Demon Denim. Feeding off a earlier column in the WSJ by Daniel Akst, who wrote, "no fabric has ever been so insidiously effective at undermining national discipline," conservative columnist George Will takes up the (denim-free) banner in the crusade to rid America of "the plague of that ubiquitous fabric, which is symptomatic of deep disorders in the national psyche."
posted by Liver on Apr 16, 2009 - 158 comments

Scientists Discover 21st Century Plague? Bartonella bacteria, spread by the brown rat, Europe's largest and most common rodent, are considered emerging zoonotic pathogens because they have the potential to transmit human disease worldwide, including heart disease and nervous system infections. [more inside]
posted by terranova on Nov 24, 2008 - 11 comments

Retrospectacle on the Plague. Shelley Batts is a neuroscience PhD candidate who writes the great blog Retrospectacle [Prev]. She's recently posted a series on the bubonic plague: It's real and perceived causes (1 2), the bizarre medical garb doctors used, and modern cases of Yersinia pestis* infection in the U.S. and the world.
posted by McLir on Jan 18, 2008 - 16 comments

They bite, they stain, they squeak, they pheromone. Looks like they've taken Brixton. Collect them up and send them to the Professor, or let the Harlequin Survey know. Here's what they look like and where they came from. Dammit, now we've got your ladybugs.
posted by jennydiski on Oct 22, 2007 - 26 comments

Gigantic yellow jacket nests perplex experts
posted by madamjujujive on Aug 24, 2006 - 71 comments

"Virtual Virus Sheds Light on Real-Life Behavior." A researcher at Tufts University's Center for the Modelling of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Nina Fefferman, is studying the behavior of World Of Warcraft players during the recent plague that broke out in Ironforge (discussed on Metafilter here.) But Dr. Fefferman is not the first academic to study MMORPGs seriously. Edward Castronova, an economist, arguably pioneered the field with his 2001 paper Virtual Worlds, in which he argues that the economy in Everquest produced a GNP per capita somewhere between that of Russia and Bulgaria. (He has followed up that paper with many more on similar subjects.)
posted by dersins on Oct 5, 2005 - 9 comments

Plague in World of Warcraft.
posted by srboisvert on Sep 19, 2005 - 59 comments

Thomas Campbell Butler at 63 years of age, is completing the 1st year of a 2-year sentence in federal prison, following an investigation and trial that was initiated after he voluntarily reported that he believed vials containing _Yersinia pestis_ were missing from his laboratory at Texas Tech University.
posted by warbaby on Jun 1, 2005 - 30 comments

What do HIV, breast cancer, dental plaque, and stem cells all have in common? Why, you can wear them! as a tie, a lovely scarf, or even underwear! The Infectious Awearables collection will definitely be catching...spreading like an epidemic...infectious and charming! (via Blue's News)
posted by WolfDaddy on Feb 10, 2004 - 2 comments

Bubonic plague strikes again... It seems that bubonic plague has never actually gone away with reports of occurences in Madagascar, Bolivia and now it seems, from New Mexico. Given that the disease has been diagnosed and treated outside of the host cities in the cases of the Bolivian woman and the couple in New York, I think this highlights how diseases we tend to classify as third world health problems, are merely a plane ride away from causing an outbreak here.
posted by gloege on Nov 7, 2002 - 26 comments

Mum, I’m playing a syphilitic Hackney whore being impassively tupped by a boil-faced plague-pit digger in the desperate belief that my pox will cure his plague If you didn't have the chance to see the Channel 4 programme about the Black Death don't worry, this article is much more entertaining.
posted by Summer on Oct 19, 2001 - 4 comments

Black Death Decoded: the BBC is reporting that scientists have decoded the genetic structure of the bacterium responsible for the plague. More information is available here. Meanwhile Harvard is working on an anthrax antidote.
posted by ryanshepard on Oct 3, 2001 - 2 comments

Dot-Com Deaths = Black Plague?

Toronto Star Internet columnist K.K. Campbell takes a look at the startling simularities of the dot-com deaths and the black plague.

"The Dot-Com Death resulted primarily from a little parasite (Internet hypesters, Bombasticus bullroaricus) carried on the body of another parasite (Wall Street IPO underwriters, Securitus scammus maximus) on corporate stocks moving along business capital routes."
posted by bkdelong on Mar 30, 2001 - 4 comments

Synthetic virus nearing reality Scientists will have the technology to create a wholly artificial virus within the next five years, a major conference in the US has been told. This is the quote I like best... Prof Hutchinson added: "Am I worried about a synthesised virus? No, you only worry about it if someone does it out of malicious motives."
posted by zeoslap on Feb 22, 2001 - 18 comments

In 1545 and 1576, plagues swept across the Yucatan peninsual in Mexico and killed 17 million people, including 80 percent of the native Indians. The traditional view is that American Indians succumbed to European diseases to which they had no natural resistance. A new and subtle theory says that the plagues were not imported but were in fact of local origin. It doesn't let the Europeans off the hook though.
posted by lagado on Dec 29, 2000 - 2 comments