Story by Maribel Z K

If you are still human, you might have gotten wind of the increase of flesh-eating incidents in the past week. Before you wonder if we are facing the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse, let’s review cannibalism. Check out our handy graphic!

Human cannibals eat human flesh. Necro-cannibalism involves the ingestion of dead human flesh; homicidal-cannibalism involves the ingestion of human flesh before death. Not all cannibals are zombies. But all zombies are cannibals.

History has documented numerous instances of cannibalism; here are some of the most “common” reasons:

1. Religion/superstition/human sacrifice - Asmat people, Polynesian tribes, etc.
2. War – a warrior eats their enemy’s heart to inherit that enemy’s power/spirit or humiliate that enemy’s spirit/culture – World War II Chichi-jima, Leopard Men of West Africa, etc.
3. Torture – Blood Countess of 1560
4. Starvation – Donner party, Jamestown, Rugby team in the Andes, etc.
5. Insanity/Deviancy/Pathology – Jeffrey Dahmer, Idi Amin etc.
6. Art/Entertainment (yes, really) – Dutch TV

The reasons above indicate human choice, albeit irrational and disturbing. Eat X to gain X–A logic, of sorts.

Zombies, flesh eating and either dead or resistant to pain (drug-induced or disease motivated), lack such decision-making. They are simply driven to eat flesh for no other reason than that they must.

Lastly, zombification involves the condition spreading from human to human, either through bite or fluid transfer, sometimes through exposure to chemicals. It’s one thing to have isolated incidents of cannibalism, a worrisome thing when there seems to be a growing geographic prevalence and/or frequency around the time of the Miami zombie incident. Keep in mind that the preponderance of such news can simply be due to the interaction between increased attention by the media and increased Internet searches by curious/worried people. Cannibal crimes have been occurring for years. Watch for trends and patterns.

Is it time to panic?

No. But it’s always time to be prepared. Don’t go on a premature rampage like the guy in Novi. Don’t break the law unless the government has fallen apart.

Even if it’s not quite ZA time, if enough people panic, you might have to worry about live people.

Don’t be scared, be prepared… for the AWESOMENESS that is the Zombie Apocalypse.

Story by John Moore

The zombie apocalypse is coming, and it’s going to be awesome. In this video, we explore the basics. What is a zombie, what is zombie infection, and what are the possible vectors the apocalypse could take?

We get our basic concept of zombies from the media, from Dawn of the Dead, to 28 Days Later, to  The Walking Dead. In most, zombies are human corpses raised by some supernatural or technological infection. In a few, referred to as living zombies by Matt Mocg of the Zombie Research Society, they are merely humans who have a biological infection.

Historically, there are incidents of zombiism believed to be cause pharmacologically with substances like scopolamin,e or datura, or pufferfish toxin. In these cases, the victims are used enslaved, and do not show aggression.

For us, a zombie is a mindlessly aggressive human or (less likely) reanimated human corpse, driven by some kind of infection. That infection might be biological (such as a virus, fungus, bacteria, prions or parasite), technological (such as mind-rewiring nanobots),  or pharmacological (such as with a biological weapon using mind altering drugs). We find it highly unlikely that there would be magical, religious, or nuclear causes to a ZPOC.

The infection vector is important to understand because we want to understand as early as possible if teh zombies we encounter are infectious. We believe that biological infection is the most likely vector, and the pathogen will most likely be blood-born or spread by contact. That’s not to say it couldn’t become airborne, if so, we’d be deep in it quickly.

It’s important that skin to flesh contact with the dead, animated or otherwise, be limited and precautions against infection be taken.

In the TV show, The Walking Dead, the survivors often burn the corpses of the dead. This would most likely not be such a good idea. Many microbes can survive burning, and fire can actually spread the disease further.

Continue reading “Know Your Enemy, What Is a Zombie” »