I replied to this over 2 hours ago; the post hasn't shown, so I'm trying again (although I don't remember exactly what I said then... :P ).
Well, I tried to send a bunch of e-mail messages earlier (before I had to leave for class), but I got an error message every time I tried to send anything, and then it got to the point where it wouldn't even let me download incoming mail, so I gave up and went to class with a bunch of messages waiting unsent in my outbox. Apparently AT&T fixed whatever the problem was while I was away, because it seems to be working correctly now (and I had 180 new incoming messages waiting when I got back) . . .
--- Ronn!Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Deborah Harrell wrote:
> >Apparently we've inadvertantly helped develop a
> >bacterium that needs our waste to live:
> >
>
>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030703/ap_on_sc/toxic _feeder_5
> >"...Vinyl chloride is one of the most common and
> >hazardous industrial chemicals. It can linger in
the
> >soil for hundreds of years and is present at about
a
> >third of the toxic Superfund sites listed by the
> >Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites).
> It usually accumulates as a deteriorated form of
more
> >complex compounds found in dry cleaning fluid and
> >metal cleansers....
> >"These organisms can only grow when the
> >contaminants are present," he said. "When the
> material
> >is gone, their numbers decline because they don't
> have any food. So really it's a perfect system."
> Didn't I read that novel 30 years ago? > <<http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.seymour1/ukbookguide/Series/Doomwatch/mutant59.html>>
<grin> I also read that one...about 3 decades ago.
Yeah, it was memorable . . . and that is _not_ a compliment . . .
Funny how 'monsters' can be both huge flesh-eating creatures, and - microscopic flesh-destroying ones.
Though I guess to be precise the microorganism described in the article feeds on vinyl chloride monomer, not the polymer. (If it does eat the latter, I hope they will be careful about dumping it into the drain, given the wide use of PVC pipe in plumbing these days . . . )
Life Under The Cover-slip Maru ;)
I _never_ wear a slip when I'm under the covers . . .
--Ronn! :)
I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon.
I never dreamed that I would see the last.
--Dr. Jerry Pournelle
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