The impending legal battles put us on the verge of repeating the last two decades of the abortion war: anti-abortion victory, abortion rights backlash. At the end of the cycle 20 years from now, we'll be right back where we are today. Unless, that is, we find a way out.

Gold star.

Life After Roe

Application files are piled high this month in colleges across the country. Admissions officers are poring over essays and recommendation letters, scouring transcripts and standardized test scores.

But something is missing from many applications: a class ranking, once a major component in admissions decisions.

Schools Avoid Class Ranking, Vexing Colleges

China's censoring of traditional and online media has come under fire at home and abroad, with even some veteran members of the Communist Party criticizing new restrictions on media freedom.

Old guard in China takes aim at censors

Common wisdom holds that people have a set standard of morality that never wavers. Yet studies of people who do unpalatable things, whether by choice, or for reasons of duty or economic necessity, find that people's moral codes are more flexible than generally understood. To buffer themselves from their own consciences, people often adjust their moral judgments in a process some psychologists call moral disengagement, or moral distancing.

When Death Is on the Docket, the Moral Compass Wavers

Russian and Chinese officials flew to Tehran last night to try to defuse the burgeoning nuclear crisis after agreement was finally reached on sending Iran to the UN security council.

Iran nuclear crisis sent to security council

The United States and Europe, after hours of negotiations on Iran, won support from Russia and China early Tuesday to refer Iran's nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council this week, but with a promise that the Council would not act on the question for at least a month.

China and Russia Support Sending Iran Case to U.N.

Linus Torvalds said Wednesday that he won't convert Linux to version 3 of the General Public License, as he objects to digital rights management provisions in the proposed update.

Too bad... this will be a mess. If Linux went GPL3 it would probably be a big problem for Tivo, for example.

Torvalds: No GPL 3 for Linux

CNET interview with Eben Moglen on GPL3, Linux, etc.

Defender of the GPL

China endorsed a Russian compromise proposal for breaking the stalemate over Iran's nuclear program Thursday and joined Iran's visiting nuclear negotiator in calling for patience and more discussions on the Russian idea.

China Endorses Russian Proposal on Iranian Nuclear Program

SpongeBob is not your friend.

That is the message of a lawsuit announced yesterday, asserting that characters like SpongeBob SquarePants - despite his ever-present grin - are harming children's health by hawking what the plaintiffs' consider to be junk food.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Boston-based group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and two parents served notice that they intended to sue Viacom, the maker of the popular children's TV show "SpongeBob SquarePants," and the Kellogg Company, a big marketer of food to children, which features the lovable SpongeBob on packages of cereal, Pop Tarts and cookies.

Kellogg and Viacom to Face Suit Over Ads for Children