gayde@iwu1b.UUCP (11/15/83)
Can someone from Canada explain to me the reason why Newfoundland chooses to be 30 minutes out of sync with the rest of the Eastern Time Zone? Are there any other similar examples of this in the world? Related to the above questions, I once noticed that there is a 2 hour time difference at the border between Canada (Yukon) and Alaska. It seems that the Yukon is in the Pacific Time Zone and Alaska is in the Alaska-Hawaii Time Zone while the Yukon Time Zone (which never touches the Yukon!!!) ends in Southeastern Alaska just Northwest of Juneau (you really have to look at a map to see what I'm talking about). As I'm writing this my office-mate tells me that all of this is about to change shortly when Alaska revises its time zones. Can anyone sort out all of this confusion? Peter Gayde Western Electric Naperville, IL
notes@fortune.UUCP (11/16/83)
#R:iwu1b:-10300:fortune:6700021:000:215 fortune!norskog Nov 15 17:55:00 1983 Yes, there are 39 time-zones in the world, many are x hrs.s/30 minutes from greenwich and a few are x hrs.s/15 or 45 minutes off! Plus, Saudi Arabia runs on Solar Time: At sundown, you set your watch to midnight!
padpowell@wateng.UUCP (PAD Powell [Admin]) (11/16/83)
There are valid, cogent, and overwhelming reasons for Newfie time. 1. It confuses the hell out of the Yankees. 2. It allows us Mainlanders to make Newfie Jokes: - Doomsday will be at midnight, 12:30 in Newfoundland By the way, my local Newfie (who claims he doesn't know a clean Newfie joke), tells Mainlander Jokes: Q: "Whats Black, Blue, and Red, makes horrible noises, and is floating in the harbour?" A: "Dumb Mainlander that told a Newfie Joke in a bar." Just thought you would like to know. Patrick Powell
dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (11/16/83)
Don't ask us Canadians. Newfoundland was 1/2 hour off before it entered
Canada in 1949!
Dave Sherman
--
{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!davemmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (11/17/83)
I don't know why Newfoundland (including Labrador) is in a time-zone 30 minutes before the rest of the Maritimes; but the Newfie time-zone is even wierder when you realize that it is in contact with the Eastern time-zone, 1 hour 30 different. If you take the ferry from Newfoundland to Labrador, it actually lands in Blanc-Sablon, Quebec, so you put your watch back 90 minutes, drive a couple of minutes and put your watch forward 90 minutes again! Martin Taylor PS I seem to remember that Fiji or Samoa has a funny time zone.
pauld@garfield.UUCP (Paul D Fardy) (11/18/83)
Actually, Labrador is in the same time as Quebec
(ie. Atlantic time with New Bruneswick, Nova Scotia,
and Prince Edward Island) and has been for a long
time. However, several years ago Labrador City was
in the Eastern time zone - I believe this was for
convenience of the owners of the ore company which
was operated from Quebec (perhaps people commuted
a lot). So, for a while, there were three time zones
in the province.
Paul Fardy
{utcsrgv,ihnp4,allegra}!pauld
PS St. Pierre et Miquelon stays in Atlantic time
all year round - no daylight savings time.martin@dciem.UUCP (Martin Tuori) (11/18/83)
The people in Newfoundland use a time zone that is 30 minutes out for a very good reason. BEWARE! The world will end Saturday night at 9! (9:30 in Newfoundland) They're no fools; they'll have time for one last party. Martin Tuori linus!utzoo!dciem!martin
dxp@pyuxhh.UUCP (11/18/83)
Today (12/18/83) is the 100th anniversery of regionalized time zones in the U.S. and was instigated by problems in the scheduling of railroad services as each town/city set its own time as noon being when the sun was directly overhead. (Source:Good Morning America) Dave Peak(pyuhh!dxp)
jeff@tesla.UUCP (Jeff Frey) (11/19/83)
India, or at least parts of it, are also 1/2 hour out of sync. with GMT. Yes, but why? Has this been answered already? Jeff
judd@umcp-cs.UUCP (11/19/83)
Yes Saudi Arabia runs on Solar Time. At solar zenith (noon) everyone
sets their watches to 12:00 M.
Lets avoid disparaging remarks about entire nations.
Judd Rogers
(judd@umcp-cs)
--
Spoken: Judd Rogers
Arpa: judd.umcp-cs@CSNet-relay
Uucp:...{allegra,seismo}!umcp-cs!judd
USmail: Judd Rogers c/o University of Maryland
Dept of Computer Science
College Park, MD 20742dee@cca.UUCP (Donald Eastlake) (11/21/83)
I don't think Saudi Arabia offical national time is solar, although that
may be local practice. Lots of places have zones off by 1/2 hour,
including part of Australia. The only nation I am aware of where the
offical national time is not even vaguely related to the international
standard zones is Afghanistan. Official national Afghan time is local
mean solar time in Kabul, which is some bizarre number of minutes and
seconds off from any other zone.
+ Donald E. Eastlake, III
ARPA: dee@CCA-UNIX usenet: {decvax,linus}!cca!deedecot@cwruecmp.UUCP (Dave Decot) (11/22/83)
I agree with Judd in requesting that we don't make disparaging remarks about entire nations, especially since the U.S. still does not use the metric system. Dave Decot decvax!cwruecmp!decot (Decot.Case@rand-relay)
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (11/22/83)
I seem to remember that the state of Maine was at one time in what was called the Atlantic Time Zone. Does anybody else remember anything like this? T. C. Wheeler P.S. Last month's Natural History (or was it the Smithsonian) had a good article on how the Time zones were finally established.
jaap@haring.UUCP (Jaap Akkerhuis) (11/28/83)
I just reminded me an old historic incident. Before World War II there where a couple different timezone in the Netherlands. Some where only 20 minutes different. So, they standardised it by defining the official Dutch time to be 12.00 midday on a certain date that the Westertoren in Amsterdam (the tower with the crown) said it was 12.00 that date. Unfortunately, it happened to be one hour and twelve minutes or so after GMT. When the Germans occupied they banned (among other things) this time zone. Since then it has been MIT (Middle European Time) until it got recently improved by defining DST etc.