Saturday, March 04, 2006
The bloody rain of 2001
During the monsoon season (July through September) of 2001, the west coast of India often experienced bursts of red rain. An astrophysicist gathered up usable samples of the water, and has recently published a paper with some analysis. The author, Godfrey Louis, seems to think the red material must be extra-terrestrial, but in fact the stuff appears to be identical to mammalian red blood cells. It's not clear why he didn't just submit a sample to an ordinary medical lab, which could answer the question easily!
If it's blood, the question of origin is really more interesting. The total amount of material is in the range of several tons, which means it can't be a flock of bats or mice that got caught in a tornado. Events of that sort do occur from time to time, resulting in brief local rains of fish, bird parts, or frogs.
But several tons of red cells, with no other bits and pieces, simply can't be accidental. The simplest functional explanation is a huge explosion in a laboratory. Were Osama's scientists in Pakistan testing ways to introduce massive plagues? If so, was this a deliberate 'injection' to the monsoon circulation, or an accidental explosion?
Original article here. ¶ 6:53 PM
If it's blood, the question of origin is really more interesting. The total amount of material is in the range of several tons, which means it can't be a flock of bats or mice that got caught in a tornado. Events of that sort do occur from time to time, resulting in brief local rains of fish, bird parts, or frogs.
But several tons of red cells, with no other bits and pieces, simply can't be accidental. The simplest functional explanation is a huge explosion in a laboratory. Were Osama's scientists in Pakistan testing ways to introduce massive plagues? If so, was this a deliberate 'injection' to the monsoon circulation, or an accidental explosion?
Original article here. ¶ 6:53 PM
