Not much to talk about publicly today.
Clocks jumped back 1 hour last night. Insert rant about societal inertia.
On the subject of time zones, if you're the kind of person who likes to read encyclopediae for fun, tzdata can be a fascinating read.
I hope not to offend with those quotes. Time keeping does evolve through colonialism, conflicts, and politics.
China
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People's Republic of China. Yes, they really have only one time zone.
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It seems that Uyghurs in Ürümqi has been using Xinjiang since at least the 1960's. I know of one Han, now over 50, who grew up in the surrounding countryside and used Xinjiang time as a child.
Japan
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From Paul Eggert (2020-01-19):
Starting in the 7th century, Japan generally followed an ancient Chinese timekeeping system that divided night and day into six hours each, with hour length depending on season. In 1873 the government started requiring the use of a Western style 24-hour clock.
Mongolia
Shanks & Pottenger say that Mongolia has three time zones, but The USNO (1995-12-21) and the CIA map Standard Time Zones of the World (2005-03) both say that it has just one.
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From Heitor David Pinto (2024-06-23):
Sources about time zones in Mongolia seem to list one of two conflicting configurations. The first configuration, mentioned in a comment to the TZ database in 1999, citing a Mongolian government website, lists the provinces of Bayan-Ölgii, Khovd and Uvs in UTC+7, and the rest of the country in UTC+8. The second configuration, mentioned in a comment to the database in 2001, lists Bayan-Ölgii, Khovd, Uvs, Govi-Altai and Zavkhan in UTC+7, Dornod and Sükhbaatar in UTC+9, and the rest of the country in UTC+8.
Palestine
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To summarize, the table should probably look something like that:
Area \ when 1918-1947 1948-1967 1967-1995 1996- Israel Zion Zion Zion Zion West bank Zion Jordan Zion Jordan Gaza Zion Egypt Zion Jordan