The Clocks of the Future －未来の時計－

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

The opening line of George Orwell’s novel, “1984”

 

I was thinking about daylight savings time recently.  When I call my parents in Scotland from Japan, sometimes there is a nine hour time difference, and sometimes there is an eight hour time difference between the two countries. 

That is because in Britain, the clocks are moved forward one hour in March, and are put back again in October.  To remember this order, people sometimes use the mnemonics, “Spring forward,” and “Fall back.”  In other words, the clocks go forward in spring, and the clocks go back in autumn (fall). 

The idea began during the First World War, and was initially introduced in Germany.  Due to the changing clocks, people who got up at the same time would have one hour less of daylight in the morning, and one hour more of daylight in the evening.  It was thought that this change, in an era where artificial lighting was less prevalent, would allow an increase in industrial productivity.  In other words, people would be able to work for longer. 

The main reason that daylight savings time has been kept long after the war finished is that the increased visibility in the evenings helps to reduce the number of road accidents.  Cyclists and pedestrians are more easily visible when drivers are coming home from work in the evenings. 

As technology continues to improve, how will clocks change in the future? 

If everyone uses digital watches and clocks, perhaps a government that wanted to increase industrial productivity could switch to Working Hours Savings Time.  In this new system, the day would still last for 24 hours.  But the length of an hour would change, depending on whether people were working or relaxing.  From 9am to 9pm, each hour would last eighty minutes instead of sixty.  And from 9pm to 9am, each hour would last only forty minutes.  Thus, workers would waste less time sleeping and spend more minutes (though the same number of hours) working.  That would bring new meaning to the proverb, “Time flies when you are having fun.”

 

Wasshoi! Wasshoi! －ワッショイ！ワッショイ！－

When I got on a train with my wife and son recently, I heard very loud chanting, like a crowd at a festival.  For a while I thought there was a real crowd of people chanting a little way down the carriage. 

But in actual fact somebody was watching a video on their smartphone and, instead of listening through earphones, was letting the soundtrack to the video blare out into the train carriage.  

I whispered in my wife’s ear, “Who is making that noise?” 

“An old lady,” she said. 

I was surprised.  Have Japanese old ladies become so aggressive that they try to dominate train carriages with their music choices? 

After the train moved a couple of stops, we realised what had happened.  The old lady suddenly made a surprised noise and plugged in her earphones correctly.  Then the blaring noise stopped.  She had thought that her earphones were connected and that she was the only one who could hear the loud sounds of the festival. 

It could have been worse.  I wonder what kind of videos an old man might have been watching. 

A Safe Bet —安全な賭け－

I have never enjoyed gambling.  The thrill of potentially winning money is less powerful than the fear of most likely losing money.  Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy the thrill of winning without the fear of losing? 

A story from the UK today suggests that a British politician has been searching for a way to make just such a safe bet. 

A Conservative Party politician, who has worked as an aide to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, placed a bet on the date of the election.  According to newspaper reports, he placed a 100 Pound bet on a general election taking place in the month of July.  At the time he placed the bet, this was seen as highly unlikely.  But three days later, Rishi Sunak declared that the general election would take place on 4^th July. 

The politician involved was Craig Williams.  He has said, “I put a flutter on the general election some weeks ago.  This has resulted in some routine inquiries and I confirm I will fully cooperate with these.”  He added, “I don’t want to be a distraction from the campaign.  I should have thought through how it looked.” 

I think I can confidently bet that the Conservative Party will not win the upcoming general election.  I am not sure any bookmaker can be found to take my bet, though.

 

Vocabulary:

to put a flutter on something – to place a casual bet on the outcome of something

[eg, The Grand National is a popular horse race in the UK.  Even people who don’t generally gamble often put a flutter on the race.]

 

He’s not lying, according to what I heard —彼は嘘をついていない・・・私が聞いたところによると。—

I recently listened to a series of lectures on linguistics.

It was interesting to hear of how the grammar of languages differs around the world.  Some languages have a subject – verb – object word order, like English.  Others have a subject – object – verb word order, like Japanese.  A few unusual languages put the object first and the subject at the end. 

There were also some kinds of grammar which I had never heard of, because they do not appear in any languages which I have studied. 

One of these unfamiliar grammar choices is called evidential markers.  In a language which has evidential markers, speakers must indicate from where they got the information that they are communicating.  For example, you might want to say, “A monkey stole your lunch.”  But that would be an incomplete and grammatically incorrect sentence.  To make a correct sentence, you have to put in a marker which indicates how you know that the monkey stole the other person’s lunch.  So you have to add, “according to what I saw,” or “according to what I heard,” or “according to traditional belief,” or “according to what I feel”, et cetera. 

What an interesting thought.  Imagine how different politics would be if politicians always had to indicate clearly where they got their information from, in order to make correct sentences. 

“Since we became the government, the country has gotten stronger, according to my own feelings.  If you vote for the other party, they will wreck the economy, according to what I have heard.  The other party will raise your taxes, according to rumor.” 

You could still tell lies in a language with evidential markers.  But you couldn’t tell lies in a subtle or a sly way quite as easily as you can in English or in Japanese.