Nuke the dormitory from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

unless you're being ironic, turn that newsflash off

Gig'Em

terroristicaliciousness!!

Aren't we all biological agents? I mean, technically? The warfare part just means he's a recruit or a Guard member. I hear those Texas guardsmen have it easy...

Ricin Roni, the Austin, Texas Treat!

(sung to the old Rice-a-Roni music)

Moore-Hill just recently became co-ed last semester. Nicely renovated but still of the suckage.

if it's the men's dorms you know there's some pairs of underwear in there that would be considered biological weapons.

I think they should specify "non-indigenous" biological hazards, cuz that clears up any confusion right off.

"Ricin? Wimp. Get a gun, climb the Tower and do the job right!"

/obscure?
//Aisle seat please.

Wow, that's hard to read. Haven't they heard of paragraphs. So, is a positive from a preliminary test or an actual positive?

ugh.. no biol sciences majors around?

There are two ricin proteins, Ricin A and Ricin B. Lots of grains (and most beers) contain Ricin A, which is harmless unless disulfide linked to ricin B.. Castor oil contains ricin, which is why it gives you the runs.. the ricin irritates your digestive tract.

Ricin doesn't need to = panic. It could just equal incompetent police misreading a detection test.

/obscure?

To someone who is brain-dead, perhaps.

On the topic, I'd imagine that this will be a false-positive just like the "cocaine" in the condom that turned out to be flour. These tests are silly.

From the CDC:

In 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian writer and journalist who was living in London, died after he was attacked by a man with an umbrella. The umbrella had been rigged to inject a poison ricin pellet under Markovs skin.

here we go...

If they used a field test, it was an antibody-type preparation. I don't know anything in particular about what they were using, but this is pretty much THE way to detect a protein. Antibodies tend not to false-positive (although it is possible, an antibody reacting to an antigen to which it is naive is part of the basis for nonspecific immunity) and the kits are usually cross-tested for false positives. Typically the method will detect on the order of ng of sample and not false-positive against a challenge of 1-100ug/mL (not trivial when we're talking about residues).

If they used any sort of mass spectral technique (GC/MS, LC/MS, MS/MS) they identified it, period. Mass spec is an unequivocal test.

As others have mentioned, this is not a biological weapon, nor is it a neurotoxin. It inhibits protein synthesis in cells (the newspaper seems to have gotten it right :)).

It's one of those odd poisons that are lavishly dangerous and seem out of place, castor plants produce it in their beans, presumably to keep animals from eating it.

Sid_6.7, you're attempting to use logic and reason. This is forbidden. Instead, sit back and let your helpful government do its job.

Scratch the bean, cabbage and boiled egg cassarole off the cafeteria menu.

"Austin Fire Department Special Operations Hazardous Materials Regional Strike Team"

What a long name. Good God, it never ends.

Tax Boy: Nope, not obscure.

White Powder in a college town? Go figure....

monobot2:
terroristicaliciousness!!

Terroristicalifragilisticexpialidocious?

What's her name?

/number?

oh and Tax Boy that's just wrong.
I mean, I have a sick sense of humor but even I find that wrong.
however this is a free country and you have the right to post and say anything you want and fark allows on their site

/not trolling
//just MHO
///like anyone cares what I think anyway

So I guess "castor bean extract" wasn't scary enough to get a greenlight, huh?

Holy crap. I actually lived in that dorm my freshman year at UT, except I lived on the first floor. It was an all-male dorm at that point, and there were definitely toxic chemicals in there, mostly emanating from the room across the hall from me. I thought at the time that there had to be a dead animal in there, but maybe they were just manufacturing Ricin. Although the dude at the end of the hall who played "Magic: The Gathering" all day and never left his room except for meals seemed like a more likely suspect.

*Prays for Omarion*

/Obligatory?

All I know is, this is some certain kind of serious.

Since when do we have "Weapons of Mass Destruction Operation Units"?

EVERYONE PANIC!!!

The day has come, the castor bean farmers are beginning the revolution.

Meh. Back in my day it was Welch Hall you had to worry about.

About time this show got on the road!

The news coverage of the Apocalypse should be entertaining,at the very least.

After RTFA, my brain hurts.
The taped-off dormitory room belongs to kinesiology freshman Kelly Heinbaugh and business freshman Casi Adams
BUT
Authorities would not release the names of the girls involved.
So, are Heinbaugh and Adams NOT the "girls involed?"

Others (CreamFilling, Bigtimmy) have also pointed out several other things that added to my headache. Just Dayum.

As for the police misreading a test, oopszie, it all depends on what test they used.

/WTF do you do with a major in kinesiology anyway?

The most important thing about this article is the ad to the right selling UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GEAR! HOOK 'EM!!!!

Suspect pictured in the middle:

Look out, it's Michael Irvin!

whimsy00: If they used a field test, it was an antibody-type preparation. I don't know anything in particular about what they were using, but this is pretty much THE way to detect a protein. Antibodies tend not to false-positive (although it is possible, an antibody reacting to an antigen to which it is naive is part of the basis for nonspecific immunity) and the kits are usually cross-tested for false positives.


I wonder if you'd get a positive on things containing castor oil like soap or perfume.

Sid_6.7 - Ricin is a toxin, which is toxic, but it's not alive. I still think it's silly to consider it to be 'biological' warfare when it's just a toxin and not a biologically active organism.

Example:

Is synthetically produced ricin still a "biological warfare agent"?

It would be a lot better to classify the use of toxins under chemical warfare, since it's more consistent. With the current definition one type of poison is chemical warfare while another type that might act in almost the exact same way is biological warfare just because of where it came from? BS.

From the training I received in the Canadian military, Ricin would be classified as chemical warfare. The moethod of production does not determine the substances classification. The substance itself determines it's classification.

Biological would be Anthrax, a spore or Small Pox, a virus. Chemicals and toxins although originating from organisms are used for their chemical properties.

IMHO - the classification is important in order to understand what kind of treatment to administer. A chemical attack requires a certain type of treatment that is not effective on most biological attacks and vice versa.

Payback is a biatch


/Texas Tech Grad

Whew! Good thing it wasn't anyplace important!

/Nuke the christians!

Ah, I see they found the cafeteria food...

/hook 'em!

Go Horns! Beat the Terrorists!

Terrorist Defeating National Champions. I hope.

The funny part about this scare story is that if they vacuumed the dorm, there would probably be enough anthrax spores to light up their machine.

Tehy're up to their ankles in anthrax in Texas. Whoop-dee-doo.

They found something toxic in a dorm? Just one thing? And this is news?

/Ricin
//Its a gateway WMD

Glass parking lot.

Students began evacuating the dorm shortly after 11 p.m. when University Residence Hall resident assistants began knocking door-to-door evacuating residents.

That's usually a pretty good time to start evacuating.