Rattle wrote:
] The big hysteria causing story in the NYC/NJ news today is the
] return of the infamous Bubonic Plague. It is currently
] reported to have been brought to town by a visiting couple
] from Mexico City. Sorry to let you down, no terrorist ties
] seem to exist at this point. The plague does not spread from
] person to person, so it is unlikely this will turn into a
] bigger problem. It is also extremely unlikely that these two
] cases could lead to the NYC rat population becoming infected,
] the primary carriers of the disease.
]
] Between Anthrax and West Nile, it really does not take much to
] get people in this area on edge...

Its not all that shocking to me to see something like the Black Plague popping up every once in awhile in isolated events. Viruses and bacteria have a way of sticking around. For example, arn't you glad you have had your polio vaccination? Polio virus can still be found in water supplies. Comforting thought, eh?:) - Nanochick

Nanochick wrote:
] Its not all that shocking to me to see something like the
] Black Plague popping up every once in awhile in isolated
] events. Viruses have a way of sticking around. For example,
] arn't you glad you have had your polio vaccination? Polio
] virus can still be found in water supplies. Comforting
] thought, eh?:)

Earlier today, when this first came up, we were taking issue with the 100 years figure that most of the articles cited for the last time the plage showed itsself in NYC. We had sworn that there was a small breakout that got nailed down pretty quick a few years ago.. Then we remembered that that wasn't real life, but rather a movie. Hehe. Weird tricks memory plays on you sometimes.

Polio in the water? I don't doubt that. Polio is a nasty one too.

In NJ, they mail us a report every year or so with a report on whats in our water, and this thing would scare the hell out of you. We got trace levels of all kinds of stuff. Radon, lead, you name it. I don't trust the water around here one bit. Infact, I've recently switched to drinking only bottled water.

I'd go as far as to say that the water here is dangerous. Alot of the people in the Ocean county area are starting to get that "pesant" look to them.. And we do have the biggest cancer cluster outside the Chernobyl fallout zone.

http://www.google.com/search?q=toms+river+cancer+cluster

Notice it even has its own catagory on Yahoo. Hehe. Thank you Ciba Geigy. If it wasn't for them, New Jersey wouldn't be living up to its reputation of being a pit of toxic waste. Its important to remember that New Jersey's only two super-heros are The Toxic Avenger (http://www.toxicavenger.com) and Buckaroo Banzai (http://www.banzai-institute.com/).

- nick