Zombies, Part 1

13 Responses

1. Hi Guys!

   You were talking about the Zombie course at the University of Alabama. I downloaded the UoA’s ‘Zombies! The Living Dead in Literature’ lectures from iTunes U a few months ago. Really good to listen to!

2. Was not expecting neurogenesis to come up in a podcast about zombies! But it totally made my morning since that’s part of my area of reearch! (neurognesis not zombies-although why would anyone say no to that?)

   But yes humans-along with a whole bunch of other animals (eg rats, primates, etc) continue to produce new neurons throughout the lifespan in the hippocampus (learning&memory) and the olfactory bulb (smell)! Exercise and an enriched environment increase, while stress and aging decrease neurogenesis. Crazily enough, learning can both increase AND decrease new neuron production!

   Maybe a zombie could be made w/ a combo of neural stem cells and those nanobot things? Although not sure whether neurogenesis is even needed for a zombie to exist/function–they seem to only be capable of simple behaviors and are kinda dense!

   Anyway thanks for an awesome podcast-i actually get all the vancouver/canada references and you guys make my commute bearable!

3. You should use the Cramps “Zombie Dance” as music for Part 2.

   1. There’s also “Zombie Love” from Calgary’s Eve Hell and the Razors: http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_5799668

      Or, i suppose Ozzy’s “Zombie Stomp” which is great until he starts singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vnrz8EcA8o

      And, of course, Jonathan Coulton’s wonderful “Re: Your Brains”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGcrVBcKvQA
      Which he also recorded in french, despite not knowing the language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBCJH_YuK80

4. Wade Davis’ other book is non-fiction, much more an examination of the phenomenon. Passage to Darkness it is called.

   1. Non-Fiction? Or, “Non-Fiction” (wink, wink)?

      1. Non Fiction, it is the distillation of his Ethnobotnic analysis of the zombie powder phenom in Haiti. Its about the science of the thing and how the tetrodetoxin works.

5. Zombie Apocalypse? Never fear! This guy’s got it covered.

   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2127759/Apocalypse-Doomsday-shelter-built-Kansas-prairie.html

   http://survivalcondo.com/documents/the_concept.html

   1. SPOILER ALERT!!! You know, there is a part 2 to this episode…..

6. Speaking as a Scotsman, South Africa would be waay waay too hot for the majority of us, and might reasonably qualify as hell as a result. When the temperature gets to 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), you get widespread joy and a lot of shirts off in Scotland. Anything higher, people get burned inside 20mins exposure. I am forced to assume that South Africa would be fatal in days.

   Also, FYI, in case anyone was serious, there are black people in Scotland (approx. 0.16% of the population according to a 2001 census: this figure likely to be higher as of current).

   1. So, it’s all the South Africans having delusions of comfort, then?

7. Was that a high five I heard at “STZ”?

8. Anyone remember Tom Petty’s instant classic “Zombie Zoo”? Great song but I think it was mostly about him disapproving of the parties and clubs his daughter went to. NB I haven’t looked at the lyrics too closely.