Jumat, 01 Juni 2012

Enough with the 'Zombie Apocalypse' Already

Enough with the 'Zombie Apocalypse' Already

Just a quick note to all you inter-nauts out there, re: this whole zombie apocalypse thing: Stop it. You know the "Miami Zombie," right? He's the drug-addled man who was killed by police after he was found eating another man's face on some sort of bridge. It's a wild story, to be sure. And we are free to pass it to our friends and say "Hey, crazy story." But when we start making this insanely awful thing into an internet trend, a meme as the kids say, then we've gone too far.

RELATED: Get Used to Technology Burnout


We're referring specifically to things like this patently grotesque slideshow that the Daily Beast has put together, one that links a random series of hideous events â€" a man flinging his own intestines at policemen, a young woman stricken with a horrifying flesh-eating bacteria â€" to create some ricky-ticky narrative of a zombie apocalypse quietly fomenting. Of course no one is serious about a coming zombie plague, which is what makes posts like this tasteless. It's an ironic joke, a boring and overused ironic joke at that (zombies are so very 2009), made at the faraway expense of genuine suffering. Like, a man, a troubl ed homeless man no less, did have his face eaten off, guys. That did happen! It's a real, sad, terrible thing that happened. All those other catastrophes are real too. Stringing together a bunch of awful tragedies for the purpose of making a lazy listicle is so checked-out and blase and insensitive that it's, well, kinda disgusting. 

RELATED: Kickstarter Is Very Well Endowed


And maybe avoid doing the zombie map, and stop prattling on about this on Twitter. It's opportunistic and unseemly and kinda sad. Look, we are guilty of the same kind of macabre capitalizing, so we are claiming no exemption here, but something about the degree of giddiness about this "zombie apocalypse" fiction sticks out as especially ug ly. Just maybe try not to be so excited that some poor man had his face chewed off by a naked drug addict who still had bits of flesh in his mouth when he was shot and killed. Maybe that doesn't exactly merit a slideshow.

RELATED: Rebecca Black More Googled Than Libya: Worst Google Trend Yet?


We know it's easy to be sanctimonious about stuff like this, to shake a fist at whatever hot topic thing is currently flooding our Twitter feeds. But sometimes sanctimony is necessary. So please, people of the internet, stop it with the Miami Zombie stuff. No more lists, no more galleries, no more tenuous connections made to other unimaginably terrible events. It was fun for about a second before it got gross.

RELATED: Who's Winning the Facebook-Google Tech War


Now if you'll excuse us, we gotta go make some Dexter jokes about this horrible nightmare.

Zombie Apocalypse Signs Rising: Where Will You Be When Cannibal Zombie Attacks?

Zombie Apocalypse Signs Rising: Where Will You Be When Cannibal Zombie Attacks?



The Miami cannibal attack became a national headlines after Rudy Eugene, a homeless man was shot and killed by police after being caught in the act of chewing on another human being's face - that of another homeless man named Ronald Poppo.


Now, some conspirators claim it is just the latest sign that a "zombie apocalypse" is sweeping across the nation.

But that is not the only event to happen in the last 12 days in Florida that conspiracy theorists say is evidence that the long-feared "zombie apocalypse" is beginning in the sunny state and elsewhere throughout the nation.

In chronological order, here’s what went down in the sunny state:

May 16 â€" According to a report by the Huffington Post, students and teachers at a Florida high school had to be decontaminated after breaking out in a mysterious rash.

May 21 â€" According to a report by MySuburbanLife.com, A man from Bellwood, Illinois, was arrested after allegedly biting an 18-year-old woman’s cheek.

May 23 â€" According to NBC San Diego, a man from Spring Valley, California was arrested for allegedly biting the tip off of his cousin’s nose off.

May 26 â€" According to ABC News, a Florida anesthesiologist allegedly banged his head against the inside of a cop car until he started bleeding following a DUI arrest last Saturday, the same day as the Miami cannibal attack. He then proceeded to allegedly spit blood in a police officer’s face.

The concept of a "zombie apocalypse," during which humans turn into zombies and walk the earth in search of the last remaining humans so they can feed on their brains, has been popularized by movies like "Shaun of the Dead" and "28 Days Later," and has inspired books, blogs and more about the concept.

Here are more events that support the “Zombie Apocalpse” theory:

May 26 â€" According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, a man from Palm Coast, Florida, was arrested for allegedly biting the lips off one kitten and strangling another cat to death.

May 27 â€" According to the Daily Mail, a man from Hackensack, New Jersey, allegedly stabbed himself repeatedly in front of the police then began to pull his own guts out, and proceeded to throw his intestines at police officers.

These weird events happened in nearby locations just a period of 12 days since the breakout of a mysterious r ash at a Florida High School. Is this really the beginning of “Zombie Apocalypse”?

If this is really a sign that “Zombie Apocalypse” is indeed true, where will you go to avoid these cannibal attacks?

Zombie Apocalypse: How to Prevent and Cure Zombie Flesh Eating Disease

Zombie Apocalypse: How to Prevent and Cure Zombie Flesh Eating Disease

A claim on zombie apocalypse, the end of the world, and conspiracy-theories involving the government surfaced after Rudy Eugene, a homeless man was shot and killed by police after being caught in the act of chewing on another human being's face - that of another homeless man named Ronald Poppo.

But that is not the only event to happen in the last 12 days in Florida that conspiracy theorists say is evidence that the long-feared "zombie apocalypse" is beginning in the sunny state and elsewhere throughout the nation.

In chronological order, here's what went down in the sunny state:

May 16 â€" According to a report by the Huffington Post, students and teachers at a Florida high school had to be decontaminated after breaking out in a mysterious rash.

May 21 â€" According to a report by MySuburbanLife.com, A man from Bellwood, Illinois, was arrested after allegedly b iting an 18-year-old woman's cheek.

May 23 â€" According to NBC San Diego, a man from Spring Valley, California was arrested for allegedly biting the tip off of his cousin's nose off.

May 26 â€" According to ABC News, a Florida anesthesiologist allegedly banged his head against the inside of a cop car until he started bleeding following a DUI arrest last Saturday, the same day as the Miami cannibal attack. He then proceeded to allegedly spit blood in a police officer's face.

May 26 â€" According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, a man from Palm Coast, Florida, was arrested for allegedly biting the lips off one kitten and strangling another cat to death.

May 27 â€" According to the Daily Mail, a man from Hackensack, New Jersey, allegedly stabbed himself repeatedly in front of the police then began to pull his own guts out, and proceeded to throw his intestines at police officers.

These weird events happened in nearby locations just a period of 1 2 days since the breakout of a mysterious rash at a Florida High School. Is this really the beginning of "Zombie Apocalypse"?

If this is really a sign that "Zombie Apocalypse" is indeed true and near its coming? But how to prevent them?

Unless we heard about the real score on the autopsy of Rudy Eugene and the current medical condition of his victim Ronald Poppo has been released to the public, we won't be able to know exactly what caused his horrific attack. But just the same these stories and list of horrifying event would make a good reason to lock yourselves inside the safety of your own homes.

To prevent the spread of this what they call "flesh-eating disease," if you live near a warm water source - especially in the South - whether it be a lake, river, or pond, take care not to expose even the shallowest cut to it. Clean all wounds immediately, even if they aren't bad enough to require a doctor's attention. At the first sign of severe pain in a limb , go to the hospital at once.

Zombie Apocalypse Coming Soon as Zombie Incidents are Rising

Zombie Apocalypse Coming Soon as Zombie Incidents are Rising

Zombie Apocalypse is coming soon? Zombie incidents were reported in Florida in just a period of 12 days, does it mean that the dreaded doomsday is starting?

The news about the Miami cannibal attack became sensational in the US over the weekend as it ignited a conspiracy theory about the so-called “Zombie Apocalypse.”

The term was actually a title of a 2011 horror movie on Syfy channel inspired by fictional undead creatures. Zombies were also popularized by hit movies such as “Dawn of the Dead,” “Night of the Living Dead” and TV series like “The Walking Dead.”

But what is a Zombie Apocalypse?

Intimately tied to the conception of the modern zombie is the “zombie apocalypse”, the breakdown of society as a result of zombie infestation, which has emerged as a prolific subgenre of apocalyptic fiction and been portrayed in countless zombie-related media post-Night. In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread (usually global) rise of zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization. Victims of zombies may become zombies themselves. This causes the outbreak to become an exponentially growing crisis: the spreading “zombie plague/virus” swamps normal military and law enforcement organizations, leading to the panicked collapse of civilian society until only isolated pockets of survivors remain, scavenging for food and supplies in a world reduced to a pre-industrial hostile wilderness.

It’s interesting to note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US issued a warning about the zombie apocalypse in 2011. Titled “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse,” is a blog post of the agency that uses a zombie apocalypse scenario to raise public awareness on preparations for emergency situations. In a blog post titled “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse”, the Director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, Rear Admiral Dr. Ali S. Khan writes: “Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.” Comparing the upcoming hurricane season and possible pandemics to “flesh-eating zombies” from the horror film Night of the Living Dead and the video game series Resident Evil, Dr. Khan recommends Americ ans prepare for natural disasters as they would have prepared for “ravenous monsters”

Now it seems like the Zombie Apocalypse is becoming a reality after the Miami Cannibal Attack: a homeless man named Rudy Eugene was shot and killed by police on Saturday, while chewing another man’s face off.

Eugene was caught by the police naked under a flyover in Miami chewing the face of another naked man. The police told him to stop but he did not listened. He was shot and killed while the other man was brought to the hospital.

This incident ignited the conspiracy theory about the Zombie Apocalypse.

Take note that in the last 12 days, similar incidents happened in Florida.

In chronological order, here’s what went down in the sunny state:

May 16 â€" According to a report by the Huffington Post, students and teachers at a Florida high school had to be decontaminated after breaking out in a mysterious rash.

May 21 â€" According to a report by MySuburbanLife.com, A man from Bellwood, Illinois, was arrested after allegedly biting an 18-year-old woman’s cheek.

May 23 â€" According to NBC San Diego, a man from Spring Valley, California was arrested for allegedly biting the tip off of his cousin’s nose off.

May 25 â€" According to Fox News, A 24-year-old Canadian man was arrested for rushing toward the front of an American Airlines flight from Jamaica after the plane landed in Miami.

May 24 â€" According to Miami Herald, another mystery rash broke out at Lauderdale Lakes Middle School in Florida. four students and a teacher in a science classroom had a red rash on their wrists. They were not working with chemicals.

May 26 â€" According to ABC News, a Florida anesthesiologist allegedly banged his head against the inside of a cop car until he started bleeding following a DUI arrest last Saturday, the same day as the Miami cannibal attack. He then proceeded to allegedly spit blood in a police officer’s face.

These events have sparked a nationwide sensation making people think that what they’ve seen on movies like “Shaun of the Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Night of the Living Dead” and TV series “The Walking Dead” are coming true.

Here are more events that support the “Zombie Apocalpse” theory:
May 26 â€" According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, a man from Palm Coast, Florida, was arrested for allegedly biting the lips off one kitten and strangling another cat to death.

May 27 â€" According to the Daily Mail, a man from Hackensack, New Jersey, allegedly stabbed himself repeatedly in front of the police then began to pull his own guts out, and proceeded to throw his intestines at police officers.

These weird events happened in nearby locations just a period of 12 days since the breakout of a mysterious rash at a Florida High School. Is this really the beginning of “Zombie Apocalypse”?

Via the Miami Herald:

It was a scene as creepy as a Hannibal Lecter movie.

One man was shot to death by Miami police, and another man is fighting for his life after he was attacked, and his face allegedly half eaten, by a naked man on the MacArthur Causeway off ramp Saturday, police said.

The horror began about 2 p.m. when a series of gunshots were heard on the ramp, which is along NE 13th Street, just south of The Miami Herald building.

According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away.Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.

The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots.

Miami police were on the scene, which was just south of The Miami Herald building on Biscayne Boulevard. The naked man who was killed lay face down on the pedestrian walkway just below the newspaper’s two-story parking garage. Police have requested The Herald’s video surveillance tapes.

The other man was transported to the hospital with critical injuries, according to police. Their identities were not released.

Watch the video of the Miami Cannibal Attack below as taken by a surveillance camera nearby:

Zombie Apocalypse Impending? Zombie-Invoking Stories Invade News

Zombie Apocalypse Impending? Zombie-Invoking Stories Invade News

Zombie Apocalypse coming? Is zombie apocalypse upon us?

For the past couple of weeks, news headlines included some zombie-invoking stories which caused rumors of an impending zombie apocalypse.

By now, you have probably heard about the Miami man who "chewed off" the face of another last Saturday. The man, who was later identified as 31-year-old Rudy Eugene, was seen without his clothes along a busy highway, biting into another man's face and tearing it to pieces. The police shot him dead after refusing to stop the horrifying attack.

Eugene's story is not the only "flesh-eating" story that the media has reported recently. There are more.

Today, the Associated Press reported the story of a 33-year-old mother in San Antonio who is being accused of beheading her 3-week-old infant and ate some of the child's body parts. She reportedly told the police that she killed her son at the devil's request.

The Daily Mail also reported today the incident involving a 52-year-old Swedish professor who cut the lips of his girlfriend off using a knife and ate them. The assault was so brutal that the prosecutor tried to have him charged for attempted murder, the report said. The man reportedly did it out of jealousy as he believes that his girlfriend is seeing someone else.

Titled "Zombie apocalypse coming soon," a blog post by "I Hope Rick Santorum" on Tumblr is getting viral as it features 10 zombie-related news stories which all happened in Florida in the past week. Check it out here: http://ihopericksantorum.tumblr.com/post/23988224221/zombie-apocalypse-coming-soon

Do you think these stories suggest that zombie apocalypse has begun?

Kamis, 31 Mei 2012

Chagas: Is tropical disease really the new AIDS?

Chagas: Is tropical disease really the new AIDS?

Chagas, a tropical disease spread by insects, is causing some fresh concern following an editorialâ€"published earlier this week in a medical journalâ€"that called it "the new AIDS of the Americas."

More than 8 million people have been infected by Chagas, most of them in Latin and Central America. But more than 300,000 live in the United States.

The editorial, published by the Public Library of Science's Neglected Tropical Diseases, said the spread of the disease is reminiscent of the early years of HIV.

"There are a number of striking similarities between people living with Chagas disease and people living with HIV/AIDS," the authors wrote, "particularly for those with HIV/AIDS who contracted the disease in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

[Related: U.S. relief program prevented 741,000 HIV/AIDS deaths in Africa]

Both diseases disproportionately affect people living in poverty, both are chronic conditions requiring prolonged, expensive treatment, and as with patients in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, "most patients with Chagas disease do not have access to health care facilities."

Unlike HIV, Chagas is not a sexually-transmitted disease: it's "caused by parasites transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects," as the New York Times put it.

"It likes to bite you on the face," CNN reported. "It's called the kissing bug. When it ingests your blood, it excretes the parasite at the same time. When you wake up and scratch the itch, the parasite moves into the wound and you're infected."

"Gaaah," Cassie Murdoch wrote on Jezebel.com, summing up the sentiment of everyone who read the journal's report.

[Related: Coming soon--an over-the-counter HIV test]

Chagas, also known as American trypanosomiasis, kills about 20,000 people per year, the journal said.

And while just 20 percent of those infected with Chagas develop a life-threatening form of the disease, Chagas is "hard or impossible to cure," the Times reports:

The disease can be transmitted from mother to child or by blood transfusion. About a quarter of its victims eventually will develop enlarged hearts or intestines, which can fail or burst, causing sudden death. Treatment involves harsh drugs taken for up to three months and works only if the disease is caught early.

"The problem is once the heart symptoms start, which is the most dreaded complicationâ€"the Chagas cardiomyopathyâ€"the medicines no longer work very well," Dr. Peter Hotez, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and one of the editorial's authors, told CNN. "Problem No. 2: the medicines are extremely toxic."

And 11 percent of pregnant women in Latin America are infected with Chagas, the journal said.

More popular Yahoo! News stories:

• 'Fox and Friends' airs 4-minute anti-Obama video that looks like a political attack ad

• Rep. Barney Frank apologizes over hoodie comments

• States, federal government reduce length of jobless benefits

Chagas Disease FAQ

Chagas Disease FAQ

Chagas Disease FAQ

doctor examining patient

May 31, 2012 -- Chagas disease is being called the new "AIDS of the Americas."

The shocking comparison has put this neglected tropical disease in headlines around the world.

Who's at risk? Is Chagas really as bad as AIDS? Here's WebMD's Chagas disease FAQ.

What Is Chagas Disease? What Causes Chagas Disease?

Chagas disease is caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi. The parasites multiply within cells of the body. Infected cells burst, releasing parasites into the bloodstream.

Chagas disease was first recognized in the modern era by Brazilian doctor Carlos Chagas in 1909. But the disease has been around for 9,000 years. Chagas parasites have been found in the remains of mummies from the ancient Chinchorro culture of South America.

There are two phases of Chagas disease: the acute phase and the chronic phase.

The acute phase of Chagas disease lasts for several weeks or months after infection. It often goes unnoticed, as symptoms may be mild. Acute Chagas disease is only very rarely fatal. Most at risk are young children or people with weakened immune systems.

The chronic phase of Chagas disease is more serious. When the parasite is not eliminated, the infection may remain silent -- without symptoms -- for decades. Chronic-phase symptoms appear in about a third of patients. They can be devastating.

The most common complication of chronic Chagas disease is a heart condition called chronic Chagas cardiopathy. These complications include enlarged heart, heart failure, severely altered heart rhythm, and heart attack.

Some patients with chronic Chagas disease get intestinal complications. These may include enlarged esophagus (causing difficulty swallowing) or enlarged colon (causing difficulty passing stool).

How Is Chagas Disease Spread?

There are several ways Chagas disease is spread.

The most common way is through the bite of a family of blood-sucking insects called triatomes. They're better known as kissing bugs, assassin bugs, cone-nosed bugs, and reduviid bugs.

While most cases of Chagas disease are in Central and South America, 11 different species of the bugs live in the Southern U.S. They may be found as far north as Pennsylvania in the East and Northern California in the West.

Inside houses, the most common places to find the bugs are near pet resting areas (a good reason not to sleep with your pets), in areas infested by rodents, and in or around beds (particularly under mattresses or bedside tables).

These bugs usually come out at night. They feed on the blood of humans and other mammals, birds, and reptiles. The bugs are attracted to the lips -- hence the nickname "kissing bug" -- although bites may occur on other parts of the body.

The bug bite itself doesn't spread Chagas parasites. But while feeding, bug droppings are left near the wound. When these droppings get into the wound or mucous membranes (as when a person touches the droppings and then rubs his or her eye), the parasites enter the body.