time – Coffee Spoons

Daylight Savings Time

You clearly didn’t miss this story from two weeks ago, because we all had to change our clocks. But, you might not have thought much about it. Which is fine, because I think there was an election or something a day or two later. Or was I dreaming/nightmaring?

Thankfully Andy Woodruff did think about it and he put together a really nice piece about how the changes to time affect the amount of perceived sunlight. I say perceived because obviously the same amount of sunlight falls upon the Earth, but it’s whether we can see it from underneath the covers or hidden behind our office computer monitors.

His interactive piece lets you examine scenarios based on your preferred inputs. For example, as someone who goes to work a bit later in the morning—I have to write this blog sometime, right?—I would prefer the sun to be up later into the evening. And based on my selections, that means that I should consider the argument for always using Daylight Savings Time.

Making DST year-long would make for sunlit evenings throughout the year

Whereas if I valued a sunrise with daylight, I might prefer to abolish Daylight Savings Time.

Abolishing DST would mean for me more days of sunlight in the morning

Credit for the piece goes to Andy Woodruff.

What Time Is It?

North Korea Time!

But no, seriously, North Korea announced this past Friday that it is placing itself inside a new time zone. This Washington Post piece has a graphic that looks at just how weird the new time zone is in relation to the rest of the region.

Credit for the piece goes to the Washington Post graphics department.

Donald Trump is Running for President

This week saw a few new people officially jump into the 2016 election: Jeb Bush and Donald Trump. Next week I want to at least look at some design-related elements to the forthcoming primaries. But, today is Friday. So let’s get to the important stuff first: Donald Trump’s hair. Thankfully, Time has that covered. (Get it?)

Credit for the piece goes to Kate Francis.

Which Countries Do You Drink Like?

Happy Friday. Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Happy Summer. Just about all of those things mean a drink of some kind. And thanks to Time, we can look at ourselves and find out what drinking culture each of us best reflects. The data comes from the WHO and looks at both total consumption and then share of consumption.

So last week I drank like a Moldovan and most nearly like an Antiniguan. Of course, they meant Antiguan. It just so happens I caught the spelling error. But since most of last week can be chalked up to a house party, I did the week before too. Then I drank like a Belarusian in the style of Guyanese person.

And for those of you who know me, yes, things like this are exactly why I record all the drinks I consumer in my little black book.

Credit for the piece goes to Pratheek Rebala.

Around the World

If you’ll allow your humble author a humblebrag, I often complain about having to daily deal with people around the world living in a lot of different time zones. How do I keep track of business hours around the world? I don’t. Well, not easily. But thanks to xkcd, this is no longer a problem.

This is only a screenshot. But the actual image actually generally follows the Earth’s rotation. You know, until it stops. Or until we hit daylight saving time. Whichever comes first.

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

50 Years of the Doctor

Doctor Who? Exactly. This weekend, Saturday in fact, is the 50th anniversary of British sci-fi show Doctor Who. That is not to say it has been airing for 50 years. In the 1990s and early 2000s the show was off the air, living on only in audio broadcasts and novelisations. But in 2005, the show was relaunched and it slowly began to acquire a new generation of followers. Some, like your author, have watched it in the States first via SyFy since 2006.

Still 50ish years of television about time travelling through space in a blue police box makes for lots of data. And so back in March Simon Rogers created this infographic to explain some of the history of the show.

If you intend on watching the 50th special this weekend—or Monday in some movie theatres here in the States—and you want to brush up on the timeline of the Doctor and his travelling companions, the Guardian also has this graphic.

The Guardian's gallery of Doctors — The Guardian’s gallery of Doctors

But of course the BBC, which produces Doctor Who, has a more in-depth site about the history of the character and the show. Did I mention the content is displayed within the TARDIS? I know, it’s bigger on the inside.

The BBC's inside the TARDIS — The BBC’s inside the TARDIS

Have you ever watched the show? Do you have a favourite Doctor? A favourite companion?

Credit for the first Guardian piece goes to Simon Rogers.

Credit for the second Guardian piece goes to the Guardian’s Graphic News team.

Credit for the BBC piece goes to Christopher Ashton, Christine Jeavans, Helene Sears, Tian Yuan, Nick Davey, and Ben Fell.