Infinite Unknown

- Not even good enough for dog food: Imported food from China loaded with chemicals, dyes, pesticides and fake ingredients (Natural News, May 10, 2013):

Do you really know what’s in all the food you’re eating that’s imported from China? If you don’t, you’re actually in good company: The FDA only inspects 1% – 2% of all the food imported from China, so they don’t know either. Even when they inspect a shipment, they rarely test it for heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs or other toxic contaminants.

Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute, added emphasis to this point as he testified this week in The House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, saying, “We don’t trust, for good reason, the Chinese to supply ingredients for our dog and cat food. Why should we trust Chinese exporters for the food that we are feeding our children and families?”

It’s a good question. Especially when, as Kastel adds, Chinese food is being routinely found to contain “unapproved chemicals, dyes, pesticides and outright fraud (fake food).”

Heavily contaminated food from China

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Tags: animals, Chemicals, Contamination, Food, Global News, Government, Health, organic, Pesticides, Politics, Pollution, Society, U.S.

- Pigs, Ducks, Black Swans, Chickens And Now Fish: The Shanghai Animal Apocalypse Accelerates (ZeroHedge, April 8, 2013):

Shanghai just can’t catch a break – first it was floating dead pigs, then ducks, then black swans, then mass chicken exterminations, and now fish. From the Telegraph: ” Just weeks after over 16,000 putrefying pigs were pulled from Shanghai’s Huangpu river, more than 250kg of dead carp had to be retrieved from a river in the city’s Songjiang district. Mystery still surrounds the cause of death, but numerous explanations have surfaced in the Chinese media since residents first complained about the foul-smelling fish last Monday. Theories reportedly include climate change, electrocution, an explosion or even a drug overdose. The Shanghai Daily quoted a local government official who “speculated” the fish could have been “drugged.” So, in China things are so good, even the fish are ODing on sleeping pills? Hardly, but the fact that this is even floated “out there” just shows how miserably The Onion has missed its IPO window.

More:

China has become notorious for its polluted rivers, largely as a result of decades of unbridled economic growth. Last year a senior official conceded 20 percent of the country’s rivers had become “too toxic for human contact”.

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Tags: animals, China, Environment, Fish, Global News, Government, Politics, Shanghai

Fukushima, anyone?

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hundreds of starving sea lion pups are washing up on beaches from San Diego to Santa Barbara, overwhelming rescue centers and leaving scientists scrambling to figure out why.

At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 percent of the pups born in June have died, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die.

It’s gotten so bad in the past two weeks that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event.” That will allow more scientists to join the search for the cause, Melin said.

Pups are normally weaned from their mothers in April.

Even the pups that are making it are markedly underweight, Melin said.

The most recent pups weighed at the breeding area on San Miguel Island were around 37 pounds, Melin said. They should weigh between 55 and 59 pounds by now, she said.

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Tags: animals, California, Environment, Global News, NOAA, Oceans, Sea Lions

- Hogwash Update – Latest Number Of Floating Chinese Pigs: 5,916 And Rising Fast (ZeroHedge, March 12, 2013):

First it was 900, then 1200, then 3000, and now the latest tally of dead pigs floating in the Shanghai water supply has hit nearly 6000. AP has the latest number: ” The number of dead pigs found floating in a river flowing into Shanghai has reached nearly 6,000. The Shanghai municipal government said in an online announcement that 5,916 swine carcasses had been retrieved from Huangpu River by 3 p.m. Tuesday, but added that municipal water remains safe.” At what point will the dead pigs begin to pose a health challenge? 10,000? 100,000? What is the maximum Chinese Surgeon General RDA of dead pig in one’s drinking water? And whatever it is, how long until, pulling a page from Fukushima, it is quickly doubled? But perhaps the biggest question is what is causing this mass death phenomenon, and what does it mean for the quality and safety of other pigs in circulation? Continue reading »

Tags: animals, China, Environment, Global News, Japan, Pigs, Politics, Shanghai, Water

Update:

- China ‘Hogwash’ Update: Latest Number Of Floating Pigs In Shanghai River: 5,916 And Rising Fast

When we first reported on China’s “hogwash” yesterday, the number of floating pigs in Shanghai’s water supplying Huangpu River was a “modest” 1200. It has since tripled to 3300. From SCMP: “The agriculture and environmental protection departments in Shanghai’s Songjiang district have pulled more than 3,300 dead pigs out of the Huangpu River, which flows through the municipality, in the past week.” What is worse is that at least one pig-related virus has been found in a water sample: “Porcine circovirus, a common hog disease that is not known to be infectious to humans, was found in a sample taken from the water, Shanghai’s animal disease control department was quoted as saying by eastday.com a major Shanghai news portal.” The good news is that tests by the Shanghai Animal Disease Prevention and Control Centre on five sets of internal organs taken from the dead pigs has ruled out five other diseases including foot-and-mouth, hog cholera and blue-ear. Of course, this is China, whose disclosure record is second only to Japan, where as a reminder the government said the radiation level was under control days after the Fukushima explosion, even as the reality was far grimmer.

More from SCMP:

The website quoted local water and environmental authorities as saying tests of water samples collected from six sites on the river showed that the poor water quality on the Songjiang district section of the Huangpu, a source of drinking water for Shanghai, was similar to the same period last year.

However, it said tap water from water suppliers in Songjiang and several neighbouring districts was in line with national standards.

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Tags: animals, China, Environment, Global News, Japan, Pigs, Politics, Shanghai, Water

… because the water quality is already so bad (‘within the normal range’) that 1200, oh wait aminute, NOW 3000 dead pigs do not make any difference.

Update:

- China ‘Hogwash’ Update: Latest Number Of Floating Pigs In Shanghai River: 5,916 And Rising Fast

- 1,200 Dead Pigs Found In Shanghai River (ZeroHedge, March 11, 2013):

Over the past month the west had its “horsemeat” scare, where horse DNA traces have been found in pretty much everything. It is now China’s turn to reciprocate, with 1,200 pigs found in Shanghai’s Huangpu River. Why someone would dump thousands of dead pigs in the river? Who knows – we are confident that it is bullish, however, and it is time fro GETCO or K-Hen to do something about this strange reddish color in the futures. It is not helping with confidence in central planning…

From China.org

The municipal authorities said the retrieved pigs would be collected and handled in a harmless way.

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Tags: animals, China, Environment, Global News, Japan, Pigs, Politics, Shanghai, Water

Tags: animals, Good News

- Rare footage of snow leopard recorded in northwest China – video (Guardian, March 8, 2013):

Footage shows a snow leopard in the mountains of Qinghai Province, China. The images were captured on infrared cameras by wildlife photographer Matse Rangja, who has only managed to film the leopard once before in eight years. Snow leopards are rarely seen by humans and are listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species

Tags: animals, China, Environment, Global News, Snow Leopard

- Scientists Enhance Intelligence of Mice with Human Brain Cells (io9, March 7, 2013):

It’s not quite Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but it may not be too far off, either. By grafting human glial cells into the brains of mice, neuroscientists were able to “sharply enhance” their cognitive capacities. These improvements included augmentations to memory, learning, and adaptive conditioning. It’s a breakthrough that could yield important insights into the treatment of human brain disorders.To conduct the experiment, the scientists created human chimeric mice — mice that were endowed with human glial cells. Continue reading »

Tags: animals, Brain, Global News, Science

- High concentration of radioactive cesium found in land animals (Kyodo News, March 2, 2013):

A high concentration of radioactive cesium has been found in a range of land animals and insects in areas around the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident, providing a clue to a mechanism of radioactivity accumulation in the food chain, a study showed Saturday.

According to a survey by the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and Hokkaido University, over 6,700 becquerels per kilogram of cesium 137 was detected in a frog captured in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, some 40 kilometers west of the crippled nuclear plant.

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Tags: animals, Environment, Food, Frogs, Fukushima, Global News, Health, Insects, Japan, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation, Science