I'll be the first one to dig this story from the backwaters and should loudly that the suspected mad cow turned out clean in subsequent testing by the USDA. My faith in that organization is very fleeting, but I can't believe that they would intentionally fake such a test. The beef industry is spared, for the time being.

I can remember having very interesting debates with Dr. Kahle on the subject of electronic music over a decade ago. Is it performance? Is it less valuable than having real analogue instruments being played by humans? I took the side that while interesting, electronic music is fundamentally less 'real' than electronic music, no matter how entertaining the latter may be.

Fast forward ten years and I've come full circle. When I read articles about machines that play violins I am excited. If Kasparov can be bested by an IBM, why not a violin virtuoso? They said that computers cannot be creative, but that has been shown to be wrong. Now they say they cannot emote? We'll see.