It All Fits Together

I may need to use all the subject tags on this one. It's got Giant Rocks From Space, DARPA mad scientists, killer robots, parasites, pirates -- oh, and it just may answer some of the Big Questions about life, the universe, and everything.

Weirdness fans may recall that last autumn a group of Somali pirates hijacked an Iranian vessel on the high seas, but then started becoming mysteriously sick. At the time, radiation sickness was suspected, but that was later ruled out.

Now a team of DARPA researchers have identified the culprit in the mystery illness: a parasite infection. Apparently the pirates (and some of the Iranian crew) show signs of a "systemic parasite infestation" similar to our old friend the Sacculina barnacle. Similar, but not identical: the pirates' infestation is an unknown type.

But that's not the weird part. The weird part is what was discovered when investigators used robots (see, I told you there'd be robots) to examine the possibly-radioactive cargo hold of the captured ship. The good news: it wasn't radioactive. The WEIRD news: the hold contained "4.1 tons of stone and iron, identified as meteoritic material from the Nubian desert."

So, to sum up: the pirates have an unknown brain-controlling parasite and a ship full of meteor fragments. It doesn't take H.G. frickin' Wells to see what this means.

They're here.