The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

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OGSB
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The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by TUPF »

Good article which I believe can be summed up in one word now: inertia.

When I was navigator on my submarine, as we were about to deploy from Connecticut to both the Arctic Ocean and later the Mediterranean during the same six month deployment, I convinced the captain to operate the boat solely on Zulu time while underway. There are very practical reasons for this on a slow transit through time zones. First, the midwatch doesn’t get screwed with a 7 hour watch instead of 6 hour watch in one direction. Ship’s logs don’t get screwed up. Second, it’s very easy to get confused on “what time is it?” especially when we were going in both directions in the Arctic across the prime meridian. Try keeping track of an hour change in transit in either direction by just traveling a few miles across the prime meridian, especially important when you are receiving real time orders to be at such and such a coordinate at such and such a time. This isn’t a problem on a transatlantic or transcontinental flight because you adjust your clocks in one fell swoop. The only small shock to the system was day 1 on the East Coast: 10am suddenly became 3pm, with meals adjusted accordingly. Since we were without sunlight underway it wasn’t a big deal.

If I were king, I’d do what Florida is now attempting to do: after last night’s adjustment I’d leave the clocks as is.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by windywave »

TUPF wrote:
If I were king, I’d do what Florida is now attempting to do: after last night’s adjustment I’d leave the clocks as is.
So the retired guy wants sunrise at 8AM whilst us working stiffs get to commute in the dark? Thanks guy :angel:
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by WaveProf »

Florida has it right.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by TUPF »

windywave wrote:
TUPF wrote:If I were king, I’d do what Florida is now attempting to do: after last night’s adjustment I’d leave the clocks as is.
So the retired guy wants sunrise at 8AM whilst us working stiffs get to commute in the dark? Thanks guy :angel:
Yes. When I was a working stiff I woke up in the dark year round. Sometimes 5:30 am, sometimes 6am, it was still dark. I was almost always leaving the house in dark, maybe twilight at best. Leaving work while it was already dark again seemed so depressing, whereas if we left the clocks like they are right now, if I leave work at 5 I still have an hour of daylight. From March to October every afternoon seemed like a mini vacation with hours of sunlight still left after work.

So, yes.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by Cheerleader »

I live in Florida and I agree with TUPF. I am retired so I don't get up before sunup anyway, and I like the sunlight as late as we can get it so we can spend more time at the beach and the golf course. If the governor signs it, it still has to go to the Congress to get approved. We would be the only state with year around DST. Arizona and Hawaii opted out of any time change. From now on, it will be known as "Florida Time".
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by gerryb323 »

I would agree with the dark commute in the morning vs the afternoon is way less depressing. There's something to the mindset of "up before the sun." Also, move South and the difference isn't as big :)
Having had infants for the past several years now, I've come to appreciate the sunrise!
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by Roller »

Personally, I'd prefer to leave the clocks at standard time, and dispense with the ridiculous "daylight saving" concept altogether. It's still the same number of seconds of daylight, regardless of what we synchronize our clocks to.

A better idea would be for all the businesses (and especially prime-time and late-night television) to move their times up an hour--permanently. That way everything would be happening on a schedule that would fit the daylight hours. The opposite of what Florida is proposing.

Back before the clock was invented, there was no such concept as "o'clock." People just made plans based upon sunrise, noon, dusk, etc. -- or in the case of the Catholic Church's canonical calendar, "lauds," "matins," etc. Of course, those time-keeping methods are not precise enough for modern coordination (or for making the trains run on time), but the fact remains that time is an arbitrary concept.

I have never done a scientific study, but I've convinced myself that having to shift the clocks twice a year is more costly to the economy than the phantom "savings" that result to shifting the clocks to make the sun set at a later hour.

I don't understand why the Feds require Florida to get approval, though. Doesn't Arizona already stay on Standard time year-round? So there's a precedent. That's what I'd like to see all the states do.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by TUPF »

And Roller’s discussion, counter to what Cheerleader, gerryb, and I prefer, is why things will stay the way they are. That way both the Standard Time crowd and the DST crowd can both be annoyed half the year. :-D
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by MattK »

Just pick one. I don’t care which.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by PeteRasche »

I've lived in the far east edge of Central (Birmingham) and the far west edge of Eastern (Cincinnati). So I've experienced winters where it's dark at 4:30 pm and summers where it's light until 9:45 pm. I much prefer the DST (lighter longer at night), but I generally prefer the Central time zone over Eastern as far as TV viewing. So I suppose I should move to the far west edge of the central time zone. 8)

Driving to work in the dark never bothered me. Of course I have a job about 10 minutes of surface streets from home, so I'm lucky that way (well, not luck, it was intentional)...

One caveat to preferring longer daylight: I do find it weird taking the kids trick-or-treating with the sun still up. Maybe we switch to standard time for the week surrounding Halloween. :lol:
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by TUPF »

Pete, I gotcha on the Central Time zone for TV. I don’t think I’ve seen an SNL in real time on the East Coast in the past ten years. Forget Monday Night Football after halftime.

I must admit that it’s weird whenever I have been on the West Coast and watched the first Sunday game starting at 10am.

Such are the trials and tribulations of living in a big, wonderful country.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by Roller »

We get exactly the same amount of daylight under either setting. The difference is (for instance) if you get off work, at, say, 5:00 PM, daylight savings will give you X+1 hours of sunlight left in your day. However, you could achieve exactly the same amount of remaining sunlight if you got off at 4:00 PM instead.

Nature does not recognize our clocks, regardless of what we set them to. Your dog will want to be walked at the same point of the day, whether that is 5:00 or 6:00 on your timepiece. The roosters are going to crow at sunrise, regardless of what time your clock says it is. The sunflowers will continue to follow the sun each day, with total disregard for human timekeeping. So if you do away with the biannual clock reset, you will not really change anything--half of the year will be "inconvenient," with it being dark either too late or too early.

Here on the East Coast, we're in UTC +5--that's five hours after Greenwich. Hence, my preference for abandoning DST altogether and, instead, permanently adjusting everyone's working hours, television schedules, etc., to allow them to either go to work in daylight or enjoy the light before the sun sets. It has the same effect either way, but my proposal is to keep us consistent with the world-wide standard that centers on London.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by AO Sig »

Last night my daughter was an "honoree" in local Women's symphony ball. I was in my tux until about 11. Was scheduled to be a lector at the 8 am mass this morning; no one else from my family was able to make the call...

At least it will be daylight when I leave my office now; I seem to go in in the dark, and go home in the dark December-February.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by IM42lane »

DO AWAY with DST, period! It takes me a whole month to adjust to the time changes each time. END IT, NOW!!!!
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by Rotorooter »

IM42lane wrote: DO AWAY with DST, period! It takes me a whole month to adjust to the time changes each time. END IT, NOW!!!!
And get off your lawn while we're at it?

Don't any of you guys play golf?! It's a blessing to get off of work then go to a course and get in a quick nine or hit balls. Bunch of stiffs.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by windywave »

Rotorooter wrote:
IM42lane wrote: DO AWAY with DST, period! It takes me a whole month to adjust to the time changes each time. END IT, NOW!!!!
And get off your lawn while we're at it?

Don't any of you guys play golf?! It's a blessing to get off of work then go to a course and get in a quick nine or hit balls. Bunch of stiffs.

Even better to get a 545 to 615 tee time and be home before the wife's plans for the day start
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by sr »

windywave wrote:
Rotorooter wrote:
IM42lane wrote:DO AWAY with DST, period! It takes me a whole month to adjust to the time changes each time. END IT, NOW!!!!
And get off your lawn while we're at it?

Don't any of you guys play golf?! It's a blessing to get off of work then go to a course and get in a quick nine or hit balls. Bunch of stiffs.

Even better to get a 545 to 615 tee time and be home before the wife's plans for the day start
Now that you mention it, I've always like Ice Houses better in daylight than bare bulb light....
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

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Here is something interesting. Arizona does not observe daylight savings time. However, the reservations in Arizona do because the are federal. Thus native Americans observe DST, whilst the yankees observe natural time.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by OGSB »

La. to consider dropping Daylight Saving Time

http://m.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/380862 ... aving-time
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by BC Wave »

It should be High noon

Not High one pm
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by Poseidon »

If Louisiana were to move to standard time permanently then night football games in September would be a darker and a few degrees cooler. I can dig that.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

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Victory is never permanent
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by Roller »

And then there is India. The entire country observes the same time, and since India traverses what would normally be two time zones, their clocks are ½ hour off everyone else' "grid."

We could do that in the U.S. if we wanted to--just set all the clocks, coast to coast, to a time that is halfway between Central and Mountain, or UTC+6½. That would screw up everyone's sensibilities, but at least the Pacific coast would not have to tune in at 10:00 am for an NFL game.
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Re: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time

Post by TUPF »

Roller wrote:And then there is India. The entire country observes the same time, and since India traverses what would normally be two time zones, their clocks are ½ hour off everyone else' "grid."

We could do that in the U.S. if we wanted to--just set all the clocks, coast to coast, to a time that is halfway between Central and Mountain, or UTC+6½. That would screw up everyone's sensibilities, but at least the Pacific coast would not have to tune in at 10:00 am for an NFL game.
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