My Operawww.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12849630
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 9:03:42 PM
That's the address of the BBC's 'Time' front page.
I never thought time could be so interesting, but as you work your way through the site you can't help thinking how stubborn to the point of stupidity people can be.
The Earth spins on its axis and moves around the sun at a fairly predictable speed, so time in any particular place of the world can be fairly easily calculated by what time of day the sun is directly overhead. That's mid day. Every nation on the planet agrees that.
With the exception of a few eccentric sects the whole planet also agrees on splitting the day into 24 segments known as hours, and in principle agrees on splitting the world into 24 segments coinciding with mid day at the centre of each segment.
So why are there so many stupid exceptions? It makes sense to pull the line one way or another to keep your nation inside the most convenient zone, but not when your country is 3 time zones wide, and it makes no sense to put your whole nation half an hour out because you don't want to coincide with the USA. Time and geography don't care about politics, if you're where you are you're where you are, live with it.
But the one thing that hits you in the face when you look at the first map (That's the GMT map) is that Britain should definitely not be joining Europe in the next zone. France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Spain should instead be joining the UK, Ireland, and Portugal in this one. We're not out of step. They are.
I never thought time could be so interesting, but as you work your way through the site you can't help thinking how stubborn to the point of stupidity people can be.
The Earth spins on its axis and moves around the sun at a fairly predictable speed, so time in any particular place of the world can be fairly easily calculated by what time of day the sun is directly overhead. That's mid day. Every nation on the planet agrees that.
With the exception of a few eccentric sects the whole planet also agrees on splitting the day into 24 segments known as hours, and in principle agrees on splitting the world into 24 segments coinciding with mid day at the centre of each segment.
So why are there so many stupid exceptions? It makes sense to pull the line one way or another to keep your nation inside the most convenient zone, but not when your country is 3 time zones wide, and it makes no sense to put your whole nation half an hour out because you don't want to coincide with the USA. Time and geography don't care about politics, if you're where you are you're where you are, live with it.
But the one thing that hits you in the face when you look at the first map (That's the GMT map) is that Britain should definitely not be joining Europe in the next zone. France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Spain should instead be joining the UK, Ireland, and Portugal in this one. We're not out of step. They are.
