Been up this far before

Turn on your popup blocker for a look at the LA Times, which reports:

"After a century of study, scientists have unlocked the secrets of a mysterious 2,100-year-old device known as the Antikythera mechanism, showing it to be a complex and uncannily accurate astronomical computer.

The bronze-and-iron mechanism, recovered in more than 80 highly corroded fragments from a sunken Roman ship in 1901, could predict the positions of the sun and planets, show the location of the moon and even forecast eclipses."

It's evidence for that old saw that humanity has been up this far before, which brings to mind the burning of the library at Alexandria. What knowledge was lost with that travesty? I vote the secrets of the great alien-dinosaur war, but Wikipedia says there's some controversy about this event or events.

"Ancient and modern sources identify four possible occasions for the destruction of the Library:

1. Caesar's conquest 48 BC
2. the attack of Aurelian in the 3rd century AD
3. the decree of Theophilus in 391 AD, and
4. the Muslim conquest in 642 AD or thereafter."

One thing's sure, the dinos got their ass kicked.