How a Zombie Outbreak Could Happen in Real Life

Monday, June 11th, 2012

Ed Grabianowski suggests how a zombie outbreak could (semi-plausibly) happen:

In virtually every zombie scenario, zombies are able to function despite increasing levels of physical deterioration due to injury or decomposition. There has to be some mechanism for transmitting neural impulses from the brain to various body parts, and for providing energy to muscles so they can keep operating.

The most common science fictional explanation for zombie outbreaks is a virus — but viruses and bacterial infections are not known for building large new physical structures within the body. So let’s count viruses out. Instead, the need for a mechanism to activate deteriorating body parts actually provides the cornerstone of what is, in my opinion, the strongest theory: fungal infection.

We know that fungi can infect humans. We also know that fungal networks exist in most of the world’s forests. These mycorrhizal networks have a symbiotic relationship with trees and other plants in the forest, exchanging nutrients for mutual benefit. These networks can be quite large, and there are studies that demonstrate the potential for chemical signals to be transmitted from one plant to another via the mycorrhizal network. That, in turn, means that fungal filaments could perform both vascular and neural functions within a corpse.

This leads us to the following scenario: microscopic spores are inhaled, ingested, or transmitted via zombie bite. The spores are eventually dispersed throughout the body via the bloodstream. Then they lie dormant. When the host dies, chemical signals (or, more accurately, the absence of chemical signals) within the body that occur upon death trigger the spores to activate, and begin growing. The ensuing fungal network carries nutrients to muscles in the absence of respiration or normal metabolism.

Part of the fungal network grows within the brain, where it interfaces with the medulla and cerebellum, as well as parts of the brain involving vision, hearing and possibly scent. Chemicals released by the fungi activate basic responses within these brain areas. The fungi/brain interface is able to convert the electrochemical signals of neurons into chemical signals that can be transmitted along the fungal network that extends through much of the body. This signal method is slow and imperfect, which results in the uncoordinated movements of zombies. And this reliance on the host’s brain accounts for the “headshot” phenomenon, in which grievous wounds to the brain or spine seem to render zombies fully inert.

Posted in Media, Science | 3 Comments »

10 Best Changes Game of Thrones Made to A Clash of Kings

Sunday, June 10th, 2012

Charlie Jane Anders lists the 10 best changes Game of Thrones made to A Clash of Kings. I’m not as impressed with the changes.

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Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is often misinterpreted:

He says the culprit in Fahrenheit 451 is not the state — it is the people. Unlike Orwell’s 1984, in which the government uses television screens to indoctrinate citizens, Bradbury envisioned television as an opiate. In the book, Bradbury refers to televisions as “walls” and its actors as “family,” a truth evident to anyone who has heard a recap of network shows in which a fan refers to the characters by first name, as if they were relatives or friends.

In a video interview on his site, he says:

Fahrenheit is not about censorship. It’s about the moronic influence of popular culture through local TV news.

(I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.)

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D-Day

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

Just before the greatest amphibious landing in history, General Eisenhower addressed his men:

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen. The greatest amphibious landing in history involved no Marines.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

FDR originally coined the term United Nations for what we now call the Allies.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Patton’s speech to the Third Army is more colorful:

Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle…Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.

…There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily. All because one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did.

…My men don’t dig foxholes. I don’t want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don’t give the enemy time to dig one either. We’ll win this war, but we’ll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we’ve got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We’re not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we’re going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks.

…I don’t want to get any messages saying, ‘I am holding my position.’ We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose….

…From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don’t give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.

Posted in Media, War | 2 Comments »

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

Ray Bradbury has passed away, at the age of 91. I can remember reading a borrowed copy of Fahrenheit 451 in one school day in eighth grade. I don’t know whether the teachers failed to notice or they opted to show some discretion in ignoring my transgression that day.

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The First Transhumans

Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

Jess Nevins calls early bodybuilder Eugen Sandow and his followers the first transhumans and describes the backlash that followed the Physical Culture movement’s stunning growth:

In 1905 Staff Surgeon A. Gaskell, in the British Statistical Report of the Health of the Navy for the Year 1905, claimed that “the physically strong man as trained by the original Sandow or other system withstands the attacks of disease very badly,” and that the strong man who is the product of Physical Culture rarely reaches old age, and is, in Gaskell’s words, “a giant with muscles of brass and, in a constitutional sense, feet of clay — that the strong man is a whited sepulcher.” In 1907 Herbert Forder, a former instructor at Sandow’s school, turned on his former employer, describing the “utter worthlessness of Sandowism.” By the mid-1930s official opinion of Physical Culture was almost universally negative, and American physical educators claimed that Physical Culture as a movement was based on “faulty conceptions of human nature.”

Nor was Sandow exempt from criticism. H.G. Wells parodied Sandow and the marketing and claims of Physical Cultures in Tono-Bungay in 1909. Rumors spread during World War One that Sandow was a German spy, and in 1915 the San Francisco Chronicle claimed that he’d been executed in the London Tower by the British government for spying.

The Physical Culture Movement had been aimed at the working and middle classes, and the Physical Culture bodybuilders had advertised themselves as beings that any follower of Physical Culture could become, and the bodybuilder superhumans of popular fiction were often explicitly described as being ordinary people apart from their superhuman physical abilities. But the working and middle classes, the intended audience for Physical Culture’s claims, eventually turned on the movement. A typical reaction appears in James Joyce’s Ulysses, in which Leopold Bloom sees Sandow as the last hope for “rejuvenation” but also feels intimidated by Sandow and by his own failure to live up to Sandow and his exercise regimen. After the enthusiasm for Physical Culture faded, the common reaction to the movement and to the prospect of potential superhumanity, available to all, was insecurity, depression over the inability to achieve it, and envy toward those who had. Envy, as it will, became jealousy, and then dislike, spreading from individuals to the movement itself.

Adding to this dislike was the embrace of Physical Culture by the nascent American and British fascist movements in the late 1920s and early 1930s and then by the Nazi party in Germany in the mid-1930s, and by Physical Culture’s embrace of fascism. Interest in the Physical Culture movement surged in the 1920s and 1930s after a post-World War One wave of fears over the physical decline of the white race. But many in the Physical Culture movement saw fascism as the answer to this problem, just as many British, American, and German fascists celebrated the “body beautiful” and saw Physical Culture as the best way to achieve it. Many in Physical Culture reacted negatively to the fascists in the movement, but to the American and British public only saw the linkage between Physical Culture and fascism.

The backlash was slower to appear in popular fiction, but was more emphatic. From 1919 to 1954, roughly 75% of all superhumans in popular fiction outside of comic books either lost their powers, had them fade away without explanation, or got married and abandoned using their superhuman abilities. Doc Savage, The Shadow, and The Avenger were the most popular superhumans in the pulps. Each began with superhuman abilities: Doc Savage, his strength; The Shadow, his ability to cloud men’s minds so they could not see him; and The Avenger, his ability to rearrange the muscles in his face so he can take on any other person’s features. By the Avenger’s last appearance in 1944, an operation has cured the facial paralysis which gave him his superhuman ability. By Doc Savage’s last appearance, in 1949, he is simply a talented, strong human being, his superhuman strength having disappeared years before without explanation. By the Shadow’s last appearance in 1954, his powers have disappeared and he is merely a standard private detective.

Numerous other examples appear. In 1931 Philip Strange is “the Brain Devil,” an ESP-wielding pilot and agent of American Army Intelligence; by 1939 Strange’s mental powers have faded away and he’s just another pulp flying spy. In 1940 the Red Knight has superstrength, invisibility, and mind control. In 1943 he loses his powers during a mission in Japan. In 1940 Scarlet O’Neil can turn invisible by pressing a nerve on her left wrist. By 1949 O’Neil is merely a fast-talking crime-busting reporter, her invisibility long-since forgotten. In 1919 cowboy Dan Barry can talk to animals. In 1923 he is turned into a villain and killed by his lover. In 1939 the Black Bat can see in the dark thanks to an eye transplant. By 1953 that ability is gone. And so on.

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Mongrel & The Wrath of the Ape King

Friday, June 1st, 2012

I find this tribute to rotoscoped fantasy cartoons — like Heavy Metal and Fire and Ice — not good, but oddly compelling:

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The Seven Geases by Clark Ashton Smith

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

Clark Ashton Smith somehow failed to make it into Appendix N of the original Dungeon Master’s Guide, Gygax’s list of inspirational and educational reading.

This stands out when you read a few passages from The Seven Geases (1934):

The Lord Ralibar Vooz, high magistrate of Commoriom and third cousin to King Homquat, had gone forth with six-and-twenty of his most valorous retainers… He and his followers were well armed and accoutered. Some of the men bore coils of rope and grappling hooks to be employed in the escalade of the steeper crags. Some carried heavy crossbows; and many were equipped with long-handled and saber-bladed bills which, from experience, had proved the most effective weapons in close-range fighting with the Voormis. The whole party was variously studded with auxiliary knives, throwing-darts, two-handed simitars, maces, bodkins and saw-toothed axes. The men were all clad in jerkins and hose of dinosaur-leather, and were shod with brazen-spiked buskins. Ralibar Vooz himself wore a light suiting of copper chain-mail, which, flexible as cloth, in no wise impeded his movements. In addition he carried a buckler of mammoth-hide with a long bronze spike in its center that could be used as a thrusting-sword; and, being a man of huge stature and strength, his shoulders and baldric were hung with a whole arsenal of weaponries.

[...]

Most of the caves were narrow and darksome, thus putting at a grave disadvantage the hunters who entered them; and the Voormis would fight redoubtably in defense of their young and their females, who dwelt in the inner recesses; and the females were fiercer and more pernicious, if possible, than the males.

By the way, geas is the Scottish spelling of an old Gealic word for a magical obligation — and it is not pronounced like geese, but more like gesh:

In Irish mythology and folklore, a geis is an idiosyncratic taboo, whether of obligation or prohibition, similar to being under a vow or spell.

The geis is often a key device in hero tales, such as that of Cúchulainn in Irish mythology. Traditionally, the doom of heroes comes about due to their violation of their geis, either by accident, or by having multiple geasa and then being placed in a position where they have no option but to violate one geis in order to maintain another. For instance, Cúchulainn has a geis to never eat dog meat, and he is also bound by a geis to eat any food offered to him by a woman. When a hag offers him dog meat, he has no way to emerge from the situation unscathed; this leads to his death.

(Hat tip to The Mule Abides.)

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Incredible Hulk Anatomy

Monday, May 28th, 2012

Glendon Mellow produced this anatomical illustration of the Incredible Hulk’s skull, with inspiration from his mother’s nursing school anatomy textbooks and from gorilla and hominid ancestor skulls:

TOP LEFT

  • The Hulk Reviewed
  • Points of interest concerning the osteological and muscular systems.

TOP LEFT: The Skull

  • Note muscle-anchoring protuberances and ridges not found in average frontal and zygomatic bones.
  • Enlarged and bifurcated nasal cavities; see Appendix 3.1 for discussion and speculation of respiratory efficiency. See also; ribcage and spinal cord sinuses.
  • Note disproportion of maxilla to mandible.

TOP RIGHT: The Skull

  • Grossly enlarged frontal fontanelle, similarity to Zinjanthropus found in 1959.
  • Three scars unhealed grazing left ocular cavity; unusually, no traces of foreign molecules present.
  • Connective tissue spurs above eyeteeth at gumline.
  • Note complete absence of tooth decay or erosion.
  • Analysis of blood vessel to marrow ratios reveals skeletal system itself surprisingly fragile relative to comparisons with muscle and tissue tensile densities.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Musculature

  • Layers of cartilage and dense marrow-like tumours surround blood vessels; protecting both vessels and braincase simultaneously.
  • Jaw muscles extend to skull ridge homologous to gorilla.
  • Note muscles allowing subject to shut nostrils: unheard of in primates. This trait normally found in desert-dwelling ungulates such as dromedary camel.
  • Jaw may lock while mandible is at any degree of extension.
  • Elasticity of muscle tissues allows striations and contractions on 4-axis per muscle. Eyes and mouth can close using enormous, continuous pressure.

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The Most Interesting Man in UFC Returns

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

The most interesting man in UFC returns:

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Inbreeding and Dynastic Downfall

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

Charles II, last of his line, was an imbecile:

The Habsburg King Carlos II of Spain was sadly degenerated with an enormous misshapen head. His Habsburg jaw stood so much out that his two rows of teeth could not meet; he was unable to chew. His tongue was so large that he was barely able to speak. His intellect was similarly disabled. His brief life consisted chiefly of a passage from prolonged infancy to premature senility. Carlos’ family was anxious only to prolong his days and thought little about his education, so that he could barely read or write. He had been fed by wet nurses until the age of 5 or 6 and was not allowed to walk until almost fully grown. Even then, he was unable to walk properly, because his legs would not support him and he fell several times. His body remained that of an invalid child. The nature of his upbringing, the inadequacy of his education, the stiff etiquette of his court, his dependence upon his mother and his superstition helped to create a mentally retarded and hypersensitive monarch.

A new PLoS One paper dives into the genetics:

The kings of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty (1516-1700) frequently married close relatives in such a way that uncle-niece, first cousins and other consanguineous unions were prevalent in that dynasty. In the historical literature, it has been suggested that inbreeding was a major cause responsible for the extinction of the dynasty when the king Charles II, physically and mentally disabled, died in 1700 and no children were born from his two marriages, but this hypothesis has not been examined from a genetic perspective. In this article, this hypothesis is checked by computing the inbreeding coefficient (F) of the Spanish Habsburg kings from an extended pedigree up to 16 generations in depth and involving more than 3,000 individuals. The inbreeding coefficient of the Spanish Habsburg kings increased strongly along generations from 0.025 for king Philip I, the founder of the dynasty, to 0.254 for Charles II and several members of the dynasty had inbreeding coefficients higher than 0.20. In addition to inbreeding due to unions between close relatives, ancestral inbreeding from multiple remote ancestors makes a substantial contribution to the inbreeding coefficient of most kings. A statistically significant inbreeding depression for survival to 10 years is detected in the progenies of the Spanish Habsburg kings. The results indicate that inbreeding at the level of first cousin (F = 0.0625) exerted an adverse effect on survival of 17.8%612.3. It is speculated that the simultaneous occurrence in Charles II (F = 0.254) of two different genetic disorders: combined pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis, determined by recessive alleles at two unlinked loci, could explain most of the complex clinical profile of this king, including his impotence/infertility which in last instance led to the extinction of the dynasty.

Razib Khan explains:

F, or the coefficient of inbreeding, is critical here. Charles II was not simply the offspring of a first cousin marriage, he was the culmination of a repeated instances of cousin marriage over several generations. [...] In other words, Charles II was moderately more inbred than the average among the offspring from brother-sister matings!

The Spanish Habsburgs had higher infant mortality than Spanish commoners.

This all ties into Daenerys’s first chapter in Game of Thrones:

Despite the seemingly obvious drawbacks of hemophilia, porphyria, and flipper babies, royal incest was a historical phenomenon in many cultures. The Pharoahs of Egypt most closely resemble the Targaryen pattern, although they tended to stick to half-brother/half-sister marriages until the Ptolmys, who went in for direct brother-to-sister marriages. The Incas and the royal house of Hawaii also went in for brother-sister marriages. In medieval Europe, direct incest was both illegal and condemned by the Church, with the bizarre case of Jean V of Armagnac the only case I could find of a brother-sister marriage.

The danger of this practice can be seen in the case of the House of Hapsburg, in both its Austrian and Spanish lines was well-known for “consanguineous marriage,” including one marriage of an uncle to a niece. Even avoiding direct incest of brothers and sisters or fathers and daughters, they still succeeded in increasing the inbreeding coefficient tenfold to the point of parent-child and brother-sister levels. This lead to recurrent problems with deformity, infertility/importance, mental disorders and retardation, and other genetic abnormalities.

Given these problems, it’s surprising the Targaryens lasted as long as they did with so few obviously deformed offspring, given how brother-sister marriage increases the risks of genetic disorders beyond the levels associated with marrying first cousins. It’s possible that, like some royal houses engaged in direct incest, they practiced infanticide to weed out obvious cases of maladaptive traits. This might explain how so many Targaryens are described as having been beautiful (although part of that may be the association between Targaryen traits like silver hair and purple eyes with power and therefore beauty) — although they clearly missed a spot when it came to Maelys the Monstrous. Their track record when it comes to weeding out less obvious conditions that might have affected the mind is less good (although it’s hard to separate nature vs. nuture in these circumstances): Maegor the Cruel, Aerion Brightflame, Rhaegel Targaryen, Mad King Aerys II, the list is hardly inspiring.

The marriage between Daenerys and Khal Drogo brings up an interesting historical point — it’s probable that the Dothraki are patterned not off the Mongols, but rather the Huns, and Khal Drogo himself on that most famous Hun, Attila, and Daenerys off of the Roman princess Honoria. In 450 AD, the willful and infamous lady Honoria, sister to the weak Emperor Valentinian III, sent a plea for help to Attila in overcoming her brother, and offered in exchange her hand in marriage — and half of Gaul. At the time, Attila was one of the greatest warlords in the known world, extracting tribune from Constantinople, laying waste to the Balkans, and smashing Roman armies. To win Honoria’s hand and secure her position, Attila invaded Gaul, capturing Metz, Rheims, and Paris — before being defeated at the Battle of Châlons. When Valentinian III denied him his bride, Attila invaded Italy and practically burnt it to the ground — the city of Venice was founded out in the lagoon by refugees trying to get away from his horsemen. So like Khal Drogo, Attila would lay kingdoms to waste for the sake of his bride — and like Drogo, Attila would die no warriors death, but from a most minor injury — he suffered a massive nosebleed while intoxicated, and choked to death on his own blood.

Posted in Media, Policy, Science | 3 Comments »

The Great Preparation

Saturday, May 26th, 2012

Budweiser presents The Great Preparation:

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Studio Ghibli movie posters as vintage Penguin paperback covers

Friday, May 25th, 2012

Jason K. of 84/5 Studio has reimagined a series of Studio Ghibli movie posters as vintage Penguin paperback covers:

(Hat tip to Boing Boing.)

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Planet of the Vampires

Friday, May 25th, 2012

Planet of the Vampires is a low-budget, Italian, sci-fi movie, from 1965 — that may have influenced a high-budget, American, sci-fi movie, from 1979:

Several critics have suggested that Bava’s film was a major influence on Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), both in terms of narrative details and visual design. Derek Hill, in a review of the MGM Midnite Movies DVD release of Vampires written for Images Journal, noted, “Bava’s film (along with It! The Terror from Beyond Space, 1958) was a direct influence on Ridley Scott’s 1979 big budget B-movie Alien. But where Scott’s film tried to mask its humble drive-in origins, Planet of the Vampires revels in its origins. The film literally feels like a pulp magazine cover come to garish life…”[15] Robert Monell, on the DVD Maniacs website, observed, “[M]uch of the conceptual design and some specific imagery in the Ridley Scott screamer undoubtedly owes a great debt to Mario Bava’s no budget accomplishments.”[16]

One of Vampires‘ most celebrated sequences involves the astronauts performing an exploration of an alien, derelict ship discovered in a huge ruin on the surface of the planet. The crewmembers climb up into the depths of the eerie ship and discover the gigantic remains of long dead monstrous creatures. In 1979, Cinefantastique noted the remarkable similarities between this atmospheric sequence and a lengthy scene in the then-new Alien. The magazine also pointed out other minor parallels between the two films.[17] However, both Alien’s director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Dan O’Bannon claimed at the time that they had never seen Planet of the Vampires.[18]

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One Thousand Years of Magical Realism

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

More than one thousand years of magical realism preceded One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ted Gioia reminds us:

My choice for the first magical realism novel dates back to the second century AD, and came from the hand of a North African author. Around the year 125, Lucius Apuleius was born in Madaurus (now M’Daourouch in present-day Algeria), a Roman colony famous as a center of learning. St. Augustine studied there, and later complained about the pagan tendencies of the local populace, as did the Roman grammarian Nonius Marcellus.

Apuleius, however, was much more than a product of local influences. He was widely traveled and well educated: he first studied at Carthage, before immersing himself in Platonist philosophy in Athens, and later learned Latin during a stay in Rome. He adopted a colorful style of that language for his most famous work, The Golden Ass, which is the only ancient Latin novel to have survived in a complete form.

Apuleius was well equipped to incorporate elements of magic into his storytelling — he was once accused of practicing magic, and his courtroom defense has survived. This document, known as A Discourse on Magic, is more admired for its wit than as a source of information on wizardry; but it does give Apuleius an edge over Kafka or Márquez and the other illustrious modernists who could never convince anyone they were actual sorcerers! Apuleius also brought other valuable first-hand experiences to bear on his writing, not just his extensive travels and broad-based education, but also his participation in the ancient mystery cults. The latter appear in the plot of The Golden Ass, when the hero Lucius is initiated into the cult of Isis.

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