Samoa, Tokelau Dropping Friday, Dec 30 2011 from Calendar

Samoa, Tokelau Deleting December 30: 'We're Moving Our Islands'

Samoa is moving forward in time. Since the island nation doesn't have John Locke on hand to turn the frozen donkey wheel, Samoa is moving from the eastern side of the International Date Line to the western side by skipping Friday, December 30 entirely.

The New Zealand territory of Tokelau is doing the same thing. If you're in Samoa or Tokelau on December 29, you'll find that 11:59pm on Thursday will go straight through midnight to 12:01am on Saturday.

The reason for the change, which is really a movement of the International Date Line itself, is because Desmond told them to do it that Samoa does so much business with Australia and New Zealand, but spends too much time in the previous day. Same story with Tokelau. Samoa even produced some commemorative "Leap into the Future" postage stamps.

Photos

Not Penny's Boat

see larger image

uploaded by Jordan Yerman

Come to think of it, the image of the puzzle-piece missing from the ocean is extremely Lost-centric.

If you're in a helicopter off the coast of Samoa, you won't see the island disappear: the change is, of course, in recorded time only, and not in space.

Note that Samoa has made other society-changing decisions in the past in order to get closer to Australia and New Zealand:

• Samoa Switches Sides of the Road

Either that or Samoa and Tokelau really, really hate Rebecca Black.

If you're a hotel guest in Samoa, you won't have to pay for the missing Friday. However, employers must still pay employees for December 30, even though it didn't take place on the calendar.