5 ms·

Wow, what a fun statistic! Even if it's pushing the common definition of "sunlight" quite a bit. Also makes me wonder what fraction of the world population is

by avalys 4y ago

Wow, what a fun statistic! Even if it's pushing the common definition of "sunlight" quite a bit. Also makes me wonder what fraction of the world population is awake at a given time, and what that fraction looks like plotted against 24 hours of the day.

cft 4y ago
A practical issue- if you have a world-distributed workforce or an international news agency, what's the best geographical location for the headquarters?
- cupofpython 4y ago
  Are we channeling through internet cabling or magical straight lines?
  - WJW 4y ago
    Does this actually matter? Internet cabling vs magical straight lines would amount to less than 1 second difference, so emails/slack/discord/IRC/etc (basically anything except video chat) would barely notice.
  - mr_toad 4y ago
    > magical straight lines Sufficiently advanced technology http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/mar/19/neutrino-based-communication-is-a-first http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/mar/19/neutrin...
- beebeepka 4y ago
  The core
  - dylan604 4y ago
    The pressure to be successul must be intense there though
    - bregma 4y ago
      There is a large mantle of responsibility.
- thfuran 4y ago
  Wherever is most legally favorable from the perspective of liability and taxes, probably.
- spiralx 4y ago
  London has long benefitted from its position allowing its working day overlapping everywhere from the US West coast to Japan, even if barely at those extremes. Most of the world's population lies between UTC-5 and UTC+5 I believe.
  - decremental 4y ago
    Is that "most of the world's population" in the same sense as "Mohammed is the most common name?"
    - s1artibartfast 4y ago
      Well, is it?
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
  - morepork 4y ago
    Given India is UTC+5.5 and China is UTC+8, plus many other large countries are outside that range (Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Phillipines) I think you need to stretch it a bit
    - morepork 4y ago
      Given OP's 10 hour range, UTC+0 to UTC+10 is almost certainly going to be the 10 hour range that includes the most people. It includes all of Asia, Europe and Africa, and excludes both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
      - TheCoelacanth 4y ago
        I think it has to be. UTC+8 is all of China and UTC+5.5 is all of India, and in between are high population countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, so UTC+5.5 to UTC+8 has to be included. UTC+11 to UTC-8.5 is the Pacific Ocean and has maybe 10 million people total, while UTC+0 has >100 million in UK, Portugal and part of Western Africa so UTC+0 must be part of the range. That only leaves the choice between UTC-1/2 and UTC+9/10. UTC-1 and UTC-2 have under a million with only a few small islands while UTC+10 has most of Papua New Guinea with 6 million.
- lbotos 4y ago
  What are you optimizing for? Once you clarify that your answer will be clear. - Access to capital? - close to "action"? - Airport hub city?
  - cft 4y ago
    Overlapping business hours
- maccard 4y ago
  Seconding the UK. I live in Edinburgh (Scotland) and I can meet with people from west coast US as far as China with very minor adjustments to my working day. I have natural half day overlaps with east coast US, and most of my day overlaps with major outsourcing locations (except the phillipines, but can be managed with a 1 hour adjustment)
- jmmcd 4y ago
  Other people are saying the UK, but if you want the same time-zone plus EU laws/customs/currency, you can choose Ireland.
madcaptenor 4y ago
https://blog.cyberclip.com/world-population-by-time-zone https://blog.cyberclip.com/world-population-by-time-zone has a plot of population by time zone; I can't find numbers. Some quick guesses: - the most people are awake at around 14:00 UTC. That's 23:00 in Japan (the easternmost big population, at UTC+9 - sorry eastern Australia!) and 6:00 PST/7:00 PDT; most people who would be sleeping are in the Pacific. - the most people are asleep at about 22:00 UTC - that's 23:00/00:00 in Western Europe (depending on the season) and 06:00 in China, so you get those two big population centers (and India in between them) sleeping.
andai 4y ago
In Internet Census 2012, there's an animated gif of planet earth's day/night cycle as measured by which IP addresses respond to ping: http://census2012.sourceforge.net/images/geovideo_lowres.gif http://census2012.sourceforge.net/images/geovideo_lowres.gif Source: http://census2012.sourceforge.net/paper.html http://census2012.sourceforge.net/paper.html
- pcrh 4y ago
  That's interesting. You can see a difference between N and S hemispheres on the same longitude, e.g. North East USA vs Peru and Japan vs East Australia.

by avalys 4y ago

cft 4y ago

A practical issue- if you have a world-distributed workforce or an international news agency, what's the best geographical location for the headquarters?

cupofpython 4y ago
Are we channeling through internet cabling or magical straight lines?
- WJW 4y ago
  Does this actually matter? Internet cabling vs magical straight lines would amount to less than 1 second difference, so emails/slack/discord/IRC/etc (basically anything except video chat) would barely notice.
- mr_toad 4y ago
  > magical straight lines Sufficiently advanced technology http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/mar/19/neutrino-based-communication-is-a-first http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/mar/19/neutrin...
beebeepka 4y ago
The core
- dylan604 4y ago
  The pressure to be successul must be intense there though
  - bregma 4y ago
    There is a large mantle of responsibility.
thfuran 4y ago
Wherever is most legally favorable from the perspective of liability and taxes, probably.
spiralx 4y ago
London has long benefitted from its position allowing its working day overlapping everywhere from the US West coast to Japan, even if barely at those extremes. Most of the world's population lies between UTC-5 and UTC+5 I believe.
- decremental 4y ago
  Is that "most of the world's population" in the same sense as "Mohammed is the most common name?"
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    Well, is it?
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- morepork 4y ago
  Given India is UTC+5.5 and China is UTC+8, plus many other large countries are outside that range (Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Phillipines) I think you need to stretch it a bit
  - morepork 4y ago
    Given OP's 10 hour range, UTC+0 to UTC+10 is almost certainly going to be the 10 hour range that includes the most people. It includes all of Asia, Europe and Africa, and excludes both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
    - TheCoelacanth 4y ago
      I think it has to be. UTC+8 is all of China and UTC+5.5 is all of India, and in between are high population countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, so UTC+5.5 to UTC+8 has to be included. UTC+11 to UTC-8.5 is the Pacific Ocean and has maybe 10 million people total, while UTC+0 has >100 million in UK, Portugal and part of Western Africa so UTC+0 must be part of the range. That only leaves the choice between UTC-1/2 and UTC+9/10. UTC-1 and UTC-2 have under a million with only a few small islands while UTC+10 has most of Papua New Guinea with 6 million.
lbotos 4y ago
What are you optimizing for? Once you clarify that your answer will be clear. - Access to capital? - close to "action"? - Airport hub city?
- cft 4y ago
  Overlapping business hours
maccard 4y ago
Seconding the UK. I live in Edinburgh (Scotland) and I can meet with people from west coast US as far as China with very minor adjustments to my working day. I have natural half day overlaps with east coast US, and most of my day overlaps with major outsourcing locations (except the phillipines, but can be managed with a 1 hour adjustment)
jmmcd 4y ago
Other people are saying the UK, but if you want the same time-zone plus EU laws/customs/currency, you can choose Ireland.

madcaptenor 4y ago

https://blog.cyberclip.com/world-population-by-time-zone https://blog.cyberclip.com/world-population-by-time-zone has a plot of population by time zone; I can't find numbers. Some quick guesses: - the most people are awake at around 14:00 UTC. That's 23:00 in Japan (the easternmost big population, at UTC+9 - sorry eastern Australia!) and 6:00 PST/7:00 PDT; most people who would be sleeping are in the Pacific. - the most people are asleep at about 22:00 UTC - that's 23:00/00:00 in Western Europe (depending on the season) and 06:00 in China, so you get those two big population centers (and India in between them) sleeping.

andai 4y ago

In Internet Census 2012, there's an animated gif of planet earth's day/night cycle as measured by which IP addresses respond to ping: http://census2012.sourceforge.net/images/geovideo_lowres.gif http://census2012.sourceforge.net/images/geovideo_lowres.gif Source: http://census2012.sourceforge.net/paper.html http://census2012.sourceforge.net/paper.html

pcrh 4y ago
That's interesting. You can see a difference between N and S hemispheres on the same longitude, e.g. North East USA vs Peru and Japan vs East Australia.