Ha, Sometimes I Slay Even Myself
In metaphor. If I were deceased then the blog wouldn't get written, which would please some people mightily, the utter bounders.
SO we need to lay down a little definition at the beginning of this Intro.
BEEF: "The flesh of various bovine animals, especially cows, when killed for eating. Derived from the Old French 'Boef' for 'Ox'." Art!
That's 150 burgers worth of beef on the hoof. We'll get back to that.
ANYWAY the BEEF I was referring to, in my O-so-clever title, was 5) on the CCED list. "Slang: to complain, especially repeatedly". Where does it come from? O I thought you'd never ask! It seems to have one possible origin in English slang of the 1720's, where it was used in the sense of 'Alarm'. "'to alarm, as To cry beef upon us; they have discover'd us, and are in Pursuit of us". Art!
There is also speculation that it refers to soldiers being fed with rotten beef, about which they naturally complained.
Why are we here? Because of the Ruffians being as ever orcish and deceitful, waging a variety of economic warfare against their own. Firstly, we need to do more background scene-setting, about the disease 'Foot and mouth'. The scientific name for the virus that causes Foot and Mouth Disease is 'Foot and Mouth Disease Virus'; apparently the people with any creative spark were missing from that meeting. The disease affects cloven-hooved animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, deer and Stephen Miller. Art!
FMDV is treated extremely seriously because it's incredibly contagious, being passed on by contact with saliva, breath, mucus and dung, and equally hardy, so it persists in the environment. When it's identified in an outbreak, the World Health Organisation needs to be informed, and all potentially affected livestock that might be affected within a large area are culled, exports are banned and agriculture in the stricken nation takes a big hit. Art!
The UK's big FMD event came in 2001, where a Northumberland pig farm had been using illegally imported meat as a foodstuff. There were 2,000 cases reported - that cases not infected individual animals - that required 6 million animals to be culled and destroyed. Total cost, in 2021, was £8 billion. Clearly, FMD is a big, bad deal.
At least if you take it seriously in terms of accountability and responsibility, as we in Great Britain did.
Others, however - Art!
This is the farmer Pyotr Polezhaev, who raised - past tense - cattle on his farm in Siberia. The Authorities came in and confiscated the lot, stating that there is a serious disease on the loose in their Far East provinces, which necessitates confiscating, culling and destroying livestock. The 'serious disease' isn't being given a name, nor is compensation being paid to affected farmers. To quote official Mordorvian sources: "Agricultural experts there have blamed the outbreak’s severity on pasteurellosis and rabies.". Art!
HOWEVER in flashing neon letters ten feet tall, there are differing opinions on this 'reason', which in other parts of the world is known as a 'lie'. 'Natalka' over on Twitter posted a clip of a perceptive and canny Kazakh man, or perhaps cynical and realistic would be better terms. Art!
What matey here propounds is that, were Mordorvia actually admit and confess that there was an outbreak of FMD, they would then have to impose all the restrictions on beef exports as required by the WHO. Instead they are trying to control and mitigate it in secret, because otherwise their profits from exports to India and Saudi Arabia would dry up.
But wait! For we are not done yet. The Far East of Mordorvia is a verrrry long way from Moscow and the Kremlin, and Putinpot doesn't like his eastern orcs getting ideas above their station, such as autonomy or even independence. Here's another take on what's going on.
If you recall the protests in Khabarovsk, where a local politician defeated Putinpot's candidate and whom was promptly arrested, which went down as well a a zombie on a tube-train.
Lay in your supplies of popcorn, gentle readers.
Feeling Blue?
Now that we've roasted the Ruffians - do you see wh O you do - it's time to target the South Canadians again about their execrable food industry products, that seem more designed to find a use for niche chemicals than actually provide nutrition. Thanks again to the sardonic and witty 'Daractenus' over on Twitter. Art!
Conrad has made blueberry muffins before, and seems to recall that you need flour, sugar, eggs, butter, yoghurt - and blueberries. Let me add in a list of the ingredients for a cake mix that may help you "to grow a third arm."
Now now Darac, old chap, a third arm can come in handy at times. Art!
Handy for chasing down rogue Cyberdyne 'borgs.
Gas Gas Gas!
It rolls off the tongue a lot easier than 'Petrol Petrol Petrol!' I have to admit. Your Humble Scribe was intrigued by a graph David Pakman was using on his Youtube channel, in the background merely to indicate the overall trend of South Canadian gasoline prices increasing more than that Pixar film. Art!
No! Art!
Try again.
Gritty Flamingo
Sorry, but we're going to have to bore about Mordorvia again, as I'm trying to get rid of Bookmarks that have been hanging around for ages in Twitter. Art!
I am unaware of what the source for this data is, but it can't be too remarkable as the data is so mundane. From the Tweeter 'Jay In Kyiv', posting on the 11th of March, after the Ukrainians had given the port of Novorossiysk a right planking the prior week, reducing tankers loading there to nil. Art!
Novo looking suitably apocalyptic.
Let me copy in a few Comments.
Speak of the Devil and he will appear. Art!
This is the port of Primorsk, on the Baltic, 1,000 kilometres from Ukraine, and the FIRMS data shows burning fires as red; so the whole place is alight after getting an utter malletting from Ukrainian missiles or drones. The Flamingo is suspected thanks to the range from launch sites and it carrying a ton of HE. Art!
The orcs immediately claimed that they'd shot down 2,597 drones and nothing got through to cause a few scattered grass fires that were quickly extinguished although still burning 24 hours later. They must be using DJ Tango's scriptwriter.
Finally -
Going out with a Biercism.
"Immaculate, adj: Not as yet spotted by the police."
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