When Design Meets Doomsday

When the shit hits the fan, that Remington 870 will come in handy, but it won't be able to solve all of your problems. Sure, it'll take out a zombie, but, if you're hungry, it'll just make a mess out of that delicious-looking mildly irradiated three-eyed koi teasing you from the pool outside the ruins of your local Chinese restaurant. And when the shells run out, you'll just look silly trying to blend in with a brick building while wearing those BDUs you nicked from the local Army-Navy store.

The cool kids down at 5.5 Designers have designed a number of items for even cooler kids (a.k.a. design snobs) as part of a 'guide to free farming.' Their notion: "We're surrounded by food sources. Sure, they're disgusting, but hey--it's 2030." In addition to the really snazzy fishing rod, they have a cockroach trap, a rat trap, a snail vivarium, a bird trap, and a gleaning bag.

h/t Fast Company

Last Man Standing

What if a conservative talk show host like Rush Limbaugh were the last man on earth, and everyone else had been transformed into liberal nudist zombies? Find out in Hive Mind, the story of Doug Trench, right-wing radio talk show host, "stevedore of freedom," and the last man on earth. Aside from the zombies who are controlled by the Hive Mind collective.


h/t Kathy Shaidle @ examiner.com

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Gamma World Lit

Sherman, set the wayback machine for 1980. My favorite writer was Stephen Vincent Benet. His writings touched on some of my favorite subjects: specifically, the American Civil War and doomsday. My favorite Benet short story is "By The Rivers of Babylon," the tale of a hero's quest in the post-apocalyptic age. I highly recommend it to my fellow fans of the End of The World As We Know It. Another of his doomsday works is the poem "Nightmare Number Three." When I was in ninth grade, all of the students in my English class had to stand up and share a poem with the class. I chose "Nightmare Number Three." I still vividly recall one airhead (as we called them back in the day) expressing her complete and utter lack of comprehension.

Mr. Benet's most famous works are John Brown's Body and The Devil and Daniel Webster. He died of a heart attack at the age of 44.

[ a piece of artwork inspired by "nightmare number three ]

John Updike is Dead, and Lux Interior Don't Feel So Good Himself
Speaking of folks dying of heart problems, Lux Interior of The Cramps is dead. What's even more shocking to me was that he was 62! Dear Lord, I'm old.

More Gamma Worldly Greatness
The Road movie

Gamma-Fried Chicken

One of my favorite roleplaying game adventure modules was Gamma World's Famine in Far-Go. The player characters are a "group of young adventurers about to begin the sacred Rite of Adulthood." There quest takes them into the Forest of Knowledge to discover the cause of a "mysterious plague." Timothy Truman's artwork alone makes one think twice before eating another order of Frankenfood MacNuggets.

The entire adventure can be found at Scribd.

Gamma World - GW2 - Famine in Far-Go

Publish at Scribd or explore others: eBooks Academic Work future mutant

NRA *heart* NY
Tip o' the pith helmet to New York Governor David Paterson for appointing Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. Senator Gillibrand is the recipient of an "A" from the National Rifle Association for her voting record on Second Amendment issues. Heck, if the Democrats keep this up, they just may win me back to the party of my forefathers.

New York Gov. David Paterson will name Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, an upstate Democrat, to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate, a Democratic official with knowledge of the governor's decision told FOX News on Thursday night.

But some New York City Democrats are skeptical of Gillibrand, who voted against the financial rescue package last fall. And the National Rifle Association has endorsed Gillibrand -- another cause for concern among some Democrats. . . .

In defense of the endorsement, Gillibrand told FOX News that she comes from a "hunting family" and "wants to support hunter's rights."

[ source : Field & Stream ]

Tip o' the pith helmet to President Obama as well for these kind words:

“Governor Paterson made a wonderful choice in appointing Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Secretary Clinton’s seat in the United States Senate. I am confident that she will continue Secretary Clinton’s distinguished service to the people of New York and to our country….During her career, Kirsten has been a strong voice for transparency and reform in government and shares the belief that government should be open, accessible and work for all of our citizens. In Congress and as special counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, she worked to strengthen public and private partnerships to invest in infrastructure and New York’s economy.”

[ source : Wall Street Journal ]

Yugo
How to clean a Yugo

Post-Apocalyptic Post

Over at the Gamma World Yahoo Group, kvedulf2000 posted about The Last American: A Fragment from The Journal of Khan-Li, Prince of Dimph-Yoo-Chur and Admiral in the Persian Navy by J. A. Mitchell. It is written from the perspective of a Persian archaeological expedition exploring the ruins of post-apocalyptic 1990s "Mehrika." Interestingly enough, this piece wasn't written in this millenium. According to kvedulf2000, it was penned some time between 1889 and 1906.

An excerpt:

TO THOSE THOUGHTFUL PERSIANS WHO CAN READ A WARNING IN THE SUDDEN RISE AND SWIFT EXTINCTION OF A FOOLISH PEOPLE THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED A FEW WORDS BY HEDFUL SURNAMED "THE AXIS OF WISDOM" _Curator of the Imperial Museum at Shiraz._ _Author of "The Celestial Conquest of Kaly-phorn-ya," and of_ _"Northern Mehrika under the Hy-Bernyan Rulers"_
The astounding discoveries of Khan-li of Dimph-yoo-chur have thrown floods of light upon the domestic life of the Mehrikan people. He little realized when he landed upon that sleeping continent what a service he was about to render history, or what enthusiasm his discoveries would arouse among Persian archaeologists.
Every student of antiquity is familiar with these facts.
But for the benefit of those who have yet to acquire a knowledge of this extraordinary people, I advise, first, a visit to the Museum at Teheran in order to excite their interest in the subject, and second, the reading of such books as Nofuhl's "What we Found in the West," and Noz-yt-ahl's "History of the Mehrikans." The last-named is a complete and reliable history of these people from the birth of the Republic under George-wash-yn-tun to the year 1990, when they ceased to exist as a nation. I must say, however, that Noz-yt-ahl leaves the reader much confused concerning the period between the massacre of the Protestants in 1927, and the overflow of the Murfey dynasty in 1940.
He holds the opinion with many other historians that the Mehrikans were a mongrel race, with little or no patriotism, and were purely imitative; simply an enlarged copy of other nationalities extant at the time. He pronounces them a shallow, nervous, extravagant people, and accords them but few redeeming virtues. This, of course, is just; but nevertheless they will always be an interesting study by reason of their rapid growth, their vast numbers, their marvellous mechanical ingenuity and their sudden and almost unaccountable disappearance.
The wealth, luxury, and gradual decline of the native population; the frightful climatic changes which swept the country like a mower's scythe; the rapid conversion of a vast continent, alive with millions of pleasure-loving people, into a silent wilderness, where the sun and moon look down in turn upon hundreds of weed-grown cities,--all this is told by Noz-yt-ahl with force and accuracy.
"Here's Truth. 'T is a bitter pill but good physic."
ABOARD THE ZLOTUHB IN THE YEAR 2951 _10th May_
There is land ahead! Grip-til-lah was first to see it, and when he shouted the tidings my heart beat fast with joy. The famished crew have forgotten their disconsolate stomachs and are dancing about the deck. 'T is not I, forsooth, who shall restrain them! A month of emptiness upon a heavy sea is preparation for any folly. Nofuhl alone is without enthusiasm. The old man's heart seems dead.
We can see the land plainly, a dim strip along the western horizon. A fair wind blows from the northeast, but we get on with cruel hindrance, for the _Zlotuhb_ is a heavy ship, her bluff bow and voluminous bottom ill fitting her for speed. The land, as we near it, seems covered with trees, and the white breakers along the yellow beach are a welcome sight.

Read The Last American: A Fragment from The Journal of Khan-Li, Prince of Dimph-Yoo-Chur and Admiral in the Persian Navy in its entirety