Zombies are a popular figure in pop culture/entertainment and they are usually portrayed as being brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently, we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies.

...

The key difference between the models presented here and other models of infectious disease is that the dead can come back to life. Clearly, this is an unlikely scenario if taken literally, but possible real-life applications may include allegiance to political parties, or diseases with a dormant infection.

This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the first mathematical analysis of an outbreak of zombie infection.

[A] zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it is dealt with quickly. While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may lead to coexistence of humans and zombies, the most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to hit hard and hit often. As seen in the movies, it is imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble.

Memorable things:

• Superb food at the camp canteen and along the streets
  
• Shaz getting a not-so-subtle declaration of love for a canteen trannie (mayonnaise squeezed in a heart-shape)
  
• 6 guys high on beer squeezing on one bed talking cock
  
• Singing cheesy love songs with aaron out of absolute boredom
  
• Playing soccer with the Thais, who tend to grab *stuff* when going for the ball
  
• Thai liasons actually wanting to eat our combat rations
  
• Horny liason who carried porn on his handphone and showed it to random people (without being asked for it)
  
• View from the Hellfire Pass museum, along the Death Railway
  

Memorable but not so pleasant things:

• The bloody hot weather
  
• Jenny the infamous canteen trannie, with her booming voice, buff upper body, trunk-like legs and hideously short miniskirt
  
• Giant winged ants / beetles flying in the shower / tub and drowning in droves
  
• Not being allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilet bowl - the consequences of doing so were *not* pretty
  
• Almost escalating a soccer brawl with another bunch of singaporeans also from our unit
  
• Watching "Cannibal Holocaust" on the bus (the title is self-explanatory; Thai bus drivers have poor taste in movies)
  

There are new buildings, grand renovations, new and plentiful blessings that one should be grateful for. But what used to be, was something more even if they were fewer, more modest. Those were things we worked for, earned, made from little or nothing.

There will be those who grow richer, and those who enjoy the comforts of air-conditioning, clean and safe streets, and drinkable water from the taps. But for others, these blessings are too meager for the price that they must pay in toil, in freedom and the loss of something that once made them happy. These people will leave this city of small blessings.

Wait a second. The start of next year will be delayed by circumstances beyond everyone's control. Time will stand still for one second on New Year's Eve, as we ring in the New Year on that Wednesday night. As a result, you'll have an extra second to celebrate because a "Leap Second" will be added to 2008 to let a lagging Earth catch up to super-accurate clocks.

- 2009 to Arrive Not a Second Too Soon