geekosystem

If you've been waiting to get a look at Amazon's newly minted Zombieland series, consider your long wait over -- the pilot has arrived, and Amazon Prime subscribers can get their first taste of the show right now on Amazon Instant Video. If you don't subscribe to Amazon's streaming service, you can still get a taste of what you're missing  -- and maybe an argument for signing up? -- in the trailer below.

Are there any economists or economics students in our midst? We hope so, because man, do we have the opportunity of a lifetime for you. California State University Northridge economics professors Glen Whitman and James P. Dow are accepting abstracts for an upcoming collection of essays on the economics of the undead. If you've ever sat down and put serious thought into how much blood a vampire needs to survive or exactly how the barter economies that would likely spring up during a zombie apocalypse could be made more efficient, then consider your number called.

Anyone who's ever had to animate something knows what a drawn out and tedious process it is, or rather, it used to be. Being shown off at SXSW this year is a system by Motus Digital that animates actors in real time, cutting the process from months of effort down to an instant action. The booth at SXSW let passersby chat with an animated zombie, but the system could have interesting implications for companies with iconic characters they'd like to let people interact with.

First there was The Office, then Being Human, then Sherlock, and with each successful BBC series, the Americans had to have their own version. But sometimes, like the dead rising from the grave, a long-established pattern goes in reverse. This time, the BBC is taking a cue from the success of AMC's The Walking Dead and trying their blood-spattered hands at a zombie-based television series. Called In the Flesh, it airs on March 17th on BBC Three. Far from an adaptation, though, In The Flesh offers a strange new take on the traditional zombie tale, turning it into a ruminative story of loss, guilt, and redemption -- though personally, we're hoping for a few cracked skulls, too.

Love them or hate them, you already know that flesh-eating zombies have been shambling roughshod through pop culture these days. Surely, the more we see them on the screen, the less we would believe in them -- except perhaps for those Great Falls, Montana residents who were spooked by yesterday's  TV-broadcast warning "that the dead of are rising from the grave."

With the new year hours away, a lot of us are realizing how gross and out of shape we are after weeks of holiday eating. We're also realizing just how easy it would be for zombies to get us when the inevitable outbreak occurs. Whether you just want to work off some extra holiday weight, or want to stay in fighting shape to keep the shambling undead from munching on your brains, RunKeeper just released new version 3.0 to track your fitness progress and help you meet your goals. Cardio is rule #1 in Zombieland for a reason, people.

Hearing there's a movie that's a love story between a human girl and a zombie could draw instant comparisons to Twilight on the basis of a girl and an undead boy being in love, but the first trailer for Warm Bodies alleviated most of those suspicions. It even looked pretty good. Today they released a clip of the first four minutes of Warm Bodies that should put to rest any lingering doubts that this thing has potential.

Were you naughty or nice this year? You know something? It doesn't really matter since Zombie Santa Claus fully intends to sate his ravenous hunger with your sweet, sweet flesh either way. Sculpted by Justin Cissell and distributed by Of Corpse You Can, this Zombie Santa Claus ornament can be yours, bringing that horrific Yuletide touch to your Christmas tree -- sure to make for a lovely conversation piece and a source of unending nightmares for small children already struggling with a socially crippling fear of the fat man in red. For your sake, it's best just to admire him from a distance and keep your fingers away.

Look, not every single person running in your nerd circle -- as close as your relationships may be -- is going to see eye-to-eye with your beliefs or opinions, such is a little thing called life. Even if you're prone to getting a little hot under the collar as the result of such petty disagreements, there's nerd rage, and then there's callously shooting your girlfriend in the back. 26-year-old The Walking Dead enthusiast Jared Gurman, after having argued with his girlfriend over the possibility of a zombie apocalypse, believed that a bullet to her back would help her see clarity. Obviously, what ultimately happened was far from what he intended.

Black Friday may have already come and gone in 2012, but for some of us, it will take a long time to forget what we saw. Whether you were trampled by fellow shoppers over doorbuster sales, yelled at by a stranger over a parking space, or the victim of a seemingly random act of deal-related terrorism, Black Friday isn't so much a capitalist's way of celebrating the holidays, as it is a harrowing event where you shop to survive.

The film adaptation of Max Brooks' novel World War Z continues to chug along. At this point, it's really only morbid curiosity that keeps us interested, but that's probably the right kind of curiosity to have when it comes to films based around zombies. The latest trailer shows off a whole lot of nothing while still managing to include The Sound That Every Movie Trailer Has Now to indicate the seriousness of the subject matter. Brad Pitt plus zombies should still make for a fairly good time, but this trailer might not convince anyone straddling the fence.

Halloween is only a few days away, and there's a pretty big storm pounding on an unprepared northeastern United States at the moment. So, one might say the combination is a -- ahem -- perfect storm for zombies and some kind of weather-related apocalypse. One might also mention how those two things could become one, much like the Frankenstorm, and become a full-on zombie apocalypse. The ever-ready gang at AsapSCIENCE is here to teach us that if a zombie apocalypse happens, however unlikely it is, we can blame our noses.

Well, folks, not only is Capcom letting you run and fire a gun at the same time, they announced today that they will be letting you eat at a real-life Resident Evil themed cafe and grill called the Biohazard Cafe & Grill S.T.A.R.S. That is, of course, if you live in Shibuya, Japan.

In what will surely leave all other countries green with envy, Melbourne, Australia is to have a one month engagement with a company called I.R.L. Shooter running a game titled Patient 0. But what, exactly, is Patient 0, you might ask? In their own words, it "is a fully immersive live action real life, multiplayer, first person shooter, role-playing game."  They fail to mention in the sentence that the entire experience revolves around you running around and shooting zombies.

Whether you're hunkering down or making a mad dash to the country when the zombie apocalypse inevitably hits, you're going to need supplies. Even if you already have a zombie-perparedness stash, as you should, resources are finite and you're going to have to get more. So where do you go? That's where the Map of the Dead comes in.