Apart from a kind bus driver who did not mind at all that I couldn’t find my wallet as I was travelling back to the grocery store to look for a library book I’d left in a shopping basket, I’ve found a number of marvellous things about the world on the news tonight (I could also say a thing or two about twelfth-century Paris after this afternoon’s labours).
Let’s start with the heart-warming stories of unexpected human success:
A nine-yr-old boy’s cardboard creation leads to fame and fortune. My favourite part of the video is when he explains that his security system works by entering the numbers of his special “fun pass” into the calculator and then pressing the “check mark” button. Ah, Caine, what joys await you when you discover the concept of square roots!
A 30-yr-old man is reunited with his mother after he stepped onto the wrong train at age 5 and found himself alone in Calcutta. Of all cities to find oneself alone and helpless in as a child, Calcutta would probably rank at the bottom.
The fascinating:
Ibogaine, a hallucinogen, can help crack addicts get off their addictions, but it is dangerous.
French schooling has changed A LOT since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The interesting-inasmuch-as-I-like-to-keep-a-finger-on-the-pulse-of-free-speech-issues-in-Canada:
A Canadian university stands up for free speech.
The sort of news that provokes snarky comments from me:
Brangelina are engaged to be married. The most anticlimactic celebrity marriage of the century?
A four-yr-old joins Mensa. You poor, poor child. Calcutta might be preferable to this.
Reluctant Scholar 