Daylight Saving Bullshit Time

[Triggar]

If my flight instructor hadn't reminded me that today is the God-forsaken day when I start having to reset my body clock and wake up an hour earlier feeling like someone just doused me with lye, I would have missed my sim flight and gotten no-showed.

Why do we have this fucked-up tradition? Lumberjack says it's because of "the farmers", and Fattie said "it's something to do with Ben Franklin".

I researched the answer, like the geek I am, and here's what I found:

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation:

*It saves energy. When we're awake, we're more likely to have our TVs, VCRs, and lights on (among other home appliances). By shifting the hours we're likely to be awake to correspond with the daylight outside, we're less likely to have the lights on, so we use less electricity.

*It saves lives. When people's waking hours correspond with daylight hours, they're safer. Traffic accidents, for example, are less likely when it's light out.

*It cuts down on crime. Crime tends to happen after dark. As is the case with accidents, people are less likely to fall victim to crime when their waking hours are synched up with the sun.

Stupid.

[MVTek]

I want to sue the government to get my hour back.

[Triggar]

After a bit more digging, I found this:

An in-depth essay from the California Energy Commission that explained how daylight-saving time cuts down on our energy use and improves safety.

The essay went on to give an interesting history of the practice. According to the essay, an Englishman named William Willett brought Franklin's idea back to life in 1907 after he noticed houses with their shades drawn during the daytime. He considered this "a waste of daylight."

The idea didn't get anywhere until 1916, however, when England figured out during World War I that the country could save energy by changing the clock. The United States followed suit in 1918--but people hated it and the law was repealed. Until World War II, that is.

Until 1966 local governments in the United States followed a kind of free-form daylight-saving time. Some did it, some didn't. Some started earlier in the year, some later. As you can imagine, this was kind of confusing, especially for public transportation and broadcasters. So in 1966 Congress passed a law saying if you wanted to follow daylight-saving time, it had to follow the national pattern.

But the tweaking didn't stop there. In 1973, when Nixon was president and during the OPEC oil embargo, Congress enacted a special, two-year daylight-saving period. It wasn't continued in 1975 because agricultural states didn't like it.

Finally, in 1986, Ronald Reagan made one last change--moving the start of daylight saving to the first Sunday in April. It used to start on the last Sunday in April, but moving it up lets us save even more oil.

[myrtar]

I want to sue the government to get my hour back.

daylight saving time is the biggest (meaning widespread) explosion of stupidness the world has ever faced, except perhaps for the measure of time itself.

[eccentric4]

*It cuts down on crime. Crime tends to happen after dark. As is the case with accidents, people are less likely to fall victim to crime when their waking hours are synched up with the sun.

Funny, I always thought darkness happened at approximately the same time each night...with the equinoxial (?) time shift, of course. Crime doesn't happen according to time (usually), just when it's dark out. All DST means is that crime will happen a little later, when people are less active, tired, and less responsive. [sarcasim]Ingenious[/sarcasm]

[myrtar]

what that is is a good bit of marketing. it's saying

"if you use daylight saving time, you're less likely to get mugged."

however, if you use daylight saving time, chances are good that your mugger does too, and suddenly it doesn't make a bit of difference anymore.

[MVTek]

I want my hour back damnit... I could have used it this morning for an extra hour of sleep.

[SierraHotel]

*meh*

Doesn't effect me that much, almost all of my clocks are computer controlled, except my alarm clock, which I never turn on.

[MVTek]

That's not the point... the point is the government took away the hour between 0200 and 0300... i want it back to play video games with.

[myrtar]

we had a long discussion about this whole thing in current weather today.
(the 'why' of course)

somebody suggested that it was for the farming/agricultural community, but the prof kinda laughed at them, and pointed out that farmers don't care, they wake up with the sun. (sorry bliz)

went on to talk about world war 2 and the oil embargo, where it was implemented to save on oil, which was the primary source of electricity then...

however, its most recent incarnation and adjustment, by the reagan administration:

studies showed that more people went shopping after dinner if it was still light out. so they added two months to it.

i hate this country sometimes.

[MVTek]

Wow... never would have thought that... makes a lot of sense tho...

[eccentric4]

Who seriously does that? "Oh, dear, we must hurry up and finish dinner so we can go shopping before it gets dark!" I agree with Martyr:
i hate this country sometimes.
I don't know about the rest of the country, but me, I go shopping according to when the STORES ARE OPEN! Some stores close at 5, others 6, others 9, some never. Sun up, sun down, if I want some lunch meat, I'm going to the store that's open.

[Triggar]

Let's start a petition to get Super Target to open 24 hours.

[ControlledBurn]

Life would be most excellent with a 24hr Super Target

[eccentric4]

I think Publix should be 24 hours, but that's just cuz I'm used to the 24 hour Kroger and Meijers back home, and I don't like non-union Wal-Mart (Again, a northern thing)

[MVTek]

I just want the grocery store to be open 24 hours in case I need to go on a beer run at 1am.