5 ms·

Yay gigantic centralized authorities!

ghaff 8y ago
Right. Just do like China and make it all one timezone. ADDED: </s> in case it wasn't obvious (as was, I'm assuming, the parent).
- djschnei 8y ago
  There are basically no downsides!
- reaperducer 8y ago
  Yes. Because Lisbon, Portugal should be the same time as Van, Turkey when Turkey joins the EU.
  - jedmeyers 8y ago
    > when Turkey joins the EU I would bet $100 that we will see an EU member (excluding UK) leave the EU before Turkey joins.
    - louisswiss 8y ago
      Not sure about that, but I'd bet the same amount that the UK is back in the EU before Turkey joins.
    - kenneth 8y ago
      No chance we let Turkey join the EU after the mess of the last few years.
  - 13415 8y ago
    Turkey will not join the EU anytime soon because it currently doesn't have the required human rights track record and has destroyed its fragile democracy.
  - richardknop 8y ago
    Turkey will not join EU. Several countries will veto it or rather leave.
- Aunche 8y ago
  For the sake of argument, what is the use of having time zones at all? I think it would be a lot easier to think about time internationally everyone lived in the same time zone.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    See discussion elsewhere on this thread. Basically, most people care far about understanding roughly the "time of day" with respect to sleep/business/etc. than coordinating complicated international schedules. (For which UTC is sometimes convenient but even for frequent travelers is a small part of our typical year.)
    - Aunche 8y ago
      Obviously, things would confusing to the point where it might not make sense to make the switch. However, after all the chaos, everyone's intuition would adjust to match their local longitude. It would be a little awkward to decide what "time" to start the day though, but it's not like midnight is the greatest time to start a day either.
  - duncan-donuts 8y ago
    But how? Are you saying it would be the same time everywhere? So 12:00pm in London would be high noon and somewhere in the pacific (Sydney, maybe) it would be mid night? I don’t know if that would be any less confusing
  - david-cako 8y ago
    I agree, but that's fundamentally a matter of how you think about time. The more globalized your daily affairs are and the more "scientifically" you think, the more you will be drawn to a unix-time style of thinking. "Humanistic" times are designed to unify everyone around particular rhythms that have the same "names" for when work starts (9), when work ends (5), the middle of the day (12/noon), etc, regardless of where they live (and at the cost of actually meaning the same time wherever you live). Those are even less meaningful if your schedule is based in weeks and months rather than days, though. The humanistic factor of time zones is most useful for in-person, social stuff. In every other case I would prefer to tell someone what GMT time I wanted to get on the phone with them.
dang 8y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18009417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18009417 and marked it off-topic.
- djschnei 8y ago
  It's an (albeit sarcastic) remark about the very decision-making body talked about in the article. Furthermore, it's in direct response to still active comment: > I am also not too hopeful about US changing considering its federal-state model. In EU, multiple countries can agree on a decision, but US states are adept at bikeshedding and not getting anything done :( Detaching mine, while leaving the parent (which created the political tangent in the first place), is an obvious example of moderation from bias.
  - dang 8y ago
    It isn't just about individual comments; we're looking at the threads as a whole. In the above case, the parent got two subthreads in reply. One was just fine, while the subthread that began with your comment went unhinged. From an overall discussion quality point of view, the snip point seems clear. It isn't personal! And certainly not because of political views—we mostly don't even scan for those. Choosing where to prune these threads is always a judgment call. You're right that the offtopicness often starts on both sides. But it's a matter of degree. Your comment was a significant degree worse, which is probably why its subthread was significantly lower in quality.

Right. Just do like China and make it all one timezone. ADDED: </s> in case it wasn't obvious (as was, I'm assuming, the parent).

djschnei 8y ago
There are basically no downsides!
reaperducer 8y ago
Yes. Because Lisbon, Portugal should be the same time as Van, Turkey when Turkey joins the EU.
- jedmeyers 8y ago
  > when Turkey joins the EU I would bet $100 that we will see an EU member (excluding UK) leave the EU before Turkey joins.
  - louisswiss 8y ago
    Not sure about that, but I'd bet the same amount that the UK is back in the EU before Turkey joins.
  - kenneth 8y ago
    No chance we let Turkey join the EU after the mess of the last few years.
- 13415 8y ago
  Turkey will not join the EU anytime soon because it currently doesn't have the required human rights track record and has destroyed its fragile democracy.
- richardknop 8y ago
  Turkey will not join EU. Several countries will veto it or rather leave.
Aunche 8y ago
For the sake of argument, what is the use of having time zones at all? I think it would be a lot easier to think about time internationally everyone lived in the same time zone.
- ghaff 8y ago
  See discussion elsewhere on this thread. Basically, most people care far about understanding roughly the "time of day" with respect to sleep/business/etc. than coordinating complicated international schedules. (For which UTC is sometimes convenient but even for frequent travelers is a small part of our typical year.)
  - Aunche 8y ago
    Obviously, things would confusing to the point where it might not make sense to make the switch. However, after all the chaos, everyone's intuition would adjust to match their local longitude. It would be a little awkward to decide what "time" to start the day though, but it's not like midnight is the greatest time to start a day either.
- duncan-donuts 8y ago
  But how? Are you saying it would be the same time everywhere? So 12:00pm in London would be high noon and somewhere in the pacific (Sydney, maybe) it would be mid night? I don’t know if that would be any less confusing
- david-cako 8y ago
  I agree, but that's fundamentally a matter of how you think about time. The more globalized your daily affairs are and the more "scientifically" you think, the more you will be drawn to a unix-time style of thinking. "Humanistic" times are designed to unify everyone around particular rhythms that have the same "names" for when work starts (9), when work ends (5), the middle of the day (12/noon), etc, regardless of where they live (and at the cost of actually meaning the same time wherever you live). Those are even less meaningful if your schedule is based in weeks and months rather than days, though. The humanistic factor of time zones is most useful for in-person, social stuff. In every other case I would prefer to tell someone what GMT time I wanted to get on the phone with them.

dang 8y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18009417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18009417 and marked it off-topic.

djschnei 8y ago
It's an (albeit sarcastic) remark about the very decision-making body talked about in the article. Furthermore, it's in direct response to still active comment: > I am also not too hopeful about US changing considering its federal-state model. In EU, multiple countries can agree on a decision, but US states are adept at bikeshedding and not getting anything done :( Detaching mine, while leaving the parent (which created the political tangent in the first place), is an obvious example of moderation from bias.
- dang 8y ago
  It isn't just about individual comments; we're looking at the threads as a whole. In the above case, the parent got two subthreads in reply. One was just fine, while the subthread that began with your comment went unhinged. From an overall discussion quality point of view, the snip point seems clear. It isn't personal! And certainly not because of political views—we mostly don't even scan for those. Choosing where to prune these threads is always a judgment call. You're right that the offtopicness often starts on both sides. But it's a matter of degree. Your comment was a significant degree worse, which is probably why its subthread was significantly lower in quality.