Free Republic

With more lunar missions than ever on the horizon, the European Space Agency wants to give the moon its own time zone. This week, the agency said space organizations around the world are considering how best to keep time on the moon. The idea came up during a meeting in the Netherlands late last year, with participants agreeing on the urgent need to establish “a common lunar reference time,” said the space agency’s Pietro Giordano, a navigation system engineer. “A joint international effort is now being launched towards achieving this,” Giordano said in a statement. For now, a moon mission...

Before long we’ll be moving the clocks back an hour yet again (or at least most of us will), but that’s not what this story is about. There’s a new proposal that doesn’t seek to eliminate Daylight Savings Time but instead would eliminate time zones all across the United States and the rest of the world as well. And it comes to us from no less of an august source than Johns Hopkins. Now that I’ve picked my jaw up off the floor, let’s see what this is all about. Here are two of their professors discussing the idea on...

SANTA FE — New Mexico’s two legislative chambers remain at odds over whether the state should “spring forward” or “fall back.” The Senate on Thursday voted 25-17 in favor of a bill that would allow New Mexico to remain on daylight saving time all year long, if a federal law is passed allowing the change. Earlier this week, however, the House passed a proposal to keep the state on Mountain standard time all year long. It isn’t contingent on changing federal law. Each bill will now cross over to the other chamber. Neither proposal will reach Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham...

On this day in 1883, railroad companies create the first time zones. Yes, you heard that right. Private individuals saw a problem and solved it without involving the federal government. What a wonderfully American “do it yourself” mindset! Such determination and perseverance is what made our country great. Before time zones, Americans generally relied upon the local time in their communities. That local time was based upon the movement of the sun in the sky, so the time could vary from city to city. Cities would usually designate one clock in the area—perhaps at a certain church or business—as the...

You'll lose an extra hour of light but gain an hour back this weekend as daylight saving time officially ends. As standard time resumes at 2 a.m. Sunday, it's time to "fall back," so set your clocks back one hour when you go to bed tonight. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time. Daylight saving time is mandated by governments, which instituted the time switch during World Wars I and II to save energy and resources for the war effort. Previously, daylight saving time was observed in the United States from April until mid-October.

From Kalingrad in Europe to Kamchatka in the Far East, the country covers 11 time zones. "We need to look at the possibility of cutting the number of time zones," Mr Medvedev said in his annual address to the nation, delivered at the Kremlin before an audience of Russia's political elite. "Of course we need to consider the consequences of such a decision," he added. In a wide-ranging speech focused almost entirely on domestic issues, Mr Medvedev also wondered aloud whether Russia really needed to continue changing the clocks twice a year for daylight saving. "Here we need to compare...

LONDON — Partygoers scrambled to get around London on Saturday night thanks to a New Year's Eve strike by subway workers, while French authorities worried a youthful tradition of burning cars could get out of hand just weeks after widespread urban riots. In parts of Asia, the threat of terrorism loomed large, and a bombing at a market in Indonesia killed eight people and wounded 45. But celebrations worldwide were generally jubilant, in contrast with last year when the devastation of the Indian Ocean tsunami led many countries and individuals to cancel festivities. Hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq got...

STATE LINE CITY, Ind ome say they're hooey, others `Hoosier exceptionalism,' but the state's different times zones could get clocked if a bill legislating uniformity succeeds. Business favors it; cows might not. To its everlasting credit, the state of Indiana has brought the world steel, prescription drugs, sweet corn, the Indy 500, RVs and Cole Porter. But it still has not, after almost 190 years of statehood, figured out exactly what time it is. That could soon change. And then, maybe it won't because this is, after all, Indiana. The state's peculiar, long-running civil war over where to place the...

At 2AM is it 1AM? Do we get an extra hour this weekend? I have not seen this... Sorry to waste bandwidth...