joue enlevée

14:56 Sep 4, 2017 

is a "pirate" site of (best I can make out) Russian origin.

It claims to have a few million books available, most quite recent (last 20 years or so), and virtually all still under "copyright."

I only use it to get at books which I am personally interested in --History, Art History, etc.-- but there I sense that are a *lot* of recent scientific books (and that is the real raison d'etre of the site).

Opinions differ as to the "morality" of making copyrighted material available on line, the claim being that it is a violation of the "rights" of publishers and, thus, not a "victimless crime"

My own feeling is that many/most publishers (esp. those which specialize in academic & scientific subjects) egregiously abuse their "rights" by (1) severely overpricing their products and (2) retaining --and enforcing-- their copyrights for decades after their books have gone out of print (with no intention of bringing them back into print).

Both of these factors severely inhibit the free flow of information.

In the U.S. the publishers are aided by the fact that "The Greatest Country in the History of the World" (as our politicians always tell us) also has the Best Congress that Money Can Buy.

17:02 Aug 30, 2017 

that acacia can have quite interesting and colorful grain patterns

https://thumb1.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/346015...

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/515yDpwNmML...

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b3/fb/fc/b3fb...

but has long, stringy grain and is rather easily split.

Apparently, it was chosen --over the rather commonly available sycamore-- for its beauty rather than its durability/suitability in these mirror handles.

13:09 Aug 30, 2017 

the ancient Egyptians were *way* too backward to have much knowledge of American baseball.

In his famous "Egyptian Grammar" Sir Alan Gardiner identifies that "baseball bat" sign as a "club used by fullers in washing" (Sign U 36, p. 520).

Gardiner can be downloaded (pirated) here:

http://libgen.io/ads.php?md5=70BCAA1276EACA9F8F8471028ADDF3D...

Click on the underlined DOWNLOAD in the top center of the page.

18:24 Aug 29, 2017 

that the handle was split down the middle (with the grain) because it was weakened by the "fente" (why didn't he say mortise? see below); this would have resulted in all or a good part of the side of the handle being broken off and (we must assume) lost.

A mirror handle, with the tenon of the heavy metal mirror stuck in a mortise in it, would take a considerable amount of stress, I should think.

Never having seen any, I don't know what the properties of acacia wood are; otOh, sycamore --which we have seen used in other mirror handles-- is notorious for its ability to resist splitting.

He's calling the grove a "fente" because that's all that's left of the mortise --which was originally a hole, but became a mere groove when the handle split at that point.
In my experience it is harder to split than, say, American elm (which is tough
enough to be used for wagon wheel hubs).

18:11 Aug 29, 2017 

we have this "finement tourné" --"finely turned" as though it were "turned" on a lathe.

Which device I'm still willing to bet Dollar$ to Donuts did not exist in Egypt before Hellenistic times.

And that the wood was progressively shaped using (probably) a flint blade, then smoothed to a round shape using abrasives.

But the text is clear --i.e., it's clear that B. thought that this handle was turned on a lathe-- so that's the way it must be translated.