The BBC reports:
The clock on the facade of the building housing the Bolivian congress in La Paz has been reversed. Its hands turn left and the numbers have been inverted to go from one to 12 anti-clockwise.
Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca dubbed it the "clock of the south". He said the change had been made to get Bolivians to treasure their heritage and show them that they could question established norms and think creatively.
"Who says that the clock always has to turn one way? Why do we always have to obey? Why can't we be creative?", he asked at a news conference on Tuesday. "We don't have to complicate matters, we just have to be conscious that we live in the south, not in the north," Mr Choquehuanca added.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Bolivia Congress Clock Altered to Turn Anti-Clockwise
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 29 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @03:51AM
Bastard commies also use 4-space tabs and toppost on usenet.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Subsentient on Friday June 27 2014, @05:28AM
The 4-space armies are coming for you. I will be the one commanding the gerbil horde.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Funny) by davester666 on Friday June 27 2014, @06:15AM
they probably also use vi.
(Score: 2) by zafiro17 on Friday June 27 2014, @01:02PM
Good for them - everybody should be ready to put on their iconoclast hat and swing once in a while. I salute these guys for their willingness to think twice about established norms.
But if they ever start top-posting on Usenet they are going to get themselves flamed off the globe by a high energy satellite-mounted laser. Usenet: don't mess with it, punk.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Friday June 27 2014, @05:16PM
Well since I've never been to Bolivia I can't answer this question (nor be arsed to look it up as I have a skull thumper) so it seems obvious to me whether this is dumb or not can be answered by one simple question...do sundials there go counter clockwise? Because THAT is why clocks go what is now known as clockwise, its based on sundials in ancient history. Knowing this always made me ponder...if waterclocks would have kept up their popularity would our clocks and watches today go up and down instead of round and round?
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday June 30 2014, @03:42PM
Yeah, clocks are based on *northern* sundials, as a southern sundial would indeed move counter-clockwise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial#Sundials_in_the_Southern_Hemisphere [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Theophrastus on Friday June 27 2014, @03:55AM
...situated in the northern hemisphere.
but sundials are worse off than 'backwards' in the southern hemisphere [wikipedia.org]:
hell, if you're going to reverse the face, might as well go ahead and try for a different base than 60 (e.g. minutes/hour) (dang, can't find a video link of Dan Aykroyd doing "metric time")
(Score: 1) by JNCF on Friday June 27 2014, @02:39PM
The answer is twelve. We should switch everything over to base twelve. [io9.com]
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Friday June 27 2014, @08:58PM
Wouldn't that completely break the metric system?
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @05:43AM
It's not even close to a new idea. I had professor in college who kept a counterclockwise clock in his office. The thing worked fine and told correct time.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Friday June 27 2014, @06:49AM
On those old "Telechron" clock movements that became so popular in the 50's, where for the first time homeowners could use the timing on the power line to keep accurate time, most every one I had seen was symmetrical and if you put the thing back together with the coil assembly upside down ( quite easy to do ), the pole pieces got reversed and the clock ran backward as well is it would have run forward.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 27 2014, @06:58AM
These are under 7 bucks on the wed, under 12 for a quality one.
I suspect its news because an official landmark clock was altered.
Heck, these things seldom get maintenance, let alone redesigned.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by sudo rm -rf on Friday June 27 2014, @09:16AM
As does the clock in my local pub. It still feels strange when you arrive at 2am and leave at 10pm.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @12:50PM
Yeah, twenty hours of drinking really can mess with your perception. ;-)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @10:35AM
It's not news because someone built a counter-clockwise clock. It's news because it's an "official government clock" and because they have a highly placed government official actively encouraging the people to question authority. Can you imagine Big Ben being rebuilt to run counter clockwise? I think it's refreshing to see an actual, physical demonstration not to assume "the way things are" is the way they have to be. Considering that much of government function seems to be getting people to shut up and go along with the crowd, having someone encourage the "sheeple" to think for themselves is even a little shocking.
I suppose you could take the cynical view that it's really just some local official demonstrating his tyrannical power using a sophomoric prank, but I rather prefer the "Question Everything" explanation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @05:32PM
[cutting sarcasm] Yes, because your professor's office is equivalent to the wall of a nation's congressional building [/cutting sarcasm]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @05:47AM
Throw the fucking book at him for corruption, child porn, jaywalking, something! Government official dares to encourage citizens to question authority? He will PAY.
(Score: 2) by juggs on Friday June 27 2014, @05:48AM
I like the sentiment. I know not the motivation for the sentiment but I like it as a sentiment.
Question everything. Dissasemble everything and learn how and why it is how it is now. Take nothing for granted.
Why not reverse the representation of time if doing so inspires people to think about what time is?
It doesn't change time or anything else - it's just a clock being meddled with.
I wholeheartedly applaud this on the grounds that if even for a second people pause and think - not about some political BS or whatever motivation drove this - but "what is time?" "why am I rushing?"
And with that it seems I pass into the generation of people that say "In my day.....X"
I didn't think it would come so soon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @06:03AM
Why not reverse the rotation of the Earth as well, Superman? Stop taking the Earth for granted!
(Score: 3, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Friday June 27 2014, @09:41AM
Ah, but he didn't. He just went round the Earth faster than the speed of light, travelling back in time and so the Earth appeared to rotate backward below him.
Ok, that explanation doesn't quite work because he then goes back around it the other way to spin it back up, but other than that it does make slightly more sense.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @07:33PM
I find it fascinating that your thoughts almost perfectly mirrors my own when reading this article. That being said I know way too little about Bolivia to evaluate the meaning of his comments.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Friday June 27 2014, @06:44AM
So Bolivia is now officially Bavarian? [everything2.com] ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @01:52PM
"'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets
himself killed on the next zebra crossing." - Douglas Adams.
(Score: 2) by stderr on Friday June 27 2014, @02:09PM
If only they had also rotated the clock 90 degree, so 12 would be at (1;0), 1 at (cos(π/6);sin(π/6)), 2 at (cos(2π/6);sin(2π/6)) etc. It would have made a lot more sense!
"What time is it?"
"Oh, that's easy! You just use arccos() and arcsin() to get the angle of rotation of the hour hand, then multiply that by 6/π and floor() the result. If the result of all that is 0, add 12. That's the hours... Then you find the angle of rotation of the minute hand, multiply it by 30/π and you got the minutes. See? Easy!"
"OMFSM! You're right! It's so simple! Let's change all clocks!"
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday June 27 2014, @02:33PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwise [wikipedia.org]
Apparently the problem, as usual, is that Commonwealth English specifies anticlockwise, while Americans say counterclockwise. Should've seen that one coming.
I propose we return to "dexter and widdershins" :)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @05:22PM
Dexter and sinister. Widdershins and deosil.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 27 2014, @02:33PM
Let's do it right and have 2^16 steps per day. First number shows the 2^8 and the next the rest 2^8. Fully symmetric and binary. 100 000 steps per day could also be neat. No more 24-60-60 inconsistencies to deal with. The only real problem is that one step can't be equal 1 second. And your time will be incompatible with everybody elses notation.
(Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Friday June 27 2014, @03:00PM
"Why do we always have to obey?" A member of the government using that quote is rare: Perhaps then it's unsurprising that he is using it when his opponent has no power. Real brave picking a standard as a proxy for the US et al. Next: The war on forks. Why can't they have ten tines?
Also, this line will be neatly forgotten about it if there's, say, a protest where he's on the side of "the man".
Oh, well, new tourist attraction.
(Score: 1) by Natales on Saturday June 28 2014, @01:28AM
I lived in Bolivia, not under the current, more radical administration, but I believe I can offer some explanation for what it's worth. Bolivia is really like 3 different countries in one, with different ethnic backgrounds, culture, indigenous tribes and such. It's a country with a very thin, very educated upper class mostly of European descent, and the less educated populus, mostly of indigenous descent. The middle class is virtually nonexistent.
They've been struggling for quite some time with a sense of their own identity, and for first time, with the ascent of Evo Morales to the presidency, the indigenous people of the highlands have the capability of asserting some of that power. The clock is not really to "question everything". The clock is a way to gain a sense of identity after centuries of cultural domination by the European cultures. In their view, the struggle between the natives of the land and the conquistadors is pretty much alive, and this small gesture is a way to show them the finger.
I deeply respect those sentiments. But with that being said, we are all entering a fully globalized world, like it or not, and something as basic as the measure of time, along with other consistent measuring systems are absolutely key to create a baseline for global understanding. At least at this stage, Bolivia seems stuck in the "reparation" mentality, trying to revive old arguments of territories legitimately lost in a war over 120 years ago, or trying to find a path between capitalism and communism that satisfies all segments of their society. For their own good, I certainly hope they move to the "get over it" phase sooner rather than later, so at least they can have a clear path to development.