Ancient Writings, Current Events & "Can You Hear Me Now?"

Can't get enough of that old stuff, apparently, and in this case the old stuff is something called the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Oxford scientists are using high-tech technologies to translate ancient, tattered and highly fragile papyrus documents thought to contain long-lost Greek and Roman writings. The project's web site emerged as BlogPulse's 25th top-ranked link today, and subsequent news coverage ranked first, with plenty of bloggers mentioning the project.

Running, cruising, running?
For fresher news, runner Paula Radcliffe is today's No. 2 bursty person for her courageous weekend win of the London Marathon, despite getting sick halfway through.

Also getting sick -- seasick, apparently -- were passengers of a luxury cruise ship that was smacked by a "freak 70-foot wave" during a storm off the Florida coast.

Testing the 2008 political waters for another presidential run is a familiar name: retired Gen. Wesley Clark. His name popped up from blogger coverage of the California Democratic convention. And interest in the May 5 election in Great Britain continues to grab blogger attention.

Can you hear me now?
The name of Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg pops up at the No. 2 spot among bursty people for an interview in the San Francisco Chronicle in which he said: "Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" (Maybe we all took a wild guess after the "Can you hear me now? Good!" commercials?)

Another San Francisco creation -- a column about the Unitarian Jihad by writer Jon Carroll -- continues to capture attention among bloggers since it first appeared last week, urging an American jihad ruled by common sense and civility rather than the extremist views that seem to dominate public and political discourse these days.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: In Iraq, the tribal Kurds are gaining momentum for their role in shaping the new democratic government there.