Word of the day
- hackneyed January 15, 2025Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 15, 2025 is: hackneyed • \HAK-need\ • adjective Something is considered hackneyed when it is not interesting, funny, etc., because of being used too often; in other words, it's neither fresh nor original. // The new crime drama's characters are shallow stereotypes who engage one another in hackneyed […]Merriam-Webster
Widget not in any sidebars
On This Day
A water clock or clepsydra (Greek κλεψύδρα from κλέπτειν kleptein, ‘to steal’; ὕδωρ hydor, ‘water’) is any timepiece in which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel where the amount is then measured.
Water clocks are one of the oldest time-measuring instruments.[1] Where and when they were first invented is not known, and given their great antiquity it may never be. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed in Babylon and in Egypt around the 16th century BCE. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, claim that water clocks appeared in China as early as 4000 BCE.[2]
Some modern timepieces are called “water clocks” but work differently from the ancient ones. Their timekeeping is governed by a pendulum, but they use water for other purposes, such as providing the power needed to drive the clock by using a water wheel or something similar, or by having water in their displays.
The Greeks and Romans advanced water clock design to include the inflow clepsydra with an early feedback system, gearing, and escapement mechanism, which were connected to fanciful automata and resulted in improved accuracy. Further advances were made in Byzantium, Syria and Mesopotamia, where increasingly accurate water clocks incorporated complex segmental and epicyclic gearing, water wheels, and programmability, advances which eventually made their way to Europe. Independently, the Chinese developed their own advanced water clocks, incorporating gears, escapement mechanisms, and water wheels, passing their ideas on to Korea and Japan[citation needed].
Some water clock designs were developed independently and some knowledge was transferred through the spread of trade. These early water clocks were calibrated with a sundial. While never reaching a level of accuracy comparable to today’s standards of timekeeping, the water clock was the most accurate and commonly used timekeeping device for millennia, until it was replaced by more accurate pendulum clocks in 17th-century Europe.
A water clock uses a flow of water to measure time. If viscosity is neglected, the physical principle required to study such clocks is Torricelli’s law. There are two types of water clocks: inflow and outflow. In an outflow water clock, a container is filled with water, and the water is drained slowly and evenly out of the container. This container has markings that are used to show the passage of time. As the water leaves the container, an observer can see where the water is level with the lines and tell how much time has passed. An inflow water clock works in basically the same way, except instead of flowing out of the container, the water is filling up the marked container. As the container fills, the observer can see where the water meets the lines and tell how much time has passed.
Born On This Day
Seems like the things she is for would cancel each other out?
1835 – Rebecca Latimer Felton, American educator and politician (d. 1930)
Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton (June 10, 1835 – January 24, 1930) was an American writer, lecturer, reformer, and politician who became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, though only serving for one day.[1][2] She was the most prominent woman in Georgia in the Progressive Era, and was honored by appointment to the Senate. She was sworn in November 21, 1922, and served just 24 hours. At 87 years, nine months, and 22 days old, she was the oldest freshman senator to enter the Senate. To date, she is also the only woman to have served as a Senator from Georgia. Her husband William Harrell Felton was a member of the United States House of Representatives and Georgia House of Representatives and she ran his campaigns. She was a prominent society woman; an advocate of prison reform, women’s suffrage and educational modernization; a white supremacist and slave owner; and one of the few prominent women who spoke in favor of lynching. Bartley reports that by 1915 she “was championing a lengthy feminist program that ranged from prohibition to equal pay for equal work.”[3]
FYI
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
If you need help, please call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide also can provide contact information for crisis centers around the world.
List of suicide crisis lines: Crisis line organizations by country
The Havok Journal Thomas Knight: I Wish You Could See Your Suicide.
I wish you could see your suicide. I wish someone like you sees this and makes a different choice.
By Rachel Zimmerman: I Know The Devastation Suicide Leaves Behind. I Wish I Didn’t
By Angela Helm: South Fulton, Ga.’s Entire Criminal Justice System Is Run by Black Women
By Johnny: The Japanese Mini Truck Garden Contest is a Whole New Genre in Landscaping
By Eugene S. Robinson: Giving a Graduation Speech to People Glad to See You Go
By Gary Price: Arizona Memory Project Adds Three New Digital Collections
By Gary Price: New Online: American Archives of Public Broadcasting Announces Five New Special Collections
By Nate Hoffelder: Kindle Unlimited Cheat Chance Carter’s eBooks Have Been Removed From Amazon
Kings River Life: “Instinct: TV Review/Interview With Cast Member Sharon Leal” from Kings River Life Magazine, plus 11 more
The Bohemian Blog: Ciudad Nuclear: Exploring Cuba’s Half-Abandoned ‘Nuclear City’
By Sam Kyle: The 5 Stages of Tribal Belonging
But here’s the key point: If you believe that you are the average of the people you hang around, than you need to surround yourself with people who are like who you want to be. You need to consider that when it comes to building the life you want opposites don’t attract. Being a miserable grump will only attract other cranky assholes. Someone who is generally disposed to thinking that life is great does not want to hang with someone who whines all the time about how much life sucks.
By Tenelle Porter: The Benefits of Admitting When You Don’t Know
Two Nerdy History Girls: Breakfast Links Week of June 04, 2018
Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings: Nature and joy, the paradoxical psychology of why frustration is necessary for love, William James on the 4 qualities of transcendent consciousness
By Jamie Palmer: 1973 Crown Bus… RV… Transporter…?
By Josh Mortenson: Off Road Bug: 1971 VW Veep
By Jeff Lavery: Alaskan Pair: 1969 Rover 2000TC
Ideas
By khoiland: Dried Flower Petal Wood Burned World Map
By YouLab: Flower Crystallization
Widget not in any sidebars
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for January 15 January 15, 2025Picture of the day Cluster of Breath roots (pneumatophores) of a Taxodium distichum at the water's edge. Focus stack of 4 photos.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for January 14 January 14, 2025Picture of the day Mute swan (Cygnus olor) at Lake Geneva during the golden hour of sunset
Recipes
The Happy Foody: Black Forest Gâteau
By Tye Rannosaurus: Slow Cooker Chili Con Carnage
By Penelopy Bulnick: Jell-O Marshmallow Fondant
By Audrey Obscura: Watermelon Jerky
By handy_woman: Make a Mold to Cast Boiled Eggs
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars