MARK TWAIN HOUSE : WOMAN JAILED FOR STEALING A MILLION

Breaking News from Yahoo. "Twain, born Samuel Clemens in Florida, Missouri, had money troubles himself while living in the home from 1874 to 1891 -- a period in which he wrote such American classics as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn."Twain ultimately had to leave the Victorian Gothic home for lecture tours of Europe because of financial troubles."

CROWDSOURCING:

"Your educated guess may be just as good as an expert's opinion. Statistics have long shown that large crowds of average people frequently make better predictions about unknown events, when their disparate guesses are averaged out, than any individual scholar — a phenomenon known as the wisdom of crowds."

Linking to the article : Are we all a little psychic?

ANCIENT SEMETIC LANGUAGE - AKKADIAN - THE CHICAGO ASSYRIAN DICTIONARY PUBLISHED AFTER 90 YEARS OF TEAM RESEARCH

Love this story... Akkadian is a Semetic language (last written 1900 years ago) and ancient form of Assyrian and after 90 years (and many academics) working on the project have finally published a dictionary. the dictionary gives us some idea of what people spoke in Mesopotamia!

Oh how I admire linguists, since I have absolutely no talent with languages...

Like anthropologists, they looked at tomb stones, and other evidence of this cuneiform written language.

PARTIAL 500 YEAR OLD NUREMBERG CHRONICAL FOUND IN UTAH I ADVISE CAUTION

Link to the article by Brian Skoloff by clicking the title above.

The book, found in Utah, is said to have been printed in 1493 and is a world history from biblical times and one of the "most lavishly illustrated books of the 15th century." However, I advise caution here for two reasons.

First, I remember that a number of faked documents showed up in Utah and were bought by the Latter Day Saints some years ago. It was a scandal when they were discovered to have been forged. This involved the forger using paper and ink that was of the time period for the original documents but these were faked and forged anyway.

Secondly, perhaps it's the photographs but for books 500 years old and stored in an attic, the paper appears too new. Is it time to get this book over to the Getty (which has had its share of forged and faked sculpture?) for examination Has this book been carbon dated?

RUSSIAN LETTER IN A BOTTLE

This blog loves message in a bottle stories and here is another... "It said: "My name is Frank, and I'm five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you." "The letter, dated 1987, included an address in the town of Coesfeld. The boy in the letter, Frank Uesbeck, is now 29. His parents still live at the letter's address. "At first I didn't believe it," Uesbeck told the AP about getting the response from Korotkikh. In fact, he barely remembered the trip at all; his father actually wrote the letter. The Russian boy and the German man met each other earlier this month via an Internet video link."

THOMAS JEFFERSON's BOOKS FOUND AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN SAINT LOUIS

"Dozens of Thomas Jefferson's books, some including handwritten notes from the nation's third president, have been found in the rare books collection at Washington University in St. Louis...

"The books were among about 3,000 that were donated to the school in 1880 after the death of Jefferson's granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, and her husband, Joseph Coolidge.
There was no indication at the time that any of them had belonged to Jefferson. But it turns out that 2 1/2 years after Jefferson's 1826 death, his library of 1,600 books was sold to settle debts...

LINK TO THE FULL YAHOO NEWS STORY ABOVE!

EPIC MESSAGE IN THE BOTTLE JOURNEY

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE found in Ireland...

Here's the Yahoo Buzz on it.

Have you ever thrown wine bottle with a message into the sea?

What was your message?

J.D. SALINGER CATCHER IN THE RYE AUTHOR PASSES

Breaking Yahoo news... the author of the book that was taught at Eastern Prep schools and became famous as an inspiration for the murder of John Lennon passes away.

POLISH WRITER DEFENDS PUBLISHING COORESPONDENCE WITH POPE

" She was one of a handful of people by his bedside when he died, and visited him in the hospital when he survived an assassination attempt.

"In the cloistered universe of the Vatican, Pope John Paul II had a woman friend with whom he shared spiritual thoughts in a series of letters that spanned the decades. Now she is defending her recent book of correspondence with the pope against criticism from church officials that she "exaggerated" her friendship with the late pontiff and could delay his beatification.

"Wanda Poltawska, 87, said her book — a collection of her religious meditations and John Paul's letters of spiritual guidance — was harmless to his saint-making process and she dismissed those who sought to minimize her friendship with the Polish-born John Paul.

MONIKA SCISLOWSKA and NICOLE WINFIELD reporting for Associated Press.

SPELLING BEE'S FOR REALLY COOL NERDS

When I was a kid it was honored that boys were good in math while girls were good in spelling... Sexism like this was totally acceptable. Who can say how many girls were afraid to be good in math because it might mean (horrors!) being thought of as not feminine? Here's breaking Yahoo News "I LOVE NERDS."

PULITZER PRIZES ANNOUNCED ! LAS VEGAS SUN CONGRADULATIONS ALEXANDRA BERZON !

" The Las Vegas newspaper was cited for the "courageous reporting" of Alexandra Berzon, whose stories about lax enforcement of safety rules on the Las Vegas Strip led to changes in policy and improved workplace conditions.The death toll on the Strip had reached nine in 16 months as casino giants undertook a $32 billion building boom, including the largest private commercial development in U.S. history. Berzon described how the rush to build quickly and at highly congested work sites led to safety shortcuts that contributed to deaths."

ASTRONAUTS DIARY SURVIVES FALL TO EARTH FROM EXPLODED SHUTTLE

Ramon Ilan, Israels first astronaut, and one of the six who died when the shuttle exploded entering earth's atmosphere February 1st, 2003, wrote a diary while he was aboard and by some miracle a portion of it survived. Click on the title above to get to the story featured on Yahoo News.

SPANISH POETS GRAVE - FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA

Click on the title above to go to the Yahoo News story about a controversy over the grave of Federico Garcia Lorca, considered Spain's best 20th century poet and playwright.