Safety Survival Hacks (Infographic)

Click here for a larger image

Many thanks to Lee Flynn for the image!

Follow him at Twitter @foodstorage101

Netflix Review: Exit Humanity (2011)

To say that Exit Humanity is a zombie movie set during the Civil War era seems misleading since the zombie factor is more of a background element of the movie and doesn't really take center-stage. The driving force of the film and what's really at the heart of the story is the main character's relationship with his family and how he copes with his grief from their loss.

It was more of the Civil War aspect that sold me on the film initially. Amidst the slew of zombie apocalypse movies I've viewed on Netflix, this has got to be one of the better ones but it's not without flaws. It wasn't great but it wasn't too unbearable to watch either.

This film exuded a big budget feel throughout with haunting shots although that bluish tint throughout became harder to look at after some time (or maybe it's just me). Its use of animated sequences (similar to the ones in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows) to move the story forward works in this case. It wasn't overused and the quality of the actual animation was equally impressive. The division of the film by chapters as written by the main character in his journal, was also a clever way of breaking up the film into segments that displays Edward Young's (played by Mark Gibson) journey and transformation.

The performers played their parts well especially the lead character. Yes, this is despite one major complaint from me which is coming up in the next couple of lines. There were parts where it felt like Edward's crying and wailing would never stop. Picture the end of the film version of Stephen King's The Mist where Thomas Jane lets the most heart-breaking rip-whatever's-left-of-my-tormented-soul kind of wail, only it doesn't stop. Or it stops for a few segments then he continues where he last left off. Understandable of course, considering he had just lost his family, but still...how many times are they going to show him drop down to his knees and cry. After the first few times, it's pretty much understood that he is a grieving man. We got it.

I also had some worries with the narration in the beginning. I was concerned that it would be overdone and we'd be continuously told about the story rather than seeing it for our own eyes but thankfully the narration was used in moderation and only when it was warranted.

The soundtrack for the film wasn't bad either. It had that Appalachian twangy sound that lent itself to the period piece.

The zombies didn't seem like much of a threat really. The make-up was alright considering the Z-Horde weren't really the main focus of the movie. I think they were trying to do too much with this film, trying to address way too many things. It was like an attempt at horror (scare factor was not there to be honest), with social commentary infused, and a bit of love story thrown in for color.

There was one main source of distraction for me though and I just couldn't get past it which essentially brought down the level of authenticity of it being a period piece - the leather jacket. I'm no expert in Civil War era clothing but his leather jacket looked like he stole it from the Rocketeer's closet. Plus I think I saw a zipper on it.

Exit Humanity is not your typical non-stop action-packed gorefest. So if that's the kind of movie you're into, then let me save you some aggravation and just skip this one. This movie is more of a slow burn. If you're up for trying something different then you just might enjoy this drama set in a zombie-infested 19th century setting.

In a nutshell, this movie gets brownie points for the animated sequence, the soundtrack and the overall visual production.

It gets points deducted for the seemingly out-of-place Rocketeer jacket and the excessive dramatic wailing.

ApocalypseHub gives Exit Humanity (2011) 3 out of 5 stars.

Director: John Geddes

Post-apocalyptic MMORPG: Radiated Wasteland

Hey ApocHubbers, just got some info on this post-apocalyptic MMORPG:

Pixel Pandemic (http://www.pixelpandemic.net) has announced the post-apocalyptic browser-based MMORPG Radiated Wasteland.

Team-up with your friends to survive the hordes of the post-apocalyptic monsters roaming the Earth on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/RadiatedWastelandGame) or http://www.radiatedwasteland.com.

In a future not far from now, Earth has been set in flames. The once civilized world is now a radiated
wasteland. As a player you are one of the few survivors facing the challenges of a post-apocalyptic world, fighting against radiated ghouls, fierce mutants and merciless raiders. To survive, players must establish their own safe houses, team up with other survivors and scavenge for scarce resources.

The game is being developed by the Copenhagen based Pixel Pandemic. It is a browser based MMORPG featuring a skilltree, perks and fully customizable avatars which can be equipped with any items the players find.

NPCs will engage players in missions which introduce a rich storyline of popular, post-apocalyptic popular culture set in this mutant infested world. Players must explore the wastelands to solve these missions and gather gear and experience to strengthen their character.

The sum of player actions combine into an ever evolving organic virtual world consisting of thousands of tiles. The virtual world is populated by an AI controlled enemy and will facilitate co-op mechanisms know from classic MMORPGs, but yet unseen on Facebook, creating a perfect ecobalance where players must cooperate to defeat the common enemy.

About Pixel Pandemic: Pixel Pandemic is a browser game studio based in Denmark and developer of the zombie survival horror rpg www.zombiepandemic.com. Pixel Pandemic has developed a game engine technology for browser based MMORPGs and are currently also has www.ufoalienattack.com planned for release.

Website: www.radiatedwasteland.com
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/RadiatedWastelandGame

Infographic: Healthcare Data Disaster Preparedness

I love infographics - here's a emergency disaster preparedness (healthcare data) related one for all our ApocHubbers (FYI that's what I call our readers) . Some food for thought.

Source: Dell

Thanks for the tip, Nina!

Ruin: Animated Short set in Post-Apocalyptic Universe

Check out this Post-apocalyptic animated short by OddBall Animation

Note: The fluttering robots kind of looks like the MKV (Multiple Kill Vehicle) from this old test footage.

 

Check out their other works in progress at OddBall Animation

The one called In Search of Humans looks pretty interesting as well.

Inflatable, Water-Proof Solar Light - LuminAID

A couple of grad students from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture founded Luminaid Labs and currently has a crowdsourcing fundraiser ongoing at IndieGoGo - 100% of funds will go to producing and distributing the LuminAID lights.

Some features:
Water-proof, inflatable, and packs flat

Coating:
Flexible, semi-transparent waterproof material (Photovoltaic film is laminated to polyethelenevinyl acetate plastic) with a printed dot matrix to diffuse light.

Charge time: 4-6 hours in sunlight
Low setting: 4 hours of lighting @ 35 lumens
High Setting: 6 hours @ 20 lumens
Batery is rechargeable up to 800 times.

Visit their IndieGoGo Page
LuminAID Labs

Living off the land: an infographic

Interesting information included within this visual representation of how much of a backyard you would need to live off the land.

Go to  1BOG 
for a larger image.

Ducked & covered: A survival guide to the post-apocalypse (video)

Came across this short film during one of my scavenging sessions for material for this site.

SkyLifter, a Flying Inflatable Saucer, Could Carry Entire Buildings

A new airship that is part flying saucer and part blimp could soon carry entire buildings and offer airgoers a fresh way to travel and explore.

Called the SkyLifter and currently in development by an Australian company  of the same name, the concept airship relies on a lighter-than-air chamber for its buoyancy, just like a blimp or a balloon. But rather than a standard spherical, cigar, or "bomb" profile for its air-filled envelope, or aerostat, the SkyLifter has a flat, disk shape.

This innovative, flying saucer-esque configuration does not catch the wind like a sail as much as some other airship designs, and in effect gives the craft greater directional control even in gusty conditions, its designers said.

As a bonus, its discus shape means the SkyLifter does not have a "front" or "back" and can therefore cruise to a destination or maneuver in tight quarters regardless of its orientation.

The flying saucer-shaped aerostat also doubles as a stabilizing parachute when the SkyLifter is vertically setting down cargo. This payload is suspended well below the hovering aerostat for balance, somewhat like a light weight on the end of a balloon string.

So-called Voith Schneider propellers placed around the aerostat and the flight deck pod above the payload module provide both thrust and steering. Solar panels placed across the top of the aerostat and biodiesel engines power the aircraft.

As drawn up by its engineers, the SkyLifter should have an airspeed of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour, giving it a range of about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) in a day, an expected operational period. The dirigible could be set up for low, ground-swooping or for higher atmospheric flight.

The aerostat itself spans some 492 feet (150 meter) in diameter, or about twice the length of a double-decker, wide-body Airbus A380 airplane. Given this setup, SkyLifter's designers said it can carry more than seven times the payload of today's heavy cargo helicopters.

That rounds out to a payload of 165 tons (150 tonnes), enough to transport good-sized, prefabricated buildings, for example, into a rural area. In this way, the SkyLifter could serve as an airship for disaster relief, floating in tons of supplies, or a mobile hospital capable of airlifting out 1,200 people in a single run.

Regular, non-emergency construction purposes, of course, could also be well-met by such a craft, and recreational possibilities abound. (The company has already hinted at a luxury "SkyPalace" module that could stand in for oceanliners.)

For investor reasons, Skylifter is mum when it comes to costs, but the company plans to offer leasing and licensing for its vehicles similar to standard helicopter business agreements.

SkyLifter continues ramping up toward a full-scale production model. A miniature remote-controlled prototype dubbed Betty with 10 foot- (three meter-) diameter aerostat has carried a payload of a about one pound (500 grams) in the lab. A tethered outdoor version called Vikki with a saucer span of 60 feet (18 meter) is being put through its paces.

Next up is a 75 foot (23 meter) aerostat-craft – Nikki – that would leave its moorings for test flights, and in several years, a complete airship nicknamed Lucy might just usher in the era of the SkyLifter.

For more info check out: Sky Lifter

[Via Tech News Daily]

Bloom Laptop - transforms/disassembles down to recycleable materials

A new laptop designed by students may not self-destruct in 30 seconds, but it can be disassembled in about that amount of time, which makes it easier to safely dispose of when it’s time to throw it out.

A group of seven graduate students, from Stanford University and Finland’s Aalto University, created a prototype of a recyclable laptop as a project for a corporate-sponsored mechanical-engineering class.

The invention, called the Bloom laptop, is made mostly of materials that can be recycled alongside ordinary household items, like metal, plastic, and glass. Materials like LCD screens and circuit boards, which need to be sent to specialized recycling facilities, can be easily separated in a few steps.

“I think where the group really nailed it on the head is where they tried to understand how to modify consumer behavior in a way that would promote green thinking,” said John Feland, who leads the Stanford class involved in the project. “If the design of the computer involves the consumer in the process of changing the environment, it becomes easier for people to do the right thing.”

The group was one of 10 teams in the Stanford engineering design class that received a challenge from a corporate sponsor, Autodesk. The company wanted a completely recyclable consumer-electronics product. However, the choice of the product was completely up to the students.

Aaron Engel-Hall, a Stanford mechanical-engineering graduate student and one of the group members, said making that decision took nearly nine months for the group. Through testing, the group discovered that it took them an average of 45 minutes and 120 steps to dismantle an ordinary laptop.

The students were also intrigued by the relatively short life of a laptop, averaging around two years, since that short life span increased the pace that waste entered the environment. These discoveries, Mr. Engel-Hall said, inspired the group to focus their attention on simplifying the laptop deconstruction process by designing pieces that could slide or snap apart, resulting in an end-product that Mr. Feland calls “where origami meets electronic engineering.”

In addition to encouraging recycling of old laptops, Mr. Feland said the Bloom design could also be both a more economical and greener laptop in other ways. The design makes it easier for consumers to replace the parts themselves, rather than scrap it if something goes wrong, he said.

Mr. Feland acknowledged that there are some minor technical hurdles in the design that need to be overcome before it can be produced for a wider market—such as the prototype’s size and weight.

The design has yet to be embraced by any laptop manufacturers, but all of the ideas are openly available through Autodesk’s Web site. Mr. Feland said corporate-sponsored classes have been a part of Stanford for 45 years, because they allow students to work on solutions for real problems companies are facing with the opportunity to experiment and fail—a luxury he said the real world doesn’t provide.

[Source Chronicle]

Zombie tribute poster

Check out this detailed poster using names of 978 zombie movies, books, and games.

Go here for a larger image.

Humans Vs. Zombies Tag Game

Humans Vs. Zombies is a game in which a group of pre-registered players (humans) attempt to survive the growing zombie infestation on campus (posed by other players tagging the humans). The human players will be fending off the zombie players by launching foam Nerf darts at the zombie players. Humans will wear bright orange armbands on the upper arm, and zombies will wear orange bands on their foreheads.

There are very specific rules to the game so be sure to check out the official guide book for it.

All you need is a Nerfgun/socks, bandanna, index card.

Check out the rules of the game
Human Vs. Zombies site

Get your supplies:
        

Drive-In Post-Apocalyptic style

Empire Drive-In (2010) is a large-scale multimedia installation and platform built out of used and salvaged materials. In its simplest description it is a drive-in movie theater made out of wrecked cars. The 01SJ Future Films program will screen in the Drive-In and include short films, features, revivals, and live cinema events. At the center of the project are 25 cars rescued from a San Jose auto wrecker. Audiences will be able to climb into cars to watch film programs throughout the festival. Low-power radio will beam stereo audio direct to each car, just like the real drive-in. Moviegoers will find snacks at the confection stand and amusement in the playground. The installation will be built indoors in San Jose’s massive South Hall. No sunsets, but no mosquitoes either.

Here's a brief vid of the cars being brought in and positioned.

Additional photos:

  [Source 0S1J]

6 new Priest movie posters

I don't know about you but I love movie posters just as much as movie trailers. Here's 6 new images for the post-apocalyptic vampire movie Priest starring Paul Bettany as a warrior priest.

My favorite is the 5th one, although I like the 2nd one too. What's yours? 

The Bone House - made of recycled and found materials.

A self-taught carpenter, Dan Phillips builds homes in Huntsville, TX out of recycled materials including cattle bones.
He started his own construction company back in 1997 by mortgaging his house.
The result? Phoenix Commotion.
His mission? To build affordable homes for low-income families using recycled materials.
He hires unskilled labor for a project and teaches them the necessary and valuable skills to help them with future employment.The only new materials in any of his houses are plumbing, wiring, structural elements.

He's built about 14 homes total. The estimate cost of building the 750 sq. ft. bone house is $26,000

When Lego Zombies Attack!!!

Lego fans and Zombie fans alike - if you like either or both, prepare for nerdvana.
So I was digging around and looking for interesting things to post here and I stumbled across these nifty little stop motion films.

This one is by a couple of guys named Tom and Joe.



All of the Dead - black and white

And for my next trick. How to stop an asteroid.

I know you've always had that one question nagging you and keeping you from getting a good night's sleep.

What's the meaning of life? Nope, that's not it. (Besides, we all know the meaning of life is 42)

Is there life after death? No, no, not that question either.


How does that guy from Jersey Shore get his hair that way? No, you silly rabbit, that's not it either.

Oh, then it must be How do you stop a killer asteroid? Ding, ding, ding, you get a ration and a first-aid kit for that. Don't use it all at once!


You can sleep well tonight because the answer's all here:

See the larger image here.

Artist builds home-made bunker in backyard

Click HERE for larger image

Chad Person is an artist who's turned the backyard and pool of his New Mexico home into a survival shelter project called RECESS (stands for resource, exhaustion, crisis, evacuation, safety,shelter) . He documents his project extensively which includes DIY projects. tools, resource maps, and videos.

This is one of his videos in his bunker.

You should know these 35 life hacks- illustrated

 Click here to view larger image.

Not exactly a survival tips poster but still has some interesting info. Who doesn't want to lean how to do things better? Or maybe just annoy some people. (see credit card and elevator hack).

[Via 9GAG]

Have your ashes pressed in vinyl records

In keeping the theme of doom and gloom, here's a weird one for you.
There's a company in the UK that allows people to leave their legacy in a unique manner. They are in the business of pressing ashes of the recently deceased into a vinyl record.
The process pretty much follows that of a usual record pressing only with ashes added into the mix. Creepy but unique concept.

The Basic package, which costs around $3,000 includes the RIV (rest in vinyl) cover with name, date of birth and date of death. You have to supply audio (or you can choose complete silence if you wish). This is for 30 vinyl records.

There's a whole slew of options that can be added to that such as:
custom portrait
custom soundtrack
worldwide distribution at various vinyl stores (remind me to wear gloves next time I visit record store)
organized event (yes, like a funeral for your musical send off)

Pet ashes allowed.
Body parts are allowed (same price as a full body)

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Sidenote: If I were to do this I think side A will have me tell you a condensed version of the story of my life followed with the Dr. Who theme. But the B-side will include jokes, revelations and a backwards recording of a secret message. (i. e. always remember to drink your ovaltine)

I'll probably say something like this in addition
"Anytime you listen to this record, please keep in mind that the needle is probably scratching what was once my eyeball. I will miss you all."
 
But that's just me.
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You can visit the site here AndVinyly