Qinghai - The "Rest" of the Story - Home to More Than Avian Flu

Recombinomics + Others ^ | 2 Aug 05 | Various

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Three Villages Razed In Qinghai After H5N1 Bird Flu Riots?

Recombinomics Commentary August 2, 2005

According to the Qinghai Bulletin Board Service (BBS), the state of emergency imposed on the farming community and its surroundings in the Northwestern Qinghai City / Town of Yushu was lifted on the night of 28th July.

When natives living further from the area made a trip to the farming community, they discovered that it had "vanished" together with 3 of its surrounding villages. Only some ruins, blocks from collapsed walls, remained. Apparently, the farms and villages had been flattened and there were signs that they had been razed.

It is believed that some inhabitants from those 3 villages were workers in the farm. Around 200 people were estimated to have inhabited or worked in those 3 villages and the farm. There whereabouts are, as yet, unknown.

The above translation of a boxun report suggest that three villages were razed in response to unrest linked to a forced bird flu quarantine in Yushu in northwestern Qinghai in China. China has imposed news blackouts and arrested reporters in the past, so verifiable news from the area is difficult to obtain.

News outside of China however, points toward a virulent strain of H5N1 linked to Qinghai Lake has killed ducks and geese in several areas of southern Siberia in Russia as well as the adjacent region in Kazakhstan. There are now reports of five suspected cases of H5N1 in Kazakhstan linked to infected geese, suggesting many similar cases would be possible in Qingahi and Xinjiang provinces in China, where there have been three outbreaks linked to migratory birds and all involved dead geese.

Although it is possible that the ability to infect humans has been recently acquired, boxun reports in May and June described human fatalities in the Qinghai Lake region. In addition, several strains of H5N1 capable of infecting humans were also described.

The news blackout in China as well as additional suspect cases in neighboring Sichuan province which may be spreading further south to Yunnan province has suggested that a raging H5N1 pandemic in China is being covered-up.

Now for some additional background info on Qinghai Lake. This is a 'special' place for China. Please continue below. (It's not often you can have a gulag, a nuke weapons site, and one of the world's largest bird sanctuaries all in one place.)

Who planned this, the writing staff of THE SIMPSON'S???

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Qinghai Lake

Qinghai Lake is the largest lake in China, covering an area of 4583 square kilometers. The lake sits at an altitude of 3266 meters (10,712') and is called "Koko Nor" in Mongolian and "Tso Ngonpo" in Tibetan. The Space Shuttle photograph is oriented with north to the upper right. The penninsula that now includes Bird Island is the the upper left part of the lake. Spits along the northern and southern shores reflect the dominant wind direction (which drives the lake water eastward). One of the labor camps of the extensive Chinese gulag is located at Gangca, marked by the irrigated river delta on the north side of Koko Nor.

The sandy areas at the eastern end mark the location of a 1170-square-kilometer Haiyan nuclear weapons facility, also called the "Ninth Academy" or "Factory 221." The Ninth Academy was China's main nuclear research facility and produced all of China's early nuclear weapons. Radioactive waste generated during weapon production, which continued into the 1980s, was dumped on the base. Although the Chinese government claims that there has been no environmental damage and, more ominously, that "no one at the base has ever died of radiation," it is not clear how well the toxic waste is contained.

Koko Nor means "blue lake"; its brackish waters are an extraordinary turquoise-blue. It is lined by a brilliant yellow algal bloom. Qinghai Lake was originally freshwater. It developed in the Early Pleistocene when tectonic movements blocked the course of the through-going ancestral Buh He, which now enters the northwest side of the lake. However, the water is now brackish. The lake has been shrinking for at least the last 8000 years, because the present rate of evaporation and, more significantly use, exceeds the rate at which water refills it.

Rock steps and strand lines, features carved into the landscape when the lake was higher, document a long gradual decline in water level during the past 8000 years. More recently, the Han settlers have used the water for irrigation and livestock. Between 1959 and 1982, Koko Nor's waters declined at an average of 10 centimeters per year. In 1983, the lake's water authority instituted emergency measures that led to a rise from 1983 to 1989, but for the last decade, the lake's water level has again been dropping. Much of the lake shore is under cultivation, contrasting sharply with the description of barren uninhabited country given by Alexandra David-Neel during her visit in 1919.

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PING!

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Please note that currently (2 Aug 05), H5N1 has appeared at the foothills of the Urals, and should cross the range this week - spreading to all of continental Europe. It now ranges from Hong Kong in the east, to beyond Omsk in the west. India to Russia - north to south.

As it continues it's movement, poultry production and import/export will crumble. Chicken and geese are staple foods in these nations. This strain also infects swine. Once over the Urals, it will be in western Europe very soon - during August.

Now we will see it for real.

[Big Giant Head]

Things that make you go "ping"

[Burf]

And the next thing you know we will have to do something extreme such as securing our borders. I wonder what Bush and Armey would have to say about that. //Sarcasm Off

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What borders? We've got borders? After CAFTA, I thought we were just "one big happy family". (Dry heaves.)

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President Is Way Too Pumped Up About Exercise
Star Tribune ^ | July 26, 2005 | Jonathan Chait:


Posted on 07/25/2005 8:03:52 PM PDT by wallcrawlr


Earlier this month, when President Bush met with Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III to interview him for a potential Supreme Court nomination, the conversation turned to exercise. When asked by the president of the United States how often he exercised, Wilkinson impressively responded that he runs 3½ miles a day. Bush urged him to adopt more cross-training. "He warned me of impending doom," Wilkinson told the New York Times.

<< snip >>

[little jeremiah]

Birds fly over borders.

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H5N1 Bird Flu In Europe?

Recombinomics Commentary
August 2, 2005


Avian flu is approaching the Sverdlov area [Yekaterinburg]. Dangerous virus already pronik on territory Ural Federation Oblast. This week began to behave communications about discovering of infected birds in Tyumen and Kurganskoi areas.

The above machine translation suggests H5N1 may have already entered Europe. Yekaterinburg is in the Ural Mountains about 50 miles from the Kurgan Region. If infected birds were in the Kurgan Region when the Russian media report was written, those birds should have already reached the Ural Mountains. The Kurgan region is southwest of the Tyumen region and would mark the furthest reported point to the west for the migration from Chany Lake in the Novosibirsk area

Russia just announced a quarantine of all poultry, further supporting the level of concern. Regardless of whether H5N1 enters Europe today or in the next few days, it is likely to run though the continent and inflict considerable economic and psychological damage.

Since the migration has not started for most of the waterfowl in Qinghai and Chany Lakes regions, it seems likely that the rapid spread of H5N1 across Russia will be reported throughout Asia and beyond.

[JimSEA]

It is believed that some inhabitants from those 3 villages were workers in the farm. Around 200 people were estimated to have inhabited or worked in those 3 villages and the farm. There [sic} whereabouts are, as yet, unknown.

Keep in mind that the ChiComs are perfectly capable of silently killing any of these people who are not sick to solve their image problem. This is an ethnic minority area (although Han have been moved into many parts).

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Possibly gulag employees as well.

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Thanks for the ping.

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Sure - welcome to the thread. Sorry it wasn't earlier.

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That's ok. I've been looking and looking. I thought for sure maybe Taiwan would have something about it, but I didn't see anything. I'll go look in another direction.

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Sounds as though Europe will be seeing it first. Imagine shutting off ALL poultry and swine in Europe? So far, Amantidine and Rimantidine still work on these strains.

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I would have thought that Australia would have seen it first.

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I'll be right back. I have something on my screen that will not go away. I'm gonna have to hit restart.

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How can nothing(news) be leaking out of China?

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How can our news ignore it? Why do FReepers ignore it?

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Hey - do you have lots of "feed stores" down there for farm supplies?