Found this story at Instapundit the other day
A fireball fell from the sky and slammed into southern Peru over the weekend, creating a huge crater that emitted a sickeningly smelly gas, local authorities said. More than 600 villagers fell ill, the Peruvian radio network RPP reported Tuesday.
Authorities said that the crater was made Saturday by a falling meteorite. Agence France Presse quoted a local official, Marco Limache, as saying that “boiling water started coming out of the crater, and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby.”
Limache told RPP that the gases emanating from the crater caused nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and stomach pain, so much so that authorities were considering calling a state of emergency. The newspaper La Republica reported that seven policemen became ill and were taken to a hospital.
A couple of notable quotes you’ll want to keep in mind:
I’m planning to be prepared for all contingencies. “Remember, don’t trust anything without a pulse.”
Glenn Reynolds
And
Now Caranca, Peru is a long ways away, but isn’t this how the movies always start? A remote incident with strange effects?
Maybe I’ll grab some more ammo while I’m running errands.
Mugwug of Moral Flexibility Blog and Author of Surviving the Zombocalypse.
Take heed and don’t waste your ammo on center of mass shots.
Well, let’s add it up.
Meteorite falls through atmosphere, gets VERY hot, splatters itself all over some local rock, melts some of same, explodes some of same.
What is the result? Gasses relating to the melting meteorite, gasses relating to the melting rock. Probably some nitrates of several different elements.
Now, that meteorite could also have fallen in a swampy area. If it did, the shock and heat would have liberated a lot of smelly swamp gas (hydrogen sulphides and methane, to name two), and cooked some decomposing stuff, releasing other smelly gasses.
Now, the local villagers walk out of the village and go see the crater, and while there, they inhale some of the afore-mentioned smelly and noxious gasses, then they all look at each other and go (what’s the Spanish equivalent of ‘ewwwww’)? Some puke, others cough.
OH MY GOD, THEY’VE BEEN POISONED, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A UFO CRASH! THE MARTIANS ARE COMING, THE VENUSIANS ARE ALREADY HERE.
GMAFB!
Aw, what a spoil sport.
-GRIN-
Undoubtedly that’s precisely what happened, the photos available show water filling up the crater, hot meteorite meets ground and high water table and whoosh, vaporized crud.
Still, it’s fun to play chicken little now and again.
Peru? Wasn’t that the place that Arni and his posse visited a few years back to rescue the crew in some downed helocopter?
Bah. People try and have a little fun, and someone comes in and steps all over it.
I really doubt there was anyone who took the “Ohmygod they are turning into zombies!” angle seriously.
Well, at least not many…
EMDFL,
I thought that was Columbia, but I could be wrong. Ask a former Minnesota governor if you need details.
There’s two reasons we’re not hearing any follow-up about this story in the news:
1- nothing happened.
2- the infestation has been taken care of by Zombie Squad. They’ve talked about this many times on the Internets and know how to handle it.
…and please don’t tell me zombies don’t exist. If zombies don’t exist, how do you explain Democrats winning elections, huh?
http://www.archive.org/details/What_To_Do_In_A_Zombie_Attack
A great link on how to protect yourself from Zombies. Great lines like “every family should have a large caliber gum. For those of you that hate the constitution, you need to improvise”. Good stuff.