{"id":702,"date":"2009-08-28T09:37:30","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T16:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=702"},"modified":"2009-08-28T09:37:30","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T16:37:30","slug":"you-laugh-now-but-wait-till-the-zombie-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=702","title":{"rendered":"You laugh now, but wait till the zombie apocalypse!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A team at the University of Ottawa has contributed a groundbreaking paper to the study of infectious disease: <span id=\"apture_prvw2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mathstat.uottawa.ca\/~rsmith\/Zombies.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><em>When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection<\/em><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 Yes, <em>zombie infection. <\/em>From the abstract:<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mathstat.uottawa.ca\/%7Ersmith\/Zombies.pdf\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and<br \/>\ntheir stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then refine the<br \/>\nmodel to introduce a latent period of zombification, whereby humans are infected, but<br \/>\nnot infectious, before becoming undead. We then modify the model to include the<br \/>\neffects of possible quarantine or a cure. Finally, we examine the impact of regular,<br \/>\nimpulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which<br \/>\neradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the<br \/>\ndoomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>How can you read that and <em>not<\/em> laugh?\u00a0 But then I imagine a scenario in which the undead <em>do<\/em> rise from their graves, craving the taste of human brains, and I think, &#8220;Oh, crap.\u00a0 Well, I&#8217;m glad <em>somebody<\/em> put some thought into what we do now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Of course at that point, the writers of this paper will be rounded up by government agents in black suits and black sunglasses.\u00a0 You know, the ones who are constantly tapping that wire thingy in their ears.\u00a0 As the only &#8220;experts&#8221; on zombification, the scientists will be taken to a top-secret facility that is a) in a desert, and b) very deep underground, at which point the scientists will leave their nerdy scientist identities behind to become the heroes in their own action film.\u00a0 Hey, that&#8217;s about as plausible as a zombie apocalypse, don&#8217;t you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team at the University of Ottawa has contributed a groundbreaking paper to the study of infectious disease: When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection.\u00a0 Yes, zombie infection. From the abstract:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and<br \/>\ntheir stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mtjQ-bk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}