Showing posts with label Time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Time. Show all posts

Feb 3, 2020

Perception of Time

The Roman Empire still existed when Johannes Gutenberg's work on the first printing press was completed in 1440. The Roman Empire was not dissolved until 1453. That was the year when the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire, just two years before the mass production of the Gutenberg Bible began.
Queen Elizabeth has seen 13 different American presidents. She was crowned Queen in 1952, during the presidency of Harry Truman, the 33rd president. In addition, she has been alive for 16 presidents, since she was born in 1926, during the presidency of Calvin Coolidge.
The same year as Nintendo was founded; construction of the Eiffel Tower was finished in1889. The year Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo (originally as a playing card company) in Kyoto, Japan was1889.

People were still traveling the Oregon Trail and covered wagons were heading out west in the mid-nineteenth century, with the first major wagon train hitting the trail in 1843. That same year, a Scottish inventor named Alexander Bain received a patent for a machine he developed called an “Electric Printing Telegraph.” The machine was the direct predecessor of the fax machines that were staples of offices everywhere in the late twentieth century - and still are in the medical industry.

Dec 1, 2018

Common Acronyms

Here are a few names that you probably did not know they really were acronyms.

PAM (cooking spray) stands for Product of Arthur Meyerhoff.
NECCO (wafers) stands for New England Confectionery Company.
Smart Car (a collaboration between Swatch and Mercedes), is short for Swatch + Mercedes + Art.
The USA PATRIOT Act stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. (a real mouthful)
TIME (magazine) stands for “The International Magazine of Events.”
CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
Arby’s is a play on RB, for the chain’s founders, the Raffel brothers.
A&W stands for its founders, (Roy) Allen and (Frank) Wright.

Dec 30, 2016

Political Time

Less than one hundred years ago, the US Congress passed the Standard Time Act in 1918, which established a single, standard system of timekeeping for the entire US and designated its five time zones by reference to the Greenwich meridian. 'An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States' was enacted on March 19, 1918. It both established standard time zones and set summer Daylight Saving Time to begin on March 31, 1918. Daylight Saving Time was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919.

After the War ended, the law proved so unpopular that it was repealed the next year with a Congressional override of President Wilson's veto. Daylight Saving Time became a local option, and was continued in some states and in some cities.

After many changes to the clocks, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 DST law  should "the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant". Going from 2007 forward, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. begins at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November. There are now seven time zones for the United States, EST (Eastern), CST (Central), MST (Mountain), PST (Pacific), AKST (Alaska), and HAST (Hawaii).


The earth is about 4.5 billion years old and finally, nine years ago, US politicians finally agreed to what time it is (unless it proves unpopular). Luckily they have not seen fit to change the calendar and we can still celebrate the New Year on January 1.

These same politicians tell us they can predict the future about many things, including global warming, but they cannot even agree on what time it is or if "energy savings are not significant".

Jan 29, 2016

Time and Time Zones

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, time is the most frequently used noun in the English language, and year is the third most frequently used noun. Person is the second most used noun.

The world is divided into about 40 time zones, including 27 hourly time zones. In addition, there are several time zones of just 30 or 45 minutes apart.

China and time zones - Despite being larger than mainland United States in terms of land area, China has one single time zone (UTC+8).

Mainland United States is divided into four time zones.

France has 12 time zones, most of which are in its overseas territory. The country of France itself observes a single time zone.

Russia, The world's largest country has eleven time zones. Daylight saving time is not used in Russia.

Canada, the world's second largest country, has six time zones.

Antarctica and the Arctic are the only areas where all standard time zones currently followed in the world, converge. Amundsen–Scott Station on the South Pole however uses New Zealand time (UTC+12 and UTC+13 during DST).

Mar 6, 2015

Interesting Time Facts

In 1903 the Wright brothers successfully flew a plane for 59 seconds. 66 years later Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969.

Teaching started in Oxford in 1096 and by 1249, the University was officially founded. The Aztec civilization, as we know it began with the founding of Tenochtitlán in 1325.

Ten percent of photos ever taken were taken during the past 12 months.

The Chicago Cubs baseball team last won a world series in 1908, before women were allowed to vote, which came during 1920.

If you were born in 1968, the world population was 3,557,000,000. Today, the world population has more than doubled from then and is 7,217,000,000.

Jan 2, 2015

Time

Ah, we are at the beginning of another New Year and the world awaits what wonderful things we can accomplish this year. Time is such an important part of our lives and is so personal to each of us that there are hundreds of ways to describe it. Each of us has our own specious present. This year, do not bide your time. Use this window of time to spend some face time with family and friends and keep them close for all time.

Words from the Rolling Stones (I like the second version) title come to mind LINK. In the nick of time we look at the fresh calendar, sit a spell, adjust our circadian clock, and ponder the current epoch. This is the kairos to begin before we reach our first poronkusema.

Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment).

The Finnish word poronkusema describes the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without taking a comfort break.

The Malaysian word for the time it takes to eat a banana is pisan zapra. To say that someone would arrive in pisan zapra means they could be expected in a few minutes.

The Turkish phrase 'zaman dilimi' means time period as does the Haitian Creole phrase 'peryòd tan'.

A jubilee is 50 years.

A vigil is a period of time, especially at night, when you stay in a place to wait for something or to give your support.

In medieval time, a moment was defined as being 90 seconds.

In the Old Testament, Yom is translated as period of time, such as year, always, and more.

A sidereal time is the measurement of time relative to a distant star. It is used in astronomy to predict when a star will be overhead. A sidereal day is 4 minutes less than a solar day.

Scientist Gilbert Newton Lewis defined a jiffy in the early 1900s as the amount of time it takes light to travel 1 centimeter (0.4 in), which is about one-hundredth of a second.

A Planck is the duration light takes to travel one (Max) Planck length, theorized to be the smallest duration measurement that will ever be possible, roughly 10 to the 43rd seconds.

Aging and Time

Time obviously affects our age, but how we feel about our age can make a difference between just getting old and aging gracefully.

JAMA Internal Medicine online recently published a study that looked at data from 6,489 people with an average age of 65.8 years who reported that they felt a little less than 10 years younger. Most said they felt about three years younger and 4.8%, felt at least a year older than their actual age.

During the next eight years, scientists found just over 14% of those who felt younger than their years had died, while more than 24% of the people who reported feeling older or feeling their age died.

The study concluded that self-perceived age has the potential to change us. This and other research shows that personality can affect our destiny. New research into the link between personality and aging finds that there are two main traits that seem to help people live longer: conscientiousness and optimism. Happiness and a positive attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. These results certainly make me happy.

May 2, 2014

Telling Time

It occurred to me that telling time in sixty second and sixty minute intervals seemed odd, so I looked it up. In the early second millennium B.C., the Babylonians invented their number system, and its influence still affects us to this day. Because of a limited amount of symbols (they only had two, along with their indicator for zero), they had to innovate, creating a system where one column indicated multiples of 1, one column indicated multiples of 60, and one column indicated multiples of 3,600. The columns were separated by a small space.

Once they had their number system in place, the Babylonians began applying it to various aspects of their life, such as the number of degrees in a circle and the number of days in a year. Since their system was much easier to calculate and divide, the Babylonian numbers reigned supreme over those of other nations, remaining the favored system for astronomers up to the 16th century. Eventually, thanks to its divisibility, the base-60 system was applied to the concept of time, giving us the number of minutes in an hour and the number of seconds in a minute.

Apr 26, 2013

Time Tip

This should take us back to school and something most understand, but wonder what it actually means. The 12-hour clock can be traced back as far as 1560 BC.

Outside of English-speaking countries, the terms a.m. and p.m. are seldom used and often unknown. In most countries, computers by default show 24-hour time.

The letters after numbers when talking about time: a.m. stands for “ante meridiem”, which is Latin for “Before Midday”; p.m. stands for “Post Meridiem”, which is Latin for “After Midday”.

Depending on the style guide referenced, the abbreviations are variously written in small capitals, uppercase letters ("AM" and "PM"), or lowercase letters ("am" and "pm" or "a.m." and "p.m."). Guides also suggest the use of a space between the number and the am or pm abbreviation.  It is time for me to be done with this.

Jul 5, 2011

How to Change Time

The government is about to begin year-long experiments that may literally change time, at least the time on your microwave or coffee pot. It may begin as early as this month.

The time service department at the U.S. Naval Observatory, one of two official timekeeping agencies in the federal government, and the group that oversees the U.S. power grid is proposing an experiment which would allow more frequency variation in electricity than it does now. The purpose is to find ways to make the grid more cost effective.

Some clocks keep time based on the rate of the electrical current that powers them. If the current varies, clocks run fast or slow. Power companies monitor and correct the frequency to keep it constant.

Obviously, computers, TVs with cable, and other devices that are not plugged or get the time signal from another source in will not be affected.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. which runs the nation's interlocking web of transmission lines and power plants says East Coast clocks may run as much as 20 minutes fast over a year, with other parts of the country having less of an effect. It is also possible that the effects will be negligible. The good news is that it is set to happen before the election, so if your fuses start popping, you can correct it in the voting booth. As Kermit says, "Time's fun when you are having flies."