[SpaceBoy]

I would like to put out a note to everyone reminding folks that on Sunday March 30th, when clocks are adjusted over that weekend, we should be careful to say Daylight Saving Time, Not Daylight Savings Time. I remind folks that it is daylight that is being saved, not money. This year, I'm so confident that everyone will get this right that i'm not going to put out a reminder.

Thanks. And have a great, daylight-extended weekend that weekend, everyone.

[Andy B]

I just call it British Summer Time, I though DST was a yank thing anyway?

[Console]

Isn't it technically known as West Europe Summer Time (WEST (not a recursive acronym)) now? It's something to do with standardising DST across Europe. DST is also not a 'Yank' thing, but the generic term for the stupid system. I think that the Americans have different names for each of their time-zones and the equivalent DST time-zone. I know that they have Central Standard and Central Daylight, as well as Eastern Standard and Eastern Daylight (I can only assume that they have a Western equivalent too).

[tom greeni]

What would actual happen If they got rid of DST, Would we end up having lunch in the pitch black and going to bed when It Is bright daylight. Any ideas ?

[Console]

Time doesn't get shifted by twelve hours, only one. Without DST in effect we would have morning that got brighter earlier and nights that got darker earlier - an hour earlier in both cases.

[Andy B]

I'd quite like to see what would happen if they got rid of the leap second, bugger up that new aluminium atomic clock they've built! Time woudl ever so slowly start to change so it'd be midday when the stars were out....

Actually when I was younger I thought with the International Date Line that if you could travel fast enough round the world the other way you would eventually go back in time because each time you cross it you are knocking a day off...if it took you less than 24 hours to go round the world but when your 6 no-one apart from Superman could ever do that.....

Nowadays it's superman and Console.....

[tom greeni]

I knew people would start to agree with me, Console Is the master of the Universe and a fountain of pure knowledge. Well done Andy B, We will start a revolution.

[kendra k]

we just had ours in america, and it ruined my morning.

[MK Chris]

the International Date Line

Is that the try before you buy Thai brides one?

[SpaceBoy]

I'd quite like to see what would happen if they got rid of the leap second, bugger up that new aluminium atomic clock they've built! Time woudl ever so slowly start to change so it'd be midday when the stars were out....

Just a moment AndyB, Not to send folks to sleep or anything but this needs a bit of clearing up or we may end up in a right mess. This is the bit where I become a bit of a nerd!

A leap second is a one-second adjustment that keeps broadcast standards for time of day close to mean solar time or Terrestrial Time (TT). Atomic clocks are so accurate that it will neither gain nor lose one second in more than 60 million years. The Atomic clock does not rely on leap seconds (which is approximately 0.6 seconds per year) and if you removed them from existence it would not alter the accuracy of the clock itself but the accuracy in relation Terrestrial Time which is the modern astronomical standard for the passage of time on the surface of the Earth. But the actual rotational period varies due to unpredictable factors such as the motion of mass within Earth and has to be observed rather than computed. However International Atomic Time (TAI) occasionally “jumps” in order to prevent it from drifting too far from mean solar time. Which is where the leap seconds originate from. As of 2006 TAI is exactly 33 seconds ahead of UTC (Coordinated Universal Time): 10 seconds' initial difference at the start of 1972, plus 23 leap seconds in UTC since 1972 to the present day.

And you wondered where the saying “Time is relative” came from!

Fact! All that fact!

[Yudster]

This is the bit where I become a bit of a nerd!

You mean that's only just happening now?!

[SpaceBoy]

This is the bit where I become a bit of a nerd!

You mean that's only just happening now?!

Oh Yudster you crack me up! It was a preamble to show folks I may get nerdy!

[Yudster]

.............I may get nerdy!

Too late, Meester Space Boy, too late!