You know, considering I've seen dogs go on barking rampages because they've seen a reflection of themselves in a mirror and aren't sapient enough to realize they're staring at a reflection and got all territorial, I'm curious to see how the general forest wildlife would react to this.

@armendni: Yes, how arrogant of us to think that mappable closed systems can be sufficiently simulated to provide approximate predictions based on prior behavior. Who knows what mankind might try to model with computers next. The flight characteristics of wings? Ballistic trajectories in the face of air currents?…

Obviously, this is a stealthy attempt to tie the Predator and Terminator franchises together. That's clearly one of the earlier rubber-skinned infiltrator models.

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: See? Synergy.

Maybe yet another version of William Stryker?

Personally, I think the glucose-power-cell tech they were testing out in mice seems like the more promising solution. You can tap blood sugar from anywhere, and the body is already used to supplying enough energy through that alone to power your limbs, but I don't know about eventually putting paddlewheels in my major…

@eaglen: Well, I think they figure that most people think that oil is just black sludgy stuff that you can skim off the top of the ocean and wash off of birds without other ill effects.

@Dr. What?: Ahhhhhhhh. That makes sense.

@ellemdee: Basically. Some BP PR guys got it into their heads that workers seen without hazardous material gear would make people think that the oil and dispersants weren't so actively toxic.

I support this only if sneezing causes people's heads to explode like the one guy in Scanners.

According to reports (that have been floating around for a while), BP has been discouraging the use of respirators amongst their workers because they think it looks bad in press shots.

@kleer001: See, I can accept that, but it just seemed like it was written to imply the latter instead of the former.

"It's the first time this has been documented in the wild, but Jaenike thinks it's probably a frequent phenomenon that we simply haven't noticed before."

@JerryA: Obviously they attract things because they are extra full of God's love.

@NoelVeiga: THANK YOU! I was just about to post something to that affect. Correlation does not prove causation, but pop science types tend to forget this, especially when they have an agenda.

@WaffleCopter: Good point, good point. I guess it all boils down to the same old rule- talk to your kids and know what they're doing, on the internet or otherwise.

@WaffleCopter: Maybe. But I think that protecting my children from crap like this could be a valid argument.

@RockyRan: Also, its worth noting that most of those off-topic stories are reposts from other gawker blogs anyway, and if I want car, science, or other news, I can pop on over to jalopnik or gizmodo whenever I want.

"but the truth is, many large, older computer control systems like subway systems, air-traffic control networks, etc, weren't designed to connect to the internet but are now linked in to it"