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Lithuania Calls On EU To Stop Adjusting Clocks For Daylight Savings (theguardian.com)

AmiMoJo shares a report from The Guardian: Lithuania has said that it would push the European Union to abolish its law on daylight saving time, claiming that most people find it annoying to have to adjust their clocks twice a year. An opinion poll published this year showed that 79% of people in the nation of 2.8 million were against the annual ritual of adjusting clocks forward by one hour in the spring and then back an hour in the autumn. Proponents of daylight saving time, adopted at the beginning of the 20th century, say the longer evening daylight hours in the summer help save energy and bolster productivity. The European Commission said it was "currently examining the summertime question based on all available evidence."

10 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Eliminate Daylight Wasting Time by interkin3tic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    OR we could have everyone keep time on their phones and have the phones automatically change the time by a few seconds every day!

    This is probably my greatest idea ever.

  2. Re:Reaction from most slashdot readers by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot readers are pretty educated, if only because we know that's where Lithium batteries come from.

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    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  3. Re:Eliminate Daylight Wasting Time by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you work until 5pm, and it gets dark at 5:10pm, you've swepnt all your daylight inside. If it gets dark at 6:10pm, at least you have a bit of daylight.

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  4. Re:Eliminate Daylight Wasting Time by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So, what you're saying is that your employer doesn't realize that "4PM with daylight savings time" and "5PM with daylight savings time" are the exact same time?

    I don't think "because people are complete and utter morons" is a good reason to keep doing DST.

    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
  5. Clearly what we need is a compromise by lazlo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's my proposed compromise: Keep the "fall back", but get rid of the "spring forward". Sure, it might take some getting used to, but I'm sure we'd manage it sometime over the next 24 years or so.

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  6. Re:Eliminate Daylight Wasting Time by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ah, so the old "it doesn't matter if the official time moves around, everyone will just have different office hours during daylight savings time, all move in unison (as companies have to work together) change signs/automated messages/websites and have Google recrawl the web" answer that ignores that the way we coordinate changes like that is... by having customary start/end times for businesses and shifting the clocks until we like where we end up.

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  7. Re:Eliminate Daylight Wasting Time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    79% of europeans don't like adjusting their clocks twice a year. That's not the same as 79% of europeans want to stay on standard time year round. The article doesn't say if people prefer DST year round or Standard Time year round.

  8. Re:Eliminate Daylight Wasting Time by Imrik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about we get rid of the notion that people work 9-5 while we're at it. This would help reduce congestion on the roads and make it more likely that people will be able to take care of errands before or after work instead of having to use their lunch break.

  9. Re:Eliminate Daylight Wasting Time by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Funny

    OR we could have everyone keep time on their phones and have the phones automatically change the time by a few seconds every day!

    This is probably my greatest idea ever.

    Please don't tell us any of your other ideas.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  10. Re:Oh gezz - not AGAIN by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't remember that bug but I do remember management making us test everything extensively when DST was changed in the US to a different schedule. And they were right to make us test it too, but everything worked - except for the 3rd party software that was used for timeclocks which fortunately wasn't my problem.

    Somehow telling hourly workers in the fall that they would get repaid for that extra hour when we "sprung forward" in the spring wasn't acceptable. Imagine that.

    But when I think about all the time and effort that goes into implementing and testing DST schemes as well as time zones I can't help but imagine it is a huge drain on the world's economy (not to mention the health effects).

    Even when I lived in Arizona I wasn't immune to this nonsense. The mantra was that if people on the East Coast were at their desks by 8 AM (eastern time) I either had to be at the office by 6 AM or 5 AM depending on whether DST was in effect or not.

    You mean I have to get up an hour earlier because THEY changed THEIR clocks? Goddammit.

    TBH, I'm not even sure if DST is during the summer or the winter. Others have suggested it before and I know it sounds radical but I'd be in favor of everyone adopting UTC or Coordinated Universal Time as well as adopting 24 hour clocks. For me, sunrise would be at 14:27 today. I can live with that. Everyone in the whole world could at least agree on the time!

    The sun rising at 14:27 is no more strange a concept than the fact that Australia and other countries in the Southern Hemisphere are going to celebrate Christmas in the middle of summer.

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    A couple of years ago I was frustrated because I was doing a phone interview for a position in Central Time being handled by a recruiter in Eastern Time while I live in Mountain Time.

    It's like they had no concept of time zones.

    "Your interview is at 1 PM."

    "Okay, is that my time, your time or the interviewer's time?"

    He seemed annoyed that I asked. Shouldn't it have been obvious? I'm curious what time zone others would guess was right if faced with that.