Textual criticism on Arabic video

On a site 'liked' by over 65,000 people there are some videos on New Testament Textual Criticism: one, two, three, and there are some more on the OT on a site called Islam Explained: four, five. It's basically lecture, and I can't make out its reliability. If you don't speak Arabic the main reason to click is for the 20 seconds of introductory music to each episode.

CSPMT announce information on 40 mss

CSPMT announced on 20 October that they are making available specific information regarding over forty new manuscripts of the Greek New Testament.

NT Textual Criticism at the ETS Annual Meeting

This year the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society is in Milwaukee (14-16 Nov 2012), with the general topic of 'Caring for Creation' and a wide (and interesting) selection of papers. I couldn't find anything on OT textual criticism, but in NT the following sessions and papers look interesting:

Abidan Paul Shah (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), Twenty Years since the “Orthodox Corruption” - A Survey of Responses and Developments

Doug Burleson (Freed-Hardeman University), Scribal Traits in Direct-Copy New Testament Manuscripts

Radu Gheorghita (Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), The Scribal Habits in Handling the Old Testament Quotations Displayed in the Major Codices

John H. Niemelä (Rocky Mountain Bible College and Seminary), Early Publishing Technology: Scrolls versus Codices

Armin D. Baum (Freie Theologische Hochschule Gießen), Does the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11) have Canonical Authority? An Interdenominational Approach

Tomas Bokedal (University of Aberdeen), Implications of Canonical Date for Scriptural Interpretation

David I. Yoon (McMaster Divinity College), Canonical Criteria: A Diachronic Analysis of the Early Church’s Recognition of the New Testament Canon

Benjamin Laird (University of Aberdeen), Hebrews and the Circulation of the Pauline Corpus in Early Christianity

Jonathan C. Borland (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), Identifying Real Orthodox Corruptions of Scripture: Some Guidelines based on Probable Orthodox Corruptions from the Gospel of Matthew

Paul Hartog (Faith Baptist Theological Seminary), 1 Corinthians 2:9 and Related Traditions in the  Apostolic Fathers

Troy A. Griffitts (Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung), Editing The Greek New Testament In A Digital Era

Maurice A. Robinson (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), De Facto Conjecture in the Main Text of NA27: A Further Consideration

Bill Warren (CNTTS), On the Road to Vaticanus: Another look at P4

Currents in Biblical Research: New Articles

The latest issue of Currents in Biblical Research has some interesting articles, especially:  

Kristin De Troyer, 'The Seventy-two and their Many Grandchildren: A Review of Septuagint Studies from 1997 Onward' CBR 11 (2012), 8-64.

 In this article, a summary will be offered of tools published in the field of Septuagint studies, such as editions, concordances, lexica, bibliographies, and translations. Then we will cover the origins of the Old Greek translations, as well as the forms of Greek used in the Septuagint. This article will also treat the debate about whether variants go back to a different Hebrew Vorlage, or to the interpretation of a translator. Contributions to the field of the early Jewish Greek revisions will also be summarized. Finally, in this survey of Septuagint studies, special attention will be given to the contents of Introductions to the Septuagint, and scholarly Proceedings and Festschriften on the Septuagint.

and
  
Timo S. Paananen, 'From Stalemate to Deadlock: Clement’s Letter to Theodore in Recent Scholarship' CBR 11 (2012), 87-125. 

This article reviews the literature pertaining to the recent debate over the question of  authenticity of Clement’s Letter to Theodore (including the so-called Secret Gospel of Mark) and argues that the academy has tied itself into a secure deadlock. The current ‘trench warfare’ situation is due to various scholarly malpractices, which include the practice of non-engagement with other scholars, abusive language towards them and mischaracterization of their position. In order to remedy the situation and move the discussion forwards a number of correcting acts are suggested.

Frank Moore Cross (1921-2012)

Jack Sasson announces that Frank Moore Cross has passed away. His significant contributions to textual criticism included work on the DSS and his theory of local texts for the Old Testament.

Wikipedia (currently) records the date of his death as 17th October, while Peter Machinist on Zwinglius Redivivus speaks of 'last night'. I suspect Machinist is a more reliable source though it could just be a time zone issue.

New Book Shakes the Foundations of Coptology and New Testament Textual Criticism

At exactly 09:00 this morning, the curtain which divides the Coptic materials in the archives of the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung (Münster) ripped in half from top to bottom.  INTF librarian, Eike Andreas Cser-Tarnai, said, "We have not seen anything like this happen since the publication of the 25th edition of the Nestle-Aland critical edition.  Such cosmic events usually coincide with dramatic advances in biblical scholarship."  INTF Coptic guru, Siegfried Richter, later noted that the time and date corresponded to the official launch of Christian Askeland's new monograph John's Gospel: the Coptic translations of its Greek text (official de Gruyter page).  Richter further stated, "This book will be an influential text for Coptic Bible scholarship for years to come, encouraging scholars to cite Coptic witnesses only where the Greek text can be firmly and scientifically established.  It's no wonder that the International Association of Coptic Studies awarded this work its 2008-2012 award for excellence for best PhD dissertation (cf. photo)."