By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently collaborated with the reclusive European artist known as “Banksy” to create “Kinetic Art with a Shred of Decency” in their latest project promising to combine political intrigue with a slap in the face to the billion dollar art auction industry.

Matthew Ruhrapentay, a NYC based critic, praised the “inherent irony that these two artists could achieve such synchronicity” in composing their latest contribution, saying: “A Speaker who shreds the President’s Speech at the closing gavel of the House of Representatives, who better than to partner with a reclusive artist who shredded a million dollar painting just as the gavel dropped at an auction house? Magnifico!”

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

In what might surely be viewed as one of the potentially greatest breakthroughs in linguistics in recent years, scientists have finally deciphered the ancient Minoan Language known as “Linear A“, a previously untranslated ancient writing system used from 1800 to 1450 BCE. A new technique using, of all things, a vast collection of commerce related email of today provided a template for the discovery.

Partially due to this lack of translation, the Minoan culture remained obscured and cloaked in mystery. But linguists found much more than expected when they concurrently discovered the proximate cause of the abandonment of Linear A by the Minoans and its replacement with Linear B, the language of Mycenaean Greece.