gleans + 1xlagniappe at 6:15 PM MT, 5/13

 

Virtual schools see strong growth, calls for more oversight

Half of courses in Grades 9 to 12 will be delivered online by 2019, predicts a new report.

 

 

 

Parched city

Giant tankers bring water to sustain Barcelona

 

 

 

Dried-out grave
The sunken medieval village exposed by a Spanish drought

 

 

 

Virtual telescope opens night sky Microsoft launches a free tool that allows amateur star-gazers to explore the universe from their computers. Google Earth given celestial view

Google helps the web to go social The search giant Google is the latest company to launch a service aimed at making the web more social.

 

 

 

Tiny triumph
The football-playing nanobot getting Swiss kids into science

 

 

 

Buried treasure: white asparagus

In Germany and the Netherlands, green asparagus plays second fiddle to the white kind.

Shad – caught bare-handed

One year, a nearby stream became a magical cord of moving silver thread as shad ran up it.

 

Bullock could be record breaker An animal sanctuary in the UK has high hopes a 6ft 6in bullock will measure up as Britain's tallest on record

Vatican says aliens could exist

The chief astronomer of the Roman Catholic Church says intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.

Aussie straps in beer, not child

A driver in Australia is fined for strapping down a pack of beer in his car rather than his young child.

Pupils sent home after turf prank

The entire sixth year of a school is sent home after pupils turfed over the floor of their common room.

Furtive Venice snapper arrested

A man who allegedly photographed more than 3,000 women's bottoms in Venice is arrested.

 

 

 

lagniappe

 

A poem by Sidney Lanier

The Song of the Chattahoochee

The Song of the Chattahoochee Out of the hills of Habersham, Down the valleys of Hall, I hurry amain to reach the plain, Run the rapid and leap the fall, Split at the rock and together again, Accept my bed, or narrow or wide, And flee from folly on every side With a lover's pain to attain the plain Far from the hills of Habersham, Far from the valleys of Hall. All down the hills of Habersham, All through the valleys of Hall, The rushes cried Abide, abide,'<BR>The willful waterweeds held me thrall,<BR>The laving laurel turned my tide,<BR>The ferns and the fondling grass saidStay,' The dewberry dipped for to work delay, And the little reeds sighed Abide, abide,<BR>Here in the hills of Habersham,<BR>Here in the valleys of Hall.'</FONT></P> <P><FONT face=geneva,arial,sans-serif>High o'er the hills of Habersham,<BR>Veiling the valleys of Hall,<BR>The hickory told me manifold<BR>Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall<BR>Wrought me her shadowy self to hold,<BR>The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine,<BR>Overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign,<BR>Said,Pass not, so cold, these manifold Deep shades of the hills of Habersham, These glades in the valleys of Hall.' And oft in the hills of Habersham, And oft in the valleys of Hall, The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook-stone Did bar me of passage with friendly brawl, And many a luminous jewel lone -- Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist, Ruby, garnet and amethyst -- Made lures with the lights of streaming stone In the clefts of the hills of Habersham, In the beds of the valleys of Hall. But oh, not the hills of Habersham, And oh, not the valleys of Hall Avail: I am fain for to water the plain. Downward the voices of Duty call -- Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main, The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn, And a myriad flowers mortally yearn, And the lordly main from beyond the plain Calls o'er the hills of Habersham, Calls through the valleys of Hall. 1877. -THE END- Sidney Lanier's poem: The Song of the Chattahoochee