Mini-shows

Well survivors, I'm getting the site up and running again and some of you may have noticed I've added a gallery. I will be adding one picture to it each day, so while small now it will be mighty. If you have any zombie pictures you would like to be considered for the gallery, send them to zlc@live.ca with any names that need to be credited. There is also a new poll up; and here, as foretold is another zombie related theatre show.

The show is called Dine + Dash. It played at the Regina International Fringe. Kent Evans, Ash-Lee Hommy and Kelly Sanchuck play in this series of short plays written by David Ives, Mark Levine and Virginia Lamax. Directed by Jason Fedorchuck with music by Kevin MacLeod. Now that all the technicality of names is out of the way onto the show.
Remember the piece I did on  Toxoplasma gondii back in February? Well writer Virginia Lamax has done her research when she was writing the zombie section of Dine + Dash. Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite which has evolved to control mice, influence cats and is estimated to already infect 50% of humans. And science has shown parasites like this evolve hundreds of times faster then we do so the chances of it getting to the point of controlling us before we become immune to it is actually quite high. But Virginia's theory is that it's not that parasite that already infects us, or that we get from petting the cats or cleaning their litter boxes. She suggests the parasites first change evolve in the cats and turn them into undead-infection spreading machine of furry rage. I was quite surprised by the research and understanding that went into this piece. However aspects such as zombies climbing the outsides of buildings, retaining speech and human grudges all take this show away from being a reliable piece of research into pure fantasy.

From a more theatre tinted point of view this show stank like a rotting shambler. The writing was quite good for all three pieces but the delivery was where it all seemed to fall apart. Young actors who didn't seem to get much direction, with scripts above their talent level just made the whole event rather hard to watch.
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.

No need for zombies

Stem research. Type it into google and you will suddenly be overwhelmed with one of the most controversial topics around. With religious, conservative and pro-life groups fighting tooth and nail to keep the research down while medical researches, scientists and corporations see unlimited potential. Not hard to imagine something like this blowing out of control at any moment.

How does this relate? I'll lay it out. Stem research and neurogenesis can, in theory (and limited practise), regrow dead brain matter. But there is a fact everyone is too sadly aware of, everyone dies of cardiac arrest, when the blood no longer gets to the brain. So the moment a person is actually dead is the moment the brain shuts down and stops working. Lose of higher brain functions happens within moments. Lose of lower brain functions happens within minutes of this "true death." But there are labs looking in reanimation research and long life. These labs and research facilities exist all over the world but the amount of them in the United States is staggering.

However, there is a problem with stem cell research and neurogenesis, it only rebuilds the stem not the cortex. The stem is what controls lower brain functions: feeding, killing, mating, using the senses, the animal instincts. It does not control the things that make a person what we are, the soul if you will, but even if you won't: it doesn't control the high brain functions like emotions, personality, empathy, self-control, the humanity of man.

Seeing it yet? A man who doesn't make decisions, or if he does they are only based on what his body tells him he needs. Zombies? No. Soldiers? Maybe. Slaves? Definitely. How long until someone needs a mindless work force? Well the irony of that of course is North American governments already have one.

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.

Make a zombie baby, look up zombie films and learn how the world will not end.

I appologize true survivors; I made three posts today to make up for the lack of posting lately. Blogger hadn't let my post on the 11th go through and yesterday I could not log on. So I am making up for it today. This post is a general post that will cover a couple of topics.

Creating a zombie baby!

Ever wanted to create your own horror doll? I sure haven't. But I'm guessing many of your have. Go here and check out the details. Explore your creative side while raising money for cancer, always a worthwhile goal in my mind. The zombie threat is enough to worry about without cancer making our numbers smaller before the true battle even begins.

Zombie movie site


Here is another zombie site worth looking at. Thssite is broken up into categories: Lore, Reviews, Upcoming Films and Miscellany. It's not the most indepth site or the mot up to date but if you want some info on zombie films it's as good as anywhere else to take a look. The lore section is need as he defines exctly what he looks for as a "zombie" and clearly lays out what makes a zombie that and not another monster. All other sections are exactly what you would expect. The library of reviews is a little lacking but not without merit and Miscellany section has an entertaining drinking game for those nights of revelry (remember not to loose your guard even then.)

ZAZ3

I mentioned in another post I talked about H1Z1 and it's possiblity as a cause of zombie outbreaks. I mentioned this link. Which has been removed but here is a sample of what was on the page.

Further research into this also led me to an old youtube video which if you know me by now, know led me on a whole new set of research and conspricy trails. Fortunately there is nothing behind this ZAZ3... for now. The door can never fully be shut on any idea but this is a little far fetched to gain any credit on it's own and no other sources canbe found to back up the information. The normal bickering on forums and what-not about the video but no evidence, no solid theories as to the hows or whys, nothing from any government even showing a cover up. So this is either one of the greatest cover ups of all time or fake. And if the cover up is so great, would they really over look youtube? Other smaller video sites maybe, but pre-released trailer get taken off youtube in hours and this video has been up a long time without anyone bothering to get rid of it. No ZAZ3 is luckily just fiction, unlike the unknown horrors in level 3 and 4 biolabs.

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.

April poll results

What will the cause of the Class 4 outbreak be? Nanobots	0 (0%)
Prions (Creautzfeldt-Jakod disease or similar)	1 (14%)
Parasites (Toxoplasma gondii or similar)	1 (14%)
H1Z1	0 (0%)
Voodoo	0 (0%)
Reanimation research (Stem cells, zombie dogs, cloning etc.)	1 (14%)
Weapons research (combining HIV, rabis and a flu or similar)	2 (28%)
Solanum	0 (0%)
T-Virus	2 (28%)

Click on each cause to find justification for it.

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.

H1Z1

During the 2009 swine flu scare, because let's face it, it wasn't the pandemic they said it was. Someone released a very interesting site about H1Z1. The site is no longer up, so sadly I cannot post a link, but it brought about some interesting thoughts. The site suggested that H1N1 had evolved in England and there werecases of people dying of the flu only to rise again and violently attack others. This turnned out to be false, as ost public displays of the like are but still...

First look at the H1N1 "pandemic" which killed 1,642 people in the US, and estimated (that is to say, the cause of death could have been something else) 12,470 deaths world wide. Compare this to the regular flu which kills 36,000 people in the US alone each and every year. As I stated in 2009 and I state again now, pandemic was a little bit of an exaggeration in this case.

But one has to wonder why? Why did the WHO make such a big deal about this one strain of the flu virus? In my bio-weapon research I found cases that suggest swine flu, at least this strain, was released as a bioweapon. Because swine flu has been around since the early 1900s I doubted that at first. But looking at how the WHO responded, it could be within reason to think they received information that the virus had been released, and thinking it would cause more damage then it did they set out the pandemic campaign. This could all be one great ploy to see how people would react to it, or it could be the honest mistake of believing the virus would do more damage. The second of those two options is much easier to believe. But it does imply that they knew before hand that the strain was being worked on in a biolab for good or ill intentions, and was released, either by unsafe practise or possibly to test it's effects.

If H1N1 were to be combined with something like rabies the effects would be very similar to those of "rage" in 28 Days Later. This is something a few of my medical friends have said is completely possible. They had other things to say about why someone would do such a thing and the details of it would have to be worked out but none the less, completely possible, someone could do it today, or tomorrow.

Or viruses can evolve, it has proven to be a slow process for them and not a lot of them even get around to it but some viruses do change to attack the host in different ways. If the swine flu is not as lethal as it once was, which no flus today are compared to when they ravaged the world a few hundred years ago, then it is reasonable to assume it may try to change. This is part of the reason so many strains of flu exist, as it tries to evolve and get what it needs in different ways. In my mind it does seem a bit of a stretch however to think it would evolve in so far in such a short period. But if given a leg up by a corporation trying to create a pandemic so they can sell an unapproved anti-virus to Project Bioshield for 55 billion dollars... that seems something very much in with grasp for the tiny virus that could

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.

Weapons research: it's for our protection

Looking as this cause is one of the scariest things to research and the rabbit hole is one of the deepest to be found anywhere. Even finding place to start is hard as the shroud around weapons research is thick and heavy.

Let us start where I started, by looking at if bioweapon research even happens? As I found, it does. It does not take far to look to see the number of level 3 and 4 bio-research labs growing at an ever increasing rate. Funding being put into countless new corporations raising up to build new and ever more dangerous chemicals and viruses. All in the name of "countermeasures." A word that is loosely thrown around to barely cover what lies beyond. Very little searching is needed to see the talk of "permitting emergency use of unapproved countermeasures." A quote coming from Project Bioshield, a project fully backed by the U.S. government and with legal-loopholes to take full advantages and funding without having to answer to anyone. Obama gives more money to programs like Bioshield in fear of an attack by the end of 2013 Programs who have no governing body to stop them from unsafe practises. The most that stands against these private corporations is groups which receive no support and are left to fade away or possibly be looked at as foolish.

How foolish however when looking at the opposition? Research on prolonging life through DNA modification. Not quite weapons research but simply another part of the winding trail such research has taken me on.

Going back to the trail of weapons research there is so much to say but it would all be simply repeating. The endless lines of labs in which safety is put to the wayside and viruses are constantly being accidentally released in one way or another. The theories of anthrax being created and set loose from one of these biolabs are not strange or unheard tales. Heads of security have admitted that the labs are far from secure and hinting that viruses being constructed in these labs are constantly being released, lost and insecure.

Flus are constantly being combined, entirely new viruses being synthetically created, and these are only the horrors we know about in level 3 labs. What lies behind the unsecured doors of the level 4 labs? The labs that are designed to handle bioweapons capable of destroying entire populations. Tens of thousands of these bioweapons exist and with only a word Project Bioshield can use any of them as an "unapproved countermeasure."

How easy it is for scientists to combine different strains like flu and HIV. How easy they change the DNA structure of viruses and parasites. Is it really that hard to imagine one of the viruses, proteins or parasites I've discussed being created in a lab somewhere to be used in an "emergency" as a countermeasure against "terrorists?" Military commanders hold strong that the easiest way to defeat a nation is simply to make it unable to fight. Sicken the civilians, weaken the populace and cause strain to the economy, these are old lessons taught by Sun Tzu. Teaching which now lead to development of weapons capable of destroying entire nations, and possibly spreading further. Possibly spreading beyond death. Possibly turning humans into weapons themselves.

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.

Solanum

Now we will take a moment to look at another fictional virus that has got itself a lot of attention around the world. So much so the nae "solanum" has almost been scientifically accepted as the name of any potential zombie virus. Not to be confused with the solanum species of plant.

Solanum is carried, by the blood, from the initial point of contact to the brain. The virus uses the cells of the frontal lobe for replication, destroying them in the process. Indoing so the virus stops the functioning of the body, including the heart, causing death. The brain, however, remains alive but dormant. The virus then mutates the remaining intact brain cells. These mutated cells no longer require oxygen to function. By removing the need for oxygen, the infected brain and can make use of the body without needing the other organs.

The solanum virus is neither waterborne nor airborne. Infection can occur only through direct contact with bodily fluids. A zombie bite, although by far the most recognizable means of transference, is not the only one. Humans can be infected simply by being in contact with undead tissue. Ingestion of infected flesh (provided the person has no open mouth sores) does not cause infection, but does cause permanent death. Infected flesh is highly toxic.
Solanum is fatal to all living creatures, however, reanimation only takes place only in humans. An infected non-human brain will die within hours of the death of its host. Infected animals expire before the virus can replicate throughout their bodies. Infection from insect bites such as from mosquitoes can also be discounted. Parasitic insects can sense an infected host and will reject it.
Once a human is infected, there is no cure. Because Solanum is a virus and not a bacteria, antibiotics have no effect. Immunization is equally pointless, as even the smallest dose will lead to a full-blown infection. Severing the infected limb can work but is very unlikely to catch the virus in time.
The toxicity level of undead flesh, combined with the 100% fatality rate for infected lifeforms significantly slows down the process of decomposition. This is due to the fact that bacteria play a crucial role in decomposition and were they to partake of infected flesh, they would die. Therefore bacteria afoid undead flesh. This also removes most of the smell normally associated with rotting corpses as that smell is due mostly to decomp caused by the bacteria.
Solanum does not infect the already dead. Zombies ignore necrotic flesh and therefore could not transfer the virus. Injection directly into a dead brain would be equally useless, as the expired cells could not respond to the virus. Solanum does not re-create life, it alters it.

As you can see the science behind solanum is sketchy at best and much of it is based off "research" done by auther of the Zombie Survival Guide, Max Brooks. More on solanum can be found here. The solanum virus appears to be simply an attempt at explaining away all other possiblities so zombies can only exist in one way. This thinking is foolish as there is no evidence to back up this sort of claim. Also it gives no explaination for the isolated events that occur throughout the world and at different time frames. All in all the solanum virus is unfortunately what the true cause of zombies, once discovered, will probably be named but at the very least only provides a rough outline to what the actual cause is. It is not the cause as laid out in Zombie Survival Guide.

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.

T-Virus

Allow us to take the time to look at one of the most complex thought out zombie viruses, the Tyrant virus, more commonly known as the t-virus. The t-virus is similar to other viruses. As the virus makes contact with another cell, it inserts its genetic coding into it. The cell absorbs the viral genome into its own genetic make-up, taking over the cell and beginning to produce more of the original virus. The new viruses are then released from the host and infect the other cells, which of course starts the process over anew.

The t-virus kills and replaces mitochondrial organelles with a replica of itself and then combines with other cells to produce energy. The energy produced is just enough to power the motor neurons and the basic lower brain functions. The reanimated host body is then left with the "need to feed" in order to replenish energy without having to sacrifice its own tissue. This slow eating of the cells by the virus leads to the gradual breakdown of the host, causing necrosis. The virus then inserts itself into the host's DNA.

If the host is alive at the time of t-virus infection, all higher brain functions are destroyed. This leaves only the cerebellum to govern behaviour. Leaving the infected host with very basic, animalistic behaviour. As the virus spreads, it damages the hypothalamus. This produces a massive flood of neurotransmitters, enzymes, and hormones such as norepinephrine and dopamine: which along with the infection, cause rage and hunger.

If the host is dead at the time of t-virus infection, only enough energy is produced to re-start the lower brain functions. Again these functions are responsible for the most primal and animalistic instincts, such as walking and eating.

There is some suggestion that the state of further mutation of the host by the virus depends on the host's state of mind and personality. The creator of the virus became a twisted representation of his own self hate, which can be compared to Albert Wesker's transformation which made him into the god he thought of himself as. This could however also simply be the chemistry of the different viruses relating to the DNA of the host.

The t-virus is capable of various ways to spread infection. The t-virus is a protein structure at it's core and is best transmitted by direct injection. However the virus can transform and will maintain itself (for a very limited time) as an airborne pathogen. The virus also transforms very well into liquid, mainly water and will infect any who ingest it in this way. Finally the virus can be spread through direct contact with an infected host. This is considered a secondary way of infection however as with many viruses, it can take several times in contact with tissue or even fluid containing trace amounts of the virus in order to become infected in such a way.

The virus was created as part of the weapons reseach done by the Umbrella corporation and more can be read about it here. While the t-virus is a made up bio-weapon the way it is presented and the science behind it is, in some places, scarily possible. To think corporations are not trying to develop a weapon like this is simply foolish. The questions are just when and exactly how. Will it be something like the t-virus? One can only hope not.

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.

Nanobots: the future of mankind or the end of it

At first glance this would seem like the least likely way for zombies to appear enmass, especially considering how long zombies have been around and this technology is only just picking up over the last dozen or so years. But I might be getting ahead of myself. What are nanobots? Nonobots are invisibly small robots designed to build or destroy anything by replicating themselves. Take a look at Deus Ex, it's not as unrealistic as some might believe. Nanobots are already being used to help with crops, replace blood cells, even fight cancer. It is quite easy for nanobots to travel around the body also as they tend to flow through the bloodstream. These little invisible robots hold an emense amount of potential: according to this paper, nanobots are the future of being able to cure death. The way it is suggested in the paper, if you don't want to read the whole thing, is that we can already freeze a body and stop it from "dying" and now combined with this research most damage to the body can be fixed. Now combine that with nanobot technology that can potentially rebuild the parts of the brain that made that person a person. Where could this go wrong? Note that rebuilding the brain would actually mean the nanobots making more nanobots to take the place of damaged brain material: tiny robots in your head controling you... yeah.

And how far off is this exactly? Well again, closer then you might think. Scientists have already stated computer technology cannot get any smaller or more advanced without going biological. And to that end these guys have already gone the extra mile and combined bacteria, elecronic circuits and gold to create Cellborg, the first living cyborg. I'm not sure if this is what the alchemists had in mind when they were experimenting with what gold could do.

So how is this zombies? The nanobots will eventually be a part of everyday life. At least enough that many people will have them in their bodies. What happens when those people die? The nanobots are designed to rebuild and replicate. Meaning they need to keep the host alive, this I'm sure your imagination can see already leads to many very bad scenarios. Now let's say the nanobots aren't very smart, they have only been programed to replicate using the energy given off by a living person. As already mentioned the nanobots travel through the blood stream, probably not hard for them to also get into saliva. To fulfil their programing and continue to replicate they need a living host, by biting the new host they will be able to transfer directly into the host's blood stream and continue the cycle. This might not even be a bad thing, except the human body naturally resists any foreign agent. So when the body fights back the nanobots will have to start destroying it in order to fulfil their purpose. Nanobots destroy the white blood cells and the parts of the brain that suggest resistance. The nanobots now have a new body from which to continue to spread.

How can we protect ourselves? Stay away from nanoaugmentaion until these concerns have been resolved. Build up a strong immune system. Pray scientists are smarter than they seem...

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.

Zombie Parasite

Hello fellow survivors,

Warning: if you are scared of bugs, or have a phobia of parasites or germs, or if you are just squeamish in general, or often feel like something is happening to you if you read about it, this may be a hard read.

I was recently studying parasites, the reason for this is actually quite simple, I am always looking for possibilities of how or why zombies exist. I leave it to others to argue the "if" they exist. We already know the answer to that.

I had heard about ants who actually attack and eat other ants because they are being controlled by parasites. So I began reading more into it and while I didn't find this specific parasitic relationship I did find a lot of scary information.

For instance, parasites cause many ants to make choices which lead to their deaths. This is only one of many examples in which the parasite does not kill the host directly but instead influences the host to make decisions which directly cause it to die. Such as a parasite which makes grasshoppers drown themselves or a parasite which not only grows in caterpillars but after the parasites grow too big and burst out of the caterpillar's body the caterpillar will spend it's dying days protecting the parasites as they continue to grow.

So parasites can do this to bugs, what can they do to humans? Parasites could potentially already be effecting human decisions. More on this later.

So take a step back and look at what a parasite is. A parasite is anything that lives off of a host causing harm to the host. Not all parasites kill the host and some even benefits the host more then they do harm but that is what a parasite is. So parasites can be a large number of things but most parasites are very small bugs. Some are even microscopic, viruses are in fact parasites, they insert their DNA into the host's DNA and change or kill it in that way. So some of the traits that apply to parasites could apply to a virus that evolves past it's simply destructive and reproductive nature into something that could actually effect the brain of it's host like many other parasites do. Here is a theory on multihost evolution of a parasite. It is just a theory but it's based on evolutionary facts and mathematics. The jist of the theory in case you don't want to read the math/jargon filled 15 pages is that a parasite evolves in a host, say a bug, until it reaches it's full potential in that host. Then it finds a way to transfer into a more complex host, say a rat. It further evolves until it can fully control the rat and can evolve no further so it transfers to another type of host. And so on and so on. In this way the parasite grows as a species and is the popular theory on how parasites get to the point where they can actually affect human moods and actions.

The real T-Virus - Toxoplasma gondii
Toxoplasma Gondii is one such parasite. The main host creature is a cat, domestic or wild. Cats show no particular symptoms so it is impossible to tell if a cat has been infected. Even your household cat could be infected and is constantly at risk of being infected. A cat picks up the parasite by eating an infected mouse. The parasite starts in cysts, these cysts grow inside the mouse; the parasite makes a mouse fearless and actually attracted to the smell of cat urine, therefore seeking out the urine, with the cat probably nearby. The now fearless, but not immortal mouse is killed and eaten by the cat and thus the parasite transfers to the next level of host. Now the T-virus has has not evolved (as far as science knows) to the point where it can control the cat and needs to move to another host but it can effect humans and is often transferred by accident. The parasite actually sexually reproduce inside the cat’s stomach than can be passed to other creatures through its waste. And thus can easily get into humans who contact Kitty Liter. Now this is the big part. Infected people show changes in personalities after being infected, males which were infected showed signs of aggression, jealously and suspicion, while interestingly, women seem to be more calm, relaxed and also have a raised IQ. Not to mention that Oxford Scientists believe roughly half of the human population is currently infected. The parasite does not seem to have much effect on the cats besides using them as a breeding ground but it can fully control rats and cause changes in humans. And the human and rat brains are very similar, thus why tests are done on rats. The issue is that toxoplasma gondii attacks the cells protecting neurons in the human brain and the failure of these cells is a known cause of schizophrenia. So it is not that much of a stretch to think the parasite could evolve to cause other changes in the human body and possibly cause even more severe actions, like potentially attacking other people. Especially considering the point of parasites is to evolve to spread and reproduce. Considering the T-virus is already effecting humans it would not be a stretch for it to continue to evolve in such a way. This is not the only parasite or disease to cause violence in humans: besides parasites, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Kratos disease and rabies can all cause a human to go mad and violently attack other humans with no seeming cause. Many crimes and violent acts may well have been committed by an otherwise normal person under the influence of toxoplasma gondii or another parasite or disease.

And maybe these diseases, viruses and parasites may take hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years to evolve that far. But maybe they already have? The small isolated outbreaks could in fact be specific instances of the parasite learning to control the human and spread itself through bites and infection. And it is only a matter of time until the entire species evolves this far.

Also consider how many bioweapons are created every year. Stories of viruses that could wipe out entire continents in mere days. What is to say these weapons scientists are not already pushing parasites toward this sort of behavior. It is already well known that many bioweapons have been created by making parasites, viruses and bacteria even more deadly. Combine the idea of figuring out how to make the parasite control the brain and spread it's infection with the ability to revive the dead. Sounds like a perfect sleeper, or "lost" madman to unleash on an enemies country or corporation, with no connection to the people who released this parasite spreading zombie.

It is only a matter of time before a parasite gets to the point at which it's human host can be completely controlled, perhaps by killing the host and controlling the brain through impulses, and the infection needs to reproduce and pass to new hosts, the easiest way to pass would be through direct contact, openings in both bodies, like mouths and wounds, like a bite. This is of course if the parasite has not already gone this far and the human race is still playing catch up.

Stay ever 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.