When You Travel, Chances Are You Will Encounter Time Shifts.

Sir Sanford Fleming, a Canadian railroad engineer and visionary, set out the basics of time zones around the world to help his trains keep schedules. Before Fleming’s invention, each train station in each town had its own time based on the overhead sun at noon. Railroad scheduling was next to impossible to decipher.

Fleming proposed every 15 degrees of longitude should all have the same standard time. All lines of longitude pass through the north and south poles. At the equator the 15 degrees covers approximately 1,000 miles. Since the earth’s equator is approximately 24,000 miles in circumference, there are 24 time zones each an hour apart.

Unfortunately the degrees of longitude (every 15 degrees) would bisect states and countries, provinces, states and even towns. One side of the imaginary line was an hour before or after the other side. So deviations had to occur to accommodate the actual ground situation. So time zones can wiggle around and go back and forth to follow borders etc.

Time zones are not simple and international datelines and earth rotation direction aside, they can be quite confusing.

Here are some web sites that may help you get a handle on time zones and changes around the world.

• Time.is has times around the world by location (7 million enough?). It also shows:
  • sunrise and sunset times
  • time zone details
  • latitude and longitude
  • details on holidays for the day
  • a Wikipedia link.
• Time Ticker indicates the current time when you click on the world map. Specific cities and towns appear in list boxes.
• Time Zone Check Hover your mouse over the world map and you are shown daylight saving time and standard time on two clocks. A third clock reads your computer’s time setting.
• Every Time Zone compares times around the world in a bar graph styles. It shows the date too. Very visual.
• 24 time zones has an interactive world map with yellow dot locations for time zones, shading for night and daylight and the date for each location.
• Daylight Map
  shows the dusk and dawn lines as daylight marches around the globe. Clocking locations around the world can be done. The google just the night-time city lights satellite image is there too as well as other features.
• World Time Zone gives an overall view of time zone borders around the globe.

Google Earth has time zone information too, but it’s a little more complicated to extract it. Of course Google Earth has so many other information resources for the traveller, the time zones are not its major thrust.

Less intuitive and therefore less useful are:

• Qlock shows times as you hover over a world map. It includes three styles of world view using a google maps base.
• Windows 7 also has the capacity to have several clock images on its interface and each can be programmed for a different time zone. You can keep tabs of the zones you are travelling to or have friends in, etc.

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Travel Oddities Just for Fun

Here are some short little travel details that just seem odd to me. These are collected from friends, clients, agents and sometimes from articles on the World Wide Web.

• The Pantheon is the largest building from ancient Rome that survives intact.
• Where else but among travellers are bookings made on blind faith that a big company like an airline holds your interests at heart. The traveller has no idea what everything will cost after adding in the cost of a checked bag, a seat reservation confirmation fee plus charges for best legroom, a day-old some kind f meat substitute sandwich and a bottle of water. The flier will pay more than expected, in all likelihood a lot more. Isn’t that strange behaviour?
• Boarding a cruise, security persons take a five-inch knife from a passenger. Later, The waiter handed out steak knives to our table. All had six-inch blades!
• French was the official language of England for over 600 years. One opinion. Another point of view.
• In Japan hotels, thermos of hot water and bags of green tea are in every room. For coffee call the rather expensive room service or buy very sweet coffee in a can from a vending machine. Iced coffee in a can has been popular in Japan since 1945. Take your own instant coffee if you need that caffeine start to your day.
• The Hobbit Hotel has an outside design that copies the “Lord of the Rings” movies exterior sets (click for image). Inside is the modern and comfort that most guests seek.

Do you feel safer in a train?

It seems the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a unique device for testing the strength of windshields on airplanes. The device is a gun that launches a dead chicken at a plane’s windshield at approximately the speed the plane flies.

The theory is that if the windshield doesn’t crack from the carcass impact, it’ll survive a real collision with a bird during flight. It seems the British were very interested in this and wanted to test a windshield on a brand new, speedy locomotive they’re developing.

They borrowed the FAA’s chicken launcher, loaded the chicken and fired. The ballistic chicken shattered the windshield, went through the engineer’s chair, broke an instrument panel and embedded itself in the back wall of the engine cab. The British were stunned and asked the FAA to recheck the test to see if everything was done correctly.

Editor’s note:
I just hope there are not too many turkeys testing with chickens frozen or not. I couldn’t resist this old story. It still gave me a chuckle.

The FAA reviewed the test thoroughly and had one recommendation: “Use a thawed chicken.”

TC, TP and ME

Editor’s Note:
I subscribe to a number of newsletters and blogs. Rarely do I re-print one in its entirety. Bail out and blame wastes a lot of energy, time and money while often not getting the job done. ME and WE get the best results directly!

The gulf oil spill is a real mess. It is still causing a lot of damage, and the estimates are now even higher on how much oil is spewing forth.

Each disaster scenario has these three elements: TC, TP and ME.

TC is the entity that caused the disaster. TC is The Company. In this case it’s the formerly named British Petroleum now known popularly or unpopularly as BP. Some disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes are acts of God harping from above. TC is the big company or entity that caused the thing whether you know all of the true details of the cause or not.

There is a lot of justifiable focus on TC. This time TC appears to have been neglectful in their duties to responsibly do things and thus caused the disaster simply by sloppiness.

Those affected by the disaster have a right to be angry at TC.

Then there’s TP. TP is The President. He is the second target of the mess caused by TC. People get mad at TP because he (or someday she) didn’t act fast enough, decisively enough, intelligently enough or compassionately enough. TP didn’t do what we thought he should do and he didn’t do it when we thought he should do it.

When stuff really goes wrong, people blame TP.

Maybe if TC had done everything right the well could have still blown up. Stuff does happen. Maybe if TP acted with the speed of a Blackbird jet, stuff still would have flowed as fast and gummed and slicked up the environment just as much. Maybe.

The point is, no matter how much we fuss and blame the TCs and TPs during the current and future disasters (for they will come), the only entity whom we really have control over is ME.

What am I (ME, not TC or TP) going to do about it?

In the gulf crisis, people’s incomes have been surely hurt. Fishermen are suffering. The tourist industry is down tremendously because most Americans have cancelled their vacation plans to go to the stricken areas and have decided to go elsewhere.

This is what ME is going to do.

I’m going to the gulf within the next 30 days. I’m going to find one of the worst hit areas. I’m going to book a hotel on the beach. I’m going to look for one with oil on it. I’m going to go to the local restaurants and leave extra big tips because the waiters and waitresses will probably be some of the hardest hit during the crisis. I will leave a large tip in the room for the maid.

I will go along the beach and try to patronize some businesses that have been hard hit by the disaster. My feet may get oily but my soul will feel cleaner. Perhaps, I will put a little watery crude in a jar and bring it back. Like it or not, this is history and I have a chance to be a part of history instead of just watching it on TV.

That’s what ME can do. Not TC or TP – ME!

We can shake our heads and say what a terrible job TC and TP are doing or we can look in the mirror and realize that we can’t change the entire situation but if 5% of Americans took the ME responsibility, together we could ease the plight of many on the coast.

TP asked Americans to vacation in the affected areas. People complained and asked if TP was going to take his family there. It doesn’t matter whether TP takes his family there or not, that’s on TP not ME.

What matters far more is will ME (and you) take the family there.

When The Times invited several eminent authors to write essays on the theme “What’s Wrong with the World?” The great writer G. K. Chesterton’s contribution took the form of a letter. It was the shortest response of any of the great writers.

His full letter is below:

Dear Sirs,

I am.

Sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton

President Kennedy said it best, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Ask not what TC and TP are going to do for our stricken countrymen and women. Ask what will ME do.

TC, TP and ME.

Fuss, fuss or act (donate, volunteer, vacation).

Choose

~A MountainWings Original~

>From The Mountain: If you are in an affected area, contact MountainWings on why a MountainWings reader should come to your town. We may publish your story.

I don’t ever recall specifically asking you to forward a MountainWings issue to your friends, but the people in the gulf could use all of the help and encouragement they can get.

Your face (and money) showing up would be a great boost to them. If you can’t go and directly help the people, at least send this issue to people who can and might go. So forward this email or copy and paste the link below to your friends and it may increase the number who go and get oily feet and cleaner hearts.

TC and TP may not be moving as fast as you think they should. You cannot control their speed, but you can sure control the speed of ME.

Thank you for inviting MountainWings into your mailbox. Change a life, give a friend MountainWings. See you tomorrow.

www.MountainWings.com “Wings Over The Mountains of Life” To: Subscribe, Un-Subscribe, Get a Book, T-Shirt, Rate Issues, Tell Friends about MountainWings, Read Past Issues, Donations, Submit a MountainWings Moment or Prayer Request, Set homepage to Daily issue in larger type Go To: http://www.mountainwings.com Click to unsubscribe: http://www.mountainwings.com/remove.html

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Donegal – A Shine of Rainbows and a Castle Stay Too!

The Grand Prize is air fare, 7 days and 6 nights in Ireland, a rental car, all for winner and 3 friends.

• Open to legal residents of Canada who are 18 years of age or older. Void in the province of Quebec, outside Canada and where prohibited by law. Limit one (1) entry per person/e-mail address during the Promotional Period.
• Entries must be received by September 30th 2010 at 11:59:59 p.m. EST
• You can enter here
• Read Complete Contest Rules here

• to Dublin, Ireland
• for seven (7) days and six (6) nights
• round-trip economy (coach) air transportation for four (4) to Dublin International Airport departing from Toronto Pearson International Airport.
• seven (7) days in Ireland
• four (4) nights accommodations (two rooms/double occupancy) in Bed & Breakfast accommodation throughout Ireland
• two (2) nights at Solis Lough Eske Castle, Donegal
• seven (7)-day rental of an economy vehicle with manual transmission, including unlimited mileage and a road map of Ireland.

Some conditions apply.

• Because there is a lot of the web for you to cover, I will periodically submit travel contests that are for Canadians just to make it easier for you, my reader.
• I am in no way affiliated with the prize or the contest sponsors.
• I receive no commission.

But if you wish to book a similar trip or any kind of travel at all, my daughter, Jennifer, can help you plan the best value vacation package for the best prices.
Click on the Contact Information at the top right of this page to learn more.