Just wondering …

Call this baseless speculation if you wish.

But …

Odd yet persistent rumors have circulated on the internet of late. 

Might Fukushima and related events supply links among  them?

Two rumors especially come to mind.

According to one of them, people in various parts of the US and abroad have heard a strange, persistent humming or buzzing sound. Check links here:

http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Anomalies_and_Alternative_Science/Anomalous_Sounds/

Interpretations of the hum differ. Here is one hypothesis.

Suppose the hum originates from tunneling machinery (of the kind used to build subways) at work far underground. One such machine appears above. Here is another:

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Tunnel_Boring_Machine_%28Yucca_Mt%29.jpg

If that explanation is true, then something is under construction down there.

Shelters? Maybe.

Mentioned in the previous post, fallout shelters were popular in the 1950s.

The concept still seems valid. In the event of a global nuclear catastrophe, go underground until radioactivity at the surface drops to relatively modest levels.

Big underground shelters might house favored people in the event of multiple meltdowns worldwide — a scenario that no longer seems outlandish.

Such shelters would need huge quantities of provisions, from drugs to food.

Now for the second set of rumors.

Lately, curious shortages of pharmaceuticals and selected foods have occurred.

Grocery shoppers have reported given products mysteriously absent from store shelves — cheese here, lemon juice there, and so on. Read some representative posts:

http://www.gather.com/food+shortages

Meanwhile, unprecedented shortages of important pharmaceuticals have occurred too:

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/10/news/economy/drug_shortages_fda/?section=money_latest

Drugs would be needed for health care far underground, wouldn’t they? Especially if someone expected problems with, say, cancers from exposure to fallout?

It makes you wonder. 

Did someone, aware that aging reactors were due to start failing about now and leaving the surface radioactive, give the order to start work on shelters for people deemed “essential”?

Is that what the humming and the shortages are all about?

Proof is lacking. Still, keep that shelter scenario in mind. Then see if it accounts for anything else you notice.

But enough negativity. Let’s be nice and positive and happy.

Instead, isn’t the cause more likely mass hysteria? Or stress? Or something else that made people hear funny noises and think groceries and pharmacies had gaps in inventory?

After all, we haven’t heard reports like these on the 30-second TV newsbreak. And if it’s not on TV, then it can’t be happening. Right?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to fix a nice cup of hot tea … no matter how one cares to define “hot”:

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/01/68-6-bq-kg-cesium-green-tea/

David Ritchie posts from Seoul, Korea. He welcomes correspondence and asks only that it be civil in tone. He also is grateful for tweets and retweets. Contact kwriter (at) asia.com.