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Miss Piggy, the famed porcine muppet, knew a thing or two about mirrors. In fact, she was seldom without one. She may have been vain, but she was also one smart pig, given that researchers regard the ability to use a mirror as evidence of complex cognition. Now, it turns out, Miss Piggy isn't the only clever porker. Real pigs also understand the value of their reflection, according to new research, putting them in an elite group of animals. A team of animal welfare scientists at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom placed eight domesticated pigs (Sus scrofa),...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that pigs in a commercial herd in Indiana have tested positive for swine flu, making it the first time the virus has been found in such hogs. The USDA said it discovered four tissue samples that tested positive for the virus using its swine surveillance program. The sample was collected in late October, and the USDA said the pigs as well as the people caring for the animals have recovered. Last month, tests confirmed that several show pigs at the Minnesota State Fair contracted swine flu, also known as the H1N1...

U.S. Capitol Police have rejected PETA’s plan to bring live pigs to the Capitol because of swine flu fears. In an Oct. 23 letter to the animal-rights group obtained by The Hill, Capitol Police cited a recommendation from the D.C. Health Department and said it was rejecting PETA’s request “due to significant health concerns about the possible spread of the H1N1 virus.” The letter also cited “nuisance concerns” with the plan by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to bring a group of pigs and gallons of swine urine and tons of manure to Capitol Hill.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson whose remorseless witness stand confession to killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 shocked the world, has died. She was 61 and had been suffering from brain cancer..." Debra Tate, the slain actress's younger sister, told the parole commissioners Sept. 2 that she "will pray for (Atkins') soul when she draws her last breath, but until then I think she should remain in this controlled situation." Debra Tate noted that she would have a 40-year-old nephew if her sister had lived..." Atkins married twice while in prison....

CAIRO — It is unlikely anyone has ever come to this city and commented on how clean the streets are. But this litter-strewn metropolis is now wrestling with a garbage problem so severe it has managed to incite its weary residents and command the attention of the president. “The problem is clear in the streets,” said Haitham Kamal, a spokesman for the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs. “There is a strict and intensive effort now from the state to address this issue.” But the crisis should not have come as a surprise. When the government killed all the...

Today's discussion about the virtues of electric stoves when compared with the perils of natural gas stoves brought to mind a personage of my early childhood. I only vaguely remember him, having met him when I was an infant, and he having died when I was seven years old, although there exists two old photographs of the gentleman and myself, myself admiring the pigs in the bed of his pick-up truck. This was in a small town alongside the Platte River of Nebraska, a county famously rich in agriculture and teeming with transport, the most important highway in America, and...

Contrary to the popular assumption that the new swine flu pandemic arose on factory farms in Mexico, federal agriculture officials now believe that it most likely emerged in pigs in Asia, but then traveled to North America in a human. But they emphasized that there was no way to prove their theory and only sketchy data underpinning it. There is no evidence that this new virus, which combines Eurasian and North American genes, has ever circulated in North American pigs, while there is tantalizing evidence that a closely related “sister virus” has circulated in Asia. American breeding pigs, possibly carrying...

Family advocates are outraged by a prom held at Boston City Hall that was open to children apparently as young as 12 featuring crossdressers, homosexual heavy petting, suspected drug use and a leather-clad doorman who teaches sexual bondage classes. Children from middle schools and high schools across Massachusetts on May 9 attended a Youth Pride Day event ending with a prom inside of Boston City Hall sponsored by the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Youth, or BAGLY, a group seated on the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino issued a proclamation welcoming homosexual and...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2009 (Reuters) — The new H1N1 virus, which has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century, appears to have been circulating undetected among pigs for years, researchers reported on Thursday. Although health officials have been watching for new influenza viruses in humans, animal health regulators have missed the opportunity to check swine, the researchers reported. Britons Andrew Rambaut of the University of Edinburgh and Oliver Pybus of Oxford University, and Yi Guan of the University of Hong Kong examined the genetic sequence of the new H1N1 swine flu virus. Like others who have done the same,...

Pigs offer new stem cell source Pig organs are similar to their human equivalents Chinese scientists have given cells from adult pigs the ability to turn into any tissue in the body, just like embryonic stem cells. They hope the breakthrough could aid research into human disease, and the breeding of animals for organ transplants for humans. It may also enable the development of pigs that are resistant to diseases such as swine flu. The study appears online in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology. This breakthrough to produce pig stem cells potentially reinvigorates the quest to grow humanised pig...

A new fatwa published in Egypt determines that the source of all the existing pigs in the world is Jews, who were cursed by Allah. The new edict was issued by Sheikh Ali Osman from the Egyptian Waqf ministry. Due to their Jewish roots, Sheikh Osman says, it is permissible to slaughter all the pigs. The religious scholar was quoted as saying by a Jordanian newspaper that he personally believes the source of the pigs is Jews and thus the consumption of pork meat is banned in Islam. He added that a person who consumes swine flesh is considered as...

If the virus is indeed jumping from humans to animals and vice versa, as the Canadian case suggests, the seriousness of the disease will likely be heightened. The development could cause new problems for the pork industry, which has so far gone to great lengths to distance itself from the current outbreak as it has hammered trade and consumer sentiment.

A herd of pigs in Canada has tested positive for swine flu, after coming into contact with a human carrier. The pigs were apparently infected by an Alberta farm worker who had recently returned from Mexico. The herd, in the western province of Alberta, has been quarantined. Many new cases of swine flu have been diagnosed among humans in Canada, where the total number of sufferers has risen from 35 to 85.

Swine flu: Egyptian police battle Christians as they enforce pig cull Egyptian police fought running battles with stone-throwing members of the country's Christian minority after moving in to enforce a cull of pigs ordered because of swine flu. By Richard Spencer in Dubai 03 May 2009 Fires burn in Cairo as protestors try to prevent security forces confiscating their pigs Photo: EPA Pig farmers, many of whom keep their animals in the backstreet slums of the capital, Cairo, mounted a blockade against government workers moving in to slaughter their animals. When they began throwing stones at police trying to force...

A farm worker in Canada has infected a herd of pigs with swine flu, the first documented case of the virus being passed from human beings to animals. The herd of pigs tested positive for the H1N1 virus after the worker returned from Mexico with the disease. The herd has been quarantined. Brian Evans, a senior official from Canada’s food safety agency, said that up to 200 pigs had been infected at the Alberta Farm, and that both the man and pigs are recovering, adding that the virus did not seem to have spread. He emphasised that there was no...

A US health official on Saturday did not rule out the possibility that the A(H1N1) influenza virus outbreak may have originated in California. "As we do our investigations here in the US, we may find that there were cases earlier," US Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) spokesman Scott Bryan told AFP. Several cases of infection were reported in California before the outbreak in Mexico, the epicenter of the swine flu outbreak, where the government has confirmed 427 cases of the disease as well as 16 deaths. The number of confirmed US swine flu cases stands at 160 spread...

OTTAWA — The Canadian Press has learned federal officials are set to announce the swine flu virus is believed to have infected pigs in Alberta. A government source says the animals were thought to be infected by a farm worker who had recently been to Mexico and fell ill upon his return. This may be the first time this particular swine flu virus has been found in pigs. The H1N1 virus, which is made up of swine flu genes, is believed to have jumped to humans some time back and has been passing person to person. The World Health Organization...

The people who do TV news -- the big-time, ostensibly serious, 24/7 stuff -- know what the audience likes. One of the things they've found out about us is there's nothing we find more entertaining than a crisis. We love that hint of danger -- vicarious, of course, but not so far removed that we can't put ourselves in the shoes of the real people who are going through something kind of scary. Governments love crises, too. Crises offer the chance to sound concerned look busy and tell us what good care they're taking of us. And made-up crises are...

Egyptian leaders ordered the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pigs today to help protect against swine flu, prompting angry protests from the poor Christan farmers who feed their animals with a country's food scraps. The decision was also criticised as a "real mistake" by a senior UN food expert. The Arab world's most populous nation has been been badly hit by the H5N1 bird flu virus in recent years and the move to cull up to 400,000 pigs - seen by Muslims as unclean animals - was designed to calm fears of an impending pandemic. But it left Egypt's...

CAIRO (AP) - Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precaution against swine flu even though no cases have been reported here, infuriating farmers who blocked streets and stoned vehicles of Health Ministry workers who came to carry out the government's order. The measure was a stark expression of the panic the deadly outbreak is spreading around the world, especially in poor countries with weak public health systems. Egypt responded similarly a few years ago to an outbreak of bird flu, which is endemic to the country and has killed two dozen people.

While there have been no cases of the swine flu in Egypt they have made the decision to kill all the pigs there. Are they genuinely concerned with the flu or are they using the issue to continue their persecution of the Christians there?

CAIRO – Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precaution against swine flu even though no cases have been reported here, infuriating farmers who blocked streets and stoned vehicles of Health Ministry workers who came to carry out the government's order. The measure was a stark expression of the panic the deadly outbreak is spreading around the world, especially in poor countries with weak public health systems. Egypt responded similarly a few years ago to an outbreak of bird flu, which is endemic to the country and has killed two dozen people.

When a new animal virus emerges in some crowded corner of the Third World and the experts start talking gravely about pandemics, the inevitable question is: How much should we worry? Well, it probably isn't time, quite yet, to be heading for the hills but the emergence of a new and deadly strain of swine flu in Mexico is a matter of serious concern. If we are lucky, we will see something like a rerun of the SARS or bird flu scares seen earlier this decade - scary but containable outbreaks of disease which have (so far) killed a few...

Travel advisory warns of severe respiratory illness in Mexico 20 die from severe respiratory illness in Mexico Canadians who have recently returned from Mexico should be on alert for flu-like symptoms that could be connected to a severe respiratory illness, federal health officials said Thursday in issuing a travel advisory. A severe respiratory illness appears to have infected 137 people in south and central areas of Mexico, with cases concentrated in Mexico City and three other areas, including 20 deaths, the Public Health Agency of Canada said. In the United States, health officials in Texas and California were scrambling this...

Anonymous: A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government. In the midst of his story he looked at...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday said he thinks hog farmers are a greater threat to Americans than Osama bin Laden. Mr. Kennedy, son of the the slain New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is an environmental law attorney who was testifying before a House Judiciary subcomittee when Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, asked him if a quotation attributed to him in 2002 about hog farmers representing a greater threat than the leader of al Qaeda was accurate. "I don't know if that [quotation] is accurate, but I believe it and I support it," said Mr. Kennedy, who has been...

It’s not the first time Robert Kennedy Jr has said it, either. Thankfully, he confirms it in his appearance today in Congress to gripe about hog producers and some admittedly stupid laws restricting criticism of farmers, so we don’t need to do a Lexis raid to corroborate it. Kennedy manages to amp up the hysteria even further when he accuses Rep. Steve King (R-IA) of being a paid stooge of farmers. Er, who does RFK think a Congressman from Iowa would represent, anyway?

Ann Coulter was on The View this morning to promote her new book, Guilty.The video posted to YouTube is almost 9 minutes long and was posted by a detractor of Coulter. The View panel discussed Ann's book before she came on the show. That discussion is not included in the video.As is usual when The View has a conservative guest, the discussion quickly descended into a cacophony of crosstalk as the panelists would not let Ann complete a response to their inquisition.The discussion revolved around Ann's section in the book on single motherhood contributing to disproportionate anti-social behavior by their...

Philippine officials tucked into servings of lechon, the popular dish of roasted whole pig, in front of television cameras on Thursday to reassure the public of the safety of the national staple meat after the discovery among hogs near Manila of a strain of the Ebola virus. Arthur Yap, agriculture secretary, and Francisco Duque, health secretary, said the Ebola Reston virus, which had never been found in pigs before, presented a low health risk for humans and was different from the deadly African variety. The World Health Organisation was reported to be looking into whether there was any chance humans...

A Muslim lawyer has launched an extraordinary rant against Christmas, branding the celebration 'evil'. Hate preacher Anjem Choudary claimed the festival was the 'pathway to hell' and urged his followers to boycott it. 'In the world today many Muslims, especially those residing in Western countries, are exposed to the evil celebration Christmas,' he raged in a sermon broadcast on the internet. 'Many take part in the festival celebrations by having Christmas turkey dinners. 'Decorating the house, purchasing Christmas trees or having Christmas turkey meals are completely prohibited by Allah. 'Many still practise this corrupt celebration as a remembrance of the...

CHARLESTON -- A federal proposal to tax cattle and hogs because of the methane gas they produce is causing a stink in the agriculture industry. West Virginia Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglass calls the plan ridiculous. The claim is that greenhouse gases, produced by the animals' belching or flatulence, create air pollution. People across the state have sent comments to the Environmental Protection Agency speaking out against the idea. "I don't think we should be taxing farmers whether their cows and pigs are producing methane gas," said Charleston resident Brittney Reiner. "Its one more thing they're trying to get money for."...

Iran plans to send exploratory rockets into space with live animals on board, paving the way for manned space flights, a space research official said on Tuesday. Mohammad Ebrahimi, deputy head of Iran's Aerospace Research Institute, said Iran plans to send Kavoshgar (Explorer) 3 and 4 rockets into space in the near future. The Kavoshgar 2 was successfully launched on Wednesday. The rocket consisted of a carrier, space-lab and restoration system. Ebrahimi said the rocket analyzed air pressure and wind speed, and conducted astronomical tests at altitudes of 50 to 200 km. The Kavoshgar 2 is a two-stage solid fuel...

Owners of an Upperco farm that had introduced Maryland to pig mud wrestling at their farm stand have decided to cancel the event after just one week of competition. Stan Dabkowski said that while last Saturday’s event had a great turnout, he has received numerous threatening phone calls and complaints from animal rights activists who disagree with the practice. Dabkowski said he does not believe the 90-second round between four people and a pig in a muddy pen was dangerous or cruel to the animal, but he decided the negative reaction was not worth the effort. As a result, the...

An almighty crash has been averted, very narrowly. There is no guarantee that the revolutionary actions of the US government will prevent a full-fledged global slump, but at least we now have a fighting chance. By taking the colossal wreckage of the credit bubble onto its own books in a $700bn (£382bn) taxpayer sink, Washington has forestalled a run on the world banking system, and may hopefully have saved the viable core of modern capitalism. * * * We will find out soon enough whether the rest of the world can respond with such dispatch as the hurricane smashes into...

NORFOLK, VA - The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals today issued a statement demanding a ban on the practice of placing lipstick on pigs. The custom, widely referenced in retail sales and politics, is believed to be on the rise due to a surprising amount of media attention in recent weeks. PETA contends that the practice reveals a new facet of organized animal abuse...

THE White House race has plumbed new depths as Barack Obama accused John McCain of stooping to "lies and phony outrage" in response to the Democrat's mocking talk of "lipstick on a pig". In a new Internet ad, the McCain campaign accused Senator Obama of a sexist "smear" against the Republican's female running mate, Sarah Palin. But Senator Obama aides flagged a YouTube video showing Senator McCain using the same phrase himself. "You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig," Senator Obama said at a school in Norfolk, Virginia, reprising his line to attack the Republican pair's...

As a son of America's perennial undisputed champion pig-production state, I am no stranger to suidae sus, a/k/a "God's most delicious creation." Iowa contains nearly 30% of America's pig population (three times as many as pathetic #2 North Carolina), and, in fact, Porcine-Iowans outnumber the human variety by almost 10-to-1. Continued

The Red Hen in the Barnyard Once upon a time, on a farm in Virginia, there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat. She called all of her neighbors together and said, 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?' 'Not I,' said the cow. 'Not I,' said the duck. 'Not I,' said the pig. 'Not I,' said the goose. 'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew...

PATTEN, Maine - A "Wizard of Oz"-type storm Saturday produced a "wall of hail" so heavy it pounded pumpkins into mush and a wind so fierce it lifted a dog and two pigs into the air and peeled off a roof on Happy Corner Road, residents said Sunday. No one was injured. The storm, which brought...

By Jerry Markon and Ben Hubbard Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, July 15, 2008; Page B01 A Saudi-funded academy in Fairfax County used textbooks as recently as 2006 that compared Jews and Christians to apes and pigs, told eighth-graders that these groups are "the enemies of the believers" and diagrammed for high school students where to cut off the hands and feet of thieves, a Washington Post review of the books has found. Saudi officials acknowledged that the textbooks used at the Islamic Saudi Academy had contained inflammatory material since at least the mid-1990s but said they ordered revisions in...

Propositions that are on the November 4, 2008 General Election Ballot* Bond MeasureProposition 1 SB 1856 (Chapter 697, 2002). Costa. Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century.** **Note: The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century was originally scheduled to appear on the November 2, 2004, General Election ballot. Subsequently, Senate Bill 1169, Chapter 71, Statutes of 2004, provided that it appear on the November 7, 2006, General Election ballot. However, most recently, Assembly Bill 713, Chapter 44, Statutes of 2006, provides for the submission of this Act on the November...

(You can’t get much happier than a pig in muck, or so we are told. But when this little piggy arrived in the farmyard she showed a marked reluctance to get her trotters dirty. While her six brothers and sisters messed around in the mire, she stayed on the edge shaking. It is thought she might have mysophobia - a fear of dirt.) A pig, fearing dirt. That’s like a dog fearing social interaction, a cat fearing afternoon naps or Rosie O'Donnell fearing an all you can eat buffet. It’s unheard of. (Owners Debbie and Andrew Keeble were at a...

Woman pulled cop from wrecked car in 2002, but police said she stole service weapon A trained nurse, Rachelle Jackson immediately ran toward the sound of the crash. A Chicago police car had collided with another vehicle and was starting to smoke, two officers still inside. Fearing an explosion, she quickly pulled one officer from the passenger side.She never imagined her act of kindness nearly six years ago would land her in jail for more than 10 months on charges that she robbed, battered and disarmed a peace officer. Jackson filed a lawsuit, and on Thursday a federal jury found...

Long-term private investors are pulling their money out of the eurozone at the fastest rate since the creation of the single currency, according to a report by the French bank BNP Paribas. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in plant and factories has turned deeply negative, reaching minus €149bn (£117bn) over the past year. It dropped to minus €19bn in March alone as the soaring euro pushed labour costs in southern Europe to uncompetitive levels. The annual exodus of private funds from eurozone equities and bonds has reached almost $280bn. Taken together, the total outflows have topped €400bn in 12 months and...

I may surprise some people by saying what few presidential candidates would ever be willing to say out loud in farm country: I'd veto the farm bill—a bloated expansion in federal spending that will do more harm than good. When agricultural commodity prices and exports have reached record highs, we no longer need government-grown farms and mammoth government bureaucracies. As grocery bills soar, food banks go bare and food rationing occurs on a global scale, we must challenge the wisdom of this bill. We must question policies that divert more than 25 percent of corn out of the food supply...

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Muslim villagers in Mymensingh district eager to rid the area of the Christian work of a local pastor have gang-raped his 13-year-old daughter. Pastor Motilal Das of United Bethany Church said that at around 3 a.m. on Friday (May 2) the villagers sexually assaulted his daughter, Elina Das, and left her unconscious in front of his house in an attempt to drive him and his Christian ministry out of Laksmipur village in Fulbaria sub-district, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital. Local residents have long been angry with him for his ministry and evangelism, he said,...

Although the House and Senate have both defeated a moratorium on earmarks, the debate about direct congressional grants rages on. And generally absent is any mention of the pressing needs that these grants have helped so many of our nation's communities meet. Are programs to reduce gang violence a good use of taxpayer funds? How about keeping sewage out of local streams? Or fixing unsafe roads and bridges before another tragedy? By any reasonable standard, nearly all congressionally directed grants would be considered a good use of taxpayer funds.Local officials nationwide have a common goal: providing residents with public services...

Arriving in the Port of Oakland at 6 a.m. last Thursday, the grey-blue colossus auto carrier Century Highway No. 3 carries enough cars to fill all the parking lots surrounding the Giants stadium — a mere fraction of the average 368 million annual tons of autos, toys, and other goods moving through the 29 ports along America's Pacific coast. Could there be a force of man or nature powerful enough to interrupt this perpetual merchandise tsunami? Would you believe — San Francisco radical peaceniks? On May 1, the usually bustling ports along the West Coast will become still, as members...

Is pig-brain 'mist' linked to mystery ailment? 09 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service WORKERS at two pork-processing plants in the US have developed a mysterious nervous ailment after using compressed air to blast brain tissue from severed pig heads. The end product is a pink food paste that is canned and exported, but the process also generates an aerosol of brain matter that workers may inhale. Since 2006, 12 workers at a Minnesota slaughterhouse have developed symptoms ranging from weakness, tingling and numbness to acute paralysis, US health authorities reported on 31 January (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol 57,...

A story based on the Three Little Pigs fairy tale has been turned down by a government agency's awards panel as the subject matter could offend Muslims. The digital book, re-telling the classic story, was rejected by judges who warned that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues". Becta, the government's educational technology agency, is a leading partner in the annual Bett Award for schools. The judges also attacked Three Little Cowboy Builders for offending builders. The book's creative director, Anne Curtis, said the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was "like a slap...