Dig Up Dinos, Rare Relics on DIY Tours

Willy Wonka may be a fictional persona, but these ten real-life fun-food factories will bring out the kid in anyone.

(NEWSER) - Travel & Leisure takes you on a tour of a fun-food factories, where delights range from twisting your own pretzel to sampling donuts hot off the line. Some factory tours can even be experienced from home.

1. Twinkie: Twinkies.com
2. Tootsie Pop: Tootsie.com
3. Ben and Jerry's: Waterbury, Vt.

Oldest reference to city found outside of the Bible

(AP) - Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old seal that bears the inscription "Bethlehem," the Israel Antiquities Authority announced yesterday, in what experts believe to be the oldest artifact with the name of Jesus' traditional birthplace. The tiny clay seal's existence and age provide vivid evidence that Bethlehem was not just the name of a fabled biblical town, but also a bustling place of trade linked to the nearby city of Jerusalem, archaeologists said. More»

Heritage Auctions ignores Mongolia's restraining order

(NEWSER) - A New York auction house sold off a dinosaur skeleton for $1 million yesterday despite a restraining order from the Mongolian government, which said the find had been illegally exported, New Scientist reports. Heritage Auctions kept mum about the seller and winning bidder, and said it had "legal assurances" that the near-complete tyrannosaurus "was obtained legally." A lawyer for Mongolia, however, said the auction house planned to hold back the sale until courts settled the dispute. More»

If it leaves the eurozone, it'll be a real bargain, experts say

(NEWSER) - These days you probably think of Greece as the place threatening to set the euro on fire. It's easy to forget that it's also a pretty beautiful tourist destination, loaded with ancient ruins and sunny beaches—and soon, NPR points out, it could be a pretty cheap destination, too. If Greece leaves the euro, the value of its currency would plummet between 30% and 50%, analysts predict. More»

Investigators have no idea how Inca skulls got there

(NEWSER) - Police in Florida investigating two skulls found in a backyard say that while they definitely have a mystery on their hands, they're not looking for a killer. That's because investigators have determined that the skulls belong to a man and a 10-year-old boy who died in Peru as far back as some 800 years ago, ABC reports. The skulls, one of which had a scrap of mummified flesh still clinging to it, were uncovered by a workman installing a pool, who notified police. More»