In a clear act of porcine aggression against our nation's geographers, the dreaded Mexican Pig Flu has struck the National Geographic Society. We have the memo.

A tipster tells us this comes from an internal NGS memo, and refers to the Washington, DC office:

Possible H1N1 case at NG
Article posted by Karen Gilmour

Statement from [NGS Human Resources SVP] Tony Sabló
An NG staffer has come down with what may well be the Society's first
diagnosed case of the H1N1 virus, which has also been known as swine
flu. While the lab test results are still pending, the general wisdom
in medical circles these days is to treat any such set of symptoms as
if it is, in fact, H1N1.

The employee is now resting at home under a doctor's care and is
expected to make a full recovery. While members of the person's work
group have been contacted by our medical unit about precautions they
may take, we thought this would be a good time to remind everyone
about "best practices" to reduce the risk of contracting any and all
communicable diseases, including the flu.

Clearly, swine flu has become self-aware and is moving further and further up the intellectual food chain: it went from private schools to Conde Nast to the Washington Post to the National Geographic Society. Soon it will start systematically attacking institutions that really matter, such as the Sanitation Department.

This is only the beginning.

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.