Hyperspectral Imagery and Greek Classics

A recent article in The Independent claims that a major breakthrough has been made in the use of modern technology to decipher badly damaged, ancient manuscripts.

From the page:

For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible.

Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.

In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.

I am reminded of J.B. Summit. Has anyone heard from J.B. recently?

"Toward the Understanding of DHCP"

Maybe some of you have heard of the MIT computer science students who as a prank developed a web page that automatically generates papers full of gibberish, and then actually got one of their papers accepted to a conference. When I found out they made their paper-writing engine available online, I couldn't resist. So, follow this link to see the paper "written by" our two cats, Leo and Tigger:


(I'm not sure how long this link will last, so if it doesn't work and you really want to read the paper, let me know and I'll email you a PDF).

Start your kids (and pets) off and their academic careers now -- get them published!

Thoughts on Lynchburg, VA?

Chris, the kids and I are once again on the move. This will be our 9th major move in 17 years together. Hopefully this will be the last. We are moving to Lynchburg, VA and I was wondering if any of you have any suggestions of things to do in the area or have even been to that area. It is a bit discouraging as I love big cities, and this is the antithesis of big, however it does seem like a good place to raise kids. At least they have an airport. The other plus they have is we will only be 3 1/2 hours from the ocean, which is refreshing since we have been very landlocked since Florida.

Restaurant Favorites Anyone?

I have 2 - 3 months to secure an internship site and am hoping this well-traveled group of people can help me narrow the choices. If anyone has any favorite restaurants, I'd love to hear about them. I'll be spending from September - February in a kitchen somewhere in the US. I'd like the option of returning home to Vermont from time to time in that period so I've been sticking to the East Coast but hey, you never know. The short list is currently Twin Farms (www.twinfarms.com) in central VT and Hammersley's Bistro (hammersleysbistro.com) in Boston but they've both been around awhile and perhaps there's something new I don't know about yet. And Walter, have you made the trip east yet? Hope I didn't miss you. How's your sister's house coming along?