John Sears | April 13, 2011
Here at the ZRC we’ve reported quite a few times on the hysterical Zombie-bashing that results when journalists learn about Toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disorder whose precise effects are as yet unknown, but which may subtly and slightly alter behavior. Cracked put out a book flogging the disease in connection with a ‘Zombie Apocalypse’. Pop-science ‘journalists’ [...]
John Sears | March 13, 2011
A truly disturbing story out of Georgia, where apparently ‘Zombie’ has become a code word for people the police find undesirable and want to defame, even harass: WARNER ROBINS — The houses along the half-mile street, Southern Avenue, are outwardly worn, and the people who live in the neighborhood are well-aware the street is ridden [...]
John Sears | March 3, 2011
Namely, is the pickle, in fact, a Zombie Cucumber? Inquiring minds want to know. The ‘Kawaii Not’ take puts a humorous spin on the ‘horror’ of Zombiedom as well as the notion of labeling just about anything a ‘Zombie’ these days: Mmmm… undead dill deliciousness. Taste the horror! I mean, let’s face it. Cucumbers are [...]
John Sears | February 26, 2011
A new web game put out by one Mike Lacher uses the power of Google Street View to create its own Zombie Apocalypse… sort of: Enter a location and run from zombies inside street view. Please use Google Chrome (Safari tends to be okay too). This is rather experimental, so please let me know if [...]
John Sears | February 8, 2011
Just a short post as once again, we find people using the word ‘Zombie’ to describe something they disapprove of being unusually resilient or durable: Is it Halloween already? Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is bringing a discontinued chipset back from the grave, zombie-style. Citing “specific requests from computer makers” after “extensive discussions” on the topic, the [...]
John Sears | January 3, 2011
Apparently there’s a new plugin for Firefox/Thunderbird to help solve the pesky problem of typing odd characters not found in your native language’s character set: Have you ever been in a situation where you had to write a special character that does not exist in your native language? Maybe it was an ü and you [...]
John Sears | December 30, 2010
I know, I know; another day, another questionable use of the term ‘Zombie’: A geostationary satellite that become a “zombie” earlier this year and stopped communicating with ground controllers has now finally been reset and is under control. The Galaxy 15 communications satellite had its “brains fried” by a solar flare and went rogue in [...]
John Sears | December 28, 2010
I mean, just look at the title: “You Might Be A Zombie and Other Bad News” How exactly is that ‘bad news’, Cracked.com? For the blanket assumption that being a Zombie is somehow automatically ‘bad’ news alone, I think we can most likely peg this one as Anti-Zombie. When you read the description, though, it [...]
John Sears | December 20, 2010
I can’t think of any other particularly good explanation for his continued abuse of the term ‘Zombie’ in talking about whatever persistent untruths are bugging him (today) about his chosen profession, Economics. A field which seems to be slightly less scientific than, say, Baron Mardi’s magic sombrero ritual to raise the dead. We’ve previously seen [...]
John Sears | December 9, 2010
I know this is starting to resemble beating a dead horse (which would be cruel, and if the horse was Zombified, actively against our mandate) but could we please, PLEASE stop using the word ‘Zombie’ to signify anything with which a writer actively disagrees and wishes would disappear? Examples abound: Academics have also begun to [...]