Celebrating students and those returning home

Girls can do science. So says The New York Times today in an article on the winners of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. The article leads by noting that this is the first time girls have won the top prizes in the competition. However, it does not include any confirmation that this is such a surprise. On the contrary, an MIT professor denies being surprised. (Smartly, the article quotes the very same professor who ignited controversy when she walked out on Larry Summers during a talk in which he claimed girls were inherently unequipped to learn science and math.) The rest of the article reminds me of the features that run on the first day of competition at the Scripps National Spelling Bee each year -- interviews with brilliant but somewhat nerdy kids who are thrilled to be surrounded by like-minded peers as they are feted in the big city, all of which is completely endearing and entertaining to read.

A Boston Globe article shows the Mass. Highway Department as the bad guy as it reports on their requirement that all signs and flags welcoming home military personnel be removed from highwway overpasses because they pose a safety hazard. The article focuses on comments from those with family members in the military who are disappointed with the decision, and continually repeats the Mass. Highway Department's claim of the safety hazard. It seems almost repetitive, but it gets the point across that people are upset with the mandate.

Apparently, I was wrong yesterday when I said we had seen the last of British teacher Gillian Gibbons, jailed in the Sudan for insulting Islam with her students' teddy bear named Muhammad. Today The Times of London closely chronicles her journey home with a travelogue more detailed than anyone really needs to know. I'm glad Gibbons feasted on "Arabic mezze" and slept for four hours on her flight home, but why does the article begin with all of this information? It is written almost completely chronologically, and it is not until the very last line that it suggests the negative effect Gibbons' arrest might have had on diplomatic relations between the UK and the Sudan!