From: Mike Barnes on
"benlizro(a)ihug.co.nz" <benlizro(a)ihug.co.nz>:
>On Feb 24, 11:43�am, Mike Barnes <mikebar...(a)bluebottle.com> wrote:
>>I get totally confused
>> when someone describes a time zone as being "ahead of" or "behind"
>> another. It can be either, depending on one's viewpoint.
>
>Discussion on sci.lang during the Beijing Olympics:
>
>[...]
>
>Ross:
>We are earlier in arriving at a given time, but on the other hand, if
>you ask "What time is it?", it is four hours later here than there.

That's it in a nutshell.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England
From: R H Draney on
Chuck Riggs filted:
>
>On 23 Feb 2010 17:41:22 -0800, R H Draney <dadoctah(a)spamcop.net>
>wrote:
>
>>Robert Bannister filted:
>>>
>>>The eternal rift between morning and evening people. I get very ratty
>>>when politicians force me to get up in the dark more often than need be,
>>>whereas I think dinner is best eaten when it is dark outside.
>>
>>Quite right...I had breakfast yesterday at noon, and dinner at midnight....r
>
>Scrambled eggs and coffee at noon, is lunch just the same, IMO. The
>transition, the uncrossable barrier, is around ten.

Uncrossable?...pah!...I often cross it in my sleep!...r


--
"Oy! A cat made of lead cannot fly."
- Mark Brader declaims a basic scientific principle
From: Mike Barnes on
Evan Kirshenbaum <kirshenbaum(a)hpl.hp.com>:
>Mike Barnes <mikebarnes(a)bluebottle.com> writes:
>
>> Transfer Principle <lwalke3(a)lausd.net>:
>
>>>Here's the original purpose of DST. In certain higher
>>>latitudes (including most of the UK), the length of the
>>>daylight at the summer solstice was around 16 hours. With
>>>the period of daylight centered at noon GMT, this would make
>>>the sun rise at around 4AM, before most people awake. And
>>>so we set the clock forward in the spring. The reason we set
>>>it back in autumn is because if we didn't, the sun wouldn't
>>>rise at the winter solstice until around 9AM, after most
>>>people need to be at work or school.
>>>
>>>In other words, the only way to avoid _both_ objectionable
>>>sunrise times (4AM and 9AM) is to have a biannual clock shift.
>>
>> Here those extreme sunrise times would be 3:40 and 9:20. I can see
>> the objection to 9:20, but what's the objection to 3:40?
>
>You don't have to get up with the chickens, do you? But I believe
>that the main objection was that people had to spend money on light in
>the evening when there were hours of daylight just going to waste
>before they got up.

Messing with the clocks seems like overkill. ISTM it would be simpler to
leave the clocks as they were and for anyone trying to minimise their
lighting costs to go to bed an hour earlier. The same goes for anyone
who has to get up with the chickens or whose life is otherwise locked to
solar time.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England
From: sjdevnull on
On Feb 24, 7:54 am, jmfbahciv <jmfbahciv(a)aol> wrote:
> sjdevn...(a)yahoo.com wrote:
> > On Feb 23, 6:19 am, "J. Clarke" <jclarke.use...(a)cox.net> wrote:
> >> Dunno about the rest of the world, but in the US court-ordered busing
> >> has most kids riding the bus to school anyway
>
> > Court-ordered busing never affected a substantial fraction of US
> > school children (it peaked at below 5%, IIRC) and since 1980 or so has
> > been very limited.  Post-2000, it's headed toward extinction.
>
> Why are you assuming that kids don't use busses?

I'm not assuming that. I've re-read the above to figure out why you'd
think that, but I'm stumped.
From: Jerry Friedman on
On Feb 24, 2:09 am, Evan Kirshenbaum <kirshenb...(a)hpl.hp.com> wrote:
> "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...(a)verizon.net> writes:
....

> > Doesn't _every_ extant Christian church use the Nicene Creed? (With or
> > without the _filioque_.)
>
> Assuming that you're not begging the question, no.  Mormons don't.  I
> don't believe Jehovah's Witnesses do.  I see claims that Seventh-Day
> Adventists accept the original (325) Nicene Creed but not the revised
> (381) version.  I'm not sure about Christian Scientists.  And I would
> be surprised if there weren't a number of churches (minor, but more
> mainstream than those mentioned) that don't disagree with it but don't
> actually use it.

I've talked to a couple of believers in homegrown forms of
Christianity around here. One told me his church doesn't interpret
the Bible--they just follow what it says (!). I think they're really /
solo scriptura/, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have some
disagreements with the Nicene Creed. (I'm out of touch with him and
can't check.)

My impression is that Mennonites don't use the Nicene Creed. See

http://www.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2005June/weaver.php

and

http://www.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2005Sept/dewey.php

The latter article argues for respect for the Nicene Creed instead of
what the author implies is the usual Mennonite rejection of it "as an
illegitimate statement of legislated power to be used to jockey the
loyalties of everyday Christians in the direction of imperial might."

--
Jerry Friedman