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Zombie Watch

World War Z Author Max Brooks Explains How to Pack a Zombie Survival Kit
BY ANGELA WATERCUTTER01.29.1312:45 PM
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/01/ ... pocalypse/

It’s been almost a decade since author and former Saturday Night Live writer Max Brooks first wrote The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead, a book that seems increasingly prescient as zombies continue their invasion into the media landscape through TV shows like The Walking Dead and films like the upcoming World War Z, which also happens to be based on a novel written by Brooks.

Luckily, the man himself hasn’t shied away from keeping the public informed on how to stay alive in the event of a zombie apocalypse, giving lectures on the topic across the country – the latest of which is being held Thursday at San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences as part of SF Sketchfest.

In the face of zombie threats both old and new, Wired asked Brooks about the ten essential items needed for an zombie survival kit, which Brooks says should look similar to most disaster preparedness kits: “You won’t have to pack any zombie-specific items, not like a werewolf kit where you’ll need silver bullets or a vampire kit where you’ll need lots and lots of glitter.” His packing list is smart and practical, and – surprisingly – full of what he calls “little boring details” that can keep people alive in almost any situation:


1. WATER!

2. Some way to collect and PURIFY water!

3. Broken-in hiking boots (blisters are not funny!)

4. Dry socks (trench foot is definitely not funny!)

5. A radio that doesn’t need batteries (and an earpiece so you’re not broadcasting to everything living and undead within earshot)

6. Some means of making fire (matches are good, flint and steel and char cloth are better)

7. Some means of self-defense (preferably something that doesn’t need reloading)

8. A first aid kit

9. A Swiss army knife or multi-tool

10. The Zombie Survival Guide — ONLY if it’s in paperback! Hey, I love e-books too, but remember, in a crisis, paper doesn’t break or simply run out of juice!

“I feel if you’re prepared for a zombie plague, you’re prepared for most natural disasters,” Brooks said. “For me, zombie survival isn’t about guns and violence and nail-biting action. We live in a culture that thrives on hype and panic, and that’s a sure recipe for disaster. I always tell people, ‘In a crisis, think about what Congress or Fox News would do and then just do the opposite.’”

Brooks says that the one thing he wishes he could go back to his book on preparing for the undead apocalypse is a chapter on avoiding what he calls “overenthusiastic prep-ers.” “When I wrote The Zombie Survival Guide, there was hardly anyone thinking about how to survive an undead plague … Now, literally millions of people are thinking about what they would do, and of those millions, there’s gotta be some percentage that really, REALLY want it to happen. Those people scare me more than zombies. A zombie plague might or might not happen, but mentally unbalanced, well armed, fringe citizens with itchy trigger fingers are definitely a reality.”

And while more and more writers and filmmakers are creating new zombies to be afraid of every few months (Catch Warm Bodies this Friday!) he remains a traditionalist. “I’m just focused on the ones that have always scared me,” he said. “For all other inquiries, press 2 for Zack Snyder, press 3 for Danny Boyle, press 4 for the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies guy, or press 5 to stay on the line for another couple minutes while someone else thinks up another new kind of zombie.”

Oh, and if you’re wondering about World War Z, Brooks has seen the trailer, and not much else. “It’s kinda hard to form an opinion from just that… well, hard for me,” he said. “Most folks on the interweb seem to have no problem in that department. I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see.”
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Waitaminit....He talks about avoiding hype and panic then he goes on about a disater which will never happen...

...And if it does, will not be much of a disaster.

Some of my best friends are survivalists....
 
'Zombie invasion' to hit north-east forests
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-21231328

The sport of zombie running originated in the USA

Three forests in the north-east of England are to hold "zombie running" events, where people are chased through the trees by costumed "flesh eaters".

Originating in the USA, the sport involves avoiding zombies along a three mile (5km) run with obstacles.

Alex MacLennan, from the Forestry Commission, said it was one of the "strangest" events it had ever hosted.

Runners must reach safe zones and keep tags on their belt, which represent lives, to complete the challenge.

'Get fit'
Race organiser Penny Hann said: "You don't have to run the whole way if you don't want to and zombies will be located at various locations to spring a nasty surprise rather than always [be] in hot pursuit.

"We will also have guides, called the Militia, out and about to ensure folk don't get lost. It's something weird, amazing and brilliant fun.

"As a way to get fit being chased by zombies has no equal."

The zombie runs will take place at Kielder Forest, in Northumberland on 9 February; at Chopwell Wood, near Gateshead on 16 February; and at Hamsterley Forest, near Bishop Auckland, on 2 March.
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Vid at link.

Museum explores the science behind zombies
2 February 2013 Last updated at 00:04 GMT
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21295567

The Science Museum in London is holding a number of events which explore the science of consciousness through the example of a zombie outbreak.

Among the experiences on offer at the 'ZombieLab' is an Academy which teaches people how to act like a zombie. There are also tasks that people can undertake to prove they are not a zombie.

Dr Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, hopes the events will make people think about what "consciousness really is".

Video Journalist: Tom Beal
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Hackers interrupt Montana TV programme with Zombie warning.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/12/zombie-apocalypse-newsflash-montana-tv

Zombie apocalypse newsflash interrupts US TV schedule

'Dead bodies are rising from their graves,' viewers told in hoax by hackers

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press in Montana. Tuesday 12 February 2013

http://youtu.be/nc60XPCXrh8

The Montana Television Network says hackers broke into the emergency alert system of its Great Falls affiliate KRTV and its CW station.

KRTV says on its website the hackers broadcast that "dead bodies are rising from their graves" in several Montana counties. The network says there is no emergency and its engineers are investigating.

"The message did not come from our station, and appears to be the result of a hacker. Our engineers our looking into the origin of the alert to make sure a similar occurrence does not happen again," KRTV says.
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The interruption was much better than the programme it interrupted. :lol:
 
Spoilsport Minister.

Quebec cancels zombie-themed emergency training
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le8709379/

The Quebec government has stepped in to scrub plans for a zombie-themed emergency training exercise. Participants at an annual symposium on civil security had been planning to use a hypothetical living-dead attack to test emergency preparedness.

Such a theme has been used elsewhere. The logic behind it is to use something that could never actually occur, as opposed to a flood or an ice storm, because that way emergency-preparedness officials might think of new problems and solutions.

MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

Canada is zombie-free, Conservatives assure NDP
BROADCASTING U.S. officials not laughing about warnings of zombie attacks
When zombies attack, Quebec will be ready

VIDEO
Video: 'Canada will never become a safe haven for zombies', John Baird assures Canadians
News of the plan had elicited considerable guffaws this week, along with some complaints about wasteful government spending.

So now the provincial cabinet has stepped in. Public Security Minister Stéphane Bergeron announced in a press release Thursday that he has ordered a change of plans: The new scenario will simulate a flood.

“I thought … the theme of the workshop had taken on a greater importance than its goal and that it was better to change it,” Mr. Bergeron said in a statement.

He said he took the decision “so as not to undermine the real purpose of the activity, which is and remains a very important exercise for civil security.”

Mr. Bergeron said he needed to act to preserve the credibility of the symposium and decided to avoid controversy by changing the theme of the exercise.

He noted the zombie workshop was just one of two dozen subjects on the schedule.

“It’s not the zombie theme that’s important here – it was circumstantial,” Mr. Bergeron said in an interview.

The idea of a zombie apocalypse even made its way to the House of Commons on Wednesday, where the NDP asked the Conservatives about the country’s level of zombie preparedness.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird assured that “Canada would never be a safe haven for zombies.”

A civil servant with Quebec’s civil security department had told The Canadian Press this week that the zombie exercise, used in the United States and elsewhere in Canada in recent years, is designed to get officials to think outside the box.

A spokesman said that when officials discuss an issue they’ve already lived through, it’s easy to get caught up in old habits.

Hypothetical zombie attacks are becoming a popular emergency preparedness teaching tool. Even the Centers for Disease Control in the United States has used the tactic.

Last September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security held a similar exercise as part of a campaign to encourage better preparation for genuine disasters and emergencies.

In Canada, British Columbia conducted a similar exercise last May, offering tips on how to prepare for and fend off a fake zombie apocalypse.

The B.C. government said at the time that it hoped the exercise would generate awareness of social media tools that could help the public in real emergencies.

Quebec’s three-day symposium, into its 13th year, brings together several hundred first responders, civil-security experts, firefighters and municipal officials.

Each day deals with three different phases: the emergency itself, the aftermath, and the recovery. The decisions taken one day will fold into the next.

But now, instead of zombies, officials will pretend to be dealing with large-scale flooding frequently created by the annual spring thaw.

Mr. Bergeron said that when he first heard about the exercise, his reaction was one of incredulity and amusement. “Once the disbelief passed, I asked a number of questions,” he said, explaining the process that led to the programming change.

He said planning for the workshop started last June under the previous Charest Liberal government.
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About the only zombie scenario that even remotely makes sense is 'The Walking Dead', where a fast moving epidemic kills, then reanimates most of the population. Puts the few survivors in a right pickle.

As far as I am able to discover, the idea of a mass zombie rising was first used in the delightfully wretched 'Plan 9 from Outer Space', then revived for 'Night of the Living Dead'.

Then, it was molly-over-the-windmill.

I'm probably wrong, anybody know more?
 
I think it's Invisible Invaders from 1959, the same year as Plan 9, which is seen as a bigger influence on the George A. Romero zombie epidemics, though people see sources for that 1968 undead year zero all over the place.
 
Never saw that one, thanks for the information.

What a humiliation for John Carridine, a great Shakespereian player....wait, he did a lot of pictures like that, you can't eat pride.

It's a good bet Ed Wood cribbed the idea. He wasn't original, but he delivered a film... even if one of his principal players died during production.

The zombie mechanism of this film is halfway logical, sort of a hermit crab zombie, a corpse inhabited by an entity.

I'm still not buying it.
 
An aside: Where does that skinned and b******ed line come from? I keep seeing it.
 
And "molly-over-the-windmill" is a fantastic expression. I must find an opportunity to use that.
 
I confess I cribbed that from the great pulpista John D. McDonald, he used it in a Travis McGee novel.

I miss those, McDonald was a very prolific writer, he had a long career.

He also brought forth some goo science fiction.
 
krakenten said:
He also brought forth some goo science fiction.
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That'd be science fiction about gelatinous stuff, no doubt. ;)
 
An aside: Where does that skinned and b******ed line come from? I keep seeing it.
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I've forgotten the original thread now but it was a quote from another poster on this board, I'd provisionally agreed to organise a Fortean meet up in York early this year, not sure what happened to that but the quote was someone's reaction to the news.

Dunno how I got a reputation like that. :lol:
 
Vids & images at link.

Zombies vs. animals? The living dead wouldn't stand a chance
http://boingboing.net/2013/10/14/zombie ... k.facebook

National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski explains how nature would deal with a zombie outbreak: brutally, and without quarter.

Zombies are scary. We humans are evolutionarily pre-programmed to abhor the dead bodies of our own species. It's a natural reaction, helping healthy individuals avoid fatal pathogens.

The thought of being eaten alive is a natural fear, and when it's your own species doing the eating, it's even more terrifying.

Relax. Next time you're lying in bed, unable to fall asleep thanks to the vague anxiety of half-rotten corpses munching on you in the dark, remember this: if there was ever a zombie uprising, wildlife would kick its ass.

To enjoy zombie horror, you suspend disbelief and put aside some of science's rules. That said, if we assume zombies can't spread whatever is causing them to reanimate to other species, and that they are relatively slow moving—both true (so far! — Ed.) of Walking Dead zombies—there are more than enough wild animals out there to dispatch the undead.

That's because zombies are essentially walking carrion, and Mother Nature doesn't let anything go to waste.

Carrion is on the menu for a vast number of species, from tiny micro-organisms to the largest carnivores.

Here's just some of the North American wildlife that would make short work of a zombie horde.


Photo: USFWS Pacific Southwest Region (cc)

BIRDS: WINGED ZOMBIE ANNIHILATORS

Many birds feed themselves by scavenging on dead things. The two vulture species native to North America, the turkey vulture and the black vulture, flock up to make short work of any corpses they find. Both vulture species are dwarfed by the massive California condor, whose wingspan can reach 10 feet and which relish carrion. A sluggish zombie wouldn't stand a change against one of these giants or a flock of vultures. California condors are endangered, so a zombie apocalypse could really give a boost to their population by providing them with an abundance of food.

This video shows a juvenile California condor ripping the heart out of a dead carcass, surrounding by ravens picking up scraps. Ravens are not small birds—just look at the size of this baby condor in comparison.


Video Link

Ravens, crows, and magpies are expert scavengers as well, in addition to being bold and extremely intelligent. Many species of gulls, known for their brash behavior when it comes to scoring a meal, would also gladly feed off slow-moving zombies in coastal areas. These birds usually require other animals to break through or break down the tough skin and hide of their carrion meals. So they'd have to wait until the zombies decomposed a bit, or were dismembered by others animals, before they tucked in. But once started, nothing would stop them from devouring the undead with gusto.

Raven Symmetry
Raven Symmetry by ingridtaylar.

Despite being expert hunters, eagles are not above scavenging. Bald eagles make carrion a regular part of their diet, and with their huge talons, they're not afraid to dispatch animals that are near-death—or undead. The slightly larger golden eagle is no stranger to scavenging, either, and has also been documented attacking and killing animals as large as deer. A torpid zombie wouldn't pose much of a challenge.

Watch these bald eagles and crows strip a deer carcass down to nothing in 48 hours.


Video Link

MAMMALS: ZOMBIE DISMEMBERMENT CREW

North America's large mammal predators would be more than a match for zombies. We have two bear species, brown (or grizzly) and black bears. Male brown bears can weigh in at 1,000 pounds. They are not afraid of humans. They can deliver a bite of 1200 pounds per square inch and have long, sharp claws designed to rip open logs and flip boulders in search of insects and other small critters to eat. They would easily tear apart rotting zombie flesh. Black bears are much smaller and typically run from humans, but even a black bear, when approached or cornered, would make short work of a zombie. Both bear species have an incredible sense of smell and both love to eat carrion, so even if zombies didn't approach them, the bears eventually would learn that these walking bags of flesh make good eating.

Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear by Scott_Calleja.

Like black bears, gray wolves are very shy of humans and typically run away at the first sight of us. Nor are they strangers to scavenging. They'd soon take advantage of the easy pickings presented by lumbering zombies. Coyotes are far less shy than wolves and can happily live alongside humans, including in the heart of our cities. These intelligent canids would quickly learn that they could take down zombies one by one, especially the eastern populations of coyote, which are larger and bolder due to past interbreeding with wolves and domestic dogs.

Unlike bears, wolves and coyotes, mountain lions prefer fresh meat and don't typically feed on carrion, other than what they kill themselves. Like all cats, they hunt by stealth and are irresistibly attracted to signs of weakness in potential prey. Unlike most other North American predators, mountain lions can put humans on the menu. Any zombie shuffling through mountain lion territory (which can be surprisingly close to our cities) would trigger those feline predatory instincts, and would likely end up with one of these big cats sneak-attacking from behind and delivering a spine severing bite to the back of the neck.

Jaguar Woodland Park Zoo
Jaguar Woodland Park Zoo by symonty.

Even bigger and more powerful than mountain lions are jaguars, which range through Mexico and are still sometimes found in the desert southwest of the United States. Jaguars also hunt by stealth, and have a special technique to quickly dispatch their prey: a skull crushing bite to the head, delivered with their huge canine teeth. A jaguar bite delivers 2,000 pounds of pressure per inch, the most powerful mammalian bite on the continent. That, combined with a killing technique perfect for dispatching zombies, makes the jaguar its natural predator.

Watch this video of a jaguar making short work of a caiman. A zombie wouldn't stand a chance against these big cats.


Video Link

It's not just mammalian carnivores that would take apart zombies. On The Walking Dead, Rick's horse fell victim to a horde of zombies in season one, but I can only chalk that up to the fact that it was a domestic beast that didn't view humans (even undead ones) as a threat. Wild hoofed mammals would not be so passive as to let zombies to get close enough to swarm and overwhelm them.

In fact, hoofed mammals are more dangerous to humans than carnivores. Moose attack and kill more people than bears do every year. They consider humans a threat, but as the largest living deer species, they are not afraid of human-sized creatures. If a zombie got too close, a moose would stomp it into an immobile pile of gore without a second's hesitation.

This video shows moose fighting technique, which involves delivering powerful blows with their sharp hooves.


Video Link

And moose are nothing compared to bison. Bison are a ton of muscle, horn, and hide. They do not tolerate being approached, and would effortlessly gore and trample as many zombies as dared approached them. Watch this video of what a bison can do to a car with a flick of its head, and think about what a zombified human body would look like on the receiving end of its wrath.


Video link

Speaking of hoofed mammals ramming cars, this video of bull elk will give you some perspective on the size of this large deer species and their aggression during the breeding season. Bull elk are armed with giant antlers with spear-like tips—perfect to impale and dismember a pack of zombies.


Video Link

Mountain goats would probably not encounter too many zombies, simply due to the inaccessibility of the steep mountain slopes they call home. Every so often, however, they do head down to more manageable terrain. Even though they are not large, they can be fierce and are armed with dagger-like horns, just as this unfortunate hiker learned.

mountain_goat_myatt
mountain_goat_myatt by Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

REPTILES: SCALY ZOMBIE CLEAN-UP COMMITTEE

Most North American reptiles—small lizards, turtles and snakes—wouldn't pose much threat to zombies. Ironically, it would probably be venomous rattlesnakes that would be at most risk from zombie attack. When camouflage fails them, their survival tactic is to draw attention to themselves with a loud rattle, and then hold their ground, striking out at anything that approaches them. With no circulatory system or living tissue, snake venom wouldn't have any effect on zombies, and they'd easily be able to pick up the snake and eat it.

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox)
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) by rarvesen, on Flickr

That said, we do have a few reptiles particularly suited for zombie clean-up. Two crocodilian species call North America home: the American alligator and the American crocodile. American crocodiles are extremely endangered and found only in limited areas of Florida, but like California condors, they could benefit from an influx of slow-moving, half-rotten, staggering prey to their wetland habitat.

Alligators are far more numerous and are found throughout Florida, west to Texas, and along the coastal plain wetlands as far north as the Carolinas. Once almost totally wiped out, alligators are now numerous due to protections under the Endangered Species Act, and they sometimes even show up in people's backyards. 'Gators can grow to be 13 feet long and deliver an extremely powerful bite, with over 2,000 pounds of pressure per inch.

Both species are stealth hunters, and can burst from the water at surprising speeds to pluck large prey from the shoreline. They are quite capable of tearing a human-sized meal into bite sized chunks of meat with their toothy, vice-like mouths. Soft zombie flesh would melt in their mouths like butter.

Alligator 1
Alligator 1, by Bogeskov

Any zombie that lumbered into fresh water ponds, lakes streams or swamps would likely fall prey to aquatic turtles too, who, with their beak-like jaws, would feast on zombie flesh. Painted turtles, river cooters and sliders of all sorts make carrion a part of their normal diet. To the undead, it would be a second "death by a thousand bites." The ubiquitous common snapping turtle specializes in carrion-eating. As the name suggests, it can tear off substantial chunks and swallow them whole. Snapping turtles are even used by police to find corpses underwater due to their relish for dead flesh.

Common snapping turtles are dwarfed by the alligator snapping turtle, which is the world's largest freshwater turtle. They can weigh in at more than 200 pounds. Disguised to look like rotten leaves, resting in the murky depths which they live, they are the perfect foil for any zombie that ends up in the water. Check out the massive head on this one.

alligator snapping turtle
alligator snapping turtle by me and the sysop

DECOMPOSERS: MASTERS OF THE ZOMBIE BUFFET

Ultimately, it's not the North America's mega-fauna that pose the most threat to zombies. In nature, there are a whole host of tiny creatures whose main purpose is to feed upon and break down the flesh of the dead: the decomposers. Zombies, with their rotting flesh, are obviously not immune to these decomposers (what do you think causes the rotting effect?), many of which are too small to see with the bare eye. Bacteria, fungi, molds, insects such as fly maggots or flesh-eating beetles, and other invertebrates, all make up nature's diminutive clean-up crew. And it can obliterate a dead body in surprisingly little time. The clumsy undead wouldn't have the dexterity to pick off these decomposers, even if they could see or feel them. It would just be a matter of time. Stripped off all soft tissue, including brains, the zombies would be reduced to hollowed-out skeletons.

Not convinced? Check out this video of a rabbit being consumed down to the bone, by wildlife decomposers, in just a week.


Video Link

Here is a time-lapse video showing Dermestid flesh-eating beetles consuming the flesh off a series of birds for the Natural History Museum of London. These beetle are easy to raise in captivity and only feed on (un)dead flesh, so they pose no harm to the living. Survivors of a zombie apocalypse could raise these beetles by the millions, and drop them onto zombies to do their work. It might take a few weeks per zombie, but they'd get the job done.


Video Link

Here are some maggots going to town on a carcass. Flies produce millions of grotesque larvae in no time at all. There would be no way for zombies to escape these flying insects—or avoid being engulfed utterly by writhing, insatiable maggots.


Video Link

ZOMBIES NO MATCH FOR WILDLIFE, WILDLIFE NO MATCH FOR HUMANS

There you have it. Even if zombies managed to feed on smaller, slow-moving animals, or mob and overtake a few individuals of the larger species, it's pretty clear that they're no match for much of North America's wildlife...at least not on a one-on-one basis. In reality, however, the battle between wildlife and living humans is not going so well for the wildlife.

Sadly, much of our continent's wildlife has disappeared, and many species continue to decline. Habitat loss, invasive species and climate change are just some of the human-induced challenges our wildlife are facing. You can get involved protecting wildlife with the National Wildlife Federation and help make sure that we have a future filled with these amazing species.

Published 12:30 pm Mon, Oct 14, 2013

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Mizejewski is a naturalist and media personality with the National Wildlife
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Zombie film mistaken for axe attack in Harrogate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-yo ... e-25597060

A suspected axe attack in Harrogate turned out to be teenagers making a zombie film, police have said.

Officers went to Prince of Wales Mansions at about 15:20 GMT after a woman called 999, reporting that three boys with an axe were standing over another boy who was covered in blood.

Police found the youths, who said they were filming a scene using fake blood.

North Yorkshire Police said after officers spoke the teenagers, "the incident was stood down".

A force spokesman said the boys "had been making a zombie film and they'd been outside".

He said they had explained that "one of them had got red all over him [and was] covered in fake blood."
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I was involved in a similar situation at college in the early 90s. A group of us were making some sort of short film, a pop video or something, and in one shot I had to run down a country lane holding a toy gun.

The lane actually turned into a bridge over the A46, needless to say a 'number' of drivers called the Fuzz about the lone gunman.

Shot in the can, students in the car, police block lane, students explain, given 'strong words of advice', helicopter and armed response stood down.

:oops: and 8)
 
If there were a real zombie outbreak(very unlikely, but, still...)people would say "Oh, someone is making a movie!" MUNCH!!!

Or what if the Martian Invasion had actually been planned for Halloween Night in '39?

How lucky we are.
 
Full text, vids and podcasts at link.

How Chemistry Can Save You From the Zombie Apocalypse

Raychelle Burks is on a mission to show you why you should revisit the periodic table—and it involves zombies and Game of Thrones.

Spoiler alert: This article contains a major spoiler if you have not yet watched Season 4 of "Game of Thrones" on HBO.

Remember those stick-figures of chemical compounds you were forced to memorize in high school? Remember how useless it seemed at the time? Can you still articulate the difference between a covalent bond and an ionic one (without checking Wikipedia)? If not, pay attention: You might be caught flat-footed during the zombie apocalypse.

The CDC suggests (half-seriously) having a zombie-preparedness kit (after all, it would also be useful in case of pandemics and hurricanes). But chemist and blogger Raychelle Burks has a simpler solution—one that would have greatly de-grossified a famous scene from The Walking Dead, in which Rick and his fellow apocalypse survivors slathered the guts of dead humans all over themselves, to jam the zombies' chemosenses with the smell of rotting flesh and thereby, escape.


Also at Mother Jones: Meet the Braaaains Behind AMC's Hit Series "The Walking Dead."
"They used chemical camouflage," explains Burks, to trick the zombies into thinking they were fellow undead. The only problem: Icky and dangerous exposure to blood, guts, and pathogens. Burks has a better idea. "There's a couple of key chemicals that smell really stinky," she explains on the latest installment of the Inquiring Minds podcast. "Two right off the top would be—and they've got great names—cadaverine and putrescine…and they do smell like their names." In fact, these chemicals are used to train cadaver dogs, which search for dead bodies. "You could make up a death cologne," Burks continues. "Kind of use chemical camouflage to your advantage so that you can sneak through a zombie horde."

Known as Dr. Rubidium on Twitter—a name she chose because element 37 of the periodic table, Rubidium, has the symbol "RB," the same as her initials—Burks is a self-described "magical unicorn": A black, female, analytical chemist working at Nebraska's Doane College. Professionally, much of her research has focused on how to create quick chemical tests to help law enforcement officials detect the presence of explosives, and particularly those that are peroxide based, which are both extremely dangerous, and also fairly easy to make. "In the last 10 to 15 years, their use in nefarious activities, if you will, has really increased," says Burks.



On Inquiring Minds, Burks discussed a wide range of chemistry-related topics, including the widespread confusion over terms like "natural," "organic," and "chemical." Brief primer: "chemical" doesn't necessarily mean bad; the scientific meaning of "organic" is completely different from how it's used to label food; and "natural" doesn't actually mean good or safe, or even non-synthetic. After all, in many cases we find beneficial natural compounds and then proceed to synthesize them in the laboratory because they're so useful and in such demand—mint and caffeine come to mind.


Raychelle Burks, aka, "Dr. Rubidium."
"I wonder sometimes if we're trafficking on fear, companies that are saying, 'Oh, this has all natural ingredients,'" says Burks.

Burks' passion for demonstrating the real-world applications of chemistry extends well beyond these observations—or her academic research. So let's go in depth into some of the more surprising lessons that Burks derives from chemistry, starting with those of us who someday may need to walk through an army of zombies.

According to Burks, a powerful chemical concoction that mimics the smell of rotting flesh ("Eau de Death," she calls it) can be synthesized using three chemical compounds. They include the aforementioned cadaverine and putrescine—which are produced naturally during the decomposition of the human body—but Burks also suggests adding methanethiol, or the smell of rotting eggs, for added pungency.

All three chemicals are relatively easy to produce in mass quantities by enlisting the help of the common bacterium Escherichia coli. Once the compounds are synthesized, we'd simply need to find a vehicle for application, which would transform the perfume industry from purveyor of unnecessary luxury to the producer of a species-saving staple. ...
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/ ... -chemistry
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Two quick questions...Arent `all Unicorns magical and am I living in some strange subreality in which zombie attacks are not a problem?
 
Vid at link.

Morgan Freeman: 'We May Already Be In The Midst Of A Growing Zombie Apocalypse'

Zombies are the stuff of nightmares, books, movies and television shows. Try as we may, it's almost impossible to kill them -- the zombies, that is.

The idea that humans can be transformed into mindless, cannibalistic monsters isn't so far-fetched, according to current research in which scientists have discovered pathogens that can turn even insects into the walking dead.

"We may already be in the midst of a growing zombie apocalypse. What is a zombie? A zombie is a creature that's controlled outside of its own mind and really not controlled by itself, as if under the power of some other force," Morgan Freeman, host of Science Channel's "Through the Wormhole" series, told The Huffington Post.

The latest episode of "Wormhole" examines how new strains of viruses attack humans every day and explores the odds against surviving a zombie virus outbreak.


Medical consequences aside, Freeman told HuffPost why he thinks we're so fascinated with the idea of the walking dead.

"I think, basically, it all stems from our desire for immortality -- the idea that there is some way to come back from the grave," he said.

Even the smallest of creatures -- ants, for example -- can transform into zombies, according to current research discussed on "Wormhole."

"There's a fungus that takes over the brain of an ant and forces it to do things it wouldn't ever want to do -- like climb to the top of a tree and clamp onto a leaf with its jaw, where it dies, and then the fungus grows out of its head and rains spores down onto its family," said "Wormhole" supervising producer Megan Parlen.

HuffPost asked Freeman if he thinks the international fixation on zombies might have anything to do with the nightmares we all share.

"There is no way to say no to that," Freeman said. "You may have nailed it right there. It just might be right out of someone's nightmare, but then once scientists get their teeth into something like that, they'll go out and find out if there's any truth in it somewhere.

"I go back to this whole thing of immortality, that the dead are not really dead, that they exist somewhere, maybe in our nightmares."

The "Wormhole" series asks whether we would know it if we're already experiencing a zombie apocalypse. ,,,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/2 ... 31252.html
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I see.

Its a very Anglo saxon thing to fear the dead, isnt it?

(I mean all dead, not just certain people as in eastern europe.)
 
ramonmercado said:
Vid at link.

Morgan Freeman: 'We May Already Be In The Midst Of A Growing Zombie Apocalypse'

Zombies are the stuff of nightmares, books, movies and television shows. Try as we may, it's almost impossible to kill them -- the zombies, that is.

The idea that humans can be transformed into mindless, cannibalistic monsters isn't so far-fetched, according to current research in which scientists have discovered pathogens that can turn even insects into the walking dead.

"We may already be in the midst of a growing zombie apocalypse. What is a zombie? A zombie is a creature that's controlled outside of its own mind and really not controlled by itself, as if under the power of some other force," Morgan Freeman, host of Science Channel's "Through the Wormhole" series, told The Huffington Post.

The latest episode of "Wormhole" examines how new strains of viruses attack humans every day and explores the odds against surviving a zombie virus outbreak.


Medical consequences aside, Freeman told HuffPost why he thinks we're so fascinated with the idea of the walking dead.

"I think, basically, it all stems from our desire for immortality -- the idea that there is some way to come back from the grave," he said.

Even the smallest of creatures -- ants, for example -- can transform into zombies, according to current research discussed on "Wormhole."

"There's a fungus that takes over the brain of an ant and forces it to do things it wouldn't ever want to do -- like climb to the top of a tree and clamp onto a leaf with its jaw, where it dies, and then the fungus grows out of its head and rains spores down onto its family," said "Wormhole" supervising producer Megan Parlen.

HuffPost asked Freeman if he thinks the international fixation on zombies might have anything to do with the nightmares we all share.

"There is no way to say no to that," Freeman said. "You may have nailed it right there. It just might be right out of someone's nightmare, but then once scientists get their teeth into something like that, they'll go out and find out if there's any truth in it somewhere.

"I go back to this whole thing of immortality, that the dead are not really dead, that they exist somewhere, maybe in our nightmares."

The "Wormhole" series asks whether we would know it if we're already experiencing a zombie apocalypse. ,,,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/2 ... 31252.html
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

47021065.jpg
 
The drug-dregs are pretty close to zombies.

Totally unaware of much of anything except the desire for drugs, they will attack anyone who might have money.

Overdoses, sickness and the occasional use of firearms are reducing the numbers. Fewer recruits to the loser parade, after a few generations, people are catching on.

Crack has lost its fan base, but the real desperados are still willing to try anything, even a vile brew like Krokodil.

Most of the dope-heads I know would prefer sweet Maryjane, were it available, many of these other drugs would disappear.

But in America, that's too much like right.
 
krakenten said:
The drug-dregs are pretty close to zombies.

Totally unaware of much of anything except the desire for drugs, they will attack anyone who might have money.

Overdoses, sickness and the occasional use of firearms are reducing the numbers. Fewer recruits to the loser parade, after a few generations, people are catching on.

Crack has lost its fan base, but the real desperados are still willing to try anything, even a vile brew like Krokodil.

Most of the dope-heads I know would prefer sweet Maryjane, were it available, many of these other drugs would disappear.

But in America, that's too much like right.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a description of the zombies which plague central Dublin. I'm not being snobbish these junkies are a threat to ordinary people, not to trhe rich. They prey on the elderly and tourists in particular. Some genius decided to centralise most of the methadone clinics in the city centre.

Legalise Maryjane, make heroin available on prescription, cut out the dealers.
 
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