Major Herculaneum Scroll News: "In the closing section of the text our author takes a parting shot at his adversaries, who 'have nothing to say about pleasure, either in general or in particular, when it is a question of definition.'”

Sounds very promising if it is a discussion of the meaning of "pleasure"! Almost like he was lecturing some Epicureans of today who fail to focus on the importance of this topic.

Are his adversaries Stoics -- or other Epicureans who were failing to argue the details of pleasure forcefully enough? The Stoics had plenty to say about pleasure - they denounced it.

Would not be surprising to see echos of the debate that Cicero memorializes through Torquatus.

Since this episode of Lucretius today focuses on the importance of being clear about the nature of pleasure, I'm posting this link here in addition to the normal places since it is not crazy to speculate that it may be on point with what Philodemus is complaining about:

More coverage. Never heard of this site and not much new in the artlcle but the website has an interesting title perhaps for following events in modern Greece.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2024/02/06/ancient-philosophers-words-resurface-from-volcanic-ash-ai-cracks-greek-papyrus-secrets/

Much more substantive article with nice graphics:

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Head-shaking conclusion to the Bloomberg article:

"Barring a mass relocation, Friedman is working to refine what he’s got. There’s plenty left to do; the first contest yielded about 5% of one scroll. A new set of contestants, he says, might be able to reach 85%. He also wants to fund the creation of more automated systems that can speed the processes of scanning and digital smoothing. He’s now one of the few living souls who’s roamed the villa tunnels, and he says he’s also contemplating buying scanners that can be placed right at the villa and used in parallel to scan tons of scrolls per day. “Even if there’s just one dialogue of Aristotle or a beautiful lost Homeric poem or a dispatch from a Roman general about this Jesus Christ guy who’s roaming around,” he says, “all you need is one of those for the whole thing to be more than worth it.”"