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1910 circa - Rosendaal bij Arnhem - Kettingbrug - historical zombie A vintage photo (postcard) from 1910 of a purported "zombie" shambling across a bridge in Arnhem, Netherlands.

Despite the palpable fear in the air I ventured out this morning and headed towards The City. Everything seemed calm- traffic flowing, street lights on- but I'm taking no chances. Even on Free Republic the normal early morning posts to the prayer threads and Religion Forum seem tense. I figured the rioting won't start until dawn when the government workers who are oh-so-vital to keeping our society funcitoning on every single level don't show up. Please post your updates as our society plunges into chaos, spins out of control, or whatever other cliche you'd like to use.

HALLOWEEN: Is this Barack Obama vampire card offensive? While shopping for Halloween cards at Target in San Bernardino, JoAnn Nelson was appalled when her 5-year-old granddaughter showed her this card. Nelson said she finds the card tasteless and offensive. ”I was disturbed and did not want my grandbaby to see this,” she wrote in an email.

An Oregon-based ad agency has been generating national attention for its ads promoting Cover Oregon, The Beaver State’s the version of an Obamacare health insurance marketplace. The generally pointless ads cost taxpayers $3 million, reports Fox News. They feature ostensibly catchy musical numbers and have sort of a hipster, granola, outdoorsy vibe. They offer no clue what they are about until the very end, when the words “Cover Oregon” appear on the screen along with a website. One version of the ad also bothers to list a phone number. Now, North, the Portland-based agency, wants high school marching bands to...

When the inevitable zombie apocalypse begins and brain-devouring hordes of the living dead start destroying civilization, Orlando will be prepared. Tucked away in strip mall off Sand Lake Road near International Drive is one of the country’s only shops dedicated to killing the undead: the Zombie Survival store. “ Zombies get people excited”, said owner Kurt Josephs, who also owns Josephs Liquor & Fine Wines located next door. “It’s a craze right now.” Stocked with surplus supplies from the U.S. Army and Navy, the Zombie Survival store has almost everything to combat flesh-eating zombies, including gas masks, boots, camouflage shirts,...

California university now teaching zombie survival online UC Irvine has just announced that it will be extending its studies of the human condition into the undead. By partnering with online learning platform Canvas and AMC, UC Irvine has created a class called "Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from AMC's The Walking Dead." The course, while clearly a bit of a gimmick, will cover a wide range of topics pertinent to surviving a zombie apocalypse. By enrolling, you'll be signing up to learn about subjects from "Nutrition in a post-apocalyptic world — are squirrels really good for you?" to "The spread of...

Zombie Pigeons Invade Moscow MOSCOW–This summer, zombie birds have come to Russia’s capital. In what some might compare to a horror film–or even a sign of the apocalypse–the streets of Moscow have been littered with dead and sick pigeons in the past week. Videos posted on the Internet show pigeons twisting their necks, walking backward in circles or standing completely still with their heads on the ground. Muscovites are calling them “zombie pigeons.” Corpses of those that don’t survive have been spotted across the city. Russia’s chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, said Friday that veterinarians had concluded the pigeons were...

China's Heat Wave Brings 'Dead' Man Back to Life BEIJING — Having the dead guy jump up for a drink probably wasn't part of the script. A staged protest claiming that city officials had beaten a sidewalk vendor to death in central China went awry when the man playing dead under a white sheet was overcome by the region's heat wave and sprang up to quaff a bottle of water, state media reported Monday. "It's too hot. I can't bear it anymore," the man was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua News Agency. More than 10 men had gathered Saturday...

Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse: Just Do the Math This equation could spell your doom: (bN)(S/N)Z = bSZ. That is, if you ever found yourself in the midst of a zombie pandemic. That's because the calculation describes the rate of zombie transmission, from one walking dead individual to many, according to its creators, Robert J. Smith?, a mathematics professor at the University of Ottawa who spells his name with a "?" at the end, and his students. Smith's work has inspired other researchers to create zombie mathematical models, which will be published with Smith's work in the upcoming book, "Mathematical Modeling...

No, those are not cars darting along a busy highway. The glowing specks you're seeing in this video (http://bit.ly/110LTfm) are millions of nuclei flowing through the tube-like filaments, or hyphae, of a single fungus cell. The video was produced as part of a study by UCLA mathematician Marcus Roper's research group that was the first to measure and explain this dynamic movement of nuclei in the cells of a fungus. "It's complex, beautiful and so dynamic," said Roper, an assistant professor of mathematics and the lead author of two new studies that cast light on how cells ingeniously adapt to...

Just the Facts: •The 2013 Hyundai Veloster Zombie Survival machine's official specifications, including such items as a samurai sword, flamethrower and machine gun, have been released. •The cabin features "storage solutions for ammo, weapons and a first-aid kit," according to Hyundai. •The car debuts today at Comic-Con International in San Diego. SAN DIEGO — The 2013 Hyundai Veloster Zombie Survival machine's official specifications, including such items as a samurai sword, flamethrower and machine gun, have been released. The second Hyundai zombie fighter promises to be the ultimate weapon in the fight against the walking dead. A vast array of weaponry...

GREENSBORO, N.C.– A massive fight in downtown Greensboro Saturday night has some city leaders taking a hard look at bringing back the teen curfew. Nearly 400 people were involved in the several fights that happened along Elm Street. Greensboro Police arrested 11 people ranging in age from 16 to 20-years-old. Officers had to use pepper spray and a stun gun to try to get the crowd under control. Greensboro Police Department had to call UNCG Police and Guilford County for extra help.

‘Zombie Obama’ Target maker debuts ‘Gun Lobbyist’ and ‘Al Sharpton’ models According to their website, Zombie Industries, the same company whose reactive targets resembling President Obama made a “big splash” at this years National Rifle Association’s convention in Houston, has debuted two new products: Gun Control Lobbyist and ‘Al Sharpton’ target mannequins. Riding the crest of the billion dollar ‘zombie wave’, this San Diego based company has brought shooters life-size targets that bleed for the past couple of years, routinely turning heads at gun shows and offending delicate sensibilities (the target maker recently renamed a female target, “Alexa”, originally called...

Israeli wall in 'World War Z' sparks questions NEW YORK — Brad Pitt's "World War Z" imagines a world overrun by a zombie pandemic, leading to an unlikely new global power structure. Two of the few countries that have kept the zombies at bay are Israel, which shelters Israelis and Palestinians behind a wall, and North Korea, which has removed the teeth of its citizens to prevent zombie biting. It's a curious portrait of geopolitics that's left some moviegoers scratching their heads. Is a wall of unity for both Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem an ironic commentary on the West...

Movies don’t come bigger than this, and zombie flicks tend to come an awful lot smaller. In Shaun of the Dead, the undead had to content themselves with snacking off a handful of British actors in a deserted pub. Here, it’s the future of humanity at stake. This time, Brad Pitt is here to save us, and the skies are soon full of crashing helicopters, screaming jets and stuntpeople being sucked out of aircraft. So what’s it like? Well, it’s awfully like all the epic action films made by Roland Emmerich, ranging from the nearly sublime (Independence Day) to the...

World War Z could be the most expensive flop in cinematic history. Brad Pitt's zombie action flick has been mired by negative publicity concerning rewrites, re-shoots and an inexperienced creative team that has caused the film's budget to increase from $170million to a reported $400million. Based upon Max Brooks's science fiction novel, the film now has the biggest budget ever recorded.

Syrian Rebel Bites Heart of Dead Soldier: Video BEIRUT (Reuters) - A video of a Syrian rebel commander cutting the heart out of a soldier and biting into is emblematic of a civil war that has rapidly descended into sectarian hatred and revenge killings, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. The New York-based group said an amateur video posted on the Internet on Sunday shows Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Farouq Brigade who is well known to journalists as an insurgent from Homs, cutting into the torso of a dead soldier. The video has caused outrage among both...

Obama the Zombie? Just a coincidence, says the company In response to the controversy over a Zombie-target resembling President Obama that was displayed at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting this weekend, Zombie Industries released a statement to MSNBC explaining that they sell the product in part to prove that they do not “discriminate against African-Americans.” They said, “any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or locales is entirely coincidental.”

"AMC has struck gold with its hit drama, The Walking Dead. The independent cable television company has created much more than a compelling zombie story. In fact, The Walking Dead is the highest rated show on television among the much chased after 18 to 49 year old demographic, according to The New York Times....... Technology is playing a role in the show’s success. Alexia Quadrani, a media analyst at JPMorgan, gives Netflix at least some of the credit...... AMC’s willingness to release its content onto video streaming services like Amazon Prime means viewers have a cheap and convenient way to...

"*So, “The Walking Dead” is pretty much the biggest thing on television right now. Check out the ratings for the season three finale: 12.4 million. That beats most scripted network shows. For a cable program to do that? It’s groundbreaking, really. It shows just how much people really do love seeing zombies getting impaled by various sharp objects. We love “The Walking Dead,” in spite of all of its flaws, like the snore-inducing second season (leave the #&%(-ing barn already!) and the constant behind-the-scenes drama that has robbed it of some momentum and focus. However, we do have one serious...