Rants
As my first musing, I shall vent my frustrations about Daylight Savings Time.
DST, it irritates me. It does so most frequently when trying to calculate times in other parts of the world. I know that I am -7 hours from GMT. But I know that changes by 1 hour during DST. So then, during GMT, am I -8 or -6 hours? I always have to look it up and I can never remember. Of course, I understand that England also uses DST, so I could just add 7 hours to my current time. So what happens if the US changes their DST date by a few weeks, as they did this year? Should I expect England to follow suite? So, great, if I want to know what time it is for my friend in Scotland, do I add 6, 7, or 8 hours to my current time?
Another time when DST causes problems; When congress decides to bump it a couple weeks. Many of the electronic/computer devices out there never got that memo. According to Wikipedia, the DST07 change cost $0.5 – $1 Billion
Areas That Observe DST
Areas That Once Observed DST
Areas That Never Observed DST
Futher Discussion
So, I thought before ranting uncontrollably, I read up on DST online. As usual, my main source was Wikipedia. To see what I’m reproducing in the following, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Daylight_saving_time
Not everywhere even observes DST.
Early DST.
In some ancient civilizations, such as with the Romans, there always remained 12 hours in the day. However, depending on the time of season, the length of each hour changed. For example, during winter Rome’s third hour from sunrise started in 9:02 and lasted 44 minutes, while during the summer it started at 6:58 and lasted 75 minutes.
Modern DST
Although equal hours eventually came to persist over unequal, the 18th century did not require very precise schedules. As technology progressed with the rail and communication networks, it became obvious that a, previously unknown, level of standardization and synchronization was needed.
DST was first conceived in 1905, though it wasn’t actually adopted until Germany (& Allies) jumped on-board on 30 April 1916.The US did not get on the bandwagon until 1918.
Evaluation
From what I’ve read, there seems to be mixed statistics regarding DST in energy conservation, economic effects, public safety, and politics. There seems to me to be no REAL GOOD reason to observe DST.
Solution
Further, I wouldn’t mind abandoning time zones altogether. The whole idea of getting up at 6,7 or 8 am and being to work by 8, 9, or 10 am is completely arbitrary. Why can’t we just all run off GMT time?
So instead of
- getting up at 6am
- work by 8am
- off work by 5pm
- and bed at 9pm
Why not just
- get up at 1pm
- work by 2pm
- off work by 12am
- bed by 4am
(You’re still really getting up at the same time – i.e. the sun now comes up at 1pm instead of 6am) Of course, this would all work even more smoothly if we used a 24 hour clock. Ahh…. I think I know what I might write for my next post.
