Tuesday 29 February 2000

Pic of the day: Madness is not the only danger in cows. (With apologies to Stephen Donaldson, author of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The original and famous quote is "Madness is not the only danger in dreams.") Cow milk allergy in small children is now widely believed to be a source of several allergic and auto-immune diseases.

It's a leap year. Those of us who have lived for a while, have noticed that these are supposed to pop up every 4 years. The math brains may have noticed that it always happens in years that are divisible by 4. Thus, 1999 was not a leap year but 2000 is. So what's the fuss? It turns out there is some tiny aberration from the rule: Hundred-years are not leap years, unless the century is also divisible by 4. Some people feared that this would disrupt computer systems. I guess they would, for such computer systems that were programmed with they year 1900 in mind. That is, none. There may be some amateurish pieces of software that can't handle leap years at all. But they probably won't launch any nukes this time either.

Instead we've got another problem around here. Actually, in Denmark so far, but that's just a ferry trip across from here. It is quite popular for people on the south coast of Norway to take that ferry: They can buy stuff tax free on board, and taxes are quite important here (as in quite large). And they can buy cheap Danish meat, mostly swine and cattle. They may be regretting it now. They may, indeed, be throwing it away now. They may, conceivably, be throwing it up now. The cows have gone mad.

Mad Cow Disease, or BSE as the scientists call it. This is bad enough for the cows. But experience for the UK shows that this disease can be transmitted to humans, who die a slow and horrible death from it. There is no respite, no hope. When this disease spread in Great Britain, panic broke out across much of Europe. And now it has come to Denmark - though so far only at one point. With cows and humans alike, though, there is a fairly long latency period. The prions could be anywhere by now ... including Norwegian fridges.

Actually, even at the height of the BSE epidemic in Great Britain, the risk of infection was miniscule. Even if you gorged on beef day after day, chances of getting the disease were low. Yes, it happened; but there are tens of millions of people on them small islands. The risk of dying horribly from smoking is overwhelmingly larger, and yet people smoke like chimneys. Speeding or drunken driving is not just a great risk to yourself, but to others as well. Yet these things are common and barely raise an eyebrow. Getting up too early in the morning is proven to be a health risk; stress at work and too much coffee can lead to strokes and other nasty stuff. And, there is always HIV around. Yet people go on with their lifestyles. But one mad cow, and panic breaks out.

Not to make light of those who die from this horrid brain disease. And I welcome a reminder that over-eating of meat is not the way to go. But things should as always be put in perspective. Before we start spending tens of millions to eradicate BSE, we may stop and consider if this gold could not be spent better making school roads safe for children or something. If people don't want bovine diseases, there is always the option of not eating beef. The option of not going to school is not so attainable.

On a much lighter note, there is a tradition at least here in Norway that on the leap year day, women are allowed to propose marriage. (This is obviously from the good old days where women were supposed to wait patiently with their hands in their lap, whatever now they did there.) Furthermore, the man - if his reply was no - had to buy his freedom with gloves. Lots of gloves. My distorted memory claims it was a dozen pairs, at least. Then again, I never had any direct experience with it. And as the leap year day ticks towards its end, this remains the situation.

Yet in truth, there is only one woman who should have received a "yes" from me. And she does not know it, nor is it likely that she ever will. She thinks that I love another, and she is right. But love is one thing, marriage is another. There are different kinds of love; one is the love a father feels for a daughter; another is the love a man feels for a woman; and a third is the deepest bonds of friendship. While the one love may be stronger than the other, they do not exclude each other. Not that it matters in the least any way: I will likely be dead by old age if nothing else before any of them guesses anything. And that is all for the best for all of us. :)