quality control

shanghaiist.com — Publishers in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been quietly outsourcing the printing of their Qurans to China, to save on printing costs. Unfortunately, many of the made-in-China Qurans have come out full of spelling errors.

www.lostlaowai.com — I don't know about the rest of you but all this talk of melamine got me wondering what (other than the catch-term of the month) it is. This blog post gives a run down of what it is, what it does and why it's used. And lets you know you're all going to die - but you knew that already.

www.allroadsleadtochina.com — If a bad product were to make it into the hands of a 260 lb guy on the site and it goes bad.. our client’s future orders are at risk, and as such so are ours. so, it is in our LONG TERM interest to make sure that the product we put out has been made right.

www.danwei.org — Danwei reports that Beijing's tap water is now drinkable - sort of. Though the city stepped up and is five years ahead of the requirements to meet national drinking water standards, there is some question on whether it's REALLY drinkable.

The problem, as might be guessed, is that though the water is up to the tight standards when it leaves the water processing plant, after it winds its way through a vast network of old piping, it has been contaminated again.

www.shanghaiist.com — For anyone that heard about the China Eastern plane that's wheels gave out upon landing at Shanghai's Hong Qiao airport last week, this will add worry to your wonders. One of China Southern's plane's tail fell off just before take off.

JTFC. I mean, really... this confirms a suspicion I never wanted to believe - the air planes in this country suffer the same amazing level of quality control as everything else.