And You Thought Judges Were Underpaid?

LA Times reports that Justice Clarence Thomas is truly grateful to the people of the United States. He better be, anyway, given that he has accepted more than $42,000 in gifts from the people in the past six years, more than any other Justice. And they are good gifts too:

$1,200 worth of tires, valuable historical items and a $5,000 personal check to help pay a relative's education expenses ... a Bible once owned by the 19th century author and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, which Thomas valued at $19,000, and a bust of President Lincoln valued at $15,000 ... [and] a free trip aboard a private jet to the exclusive Bohemian Grove club in Northern California — arranged by a wealthy Texas real estate investor who helped run an advocacy group that filed briefs with the Supreme Court.

I'm less worried, though, because John Yoo, law professor at UC Berkeley, has figured out that whatever concern I might have over Thomas' behavior is just my conscience running amok: "This reflects a bizarre effort to over-ethicize everyday life. If one of these people were to appear before the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas would recuse himself."

Let's hope Yoo doesn't teach legal ethics.

Will Neuroscience Destroy Our Conception of Free Will?

Wired magazine very briefly discusses the implications of recent advances in neuroscience for the issue of insanity pleas. Previous legal attempts to blame our genes for bad behavior have failed to persuade juries, but the new challenges from neuroscience may well succeed where those earlier attempts fell short. Will we see a role for philosophers as expert witnesses attempting to explain compatibilist approaches to free will?

The Great Betrayal: Fraud in Science

Brian Alexander let us know about this San Diego Union-Tribune review of Horace Freeland Judson's new book documenting the incredible increase in fraud in science. The book not only uses some "classic" fraud cases but vividly demonstrates the fraud in many well-known scientific endeavors, and the fraud perpetrated by many well-respected scientists. This book could clearly replace many of the "most scientists are great, and almost all are well-intentioned, but rare bad apples spoil it all" textbooks in research ethics.

Drug Industry Ghostwriters

The Health Care Blog noted some new analysis and numbers about drug firms writing major articles on behalf of clinicians - articles that continue to make their way into major peer reviewed journals. David Healy is quoted. Industry Veteran fumes about THCB's seeming moderation on the issue.

Washington Post: DNA Damage from Smoking

Yet another story framed in terms of how behaviors can cause damage to the genetic makeup of cells was released by the AP, although only the WPost picked this one up.