You've Never Thought of Disaster Preparation Like This...

When you think “disasters,” chances are things like twisters, hurricanes and floods come to mind. Not zombies.

Yes, zombies. The walking dead. But perhaps a zombie apocalypse is something we should be taking a little bit more seriously. For instance, there’s now an online class offered at Michigan State University (my Alma-mater, mind you) titled “Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse – Catastrophes and Human Behavior.”

Here’s the course description: “Zombies are a popular metaphor for apocalypse both in popular culture and mainstream academic pursuits, even being used by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for teaching emergency preparedness. This course uses current research and science on Catastrophes and Human Behavior together with the idea of a Zombie Apocalypse to learn about the nature, scope, and impact of catastrophic events on individuals, families, societies, civilizations, and the Earth itself.”

OK, so while the course doesn’t exactly instruct you how to snipe the walking dead like Simon Pegg in the terrific film Shaun of the Dead, it’s certainly an interesting take on teaching disaster preparation. But just for fun, in the event of a zombie uprising, I could just see the headlines for our future R&R case studies now: “Restoring a Zombie-Ravaged Building” has a nice ring to it, eh?