io9 
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San Francisco, 10:17 PM
Tue Dec 1
29 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/07/09
If you'll notice they grow from the joints of the pipe. I've seen comments about there being a "lack of soil," but the contrary is most likely true that there is ALOT of soil around these joints. (The pipes are underground afterall.) Another thing is, the movement you're seeing is a reaction to the heat of the lights from the camera head. Which in a 6 inch pipe (which it shows on the text overlay) puts the lights very close to these ass urchins. I'm guessing they're using a peirpoint camera mounted on a crawler or RST equipment; with the way the camera pans lateraly first beforing tilting.
One last thing, It should be very easy to to reach something down this pipe (something long and flexible) and retrieve these things from the pipe to have a closer look. If you'll notice by the footage counter in the lower left corner, the camera is only 2 to 4 ft from the starting point, which is most likely a cleanout near the house BUT; the text overlay says they are starting from a manhole (MH 9 to be exact) and tieing directly into the city main.
To sum this all up, this shouldnt even be a big deal at all considering the frequency in which I've seen these things. Another thing is the PW directer shouldn't have even commented on this as only being in the "Private" sewer and not theirs. This water flows to the main and I guarentee more have migrated into the main. I think she was just responding to a public outcry because this technology is not new, and public works has been contracting (or using) this type of work for many years now. Trust me, I've seen some seroius shit in the sewers of America (Pun intended)
07/02/09
So here we have a video that's taking off like wildfire.... yet nobody has heard a peep from the people who actually made the video. Doesn't that strike anyone as suspicious?
07/01/09
The picture looks like some type of Bristle Worm, a common pest in marine aquariums.
Tubifex don't really ball up that tightly, they tend to wave around in order to filter oxygen and nutrients from the water, however they will extrude a cyst around themselves to prevent drying out, but Tubifex can move around so that it's better placed under the water.
Perhaps this 'creature' is a ball of tubifex that have all encysted, this would make them all stick to each other and appear as one mass. Tubifex will encyst if they run out of water, or are otherwise stressed. Perhaps they recently dried out or the water had a chemical that stressed the worms?
It's not a Slime Mold, it's moving too fast and too uh, coherently.
Anybody who has ever had a Salt Water reef aquarium can attest that there are many many strange and wonderful/gross little critters out there and even a common animal can change its shape in response to external conditions. Remember the video is of a 6 inch diameter pipe, that slimeball is probably only an inch or so across.
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07/01/09
Secondly: How the HECK are those worms?! Weird unknown creatures in a private sewer?? Yep, I smell a cover-up. Maybe its invading aliens? or worse, some mad experiment that escaped the lab and is now loose and will bring about the destruction of the world! So THAT'S how 2012 starts!
07/01/09
Cameron Village isn't a municipality, it's a shopping center. This is its own sections of sewer before it joins the city system
03/20/09
03/19/09
squee!
(ok, I'm weird)
03/19/09