A heatwave sweeping across western Russia’s Yamal tundra, above the Arctic circle, has triggered an outbreak of anthrax. The hardy bacteria, thought to have made its home in the frozen flesh of a reindeer carcass, lay dormant in the permafrost—until now.
Ah, fuck! The Pentagon just said its anthrax mistake is worse than previously believed: live samples of the deadly bacteria might have reached 51 different labs in 17 different states, D.C., and three foreign countries. Also, this has been going on for the past decade.
Over the past few days, a U.S. Defense Department laboratory in Utah “inadvertently” mailed live Anthrax samples to a commercial lab. The location of the lab has not been released, though samples of the deadly bacteria were sent to facilities in nine states, including New York, New Jersey, and Maryland.
The head of the CDC anthrax lab, Michael Farrell, resigned Tuesday after his employees were exposed to live anthrax last month. That's probably a good thing, since the CDC already closed the lab.
The Center for Disease Control is closing its anthrax and flu labs after two accidents that could have exposed employees and the public to disease. "Shipments of all infectious agents" are going to be halted, too. The screw-ups, one of which was just reported today, weren't minor.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today that up to 75 of its scientists may have been exposed to live anthrax bacteria in its laboratories in Atlanta. According to Reuters, the scientists were exposed after staff at a high-level biosecurity lab failed to follow the proper procedures to render the live anthrax bacteria inactive. So far, the CDC reports, none of the potentially exposed staff has reported any symptoms.
With the Republican presidential primary still bitterly contested between the four remaining candidates, every last endorsement counts — especially the crucial support of the Big Four of thrash metal: Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax. Megadeth's Dave Mustaine has come out in support of Rick Santorum.
Dog evolution! Stroke surgery! Baby okapi! Computer hearts! Fast fish! Space gardens! Parkinson's treatment! Anthrax vaccine! And America loses the Red planet to the Reds! It's your Tuesday Science Watch, where we watch science—nobly!
A white powder—determined to be harmless—was discovered in an envelope addressed to Dancing With the Stars. Look, we all had to see the nipple, okay? But most of us handled it maturely and appropriately. By tweeting "groooosssssssssssss."
An employee at Marc Jacobs' SoHo store intercepted a delivery of cocaine; she called the cops because she thought it was anthrax. It can be hard to tell the difference between drug dealers and terrorists.
2001's Anthrax mailer, Dr. Bruce Ivins, killed five people and then himself. The FBI's closing the case file on him today. Interestingly, the guy hated New York. Sometimes, it sucks! But there are ways around this problem.
They weren't bad posts, just misunderstood. Nevertheless, we wrote them and you didn't want to read them. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the least popular Gawker posts of 2009.
Our greatest fears have been confirmed: stereotypical hippie behaviors have been found to give you anthrax. Maybe this will wake those hippies up??
American Express evacuated employees on three floors of its World Financial Center headquarters this afternoon after envelopes containing a "white powdery substance" were discovered. Several similarly suspicious packages were also sent to Bank of America's offices in Tampa. [NBC, Business Insider]
So far this week, the UN missions of six separate countries have been temporarily shut down and decontaminated because they received envelopes full of flour in the mail. This whole "anthrax" thing is overrated.
The German consulate in Manhattan received a suspicious white powder in an envelope today, just like three other consulates did yesterday. We hear the media agency Initiative, in the same area, had to be evacuated too. Send terror stories here!
Remember Anthtrax? Terrorists were supposed to use it to kill democracy, but nothing much ever came of it all. Until now: an ER was evacuated after someone saw a white substance. Turns out it was just cocaine. Oops! [Salt-Lake Tribune]
We've said it before and we'll say it again: Mess with Jamie Dimon and you do so at your own risk. Last fall, during the bleakest moments of the financial crisis, the JPMorgan CEO began receiving threatening letters from a man who was angry about losing money a chunk of money following JPMorgan's acquisition of Washington Mutual. The anonymous letter-writer didn't just threaten to kill Dimon and promise to "McVeigh" the bank's New York office building. He also included a bit of white powder in one of the envelopes, which set off an anthrax scare at JPMorgan HQ. Duff McDonald recounts the episode in his new book on Dimon, Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase:
Big city newspapers are always going into panic mode after receiving envelopes of white powder that turns out to be harmless. At the Caspar (Wyoming) Star-Tribune, it turned out to be cocaine:
The white powder that so menaced the Wall Street Journal offices yesterday turned out to be "flour or food-based," and harmless. Evacuated staffers, please get back to work twice as fast today. [NYT]
