Beethoven's 9th Symphony Premiers 190 years ago today, the "Chorale" symphony premiered, composed when Beethoven was completely deaf.

Man With Down Syndrome Fulfills Life Goal, Sings National Anthem At Red Sox Game The title says it all. There's a five minute video of Michael Mullins singing the anthem. Such joy!

Giant solar farm uses molten salt to keep power coming This Arizona solar station stores energy for use when the sun isn't available.

Chemist Turns Software Developer After Son's Cancer Diagnosis Brian Shaw and his wife discovered evidence of a specific cancer in their baby's earliest pictures (just a few days old). Now he wants cameras to check for it automatically.

The discovery that could rewrite physics (5min) "What they found on Monday was evidence of the ringing of the space-time of the early universe." A quick explanation of the recent confirmation of the Big Bang inflationary universe theory.

Scruffy’s Story Captured a Nation and Saved Hundreds of Dogs From Execution (The Tuesday Dog)This is an old story, but I read this book in the last year and enjoyed it. A stray dog has Lassie-like adventures, meeting both good and bad strangers.

Family Who Lost Dog In Superstorm Sandy Gets Huge Surprise At Adoption Shelter A more recent dog story, also true, also wonderful.

Rivers' garbageman named CNN Hero of the Year This guy's cleaning up the Mississippi--and other rivers. He was awarded $250K by CNN. Best part of the article: "During the show, Pregracke pledged to spread some of his Hero of the Year money to the rest of the top 10 Heroes: 'I've met so many great people today, the other Heroes, and I'm really moved by all their stories and all the things they do around the world. ... I'm going to give 10 grand to each of them, because they're awesome.'