Daylight Savings Time

by Bryan

15 comments

1 Steve Bates { 03.09.14 at 10:17 am }

Ubuntu Linux changed automatically without intervention. Our AT&T cell phones had to be rebooted. I think it’s a conspiracy. 😀

Speaking of which, FDL has an interesting article early this morning. I’d be curious to hear your opinion.

2 JuanitaM { 03.09.14 at 11:12 am }

A useless holdover piece of legislation that is no longer relevant today, and Bush II made even worse by extending (but what else would one expect?). Hate it every dang year.

3 Bryan { 03.09.14 at 5:54 pm }

Same here, Steve, even Windows worked, but the cell phone had to cycled, and I had to call my landline after I rebooted the cell phone to get it to change.

Real life is kicking my butt at the moment, Steve, but I’ll make the effort.

It’s a liberal conspiracy to make people late for church, Juanita 😉

It was designed to save energy, but you could accomplish the same thing by having people change to ‘summer hours’ rather than changing millions of clocks. My alarm clock does it automatically, but according to the old system, so I deal with a couple of weeks of confusion because of the change in the law.

4 Bryan { 03.09.14 at 11:48 pm }

Steve, the article reflects the short-term thinking and memory of the West. There are very solid historical reasons that go back centuries for the reaction of Russia, and the actions in the Ukraine.

No one has bothered to wonder why so many Ukrainians are anti-Semitic and why so many Ukrainians fought with the Nazis during World War II. The reasons are historical and are supported by known facts.

If you can’t accept that Slavs don’t forgive or forget, you will never understand them.

The Crimea isn’t Russian or Ukrainian, although it has been part of both. The indigenous population of the Crimea is Tatar, but their opinion isn’t on anyone’s agenda.

Putin’s reaction are the same as you would have gotten from the Tsars, for exactly the same reasons, but no one in power in the West has ever bothered to read all of those boring background reports that have been prepared over the years since the end of World War II.

5 Steve Bates { 03.10.14 at 10:12 am }

Oops, never mind… your reply is applicable and most appreciated. I know you’re busy!

6 Bryan { 03.10.14 at 11:13 pm }

Steve, I would love to post part of my lecture notes on the Rus, which essentially encompasses all of the Slavs. Bulgarians speak a Slavic language, but they aren’t Slavs.

When you understand that the English word, slave, is a variation of Slav, you get a feeling for the treatment of Slavs by Europeans for centuries. It doesn’t foster trust.

I can barely update the Iditarod because of time constraints.

7 Dizzy { 03.11.14 at 12:32 am }

So they stole an hour of your time in the time change over. My question is, how much daylight did you save? *smiles*

Very odd that this was first proposed in 1895 and was first implemented in Germany. Benjamin Franklin first suggested Daylight Saving Time in 1784.

President Woodrow Wilson implemented daylight savings time on Mar. 31, 1918 because he wanted more daylight time to play golf.

No one has actually proven that this moving time around has saved anyone any money in energy use but many have documented everything from claims of health related hazards to increased expenses due to this bi-annual change.

8 Bryan { 03.11.14 at 9:11 am }

This is one of those annoyances that always ends with someone saying: ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’

You forgot what it does to hourly people who work the ‘graveyard’ shift, and the changes required to payroll programs to account for it in the Fall and Spring. I was one of those people, and this stole an hour’s pay from me every Spring, while someone else got the longer shift in the Fall. It’s a mess.

9 Dizzy { 03.11.14 at 2:21 pm }

Forgot? Hmmm no, just didn’t mention it.

Used to always prefer graveyard to any other shift. Sometimes differences in pay, sometimes differences in work hours, always less BS to deal with than the day and evening shifts, depending on the job and work schedules.

Sometimes not saying something is just as smart as laying out the facts. *smiles*

10 Bryan { 03.11.14 at 9:23 pm }

There is no pay differential in the military or law enforcement, nor any choice to speak of, you get assigned. Everyone starts on graveyard and works their way to days. At remote sites there were rotating shifts with a 4-1-4-1-4-4 pattern, i.e. 4 day shifts on, 1 off, 4 evening shifts on, 1 off, 4 graveyards on, 4 off. It lasted a year, and really messed with your mind. Fortunately the system was based on the Z, GMT, UTC time so Daylight Savings didn’t impact.

I was assuming, because most people have never done any shift work and done know about the advantages and disadvantages of being in working for a 24/7 operation.

11 Kryten42 { 03.11.14 at 10:39 pm }

CSM have a good article about it:

Daylight Saving Time is upon us: Which way to move the clocks?

…
Russia, Japan, and most African and Asian countries abolished Daylight Saving Time long ago, while most European and North American countries have not.

The time change dates from the Industrial Revolution, when workers’ shifts and transportation schedules depended on having daylight to operate. The time shift is also traditionally thought to boost energy savings by reducing reliance on electricity for artificial light. Saving energy was Congress’s intent in 2005 when it moved Daylight Saving Time from April to March, expecting a 1 percent drop in US consumption. (Congress does set a uniform time to begin and end Daylight Saving Time, for states that are making the shift.)

Energy researchers are starting to dispute that energy-saving claim. According to a 2007 study by the University of California Energy Institute in Berkeley, Calif., households that on standard time would use lights longer in the evening ended up shifting their use to other times of day while on Daylight Saving Time (such as morning, when it’s dark but people are up).

Other research showing no energy savings from Daylight Saving Time compared places in Australia that were on standard time with Sydney, which had shifted to Daylight Savings Time two months early for the Olympic Games. Arguments to extend daylight because it will help energy efficiency “are at best overstated, and at worst carry the wrong sign … this study raises concern that the US is unlikely to see the anticipated energy conservation benefits,” researchers wrote.

Another study, in 2008 on household energy use in southern Indiana, found similar results. There, electricity consumption jumped between 2 and 4 percent for the two years after Indiana instituted statewide daylight saving. The reason: increased demand for lighting, heating, and cooling, depending on the month.
…

OT: Haven’t been around the ‘net much. Have a lousy head cold. *shrug* And my KB died, and the mouse is getting bad too (3rd in 2 years!) Was a Logitech MK320 set, that wasn’t that cheap! Companies really make a load of crap these days! Anyway, ordered a new one that a friend has had over a year and it get’s used hard (3 kids and 2 adults), and reviews are good. We’ll see! It’s a Kensington ‘Pro Fit Wireless Comfort Desktop Set’ for $44 (I got a 25% discount). When I can afford it, I’ll get a good mechanical KB & optical-laser mouse. The set I chose for the high-end Gaming system I designed last year was really good, but about $180 (wholesale). I can get it cheaper from the guy’s, but I have other priorities for my money right now.

Oh well… time for a nice hot herbal tea with lemon! (It actually does help). 🙂

Oh, PS: Bryan, in the Military… It was always the “Graveyard Shift” wasn’t it? 😉 LOL Was for us anyway. *shrug*

12 Kryten42 { 03.11.14 at 10:45 pm }

oops! that “25% discount” should be “50% discount”. *sigh* damned cold! 🙁

13 Dizzy { 03.12.14 at 2:36 am }

Yah have pretty much done all of those types of schedules, including the swing shift where you have to have a special calendar to figure out when you are supposed to go to work, what shift, and when you are off. No one ever had a solid sleep schedule.

Like you say, some jobs you didn’t get a choice on shift preferences. Some jobs, didn’t matter what shift you worked, pay was the same. Some jobs, hours changed depending on the shift you worked. Some jobs, pay was different, depending on the shift you worked and on those, seniority always came into play to determine who got what. Some jobs, you rotated, days one time, nights the next, with only two shifts per 24 hour clock.

Guess you could say I’ve worked a few jobs. *smiles*

@Kryten42,

I read a good article the other day about DST. My trouble is I go through so many that I have a hard time finding them a day later for reference. Such was the case with the mention I had of DST history and another on a study similar to the one you give. There was a nice article I really wanted to refer to but could not find it to save my life. I eventually had to settle for looking up the random stuff in references.

14 Kryten42 { 03.12.14 at 9:50 am }

Hi Dizzy,

Yeah… I have that problem also. 🙂 Though, I have cut back considerably on the places I visit these days. Up until a couple years ago, I had FF open with 5 windows and about 90 tab’s! Now I generally have fewer than a dozen tab’s at a time, and most of those have to do with my work. I don’t have a lot of time for personal interests these days. Hopefully that will change. But after I get over the current obstacle of my life, this damned cold! *shrug*

15 Bryan { 03.12.14 at 11:23 pm }

Bosses and organizations will do whatever they can get away with, whether it makes sense or not. Any shift longer than 8-hours is a waste of money, because efficiency halves after 8-hours.

Late summer colds are the pits, Kryten. Take care of yourself, or find someone willing to do it. 😉

On DST – Alaska doesn’t have enough daylight this time of year to save any, so what’s the point. During the summer, daylight is all they have. I don’t understand why they switch.