The AIR MAIL Diary

We’re still processing the news from Al Bahnasa—site of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus? Just south of Cairo?—where, Scientific American reported, an excavation team found “a sheet of papyrus inside [a] mummy’s abdomen that contained text from the Iliad, the ancient Greek poet Homer’s epic account of the siege of Troy.” Just a “passage,” fortunately, not all 15,693 lines. But that’s still a lot to swallow. Why don’t you all go on ahead.

More than 10,000 men have reportedly applied to compete for a prize of $100,000 here next month in the Sperm Racing Olympics, in which “semen samples from 128 men, each representing a different country, go head-to-head on a microscopic race track,” said the Daily Mail. The course? A “specially designed microfluidic track, where [the sperm] will race in straight-line sprints measuring just 400 microns — roughly 0.02 inches, or about the size of a fine grain of table salt. Powerful microscopes will magnify every movement and broadcast the action live to viewers online, while giant screens at the venue will show play-by-play progress, stats and leaderboards.” Gentlemen … start your privates.