My ticks just aren’t up to scratch.

(Jan. 25) — American Scots will have an added reason to send their kilts flying Monday as they celebrate the birthday of poet Robert Burns. After a 21-year ban, the U.S. is planning to allow imports of haggis, a traditional Scottish dish.

The ban was imposed in 1989, at the height of the mad cow disease outbreak in Britain, because haggis contains sheep heart, liver and lungs — organs that are considered at risk for carrying scrapie, a close variant of mad cow. 

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture was quoted by London’s Daily Telegraph as saying that it was reviewing its regulations in line with a ruling from the World Organization for Animal Health that sheep lung is safe. 

“At this time, there are regulations being drafted,” the spokeswoman said.

Monday’s timing couldn’t be better for Scots, because Burns, famous for such poems and songs as “Auld Lang Syne” and “A Man’s a Man for A’ That,” also penned “Address to a Haggis” in 1787.

Since the ban was enforced, Americans of Scottish descent — of whom there are estimated to be more than 9 million — have been forced to celebrate Burns Night without real haggis.

“It was a silly ban, which meant that a lot of people have never tasted the real thing,” Margaret Frost, of the Scottish American Society in Ohio, told the Guardian. “We have had to put up with the U.S. version, which is made from beef and is bloody awful.”

Scotland’s rural affairs secretary, Richard Lochhead, said, “I am greatly encouraged to hear that the U.S. authorities are planning a review of the unfair ban on haggis imports. We are in regular contact with the industry on this issue and believe that reversing the ban would deliver a vote of confidence in Scottish producers and allow American consumers to sample our world-renowned national dish.” 

He added, “It’s time for the U.S. authorities to deliver a Burns Night boost and recognize that Scottish haggis is outstanding quality produce.”

Sales of haggis in the U.K. brought in the equivalent of more than $14 million last year, the 250th anniversary of Burns’ birth.

Jo Macsween, co-director of Macsween, a leading producer of the product in Edinburgh, said the U.S. Agriculture Department’s action would come as good news to both tourists in Scotland and Scots in the U.S. 

“I’m very excited by this news,” she told the BBC. “In my experience, when I have encountered American tourists in Scotland they absolutely loved it. … So they will be delighted that next time they come to visit they can not only take it back but hopefully manufacturers like us will actually start shipping it there too.”

WHO slams swine flu critics as ‘irresponsible’

WHO says critics who claim swine flu is fake pandemic are ‘irresponsible’

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization on Monday slammed as “irresponsible” critics who claim swine flu is a fake pandemic created for the benefit of drug companies.

The U.N. health agency said the outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 influenza in North America last year had all the scientific characteristics of a pandemic, adding the WHO was never improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry that has benefited from huge government orders for vaccines and anti-viral drugs.

“The world is going through a real pandemic. The description of it as a fake is wrong and irresponsible,” the WHO said in a strongly worded statement Monday.

A WHO spokesman declined to spell out who the World Health Organization was responding to in its statement, saying only that “this applies to anyone who believes it is not a real pandemic.”

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog based in Strasbourg, France, recently recommended that the EU investigate WHO’s swine flu pandemic declaration to see if the health agency acted under undue influence. WHO officials are due to meet Tuesday with the Council of Europe, which is not an official European Union body and has no power to act against WHO.

According to a WHO tally dated Jan. 17, more than 209 countries and territories have reported laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu, including at least 14,142 deaths. This is far fewer than would be expected to die each year from seasonal flu, but the figure is likely to exclude many unreported cases, according to WHO.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the relatively low number of confirmed deaths from swine flu didn’t mean the virus wasn’t a pandemic.

“A pandemic has nothing to do with severity or number of deaths,” he told The Associated Press. “A pandemic literally is a global spread of a disease.”

He said WHO was “always very measured and sober in what we said and we always described the virus as causing overwhelmingly mild disease. “We cannot control how people react to this information,” he added.

In its statement, WHO said it had put in place numerous safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest among its advisers, including requiring them to provide a signed declaration detailing any professional or financial interest that could affect their impartiality.

“WHO takes allegations of conflict of interest seriously and is confident of its decision-making independence regarding the pandemic influenza,” it said.

By Jeremy Grant in London

Published: January 25 2010 23:06 | Last updated: January 25 2010 23:06

An explosion in trading propelled by computers is raising fears that trading platforms could be knocked out by rogue trades triggered by systems running out of control.

Trading in equities and derivatives is being driven increasingly by mathematical algorithms used in computer programs. They allow trading to take place automatically in response to market data and news, deciding when and how much to trade similar to the autopilot function in aircraft.

Analysts estimate that up to 60 per cent of trading in equity markets is driven in this way.

Concerns have been highlighted by news that NYSE Euronext, the transatlantic exchange operator, has fined Credit Suisse proprietary trading arm for the first time for failing to control its trading algorithms. In the Credit Suisse case, its system bombarded the NYSE’s systems with hundreds of thousands of “erroneous messages” in 2007, slowing down trading in 975 shares.

The case was far from isolated, say traders. CME Group, the Chicago-based futures exchange, is investigating a case this month where a trader in “mini” S&P Index futures contracts “inadvertently traded approximately 200,000 contracts as both buyer and seller”.

Last year, the London Stock Exchange suffered a three-hour outage after its trading system collapsed under the strain of a huge volume of orders. Some traders blamed the spike in volumes from algorithmic trading.

Frederic Ponzo, managing partner at GreySpark Partners, a consultancy, said: “It is absolutely possible to bring an exchange to breaking point by having an ‘algo’ entering into a loop so that by sending them at such a rate the exchange can’t cope.”

Regulators say it is unclear who is monitoring traders to ensure they do not take undue risks with their algorithms.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules that would require brokers to establish procedures to prevent erroneous orders.

Mark van Vugt, global head of sales at RTS Realtime Systems, a trading technology company, said: “If a position is blowing up so fast without the exchange or clearing firm able to react or reverse positions, the firm itself could be in danger as well.”

when the tick inspectors came to my door, i just reached down and pulled off a couple from my bird dog and attempted to hand them to the inspectors. as they were running away i yelled,” i thought you wanted to inspect these little fellers.” i guess they ulterior motives, huh.

we have a new game here in oklahoma. in the past month, we have had record snowfall, tornados, and a small earthquake. we are now taking bets on the next natural occurance and the magnitude. my dear old mother will be 91 on feb 2 and after the party, i’m headed for warm weather.

rno

I am waiting to see if by the end of this week the market falls 10% or so in a straight line.

If that happens I see the potential for a late February, early March bottom and a doubling in the price of gold stocks. GDX 38 or so to 76 no later than June. I spent the weekend looking at some probable scenarios, so when I saw his commentary it made me curious, as it dovetails with a possible outcome.

Thank you for the comments.

http://www.goldenjackass.com/

Hope that helps - best frr 

I am sorry I don’t have the link…but it will show up here for us I am sure….

It’s kind of funny but she told me specifically that she wasn’t interested in meeting anybody named Silverboom or JBI! 

latest that you are discussing? You’ve got me curious. TIA.

… are qualified and for real.

PS: todays Midas has a nice story on an after Vancouver conference coctail hour until G. Bush and G.W.Bush turned up and my good friends at PMI Gold (PMV) took off …

Yes, what JW is saying certainly fits the cycle for Gold and the timing.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it is not the bankers laying claim to all of the Gold they can lay their hands on as JS suggested for this time period, long ago.

Though, now we find out not only does ole snake oil know everything, but he even knows what other credible people do not know.  Go figure…………………..

As I said in an earlier post, anecdotal or visual evidence is more important than official stats. 

as I pride myself to have personally known JW for some years and also being in touch occasionally as I believe as a friend, I do know that most of his contacts are not only for real but more so individuals I would personally not only believe in, though would also give them the credit they deserve.

Knowing, that this statement lacks some credibility as I can’t disclose some of JW’s contacts in my overall area, I can only advise all of you on the tent to take notice of JW’s concerns, a guy who’s  geo-poltical and economical  insights

http://tinyurl.com/yfm7nja

try using  www.tinyurl.com for extra long links that distort the page.  Thanks!  Floridagold

After all, he’s telling stuff even insiders don’t know. 

JW is telling us stuff that we want to believe, that we know will happen sometime (this week would be great), that when it does happen will come out of the blue …… but I ask the same Q.  Who is it?  How does JW know him?  How does the source really know?  And, more importantly, how long before it has an effect?

After all, these things, historically, take much longer to unravel than you could believe.  Take nordicbug’s last post on the UK.  Growing up there in the 70’s, it amazed me how the country could survive.  Continual trade deficits, crumbling car industry, all the other industries (cotton, wool, brass, motorcycles, shipbuilding etc. etc.) long lost to Asia, rebuilding after the war, European bureaucracy starting to stifle initiative, high unemployment, 98% tax rate; the place was a disaster.  North Sea oil helped for a while, but only now is she threatened with a ratings downgrade!

One of the City’s leading financiers last night predicted a looming collapse of financial confidence in Britain as Gordon Brown received the twin blow of a fresh warning from a ratings agency over the budget deficit and figures revealing that the slump of the past 18 months is now officially the deepest since the second world war.

Terry Smith, chief executive of money brokers Tullett Prebon, said: “We will have a crisis of confidence in the credit worth of the UK. People won’t be willing to buy gilts at anything like the current interest rate, or even possibly in this currency and we’ll have an interest rate hike and/or a good, old-fashioned sterling crisis. Possibly both.”

Smith’s comments on Sky News came just hours after ratings agency Fitch said that the UK – along with France and Spain – needed to “articulate more credible and stronger fiscal consolidation during the course of 2010 to underpin confidence in the sustainability of public finances”.

Failure to do so, the ratings agency added, would greatly increase the chances of a debt downgrade, which would increase the cost of servicing the national debt.

www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/22/britain-still-in-recession

Jim Willie knows what he says is not going to move this manipulated Comex Gold price….so whoever the source is I think we should all begin to listen…it takes awhile to change the substructure of a market and have all the underlying assets moved into thehands that want it…my gut is screaming that they have gotten almost all the easily available gold and silver and plat…one morning we wake up and ZAPP…. news bulletin ….Gold trades no more on Comex….doesn’t matter who the source to Willies article is then….
It is tough to beat a proffesional team three times in a row…we have had gold up and hui down 2 times lately with a bad day following…my guess is nice UP day tomorrow …followed by many more…no matter what the SM does…

During the trend decline or the counter rally for the USDollar, a constant event persists. The London metal inventory is being totally depleted of gold bullion. Fast approaching is the event of GAME OVER for London, a condition that has already reached critical level according to a key reliable source of information with London connections and direct experience there. The paper gold market and the physical gold bullion market have finally separated in a practical manner, meaning actual gold has almost no role anymore in London paper contract settlement. The absence of gold in London requires extraordinary tactics to settle contracts and to obtain gold bullion. Intimidation and bribes accompany gold delivery demands. They have almost zero gold, its supply having been drained in high volumes since early December, a process currently in acceleration. The opportunity to convert fiat money into precious metal weight is closing, at least at prices considered reasonable. The London gold banker said, “There is going on a lot more than meets the eye. The physical system is actually consolidating bigtime and is organizing itself with lightning speed, totally hidden from pretty much anyone, even the so-called insiders. The paper precious metal market and the physical precious metal market have defacto disconnected. The paper and physical gold markets currently operate in parallel universes. The outflow of physical metal from bank vaults is happening at a mind bending pace.” The true gold price might very soon become unknown, an extremely positive development. Gold market disruption leads to chaos, followed by much greater clarity. Like a bankruptcy process, the event is sudden but the cleanup takes weeks as dust settles. Right now, we see strong attempts using naked gold short contracts at the London metals exchange (LBMA) and the COMEX in the United States to drive down the gold price. It is all illegal and permitted. Margin calls have hit, forcing further selling of paper contracts. Before long, no gold metal will be available until clarity and prosecutions begin.

You’ve got to give it to her, she solved that problem.I would have loved to have seen their faces. Mind you, she could have had another problem on her hands. Maybe she had an AK47 hidden somewhere just in case.