Twobreakfasts in Emergency Landing Drama

News just in is that the plane carrying President Twobreakfasts to Ecuador so that he could join the Studmuffin swearing-in party today has had to make an emergency landing en route at Chiclayo airport, Peru.

At first there were serious suspicions about excess weight being carried by the plane, but it eventually transpired that the cockpit window had cracked and the pilot was fed up with the wind ruining his coiff.

Pisco sours served. The end.

Mexico Swine Flu Update

For all news and views coming out of ground zero Mexico on the quickly-becoming-world-number-one headline story about the swine flu outbreak, I thoroughly recommend you switch channels immediately and go to The Mex Files, as RG is on the case and updating regularly. He's already posted on the situation in downtown and provincial Mexico, but now he's dug up a story about how BigAgro and its confined space farming techniques for pigs in Mexico may (repeat 'may') have created the breeding ground for the mutated virus. Interesting stuff.

Go see for yourself. Here's the link to The Mex Files. Use it and be wise before the rest of them.

UPDATE: I just happened across this report in Mexian daily La Jornada and it's worth sharing, I think. According to Mexican doctors in the thick of things, early diagnosis and treatment of the swine flu virus strain that's making all the headlines is effective in treating the problem. That, in my book, is good news. Here a translation of the quote from the doctor:

"...the information we have is that those patients that are admitted early are managing to control the effects of the virus."

Argentina declares an agro state of emergency

May corn futures (courtesy CBOT)

Yesterday evening Klishtina signed the necessary papers to officially call the situation in Argentina an emergency and give financial breaks to farmers hard hit by the ongoing drought. Thus Argentina joins Uruguay in emergency status. Here is AP with last night's news and a second article dated Jan 23rd that gives good background on the situation.

Finally here's a link to a review of the CBOT corn trading yesterday. Just FYI.

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's president declared an agricultural emergency Monday in the nation's breadbasket provinces, responding to a key demand by powerful farm organizations amid the worst drought in decades.

Cristina Fernandez told political and business leaders in a televised press conference that the decree will exempt thousands of farmers from paying various taxes for one year to help them confront what analysts estimate will be $5 billion in losses this yada yada continues here

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STROEDER, Argentina (AP) — Skeletons of livestock are piling up in the scorching sun of the Southern Hemisphere's summer as the worst drought in a generation turns much of Argentina's breadbasket into a dust bowl.

The nation's farm sector stands to lose $5 billion this year alone — a huge blow to the economy of Argentina, a top world exporter of soy, corn, wheat and beef — as well as to the government of President Cristina Fernandez, which faces billions of dollars in debt payments this year.

Wheat fields that once supplied flour for pasta-loving Argentines now resemble deserts, and spiny thistles are all that survive on cattle ranches in southern Buenos Aires province.

Nothing edible grows, said Hilda Schneider, a 65-year-old rancher who has lost nearly 500 cows to starvation.

"With the situation we're in now, without any harvest, there's nothing to do," said Schneider, one of 2,000 residents in Stroeder, a farming village suffering its worst drought since the 1930s. "We try to save the animals, which is the only thing we have left."

Nationally, there hasn't been this little rain in Argentina since 1971, according to yada yada continues here