SGU Episode 55

Introduction

You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

S: Hello and welcome to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. This is your host, Steven Novella, president of the New England Skeptical Society. Today is Wednesday, Aug 9^{th, 2006. Joining me tonight, the skeptical rogues: Bob Novella...}

B: Happy 25^{th birthday, PC!}

S: Rebecca Watson...

R: Hello!

S: Evan Bernstein...

E: Hi everybody!

S: and Jay Novella...

J: Quite well this evening, top drawer!

R: What was that?

S: Bob, what was that geek reference you just gave us?

B: Today, well, the 12^th is the 25th anniversary of the modern personal computer released by IBM in '81.

S: Well speaking of birthdays, August 7^th was the birthday of James Randi!

B: Hey!

R: Happy birthday, Randi!

J: Happy birthday!

E: Happy birthday Mr. Randi!

S: Big happy birthday from all of us to James "The Amazing" Randi! (Even though he does not go by "The Amazing" anymore.) He has turned 78. 78 and still, still investigating...

J: Still kickin' hard!

S: Still kickin.

R: That's right.

S: Still promoting skepticism far and wide.

J: And Still doing it better than anybody else.

E: Good man.

S: He is. He is. Now, Rebecca, you... you blogged this week about the Archimedes palimpsest. I have to say by the way: I love that word palimpsest, I uses it whenever I get a chance.

R: It's a good word, and usually you don't, you don't, get a lot of chances to use it, so....

S: I know, when do you get a chance to use it?

R: So you should work it in as much as humanly possibly during this ahh..

J: I admit that I have no idea what that word means...

R: Well, let me tell you. Ahh, It is actually, It is a word that describes a process that monks used to do to old books, basically. They would take goat skins or whatever and scrape off the top layer of writing, cut the sheets in half, and turn them 90 degrees and bind them together again and write over top of them. And that way they could reuse and recycle. See, they were very environmentally conscious.

E: Yeah, that's why they did it...

R: Yeah.

J: Monks did a lot of cool things to books. They also illuminated books, which I didn't know what it was.

 I thought it was something else and then someone finally told me what it meant, and it's pretty cool, pretty cool thing.  I thought illuminating a book meant that they kinda just added in artwork and stuff, but they actually... What does it actually mean?   It means that they actually put in actual um... 

S: It's those really fancy letters at the beginning of sentences.

J: Yeah.

R: Yeah.

S: And the word, the palimcest