Whiz kids, Reefer madness

Good week for:

Whiz kids, after 18-year-old Alia Sabur of Long Island, N.Y., was named the world’s youngest college professor. Sabur, who will be teaching physics at Konkuk University in Seoul, began reading full novels at 2, entered college at 10, and in her spare time has played the clarinet in a symphony orchestra.

Quick reflexes, after U.S. Postal worker Lisa Harrell of Albany, N.Y., noticed a baby in an upstairs window while she was delivering mail and stuck out her arms as the child toppled out. “The baby fell right into my arms,’’ said Harrell.

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Knowing when to quit, when a Japanese high school baseball team walked off the field in the second inning after falling behind, 66–0.

Bad week for:

Slipping the surly bonds of Earth, after a Brazilian priest strapped himself into a chair attached to a huge cluster of helium balloons and soared into the heavens to the cheers of his parishioners. Rescuers then spent several days searching the Atlantic for some sign of the Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli.

Cheap suds, after a New Zealand climatologist warned that global warming threatens worldwide barley crops—and beer production.

Reefer madness, after a Kentucky man was arrested when he began pumping gas into a car that wasn’t there. Police said that when they persuaded Joshua Moore to stop pumping gas into the air, they found that he was carrying two bags of pot and a large amount of Ecstasy.