Prosthetic Conscience

Man eats wife, chokes and dies

In the news:

Two KwaZulu-Natal girls have been left traumatised after witnessing their father eat the flesh off their dead mother’s face on Friday morning, police said.

[ Posted: 16:05] | [ Category: /zombies] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

More on the Tikrit fragging

The basic news story is here. Nothing new to report, really, except that the suspect (a staff sergeant) has been formally charged. Most of the reports say that this is the first alleged fragging “in Iraq,” but that ignores the previous one in Kuwait. There are some small leaves shaking in the tree.

[ Posted: 08:22] | [ Category: /politics] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Flu pandemic could cause food shortages

I wasn’t sure where to file this. It’s current events, but not really politics. I even considered filing it under zombies because it has to do with the breakdown of social infrastructure under disaster conditions. But not with actual zombies, so I left it here.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, warns that an influenza pandemic would seriously disrupt the processing and distribution of food supplies across the world.

Most interesting quotes:

We’re pretty much screwed right now if it happens tonight.”

and

Osterholm said the “just-in-time” delivery model by which modern corporations operate means food distribution networks don’t have warehouses brimming with months worth of inventory.

Most grocery store chains have only several days worth of their most popular commodities in warehouses, he explained, with perhaps 30 days worth of stock for less popular items.

Chilling stuff.

[ Posted: 08:03] | [ Category: /politics] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]