Recorded Attacks

Max Brooks, the researcher who gave us the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, also wrote a history called, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. It presents information, often neglected in standard histories in order to minimize potential panic, about historical zombie outbreaks and how they were faced.

M1911 Week: Continues...

M1911 Week: Shooting Part 1

You may have noticed I fell a little behind this month... and again last week. So I'm getting this series out to you anyway.

In Search Of: Siberian Fireball Part 3

In Search Of: Siberian Fireball Part 2

More on the mysterious Siberian explosion.

In Search Of: Siberian Fireball part 1

In 1908, an intense explosion occurred in the Siberian Wilderness. It measured in the range of a nuclear blast.

No one is sure what caused it.

Was it a meteor or comet strike? A brief, mathematically-possible intersection of matter and anti-matter? An alien space ship crash landing -- or self-destructing to avoid detection?

We don't know.

But I thought we might look at some potential doomsday scenarios today.

Gear Pr0n: Vintage M1911

These are pictures of a WWI-era M1911 that was carried into combat by the owner's great-grandfather.

The owner refurbished the pistol and gave it a new finish to protect it.

This isn't a personal defense weapon, it is an historical artifact to be treated with respect.

The Colt manufacturer's mark.

Here's the full pistol. One way to tell the M1911 from the later M1911A1 is the straight backstrap on the butt of the pistol. M1911A1's have a rounded profile to fit the hand better.

M1911 Week: OSS Point Shooting

Part of a classic training film from WWII showing the inimitable Col. Rex Applegate training US spies, saboteurs, and commandos in how to use the M1911. Applegate taught the still controversial Point Shooting technique, which uses the theory that at short ranges, the shooter will naturally point toward the threat.

Movie Clip: Solomon Kane

I've mentioned the bio-pic about legendary monster hunter, Solomon Kane. This Elizabethan Era adventurer is responsible for wiping out an African variety of vampire, and also a breed of strange pterodactyl-like humanoids. He was truly an inspiration to us all.

Anyway, here's one of the best fights in the movie. Kane had tried to give up violence after a frightening encounter with one of the Devil's minions. But he was eventually forced to see that evil won't always be persuaded by turning the other cheek. This scene dramatizes Kane's choice to pick-up the sword again.

M1911 Week: Point Shooting

Vintage World War II training film on Point Shooting technique with the M1911A1

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 7

Generally regarded as the most magnificent of Cthulhu effigies, this idol was unearthed from the ashen ruins of Pompeii. The fine detail of the head is remiscent of the cuttlefish, while the fine, bat-like wings a folded into a lifelike pose on the back.

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 6

Another idol, this one found in an Assyrian site in 1935, of the great god Cthulhu. This squat depiction clearly has him in a dreaming pose.

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 5

Another bronze idol of Cthulhu, date and provenance unknown. Interesting in its depiction of the deity in that while he is usually described as dreaming, this sculpt gives off the impression that Cthulhu has just awoken and is about to uncoil from his slumbers.

Miskatonic University Archives: Statue 1

As part of a response to some of my inqueries, an old professor at Miskatonic University forwarded this film, which has the rather curious file name of "Unclassified Find -- 1928"

What does the "unclassified" mean in this case? Is the staue not type-classified according to some scholarly regime? Or is this statue "unclassified" in the government secrets sense? I don't know. That's just one mystery regarding the video file.

According to my source, the statue is an idol of the pagan god Cthulhu, who according to his cultists sleeps beneath the ocean awaiting the alignment of stars which will announce his return. The idol was apparently uncovered in 1928 by a Miskatonic team working in New England. The places and circumstances of the find are murky, but he's looking into the paperwork associated with this.

In Search Of... Dracula part 3

The conclusion of the "In Search Of..." crew's look at Dracula.

In Search Of... Dracula Part 2

Leonard Nimoy guides us further looking for the truth behind the Dracula legends. Fascinating!

In Search Of... Dracula Part 1

Leonard Nimoy guides us in an investigation of the truth behind the legends of Dracula.

Soviet Reanimation Experiments of the Post-WWII Era

Yesterday we saw the propaganda film from Nazi Germany calling for a zombie army to overrun the Allies. I recounted how the plan backfired and was also implemented too late in the war to gain momentum.

The Soviet Red Army captured the parts of Berlin in which these top secret experiments were being performed. Although they claimed all of the research was destroyed in the battle, evidence later emerged that they had absconded with the records and were working to re-create the experiments in their own facilities.

This video shows Soviet film-footage demonstrating their experiments. It is not for the weak-willed and tender-souled. These experiments are inhuman. But the truth must be told.

Movie Trailer: Re-Animator (1985)

The notorious case of Dr. Herbert West -- the so-called "Re-Animator" -- was quickly covered up by Federal and Massachusetts officials. Officially, Dr. West was killed in a random act of violence and the government swooped in on his estate to confiscate material related to US Government research the doctor had been conducting intermittantly for decades.

But Dr. West, a graduate of Miskatonic University, was whispered about by his neighbors for years afterward. His strange fascination with Dr. Victor von Frankenstein of Ingolstadt had been well-known among his classmates. They simply had no clue how far he'd taken his hero-worship. They thought the warnings provided by Mary Shelley's fictionalized account were clear enough for any medical professional.

So with rumors swirling throughout small-town Massachusetts, and the active medical alumni of the MU Medical School, it really shouldn't have been a surprise when the writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft looked into the reports, discovered the abundant evidence, and published his own fictionalized account of Dr. West's activities. He was only able to get away with releasing the tale because the US Government pressured serious news outlets not to carry the story. Only the pulp magazines would deal with H.P. Lovecraft's bizarre stories. So Dr. West's hideous, foul crimes were hidden among equally lurid tales of horror, terror, and high weirdness.

In 1985, a brave film maker released a version of Dr. West's tragic and horrific career. He had no budget, and his talent at writing dialogue was negligible. But the movie was made anyway. You can view the trailer above.

Note: Dr. West's crimes were terrible, violent, and unspeakable. The movie did not shrink from depicting them in all their unnaturalness. The preview may not be suitable for younger viewers.

Nazi Zombies?

What's worse than zombies?

Two words: Nazi Zombies.

I mentioned the other day how Hitler's cadre of mad scientists had been working on ways to bring dinosaurs back from the near extinction they suffered, or capture specimens from Africa to breed as a super army. But they were also worked on an army of Undead soldiers. By some reports, they succeeded, but their creations soon formed slightly different notions of who the Master Race really was...

It saddens me to say that some of this work was based on early experiments by Dr. Herbert West, an infamous alumnus of my own alma mater, Miskatonic University, in Arkham, Massachusetts. Dr. West, who's crimes were originally swept under the rug by authorities rose to notoriety after pulp writer Howard P. Lovecraft used them as the basis for a series of short stories. How the Nazi's got ahold of West's research was a subject of much investigation by the FBI and OSS in the waning days of the war. But there are rumors that one of West's own horrible creations was working with the Nazi establishment. He may also have been the source of the idea that the Nazi Zombies, being immortal, were in every way superior to the living Nazis.

Thankfully, the Soviet's overran Berlin about the same time that the Nazi Zombies revolted, and according to the Soviet reports, the threat was contained and eliminated. But as we'll see tomorrow, perhaps the Soviets weren't telling the whole truth.