X-ray showing inside the head of a 16th-century automaton monk, probably built by Juanelo Turriano, mechanician to Emperor Charles V of Spain. On Radiolab and in a long piece written for the Blackbird online journal of literature and the arts, professor Elizabeth King recounts the history of the monk and how it made its way to the Smithsonian Institution.
Submitterated by GuyinMilwaukee
Sometimes someone proposes removing all time zones and using one clock for the whole planet. Then the time is the same everywhere at the same moment. When the clock shows 08:00 in London, it also shows 08:00 in New York and Beijing. But in New York the sky is dark, as it usually is at 03:00. In China it is late in the afternoon. This idea sounds strange, but many groups already use one clock. Airlines, militaries, the International Space Station, and agencies such as NOAA all use one global clock, UTC. They do this because an error in the calculation between two time zones is dangerous in aviation or on a spacewalk. Arthur C. Clarke suggested the one-clock idea in 1976. An economist and an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University made it part of a proposal to change the calendar. But this system does not remove the problem. Each region still opens its shops, starts its schools, and eats lunch at the UTC hour that matches its daylight. So the "business hours" are 13:00 to 21:00 in one place and 22:00 to 06:00 in another place. This system replaces time-zone offsets with local customs, and those customs do the same work. Also, the date changes in the middle of the afternoon in parts of the Americas and the Pacific. Previously:• Scientists explain our dislike of Daylight Savings Time READ THE REST
OpenAI runs a test where it switches off its models' safety brakes and dares them to break into things, to see how dangerous they're getting. Last week the models took… READ THE REST
In 2014, a talking doll named My Friend Cayla was voted Innovative Toy of the Year. Three years later the German government was telling parents to destroy it. Cayla listened… READ THE REST
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Stream seamlessly and surf securely with iProVPN's advanced encryption ad-blocker for just $19.99 (Reg. $360). They're called… READ THE REST
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Tackle PDFs with ease forever with an IndyPDF Editor and Converter lifetime subscription, on sale now… READ THE REST
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Build confidence in a new language with Promova's lifetime subscription for $79.99 (reg. $299.99). Learning a new language… READ THE REST
