13 o'clock!
Imagine that tomorrow it takes the earth exactly 26 hours to make a complete rotation, an anomaly that eventually is accepted as a new fact. There are now 26 hours in each day. Assuming no catastrophic Hurri-Typhoon-VolcanoQuakes destroy us all, which of the following would happen?:
1. Non-digital clocks are obsolete. The 13-hour clock face design never catches on, only the exceptionally bright and small children can read them. Rolex and the Swiss are both pretty much screwed.
2. Standard workday is now 10 hours, instead of 8.
3a. With two extra hours in a day, people have time to spend more, which somehow stimulates the economy positively (unemployment down, more $ changing hands). I'm not sure about this one, I'm no economist, just optimistic.
3b. Two more hours to pay for heat/electricity, feed the children, etc = poor become poorer, rich become richer.
4. It takes a generation to adjust our internal clocks to 26 hours, animals around the globe freak out: rabbits become carnivorous.
5. Primetime TV lineup is extended an hour each day. Next on FOX = 'Celebrities vs Carnivorous rabbits!'
6. Over/Under = 2 years: People starting to mutter to themselves "If there were only 27 hours in a day..." without any trace of irony
7. Life Expectancy drops by 10%, since each year is longer, plus spike in rabbit related deaths.
Any other effects?
3 comments:
The pull of gravity decreases due to slower rotation. All measures of weight must be recalibrated. Prior athletic records, especially in events like the high jump, can be broken by couch potatoes. Eventually sports adapt -- the basketball hoop is placed higher, as is the vault in gymnastics. Higher ceilings become standard too. The first generation to grow up under these conditions is significantly taller than the one before it.
the presence of newly carnivorous rabbits changes easter for hundreds of thousands of american children. no longer is the easter bunny a benevolent chocolate-bringing creature. children fear that which hides in the baskets of faux grass. nobody wakes up early for cartoons that day. out of avoidance of what's at home, sunday church service turns into one of those awkward housewarming parties where everyone comes and nobody wants to leave, which is problematic as there are never enough seats for us easter-and-christmas church-goers. eventually easter re-themed with an easter hippo, but it's never quite the same.
Shit, I already thought it was a 26-hour day!
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