http-equiv='refresh'/> Consfearacynewz: The "zombie apocalypse" has begun

Friday, August 3, 2012

The "zombie apocalypse" has begun

Hard to believe that this is a real communication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, but it is! From the official CDC blog:
There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

A Brief History of Zombies

We’ve all seen at least one movie about flesh-eating zombies taking over (my personal favorite is Resident Evil), but where do zombies come from and why do they love eating brains so much? The word zombie comes from Haitian and New Orleans voodoo origins. Although its meaning has changed slightly over the years, it refers to a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead. Through ancient voodoo and folk-lore traditions, shows like the Walking Dead were born.
In movies, shows, and literature, zombies are often depicted as being created by an infectious virus, which is passed on via bites and contact with bodily fluids. Harvard psychiatrist Steven Schoolman wrote a (fictional) medical paper on the zombies presented in Night of the Living Dead and refers to the condition as Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome caused by an infectious agent. The Zombie Survival Guide identifies the cause of zombies as a virus called solanum. Other zombie origins shown in films include radiation from a destroyedNASA Venus probe (as in Night of the Living Dead), as well as mutations of existing conditions such as prions, mad-cow disease, measles and rabies.
The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen. In such a scenario zombies would take over entire countries, roaming city streets eating anything living that got in their way. The proliferation of this idea has led many people to wonder “How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?”
Well, we’re here to answer that question for you, and hopefully share a few tips about preparing for real emergencies too!
[continues at the official CDC blog]


Scientific Evidence for Zombies?
Outside of Haiti (and a few other places where belief in Voodoo exists), zombies were widely assumed to be nothing more than a legendary boogeyman, not unlike werewolves and vampires. However this changed in the 1980s when Wade Davis, a Harvard ethnobotanist, claimed to have discovered a secret “zombie powder” while doing field work in Haiti. The main active ingredient was said to be a neurotoxin which could be used to poison victims into a zombie-like state.
Voodoo magic was an unlikely source of zombies—but could science and medicine explain them? Davis wrote several books on the topic, including The Serpent and the Rainbow, later made into a horror film by director Wes Craven. Though the book was a public success, many scientists were skeptical of Davis’s claims, suggesting that they were exaggerated and that the amounts of neurotoxin in the powder samples he found were inconsistent and not high enough to induce the zombifying effects. While in theory the zombie power might work under certain ideal conditions, in the real world it would be very difficult to create a zombie with it; too little of the toxin would have only temporary effects, and too much could easily kill its victim.
Pharmacological doubts aside, there are other reasons to doubt the claim that people had for decades been turned into zombie slave labor. For one thing, the very process that would turn people into zombies (assuming it didn’t kill them) would leave them brain-damaged, uncoordinated, and slow -- in other words, hardly ideal farm workers.
Furthermore, the economics of zombie-making don’t make sense: Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with no shortage of very cheap labor to work farms and plantations. In a country where the average annual income is less than $2,000 there are plenty of able-bodied, non-zombified people willing to work for almost nothing. Unpaid zombie workers would still need to be clothed, housed, and fed, negating most of the potential profit from using them. And, of course, the sugar plantations allegedly filled with fields of zombies have never been found.

 

 

The Top Three Zombie Outbreaks in U.S. History

Like vampires, zombies are great opportunists. So it comes as no surprise that zombie outbreaks often happen in the wake of natural disasters. Combine disasters with warm climates and you truly have a recipe for a major outbreak, as the following stories prove.  

 Key West, Florida, 1935
Key West, 1935: Zombie
bodies prepared for disposal
On Labor Day, September 2, 1935, a major hurricane bore down on the Florida Keys, a string of islands separating the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane, one of only two Category 5 storms ever recorded in the United States, made landfall at Key West, the most populous of the keys. As day turned to night, heavy rains and winds of over 150 miles an hour rolled over the island, destroying virtually everything standing. Amid the destruction, infected rats began roaming the island, and by morning, the first of the zombies appeared. Many islanders mistook the zombies for dazed hurricane survivors and the plague spread across the island like wildfire. To make matters worse, the roads and bridges connecting the keys to the mainland had been washed out by the storm. The islanders had no way to escape. Scores of people drowned when they chose to leap into the choppy surf rather than face the voracious zombies. Within days, FVZA troops from all over the south converged on Key West in a variety of sea craft. They established a beachhead on the south side of the island and went about the process of extermination. It took three weeks to secure the island. A total of 3500 people were infected and destroyed, an enormous number considering that there was a zombie vaccine available at this time.

Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1863
1863 was the pivotal year of the American Civil War. The Union army, sensing victory, tried to deal a knockout blow to the Confederacy by taking control of the Mississippi River. After New Orleans fell to the Union, the city of Vicksburg remained as the last Confederate holdout on the big river. On May 18, 1963, 3200 Union troops arrived off the coast of Vicksburg and demanded an immediate surrender. But Confederate leaders refused, and the Union laid seige to the city. A month of heavy bombardment ensued.

A zombie attacks a Union
soldier in Vicksburg
On June 17, city residents spotted the first zombie, and within days, dozens were wandering about. This development hardly worried the 30,000 Confederate troops protecting the city; they entertained themselves by conducting target practice on the zombies. But with their supply lines cut off, the Confederate troops soon ran out of ammunition, and the zombies kept coming. To this day, Southerners claim that the Union let the zombie plague continue out of pure malice. In any case, when Union forces entered the city on July 3, hundreds of zombies were roaming the streets, many in Confederate Army uniforms with flagpoles in hand. As there was no FVZA at this time, the Union soldiers had to do the killing and they quickly found out that zombies, unlike soldiers, do not surrender. In the end, an estimated 2000 people were infected and destroyed at Vicksburg, almost as many as were killed in the Battle of Bull Run.
  
Hawaii, 1892
Queen Lili'uokal
At the beginning of the 1890s, Hawaii found itself in a tug of war between native islanders, who wanted the islands to remain independent, and powerful sugar growers who wanted to join the United States. Queen Lili'uokalani ascended to the throne in 1891 and promptly enacted a series of measures designed to weaken the influence of the sugar growers. However, her mind was soon occupied by different matters: in August of 1892, a zombie plague that had begun among Chinese laborers in the sugar cane fields of Oahu spread to Honolulu. Wave after wave of zombies came staggering out of the jungle, forcing desperate islanders to board outrigger canoes and flee to neighboring islands. Despite her fear of losing independence, the Queen had no choice but to ask the United States for help. A detachment of FVZA troops arrived in the fall and quickly wrested control of the city from the zombies. But the surrounding countryside proved more difficult to clear, and more FVZA agents were called in. The sugar growers took advantage of the chaos and panic by launching a coup, and the Queen was deposed. Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898, but they did not become the 50th star on the American flag until August 21, 1959.
There has long been suspicion that the sugar growers let the plague go in order to destabilize the queen, a suspicion strengthened by the fact that the top growers left Hawaii shortly after the outbreak began. Whatever the case, Hawaii's 1893 zombie outbreak killed just under 2000 people, making it the third-worst in U.S. history.

It's Bigger Than "Bath Salts" and "Zombie Apocalypses"

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/subhash-kateel/its-bigger-than-bath-salts_b_1562014.html


‘Zombie Attacks’: Secret Virus Or Collapsing Society?




Zombie Attacks Continue, as Man Eats Roommate in Maryland Dorm

 http://q103albany.com/another-zombie-attack/

Zombie attack! Flesh-eating blitz strikes nation's crime headlines

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/jun/21/zombie-attack-latest-florida

'Zombie attacks' spread through the Deep South 

http://now.msn.com/zombie-attacks-spread-through-the-deep-south

Another naked zombie attack injures two bite victims

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/07/11/another-naked-zombie-attack-injures-two-bite-victims/



Bath Salts Zombie Attacks Pennsylvania Hospital Staff, Woman Gave Birth Two Days Earlier

 http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/359964/20120705/zombie-apocalypse-bath-salts-new-mom-pennsylvania.htm



Another face-eating zombie attack, this time in China 

http://io9.com/5922871/another-face+eating-zombie-attack-this-time-in-china


'Zombie' attack Indianapolis video: David Martin fights off cops, stun gun shocks in 'ninja' attack



'Zombie' attacks continue? Man under the influence gets naked, bites off chunk of man's arm

http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/state/zombie-attacks-continue-man-under-the-influence-gets-naked-bites-off-chunk-of-mans-arm#ixzz22Wuislrz

Another zombie attack - New York mom on 'Bath Salts' attacks her three-year-old - VIDEOS





The long-dreaded "zombie apocalypse" may already be underway in Miami, where a human zombie — a mindless naked man — was encountered by police officers who found him literally feasting on the face of another naked man. This is a true event and has been reported by CBS Miami (http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/05/26/miami-police-confrontation-men-l...) which says:

"Miami police shot and killed a man on the MacArthur Causeway Saturday afternoon, and police sources told CBS4 they had no choice: the naked man they shot was trying to chew the face off another naked man, and refused to obey police orders to stop his grisly meal. ...Officers found one man gnawing on the face of another, in what one police source called the most gruesome thing he'd ever seen."

At that point, the police officers shot the zombie once, but he continued feeding on the other man's face. They were forced to shoot him again, which mercifully killed him. Then they sought to aid the victim whose face was already mostly eaten off.

"With the attacker dead, lying nude on the pavement, officers and paramedics were able to get to his victim and rush him to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Police sources say the man had virtually no face and was unrecognizable. Once the bizarre confrontation came to an end, police were left with the task of figuring out what had happened..."




A surveillance video has surfaced of the incident. Here's a still shot from the video, showing the two men lying on the sidewalk, under a road bridge, with a police car parked nearby:
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Miami_Zombie_Apocalypse.jpg

The Miami Herald also reported:"According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man's face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots."(http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/26/2818832/naked-man-shot-killed-o...


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