Treehouse Trivia

Spring 2007

Clear the Decks at Home

Is stuff taking over your life? If so, it might be time to purge. Arianne Cohen talked to experts and shared some of their tips in O, the Oprah Magazine. Here are some of their suggestions:

Kitchen

• Toss all your extras. Do you really need five or six wooden spoons?

• Check expiration dates on foods and throw them out if they’re past the use-by date.

• Move seldom-used appliances into storage or sell them. Ask yourself if the breadmaker is worth the space it’s taking up. Do you use it?

Desk

• Continually throw out the items that are in danger of building up. This includes junk mail, expired coupons and catalogs.

• Create activity zones. You should have a bill-paying zone, a reading zone and a stationery zone. Keep items for each activity in neat containers.

Cosmetics

• Sort through your bottles and toss any half-empty ones that you haven’t used for six months.

• Put all similar products in neat containers.

• Try to avoid impulse purchases that duplicate items you already have at home.

2,000-Year-Old Computer Discovered

The way we think about the ancient world is likely to change as scientists begin to understand the workings of a 2,000-year-old computer.

A Cardiff University team of researchers believe they have discovered the workings of the Antikythera Mechanism, a clock-like astronomical calculator that dates back to the 2nd century B.C.

At the turn of the 20th century, divers found remnants of a broken wooden and bronze case containing more than 30 gears. Scientists have been trying to reconstruct it ever since. New findings suggest that the device is more sophisticated than originally thought.

Researchers have found detailed work on the gears in the mechanism that show it was able to track astronomical movements with remarkable precision. It was a calculator that was able to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the Zodiac, predict eclipses and recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. Researchers believe it might also have been used to predict the positions of the planets.

Mike Edmunds, a lead researcher on the team, said, "This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely well."

Researchers now believe that Greek technology may have been far more advanced than previously thought. The findings were published in the journal Nature.