Foreign Affairs Discussion Group Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: FaultLine who wrote (122715)	1/5/2004 2:26:41 AM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) of 281500

OT?? re Mad Cow Disease: The Trojan Cow: rkm.com.au The Four Mad Cow Boys of the Apocalypse: rkm.com.au 1. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is a great name. Elicits this picture of brains being eaten away and turned into sponges. Almost as vivid as "flesh-eating bacteria". 2. It's a great example of poor risk management, and the resulting misallocation of resources. If you bought some hamburger from an infected cow, your risk of death would be higher from a car accident while driving home. Or two dozen other risks I could name. Worrying about seat belts and loaded guns makes more sense than worrying about BSE. But the horror of spongy brains gets an emotional response. 3. If all human life were treated as if it had the same value, all the money being spent to prevent a few hundred deaths from BSE, could save millions of other lives from easily treatable infections and/or malnutrition in poor nations. But some lives are more valuable than others, so resource allocation is skewed. 4. It's a very weird thing that causes the infection: a prion, which has no identifiable genetic material. Not a bacteria, not a virus.

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next