🚀 go-pugleaf

Kim Buttleman wrote:
> 
> As klaatu implies, the truly frightening aspect of pfisteria is that the
> neurotoxicity causes *permanent* short term memory loss in humans, and
> people may be effected simply by breathing the fumes produced by blooms
> of the microorganism.

Thanks. Um, for no particular reason, I have been obsessed with the idea of
this sort of neurotoxin being responsible for the historical events now
"remembered" as the "Tower of BabEl". Okay, it's archetypal, but where does
such an archetype develop? 

And what a weapon for the MK-ULTRA crew and their foreign counterparts!

Perhaps you could point us to some web resources on the
toxicology/neurology, I do seem to recall that one of the original main
researchers of _pfisteria_ toxicity was exposed to something like a
microgram dose and entirely forgot how to speak, read, and write for a week
or so, then gradually recovered most of her faculties.

FWIW, I use the concept of a plague specifically attacking higher human
neuroloical functions in a work of science-fiction starting at
http://www.clark.net/pub/klaatu/infall.html

Happy reading.

> 
> --
> Kim Buttleman
> U. S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va., USA
> 
> *******************************************************
> 
> klaatu wrote:
> >
> > "Brian Raines (TheChesapeakeBay.com)" wrote:
> > >
> > > Possible Estuary-Associated Syndrome (PEAS)
> > > Centers for Disease Control Pfiesteria-related Notice Issued
> > >
> > > A federal health agency has told the nation's doctors to watch for
> > > problems that could be associated with Pfiesteria, the microorganism
> > > blamed for sickening Chesapeake Bay watermen two years ago. The alert
> > > from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was not prompted by
> > > a specific public health concern - it comes as warmer, drier weather
> > > arrives to make conditions ripe for Pfiesteria piscicida.
> >
> > Hrm - and it does indeed look as if we're in for a repeat of last year's
> > weather pattern, La Ni~a notwithstanding. And in fact, we may get even more
> > dry weather than we got last year.
> >
> > Okay, just to be a science-fiction-y sort of guy, I will indulge in some
> > wacky prophecy. (a rehash and update of a story written in 1992)
> >
> > Well, basically, I predict that for no particular reason, _pfisteria_ will
> > not only infest eastern-shore estuaries of the Chesapeake, but will also
> > infest, and intensely-so, the tidal Potomac and Patuxent rivers, from which
> > the Greater Washington Metropolitan Region draws its water supply.
> > Marylanders will of course remain mostly unaffected, due to the effective
> > and competent efforts of the WSSC, but the District's poorly-maintained
> > water supply will become infested with a chlorine-resistant strain of
> > _pfisteria_, which will of course cause everyone in the District to develop
> > colonic colonies of the Cell from Hell, which has at least 17 major
> > life-cycle forms, most of which do not produce neurotoxins.
> >
> > At this point my prophetic vision becomes rather vague, but seems to center
> > around a strong suspicion that as people overheat at July 4th, due to
> > insufficient consumption of beer on the Mall (due to annoying Park Service
> > regulations), the internal _pfisteria_ colonies will undergo a sea-change
> > into neurotoxin-emitting forms, causing everyone in the city of Washington
> > to forget where they live, or for that matter that they should go home. With
> > their short-term memories suppressed to the point where they live entirely
> > for the moment, mobs of forgetful people will wander the streets of their
> > capital, convincing the entire world that we've gone not only barking-mad,
> > but certifiably and televisably so.
> >
> > Georgetown will become swarmed with people who are obsessed with wearing the
> > latest fashions, which they will be totally unable to remember and must thus
> > mob to the trendy stores to gawk at mannequins. On "K" Street NW, lawyers
> > will forlornly flock the streets, begging people to give _them_ their
> > business cards so that they will know who they are. And in upper NW, bereft
> > of their memories, citizens will start a campaign drive to re-elect Marion
> > Barry...
> >
> > >
> > > Find out more at the URL:
> > > http://TheChesapeakeBay.com/cdc_pfiesteria_peas_notice.shtml
> > >
> > > Brian Raines
> >
> > --
> >                     "We look through a glass but darkly:
> >                  What we see is more colored by our beliefs,
> >                than what we believe is colored by what we see."
> >                 "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be
> >         purchased at the price of chains and slavery?"  - P. Henry

-- 
                    "We look through a glass but darkly:
                 What we see is more colored by our beliefs, 
               than what we believe is colored by what we see."
		"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be 
	purchased at the price of chains and slavery?"  - P. Henry