Fuck Daylight Savings

[friedo]

It is stupid.

[Nobody]

I've been saying for a while now; Either pick DST or standard and stick with it.

Stupid farmers! (Just kidding)

[johnpost]

do you run a clock shop?

[Sitnam]

Thought it was meant so kids didn't have to wander around in the dark before or after school, that's cool, why not just change the schools hours.

[Sattua]

I hate it too. I lived in Indiana for twenty years before they passed it.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by friedo

It is stupid.

Indeed, it fellates with great alacrity. Especially since one has the lights and heat on in the office anyway.

[sitchensis]

It is great, an extra hour of usable sunlight.

[Frank]

Daylight Savings Time is ridiculous and asinine.

If it's to be used at all, it should only be between the equinoxes. Standard Time lasts three months now. What's "Standard" about that?

[Frank]

Originally Posted by sitchensis

It is great, an extra hour of usable sunlight.

What do you use it for in March and November?

[gamerunknown]

I've heard that accidents increase after switches which negates any effect on school children.

There have been a few correlations too.

[sitchensis]

Originally Posted by Frank

What do you use it for in March and November?

Having an hour of sunlight when I'm awake and not at work.

What do you use timezones for?

[Frank]

Originally Posted by sitchensis

Having an hour of sunlight when I'm awake and not at work.

Ah. Well, that's what getting up early is for.

What do you use timezones for?

Ah. You're an idiot, I see.

[Bosstone]

Whiners. At least your schedule relative to your clock doesn't change.

I live and work in Arizona which doesn't observe DST, but my office's deadlines operate off Central Time. When DST isn't in effect, 8 am Central is 7 am Arizona time. When DST is in effect, 8 am Central is 6 am Arizona. We can't actually change our clocks since, y'know, we have Arizona lives, so that means instead of changing our clocks twice a year we have to adjust our schedules to one hour earlier. Not only do we have to get up when the clock says 4:00 instead of 5:00, it plays merry hell with our non-work schedules since everyone else is happily rolling along on their own Arizona schedules. Compared to what the rest of the nation has to put up with, it's vicious.

[Rigamarole]

It's actually Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings.

[Frank]

Originally Posted by Rigamarole

It's actually Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings.

Gosh, thanks. I shall immediately reconsider my position now that I know that.

[Lacunae Matata]

Poor Mr. Matata gets hit on both ends of the time change: he's on day shift now, and loses an hour of sleep, and he'll be on nights when the clocks fall back, and has to work the extra hour. (Significant when his department works 12-hour shifts!) When I've worked places that had 24-hour staffing, each shift divided the time - so an eight hour shift would gain or lose 20 minutes, or 30 for 12-hour shifts. Or, as a manager, I'd take the extra hour so that my overnight staff wasn't exhausted.

But yeah, the practical reasons for the time change aren't very applicable now, so DST seems silly and anachronistic ...

[jjimm]

Totally agree. In the UK, being so far north it hardly makes any difference anyway: you get up and go to school/work in the dark and you come home in the dark, DST or not.

From memory they did an experiment where they didn't have it for a while and everyone loved it, but there was a rise in pre-school accidents I believe and it was reintroduced. However this was done when kids actually walked to school rather than got driven in SUVs. I think it's time to revisit it.

It's something to do with lobbying from Scottish farmers or some shit, which makes even less sense as during the winter their daytime only lasts twelve seconds. The other thing is... if it's to do with farmers, why don't the farmers just adjust the time they do stuff?

The only good thing about it is the relief everyone feels when it ends.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Originally Posted by Bosstone

Whiners. At least your schedule relative to your clock doesn't change.

I live and work in Arizona which doesn't observe DST, but my office's deadlines operate off Central Time.

Yeah, but your whole problem is rooted in the fact that, in this case, Arizona is right and everybody else is wrong.

[Bosstone]

Originally Posted by Biffy the Elephant Shrew

Yeah, but your whole problem is rooted in the fact that, in this case, Arizona is right and everybody else is wrong.

Pretty much. Up until I started working at this office, I loved Arizona time. It's that blasted Central Time that's the problem.

[guizot]

Originally Posted by sitchensis

It is great, an extra hour of usable sunlight.

The "extra" hour you "gain" at one end of the day you just lose at the other--people have to leave their lights on later into the morning. No one is "saving" any light, especially now that so many businesses today operate 24 hours a day. DST only made sense in a society where everything strictly ran by bankers' hours. (And that's why it has little to do with farmers, who operate by the sun, not the clock, and have never had much reason to be overly concerned about the time of day, except possibly for deliveries.)

[tomndebb]

Originally Posted by Nobody

Stupid farmers! (Just kidding)

Where does the odd notion that farmers support DST originate?

Farmers generally hate it.

People working in cities can take advantage of later sunlight during warmer months without having to post separate hours on the doors of offices and shops and without negotiating special hours in labor contracts. Farmers still have to go out to feed and milk animals at the same solar time, regardless, but now, some of them have to adjust their chores to match the "new" times that various purchasers will pick up their fresh milk or eggs.

Who started the weird claim that farmers like DST?

[gamerunknown]

Cecil.

[Nobody]

Originally Posted by tomndebb

Where does the odd notion that farmers support DST originate?

Farmers generally hate it.

People working in cities can take advantage of later sunlight during warmer months without having to post separate hours on the doors of offices and shops and without negotiating special hours in labor contracts. Farmers still have to go out to feed and milk animals at the same solar time, regardless, but now, some of them have to adjust their chores to match the "new" times that various purchasers will pick up their fresh milk or eggs.

Who started the weird claim that farmers like DST?

I wasn't serious about bashing farmers, but I did think that DST was for them. Doing some Googling, it's apparently a myth. Guess you learn something new every day.

[Lord Feldon]

Originally Posted by guizot

The "extra" hour you "gain" at one end of the day you just lose at the other

OMG REALLY? I thought my clock could move the sun.

Seriously, everybody knows that. It doesn't need to be self-righteously pointed out every time DST is discussed.

[Alessan]

Actually, fuck Standard Time. You Americans are so lucky to have just three months of it.

I don't need sunlight at the beginning of the day, when I'm bringing the kid to school and getting ready for work. I need it at the end, when I want to go to the beach or for a walk down the boulevard. If the sun starts setting before 7 PM, I feel robbed.

[Valerieblaise]

I get so happy when it starts staying light later into the evening. It means summer's coming and winter's going and yay!!!!!!

I guess I'm saying I disagree with many people in this thread.

[Red Barchetta]

Originally Posted by Valerieblaise

I get so happy when it starts staying light later into the evening. It means summer's coming and winter's going and yay!!!!!!

I guess I'm saying I disagree with many people in this thread.

Nailed it. Now Standard time is the one that needs to go get shot and die.

[Foggy]

I have never really understood the bitching about DSL, it seems such a minor thing, but I do have two solutions to the problem.

A) Correct the Earth's tilt this way we have equal length day & night. This is my preferred method.
or
B) Split the difference: Spring forward half an hour, then leave it that way.



ETA: Why is the time stamp on my post off by 2 hours? It is now 3:23 am. Doesn't the boards update automatically?

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Foggy

ETA: Why is the time stamp on my post off by 2 hours? It is now 3:23 am. Doesn't the boards update automatically?

Never mind, it fixed itself after I closed the browser and reopen it.

[Neidhart]

I wake up early, and I'd rather have the sun rising before 6 a.m.

I wish they'd go back tolast-weekend-in-April till last-weekend-in-October. Six months on and six months off, so it was symmetrical, and for a while you'd get sunrises as early as 5:15!

[freckafree]

Originally Posted by Sitnam

Thought it was meant so kids didn't have to wander around in the dark before or after school, that's cool, why not just change the schools hours.

This makes no freakin' sense. One of the things I hate about DST is that we were juuuuuust starting to get enough daylight that I was finishing my morning run in a little bit of light and it was full light by the time my son left for school. Now we're back to pitch blackness for another month.

[HMS Irruncible]

Get rid of the seasonal time change. Get rid of leap seconds. Get rid of time zones and get rid of leap days. Use 24-hour time. If you really, really need to talk about the position of the sun, we have words like "morning" and "summer".

[Musicat]

Originally Posted by Bosstone

Pretty much. Up until I started working at this office, I loved Arizona time. It's that blasted Central Time that's the problem.

How do you feel about Tulsa Time?

[ElvisL1ves]

Where's Grandpa Jones when we need him? Oh, right, he's dead. Wore himself out resetting his clocks.

Time to get rid of Standard Time. More trouble than it's worth.

[Silver Fire]

Between setting the clocks ahead before bed last night and waking up this morning, I forgot entirely about DST. So I woke up about an hour ago all bummed out because, damn it, it's going to be a cloudy, shitty day and it's probably going to snow, like, three feet and I fucking hate MN and blahblah. Crabby.

But no, it just wasn't daytime yet.

[Enderw24]

With bank interest rates these days, I end up putting my sunlight into Daylight Checking Times

[Cicero]

I was in Tasmania once and discussing the weather with a taxi driver. I came from Qld which is more tropical whereas Tasmania is far cooler.

The taxi driver assured me that Tasmania had more sunlight as they had daylight saving whereas Qld didn't. I realised it was an argument I could never hope to win.

[Normal Phase]

There was an hour or two this morning that my husband had pencilled in for going through all our old, overflowing files and shredding the stuff we no longer need. This is a chore we both despise. Since we have somewhere an hour's drive away to be right after lunch, and since we both forgot about the time change, this task is likely no longer to happen today. Yay DST!

[Nancarrow]

I like it. So there.

[BrotherCadfael]

Given the increasingly interconnected networks of computers and other electronic devices (like there's a difference anymore) which all have to stay synchronized, I think changing the clocks is an idea whose time has gone. One of these years, we should move the clocks forward or backward a half hour and leave them there for good.

[Kimstu]

Joining the hate. I like sunrise and sunset to be at least approximately symmetrical about the axis of noon, dammit.

(Of course, due to time zone issues, noon by the clock is seldom if ever exactly true local noon, but there's no need to go deliberately shoving it an hour further off.)

[Khadaji]

I have always hated it and nothing has changed my mind. Leave it alone, I say. Heck, I think I'd vote for a president who promised only to deliver that.

[BigT]

See, I'd mostly prefer it stay DST all the time. I hate that it gets dark so early in winter.

[Vinyl Turnip]

Originally Posted by sitchensis

It is great, an extra hour of usable sunlight.

Shut up.

Originally Posted by Rigamarole

It's actually Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings.

Shut up!

Originally Posted by Valerieblaise

I get so happy when it starts staying light later into the evening. It means summer's coming and winter's going and yay!!!!!!

SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!!!

[DianaG]

It should be DST all the time, and anyone who says otherwise must be one of those Morning People. Fuck them.

[silenus]

Buncha pussies. DST rocks!

[saoirse]

Originally Posted by DianaG

It should be DST all the time, and anyone who says otherwise must be one of those Morning People. Fuck them.

Not true. I'm a morning person and I love DST. I don't like to miss a sunrise, and this makes it so much easier. Also, I don't have to leave my porch light on all day, or fumble in the dark with my keys.

[Ludovic]

Originally Posted by Alessan

Actually, fuck Standard Time. You Americans are so lucky to have just three months of it.

I don't need sunlight at the beginning of the day, when I'm bringing the kid to school and getting ready for work. I need it at the end, when I want to go to the beach or for a walk down the boulevard. If the sun starts setting before 7 PM, I feel robbed.

This. In Florida, when the days are getting shorter, there's still a tiny sliver of sunlight to enjoy at the end of the day, then BAM! Daylight saving ends and you're plunged into sudden darkness at the workday's end.

[tnetennba]

Originally Posted by Nobody

I've been saying for a while now; Either pick DST or standard and stick with it.

Stupid farmers! (Just kidding)

It's actually a product of the industrial era. Farmers don't give a shit.

[JRDelirious]

Originally Posted by Kimstu

Joining the hate. I like sunrise and sunset to be at least approximately symmetrical about the axis of noon, dammit.

(Of course, due to time zone issues, noon by the clock is seldom if ever exactly true local noon, but there's no need to go deliberately shoving it an hour further off.)

But this is part of the issue -- the time zone lines as drawn in many countries are already kind of wonky WRT the nominal 15-degree longitude increment per hour (e.g. CST zone oughta be narrower and begin more to the East of where it does), because the people in charge cared less about if the sun is at zenith at noon than that the San Antonio office should be on the same time as the Chicago office, but for some reason the Detroit office should be on the same time as Boston. The zone lines in the US were drawn mostly for the convenience of the railroads.

Still, I do agree that the expansion of DST into mid-March and early November was a bit much. However, yeah, sorry guys, given the choice I'll take leaving in the dark in the morning and being able to step out into light at the end of the day over the alternative. As someone raised at latitude 18N, when I first spent time up North it was NOT the days of temperature below freezing, it was the days when it was dark night at 5pm that were near run-back-home soul-crushing.

Down here we're fortunate in that being below the Tropic of Cancer and just within the longitude lines for UTC-4, there's no need to do the DST shuffle (it was legislated once; then came a change of administration and it was repealed before it could take effect - a rare triumph of good sense). DST for me just means I don't have to stay up as late to catch US TV shows since the East Coast is now on OUR time.