Now, most of us here at TPOL don’t drink coffee. (Just one pour misguided soul, pun intended. And she is converting to tea.) But we understand. A couple of us live in a household with three children (4, 2, and just turned 1) and four cats (no dogs). So this last weekend has been… painful.
Especially with the massive flooding in the Four Corners, impacting work, family, and friends. Turns out that a lot of apps and other software just doesn’t get along with time changes. Yeah, it’s old code, but it WORKS. Anyone else in that situation?
As we’ve recently pointed out, this entire nonsense has to do with going to war, idiotic law makers. (Yes, YOU, Conscript moms and pops and Congress critturs – to say nothing of denizens in Statehouses.) In other word, government interference with the daily lives of people.
As is so often the case these days, it is even worse for our cousins north of the border: Canadian provinces play all kinds of games with DST and Standard Time. Here in the States, it is Hawai’i and Arizona who do NOT play games: they are on Standard Time all year round.
Well… except for the Navajo Nation. They observe DST, there in the NE corner of the State of Arizona.
But there is more: the Hopi nation occupies their own reservation, which is an enclave, completely surround by Dinetah, the Navajo Nation. Headaches yet, anyone?
Of course, other States are messed up year-round, even if they use DST. Consider Indiana, where everyone except the Gary area (far NW corner) is on Eastern Time. But because Gary is part of the Greater Chicago Imperium, they use Central Time, like Chicago.
Or South Dakota. Originally, the railroads (not the governments) split SD and North Dakota down the middle: down the Missouri except for the far northwest of ND, where the Missouri bends to the west. Today, however, SD is in Central Time east of the Missouri for the northern 2/3 of the State, and then (officially) the dividing line drops straight south to Nebraska (which is also divided into the two time zones. However, Fort Pierre (pronounced PEer, not Pi-erre), the quasi-industrial bedroom city on the west bank of the Missouri, just across from the State Capital of Pierre (also pronounced PEer), pays lip service to being in Mountain Time and acts as though it is in Central Time. And the Rosebud Indian Reservation, homeland of the Oyate Sicangu Lakota, which should be on Mountain Time, instead is officially on Central Time.
It takes government to make such an incredible hash of a simple matter like “what time is it?” To some people, it would make sense for both of the Dakotas to have a “Dakota Time Zone” half an hour behind Central Time and half an hour ahead of Mountain Time (and conveniently forgetting about the foolishness (to many) of Daylight Saving Time. But that, of course, is too simple.
It is rumored that it was a Lakota (probably not a chief: they haven’t had “chiefs” for close to a century) that marveled at the wascichu (“white man”). “Pretty stupid: cut a foot off the end of a blanket and sew it onto the other end and claim it is now longer.”
As more and more evidence accumulates that the twice-annual resetting of the clocks is detrimental to health and to business bottom lines, there is a growing push to let the Congress continue to dictate times for all 300+ million Americans. But weirdly, the gov-goons want the year-round time to be DST. Huh?
Not only that, but the time zones don’t really match the actual sun time very well, as we see in this map:
The lines at the top and bottom of the map show where the time zones should be to match sun time. All the squiggly lines show how much off the time zones are. For example, most of Mexico and Saskatchewan (as well as big chunks of Texas, and the Great Plains states) are in the wrong zone, based on where the sun actually is.
So we here at TPOL, from our primary base of operations in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, propose a solution. Let all of the States just set their clocks based on the time in Belle Fourche, the northern gateway to the Black Hills, specifically when old Sol himself is at the zenith: that is, natural NOON. When the shadow of stick on the sundial points due north.
Why? Belle Fourche is almost exactly in the geographic center of the Fifty States. So “All-USA Time” (AUT) would be the same for all 50 States. And everyone can adjust their hours of business, school, assemblies, games, etc. to match the daylight at their real location.
And then people don’t have to get confused about time zones or changing to and from DST, and a couple hundred other things. If they are really concerned about where the sun is, they can simply set out a sundial and see what local noon is. And it is only numbers: if your store opens and stays open for 10 hours, three hours before local noon (probably rounded to the nearest half hour) and seven hours after noon, does it matter if that is 0900 to 1900 (in the Black Hills), or 0700 to 1700 on the East Coast.
Again, no doubt too simple. But much easier on the brain, and on pets, livestock, and children.
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
Guest humor and pointed comments – it’s about time!
Our thanks to David M for sharing this with us!
Now, most of us here at TPOL don’t drink coffee. (Just one pour misguided soul, pun intended. And she is converting to tea.) But we understand. A couple of us live in a household with three children (4, 2, and just turned 1) and four cats (no dogs). So this last weekend has been… painful.
Especially with the massive flooding in the Four Corners, impacting work, family, and friends. Turns out that a lot of apps and other software just doesn’t get along with time changes. Yeah, it’s old code, but it WORKS. Anyone else in that situation?
As we’ve recently pointed out, this entire nonsense has to do with going to war, idiotic law makers. (Yes, YOU, Conscript moms and pops and Congress critturs – to say nothing of denizens in Statehouses.) In other word, government interference with the daily lives of people.
As is so often the case these days, it is even worse for our cousins north of the border: Canadian provinces play all kinds of games with DST and Standard Time. Here in the States, it is Hawai’i and Arizona who do NOT play games: they are on Standard Time all year round.
Well… except for the Navajo Nation. They observe DST, there in the NE corner of the State of Arizona.
But there is more: the Hopi nation occupies their own reservation, which is an enclave, completely surround by Dinetah, the Navajo Nation. Headaches yet, anyone?
Of course, other States are messed up year-round, even if they use DST. Consider Indiana, where everyone except the Gary area (far NW corner) is on Eastern Time. But because Gary is part of the Greater Chicago Imperium, they use Central Time, like Chicago.
Or South Dakota. Originally, the railroads (not the governments) split SD and North Dakota down the middle: down the Missouri except for the far northwest of ND, where the Missouri bends to the west. Today, however, SD is in Central Time east of the Missouri for the northern 2/3 of the State, and then (officially) the dividing line drops straight south to Nebraska (which is also divided into the two time zones. However, Fort Pierre (pronounced PEer, not Pi-erre), the quasi-industrial bedroom city on the west bank of the Missouri, just across from the State Capital of Pierre (also pronounced PEer), pays lip service to being in Mountain Time and acts as though it is in Central Time. And the Rosebud Indian Reservation, homeland of the Oyate Sicangu Lakota, which should be on Mountain Time, instead is officially on Central Time.
It takes government to make such an incredible hash of a simple matter like “what time is it?” To some people, it would make sense for both of the Dakotas to have a “Dakota Time Zone” half an hour behind Central Time and half an hour ahead of Mountain Time (and conveniently forgetting about the foolishness (to many) of Daylight Saving Time. But that, of course, is too simple.
It is rumored that it was a Lakota (probably not a chief: they haven’t had “chiefs” for close to a century) that marveled at the wascichu (“white man”). “Pretty stupid: cut a foot off the end of a blanket and sew it onto the other end and claim it is now longer.”
As more and more evidence accumulates that the twice-annual resetting of the clocks is detrimental to health and to business bottom lines, there is a growing push to let the Congress continue to dictate times for all 300+ million Americans. But weirdly, the gov-goons want the year-round time to be DST. Huh?
Not only that, but the time zones don’t really match the actual sun time very well, as we see in this map:
The lines at the top and bottom of the map show where the time zones should be to match sun time. All the squiggly lines show how much off the time zones are. For example, most of Mexico and Saskatchewan (as well as big chunks of Texas, and the Great Plains states) are in the wrong zone, based on where the sun actually is.
So we here at TPOL, from our primary base of operations in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, propose a solution. Let all of the States just set their clocks based on the time in Belle Fourche, the northern gateway to the Black Hills, specifically when old Sol himself is at the zenith: that is, natural NOON. When the shadow of stick on the sundial points due north.
Why? Belle Fourche is almost exactly in the geographic center of the Fifty States. So “All-USA Time” (AUT) would be the same for all 50 States. And everyone can adjust their hours of business, school, assemblies, games, etc. to match the daylight at their real location.
And then people don’t have to get confused about time zones or changing to and from DST, and a couple hundred other things. If they are really concerned about where the sun is, they can simply set out a sundial and see what local noon is. And it is only numbers: if your store opens and stays open for 10 hours, three hours before local noon (probably rounded to the nearest half hour) and seven hours after noon, does it matter if that is 0900 to 1900 (in the Black Hills), or 0700 to 1700 on the East Coast.
Again, no doubt too simple. But much easier on the brain, and on pets, livestock, and children.
Share this:
About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.