We might have a solution to the semi-annual PITA that is Daylight Savings Time. And it comes from Florida. A state senator has proposed a measure that would keep Florida on DSL permanently. If the law passes, Florida will simply never revert back to Standard Time. In a way, it’s brilliant: having DSL year-round is effectively the same as getting rid of it, so both the pro-DSL & anti-DSL crowd can get behind this. I hope this idea spreads to other states.
Or have permanent DLS but split the difference. Like cutting a baby in half.
That’s a terrible idea. It’s the opposite problem from not having the switch at all. In Chicago in December and January, if we got stuck on DST, the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8 am.
You can curse the sun or whip the ocean, but ultimatly, it is you that must concede.
Gordian Time?
You mean like West/East two times zones? Or split it horizontally, into North Florida/panhandle = NASCAR time, and South Florida = Denny’s senior dinner time (naturally this will be the earlier one).
Elsewhere, India is on the half hour for the whole country to split the difference (UTC+5:30 year round). And Nepal is UTC+5:45 for reasons I don’t understand (links to India/neighbors?)
I have waffled on this subject for a long time. Now I understand that the reasons for DLS aren’t BS.
I have a simple solution that will make everyone happy.
…but I’m not telling!
Yeah, I also vote against permanent DST. Here in Edmonton, on the longest day of the year sunrise isn’t until 8:50am. With DST in effect that would be 9:50am!
I actually quite like having DST in the summer though. At midsummer here, sunrise is at about 5am. Without DST it would be 4am, and that’s just ridiculous. It’s much better to have sunlight until 10pm rather than waste it so early in the morning when almost no one is awake yet.
Is this really a new idea?
I think Indiana’s been doing it that way for a long time.
In the Windows Control panel, you can set the time and date for any time zone in the world, and Indiana is listed with its own unique time zone. It’s the same as Eastern time, but not quite, because Indiana doesn’t switch its clocks for Daylight Savings time.
(at least, I think I remember how somebody explained it to me once, when I called at an inopportune time. 
)
Is this really a new idea?
I think Indiana’s been doing it that way for a long time.
On a Windows computer, in the Control panel, you can set the time and date for any time zone in the world, and Indiana is listed with its own unique time zone. It’s the same as Eastern time, but not quite, because Indiana doesn’t switch its clocks for Daylight Savings time.
(at least, I think I remember how somebody explained it to me once, when I called at an inopportune time. )
I’d support it. I don’t care what the clock says, I just want it to stay in one place.
Indiana switched to using DST everywhere a few years ago.
And if I were king of the world we’d keep the current plan and spring forward another hour between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Quarterly shifts to keep the start of the typical work day close to sunrise, maximizing after-work daylight.
What’s more ridiculous, when you think about it, is how asymmetric our daily schedules are with respect to the sun. Why do we work (typically) three hours before noon but five hours afterwards? Why do we think nothing of staying up six or seven hours after sunset (in winter) but balk at the idea of getting up long before sunrise?
Maybe it’s not the clocks that are wrong, but our daily routine.
No way, man. Why should Florida hog all the daylight for themselves? :mad:
Daylight Saving Time is like Spinal Tap’s amplifier that must be louder because the volume control goes to 11 rather than 10. Resetting the clocks twice a year is just as stupid, and not nearly as funny.
Wouldn’t the change be equivalent to Florida adopting Nova Scotia time and abolishing DST?
I remember some years ago the TV show Eerie, Indiana had a show about this. A kid adjusted his clock (or something) and got stuck in an alternate time line where he was chased by some ominous truck.
Here in AZ, we don’t switch the clocks for Daylight Savings Time, and it kinda sucks. I have to remember if my mom on the East Coast is 2 or 3 hours ahead of me at any given time. Not only that, but my job involves speaking to people from all over the country. When the clocks change, my whole schedule shifts from 7-4 to 8-5. There’s a world of difference between getting home at 4 pm and at 5 pm.
Let’s just move it to 30 minutes in between and then leave it alone. Seriously.
But is that a problem in Florida? Remember, sunrise and sunset times vary less as you get toward the equator. Hawaii doesn’t have DST.