Career Opportunity: Zombie Subject Matter Expert

I'm fairly certain that we'll face an apocalyptic scenario in the near future, as evidenced by my recent (is a few months ago recent?) post about the Google-induced Terminator-style apocalypse. This scenario really scares the crap out of me, because how do you fight machines? They 'think' hundreds of thousands of times faster than us, our bullets will bounce off their invincible metal bodies, and you really can't make an emotional plea for mercy with them.

No, if we're going to have an apocalypse, I'd at least prefer that it take the form of something a bit more manageable for those of us who would like to pour some effort into surviving. Personally, I feel quite well-equipped for the impending zombie outbreak and would prefer that it occur in time to cripple our society's ability to unleash our own mechanical inventions upon ourselves.

With a background in emergency preparedness and infectious disease, I feel that I could very adequately fill the role of 'Zombie SME' for CDC, DHS, or other interested parties to whom preparation for such an event should fall. My extensive research into the field via film and television only bolsters my credentials and I can, of course, provide references from both large, gun-toting, zombie-fearing warriors as well as prominent infectious disease researchers. I also own a baseball bat.

Where is this Zombie threat going to emerge from? Perhaps the most likely route of infection would be via prions, but I certainly can't rule out a mutated variant of the rabies virus. In either case, it would seem that the actual re-animation of a corpse is much less biologically plausible than the destruction and alteration of a victim's normal brain function, essentially turning them into something no longer human. The 'rage' virus depicted in 28 Days Later is a prime example.

Since I already posted about rabies in China, I'll expand on the biological underpinnings of the prion hypothesis...