Nov 17, 2009

Medvedev Puts on His Skinny Pants


If you believe Plutarch, when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer. When Medvedev did the same of Russia, he opted to consolidate the time zones.

Indeed, few mortals have ever possessed such power. While 4,000 miles will still separate Moscow from Vladivostok, Medvedev wants to bend time itself -- eliminating three time zones and shrinking the difference between both cities to just four hours. (The equivalent of putting everyone between New York and Los Angeles on Eastern Standard Time.)

Somehow, this is supposed to make Russia’s far-flung Eastern regions more manageable. Instead, it’s like watching someone cope with weight gain by wearing their skinny pants.

Keep trying, Medvezhonok.

4 comments:

Ern said...

isn't china all on one time zone?

Pirates(and)Diplomats said...

Yup. It's the largest in the world.

The accepted international standard (15 degrees = one hour) implies that China should have at least 4 time zones.

But what use is a Middle Kingdom, if it's a four-part middle?

Ern said...

Is that anything like Middle Earth?

Pirates(and)Diplomats said...

Fewer orcs.