Misinformation

I try to follow worldwide information on <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> to keep up on what is going on and I see a headline that really caught my eye that comes out of Britain.<br />n<br />n<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1634513,00.html">Three calves test positive for <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym></a><br />n<br />nThis headline astounds me since <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> is not detectable in animals under 30 months old so how do they have 3 calves tested with it? So I read the article.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Three young calves on a Welsh farm have tested positive for <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> in what is believed to be the first cluster of infections discovered for almost a decade.</blockquote><br />n<br />nDamn, it even gets scarier, they are "young calves." What is going on here? Is all the science we know about <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> out the window? I continue reading.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>The cows are aged between 36 and 43 months. The first case was identified more than two months ago and the two others were confirmed at the end of last week.</blockquote><br />n<br />nWHOA!!!! Hold your horses, what is this? Now they all of a sudden are cows aged 36 to 43 months that have been tested for <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>. Now this fits with what we know so there is a little comfort there. <br />n<br />nSo I have a question. Why did the paper call them "calves" to start with and then call them "young calves" later on? Knowing a little bit about cattle and cattle production, cows over 3 years old are not considered calves by any stretch of the imagination. I always wonder about stuff like this. Is it deliberate misinformation to scare people away from beef or is it an honest mistake? I wish I knew.<br />n<br />n<b>Among all the world's races, some obscure Bedouin tribes possibly apart, Americans are the most prone to misinformation. This is not the consequence of any special preference for mendacity, although at the higher levels of their public administration that tendency is impressive. It is rather that so much of what they themselves believe is wrong. John Kenneth Galbraith </b>