SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the hope-springs-eternal,-or-forward-maybe dept.
With the looming Daylight Saving Time cruelty of losing an hour descending upon us a mere week from now, it is worth noting that Texas has again introduced bills to abolish it in the Lone Star State.
For the 2019 Texas Legislature, House Bill 49 and Senate Bill 190 have been filed, with both being referred to the House and Senate State Affairs Committees.
The bills would exempt Texas from daylight saving time, including the portion of the state in Mountain Standard Time.
Arizona and Hawaii are the only two states that have opted out of Daylight Saving Time currently. New Mexico is also currently considering legislation to stop switching, with the House attempting to end DST and the Senate attempting to switch to it permanently.
Where do Soylentils fall?
[Ed. addition] Properly, DST is not "Daylight Savings Time"; it is "Daylight Saving Time". It has been so often misused, however, that it has become common usage. Also, Wikipedia's entry on Daylight Saving Time notes a tidbit I found interesting:
The time at which clocks are to be shifted differs across jurisdictions. The European Union has a coordinated shift, shifting all zones at the same instant, at 01:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which means that it changes at 02:00 Central European Time (CET) or 03:00 Eastern European Time (EET), the result is that the time differences across European time zone remain constant.[41][42] North America shifts at 02:00 but at the local time and is consequently uncoordinated so that, for example, Mountain Time is, for one hour, zero hours ahead of Pacific Time instead of one hour ahead in the autumn and two hours instead of one ahead of Pacific Time in the spring.
The dates on which clocks are to be shifted also vary with location and year; consequently, the time differences between regions also vary throughout the year. For example, Central European Time is usually six hours ahead North American Eastern Time, except for a few weeks in March and October/November, while the United Kingdom and mainland Chile could be five hours apart during the northern summer, three hours during the southern summer, and four hours a few weeks per year. Since 1996, European Summer Time has been observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October; previously the rules were not uniform across the European Union.[42] Starting in 2007, most of the United States and Canada observe DST from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, almost two-thirds of the year.[43] Moreover, the beginning and ending dates are roughly reversed between the northern and southern hemispheres because spring and autumn are displaced six months. For example, mainland Chile observes DST from the second Saturday in October to the second Saturday in March, with transitions at 24:00 local time.[44] In some countries time is governed by regional jurisdictions within the country so that some jurisdictions shift and others do not; this is currently the case in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States.[45][46]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday March 05 2019, @06:48PM (5 children)
I agree to pick one and stick with it.
But PLEASE pick the one that puts 12:00 Noon at the time of day when the sun is directly overhead.
All other things are simply conventions of choosing what hours a store will be open, or when people will go to bed, etc.
We open and close an hour later in the summer! (instead of making everyone set their clock forward)
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Tuesday March 05 2019, @07:10PM (2 children)
"But PLEASE pick the one that puts 12:00 Noon at the time of day when the sun is directly overhead. All other things are simply conventions..."
Well, no.
Let's talk about conventions. For whatever reason, people seem to be wedded to an 8-5 or 9-6 workday. This is also just a convention, but it's a very widespread one. Yet another human convention seems to be relaxing after work, rather than before. Both of those being true, having "noon" mean "sun directly overhead" is a really poor decision, because most people will have more daytime before they go to work, rather than afterwards when they could enjoy it.
Given these human conventions, it would be better for the sun to be directly overhead sometime in the early afternoon, so that people can enjoy more daylight after their workday ends. Yes, "people should adapt", but you know what? The whole concept of timekeeping is just a convention, so we had just as well use it as we see fit.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @10:09PM
I divorced that one long ago.
Relaxing during work hasn't kill anyone either. Certainly not me.
If we can has zillions of sexes, why can has zillions of time zones and DST too.
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Wednesday March 06 2019, @02:54AM
I've been working for nearly thirty years now, and I've never started work that late. I never even started school that late when I was a kid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @07:19PM (1 child)
I thought as you do about the 12:00 thing. But I found out that actually seasonal variations in noon are very big (can be on the order of 2 hours for mid latitudes), so that the "sun on top at 12" only really works on those two days a year (maybe 4, I'm too tired to think about it now). However I still think we should pick the 12 that works at the equinox, and then stick with the 24 hour day for the rest of the year.
and then people can pick 8-17 or 9-18 or 14-23 for their work schedule, I really don't care.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 05 2019, @09:45PM
I mean the sun is "on top" in the east-west direction. Not necessarily north-south direction.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.