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What a bunch of hoo-wee. Lets start with the simple fact that China, which covers five time zones, doesn't use them. It's that same time in China no mater where

What a bunch of hoo-wee. Lets start with the simple fact that China, which covers five time zones, doesn't use them. It's that same time in China no mater where you are in China, and they seem to be getting on just fine. Next consider just how insanely inconstant the time zones actually are. They aren't straight lines up and down, rather they zig-zag all over the place --sometimes even skip over one another in "time-zone islands". There is no way to know any of this except to ask Google. And as for the contrived example of calling one's Uncle. Just ask him what a good time is to call. That would be the polite thing to do anyway. And hey, you won't get it wrong when he says "2 o'clock".

henrikschroder 12y ago
The reason it "works" in China is because a totalitarian regime has forced it on the people, and if you live in western China, everyone knows the workday is 11-to-7 instead of 9-to-5. The thing you're missing is this: How can Uncle Steve know he should say "call me at 2"? Either he has to do a lookup, or he has to internalize that Australia is a place where the workday is 23-to-7. And where I am, the workday would be 1-to-9, the east coast would be 4-to-13, Paris would be 10-to-6, and Bangalore would be 14-to-23. And this system made everything simpler... how?
- lmm 12y ago
  > How can Uncle Steve know he should say "call me at 2"? Um, because that's when he gets off work? If you get up at 16 and go to bed at 8, you say "call me after 16 or before 8". Simples. > And where I am, the workday would be 1-to-9, the east coast would be 4-to-13, Paris would be 10-to-6, and Bangalore would be 14-to-23. And this system made everything simpler... how? If you want to schedule a conference call with two of them, you can immediately know what the overlap time is without having to google. (I assume you meant 10-to-18 for Paris)
  - henrikschroder 12y ago
    >> How can Uncle Steve know he should say "call me at 2"? > Um, because that's when he gets off work? If you get up at 16 and go to bed at 8, you say "call me after 16 or before 8". Simples. How can you convince Uncle Steve (and the tens of millions of others in his timezone) to set their clocks to UTC, to start thinking of 1am as midday, 7am as dinnertime, and 10pm as the start of the workday? How can you convince these people to reprint opening hours, schoolbooks, TV schedules? How can you convince these millions of people that this is "Simples", when most of them do not interact with people in other timezones at all? Why would they do this?
- dkersten 12y ago
  How can Uncle Steve know he should say "call me at 2"? Either he has to do a lookup, or he has to internalize that Australia is a place where the workday is 23-to-7 Even now, work days (within a timezone) are not consistent. Most teachers here work from about 8am until 4pm, most office workers work 9am till 5pm, but some work from 9am till 5:30pm. I work 10am till 6pm. I know people who work 6am till 3pm. Lots of people do shiftwork and work completely inconsistent hours. These are just common times, in reality even in the same types of job, there are variations. Its not at all consistent and nobody can know when someone else is working without asking them. And I certainly don't have to look up when I work (unless I work shifts and have to either way) - I already know when I have to be in work and when I get to leave. And where I am, the workday would be 1-to-9, the east coast would be 4-to-13, Paris would be 10-to-6, and Bangalore would be 14-to-23. And this system made everything simpler... how? This is already the case, except that the numbers are confusingly given the same names. What I mean is, even if everybody works 9-to-5 local time, your 9 is not the same as my 9 - you need to know the timezone and if its DST and then add or subtract a number to convert to either your or their local time. How is that easier? And timezones are not easy. For example, I read someplace that if you happen to live in Israel/Palestine, what timezone your in depends not on location, but on if you identify as Israeli or Palestinian. Simple, right?
chmars 12y ago
Do you know by chance a list of such time zone islands?
- justincormack 12y ago
  There is a nice discussion of Australian ones in Wikipedia [1] - including a train line with its own time zone. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Time#Anomalies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Time#Anomalies
nandemo 12y ago
> they seem to be getting on just fine. Maybe they aren't. > Imagine that you've found yourself in Kashgar, the western-most city in Xinjiang, China’s western-most region. Your friend sends you a text message and tells you to meet him at 3 pm. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Not in Xinjiang. If your friend is of China's majority Han ethnicity, you can assume that by 3 o'clock he's referring to Beijing Standard Time. But if your friend is a Uighur, the largest ethnic minority group in Xinjiang, he might be referring to “local time,” which is two hours behind. http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/china-only-has-one-time-zone-and-thats-a-problem/281136/ http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/china-only-...

henrikschroder 12y ago

The reason it "works" in China is because a totalitarian regime has forced it on the people, and if you live in western China, everyone knows the workday is 11-to-7 instead of 9-to-5. The thing you're missing is this: How can Uncle Steve know he should say "call me at 2"? Either he has to do a lookup, or he has to internalize that Australia is a place where the workday is 23-to-7. And where I am, the workday would be 1-to-9, the east coast would be 4-to-13, Paris would be 10-to-6, and Bangalore would be 14-to-23. And this system made everything simpler... how?

lmm 12y ago
> How can Uncle Steve know he should say "call me at 2"? Um, because that's when he gets off work? If you get up at 16 and go to bed at 8, you say "call me after 16 or before 8". Simples. > And where I am, the workday would be 1-to-9, the east coast would be 4-to-13, Paris would be 10-to-6, and Bangalore would be 14-to-23. And this system made everything simpler... how? If you want to schedule a conference call with two of them, you can immediately know what the overlap time is without having to google. (I assume you meant 10-to-18 for Paris)
- henrikschroder 12y ago
  >> How can Uncle Steve know he should say "call me at 2"? > Um, because that's when he gets off work? If you get up at 16 and go to bed at 8, you say "call me after 16 or before 8". Simples. How can you convince Uncle Steve (and the tens of millions of others in his timezone) to set their clocks to UTC, to start thinking of 1am as midday, 7am as dinnertime, and 10pm as the start of the workday? How can you convince these people to reprint opening hours, schoolbooks, TV schedules? How can you convince these millions of people that this is "Simples", when most of them do not interact with people in other timezones at all? Why would they do this?
dkersten 12y ago
How can Uncle Steve know he should say "call me at 2"? Either he has to do a lookup, or he has to internalize that Australia is a place where the workday is 23-to-7 Even now, work days (within a timezone) are not consistent. Most teachers here work from about 8am until 4pm, most office workers work 9am till 5pm, but some work from 9am till 5:30pm. I work 10am till 6pm. I know people who work 6am till 3pm. Lots of people do shiftwork and work completely inconsistent hours. These are just common times, in reality even in the same types of job, there are variations. Its not at all consistent and nobody can know when someone else is working without asking them. And I certainly don't have to look up when I work (unless I work shifts and have to either way) - I already know when I have to be in work and when I get to leave. And where I am, the workday would be 1-to-9, the east coast would be 4-to-13, Paris would be 10-to-6, and Bangalore would be 14-to-23. And this system made everything simpler... how? This is already the case, except that the numbers are confusingly given the same names. What I mean is, even if everybody works 9-to-5 local time, your 9 is not the same as my 9 - you need to know the timezone and if its DST and then add or subtract a number to convert to either your or their local time. How is that easier? And timezones are not easy. For example, I read someplace that if you happen to live in Israel/Palestine, what timezone your in depends not on location, but on if you identify as Israeli or Palestinian. Simple, right?

chmars 12y ago

Do you know by chance a list of such time zone islands?

justincormack 12y ago
There is a nice discussion of Australian ones in Wikipedia [1] - including a train line with its own time zone. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Time#Anomalies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Time#Anomalies

nandemo 12y ago

> they seem to be getting on just fine. Maybe they aren't. > Imagine that you've found yourself in Kashgar, the western-most city in Xinjiang, China’s western-most region. Your friend sends you a text message and tells you to meet him at 3 pm. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Not in Xinjiang. If your friend is of China's majority Han ethnicity, you can assume that by 3 o'clock he's referring to Beijing Standard Time. But if your friend is a Uighur, the largest ethnic minority group in Xinjiang, he might be referring to “local time,” which is two hours behind. http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/china-only-has-one-time-zone-and-thats-a-problem/281136/ http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/china-only-...