Boogers and Blogs

In case you ever wanted to know what Important Latinists do with their spare time, there is currently a thread about nose-picking in Latin on the Latinteach list. ;-)

In all seriousness, it's really a wonderful list, and I don't mean to insult anyone involved. I found the topic highly amusing, if a bit disgusting while eating my dinner. But then, it was very clearly labelled "Mucosne habes?", so it's my own fault for clicking while eating.

In other not-quite-Classical news, I just discovered a blog for Medievalist English professor Jeffrey Cohen. This isn't exactly Classics, no, but I know a lot of you are also interested in medieval studies too. I am, at any rate. Plus, if you look at his CV, he got his BA in Classics also. This makes me happy that there are still English profs out there who have a solid background in Classics.

And hey, my first plan, before I was totally sucked in to and consumed by Classics, was to get my PhD in English. I supposedly started Classics in order to understand better English lit. Uh huh. Classics is dangerous.

Artemidorus Papyrus

Damn, you can find the COOLEST things on the Classics-L list! This one came in my inbox this morning--Early papyrus 'rewrites history'. Apparently, they've found a new papyrus of Artemidorus, including maps and drawings of animals. And as soon as I get a moment, I really need to see if there's anything else on this article!

Also, a couple days ago, there was an article on 4000 year old Egyptian ships discovered--Archeologists Find Ancient Ship Remains.

But I'm really excited about the papyrus. Of course, I get that feeling it'll be hard to find images of it! We'll see...

Oh, and in case anyone missed it, there's an article in the Feb edition of the Smithsonian magazine on "Pompeii's Treasures." I didn't get a chance to read through it myself yet, but if anyone's interested, I'll try to take a look sooner rather than later.

New Blog alert and some class rambling

Hm, I just noticed a new student Classics blog, NVGAE CICERONIANAE. Looks to be interesting!

I'm sure there was something else I wanted to share, but my lack of sleep last night has made all coherent thought fly out the window.

If anyone's interested, my new classes started yesterday. I'm taking Tacitus, Horace & Catullus, Greek, Greek philosophy, Roman Near East and Tolkien. And I'm auditing a diversity in the ancient world course, just because. It's my last semester here... I don't want to miss anything! (The sad thing is I know I'm still missing a lot, but there's only so much a girl can do.)

This being the last semester of my fifth and final year as an undergrad, I've somehow managed to enter the semester already knowing all of my profs to one degree or another. While that's nice, because I like all of them a lot, it's a little disconcerting not to have any completely new profs at all!

Ah well. Theoretically, I shall know in a couple months whether I'm going to be far from here or right back with the same people I already know and love (and who are probably sick of me). The waiting is truly the hardest part. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. The realization that there really isn't anything left you can do to make yourself look a little better to the grad schools (and the regrets for all the things you didn't do when you were a foolish freshman) is almost maddening.

Ok, getting off the soapbox now. It wouldn't do to get behind in classes on the second day!

Egyptians!

I've been seeing more Egyptian stuff this morning. Not sure why, but we'll go with it!

First of all, the Discovery Channel shows us the reconstruction of the faces of Rameses II and son. There's more on Rameses if you click the links on the side.

Secondly, Team Unearths Statue of Egypt's Queen Ti. There's another article here, but neither of them have pictures! Oh well.

Plagues and Medea... sorta fitting.

I suppose everyone has already heard about the ancient Athens plague being discovered as typhoid.

The abstract of the paper is here. Thanks to Classics-L again.

And because I have COOL FRIENDS who find COOL THINGS here is a video of Maria Callas as Medea!! It's from Italian newsreel footage, and it's fabulous. Sadly my Italian is barely existent. But... Maria Callas! As Medea! Yay!

And now it's Uranus...

Since we've discussed other parts of the solar system already, I figure it can't hurt to post this funny article about the planet Uranus. There's a good reason I prefer Ouranos. ;-)

No reputation remake planned for Judas

Apparently, the Vatican has decided not to reconsider Judas' reputation with the Gospel of Judas about to be published. I didn't know they were even considering this. Wonder what ol' Andrew Lloyd Webber would have to say about that!

Anyway, thanks again to the Classics-L list for that one.

1000BC Tomb Found in Roman Forum

Two posts in a day! Wow! But this just popped up on Classics-L and is just too cool to wait: Archaeologists Find Tomb Under Roman Forum.

This, naturally, predates the supposed founding of Rome...

Enjoy!

Eleusinian Mysteries images

Wow, this just came in on the Classics-L list. Cornell University Library is hosting approximately 800 images from the sanctuary of the Eleusinian Mysteries here.

There are some really fabulous images up there. But a warning to Firefox users. If you've got your browser set up to block pop-ups, you'll have to click Tools, Options, Content. Then next to "Block Popup Windows" on the right, click "Allowed Sites" and type in "insight.library.cornell.edu" and click "Allow." Otherwise, Firefox will just shut down the popup window when you click "Image Collection" before you can view anything!

IT IS DONE.

I can't decide if this week has actually been slow in the Classics world or if I've just been too busy to catch things.

However, I have decided that it would be delightful if they named the new planet "Priapus." I'm pretty sure nothing else in the sky has been given this name. ::grin::

In other cool but more personal news, I've finished all of my graduate applications! My last application was for my own undergrad program, and that's been finalized as of fifteen minutes ago, much to my delight. The others were in the mail a couple days ago and should hopefully be arriving soon.

I must say, it's really weird applying for the grad program at your undergrad university. What do you say in those personal statements that they don't already know? And some of them have already seen my writing sample... oh well!

Now I sit back and wait and keep my finger's crossed...

While we're on astronomy...

I was reading about this in the Washington Post's PARADE supplement for Sunday (yes, I know it's only Saturday), so I guess they don't have this one online yet. But here's a TIME article that mentions the new planet UB313.

You know what that means? They haven't named it yet! Personally, I think they should name it Medea. But that's just me...

Pluto!

This is interesting (about the naming of Pluto, the planet), and it just popped up on the Classics-L list.

My apologies for being silent lately. Internet went down again, and I've been rather swamped anyway.

Also, if you haven't noticed, David Meadows has been tracking the blogging of the APA meetings. It's throughout a few posts, but they're clearly labelled.

HBO's Rome

Well, I haven't been keeping up with Rome news much lately, just because of my schedule. But I was poking around at the site, and apparently season 2 won't air until 2007. I'm probably the last person in the world to find out about this.

Also, I noticed on the downloads section of their website, they have not only a Desktop Wallpaper, but also a Screensaver and a browser theme for Firefox. The only problem with the latter is that it only works with Firefox 0.8 through 1.0. It's too bad they probably won't want to remedy that.

And for those of you who haven't heard, David Meadows mentioned on the Classics-L list earlier about the earthquake in Greece. Apparently there were only minor injuries, but the earthquake was rated 6.9 and was felt in many places, including southern Italy and Jordan.

Edited to add: Oops! I forgot to mention that the Rome site also has t-shirts. I'm debating whether or not I can afford to fork over the $18.99 plus $4.98 for shipping, though. Probably not.

Video Rideo, among other things...

Well, if anyone's been wondering where I've been, let's just say I was stupid enough to take another three week winterterm class. I'm swamped. And it's not exactly a Classics course, which is a bit disconcerting to the girl whose brain seems to live in the ancient world.

But of course, her brain never stops working on Classics related things, so she immediately zoned in on the Latin on an engraving of the Gunpowder Plot. It said "VIDEO RIDEO," which seems a bit odd on a picture of the Gunpowder Plot being discovered. I suppose it makes sense if you think about it, but it's still odd.

Anyway, I tried hard to find a picture for you, dear readers, and all I could find was this, which is also pretty amusing, if you think about it. It's not the complete picture, but at least you can see the Latin? Ok, so the picture itself would've been far more interesting. I tried!

And now for a couple more related links.

From the Classics-L list: Did Jesus exist? Italian court to decide. I'm not sure what to make of that one. On the one hand, it's certainly an amusing thought. On the other hand, I can only imagine the trouble this could cause.

Also, David Meadows posted about William Hutton Walking Hadrian's Wall on Archaeoastronomy.

Food, glorious food!

This looks like Homo Edax's kind of blog. There is a food/dining Latin quotation on it daily. Thanks to David Meadows at rogueclassicism for the link!

Also, DO NOT FORGET that this week is Buy a Friend a Book Week, the invention of the genius Debra Hamel!

I, unfortunately, am broke, so I may just be offering friends books that I've accidentally bought in duplicate. Obviously, these are wonderful books, since I felt the need to buy them twice...

Song on Bronze review

My apologies for the lack of updates lately. I've been at work the last couple days and oddly worn-out from it. I'm off to work again, soon, actually, but this caught my eye on the Classics-L list.

There's a review in the TLS about the book Songs on Bronze. Interestingly, it spends more time trying to rip down Graves. It's an interesting read, even if it does get rather rant-y.