Category Archives: SHTF
MAINE’s OFFICIAL ZOMBIE EMERGENCY DRILL
The undead are wreaking havoc in Maine — in a unique emergency preparedness drill, at least.
About 100 first emergency responders from eight counties in Maine were summoned to Bangor to contain a “zombie apocalypse” Thursday in an exercise intended to train them to react to a mass casualty event, the Bangor Daily News reported.
The participants: Bangor residents outfitted with makeup and fake blood to look as “undead” as possible.
In the exercise, the emergency personnel were tasked with treating the zombie-infected participants to prevent them from becoming zombies.
“If they don’t receive the anti-zombie drug, they progress to stage two and then on to the ‘undead’ stage,” Kathy Knight, director of the exercise’s organizer Northeastern Maine Regional Resource Center, explained.
The whole point of the exercise, according to Knight, was to get first responders to “think outside the box” in dealing with a potential pandemic scenario.
“This gives us the opportunity to do something a little bit different, but it still has the same principles that would apply in a real situation,” Knight told the Bangor Daily News.
“The entire thing is very similar to any regular pandemic influenza planning,” she told the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. “So we can use what we learn here in the planning for that type of event.”
Global Economic Collapse – Why Hasn’t Obabma Prepped the U.S For Economic Doomsday
Why hasn’t Obama doomsday prepped the U.S. economy?
OK, here’s where we are right now, and it isn’t good:
1. Europe is in recession, and its financial crisis is growing worse. The bailout of Spain was a bust. Yields on Spanish bonds are now at their highest point of the crisis. Here’s looking at you Italy.
2. The sputtering U.S. economy may well be heading into another recession, and the approaching fiscal cliff is hardly helping confidence. It sure looks like nothing will be done on that front before the election.
3. Three-fourths of the BRICs—China, India, and Brazil—are all slowing. There go the emerging-market growth engines.
How to avoid a worsening of this already dire scenario? AEI economist John Makin thinks four steps are urgently needed:
1. Europe’s banking system must be stabilized to end runs from depositors withdrawing funds;
2. Europe must articulate clearly a framework for rapid evolution toward fiscal union;
3. The policy mix that includes additional fiscal stringency in return for rich loans to Europe’s periphery must be softened.
4. The ECB can help calm markets and reduce uncertainty by signaling its support of more accommodation, including a system of deposit insurance for European banks and could cut interest rates by fifty basis points and undertake another round of extra lending to ensure ample liquidity to banks.
I would add that Europe should be cutting taxes, not raising them.
But here’s the problem: As Makin notes, the odds of all that stuff happening are low, maybe a 50% chance depending on “Greece electing a coalition government willing to cooperate with Europe’s core countries to move toward a true monetary and fiscal union.”
So we have a) a 50% probability of a cooperative outcome from the Greek election on June 17, and b) conditional on that, a 50% probability that Europe will be able to quickly move forward to enact a more credible monetary and fiscal union.
Do the math. The joint probability of these events is 25% at best, “meaning there is only a one in four chance that the euro system will survive through the summer. Should the more likely outcome—an acute European financial crisis—emerge, the United States will be forced to act to prevent serious damage to its financial system and economy.”
So we have a 75% chance of a nightmare summer and autumn heading smack into the U.S. elections in November. The only question is how bad it will be. We don’t know what’s beyond the veil formed by the EU financial crisis, so any predictions about Obama vs. Romney are pretty much worthless.
But it’s hard to see how a financial shock would help the Obama campaign. He is the incumbent, after all. While the president cannot be blamed for the financial crisis, the Romney campaign could charge him with not doing everything possible to doomsday prep the U.S. economy for another global economic shock. It’s not like the EU debt crisis popped up in the past few weeks.
Why do we still have the highest corporate tax rate in the world?
Why did Obama nix the Keystone pipeline?
Why is the president still talking about raising taxes?
Why has the White House offered no long-term debt plan to reassure global markets?
Already, Romney has been hitting Obama for becoming obsessed with passing healthcare reform in 2009 and 2010 rather than boosting economic growth and job creation. Expect more of that.
And if the economy slows further—and if Obamacare is tossed by the Supreme Court—it’s a message that may powerfully resonate with voters.
EUROPE TRYING TO TURN AMERICA INTO A ZOMBIE WASTELAND
A WAVE of gruesome cannibal attacks that have left Americans fearing a “zombie apocalypse” is being fuelled by a drug imported from the UK, The Sun can reveal.
The mind-bending narcotics that make users eat living human flesh are bought off the internet — labelled as BATH SALTS.
Cops have been shocked by a surge in frenzied attacks by people, which includes:
HOMELESS Ronald Poppo, 65, had three-quarters of his FACE chewed off by Rudy Eugene, 31, who was high on the drug when cops shot him dead last month in Miami. The officers had repeatedly ordered him to stop but he just growled at them like a wild animal. Poppo is now partially blind.
MUM Pamela McCarthy, 35, who was tasered by cops as she attacked her three-year-old son this month. She had a cardiac arrest and died in hospital in New York.
CRAZED Carl Jacquneaux, 43, bit a chunk out of the face of his ex-wife’s new lover Todd Credeur, 48, when he turned up at her home in Lafayette, Louisiana, this month.
ON the same day, Brandon de Leon, 21, was restrained in a Hannibal Lecter-style face mask when he tried to bite off the hands of cops who arrested him in Miami. He screamed at them: “I’m going to eat you.”
Another user said the “bath salts” made him feel “evil” — and convinced him he was possessed by Jason Voorhees, the psycho in the Friday the 13th movies.
Freddy Sharp, 27, from Tennessee, said: “It felt like the darkest, evilest thing imaginable. I was hallucinating about being in an insane asylum and being possessed by Jason Voorhees. I couldn’t stop whatever was in me.”
TV reporter Cenk Uygur watched footage of Freddy being restrained by medics and said: “He looks like a zombie. People are talking about a zombie apocalypse and all these people eating each other. I cannot fathom why you would do bath salts that make you want to eat someone’s face off.”
US authorities fear the cannibalistic attacks could become a pandemic. They have discovered that many shipments are coming from the UK.
In an investigation by network NBC, a girl of 16 ordered a batch from a firm which, despite saying it did not sell to under-18s, soon delivered. A reporter said: “Just days later, the drugs arrived from England to the NBC studios. Even more alarming is cops that say they cannot stop the sale of the drugs as they are not illegal.”
The Sun knows of several British “bath salts” sites which boast delivery to the US in five-to-eight working days — but we will not print the addresses.
One mockingly suggests users put them in their bathtub to help “erase fatigue and invigorate the body”. It says the products are offered “for scientific research purposes only” and are “not designed for human consumption”.
But it also advises buyers to use the drug “sparingly” and predicts the effects will last for several hours. No mention is made, however, of the risk that users will turn into the crazed, flesh-eating monsters horrifying America.
Earlier this month, a naked man was arrested ranting and screaming outside the Los Angeles home of British actor Orlando Bloom, 35. He was said to be manic and sweaty as he prowled the estate.
Users of the drug have reported feeling incredibly hot, which is why many strip off. They can also develop superhuman strength — meaning it can take five or six men to restrain them.
They become so manic and delusional that the term “excited delirium” is being used to describe their mental state. The shocking wave of attacks has sparked fears of a real-life zombie outbreak as seen in movies such as Dawn Of The Dead.
The dangers of so-called legal highs has hit the headlines in the UK in recent weeks with two incidents linked to a new “bath salts” drug called Benzo Fury.
Alex Herriet, 19, died after taking the £10 high at the Rockness festival in Scotland.
And Katie Wilson, 19, paraded naked in a Tesco in Bourne, Lincs, after taking the drug.
The “bath salts” are actually a cocktail of amphetamine-like chemicals, mainly mephedrone, MDPV and methylone. Authorities in the US and UK have tried to close loopholes allowing the drugs to be sold.
Last year America’s Drug Enforcement Administration imposed a 12- month emergency ban on the three chemicals. MDPV is illegal in the UK.
But experts have warned the current rules are ineffective.
David Shurtleff, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the States, explained drug makers are constantly “tweaking” the molecular structure of the substance to get round regulations while maintaining the effects.
Dr Shurtleff said: “The problem is that chemists are very clever.”
The number of calls America’s Poison Control Centers receive about the drug rose from 304 in 2010 to 6,138 in 2011. Addiction expert Dr Deborah Mash of University of Miami says the problem should chill people to the bone. She said: “This is almost like a science fiction episode where someone creates a dangerous molecule and it is released into the public. The results are terrifying in the extreme.”
Things have got so out of hand in America that many people feared a mutant virus was to blame.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention had to release a statement saying it is not aware of any virus that can cause zombie-like behaviour.
Addiction expert Dr Karen Hylen believes the cannibals were already disturbed — and that eating human flesh can become addictive. Dr Hylen said: “It takes a very disordered psyche to become interested in cannibalism. But once a person entertains such fantasies and acts on them, eating flesh will release brain chemicals that can make the process addictive.”
Luka Magnotta, 29, is the most infamous recent “flesh eater” after he was held on suspicion of killing and eating a lover.
But the Canadian oddball, who lived in London for a while, is not known to have used “bath salts”.
The Home Office said it is trying to root out the “bath salts” menace. A spokesman said: “MDPV is an illegal and harmful drug and stiff penalties are in place for people who possess or supply it. Drugs ruin lives which is why we are taking tough action against dealers and criminal gangs and helping people to free themselves from the cycle of dependency.”
WTF Leprechaun “Zombie Apocalypse” – bizarre beating on the streets of Seattle
A mob of leprechauns reportedly carried out a vicious attack in the city of Seattle.
The victim of the attack claims a group of leprechauns beat him up in a Belltown area bar for dancing with the wrong girl. The police arrived to the bar to find the man covered in blood and screaming in pain.
When the officers asked him who had attacked him he said “It was a bunch of leprechauns.”
A witness at the scene confirmed a group of men beat him up.
The victim of the attack was taken to Harborview Medical Center with multiple head injuries and cuts and bruises to his face, back, knuckles and elbows.
The police have been unable to find the leprechauns involved.
This offbeat story has spread across news publications and websites like wildfire. By Friday afternoon the story was featured on BreakingNews.ie, Gawker, and on Downtown Seattle Komo. After weeks of media fixation on the “Zombie Apocalypse” fueled by the synthetic drug “bath salts” it seems the media are becoming obsessed with this leprechauns.
Gawker’s reporter stated “Following the recent proliferation of zombie-related news stories, it appears America has now moved on to attacks by other fantastical characters.”
They joked “The leprechauns have yet to be apprehended. Be vigilant all ye travelers.”
The Daily Mail took it even further saying “Just as the Zombie threat appears to finally be lifting it seems America could be at the mercy of an even deadlier menace.”
While obviously the leprechaun frenzy in Seattle is far less serious that the horrendous crimes committed under the influence of “bath salts” the media’s reaction to this Seattle man’s claims is something to behold
CDC visitors exposed to deadly germs?
Washington (CNN) — It’s a highly secured, sophisticated research lab studying deadly diseases such as bird flu, monkeypox, tuberculosis and rabies.
It’s in a facility called Building 18, which cost taxpayers $214 million.
And now, the Biosafety Level 3 lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is also the subject of a congressional investigation after a potentially dangerous airflow leak at that lab, CNN has learned.
The leak occurred on February 16, when air flowed the wrong way out of a germ lab into a clean-air corridor, rather than through the powerful HEPA filter that cleans the air, congressional sources and CDC officials said. Visitors touring the facility were in the clean corridor when they observed a puff of air being pushed out from the lab through a slot in a door window.
CNN recommends: Deadly bird flu could become airborne
If experiments had been under way at the time of that air leak, experts say, unprotected visitors could have been exposed to deadly germs, although an epidemic would have been unlikely.
According to U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican and a medical doctor, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the CDC for documents about that incident. The request came in the wake of a report on internal CDC e-mails about the incident, first reported by USA Today last week.
“The biggest concern was that there was a contingent of visitors who were walking through the building,” Burgess said. “And had one of those people been stricken or made ill or worse, obviously that would have been devastating.”
The lab handles small mammals such as rats, ferrets and mice as part of its experiments with pathogens, according to CDC officials. They say animals were in the lab at the time of the air leak, but they were secured in filtered cages.
CDC officials say the lab was clean, was not active at the time, and no one got infected.
“At no time during recent incidents featured in the media were CDC workers or the public in harm’s way,” agency spokesman Tom Skinner said. “This unique facility features multiple security layers specifically designed to protect workers and the public in the event of an incident.”
In a statement released to CNN, Burgess’ committee said, “We will actively work to find out if there are additional concerns or incidents associated with Building 18. Any anomaly or breach is of concern, and we will work to ensure the integrity of the facility is maintained and that our scientists are safe.”
There has been at least one other safety-related incident in that same building where February’s air leak occurred.
In 2008, it was discovered that a high-containment lab door was sealed with duct tape. That incident was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and confirmed to CNN by Skinner.
Robert Hawley, former safety chief at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, said the CDC has many safety layers in place at its labs. Hawley says researchers at the Biosafety Level 3 lab work in biosafety “cabinets” within the lab itself.
“Nothing is handled outside that cabinet,” Hawley said. “So they’re working with minute amounts of material, and the chances of aerosol are negligible.”
But there are questions about a possible cover-up.
In an internal e-mail, reported by USA Today, CDC biologist Kismet Scarborough said the centers “… will do anything … to hide the fact that we have serious problems with the airflow and containment in this whole building.”
CNN has not been able to independently verify that e-mail. But in response, Skinner said, “CDC will continue to take an open, transparent and inclusive approach to address any safety challenge in a manner that will ensure the safety of our workforce and the public.”
Skinner said the agency “intends to cooperate fully with Rep. Burgess and the committee to address any questions they may have about Building 18 at CDC.”