OT - Enough to Gag a Maggot

[Dennis <ixohoxi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	I found the following site on claims of decipherment
of the Phaistos Disk:

Phaistos Disk Decipherment Update
http://users.otenet.gr/~svoronan/phaistos.htm

	While some of it is good research and our list member
Jacques Guy has a couple of pointers, the biggest part
is crankery.  Our old friend Steven Fischer's book,
*Glyphbreaker*, takes the prize.  "Recently he
published the book Glyphbreaker that includes the story
of the Phaistos Disk together with his newer efforts in
deciphering Rongorongo...  Dr. Fischer published his
original findings in the book "Evidence of Hellenic
Dialect in the Phaistos Disk", 1988."  Hmmm... wonder
where he got that title???  A reviewer on Amazon, Paul
Bahn, says "The most impressive aspect of Glyphbreaker
is not so much that this remarkable man has cracked two
entirely different scripts, a feat unique in the
history of epigraphy, but rather that he has done so
despite tremendous privations in his life.... "  So
Fischer is a poor, toiling, heroic inventor as well!!!  

	Fortunately, there is at least one sober review on
Amazon:

"Interesting but utterly unconvincing, June 21, 2000  
Reviewer: Paul V Caetano from Ottawa, Canada. Fischer
claims to have deciphered two of the remaining
undeciphered ancient scripts. However, while he might
have sacrificed a lot in his efforts, the results are
not convincing. The Phaistos disk has been the subject
of many decipherment attempts. The Phaistos disk
homepage alone lists 39 such endeavors. Fischer's
methods are more scientific than most of the others,
but ultimately not much more persuasive. The glaring
flaw in his method is that he does not have enough
checks to eliminate bad assumptions. With a text as
short as the Phaistos Disk, if you make enough
assumptions you can get a legible text in whatever
language you want. That is exactly what is  presented
in Glyphbreaker. Fischer has studied the Easter Island
script extensively, and thus brings a wealth of
knowledge to his discussion of that script. However,
his proposal is certainly not a true decipherment and
the jury remains out on its validity."

	"With a text as short as the Phaistos Disk, if you
make enough assumptions you can get a legible text in
whatever language you want."  Ah, how familiar we are
with this!

Dennis