Ghost story needs ending

AGENCIES

Children are being invited to complete a famous author’s unfinished ghost story. MR James was born 150 years ago and is considered one of the greatest ghost story writers ever. Many of his scary tales were set in places around East Anglia. After he died one of his unfinished stories was discovered in Kings College, Cambridge. And now a competition is being run by Suffolk Coast to find an ending for the tale. Organisers hope children will get in to the spirit of the story and the fans of James will enjoy reading the different endings.

American teen crowned fastest texter

A teenager has defended his title as the fastest texter in the US. Austin Weirschke, 17, beat 10 people at the National Texting Championship in New York. Participants of the competition were judged on speed and accuracy over eight rounds. They had to memorise and type phrases as fast as possible. They had to write words backwards and type words to nursery rhyme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in 45 seconds wearing dark glasses to stop them from seeing. Austin sends a whopping 500 texts to his friends each day but says his success is down to extra practice he has been doing with his mum. He won £32,012 prize money in the competition.

Parrots smarter than two-year-old kids

It looks like parrots are not as bird brained as we thought they were. Scientists have found that African grey parrots are smarter than the average two-year-old human. They compared how quickly the animals and children could solve a puzzle which involved hiding a piece of food in a box. The tests showed that only children over the age of three did better than the birds. Similar behaviour has been seen before in apes but its the first time it’s been noted in non-human animals. Scientists also found that the parrots, which were not used to taking part in such experiments, did better than monkeys who have finished similar tests before.