To celebrate the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015

Tom Tomorrow on the year that was.



Drink in moderation



Behave yourself




Make sure you get home safely

And life goes on

Weird things asked of librarians.

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather, 'hmm... that's funny...'"
- Isaac Asimov

How to deal with narcissists.

The gender bias of toys.

Getting the 1%.

Regulations for pissing on Dick Cheney's grave.

Police:  Explaining attitudes to Josh Marshall, explaining actions to a citizen of Nashville, getting an explanation of what Bill de Blasio talked about

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

May you always get the fish!

Exactly.

Merry Catmus

Wrapped and everything!

Christmas contraceptives

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Excellent overview of 2014.  Best science photos for 2014.

Weird methane readings on Mars... ALIENS!!!1

Bernie Sanders takes on the Koch brothers.

Saint Ronnie couldn't get elected dog catcher in these interesting teabaggery times...

Tampons may save your life...

If you can erase the word, the action never happened.  Right?

Institutionalized racism is hard to root out.

Chipping away at contraceptives.  And women aren't choosing to have more babies, they're just wiser with their birth control methods.  Cutting through the deliberately confusing terminology used when discussing abortion.

Christmas is coming

My house is a wreck but at least we have the tree up.  Although it IS leaning a bit to the left....

Why is it that my kids' finals and helping research for internships means a pile of files being searched for transcripts and heaps of papers fluttering about while stepping over stacks of books and trying to get Christmas lists filled means finally giving cash to family members instead of trying to make sense of their Amazon wish lists while laundry heaps twitchily become sentient and move slowly towards the door.

At least I got the dishes done.  I couldn't see the faucet.

From brilliance to unraveling, the human condition.

The Mysterious Antikythera Mechanism Is More Ancient Than We Thought

Why cats don't give a shit about you.

Coats into sleeping bags, and homeless into workers at the same time.

9 clueless things white people say when confronted with racism

When Australians label the states in the USA.  Or Brits.

Neil deGrasse Tyson proving why he's a cool dude.

Didn't they read The Secret of NIMH?

The ending of the world.

An excellent creche.

Fascinating and sad view of the Iraqi army.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bad Lip Reading:  the NFL.

Hilarious take down of mis-information about flying.

Legal attempts to try and control pregnant women.

The era of stupid.

Just HOW many pipeline spills have there in been in Alberta in the last FOUR months?

Update, via Bryan, As God as my witness,I thought turkeys fly.

For those who build or fix their own computers

A bit of therapy.

Fukushima, the Berlin Wall and Cat Calling. And thank you, vets.

Can we swim in the Pacific Ocean and eat the fish without being afraid of the Fukushima radiation?

The Berlin Wall in interactive pictures.

Catcalling explained.  Kind of.  (Love the woman's expression.)

 BLM government employees are being attacked.

John Oliver takes apart ALEC and state legislatures.

How much food is wasted in landfills?  Too much.

PTSD explained.  And thank you for your service needs to mean something.

Get money out of our political process.

Net Neutrality explained

By Oatmeal to educate Ted Cruz.

The next two years.... and maybe more.

Vote like your life depends on it. Which it does.

VOTE.  Because people are trying to take that right away from you.  By people like these guys.

To a rabid conservative, voter fraud is any Democrat voting....

Purging of voters.

Banks and Oysters and everything in between...

Of course he wants to give the banks your money.   That's what Republicans do.

The House of FEAAarrrrrr... (Tom Tomorrow).

Lies about Iran and its nuclear program.

How Canada handles terrorism.

Why are some men so angry?

Trolling discussed.

When we hooked up with Neanderthals.

Oysters. They are good for you AND the environment.

The better to hug you with, my dear....

Mystery of dinosaur with giant arms solved

Librarians to Gamergate

Sing the praises of librarians.

Paul Krugman sings the praises of Obama.  Really.

Mars and a comet.

Get ready to breathe more methane.

Myths about slavery.  Lots I didn't know.

Explaining white privilege.  And then some.  (Scroll down to read the letter.)

Gamergate.  And wow!  then some more!

It is time to make a fuss.

On the same subject:  women don't owe you anything.

Dump Christopher Columbus

He was a real asshole.

As goes California, so goes the nation....

California oil companies are poisoning our drinking water. But wait, Obama made some of the San Gabriel Mountains a National Monument!  Yet we need to watch the Pacific Ocean carefully because of Fukushima.

Global warming underestimated ... To music.  The melting of Greenland.  The tipping points.

For profit 'schools' getting taxpayer money.

Noah's Ark Theme Park Loses $18M In Tax Breaks Unless They Hire Atheists

Killer BBEEeeeeEEeeeessss!!  (Eddie Izzard's bees.)

President Obama wants the FCC to abandon plans for tiered 'net neutrality'

Science fiction or fantasy?

I'm still here! Just distracted by real life...

How prisons profit.

We must move humanity to Mars.

An apple a day will actually do you a world of good.

Biking across Africa.

Saving our post offices one by one.

Early computers, polar vortexes and Emma Watson

Antikythera mechanism expedition begins search for missing fragments of world’s oldest known computer and more.

My Year As an Abortion Doula

My Year in the NRA

More megaquakes can happen.

An excellent male contraceptive.

Sign of the times.

Polar vortex a sign of global warming.

Internet trolls.

Emma Watson, UN's Goodwill ambassador

Arrrrrr....

As Bryan says.

Cats and Crumbs.

Caturday and more.

Will the trolls win the internets?

A scientist fights back.

Police steal from innocent people.

Whatever Iceland is doing right now.

How to vote in November.

Battle for the net

Battle for the net

From my email inbox: 

There are 30 hours left until the Internet Slowdown protest for net neutrality, and all of us here at FFTF are working round the clock to make this huge.

Everything you need is right here: https://battleforthenet.com/sept10th

Just this morning, Netflix announced that they’re joining the slowdown and will be showing a prominent message sitewide onSeptember 10th. That’s huge.  We’re going to reach millions and millions of people who have never heard the words “net neutrality” before. So many of you have already joined and have been helping spread the word, and we can’t thank you enough.

Here’s the thing. It’s not enough for this protest to be huge. It has to be massive.

Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and Time Warner are spending more than $1 million per week lobbying to make sure that the FCC protects their interests even though the public’s voice couldn't be clearer. It’s possible to drown out the influence of those lobbying dollars -- we’ve proven that before --  but only if everyone starts scrambling right now to get even more people and sites on board.

Will you forward this email to everyone you know right now? Another way to help is to text everyone in your address book this link: https://battleforthenet.com/sept10th

We need to get the slowdown trending and viral on social media starting TONIGHT. Use these links to share on social media. Retweet this awesome gif or make your own and tweet to #InternetSlowdown.

Click here to share on Facebook

Click here to share on Twitter

Click here to share on Tumblr

Click here to share on Google+

The battle for the net is raging and we’re gaining ground every day, but the outcome is still very much uncertain. What each of us does right now will matter for generations to come.

Yours for the future of the free web,

-Evan, Tiffiniy, Holmes, Kevin, Vasjen, Jeff, and Jessica at Fight for the Future

P.S. Just a reminder that EVERYONE can participate in the protest on September 10th. If you have a website, go here to get the code. If not, click here, and change your profile picture.It’s easy! 

Our internet in 2014

By Tom Tomorrow

The immature in the gamer's world

Need to grow up.

Bits and bobs

If Norman Rockwell were painting today.

11 Ways to Solve Rape Better than Nail Polish

You Can Now Access All Of Richard Feynman's Physics Lectures For Free

Dry weather helps see more of Stonehenge's past.

Tom Tomorrow.

That's me when...

Fake cell phone towers!

When a Child Kills.

Hacking nude photos.

Women helping change history.

Sexual Objectification: What It Is, Why It's Damaging, And How We Change It

Lots of rules for women.

Have a cat burrito.

September 10: Internet Slowdown

Urgent action alert: September 10th is the Internet Slowdown, a creative online action to defend net neutrality. This is our moment to get everyone to understand what’s at stake.

Got a website, blog, app, or Tumblr? Click here to get the code to participate.

Everyone else, we need you to help make this huge! Click here and share this image on social media. Then forward this to everyone you can think of.

Now read on -- this email is important. <3 span="">

-Evan at FFTF

Dear Fight for the Future member,

If you woke up tomorrow, and your internet looked like this, what would you do?

Imagine all your favorite websites taking forever to load, while you get annoying notifications from your ISP suggesting you switch to one of their approved “Fast Lane” sites.

Think about what we would lose: all the weird, alternative, interesting, and enlightening stuff that makes the Internet so much cooler than mainstream Cable TV. What if the only news sites you could reliably connect to were the ones that had deals with companies like Comcast and Verizon?

How would your worldview be different? Do you think you’d have found Fight for the Future or other causes you care about? Would you be getting this email?

On September 10th, just a few days before the FCC’s comment deadline, public interest organizations are issuing an open, international call for websites and internet users to unite for an “Internet Slowdown” to show the world what the web would be like if Team Cable gets their way and trashes net neutrality.

We need everyone on board for this. Got a website or blog? Find out how the slowdown works and how you can join here: https://battleforthenet.com/sept10th

If you don’t have a website, you are still part of this! Here’s a quick list of things you can do to help in the Battle for the Net.

This isn’t about how quickly our cat videos load, it’s about the future of our ability to communicate, to learn, to create, and to rebel. It’s about the future of humanity.

The SOPA blackout proved that even concentrated monopoly and government power is no match for the power of people’s voices connected and amplified by the free and open web.

That power is one of the few things we have in this fight for the future. This could be one of our last chances to defend it. If we lose it, we lose a lot more than just the Internet. If we win, we win a lot more than just streaming video. The stakes are high and we should be acting like it.

The Internet is counting on each and every one of us to act. Let’s not let ourselves down. See you on the net September 10th!

For the future,

-Evan, Tiffiniy, Holmes, and the FFTF team

P.S. We need to make the movement for net neutrality feel like it’s EVERYWHERE. Want to proudly display your love for the free and open web at all times? Get your very own Team Internet t-shirt: http://teespring.com/stores/team-internet and tweet a photo of yourself wearing it to #TeamInternet!

Fukushima'd Monday

The horror of Fukushima keeps on giving.

Immigrant children who were sent back are being killed.

How lizards regenerate their tails: researchers discover genetic 'recipe':

By understanding the secret of how lizards regenerate their tails, researchers may be able to develop ways to stimulate the regeneration of limbs in humans. Now, a team of researchers from Arizona State University is one step closer to solving that mystery. The scientists have discovered the genetic “recipe” for lizard tail regeneration, which may come down to using genetic ingredients in just the right mixture and amounts 

Lizards?... might want to be careful...

George Bush.

Bank of America gets to pay back 17bn over questionable mortgages.  Do they get to go back and help those people they drove out of their houses and into poverty, too?

Bigger spiders a good thing?  I don't think so....

A cop discusses Ferguson and the behavior of the police.

Oh please, let this be true! The Twilight of Antonin Scalia

One half-hour to change a governor's mind about climate change.  And they don't think it worked.

How much you can save when you stop buying shit.

How amazingly transparent the CIA is....

How do you pronounce pecan?

California drought, before and after comparisons.

Iceland could really mess things up...

Because of Bárðarbunga.  Daily Kos's Rei tells the story:

The winter of 1783-1784. The Revolutionary War had just ended, and Benjamin Franklin was puzzling over the nation's bizarre weather. Congress had been delayed getting to Annapolis to vote for the Treaty of Paris because the Chesapeake Bay just wouldn't melt. The Mississippi River froze down to New Orleans, and ice was reported floating in the Gulf of Mexico. Reports from Europe were of a bizarrely hot summer with thick fog that was choking people to death in Scotland, massive hailstones, lightning, and crop failures. The sun was blood-red at noon. Mass starvation that would ultimately kill 1/6ths of Egypt's population took hold due to a historic drought of the Nile. As many as six million people would die from the bizarre weather.

Franklin was one of the few scientists of the era to (almost) correctly speculate as to its cause:

"The cause of this universal fog is not yet ascertained [...] or whether it was the vast quantity of smoke, long continuing, to issue during the summer from Hekla in Iceland, and that other volcano which arose out of the sea near that island, which smoke might be spread by various winds, over the northern part of the world, is yet uncertain."

He, however, had mixed up his Icelandic volcanoes, for it was not Hekla that erupted that year, causing the planet-altering weather, but Laki (Eldgjá). A rift 23 kilometers long opened up in places up to 100 meters wide with lava fountains at times reaching over a kilometers into the air - and it continued erupting for 8 months.

The total quantity of lava erupted - 14 cubic kilometers - was not that much more than Mount Pinatubo (largest eruption of the 20th century)'s 10 cubic kilometers. But the eruption kicked out a staggering 120 million tons of sulfur dioxide, compared to Pinatubo's 17 million - nearly supervolcano levels. Also unusually, Laki emitted 8 million tons of hydrogen fluoride - normally a trace volcanic gas. These gasses created the "Laki Haze" across Europe. In Iceland, the consequences were most severe - a quarter of the population starved or died of fluoride poisoning, and most of the livestock died. Denmark considered evacuating the entire island.

Is Laki threatening to go off? No. Then why do I mention him?

Because his big sister IS threatening to go off.

Bárðarbunga (BOWR-thar-Boon-kah, "Bárður's Bulge") is part of the same volcanic system, but is much larger than Laki. Barðárbunga stretches out over 200 kilometers long. It has a large eruption every 250-600 years. One of its eruptions before settlers arrived was 21-30 cubic kilometers of lava. Like her little brother Laki, she's associated with massive amounts of toxic gas release.

Update:
Rei's update.

Depression is not melancholy nor sadness

Depression

edit.. would be nice if I put in the link.

Friday Follies

Russian has actually had two nuclear disasters.

Love no matter what.

Apparently we need to start recording everything we do.

Republicans hate government so much that they are startled to learn they might want to show voters they can govern.

Paul Krugman takes apart libertarian economics and Ayn Rand fantasies.

The over-militarization of our police. Steve Bates discusses. Officer Friendly.

Singing opera may save your life.

Why funny people kill themselves.

Jeffrey Smith Challenge to Neil deGrasse Tyson on GMO food.

Piles and piles of bones, artifacts, fish

Piles of prehistoric bones!

Piles of 'artifacts spanning more than 15 centuries of Etruscan, Roman and medieval civilization in Tuscany'.

Piles of dead sea creatures.  Stop ghost fishing.

Shocking Statistics
Up to 30% of all fish are caught in ghost nets.
Roughly 10%, or 640,000 tons of all marine debris are caught in ghost nets.
As of right now, and still counting, there has been thousands of seabirds, 20,000 northern fur seals, and 500,000 octopi caught in ghost nets.
Over a 23 week period, there has been 11 harbor seals, 450 salmon, 1,300 spiny dogfish, 1,800 birds, and 16,900 crabs caught in just one net.
In the wreck of the MV Infidel off the coast of Santa Catalina Island alone, 4.5 tons of netting sank to the ocean floor.

The Power of Recycling and of Words

One woman changed the way we throw out our trash.

First amendment.

This is what the matter is with Kansas.

What Happened When an Extremist, Christian Fundamentalist Got to Run a Whole State

Confused Cats Against Feminism

Which explains everything.

Monday: meteors to methane

Meteor shower incoming.

Arizona allows open carry in airports... which gets you this idiocy.  And this reaction.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) debunks the anti-climate change Republicans, on video.

America's most hated banks.

Garbage men know all.

More methane sinkholes?

Horsey

All I see are table legs....

Clarence Darrow said it best below: 

If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools, and the next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the minds of men. If you can do one you can do the other. Ignorance and fanaticism is ever busy and needs feeding. Always it is feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers, tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lectures, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, your honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind.

By the way... Yellowstone is melting.

Its roads. And why it needs to be monitored very closely...

Abortion

Treat abortion like any other medically comparable procedure.

Update: What We Don't Talk About When We Don't Talk About Abortion

Beware the Dangers of Congress’ Latest Cybersecurity Bill

A new cybersecurity bill poses serious threats to our privacy, gives the government extraordinary powers to silence potential whistleblowers, and exempts these dangerous new powers from transparency laws.

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014 ("CISA") was scheduled to be marked up by the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday but has been delayed until after next week's congressional recess. The response to the proposed legislation from the privacy, civil liberties, tech, and open government communities was quick and unequivocal – this bill must not go through.

The bill would create a massive loophole in our existing privacy laws by allowing the government to ask companies for "voluntary" cooperation in sharing information, including the content of our communications, for cybersecurity purposes. But the definition they are using for the so-called "cybersecurity information" is so broad it could sweep up huge amounts of innocent Americans' personal data.

The dangers of methane

Sunday funnies

How women have to navigate the world.  Being called Beyonce voters.  Misconceptions about the Hobby Lobby ruling.

All the tornadoes that have happened so far this year.  The weather next week.

World War I explained in 40 maps

Reporting the scientific news does not mean including 'opinions'.

The conservative mindset.  Paul Krugman explains their difficulties with the success of Obamacare.

Torches and pitchforks in the future.

Poisonous newts in your coffee?  Crickets singing hymns?

Putin has hurt Russia by attacking the Ukraine.

National parks feel climate change.

Censorship or protection?

Iraq explained in five minutes (greatly simplified)

Meh? Really?

To the Supreme Court apparently yes.

Imagine the hysteria if Hobby Lobby were run by religious Muslims....

Hobby Lobby and the Supreme Court but there may be a silver lining....

It's sad we were right all along about Blackwater....

Blackwater threatened to kill US official over Iraq massacre probe

The top manager in Iraq of the notorious private security firm Blackwater threatened to kill a US State Department investigator for probing the company's performance, the New York Times reported Monday. 

The Times, citing an internal State Department memorandum, said the threat came just weeks before Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 civilians on September 16, 2007 in Baghdad's Nisour Square. 

However US embassy officials in Baghdad sided with Blackwater and the State Department investigators were ordered to leave, The Times said. 

Four former Blackwater employees are currently on trial in a US court for the Nisour Square deaths. 

The killing, seen as an example of the impunity enjoyed by private security firms on the US payroll in Iraq, exacerbated Iraqi resentment toward Americans. 

The lead State Department investigator, Jean Richter, warned in the memo dated August 31, 2007, that little oversight of the company, which had a $1 billion contract to protect US diplomats, had created "an environment full of liability and negligence." 

Blackwater guards "saw themselves as above the law," Richter wrote.

Moon dust and cereal...

Moon dust and its dangers.

Negotiating with terrorists.

An Iraq War Veteran says what he thinks about war and warmongers.

Why ignorance is being embraced as a virtue in the GOP.

Life in the most religious states.

Tom Tomorrow gets it right.

Plastics, even non-BPA, can affect your hormones.  And pesticides may give your child autism.

10 invasive species

Women listening to men in Western Art History.  And speaking in a sexist language.

Cereal killers...

Is Saudi Arabia behind the ISIL land grab?

Shortly after the US revealed that, in addition to aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships it was also sending a few hundred "special forces" on the ground in Iraq, contrary to what Obama had stated previously, Washington made quite clear it wants Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to embrace Sunni politicians as a condition of U.S. support to fight a lightning advance by forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Then something unexpected happened: Iraq's Shi'ite rulers defied Western calls on Tuesday to reach out to Sunnis to defuse the uprising in the north of the country, declaring a boycott of Iraq's main Sunni political bloc and accusing Sunni power Saudi Arabia of promoting "genocide." 

In fact, as Reuters reported moments ago, the Shi'ite prime minister has moved in the opposite direction of Obama's demands, announcing a crackdown on politicians and officers he considers "traitors" and lashing out at neighbouring Sunni countries for stoking militancy. 

Not only did Iraq defy the US, but it also called out America's BFF (or at least formerly so until the arrival of Iran, which the US is aggressively, and inexplicably, rushing to make its new key partner in the region) for being the real aggressor behind the scenes? How dare Maliki point out the truth - doesn't he know that those US troops in Iraq can just as easily be used to depose the current regime as "fight" the Al Qaeda Jihadists the US itself armed in the first place? 

Apparently not, and instead of seeking a broad coalition with Sunnis as the US ordered, the latest target of his government's fury was Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni power in the Gulf, which funds Sunni militants in neighbouring Syria but denies it is behind ISIL. 

"We hold them responsible for supporting these groups financially and morally, and for the outcome of that - which includes crimes that may qualify as genocide: the spilling of Iraqi blood, the destruction of Iraqi state institutions and historic and religious sites," the Iraqi government said of Riyadh in a statement. 

As Reuters notes, Maliki has blamed Saudi Arabia for supporting militants in the past, but the severe language was unprecedented.

And

(Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki broadcast a joint appeal for national unity on Tuesday with bitter Sunni critics of his Shi'ite-led government - a move that may help him win U.S. help against rampant Islamists threatening Baghdad. Just hours after Maliki's Shi'ite allies had angrily vowed to boycott any cooperation with the biggest Sunni party and his government had accused Sunni neighbor Saudi Arabia of backing "genocide", the premier's visibly uncomfortable televised appearance may reflect U.S. impatience with its Baghdad protege.

The Saudi government says no:

The Saudi monarchy has been a vocal supporter of the overthrow of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and sent money and weapons to rebel groups fighting against him from early on in the Syrian uprising. It has also called repeatedly for western arms – including anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons – to be given to Syrian rebels "to level the playing-field" in the war.
Wealthy individuals and religious foundations in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and elsewhere in the Gulf have channelled millions of dollars to the anti-Assad opposition, though it is not clear with what degree of official connivance. 

But since last autumn the Saudi government has diverted its support to a broad Islamic Front which has been fighting against jihadi formations such as Isis and the Syrian group Jabhat al-Nusra. There is other evidence of a rethink in the replacement of the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, with Prince Mohamed bin Nayef, the interior minister and architect of a successful campaign against al-Qaida. The Saudis are also co-ordinating more closely with the US than previously

"There is Saudi money flowing into Isis but it is not from the Saudi state," said Lina Khatib of the Carnegie Foundation.

What do data collecting agencies actually know about you?

Too much, actually.  And some of it is wrong...

Fukushima today

Is doing everything we were afraid would happen.  (via Steve Bates in comments)

Not One More

Gun violence survivors share their photos.

Misogyny let loose. After the Isla Vista shooting, the anger of those males who feel they deserve women's attention has come to the forefront.  And women try to explain what a day can be like.

Southern Law Poverty Center reports on White Homicide Worldwide and begins with this chilling quote:

A typical murderer drawn to the racist forum Stormfront.org is a frustrated, unemployed, white adult male living with his mother or an estranged spouse or girlfriend. She is the sole provider in the household. Forensic psychologists call him a “wound collector.” Instead of building his resume, seeking employment or further education, he projects his grievances on society and searches the Internet for an excuse or an explanation unrelated to his behavior or the choices he has made in life.

Someone who left the NRA when the bozos came in.

Net Neutrality

Caturday

Cats being jerks.

How many of you are experiencing a huge spike of ad phone calls... or silent phone calls?

For a while we were being harassed almost daily by phone calls from construction companies, then it changed to several times a day boiler room type calls for a variety of causes.  Along with these, we get silent calls where no one is on the line.  My daughter thinks it's a plot to make us drop our land line....  What happened to the no-call list anyway?

Is your state trying to force you to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term?

Plan B available on Amazon.

China... haven't you learned ANYTHING?

PetSmart joins Petco in halting sales of Chinese dog and cat treats

Pet owners have complained for years that treats imported from China, in particular chicken jerky, have caused illnesses that officials have been unable to pinpoint. Nonetheless, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued periodic warnings since 2007. 

“We’ve been following the FDA warnings and related customer concerns closely, and we’ve been actively reducing our China-made assortment and expanding our American-made offerings for several years now,” said Jim Myers, Petco's chief executive. 

“As a leader in the industry and the trusted partner for our pet parents, we’re eager to make this transition and to expand our assortment of safe and healthy treats," Myers said. "Very simply, we feel this decision is in the best interest of the pets we all love and, ultimately, for our business.” 

Petco, based in San Diego, said it expects all China-made treats will be removed from its more than 1,300 stores nationwide by year's end. PetSmart Inc. soon followed, saying it would also end sales of China-made pet treats.

I have posted my list of Chinese products that have been badly made, toxic, mislabeled. I have used only those articles from substantiated news outlets. I do not go searching for them, but this is the list I have collected over just a few years of watching.

Daily Kos (via Steve Bates):

Recently, Diane Rehm had a show about prescription drugs sold in the U.S. that are manufactured outside of the U.S. Unknown to me (and probably many others) many of the prescription drugs that we take were actually manufactured outside of the United States. According to Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of the FDA: Eighty percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in drugs taken here are actually manufactured in other countries and about 40 percent of the finished drugs are coming from other countries.

Really?  China?  This China?

China, selling fox meat as donkey meat to its clients.  Not that I'll ever eat donkey meat.  That's not the point.  It's that, again, China is caught selling something inedible/ poisonous/ toxic/ contaminated/ mislabeled to customers.  Don't they have an 'FDA' branch of the government that enforces quality controls?  If they don't, why would anyone trust China to sell anything reliable, safe, or uncontaminated?

Here is the list culled from the many posts on my blog on China's ongoing problems in food and industrial safety.

Gutter oil made in China... from dead animals and garbage.  Are we sure we want them to process our chickens?

They never seem to learn:

 220,000 Pounds Of Poisoned Dead Fish Scooped Up In China In Reminder Of Pollution Plaguing Country

Authorities have scooped up around 100,000 kilograms (220,000 pounds) of dead fish they say were poisoned by ammonia from a chemical plant, environmental officials and state media said Wednesday, in a reminder of the pollution plaguing the country. 

The Hubei province environmental protection department, notified of the piles of dead fish in central China's Fuhe River on Monday, pointed the finger at local company Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Stock Co. Officials said sampling of its drain outlet showed that ammonia density far exceeded the national standard. The company said it wasn't going to immediately comment. 

Inadequate controls on industry and lax enforcement of existing standards have worsened China's pollution problem, stemming from three decades of breakneck economic growth. High-profile incidents this year involving dead animals in rivers – not only deaths attributed to pollution but also carcasses dumped by farmers after die-offs at farms – have added to public disgust and suspicions about the safety of drinking water. 

The latest incident has affected the nearby fishing village of Huanghualao, where 1,600 residents make a living from fishing, said the village's Communist Party secretary, Wang Sanqing.

Adding yet one more thing that illustrates why we can't trust food products (or anything else) from China:

More than 900 people have been arrested in China for involvement in meat-related crimes, including producing fake beef and mutton from animals such as rats, minks and foxes, authorities reported. 

A total of 382 cases of alleged crimes in food industry were uncovered in a three-month campaign launched by China’s Ministry of Public Security on January 25, the ministry reported.
In addition to producing falsely-labeled meat, the crimes included using banned chemicals in processing of products, selling meat infected with various diseases and injecting water into meat to pad up its weight, according to Xinhua news agency. 

Security officials seized more than 20,000 tons of illegal meat products during the crackdown.
The ministry said it will now focus on dairy products, continuing a larger campaign to combat crime and violations in food industry.

Nice to see official attempts to crackdown on this unregulated industry.  But I bet I will be posting yet another article sometime soon about poisonous/ toxic/ polluted/ contaminated products made in China.  Because that's the way it is.

Update:  I do hope the Chinese scientists know what they are doing....
Scientists warn Chinese-made air-transmissible bybrid bird flu puts humanity at risk

From my many posts on this subject:

Fake Medicine from China Threatening Lives in Africa

 *sigh*

Add it to the list:

BEIJING—The discovery of unusual levels of mercury in Chinese-produced infant formula reignited fears about the safety of the country's scandal-ridden dairy industry, and underlined the severe challenges the government faces in improving food safety.
Mercury in baby formula.

Pills for human consumption containing human remains.

China poisons more pets:

November 18, 2011 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued an important bulletin warning consumers that chicken jerky products (also marketed as chicken tenders, strips or treats) may be associated with serious illness in dogs.
Over the past 12 months, the FDA has observed an increase in the number of complaints regarding canine illnesses associated with consumption of chicken jerky products imported from China.
These complaints have been reported to the government by both dog owners and veterinarians.
And here is the ever-expanding list:

But according to FSN, the biggest reason to avoid ultra-filtered honey is that pollen is the only sure-fire way to trace the source of honey to a geographic location. As a result ultra-filtered honey is often used to mask the shady origins of certain kinds of honey -- especially Chinese honey, which is subject to heavy import tariffs on account of its frequent contamination by heavy metals and illegal antibiotics. Chinese honeymakers ultra-filter their honey, and then ship it through byzantine paths, to sneak their sham product onto American grocery shelves without being hit with a tariff.
Vinegar from China kills 11 people.

"From steroid-spiked pork to glow-in-the-dark meat to recycled cooking oil collected from sewers, a series of illnesses and scandals linked to tainted food has put officials on guard. But tougher measures have had little effect amid an official culture of secrecy."

Watermelons spiked with growth chemicals explode in the fields... so the farmers feed the forchlorfenuron saturated melons to fish and pigs.

Waste water forced into pigs going to market.

Fresh milk tainted with melamine and toxic substances extracted from leather scraps... killed 6 children in China and sickened 300,000.

Rice is contaminated with heavy metals like cadmium.

Fake rice made from plastic, potatoes and resin.

Pulverized lime added to bleaching agents widely used in flour production. Pulverized lime damages the lungs and the entire respiratory system.

Cadmium in children's toys and little girl jewelry. Lead in toys: Thomas the Tank Engine, baby bibs, cub scout badges, wooden blocks. Formaldehyde in candy, in baby clothing. Coma-inducing date rape drug in toys.

Asbestos in toys.

"The rampant use of chemical additives in animal feed can be traced to 1999. According to Gao Yinxiang, the research and development of high-protein feed additives was a hot field among scientists about 10 years ago due to shortage of animal fodder in the country at the time.

From that time, it's hard to define the exact role that scientists played in the evolution of the melamine scandal. Yet scientists certainly contributed to it by developing unsafe protein alternatives. Many Chinese are now calling on scientists to examine their conscience before making profits at the expense of public safety."

Melamine in pet food kills house pets in the US. Melamine is found in wheat, corn and rice gluten.

China says no to inspections and destroys evidence.

Rat poison in breakfast porridge.

Pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella. Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

Toothpaste with diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical used in engine coolants.

Highly toxic puffer fish sold as monk fish.

Fake blood protein.

Wild mice used for meat.

Defective tires.

Use of illegal drift nets.

Fake kosher food.

Insecticide-tainted dumplings.

More than 40 percent of drinking water in rural China is unfit for drinking.

Poisoned chocolate.

Toxic drywall which caused houses to be uninhabitable.

Fake Cisco routers

Misuse and overuse of antibiotics. "Studies in China show a "frightening" increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus bacteria, also know as MRSA."

The list will inevitably be added to. When are we going to learn this is what happens to corporations when there is no regulation?