Pretty much. Area 51 is a government run airport that they use to test various new systems and even new aircraft. I seem to remember something I read about the stealth planes being tested there before the programs were acknowledged. I'm sure they still use Area 51 to test all the new secret whiz bangs and gizmos they put on the planes. Being an airport in a remote area away from prying eyes makes it pretty good for that kind of work.

I'm pretty sure that if there are alien space craft anywhere here, they're nowhere near Area 51. The government doesn't do anything to dissuade the alien freaks who focus on Area 51. In fact, their insistence on not answering questions may be specifically done to keep the UFO crowd focusing on Area 51. While everyone is focusing on Area 51, all of the research and what not is being done at a nondescript warehouse in Cleveland or St Louis or some other big city with a large warehouse district. Classic redirection and distraction.

Maybe they're the kind of water that works in the 100 MPG carburetor the government is hiding too...

That may be but so few jurisdictions enforce that kind of law that it's as if it wasn't even on the books.

With so many people living in squalor, it's only a matter of time before some new killer disease goes on a rampage and kills untold millions of people. Although, there are untold millions sitting around with nothing to lose. All it's going to take is a kook with delusions of grandeur to whip them in a frenzy, getting all of those people to run amok trying to take over the worlds resources. That kind of potential for global war will certainly cut down the population as much or more than a big outbreak of a nasty disease.

Or maybe we'll get both.

Hardly. Parents these days just want to be friends with their kids and make it easier for them than they had it. Either that or they want to make sure their kids have the grades to get scholarships or just admittance to some trendy prep school, etc. Or their motivation is banal enough to just want the stupid "my kid is an honor student" bumper sticker to put on their car to show off at the local overpriced coffee shack.

That may be an enticing slogan for someone who doesn't think the issue all the way through. And it's unlikely someone who only spits out one sentence talking points like that will put forth the effort to investigate the real causes of the problem, no matter what kind of well documented research is posted. Suffice it to say that while the government doesn't get everything right when it comes to education, removing the government altogether will only cause more problems than it solves.

That was effective back when parents were interested in making their kids knuckle down and accomplish something in school. But that's becoming less and less common. Instead, we have parents showing up to yell at the teacher for not giving their idiot slacker offspring better grades even though the urchin does none of the work required to earn the grades.

No, I think this effort by the Gates foundation is a noble one. We really do need to come up with a realistic way to evaluate our entire educational system (not just the effectiveness of teachers). We need a way we can identify the real faults in our educational system.

Realistically, I don't hold out much hope that the territorialism and politics that are pervasive in our educational system can be overcome. So I'm not sure how effective this drive will be at affecting change. But the goal itself is noble.

Anonymously admit you were wrong? Big stretch there...

I know stories like this generate a lot of traffic but what does this have to do with tech news?

I see where the terminology confusion came about. A lack of precision in the original statement left it open to misinterpretation

That makes sense. But it still holds true that the time zones aren't responsible for this change in the length of a day.

Time zones have nothing to do with how long a day is. Every time zone has 24 hour days. Unless you live in some weird alternate universe where some days are longer than others...

The changes in daylight savings time may impact exactly what time it is now but the only thing you have to deal with is whether you're currently in daylight savings time. Because within a year, switching to DST and back cancels itself out. A given year will have one day that acts like a 23 hour day and another that acts like a 25 hour day.

The only real thing that would make 20*365*24*60*60 (ignoring leap years) not exactly 20 years ago is if the standard for daylight savings time had changed between then and now. If daylight savings time was in effect then but not now (or not then but in effect now), you'd only be off by one hour.

Cut him a little slack. He may still be suffering from one of the other head injuries he had a while ago...