4 ms·

My initial thought upon reading the title: 'what the hell is "blank reveal text"?'

by hackissimo123 6y ago

basch 6y ago
I had the same trouble. It's a poorly written headline, the scrolls themselves did not perform the reveal.
- emmelaich 6y ago
  The word 'reveal' is the current favourite of click-bait title writers.
  - DC-3 6y ago
    It's just bizarre. The scrolls didn't do any revealing! The people did!
    - derefr 6y ago
      Did they? > reveal, v. ts., 1. make (previously unknown or secret information) known to others. If I turn on a flashlight in a dark room, I reveal the contents of the room; but the flashlight also reveals the contents of the room; and at the lowest level, the light from the flashlight reveals the contents of the room. One could go even deeper, and say that the objects "reveal themselves", as the pigments in the objects react to the light by transmitting information about the objects to my eyes (unlike stealth planes or dark matter, which do not reveal themselves in response to light.) A server can "reveal" information by transmitting it to you, in response to your request for it. A server reveals itself when it responds to a ping. A server that ignores pings and portscans is avoiding revealing itself. Basically, any entity in the causal chain for information being produced—even a non-agentive one—seems capable of "revealing" in English. (Perhaps you're thinking of "unveil"? That word implies that there's a thing external to the information—a veil/curtain—and requires an agentive entity to act upon it.)
      - DC-3 6y ago
        My intuition for the verb 'reveal' is that the subject need be in some way active in the object being de-obscured. A server responding to pings reveals itself because handling incoming connections and sending packets in response is an active process. If the leather had undergone some sort of chemical process, say, an oxidation, and this had made the script apparent, I think it would be reasonable to say that the fragments were revealing the lettering. However, as far as I can see, nothing has changed about the scroll, nor even about our technological ability to interrogate it - rather, someone simply attempted to look closer than had been done so before. Etymologically, 'reveal' is of the same heritage as 'unveil' - both are essentially analogies to the removing of a veil, and as such have the connotation of action. Only in a poetic context would I personally think it appropriate to use 'reveal' in a passive sense - as in your example of objects revealing themselves on exposure to light. This is of course just wot i rekon. I would probably chose 'divulge' over 'reveal' in the title of the OP article.
        derefr 6y ago
        > However, as far as I can see, nothing has changed about the scroll, nor even about our technological ability to interrogate it - rather, someone simply attempted to look closer than had been done so before. I believe one common usage of "reveal" is that an autostereogram ("Magic Eye" picture) reveals a 3D image when you focus on it correctly. Nothing about the picture changes; nothing about your eyes change, either, really. It's just "looking closer." But the 3D object was obscure, and now it's been... revealed. Revealed by what? By whom? Not too clear. I guess, in the Dead-Sea-Scroll-fragments case, it actually is clear: it was revealed by a microscope.
        perl4ever 6y ago
        Here are quotes from some Google Books (not all particularly poetic) "The dim glow of the light revealed a pair of feet" "The dust revealed a group of riders returning" "an inrush of air, clearing the smoke, revealed a scene of utter devastation" "When a 30-MW Q-switched ruby laser was focused into water, the resulting spark revealed a blackbody-like spectrum with a temperature of 15,000K"
  - catalogia 6y ago
    "Text revealed in Dead Sea Scroll fragments previously considered blank."
  - bregma 6y ago
    "Scroll Writers Hate This One Trick... click to reveal new text"
- ARandomerDude 6y ago
  > It's a poorly written headline, the scrolls themselves did not perform the reveal. Material versus efficient cause. The scrolls are the material cause of the revelation, the researchers are the efficient cause of the revelation. Both reveal the text.
0xdeadbeefbabe 6y ago
A joke with no punchline
gibolt 6y ago
They found zero-width space characters!
curlypaul924 6y ago
I thought the same thing and found myself, for a moment, awed that this might be the first documented use of spoiler tags.
- jagannathtech 6y ago
  They just used input hidden ;)
every 6y ago
Ah, for the want of a comma...
- runxel 6y ago
  It certainly would have helped, no?
kace91 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence
- nerdponx 6y ago
  2 commas would solve everything.
throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
Near me there's some roadworks. There's a sign that says exactly "Narrow Road Don't Overtake Cyclists" but perhaps they meant "Narrow Road Don't Overtake, Cyclists" The comma inverts the meaning. I still don't know which they intended.
- hackissimo123 6y ago
  Obligatory Simpsons reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yuL6PcgSgM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yuL6PcgSgM
- jfengel 6y ago
  A local hospital put up some motivational signs, in crayon. One reads, "Medical workers: not all heros wear capes". But it's written on three lines in three different colors, so it reads like "Medical workers: Not All Heroes. Wear capes!"

My initial thought upon reading the title: 'what the hell is "blank reveal text"?'

basch 6y ago

I had the same trouble. It's a poorly written headline, the scrolls themselves did not perform the reveal.

emmelaich 6y ago
The word 'reveal' is the current favourite of click-bait title writers.
- DC-3 6y ago
  It's just bizarre. The scrolls didn't do any revealing! The people did!
  - derefr 6y ago
    Did they? > reveal, v. ts., 1. make (previously unknown or secret information) known to others. If I turn on a flashlight in a dark room, I reveal the contents of the room; but the flashlight also reveals the contents of the room; and at the lowest level, the light from the flashlight reveals the contents of the room. One could go even deeper, and say that the objects "reveal themselves", as the pigments in the objects react to the light by transmitting information about the objects to my eyes (unlike stealth planes or dark matter, which do not reveal themselves in response to light.) A server can "reveal" information by transmitting it to you, in response to your request for it. A server reveals itself when it responds to a ping. A server that ignores pings and portscans is avoiding revealing itself. Basically, any entity in the causal chain for information being produced—even a non-agentive one—seems capable of "revealing" in English. (Perhaps you're thinking of "unveil"? That word implies that there's a thing external to the information—a veil/curtain—and requires an agentive entity to act upon it.)
    - DC-3 6y ago
      My intuition for the verb 'reveal' is that the subject need be in some way active in the object being de-obscured. A server responding to pings reveals itself because handling incoming connections and sending packets in response is an active process. If the leather had undergone some sort of chemical process, say, an oxidation, and this had made the script apparent, I think it would be reasonable to say that the fragments were revealing the lettering. However, as far as I can see, nothing has changed about the scroll, nor even about our technological ability to interrogate it - rather, someone simply attempted to look closer than had been done so before. Etymologically, 'reveal' is of the same heritage as 'unveil' - both are essentially analogies to the removing of a veil, and as such have the connotation of action. Only in a poetic context would I personally think it appropriate to use 'reveal' in a passive sense - as in your example of objects revealing themselves on exposure to light. This is of course just wot i rekon. I would probably chose 'divulge' over 'reveal' in the title of the OP article.
      - derefr 6y ago
        > However, as far as I can see, nothing has changed about the scroll, nor even about our technological ability to interrogate it - rather, someone simply attempted to look closer than had been done so before. I believe one common usage of "reveal" is that an autostereogram ("Magic Eye" picture) reveals a 3D image when you focus on it correctly. Nothing about the picture changes; nothing about your eyes change, either, really. It's just "looking closer." But the 3D object was obscure, and now it's been... revealed. Revealed by what? By whom? Not too clear. I guess, in the Dead-Sea-Scroll-fragments case, it actually is clear: it was revealed by a microscope.
      - perl4ever 6y ago
        Here are quotes from some Google Books (not all particularly poetic) "The dim glow of the light revealed a pair of feet" "The dust revealed a group of riders returning" "an inrush of air, clearing the smoke, revealed a scene of utter devastation" "When a 30-MW Q-switched ruby laser was focused into water, the resulting spark revealed a blackbody-like spectrum with a temperature of 15,000K"
- catalogia 6y ago
  "Text revealed in Dead Sea Scroll fragments previously considered blank."
- bregma 6y ago
  "Scroll Writers Hate This One Trick... click to reveal new text"
ARandomerDude 6y ago
> It's a poorly written headline, the scrolls themselves did not perform the reveal. Material versus efficient cause. The scrolls are the material cause of the revelation, the researchers are the efficient cause of the revelation. Both reveal the text.

0xdeadbeefbabe 6y ago

A joke with no punchline

gibolt 6y ago

They found zero-width space characters!

curlypaul924 6y ago

I thought the same thing and found myself, for a moment, awed that this might be the first documented use of spoiler tags.

jagannathtech 6y ago
They just used input hidden ;)

every 6y ago

Ah, for the want of a comma...

runxel 6y ago
It certainly would have helped, no?

kace91 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence

nerdponx 6y ago
2 commas would solve everything.

throwaway_pdp09 6y ago

Near me there's some roadworks. There's a sign that says exactly "Narrow Road Don't Overtake Cyclists" but perhaps they meant "Narrow Road Don't Overtake, Cyclists" The comma inverts the meaning. I still don't know which they intended.

hackissimo123 6y ago
Obligatory Simpsons reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yuL6PcgSgM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yuL6PcgSgM
jfengel 6y ago
A local hospital put up some motivational signs, in crayon. One reads, "Medical workers: not all heros wear capes". But it's written on three lines in three different colors, so it reads like "Medical workers: Not All Heroes. Wear capes!"