"...the locusts noisily thanked us and turned their jaws toward our crops, swallowing our greed whole..."

In 1958, Chairman Mao started a war. His foe: millions of hungry animals across China, particularly the sparrow. Villages and cities were mobilized to execute the birds en masse. Their crime: pecking away at fields and storehouses, stealing precious grain from the mouths of China's masses. Entire families brandished pots, pans, and other weapons of cacophonous warfare to panic the birds into forced flight, causing millions of them to drop from the skies. [more inside]
posted by baphomet on Oct 29, 2007 - 40 comments