Odds and ends, 4/15/07

A story on Page 1 of The Herald-Dispatch on Friday caught my attention. Not because of what was in it, but what wasn't in it.

It was an AP story, and the first three grafs follow:

SHANGHAI, China (AP) _ The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella.

Yet, it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus U.S. public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.

In recent weeks, scores of cats and dogs in America have died of kidney failure blamed on eating pet food containing gluten from China that was tainted with melamine, a chemical used in plastics, fertilizers and flame retardants. While humans aren't believed at risk, the incident has sharpened concerns over China's food exports and the limited ability of U.S. inspectors to catch problem shipments.

Now compare that to this nugget from Voice of America:

And China has the deadliest coal mines of all. Last year, more than 4,700 workers died in mine accidents as Chinese mine operators pushed workers to meet booming demands for fuel.

And China wants to sell its cars in the USA? Those ought to go over as well as the Yugo if the safety record isn't any better than in the Chinese food and mining industries.

(One snide point. The CBS story notes that the name of the care likely will change if it's sold here. It's pronounced "JEE-lee," which is like "Gigli," the awful box-office bomb brought to us by Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.).

=O=

One more thing, related to my recent rants about the cost of college tuition.

For people wondering about priorities at major basketball powers, try this piece from Cincinnati.