[bitt]

p

[wally_bert]

I despise printers.

[yarddog]

I think writing in Crete is just as old as Egypt.

Much of it still undecipherable tho it is kin to Greek.

[dfwgator]

"It's a Miracle!"

[MV=PY]

Thanks for posting, a good read!

It’ll be easy to see which posters actually click on the link and read it.

[coaster123]

The first word was, no doubt, written in all caps.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Interesting. BFL

[morphing libertarian]

Rulers controlled knowledge and communication throughout history: ​Islam's burning of libraries and forbidding followers to read the Bible; Medieval feudal lords and clergy communicated only in Latin; banning and burning of books during Reformation, Jewish pogroms, National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi), Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Erdogan's Turkish government, etc.; confiscation of printing presses; during Revolution, Britain's Writs of Assistance whereby British agents read all correspondence; more recently, attempts to restrict talk radio; and censor the internet. Thomas Aquinas wrote of Mohammed in Summa contra Gentiles, 1258: ​"It was a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity."

[Bigg Red]

Mark

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Papyrus was the main medium to write upon for nearly 3,000 years.”

In upstate New York elementary schools, we were taught about the Egyptians writing on papyrus probably in sixth grade. It’s always stuck with me. Last hear, I started growing papyrus as an annual ornamental plant in my garden. A number of people have remarked about the odd plant and I tell them “It’s papyrus — the plant the Egyptians used to make paper and wrote on. You remember learning about that in school, right?”

Not one person I’ve talked to has ever heard of papyrus. That strikes me as odd, but perfectly emblematic of the dumbing down of education.

[matthew fuller]

Very interesting post, thanks for posting!

[SES1066]

From the article;

=====

In America:
​ The COUNTRY is controlled by LAWS >
​ LAWS are controlled by POLITICIANS >
​ POLITICIANS are controlled by VOTERS >
​ VOTERS are controlled by PUBLIC OPINION >
​ PUBLIC OPINION is controlled by MEDIA (News, Hollywood, Internet...) & EDUCATION >
​ so whoever controls MEDIA & EDUCATION, controls the COUNTRY.

=====

Note of present DANGER : AMAZON censors book listings AND book reviews. This is for the benefit of ...?

[Paal Gulli]

It mentions Gutenberg but leaves out Caxton. William Caxton brought the first moveable-type printing press to England in 1476. At the time English was still in a state of decay because of having been neglected since the Norman Conquest and the rise of the French language among the gentry of England. There were innumerable English dialects because it had become so regionally divergent and the process of it becoming more homogeneous would likely have taken centuries, except for Caxton’s intervention.

A spoken language is malleable but only until it becomes widely available in print. Caxton had a business to run so he couldn’t waste time waiting for a single unified English to emerge so he made arbitrary choices and started printing. And in the doing he shaped the modern language and became probably the single most impactful individual in all its history.