Sure you know about the biblical plagues of flies, gnats, frogs, and locusts, but do you know about the crows?  The New York Times reports about this recent scourge afflicting Japan. The article reports that crow populations are increasing and causing annoyance by getting into garbage and harm by causing blackouts.  Personally, when I lived up in Kawasaki, I walked by many brazen crows on my way home and often had flashbacks to Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Attacks, though rare, do happen. Hungry crows have bloodied the faces of children while trying to steal candy from their hands. Crows have even carried away baby prairie dogs and ducklings from Tokyo zoos, city officials said.

Behind the rise, experts and officials say, has been the growing abundance of garbage, a product of Japan’s embrace of more wasteful Western lifestyles. This has created an orgy of eating for crows, which are scavengers.

The birds seem to be winning. Mr. Kyutoku said despite the twice-weekly patrols, which have removed 600 nests since they began three years ago, the number of nests keeps increasing, as have blackouts. The utility says there were three major cutoffs last year.

Crows have also shown a surprising ability to disrupt Japan’s super-modern technological infrastructure. In the last two years, utility companies in Tokyo reported almost 1,400 cases of crows cutting fiber optic cables, apparently to use as materials for nests.

This is really a fascinating article – definitely worth a read.  Of note is also the hand-wringing going on about what to do about the problem with some wanting to kill the crows and others adamantly opposed to that solution. 

The topic of giant jellyfish has come up before on Japundit, particularly since it turns out you can (but probably don’t want to) eat them. But Pink Tentacle via Sankei has some nice pictures of the giant Echizen kurage jellyfish that have returned like clockwork to bedevil fishermen and generally cause problems.

Except to recreational divers who like looking at them. Manabu Nakamata, a 38-year-old diver from Nagoya and an admirer of the monster jellyfish, says, “They are surprisingly hard to the touch. They are big, and extremely impressive.”

Big indeed — Echizen kurage can grow up to 2 meters (6 ft. 7 in.) in diameter and weigh up to 200 kilograms (440 lb.) each. They do look kind of scary in the pictures.

But a recnt radio program says we have a similar problem with them in the West and that, although big, they are not dangerous to a diver with any kind of wetsuit. But if bare skin is involved they can apparently deliver quite a sting. Like probably fatal (maybe).

Japan seems to be getting blamed for everything these days, and now health officials in the U.S. are saying it is the source of a mumps outbreak at the University of Virginia.

The outbreak of mumps at the University of Virginia can be traced to a strain of the virus that came into the United States from Japan in June 2006, health officials suspect.

Lilian Peake, health director for the Thomas Jefferson Health District, said DNA analysis completed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a similarity to the “G1” mumps strain from Japan.

“When we typed out the UVa strain, it was similar,” Peake said.

According to the officials, the strain was brought into New Hampshire by a Japanese visitor last summer.

Mumps is a virus that can cause fever, aches and swelling of the glands close to the jaw. Symptoms usually appear 12 to 25 days after exposure, and mumps is contagious for three days before the onset of swelling.

Source.

“Been a very mild winter in Tokyo,” its residents will tell you. “First winter on record with no snow!” This will prompt some folks into Global Warming talk, but it should in fact raise far more immediate concerns.

In the event of a nuclear war, so the myth goes, only the cockroaches would survive. What do you think they’ll make of a mild Tokyo winter?

Some ten years ago, I was walking down a street in suburban south London when something large and black whizzed past my ear. I wasn’t aware of it until it was long gone, but then I spied a very large stag beetle on the pavement. And then another. And then dozens. They were everywhere. They were even on the evening news. According to an alleged expert, not many stag beetles in Britain see a second spring. And on that warm spring day, they all came out to play.

And I wonder if Tokyoites might see the same result of the warm winter, in the shape of a bumper generation of ‘mature’ gokiburi…

I hope not, for your sake, because if you’re anything like me, the very sight of one of these bustling little critters turns your stomach. I’d never seen ‘large’ cockroaches until I came to Japan. I certainly had no idea they could fly. (Feeling sick yet? I am.)

Should the super-insect invasion come to be, you’ll need weapons. Fortunately, Mari (of Watashi to Tokyo fame) has good news for you, and has assembled quite an arsenal. (My personal favourite is the freeze spray. Although my preferred method of attack is to lob a terracotta flowerpot over the offending roach and spray my aerosol of mass destruction into the handy hole – leave for 10 mins and remove. You barely even have to look at it.)

As if mutant ninja frogs weren’t enough, now we get word that a genetically modified mouse came close to escaping from captivity recently at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport.

The incident was serious enough to earn a rebuke from the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, which called for stricter controls to ensure that no genetically modified animal is every released into the wild (except at your local supermarket).

The mouse is one of a group of 40 whose immune systems had been genetically destroyed.

Narita International Airport, by the way, is not that far from Tokyo Disneyland. Phone calls to Mickey were not returned.

Slashdot reported a story that, if true, seems to be rather good news. It’s about a recently-discovered cod enzyme that kills bird flu. Rather than everyone dying to death worldwide if the worst comes to worst, a simple bottle of cod liver oil may do the trick:

An Icelandic cod enzyme might be the cure for bird flu. A recent experiment, which the Icelandic company Ensímtaekni took part in, indicates that in five minutes, the isolated fish enzyme killed 99 percent of H5N1 viruses. The killer enzyme, called penzim, was extracted from the intestines of cod by Ensímtaekni and is currently being developed for beauty products and various types of medicine. The experiment on the H5N1 virus was conducted in London.

CEO of Ensímtaekni and biochemist Jón Bragi Bjarnason said he is very excited about the results of the bird flu experiment. “People have feared that the bird flu virus will change into a human flu virus and now we have a likely cure in case that happens.”

Japan health officials have issued warnings about a nationwide epidemic of gastroenteritis caused by the norovirus.

Norovirus Facts

• Found mainly in the feces and vomit of infected people.
• Found in raw oysters.
• After one or two days incubation produces symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea and abdominal pains.
• Some people with the virus exhibit no symptoms.
• Even after symptoms disappear, most infected people remain infected for a week, some for up to three months.
• Disease is untreatable.
• Babies and elderly must drink water and eat to prevent dehydration.

How to avoid the norovirus

• Wash your hands well with soap after going to the toilet, before handling food, and after returning home.
• Clean vomit and excrement of infected people with paper towels and with chlorine bleach.
• If allowed to dry, secretions can become airborne and virus can be transmitted by inhalation.
• Diapers and paper towels used for cleaning should be sealed in plastic bags.
• Quickly sanitize items and surfaces after touching or other contact with infected people.

More about norovirus here.