ANOTHER MAD COW, ANOTHER RIDICULOUS MISTAKE

I just posted this to MetaFilter, so I'll rerun the wording here:

"I... Forgot."

Upon the death of a possible BSE cow, "the unidentified doctor preserved the brain stem sample in formalin... but then 'simply forgot' about it until mid-July." That's the reason why we're only hearing about it now. Any questions?

More to come on this, I'm sure...

UPDATE 7/28: Here's a story that I only came across today, but which came out a few hours before the new "possible" Mad Cow was announced: Do regulators [USDA] protect market or consumers when it comes to releasing Mad Cow tests? asks the Houston Chronicle. Though no one seems to have pressed govt. spokespeople on the fantastically coincidental "Friday" effect, we do get an admission in this story that the USDA does routinely delay announcements of bad meat-related news - at least until the end of the day: "USDA spokeswoman Amy Spillman said the department makes announcements after markets close whenever an animal tests inconclusive." The issue, of course, is that the Texas agriculture department wants them to keep consumers in the dark about their own safety even longer. Don't mess with Texas!