Monday, March 18, 2013

"China river's dead pig toll passes 13,000"-NBC News


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That would be the Headline of the Day except I violated the rules of H.o.t.D. by reading the article.  The article doesn't help understanding the headline much. The headline states the fact, bizarre as that is. What the article adds is that this has all happened in a little over a week (!). It says "reports" are that a "number" of the dead pigs have tested positive for some pig virus, which is not very specific or authoritative. Are those "reports" even plausible?  Who amongst us out there knows pig viruses?  Can a pig virus kill that quickly?  I don't know.  The Chinese authorities are not even sure where the dead pigs are coming from...Not even sure...where dead pigs...How can that be?   How large is the potential pool of sources for 13,000 pigs around Shanghai?  How about as one potential source, oh I don't know, let's guess...pig farms. A pig farm is a pretty big thing, right? It's not like an ant colony, I think you could find pig farms around Shanghai without too much difficulty. How in the world did 13,000 dead pigs get put into rivers, 9,500 into one river, the Huangpu?  Pigs are pretty big too. How would pig farmers, people, take 13,000 dead pigs and dump them into a river and no one notice? Why would they dump them in a river?  Dead things float. Chinese pig farmers know this, right?  If Chinese pig farmers dumped some dead pigs in the river, they would have seen them float in the water. They didn't drop like stones to the bottom. Rivers carry floating things downstream to other people who will see them. Chinese pig farmers know this about rivers, right?