Here is a rundown on the latest security and containment lapses at humanity’s highest-tech germ labs. It boggles the mind how these incidents keep happening. Can we please get a clue - no amount of security/failsafes/caution/money spent at these facilities is too great - that is, if you are going to build them at all. Turns out there are so many incidents like this (accompanied by the usual failing to report) that NOT building these complexes at all is now a viable option, according to the article.

Of course anyone who has kept tabs on the chemical industry, the nuclear industry, the genetic engineering industry, and the nanotech industry knows full well that:

a.) Nothing will change

b.) Coverups will continue

c.) These facilities will be built after all.

Homo erectus, previously thought to have evolved from Homo habilis, is now thought to have overlapped with them. Hm, kind of like the way Neanderthals were originally thought to have never met humans, but now we know they met, exchanged numbers, and hooked up.

It’s not mentioned here but one would assume if these Homos were overlapping, they also might have been doing the stone-age nasty?

Best phrase in the article: “developing juvenile erectus”. I remember those days.

And that was pretty bad.

Thanks, unregulated fishing.

Microwave ovens damage your food more than normal ovens do, and create probable carcinogens in the process of destroying vitamins and other food value. This is going to come as unwelcome information to some people, I know.

I would just like to point out that technology does not equal science. Science is the method that leads to technology. But technology is used and can have detrimental real-world effects. To point this out is not anti-science. It is towards a vision of cleaner technology.

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman has been keeping track of a bunch of weird shit surrounding the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse. Turns out the whole tragic business has various correspondences to the bridge collapse recounted in the Mothman Prophecies by John Keel, later filmed with Richard Gere. I haven’t read the book or seen the movie (I know, I know, it’s a gaping hole in my anomalist profile) so I can’t comment much about any of this. Apparently the sightings of the so-called Mothman (an alleged cryptid with correspondences to Spring-Heeled Jack - do I have this right, Loren?) were shot through with odd coincidences. Some of these coincidences have recurred - minus a mothman - with the Minneapolis bridge collapse, like certain names and so on. Click through and, scrolling down, you’ll see that Loren has collected his last few posts about it for your reading pleasure. Be sure to watch the clip from the movie dealing with the bridge collapse - looks like I gotta rent this movie (and then read the book).

Meanwhile here’s what we’ve already blogged about the Minneapolis bridge collapse conspiracy theory that immediately sprung up.

Undercover reporter (Michelle Madigan of NBC’s “Dateline”) busted at DEFCON hacker convention - priceless. She was apparently working on a story about evil hackers who break the law, and what do you know, they took offense that she was going undercover to frame the convention as a hotbed of villainy. As if anybody needed to learn that you don’t mess with computer hackers.

She could have gotten a press badge but noooooooo.

Power to the citizen media who hounded her out of there! They are obviously having great fun shouting questions at her and pointing cameras in her face as she runs away. There’s a great parable in this incident about turning the tables on corporate media…

The US Navy has been ordered by a court not to use their ridiculously loud sonar off the California coast, on account of the evidence that it kills whales. The Navy will appeal on the grounds that National Security is threatened by too many living whales, and that our nation will only be safe once the environment is destroyed.

Mating turtles. I know everybody’s seen this already, it’s been floating around for a while … anyway, in case you haven’t, watch for the hilarious nasty head-butt action, apparently a feature in turtle sex as plenty of examples can be found on youtube. Who knew turtles fetishized dominance/submission like people do?!?

Newest evidence. This used to be heresy to think humans would stoop to doing it with Neanderthals. of course if you really think about it, you’ll realize that humans will mate with just about anything that moves and a few things that don’t, so why Neanderthals should be an exception has always been beyond me… Like, “Well, I’m a member of a species that has screwed animals and corpses, but there’s NO WAY any of us would ever mate with a Neanderthal!”

As per this lengthy article.

…and this somewhat shorter one. It’s becoming harder and harder to ignore the adverse health effects of drenching ourselves in electromagnetic radiation willy-nilly.

This has been known for years but officially pooh-poohed - glad to see the edifice crumbling.

What this guy says. Stop fluouridation now.

Predictably, an anonymously-sourced conspiracy theory has arisen after the bridge collapse. Would you believe - an ultra low-frequency sound weapon?

The theory is fun but easily debunked: first of all it’s unsourced. But allegedly, it’s from “reports” from a Russian research station, that supposedly picked up the low-frequency signal from the weapon that downed the bridge.

The alleged motive is proposed to be the testing of the weapon by the US Army, and the neighborhood of the bridge site is said to trend Muslim with Somali immigrants, so mwah ha ha.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if such weapons exist. Just seems it would make more sense for the Army to zap some bridge in Iraq if they wanted to test their new playtoy in a Muslim environment. But I guess I’m no black-ops planner..

This is only the latest in the bumper crop of new conspiracy theories we’ve covered the past couple weeks. There was the “Democrats gave John Roberts a seizure” theory, the “Pat Tillman was murdered” theory, the “Alien Autopsy Film Really a Sociological Experiment” revelation, and the “Bush’s ‘Deep Throat’ Finally Emerging?” story, not to mention the NASA sabotage incident. Now this bridge thing. So bookmark us and keep checking back as we keep track of the latest hot conspiracy theories and weird science stories for you. Gonzo Science, your one-stop shop for anomalies, heresies, and conspiracies…

Update: a link to our post “More Weird Stuff About the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse”

Update 2: a link to the spoof site that appears to have created the Minneapolis bridge conspiracy story…

I love all animal cognition stuff. In this one, humans discover orangutangs can play charades. The only thing left separating humans and animals was the ability to play charades, and now that’s gone, man - we’re the same! Nooooooooooooo!

…to an alleged alien on film. Link. Well, I guess about 10 years ago it had me convinced for about three minutes, but only because I accidentally swallowed the line in the movie that says, “There’s no way this could’ve been done in Hollywood.” Once I thought about that claim for a moment, it seemed to be the kind of thing that was a.) patently untrue, and b.) the sort of thing that is so patently untrue that a person must accept money to say it.

The issue of sociological experiments involving UFOs - or the idea of UFOs - fascinates me. Thank you Jacques Vallee, prominent writer on the subject (Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception). The ‘Alien Autopsy’ footage is far likelier to have been a sociological test funded by the intelligence agencies, than a real alien autopsy.

Someone’s been commenting over at TPM Muckraker who sounds like a high-level cabinet official. There is a lot of info to wade through - diaried at Dailykos.com here and here - but could someone who has the goods on the Bush Administration finally be coming forward out of the shadows?

Of course plenty of people have tried to play Bush Admin. Deep Throat already, to no avail - just look at what happened to Ambassador Joe Wilson & family. But how many rivets can rattle out of the Bush Admin. before the plane falls out of the sky?

Hatemonger Savage says it was the Democrats.

But isn’t it more normal for rightwing nutjobs to say, “God did it”? After all if it was God who lifted His veil of protection to allow 9-11 to happen, then why did He smote John Roberts?