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Why turning our clocks back Sunday makes no sense
washingtonpost.com ^ | October 31 at 2:30 PM | Chris Mooney

Posted on 11/01/2014 11:14:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin

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To: a fool in paradise

“Now they say that it is to let the chil’run catch buses in daylight.”

And yet, through all those years growing up with Daylight Saving Time I still spent many, many mornings out in the cold before daylight waiting for a bus.


61 posted on 11/01/2014 12:40:17 PM PDT by Bill93
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To: Vendome

“Additionally, daylight savings Improves productivity and economic output.”

You really believe that nonsense? Just how much more productive do you expect people to be with bureaucrats messing with the sleep cycles of an entire nation? Daylight Savings Time has always resulted in a whole month where I have to drag myself through the day instead of feel alert and productive like I should. I’m sure I’m far from the only one affected in such a manner.


62 posted on 11/01/2014 12:47:38 PM PDT by Bill93
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To: Vendome
Who’s GDP per person is highest?

What does that have to do with this discussion?

I did a quick search using some recent GDP rankings from Forbes magazine, and this is what I came up with:

1. Qatar -- No
2. Luxembourg -- Yes
3. Singapore -- No
4. Norway -- Yes
5. Brunei -- No
6. United Arab Emirates -- No
7. USA -- Yes
8. Hong Kong -- No
9. Switzerland -- Yes
10. Netherlands -- Yes
11. Australia -- Partial
12. Austria -- Yes
13. Ireland -- Yes
14. Canada -- Yes
15. Kuwait -- No

If you can go through this information and find any correlation between Daylight Savings Time and per-capita GDP, then have at it. LOL.

63 posted on 11/01/2014 12:52:20 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The ship be sinking.")
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To: Bill93

I think every member of congress who voted for this travesty should have to spend a week changing the sleeping schedules of the children in a big family. It takes weeks before we get back to normal.


64 posted on 11/01/2014 12:53:16 PM PDT by Politicalmom (Modern "Peace Officer" motto-"We have to go home at night, we don't care if you do.")
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To: Bill93

Doesn’t bother me and yes, I believe it improves productivity.

Can you imagine what would happen to productivity if people started showing up and leaving based on whether the sun was out or setting?

Additionally, employers might say “Fine, you got all them hours off during winter. Now, you can make it up all summer long”.

“This ain’t no clock factory! Now quite making time and get to work!”.


65 posted on 11/01/2014 12:55:07 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: BenLurkin

This gov cannot undo legislation against “real” lightbulbs, how would they ever handle the complexity of NOT changing time?


66 posted on 11/01/2014 12:55:56 PM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ DEFUND OBAMA! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$)
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To: Vendome
If DST really improves productivity and economic output, then why not move the clocks ahead permanently?

I'd suggest that DST has become less relevant over time no matter how you look at it, as computer networks, telecommunications and modern travel have effectively made the world much smaller. More and more business is being conducted internationally, which means the local time in a place halfway around the world has become less meaningful.

67 posted on 11/01/2014 12:57:01 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The ship be sinking.")
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To: Alberta's Child

We were discussing productivity as one element of the many benefits, I thought?

Who knows. I need one more cup of coffee to staunch this friggin headache.


68 posted on 11/01/2014 12:57:04 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Lazamataz

Good luck with that. . . time zones were created to counteract the massive number of train wrecks which stemmed from every town operating on it’s own local (presumably astronomic) time. Maybe sometime in the far distant future you could persuade everyone to operate strictly on Greenwich Mean Time, but likely the concept would be too alien for people to accept and would cause it’s own odds set of problems. Time zones were the one of the few cases where government meddling actually managed to accomplish something worthwhile.


69 posted on 11/01/2014 12:57:19 PM PDT by Bill93
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To: BenLurkin

DST causes global warming!


70 posted on 11/01/2014 1:00:29 PM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To win the country back, we need to be as mean as the libs say we are.)
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To: BenLurkin

Man is always trying to improve on nature, and always fails.


71 posted on 11/01/2014 1:04:26 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: MUDDOG
How about we save a hour of daylight each day in the summer by making the days 23 hours long. Then we can use them in the winter and have the added bonus of an extra hours sleep.

Should be no problem for our government. In fact the president can just issue an executive order and make it happen. We could even use the batteries from all the chevy volts that haven't sold to store all of the daylight.

72 posted on 11/01/2014 1:04:43 PM PDT by nh1 (Live Free or Die - not anymore)
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To: al baby
They did that crap back in the late 60’s early 70’s my folks hated it they would come later than the lil kids on the block they just shut the place down after that

And the little kids are a lot fewer and far between now than in the late 60s and early 70s, since parents are more cautious nowadays. So there's even less reason to keep up Halloween giving.

On an unrelated note, as a football fan, you'll appreciate this:

Of the 32 teams in the NFL, only three have their team nicknames written out on their helmets -- the Jets, the Steelers, and the Raiders.

(I noticed that by looking at the current McDonald's paper placemat, which pictures the 32 NFL helmets.)

73 posted on 11/01/2014 1:05:53 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: Alberta's Child

That makes no sense.

It’s called daylight savings time.


74 posted on 11/01/2014 1:06:07 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Alberta's Child

BTW, I didn’t understand the point of of listing those countries and what the list correlates to.

Maybe my ADHD?

All I see is a list of 15 countries with yes and no next to em.


75 posted on 11/01/2014 1:07:47 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: nh1

You can laugh, but when it comes to controlling nature, it looks like Obama will keep his promise to stop the oceans from rising, by locking up the water in a new ice age.


76 posted on 11/01/2014 1:10:40 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: Perdogg

“It is still dark at 7am”

That depends on where you live. Here in Northern VA, it’s just light at 7am, even on 12/21. It’ll be dark longer the farther N you go.


77 posted on 11/01/2014 1:14:27 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: Verginius Rufus
If Singapore and Ecuador can do it, why can't we?

Heh heh heh

78 posted on 11/01/2014 1:17:27 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (You all can go to hell, I'm going to Texas.)
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To: BenLurkin
In their paper Kotchen and Grant conclude:

"... there are other arguments made in favor of DST. These range from increased opportunities for leisure, enhanced public health and safety, and economic growth. In the end, a full evaluation of DST should account for these multiple dimensions but the evidence here suggests that continued reliance on Benjamin Franklin’s old argument alone has become misleading."

But Franklin's essay was obvious satire. Franklin presented his April 26, 1784, "Essay on Daylight Saving Time" in the Journal de Paris. The satirical paper pokes fun at himself (and Parisians in general) for sleeping until noon. For example:

"I was the other evening in a grand company, where the new lamp of Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced, and much admired for its splendour; but a general inquiry was made, whether the oil it consumed was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which case there would be no saving in the use of it....

"I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, with my head full of the subject. An accidental sudden noise waked me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted, the preceding evening, to close the shutters.

"I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but six o'clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanac, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward, too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day till towards the end of June; and that at no time in the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises." [Emphasis added]

Franklin then presents his calculations on the number of candles that would saved in the city of Paris with DST. But he also makes additional tongue-in-cheek recommendations:

1. Tax windows with shutters;
2. Place guards in wax and tallow shops to prevent families buying more than one pound of candles per week;
3. Outlaw coaches in the street after sunset other than of physicians, surgeons, and midwives; and
4. At sunrise ring church bells or let cannons be fired to awake sluggards who would sleep in daylight.

That Franklin's article was not taken seriously at the time (at least in the U.S.) is evident in that the U.S. didn't use DST until WWI and again during WWII. After that it was continued locally in various regions before the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

79 posted on 11/01/2014 1:18:51 PM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: BenLurkin

It’s good training for the sheeple to learn to do as they are told by their rulers.....


80 posted on 11/01/2014 1:31:33 PM PDT by Paladin2
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