Parenting for zombies: ‘CARGO’

‘little figures conquer the world’

Oh shit plants! (img by Zufallsfaktor)

While working on a piece about zombie-themed cleaning kits I happened to google “lone zombie” and landed the cuteness. It’s part of a collection, “little figures conquer the world”.

The Walking Dead: Compendium One

the Walking Dead Compendium One, (img by Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn, Tony Moore)

Introducing the first eight volumes of the fan-favorite, New York Times Best Seller series collected into one massive paperback collection! Collects The Walking Dead #1-48. This is the perfect collection for any fan of the Emmy Award-winning television series on AMC: over one thousand pages chronicling the beginning of Robert Kirkman”s Eisner Award-winning continuing story of survival horror- from Rick Grimes” waking up alone in a hospital, to him and his family seeking solace on Hershel”s farm, and the controversial introduction of Woodbury despot: The Governor. In a world ruled by the dead, we are finally forced to finally start living.

A collection of the first 48 Walking Dead comics has just been released. This paperpack reference book will help you navigate the zombie apocalypse in the event of power outages and other logistical hurdles that would prevent citing the original materials that manifest readily during zombie apocalypses, ($32).

This is the perfect compliment to season two of the Walking Dead which also came out fairly recently (DVD $40, Blu-Ray $49).

Zombie Bullets In High Demand Following Flesh-Eating Attacks

Don't sugarcoat it for me. What, exactly, is ahead of us? (img by Miserlou Behind The Aperture)

@CBS Detroit:

Worried about a zombie attack? Buy zombie bullets.

Talk about zombies and a possible zombie apocalypse has increased due to recent gory accounts of drug-induced, flesh-eating attacks in the news.

Stores across the U.S., including in Metro Detroit, are getting in on the undead action by selling Zombie Bullets, made by Hornady Manufacturing.

In promoting the product on their website, Hornady suggests, “Be PREPARED – supply yourself for the Zombie Apocalypse with Zombie Max ammunition from Hornady! Loaded with PROVEN Z-Max bullets… MAKE DEAD PERMANENT!” (more…)

CDC: Zombies aren’t real

They may be pretty, but they're still not real. (img by Eric Jusino)

@HuffPo:

The horrific face-eating arrest in Miami and several other seemingly subhuman acts has many people wondering what’s behind this flesh-munching wave of terror.

A zombie apocalypse, however, is not what we should be worried about, at least according to the federal government.

Over the years the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a couple of tongue-in-cheek “zombie warnings,” which really are just disaster-preparedness stunts. But on Thursday, the agency made it official: Zombies don’t exist. (more…)

Modelling air traffic to slow epidemics

"This is clearly an important species we're dealing with, and I don't think you or I or anybody has the right to arbitrarily exterminate them." (img by DoD)

A couple of academics at the Newcastle University, Jose Marcelino and Marcus Kaiser, tackled the very question that keeps us all up at nights, “How effective would shutting down air travel actually be in an epidemic?” The answer, according to their models, is lots.  Lots effective.

The problem is that it would choke society as much as it reins in the spread of disease. What’s way more interesting is that they were able to achieve the same level of spread reduction by grounding just one in five flights, isolating certain hops based on their likeliness to spread contagion globally.

They found that shutting entire airports only had a significant effect on spreading if it reduced travel by 95 per cent. By contrast,  they could achieve the same effect by removing just 18 per cent of flights between cities ranked by a network measure called edge betweenness.

At best shutting entire airports could only cut infections by 18 per cent whereas removing specific flights reduced infections by up to 37 per cent.

“Selecting highly ranked single connections between cities for cancellation was more effective, resulting in fewer individuals infected with influenza, compared to shutting down whole airports,” say Marcelino and Kaiser. This approach has the added benefit that it disrupts far fewer individuals.

Eventually, everyone will be exposed to the pathogen, that’s not in question. Even you, Japan, with your hand sanitizers and around-town face masks. And God help you ’cause you know your immune systems are shitier than shit.

This dovetails in nicely with a recent set of models by Fuck Yeah Molecular Biology tackling different types of zombie apocalypse scenario, based on several zompoc contagion precepts. (By the way the search term “zompoc precepts” yields delightfully few results.) Long and short: you better hope there’s a cure.  (more…)