WORLD Magazine reports that Mosab Hassan Yousef has been granted asylum in the United States. The son of a Hamas founder, he turned against terrorism, spied for Israel, and embraced Christianity. Youself had been threatened with deportation for his past terrorist associations. That would certainly have resulted in his murder.

In his book, Yousef describes growing up admiring Hamas and hating Israel. He said he bought machine guns and a handgun in 1996, but the guns didn’t work and he was arrested by Israeli forces before he killed anyone.

Yousef says he started working with Shin Bet after witnessing Hamas brutalities in prison that left him disillusioned. He gravitated toward Christianity after his release in 1997, joining a study group after a chance encounter with a British tourist at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.

Thank God. Thank God.

DISCOVER Magazine reports on scientists who are studying a unique form of sign language, developed by deaf schoolchildren in Nicaragua. The researchers are discovering new things about the power of language, and the very real effects it has on how we think about our world (or don’t).

This is a fascinating result, especially since the first group of adults were older and had been signing for a longer time. It’s clear evidence that our spatial reasoning skills depend, to an extent, on consistent spatial language. If we lack the right words, our mental abilities are limited in a way that extra life experience can’t fully compensate for. Even 30 years of navigating through the world won’t do the trick.

Tip: Mirabilis.