Lloyed Alter on Treehugger.com just made my day with his coverage of how poorly we measure and record time, and a James Gleick proposal to do away not only with Daylight Savings Time – but time zones altogether:
In the appropriately named New York Times, James Gleick uses the switch from daylight to standard time to make a case for dropping time zones altogether, writing:
Most people would be happy to dispense with this oddity of timekeeping, first imposed in Germany 100 years ago. But we can do better. We need to deep-six not just daylight saving time, but the whole jerry-rigged scheme of time zones that has ruled the world’s clocks for the last century and a half…. Let us all — wherever and whenever — live on what the world’s timekeepers call Coordinated Universal Time, or U.T.C. (though “earth time” might be less presumptuous). When it’s noon in Greenwich, Britain, let it be 12 everywhere.
Writing in MNN on the day of the time change last year, I made the same case, but noted that there are alternatives to UTC. I also noted that we have to change the way we do dates as well[.]
Am I thrilled at the idea of getting rid of the Daylight Savings time thing? Even time zones?
Not particularly.
I’m thrilled with Lloyd’s stories.
As we switch out of daylight saving time, let’s admit it — the way we keep times and dates is a ridiculous mess. Last week I missed a phone call to Belgium because the guy on the other end got the zones wrong. A few years back, I ruined a family vacation because I booked a 2 March start as Canadians do, 2/3/2013, where the hotel booked it as Feb. 3 as Americans do, 2/3/2013. In two weeks, I am on a ridiculous 6 a.m. flight because I got the a.m. and p.m. wrong when I bought my ticket.
Coincidentally, in 1876, Canadian engineer Sandford Fleming missed a train because he arrived at 6 p.m. for a 6 a.m.departure. He then proposed Cosmic Time, a 24-hour clock for the entire world — one time for everyone, irrespective of meridian. When that idea got rejected, he developed the idea of Universal Standard Time with 24 time zones, and he became known as the Father of Standard Time.
I once ended up at the airport a full 24 hours early. That is merely the highlight of a life spent wondering what I’ve forgotten, or screwed up, now.
It is so good to hear that other people regularly do that. In fact it’s an utter delight. Perhaps I don’t have to feel like a deeply defective person all the time.
Just some of the time.
