I feel similarly about Genre names for music. My philosophy is that if it sounds good, it is good. Now, while Genres and such are useful for organization, too many people define themselves or their listening habits by genres. They like having that 'something' to latch onto I guess. \
Why do you feel that time zones are stupid? btw
well our whole time system is messed up. if you and i are on opposite parts of the world and raise our arm or something at the exact same time, shouldn't the numerical time be the same as well? another thing that bothers me is daylight savings time and all of that. its so stupid that we change our clocks and adjust our lives, only so we can "gain" an hour here, even though we "lose" an hour later on. why even bother? if you never changed your clock, the only difference it would make is that you wouldnt be on par with everyone else, its not like you're going to get less stuff done during the day, and who cares when the sun sets and rises according to our clocks? the 12 hour format is another thing i dont like. i've been on military time for about 7 years now: 1 numerical value for each hour of the day--it's just simpler and more accurate (if i tell someone 1400 they know what i mean, where if i say 2, i have to specify AM or PM).
i think we need to move to a system where there is just one time. start at the prime meridian. when it's "midnight" there, the time is 0000. if you're in China, that could be the middle of the afternoon, but it's still 0000--no confusion whatsoever. it shouldnt matter to people what number a clock reads throughout the day as long as its consistent. think about it--call from anywhere in the world to anywhere else in the world, and you know exactly what time you're talking, no conversions of time zones. so anyways, "dinner time" on the east coast might occur at 2300, but who gives a damn. this probably isnt making any sense, but i just hate it when things are way more complicated than they have to be. its seems so obvious that we should have one time, and each hour, minute, and second is unique to one relative point in a 24 hour time period.
There is no such thing as US English, International English, or British English. No matter what Microsoft would have us believe.
Yes there are grammatical differences and spelling of certain words varies from country to country, but then again it does within the same country too.
If I were to travel just a hundred miles north of where I am in the UK right now the accent would be quite different and I might not even recognise some words.
Why stop at US, International, and British? Maybe we should have London English, New York English, Sydney English... and so on.
Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way is an informative and entertaining book on the subject (the history of the English language). I read it on vacation last year in Hilton Head. Kind of hard to retain anything poolside. I do remember turning the pages though.
if you and i are on opposite parts of the world and raise our arm or something at the exact same time, shouldn't the numerical time be the same as well?
It would be the same global time (usually GMT or UTC), but it isn't the same local time. It isn't reasonable for all middays to occur at 1200 worldwide for an arbritary locale.
Scottish accents and dialects vary hugely over such a small country: people from the southern central belt can have trouble understanding people from the Highlands (and vice versa), despite speaking English variants (with a much greater variety of word pronounciations and spellings than between UK English/American English) .
I just learned that "braw" (meaning splendid) is a Scots variation of "brave", and brawer and brawest are legitimate words. Ones that I may now have to find use for.
Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way is an informative and entertaining book on the subject (the history of the English language). I read it on vacation last year in Hilton Head. Kind of hard to retain anything poolside. I do remember turning the pages though.
Don't vacation at Hilton Head. You have been warned...
Greenwich Mean Time (GMC), Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), or Military time (Zulu) are all versions of a single time system. You just have to remember your local timezone in reference to Greenwich Time. In New York I'm -5 hours, and other places accordingly.
As an amateur radio operator I am often talking to someone who is in a different time zone, occasionally a different day, and not uncommonly a different season. I had a chat with a gentleman in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was early December in Ny and dead of summer there, needless to say I was a bit jealous.
For really esoteric time zones, move to parts of Ohio or Pennsylvania where the Amish have Amish Half Time, a 1/2 hour difference....something to do with farming without electric lights.
As to the language, its all English, patois, dialect, creole, regional vernacular, it's all English
For really esoteric time zones, move to parts of Ohio or Pennsylvania where the Amish have Amish Half Time, a 1/2 hour difference....something to do with farming without electric lights.
Australia's Lord Howe Island is an interesting case. It's 10 hours, 30 minutes ahead of UT for part of the year, but when it switches to Daylight Saving Time, the residents only turn their clocks forward half an hour, so they essentially switch to UT + 11:00.
Australia's Lord Howe Island is an interesting case. It's 10 hours, 30 minutes ahead of UT for part of the year, but when it switches to Daylight Saving Time, the residents only turn their clocks forward half an hour, so they essentially switch to UT + 11:00.
see this is what i'm talking about. what the hell do people hope to accomplish by adjusting their clocks 30 minutes one way or the other?
Yeah except you can take it for granted that life on Lord Howe is so laid back nobody gives a rat's arse what time it is anyway.
Just in case someone relaxing on Lord Howe Island decides to do a little stargazing, I had to make sure my astronomy software would handle the funky time zone rules there.
Just in case someone relaxing on Lord Howe Island decides to do a little stargazing, I had to make sure my astronomy software would handle the funky time zone rules there.
Ah that's interesting (just had a look at your web site). Being a navigator's daughter, I spent a lot of time in meatspace planetariums as a kid.
I've got a good view of the heavens where I am at the moment but next weekend I'm moving onto a farm and it should be even better. I'll give it a burl.
Comments
Originally posted by Wrong Robot
I feel similarly about Genre names for music. My philosophy is that if it sounds good, it is good. Now, while Genres and such are useful for organization, too many people define themselves or their listening habits by genres. They like having that 'something' to latch onto I guess.
Why do you feel that time zones are stupid? btw
well our whole time system is messed up. if you and i are on opposite parts of the world and raise our arm or something at the exact same time, shouldn't the numerical time be the same as well? another thing that bothers me is daylight savings time and all of that. its so stupid that we change our clocks and adjust our lives, only so we can "gain" an hour here, even though we "lose" an hour later on. why even bother? if you never changed your clock, the only difference it would make is that you wouldnt be on par with everyone else, its not like you're going to get less stuff done during the day, and who cares when the sun sets and rises according to our clocks? the 12 hour format is another thing i dont like. i've been on military time for about 7 years now: 1 numerical value for each hour of the day--it's just simpler and more accurate (if i tell someone 1400 they know what i mean, where if i say 2, i have to specify AM or PM).
i think we need to move to a system where there is just one time. start at the prime meridian. when it's "midnight" there, the time is 0000. if you're in China, that could be the middle of the afternoon, but it's still 0000--no confusion whatsoever. it shouldnt matter to people what number a clock reads throughout the day as long as its consistent. think about it--call from anywhere in the world to anywhere else in the world, and you know exactly what time you're talking, no conversions of time zones. so anyways, "dinner time" on the east coast might occur at 2300, but who gives a damn. this probably isnt making any sense, but i just hate it when things are way more complicated than they have to be. its seems so obvious that we should have one time, and each hour, minute, and second is unique to one relative point in a 24 hour time period.
my physics class had a positive impact on me
-ipod
There is no such thing as US English, International English, or British English. No matter what Microsoft would have us believe.
Yes there are grammatical differences and spelling of certain words varies from country to country, but then again it does within the same country too.
If I were to travel just a hundred miles north of where I am in the UK right now the accent would be quite different and I might not even recognise some words.
Why stop at US, International, and British? Maybe we should have London English, New York English, Sydney English... and so on.
if you and i are on opposite parts of the world and raise our arm or something at the exact same time, shouldn't the numerical time be the same as well?
It would be the same global time (usually GMT or UTC), but it isn't the same local time. It isn't reasonable for all middays to occur at 1200 worldwide for an arbritary locale.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
Do Australians speak Australian? ?
No, we speak 'Strine.
Originally posted by Stoo
Careful now. You wouldn't want to make us Scoattish go all pure mental.
Scottish accents and dialects vary hugely over such a small country: people from the southern central belt can have trouble understanding people from the Highlands (and vice versa), despite speaking English variants (with a much greater variety of word pronounciations and spellings than between UK English/American English) .
I just learned that "braw" (meaning splendid) is a Scots variation of "brave", and brawer and brawest are legitimate words. Ones that I may now have to find use for.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way is an informative and entertaining book on the subject (the history of the English language). I read it on vacation last year in Hilton Head. Kind of hard to retain anything poolside.
Don't vacation at Hilton Head. You have been warned...
Originally posted by Stoo
It isn't reasonable for all middays to occur at 1200 worldwide for an arbritary locale.
right--i'm saying that 1200 would be midday at the prime meridian. midday in the US might be something like 1700.
As an amateur radio operator I am often talking to someone who is in a different time zone, occasionally a different day, and not uncommonly a different season. I had a chat with a gentleman in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was early December in Ny and dead of summer there, needless to say I was a bit jealous.
For really esoteric time zones, move to parts of Ohio or Pennsylvania where the Amish have Amish Half Time, a 1/2 hour difference....something to do with farming without electric lights.
As to the language, its all English, patois, dialect, creole, regional vernacular, it's all English
n2nrn
Originally posted by n2nrn
For really esoteric time zones, move to parts of Ohio or Pennsylvania where the Amish have Amish Half Time, a 1/2 hour difference....something to do with farming without electric lights.
Australia's Lord Howe Island is an interesting case. It's 10 hours, 30 minutes ahead of UT for part of the year, but when it switches to Daylight Saving Time, the residents only turn their clocks forward half an hour, so they essentially switch to UT + 11:00.
Originally posted by shetline
Australia's Lord Howe Island is an interesting case. It's 10 hours, 30 minutes ahead of UT for part of the year, but when it switches to Daylight Saving Time, the residents only turn their clocks forward half an hour, so they essentially switch to UT + 11:00.
see this is what i'm talking about. what the hell do people hope to accomplish by adjusting their clocks 30 minutes one way or the other?
Originally posted by ipodandimac
see this is what i'm talking about. what the hell do people hope to accomplish by adjusting their clocks 30 minutes one way or the other?
Yeah except you can take it for granted that life on Lord Howe is so laid back nobody gives a rat's arse what time it is anyway.
Originally posted by crazychester
Yeah except you can take it for granted that life on Lord Howe is so laid back nobody gives a rat's arse what time it is anyway.
Just in case someone relaxing on Lord Howe Island decides to do a little stargazing, I had to make sure my astronomy software would handle the funky time zone rules there.
As for the Amish... they're on their own.
Originally posted by shetline
Just in case someone relaxing on Lord Howe Island decides to do a little stargazing, I had to make sure my astronomy software would handle the funky time zone rules there.
Ah that's interesting (just had a look at your web site). Being a navigator's daughter, I spent a lot of time in meatspace planetariums as a kid.
I've got a good view of the heavens where I am at the moment but next weekend I'm moving onto a farm and it should be even better. I'll give it a burl.
Originally posted by crazychester
Are you fair dinkum sport or have you got a few roos loose in the top paddock?