Deep Silver, the publishers-to-be of the videogame "Dead Island," claimed yesterday that they hadn't yet sold film rights to their as-of-yet unfinished and unreleased product, in development since basically forever, despite reports to the contrary. Here's a working theory about this unusual event (the "Dead Island" trailer: has like 2.5 million views, from the last five days): "My theory: Deep Silver knew Dead Island was in video game purgatory and they needed something to gauge the interest in it to determine if they should shelve it or issue yet another release date. So they came up with this bit of cinematic genius, something that would go viral and get people talking about their game again. Even if the family featured in the trailer has nothing to do with the game, even if the game is not quite ready for prime time. It was a bit of manipulative genius to put this out there, sort of like a girl who’s not quite sure she’s ready to date making a match.com profile to see if she can reel in anything worthy enough to make her try. The Dead Island trailer was bait. And we all took a bite."

"To our knowledge these are the first in-situ observations of such behaviour during which one can convincingly state that lampreys attached to whales are rasping through the skin and feeding rather than just 'hanging on for the ride'." READ MORE

Let's hear it for zombies, the monsters for real Americans: "Zombie enthusiasts are a special subset of horror-movie fan. Many say the monster's low-tech egalitarianism appeals to them. (Unlike vampires, sometimes portrayed as aloof aristocrats, anyone can be a zombie.) Sometimes called blue-collar monsters, zombies who seek the flesh and brains of the living require few special effects, compared with aliens and other monsters. Some say their relative ordinariness makes them scarier." Also up for discussion: Which kind of zombie is more correct? Your traditional, slow-moving grunter or the 28 Days Later zoomy/chompy type? Think wisely before you answer, there's a lot riding on this one.

Any of you Minneapolitans out there hit up the Annual Zombie Pub Crawl this weekend? It sounds like... something to do in Minneapolis! "This is the craziest night of the year on the West Bank," said Kurt Rasmussen, 28, of Minneapolis. "I've been waiting since last October for the Zombie Pub Crawl."

You and I, we aren't from here. I know I am not anyway and if this whole universe including me turns out to be a harsh game, well, consider my imagined heart crushed and my fictional breath taken totally away. What a beautifully cruel thing of unimaginable definition and color this place is. What incredible aberrations; what perfect anomalies. I sure as hell don't know what the fuck I am doing here and I am quite certain that you don't either. In fact, I can't recall the nothing I was before. I wonder what the nothing will feel like later. That's how I can do whatever it is that I do and not give a rat's ass, not really, what someone else thinks. That said, I was wrong about Galaxian. I managed to find the handheld of Galaxian (2) and well, it is kind of great in all its simplicity. Like the color blue. Like pizza. Like laughing. READ MORE

Via Wired, here's the abstract of "When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling Of An Outbreak Of Zombie Infection," a study included in Nova Science Publishers' 2009 title Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress (also known as IDMRP among aficionados, and due to be turned into a major motion picture directed by David Mamet and starring Viggo Mortensen for Christmas '10). READ MORE

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