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Russia Moves From Summer Time To Standard Time
jones_supa writes: Russia's legislature, often accused of metaphorically turning back the clock, has decided to do it literally – abandoning the policy of keeping the country on daylight-saving time all year. The 2011 move to impose permanent "summer time" in 2011 was one of the most memorable and least popular initiatives of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency. It forced tens of millions to travel to their jobs in pitch darkness during the winter. In the depths of December, the sun doesn't clear the horizon in Moscow until 10am. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted 442-1 on Tuesday to return to standard time this autumn and stay there all year.
The article also discusses a ban on swearing in books, plays, and films that went into effect today in Russia.
Well, when the days are short, one hour of difference can mean a lot of light and temperature difference. When I was working in Antarctica Dome C, in order to 'simplify' things, 'they' decided we would have the same timezone has the logistical base of operation on the coast which was actually located 5 time zones ahead. So we had to get up when the sun was actually at 3am solar time. In other words the coldest time of day and in summer it was ofter -50C at that time while it could be a balmy -25C at noon even though there was little difference in sun elevation. To make a long story short after a few days we all started to get up at 11am to compensate. The next year they gave us our own proper timezone.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
The tragedy of Russia is that Russia is indeed deeply affected by these ills and much of the population is unwilling to face it, preferring instead to complain about other countries. I travel widely in Russia for linguistic/ethnographic fieldwork in Russia, and I am aghast at not just the widespread alcoholism (a perennial ill) but the widespread heroin abuse as well. You have poor village men stealing out of their wives' purses so they can get their next fix. Of course, they can't steal much because there just isn't so much money around, so the quality of the drug is crap, and needle sharing is common, which leads to the spread of HIV.
It is easy for people in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg to pretend that everything is fine and that Russia is somehow avoiding "foreign" problems, but in fact the rest of the country is going to hell and its a damn shame. There's so much potential in Russia and yet the population is doomed by this neglect.