Before I started messing around with my site and doing things such as alphabetizing my blogroll, I had the Australians on the list separated into what I called the Australian Delegation -- a separate list of weblogs owned and maintained by those we affectionately refer to as Aussies.

In a surge of nostaligia, as well as an attempt to stay with one single theme for an entire day's postings, I'm declaring today to be Australia Day at Burningbird.

All day long I'll feature postings about all things Australian as well as postings introducing you to the members of the Delegation, who though now merged in with the other Plutonians, can still be spotted with their +17 hour rating.

Speaking of the hours, note that the Australians used to have a time difference of +19 from my home base in California (Pacific time), and now have a +17 hour difference. Why the two hour change?

Well, Australia's Daylight Saving Time started last year in October, the Aussie Spring; it ended in March, the beginning of the Australian Fall. This chopped one hour off the time difference because their clocks were turned back one hour. When we in the States started our DST, we moved our clocks forward one hour, chopping a second hour and leading to the +17 hour difference you see today.

I am finding that Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity is easier to understand than international Daylight Saving Time. That's what happens when you muck with Mother Time.

To make things even more interesting, not all areas of Australia participate in DST, same as in the States. However, since the Australian Delegation members are from New South Wales and Tasmania, both of which participate in DST, all of the Delegation's hours were impacted.

More Down Under to come...