Moments of Awareness

STORY HIGHLIGHTS A combination of heredity and unique characteristics of the individual contribute to creativity Parents should cheer on their children but should not be attached to outcomes Some kids will drop an activity if they believe their parents have too many expectations about it Check out CNN's Geek Out RELATED TOPICS Parenting Education Robotics Science and Technology Minnesota (CNN) -- When Gavin Ovsak started multiplying double-digit numbers in his head in kindergarten, his mother, Cathy, was astonished. "We were like, where did that come from? When did they cover that today?" said his mother, who lives in Hopkins, Minnesota. Today, Gavin is a 16-year-old award-winning inventor who's finishing up applications for two prestigious science competitions. His entry is the Circuit-Hat Accessibility Device , an electronic hat that allows disabled people to use a computer without a mouse. When he's not working on these kinds of...

Journalists for a British magazine take part in an editorial conference in 1938. STORY HIGHLIGHTS NPR fired news analyst Juan Williams for his remarks about Muslims on planes Clint Hendler says it makes no sense to say an analyst can't express an opinion He says unrepentant bigots shouldn't be employed by news organizations Hendler: Today, journalists are called upon to offer their opinions Editor's note: Clint Hendler is a staff writer for the Columbia Journalism Review . You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/clinthendler . (CNN) -- Over the past year, American news consumers have seen the jobs of several major journalists come to an abrupt end after the wide dissemination of their off-the-cuff comments sparked controversy. This week, it was Juan Williams, cast aside by NPR for saying that seeing people in "Muslim garb" made him nervous on airplanes and made him think they identified "themselves first and foremost as Muslims." And so aga...

LONDON — Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, lashed out together on Saturday at the Obama administration’s aggressive pursuit of whistle-blowers, including those responsible for the release of secret documents on the Iraq war. Mr. Assange also said that WikiLeaks, which released the trove of almost 400,000 Iraq war documents on Friday, would shortly be posting an additional 15,000 remaining secret documents on the Afghan war. Mr. Assange, speaking at a news conference in a London hotel a stone’s throw from the headquarters of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, was joined by Mr. Ellsberg, 79, the former military analyst who leaked a 1,000-page secret history of the Vietnam War in 1971 that became known as the Pentagon Papers. Mr. Ellsberg, who said he had flown overnight from California to attend, described Mr. Assange admiringly as “the most dangerous man in the world” for challenging governm...

The outpouring of support for Gina Gregerson, the woman whose home burned on Friday on Warm Springs Avenue in Boise, continues. By Saturday morning, $1,190 had been donated online through the website: http://ginagregerson.chipin.com/gina-gregerson . Gregerson was able to escape the fire without injuries. The fire at Gregerson's home, the Gregerson Wildlife Park, located on a plot of land just east of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival complex, was called in to dispatchers at around 7:30 a.m. Friday. The building, a connected series of sheds, outbuildings, shops and living quarters about 300 feet from Warm Springs Avenue, was a total loss. Several animals that live on the property, including emus, bighorn sheep, goats and deer, did not appear to be injured in the blaze, according to fire officials. via idahostatesman.com Posted via email from Peace Jaway

She was not looking for controversy. Vicki Noble was just looking for a fine ale. Ms. Noble, who is famous in the pagan and Wiccan communities for her astrology readings, shamanic healing and writings about goddess spirituality, says she discovered Witch’s Wit last week on one of her regular excursions to 41st Avenue Liquors, in Capitola, Calif. “I like beer,” Ms. Noble said, and as a practitioner of religious traditions that revere the earth and women’s special powers, she also feels a special connection to brewing. “It was the women who brewed beer from ancient times right up to the Reformation,” she says. She thinks some were burned as witches to destroy “the ancient traditions of shamanistic medicine, which in every indigenous culture includes the brewing of medicinal fermented beverages.” But one does not have to agree with Ms. Noble’s interpretation of history to share her offense at a picture on the label of Witch’s Wit, a limited-edition pale ale —...

LEWISTON, Idaho -- A Lewiston, Idaho family that's operating a pumpkin stand is scared out of its gourd after a state tax collector showed up and tried to squash the business.    The Lewiston Tribune reports the Idaho State Tax Commission has called for the closure of a family's pumpkin stand in the mill city along the Snake and Clearwater rivers.    Dan and Kami Charais told the newspaper that a Tax Commission employee informed them the stand was in violation of laws and had to shut its doors.    The couple says their 4- and 6-year-old children had been carving out a niche for themselves in the local jack-o-lantern market -- to raise money for school sports, they say.    A Tax Commission representative told the newspaper that even goods sold at roadside stands are taxable and that the stand did not have a proper permit.   Share this article: ...

Around the Pasture, Dogs, Dustin, Rocky & Four-Leaf Clovers See the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Peace Jaway