Rats, lots of Rats.

Strike another one up for Unintended Consequences. The rising floodwaters of the Yangtze River have caused masses of rats to flee the flooded areas and find refuge in precious agriculture areas. As a result there are plans to build a 1 meter high, 40km long wall to keep the rats from destroying more land. According to the article 1.3 million acres have already been lost to the invasion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aD3se8G9E9bk

interestingly enough, their are quotes from those responsible for the wall in which they say the wall isn't really not a solution, rather something to placate worried farmers. Instead, they suggested raising the number of natural predators, whose numbers have dwindled since developing the farm land.

There is more, Much more. And much stranger, but you get used to these things in China:

because the rats number in the billions and the difficulty of disposing of a billion rat carcasses, and also because there is money to be made, the rats are being shipped off to restaurants for food.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/16/content_5435896.htm (best picture ever)

http://abcnews.go.com/WaterCooler/wireStory?id=3381084

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-07-16T104424Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-284941-1.xml
"Business is good". Stories like this make me think twice about going back.

and on that note, a little personal info:

I'm going back to China as you know, not to Beijing though, which i'm a little happy about. I'll be in a town called Jiaxing, 100km SE of Shanghai at Jiaxing University. Hopefully i 'll get some good info and stories relevant to this blog and if you guys want me to look out for anything in particular or just to put my ear to the ground, just let me know.