Daylight Savings

[enterprikayak]

So who here besides me is being cruelly forced to switch their clocks around this sunday?

I think some of us aren't going to have to....but lots of us are.

Alas, it is so annoying and intrusive. The light is nice I guess, but if nice light is all we're after then why don't we just switch the clocks 12 hours ahead and have a nice midnight sun like the Yukon? Just for fun. Twice a year. Madness yes?

Do you know, I bet that if all this clock-changing had never been invented and I came along all of a sudden in 2011 and told the world:

"World! Listen up! We're going to be changing some clocks around here, about an hour ahead, but only for SOME of you, okay? And only for about 7 months. And we'll all change on different days, and what have you, aaaaand... we'll just leave it up to everyone and their dog and microsoft and the airlines and the military to figure it all out and make sure no one gets bombed who shouldn't and all the planes land on time and everyone shows up for work on time and the computers all work. We'll be doing this twice a year, just so, y'know, we stay on our toes. Again, this will only be for some of you, and the rest of you will just sit back and watch."

...no one would believe it was possible. They'd say it was a madcap plan guaranteed to cause people to miss planes and miss work and get their circadian rhythms all up in a knot....impossible to achieve in today's world of everything having a computer onboard....and then to start on different days and some not at all? Why:....preposterous.

And yet we somehow make it happen Cap'n.

How do we do that?

It's like, "Wow: we're so smart." But then you realize you're appreciating a cleverness for our clever clever handling of the stupidest thing ever. And so now you're just confused. Are we smart? Stupid? What's going on? Who are all these people?? Why can't I feel my face???

[Silverbullet]

EK, Arizona does not switdch. NO daylight saving time here.

Bet you don't know where DST started? In England. WWI Workers in plants were working longer hours so when they got off the Pubs were closed (Weird British drinking laws limited the time Pubs could be open and when.) So, the workers complained hence DST. They got an hour extra so they could slosh down the suds. It caught on in the U.S. screwed up things royaly since Railroad lines did not change. Later neither did Airlines. (I damned near missed a plane in Los Angeles once due to it. Just ran up the ramp as the stew was closing the door.) Anyway that is how we got this Stupid DST. Or at least that is the story I have heard. Haven't Googled it though.

SB

[Distracted]

All I know about daylight savings time is that losing an hour of sleep sucks big time. But then, gaining it back is kinda cool.

[WarpGirl]

All I care about is the clock on my PC switches automatically.

[Cogito]

Look at it this way - until we invented trains in the late 19th, we couldn't even agree what time it was once we got out of sight of the local church clock. The fact that these days whole countries manage to agree what time it is, is quite an achievement.

(I do agree the whole concept of daylight savings time is absurd though.)

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

We don't change to DST until March 27th over here.

It doesn't bother me much, but I'm pretty used to it. And my internal clock is 25-26 hours anyway so I'm constantly screwed up, time-wise...

[enterprikayak]

See what I mean? All different days.

So it's 6:05 am, but the clock claims it's 7:05 am. I'm sitting here at work, staring at my vacuum. Why, oh why? Cruel world!

[Silverbullet]

We didn't change. One good thing is that we are on the same time as the West Coast so our Daughter and Grandkids are on the same time. Makes calling and knowing their schedule much easier.

However I keep getting screwed up with the East. How many hours difference now? Wifes cousin is in Miami. My wife talks to her every day. But she doesn't want to call at the same time now because she isn't sure of the Miami time.

SB

[Cogito]

You think you've got trouble? Count yourself lucky you don't live in Brazil. Well, there are lots of good reasons to live there, but DST isn't one of them. Until a couple of years ago, the government used to make up new daylight savings time rules every year, with no set pattern. And some states don't apply DST at all, which makes it pretty chaotic when the clocks change. Even now that there are standardish rules, that all goes out the window if the DST change clashes with the Carnaval week. It's chaos I tell you, chaos.

[Silverbullet]

Cogito, think of the old Soviet Union, how many timezones are there in it. You could have a patchwork of area on DSt and other areas no. That would play the devil with things.

SB

[enterprikayak]

here in the good old Canad of A, we have 6 time zones, with poor newfoundland being 1/2 on the hour and 1/2 half an hour off.

poor poor newfies. and then to be the butt of all those jokes.....

[WarpGirl]

Oh god you reminded me now I don't know what time it is in PEI!

[enterprikayak]

Here's the world time. *phew*

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/