recycled water bottles create "water" display in flozen fountain

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"Timetable," by Maya Lin (Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University)

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Time stands still for Stanford University's much-acclaimed sculpture Timetable, a $500,000 clock and fountain by famed architect Maya Lin.

When unveiled at the school's Science Quad in 2000, with great fanfare, it seemed an engineering feat. Carefully calibrated components in a 16-ton granite monument, immersed in water, precisely ticked off months, days and seconds in Pacific Standard, Pacific Daylight and Universal times.

But now, sitting in storage -- its elegant mechanics stopped by corrosion and carelessness -- it tells no time at all.

"There's nothing like it in the world. It is so gorgeous, truly one of a kind," Kevin Binkert said of the clock that operated under a sheet of water -- a uniqueness that ultimately proved its undoing. A San Francisco-based expert clockmaster and machinist, Binkert has been hired to help diagnose the giant stone timepiece, which stands 10 feet in diameter.

"But it is a delicate beast," he said.

The work was meant to be a meditation on the concept of time in a world shrunk by the instant access to the Internet. It was the first West Coast work by Lin, a New York City-based artist known for designing Washington, D.C.'s stark Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall when still an undergraduate at Yale.

The clock sculpture is made of a black granite turntable on an asymmetrical base that revolved once a year and was in constant motion 24 hours a day. To support it, and create a perfectly level

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surface for the heavy slab, Stanford sank five concrete columns deep into the earth.

Powered by electricity, it ran on a mechanical system with custom gears that were submerged in running water, according to Susan Roberts-Manganelli, manager of collections for Stanford's Cantor Center for Visual Arts.

Platinum-leaf numerals were incised in the stone. From an off-center hole, water welled up, spread across its perimeter, sheeted down its side and trickled into a bed of smooth stones.

Dead in the water

"Time is exceedingly unfixed," Lin said at the opening ceremony, where a ribbon was cut by benefactor Helen Bing. "It is relative to the position you are at in the world. It is an abstract concept."

And it's very difficult to consistently measure -- particularly when water, metal, skateboards, mountain bikes and tons of granite are involved.

"Any fountain requires a lot of attention," explained mechanical engineer Said Shakerin of the University of Pacific, author of the 2005 paper "Water Fountains With Special Effects," published in the journal American Scientist.

"But this was the very first clock mechanism in the world that was totally immersed in water," said Shakerin, who has visited Timetable twice. "And water is a corrosive environment."

Lin, who did not respond to a request for an interview, reportedly consulted with engineers and computer specialists, including Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. It was constructed with the help of clocksmiths, foundation experts and a turntable manufacturer.

Checkups on the clock mechanism were conducted twice a year, according to Shakerin. The fountain was cleaned monthly.

But the sculpture's components weren't resistant to corrosion, or adequately sealed off from water, according to sources who asked not to be named. It is not known whether Lin included a warranty on its performance.

To make matters worse, skateboarders and mountain bikers climbed on it, causing damage. Curious onlookers grasped its hands. A broken underground water pipe further contributed to its problems.

Rare skills needed

Timetable has never kept time very well. To keep it running, the school has made some on-site repairs. For instance, when a flip-ring system failed, and power quit, it was replaced by an internal cord. But it needed annual -- underwater -- unwinding.

For a while, when it had stopped for good, Timetable became the school's most beautiful and expensive bench.

Now "the Timetable is in storage as we investigate a long-term solution for its operation," said Stanford architect David Lenox. "We are investigating how to repair the mechanics of the piece."

A four-person team -- composed of experts in foundations, stone, materials science -- has begun a "feasibility study" to explore the possibility of repair. Binkert, the founder of Standard Metal Products machine shop, will lead the team. A self-taught engineer and machinist with a penchant for one-of-a-kind projects, Binkert fixed the Oakland Tribune's Tower Clock and other mechanical timepieces, using skills that are almost as rare as the clocks themselves.

"It's a daunting project," Binkert said. "The whole mechanism is under water. What materials do we need to use to inhibit galvanic corrosion? How do we let people know they shouldn't climb on it?

"It's so massive that it looks robust," he said. "But it is also ticking off seconds -- and is very delicate."

Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 408-920-5565.

"These are not the earliest canals known in southern Arizona, but they are the most extensive and sophisticated engineering [from the period] that we have identified to date," said archaeologist James M. Vint of Desert Archaeology Inc. in Tucson.

The site, called Las Capas, or "The Layers," sits at the confluence of Canada del Oro, Rillito Creek and the Santa Cruz River. The name derives from the repeated layers of silt that buried the site until nothing was visible from the surface.

Researchers already knew that the site had been inhabited during what is known as the San Pedro phase of the Early Agriculture Period in the Southwest. Earlier work at the plant had revealed traces of pit houses, fire pits and ditches. What is believed to be the main dwelling is now buried under the adjacent Interstate 10.

Vint led a team of 30 archaeologists who explored the site in compliance with state laws before a planned expansion of the Ina Road facility. "We put in a mile and a half of backhoe trenches and did archaeology in all those trenches," he said in a telephone interview. "That tells us this is a very expansive site."

They identified two main canals bringing water from the Santa Cruz River and feeding it into eight distribution canals, all now buried 3 to 7 feet. The system could have irrigated 60 to 100 acres, he estimated. The primary crops were maize, which was introduced into the area before 2100 BC, and an herb known as amaranth.

Vint estimated that the village at the site supported 80 to 150 people. Their cultural identity is unknown, although they probably originated in Mexico and moved across what is now the border. Pottery was not yet produced in the region, but Vint's team found stone and cutting tools, grinding stones, antler pieces for making stone tools, and awls for basketry.

"We can't say anything about their culture," said archaeologist Stephanie Whittlesey of SWCA Environmental Consultants in Tucson, who was not involved in the research. "They had no writing and no recorded documents, so the only thing we have to go on is what they left behind, which isn't a lot."

The evidence indicates that the region suffered a huge flood about 800 BC, which buried the canal system. "There is some evidence that they tried getting it going again, but apparently that didn't work," Vint said. They cleaned out some sections, "but they never brought it back to full scale."

Vint is not sure what happened to the inhabitants, but most likely, he said, they simply moved upriver to other villages.

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thomas.maugh@latimes.com

An unusual ingredient could be part of the baking process for Naples pizza: coffin wood.

The claim was reported by the Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale, owned by the family of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

"Pizza, one of the few symbols of Naples that endures... is hit by the concrete suspicion that it could be baked with wood from coffins," Il Giornale said.

Il Giornale continued in its report: "Not only the pizza, the bread, too, may have been cooked with the wood."

Police are currently investigating.

Andrea Santoro, president of Naples' cemetery commission, has little doubt about gangs digging up coffins, part of the allegations, stating, "It's no wonder these things are happening given the state of the cemeteries ... There are graves uncovered, thefts and vandalism."

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Amazing works of art. 1" long.

Love his landscape and water projects!

How to Give a 'TED-Worthy' Presentation

Carmine Gallo mines talks from top thinkers at the annual TED conference for pointers to help business leaders improve their presentations

By Carmine Gallo

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Even though this year's TED conference wrapped up in February, I've been contacted multiple times over the past few months by executives who want advice on how to give "TED-worthy" talks in their own shops.For those unfamiliar with TED, the annual event brings some of the world's brightest thinkers to Long Beach, Calif., to share ideas on diverse topics with the goal of changing the world. Despite charges of elitism—or perhaps because of it—TED, which charges $6,000 to attend in person, offers videos of the presentations free on its website. The videos are inspiring, fascinating, and thought-provoking. Beyond that, the speakers' delivery is excellent. Here are pointers I've culled from the talks. I suggest business leaders consider using them to improve their own presentations.

1. Keep it brief. TED is notable for limiting presentations to 18 minutes. I've written previously about the power of brevity.If scientist Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica, "the world's most powerful global computation system," can offer an 18-minute presentation on his quest to make all human knowledge computational and searchable, then you can surely deliver your team update in the same amount of time or less. Einstein once said that nothing is so complicated that it cannot be explained simply. TED talks prove it.

2. Talk about something you're passionate about. One of the most distinguishing traits of TED speakers is the most difficult to teach: The presentations are exciting and inspiring because the speakers are passionate about their subjects. Whether it's Al Gore talking about global warming or Ken Robinson discussing a new model for public education, the talks are powerful because they are delivered by people who care deeply about their topic and in many cases, have spent their careers obsessing over the content. If you're not genuinely thrilled to be sharing information, it will be very difficult to give a TED-worthy talk.

What does passion look like? In 2006, success guru Tony Robbins took to the stage to discuss his specialty, human motivation. Robbins has stage energy, lots of it. His body is in constant motion, his hand gestures large and expansive, he makes eye contact with every part of the room, and he even walks into the front row to high-five Al Gore. Great speakers bring all their energy to the stage.

3. Reveal a personal side. TED talks are often deeply personal. Activist Kevin Bales runs a nonprofit called Free the Slaves. His 2010 presentation on modern slavery began with a personal anecdote about how he discovered that slavery still exists in many parts of the world; 27 million people are slaves today, he says. While a sociology professor at a London University, Bales came across a leaflet that simply said: "There are millions of slaves in the world today." "No way," Bales recalled thinking. Then, he told his TED listeners, "I'll also admit to hubris. How could I be a hotshot young professor who teaches human rights and not know this? It can't be true." Curious and driven, Bales visited five countries and talked to slaves and slaveholders. His first-person experiences, stories, photographs, and videos formed the basis of his talk. Bales received a standing ovation.

4. Design simple slides. Speaker slides for TED talks are strikingly simple. Talented and confident speakers know that the more complex the topic, the more important that it be easy to understand. I was particularly surprised by one speaker in the 2010 conference—Bill Gates. The former Microsoft (MSFT) CEO was never known for visually simple slides while he ran the giant software company he co-founded. But as Gates has transformed into a global advocate for helping the world's poor, his presentations have evolved, with more photographs and less text.

In February 2010, Gates offered the bold proposition that the world must reduce its carbon emissions to zero in the next 40 years in order to avoid environmental and socioeconomic catastrophe. That's a tall order for an 18-minute presentation. Near the end of his talk, Gates said that if he had only one wish for the future of the planet, he wouldn't want to pick the next President or create a new vaccine. His "one wish" would be to reduce emissions globally, to zero. As Gates spoke about his vision and its implication, his slide showed a satellite photo of planet earth with the number zero in the center. The slides focused the audience's attention where it should have been—on the speaker.

5. Lose the slides entirely, sometimes. Jill Bolte Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard University brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Her presentation about that stroke was memorable for her personal story and research—and for what she did outside the slide deck. To best explain how both hemispheres of the brain work, she put on some latex gloves and displayed a real human brain. Audience members squirmed, but they probably remember her talk.

You may never be invited to give a TED talk and you may never decide to pay $6,000 to attend the conference. If you work these suggestions into your presentations, though, you will face much better odds of impressing audiences.

Carmine Gallo is a communication skills coach for the world's most admired brands. He is also a popular speaker and the author of several books, including The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. More of Gallo's columns are available in his ongoing series .