Continuing Ogre-oid: Chinese Children Hacked to Death

Insanity rules.  The series of attacks on school children in their schools seems to be a violent expression of economic and social injustice in China.  This particular incident appears to stem from a property dispute, probably the State took possession of the killer's farm land to build the school.  I can't understand this drive to kill children no matter how often it is explained to me.  Does overpopulation play a role in these attacks?  When population density collides with upward mobility is this the reaction of the human hive to cull its numbers?  If so they're going to have to get with the poison gases and epidemics if they want actual change.

7 Chinese children, 2 adults hacked to death at China kindergarten; attacker commits suicide

Updated 08:35 PM May 12, 2010

BEIJING (AP) - An attacker with a cleaver has hacked to death seven children and two adults at a kindergarten in northwest China, the latest in a string of savage assaults on the country's schools. Eleven other children were wounded.

The killer, 48-year-old Wu Huanming, returned home after Wednesday's attack on the outskirts of the city of Hanzhong and committed suicide, the local government reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency, citing an initial police investigation, said Wu had feuded over the kindergarten property with its manager, Wu Hongying, who was among the victims.

It was the fifth such major assault on young students in China since late March and occurred despite increased security at schools countrywide.

- AP

Pine Mouth - Long Story Short: Stay Away from Chinese Pine Nuts

Pine Mouth - Long Story Short: Stay Away from Chinese Pine Nuts

Friday after we recorded the podcast, Dave made a pesto.  Yesterday (Sunday) I was tidying up the kitchen and went to put the pine nuts in the right cabinet.  Of course I popped some in my mouth and went about my business.  As I finished the beer I was drinking I noticed a distinct bitter flavor in the back of my mouth which I dismissed as some lingering aftertaste of the Abita Turbodog I had left over from the Superbowl.  By the time I went to bed it had gotten pervasive though the last Turbodog had been consumed four or five hours before.

Unfortunately today I am constantly tasting this bitter taste in the back of my mouth and tongue.  I complained about it to my better half earlier today and she asked if I had eaten any pine nuts.  It actually took me a few moments to realize I had snacked on them.  Turns out she had read on one of her food blogs about the phenomenon known as "pine mouth" that was being caused by certain pine nuts.  Sadly this effect would appear to persist for days and even weeks! Its onset may have been triggered by my snacking on the pine nuts and that effecting those I had eaten as pesto two days before, or the snacked pine nuts may have been coincidental

Here's a picture of the offending pine nuts:

If there was ever an argument against buying any "American" types of food from China, this is it. The closest thing to a scientific study of this (totally observational but observed by scientists self experimenting) is here, and a pretty good article about it is here.  Not much information out there (though what is has thousands of responses of people experiencing this) but one thing I can tell you is if this taste sticks around for a couple of weeks I'm going to be very unhappy.  Here's a quick synopsis of what I've found out:

1.  It would appear this is caused by Chinese pine nuts only.
2.  It is probably caused by the nuts being heated in transit (imagine containers full of them riding cargo ships across the ocean) and the heat altering certain triglycerides.
3.  This is not caused by contamination by heavy metals or pesticides.
4.  It seems onset is around two days after ingestion.
5.  The effects last from several days to over two weeks.
6.  It does not effect smell but wreaks havoc on your taste buds.