FEARING A FLU VACCINE, and wanting more of it.

NEW INNOCENCE PROJECT NEWS: Prosecutors say Northwestern investigator paid witness. “Prosecutors allege that after conducting a 2004 interview with Drakes, an investigator with the team paid a cab driver $60 to take from the interview site, a park in downstate Swansea, to a gas station two miles away. That amount was more than the fare and tip, and leftover cash — $40 — was given to Drakes; he used it to buy crack at a nearby crackhouse, the filing states. David Protess, director of the Innocence Project, acknowledged Drakes was given money for cab fare but denied it was a pay-off for a statement that implicated himself in the killing.” Well, if you’ll implicate yourself for murder for $40 . . . then, like the song says, you must be on crack.

VISE-GRIPS AND MORE: Locking Pliers Comparison: Abusive Lab Test.

TEST-DRIVING THE BMW ActiveHybrid X6.

LIST: Best Music Of 2009.

BBC EFFORT TO PUT DRM ON TV BROADCASTS shot down.

MICHAEL SILENCE: How do you mark the Berlin Wall coming down without including Reagan? “Well, NBC News shows us how, and, as a bonus, manages to include Hillary Clinton in the report, twice.”

Related item here.

TISSUE-ENGINEERING A FUNCTIONING PENIS: “In a unique feat of tissue engineering, scientists from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have created penile erectile tissue and implanted it into male rabbits, allowing the animals to, well, go at it like rabbits. Researchers implanted scaffolds seeded with cells from rabbit penile tissue. One month later, organized tissue with blood vessels began to grow. Tests showed that the new tissue functioned like a normal penis, with normal blood flow and drainage of the veins. The rabbits even fathered offspring. The research was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

VOLCANO-LANCING in Italy. Not via airborne lasers, though.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGIES. I think the cute-kitten thing would wear out pretty fast, but no doubt it’s just the opening salvo.

NEW SOLAR-SAIL EFFORTS: “LightSail-1, as it is dubbed, will not make it to Neverland. At best the device will sail a few hours and gain a few miles in altitude. But those hours will mark a milestone for a dream that is almost as old as the rocket age itself, and as romantic: to navigate the cosmos on winds of starlight the way sailors for thousands of years have navigated the ocean on the winds of the Earth.”

A PAIR OF DOUCHES: Jon Gosselin and Levi Johnston, in matching coats.

IN THE MAIL: The War on Terror and the Laws of War: A Military Perspective.

REASON TV: UPS vs. FedEx.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD ON THE GLOBAL COST OF CORRUPTION:

How much do crooked politicians and others steal every year?

Nobody really knows, of course, but as the BBC reports today, the UN estimates that $1.6 trillion each year is stolen each year and moved across national borders. Tragically, much of this money is stolen from poor countries. It is bread taken out of the mouths of the poor.

Don’t expect this figure to drop any time soon. Led by Russia, China and Iran, a large group of countries are fighting efforts to crack down.

This money is significantly greater than the value of all foreign development aid. It is more than the ten year cost of the health care bill that just passed the House. It would be enough to fund a worldwide basic health system and provide basic primary education to every child on earth. Over the next fifty years it will cost the world much more than climate change.

More than that, the level of criminality and incompetence demonstrated by the existence of so much theft is the most serious obstacle to economic and social development around the world. It is not just that governments administered by thieves are both indifferent to the plight of the poor and unable to run programs that will help them; it is also that voters in rich countries aren’t stupid. If foreign aid were perceived as being more effective, political support for it would rise.

Instead, voters suspect — rightly — that support for things like carbon regulation stems mostly from politicians’ expectation that it will yield even more graft.

BYRON YORK: No Matter What Happens, The Top Issue Is Jobs. And the lack thereof.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WANTS VISITOR INFORMATION FROM NEWS SITE: “In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day. The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site ‘not to disclose the existence of this request’ unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.” Pushback from the EFF led to the subpoena being withdrawn.

CORY DOCTOROW: When “random” searches aren’t actually random.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “Teenager? Is TMZ threatening to post child pornography?”

DOROTHY RABINOWITZ: Dr. Phil and the Fort Hood Killer: His terrorist motive is obvious to everyone but the press and the Army brass. “What a puzzle this piece of vacuity must be to audiences hearing it, some, no doubt, with outrage. To those not terrorized by fear of offending Muslim sensitivities, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s motive was instantly clear: It was an act of terrorism by a man with a record of expressing virulent, anti-American, pro-jihadist sentiments. All were conspicuous signs of danger his Army superiors chose to ignore.”

COLUMBIA PROFESSOR PUNCHES WOMAN IN ARGUMENT OVER “WHITE PRIVILEGE:”

A prominent Columbia architecture professor punched a female university employee in the face at a Harlem bar during a heated argument about race relations, cops said yesterday.

Police busted Lionel McIntyre, 59, for assault yesterday after his bruised victim, Camille Davis, filed charges.

McIntyre and Davis, who works as a production manager in the school’s theater department, are both regulars at Toast, a popular university bar on Broadway and 125th Street, sources said.

The professor, who is black, had been engaged in a fiery discussion about “white privilege” with Davis, who is white, and another male regular, who is also white, Friday night at 10:30 when fists started flying, patrons said.

You can’t make this stuff up. (Via JWF, who wonders if it would be treated differently were the races of the parties reversed).

UPDATE: Related: Gallup: U.S. Waiting for Race Relations to Improve Under Obama. Sounds like Columbia has a ways to go yet . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Chuck Allen writes: “I would say that it is time for another ‘beer summit’, but it seems that was what they were having, and it all went horribly wrong!” Yeah, Ivy League profs who can’t hold their liquor? This country really has gone to the dogs. . . .

MORE: Reader Grayson Hill writes: “What’s the matter with these people? Grade school boys know better than to punch women.” Grade school boys know a lot of things they forget by the time they have Ph. D’s.

JOHN LOUDON: St. Louis Protects Its Own: A DA Turns a Blind-Eye on the Gladney Beating.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: THE STATE OF THE STIMULUS. “One reason unemployment continues to rise may be that stimulus funds did not target high-unemployment states.” From each according to his abilities, to each according to his political clout. . . .

WELL, SHE CERTAINLY IS AHEAD OF HIM ON THAT COUNT: Huckabee: Palin’s getting more media buzz than me because she’s attractive. More important, from my perspective, is the fact that — although people have tried to paint her as some sort of “Christianist” theocrat wannabe — she actually governed more as a libertarian than a conservative. And when Helen and I talked with Huckabee he didn’t sound quite so sympathetic to libertarians. But hey, maybe I’m wrong.

JOEL KOTKIN: Obama Can Still Save His Presidency.