Have you had enough of being lazy this summer? (Quiet in the back.) Are you longing to turn your free hours (what free hours, I hear you saying, quiet down, there) from useless into creative?

Our hyperactive h2g2ers have suggestions on how to do this.

We promise – no aerobic exercise is involved.

Have you always privately wished you were one of those people in the Da Vinci Code   – you know, cool and in on all the ancient secrets? That you could pick up an old book, glance at it, and say, 'Aha! Here Paracelsus has definitely proven Cornelius Agrippa wrong in his misreading of the Ancient Chaldean. It's not 'abracadabra', it's 'yabbadabbadoo'. No wonder I couldn't raise the dead last Beltane!'? Or similar.

Icy North has found the Rosetta Stone for us. Well, what he's really found is a project at Oxford University that you can all help with. The project, called 'Ancient Lives', involves transcribing copies of Greek papyri from Oxyrhynchus. (No, you don't have to learn how to spell it.) These old scraps of mostly harmless paper have been scanned onto the web and fitted with a handy-dandy onscreen Greek typewriter. Poli oraia (lovely), as the Greeks say.

You don't have to read Greek. You just have to know the alphabet, or learn it quickly. (It's a snap. Lazy Greek children learn it all the time.) If you're interested, mosey over to the website, or join in the chat about it on h2g2.

And you thought this was going to be a boring summer.

Bel, our intrepid editor, does not let the grass grow under her desktop (I happen to know she hates laptops with a passion). For a year now, she's been a volunteer for Project Gutenberg, those wonderful folks who give you free ebooks.

Distributed Proofreaders, as they're called, help render those OCR-scanned classic volumes readable. They are an immeasurable boon to researchers everywhere. Head over to Bel's thread for more info. Or just use Gutenberg to download some fascinating out-of-print gems in the language(s) of your choice.

Maybe you could read about papyrology.

At the end of a workday, I am talked-, written-, and edited-out. I want some mind candy, like Romanian New Age cinema. Netflix, the rotters, are raising their prices. So I've found a new source of (free!) entertainment – The Internet Archive provides for free sharing of public domain videos. The range is astounding. If you have anything rare to share, you can do so. Otherwise, be like me, and find cool things to watch.

A hot tip if you're interested in early US television, complete with commercials, or if you're interested in 1950s science fiction: Tales of Tomorrow was a series broadcast between 1951 and 1953, featuring actors as diverse as Boris Karloff and a very young Leslie Nielsen. Laugh at the production values if you will, but the stories are good. I recommend 'The Window'. The plot: Tales of Tomorrow starts with some silly story about a 'lost planet'. Then the usual sponsor tries to sell you a watchband. Suddenly, the program is interrupted by a kitchen-sink drama from somewhere in downtown New York…after that it gets weird.

There's probably not a lot of CGI on Internet Archives, but for a film/TV history buff, it's like finding a treasure trove. And it's free.

Okay, they'd kill me if I didn't remind you that the Interim Editors (of which I am one, I didn't run fast enough) are reading Peer Review eagerly to find Guide Entries for the Noohootoo. Competition to be the first entry on the new Front Page is fierce. At least, that's Lanzababy's story, and she's sticking to it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Editors are not eligible for this honour. (I will be happy to have the 42nd new entry, if anybody cares.) So polish off that idea you've got in the back of your head, and write it up. Time's a-wasting.

I wrote this while eating lunch. I have a patentable method involving 'type, click on url, take bite of sandwich, copy link, drink fizzy drink, type, repeat…' If I can, and I'm disorganised, so can you.

Just remember to go out and enjoy the sunshine every once in a while. We'll hold your place for you.

Fact and Fiction by Dmitri Gheorgheni Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

01.08.11 Front Page

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