Is there a disease more sensationally gruesome, more thrillingly disturbing than rabies? The macabre virus, which has haunted the imaginations (and nightmares) of nearly every human culture for thousands of years, is the subject of a new nonfiction book by Wired journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy, a husband-and-wife team perfectly matched to tackle the cultural history of this most dreaded of zoonotic infections.

In Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus, Wasik and Murphy explore rabies' influence on such diverse subjects as immunology, 19th-century celebrity, religion, and, of course, zombies, werewolves, and vampires. It's also a history of the relationship between humans and dogs—with [...]

There are more than one hundred rabid raccoons in Central Park this summer. There are probably rabid raccoons in a lot of places this summer. There are also, it turns out, quite a lot of rabies-related videos available on YouTube. The other day I found one after watching a completely innocent video of an adorable (non-rabid) raccoon, and couldn't stop watching videos related to rabies, for hours. The most common types of YouTube rabies videos, of pets and children with a foam-like substance on their mouths, will not be included because they're not nearly as cute or interesting as their uploaders seem to think they are.

What are the Christians up to these days? Rapping! Or, well, "rapping." Still. But in a weird new TV-show-referencing way. This video comes courtesy of an honest-to-goodness Mom email forward: It's a middle-aged lady, Tamara Lowe, doing her trademark "rap," which is about cramming as many pop culture proper nouns into one singsongy poem as possible. (And God, and the Bible.)

In the wee hours of August 1, 2002, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, who had broken up the previous March after Britney allegedly cheated on Justin with their shared choreographer, ran into each other at a club in Los Angeles called The Lounge. Reports differ, but by all accounts the two young pop stars began arguing, with Britney complaining that Justin had been "using different women for media attention" and Justin calling Britney a cheater. The arguing got heated, and continued onto the dance floor of the club-where for the next 90 minutes, Britney and Justin, with the help of their respective entourages, reportedly had a dance-off.

Three years ago, my friend Stephanie and I were both invited to celebrate Thanksgiving at a mutual friend's house. Most of the people coming, including the mutual friend, were crazy insane foodies. Just complete and total insufferable food snobs from hell (but were great otherwise!). So Stephanie and I, who are not foodies, and who are both from northern Florida, decided to bring a fake, disgusting casserole and pass it off as a Northern Florida/Southern Thanksgiving tradition that both of our families, who didn't even know each other, made every year. (The other people at this Thanksgiving celebration, in addition to being foodies, were also Northerners.)

34. Tropic Thunder 33. Magnolia 32. The Last Samurai 31. Far and Away 30. Taps 29. Born on the Fourth of July

Remember the viral sensation known as "OMG Cat"? Of course you do, it was last week. Today I spoke with the world's foremost expert on internet cat videos, Brad O'Farrell, who in addition to writing the blogs Snuzzy (about cute animals) and Moar Rawr (about evil animals) and a Tumblr entirely devoted to Cats + LOLing is also the loving co-parent of a cat named Amex. And if that isn't enough expert-ness for ya, Brad is also the original creator of the Keyboard Cat video. (That's right: he found the cat video just sitting there on YouTube, edited it, created the "play them off" [...]