Daniel Bernstein, heading into his third year at Stanford Law School and a member of the Law Review staff, said, "most students have reacted positively" to the grade reforms. "Most students wanted it all along and lobbied for it," he said.

Bernstein, of Washington, D.C., said he didn't know what is in the wind for the top grad quota, but he thinks caps should be higher than the 10 percent allowed at Berkeley.

"You want to give students a bigger chance to hear honors and the chance to reward student initiative and distinguish the better students," he said. "I'm not sure, but a 25 percent to 35 percent cap would be good ... or give professors a band within which to work," he said.

"If you're going to eliminate grades you still need a way to distinguish performance," Bernstein said.

The other day, Anne Donovan, former sweetheart of Old Dominion basketball and current coach of the U.S. Olympic team, called Hammon a traitor. What Hammon is doing, Donovan said, "is unfathomable to me."

Detractors notwithstanding, Hammon is going ahead with her summer plans. In Beijing, this small-town girl from Rapid City, S.D., will be living out her American dream... by playing point guard for the Russians.

"I don't expect everybody to understand or jump on my bandwagon," Hammon said recently.

She's a 10-year veteran of the WNBA who finished second in the MVP voting last year playing for the San Antonio Silver Stars but, until recently, she flew very low under the radar. Now she's an Internet target who's being asked to defend her patriotism.

"I know how I feel about my country," she said. "I'm very proud of what America represents to the world. But this is a basketball game. This is not life or death."

Hammon will enter Beijing National Stadium during the opening ceremonies under the Russian flag, wearing Russian colors. She has no genealogical connection to the country but was granted a Russian passport after signing a seven-figure contract with a professional team in Moscow over the winter.

[snip]

Despite her WNBA credentials, at 31, she had never been invited to try out for the U.S. squad until after signing with her Russian club. The gesture was too little, too late as far as she was concerned.

Hammon could have been like thousands of U.S. athletes with thwarted Olympic ambitions. Instead, she chose the unorthodox, less-traveled route - seizing her one shot at the dream, knowing it would leave her open to abuse from self-styled patriots, cold warriors and anyone for whom the Olympics are more about nationalism than athleticism.

[snip]

"If you play in this country, live in this country and you grow up in the heartland - and you put on a Russian uniform - you are not a patriotic person," Donovan said.

The Partners, acting through their Cooperating Agencies, shall have responsibilities in the operation of the elements they respectively provide, in accordance with Article 7 and other relevant provisions of this Agreement, and in accordance with the MOUs and implementing arrangements. The Partners, acting through their Cooperating Agencies, shall develop and implement procedures for operating the Space Station in a manner that is safe, efficient, and effective for Space Station users and operators, in accordance with the MOUs and implementing arrangements. Further, each Partner, acting through its Cooperating Agency, shall be responsible for sustaining the functional performance of the elements it provides.

Second Life has a Darfur, so it’s sad (though not surprising) that it has its own janjaweed, too.

Activists recently built a virtual world information site on a private island called Better World, to raise awareness of the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Sudan. Called “Camp Darfur”, it features the recreation of a refugee tent city with a tiny campfire, and large display photos of the real thing, where the tents seem to go on for miles.

Shortly after it was unveiled, however, the place was hit by griefers [vandals and hackers]. The first marauder found an exploit in the Camp’s building method, and used that to raze the place to the ground, strewing tents and images of refugees everywhere. According to Zeke Poutine, officer in the "Not on our watch" Darfur activist group, he shouted racial slurs while he trashed it. The Camp was rebuilt, but copycat attacks by others followed.

But if Camp Darfur has its janjaweed, it has its guardians, too. For shortly after the raids began, a Better World visitor who’d learned a lot about Sudan’s genocide from the Camp called a group of his to the island, to offer their protection.

And that’s why Camp Darfur is now under the vigilant eye of the Green Lantern Core [sic — they have chosen to be “core” rather than “corps”], a band of superheroes who patrol Second Life with masks, tights, and magic lamps.

Zeke Poutine isn’t sure the attacks on their websites and their Second Life site are related, or if they’re politically motivated. “Who knows? Some people just do stuff because they can,” she muses. “'Cause they have issues? ‘Cause they don't like Africans?”

"It doesn't sound like they just did it for fun," Matador observes. “It's a hate crime.”

When the attacks first began, the Green Lantern Core helped them secure the Camp. Their lead officer Jeff Beckenbauer built a security script that scans the identity of avatars who visit, and showed the Better World owners how to read it. Jeremy patrols the island in the morning, and Matador at other times, as do other Core members.

In the beginning, they tell me, the GLC was founded by Cid Jacobs as a way to show off devices and builds inspired by the Green Lantern comic. From there it evolved into a roleplaying group, with members pretending to “patrol” sectors of Second Life. This began as fun, but lately it’s started to involve monitoring actual violations of Community Standards and Terms of Service-- the live and let live rules of conduct that Linden Lab [the company that runs Second Life] has its subscribers agree to, when they get an account.

“It's unfortunately turned into a lot of watching for CS/TOS violations,” KallfuNahuel Matador acknowledges. “The roleplay aspect kinda fell to the wayside. Certainly it started as a group of fans of a comic book, but it's grown and growing into something more.”

In this, one sees trend for the future of Second Life-- as the world grows ever larger, the sheer population size will make it impossible for Linden staff to meaningfully regulate it. Into this gap will rise neighborhood watch groups and private security forces, acting as the first line of defense while citizens wait for the Lindens to arrive. [Emphases added]

Girls may be given free access to the emergency contraceptive pill at their local Auckland pharmacies in a bid to reduce teen pregnancies and abortions.

The medicine can already be sold by many pharmacists without a doctor's prescription, including to girls without parental consent.

An Auckland District Health Board committee will tomorrow consider a staff proposal to make the pill free through community pharmacies in Auckland city.

People given the Levonelle 1 pill by their pharmacist would also be offered a packet of condoms and a pamphlet on sexual health and contraception.