zombies – Museum of the Weird

Posted on December 12, 2012 by MOTW Admin

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER RELEASES ‘END OF THE WORLD’ MESSAGE TO PUBLIC

Julia Gillard has released a PSA to the people of Earth. Not your average PSA mind you, but one addressing the end of the world!

Watch the video below and read what The Herald Sun of Australia had to say:

The Herald Sun of Australia writes:

THE Prime Minister has delivered a chilling message confirming what many people around the world feared: the Mayans were right.

Julia Gillard’s 50-second message addresses her “dear remaining fellow Australians”. She steps in ahead of CSIRO scientists to foreshadow the world’s impending doom.

Ms Gillard lists the likely doomsday bringers to be flesh-eating zombies, demonic hell-beasts…. or K-Pop. But not the carbon price.

According to the Mayan calendar, the world will meet its fiery end on December 21, 2012. Which means that, according to Doomsdayers, we’ve got a cool 15 days left to check everything off our bucket lists.

NASA has even taken the unusual step of publishing a fact sheet calledBeyond 2012: Why The World Won’t End.

OK, so it’s just a commercial for a Triple J breakfast show but, more importantly, SAVE YOURSELVES.

With clinical, emotionless delivery, Ms Gillard warns us all, says she will always fight for us and closes by saying: “good luck to you all”. Oh and “at least this means I won’t have to do Q & A again”.

When contacted, the Prime Minister’s office said: “What Australian doesn’t mind a laugh from time to time? Anyway, the world’s going to end tomorrow so shouldn’t you be writing about that?”

It’s Dr Karl Kruszelnicki’s fault the PM is spooked – he came up with the theory the world will end tomorrow, two weeks earlier than the far-more-popular prediction of December 21.

Dr Karl, the prolific science writer and author of 50 Shades of Grey Matter, said he came up with the date after developing a complex algorithm using the Mayan calendar, the Gregorian calendar, mathematics, and comedy.

Unfortunately the algorithm was far too complex for most of us to understand, but suffice to say the logic behind it is as rock solid as the logic behind the idea that because a Mayan calendar runs out on December 21 the Earth will come to some sort of devastating end.

“I was using science for the purposes of science and comedy,” Dr Karl said.

“On the 21st of December, inconveniently only two shopping days before Christmas the Mayan calendar will click over.

“But to say the world will end is like saying today’s date is the 29th and therefore your cut lunch will turn into a shoe. That’s how rational and logical it is.”

“So I tried to turn December 21 back into December 7.”

NEW BOOK DELVES INTO THE SCIENCE OF MONSTERS

We all know, love, and have our favorite of the classic monsters from our childhood but, what was the original inspiration for these creepy creatures of the shadows? A new book being published called “Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters” delves into what fears and real dangers the people of the time were living with that would have created them. From disease to war, times have most certainly been tough in the past and everyone had plenty to worry about.

Reuters reports:

Nov 8 (Reuters) – The suave and sensitive Edward Cullen of “Twilight” may be the norm for vampires these days, but fictional monsters such as Dracula originally sprang from the fear of inexplicable diseases and the mysteries of death in the natural world.

So argues science journalist Matt Kaplan in “Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters,” an examination of monsters around the world and throughout history – the science behind their origins, and why they matter to us even now.

“When our kids ask for monster stories around the campfire, they are behaving in a way that is not dissimilar to lion cubs,” Kaplan said in an email.

“Lion cubs play fight so they can test out their skills in a safe place where nobody is going to get maimed or killed. Monster stories serve a similar purpose, they allow us to face our worst fears without the risks that are normally associated with them.”

Some are simple. The Kraken tales of mammoth monster squid, along with the Leviathan of the Bible, are most likely based upon the existence of real creatures such as whales.

The terrifying Medusa of Greek myths, with her hair made of snakes and a gaze that could turn things to stone, may have been distantly connected to the idea of fossils for ancient people, with the snakes in her hair an example of pure fear.

Though mentions of vampire-like creatures exist as early as ancient Greece, it took hundreds of years for tales of the creatures to gradually evolve into the haunting undead of more recent history.

Accounts of people found in their graves with blood on their lips and their stomachs seemingly full, as if they had just eaten, may be explained by simple decay, with gas buildup throughout the body sometimes pushing blood up from the lungs. Elongated canine teeth and fingernails was due to skin shrinking after death and pulling away, making both more prominent.

Later, greater awareness of contagious diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis – which could cause people who came in contact with the ill person to also sicken and die – further contributed to the myth. This was especially true due to incubation periods that weren’t understood at the time, making it unclear how the diseases were being spread.

“One death would follow another in a dominolike progression,” writes Kaplan. “In a morbid sense, these patients were literally killing their friends and relatives, but from their deathbeds rather than the hereafter.”

But vampires have now undergone a radical transformation, a process that began with the publication of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” but has speeded up in recent years.

“If tuberculosis, influenza, rabies and bloated bodies are the human experiences from which Dracula came, how have we now ended up with the kind, honorable and handsome Edward Cullen?” Kaplan said.

FAMILY IN NEW MEXICO TERRORIZED BY NIGHT STALKER

A family in New Mexico is plagued by a creature of the night.

A video posted on Youtube by user JC Jhonson shows a small family in New Mexico seemingly plagued by a beast that comes in the night. Some have even compared it to the demon-man of the hollywood movie ‘Jeepers Creepers’.

Ghost Theory writes:

When I do my rounds I usually stop by Youtube and throw in some keywords to see what’s current. Today, I found a new video that seems somewhat interesting, so I thought our readers would enjoy debating about it.

Recently a family in the Four Corners area of New Mexico contacted JC Johnson of Crypto Four Corners with quite a story.

Allegedly the family has been visited by some sort of large creature that torments them at night. The beast is described as resembling the Creeper from the film series Jeepers Creepers and apparently claws at the exterior walls of family home. Other activity includes damage to the family automobile and claw marks on the daughters back while she sleeps.

FEMA PREPARES AMERICA FOR ZOMBIES

Are you prepared for the zombie-apocalypse?

Seems like everyone is on the Zombie bandwagon these days, even FEMA is getting together an emergency plan for the fabled z-day. You know, just in case.

The Bellingham Herald writes:

No one in emergency preparedness circles really believes the dead will rise and come looking for living people to devour — that weird face-eating incident in Florida aside.

But they do see zombies — the moaning, flesh-eating stars of a plethora of horror novels, comics and movies — as a brain-grabbing way to get people to think about preparing for large-scale disasters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency became the latest federal government agency to shamble onto the zombie bandwagon, following in the footsteps of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency that captured the hearts of internet geeks everywhere when it unveiled its “Zombie Apocalypse” preparedness page and social media campaign last year.

“We need something that gets their attention, so I applaud that,” said Richland Fire Chief Grant Baynes, who is involved in local disaster planning.

Baynes likened getting the public engaged in emergency planning to “trying to sell an umbrella on a sunny day.”

In a place that’s relatively disaster-free — the Tri-Cities doesn’t get catastrophic hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes or floods as other parts of the United States — residents can become complacent and forget that a flu pandemic or some other disaster might be around the corner.

Baynes said it’s good that people feel safe, but he’d also like them to be mindful that life is unpredictable.

“Preparedness isn’t just a technical thing,” he said. “It’s mental. It’s an attitude. It’s that same attitude that says, ‘I know there is that potential, so I’ll buy this umbrella now while I have the opportunity.’ “

ZOMBIE THEMED RESTAURANT BASED ON RESIDENT EVIL

Zombie themed restaruant? Now, that takes braaains!

Well, if the zombie craze wasn’t taking over as it is, this new restaurant may have just taken things to a whole other level.

Capcom, creators of the most famous zombie game and movies of them all, the Resident Evil series, have decided to open an eatery in Japan based on the post-apocalyptic world they’ve created that’s inhabited by zombies, lots and lots of zombies.

The Huffington Post writes:

Zombies aren’t known for enjoying sit-down meals; most prefer to eat on the run (or shamble).

However, Japanese zombies who want a taste of fine dining will soon get their chance in the form of a zombie-themed restaurant that is opening in Tokyo on July 13.

It’s called the Biohazard Cafe and Grill S.T.A.R.S restaurant, and is based on the Japanese version of “Resident Evil” videogames, known as “Biohazard,”according to ZoKnowsGaming.com.

TheVerge.com reports that Capcom, the company that makes the ‘Resident Evil’ games, plans to sell limited-edition items at the undead diner and entertain customers hungry for zombie-themed entertainment with dance performances by game characters.

Unlike actual zombies, which never really die, the zombie restaurant is scheduled to only last a year, according to Kotaku.com.

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE NOW?!

Has the zombie apocalypse begun? Some think so. Photo by uncherished of deviantart

Grab the family, load up on supplies, and HEAD FOR THE HILLS!

Well, we might not need to go to those extremes just yet, but it sure doesn’t seem that far off when a story like the one below comes out!

A man in Miami, naked, and high on “bath salts” (a horrific new drug) left behind a gruesome scene just off of one of Miami’s major highways on Saturday.

The 31-year old man, Rudy Eugene of Miami, attacked another man in a very animal-like fashion while in a ‘zombie-like’ state under the influence of this terrible drug which, ended in Rudy tearing into the other man’s face with his mouth, then literally, eating the pieces of flesh he pulled off.

If this isn’t a sign of the Zombie Apocalypse, I don’t know what is. This new drug known as “bath salts” is gaining in popularity all over the world and gruesome stories like this are coming out more often than ever.

Please people, drugs are not ok, in any form at all.

You’ll never know the beauty of this world when your mind is clouded with foreign substances. Stay on the straight and narrow and enjoy the world for all it has to offer.

Life is beautiful, you are beautiful, remember that.

CNN writes:

A naked man who chewed off the face of another man in what is being called a zombie-like attack may have been under the influence of “bath salts,” a drug referred to as the new LSD, according to reports from CNN affiliates in Miami.

The horrific attack occurred Saturday and was only stopped after a police officer shot the attacker several times, killing him.

Larry Vega witnessed the attack on Miami’s MacArthur Causeway. He told CNN affiliate WSVN he saw one naked man chewing off the face of another naked man.

“The guy was like tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him, ‘Get off!'” Vega told WSVN. “You know it’s like the guy just kept eating the other guy away, like ripping his skin.”

“When the officer approached him, told him to stop, pointed a gun at him, he turned around and growled like a wild animal and kept eating at the man’s face,” Fraternal Order of Police President Armando Aguilar told CNN affiliate WPLG.

8:00PM TONIGHT! WALKING DEAD VIEWING PARTY! BYOB!

8:00pm tonight (Sunday, October 30th), the Museum of the Weird continues our newest weekly event: The Walking Dead Viewing Party!

Each week when there is a new episode of the AMC hit series, The Walking Dead, we will be screening it here at the Museum’s newest addition, the Weird Theater! The theater is located inside the Museum on the second floor*, and all screenings for The Walking Dead will be free with purchase of Museum admission (currently $5.00 per person). The Weird Theater is extremely small, and seating is limited to a maximum of 30 people, so show up early or purchase your tickets in advance in the store or on our website (CLICK HERE!).

We want everyone to come and join us for a good time! We are allowing this event to be a “BYOB” affair, so that adults will be able to enjoy the viewing experience while imbibing their favorite alcoholic beverage. That being said, we ask you to follow a few simple rules:

• Please arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the 8:00pm screening time to enjoy the Museum of the Weird and to ensure seating.

• Anyone bringing in alcoholic beverages will be asked to show their proof of ID. Absolutely no sharing of alcoholic beverages with minors will be tolerated, and will result with the offending parties being ejected from the theater.

• No outside food or drink is allowed EXCEPT for alcoholic beverages in sealed personal containers, including bottled or canned beer, wine coolers, and malt and cider beverages. Non-alcoholic beverages and snacks are available for purchase in our gift shop, Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts.

• Excessively loud and obnoxious guests will be asked to leave, and forfeit their admission without a refund.

• Anyone who arrives already visibly intoxicated will be denied admission into the Museum.

As long as everyone abides by these rules and respects each other’s viewing experience, we should all have a great time tonight. We look forward to seeing everyone here at the Museum of the Weird tonight by 8pm, and remember to please show up early!

*NOTE: Second floor access is currently limited to use of the stairs, and there is no elevator for wheelchair access at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Guest Blogger

WORLDS LARGEST PUMPKIN HAS BEEN CARVED…INTO ZOMBIES!!!

Sorry, but zombies never get old.

No seriously, they don’t. Look it up.

Being “dead” and all pretty much guarantees a stop to that troublesome aging process.

Any-who, these zombies carved by sculptor Ray Villafane that are popping out of these pumpkins look absolutely amazing!

Being a master food sculptor, Ray has quite a portfolio of 3D carvings, a few of which can be seen here.

This carving of the world’s largest pumpkin is definitely the most impressive of his work that I’ve seen to date.

The details are amazing!

The Laughing Squid writes:

Last weekend, The New York Botanical Garden brought on master food sculptor Ray Villafane to carve zombies out of two giant pumpkins, one of which was the world’s heaviest pumpkin. He used the “pale flesh Brant and Eleanor Bordsen’s 1,693 pound pumpkin for the zombies” and the world record-holding 1818.5 pound pumpkin from Kelsey and Jim Bryson was used as the base.

We recently posted about Ray’s amazing 3D pumpkin carvings.

Ray’s entire pumpking carving process at The New York Botanical Garden event was captured in a beautiful time-lapse video.

8:00PM TONIGHT! WALKING DEAD VIEWING PARTY! BYOB!

8:00pm tonight (Sunday, October 23rd), the Museum of the Weird is launching our newest weekly event: The Walking Dead Viewing Party!

• Please arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the 8:00pm screening time to enjoy the Museum of the Weird and to ensure seating. Once the program begins at 8:00pm, so as not to disrupt the viewing experience we will not be allowing any more entrances into the theater. So please show up early!

• Excessively loud and obnoxious guests will be asked to leave, and forfeit their admission without a refund.

• Anyone who arrives already visibly intoxicated will be denied admission into the Museum, period.

As long as everyone abides by these rules and respects each other’s viewing experience, we should all have a great time tonight, and if it’s successful we will host this every week! So we look forward to seeing everyone here at the Museum of the Weird tonight by 8pm, and remember to please show up early!

*NOTE: Second floor access is currently limited to use of the stairs, and there is no elevator for wheelchair access at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.