China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said Wednesday.

The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said.

Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety.

“These are not isolated cases,” Han, director of the administration’s quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying.

Just … eeeeew.

UPDATE: Full story from the NYT can be found here.

That storm sat just west of us all night. The flooding in the Marble Falls and Leander area is historic in proportions. The area near Lin’s office has parts of the highway under water. It has been calm here all night, that weird sort of calm that is too still and too quiet. Another front has been shooting across Texas, and it looks like it’s going to push through the Austin area sometime in a few hours. I am still hoping it dies out, but I don’t really see that happening. This is an awful storm system. I’m was nervous enough last night to have the emergency light handy, and I am keeping it close, just in case.

Everyone, please send your good thoughts, prayers, and/or positive energy to the Central Texas area today. There are a lot of people already in danger and there will probably be more as this storm progresses.

I don’t think we are in any danger of flooding right here at the house. I don’t think. I am a little concerned about high winds, and if we get too much rain, the laundry room will flood and the roof will leak.

I’m going to go call my Mom and a few friends and check on them. Then I am going to get dressed and watch the weather until this storm either dies or hits us. If we lose electricity or there’s some other sort of crisis at Casa de Orb, remember I have a Livejournal. If anything too crazy happens here, I’ll be updating there by cell phone. I’m hoping it won’t be getting that crazy here.

Like I said, send some good energy to Central Texas today. It’s just awful out to the west of us. I feel so terrible for all the people who are in shelters right now. I’m hoping the situation doesn’t get worse for everyone’s sake.

In other news: My web site seems to be having database problems today, and there’s been one mother of a storm sort-of headed our way for hours. I still can’t tell if it’s going to hit us, but the places it is going through look to be getting hit hard. Eek.

At least dinner was superb tonight.

The weather has been so weird the last two days. Roaming little storms popping up here and there and making things crazy … then a little sunlight to make things miserable. It’s not quite hot enough to turn on the AC, unless I want to set it to Hell Frozen Over, but with the windows open, the humidity is just oppressive. Just washing the dishes left me as sweaty as if I had run a marathon, and I feel just about as wiped out too. I really feel for Lin, who has to be right out in this stuff.

I didn’t mind that we had a nice wet spring for a change, because we’d been in drought status for a long time, and we really needed some water from the sky. But … it could stop now. The ground is saturated, the lakes are full, and the flooding is only going to get worse from here on out. I realize that without these storms it would be Hell Hot outside right now, but I’d settle for a nice dry baking sun over constant grey skies and flooding every day.

Not that it’s flooding in my neighborhood, thank heavens. They fixed our creek/storm drain, so I think even though we live a block away from a flood plain, we would only see an actual flood here if it was a storm of Noah proportions. Well, at least I hope I am right about that. But in general, there is too much flooding going on around Texas.

The sun is out right now, but the way these storms just pop up from nowhere, I don’t expect that to last long. I guess now that I am somewhat recuperated from the dish-washing, I better go check the mail and take out the trash while it isn’t raining cats and dogs. Then I think a nice shower and turning the AC on to Hell Frozen Over for a while is in order. I’m making the meatloaf tonight, and I dread turning the oven on. The kitchen is already unbearable, and the late afternoon sun isn’t even beaming in through the windows yet. Yes, Hell Frozen Over is definitely in order.

I love cats. All cats, even the really big ones. Cats are cats, no matter the size. The biggest difference is that I outweigh my house cats by a good 100 pounds and could easily take them out of they tried to chew off my leg, and they know this … and so don’t generally try to chew off my leg. Generally. Ronin gives it a go every once in a while, but I give him “the look” and he stops chewing and starts licking. Don’t think I don’t know that every time he is licking something he’d rather be chewing on it. He no longer chews on his sisters head (at least not so much), but he does lick her head until it is sopping wet these days. I am certain he’d rather be chewing on her ears … and my feet. He’s a big cat in a somewhat small package.

But these ARE big cats, lions, and just look at them:

They are SOOOO cute. Deadly, due to their size, but cute nonetheless. See, all cats like the belly rubs, but at least with my little monsters, when they decide they have had enough, I don’t have to worry about losing a limb … or my head.

And the dude is pretty hot too. Not that I am looking (too intensely).

Last night, The Daily Show had some fun with the whole Dick Cheney/Executive Branch story. Even though this whole ludicrous mess makes me angry every time I think about it, Jon and the gang had us rolling on the floor laughing. I’m not even going to try to paraphrase it. You just have to watch it yourself.

It’s available at the Comedy Central web site, or if that doesn’t work for you, Crooks and Liars has a small version (with somewhat poor sound) available as well.

I’m going to watch it again right now to brighten my mood.

It’s a curious thing that, over the past 10 - 12 days, the news from Iraq refers to the combatants there as “al-Qaida” fighters. When did that happen?

Until a few days ago, the combatants in Iraq were “insurgents” or they were referred to as “Sunni” or “Shia’a” fighters in the Iraq Civil War. Suddenly, without evidence, without proof, without any semblance of fact, the US military command is referring to these combatants as “al-Qaida”.

Welcome to the latest in Iraq propaganda.

This morning’s must read article.

Lin: You like pulp?

Orb: Yes, I like pulp in my orange juice. Not tons of it, but some.

Lin: Huh.

How many years have we been together? Something like 15? And still we are learning things we didn’t know … like me liking pulp in my orange juice. I’m glad he didn’t ask me why, because I don’t have an answer. Does the pulp in orange juice serve any valid purpose? I need to prepare an answer, in case he ever asks why. Wikipedia says orange juice with pulp is more nutritional, but I can’t find anything about that anywhere else, and Wikipedia is not one of my most trustworthy sources without back-up from elsewhere. I guess when I go to the store this week, I’ll have to compare label on the non-pulp, medium-pulp, and massive-quantities-of-pulp versions of orange juice.

Apparently a few posts I made this weekend got saved as drafts without my knowledge. Yes, still having a few issues with the new version of Wordpress … or my server. I don’t know which it is (was). I don’t seem to be having the problems this week (so far).

Anyway, most of the ones that got saved as drafts were just me whining, moaning and complaining about the weather or being bored or Lin playing war games too loudly and therefore aren’t really worth bothering with posting, but there was one I wanted to post on Saturday. If it hadn’t been for Wildman emailing me to ask if I had gotten what he had sent, I might not have noticed that 50% of my posts from the weekend ended up not getting posted. Anyway, here is the important one:

I got something cool in the mail on Friday evening! Check it out … a Dr Pepper guitar keychain!

Thanks, Wildman! I love it!!! It’s already taken its rightful place on my blob of keys, though I think eventually I might put it on a chain to wear as a necklace, because it’s just so cute. Thank you again. Now I can prove that I am, in fact, a Pepper!

“If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.”
—President-elect George W. Bush, at a photo-op with congressional leaders during his first trip to Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

And…

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
–-Thomas Jefferson