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Is Daylight Saving Time Worth Saving?
Daniel_Stuckey writes "In politics, health, and academia, there are plenty of detractors that say daylight saving might not be worth saving. One vocal opponent is Missouri State Representative Delus Johnson, who wants to end the watch and clock switchery altogether. In short, he says we should spring forward this one last time, without ever falling back. He wants Missouri – and other states willing to join a pact – to permanently adopt daylight saving time and call it Standard Time. He's sure that it'll increase economic development in the later part of the year; giving people a little more daylight to do their Black Friday shopping. Matthew J. Kotchen and Laura E. Grant at the National Bureau of Economic Research have argued that DST has had adverse effects on energy spending. They calculate some extra $10-16 million spent by Indiana due to time changes. Their research concluded it's probably a much bigger loss in other states. A year ago, Motherboard's Kelly Bourdet reported on a health study that concluded DST might actually kill you. Chances of heart-attack were stated to increase by 10 percent on the days following the spring change, and to decrease by 10% after gaining the hour in the fall."
There's even a We The People petition about it.
It's nice to see a mention of one of my great state's reps that, for once, doesn't involve them doing/saying something unspeakably stupid...
Yea, I'm talking about you, Todd Akin and Rory Ellinger.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
UTC with NTP... that's the way to go. Goodbye local time forever!
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
Kill it dead, bury it in the textbooks of history and let daylight saving stand as a testament of the folly of man that he thought he might outwit mother nature. Incredible amounts of money and aggravation are wasted every year on this leftover from the age of agriculture.
In a modern world where clocks are set by the atom this archaic throwback to the days of the steam locomotive has gone from quaint to foolish expense. No one will miss it and society has long since moved on with these wonders we call light bulbs and headlights. We'll be okay, just like we are every other single night when the sun sets.
So, heart attacks go up by 10% in the wake of spring-forward, but fall by 10% in the wake of fall-back? The solution is clear, then -- we need to adopt an official 25-hour day.
The twice-yearly clock shift really is a silly, silly exercise. Not so silly as a uniform, one-size-fits-all, year-around schedule for work, school, and entertainment, but silly all the same.
My wife looked into this, from a legal standpoint.
Daylight savings is simply a federal standard for which days of the year participating states will change their times.
Read that again.
It's really a state-by-state issue, where any state can voluntarily not participate.
Talk to your state reps if you want to make a difference.
Don't steal. The government hates competition.
In January 1974, the U.S. went to DST early to conserve energy. It did mean we went to school in the dark. It also meant school kids had an excuse to play with flashlights (entirely unnecessary, but a good enough excuse and fun for the younger kids). It was a great novelty, and it was nice to have more sunlight after school when it was actually useful. Due to fear of kids getting hit by cars (in spite of the flashlights to make them visible), we went fell back again the next fall.
Wouldn't that just push the problem further by a few degrees?
Nothing is enough for whom enough is too little - Confucius
I've advocated making all even months 30 days and all odd months except November 31 days with November receiving the leap year day. Simplifies things completely and never leaves people guessing, except for if it's a leapyear or not.
If we're going to change the months, we should just have 13 months of 28 days each, a nice even 4 weeks per month. That has one leftover day per year (two on leap years), which would not be part of any month or week. We'll call those "nameless days" or something and would fall between saturday of the last week of the year, and sunday of the first week of the next year. Those days would be holidays and everyone can have a big new year's party.