Ohio Emergency Responders Stage Mock Zombie Invasion 219
destinyland writes "An Ohio Emergency Management Agency staged a mock zombie attack using more than 225 volunteers dressed as zombies at an Ohio college. 'Organizers hoped the theme would attract more volunteers than previous simulations of industrial accidents or train crashes,' the AP reports, quoting a spokesman for the agency as saying that 'People got zombie fever here in Delaware.' The exercise included decontamination procedures for hazardous materials, and was inspired by an 'emergency preparedness' post on the CDC web site citing the popular fascination with zombies. Now, 'Dozens of agencies have embraced the idea,' the AP reports, 'spreading the message that if you're prepared for a zombie attack, you're prepared for just about anything.'"
Re:For their next performance (Score:4, Insightful)
Pretty sure he'd just remove the federal level CERS, though as a more low priority objective. And even then, states would do a better job.
The life cycle of a trend (Score:5, Insightful)
In case you're wondering when the zombie thing is going to end, here's the lifecycle of stupid trends.
Black people start doing it.
Black people stop doing it because it's not cool any more.
White kids start doing it.
It becomes an Internet meme.
White kids stop doing it.
The media picks it up and doesn't get it.
White kids' parents start doing it.
People write books about it.
Parents stop doing it after their kids tell them how embarrassing it is.
The government and corporate PR start doing it... <=== we are here
And then stop when someone sues them.
It's filed away in a historical record of memes.
People who don't realize they're 20 years late to the party are still trying to do it.
/. = right wing? Since When? (Score:4, Insightful)
I wouldn't say /. is right wing at all (As currently defined). Libertarian on the philosophy charts is dead center which is where most /. stories show. In general /.ers dislike being tracked by corporations and feds, don't care for government mandated monopolies, actually like science (and understand it), have critical thinking skills (Which politicians of all callings dislike), and want an equal playing field for everyone. They're against corporatism, That means /. does correspond to the personal freedoms of the right wing, maybe the classical libertarian sense. But the being able to think for ourselves, are for more science across all things, believe in peer reviewed things like global warming, openly mock creationism, embrace open source free as in beer, would shred patent laws to something more logical, and has probably shared at least one title on a P2P network in their lifetime is definitely not right wing.
Oh and federal level responders aren't all they're cracked up to be. Forget the utter failure in New Orleans, even the recent wildfires in Texas had FEMA turning away help from the local firefighters. Since 71% of all firefighters in this country are volunteers it shows people are willing to put their lives on the line to help their fellow person without the gov't stepping in.
Re:For their next performance (Score:5, Insightful)
Out of curiosity given that the United States can't do anything about International corporations, what special powers do you think local governments have to deal with the same companies more effectively? It is orders of magnitude easier to move HQ to another state than another country, you seem to be advocating the dissolution of the United States. If the Federal government doesn't exist to provide aid in times of need, to regular intra and international commerce, then what are they for?
The assumption is that my liberty ends where your's begins. If you have far more resources than me then you have quite an ability to infringe on my rights. If you control every job in the United States what does that do to my right to the pursuit of happiness? It is the job of Government to control and balance the powers of individuals for the good of all citizens, not just a small majority with all the money.
I'll agree some issues are best handled at the state level, but this idea that states can do everything better than the fed is so beyond ignorant I don't even know where it started. You ever think about why the federal government took over certain responsibilities? How local governments in New Orleans during Katrina failed so miserably to help their own people? Regulation isn't a bad thing as long as it is good regulation. The argument shouldn't be about regulations or not, it should be about which regulations make sense and help even the playing field, and which regulations only cause harm. In my experience most regulations err on the side of caution however so the only harm is to corporate profits which caused a great many house fires before building codes rendered any new structure safe even though the cost of construction is higher.
History is an important teacher, please don't lose sight of how things became the way they are.