[HappyPerson]

One thing I feel the Internet has changed is how much personal connection matter. Prior to the Internet, one needed to be in the local area of a mentor or at least write a handwritten letter to someone a distance away to get help learning for an expert. This is NOT the case anymore and hasn't been for around two decades. When my son was 7 and wanted to see a model for each element on the Periodic Table of Elements, he couldn't find it in any of our books at home or in the local library, but he contacted a "science expert" on the Internet and got a link to such a resource (and later, did find a book on it). The week he turned 8, he read a book that excited his mind and he wrote the author an email with comments and questions; that man emailed him back in about an hour and became a mentor to our son even with the two living in different states (and did a lot to help our son form other connections), and indeed the man became our son's academic advisor for his MIT graduate education down the road. It's pretty easy for anyone to reach out and make connections today. My understanding of the history of the girl whose article started off this thread is that she had an interest in a topic and her father suggested she write someone who was an expert in that field, and that was how she got a mentor in CA; the girl was living in another country when she contacted the CA scientist. Anyone with access to a library with a computer connected to the Internet can get the most important of all resources - people resources. Spread the word if you know people who are still not realizing this.