At the upcoming meeting of the Public Relations Society of America [3], "the Washington Beef Commission will unveil how it turned the PR nightmare discovery of Mad Cow [4]... into an opportunity to educate the public about the hype surrounding the disease." According to meatingplace.com, the Japanese government isn't buying the U.S. Agriculture Department's new mad cow testing program [5] -- or U.S. beef. Much to Secretary Ann Veneman's chagrin, Japanese officials rejected her proposal for an international panel to review both countries' mad cow policies. And in New Jersey, a suspicious cluster of human deaths from mad cow-like diseases [6], brought to light by one concerned citizen, is raising serious questions about the cost of dismissing the threat posed by mad cow disease and related transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.