0182 Nightingale Floor

A thousand years before electronics, the Japanese already had home security systems. Well, palace security systems like the one at Nijo Castle in Kyoto that was designed to keep the Tokugawa Shogun safe from any murderous ninja wishing to assassinate him. The name of this system is the nightingale floor and its genius is exceeded only by its simplicity: no code to memorize and no keypad to enter it on incorrectly. Here’s how it works: the planks in the wooden floor sing when they’re stepped on. The singing floor alerted palace personnel to the approach of an intruder. And when I say “sing,” I mean “squeak.” Do the floors in your house sing? Don’t redo them: Rename them. Just tell everyone it’s an authentic nightingale floor recommended by shogun for millennia. #hacker #japan #ceas