When Did We First Test For Horse DNA In Beef?
This may seem to be an obvious question, but I can’t seem to be able to find the answer on the Internet.
There is also the related question of when were we able to test for equine DNA in beef?
After all, if we’ve been able to do this for some years, could we have detected the fact that crooks were putting horse in beef earlier? And then there’s how long has it all been going on?
Perhaps, we should ask people if they find a Findus beef lasagne or any of the other suspect products in the freezer with a date of last year, they should take it to get tested.
A Squamous Cell Carcinoma Of The Heart
Perhaps because yesterday was St. Valentine’s Day and it was my sixth without her, I think I should say more about the cancer that killed C.
Not to elicit sympathy for myself, as I’ve had enough of that in the past few years, but to put the true record on the Internet, so that it can be found.
It’s not pleasant reading, and there may be a cure by now, but typing “squamous cell carcinoma of the heart” into Google, just gives a couple of references other than the few in this blog or where I have posted in other forums.
C started to become short of breath in about July and in September, she went into Papworth Hospital to find out the cause, as it looked like it was something wrong with her heart.
In late October, they found the problem which was a squamous cell carcinoma actually growing inside the heart. So it was actually behaving like a valve shutting off the blood flow around the rest of her body.
They did try an experimental chemotherapy using a drug called Tarceva, but all this did was destroy her gut and make her mouth incredibly sore. It had no effect on the cancer.
The pain was so bad, she refused to see any of her friends and effectively withdrew into herself, just seeing her carers, and the immediate family. The pain was so bad at one point, that she asked me to take her to Switzerland, but by then, she would probably have found it impossible to travel. When I said no, she realised she hadn’t got long to live.
She died on December 11th, 2007, just a couple of months after the terrible diagnosis.
I said earlier, that I hope treatment is now possible. However do bear in mind, that C’s cancer was the only one of its type in 2011 in the UK and she was a very fit, non-smoker and light drinker, who’d hardly been ill in her near sixty years. She had had breast cancer, which was unrelated to the one that killed her, and had made a complete recovery.
A squamous cell carcinoma of the heart, must be one of the worst cancers you can get.
Ten Years Of The London Congestion Charge
It is now ten years since the London Congestion Charge was brought in and it is reported here on the BBC.
Perhaps eight or so years ago, when I walked round the are covered in London, the traffic appeared to be less heavy than it is now. And as I reported in this post, the problems in Chelsea are awful. So it would appear that it is working and the removal of the Western Extension of the zone was a real mistake.
As a non-driver, I’m very much in favour of the system and feel the area should be expanded. But even most of my friends, who live in London and drive, don’t ever pay the charge, as they use public transport or taxis, when going to Central London.
What to me is the most interesting thing about the Congestion Charge is how well the technology has worked. I was very dubious, that this could be done successfully, those ten years ago. But in this case, I was very pleased to have my fears proven wrong.
Politicians And Conservative Thinking
This article about Ed Miliband and his tax policies, shows everything that is wrong with politicians. Obviously, the 10p tax rate brought in by Gordon Brown didn’t work, as why would he later have abolished it. Politicians of all parties just can’t get it into their head, that when old ideas fail, it is time to give up conservative thinking and try new ideas.
You could argue, that a Mansion Tax is a good idea, but it is just another variation of the politics of envy.
I feel it would make housing problems worse, as from what I’ve read, it would be better for tax purposes to own six £700,000 houses, rather than one worth £4,000,000 or so.
Thus, those with pots of money would take houses out of the available pool, which let’s face it is too small at all levels.
I wouldn’t be hit by a Mansion Tax, as my house is probably worth just over a million, although I paid a lot less for it, just two years ago. But it is in an area, where prices are rising quite fast, due to the improvements in public transport. In a few years, it’ll probably be within the Mansion Tax rate. So why should I pay more, just because I made a good decision?
I would raise money from housing in other ways. The Mansion Tax would be paid on any property, where the owner doesn’t live in it. And the starting point would be a £1,000,000.
This would mean second houses would pay the Mansion Tax, as you couldn’t be registered in two places. I’ve lived in two houses at the same time in the past and it’s a pain and very inefficient.
So let’s ditch all of the consevative ideas and get really radical with ideas, that create more houses and generate more jobs and wealth.
And We Think We’ve Got Nimbys!
This article on the BBC’s web site shows that nimbys get everywhere, even in Italy. But it is a fascinating article about a rail tunnel between Italy and France. Christian Fraser, the author, puts this case in favour of the tunnel.
The pro-tunnellers employ a mixture of hyperbole and hard-nosed economic home truths as they argue for the project. The Atlantic will reach out to the Urals via this new link, they cry. Freight trains will zoom to and fro, boosting the shambling economies of southern Europe. Of greater interest to British tourists – skiers like me – is that the journey time from London to Milan will be cut to just six hours.
With those against as follow.
The naysayers insist that the tunnel will be an ugly, expensive white elephant. They point out that the existing trans-Alpine road and rail routes seem to cope very nicely, thank you. They claim that projections of traffic were drawn up 20 years ago and are hopelessly out-of-date. And they are worried about potentially dangerous minerals that are buried underneath the mountains being released into the air and water.
Hand on heart, even the keenest of protesters would struggle to claim the Susa Valley was an area of outstanding beauty. A narrow pass, it is already crammed with the clutter of human development – a motorway stalks across the valley floor on gigantic stilts, elevated above railway lines, quarries and factories.
But he also describes the action taking place.
In Italy, they have lobbied tenaciously – and at times violently – in their fight against the rail link between Lyon and Turin. Some 400 people were injured in clashes with the police last year when the tunnel site was first fenced off.
I know that area reasonably well, as I’ve driven through it and flown over it in a light aircraft several times. It is one of those areas, where if asked to dig a tunnel, your first action would be to ask if there was an easier route.
I don’t know the economics of this rail route, but I suspect that in the future some route will be completed to allow passengers to take the train from London and Paris to Rome or Milan.
Everyday Units
They are talking on the BBC about an asteroid passing the earth tonight as being the size of an Olympic swimming pool. There’s more here.
Why are objects always Olympic swimming pools, London buses or football pitches?
Incidentally, an astronomer has said that this asteroid is possibly about the size of the one that landed in Tunguska in 1908. Although of course no-one can be sure.
The Anonymous Widower 