The total positive forcing (on the right) amounts to 0.045 W/m2.

This must be compared with the world average insolation of 1330W/m2. It is 0.34 millionths of it.

Insolation values range from 800 to 950 kWh/(kWp·y) in Norway to up to 2,900 in Australia.

A large volcanic eruption would seriously lower this insolation.

VOSTOCK CORE SAMPLES

This is a plot of CO2 concentration, ambient temperature, CH4 concentration, insolation, running backwards in time for 420,000 years. CO2 can be seen to LAG ambient temperature.

Potential reductions

Modern jet aircraft are significantly more fuel efficient (and thus emit less CO2 in particular) than 30 years ago. Moreover, manufacturers have forecast and are committed to achieving reductions in both CO2 and NOx emissions with each new generation of design of aircraft and engine. The accelerated introduction of more modern aircraft therefore represents a major opportunity to reduce emissions per passenger kilometre flown.
Other opportunities arise from the optimisation of airline timetables, route networks and flight frequencies to increase load factors (minimise the number of empty seats flown), together with the optimisation of airspace. Another possible reduction of the climate-change impact is the limitation of cruise altitude of aircraft.
This would lead to a significant reduction in high-altitude contrails for a marginal trade-off of increased flight time and an estimated 4% increase in CO2 emissions. Drawbacks of this solution include very limited airspace capacity to do this, especially in Europe and North America and increased fuel burn due to jet aircraft being less efficient at lower cruise altitudes. However, the total number of passenger kilometres is growing at a faster rate than manufacturers can reduce emissions, and at present there is no readily available alternative to burning kerosene.
The growth in the aviation sector is therefore likely to continue to generate an increasing volume of greenhouse gas emissions. However some scientists and companies such as GE Aviation and Virgin Fuels are researching biofuel technology for use in jet aircraft. As part of this test Virgin Atlantic Airways flew a Boeing 747 from London Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on 24 February 2008, with one engine burning a combination of coconut oil and babassu oil. Greenpeace’s chief scientist Doug Parr said that the flight was “high-altitude greenwash” and that producing organic oils to make biofuel could lead to deforestation and a large increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
The majority of the world’s aircraft are not large jetliners but smaller piston aircraft, and many are capable of using ethanol as a fuel, with major modifications. While ethanol also releases CO2 during combustion, the plants cultivated to make it draw that same CO2 out of the atmosphere while they are growing, making the fuel closer to climate-change-neutral. The main problems with burning ethanol as a fuel are that it takes more energy to produce than is returned, it displaces food crops and thus raises the price of food and causes soil degradation.
While they are not suitable for long-haul or transoceanic flights, turboprop aircraft used for commuter flights bring two significant benefits: they often burn considerably less fuel per passenger mile, and they typically fly at lower altitudes, well inside the tropopause, where there are no concerns about ozone or contrail production. For even shorter flights, air taxi service using newer, fuel-efficient four- or six-seat light piston aircraft could provide an even lower environmental impact.

Reducing travel

An alternative method for reducing the environmental impact of aviation is to constrain demand for air travel. The UK study Predict and Decide – Aviation, climate change and UK policy, notes that a 10 per cent increase in fares generates a 5 to 15 per cent reduction in demand, and recommends that the British government should manage demand rather than provide for it. This would be accomplished via a strategy that presumes “… against the expansion of UK airport capacity” and constrains demand by the use of economic instruments to price air travel less attractively. A study published by the campaign group Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) concludes that by levying £9 billion of additional taxes the annual rate of growth in demand in the UK for air travel would be reduced to 2 per cent. The ninth report of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, published in July 2006, recommends that the British government rethinks its airport expansion policy and considers ways, particularly via increased taxation, in which future demand can be managed in line with industry performance in achieving fuel efficiencies, so that emissions are not allowed to increase in absolute terms.

Kyoto Protocol

Greenhouse gas emissions from fuel consumption in international aviation, in contrast to those from domestic aviation and from energy use by airports, are not assigned under the first round of the Kyoto Protocol, neither are the non-CO2 climate effects. In place of agreement, Governments agreed to work through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to limit or reduce emissions and to find a solution to the allocation of emissions from international aviation in time for the second round of Kyoto in 2009 in Copenhagen.

Emissions Trading

As part of that process the ICAO has endorsed the adoption of an open emissions trading system to meet CO2 emissions reduction objectives. Guidelines for the adoption and implementation of a global scheme are currently being developed, and will be presented to the ICAO Assembly in 2007, although the prospects of a comprehensive inter-governmental agreement on the adoption of such a scheme are uncertain.
Within the European Union, however, the European Commission has resolved to incorporate aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). A new directive has been adopted by the European Parliament in July 2008 and approved by the Council in October 2008. It will enter into force on 1 January 2012.

Well, there you are…    ….the most relevant aspect of this report is this:

Aviation is responsible for ONLY 3.5% of anthropic climate change, the existence of which is yet to be proved.

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References for Understanding the Atmosphere

Holton, James R. An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology. 2nd edition (London: Academic Press Inc, 1979)
Battan, Louis J. Fundamentals of Meteorology. (Englewood, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979)
McIlveen, Robin. Basic Meteorology: A Physical Outline. (Berkshire, UK: Van Norstrand Company Ltd., 1986).

And more:

“A group of farmers have launched a legal claim against two laboratories blamed for last year’s outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, it was announced today.”

Full story 

The Independent, 17th October 2008

Spurce: www.independent.co.uk

Alliance Group might buy lamb from South America to fill orders it can’t meet from New Zealand.

Chief executive Grant Cuff said with sheep numbers declining around the world, the Invercargill co-operative was looking at supplying North American and European markets with South American lamb.

Alliance considered a similar possibility about a decade ago, but Cuff said the situation had changed.

At the time South American lambs were lighter in weight, there were insufficient numbers and issues with disease and traceability.

South American farmers had improved the quality of lambs and addressed the disease and animal traceability issues which, together with falling sheep numbers, had encouraged Alliance to revisit the idea.

“New Zealand has looked at it before. It is all a matter of timing and priorities and we think the moment is right to have another look.”

Guaranteeing continuous supply may be necessary to satisfy export markets and if that can’t be done with our own lamb, meat companies will have to look elsewhere.

I have no concern about the quality of meat from South America. I’ve enjoyed several meals of lamb in Argentina and the meat was at least equal to the best I have eaten here, although that was due in part to the way it was cooked – on an asado .

However, there is a danger in branding their meat like ours because foot and mouth disease is a recurring problem in South America.

Keeping separate brands will ensure there is no risk to our exports by association with theirs if or when there is another outbreak of the disease there.