“ DST is insidious for its contagious properties and because it remains just below the threshold of serious annoyance required to animate opposition. It is nevertheless a noxious exercise in social engineering that nobody should have to put up with.”
The persistence of daylight savings time is evidence that even simple things cannot be remedied by government. Except for Arizona, where apparently some kind of metaphysical vortex near Sedona has protected them from this foolishness.
I like the footnote. I’m a fan of summer time, I’d actually prefer the we set the clocks ahead 2 hours and keep it that way. I do a lot of work in the garden and it will soon be dark at 5:30 which makes it difficult to do much during the week with my work schedule. And yes, I garden all winter - a benefit of living in Florida.
When I was growing up and someone would ask why the clocks get changed the answer would always be "for the farmers."
This doesn't make any sense since a farmer can get up whenever he wants to work on his farm regardless of what the clock says.
"For the farmers" was just a thought terminating cliche and another example of societal stupidity that generations go their whole lives without questioning.
Preach. The clock changes are like getting hit with mild jet lag twice a year, without the fun of travel. It throws me off for a week as my circadian rhythm struggles to adapt, and I know I'm not the only one. As you say, there is no justification for it, and the justifications that are offered are absurd on their face.
Much of the problem originates with the highly artificial relationship we maintain with time, for example, the fixed 9 to 5 office schedule that makes no allowance for the variation in day length and energy levels with the seasons. We did not evolve to take our cues from time keeping devices, but from the natural rhythm of night, day, and season. It is only in the context of such artifice that bureaucrats could even conceive of an absurdity such as changing time by changing clocks.
Quite right. Peter Hitchens has been consistently banging this drum for years (his 22 October MoS column mentioned it again). Worth checking out if you’ve not read his contributions on the subject. I agree with him also that, for the UK, the time should be GMT all year round, and not GMT+1.
The history of telling time, and what evolved into the modern notion of mean time and standard time zones is a long and interesting one. We humans are diurnal, we've evolved with a biological clock that is tied to the rising and setting of the sun, day and night.
Our notion of "noon" is when the sun is directly overhead (over the meridian). It's best to keep things as close to that as possible. Before about the mid 19th century, civil time was an entirely local thing. Clocks were set basically by the sun (lots of complications there with the notion of local mean time vs local apparent solar time). There were thus hundreds of "time zones" across the country.
You couldn't communicate much less travel fast enough for that to make any difference. Then came the telegraph and the railroads. This difference in local time became significant. There were a number of railroad disasters caused by different trains having their clocks and watches synchronized to different local times. The railroads realized they needed to synchronize their clocks. Thus "railroad time" was born. That eventually became the standard time zones, GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and all that.
Many were opposed to this. I remember reading an old article about "The tyranny of railroad time".
No, I love the late days in the summer and hate the darkness of the winter My bloodlines come from the British isles, I was made for longer nights. One can move to Ecuador if you want the same sunrise and sunset.
Damn right it does nothing for farmers... right now I have to put my chickens out before dawn before I leave for work, a very dangerous situation for them. I can't wait for next weekend to fix this.
The reason I see pushed here a lot is that 'golf courses can stay open later'. Sorry to be a Scrooge, but golf, bah humbug. Who plays golf in winter at the 48th? I can't imagine the sun setting at 5:30 PM instead of 4:30 PM is going to generate any more income for local golf courses.
I wish it would be standard time all year, but it looks like our legislators are bone stupid...but we knew that, right?
I couldn’t like this post fast enough! Didn’t even read it, the title alone is sufficient.
When told about the daylight savings scheme, an old native american said
"Only the white man could think that by cutting a strip off the bottom of a blanket and sewing it on top, would the blanket become longer"
Edit: I heard this, no idea if it is factual or not. I think it's humorous and perfectly suits the article above.
If it made at least one person mad, I think it's a good quote ! :-)
“ DST is insidious for its contagious properties and because it remains just below the threshold of serious annoyance required to animate opposition. It is nevertheless a noxious exercise in social engineering that nobody should have to put up with.”
Nailed it.
The persistence of daylight savings time is evidence that even simple things cannot be remedied by government. Except for Arizona, where apparently some kind of metaphysical vortex near Sedona has protected them from this foolishness.
I like the footnote. I’m a fan of summer time, I’d actually prefer the we set the clocks ahead 2 hours and keep it that way. I do a lot of work in the garden and it will soon be dark at 5:30 which makes it difficult to do much during the week with my work schedule. And yes, I garden all winter - a benefit of living in Florida.
When I was growing up and someone would ask why the clocks get changed the answer would always be "for the farmers."
This doesn't make any sense since a farmer can get up whenever he wants to work on his farm regardless of what the clock says.
"For the farmers" was just a thought terminating cliche and another example of societal stupidity that generations go their whole lives without questioning.
Preach. The clock changes are like getting hit with mild jet lag twice a year, without the fun of travel. It throws me off for a week as my circadian rhythm struggles to adapt, and I know I'm not the only one. As you say, there is no justification for it, and the justifications that are offered are absurd on their face.
Much of the problem originates with the highly artificial relationship we maintain with time, for example, the fixed 9 to 5 office schedule that makes no allowance for the variation in day length and energy levels with the seasons. We did not evolve to take our cues from time keeping devices, but from the natural rhythm of night, day, and season. It is only in the context of such artifice that bureaucrats could even conceive of an absurdity such as changing time by changing clocks.
I feel, extremely strongly, that when DST is abolished, time should go back to being real, instead of being fake
If people want more daylight hours after work, why are we _lying about time_ when we could _change standard business hours_ instead?
Quite right. Peter Hitchens has been consistently banging this drum for years (his 22 October MoS column mentioned it again). Worth checking out if you’ve not read his contributions on the subject. I agree with him also that, for the UK, the time should be GMT all year round, and not GMT+1.
Remember during the lockdowns, nobody knew what day it was, let alone what time it was. World wide disorientation. I vote no on time changes.
The history of telling time, and what evolved into the modern notion of mean time and standard time zones is a long and interesting one. We humans are diurnal, we've evolved with a biological clock that is tied to the rising and setting of the sun, day and night.
Our notion of "noon" is when the sun is directly overhead (over the meridian). It's best to keep things as close to that as possible. Before about the mid 19th century, civil time was an entirely local thing. Clocks were set basically by the sun (lots of complications there with the notion of local mean time vs local apparent solar time). There were thus hundreds of "time zones" across the country.
You couldn't communicate much less travel fast enough for that to make any difference. Then came the telegraph and the railroads. This difference in local time became significant. There were a number of railroad disasters caused by different trains having their clocks and watches synchronized to different local times. The railroads realized they needed to synchronize their clocks. Thus "railroad time" was born. That eventually became the standard time zones, GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and all that.
Many were opposed to this. I remember reading an old article about "The tyranny of railroad time".
We don't do this stupid stuff in Arizona, I hated it during the 24 years I lived in southern California.
No, I love the late days in the summer and hate the darkness of the winter My bloodlines come from the British isles, I was made for longer nights. One can move to Ecuador if you want the same sunrise and sunset.
I love DAYLIGHT SAVINGS.
BUT thanks for the historical perspective.
delighted to now be able to blame this mess on a guy who loved bugs.
I would guess that the overwhelming majority of the world agrees with you, as it has for decades. So, how to we stop this PPintheA?
Damn right it does nothing for farmers... right now I have to put my chickens out before dawn before I leave for work, a very dangerous situation for them. I can't wait for next weekend to fix this.
The reason I see pushed here a lot is that 'golf courses can stay open later'. Sorry to be a Scrooge, but golf, bah humbug. Who plays golf in winter at the 48th? I can't imagine the sun setting at 5:30 PM instead of 4:30 PM is going to generate any more income for local golf courses.
I wish it would be standard time all year, but it looks like our legislators are bone stupid...but we knew that, right?