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Although I have found out from experience that's it's best not to allow the naturally occuring electrons in the atmosphere to mingle with those in your computer. Lets all the magic smoke out and stuff.

http://www.ebicom.net/~rsf1/canneto.htm

Actually I would say that it's a good example of media presenting it as something science can't explain. If you read the article you may note that they have no citations from any of the billion of scientist who are apparently there. They do provide a lot of quotes from people who think it's related to electrical appliances possessed by the devil.

For a more scientific approach to the problem you should check the site The Fires of Canneto di Caronia which at least attempt to provide an explaination.

And furthermore, you may complain that scientist are sceptical to new ideas. This is natural because in science there is a clear distintion between an idea (hypothesis) and something which is "tried and true" (theory, law). What these enthusiasts are doing is to invent meaningless stuff about the "causes" and claiming that it's as good as a scientific idea. Now naturally if you can't use the hypothesis to actually predict anything then it's at best cute. Most likely it's a big fat waste of time.

The scientific method is a systematic way of getting more and better knowledge. What these people do is a good way to sell more papers. I just feel that it's so extremely sad when I read about "science" or statistics in a paper that I want to go to that journal and smack him on the nose with a rolled up paper (perhaps a scientific journal would help) and say "Bad irresponsible crackpot journalist! Bad irresponsible crackpot journalist! Look at what you did!"

BTW I recommend that you read eg "The deamon haunted world" by Carl Sagan. It's a pretty good introduction to critical thinking in a world of disinformation.

Here is an interesting and recent article that has some further details on the subject.

lol Interesting coverage

The Register's coverage

Read on past this rant if you can.

# begin rant # Seems to me like this guy likes to take the sensationalist approach more than the straight facts approach, and shock us out of our right minds. But that's to be expected from a human author. # end rant #

Did anyone else read this and get the impression that he wanted us to think that these horrible, awful scourge-of-mankind diseases ORIGINATED from this facility? I'll post about the origins of two big names he drops here.

Lyme Disease is actually named after a town in Connecticut where it was first documented in the 1970s. That town's name? Old Lyme. I go there every year for a vacation, so I know about it very well. It spreads to humans by ticks - exactly the kind of thing you'd expect Plum to have inside. However, it is easily treated, has a decent grace period before complications occur, and is not debilitating until it gets really bad. You can read more about it here. If this easily curable disease was indeed the result of an experiment at Plum Island, then it was probably the crappiest and least effective bioweapon ever invented.

Now, about West Nile Virus. According to this document: Unless new information comes to light, the first case of West Nile virus to be subjected to scientific study was brought to medical attention in December 1937 at Omogo, West Nile district, Northern Province of Uganda. That case (and the subsequent viral characterization process) was documented by members of the Yellow Fever Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda in 1940. I seriously doubt they created West Nile in a laboratory that long ago.

The Plum Island laboratory (Link 1 Link 2 got any more links?) has been around plenty longer than Lyme Disease has been known according to this document, but it is newer than West Nile. Directly copied from that site: In 1946, a disease laboratory was built at Fort Terry by the government. Fort Terry was closed in 1948 because we were no longer at war, and it was no longer needed. Fort Terry was reopened to research new ways to go to war, and for the development of chemicals to kill animals.

Draw your own conclusion, here's your sketch pencil.

Here is a picture of a NT ATM. Not a place where I would place my money and conduct transactions.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but try the Linux Chiq.