Antikythera Mechanism

[hildy89]

So I've spent most of my Christmas afternoon watching the Mythbusters marathon on Discovery. I hadn't really watched the show, but their approach was hysterical.

I had given my father Decoding the Heavens: Solving the Mystery of World's First Computer by Jo Marchant for his Christmas gift. It's a fascinating jigsaw puzzle, part history and part engineering. Nature published several articles on Antikythera Mechanism, including a lengthy one by Marchant. Some of articles are archived on the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project

Wired has even gotten into the act, posting about Michael Wright's attempt to recreate the Mechanism. Apparently there's a fair bit of controversy over the x-rays and whether it's being put together or analyzed correctly. Oh, archaeologists and their "You're doing it wrong!" attitudes always amuse me. (This after watching half a special on Schliemann and his charming approaches to the field...)

And appropriately enough for me, the remains were found in a shipwreck.

Comments

[pinkpolarity.livejournal.com]

Yay for discovering Mythbusters! That show is awesome, and it has lots of BOOM. :)

Glad you had a nice Christmas! We must get together sometime when you get back.

[hildy.livejournal.com]

Lots and lots of Boom!

Love to get together sometime. Doing anything for New Year's?

[pinkpolarity.livejournal.com]

I wish I could invite you over for New Year's, but I find that I'm just not up to it. Having some bad flares because of the "nice" weather (i.e. roller coaster, and these hot days), and having fatigue of a sort I've never encountered before. Yesterday I slept 10 hours, then after breakfast was so tired that I fell asleep at my laptop, and laid down for another hour. Now I can't fall asleep at all, as you can see from the hour at which I'm writing you.

I do miss hanging out with you, and hope that health will permit me an opportunity for dinner in the near future.

By the way, I wonder if I might ask a favor of you? When I finally produce the Halo fic bunny that's in my head (I need to do a bit of research first), would you be willing to give it a brief beta read? I'm hoping for something of the sort that I did with your Doctor Who fic that night. Sometimes someone who doesn't know the fandom has a lot of insight, and I trust yours. Consider it, anyway. (And I'm always willing to look over your stuff. Perhaps we could trade one night?)

[hildy.livejournal.com]

Believe me I completely understand. It may be just as well about New Year's. I had a bad allergy attack/cold hit me over Christmas holidays. I'm mostly recovered, but every once in awhile I'll have a massive coughing fit. Not conducive to getting much sleep. Add in the usual pre-"time of the month" insomnia and I'm doing just peachy.

I'd love to do a brief beta read on your fic. I'm not sure what I can offer in trade, since the writing muses have been rather quiet. Plenty of bunnies and ideas, but not as much follow through on the actual writing.