This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[bing101]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose,_California

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland,_California

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco

Oakland has more land area than San Francisco and San Jose is the largest city in northern California and not San Francisco.

[vdeane]

The westernmost part of Quebec is further west than Toronto.

[Mapmikey]

The southernmost part of Ontario is further south than the entirety of Idaho and Oregon, which also means there is a part of California further north than a part of Canada...

Mike

[Pete from Boston]

I'm almost 200 miles west of where the border between Eastern and Central should be...

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

We sacrifice a lot of morning sunlight (when lots of people are driving to work while kids are waiting on school buses) in order to get it in the evening.  It seems ridiculous to me.

Makes perfect sense to me. You can actually do things outside in the daylight when you get home from work. It's dark now when I get home, and it's only going to get worse for the next four weeks before it gets better.

Every October and December there is a steady stream of complaints about getting up in the dark.  This would only become much more pervasive.

Getting up the dark doesn't bother me, because I'm just showering and getting dressed for work. Getting home in the dark bothers me.

In order to get useful time outside after a standard workday and commute, you would need sunrise to be after 9:00 am in the winter. 

I repeat: it's ridiculous to try to please people by shifting time around.  Don't like it?  Shift your work schedule.  Can't do that?  Get a different job.  Unless we go back to the days before standard time (and even then), there is no ideal for everyone.

[The Nature Boy]

I'm almost 200 miles west of where the border between Eastern and Central should be...

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

We sacrifice a lot of morning sunlight (when lots of people are driving to work while kids are waiting on school buses) in order to get it in the evening.  It seems ridiculous to me.

Makes perfect sense to me. You can actually do things outside in the daylight when you get home from work. It's dark now when I get home, and it's only going to get worse for the next four weeks before it gets better.

Every October and December there is a steady stream of complaints about getting up in the dark.  This would only become much more pervasive.

Getting up the dark doesn't bother me, because I'm just showering and getting dressed for work. Getting home in the dark bothers me.

In order to get useful time outside after a standard workday and commute, you would need sunrise to be after 9:00 am in the winter. 

I repeat: it's ridiculous to try to please people by shifting time around.  Don't like it?  Shift your work schedule.  Can't do that?  Get a different job.  Unless we go back to the days before standard time (and even then), there is no ideal for everyone.

I don't care about waking up in the dark. I do care about my evening commute being in pitch black, darkness. I can handle a dawn and dusk commute because there's at least some natural light. Driving rural roads in Maine at night? It can be a harrowing experience, especially during "rush hour."

[Pete from Boston]

I'm almost 200 miles west of where the border between Eastern and Central should be...

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

We sacrifice a lot of morning sunlight (when lots of people are driving to work while kids are waiting on school buses) in order to get it in the evening.  It seems ridiculous to me.

Makes perfect sense to me. You can actually do things outside in the daylight when you get home from work. It's dark now when I get home, and it's only going to get worse for the next four weeks before it gets better.

Every October and December there is a steady stream of complaints about getting up in the dark.  This would only become much more pervasive.

Getting up the dark doesn't bother me, because I'm just showering and getting dressed for work. Getting home in the dark bothers me.

In order to get useful time outside after a standard workday and commute, you would need sunrise to be after 9:00 am in the winter. 

I repeat: it's ridiculous to try to please people by shifting time around.  Don't like it?  Shift your work schedule.  Can't do that?  Get a different job.  Unless we go back to the days before standard time (and even then), there is no ideal for everyone.

I don't care about waking up in the dark. I do care about my evening commute being in pitch black, darkness. I can handle a dawn and dusk commute because there's at least some natural light. Driving rural roads in Maine at night? It can be a harrowing experience, especially during "rush hour."

Traffic here picks up by 6:30 am.  By 7 there are serious backups.  Sunrise goes as late as 7:14.  Shift light an hour, and all those many folks are driving to work in the dark.  Lots of normal workdays start by 8.

There will never, ever be consensus on this issue.  There never is.

[GaryV]

The Eastern Time Zone should be centered on the 75th meridian.  Meaning all of Michigan except a few square miles near Port Huron should be in CST.  But when the time zones were established, Detroit felt it needed to be on the same time as the big cities in the east.  And the rest of the state (except for the counties in the UP bordering Wisconsin) felt the eed to be on the same time as Detroit.

The same goes for Indiana - it really should all be CST.  At least they settled that funky "only half the state observes DST" - that always caused questions with family reunions with my wife's family in SW MI and northern IN - 1:00 which time?.

I can see why Ohio would care to all be in one time zone, and much of it would fall in the Eastern zone by longitude.  But KY and TN are too wide to keep in one time zone and had to be split; some like where the dividing line was put and others don't.

The Plains states have pushed the time zone lines west as well.  I've heard that in the far reaches of North Dakota, the sun doesn't set until after 10:00 CDT in June.

Edit:  It should be noted that most of KY and TN should fall into CST by longitude.

[hbelkins]

I don't care about waking up in the dark. I do care about my evening commute being in pitch black, darkness. I can handle a dawn and dusk commute because there's at least some natural light. Driving rural roads in Maine at night? It can be a harrowing experience, especially during "rush hour."

Same here. Deer are everywhere. If we were still on Daylight Saving Time, I could better see them on my 30-mile drive home on rural roads.

[The Nature Boy]

I don't care about waking up in the dark. I do care about my evening commute being in pitch black, darkness. I can handle a dawn and dusk commute because there's at least some natural light. Driving rural roads in Maine at night? It can be a harrowing experience, especially during "rush hour."

Same here. Deer are everywhere. If we were still on Daylight Saving Time, I could better see them on my 30-mile drive home on rural roads.

We also have moose up here to worry about, that's the really scary thing.

[english si]

Deer are everywhere. If we were still on Daylight Saving Time, I could better see them on my 30-mile drive home on rural roads.

But as you aren't still on DST you can better see them on your 30-mile drive *to* work on rural roads.

The issue is that we work too long hours in winter to not have at least one journey in the dark - no matter how we shift it!

You guys live quite a bit south of me. Length of day right now is 8 hours, 27 min. Sunrise 8:03, sunset 4:31.

You live a bit further south, and further west of the centre of your timezone, than I. London's sunrise was 0745 this morning, with sunset at 1555 and I'm slightly west of that to give a minute or two shift later.

Of course, with the low and heavy cloud cover, the whole day is basically little better than twilight.

[NWI_Irish96]

I'm almost 200 miles west of where the border between Eastern and Central should be...

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

We sacrifice a lot of morning sunlight (when lots of people are driving to work while kids are waiting on school buses) in order to get it in the evening.  It seems ridiculous to me.

Makes perfect sense to me. You can actually do things outside in the daylight when you get home from work. It's dark now when I get home, and it's only going to get worse for the next four weeks before it gets better.

Every October and December there is a steady stream of complaints about getting up in the dark.  This would only become much more pervasive.

Getting up the dark doesn't bother me, because I'm just showering and getting dressed for work. Getting home in the dark bothers me.

In order to get useful time outside after a standard workday and commute, you would need sunrise to be after 9:00 am in the winter. 

I repeat: it's ridiculous to try to please people by shifting time around.  Don't like it?  Shift your work schedule.  Can't do that?  Get a different job.  Unless we go back to the days before standard time (and even then), there is no ideal for everyone.

The result of being on Eastern Time in Indiana is that, due to sunrises being so late, lots of schools start late.  My kids' school doesn't start until 9am in order to avoid having kids waiting for buses in the dark.  That puts a lot of parents in a bind because most of them have to be at work before 9am and have child care issues in the morning, which are more difficult to manage than child care issues in the afternoon.

If we were on Central Time, school could start at 8am and make things much easier on parents.

[jeffandnicole]

I'm almost 200 miles west of where the border between Eastern and Central should be...

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

We sacrifice a lot of morning sunlight (when lots of people are driving to work while kids are waiting on school buses) in order to get it in the evening.  It seems ridiculous to me.

Makes perfect sense to me. You can actually do things outside in the daylight when you get home from work. It's dark now when I get home, and it's only going to get worse for the next four weeks before it gets better.

Every October and December there is a steady stream of complaints about getting up in the dark.  This would only become much more pervasive.

Getting up the dark doesn't bother me, because I'm just showering and getting dressed for work. Getting home in the dark bothers me.

In order to get useful time outside after a standard workday and commute, you would need sunrise to be after 9:00 am in the winter. 

I repeat: it's ridiculous to try to please people by shifting time around.  Don't like it?  Shift your work schedule.  Can't do that?  Get a different job.  Unless we go back to the days before standard time (and even then), there is no ideal for everyone.

The result of being on Eastern Time in Indiana is that, due to sunrises being so late, lots of schools start late.  My kids' school doesn't start until 9am in order to avoid having kids waiting for buses in the dark.  That puts a lot of parents in a bind because most of them have to be at work before 9am and have child care issues in the morning, which are more difficult to manage than child care issues in the afternoon.

If we were on Central Time, school could start at 8am and make things much easier on parents.

Or kids could just wait for the school bus when it's darker.

[roadman65]

Speaking of time zones, how about the UP of Michigan that lies due north of Chicago.  Their sunset and sunrise must be very late in come June and July, as it was in Cincinnati when I visited there in 1989. 

So basically when the sun goes down in Chicago at 7 PM it goes down at 8 PM in the parts of UP Michigan that lie north of Wisconsin which in some are even west of Chicago.

In essence the western part of the Eastern Time Zone is west of Chicago.

[freebrickproductions]

I'm almost 200 miles west of where the border between Eastern and Central should be...

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

We sacrifice a lot of morning sunlight (when lots of people are driving to work while kids are waiting on school buses) in order to get it in the evening.  It seems ridiculous to me.

Makes perfect sense to me. You can actually do things outside in the daylight when you get home from work. It's dark now when I get home, and it's only going to get worse for the next four weeks before it gets better.

Every October and December there is a steady stream of complaints about getting up in the dark.  This would only become much more pervasive.

Getting up the dark doesn't bother me, because I'm just showering and getting dressed for work. Getting home in the dark bothers me.

In order to get useful time outside after a standard workday and commute, you would need sunrise to be after 9:00 am in the winter. 

I repeat: it's ridiculous to try to please people by shifting time around.  Don't like it?  Shift your work schedule.  Can't do that?  Get a different job.  Unless we go back to the days before standard time (and even then), there is no ideal for everyone.

The result of being on Eastern Time in Indiana is that, due to sunrises being so late, lots of schools start late.  My kids' school doesn't start until 9am in order to avoid having kids waiting for buses in the dark.  That puts a lot of parents in a bind because most of them have to be at work before 9am and have child care issues in the morning, which are more difficult to manage than child care issues in the afternoon.

If we were on Central Time, school could start at 8am and make things much easier on parents.

Or kids could just wait for the school bus when it's darker.

But of course, the parents would then complain that their precious little child named Jonny will get abducted because it's dark outside or the bus driver will miss their stop and fail to pick up Jonny because it's dark outside.

BTW, I think we need to split the discussion of time zones into another thread, for the most part.

[The Nature Boy]

I'm almost 200 miles west of where the border between Eastern and Central should be...

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

We sacrifice a lot of morning sunlight (when lots of people are driving to work while kids are waiting on school buses) in order to get it in the evening.  It seems ridiculous to me.

Makes perfect sense to me. You can actually do things outside in the daylight when you get home from work. It's dark now when I get home, and it's only going to get worse for the next four weeks before it gets better.

Every October and December there is a steady stream of complaints about getting up in the dark.  This would only become much more pervasive.

Getting up the dark doesn't bother me, because I'm just showering and getting dressed for work. Getting home in the dark bothers me.

In order to get useful time outside after a standard workday and commute, you would need sunrise to be after 9:00 am in the winter. 

I repeat: it's ridiculous to try to please people by shifting time around.  Don't like it?  Shift your work schedule.  Can't do that?  Get a different job.  Unless we go back to the days before standard time (and even then), there is no ideal for everyone.

The result of being on Eastern Time in Indiana is that, due to sunrises being so late, lots of schools start late.  My kids' school doesn't start until 9am in order to avoid having kids waiting for buses in the dark.  That puts a lot of parents in a bind because most of them have to be at work before 9am and have child care issues in the morning, which are more difficult to manage than child care issues in the afternoon.

If we were on Central Time, school could start at 8am and make things much easier on parents.

Or kids could just wait for the school bus when it's darker.

But of course, the parents would then complain that their precious little child named Jonny will get abducted because it's dark outside or the bus driver will miss their stop and fail to pick up Jonny because it's dark outside.

BTW, I think we need to split the discussion of time zones into another thread, for the most part.

There is another thread. I started it for this reason.

[vdeane]

Yeah, I've been wondering why people have been continuing to discuss time zones here rather than there: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=16943.0

[CNGL-Leudimin]

For that matter, I live just West of the Greenwich meridian, yet we have Central Europe Time (UTC+1)! Meaning we are in DST year-round, it also explains the f***ed-up schedules we have.

I know some rivers like Mississippi and Missouri reach far from their namesake states. Yet, in a recent roadtrip I was puzzled when I crossed Aragon river long after I left its namesake region (In fact I crossed it on the last bridge before it merges with the Ebro).

Go from Huesca (one of the smallest provincial capitals) to Madrid, when you reach the halfway point you won't have left Aragon yet (I found that point to be just East of Ariza).

[CtrlAltDel]

I know some rivers like Mississippi and Missouri reach far from their namesake states.

The states are named after the rivers, not the other way around.

[corco]

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

Wait, what?

[yanksfan6129]

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

You would perform fellatio in exchange for the sun setting later?

[Pete from Boston]

Oh no you aren't. Unless you want to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone and be an hour different than across the river in Louisville. I hate Central Time. Passionately. I can't imagine how badly it would perform fellatio this time of year to get dark so early. It already gets dark too early this time of year in Eastern Time.

You would perform fellatio in exchange for the sun setting later?

What I am reading is that either the state of Indiana or the concept of Central Time would perform fellatio poorly to make the sun set earlier.

[hbelkins]

I'm not really a fan of saying something "sucks." When I was growing up, that was not a phrase to be used in polite company. Not it's commonplace and that common usage, I think, contributes to the coarsening of society. Much like the terms "fart" and "turd" are so commonly used now, but they were equivalent to curse words in my household. I will frequently use euphemisms instead of coarse or vulgar language. I used to curse like a sailor in public. Now I don't. It's called "maturity."

It stinks now that it gets dark so early. It would stink even worse to get dark an hour earlier if I was in the Central time zone. Does that make my intended message any clearer?

Around here, the deer aren't as active in the mornings as they are in the evenings, thus I would rather drive to work in the dark than drive home from work.

And I've never bought the "waiting in the dark for a school bus is inherently dangerous" argument that so many people use.

[corco]

Besides "fellatio" sounding Italian and exotic, how exactly is it less coarse than "sucks"? I'm genuinely curious about this - I typically test how appropriate a word is by how likely I would say it in front of my mother.

With that in mind, would you say "perform fellatio" to your mother before you say "this sucks?"

[Pete from Boston]

It stinks now that it gets dark so early. It would stink even worse to get dark an hour earlier if I was in the Central time zone. Does that make my intended message any clearer?

Much.  And "fellatio" is a lot more graphic than "sucks" in 2015.

And I've never bought the "waiting in the dark for a school bus is inherently dangerous" argument that so many people use.

No, driving with cranky people who have hardly woken up in the dark is dangerous.

Regardless, I remain convinced very few people are going to be out getting busy in the yard all of a sudden when the sun sets at 4:56 and they get home at 5:30, particularly if they have anything else at all to do.  I just don't buy that this is much more than an emotional desire to feel less like it's winter, to which I say be an adult and get over it. 

[SteveG1988]

Did you know that the NJ pine barrens is the most undeveloped space between DC and Boston.