Time zone
A time zone is a region of the globe that observes a uniform standard time for legal and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries of countries and their subdivisions because it is convenient for areas in close commercial or other communication to keep the same time. Most of the time zones on land are offset from Coordinated Universal Time by a whole number of hours, but a few zones are offset by 30 or 45 minutes; some higher latitude and temperate zone countries use daylight saving time for part of the year by adjusting local clock time by an hour. Many land time zones are skewed toward the west of the corresponding nautical time zones; this creates a permanent daylight saving time effect. Before clocks were first invented, it was common practice to mark the time of day with apparent solar time – for example, the time on a sundial –, different for every location and dependent on longitude; when well-regulated mechanical clocks became widespread in the early 19th century, each city began to use some local mean solar time.
Apparent and mean solar time can differ by up to around 15 minutes because of the elliptical shape of the Earth's orbit around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis. Mean solar time has days of equal length, the difference between the two sums to zero after a year. Greenwich Mean Time was established in 1675, when the Royal Observatory was built, as an aid to mariners to determine longitude at sea, providing a standard reference time while each city in England kept a different local time. Local solar time became inconvenient as rail transport and telecommunications improved, because clocks differed between places by amounts corresponding to the differences in their geographical longitudes, which varied by four minutes of time for every degree of longitude. For example, Bristol is about 2.5 degrees west of Greenwich, so when it is solar noon in Bristol, it is about 10 minutes past solar noon in London. The use of time zones accumulates these differences into longer units hours, so that nearby places can share a common standard for timekeeping.
The first adoption of a standard time was on December 1, 1847, in Great Britain by railway companies using GMT kept by portable chronometers. The first of these companies to adopt standard time was the Great Western Railway in November 1840; this became known as Railway Time. About August 23, 1852, time signals were first transmitted by telegraph from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Though 98% of Great Britain's public clocks were using GMT by 1855, it was not made Britain's legal time until August 2, 1880; some British clocks from this period have two minute hands—one for the local time, one for GMT. Improvements in worldwide communication further increased the need for interacting parties to communicate mutually comprehensible time references to one another; the problem of differing local times could be solved across larger areas by synchronizing clocks worldwide, but in many places that adopted time would differ markedly from the solar time to which people were accustomed. On November 2, 1868, the British colony of New Zealand adopted a standard time to be observed throughout the colony, was the first country to do so.
It was based on the longitude 172°30′ East of Greenwich, 11 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT. This standard was known as New Zealand Mean Time. Timekeeping on the American railroads in the mid-19th century was somewhat confused; each railroad used its own standard time based on the local time of its headquarters or most important terminus, the railroad's train schedules were published using its own time. Some junctions served by several railroads had a clock for each railroad, each showing a different time. Charles F. Dowd proposed a system of one-hour standard time zones for American railroads about 1863, although he published nothing on the matter at that time and did not consult railroad officials until 1869. In 1870 he proposed four ideal time zones, the first centered on Washington, D. C. but by 1872 the first was centered with geographic borders. Dowd's system was never accepted by American railroads. Instead, U. S. and Canadian railroads implemented a version proposed by William F. Allen, the editor of the Traveler's Official Railway Guide.
The borders of its time zones ran through railroad stations in major cities. For example, the border between its Eastern and Central time zones ran through Detroit, Pittsburgh and Charleston, it was inaugurated on Sunday, November 18, 1883 called "The Day of Two Noons", when each railroad station clock was reset as standard-time noon was reached within each time zone. The zones were named Intercolonial, Central and Pacific. Within a year 85% of all cities with populations over 10,000, about 200 cities, were using standard time. A notable exception was Detroit which kept local time until 1900 tried Central Standard Time, local mean time, Eastern Standard Time before a May 1915 ordinance settled on EST and was ratified by popular vote in August 1916; the confusion of times came to an end when Standard zone time was formally adopted by the U. S. Congress in the Standard Time Act of March 19, 1918; the first known person to conceive of a worldwide system of time zones was the Italian mathematician
National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina
National Statistics and Censuses Institute is the Argentine government agency responsible for the collection and processing of statistical data. The institute analyses economic and social indicators such as inflation rate, consumer price index and unemployment, among others; the INDEC is supervised by different federal agencies, is under the direct oversight of the Secretaría de Programación Económica y Regional of the Ministerio de Economía y Producción. The INDEC coordinates the Sistema Estadístico Nacional through which the national and local statistical services work together; each provincial government has a statistics bureau called Dirección de Estadística, that collects and processes information. The Argentine Constitution does not provide for a national census; these were conducted only generationally until 1947, every decade since then. National censuses were taken in 1869, 1895, 1914, 1947, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1991, 2001, 2010. Demographic and economic information is permanently updated with off-year censuses, such as the Economic and Agricultural Censuses, the sampled surveys published in Encuesta Permanente de Hogares.
Monthly releases include figures on inflation, trade balances, industrial production, retail sales, GDP. The first national statistics' centre was the Dirección General de Estadística, established in 1894 as a division of the Ministry of Public Finances. Fifty years in 1944, the Consejo Nacional de Estadística y Censos was created, with dependencies on both the Ministry of the Interior and the National Presidential Office. Other agencies were formed in 1950, 1952, 1956 before the final creation of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos in 1968 by Law 17622 and Decrees 3110/70 and 1831/93; the bureau's headquarters are located in a downtown, rationalist building designed by Arturo Dubourg, commissioned by President Juan Perón for use as the Ministry of Labour, completed in 1956. Although nominally independent, INDEC is subject to strong political pressure from the government, its statistics are no longer considered trustworthy; because INDEC's statistics have been reported as being manipulated by the Kirchner government, it is considered "discredited".
Controversy arose when the government of President Néstor Kirchner replaced Graciela Bevacqua, the Consumer Prices Indicator director. Bevacqua is reported to have arrived at a consumer price increase figure of 2.0% for January 2007 from internal data but the rate reported to the public was 1.1%. The head of INDEC resigned in March, a new board of directors led by Ana María Edwin was installed by the Ministry of Economy. A group of employees protested publicly at what they saw as a violation of INDEC's autonomy, an attempt by the Economy Ministry under Felisa Miceli to illegally keep inflation indicators under one percent a month. Prosecutors gathered evidence that high government officials had inquired of statistical staff how to get lower inflation numbers, that in early 2007 managers of the price indexes had excluded products whose prices had risen more than 15% in the survey and changed price data after it came in from the field workers. Prices and the official record have continued to part ways since former Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno's decision to intervene in the statistics institute in 2007.
Private-sector economists and statistical offices of provincial governments show inflation two to three times higher than INDEC's number. Unions, including those from the public sector, use these independent estimates when negotiating pay rises. Surveys by Torcuato di Tella University show inflation expectations running at 25-30%. Since INDEC's headline inflation statistics have been lower than estimates from analysts in the private sector and lower than INDEC's implicit private consumption price index, incorporated in the measurement of real GDP. Taken from the first quarter of 2007, each index has read as follows: The discrepancy has led to exchanged accusations of politically motivated statistical legerdemain between the ruling party and most of the political opposition, on both left and right. Officials facing election have an incentive to understate the headline CPI figure. Opposition figures relied on estimates made by figures such as Orlando Ferreres; the practice yielded the ruling party no political benefit, helped contribute to their loss in the October 2009 mid-term elections.
An alternative explanation for the policy could rest on government finances: the national government has issued around US$100 billion in government bonds. Payments on US$50 billion of this are indexed to inflation. Other government bonds are tied in value to GDP growth. A 7-point underestimate in inflation could save the Central Bank of Argentina US$3 billion in inflation-indexed interest payments, while higher economic growth would cost added interest on bonds tied to GDP. Since 2007, when Guillermo Moreno, the secretary of internal trade
Brazil
Brazil the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the fifth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, its most populated city is São Paulo; the federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers, it borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3% of the continent's land area. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats; this unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, is the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding deforestation and environmental protection.
Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. In 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system; the ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, now called the National Congress. The country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup d'état. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. Due to its rich culture and history, the country ranks thirteenth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Brazil is considered an advanced emerging economy. It has the ninth largest GDP in the world by nominal, eight and PPP measures, it is one of the world's major breadbaskets, being the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years. It is classified as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country, with the largest share of global wealth in Latin America. Brazil is a regional power and sometimes considered a great or a middle power in international affairs. On account of its international recognition and influence, the country is subsequently classified as an emerging power and a potential superpower by several analysts. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Union of South American Nations, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, it is that the word "Brazil" comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast.
In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was valued by the European textile industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. Throughout the 16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous peoples along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to European traders in return for assorted European consumer goods; the official Portuguese name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy Cross", but European sailors and merchants called it the "Land of Brazil" because of the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and supplanted the official Portuguese name; some early sailors called it the "Land of Parrots". In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama"; this was the name the indigenous population gave to the region, meaning "land of the palm trees".
Some of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, were found in the area of Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais and provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years. The earliest pottery found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil and radiocarbon dated to 8,000 years ago; the pottery was found near Santarém and provides evidence that the tropical forest region supported a complex prehistoric culture. The Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó in the Amazon delta from 800 CE to 1400 CE, developing sophisticated pottery, social stratification, large populations, mound building, complex social formations such as chiefdoms. Around the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people semi-nomadic who subsisted on hunting, fishing and migrant agriculture; the indigenous population of Brazil comprised several large indigenous ethnic groups. The Tupí people were subdivided into the Tupiniquins and Tupinambás, there were many subdivisions of the other gro
Paso de los Libres Department
Paso de los Libres Department is a department of Corrientes Province in Argentina. The provincial subdivision has a population of about 46,329 inhabitants in an area of 4,700 km2, its capital city is Paso de los Libres, located around 715 km from Capital Federal. Bonpland Parada Pucheta Paso de los Libres Tapebicuá
Sunshine duration
Sunshine duration or sunshine hours is a climatological indicator, measuring duration of sunshine in given period for a given location on Earth expressed as an averaged value over several years. It is a general indicator of cloudiness of a location, thus differs from insolation, which measures the total energy delivered by sunlight over a given period. Sunshine duration is expressed in hours per year, or in hours per day; the first measure indicates the general sunniness of a location compared with other places, while the latter allows for comparison of sunshine in various seasons in the same location. Another often-used measure is percentage ratio of recorded bright sunshine duration and daylight duration in the observed period. An important use of sunshine duration data is to characterize the climate of sites of health resorts; this takes into account the psychological effect of strong solar light on human well-being. It is used to promote tourist destinations. If the Sun were to be above the horizon 50% of the time for a standard year consisting of 8,760 hours, apparent maximal daytime duration would be 4,380 hours for any point on Earth.
However, there are physical and astronomical effects. Namely, atmospheric refraction allows the Sun to be still visible when it physically sets below the horizon. For that reason, average daytime is longest in polar areas, where the apparent Sun spends the most time around the horizon. Places on the Arctic Circle have the longest total annual daytime, 4,647 hours, while the North Pole receives 4,575; because of elliptic nature of the Earth's orbit, the Southern Hemisphere is not symmetrical: the Antarctic Circle, with 4,530 hours of daylight, receives five days less of sunshine than its antipodes. The Equator has a total daytime of 4,422 hours per year. Given the theoretical maximum of daytime duration for a given location, there is a practical consideration at which point the amount of daylight is sufficient to be treated as a "sunshine hour". "Bright" sunshine hours represent the total hours when the sunlight is stronger than a specified threshold, as opposed to just "visible" hours. "Visible" sunshine, for example, occurs around sunrise and sunset, but is not strong enough to excite the sensor.
Measurement is performed by instruments called sunshine recorders. For the specific purpose of sunshine duration recording, Campbell–Stokes recorders are used, which use a spherical glass lens to focus the sun rays on a specially designed tape; when the intensity exceeds a pre-determined threshold, the tape burns. The total length of the burn trace is proportional to the number of bright hours. Another type of recorder is the Jordan sunshine recorder. Newer, electronic recorders have more stable sensitivity than that of the paper tape. In order to harmonize the data measured worldwide, in 1962 the World Meteorological Organization defined a standardized design of the Campbell–Stokes recorder, called an Interim Reference Sunshine Recorder. In 2003, the sunshine duration was defined as the period during which direct solar irradiance exceeds a threshold value of 120 W/m². Sunshine duration follows a general geographic pattern: subtropical latitudes have the highest sunshine values, because these are the locations of the eastern sides of the subtropical high pressure systems, associated with the large-scale descent of air from the upper-level tropopause.
Many of the world's driest climates are found adjacent to the eastern sides of the subtropical highs, which create stable atmospheric conditions, little convective overturning, little moisture and cloud cover. Desert regions, with nearly constant high pressure aloft and rare condensation—like North Africa, the Southwestern United States, Western Australia, the Middle East—are examples of hot, dry climates where sunshine duration values are high; the two major areas with the highest sunshine duration, measured as annual average, are the central and the eastern Sahara Desert—covering vast desert countries such as Egypt, Libya and Niger—and the Southwestern United States. The city claiming the official title of the sunniest in the world is Yuma, with over 4,000 hours of bright sunshine annually, but many climatological books suggest there may be sunnier areas in North Africa. In the belt encompassing northern Chad and the Tibesti Mountains, northern Sudan, southern Libya, Upper Egypt, annual sunshine duration is estimated at over 4,000 hours.
There is a smaller, isolated area of sunshine maximum in the heart of the western section of the Sahara Desert around the Eglab Massif and the Erg Chech, along the borders of Algeria and Mali where the 4,000-hour mark is exceeded, too. Some places in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula receive 3,600–3,800 hours of bright sunshine annually; the largest sun-baked region in the world is North Africa. The sunniest month in the world is December in Eastern Antarctica, with 23 hours of bright sun daily. Conversely, higher latitudes lying in stormy westerlies have much cloudier and more unstable and rainy weather, have the lowest values of sunshine duration annually. Temperate oceanic climates like those in northwestern Europe, the western coast of Canada, areas of New Zealand's South Island are examples of cool, wet, humid climates where cloudless sunshine duration values are low; the areas with the lowest sunshine duration annually lie over the polar oceans, as well as parts of northern Europe, southern Alaska, northern Russia, areas near the Sea of
Argentina
Corrientes
