Funds may be an issue for many survivors so it is worth mentioning some tips for stocking up on a budget.
First off too stock up you first need somewhere to put your stock. This can be tricky depending how much room you have. If you have a pantry or storage room then fill that up and your set. It also depends how much you plan on stocking. The more you have the better but don't go to extremes and fill the space under your kids' bed with canned food or toilet paper. Watch extreme couponing or hording for some good ideas on storing things, such as buying a can holder like some bulk stores have. Stores hundred of cans and easy access once you need them.
In Canada, no frills is the cheapest place to buy beans. And trust me, if you don't like beans, you need to aquire the taste. At .77 cents a can this is the easiest way to prepare yourself and beans are one of the healthiest foods for you. A can of beans virtually never goes bad and will provide the basics any person needs. One container can be spread to last but ideally a minimum of three cans per person per day is suggested. This combined with vitimins and the odd fruit or vegetables will be enoguh for a more Spartan exsistance until a consistant source of food is secured.
Eating healthy before the fall can be hard on a budget too. Try to find deals, buy chicken in bulk, or don't be afraid to try new things. Octopus and chicken hearts are a lot cheaper then crab or chicken breasts and are just as good for you. Search around for good deals on free range chicken. Try farmer's markets, if it costs even the same as in the store it's a better deal. But keep searching, it's not rare to find chicken for as much as $5 cheaper in a farmer's market then at your local Safeway.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Military tactics
A couple of days ago I put out a post with a link to two zombie survival guides. One of these is "How to Survive Zombies" by Dave Johnson. The book starts out with a brief explaination of one possible cause for zombies and goes into a little detail on theories. Most of the book seems to treat zombies as if they react like normal humans -more on this later- but this stems from the explaination of zombies given in the book where by the infection causes a coma, the person either dies during this time or awaken from the coma as a zombie. The flaws with this theory are evident, zombies are dead. The "coma" state is in fact death, and re-animation is 100% if the body has been infected.
Now survivors, I believe you will be smart enough to see through this but I will state it just on principle. While organizations like FEMA, CDC and WHO may try different tactics such as Zombie Feeding stations to keep the zombies controlled; these will not work. Zombies feed on the closest fresh meat. The amount of fresh (read "live" food) to keep even a small number of zombies in one location would be vast. Although this could be used as a strategy to coral the zombies and lock them away until the time and resources exsist to eliminate them.
Looking past the fluff there are a couple of good survival tips in here. Make friends with the socially awkward guy who believes every apocolypse story and has a stock pile ready to go in an instant. This person can probably teach you a few things about preparedness and if they end up turning during the fall you can always take advantage of their preparedness.
Knowing the location of the nearest hardware store is also very important. While you may be able to buy/put together everything you need, eventually you will need to resupply or things will come up that you didn't think of and you will need more wood for barricades, quick cement for windows or walls, and tools.
What is not good advice is trying to make it to the nearest Costco or Wal-Mart. Why? Because every would-be-survivor will be grabbing his pawnshop katana, army surplus combats and heading for the nearest Wal-Mart or Costco. In addition to the people who will already be there. In addition to the people who will be desperately rushing there to get last minute supplies. All-in-all, stay away from these places until things have calmed down a bit.
Run or Hide. Good tip for the begining. Only fight the undead you have to. Trying to be a hero during the first couple of days will only get you killed or in a jail cell. Neither of these are ideal.
There are a few other good bits of information in here. One of which I constantly push, invest in a real leather jacket. If you can't bite through it, neither can a zombie.
But all of that is just the basics, some general survival tips every survivor can tell you. The meat and potatos of this book actually has nothing to do with zombies. It's copied from the US Marines handbook, Battle Drill handbook and US Army Field Manual, how to move, on your own or in formations. Very basics of hunting and fishing. How to use hand signals and even how to opperate a military radio. If this useful information? Absolutely! But not for the reasons Dave writes. Zombie do not opperate like humans but humans do. Eventually you will come across hostile humans, raiders, bandits, looters, other survivors or even military units. It is against these humans the knowledge presented will prove of use to you. While not vital to your survival, every advantage you can get over an opposing force is an advantage worth taking.
The final section of the book is more entertainment then survival guide but is worth reading and taking in with a grain of salt. The one thing I will argue about this section is the note about shotguns. Everyone tends to think of shotguns as a close range weapon because of video games and movies. If you have no weapons training, take a shotgun over an assualt rifle. With a shotgun you just have to aim around the head to get a hit (or the chest if you can't hold the recoil.) With an assualt rifle you have to get a head shot, perfect aim on a moving target, every time. With no training and the target moving in to EAT you, most people will not be able to do this. Most shotguns are accurate out to about one hundred meters (330 feet), a range at which anyone not trained will have a very hard time getting a head shot. Once the target closes to thirty meters (33 feet) I suggest switching to your sidearm. This will give better control, aim and speed. Three things that will be vitally important once the infected get that close.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Now survivors, I believe you will be smart enough to see through this but I will state it just on principle. While organizations like FEMA, CDC and WHO may try different tactics such as Zombie Feeding stations to keep the zombies controlled; these will not work. Zombies feed on the closest fresh meat. The amount of fresh (read "live" food) to keep even a small number of zombies in one location would be vast. Although this could be used as a strategy to coral the zombies and lock them away until the time and resources exsist to eliminate them.
Looking past the fluff there are a couple of good survival tips in here. Make friends with the socially awkward guy who believes every apocolypse story and has a stock pile ready to go in an instant. This person can probably teach you a few things about preparedness and if they end up turning during the fall you can always take advantage of their preparedness.
Knowing the location of the nearest hardware store is also very important. While you may be able to buy/put together everything you need, eventually you will need to resupply or things will come up that you didn't think of and you will need more wood for barricades, quick cement for windows or walls, and tools.
What is not good advice is trying to make it to the nearest Costco or Wal-Mart. Why? Because every would-be-survivor will be grabbing his pawnshop katana, army surplus combats and heading for the nearest Wal-Mart or Costco. In addition to the people who will already be there. In addition to the people who will be desperately rushing there to get last minute supplies. All-in-all, stay away from these places until things have calmed down a bit.
Run or Hide. Good tip for the begining. Only fight the undead you have to. Trying to be a hero during the first couple of days will only get you killed or in a jail cell. Neither of these are ideal.
There are a few other good bits of information in here. One of which I constantly push, invest in a real leather jacket. If you can't bite through it, neither can a zombie.
But all of that is just the basics, some general survival tips every survivor can tell you. The meat and potatos of this book actually has nothing to do with zombies. It's copied from the US Marines handbook, Battle Drill handbook and US Army Field Manual, how to move, on your own or in formations. Very basics of hunting and fishing. How to use hand signals and even how to opperate a military radio. If this useful information? Absolutely! But not for the reasons Dave writes. Zombie do not opperate like humans but humans do. Eventually you will come across hostile humans, raiders, bandits, looters, other survivors or even military units. It is against these humans the knowledge presented will prove of use to you. While not vital to your survival, every advantage you can get over an opposing force is an advantage worth taking.
The final section of the book is more entertainment then survival guide but is worth reading and taking in with a grain of salt. The one thing I will argue about this section is the note about shotguns. Everyone tends to think of shotguns as a close range weapon because of video games and movies. If you have no weapons training, take a shotgun over an assualt rifle. With a shotgun you just have to aim around the head to get a hit (or the chest if you can't hold the recoil.) With an assualt rifle you have to get a head shot, perfect aim on a moving target, every time. With no training and the target moving in to EAT you, most people will not be able to do this. Most shotguns are accurate out to about one hundred meters (330 feet), a range at which anyone not trained will have a very hard time getting a head shot. Once the target closes to thirty meters (33 feet) I suggest switching to your sidearm. This will give better control, aim and speed. Three things that will be vitally important once the infected get that close.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The choice is yours
It's been a long time since I've seen a choose your own adventure book but I still go to websites where you can do them. So you can imagine my joy when I found a choose your own adventure zombie book, "Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?"
Can't say everything in the book plays out logically. Some stories are ultra realistic and others border on teenage wet dreams. The zombies however are always consistant and clear in their presentation.
The choices aren't what I would call the best. Some choices are down right stupid and the reader can see other options but only has two or three choices to go for. Usually the only time you are called on to even make a choice is when picking which weapon to use or which location to go to. The book does however display how good choices early on can make all the difference as some situations have no happy endings. Even most of the good endings in the book sit uneasy, they are not so much endings as temporary safety or escape, an end to that part of the story yes but I, for one, was left rather empty by many of the endings in which I wondered... so what happens now?
The brutality and pain of death is captured extremely well. As well as the simple math and unstoppable power of the undead forces. Watching one become two, become four, become eight. All a zombie has to do is get one bite in before someone kills it and the cycle continues.
Now I would like to go through some of the endings in more detail so you know, stay away if your scared of spoilers, I will try to avoid as much as I can but I am talking about the endings so...
So your first choice is made on page seven (7), cab (204), subway (205) or walk (22).
Now from that point on there are many more choice to make but the results are somewhat limited. Basically you can end up dead, escaping, in a safe house or at one of three strange endings. Now the death endings are pretty obvious and the most plentiful, some paths also lead to choices which only result in death. The escape endings are definately the weakest of the bunch as they end more or less like many zombie movies, with the hero or heroes sailing away on a boat or flying away on a helicopter. There is no real closure, nothing is fixed or established just temporary safety, which in most cases is all one can ask for I suppose. Then there are safe houses, these are my favorite endings. Where the hero has established a place where he can live out the rest of his days surviving the apocalypse. In most of these cases the safe house is somewhat reliable and would stand the test of time, other cases the safe house is dodgy at best but might keep the hero/heroes alive for some period of time. Finally are the three "other" endings. Two of these I feel are cop outs by the writter, forcing the reader to choose a more rash and "heroic" option, which in real life will often lead to death. These two endings basically result in the writter questioning the reader's manlihood and insulting his choice to take the safer option. While somewhat humorous, it does destroy the idea there being a safer choice. Finally we are left with "The End" as the writter calls it. The hero discovers the cause for the zombies but even then is left with a strange sort of open ending because he does not try to stop it, to either succeed or die trying as everything else in the book seems to focus on. The source of the zombies? Why it's George A. Romero of course! No wonder he backed out of Calgary Comic Con with this book diffulging his neffarious plans! Broken arm, a likely story!
I did keep track of all the endings and how to get to each but I thought putting that up would be to easy and take away the fun of the book for you. It is a book that can pass a lot of time. And provide much entertainment so long as you can stomache some of the more gruesome endings and put up with the unrealistic heroism or battles in others.
"Dear Calgary Expo Fans,
Sorry I can't be there with you this weekend. As luck would have it, I banged up my arm the other day and can't autograph. I was looking forward to seeing Calgary and meeting all of you. I hope you all have a great weekend, and I look forward to getting there next year. Thank you for your loyalty and understanding!"
Stay Scared!
George A. Romero"
Stay vigilant, may you make the right choices, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so mistaken, Mike D.
Can't say everything in the book plays out logically. Some stories are ultra realistic and others border on teenage wet dreams. The zombies however are always consistant and clear in their presentation.
The choices aren't what I would call the best. Some choices are down right stupid and the reader can see other options but only has two or three choices to go for. Usually the only time you are called on to even make a choice is when picking which weapon to use or which location to go to. The book does however display how good choices early on can make all the difference as some situations have no happy endings. Even most of the good endings in the book sit uneasy, they are not so much endings as temporary safety or escape, an end to that part of the story yes but I, for one, was left rather empty by many of the endings in which I wondered... so what happens now?
The brutality and pain of death is captured extremely well. As well as the simple math and unstoppable power of the undead forces. Watching one become two, become four, become eight. All a zombie has to do is get one bite in before someone kills it and the cycle continues.
Now I would like to go through some of the endings in more detail so you know, stay away if your scared of spoilers, I will try to avoid as much as I can but I am talking about the endings so...
So your first choice is made on page seven (7), cab (204), subway (205) or walk (22).
Now from that point on there are many more choice to make but the results are somewhat limited. Basically you can end up dead, escaping, in a safe house or at one of three strange endings. Now the death endings are pretty obvious and the most plentiful, some paths also lead to choices which only result in death. The escape endings are definately the weakest of the bunch as they end more or less like many zombie movies, with the hero or heroes sailing away on a boat or flying away on a helicopter. There is no real closure, nothing is fixed or established just temporary safety, which in most cases is all one can ask for I suppose. Then there are safe houses, these are my favorite endings. Where the hero has established a place where he can live out the rest of his days surviving the apocalypse. In most of these cases the safe house is somewhat reliable and would stand the test of time, other cases the safe house is dodgy at best but might keep the hero/heroes alive for some period of time. Finally are the three "other" endings. Two of these I feel are cop outs by the writter, forcing the reader to choose a more rash and "heroic" option, which in real life will often lead to death. These two endings basically result in the writter questioning the reader's manlihood and insulting his choice to take the safer option. While somewhat humorous, it does destroy the idea there being a safer choice. Finally we are left with "The End" as the writter calls it. The hero discovers the cause for the zombies but even then is left with a strange sort of open ending because he does not try to stop it, to either succeed or die trying as everything else in the book seems to focus on. The source of the zombies? Why it's George A. Romero of course! No wonder he backed out of Calgary Comic Con with this book diffulging his neffarious plans! Broken arm, a likely story!
I did keep track of all the endings and how to get to each but I thought putting that up would be to easy and take away the fun of the book for you. It is a book that can pass a lot of time. And provide much entertainment so long as you can stomache some of the more gruesome endings and put up with the unrealistic heroism or battles in others.
"Dear Calgary Expo Fans,
Sorry I can't be there with you this weekend. As luck would have it, I banged up my arm the other day and can't autograph. I was looking forward to seeing Calgary and meeting all of you. I hope you all have a great weekend, and I look forward to getting there next year. Thank you for your loyalty and understanding!"
Stay Scared!
George A. Romero"
Stay vigilant, may you make the right choices, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so mistaken, Mike D.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Free stuff!
Hello survivors, while I gather information for a series of reports on different locations across Canada (and two special locations outside of Canada) I have been tardy in my daily posting. I would like to share with you however, thanks to my favorite zombie forum two link to books you may enjoy.
I will be providing in depth studies of the survival advice and tactics provided in both of these books. So you may want to read them to have reference to what I'm saying or you may want to read my notes first before cementing any ideas in your mind. The advice in Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide will get many potential survivors killed. However some of the advice and information presented is quite useful.
Now and then I also like to play games. I believe they are a fundamental part of surviving in the world before or after the fall in order to keep sanity. To that end it is important to have a deck of cards or some dice in your survival kit and know a few games to play with them. Either on your own or if you run into others.
Here are a few online games I enjoy:
Zombie Lane
It's fun and easy and takes a long time. The routine of re-establishing one's house and family is an important one as is the regular upkeep of barricades, farming and slaying of zombies. All of these things the game instills while being light hearted and simple.
Zombie Slayer
A game a kin to Mafia Wars or any of those. Simply building a group of friends and killing zombies and zombie bosses around the world by clicking them to death.
Pandemic
Not necessarily a zombie game but this game does a surprisingly good job of depicting how a virus might spread. Through water and airports, infecting the entire world in a matter of days. Often wiping out entire countries before they have a chance to even start work on a cure.
Infectonator
This is a fun strategy game of sorts where you infect and destroy the world one city at a time. While the "game" aspects of it make everything more game-like and less real, some interesting parallels to real life can be made. Watching how the zombies naturally group together where there are more people. The people who hold up in a corner seem to last the longest but if they stay there too long they get over whelmed. The faster police and military are on the scene and recognize the threat the better chance of keeping the outbreak contained. The patterns of both the humans and zombies in this game can be watched and obvious mistakes leading to death or smart tactics leading to a single person surviving the horde can be observed.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
I will be providing in depth studies of the survival advice and tactics provided in both of these books. So you may want to read them to have reference to what I'm saying or you may want to read my notes first before cementing any ideas in your mind. The advice in Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide will get many potential survivors killed. However some of the advice and information presented is quite useful.
Now and then I also like to play games. I believe they are a fundamental part of surviving in the world before or after the fall in order to keep sanity. To that end it is important to have a deck of cards or some dice in your survival kit and know a few games to play with them. Either on your own or if you run into others.
Here are a few online games I enjoy:
Zombie Lane
It's fun and easy and takes a long time. The routine of re-establishing one's house and family is an important one as is the regular upkeep of barricades, farming and slaying of zombies. All of these things the game instills while being light hearted and simple.
Zombie Slayer
A game a kin to Mafia Wars or any of those. Simply building a group of friends and killing zombies and zombie bosses around the world by clicking them to death.
Pandemic
Not necessarily a zombie game but this game does a surprisingly good job of depicting how a virus might spread. Through water and airports, infecting the entire world in a matter of days. Often wiping out entire countries before they have a chance to even start work on a cure.
Infectonator
This is a fun strategy game of sorts where you infect and destroy the world one city at a time. While the "game" aspects of it make everything more game-like and less real, some interesting parallels to real life can be made. Watching how the zombies naturally group together where there are more people. The people who hold up in a corner seem to last the longest but if they stay there too long they get over whelmed. The faster police and military are on the scene and recognize the threat the better chance of keeping the outbreak contained. The patterns of both the humans and zombies in this game can be watched and obvious mistakes leading to death or smart tactics leading to a single person surviving the horde can be observed.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Poop burgers
Those with a weak stomach will not survive after the fall, get ready to hold it in and read on.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
"It's being called the "poop burger". Japanese scientists have found a way to create artificial meat from sewage containing human feces.
Somehow this feels like a Vonnegut plotline: population boom equals food shortage. Solution? Synthesize food from human waste matter. Absurd yes, but Japanese scientists have actually discovered a way to create edible steaks from human feces.
Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a researcher from the Okayama Laboratory, has developed steaks based on proteins from human excrement. Tokyo Sewage approached the scientist because of an overabundance of sewage mud. They asked him to explore the possible uses of the sewage and Ikeda found that the mud contained a great deal of protein because of all the bacteria.
The researchers then extracted those proteins, combined them with a reaction enhancer and put it in an exploder which created the artificial steak. The “meat” is 63% proteins, 25% carbohydrates, 3% lipids and 9% minerals. The researchers color the poop meat red with food coloring and enhance the flavor with soy protein. Initial tests have people saying it even tastes like beef.
Inhabitat notes that “the meatpacking industry causes 18 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to the release of methane from animals.” Livestock also consume huge amounts of resources and space in efforts to feed ourselves as well as the controversy over cruelty to animals. Ikeda’s recycled poop burger would reduce waste and emissions, not to mention obliterating Dante’s circle for gluttons.
The scientists hope to price it the same as actual meat, but at the moment the excrement steaks are ten to twenty times the price they should be thanks to the cost of research. Professor Ikeda understands the psychological barriers that need to be surmounted knowing that your food is made from human feces. They hope that once the research is complete, people will be able to overlook that ugly detail in favor of perks like environmental responsibility, cost and the fact that the meat will have fewer calories.
Waste not; want not."
What does this have to do with zombies? Well, I'm not sure on the details of this fake meat and how hard it is to make but with that high of protein content for lower then normal calories? This jumps to one of the healthiest things you can eat. It's fitness potential is obvious but depending how easy it is to put this into production it could make food shortages less of an issue. And trust that once the world has ended, after the world's food supplies run out and the animals have been killed of, survivors will be willing to eat anything, and if the process can be simplified and easily reproduced, food will become that much less of an issue. So to get ready for the possibility, I'm having a poop steak next time I go to Japan.Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Friday, June 17, 2011
London, Ontario
I sent a letter to the mayor of London. No response yet, I've included a copy of the letter below. So I will continue to make my own research and notes. I have decided to post these notes as I make them and just continue to edit and make changes as my time studying here continues. This will result in fewer new posts but new information being put up more regularly. Be sure to continue to check this post as it will expand almost everyday.
Statistics
Population: 352,395
Size: 162.4 Square miles
Temperature: 21C to 30C (summer), -10C to -2C (winter)
Humidity: 77-94
Pressure: 101+
Climate: Dfb (humid continental climate)
Young children: 5.2%
Elderly: 13.7%
Population Density: 838 people per square kilometer (Ontario average 13 people per square kilometer)
Police: 586
Law Enforcement ratio: 623:1
Climate
The air here is incredibly humid. This is something you may not really think about but will actually make a huge difference. Consider this example, two fit men experimented with physical activities here. Both fighters, but after a very quick fight routine where both breathing heavily. A routine that wouldn't have even made them speed up breathing or break a sweat in Alberta. My own study is as a runner, while in Edmonton I don't begin to get tired until about 30 minutes into my run, here I was struggling to keep going after roughly 15 minutes. Effectively being about as exhausted and dehydrated as I get around the 75 minute mark back home. While I was able to make it through my whole run it was at a much slower pace and much greater difficulty and discomfort. Meaning if you aren't used to a humid climate, running from the undead here is going to be much more difficult then you can imagine. Now this humidity isn't completely due to a slightly higher relative humidity or the minor difference in pressure but also due to the low ceiling. In Alberta the ceiling is almost always unlimited or in the high thousands. Here the ceiling is usually under 2000ft. and quite commonly under 1000ft. This makes the air feel much more dense and heavy, even though the actually humidity is roughly the same. Also the air is just wetter, the wind blowing in from the Great Lakes and the constant fogs make it a lot more work to push air in and out of your lungs. So what does all this actually mean in terms of London as a place to hole up and survive. Well if you are from some where even more humid like Orlando then this would be ideal weather but if you come from some where with much dryer, lighter air, like Alberta, you will find your abilities will not be what they were back West. Won't run as far or as fast, won't be able to carry as much, will need more water and food, all of this at least for the first while until your body gets used to the density.
Location:
The location of London is interesting and well worth noting. London is surrounded by small towns about it's own size. This means there are many communities to explore, loot or escape to should the need arise. It also spreads out the population, meaning it will take longer for the infection to spread.
Also of note is the proximity to the American border: less then a two hour drive. This means come Z-Day you can expect a lot of very scared, very aggressive Americans trying to cross that border to get as far North as possible. My suggestion? Let them. Just get out of the way and protect yourself if any of them are dumb enough to try and take your supplies along the way. The two big threats to be aware of here are spread of the infection, which you can do nothing about so you might as well just let them get as far from you as possible or let the military deal with them. And secondly the earliest form of raiders. Once no longer in their own country many of the new refugees will be looking for help. If things are still in a relatively early and calm state they will find this help and be grateful for it. Once things continue further on though and help becomes harder to find the fleeing people will become desperate and resort to violence. Trying to forcibly take shelter or supplies, demanding assistance. At this point if you are well equipped enough to say no and protect yourself then do so but if not it might be a safer choice to let the person have their way. People won't have the full taste for blood yet and most will genuinely rather take what they need then kill for no reason. Don't let this fool you though, desperate people will do desperate things and there may be one or two stone cold killers in the masses of scared civilians.
Military presence:
While there are no military base or airfields in or directly around London there is a very important thing on the city's side, it's production facilities. General Dynamics Land Systems builds tanks. And more importantly it builds state of the art advanced tanks and weaponry. The kind of stuff the public isn't supposed to know about. For years everyone has known about cruise ships using sonic weapons against pirates. But what few people know about is the real devastation of these weapons. I have an inside source who has pictures of tanks being ripped apart by a single blast from a sonic weapon. The weapons being developed at GDLSIIIs or other APCs and tanks made there would provide you with shelter, transport and weaponry. Three vital resources after the fall.
Local Law Enforcement:
With relatively low homicide and missing persons reported by police compared to crimes of a non-violent nature; combined with what I've seen from locals put into conflicts the ratio of turn around from humans to zeds will be quite high. However the amount of police presence will prove a very valuable asset. It is virtually impossible to go out into London without running across law enforcement of some kind. This will provide a lot of order and support during the first few hours and even days. Obviously with a ratio of over six-hundred to one the police will not be able to end a Class 3 or 4 outbreak but they will provide time to the military (and more importantly, you.) This time will be very valuable, while the police try to keep things under control you can make fortifications or skip town.
Geography/Layout:
Here’s a thing about old cities, before the grid system. And this may put to rest some of the arguments between which is better, names or numbers for streets. Old cities were built with twists and turns and no seeming pattern, with all named streets (also with no real pattern) for the sole purpose of confusing an invading army. It is supposed to be hard for people who are not from there to get around in the city. This will do two things: work against you if you don’t know the city, and work for you if you do know the city. If you don’t know the city, good luck trying to find anything without a map, good directions or a guide. Also when people start panicking (which theoretically 99% of people will do) they will very quickly become lost and confused without regimented training –which, never kid yourself, even the understanding of a grid system is training.- However the flip side to all of this is once things calm down and you’ve learned the city and established a safe house. You can use this advantage for its original purpose against outside raiders or overly aggressive military. Using the maze and confusing nature of the city itself to help you while knowing it will cause them grief. It’s also of some note to understanding the layout of the city quicker, it was built on two grids. Each of the great lakes has been put on a grid by surveyors, London is built on a place where two of the grids from the lakes collide and so part of the city is built on one grid and part is built on the other.
The houses in London are also very small. Fine for a couple of people but for a decent sized group to survive for an extended period you will want more space. Both for the personal sanity of the members of the group and for storage of supplies. Smaller buildings do mean less to barricade and protect though. A large portion of the houses are in fact only one story as well. This can prove very problematic. The biggest problem is one most people will not think of and that makes it the biggest problem. If there is a breach in the barricades people will run to another floor, in this case, the basement. Never get trapped in a basement. No matter how well fortified you need to have an escape route or you will eventually be overrun or simply holed in and starved out. This second option not the intention of the undead of course but if you do have a well prepared basement then you can very easily create a chokepoint through which no zombie will ever step foot even if all the armies of middle-earth were zombified and assaulting you. However once you’ve killed the first few dozen the path will be blocked. After you kill a few more that manage to make tiny openings the passage will be sealed by a wall of zombie flesh, behind which the undead horde awaits your exit. Suddenly you are trapped with only what food, water and company you have with you. Now the only option of escape is those tiny windows most basements have and between the noise of breaking/removing that window and then the time crawling through it, that little window is almost as deadly a bear trap there ever was. This of course is a completely different situation if your basement has A) a patio or ground floor exit, common if your house is built in hilly terrain. B) a cellar door. Or C) multiple ways to other floors. Ideally you want to have a building at least two stories tall with other buildings of relative height near by so you can continue to climb and seal off the floors below you, always having the windows to exit through and even after the third floor (the point at which jumping is no longer a save option) you can have premade planks or ladders to move to another building.
Apparently there are a number of firearms stores in London, but I was unable to find any of them in my time there. Now that being said I didn’t look overly hard but I was looking and what I did see where lots of Airsoft or Youth Firearms stores. Now Airsoft and Youth Firearms are great, for practicing military tactics and playing games with your friends. They will not kill zombies. For fighting humans the real stuff (not the cheap San Fransisco ones) can actually do a fair bit of damage but they aren’t capable of piercing the skull unless you are a crack shot who will be hitting the zombies in the eyes with every BB.
Population:
Finally as mentioned before about drunk people. It is possible to mistake a drunkard or one of the many socially challenged people in the high traffic areas of London, for a zombie. With all these undesirable people around it may hard to spot an undead at first. Anything resembling a zombie should be reported to police, not of course as a zombie, but as an aggressive, violent person. Include and gory details, such as blood or damage to the body. Then find a safe spot to watch from. If the police arrive and it infects them, you know it is a zombie. If they kill it, great. If it kills them start putting your plans into effect and barricading you safe house. If it only infects one but is put down this is an even more dangerous situation. Do you leave and barricade your safe house knowing that cop will turn at the most unexpected moment and spread the infection, or do you take your chances killing the cop and then hope you can get a light sentence by pleading insanity and telling them about the infection. I suggest option one, what’s the point in saving the world if you will have to live the rest of it behind bars. Now if the person wasn’t a zombie, well you probably did a civic duty by getting them off the streets for a night or two anyway, especially if the suspicious person was on Dundas and Richmond.
Letter to the Mayor:
Honorable Mr. Fontana:
I'm a writer from Edmonton, Alberta and I'm contacting a few cities across Canada asking a couple questions about the preparedness of the cities in the event of a zombie outbreak. I would be very grateful if you or someone in your office would be so kind as to answer any of my questions to the level you are comfortable with.
Is London prepared for a zombie outbreak? How so?
How would London respond to each level of outbreak? Each level is mostly categorized by the amount of infected involved.
Level 1 - 1-20 zombies
Level 2 - 20-100 zombies
Level 3 - 100-100,000 zombies
Level 4 - World wide apocalypse
Do you have any special teams or procedures ready to be put in place in the case of zombies?
Is there any training or information in place, such as provided by the Agoge Dojo in Denver or the Centre for Disease Control?
Do you have any zombie specialists in your city to help with preparation or look for warning signs?
Thank you for taking the time to read my e-mail.
While London's leadership has not yet responded or taken the threat seriously, apparently St. John's has though.
In summary:
I do not wish to give any city or region a ranking or anything like that but merely provide concerns and opportunities for those potential survivors living in the city or considering moving there. London (like much of Southern Ontario) has a heavy wetness to the air which will take some adjusting to. The high percentage of police will mean a slower decent into chaos once the outbreak gets to Class 3 or 4. And the neighboring towns provide quick exits. The military importance of the city can also not be underestimated for both gathering resources and considering military response. Consider all of these and the cities close proximity to the border when preparing to spend any length of time in London. And as always-
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you; and if it does may those close to you have the resolve to do what is necessary. Mike D.
Statistics
Population: 352,395
Size: 162.4 Square miles
Temperature: 21C to 30C (summer), -10C to -2C (winter)
Humidity: 77-94
Pressure: 101+
Climate: Dfb (humid continental climate)
Young children: 5.2%
Elderly: 13.7%
Population Density: 838 people per square kilometer (Ontario average 13 people per square kilometer)
Police: 586
Law Enforcement ratio: 623:1
Climate
The air here is incredibly humid. This is something you may not really think about but will actually make a huge difference. Consider this example, two fit men experimented with physical activities here. Both fighters, but after a very quick fight routine where both breathing heavily. A routine that wouldn't have even made them speed up breathing or break a sweat in Alberta. My own study is as a runner, while in Edmonton I don't begin to get tired until about 30 minutes into my run, here I was struggling to keep going after roughly 15 minutes. Effectively being about as exhausted and dehydrated as I get around the 75 minute mark back home. While I was able to make it through my whole run it was at a much slower pace and much greater difficulty and discomfort. Meaning if you aren't used to a humid climate, running from the undead here is going to be much more difficult then you can imagine. Now this humidity isn't completely due to a slightly higher relative humidity or the minor difference in pressure but also due to the low ceiling. In Alberta the ceiling is almost always unlimited or in the high thousands. Here the ceiling is usually under 2000ft. and quite commonly under 1000ft. This makes the air feel much more dense and heavy, even though the actually humidity is roughly the same. Also the air is just wetter, the wind blowing in from the Great Lakes and the constant fogs make it a lot more work to push air in and out of your lungs. So what does all this actually mean in terms of London as a place to hole up and survive. Well if you are from some where even more humid like Orlando then this would be ideal weather but if you come from some where with much dryer, lighter air, like Alberta, you will find your abilities will not be what they were back West. Won't run as far or as fast, won't be able to carry as much, will need more water and food, all of this at least for the first while until your body gets used to the density.
Location:
The location of London is interesting and well worth noting. London is surrounded by small towns about it's own size. This means there are many communities to explore, loot or escape to should the need arise. It also spreads out the population, meaning it will take longer for the infection to spread.
Also of note is the proximity to the American border: less then a two hour drive. This means come Z-Day you can expect a lot of very scared, very aggressive Americans trying to cross that border to get as far North as possible. My suggestion? Let them. Just get out of the way and protect yourself if any of them are dumb enough to try and take your supplies along the way. The two big threats to be aware of here are spread of the infection, which you can do nothing about so you might as well just let them get as far from you as possible or let the military deal with them. And secondly the earliest form of raiders. Once no longer in their own country many of the new refugees will be looking for help. If things are still in a relatively early and calm state they will find this help and be grateful for it. Once things continue further on though and help becomes harder to find the fleeing people will become desperate and resort to violence. Trying to forcibly take shelter or supplies, demanding assistance. At this point if you are well equipped enough to say no and protect yourself then do so but if not it might be a safer choice to let the person have their way. People won't have the full taste for blood yet and most will genuinely rather take what they need then kill for no reason. Don't let this fool you though, desperate people will do desperate things and there may be one or two stone cold killers in the masses of scared civilians.
Military presence:
While there are no military base or airfields in or directly around London there is a very important thing on the city's side, it's production facilities. General Dynamics Land Systems builds tanks. And more importantly it builds state of the art advanced tanks and weaponry. The kind of stuff the public isn't supposed to know about. For years everyone has known about cruise ships using sonic weapons against pirates. But what few people know about is the real devastation of these weapons. I have an inside source who has pictures of tanks being ripped apart by a single blast from a sonic weapon. The weapons being developed at GDLSIIIs or other APCs and tanks made there would provide you with shelter, transport and weaponry. Three vital resources after the fall.
Local Law Enforcement:
With relatively low homicide and missing persons reported by police compared to crimes of a non-violent nature; combined with what I've seen from locals put into conflicts the ratio of turn around from humans to zeds will be quite high. However the amount of police presence will prove a very valuable asset. It is virtually impossible to go out into London without running across law enforcement of some kind. This will provide a lot of order and support during the first few hours and even days. Obviously with a ratio of over six-hundred to one the police will not be able to end a Class 3 or 4 outbreak but they will provide time to the military (and more importantly, you.) This time will be very valuable, while the police try to keep things under control you can make fortifications or skip town.
Geography/Layout:
Here’s a thing about old cities, before the grid system. And this may put to rest some of the arguments between which is better, names or numbers for streets. Old cities were built with twists and turns and no seeming pattern, with all named streets (also with no real pattern) for the sole purpose of confusing an invading army. It is supposed to be hard for people who are not from there to get around in the city. This will do two things: work against you if you don’t know the city, and work for you if you do know the city. If you don’t know the city, good luck trying to find anything without a map, good directions or a guide. Also when people start panicking (which theoretically 99% of people will do) they will very quickly become lost and confused without regimented training –which, never kid yourself, even the understanding of a grid system is training.- However the flip side to all of this is once things calm down and you’ve learned the city and established a safe house. You can use this advantage for its original purpose against outside raiders or overly aggressive military. Using the maze and confusing nature of the city itself to help you while knowing it will cause them grief. It’s also of some note to understanding the layout of the city quicker, it was built on two grids. Each of the great lakes has been put on a grid by surveyors, London is built on a place where two of the grids from the lakes collide and so part of the city is built on one grid and part is built on the other.
The houses in London are also very small. Fine for a couple of people but for a decent sized group to survive for an extended period you will want more space. Both for the personal sanity of the members of the group and for storage of supplies. Smaller buildings do mean less to barricade and protect though. A large portion of the houses are in fact only one story as well. This can prove very problematic. The biggest problem is one most people will not think of and that makes it the biggest problem. If there is a breach in the barricades people will run to another floor, in this case, the basement. Never get trapped in a basement. No matter how well fortified you need to have an escape route or you will eventually be overrun or simply holed in and starved out. This second option not the intention of the undead of course but if you do have a well prepared basement then you can very easily create a chokepoint through which no zombie will ever step foot even if all the armies of middle-earth were zombified and assaulting you. However once you’ve killed the first few dozen the path will be blocked. After you kill a few more that manage to make tiny openings the passage will be sealed by a wall of zombie flesh, behind which the undead horde awaits your exit. Suddenly you are trapped with only what food, water and company you have with you. Now the only option of escape is those tiny windows most basements have and between the noise of breaking/removing that window and then the time crawling through it, that little window is almost as deadly a bear trap there ever was. This of course is a completely different situation if your basement has A) a patio or ground floor exit, common if your house is built in hilly terrain. B) a cellar door. Or C) multiple ways to other floors. Ideally you want to have a building at least two stories tall with other buildings of relative height near by so you can continue to climb and seal off the floors below you, always having the windows to exit through and even after the third floor (the point at which jumping is no longer a save option) you can have premade planks or ladders to move to another building.
Apparently there are a number of firearms stores in London, but I was unable to find any of them in my time there. Now that being said I didn’t look overly hard but I was looking and what I did see where lots of Airsoft or Youth Firearms stores. Now Airsoft and Youth Firearms are great, for practicing military tactics and playing games with your friends. They will not kill zombies. For fighting humans the real stuff (not the cheap San Fransisco ones) can actually do a fair bit of damage but they aren’t capable of piercing the skull unless you are a crack shot who will be hitting the zombies in the eyes with every BB.
Population:
Finally as mentioned before about drunk people. It is possible to mistake a drunkard or one of the many socially challenged people in the high traffic areas of London, for a zombie. With all these undesirable people around it may hard to spot an undead at first. Anything resembling a zombie should be reported to police, not of course as a zombie, but as an aggressive, violent person. Include and gory details, such as blood or damage to the body. Then find a safe spot to watch from. If the police arrive and it infects them, you know it is a zombie. If they kill it, great. If it kills them start putting your plans into effect and barricading you safe house. If it only infects one but is put down this is an even more dangerous situation. Do you leave and barricade your safe house knowing that cop will turn at the most unexpected moment and spread the infection, or do you take your chances killing the cop and then hope you can get a light sentence by pleading insanity and telling them about the infection. I suggest option one, what’s the point in saving the world if you will have to live the rest of it behind bars. Now if the person wasn’t a zombie, well you probably did a civic duty by getting them off the streets for a night or two anyway, especially if the suspicious person was on Dundas and Richmond.
Letter to the Mayor:
Honorable Mr. Fontana:
I'm a writer from Edmonton, Alberta and I'm contacting a few cities across Canada asking a couple questions about the preparedness of the cities in the event of a zombie outbreak. I would be very grateful if you or someone in your office would be so kind as to answer any of my questions to the level you are comfortable with.
Is London prepared for a zombie outbreak? How so?
How would London respond to each level of outbreak? Each level is mostly categorized by the amount of infected involved.
Level 1 - 1-20 zombies
Level 2 - 20-100 zombies
Level 3 - 100-100,000 zombies
Level 4 - World wide apocalypse
Do you have any special teams or procedures ready to be put in place in the case of zombies?
Is there any training or information in place, such as provided by the Agoge Dojo in Denver or the Centre for Disease Control?
Do you have any zombie specialists in your city to help with preparation or look for warning signs?
Thank you for taking the time to read my e-mail.
While London's leadership has not yet responded or taken the threat seriously, apparently St. John's has though.
In summary:
I do not wish to give any city or region a ranking or anything like that but merely provide concerns and opportunities for those potential survivors living in the city or considering moving there. London (like much of Southern Ontario) has a heavy wetness to the air which will take some adjusting to. The high percentage of police will mean a slower decent into chaos once the outbreak gets to Class 3 or 4. And the neighboring towns provide quick exits. The military importance of the city can also not be underestimated for both gathering resources and considering military response. Consider all of these and the cities close proximity to the border when preparing to spend any length of time in London. And as always-
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you; and if it does may those close to you have the resolve to do what is necessary. Mike D.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Space Zombies part 7
In another universe there is a setting in which we find humanity stretched out among the stars, the culture has changed but the people haven't. It's become the wild west all over again but with Chinese influences and spaceships. This is the world of Firefly. A world ravaged by a civil war which now settled leaves humanity under the rule of a harsh, controlling government.
Here we find no aliens but the biggest threat to humanity (besides smugglers, pockets of resistance and former brown coats) is the Reavers. Humans who have lost their humanity. They are savage beasts who rape, eat and torture for a living.
These creatures were caused by a government experiment to create a drug which causes people to be passive and unaggressive, which worked , on 99.9% of people. The other 0.01% it turned into crazed killing machines who feel no fear and live only to cause pain in others it seems.
Reavers only hunt. They pack together (simply for numbers, no social implications) and search out prey. They try to capture their prey alive they then rape it to death, eat it, and sew it's skin into their clothing -not always in that order.- The prey of course is other humans. The reavers bolster their numbers by brainwashing a few of their prisoners and torturing the humanity out of them.
The reavers feel no pain or emotion and thus are not slowed by anything but a killing blow. Otherwise they are roughly the same as other humans, although they tend to have bits of metal and fresh wounds gapping from their bodies.
Cause: Chemical
Undead: No
Body: Human
Freewill: No
Infectious: No
Fear: No
While the reavers are an enemy to by dealt with brutally and with caution it is safe to say they are not zombies. They are closer to the Crazies but more brutal, think of Rage zombies with intelligence; truely frightening. Reavers may behave similar to zombies and are found in space but they aren't undead and while crazed they add torture, rape and other actions instead of blind destruction.
Stay vigilant, may Pax never infect you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Here we find no aliens but the biggest threat to humanity (besides smugglers, pockets of resistance and former brown coats) is the Reavers. Humans who have lost their humanity. They are savage beasts who rape, eat and torture for a living.
These creatures were caused by a government experiment to create a drug which causes people to be passive and unaggressive, which worked , on 99.9% of people. The other 0.01% it turned into crazed killing machines who feel no fear and live only to cause pain in others it seems.
Reavers only hunt. They pack together (simply for numbers, no social implications) and search out prey. They try to capture their prey alive they then rape it to death, eat it, and sew it's skin into their clothing -not always in that order.- The prey of course is other humans. The reavers bolster their numbers by brainwashing a few of their prisoners and torturing the humanity out of them.
The reavers feel no pain or emotion and thus are not slowed by anything but a killing blow. Otherwise they are roughly the same as other humans, although they tend to have bits of metal and fresh wounds gapping from their bodies.
Cause: Chemical
Undead: No
Body: Human
Freewill: No
Infectious: No
Fear: No
While the reavers are an enemy to by dealt with brutally and with caution it is safe to say they are not zombies. They are closer to the Crazies but more brutal, think of Rage zombies with intelligence; truely frightening. Reavers may behave similar to zombies and are found in space but they aren't undead and while crazed they add torture, rape and other actions instead of blind destruction.
Stay vigilant, may Pax never infect you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Space Zombies part 6
In the future mankind has finally come to peace with itself, now being called the Alliance. Many other alien races have been found and they all have a sort of co-existence that is led by a counsel of representatives from the most influential races. However all cannot remain peaceful forever. A robot race known as Geth wage war on all bio-organic life, led by God-machines known as Reavers. This is the world of Mass Effect.
The Geth use a particularly nasty weapon against the organic species: their own dead. The Geth capture creatures and impale them on large alien spikes dubbed "Dragon's Teeth" due to the Dragon's Teeth Jason sows in the ground to produce skeletons. These Dragon's Teeth are Reaver technology which converts all the organic material in the body to cybernetic material. The body is then reanimated with an electric charge and set loose to kill all organic life.
The husks have no intelligence, no fear, no emotion of any kind unless counting the look of frozen pain and horror on the face of the person they once were. They cannot use weapons that are not built into their bodies, husks created from different races have different abilities but all have the same simple minded, single goal, destruction of the nearest living creature.
Any attempts to domesticate or revive husks has ended in horrific failure and lose of life.
Cause: Alien Technology
Undead: Yes
Body: Humanoid (augmented)
Freewill: No
Infectious: No
Fear: No
Well survivor I present to you another true space zombie. The husks are mindless killers with no intelligence or motives. As a bonus they are even undead, although a futuristic version of such. They only thing that could make these sad creatures more zombie-like is if they were infectious. And as Mass Effect shows zombies in the future pose a similar threat as they do now. Little to none if encountered in small numbers but potentially the biggest threat of all if faced in overwhelming numbers.
Stay vigilant, may the indoctrination never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
The Geth use a particularly nasty weapon against the organic species: their own dead. The Geth capture creatures and impale them on large alien spikes dubbed "Dragon's Teeth" due to the Dragon's Teeth Jason sows in the ground to produce skeletons. These Dragon's Teeth are Reaver technology which converts all the organic material in the body to cybernetic material. The body is then reanimated with an electric charge and set loose to kill all organic life.
The husks have no intelligence, no fear, no emotion of any kind unless counting the look of frozen pain and horror on the face of the person they once were. They cannot use weapons that are not built into their bodies, husks created from different races have different abilities but all have the same simple minded, single goal, destruction of the nearest living creature.
Any attempts to domesticate or revive husks has ended in horrific failure and lose of life.
Cause: Alien Technology
Undead: Yes
Body: Humanoid (augmented)
Freewill: No
Infectious: No
Fear: No
Well survivor I present to you another true space zombie. The husks are mindless killers with no intelligence or motives. As a bonus they are even undead, although a futuristic version of such. They only thing that could make these sad creatures more zombie-like is if they were infectious. And as Mass Effect shows zombies in the future pose a similar threat as they do now. Little to none if encountered in small numbers but potentially the biggest threat of all if faced in overwhelming numbers.
Stay vigilant, may the indoctrination never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Space Zombies part 5
In the not too distant future the United Federation of Planets faces a threat to which resistance is futile. In this future of peace, politics and exploration many alien races exsist but only the Borg cannot be reasoned with. They have a single goal of assimilating everything and everyone in our galaxy worth assimilating.
The Borg are part cybernetic, having enhancements including an energy shield, an eye which can see beyond human capacity, an arm which has many tools built in and nano-enhanced strength and healing.
The Borg relentlessly pursue other races and infect them with nanobots which being assimilation immidiately. Assimilation can be rejected or reversed but is very unlikely. Everyone assimilated becomes a drone with the sole purpose of obeying the Hive Mind and creating more drones.
Because of the shielding and nanobots the drones are almost invincible and capture, death or assimilation is all but inevitable. A drone will infect a living subject by injecting him with nanobots through the use of it's tool arm. Borg have also been proven to be capible of reproducing on their own but this does not furture the goal of assimilation so is not common.
Cause: Nanobots
Undead: No
Body: Humanoid (augmented)
Freewill: No
Infectious: Yes
Fear: No
Now I know this is pretty short but I had to call it here. Borg are not zombies. They are take the invincible aspect zombies can sometimes feel they have and the inevitable death motive but they are not zombies. While they do infect victims, those victims are not killed but rather enhanced and turned into a living robot. And while they have no freewill, they are also not completely blood thirsty killing machines. The similarities are there, parallels can be drawn but the fundamentals are missing.
Stay resistant, may you never be assimilated, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
The Borg are part cybernetic, having enhancements including an energy shield, an eye which can see beyond human capacity, an arm which has many tools built in and nano-enhanced strength and healing.
The Borg relentlessly pursue other races and infect them with nanobots which being assimilation immidiately. Assimilation can be rejected or reversed but is very unlikely. Everyone assimilated becomes a drone with the sole purpose of obeying the Hive Mind and creating more drones.
Because of the shielding and nanobots the drones are almost invincible and capture, death or assimilation is all but inevitable. A drone will infect a living subject by injecting him with nanobots through the use of it's tool arm. Borg have also been proven to be capible of reproducing on their own but this does not furture the goal of assimilation so is not common.
Cause: Nanobots
Undead: No
Body: Humanoid (augmented)
Freewill: No
Infectious: Yes
Fear: No
Now I know this is pretty short but I had to call it here. Borg are not zombies. They are take the invincible aspect zombies can sometimes feel they have and the inevitable death motive but they are not zombies. While they do infect victims, those victims are not killed but rather enhanced and turned into a living robot. And while they have no freewill, they are also not completely blood thirsty killing machines. The similarities are there, parallels can be drawn but the fundamentals are missing.
Stay resistant, may you never be assimilated, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Space Zombies part 4
Now this space creature is a little closer to home. In the setting of one of the most iconic enemies in video games. Half-life, in the near future mankind of experimenting with alien technology and well, all goes wrong. Enter the aliens and the aliens food, the headcrabs.
The headcrabs are a small parasite, roughly the size of a pumpkin which is all mouth and legs. It latches onto a host and starts to mutate it. Causing the host to grow a large mouth and claws itself. And then to search out food. Oddly enough for such an iconic character in such an important game to the industry there isn't a lot on the way headcrabs work. What is known is that they do not kill the infected host and thus must feed so both the host and headcrab can continue to survive in this strange relationship. A rather inefficent process compared to many other parasites. The headcrabs take control of the body while leaving the host's mind conscious and in control of unimportant functions such as speach. This may be a strategy of the headcrab to induce fear in further victims but sinse the headcrabs show no other signs of higher intelligence (even in their methods of attacking, using claws to beat instead of stab or tear) I feel safe in assuming this is not the case.
Cause: Parasite
Undead: No
Body: Humanoid (mutated)
Freewill: Somewhat
Infecious: No
Fear: No
While Half-Life was called by many people one of the scariest games ever I am glad and slightly disturbed to say headcrabs are infact nothing like a zombie besides being a parasite. Infact the biggest difference and the part that would make them scary were they real is the fact the human infected is still alive. Which also thus makes Gordon a murderer of countless innocents in addition to unleaching the alien hordes on humanity.
Stay vigilant, may the necrotics never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
The headcrabs are a small parasite, roughly the size of a pumpkin which is all mouth and legs. It latches onto a host and starts to mutate it. Causing the host to grow a large mouth and claws itself. And then to search out food. Oddly enough for such an iconic character in such an important game to the industry there isn't a lot on the way headcrabs work. What is known is that they do not kill the infected host and thus must feed so both the host and headcrab can continue to survive in this strange relationship. A rather inefficent process compared to many other parasites. The headcrabs take control of the body while leaving the host's mind conscious and in control of unimportant functions such as speach. This may be a strategy of the headcrab to induce fear in further victims but sinse the headcrabs show no other signs of higher intelligence (even in their methods of attacking, using claws to beat instead of stab or tear) I feel safe in assuming this is not the case.
Cause: Parasite
Undead: No
Body: Humanoid (mutated)
Freewill: Somewhat
Infecious: No
Fear: No
While Half-Life was called by many people one of the scariest games ever I am glad and slightly disturbed to say headcrabs are infact nothing like a zombie besides being a parasite. Infact the biggest difference and the part that would make them scary were they real is the fact the human infected is still alive. Which also thus makes Gordon a murderer of countless innocents in addition to unleaching the alien hordes on humanity.
Stay vigilant, may the necrotics never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Zombie-busters
Have you ever wondered just how effective certain weapons would actually be against zombies? One of my goals here at the ZLC has been to test weapons and tactics and bring the results to other survivors. Much like Mythbusters I want to present actual field tests or as close as can be safely simulated. And apparently I am not the only one.
These guys are taking everyday items and putting them to the test as a new youtube channel, ZombieGoBoom TV. Now it looks like they will be including: nunchucks, hammer, baseball bat, umbrella, hunting knife, soft drink, a package of lunch meat, ball point pen, guitar and with a line up like that I think we can expect a whole lot more to come. They plan to take these items and rate them based on type, size, weight, splatter rating and survival rating.
The first episode is all about baseball bats. Looking at the advantages of an aluminum bat versus a wooden bat. Now survivors I just want to do a quick little comparison myself: wooden bat breaks eventually, doesn't provide as much impact due to softer material. Aluminum bat, provides a faster swing with but isn't as heavy or carry as much crushing power. I have done no tests to prove these things but those are my first observations. Now ZombieGoBoom took two bats, did not tell us how heavy they were and used each to smash a coconut in ballistics gel. Then without giving any actual data collected. Made pretty close to the same statements I made above. Sadly while I expected a lot from these guys they did not deliver on this first video.
However these are not the first people to attempt this type of video however. Check out Zombie Command for example. Without making any major claims they simply state they will be testing weapons used in zombie movies against coconuts to simulate a zombie head. No promises of data collection or anything of that sort and thus when any information at all is given it is taken as extra instead of waiting for more. In this one video alone they test a straight blade knife, ball peen hammer, crowbar, kukri knife and chainsaw.
There are many videos out there of this nature. Looking at and determining if certain weapons are choice for killing zombies. No video series I've found so far has provided actual statistics and analytical data about if these weapons are actually useful or not. Sadly one of the differences between real survivors and many of these video makers is understanding there is more to killing zombies then just smashing heads.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
These guys are taking everyday items and putting them to the test as a new youtube channel, ZombieGoBoom TV. Now it looks like they will be including: nunchucks, hammer, baseball bat, umbrella, hunting knife, soft drink, a package of lunch meat, ball point pen, guitar and with a line up like that I think we can expect a whole lot more to come. They plan to take these items and rate them based on type, size, weight, splatter rating and survival rating.
The first episode is all about baseball bats. Looking at the advantages of an aluminum bat versus a wooden bat. Now survivors I just want to do a quick little comparison myself: wooden bat breaks eventually, doesn't provide as much impact due to softer material. Aluminum bat, provides a faster swing with but isn't as heavy or carry as much crushing power. I have done no tests to prove these things but those are my first observations. Now ZombieGoBoom took two bats, did not tell us how heavy they were and used each to smash a coconut in ballistics gel. Then without giving any actual data collected. Made pretty close to the same statements I made above. Sadly while I expected a lot from these guys they did not deliver on this first video.
However these are not the first people to attempt this type of video however. Check out Zombie Command for example. Without making any major claims they simply state they will be testing weapons used in zombie movies against coconuts to simulate a zombie head. No promises of data collection or anything of that sort and thus when any information at all is given it is taken as extra instead of waiting for more. In this one video alone they test a straight blade knife, ball peen hammer, crowbar, kukri knife and chainsaw.
There are many videos out there of this nature. Looking at and determining if certain weapons are choice for killing zombies. No video series I've found so far has provided actual statistics and analytical data about if these weapons are actually useful or not. Sadly one of the differences between real survivors and many of these video makers is understanding there is more to killing zombies then just smashing heads.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Space Zombies part 3
Now here is a setting that needs no introduction but for the people who haven't been around for the last ten years and at risk of upsetting the elitists I will offer one. Humanity has expanded, colonies stretching across the galaxy, nothing stands in our way. Except for the Covenant, an alliance of alien species unhappy with humans continued growth and virus-like expansion. Also the fact humanity itself grows too large and hates being controlled so the colonies verge on civil war. Thus a new kind of soldier is made, a race of super soldiers called Spartans is engineered from young children to face the threats against humanity both from without and from within. Wars have come and gone, eventually mankind has been reduced to much less then it once was and only a single Spartan remains. And if things weren't bad enough suddenly a new menace resurfaces. A parasite that once wiped the galaxy of all life, was contained and has now found new hosts a plenty in the wake of the human/Covenant war.
This is the setting of the Halo universe. Very science fictiony and super-hero, standard first-person shooter fair really. Until suddenly The Flood arrive; a race of parasites from another galaxy which were treated as a virus instead of as an enemy in a war and thus they grew to destroy most of our galaxy. The parasite attaches to the body of a dead, sentient creature and reanimates and mutates the body into a killing machine. With the sole purpose of killing more to create more corpses for other Flood to infect. Called Inferi redivivus (the dead incarnate in Latin, a name also given to vampires in other lore) the Flood works by reanimating dead hosts.
The Flood take the memories and intelligence of the creature they infected and assimilate it into itself and eventually the Gravemind, a powerful being which simultaneously controls all of the Flood in the area it has access to. The Flood use combat tactics, weapons and stratiges, becoming ever more dangerous as they infect more intelligent beings.
The Flood can infect a living being by connecting directly into the nervous system via tentacles all of the combat forms develop. It is possible to be immune to the Flood or to cure someone who has been infected but not yet killed. ORION genetically altered soldiers are immune as well as it is possible to kill the infection with electric charges without harming the host.
The Flood are an extremely complex race from another galaxy which has evolved at incredible speeds and continues to evolve to survive in whatever circumstances it is in or to assimilate whatever species it can find. The Flood can also reproduce among themselves but this is viewed as a last ditch effort if all other avenues of infecting fresh hosts are gone.
Cause: Parasite
Undead: Yes
Body: Humanoid (mutated)
Freewill: Yes
Infectious: Yes (tentacles)
Fear: No
Flood while at first glance appear to be standard zombie fair are in fact very far from being zombies it would seem. While a parasite they are extremely intelligent, causing the first major reason they are not zombies. Add in the way infection works and the fact it can be cured are nothing like a zombie virus. Not to mention being able to reproduce without new hosts to infect. All in all a terrifying enemy but not a zombie horde as much as it may feel like one running through dark tunnels gunning them down in scores.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
This is the setting of the Halo universe. Very science fictiony and super-hero, standard first-person shooter fair really. Until suddenly The Flood arrive; a race of parasites from another galaxy which were treated as a virus instead of as an enemy in a war and thus they grew to destroy most of our galaxy. The parasite attaches to the body of a dead, sentient creature and reanimates and mutates the body into a killing machine. With the sole purpose of killing more to create more corpses for other Flood to infect. Called Inferi redivivus (the dead incarnate in Latin, a name also given to vampires in other lore) the Flood works by reanimating dead hosts.
The Flood take the memories and intelligence of the creature they infected and assimilate it into itself and eventually the Gravemind, a powerful being which simultaneously controls all of the Flood in the area it has access to. The Flood use combat tactics, weapons and stratiges, becoming ever more dangerous as they infect more intelligent beings.
The Flood can infect a living being by connecting directly into the nervous system via tentacles all of the combat forms develop. It is possible to be immune to the Flood or to cure someone who has been infected but not yet killed. ORION genetically altered soldiers are immune as well as it is possible to kill the infection with electric charges without harming the host.
The Flood are an extremely complex race from another galaxy which has evolved at incredible speeds and continues to evolve to survive in whatever circumstances it is in or to assimilate whatever species it can find. The Flood can also reproduce among themselves but this is viewed as a last ditch effort if all other avenues of infecting fresh hosts are gone.
Cause: Parasite
Undead: Yes
Body: Humanoid (mutated)
Freewill: Yes
Infectious: Yes (tentacles)
Fear: No
Flood while at first glance appear to be standard zombie fair are in fact very far from being zombies it would seem. While a parasite they are extremely intelligent, causing the first major reason they are not zombies. Add in the way infection works and the fact it can be cured are nothing like a zombie virus. Not to mention being able to reproduce without new hosts to infect. All in all a terrifying enemy but not a zombie horde as much as it may feel like one running through dark tunnels gunning them down in scores.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Space Zombies part 2
In another section of space we find humanity has once again conquered everything in its path. Now we have tools capable of "cracking" open entire planets and harvesting the resources within. Except on one planet we find something much older then humanity. And discover that while humans knew they weren't completely alone, whatever is out there, does want us all dead.
The video game which has spawned an plethora of content for it's expanding universe is Dead Space. And in Dead Space we find something that has been missing in video games sinse the old Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, true horror. A game that you play at 3 A.M. with the lights turned off knowing that it will make the maniliest of men jump and have nightmares. The reason for this scare factor? A large part of it lies with the unknown. The enemies are complete unknowns, Necromorphs they are called, mutated bodies of dead humans. But the Necromorphs mutate in many unpredicted ways.
While the humans gone crazies are one thing to generate fear in and of itself (also crazy humans never equals zombies) the Necromorphs are the true terror of space. Once the alien parasite has latched onto a corpse it takes ten seconds for the body to mutate and rise. The Necromorphs have no real need for any of the host body's functions so they are virtually impervious to damage and the most useful way of fighting them is to simply disable them by removing all limbs. Once a Necromorph has been created it's sole goal can vary depending on the type of Necromorph created but in general, is to kill more creatures so other parasites can find hosts.
The Necromorphs have proven to be predators who hunt in packs and set ambushes, often waiting in vents or playing dead, until a victim is close enough to kill in a single strike. Beyond this they also have a sort of Hive Mind and will listen to "leaders," more advanced Necromorphs, which sometimes are composed of multiple host bodies merged together. This base intelligence makes the Necromorphs a threat humans in todays culture often refer to as the end of mankind, that is to say, intellegent undead.
So to break it down:
Cause: Parasite
Undead: Yes
Body: Humanoid (mutated)
Freewill: Yes
Infectious: No
Fear: No
In the end I have to say Necromorphs, while more dangerous then any zombie are not infact zombies. They are intelligent predators, which zombies are not, and they are not directly infectious. While they are a parasite which infects and reanimates the dead this alone does not a zombie make.
Stay vigilant, may Marker never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
The video game which has spawned an plethora of content for it's expanding universe is Dead Space. And in Dead Space we find something that has been missing in video games sinse the old Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, true horror. A game that you play at 3 A.M. with the lights turned off knowing that it will make the maniliest of men jump and have nightmares. The reason for this scare factor? A large part of it lies with the unknown. The enemies are complete unknowns, Necromorphs they are called, mutated bodies of dead humans. But the Necromorphs mutate in many unpredicted ways.
While the humans gone crazies are one thing to generate fear in and of itself (also crazy humans never equals zombies) the Necromorphs are the true terror of space. Once the alien parasite has latched onto a corpse it takes ten seconds for the body to mutate and rise. The Necromorphs have no real need for any of the host body's functions so they are virtually impervious to damage and the most useful way of fighting them is to simply disable them by removing all limbs. Once a Necromorph has been created it's sole goal can vary depending on the type of Necromorph created but in general, is to kill more creatures so other parasites can find hosts.
The Necromorphs have proven to be predators who hunt in packs and set ambushes, often waiting in vents or playing dead, until a victim is close enough to kill in a single strike. Beyond this they also have a sort of Hive Mind and will listen to "leaders," more advanced Necromorphs, which sometimes are composed of multiple host bodies merged together. This base intelligence makes the Necromorphs a threat humans in todays culture often refer to as the end of mankind, that is to say, intellegent undead.
So to break it down:
Cause: Parasite
Undead: Yes
Body: Humanoid (mutated)
Freewill: Yes
Infectious: No
Fear: No
In the end I have to say Necromorphs, while more dangerous then any zombie are not infact zombies. They are intelligent predators, which zombies are not, and they are not directly infectious. While they are a parasite which infects and reanimates the dead this alone does not a zombie make.
Stay vigilant, may Marker never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
May poll results
Well survivors May has been a crazy zombie awareness month but I consider it a success. I created and gave out my grey zombie awareness pins. The ZLC went from hundreds to thousands of readers. I completed my goal of a-post-a-day-for-May.
I am now going to try to keep up with posting every day but these three months are my biggest money earning months so I really need to put a lot of hard work into my other endevours. Never fear though! I am planning special posts about each city I travel to over the next few months and have been inspired by the sudden increased in readers to keep the content coming fast and furious! Hopefully on those days I can't fit a post in there will be lots left on the site you haven't read or you can post a comment somewhere about your thoughts or ideas for posts you want to see. I do get and regularily respond to a lot of e-mail traffic, mdthesoldier@hotmail.com feel free to send anything there as well that is ZLC related.
Now to the meat of this post.
Would you rather become a zombie or die?
Bite me: 13%
Save a bullet for me: 86%
Even among survivors the rate of people who would rather become zombies is unfortunately high. This is not completely unexpected though. As much as zombies represent death, they can also represent a twisted continuation of life as many other undead do. People are so afraid of death they would rather live the sick and twisted life of a zombie. Here is the fatal flaw in this thinking however. A zombie is not you. Whatever you are, whatever your soul is, it has moved on. A zombie is an empty husk being controlled by a virus or parasite. There is no cure. There is no living on as a ghoul. Becoming a zombie is infact dying, someone else just has to clean up your mess. The more zombies means the less chance of humanity surviving, becoming a zombie, for whatever misinformed or estranged reasoning is a selfish act of desperation that will not prolong your life but might end someone else's. Do the world a favor and let's try to get this number from 13% to 0%.
More discusion on this topic can be found here.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
I am now going to try to keep up with posting every day but these three months are my biggest money earning months so I really need to put a lot of hard work into my other endevours. Never fear though! I am planning special posts about each city I travel to over the next few months and have been inspired by the sudden increased in readers to keep the content coming fast and furious! Hopefully on those days I can't fit a post in there will be lots left on the site you haven't read or you can post a comment somewhere about your thoughts or ideas for posts you want to see. I do get and regularily respond to a lot of e-mail traffic, mdthesoldier@hotmail.com feel free to send anything there as well that is ZLC related.
Now to the meat of this post.
Would you rather become a zombie or die?
Bite me: 13%
Save a bullet for me: 86%
Even among survivors the rate of people who would rather become zombies is unfortunately high. This is not completely unexpected though. As much as zombies represent death, they can also represent a twisted continuation of life as many other undead do. People are so afraid of death they would rather live the sick and twisted life of a zombie. Here is the fatal flaw in this thinking however. A zombie is not you. Whatever you are, whatever your soul is, it has moved on. A zombie is an empty husk being controlled by a virus or parasite. There is no cure. There is no living on as a ghoul. Becoming a zombie is infact dying, someone else just has to clean up your mess. The more zombies means the less chance of humanity surviving, becoming a zombie, for whatever misinformed or estranged reasoning is a selfish act of desperation that will not prolong your life but might end someone else's. Do the world a favor and let's try to get this number from 13% to 0%.
More discusion on this topic can be found here.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
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