Posted on 05/20/2010 7:00:40 AM PDT by JoeProBono
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. Hannibal Lecter, the fictional villain in "Silence of the Lambs," said it sounded "charming." Author Nelson DeMille made it the centerpiece of his 1997 thriller about deadly viruses and hidden treasure.
Since the infancy of the Cold War, Plum Island has been the site of an animal disease laboratory; access is limited to scientists, support personnel and, on rare occasions, invited guests. Because of its remote location a mile and half off the eastern tip of Long Island's north fork, it frequently has been the target of rife speculation about what really goes on there.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
The Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) is a United States federal research facility dedicated to the study of animal diseases. It is part of the DHS Directorate for Science and Technology.
Since 1954, the center has had the goal of protecting America's livestock from animal diseases. During the Cold War a secret biological weapons program targeting livestock was conducted at the site. This program has been the subject of controversies, and the facility has gained a cult status.
Plum Island is outdated and being replaced with a new BL-4 facility in Manhattan, Kan., next to Kansas State University.
http://www.ktka.com/news/2008/dec/04/nbaf_moving_manhattan/
The new Manhattan project?
*ping* to Lab 259
Go Cats!!!
I wonder how much they want for it.
They call this Manhattan the Little Apple. That aside, the work that will be done there is to help prevent and/or control outbreaks and spread of zoonotic diseases ... things like Ebola virus, SARS, H1N1, etc. The limited access to Plum Island and most likely to NBAF is due to the need to prevent contamination and control any exposure to these disease agents.
Body with ‘very long fingers’ found on Plum Island, near disease lab
nypost.com ^ | Jan. 15, 2010
Posted on Friday, January 15, 2010 7:32:45 PM by Free ThinkerNY
PLUM ISLAND, N.Y. — A human body has washed ashore on New York’s tiny Plum Island, where a U.S. government lab studies dangerous animal diseases.
Police say a security guard discovered the clothed body Thursday afternoon on the island’s southwest beach area where access is restricted.
Police on Long Island said an autopsy determined the partially decomposed body was that of a black male about 6 feet tall with a large build and very long fingers.
‘Plum Island’ is one of my favorite DeMille stories. :)
“
Plum Island is outdated and being replaced with a new BL-4 facility in
Manhattan, Kan., next to Kansas State University.
“
Columbia, MO was in the running for that facility, but our burned-out
hippies in the area used enough scare talk to discourage going all out.
And they wonder why MO’s job/economy is in such bad shape.
I don’t remember Columbia being much of a contender. At one point, they had a few “finalists” picked out: keeping it at Plum Island or sites in Athens, Ga., San Antonio, Mississippi or North Carolina. Manhattan won out due in large part to K-State’s strong reputation in animal disease research. Texas was threatening a lawsuit claiming Manhattan was too prone to tornadoes (they actually cited the movie, “The Wizard of Oz” as proof). Ironically, San Antonio has had more tornadic activity over the last 20 or so years than Manhattan.
Oh, I’m quite familiar with Plum Island... I’ve passed within yards of it dozens of times.
“
Texas was threatening a lawsuit claiming Manhattan was too prone to tornadoes
(they actually cited the movie, “The Wizard of Oz” as proof).
“
LOL! Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas...pick any year and one or more of them
will have tornadoes (some of them lethal).
And I should know, growing up in the middle of the epicenter of Tornado Alley.
(in the Ponca City-Tonkawa-Blackwell area of Oklahoma)
Maybe Columbia, MO was “just a contender”...but what I was driving at
was (premature) objections of the radical nutburgers that really ran
the city council until a recent election...when our left-of-center mayor
of 15 years and two lefty council-persons got kicked to the curb by
a suddenly-enlightened band of voters.
(Funny, after we got a sane mayor and two new conservative city council
members...IBM is actually moving into Columbia with about 80 or so workers.
I suspect they were waiting on the results of the election to see
if the grown-ups were going to be in control of the town.)
IF Columbia, MO had actually gotten the knod for the center...
I (virtually) guaran-darn-tee you these liberal nutburgers would have
found a way to sabotage it. Especially given their over-the-top protestations
(TANTRUMS) when they heard Columbia was being considered.
I’ve got nothing against K-State; 1/2 of my family line came from
“the little apple” and St. Marys...and my brother worked for a
good-guy professor that came through K-State.
It is a very good university, especially for ag research.
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