Re: CHAT: Timezones was The English/French counting system

On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 11:31:04PM -0400, Phillip Driscoll wrote:
> > Officially, "GMT" is a deprecated term and everyone should be using
> > "UTC" instead, despite it's narrowly Terranocentric implications. :)
>
>
> Isn't this sometimes called Zulu Time, or am I thinking of something else?
Zulu time is indeed the same as UTC; it's a military term.  Zulu is the
word for "Z" in the international phonetic alphabet, and in this case
it stands for "zero", meaning zero hours offset from UTC.

Historically, the other 24 integer-hour-offset time zones were also given
single-letter designations: A(lfa) = UTC + 1 hour, B(ravo) = UTC + 2 hours,
etc.  J is skipped due to visual similarity with I (in writing only the
single letter is used, not the spelled-out phonetic key), so UTC+10 is K(ilo).
After M(ike) = UTC + 12, you go to N(ovember) = UTC - 1, O(scar) = UTC - 2,
etc, all the way up to Y(ankee) = UTC-12.   (Note that UTC+12 and UTC-12
are on either side of the International Date Line within what would
otherwise be the same time zone.)

-Mark