Zombie Walks

A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch,zombie shamble, zombie shuffle or zombie pub crawl) is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Usually taking place in an urban centre, the participants make their way around the city streets and through shopping malls in a somewhat orderly fashion and often limping their way towards a local cemetery or other public space.

During the event participants are encouraged to remain in character as zombies and to communicate only in a manner consistent with zombie behavior. This may include grunting, groaning and slurred, moaning calls for 'brains'. It should be noted that zombie behavior is a hot topic of debate. Purists who draw their definitions from the original Living Dead films will claim that a zombie would never have the ability to call for 'brains' and furthermore that a zombie needs only living or freshly killed flesh for its sustenance, and not the brain in particular.

Zombie walks have become relatively common in large cities, especially in North America, often becoming annual traditions, though some are spontaneous zombie "flash mob" events. On October 30, 2008, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the largest site of zombies anywhere in the world with well over 4,000+ zombies showing up to this event.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM 2KJJ!

Perspectives on the Meaning of Life: Nihilism

This is a part of the Perspectives on the Meaning of Life series.

Nihilism rejects any authority's claims to knowledge and truth, and so explores the significance of existence without knowable truth. Rather than insisting that values are subjective, and might be warrantless, the nihilist says: Nothing is of value, morals are valueless, they only serve as society's false ideals. Albert Camus asserts that the absurdity of the human condition is that we search for external values and meaning in a world which has none, and is indifferent to us.

Much of Nihilisms fame comes from Nietzsche's famous proclamation that "God is dead." But what Nietzsche was really eulogizing was morality. "God is dead" wasn't about an actual God who first existed and then died in a literal sense. It may be more appropriate to consider it Nietzsche's way of saying that the Gods of religion are no longer a viable source of any moral code. When one gives up faith, one pulls the right to morality out from under one's feet. The problem is retaining any system of values in the absence of a divine order.

Nietzsche asserts that nihilism is a result of valuing "higher", "divine" or "meta-physical" things (such as God), that do not in turn value "base", "human" or "earthly" things. But a person who rejects God and the divine may still retain the belief that all "base", "earthly", or "human" ideas are still valueless because they were considered so in the previous belief system (such as a Christian who becomes a communist and believes fully in the party structure and leader). In this interpretation, any form of idealism, after being rejected by the idealist, leads to nihilism. Moreover, this is the source of "inconsistency on the part of the nihilists". The nihilist continues to believe that only "higher" values and truths are worthy of being called such, but rejects the idea that they exist. Because of this rejection, all ideas described as true or valuable are rejected by the nihilist as impossible because they do not meet the previously established standards.

The Hunt for Truth

"Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine Mater, and, was a perfect shape most glorious to look on: but when he ascended, and his Apostles after him were laid alseep, then strait arose a wicked race of deceivers, who . . . took the virgin Truth , hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces and scattered them to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth . . . went up and down gathering up limb by limb still as they could find them. We have not found them all, nor ever shall do."

-John Milton, Areopagitica

The fable Milton created about a personified truth ripped limb from limb suggests that truth is known only in part and the quest for truth can never be fulfilled. The question I ask is what fields can we discover 'truth' and what fields are we forever bound to 'opinion'? Math and science seems like easy answers to discovering objective truth whereas the arts will always develop based on opinion. On the other hand, their must be some visuals that are intuitively attractive to the human eye, some musical sounds that naturally appeal to the human ear. To some extent, even the arts may be reduced to objective measures. It has been said, "if you don't like the Mona Lisa, it says more about you than Da Vinci's skill as a painter." To what extent can arts be reduced to formulas?

Music from Ghana: Shaka Zulu

"Shaka Zulu" is also by 4x4 and features a guest appearance by the Fresh Prince (No, not Will Smith). It has an upbeat, optimistic melody which is a staple of Ghanian music. Notable is the song's chorus which boasts, "girl want a Fresh prince, they want a C.P., they want Abortion." The last line can sound alarming until you realize "Abortion" refers to one of the group's singers.

Bertrand's Box Paradox

The Setup: There are three boxes: a box containing two gold coins, a box with two silver coins, and a box with one of each.

The Problem: After choosing a box at random and withdrawing one coin at random that happens to be a gold coin, what is the probability the remaining coin is gold?

The Solution: The correct answer is two-thirds. It may seem that the probability that the remaining coin is gold has a probability of 1⁄2; in fact, the probability is actually 2⁄3. This is because of the six coins on the table, there are only three that could have been drawn. We know all three are gold and of those three, two are in the box with another gold coin. The coin seen is equally likely to be any of the three gold coins, only one of which is opposite a silver coin

Rurouni

The eclipse of the sun marks the sky

To see what I see is a rare sight

In the air crickets are the only sound

And the trees have gone to sleep

The moon rose where the sun lies

The clouds acquiescing to its silver light

Their red the city below, south, a spiked mound

And no natural shine its glow can o’er reap

In darkness fiery flame dances gracefully

Lonely light shining brightly under the dark light of the moon

With music and words we inspire ourselves

Sounds of the woods adding harmony to our inspirations

Marvel do the spectators gratefully

They are entranced by the flames hypnotic tune I dream

I can hear the call of Rome’s bells

And the sky will fill with the flags of our nations

Along tracks of green empty fields

Among the dotted lines of moon-night clouds

Songs of older times, for their distance clearer,

Unwound strings of planned out sound return music to nature

By my waist is my sword and my shield

And in my ear rings the cheers of the crowds

But all I saw was scars when I look in the mirror

And I shiver when the oracle predicts a great war

Heart of the young, yearning for peace of all

With blade by my side, I fight in the name of justice

Never-ending life of ending life,

Blood stained hands with blood stained heart

I would answer the champion’s call

And when the night falls it will be just us

Gone is my fantasy; I live in a world of strife

And so I make swordsmanship my art

Jim and the Indians

Jim finds himself in the central square of a small South American town. Tied up against the wall are twenty Indians, most terrified, a few defiant, in front of several armed men in uniform. A heavy man in a sweat-stained khaki shirt turns out to be the captain in charge and, after a good deal of questioning of Jim which establishes that he got there by accident while on a botanical expedition, explains that the Indians are a random group of inhabitants who, after recent acts of protest against the government, are just about to be killed to remind other possible protesters of the advantage of not protesting.

However, since Jim is an honoured visitor from another land, the captain is happy to offer him a guest’s privilege of killing one of the prisoners himself. If Jim accepts, then as a special mark of the occasion the other Indians will be let off. Of course, if Jim refuses, there will be no special occasion, and the captain will do what he was about to do when Jim arrived and kill them all.

Jim, with some desperate recollection of schoolboy fiction, wonders whether if he got hold of a gun, he could hold the captain and the rest of the soldiers to threat, but it is quite clear from the set-up that nothing of that kind is going to work; any attempt at that sort of thing will mean that all the Indians will be killed, and himself. The men are against the wall and the other villagers understand the situation and are obviously begging him to accept. What should he do?