Paranoia?

OK call me paranoid, and I'll keep this brief. It seems suspicious to me that New York and New Jersey getting inundated with an powerful stink of unknown origin or composition is beyond odd. Further it has sent at least 19 people (apparently sensitive to the smell) to the hospital. Then in Austin, Texas, at least 63 birds were found dead in a 10 block area from no apparent cause.

According to the Austin report, birds of multiple species were seen staggering and dying in a 10 block area around the Texas capitol. There are no immediate signs of poison, bird flu, or other known disease. From the article:

Public health officials were scratching their heads over what killed more than 60 grackles, pigeons and sparrows found dead along Congress Avenue near Texas' Capitol on Monday morning, prompting a downtown lockdown that scrambled traffic and kept thousands of employees home from work.

...

Authorities said early necropsies indicated that bird flu is not the culprit and that West Nile virus is highly unlikely, because the disease is seasonal. Air tests were negative for natural gas and other chemicals, and the birds' feathers showed no signs of pesticides. Officials all but ruled out environmental factors; the city had no inclement weather.

Officials said they believe the birds were probably poisoned or suffered from a bacterial infection. A determination will take days or weeks.

The dead birds were first reported around 3 a.m., prompting a public health emergency that forced officers, ambulances and hazardous materials teams to descend on and cordon off downtown. Of the 63 dead birds, most were found on Congress Avenue several blocks south of the Capitol, officials said. Congress Avenue leads up to the Capitol, which did not close.

...

Early-morning passers-by said the birds first began acting strange - wandering aimlessly in the street, attempting to fly and making crash landings - and then dropped like flies.

Now I come from the era in US history of deliberate radioactive releases which has caused thyroid problems for possibly millions of people; and when the NSA wiretapped every phone in Boston to prove that they could; and when poor African American women in California were sterilized without their knowledge or consent; and when secret tests of various flues were released to see how they moved through the population; and umpteen other "tests" and experiments on the US population.

So these reports ring odd to me. Could the stink in the east be a test of airborne gas dispersal? Could the "dying like flies, staggering birds" in Austin be the victims of a lethal agent? Could these be "tests?" And tests in preparation for what, by whom?

Of course, the stink in New York and New Jersey could be from a problem with frozen LNG being transported - or something similar. However, the birds in Austin are a very different matter.

Make of it what you will, but it makes me very nervous.