#HTE

This “Night & Day Globe” Rotates in Real Time, Uses Lamp to Indicate Sunlight

Way back when, people told the “time” by looking up at the position of the sun in the sky. Then we transferred to hands going around a clock, an abstraction that we had to learn how to read. Now most of us look at digital numbers on our phones or computer screens, an abstraction of the abstraction.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could tell the time—or at least see just how much sunlight you had left—by looking at a globe? A company called Edu-Toys makes a mechanical globe that allows you to do so:

Alas, it appears the $100 globe/clock isn’t very well made: Reviews indicate it starts to go out of time in as little as two days and will lose an hour in two weeks. A pity, as the concept is cool.

http://www.core77.com/posts/60628/This-Night-n-Day-Globe-Rotates-in-Real-Time-Uses-Lamp-to-Indicate-Sunlight