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starbucks4ever (99.53)

Idiot of the day: Medvedev

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November 12, 2009 – Comments (4)

For all the abundance of homegrown idiots, morons, dunderheads, and other simpletons, once again an ambitious foreign fool with initiative grabs the main award. Mr. Medvedev's suggestion that Russian economy could be modernized by reshuffling the time zones is as good as the best bits of wisdom from Baby Bush, only more erratic. Admit it: you have to feel a little sorry for the electric grid operators in Vladivostok who will now face the task of illuminating the city at night because the local clock is showing Moscow time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/12/dmitry-medvedev-russia-time-zones

"He is frequently derided as someone with no real power. But todayDmitry Medvedev — Russia's president — came up with a novel suggestion to alter time itself — or at least to reduce his country's number of time zones.

Russia today is divided into 11 time zones. When residents of Kaliningrad in the Baltic territory are eating breakfast, citizens of Kamchatka, thousands of miles away on the Pacific coast, are going to bed. During his annual state of the nation address, Medvedev said Russia needed to "objectively assess" whether these sprawling zones could be reduced.

Medvedev failed to say how this would work. Experts have suggested it might make sense to have four zones rather than 11. The difference between Moscow and Vladivostok, 4,000 miles (6,430km) from the capital, could shrink from seven to four hours." 

4 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On November 12, 2009 at 8:32 PM, devoish (98.78) wrote:

Maybe he could try daylight savings.

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#2) On November 12, 2009 at 8:40 PM, vriguy (80.51) wrote:

China manages with one time zone.

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#3) On November 12, 2009 at 11:36 PM, JakilaTheHun (99.93) wrote:

Wow, this is an extremely short-sighted post.  Look, this time zone thing is small potatoes, but Medvedez has shown a ton of courage by standing up to the vested interests in Russia and he appears willing to dramatically reform the Russian economy for the better. 

Who gives a flip about the time zones?  Does it really matter if you turn the lights on at 9 PM or 6 PM?  People are going to adjust to new time zones; it's not a big deal.  Also, you might note that China has one time zone and it hasn't fallen apart as a result.  

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#4) On November 13, 2009 at 2:48 PM, starbucks4ever (99.53) wrote:

Jakila,

I hope you realize that the clocks are being "reformed" entirely for Putin's convenience because Putin wants to talk over the phone to the KGB generals in Kamchatka while he is still still at work in his Kremlin office?  And yes, it matters when you turn the lights on because if you make entire provinces sleep in the morning and work in the evening, you'll get a much higher electricity bill unless the long-suffering underfunded power grid falls apart altogether. And now they'll have to burn all these extra millions of tons of coal just because Putin can't figure out how to use email :)

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