Sure, the borders are irregular, but that’s because populations aren’t evenly distributed and it’s worth it to most countries not to split themselves into two or more zones, if they can help it. There’s nothing particularly holy about solar noon being 12:00 anymore. And that map greatly (visually) exaggerates the reality on the ground, as a glance at a “normal” time zone map will tell you. You could cross a lot of different colors on the map before you had to change your watch.

I can think of a few changes that have been made–some shenanigans with islands wanting to be first into the millennium, and tinkering with the specific days that daylight savings took effect. But so what? How much simpler does it need to be?

For anybody else wondering: ‘multipolygon’ is a term that refers to multiple disjoint polygons, considered as a single entity.

On a semi-related note, Russia just did away with changing between summer time and winter time due to all of the trouble the change causes twice a year. They’re now permanently on summer time. Kind of wish we’d do the same here in the States but then there wouldn’t be any dates for pols to change every couple of years to make it look like they’re doing something to combat rising energy prices.

I am in awe of the anal-retentiveness that led to this map (and the underlying zoneinfo database).

I am also somewhat surprised that the map is this *simple* given that it captures not only current but historical differences.