Eideard

As the number of reported illnesses linked to salmonella-tainted tomatoes goes up, so does pressure on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to find the source of this rare strain of bacteria. Since our last report, the number of illnesses has risen to 228 people in 23 states…New cases have been reported in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New York, Tennessee and Vermont…

Tomato growers in Florida and Mexico, both large suppliers in the U.S., are concerned over lost sales. In Florida, 19 counties are safe to ship their tomatoes again, but top-producing counties, such as Dade and Collier, are still under investigation. State officials said the Florida Agriculture Department has issued certificates verifying the origin of what they estimate as several thousand loads…

While some tomato-producing areas of Mexico have been cleared since they weren’t harvesting when the illnesses were reported, the remainder of the country is still under investigation as a possible source. According to Dr. Acheson, the FDA is “in active dialogue” with Mexican authorities, but “haven’t sent anyone to Mexico because we don’t have a place specifically identified.”

And this is where confidence breaks down. I asked the produce manager at 2 grocery chains, this morning, how long it takes to track down suspicious food. Each confirmed they could nail the source down to the farmer and field within 48 hours.

The Eastern manager for Safeway said the same on network TV, yesterday. Yet, we first covered this food alert 9 days ago – at least a week after people began falling ill.

Afghan and international troops have launched a desperate hunt for more than 1,100 prisoners NATO said escaped a jail in Afghanistan when Taliban rebels blasted it open.

The Taliban said 400 of its own fighters escaped when the rebels attacked the facility in the southern city of Kandahar with suicide bombs before shooting the guards…

“Afghanistan national security forces and ISAF forces have cordoned off the area to re-establish security and recapture the escapees,” said General Carlos Branco, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force…

Six of the escapees were recaptured during operations by security forces in villages outside Kandahar.

Well, there’s an accomplishment. Only 1,094 to go.

Two children in Spain have been admitted to a mental health institution to be treated for addiction to their mobile phones.

The children, aged 12 and 13, were sent to the clinic by their parents, who said they could not carry out normal activities without their handsets.

They were doing badly at school and lying to relatives in order to get money to spend on their phones…

The children had owned their phones for 18 months, and their parents had made little effort to restrict their use before noticing how serious their dependence had become…

They now have been learning to cope without their phones for three months.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. So they say.

The long campaign to forge a new dispensation for the European Union descended into panic and uncertainty yesterday when Ireland turned its back on its 26 EU partners and voted down the Lisbon Treaty.

EU leaders in Brussels and governments across the union, particularly Germany and France, were stunned by the Irish verdict, which amounted to a huge vote of no confidence in the way the EU is run.

The referendum in Ireland was the sole popular vote in the EU on the grand plan to give Europe a sitting president and foreign minister, and reconfigure the way the EU is governed. The result left the project severely wounded, perhaps fatally.

The Irish voted by a 7% margin, 53.6 to 46.4, against the treaty, which has already been ratified by 18 EU countries and is expected to be endorsed by the other eight.

The result left Europe’s leaders with a giant dilemma over what to do next. A summit next week in Brussels was originally planned as a celebration. The Irish result is particularly painful for Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who masterminded the new treaty last year, and for the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was relishing the central role of ushering in a new European era over the next six months of France’s EU presidency.

Democracy and independence are hard to swallow – for some. The big fish doesn’t always get to swallow the little fish.

No video camera needed for one of these

Australian scientists have launched technology that uses video cameras to differentiate between species. They say the “cowcam” will keep unwanted animals out of remote watering and feed points in the Australian outback and allow farmers to monitor their stock from home or office.

“We use the unique side profile that every animal has and a software program similar to facial recognition technology that allows us to identify animals to a species level,” said Neal Finch, the joint inventor of the product.

“The camera can tell the difference between sheep and cattle and feral pests such as goats, horses, pigs, kangaroos, camels and emus.”

For about $9,600 you get a lane that narrows the animals down to single file so they go through one at a time in front of the camera, the computing hardware, an electronic gate, weatherproof boxes and all the solar energy apparatus to run the system.

Aren’t RFID chips and readers cheaper? Just as reliable?

More complex means more expensive, more maintenance, more likely to break down.