Homework 14: Colonization and Zombies

1) Check out the Leonid shower tonight, if the sky happens to be clear enough to catch something interesting. The general direction to look is the constellation Leo, which may be in the general direction of Northeast. You don't have to be able to recognize Leo because the meteors will be spread out over a fair area. If this seems unrealistic, then find 2 videos of the Leonid shower (at least, to include at least one that you would consider "worth it to have checked out"), or some other planet, moon, or other astronomical phenomenon. (a) Describe. (b) Then relate to the concept of colonization somehow. Or if you prefer, discuss colonization in the context of some other planet, moon, part of the Earth, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yENQo3sh7po
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL58ygztOzs&NR=1

Answer a1)
I watched these two videos on youtube taken of meteor showers. I’ve seen a few showers myself. While they are pretty there isn’t much to describe about them. The meteors look like streaks of white light racing across the sky. People always tell you to make a wish on a falling star. Guess they kinda do look like falling stars.

Answer b1)
Humanity has problems. Regardless of rather we are on Earth or Mars we will take those problems with us. We lack self-control and discipline. So many of us just can’t say no. Thus we have over population, pollution, and general wastefulness. I think the ability to colonize would only give humanity another way to run from its problems. What? Earth is destroyed? That’s okay we still have Mars. What? Mars is gone too? All well, who’s next?

2) Term projects - if you do not know when your presentation is, let me know. Work more on it...the closer you get to finishing it, the better off you'll be! Post new material on your blog. Also, start preparing your presentation. One way to do that is to use your project write-up as a guide, and make slides that will step us all through it (just a suggestion).


Note: for the presentation remember to show the video on how to construct the water filter (source: The Colony, Discovery Channel)

Funny water filter tid-bit: use bras to stain impurities from water. They are usually thick and can catch a lot of junk.

Note: These are the things we need to keep in mind
Power
Food
Water
Shelter
Comfort

How to Find Water in the Wild Article: Cleaning Water:
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-find-water.htm

Your body can go at most 3 days without water. The body needs minimum two quarts of water a day on average.

You don’t want to drink water directly from an unfiltered source as that water may have bacteria and other harmful things.

One simple way to collect water is to make a belowground still. To construct one you need some basic tools: plastic sheeting, a digging tool, a container, a drinking tube and a rock. (Explain how it works and demonstrate using the image)

A filter (as described in the video) can be used to filter the water. Alternating layers of coarse and fine materials to filter out bacteria and solid matter. Even if you filter, always boil the water.
Boil water for at least 10 minutes to remove most bacteria. Either a fire or purification tablets will be needed to purify water. If using a fire, containers such as aluminum/tin cans, plastic bottles (filled to the brim, capped, and dropped into hot coals), and glass jars can be used (when suspended directly over the fire with the flames just touching the bottom of the container).

If you dig a hole in moist soil and wait a while it will fill with groundwater.

Homework 13: Toxo Gondii and Zombies

1) Recall the relevant class. Comment on Toxoplasma Gondii. What do you think??

I think it’s creepy cool. However, the research on how Toxoplasma Gondii affects human behavior was not conducted very well. They didn’t have a control group. You have to have a control group if you are going to use the scientific method (duh). It makes sense that Toxoplasma Gondii would affect our behavior, but I don’t think it affects it the way that poorly done research implies.

2) Add more to your project. Put the new stuff in a new blog posting. Consider new material that has some connection to Toxoplasma Gondii. Alternatively, it could have a connection to some other parasite or disease, or parasites or diseases more generally. Or it might be about something completely different...your choice!

This Toxoplasma Gondii stuff actually fits quite nicely with our zombie project. We want to come at this from a more realistic angle. For example, a disease, bacteria, or parasite that can alter human behavior. Sound familiar? The more I research this topic the more I wonder how realistic is might actually be.

This has already been covered in a previous blog so moving on to more relevant technology.

Emergency Power Systems:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-safety/security/emergency-power.htm

Conventional emergency power systems are designed with a temporary power outage in mind.

Generators tend to run on gas, diesel, or propane. All of which would be exponentially more difficult to collect. For a while we could siphon gas from the abandoned cars. However, we could only retrieve gas and diesel from gas stations for as long as the grid held-out as electric pumps are used to pump gasoline out of the tanks in the ground. I am unsure about our propane resources. However, I am certain they would be limited. And of course, these are the kinds of things everyone will be grabbing up.

An inverter is another option. An inverter is an electrical device that converts 12-volt power into 120-volt power. They are usually run off of car batteries or deep-cycle batteries (designed to power the inverter). A car battery can supply about 120 watts continuously for about three hours. A deep-cycle battery can pump out the same for about 6-8 hours. Of course, any way of recharging these batteries leads us back to gas or the grid (unless we could install solar panels which I doubt).

In conclusion, I think having a generator and/or an inverter stashed away somewhere isn’t a back idea in the event of zombie apocalypse, but I wouldn’t count on them for your livelihood.

Manual Hand Generator:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/travel/hand-powered-generators.htm

Not likely to be something we can find, but a good option to have. Perhaps Sports Academy would have one? You can get a hand generator that has many different connections including a standard wall socket. To power your device just turn the crank!

If we can’t find one we can build one. All we need are some rechargeable batteries, a drill, and a handle. (Explain how to build the hand generator).

Homework 12: Robots and Zombies

1) Suppose you had a coupon for a free robot. The catch is it can only do one thing. But you can get a robot that will do whatever one thing you like, just not anything else. What would you want your robot to do?

Answer 1:
My robot would be A.I and nano-sized. My little robot would live inside of me. Its only job would be to repair my body. The A.I would be required for decision-making. This little bug would know all there is to know about the human body, and mine in particular. When I first got the bug it would only know about humans, but after living inside of me for a while it would come to know what was normal for me. The little bug would determine, based of its knowledge, what jobs were more important then others. For example, repairing damaged tissue in my heart over damaged tissue due to a scraped knee. The little bug would use its wireless abilities to email me reports about my general health. If anything was seriously wrong the bug would notify me right away. The bug would be programmed to want to take care of me like a good owner wants to take care of their house.

2) Write or develop an additional significant piece of your project. As a suggestion, consider the connection of robots to your topic. However, if another subject besides robots seems more appropriate, that is just as good. Post the new section on your blog.

I don’t really feel that robotics can be connected to our topic as we are really more focused on a step back in technology rather then a step forward. Instead, I am going to continue with my work on relevant technology.

Find True North:
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/true-north2.htm

No Google. No GPS. No OnStar. If you’re lost, you are alone.

First you need to know that there is true north and magnetic north – not the same place. If you whip-out a compass and try to head north you’ll end up in the arctic regions of Canada. Because the magnetic fields on Earth are fluid and constantly moving, you might not even end-up in the same place twice. Now the difference is not so great that compasses are useless. In fact, they work pretty good for short distances, but if you needs to go a long way, you need to correct for the difference. Right now that would be easy, you just go to Google, find what the difference is for your location and correct for it. However, once the grid goes out, no more Google (OMG!). If our survivors can’t correct for the magnetic declination compasses will be useless after a certain distance.

What now? – Look up

As we all know in the Northern Hemisphere the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. If it is about noon, the sun will be in the middle of the horizon and directly south. So if you’re facing the sun you are facing south. If its at your back you are facing north.

What if its not noon? – Watches

Yes, a watch can tell you more then the time. (Include image here with farther instruction)

Well, that’s great but I don’t have a watch. So what now? – A stick

Find a stick and a sunny spot on the ground. Remember the sun casts shadows in the opposite direction as its position in the sky. So when the sun is in the east, the shadows will point west. (Include image here with farther instructions)

What if its nighttime? – Look up

The moon can direction you as well as the sun. If the moon rises before sunset, the sun illuminates it from its western position. If it rises after midnight, the eastern side is illuminated. If you can determine one direction you can figure-out the others.

What if there’s no moon? – Look for the little dipper. The last star on its tail is the North Star.

This is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with zombie apocalypse? Amidst all the chaos it would be very easy to get lost. Or if for some reason a group needed to migrate out of their local area they would need to know how to find their way. If you don’t know where you are going, you are more likely to end up somewhere you don’t want to be (like dead).

Homework 11: Trend Analysis, Weather Prediction, and Zombies

1) Under the heading "Question 1," "1," "Answer 1," or anything like that, discuss briefly the applicability or inapplicability of the discussion from Monday 10/26 to your project.

Answer 1:
Trend Analysis would likely be used during the initial outbreak. I’m sure the CDC would be using it to track the spread of the disease. After civilization breaks down I’m not sure any one person could obtain enough data to be conducting trend analysis.

2) Under the heading "2" or something like that, discuss briefly the applicability or inapplicability of the discussion from Wednesday 10/28 to your project.

Answer 2:
Once the grid shuts down weather prediction, control, and software bugs won’t really exist any more. Well, survivors are likely to try to predict rain, but weather prediction like we have now will not be possible. Funny that we can predict the weather better now, then in the situation where it would really matter.

3) Advance your project. Under the heading "3," etc., place the new things.

Research on apocalyptic technology that can keep us alive and healthy:

Solar Cooking and Clean Water:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/solar-cooking1.htm

Humans need cooked food. We don’t process raw food efficiently and raw meat makes us sick. Without the grid how will we survive? With solar cooking works. We can use sunlight instead of gas or electricity to cook our food. Now of course, sunlight isn’t hot enough on its own. We need a box cooker. A box cooker is basically a sun-powered oven. The inside of the box needs to be dark so black material should be used. We also need a piece of glass or transparent plastic for the top. Additional metallic or mirrored reflectors are often placed around the oven to direct more light into it. Oh, its works best if the box is airtight.

Now to cook, all we have to do is place a pot of food in the box. The sunrays will pass through the glass top, hit the dark materials inside the box, which will absorb the heat, trapping it inside the box. The box cooker can reach temperatures of 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

An alternative is the parabolic cooker which is a little better as it can reach temperatures of 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Basically, you use a reflector shaped a bit like a satellite to direct sunrays at a single point. A pot is suspended above the reflector at this point. And wala! Dinner is severed!

Only one drawback: won’t work without the sun. So no cooking at night, or on cloudy or rainy days.

Doug and I will be creating a solar cooker over Thanksgiving Break to test this technology. We’ll bring it with us to the presentation and let you know how it went.


Starting a Fire:
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-start-a-fire.htm

During a zombie apocalypse I would think we would have access to lighters and matches. However, during the initial chaos much of Little Rock’s resources would be stolen and destroyed. We may need to make-do without. So how will we start a fire without lighters or matches?

First, we must pick a good location. A good location is defined by:

Dry
Flat
Wind protected
Close to our fuel
Close to our shelter
Close to our water source
(In the case of our urban fire) cleared of things that can catch fire
Inaccessible to zombies

For those who do not know the basics of building a fire: you need tinder, kindling, and fuel. Tinder is your easily ignited fire starter (think newspaper). Kindling is a bit bigger (think bits of broken wood and twigs). That goes on next to help the fire grow. Once you have a nice little fire you add your fuel (think logs).

Again, we can use the sun. If we have a lens or a highly polished surface that will do the job. All we would need to do is direct sunrays at our tinder. We could also use a battery to create sparks over the tinder.

Homework 10: More Zombies

Q1) We discussed in class how there is no such thing as a "scientific proof." Explain in your own words.

I missed the class during which we discussed this so perhaps I am missing the point, but I have to disagree with that statement. I can scientifically prove that one simple thing will happen in a given simple situation. For example, holding a ball over my apartment floor and releasing, right now, here on earth. The ball will fall toward the floor at a rate of about 9.8m/s. I can prove this tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. The ball will always fall, and it will always fall at about the same rate as long as all other variables remain the same. I can even show you proof from the past that when large things were released they fell. Now, I am only proving that things fall and that the rate of their fall is related to some other variable we define as a force. However, that is still a scientific proof. Physics is math. It is proven with math. If you can't have a scientific proof, then you can't have math proofs either. If you don't "believe" in either of those you don't belong in this modern world, but rather in a time period we know as The Dark Ages. Reading over this, I realize it sounds a little ranty, and I realize I am mildly offend by the suggestion. Kind of silly of me, I know. :)

Q2)#2: Who unstrapped patient zero from his gurney?! [During Initial Outbreak]

(The final format of our project is likely to be very much like 2100 in that we will explain what is happening to the world through the experiences of one person or a group of people. This is some of the beginning of that story.)

From the newspapers printed during the initial stages of the outbreak I gather that the disease spread in dense urban areas (cities, colleges, transport hubs, etc.) and disseminated into the surrounding countryside. It appears that quite a few people contracted the disease in health clinic waiting rooms (their compromised immune systems leaving them susceptible to infected patients coughing and sneezing), on buses, and in apartment complexes do to each locations enclosed nature.

As victim's fevers broke, and they began to act like zombies, victims would attack anyone nearby. Initially, law enforcement would capture them and doctors would try to cure the sick, but the numbers were untreatable and hostile. Normal citizens would constantly wear masks when outside and began to carry around weapons to protect themselves. As the disease spread, people with flu symptoms would exiled from communities for fear of being infected. The people began to loot for supplies as the zombies became too much for the law to handle.

The country waited for the government to take action, but none ever came. The sheer number of infected triggered the breakdown of law as protecting the public became less and less an option.

#3: Zombie Nation [Initial Outbreak Completed]

As the government broke down uninfected citizens began to form tribes. It was natural really. One person could not easily survive when in a one-mile area there are 4,000 people, more than half of who are zombies. The tribes were small (~20) so that the groups could move around relatively quietly and quickly. The first thing these tribes began to do was collect weapons (its a good thing we are in the south) because close quarters fighting will zombies is just asking to be infected. First on the agenda was getting to a defend-able location that had good food and water storage, climate, and close resources.

My group was formed on UALR campus among my friends and anyone else who could prove to be useful. My tribe chose to try to establish a base at the local Sam's Club. Sam's Club has few entrances, a large supply of canned goods and water, furniture, generators, clothing, an auto shop (tools), pharmacy, and kitchen. Sam's club does have a large suburban population around it, but with proper barricades and other deterrents (pieces of metal that are shot at incredible speeds into trespassers... bullets) this should not be a problem. Located within 2 miles of Sam's Club are a Home Depot (building supplies, gardening supplies), a Garden Center (gardening + building supplies), a Barnes N' Noble (because who really knows how to do everything?), a Walmart (guns, food, and clothing), Sport Academy and Sport Authority (guns and hand-held weapons), and many other useful stores.

After grouping up, making a convoy, and traveling to Sam's Club (wear your seat belts!) we first had to clear out Sam's Club, which was chalk full of zombies. We proceeded in, barricading the doors behind us (no more zombies coming in), and proceeded to systematically cull Sam's Club of zombies (I often wonder what I would have done if I had encountered humans already set up here. I think I would have joined if possible if not I would have killed the lot of them and taken the store by force.) After securing all the possible entrances we proceeded to take stock of the supplies in store. We estimated it would be enough to last until our crops could grow.

Homework 9: In Case of Zombie Outbreak

In Case Of Zombie Outbreak:

Rough Timeline:

#1: Cause of Zombie Outbreak

·Potential causes: biological warfare, mutated vaccine, mutated/new disease
·Patient zero
·Disease vector

No one is completely sure where the disease came from. Some rumors insist that some foreign government developed the disease to disrupt our nation's power. Some say that this year's flu vaccines were rushed out too quickly before enough testing could be done and the strain sent out to hundreds of thousands of Americans was somehow contaminated or mutated. I don't know what exactly happened, but what I do know is that the shit hit the fan and we are up to our neck in zombies.


#2: Who unstrapped patient zero from his gurney?! [During Initial Outbreak]


·Safety measures: (masks, wash hands, don't get bitten, cover open wounds, etc.)

·Trust no one! (A person can seem fine but already be diseased)

·Initially the government and other organizations will attempt to capture the diseased and control the outbreak.

·Procure weapons. This will not be the first step for most people, resulting in their death. [Looting will not be an option yet.]

·Plan


#3: Zombie Nation [Initial Outbreak Completed]

·Gather group:
--Less then 20 people
--Must be trustworthy and/or have relevant skills to survival
--Must be fit
--Have combat skill or willing to learn
--Have survival skill (mechanic, gardener, hurting, nursing, etc.)
--Important to maintain and lead the group.

·Procure weapons and vehicles [Let the looting commence, no laws, lots of zombies]

·Find basic survival materials:
--Food
--Water
--Shelter – must consider:
---▪How to establish
---▪Defendability
---▪Proximity to resources vs. safe distance from population centers (Note: population of Little Rock in 2008 (not including suburbia): 189,515)

▪Possible location choice: Sam’s Club
--Lots of nonperishable food and t.p.
--Some tools and other useful nonfood items
--Minimal exits to secure
--Might need to cull of zombies (& other refugees?)

Undeveloped Subsections:

Travel:
·Interstate [few cars due to sickness]
·Road Raiders [armed, dangerous]
·Zombies [wear seatbelts]

Useful Skills:

·Wood working
·Metal working
·Warfare knowledge
·Gardening
·Gunman-ship/archers
·Tracking

Potential Technologies needed:

·Water cleaning equipment
·Electricity generators (solar, wind, water)
·Tools
·Armor
·Guide wires
·Pesticides

Children in Zombieland:

·Coming soon!

Rules for Zombie Outbreak:

·Be able to run for long periods. [Cardiovascular exercise is your friend.]
·Be able to kill zombies. [Even if they are close friends or family]
·Be able to think independently. [No sheep! (They all got eated! J)]
·Maintain distance from zombies whenever possible
·Wear seat belt when driving.
·Do not relax outside of compound. Stay aware of surroundings. The compound is depending on you to come back alive. [Check closets, back seats, rafters, etc.]
·Beware other humans; they are out to survive as well. Kill or be killed.

Rules Of Survival From The Movie Zombieland:

·Rule 1: Cardio
·Rule 2: Beware of Bathrooms
·Rule 3: Wear your seat beat
·Rule 4: Double Tap
·Rule 5: No attachments
·Rule15: Know your way out!
·Rule 17: Don’t be a hero
·Rule 18: Limber up
·Rule 31: Check the back seat
·Rule 32: Enjoy the little things

Necessary Resources:

Water: [Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, grocery stores, rivers, streams]

·Left over bottled supplies
·Rainwater (Collect on the roof and use the sun reflecting off aluminum to heat the water and purify it? Would still need to filter for solid impurities.)
·Rivers/streams (may be polluted due to corpses or human pollution)

Food: [Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, grocery stores]

·Left over nonperishable
·What can be grown or hunted
·Not Zombies! [You can get mad cow disease from eating diseased meat so why not get zombie from eating zombie?]

Shelter: [any building]

·Temperature control
·Able to control entrance and exit
·Bedding, clothing, etc.

Electricity: [need generators once electrical system breaks down]

·Can use generators and gas
·Useful, but limited and unnecessary
·Get candles [Bed, Bath, & Beyond?]
·Solar power?
·Windmills?
·Water wheels?

Weapons [many places]
Construction materials [Home Depot]
Tools [Home Depot]

Zombie Specifics:

·Height, weight, fitness, sense acuity, etc. are zombie dependent.
·Zombies will eat other zombies only if no other food sources are available.
·Zombies are omnivorous, but prefer humans due to their similar body chemistry.
·Zombies hunt humans because humans are slow and stupid and easier to hunt than most animals.
·Zombies cannot use tools. (Initially?)
·Zombies are able to ignore pain in pursuit of food much like animals.
·Zombies will die without food, water, etc.
·Zombies can procreate, and the babies are zombies.
·Disease does not cross species. [If it did we would be screwed]
·Human sexing zombie without condom can turn human to zombie. [Disease is an STD].

Disease specifics:

·After 2-3 days: flu symptoms
·After 6-7 days: “zombie”
·Flu → high fever → fever broken/zombie

Government Responses to zombie outbreak:

·Humanitarian (capture and cure)
·Deploy soldiers (not enough soldiers in US, too much time to transfer them home)
·Bureaucratic bickering until it is too late (2100)

Minority Report:

·What will be done with criminals and the insane? The logical thing to do would be to kill them because they are too much of a liability. However, they would likely end up adding to the zombie population as the people in control of them either wouldn’t have the heart to kill them, or wouldn’t want to take responsibility for doing so.

Ghost in the Shell:

·Zombie Disease can easily be compared to ghost hacking. Everything that makes that person who they are is replaced by base instincts (in the zombie case) or by a hacker’s program (in the Ghost in the Shell case).

2100:

·The governments will not respond quickly enough.
·People will form private survival groups.
·The power grid will enviably shutdown.
·The cities will become dangerous abandoned places.
·Only compounds will remain.

1. People will start to get sick. They will come from transportation hubs to UALR, then will leave again. They will go to Health Services and people will be exposed. Greek houses, classrooms, the DSC, and the Residence Halls will act as breeding grounds.

2. Students will suffer in their rooms and when the fever breaks will attack roommates who will run to hospitals (along with their “sick” attackers) where the disease will continue to spread.

3. As the disease spreads classes will be canceled. Students will have to decide if they want to stay or evacuate. (Will they be allowed to evacuate?)

4. Some will believe that the government will come save them while others will seek out bases. We currently plan on gathering a group and escaping to Sam's Club. Interstate/roads will be mostly clear due to people staying home due to sickness. [Note: Little Rock has a larger population than most realize. If even 50% of the population becomes zombies, then that is tens of thousands of zombies].

5. How many can live comfortably in Sam's Club? How many are needed to keep it secure, and keep the compound in resources?

Homework 8: Minority Report: Technology

Who has seen the movie Minority Report? The movie is set about 45 years in the future. Technology has developed, of course, into some pretty cool things. But how realistic is this technology? Let’s have a look.

First of all, we have all of the new technology for the cops. We start with vomit inducing “sick sticks.” Why tase criminals and risk killing them when you can just make them throw-up? How about the halo? Why fight with criminals when you can disable their mind’s ability to fight you? It’s a good system all-be-it very scary for the criminal. The creepiest technology is the eye-scanning spider robots the cops use to find John, the main character, who is hiding from them. These little spider things run through an apartment building scanning everyone. If you don’t hold still they will zap you! If you have seen the research on the military’s Big Dog, you know these little spiders aren’t that futuristic.

In this future, every person’s retinas are stored in a database. This comes in handy in a lot of ways. Advertising is a big one. As John runs through a shopping mall, he is confronted by a flurry of ads targeted at him. How? Cameras scan his eyes and based on who he is, what he is, what he buys, how he’s physical signs indicate he is feeling, a computer determines what ads will be most effective and runs those. Pretty smart. Its kind of funny how one of the ads is for a beer. Why yes, this man could use a drink right about now. Interestingly enough, retinal scanners and consumers preference databases already exist. Is this the future of advertising?

We waste a lot of trees every year on newspapers and magazines. After all, once it has been read what use is a newspaper? Okay, a few uses, but not many and not everyday. What if you could buy just one paper and it would update itself everyday? How cool would that be? All that is needed to make this paper possible is a flexible, electronic paper and wireless technology. Wireless we have, and researchers at Xerox PARC are developing a similar product to the electronic paper. “It is a flexible plastic full of millions of multi-colored beads held in an oil-filled cavity. When a voltage is applied, the beads rotate to show the right color to the reader. Lots of cavities working in tandem create a readable page. Researchers say that it uses very little power, is lightweight and reusable thousands of times.”

What about gesture recognition? Who wants to use a stupid old keyboard and mouse anyway? Why can’t we just put on gloves and manipulate our windows, icons, and images with the tips of our fingers? Well, we can, as far back as 1986 before I was born. If you would like to see similar technology just go play with a Wii some time. The Wii remote isn’t a glove, but it is similar technology. As for a glove, that was the tech. developed in 1986 I mentioned before. It was a data glove, developed by a company called VPL Research.

Who would like to own a 3-D movie? It would be nice right? Well, it’s not as far along as we would like. State of the art today, is a small, wire-frame box hanging in mid-air. Yes, you can put your hand through it. It is a real hologram, but it’s not good enough to market to the masses yet. After all, it is only a wire-frame of one small object.

Traffic in Minority Report is very different from traffic today. First of all, it’s running up the sides of buildings. Second, no one is driving. The cars are just guided along by some regulation system. Apparently, Toyota worked on this part of the film. They helped the movie makers come up with a somewhat believable system (but not really). Lets have a look at the physics. The cars are supposedly using magnetic levitation to glide along the road. However, Japanese railway company, JNR, gave this method a try with spotty results. Apparently, magnetic levitation trains don’t handle hills very well. So buildings would be pretty much impossible. Also, these trains need contact with the ground to brake. Not being able to brake up the side of a building might not end well, you know, once or twice.

Rather or not the technology is possible doesn’t change how cool the movie is. You should totally check it out if you haven’t. The storyline isn’t too bad either. ‘Til next time folks

-A

Reference:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2002/jul/22/features.neilmcintosh