What if the entire world had 1 timezone?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by puckluck

i'm still trying to figure out if girlysports is serious or just playing along.

[Flames89]

I prefer the system where everyone just says "When you see the sun come up, call that 6am"

(and yes, then we adjust an hour twice a year)

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Flames89

I prefer the system where everyone just says "When you see the sun come up, call that 6am"

(and yes, then we adjust an hour twice a year)

You seriously prefer that over the basically fool-proof system we have now? Would town criers clang their bell to announce the ever-shifting 6 a.m. dawn every morning, too?

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Wormius

This might only have had a chance of working if it was the scheme adopted rather than timezones as they are now. There is no possibly way this could be implemented now, it wouldn't be worth the hassle. And even then, it doesn't seem like it would result in any net benefit over the current system. The worst would be trying to arrange conference calls that don't interfere with another cities lunch or quitting times. Time zones normalize a lot of these issues for us.

It'd be like the headaches that arise from changing a simple office procedure (ie. a change in invoicing processing) X 1 billion.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

So a coffee place in Calgary that used to be open from 6 am to 10 pm on a Monday would now need to post it's hours split across days like:
Sunday 23:00 to Monday 15:00
Monday 23:00 to Tuesday 15:00
etc.

How would a Canadian or American channel do the evening newscast? Do they show it at what used to be 6 pm Eastern time only, when people in the west will still be at work? Or do they stagger it so that it's on around what used to be 6 pm in each city it's broadcast from, thus recreating time zones, and defeating the whole exercise of eliminating them.

When you're booking a flight, how do you plan what time it's going to arrive at the destination? Do you now have to look that up constantly? Do you look at a flight and have the website show you facts about the approximate position of the sun in the sky when you land and things like "Most people eat lunch around this time in Brisbane".

How do you even determine what time people in other cities are available? Do I eat lunch at 5:00 in Calgary, but 4:00 in Regina? Or is it 4:30 in Regina and 4:00 in Winnipeg? How will I know when it is safe to call or book a meeting?

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

It'd be like the headaches that arise from changing a simple office procedure (ie. a change in invoicing processing) X 1 billion.

Not even just that, but every restaurant / shop / office has to print out new signage for their hours of business, as well as update websites, databases, calendars. Places on the coast get to update tide tables. Every transit system schedule is rendered useless.

The biggest gains would be for recyclers because of all of the outdated schedules; and IT to adjust to the new time-zoneless system. And then the inevitable "time zone improvement fee" would get tacked onto everything from flights to cable tv services.

[GirlySports]

Yes. I wasn't really talking about changing it now (it's obviously too late)

If this had been the way it was (since time was invented at one point in time) would it work?

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And I think that Canadian and American channel staggering the news it outdated. Does anyone in Calgary really watch The National at 10pm and watch 3 hour late news when there's a bazillion news outlets out there? Or just switch over to CBC NEWS Channel at 7pm to watch the "10pm" news.

As for flights you leave Calgary at 5:00, you fly to London which takes 8 hours. When you get to London it's 13:00! Easy!

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

As for flights you leave Calgary at 5:00, you fly to London which takes 8 hours. When you get to London it's 13:00! Easy!

I want a flight that lands in Tokyo sometime before what we used to call noon.

The website tells me my options are flights that land at 3:00, 6:27, 9:30, 12:15, 15:00, 18:45, 21:22, 1:58.

Which one do I pick? Now I need to either look it up elsewhere, or the website has to tell me what each of those times approximates. It has to tell me when the sun rises, when the sun is highest overhead, and when the sun sets for me to gauge when the day is in that location.

Time zones eliminate this problem.

[Flames89]

Originally Posted by Sliver

You seriously prefer that over the basically fool-proof system we have now? Would town criers clang their bell to announce the ever-shifting 6 a.m. dawn every morning, too?

Sorry, I meant the "sunrise = 6 am" theory as a generalization of what we have now - versus what the OP was describing.

[Kipperriffic]

I go with the guy who suggested Stardates. I'd definitely record my personal logs everyday just to say the stardate...

*pesonal log stardate 440431.3; it was a great day.*