It's been a full week since the UN's climate conference in Copenhagen started, and nothing ground shaking has come out of the meetings so far (beyond protesting, and an interesting scandal). Of course, gathering leaders from around the world to discuss tangible restrictions on carbon emissions seems to have only brought tension over the past decade, despite increasing evidence of global warming. Yet in the buildup to this year's talks in Copenhagen, there was a general agreement that the major players in climate change discussions would undoubtedly be America and China: the biggest polluting powers have the most at stake, yet finding a suitable agreement on reduction would undoubtedly be difficult. Tensions have already risen between the two powers, and with only two days before Premier Wen Jiabao and President Obama go to Copenhagen (and only four more days of conference), time is running out. more ›

• A netizen compares teaching methods in the U.S. and China through the story of Cinderella. While the U.S. version is a little off (can you ever imagine an elementary school teacher telling girls that they're evil if they're ugly?), it's still an apt analysis. [ChinaSmack]
• Another U.S. and China comparison, this one more morbid. While in the U.S., people are fighting to keep abortion a choice, here in China, people are fighting to keep not aborting a choice. [Washington Post]
• A man in Shenyang is now renting himself out as a punching bag for stressed women. Being in Shanghai, we can just use our boyfriends. [Ananova]