[quote]SAN DIEGO (AP) - Move over vampires, goblins and haunted houses, this kind of Halloween terror aims to shake up even the toughest warriors: An untold number of so-called zombies are coming to a counterterrorism summit attended by hundreds of Marines, Navy special ops, soldiers, police, firefighters and others to prepare them for their worst nightmares.
"This is a very real exercise, this is not some type of big costume party," said Brad Barker, president of Halo Corp, a security firm hosting the Oct. 31 training demonstration during the summit at a 44-acre Paradise Point Resort island on a San Diego bay. "Everything that will be simulated at this event has already happened, it just hasn't happened all at once on the same night. But the training is very real, it just happens to be the bad guys we're having a little fun with."
[b]Hundreds of military, law enforcement and medical personnel will observe the Hollywood-style production of a zombie attack as part of their emergency response training.[/b]
"No doubt when a zombie apocalypse occurs, it's going to be a federal incident, so we're making it happen," Barker said. Since word got out about the exercise, they've had calls from "every whack job in the world" about whether the U.S. government is really preparing for a zombie event.
Called "Zombie Apocalypse," the exercise follows the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's campaign launched last year that urged Americans to get ready for a zombie apocalypse, as part of a catchy, public health message about the importance of emergency preparedness.
The Homeland Security Department jumped on board last month, telling citizens if they're prepared for a zombie attack, they'll be ready for real-life disasters like a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack. A few suggestions were similar to a few of the 33 rules for dealing with zombies popularized in the 2009 movie "Zombieland," which included "always carry a change of underwear" and "when in doubt, know your way out."
The five-day Halo counterterrorism summit is an approved training event by the Homeland Security Grant Program and the Urban Areas Security Initiative, which provide funds to pay for the coursework on everything from the battleground tactics to combat wounds to cybersecurity. The summit has a $1,000 registration fee and runs Oct. 29-Nov 2. oe Newman, spokesman of the watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight, said he does not see the zombie exercise as frivolous.
"We obviously are concerned about any expenditure that might seem frivolous or a waste of money but if they tie things together, there is a lesson there," Newman said. "Obviously we're not expecting a zombie apocalypse in the near future, but the effects of what might happen in a zombie apocalypse are probably similar to the type of things that happen in natural disasters and manmade disasters. They're just having fun with it. We don't have any problems with it as a teaching point."
Defense analyst Loren Thompson agreed.
"The defining characteristics of zombies are that they're unpredictable and resilient. That may be a good way to prepare for what the Pentagon calls asymmetric warfare," Thompson said.
Organizers can also avoid the pitfalls of using a mock enemy who could be identified by nationality, race or culture _ something that could potentially be seen as offensive.
"I can think of a couple of countries where the local leaders are somewhat zombie-like," he joked. "But nobody is going to take this personally."
[/quote]
Don't know if it has already been posted sorry if it has tho.
LINK: [url]http://www.federalnewsradio.com/407/3096034/Marines-police-prep-for-mock-zombie-invasion[/url]
"Better safe than sorry" and oh boy in what way, this is awesome.
[editline]30th October 2012[/editline]
Would love to see video after they have done this excercise
Before anyone says "this is totally useless"...
Well you're right, but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome or fun.
It'll be brilliant as a police officer if the zombie apocalypse actually occurs.
You can legitimately go: "Don't worry guys, I was trained for this EXACT situation!"
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;38247372]Before anyone says "this is totally useless"...
Well you're right, but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome or fun.[/QUOTE]
Well not totally useless.
Should a food crisis happen, this training would come in handy, because as they said in the article: "The defining characteristics of zombies are that they're unpredictable and resilient" A huge mob of angry people with a goal are just like that.
Actors acting like zombies is actually the closest non-distress way of simulating a huge angry stupid mob.
[editline]30th October 2012[/editline]
Or you know, a mass hysteria epidemic.
Well it makes sense because the 'zombie apocalypse' like we know in popular culture was basically an analogy for the post-war anxiety with regards to cities and lovely, terrifying euphemisms such as [I] strategic density[/I].
So training for these same realisations using the zombie analogy makes sense.
[QUOTE=smeismastger;38247422]Well not totally useless.
Should a food crisis happen, this training would come in handy, because as they said in the article: "The defining characteristics of zombies are that they're unpredictable and resilient" A huge mob of angry people with a goal are just like that.[/QUOTE]
and, you know, this
"Obviously we're not expecting a zombie apocalypse in the near future, but the effects of what might happen in a zombie apocalypse are probably similar to the type of things that happen in natural disasters and manmade disasters. They're just having fun with it. We don't have any problems with it as a teaching point."
[QUOTE=Lizzrd;38247466]Actors acting like zombies is actually the closest non-distress way of simulating a huge angry stupid mob.
[editline]30th October 2012[/editline]
Or you know, a mass hysteria epidemic.[/QUOTE]
Or force feeding an small towns worth of rabies infected lunatics PCP :v:
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;38247372]Before anyone says "this is totally useless"...
Well you're right, but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome or fun.[/QUOTE]
getting officers and military to be able to think critically, out of the box, and under pressure is a good thing
they have drills where they have to plan an attack of fuckin ghosts attack
I hope the information gained with this(How the people act, how the "zombies" act, etc) gets public, would make zombie sims way more awesome(whatever the full game version of day z is called, the dead linger, etc)
Yeah, this is a pretty common theme among survival courses as of late. Label it as 'zombie training' to get a wider appeal to it, then just teach regular skills for survival or in this case, probably crowd control and emergency aid. It's just a different versions of those shitty PC games you played at school to teach math.
[QUOTE=Riller;38247811]Yeah, this is a pretty common theme among survival courses as of late. Label it as 'zombie training' to get a wider appeal to it, then just teach regular skills for survival or in this case, probably crowd control and emergency aid. It's just a different versions of those shitty PC games you played at school to teach math.[/QUOTE]
[img]http://memearchive.net/memerial.net/3376/zombies-are-impossible.jpg[/img]
[editline]30th October 2012[/editline]
idk why i poste this i thought it was relevant
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;38247819][img]http://memearchive.net/memerial.net/3376/zombies-are-impossible.jpg[/img]
[editline]30th October 2012[/editline]
idk why i poste this i thought it was relevant[/QUOTE]
Most zombies nowadays aren't dead, most games/movies going with the raging fucktard with rabies infected PCP path.
I've had to hold some really raging fucktard down once so he wouldn't rip out peoples eyes while we were waiting for police to arrive, I wouldn't want to get anywhere near one of those ever again, let alone if there were 20 of them and they were all on every drug known to man plus plothole rabies.
I'm so glad they will learn how to annihilate large crowds of unarmed, hungry civilians :v:
[QUOTE=Justin Case;38247944]I'm so glad they will learn how to annihilate large crowds of unarmed, hungry civilians :v:[/QUOTE]
its justin case
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;38247772]getting officers and military to be able to think critically, out of the box, and under pressure is a good thing
they have drills where they have to plan an attack of fuckin ghosts attack[/QUOTE]
So uh
How the fuck [I]do[/I] you prepare for a ghost attack?,
[QUOTE=DarkMonkey;38248317]So uh
How the fuck [I]do[/I] you prepare for a ghost attack?,[/QUOTE]
You call the ghost busters.
I am glad that they are making it fun for the participants. In my experience when a training exercise is fun you learn more and retain it longer. I remember that I had trouble remembering first aid training when I was younger until I took it with a really cool firefighter and he set up some fun scenarios and then it stuck.
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;38247372]Before anyone says "this is totally useless"...
Well you're right, but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome or fun.[/QUOTE]
Actually, while not quite Zombies, it is possible that an epidemic breaks out which would weaken the body, but make one more aggressive, those two symptoms really aren't anything unseen. It'd be similar.
[editline]30th October 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=DarkMonkey;38248317]So uh
How the fuck [I]do[/I] you prepare for a ghost attack?,[/QUOTE]
You are right, I mean, Who you gonna call?
[QUOTE=DarkMonkey;38248317]So uh
How the fuck [I]do[/I] you prepare for a ghost attack?,[/QUOTE]
carefully
[QUOTE=DarkMonkey;38248317]So uh
How the fuck [I]do[/I] you prepare for a ghost attack?,[/QUOTE]
by making Ghost Busters references of course
[QUOTE=Crimor;38247859]Most zombies nowadays aren't dead, most games/movies going with the raging fucktard with rabies infected PCP path.
I've had to hold some really raging fucktard down once so he wouldn't rip out peoples eyes while we were waiting for police to arrive, I wouldn't want to get anywhere near one of those ever again, let alone if there were 20 of them and they were all on every drug known to man plus plothole rabies.[/QUOTE]
Well it kind of reflects the world now, fast "realistic" zombies that quickly overrun everything and infect almost instantly if you get even a scratch, but they eventually die out without that much of a lasting impact.
Just like videogames we get these days
This is the same underlying ethos behind Zombie Squad and other zombie-themed disaster preparedness groups: If you're ready for the end of the world where power, food, and water will never come back and the streets are full of death, you're ready for any real-world disaster. The zombie theme is more spice than anything else, because designing a bug-out bag for the zombie apocalypse is more interesting than designing a bug-out bag for flooding.
Although the idea of a real-world zombie apocalypse is not possible for a number of reasons and people who actually take this seriously are missing the point.
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;38247372]Before anyone says "this is totally useless"...
Well you're right, but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome or fun.[/QUOTE]
Too bad that 'fun' costs a lot of taxpayers money.
[QUOTE=Robbi;38250373]Too bad that 'fun' costs a lot of taxpayers money.[/QUOTE]
Did you not read the article? Zombies or not, they would've done an emergency action exercise anyway.
[QUOTE=Robbi;38250373]Too bad that 'fun' costs a lot of taxpayers money.[/QUOTE]
Is there anything practical to be gained by turning a fun exercise into a boring one? Will they learn more? Will it cost less?
I'm fairly certain the answer to all of the above is no.
It's good that they are keeping on their toes.Though the dead rising back up and eating us is unlikely, rabies evolving into something that takes control of the human body and causes us to go berserk without the host dying is very possible. It only takes someone to want to do it, and I'm pretty sure it could happen.
[QUOTE=Daddy-of-war;38250651]rabies evolving into something that takes control of the human body and causes us to go berserk without the host dying is very possible[/QUOTE]
Eh, not really, for a number of reasons. Even if it was, people acting psychotically aggressive before shortly dying of exhaustion and dehydration would be much less of a threat than movies depict, let alone one that could cause the end of the world as we know it.
Zombies aren't a plausible threat, even hypothetically. They're used in fiction as a metaphor for societal ills, just as they're used here as a metaphor for disaster preparedness. As a metaphor they're great, but when people turn the focus to zombies specifically, they're missing the point.
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;38247819][img]http://memearchive.net/memerial.net/3376/zombies-are-impossible.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
The classic zombie has always struck me as being outside those rules due to their supernatural heritage. They're dead things risen to undead life, and it is either straight out said to be supernatural or strongly hinted (if only for a lack of wanting to create a scientific reason). I just chock it up to magic since that's about as far an explanation as the classic zombies got anyway.
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