Fabulous. Internet at my hotel just went down. A call to the front desk and I'm told that they don't know anything about the internet here, and the person on the day shift will know how to fix it. Guess I'm going to bed early.
I read in the news last night that Barack Obama might be planning to get rid of Daylight Saving Time when he gets into office.
Considering the fact that I fucking hate... HATE... Daylight Saving Time, this would make me very, very happy. I've railed against the idiocy of DST a few times in my blog, a lot of times in Real Life, and constantly in my head. It may have made sense back when Benjamin Franklin was petitioning for it in the 1700's, but clinging to it now is just plain stupid. Our lifestyles have drastically changed. During World War II, Daylight Savings was said to reduce energy consumption... and maybe it did... but modern studies show that DST actually uses more energy because of air conditioning and other energy consuming devices they didn't have to worry about back in 1918 when DST was enacted. The list goes on and on.
About the only argument I've ever heard that makes any sense at all is that DST is better for school children come Winter when it's shifted back to Standard Time. The theory is that riding the bus or walking to school at early hours is safer when it's lighter out. This is a rational argument, but I'm not totally convinced because this seems like a backwards argument (if Standard Time is better, shouldn't we stay on Standard Time all the time?). Shorter days in general are going to cause it to be dark either before or after school... moving time around so that a kid's biological clock is messed up is hardly conducive to learning as they struggle to adapt to the time change. During the Summer when DST takes effect, there's plenty of daylight and it's just not needed.
In any event, I certainly hope that President Obama will abolish Daylight Saving Time. It would be a very good start in eliminating the huge amount of dumbfuckery that our country clings to out of tradition rather than common sense, which is exactly the reason so many people wanted him as our president in the first place...
Eliminating Daylight Saving Time? Now that's change I can believe in!
If only we didn't have to wait until January 20th for President-Elect Obama to get to work.
UPDATE: I updated this entry to reflect the argument for kids to reflect that they were advocating the CHANGE from DST to Standard Time, not the actual daylight hours itself... which makes even less sense to me, but okay. The simple fact is that there is considerably less daylight in the Winter months compared to the Summer months. Moving the clock around isn't going to change this fact and, considering we get the most daylight in the Summer months anyway, trying to save something we have in abundance doesn't make much sense. If it wastes energy, as some argue, then that's just one more reason to get rid of it.
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I agree that it’s silly to switch time zones twice a year – if only because it reminds us how many stupid non-self-correcting clocks there are.
But I’d rather have it summer time all year round.
What? No more setting clocks forward and backward over and over year after year? Now what fun would that be?
And it’s even worse since they decided to screw with when the time changes. Through out my entire life we had 1st Sunday in April and Last Sunday in October. Now it’s different days and it screws up my computer and my head.
Allowing farmers and extra hour of light isn’t as big a deal as it used to be.
Pick a time and then leave it alone. All this artificial fucking with time annoys the shit out of me.
However, I can’t say that Obama worrying about DST would be endearing to me. We have other stuff to worry about.
You are absolutely right on farming. Ask any farmer… he gets up when the sun is up, it doesn’t matter what time it is. Daylight Saving Time doesn’t matter to them, so adjusting our clocks for their benefit doesn’t make any sense.
As I said, however, Obama tackling the DST nonsense is just an indicator of how he plans to tackle the bigger problems… by using sense and logic over “that’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking. If abolishing DST saves us a projected 2% in our astronomical energy costs annually, that’s addressing one part of one of our biggest problems right there: Energy Independence. Genius.
But I like how it stays light out ’til 9 pm in the summer. 🙁
Amen my brother! I wonder if Canada would follow suit. I hope so.
I’m one of those who are happy about DST if only for my kids sake. As for playing outside, mine bring home so much homework now a days that they wouldn’t even get done until way after dark anyway, so we just play in the weekends in the sunlight.
I agree wholeheartedly! This has pissed me off my entire life. When I lived in the Central Time Zone, it would get dark around 4 p.m. That’s just not right. ABOLISH DST!
You’re desperate to give it up and for over about two decades now I’ve desperately wanted it! I live in Queensland on the eastern of Australia. Here the souther states (New South Wales, ACT, Victoria and Tasmania) adopt Daylight Saving ever October – March and Qld does not.
In full summer here dawn is between 0430 and 0500 and it gets dark around 1900 to 1930 at the latest. Being woken up by small children at 0500 every morning for three months is NOT fun. Not to mention the havoc it plays in the work environment when we’re out of synch with all our southern counterparts.
We’ve got people living down the Gold Coast/Tweed Heads area that reside in a different time zone to the one they work in… it’s really stupid.
So I hope you get rid of your DST … but I still desperately hope we eventually get it here.
Robyn
I never considered the school bus thing and that is a good reason. But not enough to make me want to keep DST. Kill it.
Hate DST. Hate having to explain why we do it to my friends from other countries who look at me like I am making it up when I *do* explain it.
I made my own time: Avitable Standard Time. It’s much easier.
I agree that the switching times 2x a year is a pain in the ass, but I’d rather we just stay on DST year-round. I’m not a morning person, so I’d rather have as much light in the afternoon as I can.
I’m with Robyn – I’m in Queensland as well in Australia and I hate, hate, HATE being woken up at 4am by the Kookaburras getting ready for dawn at 4:30. I’d much rather have that hour of daylight towards the end of my day when I’m already awake. If you get rid of yours, send it over here.
I live in the Central Time Zone, and it is dark by 4:30pm…I hate it! If Obama abolished DST, he would be my hero forever. Just like Clinton is my hero for the Family Medical Leave Act. I love my Democrat hottie President dudes.
I don’t like switching back and forth either but I like DST better than standard time. I’d rather have the extra hour of sunlight in the evening rather than the morning.
It has nothing to do with saving energy. I just feel better when it’s lighter in the evening.
I would love to see Daylight Saving Time go away… for everywhere, not just being a state by state thing.
I say get rid of daylight savings time. It’s too damned HOT where I live in the evenings to do anything, and no one wants to be outside anyway. So we’re all inside with temps in the high 90’s outside with the air conditioner blasting away, that’s saving energy all right! Even without daylight savings, we’d STILL be light outside until 7.30. Right now, this darned daylight savings runs 8 months out of a year….8 MONTHS!!!
Either drop it totally, or trim it back a month or more. Many old timers I have talked to say that we should be doing daylight savings from the 30th of April, & we should be turning the clocks BACK 2 weeks before haloween.