Blind Cricket, Lost Children, Lobsters, Buzz Aldrin, Lost Bones

A Vision Of Victory

Lhendup Bhutia | Open | 19th December 2014

There is cricket, and there is blind cricket, also played internationally, with India the current world champions. "Bowling is always underarm, either spin or fast, and it has to hit the pitch at least twice before reaching the batsman. The ball itself is made of reinforced plastic and filled with ball bearings to make a rattling sound. Batsmen, especially those who are completely blind, or B1, usually employ the sweep shot" (1,885 words)

Miracle Of The Tsunami

Xan Rice | New Statesman | 22nd December 2014

Epic story. An Indonesian fisherman and his wife saw their 4-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son swept away in the tsunami of 2004. This year they heard by chance of children living in distant villages who appeared to be theirs. The girl had been fostered, the boy was a beggar. They brought the teenagers home and began loving them again. But were these really the lost children? And, in the end, does that matter? (7,800 words)

The Accidental Lobster Farmers

Ben Goldfarb | Modern Farmer | 22nd December 2014

One possible partial explanation of the lobster glut in New England: Lobsters can easily back out of lobster traps after grabbing the bait. Underwater cameras show that lobsters get caught only 6% of the time; 94% of the time they take the herring and make their escape. So the more that local fishermen step up their trapping efforts, the more food the lobsters get. "Lobster diets consist of 80 percent bait" (1,100 words)

Dark Side Of The Moon

Jeanne Marie Laskas | GQ | 22nd December 2014

Profile of Buzz Aldrin at 85. He was a war hero in Korea and a rocket scientist at MIT before becoming an astronaut. At 39 he went to the Moon, and when he came back he had a mental breakdown. "Booze. A couple of divorces. A psych ward. Broke." His mother committed suicide. He's been dry for decades, he writes books, gives talks. But there is only ever one subject. When you have walked on the Moon, "There is nothing left to do" (6,620 words)

The Lost Bones: In Dozier’s Cemetery

Ben Montgomery | Tampa Bay Times | 18th December 2014

Thrilling, meticulous, horrifying report worthy of a Pulitzer. Forensic anthropologist exhumes the bodies of children abused and killed over decades at the Florida School For Boys, a reform school. State authorities and local residents opposed the dig, insisting that the school, which closed in 2011, was "a good place for wayward kids". Surviving inmates tell a different story: "Oh, my God, the things they did" (6,800 words)

Video of the day: When Plants Attack

What to expect: Nature documentary. Plants versus insects. The plants win (3'30")

Thought for the day

Clever people master life; the wise create fresh difficulties
Emil Nolde