Posted on 03/09/2013 1:23:59 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Daylight Saving Time starts at 2:00 AM tomorrow morning and there are increasing calls to end the practice. Part of the reason are the health effects, which are serious. And then there's the extra energy usage that we can't afford in this day and age.
From LA Times:
Once again, the oft-dreaded daylight saving time change is upon us. The day that the clocks "spring" forward also inevitably takes a spring out of our step.
Sure, the birds seem to chirp a little later, the sunlight shines a little less as we drag ourselves through the morning routine. But as study after study has shown, that seems to be about the only highlight in those first days after the change.
According to the Better Sleep Council, a nonprofit organization supported by mattress manufacturers, 61% of U.S. adults say daylight saving time affects their work the Monday after the changeover.
In a survey of 1,038 adults, the immediate effects of losing an hour of shuteye affected everything from people's moods to eating and driving habits.
About 29% of those surveyed said it takes a week to adjust to the change, with adults between 18 and 34 needing the most time to get with the new program. (But let's face it: those at the younger end of that range may struggle to get out of bed regardless.)
But don't just take the mattress industry's word for it. A number of studies over the last 13 years have highlighted the range of health consequences of people ill-prepared to start their morning routine just 60 minutes earlier.
According to a 2008 Swedish study, there's a 6% to 10% increase in heart attacks in the first three workdays after the start of daylight saving time.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
If you’re sleeping when there’s daylight outside, you could probably be saving electricity. If the sun comes up at 5:00 AM, and you stay up until 11:00 PM but don’t get up until 7:00 AM, you could save two hours of electricity. After all, this means the sun sets at 7:00 PM, so your lights are on for four hours until you go to bed.
But with double daylight savings time, the sun would come up at 7:00 AM (same time you wake up), and wouldn’t go down till 9:00 PM. So your lights would only be on for two hours, not four.
Granted, the amount of electricity saved per household is small. But multiplying by every household, the savings are enormous.
And the studies on the topic are mixed.
Granted, the memory ain't quite what it used to be, but this I'd remember !
Great work JR, seriesly !
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Yes, kill it. It just ain’t natural. We need to get in touch with the natural rythyms of life.
I’m with you. Pick one and stay with it.
One of the stupidest things we inflict ourselves with and one of the most useless as well.
Back when, sunrise was at 0500 and it was time to start the day. About that time is when Dad and I would finish our breakfast at the Grand Cafe and head out for work.
B.S. The movie industry and technology destroyed the drive-in movie industry.
Make no mistake, I enjoyed going to the drive-in movies when I was a teenager, because it was one of the few opportunities to be alone in a confined space with a chick.
Now, one can do that in their own space.
The last time I went to a drive-in movie was 1970 and the last time I went to an indoor movie theatre was 1982.
Seriously, I have never seen a page come up so fast after posting. I always thought the waiting for the new page was because of the provider, even though I get 19 mbps download at the moment.
But when you’re awake you have the lights on. Doesn’t matter what the clock says, you’re awake, the lights are on. No the studies on the topic aren’t mixed, even the “favorable” ones show a less than 1% savings.
Tomorrow at noon look around where you are, if you’re not in a movie theater or developing film the lights will be on, and that’s why DST doesn’t save any electricity. When people are awake and doing stuff they have lights on, at 5AM, at noon, and 10PM, sun up, sun down, human activity likes well lighted spaces, and we use light bulbs to do that.
Joshua 10:12-13:
"Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hastened not to go down for about a whole day."
The part about "a whole day" needs to be interpreted as "about sixty minutes" because that is what was actually meant. And, every autumn we are to recreate as best we can Joshua's miracle by holding the clock still for sixty minutes. And, in the springtime, we can move the clock forward again so that the next autumn we can again recreate Joshua's miracle.
Who wants to mess with that?
I was going to ask if any American states deferred from observing this nonsense. Up here, only Saskatchewan has the brains to do so. This may have been a good idea in Ben Franklin’s time, but this ain’t Ben Franklin’s time.
DST is implemented to match outside occupations, which are driven by the hour of dawn, with typically indoor occupations. The society as a whole benefits.
Make daylight savings time all year long.
BTTT!
You use light bulbs? So do we!
Seriously, i don’t think it’s a question of saving any energy. It just makes summer all that better.
And i wouldn’t want it all year long, cause 4 pm sunsets in the winter would suck.
Who do you know that goes to bed because it saves electricity on the light bill?
I seldom go to bed before midnight, regardless of the time of year.
I wake up about 5:30-6:00 AM unless I am terribly tired from the day before.
You only have one clock to change, what 3d world nation do you live in?
No, at home the lights would be off. Maybe I'm just a cheapskate but there's plenty of free light coming in through the windows, so why should I have to pay for it?
Grain requires sunlight in the morning to dry out before harvesting. DST means harvesting starts an hour later, but the grain shipping terminals work unions hours and close an hour earlier realtime.
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