In southern Greenland, back in July 2004, a local man - Ferdinand Egede - dug into the soft earth of a field to show me something he'd never expected to see in his lifetime: potatoes.

BBC: The 'big melt' at the roof of the world

Otherwise, the emerging narrative of a down-to-earth man, thrust into power but mostly indifferent to the trappings of his position, driven by a special concern for the poor has proved especially encouraging to many frazzled Catholics, especially as, in a cynical time, it just may turn out to be the tale closest to the truth.

CNN: Pope Francis: A conservative who sides with the poor

Construction is underway, for example, on the World, a grouping of 300 man-made islands shaped to resemble the earth.

ECONOMIST: Business travel

This detritus, man-made, earth-grown, was a kind of moat surrounding the building proper, this modern fortress, painted a yellow that was surely labelled Tuscan.

NEWYORKER: Shauntrelle

The debris is essentially the residue of hundreds of rocket launches, exploration missions and other man-made objects left circling Earth.

WSJ: Falling Satellite Debris Might Hit U.S.

The white, middle-aged man appeared to come straight from the California GOP's central casting, but Mr. Vidak is more salt-of-the-earth than many of his new compatriots in Sacramento.

WSJ: Allysia Finley: A Farmers' Rebellion Lifts the California GOP