Ancient Egypt developed over 3,000 years ago, and still today I'm fascinated by that historical period. And I'm even more fascinated by the Japanese company Solid Alliance's announcement of the new Hieroglyph Love USB Memory keys. What's special about these USB keys is that hieroglyphics are on them.

From left to right, the five USB Keys mean: Ankh (Always Together), Gentle Heart, Courtship, Love, and Joy.

According to the company, "In ancient Egypt, hieroglyphs carried a sacred power to chronicle events and protect beliefs. We have created USB keys containing the same powerful words as the hieroglyphic script of ancient times. A surge of "love", "joy" and the like can be drawn to you even as your data is protected."

Each Hieroglyph Love USB Memory key holds 256MB, supports USB 2.0, and sells for ¥3,680 Yen (˜$31.50 USD, [˜£16.50]).

That's quite expensive really for a 256MB USB flash drive as you can easily get a branded 1GB one from for the same price. For example the Sandisk Cruzer Crossfire 1GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive.

Hieroglyph Love USB Memory Keys: Spread the Love, Jennifer DeLeo, GearLog, August 30, 2006.

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will open its next major exhibition, Treasures of Ancient Egypt, on Oct. 5 [2006].

The exhibit will feature more than 200 Egyptian artefacts on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

"After listening to our visitors and understanding that it was the Egyptian portion of Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World that was of most interest, we booked this exhibition from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," notes gallery director Jeffrey Spalding.

Treasures of Ancient Egypt presents a broad range of works from statuary and relief, to coffins, the funerary arts and everyday objects. Much of what we know about ancient Egypt comes from the temples and tombs that housed the gods and served as eternal resting places for the dead. These tombs were filled with statuary, clothing, jewellery, furniture, pottery, tools and weapons.

Egyptian treasures coming to AGNS, The Halifax Chronicle Herald, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 30, 2006.

Andrew Dalby, author of , argues that the attribution of the poems to Homer was founded on a falsehood.

Homer’s link to the poems, Dalby writes, stems from an “ill- informed postclassical text, the anonymous Life of Homer, fraudulently ascribed to Herodotus,” a respected Greek historian who lived from around 484-425 B.C.

Herodotus does mention Homer in his work Histories, but by then the legend of the mysterious, blind, male poet had already taken root, Dalby says.

Dalby explained to Discovery News that the earliest references to Homer by writers such as Herodotus and the Greek poet Pindar indicate the poet lived around 800 B.C.

But based on geographical references in the poems, Dalby believes the Iliad was composed in 650 B.C., while the Odyssey was written in 630 B.C., well after Homer’s supposed lifetime...

Scholar: Iliad, Odyssey Penned by Woman, Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News, USA, August 28, 2006.

The US billionaire Philip Anschutz will rein back investment at the Millennium Dome, scrapping plans to build two luxury hotels, a Cirque du Soleil-style theatre and exhibition centre, if the licence to build Britain's first mega-casino is not granted to the Greenwich site, an inquiry heard yesterday...

But the government last year cut the number of mega-casino licences to one. Since then, AEG has made clear it will scrap a string of investments if casino plans are thwarted. Vulnerable proposals include that of making London the European stop for its Tutankhamun exhibition. AEG will also withdraw its involvement in film promotions at the dome's proposed cinema complex...

Dome hotels will be axed if casino is refused, inquiry told, Simon Bowers, The Guardian, UK, August 31, 2006.