File Front has published a handful of screen shots of the new sci-fi first person shooter video game “Resistance 3.” The game is at least partially set in St. Louis– a St. Louis of the future (or maybe alternate history) which has been devastated by some kind of cataclysmic event and infested with robo-mutant aliens or something.

See below. The Arch is still standing. (So I don’t know why everybody is worried about a little corrosion.)

Here some robotic flying sentries appear to patrol the Old Post Office.

Readers may recall that St. Louis provided the backdrop for John Carpenter’s dystopian sci-fi movie ”Escape From New York.” The director needed burned-out, abandoned blocks of urban decay and St. Louis and East St. Louis (ca. 1981) had an ample supply. “Resistance 3″ is pure fantasy, so I guess we’re making progress!

P.S. I wish I had discovered these images early enough to submit them to the Gateway Arch design competition.

Since I first read about the threat of an electromagnetic pulse—the widespread loss of power, the dissolution of civilian infrastructure, the terrifying lapse into pre-industrialization—I have been mulling over repeat trips to Sam’s Club to stock up on food, water and other necessities for an unthinkable future.

A couple of news stories converged in recent weeks to hasten the first of these trips.

First, there was the news that the upcoming “solar maximum” (a period of heightened solar activity) in 2012 or 2013 could be “the most violent in 100 years” and, according to NASA, “result in complete planetary power outage for months.” Evidently similar solar events in 1859 and 1921 put the nation’s telegraph lines and electrical circuits out of commission.

Next, there was the Wall Street Journal article reporting that companies that supply things you’d want around your house when the apocalypse nears (Spam, bottled water, generators, gas masks) are trading at 52-week highs. The Journal labeled this eerie portfolio “bunker stocks.”

So last Tuesday (9/1) I decided to make the first trip to Sam’s Club to begin stocking necessities.

I didn’t have a specific list in mind, but rather sought a balanced assortment of bulk items that enjoy a reasonably long shelf-life—and lots of water—with  the intention that I could refine my selections on subsequent trips.

This is what $376.29 (before tax) purchased:

A few comments on shelf life. I understand that expiration dates, or “best before” dates are not immutable rules for consuming food and that many of these items would likely remain edible and nourishing long after the date. Nonetheless, I thought it was useful to record these dates to analyze relative longevity.

I was surprised to discover that canned, peeled tomatoes had the longest shelf-life, with a best-before date of January 2014. Some other items with superior shelf-life were:

• Chicken breast chunks in water (canned) – June 2013
• Baked Beans (canned) – February 2013
• Whole corn kernels (canned) – September 2012
• Enriched long-grain rice – July 2012
• Peanut butter – July 2012

The calorie density of the tomatoes, chicken and corn was poor. The peanut butter and rice, however, were among the best sources of calories (setting aside other nutritional requirements) for the volume and the cash.

The calorie density of the rice was so great, in fact, that it is no wonder that it is a staple of cuisine in the developing world—and an important commodity for any bunker pantry. $1.00 purchases a staggering 5,456 calories of rice. Granted, the rice needs water and heat to cook, but to put that in perspective, an adult needing 1,500 calories per day (which seems reasonable in a disaster and scarcity scenario) could subsist for 2 years on $200 of rice.

This graph illustrates the caloric purchasing power of several of the items I chose:

But perhaps the most important item on my list– and any such list– has no calories at all: drinking water.

Sam’s Club was selling Ice Mountain 100% natural spring water (700 mL, bottled with a cool little cap) in 24-packs for $5.49. That equates to $0.33 per liter. A daily requirement of 1.5 to 2.0 liters of water yields the following costs (per adult):

• 1 week – $4.00
• 1 month – $17.39
• 6 months – $104.37
• 1 year – $208.73
• 2 years – $417.47

Sam’s Club also offers truckload pricing. The last few scenarios are literally pallets-full of bottled water, so the actual cost could be better.

The logical end of all this analysis seems to be a question: “what does a person need to stay alive?” And I can’t help starting at the most basic, and the cheapest scenario: rice and water.

Of course, a diet consisting exclusively of rice and water could result in malnourishment– and perhaps such a grim existence is one you wouldn’t be willing to accept– but if you could conceivably stock the food and water you need to stay alive for 2 years for around $600, it begins to seem like an exceedingly affordable insurance policy.

P.S. I did not buy any Spam because I was already getting suspicious looks from the other shoppers at Sam’s Club. One guy asked me if I was shopping for an orphanage. I just chuckled noncommittally.

Ben Quayle is the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle and he is running for Congress in Arizona. He has garnered attention recently for a campaign ad declaring Barack Obama “the worst president in history,” but this is so much more awesome–

TheDirty.com (formerly DirtyScottsdale.com) has alleged that Quayle not only helped found the “gossip and satire” site– which abounds with scandalous photos and tongue-in-cheek tales of sexual conquest– but that he also contributed a column.

Quayle allegedly wrote the column under the pseudonym Brock Landers, a reference to a character in “Boogie Nights”–

Well, not really a character in “Boogie Nights.” You see, Mark Wahlberg plays a guy named Eddie Adams who adopts the stage name Dirk Diggler and then stars in a series of low-budget action-porn flicks as Brock Landers. (Wahlberg’s co-star John C. Reilly plays Reed Rothchild, who portrays Brock Landers’s sidekick Chest Rockwell.)

The possibility of Quayle’s involvement with TheDirty.com could very well make him unelectable, but the whole lecherous satirical conceit also makes him very interesting.

UPDATE: I guess I’m a little late to this story. Ben Quayle is denying that he wrote the column.

Yes, it is real. Nobody at Warner Bros. had time to parse five words for an unspeakable double meaning? Boo-Boo deserves better… or at least a running start.

Moments ago at Drudge Report–

See the original here.

Some Spam deserves to be celebrated for its sheer cynical ridiculousness:

I don’t have anything to contribute to the discussion that hasn’t already been written more eloquently by John Podhoretz, Jim Treacher or Charlie Anders (among others). But I do have this–

DOUBLE SPOILER ALERT

Something about Jack Shephard’s son David has really been bugging me. Last night during the finale I figured out why– he looks like one of the spooky teen Hitler clones from the Nazihunting thriller “The Boys From Brazil.”

Thank God he’s only a figment of Jack’s imagination in the terribly disappointing Unitarian limbo world that was revealed to us last night.

UPDATE (5/26): Doctor Zero feels betrayed.