Archive for February, 2012
13 items.
I was reading an article on Live Science the other day about if it was possible to reanimate the dead or not. Although this article is about bringing someone who is clinically dead back to life, I have decided to take a look at the facts gained from it and examine the zombie condition.
The main point that the article argues is that although your heart may stop beating, and your breathing has ceased, there is still life inside a deceased corpse. The actual cells of your body can go on living for days after you have died. The article claims that if enough cells are still alive, the possibility to resuscitate the body may be possible. The real danger comes from the damage to brain cells after you die. It can only take up to 8 to 10 minutes of death before the cells in the brain become damaged enough to prevent resuscitation.
We might not have much to worry about from Zombie Homer, as we can assume his brain won't even last the 8 minute average... unless you take into account all that alcohol. Image Source: http://deliciouslydisheveled.blogspot.com/2011/05/brain-dead.html
What does this mean for our beloved zombie? Well first thing that I gained from this is that in order for a zombie condition to be effective in the body, the condition would have to infect the brain either before the death of the victim, or within the first 8 minutes of death. Otherwise the damage to the neurons that fire to create movement in the body may be too damaged to move the body. Keep in mind that this would be considering a viral infection, as magic by definition may defy our laws of science. By this logic however there is no concern for the dead rising from their graves as it takes much longer than 10 minutes to burry someone, and then that much longer for them to unbury themselves. This would make graveyards a safer place during the zombie outbreak. Also assuming the virus does not restore life to to the brain tissue, the zombie may only be functional for about 10 minutes. This leaves a zombie attack to be slightly anticlimactic.
Second thing we can learn from this would be about the life span of a zombie. Lets assume that the brain tissue is somehow preserved by our zombie virus. The article described the actual way that cells die, by leaking out the contents of the cells themselves. This would be the start of the decomposition process for a corpse. Unless something drastic is done to preserve the cells (such as embalming or freezing), the majority of the cells in your body will completely die and literally ooze themselves out in a few days. What we are concerned with is not the organs or the skin, but the muscle tissue. Without muscle tissue, our body does not move. As long as something is controlling the muscles of the body, the body is free to bite, claw, scratch and even eat whatever it wants. But once those muscle cells deteriorate to the point of uselessness, our once fearsome zombie ceases to be an effective killer. At this point we have to have a knowledge of how the body decomposes to tell how long it will be before the mussels will be damaged enough to prevent them from being used.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Decomposition_stages.jpg
Under normal, open air conditions, a decomposing body can be reduced to bone within two weeks. This time period can change depending on climate and other conditions such as availability to insects. But from this knowledge we can assume that between 5 to 10 days, under normal conditions the walking corpse should cease to be completely functional. This should bring heart to survivors, as assuming most, if not all infections will be done within the first two weeks of outbreak in a particular area, you are looking at dodging zombies in a single place for only about a month to a month and a halve to be on the safe side. Then, assuming proper disposal of remains and no re-infection occurs a place can be considered safe.
Now you will still have to be careful however, as bodies that are trapped in closed off buildings, underground, or in water will have a longer decomposition period. By rule, a body in water will decompose at halve the rate of one in the open air. One that is buried will decompose at about 1/8th of the rate of a body in the open air. One can only assume the rate of a body decomposing will be somewhere between the two rates. So I would give it at least 2 months before going near water, and 2 -4 months before I explored any large building.
One thing to keep in mind is that in places like a peat bog, the body can stop decomposing, and create a preserved body free of decomposition. Also dry environments will prevent decomposition as well. This makes areas like deserts, swamps and bogs very, very dangerous. The good news is that a lower majority of the population lives in places like these so coming across a preserved zombie will be less likely, but always be on your guard.
The point behind all this is that in most areas, the zombie threat will be reduced enough to be manageable within a few months. This can give you a time table as to when it will be safe to move back home.
Want to comment on today’s post? Leave a comment below or email me at penguinprince@grimcrew.com. You can also follow Dead Future on Facebook and Google +. You can also follow me on Twitter and Google +.
Till Fate brings our Future…
Penguin Prince
A lot of people claim to love zombies. I love zombies with almost reckless abandon. And I try to promote the zombie agenda every chance I get. But really what I do with this blog pails in comparison to what Byron Rempel does on an almost daily basis.
If Byron’s name sounds familiar, it’s because you may have seen him talked about during our Halloween special. And if you have been on Google + at all, you have probably seen one or two of his zombie creations pop up across your news feed.
Now if you go to Byron’s website you probably won’t see much. It is fairly new, but you can see some of his amazing transformations. Byron takes Google + members and turns them into zombies. Yes you can probably go to any comic convention and commission an artist to draw you as a zombie (I actually recommend this, support your local artists!) but Byron works mainly in the not so easy to use medium of watercolor, not to mention the occasional marker, finger paint, bug guts, and even real blood. This can give his work a kind of surreal look that’s very befitting of the entire zombie condition. In a chat I had with him last night he reveled to me that one day he hopes to complete a project using just blood. Now that will be something to see!
Byron zombified me at # 5 thanks to a commission from Martin Brandt.
The reason I’m writing about Byron’s work today is I wanted to bring awareness to the ambitious project he’s working on currently. Byron has embarked on a quest he calls the 1000 Zombies Project, where he will take the likeness of 1000 people and zombify them. Not only is he working towards a such a large work load but his project has a twist. The subject matter of every one of his works will be chosen by Google + users. According to Byron “This is a publicly funded and directed project.” He also goes on to say “…for example – if you wanted the Pope zombified, or Jesus, no problem. Maybe you want Hulk Hogan done just for shits and giggles, or a candid shot of your neighbor that you hate – go for it. You fund it, I’ll do it. Just no racism, hate or anything really stupid… I’ll mess up your boss for just 10 bucks!”
In addition to the no hate or racism exceptions Byron has also ruled out pornography for this project. But when he says you can pick any subject for his experiment, he means it. One recent commission requested that both he and his dog get the zombie touch. He has even done one of a fan and her child for a contest he did, although according to his posts he was really sorry for the child. You can also pick incidentals such as skin colors, and amount of blood and gore.
The minimum donation amount for a spot of the coveted 1000 is $10, but according to his website he will gladly accept larger donations. Donations go toward buying the supplies needed for the project as well as a portion of his living expenses as he has devoted all his time on this project and will not be accepting other commissions until this one is complete. If you would like to commission a zombie please see his website for instructions on how to donate via PayPal or money order.
If you would like to follow Byron and his project on Google + you can add him to your circles using this link. Don’t forget to support him by +1ing his pictures and sharing them when you can.
Ben Werdmuller was commissioned for #6
Want to comment on today’s post? Leave a comment below or email me at penguinprince@grimcrew.com. You can also follow Dead Future on Facebook and Google +. You can also follow me on Twitter and Google +.
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Due to extenuating circumstances (read I studied too much then fell asleep) I had to cancel this weeks scheduled zombie current events post. However rest assured if you enjoy my weekly advisement of zombies in the news, this segment will be back next Wednesday. In the mean time I figured I would talk about a game I have seen trailers for but otherwise payed little attention to.
If you have been in a Game Stop, or frequent any video game websites in the last few months, you have probably come across this little hottie in the cheerleader outfit that would never be sanctioned by any high school.
Image source: http://lockerz.com/s/167890519
I mean come on leg warmers? Really?
Juliet seems to be the only girl in the school who is not trying to eat her classmates and she thinks the whole zombie look is like totally gross. Apparently some douchebag kid name Sean took his animosity toward the world (but mostly his school) a little too far and decided to bring the apocalypse in all his over dramatic emo ways. And it’s up to Juliet to kick his ass in order to save the world, or whats left of it.
This Valentine’s day a new trailer for Lollipop Chainsaw was released showing a touching story on how the true love of Juliet’s life became a talking head strapped to her hip. Take a look.
Man I hope there is some explanation for that. Although most likely the explanation is going to be that Juliet is freaking crazy. As if you couldn’t tell.
When I first saw the trailer for this game in fall of 2011 I immediately wrote it off. It looked like to me that the developer was just trying the cash in on the zombie craze mixing in a little sex to appeal to some pervs out there. And that still may be true. But the more I watch these new trailers, the more I see that their is a storyline to this game and with Kadokawa Games putting a bit of importance to Nick and Juliet’s relationship and their partnership the storyline looks like it will have just a little more depth to it than hot girl in cheerleader uniform wields a chainsaw.
But seriously, drop kicking your boyfriend’s head at a zombie? Is that any way to show your loved one you care?
Another thing to point out about this game, it’s not even released yet, but Juliet Starling cos players are already showing up at conventions. It’s good to know that female gamers are even jumping on the band waggon with this one. It may go to show other gaming companies that you can appeal to a female audience without being stereotypical.
Image Source http://www.kamisama.fr/cosplay-cosplay-cosplay-juliett-lollipop-chainsaw-p57-photo-6965.html
Other news showing that this game is going to be big, Juliet was listed as # 19 in UGN’s 99 hottest fictional women in 2012. If you check Facebook and Twitter, Lollipop Chansaw has a combined total of over 20,000 followers. I even saw someone with a Lollipop Chainsaw tattoo. One thing is for sure this game is hitting it big, let’s just hope that the game play doesn’t let it’s fans down.
Lollipop Chainsaw is scheduled to come out some time later this year so look for it for the Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.
Want to comment on today’s post? Leave a comment below or email me at penguinprince@grimcrew.com. You can also follow Dead Future on Facebook and Google +. You can also follow me on Twitter and Google +.
Melee Weapon Review… Frying PanI know what you are thinking, “You have got to be kidding me! How could a frying pan be nearly an acceptable weapon against a zombie?” Well rest assured I feel the same way, a frying pan would be a horrible weapon to wield against a zombie. They would have to be a close combat weapon with little to no long range efficiency. You would have to train for years to effectively throw a frying pan at a zombies head to damage the brain, and then you would still have to hope it’s head has rotted enough to get through the skull. I do however know some mothers who’s accuracy is dead on with a frying pan so maybe you just have to have children.
But again these melee weapon reviews are supposed to go over unconventional weapons that could be used. And there may be a time when the frying pan is the closest and most suitable weapon you have nearby, so lets discuss some shall we?
I’m going to argue here that if your going to use any pan in a fight, you want it to be a cast iron skillet. No other pan is heavy enough, or durable enough to be able to withstand the fight.
A lot of frying pans are made of light weight materials such as aluminum to make it easier to lift and cheaper to sell. These frying pans tend to dent easily when dropped on the floor. After a few good whacks you will find your weapon with at the very least large dents, and worse curdled up to render it ineffective. A cast iron skillet can take a licking and keep on ticking. That’s why they are preferred for camping.
Awesome band, but not what we are talking about. Image Source: http://www.squidoo.com/skillet?utm_source=google&utm_medium=imgres&utm_campaign=framebuster
When looking for a good pan to use, you want to find one of solid construction. Again a cast iron skillet is one solid peace, so you don’t have to worry about the pan coming apart from the handle. Very few other pans out there will be in one solid peace. A lot of them have plastic handles, or the handles are secured to the skillet by small bolt like fasteners. It will do you very little good to hit a zombie with a pan to watch the handle break, or worse, have the pan separate from the handle,The weight of the pan will also be a big factor when using it as a weapon. Many pans as I have previously stated are lightweight. Although this means you can potentially swing it faster, this also gives it the disadvantage when looking for force of impact. Anyone who knows their physics knows to follow the equation F=ma or Force equals mass times acceleration. As I can’t get mass measurements for frying pans (really who calculates the mass of a frying pan?) I will use the weight to demonstrate my point. It’s not scientifically correct, but it will work. If anyone wants to argue my numbers please do it in the comment section below. Lets say you have a 12 in aluminum frying pan that weighs about 2 lbs. and you can swing the pan at a speed of 25 mph (what an average person probably swings a bat at), this would leave you 50 lb of force. So if you increase the weight to say the 8 lb of 12 in cast iron skillet, and swung it at the same velocity, you could get 200 lb of force. Keep in mind this does not take into consideration the arc of the swing, or any torque so these are just basic calculations. But simply put, if you can swing a heavier pan, your more likely to split the skull.
But how much force is required to crack or crush a human skull? Just a simple crack is about 8psi (pounds per square inch). To completely crush it (that’s our desired effect) it takes somewhere around 36. You can calculate the PSI by the equation P= F/A or Pressure = Force divided by Area. If we assume then that the area of contact to the skull will be around 5 square inches, then with the 2 lp frying pan we are looking at about 10psi. Enough to do some damage, but not crush the skull. With the 8 lp cast iron skillet we can get up to 40psi! That’s enough to get through the skull and hopefully smash some of the squishy parts inside. It may take you 2 whacks with the cast iron to get the job done, but no more than that.
Physics makes me hungry! Image Source : http://uncrate.com/stuff/lodge-pre-seasoned-cast-iron-skillets/
One more point of reference I want to talk about the frying pan being used as a weapon, and that’s technique. We did the above calculations with an assumption of 5 sq in of collision area. If you were to hit with the flat side of the pan, you are looking at a lot more area. This would provide a negative effect because then you will be reducing how much pressure (PSI) you are doing upon impact. You could still take that zombie out, but you will have to swing much harder. Instead, use the side of the skillet to provide the most bang for your buck. The advantage to this also is there will be less wind resistance so it will be easier to swing as well. This will also leave you the advantage of maneuverability of the pan. You can come down on the head with the pan swung like an ax, or take a baseball swing to the side of the head. The disadvantage would be the accuracy required to pull off such a hit would need to be better than with the flat side of the pan. But really when your that close, if you can’t swing and hit the head, your probably dead anyway.
So when your packing your emergency supplies for the run my suggestion in cookware would be the cast iron skillet. It may be heavier but it’s well worth the extra weight for a good make shift weapon. Not only will it provide tasty meals (ask anyone who has used one), but if it came down to it, you can use it as an effective weapon at the expense of your morning eggs.
Want to comment on today’s post or correct my calculations with more accurate numbers (I encourage it, better to find out now than later)? Leave a comment below. If you have any ideas for melee weapons I should cover, email me at penguinpowerster@gmail.com. You can also follow Dead Future on Facebook and Google +. You can also follow me on Twitter and Google +.
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Suburbia you say? Why would it be hard to survive in suburbia? Suburban areas are less populated, have plenty of safe houses to board up, cars to steal for get aways, and people who live in suburban areas probably have at least a gun or two stashed away for protection. So they should be a relatively safe place to be right?WRONG!I would say that next to a big city, suburban areas are the worst place to be during a zombie out break. The problems you have with suburban areas are that although less populated than say, downtown Atlanta, they are still populated. Take for example this little community below.
This is my aunt and unkel's community, it's small, but the number of people living here are still staggering if you think about it. Image Source: Google maps
This community has approximately 238 homes in it. Let’s say each home has approximately 4 people living in it, about the size of an average family in the United States. this leaves us with a potential of 942 zombies you may have to deal with. What this small little map doesn’t show you is that surrounding this community are 4 other communities that are larger than this one. Bringing our numbers way into the thousands.
Not to mention clearing out even one home could be a daunting task. Every room, every hallway, every closet, must be checked to be sure it’s safe. Imagine staying in a home you thought was safe to find out that it’s previous owners were locked in their bedroom (which will probably be a common thing to do). Safety tip: knock before entering any closed door. If a zombie is in it, it will be stirred by the noise and start moaning alerting you to it’s presents and you won’t be caught off guard.
Still want to try to survive it in suburbia? How many bullets do you have? Even if every homeowner had a pistol for protection (and they won’t) the amount of ammunition will still won’t be enough to take care of your zombie problem. Even hunters don’t carry that kind of ammunition. And even if you do come across a well stocked home, getting to the arms will be a problem because anyone who has that many guns will have a gun safe with the weaponry stored safely inside.
But what if you didn’t have a choice? How would you survive? Well, as we have just stated at the start of this post, many houses will be well stocked with supplies including food, water, basic medicine, flash lights, batteries and plenty of furniture to help seal off the entrances. If we assume you are borrowing someone Else’s abode, and have not been able to plan ahead of time the first thing you will want to do (after clearing the house from the undead), is of course get inside and seal all entrances. Close the garage, lock the screen doors, then lock the real doors. Make sure all windows are locked.
Next you want to secure the windows. Assuming Harry Homeowner did not keep plywood for every window in his house, the next best thing would be to utilize the furniture to block all windows on the first floor. Slide the China Hutch in front of that sliding glass door, prop the dining room table against the windows along with the couches turned on their sides. Bring the beds downstairs if you have to, but get those windows blocked off. If a window should happen to break, at least the zombies would then have to get thorough several feet of wood and padding before they can try to munch on you.
Boarded up house... Abandoned or zombie proof? If you can't tell, then neither can looters. Image Source http://adayinthehood.blogspot.com/2010/11/sunday-walk-down-my-back-lane.html
Besides the extra protection, blocking off the windows also prevents the zombies, and looters from seeing inside the house. This may dissuade some people from trying to get in and the less stubborn of the zombies should look for food elsewhere if they can’t spot you. You may want to also ensure that heavy curtains are utilized on the upper floors of the house as well. This may prevent the zombies from seeing any light in the house at night.
Next you will want to set up on an upper floor. Living on the first floor would be a bad idea because then you may accidentally re-alert the undead to your whereabouts. And for the love of the Gods, never set up camp in the basement. Avoid the basement at all costs. If for some reason the zombies catch you down there it will be real hard for you to get out, literally fighting an uphill battle. At least on the 2nd story of a building you could find a way to take out the stairs and prevent the zombies from getting upstairs.
The next rule that needs to be implemented is an open door policy. Not the front door of course, but the rest of the house should always have every door open at most times. The reason for this is that you don’t want to open up a door to a room you thought was safe to find out your buddy has been hiding a festering bite for the last two days. If all doors are open, no one walks in on a surprise. And again, always knock before entering any room.
Scavenging will most likely be necessary unless you happened to pick the one house on the block that was owned by the town conspiracy theorist. Great news is your probably in a subdivision with many houses to loot. Bad news is that because it’s again a suburban area, many places have probably already been looted, or your going to run into zombies. Remember when scavenging you want to keep your eyes on the prize. A TV will not do you any good. Water, food, medicine, and fortification supplies/weapons are your priorities, in that order. You want to be quick on your feet, so don’t try to take too much at one time. If you find a treasure trove, try to hide it, and come back for more later when it’s safe. Try not to draw attention to yourself. There is no proof that zombies have the mental capacity to distinguish colors, but it won’t hurt to dress in darker cloths to stay camouflaged. Stay quiet, and avoid the use of firearms unless absolutely necessary. Pick your targets carefully. Scouting out the area from the safety of the roof of your building will tell you what houses look like they haven’t been touched, and what one’s to avoid. Keeping good track of where you’ve been will prevent you from accidentally searching the same place twice.
If you can secure the back yard, the benefits would be substantial. This would give you an area to grow a garden and a better place to get rid of wastes. However with the number of undead we are talking about your security better be substantial. If it’s not surrounded by concrete or brick, It’s probably not safe enough. Remember, we are talking about potentially thousands of undead around your house. Even several hundred would render a chain link fence useless, so think about what thousands of hungry undead could do to a 6 foot privacy fence. Other potentially useful security features can be, an electric fence (if you have electricity), and barbed wired perimeter (won’t kill a zombie but they could tangle themselves up). The problem with all of this is that unless it’s your house and you have prepared beforehand, there is no way to set any of these up safely.
At some point in time however your going to need to escape. Supplies will run out, or you will get over run by undead. How do you escape when surrounded? Large vehicles may be able to plow through some zombies and at least get you a safer distance away from the hoards surrounding your previous abode, but not from a dead stop. So you had better have a good escape plan.
One way to escape a surrounded building, is the roof. This sounds like insanity, but it’s better than trying to fight through a hoard of undead. If two houses are close enough together, you may be able to escape to another rooftop. This is extremely risky but you were about to die anyway right? Before you have to enact a daring escape, you should plan your method of rooftop hopping ahead of time. Finding a way to string rope from one house to another may be your only option. Creating a grappling hook may help, but if you don’t have one, or the suitable materials to make one, try tying the rope to a large heavy object like a brick. If you can throw the brick through a neighboring window, you may be able to get it stuck enabling one person to escape. Once that person is safely at the other house, they can better secure the rope to allow others to escape as well. You can also try to get the brick stuck on another solid object like a chimney, but whatever you do, don’t rely on the gutters as they will not support the weight. Of course if during a scavenging expedition you can set up the rope system ahead of time, that would be ideal. An ounce of prevention equals not being eaten by zombies.
Image source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3648312/Sex-attackers-roof-escape-bid.html
You may have to jump several rooftops until you are in a safe enough area to escape, however once you are out of harms way, you should try to steal a set of wheals to get you far enough away that you have a chance of survival. Again, planing ahead of time is the key here to find a house with a suitable vehicle.You could even have the vehicle stocked with necessary supplies in advance. If it’s parked in a garage, you will have the best bet of a safe escape.
Once you are out in the open, be sure to have a plan. Know where you are going and how to get there. Getting lost in the subdivision after your daring escape would be a pitiful way to die. Have maps ready and plan your travel plans in advance.
My suggestion however is to get the frak out as soon as possible. Head to lesser populated areas. Again, plan ahead.
What do you think? Agree, disagree, or have a better idea? Leave a comment in the comment section below.
Do you have an idea for our zombie blog? Email me at penguinprince@grimcrew.com. You can also follow Dead Future on Facebook and Google +. You can also follow me on Twitter and Google +.
Every month I have a goal of reading a new book I figured because I have this blog that I should read zombie books and then because I want to keep the blog on time, it would be a good way to reach my goals.So for this book review I read Zachary Zombie and the Lost Boy A story for demented children by John H. Carroll. Yes its a children’s book. No it’s not cheating on my goal. Shut up your logic.
Image Source http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/54691
I’m an adult reviewing a children’s book. I first must say that I have long ago surpassed the age where the wonderful world of reading and imagination has delighted me to the point that I can read a children’s book and be held in awe. The last time I felt like that, I was reading James and the Giant Peach in elementary school. So there were many times I wanted to put this book aside to pick up another. But I keep telling myself that even if you don’t like a book, in order to be a good reviewer you have to review things objectively. Not that this was a bad book, just that again, children’s books don’t tickle my fancy.
I will say for a children’s book, be carefull before you give it to your child. The book deals with things that might not be suitable for all children, like for instance the accidental suicide of a drama queen which was funny, but not appropriate for young children. It was elements like these that left me wondering if Mr. Carroll is really intending this for a child’s audience. Even if he was shooting for teens and more responsible older children, the writing style tends to feel appropriate for children learning to read longer stories. Imagine a book like A Series of Unfortunate Events, written for your 7 year old.
The book starts off telling you about the adventure of Tobias who wandered into the woods trying to catch an emo bunny for a pet (I swear to the Gods I’m not making that up) when he gets lost and runs into Zachary Zombie. Zachary decides to help Tobias find his way back home and they end up having some miss-adventures along the way.
I can not really give you any complaints about this book. I love how Mr. Carroll keeps trying to keep the book into the realm of children’s book even though it have things like undead on undead violence, and a largely morbid sense of humor. He accomplishes this though lines like “His mother would be very proud of him for saying please,” and “Zachary was very impressed that the boy said please.” This was a reoccurring theme in the book just going to show you, you can be a creepy little kid, just remember your manors.
Even the scenes in the book that were a little excessively morbid for children (like the aforementioned accidental suicide), Mr. Carroll still found a way to present them from a child like perspective. Instead of saying “she fell,” he mentioned that she ran the other way, then happened to remember she was on a cliff.
If you have 20 minutes, take the time to pic this book up from Amazon.com. It’s free for your Kindle and is a decently humorous read. If you have a child, you will defiantly find it entertaining and a delightful break from the constantly clean and shiny world of children’s literature. However if you are no fun at all and life has sucked all the happiness and innocence away from you, maybe you should go sit with the emo bunnies.
Please feel free to post a comment below. If you have a child tell me if you would recommend this book to your children. If you have a book you would like me to review, please feel free to email me at penguinprince@grimcrew.com. For more from Dead Future, be sure to check out our Facebook and Google + pages. You can also hear more from me on my personal Twitter and Google + pages.
Till Fate brings our Future,
Penguin Prince
Guns are a new thing to me. I’ve just started getting into guns and the various variables related to them. That being said, guns are an inevitable part of dealing with zombies. Fact. At some point if you want to survive you better know how to shoot a gun. For this reason I felt it would be a good idea to include gun segments into this blog. Keep in mind you are reading the thoughts of someone who is just learning. Any “advice” I give here is what I’ve heard from other people and I have not tested it from a professional stand point. Also anything expressed in this blog are the thoughts and opinions of myself and are not necessarily shared by Grim Crew, Raven Warren Studios or any of it’s affiliates. Grim Crew does not support the use of firearms on any living human, and nor do I. A zombie on the other hand…
I mentioned on Wendsday’s blog that I wanted to do a gun review featuring Zombie Max bullets. Anyone who has gone to a gun shop recently have probably seen these things and have been at least curious.
With the wide spread popularity of the zombie recently it was just a matter of time before ammunition manufacturers jumped on the band waggon. I had a previous blog in which I was upset that there was a Ruger LCP that was being marketed as a zombie gun. I had been upset because the gun specifically used in the sale looked cheep. To this day I still haven’t seen this gun sold so I don’t know why there was an advertisement for it, however my point was that I don’t like the zombie name being used just to sell products. That being said, I don’t feel that way towards the Zombie Max bullets.
The bullet itself is an actual live peace of ammunition. Put it in your gun, and it will fire. It fires just as well as Horandy’s other ammunition, which reportedly is well. Horandy is one of the leading manufacturers of ammunition and is a trusted name in the gun industry. This has reassured me because had this been just a cheep product I’d be angry. The reviews I have read on these say that they are reliable and they do the job they were designed to do. So really there is no argument here about that.
The Zombie Max ammunition comes in various calibers. 9MM Luger, 40 S&W, 45 AUTO, 223 REM, 7.62X39 (for AK47), 308 WIN, and 12 gage shot. If your interested in the ballistics analysis on each caliber, you can visit Horandy’s website for more details. If you actually compared the ballistics charts for the Zombie Max ammunition to Horrandy’s Critical Defense line, you would see that they are the same. So really this is the statistical proof that they are descent rounds.
Image Source http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2011/10/hornady-introduces-green-tipped-zombie-max%E2%84%A2-ammunition/
The difference really comes in the casing. Zombie Max is brass cased, as compared to the Critical Defense line the has nickle plated brass casings. The difference (besides color) is that nickle plated casings are more reliable for the feed from clip to chamber. Some also argue that a nickle plated case is easier to see in lower level light, so if you needed to check if you were chambered, or needed to police your rounds, it would be easier to do that. However most handguns now come with indicators telling you if you have any rounds chambered and in a self defence situation, you won’t really be worried about policing your rounds, you will be more worried about saving your hide.
Besides the casing Zombie Max bullets also have a green flex tip. This really doesn’t matter, just a matter of preference of color. Critical Defense has a red flex tip. Either one is going to go through a zombie skull the same way so it really doesn’t matter.
The pricing for these rounds are about the same price as the Critical Defense line as well. You are looking at about $20 for a box of 25 rounds in the 9MM. If you had to choose, for the money I would go with the Critical Defense for your every day practice and self defense just because of the nickle plated casing. If you find the Zombie Max on sale, go ahead and get it. It is a quality product and will work just as well. If you want them just for the novelty factor, well that’s your preference.
If you have any suggestions for future blogs, please feel free to email me at penguinprince@grimcrew.com. If you have anything to say regarding today’s blog, you can post a comment below. For the latest on Dead Future posts and updates, feel free to like us on Facebook, and add us to your circles in Google +. For more from me, you can follow me on Twitter and Google +.
Till Fate brings our Future,
Penguin Prince
College students have way too much time to make metaphors for the human condition. Case in point. In the University of Colorado, Hunter Ewen has made a performance peace that plunges you in a dark room, flashes media clips on the walls, has balloons all over the place, aerial dancers, and lets not forget, zombies. According to our source, Mr Ewen’s hope is to provide an experience that expresses how we perceive television media and how we have developed “zombie-like tendencies toward television.” Not even attending I can envision Mr. Ewen’s intentions and I really hope he has proven his point. The idea sounds very artsy and fantastic and would be worth a visit to the temporary exhibit. Unfortunately by the time you will read this, the performance will be over as it was only available this last weekend. You can read more about it from our source. Original Source : http://www.coloradodaily.com/news/ci_19879754#axzz1lRjY7j48.
About two weeks ago I reported about an epic game that was going to be played in at North Carolina State university called Humans Vs. Zombies where the entire campus was going to be used in a Nerf Tag like game where players who were zombies tried to infect human players. The game was to last an entire week and sounded like it would be a blast. Well someone’s fun was interrupted when a party pooper called police and reported that there were people with guns on campus. According to the source the person being reported actually contacted police themselves to clarify the situation after hearing his description in the reports. My view on this is mixed. I think it’s good that people are being vigilant and cautious and keeping an eye out each other. On the other hand, this game was highly advertised as it made the news in several places. Someone just didn’t put two and two together when freaking out. Luckily classes weren’t interrupted and business on compass continued as normal, but no word as to if the game itself was put on hiatus due to the security alert that was issued. Original Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57368373-504083/zombie-role-playing-game-sparked-n.c-campus-security-alert/
I was going to go over these in an upcoming guns blog however with as much as I’ve been seeing these things in the news I thought I had better put up a brief mention of them here as well. Anyone who has been to a gun shop recently has probably seen these.
Source http://www.hornady.com/ammunition/zombiemax
Cashing in on the zombie craze Hornady Manufacturing has created live amunition rounds being marketed as Zombie Max bullets to be used on the undead. Although they cost the same as normal bullets, and don’t do anything special, these things are selling like hotcakes. They may just be a novelty, but then again, that’s why people buy them. Reportedly however, according to my source article, these bullets are quality rounds and some people are buying them because of that. It’s like I keep saying, if your going to use zombies for your marketing, make your product of a good enough quality to deserve that marketing, and people will buy it. Original Source: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20120201/ARTICLES/120209972/1042/news?p=1&tc=pg&tc=ar
Source http://www.youtube.com/show/biteme
If you have followed the super popular web series “Bite Me” hosted by Machinima, you may be happy to know that a second season has been scheduled. Not only will it still be on the YouTube based Machinima network, but will now also be hosted on FEARNet. For those not in the know, “Bite Me” is a zom-com series featuring three gamers who get stuck in a real life zombie apocalypse. You can follow the searies here. Original Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/machinimas-bite-me-zombie-comedy-286913
My last two things I wanted to squeze into today’s blog. This sunday will be the restart of The Walking Dead on AMC. Those of you following this season so far will be anxious to get to the conclusion of some of the plot lines. Join me on Sunday in watching this epic story.
Finally I wanted to give a happy belated birthday to the father of the modern day zombie, George A. Romero. Mr. Romero’s birthday was last Saturday, and in an effort to celebrate, a Facebook campaign was organized to have a simultaneous screening of Night of the Living Dead. If you missed it, find it and watch it sometime this week, and join me in wishing Mr. Romero a happy birthday by posting a comment at the end of this blog.
Don’t forget that if you find a zombie current event you would like to share, email me at penguinprince@grimcrew.com. You can also follow Dead Future on Facebook and Google +. You can also follow me on Twitter and Google +.
Till Fate brings our Future,
Penguin Prince
