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Daylight Saving Time: Why Did We Do It?
Yahoo! News ^ | October 31, 2008 | Andrea Thompson

Posted on 11/01/2008 9:36:22 PM PDT by americanophile

At 2:00 a.m. local on Sunday, most of the United States (except Hawaii and Arizona) will leave daylight saving time behind and fall back an hour to standard time.

The annoyance of resetting clocks (or forgetting to, and showing up an hour early for appointments on Sunday) may raise the question of why we bother with this rigmarole in the first place.

Daylight saving time is most often associated with the oh-so-sweet extra hour of sleep in fall (and the not-so-nice loss of an hour in spring), but some of the original reasons for resetting our clocks twice a year including saving energy and having more daylight hours for retailers, sporting events and other activities that benefit from a longer day.

As far back as the 1700s, people recognized the potential to save energy by jumping clocks ahead one hour in the summer - Benjamin Franklin even wrote about it - although the idea was not put into practice until the 20th century.

During both World Wars, the United States and Great Britain began observing daylight saving time.

After the war, U.S. states were free to choose whether to observe daylight saving time and the calendar start dates of the time change. The result was time confusion for travelers and newscasters. In 1966, Congress enacted the Uniform Time Act, which stated that if any state observed daylight saving, it had to follow a uniform protocol, beginning and ending on the same dates throughout the country.

Starting in 2007, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 lengthened

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: History; Miscellaneous; Science
KEYWORDS: daylightsavings
Don't forget!
1 posted on 11/01/2008 9:36:24 PM PDT by americanophile
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To: americanophile
Liberals, remember this is the end of super daylight savings time. You were probably too stoned to remember when we set our calendars ahead by a day back in March, but now is the time to make up for it. Set your calendars back by one day. Tomorrow will be Saturday again, the day after will be Sunday and two days after that will be election day. And don't watch TV on the new Monday. The networks are just having an boring emergency test on what they would do if all the liberals forgot to vote and McCain even won in DC.
2 posted on 11/01/2008 9:48:26 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Obama: Spread the Wealth = Marx: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs)
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To: americanophile

Not a $pendy watch (~$60), but it's solar-powered (no batteries) and resets itself a couple of times a day with some atomic clock signal from Colorado.

Best dang watch I've ever owned.

3 posted on 11/01/2008 9:51:23 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: americanophile

if Obama wins, the day will now be 30 hours long because he is the One and felt like it


4 posted on 11/01/2008 9:52:45 PM PDT by ari-freedom (Obama: If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some.)
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To: americanophile

“Daylight Saving Time: Why Did We Do It?”

Here in Arizona, we don’t. :)


5 posted on 11/01/2008 9:55:08 PM PDT by fidelis (fidelis)
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To: americanophile

Remember, Reppublicans vote Nov 4

Democrats vote Nov 5.


6 posted on 11/01/2008 9:56:11 PM PDT by webschooner
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To: americanophile

Here’s the part I don’t understand. Why not, instead of abandoning daylight savings time, just go on it PERMANENTLY. In other words, always be in “spring forward” mode.

DST is great in the summer when you have sun until 9 or 9:30. Winter is all the more depressing when it’s dark at 4 or 4:30. Why move backwards at all?

The only “gain” would be having the sun come up a little earlier, but how much value does that have? It’s either the time when you’re getting up, getting ready to work, or on the way to work, versus shifting that daylight toward the end of the day when you get off work.

“Fall back” is pointless.


7 posted on 11/01/2008 9:57:14 PM PDT by BobbyT
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To: BobbyT

I think “falling back” adds some daylight to the fall/winter mornings, so that kids going to school won’t be doing so in darkness. Or something to that effect.

I’ll just be relishing my extra hour of sleep today....


8 posted on 11/01/2008 10:07:40 PM PDT by Sterm26 (Philadelphia Phillies -2008 World Series Champs!)
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To: BobbyT

Bobby,

I totally agree. I do not see any reason to keep the “Fall Back”. If anything, I would “Fall FORWARD” one hour to even give one more hour of sunshine in the evening to spend with your family.

In the evening, with extra light, kids can play, families can go out, mothers can shop, crime will be reduced.

With a late sunrise, you may inconvinience some kids, but in most cases kids will be just fine as many kids in many rural districts (with longer commutes to school) get on in the dark in winters and they have managed it just fine.


9 posted on 11/01/2008 10:38:07 PM PDT by SoftwareEngineer
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To: americanophile
Iraq stopped doing Daylight Savings Time this year. They announced it just a few days before we were to "spring forward" on April 1.

I'm quite OK with it, myself.

10 posted on 11/01/2008 10:39:57 PM PDT by Allegra (NO giving up, NO quitting, NO doom and gloom, NO drama queens...VOTE.)
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To: americanophile

Now that the world is all connected, we should go to a nonlinear clock. Have the hours go by quickly during the work day, especially between 3 and 5 o’clock. Have time in the evening go slower so you can relax. Have it go slower as well when you first get up so you don’t have to rush to work and you can enjoy a leisurely breakfast. :^D


11 posted on 11/01/2008 10:49:34 PM PDT by Kirkwood
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I’m promoting Summer Savings Time: Set your calendar back one month to get more summer.


12 posted on 11/01/2008 11:06:51 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: americanophile

It’s to show you that not even Time itself is immune to meddling by the Gooberment...


13 posted on 11/02/2008 1:54:26 AM PST by backhoe (Just a Merry-Hearted Keyboard Pirate Boy, plunderin' his way across the WWW...)
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To: BobbyT

I agree.


14 posted on 11/02/2008 10:10:02 AM PST by americanophile
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To: SoftwareEngineer

Staying on Daylight Savings Time is a great idea, and a good-enough excuse to stop sending the kids off to school so early. (Lunch at 10:45? Out by 1:15?)


15 posted on 11/02/2008 10:14:44 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: americanophile
Daylight Saving Time: Why Did We Do It?

So we know when to change the batteries in the smoke detectors . . .

16 posted on 11/02/2008 10:45:39 AM PST by Petruchio (Democrats are like Slinkies... Not good for anything, but it's fun pushing 'em down the stairs.)
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To: americanophile
I hate switching clocks. Our governor recently forced us to begin observing make-believe time.

Why not split the difference? "Spring" forward and never "fall" back. Permanent DST. Everybody wins.
17 posted on 11/02/2008 10:51:30 AM PST by mysterio
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To: americanophile

Instead of arguing pro/con — why not just move the clocks 30 minutes and then quit messing with them?

Both sides win!


18 posted on 03/07/2015 11:54:37 AM PST by jaydee770
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