3000 Year

Noah ben Shea of Santa Barbara, who charmed readers with his enormously successful books about Jacob the Baker, will read from his just published "The Word: A Spiritual Sourcebook," from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Ventura Bookstore, 522 E. Main St. "The Word" is a sweeping collection of quotations and teachings spanning more than 3,000 years of Jewish wisdom.

It's a thought that may not cross the mind of the average tourist to Santa Catalina Island this weekend, but almost everything he buys or eats was sent over from the mainland. And more than likely, that souvenir T-shirt or those fresh salad vegetables made the 22-mile crossing to the island by barge. Catalina's most vital links to the mainland are based at Berth 184 in Los Angeles Harbor.

What do Robinson Crusoe, the Maharajah of Nagpur, and Queen Victoria have in common? Not to mention Mary Poppins and Miss Savage. The answer--depending, perhaps, on where you come from--is a brolly (British), a bumbershoot (American), a parapluie (French), a Regenschirm (German), a higasa (Japanese) or even an akurompokyiniwa (Ashanti). Of course some rather boring people just use the word umbrella.

A team led by archeologist James E. Brady of George Washington University has found at least three burial caves in the region--one in 1992 and two this past summer--as well as an enormous underground gathering place that the team dubbed "the Superdome of caves" and another cave apparently used for religious rites.

On a rocky hilltop in the Holy Land, a slight, bearded American Jew named Joe Bazer has found a place where his family can live a religious life--and make a political statement that reverberates across the Middle East. "This is one of our most important spots," said Bazer, wearing a 9-millimeter pistol on his belt and gazing dreamily from his neighborhood of modern, red-roofed homes onto the ruins of ancient Shiloh.

Al and Janet Shusta are what you call hard-core lottery players. For as long as the game has been around, the retirees have been dropping up to $300 a month on a chance at striking it rich. So you think they would know exactly how they were going to spend their winnings after splitting Saturday's $20-million SuperLotto jackpot with a San Fernando Valley man. Truth is, they haven't a clue. They are thinking of traveling, although they have no firm plans.

Forget about learning the state capitals, at least, as the sum total of your knowledge of geography. "Geography is about meaning, not knowing place names and memorizing lists - that was school geography," said Daniel Edelson, vice president for education programs at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. Say hello to the new geography. It runs your GPS unit, takes you on mobile-device-guided tours, helps you find and see hotel rooms before you book them. Want to calculate your estimated time of arrival, locate a nearby gluten-free restaurant, or find out whether it's raining in Río?

Archeologists in southwestern China have found a 3,000-year-old cliff painting made with human hand prints and believed to depict a dancing man and woman Locals in Yunnan province guided a team of three archeologists to the 50-by-60-inch painting, made with iron ore and animal blood, the official New China News Agency said.

Talk about a travel deal. How does $3 a night sound, meals included? Or less than $1 for a train trip between cities? Or a transatlantic cruise for less than 9 British pounds? If that's your idea of a bargain, hop in a time machine to circa 1860, just before the outbreak of the Civil War. And bring along your 2011-vintage paycheck. Yes, prices were low for antebellum tourists, but so were wages; a middle class U.S. family might live on $1,000 to $3,000 a year. Travel in those days also entailed dangers and discomforts.

Archeologists in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a 3,000-year-old beekeeping industry, including remnants of honeycombs, beeswax and what they believe are the oldest beehives ever found. The findings this summer in the ruins of Rehov include 30 intact hives dating to about 900 BC, archeologist Amihai Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said Tuesday. He said the discoveries offer unique evidence that an advanced honey industry existed in biblical times.