Honorary citizenships are a rare acclaim indeed. Only one Swede holds an honorary citizenship in Canada, and that is humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, but we have to wonder whether our Governor General might consider another.

That would be none other than Markus “Notch” Persson, the mastermind behind the paradigm-shattering phenomenon that is Minecraft.

Notch, like his compatriots Mr. Wallenberg and Alfred Nobel, has ever been a friend to humanity. Perhaps never, however, has Mr. Persson’s philanthropy been more apparent than this evening when he donated a kingly sum of $10,000 (yes, ten thousand: a thousand ten times) for a… uh… pack of silica gel James found on the street?

Now, I know we all need H₂O to live, but, still, I wonder if SiO₂ might be my new favorite triatom.