Thanks to Arsian special*dark for posting this on his blog. Here’s the important question at hand:

You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:
1. One weapon.
2. One song blasting on the speakers.
3. One famous person to fight alongside you.

Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.

Here’s my reply:

Yay, zombies!

1) Olympic Arms AR-15 pistol.

2) “March of Death” by Zach de la Rocha and DJ Shadow

3) Randy “The Natural” Couture

With some luck, I may find out how accurate this quiz is.

How many five year olds could you take on at one time, assuming no weapons and no body armor?

34 five year olds. Hell yeah.

34

Take it yourself here!

A breakdown of my answers follow the jump.
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In the United States, that is.

Shall we play a game? Go to EPG Soft’s Visited States Map generator. This is a three-part challenge, so grab some coffee, tea, or whatever the fuck you’re drinking today.
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Thanks to Father for sending along Jalopnik’s top ten post-apocalyptic vehicles. The article has some pretty wild vehicles on there, most notably the bullet-shaped Dobbertin Surface Orbiter.

I’d easily pick the Volvo C303 and the SportsMobile van over any of the other vehicles in the article. I was surprised that the Land Rover Defender wasn’t on the list, tricked out with a snorkel and high-lift. I realize the Jalopnik article is tongue in cheek, but there are better bug out vehicles to put on that list other than a beefed-up RV.

The Sisu XA-185 is an interesting vehicle, but the triple axles and gross weight make me wonder if you’d have to have a commercial driver’s license to legally pilot one.

I still think the 1995 Mitsubishi Montero now owned by my niece is about all the average person would need in a bugout situation. The Monty needs a roof rack, high lift jack, and a tail rack to hold gas cans, but aside from that it’s ready to rumble.

I might take on a BOV project for next spring, maybe with a budget of $5000 or less. :)

Gary Gygax, creator of the Dungeons & Dragons and various other games, has passed away at the age of 70. I first played First Edition of D&D when I was probably seven years old, led by my half-brother who was visiting from college. In the next two-plus decades I played a variety of role-playing games, including every edition of AD&D from FE on.

To say that Gygax’s game had an impact on my life is a gross understatement. I have made (and lost) friends due to RPGs, and have spent countless hours telling stories with my gaming group. I would like to think that my ability to bullshit — I mean, think — on the fly is partially due to role-playing. There really isn’t much difference between trying to con your way past a troll guarding a bridge or a high-level executive that can bless or burn your pet project.

Rest in peace, Gary.

Tonight will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2010. The good news for those of us in North and South America is that it’s early enough that you can see it. The bad news is that it’s overcast as fuck for most of us on the east coast today.

CNN has a pretty good write-up about the event. If you want the TL; DR version, you can catch the eclipse at 10PM Eastern, 7PM Pacific.

The BBC is reporting that a Chinese man whose son died from an H5N1 infection has also died, raising concerns that the avian flu might be transmittable from person to person. All previous documented cases of human H5N1 infection has been due to contact with birds, or animals who have come into contact with birds, such as cats. The World Health Organization is still researching the two fatalities. If this was indeed spread by HTH contact, expect some reactionary legislation in the US that probably won’t amount to any increased safety.

I made a few posts in the now-defunct GIMPS forum about N95 respirator masks. This thread deals with a group buy on some masks, but there is good information about how there will be a shortage in the event of a major crisis. Should the two deaths in China become linked to HTH, I would not be surprised to find a run on good N95 masks.

This is a repost from an Ars Technica thread from Uhlek for those of you who don’t make it over there:

Count the FCC Violations - Watch more free videos

From today until Friday, you can download the Xbox 360 version of Carcassonne for FREE. I think most of my friends already have this, but if you don’t, please please download it! It’s fun, and I could always use some more folks to play with online.

My college girlfriend Sunshine and I adopted Sydney the Australian shepherd when we were seniors in college. I grew up on a farm with eleven dogs, and missed having a pup around, especially one that I could raise as my own.

Fast forward eleven years (surely not! holy shit!). Sunshine is married to a nice fellow, is pregnant with their first child, and lives in New York City. Sydney has made the transition from beach comber to city dog. Sunshine entered Sydney in a doggie costume and tail-wagging contest in Battery Park last week, and Bret has put together a nice film about it.
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