Mad Cow Disease Testing -- 1% of All Cows

The US Agriculture Department only tests 1% of all cows for mad cow disease.

But if our government resources are not enough to test all cows, what if private entities want to test all cows for mad cow disease? A Kansas meatpacker has been in dispute with Agriculture Department and recently lost at the Federal Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals held that Agriculture Department can bar private testing.

See this digg and article:
http://digg.com/business_finance/US_Can_Block_Private_Mad_Cow_Disease_Testing

Olympics 2008 -- Moment I Will Remember

I did not get to see much of Olympics this year. I generally love to watch gymnastics, but it's always on much too late for me to catch it (except right now, because apparently I've turned into an insomniac). I caught random moments during the weekend and some week nights when I happened to turn on the t.v.

NBC, obviously, focused mostly on American athletes. But the moment that I think I will remember is watching one particular swimming event, where the gold medal did not go to an American. I would have to be blind and deaf not to be aware of Phelps and Torres. I cheered them both on and was rather heartbroken that Torres did not win the gold. But the race I will remember is a rather long men's swimming event (I forget the exact distance), where the commentators focused on an Australian swimmer as the favorite to win. The gold medal, though, went to a Tunisian swimmer. No one even talked about him. Why is this the moment I think I will remember? Because as my sister correctly observed, that swimmer is the only athlete from Tunisia that won a medal, and it's gold at that.

I checked the standing again today, and he's the only Tunisian to bring home the gold medal.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/2008standings/index.html

There are other countries that send so many athletes that mathematically, they have to be one of the countries that will have won the more medals than others. I think, though, it must be incredibly special for an athlete to be the sole representative of his or her country. And how proud that entire country must be that an internationally (or at least by American news commentators) unheard of athlete captures the gold!

If you study the standings, there are quite a number of countries with just one medal. With so many competitions and sports, it's probably not easy to have caught the moment where you saw an athlete proudly wins that sole medal for his or her country. During the random moments where I turned to Olympics, I was lucky enough to have watched that precious moment for Tunisia!

My Washington DC Trip over the 4th of July

It is officially now over a month since I visited Washington D.C. to see some sites and mainly to see my friends. I took a couple of days off to visit over the 4th of July weekend. It was mostly a visit of running around to see my friends (whose pic's I am not posting here... for that matter, neither is my pic). It was perfect weather -- not too hot or humid. All in all, it was a good trip albeit slightly tiring by the time I got home. Here are some pic's.


The United States Supreme Court!!
As an attorney, I was a bit awed to walk around and see where the Supreme Court hears cases.
The White House.
I went to the newest museum -- Newseum. This is a piece of Berlin Wall. I remember how our history teacher in high school threw out his entire lesson plan for the day and talked about what a historic occasion it was to have the Berlin Wall crumble down. As a typical, apathetic high school kid, I didn't really understand the magnitude then.
This is a hall where front pages of various newspapers all around the world were posted every day.
We were trying to watch fireworks, but it started to lightly rain. This is a picture of my yellow umbrella (my favorite!!), keeping our feet and cameras dry.
One of kzillion firework pictures I took.
Another one. You'll note the dark mass on the right obscuring part of the firework... it was actually smoke from the fireworks.
And another one, with lots of colors!

In all a great trip. These pictures are very belated but better late than never!