Another Friday the 13th

  Yes, I think everyone or at least almost everyone LOVES Friday the 13th. I also believe everybody out there has a fear, nervousness, or is a bit leery of Friday the 13th. And of course the superstitions around that day. 

I also love the movie franchise that Jason can never die. 

Here is a little history/trivia or more like folklore about this day.

The earliest related lore I could find to Friday the 13th is the many executions of the Knights Templar's.

At dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, scores of French Templar's were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Philip, later to be tortured in locations such as the tower at Chinon, into admitting heresy and other sacrilegious offenses in the Order. Then they were put to death.

1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini, who died on a Friday 13th.

Rossini was surrounded to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that one Friday 13th of November he died

In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the clock, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, the 12 successors of Muhammad in Shia Islam, twelve signs of the Zodiac, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table results in the death of one of the diners.

Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects.

Friday is also the day when Jesus Christ was crucified, making it through folklore and adding to its unpopularity.

One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth, in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.

Notable people who died on Friday the 13th. 

Person	Date of Death
Sam Patch	13 November 1829
Gioachino Rossini	13 November 1868
Diamond Jim Brady	13 April 1917
Sir Henry Segrave	13 June 1930
Arnold Schoenberg	13 July 1951
Martita Hunt	13 June 1969
Lily Pons	13 February 1976
Mickey Spillane	13 May 1977
Hubert Humphrey	13 January 1978
Ralph Kirkpatrick	13 April 1984
Christopher Wilder (serial killer)	13 April 1984
Benny Goodman	13 June 1986
Gerald Moore	13 March 1987
Chet Baker	13 May 1988
Stuart Challender	13 December 1991
Tupac Shakur	13 September 1996
Tony Roper	13 October 2000
Julia Child	13 August 2004
Tim Russert	13 June 2008
Edwin Newman	13 August 2010
Richard D. Zanuck	13 July 2012

Hope you all stay away from Camp Crystal Lake this weekend. And oh, definitely no sex in a strange cabin, tent, or building.

Try to avoid saying things like, "I’ll be fine, I promise", "You stay here and I’ll go check it out", "I'll be right back", "It's just the wind", "There's no one there", et al. 

Well, have a good weekend.

Cheers all

Philosophical Zombie

I have always been fascinated with philosophical arguments and I found the Zombie one of the most interesting, actually I love it!

A philosophical zombie or p-zombie in the philosophy of mind and perception is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except in that it lacks concious experience, qualia, or sentience. When a zombie is poked with a sharp object, for example, it does not feel any pain though it behaves exactly as if it does feel pain (it may say "ouch" and recoil from the stimulus, or tell us that it is in intense pain).
The notion of a philosophical zombie is used mainly in intended to support arguments (often called "zombie arguments") against forms of physicalism such as materialism, behaviorism, and funtionalism. 

So, since a zombie is defined as physiologically indistinguishable from human beings, even logically, do they really feel pain?
Or does the zombie mimic the pain that it once knew when human? Almost like a motor response without actual pain.
We all know they hunger for brains and if they have no logic, then how do they know they want to consume brains? Also they are known to eat raw flesh.
"Braaaaiiins...braaaaiiiins...braaaaaiiiins..." they chant as they slowly approach the “normies” or better known as us humans. But how do they know this if they have no thoughts?
In some cultures such as Hati and West Africa, in the religion of Vodou Zombies are normal. They know that they can raise such creatures.

Some zombie conspiracies I have heard: 
The Chinese Cover-up: So far the Chinese have been able to cover up their Zombie outbreak but there have been leaks getting to the news media, and as fast as it gets out the government cuts the lines of communications. My sources close to our government have told me that the Chinese Government has been working for some time on re-animating humans in hopes of making a super soldier. And it’s not just China.  Many countries are doing the same thing. The USA, our own government might be doing the same? You decide?
There is a thought that the CDC is working on a drug to create zombies then decrease our population. It is called the, “Zombie Virus.” 

Knowing your zombies: 
Slow zombies are described in detail by Max Brooks in The Zombie Survival Guide. In a basic sense, slow zombies are technically dead predators who are totally independent from a physiological need of any kind. They feel no pain, need nothing to fuel their bodies, and require only their intact brain to exist. While they do eat their prey, they do not need to, as their digestive system is completely inoperative and the flesh simply is forced out through the rectum as later "meals" push it out of the body, or the flesh stagnates and rots inside the Zombie. They are almost totally without intellect or reasoning skills (according to the Zombie Survival Guide, only a quarter of them can figure out how to use a ladder). And as named, their top speed is slower than a normal human's calm stride. As mentioned earlier, they are extremely durable, being able to survive and hunt for years if not killed by brain destruction. The Solanum Virus which kills a person, and infests an reanimates the corpse, takes between 12-48 hours, depending on how quickly the virus reaches the brain (it's been proven that a small bite which reaches no major blood vessels takes longer than the traditional model to produce a zombie). 
Slow Zombies normally do not climb and a chain-linked fence seems to be their kryptonite. 

Fast zombies are usually (but not always) humans still technically alive, but radically transformed mentally and physically by a mysterious viral infection. While they also feel no pain, without the concern for food or water (they do not need sleep), they inevitably die to thirst or hunger. While they are more durable than an ordinary human, this is because of constant adrenaline production, and deactivation of pain receptors, so injury and fatigue also do not concern them. They ultimate depend on all of their organ systems, and can be killed through blood loss, asphyxiation, or poisoning. Typically, the fast zombie transformation period is very fast - in 28 Days Later, it can be mere seconds. Fast Zombies can be excellent climbers (see Valve Zombies). 

Good luck out there my friends, good luck. And always remeber to aim for the head! Also remember, if you have a boat, Zombies can't swim.