A man with a brain significantly smaller than average managed to live an entirely normal life working as a civil servant. When the 44-year-old man's brain was scanned, it showed that a huge fluid-filled chamber took up most of his skull. French researchers say it left room for only a thin sheet of actual brain tissue. "He was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant," Dr Lionel Feuillet of the Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseille said in the Lancet medical journal. When Dr Feuillet's staff took his medical history, they discovered he had had a shunt inserted into his head to drain away water on the brain as a child. The researchers were shocked when scans showed a "massive enlargement" of the lateral ventricles - chambers, usually small in size, that hold the fluid that acts as a cushion for the brain. Intelligence tests showed the man had an IQ of 75, below the average score of 100 but not enough to classify him as mentally retarded or disabled. "What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life," said Dr Max Muenke, a brain specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute. "If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side. "

A Victorian-era sea fort is up for sale in Britain at a cost of $8 million. The fort, located 1 mile off the coast of Portsmouth, was originally built to house 80 sailors as a defense against the French navy. Recently it served as a luxury hotel, but its owner has been forced to sell it due to financial troubles. No Man's Land Fort, as it is known, was built between 1861 and 1880. The fort is constructed largely of granite and is 200 feet long and rises 60 feet from the sea. The fort features 21 themed rooms, two helipads and a heated indoor pool.

The letter through which Napoleon Bonaparte sent three kisses to the woman he was to marry fetched $556,000, the highest price in an auction of several manuscripts in London. The French emperor, shortly after he had row a with his future wife Josephine, wrote to her, "I send you three kisses - one on your heart, one on your mouth and one on your eyes. "

Colorado Springs artist Jason Baalman is trying out an array of unusual mediums that can produce a picture on a canvass - be it ketchup with French fries, or chocolate syrup with a spoon. But this 30-year-old artist has an eye for technology too, as he has also painted a replica of the Mona Lisa using Microsoft's Paint accessory software. Since posting a video of himself painting portraits of Ronald McDonald and Morgan Spurlock, the creator of the documentary "Super Size Me," using ketchup and French fries on social networking website You Tube, Baalman - previously a struggling artist - has bagged a huge backlog of portrait orders.

A Chicago lawyer has reportedly been ordered to appear before a Miami bankruptcy judge to defend a Happy Meal comment he made to her during a hearing. William Smith, who said, "I suggest with respect, Your Honor, that you're a few French fries short of a Happy Meal in terms of what's likely to take place" has been ordered by Judge Laurel Myerson Isicoff to appear before her June 25.