Pigs

Recent news again: hundreds of dead pigs floated down the Suzhou River into Shanghai, causing a panic about the quality of drinking water among the city dwellers. Of course, the official story was that the upstream farmers were too lazy to bury the pigs, all died of natural causes, according to usual protocol. However, Chinese have always raised millions or billions of pigs, but such phenomenon of floating pigs by the droves is news.

Association: China is the biggest breeding ground of various strains of influenza virus, which is shared between human and pigs. It is a place where high density of humans, pigs, and poultry live in close proximity. It's a hotbed for natural selection of fresh new strains every year, which are then spread throughout the world via global travelers.

Mental image: In another nine to ten months, dead humans begin to float down the Suzhou River ...