Posted on 05/28/2004 2:43:20 AM PDT by Fast5
10,000 birds fall from sky From correspondents in China
MORE than 10,000 birds died mysteriously in eastern China's Jiangsu province, dropping like rain from the sky, state media reported yesterday.
Farmers and other witnesses in Sangongdian village in Taizhou city saw flocks of bramble finch suddenly fall from the sky on Tuesday, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
Most of the birds were dead when they hit the ground and some were injured, it said. The birds look like sparrows and are small in size.
Officials from the local centre for disease prevention and control rushed to the scene. Samples from the birds were taken to a lab in nearby Nanjing city for testing to determine the cause of death.
Experts from the Jiangsu province agriculture department said that because the birds died while in flight, the cause of death may have been contamination in their food, water or environment.
They did not immediately say whether there was any connection with the spreading bird flu outbreak in Asia.
At least 12 of China's 31 provinces have confirmed or suspected outbreaks of the avian influenza, which has devastated flocks across Asia and killed 11 people in Vietnam and five in Thailand.
China, the world's second-largest producer and fifth-largest exporter of chicken meat, has culled millions of birds in an attempt to halt the march of the disease.
I was thinking maybe they ran into a cloaked Klingon WarBird. ;^)
Brilliant!
This story originally appeared in 2 Chinese newspapers in January or February..............then died from massive lack of interest - or massive lack of credibility-I don't know which.
I had the same thought. Saw a NOVA show on PBS the other night about mag pole reversal. A scientist has built a pretty convincing model of reversal, and ancient lava flows show reversals every 200K years or so. Right now, we are 500K overdue and the anomalies in the magnetic field predicted by the model are rapidly appearing. According to one lava flow study, once the critical point is reached, reversals can happen in minutes. Birds, sensitive to mag field for navigation, may have become disoriented by an anomalie and simple flown into the ground.
Just for what it's worth, I'm suprised.
I've been in the Chinese Mainland a number of times.
Unlike here in the USA, you can look up but you don't see any birds. This February, I was conciously looking for birds but it took me over a week to find one. In the Shenzhen/Shekou/Fuyon/buon areas, birds are quite rare. I asked one of the local guys and he said "they are out in the country" I suspect locally "they are lunch"
-Mal
"Republican Death Ray" tests?
There is a phenomenon known as the South Atlantic Anomaly that satellites have to contend with....much higher radiation effects there than elsewhere. The Anomaly is an indicator of the mag field switch getting ready to happen.
The sky is really falling...Now it's the innocent little Birds ...what has Bush /Cheney /Halliburton done now?
Oh man, when that happens-- I'd hate to be a plane in the sky relying on my GPS navigation at the time.
Not to worry. GPS is a satellite nav system.
I am not worried about the magnetic pole reversal. I also do not think that has anything to do with the birds.
Sure, but a GPS can tell me my compass direction too, right? Wouldn't that part be screwed up?
In your opinion what would account for birds falling from the sky in both hemispheres (China -- NZ )?
I told the guys we should have tested that thing over water first but Noooooooo, they were too worried about the fish.
Could the Chinese be testing some kind of directed energy weapon?
Bird flu. Then it didn't.
The "North Up" (true north) data from a GPS sat. system you see in your instrument display is calculated on the ground independant of magnetic north information. The data sent uplink to the sats is quite significant. Magnetic north info is usually a calculated function based on an automated "look-up" function (deviation table) related to your Lat/Long.
That is what I was wondering, I know the poles switch direction now and then. Reminds me of the movie "Core".
True, avian flu would not cause a flock to fall out of the sky. Sounds like noxious fumes. Probably just the smokestack from the Happy Meal toy factory.
If it is a pole reversal.. it would take centuries, wouldn't it? I mean, it can't just go from N-S in a matter of hours right?
So what do you reckon would account for flocks of birds dying in both hemispheres at the same time?
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