Oh happy day! SFRevu Column gave us “Very Goods” on all the stories in the Autumn 2006 issue of Shimmer. Here is the last line of the review:

Shimmer is one of the best small press magazines out there and you should all be subscribing to it!

Oh, baby. Forget steampunk. I am so writing an ancient Greek Gearpunk story or novel. Go check out this article in Gear Factor

An Anglo-Greek team of scientists has revealed what they consider the true workings of the Antikythera mechanism, a 2,000 year-old analog computer recovered from a Mediterranean shipwreck over a century ago.

The article also reference a 9th century book called, The Book of Ingenious Devices, which I now want a copy of.

For the moment, I’ll settle with picking up a copy of the new Nature, which has a really in depth article on the Antikythera, fortunately online. Aside from talking more about the details of how the thing works, the author asks the question, “How can the capacity to build a machine so magnificent have passed through history with no obvious effects?” No kidding! He speculates that it’s because it was made of bronze and that most of them were melted down to make weapons at some point, but still, you have to wonder what makes technology disappear.