Time Zone Madness

[despickable]

With all the crazy stuff happening I could sure lose a day and skip to Saturday so this really caught my eye.

http://news.yahoo.com/who-knew/samoa-time-zones-27690168.html

Cool history

[Caela]

Interesting, though I think I would be annoyed if I lost a whole days pay because of it!

[despickable]

Exactly and what if it was your birthday? Silly things humans do huh

[AndyZ]

I personally believe that we should consider all using the same time zone.  If we all use GMT, then maybe somewhere in the world, dawn is about 3pm and dusk is about 3am, but times can adjust to a 9 to 5 schedule.  It tends to just cause a lot of confusion with the current way of doing things.

The only argument I've heard against it so far is that people use the time zones to help get adjusted to the different daylight schedule.  I could also see something about an initial glitch with computer times, but that shouldn't be any different from setting your clocks a different hour, right?

Apologies if this idea is hijacking the thread; I'll shush if the thread starter prefers.

[Oniya]

The concept of standard time (and thus, time zones) was adopted in the late 19th century in an attempt to end the confusion that was caused by each community's use of its own solar time. Some such standard became increasingly necessary with the development of rapid railway systems and the consequent confusion of schedules that used scores of different local times kept in separate communities. (Local time varies continuously with change in longitude.)

The need for a standard time was felt most particularly in the United States and Canada, where several extensive railway routes passed through places that differed by several hours in local time.

[AndyZ]

If I understand correctly, then, places would vary independently of any true time or standard, so they threw down a standard which tried to make each place independent of each other.  Having everyone go to the same time zone, then, would be progressing towards this path.

[Oniya]

No... with a single 'time zone', then the sun would be at the zenith at different times in different parts of the world.  The current system is set up so that the zenith-time is roughly equivalent to 12:00 noon.

[AndyZ]

I realize that changing everything to a different time zone would cause the zenith to be at different times, as opposed to 12 noon.  I do, however, believe that the benefits would outweigh the drawbacks.

Benefits would be less confusion among time zones, changing times and the like, as well as easier synchronization of computers.  Drawbacks would be not having it be the zenith at 12 noon, which isn't true half the year anyway due to daylight savings.

By this method, if the general area would normally be 7am for the zenith, the listed time would be 4am to 12pm for the working schedule, even if the time relative to the sun would be the same.  People would get up at what's listed at 3am, just as the sun is starting to rise.  This might be confusing since I'm not really sure how else to explain.

[Will]

What's wrong with time zones?  Whatever the problem is, it can't be as bad as adjusting to a worldwide standard time.  Just because it makes logical sense doesn't mean it makes practical sense.

[Serephino]

Yeah, you would have people living in the dark if you did that.  It makes much more sense the way things are now, mostly anyway.  Maybe there should be fewer timezones for less confusion...  But it's hard enough adjusting one hour for daylight savings time.  Adjusting to one standard time would be hell, and humans would be the only ones adjusting. 

[Oniya]

Personally, I think we could do without Daylight Savings Time - that was implemented when lighting was far more expensive (to save on candles).  As it is now, the day after each time shift is apparently one of the 'danger days' for vehicular accidents, due to people being 'off' on their circadian rhythm.

[Revolverman]

Daylight needs to go, or make it all year.

[despickable]

Warning Sarcasm Ahead.

I like daylight savings we are on our third consecutive day  in the 90f summer and extra hour to look at ladies in bikinis and muscular men for those who like them too
Either way i have little problem with Daylight Savings. And one time zone for all would just be silly there would be no excuse then for Australia to have more international sport events because the rest of the world hates getting up early to watch their country kick everyone ass. The people need something to complain about and humans are the only ones effected by DST