Railways forced time zones into existence, and Congress only made them law in 1918

historyWikipedia1840–1883

Railways forced time zones into existence, and Congress only made them law in 1918

the gist

Local solar time changes with longitude, about four minutes per degree, so before railways every town kept its own clock. In 1840 Britain's Great Western Railway began using Greenwich Mean Time, and in 1883 North American railroads adopted a system of standard time zones that Congress made law in 1918. Italian mathematician Quirico Filopanti proposed 24 worldwide zones in 1858, and Sandford Fleming pushed a worldwide system in 1876. Within a few decades almost every inhabited place had a standard time, though many used local observatory time rather than an offset from Greenwich. Today the world uses whole and fractional offsets from UTC, and some large countries still stretch across more longitude than one zone ideally covers.

how it works

Solar noon arrives about four minutes later for each degree of longitude travelled east. A shared clock time therefore has to be a fixed offset from a reference meridian, and each ideal zone spans about 15 degrees of longitude to match one hour.

so what

Time zones are the hidden coordination layer behind trains, flights, the internet and global trade, and their borders are often political compromises. Their shape still affects daily life, from working hours to sunrise times.

fun fact

Nepal adopted the offset UTC+05:45 in 1986, a quarter-hour difference from its neighbours.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗