<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soul_stealer/6337169462/in/photostream/">SoulStealer.co.uk on flickr</a></div><keyword id="794509" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="zombie">Zombie</keyword> popularity is a surefire indicator of national mental health, says Clemson University professor Sarah Lauro.
Lauro, an English teacher who studied zombies while working on her doctorate, told the Associated Press that the rise of the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_walk">Zombie Walk</a>," specifically, illustrates citizens' dissatisfaction with governments and life in general.
"We are more interested in the zombie at times when as a culture we feel disempowered," Lauro <a href="http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/21571725/researcher-zombie-fads-peak-when-society-unhappy">told the</a> AP. "And the facts are there that, when we are experiencing economic crises, the vast population is feeling disempowered. ... Either playing dead themselves ... or watching a show like 'Walking Dead' provides a great variety of outlets for people."
A zombie walk is almost like a flash mob, except with zombies. Organizers send out flyers and advertisements listing the date and time to meet up, and then a whole group of people dressed as and behaving like <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=video&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CDwQtwIwAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D8n8yg9C6QKA&amp;ei=YQk-UdC9G-Pn0QHfiYCwDg&amp;usg=AFQjCNF4o1t-yqeIY17xyAZaR6ltUfG4zg&amp;bvm=bv.43287494,d.dmQ">zombies will go on a mass "walk"</a> — more often than not in public areas.
The idea started in Toronto in 2002 and, like the dead, is on the rise.
From the AP report:
As of last year, Lauro said, zombie walks had been documented in 20 countries. The largest gathering drew more than 4,000 participants at the New Jersey Zombie Walk in Asbury Park, N.J., in October 2010, according to Guinness World Records.
Along with walks, as Lauro points out, there are several other popular venues which zombies appear. There's movies, and TV shows like The Walking Dead (which, consequently, has <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-season-3-premiere-ratings-378945">broken longstanding television records</a>). There's even a whole string of <a href="http://www.runforyourlives.com/">fitness obstacle</a> courses on the rise that center around zombie themes.
It's no surprise that America has jumped on to the trend — Lauro cites that it really started to spread in 2002, during the advent of America's two wars. Then there was the crash. Years later, despite the stock market <a href="http://www.voxxi.com/dow-jones-breaks-record-high-comeback/">ticking past</a> its previous record highs, the vast majority of America <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/08/the-jobs-report-in-seven-charts/">can't seem</a> to get ahead.
It's like they've been left behind. So maybe it's escapism, or maybe Lauro's right and the rise of zombie culture is just a symptom of the larger problems in modern society.

PROFESSOR: Zombies Are Popular Because People Have Given Up Hope

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) is expected to run in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-christie-nj-special-election-date-set-oct-16-2013-6" target="_blank">special election for the Senate seat vacated</a> by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, <a href="http://www.politickernj.com/66109/sources-holt-will-run-us-senate-seat" target="_blank">according to multiple reports</a>.
Holt's entrance into the race pits one of Congress' biggest political nerds against likely opponent <keyword id="941882" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cory-Booker">Cory Booker</keyword>, who is one of the Democratic Party's most prominent rising stars. 
Holt is only the second research physicist to be elected to Congress, and he is also one of two members of Congress to appear on "Jeopardy."
Here's a quick primer of five things you need to know about Holt's background as a scientist and general nerd, and how it has been a facet of his time in Congress:
1. His campaign made a creative bumper sticker reflecting his scientific background:
<div class="image-container" style="width:618px"><div class="image">Flickr/Rush Holt</div></div>
2. Holt laments the lack of scientists and physicists in Congress. 
He <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/science/10phys.html" target="_blank">told the New York Times</a> in 2008 that 420 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives "don’t know much about science and choose not to."
He detailed a particularly harrowing sequence in 2001, when anthrax spores were discovered on the Hill:
[C]olleagues came to him and said, “You are a scientist, you must know about anthrax,” a subject ordinarily missing from the physics curriculum.
“The difference,” he said, “is we would be perfectly happy to pick up a copy of The New England Journal of Medicine and read about the etiology of anthrax.”
“In fact, we basically did that,” Mr. Ehlers said.
“We know more than our colleagues,” Mr. Holt said, “but not more than they could know.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Foster said, “unless things play to their advantage in the next election, they are not interested.”
3. Holt is a five-time "Jeopardy" winner.
According to the Asbury Park Press, Holt won five games of "Jeopardy" in the late 1970s.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image">Rush Holt</div></div>4. He's so good that he beat IBM's famous "supercomputer," Watson.
In a 2011 exhibition game of "Jeopardy," Holt outpaced the IBM "supercomputer," Watson. He ended their match with $8,600 to Watson's $6,200.
“I was proud to hold my own with Watson,” Holt said. “... It was fun to out-do Watson in the first round, but this was not just about fun and games. Science and math education and research and development are vital to our nation so we can out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”
Holt jumped out to a lead in the categories of “Presidential Rhyme Time” (A clue: Herbert’s military strategy; answer: What is Hoover’s Maneuvers) and “Also a Laundry Detergent” (A clue: 3-letter nickname for the Beatles; answer: What is Fab). In the category of "Phobias," he also identified that Hippophobia is the fear of horses.
5. In February, he introduced a resolution in honor of Charles Darwin.
On the 204th anniversary of British naturalist Charles Darwin's birth, Holt introduced a measure to make Feb. 12 "Darwin Day."
In the <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:H.RES.41:" target="_blank">resolution</a>, he takes direct aim at some members of Congress, writing that "the advancement of science must be protected from those unconcerned with the adverse impacts of global warming and climate change."

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