24 - What A Difference A Day Makes

The International Date Line - If you want a group conversation that will lead to confusion just bring up the topic of the International Date Line (IDL) and see who understands it or who can explain it.

Q - Take a look at the image above - If it's 6.00 pm Sunday in Samoa what time is it in New Zealand?

In fact a better starter question is what day is it in New Zealand - is it Saturday, Sunday or Monday? Read on ....

If you cross over the IDL from east to west (Samoa to Fiji say) do you gain a day or lose a day?  

Here we go. Lets' look at time zones around the world
New Zealand - Say 5 pm Monday afternoon in New Zealand.
London - New Zealand is 11 hours ahead of London GMT so it's 6 am on Monday morning in London (or Dublin).

New York - At that moment in New York (another 5 hours) it's just 1 am Monday morning

Los Angeles - It's another 3 hours earlier in Los Angeles means it is 10 pm on Sunday night there.

Samoa - it's another 4 hours earlier again in Samoa so that leaves the time there at 6 pm on Sunday night

So what this is telling us is that Samoa and other territories to the right of the IDL are treated as being in the American Time Zone and as we travel around the world from East to West (from New Zealand to Europe to the USA) the time gets earlier and earlier - across different time zones making up 23 hours in total. So, we see that at 5pm Monday in New Zealand it is 6pm Sunday in Samoa. 

Therefore, in time zone terms crossing the IDL from East to West usually means jumping a day forward - in theory if the journey takes an hour  you can leave Samoa at 6pm Sunday and it will be 6pm Monday when you get to your destination 1 hour later.

On the other hand if you leave New Zealand at 6pm on Monday and fly east in the direction of Samoa then 1 hour later it will be just 6pm on Sunday - you've gone back a day in time !!

Could you fly fast around the world and go backwards or forwards more than 1 day? Nope, as every time you do the circuit and cross the IDL the day you have gained (or lost depending on which direction you are travelling) resets.

And now that you know all this guess what? Samoa has just made a decision to move the IDL to the other side and from 29 Dec 2011 it will now be in New Zealand / Australia time and not US time. It is doing this for good economic reasons as NZ and Aussie are it's main trading partners. With the time as it currently is it means that when it's Friday in Samoa it's Saturday in NZ and when its Sunday in Samoa it's Monday in NZ - not ideal for regular weekday business trading.
Today 6pm Sunday in Samoa = 3 pm Monday in Sydney. After the change 3 pm Monday in Sydney = 6pm Monday in Samoa. At least the days of the week are lined up an that makes more sense if you live in Samoa !! But the change over itself will mean that Samoans will lose 1 full day in their calendar. Now, where did it go ???

125 - Years of Coca Cola

 

Q - What's the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero ? Read on ...

Have you seen the Coke 125 ad on TV? Hard to miss really.

• Yes, Coca Cola is celebrating it's 125th anniversary having its first sales on May 8th 1886, in Jacobs Pharmacy, Atlanta, Georgia - costing 5c a glass.
• It was developed by Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist, who actually died 2 years after his Coca Cola drink went on sale.
• Pre 1886 the drink was developed as a 'wine' with alcohol but with the enforcement of prohibition in the USA Pemberton looked at the possibilities for a non-alcoholic version of the drink
• In its early days it sold about 9 drinks per day but 125 years later it sells 1.7 billion drinks each day
• The drink, also in the early days, contained cocaine (from the coca leaf) and had claims of medicinal properties and cures for certain ailments (with cocaine, maybe it did !!!). Today the concentrate does not have any cocaine but does have extract from cocaine-free coca leaf.
• The flavouring and 'caffeine' source for Coca-Cola is Kola nuts
• Coca-Cola claim to have introduced the modern day image of Santa Claus, in a1931 campaign. It's a debatable claim !

11 - Memories of Sesame Street

Q - Remember Sesame Street ? Who was Berts pal?  Read on ...
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In the year of 2011 it seems appropriate to have a look at where the number 11 features and it pops up in a wonderful variety of places.

• Do you follow soccer, hockey or American football? Well they all have 11 players. Rugby on the other hand is 15 players but did you know a standard size 5 rugby ball is 11" long?

• The first spacecraft to land on the moon in 1969 was Apollo 11 and the command module is still on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

• 11-11-11 : World War 1 ended at 11 a.m on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

• We all know that Everest is the highest point on earth but few can name the deepest part in our oceans. It is called Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific ocean near Japan. It is 11km deep (Everest is 8.85km high by comparison)
• Speaking of oceans what about the movie Oceans 11? Oceans being the name of the character played by George Clooney by the way and nothing to to do with the high seas.

• Speaking of movies