When I was coming up, my father built in me a bone-deep sense that life owed you nothing.

NPR: Seeking Solutions for the Nation's Broken Schools

It's mid-winter in South Africa - a season of clear skies, bone-chilling temperatures, and deep, tetchy gloom.

BBC: Winter means strike time in South Africa

On the other side of the room, four giant shelves, 4 feet deep by 16 feet wide, hold crates of dinosaur-bone castings, antique medical supplies, early-1900 Edison voltage meters and IBM core-memory boards.

FORBES: The Intense Dilettante