Timezone translations

Robert Elz kre at munnari.OZ.AU
Tue Jun 7 10:32:09 UTC 2005


    Date:        Mon, 6 Jun 2005 11:30:43 -0400
    From:        "Gwillim Law" <RLAW at nc.rr.com>
    Message-ID:  <000e01c56aac$b44495c0$0200a8c0 at statoids4qizor>

  | I am American.  I always use "daylight saving time" in my own speech.  I
  | would feel uncomfortable using "summer time" in oral discourse to mean the
  | same thing.  Why?  Because it sounds exactly like "summertime", which refers
  | to vacation and warm weather, not clock time.

I doubt that there's any real chance for ambiguity there, if
someone gives a time as "7pm summer time", they pretty clearly don't
mean some random 7pm during the period of December to March (approx),
(or June-August in other parts of the world) - they are (for whatever
reason) distinguishing the time from standard time.    Similarly, if you
tell your kids you'll take them to the beach in summertime (just "summer"
would do really, unless you're a lyricist and need a rhyme) they
aren't expected to understand that as the clocks move forward an hour
they will find themselves transported to a sandy location.

It is more just what you're used to.

Beyond that, if you really want "something saving time", then it should
really be "Electricity Saving Time", as that's what the time shift was
originally (and still sometimes used) to save.  It's absurd to believe that
changing the clocks is going to have any effect on the amount of daylight
that exists, or for that matter, that daylight is something that can be
saved.   Which is why most of the world calls it summer time, as in the
time that applies during (roughly) the summer months.

  | I don't think of "summer
  | time" as wrong, but as British usage, like "lift" vs. "elevator" or

Yes, just different.    Though I think I'd call it "non-American" usage,
since it really applies in Britain, and almost everywhere else (to the
extent it isn't overwhelmed by exported US mass media)

Except for ...

  | 25/12/2005 vs. 12/25/2005.

where the US usage is just too bizarre to even contemplate (I mean,
who would design a numeric format with the least significant digits
in the *middle*)

kre




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