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Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

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Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#41

Post by nkrisc »

mjevans wrote: post #19
nkrisc wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then whenever you travel you'll have to recalibrate your time-related intuition about everything. No thanks.

They call this jet lag, and everyone has to do it already.

No, that's not the case. When I'm in New York, most stores open at 9 in the morning. When I'm in London, most stores open at 9 in the morning.

If we all used UTC around the world, I'd have to calculate the difference for all the times that I'm used to. In London the stores open at 9 in the morning, but if I travel East a bit into Europe they open at 12, and dinner is at 11.

It has nothing to do with jet lag. Currently you only have to do any time calculation is you're working across time zones, once you're there and dealing with things in that time zone there's no real difference from what you're used to.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#42

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

starlig-ht wrote: post #11
mejin wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it that no matter where I live I can wake up at 6, stores open by 9, and lunch is at 12. Imagine every time traveling having to ask the locals what time things happen. Also, I don't think any politician will allow their state to be the state that doesn't have the same time as other countries in the same longitude

Arizona doesn't do daylight savings, while the Navajo Nation (surrounded by AZ) does, and so does Utah to the North.

And the Hopi Nation (surrounded by the Navajo Nation) does not.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#43

Post by protomyth »

starlig-ht wrote: post #11
mejin wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it that no matter where I live I can wake up at 6, stores open by 9, and lunch is at 12. Imagine every time traveling having to ask the locals what time things happen. Also, I don't think any politician will allow their state to be the state that doesn't have the same time as other countries in the same longitude

Arizona doesn't do daylight savings, while the Navajo Nation (surrounded by AZ) does, and so does Utah to the North.

> Navajo Nation (surrounded by AZ)

Actually, it occupies area in 3 states. The Hopi Reservation is surrounded by the Navajo Nation.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#44

Post by ebiester »

toss1 wrote: post #32
poulsbohemian wrote: post #2

Personally, it would be brilliant if we'd just go to permanent daylight savings time nationwide. The transition is hard on the kids and living in the northern part of the country, the extra daylight is appreciated.

NO! Agree that the transition is hard, but Standard time is much better. Wakening before the sun is not only biologically counterproductive, but the late morning dark would further hinder ability to exercise in the morning for months out of the year. Just Kill DST, stay on standard time and be done with it

Whether standard or DST makes more sense really depends on geography.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#45

Post by racer-v »

kemiller wrote: post #38
austincheney wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better would be to go to a single Zulu timezone nationwide. You just go into work an hour later in the central area compared to the east coast.

Good God, no. The time isn’t just an arbitrary number to help coordinate meetings, it communicates what time of the day/night cycle you’re experiencing, to a reasonable approximation. Having separate time zones may be annoying, but it forces you to think about others’ experience. If I say I was up last night til 4 in the morning, that tells you something.

Agree. Noon should be the moment when the sun is at its highest altitude in the sky, or a close approximation thereof.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#46

Post by polymatter »

starlig-ht wrote: post #23
idbehold wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://qntm.org/abolish

damn. some good points in here. I stand corrected.

For many people the standard communication medium nowadays is not a voice call but an asynchronous chat message. I wouldn't bother looking up the time in Melbourne, I'd just send a WhatsApp message. Uncle Steve can reply at his convenience.

Bare in mind that just because Uncle Steve is awake that it is not necessarily convenient for him. In the scenario he likes to stay in bed a bit later. This is no problem if you simply send him a message. No need for any lookups or actuarial tables or astronomical calculations whatsoever. If we want to voice chat we can do so after he has responded to the asynchronous chat message.

Bare in mind that the answer to "what time in it" post timezones would be "mid-morning", or "late evening" or "noon". ie. conveying the information you actually need.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#47

Post by kemiller »

b-ryan wrote: post #33
starlig-ht wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

damn. some good points in here. I stand corrected.

All of the arguments seem to assume you have today's current tools and knowledge at your disposal, just with timezones abolished. This is clearly not what would happen. The real answer to "What time is it there?" without timezones would be the same exact thing, you google "what time of day is 4:25 in australia?" and google would tell you something like, "it's equivalent to 8:00 where you are"

That doesn’t help with the day/date mismatch. Switching everyone to UTC for absolutely everything solves a few problems (international meeting scheduling confusion, cranky programmers) and creates huge problems for almost everything else. Not to mention that access to technology like that is not universal.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#48

Post by kemiller »

idbehold wrote: post #17
austincheney wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better would be to go to a single Zulu timezone nationwide. You just go into work an hour later in the central area compared to the east coast.

https://qntm.org/abolish

You are doing important work here.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#49

Post by mikestew »

KGIII wrote: post #35
saalweachter wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time zones aren't for farmers; they're for employees who have employers who won't (or can't) let their employees set hours that give them free time in the daylight. There's also opposing needs: working folk like afternoon sun so they have daylight when they get off work, parents with school children like morning sun, so it is light when their children are waiting for the bus, and in the winter there's not enough dayl…

It's dark when we go out. It is dark when we come home. We get down to about 8 hours of daylight, I'm pretty sure. 8:15, I think? I could Google that. I'm at about the 47th.

8:25 is the shortest day in Seattle (a tad north of the 47th), which is further north than anywhere else that isn't in WA (except for that little piece of MN).

That's being nit-picky, though, as the practical outcome is that anything less than nine hours means you'll go to work in the dark and come home in the dark.

Re: Massachusetts is considering leaving the Eastern Time Zone

#50

Post by mikestew »

_raoulcousins wrote: post #22

Over here in Seattle sunset is at 4:19 in winter. Maybe we need to switch to some other time zone.

What difference would that make? You still have to deal with almost sixteen hours of darkness in December. Shifting clocks around isn't going to change that physical reality.
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