Daylight Saving Time is a scam...

[misanthrope]

...It wasn't instituted by farmers as they live their life according to the gradually waxing and waning sun, not the clocks on the wall. In fact, farmers have historically complained about it.

It was instituted to ostensibly save time but recent studies have shown it creates more energy usage.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87991839">Indiana survey shows DST wastes energy

The most fervent proponents of the time change have been retailers' lobbyists because it actually makes us spend more money. It is just another example of big business manipulating government to help squeeze the public.

Retailers rake it in from time change

[TomInTib]

1. I just sleep later

Enjoy more daylight, that way.

[TomClash]

2. Good for Golfers!

A game only the haute bourgeoisie play.

[Irishonly]

24. One of my relatives

back in Iowa has always said the same thing you did. He was a farmer and he said a farmer will still work the same amount of hours and it mattered little if it was darker in the morning with a later sunset.

[OregonBlue]

3. Well maybe but as a gardener in a northern climate, I love it. I have a full extra hour of daylight.

[eShirl]

5. technically, no

but I know what you mean

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It's good for kids

It pushes school one hour earlier, which means you get longer summer evenings after them, to play outside.

[RC]

7. Have school kids? You mean it is good for them to wait for the school bus in the dark some more?

Do you have any kids? Have you ever tried to get them to go to bed with the sun still shining? I have. Try explaining to a 3 year old this time change thing.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2976005&mesg_id=2976005

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Any place that ends up with kids going to school in the dark

because of Daylight Savings is doing it wrong - changing to it too early, or back from it too late, in the year. And a 3 year old is going to go to be with the sun still shining, in the summer, whether or not you use Daylight Savings.

The idea of it is to shift timetabled things (eg school, most workplaces) an hour earlier, when there's an hour of daylight available before the majority of people in the region start doing things. I see from your profile you're in North Dakota, and I've just looked up Bismarck's sunrise time for today - 8.07 am. Yes, that is annoyingly late for a sunrise, and it's silly to causse it by a clock shift. Europe won't switch to daylight savings for another 3 weeks. If the US didn't switch until then, your sunrise wouldn't be later than 7:26 am. If school starts at 9am (I don't know if that's the time ND schools start), then that would allow a reasonable amount of time for the journey.

Another thing that doesn't help you is that North Dakota is on the 'wrong' time zone. The Mountain time zone should be used for places with longitude between 97.5 degrees west, and 112.5 degrees west, and ND is roughly 96.5 degrees to 104 degrees W. This means that, effectively, you're on Daylight Savings Time during the winter, and double savings time during the summer (noon during winter is at about 12:50pm, and 1:50pm during daylight savings). You need to get that fixed first.

[RC]

11. So why go on DST if we are already there when we are on Standard time?

There is a whole swath of states with the same problem. And not just in the Central time zone either. DST just makes the matter worse.
Nothing is gained unless you like lost time. The extra daylight is wasted for those of us that have day jobs that start at 7:00 AM.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Well, yes - maybe the ND legislature needs to think about changing to Mountain time

Jobs that start at 7am aren't all that common - I'd guess you're starting it in darkness for most of the year. DST makes sense for places that get early sunrises - in London, in June, sunrise would be before 4am without daylight savings. It depends on people's lifestyle, but typically, people get up and go straight to work or school - if that means getting up at, say, 7:00am, then three hours of daylight before that would be spent with your eyes closed; and sunset would be a little after 8pm. But, with the daylight savings shift, sunrise is a little before 5am, and sunset a little after 9pm - giving them extra daylight during typical leisure hours.

[RC]

18. Jobs that start at 7am aren't all that common???

Really? I must be running with the wrong group of people. I take it you work in retail?
No I don't want to be on Mountain time, neither does most of the rest of the state, including most who are. Half of the state was at one time on Mountain time. They aren't any more.

All the "Extra Daylight" does is to ensure the sun is shining in the window when I go to bed. And my window is on the North side.

We need to end this non-sense as DST is nothing more than a bill of goods that does not deliver what the proponents says it does. It doesn't save any daylight. It doesn't save any energy. It disrupts schedules. It disrupts peoples internal clocks. It confuses people twice a year. The best I can say about it is lunch comes an hour earlier.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. No, office job

I've worked in offices and factories, and have never had to start earlier than 8am in 20 years of working. And I didn't have to start as early as that at school or university either. And that goes for everyone I know who doesn't work in a place with multiple shifts. Various people may come in before 8am by choice, but not as a compulsory 'you must start before 8' rule.

I'm not sure which part of ND you're in (and there's no need for you to reveal it), but geography says that anywhere west of 97 and a half degrees (perhaps 20 miles west of Grand Forks, for reference) ought to be on Mountain time, when not using daylight savings time. That would put the local noon closer to 12pm than to 1pm. Using the time zone to the east of the geographically correct one for a location is the equivalent of using DST all the time. If Bismarck used Mountain time, and DST (even with the new dates the US is using for the change), then it would get:

latest sunset: 2042, June 25th
latest sunrise: 0728, Dec 31st
latest sunrise under DST: 0726, Nov 1st

That wouldn't be too bad, would it?

[myrna minx]

16. I remember when i was little, having to go to bed when the sun was still shining

and I could still hear kids outside playing. I remember wishing I could be outside too! We have a family joke that when you have an obligation that prevents you from doing something fun, we say but the *children* are still outside playing!! :-)

[barbtries]

6. not only that,

but shit it's like we didn't even get any standard time. what the hell. what time is it anyway? my computer says it's 6:17 but the other 2 in the house and my cellphone say it's 7:17. the official US time page says it's 7:17 yet the time supposedly changed at 2 am and i'm looking outside and no way was this the way it was at 8:17 yesterday. lol


oops! edited to note that we are springing FORWARD and not falling BACK. yeah. duh

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

8. I personally hate the fall back

It makes the winter months (all 6 of them around here) that much more miserable because for much of the winter there is barely any daylight left after I get out of work. I would prefer if we sprang forward once, and than never fell back again. I couldn't care less about it being dark in the mornings on my ride into work.

[Thirtieschild]

26. In the early 70s, I think 1973, the country stayed on Daylight time all year

I remember my seven-year-old standing in the dark waiting for the school bus. Not good, not good at all.

[tsuki]

10. I love it. I have an extra hour in the garden when I get home from

work.

[Historic NY]

12. So much for automated DST clocks.....* screwed them too

I had to change them including the computers since we are early this year ob *'s decree. We should demand a rebate for equipment that doesn't work because * messed it up.

[ThomWV]

14. So what? 3 days from now you won't even remember you changed your clock, unless you don't.

[shanti]

23. your BODY will tho n/t

[Delphinus]

25. Yes, my BODY definitely does.

And my BODY does NOT like it. Neither does my psyche - I live in Indiana and really never had to deal with this until two years ago. Perhaps it *is* all in my head, because when I was talking to my doctor, about an issue unrelated, he said maybe we'll put you on anti-depressants to get you through the change. Ha!

[tkmorris]

15. I like having more daylight in the evening.

Get over it. Really, get over it.

[iamthebandfanman]

17. i wish theyd change it back

to the old dates.
i dont mind daylight saving time... mostly because its all ive ever known(always lived in EST)

[lpbk2713]

20. If it uses more power then it uses more petrodollars ...

therefore BushCo benefits from it. Any more questions?

[misanthrope]

21. DING DING DING DING DING! We have a winner!...

...It's not about personal inconvenience, it's about being toyed with by economic masters simply to stuff their coffers under a lie.

[shanti]

22. i hate it

my body rhythms work better in NORMAL time!