Dead Media Beat: Antikythera Device

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/worlds-first-co.html#more

(((Gorgeous pics on WIRED SCIENCE here. I find it impossible to believe that there was only one of these devices... you just don't get a gizmo this complicated and this feature-heavy without a long line of tech development to work out the kinks. The authors of this thing were the ancient Greek equivalent of
DARPA geeks... there may not have been many of them, and they may have been working under cover, but man were they ever on top of their game.)))

(((What else were they doing, that didn't happen to vanish in the bottom of a ship? And how long were they doing that? And where are their manuals?)))

Link: World's First Computer Displayed Olympic Calendar | Wired Science from Wired.com.

The world's first known scientific instrument plotted the positions of celestial bodies nineteen years into the future – and as an added bonus, it kept track of upcoming Olympics.

"The maker took information about astronomical theories, and made a machine that could predict the future," said Tony Freeth, co-author of a study to be published in Nature this week. "And it would tell you, as a bit of an add-on, what Olympic games would be in progress at the time."