Newtown team advances to World Series, and more

Newtown team advances to World Series

A baseball team from Newtown, Conn., will play in the 10-and-under Cal Ripken World Series next week. Several of the Newtown Renegades attended Sandy Hook Elementary, which was devastated by a shooting last year that killed 20 students and six teachers, and others had siblings there. But the team overcame the tragedy to beat teams from Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire and reach the World Series. “They’re great little ambassadors for the town,” said co-coach Joe Rios. “They wear that Newtown on the front of their shirts and they go out and carry themselves with a lot of pride.”

The biggest band in the world

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The Thai Elephant Orchestra may be literally the biggest band in the world. The players, all retired work elephants based in Lampang, Thailand, have been trained to play supersized percussion instruments with their trunks. The orchestra was co-founded by Columbia University neuroscientist David Sulzer, who built an enormous xylophone, marimbas, and drums, along with mallets for the pachyderms to strike them with. The band’s three albums are so accomplished, Sulzer claims, that one music critic was convinced he was hearing professional musicians. “[He] said, ‘I bet it’s a new music group from Asia.’ I said, ‘You got it.’”