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Alternatives to Daylight Saving Time?
Wellington Grey writes "Daylight saving time almost upon us. The arguments about its possible benefits and drawbacks come up twice every year. Does it save energy or lives? Possibly, but it does definitely cause a great deal of inconvenience. My question is this: what do you think would be the best possible system to replace DST with? What is the best way for humans to deal with the inconsistent amount of light over the year and still foster coordination over disparate time zones?"
Actually, DST is coming to an end. The summer is when the hours are artificially moved ahead. The winter time is the actual "accurate" earth time.
Actually, we are in Daylight Savings Time right now. We are getting ready to go back to Standard Time.
You're a farmer, or construction worker, or anyone who does his business in daylight. During the months of short days, you are up and ready to work at sun up every day and need to work for 8 hours. In the summer, you can still get to the bank and do your business. But in the winter, without DST, you're stuck at work until 5:00pm and can't. DST isn't baseless. It caters to a small group of people that can't adjust their hours.
Whale
It's not just about setting the damn clocks, it's about messing up sleep schedules, having to re-adjust how you deal with international customers. My girlfriend lives in Japan, and for me it sucks to have to adjust twice a year.
That's on a state/local level though. Prohibition was federal. I'll admit that it's extremely difficult to get rid of something the government has adopted, but it isn't impossible.
My wife hates DST. She looked into how a state could "get off" of the train, so to speak.
And, DST is simply a federal standard that sets the days, and it's up to the states to either do it on the federally-mandated days, or not.
It's voluntary.
So, if any state votes to not change the clocks in March (now?), that's it, they don't change.
They aren't native to america - they just got here before the europeans did.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it the case in Indiana that before they switched entirely to DST, the decision of whether to operate on DST was decided by county? Thus during certain times of the year, what time it was would depend on which county you were in at the time? Whatever your opinion of DST, it's got to be better than that bullshit.
There used to be some counties in Indiana which bordered Ohio (and the part of Kentucky in the Eastern zone??) that were in the Eastern time zone, like the rest of indiana, but observed daylight saving time unlike the rest of Indiana. An example were the Indiana counties that contain Cincinnati suburbs. This isn't something that happened all around Indiana (and doesn't seem more confusing than states which straddle two time zones, which there are 10 or so of).
(There are still some counties in Indiana that border states in the Central time zone (Illinois, some of Kentucky) that observe Central time, including DST.)
"an itinerant basement dweller and in fact haven't seen the sun in years (if ever)."
Are you imagining a series of tubes that connect basements together that this guys moves between? I'm not sure how he can be an itinerant basement dweller without going outside otherwise.
Actually, while WWVB does send UTC time, it also sends a 'daylight saving time status' code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWVB#Modulation_Format
~ Aero
Ummm, WWVB has a "DST" bit. My WWVB-based clocks set DST correctly, even when Congress screws with it.
http://tf.nist.gov/stations/wwvbtimecode.htm
He's an Aussie. They nickname almost everything and have some killer slang that takes some getting used to.
I spent some time in Brissie, which is probably where he's from. The first week I was there, I said "what?" just as many times as I had with a Honduran that had a thick accent and less than stellar command of English.
After that first week, though, I had no problem understanding anyone in the area.
When I lived in Massachusetts, in the winter, it was dark when I got up and it was dark by the time I got home at night. Now that I live in Arizona I can't help but think; what the hell were those people thinking? I do not miss daylight savings time.
Um, in the winter it's Standard time, not DST.
DST kicks in the summer, pushing the clock such that sun rise is at 6 AM instead of 5 AM, and sets at 8 PM instead of 7 PM.
In the winter, during standard time, the clock is set such that the sun is pretty much over head at noon.
The latest change took effect in 2007, which was passed in the Energy Policy Act of 2005; wasn't the 109th still a Republican-controlled Congress? You can also thank the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association and the National Association of Convenience Stores, who lobbied for it with their "More Corporate Welfare Now!" Republican buddies on the hill (okay, they probably also lobbied the Dems).
Oh, and DST pisses me off, too.
You save only 59 seconds over 8 miles by going 75 instead of 65. Do you really have to pass that guy? Do the Math!
The new DST extension was ushered in by a Republican controlled congress and heavily supported by Bush. It was part of a bill that subsidized US Energy companies, especially Texas firms (read the Wiki section on which politicians from Texas liked that part of the bill).
At least you have a low UID. So you have that going for ya.
IANAL, but I play one on