I don't really have anything to add to Hong Wrong's piece about the 16.5-meter duck in Victoria Harbor, "In Pictures: HK Goes Completely Insane For Big Yellow Duck’s Arrival," or Shanghaiist's guide to SCMP's articles about these rubber ducks (with rolling updates), except to say this is awesome:
China is mixing deadly H5N1 bird flu viruses with H1N1 swine flu viruses. You heard that right. The virus can already be passed between guinea pigs, which are used in these experiments as some sort of guinea pigs. They are making pigs and birds science-bone each other until they come up with some sort of superbug.... Read more »
It’s only natural for zookeepers to worry about caged animals getting loose. What is fairly obviously not normal, however, is having humans don animal suits to simulate this scenario, for “training” purposes. These pictures were taken recently from Taiyuan Zoo in Shanxi province. Look at this one: there’s a guy in a white lab coat... Read more »
Praise and derision on Sina Weibo for this picture, posted yesterday to the People’s Liberation Army Chengdu military account. But praise and derision is what you’ll get for any popular Sina Weibo post, basically. Can we just sit back and admire this?
This is alarming. According to Nandu.com, 238 dead pigs and 89 dead dogs were found in Dongtun village in Luoyang, Henan province yesterday. By all accounts, they died suddenly and at the same time. Initial tests have ruled out the H7N9 virus as a cause. Thank goodness for that and all, to know the zombie apocalypse... Read more »
On the morning of April 9, a sow in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province gave birth to a dozen piglets, including this one with two heads. The adorable youngling is reportedly 28 centimeters long and weights 1 kilogram.
Don't get too attached though, because it's not expected to live long. Those with polycephaly don't usually survive to adulthood.
The pig is owned by a villager surnamed Ouyang, who hopefully thinks better of giving it a water funeral.
This is just practice, says the video description. In the real world, a chengguan's inability to nab a scurrying chicken could result in the proliferation of that killer virus, H7N9 bird flu. Go, chenguan, go. We trust you.
Another variety of dead creature has been fished out of Shanghai’s waters in bulk. Over the last three days in Songjiang District, about 300 kilograms of dead fish (“500 to 600 jin,” say media) have been dredged out of a dike between the Si and Jing rivers. Authorities speculate that the cause may be have been... Read more »
This will be fun: let’s track new cases of bird flu, specifically this new, confounding H7N9 strain. Four more cases have been reported by a health bureau in Jiangsu province, according to AP. It remains non-contagious and not actually caused by birds. The health bureau of eastern Jiangsu province said in a notice on its... Read more »
