Tom Standage

@tomstandage.bsky.social

Author, deputy editor at The Economist, maker of pizzas, drummer, gamer, history nerd

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

Fine explainer by @tomstandage.bsky.social about how computer scientists are slowly beginning to "read" the texts in ancient Pompeii scrolls which were so charred by the volcano that buried the city that the scrolls can't be opened without them falling to bits.

AI could help unearth a trove of lost classical texts

Computers could let archaeologists read hundreds of burnt scrolls from a Roman library

economist.com