M-O-O-N, that spells "oops".

The accidents are significant because the administration is likely to move foot-and-mouth research from the remote island to one of five sites on the U.S. mainland near livestock herds.

I'd like to move that facility right next door to the US Capitol building. I'll bet every fracking member of Congress would then take bio-weapon research funding VERY seriously.

Yeah, let's just take a couple vials of this really nasty disease and park it next to our food supply. Sure, we're a bit sloppy with containment procuedures and yeah government funding cuts lead to short cuts...but hey it's not like we've got a pressing need to eat this decade, right?

I can't take a bottle of ice tea on a short hop flight into philly but the government can park a disease research facility next to a cattle yard!? The terrorists gotta be laughing their asses off at us.

The scripts on the AP web site are some of the most annoying ever devised.

Weaver95: The accidents are significant because the administration is likely to move foot-and-mouth research from the remote island to one of five sites on the U.S. mainland near livestock herds.

I'd like to move that facility right next door to the US Capitol building. I'll bet every fracking member of Congress would then take bio-weapon research funding VERY seriously.

Yeah, let's just take a couple vials of this really nasty disease and park it next to our food supply. Sure, we're a bit sloppy with containment procuedures and yeah government funding cuts lead to short cuts...but hey it's not like we've got a pressing need to eat this decade, right?

I can't take a bottle of ice tea on a short hop flight into philly but the government can park a disease research facility next to a cattle yard!? The terrorists gotta be laughing their asses off at us.

This

Weaver95:

I can't take a bottle of ice tea on a short hop flight into philly but the government can park a disease research facility next to a cattle yard!? The terrorists gotta be laughing their asses off at us.

Wow...

Weaver95: Once again you hit the nail right on the head.

I don't know what's scarier, the name 'Crimson Sky' or the idea that they know what's going to happen and are alright with moving it anyways.

The accidents are significant because the administration is likely to move foot-and-mouth research from the remote island to one of five sites on the U.S. mainland near livestock herds.

From the Republican perspective, deregulation, chaos, and disaster are an opportunity for nimble businessmen to profit. Just look at Iraq.

This is a good thing.

"Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center." Sounds charming."

I RTA and didn't see any mention of WHY this was even being considered. Anybody?

I don't want 'FEMA like' responses interfering with my ability to eat steak.

JustinCase: I RTA and didn't see any mention of WHY this was even being considered. Anybody?

I think that's classified information there citizen...

Am I the only one who notices the facility is right next to a wildlife refuge?

For the last time people, Captain Tripps does not exist!

I came for the M-o-o-n jokes, Rob Lowe pictures and government trolling.

I leave semi satisfied


/2 out of 3 ain't bad
//M-O-O-N that spells we farked up

Oh. My. God! Is AP hiring high school drop-outs now or something? Its "HOOF-and-mouth" disease, not foot-and-mouth. And ya know why? Because cows have hooves, not feet. Jackass

/"jackass" comment directed at AP "writer" Mr. Margasak.

Already been written, pretty good book actually.

JustinCase: I RTA and didn't see any mention of WHY this was even being considered. Anybody?

from TFA

"It was a mess," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who portrayed the president in that 2002 exercise. Now, like other lawmakers from the states under consideration, Roberts supports moving the government's new lab to his state. Manhattan, Kan., is one of five mainland locations under consideration. "It will mean jobs" and spur research and development, he says.

I.e. PORK

mnementh121: Am I the only one who notices the facility is right next to a wildlife refuge?



That's only a part of the island. There's a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there."

lisarenee3505: Oh. My. God! Is AP hiring high school drop-outs now or something? Its "HOOF-and-mouth" disease, not foot-and-mouth. And ya know why? Because cows have hooves, not feet. Jackass

/"jackass" comment directed at AP "writer" Mr. Margasak.

It affects more animals than those with cloven hooves. Elephants and rats, for example. I think both terms are accepted as correct.

Wiki (new window)

Randall Flagg suggests moving this facility to Las Vegas.

This is what happens when I take time to shower on a Saturday... I miss the opportunity to Weeners SOTL reference.

/pouring a nice chianti over my afternoon froot loops

I'd like to move that facility right next door to the US Capitol building. I'll bet every fracking member of Congress would then take bio-weapon research funding VERY seriously.

I guess the anthrax mailouts didn't do the job... though I guess that depends upon what the intended result was.

/what ever became of that investigation, anyway?

lookandsee: I miss the opportunity to Weeners SOTL reference.

There is more left...

More like a Michael Crichton book, than a Stephen King book.

Of course, Crichton's been writing the same book for the last 40 years: "Technology is evil and will kill us all! BOOGA! BOOGA!"

Nice. My very first filter pwnage...

dougfm: Already been written, pretty good book actually.

Another good book on the subject:

PlatinumDragon: /what ever became of that investigation, anyway?

Oh, the FBI dropped the ball. They picked a name out of a hat, tried to pin it on the guy. Turned out he had a rock solid alibi tho and got a good lawyer right off the bat.

HairBolus: I.e. PORK

Thanks, I'm still working on getting coffee. It damn figures.

Won't he be so proud to decimate one of his own states biggest industries?

And the Bush admins proposed another monumentally dangerous and ignorant policy that has the potential to be the cause of the collapse of America's way of life. With bonus of a possibility of world catastrophe.

Move it for Jobs? JOBS? What, for the itinerate scientists with no oversight?

Surely, they don't propose to put local yokels in charge. Maybe, there might be a janitorial job for the illiterate farmer's son.
"Son, if y'all can't read the cautions and danger signs, just follow those pictographs. That'll keep us all safe."

There will be no LOCAL construction crews with the wherewithal and know how to build a level 2 containment center. No jobs there.



Worst people in charge = any admin in Bush's cabinet.

Why, in God's name, would they want to move this facility?

To increase our chances of exposing the US beef industry to hoof and mouth?

Jesus! Who the hell is thinking with their asses this week?

Oh, more Republican businessmen... sorry I asked.

lookandsee: Nice. My very first filter pwnage...

I always type in the word using the same spelling as the filter would. I theorize that maybe the filter might work in reverse and print out what I really meant to say.

Help-Im-Sober: lookandsee: Nice. My very first filter pwnage...

I always type in the word using the same spelling as the filter would. I theorize that maybe the filter might work in reverse and print out what I really meant to say.

Thanks, I'll try it. I hope we don't get sucked into a black hole...

NutWrench: ...Crichton's been writing the same book for the last 40 years: "

yup every Crichton book follows the same damn formula; group of plucky multi-disciplinary academics/scientists brought together by multi-national corp/government to be used by/against multi-national corp/government thats discovered/abused some crazy new tech.

sometimes its great (Sphere) but mostly it blows (Timeline, et al). either way is good airplane read'n!

One little incident in NY and people start getting scared? Gubmint has been doing this crap for years, do the research yourself, I ain't telling.

Weaver95
I'd like to move that facility right next door to the US Capitol building. I'll bet every fracking member of Congress would then take bio-weapon research funding VERY seriously.

Yes, especially when it is a facility studying something completely harmless to humans. You'd get louder complaints if you replaced The Monocle with an Arby's.

Well, that's great news. Now I'll get to see even more "NO Bioterror Lab" signs put up by hippies here in Athens.

/as for jobs, we have qualified post-docs, not yokels.
//well, i guess there are yokels.

equusdc: Yes, especially when it is a facility studying something completely harmless to humans. You'd get louder complaints if you replaced The Monocle with an Arby's.

You don't think putting the words 'disease research center' and 'Capitol building complex' together won't scare your average congresscritter into paying attention?

And they want to move this facility to the mainland (seriously)

Weaver95

Please. There's enough disease research going on already at the Capitol Lounge.

So the incident was in 1978, and now 30 years later they want to move it to the mainland, where it could spread far easily then from an isolated island.

That's some really quick thinking there lou.

lisarenee3505: Oh. My. God! Is AP hiring high school drop-outs now or something? Its "HOOF-and-mouth" disease, not foot-and-mouth. And ya know why? Because cows have hooves, not feet. Jackass

/"jackass" comment directed at AP "writer" Mr. Margasak.

AP Stylebook says to use "foot-and-mouth."

FTA
"A simulated outbreak of the disease in 2002 - part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called "Crimson Sky" - ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation's National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses. In the simulation, protests broke out in some cities amid food shortages."

...

"The White House said modern safety rules at labs are sufficient to avoid any outbreak. But incidents in Britain have demonstrated that the foot-and-mouth virus can cause remarkable economic havoc - and that the virus can escape from a facility.

An epidemic in 2001 devastated Britain's livestock industry, as the government slaughtered 6 million sheep, cows and pigs. Last year, in a less serious outbreak, Britain's health and safety agency concluded the virus probably escaped from a site shared by a government research center and a vaccine maker. Other outbreaks have occurred in Taiwan in 1997 and China last year and in 2006. "

...

"The Homeland Security Department is convinced it can safely operate the lab on the mainland, saying containment procedures at high-security labs have improved. The livestock industry is divided. Some experts, including the former director at the aging Plum Island lab, say research ought to be kept away from cattle populations - and, ideally placed where the public already has accepted dangerous research."

It's like a parody of real life. They've run simulations showing this is a terrible idea with catastrophic consequences. They have incidents in other countries showing this is a bad idea with catastrophic consequences. But they're totally sure this is going to work.

Sangermaine: It's like a parody of real life. They've run simulations showing this is a terrible idea with catastrophic consequences. They have incidents in other countries showing this is a bad idea with catastrophic consequences. But they're totally sure this is going to work.

sure, this could easily end in disaster and quite probably kick start a real famine in this country for the first time in a century...but dammit man! think of the pork barrel spending that's at stake!

Plum Island ? Is that anywhere near Bangor?

Let's be honest shall we.... The development potential of the site is what the administration is concerned with. If you look close enough I bet you will find a lobbyist from some "unnamed development firm" has stayed in the Lincoln bedroom in the last few months. I bet he accidentally left some huge checks laying around too.

Unright: dougfm: Already been written, pretty good book actually.

Another good book on the subject:

A great movie on the subject.



/you farkers are getting slow

Jeez - this does sound like a Michael Crichton novel. I just got through reading Andromeda Strain, and despite the ineptness of the characters in that novel, they look absolutely, positively like brainiacs compared to the assholes in charge of this potential move.

Damn - when it seems like we have hit the bottom of the barrel with stupidity, there are always new depths found.

Please - please move this research lab somewhere near a good populated area next to a food supply. Let's let something loose to totally fark our lives over and get it done with. I am so totally tired of these assholes on both sides of the fence screwing with us. Maybe a large scale accident will burn them all out. Our world needs such a change (not that I seriously think anyone will pay attention - meh).

As far a MC's work is concerned, I finished reading "The Great Train Robbery" last night, and I was greatly impressed by it. Highest technology in it was steam locomotives and keyed safes. If you are interested at all in Victorian-era Britain and/or steampunk - you owe it to yourself to read this novel of that era's "underworld"...

You're doing a heck of a job, Chertie!