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Podcast: StarDate
Episode: Early New Year
Description: By the time the ball drops in Times Square tonight, the people of the Line Islands will be almost a full day into 2026. The islands are in the Pacific Ocean, south of Hawaii. But they’re just across the International Date Line. That makes the islands the first place to see the new year.
The Date Line is needed because the time gets an hour earlier for every time zone west, and an hour later for every time zone east. Without a place to reset the date, time just wouldn’t make sense.
The line most...