Taking this out of order ... graywolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On second thought I think I will write my congressman and propose > that he introduce a bill to make everyone use sundial time.
A part of me would find perverse pleasure in that -- the purity of it, having 'noon' actually mean when the sun is straight up, and being able to set clocks precisely by direct observation of natural phenomena without needing to consult an external authority for the time or for a table of adjustments to your observations. But ironcally, the two weeks each year when I actually _use_a_sundial_, I use one with corrections to mean time (clock time). (I use a ring-dial calibrated to that location and those two weeks: <http://www.dglenn.org/events/pennsic/ringdial.html> Reading the time from one edge at the start of the two-week camping event, from the other edge near the end of the two weeks, and in between the rest of the time, the sundial gives a useful-enough approximation to wall-clock-time despite the drift of solar time over that two week span. But I'll have to get the friend who made it -- the same one who wrote the text on that page -- to make a new one this year because they're holding the Pennsic War a week earlier than they used to.) Switching to sundial-time the rest of the year would provide a handy excuse for my chronic tardiness though: "I'm sorry I'm late; my watch is on Baltimore time, not Rockville time." Hmm.... Or even better, "I went to Hagerstown over the weekend and forgot to set my watch back when I returned." Yeah, that's the ticket! Backing up to Greywolf's earlier paragraphs: > Why don't we just all set our clocks ahead perminently then. It's been tried. Too many people _didn't_ like it. And there were too many schoolbus accidents in the mornings. > If your want > your day to be longer, just get up earlier, and don't fuck with the rest > of us. Now that makes sense to me. Folks who want extra evening daylight start showing up at 0800 or even 0700 in the morning and leaving accordngly early; folks who'd rather enjoy a few months of finding it easier to get up on time in the morning because of the earlier sunrise continue showing up at 0900 and leaving at 1700. Workplaces that have shifts that need to be coordinated change or don't change their schedules depending on which is better for their customers and which is better for employee morale. I just don't feel as strongly about the "don't fuck with the rest of us" as I do about "be honest with yourselves and the rest of us as to _why_ you're fucking with our clocks." -- Glenn -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
