A Warning on Daylight Savings Time

[Sy Beck]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Sy Beck wrote:

[ETA]  Think of it this way.  There is no need to adjust your clock while travelling.  If you were in an airplane you are not constantly winding your watch forward or back as you travel; there is no need.  It is only necessary once you land.

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People still wear watches?  My cell phone has a clock that goes backwards and forwards automatically for me.

 

 

 

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Sad to spoil your fast lane lifestyle Perrie, but your cellphone won't work in space.  It depends on radio masts on the surface of the earth whose signal will be to weak to reach you.  If you look at pics of astronauts on the shuttle or the space station they will usually be wearing at least one watch if not two.

[Perrie Juran]

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Sy Beck wrote:

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Sy Beck wrote:

[ETA]  Think of it this way.  There is no need to adjust your clock while travelling.  If you were in an airplane you are not constantly winding your watch forward or back as you travel; there is no need.  It is only necessary once you land.

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People still wear watches?  My cell phone has a clock that goes backwards and forwards automatically for me.

 

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Sad to spoil your fast lane lifestyle Perrie, but your cellphone won't work in space.  It depends on radio masts on the surface of the earth whose signal will be to weak to reach you.  If you look at pics of astronauts on the shuttle or the space station they will usually be wearing at least one watch if not two.

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damn

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Quote

Charolotte Caxton wrote:

Why does it (ed: The International Date Line) go around Kiribati like that?

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I'm so glad you asked this question, Ms. Caxton. I have a great interest in date lines and would be happy to explain.

The International Date Line was first laid on the water (yes, it's actually a dotted line floating on the surface) by the small but hearty crew of the French corsair "Ventre Frottez" in 1852. Captain Jacque "Buckwheat" Zydeco was infamous for his inability to resist the advances of wayward women. The famous phrase "A girl in every port" was tattooed on his mast.

The expedition started in the Antarctic Ocean and proceeded north, tracking as straight a line as possible without bumping into things. After skirting New Zealand (who's inhabitants previously wore trousers), the crew resumed their northward course until being squeezed between the Tongans and the Samoans, an experience describe as "pleasant" by all involved. Just out of Samoa, Captain Zydeco unfolded his charts and realized he was within schmoozing distance of Kiribati, a Micronesian island rumored to be inhabited by the disinhibited. He ordered the crew to come hard to starboard. Widely misinterpreted, that command cost the expedition nearly a day's time, which they thankfully recovered with the blessing of favorable tradewinds.

The rumors of Kiribati were both true and understated. Seeing the approaching visitors on the horizon, natives gleefully lined up on the beach, wearing naught but smiles and carrying hollowed coconut halves filled with a fermented elixir whose name roughly translates to "Milk of Amnesia" . The welcoming procession was unlike anything the crew had encountered before, or would encounter again. After three days of merriment, the natives relieved the crew of most their wealth and all of their memory. The bewildered men set sail, tracing the meandering path you see in the map above.

It took the crew several days to regain their heads and their bearings. They set sail due north, tracing straight and true until nearing Midway island and the hope of a repeat welcome. Alas, it was not to be. Captain Zydeco, his intellect fogged by the welcome at Kiribati, misread his charts, mistaking Midway for Oahu. The crew's hopes of getting lei'd by Hawaiians with succulent pineapples were dashed on the seagull pooped rocks of Spit Island.

The dejected crew sailed on north into the Aleutian island chain where the ancestors of Sarah Palin attempted to harpoon them from their back yards.

There is much more to tell about the construction of date lines, but suffice it to say that dating is a messy business and you should not be surprised by twists and kinks along the way.

Yours in curiosity,

M.

[Charolotte Caxton]

Thank you, M

While most of the nautical terms were lost on me, I did manage to take away that the line is indeed an actual line and that due to some sort of diversion, time has been forced to conform to some sort of wayward whim, what that means is also lost on me, but thank you for the pleasant, if somewhat suspiciously unbelievable, explanation.

C

 

[Charolotte Caxton]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Sy Beck wrote:

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Sy Beck wrote:

[ETA]  Think of it this way.  There is no need to adjust your clock while travelling.  If you were in an airplane you are not constantly winding your watch forward or back as you travel; there is no need.  It is only necessary once you land.

---

People still wear watches?  My cell phone has a clock that goes backwards and forwards automatically for me.

 

 

 

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Sad to spoil your fast lane lifestyle Perrie, but your cellphone won't work in space.  It depends on radio masts on the surface of the earth whose signal will be to weak to reach you.  If you look at pics of astronauts on the shuttle or the space station they will usually be wearing at least one watch if not two.

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damn

 

 

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Monkey wrench!

I thought our phones were set by satellite?

[Dillon Levenque]

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Qwalyphi Korpov wrote:

Little suggestion for you:

Now that you gave a false warning -

 

• go back to your initial post
• mouse over Options
• select Edit Message
• Edit your message and correct it or at least note  that it is wrong
• Post the changes

 

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I'd stopped reading this thread when this was the most recent (and, by the way, spot on though obviously ignored by the OP) post. Like a fool I didn't think to subscribe in spite of the fact there had already been some very clever responses. As luck would have it I was steered back here by a caring friend. It keeps getting funnier and funnier after this post (and it was pretty funny already). It just keeps building. Perrie's 'damn' pic had me laughing out loud for real. It was perfect, Maddy's story had me laughing so hard I could hardly breathe.

You are all of you a clever lot. Sometimes one of these threads just takes off and goes, and this one surely did. Thank you all for reminding me why I like to come and look at the forums.

[DQ Darwin]

@Dillon: I read Maddy's post yesterday and came back today to read all of the thread today, I agree this is the best I have read in some time now.

What was once just the problem of realizing part way through two days in the year that the clock was an hour out of sync with the world I can now have this host of statements to ensure a smile.

@Ave thank you for the loan of each day it is most generous although I am surprised someone from NZ hasn't voiced an opinion?

@Maddy thank you for clearing up the mystery of the IDL, there was a time I understood it, but that's gone now.

We often poke fun at one another but I have to say this map from Sassy had me dying laughing until I realized I have to change all my important information addresses from Canada to uninhabited.

Thank you all for the giggles.......

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Sassy Romano wrote:

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Caitlin Tobias wrote:

I do not know which part of Europe the OP means.

 

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Must have looked at this map

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/world-accordign-to-USA.jpg

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[Perrie Juran]

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Dillon Levenque wrote:

Perrie's 'damn' pic had me laughing out loud for real. It was perfect, Maddy's story had me laughing so hard I could hardly breathe

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Thank you.  This has been fun.  I do believe that picture was the inspiration for this old image.

I think it's time to open the hatch. 

[Kiptic Horsley]

There is a proposal to switch Second Life from PST/PDT to UTC instead:

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-1385

 

Please vote for it to avoid mess like this week has been. Having SL time change back and forth from daylight savings makes no sense.

[Drongle McMahon]

This is extraordinary. What it means is that, thanks to Zydeco's hedonistic whim, if you sail directly from the northern tip of Tonga to the western tip of Hawaii, starting in the small hours of a Tuesday, you will sail into Monday and back into Tuesday twice before finally settling in Monday. Are you sure it wasn't this confusion that drove Zydeco off course, rather than his lascivious imaginings? Perhaps you do him an injustice?

[DQ Darwin]

Well I remembered at exactly 12:15 on the 6th Nov, or wait was that 11:15...hhhhmmm but thanks for the warning:P