I heard Commissioner Wendy Pitts Reeves say something the other day and it really is worth talking about. While I can't phrase this the way she would, I will go ahead and ask the question.

What is so special about Blount County? Where or what are our favorite places? The places / things we most want to protect? The places or things that are at greatest risk of being lost?

Before everyone logs in and says the GSMNP, I want to point out that it is part of Blount County but that is not in our control. So what other places or things do we have here that really need protection and why?

An intersting lecture this Friday.
DATE August 31
Fridays, 12:20 to 1:10 p.m.
Room 405 Ferris Hall

SPEAKER AND TOPIC
Dr. J. Reece Roth, Professor Emeritus, UT Plasma Sciences >Laboratory: ?Gears from the Greeks: The Antikythera Mechanism and the Early >History of Computer Science?. Nautical Archaeologists recently made a discovery that extended the history of computer science back to circa 80 BCE.
The Antikythera Mechanism was discovered in an ancient shipwreck, and is the only such geared mechanical device known for at least the next 1000 years. It consists of a clockwork ? like mechanism containing more than 30 toothed gears, including a system of differential gears. This early calculator has been the subject of intense scholarly research to determine what it is and what it was intended to do. It has been found that this device was used to calculate, among other things, lunar eclipses and planetary positions. It is already clear that computer science has deeper historical roots than previously realized.

> J. Reece Roth, Ph.D.
> Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering