Posted on 11/01/2013 3:31:05 PM PDT by Sergio
Daylight saving time ends Nov. 3, setting off an annual ritual where Americans (who don’t live in Arizona or Hawaii) and residents of 78 other countries including Canada (but not Saskatchewan), most of Europe, Australia and New Zealand turn their clocks back one hour. It’s a controversial practice that became popular in the 1970s with the intent of conserving energy. The fall time change feels particularly hard because we lose another hour of evening daylight, just as the days grow shorter. It also creates confusion because countries that observe daylight saving change their clocks on different days.
It would seem to be more efficient to do away with the practice altogether. The actual energy savings are minimal, if they exist at all. Frequent and uncoordinated time changes cause confusion, undermining economic efficiency. There’s evidence that regularly changing sleep cycles, associated with daylight saving, lowers productivity and increases heart attacks. Being out of sync with European time changes was projected to cost the airline industry $147 million a year in travel disruptions. But I propose we not only end Daylight Saving, but also take it one step further.
More at the source...
It used to be 6 months of each, but now we are only on standard time for 4 months. Hardly seems worth the trouble. Pick one and use it all year round.
This is a fact.
None of my critters observe the time change.
;]
How wonderful! Is this her first time?
OKAY -— set the clocks for daylight savings time and STOP the stupid time changes ... I lived in a time when time changes didn’t exist and the world was just fine ...
When told the reason for Daylight Saving time the old Indian said, “Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of a blanket and have a longer blanket.”
Detroit chose to be in Eastern zone not
central so businesses would be synced
w New York time. I just remember some
author was on CSpan to plug his book
on time zones and daylight saving and said that.
‘What happened to time?’
‘Maybe it’s on strike.’
‘What for?’
‘Shorter hours?’
—Yellow Submarine
That was a real pain.
Some folks just have too much time on their hands for their own good.
Some sort of impressed labor plan for “intellectuals” could solve that problem, and if the labor were applied to something useful, we might be able to reduce urban litter or reduce the need for Mexican labor to pick fruits and vegetables.
This labor would be enforced from sunup to sundown, obviating the need for clocks or timekeeping of any kind, let alone such ideas as time zones or “daylight savings time”.
The time zones were created in the 19th century for the benefit of the railroads, which wanted one “standard time” for New York to Chicago.
Consequently the Eastern-Central line is too far west—should be around Columbus, OH. Similar problems exist with the others.
Yes, there would be split states but TN & KY have managed just fine.
Finally! Someone who dares to speak the truth! I like using your quote almost as much as the thermos question. A thermos keeps hot things hot and cold things cold, but how does it know? Many an engineer has failed to answer that one I can tell you.
“The United States roughly covers 40 degrees of longitude from the west coast to the east coast so there are three time zones (2.67 actually).”
Check your globe The continental US covers around 60 degrees so there are 4 time zones- eastern, central, mountain and Pacific.
Two time zones? Some things are like they are for scientific reasons.
The older I got the harder adjusting became. Old coots like me get set in our ways. And change becomes much harder. It is physical not irritation at daylight savings time. Thankfully, I now live in Az and don’t have to go through that nonsense.
Blast! Somebody brought the facts to the discussion. ;D)
Well, my knee already feels old. It might agree about DST. lol
That's irrational. This is no longer the 19th Century.
The approximate middle of the current Central Time Zone would balance things out more equitably, in terms of daylight and night time hours. And the boundaries of states in that area allow this easily to be done.
The problem with DST, Standard time comes down to a person’s schedule. Factory workers with a 7-3 routine or farmers who live by their animals’ internal clocks want standard time, office workers with a 9-5 or later prefer Daylight Savings.
Personally, I love DST since I can get in 9 holes of golf or a long bike ride after work in June and early July. But Winters are brutal with a 10-12 hour work day, getting to work in the dark and leaving for home in the dark.
And that, dear City Cousin, is unadulterated BS, only believed by people who have never taken smart pills*.
No matter what the clock says, there's sunrise and sunset, with the same number of hours in between in either system; and that is primarily what most critters go by. The dairy cattle, OTOH, get tended to twice a day, at the same same time, regardless of day length or clock setting, 12 hours apart. Whether it's 6 & 6 or 9 & 9 or noon & midnight, makes no difference to them, as long as it is consistent.
*What's a smart pill you ask? We get them for free; they are small, round, brown pills that grow naturally overnight in the sheep pastures. Most people get noticeably smarter after taking only one or two. Slow learners may need up to a half dozen before they wise up.
Yes....:)
How about your smart phone figures out your very own customized timezone based on your longitude to six figures. High noon for you will be at exactly 1200!
“The US needs to retire daylight savings and just have two time zones—one hour apart.”
That’s not even the issue. DLS is about moving the clock back and forth, four US Time Zones is because the US is so big they’re need to better reflect local solar time.
We did without DLS until WWI, when it was implemented to accommodate war workers on shiftwork, now that we have streetlights and headlights we can do without it again.
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