![\"signs](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5122\/5312932879_b4e01c3562.jpg\")
<\/a>It\u2019s convenient to feel knowledgeable, even a little smug, and I plead guilty as charged. I need to work on my humility and try not to be so judgmental. However, I did not design Twelve Mile Circle for the general public. If it were all about eyeballs I wouldn\u2019t focus on geo-oddities and anomalies. I\u2019m not surprised that one of my most frequently viewed articles features a monster truck photo<\/a>, but that\u2019s not my core audience and they never wander over to my other pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I admit somewhat sheepishly that I keep a file called “Stupid Searches” for occasions just like this. I was about to add this one to several other rather unfortunate search terms I\u2019ve recorded in the past. Things like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the brilliance of the question struck me. Is there an area with no time zone?<\/i> Could this be the visible part of a profound metaphysical inquiry? Maybe akin to a Zen Buddhist koan like the the clich\u00e9: Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, I\u2019m also aware of the 1970 song by Chicago, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?<\/a>“<\/i> so let\u2019s put that one aside and not mention it again. And no, I\u2019m not old enough to remember hearing that except on a Classic Rock station many years after the fact, but thanks for asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On second though, maybe the question wasn\u2019t posed philosophically. So I pondered it literally and found some interesting results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today all nations follow standard time zones based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Some large nations have multiple time zones. One large nation, China, has a single time zone. Some places differentiate their time from nearby zones by a half-hour or even a quarter-hour. Even so, UTC rests at the core of each of these instances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nations have the power to track time however they wish. Solar time ruled the world until the last hundred and fifty years, give-or-take. Nonetheless it\u2019s convenient and advantageous to standardize on UTC in the modern world, so logically it\u2019s been adopted by all sovereign nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That only partially addresses the question. What about the poles where time zones converge? I can\u2019t speak for the North Pole, but the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station<\/a> follows New Zealand time. The United States operates the station and provisions it via New Zealand. It follows New Zealand time as a matter of convenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nA Closer Examination<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCoordinated Universal Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAntarctica<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/b\/b7\/SouthPoleStationDestinationAlpha.jpg\/1024px-SouthPoleStationDestinationAlpha.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\nInternational Waters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n