It’s official, we’re Slow-noma (Sonoma Index-Tribune) PIER GIORGIO OLIVETI, director of Cittaslow International, talks with reporters and Virginia Hubbell (right), director of Cittaslow Sonoma Valley, during a press reception Wednesday. [News Source]

Cameron Is Caught in Conservative Quandary Over Hostility to EU (Bloomberg) Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- David Cameron , who polls suggest will be Britain’s next prime minister, faces the dilemma of angering his supporters, his European Union allies or both should he win elections this year. [News Source]

China May Be Fourth-Largest U.S. Beef Buyer, Export Chief Says (Bloomberg) Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- China’s ban on U.S. beef imports has failed to prevent shipments of the meat from arriving indirectly via other countries in Asia, said Jim Peterson, the chairman of the U.S. Meat Export Federation. [News Source]

Study Offers Evidence That Spongiform Brain Diseases Are Caused By Aberrant Protein (redOrbit) Scientists have determined how a normal protein can be converted into a prion, an infectious agent that causes fatal brain diseases in humans and mammals.The finding, in mice, is expected to advance the understanding of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs, a family of neurodegenerative diseases that include Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, kuru and fatal familial insomnia in humans ... [News Source]

Haggis Profiling Continues (Light Reading) Nooooooooo! Seems to have originally had something to do with that whole Mad Cow brouhaha. (Remember that? If not, consult a neurologist at once.) But a large part of the problem, according to the Beeb, is that "since 1971 the US has banned food made with sheep's lung." [News Source]

Study Offers Evidence that Spongiform Brain Diseases are Caused by Aberrant Protein (Newswise) Scientists have determined how a normal protein can be converted into a prion, an infectious agent that causes fatal brain diseases in humans and mammals. [News Source]

Study offers evidence that spongiform brain diseases are caused by aberrant protein (EurekAlert!) ( Ohio State University ) Scientists have determined how a normal protein can be converted into a prion, an infectious agent that causes fatal brain diseases in humans and mammals. The finding, in mice, is expected to advance the understanding of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs, a family of neurodegenerative diseases that include Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, kuru and fatal ... [News Source]

Haggis Profiling Continues (Light Reading) Nooooooooo! Seems to have originally had something to do with that whole Mad Cow brouhaha. (Remember that? If not, consult a neurologist at once.) But a large part of the problem, according to the Beeb, is that "since 1971 the US has banned food made with sheep's lung." [News Source]

Theater preview: A night with Hamlet and his tragicomic twin (Orlando Sentinel) What we have here is an abundance of Hamlets . [News Source]

The almanac (UPI) By United Press International UPI Almanac for Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010. [News Source]