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History (Education)

The mind-blowing engineering of a 13th century clock controlled entirely by water

Want to see a fountain with 12 water-spewing lions tell you what time it is?

Jebulon (Public domain)

Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain is an architectural masterpiece and engineering wonder.

Modern life is filled with so many incredible innovations, it's enough to make your head spin. But as we marvel over the latest technologies, it can be easy to forget that humans have been engineering and creating remarkable things for millennia.

The pyramids in Egypt. The Colosseum and the Parthenon. Teotihuacan and Machu Picchu. We can point to many famous ancient wonders that demonstrate the advancement of civilizations around the world, but some slightly newer architectural wonders also provide a glimpse into humanity's ability to figure things out.

Alhambra palace, fortress, water system, Spain, ancient technologyThe Alhambra sits atop a plateau overlooking Granada, Spain.Ввласенко

The Alhambra is a palace and fortress in Granada, Spain, that was built between 1238 and 1358 and was home to sultans of the Nasrid dynasty. A celebrated example of Islamic architecture, the Alhambra is now a tourist site, but in its early centuries, it helped Granada remain unconquered by Christian crusaders for far longer than the rest of Spain. Its massive complex sits atop a plateau, making it hard for invaders to breach its fortress walls.

But the Alhambra's beauty and defensive strength are only part of its allure. Visitors who walk through the grounds will notice something that seems unlikely considering the palace's flat location high above the river—water features galore.

The Alhambra has pools, baths, fountains, and gardens—and featured even more of them in its prime. But how? Via an intricate system of medieval pipes and channels and hydraulic engineering that enabled not only pools and baths, but heated flooring, steam rooms, and perhaps even an incredible water-operated clock.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The Fuente de los Leones (Fountain of Lions) is a central feature of the palace. Just looking at it you wouldn't imagine it was a clock, but there is a serious hypothesis that it was and that it ran completely on water.

A circular fountain sits in its center surrounded by 12 lion statues facing outward. The clock hypothesis posits that the original fountain pool drained and filled on a 12-hour cycle, with 12 holes in the pool positioned in a graduating spiral, each one connected by a pipe to a lion's mouth. As a central pipe filled the fountain pool, the water reached each hole on an hourly basis, making water pour out from the corresponding lions' mouths. When water poured from the first lion, it was 1:00, when it poured from the first and second lion, it was 2:00, and so forth. Once the pool filled and reached 12:00, a syphoning mechanism triggered by the height of the water caused the pool to drain, and the cycle began all over again.

(To see how this clock and water system would have worked in action, see minute 4:56 in the Primal Space video above.)

fountain of lions, lion water clock, fuente de los leones, the alhambra, engineeringFountain of the Lions at the Alhambra, GranadaJebulon (Public Domain)

A restoration project in the early 2000s to mid 2010s brought the fountain back to life, but not as a clock. The fountain has been changed many times over the centuries, and no one knows for sure what the original design was.

The fountain is just one part of the whole elaborate Alhambra water network. Water from the fountain flowed out to four channels that led to spa-like bathing rooms, which featured a cold plunge, warm pools, and heated floors thanks to water flowing through copper stoves underground. They even had steam release pipes to create a steam room.

baths inside the Alcazaba, Alhambra, granada, spain, waterworks Remains of baths inside the Alhambra AlcazabaR Prazeres

But one of the other impressive engineering feats of the Alhambra water system was pushing water up a six-meter wall. Without modern water pressure technology, how did they do it? The Primal Space video above shows a kind of whirlpool pump in which a vortex adds air to the water, making it lighter and easier to push up the pipe vertically. However, the illustration in the video appears to be missing an outlet pipe at the bottom that a diagram from "The Mastery in Hydraulic Techniques for Water Supply at the Alhambra" published in The Journal of Islamic Studies shows, which makes the mechanics seem more plausible.

At the time, Alhambra had of the most sophisticated hydraulic networks in the world, bringing water from the river nearly a kilometer below the site and keeping it flowing through the property in gravity-defying ways. What an incredible feat of engineering and ingenuity.

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Democracy

American abroad tells family why he can't imagine moving back to Texas

Who needs the "turmoil"?

via Jeronimooo0000/TikTok and Flo Dahm/Pexels

Jeronimo Noriega loves Spain.

The rising cost of living in the United States, combined with new technologies that make it easier to work wherever you like, has made it much more attractive for some to live and work in another country. Over 50 countries have made it easier by easing visa restrictions to encourage digital nomads to work within their borders.

Further, many people simply don’t like the rise-and-grind corporate mentality pervasive in the U.S. and prefer places that offer shorter workweeks, more vacation time and robust support systems.

They're tired of the hustle and bustle of the American work culture and are looking for a life that values personal happiness, family and relaxation.

Jeronimo Noriega is an American expat showing zero interest in returning to his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. The 27-year-old student has been living in Oviedo, Asturias, in Northwest Spain for the past 14 months after his family decided to pack up its bags and explore a new lifestyle.

In a viral TikTok video that has been seen over 5.4 million times, Noriega makes the case for why he has no interest in returning to Texas after falling in love with the Spanish way of life and cost of living.

@jeronimoooo0000

Who needs to be rich anyways give me some culture boiii

The first thing that Noriega admits is that salaries are better in Texas. However, everything balances out when you consider the cost of living. He says that people who make around €30,000 ($33,000) a year in Spain are “middle class” and that if you make €90,000 ($98,000) you can live like a king.

“Listen, if you're making 90 grand in the north of Spain, where I live right now, you're going to work in a limo. You're getting drinks at the Tennis Club after work,” Noriega said in the video. He also enjoys having 3-course meals with wine and coffee for “like 20 bucks.” In an interview with Business Insider, he said he routinely eats “delicious” dinner for just $11.

But what he really doesn’t miss about life back in Texas is the rise-and-grind lifestyle.

“What am I supposed to be in Dallas 2 hours a day and the car to get to work it back and never have time to do anything? No way,” he said in the video.” I love the work culture in Spain,” he told Business Insider. “In America, I felt like my only options were to rise and grind and get beat down by the machine, but everything is different here. In Spain, they seem to value their lives over their work — it's not even a work-life balance.”

He also says that in America, there is a deep dread within the culture that he doesn’t feel in Spain. “I love the US, but even the mood is different here,” Noriega admits. “In the US, there's turmoil going on underneath. No thank you.”

So, Noriega has no plans of returning to the U.S. anytime soon.

“Now that I've had a taste of what life is like outside the rat race, I'm not eager to get back on the wheel,” he told Business Insider. “Life is long, and you never know what will happen, but I'm staying here for the foreseeable future. All I have to do is take a walk to the coffee shop, have a delicious dinner for $11, or take a break in the middle of a weekday to remind myself why I'm staying.”


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Joy

Mom shares the 'major reason' she decided to raise her kids outside the U.S.

Her family moved to Denmark in 2020, and they’re staying.

via Oleksander P/Pexels

Woman beside river between buildings in København, Denmark.

It’s a little hard to determine whether there is a trend in Americans relocating to other countries. Still, approximate figures show that the number of U.S. citizens living abroad has just about doubled since 1999, with the number jumping from 4.1 million to 8 million.

Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom are the top 3 most popular destinations for American expatriates.

In a recent article for Business Insider, Brooke Black shared that she and her family relocated to Denmark in 2020 and one of the biggest reasons they have decided to stay is that it feels much safer. Black has a husband and two young daughters.

​“Overall, Denmark is a safe place, and Danes value trust,” she wrote. “Crime is rare — I rarely see police cars — and gun control is strict. We feel very safe here, which was a major factor in choosing to stay in Denmark.” When you crunch the numbers, Denmark is much safer than the United States. According to Nationmaster, America has 7 times more guns, 6 times more homicides and 4 times more rapes.

Back in 2020, shortly after Black had her second child during the pandemic. Her family decided to leave Los Angeles for two weeks because it was a COVID-19 hotspot and spend two weeks in Denmark with her husband’s family. What started as a 2-week trip became permanent.

Black finds it is much easier to take care of young children in Denmark because of its shorter work weeks. “Because the Danish workweek is 37 hours, most parents pick up their kids by 4 pm at the latest on most weekdays and even earlier on Fridays,” she wrote for Business Insider. “I work for a Danish company and can easily leave in time for pickup. In LA, I would rush across town to get my kid at 5:30 pm, leaving just enough time for a bath and bedtime. I cherish the time I get with my kids now.”

"I’m very grateful for that because that time isn’t coming back," she wrote on LinkedIn.

Black works for Podimo, an app that publishes over 1,000 exclusive podcasts and 70,000 audiobook titles.

Black isn’t the only American who has found a safer home living in Europe. Earlier this year, Upworthy shared the story of Luna Ashley Santel, her husband and young daughter, who left St. Louis, Missouri for Spain.

@lunagoestospain

Here’s what shifted for him. I’m sure this’ll piss the right people off. No pun intended. #movingabroad #spaindigitalnomadvisa #movingabroadwithpets #movingtospainwithkids

After relocating to Spain, they realized that they had been carrying an invisible mental load while living in America. One day, while sitting in a busy cafè, which would have made them nervous in St. Louis, the couple realized that none of the people milling about had guns.

At this moment, Santel’s husband realized that living in America caused him to be on alert whenever he was out in public. A feeling he never got in Spain. “And I realized this weight that I had been carrying around my whole life wasn't necessary. Like what we think is normal is not normal,” he said.

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Health

Spain set to join a handful of countries offering paid 'menstrual leave,' for workers

Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash

Menstrual leave in Spain would allow people with painful periods three to five days off per month.

How people experience menstruation can run the gamut, from minor inconvenience to debilitating pain and discomfort to everything in between. For some, it's a few extra bathroom trips and maybe a little moodiness for a few days. For others, the symptoms can include migraine headaches, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea and cramps that make it nearly impossible to get out of bed.

Societies and cultures around the world have taken different approaches to menstruation, from stigmatizing ostracization to celebration and respect. And generally speaking—other than perhaps putting period product machines in women's restrooms—the professional world simply pretends that menstruation doesn't exist. Employers aren't about to ask about it and considering the uphill battle to get women accepted in many professional settings, most women aren't going to openly talk about it.

But globally, women make up nearly 40% of the labor force, and in the U.S. that percentage climbs to nearly 50%. With so many women participating in the workforce, and with a good percentage of people who menstruate experiencing significant pain and discomfort, it seems logical that menstruation would at least be a consideration of some sort in terms of employment policies.

A handful of countries have officially recognized menstruation as a reason to take time off of work, including Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Zambia and parts of China and India. According to CBS 8, these countries offer anywhere from 30 extra minutes of break time to multiple days off with full pay for employees whose menstrual symptoms interfere with their work. In South Korea, an ex-CEO made headlines last year when he was fined for refusing to allow an employee menstrual leave, which is protected by the country's employment laws. But the concept isn't new. Japan's menstrual leave policies have been in place since 1947.

Now, Spain is positioned to become the first Western nation to offer people paid time off during their periods.

According to Euronews Next , the Spanish government is expected to endorse a reproductive health bill that includes three to five days of menstrual leave per month for those with painful periods.

The outlet reported that Irene Montero, Spain's equality minister, wrote on Twitter: "We are making progress so that it is no longer normal to go to work in pain and to put an end to the stigma, shame and silence surrounding menstruation. We are making progress on rights."

However, the push for menstrual leave is not without controversy. Members of Spain's government as well as its main trade unions have differing opinions on the measure, with some questioning what constitutes a "painful period" and some expressing concern that menstrual leave will ultimately stigmatize women even more, making it less likely that employers will want to hire women.

Such debates are reflected in discussions among the general population as well. A Reddit post about Spain's pending legislation prompted some lively debates about whether menstrual leave is a positive or negative thing for women in the workforce.

"On one hand I think it's fantastic a woman can take a few days off when she's got her period, I know I'd hate to work with cramps and stuff" wrote one commenter. "But I do worry that it might make business less likely to hire women, and/or women less valuable."

"I'd imagine in the same way that having a kid makes some companies not want to hire women, having them taking 3 days off will further push them to the side of let's find a reason not to hire them," wrote another.

"I don’t think codifying the ridiculous idea that women are 10% less productive than men is a good thing," wrote another.

However, it appears the policy is not meant to be a blanket few days off for all people who menstruate, but rather for those who suffer from severe symptoms.

"It is important to clarify what a painful period is, we are not talking about a slight discomfort, but about serious symptoms such as diarrhea, severe headaches, fever," Ángela Rodríguez, Spain’s secretary of state for equality and against gender violence, told El Periódico newspaper, according to Euronews Next.

In addition to concerns, there was compassion on Reddit for women who suffer from painful periods as well.

"Seems good in theory. Women have the option to use it, but don't have to if their periods aren't bad," wrote one Reddit commenter. "It's a pro-labor market right now, so this is the right time to push for these sorts of programs. My wife gets terrible cramps prior to her cycle. I would like for her to at least have the option to take a day or two off so she can take some Pamprin and curl up in a ball."

"I’m a guy I don’t get periods but I know my mom and my sister particularly my sister gets it so bad she has to stay home from school when that time of the month comes around," wrote another. "And I guess from how I understand it every woman’s period is different from another so I hope this helps those who have severe pain and such."

The post also prompted discussion about how paid sick leave varies from place to place. Some people were shocked to hear that paid sick leave isn't guaranteed in some places (ahem, the United States) and some were surprised that in some places where paid sick leave is unlimited, a doctor has to send a note to your employer for it to count.

Some people felt that if you don't work, you don't deserve to get paid, period. Some felt that an employer has no right to know what your medical status is and if you are sick, you should just be able to say you're sick and be believed. Some complained that people go to work sick and make others sick because they're afraid of losing their jobs.

Fundamentally, if someone is not feeling well enough to work, whether it's due to illness or period pain or other health issues, they should be able to take time off without worrying about their livelihood. That's simply humane. A menstrual leave law may have pros and cons in practice, but at the end of the day, the acknowledgment that some periods can leave people suffering for a few days a month is a good thing, and ensuring that those people have the ability to care for themselves is the right thing to do.

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