Veal is the meat of calves, in contrast to the beef from older cattle. Veal can be produced from a calf of any breed. Veal is more expensive than beef from older cattle. Veal production is a way to add value to dairy bull calves and to utilize whey solids, a byproduct from the manufacturing of cheese. There are several types of veal, terminology varies by country: Bob veal Calves are slaughtered as early as 2-3 days old yield meat carcasses weighing from to 9 to 27kg. Formula-fed veal Calves are raised on a fortified milk formula diet plus solid feed; the majority of veal meat produced in the US are from milk-fed calves. The meat colour is ivory or creamy pink, with a firm and velvety appearance. In Canada, calves intended for the milk-fed veal stream are slaughtered when they reach 20 to 24 weeks of age, weighing 450 to 500 pounds. Nonformula-fed veal Calves that are raised in addition to milk; the meat is darker in colour, some additional marbling and fat may be apparent. In Canada, the grain-fed veal stream is marketed as calf, rather than veal.

The calves are slaughtered at 22 to 26 weeks of age weighing 650 to 700 pounds. Rose veal Young beef Calves raised on farms in association with the UK Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' Freedom Food programme; the name comes from the pink colour, a result of the calves being slaughtered at about 35 weeks of age. Pasture-raised veal In the United States, there is no legal definition of veal. Veal has been an important ingredient in Italian and other Mediterranean cuisines from ancient times; the veal is in the form of cutlets, such as the Italian cotoletta or the famous Austrian dish Wiener Schnitzel. Some classic French veal dishes include fried escalopes, fried veal Grenadines, stuffed paupiettes, roast joints, blanquettes; because veal is lower in fat than many meats, care must be taken in preparation to ensure that it does not become tough. Veal is coated in preparation for frying or eaten with a sauce. Veal Parmigiana is a common Italian-American dish made with breaded veal cutlets.

In addition to providing meat, the bones of calves are used to make a stock that forms the base for sauces and soups such as demi-glace. Calf stomachs are used to produce rennet, used in the production of cheese. Calf offal is widely regarded as the most prized animal offal. Most valued are the liver, sweetbreads and bone marrow; the head, tongue and mesentery are valued. Male dairy calves are used for veal production as they do not lactate and are therefore surplus to the requirements of the dairy industry. Newborn veal calves are given only a limited amount of time with their mothers, varying from a few hours to a few days. Three different primary types of housing used for veal calves: hutches, pens, or various types of group housing. "Milk-fed" veal calves consume a diet consisting of milk replacer, formulated with milk-based proteins and added vitamins and minerals supplemented with solid feeds. This type of diet is similar to infant formula and is one of the most common diets used for calves in the veal industry."Grain-fed" calves consume a diet of milk replacer for the first six to eight weeks and move on to a maize-based diet.

"Free-raised" calves are raised on open pastures and receive a diet of milk and fresh water. Furthermore, free-raised calves do not receive antibiotics, which are a focus of criticism among animal welfare organizations. Veal farmers have a priority to provide quality care to the calves. A farm veterinarian will provide a health program that will promote a healthy herd. Veal calves need proper amounts of water, adequate nutrition, safe and comfortable environments to thrive. Veal production is a controversial topic in animal welfare and some methods are cited as animal cruelty by multiple animal welfare organizations; these organizations and some of their members consider several practices and procedures of veal production to be inhumane. Public efforts by these organizations are placing pressure on the veal industry to change some of its methods; some of these controversial practices are relevant to individual housing systems. In the past, one aspect of veal production cited as cruelty in the industry was the lack of space veal calves were provided.

Space was deliberately restricted by the producer to stop the animal from exercising, as this was thought to make the meat turn redder and tougher. Modern veal production facilities as utilized in the US allow sufficient room for the calf to lie down, stand and groom themselves. All milk fed veal calves are raised in group pens after 10 weeks of age in the US; some systems of veal production rear calves that are denied access to any solid feed and are fed a liquid milk replacer. They may be deprived of bedding to prevent them from eating it; this dietary restriction distorts the normal development of the rumen and predisposes the calf to infectious enteritis and chronic indigestion. Furthermore, calves with an underdeveloped gut are more to be found to have hairballs in the rumen at slaughter. Veal calves raised in the US are fed a nutritionally balanced diet of milk replacer and in most cases are fed a solid feed to promote healthy gut development. Rearing calves in dep

Somatoparaphrenia is a type of monothematic delusion where one denies ownership of a limb or an entire side of one's body. If provided with undeniable proof that the limb belongs to and is attached to their own body, the patient produces elaborate confabulations about whose limb it is or how the limb ended up on their body. In some cases, delusions become so elaborate that a limb may be treated and cared for as if it were a separate being. Somatoparaphrenia differs from a similar disorder, characterized as loss of recognition of half of the body or a limb due to paralysis or unilateral neglect. For example, asomatognosic patients may mistake their arm for the doctor's. However, they can be shown their limb and this error is temporarily corrected. Somatoparaphrenia has been reported to occur predominately in the left arm of one's body, it is accompanied by left-sided paralysis and anosognosia of the paralysis; the link between somatoparaphrenia and paralysis has been documented in many clinical cases, while the question arises as to whether paralysis is necessary for somatoparaphrenia to occur, anosognosia is not, as documented by cases with somatoparaphrenia and paralysis with no anosognosia.

It has been suggested that damage to the posterior cerebral regions of the cortex may play a significant role in the development of somatoparaphrenia. However, more recent studies have shown that damage to deep cortical regions such as the posterior insula and subcortical structures such as the basal ganglia, the thalamus and the white matter connecting the thalamus to the cortex may play a significant role in the development of somatoparaphrenia, it has been suggested that involvement of deep cortical and subcortical grey structures of the temporal lobe may contribute to reduce the sense of familiarity experienced by somatoparaphrenic patients for their paralyzed limb. One form of treatment that has produced a more integrated body awareness is mirror therapy, in which the individual who denies that the affected limb belongs to their body looks into a mirror at the limb. Patients looking into the mirror state that the limb does belong to them. Allochiria Body integrity dysphoria Cotard delusion Phantom limb

Mundane science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction. Mundane science fiction focuses on stories set on or near the Earth, with a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written or, a plausible extension of existing technology. Mundane science fiction works explore topics such as environmental degradation, virtual reality, enhanced genomes and quantum mechanics, it involves interstellar travel or communication with alien civilization. The genre's writers believe that warp drives, the use of wormholes, other forms of faster-than-light travel are scientific fantasies rather than serious speculation about a possible future. According to them, unfounded speculation about interstellar travel can lead to an illusion of a universe abundant with planets as hospitable to life as Earth, which encourages wasteful attitude to the abundance on Earth. Scientists have not uncovered any evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Although absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, mundane science fiction writers believe it is unlikely that alien intelligence will overcome the physical constraints on interstellar travel any better than we can.

As such, mundane science fiction writers imagine a future on Earth and within the solar system and believe it is unlikely that intelligent life survives elsewhere in this solar system. Alternative universes, parallel worlds and the supernatural, time travel and teleportation are avoided in mundane science fiction. Chris Nakashima-Brown's article in The New York Review of Science Fiction states that "otwithstanding the scientific gloss on which science fiction seems to depend, a great deal of the genre concerns “fantasies about the escape from science — the escape from the subtly nihilistic dominion of reason in the post-Enlightenment West, into a generically unbound Jungian Disneyland...”. In the Golden Age of Science Fiction, stodgy tales of space opera using "bland prose" and "formulas of planetary romances, über-robots, cold equations" dominated; some Golden Age writers such as Theodore Sturgeon, Philip José Farmer, Ray Bradbury had more of a gift for transcending these formulas and developing nuanced characters and stories.

In the 1960s, "Disch, Harlan Ellison, J. G. Ballard, Michael Moorcock, others launched the New Wave ". "Stylistic experimentation" in the writing cliches. The authors had a profound "skepticism about science and technology", these was an examination of “inner space”, "feminist...critiques, ecology. J. G. Ballard believed that the Golden Age of Science Fiction’s focus on advanced interstellar spaceships was “clichéd and unilluminating”, preferring to write stories about humans’ “next five minutes”, the “near future”, “immediately recognisable to us, but invariably with a pretty unpleasant twist or three.” “MSF stories existed before the term was coined”. Maddelena says that Ryman developed his idea of the MSF subgenre by examining “what works best” in science fiction classic stories and novels, she says setting MSF in the real world may help SF writers avoid having excess “explanation and exposition”, an issue that plagues poor SF writing. SF writer Thomas Disch says that the preference for weak, implausible depictions of science in sci fi is an “American aspect of our “lie-loving” culture” used by readers for escapism.

The goals of MSF were predated by sociologist Wayne Brekhus in 2000, who published “A Mundane Manifesto”, calling for “analytically interesting studies of the uninteresting.” He argues for a focus on the “mundane” because the “extraordinary draws disproportionate theoretical attention from researchers”, which weakens the development of theory and creates a distorted image of reality. He stated that he hoped that the humanities would focus on the mundane; as well, in 2001, the sci-fi website SF Futurismic: Near Future Science Fiction and Fact is against the traditional forms of SF, instead calls for an examination of the impact of scientific discoveries on human society. Futurismic is against all “fantasy and space opera, as well as offworld SF, distant futures, alternate histories, time travel”. Futurismic accepts fiction, mundane, “post-cyberpunk sf, satirical/gonzo futurism, realistic near future hard sf.” MSF describes a change “already in effect” and claims it has “ideological significance”.

The mundane science fiction movement, inspired by an idea of Julian Todd, was founded in 2004 during the Clarion workshop by novelist Geoff Ryman among others. Ryman claims that the MSF Manifesto was “jokey” and that it was not intended to be a “serious” statement; the authors of the MSF Manifesto, apart from Ryman, are anonymous. The beliefs of the movement were codified as the Mundane Manifesto; the authors of the Manifesto stated that they are “pissed off and needing a tight girdle of discipline to restrain our sf imaginative silhouettes”. Ryman explained the MSF Manifesto in a speech to BORÉAL’s 2007 Science Fiction convention in Montreal. Writer Kate McKinney Maddalena states that the Canadian-born and now UK-based Ryman intends “mundane” to mean “of the world”, rather than “boring”, following the British sense of the word “mundane”; the MSF blog was first used as a forum for debate about the new subgenre