Samoa doesn't need a Delorean and plutonium to travel into the future. The island nation will simply leap through the international date into--tomorrow. MSNBC has the story.


"On December 29th, in fact, Samoans will go to bed and wake up 24 hours later--on December 31st. Skipping right over the international dateline, entirely skipping Dec. 30th..."

"Think of it as something like this: instead of being the last country in the world to see the Sun set each day, Samoa becomes one of the first to see it rise."

The country is 20 miles east of the current international dateline. The BBC explains redrawing the line is necessary to help communication with neighboring countries...

"On Samoa's side of this imaginary line that runs from pole to pole, it is Tuesday. On the other side, it is already Wednesday. And this makes it tricky to communicate with its key neighbours Australia and New Zealand, a day ahead on the other side of the line."

Samoa is going back to the future, really, because they are changing back to the time zone. The country shifted east to a time zone 11 hours after Greenwich in 1892 to be closer to the United States. But now, they're shifting west of the international dateline to be 13 hours ahead of Greenwich for financial reasons. The Telegraph quotes the Samoan Prime Minister as saying...

"In doing business with New Zealand and Australia we're losing out on two working days a week... While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand and when we're at church on Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane."

But the Independent reports not everyone is happy with the time change...

"As well as introducing a large kink into the already jagged International Dateline, the move will separate Samoa from its nearest neighbour, American Samoa, a US territory. The two countries used to be united, until partitioned by Germany and the US in the late 19th century."

So, what happens with December 30th, the day the country is going to skip? Techland observes the jump makes sense for those on the island--except if your birthday is on that day, in which case you'll just have to go without it. But how about travelers?

"The only remaining problem is for anyone who's booked flights to Samoa on December 30th. Depending what direction you're flying from, you'll either be losing a day, gaining a day, repeating a day, or just vanishing into the time vortex in a puff of smoke. So, depending on when you read this: you have been / will be / have not been warned."

SOURCE: www.metacafe.com/watch/6395902/samoa_leaps_back_to_the_future/

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