When it comes to explaining seemingly inexplicable events, we are firmly in the camp that favours “cock-up” over “conspiracy”
When it comes to explaining seemingly inexplicable events, your grizzled editor is firmly in the camp that favours “cock-up” over “conspiracy”.
We concede this stance could be coloured by a lifetime in the calamity-prone world of journalism, and yet so often a revelation of facts doth lend plentiful credence to this jaundiced view.
A case in point. Back in 2016, American diplomats in Cuba reported suffering unexplained “sonic attacks”, namely persistent, high-pitched sounds followed by symptoms such as headaches, nausea and hearing loss.
Medical examinations showed signs of concussions and brain injuries, triggering feverish speculation the US embassy folk were being secretly assaulted by a fiendish new weapon that was blasting their brains with microwaves.
An audio tape of the sinister sonic onslaught was circulated to media, and subsequently analysed by scientists.
The boffins took their time, but we now have their verdict – which is that the noise on the tape was being made by a very loud species of cricket.
A case, we suggest, of nature triumphing over naughtiness.
