Google announces Dead Sea Scrolls online

Locked away in Jerusalem since 1965, getting close to these 3rd - 1st Century BC documents was once extraordinarily difficult.

The images posted online are not just simple scans, they are incredibly high definition (1,200 megapixel) shots. You can zoom in, highlight sections and really interact with the material. Translations are clickable and searchable on general internet searches, just like everything else! Access to primary sources is always of paramount importance, and Google is really ahead of the curve in intuitive easy access to this amazing material.

You can check out Google's full blog post here. Or watch their features clip here:

"Academic Journal" will publish your articles, for a hefty fee

Over at Antiqua they have come up with a cunning plan:

1. Send unsolicited emails to every academic address they can find.
2. Tell the academic that they can get their article (any article it would seem) published, quickly. [All academics want to have lots of papers published, it is just a slow and agonising process.]
3. Antiqua offer you the chance to write the article, send it to them along with €350 and keep your fingers crossed that they will publish it. Online. Only online....

I am not impressed.

Have a read for yourself here: http://www.pagepress.org/journals/index.php/antiqua/pages/view/why

The wonders of the internet - Dead Sea Scrolls to go online

The Dead Sea Scrolls, among the world's most important, mysterious and tightly restricted archaeological treasures, are about to get Googled.

The technology giant and Israel announced Tuesday that they are teaming up to give researchers and the public the first comprehensive and searchable database of the scrolls – a 2,000-year-old collection of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek documents that shed light on Judaism during biblical times and the origins of Christianity. For years, experts have complained that access to the scrolls has been too limited.

Once the images are up, anyone will be able to peruse exact copies of the original scrolls as well as an English translation of the text on their computer – for free. Officials said the collection, expected to be available within months, will feature sections that have been made more legible thanks to high-tech infrared technology.

Read more: http://acn.liveauctioneers.com/index.php/component/content/article/3353?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ACNlatestnews+%28Auction+Central+News+-+Latest+News%29#ixzz13MwgrpW3

Internet Archaeology

This is a very interesting idea - to catalogue what has been on the internet.

Our use of the internet is fast and disposable, and this site tries to capture what has been on the internet before it is deleted forever.

http://internetarchaeology.org/

I warn you in advance - some of it is NSFW

We don't often think that everything we create online can be deleted with the click of a button or the pop of a server. Unlike tangible physical remains - the ideas and creations of the online world will not exist unless they are purposefully maintained.