In a, some would have thought impossible, stretching of our definition this week, we glance at Cotard’s Syndrome, also known as “Walking Corpse Syndrome”. First described by Jules Cotard (pictured) in 1880, it describes the firm belief of one’s own non-existence or death.

In some cases only certain body parts or functions are considered missing while in severe cases sufferers may be convinced that they are, in fact, dead. In such cases people have claimed that their organs are missing (as if from a funeral preparation) or that their body is putrefying or rotting away.

Sufferers have been known to incorporate circumstances into their delusion as when a sufferer moved from Scotland to South Africa and became convinced by the heat that he had been sent to hell. Other sufferers have begged to be taken to funeral homes or become distressed that their family’s have failed to bury them. Others reason that if they can talk, even though they are clearly dead, that they must be undead immortals.

In “Plight of the Living Dead” Metal Floss covers 10 reported cases of the disorder, while How Stuff Works answers, “What is Cotard’s Syndrome“? Due to its wildly varying presentation, Cotard’s is often considered symptomatic of other, related disorders rather than a diagnostic condition in its own right. Even defenders admit that the syndrome is incredibly rare and little is known regarding mechanism associated with it.

This week we celebrate not the zombies, but the hardworking, entrepreneurial zombie creators! The Emerald Cockroach Wasp, indigenous to Africa and Asia, takes its role seriously. Most zombineers tend to phone in the actual zombie creation. Having spent all their time creating a virus that flies in the face of all that is holy, or a gas that reanimates the recently deceased, they often just toss it in a river. Not the Emerald Cockroach Wasp, my friend!

The wasp begins by finding a nice, healthy strong cockroach. It then applies a quick sting to the motor ganglia which paralyzes the roach’s front legs. That keeps the path clear for the following sting: straight to the brain. This amazingly precise shot disables the roach’s escape reflex – and does nothing else.

The wasp now examines the zombified roach and will sometimes clip its antenna; this is believed to regulate the level of venom in the roach through fluid loss. It then leads the shambling, mindless roach to a burrow. There it implants an egg and, finally, closes the nest behind it. The egg hatches three days later and the larva spends the next week or so feeding on the roach until it finally burrows in deep and pupates. After a single mating a female wasp will zombify several dozen roaches over the course of a month or two.

Here’s to you, you creepy, freaky little wasp!

In “The Cabin in the Woods” a hapless group of attractive teenagers fall victim to a family of zombie sadists. Then other things happen that are incredibly cool, but I won’t talk about but-really-you-should-watch-it-if-you-haven’t-because-it’s-awesome.

To be fair, however, the family in question – The Buckners – isn’t really a zombie family. As it’s pointed out in the movie: “Yes, you had ‘Zombies.’ But this is ‘Zombie Redneck Torture Family.’ Entirely separate thing. It’s like the difference between an elephant and an elephant seal.” Luckily our criteria here at MoreBrains.com is significantly less strict.

The Buckners worked together as a family in life, and then in death, to maim and murder for the exultation of the their faith (and because they really enjoyed it). Poppa, Mama, brothers Matthew and Judah and little sister Patience were wholly dedicated to what they felt was right. It wasn’t – not even close – but that kind of dedication shouldn’t go without some praise, at least.

Kieren Walker’s life was hard. His family didn’t understand him. He didn’t have many friends. The one person he did have a connection with, Rick, was so distraught over his sexual confusion that he joined the army. When word came back that Rick had been killed in action Kieren’s life really took a turn for the worse.

Then he died and things got really complicated.

“In the Flesh“,the excellent BBC mini-series (our review), told the story of what happens after a zombie outbreak. Zombism – or “Partially Deceased Syndrome” – is now a treatable, chronic illness.  Sufferers are being counseled and ultimately forced back into a society that fears and often hates them. The series, as all good sci-fi should, forces people to confront troubling societal issues via veiled metaphor.

Happily the series has already been approved for another run to be released some time in 2014. Kieren, dead though he may be, says a lot about our lives and we can’t wait see more of him.

We may not have been completely sold on the Mythbuster’s Zombie Special. It was a weak episode at best with little of the stealth education that makes Mythbusters so amazing. The myths favored opinion and luck vastly more than than any specific science and seemed forced.

True, actual myths may have been less than family friendly. How hard is it, really, to decapitate somebody with various weapons at various stages of decomposition? How much force does it take to crush a skull? Can you really disembowel somebody with bare hands?

Still, the episode was a lot of fun and had the added bonus of allowing a whole crew of rabid fans (of both zombies and Mythbusters) to help out. For as much glee as the cast and crew generated, nobody seemed able to top Adam Savage. His sheer exuberance made the episode, weak as it was, a joy to watch. For this, we celebrate him! 

Our month-long celebration of the the PS3 classic, Burn Zombie Burn, has been filled with an incredible amount of emotion. The amazing highs, the nostalgic lows and the uncontrollable tears have made it the most memorable thing that you’ll ever… remember.

Only one zombie in our horde could possibly close out the festivities in the style that they deserve. The only one with that indefinable je ne sais quoi to elevate our proceedings into the realm of legend.

A dead guy in a tutu.

Burrowing up from the earth with droves of his friends he leaps into the air with blissful abandon! He spins, twirls and prances with the grace and elegance of… well, of a dead guy in a tutu.

Our celebration of the the PS3 classic, Burn Zombie Burn Month, continues with the psychotic, anti-social, suicidal exploder!

It’s unclear why anybody would strap high-explosives to a zombie instead of using high-explosives on the zombie. It’s even more unclear why they would then top things off with a warning light. What is pretty clear is that, whatever the reasons may be, that people is really screwed up.

These little guys mope around the arena until you get close and then beeline for your tender flesh. Shooting them from afar will set them off early which may actually be useful. Accidentally hitting them with the chainsaw when they’re 20 inches from your face is… less useful.

Our celebration of the the PS3 classic, Burn Zombie Burn Month, continues with the powerful, ginger-haired, dome-skulled, science-experiment-that-should-never-have-been, Super Zombie!

These hulking menaces can sometimes be blessings in disguise. They’re far from discriminate and will gleefully rid the arena of other zombies as well as hapless players. This can come in especially handy when weapons are low and the area is teeming with melee-adverse noxious or exploder zombies. Still, don’t goof around too much because sooner or later they will have your number.

These damn, deathly apes clomp around the arena gorilla-style. Their basic ground-pound attack isn’t hard to understand and has the expected area of effect… um, effect. Leave one to its own devices, however, and you’ll be treated to something special: flaming napalm farts. Yes, flaming napalm farts. Deadly, deadly flaming napalm farts.

Considering that you may not want to use the surprisingly effective tactic of attacking them with mechanized melee weapons, like the chainsaw or lawnmower, from behind. If not, you can also blow them up with TNT, which is effective but does have certain explodey risks as well.

Burn Zombie Burn was released digitally on the PS3 in March, 2009 (and later on the PC). It’s a simple game: you can a collection of wacky weapons against an even wackier collection of zombies massing in a never-ending horde.  It’s the kind of game that would likely only be released on phones or tablets today (and suffer horribly from the lack of a controller).

It’s also one of the few games that we continually return to again and again. The mechanics are simple but strategic. Burning zombies get you more points but are also more dangerous: do you play it safe or go for it? The experience is varied enough to maintain interest but not so complicated that you need to relearn it every time you pick it up.

So, we here at MoreBrains.com are declaring February “Burn Zombie Month!” and will be celebrating four of our favorite zombies from this gem of a game.

First up, to get the little bastard out of the way, is the Rusher. They’re tough, fast and annoying. When they see you from across the arena they lower they’re helmeted heads and beeline for your squishy, fragile form. There’s really not much to say about them except, “Screw you, Rusher. Screw you!”

(1) Spammer’s web site (2) Spammer (3) Spamware (4) Infected computers (5) Virus or trojan (6) Mail servers (7) Users (8) Web traffic (From Wikipedia.)

Computer zombies are created, in short, when a website tells somebody to “Click here now or a kitten will die! You’ve just gotta! Do it!” and they do. The computer hums for a while and from then on is slow as frozen lard. Then they – all of them, mind you – call me and say “my computer is acting funny and things are coming up on the TV-part. Do you think it’s my memory box?”

Once a computer becomes a zombie it joins a vast horde of others called a BotNet such as the 3.5 million plus rampaging monster created by the Zeus trojan horse virus. These botnets can be leveraged to send “free” spam mail, launch denial-of-service attacks against popular websites , push illegal adware, plunder user data or work to crack passwords or encryption. They slow down the infected computers and dominate their available bandwidth making them groaning, stumbling, mindless slaves to chaos and anarchy.

While you can kill them with a shotgun blast to the CPU as you might expect, a better, if not nearly as awesome, method is to practice safe computing habits and keep your protection software up-to-date.