Blockbuster scares

[Calhoun07]

This one is kinda funny. In St Louis recently, and this probably won't make the news, but I heard about it, at a Blockbuster, an employee freaked out becuase there was a white powder on a movie case in the drop box, so they contact the police, and the disease control people come and the store is evacuated and the whole nine yards, and it turns out to just be powdered sugar from a donught that the person was eating before they dropped off the movie, so it wasn't even any kind of a hoax. The employee wound up losing his job, tho, because he told the police who had rented that video.

[Maxie Zeus]

It's worth remembering that you're a heck of a lot more likely to die in a car accident or by being struck by lightning than from anthrax.

[Calhoun07]

You think that is bad? We had a meeting today at the bank about if you get any unusual symptoms, you will be required to leave the bank immediately and you will not beable to work again until you get a doctor's permission. Not only do I have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting anthrax, but IT IS NOT TRANMITTABLE BETWEEN PEOPLE! They sent a girl home yesterday because she was feeling sick and felt something coming on in her chest. The last thing I want is to be treated like I have a black plague becuase I get the common cold!

[Maxie Zeus]

Originally posted by calhoun07
You think that is bad? We had a meeting today at the bank about if you get any unusual symptoms, you will be required to leave the bank immediately and you will not beable to work again until you get a doctor's permission. Not only do I have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting anthrax, but IT IS NOT TRANMITTABLE BETWEEN PEOPLE! They sent a girl home yesterday because she was feeling sick and felt something coming on in her chest. The last thing I want is to be treated like I have a black plague becuase I get the common cold!

Apparently cutaneous anthrax attacks the skin, but the fear of anthrax destroys the brain. :rolleyes:

[Calhoun07]

I am afraid that 2000 years later and man kind is no more better than their ancestors who were afraid of things like eclipses and the setting of the sun. We just have traded one nurosis for another.

[Failure]

There was something like that in a eating place near me. Some waitor found white powder on a table. Cops came and everything. Turns out it was dust from when somebody replaced a light bulb and didnt bother to clean it up. Cautiousness is ok, but maybe people are over-reacting. Personally, I'm not one bit worried about anthrax, it's not something u can control so why bother? Anyway, I'm not important enough to be targeted. :D

[Calhoun07]

That's what I figured too. And who would be targeting a Blockbuster store? A Bin Laden terrorist mad about his late fee?

[Joe Tully]

Here's a similar one

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,3061885%5E1702,00.html


A QANTASLINK flight to Mackay today was at the centre of another anthrax scare after a white powdery substance was found on a passenger's lunch.

Transport Minister John Anderson said a passenger was concerned about what appeared to be white powder on a Danish pastry in a meal pack.

"He rightly and appropriately alerted crew and that will now be checked out," he said.

"In the meantime, the aircraft is cordoned off."

Authorities were investigating but Mr Anderson, campaigning in Mackay today for the November 10 federal poll, said he did not expect the scare to be serious.

"I think it is reasonable to say it is unlikely it will prove to a matter of real concern," he said.




Again....what kind of white, powdery substance do you think would be on a danish? Sugar, perhaps?

I hope people grow out of this soon. There's reasonable fear, and unreasonable fear. I think assuming a white powdery substance on a pastry is anthrax goes pretty far over the line. I mean, I can understand having that at the back of your head when you see something like that, but be reasonable about it.

[don Jaime]

Does anybody here know enough biochemistry to explain why somebody thought anthrax was such a great choice for a weapon in the first place? It's not contagious, and apparently you have to snort the spores like cocaine to actually get respiratory anthrax. Heck, it's a fairly common cow disease and cattle farmers and handlers rarely get the cutaneous form. Why anthrax?

[Robin2099]

When I was at work, I was checking a lady out at a self scanning machine. She saw powder on the scanner, and started freaking out becuasehe daughter touched it! Ironically enough, it was only flour.

[Vigo Sprax]

Well Anthrax is used because its more precise or strategic, if you infact a group of people theres little chance of those people going back and infecting your people in return. Anthrax is also easy to be mass manufactured, its done so with much of the same type of equipment used to pasturize milk.

The reason Anthrax is not being very effective is because these people have been getting the cutaneous, or skin, form of Anthrax. Anthrax can actually be transmitted three ways: cutaneous, ingested, or inhaled. Cutaneous is not effective because it takes so long to develop and you're really only in danger if it infects a cut on your neck, since it can cut off your air supply. Most of the time cutaneous can be cured unless totally neglected. Eating Anthrax, related to tainted meat (and the coverup used by the KGB) causes death in only 50% of the people. The inhaled Anthrax is the real danger and why Anthrax is so popular. Anthrax can be created into very fine, small spores which can be put in aerosol cans and sprayed. If you inhale this form of Anthrax, and don't start treatment right away, you will die. Almost 100% of people who wait to treat inhaled anthrax until they have symptoms die of it, by the time you start getting those flue symptoms its most likely too late. The man who died of Anthrax had this form.

So really, its not Anthrax that is so ineffective - its these peoples delivery method. If you want to learn more I recommend two books: "Biohazard" by Ken Alibek, written by the 2nd in command of the USSR Biological warfare department, and "Plague Wars" which covers the broad history of biological warfare. Theres also a new book out called "Germs" which is supposed to be good.

[Damien Oujia]

I wonder if this is why the terrorists wanted to use crop dusters a while back, which forced the government to order them grounded. Now that would be an effective means of distributing the powder.

[The Mad Hatter]

Well, crop dusters wouldn't really work to begin with, according to news articles I've read... with most toxic agents it would be too tough to spray it through the nozzles made for liquid.

Man, I'll be glad when we can all calm down...

[Failure]

Do you think people will ever think white powder could just be sugar or plaster or just plain old white powder again? I wonder how long these fears will last.

[Calhoun07]

I am just curious....does anybody here worry about this? Because I don't. Only three or four true cases of anthrax being sent to different places have been confirmed, and that's not enough to send me in a panic, as far as I am concerned. And 2300 scares, proably more at this hour, and most of those were just people over reacting. I, for one, would not be concerned about it. I am more concerned about having to deal with somebody irrational fears (such as being sent home because I have a common cold because my boss is afraid she will get anthrax from me!) than I am about anthrax itself.

[BourgeoisBuffoon]

Actually, anthrax powder is....TAN! Not white....that's the sad thing to me. Most white powders are being assumed to be Anthrax, when it's a tan powder you gotta be afraid of!

I'm concerned for the people who have anthrax and those exposed to it, but they're already getting better (ones that haven't died). We've this under control, so I fear not for a major scare.

Another good Anthrax book: VECTOR. In an edit in the post I'll find the author. It ironically deals with an Anthrax scare in New York.

I find it sad. Most people are already trembling in fear like the terrorists want us to.:mad:

[Vigo Sprax]

Bougeois is right about the color, in a funny note in the book "Biohazard" Alibek comments on how much the liquid actually resembles slightly lighter coke syrup as its being mixed.

Am I afraid? No! Maybe if I worked in a large news/media office or even more so if I worked in a government building, or I guess a mail man. Besides those people though, theres no reason to worry - the terrorists so far have shown their level of sophistication is fairly low.

[Joe Tully]

Originally posted by BourgeoisBuffoon

I find it sad. Most people are already trembling in fear like the terrorists want us to.:mad:

Well, maybe it seems that way, but I think that most people are just going about and doing their own thing. The thing is, the person who sees a powdered donut and doesn't think "Anthrax!" doesn't make the news. There's always going to be a few stupid people who blow things out of proportion, but most people are dealing with this appropriately. Just today I read in the college newspaper about someone who I think works for the college radio station, and when he gets a package with a CD in it he kind of thinks about the possibility of Anthrax (no, not the band, the other one) , but he opens the darn thing anyways and, of course, there's nothing wrong with it, just as he figured. That's what I think most people do, and I think that's what we should expect. Maybe being slightly paranoid, but at least being over to get over that paranoia with reasoning.

[Maxie Zeus]

I can top the Blockbuster "scare." From Lawrence, Kansas:


Emergency personnel Tuesday night called a hazardous materials team to a rural Douglas County residence, where a woman feared anthrax had been dropped on her car from an airplane.

The substance turned out to be harmless bird droppings, Sheriff Rick Trapp said.

[Calhoun07]

oh my god.


I guess I just cannot connect with the paranoid mind.

[Maxie Zeus]

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that many localities are thinking about "banning" Halloween this year (in the sense of really discouraging trick-or-treating). It's NOT because they are worried about poisonings or anthrax. They are just so sick of people calling in with stupid anthrax scares, and are worried that parents will freak out when they see sugarpowder on their kids' candy. Emergency crews are already being run ragged because of birdbrains worried about bird droppings. They don't need millions more idiots.

[Kero]

Over in the UK in a building in Liverpool a building was evacuated because a white powder burst out of a parsel. It turned out to be hot coco powder.

Kero

[Singin' Stray Cat]

Originally posted by calhoun07
I am just curious....does anybody here worry about this?

I have a couple of friends who work for a big shipping company and have to handle packages. So there's a small possiblity they might get it, but it doesn't seem very likely since they're far away from where most of the confirmed cases of anthrax have been.

It's pretty sad that trick-or-treating's in jeopardy just because a lot of people panic at the sight of everything white and powdered... I hope people calm down by the time December rolls around, otherwise we'll have idiots claiming there's "anthrax powder" all over their driveway and their lawn... :rolleyes:

[The Mad Hatter]

Yep... Arkansas' good ole' Southern Baptist preacher/governor released a statement saying that it's just too darned dangerous to hold Halloween this year.

Okay, that's ludicrous. No one would dare hand out Anthrax candy, because the act of handing it out would make the person instantly identifyable. With mailings, terrorists can remain anonymous.

[Calhoun07]

Kids have a better chance to find razor blades in their candy than anthrax. And how often does that razor blade in the candy incidnet happen? It's almost like an urban legend.

I sometimes wonder how kids of today precieve all this panic. I know this cannot help.

[Calhoun07]

Not to mention the terrorists, wheter it's directly or indirectly, ARE getting what they want in this country, and that's to make us afraid. And when governments are afraid enough to cancel something like Halloween, I just can't help to think that the Bin Laden supporters in this country are getting a tad bit more happy.