Live data from Hacker News

Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

timeuse.barcelona

241–250 of 264 posts

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#241
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically a coordination problem. Workplaces, schools, stores...

How do you expect stores to coordinate? If they worked during work hours, what's the point? People work during work hours, they don't go to stores. To solve this stores work around the clock or until 21 hour.

I don't. That's the whole point. Many/most stores, schools, companies, etc. are open about the same hours year-round. To the degree that people prefer those hours shifted relative to the sun at different times of the year, using DST provides that coordination at the cost of everyone having to change their clocks (or having a computer do it for them) twice a year.

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#242
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am. What’s your point ? I know Ireland likes the riches that come with EU membership. They don’t want to return to being a poor country. It would be a time zone difference, not a partition. Let’s not used such loaded language. Edit: is the USA “partitioned” or any less united because of multiple timezones?

The US would definitely be more efficient with fewer timezones. Really we should find a way to remove at least one between the 2 coasts. United, no, but the US is not the EU. America is united by default, Europe divided.

The number of timezones is pretty irrelevant. It's that there is a 3 hour time difference between the East Coast and the West Coast. (And an 8-9 hour time difference between the West Coast and Europe.) But the only real way to deal with that is to shift Pacific Time to Mountain Time.

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am. What’s your point ? I know Ireland likes the riches that come with EU membership. They don’t want to return to being a poor country. It would be a time zone difference, not a partition. Let’s not used such loaded language. Edit: is the USA “partitioned” or any less united because of multiple timezones?

> I am. What’s your point ? Then you know that Northern Ireland was a more important issue than EU membership and that remains true. Hence all the hoops jumped through for the Northern Irish Agreement after Brexit. > I know Ireland likes the riches that come with EU membership. They don’t want to return to being a poor country. What you're suggesting is risking descent into civil war. > It would be a time zone differ…

You condescension is off the scales.

Anyway, in this wild hypothetical, if you left the EU over a time zone difference, it would be funny to watch from just over the other side of the British Isles. It would be almost as ridiculous as Brexit

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#244
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am. What’s your point ? I know Ireland likes the riches that come with EU membership. They don’t want to return to being a poor country. It would be a time zone difference, not a partition. Let’s not used such loaded language. Edit: is the USA “partitioned” or any less united because of multiple timezones?

Loaded language is _entirely_ appropriate when you're talking about a frozen war (which, let's be clear, is what we are talking about here).

[deleted]

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am. What’s your point ? Then you know that Northern Ireland was a more important issue than EU membership and that remains true. Hence all the hoops jumped through for the Northern Irish Agreement after Brexit. > I know Ireland likes the riches that come with EU membership. They don’t want to return to being a poor country. What you're suggesting is risking descent into civil war. > It would be a time zone differ…

You condescension is off the scales. Anyway, in this wild hypothetical, if you left the EU over a time zone difference, it would be funny to watch from just over the other side of the British Isles. It would be almost as ridiculous as Brexit

> You condescension is off the scales.

The irony is palpable.

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#246

We (Europe) shouldn't fragment time zones that much. We (NL) should stay on permanent summer time. Reasons - criminality is lower when there's longer light - earlier darkness leads to more accidents. It's better to have longer darkness after the masses are RESTED (in the morning), opposed to when they're TIRED (in the evening) - longer day-time for office workers, is more productive - shorter time of year that has lo…

Permanent summer time is fine for me too in Greece. The linked proposal of moving Greece to CET is a joke anyhow since even now in December in central Greece you have already twilight at 7am which is fine and more useful than having it at 6am and in the Summer without DST sunrise would be too early for any real use while the weather and culture (don’t forget that) makes more use of the sun light in the evening

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#247

That line putting the whole Benelux, France, and Spain on one side of the divide (Western European Time) and Germany, Switzerland, and Italy on the other (Central European Time) makes this proposal just about dead in the water.

Central European Time in Benelux, France and Spain is basically Hitler time, see

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38478402

If people would become aware of that the proposal might have more chances.

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#248
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would still need to remember to not call your buddy in LA at your "8am" when in NYC. Now you need to take into account what a 9-to-5 translates to for all parts of the world. Solves nothing.

You still have to know a bit about your buddy, though. You can probably assume he'll be awake at his midday, but what about 7:00? Is he an early riser? Or does he have other commitments at that time? In reality you'll just learn you can call around 16:00 your time. At that point it's just a number and doesn't matter what it is. If things really were more complicated and you always needed to ask the question of "when…

Those schedules are just timezones in disguise

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#249

This is absurd and absolutely detached from reality. Not one person on the island of Ireland is going to accept either a timezone border between Ireland and Northern Ireland or between Northern Ireland and Britain. Unsurprisingly not one expert or group on their list is Irish or from the UK.

No one is going to change the time just in the summer. That doesn’t make sense. It generates a additional time zone border between countries just in the summer. Just imagine the chaos this is causing with train schedules. Just imagine the problems this is causing for programming libraries handling time. And yet many countries do this every year.

Re: Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the European Union

#250
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a troll post, I’m very serious: UTC+0:30 corresponds to the solar time at the geographical midpoint of the continental EU. The advantages are legion.

Non hour time zones are an abomination

Time zones are arbitrary and the result of a historical accident. If the standardisation of timekeeping were to have happened in Amsterdam (not unlikely seeing the history of telescope development[0]) the issue would have been moot as UTC would be what is now UTC+0:19:32.13.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telescope

Post reply on HN