Random Thoughts

[thspfc]

To say that 5 AM is where one day ends and another begins is like saying that the United States/Canada border runs along I-80. It's a complete lie, regardless of what you want to believe.

Comparison of Apples and Rocks.

Businesses - and individuals - have many reasons to consider their day beginning and ending at a point other than midnight.  Casinos are a common example - in many states, the day runs from 6:00am to 5:59am.

In fact, in a similar vein, the calendar year runs from January 1 thru December 1.  However the IRS allows any person or business to file to adopt a Fiscal Year, as long as it completes a full 365 days. Having that approved isn't guaranteed, but the point is a "year" can be any 365 days.

Never said anything about businesses. Business days, business weeks, fiscal years, and other things of that nature are not the same as days. There can be multiple variants of the same thing. Regular, standard days start and end at midnight.

[hotdogPi]

Regular, standard days start and end at midnight.

I agree. However, if you're a regular Wikipedia editor (or any wiki that uses MediaWiki software, which is pretty much all of them except TV Tropes), you'll get used to using UTC.

Also, FunTrivia, which is a worldwide website, uses (US) Central Standard Time year-round (and tells you when website time is at the top of most pages so you won't miss things that end at midnight).

[thspfc]

This debate about whether or not days end at the time that they are universally accepted to end is ironic, because any slightly wrong mention of the seasons on this forum (i.e. "this fall on September 16) will almost certainly attract an I-am-very-smart reply about fall not starting until September 21. Guess facts matter until they don't.

But in the same vein as "business day"  vs "actual day" , there can be different definitions of when the seasons start and end, or even what the seasons are called, for different purposes. For example, a ski resort might consider "ski season"  to run from Thanksgiving to early April, even though that goes beyond the boundaries of actual winter.

[Roadgeekteen]

Fall should be Sep 1-Dec 1, IDGAF about the sun or whatever.

[GaryV]

It seems like spring is the shortest season - we go almost directly from winter to summer in one day.

There are several cultures in the world where the day ends at sunset, and then the next day begins.

[kenarmy]

- Why are we so sure plants don't have feelings, when other animals and plants probably think we don't have feelings?
- Is it really not in a specific order, if it's in a random order? Why random, when there are billions of other ways to put it?
- What happens when puppies lose their teeth???
- Wait- if you're not there you're square because you are not "a-round"
- Suck my cockiness, lick my persuasion.
- The reason that Marvin the Martian was the ref in Space Jam is because he is both an alien and a Looney Toon.
- Whenever you buy a part of a chicken, you're secretly sharing with someone else.
- So heartbroken when I found out this little piggy went to market does not mean it went grocery shopping.
- Having a shitty day? Remember, you didn't try to explain to someone you are Austrian, and they laughed and said don't you mean Australian. And they were being serious.
- Is your favorite athlete better than Allyson Felix? No.

[kphoger]

When people advertise something as "midnight Saturday night", do they mean the midnight that immediately follows 11:59 on Friday or do the erroneously call midnight that follows 11:59 Saturday night as still Saturday night?  It's a question I think about a lot when I see that, but it is also an annoyance that most people forget the new day starts at midnight.  Most people think since they are still awake at that time that's its a continuation of the same day.   Like the new day doesn't start until you go to sleep then wake up.

If it's "Saturday night" at 11:30 PM, then it's still "Saturday night" an hour later.  It's still nighttime, and it's still between Saturday and Sunday.  It isn't morning yet, by the commonsense, if not technical, definition of "morning".  This is why, to me, "The baby woke up at 2:00 at night" also makes sense.

To say that 5 AM is where one day ends and another begins is like saying that the United States/Canada border runs along I-80. It's a complete lie, regardless of what you want to believe.

Multiple civilizations throughout history have reckoned time by starting from the time when people wake up.  Thus, for example, when the Bible speaks of "the third hour", more likely than not it means 9:00 AM–because 6:00 AM was the zero point.  It is perfectly natural to begin reckoning time in the early morning, and it's really quite unnatural to begin at some point in the middle of the night.

[kphoger]

Why are we so sure plants don't have feelings, when other animals and plants probably think we don't have feelings?

So you've decided plants can think?

[tolbs17]

Why are we so sure plants don't have feelings, when other animals and plants probably think we don't have feelings?

So you've decided plants can think?

The pink pellets sting me.

[kkt]

Fall should be Sep 1-Dec 1, IDGAF about the sun or whatever.

Too bad, the Earth was in its orbit around the Sun long before you or I were here.

[kurumi]

In Santa Clara, there's a "MoDo" (mochi donuts) next to a MOD Pizza, and if you rearranged all the city's retail businesses by alphabetical order, they'd likely still be together.

[tolbs17]

I'm thinking about going out on my bike to see the deserted roads at this time. (Well, I will have to watch out for the drunk people!)

[kphoger]

Fall should be Sep 1-Dec 1, IDGAF about the sun or whatever.

Too bad, the Earth was in its orbit around the Sun long before you or I were here.

But I'm guessing the Earth doesn't care one way or the other what dates we choose for fall.

[Roadgeekteen]

Fall should be Sep 1-Dec 1, IDGAF about the sun or whatever.

Too bad, the Earth was in its orbit around the Sun long before you or I were here.

There can be two different falls

[kphoger]

Fall should be Sep 1-Dec 1, IDGAF about the sun or whatever.

Too bad, the Earth was in its orbit around the Sun long before you or I were here.

There can be two different falls

There are already multiple definitions anyway.

A common definition in the USA is that fall starts at Labor Day week-end, no matter what date that is.
The meteorological season differs from the astronomical season.
Schoolchildren typically think of summer as ending when classes begin.

None of this is a problem.

[ethanhopkin14]

Fall should be Sep 1-Dec 1, IDGAF about the sun or whatever.

Too bad, the Earth was in its orbit around the Sun long before you or I were here.

There can be two different falls

There are already multiple definitions anyway.

A common definition in the USA is that fall starts at Labor Day week-end, no matter what date that is.
The meteorological season differs from the astronomical season.
Schoolchildren typically think of summer as ending when classes begin.

None of this is a problem.

And everyone thinks of Christmas being in the middle of winter despite barely making it by 5 to 3 days (in the Northern Hemisphere).

[SectorZ]

Fall should be Sep 1-Dec 1, IDGAF about the sun or whatever.

Too bad, the Earth was in its orbit around the Sun long before you or I were here.

There can be two different falls

9/1-11/30 is meteorological autumn. Celebrate that.

[US 89]

Regular, standard days start and end at midnight.

I agree. However, if you're a regular Wikipedia editor (or any wiki that uses MediaWiki software, which is pretty much all of them except TV Tropes), you'll get used to using UTC.

You'll also get used to UTC quite fast in the meteorological world. Aviation forecasts and current reports are all in terms of UTC only, and a hell of a lot of things are tied specifically to a UTC time. Weather model runs are always referred to by the UTC time they were initialized, weather balloons are launched at 1200 and 0000, SPC's severe weather outlooks are issued at five specific UTC times throughout the day ... I could go on.

The nice thing about the mountain time zone is MDT is 6 hours behind UTC, which makes for very easy conversions since 6 hours is 1/4 of a day. This also makes going back to standard time in winter super annoying because not only is the conversion different, all the UTC-based events happen an hour earlier since UTC doesn't change for daylight savings.

[1995hoo]

Roadgeeking on the DC-area weather forecast. I'm sure she won't know, but I couldn't resist asking.

https://twitter.com/1995hoo/status/1420781563172773897

[Scott5114]

Hell, the people that actually made the slide may not know. They probably got it from a stock image service.

[tdindy88]

One of our local TV stations for years has used a stock photo for their morning commute forecasts and it clearly featured a motorway from the UK. I'm guessing they got it from the same place this other station got their's from.

[JoePCool14]

One of our local TV stations for years has used a stock photo for their morning commute forecasts and it clearly featured a motorway from the UK. I'm guessing they got it from the same place this other station got their's from.

I know this might be cliché to link now, but...

[kkt]

Or they might have flipped the image, either accidentally or on purpose.  There's not much detail in there that would show if it has been reflected.

[US 89]

Or they might have flipped the image, either accidentally or on purpose.  There's not much detail in there that would show if it has been reflected.

Check out the white lines on both sides of the road and the arrow shapes, though. Even if it’s been reflected, it’s definitely not in the US...

[kphoger]

When Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the automatic commercial bread slicing machine in 1928, what did people compare the finished product to upon encountering it on store shelves?