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- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!BICYCLE.SANDOZ.COM!HOFFMAN
- Message-ID: <FNORD-L%93012813153346@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.fnord-l
- Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 13:15:33 -0500
- Sender: New Ways of Thinking List <FNORD-L@UBVM.BITNET>
- From: hoffman@BICYCLE.SANDOZ.COM
- Subject: An Explanation of Recent Net Mailings
- Lines: 43
-
- It is with great embarrassment and regret that I come to you today,
- Network Mail List Reader, with my sincere apologies for the messages
- you may have received on your Newsgroup, Conference or List.
-
- Here at Sandoz Research Laboratories, we devote considerable resources
- and man-hours towards the goal of finding new pharmacological substances
- which we hope will ultimately benefit mankind.
-
- As happens with any such endeavor, there are mistakes. Sometimes we
- work hard to develop an drug which we later find has very serious
- side effects. Some of these substances have received widespread
- negative publicity in the media in the past, and I'm afraid you will
- soon be hearing of another.
-
- We recently developed, in working with the Defence Department, a gas
- which, while similiar in some respects to some of the benzenes, lacked
- the toxicity and some other problems which prevent them from being
- useful in our work.
-
- This morning, we had an accident here at the lab, where an thirty
- ounce canister of the gas was released. Several lab technicians
- fled the sealed room in fear, in direct violation of mandatory
- OSHA lab safety procedures. Some of the gas escaped, as fate would
- have it, out the clean room door and directly into an air handler
- which routed directly into our small software development department.
-
- We sent an immediate message over the building intercom for everyone
- to evacuate, but the gas is very fast acting, especially when
- concentrated, and our programmers barricaded themselves in the room.
- Among other things, they spent the morning wrapping themselves in
- magnetic tape and sending falsified transmissions out over the net
- work. Apparently, some of these transmissions arrived on your
- Newsgroup, Conference or Mail List, as they did on many others. WE
- have received hundreds of phone calls today from universities,
- businesses and the press. We will be issuing a press release describing
- the event at 1:30 p.m. EST today.
-
- We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you,
- and we direct any correspondence regarding this matter to our law
- firm, Sidney, Sidney, Sidney, Brown and Velter, Esq.
-
- Albert Hoffman
- Sandoz Labs
-