The reviews are in, and the reviews are good! . My latest book: The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past. I'm imagining it as a doc series. (@veltre for option). Here's a round-up of what the critics are saying:.

RT @longnow: Artificial Intelligence tools can help researchers crack some of the hardest problems in deciphering ancient languages — but t….

@longnow I'm no longer on X/Twitter, except for professional/courtesy posts like this one. You can find me here:.

But A.I. has its limits. In the case of the mystery scripts of antiquity, the issue is lack of data. Cracking these codes is within our reach, but it's going to require a different approach, as I explain in this essay in the @longnow Foundation's Ideas:.

And transformer models are actually helping us to fill in the blanks in damaged inscriptions, most famously in the scrolls of Herculaneum, which were encased in a pyroclastic flow after the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE.

. there are hopes that we'll finally be able to read these scripts, which could open up the secrets of little-understood societies. (Below: the Phaistos disk, a one-of-a-kind, possibly 3,000 years old, from Minoan palace on Crete.)

At least a dozen writing systems resist all human attempts at decipherment. These include Linear A, the Harappan Script of the Indus Valley, and Rongorongo, inscribed with shark's teeth on wooden panels on Rapa Nui. Now, thanks to artificial intelligence. 🧵

In my book The Lost Supper, I share how I tried to turn my family's #Montreal home kitchen into a lab for food sovereignty (while digging deep into humanity's relationship with flavour).

Got the Trump Trade War blues?. I show how #Montreal is charting a path to agricultural self-sufficiency w/ urban fish-farming, greenhouses on shopping malls, + rooftop grapevines for wine-making. Bye-bye imported tomatoes!. On the @foodandwine website:.

Love to get your take on this, @csmaje . .

You can read more about my visit to Lufa in my latest Lost Supper dispatch. (And yes, I got there by transit: metro and bus!).

. but the fact that founder Mo Hagge has calculated that rooftop gardens like this one could easily supply the 2 million people on the island of Montreal with produce year-round is food for thought.

I paid a visit to Lufa Farms, which operates the world's largest rooftop greenhouse in #Montreal. It's a huge urban farm, which supplies tomatoes, peppers, cukes—as well as locally-made cheese, beer, sausages etc— to 70,000+ subscribers. Hydroponics has pros and cons.

Calling authors, editors, publishers!. Does anybody know of an editor at a leading house who has a soft spot for trains—railroads—rail travelogues/history?. There are loads in London; I'm looking for a literary ferroequinologist in NY, Toronto, etc.—on my side of the Atlantic.

I took a train to the enchanted city of .#Trieste #Italy and explored all its historical caffès. I believe this city has the best espresso in the world. Join me for a "capo in b'" + other caffeinated Triestino oddities in my latest @TravelLeisure feature:.

I write about more about the move in my latest Lost Supper dispatch. No paywall, come on in.

Being on X felt like running into the Chernobyl Zone of Exclusion to grab a few prized possessions from an abandoned house. Sometimes necessary, but also a threat to my long-term well-being.

I've joined millions who have left the Hellsite for Bluesky. It feels good. 🧵

Life is elsewhere!. I'm gradually transitioning from This Red Hell to a place where the Sky is Blue. You'll find me here:.

What a pleasure to meet Nestor, Catherine, and Anna at Perogies Lili today! (Anna served me an amazing lunch of cheddar pierogis and borsch.). Nestor and Catherine opened on Rue Fairmount in #Montreal in July, and it’s become a hub of the hood! #slavaukraini

Amazing to meet Daniel, Esther, and the gang at Agriculture du Coin in #montreal’s Mile-End! An amazing one-stop-shop for all your urban farming needs. A great selection of books—I signed a stack of my latest, The Lost Supper, now available in-store. 235 Ave Laurier Ouest