News around the world

You don't want to draw with these crayons!

Artist Hoang Tran turns regular old crayons - which are usually used to make art - into pieces of art themselves!

As a part of Wax Nostalgic, Tran is carving the little coloured sticks of wax into characters from pop culture. Characters from movies such as Star Wars and Beauty and the Beast, as well as dogs and squids are just a few of the many amazing carvings he's created! Tran even does custom orders for customers whose favourite pop culture character isn't listed on his Etsy page, where he sells his creations. Every sculpture is 100 per cent crayon wax - even the multicoloured pieces such as his Darth Vader. "Painting would probably be a lot easier but I'm a purist and want the entire carving to be made of wax," he explained. "I don't want to reveal the exact technique but I basically melt wax from one crayon and carefully apply it drop by drop to the main crayon I'm working on." The price of each crayon varies, but they average between $40 and $70.


 

The Two Cousins

by Lalitha Somathilaka

Reviewed by Ajith Karunarathna

The Two Cousins is another masterpiece of Children's story books, authored by versatile writer, Lalitha Somathilaka. It conspicuously marks her skill in writing story books for children taking their taste in reading into consideration.

Stories ranging from episode one to 12 in an unbroken stream under different titles are so mesmerising that they would tempt readers of any age group to read this masterpiece at a glance.

Stories so beautifully woven around frolicsome activities of children using animal characters are so impressive that events described in every episode are familiar with what they encounter in real life.

The teaching experience the author gained during her tenure of associating with children may have helped her to create this interesting piece of work.

Every episode is written lucidly in conversational form that students in particular could grasp the method of learning spoken English without much effort. This handy book, The Two cousins with colourful illustrations will interest those whose pastime is reading. It will also pave the way to increase the reading habit among those who don't show much interest in reading. In that sense, the author's attempt towards this end will be fruitful. It is a publication of S. Godage and Brothers (Pvt) Ltd.
 

Driving without ice cream is a crime!

Instead of handing out tickets, police officers in Quincy, California were handing out ice cream cones to unsuspecting drivers.

Their crime? "Driving without ice cream! Officers pulled over random drivers the same they would if they ran a red light or were speeding. After getting each driver's information, the officers went back to their car to pretend to write a ticket, but instead they returned with a tasty "punishment!" Some people were happy, some were confused, but it's safe to say that all of them were relieved that they were handed ice cream instead of a ticket. A video of drivers' reactions is quickly going viral online, which is exactly what Wall's Ice Cream (the company behind the promotional stunt) wanted!






 

Teen graduates College, before High School

Sixteen-year-old Grace Bush got such a head start on her college education that she completed it before she officially graduated High School! Bush recently received her Bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Florida Atlantic University. She will receive the Degree that most people receive, years before their College Degree. If you're wondering how Bush managed to graduate College before graduating high school, you didn't miss something.

Bush participated in Florida Atlantic University's dual enrolment program, which allows gifted high school students to earn College credits.

This not only shaves off time the students have to spend attending College classes once they graduate High School, but saves parents (who usually pay for College education) money as well. Over three years -she started working towards her bachelor's degree when she was 13 - Bush was able to complete the program ahead of time by taking classes over the summer as well.

Bush and her eight siblings were all home schooled by their mother. Her parents encourage each of their children to take part in the dual enrolment program because they can't afford to pay for eight children's full College education.

Bush's two older sisters have completed similar dual enrolment programs. What's next for this big achiever? Bush will start pursuing A Master's Degree in the fall, and once she completes that, she hopes to go to Law School.