THE MPRIZE FOR LONGEVITY RESEARCH has now passed the $4 million mark.

Plus, a Leon Kass retrospective at FightAging.org.

“BLAME COWS BEFORE CARS FOR GREENHOUSE GASES:” I promise never to drive a cow. But the cows can point the finger at those Chinese coal seam fires.

THE CAR SURVIVAL KIT DISCUSSION from a few days ago led me to consider emulating SayUncle and keep something to cut seatbelts in the car. I could have just gotten a big honking knife, but I didn’t want anything that an unsympathetic cop might consider a dangerous weapon, just in case. (Yes, we have concealed carry in Tennessee, but it doesn’t apply to knives, and it’s wise to be careful what you carry in your car.) I wound up ordering this Swiss Army “Fireman” model, which has a locking blade that opens with one hand — I like that in general — and a special seatbelt cutting blade. Seems quite well made, and it’s now in the driver’s side pocket.

Plus it has a bottle opener and corkscrew for, um, lesser emergencies.

UPDATE: Dave Schuler emails: “Practically every male in my wife’s family is a fireman. I note that the ‘Fireman’s Model’ picture in the Amazon link features a bottle opener and a corkscrew. Sounds about right to me.”

It’s important to be prepared for all contingencies.

ANOTHER UPDATE: SayUncle emails: “Good point on the knife in car thing. You can also look at these: In addition to not looking like a knife, they have punches to break out safety glass ( i.e., your windows).” No corkscrew, though.

CUBIC HARD-BOILED EGGS: Cool!

A LOOK AT the future of RSS: “What started as a publishing phenomenon is now a marketing phenomenon, as companies in virtually every industry segment are using feeds to communicate with customers or constituents via RSS.”

BEST TAKE YET: “Eason Jordan and Michelle Malkin wandering around Iraq in search of shadowy Iraq police captain Jamil Hussein? It sounds like a sitcom . . . . I can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

I think it’s a great thing. Either they’ll find him — which is more than AP has managed to do — or they won’t, which will constitute calling AP’s bluff.

TONY SNOW apologizes to David Gregory. Rather handsomely.

JOHN HAWKINS interviews Duncan Hunter.

ANOTHER HIGH FOR THE DOW: I credit the new Democratic leadership in Congress!

WAS THE WEBB CAMPAIGN collecting dirt on bloggers? William Beutler looks at the reports and observes, “It shouldn’t be too surprising that the Webb campaign would do this, if they did this. Recent history gives us good reason to assume that politicians are wary of bloggers, certainly more so than traditional volunteers (who do not make a point of expressing their opinions in public).” It’s not at all clear that the Webb campaign did this, but those who have ambitions toward being paid political bloggers for campaigns should expect that this may well happen to them. As blogging goes more mainstream, I’d say it’s inevitable.

IT’S NOT THE TESLA: But Howard Lovy looks at a new electric car.

AL JAZEERA is unlisted. “One hears complaints that no cable or broadcast operation has picked up the English language al-Jazeera feed. I’m all in favor of English language al Jazeera getting a cable outlet. Perhaps a listed phone number might help.”

I HOPE THAT TIM JOHNSON TURNS OUT TO BE OKAY, and I don’t have much more to say than that. But here’s a big roundup from Pajamas Media if you want more.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: I agree with The New York Times’ editors, who write:

For all the worthy proposals for ethics reform being hashed out by the incoming Congress, a heavy dose of Internet transparency should not be overlooked in the effort to repair lawmakers’ tattered credibility. The technology is already there, along with the public’s appetite for more disclosure about the byways of power in Congress.

The Web is increasingly wielded by both campaign donors and bloggers clicking and tapping as wannabe muckrakers. Politicians would be wise to catch up. . . .

Much more than disclosure is needed to cure the Capitol’s ills — particularly some sort of independent agency to prod Congress to fully investigate corruption allegations. But prompt, searchable postings of basic data — from lobbyists’ itineraries and expenses to incumbents’ donor ties and legislative labors — should be part of any corruption cure. In the information age, this amounts to a modest proposal for a Congress truly intent on reform.

I think Congress should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act, too.

MICHAEL RUBIN: “John Kerry is in Egypt, and is praising Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s wisdom. What Kerry is not doing is speaking up for Ayman Nour, Muhammad Sharqawi, and other dissidents victimized by Mubarak’s crackdown. ”

Someone forward Kerry this story.

I’M IN A SWEET SPOT OF ENFORCED QUASI-IDLENESS, as I’ve graded the papers from my seminar, and I don’t have the bluebooks for my Administrative Law exam yet. But for those curious about how law professors grade exams, Daniel Solove is spilling the beans with a photo-illustrated explanation of how it’s done.

NOW PEOPLE WANT BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ME: Well, aside from the obvious suggestion, of course. . . .

I’ll try to come up with a list later. In the meantime, here are some science fiction recommendations. And if you haven’t read Mark Steyn’s America Alone, then that’s a good choice. It goes well with Claire Berlinski’s book, and you can hear our interview with Claire here.

TERROR-FREE INVESTING: “The idea of ‘shareholder democracy’ is today much bruited about, but whatever connotations that term has acquired, at bottom it means investors have a “vote” — that is, they can choose where to put their money, and where not. That kind of democracy assumes a new urgency in the post-9/11 world, as tens of billions of dollars are currently surging into countries that sponsor terrorism. . . . In this case, shareholders — citizens — have the power to influence. If American investors in these businesses — not only institutional investors such as public pension systems, money managers, investment trusts and university endowments, but also individuals — pressure companies to sever such business relations, they can become change agents in the financial sector and force multipliers for our troops abroad.”

MORE PEOPLE checking the A.P.’s work in Iraq.

MORE ON rules of engagement in Iraq.

UPDATE: Related post here.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Well, I wouldn’t have believed this possible:

Sen. Robert Byrd has built a reputation in Congress and in West Virginia using special interest funding to bring federal jobs and money home, but the king of pork said he’s willing to give up his projects for 2007 to find a way out of the ” fiscal chaos” left by the outgoing Republican-led Congress.

Byrd, incoming chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and his House counterpart Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin outlined their plan late Monday to pass a yearlong stopgap spending bill to keep government programs and agencies functioning until Sept. 30, 2007. To expedite the process, Byrd and Obey said they would eliminate earmarks — funding inserted into bills by lawmakers for projects in their district or states — from the unfinished budget.

Robert Byrd giving up on pork? What’s next — Chuck Schumer avoiding TV cameras? All joking aside, however, this is a big deal and the Democrats will deserve considerable praise if they deliver on these promises.

INSTAPUNDIT: “Real or fake?”

Jeez, get a clue.

UPDATE: Reader Jim Dunn emails:

Greetings, blogfather. Just wanted to add my voice to your chorus praising big pharma. My mother has gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), and a Novartis drug called Gleevec has given her years more life than she could have enjoyed otherwise.

What’s more, I WANT companies who develop products like Gleevec to make big money. If the people battling against life-threatening diseases don’t deserve piles of money, who does? It’s so stupid it makes my hair hurt to hear people gripe about big pharma, then turn around and blithely talk about a major league ballplayer making $15 million a year or a movie star earning $20 million for one 90-minute batch of celluloid drivel as if that’s perfectly normal.

And Michael Ubaldi writes:

For those who weren’t aware, distrust of drug-makers — already irrational — has become blind enmity.

My aunt is senior director of a Pfizer toxicology department. At a family gathering in July, she and I spoke about work. It was immediately obvious that my aunt had come to find it easier to couch her occupation
in apologia, so I interrupted her and, before asking her to continue, made clear that she had nothing to be ashamed of.

Only a moron would want to live in a society where people are ashamed to work for drug companies. And yet, I’m not surprised to see that resulting from the demagogy that abounds among politicians and “public interest” types who are not serving the public interest whatsoever.

Meanwhile, reader Steven Grim emails:

Your post about the drug that has changed your wife’s life got me thinking about my own life changing drug. I take Imitrex for migraine headaches. Before finding this drug my life was severely impacted at
least one time a week. No amount of any over the counter medication would even dent the pain from these headaches. My only recourse was to sleep them off for a day and I usually had to deal with nausea. It affected both my work and social life to a great degree. Now with Imitrex, my headache is gone within a half hour, there are no side effects, and it’s not a narcotic so there are no addiction concerns. It has changed my life. It’s expensive, but it is absolutely worth it.

For me, it’s acid-lowering drugs like aciphex and, more recently, Nexium that have made a huge difference. And come to think of it, I wrote a column on the underrated nature of these non-lifesaving drugs a while back.

Hey, Big Pharma isn’t perfect. But treating ’em like they are evil is stupid, and counterproductive, and the people who do it are the ones who deserve to be ostracized and humiliated, not the people who are actually working on things that make life better.

AN AGENDA BEHIND THE Flying Imams incident?

I suspect that the Democrats won’t be willing to hop on this bandwagon, as it would make them look weak on terrorism. Once again, though, the absence of major attacks since 9/11 is causing a rise in complacency that some people see as an opportunity.

AUSTIN BAY LISTS recommended books on war and technology.

CAPTAIN ED REPORTS: “In an important victory for the Bush administration, a Clinton appointee to the federal bench upheld the new detainee law that bars Guantanamo prisoners from using American civil courts to challenge their detention.”