💬 Quoted… “Porphyras.”

This word, ancient Greek for “purple,” was recently deciphered from a scroll burned 2,000 years ago by the volcano that destroyed Pompeii. This potentially marks the first time in two millennia that these scrolls have been read – and it hasn’t been for lack of trying. After they were discovered in 1752 in a Pompeii-adjacent villa owned by Julius Caesar’s brother-in-law, researchers began trying to peel the scrolls – which are believed to be works of Greek philosophy – apart in order to read the text. Those efforts were largely unsuccessful and resulted in the partial destruction of some of the scrolls.

• But then, AI cracked its knuckles and got to work. A 21-year-old computer science student recently created an artificial intelligence technique that was able to pull the word from the scrolls, earning $40,000 in the process. Bigger awards await those who can interpret longer passages.

🚫🧾 Stat of the Day: $688 billion = the amount of money that Americans failed to pay on their taxes in 2021, per an IRS estimate published Thursday; it marks the highest annual figure in the agency’s history.

🤔 Did You Know?... A 2015 study by the NY Department of Consumer Affairs found that for any given consumer product sold in America, the "women's" version costs 7% more on average than similar products for men.

📰 Worth a Read: The secret to living to 100? It's not good habits → (WSJ)