First, I have to tell you that Google Reader is my new best friend. Props to 11 Frogs. This isn't because I get to keep up on my blogs better, I still check them just for the brief respite from my work life. Rather, it is because I am using it to keep up on news and websites with info that I might need.
One of the things that I spotted that got me thinking:
http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/10/daylight_savings_time_worse_th.php
How do I feel about Daylight Savings Time? Why do we still have it? Why can't it be year round?
Thinking about DST sort of drives you into deeper thoughts about the nature of a clock, societal rules about time versus nature's role in time, and government's role in something as fundamental as the time of day.
wild, eh?
Are you for or against DST?
Is it a fundamental property of society that we have a standardized time system? Does every country in the world designate a time they are going to go with? what about places with loose central government or a government that is not recognized by the rest of the world? Have any of them ever decided to just go with something completely different?
This is a pretty good map with each country's time on it. Interestingly, some countries bucked the system by going with 1/2 hour deviations. India, Burma, Iran, and Afghanistan among the biggies. Australia went with three time zones but the middle one is just a 1/2 hour difference between the other two. nice compromise.
Another interesting thing -most of the wide countries (Canada, US, former Soviet Union) have gone with multiple time zones. Not China. The entire, very wide, country is a single time zone. Something makes me want to blame this on communism, which is a disturbing knee jerk reaction.
Something else interesting - countries that share an island - Hispaniola is shared between Haiti and Dominican Republic, and yet they are in two different time zones. Same with New Guinea island, the Western side is an Indonesian province and the Eastern side is Papau New Guinea. Now I can sort of understand this one somewhat b/c Indonesia is more west, so you would want to go with an "earlier" time if you were on the Indonesian side. But they still aren't in the same timezone as Jakarta.
anyhow, what do you think about timezones/DST/the role of government in the concept of time?
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3 comments:
So there are some pretty upset people on that blog about DST. Is it really that big of a deal? I can't say I've ever noticed it affecting my sleeping patterns. It is only 1 hour after all. Maybe this is because I'm still full of youthful vim though and I'm actually doomed to be an aged DST hater in my future. That'll suck.
Reeks (reaks?) havoc on our software - I'd be happy if it disappeared.
"Wreaks havoc" :P
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