"Earlier this month," writes Jennifer Washburn, "Sheffield University in Britain offered $252,000 to one of its senior medical professors, Aubrey Blumsohn. According to a copy of a proposed settlement released by Blumsohn, the university promised to pay him if he would agree to leave his post and not make 'any detrimental or derogatory statements' about Sheffield or its employees. For several years, Blumsohn had been complaining of scientific misconduct.

The Times Online reports, "The transformation of the geeky but ambitious Christian Martin Jozefowicz, who just a few years ago was growing up in a modest terraced house in Godalming, Surrey, to the charming, baby-faced multimillionaire Christian Bailey now rubbing shoulders with some of the most powerful figures in Washington - and who next year will probably face questions on Capitol Hill about his compan

Japan recently lifted the ban it placed on U.S. beef after the 2003 discovery of mad cow disease in America. This prion disease has killed more than 150 people worldwide and is spread among cattle by feeding them slaughterhouse waste byproducts. Yet the U.S. livestock industry continues this lucrative practice, and the U.S. government refuses to institute food safety testing of beef.