Pig Brains can Hurt Your Brains

In Minnesota a medical mystery had unfolded.

Workers at a meatpacking plant have had the same unexplained symptoms; fatigue, tingling and numbness in the legs and weakness.

The only thing they had in common was that they all worked in the same meatpacking plant.

This condition baffled doctors until they noticed a pattern. All people worked at the plant at the same station and complained of the same problem, “heavy legs.”

People who worked at the “head blowing” were the only ones who were afflicted with this illness.

Their job at this station is to extract the brain from the head of the hog. To do this a metal rod is shoved through the spinal column. Compressed air shot through the rod. This liquefies the brain, usually spraying the workers with brain matter.

Workers said they were usually covered with the spray by the time they left work. They wore smocks and protective eyewear. But their arms were bare and none wore faceguards to protect them from ingesting or inhaling the pig brains.

Doctors determined the ailment to “immune mimicry.” Their workers’ bodies were fighting the pig enzymes and brain matter. The problem is the pigs’ genetic make up is too close to the genes of humans. Because the genes were close their immune systems were fighting not only the pig genes but their own genes as well.

This was causing the immune system to attack itself.

The plant no longer uses the compressed air technique and orders all workers to wear face masks and other protective gear.

For more stories on meat plants:

Pig Brains May be Cause of Illness

Largest Slaughter House Has no Problems

Pig Brain may Cause New Illness

Mystery Disease Could be from Pigs

Contaminated Drugs Cause Paralysis

Almost 200 leukemia patients thought they were getting injected with the medications they need. Most of them were unable to walk by the end of the treatment.

The injections the patients received were contaminated; they were laced with other drugs, half of them toxic.

Shanghai Hualian is the Beijing drug company behind this paralysis.

China’s food and drug administration stated that members of this company have been detained for the criminal investigation.

How does this affect the United States? The drug company is also the sole supplier of the abortion pill, RU-486, to the U. S.

Officials of the Beijing company say the abortion pills are manufactured at a different plant about an hour away.

For more informaton on abortion see:

ARTICLES ABOUT MIFEPREX (RU-486) (DRUG)

Abortion Rates Compare Among Countries

For more articles about leukemia see:

Leukemia in Beijing

What is Leukemia?

Machine Gun but no Liquor

Finally someone is standing up for the rights of minors in this Nation.

A South Carolina Congressman fathered a Bill to allow service men and women to drink before the age of 21.

The problem is states with a drinking age lower than 21 lose all highway funding.

And it would be only enlisted minors. If you aren’t enlisted, you could not buy a drink.

Some oppose the Democratic Bill. Nay-sayers claim lowering the drinking age makes local roads less safe.

The safety advocates also say studies show minors consuming alcohol is not safe for the military either.


For further reading on this topic:

Lowering the Drinking Age

Minors and Alcohol

Penalties for Alcohol Suppliers

Schools Hindering not Preparing

Principals in the Northeast are setting students back once again. ALISON LEIGH COWAN of the New York Times brought us a story about teachers hindering their students instead of preparing them for the life ahead.

Teachers at Connecticut’s Oakdale School have put restrictions on children’s recess activities.

Recess for them was usually 22 minutes of unstructured play. Now games like kickball, dodgeball, and tag are banned.

Principal Mark S. Johnson said he encourages kids to play with hula hoops instead of games like soccer and other “body-banging” activities, as he put it. Johnson said children can not only hurt their bodies but their feelings as well.

Children from Wyoming to New Jersey are having their recesses restricted as well. Parents aren’t taking this well.

School officials encourage children to play with hula hoops and engage in activities alone where they are “less likely” to hurt themselves and others.

Today even recess is structured. No creativity. And schools are also discouraging anything involving competition as well.

Are they kidding? This is hurting kids, not preparing them for the real world. Do they think that in the work place the boss is going to say “Okay guys, no competition, everyone is great and exceptional. You are all such special people.” NO! Competition is what this country strives on. Every aspect of our society would suffer if we had that mentality. Learning these things at an early age is only an advantage.

The San Francisco Chronicle has further reading on this subject.

To hear the other side of the story go to the New Haven Independent.

New Jersey state Assemblyman Joseph Malone, R-Ocean, Monmouth, Burlington, Mercer, is even trying to enact a law to make sure children are getting a set recess period. The News Transcript has this story.

Swimming with the Fish

ELISABETH ROSENTHAL said in her article in the New York Times that Europe is the biggest fish market in the world. A market worth about 14 billion euros, or about $22 billion a year.

She said because they are importing so much fish for consumption, fisherman are going to greater lengths and casting larger nets, illegal nets.

Because Europe's people are eating so many fish the sea goers are catching $1.6 billion in illegal ocean dwellers.

Why is this a problem? Because the fisherman are wiping out many species of fish. With the nets they don't only catch large fish ready to be eaten. They also entangle small fish. By the time these small fish are thrown back they are already dead. And the nets scrape across the bottom and ruin fish habitats and coral.

And the bigger issue here is that it is all too easy to sell these illegal fish. Organized smuggling bands can ship fish far beyond government quotas or treaties. Once the fish pass one check point, they are able to be shipped anywhere in the world. And, unlike cattle, the technology to trace where the fish came from is not yet mature.

The surf is simply not as easy to patrol as the turf.

And it affects us here at home too. The imbalance of supply and demand drives up the price of the commodity; in turn we pay more.

To read more on this story or others like this go to:

Empty Seas: Europe’s Appetite for Seafood Propels Illegal Trade

Another article by SHARON LAFRANIERE shows the cause and effect of fish and immigration. People want fish. They immigrate to be able to fish and then sell what they have worked to get.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/world/africa/14fishing.html

Ms. Rosenthal also wrote another similar article about Europe ignoring scientists warnings on over fishing for the Herald Tribune.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/12/20/despite_warnings_by_scientists_eu_eases_limits_for_fishermen/