Brainstorming plans to fix democracy and fight zombies
This week the CraveCast crew took up the task of remaking democracy in the image of nerds and geeks everywhere, and learned the best way to fight zombies: Make friends with a bear...and hope it doesn't get infected.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Right around now during a midterm election year in the United States we find ourselves preoccupied with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...as well as the fear of being pursued by zombies.
That's why we took the opportunity to spend the Halloween/Election Day edition of the CraveCast discussing real-world, almost-practical strategies for taking on both the undead and the shortcomings of our political system, which often seems to be controlled by mindless zombies. Along the way, we got a first-hand account of what it's like to ride a real hoverboard from our own Stephen "McFly" Beacham.
In case you missed it live, you can watch the entire CraveCast below to get up to speed, particularly on my proposal to create a new political party of " Geeks and Nerds United" or the GNU Party. As Stephen pointed out, the pro-science bent of geeks and nerds would be powerful, particularly given some of our elected leaders are sometimes science- and technology-challenged.
Viewers and readers seemed to agree, and several of you tweeted about your desire to see an increased focus on education worldwide as well. I particularly liked the suggestion from @NovaHellion that we take a little inspiration from the idea of Marvel's Future Foundation.
Our Amanda Kooser (a fellow New Mexican) wanted to see more universal broadband. This is something I can relate to since I had to go groveling to my former employer, my town's print newspaper, The Taos News, to let me use their broadband to host this CraveCast. Turns out that after moving out of the boonies where I struggled with broadband for years to the center of Taos, the print media's Internet connection here is far superior to what any provider can get to my new house, even though it's less than 500 yards from the Taos News offices.
Anyway, if you don't believe that geeks and nerds wield enough influence to make inroads in our political system, don't forget how close Darth Vader came to being elected Ukraine's President this year.
Turning to Halloween, a topic slightly less spooky than politics, we gabbed about the stories that a Ghostbusters reboot with a female cast of paranormal investigators is in the works. Amanda and I argued that it's also about time we had a female Doctor on "Doctor Who." What other famous franchises do you think could benefit from a woman at the helm?
We also got a Skype tour of Amanda Kooser's replica " Back to the Future II" future/present shoes in time for your Halloween costume brainstorming needs, and Stephen Beacham filled us in on his experiences test-riding a real-world hoverboard that could be the first step (finally!) to realizing the transportation mode popularized in the same movie.
But the most critical part of the discussion came when we took on the most important question of our (end) times: Who wins in a fight between a zombie and a bear? Although it's still not clear if we're talking about shambling, slow "Walking Dead" type zombies, or the super-athlete zombies from the movie version of "World War Z," the National Wildlife Federation assures us that bears will win.
But as Amanda points out, this becomes a problem if the bears become infected and turn into Zom-bears. At that point, it could be time to move into your zombie-proof log cabin shelter and wait out the epidemic for a decade.
Let us know in the comments how you're preparing for both Halloween and the zombie apocalypse, and also suggest topics for upcoming CraveCasts by tweeting @Crave and @EricCMack.
Happy Halloween and vote GNU!
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