Ancient Egyptians' (and others') math puzzlers

Ancient Egyptian Math puzzles
From NY Times, description of some cool ancient texts with math puzzles, such as how much bread (made from a certain amount of grain) should be exchanged for a given amount of beer (made with another amount of grain). Also, word problems about slaves carrying logs, the height of a ship's mast, and sacred cats chasing mice.

Italian Fashion House Gets Involved in Monument Preservation

Italian Shoe Magnate to Fund Colosseum Restoration
The CEO of "Tod's," an Italian designer house, has agreed to fund the badly-needed shoring-up of the Colosseum. The Italian government put out a call for sponsors, but none came forward for a while. The mayor of Rome promises no giant shoe ads on the outside of the monument. We'll see.

New Roman site near London

Ancient Roman site found near London
from cnn.com; there may be other reports on this place on other news outlets.

Michelangelo's David on the Roof on the Cathedral?

Michelangelo's David As It Was Meant To Be Seen
An exhibition in Florence this week is placing a fiberglass replica of Michelangelo's "David" in a variety of places around town--all the places where 16th-century people suggested it be placed. The original location was supposed to be the rooftop of the cathedral. See a picture of that wacky sight at the above link from Discovery.com.

Top Words of 2010

Top Words of 2010 include "spillcam" and "Vuvuzela"
Statistics show...most common words in the news in 2010 included "spillcam" (that live shot CNN kept showing of the oil gushing into the Gulf) and "vuvuzela" (the horrible wasp-like noisemaker from the World Cup). Some non-words made the list, like SP's "refudiate" and Jersey Shore's "Guidette" (feminine of "Guido"). Other words on the list are pretty predictable--Lady Gaga, Tea Party, and iPad.

AP Italian Lives!

College Board saves AP Italian test
First they tried to hold it hostage for $1.5 million. This was in the same episode where they killed AP Latin Literature (not Vergil).

Interview from Biblical Archaeology Review

Jesus of History vs. Jesus of Tradition
Hershel Shanks interviews Professor Sean Freyne of Trinity College Dublin about what he's learned from archaeology about the historicity of Jesus. If you can ignore Hershel's sometimes goofy questions, Professor Freyne gives some very interesting answers. Hang on until the part of the interview around the little map illustration, and you'll find some cool information about recent discoveries in the towns of Galilee. Not the last word on anything, but an exciting area of ongoing investigation.