Time Travel

The population of a small island in the South Pacific Ocean have perfected time travel! The island of Samoa is planning a jump into the future by moving themselves west of the International Date Line. Perhaps the island's population have grown tired of being some of the last people on earth to celebrate the New Year? Jokes aside, the real reason relates to the economy. Currently Samoa loses two working days with it's biggest trading partners - New Zealand and Australia. Currently when it's Friday in New Zealand its Saturday in Samoa, and when it's Sunday in Samoa, it's Monday in New Zealand.

The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line that runs generally north-south through the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It's function is to define the position on the Earth's surface where the date changes. Traveling east across the line means you repeat a day, while crossing it in a westerly direction means you jump forward a day!

The line follows the 180 degree meridian for the most part except where it goes around parts of continents or islands (no avoid a single nation have time zones in 2 different days). Samoa, lies just east of the line, and so the change in position will only lead to a small additional kink in the line on the new maps.

If you extend the IDL into the other hemisphere, the line is called the Prime Meridian or perhaps better known as the Greenwich meridian as it passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in southeast London. This arbitrary line was agreed to as the zero position of longitude at the International Meridian Conference held in 1884. The same conference defined the "Universal Day" as midnight-to-midnight Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but decided that countries could unilaterally decide how to measure time. It is for this reason that some countries like India choose to have 1 time zone that is 05h30 ahead of GMT!

What time is it?

This artificial line creates the Eastern and Western Hemispheres also creates some interesting time phenomena (although they are completely artificial constructs). For example, you can celebrate your birthday twice in one year by crossing the IDL in a easterly direction on your birthday. The clocks go back a day and you get to celebrate again!

Another strange phenomenon is that for 2 hours each day (between 10h00 and 11h59 GMT) three different days are observed in different places on the globe. At 10h30 in Greenwich it's Tuesday, while in Samoa it's 23h30 on Monday night, and across the IDL in Kiritimati or Christmas Island it's Friday morning 00h30!  

Samoa has a population of about 180,000. I suppose they will enjoy being one of the first nation's to experience the New Year at 00h01 on January 2012!

Why is there no petrol in Nairobi?

I experienced first hand the fuel shortage in Nairobi today. I was forced to work from home with an empty fuel tank. I heard via the grapevine that the Shell down the road had received fuel around lunch time and like many Nairobians joined the queues to get a full tank!

I queued for just under an hour for a full tank of fuel and a Jerry can - as a buffer for any further shortages.

So the BIG question is why is there a fuel shortage in Nairobi?

The government assures us that there is no shortage of petrol in Kenya, In fact according to Patrick Nyoike, Energy Permanent Secretary, there are approximately 17.3 million liters of fuel products at the Kenya Pipeline Company depots.

So the petrol is in the tanks, but not in the fuel stations. Finding an answer to this question is where the blame-storming begins. Here are some of the popular ideas/reasons/excuses:

There's no space to land it:
"the result of intense pricing battles over consignments that were to be shipped in mid March, but could not land at the port for lack of storage space"

It's corruption again: 
"dealers have refused to buy the petroleum because the importer, with the help of the Ministry of Energy officials, has pushed the prices up by up to $10 above the price quoted for the tender"

No money for guarantees:
"Some of these importers are very small and find it difficult to raise the guarantees"

They forgot to pay their accounts:
"the shortage is linked to delayed payments by the marketers"

Blame the logistics department:
"logistical delays resulting from the public holiday for the supply shortage"

It's KRA's fault*:
"the taxation and clearing paperwork required was not done on time"

It's KPLC's fault**:
 "A shutdown at the refinery caused by a power failure late last week has also been linked to the supply shortage"

It's the price's fault:
"the price regulation [is the cause] for the crisis"

It's on it's way, it's stuck on the high seas:
"attempts to ease the situation by getting approval from authorities for the discharge of a cargo ship in the high seas has not borne fruit"

It's the public's fault:
"said the situation was being made worse by panicking motorists who dash to the nearest stations where they see a re-filling truck"

Of possible excuses the only ones missing are: The dog ate it, and the aliens abducted it!

Let's hope that while the industry players are arguing and blame-shifting that someone is actually working to resolve the problem!

* KRA = Kenya Revenue Authority

** KPLC = Kenya Power and Lighting Corporation

Sources:

Capital FM

Business Daily

Made in England

Made in England, a photo by jdkvirus on Flickr.

This is a component on a railway wagon parked at the Nairobi Railway Museum. The museum houses rolling stock, locomotives and other memorabilia from the old East African Railways.

This railway line was referred to as the "lunatic line" by the British tabloids of the time when it was built between 1896 and 1901. At the time is cost 5 million pounds to complete, but it's cost in human life was enormous, with an average of 4 workers dying for every mile of track! The original line was built from the port of Mombasa on the Indian ocean coast of what is now Kenya to Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria. By 1931 the line had been extended to Kampala the capital of Uganda.

Two things attracted me to this rusting component on the railway wagon. Firstly, it is embossed with the words "Made in England", the second thing that caught my eye was the acronym E.A.R, implying that these components were manufactured especially for East African Railways.

We are all too familiar with the "Made in China" label. Take a look at your desk where your computer stands, or your kitchen. A fair chunk of what's before you was made in China.

In 2010, the US was the world's leading manufacturer contributing 19.9% of the world's manufactured goods. Its projected that the US will lose its long standing number 1 position to China in 2011. The US have held the top spot for 110 years, quite a record! Coincidentally, it was about the time that the lunatic line was commissioned that the US surpassed Britain as the leading global manufacturer.

At present England relies on manufacturing for 26% of it's GDP. This manufacturing is concentrated in aerospace, defense, pharmaceuticals and chemicals although the UK has 10 operational railway manufacturers.

Despite it's manufacture site listed as England, the pictured component was probably designed in the US. Timken is an American company founded in 1899 by Henry Timken and his sons. Henry Timken was a German born carriage builder who patented a tapered rolling bearing for freight wagons, which improved their handling during cornering. This patent was the start of then Timken business which still operate's today.The companies slogan "Wherever wheels and shafts turn", describes the widespread use for bearings. Timken bearings have been fitted to trains, aircraft engines and even the space shuttle's landing gear!

This component (probably a bearing of some sort) was manufactured under license in England following a licensing agreement in 1909 which gave the Timken company access to the global markets. I suppose in some respects this is similar to today's manufacturing being outsourced to China?

I have no way of knowing exactly how old this component is but I am sure it contributed to the economies of England and the US at it's manufacture. It contributed to the British East African economy in it's use, even now is contributing in a very small way to the Kenyan economy as part of the museum display!