Search for Statistics on the Malaysia Airlines Plane Crash Mystery

Looking for background statistics to research the Malaysia Airlines disappearance and apparent plane crash?

Check out our search engine for statistics, or take a look at these links for more information:

IRchartnexus is an investment firm that has a financial background on Malaysia Airlines with links to Malaysia Airlines reports.

Flightstats.com can give you a background on flight records for Malaysia Airlines.

The Department of Civil Aviation Air Transport Division of Malaysia may have useful information buried somewhere in its website. (The investigative link wasn't active when I went to the website, and only one statistic report was available, which required a translation.)  But you can also search the Aviation Safety Network for statistics, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), or International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).  Comparing countries? The European Aviation Safety Agency or Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) may be of some help. Wikipedia has an entry on Aviation Accidents that contains a list of aviation organizations, associations and authorities that could be of value to you

The Department of Statistics Malaysia has an Offical Portal for statistics on the social demographics, business and economy of Malaysia.

(Photo Credit: Simon_Sees. Creative Commons License 2.0.)

BBC News and CNN continue news coverage of the (apparent) plane crash mystery, and you should stay updated with Interpol reports and findings.

Digital Globe is the company behind the impressive crowd sourcing initiative taking place to help scour an unfathomable amount of imagery shots for debris or other clues using Tomnod. You can find facts on ocean debris at the U.S. EPA website, statistics on ocean litter can be found in the National Marine Debris littering pdf file, and also at the Keep Australia Beautiful link on marine litter statistics.

Reddit users are weighing in heavily on the plane's disappearance and keeping other users updated with timelines and reliable news sources.

Statistics to the Boeing aircraft 777-220ER can be found on Boeing's technical characteristics page, Airliners.net Boeing 777-200 information page, and in a pdf file from the FAA website (with plenty of mathematical explanations for you statistical wizards).

You can find links for plane crash statistics in my old (lengthy, disorganized, but helpful) blog post on Plane Crash Statistics, and a few more in my post on the Buffalo (Clarence) New York freak plane crash.

The links to government and aviation statistic websites are included in the custom search engine on my page, so if you're looking for a specific fact, try the search engine for statistics at the top of this blog.

If you know of any other links that would be useful to others researching this plane's disappearance, feel free to provide them in the comments below.

Our hearts go out to all of the families and friends of those on board Malaysia Airline flight 370. Special condolences to Mei Ling Chng's family, friends and co-workers. My son and his family live in Pittsburgh, and Eastman Chemical supports our nearby town of Kingsport. For the sake of the families involved, we hope this mystery will soon be solved. Peace to all.

Teacher Quality Statistics

"Teacher Quality" reports and statistics I find relate teacher quality to student test scores. (Heck, hand kids the answers and you'll be a brilliant teacher.) That gives these so called "Teacher Quality" reports a failing grade in my eyes - with or without the numerous "value-added" qualities incorporated into the results. And guess why NY went from a "D" to a "C" in the latest Teacher Quality reports? Because they tied teacher/student testing more closely together.

We've lost education inside of institutionalism. Using standardized testing to judge a child's knowledge is archaic and detrimental to true education. Using standardized testing to test teachers is just a continuation of taking the easy way out instead of being innovative. But, regardless of my opinion, robot-like testing isn't going away, and teacher quality is a highly controversial and hot political issue. I glaze over these reports because I think they're a farce, but I think many of you would be interested in knowing where to find the actual studies on "Quality Teaching" that are running amuck in the headlines.

When a new study comes out, the source, or some relationship to the source, is usually quoted in the article. Sometimes the source is vague, such as "a study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation." Gee thanks. Do you KNOW how many different studies they've funded? I don't know either, but all their financial reports are online if you want to dig through. While you're at it, you can do a search for "teacher quality" on their website and get some useful reports. However, their pet MET (Methods of Effective Teaching) project is intertwined with recent teacher quality reports.

At least the Washington Examiner in their "Teacher Quality Study Ranks NY 13th Among States" article was nice enough to lead readers to the National Council of Teacher Quality website with a link at the end of the article. However, as an article in the magazine Governing points out, data is too often collected, but not shared.

Let's start with the National Council of Teacher Quality. Their purpose is to increase the number of effective teachers, and they are "committed to lending transparency and increasing public awareness about the four sets of institutions that have the greatest impact on teacher quality: states, teacher preparation programs, school districts and teachers unions" without partisanship getting in the way. There's about 50 different agencies that fund the Council. This is the organization that the press is getting data from.

The 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook has all the juicy data on why NY is 13th and how states have failed to make much progress. The National Council of Teachers seem to like the letter "C." It's safe. It's average. It's the grade most states (teachers) got. I bet Tennessee is loving the fact its at the top of the list and New York isn't. This Yearbook report is the report that all the Teacher Quality bashing articles floating around this mid-January 2012 are referring to. My beef? (Sorry vegetarian daughters.) My beef is that this report is on teacher quality inclusive of school and state policy changes, yet the headlines floating around tout teacher quality, with little or no mention of the extreme impact that school policies have on the final grade for teacher quality. Kids get misjudged by things that aren't seen all the time too, so I do feel for the teachers and states. And that is why it is so important that we know WHERE these "grades" for teacher quality are coming from when we start reading headlines about teacher quality. At least then you're armed with information on why these headlines and studies are a farce.

A very helpful tool on the Teacher Quality Council website is a place where You can build a custom report based on state, district, poverty levels, unions and bargaining, tenure, and all kinds of neat little variables.

Now let's look at the Data Quality Campaign and see what they have to offer for Teacher Quality statistics. Their purpose is to use the data to promote student achievement, and they have a strong focus on longitudinal studies. Their list of funding sources isn't as long as the Council on Teacher Quality, but Pew Research and the Gates are involved. You'll find charts that show which states are using the data they have, and which aren't and lots of suggestions on how data can and should be used. If you're interested in data implementation, data warehouses, and data coordinating efforts, then you'll be interested in the Data Quality Campaign website. But, if you just want straight-forward teacher quality information, you can skip the Quality Campaign website. Going to the Gates' foundation College Ready Education topic page gives you links to more useful teacher quality articles pdf style.

If you're bored, you can always sift through Ed.gov's website results for "teacher quality", or the results from the search engine on this blog (which I'm currently updating). The National Education Association has almost 30,000 results for teacher quality, but Ed Week had a sparse showing of articles in a search for teacher quality, the articles were even sparser for the search term at the Association for American Educators' website.

The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality reports itself as a national resource for data with a goal to help the schools with the highest poverty rates and lowest performance rate. They have a database on State Teacher Evaluation Policies ,a bunch of interactive tools for evaluation that some of you might find useful, and what looks like to be a nice research library for data and research.

Of course, all this data and research is for the grants. It's always nice to read an article about small-town grant winners from Teacher Quality programs like those in Cleveland, TN who can now forge ahead in biotech. But more common are the articles bemoaning teacher quality. NBC's article on New York's faring in the quality test states that no state got an A. Doesn't that say something about the teacher?

Car Accident Statistics, Fatalities, Women Drivers and a Few Drunks

Car accident statistics seemed like a good topic to post since my two teens are in the midst of getting their driver's licenses and their first (very used) cars. On top of that, my latest writing assignment was coincidentally on car insurance - just as I was panicking over how high my car insurance rates will rise once they're both on my policy. Fortunately, I have stayed alive to write this post even through their first bout of city driving.

Just to warn everyone - there's going to be a couple more women drivers on the road. Statistically speaking, despite slanderous jargon about women drivers (mostly from my father), people should be grateful that these two new drivers are women and not men. Even recent 2007 fatality statistics by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that men are the drivers in the high majority of fatal accidents. The Institute's 2007 Fact Sheet has charts demonstrating fatal accident and gender statistics from 1975 to 2007.

Of course, the Center for Disease Control's Teen Driver Fact Sheet's mention of car accidents being the number one reason for teenage deaths in the US doesn't help me sleep well at night when my teens are out with their friends. But within these teenage statistics from the CDC is the data that teen female drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 are far less likely to die than their male friends. The CDC looks like they also have some interactive statistics and mapping toys that can be used to investigate car accident statistics.

Personally, if I were to compare my older boys with my two teen girls and their driving style, I have one in each gender that is very cautious and rule abiding, and I also have on in each gender that is over-confident about their driving abilities. Over-confidence can be a killer, but it is probably not as deadly as alcohol. (However, that's debatable. We haven't mastered measuring car accidents due to over-confidence yet.)

Men are responsible for the majority of alcohol realted deaths. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in their gender report states the difference:

From 1982 to 2007, the proportion of fatally injured passenger vehicle drivers with blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) at or above 0.08 percent declined by 29 percent among males and 37 percent among females. Since 1985 the percentage of fatally injured male drivers with high BACs has been about twice that of female drivers.

Under the quote in that report is data from the 1980s to 2007 that lists statistics on alcohol related car accidents and BAC levels. The good news is that alcohol related fatal deaths are decreasing. And so are car accidents. CNN has a news article summarizing some alcohol related car accident statistics.

In the US, car accidents reached their all-time low since the rumbling days of hot rods and drag racing in the 1960s and the peak of the 1970s according to 2008 statistics (reported in June 2009) from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in their 2008 statistics summary of traffic safety facts. If you need to go global, you'll find some links on the US Department of State Travel page that has links to transportation and traffic statistics. (More global websites for international car accident statistics are listed later on in this blog post.)

Here is a link to the cache version of the NHTSA report that appears in Google Doc form:

Google Doc version of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA)2008 Traffic Safety Facts.

Here is a link to the pdf version of the NHTSA report:

PDF version of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA)2008 Traffic Safety Facts.

Overall, the number of people injured in car accidents in the US dropped from the 2.49 million in 2007 to "only" 2.35 million in 2008. The 2008 NHTSA car accident statistic report has a lot of valuable statistics and data and is likely one of the more recent sources for car accident statistics. You can also take a look at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics website for traffic data to support car accident data research. You'll also find some car accident statistics hiding in railroad, airline and boat accident statistics. (I have more research links on plane crashes and holiday travel statistics under the "transportation" labeled blog posts if you need more information in those areas.)

Another popular source for car accident statistics is the FARS - Fatality Analysis Report System. They have comparative statistics of car accidents and motorcycle accidents in a nicely laid out table that runs from 1994 to 2007. Ratios, mileage and population comparisons are listed as well as car accident statistics involving pedestrians and bicylists. FARS also has links to 2007 car accident statistics by state, (no surprise that California has the most and Rhode Island has the least) which list fatal accident statistics, as well as car accident statistics that involve a collision with an object. Their car accident reports by state also includes a page of alcohol related car accident statistics and BAC level statistics by state.

The FARR website also has links to trends and other reports, data and statistics on vehicle accidents. They even have a link to an excellent query page that offers tabulation reports on all sorts of data like vehicle types, times, license status, driver height, and all kinds of goodies. Great stuff if you need to get down and dirty and put your stats into a spreadsheet or need some good data to prove or refute a point. Ooooo time to play...wow that's great - after doing a query you get to go to see the full information of each report filed if you want. Code 11 in sequence of events is hitting an animal. I was just looking at deer statistics, however I know that there are always people hitting deer around here and getting their cars dented, but accident reports are hardly ever made.

Since I have no need for the data now I better stop playing. Let's move on to global and international car accident statistics. What better place to start than the World Health Organization. WHO knows everything about what's going on in the world, because in one way or another, everything will probably affect a person's health. They even have a page on world car accident information. A 2004 page describes motor vehicle accidents as a "hidden epidemic" with statistics backing up the claim. WHO has a lot of pdf reports on road injuries and road safety around the world.

There is a "Causes of Death" Excel file on the World Health Organizations Data and Statistics page that gives you a great spreadsheet of deaths by countries, and it includes data on deaths due to "road traffic accidents" by country. On the Pan American page of unintentional accidents on the WHO website you can find a link to a world traffic injury and prevention report that contains road traffic and vehicle accident research and statistics. You can also take a look at a WHO European page that shows some car accident statistics that closely mirrors the US and a list of links to European road traffic safety, injury and transport reports. You can also find some nice graphs and charts in the 2007 European Road Safety Day car accident and traffic safety report.

The BAST (Federal Highway Research Institute in Germany) has pdfs and links to car accident statistics in Germany.

A google book result brings up the WHO's World Report on Road Traffic which contains a lot of statistics and information, although I'm not sure how the information on the website differs from the information in the book, but it might be quicker just to look at the google book result to get a quick overview of international car accident statistics.

Wikipedia has links to resources for car accident statistics on their entry for Traffic Collision and Road Traffic Safety. From there you'll also see a Wikipedia link to information on the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Road Casulaties Great Britain, a list of car accidents (motor vehicle accidents) in Japan and car accidents in Thailand.

UK car accident statistics can be found on the Department of Transport (DfT) website page containing transportation and traffic statistics and statistics on UK accidents. They also have a report on forecasting older driver accidents.

If those aren't enough, you can find more UK car accident statistics at the UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS) website and their page on UK road traffic accident statistics. The British Medical Journal has a free text study which includes statistics comparing car accident police reports and hospital records. (I love the BMJ and use it a lot. I wish all journals would provide free full text!)

If you want to go a wee bit south in the Commonwealth and need some car accident statistics on New South Wales, Australia, head over to their Road and Traffic Authority website and look at their page on crash statistics for free download information on Australia car accident statistics.

Staying south, the South African Department of Transportation website has a link to car accident statistics and road safety information in South Africa covering 2001 to 2005,with some statistics from the 1990s thrown in. There's also graphs in the report comparing South Africa statistics to Australia, China and other countries. Other statistics on South Africa car accidents can be found at the "about us" page Road Safety in South Africa and the "Arrive Alive" website that published the "about us" post, including some 2009 accident stats from Africa's N4 Toll Route.

Science Daily, (one of my favorite websites), has a short article stating some car accident statistics in Africa while claiming that Africa has the highest death rate from car accidents compared to other countries. If you're interested in data collection methods used in collecting Africa car accident statistics, someone was kind enough to upload a report on the implementation and process of using a MAPP data collection method in Africa. (If you're interested in more links on statistics and data involving Africa in general, take a look at my blog posts tagged Africa.)

If you want to delve into some car accident statistics and road traffic statistics, check out the uploaded documents at thesearch results at Scribd for "road traffic accidents," and the graphs and charts posted on "car accidents" at Swivel, or even the "road traffic safety" search results from my blog (that now needs some serious updating).

Looking at these stats, I'm very grateful that my life has never been touched directly by a fatal car accident, although my teenagers always seem to know somebody who knows somebody who was in a near-fatal accident. I have known a few women from church who lost their teens in car accidents - an unbearable thought to me. My boyfriend, however, was touched directly by fatal accidents, and lost his brother and his son to two different motorcycle accidents (years apart) - one caused by a drunk driver in a car, and one caused by teenage over-confidence. No statistic in the world can represent that loss and pain of losing a family member, and especially a child.

It's good to see that car accidents are being lowered, and drunk driving is on a downhill slide. I hope the road safety advocates keep up the good work and are continuously successful at saving lives and keeping our young ones alive.

Foreclosure Statistics and Foreclosure Defense Links

Foreclosure news is getting tiring, but since I'm joining the ranks of people with their houses in foreclosure and I haven't written in a while, I thought I'd throw up a post on foreclosure statistics to help those who are looking to find the latest foreclosure statistics. Personally, I'm just sick of reading about and dealing with foreclosure news and information. On top of my own foreclosure, I've had a few assignments writing articles on foreclosure and bankruptcy. No pity for me though, I'm looking forward to moving, my house is falling apart, and the house is in my ex-husband's name whom I haven't seen in four years. It'll be a weather shock though - we're planning on moving from NY to the Tri-cities area in TN. I'll be positioned right in the middle of my kids in PA, VA and NC. I'm tired of fighting winter and I have a low-tolerance for the cold, so I'll appreciate the above-zero no-shoveling-or-getting-stuck-in-the-driveway winters.

If you're looking for NY courts, forms and regulations, try the New York State Unified Court System website, and their page with a couple new 2008 foreclosure regulations. You can also find lots of court forms needed for foreclosure proceedings at the NY Bar Association website. A NY Times May 2009 article stated foreclosures are happening now more than ever in NY, so I don't feel all alone. The article has some easy to refer to charts and statistics as well. CNN reported that California is suffering from the most foreclosures, and also brought to light that the children suffer as a result of unexpected and financially difficult moves. Even as a mother of six, I hadn't given thought to the great impact foreclosure has on young children. Perhaps because my kids are going off to college anyhow (4 down, 2 to go), and the remaining two and I are looking forward to moving. I do think the effects of foreclosure on children is a topic that definitely deserves more attention, and likely more study.

Statehealth.org has foreclosure ranks and percentage changes by state. Virginia University has a 2009 report ccomparing foreclosure and housing statistics between states and metro areas. The Center for Housing Policy, a partner of the National Housing Conference, has a comprehensive state and metro comparison, drop down search option for statistics by metro area on their "Paycheck to Paycheck" analysis, and a list of housing and foreclosure reports.

If you need Federal data and statistics on foreclosure, the Federal Reserve Board has foreclosure maps and foreclosure trends, as well as a dedicated area for foreclosure resources. Docuticker is a "ticker" website of updated government news, and has updates of the latest foreclosure news from government agencies. You can always review the latest foreclosure search results from the White House website, or US Treasury search results on foreclosure,. The FDIC has some random foreclosure statistics, and if you want to browse through some 2009 foreclosure statistics in pdf files you can take a look at the FDIC's foreclosure search results. If you're looking for information on the banking industry, the FDIC also has links to banking data and statistics (obviously). The FDIC has a quarterly report in pdf form that you can view for 2009 statistics.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) gets quoted a lot in the news, but they don't have a lot of free statistics on their website. However, the Research Institute of Housing America (RIHA) is a trust 501(c) under the Mortgage Bankers Association, and is a good source for mortgage and housing data. You can also find the latest foreclosure statistics in news articles from websites like Market Watch.

Having a blog post on foreclosure statistics would be incomplete without mentioning HUD. First of all, they have datasets from the oft-referred to yearly American Housing Survey. HUD also has a research link with some housing data and statistics, and an "online library" to pursue HUD related topics a little further.

If you've gone to Realty Trac, take a look at this recent article examining the accuracy of foreclosure statistics reported by Realty Trac. I just found the Foreclosure Industry website, and it looks like it's keeping up with current foreclosure statistics, and the "Loan Audit" blog that is keeping up with mortgage and housing news.

You'll also find more data and recent news on foreclosure from a search result at the search engine in my blog.

For anyone wanting some legal resources on affirmative defenses to foreclosure, or just general legal information on foreclosure, I found the "Foreclosure Defense Group" website helpful, and I believe I used information from the Patriot's War website (although it was on their old website, they have a lot of info on their new one). NOLO is a publisher of legal books and their website is to promote their products, but they have a lot of links to free information, and I've often found their website very helpful in the beginning stages of research. They also have a useful page dedicated to foreclosure information and proceedings. You can also take a look at Kenneth M DeLashmutt's very nice article which includes easy to understand steps and defenses as well as a few case citations and useful foreclosure links. The Preventing Foreclosure blog has useful information, foreclosure defenses, and forms. If you haven't paid a visit to Scribd, they have tons of documents that people have uploaded to search. Try the search results for foreclosure or foreclosure affirmative defenses. There's also the Foreclosure Defense Nationwide blog with case citations and quotes from court foreclosure filings.

Above all, if you know someone who has received a Summons and Complaint for a foreclosure, make sure they serve their legal Answer within 20 days, even if it's "pro se." It will stall the foreclosure for months, and they'll have time to either get an attorney, look into loan modification, arbitration and settlement opportunities, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, short sales, bankruptcy, and other prevention strategies and foreclosure options, or even wait for upcoming help for homeowners. There's a lot out there, and if you serve an Answer in time, you'll have time to review those options. Shoot me an email at getanswerserved at gmail dot com if you need some help typing up an answer to serve "pro se" and can't afford an attorney.

Well, I'm still sick of reading about foreclosure but they're not going away any time soon. I know there are thousands of other resources out there, unfortunately I wasn't able to pinpoint them all. I'll keep updating my blog's search engine so you can always check for more foreclosure statistics.

It's time for me to pack up now (pathetic pun intended)...happy statistics hunting or happy house hunting!

P.S. How could I forget my dear friend Swivel? Don't forget to check out foreclosure statistics, graphs and charts created by the Swivel community!

Eat, Sleep, and Read Statistics on International Social Progress

I'm back from my four week hiatus away from civilization. My satellite contract had to be renewed, and to make a long story short, I evaluated other Internet options, none of which were financially feasible, then the satellite dish had to be repositioned to find reception amongst towering trees. It took a few days on the phone (being transferred a zillion times) to a tech person in India (who didn't quite understand how tall the trees actually were) to get the job done. (I thought my addiction to coffee was bad...try not having information at your fingertips for a month!) Well now that I've vented...how about that 2009 OECD report?

Couldn't help but click on the Yahoo news feature comparing the eating and sleeping habits between US and France. Live Science had their take on the international OECD report as well, and included a chart with comparisons of sleeping habits between the 18 countries included in the report.

This not-talked-about-enough report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had a lot more information than just sleeping and eating habits. It stated some common knowledge, like the fact that men have more leisure time than women. (Women certainly don't need statistics to prove it!) But aside from eating, sleeping and leisure time, you'll find data on unemployment, poverty, social and health issues, inequality, demographics and work and life.

These sleeping, eating, and men-have-more-fun-than women statistics came from the OECD's "Society at a Glance 2009 - OECD Social Indicators" report. They have a link for the data and indicators included in this report, but they do indicate there is some privileged information for accredited journalists. (C'mon hackers - help us bloggers out!) I don't know why us lowly bloggers aren't good enough to accumulate a little extra knowledge ($$ comes to mind), but I have to admit there are a lot of nice free statistics in this progress report. They do come in the awkward form of .pdf and .xls files for separate chapters, but the data is useful nonetheless. The data and indicators included are divided into data groups as follows:

1. Headline Social Indicators

2. Measuring Leisure in OECD Countries

3. Interpreting OECD Social Indicators

4. General Context Indicators

Net national income per capita
Fertility rates
Migration
Marriage and divorce

5. Self-sufficiency Indicators

Employment
Unemployment
Childcare
Student performance
Not in employment, education or training
Age of labour force exit
Spending on education

6. Equity Indicators:

Income inequality
Poverty
Poverty among children
Adequacy of benefits of last resort
Public social spending
Total social spending

7. Health Indicators

Life expectancy
Perceived health status
Infant health
Obesity
Height
Mental health
Long-term care recipients
Health care expenditure

8. Social Cohesion Indicators

Life satisfaction
Work satisfaction
Crime victimisation
Suicides
Bullying
Risky behaviour

The OECD website has some great international statistics in other reports as well. Their 2008 annual report is a full free pdf download of 118 pages that covers the world economy and is full of quotable statistics. Elsewhere on the site, you'll find data and statistics on international employment, wages and benefits, and international social expenditures data for the past few years as well. I enjoyed reading this page on world educational statistics. There's also statistics available on their Source Data page, but I believe these are a combination of free statistics and priced statistic resources.

There is also a very nice page of links to other social policy websites that I'm sure are rich with useful (and free) international data and statistics. (If you're interested in more websites with international statistics, there's a lot of links to reputable international statistics in my post on International Relief and Humanitarian Aide statistics.)

This OECD website is great. Pay a visit and browse around if you're looking for international data and statistics. I have to make sure it's included in the statistics search engine I have on this blog, (which, by the way, I've updated recently), so I'm going to post this. Then I'll try and eat and sleep like the French, and steal some of that leisure time from men!

Post Script: While I was testing my search for OECD during my fight with Google Custom Engine (which has made changes not to my liking and my search engine is now likely not to my liking also), I saw that Mr. Warner posted some great links from their website a month ago! Mr. Warner has some OECD regional links and more information on the valuable data at OECD. Now I have to continue hitting my computer with an axe...

Planes Flying a Little too Low in Buffalo

Planes flying over our house are suddenly becoming eerie. Two months ago I did a post on plane crash statistics because my eight year old had a fear of a plane falling on our house. (We get a lot of small town planes flying overhead.) I felt lucky because a month went by without a single night of her praying that a plane didn't crash on our house.

Then we had a wind storm. Electric went out. Kids didn't have school because there was no electricity. She prayed that night for a plane not to crash on our house. It gave me the chills too because it was horribly windy outside. The next night, I'm writing away and get a CNN alert that a plane crashed in Buffalo - a mile from my dad's house. The Buffalo plane crash of Continental Flight 3407 was little too close for comfort. I was shocked as I followed the story on CNN and couldn't pull myself away.

Turns out one of the girls on the Buffalo Plane that crashed, 19 year old Beth Kushner on Flight 3407, went to school with my son in Eden, New York, and Joe and Beth both used to live in Angola, NY. He has a beautiful picture of her on his blog. Just looking at this smiling picture of this promising young happy girl and imagining what she went through, and what her relatives must be going through makes me want to cry. My son nor I knew Beth. I can only imagine the sorrow her family must feel. What if it was my daughter flying home from college? What if that was my 19 year old son? What if the plane had gone a mile further and landed on my father's house? And then there's always the question - how could God let this happen?

I reason that he doesn't. It's man's plane. Man's mechanics. We are not puppets. So where are the angels and where are the miracles? I just hope that the crash had such a great impact that none of them experienced any pain. I've been unconscious before, and I know when you're out - you're out. You feel nothing. I hope that's what they felt. People burning in Australian wildfires and burning planes are too much to bear thinking about.

Does anyone else find it ironic that Continental's airline magazine has this quote on the airline magazine's front page (advertising Manhattan):

"All free, all moments that stick in the memory, and all in New York"

Do you think they're referencing the Hudson River landing and Buffalo NY plane crash?

Also in the Buffalo plane crash was Ellyce Kausner was a 24 year old law student on her way to her nephew's Valentine's Day party. And Madaline Loftus was another 24 year old victim of the Buffalo plane crash. She was headed to Buffalo State College, where my son attends. Rebecca Lynne Shaw was the First Flight Officer, and at the young age of 24, she too lost her life in the Buffalo plane crash. I'm picking out the 24 year olds because my oldest son is 24.

Two members of Chuck Mangione's band were in the plane. My father was a band teacher (Mr. Sadlo - Lockport Senior High School if anyone remembers!) and a trumpet player (and every other instrument in the world) and met Chuck Mangione in person. I can still picture the photograph in my mind. (I used to sort of kinda' play trumpet in high school..not sure if it was considered playing or making noise...). The Chuck Mangione band was on their way to play with the Buffalo Philarmonic Orchestra. How sad for Mr. Mangione.

With all the musicians that have died in plane crashes, I imagine many of them must think about having a similar fate. List Universe has a list of their pick of the Top Ten Musicians who have died in a plane crash. Buddy Holly is of course, first. A few of my favorites are on the list (don't laugh), John Denver (I used think he was sooo cute), Jim Croce (had the 8-track), and (a little more with the times) Stevie Ray Vaughan. My boyfriend still pines over Patsy Cline and insists Ricky Nelson is what a good lookin' guy should look like. Otis Redding (in my book) is right up there with Buddy Holly. (I just learned that Otis Redding wrote the words to the song RESPECT sung by Aretha Franklin.)

The "Elvis Pelvis" website has short biographies of musicians who have died in plane crashes.

Wikipedia (of course) has a list of "well-known" people who have died in plane crashes (or, "aviation crashes" - probably some helicopters thrown in there...)

Nationmaster always has great statistics, and they too have a list of people who have died in plane crashes.

NBC Sports has a list of athletes, sports professionals, coaches and officals who have died in plane crashes, and ESPN has a similiar lists of athletes and sport teams who have died in plane crashes.

Buffalo's TV station, WGRZ has a touching slideshow and list of everyone who died in the Buffalo plane crash.

Here is Continental Airlines Link to News on the Continental Airlines Buffalo Plane Crash 3407.

Seems like the 1 in 34 million chance of dying from a plane crash needs to be updated.

CNN has a list of articles on the Federal Aviation Administration. I bet they've got a lot of explaining to do lately. I think the words "outsourcing" came up a couple times.

CNN also has over 70 stories which reference the National Transportation Safety Board, which of course includes articles on the Buffalo plane crash.

Why do some live and some die?

On January 27, 2009 a Fedex Cargo plane crash in Texas left only minor injuries.

All but but four people died in a plane crash in Brazil the same week as the Buffalo plane crash. One of the survivor's was a nine year old.

Also within the first two weeks of February, six Americans are missing from a plane crash in Puerto Rico.

A similar Continental plane on the same New Jersey to Buffalo, NY route didn't crash in Buffalo.

Thankfully, the Pilot in the NY Hudson River plane crash played with gliders. I have to buy my daughter a few.


Here's a list to some online airline, aviation and plane crash magazines. I'm sure there's many stories of plane crashes hidden deep within these pages.

Thirty Thousand Feet refers to themselves as an "aviation directory" and that's exactly what they are. This resourceful website has links to aviation history, airport and cargo information, airline and airport topics, aviation maintenance magazines, and even aircraft and control magazines. Many of these may be paid only, but I'm sure there's some very useful links to free online information on plane crashes, plane maintenance and all the ins and outs of flying.

If you're into fixing planes, there's Aircraft Maintenance Technology magazine and website. Hmmm....one of the articles is on the need for aircraft technicians and engineers...I wonder why...

Historic Wings has some vintage plane photos and looks like they even have a free desktop or screensaver with historical planes.

In Flight USA magazine has a few aviation articles - looks like primarily California flight information. I don't know exactly, but their links to more aviation and flight information has a nice sampling of probably useful links if you're doing airline, airplane or aviation research.

Aviation Week is full of news in the aviation industry, Pilot's Web isn't as official looking, but has links to articles and other useful information.

Aviation Safety Magazine

Federal Aviation Industry News

Aero.com has a list of paid aerospace magazines - but I'm sure many of these have online content as well.

Aviation Week looks like a reputable source for news and aviation industry information.

AV Web Independent Aviation News looks like a good source, but had to close the window quickly since my darling daughter has walked in. But they have a new article on the Buffalo plane crash so if you're looking for mechanical technicalities check it out. I've kept my daughter shielded from the Buffalo Plane Crash because - well- I'll never get any sleep. Had she bought into the logic of only 1 in 34 million people die in a plane crash then saw a plane crash near her Grandpa's house....geezsh - can't even imagine. Logic doesn't work. Statistics don't work. Faith is really the only thing that works. But even Faith is questionable at times.

Okay, she's occupied making a mess with flour and water...don't ask..Here's what AV Web reported:

The crew of the Bombardier Q400 that crashed in Buffalo on Thursday got a stall warning and the stick pusher engaged but still the aircraft pitched upward 31 degrees before turning almost 180 degrees and dropping onto a house in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence Center, near the outer marker for Buffalo Niagara International Airport. The sequence of events, which included a 45-degree dive with a 106-degree right bank ended 26 seconds later in the fireball on the ground, killing 49 people on the plane and one on the ground, the owner of the house. Although icing continues as a theme in the investigation, reporters were told at an NTSB press briefing on Sunday that the aircraft's anti-icing system had been on for most of the flight and, while both pilots discussed the "significant" icing their aircraft was experiencing, at no time did they use the "severe icing" descriptor that is the official notification of flight-threatening buildup. "We don't know that it was severe icing," NTSB member Steve Chealander told reporters. "They [the crew] didn't say that it was severe icing....The weatherman didn't say that it was severe icing."

Something to do with angles...or was that angels...but definitely a site to visit for more info on the Buffalo plane crash.

I have to wrap things up for the night. I was really hoping to do a blog post on birds and planes a month ago...I'd rather talk about dying birds than dying people...

Gotta get to bed. I will cherish that I can kiss my daughter tonight. My heart goes out to all those who lost a loved one in the Buffalo plane crash - or any plane crash, and everyone who ever lost someone they love.

Teenage Pregnancy and TV

Journal of Pediatrics report that teens watching Sex in the City are twice as likely to get pregnant - or become a father. (Okay, I summarized it poorly but I'm rushing... .)

Link to Article on Teen Pregnancy and Watching Sex in the City


Now all we have to do is go back to all the statistics in the last decade and account for what the kids and teens were watching on TV. Glad I threw mine out decades ago. For the record, I've never watched the show so I really have no idea how "sexual" it is.

I don't have time to write and I'm in the middle of biting off more than I can chew - but it seems to me that studies like these have tremendous power to lessen the impact of other studies.


Back to work...my poor long lost blog...

P.S. Found an old Report to the Kaiser Foundation on TV, Children, Influence, Media, History, and other studies on the effect of TV on teens and children with a lot of citations for further research:

Cached Version of
Report to the Kaiser Foundation Measuring the Effects of Sexual Content in the Media

DOC Version of Same File
Report to the Kaiser Foundation Measuring the Effects of Sexual Content in the Media

Holiday Statistics and Links to More Holiday Statistics

The holiday season is almost over. I hope everyone had some joyous heartwarming moments during the last few busy weeks. My heart was overjoyed when my beautiful twenty-two year old daughter surprised me by coming up for Christmas after previously telling me she couldn't make it. (Everyone knew about it but me and my eight year old!) I hadn't seen her for a year, which was the longest we've ever gone from seeing each other. It was a comforting and teary-eyed reunion. I don't know what I'm going to do when all of the kids are off and on their own! Right now it's 3 down, 3 to go – and the first of the last three is a senior, so she'll be off experiencing life on her own later this year.

Statistics on holidays indicate there are likely heartwarming (or teeth-gritting) family reunions taking place around the nation during the November and December holiday season. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports (with little surprise) that November and December are the most popular months for long distance travel. I did find it a little surprising though that the Bureau's holiday statistics reported that 91% of the holiday travel was done by a “personal vehicle” (typically a car, although I suppose somebody somewhere is flying their own personal jet home for the holidays). The BTS's holiday statistics also stated that people will drive a little farther at Christmas. The average trip for Thanksgiving is around 214 miles, whereas the average trip for Christmas is around 275 miles. My daughter drove from Virginia to New York, so her trip was a wee bit farther than the average.

We had a turkey dinner on Christmas Eve. I should say we had a Thanksgiving dinner on Christmas Eve. We ate one of the 271 million turkeys that are raised in the US, according to the US Census Bureau. It's pretty much picked apart by now, despite my vegetarian seventeen year old daughter passing on her turkey portions. I'm not even sure if I have enough to make turkey soup. At least I'll get some broth out of it.

We also had a couple cans of the 649 million pounds of cranberries that are produced in the nation according to the Census Bureau's Thanksgiving Day Special Feature Report. (Some people watch special features on TV, us statistic junkies read special features from government statistical agencies or Swivel holiday statistics.) I couldn't find any fresh cranberries when I went shopping, so had to settle for canned. And there's one more statistic on cranberries that I bet you didn't know. There were 8 census designated areas (town, city, etc.) with the name Cranberry, or a spelling of the same sound (Cranbury) in 2003 – and only one with the name Pilgrim. What's confusing is the Census Bureau's 2008 reported listed there were only five places with the name Cranberry. What happened to the other three? I bet nobody discussed that at their Christmas Eve dinner. (Except maybe the person that chose to look up that statistics for the holiday report.) If I were living in Cranberry I might be worried about the fact that almost half the towns with my namesake disappearing.

If you just can't wait to hear more on holiday statistics, pay a visit to the Census Bureau website. The Census Bureau has special reports and links to facts and statistics on holidays at their Facts & Features Special Editions Page. If you're into retail or e-commerce, the feature's page includes holiday statistics on retail sales, shopping, e-commerce and other frequently sought statistics. It's convenient to start your holiday statistics research on the Facts and Features page because each item has a direct link to their source, which can provide you with more detailed information.

If you're interested in international holiday statistics, check out the World Tourism Organization website and do a search for “holidays” in their website's search engine. You can also do a search for holidays (or any other search term for statistics) at the search engine on this blog, and it will only search websites that have have statistics.

The Intute website has a tremendous collection of links to statistics on holidays. They have a fantastic search engine that searches reputable journals, websites with statistics, and thousands of resources from major universities. They have links to hundreds of national and international tourism statistics and holiday statistics, including some international holiday statistics on consumer spending and economics from the Euromonitor International Website and Ecoholidaying and the effects of tourism.

The UK's Office of National Statistics also has data and statistics on holidays in the UK as well as international holiday travel statistics. If you're into UK holiday data, check out Seaside History for historical data on UK holiday vacations at the seaside from the 1950s to the early 21st century. You'll find historical data on waterfront vacations, holiday accommodations and holiday travel and transportation in the UK. The Virtual Library of Useful URL's has links in their social sceince category that have statistics on holidays, as well as histories and general knowledge of national and international holidays. There are quite a few links, so just do a Ctrl F (or Edit Find) on the page for "holiday" to see all of the listings on holidays and statistics on holidays.

Along with all these heartwarming holiday reunions are billions of holiday greeting cards traveling from crowded greeting card display units to the hands of friends and families around the world. Hallmark's corporate website has holiday statistics on (what else?) greeting cards which include the statistic that 2.1 billion Christmas Cards are purchased for Christmas. But are they actually mailed out? I couldn't even begin to tell you how many years I bought Christmas cards and never got around to mailing them. And what about e-cards?

The United States Postal Service has a webpage on USPS statistics, facts and trivia. The Census Bureau reports that the USPS reports that about 20 billion pieces of mail go out between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and about one million packages get mailed during the holiday season. Wonder how many letters are addressed to the North Pole? This brings to mind Miracle on 34th Street, my 8 year old's favorite Christmas movie (B&W), and the scene where they dumped all the letters to Santa on the judge's desk. I love that movie. If you really want to know what's going on at the post office, you can take a look at the 2008 Comprehensive Statement of Postal Services. If you really want to. Which, you probably don't. (Link is to cached version, PDF version is available.)

If you want to plan a day to watch movies instead of reviewing post office holiday operations, you can get an idea of when Federal Holidays are scheduled by visiting the US Office of Personnel Management. They have a list of Federal Holidays for 2009 and other upcoming years. If you live in Washington D.C. you'll have off for inauguration day! (Wouldn't they require more staff?) DMOZ has lots of links to Calendars and Holidays, Wikipedia has a list of holidays by country, and the International Bank Holidays website has holidays lists up to the year 2050, and even in a visual map form. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has started putting out a yearly National Compensation Survey, which includes holiday benefit statistics and data from private and public employers.

There is a substantial amount of data in tables that can give you statistics on wages and holiday pay, retirement benefits, sick pay, health benefits, and more by industry, sector, size, and other standard BLS and Census categories. If you want to see if your holiday pay is par for your industry - the Compensation Survey is the place to check. They also have a search engine that searches only compensation data. At the top of my BTS compensation search for holidays was the result that clearly states "Contrary to popular beliefs, employers are not obligated under Federal laws to grant paid holiday benefits to their employees." Bummers. Thankfully, the majority of employers in the US do provide holiday pay - although I do have to say our benefits have a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the civilized world.

So much for a short post on holiday statistics. I hope all my readers can soak up some holiday rest before they head out into the New Year. With a lively new president, we'll be bringing in an exciting new year. Merry Chirstmas and Happy Holidays to all - and to all a good night. (Now I can go find out what happened to the Cranberries!)

Statistic Resources on Children with Aids for World Aids Day

Statistics on Children with Aids are slowly surfacing as the Aids epidemic passes down through the generations. One of the primary locations for research on AIDS with recent statistics and information on Aids is at the United Nations Aids website, UNAIDS.ORG. This website has information on the latest research, statistics, graphs, tables, Excel formatted data, charts and international Aids information. There is a free pdf download of UNAIDS 2008 Global Report on Aids, with a link to a jpg wall chart demonstrating the prevalence of Aids by country on the same page.

UNICEF has produced one of the most notable reports on children with Aids. The Children and AIDS: Third Stocktaking Report, 2008 is a free pdf download available on the UNICEF and UNAIDS websites. UNICEF has a short article on the Children and Aids report which lists some highlights and findings on transmission of AIDS to children, awareness and prevention, and statistics on treatment.

International Aids statisticians and medical experts agree that early treatment of Aids in children significantly increases the chances of survival. The Children and Aids report lists a study on Antiretroviral Therapy which demonstrated that treatment of AIDS in the first 12 weeks of a child's life reduces mortality by around 76%.

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) reported on November 19, 2008 a landmark study that further confirmed early treatment can reverse a child's death sentence with AIDS. In this New England Journal reported study, it was discovered that infants with HIV who received Antiretroviral Therapy at an average age of seven weeks increased their chances of living, and the HIV infected infants were "four times less likely to die in the next 48 weeks" when compared to waiting until the symptoms of HIV surfaced.

The NIAID also has an informative page on HIV, Aids and Infants with a summary of treatment and statistics from 2004. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the US has a page with statistics and research on mother to child Aids transmission. Fortunately, it demonstrates that transmission has be reduced with increased treatment of Aids during pregnancy. They also have graphs on the state of HIV/Aids as defined by several categories, and a separate page on graphs with teenage Aids statistics. The National Institute of Health has a branch for Pediatric, Adolescent & Maternal AIDS.

Unfortunately, the majority of women do not get tested for Aids during pregnancy and statistics are showing that 25% of pregnant women who have Aids are unaware that they carry the disease. The Children and Aids report also indicated that children from an AIDS household were often not tested until they were two months old. Awareness and availability of AIDS therapies and medications will determine which child lives and which child dies.

US Aid reports that 90 percent of the 5.1 million people in India with HIV/AIDS don't know about their status until a crisis occur. A Times of India November 2008 article on Aids and Children lists some very grim statistics for children with Aids in India.

Paediatrician Sanjay Lalwani, head of the department of paediatrics, Bharati Hospital and Research Centre, says 10 to 15 per cent of children who get the infection from their mothers die within the first two years. Eighty to 85 per cent of them develop AIDS between the ages of five and seven and die.

The progression from HIV infection to AIDS can be prevented by treating these children with anti-HIV drugs (anti-retroviral therapy) when their immune system starts deteriorating. "The treatment may not be of much help if you start it at late stage of infection. At present, the government of India gives the drugs only to those children in the later stages of HIV infection," said Oswal.

The article lists AIDS statistics from the World Health Organization, and expresses the need for treatment with a listing of Aids Clinics and Aids care facilities that are available for children in India with Aids. The World Health Organization also has a page dedicated to information on children with Aids which has many pdf files, Aids treatment research, tables and graphs with statistics available in a free download.

Children with Aids have many faces. UNICEF has a Voices of Youth page. There is a YouthAids website that has Aids statistics on youth and Aids as well as general Aids statistics. The Global Ministries at The United Methodist Church has personal stories from HIV infected individuals and those suffering from AIDS. The Children with Aids Project seeks to find homes for children with AIDS and raise money for the orphans of Aids. National Public Radio has an audio broadcast from a 14 year old with Aids.

BBC reported in an article on 40 children contracting Aids in a hospital in Uzbekistan that "The United Nations says Central Asia has one of the world's fastest-growing HIV infection rates" and "Unsafe blood supplies and contaminated equipment are often blamed for spreading the infection." CNN did an indepth study on AIDS in the early 21st century, and there are many valuable historical facts on AIDS as well images, graphs and personal stories at their website. A 2006 BBC article examined how AIDS affects the workforce in Africa. This has a link to a BBC bar graph on Aids statistics around the world.

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) has a bar graph on the transmission methods of Aids to children under 13 in the US according to race. The chart is slightly outdated, as it is from 2004. Nationmaster is always good for statistics on just about anything, and they have an easy bar graph to follow which reports children living with AIDS by country.

The Stolen Childhood blog, which lists international issues and global statistics on many health, drug and crime issues that are tragic to the livelihood of children, has a post on Aids and Kenya from 2007. The UC Atlas of Global Inequality from the University of California has a link to charts, graphs and maps on children and Aids. However, be aware that the page on children and Aids has not been updated since 2006. The website however, is rich with information, statistics, whitepapers, information on conferences and links to rich resources of global statistics.

Swivel is great for finding graphs and charts, and if you need more statistics on Aids, a search for AIDS at Swivel will bring a couple pages of results about Aids statistics. Some statistics on Aids in the United States by State can be found at State Health Facts website, which offers links to many statistics on health topics, including demographics and health indicators.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has a Fact Sheet on Aids, The US Government also has an HIV/AIDS website at AIDS.GOV which has links to preventative literature and statistics on some US prevention efforts, location of HIV testing sites, and research on clinical studies. There is also a link to a list of funding agencies and programs for Aids, an Aids Youth Fact Sheet, and a nice list of Aids Agencies and Programs.

Statistics on Aids can be found on millions of websites. However, if you are doing research and are looking for accurate figures on Aids and Youth and Children, keep in mind that "youth" and "children" are often defined by different age groups. The age 15 has been included in children, youth and adult statistics on Aids.

Educating and providing early treatment to women and infants with Aids can drive the mortality statistics on children and Aids on a sharp down curve. Keeping our future generations free from Aids by providing education and early treatment of pregnant women and infants will put a stop to its generational growth. Who knows? One of the lives that are saved could be the life that finds a cure for Aids and ends the deadly disease for all future generations.

Mesothelioma and Cancer Links to Statistics and Clinical Trials

Mesothelioma, which often follows asbestosis, is rare. But since I have a writing assignment on these topics, I thought I’d share some websites. I really wanted to do a post on refugees – and still have it planned for the future – but I’ll need more time. Since I had an electric problem in the house that led to living over a week with no electricity and some overdue deadlines, I had to force myself to skip my blog writing. I found it interesting that while I was gone my blog post on Plane Crash Statistics was the most popular post. Kinda wish the people were searching for ways to stop world poverty instead. And I wish this war in Congo would stop. Every time I read articles on refugee children and orphaned babies I want to cry.

Back in the US, and other areas of the world, some of the older folks are suffering from a cancer called mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is caused from exposure to asbestos, although cases have been reported where asbestos exposure wasn’t evident. Asbestos use has not been eliminated, but it is subject to regulations in the US and many parts of the world. Unfortunately, there are many countries that have not yet regulated its use. The statistics for mesothelioma are grim, and survival is usually estimated to be less than a year after diagnosis. But there are survivors and stories of hope and survivors. Clinical trials, persistent research, and ignoring statistics seem to be the secret to mesothelioma survival. In the hopes of helping someone find treatment, I'm going to end this short post with some links that will help in a search for a clinical trial. Time is short. The faster people can find information for help, the greater the possibility of a cure.

If you're worried about asbestos in your home, You can easily order an Asbestos Test Kit to test for asbestos in your home. This at-home asbestos kit is under $10.00, and only costs $20.00 to get test results that meet (and exceed) EPA standards using the latest polarized light microscopy. A home mold testing kit is available for the same price, as are other home health hazard kits that can notify you of harmful invisible dangers in your home. Each of these test at home kits are far cheaper than the hundreds of dollars it would cost to have an inspector investigate your home (plus their laboratory fees) - yet all testing follows the same EPA standards.

Do you know someone who has had mesothelioma? There might be compensation available through a Mesothelioma trust fund.  You can also help them find clinical trials for treatment.

Please forward these links to anyone who might be suffering from mesothelioma, asbestosis, or any type of cancer. The secret to successful treatment might just be hidden inside one of these links.


Clinical Trials.Gov
Clinical trials in the US and around the world.

CenterWatch
Clinical Trial Listing Service.

National Cancer Institute
Search box for clinical trials all cancers.

Cancer Centers
Link from Asbestos.com to Cancer Centers.

OncoLink.Org Clinical Trial Search
From the Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvannia

Onco Treatment Matching Service
Get some help finding clinical trials.

NCI Resources
Professional Information on Treatment Studies.
Links from OncoLink to Global Services
Find trials around the world.

Cancerguide.org
List of Clinical Trial Websites for Many Cancers. US and Global Links.

EORTC
European Organisation for Treatment of Cancer.

Asbestos Cancer Online
Very nice list of websites for mesothelioma clinical trials.

Mesothelioma Research Institute of America
Many mesothelioma links and clinical trial openings and results.

Statistics and Advice on Mesothelioma
Clinical Trial Link email addresses (from 2005 - may be outdated).

Mesothelioma Information and Research Group
Very nice list of clinical trial contacts and resources.

Mesothelioma on the Web
Current clinical trials, clinical trial information and mesothelioma information and resources.

Flinders University
Australian resources for clinical trials.

Prevent Mesothelioma
List of clinical trial resources with addresses and contacts (no direct links - but still valuable if current).

Mayo Clinic
Mesothelioma clinical trials at the Mayo Clinic.

University of California Clinical Trials
Clinical trials at this university.

University of Texas Medical Library
List of Clinical Trial Websites (some are listed here).

There's going to be a lot of repeats within these lists - but each link leads to more links - and hopefully the links will lead to a cure.