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EU Backs Ending Daylight Saving Time (theguardian.com)

New submitter Zarhan writes: Earlier this summer, European Commission conducted a poll on whether EU citizens would like to abolish adjusting their clocks twice a year. The results are now in: 80% of the respondents want to get rid of the changes every spring and autumn. EU Commission is planning to follow through and abolish the practice. In EU, individual countries decide what timezone they belong in, but the clock adjustment is an EU-level decision. The recommendation for now is to stick to summer time year-round, although individual countries will make those decisions. More from DW. The changes are known to affect sleep patterns and causes loss in productivity and even heart attacks, especially when you lose one hour of sleep during the spring change. "I will recommend to the commission that, if you ask the citizens, then you have to do what the citizens say," said Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission's president. "We will decide on this today, and then it will be the turn of the member states and the European parliament."

260 comments

  1. well now ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "I will recommend to the commission that, if you ask the citizens, then you have to do what the citizens say," said Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission's president.

    Well now, don't be hasty; this is the EU ... that "do what the citizens say" stuff sounds dangerously like democracy or something.

    1. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No need to be concerned, look at the conditional. "If you ask the citizens," this just means that they will not to ask the citizens about anything that isn't trivial.

    2. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      No worries. The poll they use as argument was an online poll buried in some EU website. Not like it was a legitimate referendum. Just one of those "how can we legitimize what we're going to do anyway" things.

      Basically the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in real life.

    3. Re:well now ... by Evtim · · Score: 1, Troll

      He really said that? Wow!

      This guy is universally despised, cause after Brexit he said that referenda should never be held because people can't take the right decisions! He truly is the poster boy for undemocratic euro autocrat.

    4. Re:well now ... by houghi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Almost like that sleazy socialist idea of helping others, instead of taking what you want. One guy tried to make that popular. Long bearded hippy. I believe he is a South American. People wear his t-shirts, unknowing how many people died because of him.

      Called Jesus, or something else Mexican.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    5. Re:well now ... by N1AK · · Score: 0

      Would you care to reference when he said that? Regardless, I'd suggest being more aware of your own bias because he certainly isn't universally despised and believing that is a pretty good sign that you need to get out of your own echo chamber for some perspective.

    6. Re:well now ... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 0

      I'll happily go the Happy Hippie Jesus was a socialist route, if you agree that the highest tax is 10% (the Tithe), which only paid for widows and orphans and Levites (Priestly class) who couldn't own property. Deal?

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    7. Re:well now ... by Dorianny · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The EU commissioners are chosen by the elected governments of each State just like U.S Senators were before the 13th amendment. Any proposed law has to be approved by the EU parliament which is directly elected. The big problem with the EU is that politicians have found it very easy to blame their failures on the "faceless EU technocrats" instead of owning up to them. Italian politicians even blamed the EU for the recent bridge collapse in Genoa

    8. Re: well now ... by Evtim · · Score: 1

      Thanks, I did not know that. Figures.

      Using the opportunity to reply to others. It was quite a scandal when he said it. Even moderate autocrats among my peers from both sides of the political axis thought he went too far...

    9. Re:well now ... by lgw · · Score: 0

      Meh, also give unto Caesar his taxes, but they were also low. 10% for government "charity" programs, and 10% to run the actual government - roads and military and whatnot, and you have a perfectly viable system IMO. Everyone has to pay, though.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    10. Re:well now ... by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think you are confusing Socialism with Communism.

      It is an easy mistake to make, because most people are ignorant idiots.
      Socialism is in free market economies with democracy. However there are more regulations and wider government funding for public good initiatives.
      While Communism is the government having direct control of everyone's lives.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    11. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's funny. I live in a "socialist" country and things aren't that bad. I laugh at "consumerism" (or whatever) countries.

    12. Re:well now ... by Excelcia · · Score: 1

      Hey, whatever works. I just wish we could get, essentially, a permanent daylight savings time in North America too.

      I will say, though, that reports that losing an hour of sleep causes heart attacks strains credibility. Anyone who is that fragile who doesn't go to bed an hour earlier is just demonstrating Darwinism anyway.

    13. Re:well now ... by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 3, Funny

      Stop using facts!

    14. Re: well now ... by bestweasel · · Score: 2

      By the same token, Churchill was almost always drunk and he did OK.

    15. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well now, don't be hasty; this is the EU ... that "do what the citizens say" stuff sounds dangerously like democracy or something.

      We don't want any of that around. Why it could easily spread to Russia and Turkey or even the USA.

    16. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2 Corinthians 8:12

      For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have.

      Acts 11:29

      The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea.

    17. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not exactly a ringing endorsement

    18. Re:well now ... by dremon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      > While Communism is the government having direct control of everyone's lives.

      Where did you get that? Communism by definition is the lack of supreme authority and state. The fact that some states where thought of being 'communistic' doesn't make them so, it's oxymoron to be a 'communistic state', it's like a 'humanistic nazism'.

    19. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beards are in - what more is there to be said ?

    20. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As long as we can fire 45% of the american armed forces, arm the rest with a leather skirt and gladius, and pay them with salt, sure.

    21. Re:well now ... by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      I'll happily go the Happy Hippie Jesus was a socialist route, if you agree that the highest tax is 10% (the Tithe), which only paid for widows and orphans and Levites (Priestly class) who couldn't own property. Deal?

      And leaving parts of your field unharvested so that the poor can take it for food. And giving interest-free loans to the poor, even though you have to forgive the loan after at most 7 years.

    22. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Socialism by definition is at best a community market, not a free market. Here are just a couple of definitions for you:

      -any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

      -a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

    23. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too many people confuse democracy/dictatorship with capitalism/socialism/communism.

      One is a political system...the other is an economic system.

      You can have a capitalistic dictatorship just as you can have a communist democracy.

    24. Re:well now ... by Sique · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Permanent Daylight savings time is nothing else than moving your time zones by one, or renaming 12 o'clock into 1 o'clock. In the end, it's the same with another name. Why not just get up one hour early? That's exactly what "permanent Daylight savings time" means.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    25. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The difference between a professional drunk and an amateur one....hehehehe

    26. Re:well now ... by balbeir · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I live in a "socialist" country and things aren't that bad.

      The problem with socialism is that at some point, the government will run out of other people's money to spend.

      When you run out of good arguments, there is always Thatcher to quote...

    27. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For some bizarre reason, helping people by cutting immigration always gets shouted down with accusations of "racism". It's bizarre and not something Jesus would have approved of.

      Now his cousin Rodriguez, that's a different story.

    28. Re:well now ... by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      The EU commissioners are chosen by the elected governments of each State just like U.S Senators were before the 13th amendment.

      That's the Seventeenth Amendment. The Thirteenth abolished slavery.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    29. Re:well now ... by Excelcia · · Score: 2

      Because you're not going to be able to mandate shifting the schedule of every person on the continent. Because even if you could legislate that, doing so would have a cost in the millions or billions.

      Most people love having the extra daylight at the end of the work day rather than the beginning, even in the winter. So, assuming you have the goal of shifting an hour, what's easier, shift to daylight savings time one summer and never switch back, or redo, reprint, and sort out the logistical nightmare of switching every schedule on the continent by an hour?

    30. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      he big problem with the EU is that politicians have found it very easy to blame their failures on the "faceless EU technocrats" instead of owning up to them.

      I know people who work as what most would call "faceless EU technocrats" and IMO they constantly experience that no good deed goes unpunished. They work hard and consistently deliver the goods to EU taxpayers. Law proposals and implementations that should have the same effect and function the same way in all member state despite a myriad of archaic member state -specific laws. The EU has (in no small part thanks to them!) implemented rules and regulations which do so much for ordinary citizens in terms of consumer rights and workers' rights. Or as a tangible recent example removal of roaming charges (not easy for the technocrats since operators try to find and exploit every loophole there is and laws regulating mobile phone operators are wildly different in each member state).

      I definitely admit that I'm a fan of the EU simply because I've become one through observation. I see that it delivers what it should and I favour more integration even though I'm from a member state which - being rich - ends up paying to assist poorer member states come up to speed.

    31. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, better leave the decision to big companies, american style.

    32. Re:well now ... by MisterSquid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why not just get up one hour early? That's exactly what "permanent Daylight savings time" means.

      That is not what permanent Daylight Saving Time means.

      For one, Daylight Saving Time (not SavingS) is when clocks move one hour forward, not backward, which means getting up one hour early is in the wrong direction. Daylight Saving Time has people waking up one hour later.

      Second, and more importantly, Daylight Saving Time is when an entire geographic region coordinates its entire sociopolitical, economic, and manufacturing infrastructure (and their interdependencies) to shift production to be one hour later for a period of about 8 months. When Daylight Saving Time ends, all that infrastructure is then shifts its production to one hour earlier.

      Saying "set your individual clock to be one hour later is the same as Daylight Saving Time" is like saying you can catch a plane earlier by simply moving your watch to be one hour later. Do that and you're going to miss your plane.

      If you go in the other direction, you're going to end up wasting an hour at every single appointment you make, which I suppose is better than missing your plane..

      In any case changing your personal clock ain't Daylight Saving Time. Daylight Saving Time is delaying an entire geographical area's political, social, and economic productivity by one hour.

      --
      blog
    33. Re:well now ... by MisterSquid · · Score: 1

      I made an error in my second sentence (I blame GP for mistaking which direction DST runs), though the sense is correct. That sentence should read:

      For one, Daylight Saving Time (not SavingS) is when clocks move one hour backward, not forward, which means getting up one hour early is in the wrong direction.

      For what it's worth, I think the twice annual shift back and forth for DST should be stopped in favor of keeping DST year round.

      --
      blog
    34. Re:well now ... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Last time I checked, the EU was a democracy.
      Do you have other facts?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    35. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with socialism is that at some point, the government will run out of other people's money to spend.

      The problem with capitalism is that at some point, people will run out of their own money to spend. That literally is why we have banks (supported by governments) and private lending. So, a system based upon capitalism is as zero sum as you suggest socialism will be with such a simplified view of the money supply.

      Meanwhile, if you want to see a system without heavy banking regulation to regulate the monetary supply (and hence inflation) you should really look up the late 1800s in the US (and other places) which was a sheer clusterfuck of boom/bust cycles and severe inflation/deflation periods. Consider that cowboys of the west were actually outlaws regularly mass stealing cattle/horses and have been inflated to hero status in westerns vs their real life infamy. That's the actual reality of a world with true capitalism.

    36. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish I could live in that prosperous socialist country that has a lot of oil and the name of the country ends with uela.

    37. Re:well now ... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      It was not a referendum.
      It was a poll on a web site.

      He truly is the poster boy for undemocratic euro autocrat.
      Junker got voted into office, what is undemocratic in that?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    38. Re:well now ... by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      Socialism is in free market economies with democracy. However there are more regulations and wider government funding for public good initiatives.

      Listening to the US media this is what I began to think too, but that is not what the word means. Socialism specifically refers to some form of social ownership of the "means of production" and various authors over the last 2 centuries have argued if it should be municipal, or shared by the workers, or various other solutions.

      Just this morning I heard a woman called-in to a radio show clarify that the media uses the term Socialism incorrectly, that Socialism means government control of the means of production. I thought she was wrong, and for the zillionth time I looked this up on Wikipedia and it seems she was correct.

      But most importantly: Being ignorant on this does not mean you are an idiot. This is actually quite complex and the terms are used inconsistently in the public space.

    39. Re:well now ... by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Without authority, who decides what's getting done ?

    40. Re:well now ... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Socialism is in free market economies with democracy.
      Not necessarily. You seem to mix up "Social Democracies" with Socialism :D
      Most Socialist countries in the eastern block had no free markets but central controlled economies with small free markets attached, e.g. being allowed to bake bread and sell it on their own account. Or buy a calf, raise it and butcher it.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    41. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Socialism is in free market economies with democracy. However there are more regulations and wider government funding for public good initiatives.

      That's the popular American definition. It is not the definition according to Wikipedia, and most European countries that Americans call socialist do not call them selves so.

    42. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      you still sound confused and wrong. Let me help:

      DST was invented to have people get up *earlier* during the summer so that they could work *longer hours* during the day. Your corrected sentence says that "[DST] is when clocks move one hour backward"... umm....

      DST is the *summer* time, not the *winter* time. The way to remember the clock movements is easy: "spring forward" and "fall back". I'm guessing you got that part right, but at some point confused yourself into twisting DST from being *summer* to being *winter*.

      Anyone who has to deal with timestamps is all too familiar with all of this nonsense and doing away with it is the best thing. But for some silly reason, everyone wants to "eliminate it" by eliminating *standard* time. For example, Florida is set to rule DST year round. The smart thing to do would be to just put themselves on Atlantic time, but that would be like acknowledging how stupid the proposal is. Similarly, this EU story is about making DST permanent. Sigh.

      ah, how appropriate for confusing DST or wanting DST to replace standard time... captcha is 'deluded'. Or maybe that's just me thinking that anyone cares :)

    43. Re:well now ... by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      He really said that? Wow!

      This guy is universally despised, cause after Brexit he said that referenda should never be held because people can't take the right decisions! He truly is the poster boy for undemocratic euro autocrat.

      It was a stupid question, if a refendum was to be held, it should have a clear agenda and not a non-binding vague end statement that can only result in the majority not getting what they voted for (left and right wingers voted to leave the EU for different reasons, only one of the sides will get the exit they want)

    44. Re:well now ... by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      The EU commissioners are chosen by the elected governments of each State just like U.S Senators were before the 13th amendment. Any proposed law has to be approved by the EU parliament which is directly elected. The big problem with the EU is that politicians have found it very easy to blame their failures on the "faceless EU technocrats" instead of owning up to them. Italian politicians even blamed the EU for the recent bridge collapse in Genoa

      Well exactly like US senators, the majority from each country appoints one.

    45. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whatever, for some crazy reason Florida wants to permanently switch to DST, so weâ(TM)ll be an hour ahead of yâ(TM)all.

    46. Re:well now ... by jittles · · Score: 3, Informative

      Permanent Daylight savings time is nothing else than moving your time zones by one, or renaming 12 o'clock into 1 o'clock. In the end, it's the same with another name. Why not just get up one hour early? That's exactly what "permanent Daylight savings time" means.

      Because I have core hours that I have to be in the office for. So getting up an hour early does not mean I get to go home an hour earlier. It just means I have an extra hour at home before I go to the office. Not the same thing at all when businesses may not be open during that extra hour.

    47. Re:well now ... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Socialism is government control of the means of production. Those are the facts. Anyone tells you socialism is anything else, she's lying.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    48. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You missed the bit about it not suddenly changing twice a year... that was kinda the whole point.

    49. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Similarly, this EU story is about making DST permanent. Sigh.

      And who made december the 12th month? The year should start at the equinox!

      It doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter whether 0:00 is midnight or not. I prefer sunlight after work, so DST makes more sense.

    50. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell that to the european socialist party (+180 seats in the parliament). Socialist is usually the shorthand for progressive, in contrast with the conservative parties.

      So you're basically clueless.

    51. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not like amazing USA where democracy reigns supreme and goverment represents everyone not just those who voted for the orange twit. Oh wait.

    52. Re:well now ... by Tyler+Durden · · Score: 1

      Why not leave 12 o'clock remain its intended 12 o'clock (lining up roughly to the middle of the day) and adjust business hours so that they are reasonable within that framework if need be? Permanent daylight savings time is like saying, "We screwed up the times when everything should be open, and so we're going to adjust the basis of time-keeping from something simple and straightforward to needlessly complicated because we're fuck-ups."

      --
      Happy people make bad consumers.
    53. Re:well now ... by Sique · · Score: 1

      I didn't. I just don't see any sense in renaming the hours to create the illusion of being able to sleep one hour longer in the morning. Because permanent Daylight savings time is nothing else. Just because I call it 7 o'clock and not 6 o'clock, I still have to get up six hours before Noon.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    54. Re:well now ... by MisterSquid · · Score: 1

      Well that's embarrassing. Thank you for the correction. Definitely was confusing DST with setting clock back.

      My main point—which lives alongside your comments about the futility of adopting DST year round—is that any shifting of the clock backward or forward is not about individuals waking up earlier or later but about larger geopolitical financial systems synchronizing production.

      Florida adopting DST or moving to Atlantic Time is, to my mind, six of one half dozen of the other. Having more daylight at the end of the work day seems to be the objective of DST and I don't have an opinion regarding what legislative mechanism is used to achieve it. Though, it does seem counterintuitive to "standardize" time by choosing something that is not standard time.

      --
      blog
    55. Re:well now ... by Pentium100 · · Score: 2

      Yep, it certainly is easier to redo the business hours for every company in the country, replace the door signs, etc. Also, if the business hours are written into contracts, then the contracts need changing etc.

      Or, we can just say that now we are at GMT+3 instead of GMT+2...

    56. Re:well now ... by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 1

      You can obviously only think in binary terms, so I'll forgive your inference that 'control' can only be 100%. What's your actual point though, besides stating the obvious?

      Let me start you off -

      socialism != communism.

      Now discuss

    57. Re:well now ... by Interfacer · · Score: 2

      There is a difference between asking the population for non binding input on a specific issue, and a binding referendum on something that is essentially a large constitutional change without even saying in advance what exactly you are voting for.

      The problem with the brexit referendum was that they only required a simple majority while a normal constitutional change would require a 2/3. And there was no definition of what the desired output was. It was essentially a vote to exit the EU without any plan, and without any agreement on which conditions to negotiate for. It was a victory for populism and a loss for informed democracy.

    58. Re:well now ... by Interfacer · · Score: 1

      As opposed to say the US, which is basically spending China's money?
      China has been buying enormous amounts of US bonds. By spending money they don't have, the US has neatly placed their testicles in China's hands.

    59. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Socialism has meant different things to different people at different times. The most relevant kind of socialism in the western developed countries today is "social democratic", which essentially means a strong social safety net in a democratic/capitalist system. The Soviet Union defined its central planning and no private property as "socialism". Communism was the Marxist ideal that never happened, where the revolution would be worldwide and governments would vanish into irrelevance. The western world didn't make this distinction and called the Soviet Union "communist", because they were looking at the ultimate goal of world domination and didn't think the communists would stop at a limited socialist state. European attitues to socialism were shaped by other factors including the British Fabians, the Spanish anarcho-syndicatists, etc. In the US none of these ideas took hold, neither the Soviet limited socialism nor the European liberalism (for want of a better name), and socialism referred to full-on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and later to the social-democratic situation in Europe and Canada.

    60. Re:well now ... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      Yes, that was voluntary, not mandated by Government (Rome/Israel)

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    61. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because people are used to working "9 to 5" (or 8 to 5 as it's often realized) and are resistant to changing this. They're also used to shops and restaurants being open "10 to 6".

    62. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This problem doesn't seem to be limited to socialist countries.

    63. Re:well now ... by pjt33 · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure how many people will get the Brexit they want, but certainly none of the options currently being mooted are what was promised in the referendum campaign.

    64. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where did you get that? Communism by definition is the lack of supreme authority and state.

      He got that from Karl Marx.

      This was the discussion in 1872, when Marx and the statist communists threw Bakunin and the anarcho-communists out of The First International.

      Since Marxism is the main current in communism (the largest part of the general public doesn't even know that non-Marxist communism exists), a majority of communists was and is in favor of the state for over 120 years.

    65. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Without authority, who decides what's getting done ?

      First maxim of anarchism (including anarcho-communism): "Those who do, decide what's getting done".

    66. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Socialism is in free market economies with democracy. However there are more regulations and wider government funding for public good initiatives.
      While Communism is the government having direct control of everyone's lives.

      As power tends to accumulate more power, my takeaway is that socialism is basically the mid-step towards communism.

    67. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Permanent Daylight savings time is nothing else than moving your time zones by one, or renaming 12 o'clock into 1 o'clock.

      In fact in Western Europe (Belgium, France, Netherlands), it would be two or even three (Spain) time zones since we use Central European Time in stead of Greenwich Mean Time (while we are closer to the Greenwich meridian). So during DST, the sun is at its highest point around 2PM (or even 3PM in Spain).

      In the end, it's the same with another name. Why not just get up one hour early?

      Agreed, permanent DST is a bad idea.

    68. Re: well now ... by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      Who? It was some Roman guy... Julius, or Gregory, probably.

    69. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks. A voice of reason in an ocean of idiocy.

    70. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. Out of the 4.6 million respondents, 3.1 million were German. Other countries did not even find the online poll at all, and it's likely even the group of germans is a very biased selection. I'm Dutch, and only 27000 people from our country found the online poll.

    71. Re: well now ... by J.+T.+MacLeod · · Score: 1

      Mandating Daylight Savings Time ISN'T legislating people's schedules?

      Why can't people have autonomy in this regard?

    72. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Easy, just do what Arizona does.

    73. Re:well now ... by hai_Priesty · · Score: 1

      >The fact that some states where thought of being 'communistic' doesn't make them so, it's oxymoron to be a 'communistic state'

      Stalin, Mao, Kim family. Almost every single state that practiced (or claim to practice) full Communism instead degenerated into full fledged dictatorship within 2 decades.

      While what you quoted is by definition correct, and Communist state an oxymoron, it seems that a significant minority of the population (too many still) fall into logical fallacy and deduced that since true Communism have never been practiced it had never failed. And a small minority wanted to try it "one more time".

      I think the other question more people should ask is "Why then, in every single instance when idealist tried to practice Communism, it quickly morphed into something that bears no similarity to the vision the implemented had when they started?" And take this into account when people judge merits of Communism. And weight the possibility of true Communism being as achievable as Utopia where everything works, where everyone will also behaves like honest, selfless angels to ensure everything works.

    74. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it happened abruptly then why are talking about now instead of when this abrupt statistic appeared. ???????

    75. Re:well now ... by SigmundFloyd · · Score: 1

      Italian politicians even blamed the EU for the recent bridge collapse in Genoa

      False. Are you paid to help the French prez spread bullshit or are you trolling for free?

      --
      Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
    76. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Daylight Saving Time (not SavingS)

      Both forms are used. Neither is incorrect.

      But please just call it Summer Time like Europe does.

    77. Re:well now ... by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      you'll find that most anti-EU people have no concept of what democracy is

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    78. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It does NOT sound like democracy at all. Democracy is when *all* the cititzins are invited to officially cast their vote on a legally binding statute, if voted for, without anyone interferring with the decision afterwards. What the EU is trying to do here is give itself a democracy-like "look", however fails at it with Mr Junker playing the self-declared benefactor on behalf of 500 million people. Who btw did not vote for him in any shape or form. Mr Junker of all people! This is the guy who went on record to say "most people don't realize what's going on, we take decisions as we see fit, and if there's not too much of an outcry we just continue" (paraphrased). The whole thing is so utterly ridiculous it begs some sort of Monthy Python mockery, say a variant on the Spanish Inquisition fits nicely.

    79. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No the EU parliament is not there to approve anything, just to provide feedback. All decision making starts and ends with the EU commission and in some cases with the EU counsel. The EU parliament's only purpose is to make the EU look like a democracy, very much like any other dictatorian regime.

    80. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I found it enlightening how a speaker clarified when the poll opened: This poll's result isn't binding, it's not advisory, it's just a poll (not in these words).

      The results are skewed, of course. As with all ratings, people with an ax to grind will participate, and participate loudly. 80% of participants came from Germany.

      The poll also asked for personal details (without a hint of a data protection notice in sight) before presenting its questions. Eventually you got to choose not between "regular time" and DST but between "winter time" and "summer time". I see what you did there, dear EU.

      When Juncker now presses ahead, the best interpretation is that he got what he wanted. The other interpretation is that the real action is elsewhere...

    81. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny, at the moment we're actually running out of money because it seems to concentrate in the hands of a few people who are officially not the government.

    82. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Daylight Saving Time has people waking up one hour later.

      Errm, what? So why do I have problems in March and none in autumn when change day comes?

      Maybe you tried to say that if I wake up at the same time on my biological clock, come DST, I'm suddenly an hour late.

    83. Re:well now ... by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      ...It is an easy mistake to make, because most people are ignorant idiots...

      Yes, and you're seemingly one of them. Socialism has never meant what you think it means. Socialism has nothing to do with a free market or economy, other than to destroy it (and that is what happens when they run out of other people's money). In this country it's becoming really crazy. It's equal outcomes. That is what socialism that has roots in Marxism (which wasn't his to begin with either) is. It's protecting a group that they see as the most repressed even if they are far right as in the case of muslims that would kill them in an instant if they could. Isn't that nuts? Socialists here want to protect Muslims even though they are clearly opposite of what they want! It's the so called robin hood only it's not the real story where robin hood stole from the government, they want to steal from "rich" people. Like I said - equal outcomes so an idiot and I mean a guy that fits the IQ definition of an idiot has the same outcome in life as a guy like Jobs, Gates or Buffett. People that bet everything and make it big. They can also crash and burn hard. I've seen it happen. So why do we want to limit a guy like Jobs to a life of a guy that can barely tie his own shoes? A guy like me that studied for years, dug and scrapped for everything I own and someone that does nothing gets the same thing? Many times I took risks that would have meant the end of my life if it didn't turn out right. This isn't right, this is oppression. They fool stupid people into thinking they're better than they are. No, they're stupid. Life is hard, harder if you're stupid.

      Socialists fire up people, create division, convince them that facts aren't facts even if they are presented with facts they don't believe them. Such as the economy is doing great. Black people are at a 50 year high in employment, wages, etc. All kinds of great news and they don't know it and won't believe it because the socialists have lied to them for so long. In the schools, Universities, News. By the way, when it does come crashing down they know who were the people protesting for them and such. They'll be the first ones killed because when they realize how they've been lied to, they'll come after them with everything they have because they'll realize how they've been duped and nobody likes to be fooled like that. So all you guys in black, breaking things with hammers or beating people up, they know who you are and you know they know who you are They'll come for you and put a bullet in your head. Don't think you can get away either. History shows us that is nearly impossible to do.

      Ok, now you know.

    84. Re:well now ... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Junker got voted into office, what is undemocratic in that?

      Though this will, no doubt, Godwin the thread, so did Hitler....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    85. Re: well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3.1 million were German.

      That would be 3,5 - 4% of the German population. No way in hell that's even close to realistic.

    86. Re:well now ... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      No, Hitler was not voted into his position.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    87. Re:well now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wasn't DST invented prior to street light infrastructure? Unless you're in the middle of nowhere, there's light at night, it's just not from the sun.

    88. Re:well now ... by dave420 · · Score: 1

      He said that having referendums on topics no single person can understand due to the complexity (such as the relationship between the UK and EU, the hundreds of internationl agreements the UK is part of due to its membership with the EU, the standards bodies used by both, etc. etc. etc. etc.) is a bad thing, and he seems to be correct.

    89. Re:well now ... by sabri · · Score: 1

      I'd argue that this is the BEST argument against socialism. It's nothing more than the government taking my honest earned money under the threat of a gun and using it to spend it on money who did not earn the same amount.

      --
      I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  2. Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just pick one and stay with it. This endless debate is wasting too much time --- time which could be far better spent trying to understand why we park cars on driveways.

    1. Re: Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by datavirtue · · Score: 1

      We have UTC. Who gives a fuck what anyone wants. When it matters we always use a standard base time. If your dumb ass wants to complicate everything to shift a single meaningless perception feel free to handle your own arbitrary translation. Good luck.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
  3. It's about time... by SqueakyMouse · · Score: 1

    Or it will be about time in an hour if we abandon summer time and wait the extra hour til it reaches the current time properly.

  4. Kick it while it's down! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I lived most of my life without DST. I was able to tell the time by the shadows things made, summer or winter! But with DST, I'm always off, and for some reason not by just an hour. Not to mention other problems like sunlight until 10PM. DST is stupid.

    1. Re:Kick it while it's down! by nitehawk214 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is if you live north of 35 degrees, like most of Europe, it doesn't matter if there is DST or not, there is simply too many hours of daytime in the summer and not enough in the winter.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    2. Re:Kick it while it's down! by mrbester · · Score: 1

      > "The recommendation for now is to stick to summer time year-round"

      Yeah, that guarantees that winter mornings will be darker at 7 a.m. than before. I can't wait for the complaints to flood in about that.

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    3. Re:Kick it while it's down! by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Ironically it's usually people south of the 35deg line who complain the most about DST...

  5. Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As an EU citizen I commented on this and argued for abolishing the DST and keep standard time.

    Staying in permanent "summer time" just means you are in another timezone than you claim. So that is plain stupid. Now you don't only have to know which time zone a country is in, you also have to know if they decided to be in permanent summer time or use the normal time associated with the time zone.

    So, ditch the DST and let the countries decide what time zone they want to be in. NO SUMMER TIME ALLOWED! The effect is the same but it will be a heck lot easier for travelers or people communicating across time zones.

    1. Re: Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not for you to decide. Know your place, citizen. The European Commission knows best.

    2. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >So, ditch the DST and let the countries decide what time zone they want to be in.
      >NO SUMMER TIME ALLOWED!
      Okay so they chose to be in a time zone one hour different if they want "summer" time.

    3. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody wants to lose their summertime...

    4. Re: Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by houghi · · Score: 1

      Or just change the timezone while you ar at it.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    5. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Squeak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Being permanently on summer time means, of course, that Greenwich will never be on Greenwich Mean Time. Something sounds a little wrong with that to me.

      --
      This sig is a figment of your imagination.
    6. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Athanasius · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I used to be stridently against any form of DST. Then I realised that one thing that being +1 achieves is to move the middle of business hours closer to local solar noon. 09h->17h is offset exactly one hour, add in DST and local 09h is now solar 08h, likewise 17h -> 16h, and you have properly distributed the available daylight either side of the middle of the business hours. Obviously business hours aren't as fixed as this, in the UK often being 09:00->17:30 or even until 18:00, so it's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.

      And doing this with permanent DST is easier than trying to get all schools and businesses to actually shift their hours around.

      And that's why, when I filled in the EU questionnaire, I expressed a preference for what has turned out to be the majority opinion.

      For those parts (latitude bands) of the world where DST can possibly make a difference to the amount of daylight at either end of the day there's too little of it in the depths of Winter anyway! Further north than that has too little and this is a change for no good reason, and further south there's no need as they maintain enough daylight hours even in Winter.

    7. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      I don't know any country where noon is truly the middle of your day. If you wake up at 7am and go to sleep at 11pm the middle of the day is 3pm. Most people are already living "in a different timezone".

    8. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Greenwich is on England. Ever heard about Brexit? :)

    9. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Staying in permanent "summer time" just means you are in another timezone than you claim. So that is plain stupid. Now you don't only have to know which time zone a country is in, you also have to know if they decided to be in permanent summer time or use the normal time associated with the time zone.

      Don't be stupid. They have names for timezones that basically eliminate all of your complaints. If you're judging this on anything other than how complicated it is to change the clock or what time the sun rises and sets then you're waaaaay overthinking it.

    10. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by fisted · · Score: 2

      This is an EU thing, not a GB thing. Greenwich won't be affected.

    11. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Staying in permanent "summer time" just means you are in another timezone than you claim.

      Yes and no. As an example, during the summer the eastern seaboard of the USA is in the EDT timezone. During winter we are in the EST timezone. So technically we are in a different time zone. But very few people understand that and just call it EST year round. So in that regard, you are correct.

    12. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by LQ · · Score: 1

      This is an EU thing, not a GB thing. Greenwich won't be affected.

      Except that Northern Ireland is on GB time GMT/BST and presumably the Republic of Ireland would be stuck on BST.

    13. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by admin7087 · · Score: 1
      Well, I live in Portugal where permanent wintertime would be pretty bad, both for residents and for tourism. People go to bed late and wake up late, work starts at 9 AM, for some people even at 10 AM, and get back home late. One hour more daylight after work in the evening is important for many people here. Switching to permanent DST is generally the right thing for southern countries. (Of course, there are also people whose mileage differs, but I'm talking about the majority.)

      Staying in permanent "summer time" just means you are in another timezone than you claim. So that is plain stupid. Now you don't only have to know which time zone a country is in, you also have to know if they decided to be in permanent summer time or use the normal time associated with the time zone.

      As you've stated, permanent DST just means that you're in another time zone. Your rant makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

    14. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      So, ditch the DST and let the countries decide what time zone they want to be in.

      So, this seems to say that if Germany wants to use HST, it would be okay with you?

      Germany using the same timezone as Hawaii seems wrong, somehow....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    15. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      I agree. I'm a Brit and although I suspect my opinion will be in the minority, I'd be happy to ditch DST - for GMT all year round. I prefer lighter mornings to wake up to than lighter evenings (evenings are dark, who gives a shit really). GMT+1 in winter will basically mean waking up in the dark which is depressing.

    16. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Targon · · Score: 1

      If everyone gets rid of the time change, then you just figure out which time zone people are in, the same way it is now. I just wish we would get rid of that stupid idea here in the USA as well, because no one actually wants to change the clocks EVER. It just throws everyone off.

    17. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Mal-2 · · Score: 2

      In the U.S. we deal with this all day, every day, across three time zones. There are a fair number of people crossing the border between Eastern and Central time to go to or from work every day, which would be directly analogous to the Irish situation, but we have the effect magnified and things still more or less function. A one hour offset between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would be a nuisance but not a major problem in the grand scheme of things, and shouldn't be a high priority in the decision-making process.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    18. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by hackertourist · · Score: 1

      I like having permanent summer time. Around here, that means the sun is at its highest around 14:00, giving a very nice skew of daylight away from the very early morning (when I'm asleep) and towards the evening (where it's useful).

    19. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Greenwich will never be on Greenwich Mean Time

      How does this affect UTC, the true "mean" time?

    20. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by IcyWolfy · · Score: 1

      > Staying in permanent "summer time" just means you are in another timezone than you claim. So that is plain stupid. Now you don't only have to know which time zone a country is in, you also have to know if they decided to be in permanent summer time or use the normal time associated with the time zone
      Using the term "to remain in summer time" is easier for normal people to understand than "to recommend each country set their timezone to the offset used in Summer Time."

      > So, ditch the DST and let the countries decide what time zone they want to be in. NO SUMMER TIME ALLOWED! The effect is the same but it will be a heck lot easier for travelers or people communicating across time zones.
      This is what they are proposing.

    21. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoa, whoa! If we ditch summer time, we will lose an hour of daylight, says Jessica Levinson, a Loyola law professor.

      https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/10/california-debates-daylight-saving-time-again/?preview_id=4450938

    22. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Then you failed.

      The most important country you should have guessed is: UK. GMT is defined by noon being at Greenwich. And from there we derive UTC and from there we derive the times for the rest of the world.

      Ah, now I grasp it, "middle of the day", that is of course not the case. But middle of the daylight period, that is.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    23. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That means you are near the edge of one of the politically misaligned time zones? A sensible time zone has solar noon at noon in the center and either edge is at most 30 minutes off. If you were more than 30 minutes off, you should be in the next time zone over.

      Another confusing thing is if you have asymmetric terrain. Having high mountains to one side can raise the effective horizon and create a shadow that seems to shift the time of dawn or dusk on that side.

    24. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      The poll/vote actually is: abolish DST.
      Shift the timezone(s) to summer time.

      80% are in favour of that.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    25. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      The US is too big for just one timezone. Ireland is not. Surely, it's possible to make things work across timezones, but it's much easier if you don't have to.

    26. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Staying in permanent "summer time" just means you are in another timezone than you claim.

      Did you just type without thinking or do your logic abilities just suck? Why would a country with a single time zone "claim" that they're in another time zone than the one that they're using? If a country gets rid of the twice a year time switch they now just have one time zone regardless of which of the two previous ones they decide to stick with.

      > Now you don't only have to know which time zone a country is in, you also have to know if they decided to be in permanent summer time or use the normal time associated with the time zone.

      Again more bad logic. A country that that chooses permanent summer time and a country that chooses permanent standard time would both be "normal time associated with the time zone". The only difference would be which time zone it's pictured to be in on the time zone map.

      Take a look at a time zone map, because it sounds like you never have. The lines are all over the place.

      > So, ditch the DST and let the countries decide what time zone they want to be in. NO SUMMER TIME ALLOWED!

      Nice contradiction there. "Let them decide as long it's not the time zone I don't like."

      Or are you assuming that the standard time time zone are the ones that the countries have decided to use and DST is switching to the time zone they don't want?

      Many people prefer summer time and feel that the switch to standard time is what's being forced on them. To them, summer time is the chosen time zone since it's the one active for most of the year.

    27. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by admin7087 · · Score: 1

      I participated in the poll. The problem with it is that they first asked whether you want to abolish time switching or keep it. Afterwards they asked separately whether you would like to have summer time or winter time if you're against switching. At least that's the poll I've got in early August, maybe they changed it later. That's why they now have the silly, although almost certainly intended result to abolish switching. Which time zone is chosen, however, is left to each country, and it's very likely that many countries will go the 'easy route' to have permanent winter time. For countries in the south this can be fairly bad, though, and these countries now might even ignore the popular majority because they have to synchronize with neighboring countries.

      The poll should have asked for 3 options and nothing else: 1 - keep switching between DST and winter time, 2 - permanent winter time, 3 - permanent summer time.

      These are the actual choices in that matter. They didn't ask that way because then the result would have been pretty undecided with a lot of variation between countries, and they wanted to get a popular result they can sell EU-wide. This was an absolutely dishonest survey.

    28. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Well, you are looking at it pretty wiered.
      I don't see a difference in the actual way of voting and your proposal.
      Considering that 80% voted against DST and 80% of those voted for keeping permanent summer time, your rant is pointless anyway. They voted like you want it, so why complain?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    29. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Timezone boundaries in the US are mostly in rural areas a hundred miles from a major city. If a city lies near a state border that's a timezone boundary, the boundary goes around the metropolitan area. In Ireland nothing is far from each other and it would be hard to route the timezone boundary away from the international border.

    30. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China disagrees.

    31. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      Looks good to me.

      Which timezone a country belongs to is their choice (the country can ask its own people whether they want permanent summer time or permanent winter time and choose according to that), but the switching is EU-wide, so it makes sense to create a poll to see whether people to for or against switching.

    32. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Just look at a map of timezones. They aren't regular or equal divisions. It's way too late to be using longitude or relative position as an indication of timezone.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    33. Re: Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With the exception of the greater El Paso metro area all being in Mountain while 99% of TX is Central.

    34. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, the more reasonable option would be to change the business hours instead of asking everyone to change their clocks

    35. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Ross+Finlayson · · Score: 1

      Not necessarily. Remember that this is about the EU. The UK won't be in the EU much longer. It won't be bound by this.

    36. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Athanasius · · Score: 1

      Actually no, it isn't. Changing business hours entails changing anything that cites them, so at least signage for shops. But more importantly it requires to some degree gambling that all other pertinent businesses will also change their business hours. "You first!".

      The (permanent) clock change forces everyone to simply do this unless they then want to go to the trouble of bucking the trend.

      But, yes, I agree that actually changing business hours would be the 'neater' thing to do in the long run.

    37. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The EU is also too big for one time zone. During DST, it is noon (in the sense of: sun at its highest point) at 2PM in France and Belgium, and at 3PM in Spain.

    38. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by admin7087 · · Score: 1

      Where did you get this 80% for summertime from, if I may ask? I have contradictory information but also didn't find a complete breakdown of the poll result anywhere. All I've seen is 84% against switching time (the first question).

    39. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by GNious · · Score: 1

      In the U.S. we deal with this all day, every day, across three time zones.

      ehh, yeah :)

      UTC -10 - HST Hawaii Standard Time
      UTC -8 - AKDT Alaska Daylight Time
      UTC -7 - PDT Pacific Daylight Time
      UTC -6 - MDT Mountain Daylight Time
      UTC -5 - CDT Central Daylight Time
      UTC -4 - EDT Eastern Daylight Time

      UTC -11 - SST Samoa Standard Time American Samoa, US Minor Outlying Islands
      UTC -4 - AST Atlantic Standard Time Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands
      UTC +10 - ChST Chamorro Standard Time Guam, Northern Mariana Islands
      UTC +12 - WAKT Wake Time US Minor Outlying Islands

    40. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      It was in German news ... no idea where I picked it up, though.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    41. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How would it "be stuck"? EU has had regulation mandating DST, it will be soon getting rid of that.
      Independent UK will not be subject to EU regulation, so nothing stops it from dropping DST itself.

    42. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      What I meant by "across three time zones" is that we have business between the coasts that are three hours apart, and we do that business much of the day. The volume of business conducted with Hawaii and Alaska is fairly minor by comparison, and everything else is smaller still.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    43. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 1

      Laughs and points at France, which has 12 time zones, and is smaller than some US states.

      --
      I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
    44. Re:Ditch DST, no "permanent" DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >The poll should have asked for 3 options and nothing else: 1 - keep switching between DST and winter time, 2 - permanent winter time, 3 - permanent summer time.

      The poll should have asked 1 - keep switching, 2 - permanent NORMAL time, 3 - permanent DST.

      The wording provoked associations with snow, ice and being cold, indoors vs. being outdoors in light and warmth.

  6. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The endless debate isn't wasting as much time as we've already wasted on my work project, trying to answer the question of "if someone schedules a field test to happen every day, do they mean every 24 hours, or at the same time each day?" We've probably had a half dozen meetings so far to try dealing with timezone and Daylight Saving Time issues.

  7. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by mccalli · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's literally what this is doing. I commented in favour of scrapping changing - I'm in the UK, so by the time this happens it won't automatically apply to me. I do hope we follow suite here though.

  8. Juncker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I will recommend to the commission that, if you ask the citizens, then you have to do what the citizens say,"

    So his advice is "never ask the citizens"

  9. Boondoggle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Daylight savings time is a classic government boondoggle: a completely useless (at best) project that only got off the ground because (1) they weren't spending their own time or money on it, so there was nothing to lose, and (2) somebody identified a chance to engineer their own legacy.

    Get rid of it. I personally am in favor of staying permanently on standard time, since where I live DST means getting up in the dark and going to bed in the light (which is ass backwards according to human nature).

    1. Re:Boondoggle by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      The idea was energy savings. So not that useless.

      The idea was shops e.g. would switch on the lights in the windows later. However many companies did not bother to change the clocks that control the lights ... so no real saving.

      But it is interesting how stupid and brain dead your reasoning is ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    2. Re:Boondoggle by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      You want energy savings? Charge more for electricity. Fucking with clocks does absolutely nothing.

    3. Re:Boondoggle by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      In theory it does, in practice it did not work.
      We all know that, so calm down :D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  10. Democracy? by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 2, Informative

    stuff sounds dangerously like democracy or something

    Rest assured. These polls are not known to the average European citizen. Only lobby groups check them, or mobilize others to check them. At no point was there a referendum or something like that.

    --
    Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    1. Re:Democracy? by pr0nbot · · Score: 1

      I heard about it somewhere online (possibly slashdot even) and responded.

    2. Re:Democracy? by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Rest assured. These polls are not known to the average European citizen. Only lobby groups check them, or mobilize others to check them. At no point was there a referendum or something like that.

      80% of the votes where from Germany, probably because the main German public news website actually bothered to publish a story on this poll and provided links to the EU website. This is how I learned of it and why I participated.

      If I hadn't read the article in the news, I would have had no idea.

    3. Re:Democracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The poll was in public news in Estonia, for example. I voted even earlier because there was a note about it in - surprise, surprise - SlashDot !

      Posting as AC to not lose mods.

    4. Re:Democracy? by fintux · · Score: 1

      And the push for getting rid of the time changes has been strongly pushed by Finland after the citizen initiative, which was signed by ~1.2 % of the Finnish population (not as much as almost 5% of the German population participating the EU level one, though, but still, quite likely not just lobbyists and people mobilized by them). And from what I've discussed with various people, most people have been against the clock shifts, whether or not they participated this poll.

    5. Re:Democracy? by GNious · · Score: 1

      ffs - https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

      And it was in the news in every EU country whose news I follow, so that's a fair few, plus social medias.

      If you hadn't heard of it, chances are it's because of you.....

    6. Re:Democracy? by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      Lithuania also is pushing for getting rid of the time changes.

    7. Re:Democracy? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Well no one around here has any excuse.

      https://slashdot.org/story/337...
      https://slashdot.org/story/343...

      Your welcome :-)

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Democracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still, strange that they didn't normalize each countries' votes for population, that is how EU Parliament works,
      Germans don't get more MEPs just because they happen to have higher voting participation.

    9. Re:Democracy? by vyvepe · · Score: 1

      I have got an email to take part in the poll. Not sure how they picked me up. I guess I used the email when communicating with them in the past.

  11. How about REAL time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know actually based on the sun! Not some arbitrary value that is merely mostly in lockstep with the sun.

    Oh, and days should start at dawn! The middle of the night is a really stupid point for the day to start at.

    1. Re: How about REAL time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, but what if the sun doesn't come up in the morning?

      Then the previous day will never end.

    2. Re:How about REAL time? by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

      Let's completely forget about high noon being a real thing at some point in time. But yes lettuce start the day based on something that changes every day like dawn. Btw DST is stupid in this modern world where standard work hours of 9 to 5 are hardly a thing to care about anymore.

    3. Re: How about REAL time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It kind of evens out, the other half of the year it never sets. I guess we'll have to simply shorten the calender for the people affected to make up for the fewer days. :>

    4. Re:How about REAL time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      9 to 5 were never standard work hours.
      Standard work hours have always been 7:30 to 16:00

    5. Re: How about REAL time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the UK, 9 to 5 or 5:30 is pretty standard for offices and shops (though larger shops are open longer) and 8 to 4 or 4:30 for manual workers.

  12. No. Mr. Populist tries to earn some brownie points by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There was an informal online questionnaire with a leading question. They called standard time "winter time". About half the participants are in Germany, which sits right in the middle of the Central European timezone. People are not thinking this through: Even in Germany, using "Summer time" all year round would have bad consequences, but can you imagine the winter sun not rising in France or Spain until 10 AM? It's not going to happen, but "Mr. Populist" Juncker will pretend to hear the people loud and clear.

  13. Everyone thinks he likes democracy, until ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... he realizes, how retarded the average moron out there is.

    Most of them do not even realize that "their" views, reactions, "opinions", beliefs, and triggers are trivially easily shaped and how easily they are controlled. Let alone accept it. They are so much in denial, that that is a major part of what makes it so easy.
    Even though we are social animals, and obviously couldn't ever check all our assumptions ("knowledge") ourselves.

    Sorry, democracy is just as much a fuzzy-lighted idealistic delusion, ignorant of human reality, as socialism, communism, or the "free market".
    (Which are all nice dreams.)

    What actually bothers us, is that those in power don't make decisions that benefit us, or outright harm us. (Given our own personal point of view.) (Due to their own personal point of view seeing things differently.)
    What bothers us, is that WE are not the ones in power.

    Because if they can do it, why can't we?

  14. Permanent summer just seems wrong by smoot123 · · Score: 1

    I dunno, maybe I'm just being pedantic, but isn't the sun supposed to be directly overhead at noon? It just seems wrong to me to intentionally pick a clock setting which makes that never the case.

    1. Re: Permanent summer just seems wrong by houghi · · Score: 1

      That is historically correct as the origin, but not true for a LOT of places. Even if you calculate the +- 30 minutes.
      No reason really to keep it that way.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by radja · · Score: 1

      I live in the Netherlands. It makes sense to be in the same timezone as most of the EU, especially Germany. But that time is off by about 40 minutes. Logically, we should be in GMT, not GMT+1, but that would be extremely impractical. Hopping across the German-Dutch border is extremely frequent, and having to change the clocks all the time would be annoying.

      --

      No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
      --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
    3. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by Athanasius · · Score: 1

      It would be off for most of the country anyway. You do not want everywhere using Local Solar Time, as we did that in the UK back when railways first became popular and it caused all sorts of timetable problems.

      And as I mentioned in another comment, part of the issue is that business hours aren't centred around local solar noon. Being on +1 at least partially corrects this, and is an easier change to get everyone to accept. The alternative is trying to get everyone to open business an hour earlier (and presumably start school earlier too, so that parents can drop off the kids and then get to work).

    4. Re: Permanent summer just seems wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a reason you don't want a place where the timezone is 7 hours away from mean solar time: confusion when people are traveling.

      There are two degrees of freedom: the UTC offset and business hours. But we only need one degree of freedom! So we take this opportunity to either set the UTC offset to be closest to mean solar time (the parent's suggestion), or make normal business hours uniform worldwide. I'm not sure which one of the two is most useful to travelers, but we should at least enforce one since mathematically we can.

    5. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      If you live in the Netherlands but visit Germany, leave your clock/watch the way it is, and correct mentally. If you have to spend several days at a time in Germany, get a watch that can display two time zones and switch back and forth at need. Problem solved.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    6. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Problem solved.

      Except for the fact that offices with 9-5 schedules in both countries now only have 6 hours of overlap, which makes business much less efficient.

    7. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      So? If you have offices in LA and NY open 9-5, there's currently only five hours of overlap. Six would be an improvement.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    8. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Doing it "mentally" is only easy for a person who never did it, or even tried it.
      Obviously adding or subtracting a single 1 is easy. However preventing to mix up if you have to add it or subtract it, is for some reason pretty challenging. After all you are used to glance at your watch and figure: I have to go in 30 minutes. While in fact you are already 30 minutes later or have 1:30 hours left till you have to go.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    9. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Why settle for 6 when you can have 8 with only minor disadvantages ? There's a huge amount of trade going between The Netherlands and Germany. Not just trade between the two countries, but also goods transported through them. Having 33% more overlap in business hours is huge.

    10. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      Actually, I've done it when going from my home n California to visit a cousin in Colorado without bothering to change my watch.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    11. Re:Permanent summer just seems wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One should make complete comparison if considering reversion of Nazi time zone alterations, i.e. NL would be in same zone as BE, FR, UK, IE, ES.
      I gather between the lot of them there is plenty of business with the Netherlands. FYI the real time zone was so horrible nobody changed it until Nazis.
      In fact the primary purpose of time zones, standardization of business hours (not 'hopping across border'), is not achieved by current CET time zone,
      I looked up that Spanish business hours are 9am to 6pm, Swiss 8:30am to 4:40pm, and in Poland official bank hours are 8am to 4pm. All in CET.
      So people in fact will still use clock as metric to serve their actual needs, not as mandate dictating their will.. Leaving no purpose to Nazi time but inertia.

  15. Frankly, I don't care by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    All DST really changes for me is that I come to work an hour later during Summer.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  16. The Great White North by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here in Canada there is a push in some regions to abolish daylight saving time. Parts of the country (e.g. Saskatchewan) are already sane about this. Ditto the northeast corner of B.C.

    Even at my relatively southerly latitude (49 degrees north) summers are light regardless of our nominal time zone. Winters are dark, again, regardless of our time zone. If we stayed on PST (UTC-8) all year the sun would set at 2030 in the summer. What more do people want? And on PDT all year (UTC-7) the sun would still set at 1700 in December. What good is that? It wouldn't rise until 0900. Ugh.

    ...laura

    1. Re:The Great White North by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "what more do people want"?

      I'm spanish, and given that we have dinner at around 10pm, and in summertime normally on a terrace, I love that there is still some light :)

      don't take my light hours away!

    2. Re:The Great White North by LostOne · · Score: 1

      Even at my relatively southerly latitude (49 degrees north) summers are light regardless of our nominal time zone. Winters are dark, again, regardless of our time zone. If we stayed on PST (UTC-8) all year the sun would set at 2030 in the summer. What more do people want? And on PDT all year (UTC-7) the sun would still set at 1700 in December. What good is that? It wouldn't rise until 0900. Ugh.

      This. A million times this. Though it does depend a bit on where you are in the time zone on the exact sunrise/set times (not counting shenanigans on the time zone boundaries, it varies by an hour, unsurprisingly). Still, it doesn't change the fact that if you're at a high enough latitude or close enough to the equator, the benefits of DST are, well, dubious at best.

      On another note, the idea of using DST all year is really just a way to get people to shift their day by an hour without them realizing it. That may have some benefit outside of the typical DST effective dates depending on latitude, though probably not so much during the shortest days of the year.

      (Also, the link between time changes and heart attacks is tenuous at best. Sure, the additional stress from changing one's sleep schedule might, maybe, serve to cause a heart attack to trigger earlier than it might have, but it's not at all clear that such attacks wouldn't happen anyway a few days or weeks later. Even if there is a real link, typical dumbass shift rotations would be a much larger problem since the time change is twice a year but most dumbass shift rotations are changing shifts every couple of weeks at best and multiple times per week at worst.)

      --

      If it works in theory, try something else in practice.
    3. Re:The Great White North by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Southern.

      Up here in the Arctic, we are lucky if we see the sun inch above the horizon during the winter. Complaining about a 0900 sunrise....Some people.

    4. Re:The Great White North by GrBear · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately the Alberta decided against abolishing it a year or so back. They're reasoning, it would apparently too much of a burden on hockey teams.

      https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada...

    5. Re: The Great White North by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spaniards keep bizarre and unhealthy schedules.

      No way you should be staying up that late in the dark and eating so late. Unhealthy. Get some sun.

    6. Re:The Great White North by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Washington state is like that too, with a six-hour difference between summer and winter sunset. All of Canada is larger than this, so DST doesn't make sense there. DST is a cumbersome way to get people to work an hour later in summer. Spain is in a timezone three hours east of where it belongs, so Spaniards have dinner at 8pm. There's no reason the rest of the world can't have dinner an hour later if it wants to. The closer noon matches the sun's zenith, the better.

  17. Historically, it was used to conserve coal use by Lucas123 · · Score: 4, Informative

    While many believe DST was started for farming, in fact, most farmers don't like it. Historically, DST began in 1916, when the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary introduced it as a way to conserve coal during wartime. Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the next year, and the United States adopted daylight saving in 1918. Broadly speaking, most jurisdictions abandoned daylight saving time in the years after the war ended in 1918 (with some notable exceptions including Canada, the UK, France, and Ireland). However, many different places adopted it for periods of time during the following decades and it became common during World War II. It became widely adopted, particularly in North America and Europe, starting in the 1970s as a result of the 1970s energy crisis.

    1. Re:Historically, it was used to conserve coal use by Translation+Error · · Score: 2

      I have no idea why people think it's for the benefit of farmers. Of all people, they're the ones whose days are ruled by the sun and the cycles of animals rather than the clock. Anyone with pets that expect to be fed at the same time each morning knows just how much animals respect the clock suddenly saying it's another hour until feeding time.

      --
      When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
    2. Re:Historically, it was used to conserve coal use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what you're saying is that we just need to tell Trump that getting rid of DST will be good for the coal industry and he'll be all over it like a fat guy on cheeseburger?

      captcha: decisive

  18. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Just be glad that you don't get polar nights (probably).

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  19. Re: Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    They aren't scrapping DST, they're making it permanent. Which is only marginally less retarded than changing the clocks. Noon should align with the position of the sun.

  20. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 1

    ..."if someone schedules a field test to happen every day, do they mean every 24 hours, or at the same time each day?" ...

    Ask the person specifying "every day" what he or she means by that expression.

  21. In The Summertime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    First time I heard this was in Germany 1970. These guys were playing it in the sublet apartment a hop-skip-jump away.

    Or L.S.D.

    1. Re: In The Summertime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I saw (an iteration of) Mungo Jerry play this last year, in the summertime.

  22. Better yet, just switch everyone to GMT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While we are tying to fix confusing time standards, we should get rid of the crazy zigzag-y time zones. In a 24-7 economy, the phrase 'outside of work hours' is only related to sunrise and sunset if you work outdoors.

    1. Re:Better yet, just switch everyone to GMT by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Like in China, where you have to go to work at 9am and it is still dark outside for at least 4 hours - or you adjust it so some people get to work at 9am, some get to work at 2pm. Not confusing at all!

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    2. Re:Better yet, just switch everyone to GMT by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      The boundaries are like that to follow national/state/provincial borders so that you don't have 90% of a country (or whatever) in one timezone and 10% in another. In fact, there are even a few places where the International Dateline jogs to avoid that kind of issues.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    3. Re:Better yet, just switch everyone to GMT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are you talking about?
      In China, the population is mostly living in the east of the country. Today in Shanghai dawn is at 5:06 and dusk at 18:43.
      Even in the far west: e.g Urumqi you get 07:02 - 21:15, which seems very comfortable to me.

    4. Re:Better yet, just switch everyone to GMT by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      Let's say I go to work at 9 AM in California and my Swiss coworker goes to work at 11 AM. We'd like to meet over VC for 15 minutes. What time should the meeting be?

      Now try to schedule a recurring weekly meeting between us. Can you schedule one that doesn't shift around throughout the year? Keep in mind both Switzerland and the US has DST, but change clocks on different days.

      Compare that to a world where I go to work at 4 PM GMT, and he goes to work at 9 AM GMT. A bit of simple math is all you need. No need to check the calendar and no need to know each country's DST rules.

    5. Re:Better yet, just switch everyone to GMT by guruevi · · Score: 1

      That is today. In the winter Urumqi's daylight starts at 9:45, "noon" is at 14:00 and sunset is ~19:00. If you have an 'average' office job, you have to wake up in the middle of the night. Kashgar is ~30 minutes further off so their daylight starts at 10:15 in the morning and it doesn't get dark in winter until ~21:30 and it doesn't get dark in summer until ~midnight.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  23. Standard Time 4 Forever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess I'm an odd-ball for wanting Standard ("winter") Time year-round. The 'purist' in me simply likes the idea of having noon-time occurring at solar noon.

  24. Bingo by markdavis · · Score: 1

    >"The recommendation for now is to stick to summer time year-round"

    BINGO. Nearly all of us want EXACTLY THAT and have for many, many years now. Go on summer time and just LEAVE IT THERE PERMANENTLY. PLEASE DO IT.... then maybe the USA can follow...

    1. Re:Bingo by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Except those living north of about 45 degrees, sure...

      You see, in the summer time, the sun already sets quite late anyways, and DST is not really required to give an extra hour of daylight. While in the winter the does indeed set a lot earlier and an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day could be nice, the sun also rises that much later as well, and any hours you add to the evening take away from the hours of daylight you get in the morning.

      And do not fail to consider the well documented health advantages that exist with starting your work day in the sunshine, even if you spend the bulk of it indoors. Pushing the clocks ahead an hour and leaving them there year around would mean that the states bordering Canada would not see a sunrise until 9AM or possibly even later in the middle of wintertime, and you would almost certainly see a sharp uptick in seasonal depression disorder, not to mention creating additional hazards for school-aged children who walk to school having to do so in the dark. The impact in Canada, which would likely imitate the timekeeping practices of the USA, as well in Alaska would be even worse.

      Noon (12PM) should be in the middle of the day, not an hour before it. Otherwise calling PM at all is a complete misnomer.

    2. Re:Bingo by Targon · · Score: 1

      If it makes sense, Trump will make sure not to do it. On the plus side, that would be one more good reason to get rid of the orange idiot.

    3. Re:Bingo by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      I don't want it! I think we should be on Daylight Savings Time year around. We don't need more light in the evening.

    4. Re:Bingo by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >"I don't want it! I think we should be on Daylight Savings Time year around. We don't need more light in the evening."

      We do in the winter; for many it is already dark, so it doesn't matter much. So I would say most don't need any more light in the morning most of the year, if not all of the year, which is effectively what going to standard time does. In modern times, most people would much rather have more light after work, when we can enjoy and used it. As it is now, I have to get up in the dark and get home in the dark (or nearly so) in the winter, and that really is yucky.

    5. Re:Bingo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AMEN! Yes, thank you! Please kill daylight saving time, but replace it with standard time not summer time!

    6. Re:Bingo by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >"Except those living north of about 45 degrees, sure... "

      Good point. I could definitely see a good argument about northern latitudes using standard time while further south uses summer time. That would still work quite well, as long as it never changes.

      >"Noon (12PM) should be in the middle of the day, not an hour before it. Otherwise calling PM at all is a complete misnomer."

      Also true :)

      But I will take more usable daylight over correctness of noon, anytime. Besides, with the system we have now, "noon" is wrong half the year already and it doesn't cause any issue that I know about.

      Of course, ANYTHING that keeps the time from CHANGING twice a year is better than what we have now. I would even accept a compromise- split the difference by moving time 1/2 hour forward of standard time and hold it there :)

    7. Re:Bingo by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      PLEASE DO IT.... then maybe the USA can follow...
      The US following something the EU is doing? You really think that is possible?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    8. Re:Bingo by mark-t · · Score: 1

      But I will take more usable daylight over correctness of noon

      Would you rather take more usable daylight in the evening over the health benefits of having at least some sunshine exposure at the start of each day?

      Besides, with the system we have now, "noon" is wrong half the year already and it doesn't cause any issue that I know about.

      I would suggest that is only because being wrong half of the time is still better than being wrong all of the time. If it is wrong all of the time, and 1PM is defined as the permanent midday, then there's no point in considering noon to be a post meridiem time at all.

      Human beings have long since evolved, however inconvenient it might be to modern business or to evening recreation, to function best during daylight hours, it makes sense that our time keeping practices should reflect that.

    9. Re:Bingo by gordguide · · Score: 1

      DST works well in a narrow band of latitudes; from perhaps the Mason-Dixon line north to about the 50th parallel. If you're in Florida where the day is pretty much the same length year round, or in Alaska where long summer days meet short winter ones, it's not particularly useful.

      Where I live (51 N Lat) we get 15 hours of summer sunlight and DST adding an hour to evening sun just means mothers are trying to get their kids to bed as the sun goes down at 11:30 PM instead of 10:30 PM during summer vacation, and the sun comes up at 5:30 AM instead of 4:30 AM. In winter if you work a 9 to 5 job, you go to work in the dark and you go home in the dark.

      Now, the problem. Because large business-oriented cities (New York, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto) are in the band where DST works, they use DST. If you want to do business with those Head Office dense metropolitan areas, everything goes smoother if you too are on DST. So we have it in areas where it does no good, so that the wheels of commerce can run smoothly. The benefits are fleeting or non-existent for the mere mortals that have to live in those areas, despite the argument for always being some benefit to working families, never that it greases the business relationships between Head Office and wherever-you-are. You know, politics.

    10. Re:Bingo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That depends... it helps the odds if it is bad for us or at least a complete waste of resources...

  25. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

    That's who the meetings were with. Clients can't always make up their own minds. They just want it to work.

  26. awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Europe: advanced enough to reject the DST change and keep summer time year-round

    America: elected retard Trump

    no wonder Europe is kicking our ass

    1. Re:awesome by acoustix · · Score: 1

      I want permanent DST all year long. And I voted for Trump.

      Did I just melt your snowflake mind?

      --
      "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    2. Re:awesome by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      I want permanent DST all year long. And I voted for Trump.

      Did I just melt your snowflake mind?

      Proof that you can't fix stupid.

    3. Re:awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By "orange idiot" he must have meant Al Gor(ange).

    4. Re:awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How exactly is Europe, a soon to be Sharia State, kicking the US's ass?
      How much do you get paid to type your leftist nonsense?
      Some of us would rather Keep winter the whole year round!
      Spring forward? naw STAY Fall DOWN!

    5. Re: awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well most of Europe hasn't elected a retard as leader, so there's that.

      About that Sharia Law, perhaps you should turn off Fox News, leave the basement and come and visit us.

      Ps. Brown people are nothing to be scared of.

  27. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Wait until you find out about leap seconds.

    It's not like removing DST from one set of countries is going to make date handling any easier.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  28. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was also surprised when I finally understood that a single day lasts for 48 hours (or about so, the timezones in Pacific are tricky).

  29. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It will, though. Date and time handling is all sorts of screwed up thanks to timezones, leap seconds and days, and DST. Removing one source of complexity may not fix everything, but it certainly makes it easier.

  30. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 1

    ...Clients can't always make up their own minds....

    Yeah... been there. :(

  31. I hope so by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    DST is an anachronism that just needs to go! There are no benefits too it. In fact, when the clocks get pushed ahead one hour, there are studies showing a correlation between this and increased heart attacks.

    1. Re: I hope so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For every unrelated A and B there are studies that show a correlation between them.

  32. Headline is WRONG--EU Backs Permanent DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Noon is defined as when the sun is at its highest point. Quantize this to 24 latitude-bounded zones and you have time zones. Shift them around a little for political boundaries for the ease of use. Then shift them more for political purposes--like China all on one time zone. Going permanently on 11:00am being the sun directly overhead is denying reality.

    If the sun goes down at 9pm then you would expect that noon is in the middle of the daylight, but it is not. The sun does NOT rise at 3am. In the winter when the sun sets at 5pm, you would expect that the sun rises at 7am, which it does. Seems like everyone wants the sun to always rise at the same time throughout the year but go down later in the summer. Shifting our clocks so it does, denies reality of when noon occurs.

    The only problem I have with permanently shifting to DST anywhere is that the sun ends up rising at strange times like 8 or 9am and then children must go to school IN THE DARK. Children walking in the dark regularly causes fatalities. Like it or not having DST in the winter kills kids. Live with it or die with it, but that's the reality.

    1. Re:Headline is WRONG--EU Backs Permanent DST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I don't know where you live that you have so much sun but when I grew up in Germany I certainly went to school in the DARK in winter with WINTERTIME. What should I say, I'm still alive, and so are all of my former classmates.

      Shifting our clocks so it does, denies reality of when noon occurs.

      Clock time is an arbitrary convention to synchronize social activities. Nowadays people go to bed much later than they used to and rise later than they used to, that's why shifting the time zone by one our makes a lot of sense socially. Of course, there will always be naysayers like you.

  33. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

    Simple solution is just to ignore leap seconds.

  34. They shall meet their end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "if you ask the citizens, then you have to do what the citizens say,"
    Bye Bye EU...

  35. Re: Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Noon should align with the position of the sun.
    I agree. But as we need to average that out somehow over Europe, I propose Warschau in the east and Paris in the west as the two measuring points. That would mean Berlin time is noon for Europe. Somehow I like that idea.

    (Actually I voted keep summer time for ever, because actually I like to sit out in June on a terrace in Paris, sipping a wine and enjoying the aftermath of the sunset, glowing sky, a few high clouds illuminated by the sun "from below". Or having a late 22:00 sunset in Brittany)

    In other words: I Napoleon Angelo, Imperator of Europe, with here in decree: 12:00, aka noon, shall be when the Sun is the highest above Porto, Portugal, the finest city in the world! And the rest of Europe has to adjust its time accordingly. Except Greece of course.

    So, as this is finished, bring me some oysters!

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  36. Re: Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Yeah, a friend of mine did that. Having a watch on UTC.

    He was always late, regardless if DST or ST ... and he never flew to a country some time zones away, I think some co workers stole his watch ... there was no other way to show him the foolishness of his way.

    Oh, he once was on Madeira ... perhaps he realized the foolishness of his way there ... hm. At least he is no longer wearing a watch set to UTC (since a decade).

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  37. Wise Indian once said... by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Only white man, would cut bottom of blanket, sew on top and think they have longer blanket. GET RID OF IT and leave the $#(%*^ clocks alone. But but but kids would go to school in the dark and come home in the dark bla bla bla. Give them a flashlight. People in Barrow Alaska have 24 hours of dark a month or two a year, and 24 hours of light a couple months a year. Don't see them complaining.

    1. Re:Wise Indian once said... by someoneOtherThanMe · · Score: 1

      Well, if you are blanketed (is that a word?) over your head but your feet are cold, it's easier to pull down the blanket than to move yourself while trying to make the blanket stay in place.

  38. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by Ecuador · · Score: 1

    Just pick one and stay with it. This endless debate is wasting too much time --- time which could be far better spent trying to understand why we park cars on driveways.

    And then we drive cars on parkways! Madness!

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  39. Abolish Timezones while you are at it. by zoid.com · · Score: 2

    I don't care if I go to work at 0600 hours or 1700 hours. Timezones are stupid. The military figured this out years ago.

    1. Re:Abolish Timezones while you are at it. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      It has nothing to do with timezones and everything to do with aligning when two different people do something in relation to the sun.

      Abolishing timezones won't make any difference. It will only change the discussion from "Should we abolish DST" to "Should we abolish the half yearly change in standardised start / end work times".

  40. DST time all year? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didnâ(TM)t they get the AGW memo?

    Why make people go through longer daylight/warmer daily cycles?

  41. Business decides on timezones. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While you may think "too many" and "not enough", when those hours happen is very important. Would you rather the sun was in the sky from 5am to 7pm or 6am to 8pm? and so on.

    CEST is too wide for its own good and unfortunately, timezone membership is generally a "business thing" because the people in Madrid want to have a 9am meeting with the people in Warsaw and so on. It doesn't matter that Madrid is closer to London's longitude and should have a different timezone.

    Everyone wants their stock market or whatever to open at the same time as everyone else. That's how timezones get decided now.

    1. Re:Business decides on timezones. by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

      Would you rather the sun was in the sky from 5am to 7pm or 6am to 8pm? and so on.

      Hell, that would be great. Instead, what I get at 40N is 4:30am -> 10pm in July and 7:30am -> 5pm in December.

      No amount of DST is going to make either of those comfortable. Though I am in the "EDT all the time" camp. I think people living closer to the equator would not appreciate this.

      The only real fix is to move south. Full astronomical twilight at around 7pm year round? Hell yeah! The problem is you need to live in Colombia, Ecuador, an African Rainforest, or Malaysia.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  42. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    Most industrial equipment just ignores DST in my experience.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  43. Daylight savings by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    The worst part is having to rotate all my heavy stone sundials twice a year!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  44. Heart Attack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I see a comment about adjusting the clocks an hour one was of the other contributing to heart attacks, I think to myself... "Has this person never travelled by air, partied too late, had a short night of sleep from a screaming baby or a construction crew nearby, or just about anything else that can cause a change to sleep schedules?" It is only one hour. I can count on a 1-3 hour shift every weekend.

    What kind of pampered sheltered life they must have...

    1. Re: Heart Attack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't overthink it, they are just dumbasses spewing nonsense. Think about how dumb the median person is and that half of the population is even dumber.

  45. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And drive cars on parkways!

  46. EU usually ignores citizen by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    "I will recommend to the commission that, if you ask the citizens, then you have to do what the citizens say," said Jean-Claude Juncker,

    This is almost fun, given the amount of referendum results the EU has ignored. Mr Junker was probably drunk again.

    1. Re:EU usually ignores citizen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean national referendums, it's not the EU's job to handle those.

  47. George Hudson should be posthumously put on trial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He has costs us all an hour a year for several months, when a multiply that out its a 120 hours per year, per year of life, multiplied by the 7 billion on the planet.

    That is 67,200,000,000,000 hours of misery for us all (67.2 Trillion) the total life span of 95.9 Million people

    Move over Hitler, Stalin, Poll-pot we have George Hudson

  48. Just change your hours. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Instead of putting them centered on 1pm center them on 12 noon. Moron.

  49. They already redo the signs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And why the hell should they not?

  50. Re:Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    I was scheduled to do an extended shift on a day where daylight savings changed. It took a committee to try and figure out if I would breach the contractual limits on the number of hours I was allowed to work without a break.

  51. Re: Enough already! Have DST, don't have DST ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no we are scrapping the changes between dst and standard. every country can choose which timezone it wants to use as their standard time.

    if you dont like it, talk to your politicians

  52. "fall back" is great by SSA-Ed · · Score: 1

    I like the "fall back" enough that I do it 25 days in a row.