Time Traveler

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The Language of Time

Time is often thought of as the fourth dimension. Once an object has length, width, and depth, it also exists over time. We talk about time, well, all the time, but since we operate in the here and now, we often use three-dimensional language. If you speak English, you probably know that the future is ahead and the past is behind us. Timelines go from the past on the left to the present (and sometimes the future) on the right. Whether the future is looking up or looking down has nothing to do with when or how fast it comes. 

But that isn't always the case. If your first language is something besides English, you may think of the flow of time differently, and use different words for its direction. Since time is the fourth dimension, it honestly has no direction at all. Yet we adapt language to communicate the concept anyway. There's no "right" way to do this, outside of being aware of the time orientation of the person you're talking to. Dr. Erica Brozovsky explains how some other cultures talk about the flow of time.

BC

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— Twonks (@twonks.bsky.social) March 27, 2026 at 9:53 AM

Reminder

Time change tonight eh. Does your area participate and if they do, does it affect you much?

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— Grampa Jody (@jodywagner.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 11:37 AM

Yes, I will be able to sleep until 5AM instead of getting up at 4AM. But I am also meeting Dr. Dolittle and Dr. Engineer for lunch, half way between here and Nashville. Our meeting place is in a different time zone, and takes a couple of hours to get there. This may get confusing.

March

This calendar is strictly for 2026. Brought to you by Matt Shirley.

Friday

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Meet Me Here

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What a Year

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The Wild World of Time Travel Truthers

We've become obsessed with the concept of time travel. It's a great area to explore in science fiction, setting up all kinds of possible plots and paradoxes. It also feeds into our desire for a do-over in our own lives. And it holds out the possibility of meeting great people and doing great things that are only possible in the past or in the future. However, some people take it more seriously than others. Not Exactly Normal looks at how time travel entered our culture and grabbed us, never to let go. (via Digg) 

One Word a Day

Henry Brown took the "photo a day" idea and made it speak. Every day during 2025, he spoke to the camera, and then compiled it into a coherent essay about the passage of time in 365 video clips. The clips are not all in sequential order, but you can follow the times of the year mostly by the length of his hair and the background weather. In some places, there is more than one word for the day. Whatever you think of the finished product, you have to admire his dedication to the project. If the effects of the video obscured what he actually said, you'll find a transcript at Laughing Squid. 

The Hardest

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Lost in Time

I've noticed that some younger folks who only know digital clocks tend to think of hours as 100 minutes. I bet they don't understand 90 degree angles, either. (via Bored Panda)

Wait Here

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A Stopped Clock

From 1885. Just think, they eventually got all the clocks and watches going again, but they still didn't know what time it was. (via Undine)

Sci-Fi Horror

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The Change

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— Marti Lawrence (@marti-l.bsky.social) October 31, 2025 at 8:55 AM

Don't we all wish! but seriously, folks, Sunday November 2nd, is the day we set our clocks back to standard time. Before you go to bed Saturday night, wind those clocks back and get an extra hour of sleep. Unless, of course, you stay up later than you should because the clock now says it's not bedtime yet.

Analyzing Time Travel in Fiction

Time travel is fiction, unless you are referring to traveling ahead in time at the rate one one minute per minute. As fiction, you can so pretty much what you want with temporal displacement, so science fiction stories treat that ability in many different ways. What causes a paradox doesn't necessarily cause a paradox in a different story. Our friend at Minute Physics gives us an overview of how time travel varies between stories. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Time Travel

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— Democracy Action Network (@democracyactionnet.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 2:35 PM

Time Travel Is Confusing

We dream about time travel, because it would be so cool to travel back and right some of the wrongs of our history. Or forward, so we can know what to expect in the future. But being able to do those things warps our understanding of time itself and can lead to an existential crisis. Dorkly places this discussion in a video game, which is pretty safe because it has a goddess book, a guitar as a weapon, goblins, and other implausible elements. But the questions about time travel are universal. If you must go back in time to save the world, did the world really ever need saving? If you then return to your time, you would be the only one to know what could have been. Or were you always predestined to travel back in time and do whatever you did? We've heard this discussion before, but rock-eating Greg makes it funny.  

This story is only three minutes; the rest is an ad. 

Where Did the Time Go?

Some folks have asked about the high school reunion I attended last weekend. It's actually been only 49 years, but since six out of about 40 people have died already, we didn't want to wait.  

It was lovely! From what I've heard, the biggest deals in class reunions are the 10th and the 50th. A 50th reunion is the best. The 10th reunion is too soon, and everyone is comparing jobs, spouses, and children. But by the 50th, we're all fully ripened and pretty much on the same playing field. We're all either retired or close to it, so more people could actually attend. It's great to meet spouses, but most who live far away just stayed at home because we are all old and have nothing to prove. We have let go of all the competitions, slights, and resentments of our school years and choose to recall the fun stuff. And the things we admired each other for. Everyone had a story, with both good and bad parts, and we were all interested to hear them. To be honest, there were a few who didn't attend because of trauma, grudges, or potential embarrassment, but we would have welcomed them. 

It was a small school with a small class, and we spent 12 years growing up together (students who moved away during those years were also invited), so we were like a group of brothers and sisters as soon as we recognized each other. 

My daughters have 10th reunions coming up, but they graduated from classes of nearly 300 students, and they went to a parochial elementary, so I can't imagine it being as good as my 50th. But I would encourage them and everyone else to make it to the 50th.  

(Thanks for the image, WTM!)