A Thank you and and update

The gang have taken it in turns to get the lurgi and it was my turn yesterday. Spent 18 hours in the sack listening to the radio ( a past time I do enjoy) and I heard a very interesting play on 'The Two Ronnies'.  So now I'm just awaiting the compulsory 24 hrs without symptoms which has given me the opportunity to catch up some on some modelling.

I tool the advice from the previous blog. I washed the figures, dried them overnight and tried another undercoat of black. Left to dry.

Today, three days later, I returned to my company and saw that the undercoat had stayed on. RESULT! The sad thing was black seems to hide the detail on these figures, grey does not. Now I know plastic isn't as forgiving as metal but compared to the like of Caesar, Airfix do come up a wee bit wanting. After examining the figures I discovered that the undercoat had sloughed off, in parts.

So with all things considered I decided to try out a 'quick wargame block painting'  technique. Part 1: A Heavy wash of burnt umber: Part 2; Paint backpack, pouches, respirator cases, puttees in Rucksac tan: Part 3; Dry brush webbing in same colour: Part 4; Finish off flesh, rifles, hair and boots: Part 5; Base and varnish.

And There You Have It.

The cake that just keeps giving.

Keep well out there.
Lorcan.

AHOY THERE - 20000 page views

"AHOY there! What's that I see?"

"I believe it's 20,000 pages views Captain."

"Aye, it be that. Tell cookie to sort out a big cake to thank all our readers."

"Aye, aye, sir!"

Thanks to all you out there for following and commenting.

Lorcan.

PS I'll let you know how the figure issue went at the end of the weekend.

A Treatise on Animal Zombism; Part 2.

Wade Davis (1985,1988) did present a pharmacological case for zombies in two books. He claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders being introduced into the blood stream (usually via a wound). The first, coup de poudre (French: "powder strike"), includes tetrodotoxin (TTX), a powerful and frequently fatal neurotoxin found in the flesh of the pufferfish (order Tetraodontidae). The second powder consists of dissociative drugs such as datura. Together, these powders were said to induce a deathlike state in which the will of the victim would be entirely subjected to that of the bokor. Therefore, if coupe de poudre works on animals then it could be reasoned that the creature would therefore be zombiefied. However, do animals have the necessary active intellect to be so controlled?

A further complication is the creation of the zombie state through viral infection, McCullough (op. cit; p.44-50).

Half of us, scientists say, carry the parasitic protozoa Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii) and once we have toxoplasma in our bodies, we carry it for life. T.Gondii has the ability to alter our personality. A number of studies have suggested subtle behavioural or personality changes may occur in infected humans (Flegr, 2013) and infection with the parasite has recently been associated with a number of neurological disorders, particularly schizophrenia (Webster et al, 2013).

Because cats are the only hosts within which T. gondii can sexually reproduce to complete and begin its life cycle it would appear that our feline friends could be the source of viral zombieism. It is not yet clear if the T.gondii has effects on their feline hosts.

Similarly the viral disease rabies, appears to exhibit the early forms of zombification, what is more this virus is zoonotic. Symptoms being typically flu-like infection occuring between two to twelve weeks, but incubation periods as short as four days and longer than six years have been documented, depending on the location and severity of the inoculating wound and the amount of virus introduced. Soon after, the symptoms expand to slight or partial paralysis, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behaviour, paranoia , terror, and hallucinations, progressing to delirium. Modern drug interventions are highly successful and infected animals tend to be incinerated prior to the completion of zombification and are therefore unavailable for further study.

I will await comments before I write any conclusions.

 Bibliography

Davis, Wade (1985). The Serpent and the Rainbow. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Davis, Wade (1988). Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie. Robert F. Thompson, Richard E. Schultes. University of North Carolina Press

Flegr, J (2013 Jan 1). "Influence of latent Toxoplasma infection on human personality, physiology and morphology: pros and cons of the Toxoplasma-human model in studying the manipulation hypothesis.". The Journal of experimental biology 216 (Pt 1): 127–33

McCullough: J.A. (2010: Zombies. A Hunter’s Guide: Dark Osprey.

Mearls; M., Schubert; S. andWyatt; J. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast , 2008)

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 1998.

Webster, JP; Kaushik, M; Bristow, GC; McConkey, GA (2013 Jan 1). "Toxoplasma gondii infection, from predation to schizophrenia: can animal behaviour help us understand human behaviour?". The Journal of experimental biology 216 (Pt 1): 99–112.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie : Accesed 19MAY13.

A Treatise on Animal Zombism; Part 1.

A short while ago I lost all my computer documents. With it was the map of my MOORE CITY campaign. What I remember of it was there were cattle pens on the edge of the city. Now my main characters are making their way back to the city through these pens. So the subject of this treatise is;

This is just for fun.

'Can Animals Become Zombies?' Debate.

Just for you know who!

The essential issue here is what is a zombie? And what causes zombism?

Initially it is clear that a zombie is one of the undead, more appropriately a reanimated corpse. The 'undead' concept is a bit woolly as will encompass other creatures particularly vampires.

Zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe) is an animated corpse resurrected by mystical means, such as witchcraft (OED,1998: p. 1426). The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotised person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Since the late 19th century, zombies have acquired notable popularity, especially in North American and European folklore.

McCullough (2012) maintains that zombies are an aberration of the human condition being formed as a result of human or demonic intervention. The creation of a zombie can take many forms; Voodoo, Atomic, Viral to name three. Essentially, in order to create a zombie the soul of the being is ether seized our controlled. Now as animals do not have souls they, theoretically, cannot be turned.

“Interestingly, wielders of voodoo black magic are not able to create any zombie animals. Voodoo zombification requires the incarceration of of the zombi astral, the soul of the deceased. Since animals do not posses souls, there is nothing for the bokor to imprison”‘(ibid: p. 56)

However, Mearls (2008) asserts that animals as well as humanoids can be turned into undead beasts, most commonly a zombie. Zombie animals look like the animal they were in life only with rotting, falling off flesh (some are completely skeletal), and are completely feral and mindless creatures which stalk around, searching for flesh. Zombified horses are sometimes employed by humanoid zombies to act as mounts. They cannot speak, and are neutral evil in alignment. How can this be?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 

Well my blog is two today and it was my birthday yesterday. I'm sorry that I haven't been posting of late.

 

 Having a birthday half way through the year it gives you an opportunity to check up how you are getting on in respect of your resolutions a the turn of the year. Personally; I've sorted out some issues in my life, which is good and I've just had the 'ALL CLEAR' from my cardiologist, although they do want me to have an ablation in the next twelve months.



 

On the gaming front I have not been doing too well. I've only had one zombie game and no other formats. My VCBW project is moving along slowly and I've yet to get my forces into battle.

Over all a real swings and roundabouts half yearly report. Must try harder on my blog and my gaming. Carry on taking the tablets and get back into training.

And how old am I? Well I've reached the age of everyone's lovable VW Beetle.

Thanks for reading and I promise to catch up with you all in the ether.

Yours
Lorcan