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Stanford Accelerator Uncovers Archimedes' Text

AI Playground points to a Newsday.com report which reads in part "A particle accelerator is being used to reveal the long-lost writings of the Greek mathematician Archimedes, work hidden for centuries after a Christian monk wrote over it in the Middle Ages. Highly focused X-rays produced at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center were used last week to begin deciphering the parts of the 174-page text that have not yet been revealed."

22 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Translating now... hold on.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    we have it!

    "What is Six Times... NINE?"

  2. May I Be the First ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    May I be the first (O.K., second) to run naked through the streets of Syracuse crying, "Eureka!".

  3. I for one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    urge someone to step up and STOP this blatant piracy of Archimedes valuable IP!!!

    1. Re:I for one by powerlord · · Score: 4, Funny

      I for one urge someone to step up and STOP this blatant piracy of Archimedes valuable IP!!!


      Next thing you know someone will start trying to distribute the stuff on some website ...
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  4. After this project . . . by Gabrill · · Score: 5, Funny

    They will turn the accelerator to more useful purposes, like seeing all the women in the Sears catalog without their underwear.

    --
    Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
  5. Re:So if I understand right... by Mancat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dude, wouldn't be crazy if like... Archimedes was stuck in a time loop, and he's all not really alive and shit? You know, like... What if we invent a time machine and bring Archimedes back, and he's all like "what the fuck? You idiots this time machine is the shit that resets everything!" and then the scientists all bust out laughing and shit, but then when they try to send him back in time the time machine all starts smoking and shit, really crazy you know, and civilisation gets set back to the time where Archimedes wrote that crazy ass formula down! Then he's all like, shaking his head, because he knows it will happen again in a few thousand years.

    Woudln't that be some crazy shit yo?

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  6. Re:X-Ray Fluroescence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This story deserves telling in the full, especially on a site like Slashdot where people have the background to appreciate the nuances involved

    M$Winblows is teh sux. The gummint is out to get us. Dumbya sux0rs. Gentoo is l337. Star Wars rules.

    Yup, we appreciate it.

  7. Re:Translating now... hold on.... by MrDomino · · Score: 4, Funny

    #include <stdio.h>
    #define NINE 8 + 1
    #define SIX 1 + 5

    int
    main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    printf("\nWhat do you get when you multiply six by nine? %d", SIX * NINE);
    return 0;
    }

  8. Re:X-Ray Fluroescence by Mr2001 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... this is a highly sophisticated story involving the specific nature of ancient inks, the problems of 12th century economics which reduced many cultures to reprocessing books (the results of which are called palimpsets)

    I'll probably get modded down for this spelling nitpick, but I think you mean "palimpsests". I misspelled that word before a national audience in 1992, don't want you to make the same mistake in this international forum. ;)

    --
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  9. As it turns out... by lheal · · Score: 4, Funny
    It was Archimedes who was quoted as saying,
    Give me but one firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the earth.

    That got translated from the original Attic Greek into common Greek, then into High Latin, then Vulgar Latin, and then into Old French, then soon after that into Old English. When William the Conqueror took over England in 1066, the new language that got created got it a little mixed up at first:

    Give me but one firm spot on which to sit, and I will move my bowels.

    Somehow it doesn't seem to mean quite the same thing, but I can't quite figure out where the difference is.

    --
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  10. Re:X-Ray Fluroescence by Seumas · · Score: 4, Funny

    by jd (1658)

    This story deserves telling in the full, especially on a site like Slashdot where people have the background to appreciate the nuances involved.


    You must be new here.

  11. Re:Translating now... hold on.... by jnik · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Grecians were famed for fine art,
    And buildings and stonework so smart.
    They distinguished with poise
    The men from the boys,
    And used crowbars to keep them apart.

  12. If Archimedes was alive today... by jd · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...his thoughts would probably be more like "why is it so dark in here?"


    (Apologies to Pratchett fans)

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  13. Re:Preservation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    oh shit! we never thought of that possibility!!

    hey frank, STOP THE BEAM!!!!

  14. Sad that he died. Good thing he reincarnated by zaxios · · Score: 4, Funny

    as Archimedes Plutonium. According to the aforelinked repository of unblemished truth that is Wikipedia, Archimedes has since discovered

    1. Plutonium Atom Totality theory. According to this theory, there was no Big Bang, but rather growth from a "Hydrogen Atom Totality" into the present "Plutonium Atom Totality", in which "the galaxies are dots of the electron dot cloud".

    2. Fusion Barrier Principle. Quoting Plutonium, "Fission energy is the highest form of energy that is able to be controlled and surpass breakeven".

    3. Unification of the Forces of Physics as a Coulomb Unification.

    4. Stonethrowing theory. This theory states that the difference between apes and humans resulted some 8 to 10 million years ago from a solo quadruped ape that "started throwing rocks overarm and overhead". This activity gave the ape advantages in getting food and more females for mating purposes "by killing other rivals using throwing".

    5. Possibility of global warming reversal. According to Plutonium's theory, there exists a CFC variant or methyl molecule that when produced and released will act as an "upper atmosphere earth air conditioner and reverse global warming"."
    "

    Despite that the brilliance of his ideas so obviously extended the work of Archimedes the Greek, it took the reincarnated Archimedes 44 years to realize that he was in fact Archimedes:

    In autumn of 1994 he claims to have realized that he was the reincarnation of the great early Greek scientist Archimedes, and so once again changed his name to Archimedes Plutonium.

    What I want to know is why we continue to dwell so much on Archimedes' old work when he has been producing so much insight as of late and it has yet to be properly appreciated.

  15. Rambaldi by BBrown · · Score: 4, Funny

    Were any Alias fans (or just Jennifer Garner fans) out there reminded of Rambaldi?

  16. DCMA by hhawk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clearly this is a violation of DCMA... ;)

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  17. Perspective by Silvrmane · · Score: 5, Funny

    Boy, this really puts my efforts to retrieve my old Amiga files off 10 year old 8mm Exabyte tapes in perspective. ;)

  18. Re:Translating now... hold on.... by nacturation · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, no... the revealed text on the first page so far consists of:

    "F1RSTUS P0STU5"

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  19. Obligatory "Half Baked" parody by earthbound+kid · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Have you ever read Slashdot, man?"
    "Well, yeah, uh I guess..."
    "But have you ever read Slashdot -- on weed."

  20. Translation, page two... by TiggertheMad · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I have discovered a lovely little proof of my theorum about x^n + y^n = z^n, but alas, I fear to write it down because some french git will probably nick it."

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
  21. Re:Translating now... hold on.... by Scaba · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's probably more like:

    Dear diary...I am SOOOOOOO embarrassed!!!!! OMG!!! I was like bathing today and like came up with this bitchin' idea about buoyancy and TOTALLY forgot I was like in the public bath, you know? And so I jumped up with my dork all hanging out and ran down the streets yelling like a total moron. OMG, diary O - M - F - G!!!!!!