Australia/Lord_Howe is the weirdest timezone

Post by jvanderbot » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:37 PM UTC

Y_Y wrote: post #271

nine_k wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is indeed a more logical clock, as it follows the natural cycle of activity. Equally, calendars that put the end of the year at the time after harvest ("autumn"), or at the start of agricultural work ("spring") are also more logical. Positioning the beginning of a new day at noon, and a new year t a solstice, is just a technical convenience, because these are easy to detect with very simple astronomy tools.

Only if everyone is a peasant farmer with the same crops in the same place. My activities are barely related to the height of the sun in the sky, and like the other residents of my city I don't take a ton of notice of harvest time. Bus timetables and cultural festivals are a much bigger deal (of which one in particular is indeed historically related to a harvest).

Post by prmph » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:38 PM UTC

guidedlight wrote: post #18

Nah, the weirdest time zone is Africa/Addis_Ababa, which nobody in Ethiopia follows. Instead the locals offset the time by 6 hours. So the AM cycle starts at dawn (i.e. 6am), and the PM cycle starts at dusk (i.e. 6pm). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Ethiopia

Post by grishka » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:40 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #262

grishka wrote: post #204

Another fun fact about timezones: if the government abolishes DST one year, and then moves some timezones an hour the next year, it creates a wild mess. Especially when you're building an Android app. Especially when it's the early 2010s so the timezone database is built into the system image but most devices that run your app don't receive system updates at all. Instead of picking the timezone with the correct offse…

I worked with a group of people once who just didn't care about timezones. All (ok, most) clocks were set to local time, but with some random timezone, about half of the time it was GMT, and 2/3 of the remainder were our actual timezone, but the rest were totally random. I had to write a "figure out what the time actually is" routine in my code because it was such a pervasive problem.

Post by ComputerGuru » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:43 PM UTC

nerdponx wrote: post #249

nine_k wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is indeed a more logical clock, as it follows the natural cycle of activity. Equally, calendars that put the end of the year at the time after harvest ("autumn"), or at the start of agricultural work ("spring") are also more logical. Positioning the beginning of a new day at noon, and a new year t a solstice, is just a technical convenience, because these are easy to detect with very simple astronomy tools.

What makes it more logical? The wheel turns all the same no matter where you mark the beginning. In the Northern hemisphere, there's actually something nice about starting the year in the dead of winter: it feels like the year is born in the spring and then dies away the following winter, not unlike a lifetime.

Post by ta1243 » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:44 PM UTC

IggleSniggle wrote: post #254

ta1243 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Blade is part of the MCu now since Deadpool 3 But I think the analogy may be being stretched

Ahh, figures. As soon as I said it I thought it likely that Marvel had roped it in at some point. Nothing is safe! Just wait til we get Star-Lord (Guardians of the Galaxy) accidentally facing off against some Jedi just so a writer can make some "Hans shot first" "inside" joke in some "way overshot the time travel to long ago in a galaxy far far away" plot...basically a movie to set up the joke in a trailer.