Surviving Rabies

I heard a story on All Things Considered this afternoon about a Wisconsin girl who survived a rabies infection. In 1970 Dr. Stechschulte, who would later be my pediatrician, helped six year old Matthew Winkler survive rabies, and this even though the rabies vaccine failed. Until this Wisconsin girl this incident in 1970 had been the only known instance of a person surviving rabies.

Edmund Fitzgerald November 10, 1975

Edmund Fitzgerald November 10, 1975

The Land of the Free...

The Senate has taken up in committee a real lovely piece of work. If you don't want to become a criminal because you skipped a television commercial or shared music on your iPod then let your Senator know what you think.

Biodiesel is hitting the Mainstream

MSNBC - Jeep's biodiesel potentialis shown off

Just say No to Paperless Voting

Wired News: Researchers: Florida Vote Fishy

Takeaway quote:

"The researchers examined numerous variables that might have affected the vote outcome. These included the number of voters, their median income, racial and age makeup and the change in voter turnout between the 2000 and 2004 elections. Using this information, they examined election results for the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in the state in 1996, 2000 and 2004 to see how support for those candidates and parties measured over eight years in Florida's 67 counties.

They discovered that in the 15 counties using touch-screen voting systems, the number of votes granted to Bush exceeded the number of votes Bush should have received -- given all of the other variables -- while the number of votes that Bush received in counties using other types of voting equipment lined up perfectly with what the variables would have predicted for those counties.

The total number of excessive votes ranged between 130,000 and 260,000, depending on what kind of problem caused the excess votes. The counties most affected by the anomaly were heavily Democratic.

Sociology professor Michael Hout, who chairs the university's graduate Sociology and Demography group, said the chance for such a discrepancy to occur was less than 1 in 1,000."

[Via Slashdot]

Pop or Soda

I love linguistic and human migration studies such as this. On The Pop vs. Soda Page you can see what areas of the country say "Soda", "Pop", or just call every soft drink "Coke". An even better map with county-by-county statistics.

Clay's Simpson's Songs Wav Page

This page has most, if not all, of The Simpson's songs including Homer's ode to Max Power ("He has a name that you'd love to touch / but you musn't touch")