Was Robin really just another hood?

An academic says he has found evidence that Britain's legendary outlaw Robin Hood wasn't as popular as folklore suggests.

Julian Luxford says a note discovered in the margins of an ancient history book contains rare criticism of the supposedly benevolent bandit.

According to legend, Robin Hood roamed 13th-century Britain from a base in central England's Sherwood Forest, plundering from the rich to give to the poor.

But Luxford, an art history lecturer at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, says a 23-word inscription in the margins of a history book, written in Latin by a medieval monk around 1460, casts the outlaw as a persistent thief.

"Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies," the note read when translated into English.

Luxford said the note is the earliest known reference to the outlaw from an English source and supports arguments that the historical Robin Hood lived in the 13th century, even though most popular modern versions of the story set him in the late 12th century reign of King Richard I.

Luxford said his discovery also may help settle debates in England about exactly where Robin Hood lived. The northern England county of Yorkshire has long claimed he was based there, but folklore has most commonly placed Hood in Sherwood Forest.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PLUNK IN EUROS AND GET A FRESH PIZZA

Is Europe bringing back the automat? Claudio Torghele hopes so.

The Italian has developed a vending machine that cooks pizza. The machine does not just slip a frozen pizza

into a microwave. It actually whips up flour, water, tomato sauce and fresh ingredients to produce a piping hot pizza in about three minutes.

The idea for a pizza robot came to Torghele, 56, after he worked in California in the mid-1990s creating a fresh pasta manufacturer. "At food courts I saw a trend toward vending machines," he said. "In fast food, I saw pizza everywhere."

The machine Torghele and his engineers produced is outfitted with little windows so the customer can watch the pizza being made. The customer presses a button to choose one of four varieties -- margherita (plain cheese and tomato sauce), bacon, ham or fresh greens. Torghele says the pizza will cost as little $4.50, depending on the variety.

Initially, Torghele thought the United States would be his primary market, but he learned that the American pizza market would be hard to penetrate. Instead, when his machine goes into production this summer, he will focus on Italy and its neighbors.

Legendary for long lunches of pasta and wine, Italy may seem an odd choice, but surprisingly the nation leads Europe in vending machines, with more than 614,000 installed, according to the European Vending Association.

NEW YORK TIMES

ON TRIAL: Tweeting from the jury box

A Little Rock, Ark., building materials company and its owner have appealed a $12.6 million verdict against them, alleging that a juror posted messages on Twitter during the trial show that he's biased against them.

The filing last week by Stoam Holdings claims juror Jonathan Powell sent eight messages -- or tweets -- to the micro-blogging website via his cell phone.

According to the motion, one posting listed the company's Web address and read in part: "oh and nobody buy Stoam. Its bad mojo and they'll probably cease to Exist, now that their wallet is 12m lighter." In another, he tweeted: "I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else's money."

The company sold a building material called Stoam that it claims combines the insulation qualities of foam with the strength of steel.

Lawyer Drew Ledbetter wrote that the messages show Powell "was predisposed toward giving a verdict that would impress his audience."

Powell, a 29-year-old manager at a Wal-Mart photo lab, seemed shocked at the power of Twitter's 140-character messages. "I'm kind of surprised so many people have contacted me," he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS