LAFAYETTE, Calif. Without hesitation, Cathy Holt can tell you how long it has been since Noah's latest seizure.The Lafayette, Calif., mother keeps a running total. Her blond, blue-eyed 4-year-old has been seizure-free for 40 weeks.That is a life-altering change for Noah, who had been averaging a seizure a week since he was 6 months old. The longest one lasted three hours. Many ended in a hospital emergency room.Noah tried state-of-the-art medications to control his epilepsy, without success.A low-tech approach transformed the boy's life a strict high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that defies all good-nutrition recommendations.Known as the ketogenic diet, it has been around since biblical times and has gone in and out of favor.Instead of fruits and vegetables, Noah's meals often include heavy cream, bacon and butter laced with cinnamon.Why and how the diet works remains a mystery.But Children's Hospital Oakland, Kaiser Permanente, the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford and other institutions have put scores of epileptic children on the diet, with varying degrees of success.Experts stress that the diet can have side effects and should be attempted only under strict medical supervision.

Emmaus Medical, Inc. Enters Into Sub-License Agreement for Treatment ...

TORRANCE, Calif., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Emmaus Medical, Inc., a Torrance, California based pharmaceutical company, announced today that it has entered into an exclusive sublicense agreement with Cato BioVentures of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina for the patent protected drug NutreStore(TM) brand L-Glutamine. Under this agreement, Emmaus will commercialize NutreStore(TM), which is approved by the FDA for use in combination with human growth hormone as a treatment for short bowel syndrome (SBS). Emmaus will be introducing NutreStore(TM) in the spring of 2008 and projects that its sales will greatly contribute to its short and long term financial performance of the company.

SBS is a serious and life threatening condition afflicting around 20,000 Americans who have lost large portions of their small intestine.

Porsche's legal threat over sports car charge

As someone who travels into central London regularly, I welcome any measure to reduce air pollution.Anyone who's been in central London will know that the air quality is dreadful and it's mainly due to traffic emissions.The high charge is not meant to reflect the carbon footprint of the manufacture of the vehicle (as some posters above seem to think), but how much the vehicle pollutes. .

Inside Firefox 3's Latest Beta Update, Part 1

This takes it one step further to prevent any kind of exploit or attack against the browser, which is really great," he added.

The new Firefox theme enables toolbars, icons and other elements of the user interface to appear as though they are a native OS X application.

St. Jude Memphis Half Marathon results

Keith Mccain, 33 (Little Rock, AR.), 1:39:49.

Make My Day

It's sort of how Western Civilization felt when the calendar year changed to 2000 (although the millennium didn't officially begin until 2001!). We had reached a major milestone, but we didn't know how to feel.

I was born exactly at midnight on June 27th, so on the night of the 26th, I watched the second hands march slowly toward 12:00 on my bedroom clock until they reached their target.

"I'm 40 now," I mumbled to my wife, wondering how much longer I would be able to stay up so late.

"Happy birthday, old man." She kissed me on the cheek. We watched a "Scrubs" rerun, and I fell asleep before it was half over. Dangit. I thought old people didn't need as much sleep.

My older friends and family scoffed at my worries. "Forty is nothing," they would say. "Wait until you hit your fifties."

On the other hand, Oldest Daughter would remind me 12 times a day for three weeks, "Wow, 40 years old.

Author wants San Antonians to get fit

A San Antonio fitness buff and author is taking his message public this month, launching a campaign to get more people to make exercise part of their daily routine.

Brinkmann has partnered with local gyms like Lifetime Fitness and Sports and Nutrition stores.

Percussionists drum up interest among orchestra fans

Theatricality is a basic aim of John Corigliano's music. He once wrote a flute concerto inspired by the Pied Piper legend in which the flutist leads a chorus of children off the stage, and a violin concerto based on the film "The Red Violin." But a request a few years ago for a percussion concerto left him stumped. "All I could see were problems," says the Pulitzer Prize winner.

Nevertheless, a consortium of six orchestras had commissioned the composer to write a piece for Evelyn Glennie, the formidable Scottish percussionist.

Gadgets Greenpeace Launches Campaign Against "Toxic" Gaming Consoles

The games consoles market is one of the fastest growing in consumer electronics with over 60 million sold and 14 percent growth last year," Greenpeace explained on its newly launched Clash of the Consoles website. "These consoles contain toxic chemicals and can contribute to the massive growth of electronic waste that's often dumped, causing widespread environmental pollution and health problems for unprotected workers."

Waterboarding legal when CIA used it

Department of Agriculture should provide a loud and clear wake-up call that federal inspection is not adequate to ensure a safe meat supply ("A gap in food safety," Feb. 19).

This largest meat recall in U.S. history was brought about because of an animal rights organization's undercover video showing California slaughterhouse workers using kicks, electric shock, high-pressure water hoses and a forklift to force sick or injured animals onto the killing floor.

USDA regulations prohibit sick animals from entering the food supply, because of the high risk of contamination by E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease.

About 37 million pounds of the recalled meat went to school lunch and other federal nutrition programs since October 2006, and "almost all of it is likely to have been consumed," according to a USDA official.