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Time zone news

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Re: Time zone news

#11

Post by bostonpete »

dijit wrote: post #3

Is there still a valid reason to have timezones altering between states? is it just for agriculture? While we're, talking about changing time monitoring systems, can't we have 13 months with 28 days each? (and an extra day every 4 years added on to december?) :( Simple things, but that would allow us to follow the lunar cycle.

In Northern areas, there's a lot of practical value that gets overlooked. In Boston, the sun is rising close to 5:00 AM as it is at the height of summer. Without daylight savings time, it would be rising at 4:00 AM. I think most people would rather have extended daylight late in the day than have all that extra sunlight wasted when we're sleeping.

The counter to that is -- well, let's always stick with daylight savings time then. That has problems of its own. For example, sunset is a little after 4:00 PM in Boston in late December. If we stuck with daylight savings time, it'd be a little after 3:00. That would pose risks for school children walking home, etc.

Yes, I realize that people in Fairbanks Alaska have it much worse and daylight savings doesn't fix the problem for them, but there are a lot of people who live in the northern parts of the lower 48 that benefit from the time shift.

Re: Time zone news

#12

Post by Navarr »

DanAndersen wrote: post #9
dijit wrote: post #3

Is there still a valid reason to have timezones altering between states? is it just for agriculture? While we're, talking about changing time monitoring systems, can't we have 13 months with 28 days each? (and an extra day every 4 years added on to december?) :( Simple things, but that would allow us to follow the lunar cycle.

Our timezone/calendar system is convoluted, but that's because there are inherent issues with any calendar reform. I recommend looking at the following articles: http://qntm.org/abolish ("So you want to abolish time zones") http://qntm.org/calendar ("You advocate a ________ approach to calendar reform")

All of these are valid points but when we get the ability to force the earth's rotation, orbit, and the moon's orbit to specifics then I WILL SHOW YOU.

Re: Time zone news

#13

Post by icehawk219 »

I've always joked that the more I work with i18n and l10n the more I become a fan of one world language, currency, and time zone. I know that would be rife with its own problems but hey, an exhausted developer can dream.

Re: Time zone news

#14

Post by jahewson »

dijit wrote: post #3

Is there still a valid reason to have timezones altering between states? is it just for agriculture? While we're, talking about changing time monitoring systems, can't we have 13 months with 28 days each? (and an extra day every 4 years added on to december?) :( Simple things, but that would allow us to follow the lunar cycle.

You're confusing time zones with daylight savings. Time zones exist so that the same part of the solar day has approximately the same time associated with it wherever you are in the world (prior to the railroads, that was the only time - local time). So I can say "it's 4am in China" and you'll know it's the middle of the night without having to consult Google. They can also achieve the opposite, keeping neighbours on the same time when their solar days are actually different, e.g. within China. Sometimes that's useful.

Daylight savings exist for saving power (and were introduced in the war to do just this), providing more daylight hours for school children, and longer days for agriculture (now historic). There is debate about whether any of those reasons are actually valid.

Re: Time zone news

#15

Post by BookmarkSaver »

bostonpete wrote: post #11
dijit wrote: post #3

Is there still a valid reason to have timezones altering between states? is it just for agriculture? While we're, talking about changing time monitoring systems, can't we have 13 months with 28 days each? (and an extra day every 4 years added on to december?) :( Simple things, but that would allow us to follow the lunar cycle.

In Northern areas, there's a lot of practical value that gets overlooked. In Boston, the sun is rising close to 5:00 AM as it is at the height of summer. Without daylight savings time, it would be rising at 4:00 AM. I think most people would rather have extended daylight late in the day than have all that extra sunlight wasted when we're sleeping. The counter to that is -- well, let's always stick with daylight savin…

> For example, sunset is a little after 4:00 PM in Boston in late December. If we stuck with daylight savings time, it'd be a little after 3:00.

This seems backwards. Sunset would be after 5 if they kept daylight savings.

I used to live in Boston, and I despised how early the sun would set. It made getting off of work demoralizing. I always liked the idea of just switching to Atlantic time. Whatever the case may be, I strongly value daylight later in the day rather than in the morning.

Re: Time zone news

#18

Post by ghaff »

bostonpete wrote: post #11
dijit wrote: post #3

Is there still a valid reason to have timezones altering between states? is it just for agriculture? While we're, talking about changing time monitoring systems, can't we have 13 months with 28 days each? (and an extra day every 4 years added on to december?) :( Simple things, but that would allow us to follow the lunar cycle.

In Northern areas, there's a lot of practical value that gets overlooked. In Boston, the sun is rising close to 5:00 AM as it is at the height of summer. Without daylight savings time, it would be rising at 4:00 AM. I think most people would rather have extended daylight late in the day than have all that extra sunlight wasted when we're sleeping. The counter to that is -- well, let's always stick with daylight savin…

You're backwards. The problem with year-round daylight savings in Boston (which, personally, I'd prefer) is kids going to school in the dark in the winter. Boston's both relatively northernly and very far east in a timezone because eastern time wraps up the northeast-jutting coast of the US to avoid New England being in its own timezone. [Edit: It wouldn't be in its own timezone; it would be in Atlantic time, which is used in parts of Canada. But it would put Boston in a different timezone from NYC and other major east coast cities.]

Re: Time zone news

#19

Post by hueving »

bostonpete wrote: post #11
dijit wrote: post #3

Is there still a valid reason to have timezones altering between states? is it just for agriculture? While we're, talking about changing time monitoring systems, can't we have 13 months with 28 days each? (and an extra day every 4 years added on to december?) :( Simple things, but that would allow us to follow the lunar cycle.

In Northern areas, there's a lot of practical value that gets overlooked. In Boston, the sun is rising close to 5:00 AM as it is at the height of summer. Without daylight savings time, it would be rising at 4:00 AM. I think most people would rather have extended daylight late in the day than have all that extra sunlight wasted when we're sleeping. The counter to that is -- well, let's always stick with daylight savin…

Sounds like they are in the wrong time zone. Also, if children are being raped at 4pm, they will be probably be raped at 3pm as well.

Re: Time zone news

#20

Post by diminish »

davidw wrote: post #10

I'm reminded of this quote: "I was in favour of space exploration until I realised what it'd mean for date time libraries" https://twitter.com/joe_jag/status/510048646482894848

All space time clocks may run at GMT+00 with no regional differences.

Actually we may remove time zones all together too. So the day time of 3pm will be different everywhere. For calendar months and seasons we already have it like that, in both hemispheres. The only issue is backward incompatibility with legacy movies, books who talk about breakfast at 8am. Similarly, a love song which talks about April/May being a sunny warm time sounds weird in southern hemipshere. Let's get rid of Roman legacy code in our civilization :)

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