'Irreplaceable' books by Galileo, Newton found under house in Romania:
Police in Romania have uncovered a trove of "irreplaceable" books including first editions of works by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton that were stolen in a sophisticated 2017 heist from a warehouse in London, police and the European Union's judicial co-operation agency said on Friday.
The stash of some 200 rare and valuable books was discovered on Wednesday hidden in a concealed space under a house in rural Romania.
London's Met Police said in a statement that the recovered books have a combined value of more than £2.5 million ($3.2 million).
"These books are extremely valuable, but more importantly they are irreplaceable and are of great importance to international cultural heritage," Detective Inspector Andy Durham said in a statement.
The books were stolen in a raid on a warehouse in west London. Burglars cut holes in the roof and abseiled down into the building to avoid motion detectors, loaded the books into 16 large bags and clambered back up the ropes to make their getaway through the roof, police said.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Saturday September 19 2020, @04:00PM (14 children)
Have they/Haven't they already bee scanned and made available on the web?
-- hendrik
(Score: 5, Funny) by krishnoid on Saturday September 19 2020, @04:33PM (3 children)
Dude, they *just* recovered them. Give google's scanbots a few hours. Plus a couple days to socially engineer their way into the evidence locker (pretending to be sexbots of course), set up an illicit date with the clerk so s/he's not on duty during the critical hours, read everything very carefully, then exfiltrate the info. Rewrite Wikipedia to say that Google directly imported the data from Galileo's original floppy disks, and you're done.
Now that I think about it, [youtu.be] socially engineering their way in is probably a lot more likely scenario than infiltrating a bunch of military systems. Why do you even need to deploy any hardware if you've got the processing power to continuously keep the wetware in check?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Saturday September 19 2020, @04:51PM (2 children)
I was hoping they might have been scanned before they were stolen. If so, no need to do it over again except to detect damage.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday September 19 2020, @05:38PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday September 19 2020, @06:01PM
And there may already be copies of at least some of them in academic libraries all over the world.
I do remember seeing a fasimile copy of Newton's Principia at the University of Manitoba back in the 60's.
-- hendrik
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @05:49PM (8 children)
I think the Mona Lisa has been scanned at high resolution. You can probably throw out the original now as it is not as useful as the digital copy.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @06:34PM (2 children)
Absolutely. And while we’re at it, we have virtual sports teams with all the stats of real humans, so there’s no reason anyone we need anyone to compete in person anymore, especially with COVID and all. So we’re just shutting up all the sports arenas because no one would be interested with all the digital replacements...
Oh, wait...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by aiwarrior on Saturday September 19 2020, @07:10PM (1 child)
I think in the modern age it is no longer about the data of the Monalisa work, but the fact that the artifact serves as evidence that the Monalisa is real, as was it's history context etc. The information is valuable but not the whole value.
I think one can argue that some written artifacts already lost their value in the sense that their data is easily reproducible, but that was always a small portion of the value and depreciating one as we can now create much better reproductions imaginary or real than these mediums allowed. Hell, the Principiae of Newton and Gallieo's notes are so irrelevant in modern times that i think no high schooler to physics PhD ever read them to achieve their knowledge(I heard the Principiae is basically useless nowadays due to it's reliance on geometry instead of on calculus). Regardless they are evidence that ground the very sense of reality of the human species.
I have been thinking a lot about the value of preservation as I actually find hoarding useless and sometimes find the cult of the "original" ridiculous. On the other hand the evidence some artifacts provide, is very comforting to me: History is real. From 1984: "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.". The original artifacts, and the evidence they provide take away power from the 'present' to change the past, and leave it immutable as it should be. In a post-truth age, evidence becomes even more important.
PS: The value of preservation has been on my mind due to the fact that there are more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt. They are also mostly abandoned and decaying. I am ashamed to say i discovered that last week :(
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Sunday September 20 2020, @02:15AM
I did read a fair amount of Newton's Principia back in the 60's. The arguments Newton used to justify his version of mechanics were quite ingenious.
-- hendrik
(Score: 3, Touché) by Nuke on Saturday September 19 2020, @07:32PM (2 children)
Yes, except there are a lot of people who don't seem to have access to the internet yet, judging by the crowds packing the Mona Lisa room at the Louvre. Funny, the crowds look like well-heeled people too.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @11:22PM (1 child)
Most of them are not there to see the Mona Lisa. They are there to be seen seeing the Mona Lisa.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Monday September 21 2020, @02:50AM
Some people, myself included, like to go to art museums. We don't go to see one painting/statue. We go to spend a couple of hours immersed in civilizations best products.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday September 20 2020, @09:16AM (1 child)
For one thing you can't Photoshop the original to give her bigger tits.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday September 21 2020, @01:03PM
You could paint over it, although you would need to get permission from the Louvre first. Over-painting was done a lot in olden days, revealed by X-rays.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @09:28PM
A scan is a very poor substitute for the real original object.
Let me just say that "R----ia" is still a trigger word for me 20 years after an experience. Still hard for me not to auto-label them as a nation of crims.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @05:44PM (3 children)
A much higher price would be irreplaceable like this
https://stylecaster.com/luxury-yachts-owned-by-the-rich-and-famous/ [stylecaster.com]
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Saturday September 19 2020, @07:12PM (2 children)
Assuming a price in dollars equals to value is an interesting point of view. What was the last quotation on your life?
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday September 19 2020, @09:49PM (1 child)
basic economics: not everyone values things the same. What was your point? Yes, you can put a dollar value on life. We do it every day. YOU do it every day.
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Saturday September 19 2020, @10:27PM
The point was made by you not answering the question. Do not confuse heuristics with currency.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @06:52PM (2 children)
If they kept them in a barn, they worth the heist happening to them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @09:46PM (1 child)
Whoa there stable boy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2020, @07:43AM
Too late, joker, I already bolted.