I want to know things.
Certain things.
It is funny when you think about it — the things that interest us. And those things that don’t.
For example. I don’t care one little bit about the Kardashians, or the Real Housewives, or even about Taylor Swift. I just don’t. I’m not interested in hearing a single thing about them. Yet. So many people are. They “follow” them on social media and watch them on TV. And more.
I don’t really care what is inside of a hotdog. Or where Banksy left his latest bits of paint. I’m not interested in how loud someone can make their motorcycle. Or the great deal that Harriet found at Costco.
But some things I want to know. Like, how come yawning is contagious? Or who decided that Bert and Ernie’s names should come from Bert the police officer and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Or why only some dogs chase their tales?
History will set me to wondering, too.
About many things.
Like.
Oh.
When did we get time zones? I mean, we didn’t always have them. Heck. Thor didn’t even know Ogg existed 100 miles away in the early human days.
As it turns out, time zones were enacted on November 18, 1883, here in the United States. It had to do mostly with the expansion of the railroads across the country. They created time zones to help with unity in adapting to the fact that the Earth is always turning, and our view of the sun is always changing. So, the four-zone divisions allowed clocks to be synchronized and standardized. Prior to the creation of these time zones, everybody made up their own times all willy-nilly. In fact, as many as 144 local time zones existed in North America before time zones appeared.
But Americans didn’t invent those time zones initially. It was a Canadian engineer named Sir Sandford Fleming. He “invented” a system for keeping time, in large part because he missed a train in 1876. By the 1880s, Fleming had come up with “cosmic time.” Later, his convention was adopted by the International Meridian Conference in 1884. They made Greenwich, England, the “home” to the Prime Meridian. And it became the standard for measuring time in 24 zones worldwide. Each one has a different name. They can be found here: https://gisgeography.com/world-time-zone-map/
Where I live, it is called EST. Eastern Standard Time. And the “Relative” position to GMT, Greenwich Mean Time, is GMT-5:00. I’m not entirely sure what it encompasses, but I kind of like Solomon Standard Time at GMT+11:00.
Solomon. I wonder if it is named for the dude Solomon. He is mostly known for being the king of Israel who built the first Temple in Jerusalem. He was also the second and last king of a unified Israel (after his father, David). And, as it were, Israel was at the height of its power during Solomon’s reign. He is known for stories told in the Bible about his wisdom. Renowned as a sage.
So, maybe there is a time zone for him. Anyway, I’m pretty sure the time zone “Solomon” includes Micronesia. Which sounds like the funniest place on Earth to me. Micronesia. Micro. Small. And that it is. Sort of. In total, there are estimated to be over 2,000 islands and islets in Micronesia. These islands vary in size. Some of them are quite large and inhabited. But others are tiny and uninhabited. Like where castaways wash up on shore, never to be found again. Maybe Amelia Earheart wound up in a place like Micronesia. Which isn’t that far from Howland Island, the point that was supposed to be on the final leg of her journey. I’m guessing she drifted ashore on one of the kazillion little islands there in the central Pacific.
Her plane probably went down because of big winds. They have “Trade Winds” in the central Pacific. I always like the sound of that. Trade Winds. They are a pattern of prevailing winds that blow in an east-to-west direction near the equator. And. They are named “trade winds” because they historically made the trade routes easier for ships going across the world’s oceans.
They say that Trade Winds play a crucial role in shaping global weather patterns. Like forming the El Niño climate phenomenon.
But. Where am I? I was talking about things I want to know and wound up here.
Getting windy.
So, until another time. Happy Sailing. No matter where your time zone is.
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“Knowledge is power.” – Sir Francis Bacon
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“Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it.” – Lao Tzu
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“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” – Marilyn vos Savant
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The things I want to know and don’t. Too windy today.
